Oregon’s Terrell Brandon talks about what it was like being on the cover of Sports Illustrated and why he waited 12 years to read the SI story on himself. (Run time is 2:44; transcription after the jump)
[podcast]http://www.lostlettermen.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Terrell-Brandon-3.mp3[/podcast]…
Lost Lettermen: This is Jim Weber from LostLettermen.com and I’m joined by former Oregon point guard Terrell Brandon. Thanks for joining us.
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We gotta ask you about the Sports Illustrated cover. What was it like to see yourself called the best point guard in the NBA by SI?
Terrell Brandon: Oh it was great, man. It still is. I get a lot of fan mail still that comes to my barbershop that I sign weekly and over half of the fan mail that I receive is still Sports Illustrated. And every time I look at one, that same feeling I got when I saw it is the same feeling that I have to this day. They didn’t tell me that I was going to be on the cover. I just thought it was going to be a story. And so, during that All-star weekend in ’97 in Cleveland when one of my homeboys gets off the airplane and he showed it to me that it was just hot off the rack, you know I was just proud. Because I was representing Portland. No one around here as ever been close to being in Sports Illustrated, let alone the cover. So the memories of growing up and all the things I’ve been through, it was just … I was proud.
LL: Do you have that hung up in the barbershop? You know, posterized? Where is that sitting?
TB: No, actually, you know what, I was telling some friends of mine here at the barbershop, the first time I read the article was about three months ago. I had never read the entire article ever until about three months ago.
LL: How do you not read it?
TB: You know, when I was playing, I didn’t want to believe it because if you start believing things that people are saying about you, sometimes it can affect your game. And so I was proud and I was humbled by it and I was as excited as anyone else. But I never wanted to believe anything that was said. So I said I won’t read the article until I retire and years later I just, I’d always just peek at it when people would come in but I never read the entire article until about three months ago.
LL: That’s unbelievable. What did you think?
TB: I was honored and a lot of the statements that people were making about me, now that you’re retired, you appreciate it. I didn’t know they were saying those things about me. Not that I believed I was the best but it was just opinion. It was based on stats and, like Gary Payton said, the stats don’t lie, though. (Laughs)
LL: Thanks so much for your time.
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