Garrett Temple Rumors
All NBA Players
Position: G-F
Born: 05/08/86
Height: 6-5 / 1.96
Weight:195 lbs. / 88.5 kg.
Salary: $4,767,000
Born: 05/08/86
Height: 6-5 / 1.96
Weight:195 lbs. / 88.5 kg.
Salary: $4,767,000
Locker-room leader Garrett Temple said Brooklyn definitely will make a statement, and whatever it is will be a unified one. “Everybody may do something different, every team. Our team, whatever we do we’re going to do it as a team and make sure everybody’s OK with what we do,” Temple said. “But we will do something, and you all will see it when it happens.”
Garrett Temple: “The COVID pandemic happened and then the race pandemic was pushed to the forefront thankfully, eventually, finally. … But there are so many things going on in this world that are so much more important than basketball. We need to make sure that while we focus on basketball while we’re on the court, we need to focus on the rest of the stuff while we’re off the court.”
Garrett Temple: One of the greatest leaders out community has had!! We appreciate everything you’ve fought for and we will continue that fight!! Rest in Power Mr. Lewis!!!
Kristian Winfield: Garrett Temple will wear ‘Education Reform’ on the back of his Nets jersey. @Garrett Temple says there was a players-only call with about 20-30 players last night, making sure everyone stays on topic: “A lot of guys have come down here to make sure the message stays hot.”
Alex Schiffer: Joe Harris requested the back of his jersey says “Equality” on it. His backup choice was it to say “Vote.” He also plans to golf with Garrett Temple on Tuesday.
Nets Daily: Temple big on Rodi potential. “Gonna need him.”
Bobby Marks: Nets roster heading to Orlando Chris Chiozza Tyler Johnson Caris LeVert Garrett Temple Jeremiah Martin Justin Anderson Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot Joe Harris Dzanan Musa Rodions Kurucs Jarrett Allen Substitute 1 Substitute 2 Substitute 3
Despite being committed to making the trip to Orlando with the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday, Garrett Temple said he knows it will be uncomfortable for players to be in the bubble. Temple said he feels a “nervous anxiousness” about making the trek. “There is no way to be comfortable when you think about where you’re going to be, for the amount of time you’re going to be there and the restrictions that you have there,” Temple said Sunday afternoon. “The question of us being comfortable; that will not be the case whatsoever.”
Despite being committed to making the trip to Orlando with the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday, Garrett Temple said he knows it will be uncomfortable for players to be in the bubble. Temple said he feels a “nervous anxiousness” about making the trek. “There is no way to be comfortable when you think about where you’re going to be, for the amount of time you’re going to be there and the restrictions that you have there,” Temple said Sunday afternoon. “The question of us being comfortable; that will not be the case whatsoever.”
During the NBA stoppage, the Nets have shared their feelings about social issues on group telephone and video chats. “I learned a lot, especially from Garrett Temple and Joe Harris, who were talking a lot about the situation and how it was before,” Musa said. “I’ve been here for two years, and I don’t know what the States were like before. They were kind of navigating me through the situation, and I’m just terrified. My heart hurts when I hear those things. It’s really crazy.”
“This is so different,” Temple said. “It’s so new to everybody. I mean, a lot of people have had second thoughts. I would imagine more than half of the league, of the players that are going there, have had second thoughts. We have meetings, and sometimes people don’t speak up, whether it’s young guys or guys that just don’t feel like talking in front of a group. So these things happen. “Kyrie, myself, most of the Black men in the league that are passionate about this — or if they weren’t passionate, most of them are passionate about it now — we want the same thing,” Temple added. “There are a lot of different ways to skin a cat. My thing is, I think we utilize the situation — being in the bubble — as a way to continue to push it, because there are going to be so many eyes watching these basketball games again because of the pandemic, maybe more so now than what we thought three or four weeks ago, because of the uptick.”
Temple, who has been studying for the LSAT during the league’s hiatus, is the son of Collis Temple, the first Black athlete to play basketball at LSU. Collis Temple received threats while playing for the Tigers in the early 1970s, and the National Guard was called in to protect him. As he got older, Collis Temple shared his experiences with his children. Those stories had a profound effect on Garrett, who has been active in the Black Lives Matter movement for years. The 6-foot-5 guard was in Los Angeles in 2013 when George Zimmerman was acquitted in the killing of Trayvon Martin and said he did not recall the acquittal eliciting a notable uproar there. But he said recently he’s seen a change in the movement after George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis. “It made me angry that it was so foreign to so many people, or people just didn’t even pay attention to it,” Temple said. “Fast forward, it seems like people are finally starting to care about unarmed Black men being brutalized by the police and just Black Americans in general being marginalized.”
Brian Lewis: #Nets wing and NBPA VP @Garrett Temple on #NBA restart: “As black men, black people in America…this is an everyday struggle. So I think the way that we can utilize those 2, 3 months in Orlando to continue to push the narrative, to continue to have it on people’s minds.”
Alex Schiffer: Garrett Temple said he’s expecting his first child in mid-September and will leave the team and bubble to be there for it if the Nets are still playing. Doesn’t want to miss the birth of his child.
Malika Andrews: Nets’ Garrett Temple said that while he is committed to playing in Orlando, he echoed JJ Redick’s sentiment that there isn’t a total comfort in going. He says he feels “nervous anxiousness” about making the trip.
Brian Lewis: Garrett Temple said he and fellow NBPA VP Kyrie Irving – along with just about every other black man in the #NBA – both want the same thing. There were just discussions about how to get it. “There are different ways to skin a cat.” #Nets
Garrett Temple: Congrats to my big brother on his retirement!!! We started out as competitors, then became teammates and transitioned into lifelong friends!! As a high schooler watching you win the dunk contest to then being teammates that spoke out on social issues is something I would never have imagined. I appreciate you big bro!! The game will miss you!!! #vinsanity #halfmanhalfamazing
21 Jun
This year, given the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic and the nation’s current reckoning over race and injustice, the Liberty continued that work with a virtual conversation for the 155-year anniversary of Juneteenth. The conversation about freedom, justice, equality featured Liberty point guard Layshia Clarendon and Brooklyn Nets forward Garrett Temple on the panel. They discussed athletes’ responsibility regarding the movement for racial justice and returning to work during the pandemic, which looks very different for the NBA and the WNBA. “Kyrie [Irving] could play or not and people are going to listen to what he says,” Clarendon said. “But our strength [in the WNBA] is in numbers.”
Temple said he sees that side of sitting out to focus on social justice, but believes being in Orlando is “an amazing opportunity.” Players are asking what can be done at the Disney World site, ranging from putting Black Lives Matter on the courts to reading PSAs on the broadcast during timeouts. “Just to make sure that narrative continues to get pushed but also to do our jobs playing as black men,” said Temple, who is studying for the LSAT to potentially be a prosecutor or governor. “We have an obligation to be the voice for the voiceless.”
Temple said his brother has been pulled over and hand-cuffed and he has friends who’ve have gone through similar situations to George Floyd. “Seeing it so many times, seeing friends go through it, it makes you feel as if you’ve been through it yourself,” Temple said. “But it still breaks my heart. You can see so many things happen. And the question is, ‘why now?’”
Paul and Nets guard Garrett Temple, who are with Irving on the NBPA leadership board, provided insights on Friday’s call. Several points were made on the call, according to sources: — Anthony stressed unity, having a sole message and allowing the young players in the NBA a voice. At one point, Anthony suggested having all 80 players on the call donating $25,000 to a cause that they wanted.
As protests and social justice movements have taken place across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s death, NBA players have discussed what role returning to play has in furthering or distracting from the cause. The Nets’ Garrett Temple, a vice president for the National Basketball Players Association, told ESPN that he believes playing games and earning a paycheck is actually one of the best ways players can combat the systemic oppression of black people.
“The difference in the economic gap between white America and black America is astronomical,” Temple said. “I can’t in good conscience tell my brethren to throw away millions of dollars in order to create change that I don’t see the direct impact of — if there was a direct impact of laws changing, that would be a different story.”
The 34-year-old says he believes that players have the opportunity to reinvest some of the money they earn into black communities, citing LeBron James and his I Promise School as an example. “So, when people bring up not playing — we are a few black men that can make a little bit of money,” Temple said. “It is not a lot of money when [you] think about it in the grand scheme of America. But we can start having a little bit of money, create a little bit of generational wealth. “But the fact that us not playing will hurt our pockets, I don’t think that is the right way to go about it.”
Tina Cervasio: Garrett Temple: #Nets Garrett Temple tells me on @fox5ny about NBPA scheduled call, where #NBA Commish Adam Silver will be checking in. “We actually have a call on Friday w/the League. I’ve been on a few calls as 1 of the vice presidents on the executive committee for our union. And just trying to figure it out at the end of the day. It’s so fluid & really nobody has a single answer. We know obviously it’s not going to happen this month, if it does start…maybe late June. Obviously a bunch of different scenarios have been thrown out, but until States, have lifted certain regulations and until we can try to get this thing, this virus under control, we really don’t know what’s going to happen.”
ON APRIL 18, instead of concocting a game plan to possibly defend Giannis Antetokounmpo on the opening day of the NBA playoffs, Garrett Temple was locked in on antithesis passages in his online LSAT prep course. With the 2019-20 NBA season on hold since March 11 due to the coronavirus, the Brooklyn Nets wing has been putting in the hours studying, listening to law podcasts and talking to professors as part of his weekly preparation for the Law School Admission Test.
While some players have tried to fill the basketball void with video games or training routines, others have taken on new challenges to stay sharp. From mastering a second language to becoming handy around the house to diving into a Lego world, players are finding ways to stay engaged. And one might even be law school-bound, with sights on a perfect 180 LSAT score. “I can’t let — what’s-her-name on ‘Legally Blonde’ got a 179 — Elle Woods [beat me],” Temple said. “I really want to do it and get a great score.”
BEFORE THE SUSPENSION, Temple had long been contemplating life after basketball. The 10-year journeyman graduated from LSU in 2009 with an undergraduate business degree and considered getting his MBA. His father, Collis Temple, told him that a law degree would be more beneficial. Collis is an entrepreneur in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and was the first black varsity basketball player at LSU after Temple’s grandfather, Collis Temple Sr., was not allowed to attend graduate school at LSU because of his skin color.
Temple’s interest in pursuing a law degree was further piqued after watching a TED talk by Adam Foss, a former assistant district attorney in Boston and advocate for criminal justice reform. The final push came when Temple met Bryan Stevenson, the nationally acclaimed public interest lawyer and social justice activist depicted in the 2019 film “Just Mercy.” “I think you can create a lot of change in your own community,” Temple said. “Help change the prison industrial complex and school-to-prison pipeline in my community, the black community.”
Other players have taken advantage of the academic and business world in more individual ways. Nets forward Garrett Temple, for instance, is currently studying for his LSAT; Trail Blazers guard C.J. McCollum has spent time working on his real estate portfolio; and Raptors guard Norman Powell is both brushing up on his sign language and learning Spanish through online courses, to name just a few.
Minutes after Sabrina Ionescu was drafted by the New York Liberty, Joe Tsai’s “other” team, the Brooklyn Nets, was ready. The marketing team tweeted out a welcoming video featuring Kyrie Irving, Joe Harris and Garrett Temple. “Welcome to the family!” said Irving. “The Tsais are a great ownership group,” added Temple. “We love them here with the Brooklyn Nets. You’ll love them with the New York Liberty.”
Meanwhile, Garrett Temple has gone back to school. The Nets veteran guard has been hunkered down at his home in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood studying for the LSAT in preparation for law school. The move is an interesting one for Temple, who has long been pegged as a future coach or executive when his playing days are over.
Temple said law school has been on his mind for roughly five years, after his father, Collis, who was the first African-American basketball player at LSU, suggested it to him. The 6-foot-5 guard graduated from LSU in 2009 with a business degree and has always had the desire to pursue his education beyond a bachelor’s degree.
When Temple saw the movie “Just Mercy,” starring Michael B. Jordan, last fall, he was convinced. The movie is based on a true story and depicts Jordan as attorney Bryan Stevenson, who appeals a murder conviction of his client, Walter McMillian. Temple had a phone call with Stevenson shortly after seeing the film and read McMillian’s memoir, which the movie is named after, during the season. “It just really made an impact on me on the power prosecutors have,” Temple said. “Some use it for good, some don’t use it for good. Those type of things had me thinking about something I could be doing.”
Temple said his ideal situation would be going to law school in an NBA market, which would would allow him to work part-time or as a consultant with an organization in order to stay involved in the game, while determining if he wants to pursue a front office job or something else. “I’m definitely not set on going into practicing law,” Temple said. “I’m leaning towards having a degree to open up other avenues and learn information about contracts and reports and different things and have it an asset. Whether that’s being president of a team, a university, owning a team, starting a business, I just want to have that knowledge. I’m going for that knowledge.”
Temple said law school has been on his mind for roughly five years, after his father, Collis, who was the first African-American basketball player at LSU, suggested it to him. The 6-foot-5 guard graduated from LSU in 2009 with a business degree and has always had the desire to pursue his education beyond a bachelor’s degree. He knew that an MBA wasn’t practical while playing basketball, but was enticed by law school after watching a TED Talk in 2017 in which a Candian prosecutor talked about the power his profession has. When Temple saw the movie “Just Mercy,” starring Michael B. Jordan, last fall, he was convinced.
Nets veteran Garrett Temple said he played three-on-three with Durant in Los Angeles on March 11, the day after the team’s most recent game. Like Pinson, Temple struggled to stop Durant — which was a good thing. “The places he scores from, he’s very efficient in the way that he scores and the shots that he takes, even in there-on-three,” Temple told The Athletic in a telephone interview last week. “It really isn’t much different what he does in three-on-three than he does in five-on-five. He assesses the defense and goes from there.”
It took one year for Pierce to make the Wizards his team — and it took shorter than that for him to note the group should never have been his at all. Beal, a respecter of elders, hushed in the moment. Once the lecture was over, the 21-year-old headed to the showers. There, the man he calls his favorite teammate ever played the role of therapist. “Brad said, ‘Man, you know, P always talks to us about yada, yada, yada. But he’ll mess around and do the same shit,’” Garrett Temple, who played for the Wizards from 2012 to 2016, told The Athletic. “You know what I’m saying, man?’” Temple’s feedback? Give it right back to Pierce.
“Well, you know, Paul has never been the guy that said, ‘You can’t tell me shit. I’m Paul Pierce. Don’t tell me anything,’” he remembers telling Beal. “He’s the type of guy that if you see him fuck up, he wants you to point it out and get it right. He’s told you and John specifically, y’all are the leaders of this team. “If you see him doing something wrong, as a leader, you have to speak up and point that out. You can’t not do what he said because he’s not doing it himself, necessarily. You have to take what he says and try to understand the message because what he’s saying is right. Now, he might not adhere to it all the time, because he’s human. But if he doesn’t adhere to it, you need to call him out on it. I don’t care if he is Paul Pierce, a first-ballot Hall of Famer.” Beal nodded along. If he disagreed with anything said, he didn’t show it. “I see you,” he responded.
Garrett Temple spends his quarantine time with his fiancée, Miss USA 2017 Kara McCullough, and their chocolate lab. He also is using the unexpected down time to study for the LSAT law school admission exam and would like to be an NBA general manager or perhaps a team owner. “This isn’t the New York people have seen,” Temple said. “No people or cars. My fiancée and I are fine. I did not test positive (for COVID-19) but some of my teammates did. We quarantined and now we’re staying at home like we’re supposed to. Just us and our dog.”
“Right now, the health of our fans and the world comes first,” Temple said. “Obviously, the ideal thing for us would be play out the rest of the season, but when that would be is unsure. There is a chance this could push back the draft. And possibly the start of next season back.”
Garrett Temple: “In terms of the NBA’s future, I think the biggest thing we need to focus on is how we reach our fans. You have to look at how fans are watching games right now. They are not watching full games like they used to. They watch more highlights on phones and iPads. Interest picks up as it gets close to the playoffs and then when the playoffs come, people watch. Maybe you put in a tournament of some kind at midseason to generate interest. At the end of the season, you could have play-in games for seeds seven, eight, nine and 10. Something needs to change. If not, revenues will decline. No one wants that.”
Service has been a part of Garrett Temple’s family for generations, including his father and his father’s father. And with Temple’s mother Soundra Temple-Johnson very much in the service industry as founder and CEO of LA Health & Rehab Center, he shared thanks for the risks — and sometimes sacrifices — taken on by all healthcare workers.
