Shake Milton on Fish Tanks, Tattoos, and Staying Ready

and good back to back threes by Milton. Behind the best scoring performance of his young career, the twenty eighteen second round pick continues to provide the shorthanded Sixers a lift. Shake Milton and I talk hoops, fish, tanks, tattoos, and more on this episode of the broadcast, What's going on out there, seventy six Ers pod people, How are you? I know, in terms of results and other things in

the basketball world. It could be better? Certainly, so much emotion since the last time he had an episode of the podcast, given the just horrible and totally tragic passing of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and the seven other people who were on board the helicopter that crashed in southern California last Sunday, so that certainly continues to weigh at the forefront of at least my mind, and I'm sure

a bunch of you out there as well. It was nice to see the seventy sixers do what they need to do on Tuesday to knock off the Golden State Warriors in their first game since the accident involving Bryants. But a tough loss for the Sixers on Thursday night at Atlanta against the Hawks to begin a really important four game road trip that also features the likes of Boston, Miami,

and Milwaukee. All three of those teams right now currently said ahead of the seventy Sixers, not by much, but still ahead of the seventy sixers in the Eastern Conference standings. On the bright side, it is excellent, totally excellent that we can say Ben Simmons is an All Star for

a second straight year. Wished we could have said that Matisse Steibel was selected for the Rising Stars Challenged, but he, along with a couple other first or second year players in the NBA, robbed of a spot during All Star weekend. But it is definitely great and promising that there are a lot of good things we can say about Shake Milton, who went for a career high twenty seven points in the seventy six ers game against the Hawks on Thursday.

We're gonna hear from Milton in a moment, but before he and I get started, of course, I wanted to remind you that to subscribe to the podcast, you can go to any of your favorite podcasting platforms, whether that Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google, Stitcher, SoundCloud, tune in Pandora, wherever you go. Just type in seventy six Ers Podcast or Sixers Podcast

Network and that will take you to our feed. So it was Wednesday afternoon, a couple hours before the seventy six Ers were set to get on board their charter plane to head south to Atlanta for a Thursday's game against the Atlanta Hawks, and I was on a mission to track down our guy, Shake Milton. Now, Shakers had to overcome a lot, not just in his young basketball

career in the NBA, but his entire life. A few years ago, he lost his father, who was the inspiration for his nickname Shake because his dad, when he played, was called the Milkman. Shake also then dealed with injury in his third and final junior season at SMU before turning pro. That probably affected where he ultimately went in the twenty eighteen draft with the fifty fourth overall pick. You remember he was originally selected by the Dallas Mavericks

in the seventy six ers swung a trade for him. Then. Milton had a series of injuries in his rookie year, and he's had to battle some injuries again this year, most specifically the injury he suffered on the heels of what was a great training camp. But about a week and a half ago, when Josh Richardson went down in the first four minutes of the Sixers road game against the Toronto Raptors, there was Milton summoned into duty. And not surprisingly, Milton, when called upon, he was ready to go.

He fit in, he was steady, and he did his best to help the cause. So even before Milton exploded against the Hawks on Thursday, I was on a mission, as I said, to track him down and talk. But Milton, as I should have presumed, on a getaway day, had a very important task to take care of before the seventy Sixers flew down to Atlanta, and that was the guy had to get himself pack for a four game

road trip. So that is where the conversation between myself and Shake Milton began when I got him by phone. This is actually before he took the floor against the Atlanta Hawks for a career performance on Thursday. All right, Chake, Well, when last we spoke, it was after a practice at the seventy sixers training complex the day before you guys left for Atlanta, and you had some important things to do, like getting ready for a long road trip going to

a bunch of different climates. How does Shake Milton pack for a road trip like this when you're in Atlanta one day, Boston the next, then back down to Miami, come home, and then go to Milwaukee. Yeah, I mean, I guess you just got to try to pack a little bit of everything, you know. I try to look ahead and see what the weather is looking like while I'm gonna be in West City. But the most part, just get your basic your sweats, maybe a couple pair of jeans, and some shorts and T shirts and you'd

be good to go. So you are the type of guy who will tailor his attire that he brings based upon the city that you're in and the weather conditions potentially. Yeah, I mean, I'll just I'll just make sure I have all bases covered so I'm not out, you know, somewhere freezing or you know, somewhere over dressed when it's super hot out. You know, so just t to make sure

that I got all my bases covered. A why strategy? Well, if you look back over the last week, you were kind of thrown into the fray when the seventy sixers who were at the Raptors playing Toronto, filling in for Josh Richardson who went out about four minutes the game. You had nine points that night, you had nine rebounds, the next game against the Lakers. Last Saturday in South Philadelphia, eleven points against Golden State. What has the past week been like for you? I just, you know, I just

try to do my best to stay ready. I wasn't expecting nobody was expecting Jays to get hurt or go down. But you know, as a team, we always have a next man up mentality, and I just tried to step in and be aggressive. Guys were encouraging me to do so, and I just tried to go out there and play

with confidence. I was going to ask you about that mindset, because at least for me, when I look back over the last two years that you've been with the seventy sixers organization, it seems like that whenever an opportunity has arisen for you at the NBA level, regardless of the circumstances, you've managed to jump in. Seem like you fit be steady. So what goes in for you to staying ready? How

do you go about preparing that way? Um? I think it just starts with the work you're putting again every day. You gotta make sure you know you're going one hundred and ten percent and you know, just being consistent with that, and then off the court, I mean, and then um, you know, just following the game plan. You know, you got to be on top of that as well, because you never really know, um what moment, When your moment is going to come, you just gotta be ready to

take it. And um, you gotta make sure that you're prepared for whatever is throwing your way. Um. So I think just staying on top of the work, and then stay on top of what the team had going on, like offensive schemes and defensive schemes, and you know, just making sure I'm standing on top of it. What does the work look like for you? Is it coming in early? Is it going back to the facility after game to get up some more shots. Take me inside your regiment

and what one D ten percent means to you. I mean, we'll definitely going in going in early, and um, you know, you know, going to shoot arounds early before the team even gets there, or um, definitely coming in late as well if you just feeling you get the itch and you just want to get up extra work. But I think just rep by rep, taking it and making a game rep game speed, so that when you're thrown into the game, you know it's you've been practicing it looking

at some of the scenarios surrounding you. At least to me, it also is like there's been a persistence about the way you've gone about your business. And I don't want to dredge up old history that I'm sure you'd like to put in the past, But your first summer league you had a stress fracture in your back. You broke a finger nearly a year ago, this time right after you got called up the seventy six ers on a

West coast trip under two way contract. There's the ankle sprain, it's summer like this year, and knee injury after a great training camp in the fall. What keeps you going? What's the persistence and what's the motivation behind the persistence. I mean, I think it's just the will to want to be great and my love for the game. I think, um, that keeps me going. That's you know, I want to I want to be great. So I mean, you just

gotta you gotta work with it. You gotta, you know, take those ls on the and um, find a way to bounce that because at the end of the day, that's all you can really do. It's all about making you stronger and seeing what's what's society. Would you say that you're a tougher player now than you were before some of these experiences came up. Uh, definitely. I mean I've always been tough, but I feel like, you know, each each situation you're thrown into can only making stronger.

When you look at this year, you've spent the majority of your time, aside from a very brief assignment with the Delaware Bluecoats, with the seventy sixers. What's that been like spending the bulk of the year with the Sixers, even if it's regardless of how much you've been playing in games, getting to hear your name called in a practice at the NBA level and working out with NBA peers,

I mean it's been good. I think it forces you to get better because every day you're going against the best competition, guys who who are the best at what they do. So it forces your game to raise to the next level. And I've been just trying to take it one day at a time. And you know, um,

I always say good days that up. So you know, every day you're in the gym working working on your craft and working on your game, you know you have no choice but to climb and to see your game and prove bring us inside the gym a little bit. Who are some of the players that you're learning the most from and who's pushing you? Um shoot everybody, um the you know, the bets like Tobias Um I'll um

you know. And then also like you know, I talked to Jay Rich a lot just about different things that he sees because you know, he's he hasn't been playing, so he's been able to have a little bit of a different perspective. Um. I mean you can learn from everybody, um, from from you know, Ben and Joel to to Firkin and Matisse, um because we're all kind of like in the same little position. And James and it's the way

he offens the rebounds and the way he guards. So you know, you just try to take different pieces of of everybody's game and can learn from it. Good stuff from shake Milton more with him on the way. But I want to take this moment to remind you that if you've not yet marked your calendars for Monday, March

the ninth, twenty twenty, do it. It is the date of the fifth Annual Sixers Youth Foundation Evening on the Court Galla presented by Vip Wireless, and this year it is going to be held at the twenty three hundred Arena in South Philadelphia for an awesome night of fun as everyone in the seventy Sixers organization, from players to coaches, alumni, fun, office staff ownership, work together to create a brighter future

for the leaders of tomorrow. Visit Sixers Youth Foundation dot org slash Gala to support today and find out more about how you can be a part of the fifth Annual Sixers Youth Foundation Evening on the Court Gala March ninth, twenty twenty at the twenty three hundred Arena in South Philadelphia. And I would totally be remiss if I did not mentioned that a part of the annual auction in support of the Sixers Youth Foundation Evening on the Court Gala includes a spot to be a guest co host for

an episode here on the broadcast. How could you not be all about that again? The website Sixers Youth Foundation dot org slash gala as we now pick it back up with shake Milton, you know, shake you to me seem to have a really mellow, relaxed, easy going vibe about you off the floor. I've also heard, however, that you are into the fishes. Do you have a new fish tank? Oh yeah, I got. I got my little,

my little saltwater aquarium at the crib. It's it's nice, it's I mean, it's the sound of it is soothing at nighttime too. But I mean it's nice to come home too. And they get excited to when I'm around because they know they're about to eat eat so um. I don't know's it's a fun experience. I got all kinds of fishes man, So there's a real relationship there. What type of fishes do you have? Um? I got some yellow tangs, I have uh some of the uh the fish from finding Nemo. I got the dory fish,

Nemo fish. I got, um some type of little salamander looking thing. I got some snells. I got a shrimp in their coral. It's just a it's a whole, it's a whole little, uh little ecosystem going down down there. Dude, that sounds like a legit set up? How big are we talking? I think to take is ninety gallons? Oh that is awesome. The other thing I wanted to uh to ask you about is the kiss tattoo on your

inner bicep. What's the significance of that? Um? So well, UM, my dad, whenever I was younger, he was my coach, and UM, we always had a we had a play called kiss and it always stood for keep it simple, stupid and um that that um that just left left mindset is kind of always just stuck with me and kind of applied it to things other than basketball, just just life, life outside of basketball and just just keeping things simple and um being being unique to so what

you got going on. You can get caught up folks and on everybody else's journey, and um, it can kind of be discouraging or can it can lead you off your path. But if you know, you just stick to your script, stick to what you got going on your path, your journey, then you know it could uh end up you know, being okay. And it really doesn't have anything to do with the band, but shout out the kiss,

shout out to him. I mean that kind of ties back into what it sounds like your approach has been since turning pro with the seventy six ers and some of the hurdles that you've had to overcome. Right, Oh yeah,

most definitely. I mean it definitely is applicable to that, and I think it's you know, applicable to just my life in general, because um, you know, there's always going to be adversity or things you go through, but um, you know, if you're able to just hone in and stick to what you know, stick to your journe ernie, UM, it's gonna be all right. I gotta think it's nice to have dad close by as well with that tattoo,

oh yeah, just having his memory. Um, just you know, being able to look down there and and you know hear his voice as you know, as you will, Um, is a pretty big time for me. You've talked in the past about how that's where your nickname came from. You've got a brother who plays basketball, a sister who plays basketball as well. Was that mandatory? Did you have to play basketball in the Milton family? No? No, you

definitely didn't have to. But we were just around the game, so I must be kind of just fell in love with it, um, And you know, I think it just took off from there. But I mean one thing with my dad was you know, you know, you don't have to play basketball, but you're gonna do something, and you're gonna give it your all, um, And I guess we just kind of fell in love with basketball and and took off from there. This is probably gonna sound strange,

but I tend to do some strange things. If someone is from a place, or if I heard of a place anywhere in the world that I just have no frame of reference for, I'll go on Google Maps and search it typing in and then try and drop the little dude down on Google Maps and see what it's all about. So I did that for Awasa, Oklahoma, just to try and get a sense of what the town is like. How would you describe Owa? So I know it's near Tulsa, but what type of place was it?

M I think it's a town that's definitely growing, growing in size, and they're always adding new stuff every time I go home. It's like something else that's popping up. But it's definitely a close knit community. Um. I feel like everybody kind of has an like kind of knows everybody. So, um, I think it was good for me because I was able to build a lot of relationships and a lot of close friendships, friendships that I'll have the rest of my life. But it was you know, it's a great

place to grow up. Man. It was a lot of fun, and you know, the community was was really strong, so that was always good. It's crazy because I see the population is somewhere just under forty thousand people, and it's like, if you fill up Lincoln Financial Field, which is across from the Center, you've got about seventy thousand people in that. So that's twice the size of the hometown that you grew up in. And here you are an NBA player Now,

what's it like going back. I mean, it's it's it's love because it's not too often I really get to go back home, so whenever I do, you know, I just try to go eat it all my favorite favorite little spots and hang out with friends, see people I haven't seen in a while, and you know, just spend time with family. That's the main thing. So it's always fun to go back. I miss it already. I know. One time you went back was this past summer when you held your first camp in the area. How cool

was that for you? Did you enjoy it? Oh? Yeah, that was That was a great experience. That's something that I want to continue to do in the future as well, just because it just felt good to give back. It felt good to see kids out there having fun, kind of doing the same things that I was doing when I was at that age. So I'm going to camps like that. So it was really good to see and it was I wanted to. I wanted I wanted those kids to see me, just to be like, just so

I could let them know that, um, it's possible. Um if you just if you want to do it and you fall in love with it and you want to put the work in then, um, it's definitely possible. Just looking at some of the stuff that you posted on social it really seemed like you were truly hands on and engaged in the camp. I mean, I know some players aren't always as active in doing some of the drills, but it seemed like this was very much the Shake Milton camp and that you were kind of front and

center and orchestrating and running the whole thing. Yeah. I mean I had a lot of help. My older sister helped me out tremendously with that. Uh. I had a lot of family come down and then they gave a helping hand as well. But um, yeah, it was important for me to be active, active with it because, like you said, you know, some guys aren't very active with it, and they kind of just show up if they had

to take pictures and everything like that. But I figured if the kids just saw me, like, they just wanted to see me and they just wanted to have fun. So I figured if in order for me to make sure everybody had a good time, it was important for me to be active in it and you know kind of you know, run it. So it was it was a lot of fun though. All right, well, you've had a nice stretch over the last week for the seventy sixers. You're continuing to fill in as Josh Richardson is on

the end. What's your outlook for yourself is we approach the All Star Game break and look down the stretch of the rest of the regular season. For me, it's definitely just about stay and locked in. I want to finish this little stretch that we have. I was strong and stay locked into whatever the team needs. M continue to grow on the things that I've been doing and continuing to improve, and you know, putting together wins um. You know, this is a nice little stretch for us.

We need to we need to finish strong and put together some one. So that's that's where my focus is. The great news is that for Shake Milton this year, giving your contract, you'll be available for as long as the seventy sixers need you. Once the under flips and we hit the playoffs. Oh yeah, for sure. I'm excited about that too as well, So I'm ready. Great stuff, Shake Milton, thanks so much. Enjoy the rest of the road trip. Appreciate it. Oh yeah, thank you, man, I have

have a go. Great stories shared by Shake Milton. Really happy for him. As we discussed, there are plenty of hurdles that Shaike has had to overcome, both on the court and off it, and it's really nice to see him right now fitting in with the seventy six ers and providing a meaningful role for the team as it heads towards the All Star Break. I want to thanks Shake Milton for taking the time to call in from

the road. Thank you, as always for listening. We'll do it again around this time next week right here on the broadcast. See it