Domas Sabonis with Deuce & Mo

Domas Sabonis with Deuce & Mo

Hey it’s juice and mo so typically when we do podcast interviews we like to talk to people for like 30 minutes a couple hours you know like a stretch out a little bit but we got a call earlier this week from our NBC boss saying hey deonis sabonis is on some media tour

Promoting this contest with Great Clips you can get like maybe 10 minutes with them and we’re like uh we got to do it deonis sabonis so we did want to pass along the conversation we had because like there was some good stuff yeah we talked about his Allstar snub we talked

About his off season just a lot of a lot of fun things for such a condensed time so it was a cool conversation yeah so enjoy our chat with Deon sabonis dece and they tell you what they know deuce and do mo mo the podast that you no Dusen Mo

With a three-time NBA Allstar of course you know him from the Sacramento Kings the one the only uh domas do you like that chant are you embracing it yet I’m embracing it my kid loves it he sings it he has a dance to it he’s obsessed with it that is

Amazing um I got to ask you this you set the franchise record for consecutive double doubles you leave the league and triple doubles somehow you were on the All-Star team and I know I know you’re like hey I don’t really care about individual accolades you just want to

Win my perspective was I felt like it was like disrespectful to not only yourself for what you’ve accomplished but the team a little bit have you used that as fuel a little more motivation that snub at all um I guess you know you come out you play aggressive you know

You want to play more aggressive if anything but um we got we got one goal on our mind you know and uh we got to figure out what’s going on with our team and how to how for us to stay consistent you know and um to be honest it was one

Of my first allar breaks having a break and it was it was pretty nice so I can’t complain yeah I guess another individual thing and more talking about what you did in the off season I mean you took your work to a whole another level we

Read some pieces about how you even cut out cars how did that’s the first question how did you do that I don’t know anyone who knows me that’s all I eat so it was it was definitely tough you know but once I put my mind to

Something I’m just going to go with it all the way but that was probably the hardest thing yeah it feels like though how you approach the offseason you’re just very honest with yourself and where you were at maybe physically and mentally I I’m curious how do you think

That offseason work working with Doug Christie you know being in the gym every day working on your physical game your mental game H how much do you think that has helped Propel you to another level this this year you know you never you never really think about it it’s it’s

It’s a long season um you’re basically doing what you love in the summer and it’s just working out you know with your with your friends and loved ones you know and you’re having a good time you know and then once you compare I don’t know let say individual stats or

Whatever it may be um obviously you see the growth a little bit you know for what happened but I don’t know DCs are already thinking of plans of how we can work on things today or tomorrow and whatever you know so we just got that mindset where we just want to keep

Getting better so you don’t really think about it you’re just like this is what it is this is my job this is what I love to do and you want to be better you know expectations were a lot higher going into this season I I can’t imagine what

That did to a lot of you guys mentally how have you guys been able to handle a lot of these higher expectations all season long um I think we mainly ignored them as a team we we we’ve ignored them I think the problem is more with within

Us that we can uh be consistent most of the time you know and we all know that everyone knows that here in Sacramento um we’ve seen the games we win the games we lose so we got 17 games left and we just got to figure that out you know and

I feel like we’re on the right track this last week and we got to just keep building yeah it feels like the defense has been playing much better communication the physicality what do you think the shift has been do do you feel like the way you guys have been playing defense is

Sustainable um I hope so I hope so and um for sure we’re definitely going to try to keep it sustainable um it’s definitely helped us we played two great offensive teams you know and uh uh we did we we did some pretty good things

You know and uh we just we just got to stay with it we can’t let down no matter who who who comes in the building or we play an opponent that’s not high in the SE seating we got to keep applying those things and that’s what’s going to make

Us scary if we can do that against everyone yeah these last couple of games we’ve talked about how you guys have played complete games and I think sometimes we look at this team and what you guys are capable of when we go I don’t even think they’ve played their

Best basketball yet would you agree with that yeah I for sure do you know I mean I I feel like I’m speaking for everyone we’re up 20 and I don’t think no one is is relaxed yet so um the fact that we could finish these last two games and

Complete them you know definitely definitely has helped and we just got to figure out what we did do where we slowed down where we control the game you know what what basically was our plan to like maintain this lead and not fall into a trap and shoot quickly and

Then they go on runs and you know and it’s tie game again so I feel like uh we need to mature in that area and I feel like we’re we’re on the right path I was telling Morgan this the other day one of my favorite things about sports is kind

Of these like unlikely stories you know we saw Keon Ellis a lot last year in the G League because we do Stockton Kings games and we saw his development and you know he’s been in out of the rotation this year you see some good signs when

He’s been in there as a starter but now it feels like wow he’s really impacting things and it’s crazy because it’s unpredictable like this guy who goes undrafted is impacting you guys late in the season during a playoff run what has he brought to the team since being in

The rotation I mean he he’s great you know he definitely on defense he’s there for us you know he’s like our ex guy you know our glue guy who puts everything together you know he’s he’s doing what we needed that was missing you know and um he’s just making life easier for

Everyone and then on the offensive end you know he’s not in the way he shoots when he has to shoot he knocks down his shots you know he’s a smart player and uh teams respect him so it’s definitely making life easy with him on the court you know something else that you’ve been

Doing a lot more of this season you have had a lot of poster dunks just really going at people scary at times and I love it but um you’re going with so much force is there something different that you’ve been doing is is that a mental

Shift or is that just strength that just that’s just me being me I don’t know I can say Malik’s passing the ball better maybe he’s he’s putting it on time on target

So, our awesome boss over at @NBCSAuthentic let us know Domas Sabonis was available for a short chat. He was doing a media tour promoting a contest with Great Clips so we could have a few minutes with him.

Normally we want to have loooong conversations but we couldn’t pass on the chance to talk to him even for a few minutes.

Anyway, he discussed his All-Star snub, his offseason, Keon Ellis and the Kings defensive improvement.

You can learn about his contest at GreatClips.com/marchmadness

0:00-Intro
1:00-How he feels about the Sabonis Seven-Nation chant
1:50-Did All-Star snub motivate him?
2:25-How he approached the offseason
3:45-How the team has handled high expectations
4:20-Why the defense has been better for the Kings
6:50-On having more poster dunks this season
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Support the show on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/deuceandmo

Become a Deuce & Mo member access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr7VqKCBgBQtBXri_rZ4Aww/join

NEW Deuce & Mo merch store:
https://deuce-mo-a-sacramento-ki-shop.fourthwall.com/

Watch games with them:
https://www.playback.tv/deuceandmo

Subscribe to the podcast:
https://www.deuceandmo.com/

Join our discord:
https://discord.gg/jfejj9A3nA

#sacramentokings #nba #nbapodcast #domantassabonis