On Tuesday, Terry Rozier was featured as a guest on Rick Pitino’s The Rick Pitino Press podcast.
Rozier spent two years playing for Pitino at Louisville, and after the two had a discussion about how Pitino convinced Rozier to go pro and for Danny Ainge to select him with the 16th overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, Pitino asked Rozier about which players he likes to compete with most, and Rozier mentioned Russell Westbrook.
The relevant exchange began at the 13 minute mark.
“I feel like he is one of the top point guards in our league, he is the top point guard in our league, one of them for sure. He goes so hard. He is exciting. He is a guy that you want to out-play. He is a guy that is 100 percent all of the time. He goes 100 percent all of the time. I like that type of challenge.
Sometimes, he turns into like a football player, so it’s kind of crazy, but at the same time. it’s good for me to go up against him. I like to try to give him a little competition.”
Rozier also mentioned LeBron James as being one of those he enjoys competing against the most.
“Who wouldn’t want that if you love basketball?” Rozier said of facing the challenge that each of the two present.
What we found most interesting was the fact that Rozier mentioned Westbrook first as being “one of” the top point guards in the league, before declaring him the top point guard, before then going back and mentioning him as “one of them, for sure.”
In that exchange, Rozier probably recalled that he’s backing up Kyrie Irving, who would probably take exception to Rozier publicly declaring another point guard to be the best at that position.