Mike James was a guest on Shane Larkin's show called Off the RECourt, where he explained why he wouldn't talk now with Ettore Messina. James clarified that Messina was the reason he left Olimpia and signed with CSKA.
Mike James was Shane Larkin's guest on Off the RECourt Show, where the two of them discussed a lot of basketball-related topics.
One of them was James' relationship with Olimpia Milano's head coach Ettore Messina, where he went in depth to elaborate on why he left Olimpia and signed with CSKA Moscow.
After his first campaign in Milano, Messina arrived, and that's where the story itself starts:
"I told my agent that I want to talk to him. He ended up calling me. The first thing we talked about was like, do you want me to be here? Because if you're not, you're a new coach, you might want to get everybody out of here."
"If that's what it is, just tell me now and not maneuvre around. It was like in June. He was like no, you're good. As long as you're going to do what I ask you to do and be there and play basketball, you're good."
"The next time I talk with him, he's like, "What do you think about Sergio Rodriguez coming?" I said, "That's perfect, I like him." '
"What do you think about Michael Roll coming?"' "That's perfect." Michael Roll called me, I'm like, "Yeah, let's do it." Chacho called me, "Yeah, let's do it."
James later explained how his holiday in August was interrupted:
"I had a girl at the time. We went to Bora Bora for her birthday. We go to Bora Bora for her birthday. I get an email. Her birthday is on July 28th."
"I get an email on the road. First, I got a text from my agent. He was like, "Have you seen your email?" I was like, "No." "You should look at your email." I'm thinking, "Why the f- do you want me to look at the email for?"
"I get on the email, and it's not even an email from him, it's an email from the GM basically saying, "You're not going to get any minutes this year so you should look for another team." Zero minutes. Basically, I'm like, "Damn..."
Mike James
| Team: |
AS Monaco |
| Position: | PG |
| Age: | 34 |
| Height: | 185 cm |
| Weight: | 84 kg |
| Birth place: | Oregon, United States of America |
"He said, "What do you want to do?" For a week and a half, I'm like, "I'm going back, it's too late, every team is filled, it's almost August. Ain't no openings for me, and I want more money. What are we talking about?"
"I'm not finishing leaving this money here, this is the biggest paycheck I ever got." I was like, "I'll be on my way back, just tell my when I have to be there." For a week straight, I'm enjoying my time in Bora Bora, I go back home, I play in the TBT."
"That's what they said. They said, "You played in the TBT." They tried to void it like that. They had signed Aaron White, remember him? He was on the team I was playing on, and he was on Milan. I'm like, "You ain't voiding his contract, why are you trying to void mine? You're being weird."
Kyle Hines was like, "I can call them." We were all down there, and he's like, "I don't know what they're on." It was Kyle's team [in the TBT] and Kyle's his boy. So you try to be janky."
Afterwards, Mike James got an interesting call-up from Hines, regarding his future.
"Kyle was like, "So what do you think about coming to CSKA?" Kyle called Messina and an hour later he was like, "What do you think about coming to CSKA?"
"I figured my situation out, it took however long it took, got done. Two days later, I signed with CSKA, and I went there."
He was asked whether he'd talk to him now, replying that he wouldn't even look him right in the face now, let alone talk with him.
"I come from the old school, I hung around with a lot of adults. If you have to say something to somebody, say it to their face. Don't say it behind me, don't have somebody else do it."
"If I have a problem with y'all, I'm going to say it to your face. Every teammate I ever had, every coach I ever had, they would say, "Yeah, that's how Mike really acts, that's how he's going to do it." If I have a problem with you, I'm going to say it to you?"
"What's all this backwards you talking behind, sending text messages to people? That's corny."
"You're not an adult. You have to be a man first. If you're a man, be a man, say it to my face. It doesn't have to be an argument, we don't have to get into a fight, none of that."
He could've just said, "Hey Mike, I don't think we are going to mesh well, I'm not confident about this. I would feel better if you found another team."
"If he'd said that in June, I would have asked for no money, I would've been, "Alright, bet." And I would've left. Since you said it damn near in August, now we have a problem, and you didn't say it."
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