Former player and current Nets coach Jacque Vaughn, who replaced Steve Nash earlier this season, takes a timeout to huddle with Post columnist Steve Serby for some Q&A.

Q: What traits does the ideal Jacque Vaughn basketball player have?

A: Unselfish. And you play extremely hard. And it’s as simple as that. That’ll get you in and out of a lot of situations.

Q: What won’t you tolerate?

A: Selfishness. A big thing for me is saying “Good morning” to you in the morning. And the reason I do that is for that split second, I’m worried about your morning. Not my morning. And that’s why I try to say “Good morning” to each and every player every single day. That’s my time to give, not to take.

Q: What is your definition of leadership?

A: To grab hold on any situation and pull the best from it. So whether that is pulling the best out of a person, whether that’s pulling the best out of the situation that you’ve been dealt with. To be able to lead a group, lead an individual, lead the situation.

Q: How do you motivate?

A: I try to be a consistent figure every day, whether that is at home with my family, whether it’s the team that I’m coaching. I think your interaction with people, whether it’s the first time or the hundredth time, people will always remember how you made them feel. I think that’s huge, and I try to be consistent that way, as an assistant coach and as a head coach. You lead by example, how you make people feel on a daily basis.

Q: What is your definition of mental toughness?

A: To show up when you don’t know what the outcome is going to be … when you do know what the outcome’s going to be. When you are faced with a challenge, you show up. You’re ready to rumble, you show up.

Q: Why are you the right man for this job?

A: I’m officially Brooklyn. My family’s grown up here. I understand the community. I love the community. I was a part of this organization as a player. I feel I fit this team. This is a team that wants to play hard, needs to be guided to play hard. I appreciate them as individuals, and I think that’s reciprocal.

Q: Do you have a lot of rules?

A: Learned early as a coach [that] rules’ll get you in trouble. Ones that you think you can say are 100 percent non-negotiable, I disagree. I think everything is negotiable.

Q: So you have no rules.

A: Well, technically when I pull you out of the game, you got to come out of the game. When I put you in the game, you got to go in the game (smile). But there’s nothing like, “You just can’t be late.” Now there’s some times where something happened, you’re going to be late. Now whether you have to explain that to your teammate and explain that to the group, and there’s a reason behind it … just like the game of basketball, it’s not mistake-free. I treat these dudes like human beings.

Q: How do you deal with the pressure of the job?

A: Definitely got better at that as I’ve gotten older. I learned how to separate things quicker. Whether that is a possession or whether that is a game. Being able to have a short-term and long-term view of the situation, I definitely got better at.

Q: Tell me about Bobby Knight’s home recruiting visit.

A: I hadn’t seen my mom in about 3 ¹/₂ years because of COVID. Last time we were in L.A. we were talking about my son going to college, and she brought up, “Do you remember when she said the Indiana coach?” I said, “Bobby Knight? Coach Knight?” She said, “Yeah.” She said, “Do you remember him putting his feet up on my table?” I said, “I do, Ma (smile).” I said, “That was it. I was not going to Indiana after that.” My mom said, “You can get comfortable,” and he got comfortable, and … ”

Q: He got a little too comfortable?

A: Too comfortable. And her son was not going to be a Hoosier.

Q: Was it between Kansas and IU at that point?

A: They were one of my five. Probably my last three: Kansas, UCLA, Michigan — I woulda had a year with the Fab 5. Juwan Howard was my host on my Michigan visit.

Q: How did that go?

A: Great. We’re still friends to this day, always pulling for him, but that’s our connection, which is great.

Q: What is the biggest adversity you had to overcome?

A: I’m thinking about going into the NBA. I am preparing in the offseason, probably the best shape that I had been in. We’re playing pickup ball in the offseason, and I go up to try to hopefully dunk a basketball I think, and I get knocked backwards, and put my wrist down. Complete rupture of my ligament on my right hand. Turns those NBA dreams into what’s gonna happen next for me? And to be able to support my team, have the guidance from my coach [Roy Williams]. I can see the play right now and be back in that situation — to overcome that, and to be where I am today, play 12 years in the NBA … that’s what makes me, me.

Q: You wore a rubber band on your wrist after that?

A: I did. That was to remind me of a few things. Me having an opportunity to play again, which doesn’t happen all the time after that injury. And got me to kind of chastise myself a little bit when I made too many mistakes through the course of the game, so I’d snap that thing a little bit.

Q: You went to church with then-Kansas coach Roy Williams when you were deciding whether to return for your senior year or go pro.

A: It said I wanted to finish something that I had started, and I wanted to finish it with him. And it made me reflect on the time when I was a ninth grader, and he was in the gym watching me play at an AAU tournament, to now, I’m an adult, and thinking about the next phase of my life, and he’s still with me.

Q: How heartbreaking was losing in the Sweet 16 as a senior?

A: I still feel it to this day! I had a great team, we ran up against a team that caught fire in Arizona at the right time, and they end up winning it. But we definitely had a top-five all-time team [Paul Pierce, Jerod Haase, Scot Pollard, Raef Lafrentz] who did not win it. I guess I’ll say it still hurts to the day.

Q: You used to call home at midnight?

A: I was a smart individual, I had a word processor, and I knew what time the rates changed over (smile). I was efficient as a young man at that time.

Q: What drove you as a young man, and what drives you now?

A: I want to make my family proud. The decisions I’ve made in the past, and even to this day, I am comfortable each morning looking myself in the mirror. Say I tried to do the right thing. And my kids can go to school every day, my mom can have her church friends over, and she’s proud of what I’m doing, what I represent, who I am as an individual.

Q: What drives you professionally?

A: Challenge. To be able to not know what the outcome’s gonna be, and to try to figure it out. It’s why I love Brooklyn. The 2, 3 train might not be working on the weekend — figure it out. How are you going to get to where you need to go?

Q: Does Kevin Durant remind you in any way of Tim Duncan?

A: I’m going to say yes. And I’m going to look at it from my perspective as being TD’s teammate and coach. I never wanted to let Tim Duncan down. And I think there’s some teammates that feel the same way, and as a coach you feel the same way — you don’t want to let Kevin down.

Q: One trait that makes KD a Hall of Famer.

A: He can score on anybody. And I’d say persistent, in the shots he’s gonna get. John Stockton practiced the shots he was gonna shoot in the game. So does Kevin.

Q: What is one trait that makes Kyrie Irving unique?

A: His ability to get in and out of tight spaces, and still have control.

Q: Is there anyone similar to him in that regard?

A: Nobody.

Q: A healthy Ben Simmons. Does he remind you of anybody?

A: He’s so unique. His size … I am a Magic fan … the size, the ability to enjoy others scoring the basketball just as much as you enjoy scoring it your own, he’s unique that way. … The ability to push the basketball, to have flair. If I had to compare it … Magic [Johnson].

Q: What do you like best about this team?

A: The different personalities. … It’s kind of how I raise my two kids and treat them totally differently. They have different wants and needs, and I’ve learned how to address ’em, so that everyday balance of figuring out who needs what. We have a group that thinks and reacts differently. How can I get to ’em?

Q: Describe Kyrie’s personality.

A: The ability to question, which is great. So my conversations with him is, this is our pick-and-roll coverage where maybe I can just say it to another teammate, maybe I need to explain it to him. These are the matchups today — this is the why behind it.

Q: KD’s personality.

A: How do we win today? What are we doing towards winning today? Are we ready to compete today?

Q: What was it like playing with Jason Kidd and Vince Carter?

A: I started some games with J Kidd, to see two point guards who always thought in a traditional point guard way. The IQ of J-Kidd, the skill and unselfishness of Vince, one of my favorite teammates of all time. I don’t think I ever paid for a meal with Vince Carter.

Q: Karl Malone.

A: Seeing him work in the offseason as a young professional, taught me for the rest of my career what it’s supposed to look like when you train, when you’re preparing for the next season. I owe it to him how I carried myself in the offseason, how I trained in the offseason.

Q: John Stockton.

A: My lockermate. Watched his examples of before analytics what he looked at on the stat sheet of who he was playing, his preparation before the game … our conversations about money, and how you save, and how do you spend your money, and what’s important, and family. So beyond basketball, still talk to him to this day, congratulated me when I got the job here. Those guys taught me what being a professional was about.

Q: Manu Ginobili.

A: Unbelievable human being. Unbelievable teammate. The epitome of unselfish and playing hard.

Q: Why is Gregg Popovich a Hall of Fame coach?

A: More so than the wins and the losses, the impact on the families and the lives that he has touched. Whether it’s my kids remembering going over to his house for Thanksgiving, the coaches that he has developed, the players he has developed … the impact on multiple lives will last for a long time.

Q: Jerry Sloan.

A: Miss him. Toughness. In any situation. And he was extremely loyal. It taught me how to stand up for my coach, whether that was I’m sitting next to a player, and that player is not agreeing with the coach, I was OK saying something to that player. Either, “This is what we talked about, this is the way it should be,” or “Go talk to Jerry and tell him that,” not this side conversation at the end of the bench. The loyalty piece, the toughness piece, I owe to Jerry. I coach the same way. And I owe my career as a player to him in a lot of ways.

Q: The toughness piece?

A: There’s a competition every single night. You put on your boots, and you go to work, and you be OK living with the results if you play hard, and if you’re tougher than the dude that you’re going against. And it’s OK to show him, from the beginning of the game, that you’re going to be tougher than him.

Q: Roy Williams.

A: Incredible ability to be human. After I graduated, still sending my mom a Christmas card … handwritten notes … those things that go a long way, because you treat people with a different level of human kindness. Never forget it.

Q: Who are coaches or managers you admire?

A: Haven’t met him [but] I’m a huge Dusty Baker fan. So happy that he won it this year. To see someone around the game for so long, and be rewarded — huge fan.

Q: Football?

A: I’d say after reading Pete Carroll’s book, it kind of resonated with me that my first stop in Orlando, maybe that wasn’t the right place for me to be there forever. Coach Carroll had a similar opportunity that didn’t work out for him, went on, learned from it, was a better coach from it.

Q: Game 5, 1997 NBA Finals when Michael Jordan was sick.

A: We assumed (laugh). We assumed he was sick. We thought that was a chance for us [Jazz] to get a win.

Q: Game 6, 1999 NBA Finals, Michael’s last-second shot over Bryon Russell.

A: Obviously as a teammate, we all thought he pushed off at the time. People don’t remember that steal that led to the offensive shot.

Q: What were your emotions when that shot went in?

A: I was stunned. Had a great group of teammates. It was a veteran team, and the pain in their faces. You realize you only get a certain amount of opportunities to win it all, and that was one of our chances.

Q: What were your emotions when you won the NBA championship in 2007 with the Spurs?

A: Culmination of a lot of sacrifice for my family. The true definition of team basketball, and why you do it.

Q: How did the Rodney King incident impact you?

A: High school … I think a time in my life that I’ll never forget … seeing the images on TV … feeling the emotions of going to school that week … seeing various areas of my neighborhood burn down … the effect that it had on the community … seeing the emotion from my brothers, the emotions from my parents … and then seeing how I fit into everything. Was this a culmination? What was next for the community I grew up in? The healing part of it, what did I fit in at? And again, you turn to leadership, how could I help? But, a time in my life I’ll never forget.

Q: It must have been a tense time in high school.

A: It was uncharted territory, yeah. You didn’t know what was the right answer. But there was conversation, with teachers at that time, with friends, I had a wide group of friends, teammates also that were non-black students that I’m still friends with today.

Q: Three dinner guests?

A: President Obama, Earvin [Magic] Johnson, Jackie Robinson.

Q: Did you want to be Magic growing up?

A: I was Magic Johnson many times in my backyard, and on my Van Ness Park Recreation Center many times two blocks around from my house that I lived at. That’s where my love for the game of basketball blossomed. My first binder, though, was James Worthy, 42.

Q: Did you go to Lakers games?

A: Very expensive to go a Lakers game at that time. My first autograph, I waited outside the tunnel for Magic, late night, just to get his autograph. He and George Brett are the only two autographs that I have.

Q: How did Magic’s HIV announcement impact you?

A: I remember watching TV and seeing him announce and at that time not knowing what did that mean for Magic going forward? Me being in a position to educate myself, and then, I think Magic taking the leadership role of him educating the public and educating his teammates and educating the league at that time.

Q: You wrote poetry.

A: That started in church actually. My mom would have me do an Easter speech. And when I got into grade school, 75th Street Elementary, there was a competition, and my mom had me enter it, and I recited a poem: I’ve seen the daylight breaking high above the brow, I found my destination, I won’t stop now. Whether you deplete me, deprive me, deplore me, mighty mountains loom before me, and I won’t stop now.

Q: Favorite movie?

A: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

Q: Favorite actor?

A: Jack Nicholson.

Q: Favorite actress?

A: Julia Roberts.

Q: Favorite singer/rapper/entertainer?

A: Stevie Wonder.

Q: Favorite meal?

A: I can have a steak any day or night of the week.

Q: Favorite Brooklyn things?

A: I love walking in Brooklyn. I love how all the different neighborhoods merge together. I put on multiple podcasts, and I just walk. I really don’t watch TV, so I get my news from my podcasts. I walk home from the games. And I walk to the games. And there’s no better feeling than when I’m able to decompress and feel the vibe and the pulse of Brooklyn when I walk home. Nothing better than someone saying, “Hey Coach, guys are playing hard,” on my way to the game. You represent more undeniable just the team that you’re coaching. There’s something special about the neighborhood feeling a sense of pride in the way the team is playing.

Q: How long is the walk?

A: It depends how fast I’m walking. It’s an 18-minute walk. Usually I have my earphones on, I have Curtis Mayfield as a special, Stevie Wonder is on reel, and if I want some Kendrick Lamar to get my pace going a little bit, those are my three on the way to the game. On the way home, I am a Nina Simone, and recently, Luther Vandross, on the way home.

Q: A quote from you as Orlando head coach: “I don’t abide by the tyranny of other people’s attitudes and moods.”

A: Just felt that was how I needed to coach the team. I wish I had come to that conclusion a lot earlier in my life. Definitely at that stage right now. What you see is what you get with me. Very comfortable, very vulnerable at this stage. I think it’s a great space to be in. What you see with me on the sideline, what you see with me in the huddles with the team, it’s me. At that time, I probably was trying to convince myself of that as a young coach. But I’m here now.

Q: Vulnerable how?

A: In a lot of ways. At that time as a young coach, I probably thought I needed to have every single answer, and let you know that I had every single answer, and not tell my team like I’ll tell ’em in this huddle: “I screwed up that. I shouldn’t have put you in that position.”

Q: So your vulnerability you see as a strength now.

A: Without a doubt.

Q: Describe the beard.

A: The beard is a part of that vulnerability. As a young coach I was concerned about the perception of being clean-cut. … Now, you can be a great attorney, you can be a great engineer, not have a beard, have a beard — doesn’t change who you are. In the Bubble, I had the bamboo as a representation of being flexible and being able to adapt. The beard is a little bit of what I am now. There’s some young and old in me, there’s some experience in me, it’s forever growing, at the same time it’s growing at different rates. It’s kind of who we are. You figure out at the end of the day, it doesn’t change the inside of you. It’s a little statement a little bit that I can be me with or without the beard. … It all started with me asking my kids like, “Why does hair grow certain places and not certain places?” And, they didn’t have the answer for me. So I said, “All right, let’s see if I can grow a beard and let it keep growing and what is it going to do? Is it going to stop growing?” The inquisitive piece in me.

Q: So you’ve had it for how long now?

A: Definitely over a year.

Q: You mentioned that you think your beard reflects your team?

A: It does. Like this side is growing a little bit more than this side right here, so you got different growth. Whether that’s Nic Clayton growing at a different pace than Day’Ron Sharpe. You have some gray, which is older guys, Markieff Morris, or you have some little small ones up here which is Alondes Williams, a young dude that’s just getting on the scene. And sometimes, it’s a mess. You wake up in the morning, this thing is a mess, but then you figure out how to make it look presentable. And you comb it out and you brush it out and you figure the problems out together. At the end of the day, the beard is all on the same page, you want it to look presentable. And at the end of the day, you want a hard-working team that is unselfish and looks presentable to the neighborhood of Brooklyn. That’s how you tie it all together. Let’s go!