PJ Tucker had no interest in eating goulash.
It was during the 2008–09 season, and Tucker was somewhere in Ukraine, playing for BC Donetsk of the Ukrainian Superleague. Tucker, when presented with a Central European staple, decided he needed something else during the team meal.
"For team dinners in Europe, everyone eats the same," said Chris Owens, Tucker's partner with BC Donetsk and fellow product at the University of Texas. "There's no special order. You might [choice] chicken or steak, but you can't find custom food."
Tucker thought there should be a McDonald's nearby, but none of the passes were open enough. Owens said Tucker resorted to some Snickers bars with whatever he found for dinner.
"The next day," Owens said with a laugh, "we were on the bus, and he said, 'Man, I'll give $100 for a Chick-fil-A sandwich.
When he wasn't looking for team dining options, he was looking for high-end fashion.
"When we went to [Kiev, Ukraine's capital city] he always went to the Gucci store," Owens said. "He was always in a Louis Vuitton store.
"He used to go to any kind of fashion store, [but] he didn't go shopping. He used to study it. If there were some [trendy] clothes, he was [going to] go."
Tucker's taste in clothing and sneakers—the more flashy, the better—couldn't be further from the working-class ethos he presented in court. Tucker has established himself as one of the NBA's ultimate competitors and glue guys during stints with the Phoenix Suns, Toronto Raptors, Houston Rockets and now the Milwaukee Bucks, having acquired him before the March 25 trade deadline. Had taken.
Tucker's professional career has spanned 11 teams across three continents—each stop with a story to tell about the 36-year-old travelogue forward playing on the NBA's biggest stage for the first time.
But for every tale of Tucker's elite-level fashion sense or a fond memory of locker-room antics, there are double points about a near-legendary competitive streak that wielded an undersized power to build a decade-long NBA run. allowed to proceed.
After being drafted in the second round by the Raptors in 2006, Tucker spent one season in the NBA—he played a total of 83 minutes for Toronto—before moving overseas. He then spent the next four years playing in various leagues in Europe, playing in Israel, Ukraine, Greece and Italy with varying degrees of success.
After a disappointing 2010–11 season that saw him split time between Greece and Italy, he came under the radar of Bros Bamberg, a team in the German Bundesliga.
Tucker's ability to factor into the short-ball lineup—something that has translated into his NBA career—initially pitched him to then-Bamberg head coach Chris Fleming and the team's scouting staff.
But once he brought Tucker in, Fleming said he was most impressed by the way Tucker had brought the locker rooms together.
"We had a team with an older Serbian guy who didn't speak particularly good English," said Fleming, who is now an assistant coach with the Chicago Bulls, "and P.I.
"American players, young German players, he had the ability to reach everybody."
This is a feature that extends back to Tucker's days in Texas. During Tucker's freshman season in 2003, some players opted to attend the annual Texas–Oklahoma football game at the Texas State Fairgrounds in Dallas.
Not only did they appear, they also decided to make an appearance at the Red River Rivals game.
"We decided to wear a 'F---U, I'm from Texas' shirt for the Texas-OU game," said Royal Ivey, an assistant for the Brooklyn Nets who played with Tucker in Texas.
"It was not a smart idea."
This was before the age of smartphones, so no one ever photographed players walking around in their colorful clothes. But that didn't stop word from going back to longtime Texas athletic director Delos Dodds, who instructed him to write an email apologizing to fans for his actions.
"[Tucker] asked me to put on a shirt. I was like, 'Man, what am I doing? I listened to him!'" Ivey said. "But she has that influence, man. Everyone is attracted to her because of her personality."
It was also a large part of the appeal that the Bucks made when they acquired him from Houston by the March trade deadline to help Milwaukee eventually make it to the NBA Finals this season.
And that's why so many players and coaches from his past are working so hard for him to rise to the top and win the championship this year with the Bucks, who go 2-1 down to the Suns and enter Game 4. Has been doing. NBA Finals (Wednesdays, 9 p.m. ET on ABC).
"His laugh is one of them, if I'm in a room and hear his laugh, I know who it is," said Rick Barnes, Tucker's head coach in Texas. "Friends love to be around him."
Tucker went toe-to-toe with Kevin Durant for nearly every second on the court during Milwaukee's seven-game East Finals marathon against the Nets.
Throughout the series, Tucker talked about the joy he got from trying to close down one of the league's all-time great scorers.
"It's the playoffs, man," Tucker said during that series. "I don't know what people think. That's what we dream about for the rest of our lives. You dream of being in the playoffs and protecting the best player in the world. Like, I'll die right there."
"I'm living my dream. I'm not holding back. I'm fighting for every inch. I don't understand all these little things. Me and Kevin fight every year. I've fought every year." His defense is the playoff."
But there can be no better example of Tucker's drive than what he did in Game 7 of the 2018 Western Conference Finals against the Golden State Warriors. Tucker - playing hours after having a root canal on three teeth during the Rockets' defeat in Game 6 - lasted 45 minutes, protected Durant's lot, and finished with 14 points, 12 rebounds, and 4 steals.
"We missed those 27 3s in a row," said Rockets coach Mike D'Antoine, but he got about 15 of them back with his relentlessness, exaggerating slightly on the eight offensive rebounds pulled off by Tucker that night. said.
"He was doing everything to keep us in the game until we hit a few shots - which we never did - but that alone kept us in the game.
"All that stuff that's invaluable for trying to make a championship team. He was the best."
Tucker's competitive streak was in line with that of former Suns general manager Ryan McDonough.
Tucker finally returned to the NBA in the 2012–13 season after winning the German league title with Bamberg a year earlier, as well as being named an All-Star and MVP of the championship round.
But after he played 79 games—and started 45 of them—for the Suns that season, McDonough asked Tucker, then 28, to be part of Phoenix's summer league team.
In a setting typically reserved for rookies and young players, Tucker was given what was essentially a glorified effort, given that his deal was not guaranteed for the next season. Tucker joined the team without complaint.
“He fought absolutely hard for the championship game,” McDonough said, “where we lost to Golden State and a young man named Drummond Green.
"[Tucker] was the same guy you see in the playoffs right now: setting up the hard screen, diving to the floor, crashing for a rebound."
Tucker earned his roster spot with the Phoenix and started 81 games for the 48-winning team during the 2013–14 season, the high point of the franchise's decade-long playoff drought. He then signed a three-year, $16.5 million deal to stay with the Suns.
Tucker was a rare source of credibility to the Phoenix franchise, having had four head coaches during his four-plus-season tenure and committed to a rebuilding plan in the middle of his time with the franchise. He refused to turn down the game, managing multiple aches and pains or regardless of the Suns' place in the standings.
"I'd ask my [trainers] about that, and PJ's would overhear me and say, 'Of course I'm going to play f---ing! McDonough said. "We could be a mile away from playoff contention and play a bunch of teenage boys and lose too many games. PJ still wanted to play because he's the final contender."
But Tucker's longest-lasting influence on the Sons may have been mentoring the budding superstar who steered them to two wins from their first title: Devin Booker, an 18-year-old lottery pick ahead of Tucker's fourth season in Phoenix. Arrive.
"We all knew he was going to be really good," Tucker said of Booker. "Like, he wasn't just good, he was really good. Being his teammate at the time and being the vet on the team, it was my job to make him better."
As far as the Bucks' 2021 title chances are concerned, Tucker probably did a great job.
"I've seen them go through a fight at the practice facility several times, talking to each other," said former Sons guard Leandro Barbosa. "[Tucker] is such a great defensive player and a physical player. He took it to Devin Booker, and Devin Booker took it. I told him every time he went against PJs: 'If you can succeed against him. If you are, then you will be successful against anyone.'"
That mindset is how Tucker has made himself such an essential part of victories during his time in the NBA. Whenever he steps on the court, his opponent knows he is in for a long night.
He has brought that confidence to the Bucks who, after Sunday's win, are now three wins from the final prize and the ultimate recognition of Tucker's globe-trotting career. But regardless of how these NBA Finals rock out, it won't change the way Tucker has impressed so many during his basketball journey.
Ive said, "That's what he does wherever he goes. He leaves his fingerprints or his sneakerprint — some sort of print — on that outfit."
"He's one of those guys you don't want to play against, but everyone wants PJ Tucker."