BP: What is it like for an NC native and former Duke player to come back home with an NBA team?
Shavlik Randolph: I feel very fortunate to be back home for training camp. Last year, we were in Barcelona which is pretty far from home. My family’s house is about 20 miles down the road so I have been able to go back and spend time with them, which I can’t do once the season starts. Seeing Coach K and Coach Wojo and all of the guys that I used to play with, it has been awesome. I have loved it.
BP: What do you remember about Coach K?
Shav: I just remember how much I would look forward to practice and coming to the gym to work at it every day. He truly approaches every season like a lifetime in itself. He never took one day off. He maintained the highest standards each day, and really took a vested interest in each player’s journey and making their journey the best it could be and making the most of what they had. I just looked forward to working with Coach every day on a 1-on-1 basis.
BP: What is most important to Coach K?
Shav: The most important things to Coach are the relationships you form while at Duke and developing from a boy to a man. He wants to make sure you improve your personal skills as well as your basketball skills. There is no better place than Duke for the development of everything, from life skills to basketball skills.
BP: What keeps Coach K here at Duke?
Shav: When it is all said and done, he could go down as the best coach in team sports all-time in any sport. I don’t know why he would want to leave. It is such a great thing. He has the opportunity to hang a lot more banners in here, and I am confident he will. He is still relatively young and he coaches like it. His energy level is very young. I think he has got many, many more great years to build his college powerhouse even more than it already is right now.
BP: How did Duke prepare you for the NBA?
Shav: It prepared me as well as any other school could have prepared me. The competition you face at Duke and the ACC is at the highest level. We always have one of the toughest out-of-conference schedules and you are going up against professional type of talent every day in practice. The guys I practiced with, three or four of them are in the NBA now. In some cases, the practices were tougher than the actual games because your teammates are so good. That really prepared me for playing against that type of talent day in and day out in the NBA.
BP: What is the Duke Way?
Shav: The Duke Way is doing things with passion and integrity whether there are five million people watching or when no one will find out. It is about doing it the same way every day, forming perfect habits, and focusing on relationship building.
BP: What is it like playing in Cameron?
Shav: I remember being out on the court for the opening tip and the floor was shaking, the stands were so loud, and just being in such an intimate environment. Cameron isn’t the biggest coliseum you will play in but it is the most energetic and it has the most history. You can just feel it coming in here. It is like playing in the most electric high school game you have ever played in multiplied by 100. That is what it is like. That is one of the top things I liked about Cameron — That close feeling and intimacy with the fans in the front row. You can hear them yelling to you. It is amazing. It is something you get only here. Other schools try to emulate what Duke does, but there is only one Cameron Indoor Stadium and one Cameron Crazies.
BP: Have you experienced anything like Cameron?
Shav: I haven’t experienced anything like the craziness of a Duke Basketball game. From what I understand, the NBA Playoffs are pretty similar and energetic, but I have not been fortunate to play in the playoffs yet. I haven’t had any basketball experience like playing in Cameron. It is like a state finals high school game multiplied by 100. You either have to see it or play in it to know what it is like. It is amazing.
BP: What are your expectations this year with the Sixers?
Shav: I think as a team we just want to build on what we did last year. We know we have the right pieces to the puzzle. We are going to try to get better each day and not worry about the expectations other people place on us. Each player will hold one another accountable for making each other better. We are not setting any acute goals. Our only goal is try to get better each day and if we do that, all the win-loss things will take care of themselves.
