Nicolas Batum Talks All Things Brandon Roy

Huge h/t to Blazers Edge for the translation of this interview with Nic Batum on Brandon Roy. I've highlighted just a few notes that caught my eye, but be sure to read the rest over at BE.

Roy the biking machine...

He's a simple guy and it's obvious. For example, he only has one car. All the veterans have two or three. I've already seen him come to practice on a bike... We live in Portland, a very green city. But seeing your franchise player arrive on a bike, in this environment, is pretty funny... With Brandon, I'm in good hands. It's in my best interests to listen and follow him: his personal career is a total success, from every point of view. I doubted my arrival in Portland after the end of the summer league... Today, it's the complete opposite, I'm really happy to be with the Trail Blazers. A big part of that is thanks to Roy that I'm living this adventure so fully.

Roy the trash talker...

That was a bit new last season. As he was succeeding, he started to talk trash. In November, he wasn't like that on the court. Now, as soon as a player starts to make him sweat, he dishes it out. He doesn't hesitate to talk trash. It follows the evolution of his game: they go hand in hand. Brandon knows that he's playing better and better. He also knows that his opponent will play harder to stop him. So he tries to find something else to put a barrier between the others and him. He's becoming more and more vicious. Chalk it up to experience.

Roy the easy rookie hazer...

Last season, I was his rookie. It's better to be Brandon Roy's rookie than Joel Przybilla's rookie. He chose Jerryd Bayless and I can assure you that Jerryd went through hell... Joel didn't stop asking him for different things. For me, I only had to take Brandon's bag and bring it up to his room when we got to a hotel. That's all. I knocked on his door to make sure that everything was fine and he would answer: "OK, Nic, thanks. Goodnight." And then I could go. Bayless, however, had to go look for newspapers or different things for Przybilla.

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