After becoming a state champion in his native Indiana during his high school career, and spending four years at Duke under coach Mike Krzyzewski, seven footer Mason Plumlee found it simple to blend in with a Brooklyn Nets team last year with very real aspirations beyond the first round of the playoffs. In our conversation with Plumlee last week, we touched on his unending drive to get better, the self-sacrifice necessary to win, the fun of blowing up zombies and much more. *** *** *** Dime: Have you been a fan of the game for awhile? Talk to us about how you got into playing Call of Duty.

Mason Plumlee: In college it was so big because our whole team played it. And then my brothers — I mean, I’m not as good as my brothers — but it was the most fun game. Especially, the zombies. We’d all just get together, and we’d play that for — man — who knows how long. You just get into and go level by level and obviously, it never ends. We’d always try and better the time we did before and it was just a fun game where we could all get together and play. Dime: So your brothers, you’ve got your younger brother Marshall and your older brother Miles. How much better are they?

MP: They’re significantly [better]. I’ll be honest, they pull weight when they play. That’s why I like being on their team. When they want to play against each other, I wouldn’t really do that because it’s unfair. But I’m a good role player in Call of Duty. Dime: Some would say the same about you on the court, too.

MP: You gotta know your role. I take what I do on the court more seriously, though. I’m just doing what I got to do now, tryin’ to add to it [laughs]. Call of Duty is just I kind of was what it was. Dime: The new Call of Duty: Advanced Warefare is out, do you bring it on the road with you in the season, or is it strictly an offseason thing?

MP: Well, I’ll keep it at home. And I’ll play it at home. To me, video games I like to play with my friends. I’ll never just play on my own. If I get some people over, or log in online, then I’ll definitely play, but I don’t travel with it. Dime: When you play online, do people know it’s Mason Plumlee, center for the Nets?

MP: No, I only have my brothers and my friends. Dime: So you’re not going online and taking on strangers?

MP: Nah, nah. I can’t deal with people talking s**t to me that I don’t even know. Dime: At least in the NBA you’re facing a guy.

MP: Yeah. Dime: So lets get on to hoops. You mentioned the trash talking, and you play with someone, Kevin Garnett, who a lot of people call one of the best junk talkers of all time. What’s it like playing beside a future Hall of Famer? What are some of the things he’s taught you?

MP: Well he’s a great veteran to have. Because he’s willing to teach you what he knows. I’m not sure that all vets are as open as him, as caring about the young guys on the team. So I’ve benefitted from that immensely and really there’s no one as passionate day-to-day as Kevin. It affects the whole locker room, but especially the young guys.

Dime: [Garnett] is one of the best at switching which side the screen is coming from on offense. You guys run a lot of high screen and roll, has he given you any pointers in terms of that high screen you set for Deron [Williams]?

MP: Yeah, his biggest message, even from last year, has been ‘just play for the next guy.’ So he’s big on setting screens, making the right pass, just being about the team. Say I don’t set the screen, or I don’t get someone open, he’s calling me out for being selfish. So that’s his view of the game. If you aren’t sacrificing yourself to make someone else better, then you’re playing selfish — whether you’re taking a shot or not. So, he just has a higher level of understanding for the game. He’s very vocal too, so you’re going to know what he thinks as a teammate. Dime: That team-first philosophy you mentioned about Garnett and I’m sure Coach K preached while you were at Duke —

MP: That’s just the way that you play. It doesn’t matter what team you’re on; it doesn’t matter if you’re at the YMCA playing pickup, that’s just who you are as a player. If that becomes who you are, you can’t just turn it on and off. Dime: Was that something where you’ve always been like that, or was that something you developed?

MP: Yeah, I’ve always been about the team, since high school. I played on a team in high school that was very good and we won a lot of championships. You know, those were teams where no guy was averaging over 15 points per game. And in high school to be on a team and nobody’s really scoring in bunches, that’s rare. It was kind of the same way in college. We had a lot of good players on the team in college — I mean at Duke we had guys put up big numbers — but it was always about the team and trying to win for Duke. Click for more, including Plumlee’s reaction to Joe Johnson’s quote about the team playing selfish on offense… Dime: Do you think if you became the primary, or the focal point, of the offense, you’d be able to transition to that role, where you are that primary guy?

MP: Yeah, I would love that. Of course that has to be earned. So I’m just trying to show the coaches and the team that I can handle what they’re giving me right now. That opportunity will come — there’s no doubt about that, but when you have a team with Joe [Johnson], and Brook [Lopez] and Deron [Williams]…those guys, they’re guys who have done it and done it for a lot of seasons. So I just have to prove myself. Dime: Last season you got a little more playing time after Brook went down. Has it been different because you’re not getting quite as much playing time and even playing some at the four when you’re not backing him up?

MP: Yeah. It’s been an adjustment because I played more last year. Like I started the last — I don’t know how many regular season games [it was around 20] and my minutes were way up. Now we got the whole team back, a new staff, new system, it’s all an ajustment. But I’m sure — like last year was my first year, it was an adjustment for those guys last year adjusting to J-Kidd’s [Jason Kidd] system. I think it’s just part of the league, and I’m getting introduced to that part of it. But it’s early in the season, and I think we’ll figure out what fits our team best, and how I can help our team in the minutes that I do play.