One-on-One with P.J. Tucker

conversation that you had with PJ. Fortunate to get some time with him because ever since he was acquired, everyone had been talking about PJ Tucker in the playoffs in a Sixers uniform, and it's almost that time, and it's happening.

He's played a ton of regular season games. He's been a key part of the ups and downs of a long MBA regulars season, and throughout the year the guys have talked about how important his veteran presence has been in the locker room, and then we'll soon get to see it in a playoff series with all these adjustments, and he's like another coach on the floor. Some have

called him the captain of the defense. You know how important is defense is come playoff time and a lot of eyes will be on PJ Tucker and how he is able to propel the Sixers. You mentioned being an extra coach sort of, and that reminds me of training camp when the coaching staff was kind enough to let us sit in on some of those early practices as

a team. And something that jumped off the page from the first couple minutes of this Sixers team working together was Pj's comfortability in inserting himself, letting the guys know what he was seeing, communicating loudly ay, And that takes confidence, That takes a level of pride in yourself and your knowledge to insert yourself in that way with a brand

new team. But on the flip side, the way that every everybody listened when PJ spoke even in those first few minutes, and we all know what it's like when you're new at a job, right and you sort of, at least for me, I bide my time, I dip my toe in even in a new season with the same people like I sort of like to find my rhythm more quietly and then I'll start being more vocal

as the year goes along, not PJ Tucker. PJ Tucker can insert himself right away and command the respect that he's earned in this league right away from a group of players that, by the way, are quite good and have had some success in their own right. So really cool to see the way that PJ spoke and the guys responded from the jump, and then we've watched that evolve all season long. And also of course cool to get to know him a little better in a conversation

like this one. He recently crossed eight hundred and fifty MBA games for his career, which is a ton of experience, and he simply wants the guys to talk and communicate on both ends of the floor, and he knows how important that is, and he talked with you in this interview and anything before we get into it. Really jump. Oh, it was just such a pleasure. And PJ doesn't do these conversations that off and he himself and rarely participating in podcasts, but eight fifty NBA games and far fewer

podcasts podcasts, so he claims. So here's one of them. Six to five from North Carolina. PJ Tucker. Okay, fair enough. Thank you, good job six five Groum, North Carolina. YEA, that's okay, PJ. We know you're a great basketball player. What else are you great at? I am great collecting sneakers? What makes one great at the like, like, we know you have an amazing collection, but like the process of

acquiring them? What makes someone great at that? Um this years and years of having pretty decent tasted picking shoes enough. You can have a lot of shoes and be a lot of bad shoes and they're not good. Do you think it's subjective at all? Partially, but for the most part it's not, so you consider your taste to be the gold standard objectively. No, I think that there are a bunch of people that are really good at knowing

what good shoes are what good shoes aren't. I think it's the combination of like actually being a basketball player in my entire life and knowing what are good basketball shoes from that and from knowing good shoes from a steppoint of personal style and being able to wear them on and off court. And you know, it's a different evenues. You can kind of go down and like pick good shoes, but for the most part is pretty basic fair enough.

When you retire, what do you want people to say, teammates of the past, what do you want them to say it was like to play with you? I want them to say that I was the hardest working, most unselfish player they ever play with. When you think about your public persona, I feel like players today are like very aware of what the public sees out of them and what your persona is. What's something that the public gets right about you? And what's something that the public

gets wrong about you? Hmmm, that's a good question. I think more times than that they almost get everything wrong about me. And I think everybody knows how hard I play, so that is an easy one kind of to get right. But I think more times either than that, they don't really know. I really truly believe that. Is there something that stands out to you as like, Oh, people think

I'm this, but I'm really that. Um. I think I've done almost too good of a job of creating my lane of how I present my play and what I do on a night in night out basis, rather than people really seeing the way I change the way I play on a night in night out basis based on who we play and what we need to be able to win. Okay, here's one for you. What's the most regular thing about you? Oh that's a good win. First of all, I'm super regular, so like in a lot

of ways, I'm really regular and I enjoyed it about myself. Um, but I almost do everything myself. Like I like, we'll go to Target, and I'll go to you know, we'll go to the bank every once in a while, even though I don't like to, um, but like I do like super like every huh you go through the drive through? Yeah, I drive through drive throughs. I like, like, I literally like we'll almost do like every every regular day thing every once in a while. Like I like that you

can have your dream dinner table. Who's at it and what's on it? Oh, that is a good one. I will say, I'm having a dinner. Who's at it? Okay? First, let's just let's do that first. Who's at it? Okay? Kobe for real, Drake, Travis Meek, James Arty, and David Beckham. You think James would put you at his table? He better. We'll let you know what you guys eating, because that's a that's like a big table. That's a big table. Yeah, it's a few others maybe, but that's like the core

of the table. Oh, Virgil, I'm bugging Virgil. That's an amazing virtual was at the table for show. What are you guys eating? Um? I love sushi, So even though I know James probably is it. Um it's a really high level sushi place, probably like something really good, but sushi for sure. What's the best gift you've ever gotten someone I've ever given? Oh, my wife's entire closet probably, Like is there like a stand you're a fashion guy, Like, is there a standout piece that you remember getting her

that was like really special? Um? Her second wedding ring? M Yeah, because I did we like I designed it and like went through this whole thing. Yeah, it was a big deal because the first one was really modest because it was young, like it was twenty three, twenty four, so it wasn't like, you know, it was nice, but

it went great. So the second one, ten years later, it was you know a big deal in designing it, in the whole process, and like she like almost crying when I give it to her after we hadn't even married for a long time. So that was pretty cool. That's got to be up there for sure. What's the best gift you've ever got for yourself? I treat myself every day. Oh that's tough. I don't know. M M. I can't even think of a pair of shoes or something like. I don't probably you know what. Yes, my

the first Ferraria I ever ordered, the super fast GTS. Yes, that one. I'll say that just because I love that car so much and designing it and everything all custom, right, No, not all of them. You can go, you can get some something that somebody else created. No, but like if you get a new one, you design it to design it. Yeah, there's not a lot of Ferrari sitting somewhere for you. Go you just pick? No, No, No No, was that your first? Like that was the first one that I actually built? Yeah,

so first one I actually built myself. It was a really big deal because it's the last frontage of the twelve fer ever made, So it's a big deal. Do you have a memorable fork in the road in your life? Too many? I had a lot of forks. Any that stand out is like particularly pivotal? Uh, glad you went one way? Curious about what would have happened if you had gone the other. Yeah. Um, oh, there's two major ones. I'm just gonna pick one of the two. Uh, I'll

say me going to college. Um, I was going to Carolina or Texas, and uh me, going to Texas was the best thing I've ever done, one of the best things I've ever done in my life. Um, because I needed to get away from home, Like I think, staying

in a triangle. I don't know if I will still be here right now if I did go to Texas, like forced me to grow up, forcing me mature really fast, forced me to learn how to take care of myself really fast because I was so I was such a mama's boy, and like you know, I needed to get away from home and it was the best thing I ever did. As we start to wrap up, you said something really interesting a second ago about how you treat

yourself every day as a vet in this league. Though you've really earned that right right, What do you hope for your younger teammates? What do you hope for your younger teammates when they become a vent like you like? What type of life do you hope that a Tyrese

Maxie leads one day? For example, they it's funny you say it because I always think about it now because my events when I was young, and I tell them all the time because I get on their nerves and they're like, I'm like, you're gonna come back to me. I would come to your game one day, like ten years from now, you're gonna be playing and you're gonna tell somebody's story Belva, and how I told you something that was one thousand percent true that you just was

not rolling with during the time we played together. I was like, trust me, I do it all the time when I see market the guy, the guys that you know kind of raised me in the league and show me ropes and help me out. Every time I see him. Is always every single time the things they told me one d percent true and they were right, and always like to remind him and tell them when I see him. All Right, Well, ten years from now, we'll have this conversation with Tyrese, will play this for him. We'll ask

whoever the ten years younger guy is. Then when he's the VET, and it'll be full circle and we'll circle and it's gonna be great. PJ. Tucker, thank you so much, a girl. Thanks of course to PJ Tucker for doing one of his rare podcast appearances with us. We know, of course about his breadth and depth of experience as an NBA player on the floor, all of the stops along his journey to the NBA perhaps one of the most winding roads of any player playing today, but also

to get to know him better off the court. I love when we know that he's a big sneaker guy, that he's a big fashion guy. But I absolutely loved hearing about the way that he's been able to share those passions with his wife. I was also so excited to hear that James Harden would be one of those seated at his ultimate dinner table. That just shows the

friendship and bond that those two have. They've had plenty of dinners together, of course, and then given the opportunity to sit with anyone debt or alive, PJ still wants James at the table, and I think that that's just so sweet. And his passion for sneakers recently benefited a great cause, as PJ Tucker in early in this month of April, donated seven pairs of his sneakers to be auctioned off for the Sixers Youth Foundation to benefit the youth of the Greater Delaware Valley. So doing it for

a good cause. Some pretty great sneakers in that auction. And when you talk about his career, I mentioned at the top the eight hundred and fifty games, But his journey, if it's so interesting to look at like MBA dot com and see like the teams he's played for, because it started in Toronto and six h seven and then his journey took him overseas for quite a while. He didn't come back to the NBA until twenty twelve, twenty thirteen.

So a guy that has played for a number of NBA teams, played across the world to try to make it back to the NBA and everything that he has learned in each stop is now benefiting the Sixers as they enter the playoffs. Because of that experience and because of the respect that he's garnered around the league. I feel like Pja arrived in Philadelphia with sort of a big reputation, like a weighty reputation. And you know when PJA comes into a room, he sort of commands some

of the air that's in the space. It goes towards him, and seeing him and getting to know him throughout this season, seeing how the reputation matches up with the person has been really cool. He's such an interesting guy. He's willing to give back, like you mentioned with the sneaker auction, but he's also willing to give wisdom to the younger players to bond with the different personalities in the locker room. Watching he and James reunite together here has been really special.

And then just from a tactical perspective, Matt I wanted to go back to a media availability that George Niang had a couple weeks ago talking about the way that this team, particularly once they were all healthy and had a really strong run, I want to say mid March, mid to end of March, and they had a lot of comebacks. They came back against Milwaukee, they started figuring out ways to win, and that became such a theme

in this sort of later quadrant of the season. And George was asked what he thinks the biggest difference between last season and this season would be in terms of whether or not the team folds or struggles in the fourth quarter versus this season when they've been able to figure things out in a big way in the fourth quarter, and George said simply that the difference has been PJ Tucker, whether or not he's on the floor, in the huddles, on the floor, whether he's creating second chances for this

team with offensive rebounds, with loose balls, or he's just being a source of wisdom and imparting what he's seeing

to the guys that are on the floor. George's description of how much PJ has meant to the actual ending of the game and whether or not the team came out on top really cool to hear and really heartening to think about as this team heads into the playoffs with PJ into that's great stuff, especially because in some of those moments it's George Niang maybe going in for PJ Tucker or vice versa, and the stuff that Tucker

can share in those moments is pivotal. And what I was thinking of goes back even further and how recent episode of this podcast was with Daniel House Junior and how he knows where to be. His teammates know that he knows where to be on the floor. That's another level with someone like PJ. Tucker, also a former teammate of James Harden and James has mentioned that throughout the season about how he never has to worry about PJ. Tucker because he knows how to play the game, and

why wouldn't he at this point in his career. But I think about the defensive end, and I take it back further in the season too, when the Sixers played the Nuggets at home and they beat the Nuggets, and how important PJ. Tucker's defense on Nicole Yokich was in that game. So a guy that, depending on the matchup, can be a very very important and key defender in high leverage moments and has given this specific team and group of guys a lot of problems in the playoffs.

So there was a photo that I saw recently from obviously the Sixers and he'd played in the playoffs. It was like PJ Tucker holding the ball and a bunch of current Sixers kind of like hanging off of his arms when he was their opponent in the postseason, and I thought, how much has changed since then. It'll be nice to have him on our side as the playoffs begin. Thanks, as always so much to Matt Murphy, to PJ. Tucker, Thanks to you for listening to the seventy Sixers Insiders Podcast.

We will be back as soon as we possibly can be. As you know, the playoff coverage is going to be deep, so let us know what you want to hear. You can reach out any time. We appreciate you guys, and we will see you next time. Both from both the