NBA: Covington interview:”Redick showed me sick shooting drills.”

Robert Covington signed a new contract with the Philadelphia 76ers after years of underpaid role-playing at the beginning of this season. SPOX spoke to the Small Forward about his career, the influence of J. J. SPOX. Redick and the interplay with Ben Simmons. On Thursday, the Sixers will be competing against the Boston Celtics in London at 9 pm in the LIVESTREAM FOR FREE.

SPOX: Robert, first of all, congratulations on the new contract!

Robert Covington (laughs): Thank you, thank you.

SPOX: You’ve played for less than a million dollars in the past few years, peanuts for an NBA player. Now you’re earning $62 million over the next four years. How does that make you feel?

Covington: It’s pretty crazy and I’m definitely very grateful for it. I know how much work I have put in over the years and how often my whole career has been hanging by a thread. It’s not that I haven’t earned any good money in the last few years, I don’t want to suggest that at all – I know how privileged I am as an NBA player. But I often didn’t know if I would still be an NBA player in a few weeks. That was a far from good feeling. But now it’s even nicer to have that security. Even though I never want to feel too safe.

SPOX: What do you mean?

Covington: The mentality that I have something to prove all the time has taken me as far as here, and that’s why I really want to keep it. Just because I have a new contract doesn’t mean that I’m on my way now. I still have a lot to do and I want to achieve much more than this contract extension.

SPOX: Are there still moments when you pause and wonder how far you have come in such a short time?

Covington: I do that all the time! I don’t want to be someone who is stuck in the past, but you should never forget where you came from and what you have already travelled. I didn’t get drafted, I was fired from Houston, I’ve been through some very hard years here too, as you may have noticed. There have not been many victories here in recent years. But all these experiences have made me who I am today, and they have also hardened me. And now we’re here! (laughs) We’re on the right track, I think. Me too, personally. And it’s just a nice thing to be part of this development.

SPOX: If you mention the “process” already, so to speak: What role does Sam Hinkie[the former Sixers-GM, d. Red.] for you?

Covington: Sam gave me a chance, I’ll never forget it. He believed in me when I was fired from the Rockets. When I was in the D-League, he immediately took the chance to get me. I didn’t play a single game there. Grand Rapids got me with the No. 1 pick back then, but I was there maybe a week before Hinkie got me to the Sixers. That’s why I always remain grateful to him.

SPOX: At that time, many people didn’t consider you as NBA material. Today, there are many teams that have their name quite high up on the scouting sheet because of the good throw, because you are considered a weapon. Was it difficult to adjust to this new attention?

Covington: Oh, that’s not really a big problem. The difference this year is that the teams have to choose between many dangerous players. In the last few years we often had hardly any scorers on the court. So I didn’t have that many open litters either. But now there are many more: There’s Ben Simmons, there’s Joel Embiid, there’s JJ. Redick, I’m here too. The more you then focus on one, the more space will be created automatically for the others. So I can always keep the game going – on some days I have to shoot a lot, on others I’m more distracted.

SPOX: Can you learn from Redick in particular? He is one of the better three shooter in the league’s history and has been successful in many different roles.

Covington: I’ve got a lot of J. J. already. learned. That’s what happens when you watch him every day during training and just see how he prepares himself, how professionally he completes his workouts and what kind of attitude he has. He’s already shown me some pretty sick shooting drills. (laughs) But it’s not only the playfulness of him. He is more experienced than most of our players and therefore has a different perspective on life. To be honest, it also helps me as a person to talk to him about certain things, it doesn’t always have to be basketball. I can talk to him about all sorts of things, because he went through a lot like that a few years ago. Of course, this also applies to sports.

SPOX: Redick has been in the NBA for eleven years and has never missed the playoffs.

Covington: Right, J. J. made it to the finals with Orlando. The fact that he has already had this experience helps us too, because it motivates us all the more and of course we want his playoff line not to end.

SPOX: Especially for shooters like you and Redick, the role of the Point Guard is extremely important because it has to feed you. In Ben Simmons, the Sixers have a pretty unusual A-list. How would you describe the interaction with him?

Covington: He’s a 2.08 meter tall playmaker. What else can you say? (grins) Ben makes the game easier for all of us, because he has such a great overview and because the other teams are really afraid of him. It’s easy to forget that he’s only 21 years old. We’ll have a lot of fun with him. And we already have.