Speaker 1: What makes a compelling sports story? Is it a tale
Speaker 1: about bitter rivals.
Speaker 2: Fighting for a chance to even the score.
Speaker 3: Larry Burn to Paris.
Speaker 4: They give it a magic He's got Pooper on his.
Speaker 5: Right time perfectly, the past was high, perfectly the bass.
Speaker 1: Is it the underdog story, the team that mounts a
Speaker 1: comeback against all odds.
Speaker 2: That's over, that's over. Cleveland is a city of champions.
Speaker 4: Once again.
Speaker 1: In the forty years I've covered this league, I've seen
Speaker 1: those portrayed as villains.
Speaker 4: It's been Detroit and they open up with a hate
Speaker 4: to nothing leaves.
Speaker 6: Do you think the Pistons have gained a little respect.
Speaker 1: As comedic protagonists?
Speaker 7: I don't know anything about Angola.
Speaker 4: Angola's in trouble.
Speaker 2: New characters introduced. Oh about destroyed.
Speaker 1: And the occasional superhero who, of course can fly.
Speaker 8: Michael taking off the patented tongue comes out just in
Speaker 8: front of that life.
Speaker 2: Look this the devil clutch, the.
Speaker 4: Reach out and the stuff you got forty.
Speaker 2: Nine here's Bob Costas.
Speaker 1: We covered these stories together on the NBA on NBC.
Speaker 9: It was an ongoing soap opera, not just basketball drama,
Speaker 9: but personal drama. And you think of how vivid the
Speaker 9: characters were Jackson and Jordan and Pippin and Rodman, and
Speaker 9: then the antagonists Isaiah and the Pistons, Barkley on the
Speaker 9: Sons who gave.
Speaker 1: Them a run triple overtime in the finals. I remember
Speaker 1: on my birthday in Chicago.
Speaker 10: Two minutes ago, I us third overtime open champers James
Speaker 10: we in our sub track.
Speaker 1: Now the field goal, now the shock shot kJ Barkley. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was unbelievable or.
Speaker 9: Even even think of their battles in the Eastern Conference
Speaker 9: with the Knicks.
Speaker 2: For help, but caught what's up.
Speaker 4: A great corner as.
Speaker 11: The biggest star wasn't doing.
Speaker 9: The biggest star was Riot, you know, right off the
Speaker 9: page's and GQ came from the Lakers, and he was
Speaker 9: going to pose a challenge and he did.
Speaker 2: He scared me.
Speaker 1: Pat Riley though. He was so intimidating. I had to
Speaker 1: interview him all the time, and you know, at halftime,
Speaker 1: and I.
Speaker 2: Remember on the way to the locker room interviewing him.
Speaker 2: He was he was intimidating, Yes, he was.
Speaker 9: I always got along with him because I had that
Speaker 9: buffer year in between the Lakers and the Knicks.
Speaker 11: He was with us on the first NBA showtime.
Speaker 6: Do I have to go first?
Speaker 9: Yeah, the basket actually been moved a bit closer.
Speaker 11: I don't mean to throw you off.
Speaker 4: Riley does not get the boone an opportunity to move
Speaker 4: into a tie.
Speaker 11: Wait a minute, I get to spin around on the wire.
Speaker 4: Here, all right.
Speaker 9: The one I remember with you in ninety four, the
Speaker 9: Knicks take on Elijah on and the Rockets and game
Speaker 9: seven is close, but lose it. They went to Houston
Speaker 9: up three games to two, and Houston wins six and seven.
Speaker 9: And we know how dejected Pat was, and it was
Speaker 9: your job to find him. And you actually walked into
Speaker 9: the locker room, into the coaches room and opened the door,
Speaker 9: and I remember that his back was to you, and
Speaker 9: he turned around and he realized, you know, he couldn't
Speaker 9: blow you off. But that was pretty gutsy on your
Speaker 9: part because you didn't know what reaction you would get.
Speaker 2: We're coming in the next locker room right now to
Speaker 2: talk to coach Pat Riley.
Speaker 12: Pat, we're live on the air. If you can come
Speaker 12: up here, please.
Speaker 1: Dick Eversaw, who at the time was the chairman of
Speaker 1: NBC Sports, so it was so involved behind the scenes, says,
Speaker 1: tell Hannah she has to go in the locker room
Speaker 1: live on the air.
Speaker 2: I was terrified.
Speaker 1: We came out of commercial and so I remember as
Speaker 1: I'm opening the door, I said, coach, we're.
Speaker 2: Live on the air. Just somebody wouldn't kill me.
Speaker 11: That was important.
Speaker 2: Literally ask the John Starks question. Thanks coach, Bob. And
Speaker 2: then you had like fifteen seconds to get us off
Speaker 2: the air. Boom, We're done.
Speaker 1: And at those times we used to fly charter, and
Speaker 1: so I remember getting on the plane and Dick Eversol
Speaker 1: standing up and slowly clapping, and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I have a job. So many stories make up the
Speaker 1: fabric of professional hoops in our country. Here's longtime basketball
Speaker 1: writer Peter Vessie on the ABA days.
Speaker 13: You know I can tell you stories off the record.
Speaker 14: Nuts.
Speaker 2: Oh come on, how about how about what come out?
Speaker 2: A couple on the.
Speaker 5: Bring me upside gets inside of me?
Speaker 13: So so I remember, you know, the league's fighting for talents,
Speaker 13: players jumping Rick Barry jumping cutting him the other way,
Speaker 13: Spencer Haywood, Brisker McDaniels, you know, going both ways. But
Speaker 13: then it's seventy again, I think seventy two Charlie Scott
Speaker 13: jumped from the Virginia Squires to the Phoenix Suns, and
Speaker 13: he gave me the story. And and so I go
Speaker 13: out to Phoenix, and and before I could even like
Speaker 13: pick up my bags, this Suns knew that this ABA
Speaker 13: writer was in Phoenix. Jerry Colangelo was the president of
Speaker 13: the team in and he wound up telling me years
Speaker 13: later that a baggage handler had spotted me and had
Speaker 13: called him.
Speaker 11: And I guess who else was in town?
Speaker 4: Your father?
Speaker 13: Oh, okay, and Johnny Kerr. Johnny Kerr was the general
Speaker 13: manager of the of the Squires at that time and
Speaker 13: also had coached the Sons in the NBA.
Speaker 2: So so we're all in town.
Speaker 13: So I go to the game, and I go to
Speaker 13: their practice. I'm allowed to interview him, and I remember,
Speaker 13: I remember Contind Simmons was the coach, and he didn't
Speaker 13: like the line of questioning. Throw me out of his office,
Speaker 13: throw me out, that's hard to imagine.
Speaker 9: Throw me out of the.
Speaker 8: Why that's what they were practicing at the Wye Christ
Speaker 8: And anyway, so your dad says to me, he calls me,
Speaker 8: he knows I'm there, calls me up. He says, look
Speaker 8: would you. He's going to get me in trouble.
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 13: But he says, would you mind cornering Paul stile Us
Speaker 13: and ask him if he'd like to jump to the ABA?
Speaker 2: Wow?
Speaker 13: I said, yeah, okay, no problem, sure, totally.
Speaker 2: Unethical, but I said, so I got Paul.
Speaker 13: I got Paul on the side, and he was with
Speaker 13: Clem Haskins, you know, vividly remembered saying that, you know,
Speaker 13: you guys, you guys could make an awful lot of money.
Speaker 13: The ABA is dying to get even with Jerry Colangelo,
Speaker 13: and you guys would easily, you know, make a fortune
Speaker 13: if you decide you want to go the next game,
Speaker 13: the next Sun's game. I'm at court side and I'm
Speaker 13: sitting next to David Wolf, two white guys sitting next
Speaker 13: to each other at this game. And during the first half,
Speaker 13: a guy comes up to David and he hands them
Speaker 13: an envelope and then he just runs and David opens
Speaker 13: it up.
Speaker 3: He says, he says, this isn't for me, this is
Speaker 3: for him. It was a stubpoena whoa whoa. Colangelo had
Speaker 3: me subpoened, but he gave it to.
Speaker 4: The wrong guy.
Speaker 2: So hilarious. So you weren't served.
Speaker 13: No, I wasn't shot. I left it halftime and went
Speaker 13: to the air. It's time to leave, Dodge.
Speaker 1: I heard so many of these stories from my dad,
Speaker 1: Mike Storren, former ABA commissioner, and from my friends in
Speaker 1: the business, like former NBA entertainment boss Don Spurling with
Speaker 1: this from the Barcelona Olympics and the Dream Team.
Speaker 4: I have a story that I actually beat Michael Jordan
Speaker 4: in a pig pong game and he got so angry
Speaker 4: that the next game I kind of had a play halfway.
Speaker 4: So the next game he won.
Speaker 11: Because the next day we went.
Speaker 4: Out on that famous shoot you know for his home video,
Speaker 4: and we walked around the street to Barcelona and went
Speaker 4: to the you know, and he played cards all night
Speaker 4: till five in the morning, and I was so upsetenting,
Speaker 4: Oh my god, he's going to crash and sleep. We
Speaker 4: only have one day to shoot with him. It was
Speaker 4: the day of the gold medal game. I followed him.
Speaker 4: I'm standing over the card game watching these guys play,
Speaker 4: and it's burned and it's magic and it's and you know,
Speaker 4: Mod's in the room and Barkley and they're all teasing Michael.
Speaker 4: Michael your babysitters here, your babysitters here. I was getting
Speaker 4: crushed by all these guys. So finally, at five am
Speaker 4: he stops. He goes. She goes, I'm going to my room.
Speaker 4: I'll be out in a half out. I said, don't
Speaker 4: fall asleep on me. Comes out in that crazy Nike outfit.
Speaker 4: We walked the streets and then he goes, do me
Speaker 4: a favor, drop me off at the golf There's one
Speaker 4: golf course right outside. I got my clubs there. I'm
Speaker 4: all set. He goes, what do you mean, how are
Speaker 4: you going to get back? He goes, I'll get a
Speaker 4: ride back. I said, Michael, you got a game tonight.
Speaker 4: You got the gold medal game against Croatia. He stayed
Speaker 4: up all night. He was up for twenty four hours,
Speaker 4: shot with us all morning. Then he played thirty six
Speaker 4: holes of golf thirty six thirty six, showed up at
Speaker 4: the hotel five minutes before the bus left, walked out,
Speaker 4: got on the bus and played the gold medal game.
Speaker 4: Guy was up for forty eight hours. He truly is superman.
Speaker 2: Larger than life. Characters have been the backbone of basketball.
Speaker 5: Dolan I think by the doctor.
Speaker 4: Yes, he's got it p carry count.
Speaker 2: They rock the baby to sleep and slammed dump swung
Speaker 2: that baby.
Speaker 1: And telling these stories in a deeper way was something
Speaker 1: Commissioner David Stern was determined to do alongside former NBC
Speaker 1: Sports president Dick Eversall.
Speaker 9: But you know, you and I were both lucky enough
Speaker 9: to be smack dab in the middle of maybe the
Speaker 9: greatest ear Bird and Magic set it up on CBS
Speaker 9: and then handed it off and the NBA on NBC.
Speaker 9: In the nineties and early two thousands, you had the
Speaker 9: six Jordan Bulls Championships, you had the Dream Team in Barcelona,
Speaker 9: and then you think that almost immediately after that, when
Speaker 9: Michael retires from the Bulls, you get Robinson and Duncan
Speaker 9: with the Spurs, Kobe and Shaq on three championship run
Speaker 9: in the early two thousands with the Lakers. That was
Speaker 9: a golden era and when you look at the ratings
Speaker 9: of those games, you know, I've often said this when
Speaker 9: people talk about Lebron and Michael. Statistically, you can make
Speaker 9: a case for Lebron, agreed, But in terms of impact,
Speaker 9: it's no context. No little old lady in Omah ever
Speaker 9: said I'd love to play bridge with you tonight, Mildred,
Speaker 9: But I have to watch Lebron. But a million little
Speaker 9: old ladies like that all around the world said out
Speaker 9: about Michael Jordan, and they might not have known a
Speaker 9: pick and roll from a backdoor play.
Speaker 1: The NBA became must see TV. Players were pitchmen, movie stars,
Speaker 1: and household names. As of twenty twenty three, the NBA
Speaker 1: is broadcast in more than two hundred countries and fifty languages.
Speaker 2: The average NBA team is worth three point eight billion dollars.
Speaker 2: So how did we get here?
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 2: That's a good story. From the NBA and iHeart podcast.
Speaker 1: This is NBA DNA with me Hannah Storm, Episode eleven,
Speaker 1: The Inside Stuff. May fourteenth, nineteen eighty one. It's Game
Speaker 1: six of the NBA Finals, Moses Malone's Houston Rockets against
Speaker 1: a young Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics.
Speaker 6: Don Anderson, Doctor Willoughby, Dobin.
Speaker 10: Garrett shot.
Speaker 6: Y lelev was six seconds off the shot block.
Speaker 5: Robert Lee?
Speaker 4: Why will Rutor again?
Speaker 2: The Rockets shouldn't be here.
Speaker 1: They have the unfortunate distinction of being the third team
Speaker 1: in history to make it to the finals with the
Speaker 1: losing record. Tonight they're playing for their basketball lives. Boston
Speaker 1: leads the series three games to two. At the start
Speaker 1: of the fourth quarter, they're up eighty four sixty seven,
Speaker 1: but the Rockets go on a tear, scoring thirteen unanswered
Speaker 1: points to pull within three.
Speaker 10: Unable hope by this, just dude, Boston is called tie up.
Speaker 1: It's peak playoff basketball electric to watch, Hey.
Speaker 10: Bird, and he's gonna hit those question shots now eighty
Speaker 10: eight eighty three, four minutes.
Speaker 1: But there's just one problem. This game is tape delayed,
Speaker 1: meaning if you don't live in Houston or Boston, you're
Speaker 1: watching the latest episode of Magnum Pi. The Rocket Celtics
Speaker 1: game will air later at eleven thirty pm Eastern, and
Speaker 1: thanks to the eleven o'clock News, you'll already know the
Speaker 1: outcome one a.
Speaker 7: World chappion by Boston Celtics.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the NBA of the early eighties.
Speaker 1: Between nineteen seventy nine and nineteen eighty one, seven finals
Speaker 1: games were tape delayed. One of the league's many issues.
Speaker 1: Attendance numbers were lagging. Drug use among players tarnished the
Speaker 1: league's reputation, but along came Deputy Commissioner David Stern to
Speaker 1: change the narrative. As the league changed networks from CBS
Speaker 1: to NBC, David Stern approached you, it was in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty two about creating NBA Entertainment.
Speaker 2: What was his vision for the brand In those early conversations.
Speaker 4: David really was a visionary. We used to have these
Speaker 4: meetings this is waiting for Inside Stuff. We would have
Speaker 4: these marketing meetings at the league and I would come
Speaker 4: over from NBA Entertainment.
Speaker 1: Don Sperling ran NBA Entertainment for fifteen years. He's the
Speaker 1: brains behind the iconic show NBA Inside Stuff.
Speaker 4: We would talk about how to change the look of
Speaker 4: the NBA. I mean at the time when I got
Speaker 4: to the NBA. I got there in eighty two eighty three,
Speaker 4: that was my first season, the year before the finals
Speaker 4: were on in you know, take delay. David's goal was
Speaker 4: to make sure we never had to go backwards again.
Speaker 4: So we talked about all the things that we do
Speaker 4: and how entertainment could support sponsorship, and how entertainment could
Speaker 4: support properties, and how properties and sponsorship can support our
Speaker 4: network relationships. And we just kept building and we had
Speaker 4: CBS at the time, and then of course eighty four
Speaker 4: Burden Magic happened, Bird and Magic took the NBA Finals
Speaker 4: to another level.
Speaker 15: Still by Magic Johnson, he anticipated that play by Bird.
Speaker 6: Don't see Bird throw too many away?
Speaker 9: Magic looking for Caren quickly back right over.
Speaker 2: Sure, So that's what.
Speaker 1: Moved the needle initially, was that rivalry. Did you see
Speaker 1: it coming? And how did you take advantage of it?
Speaker 4: One of David's great sayings was it's better to be
Speaker 4: lucky than smart, And I've stuck by that because that's
Speaker 4: I think, that's my career. I've been in the right
Speaker 4: place at the right time. But you do need a
Speaker 4: little luck, but you also have to have smarts like
Speaker 4: David had. Okay, and when this rivalry which started in
Speaker 4: seventy nine when they played in college, and then they
Speaker 4: were kind of watching each other as Bird one in
Speaker 4: eighty one and Magic one in eighty two. But then
Speaker 4: eighty four the world's collided and we got arguably the
Speaker 4: greatest NBA Finals of all time.
Speaker 10: Magic Johnson goes up off the ball and here's Dennis
Speaker 10: Thompson two on one break and.
Speaker 9: A rock by Cooper.
Speaker 4: What a play by Cooper. He saved the basket. I's
Speaker 4: your basket by off seven games, really crazy, bitter rivalry
Speaker 4: took the Hot Garden, the Laker, you know, showtime pat Riley,
Speaker 4: who was really something to witness. And at that same year,
Speaker 4: let's not forget who was drafted.
Speaker 15: The Chicago Bulls picked Michael Jordan at the University of
Speaker 15: North Carolina.
Speaker 2: Right, Michael Jordan.
Speaker 4: So you know, if you want to talk about timing, okay,
Speaker 4: that's I think that's timing.
Speaker 1: During Stern's thirty years as commissioner, the league saw unprecedented growth,
Speaker 1: seven new franchises, the creation of the WNBA, a fortyfold
Speaker 1: increase in television revenue, zero tolerance for drug use. For
Speaker 1: years before becoming commissioner in nineteen eighty four, David had
Speaker 1: laid the groundwork for free agency, established revenue sharing by
Speaker 1: owners and players, and helped negotiate the merger with the ABA.
Speaker 15: The app salute explosion, the proliferation of outlets to our
Speaker 15: fans provides new non game programming opportunities every time they
Speaker 15: are not watching us, because if they're not watching us,
Speaker 15: there's always a.
Speaker 2: Danger they might be watching somebody else.
Speaker 1: David understood the league was only as marketable as it stars,
Speaker 1: and the NBA set about taking fans behind the scenes
Speaker 1: to get to know them. That didn't actually start with Jordan,
Speaker 1: It started with his biggest nemesis.
Speaker 10: Last year, the Pistons had a three two lead, couldn't
Speaker 10: weave one of the last two.
Speaker 11: Now they'll do it.
Speaker 4: Without Detroit Pistons, NBA entertainment would not have ascended to
Speaker 4: the reputation and the heights they did. Chuck Daly, Isaiah,
Speaker 4: they invited us in, let us go inside the huddle,
Speaker 4: let us go inside the locker room. It was the
Speaker 4: first time any team had allowed that. This was literally
Speaker 4: the first access, which is obviously a huge term right
Speaker 4: now in this day and age. So kudos to the
Speaker 4: Detroit Bistons and Chuck Dally love that guy love Big
Speaker 4: Daddy Rich as exactly the one of the greatest coaches ever.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Olympic head coach of the Dream Team. I mean
Speaker 2: just he was. He was amazing.
Speaker 1: What is it because now we see everything from you know,
Speaker 1: Hard Knocks to these access shows that lead up to
Speaker 1: Season X in Sport X.
Speaker 2: You know, everybody's doing it.
Speaker 1: But when you think back to the Bad Boys being
Speaker 1: the first team that allowed that kind of access, what
Speaker 1: do you think it was about them that they were
Speaker 1: confident enough to do.
Speaker 10: That outside sixty shoot du Mars against Jordan's spins, in turns, fakes.
Speaker 4: Lean in shot, got it.
Speaker 5: What a bucket by Joe Dumars.
Speaker 4: It was the world against them. I mean the bad boys.
Speaker 4: They were the bad boys. They loved it. They took
Speaker 4: that nickname and ran with it. You had even one
Speaker 4: of the greatest players in the history NBA, Isaiah Thomas,
Speaker 4: but there was that edge right bat Nol Lambert. You
Speaker 4: had Dennis Rodman. The cast of characters, the personalities was incredible.
Speaker 4: Plus at that time, they were playing against Jordan every
Speaker 4: year and they were They were the ones that Michael
Speaker 4: had to get passed, which he finally did in ninety one.
Speaker 4: But every year, you know, people talk about you need
Speaker 4: a team. The Pistons needed the Celtics to teach them
Speaker 4: how to win, right right, and then the Bulls needed
Speaker 4: Pistons to teach them how to win. And it was
Speaker 4: it was like that. I mean the rivalries. You watched
Speaker 4: the eighty fourth NBA Finals, you watch eighty six, you
Speaker 4: watch the Celtics Pistons. Every single play was life and death.
Speaker 14: He's got it, the two five seconds to go, Thomas
Speaker 14: wants to get it in quickly.
Speaker 5: You know what it does to Lamberska.
Speaker 2: You called David a mentor of yours. I mean, what
Speaker 2: kind of boss was he?
Speaker 4: He was really tough. Okay, I mean I love him
Speaker 4: to death, but he was a tough, tough boss. But
Speaker 4: he was the kind of guy that would pull you
Speaker 4: back in. You know, if there was something going wrong,
Speaker 4: he would let you know in spades. He would he'd
Speaker 4: great you a little bit, but he'd build you back up,
Speaker 4: you know, so you would learn, and you learn from adversity. Right,
Speaker 4: things would go even things that weren't under control, you know,
Speaker 4: network games that would happen and we had nothing to
Speaker 4: do with it. The network ran the games. Something would
Speaker 4: happen during the network games and Sunday night that phone
Speaker 4: would ring. If David was yelling, we were okay. If
Speaker 4: he was whispering, then I know I was in trouble.
Speaker 4: He could start a conversation of like, let me ask
Speaker 4: you something. When I hired you, Was I the one
Speaker 4: who made the mistake?
Speaker 9: Or were you?
Speaker 4: And then here it comes, here it comes. But then
Speaker 4: by the end of the conversation, he'd build you back
Speaker 4: up and go out there and you know, so you
Speaker 4: would want to go out there and just to do
Speaker 4: it three hundred percent better. And he was brilliant and
Speaker 4: he was amazing Marketer. He spotted the international opportunity before
Speaker 4: anybody did. Okay, I mean it is just incredible what
Speaker 4: he's done to set the stage for the NBA to
Speaker 4: be successful on a worldwide basis.
Speaker 11: Hi, my name is Michael Jordan.
Speaker 14: I want you to take a trip with me and
Speaker 14: discover the secrets that I've known for many years.
Speaker 11: The man was truly destined to fly.
Speaker 1: Under your leadership, the league started to numberly think about
Speaker 1: these games right, and how to broadcast the games? But
Speaker 1: these are How did to focus on feature production and
Speaker 1: nobody else was doing that at the time. You launched
Speaker 1: something called NBA Home Videos, and one of them was
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan Come.
Speaker 11: Fly with Me.
Speaker 6: A resplentless competitor fears No, he overwhelmed the opposition.
Speaker 16: Patrolling the Airway.
Speaker 1: Which was released in nineteen eighty nine and sold over
Speaker 1: a quarter of a million copies.
Speaker 2: I mean, how do you view the legacy of those films?
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I want to answer that still today because
Speaker 4: obviously they don't make his sell as many home videos.
Speaker 4: That's the largest selling sports home video all time.
Speaker 11: It still is.
Speaker 4: Michael Jordan, Wow, Wow. Now of course it's the production.
Speaker 4: It's something.
Speaker 2: Right, It's that eighties production.
Speaker 4: I mean that video really changed the home video business
Speaker 4: in sports. We had a great partner CBS Fox. We
Speaker 4: had Sports Illustrated using these videos to sell magazines, right,
Speaker 4: you know, you'd say, and if you get a subscription
Speaker 4: to Sports Illustrated, you'll get a copy of you know,
Speaker 4: you remember those commercials.
Speaker 1: I remember that, yes, very well. And no other league
Speaker 1: was doing this at the time. There was the NBA
Speaker 1: was was way ahead of the game.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, NFL Films was putting out more football hardcore.
Speaker 2: Like right, right, right, but not like feature videos music videos.
Speaker 4: Superstars was a music video. We had Charles Barkley the Warrior.
Speaker 4: You know, we had you know, Magic Johnson Control, Larry Bird,
Speaker 4: you know with John Cooper Mellencamp song small Town Right.
Speaker 15: I would also would like to thank you as a
Speaker 15: team for supporting this throughout the year.
Speaker 14: It's been a great honor to be out here.
Speaker 11: There's only one place I'd rather be, Frenchly.
Speaker 4: We fit the player there to the pop song and
Speaker 4: this was the precursor to NBA inside Stuff.
Speaker 15: I'm pleased to announce today that starting with the nineteen
Speaker 15: ninety ninety one NBA season, the NBA would be seen
Speaker 15: on the NBC television network.
Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty nine, NBC purchased it's broadcast rights for
Speaker 1: six hundred million dollars. I joined the network in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety two. David Stern had teamed up with a perfect
Speaker 1: collaborator in My boss Dick ever saw I'll.
Speaker 4: Never think it at our first meeting, we went into
Speaker 4: the room and Terry O'Neill was there, who was the
Speaker 4: executive producer, and he was sort of like all sports guy.
Speaker 4: I'll never forget David and Dick kind of conducting the
Speaker 4: interview with Terry O'Neill, who you what a pretty big
Speaker 4: reputation at the time, is like going like this and
Speaker 4: looking back and forth and go, am I in the
Speaker 4: right room?
Speaker 11: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I mean David, And we're just talking about what we
Speaker 4: what we really should be doing with our sport more
Speaker 4: off the.
Speaker 2: Court than on the court, right, Okay, Exactly.
Speaker 4: The game is pretty solid on the court at this time,
Speaker 4: and that's where NBA and you know the idea of
Speaker 4: a television show that would appeal to teens, casual fans, women,
Speaker 4: marrying pop music to sports, marrying pop culture to sports,
Speaker 4: taking personalities and putting it on a national time slot.
Speaker 1: Through the years, David Stern became my mentor, and it
Speaker 1: all started with weekly lunches in his office with the
Speaker 1: NBC crew. You know, I can't believe that when I
Speaker 1: think back on it now, before games, like before a
Speaker 1: weekend of games, you know, because we would air tripleheader
Speaker 1: and a doubleheader on NBC, myself, Ah Mod, Dick Eversol,
Speaker 1: Bob Costas. We would go to the NBA headquarters to
Speaker 1: David Stern's office, which he never went out for lunch,
Speaker 1: so we would have lunch there and we would literally
Speaker 1: go over features with the commissioner of the NBA. His
Speaker 1: attention to detail and prioritization of telling those stories. You know,
Speaker 1: when I think back on it, that was incredible.
Speaker 4: That just shows you how much he cared. I mean, Han,
Speaker 4: did you know this? In this business, you know a
Speaker 4: few young people for work and this and that, and
Speaker 4: you know they come from a good school and you say, hey,
Speaker 4: you're smart. That's great, but if you want to succeed
Speaker 4: this business, you have to have passion. Everybody who was
Speaker 4: around that NBC NBA relationship we had passion. We wanted
Speaker 4: to make this game better than anything. We wanted to
Speaker 4: change the way sports was broadcast game wise and also
Speaker 4: looked off the court. And your example was perfect right there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And we always had turkey sandwiches, chocolate chip cookies,
Speaker 1: and diet coke.
Speaker 2: Does that sound familiar?
Speaker 4: I love cooking. Let me tell you what we would
Speaker 4: do with David when we go to meeting. We'd always
Speaker 4: put decaf in the container. He said, if you cassed
Speaker 4: him up, you were done. No, so I say, Linda, Linda.
Speaker 1: Remember for the NBA on NBC, I was both a
Speaker 1: reporter and a studio host with analysts including doctor j
Speaker 1: John Sally, Bill Walton, and Isaiah Thomas.
Speaker 4: Yes, Isaiah, let's see what we got all the way up.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 14: I laugh about the days that we spent together, you know,
Speaker 14: at NBC. I was talking to Bob Costas, believe it
Speaker 14: or not, the other day. We were just laughing about
Speaker 14: some of the stories that was going on back then
Speaker 14: and how we all worked together and how we all laughed.
Speaker 14: And I don't and I don't know if you remember.
Speaker 14: Do you remember my first my first game. It was
Speaker 14: Christmas Day.
Speaker 9: We'll check the opening up here from a Madrashaan and
Speaker 9: I have the tip off in just a few moments
Speaker 9: on Christmas night in Chicago.
Speaker 11: We have all we have our meeting, you know, our
Speaker 11: morning meeting and everything else.
Speaker 14: And so now we get to the game and it's
Speaker 14: Bob and I I got, you know, David Neil in
Speaker 14: my ear.
Speaker 11: I had never you know, I didn't know what buttons
Speaker 11: to push or anything.
Speaker 5: They've been in They've been in eight of the last
Speaker 5: ten finals. End up taking different paths to get there.
Speaker 5: Righty believes in hard nose, in your face defense. Phil Jackson,
Speaker 5: on the other hand, believes in a triple post.
Speaker 11: But in the opening and this was was this was great.
Speaker 4: This was great.
Speaker 14: So in the opening, right, Bob is going on about hey,
Speaker 14: we're here lovely Chicago, and Michael Jordan so forth and
Speaker 14: so on, and he's just going on and on, and
Speaker 14: I hear David Neil go, okay, Bob, wrap it up,
Speaker 14: wrap it up, wrap it up. And Bob is just
Speaker 14: going on and I haven't talked, right, I haven't spoken.
Speaker 14: I have just said anything. Wrap up, Bob. And so
Speaker 14: now David is like really like screaming in Bob's ear
Speaker 14: by Isaac like this be I don't know what's going on,
Speaker 14: and Bob is just like, oh yeah, it's so great.
Speaker 17: And then he goes, so zeke, my man, what do
Speaker 17: you I'm like, uh, oh man, So that was my
Speaker 17: rookie moment when he broke me in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's Bob. I mean, you know you can't get
Speaker 2: a word in edgewise, right.
Speaker 15: And listen to the roar at Market Square Arena, sro
Speaker 15: Brout sitting in on History.
Speaker 4: Let you folks can join us too.
Speaker 11: Hi, everybody, I'm Bob Costas.
Speaker 9: What Michael Jordan does today and what he will attempt
Speaker 9: to do in the next several.
Speaker 2: Months and maybe years is truly unprecedented.
Speaker 4: It's never happened in team sports.
Speaker 11: How great was the whole bunch.
Speaker 9: But when we walked into an arena for those games,
Speaker 9: or sometimes we were in the studio together and we
Speaker 9: have a triple header, a triple header of playoff games
Speaker 9: on a Saturday, your Sunday, and.
Speaker 2: We told fun early round, early.
Speaker 11: Round playoff games, not just the finals, in prime time
Speaker 11: on the Netflork. And you know when you mentioned like
Speaker 11: must see Thursdays. It wasn't just the games.
Speaker 9: The promos are on during Seinfeld, they're on during Letterman
Speaker 9: and Carson and brons whose cast.
Speaker 11: It's just in the water supply in a way that
Speaker 11: it isn't anymore.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite, speaking of promos all time things
Speaker 1: that you did is so one of the hugest movies
Speaker 1: box office movies, was.
Speaker 2: The original Jurassic Park.
Speaker 18: And you said, you know where I'm going, right, So
Speaker 18: you said, you said, do we have something special coming up?
Speaker 2: You bet Jurassic Right.
Speaker 9: We ran down the whole lineup which had the NBA
Speaker 9: playoff games, and then in prime time Jurassic Park is
Speaker 9: one of them.
Speaker 11: And so I'm like, is it a big day and
Speaker 11: night at NBC? You bet Jurassic Everybody, it was like,
Speaker 11: my god, did you say that?
Speaker 2: I know that was Edgy back then, Bob.
Speaker 4: Everybody.
Speaker 12: John, you have been all over the place on this
Speaker 12: next team without Patrick Ewing. On Christmas you said they're
Speaker 12: not going to make the playoffs, and then a week
Speaker 12: ago you said they're playing great team basketball, which is it?
Speaker 16: Well, I'm a New York about heart. That means I'm
Speaker 16: an overreactionary, right, so I'm gonna go away ever to
Speaker 16: win Shakespeare.
Speaker 1: Here's another one of my former analysts, John Spider Sally.
Speaker 16: David gave me a shot. David Stern, God rest his soul,
Speaker 16: gave me a shot. And everything you can possibly do wrong,
Speaker 16: I did wrong. And the colors I was wearing, the
Speaker 16: suits I was wearing. You know, It's just it was
Speaker 16: I was showing you what not to do, so I think,
Speaker 16: and then when guys came out doing the same thing,
Speaker 16: I was like, oh my God, like what I.
Speaker 2: Mean, what do you feel?
Speaker 1: So you replaced Julia serving as a studio analyst, and
Speaker 1: you wanted to quit basketball, you wanted to go You
Speaker 1: have this grand plan, right. David start was so intimately
Speaker 1: involved in every segment of what happened on TV.
Speaker 2: Yes, he would haul us.
Speaker 1: Into his office and talk about what features are you running?
Speaker 1: You know, how are you covering this? Here's what I
Speaker 1: think about what happened here. So was this a discussion
Speaker 1: between you and him initially that you were like, hey, Commissioner,
Speaker 1: this is what I want to do.
Speaker 16: You guys had auditioned certain people, and I remember my
Speaker 16: agent at the time, John Ferreda. He was like, do
Speaker 16: you want to do this, and I was like yes,
Speaker 16: and he was like, well, you got an audition.
Speaker 4: I was like cool.
Speaker 16: I'm sitting there and I'm thinking, Bill Walton can do this.
Speaker 4: I can do this.
Speaker 16: Peter Vessi is right there. I've been reading him and
Speaker 16: writing it forever, like he's a New Yorker and to
Speaker 16: get in there and do something. Because doctor j is very.
Speaker 1: Control measured, very very measured, and he was very He
Speaker 1: had a very kind of elegant way of doing things.
Speaker 2: He didn't want to make anybody mad.
Speaker 4: I like that.
Speaker 5: Now he'll tell you what he thinks now.
Speaker 16: But back then he realized, well, I realized I wasn't
Speaker 16: trying to be a player of apologists, but I also
Speaker 16: understood the mentality of trying to be civil or human
Speaker 16: and also be a superhuman by being a professional basketball player.
Speaker 16: When you got a coach yelling at you and you
Speaker 16: do something wrong, you deserve to be yelled at, even
Speaker 16: if you're a superstar. I know Bill Amber was kind
Speaker 16: of sensitive, but he knew when he did things wrong,
Speaker 16: and Grant playing forty five minutes and being that kind
Speaker 16: of star, he has to be bulletproof. He has to
Speaker 16: let it, you know, just roll off. So I knew
Speaker 16: the difference. I knew it was hard to do, and
Speaker 16: I knew it was needed. And I walked in and
Speaker 16: I David was like, you can say this and this
Speaker 16: and this, but don't ever do it this way, this
Speaker 16: way and this way. And he was building the brand.
Speaker 16: I had to remember since nineteen eighty four, he's been
Speaker 16: building this brand to what it is.
Speaker 1: The NBA on NBC provided a perfect opportunity for players
Speaker 1: to get into the broadcast business. For me, it was
Speaker 1: also a chance to work closely with people who knew
Speaker 1: my father, like Doctor j and Peter VESSI points and
Speaker 1: just two rebounds and eight minutes of plays and early
Speaker 1: foul trouble, just like he was in Game four.
Speaker 13: Peter, the way I read his game plan, hatter is
Speaker 13: he's just determined to make it.
Speaker 1: Peter Vessie would literally sit around and tell us all
Speaker 1: these war stories from back in the day, and he
Speaker 1: would also, it's a good thing you have a good
Speaker 1: sense of humor, because Peter would always try to crack
Speaker 1: jokes on the air, and he has a very specific
Speaker 1: sense of humor, you know, so luckily, you, being you,
Speaker 1: you would always laugh and make it work.
Speaker 14: Which was I I love best, right and the thing
Speaker 14: that I used to always loved, like like he could
Speaker 14: never say your name right.
Speaker 11: Remember it was always Hannah, that's right.
Speaker 2: He called me Hannah with this accent Hannah, and you
Speaker 2: used to think that was hysterical.
Speaker 4: And he was trying so hard to.
Speaker 11: Like say your name right.
Speaker 14: He was like, and Hannah.
Speaker 13: Every time.
Speaker 14: A great times.
Speaker 11: That was a great time.
Speaker 1: NBC had a huge opportunity with the Barcelona Olympics, able
Speaker 1: to lean fully into the superstar power of the Dream
Speaker 1: Team and the Jordan years, culminating in the Bulls sixth title.
Speaker 9: Seventeen seconds from gage seven or from Championship number.
Speaker 10: Six Michael against Russell twelve seconds eleven Chen Jordana.
Speaker 13: Dry thanks yes.
Speaker 10: The scores for balls lead eighty seven eighty six were
Speaker 10: five at two.
Speaker 9: Cats game six in ninety eight in Salt Lake City.
Speaker 9: It's still the highest rated NBA game ever. You couldn't
Speaker 9: ask for more drama than that. But almost forgotten. Early
Speaker 9: in the game there was no replay. Then Howard Eisley
Speaker 9: hit a three for Utah that beat the shot clock
Speaker 9: and was waved off. Would have been reversed easily today.
Speaker 11: The second half.
Speaker 9: Ron Harper hits two that didn't beat the shot clock,
Speaker 9: and they allowed it. That's a five point swing. Now
Speaker 9: the game ends. You couldn't script it any better. We're
Speaker 9: all celebrating it for thegetable.
Speaker 2: You knew you were witnessing history.
Speaker 9: Yes, yes, I hope that we did a good job
Speaker 9: document And then David is in my ear and I know,
Speaker 9: now this is coming from Dick mention Issley and harping.
Speaker 11: And then you know, oh, Dick, long enough, I knew
Speaker 11: what he was thinking. Damn it.
Speaker 9: I don't care about Jordan's drama. If those two shots
Speaker 9: aren't reversed. We're playing a Game seven on Wednesday to
Speaker 9: an even bigger rating.
Speaker 2: A game seven.
Speaker 9: The only guy outside of Jazz fans that isn't happy
Speaker 9: about this. I figured the whole thing out in a
Speaker 9: practice of a second. I figured the whole thing out.
Speaker 9: So I take a beat and I say something like
Speaker 9: when a series in a game is this quose? There
Speaker 9: are so many things to look back on during the offseason,
Speaker 9: but the Jazz, for sure, we'll think about the Isley
Speaker 9: three that was disallowed and the harp or two that
Speaker 9: was allowed that might have.
Speaker 11: Changed the outcome of this game and set us to
Speaker 11: a game seven next day.
Speaker 9: In the New York Times, Richard Sandomir, why is Bob
Speaker 9: Costas talking about that?
Speaker 11: Well, the bulls are pumping each other and flipping each
Speaker 11: other on the back. I'll tell you why, because my
Speaker 11: woff wanted to be.
Speaker 1: At the time, NBA Entertainment was documenting every minute, much
Speaker 1: of which would be used on their flagship show, NBA
Speaker 1: Inside Stuff.
Speaker 15: Now on NBA Inside Stuff. As he makes the move
Speaker 15: to Golden State, Ronnie Ceygele's Loving is New City had
Speaker 15: his new teammates.
Speaker 5: Those guys are so good.
Speaker 19: It's scaring.
Speaker 4: It's really scary.
Speaker 15: And it's high noon in Dallas. As a cowboy named
Speaker 15: Jason arrives in the wild West, it is a new kid.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how did you come up with the name?
Speaker 1: I know, like you filmed a pilot in nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: nine and James Brown he was the host and it
Speaker 1: didn't have a name at the time. How did you
Speaker 1: guys come up with Inside Stuff?
Speaker 4: There's a lot of revisionist history on this one. I
Speaker 4: bet them. Yeah, we all really sat in rooms and
Speaker 4: went over this said, you know, we wanted this to
Speaker 4: be something inside and then I think it was either
Speaker 4: myself or Greg or somebody throughout the word. You know,
Speaker 4: there's a lot of stuff here, and we were kind
Speaker 4: of like inside stuff, insides, and all of a sudden
Speaker 4: we started saying it and then that's the inside stuff
Speaker 4: would be the tail end of the promos. And we said,
Speaker 4: we think this can work, and we went to David
Speaker 4: and we went to Dick and they kind of looked
Speaker 4: at us and said, all right, you guys think so.
Speaker 4: Obviously if it if it worked great for everyone. If
Speaker 4: it didn't, Greg and I probably would be looking for work.
Speaker 4: But we just kind of like ran with it.
Speaker 7: Hi, everyone, I'm a little bit man, I'm a mad shod.
Speaker 7: We were addressed like because earlier this morning we had
Speaker 7: an appearance where we sang Michael rollebot ashore to some
Speaker 7: children that we did the show. Now today I'll catch
Speaker 7: up with Ronnie Slackly, a guy who's been all over
Speaker 7: the world vacations.
Speaker 1: The show was hosted for sixteen years by a Maud Rashod,
Speaker 1: half of those with my longtime friend will Obey, who
Speaker 1: auditioned for the role with no TV experience. Is it
Speaker 1: true that preparing for your interview, did you read like
Speaker 1: a year's worth of Sports Illustrated.
Speaker 2: Yes, I did.
Speaker 20: I did, because you know what, back then, we had
Speaker 20: these things called magazine, right, that was our bible pages
Speaker 20: of them.
Speaker 2: You held them in your hands, you know.
Speaker 20: I approached the show as a fan. I didn't pretend
Speaker 20: to be anything other than that. But I knew that
Speaker 20: I had to go to the NBA and be interviewed
Speaker 20: by the NBA. And so I went to the New
Speaker 20: York Public Library and read, literally read through a year's
Speaker 20: worth of back issues of Sports Illustrated, just the basketball sections.
Speaker 2: That is classic. That is exactly like something I would do. Exactly.
Speaker 2: Do you remember your interview and did you have to
Speaker 2: talk to David Stern Commissioner Stern before taking the job, Like.
Speaker 13: What was that? Like? I did?
Speaker 20: My final interview, final round interview was with Commissioner David
Speaker 20: Stern and his deputy at the time, Gary Bettman, who
Speaker 20: was now NHI Commissioner. And I thought it was sort
Speaker 20: of interesting that these two highest ranking officials who were
Speaker 20: lawyers were interviewing the TV person. I thought it was
Speaker 20: a little unusual, but still, how cool is that to
Speaker 20: go meet with Commissioner Stern and now commissioner Betman, super
Speaker 20: cool experience, and we have this interview and I'll never
Speaker 20: forget David saying to me, you know, we have these
Speaker 20: two women both okay on television, but you have an MBA,
Speaker 20: so we're going to I think, go with you because
Speaker 20: if the TV gig doesn't work out, we'll find a
Speaker 20: spot for you in the marketing department.
Speaker 2: That's fascinating.
Speaker 1: Inside stuff was part of the NBA's push to draw
Speaker 1: young kids and women to the sport of basketball.
Speaker 20: I paid a visit to Michael's Golf Center to check
Speaker 20: out the tournament.
Speaker 5: He held a loose kids.
Speaker 20: Well, I give him some lessons.
Speaker 2: Actually think he is trying.
Speaker 20: To promote golf among young people since many of them
Speaker 20: have never had a chance to discover the game.
Speaker 2: I'm not being able to go for my favorite.
Speaker 1: But back then, there were only two women covering the
Speaker 1: league on a national basis, and we sort of looked alike.
Speaker 1: Everyone used to call me Willow and pull Willow. Hannah,
Speaker 1: you're being very you're being very circumspect.
Speaker 2: As you know. The way I used to describe it
Speaker 2: is two.
Speaker 20: Tall, skinny, white girls with banks covering the NBA. You
Speaker 20: were interchangeable interchangeable in the minds of something.
Speaker 1: Hilarious, because to this day I always have people hit
Speaker 1: me up on X or Instagram or whatever and they're like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I loved you so much on Inside Stuff,
Speaker 1: you were so great.
Speaker 20: Do you ever have people to know all the time
Speaker 20: all the time, some of them with names that everybody
Speaker 20: would recognize, I won't out them.
Speaker 2: It's really funny.
Speaker 1: I actually consider that a great compliment to be confused
Speaker 1: with you and I am just going to ride. So
Speaker 1: Inside Stuff was the brainchild of something that doesn't exist
Speaker 1: really anymore in terms of making content, but it was
Speaker 1: NBA entertainment, and it was really derivative of David Stearn's
Speaker 1: idea of how to market the league. Since you were
Speaker 1: there from the beginning, can you take us through the
Speaker 1: inception of that show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I.
Speaker 20: Arrived in year two, and really the idea of the
Speaker 20: show was, you know, in the way that I would
Speaker 20: describe it now, to open the aperture on what it
Speaker 20: means to be an NBA fan. It was a show
Speaker 20: designed for all fans, not just hardcore sports lovers, and I,
Speaker 20: as a fan, was paired with a mad Rashad former
Speaker 20: athlete sportscaster to really again broaden this perspective of what
Speaker 20: it meant to be a fan, and the focus was
Speaker 20: on the players and the human experience of those players.
Speaker 20: It was really and it's impossible to even like when
Speaker 20: we think of it from today's vantage point, it seems
Speaker 20: impossible to think that back then there really wasn't a
Speaker 20: program that was designed to take you into the lives
Speaker 20: of the players off the court, to understand who they
Speaker 20: were as people, what motivated them, how they grew up,
Speaker 20: where they went to school, what their hobbies were, what
Speaker 20: they cared about off the court. And that's what was
Speaker 20: so revolutionary about it, And I think that's what was
Speaker 20: what is so foundational to the changes that we're seeing
Speaker 20: in the way players present themselves, the way players communicate
Speaker 20: directly with their audiences and their fans.
Speaker 11: Today.
Speaker 2: Here's Don Spurling.
Speaker 4: We did the testing. The chemistry was great between her
Speaker 4: and between her and a mod Hello, everybody, I'm will
Speaker 4: obey and I am very upset that feeling it's taken
Speaker 4: shat to me.
Speaker 7: I usual would challenge right here now, me and him
Speaker 7: one on one, bringing his brother Richie, because he'll need
Speaker 7: him when he plays me. Because he doesn't remember that.
Speaker 20: Shot and he doesn't know they call you ironbod shot.
Speaker 7: That's right because of the shape. I mean I almost
Speaker 7: forgot that because.
Speaker 4: It just seemed to It really seemed to work. And
Speaker 4: I do want to say something about a MOD. People
Speaker 4: now associate him with basketball. At the time when we
Speaker 4: hired a MOD, people were like, isn't he a foot?
Speaker 4: He's a foot and he's a great football player, exactly unbelievable. Yeah,
Speaker 4: isn't Ay a football player? He does football? He does football. Mod.
Speaker 4: You know, when he hits that camera, it's magic, okay,
Speaker 4: And the audience and interfacing with kids. Once once we
Speaker 4: talked to a MOD, we knew he was the guy.
Speaker 4: And then he became kind of the face and voice
Speaker 4: of you know, entertainment basketball from there.
Speaker 1: On it And he was very close to Michael Jordan
Speaker 1: and so that didn't hurt. You know, Michael trusted a
Speaker 1: MOD and he would always talk to a MOD, and
Speaker 1: a MOD would cover the Eastern Conference and I would
Speaker 1: cover the Western Conference. But that was you know, I
Speaker 1: think besides the mods, like you said, incredible presence and
Speaker 1: just personality. It also so happened that he had a
Speaker 1: great relationship with the preeminent player of the day.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was really helpful. I will tell you something.
Speaker 4: We didn't totally focus The great thing about Insight stuff.
Speaker 4: We were able to dig into the second and third
Speaker 4: tier players. Oh yeah, I'd showed that they have police
Speaker 4: because you didn't really need to promote Michael. He's facing
Speaker 4: Nike and Lada Reide and all the other all his
Speaker 4: other partners were doing a pretty good job at that.
Speaker 4: So yes, of course we featured Michael whenever we could,
Speaker 4: but we really went after, like, you know a lot
Speaker 4: of those you know, Tim Hardaway and you know and
Speaker 4: Charles Barkley and yeah, guys, we're ready made for insight off,
Speaker 4: let's face it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, and you had a lot of signature segments.
Speaker 1: You had rewind right, so that recap the games that
Speaker 1: have been played that week, including bloopers. You had the
Speaker 1: jam session, so you set the highlight to music and
Speaker 1: longer features which really followed players off the court, again,
Speaker 1: something that hadn't been done maybe outside of the Olympics.
Speaker 1: Right when we got to know athletes as people. This
Speaker 1: really sort of borrowed that that Olympic philosophy. How did
Speaker 1: you come up with the segments, and some of them
Speaker 1: were addressed very serious issues.
Speaker 4: Most of them were liked. But obviously, when you know,
Speaker 4: it was our first year of the show when Magic
Speaker 4: had to retire and so forth, and we covered that,
Speaker 4: you know, and followed that as the story progressed.
Speaker 19: Because of.
Speaker 14: HIV buyers that I have attained, I will have to
Speaker 14: retire from the Lakers today.
Speaker 4: There was no you know, there was no nothing to
Speaker 4: sweeten up there because at the time, as you as
Speaker 4: everybody well remembers, people thought AIDS was a death set.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it was terrifying, terrifying.
Speaker 4: Terrifying, and and the NBA family was shook and the
Speaker 4: world shook. But obviously Magic being Magic and every and
Speaker 4: the story everybody knows he's you know, he's obviously gotten
Speaker 4: through all that and and and going beyond that. But
Speaker 4: the going to the other side, like for instance, where
Speaker 4: Shack was drafted, I will tell you something to me
Speaker 4: the most memorable memorable part of NBA in side stuff.
Speaker 4: Before Shaq ever played an NBA game, we did a
Speaker 4: feature with him. Okay, he was drafted by Orlando. We
Speaker 4: went to this he was at this gym and he
Speaker 4: was practicing at a Mod and Shaq are playing one
Speaker 4: on one.
Speaker 7: Right, I'm gonna show you what it's gonna be like
Speaker 7: in the NBA. Are you ready?
Speaker 9: Huh?
Speaker 4: And a Mod goes out and he hits the shot
Speaker 4: from way out and Shack goes really so he says,
Speaker 4: come in here, come in here, and Shaq like backs
Speaker 4: the Mod down. What's he gonna do? Right? And he
Speaker 4: goes up in dunks and he pulls the basketball the
Speaker 4: basketball hoop and the glass shatters falls on his best
Speaker 4: We're all there like this, Oh no, we just named
Speaker 4: the number one draft pick. We're all getting fired tomorrow.
Speaker 4: And this is That's what Shack all of a sudden,
Speaker 4: he just kind of like gets up, shake, smiles. Amad
Speaker 4: comes over, leans over and says, is that all you got?
Speaker 11: Is that all you got?
Speaker 4: And that became more open to that whole season, and
Speaker 4: it came and it became a video that we played
Speaker 4: over and over again. I would say it's one of
Speaker 4: the first viral videos that you know that was in sports.
Speaker 1: Inside Stuff helped change the way sports were covered.
Speaker 20: First of all, the team at Inside Stuff, the producers
Speaker 20: were insanely talented. Amad and I were front and center.
Speaker 20: But that production team was made up of incredibly talented shooter, editors, writers,
Speaker 20: thinkers who also shared a love of the game and
Speaker 20: a love of the sport, but a real appreciation of
Speaker 20: the people that they were covering. And I honestly think
Speaker 20: that was so foundational. And they brought the spirit of
Speaker 20: fun to the storytelling. Not that the stories weren't serious often,
Speaker 20: and not that we didn't get into often, you know,
Speaker 20: the challenges and the struggles that you know players encountered
Speaker 20: in their lives, because that's important, But I think this
Speaker 20: sense of joy, the sense of fun, really shaped the
Speaker 20: storytelling that we did.
Speaker 1: A part of that foundation is the league taking on
Speaker 1: social issues head on. David Stern's support of Magic Johnson
Speaker 1: after he announced he was HIV positive set the tone
Speaker 1: at the highest level, and Adam Silver has continued that legacy.
Speaker 20: He's taken the legacy that David built and left to
Speaker 20: him and made it his own and advanced it in
Speaker 20: truly significant ways, right both in terms of league operations,
Speaker 20: in league business and league cultures. It is Adam's league,
Speaker 20: but you know, David and his leadership in the league
Speaker 20: provided kind of cultural guidance at some very important moments
Speaker 20: and I think specifically of Magic Johnson announcing that he
Speaker 20: was HIV positive in the fall of nineteen ninety one,
Speaker 20: which was my literally first weekend on the job of
Speaker 20: the show. I mean, I'd worked there for the summer,
Speaker 20: but it was our very first show and this news broke.
Speaker 20: But what was so interesting to me was the way
Speaker 20: in which David and his team determined they were going
Speaker 20: to follow the science, and they brought in the very
Speaker 20: best AIDS researchers, doctor David Hoe among them to really
Speaker 20: help guide first the League but secondly like the American
Speaker 20: public through the realities of what it meant at that
Speaker 20: moment to be HIV positive, using science and facts to
Speaker 20: deepen our unders standing and erased stigma, and for me
Speaker 20: that that is one of the most powerful kind of
Speaker 20: cultural touchstones in the in the legacy of the League,
Speaker 20: and by the way they did the same thing through COVID.
Speaker 19: There were three themes we focused on. Number one, of course,
Speaker 19: was can we bring the NBA back? Number two was
Speaker 19: the health and safety of everyone involved, And then as
Speaker 19: events unfolded in the country, social justice became one of
Speaker 19: those themes as well, and.
Speaker 20: So just interesting and reflective of the of the power
Speaker 20: of sports, I think, and the power of a sport
Speaker 20: run exceedingly well as the NBA is to really not
Speaker 20: just reflect culture, but to shape it.
Speaker 11: That's a moment we got to keep pushing forward.
Speaker 1: Looking back, NBA entertainment, namely Inside Stuff, created a model
Speaker 1: for tackling social issues, and other broadcasters ran with it. Today,
Speaker 1: players are visible on all platforms. We care about their lives,
Speaker 1: their personalities, their passions, and their opinions.
Speaker 4: Let us be perfectly clear, Black lives matter.
Speaker 20: The kind of humbling responsibility of telling the stories of
Speaker 20: these players, I mean, that's a responsibility that somebody is
Speaker 20: trusting you, sitting down with you, opening up their home
Speaker 20: to you, opening up their heart to you. That's a
Speaker 20: responsibility that I always took incredibly seriously, regardless of how
Speaker 20: much fun we were having. And the way I think
Speaker 20: I demonstrated that is I didn't come to this sport
Speaker 20: as an expert. I had to study all the time,
Speaker 20: and I I know that when you go into a
Speaker 20: situation where trust is essential, and particularly when somebody doesn't
Speaker 20: know you that well, doesn't have a history with you,
Speaker 20: coming in really prepared demonstrates your respect.
Speaker 1: I've not only found that preparedness is essential to what
Speaker 1: you're saying, to storytelling, to respect for your subject and
Speaker 1: your audience.
Speaker 2: But that the more prepared you are, the more comfortable
Speaker 2: you are.
Speaker 20: Yeah, I wonder how gendered that is.
Speaker 2: It must be. What do you think?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 20: I think it is for sure. I think there is
Speaker 20: a tendency for women to say, oh, I'm not prepared
Speaker 20: to do that. Oh I've never done that. Oh boy,
Speaker 20: and then to prepare and maybe even over prepare in
Speaker 20: order to get ready.
Speaker 1: I think there's a notion and I think you know, obviously,
Speaker 1: you and I were really in the national spotlight as
Speaker 1: the two women who are covering the NBA, and there's
Speaker 1: a fear of failure or being criticized, and maybe some
Speaker 1: of the over preparedness can come from that. But there's
Speaker 1: also this huge feeling of responsibility that if you don't
Speaker 1: do it and you're not successful, that down the road
Speaker 1: another woman might not get that opportunity. So that's a
Speaker 1: pressure that I've always felt. I'm wondering if you felt
Speaker 1: that absolutely.
Speaker 20: I mean, I suspect that that's somewhat universal for women
Speaker 20: who were the first or even the seconds or thirds,
Speaker 20: you know, going in going into spaces, and you know,
Speaker 20: I'm very mindful of that when you and I kind
Speaker 20: of came of age in our careers when we were
Speaker 20: the first. But you know, in relative terms, we are
Speaker 20: women of privilege, right, we are white women of privilege,
Speaker 20: and there are women following in our footsteps who today
Speaker 20: have to fight those fights, you know, have to fight
Speaker 20: those fights to be accepted, have to fight those fights
Speaker 20: for opportunity. And it makes me very mindful of ways
Speaker 20: in which we can all work much more effectively having
Speaker 20: done it to open doors, to open doors for others,
Speaker 20: and to make sure that the opportunity is universal.
Speaker 1: I began this series by talking about the challenges of
Speaker 1: covering this sport and others as a woman, and the
Speaker 1: fact that growing up around basketball gave me the strength
Speaker 1: and desire to follow a path that was not traditional
Speaker 1: for women at the time. Along with my dad, former
Speaker 1: ABA commissioner Mike Storren, the NBA's commissioner. Stern was a
Speaker 1: sounding board for me throughout my career. I miss him,
Speaker 1: me too, me too. I miss him and would see
Speaker 1: him every year.
Speaker 20: We would always go to a conference every year in
Speaker 20: the summer together, so I would get you know, my
Speaker 20: NBA career is long over. I would always get a
Speaker 20: check in with him, And famously one day we were
Speaker 20: I was with my son, who was a toddler at
Speaker 20: the time, and we were near a pond, and from
Speaker 20: across the other side, I hear, hello, watch.
Speaker 21: That child, because he was worried that that toddler was
Speaker 21: too close to the pond. And people said to me, oh,
Speaker 21: is that your husband? And I said, uh no, Not
Speaker 21: only is.
Speaker 20: That not my husband nor this child's father, but he's
Speaker 20: not even my boss anymore.
Speaker 2: He hasn't been my boss in decades. He had no
Speaker 2: problem telling you what to do, right, worrying about.
Speaker 20: Worrying about you know, that child, that child I was
Speaker 20: going to, let you know, dive headfirst into the duck pond.
Speaker 20: And it was just it was so David, because like
Speaker 20: David was right there alongside you. Yeah, I just jump
Speaker 20: right in the mix, in the mix, which I so
Speaker 20: love about him, and I miss I really miss him.
Speaker 2: Here's my dad, Mike Storn.
Speaker 6: When I think about David Stern and his legacy, I
Speaker 6: think about the fact that always in the back of
Speaker 6: David's mind is the development and the creation of the
Speaker 6: history of basketball and what that means as a commissioner,
Speaker 6: your background and the things that you do are always
Speaker 6: done under the theory of what can I do that
Speaker 6: is in the best interests of the league, or in
Speaker 6: David's case, what can I do that is singularly in
Speaker 6: the best interests of basketball. As I look at his legacy,
Speaker 6: I think the highest compliment that I can pay to
Speaker 6: David is that he always did everything in the best
Speaker 6: interests of basketball. He never deterred from making those kinds
Speaker 6: of decisions.
Speaker 1: It's crazy how my life has come full circle from
Speaker 1: a little girl the city courtside to becoming the first
Speaker 1: woman to solo host a major sports league on television.
Speaker 1: The NBA, ABA and WNBA are truly part of my DNA,
Speaker 1: and I'd like to thank all the guests and storytellers
Speaker 1: who took us along on this great journey. This has
Speaker 1: been NBA DNA with me Hannah Storm. Thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: NBA DNA with Hannah Storm is a production of iHeart Podcasts,
Speaker 1: the NBA and Brainstorm and Productions. The show is written
Speaker 1: and executive produced by me Hannah Storm, along with Julia
Speaker 1: Weaver and Alex French. Our lead producer and showrunner is
Speaker 1: Julia Weaver. Our senior producers are Peter Kouder, Alex French,
Speaker 1: and Brandon Reese. Editing and sound design by Kurt Garrin
Speaker 1: and Julie Weaver. The show's executive producers are Carmen Belmont,
Speaker 1: Jason English, Sewan Ttone, Steve Weintraup, and Jason Weikelt.