KYSHAWN GEORGE: For me personally, it would be the physicality and the pace of the game, playing against grown men, the physicality is obviously bigger than in college. But I think my teammates have made it easy for me and personally because they understand that, they know we're rookies, and they push us every day to get better. It's a good camaraderie in practices and stuff like that, so it made it easy.
BUB CARRINGTON: Yeah, and I take mine off the court. I would say the biggest adjustment was, like, the professional side of this. We're not just basketball players, we've got to make appearances, fundraising, like everything off the court I would say was kind of my biggest adjustment because after practice I'm going home and I'm shutting it down, but every day you can't. You've got something else to do. I would say that was kind of my biggest adjustment.
Q. Bub, I've got to ask you about the football game last night, going as a fan and also representing the organization. What was that like?
BUB CARRINGTON: It was amazing, amazing to go watch my team, the best team in football play. Just to be there. It wasn't raining. I thought it was going to rain. It was great. I had a great day. It's going to be a great week. It's going to be a great week next week when they win again. It's going to be a great week the week after that when we beat the Commanders. I'm having a great time right now.
Q. What did it mean to you for your hometown team to embrace you and recognize you like that?
BUB CARRINGTON: It meant a lot because growing up I watched every single Raiders game that I could. You would see the different stars, like Will would do stuff like that, you would see Melo come back and get recognized at a Raiders game. To be there now, I'm the one people are seeing on TV at home, it's just an amazing feeling for sure.
Q. You were one of the stars of the game --
BUB CARRINGTON: Yeah, and I was next to Olympians, gold medal winners and stuff like that. I was the least popular guy there. I still had a great time for sure.
Q. What are you both looking forward to most this upcoming season?
KYSHAWN GEORGE: Being able to play with this young core and having a great impact on this organization in general, building championship habits, and having fun competing with this new group of guys.
BUB CARRINGTON: Yeah, kind of to touch on what he said, I'm looking forward to just turning heads. A lot of people already kind of have a set mentality or a set mindset when they hear Washington Wizards or something like that, and I'm most looking forward to coming out with our young group of guys and making people think otherwise, making people think twice about us, about our organization.
Q. Two vets on the team, Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma. Bub, you as a guard, Kyshawn, you as a wing, playing behind them, what can you learn from them? And also Bilal Coulibaly?
KYSHAWN GEORGE: I think for Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma, they both have championships so they've been in organizations that had those habits and had experienced the discipline and the habits you need to build to get to that point. And I think this is the biggest aspect we're trying to emphasize for years to come is building those championship habits, being able to start from where we're at right now, be able to turn heads, compete, and keep going up and going up and eventually getting to the ultimate goal of winning a championship.
BUB CARRINGTON: Yeah, you kind of worded that perfectly. Learning behind those guys, they're very vocal. Like you said, they've been in situations where they won and won a lot. They're very vocal on how things kind of should be. They make sure we hear and everyone listens. It's very good to have those guys and their resumes around.
Q. What are the goals you guys have for yourselves as you get into your first year?
BUB CARRINGTON: Play. I came here to -- I want to play. I want to prove myself every day in practice, prove myself in games. I want people to know and I want to know kind of for myself. There's a reason why I'm here. There's a reason why this team drafted me. They thought I was good enough to play in this league, play at this level, and I want to prove that.
KYSHAWN GEORGE: For sure. Everybody wants to play. That's my No. 1 goal this year is to be able to gain trust in my teammates, gain trust from the coaching staff, and prove to them that they put the trust in the right person, so getting on the court as many minutes as possible, and also getting experience and learning from the vets that are on our team but also the vets that we're going to be playing against in other teams, just being able to learn as much as possible and compete and win games.
Q. Building off of that question, what's it like being a young player who knows that there is probably an opportunity to play a lot early on and just that there are going to be challenges, just sort of the sink-or-swim situation you guys are going to be in?
KYSHAWN GEORGE: I don't know about the sink part because we're young guys in a situation where there's an opportunity to play the sport that we love, we get paid for it, and we're going to learn. It's like, yes, there's some type of pressure, but at the same time, it's like, we're going to do everything we can in our power to do the best that we can, and then we're going to control what we can control, and then the rest we're going to learn from it.
It's like having this consciousness that it's not always going to be easy, but knowing that, it's going to make our job easier because we're going to give it our all, and then whatever happens happens and we're going to build off that.
BUB CARRINGTON: Yeah, I would say I look at it as just fun. This is fun. We're in a unique situation where you say, you're on the team, you're going to have opportunities to play. Our opportunities are going to be there. I just look at it as fun. We have expectation free. We've got a plan in our heads, our organization that we set for ourselves and for each other, and that's to, no matter where we're at, whether people put us here or here, just to keep going up, and I feel like that's the most fun part about it.
Q. I was wondering what you guys learned from playing this past summer and how that compared to college, and how did you grow mentally and physically to get ready for this season, your first season in the NBA?
KYSHAWN GEORGE: I would say this was the first time I was playing against people that are competing for contracts and having something to make their families live. So there's another dimension to competing, whether it's personal, but it's also competing to provide for their families, and I think I felt that during this Summer League.
It changes in a way but it doesn't in another way because it's basketball and you're just competing at the highest level. At the end of the day everybody wants to win.
I think it's just about getting reps in, getting used to our teammates, and just enjoying the process while doing that.
Q. Bub, I'm sure you've been asked about this a lot, but over the off-season if you put in a line to Will or maybe even Melo, just the realities of playing so close to home, and the challenges. I'm sure there's a lot of joy that can come from your family watching you but also the challenges of playing --
BUB CARRINGTON: Yeah, I've definitely had some conversations with -- I reached out to Will about it, Melo has reached out to me, and the person I talked to the most was actually Rudy Gay about it, and he's been kind of really in my ear a lot and just telling me, like, the biggest challenge that you're going to have is you've got to learn how to say no to the people you've said yes to your whole life, whether that be family, friends, coaches, trainers, whatever that might be. You're in a unique situation where everybody that wanted you to succeed can now watch you, and they want to continue to give their two cents and continue to always be around you, a case like that. They said the biggest challenge you're going to have to do is trusting yourself and knowing that you got here because of your supporting cast but you got here 90 percent because of you. Learn how to say no, learn how to trust in yourself, and just give it your all at the end of the day.
Q. Obviously the front office wanted to draft both of you because of how well you played your skill sets when you were in college. I'm curious if there's anything about your game that you really want to work on now that you have access to NBA facilities. Are you still trying to improve different aspects of your game specifically?
KYSHAWN GEORGE: I don't think we're trying to improve anything in our game, to be honest.
No, more seriously, we have tons to work on, obviously, but for us, our main focus point is -- I mean, for me. I don't want to speak for Bub but I would assume the same thing. The defensive aspect of the court. We're both long, tall, athletic. We can guard multiple positions. I think setting that tone by that standard at first is going to lead us to you need stops to win the game, so I think focusing on that point, that's my main focus point is just getting better in that aspect, and then the rest is going to fall into place.
BUB CARRINGTON: My same exact thing. We're in a league where everyone is nice. Everyone can put the ball in the basket. Our ability to do that will always be there, and we'll always improve on that, but at the end of the day we've got a lot of people on this team that do that. How we can make that stamp and change that culture and turn heads, like I mentioned earlier, you've got to stop somebody and you've got to stop the really good people, so that's one that definitely I've been working on is being able to do that at a high level.
Q. What are some keys that you can share to young people that are trying to strive to be in the same position that you guys are in?
BUB CARRINGTON: I would say just be relentless. I would say there's going to be a lot of people that tell you no, there's going to be a lot of people that tell you yes, people in your ear, whatever the case may be. Just be relentless whatever you do and wherever you're at. If you're at a D-III college or you're at the best AAU team in the country, whatever it is, you can't stop. That's one thing that I would tell somebody, like you just can't get complacent.
KYSHAWN GEORGE: I would just add also, have fun doing it. Not everybody in the world has the opportunity to play basketball, and to be able to realize that you have the opportunity, and if you're good at it, just enjoy it. Enjoy it while it lasts. We're not going to play basketball until we're 100 years old, so you have to enjoy the process, enjoy working on your craft and getting better.
Q. You guys are early on in the rebuild, but how does it feel to learn under a head coach in Brian Keefe?
KYSHAWN GEORGE: I think it's great. I think something that separates him from some coaches is that he really cares for us. The whole coaching staff cares for us. If I go to work on a Sunday morning he's going to be there watching me and giving me tips and stuff like that. To know he's been in two different organizations with young talent shows that he has that experience and that you can really learn from that person.
BUB CARRINGTON: Yeah, I feel like -- we call him BK, so if I say that, that's who I'm talking about. BK really wants what's best for you. At the end of the day he's an NBA head coach, so obviously he wants to win games. He wants to stay where he's at. But he really cares about you. He really cares about your development. You come to him about certain goals and he's going to do everything in his power for you to accomplish those goals.
Then past all that, he really knows what he's talking about. As you say, he's been in two organizations where they won a lot, so just kind of always picking his brain, always talking to him, trying to stay in -- having him stay in your ear, definitely it'll do more good than harm.
Q. How excited are you guys individually being in a rebuild where it's not so much pressure and you can learn, you can just play your game?
KYSHAWN GEORGE: It's a great situation to be in. Not everybody gets to be in a situation where they know they are probably going to have an opportunity to compete and just being able to go and grab those opportunities and just being able to compete, prove ourselves and prove to people that we were drafted for a reason, and that people that didn't pick us should have picked us. They're going to regret it.
Q. It's not all that often that you get three rookies in the same class. What's the relationship between you two and Alex like? What's the connection like?
BUB CARRINGTON: These are my guys. I spend a lot of time with them for sure. Ever since we got drafted, we're always together. The organization really does a good job of trying to keep that bond, as well. They're partner us up in drills and we'll have our lift times will be the same, like certain stuff like that. I'm always with them. They're my guys for sure.
KYSHAWN GEORGE: Yeah, it's super cool to be drafted with two other guys at the same time. I just couldn't really picture myself going to the first media stuff on my own without the draft guys next to us. What makes it special is that they're good guys off the court, too. They're great basketball players, but being able to have a relationship off the court doing like interventions, going to fireplace and stuff like that together is just amazing.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports