This is the second part of our interview with Andrew Goudelock. Here you can read the first part.
About his beginning – “Growing up I was also a football player but everyone in my family played basketball. When we were all together playing basketball is what we did. It’s almost a second nature for me. My dad played and growing up everybody always told me how good he was. I have played the game since as long as I can remember. I’ve been exposed to basketball since a very young age”.
About the experience at the College of Charleston – “The College of Charleston experience has been great to me, I stayed four years and they were essential for me as a player and as a person. I’m grateful to Bobby Cremins: playing for Charleston has given me the opportunity to expand my game, to showcase my potential. I didn’t go to a great school as so many top players but it was a great learning experience for me. Going back I wouldn’t do anything different”.
The relationship with Kobe Bryant – “First I want to stress that being selected in the NBA draft was a surprise. Guys coming from my college are not supposed to be drafted and at the best they go playing overseas. They told me that. With Kobe Bryant I had a good relationship since the beginning: he appreciated me immediately, seeing my scoring instinct but mostly how competitive I was in games, in prctices. He was the one who started the Mini-Mamba story. He tried to help me out with tips but he said it was mostly a matter of mentality not of being skillled or about the physical aspect. It was the mind game. That’s his biggest lesson”.
The nickname Mini-Mamba – “After a game I did some on-court interviews, then in the locker-room everyone was talking to Kobe about like I should shoot the ball more and and play like a Mini-Mamba. I asked what they were talking about and Kobe told me you know what we are talking about, that was true, that I had to shoot more. There were also Matt Barnes and Luke Walton. He was actually the one coming up wth the Mini-Mamba nickname then Bryant started using it. Everyone around laughed. It started like this and stuck with me”.
The explosion in NBA 2013 playoffs – “I spent the entire year in the D-League, I was one of the last to be called-up for the playoffs. We were swept by the Spurs but for me it was a great experience, I did well. Then I also played in the summer league well and I expected to stay but maybe it was not my path. Everyone is growing up dreaming of playing in the NBA and being such a big star but at some point you realize which your path is. And this is mine”.
Kazan – “It was so cold that I could think of nothing but work, improve and win. And that’s what I did in one of the finest teams I played. Trinchieri was a very important coach for me, he gave me the confidence to be able to do so much on the court and I took advantage of it”.
Fenerbahce – “I had the chance to be coach by Obradovic, the best ever in Europe. He taught me a lot, the way he coaches, they way he thinks basketball, he breaks the game down in details: it’s almost a science. He analyzes everything you do, every move you make or move made by other players. It’s always two or three steps ahead. We played the first Final Four in the history of the club. It was a great season, all we could do we got it. It was almost like three seasons in one”.
