We're Really Excited: Notes and quotes from Thunder media day

The seventh media day in Oklahoma City happened on Monday, and there was plenty of GREAT stuff about being excited for the season and how the players think they’re better and how they like the direction things are moving. It was truly moving material.

But this media day certainly had its high points. Steven Adams came with a mustache straight off Tom Selleck’s upper lip and Serge Ibaka has no idea who Mitch McGary is. And Reggie Jackson gave some really candid thoughts about why he wants to be a starter so badly.

Here are the highlights:

Reggie Jackson on his contract situation: “Sam [Presti] and my agent are talking and hopefully they can get something done. We’ve got a month to get something done and hopefully they can figure it out. I love this city, the fans are great — you probably can’t find a better fanbase.”

Jackson talked about how he’s not going to let this be a distraction: “Just play ball. That’s what I’m going to do. That’s where I’m going to keep my focus. I hired my agent for a reason.”

Jackson definitely made his desire clear, though: He wants to start. “I want it. But I’m happy if not. There’s nothing I can do about. I’m just going to go out and find ways to help this team improve and help be the best we can be … I feel strong about it. I want to be the starter.”

Jackson has a reason he wants to start: “I want to be great … It’s hard to make it out of two generations. Probably one out of three players, I feel like there’s only three players every generation that makes it out to the next class, a guy where you grew up watching him. I grew up watching Jordan. If I have kids, Jordan is still going to be remembered. I just want to be great. That’s just how I’ve always thought. I want a chance to be great and if that doesn’t work, oh well, at least I tried. That’s just how I feel. The best ones I remember have always been a starter. I can’t recall a super sixth man.”

John Havlicek? He was certainly pretty great. But I get your thinking, Reggie.

Jackson was then asked about a player like Manu Ginobili and he obviously gave him credit but reiterated: “Once again, when I was growing up, just believing, I wanted the majority of my time to be spent playing against other starters. Maybe not now because everybody is good, but growing up I just felt like it was a cop-out. I wanted to play against the best. I wanted to play against Chris Paul, I wanted to play against Kyrie Irving, I wanted to be considered playing against those guys. I wanted to be mentioned in the highest of levels. I want the chance to go out and play and be the best I can be and be considered among the best. I want to be the best, but at least be in the category.”

Jackson was asked if not starting would be a dealbreaker: “I can be content. But I still always want to be better. I want to be the No. 1 player at my position, at point guard, in the league. I still want to be the best player in the league. I want to be the best in the world. That’s how I wake up every day. That’s how I approach my workouts. I can’t half-ass anything. That’s just how I am, that’s just who I am.”

It’s hard to really imagine Jackson being OK with remaining a bench player and signing on long-term to be that when you hear him talk. If he’s that forthcoming to us, imagine how he feels when he’s talking to his friends and family. The guy has a dream and wants to chase it. Can’t blame him.

Jackson is such an interesting person to talk to because he’s so monotone and boring, but really is incredibly candid and introspective. As quotes on paper, he sounds wonderful. But in person, it’s easy to almost drift off and sleep while he talks.”

Scott Brooks: “I believe Russell is the best point guard in basketball. That’s happened over time. I’ve watched Russell every practice, every game, every film session and he’s really put a lot of time into being the best point guard in basketball.”

Westbrook concurred: “I do. I’m very honored to hear him say that, but that’s how I feel. I mean, I don’t know what to tell you … “I’ve felt that since I got in the league. I mean, that’s my mindset. As a rookie, I came in and I felt like I was the best player on the floor every time I stepped on the floor. That’s just my mindset, that’s the way I’ve played since college. It’s not just this year or last year. It’s how I think when I get on the basketball floor.”

It was a little weird how Brooks said it. He wasn’t asked. He actually said that in answering a question about if Reggie Jackson could be a starter. It was almost like Brooks had decided last night it was something he wanted to say today, and made it a point to fit it in.

Brooks was very non-committal about his starting lineup. He just said he has “lots of options” and even if Jackson wasn’t a starter, said he and Westbrook would play a lot together anyway.

Brooks said he saw starting center as up for grabs: “The 30 days will determine best group.”

Brooks said he looks at a lot of “analytics” and then said his favorite one is defensive field goal percentage. I mean, I guess that technically is an analytic, but that’s not really the right idea.

Steven Adams, Media Day MVP. He came in rocking a small rodent on his face and proceeded to be his typically charming self while answering questions about his new stache. The reason for it is pretty great: “Whenever they call out my name, stache. Or when someone opens up the book (media guide), stache. So good. It’s so good.”

Adams on starting: “It’s all up to Scotty.”

Adams was asked if he thought he’d have a target on his back this season. “A target? Why? What’d I do?”

Adams says no hard feelings with Andre Iguodala about their brief Twitter dust-up. “It was just early in the morning and it kind of got to be a little bit. It wasn’t anything bad or anything. It was just a little misinformed I guess.”

Adams was asked if he could be a two-way player. His answer: “I shot 68 percent…” (Note: He shot 50.3 percent in the regular season and 68.9 percent in the playoffs.)

Anthony Morrow reiterated he’s fine with whatever role he’s handed.

Mitch McGary said he’s 100 percent and has been the last couple months. He also said he doesn’t have any role expectations and hasn’t been told of anything yet.

Serge Ibaka was asked about McGary and straight up had no idea who the rookie was. “Who? Mitch McGary. Mitch McGary… (massively confused look on his face). I didn’t get back until two days ago. And now asking me… [have you met him?]. Not yet.”

McGary was asked about any big purchases. He said he bought a BMW. “I bargained for it. Making payments like everybody else.”

Nick Collison: “Having the goal to win a championship is always good to have in the back of your mind, but you can’t too bogged down by that.”

Collison was asked about if he’s thought about next summer. “You can’t ask yourself an unanswerable question.”

Collison followed McGary and as they walked by each other McGary said, “Your hair looks good, bro.”

Westbrook was asked to share how he proposed: “Ha. Hahaha. You will never know.”

Something about Westbrook: He never makes eye contact with the person that asked him a question. He just stares down at the table or off at nothing in particular on the wall or something.

Kevin Durant talked for nine minutes and 47 seconds. He wasn’t asked one thing about his future or what he might do in 2016.

Durant was asked about what he was going to do for his birthday today. “Talking to you guys and then we got a team meeting tonight, so that’s it.”

Durant summed up backing out of the World Cup pretty simply: “I didn’t want to be in full season mode in August and July.”

Jeremy Lamb’s hair is the same length as his face. It’s going to be tough this season talking to him and maintaining eye contact. I’m gonna be like Jim when he’s only staring at Dwight’s forehead. “Meet my eyeline, Royce!”

Lamb on competing with Jackson for starting: “Reggie’s definitely one of my best friends. We laugh and joke a lot. Of course we’re competitive on the court. He’s very competitive, I’m very competitive. He’s a great player. We have a great relationship. I can talk to him about things on and off the court. He always tells me, like how he said he wants to be the starter, if you don’t want to be the starter, if you don’t want to be the starter, then there’s something wrong with you.”

There is no media awkwardness quite like when the training camp invites come in for their availability. “Uh, how, um, do you think you can, um, how was your summer?”

Perk said he ended last season weighing 298 pounds. He weighed in today at 276 pounds.

Perk: “We’ve always had the talent. I’ve always said it’s about how fast we’re going to grow up. How fast we’re going to mature and how fast we’re going to be willing to sacrifice. When I was in Boston, I played with a few Hall of Famers, but they were towards the end of their careers, so they didn’t have a problem with sacrifice. Well now you got guys like KD and Russell, they in their prime. You got Serge, trying to make a name for himself as far as being an All-Star, so it’s kind of hard to try and ask them to sacrifice, especially before the All-Star break. But the thing is, if we’re going to get where we want to go, you watch San Antonio who won it all this year, they sacrifice from the beginning to the end. They play the same way all the time, they play right all the time, they trust everybody on their team all the time, one through 15.”

Will that sacrifice include him coming off the bench? Who knows. Perk said he sees every training camp as an open competition for starting spots, outside of Westbrook and Durant.

Perk said he watched a lot of film of himself playing with the Celtics because he needs to get his confidence back. “I just kept telling myself I need to get back to playing like I did in Boston. And that’s all I keep telling myself. That’s where my drive is at.”

Asking good, interesting questions is hard sometimes, but man, enough of the “what did you work on in the offseason?” questions.

Moderately interesting: Both Mike Gundy and Bob Stoops hold their weekly media luncheon on Monday, and yet most of the Oklahoma media was at Thunder media day.