Talking Hoops, Dogs, and Murses with James Ennis III

this episode of the broadcast. What's going on out there? Are seventy sixers pod people? How are you? Brian Selzer here? Thanking you as always for taking the time out of your busy life schedule to listen to our podcast. A reminder that to follow us or to subscribe to our feed type in Sixers podcast network on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google podcast, Stitcher, tune in, SoundCloud, or anywhere else that

you listen to your pods. This time of year, it is typically quiet times around practice facilities throughout the NBA, but this week it was great to see a familiar face in James Ennis the third throughout the hallways of the seventy sixers training complex and as the Third was acquired by the seventy Sixers at the trade deadline this past winner from the Houston Rockets for a future second round pick, and then a couple days into free agency,

he resigned with the seventy Sixers on a brand new deal. I thought he really made his presence felt down the home stretch of last season. It seemed like whenever he came in, he usually brought high energy on both ends of the court, whether it was with his explosive dunks at the rack, his defensive presence, some of the block shots he ended up coming with, and he was a really great citizen to have inside the seventy six ers

locker room. The Ventura, California native has spent the bulk of his summer out in Southern at California, but he was at the training complex this week and we had the chance to sit down and talk about, as I teas in the open, a whole host of topics. So here's our conversation with James Ennis the Third. James, first of all, great to see around these parts, man, how are you doing. Thanks nice, see you guys too. I'm doing good. I'm doing good, so for me, you can

tell me how it is for you. When a season ends, I feel like I personally and I'm not nearly doing anything close to a strenuous as you guys are out there on the court. I feel like my mind needs some time to decompress, unwind a little bit. But then around this time, as we get to labor day, juice start flowing again. That excitement's back. Tell me where you're at, not even physically, but mentally. At this stage of the offseason,

we're training camps, kind of getting closer. I'm excited, you know, like I said, summer flew by, you know, obviously working so hard, you know, the time flies, and just like you said, um, it's around the corner and I can't wait. You know. I think we're gonna do really good this year. And we have a lot of talent on this team, from the first player to the last player on the bench. You know, everybody can contribute. So I'm excited to get

this going. After last season and especially the way it ended. Did you need to remove yourself from basketball for a little bit, however long it was, or did it have the opposite effect? Did it fire you up right at that moment and looking ahead to the next season. I actually fired me up right away, so I really didn't

get no time off. I think I took on vacation this summer probably for like five days, and all I've been doing is is working, working, working, working until I get better, you know, and try to be the best player I can be. I'm going to ask you about the work, but I also know where'd you go? I went to the Bahamas? Nice. Yeah, so I went out there, swim with the sharks, did that, feed the pigs, did that, you know, for the first time. So it was a cool,

good experience. It's funny, like I would almost think that if you do something as much as you guys, as professional basketball players do it, it would probably have to feel funny after a few days. If you're not on a basketball court right or you're not working on your body, you don't have a basketball on your head exactly, Like, man, what am I doing? I'm being lazy, But obviously you

need some time sometimes get your mind right. Take me inside some of the workouts that you've been involved with. What are some of the things that you've focused on focused on a lot of just the ball in my hands, pick and roll, just shooting off the dribble, stuff like that, coming off screen shooting. I know because I know we lost JJ his shooting, so I know I have to increase my percentage. So I put a lot of a lot of hours in from my shot to you know,

be more consistent. As it always it's been like that for you, that you tailor your off season program to the needs of the team that you're gonna be on. How do you strike the balance between working on skills that obviously would need to fit the seventy six or system and then just general things that you want to

see evolved and developing your own game. Yeah, um, I have you know, I just want to be the best player I can be, so definitely, um, whatever's missing, you want to you know, help fill that spot in and also you want to just, um, be as best as I can be at the things I'm good at. So that's what I would really focus on. I don't really try to do things I don't do in the NBA. I just I focus on the things that I'm gonna do on this team and what my role is and

what would you know, what I can do? Where do you think your game is at right now. You're a veteran player, You've had so many different types of experiences in the sport. Where do you see your game at right now, at this stage of your career heading into twenty nineteen twenty. I think I'm in my time right now. I feel really good. Um. I feel like this is gonna be a good year for me. Um. Yeah, my body feels great. Minds, my mind's good. And that's a

big key. You know, it's just your mind being free and you know, just focus on that one thing. Any free agent has options. Why did you think that you, at this juncture of your career right now made the most sense to return and come back here? Um? I love Philly, you know, I love I love the coaching staff, I love just just the whole team. Do you guys know about Philadelphia before? Like, let's say you're on another team, Like, well, what is the reputation of Philadelphia from an outsider to you?

Because it's interesting. I mean you said that you really like it here and I think Mike Scott talked about this as well. Just even in a very short period of time, there's a connection that's created. Is it something that you don't really know about the city until you're here and you play here. It's like a hard no city. You know, everybody's tough here. Um Like, like you said,

Charles Barkley, tough iris and tough. So players who came to Philly, you know, they're really tough players and they put their body on the line and that's and that's what I love about it. You, like many players in the NBA, you've spent a good chunk of your time during the off season out in southern California, in and around Los Angeles. What's the scene like out there and how valuable is it to be within that environment as

you work on your game in the off season. Well, it's nice, you know, good weather, um, you know, got the beaches stuff like that, and um, just it's good. I have a lot of family over there, and just being around my family and seeing them every day and just handing my business you know, on the court. You know, that's what it's about. You got to see a couple

of teammates out there out there, Yeah, I'll see. I worked out with Mike Mike Scott a little bit, and I actually spend time with Ben you know, you know, because Ben's one of my closest friends on this team, so we kept that connection one season was over. How did that connection begin? Where did it start from? Do you think for you guys, Um, probably because he's from He's from Australia, you know, you know I lived in Australia, so it was a little connection right there. That's how

how it all began. Just so the Australian connection. Were you guys talking about familiar places, restaurants, things in and around the country or you know you did that happens different things like and just different things that they do in Australia, like the different types of food. Just a little little questions like that. You know, you're a guy who's been around the league, You've played with some of

the top players in the game. From a veteran's perspective, what stood out about Ben to you when you got to know him more last year as a teammate? Ben Ben's U. Ben's a really good teammate. You know, he obviously he's a he's a point guard. He you know, he's a general, you know, head of the head of the snake. Um. He's a very good, really good teammate. Um.

You know, plays hard every time. He stops on the floor. Um, he's not selfish, you know, put guys before him, you know, just being on the side of him, you know, I know we have a good chance. He talked about his leadership growth at the end of last season. I think it might have been the day after the Game seven loss. There's probably so much stuff that that outsiders, whether you're a fan or remember the media, even in the media,

like how close we are that we don't see? What are what are some of the things that Ben does that makes him an effective head of the snake. As you just said, it passes you know, just him being six six nine, six ten handing the ball like that, you know, kind of reminds you of magic a little bit. Of course, I have to ask you about a comment that you made at your end of season press conference about you and Ben and the dogs. Tell me about that. Oh yeah, Ben has more dogs than me, but just

bought another dog. I think he has like five dogs. Now. I'm about to get my second King Corso. So he talked me into getting my first kne Corso because he had one. I was like, He's like, yeah, I get the dog gets really big. You know, it's a really protective, and I was like, oh yeah, since I'm a big person, I was to get a big dog that, you know, could protect the home. So fell in love with a dog. I love him. His name's Hustle. I'm about to get him a girlfriend soon, so see how that goes. Nice

good for Hustle. Have you have you had dogs throughout your life? Have you always been a pet guy? Not really had I had a dog when I was in college and I had my daughter had a Yorkie, so the Yorkie always been around. So now I am now I'm a pet person. So for someone like myself who really does not know anything about dogs outside the type of dogs that my parents had when I was growing up, what type of dog is a King Corso dog? It's a big, massive dog, really laid back, you know, really

use it for hunting back then. I feel like I can envision now this this movement on sixers Twitter or sixers social media where people may start scouting out dog parks in and around town of being like, what am I gonna see James and a Third and Ben Simmons walking their dogs like the dog run down by the Schookole River Park or something like that. I kind of feel like that you never know what the fans will do. Facts.

One really awesome thing, James that you did this summer was you put on a camp free of charge for participants. What was the inspiration and motivation behind doing that? What gave you that idea? Actually, my father had game an idea. Um My dad told me I wanted to do a free camp where I grew up playing at and UM West Park was one of the gyms I grew up, you know, playing at UM every day after school. That's where I went with my friends and stuff like that.

But the biggest thing, you know, just giving back to the youth, you know, because I didn't have that when I was young around that area. So just I feel like just me by going there, you know, inspires other other kids and stuff like that and give hope to people around there. This isn't to imply that others who play basketball professionally your peers don't work hard for it. But I remember reading the piece that Lauren Rosen, who works for US did on you earlier in the season,

like you really had to work to get there. Your path was in no way linear to where you were to where you are now. I mean I gotta think that's gonna be such a cool feeling, especially not only to give back, but to do it in a place that has meaning insignificance to what your journey has been exactly because once I went in a gym, I was like, man, it brought back so many memories and a lot of

sweat tears in there. Wanted to give up quite a bit because the path I took, but you know, I just stay stayed with it for my family and just a lot of my family members came to support me and put a big smile on my dad's face, and you know, that's what it's about. They're just seeing them happy. You know, he's been through so much and just for me to do that, you know, just you know, pat

on my back this team right now. I mean, obviously people have talked a lot about your comments, your confidence in this group, but I gotta think that your comments about the whole Eastern Conference coming out of the East thing, you wouldn't have made those comments if you didn't truly believe that this team had a chance to do that. I mean, you're not that type of guy who just throws words out there to do that. I mean, it seems like you've got to have a pretty good sense

of confidence about this team. I definitely do a lot of confident about this team, Like you know, just that last game, Game seven, you know, lucky bounce, we go home, go over time, we win, then play Milwaukee, we win, We win the championship because I believe we're better than Milwaukee last year, and just you know, things happen. You know, we have another We have a good team this year.

We lost Jimmy and we lost jj you know, really good players, good teammates, and brought in Josh, got in Zaire getting better, Benjo, well you know about brought in al Tobias getting better. Everybody working hard. So I believe the roster experience turnover. But it's funny because the expectations I initially want to say have remained the same, but it's almost like they're going up, even in other level

surrounding this team. How do you think this group is going to be different from last year in terms of style of play? Given some of the personnel you added, the guys that you just rattled off the top of the head, I feel like our offense would be a lot different just because we don't have that JJ Reddick, run off screens type player. But I feel like we're still gonna, you know, put up high numbers. So we have a lot of people who can shoot the ball. And you know, Josh is a really good shooting um.

I played with him when he was a rookie in Miami. I know he didn't had he had a big upside and I'm looking forward to see what he what he brings to this table. And from where I sit thinking about it, You're back, Mike Scott's back. You add more seasoned veterans like Kyle O'Quinn, Howell, Nato, Trey Burke. I mean, there's some real depth to this team. Not to say that the last year's group didn't have it, but there's some guys who have really been around the league for

a while. Jonah with another year under his belt. I mean, I feel like the depth of this team could be something that you guys have to work with as well. Oh yeah, everybody, everybody's excited. Every's ready to go. Talking to a few players, everybody can't wait to you know, start training camp and get this train going. It's gonna be a fun year. What happens between now and the time that you guys get on the court for training camp at the beginning of October. For you. For me, Um,

go back to Kelly. Continue to work on our game. Continue to getting the best shape possible before training camp, because I don't like getting this shape during training campballock to being fit when training camp starts. That's how I am love it. I'm gonna ask you one more thing. Do we call this a fanny pack the carrying bag? Because I feel like it's no, it's a mers Let me tell you, I think the Merse could have far more utility than a fanny pack. Like the fanny packets.

It's an interesting thing, you know, but the Merse, I feel like these days, if you have a bigger phone or you're carrying around like an iPad or whatever, it is like you need more space than just what your pockets can provide. I agree. Everye has their own taste, and you know what they like the style I like to wear. Um. For me, I like the Merse. I have a like two fanny packs, but obviously use this my mirth more than a fanny pack. Can you take

us inside? Like, what are the go to items that you might or even would want to be willing to share about what goes in the James and it's the third mrse cologne. You put a brush, charger, wallet, money for a lot of things in your Bible and you don't have to strain your back, not at all. You know why why bob yourself down to the backpack? You just sling it over your shoulder. All right? I suppose well ended on that, James. Great seenior, Matt and I've

seen you James Nis. The third insights on the upcoming seventy six or season takes on mail, apparel accessories. Sometimes the best stuff doesn't come to the very end of the interview. But now great catching up with James and really awesome to hear about what he was doing earlier in the summer to give back to the area that he grew up in with his free at basketball camp. Just some really good stuff. Thanks to James Ennis for taking the time to talk. Thank you as always for listening.

Alrighty enjoy Labor Day weekend. Talk to you next time here on the broadcast dot do