The Official Site of DJ Augustin

Question:

Since you signed with Brand Jordan, do you have a relationship with Mike?

Answer:

Yeah, because it is only a certain amount of us that are with Jordan. He doesn’t just go out and get a bunch of guys, so it was special for him to pick me. He only picks a select few of players such as Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Joe Johnson, Mike Bibby, me, Kevin Martin, Rip Hamilton to name a few. It’s a small group of dudes, so we all have a certain relationship with him and we’re all close. He’s a cool dude and he’s just like one of us.

Question:

How did you get signed by Jordan Brand?

Answer:

Well, you know Michael Jordan, at this point, is the co-owner of our team. He owns a certain amount of our team, and when I was in summer league before my rookie season, I was trying to decide which brand I was going to sign with out of Adidas and K1X. At that time, I didn’t even know that Jordan wanted to sign me. I played pretty good in the summer league and my agent and I were going back and forth trying to decide who I was going to sign with. One day, my agent called and said Michael Jordan wanted me on the Jordan Brand team. I couldn’t pass that up no matter how much money the others were offering.

Question:

What's been the biggest adjustment to NBA basketball for you this year DJ?

Answer:

The traveling. With all the back to backs, and games all over the country, you have a lot more traveling in the NBA and it's important to take care of your body.

Question:

How are you dealing with your first NBA injury?

Answer:

It's real frusterating, because I want to do well in every game and it's tough playing with an injury. The guys in the league are so good that you have to be at 100% percent to be effective out there. I just have to keep getting treatment and work hard to get my ankle better.

Question:

What do you think about Steve Nash?

Answer:

I watched a lot of film on him last year and meeting him this year was a great opportunity to learn from him. I try to watch film of him every day, learn how to shoot over bigger guys and be crafty in the lane. Game film, edits – watching every little thing he does. It’s amazing to single him out when watching him. Because of my size, I need to learn to shoot over the bigger guys, so that’s where my speed comes in. I just try to learn from Steve and learn as much as possible. It’d be great to take a back seat to Steve, and just pick his mind. That’s what it’s about in this league – learning to grow as a player.