Robert Covington and Nik Stauskas Reflect on The Process

I'm Tari's Mexi and you're listening to the seventy six Ers Insider's podcast.

This podcast is part of the seventy six Ers podcast network, presented by Stern and Cohen Law.

Search seventy six ers Insiders wherever you get your podcasts. Suffering an injury at work can cause physical pain, but also great uncertainty about your rights. You need to retain a worker's compensation law firm that is a winner like our sixers, a firm that gets some of the best settlements, but is also willing to go toe to toe with the insurance company. No settling on the cheap. This is Philly.

Welcome. We have shared the court many times together as teammates, but this is our first.

Time I'm doing a podcast together.

Welcome on the seventy six Ers Insider podcast.

It's good to have you here.

Man, It's great to be here with you, my brother.

It's been a while since we've really caught up. A lot has happened, so I'm looking forward to diving right in. How are things with you? How's your second stint around in Philly. You know it's been about five years since your last stint with this team. How are things different this time around, and how have you grown as a person and player?

Well, of course much older, Like you said, five years, I'm a father now and you know a lot of my old friends are still here, so that pretty much hasn't changed. My transition has been great. It was pretty easy. You know for me, I didn't really have much to like really go and renew myself with. So, you know, just being back in this room, you know, fortunate that I've been hurt for a duration of this period, but you know I'll be back short enough.

So when you kind of look back to your early days, you know, starting off in this league with this team, and now you see yourself you've been ten plus years in the NBA, I guess what do you think has changed about the league or the style of play over that course of the time, and what has helped you kind of adapt and make yourself so successful over that period of time.

The way that the game has changes is being played much faster. It's a lot more threes, and it's kind of like positionless basketball, which is actually works in my favorite you know, coming into the league was one of the things that they kind of was like, you know, I didn't really have a position. But now that you know, ten plus years later, that's what the league is now, and you know it's only getting you know, much faster.

And you said, this is what you planned on doing and not look at.

You that's true, just getting started.

But you know, when I think back to those days, the process days, if that's what you want to call them. You know, one question that I wanted to ask you, a hypothetical if we took our twenty fifteen twenty sixteen team ten wins ten to seventy two, I might add, fully healthy, and we played a seven game series against this sixers team right now, would we win one game?

Absolutely?

And that's what I was saying too.

I was saying I think we would sneak one win mainly because here's the thing. Teams used to take us super light, Like teams used to just not really play hard the first three quarters hard as ever, but we were grinding.

Yeah, we lost a lot of games because we ran out of gas. Yeah that's literally how pretty much that is that we ran out of gas because you know, you put an emphasis on playing hard. A lot of teams going to take like you said, take us lightly, and we like just came up. It was a lot of games. It was just like we was right there. It's just a few errors you know that we did down the line. But like I said, we ran out of gas.

Yeah. I try to tell people all the time, like we we weren't a great team, but the record, the ten and seventy two doesn't really it doesn't do us justice that we actually weren't that bad. And when you look at that roster. A lot of the guys have gone on to have very long, successful careers and are still playing like yourself, TJ. You know, like there's so many guys that have gone on to just play long careers, and we were all so young. We were so young,

That's very scary that you were the VET at that time.

But you know, looking back at those days, to me, what sticks out was throughout all those losses and throughout some of the tough times, the friendships and bonds that we created because we were all in that same starting phase of our career. I think brought us together and allows us to kind of still be close with one another and share these memories in a lighthearted way, because it really was all good times.

Even though we did we had a whole lot of good times.

And no matter what people say that, how did y'all honestly get through the season, It was like we did it. Not only a great job, but the organization did a great job of like helping us navigate through it because it was tough. You know, losing that many games is definitely tough. But the fact that we were able to do other things. I don't know if you remember the presentations we used to have.

Yeah, so you brought your snakes and I said, CoV I love you. Get those snakes away from you right now, get them away.

And have the whole entire everyone in the organization and everything was just literally we had it in the beginning where everybody was up close, and next thing, you know, the whole entire organization was in the kitchen.

I said, I'm not getting close to those.

Yeah, that's crazy.

My reptile, you know, of the expansion is ex planned it heavily.

Really, how many what's the repertoire looking like?

Now? We got like five of them? Ten of them or four? Man, that's too much for me. And they travel the worldwide with you. Huh every city I've been there. Wow, that's awesome. All right, Well, I'm going to try to take it maybe a little bit more, a little bit more lighthearted, and just fire off some questions to you.

What was your welcome to the NBA moment when you look back at your career.

Too?

The game winner Dame Liard and the first time I played, you know, the first time I played against when I was in Houston.

You think it was against Sacramento.

It was first time I scored my first NBA bucket, and I just remembered my vets just telling me, yo, if you don't stop passing the ball to us to shoot the ball.

At least they were on your side trying to get you, trying to get you a bucket. It's always good when you get like that.

And then, like I said, the second one was my rookieear as well, when game six they ain't literally hit that dagger three to say that that was an iconic kind when I'm in it was crazy. Is I go to Portland when I played for Portland, they have that picture up on the wall and you see me in the background, and I'm.

Like this, you want to it's crazy.

So I played in Portland and I went to Dame's house one time, and like he has this hallway when you first come into his house and it's like all of his like coldest NBA moments, and he's got a lot of them, and it's just like you walk down this long hallway and it's just like picture after picture after picture.

And that's one of them.

It's from the other baseline of him kind of going up for that shot and like everyone just on their feet.

I walked down that hallway, I got goosebumps because I was like, Damn, this guy's really like he.

Has that similar in his gym toom H Davis. Like I said, that was my two welcome to the NBA moments.

All right, Well, speaking about you know, having some vets with you in Houston, you know, welcoming you to the NBA, would you care to share some of the craziest rookie duties you were responsible for in Houston? Who is your vet?

I had a few vets, James Harden, Dwight Howard, Francisco Garcia, Patrick Beverley, Ronnie Brewer was trying to think of who else, Terrence Jones.

These these were technically all my vets.

So but the people that kicked it with the most was Francisco Garcia and Dwight. And so the craziest duty I used to have is with Francisco. I just had to meet him at his hookah bar every single day, like that was his thing.

I had to meet him there and I didn't smog.

He just did a company.

He just needed a company.

So we're just sitting there chopping it up, and like he's giving the ins and outs of like what we're walking into, like giving us, giving us games. So literally I just sit there. We just have conversations. And as time went on, like he just kept like teaching, kept teaching,

Used to carry that around.

Then he used to have me like he used to take like these love ventures going to like reptile houses. Like that's when he's actually the one that first introduced me to snakes.

So I was about to say, is that intro Okay?

Now we know I had an interest in you know, reptiles, like you know, growing up from Steve Irwin. But he was like, all right, I'm gonna take you to this this this zoo that you know we came across, and you know, they have a lot of stuff. When I tell you they have a lot of exotic animals, they had a lot of exotic animals. And that's where like actually was like, all right, you know what, I might actually get me one, but they had ones that I did not want. They were full grown.

Like I was like, yeah, I was like, y'all can't keep those.

I want to.

I want to get my own, like I can raise it that way, I can know the temperament of it. Because if you get a brand steak you don't know how to read it, that can be bad.

Shout out to Dwight Howard for giving snakes a new a new home. You know, he put you on Now all of a sudden, you're you're a father to a bunch of snakes.

I mean, and I still have the one that I have for my first.

What's the life expectancy on those? On those things?

Like twenty five years?

Oh so you got you have some companions for quite some time, quite some time. All right?

All right, we talk about Philly the city.

What are you going with with favorite cheese steak Larry's Larry's.

I always got a signature cheese steak. There.

You do have a signature, it's the Robert Covington. See, I have not tried this yet.

So to do is call up like yo do a cub Like he's like, yo, brother, how.

Many you need?

And so please tell us, like, what is the robbery coming in?

Steak, mushroom American cheese? So simple?

Uh.

Then on the side, I have mayo, hot sauce and wrench, and I mixed the mayo and the hot sauce.

Give me a little you know, spice kick.

To the mayo sauce, and then I poured it across the top, and then I poured a wrench across.

I like it.

That's a good combo.

I might have to try that myself. I have to, all right. So we move on from cheese steaks to dining. What's your number one restaurant in the city.

Number one for me, and I haven't been unfortunately, is Del Frisco. It's always been Del frishk them cheese steak, air bro it's been my name.

But we used to have our end of the season dinners there in the vault. Order some Hennessy lemonade.

Call it a day, Call it a day.

All right. I got some some rapid fire questions for you. It's gonna be tough, though. Start one bench, one cut one, okay, lebron Kobe, Michael Jordan, Mmm, you.

Know I gotta go with Mike. Start of course, the hard. That's a tough one. Tough one. But I'm gonna have to bench Kobe cut Bron.

Wow. Really, you know, either way you pick it. If someone's gonna someone's gonna be the limit the championships. Yeah, that's true, that's true. Got six five four? All right, if we're talking basketball superpowers, would you rather have twenty ten peak Lebron athleticism or would you rather have twenty sixteen Steph Curry shooting ability?

Athleticism all day? You have the athleticism. I can shoot already. Yeah, you can shoot already. So you're gonna jump in at the gym like you need to.

Get the ten to night is feeling a little bit better in the knees, get the you know, get.

The Never had that or never had that experience of the bounce, So I would definitely take that athleticism.

You were a little bouncy back in our early back in our early Philly days, you would catch people slipping every now and then lipping.

I wouldn't try.

I'm trying to look people as I literally hit the trampoline and just look down at people as I go like that. I have never had that. I think I've only had one, but it was like it was like a grim grazer.

What's your What's what's been your biggest poster of your career?

My biggest poster of my career would have to be I don't know, have.

You been put on a poster, not body to body, not body to body, but you were there in the picture, there.

In the picture a few times. You know, I like this wipe. I mean, try to get to people before they well.

And you have the tough assignment of like you're going to be going up against Lebron Paul George, the wings that are six eight and bouncy, so you're put in a position where.

If you get caught slipping a little bit, we'll see I'm gonna do the work to not get caught slipping rightly.

Well, that's that's why you're still here ten years later with a job. And I'm sitting here on this side on the couch asking you the questions.

Let me think we got we got another one ninety six Bulls twenty sixteen Warriors.

Which one you going with?

I gotta go Bulls, You go Bulls? Yeah?

I got to Is that sixteen Warriors team the best team that you have played against? In your time in the NBA.

Yes, Like I want to I want.

To touch on that because I don't want to say that we ever were going into a game scared, but like people have to realize or people have to realize or back in twenty sixteen, we already weren't we We couldn't beat a lot of teams, but that was just what you had to be there for that time where it was just different, like.

I'd go into the game and you walk into that. Remember when we walked into the ring that we was like, yo, do you feel it?

Yeah?

And the game wasn't even nowhere near like remotely close to starting. And then once it got to the game and the first three you heard the the arena like floor like shake, you heard you heard you heard the literally like the noise from like how loud it was.

And that was before stephand Clay hit a three.

Yet this is just I mean.

It's just but when they hit the it was like and we look up, it was like, yo, this might get ugly, and this is before the game you started.

You remember that.

And then we ended up losing bad.

And the way that the momentum and that building it went higher and higher and hire some point we couldn't even hear each other like we were talking.

We could hear each other on the court.

Yeah, that's crazy. I want to touch on something that's pretty crazy that most people maybe haven't had. So you went from having Elton Brand as a teammate to Elton Brand being the GM that traded for you and brought you back to Philly. How is that relationship and how have you kind of maintain your relationship with Eb over the years.

EB has always been a good friend and like you said, he was a good mention to us back then.

Just seeing him.

Transition did a lot for us back then. He did a lot for us back then we transitioned to the role of you know, stepping.

Into the GM and then I get traded off of that.

But it's always been like a respect level there, you know, coming back, you know, he's like, yeah, we're gonna do it right this time. Like, you know, it's unfortunate that things happened the way it happened, but you know that's all in the past. Like we're here now, let's let's we're gonna we're gonna try, We're gonna make amends to this because you know, it's we need we need you, And it was like, Okay, I understand, I'm here, Like that's what it is, that's it's about.

And and you're someone who's been around long enough where the first time you get traded it feels very personal and it sometimes feels like a backstab. And after you've had a long enough career and you've been through some tras and stuff, you you do start to realize that it really, very rarely is personal. It is all business, yeah, at the end of the day. But it's hard to take.

So it was back then in that time, I did feel like it was very personal, and I had like a little small like animosity for a little minute. But then as I got traded more, I understood that it's the nature of the business and you can't really hold a grudge, and you know, I let it go. Like I said, I understand that they did something that what was in the best they felt for the organization, and you.

Know, I'm not mad about it anymore.

Like back then, it was just that was my first time for it happening, so of course it's like you don't know how to process all of that.

It's like dang. But as your time goes on, like you.

Know, understand it's the nature of the business and there's never no person like you build personal relationships and that's not going to turnish what, you know, the decision that sport like hard decisions that they have to make for the organization because at the end of the day, that's what they have to operate, and they have to think about what's best for an organization, and they're going to do what they what's best for them, and you know they're going to put try to put themselves in the

You know, it's six years later, so you know, you don't you don't do it.

As time gets on, you get older, you get smarter, to get wiser, and you understand that it is nature of the business, so you don't have to take them things personally.

And I looking back now, I definitely don't.

Like I said, it's the opportunity to present it yourself that you know they took advantage of.

Yeah, well it shows the maturity for for you because you know, obviously the team took the sixers, took a chance on you and gave you an opportunity very early stage of your career and then gave you the extension that you deserved and you know, played yourself into. And so I could see how from your point of view, getting traded soon after that can be like, damn, what do you like?

You know what I mean? I thought this was family. I thought this was all love.

So that's the tough part about the NBA and the business of sports that a lot of people don't see, is like there's so much more that goes into it than just you know, what you see on TV at the end of every day, and like the relationships that are cultivating and you know what's special for the organization.

But you know, as you like you said, as you get older, you know, as you get older, you understand it and you don't take things as personally like you said, it's all the nature of the business, and you know, at the end of the day, relationship is always going to be the same, Like you know, We have a Me and EB have a.

Great respect for each other.

We have a good wind that you know, that's something that never be you know broken, Like you said, from the player aspect and from the other side, you know, they's love seeing people exceling their in their positions and you know doing well.

If I were to, you know, catch Robert Covington strolling down Broad Street and his whip?

What what whip? Would I see him in these days?

Now? What you you see me?

It was the charger before the blue I remember the blue charger charger?

What do they have it? Though?

You still haven't, but it's in the reserve. It's like on the bench. It's like I gave it to my dad. Oh that's a good gift.

I gave it to my dad because originally I was going trade it in and my dad was like, nah, that's your first.

That was my first car ever. He was like, nah, give me that. Gave it to him.

Now you'll catch me in one of my four cars, one of four.

You want to share any insight as to what those ones are? Today, I drove my second double R Double R. Were talking Ghost Wraith, Phantom coloring it? Okay, all right, Well.

Clearly some of us are in a different tax bracket over here.

But that was that was my gift to myself last year for my birthday.

You know what, that is a phenomenal gift.

What was that?

That was the thirtieth birthday?

Thirty second thirty second thirty seconds is a big birthday. You gotta reward yourself somehow, right.

Yeah, and my thirty third is going to be even better cars though.

Looking I'm looking forward to that.

Speaking of age, when you look forward, do you still feel like you have a lot to give to the game of basketball? Do you still envision yourself? Are you still motivated to continue that journey and continue to grow?

How do you see that plan out moving forward?

About another six seven in me?

So you try to make it twenty like it's going to be not an I be a seven seventeen eighteen at that point.

The pension plan is going to be looking great. At seventeen years.

Seventeen years, I'm I'm gonna ren these bands to the wheels fall off, because I say, it's not give my family, and not only that, my daughter experienced that, you know, they've never had.

So I enjoyed it, and that's my purpose of what I do it for.

You know, my family and you know people that care about to enjoy the journey with me. So you know, I still have a lot to give. I'm still motivated, I'm still happy to do what I do and that ain't gonna change no time soon.

And I think a lot of people don't respect that enough. For the people that do go on to play ten to fifteen, twenty years in the NBA, the level of commitment and motivation it takes to stay at the top. You know, I always tell people it's one thing to make it to NBA, which is hard to do, don't get me wrong. But even harder than making it is staying.

It's changed significantly, and so and think about how many of our teammates back then, how many of them are still.

In the league.

I know, it's crazy.

It's really only probably like four let's.

Be honest about something.

Day one of training camp together in twenty fifteen, you looked at TJ mcconald, would you think that TJ mcconnald would be still balling right now picking people up ninety four feet in twenty twenty four.

Are we talking about the TJ that we literally watched, literally watched day in and day outside the part and say, man, I just turned the ball over. They're about to cut me after this game.

Oh yeah, that TJ.

But then you look the statue.

He got ten points, not as forced deals, it's like six rebounds, like and TJ, you got one turnover.

It's what made him great. He was paranoid.

He was paranoidally drove him out of everyone that played in the process era. I feel like that's got to be one of the best stories, the fact that he started off on a four year non guaranteed from Sam Hanky, And you know, it is a testament, Like you know, there was there was a lot of downside that came with, you know, putting that team together in terms of like we weren't successful whatever, but it really gave a lot of us an opportunity and platform to go on and show what we were capable of.

And because I mean it was literally he wasn't playing for much.

We literally was showcasing I don't know how many guys we've had throughout that locker room, but it was trialing there and a lot of people prosper, some people didn't.

You know, some people are.

Making careers overseas, but some stuck in the league. And you know, it's just that balance of you know, some people took full advantage of their not took advantage, but the right situation played out in their hands and that's what allowed you know, guys like me TJ to you know, really thrive. Like when we ventured from here, we was able to continue to see the prosper m hm.

Well, I really hope I continue to see you prosper out there. I'm looking forward to watching you guys make a playoff push this year. I appreciate you taking the time to sit down and catch up.

Not negotiable.

It's been. It's it's really been. It's been much needed, a good catch up. So I'm glad to see you're doing well. I hope your family's all good. And thanks again for stopping by. My guy, This guy, Saucy, Saucy, stay Saucy.

My friends,