P.J. Tucker’s top-down, fingers-lost, Ukraine-stop, wild ride to the Sixers

P.J. Tucker saw a man’s fingers blown off, courtside.

His owner in Ukraine dropped a duffel bag in the middle of the locker room with $10,000 spilling out of it as an incentive to win one game.

He gave up $6 million a year to stay out of Sacramento and play with James Harden.

He was so bored in Milwaukee that he rode top-down in 20-degree snowstorms and regularly flew to Chicago to get fed.

Now, he’s the Sixers‘ enforcer. Basketball opened the world to this North Carolina kid. From Milwaukee to Miami, from Jerusalem to Donetsk, Tucker has dribbled and shot through match-up zones and time zones, and eventual war zones.

He’s kept his eyes open; he’s kept his ears perked, and he’s kept his mouth shut, unless he was filling it with local delicacies. He’s a foodie, except in Germany. He’s a car guy who drives convertibles when it’s freezing. He’s an ambassador who‘s seen tragedy. And, at 37, grizzled and tough and driven, with an NBA Championship on his resumé, he’s the newfound soul of the Philadelphia 76ers as they seek their first title since 1983.

In his own words, in a series of conversations, Tucker told The Inquirer what he’s learned — and eaten.

-- Tucker spent time as a military brat in Germany and was the North Carolina player of the year in 2003 at Enloe High in Raleigh, N.C.

There were other Black kids on the base in Germany, but I just remember feeling alone a lot. Having my ball — that was it. I was there until, like, first grade. And I was huge. I was a 5-foot first-grader. It might sound cliché, but it was all I had, and I couldn’t speak the language. Then we moved back.

I definitely learned how to be a man in Raleigh. I learned to dream in Raleigh. It’s basketball country. That’s all you see there.

My first hoop? A crate on a tree. Then, one Christmas, I was a little older, I got my first goal. It was crazy there. We’d have 200-300 people at basketball tryouts. Guys would show up, knew they weren’t going to make the team, but saying you tried out for basketball — that was important in Raleigh.

Food: North Carolina barbecue, man. There’s nothing like it.

-- Tucker was Big 12 Player of the Year as a junior at Texas in 2006, and loved Austin.

When I went to Texas I learned how to work hard. It was my first time being alone. I didn’t know anybody. Rick Barnes, the coach, knew that, and he went to work. He knew I’d have to do the little things, and he built the intangible stuff I do now. He told me: “If you want to be good, this is what you have to do.”

I believed everything he told me. I worked on closeouts. How to body up. How to ride guys through the lane. Find a boxout every time. Sprint downcourt, don’t jog. Not being greedy. Getting better and being focused when you’re tired. Locking in on details. If me and another guy had the same level of talent, that’s how I would get picked over him (hands at different levels).

That’s the stuff. All the things people say you can’t teach, he taught me. I already had it in me, but he elevated it to another level.

Food: I was in college, man.

-- Toronto picked Tucker in the second round, but he didn’t fit, and played just 17 games as a rookie, and learned that change can be good.

I didn’t even work out for them before the draft. I didn’t know why they picked me. I really wanted to go to a couple of teams that were behind them. They said they picked me because I was the best player on the board. Whatever.

They said it was roster-based. They had a lot of wings. It was hard to even get reps in practice. Teams weren’t going to use me the way I’d been used in college.

Then came one of the worst days of my life. Sam Mitchell, my coach, told me, “You need to go overseas and learn how to play.”

I looked at him like he was crazy. I was just Big 12 Player of the Year, second-team All-American, averaging 17 and 10. And I’m like, ‘I’m here,’ like, in the NBA. But it was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Food: Greektown food in Toronto is amazing. Ray [Chow, the Raptors’ massage therapist,] he grew up there. He knew all the spots. Little Italy, too. When you get out of downtown Toronto, it’s even cooler. What about that delicious Canadian dish of French fries, cheese curd, and gravy? Poutine? Uh, no. I’m not a big fan of it.

-- Tucker listened to Mitchell and, after the Raptors waived him, played the next year for Hapoel Holon in Israel, where he won the title and was the league and finals MVP. He got a chance to play ... and a chance to see what terrors lie in the sports world beyond the U.S. A security guard lost three fingers when, near the end of a close a game in Jerusalem, a fan threw a powerful firecracker near the bench of Tucker’s visiting Hapoel Holon club.

I just wanted to play. I could have gone to camp with a couple of different NBA teams but I was so burned out on the NBA. I’d already sold myself on going overseas. I’m No. 17 because I played in 17 games my rookie year. I look at it in my locker every day. I feel it still: “Know where you came from.”

It was an opportunity. They told me I was going to come there and be “The Guy.” [Israel hoop legend] Anthony Parker was with the Raptors then. He was, like, the Michael Jordan of the Israeli league. He said, “Just go.”

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I learned how to lead men on a professional level into action. How to galvanize guys when things are going bad. It was one of my biggest leap years. And the firecracker thing ... That really happened. It was on CNN. You can YouTube the video. It was a pipe bomb, not a firecracker. We’re in Jerusalem, we’re about to beat Jerusalem. Their fans are are like gangs. They’re mad because we’re about to win.

They throw it on the court. They’re down on one end. We’re on the other end. A security guard runs out to grab it. He picks it up — BOOM! There’s smoke. Next thing you know, the smoke clears. He’s on his knees. You can see his fingers are gone.

We take off. Game’s over. We’re like, “They’re shooting.” It’s Israel. We were, like, “It’s about to go down!”

Food: I would get me a schnitzel (breaded chicken) and a falafel. But only off the street.

-- Success in Israel meant a bigger payday in Ukraine, where Tucker spent the next three seasons in Ukraine. Then and now, he came to learn how harsh the world can be.

I mean, now, the war, man. The first time I saw pictures of the airport and the downtown area where I lived, I cried. Donetsk is, like, nothing now. It isn’t even a city anymore. Beautiful people. Some of the best people I’ve ever met.

My teammates would come in at halftime, take a shot of vodka, smoke a cigarette. Most guys had real jobs.

One of them used to drive buses. Imagine being a professional basketball player and driving a city bus. He was a solid player, and he was 6-7, 6-8. Real lanky. I’d show up to the game with my driver, in my personal car, and I’d look over across the lot, and a bus would be dropping him off the practice. At least he rode free.

When I was there, I mean, I’d always thought I was pretty tough. Sticking it out there — I’m proud of myself. It’s a really hard place to play if you don’t love it. Just living. (Sigh) Especially in the winter. Waking up in the daytime, you might not even see the sun for two weeks. It’s just dark. Gray. It was ... The. Most. Depressing. Thing. I’ve ever seen in my life.

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And it’s so far away. You can’t get people to come see you. It’s actually closer than Israel, but it’s a whole world away from Raleigh and Austin; I mean, it’s not Americanized at all. It’s like being on another planet. And all you’ve got is basketball.

I had a Serbian coach. They are … different. We played in three different leagues. It was really hard on my body, those years, being ‘The Guy.” The P.J. Tuckers of the leagues were guarding me.

Russia and Ukraine are the top-2 in pay. That’s where the money is. I played for the Ukrainian guys, my teammates. I made real money. They didn’t make money.

The owners there, they’re all friends. They would bet on games. And other stuff.

I’ll never forget. Our owner walks in before a game with, like, $10,000 in cash, in a duffel bag. He comes right to me. Drops it right at my feet. Says, “Win the game.”

We’re gonna split that if we win. I like money, but all my guys — everybody — is looking at me, like, “Let’s go! We’re gonna bust it down! Dude, that ten thousand’s gonna change my life!”

We won.

But it was really good basketball there. Russia and Ukraine, some of the best basketball. Nobody works harder than Ukranians.

Food: I am not a fan of Ukrainian food.

-- Donestk bankrupted in early 2010 so Tucker went back to Israel for a playoff run: “I probably could go back to Israel when I’m 50. They love me there. That was easy to go back there and finish the playoffs.” Tucker decided on Greece the next season, but he felt like he was on his way out of basketball; in southern Europe he learned that his life is not his own. He got waived, signed briefly in Italy, and contemplated what was next.

I was kind of getting fed up. I was seeing so many guys in the NBA … I don’t know if I want to do this any more. I’d never really gotten my shot. And I knew I was an NBA player.

I was on a bus, driving back home after a game. I turned roaming on on my phone and called my agent. I said, “I’m done.” One-third of the season was left. They were two months behind with my money. The money’s always late in Greece. They’re always waiting on sponsorship money or something; they’re waiting on this, that, whatever. I was 25.

But I couldn’t quit. I was getting married. I had to work.

Food: There’s nothing like going to a restaurant on the water in Thessaloniki. I wasn’t a big fan of Italy. Italian food in America is way better than Italian food in Italy.

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-- And so he found himself returning to Germany, where he first found his love of basketball ... and fell in love with it again.

That was the first sense of normalcy I’d had in a while. It was a full-circle moment. I was going to the military bases, getting food. It was more Americanized than any place I’d ever been.

Germany was probably my biggest level-up. Four guys on that team played in the NBA: Brian Roberts, Marcus Slaughter, coach Chris Fleming, Casey Jacobsen. It was the best team I’d been on to that point.

Being “The Guy” again was tougher. It was the year I put the work in on my entire game. My shot got better. My handle. Playmaking. I had to do it all there, and the competition is good, because every team has four, five six Americans. I’d been the “Joel” on my teams. I learned how to be a role player.

Food: German food is no good. Boiled everything. I hated the smell of it. The wurst? The worst.

-- After five years away from the NBA, the Phoenix Suns offered Tucker a spot on their summer league team. His initial response: No thanks. And then Suns legend Dan Majerle got his hands on Tucker ...

My wife and my agent had to talk me into it. Thank God they did. I wasn’t going. I was done with the NBA. I’d just signed a big deal in Russia: two years, $4 million.

Phoenix called. Lance Blanks, a former UT guy, was the GM there, and he was the assistant GM in Cleveland when I came out of college. I trusted him a lot, but I wasn’t with it. I was taking less money to play in the NBA. I know what it’s like to be on an NBA team and not be playing. So, if it doesn’t go right, I’m back in Europe, starting over, with less money, in some city I don’t want to be in.

But there I learned to trust people and what kind of player I should be.

Dan Majerle was an assistant there. He told me, “You’re going to guard the best player. You’re going to master spacing, shooting the corner three. You’re going to get every loose ball, every 50-50 ball.” He’s just instilled the “dirty work guy” style in me. He just turned me into … him.

I went from being the 15th man on the team to starting on New Year’s Eve. I’ve been starting ever since.

Food: Breakfast at Matt’s Big Breakfast. The pancakes are incredible.

-- Tucker played in all but eight games over the next four seasons in Phoenix, and, in the middle of his fifth season there, he was shipped back to — of all places — Toronto, where he learned what it’s like to be needed.

This time was different. I had value. Now, I’m going to be a guy to help Toronto get closer to winning the ‘chip. Unfortunately, we ran into LeBron’s best year of his career (Cleveland swept the Raptors in the second round).

It happened at the last minute. We were asking for it, me and my people. I was the last trade before the deadline. There was, like, 1 minute to go before noon. We’d had practice. I said bleep it and got into the shower. Devin Booker ran into the shower: “Tuck! Tuck! You’re going to Toronto!”

-- Now Tucker had a brand, and Rockets GM Daryl Morey wanted him to bring his brand of bruiser ball to Houston, and Tucker, at 32, finally got to choose an NBA work site — he’d been free in Phoenix but didn’t feel like any team really wanted him. He got $32 million over four years, and discovered that, like Willie Nelson and Chuck Norris, Texas is where he belongs.

I’m like half-bred in Texas. It just feels like home to me. It’s just an easy place to live.

You get, like, a real big city, but Houston’s very small. Did you know it’s the melting pot of America? It’s the most diverse city in America. You don’t know until you live there how big, like, the Indian community (people with heritage from India) is. It’s insane. The African community, too. It’s insane.

It’s the first time with real unrestricted free agency. In Phoenix I didn’t really test the market, just signed right back. This time I said, “I’m going there.”

I turned down a lot of money to go be in a situation I wanted to be in. It was like, $6 million a year from a couple of places; Sacramento was one, I remember. This was all a P.J. call. My agent wasn’t especially happy about it. (Shrugs) I was. It was my favorite team I’ve ever been on. The most perfect situation all around. Everybody’s on the same page. (Coach) Mike D’Antoni’s the best. Daryl’s craziness. We had MVP James (Harden), hitting on all cylinders.

For guys like me, who know their role and enjoy their role, there’s nothing better. And a very smart Chris Paul, who took a back seat. It’s still the most impressive thing I’ve seen, to see a guy of that caliber say to James, “You’re the guy. I’m gonna play over here, and figure it out.”

Food: In Houston? Tex-Mex. Chorizo queso.

-- By the middle of this fourth season with Houston, the Rockets had lost Paul and Morey and had traded Harden, and Tucker wanted out. The Rockets obliged, sending him to Milwaukee ... angry. And he won it all.

Ooh. The way I left Houston ... Milwaukee was the place I had to take care of the chip on my shoulder. It had just grown so big.

It was like, “(Bleep) everything. I’m running through every wall.” It was, like, put up or shut up. Putting it all on myself. Milwaukee was a time. ... But I had fun with it. And we won.

Every time it snowed I’d drive my Ferrari in the snow and put my top down. It’s an 812 Superfast GTS convertible. It would be, like, 20 degrees. People love you there, though. You never buy a drink. You never buy a meal.

Food: If I had to order a meal in Milwaukee I would order it in Chicago, because that’s where I’d go for dinner. I would literally go to Chicago for dinner and fly back. My agent or my brother would come see me and I’d just tell them to meet me in Chicago.

-- A free agent once again, Tucker signed a two-year deal in Miami. There, alongside Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, playing for elite coach Erik Spoelstra, at the age of 36, he finally learned to relax, and learned to lead through an array of team injuries.

Last year was probably my best year, playing-wise. I got so locked into being “P.J., the Role Player” — playing with prime-time James, Chris Paul, guys like that — it made it easy to just do my job. When I got to Miami, Spo wanted more, I was like, “OK. But I haven’t done that in a while.” It let me play-play.

It was really fun, basketball-wise. Leadership-wise, I grew again. I’d been a leader in so many different ways. You put different fingerprints on it, the mold changes.

This one was more of a “no excuses,” no matter who’s out. Some of the best games we had were when Jimmy was out and Bam was out. We went on a crazy win streak with three G-league guys and (shooter) Max Strus. That was some of the funnest times in my career. And then came Philly, and Joel, and us winning.

That was a really fun series. I thought Jo was the MVP last year. Previous years, when I was starting center in Houston, we’d had some battles. Jo has always respected me. He always knew. I was excited about guarding Joel Embiid in that series.

Food: I’m gonna go somewhere in the Little Havana spots where they don’t speak English, near the arena, and get a Cuban sandwich.

What about Jimmy Butler’s coffee enterprise?

Oh my god. This bleeping guy. His coffee is really good. Don’t put that in. Don’t say that, ever. I will not admit that.

Too late.