Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Welcome to another edition of the Dave Pash Podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Dave Pash, play by play announcer for the Arizona
Speaker 1: Cardinals and for ESPN and ABC. Speaking of ESPN and ABC,
Speaker 1: I figured after the Cardinals played by far the worst
Speaker 1: game of the season on Sunday, we could all use
Speaker 1: a little laughter. So I reached out to my friend
Speaker 1: Jeff Van Gundy, who I will work with this week
Speaker 1: along with Mark Jackson on The Sun's Mavericks Broadcast and ESPN,
Speaker 1: to come on the Dave Pash Podcast and talk not
Speaker 1: only NBA broadcasting NFL, including his beloved Houston Texans, but
Speaker 1: to tell some great stories like the time he blew
Speaker 1: an opportunity at a date with Jody Foster in college.
Speaker 1: I turn around and it's Joey Foster. I absolutely choked
Speaker 1: and I am not joking. I turned around, yeah, and
Speaker 1: I sprint through the gate and back to my room.
Speaker 1: Also the dinner that he had with a legendary comedian,
Speaker 1: plus the time he held on the Alonzo Morning's leg
Speaker 1: after almost getting knocked out by one of his own players,
Speaker 1: Plus when his car got destroyed by a seven thirty
Speaker 1: seven jet I lost a car and I lost a
Speaker 1: game on the same night. All that and more coming
Speaker 1: up with Jeff Van Gundy. We are presented by betmgm,
Speaker 1: the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and
Speaker 1: by Hila River Hotels and Casinos. Sign up for BETMGM
Speaker 1: today using code cards one thousand and get your first
Speaker 1: bet risk free up to one thousand dollars. New customer
Speaker 1: offer paid in free bets. Visit betmgm dot com for
Speaker 1: terms and conditions. Twenty one and over Arizona only. Please
Speaker 1: gamble responsibly. Gambling problem call one eight hundred, next step.
Speaker 1: So here he is in his fifteenth year with ESPN
Speaker 1: and ABC as the lead color analyst on NBA broadcast
Speaker 1: along with Mark Jackson and Hall of Fame play by
Speaker 1: play announcer Mike Breen. Here's Jeff and Gundy. So, Jeff,
Speaker 1: I've always felt, and I've said this, and I know
Speaker 1: it probably like it is embarrassing, but I've always felt
Speaker 1: that Mike Breen, Jeff and Gundy, Mark Jackson is the
Speaker 1: best broadcast team, not only the NBA but in sports television.
Speaker 1: And you guys have been doing it for fifteen years together,
Speaker 1: and I know I get to pinch it here and
Speaker 1: there like this Wednesday for the Sun's game against Dallas.
Speaker 1: But can you believe that it's been fifteen years for
Speaker 1: you at ESPN fourteenth coming up on the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1: Can you believe it's been that long? But also that
Speaker 1: you guys have been that successful, because it's hard to
Speaker 1: stay together this long in our business. Well, first of all,
Speaker 1: I didn't have any plan when I got let go
Speaker 1: by the Rockets. All I knew Davis. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to move, And thankfully I had a guy who used
Speaker 1: to work at TNT when I was there for a
Speaker 1: brief time one year between when I coached the Knicks
Speaker 1: and the Rockets named Mike Pearl, who then was now
Speaker 1: you know, when I got fired by the Rockets, was
Speaker 1: at ABC, and he said, well, we'll try it, We'll
Speaker 1: try you out. We'll give you a chance with them.
Speaker 1: And I got fired the same day I did a
Speaker 1: Western Conference final game and or Western Conference second round game,
Speaker 1: and it was in San Antonio. So I get fired
Speaker 1: at like two forty and I'm in the car at like,
Speaker 1: you know, six fifteen, so and I just thankfully it's stuck.
Speaker 1: And you're such a great play by play guy yourself,
Speaker 1: and so you know, the value of a great play
Speaker 1: by play guy is like a great point guard in basketball,
Speaker 1: And so I always consider myself the spot up shooter
Speaker 1: of the corner. Mike's the true greatness. I'm spotting up
Speaker 1: in the corner. And Mark is that guy who does
Speaker 1: everything he's good at, like taking us to break and
Speaker 1: all the things I can't do. So my job is
Speaker 1: pretty easy, and I am grateful and thankful every day
Speaker 1: that I get to do these games with great friends
Speaker 1: who accept me for who I am and what I
Speaker 1: bring or what little I bring that, And you know,
Speaker 1: it's just like you know, you look up and time flies,
Speaker 1: and like I started this because I didn't want to
Speaker 1: move my oldest daughter, who was going into eighth grade,
Speaker 1: and here we are, and now she's a young adult
Speaker 1: and I've got another one in high school. So it's
Speaker 1: I am eternally grateful for this, you know, good run
Speaker 1: of fortune. I want to get back into broadcasting. But
Speaker 1: you talked about staying in Houston, and I know you're
Speaker 1: a diehard Texans fan. We've talked about it for years.
Speaker 1: How did that start? Was it just because you were
Speaker 1: living in Houston or did you get to know somebody
Speaker 1: in the organization And who's your team growing up? Again,
Speaker 1: I can't remember. I know we've talked about it, but
Speaker 1: who's your team growing up? Well, my team growing up
Speaker 1: was the Raiders. I grew up in northern California, so
Speaker 1: Darryl Lamonica, George Blandickin Stabler, Fred ballet Nikoff, the Stork.
Speaker 1: I mean, what great teams. And they John Madden was
Speaker 1: even before he was this iconic broadcaster. He was so
Speaker 1: beloved in Oakland, and we got to I don't know
Speaker 1: if there's well, they're probably not doing training camp anymore there,
Speaker 1: but back in the day they would. They would do
Speaker 1: it in Napa, which was like an hour and a
Speaker 1: half from my house, and you could literally be They
Speaker 1: would have it roped off and you would like be
Speaker 1: like five feet from the field like you're watching Freddie
Speaker 1: blet Nikoff would stick him reach out and the ball
Speaker 1: just stick to his Hey. I mean it was it
Speaker 1: was amazing the access you got, and we would go
Speaker 1: up there. My dad would bring us up there every
Speaker 1: every summer and I loved I loved the Raiders. I
Speaker 1: still do, but the Texans part was my older one
Speaker 1: loves sports, and she was getting to that middle school
Speaker 1: age where she hated everything that I did. And so
Speaker 1: the one thing she liked that I did was got
Speaker 1: season tickets and we went, you know, ten times a year,
Speaker 1: you know, and it was we always played the twelve
Speaker 1: o'clock game at here. So it was like this routine
Speaker 1: that we got to share together, and you know what
Speaker 1: grew out of it not just was good for us,
Speaker 1: but the whole row of fans was the same. So
Speaker 1: we got to like have our little community there. And
Speaker 1: the weird part now is I've only gone one time
Speaker 1: this year, but also the pandemic changed everything. Now when
Speaker 1: I went to the opener this year, no one was
Speaker 1: the same. And I don't know if that was just
Speaker 1: Houston because we've got a historically bad team this year,
Speaker 1: or if it's across the board throughout the NFL. What
Speaker 1: did you notice during your time there around the team
Speaker 1: and go into the games about JJ Watt? That makes
Speaker 1: him bigger than life because he's here now obviously with
Speaker 1: the team, and he's out. We're hoping he returns to
Speaker 1: the playoffs. We don't know. But when he got here, Jeff,
Speaker 1: he was a big part of a major locker room change.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you saw that firsthand. I
Speaker 1: don't know if that started right away when he got
Speaker 1: there in twenty eleven after being drafted in the first round,
Speaker 1: or if that's something that developed over time for him.
Speaker 1: But I know he's got a big imprint on the
Speaker 1: Houston community and his involvement with charity work and stuff
Speaker 1: behind the scenes that not a lot of people. Some
Speaker 1: people know, but not everybody knows all that he does.
Speaker 1: I'll say this, he was a great player right off
Speaker 1: the bat, and he was relentless with an incredible motor.
Speaker 1: The first play I remember was he had an interception
Speaker 1: for a touchdown against Cincinnati in the playoffs. You know,
Speaker 1: one year and then you know he was used on
Speaker 1: offense some and so that's cool, like when you see
Speaker 1: a defender out there catching touchdown passes like Mike Vrabel
Speaker 1: used to do for the Patriots. So that was cool.
Speaker 1: But where he really, you know, stepped up was during
Speaker 1: the flood here in Houston. What started at very modest goal,
Speaker 1: Like I didn't know what his initial goal was, let's
Speaker 1: say a million dollars, and he ended up brazen I
Speaker 1: think over thirty million dollars. I mean, he has a
Speaker 1: magnetic personality. He cares deeply about the community, even when
Speaker 1: he was I think he was in It was Coach
Speaker 1: O'Brien's first year here and we contacted him through I'm
Speaker 1: on a board of a school called Provision, and we
Speaker 1: had to go through his mom and we were just
Speaker 1: going to have Mark Vandermeyer, the great announcer for the Texans.
Speaker 1: We just wanted him to talk. It was like during
Speaker 1: the spring about you know, his relationship with his mom.
Speaker 1: And we sold out the place and they actually postponed
Speaker 1: or got off early from one of those OTA sessions
Speaker 1: so he could still fulfill his obligation. And Coach O'Brien
Speaker 1: came and you know, jj wat could have easily said,
Speaker 1: I can't make a new staff OTA, but he was
Speaker 1: adamant that he was going to fulfill his obligation and
Speaker 1: that was just for Provision Academy. Like But so, I've
Speaker 1: always appreciated like his motor on the field, but he
Speaker 1: has even a bigger motor in the community, and it's
Speaker 1: much appreciated. When I saw you last week and we
Speaker 1: did that Rockets game, I'm sitting there after the Cardinals
Speaker 1: or eight and one saying, oh, they're the best team
Speaker 1: in football, and then they lay a major egg on Sunday.
Speaker 1: Everybody in the NFL lays and egg. This just happened
Speaker 1: to be the week the Cardinals did it. I got
Speaker 1: a text from Bob Greasy after the Cardinals loss saying,
Speaker 1: you know, thank you can appreciate it. We're having another
Speaker 1: toast tonight because they're still the only unbeaten team nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy two. He was the quarterback on that team. Patriots
Speaker 1: got close, but other than that, that's it. Everybody gets
Speaker 1: a loss in the NFL and everybody has a bad game.
Speaker 1: And I know you watched a lot of NFL. Do
Speaker 1: you think the Cardinals are the best team right now? Well,
Speaker 1: I think it's hard to judge them when they're not
Speaker 1: whole right, like yeah, yeah, I mean Murray could be
Speaker 1: the MVP and Hopkins is like I saw it here literally,
Speaker 1: if I was a quarterback, I would never worry about
Speaker 1: separation with Hopkins because he doesn't get that much, but
Speaker 1: he's gonna get every ball. He's got the best hands
Speaker 1: I've ever seen, and he's strong, he's physical. What do
Speaker 1: they call those those contested catches like he's like amazing.
Speaker 1: So when those two guys are bad, I think I
Speaker 1: think you are. Now there's no prize for being the
Speaker 1: best team after nine games, and so the NFL is unforgiving,
Speaker 1: and you know, it only takes one bad bounce. It's
Speaker 1: not a playoff series like these other sports. So it's
Speaker 1: it's really hard to say, but I would say in
Speaker 1: the NFC, you know, the Cowboys laid an egg and
Speaker 1: then they bounce back with a terrific win. And you
Speaker 1: have to say the Packers too. Aaron Rodgers is taking
Speaker 1: a lot of grief, but you cannot underestimate his greatness
Speaker 1: and their greatness because he's so great. Do you think
Speaker 1: that a Shaun Watson situation with the Texans? Because as
Speaker 1: we talk about the best teams, there's also teams that
Speaker 1: are looking to the future and trying to either rebuild
Speaker 1: or reboot. And I'm not sure where the Texans are.
Speaker 1: I don't even know what the word for our team is.
Speaker 1: Well that's what I'm saying, So where are they. It's
Speaker 1: hard to reboot, it's hard to rebuild. It's hard to
Speaker 1: focus on what the next step is if you don't
Speaker 1: know what's going to happen with your quarterback. How do
Speaker 1: you are you surprised it hasn't been resolved yet. Is
Speaker 1: this kind of what you thought would happen where we'd
Speaker 1: be in the middle of November and he's still not
Speaker 1: playing and there's no word from the NFL and he
Speaker 1: was not traded. I just don't. I can't. I told
Speaker 1: you this last week, and I still it boggles my
Speaker 1: mind that we're paying this guy not to play. So
Speaker 1: if he's healthy, I think what would help his trade
Speaker 1: value is to play. If he was to play, there
Speaker 1: is again, like I was just saying about Rogers. You
Speaker 1: can judge his personal life, you can like do all that,
Speaker 1: but what you can't do is say this guy's not
Speaker 1: a great play. He's a great player and he comes
Speaker 1: up big in big spots because our line has been
Speaker 1: sort of shaky the last few years, and he's made
Speaker 1: something out of nothing over and over and over again.
Speaker 1: So I don't get why we're not playing him. I
Speaker 1: get why we haven't traded him, because if you're the
Speaker 1: management team of the Texans, you have only one chip.
Speaker 1: He is that. So you either have to play him
Speaker 1: or you have to trade him. And you can't trade
Speaker 1: him for fifty cents on the dollar. You have to
Speaker 1: try to get maximum value, and I think waiting you
Speaker 1: can see where the actual in this year's draft, where
Speaker 1: you'd actually be drafting with those draft picks. And then
Speaker 1: you have to be great, you know, in drafting, and
Speaker 1: you have to be great in the free agency by
Speaker 1: identifying the right guys. Certainly, but right now we don't
Speaker 1: have We don't have a present, and we don't have
Speaker 1: a future, and we can't even start on the future
Speaker 1: until this whole Watson dilemma is resolved. Your partner, Mark Jackson,
Speaker 1: who was invited to join you on the podcast, but
Speaker 1: he's traveling to day so we couldn't connect. But Mark
Speaker 1: is he was a fan of the Patriots. Now he's
Speaker 1: a fan of the Buccaneers. The reason is, Tom Brady.
Speaker 1: Do you have a problem with Mark or anybody being
Speaker 1: a fan of a player and following like his favorite
Speaker 1: team is whatever Tom Brady is on. Does that bother you?
Speaker 1: Was he a Michigan fan? No, this dude is a
Speaker 1: front runner. He's a front runner. He didn't become a
Speaker 1: Brady fan until they won a championship all of a sudden.
Speaker 1: He's a fan of a dynasty. Well that isn't a fan.
Speaker 1: That's a front runner. So let's clarify it and call
Speaker 1: it exactly what it is. Who wouldn't be able to
Speaker 1: admire Brady's excellence? You know all this time? I mean
Speaker 1: forty four and they're struggling a little bit, But I mean,
Speaker 1: who would have ever thought somebody could be this good
Speaker 1: for this long? And so I admire Mark for admiring Brady,
Speaker 1: But come on, that's week. I'm a fan of whoever
Speaker 1: Brady plays for. He's a front runner. One of the
Speaker 1: things I've always appreciate about both you guys is you
Speaker 1: are who you are, like people will see you on
Speaker 1: TV and that's you, like, that's Jeff Van Gundi and
Speaker 1: Mark Jackson's the same way. Were you guys like that
Speaker 1: in New York when you were a coach and he
Speaker 1: was a player, And I think you coached him in
Speaker 1: Houston too, right, I did. I was really thinking I
Speaker 1: got to coach him as an assistant coach and then
Speaker 1: I got to coach him as a head coach in
Speaker 1: New York, so both assistant and head coach in New York.
Speaker 1: After he had moved around to other teams, he came
Speaker 1: back to US and then in Houston. In my first
Speaker 1: year there, we were desperate for solid backcourt help and
Speaker 1: we picked him up in the spring. It was the
Speaker 1: last year he played. And I always say this about Mark,
Speaker 1: He's got the best vision I've ever seen on a
Speaker 1: basketball player. I think he should be in the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame. I think he's excelled at everything he's touched
Speaker 1: in basketball. He wasn't the most talented guy, but he's
Speaker 1: in the top five and assists. He played for seventeen
Speaker 1: eighteen years. He's been a great broadcaster. He was an
Speaker 1: ultra success head coach in the NBA. I mean, first
Speaker 1: of all, I don't even understand why somebody else hasn't
Speaker 1: picked him up as a head coach. I look at
Speaker 1: all these vacancies and I'm like, that's just negligence by
Speaker 1: a lot of these teams who are hiring head coaches.
Speaker 1: Because he's a great, great leader, I mean, fabulous leader.
Speaker 1: And so one thing about him. He wasn't always easy,
Speaker 1: because people who are great never are. But he also
Speaker 1: had a great deal of respect for the position of coaches.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean he always agreed with them, but if
Speaker 1: you said this is how we're going to do it.
Speaker 1: That's how he did it, and that level of respect
Speaker 1: for the position was a testament to how he was raised.
Speaker 1: And you know, all the coaches that he had along
Speaker 1: the way that it instilled that in him. And so
Speaker 1: we could be very honest. And the great thing about
Speaker 1: Mark is he's got great sense of humor and he
Speaker 1: can laugh at himself. And I think Greg Popovich says
Speaker 1: this all the time, but you want people in your
Speaker 1: program who have great humor and who have gotten over themselves,
Speaker 1: and that's Mark Jackson. So I've always enjoyed being around him.
Speaker 1: And he's a dear, dear friend that I can count on.
Speaker 1: And when you think about it in life, how many
Speaker 1: friends can you truly count on? You also mentioned pop
Speaker 1: and you were part of USA Basketball, still are and
Speaker 1: you've been a part of USA basketball the Olympic gold medal.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've had opportunities to look at other coaching positions.
Speaker 1: You stay with the ESPN, ABC doing the broadcasting. Is
Speaker 1: it cool to have the mix to be a part
Speaker 1: of coaching and a program like USA Basketball get a
Speaker 1: gold medal and then still be able to broadcast the
Speaker 1: NBA Finals. It is I'm really you know, in the
Speaker 1: dictionary under lucky. It should be my picture because everything
Speaker 1: that has happened, you know, from when I got to
Speaker 1: the Knicks and then I got my head coaching chance
Speaker 1: at such a young age. Whoever, you know, starts out
Speaker 1: with a Hall of Fame player like I had in
Speaker 1: Patrick Ewing, who you know, basically carried me, you know,
Speaker 1: and you know, and so I loved USA. I still
Speaker 1: I loved USA basketball. I love everything it stands for.
Speaker 1: And the Olympics this year it was hard because we
Speaker 1: didn't get you know, you know, Devin Booker was. I
Speaker 1: was on the flight with him after the finals, he
Speaker 1: and Middleton and Holiday we were on the flight together
Speaker 1: and the Olympics were starting the day we landed, I mean,
Speaker 1: and they played, so you know, a quarter of our
Speaker 1: team was arriving as the games were starting. And it
Speaker 1: wasn't easy, and we got beat by France early. We
Speaker 1: were down fifteen to Australia in the semifinals back in one,
Speaker 1: and then beat France in a five point, hard fought
Speaker 1: game in the gold medal game. It was it was
Speaker 1: exhilarating to be a very very small part of that,
Speaker 1: but to watch Greg Popovich and watch these great players,
Speaker 1: and I think I mentioned that, you know, to see
Speaker 1: the work ethic of a Kevin Durant was you know,
Speaker 1: greatness is never a coincidence. It's like this dude. I
Speaker 1: watched him work after practice, so efficient, so diligent, and
Speaker 1: I see, you know, to go along with his great
Speaker 1: God given abilities, but the work ethic has made him,
Speaker 1: you know, this incredibly skilled player. I mean, the dude
Speaker 1: in his workouts literally doesn't miss. And then people think, oh,
Speaker 1: you're exaggerated, No, I'm not twenty five minutes and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say he probably misses, you know, one out of
Speaker 1: every ten fifteen shots. It's it's and this is full speed.
Speaker 1: This isn't like some half ass, you know workout. This
Speaker 1: is like game speed, game shots. It was really really
Speaker 1: great to watch. So you're on the flight after the
Speaker 1: NBA Finals going over for the Olympics. It's a quick
Speaker 1: turnaround from you broadcasting the NBA Finals to then get
Speaker 1: back into coach mode. And for Devin Booker, you're playing
Speaker 1: in the NBA Finals, now you're getting ready to play
Speaker 1: in the Olympics. We're obviously doing a Suns game. This
Speaker 1: is airing on Wednesday. The Suns are playing great basketball
Speaker 1: right now. It took a little while for them to
Speaker 1: kind of get untracked at the beginning of the season.
Speaker 1: Do you think the Suns can do it again? They
Speaker 1: took everybody by surprise last year. But I remember you
Speaker 1: and I did a game, I feel like it was
Speaker 1: late in January, and you could tell there were some
Speaker 1: signs that they had a chance to be really good.
Speaker 1: And you even said, I remember on the air, they're
Speaker 1: not just a playoff team. They can do damage in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, and they certainly did that. They came within
Speaker 1: two wins of an NBA championship. Do you feel like
Speaker 1: they can get back there? Jeff, I know it's hard
Speaker 1: to get back to the finals, and everything had to
Speaker 1: go right last year. You know, it certainly didn't hurt
Speaker 1: that Lebron was hurting the Lakers weren't the Lakers. But
Speaker 1: do you think they can do it again? The Suns? Well,
Speaker 1: I don't think the West is as deep or even
Speaker 1: as good at the top as it has been, so
Speaker 1: I think there is great opportunity there. Chris Paul, Devin Booker,
Speaker 1: and Monnie Williams, to me, is a great threesome to
Speaker 1: lead a team. I think a lot of it goes to,
Speaker 1: you know, does Ayton continue to grow and get better?
Speaker 1: I thought he was phenomenal last year. Does his contractual
Speaker 1: situation at all up end his progress? Does any of
Speaker 1: the noise on the outside right now about the Sun's
Speaker 1: leadership in an ownership, does that get in the way.
Speaker 1: But I like what they've done with their team. I
Speaker 1: think they're probably going to try to add even a
Speaker 1: little bit more. And yes, there's no doubt they can.
Speaker 1: They could win the West. It's right there for them,
Speaker 1: and a lot goes into it. A long way to go,
Speaker 1: but they're talented, they're well coached, they're deep, and I
Speaker 1: really like the addition of Javelle McGee. I think Jabelle
Speaker 1: McGee gives them a lob threat at the rim in
Speaker 1: short minutes that they haven't had. And Frank Kamenski has
Speaker 1: really as a third center, has really filled it in
Speaker 1: well when Ayton's been out with injury. So I think
Speaker 1: they have a lot of pieces. And one of my
Speaker 1: favorite players in the league that we didn't speak about,
Speaker 1: but one of the best complimentary players in the league
Speaker 1: is Michael Bridges. I just love the way he his
Speaker 1: strengths mesh so very well with Paul and Booker. I
Speaker 1: think he's a terrific, terrific player. When Monnie Williams was
Speaker 1: with the Knicks, were you an assistant or are you
Speaker 1: the head coach? Then I was an assistant. Montie Williams
Speaker 1: and Charlie Ward they came in the same year. They
Speaker 1: were both late first round picks, and they were incredible
Speaker 1: friends right away, and we were a threesome. That was
Speaker 1: before every practice. Neither one got a ton of minutes.
Speaker 1: Monty played son, Charlie played not at all. But I
Speaker 1: laughed to myself right now, a coach would be absolutely
Speaker 1: sued if they had to go through the workouts that
Speaker 1: those guys had to go through with me, and then
Speaker 1: go through a truly a three hour practice with Coach
Speaker 1: Riley back in the day when you practiced like hard
Speaker 1: and all out and physical, man. And I'll tell I'll
Speaker 1: give you this one story, Dave, the most incredible thing,
Speaker 1: and it's obviously wouldn't fit today's times, but back in
Speaker 1: the day, Coach Riley had the draft choices run what
Speaker 1: he called the gauntlet, meaning he had the players line up,
Speaker 1: you know, across from each other and the rookies had
Speaker 1: to run through and anything like within reason went So
Speaker 1: guys were body chucking him and Monny went through and
Speaker 1: we had like I mean, we had a nasty group then,
Speaker 1: I mean, and they were big and strong. It was
Speaker 1: a different league. It was like the hand check era,
Speaker 1: and you know, there was no such thing as a
Speaker 1: flagrant foul. It was like, you know, it was just
Speaker 1: like going to the lane at your own wrist. So
Speaker 1: Monnie went first. My man came out battered and bruised
Speaker 1: on the other end, and then little Charlie. I was
Speaker 1: worried for him because I was like, this guy's gonna
Speaker 1: get killed. And he came through with his high knees
Speaker 1: like from his football days, and he had such great
Speaker 1: balance that they were hitting him and he didn't even move,
Speaker 1: and like it was amazing. Like I don't know if
Speaker 1: Monny remembers that or he's blocked it out of his memory,
Speaker 1: but it's something I'd all never forget. One thing I
Speaker 1: didn't know about your time in New York and Jim,
Speaker 1: I'm a hundred. Our producer was researching and brought it up,
Speaker 1: and I had no idea about the story. Did your
Speaker 1: car get blown away by a jet. Is that a
Speaker 1: true story? Yes? We had four straight years we played
Speaker 1: Miami in the playoffs, so and each of the series
Speaker 1: went to a final game, and they had home court
Speaker 1: advantage in all four series. So we were coming back.
Speaker 1: We had just lost a game five in Miami, and
Speaker 1: we flew into this small airport in white planes, New York,
Speaker 1: so just outside the city, but they would bring our
Speaker 1: cars onto the tarmac and I was always first. And
Speaker 1: it was late spring, so it was the second round
Speaker 1: of the playoffs and we had just lost a heartbreaking
Speaker 1: game to go down three two. So we're flying in
Speaker 1: we Land. I'm gonna say probably you know two two thirty.
Speaker 1: And we used to have the same pilots basically ninety
Speaker 1: percent of the time, and they would just come in
Speaker 1: and they would park, we would get off and the
Speaker 1: cars will be there and everybody would get in the
Speaker 1: car and go. And my video like a video guy
Speaker 1: would always be sitting in my car to hand me
Speaker 1: these stats that I wanted and breakdowns that we'd already
Speaker 1: called for so I could watch it. Right. So our pilot,
Speaker 1: this backup pilot, comes in and instead of just pulling in,
Speaker 1: he does like a circle, So he goes in front
Speaker 1: of the cars and then circles and then comes in.
Speaker 1: So I see my car out of my window. And
Speaker 1: then he pulls in, and I'm always first off. I'm
Speaker 1: in the first seat getting off, and I get off
Speaker 1: and the video guy, it's a warm night. The video
Speaker 1: guy is standing right at the bottom of the stairs.
Speaker 1: And now my car's not there, and I have a Honda,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, where's my car? Don't us with me tonight.
Speaker 1: It's not even close to what I said. But let
Speaker 1: me paraphrase, this is not the time to mess with
Speaker 1: me and hide my car. So where's my car? And
Speaker 1: this young guy, like he starts pointing, he goes, it's
Speaker 1: over there. I mean over there. As he pulled around,
Speaker 1: the exhaust from the airplane blew my car, he said,
Speaker 1: fifty feet up in the air and it came down
Speaker 1: and it landed and it totaled my car, Brennan Malone's car,
Speaker 1: Alan Houston's car, and somebody else's. There were four cars
Speaker 1: totaled on that like tarmac because this knucklehead had hit
Speaker 1: the you know, I guess you know the So I
Speaker 1: have no way home. We just lose Game five and thankfully.
Speaker 1: Usually the video cordair would be sitting in my car,
Speaker 1: but because it was so warm out, he was standing
Speaker 1: up or he would have been shot up in the
Speaker 1: air with this thing. Yeah, so I lost a car
Speaker 1: and I lost a game on the same night. And
Speaker 1: and Mark always jokes about, he goes, that was God's
Speaker 1: plan that that Honda ended. It's like six or seven
Speaker 1: year run that night on the tarmac. Well, you're not
Speaker 1: a fancy car guy, if I think you still drive
Speaker 1: a Civic. I got a Toyota Toyota Hybrid though, all right,
Speaker 1: a little bit more elitist than than you had before.
Speaker 1: Maybe you talked about the rivalry with the heat, the
Speaker 1: Alonso morning thing when you ran on the court there
Speaker 1: and grabbed him. I don't feel like people talk about
Speaker 1: that anymore. Like that was back because you touched on
Speaker 1: the NBA. You touched on the NBA and how physical
Speaker 1: it used to be, and it's still physical. But they
Speaker 1: just can't get they can't get away with the stuff
Speaker 1: they used to get away with. Obviously, what do you
Speaker 1: think of that if that happened today, if a coach
Speaker 1: ran out of the floor and grabbed a player, Now
Speaker 1: you grabbed his leg to break up a fight. But
Speaker 1: what do you think would happen today if that occurred. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, I started in high but then I
Speaker 1: slithered down because one of my players, Larry Johnson, who
Speaker 1: was in the midst of swinging at Mourning, actually clipped me.
Speaker 1: And I have a like, now I can say this,
Speaker 1: I have the glass jaw of all coaches, like a
Speaker 1: sort of slithered down onto his leg. But think about
Speaker 1: what if they would have said, Okay, you want to
Speaker 1: you want to be involved in this, Yeah, go ahead,
Speaker 1: you and Mourning, you know, so go at it. I
Speaker 1: mean all I can say, people say, well, what were
Speaker 1: you thinking? I was like, obviously not, I was not thinking,
Speaker 1: and I just plead temporary insanity. I know why now
Speaker 1: criminals plead that because I have no recollection of what
Speaker 1: I was doing. And I am so grateful for Mourning
Speaker 1: being like, get this fly off me, but not just
Speaker 1: cracking me, like and I sat behind the next year
Speaker 1: Dave after or all that, and then you know, we
Speaker 1: go down there and win a game. You know, Mourning
Speaker 1: was suspended, Johnson was suspended. Like, we end up winning
Speaker 1: the series and the next year I'm fortunate to coach
Speaker 1: the All Star team, and I never talked to any play.
Speaker 1: I never spoke to a Heat player. I hated them
Speaker 1: so much. My brother and I even stopped talking, like
Speaker 1: because of these fights. Right, so we didn't talk. You know.
Speaker 1: Coach he was an assistant, he was an assistant on
Speaker 1: the mind. Yeah, Coach Riley, who I worked for, he
Speaker 1: wasn't talking to me. There was like true animosity. Right.
Speaker 1: So the next year mornings on the All Star team
Speaker 1: and like, I'm like dreading having to coach him in hardaway.
Speaker 1: I just want to like it was awful. When I
Speaker 1: was an assistant for Coach Riley. We had Jordan and
Speaker 1: Pippen and they were beating us like every year in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, just breaking our hearts and like having a
Speaker 1: look at them in Salt Lake City, I was like,
Speaker 1: oh man, I just want to like douge people's eyes out.
Speaker 1: So anyway, I'm walking in to do the media and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna actually have to talk to Morning, right, and
Speaker 1: he comes up from behind me and bear hugs me
Speaker 1: and breaks the ice. And I was so thankful that
Speaker 1: like he didn't hold it against me, and that you know,
Speaker 1: for that forty eight hours we actually enjoyed each other's company,
Speaker 1: and then once that ended, it was right back to
Speaker 1: the old animosity, which I appreciated about those series. Somebody
Speaker 1: needs to do. I don't know if a book's been
Speaker 1: written on your life, but we need a book or
Speaker 1: a movie because it's not just that you've had an
Speaker 1: interesting life, but it's how colorful you are and funny
Speaker 1: and I just feel like somebody's missing the boat here.
Speaker 1: There needs to be a book or a movie on
Speaker 1: either just Jeff or Jeff and stand like, who would
Speaker 1: play you? If you there was a movie on Jeff
Speaker 1: van Gundy, who would be the actor to play you?
Speaker 1: First of all, no books, no movies. But if I
Speaker 1: had to have an actor like you don't have to
Speaker 1: try to find the ugliest guy that you could find
Speaker 1: and then try to like put makeup on him to
Speaker 1: make him even look worse, like I would hate to say,
Speaker 1: oh can you don't imagine if an actor said I
Speaker 1: look like Jeff dang gunny, he'd be banned from movies
Speaker 1: for life. So you know what's interesting is I never
Speaker 1: when I was growing up, all I wanted to do
Speaker 1: was like I wanted to coach. My dad was a
Speaker 1: small college coach. Man, I would have been happy doing that.
Speaker 1: I really like and to get all these like you know,
Speaker 1: because coaching isn't like playing playing. The best players make it,
Speaker 1: you know, it's hard, but they make it. But coaches,
Speaker 1: you know, so much of it is timing and good
Speaker 1: fortune and being in the right place at the right time.
Speaker 1: And Man's that's the name. That should be the name
Speaker 1: if you ever did a book Lucky being at the
Speaker 1: right time, at the right place, at the right time,
Speaker 1: Jeff bing Gundy's story. You know, I've gotten to be friends.
Speaker 1: I know you're not on Twitter, but they have this
Speaker 1: thing on Twitter where it's called DM Direct Message, and
Speaker 1: I've got I've become friends with Richard Lewis. He's a
Speaker 1: huge Ohio State fan, the comedian who's part of Curb
Speaker 1: Your Enthusiasm. Oh yeah, and I heard that. I guess
Speaker 1: he I assumed probably was going to the games back
Speaker 1: when you were coaching. Absolutely, But but I go back
Speaker 1: and forth with him all the time about Ohio State
Speaker 1: and college football. Maybe Larry David, maybe he can ask
Speaker 1: Larry to play you there. There's some similarities there, a
Speaker 1: little bit. Maybe, you know, one of the best times
Speaker 1: in my life somehow Mike Bream got to know Larry
Speaker 1: David and we were in LA and he said, I
Speaker 1: don't like to I'm not a big like go out
Speaker 1: to dinner guy on the road because everybody takes too long.
Speaker 1: I want to order the entree, the appetizer, entre, and
Speaker 1: dessert all at the same time and be out in
Speaker 1: twenty seven minutes. Right. Mike likes to like sit around
Speaker 1: and talk and it just drives me crazy going to
Speaker 1: dinner with him. Right, But he says, you have to
Speaker 1: come to this dinner. So I said, okay, and I said,
Speaker 1: who's coming. He goes, it's a surprise, but you'll like it.
Speaker 1: It was me, him and Larry David. This guy had
Speaker 1: me laughing so hard, and I think he was actually
Speaker 1: he was going in a couple of weeks to do
Speaker 1: a play and I forget the name of the play
Speaker 1: he did in New York, but I know he was
Speaker 1: working on material in his head as he's like looking
Speaker 1: at all these people in like it's fact, great comedians
Speaker 1: are like fascinating. He had me doubled over and I
Speaker 1: don't even know if he was trying to be funny,
Speaker 1: he just was. I mean, great comedians are truly geniuses.
Speaker 1: They really are, and I was Mike pulled me. That
Speaker 1: was the one dinner I went to with Mike that
Speaker 1: I would have sat there all night. I thought it
Speaker 1: ended too early. Most times the dinners with Mike, I
Speaker 1: can't wait to get out of there so long. I
Speaker 1: gotta let you go here soon because I know you
Speaker 1: have better things to do. But since we're talking about actors,
Speaker 1: and I know the story, but I want you to
Speaker 1: tell a story because you're not restricted by television right now,
Speaker 1: where you only have a short amount of time, So
Speaker 1: feel free to take as long you need to tell
Speaker 1: the Jodie Foster story from which would have been what
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty Okay, So Jodie Foster and I both enrolled
Speaker 1: at Yale in the same year. I lasted one year
Speaker 1: and then I found my rightful place in junior college. Okay,
Speaker 1: But in that one year at Yale, they have an
Speaker 1: unbelievable freshman quadrangle and the entrance. One of the entrances
Speaker 1: is that I would take every day to go to classes, yes,
Speaker 1: but to the gym like it was right by this
Speaker 1: candy shop. I mean, this candy shop on campus was phenomenal,
Speaker 1: not sure it's still there. So anyway, we know Jody
Speaker 1: Foster lives in this quadrangle. I actually have a class
Speaker 1: with her, but it's a big class, so it's not
Speaker 1: like I'm getting any chance meetings. So early in the semester,
Speaker 1: we had twelve guys on the floor, three rooms of four.
Speaker 1: Everybody puts in one hundred dollars. First guy to get
Speaker 1: a date with her a legit date gets twelve hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: so early in the semester. Now I am coming back
Speaker 1: from the gym, and I'm right by the candy shop,
Speaker 1: which cooks the best popcorn you could ever hope to eat,
Speaker 1: and it smells unbelievable. So right at the moment I
Speaker 1: hit that shop and I'm about to turn into the grid,
Speaker 1: this gate sirens come wailing down the street, like five
Speaker 1: or six of them, right after one after another. And
Speaker 1: so I am stopped outside the candy shop and the gate,
Speaker 1: and I watched these sirens, and as the last one
Speaker 1: clears me, a voice from behind me says, boy, that
Speaker 1: popcorn smells good. And so I turn around because I'm
Speaker 1: the only one there, and I'm gonna say, yeah, it
Speaker 1: smells awesome, And I turn around and it's Jody Foster.
Speaker 1: And instead of saying, you know, like someone with some
Speaker 1: poise would would have done, Hey, yeah, it smells good.
Speaker 1: Do you want some, I'm gonna go in there and
Speaker 1: buy something. I could have had twelve hundred bucks plus
Speaker 1: I could have gotten to know Jody Foster. I absolutely choke,
Speaker 1: and I am not joking. I turn around and go yeah,
Speaker 1: and I sprint through the gate and back to my room.
Speaker 1: And that I mean. And so now Rich Eisen, who
Speaker 1: a great talk show host, has her on after I
Speaker 1: tell this story on the air, As you said, it
Speaker 1: was abbreviated, and he says, hey, do you know Jeff
Speaker 1: Van Gundhi? He mentions you on the air, and she goes,
Speaker 1: oh no, He goes, does this photo from college? Look
Speaker 1: at all? Look at all familiar? She goes, She looks
Speaker 1: at the camera, goes, na, not at all. If I
Speaker 1: ever see her? She and she made fun of me
Speaker 1: after that. So not only did I choke lose twelve
Speaker 1: hundred dollars a chance to meet her, but now she's
Speaker 1: embarrassed me because she mocked me. So she's she's had
Speaker 1: a Laker game. Every once in a while. I am
Speaker 1: going up to her, and I'm going to ask her
Speaker 1: for the twelve hundred dollars and I want to get
Speaker 1: my self respect back because I choked so badly back
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty. Well, first of all, you're you're doing
Speaker 1: okay financially without the twelve hundred from that day. And
Speaker 1: we all know who is most thankful that things didn't
Speaker 1: work out between you and Jodie Foster, and that's the
Speaker 1: legendary Kim van Gundy, or or you could say after
Speaker 1: dealing with me for over thirty years that she, God gosh,
Speaker 1: I wish it would have worked out. So you can
Speaker 1: look at it either way. All right. Last one, I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's a serious one, but just a
Speaker 1: hard right turn back to basketball, because I'm sure people
Speaker 1: listening watch your thoughts on Lebron James because you've done
Speaker 1: his games since he's been in the NBA, and he
Speaker 1: coached against Lebron. You coached against Michael Jordan. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to follow the trap us saying who's better, you know,
Speaker 1: Jordan or Lebron. But where when it's all said and done,
Speaker 1: how do you think we will look back at Lebron
Speaker 1: James's career in comparison to other great players, And I
Speaker 1: think that's a great distinction Dave his career versus who's
Speaker 1: the better player. When Lebron James ends his career, he
Speaker 1: could be very well the most prolific scorer that ever played,
Speaker 1: as far as passing Jabbar for number one on the
Speaker 1: all time scoring list. And it's not even his best
Speaker 1: skill on the court. His passing is his best skill.
Speaker 1: So I think Lebron James most definitely has a top
Speaker 1: three NBA career of all time and very likely could
Speaker 1: have the best career ever depending on health and continued
Speaker 1: you know greatness. What he's doing this deep in his career,
Speaker 1: playing you know, deep into the playoffs every year, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, it could go down as the best career
Speaker 1: of all time. Now, Michael Jordan, that's not to diminish him,
Speaker 1: because Michael Jordan is the best player that I would
Speaker 1: I ever coach against. Like I was an assistant when
Speaker 1: Jabbar was at the end of his career and a man,
Speaker 1: that guy was phenomenal, like what he accomplished in college
Speaker 1: and the NBA, and I mean just ridiculous. And I
Speaker 1: think he gets far often too overlooked and frankly, what
Speaker 1: he's accomplished after his career, you know, so bright and
Speaker 1: so terrific with his thoughtful approach to serious issues. But Jordan,
Speaker 1: I always reflect back and how efficient he was, and
Speaker 1: he played under totally different rules where the spacing wasn't
Speaker 1: as good because there wasn't as many three point shots,
Speaker 1: where the level of contact, you know, the level of
Speaker 1: contact that great scores are facing. Now, it's funny they're
Speaker 1: all complaining that pales into comparison to what Jordan had
Speaker 1: to face and the physical toll that that must have taken.
Speaker 1: But he remained so highly efficient. He's the best player
Speaker 1: I've ever coached against. But lebron Man, this guy's career
Speaker 1: I think at the end of the day is going
Speaker 1: to be second to none. Awesome stuff, Jeff, thanks so
Speaker 1: much for the time, Brother, appreciate you. I knew Jeff
Speaker 1: would deliver exactly what all of us Cardinal fans needed.
Speaker 1: Some laughter after last Sunday's game against the Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 1: Great stories by Jeff going back into the archives. His
Speaker 1: incredible recall about the time he blew an opportunity to
Speaker 1: get a date with Jody Foster and also win twelve
Speaker 1: hundred dollars, the time that his car got destroyed by
Speaker 1: a seven thirty seven jet, a moment that sports fans
Speaker 1: all remember, The time that he was hanging onto the
Speaker 1: leg of Alonzo Morning, plus Jeff's thoughts on the Cardinals,
Speaker 1: growing up a Raider fan in his beloved Houston Texans,
Speaker 1: the Phoenix Suns, Lebron James, and so much more. We
Speaker 1: are presented by bet MGM, the official sports betting partner
Speaker 1: of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Hotels and Casinos.
Speaker 1: Thanks again to Jeff Van Gundy for being this week's
Speaker 1: guest on the Dave Pash Podcast