Hi, Legends, Welcome back to the Mason Cock Show. I hope you're having a great week, because this week's a bit different. We're gonna double the content for you because there's something unique happening in sports. Happens once a year and it's a big deal, and it's the start of the NBA season.
So what do we do.
We started to bring in someone with a bit more knowledge than us and someone who's got a bit of a say, finger on the pulse, maybe even a hand on the pulse. His name is Phil Handy. Now he's an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers, one of
the biggest teams in the world. He's coached people from Kobe Bryant to Lebron James to Anthony Davis, all these household names, and we go through a kind of basketball and how much the NBA has changed since he played back in the day to where it is now, and how it's changing the whole landscape of going into the NBA. Along with some of the guys who've made it in the NBA, from Josh Giddy to Patty Mills and Ben Simmons and everyone else you could possibly imagine. It's a
great chat. He's a great, great, great mentor for a lot of high profile athletes and he's done a lot for them over the years. So there's some absolute gens in the one in this one, and we're really excited for you to listen to it. So without further ado, here we go. I'll go through a bit of his
his resume. He played for the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors, play for the Omaha Racers, the Nancy Baskets, the Mackers, Bobcats, Giants, Tigers, Razorbacks, and now he coaches coached the Cavaliers, Raptors and now as a coach for the Lakers. He's been around that, he's been around town, he's been around the world, to be honest, and now he's one of the most well respected assistant coaches in the NBA and coaching people like you know, Lebron James. So we'll say a massive thank
you for coming on, Phil, Phil Handy. I haven't actually said your full name, but massive thank you mine. It's an absolute honor.
To have you.
Man. Man Mays is a pleasure to be here in the mobile I don't know what the mobile mobile cat rolling band.
It's all love, man. I appreciate you.
Having no no worries man, and you actually played here in melbourn so you played for the Melbourne Tigers. Give people a bit of a background of your connection to Australia. You played with Andrew Gayes. He's a big deal here in Melbourne and everyone loves them. Now my question you would you get him one on one?
You know what, man, when I when I first got here to Melbourne, I think Drew he was with the he was with the national team, so they were playing matter of fact, Team USA and they were preparing for the Olympics. Yeah, he came back super late. So fortunately for my man, Drewy, we didn't get to have that one on one. But I tell you who I did play Copes. Yeah, he used to knock his head everything, no chance, no.
Chan And I know coaches go see this too. It come back, what it talks to. You gonna want to talk some talk a little ish, you know, so.
Man, well I'll jump straight into it. I want to talk about I guess the NBA and how much it's changed since you played. Like the NBA obviously now now is a massive pathway for people to go to the NBA and something that they're going around the n CB A system and coming out here to actually play, and you got guys like LaMelo Ball obviously or j Hampton,
these guys have come over and played. What's your thoughts on how much it's changed and how it's kind of really changed the whole game of the avenue and the NBI.
Yeah, man, I think the Rising Stars program they put in is a phenomenal thing.
And I think it's the track record of it.
You know, even the kid Josh Getty, you know he kind of went to even though he's Australian grown, going through that program and for him to be able to take that next step.
It's a program. Man. I think for young athletes.
If they don't want to play in college, they don't want to play in the G league. You know, this is a great avenue. And I say it because the Australian League a couple of things English speaking country. You know, the weather is obviously great. You know you come down in the summertime with the league. The basketball league itself
is an incredible league. The talent is top notch, the coaching is top notch, and so for these young athletes, this is a great almost in some ways, man, a little bit tougher in college, a lot tougher to coverge because you're playing with grown men that have professional experience and you're going to get a chance to get coaching in a professional environment. So I'm a big fan of the Rising Stars program and what the NBO is doing.
It's pretty amazing. Like I'll play college ball to Oklahoma State back in the day with you like Marcus Smart and it's it's funny because there was never even a thought of this kind of being a thing, right and now in the last like four years, it's really just taken off. People don't understand this in Australia. Ru you you've played, you work in the NBA. The NBA has
got some cash, some proper cash. And I try to describe this to people in the AFL world that in cuble are they're amazed that there's chartered flights for in cuble a like and you laugh at that. I laugh at that too, because I'm like, yo, there is more money. That's like, that's amateur, that's not even like professional yet. Well that's this first. Where's the weirdest place the NBA has ever taken you in the world, most unique experience in the world have gone on the hell of that land here.
My first well, my first year with the Cavaliers, not my second year with the Cavaliers. We went to Rio dejan Narrow. I mean, it's not the weirdest place, but you know, as a preseason game, we went to Rio Desonnaro to kind of honor Andy Verjial and play a home game, play a game in front.
Of his fans.
It was pretty dope. It was a dope experience. I can't remember who we went with.
I think it might have been in.
Portland Trailblazers, I believe, but the experience was was pretty dope, just to see.
Andy go back because because you know, and taking his pro team.
It was it was absolute bananas man to support that the people showed for him.
When we got back to real Yeah, well MANU, it's I can only imagine some of the stories they've probably come out of here. Seriously, I could go for hours and just dive into some crazy ship.
That's just like yourself, maze, you know how it is, man, You get into these things, you go you kind of look around at some point and go, what the hell am I in Melbourne the back of the vand.
I said a basketball taking me to some some weird places.
Man, it's been some awesome experience. I'm sure, man, what's I guess you're going to this? Because obviously as an assistant coach, you are known to help shape people into the humans that are not only on the on the basketball court, but also off the court. What's some of the best advice you've made given not you giving someone, but you've been given that you've really passed on to other people.
Man, I think in this world of sports right we're so we're we're polarized as public figures, coaches and athletes, and there's so many avenues for people to have things to say about you as a coach, as an athlete. You know, Coch gave me some vice men a long time ago. Just don't be concerned about what people think about you.
You know, if your.
Heart's in the right place, if you're if your intent is in the right place, and what you're doing, you love what you're doing, stay committed to it. And you know, I've kind of always that's kind of stuck with me. I've had a lot of great mentors.
You know.
My father was a great mentor to me. Very hard working man, but.
Just that part of just just being true to yourself as a coach, as an athlete. I think the world today is is so built around image. You know, so much of an image of you know, what you should be or who you should be. And I've just always tried to try to remain myself as a coach, stay in my lane and you know, do what I do best, man, Just try to help players improve on the floor every day.
Yeah, it's it's interesting because I'll look at the IFL standpoint, it's very team oriented and stuff in that sense, and then you get to the NBA and there's so much money that you know, one player can make a huge difference to whether or not you can win a championship, no doubt, And you get to that point where you
have these necessarily egos. It is probably not the right words, it's somewhat of a negative word, but you have these people have such an or and such an impact that they can have on a team, Like how do you how do you get them to buy into this team atmosphere to help because there's no one person that's winning
a championship. How do you get them to buy into a team idea and culture to help win a championship you did in twenty twenty with the Lakers in covid which is a wild bubble and scenario within itself, much less to actually have to keep the team together in a very isolating environment.
Well, you know, Mace, you know how that goes.
Man.
I think your best players are always your leaders. Yeah, and when your best player like you know as Lebron Lebron Is is one of the most coachable guys I've ever been around. And people have these myths about him, Well, he's the coach, he's the GM, he's the owner, he's making all these decisions. But man, that dude's one of the most coachable guys I've ever been around, in the sense of, all right, coach, what's the game plan, what
are we doing or how do we execute it? And when your leaders like that, it kind of trickles down. You know, when we were in the bubble, you brought out the bubble raison. Rondo, Man is one of the purest basketball minds I've ever been around. And those guys didn't have egos. They had a common goal of what is it gonna take for us to win a championship? And they were just they were all in line with each other every day. And you know, it started with
our coaching staff. You know, Frank Vogel was a great leader for us. It started with the coaching staff and it trickled down to the players. But they held themselves accountable, you know, and any championship caliber team, it doesn't always come from the coaches.
You guys, you know, your peers.
You have to be able to hold each other accountable, right because there's gonna be times when you're on the field, you know, you're on the court, coaches can't get out there and do it for you. And so I think that part of just the ego. I think more ego is more off the court, you know, and people's personal lives, their persona, their brand and again I don't like to use the word ego either, more of a brand thing.
But if you're if you're a true competitor or true professional, you're gonna put all that aside and put your job first and say, well, what's the what's the main thing, the main thing. Let's keep the main thing the main thing, and how do we win a championship?
And so success part of things.
For sure, And I've been been a part of some great teams that have just had that kind of chemistry.
What is it that that brings that chemistry?
Reckon? Is there?
Is there kind of you have like a guy that's the comedy guy.
Yeah, you know what, you got everything. You have to have to have personality and character. We were in Cleveland.
The teams that we had in Cleveland, Richard Jefferson and Channing Fry are like freaking frack them two dudes, man, Like, I'm talking about comedy show all day long. And then you know, we had all these personalities.
You had j R. Smith, We had Emon.
Shumper, we had Kyrie Irvis, you had Lebron you had Kevin Love, we had Tristan Thompson. All of these dudes are are different in their own way, but but you got it. You have to have guys, right, And then we had the James Jones, you know, and James. People don't really know much about James and Kendrick Perkins. Those guys were like locker room guys, you know. They were they were the chiefs. They didn't really play.
But they were.
They were so respected as vets, you know, because they showed up every day to do their job and they were just keeping everybody in line, coaches, players, you know, front office, medical staff, whatever.
It was just it was you.
You got to have those pieces, right, the comedian, you got to have the guy that's always late.
You have to thing every It's like a family, right. It's the same as a family. Man.
You have all these different pieces and everybody just kind of fits into their place.
Man, it's like we got one thing you different from me.
We're all trying to reach the same questions.
One of the reasons you hear I'm Kobe gg and the involvement with female basketball. Can you tell us a bit about that?
Yeah, man, I think you know, Cob was a big inspiration for that. You know, always just been a fan of basketball players in general. You know, I don't I don't really look at females as female. They're athletes to me, So when it comes to basketball, I'm just I'm coaching another athlete. But but Cole was really stirring the pot, you know with his daughter, right, really trying to push the envelope and getting behind women's basketball and making it
more of a popular sport. From the standpoint of saying, hey, you know, you got to respect these women and what they're doing. You know, respect their craft, and it's just it's been, you know, a torch that I've tried to be a part of to help carry and to me, man, it's just just another part of the game of basketball.
Women's basketball is growing so fast, you know, it's just rapid, and I just think not only do women basketball, I just think women's sports in general, right, there's more of a spotlight on it of just respecting the female athlete and what they do and so being able to work with some of the female athletes I've worked with. Jewel Lloyd is you know, probably closest to me. You know, she was part of Kobe's families. He's part of Kyrie's family.
Just having a chance to be around some of these elite athletes, man, it's amazing to watch them go through their process and watch them, you know, treat their profession just like just like just like anybody else. And I think the misconception is it's just it's women's sports because they're not as athletic, you know, people think that the game is not as pure. I'll tell you what, They're
just as skilled. Most times, they're more fundamentally sound. And people don't even know this women's basketball is probably more physical. I'm gonna say this with you know again in a point, because people don't understand how physical.
Women's basketball is. Man, they're physical, physic.
I'll play for the n c I women's team. I helped out with them. Before those girls are backing me down to the post. I was like, damn, this is not this isn't bad. Look for me, look for me. So it's good to see the growth. I think it's just only going to continue. Matter of fact, you know, me and Michelle my business. I was just just saw a clip a young lady online. She was doing a pick and roll drill mate. She came off the pick and roll, pick and pop jab too drible. She's dunking
walk right to the rim. Nasty, Jesus nasty. It's gonna be so interesting to see what the next generations like. Man, it's gonna be unfair because it's just so accessible to like just making your game that much better. I feel like, but I appreciate you, man, seriously, you got some good stories. I would go for like two three hours, but I know yourself to do. Man, you only and I'll Stralia for so long. But I hope we catch up either
in LA or in Australia next time you're in town. Man, But I want to say a massive thank you for coming on. I'm so good to chat to you and it's really fun. Let's get it brothers up all right, man, Thanks sir all the best. Thanks so much for tuning in Legends really appreciating Phil. What an amazing chat. He's mentored some of the highest professional athletes in the world. He is a person who I think has so much
where we can learn from. And hopefully you've been able to take out something from that chat, and you know, maybe we'll be able to do these shorts more often if this goes well. Sorry, I just want to say everyone has always like comments, share everything else, and I hope you have an amazing day and hopefully the Lakers can maybe go all the way this year, so enjoy the day. Hopefully you'll hear from us soon in the next podcast, And thanks so much for listening.