What is it like to be playing under a guy who is like that and that revered here?

Yeah, it's easy.

[laughs] Um, you know, uh, you can't say enough about Rod.

The- the person he is, the player he was, the coach he is.

Um, from day one, he made me feel a part of it.

And again, to follow somebody like that who's done it and that was so successful in his career, um, the opinions he has, the morals he has, the family man he is, um, the way he treats us day in, day out, it- it's been amazing.

And, um, not to knock my other coaches or anything, but coming here is, it was just such a breath of fresh air, and, um, it's really easy to get behind a guy like that.

I'm curious, as you've kinda watched his progression through these playoffs, to kinda see what he's doing and, and, and what it means to him.

Um, what, what happened on the bench when, when Cleven caught Nickerson?

Yeah, I mean, tempers are obviously gonna, gonna rise in a situation like that.

You don't wanna see anyone get hit like that, whether it's cle- clean or not.

Um, obviously, first and foremost, everyone's just concerned about your player and how he's feeling.

Um, but yeah, after that, you know, they're, they're trying to step up their physical play and set the tone and maybe take some energy away from us.

Um, and luckily we had a lot of guys that stepped up and, and matched that.

And again, we- you don't wanna see anyone hurt.

Mm-hmm

Um, what, what happened on the bench when, when Cleven caught Nyquistian?

Yeah.

I mean, tempers are obviously gonna, gonna rise in a situation like that.

You don't wanna see anyone get hit like that, whether it's cle- clean or not.

Um, obviously first and foremost, everyone's just concerned about your player and how he's feeling.

Um, but yeah, after that, you know, they're, they're trying to step up their physical play and set the tone and maybe take some energy away from us.

Um, and luckily we had a lot of guys that stepped up and, and matched that.

Mm-hmm

Tell us what their training was like, this is really interesting, w- when they decided they are gonna be sent to a foreign country to embed as an so-called illegal.

Yeah, so the early-stage training will happen when they're still at university.

That will be personality tests and just sort of checking they're compatible.

And then they were sent, uh, when it was decided that they really could be, uh, illegals, then they were sent onto the full training course.

And by the early 1980s, this would last four or five years.

Um, it would be entirely one-on-one, or in the case of couples like Andrei and Yelena, one-on-two.

Um, they would have, they would, a- and one of the things that runs through the program, so they would never, it wouldn't be that they would go in the morning to their, you know, training room at KGB headquarters and attend classes for the day.

She's still wearing an oran- orange jumpsuit from prison, right? What, what, what, what is that conversation like? (laughs)