cavs.com posted an extended interview with Shumpert.
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The Many Sides of Iman
by Joe Gabriele
Cavs.com Beat Writer
You went to the same high school that produced Ernest Hemingway, Ludacris, Ray Kroc and Dan Castelleneta, the voice of Homer Simpson. What is it about Oak Park and River Forest in Chicago?
Iman Shumpert: It was great, man. Because one, it’s a public school. So you get the best of everything. I thought we got a great education there, very much prepared for college. It was close to the house – I could walk to school if I missed my father leaving for work. We had a great team; I had great coaches.
It’s a very diverse community. I got introduced to a lot of different things, just by going to that high school and being a part of the basketball team there. I was also part of the spoken word club for poetry. Like I said, it prepared me a lot for college.
Ballplayers from New York or Oakland claim to have a unique style. What’s unique about guys from Chicago?
Shumpert: I think the type of ballplayer in Chicago, it’s a test of your heart and your willpower more than a test of skill and shooting. It’s just that, in Chicago, you’re going to have this big bulk of players that they’re all just as good. They don’t do anything great, but everything’s really good. And it’s just about who’ll belly up at the end.
Like, before I got to the NBA, I never heard of: the best player guarding somebody else so he could rest his legs. I had no concept of that. Because where I’m from, if you’re the best player, that means you’re good enough to have the energy to play on both sides.
Of course, I understand it now that I’m in the NBA. That it takes A LOT to carry a team offensively and still have the energy to play defense on the best player. But growing up, especially seeing Michael Jordan do it, naturally, that’s what we were accustomed to doing.
You and Evan Turner came up together. What was that competition like?
Shumpert: Me and Evan played on the same team when we were really young. We only played against each other – I was a freshman on varsity at Oak Park and he was a sophomore on varsity on St. Joe’s. He was over there wearing uniforms and I was over here wearing whatever I wanted to school.
It was fun, it made us bring out the best in each other. Because I was like the lil homie to Evan – because I was short my whole life. And I played point guard and I never shot. I always just gave Evan the ball. When I was in high school and I was getting a little bigger, it was nice where him and I could actually match up and I could score and do my own thing.
How did you feel when you found out that you’d been traded to Cleveland?
Shumpert: It was bittersweet. It was actually pretty weird, too. It’s like going from one superhero to the next.
They’re rivals, and the whole time I’m on Melo’s team, it’s like: ‘LeBron’s the bad guy.’ And then you get traded and it’s like … weird.
But, you know, when I got here, the whole team, they just embraced me. And this is a very good situation over here. But I mean, it was bittersweet because New York was the one who took a shot on me and drafted me. So I always appreciate everything that New York gave me. The opportunity, everything. But I understand it’s a business and they had to make moves to best suit their organization.
You admitted not long ago that guys really play tough defense so they can get out and run and have fun on the other end. Is that your motivation?
Shumpert: Hell yeah, that’s my motivation!
Because there’s nothing more intimidating than being on offense and you can’t run what you’re designed to run, you can’t rest for a second, you can’t throw that easy two-hand pass. You really have to throw that one-handed, no-look pass to keep us off-balance.
If you throw that two-handed pass and I shoot the gap and we dunk it on the other end, that’s demoralizing. Because he thinks: ‘Man, I did everything right – step-through, follow-through – and then LeBron comes in and plays the passing lane and they’re off to the races.’ THAT’s the part of defense that’s fun.
It’s about having to guard the best players in the world on an island. That’s a rush.
Are you OK with defense as your calling card?
Shumpert: For now. I think defense was the easiest thing to do when I played with Melo, J.R. Smith, Tyson Chandler. I thought the easiest thing for me to do was … I’m athletic enough to bother anybody. And we don’t have to have two basketballs for the team to function. And I understood that from the jump.
So, getting out into transition was my thing. I could be the guy to create an energy play or make something out of nothing. That was something that I felt my athleticism could get us. I can get us a steal, get us the ball back, play a passing lane, get us a quick bucket to get everybody feeling good again. Sometimes your offense gets stagnant and you need somebody that can just poke the ball away from somebody, get a dunk and get the crowd into it and get everybody’s juices flowing again.
You haven’t taken many shots, but you’ve been efficient when you have. What’s your offensive philosophy with this team?
Shumpert: One, I was sitting out eight weeks. So you never want to come back and be the guy that starts jacking shots. And I’ve turned the ball over a few times just trying to get back into that rhythm. But you have to learn how to be a piece. And I understand that when LeBron and/or Kyrie are out there, I can make that adjustment – I’m going to have open shots from the floor.
So at night, when everybody’s been getting rest because they’ve been playing the whole season, those eight weeks I sat out, I take it upon myself to come in here (Cleveland Clinic Courts) at night and make sure I shoot those shots that I normally get. I need to be efficient making those shots so that people know that they can’t just tag the big and leave me out here. With us, you have to guard everything.
As a perimeter defender, how much does it help having Timofey Mozgov in the middle?
Shumpert: It makes it so much easier, because I know I can pressure a little bit more.
Mozzie’s a great shot-blocker and he’s a very good vertical jumper, as far as jumping straight up and taking the contact and guys not being able to drive right through him.
It makes me more comfortable with sitting down, pressuring guys and knowing that, if I do get beat, make him beat me all the way to the rim and then, after beating me, let’s see if he’s got the legs to finish over Mozgov. If you do that, you’re very good.
Fans know about defense as your calling card. But some don’t know about your passion for music. Is that something you’ve always been interested in?
Shumpert: Yeah,
I’ve been doing music since sixth grade. A lot of people are like: ‘He’s wasting his time.’ But that’s people who don’t know me.
If you knew me from being little, you know that that’s all I did. I don’t like video games. Most kids played with their GI Joes and Power Rangers and their video games. Not me. I like Batman, I like basketball and I like to rap.
Your mix-tape sounds incredible. How did you put it together?
Shumpert: I took an engineering class at Georgia Tech, I did an independent study, so I know how to mix my own stuff. But I had help from Artie Lloyd who’s in New York, Cash Clay who’s in Atlanta, DJ Set Free, also in New York. I worked with all of them and they really helped me to mix it down and make it sound nice.
But I have another project I did that’s more, it’s more an EP than a mix-tape. And that’s more the music that I do. With that mix-tape sound, that’s what people like, they like catchy stuff. They just want to hear if you can rap or not. But I have an actual project that’s more conscious rap, storyline rap. That’s more the stuff I do – something that’s more serious, more close to my heart as far as what I do creatively.
Have fans been supportive?
Shumpert:
I think some people think I’m trying to be a rapper, trying to hang with a bunch of short rappers and wear platinum chains. That’s not what I do. It’s just like a dude with a day job who’s writing a book. It’s just something I’ve been doing my whole life. And you can’t tell me it’s distracting me, because really, when I don’t do music and I just sit there with thoughts in my head, I’ll just go crazy.
People don’t understand the stress of the game, especially if you go through a losing spell. When J.R. and I first got traded here, we were still losing. In your mind, you have to have something that can give you some release.
So, for Cleveland fans still getting used to it … we have to talk about the high-top. It’s true that your brother still cuts your hair, correct?
Shumpert: My brother’s been cutting my hair since I was in 7th grade.
The hair’s also been your calling card, but what made you bust it down a couple years ago?
Shumpert: I had cut it off. It was at a time when so many people were on me. I had played so well in the playoffs and people were like: ‘You have to have a gimmick.’ ‘It’s time to lock in.’ ‘Contract stuff is coming up.’
And then we played a game where I felt like I had gotten too caught up that I had to play well and the team didn’t have to play well. And we lost a preseason game. And I was kinda pissed at myself. So I just fed into all the bull and I cut my hair off. But I didn’t like it.
I mean I liked it for a little while but then it was like, I didn’t feel right.
But it was probably lower maintenance though …
Shumpert: No. It’s way easier to have a high-top, I think.
Once I get in the shower I just throw some moisturizer in and that’s it. I don’t really comb it a lot. I had to comb it today to train it, to make it able to stand up. But other than that, I don’t really mess with it. I’m good to go.
