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OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 1, 2016

Randy Foye

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Q. What were these few months like from mid-February to now?
RANDY FOYE: Man, the first couple months is -- the first couple months, that first week was just like I was everywhere. My mind was everywhere. The team was everywhere. But I felt as though I came here at a really good time, a time where at the time I think my team, Coach Williams' wife had just passed away. The day I landed here was the day they were at the service, the funeral, and then I think two weeks into it we were in LA, and then Sam stands up and let us know that one of our owners had passed away. Then I think like a week later, we come in here at shoot-around and I don't see Dion, and then they said Dion's brother passed away. So the first three weeks that I was here, a lot was going on as far as people losing their lives. Just tragic things were happening.

But after that I think it made us stronger. We moved on from it, and I think towards the end, building up into the Playoffs, it made us a lot tougher.

Q. During this playoff run, where did you see the team kind of just make strides in its habits, the way it operated on the floor?
RANDY FOYE: I just think our approach, because we couldn't do as much as we wanted to on the floor, but just seeing guys watch film and take whatever coach was saying in the film room and basically executing on the floor, that was cool to see. Seeing guys like Enes grow, seeing guys like Steven, Dion. Everybody knew what KD and Russ was going to go, but you see Serge growing and taking those steps, just wanted it so bad, so passionate about it, that was cool to see.

Q. Do you want to be back here next season?
RANDY FOYE: Oh, yeah. Just had those conversations with everybody. Definitely want to be back here. But we all know it starts with Kev. Kev is -- I think I just read somewhere that Nick said Kevin is everywhere to this place, so it starts with him, and I think the dominos after that fall into place.

Q. What was it like playing with Russell as opposed to being on the other side?
RANDY FOYE: To tell you the truth, playing against him on the other side, he's so explosive. I had to guard him so many times, and every time he's coming at you, he's in attack mode. With some other point guards, you can say, okay, he's going to chill, you know what they're going to attack, but Russ is always in attack mode. Looking from the outside in, I didn't know Russ was that smart as far as does film work, understanding how teams want to guard us on offense. Just the way he watched film on the plane, things like that, because we sit next to each other on the plane, always watching film, always trying to better himself, whether it's his body, trying to gain more knowledge from Coach Cheeks, just talking to everybody, just getting their perspective on what they think about not just his game or anyone else's game but how can we win, and I think that was really cool being on this side and learning from him.

Q. You were mostly a shooting guard, and you kind of had to make a transition --
RANDY FOYE: Yeah, I was everywhere here.

Q. What was that like for you?
RANDY FOYE: Yeah, that's something -- I just think, imagine what I can do with these guys with just a full year. Like I was going through like the growing pains of making mistakes, messing up on defensive coverages, but my teammates were covering for me or just me being in the league for 10 years, I can kind of figure it out on the fly, but mostly everything I was doing here was on the fly. Basically it wasn't really much practice time when I first got here. It just was all -- they threw me into the fire, and it was fun. I enjoyed myself. But like you said, I was everywhere. Normally I'm just knocking down trey balls, locking up on defense, making plays here and there, but this year it just was -- I had that approach of whatever it takes to win a championship. If you want me to guard the best player, if you want me to bring the ball up, whatever it takes. Whatever you think it takes, Coach, I'm going to do it.

Q. What did you know about the Thunder coming in, and what do you know now? In other words, what did you learn that you didn't know?
RANDY FOYE: Like you always hear things -- obviously you know what stands out, and that's Kevin and Russ, Serge, those guys, Steven, big, strong dude. But I didn't understand -- a lot of places people say family, family, family. This organization is all about family. This is our approach. But here they practice what they preach. When I first traded here, Sam said, does your family need to come here, if your wife and kids need to relocate, I'm going to bounce for them, and he was serious. Other places they'll talk about it, but they won't be serious. But the organization, the way things are ran, the communication, everyone is held accountable, no matter who you are, from the first guy to the 15th guy. Everybody here is held accountable, and everyone -- you walk in that arena, it seems like everyone is in the battle with you. You walk through the hallways, everyone is slapping your hand, you ready, you ready, we got this tonight. Seems like everyone is in battle with you.

Q. When you talk about everyone is held accountable, what does that look like?
RANDY FOYE: So basically if you do something or if I do something on film and Coach or Sam or whoever will say something to me, they would say the same thing to Kevin and Russ. So everyone is held accountable for their actions.

Q. Is it a little strange knowing your future sort of waits on somebody?
RANDY FOYE: Who, me?

Q. Yeah, and having to wait on the Durant decision?
RANDY FOYE: Yeah, I would much rather have my future, like you said, fall into place like a domino effect waiting on a guy like Kevin than waiting on someone else. You can look Kevin in his eyes. You can hear Kevin talk about OKC. You know where his heart is at. I would much rather wait on something like that than wait on somebody who's not going to be an all-time great. Just put it that way.

Q. Are you pretty confident he's going to stick around then?
RANDY FOYE: I don't have -- you know, I never talk to guys about any of that stuff, but you know, him talking about how proud he was of the team, hearing him just saying different things about the team and how we were fighting in the huddles -- like you guys are not in the huddles. I know you guys see everyone out there, but just to see those guys in the huddle, like when you're in the battle and we're on the court and we huddle up and just looking each other in the eye, like you know there's unfinished business here, and he wants to get it done.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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