Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A/Kelly Walker: Hi and welcome to Hustle and Pro. I'm your host, Kelly Walker. So this is part two of our Dallas Mavs Texas Legends two way player interviews. I got a surprise sit down with Brandon Williams. So I'm excited to bring you this episode of Hustle and Pro. Okay. So Brandon, so where are you from?
[00:00:20] Speaker B/Brandon Williams: I'm from Los Angeles.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: Los Angeles. What's your story? Where were you last year?
[00:00:24] Speaker B: I was here last year. The year before that I was in Atlanta G League team. And then I was with Portland Trailblazers.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: All right, so returning player, what are your, like, were your thoughts about being with the Legends last year? How did you vibe with the team and the coaching staff and was it a. Was it. I'm guessing it was a positive situation since you're back, right?
[00:00:44] Speaker B: It was fun. It was good. I was on the same contract as last year on a two way. So I showed up after the All Star break around February. So I didn't really gel with the team at first. Took me a little while to get connected with them, learn their games as well as vice versa for them to learn ours. So just to get up and down, get a few games with them, it was fun. I mean, my very first game I had a game winner. We won. Next few games we ended up winning and it was a good little stretch.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: That we had some momentum for sure. That's weird coming in in the middle, in the middle of the season after the All Star break.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: After All Star break.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: That's tricky, right?
[00:01:17] Speaker B: For sure. I mean, the new kid, they're already established a little bit. You know, they know each other on first name basis, like you said, on the new kids. So like I said, just learning new, new players where they like the ball, where they don't, especially as a point guard, is pretty tough. But yeah, it flowed very well.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Yeah. That's tough though in your position too, because you got to be a leader also.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: All right, so I say the new kid. But you're not like rookie years, right? Like you one of the leaders on the teams automatically.
[00:01:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, yeah, they can say that just because I have the most years on the team and I'm on a two way. So anything I get from the actual Mavs team and bring it down here, same concepts, same terminology.
Like even right now during training camp, just teaching the young guys or rooks on where they need to be and stuff like that, I can do that.
[00:02:03] Speaker A: You take that on yourself or the coaches say, like this is part of your role.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: It's almost naturally I'VE been here. Like I said, I did training camp last month in Vegas with the actual team. So it's the same concept. So it's like if I'm down here and I see something that we've been working on last month and coaches shouldn't always talk every single time and I'm a point guard, I can be that coach on the court. So if I see something that needs to be fixed or anything like that, I can address it.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: When you were the young guy, did you listen to older players a little differently than you listen to the coaching staff?
[00:02:34] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's always different when someone on the court right next to you can actually point and physically tell you where you need to be rather than a coach on the sideline. So a lot of time, that's my job, like I said, as a point guard. But for the people that's behind me, the bigs and anybody who's behind me, they can really talk in voice.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: Yeah, that's important. That's great. That's how coaches are formed too. Right. Do you see like post playing career that you would ever want to be on the sidelines and running a team?
[00:03:01] Speaker B: I haven't, I haven't thought about it yet too much.
I have a cousin, Kerry Champion with espn, so that's probably broadcast and journalism is probably be my next venture.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: Did you do, did you go to school for that at all?
[00:03:13] Speaker B: I did, I did go to Arizona for journalism, communication and stuff, so got a little bit of a ball headed eight ball a little bit.
[00:03:20] Speaker A: But my summer intern is currently in Arizona for journalism and communication.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: Oh, really?
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Yeah, she's a junior this year.
[00:03:26] Speaker B: Oh, that's fire.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. All right, so I can't help but notice a knee scar. Did you have, what was that?
[00:03:32] Speaker B: Osteochondritis destiny. I was.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: What? Say that again.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: Osteochondritis descends.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a little bit of a rare case. Yeah, it happened when I was younger, so adversity hit early in my career. So that's what per pressed me to play from here on out, honestly. Yeah.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: What? Like you said, varsity hit. So at what age were you going through that?
[00:03:58] Speaker B: 19? 18. 19.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: Okay. Okay, man. Yeah, that's a tough time because that's when you're trying to make this transition in basketball really work. Yeah. So you had to be on the side. You had to sit out a while. And that's also where that player coach comes from too, for sure. I think because you had to be still involved.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: Sitting out a Whole year just watching we're not winning.
Trying to stay involved some type of way, being involved in practices, films, doing all the little stuff. I feel like then when the game comes, that's where I got to let go a little bit. But, yeah, I can definitely see the frustration from a coach's perspective.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: Sure. Of what's going on out there. What's going on. Stay involved with your guys on, you know, your team.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: And it's hard too watch.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: But maybe how do you contribute and then, like, help it, help you next time around when you get your chance?
[00:04:43] Speaker B: It's hard because you're young and you just want to play, play, play no matter what. And then when that gets taken from you, it's almost like, what's next? You know what I mean?
[00:04:49] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, Right. Because, like, that's. That is part of the danger of, like, letting sports be your identity. Right. Is that you have to figure out if you're not able to play right then, like, what are you doing?
[00:04:58] Speaker B: What are you doing? Yeah, yeah.
[00:05:00] Speaker A: If you could write the script for this season, what is it for? Either for yourself or just for your teams as a whole? Like, what do you. How do you write that out?
[00:05:09] Speaker B: I feel like it's almost.
You don't want to write stuff out prematurely. I mean.
[00:05:15] Speaker A: Okay, your wish list then, like, yeah, what are your goals? Or.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: Yeah, all my goals. Basically just to be a point guard. I mean, run my team no matter what that looks like, Scoring the ball, passing the ball, numbers wise, I really don't care what it is. As long as we're winning, I don't care what that is. And then getting back to where we were last year. I mean, we made it all the way to the finals. I think we all know our expectation now on now it's trying to get over that hump and taking the steps every day, practicing every day and being consistent at it. We're going to do that.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: Yeah. You find yourself pulling important tips from guys like Luca and Kyrie and Clay. And, like, all the time you get up there, are you just trying to soak it all in?
[00:06:00] Speaker B: No, no, no. I mean, I've been there for a little while now, so I'm pretty used to.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: Yeah, this is every day for you, right?
[00:06:10] Speaker B: So it's just getting. I mean, there'd be times after practice where I'll be getting up shots with them, and sometimes it'd be like, all right, I'm actually getting shots up with Clay. I'm getting shots up with Kyrie. But it's competition at the End of the day, I'm one of the, one of the younger guys. When I get on that team, one older guy's not getting here. But when I'm. When I'm up there with the Mavs, this is just almost being like a, a kid in a. In a dream job. You know what I mean? Just talking every day, being a good, A good personal good people person first.
Because that's what it comes down to. If, especially when you're not playing, like, how are you as a teammate, how are you interacting with each player? Because it's easy for me to just go around there and mope around and say, oh, they sent me to the G League, they don't care about me, whatever. But it's just like, just love coming in here and loving your job every day. And so that's what I do.
[00:06:54] Speaker A: That's a good way to look at it.
[00:06:56] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: That's noticed. Right? Right. People feel that, players feel that, coaches feel that.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: And it's a different type of energy every time. Us two ways go to the main team, they'll even say it too. It's just a new life we bring. And that's basically. I feel like that's our job as of right now. It could change week by week depending on what it is, but as of right now, that's our job.
[00:07:15] Speaker A: Gotta be ready. Right. Always ready. Locked in for sure. Change your mind a little bit from being the kid up there to the leader down here. And like that's a lot. That's a lot of always being on. Right. And kind of resetting yourself, but always being ready. That's interesting job and position you're in, but it's cool. I love, I love the two way player, you know, system that you guys get to come back and forth. It makes people like me that live in Frisco that watch Legends games. It makes us love watching you guys get call ups and then watching you guys go forward in the NBA. So it makes fans, it makes a cool connection for us to be able to root for you guys knowing like what you guys get to go do.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: Right?
[00:07:56] Speaker A: Yeah. So I know you got to get out of here because you gotta head down to Dallas. Right. For Mavs tonight. So cool. So nice meeting you and thanks for your time.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: Thank you so much.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us for this episode of Hustle and Pro. Subscribe on YouTube and check us out on Instagram and we'll see you next episode.
