Speaker 1: If you thought four hours a day, minutes a week
Speaker 1: was enough, I 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, the clearing House of hot
Speaker 1: takes break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with
Speaker 1: Ben Maller starts right now that it does. I hope
Speaker 1: your stave staying healthy, and we are going to get
Speaker 1: you through the dead zone if you will the weekend
Speaker 1: time Here bonus editions of The Fifth Hour with Ben
Speaker 1: Maller and David gascon As. We are back at it
Speaker 1: again this weekend, and we're gonna do something a little
Speaker 1: different now. Last week, on a previous episode of the show,
Speaker 1: we welcomed in Lenny Distro, and I love talking to Lenny.
Speaker 1: Lenny was great, a lot of profanity, a lot of
Speaker 1: wild stories from his days with the Mets and the Phillies,
Speaker 1: and it was wonderful time. I think the best part
Speaker 1: about all that, Ben is you got the reviews of
Speaker 1: either really good or really bad. There was no in
Speaker 1: between for any of him and his performance. I'm still
Speaker 1: amazed by the people that listen to the podcast like
Speaker 1: I can't listen to profanity, and I my god, I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: all right, calm down. Every won't calm down. So today
Speaker 1: it's all about me, Gascon, and I'm going into my
Speaker 1: rolodecks of old radio friends. And this is a guy
Speaker 1: that used to be a talk show host at kf
Speaker 1: I in Los Angeles news talk station. Uh. He did
Speaker 1: some radio in Philadelphia. He worked at Fox Sports Radio
Speaker 1: very briefly. I did shows with him in my early
Speaker 1: days in sports talk radio in l A. Did a
Speaker 1: show with him and after him, Lee Klein is his name,
Speaker 1: Lee was. It was a Clipper talk show host post
Speaker 1: game back where they were terrible. Uh. He also did
Speaker 1: some Dodger programming around the time that I was doing
Speaker 1: some stuff with the Dodgers. And we've known each other forever.
Speaker 1: I've known him longer than just about anybody in the
Speaker 1: radio business. He knows where all the bodies are buried
Speaker 1: in my in my career and whatnot. And so it's
Speaker 1: I think we'll just it's it's just gonna play some
Speaker 1: grab bass, is what we're gonna do, right, Descon. That's
Speaker 1: the plan with Lee, just me and him shooting the
Speaker 1: shooting the ship. It feels like and all I need
Speaker 1: is a cocktail, maybe some tacos, because you guys have
Speaker 1: a long history together and a lot, a lot of
Speaker 1: juvenile things, which is great to hear because this is
Speaker 1: all the behind the scenes stuff that that people won't
Speaker 1: ever get to hear because usually you're talking about the
Speaker 1: games at hand, but this is the games before the game. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna get into some of the crazy things
Speaker 1: that happened in local radio when we first got going
Speaker 1: the days at the l A Sports Arena back and
Speaker 1: you know, covering the Clippers, being around the Clippers when
Speaker 1: they were lousy forever, and some of the characters. We'll
Speaker 1: have some stories about Benoit, Benjamin In, about Donald Sterling
Speaker 1: and some things, uh the Cardinal Rule and radio that
Speaker 1: was broken by my friend Lee, and we'll get into
Speaker 1: some of that. Um So, I hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a good guy, Lee Klein, their longtime
Speaker 1: radio personality in southern California and Philadelphia and some other places.
Speaker 1: But we began, I guess we'll start with this Lee,
Speaker 1: the news of the week. You used to do some
Speaker 1: stuff with the Dodgers. They announced this week that they
Speaker 1: have ended their TV uh blackout. They're gonna be on
Speaker 1: satellite television of all weeks this week with no sports going.
Speaker 1: What do you think about that? Lee? So let me
Speaker 1: get this right. That Spectrum, which is Charter company, they
Speaker 1: decided to finally relent and give Dodger broadcast to the
Speaker 1: rest of the country and also to Direct TV and
Speaker 1: the baseball packages that they finally decided to let it
Speaker 1: loose other than their own company. Only E D s
Speaker 1: now that there's no baseball season, that was the time
Speaker 1: to do it. Well exactly. Yeah, it's it's wonderful and
Speaker 1: it it announced on April Fool's Day. They announced it
Speaker 1: on April one, which is even better. It's even better. Uh,
Speaker 1: But listen, I want to I got before we get
Speaker 1: into what's going on today, I got we gotta get
Speaker 1: into some of these old radio stories lead because, uh,
Speaker 1: for those that don't know, and it used to work
Speaker 1: at Fox Sports, right, how long were you at Fox
Speaker 1: Sports Radio? It wasn't very long. He was briefly at
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio, right. Well, you know, I was on
Speaker 1: regular radio for about twelve fourteen years and Fox for
Speaker 1: about six months. And for those that are listening that
Speaker 1: do not know, Ben and I have been going to
Speaker 1: games together and have known each other for now, it's incredible,
Speaker 1: for over twenty five years. And so I know everything
Speaker 1: he's done in sport and where he's gone. He knows
Speaker 1: everything that I've done. So we're close. And so whatever
Speaker 1: you're gonna hear, and this is unrehearsed, whatever you're gonna hear,
Speaker 1: it's truly going to be bottom line truth, isn't it
Speaker 1: that Well? Yeah, But but I guess we should start
Speaker 1: at the beginning because I first started going to games.
Speaker 1: I was I was going to Saddleback College. I was
Speaker 1: working at the college radio station, and I got credentials
Speaker 1: to go to like Clipper games, you know, at the
Speaker 1: l A Sports Arena, and you were there and you
Speaker 1: were the first person that ratted me out because you
Speaker 1: knew my scam. You knew that I was not really
Speaker 1: a real member of the media, and you called me
Speaker 1: on it. And I remember that day at the sports arena.
Speaker 1: We're like, hey, k s br, I know where that
Speaker 1: I know at that station. Well that that's absolutely true,
Speaker 1: But you have to admit I didn't tell anybody I
Speaker 1: ratted you out to you. I didn't rat you out
Speaker 1: to anybody with the Clippers or anybody in the media. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And uh, and then you did Clipper talk. I remember
Speaker 1: you did that for several years and the Clippers were
Speaker 1: horrible most of that time, and you you were polishing
Speaker 1: turds on a nightly basis of not terrible the Clippers were. Yes,
Speaker 1: the job of doing that for six or seven years
Speaker 1: when they were horrendous would be equal to what Dr
Speaker 1: Fauci has to do speaking two minutes after the President
Speaker 1: to walk a tight rope across the Grand Canyon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was wild. And the sports arena, to
Speaker 1: give an idea for those that are young and don't remember,
Speaker 1: the l A Memorial Sports are where the Clippers played
Speaker 1: truly was the masoleneb We would be sitting there and
Speaker 1: there would be more fans in the second half. They
Speaker 1: would let the homeless people in that part of l
Speaker 1: A come into the arena to warm up on a
Speaker 1: cool night. It was wild. It was crazy back then.
Speaker 1: They were and this is not an exaggeration for your listeners. Um,
Speaker 1: and then you would agree, the biggest crowd other than
Speaker 1: if they were playing Michael and the os or Larry
Speaker 1: bird and and the Celtics or the Knicks. Because there's
Speaker 1: so many New York fans here aside from those three teams,
Speaker 1: you would have at most at most four thousand or
Speaker 1: under for every single home game, year after year. I
Speaker 1: remember they were playing an exhibition game against the Atlanta Hawks.
Speaker 1: This is in the like the early nineties, and I
Speaker 1: counted the crowd at the Sports Arena in the first
Speaker 1: quarter of the game, and I counted about five people.
Speaker 1: And I think I was high on that. I think
Speaker 1: I might have counted uh several people multiple times, uh
Speaker 1: to get to get to that five number. And uh
Speaker 1: it was it was just insanity that they did that
Speaker 1: for so long at that particular arena. But uh, I
Speaker 1: gotta I gotta go back to some of the early
Speaker 1: days when we were working together at A M eleven fifty,
Speaker 1: the big sports station, and like my my favorite League
Speaker 1: Cline story, No, no, this is great. You broke the
Speaker 1: cardinal rule of talk radio. Ohay, and people listen to him.
Speaker 1: It's absolutely I admitted it's true. So we were both
Speaker 1: doing shows on a Saturday, I think it was a
Speaker 1: Saturday morning, and that we I was doing the Ben
Speaker 1: and Dave Show. We hated it because we were doing
Speaker 1: a nighttime show on Friday, and then we had to
Speaker 1: do a remote every Saturday morning. We had to do
Speaker 1: a remote somewhere and it was a disaster. And because
Speaker 1: we were tired, we don't want to do it. You know,
Speaker 1: we would go to some like some warehouse or some
Speaker 1: you know, tire shop or whatever. But you were also
Speaker 1: doing those remotes. You were also doing that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: And uh, I recall the day that the phones went down,
Speaker 1: the day the phones died, and the one the only
Speaker 1: line into the building working was the hotline, which is
Speaker 1: the inside number. It's it's, it's. You must protect the
Speaker 1: inside number at all costs. You can't give out the
Speaker 1: inside number. And I remember you saying, Lee, I am
Speaker 1: not doing a show without taking phone calls. And you
Speaker 1: then proceeded to give out the hotline number your entire
Speaker 1: show because that was the only incoming call a line
Speaker 1: that you could take. It was an amazing daily and
Speaker 1: you broke the cardinal rule radio and you live to
Speaker 1: tell talk about it another day. Um. You see the
Speaker 1: one thing that you did in these remotes that you
Speaker 1: did and those Saturday shows that go way back is
Speaker 1: that you had a partner to talk to. I did
Speaker 1: my show by myself, so I did not on a
Speaker 1: Saturday morning, and you knew what it was to get
Speaker 1: up on a Saturday because we had weekday jobs to
Speaker 1: begin with work on a Saturday. I was not going
Speaker 1: to do a monologue and talk with nobody for a
Speaker 1: con for the entire two hours of that show. So yes,
Speaker 1: I gave it out. But here's the good point. People
Speaker 1: use that number. They called in. I had callers, and
Speaker 1: at the very end of the show, I actually said
Speaker 1: this on the air, the phone number that I've been
Speaker 1: given out, never use it again. I think you said
Speaker 1: it was like today only or something like that. Today
Speaker 1: it whatever, it was like, I was trying to erase
Speaker 1: inc not pencil. And then there's a couple of things
Speaker 1: I remember from that period of my bloviating career with
Speaker 1: you is hold it, hold it back off. Let me
Speaker 1: tell the story about this. Okay, you and I were
Speaker 1: sitting at the sports arena, and we always sit next
Speaker 1: to each other, and as empty as we've had described
Speaker 1: it was at all times. One night during a game,
Speaker 1: so empty in the upper deck in the far corner,
Speaker 1: there was a guy and a girl sitting on the
Speaker 1: guy's lap. And Jim Hill, who is a very famous
Speaker 1: uh news reporter for thirty five years on television here
Speaker 1: and still is in Los Angeles, that knows both then
Speaker 1: and I very very well. Yeah, he grabbed my binoculars
Speaker 1: to take a look at this. Help people what was
Speaker 1: going on during the game. Yeah, None of us, the
Speaker 1: all of all the radio row or TV row or
Speaker 1: whatever that part of the press box, none of us
Speaker 1: were watching the game. We were all fascinated by the
Speaker 1: people stooping in the upper deck at the sports arena.
Speaker 1: And uh yeah, and we only had one pair of binoculars.
Speaker 1: Remember we were passing the binoculars around across the road.
Speaker 1: We were Everyone wanted to their binoculars and uh and
Speaker 1: there was only one pair to go around. So we're
Speaker 1: all fighting for the binoculars to see what was going
Speaker 1: on in wild and and it was a girl sitting
Speaker 1: on a guy's lap. And anybody with an imagination can
Speaker 1: understand and think and whatever you're thinking, Yes, that was
Speaker 1: what was happening. Yeah, and it was it was rather
Speaker 1: bold too, because there was nobody in the arena like
Speaker 1: they stood out. They went to the very top row
Speaker 1: and there was no one around them. They were like
Speaker 1: they were isolated the very I guess they figured nobody
Speaker 1: would look king up there because everyone's looking at the court.
Speaker 1: But surprise, surprise, surprise, surprise. So say what they were
Speaker 1: sitting in like next to the top row in the back,
Speaker 1: and there wasn't a human being within any three sections
Speaker 1: of them? Yeah, exactly, I mean, this is no one
Speaker 1: at those games. It was. It was insane. Why don't
Speaker 1: why don't you tell him the story when you went
Speaker 1: to the World Series in Cleveland, you in uh, you
Speaker 1: in bigsie and when you had to do a phone show,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we well we had gone, we had flown
Speaker 1: into Cleveland, and then we were supposed to broadcast from
Speaker 1: the Indians Ballpark and there was some kind of calamity
Speaker 1: that had taken place, some kind of snaffoo, and so
Speaker 1: we this is this. You couldn't even do this today.
Speaker 1: I guess you just have to do on your cell phone.
Speaker 1: But we found a bank of pay phones out in
Speaker 1: suburban Ohio, not even in Cleveland, was outside of Cleveland,
Speaker 1: and we re seeded. We we I was on one
Speaker 1: pay phone and uh and he was on the other
Speaker 1: pay phone and we did the show from a bank
Speaker 1: of pay phones in in beautiful suburban Ohio. They're outside
Speaker 1: of Cleveland, and direct me if I'm wrong. It was
Speaker 1: during that World Series that you were there that it
Speaker 1: was actually at times during the day snowing. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: got very sick after that because I was the ninety
Speaker 1: seven World Series. I was in the Marlins and the
Speaker 1: Indians and it was like eighty five degrees in Miami,
Speaker 1: and then we went to Cleveland and there were snow
Speaker 1: flurries in uh in Cleveland at that uh So some
Speaker 1: of the other stuff I remember, we used to those
Speaker 1: remotes like I talked about in the early days, and
Speaker 1: and I recall we we would have we would be
Speaker 1: so upset during the show, me and Dave that we
Speaker 1: were just pretty much bash you the entire time that
Speaker 1: you were out. Did a great job. You did a
Speaker 1: great job of that. And then of course the term
Speaker 1: jackass became famous because of what one of the two
Speaker 1: of you did as a fake call in call. Fox
Speaker 1: Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Speaker 1: Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
Speaker 1: com and within the I Heart Radio app. Search f
Speaker 1: s R to listen live. Yeah, well, we can get
Speaker 1: to that. But I remember you. We were doing a
Speaker 1: show from a tire shop, a tire like oil were
Speaker 1: placed and and we were just slaying Lee on the
Speaker 1: radio and you drove by the remote and I can
Speaker 1: still visualize, I have this memory years later, and the
Speaker 1: lead drove by. Are We're doing a remote rom the
Speaker 1: here and lead drives by in this big I think
Speaker 1: it was the Mercedes that I think the Mercedes then,
Speaker 1: but I had the top down to my Mercedes convertible. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: convertible with Mercedes. He drives by and he's got Lee's
Speaker 1: got pretty long arms and he extends his arm all
Speaker 1: the way up full bird, driving down the street in
Speaker 1: l A giving us the bird there and I I
Speaker 1: can still visualize, like I have that tattooed in my brain. Lee,
Speaker 1: is your arm fully extended giving me and Dave of
Speaker 1: the bird. It was wonderful. And the reason I was
Speaker 1: there is because in those days you had the show
Speaker 1: on Saturdays before me. You were doing the remote, and
Speaker 1: I decided to stop off, do what I did, hunk
Speaker 1: the horn, give you the bird, and continue to the
Speaker 1: station to do my show, which was directly after you
Speaker 1: were done. Yeah, yeah, Oh. The other one I remember
Speaker 1: from that those remotes is and I think you were
Speaker 1: on remote this day and we were not. We were
Speaker 1: in the station and there was a problem, a glitch,
Speaker 1: and man, this is I know. I know what you're
Speaker 1: going to say. And again, let me express to the
Speaker 1: people listening to this podcast every word that's been said
Speaker 1: before and will for the rest of this podcast with
Speaker 1: me on it then, and I are absolutely telling you
Speaker 1: the truth. So Lee does this entire heartfelt monologue. God
Speaker 1: only knows what it was about. But you were ranting
Speaker 1: and raving like a lunatic, and and you did about
Speaker 1: fifteen fifteen minutes of radio and the entire time you
Speaker 1: were not on the air. And I remember I went
Speaker 1: up behind the engineer and I hit the button on
Speaker 1: the talk back you're on a remote, and I think
Speaker 1: I said something to the effect, h Lee, that was
Speaker 1: a wonderful monologue. That was a great monologue. Can you
Speaker 1: do it over again? Nobody heard it? And you were
Speaker 1: very of you were you were rage. You were so
Speaker 1: angry that you were furious. Yes, I remembered distinkly because
Speaker 1: I was doing a remote. It was like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: guess sometime in like a February or March, and you
Speaker 1: know that the salespeople that used to get these remotes
Speaker 1: and never pay us for being out there, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: They would let us know last minute, like on a Thursday,
Speaker 1: when that Saturday remote was going to be and we
Speaker 1: had to be there right well, yeah, and a Katie
Speaker 1: we were in those days. We would show up and
Speaker 1: they wouldn't know who we were there. They didn't know
Speaker 1: who why we were there, or who we who we
Speaker 1: were there was. There was a lot of confusion. Uh
Speaker 1: So in this particular case, it was in like a
Speaker 1: February or Mar early March type period where it was
Speaker 1: about in the morning, because we were Ben and I
Speaker 1: were doing these shows before noon. I mean we were
Speaker 1: doing them like seven o'clock in the morning till eleven
Speaker 1: or something between the two of us. And it is
Speaker 1: cold as hell, and I am outside the remote was
Speaker 1: totally outside, and I'm really cold, and I'm doing this
Speaker 1: monologue and there's like five people that are there that
Speaker 1: that are watching because they promoted the remote so well
Speaker 1: that five people showed up for the show. And you've
Speaker 1: got two people that are handling from our and as
Speaker 1: you well know, you know, sending up the equipment and monitoring,
Speaker 1: you know, all of the meters and stuff. So there's
Speaker 1: about a total of eight people, of which I and
Speaker 1: two others are from the station and maybe at best
Speaker 1: five other people. I'm talking, I'm talking, I'm doing. And
Speaker 1: you know that we had like ten eleven minutes between
Speaker 1: certain breaks and stuff, and I go through this entire
Speaker 1: anger monologue of whatever it was about what was happening
Speaker 1: that was so stupid and not intelligent about a team
Speaker 1: or the league or whatever. And we go into a break.
Speaker 1: As we go into the break, in my head set,
Speaker 1: I hear Ben and then says exactly what you said.
Speaker 1: He said, that was a tremendous monologue. He did. Great.
Speaker 1: You were screaming and yelling. By the way, nobody heard
Speaker 1: you because the antenna is down and nobody is getting
Speaker 1: a broadcast signal at all. We'll let you know when
Speaker 1: it's back up. And I am outside, freezing my ass
Speaker 1: off and thinking, now I'm mad because I had just
Speaker 1: been angry for ten straight minutes of real passion, and
Speaker 1: then immediately I hear that, which now blows me into
Speaker 1: real anger about us. Yeah, it was. It was crazy
Speaker 1: in those days, you know, also some of the stories
Speaker 1: with the Clippers when you were doing the Clipper talking
Speaker 1: and even before that, when we were just going to
Speaker 1: the game's covering the Clippers in the early days for
Speaker 1: us in the back in the nineties and whatnot. I remember, Uh, Benoit, Benjamin,
Speaker 1: the great Benoit Benjamin. Uh, this was one of the
Speaker 1: all time great stories. Uh, Benoit. You had known Benoit
Speaker 1: a little bit. He was actually at this point he
Speaker 1: wasn't in the NBA, right he was, he is on
Speaker 1: he was on hiatus. He'd been playing in overseas, right,
Speaker 1: he'd been playing overseas. And you went up to Benoit
Speaker 1: and asked him a question and it led eventually to
Speaker 1: one of the funniest, funniest moments I can recall involving
Speaker 1: an athlete after a game. It was hilarious. Um, I
Speaker 1: remember that distinctly. It was at the sports arena, perhap
Speaker 1: ups like in ninety nine, the final year that they
Speaker 1: were there, in nine, and he was standing outside the
Speaker 1: year arena, not in the in the sports arena, but
Speaker 1: outside where people were walking that you go into your
Speaker 1: seats and I saw him. How can you miss him?
Speaker 1: He seven foot one and I hadn't been in the
Speaker 1: NBA for about a year or two and he was
Speaker 1: playing in Europe, You're correct, And I asked him he was.
Speaker 1: He was with his wife and his wife was like
Speaker 1: five ft three, so you're looking at five ft three
Speaker 1: versus seven ft one. He said, hey, annoys, how the
Speaker 1: hell are you? Bro Now? He would never remember my name,
Speaker 1: based on the fact that I don't think he could
Speaker 1: remember anybody's name, but he recognized my face, so he
Speaker 1: knew who I was, but not by name. That I
Speaker 1: don't take that personally, because anybody Donald Sterling could be
Speaker 1: in the front of him and he would know who
Speaker 1: it was by name. So I asked him how you
Speaker 1: been doing? Where have you been? And he told me, well,
Speaker 1: I was in Europe. I was playing in Germany. So
Speaker 1: to be nice and to keep the conversation going, I
Speaker 1: said to him, well, you must have gone in Europe
Speaker 1: to a lot of nice cities. Uh what cities did
Speaker 1: you tour and take a look in? And he says
Speaker 1: to me, oh, I went to France, Belgium. So he's
Speaker 1: giving me countries, not cities, right, And then he says
Speaker 1: to me the most astonishing thing an athlete has ever
Speaker 1: said to me in my lifetime. And then you and
Speaker 1: I have talked to whether it's on air or whether
Speaker 1: it's just personal in a clubhouse. We've talked to hundreds
Speaker 1: and not thousands of athletes in our career correct over
Speaker 1: the years. Sure, he says to me, uh, you you
Speaker 1: know any team that needs a center? Okay, which at
Speaker 1: that moment in time, I knew Ben was nearby, but
Speaker 1: he wasn't part of this conversation. I said, just one minute,
Speaker 1: and I ran as mad as I could to where
Speaker 1: Ben was about twenty yards away something like that, wherever
Speaker 1: he was talking to and I grabbed him and I said,
Speaker 1: come here, come here, come here. You gotta believe this.
Speaker 1: You gotta believe this. And I'm dragging you. And then
Speaker 1: you come over and I said, I want you to
Speaker 1: do me a favor. This is Ben mallor he's on
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio, whatever it was at the time. I said,
Speaker 1: I want you to ask him the same question that
Speaker 1: you asked me. And he looks at you and goes,
Speaker 1: you know anybody to use the center in the NBA
Speaker 1: like you? Like you and I are his agent? Right?
Speaker 1: It was outstand there's so many but Benjamin stories. I
Speaker 1: remember the story we heard that he had he lived.
Speaker 1: I guess it was in Louisiana or he bought up.
Speaker 1: He bought. This is with his rookie money that he
Speaker 1: got up front when he was he was picked as
Speaker 1: the first round draft for number one. He was the
Speaker 1: number one draft pick and the Clippers always had the
Speaker 1: number one draft pick and they selected Bennoit Benjamin. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think he was like the third overall pick or somebody.
Speaker 1: But but so he bought with his rookie contract, he
Speaker 1: bought a cigarette boat, which is like, and I'm not
Speaker 1: really into boats, but apparently this is like a racing boat.
Speaker 1: But it's only designed right, what is it? It's not
Speaker 1: designed for the ocean, right is that? Or no? No, no,
Speaker 1: it's designed for the lake races that they still may have.
Speaker 1: But we're large at the time with people with drug
Speaker 1: money and big money that we're buying these cigarette boats
Speaker 1: that were smuggling things uh into the coast of Florida
Speaker 1: or racing them in the real racing league of UH
Speaker 1: National or International cigarette boats. They were the ones in
Speaker 1: Miami Vice that you see in that old TV show,
Speaker 1: and they cost at the time back in those days,
Speaker 1: in in the late eighties, I'm gonna say around thirty
Speaker 1: or forty dollars then, so this is a very expensive item.
Speaker 1: But now, for as Paul Harvey would say back in
Speaker 1: the day, the rest of the story, Now, why was
Speaker 1: this so unique? Why was it so amazing that Benoit Benjamin,
Speaker 1: former NBA player in that era, bought one of these
Speaker 1: cigarette boats? What pay off? The rest of the story, Lee,
Speaker 1: Why was this a problem for Benoit? Because we're Benoit,
Speaker 1: they believe I'm saying this because it's so stupid. Right
Speaker 1: where Benoit lived in Louisiana, there was a small river
Speaker 1: of which he had a place that was off of
Speaker 1: a little stream of the river, and he wanted to
Speaker 1: dock it in the stream. And the stream is only
Speaker 1: about three ft deep, so it was it was totally
Speaker 1: impossible for him to take that vote and navigate through
Speaker 1: the stream about a half a mile to where the
Speaker 1: river was, and the river was tiny and thin to
Speaker 1: begin with. This wasn't a Mississippi path. This was like
Speaker 1: a drip from a faucet into a glass. And he
Speaker 1: wanted a cigaret boat that costs forty dollars the race,
Speaker 1: and that was the That's the beginning of how we
Speaker 1: knew the insanity is about him. And one more thing,
Speaker 1: and you tell it. We were at the Pond in Anaheim.
Speaker 1: It was called the Pond the Pond, and the Clippers
Speaker 1: would play six or eight regular season games. Uh, not
Speaker 1: in the sports arena, but go down to the Pond
Speaker 1: to Orange County and play regular season games. And during
Speaker 1: one of those regular season games, they were playing the
Speaker 1: Vancouver Grizzlies before they moved to Memphis, and Benoit was
Speaker 1: the center on the Vancouver Grizzlies. And you and another
Speaker 1: buddy that was in San Diego on the air in
Speaker 1: San Diego doing sports talk that you were very friendly with.
Speaker 1: The two of you walked into the Vancouver locker room
Speaker 1: and you pick up the story. Yeah. So I was
Speaker 1: with my my, my guy, Dave Pala from San Diego,
Speaker 1: and so I had known Benoit every time he came
Speaker 1: back to l A after he left the Clippers. Uh.
Speaker 1: He was very easy to provoke. UM. And he was
Speaker 1: because all you had to do was bring up the fans,
Speaker 1: and Benoit would just ignite. Uh. He would be in
Speaker 1: flame because he was so upset with the fans. And
Speaker 1: so I asked him because a random question was something
Speaker 1: to do with you know, you know, what do you
Speaker 1: think about the fans you know, still booing you or
Speaker 1: something like that. And Benoy then he's sitting in his locker.
Speaker 1: He starts out kind of calm at first, and he
Speaker 1: starts answering the question. And then as he's talking, things
Speaker 1: are escalating, right, He's getting angrier and angrier, and he
Speaker 1: slowly building up and then he starts punching his hand
Speaker 1: like he wants to punch me. And uh, it's it's
Speaker 1: like I just poured lighter fluid on top of this.
Speaker 1: And he starts he goes on this rant about how
Speaker 1: you know, I'll play you anywhere, United States or Canada.
Speaker 1: He's going on this old big rant about how he's
Speaker 1: you know, he's the greatest. It was unbelievable. It was
Speaker 1: absolutely insane. I have it on tape somewhere, but I
Speaker 1: think it's on like cassette tape because it was so long.
Speaker 1: Yes it is. And and he he said, I'll fight anybody,
Speaker 1: I'll fight you. I'll fight two fans. And he was
Speaker 1: pounding his fist into his other hand so loud that
Speaker 1: when you came out of the locker room you had
Speaker 1: that dape recorder of cassette that you had recorded him
Speaker 1: on and you gave it to me and you played
Speaker 1: it so I could hear it. And it was only
Speaker 1: like a minute after you left that you told me
Speaker 1: you won't believe this, and I listened to it, and
Speaker 1: that's exactly what it was. It was so loud that
Speaker 1: you could hear, literally without hesitation, several times, his hand pounding,
Speaker 1: his fists, pounding into his hand. And remember he's seven
Speaker 1: ft one, so he has gigantic hands to begin with.
Speaker 1: And you hear him pounding and pounding and talking and
Speaker 1: talking I'll fight anybody, I'll fight you. And he's pounding
Speaker 1: and pounding. It's like, oh my god, this is like
Speaker 1: a w W E WrestleMania in the locker room before
Speaker 1: they walk out. Be sure to catch live editions of
Speaker 1: The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two a m. Eastern
Speaker 1: eleven p m. Pacific. Yeah, alright, one other story then
Speaker 1: we'll we'll bring in guests on here in a second,
Speaker 1: because he's letting me just talk here, which is good
Speaker 1: because he's gonna he's gonna complain later that I'm not
Speaker 1: letting him talk. But you're my friend. You're not his friend.
Speaker 1: You're my friendly and um. The other story with with
Speaker 1: the Clippers that I must tell, We're gonna have you
Speaker 1: on again down the line. But the other story I
Speaker 1: have to tell is when we ended up in the
Speaker 1: V I P Suites in Scottsdale hanging out on the
Speaker 1: in the owner's suite with the inflamous Donald Sterling, who
Speaker 1: has been banned for life from the from the NBA.
Speaker 1: But this is when the Clippers were playing the Suns
Speaker 1: in the NBA playoffs and we had gone I think
Speaker 1: we were there for Game seven, right, We had traveled
Speaker 1: to Phoenix for Game seven and we were at the
Speaker 1: Clippers hotel and we ended up in the elevator with
Speaker 1: a friend of yours that I think was the equipment
Speaker 1: guy for the Clippers, and and he invited us to
Speaker 1: to go to like the luxury the owners. We we
Speaker 1: we we weren't supposed to be there, and I remember
Speaker 1: we got off. You haven't have a special card. It's
Speaker 1: it's the access is limited. You you have to be
Speaker 1: in the elevator, but you have to have a special
Speaker 1: access card to get to that particular floor. And it
Speaker 1: was the entire floor. Donald Sterling's room was the entire
Speaker 1: floor at the upper floor of that hotel in Scottsdale,
Speaker 1: the Rich Carlton or whatever it was. It was not yes,
Speaker 1: it was the rich Carlton. It was the upper floor.
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right, and tell everybody when the elevator door
Speaker 1: opened into the entire floor being taken by Donald Sterling,
Speaker 1: the owner, who wasn't banned by far at that point
Speaker 1: of time. You pick up the story. Oh yeah, I remember, well,
Speaker 1: the elevator opened and there was like there was like
Speaker 1: a take kind of a buffett table of food. But
Speaker 1: remember Sterling was wearing because he had like pajamason he
Speaker 1: had like he wasn't at the beginning. He wasn't there
Speaker 1: for at first he came in a yeah he was
Speaker 1: there after, but he had pajamas and remember him having pajamas,
Speaker 1: and but we had walked out and and I remember
Speaker 1: your conversation with with Elgin Baylor, who was the GM
Speaker 1: at the time, who would end up suing Sterling, And uh,
Speaker 1: you were not holding back, you were you were throwing.
Speaker 1: They were trying to get you to calm down because
Speaker 1: they were were you were going to get them in trouble.
Speaker 1: That's correct. What I said was and I remember you
Speaker 1: in this because when we walked into the big room
Speaker 1: there there was a table like a like Ben said,
Speaker 1: of effect, but this piffet because it's Donald Sterling, multi multimillionaire.
Speaker 1: Instead of having your normal wedding or bar Mitzva type
Speaker 1: of spread, they had caviar with crackers and champagne on
Speaker 1: ice core. They had all kinds of expensive seafood, and yeah,
Speaker 1: they a bunch of that. There's nothing I would want
Speaker 1: to eat. I don't find any of an appetizing. But
Speaker 1: if you're very well, you want to eat all that, right,
Speaker 1: And and so I feeling the same way as Ben.
Speaker 1: I don't eat caviare. I don't want it. I didn't
Speaker 1: want these jumbo shrimps that I had to peel. I
Speaker 1: didn't want even touch it. So, sitting off to the side,
Speaker 1: there were only a small amount of people. Elgin Baylor,
Speaker 1: who was the general manager for twenty five years, was
Speaker 1: sitting with his wife, and there was some else there
Speaker 1: from the team that was the company. I don't know
Speaker 1: who it was. And then it was the three of
Speaker 1: us that had gotten off the elevator. So there was
Speaker 1: hardly anybody in this gigantic room. So I said hello,
Speaker 1: to Elgin, who I talked to many times and it
Speaker 1: was rare, and if he remembers another story, we went
Speaker 1: to a a Jerry Delian Westwood and saw Elgin eating
Speaker 1: with his daughter one time. Remember that, I remember that, okay,
Speaker 1: But his daughter wasn't there at the time. It was
Speaker 1: his wife and I had only seen her met her
Speaker 1: on rare occasions because she really never came to the games.
Speaker 1: So she's sitting next to Elgin, and I started talking
Speaker 1: to Elgin because we're open and free and talking. He's
Speaker 1: a great guy, and you know that he's a great
Speaker 1: human being. So I'm talking. I go, you know, all
Speaker 1: these years you've worked for the company. We're here for
Speaker 1: Game seven and it was the second round. So the
Speaker 1: next day, whoever won that game between the Suns and
Speaker 1: the Clippers would be playing in the conference finals, which
Speaker 1: is unheard of for the Clippers. So I was talking
Speaker 1: to him about that, and I said, you know, twenty
Speaker 1: five years, you're working for the cheapest man in the
Speaker 1: history of the NBA. And that's the conversation and elegance
Speaker 1: staring at me, he's listening, and his wife's shaking her
Speaker 1: head up and down. So she's the one who is
Speaker 1: actually acknowledging with an answer to everything I'm saying. Well,
Speaker 1: he doesn't want to commit himself for whatever reason, but
Speaker 1: he knows I'm telling the truth. And then, after about
Speaker 1: three or four minutes of this Donald Sterling cheapness of
Speaker 1: which we all knew was true, including him and his
Speaker 1: wife shaking her head, he looks at me and very calmly,
Speaker 1: in a soft voice, says, want you to say, Donald
Speaker 1: has just walked in. And then we all turned around
Speaker 1: and as Ben had said it, and I'll add one
Speaker 1: more thing to it. Donald Sterling was wearing a bathrobe,
Speaker 1: a very very expensive bathroom with crushed velvet slip okay,
Speaker 1: and walked over to us in his normal like in
Speaker 1: his in his own mind the planet that only he
Speaker 1: lives on, and says would you care for in the champagne?
Speaker 1: Thank you? And I don't even think he recognizes anybody
Speaker 1: in this room, except perhaps Elgin, even though he's probably
Speaker 1: seen us a million times and doesn't even know that.
Speaker 1: For the previous five years I've worked for him, broadcasting
Speaker 1: halftime and postgame shows for an hour, including doing my
Speaker 1: regular show on another station, and he's even written me
Speaker 1: letters congratulating me because he would listen to my show
Speaker 1: in his limo on the way home because he always
Speaker 1: goes to the game sitting next to Billy Crystal. And
Speaker 1: so that story is paramount because it is so absurd,
Speaker 1: so obscene, and it's giving you the audience in this
Speaker 1: podcast to understand that a lot out of things that
Speaker 1: I have never said on radio because I would never
Speaker 1: want to do it in trust of some of the
Speaker 1: people that have told me things. And then it's the
Speaker 1: same way would never tell the certain personal stories because
Speaker 1: he did not want it to go over the year,
Speaker 1: but he knew what was happening. You're listening to behind
Speaker 1: the curtain of OZ, the things we've been through, and
Speaker 1: we're just scratching the surface of the reality of human
Speaker 1: beings that are part of sports. Absolutely had some crazy
Speaker 1: I have some more Donald Sterling stories. I remember, we're
Speaker 1: getting to it now, but I remember being the elevator
Speaker 1: one time with him after a game and he was
Speaker 1: looking at the box score and it seemed like he
Speaker 1: had not watched the game. He was like shocked by
Speaker 1: some of the stats he could he couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1: I'm like, you just you owned the team. You were
Speaker 1: just outside watching the game. He was like blown away
Speaker 1: by by some of the stats. But uh, well it's
Speaker 1: been Dovis entire interview has been dominated by me. But
Speaker 1: Gascon is he's hanging out. I'm doing the podcast with him,
Speaker 1: and he wants to be the Doom and Gloom guy. Right,
Speaker 1: Gascon knew the Doom and Gloom. I'm not really the
Speaker 1: Doom and Gloom. I just don't have as an extensive
Speaker 1: relationship with Lee as you do. I will I will
Speaker 1: say bringing Leon, I was waiting for two things to happen. One,
Speaker 1: I was waiting for the apology from him after he
Speaker 1: ambushed me at your holiday party in December. And two
Speaker 1: I was waiting for him to mention the podcast because
Speaker 1: at said holiday party when I was ambushed, the first
Speaker 1: thing he said to me after he took in a
Speaker 1: deep breath, he was like, so you're just making any
Speaker 1: money on this podcast? All right, what are you doing?
Speaker 1: And so I just wait, let me ask you. Are
Speaker 1: you getting any money you go from this podcast? Well
Speaker 1: he's been five months, four months since then, and uh,
Speaker 1: still making the same amount of money. Well, technically Ben
Speaker 1: is actually getting paid to do this podcast because his
Speaker 1: contract actually has a provision in there that allows him
Speaker 1: to make money on any kind of new media or
Speaker 1: digital money that our performances that he obviously is encountered with.
Speaker 1: So this actually falls under the umbrella of Ben Mallory's
Speaker 1: podcast anything and everything that he does is I'm not
Speaker 1: getting paid for this. Well, you've got a salary, You
Speaker 1: have a salary, have an this is separate the podcast
Speaker 1: deals a separate deal. I gotta have a deal with
Speaker 1: Fox to do the radio show, but this is a
Speaker 1: separate deal with I Heart Media, which is not paying
Speaker 1: dividends right now. Let me tell you. Listen, Lee, I'm
Speaker 1: trying my darnest and my hardest to to help this
Speaker 1: man out patting him. I'm trying. I know. Look, first off,
Speaker 1: since we had never met until that, we didn't want
Speaker 1: to say that you personally. We did, Lee. We we
Speaker 1: actually had a late night snack together, you, Ben and
Speaker 1: myself at Tito's off of Washington, and I remember we
Speaker 1: were going to talk until probably about two or three
Speaker 1: in the morning about the FEDS and the government and
Speaker 1: the FBI call you at your radio station. When Ben
Speaker 1: broke up the ruckis so it was an unfortunate breakup
Speaker 1: that night. But uh, I negress because yes, we we
Speaker 1: had a long, engaging conversation one side of that Ben's
Speaker 1: holiday party. Well, I I'll say this on a personal
Speaker 1: level to you, In no way, shape or form have
Speaker 1: I ever disliked or disrespected you. You do a good job.
Speaker 1: I'm not just saying that. I actually feel that. And
Speaker 1: if there was any animosity towards you to me, it's
Speaker 1: only because you just didn't know how I talk and
Speaker 1: what I really truly am as a person. And there
Speaker 1: is nothing nothing negative about for me to you at all. Ever,
Speaker 1: though I thought it was great because I told Ben
Speaker 1: after the holiday party was over, I said, you do
Speaker 1: realize that Lee and I taught for probably two and
Speaker 1: a half hours, And he said, on more than one
Speaker 1: occasion he looked me dead in the eye and says,
Speaker 1: are you even listening to me? Do you give a
Speaker 1: shit about what I'm saying right now? Said yes, Leah,
Speaker 1: I'm asking you questions because I care and I want
Speaker 1: to want to know exactly what you're thinking of where
Speaker 1: you've been through so well. The stuff that I said
Speaker 1: on the side is because for the podcast people, Uh,
Speaker 1: while doing sports for all these years, I was also
Speaker 1: doing political talk on KFI, which is I Heart radio
Speaker 1: and the number one I Heart station in all of
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. No sports at all, just talking about the
Speaker 1: government things that are going on. And I told you
Speaker 1: those private stories and I'm not going to sing on
Speaker 1: the air about the FBI, but they're all true, and
Speaker 1: so uh, you know, I try to be I'll put
Speaker 1: it to you this way, and Ben knows me a
Speaker 1: lot longer than you. There's probably twelve things in life.
Speaker 1: Music being one, sports being another. Politically, what's going on
Speaker 1: is another. There's twelve things that I am on a
Speaker 1: ten scale, a nine on, but there's ten thousand things
Speaker 1: that I'm a one or two on. I just don't
Speaker 1: go into it because I don't that's not my forte.
Speaker 1: So what I know, I really know. But there's a
Speaker 1: lot that I don't know about other subject matters that
Speaker 1: at my state of life, age and experience, it's I
Speaker 1: had no interest in it. But what I have interest in,
Speaker 1: like Ben Ben's interests, it's centrally focused on a few things.
Speaker 1: He's very well aware and has historical value on a
Speaker 1: lot of things too. So that's who I am. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying I'm smarter than anybody. And I've said, over
Speaker 1: the year, the dumber, our society gets smarter. I look,
Speaker 1: be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Speaker 1: Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven p m. Pacifect
Speaker 1: on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: and I remember Lee back in you'd always complain about
Speaker 1: the Mallard militia. You would always take cheap shots of
Speaker 1: the Mallamis. I've always tried to explain to you that
Speaker 1: there's no i Q test. To listen to a radio
Speaker 1: show you don't, or to call into a radio show
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. And uh, and you've always been a bit
Speaker 1: of an elitist when it comes to that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: You'd admit that. And you you'd always brag about how
Speaker 1: your calls were more intelligent than my callers and all that.
Speaker 1: I don't really care. It doesn't matter, ye, And I
Speaker 1: understand that. Look, anybody out there, Ben knows this. I
Speaker 1: do listen even though you know the time frame is
Speaker 1: the overnight for Fox, and we have three different time zones,
Speaker 1: and are four different time zones in the United States.
Speaker 1: And I listened to him, and he Ben knows the
Speaker 1: time frame it is here, and I do listen to
Speaker 1: at least on a daily basis, or by daily basis,
Speaker 1: at least a minimum an hour of his show, uh
Speaker 1: Eddie the Voice of Reason Ben. I know all of
Speaker 1: the gimmicks and all of this stuff. I hear all
Speaker 1: the callers, Ben knows, I know them by name. I
Speaker 1: know all about the people that are banned or don't
Speaker 1: call or finally call in. The other night, you had
Speaker 1: somebody that disappeared for like a year and a half
Speaker 1: and finally called back in and he called himself Mr Coronavirus,
Speaker 1: who remember I was very classic of okay, So you know,
Speaker 1: I listen so I get a kick out of his callers.
Speaker 1: It's also the time that it's on of it would
Speaker 1: be up that that calls in, And I am aware
Speaker 1: and and I it's not that I accept, it is
Speaker 1: my decision to accept. I like then, I like a show.
Speaker 1: I like what he does. And unfortunately for then, he
Speaker 1: is now live every single night, five nights a week,
Speaker 1: doing alone. And I did a show alone, so I
Speaker 1: can relate to this. He's doing a show for four hours,
Speaker 1: five nights a week with unrehearsed material. This ain't television.
Speaker 1: Where you cut tape, cut tape edit. No, this is
Speaker 1: live every single day, a different show with nothing to
Speaker 1: talk about sports and having to contrive things to make
Speaker 1: the time go quick and to keep people entertain and interesting.
Speaker 1: And then you are doing under this set of circums
Speaker 1: fance is a beyond congressional Medal of honor. Job of
Speaker 1: what you are doing. Well, all of the people that
Speaker 1: are involved in your show also well, listen, thank you.
Speaker 1: It is crazy right now. And I know a lot
Speaker 1: of people not to suck up to you, but you
Speaker 1: haven't been in our place for a long time. And
Speaker 1: I know you were had a great career in radio
Speaker 1: and you should be on radio somewhere still today. But
Speaker 1: people randomly, I will get emails. I tell you this
Speaker 1: all the time. I got emails and people people on
Speaker 1: social media like, hey, where's Lee? I gotta I want
Speaker 1: to hear Lee Klein. Where's Lee? And I like, I mean,
Speaker 1: I talked to him every once so while I check
Speaker 1: in with Lee once a week or so, and but
Speaker 1: you are missed, Lee. People are still trying to find
Speaker 1: you around the radio dial. Look. I appreciate those people,
Speaker 1: and you know it is what it is. I still
Speaker 1: look for anybody that cares. I work for Serious XM
Speaker 1: and I'm a program manager, so I'm still involved in
Speaker 1: in a different type of radio. But it's okay, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not there's no complaints here, and again, you do
Speaker 1: a great job above and beyond the call of duty
Speaker 1: under this set of circumstances, as most anybody that's doing
Speaker 1: talk radio and sports is that is unable to get
Speaker 1: people on his guests because of the time frame you're on.
Speaker 1: It's nearly, if not impossible, to have any live guests
Speaker 1: that's part of the sports world to come on your
Speaker 1: show based on the time it is. Well, this is
Speaker 1: it's not it's not a guest there, it's a it's
Speaker 1: just a but we do the guests. We're not really
Speaker 1: guess where you're hanging with us, Lee, You're not really
Speaker 1: guess you're hanging with us. We don't do the guest thing,
Speaker 1: but the overnight. Yeah, it's just me bloviating. So we'll
Speaker 1: put the baby to bed now, Lee, listen, thank you. Well,
Speaker 1: have you on again. And you're not a social media gright,
Speaker 1: so nobody can get ahold of you. This is the
Speaker 1: only way people can hear you. Yes, I'll give out
Speaker 1: my email addresses I always had on the radio. Anybody new,
Speaker 1: old and different that wants to stay in contact with
Speaker 1: me or find out anything or me about you. My
Speaker 1: email address has always been clippers Man. It's within sk
Speaker 1: clippers man at yahoo dot com. All right, there you go.
Speaker 1: You can contact Lee and send and tell them old
Speaker 1: stories from back in the All right, thank you ly appreciate. Hey,
Speaker 1: listen to two of you. Stay healthy. That's more important
Speaker 1: than anything