Speaker 1: Boom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes a
Speaker 1: week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants of
Speaker 1: the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He treats
Speaker 1: crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the rich
Speaker 1: pill poppers in the penthouse, to clearinghouse of hot takes,
Speaker 1: break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben
Speaker 1: Maller starts right now, nine nine nine in the air,
Speaker 1: everywhere Back again. Another weekend has begun with the podcast
Speaker 1: because hey, listen four hours a night in the Overnight
Speaker 1: or Not Enough, a spinoff of the Ben Maller radio
Speaker 1: program eight days a week, eight days a week. I
Speaker 1: hope you had a chance to hear the Ben Mallor
Speaker 1: Show podcast and now you're listening to this podcast. So
Speaker 1: we do something a little different if you're if you're
Speaker 1: new to the party. And every Friday we like to
Speaker 1: bring in someone who I know or I like, who
Speaker 1: I want to talk to, because we don't get to
Speaker 1: do that on the overnight show. It's, you know, late
Speaker 1: at night, it's hard to hard to get anyone to
Speaker 1: call in live, and we generally have you the callers,
Speaker 1: the few people that call up who are the characters
Speaker 1: on the show and stuff so on. On Fridays here
Speaker 1: we like to bring somebody in and this week we
Speaker 1: are excited to welcome in a former NBA player, someone
Speaker 1: who I actually have known for you know, casually, casually.
Speaker 1: It's not like we're you know, we're best friends. But
Speaker 1: I've known this guy for many, many years. Uh. He
Speaker 1: played for the Clippers when I was a radio reporter
Speaker 1: just getting started in, you know, in that early mid
Speaker 1: nineties period, and we became somewhat friendly in that period
Speaker 1: of time. And he's gone on, had a big career,
Speaker 1: played over ten years in the NBA's played in the
Speaker 1: minor leagues of basketball for the Harlem Globe Trys. We're
Speaker 1: talking about Derek Martin. He played it, you see, l
Speaker 1: A for the Bruins and he went undrafted and the
Speaker 1: guys had a ten He had a tenure career in
Speaker 1: the wild world of basketball and has been a coach
Speaker 1: and broadcaster. He's pretty much seen and done it all
Speaker 1: as a basketball hobo. But I remember him as a Clipper,
Speaker 1: and he played with Vancouver and Sacramento and Dallas and
Speaker 1: the Toronto Raptors and Minnesota, all these teams. But I
Speaker 1: I have fond members of of Derreck Martin as a
Speaker 1: clipper and he joins us now and Derek welcome in.
Speaker 1: I know you called in the other night to the
Speaker 1: Overnight Show. Is great to hear from you. I've seen
Speaker 1: you pretty active lately on Twitter and what not. So
Speaker 1: give me the give me the inside skinny. What have
Speaker 1: you been up to recently? Well, you know, I had
Speaker 1: a good run as a coach of the assistant coach
Speaker 1: at St. John's under Steve Lavin, assistant with Kurt Rambis
Speaker 1: when he was at Minnesota Timberwolves. And then I was
Speaker 1: fortunate enough to be the head coach of the Areno Bighorns,
Speaker 1: the D League team for a Sacramento for a couple
Speaker 1: of years. So, uh, the coaching thing was doing good.
Speaker 1: But as my son got a little older, I wanted
Speaker 1: to be closer to him. So me and Mitchell Butler
Speaker 1: have started our own training business. It's Legacy West Basketball
Speaker 1: dot Com. And so we've been doing that and it's
Speaker 1: it's been taken off really good, teaching the next generation
Speaker 1: of basketball players how to do it. So I for
Speaker 1: those who don't know the story, like we crossed passed.
Speaker 1: You were playing for the Clippers. You will get to
Speaker 1: your your NBA career, but you played for the Clippers
Speaker 1: in the nineties and I was a young punk radio
Speaker 1: reporter in that time period and uh, you know, trying
Speaker 1: to make it in radio, and I covered you when
Speaker 1: you were playing with the Clippers, and I always appreciated Derek.
Speaker 1: You were very kind, you know, as you would admit
Speaker 1: those teams were not particularly great in that that time
Speaker 1: period at the sports Arena. But but looking back at
Speaker 1: that part of your career, what stands out back in
Speaker 1: that like the mid nineties kind of that timeline, Oh man,
Speaker 1: Just opportunity to play at home in front of my family,
Speaker 1: my friends. Uh, like you said, the sports Arena was
Speaker 1: not really cracking, like to stay what's sit there is
Speaker 1: especially in support of us. So I was able to
Speaker 1: get about thirty tickets to night and after the family
Speaker 1: coming there, and it was just a special time for
Speaker 1: me to be able to uh kind of take off
Speaker 1: and establish my pro career, making my mark that I
Speaker 1: can play in the NBA right there in front of
Speaker 1: my friend family. So it was really cool. It was
Speaker 1: really cool, and I you know, there's not a lot
Speaker 1: I remember about going to those games, but I do
Speaker 1: remember the night that you lit up the Utah Jazz.
Speaker 1: I said that the other night when you called into
Speaker 1: the show. But that was one of those I mean,
Speaker 1: you just were I mean, I think you made a
Speaker 1: bunch of foul shots. If I remember when you scored
Speaker 1: you're right on forty points or something like that against
Speaker 1: the gym, and that was when they asked John, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Stockton and Malone. I mean, that was what I had.
Speaker 1: That was great night, funny stories. I was, well, we're
Speaker 1: just was on the team and we had been college together.
Speaker 1: And after the first quarter, I was feeling pretty good,
Speaker 1: laughed and turned to it. I said, I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: thirty whatever, and I went out and had a big
Speaker 1: night and it was pretty cool, Like it was on
Speaker 1: the front of my parents, my family, my brothers and sister.
Speaker 1: That was a really cool experience, something I always cherished. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was that was I remember. And yeah, as somebody
Speaker 1: that played for the Clippers in the less than ideal
Speaker 1: period and now they've been the last few years, they've
Speaker 1: been one of the better teams in the NBA every
Speaker 1: year there because it odd as just somebody that experienced
Speaker 1: the Clippers at the Sports Arena, to see that the
Speaker 1: franchise actually doesn't stink anymore. They're actually good. It's pretty
Speaker 1: cool for me. It's really is. Uh. You know, I
Speaker 1: told Clippers have always been seen as the little brother
Speaker 1: in l A. And that's understandably. You know, this is
Speaker 1: the Lakers town and that's cool. But you know, like
Speaker 1: I said back then, we get text too, even though
Speaker 1: sometimes they bounced being from Donald Thurling, but we were
Speaker 1: eight players also, So to see the transition Mr Bomber
Speaker 1: come in, uh, Doc Rivers there first and then now Tyler.
Speaker 1: They're really starting to establish a good culture and a
Speaker 1: place where free agents would like to come. So that's
Speaker 1: really cool for me to see. I mean, I'm enjoying it.
Speaker 1: Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Speaker 1: Show weekdays at two a m. Eastern eleven pm Pacific
Speaker 1: on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And as an l A guy, I mean from Long
Speaker 1: Beach or in l A guy you put at U
Speaker 1: C l A. And I always I get this argument.
Speaker 1: You know, all the guys I work with their Laker apologists,
Speaker 1: and they always like, whatever the Lakers do, they defend
Speaker 1: and there's room for the Clippers, and every time the
Speaker 1: Clippers do anything, these people get triggered and they're like
Speaker 1: they freak out because they're jealous of the any success.
Speaker 1: It's very annoying. Tonny man, It's it's hilarious. I laughed.
Speaker 1: You know, my brother and sister gotten me kind of
Speaker 1: up to date it on social media and how to
Speaker 1: use it and everything. So I like to go on.
Speaker 1: It's like you said, see all the Laker apologists and everything.
Speaker 1: It's funny. You know, this town is big enough to
Speaker 1: have the Lakers in the Clippers. I do think the
Speaker 1: Clippers need to have their own building. Uh kind of
Speaker 1: developed their own identity, and I I have even tossed
Speaker 1: around maybe changing the name, just to kind of completely
Speaker 1: move on from the Donald Starting era. What would you
Speaker 1: call him? What would you call the Clippers there? What name?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I haven't come up with a creative
Speaker 1: name yet, but I will be if I do, I
Speaker 1: will definitely submit it. Yeah no, no, it's gonna be like, uh, well,
Speaker 1: nicknames are a very dicey subject these days. But something
Speaker 1: we like, I like just like the Hollywood stars or
Speaker 1: something you can play in Inglewood there they're building that
Speaker 1: arena in Inglewood. In a few years they gonna have
Speaker 1: that arena, but uh like something like l A centric
Speaker 1: that you know, I will work on it. But anyway, listen,
Speaker 1: I remember before I forget here, Derek, when you were
Speaker 1: playing for the clips I was doing. I was a
Speaker 1: reporter and then I became a talk show host. Around
Speaker 1: that time, I was doing the Ben and Dave Show
Speaker 1: and you called in every once in a while. That
Speaker 1: I remember time we were doing a remote from from
Speaker 1: a bar and you were driving around and you were
Speaker 1: so cool. You showed up to hang out with us,
Speaker 1: and that was awesome. That was that was You probably
Speaker 1: even remember that, Derek, but you were no. I do
Speaker 1: I remember it. I definitely remember when I, like I said,
Speaker 1: I'm just learning about doing the social media. So when
Speaker 1: I found out you had a show, I just started
Speaker 1: to recollect all the things, like coming on your show,
Speaker 1: going to that remote. I really enjoyed coming on your show, man,
Speaker 1: that was really cool. So that's kind of why I
Speaker 1: reached out to you. Just wanted to say hello and
Speaker 1: see how you're doing and just say you congratulations on
Speaker 1: getting happened what you have now, because I remember those days,
Speaker 1: and I do remember that remote that I came to.
Speaker 1: We had a good time. Yeah, it was great. We
Speaker 1: were like shocked. We were like, wait, and an NBA
Speaker 1: guys showing up to our remote, It's like weird. I mean,
Speaker 1: I didn't expect that doing the Night Show back then.
Speaker 1: But and I got to I mean, Derek, you have
Speaker 1: had you must have the biggest man cave of all
Speaker 1: the jerseys. That it's like a Dr. Seuss poem. The
Speaker 1: places you'll go to peep well, you'll see how many
Speaker 1: cities have you lived in as a basketball But you've
Speaker 1: been all over the place. Oh, I've been all over
Speaker 1: I was explaining to my son all the different teams
Speaker 1: I've played for. And let's see the Clippers, Minnesota, Dallas, Toronto, Vancouver, UH, Sacramento,
Speaker 1: UH team in Pompey, Italy. I played with the Magic
Speaker 1: Johnson Tour teams for in Russia. I've played um for
Speaker 1: the Globe Riter. So I got a chance to see
Speaker 1: the world. A huge question just all because of the
Speaker 1: game of basketball. So how difficult when you're when you're
Speaker 1: a player, you bounces around. How difficult is it? I
Speaker 1: mean we see this all the time. Guys get traded
Speaker 1: and stuff and it's not like totally unique, but you've
Speaker 1: had to live in all these different cities. You've got
Speaker 1: to get doctors and all that. How how big a
Speaker 1: pain in the assd is that, Derek? When you keep
Speaker 1: changing cities and you have to you know, find a
Speaker 1: new location all that. Uh, you know, I've kind of
Speaker 1: gotten used to it. I kind of got used to it.
Speaker 1: And we went down for Father's Day, me and my brother,
Speaker 1: his kids, my son, my sister's kids, and we're all
Speaker 1: in the hotel and they just loved it. And I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm Candida live in this hotel. Just fund all his
Speaker 1: light that they said, Oh, this is great, my son,
Speaker 1: this is great that we do this all the time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: your dad has lived that life. So you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's fun. I kind of enjoyed it. I kind of
Speaker 1: enjoyed especially when I got a chance to maybe also
Speaker 1: to uh go overseas playing Russia, playing in Italy. Uh
Speaker 1: to see the different cultures and learned from the people
Speaker 1: in that city. Uh. So it's been fun. You know.
Speaker 1: I never saw it as a as a burden. I
Speaker 1: saw it as an opportunity to learn and and see
Speaker 1: something new. Yeah, and I love to find I didn't realize,
Speaker 1: you know, I lost track of a little bit. I
Speaker 1: didn't realize you had played with the Harlem Globe Trotters.
Speaker 1: And I was aware of that fun fact when I
Speaker 1: was a kid, Derek, my parents took me to see
Speaker 1: the Harlem Globetrotters and it actually helped. I was a
Speaker 1: little kid. I don't remember how old I was. I
Speaker 1: was very smart, but I are like falling in love
Speaker 1: with basketball with all the you know, the trick shots
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. So when you played with when
Speaker 1: you play with the Globe tracks, like, what was your
Speaker 1: did you have a signature move? Did you have your
Speaker 1: signature go to thing that you would entertain the fans with. No.
Speaker 1: So what they had was was a team that would
Speaker 1: play exhibitions against college teams like Syracuse, Michigan State, and
Speaker 1: uh UTEP and a few other schools, and then after
Speaker 1: the game, the real game, then the Globetriters that did
Speaker 1: the entertaining would come in. So I played on the
Speaker 1: team the first team that played the real exhibition games
Speaker 1: and played against Syracuse Utah and I remember this one
Speaker 1: game against Michigan State. Shannon Brown was still that was
Speaker 1: there at the time. And he was supposed to be
Speaker 1: the defensive stopper and I kind of really got go
Speaker 1: and have one of those. I end up with thirty
Speaker 1: eight and doing the course of the game. Michael's uh,
Speaker 1: Tom millel yo that you can't carry that odd guy.
Speaker 1: I said, hey, Loo man, you once you come out
Speaker 1: here and try to gard me yourself for It was
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. I enjoyed it. Mammy Jackson Um
Speaker 1: did a wonderful job running that organization, and Chad Growth
Speaker 1: was a part of it also too, So it was
Speaker 1: definitely a great experience and definitely something I treasure. That's
Speaker 1: pretty cool. Yeah, I did see the story the other day.
Speaker 1: I think it was just for publicity. They said the
Speaker 1: Harlem Globe Trotter said they wanted to be an NBA
Speaker 1: expansion team. They wanted to be an expansion You can't
Speaker 1: be the the Globe Trotters. You can't be in the
Speaker 1: n Yeah, no, I can't be in it. They would
Speaker 1: lose their lord. You know, they have a nitch. They
Speaker 1: should just keep going with that Niche like you said,
Speaker 1: they don't even know how they affect so many young kids.
Speaker 1: He's like you said, you fell in love with the
Speaker 1: game of basketball after going to oh you Globe Trotter
Speaker 1: at one time. So you know, I think they should
Speaker 1: just stay in that lane and and and enjoy it
Speaker 1: and and just write it out. I agree. So and
Speaker 1: when I told a friend of mine, I said, you know,
Speaker 1: Derek called in and he remembered you when you played
Speaker 1: and stuff, and he said, he said, you gotta ask
Speaker 1: Derek about the Michael Jordan's story and so so uh
Speaker 1: so I've been asked, I guess this goes back to
Speaker 1: your Vancouver days, Derek, and it's a yeah, yeah, I've been.
Speaker 1: It's been funny. I'm almost in the last six seven months,
Speaker 1: I've been on tour telling that story. A few people
Speaker 1: have asked me. And it's a lot of backdrop to it.
Speaker 1: There was Michael's out here filming space dams, and of
Speaker 1: course everybody knows about the tent that they built for
Speaker 1: in the court and what have you. So he's playing
Speaker 1: against mostly a lot of Urian players and he wasn't
Speaker 1: feeling challenge. So he called up Magic and said, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, you've got any guys that can come down
Speaker 1: here and play, you know, local NBA guys. So he's
Speaker 1: Magic called me, said little fill if you take a
Speaker 1: group of guys down there. So I said, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: So all my guys at that time, we all grew
Speaker 1: up together, Chris Mills, Tracy Murray, Mitchell Butler. So we
Speaker 1: go down there to play. So we're waiting to come
Speaker 1: on and play. Finally it's our game going to seven
Speaker 1: and at six six, I come down on the wing,
Speaker 1: act like I'm gonna shoot, and Michael jumps for the
Speaker 1: a fake and I go by and lay it up
Speaker 1: and I just commenced to talk, excuse me trash to
Speaker 1: Michael for about the next minute and a half and
Speaker 1: I'm telling him everything, get out of my city. This
Speaker 1: is l A. You're not the real m J Magic,
Speaker 1: the real m J. Just get out of here. And
Speaker 1: everybody's just laughing. They can't believe that the little guys
Speaker 1: talking bad to Michael even so far, to so much
Speaker 1: that Chris Mills picked me up on my finger. Uh,
Speaker 1: Peter dangling. He's saying, d Mark stop stop. Stop. The
Speaker 1: long story short, Michael comes on like two games later.
Speaker 1: I was like, there's no way, because it's thirty people
Speaker 1: in here. You're supposed to be wait. He's like, this
Speaker 1: is my im come on what I want. So he
Speaker 1: ends up being us in next game. And now he
Speaker 1: follows me around the next minute and a half just
Speaker 1: talking trash to me. So that's the backdrop going into
Speaker 1: that year. And so he called Magic is like, man,
Speaker 1: who's this little guy you must be talking about? Mark? Yeah,
Speaker 1: DMR talk trash talks. So Michael I kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: broke a little bit of a friendship. So fast forwards
Speaker 1: and now we're playing in Vancouver. That's a thirteen game,
Speaker 1: uh road trip for them. You know, most back then
Speaker 1: in the NBA, when you get to that last game,
Speaker 1: you're just kind of trying to get home. Vancouver was
Speaker 1: the last game on the schedule on that trip. So
Speaker 1: I came down. It was about two minutes ago. I
Speaker 1: made a lay up and got an N one walk
Speaker 1: by the bench. I told you would beat me to
Speaker 1: night in so many words, and so Phil looked out
Speaker 1: heading like, all right, what you want to do. So
Speaker 1: Michael had untied issues, you know, kind of put the
Speaker 1: towel on his head and was kind of just you know,
Speaker 1: giving up for the night. So he tied his shoes
Speaker 1: back up, takes the towel off, checks in, and he
Speaker 1: comes stands next to me at the foul line. I
Speaker 1: got a pretty good picture of it. And he says,
Speaker 1: I told you about talking trash, and I still looked
Speaker 1: up to the the collection. Man, you're not beating me to night, buddy.
Speaker 1: So anyone's go ahead next like ten, he having points
Speaker 1: to beat us down the stretch and Yrus Scott was
Speaker 1: guard and he was so mad at me walking ahead
Speaker 1: a lot. If you're going to truck trash, at least
Speaker 1: starting a guy, I said, lust here right. So it
Speaker 1: was a funny thing. So afterwards they told the ball
Speaker 1: He sent the ball boys over to get me. So
Speaker 1: we just kind of sat down and talk. He's like, man,
Speaker 1: you don't ever stop. I said, you put your pants
Speaker 1: one at the time, just like me. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: compete and do the same thing. So he laughs that
Speaker 1: I like that. I like that, So that's good that.
Speaker 1: It was pretty cool. So we could. You know, we
Speaker 1: got a little bit of a friendship. When we see
Speaker 1: each other, we laugh and talk about it. Oh that's great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I saw I did see a clip and he
Speaker 1: was like he was he he had his like he
Speaker 1: was sitting on the bench. He had a towel on
Speaker 1: Jordan like he was out of the game, and then
Speaker 1: he because if you he came back, and that's a
Speaker 1: that's a great were you are? You were one of
Speaker 1: the few that played for the Vancouver version of the Grizzlies. Also, Derek,
Speaker 1: I mean that you played for both You played for
Speaker 1: both Canadian teams. You're one of the few, right. I
Speaker 1: didn't realize that. My brother was telling me the other day.
Speaker 1: He's like, you realizing one of the only guys let's
Speaker 1: played for both Canadian teams teams, And I was like,
Speaker 1: oh wow, I didn't know that. What was it like? Now?
Speaker 1: A lot of like younger people probably don't even remember
Speaker 1: the Vancouver Grizzlies. It's been so long, But like, what
Speaker 1: was it like playing basketball in Vancouver? The team has
Speaker 1: been been in Memphis for many years now. It's it
Speaker 1: was amazing that Vancouver is a very underrated city. It's
Speaker 1: beautiful up there. The people are nice, they got great food.
Speaker 1: I think the team, the league just they didn't wait
Speaker 1: it out long enough. You know, basketball was new to
Speaker 1: that region and so fans were just starting to understand
Speaker 1: the game. But they loved it. They supported the team.
Speaker 1: They came out and cheered and it was a good
Speaker 1: city for them to move the team from Vancouver to Memphis.
Speaker 1: I think it's really I don't know if you you know,
Speaker 1: like Memphis barbecue and I think it's okay, But it
Speaker 1: was nothing to like the food, uh and Vancouver and
Speaker 1: just the whole atmosphere. Vancouver was so relaxed and really cool.
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed it. You know, I almost wish I
Speaker 1: could have played half of my career there because that's
Speaker 1: how much I enjoyed the city and how much I
Speaker 1: enjoyed the fans and the people up there. They really
Speaker 1: supported the team. Be sure to catch live editions of
Speaker 1: The Ben Miller Show week days at two am Eastern
Speaker 1: eleven p m Pacific. Hey, I'm John Middlecoff and I
Speaker 1: host the Three and Out podcast. Do you like football?
Speaker 1: Do you like the NFL? Do you like the NFL draft? Quarterbacks? Coaches? Well,
Speaker 1: I talked about it all on the show. I used
Speaker 1: to work for Andy Reid as a scout. Now I
Speaker 1: give you my unfiltered and raw opinions on everything that
Speaker 1: goes on the NFL. And you know, we're talking college
Speaker 1: football because of how important the draft is year round.
Speaker 1: Listen to the three and out podcast with me John
Speaker 1: Middlecom on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah, and they loved you
Speaker 1: in Toronto too, right, even though I mean you're you're
Speaker 1: a backup guy in the Raptors, but they seem to
Speaker 1: embrace you in Toronto. Also, Yeah, I really I enjoyed that.
Speaker 1: It's funny because now now I walked into the locker
Speaker 1: room and I was used to be in the baby
Speaker 1: or the middle of the road guy. I walked into
Speaker 1: the Toronto locker room and all of a sudden, I'm
Speaker 1: an old guy. Really quick, I'm like, whoa, everybody in
Speaker 1: here is twenty two. I'm like thirty something, right, So
Speaker 1: it was it was pretty cool because now my role
Speaker 1: kind of switched from maybe every day player, every game
Speaker 1: player to sort of a backup and a mentor. And
Speaker 1: it was really cool cool. You know, developed a really
Speaker 1: good relationship with Chris Humphries, with Jose Calderon, Chris Boss,
Speaker 1: Anthony Parker to the point where we all still talked
Speaker 1: to this day and check on each other. So it
Speaker 1: was a really good time. And I had a chance
Speaker 1: to play for Sam Mitchell, who I played with my
Speaker 1: rookie year in Minnesota. So things kind of went full
Speaker 1: circle and that was pretty cool. The circle of life.
Speaker 1: How weird is it? By the way, Deck, I mean,
Speaker 1: we were around the same age, and like, I don't
Speaker 1: even it's hard to be like, I've become the old
Speaker 1: guy in radio and stuff, and it's odd to me.
Speaker 1: It's bizarre. I don't I don't feel that old. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you don't feel real. It's just it's a
Speaker 1: weird thing. All of a sudden, you wake up and
Speaker 1: you're like, wait a minute, Like twenty five years of
Speaker 1: my career has gone by. It's pretty wild. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm betting you're like, well, wait a minute, what's happened here?
Speaker 1: You know? And I got one day and I got
Speaker 1: a little bit of a belly. I'm like, man, where
Speaker 1: did this come from? It's like overnight, this thing is changed.
Speaker 1: I'm enjoying it, Like I said, I'm enjoying the business
Speaker 1: with Mitchell father, myself, Legacy West dot com. I'm enjoying.
Speaker 1: It's been a lot of time with my son teaching him.
Speaker 1: Like I said, he's playing baseball and basketball, so I
Speaker 1: might also have a first base uh going up here?
Speaker 1: Pretty soon. So it's been fun. It's been fun. I've
Speaker 1: been enjoying things right now. Now, your son's a little guy.
Speaker 1: Does he have the does he have the love of
Speaker 1: sports or have you kept him off the video games yet? Derek?
Speaker 1: Have you've been able to keep him off the video games?
Speaker 1: He does like a few video games right now. His
Speaker 1: thing is the wrestling. He loves wrestling, the w W
Speaker 1: E that He's got a lot of Uh, guys and
Speaker 1: every now and then we'll play basketball or football, but uh,
Speaker 1: definitely into the sports. He enjoys it. He has a
Speaker 1: hitting coach that he goes to once a week. Uh.
Speaker 1: He's really embraced basketball and he has a lot of
Speaker 1: fun with it. Uh. It's really good. And sometimes I
Speaker 1: get emotional just watch him because he's Derek Jr. So
Speaker 1: to see Derek Jr. Just start to embrace the love
Speaker 1: of sports is really cool. Well, and you know, if
Speaker 1: he loves wrestling, he could become a professional wrestler. There
Speaker 1: was a guy, Derek, you know that listened to my
Speaker 1: show back. He used to send me emails back in
Speaker 1: the day, and he was going to wrestling school in Florida.
Speaker 1: They have a place in Tampa and he he became
Speaker 1: the wrestler known as uh Russef. Now he's he goes
Speaker 1: by the name Mero, but he was at one point
Speaker 1: he was a big deal in the in the w W.
Speaker 1: He had like a tenure career under the ring name
Speaker 1: Rusef there and then he's you know, we played we
Speaker 1: use him on the game. I have to tell much
Speaker 1: T when I get off. Yeah, yeah, and w W
Speaker 1: game Russ is on there and we play with that.
Speaker 1: By the way, and this will also impress your your son.
Speaker 1: That the reason I became friends with the wrestler Russef
Speaker 1: who's now Miro is he's a Clipper guy. He likes
Speaker 1: the Clippers, and yeah, yeah, he's actually he's he spent
Speaker 1: some time in southern California. I think I know he
Speaker 1: was living in Florida listening to the show because it's syndicated,
Speaker 1: but he he did. He likes the Clippers. So we
Speaker 1: were bo So yeah, so he probably knows who you
Speaker 1: are and probably watched you play back back when you
Speaker 1: were playing for the team back in the day. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely if you ever talked to you again, definitely he's
Speaker 1: got love for us. Absolutely, no, absolutely, I will all right,
Speaker 1: So I want to now let's get into meat and
Speaker 1: potatoes basketball deck. So you reached out to me. You know,
Speaker 1: I do these crazy monologues in the middle of the night,
Speaker 1: screaming and shouting and all that stuff about basketball and
Speaker 1: what's going on. But you played in the Golden Age
Speaker 1: for many in the nineteen nineties. Back against you mentioned
Speaker 1: your your friendship with Michael Jordan, and you played against
Speaker 1: John Stockton, and you know, the great teams of that era.
Speaker 1: What is the biggest difference. You watch the NBA today
Speaker 1: and you're you're you're teaching beast, But when you watch
Speaker 1: the NBA today and the way it's played the way
Speaker 1: it was in the night, what is the biggest thing
Speaker 1: that stands out to you? And I'm gonna say this,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure people would take it the wrong way,
Speaker 1: but what the first word that comes to my mind
Speaker 1: is soft. It's kid, It's kind of soft and and
Speaker 1: that's okay. Um, explain why because now they have uh,
Speaker 1: the scoring is up. Everybody likes scoring. So the league
Speaker 1: was really good about trying to create what they call
Speaker 1: freedom of motion. Freedom of movement so it's less physical
Speaker 1: and the scores are going up. I enjoyed. I would
Speaker 1: love to play in this this area. The pick and
Speaker 1: roll are Oh my goodness, if I could play pick
Speaker 1: and roll uh every time down the floor. The taste
Speaker 1: of space right now. But the biggest difference I think
Speaker 1: is just not it's not as physical as when I played.
Speaker 1: What they go to the monitor now to review as
Speaker 1: a flavor and one flavorant to was just a normal
Speaker 1: foul by tars locally or Buck Williams or Xavier McDaniel
Speaker 1: or sabonus And when I first got in the league.
Speaker 1: So uh, it's just less physical. Yeah, and they they
Speaker 1: have to review everything there. It's see, I like to
Speaker 1: watch these games, but why do they have to review everything?
Speaker 1: You don't have to write, you can play. You played
Speaker 1: the game there. They did not review every single I
Speaker 1: mean they didn't even have that at the beginning there,
Speaker 1: and everything's reviewed. It's insane. Why absolutely it is. And
Speaker 1: and the other thing that I think the league's amasically
Speaker 1: just tickened up on it. I don't know how you
Speaker 1: do it. I know they did have a fine and
Speaker 1: place for it, but you gotta watch the flopping. It's
Speaker 1: getting out of hand. It really, it's kind of getting
Speaker 1: out of hand and it's almost uh, it's very funny
Speaker 1: sometimes how different players can bait the reps n calls
Speaker 1: and there's really no contact there at all. Well, even
Speaker 1: the other night in the final, I Devin Booker, who
Speaker 1: had a great game, and he he it's like they
Speaker 1: had an anviled dropped on his head and they went
Speaker 1: to the replay and he wasn't even like really touched.
Speaker 1: It was. It was wild, man. I mean, it happens
Speaker 1: all the time, absolutely, yeah. Uh. And then when you
Speaker 1: get to the point where there actually is a foul,
Speaker 1: you know, so then it's kind of hard to decide
Speaker 1: between the two. So they they have to find a
Speaker 1: way to kind of tighten up on that a little bit. Now.
Speaker 1: You also there, I must bring up you got you know,
Speaker 1: I was praising Patrick Beverley. I was praising him with
Speaker 1: the with the clips and the way that he was
Speaker 1: playing against the Sun. You though, you were taking a
Speaker 1: different position on Patrick Beverley when I was praising him
Speaker 1: for the way he was playing in the in this
Speaker 1: series against Feast. What was your your opinion? Give me
Speaker 1: your your high take here. I think my high tech
Speaker 1: is you really have to watch how he plays. I
Speaker 1: think he does play dirty at times. I mean, you
Speaker 1: can just listen to what Russell Westbrook has said. He's
Speaker 1: hurt him. I don't think the head but the head
Speaker 1: but of Devin book another day was unintentional. I think
Speaker 1: it was incinal. The found that he made on Chris
Speaker 1: Paul coming off the screen where his legs were Chris
Speaker 1: Paul's elevated in the air and he could have landed
Speaker 1: on his wrist or his neck or anything like that.
Speaker 1: Those are not basketball plays. And I think he makes
Speaker 1: too many of the non basketball plays, uh to be
Speaker 1: considered playing defense. You know, that's not defense. And I
Speaker 1: played against the Doug Christie, the Derek Harper's, the Gary Payton,
Speaker 1: the guys that were called so called defenders, and they
Speaker 1: never made defensive plays like that that that he does,
Speaker 1: uh trying to make it still or make a play
Speaker 1: where he undercut a guy or heard a guy's knee
Speaker 1: and now he's outspore a period of time. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: I just think that's unnecessary. So I'm not necessarily a
Speaker 1: big fan of his the way he plays. Uh, they're
Speaker 1: just they're just not my style. That's not my thing. Well, Derek, though,
Speaker 1: you have to admit though, he's found a niche, right,
Speaker 1: he's got he's got his niche. People know who he is,
Speaker 1: and he's been kind of like a backup guy most
Speaker 1: of his his career. But yeah, and that and that's
Speaker 1: what he is. And uh as you can see. And
Speaker 1: I think in the theories before the Senis one, the
Speaker 1: Dallas one, Tyler couldn't play him because his skill set
Speaker 1: didn't fit what was going on. And it's just he's
Speaker 1: not a typical guard in my opinion of the card
Speaker 1: that we played against in the nineties. You know that
Speaker 1: most of the point guards, you have to be able
Speaker 1: to run a team. You have to be able to orchestrate,
Speaker 1: be an extension of the coach, make a play for
Speaker 1: yourself and also make playce for your teammates. And I
Speaker 1: don't see him doing that. Yeah, so let's go back
Speaker 1: to that when you were playing against those guys in
Speaker 1: the nineties, like John. I've heard stories about John Stockton
Speaker 1: and like what he was like to go against and
Speaker 1: kind of he didn't seem like he was I don't
Speaker 1: know if dirty is the right word, but he was
Speaker 1: always in your business. Shall we say any any recollection
Speaker 1: back in those days, any John Stockton thing that pops
Speaker 1: up in your head there when you thought, think, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: he was physical. He was I wouldn't say dirty, but
Speaker 1: he was physical with you. He had bumped you, shoot
Speaker 1: you an elbow, you know. He was uh. He would
Speaker 1: get into your grill and and try to frustrate you
Speaker 1: in a different way than what Patrick Proppli does. It
Speaker 1: was more of a competitor, you know, just if we're
Speaker 1: on the on the streets of Compton or l A.
Speaker 1: This is how we play, you know. And and John
Speaker 1: was physical and and I loved it. It It brought the
Speaker 1: best out of me. Having a chance to play against
Speaker 1: John Stockings And a funny story. I got a chance
Speaker 1: to coach his son, David when I was the head
Speaker 1: coach Renal Big Horns, and he and I would sitting
Speaker 1: around and just talk about the different games I played
Speaker 1: against your dad. And then John started coming to our game,
Speaker 1: so I got a chance to kind of sit down
Speaker 1: and just talk to him other than competing against him.
Speaker 1: And it was pretty cool. It was pretty cool. And
Speaker 1: I told him he always brought the best out of
Speaker 1: me and I always wanted h He said, Hey, I
Speaker 1: knew playing against you. I couldn't have stuff, So it
Speaker 1: was it was a good little give and take. That's
Speaker 1: pretty that's pretty cool. And you're still you're still kind
Speaker 1: of coaching, right because you're doing the basketball. You've got
Speaker 1: the thing you're doing right now. But when you were
Speaker 1: coaching in the in the is it was it the
Speaker 1: G League then or the D League? What was it
Speaker 1: called at the time, it was it was a D League,
Speaker 1: I was. It was just it was a couple of
Speaker 1: years a couple of years ago. Yeah, So, like, what
Speaker 1: was it like coaching in the in the G League?
Speaker 1: They're like, well, you had obviously been an assistant before
Speaker 1: and stuff, but when you're the head coach and and
Speaker 1: all that, what was what was that like for you?
Speaker 1: It was really good. I enjoyed it immensely because the
Speaker 1: role that those guys were taking the same role that
Speaker 1: I took to get into the NBA, you know, playing
Speaker 1: on Magic's All Star team, playing in the cb A,
Speaker 1: grinding it out, so I understand what they were feeling emotionally,
Speaker 1: what they were going through, so I could relate to them.
Speaker 1: I could have to sit down and have conversations with
Speaker 1: him and kind of keep them positive all the time
Speaker 1: and keep them focused on the right path. And it
Speaker 1: was really cool to be in that kind of grind
Speaker 1: with him. I really enjoyed it. Uh. It was a
Speaker 1: lot of fun I got to teach. I had a
Speaker 1: good assistant in Rico heinz Um who was doing great
Speaker 1: things right now with Sacramento and the development with the
Speaker 1: players up there. So it was it was a huge,
Speaker 1: dude blessing to be a head coach of the Renal
Speaker 1: Big Horns and a lot of fun. You got to
Speaker 1: help some guys further their dreams. I got Marcus Williams.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys remember played at U
Speaker 1: com playing in the league for a little bit. I
Speaker 1: got him sort I had to tell end of his
Speaker 1: career and kind of got him playing at a level
Speaker 1: that he could finish his career just enjoying and and happy.
Speaker 1: And we won two division titles when I was coaching,
Speaker 1: and we got to the playoffs, end up losing in
Speaker 1: the in the second round. But it was a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. Definitely a lot of fun. Awesome, Derek. I
Speaker 1: I know I've kept you for a while here. I
Speaker 1: think I've gone over a lot of times, but I
Speaker 1: appreciate seriously and uh, continued success and I have fun
Speaker 1: memories of interacting with you back in the day. And uh,
Speaker 1: I'm excited that you've reached out and call any time.
Speaker 1: And you know we're on late at night, so if
Speaker 1: you can't sleep, if you've got insomnia, uh, we'll be
Speaker 1: there and uh and I'll shoot you a message. I
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Thanks for doing this thing. Oh definitely, absolutely.
Speaker 1: You know I'm usually up in in the evening just relaxing,
Speaker 1: having a bottle of a nice Chianti or Barolo. So
Speaker 1: definitely I'll shoot you a check your call. Awesome, thank
Speaker 1: you there, I appreciate it. Okay, thanks Mann