Former NBA vet Zach Randolph had a long and successful career in the association. On Tuesday, Randolph joined Paul George on the latest edition of Podcast P presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment, where he told a hilarious story involving Steve Kerr during his rookie season with the Portland Trail Blazers.
“Man, Steve’s my man…great guy.” Said Randolph. “I used to sit next to Steve. I come into the league, I’m green, I think it was probably 30 games in and I hit the wall. You know you used to hit that rookie wall PG? Like, ‘God damn this season's long.' So, I asked Steve, I said ‘hey man, do we get a break?' I asked Steve, ‘Do you think coach,' you know I ain’t playing, ‘Do you think I could go home for a couple days?' He laughed at me, man. Steve looked at me laughed and said, ‘No Zach you can’t go home.'
You know at Michigan State I’m driving home every other day 2 hours, I’m taking my roommate's car and I’m gone. But he was like, ‘Man, you can’t do that.'”
Randolph also went into how Kerr mentored him during his 2001-02 rookie season with the Blazers.
“Steve would read books, we’d fly, Bonzi (Wells), Dale Davis, they’d be gambling, and Steve would never gamble. Every plane trip, every road trip we took, he’s reading a book. He’d be reading all types of books; you know I’m young, so I’d ask him a lot of questions. I’m asking him and he’s reading stuff about foreign policy, money management, just everything.
I think he probably still does the same thing to elevate his mind, and I always noticed that and took that from him.”
Randolph would also ask Kerr about Michael Jordan during their lone season together with the Blazers.
“I’d ask him all the time man. I asked him so many questions, I think Steve probably got tired of me because I’d be asking him questions all the time, talking. Asking about Jordan, I used to ask him like, the types of the things he used to do, you know what kind of cars did he drive, you know because I’m 18,19 so I’m new to this.”
In their lone season together with Blazers, Portland went 49-33 as Randolph averaged just 2.8 points per game. Kerr averaged 4.1 points per game before wrapping up his playing career the following season back with the San Antonio Spurs.
After the Blazers, Randolph found further success with the Memphis Grizzlies
After being dealt from the Blazers to the New York Knicks, Randolph played in New York for just over a season before being sent to the Los Angeles Clippers. After then being flipped to the Grizzlies, it looked as though Randolph was earning a reputation as a player that was unable to stick in one spot for too long before teams gave up on him.
But his fortunes changed with the Grizzlies. In eight seasons in Memphis, Randolph was part of the ‘Grit & Grind' Grizzlies that made multiple playoffs runs. He was a two-time NBA All-Star with the team, and also made Third Team All-NBA in 2011.
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