The John Salley Story Corner: A New Feature

Every week, John Salley, onetime Bad Boy and currently the arachnoid half of the Spider and the Henchman podcast, will regale us with an amusing and occasionally salacious story from his playing days. Today: Rony Seikaly isn't down with this "postseason" shit.

When I left Detroit to play for the Heat, I rented a house on Star Island in Miami Beach, across from Rony Seikaly. He was living in the house that Shaq later paid $19 million for; Rony built it for $2.5 million. Anyway, my house got robbed, and he let me, my daughter, and my wife move into his place for a week. Seikaly was one of my guys. He knew I wasn't there to take his job; I was there to play power forward. One day, he says to me, "Hey, man, how do you play all the way into June?" Remember, I'd been with the Pistons for six seasons and made the playoffs every year. I say, "What'd you say?" He goes, "The playoffs, third round, you guys play all the way to, like, June 28."

"Uh, that's what you do when you win a championship," I say.

"But you only get paid from November to April. That's taking too much of the summer, man. This is ridiculous."

I say: "Well, playing for a championship is about pride. It's not about money."

He says: "It has to be, because this is some bullshit. You guys play an extra two months."

And I was like, holy shit. I didn't even realize it. I was playing an extra two-and-a-half months, for free.

The above is adapted from the "Spider Stories" segment on the Spider and the Henchman podcast.

Photo by Kevin Abosch