“Dominate or your’ going to be dominated,” for Zach LeDay is not just a sentence, it is a lifestyle and definitely the way he wants to play the game. There’s no other way for him. He comes from Dallas and he started by playing football, because this is football territory, where the Friday night lights are bright in the winter. But when he grew up, Zach brought his football background to the basketball court. He attended the same school that former first pick Larry Johnson attended, and played for former NBA star point-man Deron Williams’ summer team. “When I was younger, the first thing that I tried was football. When I started to get older, a lot of guys tried different sports so I was able to make the switch and play both. I always played both, but then I had a growth spurt and it made me stick with basketball,” he says. He was the right choice.
-Zach, is your physicality part of your football background?
“My physicality comes from my football background, but also the way I was raised, the neighborhood I was in, a household full of uncles, cousins, everybody was just physical, just being physical people. It’s in general, the way was to dominate or being dominated”.
-Your career changed during the Virginia Tech experience. What happened?
“I always had a really hard work ethic, but I was able to sit down with my coach Buzz Williams and figure out how to use my energy in the right ways, figure out ways to give the team my energy instead of taking energy away, and to be able to use my mean streak, my playing hard, my presence to be able to dominate and help the team win, to be able to understand certain rhythm, get smart on the court and with the experience I was able to gain I was able to grow and learn a lot”.
-And still you were the top guy on the team, but also its sixth man.
“I never asked for this role, but I learned how to be able to adapt to different situations that coaches wanted me to do. My role has been to be the top player, by being able to do things that showed my teammates that I’m unselfish, that I can adapt to any role, starting or coming off the bench, and be able to dominate and play as hard as possible and do whatever it takes to help the team win.”
-What’s the key of being a good undersized player?
“You just have to play hard, always, and do the little things that other people can’t do. Try to take advantage of your strengths and use that to be able to dominate and do whatever you can to get around bigger guys and go through other guys. It’s really about using your strengths, improving your weaknesses some and work around what you do best to help your team win”.
-You took off during your rookie season with Hapoel Gilboa Galil.
“I just had really great teammates, some veteran guys who took me under their wings. My first year was my first time I ever been outside the U.S. I had a coach (Ariel Bet Halahmi, ndr) who played fast, up and down, up-tempo basketball, so we came together and did some special things. We had a long winning streak during the year, we beat some big teams, we did the best we could and the best that team has done in the past 10 years. So we’re able to change the club history around”.
-Was the jump to the EuroLeague a big and difficult one?
“The one thing that I just try to take pride in is to be able to adapt to different roles and always stick to what I do, to be able to bring what I bring to the team. That’s what I was able to do when I moved to Olympiacos, and learn from the veteran guys, adapt to the roles I was playing, at the time I was 24, so just be able to learn and adapt on the fly, quickly, and learn spots on the floor, gain chemistry fast, being able to do some things as well”.
-What can you learn from Kyle Hines each and every day?
“I can learn a lot, I learn something every day, just by watching his demeanor. I try to talk to him on the side, learn different things, tell me the things he’s seen on the court or even when we are off the court. When we are together, he tells me the little things. When you play with guys like that, with championship pedigree, like Kyle, Chacho, Gigi, you learn from guys like that every day, to be able to learn their game, their ability, it naturally enters in your mental game to be able to do things. They have been able to win at the highest level”.
-Is three-point shooting the next step in your development as a player?
“I work on it tirelessly daily, I work on it every summer, just looking to take a step forward every year by keep work on it, correct and do what I have to do. Putting up the time. Putting up the hours, and try to do what I can to space the floor and make sure to have it more in my game each and every year”.
