Speaker 1: Welcome to this League Uncut.
Speaker 2: Rule of twenty four hour NBA News. This is you,
Speaker 2: Chris Hans. It's time, works time, it's so time. This
Speaker 2: League Uncut is underway and on fire. This should be
Speaker 2: a good one.
Speaker 3: Friends, Welcome in to a long awaited return edition of
Speaker 3: This League Uncut. You guys got to know. It's the
Speaker 3: time of year. In August, in September, we.
Speaker 4: Only do.
Speaker 3: A few episodes per month. We do dial it back
Speaker 3: to recharge for the season ahead. In October we will
Speaker 3: be back to full speed, two pods a week. But
Speaker 3: we had to get together for this because this past
Speaker 3: weekend absolutely momentous for the league as a whole, but
Speaker 3: also on a personal level. Because our dear friend Mark Spears,
Speaker 3: former teammate for both Chris and I, former neighbor in
Speaker 3: the Bubble co resident of the famed Walt Disney World
Speaker 3: Bubble in Orlando, we all live together for a summer,
Speaker 3: We all work together. Now we all three work for
Speaker 3: separate entities, but we remain family. And this League Uncut
Speaker 3: wanted to give a formal, official, directly delivered verbal hat
Speaker 3: tip to mister Spears because he is the twenty twenty
Speaker 3: three winner of the Kurt Goudi Award for Print Media Excellence,
Speaker 3: awarded by the Basketball Hall of Fame. There is no
Speaker 3: higher honor in our profession, and it is now officially
Speaker 3: in Mark spears possession. He got his ring on Friday,
Speaker 3: gave a beautiful speech, both he and Holly Row. Holly Row,
Speaker 3: of course from ESPN, the Electronic Division, winner of the
Speaker 3: Kirk Goudi Award for twenty twenty three. Beautiful speeches from
Speaker 3: both of them, as graded by my wife who watched
Speaker 3: them both on television. I was privileged to be in
Speaker 3: the audience for it. A hearty welcome from Haines and
Speaker 3: Stein to Mark Spears, kurk Goudi winner. How does it feel, man?
Speaker 3: How different do you feel every morning now when you
Speaker 3: wake up?
Speaker 4: Man?
Speaker 5: I got that ring in the hallway, you know, hiding out,
Speaker 5: but something to look at. And you know, now we're
Speaker 5: teammates again, right where teammates in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 4: Chris will get there one day too. No, I've been really.
Speaker 5: Trying to put in perspective everything and it's been very difficult,
Speaker 5: you know, because, as you said, this is the highest honor.
Speaker 5: I'm not like, respectfully thinking, I don't even know what
Speaker 5: else compares, right, Maybe something with an ABJ.
Speaker 4: Hall of Fame or something may mean something to me too.
Speaker 5: But to be on that list where you see Jackie
Speaker 5: and Aldridge and will Bond and you know Smith and
Speaker 5: Stein and Ryan.
Speaker 3: And don't put me in there, all.
Speaker 5: These like legendary McMullen, you know, all these legendary names,
Speaker 5: Pete VESSI Yeah, it's just it's really humbling, and it
Speaker 5: feels amazing to know that as long as that building exists,
Speaker 5: my name will be in it. Right now, you might
Speaker 5: if you blink, you might miss it.
Speaker 4: It's in there.
Speaker 5: And it's funny Mark because you know, like usually they
Speaker 5: have events at the Hall of Fame, but they didn't
Speaker 5: have any at all other than like post parties. So
Speaker 5: I had to like get snuck into the Hall of
Speaker 5: Fame so I could see my name because I was like,
Speaker 5: I can't leave without seeing my name on this thing.
Speaker 5: And my mom had went the night before, and like
Speaker 5: that picture of my mom standing next to like where
Speaker 5: my name was means more to me than my picture
Speaker 5: next to it, man, just the fact that you know,
Speaker 5: my mom saw it, and I can celebrate my mom
Speaker 5: and my wife, my dad, my.
Speaker 4: Sister, all these folks that are important to me, and.
Speaker 5: I don't get there without them like that, like the
Speaker 5: fact that my mom got to stand up at the
Speaker 5: speech and do her little you know, Miss America wave
Speaker 5: and all that like that, all those moments are like
Speaker 5: priceless to me. So as you can see, I'm still
Speaker 5: trying to figure out how to feel about it.
Speaker 1: Spears. When you.
Speaker 6: When you're inducted, I want you to take me through
Speaker 6: a little bit of your journey, your path because me
Speaker 6: seeing you up there is like it's it's personal to
Speaker 6: me because you're my guy first and foremost, but.
Speaker 1: I think we have similar paths.
Speaker 3: And when I.
Speaker 6: See you up there doing that man like that, that
Speaker 6: brings me so.
Speaker 1: Much joy because you aren't supposed to be up there, man,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean.
Speaker 6: It wasn't set up for you to.
Speaker 4: Be up there.
Speaker 6: So when you're looking through your background, when you're looking
Speaker 6: at the beginnings, and.
Speaker 5: I was like, remember the video game Dragons Layer, I.
Speaker 6: Feel like talk, let's go real, talk. Tell me it's
Speaker 6: just just through you know, the the path to flight
Speaker 6: to get to get to that point and what resonates
Speaker 6: with you when you think about all that.
Speaker 4: You know, a lot of it starts with the beginning. Man.
Speaker 5: You know, I wasn't no great student, not that I
Speaker 5: couldn't have been a great student. I was, you know, Chris,
Speaker 5: you know it, like you know, in a lot of ways,
Speaker 5: you're a product or your environment. And if people don't
Speaker 5: get on you about grades, if people don't tell you
Speaker 5: what could happen if you don't succeed in that realm,
Speaker 5: and how much more difficult it could be, then you
Speaker 5: know you're you're you're going to suffer through it. And
Speaker 5: so like I learned. The great thing though, was I
Speaker 5: did find out in the seventh grade, which really put
Speaker 5: me ahead of the game, that I wanted to be
Speaker 5: a sports writer. I grew up reading Sports Illustrated as
Speaker 5: a kid and reading the Santas and Mercury News and
Speaker 5: reading anything sports. I just read the sports page in
Speaker 5: the morning. And then in the seventh grade, you know,
Speaker 5: guy from the Warriors came to my junior high school,
Speaker 5: Silvindale Junior High School in San Jose, And at this point,
Speaker 5: I'm like in love with the game of basketball. I'm
Speaker 5: going to sand Lea State basketball camp. You know, I'm
Speaker 5: dreaming of playing in the NBA. And for some reason,
Speaker 5: the guy asked me what I wanted to do when
Speaker 5: I grew up, and I said, I want to play
Speaker 5: for y'all. I'm playing the NBA. And he's like, but
Speaker 5: what if you get hurt? What if something happens to you?
Speaker 5: And I just remember that he saw this stat in
Speaker 5: Sports Illustrated at that time, and you know this was,
Speaker 5: you know, dating myself. This is eighty four, so the
Speaker 5: influx and international NBA players starning correct me, it hasn't.
Speaker 3: Happened yet five years away.
Speaker 4: The bonus is there. Maybe there's a handful of guys.
Speaker 5: Not really, but it said that less than two percent
Speaker 5: of all college basketball players make it to the NBA.
Speaker 4: And that stat really struck a chord with me.
Speaker 5: So when the guy from the Warriors said that, I
Speaker 5: thought about it and I'm like, wow, you know this,
Speaker 5: this is I'd be really hard to make the league.
Speaker 5: And he said, well, you combined with what you love
Speaker 5: most in life and what you do best in school,
Speaker 5: you have a job you're happy with every day. So
Speaker 5: I thought about it. I sucked in science, I sucked
Speaker 5: in math, but I could write I love sports. I'm
Speaker 5: reading Sports Illustrated to Mercurynews every day, like why not
Speaker 5: be a sports writer? I was like, I kind of
Speaker 5: came up with the idea, the next best thing is
Speaker 5: to be there if I can't play there. And so
Speaker 5: I wrote a letter to Mark Purdy from the sounds
Speaker 5: of Mercurynews, who and I think Stein's probably met him
Speaker 5: longtime legendary Calmas and he literally Chris in the seventh
Speaker 5: grade wrote me back, tell me everything I needed to
Speaker 5: do from seventh grade through college to be a sports writer. Like,
Speaker 5: come on, man, like, how many like how many letters
Speaker 5: and email? Not letters, but how many emails do we get?
Speaker 5: How many instagram like things that we get? So I
Speaker 5: try to like take those seriously because, like, I know,
Speaker 5: it made an impact on me that somebody like I
Speaker 5: didn't meet Purty until like twenty four years later at
Speaker 5: the Beijing Olympics.
Speaker 4: But if he didn't write that letter, I'm not here right.
Speaker 4: So then I go to.
Speaker 3: That is amazing.
Speaker 4: That is amazing that he did.
Speaker 3: That, And now we don't even have a path to
Speaker 3: write down. At least that is what you and I had.
Speaker 3: It didn't guarantee you were going to get there, but
Speaker 3: at least there was a blueprint to follow nowadays, there
Speaker 3: isn't even a blueprint.
Speaker 5: And he's like, right about writing on the school paper
Speaker 5: in junior high, I was writing on the school paper
Speaker 5: in the seventh grade cover the eight grade flag football team.
Speaker 4: That's where the mark J.
Speaker 5: Spears came from.
Speaker 3: Christian I never told you that. No, No, it's.
Speaker 4: The seventh grader's decision to put the J there. That's why.
Speaker 4: That's why it's there.
Speaker 5: That was my first byline on a go to eight
Speaker 5: grade flag football team, and I just kept it that way.
Speaker 5: And anybody's like, take all the typing classes you can
Speaker 5: in high school, and I took typing one, two, and three,
Speaker 5: which and you guys know is important to learn how
Speaker 5: to type right, and.
Speaker 3: It still didn't learn how to do it right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And then in college, he said, take as many
Speaker 5: internships she was possible writing the school paper. So I
Speaker 5: was definitely not getting drafted with my little pivoty college
Speaker 5: basketball career. But you know, by the time I was
Speaker 5: graduating from college and then I entered at the Dallas
Speaker 5: Morning News after I graduated, I felt like a first
Speaker 5: round pick in terms of talent as a journalist, as
Speaker 5: a writer. You know, National Association Black journalists helped me
Speaker 5: with that too, and so but where I messed up
Speaker 5: my high school grades weren't good. I was basically like
Speaker 5: I just needed two point zero to be eligible, and
Speaker 5: I had an opportunity to play basketball Columbia University out
Speaker 5: of high school.
Speaker 4: Ivy League school and.
Speaker 5: The top journalists and programs in the country, and they
Speaker 5: wanted me till they saw my grades.
Speaker 4: So I had to go to junior college route.
Speaker 5: So in a lot of ways, I could have made
Speaker 5: the path a lot easier for me, you know, coming
Speaker 5: going from my Ivy League school. But as one of
Speaker 5: my friends told me, man, it all worked out. I
Speaker 5: I just had to go to alternative JUCO D two
Speaker 5: D one route to finally end up graduating and getting
Speaker 5: an opportunity to get into this business.
Speaker 3: You are, you know, I always say. For me, I
Speaker 3: felt like I was so lucky and that I had
Speaker 3: so many mentors when I was really young when I
Speaker 3: started out, and so I love being older now and
Speaker 3: I've always loved being a mentor when I can. But
Speaker 3: you are the mentor, like so many people who cover
Speaker 3: the league, you know. Malika Andrews was up there hosting
Speaker 3: the ceremonies on Friday Night, and she was telling everybody
Speaker 3: stories of you mentoring her when she was just a
Speaker 3: college student. What do you remember about when Chris Haynes
Speaker 3: blipped onto your radar?
Speaker 5: Man, No, Christians story is really interesting and I don't
Speaker 5: know if it's really documented. I think you might have
Speaker 5: talked about it once. I mean, you do so many
Speaker 5: podcasts you probably I can't keep up.
Speaker 4: I remember.
Speaker 5: So the interesting thing about Chris was like he just
Speaker 5: showed up around out of nowhere in Portland and it's
Speaker 5: just like brother in the locker room and Wide Eye Bush,
Speaker 5: you tell dude. And he made you pay attention because
Speaker 5: he was getting these scoops from Dame and CJ. Like
Speaker 5: he's like, you know, you're on hoops HIPing like Chris Haynes.
Speaker 5: They hell is Chris Hanes? Like where's he getting this information?
Speaker 3: I'm going to tell the Quincy pondexter story after.
Speaker 5: This and so but in a lot of ways, he
Speaker 5: was able to figure out a way to break news
Speaker 5: from the Portland Beat and you were like working for
Speaker 5: SLAM as a part time dude, right, and so he's
Speaker 5: breaking these news and it made you pay attention to like,
Speaker 5: all right, who's this this this cat, like who is
Speaker 5: Chris Hayes, right, Like you know, like who is Jill Scott?
Speaker 4: Who's Chris Hages Like We're trying to figure this out, right.
Speaker 5: So then I'm going to some games there and we met,
Speaker 5: and I mean, Chris probably could tell this portion better.
Speaker 5: I was encouraging him to be a part of n
Speaker 5: NBJ and what can I do to help you? And
Speaker 5: his ability to break news eventually gave him an opportunity
Speaker 5: with NBC Northwest And that's when you know, you start
Speaker 5: seeing on TV and he starts bringing out is his
Speaker 5: comedic personality and you know, starts talking crazy and all that.
Speaker 5: But he had scoop, he had news, and so I
Speaker 5: don't know if this story has ever been told, Like
Speaker 5: Lebron goes back to Cleveland and Chris and I talk
Speaker 5: about the Cavaliers be and at that time I was
Speaker 5: Charita n ABJS Sports Task Force, which is basically the
Speaker 5: Black Sports Writers Group, and Chris correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 5: I was like, Chris, you got to get this job, man,
Speaker 5: you got this job at the Plaine Dealer comes and
Speaker 5: you need to apply and I'm gonna put in a
Speaker 5: word for you. And he applied and ended up getting it.
Speaker 5: And you got to remember that Chris wasn't coming from
Speaker 5: the typical newspaper background, and so I told Chris, I
Speaker 5: don't know if anybody else is Chris.
Speaker 4: So I said, Chris, I.
Speaker 6: Didn't want to do it too. I did not want
Speaker 6: to do it, But go ahead.
Speaker 5: Chris, can you write on deadline? Because he hadn't had
Speaker 5: to do it, he was writing for a website and
Speaker 5: then writing for him.
Speaker 4: I like, but do you know how to write game
Speaker 4: stories on deadline? He's like no.
Speaker 5: I said, well, you can't go there and not know
Speaker 5: how to write stories on deadline.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 5: He's like, oh man, I'm like, look, I want you to,
Speaker 5: like all these Summer League games you're going to, whether
Speaker 5: you're at home or whether you're there, I want you
Speaker 5: to write deadline on these Summer League games as if
Speaker 5: you're covering them.
Speaker 6: So Stein, I'm pissed because because I went to Summer League,
Speaker 6: but I'm transitioning to covering the CAF. So I technically
Speaker 6: didn't have to work. So my plan was to be
Speaker 6: in Summer League, at Summer League in Vegas and network
Speaker 6: and just like talk talk to people. But Spears was
Speaker 6: like no, I need you to write like send me
Speaker 6: gamers right at the buzzer for some of the some
Speaker 6: of the games which required me to go to games
Speaker 6: that I had no desire to go see or watch
Speaker 6: and go do it. But I know I did it
Speaker 6: because it was right. I never was I was never
Speaker 6: on deadline.
Speaker 3: That is an awesome big brother thing to do, though,
Speaker 3: to make you do that.
Speaker 4: You know that you know that story.
Speaker 3: I never I never knew that story.
Speaker 5: He did it, He did it. He did more than
Speaker 5: three or four games I think he did.
Speaker 3: Yeah, with quotes and with quotes and everything.
Speaker 4: Like, oh yeah, I made him updated with quotes.
Speaker 5: Yeah maybe yeah, maybe turn the game are in like
Speaker 5: real inside baseball stuff.
Speaker 3: But this is no I'm sure young journalism students want
Speaker 3: to hear this.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so he you know, because if you don't know,
Speaker 5: it's easy to say, yeah, I want to go cover
Speaker 5: this team and whatever. But you got to learn how
Speaker 5: to write on deadline if you're writing for a newspaper
Speaker 5: or writing for a place that covers a team, because
Speaker 5: you got it. So that was the one piece that
Speaker 5: he had to learn. Like he knew how to write
Speaker 5: a feature story. He knew how to write a news story.
Speaker 5: But Stern, you know this, that's coming up in the
Speaker 5: newspaper ranks. If he couldn't write on deadline, those editors,
Speaker 5: those copy editors, would have destroyed him, absolutely destroyed him
Speaker 5: and perhaps even destroyed his career. So then he did it,
Speaker 5: kept getting better, mastered it, so by the time he
Speaker 5: got to Cleveland it was an issue. They didn't even know.
Speaker 3: I promise you, if any of my former editors are listing,
Speaker 3: they'll say Stein never learned how to write on it.
Speaker 3: That's a bomb for David. That's really that's really good.
Speaker 1: No, never told that story. Yeah he did.
Speaker 3: And how did you do? How? How did you did
Speaker 3: you pick it up quick?
Speaker 6: I wouldn't say I picked it up quick because it
Speaker 6: was it was definitely a learning experience.
Speaker 1: I didn't. It's tough, like especially like some games.
Speaker 6: And this is where I realized, like the process of
Speaker 6: writing stories at the Buzzer is that some games.
Speaker 1: Sometimes most games, you probably had to have.
Speaker 6: A good feel who's going to win, and so you
Speaker 6: could kind of build seventy five percent of your your
Speaker 6: article probably by the end of you know, by the
Speaker 6: start the fourth quarter. But the problem is when that
Speaker 6: game is back and forth, especially in the last minutes
Speaker 6: of the game. You're doing a lot of deleting, a
Speaker 6: lot of correcting, and it gets tough, and those are
Speaker 6: the tough, toughest games. And so that's what I found
Speaker 6: out during Summer League, Like, damn, okay, I'm going to
Speaker 6: have to figure out how to get better at these
Speaker 6: games that are close to the end, because you know,
Speaker 6: you you have to highlight key moments during the game,
Speaker 6: but when a moment is so when a game is
Speaker 6: going back and forth, you really don't know what that
Speaker 6: key moment is until the end of the game.
Speaker 1: And so that that that definitely helped me. I wasn't prepared.
Speaker 1: I didn't have that experience before.
Speaker 5: And could you imagine taking the starting that job and
Speaker 5: being green on that No.
Speaker 3: Well, his I mean, Chris, Chris's story should be a movie.
Speaker 3: I mean that what you what you know, how you
Speaker 3: broke in. I mean, I've never heard a story like Bodyguard. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, because again I think I think I think
Speaker 3: we were I think we were lucky that at least
Speaker 3: we had the path. Again, there were no guarantees, but
Speaker 3: you know, you started out answering phones, covering high schools
Speaker 3: and you knew how to work your way up and
Speaker 3: you know, with survival of the fitness from there. But
Speaker 3: at least there was a path. I feel so sad
Speaker 3: when I talk to college kids now because there is
Speaker 3: no clear cut path. There is no Mark Purty to
Speaker 3: even write to it. Most of the newspaper staffs.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna disagree with you with that, because you know
Speaker 5: you'd be glum talking to these kids. Man, I gotta
Speaker 5: get you to perk up. He was coming in with
Speaker 5: this black cloud, you know what I mean. Like you're
Speaker 5: doing quite well. I'm doing quite well, Broke bro Like
Speaker 5: there's a path. But I actually think it's easier for
Speaker 5: these kids now because they can blindly send me an
Speaker 5: email on or a message on Instagram.
Speaker 4: They could blindly go to LinkedIn and I'm not a LinkedIn.
Speaker 5: Person, but hit me there and perhaps I you know,
Speaker 5: but there have been conversations I've had with kids who
Speaker 5: send me a message on Instagram or send me a
Speaker 5: tweed or something like that. And there been times where
Speaker 5: you know, we all get quite busy, but it's that
Speaker 5: the squeaky wheel person. Hey man, hey man, I'm here.
Speaker 5: That typically I'm the one, they're the one. I end up,
Speaker 5: you know, getting on the phone with when it's it's
Speaker 5: difficult to get on the phone.
Speaker 4: But there is like this.
Speaker 5: Mark Purty guilt that I always have, like it's their
Speaker 5: access to us is so easy. Now you can't I
Speaker 5: can't talk to fifty people, right, Yeah, So I hope
Speaker 5: it's like podcasts like this or other things that like
Speaker 5: they have the ability now to go on Google and
Speaker 5: or YouTube and hear Stein's story, hear my story here,
Speaker 5: Chris's story, And even if they don't get a chance
Speaker 5: to speak to us, there's so many ways that they
Speaker 5: could hear be inspired by what we did.
Speaker 1: Let me start, let me add this.
Speaker 6: Yeah, a couple more on background with Spears and how
Speaker 6: we met. We actually we actually I emailed Spears and
Speaker 6: before I was this is my bodyguard stage, so it's
Speaker 6: my bodyguard fade. So I actually emailed Spears and tell
Speaker 6: him about what I wanted to do. And he was
Speaker 6: the first one that told me about in ABJ National
Speaker 6: Association Black Journalists like coming to the convention. And I've
Speaker 6: never heard of it before, so first time I've heard
Speaker 6: about it. So I actually met him in person at
Speaker 6: INABJ twenty ten.
Speaker 1: Hey, remember Philadelphia.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: So the reason I'm gonna tell you why it's important,
Speaker 6: that why that always sticks. So coming from where I
Speaker 6: came from in Fresno, Spears no like I'm a Spears is.
Speaker 1: I call Spears Boogie. We all call him boogie. He's Boogie.
Speaker 1: I'm the mom and pop shot.
Speaker 6: Like when I go to a certain plate, when I
Speaker 6: go to certain cities, I want to go to the hood.
Speaker 6: I want to go to the mom and pop shot.
Speaker 6: That's just where I'm come. I'm comfortable in those places.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. That's just me.
Speaker 6: Spears has got you knows as he's gotten bigger and
Speaker 6: pockets got bigger.
Speaker 1: You know, he's expanded, hish his palette.
Speaker 4: I haven't.
Speaker 1: My palette is still minimized, still limited, vegetable. I got
Speaker 1: some letters on it now I got let.
Speaker 6: But I actually met him at n ANBJ and when
Speaker 6: I went that's the first time I met him. I
Speaker 6: when I I remember, I remember I went to him
Speaker 6: and he just had this big smile.
Speaker 1: Because you don't know, like.
Speaker 6: These people you look up to and you see writing
Speaker 6: these big stories, getting all these breaking these news, getting
Speaker 6: all these exclusive interviews, because that's what Spears was like
Speaker 6: Spears when you know Stein Spears would come to you.
Speaker 6: I would look at before I knew him, before he
Speaker 6: knew me. I would I see him from afar. How
Speaker 6: he would just go to all these different NBA teams,
Speaker 6: show up at a practice, and the teams just let
Speaker 6: him walk anywhere you wanted to walk, He'll go talk
Speaker 6: to you. He'll just pull anybody to the side, like
Speaker 6: pool players that don't usually talk to media, and you
Speaker 6: just see like the pool yeah, and I'm like, damn, like,
Speaker 6: how does dude get like this?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
Speaker 6: So Philadelphia running to him and he has this big smile,
Speaker 6: hugs me, you know he you knows big and he
Speaker 6: hugs you. And he was just really embracing and that
Speaker 6: being at that convention, that's where we exchange phone numbers,
Speaker 6: and I took a picture and I still got that picture.
Speaker 6: I still got the pictures my first time. Yeah, I
Speaker 6: got the picture. I'll send it. I'll send it to you,
Speaker 6: both of you guys. And he would ask me how
Speaker 6: did I enjoy myself and my liking it? And one
Speaker 6: thing stile When I was at this convention, I'm twenty
Speaker 6: eight at the time and when I was there, running
Speaker 6: into Spears, running into Jamil or steven A. I've never
Speaker 6: seen so many black people dressed up and looking good
Speaker 6: in suits and professional people, not just that they were
Speaker 6: all so welcoming. And I've never been around my people
Speaker 6: in that type of environment, you know.
Speaker 1: And so it just and then not just that, Spears.
Speaker 6: I don't know if I told you this, but when
Speaker 6: I went where I come from, it's normal for us
Speaker 6: to graduate college at twenty eight or thirty.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, Like that's normal. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: You start college, you may take some time off, deal
Speaker 6: with life, you come back whatever. So when I went
Speaker 6: to NABJ, I'm seeing I call them kids. They twenty
Speaker 6: two to twenty three, and they were already working at ESPN,
Speaker 6: and they had these jobs that I've never heard about,
Speaker 6: like behind the scenes jobs. And I left that convention
Speaker 6: so motivated. I left it so motivated I left. I
Speaker 6: left kind of heartbreaking because I felt like I wasted
Speaker 6: majority of my twenties. But I left just even more inspired.
Speaker 6: And that's because Spears told me to go, and I
Speaker 6: got to see how how it is that we could live.
Speaker 6: And then six months later that's what I really did
Speaker 6: get my got the Portland job. And so it was
Speaker 6: because of Spears telling me to go to that. It
Speaker 6: was because of Spears, the the then the welcoming embrace
Speaker 6: that he gave me, and not just me, he gives
Speaker 6: that to everybody, as you mentioned, Star, And that's the
Speaker 6: tough part. That's where I feel guilty at because Spears
Speaker 6: is somebody came at our store yesterday.
Speaker 1: Spears, who was that?
Speaker 5: It was?
Speaker 6: Some woman came at our store yesterday, Star, I kid
Speaker 6: you not came at our store yesterday.
Speaker 4: It was a store.
Speaker 1: I'm plugging too big ties.
Speaker 3: Everyone who listens to this show knows about Charlene's beauty
Speaker 3: supply in Elk Grounds, California. Everybody knows anybody goes to Sack.
Speaker 1: We did a live pod there. They're doing that the stories.
Speaker 3: But what Channel Channel ten does like a running feature
Speaker 3: every week.
Speaker 1: But you could tell.
Speaker 5: I forgot the lady's name, Ashley Jones.
Speaker 6: She came into the store and she was telling my wife, Hey,
Speaker 6: Mark Spears is my guy.
Speaker 1: It's caught my my wife off guard, like.
Speaker 6: You know, he's my my mentor, you know, he told
Speaker 6: me to come through here.
Speaker 1: And she brought her mom in there.
Speaker 6: Then I just so happened to walk in the store
Speaker 6: while they were there shopping. Then she came to me
Speaker 6: and tell me Mark Spears, and I'm just like, That's
Speaker 6: the part I feel guilty about Stein is that, you know,
Speaker 6: I know, the the interaction that me and Spears had
Speaker 6: and this you know we first met, but he has
Speaker 6: that with hundreds of people, and I am bad at
Speaker 6: getting back to people, you know, on this mentoring game.
Speaker 6: And I know how much it helped me to ask
Speaker 6: Spears look out for me. And it's tough like that,
Speaker 6: I know, I know, it's just it's tough, man. It's tough.
Speaker 1: So that's where I always feel guilty at.
Speaker 6: And I pay homage for him because he does he
Speaker 6: does that part of the business so well.
Speaker 3: The legendary Mark Spears newly minted Kurt Goudy Award winner,
Speaker 3: Basketball Hall of Fame's highest honor for a reporter. Ceremony
Speaker 3: was just Friday. You got your ring. What's the story?
Speaker 3: I'm sure everybody asked you the same question. You know,
Speaker 3: what's the first thing you tell people about the weekend?
Speaker 3: What's what comes to you? I mean, there's so many
Speaker 3: things you run into so many these great players. And
Speaker 3: that's what, Like, you know, I was giving you a
Speaker 3: hard time during the ceremony, like Artist Gilmore is sitting
Speaker 3: behind you, and like Artist Gilmore doesn't doesn't say, you know,
Speaker 3: I can't say that I've ever had any extensive conversations
Speaker 3: with him.
Speaker 5: A but Artist gilbour real quick. They had this, you know,
Speaker 5: they had this room that you go in before, like
Speaker 5: this VIP room. Right, So I going in there and
Speaker 5: I get there early, like my wife's not even ready yet, right, Like,
Speaker 5: I go in there by myself because I want to,
Speaker 5: Like I told her, I'm like I gotta squeeze all
Speaker 5: this in because I got access, right, like, I gotta
Speaker 5: get as much as so I get there early.
Speaker 4: And the only people there, like.
Speaker 5: He's there, and Artist Gilmore is there, and again, what's
Speaker 5: my man?
Speaker 4: Calvin Murphy? Calvin Mury probably got there in the morning, right.
Speaker 3: God, he looks good. How does he look so good
Speaker 3: at his age?
Speaker 5: So Artist Gilmore came and like I was sitting at
Speaker 5: this table getting I got some food and some waters
Speaker 5: and stuff, and he sat down and I tried to
Speaker 5: engage with him, told him who I was.
Speaker 4: He had no idea who I was and tried.
Speaker 5: To engage with him about some ABA stories that Danisel
Speaker 5: told me.
Speaker 4: He'm interested, But I took a picture with you know
Speaker 4: what I mean.
Speaker 3: I mean it's just.
Speaker 5: About is like I had extra seats at my table
Speaker 5: so him and his boy could sit there. And it
Speaker 5: was actually kind of funny because I think it was
Speaker 5: his brother in law. I know, artist gilboy might be
Speaker 5: bad I tell this story, but his brother in law
Speaker 5: is like, man, all these all these Hall favorites coming
Speaker 5: in here, I gotta take pictures. Act like you've been
Speaker 5: here before. Man, Act like you don't need to take
Speaker 5: pictures with nobody. These were like, these are like dudes
Speaker 5: my dad's age, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: He like, he's like, yeah, you're right, You're right, You're right.
Speaker 4: Like to see Tony.
Speaker 5: Tony gave me a lot of love and Henri, my
Speaker 5: Arsenal brother, the Arsenal legend. He was there and we
Speaker 5: talked a lot about his Galazzo show. Chris doesn't know
Speaker 5: what we're talking about.
Speaker 4: Stott.
Speaker 3: You know that's awesome. I didn't know you get to
Speaker 3: see him. I only saw him for a brief seton
Speaker 3: so you didn't get some time. Yeah, that's awesome. Carry
Speaker 3: on read the legend part of Tony Parker's party celebrating Tony's.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you know, Dwayne Wade showed me a lot
Speaker 4: of love.
Speaker 5: So that was like cool, but it's weird because Chris,
Speaker 5: you would have tripped out seeing this.
Speaker 4: So I take the escalator down, and I'm like, you.
Speaker 5: Know you when you say this speech, like I had
Speaker 5: to be on I felt like I was going on TV.
Speaker 5: I was going on TV, like, but I felt like
Speaker 5: I had to be mentally right.
Speaker 4: I had to, you know, have my glasses be ready.
Speaker 5: Felt like I had to turn the energy up, and
Speaker 5: so I wasn't in like a real like shake hand,
Speaker 5: kiss baby mode at that time.
Speaker 4: But I take the escalator down. In the first pylon.
Speaker 5: Is my picture on it, Like you know, we had
Speaker 5: this picture of me, but it's the first thing you
Speaker 5: saw when you went down into Friday ceremony.
Speaker 4: So that was a trip. Like I don't know what
Speaker 4: they did with it.
Speaker 5: I wish I had at it, like, but that was
Speaker 5: that's when it like really hit that it was real.
Speaker 5: But perhaps the biggest thing was just I think my
Speaker 5: mom just getting the ability to tell my mom thank
Speaker 5: you in front of a national audience is like great,
Speaker 5: you know for her to And that's funny because Artist
Speaker 5: Gilmore sitting behind me, so I think you figured out
Speaker 5: who I was afterwards.
Speaker 3: Yeah, now you know he's before Chris. Chris once made
Speaker 3: me upset on this show because he The White Shadow
Speaker 3: was before his time and he was not He was
Speaker 3: not up to speed on the greatness of my favorite
Speaker 3: ever television show. So, like I always say, Artist Gilmore
Speaker 3: might have been in like one episode in three seasons.
Speaker 3: I don't even know if he was in that. But
Speaker 3: like Artist Gilmore was constantly talked about on The White
Speaker 3: Shadow because Coach Reeves was a fictional Chicago bull. So
Speaker 3: Artist gil or his royalty even even if he didn't
Speaker 3: give you the warmest of embraces.
Speaker 5: But you know, my my cousin, do you know you're
Speaker 5: familiar with uh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, someone actually just I didn't know that story, but
Speaker 3: you tell the story. But someone actually just told me
Speaker 3: that Washburn told me about this.
Speaker 5: So Curtis Jackson on The White Shadow played by Eric
Speaker 5: Kilpatrick is married to my cousin Christine. Amazing, who was that?
Speaker 5: Who was there? She came to the Hall of Fame stuff.
Speaker 4: That's dope.
Speaker 5: So like when when Gary met on he you know,
Speaker 5: you know washes, Hey, he takes pictures with all the
Speaker 5: like blaxploitation actors.
Speaker 3: Well, he didn't tell me. He didn't tell me he
Speaker 3: took a picture. He left that part out. Well I
Speaker 3: would have too, for sure.
Speaker 5: Like take the picture with the dude from the chef,
Speaker 5: you know, and which way is up?
Speaker 4: All the old Arnold will let's.
Speaker 5: See take pictures with dev you know, surely from what
Speaker 5: happened rerun, Dwayne.
Speaker 3: I mean, that was my other favorite show besides White Shadow.
Speaker 1: Okay, a star our Street cred right.
Speaker 3: There, don't make me start doing lines from the show Spirits.
Speaker 6: I know you didn't think about entering the Hall of
Speaker 6: Fame in this capacity.
Speaker 1: I don't know if this was a goal of yours.
Speaker 6: But aside from that, was there a moment in your
Speaker 6: career were you, like if not thought you had a
Speaker 6: chance at this, at getting into this, But was there
Speaker 6: a moment of your career where you realize like, yeah,
Speaker 6: I made it, like great things might be in store,
Speaker 6: Like was there any point.
Speaker 4: You know you're gonna laugh at this?
Speaker 5: I thought, And when I'm when I say this, you're
Speaker 5: not gonna think it's not shade, it's actually respect. Right
Speaker 5: when Stein made it, I said, man, maybe I might
Speaker 5: have a shot in like eight to ten years, because
Speaker 5: because I like, he's my the beginning of my generation, right,
Speaker 5: because Stein been covering it since what.
Speaker 3: Six No, I'm sorry, ninety three, No, ninety three, ninety four,
Speaker 3: So this high season, this season coming up is thirty
Speaker 3: one for me.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And so I started six years after him. So
Speaker 5: when Stein made it, which I expected him to make it,
Speaker 5: but when he made it, I'm like, maybe I might
Speaker 5: have a shot in like eight five to ten years
Speaker 5: something like that, I might have a shot. So I
Speaker 5: was super excited for him when he got in. He's
Speaker 5: got the humility of people in the Bible, you know
Speaker 5: what I mean, just got some of the greatest humility
Speaker 5: I've ever seen. And a lot of people don't know that.
Speaker 5: Me and Mark and I don't know. You know this, Chris,
Speaker 5: we worked together at the LA So I was at
Speaker 5: the LA Daily News very briefly, like ninety seven and
Speaker 5: ninety eight. Stein was covering the Lakers, Washington was covering
Speaker 5: to Clippers, and then I was covering the Angels and
Speaker 5: the Dodgers and backup on and covered cal State Northridge
Speaker 5: football and basketball and sold the crazy thing about that
Speaker 5: is like stein Lee's and they brought remember Howard Becken
Speaker 5: in to cover the Lakers, and you know, I think
Speaker 5: Gary and I were.
Speaker 4: Hoping We're gonna get bumped up.
Speaker 5: Didn't happen, and then Gary and I eventually left. But
Speaker 5: I realized while covering that Cal State Northridge basketball that
Speaker 5: baseball was I was at an Angels game and I
Speaker 5: remember a guy was calling pitches, you know what I mean,
Speaker 5: stein Like. He was like, that's a curveball, that's a slider,
Speaker 5: that's a sinker. And I'm like, how do you know
Speaker 5: these pitches? And he's like, oh, I played college baseball.
Speaker 5: So I'm like, why am I covering baseball? I need
Speaker 5: to cover basketball, That's.
Speaker 4: What I know.
Speaker 5: And I was enjoying. I had just covered Arkansas Nolan
Speaker 5: Richardson and then so now I'm covering cal State northadge
Speaker 5: in the Big Sky, going to games in Montana, Montana, State,
Speaker 5: Northern Arizona, Eastern Washington. And I enjoyed that more than
Speaker 5: I love cover Major League baseball. And that's why I
Speaker 5: left and went to Louisville Kentucky to cover college basketball.
Speaker 5: So it wasn't even really an NBA dream at first.
Speaker 5: It was just a basketball dream. So I was covering,
Speaker 5: you know, I was a general assignment reporter and Louisville, Kentucky,
Speaker 5: which basically means I generally signed to do whatever the
Speaker 5: hell they wanted me to do. I did everything from
Speaker 5: cover a league when he was named athlete is Century
Speaker 5: in Kentucky, to Martin McGuire breaking the home run record,
Speaker 5: to University of Louisville's women volleyball and some auto race
Speaker 5: where I was the only black person there and the
Speaker 5: pre race meal was fried chicken.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I ended up doing all.
Speaker 5: I broke this Tim Couch going to the NFL story
Speaker 5: and met Michael Eves at that time, and I'm doing
Speaker 5: a lot of Kentucky and Louisville football and basketball, and
Speaker 5: I'm like, okay. They had and Stein knows her Ashley
Speaker 5: mcgahe was covering University of Louisville women's men's and women's
Speaker 5: i mean football and men's basketball at the time, so
Speaker 5: she was leaving to cover the Sixers and they were
Speaker 5: going to promote me to cover U of L full time.
Speaker 4: Danny Crumb was the head coach. I was like, cool,
Speaker 4: this is great.
Speaker 5: And then Neil Scarborough was sports hittor at the Denver Post,
Speaker 5: who I met at NABJ, called me and said, how
Speaker 5: you like it there in Louisvull. I'm like, oh, man,
Speaker 5: it's cool getting my feet wet. And he's like, you're
Speaker 5: interested in coming to Denver Nuggets And I'm like, when
Speaker 5: can I leave? And I didn't really have I had
Speaker 5: basketball dreams, I didn't necessarily have NBA dreams, and I
Speaker 5: had to get Brad Turner credit Brad Turner covering the
Speaker 5: NBA forever for the LA Times. I talked to Brad
Speaker 5: about it and he's like, yeah, man, you got to
Speaker 5: make that move. You got to make that move. And
Speaker 5: so you know, I started covering the NBA at the
Speaker 5: Denver Post and the great Mike Monroe, man like from
Speaker 5: the day I got there, he put his arm around
Speaker 5: me and was a big brother to me. And you know,
Speaker 5: legendary rider who should certainly be in the Hall of
Speaker 5: Fame as well. Yes, for sure, so he he certainly
Speaker 5: could have been a jealous dude, which I faced from
Speaker 5: other people and didn't want to help the only thing
Speaker 5: the funny thing though. The first game Chris like the
Speaker 5: Nuggets lost about like forty and he's like, this is
Speaker 5: your team now?
Speaker 4: He was the NBA, right, was that that.
Speaker 3: Was d'An toni coaching?
Speaker 4: Then?
Speaker 6: No, this was ninety season after so Moreau was in
Speaker 6: Denver before San Antonio.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker 3: But it's so funny. It's so funny about Monroe because
Speaker 3: in those days, Monroe was inseparable with all the Texas writers.
Speaker 3: He wasn't in Texas yet, but it's like you only
Speaker 3: you only ever saw him with David Moore from the
Speaker 3: Dallas Murray News and fran Blindberry from the Houston Chronicle
Speaker 3: and Back Harvey from the San Antonio Express News. So
Speaker 3: Scott Howard, Scott, Howard Cooper and I won the Laker
Speaker 3: beet in Dallas.
Speaker 4: Don't forget him?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Brad Townsend, No.
Speaker 4: No, another one covers the maths now.
Speaker 3: Price Oh, d Moore and Brad Townsend were the Morning News,
Speaker 3: got no and cepco and yeah, so Howard Cooper and
Speaker 3: I covered the Lakers. We used to call them the
Speaker 3: Texas Mafia. And even though Monroe was in Denver, he
Speaker 3: was he was part of it because he was he
Speaker 3: was always with them, and then of course ended up
Speaker 3: in San Antonio himself.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, no Monroe.
Speaker 3: I called Monroe Monroe.
Speaker 5: He was He was of huge help to me and
Speaker 5: I love him dearly man, and just never was anything
Speaker 5: but helpful. Never once an ounce of like hate or
Speaker 5: this kid or nothing like that.
Speaker 3: Actually, now you just sparked. You sparked a question that
Speaker 3: I have to ask you, So I'm not going to
Speaker 3: go too deep in the details, but the Denver Post
Speaker 3: and the Rocky Mountain News in those days did not
Speaker 3: love each other, and so you come in, how did
Speaker 3: you How did you deal with that? Because the stories
Speaker 3: that I was told was that the papers sitting next
Speaker 3: to each other at Nuggets games would not would not
Speaker 3: necessarily even utter a word to each other.
Speaker 4: No, I definitely hated Jim that.
Speaker 1: I thought.
Speaker 6: You know, I wasn't expecting that, er, Chris, you should.
Speaker 3: This was like there were rivalries, and you know, we
Speaker 3: all have our own rivalries, but you know, this is
Speaker 3: the beat. Writers live with each other, they travel every day.
Speaker 4: But but there was.
Speaker 3: There was no discussion between the newspapers.
Speaker 5: When I first got there, there was a writer who
Speaker 5: no end up being a great calmness, but he was
Speaker 5: covering the beat. I won't say his name, but he
Speaker 5: his main guy was George McLeod. George McLeod was giving
Speaker 5: him all that fault and I was like, I'm gonna
Speaker 5: get him. Go a vent ex mcd's McLeod. Everybody raife
Speaker 5: and I was able to get in with everybody quickly,
Speaker 5: but he was only like close to George, and so
Speaker 5: he used to always tell me, what, you're a players guy,
Speaker 5: You're a players guy. It was like his assive aggressive
Speaker 5: way of yeah, yeah, you know you've been here where
Speaker 5: He's like, why why should I feel guilty because the
Speaker 5: players are giving me information like I mean Dan, and
Speaker 5: so what is my guy now?
Speaker 4: But at that time he won't.
Speaker 5: Get me nothing right like and but you know how
Speaker 5: it is like why do I need them when I
Speaker 5: could just get it from the players. And so the
Speaker 5: guy would constantly say you're a player's guy, You're a
Speaker 5: player's guy.
Speaker 4: I knew that was hate. I didn't care.
Speaker 5: I kept being a player's guy, and being a players
Speaker 5: guy has going to help me. I don't get into
Speaker 5: the get the gauty without being a players guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah quick, but there was both got we both got
Speaker 3: to cover mister render.
Speaker 4: It was very very interesting.
Speaker 5: I still somewhere have a letter which I should pull
Speaker 5: out where Nick was fined twenty five like fitting on
Speaker 5: fifty thousand dollars for missing coming, missing a shoot around
Speaker 5: and being suspended for a game in Houston. He probably
Speaker 5: was out partying too much the night before. Respect Nick,
Speaker 5: it's just what happened back then. And he got the
Speaker 5: letter and handed it to our columnist Mark Kislin. They
Speaker 5: put the whole letter in the paper. Like, so I
Speaker 5: got the letter signed by Dad, I got to I
Speaker 5: still got it to put it on ebase. Yeah, so
Speaker 5: I got a Dan Issel signed find letter to date's
Speaker 5: vad Exel. But no, that was there were certainly some characters,
Speaker 5: and if you could cover Nick man Exell, you could
Speaker 5: cover anybody man. He was an amazing player. But no,
Speaker 5: the one other incident I have and I won't mention
Speaker 5: this guy's.
Speaker 3: Name either, but such a gentleman.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like Chris, you didn't have to deal with this.
Speaker 5: But right when the Internet was really starting to boom,
Speaker 5: like we still had to send you had to plug
Speaker 5: in to your computer to send your stories, like we
Speaker 5: weren't emailing, they weren't.
Speaker 4: Wireless, yet they had wireless chords.
Speaker 5: So this one guy from that other paper, he would
Speaker 5: come early and purposely just plug his computer in to
Speaker 5: the core to not share it. They were like, basically,
Speaker 5: we had to share a hardline. What do they call
Speaker 5: those lines? We still have them? Yes, yeah, to get online, right,
Speaker 5: we had to share it. But he wouldn't share. He
Speaker 5: would take it the whole damn game. And he would
Speaker 5: do this over and over and over again. So I
Speaker 5: would always have to like on deadline, going to back
Speaker 5: and send my story in because he acted like he
Speaker 5: owned the line. So one time I damn near missed
Speaker 5: the deadline in Houston because he he was like I'm
Speaker 5: about to say, I'm about to saying I'm about to send,
Speaker 5: and he didn't sin, and I waited like two or
Speaker 5: three minutes waiting for him, and I was basically like, man,
Speaker 5: this is some bs. You got to stop doing this. Man,
Speaker 5: this ain't cool. And I went in the back and sent.
Speaker 5: So then we went to Seattle. I've never told this too.
Speaker 5: I don't a lot.
Speaker 1: You hal there, go ahead.
Speaker 5: So and if he's hearing it now, you'll know why
Speaker 5: I did We go to Seattle, and I remember this
Speaker 5: is when I was still a fan of the Traders
Speaker 5: before they move. And it was the same day as
Speaker 5: the Tuck Rule game, because I'm watching the Tuck Rule
Speaker 5: on the TV as the Seattle Nuggets game is going on,
Speaker 5: and Earl Boykins had this amazing game where he scored
Speaker 5: fifteen points in overtime.
Speaker 4: It might be a NBA record.
Speaker 5: Still, I don't know to win the game, and so
Speaker 5: the deadlines passed. This dude won't give up the line again.
Speaker 5: I'm in sense, bro, I'm in sense I can't like
Speaker 5: I'm getting yelled at by the desk, and this guy
Speaker 5: won't let me send my story in because he's like
Speaker 5: I'm about to say, I'm about to send I'm about
Speaker 5: to like he owns this line. Yeah yeah, So I
Speaker 5: just I lose it. I going back. I send my story.
Speaker 5: We go to the locker room and I cursed him out.
Speaker 5: I like lost to Chris, very out of character for
Speaker 5: me better.
Speaker 4: I cursed the.
Speaker 5: Job and just basically I don't even want to repeat
Speaker 5: everything I said, but everything I was holding in it
Speaker 5: came out. That was like the second time, like you're
Speaker 5: affecting my job. You're affecting my ability to do my job.
Speaker 5: You're being selfish. And I let him know, and all
Speaker 5: I remember is about stor remember this that this just
Speaker 5: like Clipper Daryl. The Sonics had like a Clipper Daryl
Speaker 5: caught of dude. He was like six ' two, probably
Speaker 5: like three p fifty guys, and he was always like
Speaker 5: just joking and making jokes.
Speaker 4: And so this is apology to the dude. Right.
Speaker 5: He comes up, He's like, hey, guys, what you what
Speaker 5: is and sold this argument blah blah blah.
Speaker 4: And I'm like, shut up, Shrek, this is none of
Speaker 4: your business. Did you hear that story?
Speaker 3: I told the fan that, man, I'm like, shut.
Speaker 4: Up, ain't none of your damn business.
Speaker 3: Thank god there was no Twitter to end up on Twitter.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so he ended up like and he like walked
Speaker 7: away and everything, and then Jeff Buzzdelic walked out and
Speaker 7: it was just like, dude, all right, I got it
Speaker 7: out of my system, went up by day, never had
Speaker 7: an issue ever again.
Speaker 1: Right, he never had a problem again.
Speaker 5: Well, so the next day I get home, I get
Speaker 5: called into the office.
Speaker 4: By my editor, Greg Moore. I never told this story.
Speaker 4: I don't care what they gonna do now. It was
Speaker 4: difficult to bed rock. He gonna be mad. So Greg
Speaker 4: Boy breaks me.
Speaker 5: Into his office and he's like, yeah, you know this
Speaker 5: guy he said that you you know, you screamed and cursed.
Speaker 4: Him out in for the locker room and blah blah blah.
Speaker 4: I did.
Speaker 5: It's like, well, you can't do that, and you know
Speaker 5: you could face the suspension and blah blah blah.
Speaker 4: And I'm like, y'all.
Speaker 5: Want me to turn my stories in on time, right.
Speaker 5: You're always on us about turning their story in on
Speaker 5: time and making deadline right. I'm like, this guy is
Speaker 5: keeping me from doing it. It's happened like five times,
Speaker 5: so you want to just keep starting putting stuff in
Speaker 5: late because of this guy. That's why I'm blowing up.
Speaker 5: I'm mad again. Right, And he goes and he told
Speaker 5: me something very very powerful. He goes, all right, it
Speaker 5: ain't not going to happen to you, but from now
Speaker 5: on you can't speak to him. Just do your job
Speaker 5: and you can't speak to him. And so we covered
Speaker 5: the job next to each other for like three more years.
Speaker 4: I never spoke to him. Damn, still haven't spoke to
Speaker 4: him to this day.
Speaker 1: Damn.
Speaker 4: But he was doing other things like.
Speaker 5: Asking players, Chris, you would have been just think about
Speaker 5: all this, Chris, because this is why I built up.
Speaker 4: He was asking players what questions.
Speaker 1: I was, I swear I'll.
Speaker 4: Be what do he ask you about?
Speaker 5: He would we would go to Tim gaelp the PR
Speaker 5: guy or ship Ic Sebashi and ask.
Speaker 4: Him who I was going to interview.
Speaker 5: And then even though he didn't need to talk to
Speaker 5: those people, he would put them on his list too.
Speaker 5: So he was doing a lot of like shady stuff
Speaker 5: and that like just not so all that accumulated and
Speaker 5: I lost it.
Speaker 4: But I know to this day I just saw the
Speaker 4: guy to it the finals. I didn't speak to him.
Speaker 4: I don't speak to them, and.
Speaker 5: And Stein knows who it is newspapers and and but
Speaker 5: it just showed me, like the power you have and
Speaker 5: turning somebody off mm hm, the point if they don't
Speaker 5: exist to you, then they can't bother you.
Speaker 4: Why did I tell that story? Chris?
Speaker 6: And Joy enjoyed it just as much as I did.
Speaker 3: No, I did. I mean I did not know it
Speaker 3: to that extent. That was not what I expected at all.
Speaker 6: I enjoyed because you know, he had to like he
Speaker 6: had to cut me off from cussing people out a
Speaker 6: few times in the locker room. Man, you know, I'm
Speaker 6: still great. I'm evolving.
Speaker 4: I'm evolving, like I think people understanding the gaming ship of.
Speaker 5: You know, even even like there there's there's parts of
Speaker 5: our industry where like after a game. You know, Chris
Speaker 5: is great at getting one on ones. Stein used to
Speaker 5: mess with me. He's like, oh, you know, Dirk. You know,
Speaker 5: I remember one time I came to Dallas and I
Speaker 5: wanted Dirk and Dirk said to start or justn you're
Speaker 5: jealous if I do it one on one with.
Speaker 3: You know, he liked the job me. He liked to
Speaker 3: make fun of me because Dirk was the guy who
Speaker 3: would give everybody one on ones and so he'd be
Speaker 3: at his locker and he'd be He'd love to like
Speaker 3: look over and go, we're leaving. We're leaving now.
Speaker 5: But but no, there's like there certainly is a gaming
Speaker 5: ship to get one on one interviews, getting the walk off.
Speaker 4: Chris is great.
Speaker 3: Know you two are you? If they ever have a
Speaker 3: Sidle Hall of Fame, the two of you will be
Speaker 3: in it.
Speaker 5: Marcus Thompson, Greg So, Chris and I like last year,
Speaker 5: we both needed k D Kevin Durant, but like we're like,
Speaker 5: all right, which one of us want to go first?
Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
Speaker 5: It was like like we was like we had this
Speaker 5: like yeah, okay, how much time you need?
Speaker 1: How much? Yeah, showed up. We showed up at the
Speaker 1: Kings game.
Speaker 6: You know, well, we only go show up at the
Speaker 6: Keys game if like there's a big team, a big
Speaker 6: star at town.
Speaker 5: They didn't get the Kings respect, no, no, no, But this.
Speaker 1: Is before we didn't know the Kings were like the
Speaker 1: Kings at that point.
Speaker 6: You know, I didn't know I was predicted. I wasn't
Speaker 6: sold yet. So Brooklyn is in town and so be
Speaker 6: e speised each other pre game. I'm like, ship, so.
Speaker 4: You know what I want? How are we going to
Speaker 4: work this out?
Speaker 1: And so we ended up talking about it. We said
Speaker 1: let's go.
Speaker 6: Let's how that KD pregame and so we told KD
Speaker 6: spears like you know, we both need you, and KD
Speaker 6: was like, yeah, I got y'all.
Speaker 1: Afterwards, I got y'all, I got ya.
Speaker 5: And then I was like, Chris, I got to drive
Speaker 5: back to Bay, so I'll let me go first so
Speaker 5: I could go home and he's like, all right.
Speaker 1: And not just that, not just that.
Speaker 6: Remember I took you know, Spears said, there's a gaming
Speaker 6: ship and there's a respect of it. Like that bullshit
Speaker 6: that that reporter pull like asking the players, what did
Speaker 6: he ask you? Like, I get that that that's been
Speaker 6: done to me before, and that's that's some weak ship.
Speaker 6: So when Spears had KD, he had him a long time.
Speaker 6: He had him a long time. But what I did
Speaker 6: was I didn't stand by listening. Yeah, I gave him
Speaker 6: you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Like I didn't because there is still there is still
Speaker 3: a code that still exists, and the code works like this.
Speaker 3: If I walk up and see you speaking to a
Speaker 3: player one on one that's off limits, you stay away.
Speaker 3: You do not uncroach on somebody's one on one. If
Speaker 3: there are two reporters there, now it's open to everybody,
Speaker 3: and we're giving.
Speaker 4: Them a master y'all getting a master's class right now.
Speaker 4: I'll beat right.
Speaker 3: But that's why covering the glory.
Speaker 5: And there has to There has been times where I say, hey, man,
Speaker 5: let me finish first.
Speaker 4: Somebody will walk up, let me finish.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have to end and to be a veteran,
Speaker 1: A veteran, I should know better.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, because some guys know the rule but just
Speaker 3: pretend that they're going to ignore it because they're nervous
Speaker 3: to see player X talking to you for whatever reason.
Speaker 3: But that the Glory Days Warriors, and I got to
Speaker 3: throw a mick on the list too. So it's like
Speaker 3: the Glory We're all trying to sidle these guys after
Speaker 3: every game. Can I get thirty seconds with Steph? Can
Speaker 3: I get a minute with Klay? Can I get Draymond?
Speaker 3: And so it's you two, Thompson and amic all going
Speaker 3: for the sidles, and then me too. There was it
Speaker 3: was a lot.
Speaker 4: It was a.
Speaker 3: Lot, Yeah, but pressures. That was the pressure. How are
Speaker 3: we going to at our title?
Speaker 4: After the game?
Speaker 1: Yeah, he figured out, Yeah, it gets done.
Speaker 4: When we see each other, we'd.
Speaker 1: Be like like, damn god, he come to me.
Speaker 3: That's I'm out. I'm out of that. I'm too I'm
Speaker 3: too old for that nonsense. I can only last season though.
Speaker 5: He did get Anthony Davis, and then Anthony Davis took
Speaker 5: off running. I was waiting on Anthony Davis too.
Speaker 3: Who Haines did.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he got him, and you know you don't know that.
Speaker 3: Where was that a crypto?
Speaker 4: No, that's Sack.
Speaker 1: It's Sack too, But so Sack.
Speaker 3: Is the haven for titles.
Speaker 1: Well, look, this is a part of the game.
Speaker 6: It's like like when I said Spirits had Katie for
Speaker 6: a long time. This is after the game, like he
Speaker 6: had it for a long time. But I'm gonna respect
Speaker 6: my boy's time. You know, just had a protocol period.
Speaker 6: I don't know. Listen, you talked him longer than I did.
Speaker 1: No, I don't. I don't think so.
Speaker 3: But no.
Speaker 6: The reason I say that is because they're on the road,
Speaker 6: and then Katie could be like, no, I just gave
Speaker 6: spears fifteen minutes like Chris, do it tomorrow, Chris, Oh no,
Speaker 6: it was it fell along.
Speaker 1: Waiting. Yeah, I was waiting exactly.
Speaker 5: Felt I actually left some questions on the table because
Speaker 5: I think you were awaiting.
Speaker 1: No, no, I appreciate that.
Speaker 6: But at the same time, like again, I'm not standing
Speaker 6: near trying to listen to every question. Like, so I
Speaker 6: go in so when I get them, I go in
Speaker 6: thinking maybe I'm going to ask the same question. I'm
Speaker 6: not going to ask KD what the spears.
Speaker 4: And were very different if they go.
Speaker 6: Back Yeah, it was different, and I got them on
Speaker 6: something else. But that's that's the protocol. So you know
Speaker 6: this is a message not just to aspiring journalists, but
Speaker 6: even veteran journalists.
Speaker 1: Man, you see.
Speaker 6: Somebody get a one on one, one on one, back up,
Speaker 6: back on? Yeah, because I'm gonna say something spears more
Speaker 6: or the more policy. He's hall of fame. I ain't
Speaker 6: the hall of fame. Yet he can't. He can't get
Speaker 6: away with some things I can get away with. I'm
Speaker 6: gonna say something.
Speaker 4: Like back on.
Speaker 3: But I think George Carl will stop confusing us.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: You know that's another that's another story that Mark Spears
Speaker 3: is six ' six. I'm five nine on a good day,
Speaker 3: and yet coach Carl loves to call you Mark Stein
Speaker 3: and call me Mark Spears.
Speaker 5: And had a guy had a Sacramento game in the playoffs.
Speaker 5: He was yelling at me Stein and I didn't turn
Speaker 5: her around. I just kept walking and he ran up
Speaker 5: to me Mark Stein. I'm like, where is he?
Speaker 4: He's like, what do you mean?
Speaker 3: It's like, I ain't Mark Stein, I'm George Man. I
Speaker 3: got to tell a quick George story. So all the
Speaker 3: years at ESPN, I did the Power Rankings for fifteen years,
Speaker 3: and God bless you there there are certain coaches who
Speaker 3: really liked those Power rankings more than they wanted to admit.
Speaker 3: There are certain coaches who really really read them and
Speaker 3: really got wound up about where I would have them
Speaker 3: on a Monday. And I believe that George Carl was
Speaker 3: one of those readers who did like it and in
Speaker 3: the rankings because I was always trying to be I
Speaker 3: was always trying to get, you know, be you know,
Speaker 3: I had that that Vessey influence where I wanted to
Speaker 3: come up so bad with nicknames because VESSI was the
Speaker 3: king of you know, giving guys nicknames. So I started
Speaker 3: calling him furious George, and I heard through the grapevine
Speaker 3: that he hated it, and he got pissed at me,
Speaker 3: and he hated that I would call him furious George
Speaker 3: and the rankings. So what happens years later when he
Speaker 3: decides to write his own book, what does he call it?
Speaker 1: Furious George?
Speaker 3: That's George Carl one time.
Speaker 4: So George was mad. George was coach of the Nuggets.
Speaker 5: He was mad at Mark Mark Kisler, a calumnists endeaver,
Speaker 5: for something he wrote. And so he kept like acting
Speaker 5: funny towards me, and I finally like lost the widow.
Speaker 5: I'm like, George, is my name, Mark Spears and Mark Kisler?
Speaker 5: Which one is If you got a problem with Kisling,
Speaker 5: then you take that up with Kisling. But if you
Speaker 5: got a problem with me, take it up with me.
Speaker 5: I ain't got a problem with you. And then why
Speaker 5: are you act the funny towards me? Or be passive aggressive?
Speaker 5: Say something to him if you got a problem, you know.
Speaker 1: Good by association.
Speaker 5: But yeah, but Georgia, George was interesting. He certainly could
Speaker 5: you know, you need to do your pregame notebook? Turn your
Speaker 5: notebook in. Nobody was better at filling a notebook than
Speaker 5: him and Doc rivers Man. They could fill up a
Speaker 5: notebook for you. Rey Allen unbelievable with that, you could
Speaker 5: asked Ray Allen. I just saw Ray shout out to
Speaker 5: Rey Allen Man, just one of the greatest professionals I
Speaker 5: ever covered. You could be like Ray today in Turkey
Speaker 5: there was an incident in which, oh, yeah, you know.
Speaker 4: You do it, Ray doing everything.
Speaker 5: You could explained the Pythagoraea theorem to you, right, Realen
Speaker 5: is like the sharpest knife you will meet.
Speaker 6: If going to ask you this, I know the time's
Speaker 6: getting close close to an end, but I wouldn't ask
Speaker 6: you this if if you can name of a player
Speaker 6: like you know, obviously they associate me with Dame and
Speaker 6: you know, I give him a lot of.
Speaker 1: Praise and recognition for you know, my.
Speaker 6: Career trajectory, you know, because it definitely happened when when
Speaker 6: Dane came aboard. Is there a player if like you know,
Speaker 6: how like is it major League Baseball where they go
Speaker 6: into the Hall of Fame they retired with a team. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 6: So if there was a player, yeah, that you would
Speaker 6: say you were most associated with throughout your career, who
Speaker 6: would that one player be?
Speaker 4: I would probably start with Mellow Carmel, That's what That's
Speaker 4: what I was going to say.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I figured answer your own question.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I saw him and I talked to him since
Speaker 5: he retired, so it was really I mean we only
Speaker 5: had like ninety minute conversation, but he you know, I
Speaker 5: told him thank you because because of him, people were
Speaker 5: paying attention to my work.
Speaker 4: The Nuggets weren't really that great.
Speaker 5: They never could get out the first round, but they
Speaker 5: were always in the playoffs. You know, I started covering
Speaker 5: the team in ninety nine. He showed up in two
Speaker 5: thousand and three. They didn't go to the playoffs the
Speaker 5: first four years I was covering. So you know, if
Speaker 5: the tree falls in the forest, is anyone paying attention.
Speaker 5: They paid attention when Mellow came. And I remember when
Speaker 5: I got the job in Boston covering the Big three
Speaker 5: of the Septics, which I don't know people people in
Speaker 5: Boston associate with me with them, you know, because they won.
Speaker 5: And when Garnett says anything is right there, I'm right there.
Speaker 5: I'm always in that moment. But I would definitely say
Speaker 5: ivers Sin and maybe to a lesser extent Steph just
Speaker 5: because I was around, not that I covered the Warriors
Speaker 5: full time, but being in the Bay Area and basically
Speaker 5: being there from his extension to bad Ankles to Superstar.
Speaker 5: Maybe I don't know. Stein Stein could probably better ask
Speaker 5: to that, would you say?
Speaker 3: I would have said Mellow first if someone asked me
Speaker 3: my thought, I would have said Mellow first. But look,
Speaker 3: I mean, you know.
Speaker 1: Dirt, Yeah, of course he's dirt, of course.
Speaker 3: But I always say, if like, you can only tell
Speaker 3: good stories if you're trusted to have access. You know,
Speaker 3: like I've been telling Dirk stories for a week because
Speaker 3: obviously with Dirt getting inducted, I've done ninety five interviews
Speaker 3: about it, and he didn't. These guys don't have to
Speaker 3: let us tag along. And there's a lot of times
Speaker 3: we see stuff in their bad moments, and you know
Speaker 3: that's you have to be grateful for that, because it's
Speaker 3: like you can only tell good stories if you see stuff.
Speaker 6: And speaking of telling stories of the Mark Spears, I
Speaker 6: had the pleasure at this was at the NABJ convention
Speaker 6: here in Birmingham, Alabama, last week or two weeks ago.
Speaker 6: He's telling stories in a different matter now. So I'm
Speaker 6: proud of it. I'm proud of my brother for venturing
Speaker 6: out and doing something. So he's a part of a
Speaker 6: project that's called It's going to drop on Hulu August
Speaker 6: twenty eighth. The series is the Conversations Project, that's the
Speaker 6: name of it. It's gonna be on Hulu drops August
Speaker 6: twenty eighth, And he showed I don't know if this
Speaker 6: was the first episode.
Speaker 1: This the first episode we got to see was a screening.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that BJ. Yeah, I'm glad you saw it.
Speaker 6: First episode, I was there and I was blown away.
Speaker 6: I was blown away by the concept I was. I
Speaker 6: told you, I was blown away by the concept of
Speaker 6: the conversation.
Speaker 1: And basically, I'm gonna let your spears.
Speaker 6: I wanna let you tell tell how this came to
Speaker 6: be and give a little bit more take ustle bit
Speaker 6: more inside of how this project came to be and
Speaker 6: what it's about. But I fell in love with it.
Speaker 6: I can't wait when it comes out. And I'm being like, guys,
Speaker 6: I'm being real, genuine and when I say how much
Speaker 6: I love this first episode that I got to see
Speaker 6: a couple of weeks ago, but stop, I mean spirits.
Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about this.
Speaker 4: It's called a Conversations project.
Speaker 5: And about a year and a half ago, there's a
Speaker 5: friend of mine, uh named Chef David Lawrence who used
Speaker 5: to have this restaurant called thirteen hundred on Philmore kobe
Speaker 5: Ate there lebron Ate there. It's like the greatest soul
Speaker 5: food restaurant I've ever been to you the love it, Chris.
Speaker 5: But it had like swag and atmosphere to it, and
Speaker 5: it was like maybe a little boozie for you. You know,
Speaker 5: they didn't have hot sauce all over the place, but.
Speaker 1: I don't do hot sauce.
Speaker 4: Sp ahead. Yeah.
Speaker 5: But anyways, me and him like developed this TV show
Speaker 5: where we basically initially actually Terrence Mann. I'll give you
Speaker 5: a little secret. Terence Man was in the pilot where
Speaker 5: we basically took him to a vineyard. We interviewed him
Speaker 5: in the vineyard in a tation room at Charles Krook Winery,
Speaker 5: and then the chef brought him into the kitchen and
Speaker 5: curated a meal based on his Caribbean background. And then
Speaker 5: we brought the meal to a roundtable that for a
Speaker 5: dinner discussion and included on Terrence's good friends. Brought Brian Shaw,
Speaker 5: the Clippers assistant, his wife, chef Nikki and also a
Speaker 5: comedian activist w camal Bell and Brene Royale, a black
Speaker 5: woman in the wine industry.
Speaker 4: So then we had the wine. And so we did the.
Speaker 5: Show, and we sent the pilot in and and scaped
Speaker 5: and Hulu said, we just loved the dinner.
Speaker 4: We want to do it with the dinner.
Speaker 5: What I'm gonna say, no, So what they ended up
Speaker 5: doing is along with me and chef, they ended added
Speaker 5: Elaine welter Roth Project Runway at former editor of Team Vogue,
Speaker 5: and basically made it a dinner show that we filmed
Speaker 5: in New York, Long Island City where it's us three
Speaker 5: hosts and like five black people of note of varying
Speaker 5: success and different genres, just having dinner talking. And so
Speaker 5: every episode we highlight a different black owned winery. And
Speaker 5: then we also chef curates this beautiful meal where he
Speaker 5: brings out a dish and every dish is like a
Speaker 5: different topic. So we have an appetizer, we have a
Speaker 5: main course.
Speaker 4: And we have a dessert, and Chris the fool is
Speaker 4: good too.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was really you could tell, yeah, but the
Speaker 5: conversation gets deep. It's a completely black, you know, group,
Speaker 5: doesn't mean people that aren't black can't watch it. I
Speaker 5: think everybody will enjoy it because you're basically taking you
Speaker 5: behind the curtain in the black community and how we
Speaker 5: really feel about good, bad, and and different about what's
Speaker 5: going on in our world. And some of the things
Speaker 5: are really hard to talk about. Some of the things
Speaker 5: are painful, but some of the things are funny and hilarious.
Speaker 5: And Chris got to see episode two and it was
Speaker 5: the first time I got to see it.
Speaker 4: With a crowd of people we watched at.
Speaker 5: The recent NABJ convention, and I was so happy, man,
Speaker 5: because it's like, you're bringing this baby into the world
Speaker 5: and you don't know how people are gonna take it,
Speaker 5: and still don't really until it comes out. All six
Speaker 5: episodes on August twenty eighth on Hulu and internationally on
Speaker 5: Disney Plus.
Speaker 4: But Chris seemed to love it. Everybody seemed to love it.
Speaker 5: And I think it's a different show because it just
Speaker 5: basically bringing a bunch of successful people in room and
Speaker 5: having a very intelligent conversation.
Speaker 4: And I think people need to see black people in
Speaker 4: this light. Man.
Speaker 5: A lot of times we are put in a less
Speaker 5: favorable light, in a ghetto light, in a.
Speaker 4: In a light that makes people like.
Speaker 5: Threatened by us, or you know, or throwing drinks at
Speaker 5: each other, talking crazy. You know, this is like the
Speaker 5: conversations we typically have at dinner, right, Chris, And so
Speaker 5: I'm really really.
Speaker 4: Proud of it. I don't know.
Speaker 5: I hope everybody checks it out and gives it a chance,
Speaker 5: and hope is very successful. But to be a writer,
Speaker 5: a sports writer, NBA writer and put out a TV
Speaker 5: show that ain't got nothing to do with sports is
Speaker 5: certainly a great accomplishment for me.
Speaker 3: Kurt Goudi winner and an executive producer credit, all in
Speaker 3: the same year you had twenty You will not will
Speaker 3: not forget twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: He's not done. He's not done.
Speaker 6: On September thirtieth, his alma mater, San Jose State is
Speaker 6: honoring him with the William Randolph Hurst Foundation Award.
Speaker 1: What explain what that award is.
Speaker 5: It's a journalism excellence award. Man, So I'm proud that
Speaker 5: my alma mater is gonna come. I know you're a
Speaker 5: Fresno State guy, but I want you and your wife
Speaker 5: to come down and come to that. And doctor Fauci
Speaker 5: has wonted some extreme journalists of wanting so yeah, Sten,
Speaker 5: come through.
Speaker 4: Man. We're all cal State University.
Speaker 3: Got that's right, that's right now. This is we did it.
Speaker 3: We kept First of all, we kept you way too long,
Speaker 3: but we did it. Fullerton, Fresno and San Jose got
Speaker 3: along here for seventy five minutes. I apologize everyone. I
Speaker 3: did have it on the list for us to talk
Speaker 3: about James Harden and talk about Damian Lillard. But you
Speaker 3: know what, I think it was more important to tell
Speaker 3: journalism because it's more important before because we do we
Speaker 3: love our business, we love what we do, and we
Speaker 3: do want we do want people to keep wanting to
Speaker 3: do this. So I hope in all these stories that
Speaker 3: we told today there's some there's some good information.
Speaker 1: Like that.
Speaker 3: The NBA Central we have no control over what the
Speaker 3: agree they Yeah, who is the guy?
Speaker 4: Is this?
Speaker 3: Who is covering the team for the Rocky Mount News.
Speaker 4: Because I gave to day everything.
Speaker 1: Everything, figure it out.
Speaker 6: I thought you're gonna say you pulled you actually pulled
Speaker 6: this hard line out and pull it in yours so
Speaker 6: you can tell your story, do that, but I lost it.
Speaker 3: That's luckily there's no video today. There would have been video.
Speaker 3: Luckily today there's what that was. There was that was
Speaker 3: all right everyone, Mark Spears.
Speaker 5: Hey, I love you both. You're my brothers for life.
Speaker 5: Thank you for everything you're doing. Thank you for your friendship.
Speaker 5: Thank you for you caring to.
Speaker 4: Talk to me man, and we care.
Speaker 3: We do care.
Speaker 4: Sty brothers for life.
Speaker 1: Baby, all good brother.
Speaker 3: There he goes everyone ESPN and scapes Mark Spears joining
Speaker 3: Haynesenstein here on this league uncut. We will be back
Speaker 3: soon and I promise next time we bring.
Speaker 4: Yeah and that'll do it for us.
Speaker 2: See you next time.
Speaker 4: This League.
Speaker 2: Uncutta is an iHeartRadio production.
Speaker 3: Suck a Locket.
Speaker 2: Chris Haynes and Mark Stein
Speaker 5: M