The shorter the bio, the more impressive the man.

John Tavares is the GOAT.

The all time leader in goals and points in the history of the National Lacrosse League.

A three-time league MVP in ’94, 2000 and 2001. In addition, four time champion in ’92, ’93, ’96 and 2008. He was inducted into the NLL Hall of Fame in 2016.

Lacrosse’s Wayne Gretzky he is not. He is John Tavares. He is ours. He belongs to Banditland, the city of Buffalo where he played for 24 seasons, and now coaches and stares up at his retired #11 hung from the rafters of the Key Bank Centre. A place where up to 17,000 screaming fans go to watch lacrosse on weekends – in large part because of what he helped build. A culture of winning.

An intelligent, cerebral player with an edge, he played until his mid 40’s and is one of only two players ever to have played more than 300 games.

The Bandits tapped him to run their offence after he retired and after a few seasons he was named Head Coach. After falling in the finals in 2019 and 2022, Tavares led the Bandits to their first championship in 15 years when they defeated the Colorado Mammoth in 2023.

He is a low key kinda shy guy who avoids media stuff if he can. Maybe that is the key to his success? Nothing else matters. It is the locker room and being close to the game where he shines and you will hear in this chat that it is still the intricacies of the game that motivate him and that motivating others is still not his favourite thing to do.

On this episode, we discuss his in game principals, the pre-game speech, and the secret ingredient of the most

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