 Stay safe, stay strong, stay healthy, stay home, and remember, yes, we're here. Today, it's Chris Shearn and the new head coach of the New York Liberty, Walt Hopkins, coming to us from Mesa, Arizona. Coach, you mentioned before we started taping that this is kind of like Groundhog Day. We're all like Bill Murray across the United States of America. What have you been doing to stay busy? It's the weirdest thing. I mean, I get up, I walk downstairs, nothing changes unless I change it. It's the weirdest experience. I mean, Groundhog Day is absolutely the best way to put it. But no, it's been a busy time for us. Well, this has to be unusual for you because you are still prepping for the draft. You are prepping for the season, but Kathy Engelbert said, this is an hour-to-hour and day-to-day situation. We don't know when the season's going to start. The draft will take place though on April 17th, but this is very fluid. So it's kind of hard to, especially as a first-year head coach with the New York Liberty, how are you handling that mindset? Yeah, you just take things as they come. I mean, it's a day-by-day thing. It's not a, I guess it's the only thing I know as a head coach, you know? So it's not, I didn't expect anything. And I think that's one of the things over the years that I've learned not to do. I just kind of take things as they come. I work with what I've got. Expectation just kind of sets you up for disappointment. So I'd say we're all good. All right, let's get into some of your backstory. I mean, you might be an Avenger and we have to go to your backstory and see your origin story. So coach, first and foremost, what got you to this love of this game basketball? Man, I was a kid and I was a pitcher in baseball. Baseball was my strongest sport when I was really young. It came really easily to me. My dad, my dad was a, he played at Kansas, played basketball at Kansas City. Was a pro prospect for pitching, got a bunch of letters from different teams and majors and pitching was kind of the thing that came easily and naturally. But basketball was the thing I love. You know, the start of it really was as a kid and I tried different sports. Basketball, it rose to the top really, really quickly for me. And playing through middle school, high school, things like that. You know, at a young age, I knew I wasn't going to be a pro. I knew I think probably a little younger than some of my friends. I just, I was realistic with myself, you know, and college was an option. I could have gone and played at, you know, some schools, but it didn't. I knew it wasn't going to be my career. So I kind of moved into coaching, which was, and right out of high school, I got right into coaching. Who are some of your influences coach? Not only on the coaching side of things, but who are some of the guys? Because I know when I grew up and I was watching the NBA back then, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, these are some, just some of the guys, Michael Jordan obviously, who got me into the game and wanted, it just like slapped me across the face and said, go down to the park and start shooting. Those were the guys who did it for me. How about players for you and also on the coaching side as well, your influences? Yeah, I mean, MJ was the, was the guy, you know, growing up. I really, I was born in 85. So, you know, it was, it was smack in my childhood when he was winning all those championships. He was everybody's favorite player. So I'd say easily it was, it was Michael Jordan. I was shooting fadeaways when I shouldn't have been, you know, that was not a shot that was good for me. And I think everybody was, you know, because we all, we all kind of grew up idolizing not just what he did on the court, but those of us who really studied the game and loved it, like, like you and I probably. I read about his work ethic. I read about how many shots he'd get up. I remember hearing Kevin Garnett would get a thousand makes a day one off season. I was in high school. So it was like, I, so, okay, I have to get, I have to get a thousand makes a day. And then I went out and tried to get a thousand makes and I didn't get a thousand makes. I didn't have anybody rebound him for me. So it was going to be, you know, I was like, I liked the honesty. That's what I want to know. How about some coach influences for you? Who on that side helped you get into this or maybe molded you to be where you are right now with delivery? Yeah, it's a good question. I'd say a handful of experiences I had young as a player made me want to get into not just in the coaching, but also in the teaching experiences that I had that I didn't love with coaches and teachers. And, you know, when I went to grad school and you have to write the statement of purpose and you have to write all the stuff that it was going to be for teaching initially and then it ended up being my second master's for coaching particularly. And what I talked about was the things I didn't want to do. And I had a close friend who told me, he was one of my AAU coaches and we ended up staying close through the years. I coached him at Tulsa, Jason Glover. And he told me, you're going to learn more about what you don't want to do from a lot of coaches and what you do want to do. And it's absolutely been the case as I've gone through, you know, the stuff that's really stuck with me from teachers and coaches through youth as I've gone on, you know, it's really been my drive when I see people respond to coaching in a way I would never want them to respond with me. And I know some of it's unavoidable. A lot of it, it made me want to do that but I can do it better than that. Like I can make this where people enjoy themselves and they're pushed, you know, and I'm getting the most out of them and teaching them to grow in different ways but I want it to be enjoyable, you know. So I think seeing those different influences in that way has been more of a driving factor to me, honestly, than seeing one coach where I was like, man, that person gets it, you know. So I'd say, and it's not to villainize the people I've worked with or for, it's more so just to say that, you know, a lot of the accepted coaching ideals that happen right now, they're pretty much well established in the canon of coaching, better and for worse. And then you've got them in the world of literature and learning and the way people respond cognitively and motivation theory and the things that I've studied. And they've got these idealistic views too of how you should coach and lead people. And so getting to see both sides of like, well, yeah, that's not gonna work. That's up in the clouds. Like I get it theoretically, but practically it doesn't work. And then I see on the ground floor with coaching and I see like, yeah, I know that everybody, every coach thinks you should do that, but that doesn't work either. And so it's kind of trying to find the two and put them together and it's not to say that I figured out how to do it. It's more to say that that's just kind of my goal, you know, and that's, it's just like basketball as a kid was a never ending challenge. And it was, there was something coming at me at all times and that's what drove me. It's the same thing with coaching. It's just, it's never ending. All right. The draft is coming up as we mentioned earlier, April 17th, it's gonna be a virtual draft. How excited are you with the process? I mean, this is your first year with Liberty, your first year as a head coach. So what has this process been like and how excited are you? It's been a lot of fun. You know, I got to be really involved in the draft process in Minnesota and it's one of the best times of year. It really is like Christmas, draft day is like Christmas and you, because you spend so much time preparing. I mean, the, our staff has been, I mean, everyone is working so, so hard already and you know, we have so much time left really and the way that we're working, it feels like a lot of time. I know that it's not, but it's like everyday it's just jam packed with, you know, calls to the prospects now, you know, this week we've been able to call and we have our staff calls and talk through everything. So it still does feel like we have tons of prep time but it's, it really is, you go through months of prep watching games and so on and so forth. This year has been a little different obviously but get to the draft finally and it's like, once it's over, it's just, it's like, it's like Christmas. It's like you get done opening all your presents you're like, I'm happy I have all this stuff but like, it's it, I have to wait another year for this, you know, so it's, it's a big, big moment and I know it's going to be a little bit unorthodox this year, I'd imagine there's no way around that, but I know I trust Kathy has been doing an unbelievable job. Kathy Engelbert, our commissioner is just, I have a ton of faith in her and so I know we're gonna, we're gonna find a way. I have to ask you just one more really quick. Shelly Patterson was with you in Minnesota with the links and she's on your staff now with the Liberty. What does she bring to the table as your assistant here? Chris, everything, everything. She's, she is a rock for me. The experience she has and her, her way, her, her personality is, it's so calming. It's so familiar and safe and she's just somebody who really keeps me grounded if there's a moment where I feel, you know, overwhelmed by something, she just, she can call me right down. There's that and then from a basketball perspective, I mean her experience really has taught her a lot. She's been with some of the greatest coaches of all time and she is a great coach in her own right and you know, my hope now and I think something that I hope she's excited about is I really want to give her kind of a bigger piece of the pie because I've seen what she knows, seen what she's capable of and now I want to kind of let her fly a little bit. So that's going to be an exciting time for both of us this season. Coach, we really appreciate the time, the New York Liberty. We're all waiting for those stars to align and for the season to start because it looks like it's all coming together and it's all coming together the right way. We appreciate the time. Please stay safe. Thanks, Chris. You do the same. I appreciate it.