The Playbook (2020) s01e01 Episode Script

1
[sighs]
All right.
[funk music playing]
Every time I walk in the locker room
for the first time,
I tell my players every year,
and I've told them for 21 years,
"I'm Doc Rivers, and I'm human.
And I'm gonna make mistakes."
[commentator 1] forces the turnover.
A meltdown for the Clippers.
[whistle blowing]
Having said that, every decision I make
will be about what's good for the team.
You're trying to determine
what's gonna happen.
You don't know what's gonna happen.
And that may not be what's good for you
or me.
But if it's good for the team, it's good.
[reporter 1] Doc Rivers brought pride back
and he brought teamwork back
to a franchise
that had a history of all those things.
[announcer on PA] The head coach
of the Boston Celtics,
-Doc Rivers!
-[crowd cheering]
[music contimues]
All right.
The morning hike.
My mornings are like clockwork.
You know, I get up and
do my sit-ups, push-ups,
you know, the old-school way.
From alarm clock to car,
I have it right at 30 minutes.
[laughs]
I'm a man of routines,
as far as preparation.
When I was young, every day,
that was my routine.
I practiced every day, I played every--
By the way, I never called it "practice."
I hate that.
Uh you know.
When I was a kid,
I never called it practice.
Like, if someone asks me
where you're going,
I always say,
"I'm going to play basketball."
I don't ever get this
"I'm going to practice" thing.
I guess-- I don't know, it just--
[exhales] Basketball's a game
and I love it.
Um
I never viewed upon it
as some torturous thing, you know?
Someone asks me, "Where you going?"
I'm going to play.
It's funny. Every time I go home,
one of the older people will--
They talk like I'm not in the room,
but they'll say,
"Glenn was different as a kid."
I remember being in school, first grade,
you couldn't wait for the bell to ring,
so you can run home
and get ready to go to the game.
At these games, all the kids
would play under the stands
and chase each other
and play tag, and all that.
Other than me.
I sat right next to my mom.
You know, I wasn't fidgety like kids,
normal kids at that age.
And I would just watch.
That year, the teacher asked each kid
to write on the board
what they wanted to be in life.
And I wrote,
"I want to be a pro basketball player."
She immediately grabbed the eraser
and erased it from the board,
and told me to be realistic.
"Lower your goal,
put something else up on the board."
And so I walked back up to the board
and I wrote,
"Okay, I want to be
a pro basketball player."
[school bell ringing]
And she erased it again and said, um,
"We're gonna send you home."
My dad walked me right back to school,
and my dad said,
"You're doing horrible in school,
you don't listen, you don't pay attention,
you're always goofing around.
And the teacher's right.
You're not gonna be that,
you're not gonna be anything."
But right before we walked in the door,
he said, "Hey, listen.
It-- It's a great goal."
But he said, "Whatever goal you have,
and right now it's too early,
but when you do finally settle on one,
just finish the race."
And it was the greatest part,
'cause I walked back into class
and the teacher told me
to write on the board,
and I wrote,
"I wanna be a pro basketball player."
All the kids started laughing.
The teacher looked at my dad and my dad
and walks out. That was a good day.
[commentator 2] At guard, at 6'4",
from Marquette, number 25, Doc Rivers!
Rivers, the steal, he's got Wilkins
with him. Good play, Rivers!
[humming]
-[Rivers] Bobby!
-Hey, Doc.
[Rivers] What's going on?
I like getting to the office
before people get there.
It's nice being quiet.
I love my job.
This is my 34th year
and I'm still saying that?
It's worth it. Absolutely love my job.
To be good at my job,
you absolutely have to create and make
some pretty tough life sacrifices.
I've had four kids that--
Five, we adopted one.
I miss a lot of their stuff,
because I was working.
Sometimes I miss their stuff
and I was there.
I was just at their event,
but my head was thinking
of 21-down twists
and what we should be doing.
And it's hard
because I was very close to my parents.
First of all, I had two parents,
and I lived in a community
where all my friends only had one.
And I know that there's no way I'm here
without my parents.
My mom, tough woman.
Like, she was the one, over anything,
to teach me to move on.
Sprain an ankle. "Eh, you'll be fine."
You lose a game. "Get up, you'll be fine."
Like, she did not like
you feeling bad for yourself.
She just didn't allow it.
Her and my dad had this
no-victims mentality.
Like, you're not gonna be
someone else's victim.
You're just not.
[mouse clicking]
[static on recording]
[V. Stiviano] Honey, I'm sorry.
[Sterling] I'm sorry, too.
So I was told that,
"Hey, there's a tape out.
Uh, don't worry about it,
it's no big deal."
So, I thought it was no big deal.
[V. Stiviano] What's the issue?
[Sterling] The issue is,
we don't have to broadcast everything.
[V. Stiviano]
I'm not broadcasting anything.
The day of the tape release,
our PR guy comes to me and says,
"Do you want to go look at it?"
"No. No, thank you. No big deal."
[V. Stiviano]
What's wrong with minorities?
-What's wrong with Black people?
-[Sterling] Nothing, nothing.
There's nothing wrong with minorities.
They're fabulous!
Finally, he sees it and he says,
"You need to go see this."
Unfortunately, when he said that,
it was when it was coming out.
I ran upstairs.
We're in the middle of the playoffs.
And I'm watching, just like you were
watching, live, at the same time.
We're following a developing story
this hour,
that connects American sports,
society, and culture.
The National Basketball Association
is investigating what it calls
"disturbing and offensive comments,"
apparently made by a team owner.
Explosive allegations on the eve
of the Warriors' playoff game,
against the owner
of the Los Angeles Clippers.
-[reporter 2] Donald Sterling
-[reporter 3] Donald Sterling
[reporter 4]
Donald Sterling was caught on tape
[reporter 5] making racist remarks
about African Americans.
[V. Stiviano] And it bothered you.
[Sterling] I'm just saying,
in your lousy fucking Instagrams,
you don't have to have yourself walking
with Black people.
[V. Stiviano] I saw someone I admire.
-I admire Magic Johnson.
-[Sterling] Okay, good.
And I'm just saying that it's too bad
you can't admire him privately.
And during your entire fucking life,
your whole life--
Admire him, bring him here, feed him,
fuck him,
I don't care!
You can do anything.
But don’t put him on an Instagram
so the world has to see it 
so they have to call me.
And don't bring him in to my games, okay?
And I was shocked.
I was mad, I was upset.
Um
You know, the first thing I thought was,
"I knew I shouldn't have come here,
I should've stayed in Boston."
That crossed my mind, you know?
But I was here.
[woman] Let's boycott and don't go!
[Rachel Nichols] I think a lot of people
around the NBA are horrified,
and it does have an impact
on the Clippers.
Doc Rivers, one of the most respected
coaches in the NBA,
one of the smartest coaches in the NBA,
it puts him in an incredibly
awkward position.
Who wants to feel like the person
that you work for
might feel this way about you? It's awful.
[reporter 6] Coach, as of this morning,
how would you judge
the psyche of your players after the--
I really have no idea. I mean, honestly,
just being honest, I don't know. Um
You know, from a coaching standpoint,
you're concerned.
They, you know, they've been pulled
in a million directions.
We had a practice,
and I didn't know what to wear.
I mean, that's so stupid.
I kept putting my Clipper jersey on,
my my shirt that says,
"LA Clippers, Coach."
Uh and I took it off--
'Cause I didn't know, like,
what I should do.
Like, I didn't have any education
in this situation.
[reporter 7] The Los Angeles Clippers
are in the middle of the playoffs.
Sources say the players
are furious about this.
I decide to put it on,
I'm the head coach. Wear the shirt.
And I walk in
and all the players have theirs off.
[chuckles] So, okay, I got this one wrong.
I knew that immediately.
And I start talking, and the players
are all with their arms folded.
If you've been in a room talking
and there are arms folded,
the talk's not going well.
Like, you you gotta know that.
And I always carry a blue pad,
with my notes.
I got that from Riley.
And I put it down, 'cause this was
gonna be an off-script talk.
And I said, "Okay.
My name is Glenn Rivers.
I'm from Maywood. I'm Black."
And they start laughing.
I said, "No, I I am.
I'm I'm a Black American.
And you see me as a coach
and something that represents
the Clippers,
and you don't see my blackness right now."
And I said, "If anyone in this room
think you're more upset than me,
let me tell you about me.
And let me tell you
the things that have happened in my life."
[protestors yelling]
You know, being called "nigger"
in grade school and in high school,
and living in a segregated Chicago,
watching race riots.
When I was married to my ex-wife,
we had "nigger" written on the car,
her tires were slit.
Skinheads broke into my house
in San Antonio and burned my house down.
And so I told my team
that my mom and dad right now
would be screaming at me,
"We are never going to be victims."
I said that a lot
during that whole episode.
I said it publicly, and to our team.
"We are not going to be a victim,
and we are not gonna be a victim.
We are not gonna be a victim."
I said that over and over.
I told them, whatever they decide,
it's up to them.
"We will not play
if you don't wanna play."
And I said, "But I will tell you this.
When I was a little kid,
and I was in the backyard,
and I was shooting hoops by myself,
and I was making that fake crowd noise
every time
I made the game-winning shot"
[buzzer sounds]
[loud cheering]
I said, "Fucking Donald Sterling
was not in one of those dreams.
He was not.
And I'll be damned
if we're gonna allow that guy
to get into my dream and end that."
I said, "So, it's your choice.
But Donald Sterling wins
if we don't play."
I'm gonna tell you now,
I'm speaking on behalf of the team,
so the players are not
gonna deal with this issue.
That's adversity that we didn't want,
but we have it. We have to deal with it.
Uh, we'll deal with it internally, uh
but we're not gonna share it
with anybody else.
We gotta decide what we're going to do
as a group.
And my whole fear was that one of
my players would say something,
that then they became the story
and the spotlight went off of Donald.
And I needed that light to stay on him.
So, I think the biggest statement
we can make,
as men, not as Black men, as men,
is to stick together
and show how strong we are as a group.
I needed him out.
This guy is an idiot, Mark.
[Mark] He is a complete idiot,
and he is also a racist.
[reporter 8]
Even President Obama weighing in.
When ignorant folks
want to advertise their ignorance,
you don't really have to do anything,
you just let 'em talk.
Our message is that
we're gonna let no one or nothing
stop us from what we wanna do.
We decided to play.
[reporter 9] The Clippers' players
have chosen to play,
rather than boycotting Game Four
against the Warriors.
But that doesn't mean
they didn't make their feelings known.
Players symbolically shed
their warm-ups in unison
as they took the floor,
in an act of public solidarity.
We created our own protest.
You know, the players came up with
the protest of taking their jerseys off,
and having them inside out. I didn't even
know that. They came up with that.
And, you know,
you got race-baiters out there
who want crazy stuff to happen.
I'm glad the players played.
That was an emotional, tough stretch,
for me and our team.
[commentator 3] Going to each
and every member on the bench, here.
Maybe 45 minutes' sleep
over the last couple of days.
You're put in scenarios. You just do 'em.
You deal 'em,
and you're gonna get some wrong.
I've learned that
you're not gonna get every one right.
So what? You gotta keep going.
[commentator 4] Doc Rivers
has navigated his team
through an emotional four days.
[Rivers] Don't get me wrong. You learn.
You don't forget.
But you can't ever be a victim.
You know, I think, when people see me now,
they always make the assumption
with all of us
that's had any success,
that it's all good all the time.
And we know that's not true.
[commentator 5]
The Celtics have really struggled.
They have one of the worst road records
in the NBA.
[Rivers] When I took the job with
the Celtics, I knew we were gonna be bad
and I knew I was gonna have to
sustain some hits.
But I thought we could make it work.
[commentator 6]
It's been a bumpy road here in Boston.
Just getting absolutely pounded.
[Rivers] People were scrambling
to get me fired.
Lots of people
pushing for me to get fired.
And Danny Ainge believed
that I was a really good coach.
And he never wavered from it.
[commentator 7]
Just a heartbreaking loss for this team.
-[commentator 8] Well, get used to it.
-And then, that year,
all of a sudden the stars line up
and everything works out great.
We pull the trade off,
and now we have Paul Pierce,
Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen.
But the concern was
that all three were leaders,
and so I knew that my work would be hard.
And I remember sitting in my office,
and I told them,
"If we're gonna win,
we're gonna have to sacrifice.
You're gonna have to change.
If you want to shoot every time
wrong team.
If you wanna do whatever you want to,
wrong team."
And that was the challenge.
Getting them to buy in to being a team.
I was a trustee at Marquette,
a board member,
for 17 years.
And I was sitting at
the end of a long board meeting
that we had been going over public safety.
And at the very end of the meeting,
a lady walked up to me and said,
"Doc, your team's gonna be amazing.
Have you ever heard of Ubuntu?"
And I obviously said, "No.
Uh, Ubuntu, what the hell is that?"
She wrote the word down. She says,
"I'm not gonna share it with you,
but I'm telling you,
you need to look this up and study it.
It's not a word, Doc."
She kept saying that.
"It's a way of life.
It's a way of living."
And I bet she said that over--
"It's not a word.
Look the word up and then become it."
[Desmond Tutu] We have something
in our African community.
Something that is very difficult
to put into English.
It is-- It is called Ubuntu.
Ubuntu.
And I went back that night,
and I looked it up.
Six in the morning, I am still on the bed,
with papers everywhere.
I said, "Wow it's perfect."
[Tutu] Ubuntu is the essence
of being human.
And it says, a solitary human being
is a contradiction in terms.
I have to learn from other human beings
how to be human.
A person is a person through other people.
I can't be all I can be
unless you are all you can be.
I can never be threatened by you
because you're good,
because the better you are,
the better I am.
[chanting]
[Rivers] This is what saved Africa.
You know,
Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela
basically preached this word.
We are all South African. Now, this is
the time to heal the old wounds
and to build a new South Africa.
[reporter 10]
Moving forward as one country,
Mandela joined hands with his
white vice president,
a man who once supported apartheid.
And I broke this word down
and all these different parts,
and how I could implement it to the team.
And I chose-- The rookies would be
the perfect messenger.
I said, "Okay, I'm gonna teach you
this word,
and I need you guys
to sell this to the team."
I kept saying, "This is not a joke.
This is for real. This is--
You guys are gonna get up
in front of the team
and this is not playtime."
They did it with passion,
they did it with a little bit of humor,
they did it with swag.
I said, "All right, guys, great job."
Everybody started clapping.
And I said,
"All right, let's put our hands in."
And Kevin Garnett says,
"Ubuntu on three."
-One, two, three
-[all] Ubuntu!
And that was it. That was the word.
-Celtics!
-[all] Hoorah!
-Celtics!
-[all] Hoorah!
-One, two, three
-[all] Ubuntu!
Our team started living Ubuntu.
[commentator 9] Paul Pierce has waited
his entire career for a team like this.
And he is putting on a show.
If you brought something on the plane,
like some food,
and you didn't bring it
for all the players--
I remember I had a burger
that I walked on, and Tony Allen walks
"Oh, man, you're not being Ubuntu.
You know, just for you? What about us?"
[Mike Breen] You can just tell early,
this team really seems to like each other.
[Jeff Van Gundy] They realize
that you can't do it alone.
You've gotta have a group around you
that can play.
I mean, they lived that word.
They talked that word,
they lived that word.
It was perfect, it was unbelievable.
Tonight, you were superb defensively.
What did you like
-on that end of the floor?
-Not me, we.
I was where I was supposed to be
because somebody else
was where they were supposed to be.
And if we're gonna win,
that's how we're gonna win.
[Rivers] Early in the year,
at, like, six in the morning
I got a call
that my father had passed away.
And so, we had a team meeting at ten.
And I got up in front of the team
and I said,
"Hey, guys, um, I gotta go.
I'm not gonna be there
for the game tonight, and I'm not gonna--
Uh, I'll try to make it back
for the New Jersey game,
uh, but my father passed.
And I told them a long story about my dad,
you know, and what he meant to me, and
He really had, like,
this simple approach to life.
Work hard, stay out of trouble,
don't quit.
Bad things are going to happen
in your life.
And none of us want that to happen,
but they do.
And I flew out to go home.
[airplane engine whooshing]
[reporter 11] Coach Doc Rivers
not with the team today.
His father passed away this morning,
in his hometown, Chicago.
I remember watching the game
at my mom's house,
with my brother and all my family members.
And at halftime,
I got a call from Kevin Garnett.
And he said, "When you're sad, I'm sad."
I get emotional talking about it now.
[commentator 10]
Their last time-out, 7.1 seconds.
[Rivers] Late in that game,
Thib draws up a good play.
[commentator 11]
Pierce gets it in. Ray Allen for the game!
-Knocks it down!
-[loud cheers]
[Rivers] Ray Allen makes a shot
in the corner, and we won at the buzzer.
And they're celebrating
in the middle of the court
like they had won the World Championship.
And it was all for me.
And all about Ubuntu, and that's all--
Every interview, that's all they said.
And for me being at home,
that meant so much to me.
I don't know, that day,
you kind of knew that
that word was actually real.
It wasn't just a word,
it was a way of life.
And that's when you knew
you had more than a team.
That group was destined to win the title.
You you felt that.
I don't think you should run from
a legacy, or run from pressure,
or run from expectations.
I think you should run towards it.
[commentator 12]
And the buzzer goes off, it's all over!
The Boston Celtics are once again
the World Champions.
[Rivers] You don't get into a lot of
pressure situations in your lifetime.
[loud cheers]
[commentator 12]
Eight straight World Championships.
[Rivers] If you can put yourself
into a pressure situation,
-you've worked for it, you've earned it.
-[commentator 13] The Boston Celtics
-are the NBA World Champions.
-[Rivers] Embrace it.
[commentator 13]
The Celtics have won their 13th NBA--
-[commentator 14] With their 14th flag--
-[commentator 13] Fifteen World--
-Their sixteenth NBA Champion--
Another banner will be hung
from the rafters at Boston Garden.
2008, we get all those guys and--
That was a pressure situation.
Whenever you walk in the--
You saw these 16 banners.
There's no division banners,
there's no conference banners.
There's only championship banners.
And they were, like,
staring at you every day,
like you're not worthy.
That's how I felt.
Like, every day you walk in that arena,
"We haven't done that."
You're letting them clear,
and you're dribbling as hard as you can
to this elbow--
I remember thinking one night,
"What can I do to get our guys
to focus on those banners?"
That they have not accomplished anything.
At JFK
and at Martin Luther King's burial site,
they have the flame that never goes out.
And so, I knew I couldn't have a flame,
so I came up with the light.
I said, "Listen, I wanna put a light
in the facility that can never go out."
It'll be a spotlight
on the wall at the Celtic facility.
There was all this--
And there was this one bare spot
that looked like, if we did win,
that's where the banner would go.
So, I put a spotlight on that spot,
where the 17th banner would go.
Move your body, Ray. Move your body.
We're having a practice and I asked
our guys at the end of the practice,
had they noticed anything?
And the only guy that noticed,
surprisingly, was Tony Allen.
He said, "Yeah, Coach,
I don't know what the hell's going on,
but there's a spotlight
that's shining up there."
I said, "Yeah.
Yeah, and it will never go off.
And that's the only focus we'll have,
and that's the only thing we'll play for."
I had no problem with embracing that,
and I wanted my players
to embrace that as well.
I I think, uh, pressure's a privilege.
You know, why are we playing?
Why are we doing what we're doing
if we're not trying to be successful?
They saw that every day, every practice,
that light was shining on that wall.
I wanted our guys to understand, like,
"We're the Boston Celtics,
and all we do is win."
[commentator 15] Rondo isolated
against Horford, left side,
drives, draws contact.
Fall-away is good anyway.
I think you can play your whole life
and never have a pressure situation.
Who wants that?
[commentator 15] It is very quiet in here,
as the first free throw
bounces off the back rim, pops in the air!
And you should feel privileged
that you've worked hard enough
to put yourself in that situation.
[commentator 16] Rondo, lead for Pierce,
steps around Delonte West,
-scores off the window--
-[Rivers] You should embrace it,
you should enjoy it, and you should
understand it's hard, and all that.
[commentator 16]
loose on the floor, Pierce grabs it,
screams "time-out" and he gets it.
It is over at the Garden.
That's a privilege.
[commentator 17] They win the Eastern
Conference finals in six games,
and now it's on to face the Lakers.
[bell dings]
Muhammad Ali was my idol growing up.
Look at me now. Don't tell me
that ain't a perfect specimen of a man.
[Rivers] I've watched every fight.
[boxing commentator]
A fusillade of punches by Muhammad Ali.
People think if you're the champion,
that you don't get hit.
And it's the exact opposite.
Champions get hit over,
and over, and over.
You know, it's just that the champion
is the one that decides
to keep moving forward.
It's how many punches can you take
and keep moving forward until you can win.
[commentator 18] When it comes
to heavyweight match-ups,
this is the NBA's main event.
[Rivers] The Lakers were the favorite,
if you remember that series.
And then, the coaching match-up was--
Come on. It was 100, Phil Jackson,
zero for Doc Rivers.
[whistles]
[Rivers] Listen, I can't beat Phil Jackson
in coaching.
I just wanted to beat his team.
[commentator 19]
Kobe inside, jams it down!
[commentator 20]
The Lakers with the ball in play.
A touch to Gasol at the rim for the jam!
[commentator 19]
That gives the Lakers a 24-point lead,
and it's beginning to feel like Doc Rivers
and the Celtics' storybook season
might be coming to an end.
This is why coaches are crazy.
Because they have to be.
To to be a good coach,
you have to get your players to believe
you believe
you're gonna win the next game.
-Come on, guys!
-[man] Keep fighting.
When I was a kid, my goal early on
was just to beat my brother.
He was big, strong,
he was a heck of a basketball player,
and we played a ton of one-on-ones,
and it used to be, like, 32 to zero,
32 to four, 32 to eight.
We're right there,
but we gotta make plays.
I figured, if I'm gonna beat him,
I needed to get up,
keep fighting, and keep moving forward.
Gotta believe, guys. Do you believe?
-All right, let's go.
-[man] Keep fighting!
[commentator 20] Pierce guarding in.
Turn around-- Shot blocked, Pierce!
Excellent defensive play.
I kept saying, "Six less.
It's 24, let's get to 18."
[commentator 19]
Kevin Garnett knocks down the shot.
To me, that's what you learn,
in life, and in everything,
is to keep moving forward.
[commentator 19] I can't believe
I'm saying this,
but the Celtics have cut it to 17.
You get hit,
you can even get knocked down.
Get up, and keep moving forward.
I need you to come up.
Six less, let's get to 12.
[commentator 19]
They've got it to 12, Michelle,
45-33 on a 12-0 run,
and the Staples Center getting very quiet.
We gotta pick up our defense a little bit.
Once we got to 12, I said,
"Let's get to eight."
[commentator 19]
House for three! Puts it in.
Once we got to eight,
"Let's get to four."
[commentator 19] Ray Allen to the basket,
and banks it in.
This is the closest they've been.
When we cut it to two,
Jack Nicholson said from the sideline,
he yells out to me,
"We are dead men walking."
And I-- It was my favorite comment
of that whole series.
He knew it before everyone else.
He, like, yelled out,
"Hey, Doc, we are dead men walking."
And I was-- In my mind, I was thinking,
"You sure are."
[commentator 21] Well, the Celtics
with one of the greatest comebacks
in NBA playoff history.
And I remember, after the game,
it taught me a lesson.
Whenever you try to win a title,
you have to put your heart on the line.
That's the whole thing.
[commentator 22]
History unfolding right before our eyes.
They were ready to win,
you could see that, that group.
[commentator 19]
The Celtics are dominating the Lakers,
in every way there is to dominate.
[Rivers] They were playing for each other.
It was beautiful to watch.
The sacrifice to win a title.
[commentator 19] Banner number 17
soon to be raised to the rafters.
[loud cheers]
You know, the only regret I have,
I never went in the locker room.
I may be the only coach
in the history of sports
that didn't go into the locker room
for the celebration.
I never went into the locker room
after the game.
It's just strange.
-[interviewer] Why not?
-I don't know. I really don't.
You know, my dad had died,
and I just needed some time alone,
so I actually went into my office,
closed the door for about 20 minutes.
Cried a little bit,
smoked an amazing cigar
that Red Auerbach had given me.
I always kept it in my desk.
I don't smoke cigars.
Uh, I was sick later
because of that damn cigar.
So, the champagne celebration,
it was coachless.
That's a regret. If you want to have
a regret, that's a regret.
The next time we win,
I'll be front and center.
[crowd cheering]
[cheering stops]
[Rivers] I always looked at coaching
as a competitive side.
That all of this is me winning a title
and me winning and the team winning.
And then you realize,
it's really so much more than that.
You get pleasure in watching
young men grow up.
You watch them mature,
you watch them improve as players
and as people.
And you feel like you're part of that.
Some of the advice I got
was completely wrong when I first started.
"Don't get too close to them."
Who-- Whoever-- That's awful advice.
Yeah, get close to them.
And the reason they said that is 'cause
you're gonna get your heart broken.
They will let you down.
Some do. So what?
Your job is to coach 'em.
Your job is to make them better players,
better people, better teammates.
How to be tough, how to be compassionate,
how to be a good winner,
how to be a good loser,
if there's such a thing.
I haven't learned that yet.
It teaches you life.
You know, and I tell them,
"I'm not gonna coach you
to who you are"
That's how we fight back in a game.
"I'm gonna coach you
to who you should be someday."
[funk music playing]