Kyle Hines Interview, the Winningest American Player in European Basketball History
November 24, 2020 by Brendan
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In this episode of The Youth Hoops Pod, we interview Kyle Hines. At 34 years old, Kyle is the winningest American player in European basketball history. Kyle has had an absolutely incredible career from starting out in 2nd division Italy to rising through the ranks at Brose Bamberg in Germany, Olympiacos in Greece, CSKA in Moscow, and now currently with Armani in Milan.
Kyle has won multiple country championships, made countless all-star games, and won numerous individual awards, but probably more importantly, in the EuroLeague, the top league in all of Europe and 2nd best league in the world behind the NBA, he is a 2-time Defensive Player of the Year, 4-time Champion, and a member of the prestigious 2010-2020 EuroLeague All-Decade Team.
In this conversation, we talk about Kyle's entire career from youth through the pros, so check it out by listening to the podcast, watching the video on our YouTube channel (or below), or reading the full transcript of the interview below.
By the way, if you missed our podcast with NBA trainer, Drew Hanlen, last week or with NBA superstar, Steph Curry, the week before that, make sure to check them out as well!
Kyle Hines, the Winningest American in European Basketball History
[00:01 – 05:13]
Kyle Hines, welcome to the youth hoops pod. I appreciate you being here, man.
Kyle Hines
I appreciate it, man. It is been a long time coming man, you know, going back to our Davidson days and UNCG rivalry days, man. But, it is been spinning, so, I am looking forward to the opportunity to catch up and talk to you.
Yeah. We did, we definitely have a lot to talk about there, but where are you right now just for the people at home listening?
Right now I am in Milan Italy, I am currently playing for, in the euro league with a team called Olympia Milan or Armani James Milan, and right now in the midst of our early slash Italian medical season.
Yeah. So, you are 34 years old correct?
Yeah, very old.
How many years has it been now what year is it for you?
This is year 13.
You are 13. See you almost lost track, man that is how much? Yeah. Hey, well, so speaking of, Armani jeans I always heard that, anyone that played there got really hooked up and turned like, with Armani stuff is that true suits and things like, that?
Yeah, so far they just, one day we came to our locker room we just had like, boxes and boxes of like, Armani like, shirts and ties and gear and, like the first day you come in you do like, a measurement so you get like, you know, measured of, you know, detailed measurements like, measure everything and then like now we got suits and…
We got a bunch of stuff in Europe.
Yeah, man you got to, you know, I mean if you are in Milan, you know, it is all about fashion so, we get a discount card, to go to the Armani exchange store. So, I mean it is the perks are pretty nice so far.
Is that part of what lured you away, I mean we will get into it did that have anything to do with it?
No, I am not really I mean the city of Milan, just to have the opportunity to play here, generally. But, I mean this is just a bonus this is a bonus that, you know, to be able to have this, you know, our owner be one of the, you know, one of the best fashion designers and, you know, of all time so that is a great bonus.
Yeah, that is amazing! So real quick because I kind of like, to start at the beginning, but real quick just for again for everyone at home, I just want to give them a sense of, who you are and kind of what you have accomplished in the basketball world? So, you played basketball at UNC Greensboro, you were a three-time Socon first-team player 2007, player of the year. You got your jersey retired, so had a good career at a mid-major school then you went pro, so started off second division Italy, then went to Germany you were an all-star there, you won the championship you were a finals MVP Olympiacos after that league champion one time, I believe right two-time euro league champion there.
Then you went to CSKA is that how you say it by the way I have always liked it?
Yeah, Chesca.
In Moscow and, you were a champion six times there is that correct?
And then two times more EuroLeague there?
And then, and now, and that was what seven years there?
Seven years ago.
And then you just recently left and now you are in Milan and in the euro league. You were two-time best defender, and like, I said four-time euro league championship, and maybe the coolest thing out of all this is, the 2010-2020 to 2020 all-decade team.
Very, accomplished career so far, you have won a ton of stuff, before we go back to the beginning is there something in there that means the most to you?
I would say, probably the 2010-2020 all-decade team, just because it was chosen, by the way, it was chosen by coaches, media, and also the peers, and you think about, you know, all the players that played in your league over the past 10 years, you know, all the, you know, great talents and, you know, so many players that play here and for me to be, you know, part of that 10, 10 player group, you know, it was incredible I still, you know, still cannot believe it, still feels like, I am dreaming, you know, when I kind of hear my name in that group but I think…
Only 10 players?
10 players, man only 10 players. So, to be in that group and to be like, in with someone who accompanies some of those names in there, I mean to be humbling but definitely very special.
That is amazing! You might not know this, but I am legitimately wondering is there anyone that has won more than you in the euro league?
I am though, right now I am currently the all-time Winn Ingest American, playing in your league, I am tied with, and I do not know the exact number just because somebody recently registered me. So, I do not really know this off-topic but somebody recently told me I think I am like, tied with like, five or six players that have four and if I am to get my fifth I think I would be one of the few or maybe the only person with five titles.
Man that is amazing! Well, let us, we will get to all that and I think work up through your career but let us go all the way back to the beginning so where are you from?
I am originally from, a small town called Sicklerville New Jersey; it is in South Jersey the southern part of the state of New Jersey, I guess how you would kind of say, it is right in between about 15 minutes from Philadelphia, about 30 minutes from like, Atlantic City, so, right in between right loops in there.
Interesting. So, talk a little bit about your high school and your AAU career what was that like?
I am a late bloomer, you know, I was one of the guys I kind of had like, the typical Michael Jordan story, where I got cut 8th grade, you know, up to when I was growing up. I was just kind of all around like, most kids I was all around this athletic guy, but I never really had, you know, one concentration on one sport, and that was until eighth grade when I did not make the team and I decided from there to go to basketball. So, up to that point I really did not play AAU, I did not do any of that stuff, you know, I went to a prominent catholic school my freshman year, purposely because I knew they were good at basketball. I then almost got cut from that team again, and then I end up making the freshman team I grew, you know, everything kind of worked out. Well, but I grew five inches during the course of the year, end up being on JV and then they built, a brand new high school, in my town where I was from, and I decided to leave the prominent, you know, catholic school and go to the local public school just because I wanted to have the opportunity to play. They did not have a senior class, so I would have played kind of people making it for myself and kind of worked through my mistakes, and then from there I began to get better and I got better and better, I did not start playing AAU until my 11th grade, my 11th grade summer so I am a rising senior, pretty much how I really got my start was five star basketball camp.
I went to five star basketball camp almost on a whim one of my neighbors was going, and then the legendary, you know, founder of five star Howard guard pickle, noticed me and immediately there he was like, oh man, you know, you should be doing this you should be doing that, and long story short, you know, that is kind of how I got to UNC Greensboro, Mitch final girl, was the assistant coach at UNC Greensboro at the time. He was working at five star basketball camps and I met him there, and that is kind of how I got the connection but I played AAU only one summer, with a team called the Juan Wagner's frightening stars, many back in the day. They know who dawn Wagner is or, you know, who his son DJ is, who is like a rising ninth or tenth grader, yeah.
He is supposed to be the next coming of Dewalt.
Yeah. He may be better if you have not seen him he may be better but, I played with a group of guys there, guys like, it was me, another guy Jason Thompson who played with Sacramento kings for a long time. So, we both came into AU ranks together, and like I said I played AAU one summer, you know, went throughout the circuit, went to Indiana, went to nationals in Orlando, this is before like, the adidas and under armour and all those different callers kind of like, you just kind of went from tournament to tournament and played. And like I said I was a late bloomer I got, my first scholarship offer, after my 11th grade year, from UNC Greensboro, I took one visit, went there loved it, signed my letter at 10, which my mom and my dad were not too happy about. They wanted me to kind of go through the whole process but I was like, nope I am going here and then kind of the rest is kind of history.
Man that sounds, very similar to mine, my story I grew up all around the country and, you know, I think that somewhat affected my recruiting and then I ended up going to high school in Denver Colorado. I was really skinny, like did not have any offers my senior year, so ended up. I was a little bit young decided to go to prep school gained 20 pounds, Davidson came in my first offer went to prep school took a visit down here and then committed, right.
And I loved it.
Yeah. Same thing interesting how it works out but I think that is how kind of like, the socon schools mostly need to do it, right, is like, get those under the radar guys under recruited and just kind of hope that they turn into monsters like you man.
I mean that is exactly, I was talking to. I will talk to Dante Draper recently, he was in college of Charleston and we were just talking about the so-called and it was like, a lot of guys in the socon was like, you know, it was not so much that we did not have talent it was always just because we were under-recruited or we were just kind of like, we were, you know, under sized or under whatever. But, the so-calling at the time and we had talent, man there was a lot of great players a lot of, you know, a lot of great robberies there it was fun, it was a fun time.
I talked about this I have this same conversation with a lot of people is like, the socon puts so many guys overseas that like, just crush it over there and like, it is typically like one of two kind of players it is like, probably like a Dante Draper type like a small just quick as hell guard that can just put the ball in the basket or it is like an undersized four man like yourself that is like, you know, I do not know who would you compare your game to by the way, what NBA player to be clear?
I mean growing up, I liked all undersized fours, obviously the big name is Charles Barkley But, growing up in Philadelphia there was a guy named Clarence Weather Spoon.
So, he was an undersized guy so I tried to play similar to him. Anthony mason, you know, the new york Knicks, even recently, guys like, Jason Maxwell or like, you know, chuck Hayes or, you know, those type of guys those are the guys that, you know, growing up I tried to kind of emulate my game after because, you know, the story kind of goes like, when I was younger. Like I said I caught my growth for late, but I always had big hands and big feet so everybody thought I was going to be 6 10, 6 11. You know, they would say like, you know, your shoe size I mean your shoe size is going to be between here and that is how much you are going to grow so everybody prepared me to play, you know, be a center I stopped growing, but those are the guys that I kind of like, you know, make my game after, you know, I tried to kind of play like…
Yeah. Because I mean that is like, I said man, like some of the socon guys that were like, under size four and they are either super strong like you or you are very athletic. But like, I remember Ronnie Burrell I do not know if he is still playing but he had a great degree or two and just guys like that man. There were some guys from like, Georgia southern and App State and UNCG I mean Ricky Hickman is a guy, it seems like, it is kind of that small combo guard or that like undersized like bouncy athletic strong four men and like…
Because like, you know, Europe just does not really home grow those, though those type of players I mean I think they have plenty of guys like, myself man. But, like they do not have many like that. So, I think like, I mean it is awesome to see you guys all, like I played against Julius Jenkins for a few years over in Germany.
Amazing player! He is had a long career too.
Yeah. So, you had a really good career at, UNCG like I said three times southern conference first team 2007 player of the year, I think I was player of the year 2006 by the way.
Yeah. The story goes like, so when you left, I was just like, yeah, man. Now it is like, you know, my opportunity to play the year. So, I was talking to Draper about it, Draper I said I talked to Draper recently and I told Draper how I stole his player to here because he was like the guy and then also the Staph comes that next year is still my senior year spotlight, so it is coming.
Kind of, how it works?
Yeah. You had a really good career there, what did you have a shot I would imagine you were similar to me like, did you have a shot to make it in the NBA what was the feedback, you were getting in terms of like, were you like a borderline second round pick it was kind of like a, maybe sort of thing or what was that like?
I mean the NBA was a little bit different than it was now, you know, now the NBA is more position less, you know, it is throw kind of guys out there, you know, I measured in Orlando six three and a half without shoes. And I was a four or five so once I kind of realized that I was like, I am probably not going to get drafted, there were some teams interested, San Antonio because they, you know, they liked that undersized center, undersized poor man with Malik Rose and Dejuan Blair. And then at the time the charlotte bobcats because I played in Greensboro, so there was kind of like, you know, connection there. They were familiar with me, but, I only had like, two or three workouts, you know, with NBA teams and I was kind of like, I said borderline second round, late second round undrafted, and I ended up playing, summer league with the charlotte bobcats. I really love, and then I ended up going to Vegas and, you know, when I went to Vegas I met this, Italian second division Italian league coach, and, you know, we spoke and we talked and, you know, next thing, you know, I was, you know, It will be that thing, sure.
Yeah. Let us talk about that, so you started in second division Italy, where exactly did you go and how was that experience?
It is a small mountain town called Barely Italy, there is less of less than 4,000 people that live there, it was literally on a village in the mountains, when you go there it is almost like, you are going to a movie it is like literally people are still going to the center of the town of the watering hole and people are doing laundry and there is wild goats and horses and dogs running around the town.
Very similar to New Jersey.
Yeah. Back to back, yeah exactly almost very similar though I mean going there like, I had a, you know, it was immediate kind of, you know, culture shock, you know, going there. Nobody spoke English, there was one guy at the gas station that spoke English, and there was one stoplight throughout the whole entire town. You could literally touch the wall to wall like this, you know, with both hands. So, it was a very small town but I think because of the closeness of the town I think it helped me, you know, kind of make the transition, you know, to the, you know, making a transition from being like, you said from New Jersey and Greensboro North Carolina to being Nelson and this small village in the mountain side of Italy.
Yeah. So, I mean I imagine you had some success there I think you were MVP, yeah. And was that your first year?
Yeah, my first year, we ended up, I had like, I ended up playing really well there. And then I decided to come back the next year, because we had lost in the championship game and I wanted to come back the next year to, you know, try to play again I loved it there and I enjoyed it there and I also felt like, I wanted to kind of, it gave me an opportunity because like, I said it was a mountain town there was nothing there. So, I was always in the gym, I was always just believe they are just working.
Do you like that?
I, for my first couple of years, it just gave me like the opportunity to kind of, just focus in and I was just literally in the gym or at home, and it just gave me opportunity I felt like, just kind of get better, so I like that I enjoyed it.
You were able to focus right rather than being in like, Milan or Paris?
Yeah man, or something that I could not imagine, yeah.
My first year I was in, France, it was Pro B and we were like two hours from Paris. So, every weekend that we head off and we were on that bullet train to Paris.
How did you enjoy your first year?
Yeah, it was good man it was good. I do not think the French league was necessarily cut out for me and that is I had much more success in the German league, but it was great man like, you know, Nalton is a great city, still close to Paris. French people are great people, France is a good country so, it was good, just, you know, I think I just the German league was a little bit more suited for my pace and probably my game but and actually that is a nice little segue. So, the next year you signed with bros, I must in Bamberg, right? I must have just missed you because I, man when did I think I retire; I think that year that you went there I had left Germany and I went to Hungary in Greece that year. So, I had just missed you but anyway so you went to, to Bamberg for one year?
One year, yeah. One year, I went there one year, they had just come off of winning a championship. So, they brought me and another North Carolina guy Richaun Terry in, to be part of that team, and that team was, you know, a great team that was led by Casey Jacobson, I think, no man.
Many of us, you know, know from his days to Stanford but, you know, it was different because it was my first time going to a team where I was not the best player. So, like, that is when I kind of started to really understand European basketball, start understanding, you know, what it took, you know, to win, you know, the sacrifice and understanding what my role was going to be, you know, on those type of teams, in the first month of cynical. Like I said from the ages of like, 14 or 15 on I was always the best player, so now going to this new team this new situation where they had already had an established core, established group of guys to try to fit in, was different. But it definitely helped me so much and helped me progress my career and helped me learn so much from them.
Yeah, my guy John Gold Berry was there.
Jay John that is my guy man, John is the…
Hardest playing guy ever.
Oh my goodness! Man. He literally won the championship game first here, he hit it, two threes and he was basically playing on one leg and…
Yeah he is amazing.
He is a tough dude, shout out to UNC Wilmington they put a lot of guys overseas too.
In fact, yeah. Definitely, all right.
At least they used to, I guess when I was playing the whole German league was like, dude this was UNCW guys. But, so you did one year there, you won the league you were the finals MVP, you were an all-star, and then the next and I mean Bamberg's a big team but like, olympiacos is one of the teams, right?
Huge, which is like, one of the biggest teams in all of all of Europe.
Yeah. So is that why you left just kind of bigger team?
Yeah. I mean the story kind of goes, they were in our early group and I end up having two really great games against them. So, I kind of got their attention, from there, but when they called me, my agent called me and told me that they were interested, I thought he was joking because, you know, olympiakos was, you know, this big team they had given josh Childress 20 million dollars, you know.
Still that what was he there?
He was leaving that so the yearbook, the year I got there is when they switched everything and he had look, yeah.
Okay, yeah. Actually, so I think then I played there the year before I not, I played in Greece the year before you got there I played for RS the team.
Yeah, RS that is a great team too.
Yeah. I actually came in and I replaced is a funny story I replaced PJ Tucker and I guess replacing quotation marks is that there is not any replacing PJ Tucker. I think they were just trying to save money on me but like, brought me in but, PJ just bounced one day and did not tell anyone just took off and left and so they were I think they were trying to save some money. I played bobby brown and some of those guys we ended up playing for that like third and fourth place game because everyone knows it is, olympiakos.
Race.
Yeah, so well, so you were there two years is that right?
Yeah, I was there 2000, 2012, and 2013.
Okay. And you won the league championship one year. But, you won two euro league championships there is that correct?
Yes, so, we are the second, only the second team in the history of European back-to-back championships, yeah.
Okay. So like, in that situation like, what means more the league championship or the euro league championship I mean I imagine the euro league but like, I do not want to put words in your mouth because I know the Greeks are not crazy about their Basketball?
Exactly, so you played in Greece so, you know, how it is already so, the euro league was almost a bonus it was almost like an icing on the cake, you know, we won the euro league and then literally the minute we got off the court they were like, well you have to win the Greek league now and we are like we just won the euro league and they are like, no you have to beat the then that is.
That is a tough.
You really have to like, you know, shift your focus to that so, it is a quarter of us, you know, I guess to all of us players, you know, the euro league is the big prize, but to the fans in Greece, you know, and like I said, you know, it is the fans there how fanatic they are and how much they care about, you know, their clubs it is like, you know, if you are in Athens it is like we are only caring about beating Panther negotiating for your situation and style Nikki it is like, you know, we are heiress we are only about to care about being pop we do not care about anything else. So, that is how it was but I mean we were able to win it one time and it was special because olympiakos at that time did not win a title since 1997. So, to go, you know, go almost 12 years, you know, without that, you know, to have that title, I think was special to a lot of people and so it was a big deal the celebration was really cool was a historical moment for the club and I think this is the city of Athens as well.
Yeah. That is awesome! So, then you move to Chesca and go to Moscow, tell me about that why would you make the move and what was that like?
So, it was twofold, one was, so to kind of give you the back story so when after olympiakos like I said the year before I got there they had spent all this money they had got josh Childress they had gotten Papa Lucas they had gotten, you know, all these big name guys Linus claisa all these big name guys so, they decided, you know, after it did not work that they were not going to spend any money. So, they basically started over they got a whole young core group of guys and they were going to put them all around. But, it is basil Spanish so guys people that do not know he is the, you know, the goat of your league to go to European basketball, so they signed me, they signed a bunch of young Greek players and then they also signed joey Dorsey he went to Memphis, AC law, you know, who was, you know, a big name player from Texas A M, and a couple other players and they decided that we are not going to spend a whole lot of money. So, we end up, you know, I guess we proved them right we end up winning, everything winning your league and, basically it was almost like monetary thing, they were like listen this is about the money that we have. We are looking at all reduced amount of money, and, you know, Chesca was like I said another big team another big, you know, big name, and, you know, I decided at that time I thought it was best for me to leave, and then also this is the challenge. I am a big guy on challenges, you know, and after winning the two euro leagues I wanted to go to Chesca, I wanted to go, you know, there because, you know, they had not won. They did not have, you know, they were kind of going through the same struggles from Piacos, so I wanted to kind of go to that team and be part of that group, you know, to help, you know, be the first team to bring back titles and championships and have opportunity to experience Russia. I mean it was something totally different something I never thought I would experience and just have opportunity to go there as well.
Yeah. I mean I could be wrong about this but I always look at Chesca as like the team.
In Europe like, that they were the number one team or the number one club in all of Europe like, if you could get there like that is where you wanted to end up.
Yeah. it is this, I mean the story always goes like, if chesca calls you do not, you know, you do not say no so, you know, they are basically like, you know, the NBA team of Europe the way they run the organization how everything is so, yeah. It was when they called I was like, you know, I have to go I have to take this opportunity.
Did you play for Ethere Messina or had he left by then?
No, so he is the one that brought me to Chester so that is kind of like a little foreshadowing of, you know, what happened with, you know, the situation.
Did you also play with Trajan Langdon?
No, Trajan left in 2000, I got there 2012, I think Jason left in 2010 or 2011, I think he retired that year I think.
Who were the other guys you played with at Chester, early on I guess?
Yeah. Early on I was with Sasha khan that was at Kansas, Sunny Weems, Aaron Jackson, Jeremy Par Go, and Nina Christich who played a long time in the NBA, who wants to join that team. I think those are all the big guys, me those two dosages that, you know, some people that follow your European basketball will know, and, you know, those are the kind of the bigger name guys, on that team originally.
Yeah. So, you guys won I mean I forget what the league is called but you were the champion.
Yeah. Vtv slash Russian like, it is like, basically the old Soviet Union league.
Yeah, okay. And during that time you also run two more euro leagues.
Yeah, right, yeah. We won a euro league in 2016 and in 2019 we went early.
Okay. And you were there seven years right?
Seven years here.
So yes, so I mean, you know, I mean of course like, you play for Chesca. They are going to pay you well but there is more to life than money like, I am sure like it sounds like you enjoyed your time there and they treated you well.
Honestly Moscow became my home it literally became my home and my family home. I never would have thought that if you would have told me, you know, 13 14 years ago like, that I would spend that amount of time in Moscow Russia but it became our home like, you know, my family, you know, my family was there my two kids, you know, they basically grew up, you know, grew up there for the most part so it was.
Yeah. Because how old are they now? I recently saw a picture of him, yeah. I saw you were in a cat boy costume right, my daughter loves owlette,
Man!
And my son was a cat boy for, for Halloween just now.
Yeah, man. I got talked into being cat boy so he made sure I was cat boy.
I liked it.
My daughter is four and my son is two, yeah. So, they have been there the whole time.
Were they born there?
No, we actually, they were born in the states and we and they came over, yeah. But they, I mean Moscow was is still home to me it still feels like home to me we feel very comfortable there and, our life there, I mean to me I mean a lot of us I guess, you know, as Americans and Russia's that whole kind of like, you know, rivalry, you know, natural adversary because, you know, of everything from cold, the cold war to Rocky and Bullwinkle, you know, rocky?
More like, a political rival.
Yeah. It is a political rivalry so like, when I went there I never would have thought that Moscow would be how it is, how beautiful it is how, you know, how much. So, how friendly the people are I mean the city is amazing and not too many, every time I say I am going back to Moscow on the airport, people always look at me like, why are you going to Moscow like, what are you doing but it is the opposite of how they conflicted on, you know, I guess.
Yeah, I have had that experience twice. The first was I after one of my seasons in Germany I decided I was going to go to Greece to just like after the season for a week or two with one of my teammates. So, we went over there and it was during like, this probably 10 years ago or however long 15 years ago now, and it was during the big like riots over there. And like, on all the American news channels it looked like, a war zone but I was in Athens hanging out man like we were good and it was all good but more recently, I went over like about last like two to three years. I was over in china I think four times and, for basketball stuff and it is the same exact thing like, you would think, you know, according to the news and because we are, I guess political rivals it is, you know, you go over there but you have no idea when you go over there it is a nice place, the people are very nice and they are very friendly to Americans and, you know, it sounds exactly like your experience in Russia.
I tell guys that all the time I am like, you know, that one a lot of guys you kind of, you know, I am sure you experienced this when you sign overseas it is kind of like your biggest fear like, you know, I am going where am I going like and, you know, because you hear all this stuff on the news. So, you hear all kinds of horror stories but a lot of times when you go to these places like you are going to like some of the most beautiful cities like in the whole entire world and have an opportunity to spend time there and travel there and live there and it is just an incredible experience I think, you know, for all overseas basketball players I think sometimes it is something that, you know, a lot of us take for granted that, you know, that we are living in these cities and they get a chance to experience all these different type of things.
Yeah, it is. I always tell people like, going to Europe and having to, get uncomfortable or maybe start uncomfortable and get comfortable in another culture was like, probably the best thing ever for just my entire mindset it just opened my mind, opened me up to different cultures and ways of living and thinking and, yeah. It is just like, I am so thankful for my time overseas and it sounds like, you are as well.
So you moved to Milan this past year, can you talk a little bit more about that?
Yeah. I mean so I am getting to the, as you mentioned I am 34 so I am kind of getting to the, you know, to the end point of my career and like, I said I am a person that is really big on challenges, you know, really big on, you know, those type of things so, you know, after being in Moscow for seven years, you know, I wanted a new challenge, you know, I wanted to be a part of something, you know, brand new, and, you know, Coach Macita, is now the president and the head coach here, Milano and he is, you know, building and trying to change the culture and trying to start a brand new project here so, you know, when we talked over the summer, he got me excited, you know, wanted to try to be part of something brand new and like I said before trying to be part of that group of players that, you know, brings titles and brings championships, you know, to Milan who is a team that has a lot of history, you know, a lot of rich history, so, you know, we are able to kind of be able to be, you know, be that group of players and bring that back, you know, that was, you know, one of the main reasons my decision and then also my family, you know, just giving my family an opportunity to experience something different. Like I said, you know, being in Moscow for seven years we have only known Russia so, you know, one of my kids, I wanted my wife I went for, you know, pre-code but I wanted to know my friends and family to be able to have opportunities to experience Milan, have opportunity to travel, you know, and see these different places. So, those are the, you know, the two main reasons why I decided to leave and, you know, while I am while here in Milan today.
Yeah. I have heard from a lot of people that their favorite city in Europe is Milan I have never actually been there but…
I really would like to get over there so.
Yeah. You got to, you once hopefully, you know, everything comes back to normal code but you got to come visit man, we would definitely spend some time and.
I am in, if you are back there.
Yeah, man. You are two years ahead.
I got to come back over man and see some basketball over there like, I really miss that my wife and I, when was it last summer, not this past summer though the one before we went back over to Europe and went back we actually went to one of my German teammates weddings which was amazing but like, it is so great getting back to Europe especially when you can just travel and do not have to play at all and just do not have to worry about basketball, I love it.
Just get a chance to be a spectator, I mean like, it is the game series, the game the beautiful part about the game here is like, every game is competitive so it is like, you know, after, you know, watching the NBA and even doing college like, when games are competitive but you are seeing players understand and really know how to play. So, I mean it is beautiful to come here and, you know, come here and watch and come, you know, be a part of it. I tell people all the time like, you know, if you have not experienced the final four, if you have not experienced, you know, like the king's club where, you know, those different things that they have over here, you and your baseball fanatic you got to come over here and watch these things.
Yeah for sure so you mentioned Covid before, so how is that impacting your league right now and the basketball?
So, last year, when Rudy Gerber, you know, tested positive it shut everything down over here, as it did, you know, for much of the world and sports world, so we ended up canceling our season our euro league season right. Around May, you know, with the hope that, you know, we can kind of regroup and start the season, a new this coming year. So, right now we are in the midst of, I think this is we are six games in our euro league season and six games in our Italian season, and it is affecting, you know, the leagues here just like, it is affecting a lot of other people all over the world, you know, some teams have it, we do not have players who have tested positive and, you know, they are, you know, having to sit out games or postpone games, you know, some countries are, you know, dealing with it and have higher numbers than others so, you know, right now we are just, you know, almost kind of just taking it week by week, you know, just trying to stay optimistic and, you know, hopefully that we can, you know, continue to do what we love and play basketball. But, you know, obviously the biggest concern is always the health and safety of players but, you know, I am optimistic and I think everybody is just hoping that, you know, we are able to things will kind of, you know, get back to some type of normal as they can be during this situation and we continue to play throughout the year but, we are not playing with any fans much like.
That is what I was going to ask? Okay, so, no fans.
No fans, some places you go to like in Lithuania and some other Russia, they have like, limited capacity of fans, but like you said I mean we are doing protocols we get tested almost every other day, so those different type of things, you know, playing plane rides and everything is a lot different, you know, so trying to stay socially distance wearing mass as much as we possibly can. So, that is like, I said just like, much of the world but, you know, kind of dealing with a little bit different because we are, you know, in a foreign land, yeah.
Yeah, that makes sense so we mentioned it you are 34 you have been playing you said this is your 13th year. How much longer do you think how much longer do you want to play, how much longer do you think you can play? And then, you know, do you have any idea of what you want to potentially do when you are done?
It varies day to day, it varies when I wake up in the morning it is according how my body feels, you know, sometimes I wake up and…
Use random aching pains but, my goal is to hold out to your contract here, to finish off this two year contract and then kind of re-evaluate to see how I am feeling, you know, see how my body is feeling but also more importantly see how, you know, my family is adjusting, you know, right around that time I just want to kind of be my kids to start, you know, starting school…
In the garden, in the first grade and so, you know all that. So, trying to figure that out but, so I am hoping to do, definitely two and then hopefully if I can stretch it out to another little two years, so two to four years that is kind of my goal, see what happens.
Yeah. Do you have any idea of what you might want to do when you are done or are you just planning on chilling out for a while and you will figure it out along the way?
No, I have been trying to prepare, you know, I have been going back and forth from whether or not I want to be coaching or what I want to be like, right in the front office type positions whether or not I want to do that here in Europe or whether or not I want to, you know, come back home and do that. But, I definitely wanted to be staying involved in the game of basketball. So, I have been trying the last couple years to try to, immerse myself as much as I possibly can, you know, different positions talk with different people, you know, that are having because, you know, have different jobs or very jobs that are involving basketball, to kind of see, you know, how they feel about it and their transition. So, I guess I definitely want to stay involved in the game of basketball I just have not really pinpointed exactly, you know, what that is or where that is going to be.
Yeah, interesting. Well, you are doing a few things, back at home right, you have a youth organization team Heinz basketball, and can you talk about that a little bit?
Yeah. So, I have a youth academy called teen time t-mines basketball academy with the me, our mission is, you know, in my small community up to the, you know, when me and my brother started that there was no basketball academy in our community, you know, kids a lot of times had to go to either Philadelphia or they had to go to new york, you know, if they wanted to go to basketball camps or go to anything like this. So, we wanted to kind of, you know, change that, so we have a AAU team, much like yourself, you know, we have, you know, four or five different age groups, then we also have like skills and clinics and, you know, different things on a weekly basis, and then we our main kind of thing is besides AU is that we have summer camps and summer clinics, during the summer. So, like I said just trying to, you know, change to win with basketball, in my hometown they give kids they are the opportunity if they want to pursue basketball they want to pursue athletics, do not give them that opportunity to do it right there in their hometown.
Yeah. That is good stuff, what about your podcast? So, I just came across this, yeah. It is called it is called Hoop Tails.
Yeah, Hoop tails.
Yeah so, tell us about it.
Yeah, so two or three years ago, I founded a kind of a small production company, with the goal of, how it kind of basically started is everything and I am sure like, you had the same stories, you know, you will come home during summertime and everybody asks you what is overseas basketball like, you know, what about this, you know, they were asking me, you know, so many questions, you know,, how are you, you know, how is the food, how is this. So, you know, me and my best friend and my brother we were like, you know, why do not we just show people, you know, what these experiences like, so we started off we did a couple of docu series. So, I did a docu series that kind of followed my one year.
No, I watched that thing was awesome man.
Thank you. So, we wanted to kind of give people a different perspective of like I said, you know, from my life but just also likes to different players. So, we did another one called euro league brooks and it kind of followed, a bunch of first-year players and, you know, kind of going through their experiences and showing their house showing their cars and, you know, showing different things that they do, you know, throughout the day and then, you know, be from Covid, you know, we were all at home we were like, you know, we should start a podcast. So, what basically, what the podcast is basically doing is that we wanted to give guys, you know, everybody you talk to that has played overseas, they have a story they have, you know, some type of experience they, you know, going through something. So, we wanted to kind of give guys the opportunity to tell their experience and tell their stories and tell their journeys themselves so that was the one of the main reasons we did it.
Then number two, just to help educate younger players that are inspiring that may play overseas I mean there is going to be more players that play overseas basketball than, you know, that are going to play in the NBA and a lot of times, you know, guys like we talked about before guys go over blind they have no idea what they are really getting themselves into. They have no idea what to look after or what to look for so we are like, we want to try to get a group of players that have had no success, you know, overseas and get them to talk about their stories and talk about their experiences. So, that is pretty much what the whole theme of the podcast is around and, you know, we kind of talk to different guys on a week-to-week basis and, you know, kind of say get their experiences and get their stories and tell some untold stories and some funny stories that kind of happen.
Yeah, that is funny because like I did not know you were doing I mean I did not know you were doing the podcast. I knew you were doing the other video stuff because I had watched because I was like, man what is Moscow what is his life like, over there? So, I actually watched that but I did not know you had the podcast. So, I guess if anyone at home that wants to check it out on Instagram you can follow at GTM family productions. But, it is prod so at GTM family p-r-o-d and it has some looks like, it has some really cool stuff on there just different guys on there being interviewed and things like that. So, they can check that out but that actually leads into I guess we will end it with this, so we have a similar thing, on our podcast called ball and abroad and it is basic, it is based around the same idea it is just like, what is the craziest story that is like, that you have over there, you know, keep in mind it is like, you know, it is a family podcast crazy but…
Oh! we will get crazy I am sitting in my kid's room right now so I am going to get crazy all right.
Yeah. So give us a story about like, just something crazy that is happened over there that like people might just not really believe.
So we talked a lot about the fanatics and people in Greece, and I played for olympiacos and in town rivalry is Panther Nicos, so this rivalry is probably nothing like anything else in sports. How we always explain it is like, if you had two rival things like the crips and the buzz or whatever game you want to call have a basketball team and they just play with each other. So, literally there are times where the two groups just meet up with each other and they just fight for no reason, so we play in the cup, so the cup is the only time that the two fan groups are allowed to be in the same arena. So, we have, if you can kind of picture in your head the arena is kind of like, a, you know, rectangle style arena and one end zone is defending the Naked's fans and the other end zone is team Le Bianco's fans, and then in between the middle there is police officers, in between literally the whole police force is sitting in between. So, I am warming up in the game, you know, warming up doing my routine and they are shooting flares at each other back and forth. So, we are on the court they are shooting you experience, you know, playing an error says shooting players. So, I am just sitting here I am shooting all of a sudden I guess one of the fans either misfired or felt thought, it was funny boom get shocked with a flare in the back of my head. I fall on the ground I am rolling around my pants are on fire. Days pick me up I go to the locker room like, oh man, what happened? So, I get in the locker room I am still holding my head meanwhile when I get in the coach gets up and starts, you know, drawing the pre-game and I am sitting there like, you know, I just got hit with a head, you know, hit with a flare on my head and all my teammates are like, this is what happened, this is normal, this is a normal situation.
So they drive me crazy.
They get in the locker room and they like, this everything is normal. So, we go out and we play the game and everything happens like it is normal and, you know, I am sitting here with, you know, with half my warm-up pants burned up and playing in the cup game so.
Yeah, that is amazing man. Hey! I did not say anything there on purpose because I just wanted to let you finish but like, man like, Greece is the craziest fans in the world like I try to tell people about this and actually my ball in a broad story was a grease story. It was like, we were playing POC in the third and fourth place game which is like, and some people call it like the real championship of Greece because every year it is either like, you know, it is going to be olympiakos. So, it is like that third fourth place, is like the third place is like a championship for all the other teams. So, we were in that and we were playing POC in our city and they did not let any of the fans in, the opposing fans in those arenas. But we went to powk and it was like, game three or four or whatever it was and man they threw one of those flares into our huddle…
But it was one of those flares that explodes at the end right, like the firecracker ones and then like, an M80 and that thing exploded in our huddle they like shut down the game we ran out through the tunnel and it was just like, it is the wildest thing ever and like, the same game I think like, they were spitting on us throwing those like, the, you know, you see those streamers and people, yeah. I used to think it was like toilet paper right, like, oh it is just toilet it is like, receipt paper or something right. Like that in the middle, yeah, and like, sometimes what they do is they do not take the tape off. So, it streams, they just, it is like, a rock dude and I got to hit the nuts in the warm-up line like, you know, and they were like, whatever you do not go down, yeah. Man that it is like, it honestly was not even fun because this is like, just dangerous.
I mean it was like, we played one game there and they were having a TV strike, so we play and all of a sudden a bunch of guys in mass just came and knocked down all the cameras in the arena. And I am just looking like, and everybody is just like, nothing happens like they literally jump down took all the cameras smashed, them smashed, and smashed on the ground and left and everybody just like, it was like normal, I am like, this is insane like anybody see what I just see like these experiences that I mean like, I think anybody that has played in Greece like I said before like, they have a story they have like, you know, a wild story about something that happened, you know, so this is.
Yeah. It was insane, I think it is the right word man, and your story, yeah, that not fun at the time but it is funny now I hear about.
Ok back on it your board story, I did this, I did that.
Yeah. Oh man, well that is great man. Hey, I appreciate you being on, let us just wrap it up here man, we went up quite a bit over that than what I was thinking but it was great catching up I hope I did not keep your kids up.
Too late or anything.
They are asleep I am actually in their playroom right now, because it is like, the only room that is like, kind of quiet and has like that is why you see the Saturn, the planets in the background so, yeah.
That will be nice on YouTube man. Hey, well 2022 if Covid goes away I am over there in Milan, I am sure you are better.
Sure man. I am sure man, definitely I mean hopefully if everything goes well. I mean I definitely want to like, I told you before I definitely want to come down and check you guys out down there, I have been a bit of buyer of what you have been doing and how I have seen you kind of grow the academy, you know, from the start, you know, when you see me retire. So, what you have been doing is amazing man like, I said keep it up man, it is just incredible.
Anytime, at any time man you just let me know. So, well hey good luck, with the rest of the season and stay safe over there, keep the family safe, and yeah, we will be in touch thanks for coming on.
All right man. Anytime, thank you.
All right later Kyle.
Category: Podcast, Professional Basketball
About Brendan
Brendan Winters is a former Davidson Wildcat and European professional basketball player as well as the co-founder of Pro Skills Basketball.
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