0:00

Welcome to This League Uncut

0:03

in the rule of twenty four hour NBA News.

0:05

This is you, Chris

0:08

Haynes. It's time, work's

0:11

time, It's so time. This

0:17

League Uncut is underway in on fire.

0:21

This should be a good one.

0:25

Everybody.

0:26

Welcome in to a live

0:29

edition of the This League

0:31

Uncut Podcast.

0:33

I'm Mark Stein on the end

0:35

of course Turner Sports. Chris Haynes.

0:38

We host the This League

0:40

Uncut Podcast twice.

0:42

A week, but we

0:44

don't get to do it like this too

0:47

often.

0:47

Live at All Star Weekend here in Indianapolis

0:51

on the NBA Crossover Stage, and

0:53

we have a guest of honor in

0:55

about seven eight hours. He'll be coaching

0:58

the Western Conference All Stars from the Minnesota

1:01

Timberwolves.

1:02

Coach Chris Finch. Good

1:04

morning, sir.

1:05

Good morning, Thanks for having me on Wells

1:08

Standing Ovation right there.

1:11

Minnesota, thirty nine and sixteen,

1:14

number one seed in the West. You were an eighth

1:16

seed last season. You're

1:19

coaching the Western Conference All Stars. I'm

1:22

guessing this is just how you drew it up back

1:24

in October when you guys were well

1:27

in training camp and planning this season out.

1:29

Well, not exactly. We thought we'd be a lot better than last

1:31

year. We figured we could really make a push

1:33

to have a home court playoff spot,

1:36

and you know, at the end of the day, hopefully

1:38

that's where it continues to shake out. But

1:41

we had a really really good start

1:43

of the season. I think we've jumped out seventeen and four,

1:46

played pretty good basketball since then too, to

1:49

keep our nose in front. But

1:51

the guys have been been great. We've been locked

1:53

in. Defense has been the key. They

1:56

really enjoy playing with each other. We've

1:58

got good depth, great flaxibility, you

2:01

know, a lot. We have been relatively

2:03

healthy, you know last year we were

2:05

not. So all

2:08

the things point in the right direction. And then

2:10

most importantly, you know, when you make the type of

2:12

deal we made last year to bring in Rudy,

2:14

like these things just take time. They just do.

2:16

I mean, it's just set it time and again, you

2:18

know, Lebron goes to Miami, takes

2:21

them a year, you know, to figure

2:23

it out. There's a lot of things

2:25

that you've got to learn about each other, a lot of roles

2:27

have to adjust, and our guys have done

2:29

that and we've seen that kind of coming slowly.

2:32

And then, like anything else, kind of all comes

2:35

together at one time.

2:36

When and where in your career was the last

2:38

time you coached an All Star game.

2:41

I G League coached the G League All Star team

2:43

my first year. I think they would have been two thousand

2:46

and ten. Maybe it

2:48

was in Dallas, Remember they had the snowstorm.

2:52

By the way, the G League All Star Game might be the best

2:54

game here all weekend because

2:57

they all play, because they're all being

2:59

scouted by the front offices who were do stop

3:01

by, and it might be the most competitive

3:04

game of the entire weekend.

3:06

And we only had one day of snow here in

3:08

Indianapolis, but Dallas was

3:10

NonStop snow and hard, hard

3:12

for people to get to.

3:13

Yeah, I kind of messed up the whole

3:16

weekend after the well I coached in the

3:18

game, but I don't think I left the hotel bar the rest

3:20

of the weekend.

3:20

So now we're having a good

3:22

time here in Indianapolis. This is not quite the

3:25

worst All Star weekend for me. Was

3:27

Toronto two thousand. What

3:30

year was that star sixteen? Twenty sixteen?

3:33

What did the temperature get?

3:35

I don't know what the number was, but it was way colder

3:37

than that.

3:37

Yeah, we didn't step outside, not

3:39

once. Fitch I have to hit you with the hard

3:42

hitting question right now.

3:43

I just say I was at that All

3:45

Star Game too, worked on behalf the NBA

3:47

with basketball down borders, and I can remember

3:49

the lake freezing. You could see the lake freezing

3:52

like in one hundred yard segments almost

3:54

in front of our eyes.

3:55

Usually All Star weekend myself, I like to

3:57

hit up all the shoe events,

3:59

all the parties and what

4:01

else. You know, just all the brunches that's going

4:03

on. Didn't hit not one of them

4:06

up that that weekend. It was that serious offense.

4:08

You're not getting it out of this question, hard

4:10

hitting question right here. With

4:13

Lebron James not showing up the practice yesterday,

4:16

are you bringing him off the bench tonight?

4:18

Heck? Now, I'm trying to keep my job, So

4:24

I was. I was.

4:25

We were talking a little bit before before we start

4:27

recording. Like I would think for most coaches,

4:29

like once you get that NBA head

4:32

coaching job that you know on

4:34

the bucket list is to you know,

4:36

coach an All Star Game at one point because that major

4:38

team is having success and has the best

4:41

record leading up to the All Star break. But

4:43

I would imagine like after you get

4:45

one, as you've seen with the commitments

4:48

you probably have after you get

4:50

one, you probably want, you know, your

4:52

all star break to yourself after that, Like, what's what's

4:54

been the experience like for you?

4:55

It's been a great experience. I mean it's

4:58

a lot of really kind of cool individual

5:00

experiences come up and just being

5:03

able to bring you know, friends,

5:05

family, you know, close ones

5:07

into the event and they all get a special

5:10

experience too. It's and then there's a

5:12

lot of waiting in between, you know, the next,

5:14

the next things that happen. But

5:17

it it I've enjoyed the downtime. You

5:19

know, I took a nap yesterday. I never do that,

5:22

sleep in for a while today. I never do that.

5:25

The mental break is from the grind of

5:27

the season is just as important as the physical. You

5:29

know, a lot of people would like to get get

5:31

away, go to the beach, wherever they go. You

5:33

know, I think we get in trouble and these if

5:36

we take these things for granted, you know, and

5:38

I think we get in trouble if

5:40

we you know, if we don't really try to enjoy them.

5:42

So yeah, next year we're assured that we can't

5:45

be here regardless. But you

5:47

know, as long as the great thing about being here

5:49

is it means your team's playing really, really well, and that's

5:51

the most important.

5:54

You made a bit of a Twitter

5:56

splash yesterday with your reaction to

5:58

Anthony Edwards leftfty three's. In

6:00

practice, they did not go

6:03

well in the skills competition. What

6:05

are the chances that you're gonna let him hoist

6:07

a lefty three tonight in this game?

6:09

Can you stop him if.

6:10

He said he's shooting lefty all

6:13

game.

6:14

Yeah, We're gonna have a conversation about that, I think,

6:17

in the spirit of heightening the competition

6:19

around the game, which I know the league is really

6:21

pushing everyone to do. We

6:24

we need to get him to shoot right handed. But he

6:26

has a he's a left handed player. He likes to attack left

6:28

handed, he likes to finish left handed. He

6:31

might be and you know, even unbeknownst

6:34

to him left handed, he shoots a pretty well left

6:36

handed. And he's been pushing

6:38

me to want to shoot one in a game, a real game.

6:41

Yeah, And so I said,

6:43

okay, if you make if you make three

6:45

out of five, you know you can do that. And

6:48

he made four out of five. So, but

6:50

do you know, Anthony's has got got an incredible

6:53

amount of confidence. Thinks he can do whatever he puts

6:55

his mind to, and most of the times he can't.

6:57

Well, when you think about Anthony Edward,

7:00

we were talking about him potential

7:02

super left handed jump shots. Let's

7:04

talk about the competition level of the All

7:06

Star Game, Like, do you feel as an

7:09

obligation to get

7:11

the guys to play harder? What has been the message

7:13

for you with the team going into this game.

7:15

Yeah, I do feel an obligation that we put

7:17

on the most the most

7:19

competitive show we can. I

7:22

know the league is really pushing

7:24

the players, and uh, you know, we had a

7:26

meeting with the league a week or

7:28

so ago where they went through some of the points of

7:30

emphasis of the weekend, and that was certainly

7:33

one is they kind of bringing the competition back.

7:35

I think one of the reasons they went back to East West

7:37

is to hopefully it would infuse some natural

7:39

rivalry between the game,

7:42

within the game, between the players. But

7:45

at the end of the day, it's going to come down to the players willingness

7:47

to do it. Traditionally, and when we were

7:49

growing up, you know, these games would

7:51

kind of grow into a competitive, uh

7:55

you know, competition. The fourth quarters would

7:57

probably be you know, more

7:59

like a regular NBA game. So yeah,

8:02

I think there's a little bit of anxiety about

8:04

how this is going to go tonight. I think if people

8:07

will be honest with themselves, but I'm

8:09

hopeful that the guys, you know, bring it and compete.

8:12

What realistically, as a coach, can

8:15

you say to these guys in

8:17

terms of defense, what kind of defensive

8:20

messaging will there be pregame or during

8:22

a timeout?

8:23

What do you think you can really I.

8:25

Mean, I mean, you just you're

8:28

gonna you can tell them to try to play some defense.

8:30

You know.

8:30

It's I mean, it's we're not going to be scheme

8:33

based. You know, we're not going to be out

8:35

there with any kind of great philosophy. Just

8:37

comes down to their level of individual competitiveness.

8:40

You know, you don't want it to get to the point where it's too

8:43

cool to play defense, you know, where

8:45

everything's too cool you don't want to try. People would

8:47

feel like it's you know, it's not cool to try hard,

8:51

and I don't think that

8:53

looks good or feels good for anybody. I'm

8:56

sure in the beginning there'll

8:58

be a lot of like feeling it out,

9:01

and then somebody's gonna have to set

9:03

the tone, you know, So the player are gonna have to go out

9:05

set the tone offensively and defensively, and that'll

9:08

wake up the rest of the troops.

9:09

I'm sure defense has been such a

9:11

big part of your success

9:14

with the Wolves this season. I'm

9:16

sure you're thrilled to have two

9:18

of your own players on the Western Conference All

9:21

Stars, but Rudy Gobert is not here.

9:22

I thought Rudy Gobert should have been an All Star.

9:25

How hard do you think he's taking it that he

9:28

did not get selected, because you guys have the

9:30

number one d in the league, top ranked defense,

9:32

and he's obviously a huge part.

9:34

Yeah, we thought he was deserving

9:36

him an All Star nomination.

9:39

For sure. He was disappointed.

9:41

We were disappointed for him, but

9:44

in true Rudy style, you know, he's used it as great

9:46

motivation and he's played some of his best basketball

9:48

ever in the last several weeks

9:51

since being snubbed, so to

9:53

speak. So for us, you

9:55

know, we're kind of happy that he's

9:57

on a beach somewhere, just.

9:58

Relaxing and seething somewhere,

10:01

seething and.

10:01

Relaxing, fueling up for what's

10:04

going to be a heck of a stretch run. I know

10:06

he's got his his you know, his site set

10:08

on bigger and better things for him and us,

10:11

and that's what's most important.

10:14

Coach I've heard in other years

10:16

prior. I don't know if it's happened to you, but I'll

10:18

ask, But there have been times

10:20

where other coaches where they have their

10:23

players participate in the All Star Games, they'll

10:25

actually contact the coach that's coaching

10:28

that game and tell them, hey, don't play my

10:30

guy to like leave Malone.

10:32

Has any coaches contacted you about

10:35

playing time?

10:36

That has not happened, you know, but

10:38

the players have been pretty you know, pretty

10:40

open and about what they want to do. You

10:42

know, we kind of checked in where you know, how you're feeling,

10:44

you know, what's your body like, where you're at, you

10:48

know, And so they've given us a gauge where they

10:50

think that they'd like to play. Who wants to play the

10:52

most? Oh, no, I guess this is these are private conversations.

10:56

You'll know in a few hours. Yeah, you'll

10:58

know in a few hours.

11:00

If he played Lebron like forty minutes today. How

11:03

with Darth Ham.

11:04

I think I think Lebron's going to tell

11:06

me, but how much you wanted

11:09

to play? Yeah, probably right there.

11:19

I'd like to go back many,

11:22

many years because I was fortunate to

11:24

meet you. I think it's almost

11:27

twenty five years ago now. You were coaching

11:30

the Sheffield Sharks in England. After

11:32

playing for the Sheffield Sharks, Nick

11:35

Nurse was coaching the Manchester Giants.

11:38

I love to tell people that I discovered

11:40

the both of you, but.

11:40

That's really kind of an exaggeration.

11:42

Our mutual friend Ian Whittle

11:44

a journalist in England at the time. He was really

11:47

the only journalist in England, or pretty much the only

11:49

journalist who was covering basketball,

11:51

and he introduced me to both you guys now

11:54

and I didn't ask too many questions because I was just getting

11:56

to meet the both of you. But had I really

11:59

put the full court press on you back in nineteen

12:01

ninety nine, what would you have said

12:04

was your vision for your career? What were

12:06

you hoping to accomplish at that point?

12:09

Well, I think you know my I

12:11

just thought I'd come back and be coaching in college,

12:13

probably in small colleges. You know,

12:16

that's always been my background. We grew

12:18

up in a small college environment. I didn't

12:20

have a big network, certainly in Division one.

12:23

I didn't have any real network into the NBA

12:27

at that point in time. I mean, I

12:29

was just focused. I was so young

12:31

then, probably around you know,

12:33

around about thirty the

12:35

beginning of my career, just trying to you

12:37

know, win the British Basketball League

12:40

every every single season and

12:42

then go from there. And that's

12:45

really it. I did have a

12:47

few kind of things happened

12:49

in my career, like things that didn't happen. Actually,

12:52

I had a high school job back in Reading,

12:54

Pennsylvania. Is that I

12:57

didn't get I was offered the job and then the kind

12:59

of get away from me for political reasons at the

13:01

last moment before I was even allowed to start. It's a long

13:03

story, but it's not important. And then I had another

13:06

really tiny job

13:09

offer finalists for

13:11

a job a small school in upstate New York,

13:15

and I would have had to take a massive pay cut to do it,

13:18

but I just an effort to get home. I just wanted to

13:20

get home. And neither of

13:22

those things happened for me, And had they happened, I wouldn't

13:24

be sitting here, you know, I would be either high school coach teaching

13:27

in Pennsylvania or I'd be, you know, on

13:30

some small college career path right

13:32

now or whatever. But

13:34

when those things didn't turn out for

13:36

me, I thought, what am I doing? Like, I'm I'm

13:39

I'm on a good path here in Europe. I need to like maximize

13:42

this opportunity, and I switched gears. I was like, Okay, I

13:44

want to get to I want to get out to the bigger and better

13:46

leagues. And when I went to Germany, I want to eventually

13:49

get to Spain. I want to get to these top

13:51

level countries. So that's why I set my sights on

13:54

and when I did that, everything

13:56

changed for me. Went to Germany but

13:59

got fine. That had to rebuild my

14:01

career in Belgium, and that was

14:03

actually kind of the blessing in disguise because

14:06

the team there had a lot of money. We were able to play

14:08

in the European leagues. We did well in European leagues,

14:11

and then it started to snowball from there.

14:14

And what do you think got you on the NBA

14:16

radar?

14:17

Well, I know sam Hinkey got

14:19

me on the NBA radar. They

14:23

were when they launched their their

14:25

D League in the initiative of Rio

14:28

Grand they were taking over basketball operations, basically

14:30

implementing the baseball model, and

14:34

they just wanted somebody that had a

14:36

totally different profile from what they were looking

14:38

for. And unbeknownst to me at

14:40

the time, they wanted somebody who played fast,

14:42

inefficient basketball, which we were doing in Europe, not

14:46

because we were more smart or ahead of

14:48

the curve, just because these were the types of players

14:50

I could afford, you know, guys who could shoot

14:52

threes, undersized centers that we played fast.

14:55

You know, I couldn't afford to compete in the European leagues

14:57

against these big centers and his more

14:59

rugged teams because we didn't have that type of money.

15:02

So we built these fast teams that shoot shot

15:04

a lot of threes. And they

15:07

started looking for somebody, and my name kept

15:09

coming up. And Sam Hinkey has a philosophy

15:12

that he here's something from more than one person,

15:14

he investigates it and whether

15:17

it be a book, a movie, some

15:19

sort of Ted talk, whatever it might be. You

15:22

know, he's like, Okay, what's going on here?

15:24

So he reached out to me after summer

15:27

league. I was guest coach. Donnie

15:29

Nelson was kind enough with one of a few contacts because

15:31

he's so prevalent in Europe, and his scouting

15:34

had invited me to be a guest coach with the Dallas Mavericks

15:37

and at Summer League that year, Sam

15:40

reached out and explained what they were looking for

15:42

and asked if I would be interested, and

15:44

I said sure. So that's that's kind

15:46

of how it all happened. And so

15:49

Sam, Darryl mory Gerson

15:51

rosis you know those that triumpherent

15:54

was really kind of the crew

15:56

that brought me to the league.

15:57

And now almost twenty years later, you're coaching the

16:00

West All Stars and you're a tipsy and

16:02

defense first coach.

16:03

What happened to?

16:04

What happened? I've always liked defense, just

16:06

you know, somehow along the way, I got tabbed

16:08

to being an offensive guy. That's what

16:11

they wanted me to do in Houston. When I went there, they

16:13

said, Okay, we're gonna go to the G League.

16:15

We're gonna tinker around with this stuff, and

16:18

we're gonna see what we can do and how far we can

16:20

push the envelope offensively down

16:23

there. And it was one of the things

16:25

that kind of like gave me pause before I took

16:27

the job, because I thought it was like, it's

16:29

still gonna be a circus act. You know, it's what kind of

16:31

I want to play basketball coach, and I don't want

16:33

to just do crazy things? So now

16:37

are in yeah, crazy things? I mean, look out, the game's

16:40

revolutionized, and you

16:42

know everybody kind of plays that way. But when we

16:45

first made it to the league, probably only eight ten

16:47

teams were playing with pace,

16:49

you know, valuing shot selection. And then

16:52

you know, once Golden State kind of hit

16:54

their stride, everything just exploded

16:57

from there.

16:57

So You've been around a

17:00

bunch of head coaches and I'm curious

17:02

your perspective on this. You

17:04

know, you have coaches that are great at x's and o's,

17:06

You've got coaches that are great at communicating. You've

17:08

got great coaches that aren't great at communicating.

17:12

But when you're coaching the NBA level, what

17:15

is the balance that you think that

17:17

you have to have in order to be successful

17:20

in like commanding the respect of the locker room,

17:22

not losing guys, and being efficient?

17:25

Like, what are what are the features

17:27

you need to have?

17:28

I would say for me, it's seventy thirty. You have

17:30

the seventy thirty seventy in

17:32

the man management, you know, just the relationship

17:35

with the players, controlling the environment,

17:37

managing the staff, holding everybody accountable.

17:41

You know, the x'es and o's part is probably thirty

17:43

percent for me. Staffs

17:45

are so big now that we can have so many

17:48

guys specialized

17:50

in all the x's and o's. You know, we have offensive

17:52

defensive guys, we have special teams guys, we have

17:54

player development guys. I have a staff

17:57

broken down into transition coach,

18:00

a pick and roll coach, almost like football

18:02

model, right, And I

18:04

like that because it gives those guys like overview,

18:07

accountability, ownership over something,

18:10

empowers them in that space. Then it's

18:12

easy for me to hold them accountable. Hey, you're supposed

18:15

to be in charge of this, we're not good enough

18:17

at that. And then I just can

18:19

kind of like check in with the players

18:21

and make sure that the mood is right

18:24

and you know, manage

18:26

the roster and deal with the front office and all

18:28

that stuff. And then come

18:30

meeting time, we sit down and

18:32

we all lay it out on the

18:34

table, and of course it's my job to make the final

18:36

decisions. But I got a great

18:38

staff. Trust them implicitly, but yeah,

18:41

if they're not really good at the ex'es and o's

18:43

part, I can't be really good at all the other

18:45

things. And these jobs right now are

18:47

so big. They're way more about leadership than

18:49

they are about basketball.

18:51

Is that something you learn.

18:52

One of my first encounters with Greg Popovich, I

18:56

was coaching one of his young kind of

18:58

draft picks for the national team in Great Britain,

19:02

Ryan Richards. Yeah, and

19:04

he could. He had come over and had

19:07

to watch a tournament in London. You

19:09

might have actually been there. France

19:12

was there in Spain. It was twenty

19:14

eleven, summer before the Olympics, and I had a

19:16

tiny little interaction with him talking about Ryan

19:18

and when we were talking about the

19:20

jobs, and he said that to me, he

19:22

said, the job is way more about leadership than it's about

19:25

basketball. And it always stuck with me and

19:27

then just being on you

19:29

know, being in it. He's one hundred percent right.

19:32

Wow, I'm glad you brought up the Olympics

19:34

because just what

19:36

was that like? Obviously you were

19:38

an American. Nick Nurse was on your staff.

19:40

You guys are Americans, but you had been in England

19:43

for so long to coach Great

19:46

Britain in the Olympics in London,

19:49

lou All, Dang, just what are your thoughts

19:51

when you just think back on that whole experience.

19:53

Well, it's not too dissimilar to this weekend,

19:55

this experience. You know, I've never in my wildest

19:57

dreams thought it would have happen. You

20:00

know, with our history, Nick and I are, our history of the England

20:02

is a huge affinity for basketball

20:05

there and obviously, you know, our

20:07

most formative years were there. We

20:10

feel kind of almost like citizens,

20:12

you know, with such a special place

20:14

in our heart for the country

20:17

and the people in the basketball game there. But it

20:19

was one again surreal experience after

20:21

another. I mean, met the Prime Minister, met

20:23

the Queen. Really

20:25

yeah, and how is that? What was meeting

20:27

the queen like that? It was incredible and Nick

20:30

and I it was so the Olympics

20:32

open on Friday night, the opening ceremonies

20:34

Saturday morning, we were like

20:36

in our apartment and we got

20:38

a knock on the door and guy's

20:41

sense like, hey, the Queen's coming through to view

20:43

her you know, basically

20:46

dormitory block where all the British athletes were

20:48

living, and she wants to meet

20:50

half a dozen coaches and half a dozen athletes, and

20:52

most of the people were out like they're out training

20:55

they're out wherever, and so Nick

20:57

and I were able to do a little receiving line

21:00

comes down super gracious, you know,

21:02

somebody with her, with her

21:04

presence.

21:05

I don't even know.

21:08

You don't bow, no, you

21:10

just kind of put your hands behind your back and wait

21:12

for her to talk to you. And there's all these photocols.

21:14

You know, I tell the story a lot.

21:16

So coaching Lebron is nothing.

21:17

You've met the queen, yeah, exactly, yeah,

21:21

yeah, but like she makes

21:23

you. She made you feel incredibly at

21:25

ease, which is quite you know, quite

21:28

a quite a quite the talent when you're

21:30

you know, dealing with somebody like the Queen. But the

21:32

best part was Prince She said, oh,

21:34

and what do you do? I said, I coach basketball. She said,

21:36

all that makes sense, you're very tall. Yeah,

21:38

you know, all the usual things that some grandmother

21:41

would say too. Yeah, she did there

21:43

with me. Well, Nick Nurse

21:45

was there and Prince Philip, her husband, was right behind,

21:48

and she said, on what do you Oh, you must be the wrestling coach.

21:50

At the time. The time, Nick was carrying

21:52

about twenty five extra pounds than he is right

21:54

now. So we always laugh

21:57

about that. But in my

21:59

office, I have that picture of Nick

22:01

and I both with the with

22:03

the Queen. So and

22:05

then just to get to the games

22:07

and that you know, growing up like the Olympics

22:09

were like this. I mean, we

22:12

didn't miss them when we were growing up with just

22:15

they thought this is an incredible sporting event.

22:17

And then as you get into professional sports you become

22:19

so cynical about everything, right, and

22:22

then when it all changed when I

22:24

was able to be in the Olympics, it's an incredibly

22:26

pure sporting event and

22:28

we know it's not pure, but as athletes

22:31

in the village, it was an incredible,

22:33

incredible time. So and

22:35

then to be able to step out on the floor

22:38

and what it meant to those players to

22:40

hear the you know, God save the

22:43

Queen before the games

22:46

in the arenas you know, playing basketball,

22:48

which is not a marquee sport in England,

22:50

but it become

22:52

a pretty big event, team event

22:54

in the run up to the Olympics.

22:55

So especially because the Olympic field it's only twelve

22:58

teams, it's so much smaller than the World World Cup.

23:00

So huge. Yeah. So it's

23:02

just again I can't you know, just lucky

23:05

think about my career, things that.

23:07

Have happened to me, coach, I want

23:09

to get a get a question from the audience real quick.

23:11

And I see a young.

23:12

Lady right here, been raising her hand all night. Young

23:15

lady, come come here police.

23:16

What is your name, Charlotte?

23:18

Charlotte?

23:19

What's your last name? Kane's?

23:21

This is my wife, coach.

23:25

Yes, well, Coach, I definitely am

23:28

intrigued with your story. And

23:30

I just feel like what you've gone

23:32

through is inspirational and.

23:36

Required a lot of endurance.

23:37

And I want to know how you really use your

23:40

your life lessons to

23:43

you know, help your not only

23:45

the players, but your staff, because it is about

23:48

leadership and you've had doors open

23:50

and doors closed, and you know, with

23:52

players there, you know they could be traded,

23:55

they could you know, get hurt, or staff

23:57

they're not getting opportunities that they think

24:00

that they deserve or they would be next

24:02

in line. How do you use your life lessons

24:05

to like lead them and guide them?

24:07

Great question? Thank you. A

24:09

couple of things. First of all, you

24:12

know, I I consider myself

24:14

kind of an NBA outsider, just you know my

24:17

I think what my path is taught is

24:20

a lot of humility. I loved

24:23

everywhere I was at I mean, I really

24:25

did, and so you

24:28

know, it kind of bothers me if we go to a hotel and

24:30

people complain about these five star hotels

24:32

that we stay in. You know, I'm just like, you

24:34

know, kind of it's a reality

24:37

check. Hey, come on, Like if you were

24:39

kind of berthed right into the NBA opportunity,

24:41

you get spoiled quickly. And I think

24:44

like having to kind of coach,

24:46

you know, around the edges or take a different path,

24:49

keeps you, keeps you grounded a little bit more.

24:51

Sometimes I have to remind our staff of that. You know, hey,

24:53

let's reduce our footprint. Let's let's

24:55

be super grateful for the things that we're able

24:58

to have here. And then

25:00

the other thing is it's like you just got to

25:02

put the work in and it take it takes time. Like

25:05

you know, everybody wants it so fast,

25:07

you know, whether it's players or coaches, everybody

25:09

wants it so fast. And that

25:12

comes from a good place, it really does. And

25:14

and but sometimes

25:17

you know, it just doesn't come. And

25:19

if it doesn't come where you're at, this is what I've learned.

25:21

It like you keep trying and keep trying and keep trying,

25:24

it's probably not going to come. There, and then it's not until

25:27

you leave that environment you really realize maybe

25:29

it was dysfunctional, maybe it wasn't for me. And

25:32

you always land like we live, We work in a volatile

25:35

environment and getting

25:37

fired or they were moving on is just part

25:39

of it. But I've always landed

25:42

in a better place, but I couldn't see it until

25:44

I got there. And

25:47

and when you get there, you get the chance to kind of like

25:49

reinvent yourself or go back to what you do

25:51

best. And then a whole other people,

25:54

whole nother you know, group of people that can

25:56

then appreciate working with you and

25:58

you with them. So those

26:00

are some of the things. I think. A person

26:02

that bodies that on my team is Nikhil Alexander

26:05

Walker. I was with him as a young player, just

26:07

kept stubbing his toe, stubbing his toe,

26:09

wanted it so bad, wanted so bad, and

26:11

just had to go through these processes. And now

26:13

he's like one of our most important players,

26:16

you know, and it's really been incredible to like

26:18

watch him kind of develop that way.

26:20

I'm glad you brought it back to the Timberwolves

26:22

because our boss Scott Shapiro, who

26:24

I want to thank for helping us make

26:26

this show happen. He is a Minnesota

26:29

native, massive Timberwolves

26:31

fan, and he's going to be playing this on Loop

26:33

in his car driving work probably

26:36

all week till you guys play another

26:38

game.

26:38

So producer Tim as well.

26:40

Our producer Tim, who's working on this show, another

26:42

Minneapolis.

26:43

Well, we appreciate the sport you. One thing that's been great

26:45

about our current success

26:48

is we see a ton of Timberwolves fans in

26:50

visiting arenas right now, and that's pretty

26:52

cool.

27:00

So you guys are thirty nine and sixteen

27:02

atop the West here at the break. If my math

27:05

is right, I think this is the thirty

27:07

fifth season of Timberwolves basketball.

27:09

But this is a franchise that has not won

27:12

a playoff series for twenty years, and that

27:14

run to the West Finals and four it's

27:16

the only two playoff series that the

27:18

franchise has ever won. So how much as

27:21

a staff, your team, how much do you guys feel

27:23

that weight of expectation because obviously

27:26

in the regular season you're building up to

27:28

this playoff run.

27:29

Now, really, really, I've never heard that

27:31

before, Like

27:35

most things that you know have

27:37

happened previously to us.

27:39

Arriving in Minnesota. We don't

27:42

pay a ton of attention to it. The

27:44

history's there, but it doesn't really relate to us.

27:48

We're trying to forge our own path. We believe what

27:50

we're doing is real and repeatable. You

27:52

know, we got some guys that I know are super hungry.

27:54

They don't care about individual accolades

27:57

right now. They're focused

27:59

on one thing that as pushing this team through

28:01

the playoffs as far as I can go.

28:03

Maybe you can answer this one, because you guys were in

28:05

Dallas recently and I had a chance to visit with

28:07

Tim Conley and I said, you know, you

28:09

took so much, so much grief

28:11

from all of us media.

28:13

Know it all is last season. Don't you want to.

28:14

Throw it back in our face? How well the trade is working

28:16

out now? And of course he was very humble

28:19

and he wouldn't do it. But how good

28:21

is he feeling right now after last season

28:23

and all the heat you guys took, and like you

28:25

said, a year later, with you time

28:28

to get everybody acclimated, and we see

28:30

Rudy bouncing back with such a strong season.

28:33

I mean, I think Tim

28:35

feels extremely proud of this team and its efforts.

28:38

I think it's the vision he always had. We

28:40

always knew it took take time. We

28:42

thought last season it would take at least fifty

28:44

games to figure it out. We never really got that chance,

28:47

right. He's an incredible valuator

28:49

of talent and how that

28:51

talent fits together. We have a continual

28:54

dialogue about it all. I really

28:56

love working with him. He's never going to be the type of

28:58

guy who's going to throw it in anyone's face, know,

29:00

because he knows how quickly these things

29:02

can change. And that's the that's

29:04

the league we work in. You

29:07

got to stay humble through your success. You

29:09

know. We all sat in that room and we

29:11

made this the Ruty deal, and we just we

29:13

were committed to making it work. And

29:15

even last year we didn't feel

29:17

like it didn't work. We probably win twenty five

29:20

games, we don't have Rudy. We're not in the playoffs

29:22

last year if we don't have Rudy, and

29:24

then you know, being able to continually

29:27

add to the roster, you know, Mike, the

29:29

emergence of Ni Kiel now Monte

29:33

Kyle Anderson as a signing. I

29:35

mean, there's been a lot of home runs that Tim Connley's

29:37

hit, and it's not just the Ruty

29:39

deal. But it's really the totality of it all.

29:42

And size is back, right. I mean, you're not gonna win

29:44

in the NBA without size.

29:45

In the West.

29:46

You got to get through Denver and you can't do that

29:48

with outsize.

29:49

Yeah, and you know they're not going to take

29:51

their best player off the floor to go small,

29:54

you know. And and

29:56

I think also at the height of small

29:58

ball, and the best team to

30:00

ever do it was Golden State, and

30:02

you're just not going to do it better than them. So I think

30:04

one of the things coming into it all was like can

30:06

we be different? And can that be good enough?

30:09

We had a none of somebody from audience

30:11

one ask the question.

30:11

I go for it, We're good, go for

30:14

it, and then go for it and then we're gonna all right.

30:17

Where are you from?

30:19

I had done David Warshowski, Chris

30:21

as a fellow f and m Alum

30:23

you had me by a couple of years. One

30:26

not so serious question. When

30:28

we used to play pickup ball, you used to make

30:30

me look the fool by busting me with threes

30:33

from the outside.

30:35

Why'd you have to do that then?

30:37

But the more serious question is you

30:40

took an untraditional route and playing

30:42

for a legendary coach like Coach Robinson,

30:44

and being from Franklin and Marshall. Were

30:47

there positives for you compared

30:49

to coaches who don't come through that

30:51

kind of background that have made you the coach

30:53

that you are today.

30:55

Yeah, you know, I appreciate that,

30:57

and so we need to see some footage.

31:00

I need some footage of you playing.

31:01

And three, you appreciate people

31:05

from Franklin Marshall are known as Fummers,

31:07

so it's a fellow fumber here.

31:11

I was fortunate in my career to have great

31:13

coaches at high school and college level.

31:16

In particular, Coach Robinson

31:18

will be in the Hall of Fame one day. I'm

31:20

sure there's one, just shy of a thousand game. It's

31:22

the only job he ever had. He held it for fifty

31:25

years he went. When I was there, we

31:27

were ranked number one in the nation for three out of the

31:29

four years in my entire career. We lost

31:31

fourteen games in college, three

31:33

of them to Princeton and the other four in the tournament.

31:35

So we lost basically seven regular

31:38

season games to Division three opponents. What

31:41

I learned from Coach was situational

31:43

basketball. It was outstanding at like, you

31:46

know, how do you manage through end

31:49

of games? In fact, I should probably bring them in and have

31:51

them talked to our team a little bit here, as we have

31:54

blown a lot of fourth quarter leeds late resily. But

31:57

I also learned that it's simple. We

31:59

had three plays. That's it. We had three

32:01

plays. He never changed him. It was the same

32:03

four three plays for all four years,

32:05

probably the same three plays for thirty

32:08

of his fifty years coaching

32:11

there. And it wasn't about the

32:14

x's and o's. It was just about how well you choose

32:16

to do what you choose to do. So, you

32:18

know, when I look back sometimes I have compared

32:21

my career to my brother, which who

32:23

didn't have good coaching. You know, he didn't

32:25

have the same experience with and he

32:28

was five years ahead of me. And the only reason I'm in basketball is because

32:30

I followed him and he

32:32

just didn't have the enjoyment and the coaching

32:34

that I was lucky to have. So there's

32:37

a ton of things I take from Coach Robinson

32:39

to this day, from the fluidity

32:42

of the offense, to the simplicity

32:44

of things to

32:47

managing the small pieces of the game. You know, so.

32:51

Well, look without your

32:53

star power.

32:54

We would not have been granted this stage, so

32:57

to do this on seriously, to do to

32:59

come in here and join us on the day you've

33:01

got to coach the All Star Game on

33:03

the morning of the game, we are really appreciative.

33:06

Congratulations to you on a tremendous

33:08

first two thirds of the season and

33:11

wishing you and the Timberwolves great

33:13

luck here in the playoffs to come.

33:16

Everybody, thanks so much for

33:18

joining us, Thanks to Chris Finch, coach of the

33:20

Wolves, and please, as always

33:22

remember keep listening to

33:25

This League Uncut. Please follow

33:27

us, rate review, subscribe

33:30

to the podcast via Apple, Spotify,

33:32

wherever you get your podcasts, and

33:36

a lot of fun for Chris and I were not in the

33:38

same room too often. So great

33:41

to have a live episode of This League

33:43

Uncut and so honored to have Chris Finch the

33:45

Timberwolves here with us.

33:46

Thanks again for being with us.

33:47

Everybody, Thank you, thank you, and

33:52

that'll do it for us.

33:53

See you next time. This

33:55

League uncuta is and iHeartRadio production. The

34:00

suck a locket Chris

34:03

Haines and Mark Stein

34:13

M HM