Coach RJay Barsh interviews Anthony Tolliver on NBC Camps Podcast

Anthony Tolliver- Getting on the Court

This is Outside the Arc con Coach R.J. Barsh. Discussing the Game of Basketball with players and coaches from around the world of Hoops, presented by NBC Basketball Camps. We're Outside the Arc.

This is Coach Rjay Barsh. We're in the locker room here at Southeastern University. We have a special guest with us today.

Prolific shooter with the Detroit Pistons NBA vet Anthony Tolliver in the locker room today. How are you doing today, Ant? I'm doing great. How about yourself? I'm doing well.

We're going to get straight to business. What I want to talk about today is very fundamental in the game of basketball. (0:46) Anthony has a son who just hit his first basket on a ten-foot hoop just over an all-star break and you know what that does when you make your first basketball.

Ant has a knack of making shots at a high rate and so we're going to break down just three or four of the disciplines to be a prolific shooter and to be consistent. (1:05) Ask him a couple of questions about his work ethic and what allows him to be a guy that NBA teams are seeking out because he can really shoot the ball. (1:14) Anthony, what about your work ethic separates you, you think, from being a average shooter to a good shooter? I think it's just the consistency.

You know, for me, getting into the gym more often is way more important than getting in the gym for four or five hours for two or three days a week. So for me, it's six days a week, about an hour and a half in the gym, being very consistent and getting my work done in a timely fashion. I think that, to me, doing a little bit extra every single day is my motto.

During the season, obviously I'm not in the gym an extra hour and a half or whatever, but during the season it's more so. After practice, it's an extra 15 minutes, an extra 20 minutes, but it's every single day and it's consistent. I have a routine and I go through it and I make sure that I perform at a high level and keep my shot where it needs to be.

When you were in high school, it was a Springfield, Missouri, correct? When you were in high school, about what time did you figure out, okay, I can shoot the ball but I want to be better at it. And then when you figured out you could be better, did you change anything in your workouts or how did that process go for you from high school to college? Yeah, so in high school, that's kind of when my work ethic really jumps to the next level.

Before that, it was, you know, in middle school and elementary, it was more so, oh, whenever we had practice for our teams, I'd practice in between time, maybe go to YMCA, play some one-on-one with my friends and, you know, just have a little more, more so fun.

Once I hit high school, that's when I realized like, hey, if I'm going to play this game at a high level, even just at the division one level, at that point, I knew I had to become a knock-down shooter. So my freshman year started coming before school, you know, about 6, 6.30 a.m. and get shots up. You know, it wouldn't be every single day in high school, but it would be the days that made sense with my schedule and the days that, you know, that I could.

But at least two or three days a week I'd be up early in the gym on the gun. Just me in the gym, I would get, you know, close to five, six hundred shots up before school started, take a shower, go to school. (3:33) And then, you know, after school, you know, have to open the gym or practice or whatever with the team.

And that's whenever my shooting took, you know, the next step and my game took the next step. (3:46) Because obviously, as a great shooter, it opens up everything else for you. You see what, you know, guys like Steph Curry and Kyrie Irving are able to do is, you know, they're able to, you know, break down defenses so well, not just because they have great handles, but it's because they're great shooters and you have to respect that.

So, you know, that's kind of, you know, where my game took the next step in becoming a great shooter (4:11) was just taking the extra time and putting in extra time. And, you know, it's definitely paid as dividends. So it sounds like you say on one of the main keys to being a great shooter is reps builds confidence.

Absolutely. And the more reps you can have, the more confidence you'll be in situations. But I have to cut you off because it's reps, correct.

But to me, it's consistent reps. Okay. It's mechanics, you know, making sure your mechanics are correct.

Then putting up the reps, you know, obviously, there's been some great shooters throughout NBA history that didn't necessarily have the, you know, standard form, you know, the Reggie Millers of the world, Kevin Martin of the, you know, those types of guys, but we're still not shooters. You know, those are kind of, you know, I would say those are more one of a million, one in a million type guys. (5:07) You know, the guys who, you know, majority of the people, you know, that, you know, play this game, they're going to have to rely on mechanics first.

And then, like I said, get the mechanics right, making sure you're shooting it correctly, then repping it out. Once you rep that out, then you'll, you know, become the best shooter you can be. What's really interesting is working with Anthony Tolliver over All-Star Break.

In one of our workouts, we did something that I've seen very few players do, is imperfect reps as far as passes and situations, and going through a workout and working on, you know, where are you going to catch the ball, how are you going to catch the ball. I mean, how important do you think it is for a college player or a professional player, whether it's overseas or the D-League. When you're in practice, it's usually not a lot of pressure on you because the pass is coming very soft and you get your feet set.

Can you talk about challenging yourselves in a workout and why that's important? (6:07) It's very important. I mean, as a pro, you know, even at the NBA level, you don't get perfect passes even half the time. I mean, most passes that come your way are going to either be right, left, up or down.

I mean, it's just almost certainly. And so as a shooter, especially as a, as a catch and shoot type of guy like myself, I have to take advantage of every opportunity I get because I don't get that many opportunities to shoot because everybody knows I'm a good shooter. So, you know, I have to be able to take that imperfect pass and turn it into a great shot for our team (6:46) and have to be able to not only just shoot it, but I have to be able to have the confidence to make it.

And so the only way you can learn how to make a shot from an imperfect pass is by practicing imperfect passes. And so I've been doing that for probably the last five or six years is, you know, having whoever I'm training with to throw me bad passes, right, left, up, down, to where I'm jumping as high as I can, catching it, loading, going right back into my shot, you know, picking it up from a, you know, a scoop, like rolling it to me, scooping it up, having to get right into my shot. You know, in every single situation, I mean, they're all, they're all things that are going to happen in a game.

So, you know, those are the types of situations I try and replicate. And so, you know, as a high school player, you know, I would, I would say, you know, do it some, you know, and obviously, you know, high school players are even less skilled than professional players. So your percentages of bad passes might even be more.

So, you know, I just think that you definitely should start implementing it into your workouts as early as possible so that getting a bad pass and shooting it, it becomes second nature. Let me ask you this question and just expand on it a little bit. One of the reasons you've been able to survive and thrive as a professional, it seems from an outside perspective is your coachability and being able to gain the trust of your coaching staff, of your teammates and the respect of your peers.

What would you say attributed you to being able to buy into your role and then respond to your coaches? (8:23) Like, how important is that for a player to do, to play high level basketball? (8:27) I mean, I think it's essential. (8:30) If you think about it as a player, you're in a position where you're subjected to what the coaches want. (8:38) You know, so the coaches are, you know, in the position to make those decisions (8:42) because that's what the, that's their job.

And so for me as a player, you know, I have to make sure that I do what I'm supposed to do so that I can get on the court. And so if a coach wants you to defend and rebound and you want to shoot and score and whatever, that isn't what your job is. So sometimes a coach is not hating on you? No, it's not hate.

It's, you know, a lot, most of the time, you know, when your coach knows what he's doing and they want you to fulfill a role, they want you to fulfill that role because A, they feel like you're the best person to fulfill that role for your team. And B, is if you fulfill that role at its highest level and everybody fulfills their role at their highest level, it's going to give your team the best chance to win. So at the end of the day, this whole thing is all about winning.

You know, wherever you're playing, you don't play basketball to lose. You play to win. And so this isn't about individual, this isn't an individual sport.

This is a team sport. So if you can't humble yourself and put yourself in a position to, to basically do what the coach wants you to do, that coach has every right and he probably will not play. Yeah.

And so at the end of the day, you know, I went through that same thing in college. You know, I wanted to score. I wanted to be the, you know, go-to guy.

(10:04) I wanted the ball more than everything else. My first couple of years and my coach wanted me to focus on defense and rebounding. Didn't want to listen to him.

But finally, at the end of my sophomore year, I started listening. We started winning. I got it.

It clicked. And then my last two years were very, very successful in college. And so if I would have never bought in, I probably would have had to transfer or would have never played.

You know, so it's just. It's interesting. If you were in the body, you probably would have to transfer, which seems to be an epidemic in college basketball.

In high school is where a coach wants to help a young man succeed by putting them in a role they can accomplish. And a young man or a young lady sees that as a minimized role. And they end up leaving and going to a different place.

It's really cool to see as you bought in at Creighton and you figured it out. And now when you go to that arena, you go to the gym, you know, your name's in there because, you know, you stayed the course and you stayed disciplined. So what would you tell a high school player right now who's getting ready to go into the summer in the spring, you know, and they didn't play as much this year.

And they're thinking, you know, I'm going to go somewhere else and play. What would you tell him to do this summer? I would say there's nothing that's going to replace hard work. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, if you're not as good as the next guy who's playing above you or playing more minutes or getting more shots or whatever, if you're not better than them, then that means you, you know, you just got to work harder.

And sometimes obviously, you know, God blesses people with, you know, different abilities. So, you know, if you have, if you're only five to eleven and the guy in front of you is playing and he's six, four and really athletic and you're five, eleven and not very athletic, there's not really much you can do about that. But what can you do that he can, right? So that's what you got to find your niche.

Any player on any team, you got to find your niche and find out what can you do that nobody else can do that can get you on the court. Because at the end of the day, that's what really matters is getting on the court. If coach tells you to play defense and rebound and you do that and that's going to get you to play, well, then do that so you can get on the court.

Well, now if you're on the court and you want to be like, well, I can shoot too and I can score too. If you're on the court and you're defending a rebound and your coach is not going to mind if you take a shot. You know what I'm saying? If you do your job, you do what you're supposed to do and you go out there and you prove that you can shoot too, then you become even that much more valuable.

So the trick, the trick is getting on the court. So, you know, if you're, you know, going, if you're in high school or middle school, whatever and you're trying to get on the court more, I would say A, listen to your coach and do what he tells you to do so you can get on the court more. And B, just work your tail off and do something like I said, find out what you can do for your team that's different than, you know, the next guy so that you can differentiate yourself and so your coach can know exactly what he's getting out of you.

Yeah, I think too, I think a lot of players and coaches, we try to find the magic answer to becoming great. And the more that I've been around great players and great coaches, it always boils down to those three things. You can't replace hard work.

You have to bind to your role and find a niche to make your team better. And then at the end of the day, before you do anything, you have to ask yourself this question. Is what I'm doing going to help my team win? And if it's no, you probably shouldn't be doing it, especially during the season.

Now there are times to expand your game, but we're talking about being a great shooter and helping your team win throughout the year. Just a couple more questions. Let me ask this.

When was your best shooting game and how did that feel? That can be answered a couple of different ways. I mean, I've, in the NBA, I've made five three-pointers in a game. That's actually my career high in a regular season game.

But I've made five three-pointers probably 20 times.

Wow. You know, it's just like, crazy amount of times.

In a regular season game,

I've never made more than that.
And it really bugs me all the time because, you know, I've had... You're here first, he's going to get six or seven in the next two weeks. Man, exactly.

That's the plan. I got 25 more games to get over five three-pointers in one game. But, you know, but it's, I've obviously gotten hot, you know, a lot of different times over my career.

(14:25) But there was one, actually one pre-season game last year against the Lakers. We actually were playing in Vegas. And that game, I was seven for seven from three.

So that was the most ever made in any game. Seven for seven from three. (14:44) I don't even know if I may need two-pointers to tell you the truth, but I think I finished with like, you know, 24, 25 points or something like that.

But, you know, I was, I mean, that was one of those nights where it didn't matter. Like, I literally caught one, like a bad pass, a horrible high pass. It was like, I was fading to the right.

I was like at the break where like the worst three-point percentage in the NBA is. And I like faded to the corner, kicked my leg and cashed it out. Like it was just like one of those nights where it didn't matter where I threw it from or how I threw it up.

It was going in. So I'd like to replicate that sometime soon, you know. The only thing wrong with that game is the date.

Exactly. It was early October and not early November. You know, early October game doesn't count for anything.

It counts for my confidence. I know I can do it. I've seen that I've done it in a game, in the NBA game against NBA competition.

So it's, you know, for that purpose it was great, but. With the way the game's being played nowadays, I have a feeling you're going to have a lot of opportunities to knock down some shots. ) Right.

And now as a shooter and a pro who's been playing for a while, it takes extreme amount of discipline and focus and consistency to have a career you've had. NBC camps is a camp that is founded on Jesus Christ and that's one of our core principles outside the arc.

And sometimes you come across paths but there's players who have done a phenomenal job in their way of integrating their faith with their profession. Now everybody does it different. There can be some guys who have strong faith but they just go to work and then they go home.

Anthony, you've done a job of kind of stepping up in different areas with, with your shirts as Pray, Train, Conquer, Repeat, I mean, you represent, you know, active faith and a high level. How, you know, how is integrating your faith (as a professional helped you to this point? (16:45) It's really just giving me a foundation.

You know, as a professional basketball player, if you don't have a foundation and you don't have a strong core, (16:54) you know, you're going to get eaten up because this professional basketball or professional sports really in general, it's a dog eat dog world and no one owes you anything and you get taken advantage of and you will get told one thing and that, you know, they'll do another thing and you know, it's not, it's not a friendly game.

in your most of the time, most of a lot of guys, especially guys in my position that were, you know, maybe on the outside looking in, trying to get in and different stuff like that, you're going to get released, you're going to get cut, you're going to be told you're not good enough. I saw some guys that were from high level schools, Alabama's, the Florida's, the different schools that a lot of great players have come out of know that got drafted.

I didn't get drafted, but that got drafted ahead of me, that got, had all the hype ahead of me and all this different stuff. And this whole process made them up And, you know, they were two or three years in and they were like, I'm done.

They just couldn't do it. and not to say that none of them believe in God, not to say that none of them have a relationship with Christ, I would probably say (probably not, because they gave up way too easily. And I feel like that's a big reason why I never gave up and I never have faltered on my resolve for wanting to make an NBA was because, you know, I felt like God put it on my heart and it didn't matter the circumstances, it didn't matter I kept being told by coaches (18:24) or by GMs or teams that, hey, you know, you're not getting enough (18:28) for our team, you're going to be cut, whatever.

You know, it's not like it didn't affect me at all, but I look back and say, you know what, my faith is going to keep me going. I'm going to keep working, I'm going to keep seeking God and I'm going to keep (18:41) my dream alive (18:42) because, you know, (18:43) I felt like, (18:44) like I said, (18:44) I felt like God (18:45) had put that dream (18:46) on my heart (18:47) that that was what I was (18:48) supposed to do (18:48) and so now, (18:49) I mean, obviously, (18:50) looking back, (18:51) you know, having (18:52) that relationship with God, (18:54) you know, (18:55) and being able to (18:56) affect all the people (18:57) I've been able to affect (18:58) in the different (18:58) locker rooms I've been in. (19:00) I see now, (19:00) it was all a part (19:02) of God's plan to (19:03) put me (19:04) in the situation (19:04) where I wasn't drafted, (19:06) I wasn't (19:07) given anything (19:08) and I wasn't like (19:10) highly regarded (19:11) or whatever coming (19:12) out of college (19:13) because he wanted me to move.

(19:15) He wanted me to (19:15) be in Germany (19:17) and affect people's lives there, (19:19) Turkey, (19:20) affect people's lives there (19:21) and the D League (19:21) and on two or three, (19:23) four different teams (19:24) in the D League, (19:24) affecting guys (19:25) in every single locker room (19:26) and then another (19:27) 10 teams in the NBA. (19:29) You know, (19:30) I've been able to (19:31) affect, change (19:33) and bring light (19:34) into dark situations (19:37) on the, (19:38) what was that, (19:38) about 16 different teams (19:40) over a 10, 11 year period. (19:42) Now, (19:42) look back now, (19:43) it was a lot of traveling (19:44) and a lot of crazy change (19:46) and a lot of different stuff (19:47) but, you know, (19:48) every single stop (19:49) I've made lifelong friends (19:50) and I've also planted seeds (19:52) and that's, (19:54) you know, (19:54) that's how I feel like God (19:55) has used me to do.

(19:57) You know, Anthony, (19:58) that's a great way (19:59) to close out our segment today. (20:01) Anthony plays (20:02) with the Detroit Pistons. (20:03) You can find him (20:04) on Twitter.

(20:05) Is it A. Toliver? (20:07) 44. (20:07) 44. (20:08) Reach out to him.

(20:09) He's always tweeting (20:10) Bible scriptures (20:11) and positive messages. (20:13) You know, (20:13) he's one guy that, (20:14) you know, (20:14) I want young people (20:15) to make sure you follow (20:16) because he's doing it (20:18) the right way. (20:19) He's leading with his faith (20:20) and of course, (20:21) man's knocking down shots (20:22) and helping his team win.

(20:24) Once again, (20:24) this is Outside the Arc (20:25) and today we have (20:26) the political shooter, (20:28) Anthony Toliver. (20:31) Thank you for listening (20:32) to Outside the Arc. (20:34) For more information (20:35) about NBC basketball camps, (20:37) visit NBCCamps.com (20:39) and listen to other (20:40) Outside the Arc (20:40) podcast episodes (20:42) available on iTunes.

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