Dime Magazine

NO73 2013

Dime is the premier basketball magazine, covering the NBA, NCAA, High School, Playground and International basketball - as well as sneakers, fashion and music.

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ferent approach of what I've been saying lately. Even watching his game, I think that he still needs to add another step to his game as a small player to keep climbing up the ladder. He's a very explosive player, a very exciting player, and he's fun to watch. But there are certain things when you're climbing up the ladder that you just gotta be prepared for certain aspects of it, and I hope that he can get that type of tutelage. Dime: What do you think he needs to improve as a smaller player? MB: On the defensive end. More or less defensively. I think he's got to address that a little more. He's capable of doing that. I just think it needs to be a little more of a focal point in addressing those types of issues. He's a heck of an explosive player with the ball in his hands, so it's a lot of things people didn't even want to dribble against you. Was there anyone you ever played against where you felt like you couldn't take it from them? MB: No. Not one person. That's just the confdence that I had in my ability to guard the ball. Those are the things as a small guard, especially an undersized guard like myself, you gotta have those traits. You gotta do something that's gonna distract your opponent, that's gonna take away some of his strengths. As a point guard, the main thing is they have to get the ball across half-court to get them into their offense, to run their set. If you can make that a challenge for them to get it across half-court, then not only are you making it tough for them but you are taking time off the clock, you're making them now have to rush to get into their offense. You're not "I THOUGHT THERE WERE TWO MUGGSYS ON THE COURT BECAUSE I'D DRIBBLE ONE WAY AND THEN COME BACK AND HE'D BE THERE AGAIN." -KENNY SMITH that you can see. As players that have been there, we just kind of critique and try to see how you can get better. But the lil' fella, I will tell you, he's one of the best I've seen out there. He's very explosive, has a great feel for the game, and has a lot of upside. Dime: For you, was there a moment when you started to realize you could make it to the NBA? MB: I just took it one level at a time. I never overlooked one before the other. When it was junior high school, I was just in junior high school enjoying that. You're looking forward to high school, and then when I got to high school, I just enjoyed my high school times, and looking forward to going to college. Once I was in college, I was looking forward to getting an opportunity to play in the NBA. I always had that type of mindset. Playing the game would determine how far you would go. Being aggressive out on the foor, allowing my style of play to be an asset as opposed to a liability, I understood the game and I understood how to be aggressive on both ends of the foor, and how to constantly keep myself on the foor as opposed to watching the game. Dime: You were known as a guy who could rip someone at midcourt or someone who could jump a spin move, get underneath and take the ball. In college, they used to say that only doing that, but you are also trying to take away that frst option so now they gotta go to certain other things. So there are a lot of little things as a small guard that you should be thinking about to try to disrupt that opponent because all of that plays in effect with your strength, and all that plays with allowing you to be able to stay ahead and be able to continue playing with the guys and being able to keep yourself on the foor. You don't have the luxury of a 6-5 or 6-4 guard to just let guys roll over and do this or go there. You gotta change and make a difference because you're looked upon differently. You bring a different element to the game, and it can be an effective element because it's always gonna be the case that coaches like big guards. Dime: Did most of those steals just come from your quickness? MB: Well, it came from the quickness as well as the understanding of it. Just guarding your man, how to make your man do what you want him to do, making him fearful of dribbling the basketball. If Aquille can really develop that aspect of the game, he's gonna constantly keep climbing because now you're working on both sides of the foor, and you're being looked at as a guy who's now able to compete on both ends of the foor, not just one side of the foor because if you're just playing one side 45 of the foor, you're not going to keep climbing up the ladder. You're not going to get that opportunity. You're going to get taken advantage of in certain things that'll keep coming into play, and your height is always going to be there. You want to keep that out of their mouth as much as possible, and the way you do it is by becoming that fearsome defender. Making it tough on guys, making them earn everything they get. Dime: That seems like a guard's biggest fear: getting picked in the backcourt when they're all alone. Did you ever feel that fear on guys when you were guarding them? MB: Oh yeah, that's pretty much all of the guys that dribble the ball. They know that's the reputation that I developed. They know I'm going for the ball. They know I'm making it tough on every dribble that you have. When you got that mindset, and you have them thinking about it, then you already got yourself ahead in the game. You already got yourself out there. Now you're taking away something else. Those are the things that I understood. Those are the things that allowed me to keep being the player that I was. You always had small guards. When you say that people are thinking 6-0, 5-10, 5-9, 5-11, but you go all the way down to 5-3. Spud was 5-7. Michael Adams was 5-10. Tim Hardaway was nothing but 5-10. We had different styles of play, but we were able to still be effective, and still be able to continue to be out there on the foor. The game has changed, of course, to some degree where you now see two small guards out there at the same time, which we didn't have that back in our day. You had true positions. Dime: In the NBA your frst few years, you had a rough start in Washington, and then at one point you said you didn't think Dick Harter in Charlotte was a huge fan of your game, either. What turned it around in Charlotte? MB: Even though Dick Harter wasn't a fan of small guards, your play always overshadowed everything, so my play overshadowed his way of wanting to coach. So in the league, where it becomes more of a business than in high school or college, they saw that, and we were fortunate enough to get a coach who understood what type of team we had, and understood what type of players he had and what type of player I was, and he relished it. He let me go. I was able to do the things that I was able to do. Dime: Some of those Charlotte teams had almost cult-like followings in the '90s. You had some really great players, awesome colors and uniforms. With all of that talent, why do you think you guys never went deeper in the playoffs? MB: When we started out, we were all young. Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning, we were young when we came into the league. Larry was in his second year and Alonzo was in his frst year, and that was

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