WEBVTT - The Fifth Hour: Doug Krikorian, the Real "Winning Time" 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:05.480 Kaboom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes a 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:09.160 week was enough, I think again. He's the last remnants 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:12.440 of the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:15.480 treats crackheads in the Ghetto Cutter the same as the 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:19.880 rich pill poppers in the penthouse the Clearinghouse of Hot 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:23.599 takes break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:32.159 Ben Maller starts right now in the air everywhere and 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:35.879 a very Happy Friday to you. Is another edition of 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:39.720 The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller and Danny g Radio 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:47.159 And we welcome into the podcast do Joe, So you 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:50.400 know the drill. Normally on Friday Friday Friday, we like 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:54.200 to bring somebody into the podcast that I know, someone 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:58.800 who I am a fan of. And this week we 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:03.200 are in for a special. If you're familiar with the 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:07.120 Los Angeles media scene, uh you know who this guy is. 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:09.520 But if not, you're gonna learn all about him. One 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:14.600 of the more interesting characters in media. He a longtime, 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:21.199 longtime writer, beat writer columnists Between the by Lines his autobiography. 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:24.959 He wrote a while back there about his career in 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:29.840 sports journalism. But Doug chric Corean is the name he 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:33.760 hosted a very popular radio show in Los Angeles. Co 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:38.160 hosted the McDonald Douglas Show on the airwaves around l 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:40.560 A for a number of years. But his bread and 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:44.120 butter as a sportswriter at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:47.640 the Long Beach Press Telegram, and back in the days 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:53.840 when being a sportswriter was a massive, massive undertaking, newspapers 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:57.840 dominated the landscape. It's not like today with the Internet 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:01.120 and social media and all that stuff. And Uh, Doug's 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:03.040 the perfect guy to get on because we're gonna talk 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:05.680 to Doug about all his career and all that stuff. 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:10.639 But he also knows Jerry West better than just about anybody. 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:13.359 And we can get into the documentary that has been 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.639 going on, the docuseeries, not a documentary, the docuseriies about 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:19.560 the Lakers. Also, I've got to get in to some 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:23.880 point here with Doug Wilt Chamberlain and the bigger than 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:28.359 life stories about Wilt, and Doug traveled with the Lakers 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:31.400 and was around Wilt new Wilt very well for a 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:32.960 number of years. So we'll get into some of that 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:35.799 and uh and get into it. So right now, let's 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:39.359 give it up for the man, the myth, the legend 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:43.400 Doug Chrick Coreyan, who joins us now on the Fifth 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:47.639 Hour with Ben Maller and Danny g And Doug, I've 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:51.120 known you a long time. I'm a massive fan. Why 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:53.760 have we not had you on this podcast? Suit of 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:57.160 bad job by me? Dog? I don't know, but it 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:01.080 has been a cultural derivation for me to talk to you. 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:04.440 You know, man, how much I like you. I patterned 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:07.760 my radio career after you. You got to remember that 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:12.200 you were my favorite. And uh, of course I get 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:15.200 that much older than you. I don't ain't sure when 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:19.280 I started were you in radio? Back know, I was 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.760 a listener. I listened to you and the Big Nasty 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:26.680 Joe McDonald. You guys said you dominated the afternoon drive 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:29.680 airwaves in l A. And then, uh, it was one 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:31.079 of you, one of the people that when I got 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:32.760 to know you, I'm like, oh, this is pretty cool 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:35.600 you and and Big Joe and those guys, because because 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:38.160 I listened to you, and then I got into the business, 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:41.240 and then you guys kind of became my friends and stuff. 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:43.960 So that was pretty cool early on. And well, you 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:46.600 hold let me tell you something that I've never told you. This. 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:49.960 You hold the distinction of being one of the few 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:56.080 people in sports talk radio and in sports the big 0:03:56.200 --> 0:04:00.560 nasty never he liked you. He really genuine like you. 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:02.680 I don't know how you did it. You and him 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:06.120 for buddies. Yeah, we we had a few radio beefs, 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:09.200 a couple of but we we did actually we had 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:12.120 a couple of radios. But but Joe and I became 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:13.800 you know, we were good friends, and we had a 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:17.400 little radio like a radio beef at a M eleven fifty. 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:19.560 But then we but then we were good to go. 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:22.440 Then we were we were we were, we were great 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:25.760 and uh, you know, miss Joe, Uh, why can you imagine? 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:28.080 You know, for those who don't know that didn't hear 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:33.240 Doug hosted the number one afternoon show. You know how 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:36.680 many years did that show run? Doug? You and Camp 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:39.640 we were there three years, and then at eestn we 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:42.080 were there five years. And then of course we were 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:44.919 a k Max and you know, we did some stuff 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:47.880 out here in Long Beach, but we were together off 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:51.839 and on for thirteen years, really solid for nine years. Yeah, 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:53.560 And what made that show so good? What do you 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:57.520 think the secret? You know, I think the uniqueness of 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:01.160 our show. Ben at the time time was and started. 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:04.839 I was a lifetime sportswriter in Los Angeles. You know, 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:09.520 I go back to ninety governor Lakers in the series 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:11.200 against the Celtics. I mean, I was a beat writer 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:14.160 for the Lakers and Will Chamber and Jerry Western Eljam 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:17.640 Baylor were there. And Joe went to every sporting event 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:20.640 as you know, every Godger game, every Clipper game, every 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:26.000 Laker game, and every Ram game, Raider game. Joe was 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:31.000 working in radio. So I think because of you've got 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:33.720 a lot of inside stuff because of us. Because I 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:35.880 was part of the sporting senior all those years, I 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:37.840 knew everyone, you know. I was very good friends with 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.760 Al Davis and John Wood and I mean you name it, 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:44.120 and I knew him because I covered them all. You know. Yeah, 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:46.400 I think that was the uniqueness. A lot of people 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:51.000 that get in sports talk radio did not have that 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:55.320 kind of background where we were actually when we were working, 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:57.840 like for instance, when I was on the radio at 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:00.680 that time. Now it's not so unique. Today's wortswriters are 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:03.880 in it, but not a lot of sportswriters when I started, 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:08.160 there was no sport. Very few they start hiring them then, 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:11.240 but very few sportswriters were on the air in those days. 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:14.279 You know, I think maybe Krnheiser was. I'm not even 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:17.840 sure back but that's what made us unique in Los 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:21.440 Angeles because when you listen to us, we knew what 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:23.599 what we were talking about because we have so much 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:27.359 inside information. Well, and and Big Joe like ran the 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:32.680 Dodger locker room. I it was unreal like everybody, the 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:35.719 Dodgers and the Lakers. I mean he was there every 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:39.279 single day. I didn't go to very Dodger game. I 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:41.880 went to a lot of Laker games. I definitely, you know, 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:44.520 in New Time and everything else, I definitely did that. 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:47.960 But I think what made that it was a free 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:52.680 flowing as you know operation. We used to rip the 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:54.520 hell out of me. I mean, what other radio show 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:57.120 where the here co host RiPPs you all the time 0:06:57.240 --> 0:06:59.840 and that's okay. We used to have an argument and 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.800 my a moron or my imbecile? Amight, Indio, what's one 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:06.560 I might today? Joe? You know, it was all tongue 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:09.320 in cheek, but a tongue of cheek on the square 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:12.080 with Joe, as you know, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:14.920 And then you know you think about oh boy, you know, 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:16.720 Joe passed away a few years ago, but the what 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:18.520 he would have been doing with some of the stuff 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:20.640 that's happened Doug the last five years or so? Ho 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:24.240 canoli man the world? The world we live in now, 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:32.080 she's the GM of the Lakers. Would be assassinated, verbally, persecuted, 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:36.320 assassinated and viscerated. I can use one word after another 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:40.080 and describing what happened. Yeah so so so do let 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:43.760 me ask you, now, you were a very successful sports writer, 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:46.640 the beat guy columnists for a long time. What was 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:48.920 what was easier for it was the radio? Is it right? 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.920 In the column? What what did you find writing a column? 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:57.800 You know my nature. I'm a writer, you know, I 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:03.440 literally thousands and thousands of stories and thousands of sports columns. 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:06.240 I mean, I became a sports comics in nineteen Thrillo 0:08:06.400 --> 0:08:08.520 gave me the column that I think it was seventy three, 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:12.080 seventy two or seventy three. And you know, I was 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:14.320 the beat writer for a long time. I covered the Lakers, 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:16.920 I covered the Rams for seven seasons during the seventies, 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:20.160 and I coduced basketball there in the Walton years Sydney 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:22.680 which years, and you know, and did all the boxing. 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:26.239 But I became an actual Pool Time columnist in nineteen 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:30.320 seventy eight met On. That's all I wrote were columns said, 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.959 although although I took ironically you get to kick out 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:40.320 this Ben and nineteen eighty five, I believe who was 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:44.360 it was. I think Spencer left the Laker beat at 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:47.439 the Hero examuter to go to the post, or somebody 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:51.360 left and I took over the Laker beat. I wrote 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:53.520 the column still, but I took over the Laker beat 0:08:53.640 --> 0:09:00.360 midway through the season that they finally exercised the Boston 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:04.240 Celtic ghost member. They beat the Celtics in n and 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:07.719 I covered that team the second half of the season. Okay, 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.439 so when you writing, how many columns do you think 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:13.840 you wrote in your time there, I would say literally, 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:17.200 I mean, but this way, Harold, I was writing four 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:21.360 column vote vote papers, Prestogram and Harold four columns a year, 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:28.400 and yeah, right, uh, I'm sorry, of course, Yeah, you 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:30.160 just got to do the math. I can't do it, Offen, 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:33.319 but literally, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them. I 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:36.559 got it. At the end of the Long Beach prest 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:42.120 Long Beach Press Telegram, I did a cityside column once 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:45.400 a week. Also in the last two years era, which 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:48.760 I really enjoyed, I got into hard news. I did 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:52.240 a lot of stuff on cityside, and I recently did 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.360 that with the late and great Long Beach Report, which 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:58.200 I did one story. It was more political, you know, 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:04.240 knocking the local mayor and stuff like that. Yeah. So 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:07.319 the nice thing about that column, even though it was 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:11.160 very political, I never mentioned Republican, I never mentioned Democrat. 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:14.199 I never mentioned Trump, I never mentioned Biden. I just 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:17.800 mentioned the local people. And you know that I wasn't 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.920 left when your right winger, I wrote what I thought 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:25.320 was fair. Anyway, that was a different time of my life. Well, 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:28.240 and also we'll get to that, but I'm gonna go 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:30.600 right in the column, like did how often did you 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:32.760 get writers? How often did you get writer's block? We 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:34.960 just didn't have anything. Never you never got it. You 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:39.120 never you want something. Then when you write columns, and 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:41.880 there's certain you know, obviously I would interview a lot 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:44.360 of people, but there's a lot of columns you right 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:47.319 off the top of your head, I think, well, like 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:49.600 I'd wake up on a for instance, at the Press 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:51.760 telling you am, I'd wake up on a Monday. They 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:55.280 wanted a Tuesday, and maybe I didn't go off the 0:10:55.360 --> 0:11:00.760 Dodger Stadium on uh Sunday or Anaheim Stadium, or maybe 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:03.200 I didn't cover a RAM game, or they weren't in town. 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.319 You know, this is early they left the ninety four. 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:09.600 Of course, the last six to the last parts of 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:13.000 my career, they weren't even in town. But I would 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:16.319 come up with stories on my own, you know, and 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:18.280 I think some of the best columns I ever wrote 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:22.000 those kinds of stories, just making them up on the 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:25.840 you know, just I get an idea and expanded into 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:28.319 a column and I thought it would be pretty good. 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:30.960 And a lot of times I would I would do 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:33.640 a local piece. I'd go for a walk around and 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:35.719 just do a mood piece and be not a lot 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:38.559 of my sports columns were non sports, and people love 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:41.120 those kind of columns. Yeah. And when you when you 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:43.599 were doing you worked in the newspaper business, and the 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:45.680 hay kind of the heyday. I don't know the hey day, 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:48.199 but one of the hey days of the newspapers when 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:50.680 you when you see what happened to your industry, and 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:53.280 I see it in radio. Radio is a much different 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:57.280 medium now than it was when I started. The way 0:11:57.280 --> 0:11:59.440 the business is run. But you you worked at some 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:02.040 huge news papers, you had a lot of influence, and 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:04.960 now you look at newspapers today, it's just not the same. Though. 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:07.600 What's your perspective on what you've seen in your lifetime 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:10.760 with a newspaper business. That's a great question. And then 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:14.720 first off, I go back so far the first five 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:17.559 years of my career. I sent my columns in her 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:20.840 stories in like, for instance, from the Forum a Western 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:24.920 Union Perdie Parristein would be there in the Western Union 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:27.040 machine and I've given my piece of paper and it'd 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:30.320 send it Western Union. When I was in Philadelphia, a 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:33.520 guy uh would send it Western Union. That's the way 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:35.520 it was sent in those days. When you're on the road, 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:40.200 you do a Western Union. But what is so dramatically different, 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:44.000 and it really is when you were sportswriter, especially at 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:46.360 the Harold Los Angeles Hero examer which was a very 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:49.520 prestigious sports section. The guy named Bud Fellow was sports 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:52.800 in there when I got there, and we were the 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:56.079 top sports of the people in town. Read the Harold 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:58.839 Examber's sports You're too young to remember, but it was 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:01.839 a very good sports page. Melvin Derst to call him. 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:04.840 You know, Alan Mallaman was. You know, they had so 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:07.840 many good writers, Lyle Spencer, I could go on on 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:11.400 Tom Singer, Dick Miller, Bob Hunter. You know, we had 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:15.000 a lot of good people. They're very good people. And 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:20.080 sportswriters were treated like a king's I mean because in 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:24.640 those days when I got there, in you know, before 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:29.040 I I apprenticed at uh Cameriell Daily News and the 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:33.040 Pacific Colisadium Post and Hilario Das Register, and then I 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:37.000 got into the Hero Exameter. But they were treated on 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:40.679 my gosh. I would go into Little Joe's at North Broadway, 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:43.880 and Andie Stagnon, who was the bartender, never paid for anything. 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:46.960 Ernie tasked at the Gaylor. I'll go have a drink 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:50.199 or dinner. You you know, they would take care of sportswriters. 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:53.199 There was there was prest There was prestige, right, There 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:56.720 was a lot of because you didn't get see people 0:13:56.840 --> 0:13:59.880 read the newspapers in those days. Your only other outlet 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:03.840 was TV and and the TV sports tasters would beyond 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:07.000 for three minutes so you'd get your big info. You know, 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:09.360 it's three minutes at eleven o'clock a night or something 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:13.120 like that. But remember you couldn't wait to get the 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:15.760 paper the next morning. And the Harold Examiner. When I 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:17.679 first got there, was an afternoon paper, but then it 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:20.960 became a morning paper and they would read, you know, 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.880 what we wrote. They hinged on every word. I mean 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:26.640 when I was with the Rams for seven years and 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:29.920 I was a little different sportswriter from the normal guy. 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:33.440 I injected my humor into my game stories, not the humor, 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:36.760 my opinions, you know, and some humor of course, but 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:39.760 but and writers in those days, a lot of them 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:42.720 didn't do that. And I took very strong stands. Writers 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:46.000 didn't do that in those days. In factors, some pettiness 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:49.000 among my colleagues that would even talk to me on rampchips, 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:51.440 because you know I would. I used to rip a 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:54.360 guy named Chuck Knox how conservative he was, and you know, 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:56.760 people just didn't do that in those days. Well I did, 0:14:57.000 --> 0:15:00.320 you know, Yeah, you're too young to remember, Chuck. I'm not. 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:04.000 I remember you. I remember you guys talking about my show. 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:06.320 You called them what ground shuck was it was as nickname. 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:14.000 One other thing that Ben that was dramatically different. When 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:17.200 I covered the Lakers like I was a twenty four 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:19.280 year old kid. Can you imagine this? Here I am 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:23.600 from a little place, a little farm community, a ten 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:26.520 miles south of President or the southern Pacific town that 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:29.520 started because of the railroad and stopped there. And you 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:34.040 know this and that my graduating class was sixty five 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:37.960 people in Bud frill Will assigned me to the Lakers. 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:40.720 The Laker beat writer and left or whatever wasn't there 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:44.400 and I took it over here. I'm traveling. But in 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:47.760 those days, the writers traveled with the team. Do you 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:51.920 understand what I'm saying? Traveled with the teams. THEE and 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:55.720 the Times didn't travel that year during the regular season. 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:58.600 They didn't send their beat writer, who I think was 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:01.480 Dan after that year or Mouth Florence. I think it 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:05.680 was Dan Affton. So so I would be with the 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:08.520 team and would fly first class. Here I am flying 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:11.320 first class. My first trip. Chick Heer and took me 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:15.040 to every player on the team, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West. 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:18.840 I played hearts. You love this story is a great story. 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:21.520 On the first time I ever was on a Laker 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:24.320 road trip, I played hearts. I was the fourth member. 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:27.520 I knew how to play Hearts World Chamber, Jerry West, 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:30.600 Elgin Baylor and me played Hearts together. Can you imagine 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:33.240 what a twenty four year old wide eyed in my 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:38.040 my boyhood idol was Elgin Baylor? Right, even doing the 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:40.440 ticks he used to do with us. You remember they 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:42.960 go to the side and everything, Well, you wouldn't twitchy 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:47.240 and I. I loved Elgin and he was a great 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:49.120 He and I used to play after that. We played 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:50.760 a lot of Gin together. I never beat him. He 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:53.640 was a great gin player. He and Chick were very 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:58.040 good players. But here I am with the team. So 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:00.720 you really get to know. Guys don't do that today? 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:03.800 Are you kidding? Do you think they travel with the team. 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:09.280 The sportswriters they'll do that, and the players don't want it, right, 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:12.280 the players today don't want anything. They don't like it. No, No, 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:14.960 in those days, you get you got to build the players. 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:18.199 I mean, I knew Will Chamber. He didn't have anything 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:20.800 going on. He called me doug'scot to dinner. Okay, fine, 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:22.960 you know that it would we were that close. I'll 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:26.640 walk around and walking around with him in the multiple 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:29.000 one time we're walking, that's when you know, well, you 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:31.800 have to understand Will, I loved it. He didn't talk 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:33.480 to me the last ten years of his life. He 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:35.400 got mad at me. But that's another story I might 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:39.320 tell you later. But we were walking. You gotta understand. 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:44.160 Will was very liberal with the truth, you know, hyperple 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:47.240 levers his middle name. I could tell you a story 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:51.320 after story with Will. He said, yeah, you look like it. 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:53.040 In those days, I was kind of waiting with the 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:55.439 I was a big guy with to Tim. You know, 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:57.480 they were not the guy you see now. I was. 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:00.840 I was within heavy weights and this. You said, yeah, 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:03.080 I've been spressed six hundred one time, and I knew 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:06.560 he didn't come on. I mean, I know, wait, you 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:09.520 know I worked out when I was in college, and 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:11.840 for four years I worked out three three hours every 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:14.159 other day, was trying to get big and all that stuff. 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:16.880 And I know, wait, with six hundred pounds, you gotta 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:19.960 be kidding. At that time, not very few many men 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:23.960 in the world. Because Ben Spress six other towns and 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:27.879 that was a great exaggeration as his claimed to have 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:31.040 gotten to bed with. Yeah. I was going to ask 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:33.080 you about that though, because that's the great urban legend. 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:35.760 But she started. He wrote in his book that he 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:39.760 he betted twenty thousand women there. You traveled with you 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:45.640 travel with him? Yeah. We were in New York one 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:49.160 one year, my second year of the team. He calls you, guy, said, well, 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:51.280 what are you doing? Well? Well do everyone in New York? 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:53.840 He called me. I thought, just called the dinner. We 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:57.159 went out to dinner a big galloners, some damn place. 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:00.280 You know, I will say this, but you know, out 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:02.880 with Will at nighttime, I mean I could the point 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:06.760 after Boston one time. It really was. I mean, people 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:10.080 gravitated to him. My god, he was a complete you know. 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:13.800 He told me the great story in Cincinnati. He went 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:19.439 to a mattenee in the afternoon, walked in and some 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:22.119 ladies screens. She thought, you know, I mean, think of it. 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:26.400 You see it walk what was a very imposing figure. 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:29.239 He has seven one it boks in it. He had 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:32.000 the longest slaves ever. Jabar doesn't have those long lads. 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:35.000 We'll have those long you remember you said, did I 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:38.800 did at the form and some woman's screams she got scared. 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:40.680 He said, yeah, that's that's happened to me a couple 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:43.359 of times. He gets scared because he liked to go 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:46.119 to the Mattenees. You know, he didn't see movies and stuff. 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:48.879 I mean, I could go on and on about wild stories. 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:53.480 What other story A great story. It was during the series, 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:59.680 the nineteen NBA series, Alan alamand me and Wilter got 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:03.280 off the plane and we were in the cab going 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:05.320 to the you know, the hotel there. I can't remember 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:08.640 what hotel it was. But he saw a couple really 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:11.040 nice look and they were college girls and tells the 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:13.080 cap stuff I want to get out, goes over there, 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:16.200 talks to him, and then he comes back. He says, 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:20.439 since I was it going, that's all right? So I 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:22.320 think it was that night is when I went to 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:25.200 the point after I saw him. I wasn't with him 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:28.200 when I went there. The point after it was. There 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:30.119 used to be one out in the San Fernando Valley. 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:33.359 It was a very popular disco, you know, nice for 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:38.520 kids that you know, not teenagers. You know, there's a nightclub. 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:41.720 We're in there and we're sitting I see well, I said, well, 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:44.440 what happened those two girls? I got him this afternoon 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:48.320 and eastful? I mean, come on, they were both eighteen 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:54.399 or night He said, oh yeah, but but he was 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:57.320 in dery you just took it with it, like Jerry said, 0:20:57.320 --> 0:20:59.240 take it with a shrug. You know it was a 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:02.480 dry Hello, Yeah, what do you what do you mean? No? 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:05.640 I never saw Will play in person. I've heard amazing 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:07.800 I've seen the numbers, I've seen video of him. But 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:12.639 was he would be a dominant Yeah? He was a 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:17.119 great player, great rebounded, really a good rebounding, great player. 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:20.280 But the problem with Will, and there was a reason 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:23.600 why I only won two World championships. There were times 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:26.760 that he would hide. He just did not have the 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:33.840 show we say competitive passion, even Shaquille. I mean I 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:36.560 saw it. I saw it the first half of Game 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:40.000 seven of the Celtics and Lakers. I was there. I 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:43.480 saw it. First Halmlet happened. Russell out played him like 0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:46.679 you can't believe. They built that eight team for whatever. 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:49.399 The big lead at half time and they caught up 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:53.200 this or that. But Will was not very good that 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:56.800 first half. And then I guess he got this legage 0:21:56.800 --> 0:21:59.920 when he came out and BBK should have put a 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:02.480 back in, but he didn't. Then they lost by what 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:06.679 one point or two points? Made death? You know you 0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:10.119 shot You're the perfect person as this because lately some 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:13.440 of the chatter shows have been going back and forth 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:16.480 and and just besmirching the name of all these guys 0:22:16.520 --> 0:22:17.840 that you covered back in the old days with the 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:20.520