Every game is an EXPERIMENT (vs Monaco)

Bryant's gonna try to come through here and carve out space for himself, but commits the foul. As Bryant picks up his 5th foul, he will step out.

Obviously we lost, but I understand that in order to succeed that you have to fail.

What's up guys? I hope you guys been enjoying the videos. Tomorrow we have our game against Monaco, but I'm getting here early to practice, and I don't know if I've showed you guys the Locker room. It's the bathroom, nothing special. Then obviously the showers. These are done. These are my insoles. These are actually from— I've had these since the preseason, so it's time to give these to a little kid. But these are like knee warmers. I usually use them only during the game, but long season, more loads. I gotta start warming my knees up before anything. Pause. Whole thing for me about taking care of my body is I want to freaking be able to cook my kids in one-on-one until the day I die. The day they beat me one-on-one, it's gonna be a sad day. That's life. See, this is the problem right here. Look, nobody's working in here. You want to be a part-time owner. Look at this, look at this. What are you doing on there? Do what you did yesterday in the lifting room to the camera. He does that.

What?

Exactly. How he greets me? Exactly. This is something interesting actually. For the game, we have different shooting times. This is 90 minutes on the clock, 90 to 75.

Whoa!

All right, this is just a PSA to all the wives out there. Support their husbands doing their job, not just basketball, because to be completely honest, this could not be possible without my wife Janelle, not only, you know, holding the fort down and taking care of the house, taking care of the kids, allowing me to focus on my job. But one of the keys to my heart specifically is food. Beet brownies with dark chocolate chips on top, homemade cornbread, obviously all healthy ingredients, with chili. So usually when I get home from practice, it's around like 4, so I need to eat something to kind of hold me over to dinner, but I don't want to eat too much. So let's see. So we have the chias, those are fire. We have some crunchy rice. These muffins go crazy. Wait, hold on, I think those are extra cornbread. So I'm gonna try one real quick. Don't, don't tell Jen.

She'll never know.

I love food. I honestly don't know what I did in life to deserve my Ginny Bells, but She takes care of me. So this is actually coconut lime rice and all this stuff she's making, she's using all good ingredients. So no seed oils. I actually cut out bread and dairy this year. So, and the reason I cut out bread and dairy is because honestly bread doesn't really do anything for you in terms of nutritional value for your body. Okay, you can say carb and dairy because they said it's inflammatory and Mario Huertas, I think, played in the NBA, plays for Tenerife, I think. I hit him up because he's playing— he's 40 years old, still playing. I'm like, what do you do? And he said he doesn't eat dairy, he doesn't eat meat, but I'm not ready to give the protein up. So yeah. Okay, here's something that will help you from watching film if you didn't know. So based on out-of-bounds plays, this Elijah Bryant coming here, dangerous shooter. This guy sometimes can switch onto this guy, but Knowing the game, knowing the score, how much time is left, you want to see, at least I want to see, does he shoot this shot often? Which some guys come out and they're shooting that shot no matter what. Mike James, there's a lot of people that will do that. So I see, okay, even with 7 seconds, he's not going to do that. And they go into pick and roll back screen. So that tells me, and I'm thinking in a split second, oh shoot, I'm late. Do I jump to contest knowing he likes to shoot it? Or do I stay down? You know what I mean? Because if I jump, then he has a wide open shot. But if I stay down— and these are all things that had to be made in a split decision during the game, game time. Great stunt by this guy, knowing you want him to shoot instead of him to shoot. KYP, know your personnel. In terms of their team specifically, I actually know a few of their players. So obviously Mike James, I know, um, not personally, but we played against each other for, for many years. All-time leading scorer. Um, actually, we're going to, uh, you'll see, you'll see later tonight where we're doing something with him on the podcast. So then actually Jordan Lloyd, I played against him in high school. He actually played in the same team I played in his first year out of Hopewell a lot. We weren't there at the same time, but we played on the same team. So I've been battling against him for years. He, in high school, he was way better than me. He was older, one year older, but we played him in the state championship or state Elite 8. And then Jerome Blossom game, played against him for years. He actually stays in Atlanta, so I see him sometimes when I'm home or work out, same place at Jordan's and Mike. Elijah Bryant and I, we didn't do pre-draft together, but we did our pre-draft workout in Vegas at Impact. Again, he was drafted, I wasn't. So I think he was drafted like first pick in second round. And then obviously, you know, other players just from playing over the years. Vito Brown, played in Karascheka last year, played against Strauss a played against, uh, most these guys. But honestly, I like Diallo. I like Diallo on their team. He's like an X-factor. He plays the right way, does the right thing. Obviously have a bunch of talented players, but I watched the Partizan game and Diallo was just— he was cooking. Is it weird that when I come in the house I change my phone case? I think my phone case I have on is dirty. When I come to the hotel, I take my phone case off. Either way, there's still germs on the phone, but I don't know, it makes it feel like it's cleaner. What do you— oh my gosh, you always look beautiful, but what'd you do? I just got ready. You want more kids?

No.

Hi, Roxy. Yeah, hi, Bluey. I love you. All right, I'm about to head to the game. It's not a game, it's another experiment to learn and grow.

And welcome to the enchanting city of Istanbul. Tonight we are at the brand new basketball development center on the European side of the Bosphorus Straits, and here Anadolu Efes hosts AS Monaco in round 8 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague. That's how proud the Turkish Federation are and FS are at how they play the game of basketball. Good, look out! Poirier battles, kicks Bryant, let's fly, got it! Well, are we gonna live and die by the 3 tonight? I'm not sure if Obradovich is signaling to his team. Yeah, Jordan Lloyd's in two minds here. He doesn't know whether to give it to Mutayounis or shoot. Corner 3 is on the way. Diallo's pass broken up. FS look to break. Thompson, can he get— oh my goodness! So far, 23-22. Smiths missed from there earlier, not that time. Back comes Elijah Bryant onto the floor for the hosts. FS has the blue evil eye magnet, Memento everywhere, and Willis is getting the evil eye. James with a steal, can he go the distance? James high off the window, wouldn't go, and Terry Tarpey can't follow it up. And finally, Derek Willis makes a 3 right at the end of the first half.

Physical.

Bryant shot, no good. Bryant's going to try to come through here and carve out space for himself, but commits the foul. So Bryant will be replaced now by Fredric Bobois. Kicks to Diallo, yet to score tonight, and Diallo knocks out a 3 right in the depth of the shot clock. What a good club they were. What a— got it! And now FS really starting to try and get a hold of this game. Bryant, there's no movement from FS, just 4 guys on the perimeter trying to break down their defenders. Abo Smith runs into trouble. Oh, was it a pass for Bryant or a score attempt? 4 minutes of play. Pass could have tipped that up and in. So Bryant gets a technical for flopping. You can see the reaction here of the coach cheeks down. So for Bryant, that is his 4th personal. So Wobua and Thompson back on the floor, the backcourt. Brown shot just wouldn't go. Poirier can't grab it. Akobo, now James with Poirier. That's a tough shot for James. Did he go off the glass with that? You can see the reaction from the FS bench, they couldn't believe it. Thompson keeps FS in touch. Next foul, everyone shoots. That shot partially blocked by Pavlionis, almost tipped in by Poirier. Bryant comes out, he's got the 4 fouls. In comes Beau Bois. Let's go! Well, the body language there of FS, not good. Bryant, there's the penetration, and an offensive foul. And that very well may seal a road victory as Bryant picks up his 5th foul. He will step out.

All right, so obviously we lost. Um, like I always say, I'm my biggest fan, but I'm also my biggest critic. So tonight played horrible. I think for me, I hate feeling the emotions after. Like, if I would have played horrible and we would have won, I would have felt way better, but I played horrible and we lost, you know. I think the biggest thing that I've grown in this aspect is after games like this, usually like I don't want to talk to anyone, pissed off, which I am, but I understand that in order to succeed that you have to fail. And if you don't fail and feel these emotions, then you won't progress. Anything that progresses in life, you fail. So, um, I'll watch the film tomorrow, see where I could have been better, learn from it, move on. It's a long season, you can't harp on it, and there's games coming every 2 days. But the feeling sucks, but it's good to note it in your journal and note it in your notes or wherever, just to remember how that feels, what you could have done to do better. So just off the top of my head, I'd stop talking to the freaking refs, just play. But when you're in the game, you know how it is, you get emotional, you all that stuff. I'll watch the film tomorrow. All right, so it's been a day after the game, or 2 days, and obviously I've been, I've been watching the film and reading and stuff like that, but it got me thinking. So the emotions we feel after a game or something that happens bad in our lives is something that we need to feel because it propels us to make change or move forward or do something to not feel that again. And as an athlete and a competitor, it's sometimes hard to want to feel that. But looking back over the years, some of the best games or best times of my life have come right after a failure or something where I experienced bad emotions and didn't want to really feel those emotions. So my suggestion to you guys would be able to feel those emotions, learn from them, reiterate, and keep trying. But as always, remember, consistency over intensity, and we'll see the next one.