1
00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:03,440
Speaker 1: We interrupt your usual stream of DP show content to

2
00:00:03,480 --> 00:00:06,480
Speaker 1: bring you a special episode of a new podcast on

3
00:00:06,519 --> 00:00:10,960
Speaker 1: the Dan Patrick Show Network. It's called Westward. Westward chronicles

4
00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:13,160
Speaker 1: the history of basketball in the NBA and how the

5
00:00:13,240 --> 00:00:16,360
Speaker 1: city of Los Angeles not only saved the fledgling league

6
00:00:16,360 --> 00:00:19,639
Speaker 1: by bringing the Lakers from Minneapolis, but gave birth to

7
00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:24,000
Speaker 1: the modern NBA. With showtime told through the lens of

8
00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:26,799
Speaker 1: the great Cherry West, who helped build the dynasty of

9
00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:30,360
Speaker 1: the Lakers. Westward now follows the former Hall of Famer

10
00:00:30,480 --> 00:00:33,280
Speaker 1: as he attempts to build a dynasty with LA's other

11
00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:38,400
Speaker 1: NBA team, the Clippers. Narrators are Keith David, Tim Livingston,

12
00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:45,200
Speaker 1: Bobby Glanton Smith. I hope you enjoy Hi. I'm sports

13
00:00:45,280 --> 00:00:50,960
Speaker 1: journalist Tim Livingston and I'm Bobby Glanton Smith. Westward is

14
00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:53,800
Speaker 1: a podcast about the birth of professional basketball in Los

15
00:00:53,880 --> 00:00:56,360
Speaker 1: Angeles and how the Lakers and Clippers have become one

16
00:00:56,360 --> 00:01:00,520
Speaker 1: of the most compelling and complicated rivalries in sports. It's

17
00:01:00,520 --> 00:01:02,600
Speaker 1: sold through the man who has been at the center above,

18
00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:07,880
Speaker 1: the great Jerry West. But Westward is also the story

19
00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:11,040
Speaker 1: of why the city of Los Angeles has had such

20
00:01:11,080 --> 00:01:15,240
Speaker 1: an effect on the game and more importantly its influence

21
00:01:15,319 --> 00:01:19,520
Speaker 1: on American culture, from Elgin Baylor to Kobe, from the

22
00:01:19,560 --> 00:01:26,920
Speaker 1: Buffalo Braves to the La Clippers. This is Westward. Westward

23
00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:29,760
Speaker 1: is the production of the Dan Patrick podcast network and

24
00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:43,120
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio episode one Jerry West The Phantom Threat. American culture

25
00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:47,160
Speaker 1: has always been inextricably linked to the sports it has loved,

26
00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:52,240
Speaker 1: and for over a century, the sported loved most was baseball.

27
00:02:05,440 --> 00:02:09,080
Speaker 1: Filled with sentimentality and passed down from fathers to sons,

28
00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:16,080
Speaker 1: the game represented America's heart. Today, I consider myself the

29
00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:21,640
Speaker 1: luckiest man on the face. If baseball represented the birth

30
00:02:21,639 --> 00:02:29,400
Speaker 1: of the American sport, the game of football was its baptism.

31
00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:33,040
Speaker 1: Although team oriented, the game was about power, and it

32
00:02:33,160 --> 00:02:36,200
Speaker 1: was violent. Baseball may have been in our blood, but

33
00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:38,920
Speaker 1: it was in the game of football where Americans found

34
00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:42,640
Speaker 1: their spirit. However, by the end of the twentieth century,

35
00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:47,239
Speaker 1: another American sport would come of age. Unlike the two

36
00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:51,640
Speaker 1: other major sports, which were firmly rooted in East Coast acculturation,

37
00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:56,119
Speaker 1: rich in American myth and lord, the game of basketball

38
00:02:56,720 --> 00:03:01,480
Speaker 1: has always been regional. New York basketball is different than

39
00:03:01,560 --> 00:03:05,520
Speaker 1: Indiana basketball. James Nasmith invented the game in Massachusetts, but

40
00:03:05,639 --> 00:03:08,600
Speaker 1: don't tell that to Kansas. For Kentucky, every region has

41
00:03:08,600 --> 00:03:11,160
Speaker 1: its own way of playing, its own quirks, it's own style,

42
00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:14,160
Speaker 1: and that's what makes the game great. No other sport

43
00:03:14,440 --> 00:03:17,880
Speaker 1: allows for that kind of expression. Basketball games can resewn,

44
00:03:17,960 --> 00:03:21,360
Speaker 1: ballet or assemble. Boxing just depends on where the game's

45
00:03:21,360 --> 00:03:31,320
Speaker 1: taking place. No longer regional, the game of basketball now

46
00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:35,520
Speaker 1: belongs to the world, and right now the center of

47
00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:39,320
Speaker 1: the basketball world is in downtown Los Angeles, where a

48
00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:43,240
Speaker 1: battle for supremacy is taking place between the two NBA

49
00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:49,120
Speaker 1: teams that call this home. As franchises go, the two

50
00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:52,360
Speaker 1: Los Angeles teams could not be more different. One has

51
00:03:52,360 --> 00:03:56,760
Speaker 1: won the NBA's Western Conference thirty times, taken home sixteen

52
00:03:56,800 --> 00:04:00,480
Speaker 1: World Championships, posted twenty seven Hall of Famers, and has

53
00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:06,280
Speaker 1: retired nine jersey numbers. The other is the Los Angeles Clippers.

54
00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:10,880
Speaker 1: The Clippers could not only be the worst franchise and

55
00:04:10,960 --> 00:04:14,920
Speaker 1: professional basketball, but in all professional sports. It is an

56
00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:18,680
Speaker 1: organization whose former owner had to be forcibly removed and

57
00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:22,920
Speaker 1: boasts the league's all time lowest winning percentage. The Clippers

58
00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:25,920
Speaker 1: have never been to a Western Conference final, have never

59
00:04:25,960 --> 00:04:28,800
Speaker 1: had a Hall of Fame player, nor have ever retired

60
00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:31,839
Speaker 1: a former player's number. But for the first time in

61
00:04:31,880 --> 00:04:36,360
Speaker 1: the organization's history, AILA's other team isn't showing a heart meat,

62
00:04:36,839 --> 00:04:40,240
Speaker 1: It's showing a clenched fist. Because if the Staples Center

63
00:04:40,279 --> 00:04:43,919
Speaker 1: represents the center of the basketball world, then the center

64
00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:46,440
Speaker 1: of that center is the man who helped build the

65
00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:50,040
Speaker 1: dynasty of one and is now responsible for building the

66
00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:57,480
Speaker 1: one to topple it. Jerome Allan West, thank whing, you're

67
00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:00,280
Speaker 1: one more sound by just for contact for the dance,

68
00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:02,039
Speaker 1: Can you just say my name is Jerry West and

69
00:05:02,160 --> 00:05:03,840
Speaker 1: um and that's up to you, hope you don't want

70
00:05:03,839 --> 00:05:07,359
Speaker 1: to describe yourself. My name is Jerry West, and just

71
00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:10,039
Speaker 1: describe yourself for the audience as quickly or as for

72
00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:17,719
Speaker 1: both of these you want describe myself. I'm an old motherfucker. Okay,

73
00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:21,040
Speaker 1: here's okay. I mean, I don't have to talk about myself. Guys,

74
00:05:21,080 --> 00:05:22,760
Speaker 1: I don't okay, you can just be your title for

75
00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:29,120
Speaker 1: the Clippers. I know we can't. You can't helps me anyway,

76
00:05:29,440 --> 00:05:35,520
Speaker 1: do you? Man? You Hi? I'm Jerry West, longtime basketball player,

77
00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:39,480
Speaker 1: long time executive, very proud of my association with the

78
00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:42,359
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Lakers for numerous years, and now I'm with

79
00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:45,680
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Clippers, working for Steve Baumber, who hopes

80
00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:52,080
Speaker 1: to change the landscape of basketball and Los Angeles. It's perfect, man,

81
00:05:52,279 --> 00:05:58,320
Speaker 1: that's a round quick. I'm not taking any fucking pictures

82
00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:03,840
Speaker 1: with you. Man. Well, obviously to me, I don't think

83
00:06:03,880 --> 00:06:06,800
Speaker 1: I'm the lakers favorite person anymore. I don't know why,

84
00:06:06,880 --> 00:06:11,120
Speaker 1: but I'm not. This is not about the Clippers unrooting

85
00:06:11,400 --> 00:06:16,040
Speaker 1: the Lakers from their pedestal. That will never happen. Historical

86
00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:20,839
Speaker 1: greatness of the Lakers for years has been remarkable, but

87
00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:24,719
Speaker 1: for seven straight years, the Clippers had the best team

88
00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:27,880
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. What I'm watching and I always try

89
00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:30,200
Speaker 1: to be objective, I don't try to because I like

90
00:06:30,400 --> 00:06:33,039
Speaker 1: one team better than the other. Clipper fans will never

91
00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:36,719
Speaker 1: be Laker fan, and Laker fans are never going to

92
00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:42,200
Speaker 1: be a Clipper fan. Jerry West loves basketball and it

93
00:06:42,279 --> 00:06:45,320
Speaker 1: has been the better part of his life for seventy years.

94
00:06:45,640 --> 00:06:49,320
Speaker 1: But the underlying and defining characteristic of that love, and

95
00:06:49,400 --> 00:06:53,120
Speaker 1: the singular driving force that he believes is the cornerstone

96
00:06:53,160 --> 00:06:58,599
Speaker 1: of every business, hobby, and pastime in Americana, is competition.

97
00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:02,279
Speaker 1: And this is a force that has possessed Jerry West

98
00:07:02,440 --> 00:07:07,120
Speaker 1: for his entire life. I fucking hate losing. I hate

99
00:07:07,160 --> 00:07:10,360
Speaker 1: giving end to people who think you're smarter than other people.

100
00:07:11,320 --> 00:07:14,440
Speaker 1: Life is about competition. The most competitive people played the

101
00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:16,520
Speaker 1: most competitive game. If you're not going to be a

102
00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:23,880
Speaker 1: competitive don't do it. As perceptions go, Jerry West isn't

103
00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:28,160
Speaker 1: your prototypical Los Angeleano. Born and raised in Canawa County,

104
00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:34,160
Speaker 1: West Virginia, He's straight laced, modestly dressed, and quiet. But

105
00:07:34,280 --> 00:07:36,440
Speaker 1: a closer look at the man and the city that

106
00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:40,640
Speaker 1: has adopted him reveals that his spirit and drive are

107
00:07:40,680 --> 00:07:43,679
Speaker 1: as much a part of Los Angeles as Hollywood itself.

108
00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:48,840
Speaker 1: Jerry West has always been enigmatic because of his background.

109
00:07:49,160 --> 00:07:54,280
Speaker 1: He was raised in an abusive household. Moreover, he's a

110
00:07:54,280 --> 00:07:59,320
Speaker 1: white dude who excelled at a black sport. He grew

111
00:07:59,400 --> 00:08:03,200
Speaker 1: up in the now. He lives in Los Angeles, and

112
00:08:03,320 --> 00:08:07,360
Speaker 1: in a way, LA is really a city for outsiders,

113
00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:11,480
Speaker 1: which is why he has been so revered and embraced

114
00:08:11,760 --> 00:08:14,880
Speaker 1: in the city of Angels. You know, I think in

115
00:08:14,920 --> 00:08:17,920
Speaker 1: my life and I can explain to you folks better,

116
00:08:19,080 --> 00:08:22,400
Speaker 1: I grew up like a dog, very much like a

117
00:08:22,440 --> 00:08:26,360
Speaker 1: lot of people I played with, you almost feel disenfranchise.

118
00:08:27,080 --> 00:08:30,440
Speaker 1: Self worth is always a big issue, a huge issue,

119
00:08:30,680 --> 00:08:33,400
Speaker 1: and you grew up feeling like, you know, fuck, I'm

120
00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:37,560
Speaker 1: gonna get hip today and whatever, I've done nothing wrong

121
00:08:38,120 --> 00:08:40,480
Speaker 1: and in your own home. A home is supposed to

122
00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:44,120
Speaker 1: be a place when you're growing up, a place where

123
00:08:44,240 --> 00:08:48,720
Speaker 1: you feel safe. You're hoping for some guidance and encouragement.

124
00:08:48,720 --> 00:08:51,480
Speaker 1: Where I never saw that in my life. Okay, so

125
00:08:51,640 --> 00:08:55,560
Speaker 1: I've been defying all my life. Probably have never changed.

126
00:08:57,640 --> 00:09:00,440
Speaker 1: Having spent the first forty years of his career as

127
00:09:00,440 --> 00:09:03,880
Speaker 1: a Laker and the last three as a Clipper, Jerry

128
00:09:03,920 --> 00:09:07,600
Speaker 1: West has become an icon for fans of both and

129
00:09:07,760 --> 00:09:11,480
Speaker 1: a personification of the phantom thread that runs through this

130
00:09:11,640 --> 00:09:15,880
Speaker 1: city and the sported loves, one that includes both the

131
00:09:15,920 --> 00:09:20,040
Speaker 1: old and the new, one that has managed to bind

132
00:09:20,200 --> 00:09:23,920
Speaker 1: both style and substance, and one that has weaved the

133
00:09:23,960 --> 00:09:27,720
Speaker 1: tapestry responsible for the seismic shift in sports and culture

134
00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:31,640
Speaker 1: from the East Coast to Los Angeles. I was born

135
00:09:31,679 --> 00:09:34,320
Speaker 1: in la in nineteen eighty six, at the height of

136
00:09:34,320 --> 00:09:37,719
Speaker 1: the Showtime era. This is a basketball town, but it's

137
00:09:37,720 --> 00:09:40,800
Speaker 1: not a basketball town without Jerry West. The Clippers and

138
00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:43,840
Speaker 1: Lakers played the same building, but they were never rivals.

139
00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:47,560
Speaker 1: The Lakers were the class the league. The Clippers were

140
00:09:47,559 --> 00:09:50,000
Speaker 1: a laughing stock. But now that Jerry West is with

141
00:09:50,120 --> 00:09:53,400
Speaker 1: the Clippers building a contender, not only has it become

142
00:09:53,400 --> 00:09:56,400
Speaker 1: a rivalry, now it's personal. And if you talk to

143
00:09:56,480 --> 00:09:59,760
Speaker 1: some fans, like comedian George Lopez, it's more than personal.

144
00:10:00,600 --> 00:10:03,280
Speaker 1: It's blood. It's almost like, you know, if you ever

145
00:10:03,320 --> 00:10:07,160
Speaker 1: have a stepbrother, he's not a full brother, he's your stepbrothers.

146
00:10:07,200 --> 00:10:09,800
Speaker 1: So when your mom's saying, like, you know, make peace

147
00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:13,120
Speaker 1: with your brother, you always remind us as stepbrothers, stepbrother

148
00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:15,880
Speaker 1: But you know, coming to Los Angeles and then coming

149
00:10:15,920 --> 00:10:21,600
Speaker 1: into Staples Center and covering our championship banners with posters

150
00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:26,000
Speaker 1: of their players, is it's unfathomable to me that we

151
00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:29,280
Speaker 1: would allow even that to happen because and no other

152
00:10:29,920 --> 00:10:33,360
Speaker 1: arena does that happen, And you know, in Hollywood, you

153
00:10:33,360 --> 00:10:35,560
Speaker 1: would figure. You know, these guys probably went there and said,

154
00:10:35,559 --> 00:10:37,559
Speaker 1: you know, when we're playing, you know, we don't want

155
00:10:37,559 --> 00:10:42,640
Speaker 1: to look up there and see sixteen banners and retired numbers,

156
00:10:43,400 --> 00:10:48,240
Speaker 1: and you know, I say, fucking play better. And Cherry West,

157
00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:51,480
Speaker 1: you know, being a Laker and being brilliant mind as

158
00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:54,200
Speaker 1: a general manager helped us in that, and I thought

159
00:10:54,240 --> 00:10:57,360
Speaker 1: that he should have stayed our general manager forever, almost

160
00:10:57,360 --> 00:10:59,920
Speaker 1: like you know, almost like being a Supreme Court justice.

161
00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:03,160
Speaker 1: You're in, man like you're in. Because he's put together

162
00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:07,480
Speaker 1: great teams everywhere that he's gone, and he's a fucking

163
00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:11,320
Speaker 1: with the Clippers. I will not go to a Clipper game.

164
00:11:11,840 --> 00:11:14,240
Speaker 1: I wouldn't go to if Jack Nicholson went to a

165
00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:16,240
Speaker 1: Clipper game, I would probably go to the highest point

166
00:11:16,240 --> 00:11:19,440
Speaker 1: of this house and jump off. While they have never

167
00:11:19,480 --> 00:11:22,640
Speaker 1: been rivals on the basketball court, the two teams presence

168
00:11:22,679 --> 00:11:25,640
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles has come to symbolize a deeper social

169
00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:29,120
Speaker 1: rift that has divided Los Angeleos since the Clippers arrived

170
00:11:29,160 --> 00:11:32,280
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty four. Hollywood writer an avid Clipper fan

171
00:11:32,400 --> 00:11:35,120
Speaker 1: Chris Lloyd has seen his work garner more Emmy's than

172
00:11:35,160 --> 00:11:37,920
Speaker 1: any writer in the history of television, and the Emmy

173
00:11:37,960 --> 00:11:42,120
Speaker 1: goes too Modern Family and Modern Family wins Best Comedy

174
00:11:42,160 --> 00:11:44,280
Speaker 1: for a fourth time in a row. But he's never

175
00:11:44,320 --> 00:11:48,200
Speaker 1: seen his favorite NBA team compete for a championship. Most

176
00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:50,520
Speaker 1: people who live in Los Angeles aren't from here, they're

177
00:11:50,559 --> 00:11:53,760
Speaker 1: from somewhere else. My family moved to California when I

178
00:11:53,840 --> 00:11:56,800
Speaker 1: was a teenager. I was lifelong basketball fan, grew up

179
00:11:56,800 --> 00:12:00,040
Speaker 1: a Knicks fan. I was a Laker fan in the

180
00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:05,680
Speaker 1: early mid seventies, even before showtime. Remember NBA Finals being

181
00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:08,959
Speaker 1: shown on tape delay. I mean, the NBA was not

182
00:12:09,160 --> 00:12:12,280
Speaker 1: at all the juggernaut it is today. But yeah, I

183
00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:14,839
Speaker 1: moved back East for a while, so right into adulthood,

184
00:12:14,880 --> 00:12:18,280
Speaker 1: I came to see the character of teams a little

185
00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:20,800
Speaker 1: bit more. I think, so you come here, you got

186
00:12:20,880 --> 00:12:22,280
Speaker 1: a choice of who you can be a fan. You

187
00:12:22,280 --> 00:12:23,400
Speaker 1: can be a fan of Lakers, you can be a

188
00:12:23,400 --> 00:12:25,360
Speaker 1: fan of the Clipperson. So if you're coming here and

189
00:12:25,400 --> 00:12:28,800
Speaker 1: you have a choice, to go with the dying canon

190
00:12:28,960 --> 00:12:32,360
Speaker 1: Jack Nicholson Laker girl, Like, no one would blame you.

191
00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:35,679
Speaker 1: Who would ever be a fan of the Clippers. They're terrible.

192
00:12:36,200 --> 00:12:38,480
Speaker 1: They're not just terrible every year they started, but they

193
00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:41,080
Speaker 1: come in with just a whiff of terrible. For the

194
00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:44,320
Speaker 1: prolific writer and creator, becoming a full time Clipper fan

195
00:12:44,679 --> 00:12:48,040
Speaker 1: was an evolution. It did for a while have seats

196
00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:52,040
Speaker 1: to both teams, and then I sort of gradually shed

197
00:12:52,080 --> 00:12:56,600
Speaker 1: my Laker affiliation. It became a full time Clipper fan

198
00:12:56,880 --> 00:12:59,880
Speaker 1: season ticket holder, have been now for about twenty five years.

199
00:13:01,280 --> 00:13:03,959
Speaker 1: If you ask me why I stopped being a Laker

200
00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:07,680
Speaker 1: fan because of the asshole with the rolled up program.

201
00:13:07,800 --> 00:13:12,720
Speaker 1: He emblematizes the Laker fandom and the Laker or to me,

202
00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:16,360
Speaker 1: he sits courtside and every game he comes with a

203
00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:18,320
Speaker 1: rolled up program in his hand and he spends half

204
00:13:18,320 --> 00:13:21,319
Speaker 1: the game on his feet banging that program against his hand. Now,

205
00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:24,680
Speaker 1: why would a guy need a trademark? Because you want

206
00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:27,800
Speaker 1: people to pay attention to you and not the players.

207
00:13:28,400 --> 00:13:31,280
Speaker 1: And that's, to me, is half of the Laker crap.

208
00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:34,000
Speaker 1: They come to be seen. They come to do little

209
00:13:34,080 --> 00:13:36,560
Speaker 1: things or check their phones, or I mean the Clipper

210
00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:39,679
Speaker 1: fans they're still like wiping the grease off their hands

211
00:13:39,679 --> 00:13:42,240
Speaker 1: because they were mechanics during the day or whatever. So

212
00:13:42,320 --> 00:13:44,000
Speaker 1: I think I found myself going, like, I think I

213
00:13:44,080 --> 00:13:46,199
Speaker 1: want to be in the seats with those people, the

214
00:13:46,400 --> 00:13:49,120
Speaker 1: people that are going to root for that awful team.

215
00:13:49,240 --> 00:13:51,600
Speaker 1: We don't come with a program rolled up to draw

216
00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:54,320
Speaker 1: attention to ourselves. We come to see the team on

217
00:13:54,360 --> 00:13:59,720
Speaker 1: the floor. It is early July twenty nineteen in the

218
00:13:59,800 --> 00:14:03,280
Speaker 1: movie at the Staples Center is tense. The NBA's free

219
00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:07,400
Speaker 1: agent season is in full swing. This offseason's crop of

220
00:14:07,480 --> 00:14:10,400
Speaker 1: free agents is said to be one of the best ever,

221
00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:14,680
Speaker 1: highlighted by two of the game's top players. But in

222
00:14:14,720 --> 00:14:17,880
Speaker 1: today's NBA, it's not enough for a franchise to win

223
00:14:17,960 --> 00:14:21,400
Speaker 1: over just one of them. To win a championship, a

224
00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:25,920
Speaker 1: team has to have at least two. You start the

225
00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:28,880
Speaker 1: Lakers in two thousand with Shack n Kobe. There has

226
00:14:28,920 --> 00:14:31,080
Speaker 1: been a couple of anomalies, but for the most part,

227
00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:34,480
Speaker 1: if you look at the Warriors, the Lakers, the Celtics,

228
00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:38,080
Speaker 1: the Heat, and even the Caps with Kyrie and Lebron,

229
00:14:38,640 --> 00:14:41,200
Speaker 1: most teams have at least two star players. And I

230
00:14:41,200 --> 00:14:43,200
Speaker 1: think if you look at the NBA today in twenty twenty,

231
00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:46,360
Speaker 1: it really start with the Miami Heat. It was Lebron,

232
00:14:46,560 --> 00:14:49,600
Speaker 1: Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade, three buddies, all deciding to

233
00:14:49,680 --> 00:14:52,720
Speaker 1: link up in Miami. Star players today they all know

234
00:14:52,800 --> 00:14:55,600
Speaker 1: each other, they all play together in the summer. They're

235
00:14:55,600 --> 00:14:58,720
Speaker 1: all part of USA Basketball All Star teams. It's a

236
00:14:58,760 --> 00:15:02,200
Speaker 1: fraternity and they want to play together. Having signed the

237
00:15:02,200 --> 00:15:05,640
Speaker 1: game's pre eminent superstar, Lebron, Jay it's just a year early.

238
00:15:05,840 --> 00:15:09,280
Speaker 1: The Los Angeles Lakers already have won, and in one

239
00:15:09,320 --> 00:15:11,880
Speaker 1: of the worst kept secrets in league history, they have

240
00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:14,320
Speaker 1: already snatched up one of the players at the top

241
00:15:14,320 --> 00:15:17,440
Speaker 1: of the new list, Anthony Davis, before the off season

242
00:15:17,480 --> 00:15:20,600
Speaker 1: had even begun. But the crown jewel of the free

243
00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:25,120
Speaker 1: agent class is two time NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard.

244
00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:29,640
Speaker 1: You're twenty nineteen, Bill Russell Finals MVP is Kawhi Leonard.

245
00:15:30,480 --> 00:15:35,800
Speaker 1: Kawhi might be the NBA's last great mystery. Clippers, Lakers, Nets, Nicks,

246
00:15:36,120 --> 00:15:38,640
Speaker 1: and the Raptors. Those are the five teams that will

247
00:15:38,680 --> 00:15:41,320
Speaker 1: be involved in the Kawhi Leonards. So when it comes

248
00:15:41,360 --> 00:15:46,320
Speaker 1: to Kawa, it's so close to the best. Front officers

249
00:15:46,360 --> 00:15:49,160
Speaker 1: throughout the league are working furiously in an attempt to

250
00:15:49,280 --> 00:15:53,080
Speaker 1: change their team's destiny through buying, selling, or trading. The

251
00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:56,239
Speaker 1: Clippers are trying to do all three, but the odds

252
00:15:56,280 --> 00:15:59,360
Speaker 1: are not in their favor. Chrisperus are just flat out

253
00:15:59,400 --> 00:16:05,000
Speaker 1: wrote Whippers out. But I'm ninety nine. Here is that

254
00:16:05,160 --> 00:16:13,920
Speaker 1: Kawa Leonard will be returning to Toronto. But this being

255
00:16:13,960 --> 00:16:22,040
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, there's a pluck twist. You are listening to

256
00:16:22,160 --> 00:16:25,960
Speaker 1: Westward on the Dan Patrick Podcast Network, We'll be right back.

257
00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:33,960
Speaker 1: A year ago, Paul George is standing on a stage

258
00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:36,360
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma City and he's telling a crowd of people

259
00:16:36,560 --> 00:16:38,520
Speaker 1: that he's here to stay in A year later, he's

260
00:16:38,520 --> 00:16:42,160
Speaker 1: requesting a trade. Another superstar is thrown into the mix

261
00:16:42,280 --> 00:16:45,560
Speaker 1: and as a matter of course, meeting destiny. Both players

262
00:16:45,600 --> 00:16:48,520
Speaker 1: grew up in Los Angeles and have expressed interest in

263
00:16:48,640 --> 00:16:52,360
Speaker 1: coming home. Superstars returning to their home. They have been

264
00:16:52,400 --> 00:16:55,960
Speaker 1: popularized by Lebron James. But there's one thing that superstars

265
00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:58,600
Speaker 1: like more than returning home, and that's to play with

266
00:16:58,640 --> 00:17:03,240
Speaker 1: other superstars. And the Clippers don't have any Clippers never

267
00:17:03,280 --> 00:17:05,120
Speaker 1: going to steal La. Let me make that very clear.

268
00:17:05,200 --> 00:17:06,439
Speaker 1: Why in the world would you want to go to

269
00:17:06,480 --> 00:17:12,080
Speaker 1: the Clippers? And just two years ago, the notion that

270
00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:15,120
Speaker 1: any player in the league would choose the Clippers over

271
00:17:15,160 --> 00:17:18,880
Speaker 1: the Lakers was an absurdity. The thing that sucks most

272
00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:21,520
Speaker 1: about being the Clippers is that they're in the same

273
00:17:21,560 --> 00:17:24,960
Speaker 1: office building. Think about New England Patriots sharing an office

274
00:17:24,960 --> 00:17:27,680
Speaker 1: building with the Cleveland Brands, right. But now there's something

275
00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:31,080
Speaker 1: within the organization that wasn't ever there before, and it's

276
00:17:31,080 --> 00:17:34,760
Speaker 1: the thing that gives the Clipper faithful hope and what's that?

277
00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:39,040
Speaker 1: Jerry West, Well, I didn't know what to expect when

278
00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:41,680
Speaker 1: I first met mister Bamber. I had breakfast with him

279
00:17:41,760 --> 00:17:44,520
Speaker 1: and we were talking and asked a bunch of questions.

280
00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:46,080
Speaker 1: You know, he trying to get a feel for who

281
00:17:46,080 --> 00:17:48,720
Speaker 1: you're dealing with, and he'd asked me questions about what

282
00:17:48,880 --> 00:17:50,960
Speaker 1: I thought. I said, you're gonna have to build your

283
00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:54,639
Speaker 1: own image of what you want with the Clippers. And

284
00:17:54,640 --> 00:17:57,000
Speaker 1: then we had another meeting and I got a call

285
00:17:57,080 --> 00:17:59,680
Speaker 1: from him that afternoon. He wanted me to be involved

286
00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:04,280
Speaker 1: with him, and I started thinking about it. I knew

287
00:18:04,320 --> 00:18:07,080
Speaker 1: Doc Rivers a coach, and I've always liked and cared

288
00:18:07,119 --> 00:18:09,560
Speaker 1: about him. All of a sudden, I said, well, this

289
00:18:09,680 --> 00:18:12,800
Speaker 1: might be fun. It's been said that home is where

290
00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:16,840
Speaker 1: the hatred he is. And when Jerry West returned to

291
00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:20,880
Speaker 1: Los Angeles and set up shop in the Clippers locker room,

292
00:18:21,520 --> 00:18:27,320
Speaker 1: the city turned upside down. It wasn't a rivalry before

293
00:18:27,320 --> 00:18:31,359
Speaker 1: the logo returned. But to understand what it really means

294
00:18:31,520 --> 00:18:34,280
Speaker 1: and how it came to this, you first have to

295
00:18:34,320 --> 00:18:37,720
Speaker 1: study the history of Los Angeles and his relationship to

296
00:18:37,800 --> 00:18:42,680
Speaker 1: sports and entertainment, and how the game of basketball evolved

297
00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:46,920
Speaker 1: in the city of Angels. Basketball may not have been

298
00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:50,359
Speaker 1: created in Los Angeles, but a strong argument can be

299
00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:53,359
Speaker 1: made that it did create the fertile soil in which

300
00:18:53,359 --> 00:18:57,080
Speaker 1: the modern NBA would take root. And though the city

301
00:18:57,160 --> 00:19:00,920
Speaker 1: may be known for Hollywood, beneath its amalgam of hip

302
00:19:00,920 --> 00:19:07,160
Speaker 1: hop and surf cultures, industry and progressive ideas lies a sportstown,

303
00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:15,880
Speaker 1: says NPR essayist and Los Angeles historian Dj Waldy. When

304
00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:20,720
Speaker 1: people look at Los Angeles region from outside, and most

305
00:19:20,760 --> 00:19:23,040
Speaker 1: of the interpreters of Los Angeles for most of its

306
00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:27,240
Speaker 1: history have been outsiders, they'd often only see Hollywood, and

307
00:19:27,280 --> 00:19:29,399
Speaker 1: they make the mistake of thinking that Los Angeles is

308
00:19:29,440 --> 00:19:33,160
Speaker 1: Hollywood or Hollywood is Los Angeles, and it's simply not true.

309
00:19:33,760 --> 00:19:36,399
Speaker 1: Los Angeles was always a sportstown, just in a different

310
00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:39,120
Speaker 1: way because for most of the history of Los Angeles,

311
00:19:39,400 --> 00:19:42,760
Speaker 1: what a sportstown met was who had a major league

312
00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:46,080
Speaker 1: baseball team. We didn't have a major legue baseball team. Therefore,

313
00:19:46,080 --> 00:19:49,880
Speaker 1: we weren't a sports minded town. College university sports were

314
00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:52,200
Speaker 1: much of the game for much of the twentieth century.

315
00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:57,240
Speaker 1: It took a while for Angelinos to shift their loyalties

316
00:19:57,280 --> 00:19:59,919
Speaker 1: from the college teams they followed to the professional teams.

317
00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:03,840
Speaker 1: The city of Los Angeles had already cultivated a deep

318
00:20:03,840 --> 00:20:06,879
Speaker 1: and abiding love with basketball, due in large part to

319
00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:09,840
Speaker 1: an innovation that could have only come from Los Angeles.

320
00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:13,680
Speaker 1: One of the characteristics of Southern California in the postwar

321
00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:19,320
Speaker 1: period was an explosion of innovation. It was taking materials

322
00:20:19,359 --> 00:20:22,439
Speaker 1: and processes that had been developed in the warriors to

323
00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:25,600
Speaker 1: make things for the war effort and turning those war

324
00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:31,080
Speaker 1: industries and war materials into new products. One such product

325
00:20:31,200 --> 00:20:34,240
Speaker 1: came from the Void Rubber Company on Harbor Boulevard, and

326
00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:38,560
Speaker 1: it would change the game of basketball. It's an amazing story.

327
00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:44,040
Speaker 1: What it's about is taking an industrial product and transforming

328
00:20:44,359 --> 00:20:48,800
Speaker 1: what had been a kind of elite sport using a

329
00:20:48,840 --> 00:20:52,160
Speaker 1: lot of hand crafted materials, and turning that into something

330
00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:56,680
Speaker 1: that kids played on the apron of their parents' driveway.

331
00:20:56,800 --> 00:21:00,800
Speaker 1: And we're talking about the development of the inexpensive synthetic

332
00:21:00,920 --> 00:21:07,640
Speaker 1: material basketball, which became something every kid, certainly every boy,

333
00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:12,600
Speaker 1: in every Lakewood house in the late nineteen fifties, half

334
00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:16,040
Speaker 1: and everyone played some kind of pickup game in the

335
00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:19,520
Speaker 1: driveway with a hoop holding to the front of the garage.

336
00:21:20,640 --> 00:21:24,680
Speaker 1: One can see how talent would arise from that explosion

337
00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:30,959
Speaker 1: of participation. The invention was an accidental civil rights triumph.

338
00:21:31,119 --> 00:21:34,639
Speaker 1: Until the creation of the Void, basketball could only be

339
00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:38,240
Speaker 1: played indoors and the cost of a basketball was the

340
00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:41,680
Speaker 1: equivalent of over two hundred dollars. The price of the

341
00:21:41,800 --> 00:21:48,879
Speaker 1: new Boyd was under a dollar. The invention of the

342
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:53,439
Speaker 1: void basketball became a gateway for people like me in

343
00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:58,280
Speaker 1: four neighborhoods around the United States. Boy had made it

344
00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:02,480
Speaker 1: financially feasible for like me around the nation to have

345
00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:08,040
Speaker 1: the ball. There was attainable. Suddenly all throughout Los Angeles,

346
00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:10,760
Speaker 1: from the driveways of South Central to the Covi sacts

347
00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:13,840
Speaker 1: of suburban Covid City, and all the way to Venice Beach,

348
00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:17,800
Speaker 1: basketball rooms started sprowsing up like the palm trees along

349
00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:22,520
Speaker 1: San Vincenti. So you had all these elements. You had Hollywood,

350
00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:24,879
Speaker 1: you had a love of basketball. You had a Rabbit

351
00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:27,720
Speaker 1: fan base. So you had all these sports fans. But

352
00:22:27,760 --> 00:22:30,720
Speaker 1: there was no one professional team in Los Angeles that

353
00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:35,280
Speaker 1: really captured the identity of the city. The Dodgers there

354
00:22:35,280 --> 00:22:38,000
Speaker 1: from Brooklyn, the Rams, they came and then they left.

355
00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:41,119
Speaker 1: The Angels. They came and then they left. Fans are competitive,

356
00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:44,560
Speaker 1: and big cities don't just want teams, they want teams

357
00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:48,720
Speaker 1: that reflect who they are, right Pittsburgh and Steeve kurtin Philadelphia,

358
00:22:48,800 --> 00:22:52,520
Speaker 1: Broad Street Bulleys Cincinnati, the Big Red Machine. LA sports

359
00:22:52,520 --> 00:22:56,399
Speaker 1: fans wanted that they were starving for that, and then,

360
00:22:56,760 --> 00:22:59,720
Speaker 1: as if it was written in Hollywood itself, the Lakers

361
00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:05,240
Speaker 1: literally fell from the sky. Long before they would fall

362
00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:08,560
Speaker 1: from the sky, the team that would ultimately become the

363
00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:13,120
Speaker 1: Lakers were the Detroit Gems. The Detroit Gems probably should

364
00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:15,640
Speaker 1: become the LA Clippers because they were the worst team

365
00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:18,840
Speaker 1: to ever play professional basketball. They played their home games

366
00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:21,440
Speaker 1: at a high school on the city's southwest side, Their

367
00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:24,440
Speaker 1: best player averaged nine points a game, and they went

368
00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:27,080
Speaker 1: one in twenty seven in their final year in nineteen

369
00:23:27,119 --> 00:23:30,520
Speaker 1: forty seven. But despite this, the team drew the attention

370
00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:34,159
Speaker 1: of the current businessmen from Minnesota named Ben Burger Maurice Chappan,

371
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:36,960
Speaker 1: who wanted to bring the team in Minneapolis and offered

372
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:40,159
Speaker 1: to buy the Gems to avoid the association with the

373
00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:43,920
Speaker 1: Gem's failure. The new owners would rename the team to

374
00:23:44,080 --> 00:23:48,080
Speaker 1: honor Minnesota and its land of ten Thousand Lakes, and

375
00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:56,760
Speaker 1: on November third, nineteen forty nine, the Minneapolis Lakers were born. Man,

376
00:23:56,800 --> 00:24:00,320
Speaker 1: where do you look to find the world's greatest basketball team, Well,

377
00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:09,760
Speaker 1: look for the land of ten Thousand Lakes. On any

378
00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:12,879
Speaker 1: given day during his boyhood summers of nineteen fifty seven,

379
00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:15,600
Speaker 1: a young Brian Short would walk out of the house

380
00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:18,280
Speaker 1: he shared with his six brothers and sisters, and there

381
00:24:18,440 --> 00:24:20,800
Speaker 1: grazing in his front yard of the Short family home

382
00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:24,600
Speaker 1: in Adena, Minnesota, where a small herd of Shetland ponies.

383
00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:28,800
Speaker 1: The animals were yet another inexplicable purchase by their wealthy father,

384
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:32,240
Speaker 1: who bought them as part of an even larger inexplicable purchase,

385
00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:36,800
Speaker 1: the Minneapolis Lakers. My dad was a promoter, if nothing else,

386
00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:39,480
Speaker 1: and he was always trying to figure out ways to

387
00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:42,560
Speaker 1: get people to come in. One of his many contests

388
00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:46,080
Speaker 1: was withdrawing for a Shetland pony at a Lakers game,

389
00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:48,440
Speaker 1: and he thought that would be great because what kid

390
00:24:48,520 --> 00:24:52,240
Speaker 1: didn't want a pony? And my dad figured if he

391
00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:53,840
Speaker 1: could get the kids to want to come, the parents

392
00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:55,840
Speaker 1: would have to come and life would be good. And

393
00:24:55,920 --> 00:24:58,159
Speaker 1: so every time he ran that promotion, we ended up

394
00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:00,680
Speaker 1: with a pony at our house. A matter of fact,

395
00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:03,000
Speaker 1: some kid living in the city would be hard pressed

396
00:25:03,040 --> 00:25:06,480
Speaker 1: to find a place to put the dam pony. Bob

397
00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:10,040
Speaker 1: Short may have enjoyed promotion, but the business in which

398
00:25:10,119 --> 00:25:13,560
Speaker 1: he made his money was transportation. And though it may

399
00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:16,480
Speaker 1: have been difficult to bring fans to home games, a

400
00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:20,640
Speaker 1: far greater problem was getting his Lakers to away games.

401
00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:22,920
Speaker 1: I or this is hard for us to understand a

402
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:24,960
Speaker 1: pushy for you guys, I bet it was kind of

403
00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:28,080
Speaker 1: the westernmost part of the United States almost My dad

404
00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:30,919
Speaker 1: was always an aviation guy. Frankly, you know, he served

405
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:33,399
Speaker 1: on an aircraft carrier in the war and business, so

406
00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:36,760
Speaker 1: he's always opened to aviation as a form of transportation.

407
00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:41,600
Speaker 1: Bob Short then bought a fixed wing propeller driven DC

408
00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:46,000
Speaker 1: three through a company called Gopher Aviation that had been

409
00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:50,119
Speaker 1: built in the nineteen thirties. The plane was so old,

410
00:25:50,119 --> 00:25:52,760
Speaker 1: in fact, that some of the employees who worked for

411
00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:59,359
Speaker 1: Gopher Aviation were actually taught by the Right brothers. This

412
00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:05,560
Speaker 1: is what fell from the sky. It was Saturday night,

413
00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:09,720
Speaker 1: January eighteenth, nineteen sixty and Bob Short's Minneapolis Lakers were

414
00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:12,440
Speaker 1: on the tarmac of Lambert Field in Saint Louis, Missouri,

415
00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:15,520
Speaker 1: waiting for takeoff in the middle of a dismal season

416
00:26:15,560 --> 00:26:17,720
Speaker 1: in which they would finish twenty one games out of

417
00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:20,399
Speaker 1: first place. They had just lost their fifth game in

418
00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:23,080
Speaker 1: a row to the Saint Louis Hawks and wanted to

419
00:26:23,119 --> 00:26:27,720
Speaker 1: go home. But there was a problem. And here's the

420
00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:34,280
Speaker 1: latest weather reform. Rain changing to snow. What had originally

421
00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:38,760
Speaker 1: been forecast as light rain was now being described as

422
00:26:38,800 --> 00:26:42,639
Speaker 1: an ice storm. Ninety seven year old Harold Gifford, the

423
00:26:42,720 --> 00:26:49,200
Speaker 1: Team Planes pilot, remembers the night well oiler wasps for Garding.

424
00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:55,560
Speaker 1: I had the father of sig Wana. We go to

425
00:26:55,640 --> 00:27:01,639
Speaker 1: the Ryan at eight Clark. We took off, had he

426
00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:21,879
Speaker 1: After less than five minutes into the flight, the plane

427
00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:28,320
Speaker 1: lost power right after fear the life. They went frightened

428
00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:32,720
Speaker 1: and dim and out. The only indication I had rod

429
00:27:32,760 --> 00:27:36,400
Speaker 1: a couple of the Lookmaders and they both registered zeros

430
00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:42,520
Speaker 1: and ad in trouble. Fortunately for those aboard, Harold Gifford,

431
00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:45,320
Speaker 1: the former World War Two pilot, had been accustomed to

432
00:27:45,359 --> 00:27:48,760
Speaker 1: flying in trouble. By nine pm that night, where it

433
00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:51,720
Speaker 1: had already reached Bob Short in Minnesota, that his team

434
00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:55,600
Speaker 1: was in trouble that evening, and my mother was pretty strict.

435
00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:58,440
Speaker 1: But before I went to bed, I remember there was

436
00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:01,200
Speaker 1: a lot of tension in the house. Dad was running around.

437
00:28:01,200 --> 00:28:02,879
Speaker 1: He was a big phone guy. He was talking on

438
00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:05,239
Speaker 1: the phone all the time. But you know, a lot

439
00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:08,800
Speaker 1: of tensions. I don't think I understood the significance of

440
00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:11,160
Speaker 1: it at the time because I'm nine years old, right.

441
00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:13,560
Speaker 1: But these were all people that he knew, all friends,

442
00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:17,080
Speaker 1: you know. He considered the players fans. Unable to ascend

443
00:28:17,119 --> 00:28:21,080
Speaker 1: above the storm or navigate around the storm, pilot Harold

444
00:28:21,119 --> 00:28:24,560
Speaker 1: Gifford was left with only one option or try to

445
00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:28,720
Speaker 1: go through it. So I followed the North Star initially,

446
00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:32,040
Speaker 1: and now he headed north on our my own compass,

447
00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:36,920
Speaker 1: and so now we're fresh from the problem. So I said,

448
00:28:36,960 --> 00:28:39,960
Speaker 1: I think we'd better consider going down to find the

449
00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:43,680
Speaker 1: pressure or contact with the ground. Her cousin, ifore you

450
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:47,600
Speaker 1: run out of fuel world, we're at four thousand, end

451
00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:57,320
Speaker 1: of cause we're there. You are listening to Westward on

452
00:28:57,440 --> 00:29:05,280
Speaker 1: the Dan Patrick podcast network. We be right back. The

453
00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:08,320
Speaker 1: ground below was barely visible through the blizzard and had

454
00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:11,320
Speaker 1: been covered by the torrent of sleet, columns of snow

455
00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:17,680
Speaker 1: and insurance policies. All players of that for US didn't

456
00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:21,000
Speaker 1: make anywhere near enough money playing as a basketball player

457
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:24,000
Speaker 1: to survive. So they all had offseason jobs. And I'm

458
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:27,160
Speaker 1: pre sure Dick Garmakers was as a life insurance salesman

459
00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:31,640
Speaker 1: or some kind of insurance. And so they know they've

460
00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:33,880
Speaker 1: lost all electrical power, they don't know how they're going

461
00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:36,920
Speaker 1: to land. They're all convinced they're going to die. Garmaker

462
00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:39,160
Speaker 1: walks up and down the aisle of the airplane, selling

463
00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:44,240
Speaker 1: insurance and filling out the form. And the plan was

464
00:29:44,840 --> 00:29:46,560
Speaker 1: they knew the plane was going to crash and burn

465
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:49,760
Speaker 1: on impact, so they had to take these little scraps

466
00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:52,320
Speaker 1: of paper and throw them out the window. Hopefully somebody

467
00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:54,760
Speaker 1: would find them, and then they would find that player

468
00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:57,680
Speaker 1: air player B had life insurance. The company would have

469
00:29:57,760 --> 00:30:00,840
Speaker 1: to pay on the insurance. While some of the players

470
00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:04,920
Speaker 1: dropped their signed policies to the ground below, others, along

471
00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:08,800
Speaker 1: with their pilot, Harold Gifford, sought out a higher insurance policy.

472
00:30:09,320 --> 00:30:15,240
Speaker 1: Prayers sent above the Fred Barness watches us very sure

473
00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:19,960
Speaker 1: could drives help bunch your blave that comes Highers seventy

474
00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:23,840
Speaker 1: one and say a lighted Hams beer standing on the side,

475
00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:25,840
Speaker 1: and I know that we had a recast the build.

476
00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:31,840
Speaker 1: As we circled this town, I daughter start the edge

477
00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:35,640
Speaker 1: of town of Corkfield. The scene of an ice covered

478
00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:39,080
Speaker 1: Midwestern earth and the impending collision of what came from

479
00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:42,040
Speaker 1: the sky was an eerie reminder of what had happened

480
00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:44,720
Speaker 1: less than a year prior, when the red Beechcraft B

481
00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:47,840
Speaker 1: thirty five, carrying three of rock and roll's biggest stars,

482
00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:51,520
Speaker 1: slammed into another frozen cornfield in clear Lake, Iowa, less

483
00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:54,479
Speaker 1: than a hundred miles away. We interrupt this problem from

484
00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:57,360
Speaker 1: our special news bulletin three young singers who soared to

485
00:30:57,440 --> 00:30:59,240
Speaker 1: the heights of show business on the current rock and

486
00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:01,560
Speaker 1: roll craze or killed today in the crash of a

487
00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:04,840
Speaker 1: light plane in an iOS No flurry. The singers were

488
00:31:04,880 --> 00:31:09,120
Speaker 1: identified as Richie Valin seventeen, Bubby Holly twenty two, and J. P. Richardson,

489
00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:13,720
Speaker 1: known professionally as the Big Boppers. That was starting a

490
00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:16,920
Speaker 1: life in my mind, the first thing in my mind

491
00:31:17,120 --> 00:31:20,560
Speaker 1: is oh, I going to get this shirt place to

492
00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:24,200
Speaker 1: the gloves. But it had most certainly been on the

493
00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:26,880
Speaker 1: minds of dozens of locals who had lived in the

494
00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:29,760
Speaker 1: wake of that tragedy, many of whom poured out of

495
00:31:29,800 --> 00:31:32,920
Speaker 1: their homes at one ten am after hearing local station

496
00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:38,760
Speaker 1: Kseim's Clarion Cole, including the family of Eric Niswanger. Everyone

497
00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:41,400
Speaker 1: was awakened with the loud engines of the DC three

498
00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:44,840
Speaker 1: plane buzzing the town about nine times. Many jumped into

499
00:31:44,840 --> 00:31:47,800
Speaker 1: their cars to help guide the way. I've heard many

500
00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:51,080
Speaker 1: of the proud stories from my parents and the city forefathers.

501
00:31:51,520 --> 00:31:54,480
Speaker 1: Iowans are very caring people, and with the history of

502
00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:57,840
Speaker 1: Buddy Holly's plane crash only eleven months earlier in the Sunel,

503
00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:00,560
Speaker 1: no one wanted to have another tragedy like the day

504
00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:03,240
Speaker 1: the music died. Nobody wanted to have that happen again.

505
00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:07,880
Speaker 1: Not much as we touched down because hearing a car

506
00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:13,320
Speaker 1: hit the earth player and as soon as I shut

507
00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:17,640
Speaker 1: the edges had ever heard such a lot scrubs and hollers,

508
00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:24,240
Speaker 1: and the first rust barkers are coming from the road thereby,

509
00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:29,080
Speaker 1: and they hear all those hollers. This is going to

510
00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:32,400
Speaker 1: be a terrible hollers. Was picked up by a hearse

511
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:34,400
Speaker 1: or the guy and said, I thought we were going

512
00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:37,920
Speaker 1: to ask for business today. We had a guy he'd

513
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:41,680
Speaker 1: been a church at but he called his wife and

514
00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:45,840
Speaker 1: told him and hut him. She said, to be a

515
00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:50,520
Speaker 1: call when you're solder up. One of the players who

516
00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:54,080
Speaker 1: knows the story of the plane's unscheduled landing but was

517
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:57,920
Speaker 1: not on the flight is Jerry West. A lot of

518
00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:00,240
Speaker 1: people thought I was in it. I was not. Of course,

519
00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:01,800
Speaker 1: I was aware of the story because I was with

520
00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:06,400
Speaker 1: them the next year. They were talking about these guys

521
00:33:06,440 --> 00:33:09,720
Speaker 1: were making promises. They never drink again, they never do this,

522
00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:12,360
Speaker 1: They're going to go to church every day. I don't

523
00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:14,560
Speaker 1: think all those promises were kept, because I saw a

524
00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:16,680
Speaker 1: bunch of guys who drank a lot when I got there.

525
00:33:17,960 --> 00:33:21,480
Speaker 1: If that plane crashes, not only does the entire team die,

526
00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:25,200
Speaker 1: the NBA most likely dies with it. And had nothing happened,

527
00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:28,000
Speaker 1: they say Minneapolis and go bankrupt with the rest of

528
00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:30,520
Speaker 1: the league. It was the incident that pushed the team

529
00:33:30,520 --> 00:33:34,080
Speaker 1: to LA and forever changed the history of professional basketball.

530
00:33:40,040 --> 00:33:42,760
Speaker 1: As a coda to the event, in two ten, the

531
00:33:42,840 --> 00:33:46,400
Speaker 1: Laker organization donated twenty five thousand dollars to the Carol

532
00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:49,640
Speaker 1: Chamber of Comers for the construction of an outdoor court

533
00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:52,840
Speaker 1: in honor of the team and the city's unexpected connection

534
00:33:52,960 --> 00:33:57,360
Speaker 1: on that snowy night in January of nineteen sixty. Now

535
00:33:57,840 --> 00:34:00,880
Speaker 1: outside carol in the midst of these rules world Farmlands,

536
00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:04,840
Speaker 1: half cyclone, half Hawkeye Country, a basketball court can be

537
00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:08,560
Speaker 1: found just feet from where the team's airplane successfully ladened.

538
00:34:09,239 --> 00:34:12,520
Speaker 1: Perhaps in any other place, the bright, purple and gold

539
00:34:12,600 --> 00:34:15,399
Speaker 1: floor located in the middle of nowhere would stand out

540
00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:18,560
Speaker 1: as one of the many oddities checkered throughout the Midwest,

541
00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:25,160
Speaker 1: But here it doesn't. Two thousand miles away, in Los Angeles,

542
00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:29,520
Speaker 1: late Friday night on July fifth, just minutes ago, Adan

543
00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:33,239
Speaker 1: Award Zanowski reporting that Kawhi Leonard is going to join

544
00:34:33,280 --> 00:34:36,440
Speaker 1: the Clippers. The Clippers have also made a deal to

545
00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:40,200
Speaker 1: acquire Paul George from the Oklahoma City thunder Stunned. Stunned

546
00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:43,280
Speaker 1: to say the lead Jerry West this weekend ran the NBA.

547
00:34:43,440 --> 00:34:46,560
Speaker 1: He's eighty one. Kawhi Leonard. Got a phone call from

548
00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:50,080
Speaker 1: Cool Magic, not interested, got a phone call from Lebron,

549
00:34:50,239 --> 00:34:53,080
Speaker 1: not interested. Yet he went to dinner with eighty one

550
00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:56,040
Speaker 1: year old Jerry West at a steakhouse, sat across from

551
00:34:56,120 --> 00:35:00,520
Speaker 1: him and said, I like you, but a high school

552
00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:05,759
Speaker 1: gym in south central Los Angeles Professional Basketball's most accomplished executive,

553
00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:10,840
Speaker 1: Jerry West, can be found doing what he does best, teach.

554
00:35:15,920 --> 00:35:20,480
Speaker 1: I'm right, all right. What makes Jerry so special? It's

555
00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:25,480
Speaker 1: Jerry truly cares about people first, and right behind that

556
00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:32,439
Speaker 1: is his furious competitive nature. The man got to win.

557
00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:36,920
Speaker 1: It's just in his DNA, and I have no doubt

558
00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:40,959
Speaker 1: that this team he's put together is going to come

559
00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:46,800
Speaker 1: out on top in this batoty for La. Jerry West

560
00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:49,880
Speaker 1: is from the rugged foothills of Canada County, West Virginia.

561
00:35:50,200 --> 00:35:53,160
Speaker 1: He is eighty two years old and dis white. The

562
00:35:53,280 --> 00:35:56,880
Speaker 1: prospect he teachers is from the streets of south central California,

563
00:35:57,120 --> 00:36:00,719
Speaker 1: is twenty two years old and it's black. Watching the

564
00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:03,759
Speaker 1: younger wrapped in attention and the older, honored to pass

565
00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:07,040
Speaker 1: along his wisdom, both found by their mutual love of

566
00:36:07,080 --> 00:36:10,960
Speaker 1: the game, one comes to understand that while baseball may

567
00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:13,920
Speaker 1: be in the American heart and football may be in

568
00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:17,080
Speaker 1: the American spirit, it is the game of basketball that

569
00:36:17,239 --> 00:36:23,640
Speaker 1: occupies the American soul. And for that reason, just for now,

570
00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:34,600
Speaker 1: the Battle of Los Angeles will have to wait. Next time.

571
00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:38,440
Speaker 1: On Westward, just months after he had nearly lost his

572
00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:42,200
Speaker 1: entire team, to a plane crash in carol Isole. Bob

573
00:36:42,280 --> 00:36:46,400
Speaker 1: Short formerly asked permission from NBA owners to relocate his

574
00:36:46,520 --> 00:36:50,680
Speaker 1: Laker team to Los Angeles. In a resounding unanimous vote

575
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:57,160
Speaker 1: of seven to zero, the NBA said no. Long before

576
00:36:57,200 --> 00:36:59,960
Speaker 1: there was a battle four LA. There was a battle

577
00:37:00,239 --> 00:37:05,239
Speaker 1: to LA. At the time, owners were preoccupied with just surviving,

578
00:37:05,719 --> 00:37:08,880
Speaker 1: so that meant constantly moving to bigger markets. But it

579
00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:11,719
Speaker 1: wasn't actually the move that saved the Lakers. It was

580
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:15,319
Speaker 1: something else. There had been word of a legend from

581
00:37:15,320 --> 00:37:20,040
Speaker 1: the streets of Washington, DC, a local athlete whose ability

582
00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:26,160
Speaker 1: was almost midi. They called him the rabbits. Elgian Daylor

583
00:37:26,719 --> 00:37:30,480
Speaker 1: was a magician on the court. If he was playing today,

584
00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:35,320
Speaker 1: I mean people talked about him and Michael Jordan and

585
00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:38,360
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan's early date. That was pretty good athlete. No,

586
00:37:38,440 --> 00:37:41,400
Speaker 1: I could play all sports, but mothers talk about you

587
00:37:41,400 --> 00:37:44,520
Speaker 1: can playing football, and you know, she said, no, you're

588
00:37:44,520 --> 00:37:46,320
Speaker 1: not going to do something like that. So it's a

589
00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:50,600
Speaker 1: basketball if you want to play play basketball. Elgian Daylor

590
00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:57,360
Speaker 1: literally saved the franchise. The revolution is not always televised,

591
00:37:57,840 --> 00:38:02,600
Speaker 1: and the action of courage and willingness to sacrifice many

592
00:38:02,640 --> 00:38:06,680
Speaker 1: times is not publicized. What Elson Baylor did is one

593
00:38:06,719 --> 00:38:17,000
Speaker 1: of the most significant stories yet to be told. Westward

594
00:38:17,080 --> 00:38:19,839
Speaker 1: is a production of the Dan Patrick podcast Network, Joy

595
00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:24,960
Speaker 1: Road Entertainment and iHeartRadio in association with Workhouse Media and

596
00:38:25,040 --> 00:38:28,319
Speaker 1: Sugar twenty three. Executive produced by Paul Anderson and Nick

597
00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:31,319
Speaker 1: Pinella for Workhouse Media and by Michael Sugar and Mike

598
00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:36,880
Speaker 1: Mayer for Sugar twenty three. Joy Road Entertainment is pg Cuscieri,

599
00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:41,520
Speaker 1: Jim Young, Matthew Hatchett, Bobby Glantone Smith, and Tim Livingston,

600
00:38:42,880 --> 00:38:46,319
Speaker 1: Produced by Casey Whalen and edited by Charlie Magdaleno by

601
00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:50,680
Speaker 1: Whalend Productions. Westward is narrated by Emmy Award winner Keith David.

602
00:38:51,160 --> 00:38:55,160
Speaker 1: Producers would like to thank Chris Lloyd, George Lopez, Harold Gifford,

603
00:38:55,200 --> 00:38:58,880
Speaker 1: and NPRS DJ Waldy for their contributions. Our most sincere

604
00:38:58,920 --> 00:39:02,640
Speaker 1: gratitude also goes family of Bob Short, Eric Niswanger and

605
00:39:02,719 --> 00:39:06,120
Speaker 1: the good people of Carol, Iowa, and of course, the

606
00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:11,120
Speaker 1: great Jerry West. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the

607
00:39:11,160 --> 00:39:15,080
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

608
00:39:16,040 --> 00:39:16,800
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.