Coat Check: A Chat With Michael Bryson

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Grubhub or Postmates. Plus, if you order your breakfast in the Wendy's app, you get a free honey butter chicken biscuit. That's tough to beat. Wendy's breakfasts. You up for this available at participating us Wendy's locations. Now about that new pod you up for that, well, here it is. Enjoy it. Hey, it's Brian Seltzer. Welcome back to the pod. Certainly appreciate you checking it out and coming here amidst such a

crazy time in the world. Hope you, your family, your friends, anyone in your network is doing as well as they possibly can right now to get by the first episode for us in about a week. And what we're gonna do moving forward is to just get content as often as we can, whenever we can, from wherever we can, and then just roll it out as consistently as we can to keep this thing updated and moving as we wait to find out what is in store for the

rest of this suspended NBA season. In that vein up for we are pumped to bring to you and add to our podcast feed, the Coach Check Podcast. Matt Murphy does an outstanding job literally doing everything, it seems for the Delaware Blue Coats, the seventy six ers G League affiliate when it comes to media and content. He calls games, he writes, conducts interviews, all that great stuff, and he recently caught up with Michael Bryson, one of the players

in the Bluecoats roster. So here's that conversation in the latest edition of the coach Check podcast, available wherever you get your pods by searching Delaware Bluecoats Enjoy Welcome in to cote Check, the official podcast of the Delaware Bluecoats, the NBA G League affiliate of the Philadelphia seventies Sixers. Matt Murphy back with another episode. But we've got a good guest today, and he is Michael Bryson of the Delaware Blue Coats. Can I call you a wing in

modern basketball? You still want to be called a guard? Or is it a wing these days now? Either one where ex definitely I run along the wings, but obviously if you want to call me a card, I need that as well. Bluecoats guard slash wing Michael Bryson joining us today. We're recording this on Tuesday, just past the first week of March, so March tenth. Just for a little background there, we'll get into some of Mike's background, his upbringing, high school, college. He's a callie guy, so

looking forward to having a lot of fun. We'll also have our healthy Lifestyle segment presented by Christiana Care and talk about the Bluecoats season a little bit as well. A second year in Delaware from Mike. So plenty to get into here. Let's start, Mike with your hometown. I mentioned a California guy. It's listed as Sacramento. So how would you describe growing up out there? Oh? Yeah, I mean I loved it. I was born in said moved out a couple hours of Sacramento, a little outside of Sacramento,

but you know, grew up there. Love the love the environment, love the people. You know, it's really grown. You know, the downtown life out there has really grown the last few years. You know, there's a lot more to do. The Kings obviously moved their facility downtown and they have an amazing facility out there. And growing up a King's fan all of my life, I've always obviously, you know, imagine and you know, dreamed about playing in the NBA and being able to put on the you know, an

NBA jersey. So being able to obviously get close to this dream so far as you know, definitely a blessing. Foothill High School. I think there's a few different Foothill High schools, but Foothill in Sacramento. Technically, I guess in terms of the address I saw recently you were named one of the best dunkers in the history of high school basketball in that area. But just in general, it seems like Foothill pretty strong basketball program. What's the reputation

of your high school in terms of basketball? Yeah, you know, honestly, a lot of the reputation falls under my head coach I was there, Drew Hibbs. He came to the school, I believe in ninety three, won them a Section championship the first year ninety four, won them a state championship, stayed with them, you know, twelve years later. Um, you know, being able to do what he did. And obviously he he was a coach there until I think a couple

of years after I left. But he was able to win a state championship in two thousand and three, multiple section championships, you know, a bunch of league championships, back to backs, you know, triple you know, repeats all that. So Drew Hibbs definitely instilled the culture out there at Foothill, and obviously I was able to h you know, enjoy that, and you know, obviously learned from that. My year of two thousand and twelve we were able to win sections.

But um, you know that was definitely a blessing and it taught me a brand of basketball that you know, I really haven't seen since, which is, you know, just nitty and gritty, you know, blue collar, you know, really just you know, head to the ground and just working as hard as could every single day. You know, that was one of the Obviously as a high school student, you really learned, you know, if you really want to

play this game. And that was a huge test to the fact that I knew how much I really loved basketball and how much I wanted to be a part of my career. About that list that I mentioned, any other notable guys that you that are from that area or that maybe were good dunkers as well or not really, Yeah, they have my boy, Dacari Alan. He plays for the Grand Rapid. Um. You know, he's on there as well, out of Sheldon. But you know, there's a few on there.

I need to look over the list again, but there was a few on there that you know, it wasn't so sure. Phil Ritchie I think was on there. He's a coach from Galt. He works or her a coach for the Stockton Kings and he went to Galt High School. Um, they have him on there. I don't know. I had to see the film because I don't believe that man used to get up, but uh, you know, that's that's my guy as well. Phil Ritchie Huge he was during the summertime, obviously comes in and works with us. So

h there's some good names out there. It's great because that community, everybody kind of out there either knows each other or no of no of you know a person that knows somebody. So it's really nice to be able to kind of see some people that you know up on in the Sacrament of Beef and a few G League connections there as well. Fast forwarding to your college

days that you see Santa Barbara. We've talked before. You were a teammate of current Miami Heat two way contract player gab Vinton, so I'm sure you've been following his success this year. But you individually at Santa Barbara program record for threes, I know the record was like two

hundred and twenty. You finished with over two forty. Have you always had the high arc on your three point shot even in the college days, Yeah, you know, I've always I was always taught that, you know, the higher the ball is a better chance that has to go in into the rim. So that's just something that's kind of become comfortable for me. I've always believed having a high arc and you know, when my when it goes in,

and obviously the proofs in the pudding. But speaking to that three point record, I actually was able to break it, like you said, my senior year, I was able to kind of extend it. And it was one of those records that as I'm breaking in and as I'm you know, extending it more and more, you know, I'm looking down at my you know, my younger guy, Gay, and I just know, like, you are going to break this before you graduate here, and sure enough obviously had to have been.

Maybe obviously during his senior year he broke it and then completely extended, you know, his own record. So, you know, attesting to to Gabe and how good of a shooter that boy is he. You know, I'm so happy to see what he's doing over there in Miami and the fact that he was able to get an ample opportunity out there and he's obviously making the most of it. I knew coming in he was going to be a

Freshman of the Year, and sure enough he was. And from this point, you know, he's just kind of take off. So I'm really excited to see what's gonna happen with him. About to jump into our healthy lifestyle segment, but before that, how do you balance? I mean, it's not always the case that a good dunker is a good shooter. So especially in your college days, I mean, you're setting three point records, but you're also known as a great dunker.

How do you balance shooting versus your athleticism as well, because, like I said, it's not always the case that guys can can do bold. Yeah, you know, I've always been a shooter, you know, self proclaimed at this point, but you know, I always love shooting. You know, I'd be outside all day, all night shooting. You know. Thankfully I was able to get some athleticism as I got older, as I filled into my body. You know, the first day I dunked was actually the day Michael Jackson died.

I remember coming out of practice, going and get a dunk, and then you know, going over you know, going to social media to Russian tell everybuddy and finding out okay, well, this isn't your day. You know, Michael Jackson had you know, has passed. So that was the first day at Dunked. From that point, obviously, you know, being able to shoot, you know, guys are going to come out and close

close out hard. So that just makes it easy if you can, you know, have a good shot one dribble, rip to the rim or two dribbles, get to the rim and go dunk on somebody. That's obviously something that's going to be you know, attractive within scout's eye. So you know, as I, you know, got more athletic, I was able to kind of encompass the two and you know, string together a little bit of defense in there, and so it's obviously just trying to make it all come

together at this point. Absolutely, let's jump in with our healthy lifestyle segment. Just a couple of questions. Healthy lifestyle segment presented by our friends at Christiana Care. And you probably remember from Bluecoats Media day they asked you what you do for the love of health. I know some guys like Zayre Smith said he does a thousand push

ups a day. I don't know if that's true or not, but what do you do for the love of health for anyone who missed maybe that video or if it's changed since earlier this season, no, yeah, and this year it was a big I had a big focus on, you know, trying to change my diet a little bit, eating more regularly, eating at the right times, and at least more consistent if I'm not eating at the right time, because with traveling it's you know, it's really tough to

try and schedule everything out, especially when you're on the road. But being able to kind of eat a little cleaner, being a little more conscious of that. And I think a big thing for me was just with mental health, making sure that I'm positive, making sure that i'm you know, bringing a good energy to the gym, making sure everybody around me is you know, it was good and happy, and I think that, you know, a happy, happy locker room makes for a lot of you know, prosperity within

the year. All right, shifting gears to the Bluecoats and the season. Speaking of positivity, you're known for a guy that has great bench celebrations. We've recently talked about this on the Bluecoats beat as well. What makes your celebrations for your teammates the best in the G League. I'm consistent regardless if you know, if we're up twenty, down twenty, if you're doing well, if you're doing bad, if you do a highlight, you give me something to celebrate, I

will celebrate. I don't care, you know, if there's nobody else in the gym, or if there's a you know, a thousand people in the gym, I'm gonna be doing the same thing every single time. You know, I enjoy it, and it's less less for the fans. Obviously, I'm glad that they're happy to see it, but it's definitely for my guys. I think that a player knowing that, you know, you're not always gonna get rewarded for what you do. Sometimes what you do isn't seeing Sometimes it's not, you know,

rewarded in any way. So at least if you have one guy you know is going to celebrate for you know, one guy is going to be there for you to you know, to you know, back you up and make you feel good about what you did, then, you know, I think that's my only goal is just obviously to help, you know, keep a positive morale amongst the team, especially

on the bench. Is tough. I know for me personally, you see it with the Sixers even this year and you with the raise the roof celebration that that has been a good one I think for the twenty nineteen twenty season. You mentioned fans recently as we record this, As I said, on March tenth, you guys were up in Canada and there was a tweet. You got some feedback from a fan, I think a visiting fan, a local person. And I'm going to read the tweet via

Kimberly on Twitter. She said to you, thank you, thank you for making this young young man's day today. He rushed home to research you. You are his hero, thank you for taking the time. And it was a photo of a little boy fist pumping you on the sidelines. So just thinking about that that recent event and you said it was my pleasure, loudest in the gym, without a doubt. How did it feel to hear back about

the impact that you had. You know, it's it's special. Um. You know a lot of people say they you know, it's it's for the money. You know, people are always you know, telling you that you know you need to do this for you the basketball. You know, it's only gonna be a for a sure amount of time. You got to get what you can from it. But you know, it's the people that you come across, you know, in

these situations, and obviously more the kids. You know, you have a lot of adults and you have a lot of older fans that you know, truly love the game, and they truly may love the Sixers and they may love the Blue Coats, but you know, there's a there's a reason that they're there. You know, kids are there simply for the love. They love the game, or they you know, they love the camaraderie or whatever it is.

So when you have a kid that you know, it's just you know, asking for love, asking for a fist bump, it's simple. That's a simple pleasure to be able to go over there and you know, give him a fist bump, to have a conversation with him, see how he's doing, see if he's enjoying his day. And all of a sudden, that turned from one fist bump, it turned into him cheering for me the entire game. And you know, when you see a kid doing that, you have to reciprocate

in some way. So my biggest thing was just to come over there every time I saw him, you know, give him, give him a DAP or whatever it was. And you know, obviously little things go a long way within this industry because you know, they look up to you and they're watching you the whole game. And you know, it was a great pleasure of mine and it was a simple pleasure. It wasn't anything that I had to

do out of my way. It was a simple fist bump, a simple conversation and U to be able to you know, hear that that obviously affect to the possibly is something I truly you know, I tried to everywhere I go. But you know, it makes it worth it for sure. That's why we do it right. And you obviously created a fan for life. I'm sure he'll be following you wherever you go and where you were last year was

also Delaware with the Bluecoats. But this is a it was an interesting season for you that I want to get into because if people follow you on social media, they likely know about it. But I want to talk about your injury from a season ago. You were limited to just four games last season due to injury. You get hurt early in the year, an ankle injury. Then

what happened? Yeah, sprained my ankle November third against Toronto nine five, sorry the nine oh five team up in Canada, and third quarter went to go in the lane, went to jump off the ground instead jump off someone's foot. Simple,

really a simple ankle sprain. Sat on that for a few days, and you know, eventually, about five days later, after the injury was here back in Delaware, it started feeling really inflamed and you know, there was obviously something wrong with it when the doctor took them another three to four days to diagnose it, but they said I had strepping staff in my ankle. I'm not really sure as to you know that we didn't have surgery or

anything before. It was just a simple ankle sprain, but it manifested into a you know, a strep and staff infection. Had to get rushed into surgery for that, and that unfortunately took me out for the rest of the year until the last I think six games is what I was available, and it played in them four of them. Um, you know, it was a tough you know, mentally obviously, like I said, my mental health was a big thing

I had to focus on this year. It was, you know, because you know last year I really went through, it went through you know, the depression of you know, not being able to play, you know, not being active, having to really you know, take a setback and you know, learn from it and learn about myself and learn about my you know how much I truly want this game because you know, when things like that happened, you have every reason or every excuse to try and say as

to why you can't come back, as to why you can't make it. But you know, took a lot of support from my team, took a lot of support from the Sixers and the Blue Coats you know staff, and you know, Dan Ericsson was a huge, huge, huge, huge, huge culprit for a while I was able to come back. You know, he was with me daily, you know, obviously doing you know, therapy and you know anything extra that I needed from him as far as you know, you know, rehabilitation.

He was obviously there for me in any way that he could um. But again, like I said, I truly, you know I appreciate the you know, the staff here and you know, the team and the everybody here truly made it an experience for me that I was able to grow from. Um. You know, in every situation in which, like I said, I could have been hurt and you know, been negative and been down. Um, they gave me a reason to you know, keep fighting. They gave me a reason to come to the gym every day and to

be happy and to be positive. And you know that's tough. Um It. Like I said, I really learned a lot from last year and being able to obviously come back this year and play and you know, get some my athleticism back has truly been a blessing and you know, I just I'm thankful for it. Shout out to my fellow South Jersey native Dan Ericson And if anyone was following you on social media, I'm sure they saw Dan a lot because you chronicled your comeback process in an

Instagram series Instagram story series called the Comeback. It was over thirty days worth of videos of you and Dan and everything working out. You mentioned learning about yourself. What did you learn about yourself during that return to play process? Yeah? You just I think I learned how much I you know, appreciate the little things. You know, that first month I was you know, in a boot, couldn't apply any pressure to my foot, so I was in the you know,

in crutches. I think just getting up just to you know, obviously, to go to the bathroom is something that you know, you don't understand how much you take for granted. Obviously any day you wake up as a blessing. But to be able to get out of bed but two feel on the ground and walk to the bathroom is something

that I had to truly learn to appreciate again. But also I just learned about how how strong will it I can be if it's something that I truly want And obviously basketball is something that I've won since I was a child. So being able to you know, put my mind to something and every day get up, you know, have a mental challenge of you know, today could be the day that I give up and don't go or today could be the day that adds to the story.

And ultimately that's what it became. I think posting those videos not only made it so that people around me were aware of what I was going through and if they were going through anything similar than that, they can connect and you know look at us for you know, inspiration. But ultimately it became an accountability for me because if I show up one day and don't have a video, I'm going to get asked, you know, where's your video today?

Why weren't you working? And I think that's something that obviously I did have people do, but it's something that I needed for myself, you know, because every day, you know, like I said, it's a mental battles that if you're gonna get up and if today's gonna be the day you quit, or for today's gonna be the day you

add to the story. And so obviously, thankfully, for like I said, the people around me and the people in this organization, I was able to keep adding to that story and it wound up being, like you said, thirty plus days and finally was able to make a comeback and get on the floor and here we are today, and there was a great ending, well not ending, but part of that story where you returned here at seventy six ers Field House, and I do want to get to that. We'll get to our quick questions at the

buzzer as well. This has been awesome so far. At speaking of Dan Ericson, he and a few other people said you were the guy for this podcast, that your story is one that we had to tell so we appreciate the time. The ending to that return to play process was a home game, ironically enough, against the Raptors nine oh five, where the injury happened on the road March sixteenth of last year. You had ten points and you were four of six from the field, including a

couple of threes. What were your emotions that night? You know, there weren't a lot of words to put into it. You know, it was obviously nervous. You know, basketball has always been something that until the ball tips off, I'm very nervous. But it was great. I mean I had people around me that truly wanted to see me succeed. I had, you know, family back home that was watching. I had, you know, like the I said, the fans here obviously show support, and they showed love. But you know,

it was it was a lot, you know. You know, it was a situation in which the doctor told me, you know, we had waited twelve hours to do the surgery, I would have lost full mobility. It would have been

career ending. So you know, to go from hearing that, you know a few months earlier, to being able to get on the floor that I love, that had wanted to be on all year and to make shots and to you actually feel like you did something to you know, help with the game, to actually contribute with something that you know, it took me away for a little bit, and it takes a while for you to realize as to how blessed you are in a situation like that, but you know, it truly opened my eyes and allowed

for me to understand that, you know, this is a blessing that I have, and you know, from that point on, obviously you just got to, you know, try and take off a really great story. And thanks for sharing all those details. Let's have a little bit more fun as we wrap it up with our at the buzzer questions. Not always a true rapid fire style, but we talk about your explosiveness a lot of times on broadcast. That

gets mentioned on the road. Twenty eighteen NBA G League Dunk Contest runner up, but just to be in the running for winning a contest like that, describe your best dunk or your go to dunk. I didn't see the footage from that contest, but what's your go to and what did you achieve during that dunk contest? Yeah, Dennis Smith actually had done the same dunk from the opposite wing, but it's the three sixty windmills, probably probably one of

my better dunks. You know, he did it, I think the same day or the next the day before, and I had already been working on it, and I said, Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and pull that one out. I liked the behind the back one. I can do that when that one's fun. I have a B grade version of the vinsanity dunk, the three to sixty reverse wind mill, and that one is absolutely incredible. I can't I can't emulate it the way that that Vince Carter

does it. But man, that's one of my favorite dunks, just the way it looks and so awkward and it's such a tough dunk to try and you know, get down all right. So this one's truly of this or that. Who should have won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest this year Derek Jones Junior or Aaron Gordon because they both

put on a show. Oh my gosh. You know, West Coast bias would say I would go with Aaron Gordon, but you know, my first year I played with Derek Jones over with Anaz with their G League team, and that man has some bounces I've never seen like before. So I'll leave that one to Dwayne Wade since he was the one apparently that that snubbed the voting on that. But that you know, I'm proud of my guy Derek Jones. You know that's only this isn't the end for him.

Obviously you're gonna see more of fame. Airplane mode is still taken off. And he's a local guy from Chester, Pennsylvania, so I know a lot of our listeners are probably familiar with him even before that dunk contest. But he just floats in the air all right. I don't know if you need preparation for this one, but here at the buzzer. You told us on media Day either last year or this year, that you're hidden talent is whistling. Can you give people a little sample? I don't know

if you have to warm up or whatever. That's my thing. Wow, we just got like a full song. What do you whistle during games? Practice? You know what? And I've actually gotten in trouble for whistling. I don't realize I do it sometimes, but yeah, if you ask any of my guys, I whistled throughout the airport, throughout you know everything. They say it's because I'm happy, but I think it's just because I can't sing. That is good stuff. We're gonna end on that. How can you not end on the

whistling solo there at the end. That was awesome. Thanks so much Mike for the time on the coach Check sounds good. Appreciate you. Excellent to be adding the coach Check podcast to our feed. Big thanks to Matt Murphy and Michael Bryson for that conversation. Again, we're gonna be doing our best to roll out new pods as frequently as possible here on the feed, So be on the lookout for what's coming your way. Thanks so much hanging there, Take care, be safe, stay clean, do the responsible thing.

I'm brid Seltzer. Talk to you next time. See it.