Golden Soft Sombrero Moment with Sam McKinnon

Four Diegos profile:               

Australian Basketball star

Diegos Verdict:                       

I wish this guy ‘slammed the jam in the hoops from the downtown corner shop’ for the Socceroos.

We do lack a ‘go to’ man who can ‘go the backdoor’ and ‘down low’ bro.

Some Golden Soft Sombrero Moments with Sam McKinnon

Sam on the big win…

Diegos: “Let the Diegos take you back a couple of weeks to something you’ve probably forgotten about – your World Youth Basketball Championship win – and in particular your semi final against Argentina where young Trehear dobbed one from the ‘downtown corner shop’ for the three pointer in the last second of the game.

Have you ever been more thrilled about winning a game?” 

McKinnon: “No. Obviously that was a huge shot to put us through to the final.

Aaron’s that kind of player that can just hit those shots. I just had an ecstatic feeling.”

Diegos: “A couple of years prior you played for the Aussie team that lost to Greece in the World Championships in Greece.

This time around the championships were held in Australia. Initially the form wasn’t fantastic.

Do you think that the team felt the overwhelming expectation of playing on your home soil?”

McKinnon: “Yes I believe we definitely put that pressure on ourselves.

There was more pressure from the public for us to do well because we performed well at the last world championships.

We knew the pressure was there but the team found it difficult to gel.

We weren’t really tuned in on the court and a few of the guys just had to take a backward step and do the team things. That’s what we ended up doing and it wasn’t a bad formula in the end.

It was a frustrating start and we did feel the pressure.”

Soft Sombrero Moment 1998

Sam on basketball culture…

Diegos: “Basketball has over time developed a language culture of it own.

Here’s a list of terms that the Diegos need to have defined…

What’s meant by the term ‘hoops’?

McKinnon: “Hoops? That’s basketball isn’t it?

Diegos: “How about ‘he’s got game’?

McKinnon: “I think that means that someone is a good player.”

Diegos: “How about ‘playing good D’?

McKinnon: “Basketballers don’t know how to say defense so we abbreviate it and just say ‘D’.”

Diegos: “How about ‘jam’? Is that something you put on your toast?”

McKinnon: “I don’t actually have the butter and jam on my toast. No too ‘jam’ is to dunk the ball.”

Diegos: “You play for Melbourne Magic in the NBL.

Let’s go through the team and you tell the Diegos which player represents the following…

Who is the Magic’s ‘go to’ man? Are you the ‘go to’ man?”

McKinnon: “There are probably a few ‘go to’ men on our team.

We don’t really have that star player like an Andrew Gaze. Probably Tony Ronaldson, Jason Smith and any number of the boys.”

Diegos: “Who’s the ‘ally oop’ man?”

McKinnon: “That probably is me I would say.’

Diegos: “Here’s the big Diegos question.

Who’s the ‘back door’ man?”

McKinnon: “I couldn’t answer that. It could be our coach, Brian Goorjan.” 

Soft Sombrero Moment 1998

Sam on life with Brian…

Diegos: “Talking about Brian Goorjan, he is well known for being very intense about his basketball.

If you lairise a bit too much and throw one too many ‘no look’ passes what are the consequences?”

McKinnon: “He is very intense but he doesn’t take it out on the players.

If you stuff up he is obviously going to be annoyed at you and probably just pull you off but he wouldn’t get into you like a Bruce Palmer would.

He is pretty good like that.

He basically just freaks out and pulls the team in to determine what went wrong. You’re not fearful of him blasting your head off or anything like that.”

Soft Sombrero Moment 1998

Sam on NBA aspirations…

Diegos: “You were one of the best performed players of the World Championship tournament.

Has any dodgy overseas agent had any sort of a ‘sniff’ to try and tempt you overseas for big bucks?”

McKinnon: “I would obviously like to get there one day.

There are a lot of scouts out there but they don’t really talk to you directly. I have been told to be more aggression by one prominent scout.

I think basically they start to talk to you when the NBA draft comes around. So I’m sure I’ll get to speak to a few then.

If they like me then well great but if they don’t life goes on. I might have to play soccer or something.”

Soft Sombrero Moment 1998

Sam on Gaze…

Diegos: “To the Diegos Andrew Gaze is the sort bloke who we would bring home to marry our sisters. He has the image of a real wholesome nice guy.

On the court does he get a bit of white line fever and indulge in some underhanded dirty stuff?”

McKinnon: “He gives as good as he gets. He does get looked after by the refs I reckon though.

He is a nice guy. If he ever tries to say something you sort of laugh at him because it’s ‘Drewy’.

He is competitive and that’s why he is where he is and why he is so good.”

Soft Sombrero Moment 1998

Sam on Aussie chances at Sydney 2000…

Diegos: “If the American Dream team No. 47 had a plane crash and didn’t make it to the Olympics in Sydney in 2000 do you think that Australia would have a legitimate chance of winning the gold medal?”

McKinnon: “Without a doubt. I think we are definitely a chance.

My first Olympics was last year and seeing how close we came and realizing why we got beaten has made us more determined to top it do better this especially with Luc Longley available.

Luc wants to play in the next Olympics and with Gaze, Vlahos and those type of guys I think we are a real chance to do well.”

Soft Sombrero Moment 1998