The Complete Interview

Asa Schuster of NBL.com caught up with my teammate Corey "Homicide" Williams for a Q&A. Since some of the questions include my name, I decided I should add in my two cents to the interview. (My answers are in red.)

Street ball legend and Townsville Crocodile Corey 'Homicide' Williams had some time to kill and shared his thoughts about hypothetical movies, John Rillie and shoes.

Q: I was listening to you and John Rillie on his podcast show, you two are like the 2008 version of 'White Men Can't Jump' the way you guys carry on.

Corey Williams: Haha oh yeah Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson that's us, we're like Michael Jackson, ebony and ivory right there haha. (Corey, the white guy's name is Paul McCartney and he performed this 1982 classic with Steve Wonder. I'm not sure where Wacko Jacko comes into the ebony and ivory conversation.)

Q: I think they should make a White Men Can't Jump sequel about you and Rillie. Would you ever take Rillie with you to Venice Beach and enter a two-on-two tournament?

CW: Oh yeah for sure, he's my team-mate and plus he can shoot from the outside, but the thing is I don't know if he can shoot outdoors? You know sometimes you have to adjust for the wind and stuff like that, some players are just straight gym shooters, they can't do it outdoors. But for me it's not a problem I get it done on the street. (I'd have no problem knocking them down from outside on the black top. Corey, are you saying you can shot from the outside, outside? Tell him he's dreamin.)

Q: Have you ever played at Venice?

CW: No I've never played in Venice, I don't know if LA really has the same kind of street ball as New York though. (I have played at Venice and did give it my best Woody Harrelson impersonation. In LA the courts are regulation and the hoops are 10 foot high. I found the same when visiting NY. The only difference I noticed between the two cities was the trash talk was with a different accent.)

Q: When you first got to Townsville when did you realise Rillie was a baller, because he's kind of unassuming in that way?

CW: Yeah, he doesn't look in any shape or form like a baller. I remember the first game I played for Townsville and I thought he was just a really good shooter but I soon realised he's the real deal. The other thing about JR is for what he does at his age is amazing, his dedication, I would be glad if I can do what he does when I'm his age. He's a character and between him, Russell Hinder and Kelvin Robertson those are the funniest guys on the team. (Corey still doesn't think I'm a baller, although he has no answer for the step-back. I can only imagine what "Homicide" will be doing when he is 37.)

Q: What's the best nickname you've got for one of your team-mates?

CW: 'The Pharmacist' Kelvin Robertson, he's a professional basketball player and a pharmacist that's unbelievable, I've never heard of anything like that before. You could have the backcourt of' 'The Pharmacist' and 'The Doctor' if he played with Darren Ng from last season, you know because he's a doctor. (Corey has no nicknames for his teammates. He is too busy discovering new ones for himself.)

Q: You've played all around the world in Europe, America and Australia, but when you're playing at Rucker Park is that the purest form of basketball you've played?

CW: When you play professional ball some players aren't always able to fit into a program or play to their fullest using all their skills. Playing pro ball can sometimes limit the things you can do, but on the street you can express yourself. Street ball is like an abstract art form, on the street I am myself, I can do whatever I want, when I want. When I'm playing on the street that's me, it is basketball at its purest form.

Q: Is Australia the nicest place to play basketball?

CW: Oh yeah. I love Townsville, I love Australia it's a wonderful place to play I would like to finish my career here if possible. (I will translate, "I love Townsville". People around here really hook me up. Whether it is food, drinks or movie tickets to the Bond premiere, people love to give me free stuff.)

Q: How does it feel to have your own shoe?

CW: It's a dream come true for me. To come as far as I come and for all the hard work I've put in all my life it's amazing, especially for someone that hasn't played in the NBA. I'm the first guy not in the NBA to have his own shoe. I still go into shoe stores and see my own shoes and think it's unbelievable. For a brand like K1X to be able to do that is great, no other company would do that and we're making history, kind of revolutionising the shoe game in that way. (And let me tell you, Corey will drag us into the store to show us his shoes. There are always plenty in stock.)

Q: I think Andrew Gaze and Dwayne McClain are the only other NBL players to have their own shoe, how does it feel to be in the company of two greats?

CW: Well I can't compare to those guys, I've only been in the league for a year-and-a-half and they're two of the greatest to play in this league. You can't compare a guy like me to them who's just arrived in the league. I would like to accomplish similar feats to Andrew Gaze and Dwayne McClain and then maybe I could be considered as being in their company but I do appreciate it. (That's not what he tells us at practice. He is trying to be politically correct here.)

Q: The Fresh Prince has his own imaginary pair of shoes, the 'Air Fresh' and he whooped Isiah Thomas in the commercial, who has the better shoes you or him?

CW: Me. That was make believe. My shoe is real and plus Will Smith never really played basketball. (Why the hating on Will Smith. Corey, you get around the weightroom thing your the next Jay-Z.)

Q: I've seen Dan Jackson and Tyson Demos wearing your shoes is it important to have young players of the next generation wearing your shoes?

CW: Oh yeah I think it's great it's good to have those younger guys out there, yeah we have those Blaze colours on one of them. (Why are you hooking up opposition players and not your own teammates with this fantastic shoe? In saying that, I would play in my trusty double pluggas before those things.)

Q: Do you show any leniency to an opponent wearing your shoes or do you still have to kill them 187 style?

CW: You going up against me and you're wearing my shoes? Come on you know I'm gonna bust you, you can't do anything but respect that.

Q: There's inevitably going to be a movie about your life or at least that White Men Can't Jump sequel I was talking about, who is going to play you when that happens?

CW: That's good question, I don't know, I got to think about that… Who's a good young black actor? (I'm thinking Brad Pitt for my role!)

Q: What about Omar Epps? (I'd say Mike Bivins. He is from that once great group Bell Biv Devoe, BBD (see below). Second thoughts, Bivins' "J" is too nice.

CW: That's funny a few people say I look like Omar Epps (A few people....what,who Mrs Williams and that favourite Aunt you see once a year.), I think somebody younger though. You know what, I would want an unknown actor, a hungry up-and-coming actor who could understand the journey I've taken and what it means to come from where I've come from, someone that could really understand my story.

For your pleasure - BBD

All Turn It Around Team

Boti Nagy wants less of this and more production on the hardwood. I agree, read more below on this.

We are currently a third of the way through the season and some of us are very guilty of getting off to a slow start. So, instead of giving you my team of the week, I'm changing up and naming five guys to watch out for the rest of the way.

John Rillie - I'm not going to shy away from this. I need to lift my game if the Townsville Crocodiles are going to make some noise this season. I have been nothing short of disappointing to date so I can only hope the remaining nineteen games are much improved.

Without putting my numbers under a microscope (I really do not want to know the truth) I will guess all major categories are all close to career lows. That is just plain unacceptable.

I look forward to kick starting my season this week and not looking back from there.

Darnell Mee - If the Cairns Taipans are going to make a run at the Final Four this year, Darnell Mee will play a key role in the Snakes achieving this.

Having been a former teammate of Mee's, numbers do not tell the whole story when talking about Mee's influence on a game. He makes plays when it counts. Just the other week he scored 2 points in a game against the Adelaide 36ers, but those points were the game winning points.

Currently averaging 8ppg and 3.5apg, look for these numbers to improve the rest of the way. Darnell is the master of coming on strong as the season progresses.

David Gruber - Import Gruber is in his rookie season in the NBL after making the jump from the SEABL league. He is putting up some solid numbers for the minutes he is getting (8ppg, 6rpg in 21mins) but if he is to carve out a career in the NBL he needs to get in the Spirit rotation for a little more playing time.

Gruber is trying to get Aussie citizenship so that will help his NBL cause out.

Tremmel Darden - Despite Darden playing a great role on the first place Dragons, he needs to increase his output. We all know his coach Brian Goorjian has both eyes firmly on the big prize at season's end.

If the Dragons lose a few in the near future (they play the Breakers in NZ next), look for Goorjian to get itchy fingers and pull the trigger.

Cameron Tragardh - Last year's Most Improved Player numbers have slipped but in his defense the Hawks are a much improved team.

Tragargamel averaged 17.5ppg last year but has dipped to 12 so far this year. I don't have a problem with this because the addition of Glen Saville and Dusty Rychart will eat into his offensive opportunities.

But his rebounding has dropped by four a game. Sure, both the guys mentioned above will effect this stat as well, but the big man is pulling down an anorexic 3.5rpg. Crocs back up point guard Kelvin Robertson is averaging 3!

There you have it. Look for these guys to pick up their performance the rest of the way otherwise it will be deemed a poor year for all mentioned.

Let me know what you think of my list as I'm sure I have missed someone.

News

- "By the way, the Townsville Missing Persons Bureau is looking for John Rillie if anyone knows his whereabouts this season. Love the website JR and your love for the game is a joy to behold. But you have the rest of your life for that.
Basketball careers at elite level don't last forever." These are the words of South Aussie journo Boti Nagy from his weekly wrap column.

I hear you Boti and it took you way too long to comment on my form. I can assure you my practice habits/time on court has not slipped. I just happen to spend my time off the court a little differently.

Next time you mention my blog can you just add in the blog address please (http://www.johnrillie.com/). When people see the way I write it will only make your creativity seem that much better.

- Gold Coast Blaze get some time to rest and reflect.

- Cairns need to stop the bleeding, but they have the Tigers next.

- Jeromie Hill a product of Cairns is off to the AIS to hone his skills.

- Nathan Jawai still none the wiser on his health, but he is getting to travel with the Toronto Raptors.

- Sheep Shaggers and Dragons get ready for top of the table clash.

- Darwin looking at joining the SEABL in 2010.

- Brad Newley goes perfect for the game and has a huge win over Panathinaikos.

Mixed Bag...Something For Everyone

After another tough loss for the Crocs over the weekend, my creative juices are not flowing at this minute so I have provided a little of everything. Hope you can find something that tickles your fancy.

Caption time again. Most creative caption will win a CD. A firey Brendon Joyce (Blaze coach) has a quiet word to his former assistant coach and now Hawks head coach Eric Cooks after an emotional win on Friday night. See what you can come up with.

Gold Coast Blaze import Luke Whitehead has his fair share of You Tube clips. I have dug up two that show two completely different sides to Whitehead's World.

First up is a very scary fall for Whitehead.


And now for this. I cannot wait for Whitehead to do a video on the Gold Coast and have some of his teammates as extras.


News

- For Sale - One Sydney basketball team. For a cool $200k, you can own 10% of the Sydney Spirit.

- For all of the NBL's Round 9 results click here. (boxscores and recaps)

- All today's boxscores from the NBA. This includes Andrew Bogut getting ejected against the Boston Celtics.

- NCAA boxscores. Check out Aussie Luke Nevill at Utah. He had a monster game today, 28pts and 14rebs. My #10 Zags get an easy win over MSU-Billings.

- ASASpace has a good write up on the Joyces return to the Gong.

- Adelaide 36ers have good win over the Gold Coast Blaze. Now they wait for the return of Julius Hodge.

- South Dragons hard work is paying off.

Joyces Revenge & 1st Import Goooone

Daniel Joyce hit the game winner in the Gong tonight.


- It has been reported that Daniel Joyce has landed the knock out three as the Gold Coast Blaze (2-12) snuck by the Wollongong Hawks (6-6), 111-110.

The Blaze trailed for the majority of the game before Shane Heal, Pero Cameron and finally Joyce hit from long range to get the Blaze their first road win for the season.

Once the game was over Joyce senior gave everyone any earful who cared to get involved. Beside sections of the crowd, Glen Saville and Eric Cooks were a few victims of the rather excited Joyces.

The Gold Coast now travels back home and play the road troubled Adelaide 36ers on Sunday afternoon.

- The NBL has seen its first import sacked this year. Adelaide 36ers have released rookie import Mark Tyndale.

Tyndale was brought in to be a solid contributor for the team but due to injuries to key members (Brett Maher and Brad Davidson) the 36ers feel they need a little more from their import position.

Only having seen Tyndale play a few times I felt he was going to be a good fit for this team. A slasher who seemed to be unselfish and who could be the guy to fill the holes on any given night. He would also be the guy given the tough perimeter defensive assignment.

It was obvious he was not the guy who was going to take over a game, but he was never recruited for this.

Tyndale leaves our shores averaging 13ppg, 6.5rpg and 4apg. Not exactly chopped liver.

- "NBL imports should improve the NBL and the teams. Cal Bruton, James Crawford, Ricky Grace, Lanard Copeland, Darryl McDonald, Rob Rose, Al Green, Scott Fisher and Leroy Loggins got people to games."

"Now we've got Mark Tyndale, Dusty Rychart, David Gruber, Isiah Victor and Rick Rickert. Say no more." If you want to read the rest of The Herald Sun's Grantley Bernard, click here.

Interesting to see that Grantley did not mention any of the current imports playing in Melbourne.

- South Dragon often injured centre Matt Burston praises surgeon and Brian Goorjian for his fast start to the season.

- Steve Carfino all over Eric Cooks like a cheap suit.

- Conner Henry looking for playoff type atmosphere against the Taipans.

- National Team coach Brian Goorjian tells a Melbourne audience that Pat Mills was the best player at the Olympics for the Boomers and Andrew Bogut cannot be expected to shoulder the load internationally.

- "Chairman of the Boards" Mark Davis is conducting a holiday camp over the Christmas break in Adelaide.

You Tube Clip of The Day

MJ loses at his own camp!

Aussie Ballers Overseas & News

Could Brad Newley be swapping this jersey for a Houston Rocket's one in the near future?

Let's take a look at what Aussie ballers are doing elsewhere in the world.

Andrew Bogut - It has been a huge week for the Milwaukee Bucks bigman. First, he faced Shaq early in the week where Shaq-Fu made a SportsCentre highlight out of him.

After dealing with the "Diesel", the next day Bogut had to deal with two fools while conducting his interview for "The OT". His time was much appreciated.

After getting over his career highlight (The OT), Bogut launches his own website. I cannot wait to see some of the video highlights coming, but fans will love the Q & A feature. Send in your question and the two time Olympian will personally answer it.

And to round the week off, Bogut had a lazy 10pts and 17rebs against former NBA MVP Tim Duncan.

Oh, to be in the NBA.

Brad Newley - Newley and his Greek team Panellinios have advanced to the next round of the ULEB Cup. Although Newley's team lost this contest, they defeated the Russian team by 27 on their home court. Having a +3 points differential in the series sees them advance.

Newley has been under the watchful eye of the Houston Rockets. Just a few weekends ago the Rockets had their people in the stands at one of Newley's Greek League games. He made their trip worthwhile as he went to work. He ended the game with 20pts and 10rebs. Here is the boxscore from his last Greek League game, another double double.

Could be interesting times ahead for Newley. If he continues with the form he is showing currently the NBA might just come knocking, otherwise a strong Euroleague team may just become interested in the Aussies services.

David Andersen - Barcelona lose a close one in the Spanish league. He tackles his Euroleague game later today.

Aleks Maric - Quiet week for the former Nebraska Cornhusker. He only hit the court for seven minutes, but managed to foul out.

Daniel Kickett - The former St Mary Gael continues to have a solid season in Spain. Could he be a smokey for the World Champ team in 2010? Latest boxscore.

Wade Helliwell - The big man thrashed around for nine minutes this week. He plays in the Italian league.

Steve Markovic - 'Wombat" got to work on his posterior size this week. He was in the game for a minute.

Other Hoops News

- Brian Goorjian and Kirk Penney take out monthly awards.

- New Bullets in a race against time.

- Cameron Tragardh likes the feeling of winning.

- Boti Nagy with his pearls of wisdom.

- What the New Zealand Breakers will get up to in Townsville?

- Blaze have a danger man when they play the Hawks.

- Brian Goorjian believes his Dragon team has as much talent as his last Kings team.

- Adelaide coach asks for consistency from import Mark Tyndale.

People, you need to fast forward to Corey Williams player segment at the end of this clip. He is wearing black hot pants.

Andrew Bogut Drops By "The OT"

Andrew Bogut hangs with "The OT" boys.


Episode 10 of "The OT" is ready for listening. This week's guest is Australian dual Olympian and Milwaukee Bucks center, Andrew Bogut. As well we discuss all things basketball. It has been a huge week for the sport.

H.O.R.S.E & Crocs Ready To Go

Later today Episode 10 of "The OT" will be released. This week's guest is former NBA #1 draft pick, Andrew Bogut. We ask him questions about the NBA, NBL and his Croatian background. Keep an eye out for it later today.

Just as Corey "Homicide" Williams referred to himself as the "50 Cent" of streetball, I'm the Kanye West of basketball's game called HORSE.

Why is this relevant you ask? Upstart 36ers rookie Aaron Bruce has challenged me to a game of HORSE and he stands no chance in this contest.

This game is all going to be done via YouTube so I'm sure we will both become creative by the end of it all.

Bruce has kicked off the competition with a regulation half court shot. He is obviously just warming up! I will match this shot in my sleep, then I will reply with a gem of my own.

It should be a bit of fun but if there are any punters out there that feel like they have some HORSE game, join the party.



If you are at all tuned in to the Crocs this season you will seen or heard that we have now lost our last four games. This is certainly not a streak to be proud of I also don’t think it is quite time to panic either,…not just yet anyway.

When you take a look at the first two losses in this group, for example, you will see that they came at the hands of Melbourne and New Zealand who are two teams favoured to play for the championship at season’s end. In these two games, we played them tight and it came down to the wire on both occasions.

Our chance for revenge is right around the corner, as we will face both of these teams over the course of the next few weeks. This time it will be on the Crocs home court.

Now our last road trip against the Gold Coast and Perth was definitely not champagne basketball from the Crocs. Any team that goes into the change rooms at the half down twenty plus points is looking at an uphill battle and we came out losers on both occasions. There is no way of sugar coating our performance and there are no bright sides that I can think of.

So now is the time to pull up our bootstraps and find a way out of this mini slump.

We can start this week with training hard and getting off to a good start in Saturday’s game against New Zealand.

Our focus this week has been on getting back to playing good team defense which then should transition us into an open court style on offense. It was this style of play that led us to a solid 4-2 start to the season.

By picking up our defense theoretically should allow our offense room to breathe and gain some momentum. This is in marked contrast to our last two games in which we have allowed the opposition to notch 60 points in the first half.

If we are able to accomplish our defensive goals early in the game against the Breakers and get out to a fast start, it will not take long for the memory of our last four games to move to the back of our minds. The Crocs are notorious for picking it up at home and playing some great basketball and we are hoping that our focused efforts to turn the tables will result in another about face for the club.

Results from around the NBL this season have already indicated it is going to be a close race for one of the coveted playoff positions. Persistence and perseverance may just be the key to getting us there right now.

The majority of our games lie ahead of us. We cannot afford to let our last few weeks’ performances influence the rest of our season.

You can read my Townsville Bulletin article in Wednesday's paper.