Mike Conley wins 2023-24 Teammate of the Year award, FULL Interview

Welcome back Maurice Stokes was just 24

year

s old and in the third NBA season of his career when he crashed to the ground in a 1958 playoff game, was knocked unconscious and fell into a coma. Days later he paralyzed his NBA

teammate

. Cincinnati Royals Jack tman raised money for his medical care became his legal guardian supporting him for the next 12

year

s until stoke's death at the age of 36 in honor of that relationship we have had for 13 years now the companion

award

tman Stokes team of the year and for the second time it's Mike Connley of the Minnesota Timberwolves and we're happy to have Mike Conley join us here on our pregame show.

Mike it's always good to see you, always good to talk to you. Thanks for inviting me. Hey, congratulations and look, you won this when you were in Memphis. You've won. in Minnesota and I'm not asking you to say that you are this example, but tell me what makes a good

teammate

uh I wish, I wish I knew all that. I think the teammates probably respond better than me, honestly, it's probably just knowing how to communicate to the guys the leadership role that you have with the team, understanding your competitive nature, you know, having the I don't know, just the things in common to love. win and um and have everyone's best interest in mind, you know, I think the selfless nature of this definitely stands out more than anything else, you know you do things more for others than for yourself in most cases and um, I think that holds up.

Talk to the guys you've been with in the locker room with Mike. You've been in the league. 17 years. You played with some greats. You played against some greats. Who does Anthony Edwards remind you of? Oh man, I think you guys mentioned it. I think young Michael Jordan, brother, honestly, he's incredible, I think more than anything with him it's been his similar mentality and I've never met a guy, nor been a teammate of a guy who believes in himself more than Anthony Edwards I think he thinks he's the best player to ever play this game, uh, walk on earth, uh, you can't tell him any different, he's going out, it's a bad run for him, um, and what it is most impressive. about him is the way he competes on the defensive end.

Not many guys have that ability to take over games on both ends of the floor. I'm just really excited to have Kevin as a teammate and even learn from him. Being around him, you know when you've been in the league, as long as you're in the league, you think back to when you were a tower and now, all these years later, what's the biggest difference in the game. It's a lot faster now, you know? I think it's more about offense, you know possessions aren't as important as they used to be for me. I think back in the day when we were running half-court sets, you had the inside and outside offensive plays and how to know how to cut. how to do different things and nowadays you know it's a rat race up and down the court and you know the people you know shoot a lot of Three the spacing is different the stretching four five positions um you know it's come into play and uh now you have bigger guards.

I think a lot of point guards are guards that are 65 66 and, you know, they play a lot of different positions and switch defensively in the past, you know a lot of us 61 6'2 guards were in the league, on every team, and you know, it's a little bit different in that way, well, congratulations first, Mike, you know, but the other thing I would say is we were talking earlier, you said you had. Guys, six, seven, five and three, what is the constant message that you have at home and that you have in your locker room about being an elder statesman?

Oh man, there's absolutely no difference between my 75 and my three and Anthony Edwards, bro, they're all the same they act the same I gotta teach them the same things and um, but no, you know, just try to be a good man, be a good person, be humble, be respectful, most, you know, with all adults, be respectful to them. around you you just try to make them understand that you know it's not about you at the end of the day man you know what you can give to the world and um and how you can affect it in a positive way so if I can If I can make that The boys understand that and and walk in that light, my kids too, so I did a good job, Mike number one, how's the coach?

Have they figured out the logistics? How is he going to sit? Because you already know. he's, if he's sitting on the bench, he probably has to be careful when the game is going on, so have you thought about, number one, how is he doing and, number two, have you figured that out logistically? ? Yeah, he's doing well, he's doing great, talk to him today he came out of surgery today so we don't know exactly if he'll be on the bench or not or if he'll be traveling with us, you know the first game or two or whatever, but I imagine you know.

His legs will have to be curled or straight or something, so I don't think he can get too close to the action, especially around me, so he has to be careful, but I hope he does. He comes back to us as soon as he can. My cat is playing very well but sometimes it frustrates Chuck and I when he doesn't use his side when he is shooting jumpers and his jumper is out are you the one who pulled them to the side and said hello? man, forget 'em, jumpers, let me see you get into some possessions, oh, sure, sure, and he knows it now.

I mean, he knows how important he is to our team. He's a guy who has, you know, a wide range of talents. but you don't want to make a deal, you don't want to make a deal, especially in the playoffs, we need you to go get money, we need you to get to the free throw line, we need you to get deep, I think those are things that What he has continued to work on, he continues to be more aggressive because he is a double team every time he touches the ball down there, you can't defend him one on one, so the more he believes in that, the more he sees.

The success that comes from that, I think the best thing our team has had is the last thing I've done, Mike, as you look ahead to this series with Denver, how has your team changed given the regular season? How has your team changed? In terms of confidence going up against this team that knocked you out in the first round last year, our confidence has been high all year. Frankly, it's been high since we played them last year. You know, we played the same Denver team, uh, without a couple of guys last season and we were excited to have our guys back in Jayden and Nas and, you know, the emergence of Ant Cat being healthy, Rudy playing at an all-time high level, like we feel like we have a team that can compete and is not afraid. from anyone and we're just going to go out there and try to take what we can get, so it's going to be a great matchup, we know what we have in front of us, we know how great they are, we know what they've done. and I made it, but we're going to get to Denver ready to go, we can't wait to see you, two-time teammate of the year and four-time sportsmanship

award

, the Joe Dumars trophy, you're as good as Mike Connley is coming and we appreciate that you guys took the time man I appreciate you all thank you congratulations bro you know Ernie man when you know that story and we talk about it all the time in the beginning what are wars for.

I add something about Mike Conley, write it down, he's going to be a winning head coach in the NBA based on his talk, his understanding of the game without a doubt, when he's done, he's going to be with Doc Rivers and Mark Jackson and all those other guys that have done that. story about Mr tman, yeah, Jack tman, man, that's it, that's an amazing story, man, that's what makes me proud to be in sports, yeah, years and years ago, he was a TV analyst for the NBA. I'm used to watching games where Jack Tman was the analyst.

And I never knew that story and then when you dive a little deeper into it and you see that this is what this guy was about, yeah, making that man, that's amazing, yeah, no doubt, no doubt, uh, we're back to recap. things on TNT. NBA notice brought to you by CarMax in just one minute