Marquis Teague was the nation’s top-rated high school point guard in 2010, and two colleges that recruited him hard were Louisville and Kentucky. He chose Kentucky and coach John Calipari over Louisville and coach Rick Pitino.
Maybe the tales his father, Shawn, told of playing for Pitino at Boston University had something to do with it.
“My dad told me it was crazy. That was when Rick Pitino was just coming up. They said it was tough practices. He remembered doing suicides with bricks in his hands and crazy things like that,” Teague, the newest Net following his trade from the Bulls, said with a laugh Thursday. “Pitino, he talked to me about my dad all the time. He told me he loved coaching him.”
Now Teague is looking for a fresh start to his NBA career, one he hopes is closer to the success his brother Jeff found in Atlanta. A 2012 first-round pick of the Bulls, Marquis Teague just never got it going in Chicago.
“No excuses, it just didn’t happen,” he said. “Sometimes I step on the floor, I didn’t perform at the level I needed to. Sometimes I didn’t get the minutes.
“It just wasn’t clicking with Thibs [coach Tom Thibodeau] the right way. Just trying to figure out a system was just kind of tough for me. The way they play ain’t really my style.”
Teague sat through one last Bulls game, knowing he was traded, because Chicago needed the body on the bench.
“They’re all good guys. They were making jokes about it, like, ‘How are you on the other team, but you’re still here?’ ” said Teague, excited to play behind Deron Williams and Shaun Livingston, and for Jason Kidd.
Williams, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, said he does not know if he will compete for Team USA this summer — he was one of 28 named for the World Championships — but said he does believe he will continue off the bench against the Mavericks on Friday.
“It’d be tough given what’s going on the last two years for me to play this summer. I would love to, but you just got to see how it goes,” he said.
As for again playing with the second unit Friday, Williams, back from injury for two wins, said he will “Go with the flow, the flow is working right now, keep it going.”
Kidd coaches for the first time against one of his mentors, Dallas’ Rick Carlisle.
“Carlisle is one of the best in the league,” said Kidd, who kept a notebook when he played for Carlisle in Dallas, where he won a title. “He’s been doing it for a long time. He has the Mavs playing at a high level this year. I was just taking notes [on] approaches and different plays for sure. And also just how to handle different situations.”
Kevin Garnett needs nothing to remind him he is no longer the teenager who came to the NBA in 1995.
“Absolutely not,” said Garnett, who is in his 19th season. “Sometimes it feels like I’ve played 50 years. … I understand what Wilt [Chamberlain] and all those guys went through, guys who have played 15, 16 years. As your body gets up there in age, I have different methods, and those methods are working so far.
“If you have more methods you would like to add to the list then I’m open.”
Paul Pierce did not practice because of illness.