Release 5:

Family Ties

Suns guard Langston Galloway brings you inside his on- and off-court life in multimedia diary series

Welcome to the latest “Kickin’ It with LG,” an ongoing multimedia diary series with exclusive access to Suns shooting guard Langston Galloway. He’ll bring you inside the on- and off-court life of an NBA player while navigating the strangest season in league history, including behind-the-scenes video content and conversations between Galloway and teammates.

In Release 5, Galloway dives into life as an NBA dad to his 2-year-old son, Deuce, and how the Suns are approaching the stretch run of the regular season. He also chats with teammates Deandre Ayton, whose girlfriend gave birth to their first child, Deandre Jr., in March, and Jae Crowder, who has a 7-year-old daughter, Jada, about their parenting endeavors, how they take care of their bodies and their kicks collections.

April 19, 2021

It really doesn’t feel like the season is coming to end. But at the same time, too, the games are definitely coming faster than normal. You can kind of tell something’s different. But it’s also been a fun year because of the group that we have, man. There have been a lot of different moving pieces that have been going on.

CP (Chris Paul) and I always talk about it on the bench, it’s like you can tell how different the season is thus far with just the fans being involved. When it’s quiet in the arena, you don’t have the same encouragement when you catch the ball and the crowd goes, “Go, go, go!” They’re always involved in the game. When you have those types of moments, they kind of give guys extra motivation and extra incentive to just to say, “All right, let me go out here and, when I have my opportunity, make the most of it.”

I think we’re still surprising people. I don’t think we’ve kind of etched our spot of, “Hey, they’ve arrived. They’re a team to be reckoned with.” I think a lot of teams still take us for granted. And going forward, it’s going to be like that all year until we get to the playoffs and win a round and win another one. That’s what it’s going to come down to. We’ve got to continue to just have that hunter’s mentality. Going out there and not being the hunted, but being the hunter. Going out there and just racking up more and more wins and just keep eating every game.

When you’re a team that’s trying to achieve bigger things and trying to win a championship, you have to be critical of your game at all times. That’s us winning a game, but saying, “Oh, we made too many turnovers” or “Oh, we didn’t rebound the ball.” There’s always something. You’re never going to have a perfect game, but you want to be as perfect as possible and get a win, number one, but, number two, make sure that you can be critical of yourself. When you’re doing something that we’re trying to do — which is special — you have to have those small goals within the big goal. Winning the game is the big goal, but trying to have small goals within that and just taking advantage of that every single night. In the playoffs, it’s not going to be perfect. There are going to be a lot of ups and downs. But you have to just keep chipping away and finding ways to win games. When it comes down to it, at the end of the game, it’s like all of those kind of small goals, you look back and say, “Hey, we won this battle. We won that battle” and it adds up to a win. You have to really look at the game within the game at all times.

You don’t really look that far ahead on the schedule. You know that each game is important, but you know that this road stretch (at Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Boston, Brooklyn and New York) is really going to prove who we are. It’s going to really show who we are and who we can become.

It’s a fun and challenging experience being a dad. You know it’s never going to be perfect, because your wife or whoever you have at home watching your son or daughter knows that I have to be at work by this time. Specifically, for me, I’m not really playing right now, so I have to put in extra hours and won’t get as much time with the family. It’s a fine line. You really have to balance it as best you can, because you’re going to put in a lot of extra work. When you come home, you know that’s all of your son or daughter’s time. You have to give everything that you have for them and live in that moment. Because if you don’t, they can tell, like, “Dad’s tired and he doesn’t want to play with me. He’s not locked in to what we’re doing right now.” Kids can tell right away, which is so crazy. But that’s how smart kids are. They really understand and know what’s going on at all times. It’s fun, too, because it really teaches you discipline and teaches you that you really have to push through a lot of different things that you’re kind of, like, “Man, I don’t feel like doing this right now,” but you really have to do it. I applaud all the dads that are in this lifestyle.

When we’re at home, I normally try to work it in where I’m going to be at the facility from 8 a.m. until about 1 or 2 p.m. It’s almost a normal work day for a lot of people. I know once I get home, my wife is going to be like, “Hey, look, it’s your time.” I have the rest of the day or however long that window is before I go work out again or do something else that might be critical at the time. Most of the time, my little man takes naps later on in the day, especially once I get home. It’s almost like he finds another level of energy where he’s like, “I’m gonna push through however I feel. I’m gonna go.” I literally get home and he’s ready to roll. He either tells me, “Let’s go to the gym” or “Let’s go ride bikes.” There’s always something he wants to do. I normally take him with me to give my wife a break, and we just go. I try to entertain him as best I can.

He’s truly full of energy. A ton of personality. People who come in contact with me, they know that if he doesn’t want to be bothered, he’ll tell you, “No.” His biggest thing now is he loves being the Hulk. Growing up, he’s watched the Hulk and he’s seen a couple of the shows. His birthday is coming up, so we’re definitely going to have a Hulk-themed birthday party. He’s going to really enjoy that.

I try to bring him to work as much as I can, when we do have time to kind of sneak him into workouts or whatever it might be. He understands that I play basketball. Last year, he understood that I played for the Detroit Pistons, so he’d always say “Detroit Pistons!” Then this year, we’re trying to change it, like, “Hey, we don’t play for the Detroit Pistons no more. We play for the Suns now.” So he’s trying to figure out that daddy plays for the Suns. If he sees a video or something like that and sees me exactly, he’ll go, “Look, there you are, Dad!” He knows that. But then when another basketball game is on, he doesn’t know if I’m on the court or not. When I do bring him into the facility, everybody kind of brightens up. He’ll come around and dap everybody up. He’ll run around and knock all the balls over and everybody’s laughing. He loves being in the gym, and that’s pretty cool, because growing up I never had that experience. As long as I’m playing basketball, I’m going to always have him in the gym, even if he doesn’t want to play basketball, just to be able to have him with me and just be able to enjoy the time that we have to spend together.

From the preseason going into the first couple months of the season, he was upset that I was not at home all the time anymore. He was like, “Dad, where you going?” I’m like, “Daddy’s got to go to work.” And then he would be like, “OK, OK.” Then I would come home or they would go back to Louisiana and he wouldn’t want to talk to me on FaceTime. He was upset because I’m not there. But now, he’s come out here to Phoenix for a long time and hung out with me and done all types of different things. He’ll enjoy it now. When we FaceTime, he’s really interactive now, like, “Dad, what are you doing right now? Are you at practice?” It’s cool to see that adjustment and how he’s learning to grow from that.

We’re getting ready to have our second child. We haven’t figured out what the sex of the child is yet. We have the envelope in our possession and just haven’t opened it up. We’re really excited. The process is coming to an end. It's kind of tough, because I know that she's getting ready and I'm not there because she's back in Louisiana with family. That’s the hardest thing right now is I’m not able to be a part of the whole process leading up to it, because I know how involved you have to be and how important these moments are — especially for her and for little man. He’s getting ready to transition from being an only child to having, “Who is this that just came home? What’s going on? I thought I was the only kid, and now there’s another kid.” I know it will be a process for him. We’ve been telling him, “Hey, you’re about to be a big brother” and he’s like, “OK, big brother! Big brother!” But he doesn’t understand it mentally yet. She’s due May 5. I’m just waiting. Our whole family is excited. Everybody just can’t wait to see what we’re having.

The one thing that I would want all the fans to know is, as always, we really appreciate all their support. We can’t wait to continue to make noise and get to these playoffs and make a run at this championship.

— Langston Galloway, as told to Gina Mizell

Release 4:

Global Game

Suns guard Langston Galloway brings you inside his on- and off-court life in multimedia diary series

Welcome to the latest “Kickin’ It with LG,” an ongoing multimedia diary series with exclusive access to Suns shooting guard Langston Galloway. He’ll bring you inside the on- and off-court life of an NBA player while navigating the strangest season in league history, including behind-the-scenes video content and conversations between Galloway and teammates.

In Release 4, Galloway shares what the Suns are learning from playing in so many close games, how he has worked to carve out his role and how he and teammates have used March Madness to grow closer. He also chats with teammate Abdel Nader about their shared love of reading, why Chris Paul is Nader’s all-time favorite teammate and the support he receives from his home country of Egypt.

April 5, 2021

Right now, we’re in a good space from a team standpoint. You’re trying to establish your identity. You’re trying to figure out the games that sometimes are leaning back and forth, and you’re trying to figure out rotations. There are a lot of different things right now that I think, from a coaching and also from a player standpoint, everybody’s just trying to figure it out all out and trying to see, going into the home stretch, who can you trust, who can’t you trust and going from there. It’s that middle ground where you just have to continue to chip away and take it one day at a time. Because even though it doesn’t feel like these games mean the most, they actually do, because they gain that separation or they gain that momentum that you might need going in later on down the stretch.

I’m feeling great. There have been a couple games as of late that I’m just trying to get my rhythm back and get everything rolling. I might not be scoring the way I’m used to scoring. When I am shooting the ball really well, teams are really just trying to deny me the ball, trying not to let me touch it. It’s definitely a different situation for me learning that. But I’m just doing the little things. I think the intangibles are key right now for me. Even the box score Tuesday night against Atlanta, I might not have scored, but my plus-minus, the group I was out there with, we were playing well. We got the lead. Got a rebound. Got some assists. Just doing the little things even if you’re not effective on the scoreboard.

These close games are going to help us down the road. Knowing that, when we get closer to the playoffs, games aren’t going to be blowouts and everything is going to be close. So these games are actually key for us going down the stretch, knowing, “Hey, how can we be effective? How can we find ways to just pull out wins?” As long as we’re winning, that’s all that matters. But then also, we still have that target on our backs. We’re out there hunting the rest of the teams, but you’ve always got to remember that these are teams that might not have a better record than us but are still trying to get in the hunt or just trying to make their season by beating us. They circle this game on their schedule like, “Hey, look, we‘ve got to beat the Suns. That way it makes us feel good and we can lay our head on the pillow knowing that we beat one of the best teams in the league.” That’s definitely a huge aspect that we always have to take into each and every game.

When it comes to teaching guys in big moments like this, it’s just trying to make sure everybody’s locked in on the bench. Maybe it might be telling a guy, “In this scenario, we should do this, because it will help us out going forward.” It’s always conversation. It’s always trying to figure it out and trying to help everybody, but also learning. It’s great for all of us to just learn through this process, because going forward, you just never know when you’ll be in a situation like this again.

You don’t want to settle for second. You want to be the best team in the league. It definitely is on our mind to say, “Hey, look, if we can play Utah or find ways to gain ground …” But if we don’t control what we can control, then it doesn’t matter at the end of the day. You watch from a side-eye, and then everything else is just on us.

It’s truly a great experience to be able to learn different cultures and just learning from different guys from other countries. I’ve had a number of vets that I’ve been around. Pablo Prigioni, he was on my team in New York, and now he’s coaching for the Timberwolves. It’s so cool to see those guys go from playing to now coaching. It’s a great experience, because you’ve met their families. I really enjoy building those relationships. I’ve played with Jose Calderon. Zaza Pachulia. There’s been a number of different vets that I’ve been around that I’ve been able to gain knowledge from them, but also be able to learn about their culture. I never take it for granted. When I was growing up, you think about every single day, you’re working hard and you’re looking at the people around you like, “All right, I’ve got to be better than this guy and I’ve got to be better than that guy.” But you’ve really got to be better than the world. You can’t just think of players that are in front of you. You’ve got to think about the people that are behind closed doors that you don’t know that are working just as hard as you. That’s what it’s become now. It’s a global game, and you’ve got to think that you’re playing against millions of other players that are in your position, not just the people that you can see in the States.

I’ve been to China for a sneaker tour. I’ve played in London. I’ve played in Mexico. I did an Italy tour. I’ve played all over the world with different tours in college and professionally playing in different global games. It’s been truly a blessing to be a part of it. The game is expanding, and we know that there are so many kids out here in this world that look up to us and they want to be us and imitate what we do. I definitely would put China up there for the history books. You know how big Asia is, and you go over there and you play in front of the crowds and you see all the fans just cheering because they love basketball. It’s become like New York — it’s a mecca of basketball. It’s truly an honor to go over there and play and be a part of those different sneaker events and global games. I always cherish those.

Reading has always been in my routine, ever since I was in New York. I used to live in Westchester, and the drive all the way down to Madison Square Garden is sometimes 45 minutes, but most of the time it’s an hour or an hour and a half. Just to calm myself down and relax and not tense up in the car looking at Instagram to pass the time, I always would just read. I felt like the car ride always went faster just knowing that I could read something or having my audiobook on listening to it in the car. Mentally, I always find ways to just disassociate myself from what’s going on and what my mind is doing and just be able to be in the now.

The last couple months now, being in the Harvard Business program, I’ve been so focused on the cases and learning about those. I’m five cases in now and I’ve learned a lot of different information about the different businesses and the cultures of what goes on with the industries and being able to understand the business side of things, especially for what I’m working on for my startup. I normally go to an Amazon Bookstore in Scottsdale. It’s pretty cool to just go in there and walk around and look at the different books that they have and just look at the different genres of what you can dive into. The biggest thing I’ve been interested in lately has been a lot of motivational books and a lot of books that can help me with business.

One thing that we’ve been doing as a group is coming together more and more. A lot of guys are wanting to grab food in the hotel and find time to watch the games, especially with the Final Four coming up. That’s been a bigger issue for us, not getting that time to hang out as a group. As of late, we’ve really been trying to do that and gain more and more details about each other and try to figure out how can we help each other going forward. That’s really been cool. As you can see, a lot of games are coming down to the wire, and that’s when it comes down to that trust. That trust factor is huge. It goes a long way.

Watching March Madness is bittersweet for me. I was talking to a couple of my college teammates the other day, and we always look back and you cherish the moment of being in the tournament, but we wish we would have gone far and made some noise and made a difference. You always want to win. You always want to find ways to be the best you can be. But at the same time, there’s moments where the ball just didn’t bounce your way sometimes.

But I really enjoy watching the games, and then watching a lot of guys that I grew up with who now are coaches in the NCAA and getting to watch their teams. Hollis Price and Quannas White are coaches on the Houston squad and they got to the Final Four. I was hoping for my college coach, Phil Martelli, he’s with Michigan now, to get to the Final Four, but they lost to UCLA. But I knew the kid Johnny Juzang from UCLA, he played well against Michigan and his team got to the Final Four. To get to see people that you know make it to bigger and better destinations, it makes it all worth it.

It’s huge just to continue to build. From the standpoint of a player, I never want to be satisfied or never want to have a mentality of, “We’ve accomplished a lot this year and that’s all we need to do.” This is a great opportunity for me to just find ways to be better, mentally and physically. That’s what I’ve been trying to work on all season long. I might not be getting the same amount of minutes I’ve gotten my whole career, but it’s being able to be efficient in those minutes that I do get and being able to come out and be a spark, finding ways to just affect games and affect practice. That’s been my biggest mental thing that I’ve been working on internally, just saying, “Hey, look, how can I help the team going forward every single step of the way, no matter if it’s I’m playing 10 to 15 minutes or I’m not playing at all?” I’m just trying to find ways to be effective on a day-to-day basis.

— Langston Galloway, as told to Gina Mizell

Release 3:

Building Bonds

Brought to you by

Suns guard Langston Galloway brings you inside his on- and off-court life in multimedia diary series

Welcome to the latest “Kickin’ It with LG,” an ongoing multimedia diary series with exclusive access to Suns shooting guard Langston Galloway. He’ll bring you inside the on- and off-court life of an NBA player while navigating the strangest season in league history, including behind-the-scenes video content and conversations between Galloway and teammates.

In Release 3, Galloway shares how he locks back in mentally following the All-Star break, what it’s been like to rejoin the Suns’ rotation and how he and teammates have built chemistry amid strict health and safety protocols at home and on the road. He also chats with teammate Frank Kaminsky about his March Madness memories, the origin of his “Frank the Tank” nickname and how bullying affected him as a kid.

March 22, 2021

We kind of take our success so far as a challenge. We went from a team that is trying to get the attention of everybody, to getting their attention and now having a target on our backs. Every single game we come out there, we really have to step our game up. Our name is in other locker rooms, and every team’s trying to make a mark on us. We’re just trying to pinpoint small details where every single guy that touches the floor — or guys that aren’t on the floor — is just trying to help out wherever we can, whether that’s communicating a little bit more or just trying to pinpoint things that we weren’t doing at the beginning of the season until now. We can say, “Hey, all right, we’ve got to get this exactly right, or we’re going to lose this game.”

We know what our identity is. We have to lay our head on the defensive end. Going into the All-Star break, we were fifth in the NBA in defense. The first two games out of the break, we kind of dropped off a little bit, and then we were eighth. That’s a sign of hey, look, we really need to get back on our Ps and Qs and really focus back in on the small details. It’s never anything big. That’s what’s so crazy in the NBA is two points could separate you from being ranked 30th and second. It’s helpful, too, because we get a chance to not just say, “All right, we’re rolling. We don’t have anything to look forward to.” It’s good that you have some stress, some lessons to learn. That way you can build off that moving forward.

The biggest thing that I always try to think about during the All-Star break is, No. 1, how can I get away from the game for a little bit, just to kind of relax and try to enjoy the time that I do have with my family? Because most of the time, during the season, you’re pretty locked in. Also, it’s a great time for me to worry about, “What are some things in my game thus far throughout the season that I’ve had improvements with, and some weaknesses that I need to fix?”

With my minutes fluctuating and not knowing when I’m playing or when I’m not playing, I’m just trying to stay ready. I basically was working out every single day during the break. The biggest thing that I was focusing on was just trying to stay low. Working on my balance. Working on just getting stronger if I want to extend my shooting range out. I’m trying to work on my handles even more and showcasing that I’ve played point guard in the past. I’m working a little more of those types of actions and stuff like that. Especially going into the second part of the season not knowing hey, look, if somebody goes down or COVID happens — anything happens — we need somebody to fill in for that. So just trying to keep my game sharp.

From a mental standpoint, I really was just focusing on my class that I’ve been working on with the Harvard Business School, and also just enjoying the time I had going outside with my little man. Last year in Detroit, I was inside, not doing much. But this time around, I’m able to just freely walk around and it’s a nice day every single day. We went to a couple parks to let little man let loose. We let him run around and ride his bike. Just trying to enjoy the area. I always like going out, getting lost and then trying to find my way back.

E’Twaun and I have kind of been going back and forth in the rotation, and Monty said during Monday's shootaround, “I’m going to go with you this week.” I was like, “I’m ready for it. I’ve been waiting for my opportunity.” You just never know when it’s coming, and when it does come, you’ve got to make the most of it, because you might not get another one after that. When Monty talked to me and said, “Hey, you’ll get some minutes,” I was prepared.

Game shape is different from playing in practice or just working on your game. It’s way different. First couple of minutes, I’m trying to get my second wind. Then once I got my second wind, I was rolling. That intensity and your anticipations and just the excitement of the game — especially when the lights come on — everything kind of raises up. You’re feeling, “Oh, man. I’ve got to make this shot” or “I’ve got to get this stop” or “Hey, I got to get back.” Maybe my assignment might be running around trying to chase somebody on defense. You just never know. It’s always different. That’s what’s always fun about it all. The biggest thing that got me through the first game was my teammates all being encouraging and just excited to have me back out there. And we got the win, too.

KICKIN' IT WITH LG: Langston Galloway Highlights

We played Monday, and then we had a two-day stretch where we didn’t play until Thursday. I was still trying to get into playing shape and just feeling more comfortable while I‘m playing out there, especially running around shooting jump shots and playing defense. I was working out one day, and it was like, “Hey, you guys want to play?” during practice. I think that was the moment where I really needed the opportunity to really work on what I need to work on and really push myself to, “All right, I’m almost there. I’m hitting the turning point where I know that I’m going to be in a great spot going into the game.” Once I felt that in practice, I said, “I’m ready to rock now.” My teammates are feeding off my energy, and I’m feeding off of theirs, as well.

When I was sitting out and watching, I was trying to learn and pick up things that maybe I can add to my game going forward. It was really big to see how CP and Book run pick and roll, and then watching Mikal and how he cuts really well. That was a really great life lesson for me that it doesn’t matter how old you are or how much time you’ve been in this league, you always have an opportunity to learn from something. I’ve kind of implemented that in my game thus far with some more cutting, more pick and rolls and learning how to navigate through that.

I had a couple defensive assignments where I messed up a rotation or messed up guarding a guy and pushing him a certain way. That was something that we watched some film on and definitely adjusted. When you have a coach watch film with you and really break down your game, that’s important, because you just never know how you can evaluate yourself from a standpoint of knowing, “This is how I should be critiquing my game” or “Maybe I shouldn’t be as hard on myself” or “Maybe I should lighten up.” Those are really good areas where the coaches help you dissect your game and see what you could do better or see positions where this might be a better position to get a shot or this might be a better position to attack.

With the condensed season, you don’t get an opportunity to go through a lot of walking through plays and just cleaning up a lot of things that might be second-nature if we had more time. From a mental standpoint, I have to be locked in even more, because whenever I do get my opportunity, the team is going to rely on me right away. That’s exactly what’s happening right now. Friday night, I got in the game, and then Coach drew up a play for me my second play. I’m like, “Man …” But that’s the trust and kind of relationship he has with his players. He understands how much hard work, how much sacrifice that each one of us put into it. Seeing that mental capacity raise and knowing at any moment, you’ve got to be ready to go. And once you come in, you've got to get going.

Everybody on the team has a great personality. Everybody has a different personality. That’s what makes a really good team is when you have a ton of different personalities that kind of combine to make one. I continue to learn how everybody moves and how everybody kind of correlates into this one mesh of a team. It’s been pretty cool to see how guys interact, and I try to help out wherever I can.

We’ve been really competitive from the standpoint of on the floor with shooting contests. That’s kind of where you get those intangibles that you normally get from being on the road and going out to dinner. But these are times where you have to make the most of your time together. And sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes you’re on the plane and you want to take a nap, but you need to stay up and talk to your teammates. You ask them questions and find out more and more details and peel the layers off. You don’t want to just be on the edge of everybody. You want to understand things like, “Who are your parents?” That goes a long way. You just don’t know what somebody’s going through. I think that’s where everybody on our team is. They all try to do the same exact thing, trying to figure out, “How can I help this person moving forward?”

I’ve done that with Jalen Smith. He’s a real quiet person. He sits next to me on the plane, and it’s great because I’ll bump him and I’ll ask him a question and he’ll open up a little bit more. It’s been pretty cool to see that. Especially as a rookie, it’s tough, because he’s just trying to fit in. He’s just trying to find his way and figure out, hey, how can I be better going forward? The conversations that we’ve had, I can see him opening up more and more. Later on down the line, if we’re together on the same team or on different teams, he can come up to me and say, “What’s up, man? How’s everything going?” It creates that bond and that brotherhood that the NBA is.

There has been a crazy bond when it comes to the poker tables that we get to enjoy on the plane and watching guys play card games. You’ll have two different tables going, the varsity table and the JV table, and you have guys interacting and we’ll have celebrations. They get competitive, but it’s a great competitive juice. It builds that camaraderie. There really isn’t anybody saying, “Hey, I’m the best guy out here.” It really goes back and forth. It’s always fun and games. You see guys say, “Today was a good day for me,” and then the next day, “Man, I lost.” From a JV perspective, I would probably say Mikal is one of the elite card-game players. I haven’t played on the planes or anything like that. I do play for fun when I’m at home and able to not worry about the consequences behind it all. I don’t like to get involved in all the extra, like, “Ah, man. This could change something for me.” I like to watch and just to be a part of it. We actually have some other games that we’ve been talking about doing. I’m big with ping-pong. There are a couple guys who are big with video games. That’ll probably be the next huge activity that comes about. I know that’s something we’ll do as a squad sooner or later.

The biggest thing that I want the fans to understand and know is there are going to be a lot of ups and downs on this road. From the standpoint of us competing, playing hard and still learning, it’s not going to be perfect.

You never see me too high. You never see me too low. I might celebrate, but there’s always got to be a balance. When we’re winning, OK, great. If we’re losing, OK, great. Because there are just so many games coming at you that you can’t really get into the fact of all that. You just gotta roll with the punches. I kind of developed that mentality. I wouldn’t say I learned it from an early age. In college, you’ll play two games a week. You get excited when you win one game, and everybody on campus is excited you won. And then as soon as you lose, everybody’s upset. So when you get to the NBA, I think you kind of develop it. You don’t want to just play well for one or two games and then say, “All right, now I can just relax.” You have to do it every single day, and then you gotta come in the gym and do the exact same thing.

I picked that up while playing with so many different vets and great players over the years. I learned it from Melo (Carmelo Anthony). I learned it from being with Jrue Holiday. There are so many guys that I’ve been around over my career that I’ve been able to see them up close and personal and see, “All right, how did these guys at another level take every single game and progress and get better?”

Like Coach mentioned, we’re “not getting happy on the farm.” You expect to win, but you don’t want to say, “All right, it’s a guarantee that you’re going to win.” You’ve got to go out there and earn it. You’ve got to go out there and prove it, and that’s the fun of it all.

— Langston Galloway, as told to Gina Mizell

Release 2:

Shooting For Balance

Suns guard Langston Galloway brings you inside his on- and off-court life in multimedia diary series

Welcome to the latest “Kickin’ It with LG,” an ongoing multimedia diary series with exclusive access to Suns shooting guard Langston Galloway. He’ll bring you inside the on- and off-court life of an NBA player while navigating the strangest season in league history, including behind-the-scenes video content and conversations between Galloway and teammates.

In Release 2, Galloway shares how he balances the intense focus required to be an NBA player with exploring his off-the-court passions. He also chats with teammate Cam Johnson, who is currently enrolled with Galloway in a program called “Harvard Business School and the NBA: Crossover into Business,” which pairs players with Harvard M.B.A. student-mentors to help develop their business acumen and interests.

March 8, 2021

It’s really shocking that the season is halfway over. I feel like you don’t realize it when you’re in the grind of it all. But the games are really rolling. We’re at this point where we’re trying to condense 72 games into five months. That’s a really hard schedule. We looked at the second half of the season, and there’s no two days where you have a full day off where I can relax a little bit and then another day to practice. It’s literally just playing, playing, playing. You've really got to, as a team, come together and find ways to get better and find ways to just continue to gel.

From top to bottom, everybody’s hungry. The Charlotte game, for example, was a perfect example for our whole team, our whole organization, being like, “Hey, look, we’ve done a lot thus far in the season, but we’re not where we need to be at.” We’ve lost a few games here we’re like, “Wow, we should have won this game.” Those are the games that really bring you down to earth and you’re like, “All right, we’re not as good as we think. We really have to bring it every single night.” I think that’s kind of what’s humbled us. But all at the same time, too, it’s kept us driven all season long. I think that’s where we’re at right now. Even though we’ve been playing really well as a team, there’s always room for improvement.

The mentality of staying ready is kind of how my whole career has gone. Going undrafted. Getting an opportunity to stay here in the States and play in the D-League, then getting an opportunity to get called up. Making the most of my opportunities when my number is called and going out there and rising to the occasion. That’s been my whole career throughout the number of teams that I’ve been on — You might be in the rotation one night, or you might be out of the rotation the next night. It’s like, hey, look, no matter what, just be ready when that time is. For me and all the guys that are kind of trying to find a way to get back in the rotation — Jevon, Abdel, Cam Payne — even though we might not be playing in games, we’re playing 1-on-1, we’re playing 3-on-3, we’re trying to find ways to stay locked in to what’s going on. That’s what’s pushing us and helping us get better, because we’re not just saying, “We’re winning. There’s no point in even trying.” It’s a daily grind. It keeps everybody hungry, because everybody wants to get on the court. Nobody wants to sit on the bench. But at the same time, too, those are all lessons. I never consider sitting on the bench as, “Oh, man. Coach is punishing me or something.” There’s a lesson I need to learn, or something I need to grow in my game to get better with and work on.

Coach has put it out there that it could be anybody in the rotation at any given time, any given night. Being a players’ coach has really helped me. He comes to you and says, “Hey, look, we need you tonight.” The next night, “Hey, look, we’re gonna go with a different lineup and switch it up.” Him letting you know your role right away, instead of waiting and trying to figure it all out, it just seems like it comes from the heart.

KICKIN' IT WITH LG: In-game routines

If I’m playing or not playing, it doesn’t matter. I’m still doing the same routine. I’m trying to find ways to stay moving during timeouts. Most of the time, I’m trying to activate muscles that may get tight. You’re in warm-ups getting loose for the game. Then you go sit down. I’m always just doing my movements, whether that’s working on some karaokes or doing some slides or doing some holds in the bottom of a defensive stance or a lunge stance. Just to keep the muscles firing no matter what, because at any moment — God willing, you don’t want anybody to get hurt — but your number can get called. You can be not playing for the number of games I haven’t played and, all of a sudden, bang! You’re back in there playing.

There’s the mental aspect, as well — just being locked in and knowing what’s going on in the game. I’ve done a better job and I’ve learned this over the last couple of years. I’m always just picking and trying to see what can I learn from somebody that is in there that’s starting, like if they see something on the floor that we can exploit or something that we need to be better at. I’m always on the side asking CP questions. Or Jevon Carter and I are on the side talking and trying to figure out, “What do you see? What do you think we can do, or what can we say to somebody that might help them in the game?”

That goes a long way, when you feel like, “Man, this guy is making an effort to just give me a high five.” Or maybe he’s trying to say something to me, or maybe he’s just encouraging. I’m always saying something to somebody, just to keep them going, to keep them energized in the game like, “Hey, keep pushing. We’ve got two minutes left.” You don’t know when that can kind of be reciprocated when you might need that in the game, or you just don’t know what a guy’s going through mentally or physically.

KICKIN' IT WITH LG: One-on-One with Cam Johnson

I’ve always thought, “How can I find a way to broaden my knowledge?” Not just from a standpoint of watching games. From the standpoint of knowing that one day this ball will stop bouncing, and I’ve always been prepared for it. Because I don’t know when it’s gonna stop. It could stop tomorrow. It could stop 10 years from now. I’ve tried to make the most of all my relationships that I’ve built over these last few years and continue to build going forward. I know that I’ll be able to use that as something that will help me go onto my next career. With the NBPA, they’ve done a great job with just giving all 450 guys an opportunity to at least get their feet wet with some type of internship or something that might intrigue you going forward. That’s what I’ve done. I’ve always just wanted to gain more knowledge and find ways to just keep my mind sharp. I love basketball. It’s my No. 1 passion. I put everything I have into basketball. But also, off the court, I do the same thing.

A few of my former teammates, they brought the Harvard Business class to my attention every single season. They’re always like, “Hey, you need to take this class.” I’d always put it off, because the last few years I’ve done other programs. Last summer, I did the “Accelerator” program that the NBPA had partnered with Patricof Co., a private investment platform catered to professional athletes. The summer before that, we were doing a big project with NASA. Every summer, there’s always something I’m adding to my resume. Finally, I was like, “This is the perfect time to go into this Harvard Business class and see where I can really benefit from it.”

I’m truly enjoying the class. My mentors, Mikal and Arielle, that have been helping me with the class, they’ve been really amazing. Both of them are helping me learn the business lingo and just learning things that I remember doing in college but I haven’t done it in a while. So they’re just kind of refreshing my mind. But at the same time, too, they’re just trying to help me with how you can relate all the different case studies that I've worked on. I’ve done Burberry. I’m doing Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson right now. Both of the cases really relate to what I’m working on with my start-up with my wife. That’s how you work with the case. You have to find ways to just have your own opinion, but, two, also answer the question all at the same time. The league is allowing us to come into to a class and watch virtually. It really is as hands-on as you want it to be. I love diving into something that really intrigues me. On the flights, I could be watching a movie. I could be doing a number of things. But I'm taking the time out to read these cases and try to learn and highlight points. I'm making different notations on what's good, what's not good, what can I take away and what can I add?

I actually did the NBPA’s “Sportscaster U” program early on in my career. Most of the guys that were in there were much older than me. Steve Novak and Danny Green were there. We had some great guests. Antonio Daniels did the program when his career was going on, and he was coming back and just helping the younger guys like myself learn it and figure it all out. Them throwing me in the ringer, I was just caught off-guard, because I didn’t know how much research you need to do and how much you have to dive into the game. It really is learning basketball all over again, but from a different angle. At the same time, too, you can have your own spin because you can kind of talk about the game from the perspective that the fan wants to hear about, like the locker room or, “Hey, when I was playing, my team used to run ‘Angle 5.’” Just share that different terminology that you can kind of break down for the fan to understand. That’s what makes entertainment for the fans, because then they feel like, “Oh, I’m a part of it.” I remember when I first started, you had to look at the camera directly as if it were the fan. You have to really show a lot of emotion. I was so nervous that it was all a blur to me. Now, looking back at how I’ve learned how to look at the camera and just be able to be myself while I’m in front of the camera, that’s where I’ve learned that from.

When you’re a part of another teammate getting an All-Star nod, that’s not just a nod for just him, but it’s a nod for the whole team. Everybody feels like, “Hey, if he made it on the All-Star team, I feel like we’re all All-Stars.” It’s always great to see that and just be a part of something special. Both Book and CP have been doing great things this season. Just some phenomenal 1-on-1 skills to finish out games for us. We really rely on them to help us win games. (Editor's note: It was announced Friday that Booker would not play in the All-Star Game due to a knee injury.)

It was kind of a shock to everybody on our team when Book wasn’t voted an All-Star by the coaches, because we all knew what Book brings to the table. I don’t want to say it was a slap in the face, but it’s just disrespectful. They’re saying, “Well, you’re having a great season, but you’re not an All-Star.” No offense to all the other All-Stars that were picked, but he and CP, both of them have elevated our team to being a top-4 team in the West at the time of voting. It leaves more motivation for Book — and for the rest of the team. It’s like we’ve got to go out every single night and prove to these coaches, like, “Hey, look, we’re better than what y’all are making it. Because y’all feel like there’s some doubt that’s in your mind about who we are and what we can continue to be.” We’re going to continue to go out there and prove why we’re one of the best teams in the West.

This year, the All-Star break is going to be different, for sure. Normally, my wife and my son and I, we would go on vacation to some tropic island. Last year, we were in Detroit, so we were trying to get as far away as possible, just to get some sun and to get out of the snow. This year, it’ll be a little different. The break isn’t as long. Protocols are kind of calling us back to the city much faster. We’re really just gonna stay in Phoenix. Just enjoy the sun and get some time to spend with my son. Also, just enjoy Phoenix a little bit. It’s been hard to enjoy the city from the standpoint of not being able to move around as much and just being cautious because you’re getting tested every single day. This will be the first opportunity for my wife and my son and me to kind of venture out and see what else Phoenix has to offer, whether it’s a park or taking my son to the aquarium. Just to get out for just a little bit, but be careful at the same time.

— Langston Galloway, as told to Gina Mizell

Release 1:

Welcome to my Life

Suns guard Langston Galloway brings you inside his on- and off-court life in multimedia diary series

Welcome to the first release of Kickin’ It with LG, an ongoing multimedia diary series with exclusive access to Suns shooting guard Langston Galloway. He’ll bring you inside the on- and off-court life of an NBA player while navigating the strangest season in league history, including behind-the-scenes video content and conversations between Galloway and teammates.

In Release 1, Galloway shares why he signed with the Suns during a quick free-agency period, his game-day routine and how he and teammates have meshed during the Suns’ recent surge. Galloway also chats with teammate E’Twaun Moore, another new Sun who also played with Galloway in New Orleans.

Feb. 22, 2021

From signing with the Suns to where I’m at now, it has really been a roller-coaster ride, because of just how it’s going so fast. It’s so crazy, because normally you have 82 games. This is just the warm-up. You’re just getting stretched out. Now, you look at it and it’s like, “Man, this is a third of the season. This is a huge snippet of the season gone already.”

Within a whole span of like a week, week-and-a-half, my whole life changed. Normally, the process from being a free agent to starting the season, you have the draft in June, and July 1 would be free agency. You’d then have a mini camp or a team get-together in August or September, and normally everybody would show up to the facility a little bit after Labor Day weekend. Then the season wouldn’t start until October. So you gotta think about going from a three-month, huge period where you can kind of ease your way into it, get accustomed to playing with the guys if you’re going to a new team, as well as trying to find an apartment and do all the small things you take for granted when it’s a long offseason. Comparing it to now, it’s, like, really fast. The draft was a day or two before free agency started. Then you go right from free agency to the season starting. Everything happened within that one-week, two-week period.

The biggest thing for me in signing with the Suns was just getting the opportunity to compete for a position at the guard spot. Some of these guys that I’ve played against have been All-Stars and have had that opportunity to go to the playoffs. The Suns organization and Coach Monty and James Jones have built a reputation that they’re putting together a great squad. I think that’s what, mentally, made me think, “Man, this would be great for me to be a part of something like this going forward and really get an opportunity just to showcase what I can do.” Once they called and gave me the opportunity, I jumped at the chance to make the decision to go to the Suns.

I had to be ready, because I stopped playing in March with Detroit. The Suns, they went to the bubble, had a great run at 8-0. But I stopped. I hadn’t played a real, organized game against other NBA players since March. That’s how long I’ve been sitting around. So, from March all the way until December, that’s a long time to be just sitting still. It was definitely nerve-wracking, because you always know that you can still play the game, but at the same time, too, in your back of your mind, you’re like, “Man, this is something new.” Going to the same team, it’s easier. But with a new group, you gotta come ready.

KICKIN' IT WITH LG: One-on-One with E'Twaun Moore

Once I left Baton Rouge, I was leaving for good. I went 2 1/2 weeks without seeing my wife and son. Then once they got out to Phoenix, I was like, “Hey, let’s go get tested real fast. Because I’ve been in a bubble, and you guys have been in a bubble.” One flight can change everything, and it’s nerve-wracking. You don’t want your family coming to town for the first time and they are positive, and then you become positive because you’ve been around them. They came, tested negative and it was all good from there.

We take a rapid test every single day. You can bring some breakfast from home or just sit in the car and wait for 30 minutes until the results come back. It’s like getting called to the principal’s office. They say, “All right, you’re good,” or, “You’re not good.” It’s nerve-wracking, because if you do become positive, you’ve got to go right back home and you’re quarantined for the next 14 days. After that, you have a good hour or two-hour window where you know, “All right, I have to get myself ready for practice.” My normal routine is trying to get in the hot tub, get warmed up, get a lift in before practice. After practice, I’ll come back to the facility late at night or just go home and get some rest. It’s definitely a routine you try to get in the habit of doing.

But then the NBA tightened up everything. We have another test at 5 p.m. now. And that’s not accounting for the number of hours that we aren’t at the gym. You think about practice is from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. or 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and then you’ve got the rest of the day to do whatever. But it’s not really a “whatever” anymore. You used to be able to take your family and hang out and ride around, but now it’s mostly sitting in your room or bringing food from the facility home, watching TV, reading. There’s not as much as we can do outside of the house now. We’re kind of restricted. Because if you go out around people, someone takes a picture of whatever you’re doing, you can become suspended or you can test positive. It’s a lot of “what-ifs” that float around with leaving home and really taking that chance. You have to create a bubble within normal society.

The first day of training camp is like the first day of school. You want to show off what you’ve been working on in the summertime. You want to catch up with old friends. Coming to a new team, I’m not saying I was walking on eggshells, but I was really just trying to learn how people move and understand how people just interact. I like to observe and really just understand how things work. The first couple days, I wasn’t too talkative. To the guys that I’ve played against and knew, it was, ‘Hey, what’s up?” I started communicating and started learning everybody.

When we started going on the road and really having a lot of time around each other, I think that’s when the relationships really started to build. It’s a slow process, because you’d normally have these relationships built in the summertime, when you have that two- or three-month window when we’d go to people’s houses and work out. That’s when you go to dinners just to hang out. We’re catching up on lost time, but also building the relationships as we go. You’re around other players more than your family. You become part of a new family at this stage.

The first cool bonding moment we had as a team as during the Christmas holiday. That was around the first game, and we were actually on the road. We were doing a “Secret Santa,” and everybody was excited because it was a game where you can take somebody else’s gift and you can pick and choose what you want and what you don’t like. It was a pretty cool game to start with, but then it got interesting because people started taking people’s gifts and laughing and it was entertaining. It was fun. Those are those moments that you’re like, “Man, OK, this feels real.” It’s not like, “Oh, man, we have to fake this and really make this work.” It was something real, something that everybody had a great time with. I think that was the first real moment I was like, “OK, as a unit, we’re starting to bond. We’re starting to figure this out.”

KICKIN' IT WITH LG, Release 1: Welcome to My Life

The night leading up to a road game, I normally get some dinner, relax a little bit in the room, watch some TV. I especially read a lot right now, because I’m going into my class with the Harvard Business School, so I’m getting ready for a couple cases. I normally get a 9 o’clock massage right before bedtime. The new norm is that we get up probably about 7 or 8 a.m. and go get a test. I grab some breakfast on the way down there or right after I finish my test. I come back upstairs to the room, relax for a little bit while I’m eating. Right before the bus, I normally do a lift. I call it “The Breakfast Club,” just to get the muscles going and wake yourself up. Cory Schlesinger, our strength and conditioning coach, and I have gotten in a routine. Then, go right to the bus for shootaround, get some shots up and feel good.

Normally at the end of every practice and every shootaround, we always do trick shots. I’m always the big trick-shot guy. I love doing throws from the bleachers, just to get the guys involved. When we had our trip to Houston, I think that’s when it really picked up, because other guys saw me shooting a couple and they’re like, “Oh I want to do something, too.” That also builds camaraderie. Guys are like, “I want to be a part of it” and just try their luck. As the season goes on, you see a lot of guys come out of the shells and open up.

Langston Galloway, Cameron Payne & Frank Kaminsky: Trick Shot Challenge

After we leave shootaround, I come back to the hotel, get some food real quick. I normally do some more recovery, my NormaTec Leg Pulse. Then head to the gym. I’m always on the early bus — that way I can be the first one in there. If it’s possible to walk over to the arena early, I’ll walk over just to get some extra shots. At the beginning of my career, when I played in New York, it was always my MO to be there early. I kind of got that from Kobe, the Mamba Mentality. I got that from Ray Allen, too. As an athlete, you want to put your whole soul into whatever you’re doing and whatever you’re passionate about. That’s what I do. I really put my best foot forward. Make sure everything feels good. Make sure the body’s ready for the game.

I come back to the locker room and read some more of my books just to relax the mind. I’m very serious on the court, but for the most part, I’m just enjoying the moment, because this NBA life is not something you take for granted. It could be here one day and gone the next. Once I finish reading my book, it’s time for virtual chapel. At that point, the clock will be down to 40 minutes until tipoff. I get dressed, have a team meeting at 35 minutes and then it’s time to rock.

This is definitely the best stretch I‘ve had of basketball, us winning six games in a row. This stretch of 11 out of 13. Let’s keep this thing rolling.

It’s really fun, because you just don’t know whose night it’s gonna be. That’s the beauty of basketball. One night, it might be one person helping out. Then it might be another person the next night. Everybody’s just staying ready. The competition level is even higher than ever now, because everybody wants to help out. Nobody wants to sit there and just say, “Hey, I’m just watching.”

You don’t want to let those games that you should have gotten linger. Down the stretch, it’s like you look back on the season and you’re like, “Man, we should have gotten that game” or, “We should have won the last three games in a row.” You never want to have that regret as a team. I think that’s what we learned since the beginning of the season. There were games that were in the balance and we won those games, and then we got to the stretch where we lost a couple against Denver and Oklahoma City and we said, “Ah, we should have won those games.” I think that, from a standpoint of a whole team, we really nipped that in the bud early on with everybody contributing, everybody learning how to get over those humps where we might be struggling and somebody else picks us up and we kind of ride it out to getting a win. I think that’s where, when you have a deep roster, it can really be beneficial. And then also, everybody’s on the sidelines talking to each other, trying to encourage each other. It’s fun when you’re a part of something that’s special that you can kind of see the culmination building up.

Having the fans actually in the arena has been amazing. That’s what we really have depended on every single night. You hear the surround sound from the PA system, but when you really get to see the fans, that brings a whole different atmosphere. I really enjoy it. I know the rest of the team has enjoyed it. And you can kind of feel, once we get on a run and there’s a lot of exciting plays, you hear the “oohs” and the “ahs” and it’s like, “Oh, OK. It feels like basketball’s back now.” You feel like you’ve been playing in a practice gym, and now you’re going back to playing in actual arenas. They’re making a huge difference.

— Langston Galloway, as told to Gina Mizell