Dime is the premier basketball magazine, covering the NBA, NCAA, High School, Playground and International basketball - as well as sneakers, fashion and music.
Issue link: http://dimemagazine.epubxp.com/i/73806
JJ: It's something small man. I'm not really over the top. I have a white Aston Martin, a red Ferrari and my big supertruck. But other than that, it's not nothing major. It's just a few cars that I really enjoy and can really take pride in. Dime: When did you get that big truck? JJ: Man, I've had that big truck for about five or six years now. Dime did a cover on it a while ago. It was red though. Dime: It's not red anymore? JJ: Nah. Dime: What color is it now? JJ: It's a chameleon. It flip-flops. It's a greenish orange, blue-ish. It changes the color depending on how the sun hits it. Dime: How did you get that idea? JJ: Growing up in the South, you always see chameleon cars. They call it flip-flop. You always see flip-flop cars come by. I always wanted to have one. I just said whenever JJ: Yeah pretty much man. I get my haircut at the crib just to kinda save myself the hassle. I go to a barbershop every now and then just when I want to go out and make some mingle, go see the guys at the shop. But other than that, I'm just at the crib. Dime: Do you usually have the same guy cut- ting your hair? JJ: Yeah, I usually have the same guy cut my hair. He's been doing it for quite some time. Dime: For the Hawks, what do you have to do to get over the hump in the playoffs? JJ: Man you know what? I honestly think we got what it takes. We gotta get Al Hor- ford back and healthy because he's a big piece for what we do, and we definitely miss him. But a lot of guys have stepped up to fill that role or fill that void that we've been missing. The veteran help that we added over the summer in Jerry Stack- house, Tracy McGrady, those guys have been great pluses for us. Look at Jeff Teague we'll get him before the playoffs or during the playoffs. So we'll see. Dime: How many of those sneakers are cus- tomized for me? JJ: It's quite a few. I probably got over 100 pairs that's personalized with my name and my initials on them. Dime: I see you have a Razorbacks jersey up in there. Why did you want that in there? JJ: Well I'm gonna forever be a Razorback. I'm from Little Rock, Arkansas so I'm gonna rep that all day long. If there's one jersey that I could put up in my shoe closet, that would be the one. I could've put up multiple jerseys but I just chose to put up that one Razorback jersey because it brings back so many memories from when I was in college. A lot of my friends, a lot of the guys that I played with on that team, we're still great friends to this day, hang out and workout together in the summer. Just the coaching staff, you're talking about Nolan Richard- son, one of the best coaches ever, Mike I'M GONNA FOREVER BE A RAZORBACK. THEY TURNED MY WHOLE WORLD AROUND. THEY BROUGHT ME INTO SOMETHING GREAT. WHEN I LEFT THERE MAN, I WAS A DIFFERENT PERSON. I had a chance, I was gonna get that paint job put on something. I put it on my truck. Dime: Anything crazy in the interior? JJ: Nah, nothing crazy in the interior. It's just black and leather. That's pretty much it. Dime: That Aston Martin, how often do you take that out? JJ: Almost every day or so. It's just a great car to have, and it's pretty cool. Dime: Is that the go-to car right now for a lot of NBA guys? JJ: Well a lot of guys, I know for me it was great. I test drove it before I got it and basi- cally just fell in love with it. It's all white. Dime: What abut the inside? JJ: The inside is all red. I just wanted some- thing different. I had seen so much but I had never really seen the matte white with the red interior. I just kinda went with it from there. Dime: Do you normally get your haircut right in your place? who's coming into his own, and then we've still got a great guard out there who's just now getting healthy in Kirk Hinrich so we're not even fully loaded. We're manag- ing with what we've got. Dime: You started slow but you've been killing it for the past few weeks. Was that rust from the lockout? JJ: Nah, I wouldn't say it was rust from the lockout. I was trying to feel my way in. I think when Al went down, I really wanted to step my play up and just try to do what- ever it took for us to get victories. But it was never no pressure on me man. Just trying to ease into things. Most importantly, if we're winning, then I'm cool. Dime: When Al Horford gets back, do you guys think you can beat Chicago and Miami? JJ: Yeah definitely. We've already proven we can beat the top teams in this league. We're just now understanding that we have to do it on a consistent basis. We'll be fine. The way things are looking right now, Kirk, he'll be ready in another few weeks and Al Horford hopefully, if we're lucky enough, 67 Anderson, who's the head coach at the uni- versity now… those guys meant a lot to me. They turned my whole world around. They brought me into something great. When I left there man, I was a different person. Dime: Do you think you're ever gonna have to expand the room? JJ: Man, you know what? I'm kinda start- ing to have that problem, honestly. I got like some of my favorite shoes, I may have five or six pair of them in there, like those patent leather Jordans that just came out and every- body was going crazy over them. I got like six or seven pair in there, so I might just have to take a few of them down and just leave one up, and then just re-stock the other ones. The ones that I have multiples of in there, I'll just take a pair or two of them down and put something else in there. Dime: When you get multiple pairs of stuff, are you only wearing one pair and keeping the rest on ice? JJ: Yeah. I just keep 'em on ice, man. I try not to wear them but it gets tempting sometimes.