"Hey, Duke boy, shut the fu*k up and sit in the corner!" - Battier reveals what really happens during players-only meetings in the NBA
"Hey, Duke boy, shut the fu*k up and sit in the corner!" - Battier reveals what really happens during players-only meetings in the NBA originally appeared on Basketball Network.
After a storied career at Duke, Shane Battier entered the NBA in 2001, eager to make an impact with the Memphis Grizzlies, who selected him with the sixth overall pick in the 2001 NBA Draft. However, it didn't take long for the 6'8" forward to realize he wasn't in Kansas anymore as the Grizzlies slumped to a 1-11 start to the season, prompting the team to call a players-only meeting.
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Despite being a first-year player, the native of Birmingham, Michigan, believed he could participate in the locker-room discussion. However, Shane soon learned that his status as a former NCAA superstar and a high draft pick didn't mean much among grizzled NBA veterans.
Memphis felt the heat early on
Although the team had talent (they drafted highly skilled big man Pau Gasol that season), they barely had experience and leadership. In fact, their starting lineup was led by flashy point guard Jason Williams, a 26-year-old who had just gotten traded by the Sacramento Kings. To try and stem the bleeding, the players decided to call a meeting.
"So a players-only meeting only happens when you're, you know, getting heat from the media, the fans are on you. All right, look — you're not playing well. Okay, so all the movies say, the captains, the veterans, call a players-only meeting. We're going to air our grievances and have a kumbaya moment, and that's going to propel us to better performance," Battier shared.
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A bona fide winner with the Blue Devils with an impeccable pedigree, having been trained and mentored by the iconic "Coach K," Mike Krzyzewski, Shane was no stranger to being a positive locker room presence. And on this occasion, Battier thought the time was right for him to share his thoughts.
"Here I am, full of righteousness, coming from Duke, the Coach K way. Yep. And uh, I'm the first one to stand up, and I say, I got to be honest: the veteran leadership on this team sucks. Very honest, very direct," he disclosed. "And they said, "Hey Duke boy, shut the f**k up. Go sit in the corner. Who are you?' And I was just like, 'Oh man.' I did not read the room."
Related: "Dad, you at 17, me at 17, who was better? I said, 'Listen, son...'" - Dominique Wilkins on the moment he realized his son didn't know how great of a player he was
A lesson in humility
The moment was an eye-opener for Battier into how locker room dynamics in the NBA work. There's a hierarchy, and rookie players like him were expected to simply follow the lead of the veterans. In this situation, the two-time All-Defensive Team member learned a valuable lesson in humility. "Battle" may have come from one of the top college basketball programs in the country with a legendary coach, but in the NBA, he was still a rookie player who needed to earn his place among veteran players.
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"It humbled me, and I realized, man, I can't come in here guns a-blazing, because there's kind of like an ethos, a creed, an unspoken locker room path you got to take to earn credibility. And I hadn't done that to that point. And so I shut my as*, I went to work, right?" Shane recalled.
"But I didn't become cynical, didn't become jaded. I wouldn't allow that locker room to change me. So I kept working. And a funny thing happened: the guys who maybe were on the fence and didn't know how to act and win started to have winning attitudes and behaviors. And all of a sudden, you kind of feel the locker room shift a little bit. And we started to believe a little bit," he added.
The Grizz finished the 2001-2002 season with a horrendous 23-59 record under head coach Sidney Lowe. However, after Hubie Brown took over the following season, Memphis began showing promise and made three first-round appearances in the NBA Playoffs from 2004-2006. Battier also developed into one of the best defenders in the Association, using his smarts and mastery of angles to make up for a lack of elite athleticism.
Related: "I pushed my wife away, I pushed my kids away, I was a jerk" - Battier admits depression almost ruined his life after he retired from the NBA
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jun 9, 2025, where it first appeared.
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