Andre Drummond Expresses Love for Detroit, Stan Van Gundy and Boban
The Crossover's Matt Dollinger and Rohan Nadkarni sat down with Detroit Pistons star Andre Drummond at the Budweiser Live space in Los Angeles, Calif. During their sit down with the two-time NBA All-Star, The Crossover conducted the world famous Anything But Basketball interview.
Since All-Star Weekend can become monotonous at times, they made sure to keep the questions off the court and kept Drummond on his toes at all times.
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Rohan Nadkarni: Let's start here: What's the last Netflix show you binge watched?
Andre Drummond: Probably Black Mirror. I'm addicted to it and I can't stop watching it.
Matt Dollinger: That video game one, where they're inside the space ship and they're controlling everybody. That one messed with more for a couple days.
Drummond: I just finished that one, too. That was a different type of show.
Nadkarni: To switch topics quickly, what was the angriest your parents ever were at you for something you did when you were a kid?
Drummond: Probably not washing dishes. I used to wake up getting my ass beat sometimes. I'll be knocked out and I'll have a belt on my butt 20 minutes later.
Dollinger: Chris Paul said the same thing today. There's something about that.
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Nadkarni: So we see you're repping the Jordan gear right now. Tell us, what's the coolest part about being with Jordan? Do you have Jordan's phone number? What are the perks that come with being a Jordan athlete?
Drummond: Being a Jordan athlete has been outstanding for me. I love Jordan, I love the brand too, so being able to be represent him and represent the company is huge. Obviously, one of the perks is being around him, going on vacation with him. I do have his cell phone number.
Dollinger: Oh, where did you go on vacation?
Drummond: He does a family vacation every year, so last summer we went to Cabo, the year before that we went to the Bahamas. I'm not sure where we're going this year, but every year is somewhere new so that's something exciting to look forward to.
Dollinger: Has he got you on the golf course?
Drummond: I refuse to golf with him. I gotta get my golf game together before I do that. I have the clubs, I just don't want to play with him. Between him, Ray, I don't want it.
Nadkarni: We talked about this a little before, and you said you've been practically this height since you were a sophomore in high school, so you've always been good at basketball. But if you weren't doing this, is there something that you could see yourself doing?
Drummond: As a kid and even to this day, I want to be an actor when I'm done playing. I work on music, too. So I've got the best of both worlds in entertainment. I just work on those things and then when I'm done playing I'll have something to fall back on.
Dollinger: There could be a good buddy cop movie with you and Blake, because he's got the Hollywood interest, too.
Nadkarni: Who would play you in the Andre Drummond movie? There are no rules here, you can pick whoever you want.
Drummond: I would say somebody like maybe a Will Ferrell.
Dollinger: I would watch the hell out of that movie. So we all know what All-Star Weekend is like, you do a ton of interviews. You get asked some bad questions. What's the worst question you've been asked this week?
Drummond: Actually, I haven't gotten anything bad this week. I've had some interesting interviews prior to this year. I can't remember them word for word, but there are a lot of them where I just look at the person and think, 'I know you're doing this as a job, but you can't seriously ask me this question and think I'm going to answer it.' Everybody's got a job to do. It's awkward too, because usually after the interview they tell me, 'I had to ask you that.' But I really don't care. I know you didn't want to ask, it was something you were told to ask.
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Nadkarni: We were talking to the Rising Stars today about Instagram. It seems like that's really a big part of the NBA today. Do you have a preference? What is your social media go-to?
Drummond: For me it's probably Instagram or YouTube. I started a YouTube channel called Days of Dre. There's a lot of content on there. My camera guy should be somewhere around here, but we're just filming everything and giving the people that follow me and support me the opportunity to see the stuff that I do outside of basketball.It's just a really cool way to interact with people.
Every Sunday I do Challenge Sunday, where I give the fans a chance to give me something silly to do. I've done the Gummy Worm challenge, where I try to eat as many gummy worms as possible. I did the blazing hot wings challenge. I give people a chance to really interact with me personally.
Nadkarni: I have a question for you and it's kind of like a challenge too. How many Little Caesars pizzas do you think you could eat in one sitting?
Drummond: I don't even know to be honest. I don't even think I would try that. I'd probably get sick after the second box.
Dollinger: Rohan and I have a personal record of eight. We got through eight boxes. It's a little troubling. It hurt.
Drummond: It probably did. It sounds bad. You'd probably get diarrhea from that.
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Dollinger: Moving away from that, are you a legit seven foot or 6'11"? Some guys like to point out that they're 6'11".
Drummond: I've been lied to my whole life. I'm not seven foot, I'm about 6'9", 6'10", around that area. It's fine, I really don't care if I'm not as tall as everyone says I am. I'm doing fine.
Dollinger: Still, at 6'9", you've got to be able to put down some serious food. After the game, are people just crushing food in the locker room, or is it on the team plane?
Drummond: I feel like when we're done playing I can't even eat sometimes. I feel like going to sleep. I just want to go to bed. It really depends on the night. Sometimes I'll be really hungry and go eat everything I see. And some nights I won't eat until the next day so it really varies based on how I feel after the game.
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Nadkarni: You play for one of my favorite coaches in the NBA. There's the famous photo of him riding the bike in the sunset. What your favorite Stan Van Gundy story?
Drummond: I think the Wall one is probably the funniest one I've encountered because it was just so out of the blue and out of nowhere. Nobody expected him to say that. We all looked at each other and immediately started laughing like, 'What made you say that?' We came into the timeout and he was like, 'Everybody shut up, shut up. There's 42 seconds left, everyone build a f---ing wall.' And I said, 'Where?' He said, 'Across the baseline, don't let them get a lob.' A second later he subs in Boban and puts him in front of the rim, and that actually worked out because he ended up tipping the ball and we won the game. I guess forming a wall actually worked.
Dollinger: That's good to know because we all see the clip but we don't know the story. What about Boban? You miss him?
Drummond: I do miss Boban a lot. He was one of my favorite teammates. It's just his personality and how kind he is, and also a hell of a basketball player as well.
Nadkarni: You see he's learning how to Milly Rock, right?
Drummond: I taught him that. Tobias [Harris] is terrible at dancing. I don't even know what he went to him out of all people. Tobias is a square, like anybody who wears skinny jeans you can't learn how to dance from him.
Nadkarni: We did a big story with Tobias last year on his fashion sense. It's obviously something he cares about a lot. I heard he plans out his outfits a month in advance. What do you think about Tobias and his clothes?
Drummond: Tobias, I tell him his outfits suck all the time.
Dollinger: You thought about being nice there, and then you were like, 'Nah, I'm going to say what I feel.'
Drummond: He has his own style. It is what it is, but I don't like it.
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Dollinger: What about Boban in Hollywood? I feel like there's real potential for him.
Drummond: Honestly, I think he's going to make a killing out there. His personality, he's 7'4" and he's a gentle giant. Anywhere he goes, he's going to be loved.
Nadkarni: What's your favorite part about living in Detroit?
Drummond: I think my favorite part about living in Detroit—it being home for me now, being there six years—being able to adapt to their culture, learning so may things about them, their fashion, the way they eat, the way people hangout and just things like that. I've really taken it in as my own and really learned about the city and I love it.
Nadkarni: I guess we're going to wrap it up, we've taken up so much of your time. If I'm being honest, I feel like we hit it off in this interview. I'm never going to be able to dunk a basketball, you seem like a pretty strong guy. Is there any situation where you see yourself lifting me up on a court one day and letting me dunk it? Kind of like what Amare Stoudemire did with Taylor Swift that one time.
Drummond: I think it's a little bit different because you're not Taylor Swift, nor do you weigh what she does, either. I could make the attempt. I'm pretty sure I could do it.
Nadkarni: Maybe we'll challenge you on your YouTube channel.
