“This City Gives Off A Great Vibe” | Rocco Zikarsky Summer League Sound | 07.08.25

“This City Gives Off A Great Vibe” | Rocco Zikarsky Summer League Sound | 07.08.25

What’s it been like these uh first couple days in uh summer league practice? Yeah, it’s been fun. Um high energy. There’s a great group of boys out there, you know, and just hooping really. Um it’s physical, it’s loud, it’s exciting. Um yeah, it’s great. How have they asked you or what have they asked you to focus on um in your game in this setting of of summer league? Like what what elements of your game? I think the biggest one for me is um running the floor, you know, being a lob threat and then on the defensive end just being the shot blocker that I know I am and you know again playing with energy, playing with um you know being vocal, being I guess a defensive menace I I guess, but yeah. Do they like so offensively obviously you can shoot it too, but sometimes it’s about like where the coach is positioning you. Do they want you to focus more on being that rolling lob threat first or do you think there’ll be opportunities to be a a floor spacer as well? Yeah, I mean the the shot for sure is um coming along. Um but I think for now uh just do what I’m really good at and for me that’s playing above the rim. Uh pick and roll. Maybe you’ll see an occasional three. Um but right now just bring the three into practice and then bring it into games. Have you had a chance to connect with like Joe Engles yet or even Alena Smith who plays for the Lynx? Yeah. Yeah. No, I had a chance to go to uh a couple of Lynx games and and watch her play. You know, she’s she’s a baller. She can really hoop. And then Joe um spoke to him briefly. He was pretty excited. Um I’m pretty excited. You know, we get to to have that Aussie connection all year. And yeah, no, it’s it’s good to have a have a vet that is from Australia as well. Yeah, I mean, Lan has talked quite a bit in with the links at least about how hard it is to move literally halfway across the world. You can’t just call people cuz it’s like 2 a.m. over there. How have you been settling into the city so far? Has it felt a little homey yet or is it still foreign? Yeah, I think it’s settling in. You know, the walk around and the fans here are great. you know that they walk past and hit you with a go Timberwolves or we’ll see you at the games and you know that’s great. I got out to a baseball game. I was able to watch that. You know, it’s uh the city gives off a great vibe and I’m really happy to be here and you know there are some familiar faces with the Aussies walking around. But yeah, I’m really excited to get out and explore a little more too. I after you got drafted, I got quite a few Aussies sending me messages saying that I need to ask you about your high school’s war cry and not to Google it first. Does your high school have a war cry? Um, uh, it depends on what high school. I went to a couple. Um, and I honestly cannot remember any of them off the top of my head. Um, no disrespect to any high school, but um, yeah, I I I don’t remember any. I’m going to be honest. Okay. What was So, you were working with JD. Yeah. JD Jones. Yeah. What? Watch a little bit of like what that was like cuz that was last summer that you were Yeah. So, last summer and this summer. So, I did my um I did like a pre pre-draft, I guess, um when I wasn’t eligible for the draft uh last year, and that was working with JD and working with a couple of draft prospects and you know, just getting the vibe for what American basketball is like and how it’s a little different from Australian basketball. Um and then this year I went back to H4, was with JD Jones and Dolan and bunch of guys down there and you know, it’s good. You’re able to come back to a city you’ve spent two months in. Um, and those guys, you know, they prepared me. They did a really good job. So, yeah, really thankful for them. What’s uh what stood out about playing with Rob dealing to these these practices? He’s just elite. Like his pick and roll, it’s it’s tough to guard. I haven’t had a chance to be on his team yet, but guarding him in the pick and roll is uh very tough. Um, you know, he’s he’s our leader of the group. Um, he’s going to have a great summer league and and watching him play now just looks easy for him to be honest. What what makes it tough is like what he can kind of do in that in between range if you’re kind of going back to the basket. Yeah. You just you don’t know if he’s going for the for the midi, he’s going to get past you. You know, he’s reacts really quick to whatever you do. So, I think that’s what makes it really hard. Coach was just in here and saying that, you know, you might have gotten the best of Terren Shannon on one of those dunk attempts. Do you mind just walking us through that a little bit or? Uh yeah, he tried me yesterday and I got a I got a hand on it yesterday, but it wasn’t that great. And then today he really really went for it. I just went up two hands, see what I could do and I sent it back. So that was pretty cool. You know, I know people are going to try me, but I’m not going to shy away from it either. Is that like scary enough? Look, he’s uh look, he just puts his head down and goes and you know, it’s it’s what I do. I’m a shot blocker. That’s that’s my role. I got to jump with everyone. Whether it’s Anthony Edwards, whether it’s Terrence, you know, it could be anyone going up. My expectation is I’m going to go up there and block it. So, I’m just going and and hoping that I get a hand on

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