The Matrix

The Matrix, aka Shawn Marion, joins the fellas on this week’s episode of Knuckleheads with Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles! One of the most underrated NBA players of all time looks back on his unlikely ascension from barely recruited high schooler to standout JUCO player to one-season star at UNLV. Q remembers the first time he met Shawn, at a Jordan camp where The Matrix was shocking everybody by putting on a show amid the nation’s elite. Then Shawn talks about getting to the NBA, where he was the only rookie on the Suns in 1999 — and why that situation really helped him in the long run. He reveals what it was like to play with Jason Kidd and how that experience gave him so much confidence. Then it’s time for a little reminiscence about the 2004 Suns, when Q came aboard, and just why that team was so damn good. Shawn lays out the crucial importance of his shift to the four spot and then takes time to point out just how impressive it was that, at 6’7″, he could hold his own against the toughest position in the Western Conference. Speaking of impressive, do you know who the first player in NBA history to have 15,000 points, 10,000 rebounds, 1,000 blocks and 500 threes was? Yup, The Matrix. Shawn then talks about moving around the league a bit and how hungry he was to win a championship. Shawn bounced from Phoenix to Miami (actually learning he’d been traded in the middle of his own Super Bowl party) and made a pit stop in Toronto before finally landing in Dallas. In 2009 that Mavericks team was special and they knew it. Shawn even remembers Jason Terry getting a championship trophy tattoo at the start of the season. That Dallas team would go on to beat the Heat in an epic run, propelled by a playing-out-of-his-mind Dirk Nowitzki. Shawn reveals that he and Dirk would play one-on-one every day after practice to get Dirk ready to face off against smaller guys. Shawn Marion had one hell of a career and you best not forget it — Trix is a must listen! 

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