Speaker 1: Hmmm, Jack, Day two just heard good Day one. We
Speaker 1: get to start off day two. We're one of my favorites.
Speaker 1: Another legend. Yeah, man, I grew up watching these dudes.
Speaker 1: Man uh an LA kid. We were talking about this
Speaker 1: because we had Coop yesterday. I mean, how many LA
Speaker 1: kids get to play for the biggest team in the
Speaker 1: city and when championships and just kind of have one
Speaker 1: of those historical careers and our guest today got to
Speaker 1: do that. Man at home at the crib. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the show Byron Scott.
Speaker 2: We we appreciate you, appreciate you, appreciate you all.
Speaker 1: So b you were Stacks coach his rookie season, and
Speaker 1: from what I've heard over the years, there was a
Speaker 1: little bit of funk at some point. What was the
Speaker 1: what was what was what was the I mean we're
Speaker 1: here on all the smoke and yeah, yeah, so y'all
Speaker 1: are good now, But what was what was the f
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start with you, Jack, what was the disconnection
Speaker 1: you think will coach at some point your rookie year?
Speaker 3: Well, for me, you know, first, if I said anything
Speaker 3: burning the past, I've finished you. I apologize with I've
Speaker 3: grown up. I'm a man.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: But at the time, I was hurt because I just
Speaker 3: came back out the Rookie All Star Game and I
Speaker 3: just fought to get into the league, you know, for
Speaker 3: three four years, you know, going through overseas and stuff,
Speaker 3: and when I came back from All Star, I just
Speaker 3: didn't play, and I never understood. While we never had
Speaker 3: a conversation about it, I never understood why, and you know,
Speaker 3: not not understanding and being a young guy that was
Speaker 3: working to get to the NBA.
Speaker 2: Then I make the Rookie All Star Game when I
Speaker 2: first get in.
Speaker 3: Now I come back and I'm just not playing from starting,
Speaker 3: like I didn't know what to think.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm young, so for for for a long time.
Speaker 3: I held so I hed some hate for you because
Speaker 3: I felt like, damn, I never got an explanation, like
Speaker 3: when I when he gave me the opportunity, like I
Speaker 3: praised him because this he gives He's giving me a
Speaker 3: chance to start my first game in the NBA, like
Speaker 3: I started my like that game, you know, and you
Speaker 3: know how I showed you that I appreciated that, you
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying, But then to not play when
Speaker 3: I came back, I never understood why and I never
Speaker 3: got a chance to ask you why.
Speaker 2: And kind of like what you just said.
Speaker 4: You know, Jack, uh, anything I did back in those days,
Speaker 4: I apologized as well, because I've grown up and I
Speaker 4: was I was a head coach, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: And Jack this how this whole thing started from the
Speaker 4: get go, just how he made the team.
Speaker 2: We had. We had open runs my.
Speaker 1: First year's coaching Jersey, right, how old are you at
Speaker 1: this point?
Speaker 2: Thirty six? I wouldn't, Yeah, exactly, I'm thirty six.
Speaker 1: Young.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I still player. I still got player of mentality,
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying right now. So we got
Speaker 4: open runs and I don't know if Jack remember, right
Speaker 4: after two days, I said, Eah, who the hell is that?
Speaker 4: He said, Oh, that's Stephen Jackson. I said, where he
Speaker 4: come from?
Speaker 2: Supposed to be there?
Speaker 4: I've never seen it. He wasn't supposed to be at
Speaker 4: the RUMs. The list of names I had, his name.
Speaker 2: Went on there.
Speaker 4: So I'm like, where the hell they come from? He said, oh, well,
Speaker 4: he came out of high school. It didn't work out.
Speaker 4: I think Phoenix or somebody overseas, and so I said,
Speaker 4: we'll invite him back. You know, he keeps coming back.
Speaker 4: I said, man, we got to bring him to the camp.
Speaker 4: He was like, you're serious. I said, hell yeah, bring
Speaker 4: him to camp. He started the first game.
Speaker 3: My first evident invite from picking an invite from pickup
Speaker 3: games to an invite to start in the first game.
Speaker 4: Now we had a bunch of injuries too. We had
Speaker 4: a bunch of guys in the game. Yeah, we have
Speaker 4: a bunch of guys were hurt and not taking anything
Speaker 4: away from Jack because he started the first game, and
Speaker 4: once we came back from the All Star break, those
Speaker 4: guys are getting healthy.
Speaker 3: Johnny Newman, But as a youngster, you know how didn't
Speaker 3: understand that?
Speaker 4: And you know what, as a young coach, what I
Speaker 4: should have done? Explain exactly what I should have done.
Speaker 4: Jackets took you to the side after the All start
Speaker 4: breaking said, look you did. You've done a hell of
Speaker 4: a job. You've been playing the treatment well. But I
Speaker 4: got to see these guys play because when I was
Speaker 4: in VAT I understood it.
Speaker 1: You know you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: I got this cause I gotta make changes. I gotta
Speaker 4: figure out who's going to be here the next year.
Speaker 1: And who's because are making money too and they making
Speaker 1: mine a rookie.
Speaker 2: It was we had Jim mcclvain too. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, man, we had so many We had so many guys.
Speaker 4: And it wasn't that Rod Thorne, who was our president
Speaker 4: of basketball operation, told me you gotta play these guys.
Speaker 4: I just knew I had to play. I got to
Speaker 4: see what we got for next year. I got to
Speaker 4: see who I got to get the hell out of here. Yeah,
Speaker 4: Kendall Gill came in. It was Keny your first year,
Speaker 4: Kenya's first year. Yep, Kendall Gill came in. When I
Speaker 4: had my season meeting with everybody, and you know, like
Speaker 4: I said, I should have approached Jackie talk because he
Speaker 4: was nineteen twenty years old, you know, so when he
Speaker 4: wasn't playing, you know, he would come to practice and
Speaker 4: he was pissed and and I understood that.
Speaker 3: You remember, my, my, my, when I first got there,
Speaker 3: I went to I went a burn like a little
Speaker 3: kid when because I first got that my grandfather.
Speaker 2: Had got I was a kid. Bro I'm still a kid. Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I mean, you know, as much as you say,
Speaker 4: you know things, I could have handled it about a
Speaker 4: lot better. But I was youngest ship too. You know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. I was my first year coaching, thirty
Speaker 4: six years old as a head.
Speaker 1: That was your first year.
Speaker 2: That was my first year.
Speaker 4: That was so I looked back on it and I said, man,
Speaker 4: you know what I should have did, which I did
Speaker 4: later on because you learn from your mistakes, is that
Speaker 4: I should have took Jack to the side and said, listen,
Speaker 4: this is what's going on.
Speaker 2: I gotta find out.
Speaker 4: So you just keep doing your things, keep practicing, keep
Speaker 4: doing what you're doing, coming to practice with a great attitude.
Speaker 4: And if I would explain that to him, I shut down,
Speaker 4: it would have been a lot different. But he shut down.
Speaker 4: And Kenyon was the rookie kings like I got him, coach,
Speaker 4: I got it. And we had one practice where he
Speaker 4: really shut down. I said, Jack, just just go on
Speaker 4: locker room out him, and Steph was like this him.
Speaker 4: Steph was like that, miss, but you and Steph are
Speaker 4: king Steph and keing yeah, oh yeah, button head. So
Speaker 4: so Kenyon was, you know, Kenyon was trying to be
Speaker 4: the calm one, and you know, ken ain't the calm.
Speaker 4: He's trying to be the com one and keep everybody together.
Speaker 4: And he was like, I got him, I got I
Speaker 4: got Jack, coach, I said, okay. So that that particular
Speaker 4: day when I just looked at Jack, I said, Jack,
Speaker 4: good ship, don't get out of here. And I looked
Speaker 4: at King. He just looked at me, did like this,
Speaker 4: and and I didn't. I didn't know I be a
Speaker 4: profession of then.
Speaker 1: So it was it was.
Speaker 4: It was a two way street. And uh, like you said,
Speaker 4: we both gotten older, We're both grown, you know. Like
Speaker 4: I said, my biggest mistake was I wish I could
Speaker 4: go back and say, let me take him to the
Speaker 4: side and explain the situation.
Speaker 2: And I still hold that appreciation.
Speaker 3: Nothing has changed with you giving me the opportunity when
Speaker 3: nobody else did and allowing me to start my first
Speaker 3: NBA game.
Speaker 2: So I will forever appreciate you for that.
Speaker 1: So that off season Marbury for Jake Kids, and then
Speaker 1: fast forward the two thousand and three finals, Nets versus Spurs,
Speaker 1: youngy versus old team. What's going through your head as
Speaker 1: because like I said, you're on your young bullshit, so
Speaker 1: it's it's all paid back in your mind.
Speaker 3: But let me say this, even though it was a
Speaker 3: it was two years because the first year I was
Speaker 3: on injury list, when I left and the second third
Speaker 3: year I played in two thousand and three, so I
Speaker 3: had a left I had a left time to grow
Speaker 3: in that San Antonio Spurs system.
Speaker 2: For two years, I was learning how to be a professional.
Speaker 3: I was around Steve Smith, I was going to church
Speaker 3: with David Robinson, so I was starting I was starting
Speaker 3: to grow up a little bit. So that's how I
Speaker 3: ended up being in the starting lineup. I was learning
Speaker 3: how to be a professional. So I just wanted to
Speaker 3: just play well, you know what I'm saying, Yes, your
Speaker 3: old team, but I just wanted to play well, you
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: That's all I was focused on.
Speaker 1: So in your that's your third year coaching, third year coaching,
Speaker 1: you find yourself in the NBA finals, Like, what's going
Speaker 1: are you?
Speaker 4: When I rock back to back? We went San Antonio,
Speaker 4: then we went the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you as a player, you've experienced that as
Speaker 1: a player. Now your experience is from a coach's point
Speaker 1: of view, like with what's your mindset and what's your
Speaker 1: preparation and thinking?
Speaker 2: Like in the finals.
Speaker 4: Well, you know what, It's funny because I think the
Speaker 4: first finals we got to was the Lakers and that
Speaker 4: was ugly.
Speaker 2: It was ugly. Man.
Speaker 4: We had Jack, you know, we had no answer for Shaq. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, we had guys that could guard Kobe. They
Speaker 4: can't stop Kobe, but they could make it tough on Kobe.
Speaker 4: And you know he's still gonna get twenty five thirty.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I was like, nah, just look at that. I
Speaker 2: was like this, and I was at the crib.
Speaker 1: He d on the whole team.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Shaq man man, Shack, Shack was so
Speaker 4: dominant it was unbelievable. So I knew he was in
Speaker 4: trouble because I told I told the team, you know,
Speaker 4: before the game, I said, this is this is something
Speaker 4: that you guys have never experienced. So when we come out,
Speaker 4: make sure you're focused on the game, you know, because
Speaker 4: we had the Staples Center, right, So the guys come out,
Speaker 4: be and my coaching staff we walk out about the
Speaker 4: three minute mark instead of two minute mark and standing
Speaker 4: there and I'm watching our guys warm up, and I'm going, man.
Speaker 2: Were about to get a ship beat out of us?
Speaker 4: Because they were like, yes, we're about to get the
Speaker 4: ship beat out of us, right, And they went up
Speaker 4: about twenty five so fast, you know, for the rest
Speaker 4: of the game. We played even but you know, they
Speaker 4: swept us in that series. But we we we really
Speaker 4: played well for three quarters, three and a half quarters.
Speaker 4: We just couldn't. We had nothing for Shack, you know,
Speaker 4: and when you know, you guys both know when he
Speaker 4: come ready to play, there's nothing you can do. We
Speaker 4: double team d we triple team d uh. And it
Speaker 4: was just nothing we could do. And we just we
Speaker 4: were just out.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 4: They just had a much better basketball team. But it
Speaker 4: was it was great for me to be able to
Speaker 4: take a team back to La where I'm from and
Speaker 4: to be in the finals, you know what I'm saying
Speaker 4: as a coach.
Speaker 2: So that was a very proud moment for me.
Speaker 1: And then the following year, you find yourself right back
Speaker 1: in the finals. Now you're against Tim Duncan in the.
Speaker 4: First against Jack and the Dunk and Tim Duncan and
Speaker 4: those guys. Yeah, he was on the mission. Unbelievable season.
Speaker 4: You know, probably should have got MVP.
Speaker 3: Yeah, to be honest with you, him and Tim was
Speaker 3: right there, him and Tim was right there, and we
Speaker 3: gave him a fight, you know, but they were again
Speaker 3: you know, when you got yo, Jack and GINOBLEI.
Speaker 4: You know, their their wing players were so good. You know,
Speaker 4: Tony Park was that Robinsons last year, yep, Dame and
Speaker 4: then you got Tim Duncan. He was lights out. Yeah, Tim,
Speaker 4: we just we I mean again, you could you could
Speaker 4: guard certain guys. You can't stop him. You can make
Speaker 4: it hard on as we tried to do. But uh,
Speaker 4: you know, San Antonio was such a great team, so
Speaker 4: we we knew. You know, there was four to two
Speaker 4: in that series. And Pop, who I got so much
Speaker 4: respect for, is coach, you know, just unbelievable coach. You know,
Speaker 4: he is one of those coaches that still to this
Speaker 4: day is still old school in his mentality as far
Speaker 4: as discipline, doing ship the right way and if you don't,
Speaker 4: you sit down.
Speaker 2: That's what I tell him. I say, Papa is more
Speaker 2: of a coach.
Speaker 3: He's more like a leader because he leads the whole
Speaker 3: organization into even if the team is not good enough,
Speaker 3: you come into that season believing you can, you win
Speaker 3: in the championship.
Speaker 2: It's just to feel around the whole organization that he
Speaker 2: started that, right, Uh.
Speaker 1: I mean obviously, all three of us, being former players,
Speaker 1: were always for the player empowerment. But my question is,
Speaker 1: I think the player empowerment is a little out of
Speaker 1: hand at this point from a coach. From you, from
Speaker 1: a coaching standpoint, I mean, you came up under Riley
Speaker 1: and and and and people like that, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: you implemented some of your game and his coaching philosophy
Speaker 1: in the year principle. As far as a coach from
Speaker 1: the early two thousands to now, how do you think
Speaker 1: coaching has changed? Because you can win and still get fired. Yeah,
Speaker 1: now you have, you have as a coach in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Now you have no authority whatsoever. Truly, that's crazy to say.
Speaker 1: I truly relieve that. And and like you guys said,
Speaker 1: we've all been former players. Uh, that coach was a
Speaker 1: position that you respected and it demanded respect, you know,
Speaker 1: and coaches say you do it was that simple, Uh,
Speaker 1: And we've all come from that that line, you know,
Speaker 1: that old school type mentality. I think the entitlement of
Speaker 1: players today to be able to make uh suggestions are changes.
Speaker 1: And I don't even call it suggestions. Basically a players said, well,
Speaker 1: I don't want them to play with that guy. I
Speaker 1: want this guy on my team.
Speaker 4: Yo, you got you got the president of basketball operation
Speaker 4: or the GM or the owner going to get that player,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 2: So I think I think it's totally changed. Uh.
Speaker 4: And I think that's one of the main reasons that
Speaker 4: the viewership is down in the NBA. You know, it's
Speaker 4: because not only the style of play, because you know,
Speaker 4: it's threes or dunks or layups. You know, there's no
Speaker 4: mid rais, there's no creativity, there's there's no the movement
Speaker 4: offensively is one guy with the ball, you know, center
Speaker 4: the time that you stand around and you watch him play.
Speaker 2: That's not attractive for fans to watch.
Speaker 4: And us as basketball players, we would never want to
Speaker 4: play that way, right, you know, It's always been about
Speaker 4: five guys being able to have a touch of the ball.
Speaker 1: At least Let me touch that.
Speaker 4: You ain't got to shoot it, let me touch it,
Speaker 4: you know, let me feel like I'm a part of
Speaker 4: the offense of what's going on.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: So, I think right now with the way the NBAS gave,
Speaker 4: you know, and I'm with you, Jack, I mean, Matt,
Speaker 4: I'm with you. As far as player empowerment, you know,
Speaker 4: I think that's something that we all, you know, wish
Speaker 4: we had at that particular time. But I think now
Speaker 4: it's overboard. I think it's going crazy. I think you
Speaker 4: know the the you know, the prisoners are running asylum
Speaker 4: right now. That's the bottom line.
Speaker 1: And I think you hit it on the head too,
Speaker 1: because especially now more than ever, younger kids that kind
Speaker 1: of think different but are making so much money. If
Speaker 1: you can't get that respect, you don't stand a chance.
Speaker 1: You don't stand a chance.
Speaker 4: You don't And I think again one of the reasons
Speaker 4: for me at least coaching. You know that, I'm like,
Speaker 4: I couldn't coach in this area right now, you know,
Speaker 4: because I'll be ready to fight.
Speaker 2: You know, you disrespect me, dog, We're gonna fight.
Speaker 3: And to go what I was saying about touches do
Speaker 3: y'all men, when we was playing, the first two or
Speaker 3: three players used to go to the big manside, gettaches
Speaker 3: early because if the game get the high speed, you know,
Speaker 3: he might not get the quarter a couple of times.
Speaker 4: You got to keep him at Let me touch the
Speaker 4: ball first, you know, the first two or three players,
Speaker 4: like you said, and then let's see how they play it,
Speaker 4: and then let's do what we do. But you know,
Speaker 4: you know the biggest question, I mean, I had a
Speaker 4: guy and I'm not gonna throw him, you know, put
Speaker 4: him in blast. But in Cleveland, I was like, we're
Speaker 4: doing this today.
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 4: I said, First of all, you can't question me. And
Speaker 4: this new was like a first or second year player.
Speaker 4: I said, I said, that's first of all crazy. First
Speaker 4: of all, you can't question I said. Second of all,
Speaker 4: this is what we did. And I wont championships.
Speaker 2: I said. Third of all, when you win a championship,
Speaker 2: then you can ask me a question. I'll give your input.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I ain't gonna even ask you for your input.
Speaker 4: You in your first year, second year, you ain't won ship,
Speaker 4: I ain't asking you. You know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 4: you know, I mean my last two years with the Lakers,
Speaker 4: I had our boy, you know, I had Kobe Bean
Speaker 4: Brant you know, and Kobe would come to practice sometimes
Speaker 4: and just go off on these guys, and y'all know Kobe,
Speaker 4: he would just go off, you know. And then there
Speaker 4: were days I was like, man, I don't even come
Speaker 4: to practice. We don't you done done everything and seen everything.
Speaker 4: Don't need your practice, right, But just the entitlement that
Speaker 4: they felt they had to be able to even ask
Speaker 4: a question about why we doing this today. I was like, dog,
Speaker 4: we you better go over you better go over there
Speaker 4: right now. You're better talk to press or somebody else.
Speaker 3: We talked to somebody last night. That's that's coaching and
Speaker 3: in this system. And that's one of the things he
Speaker 3: said to us. He was like, man, it's hard to
Speaker 3: coach these kids because they two sentsenes. They can't really
Speaker 3: take it. And that's that's the other thing, Jack.
Speaker 4: You can't you can't get on them, you know, because
Speaker 4: they take it as like you said, they call the agent,
Speaker 4: the agent called the gym.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: I made a changing lineup, you know, when I was
Speaker 4: with the Lake Caerus, I said, you know what you guys,
Speaker 4: you guys have given been given this position, but you
Speaker 4: didn't earn it.
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna make a change. You know, we're on
Speaker 2: the road. I got to the room.
Speaker 4: Mitch Cupcheck had called me already. I was like, making
Speaker 4: a change because you like, hey, Mitch, are you serious?
Speaker 4: You know, so the sensitivity that these guys have that
Speaker 4: you can't even you can't you can't teach them. You know,
Speaker 4: you can't jump on the ass because they're gonna go
Speaker 4: crying to their You know, back in our day, you
Speaker 4: jump okay, all right, yeah, now I'm gonna come back
Speaker 4: the next day.
Speaker 1: You might want to say, you might want to fight
Speaker 1: one of your teammates, but you had to listen to
Speaker 1: the That's what it was.
Speaker 2: So it's just it's just it's just a different time,
Speaker 2: different But.
Speaker 3: It's a guy over there that's ready to listen, that's
Speaker 3: just as good as you, that's ready to come in.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, So you better straighten up.
Speaker 3: That's what we had them. They don't feel now. They
Speaker 3: ain't looking over their shoulder.
Speaker 2: They don't. Everybody getting a hundred million while looking think too.
Speaker 1: A lot of times and practices where you could steal
Speaker 1: minutes or compete or the second thing. You could have
Speaker 1: a team that's going to the Western, the Eastern Finals,
Speaker 1: or even going but that second team is busting the
Speaker 1: ass and practice and that's how guys used to get
Speaker 1: minutes and steal minutes. But they don't even practice no more.
Speaker 1: They don't practice no more.
Speaker 4: My first year, you know, pat Riley would play me
Speaker 4: spot minutes, you know, because again I'm coming. I'm coming
Speaker 4: to a team that's a championship caliber team. For four games.
Speaker 4: I didn't play a lick and Bill Burker he was like,
Speaker 4: be just hanging there. I said, Burke, I'm good. You
Speaker 4: know this, This practice is my game. I'm gonna come
Speaker 4: ready every day, you know, because when I get that opportunity,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna be ready for it.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: And we had a two game loser, streaking rounds, so
Speaker 4: I'm gonna change the lineup. He put me in the lineup.
Speaker 4: And when you put me in the lineup for Mike McGee, okay,
Speaker 4: put me in the line up. I said, Mike, you
Speaker 4: never get this spot back. This ship is mine now.
Speaker 4: You will never get this spot back, right, And That's
Speaker 4: how I approached it. But you know, I wouldn't cry.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't call it my agent. And you know, man,
Speaker 4: I ain't played the last woke up. Okay, you take
Speaker 4: it like a man was better in the gym strap up.
Speaker 4: Speaking of that team, we had your brother Coop on
Speaker 4: the show Man. You guys just gathered for his ceremony,
Speaker 4: keeping tradition alive.
Speaker 2: What is that?
Speaker 1: I mean, you came up in the era and obviously
Speaker 1: we caught a little bit of it, but as far
Speaker 1: as teams staying together for the long haul. You maybe
Speaker 1: add a piece of here there. But guys are spending
Speaker 1: their entire careers, or at least a majority of their
Speaker 1: careers on one team. You happen to spend a majority
Speaker 1: of your career on a great team, and you guys
Speaker 1: follow tradition, and you guys got together with it last summer,
Speaker 1: two summers ago, two summers ago. What is that brotherhood
Speaker 1: of that that Showtime team mean to you?
Speaker 2: Everything? Everything? Man?
Speaker 4: I mean, you know to this day that that brotherhood
Speaker 4: is still strong. You look at some of these other
Speaker 4: teams that played back in those eras, they can't stand
Speaker 4: each other, you know what I'm saying. I mean, as
Speaker 4: great as Chicago was, you got Scottie and you know,
Speaker 4: kind of I can't say Michael because Michael ain't said
Speaker 4: really nothing.
Speaker 2: Scotty been tripping, bro Scotty, Scott went off.
Speaker 1: You know a couple of times.
Speaker 2: I was even like Scotty had been on there smoking
Speaker 2: for cho Yeah, what the hell I think he deal?
Speaker 4: But it ain't smoking at But but you look at
Speaker 4: you look at our team in those in those in
Speaker 4: the nineties and eighties, you know we still tighten. You know,
Speaker 4: we had a Showtime reunion, and Magic wanted everybody that
Speaker 4: won a championship with him in the eighties to be there,
Speaker 4: and that's almost forty people, right, forty players. I think
Speaker 4: thirty six showed up, wow, you know, and the fort
Speaker 4: it didn't. It was, you know, just reasons they couldn't come,
Speaker 4: you know. So it shows how close we still are
Speaker 4: as a group, you know, and the majority of us
Speaker 4: still live here in La so we still get together
Speaker 4: and things of that nature. I just spent your New
Speaker 4: Year's Eve and brought in the New Year's with Coop,
Speaker 4: you know, him and Von and my wife, and we
Speaker 4: had a great time. But it's nothing like having that
Speaker 4: type of fellowship and that brothership that we had. You know,
Speaker 4: we went the Wars together. Man, We won championships, we
Speaker 4: lost championships. You know, we have a history together that
Speaker 4: you can't replace, you know. So I think we all
Speaker 4: still enjoy getting together and talk about the good old
Speaker 4: days and how fun it was, and then sometimes we
Speaker 4: talk about this era now we're like, man, these dudes,
Speaker 4: it's a trip, you know. But it's just great to
Speaker 4: have that type of friendship with the guys that I
Speaker 4: played with.
Speaker 3: Is it a team that has more Hall of Famers
Speaker 3: on it than that Showtime team. Besides, okay, that sounds yeah.
Speaker 4: Well my my my rookie year, I played with six
Speaker 4: six Hall of Famers. I played with six on one team,
Speaker 4: on one team, and that ain't counting roles.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: That's not counting the coach. And that's not counting Jerry West.
Speaker 4: That's not counting Bill. You know what I'm saying. I
Speaker 4: played with Kareem Magic, James Coop, uh Silk, Bob McAdoo.
Speaker 4: Mmm on my team my rookie year. It was Hall
Speaker 4: of Famers. So I don't know if there's another team
Speaker 4: that has that. Man, what heat, brutal we're going after
Speaker 4: each other man. I mean, that's that's a great thing
Speaker 4: about practice because Cooper guard Magic, and Cooper picked him
Speaker 4: up ninety four and talk shit the whole game, you know,
Speaker 4: and if if we lost, because it was Gold against Blues,
Speaker 4: so Coop was the Blue, that was the second unit,
Speaker 4: and you so if Coop's unit would beat us, you know,
Speaker 4: and Rouse said, all right, practice over match, Oh hell no,
Speaker 4: we gotta go again.
Speaker 2: So we go again. We beat them.
Speaker 4: Now one one rose would leave, we play another one.
Speaker 4: We can't go one and one somebody. So our practices
Speaker 4: were so damn hard. The games was easy. Games was easy.
Speaker 1: What do you miss as a player? Obviously playing is
Speaker 1: one thing, and I think a piece of everybody misses that.
Speaker 1: But I always say, like the locker room, the bus rides,
Speaker 1: the planes just to kick it in, and talking ship
Speaker 1: and you guys had, like you said, you had Magic,
Speaker 1: who was a character, and then you had Cap who
Speaker 1: was kind of reserved, and then you had you had
Speaker 1: such a mixture of personalities. What were some of those
Speaker 1: funner times for you guys, like off the court.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I was like the class clowns, you know, I.
Speaker 4: Was the one that was imitating people and doing all
Speaker 4: kinds of other crazy ship. It was great, man. I
Speaker 4: mean we we we hung out together, we went to
Speaker 4: movies together. Robs would do these parties for just the
Speaker 4: team and the and the wives and everything. So I
Speaker 4: missed that more THANINNY. I mean, we all missed the
Speaker 4: competition playing playing against some of the best players in
Speaker 4: the world. We missed that competition, but I really missed
Speaker 4: the camaraderie that we had. You know, like you said,
Speaker 4: the locker rooms, the bus rides, me, Magic and Coop
Speaker 4: always going to the movies on the road, every everywhere
Speaker 4: we went. Uh, the family gatherings that pat Riley would
Speaker 4: make it. He made it a family atmosphere, you know,
Speaker 4: so that all that stuff matters. That that's what I
Speaker 4: missed more than any.
Speaker 2: Morning side high your min from the forum.
Speaker 3: Yeah, uh talk about your your young life in high
Speaker 3: school life growing up in Inglewood.
Speaker 4: Were growing up in Inglewood. If y'all y'all know Inglewood
Speaker 4: a little bit, Inglewood wasn't no joke still still ain't.
Speaker 2: You know? Inglewood wasn't no joke. So, I mean we
Speaker 2: had to go to school.
Speaker 4: We were walked to school seven eight deep because we
Speaker 4: had to deal with the crips and blood, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying, And if they caught you by yourself
Speaker 4: or with you know, one another, you know, one of
Speaker 4: the guys something like that, you know, So we we
Speaker 4: rolled down, we would pick each other up. And then
Speaker 4: as we walked down the hill the morning side, you know,
Speaker 4: we'd beat seven eight deep. So most of the time
Speaker 4: we didn't even get approached by the gang members, you know.
Speaker 2: Uh. The thing that was a trip though.
Speaker 4: Once I got to my junior senior year, morning started
Speaker 4: high school and we would be walking around. We got
Speaker 4: surrounded one day by some crips because one of my
Speaker 4: boys yelled blood out, you know, just asshole, and they
Speaker 4: turned around and they jumped out the car. Its like
Speaker 4: eight of them, six of us, and they you know,
Speaker 4: they just kind of got in a little circle, and
Speaker 4: we was like we you know, we're gonna throw down
Speaker 4: and see what happens.
Speaker 2: You know what we didn't.
Speaker 4: We didn't worry about getting shot, you know, and where
Speaker 4: you got, you got yours one another. But one of
Speaker 4: the guys said, you know that's the kid to play basketball.
Speaker 4: Morning started high school. He recognized you. Yeah, and he's like, yeah, man,
Speaker 4: world up, you keep doing your thing. They balanced, no, no,
Speaker 4: so so they did back in those days. If you
Speaker 4: was an athlete, they was like, man, he could let him,
Speaker 4: you know, let him go.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: But growing up in Inglewood, you know, it was it
Speaker 4: was that type of atmosphere that you had to deal with.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: So most of my boys, we all played sports, and
Speaker 4: we all thought, you know, this is our only way
Speaker 4: out of here. You know, it's basically getting the basketball, football,
Speaker 4: baseball scholarship. Uh, you know, but we rolled deep just
Speaker 4: to try to protect each other. But we were all
Speaker 4: into the sports, so that's all he was into. So
Speaker 4: I loved growing up in Inglewood because of the fact
Speaker 4: that I had all my boys there as well.
Speaker 2: Who any other legendary athletes are so call athletes grow
Speaker 2: up with.
Speaker 4: You, Elden Campbell, Lisa Leslie. You know Jay Humphrey. Jay
Speaker 4: Humphrey was I was on sixth Avenue and on one
Speaker 4: hundred and fourth. He was on eighth Avenue. You know,
Speaker 4: So we had some guys in the hood that you know,
Speaker 4: they could ball, and yeah, you know, we all tried
Speaker 4: to look out for each other.
Speaker 3: You was eighteen years old in the Lakers draft and
Speaker 3: Magic was the lake of people. What was what was
Speaker 3: it like back then when they first drafted Magic?
Speaker 2: Oh, it was crazy.
Speaker 4: It was soon as soon as he got drafted, you know,
Speaker 4: the expectations in LA went went high, you know, because
Speaker 4: I think we were just a good team in LA
Speaker 4: after that time, because Jerry West and all those guys
Speaker 4: that kind of left Will Chamberlain. You know, they won
Speaker 4: that one that one year in sixty nine or seventy
Speaker 4: two or something like that when they had the three
Speaker 4: thirty three game winning streak and they just had a
Speaker 4: great team. But when Magic came back. It just when
Speaker 4: Magic got drafted, the excitement in LA became real again.
Speaker 4: And like you said, Jack, I was at Arizona State.
Speaker 4: You're watching them, you know, play at Michigan State against
Speaker 4: Indiana State, which is still one of the most viewed
Speaker 4: college games ever. Magic Johnson, Larry Bird right, And I
Speaker 4: watched this guy and I was like, there's no way
Speaker 4: in hell this guy is a point guard at six ' nine.
Speaker 2: But I got to watch him and I was like,
Speaker 2: oh my god.
Speaker 1: Nine.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I was like, I've never seen seen nothing like that,
Speaker 4: because back in our day six nine, you playing four,
Speaker 4: you ain't bringing the ball up, You're playing down low somewhere, right.
Speaker 4: So he brought all the excitement back to LA. And
Speaker 4: then obviously his rookie year, the smile, the charisma and everything,
Speaker 4: the people.
Speaker 2: Just fell in love with him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, speaking to ask you, you got your jersey retired,
Speaker 3: number eleven retired and after thirty seven years, went back
Speaker 3: and got your degree.
Speaker 4: Yeah, how they feel that was one of my biggest accomplishments,
Speaker 4: you know, because I had promised my mom I would
Speaker 4: do that, you know, and I forgot all about it.
Speaker 4: To be honest with you, I thought, you know, I
Speaker 4: don't want championships that made a little money.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: My mom on her deathbed reminded me, Wow, She's like,
Speaker 4: you promised me you were gonna go back and get
Speaker 4: your degree, and so.
Speaker 2: I had to go ahead. I had to go do
Speaker 2: it online. And did you actually go back to camp
Speaker 2: to go online?
Speaker 4: Because at that time, the you know, the pandemic had struck.
Speaker 4: So I said, well, this is the perfect time to
Speaker 4: do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I went back online classes that were zoom classes
Speaker 4: that I had to take and everything, which was a
Speaker 4: trip because the teachers would be.
Speaker 2: Like, I'll be on the zoom class Jack. Teachers like
Speaker 2: so you are you you Byron Scott? Yeah. I was
Speaker 2: like yes, yes, ma'am. Okay.
Speaker 4: My husband would go crazy right now, but we got
Speaker 4: a class to do, so we gonna do this class.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I had promised my mom I was gonna
Speaker 4: do it. So thirty seven years later, went back got
Speaker 4: my diploma. One of my proudest moments. Hopefully one day
Speaker 4: I get there.
Speaker 2: You could do it.
Speaker 1: You gotta start with high school and then college.
Speaker 2: What she means, you know, I got my host, you
Speaker 2: got the ge. I don't know about the d I
Speaker 2: got it real, I gotta you can do it, bro,
Speaker 2: you could do it, man.
Speaker 1: I got a question, though, BB. Was it packed ten
Speaker 1: back then?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: It was pack eight PA when I when I signed
Speaker 4: to come there Arizona State. They had just moved there
Speaker 4: a year or two prior to that, so it came
Speaker 4: to pack ten.
Speaker 1: So but you're the baby face pretty boy back and
Speaker 1: I know Arizona State was cracking. And then we're also
Speaker 1: getting obviously to the Laker lifestyle. But what was a
Speaker 1: su like back then? Because I remember U c l A.
Speaker 1: We went and I don't mean my disrespect, but we
Speaker 1: went in. The dude named Curtis Millich saw the little
Speaker 1: player but just looked like a gremlin. He had like
Speaker 1: three bad ones. After the game, I'm like, damn, this
Speaker 1: is what Arizona State is like? Like what was the
Speaker 1: what was off the court life like? Back of Arizona State?
Speaker 2: It was fun. Let's just let's just keep it in
Speaker 2: a good time, right, real good?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I heard Arizona State was fun.
Speaker 2: Man. It was like seven seven girls every guy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, man, yeah, I got my seven plus somebody else's
Speaker 4: a couple of other people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's just leave it a Yeah.
Speaker 1: I just needed you to stand at as all I needed.
Speaker 1: I had a good three years out there, nineteen eighty three,
Speaker 1: fourth overall pick. But you're going down south a little
Speaker 1: bit more to the to the San Diego Clippers. Your
Speaker 1: thoughts with that before you find out you're traded to
Speaker 1: the Lakers.
Speaker 4: Initial thoughts was, I was happy, Number one, I'm in
Speaker 4: the indo that first off, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: I was like, I just wanted to get to the NBA.
Speaker 4: That's that's the is I told players later on easy
Speaker 4: party is getting drafted. The hardest part is staying in
Speaker 4: that league for ten, twelve, fifteen years, you know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying. So being drafted by the Clippers, I was like, well,
Speaker 4: you know, good thing is it's not too far from home.
Speaker 4: You know, my mom and dad, my family didn't come
Speaker 4: down the same nigga and watch it me play. So
Speaker 4: my initial reaction was like, this is cool.
Speaker 2: I'm good.
Speaker 1: Okay. Had you been prior high school days or even
Speaker 1: college days, been to the form to watch the game, Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: So what's the first time like as a Laker now
Speaker 1: stepping on that floor?
Speaker 2: Oh, it was.
Speaker 4: It was surreal because again, those were the situations I
Speaker 4: dreamed about, you know, playing in the forum. But I
Speaker 4: didn't know my first year. I thought four or five years.
Speaker 4: My whole plan, to be honest with you, it was like,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna get drafted by somebody else because the Lakers
Speaker 4: can't drafted. They you know, they winning, so they're gonna
Speaker 4: be way down there at the twenty something your level.
Speaker 4: So I'm gonna be drafted in that team somewhere in there,
Speaker 4: and I'm gonna play for this team, and then four
Speaker 4: years later, I'm gonna be with the Lakers.
Speaker 2: That was your plan.
Speaker 4: That was my plans, right, I'm gonnaigning with the Lakers
Speaker 4: as a free agent, you know. So to get traded
Speaker 4: to the Lakers my rookie year and be able to
Speaker 4: put the uniform on and go out on the court,
Speaker 4: I was like this, this is unbelievable, you know.
Speaker 2: So it was a dream come true.
Speaker 1: You go to the finals four times in your first
Speaker 1: five seasons, Yeah, that's insane. Three and one record eighty four,
Speaker 1: lose to Boston in seven, eighty five, beat Boston in
Speaker 1: six eighty seven, beat Boston in six and then eighty
Speaker 1: eight beat Pistons in seven. Some people never make it
Speaker 1: your first five years. You're in there four times, like
Speaker 1: what are you pinching yourself? Are you just going out
Speaker 1: there and hooping every night? And just like we got
Speaker 1: to continue to stack these titles.
Speaker 4: I think it was a little bit of both, you know,
Speaker 4: Bob McAdoo, my rookie year, we lost, like you said,
Speaker 4: to Boston, you know the game that they closed line,
Speaker 4: you know, Kurt Rampis, Kevin McHale took him out, changed
Speaker 4: a whole complex. But no, not to cut you off.
Speaker 4: No one got even kicked out that right, No, it
Speaker 4: was just upo. You know, bench is cleared. Everybody go
Speaker 4: back to the bench.
Speaker 2: You know. Rambow went after him, you know, and that's
Speaker 2: who pushed him.
Speaker 1: James pushed him.
Speaker 2: James and said, I don't know what the hell I
Speaker 2: was thinking. I just pushed him.
Speaker 4: I shouldn't let him go, which he should have, you know,
Speaker 4: and then you know, the game you know, starts back.
Speaker 4: But we forgot about the game. We we all of
Speaker 4: a sudden started thinking about getting his ass back.
Speaker 2: Mental you know, we want to get them back for.
Speaker 4: That physical you know, for the physical cality that they
Speaker 4: played at that game at that time, the way he
Speaker 4: took him out, we thought that was just a cheap shot.
Speaker 4: So we really forgot about playing the game of basketball.
Speaker 4: That's why I feel we lost that series. The next
Speaker 4: year we came back and we was like, we're gonna
Speaker 4: play any style they want to play. If they want
Speaker 4: to play physical, we're gonna play that prepared. We were
Speaker 4: really prepared, you know, and so much that you know,
Speaker 4: at the end of that even middle of that series,
Speaker 4: they were talking about how physical we were, and they
Speaker 4: complaining that we're doing you know, we're having cheap shots
Speaker 4: and all this shit right here. So it was, it
Speaker 4: was it was a changing of the guards in that sense.
Speaker 4: But the second that second year, my second year, we
Speaker 4: win the championship in eighty five, and Bob McAdoo summed
Speaker 4: it up perfect. In the locker room we're celebrating, he said,
Speaker 4: you a lucky motherfucker.
Speaker 2: You are lucky. I said, why you say that, dude?
Speaker 2: You know how many years it took me to get
Speaker 2: a champion, you.
Speaker 4: Know, because McAdoo was the leading scoring in the league
Speaker 4: and everything, he was putting up numbers. You know how
Speaker 4: many years it took me to get a championship. Yo,
Speaker 4: ass get one in your second year and you've been
Speaker 4: to the finals too straight. And it hit me right
Speaker 4: then that he's right, Hell yeah, I'm lucky because my
Speaker 4: first two years, I'm in the finals. My next four years,
Speaker 4: I'm in the finals three more times. And I realized
Speaker 4: that that just doesn't happen to anybody. You know, you
Speaker 4: got to be blessed and put in the situation they
Speaker 4: even get there.
Speaker 2: And I was. I was there four out of five years,
Speaker 2: you know, I was. I was like, like mcadu said,
Speaker 2: I was blessed.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 2: I didn't take it for granted.
Speaker 1: Believe Larry Bird legendary player, but legendary ship talker. He
Speaker 1: talked to us about talk to us about Larry his
Speaker 1: game and his ship talking.
Speaker 4: Look, Larry Bird was first of all, I don't think
Speaker 4: we give him enough credit for how good he was,
Speaker 4: for how great.
Speaker 2: That that dude was. Man, Larry Bird was the real
Speaker 2: ship people.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: You know in the story about him telling you know,
Speaker 4: Doug MO, you better put a black guy on me,
Speaker 4: all that shit's true because he was like, you disrespected
Speaker 4: me putting a white guy on me. Ain't no white
Speaker 4: guy can guard me, he better put a brother on me.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's how he was. And then they couldn't
Speaker 4: do nothing with him. He said, only one the only
Speaker 4: one that could was cool. He said the coop was
Speaker 4: the only one that could really guard him. He called
Speaker 4: him the best defensive player's ever seen, right, and that's
Speaker 4: that's that's big time. But Larry would talk mucho ship.
Speaker 4: He tell you where he's going. You know, he catches
Speaker 4: shooting and then you jump and he tells you, man,
Speaker 4: you jump up, but you don't.
Speaker 2: You that damn high.
Speaker 4: He was just the biggest trash talking that I that
Speaker 4: I've ever seen. But I think in the thirty for
Speaker 4: thirty I even said, I said, but I guess I
Speaker 4: ain't trash talking if you're backing it up right, fact,
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying. He's telling you what he
Speaker 4: gonna do, and he's doing it, So I guess, you know,
Speaker 4: he's just it's just him being a prophet and telling
Speaker 4: you exactly what he's doing.
Speaker 2: Do one he's gonna do it, you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Hey, Larry Bird was, uh, you know, one of
Speaker 4: the greatest players I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: Where is he in the hierarchy of the game because
Speaker 1: I think he said, he's someone who gets looked over
Speaker 1: for some reason, maybe because he is white, or maybe
Speaker 1: because he wasn't athletic, but he had all the game
Speaker 1: in the world. Where is he at kind of in
Speaker 1: the hierarchy on the all time list? Top ten team?
Speaker 4: Definitely top ten. You got to be in the top ten,
Speaker 4: And I think, like you said, he's overlooked. I think,
Speaker 4: you know, just like anything else, you know, time has
Speaker 4: a way in just getting the past, making people forget
Speaker 4: about the past. And if you if you go and
Speaker 4: you ask guys, you know, I'm sixty now sixty three,
Speaker 4: but if you go back twenty years now when I
Speaker 4: was forty, you asked guys about Larry Bird, they tell you, oh,
Speaker 4: you know, and you know, brothers at the barbershop. Oh
Speaker 4: that's a bad white boy. They give you cross. That's
Speaker 4: the bad white boy right there.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: So if you go way back, he probably would be
Speaker 4: in the top ten. But I think right now today's
Speaker 4: game and today's world, the way we're talking about your
Speaker 4: players right now, definitely top ten.
Speaker 1: Where did your so Coop said that high socks and
Speaker 1: wrist bands came from his grandmother of not really being
Speaker 1: able to see him when he finally got to play
Speaker 1: in the high school game of the week.
Speaker 2: I mean, who's that damn black?
Speaker 4: I was thinking the same thing. If he whatever colored
Speaker 4: uniform he got on, how can you not see him?
Speaker 4: I know the games are at night, but damn they're
Speaker 4: still in the building. That's pretty lit up, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: So gold uniform and you got to put on white
Speaker 5: to be seen. That's crazy cool, that's good. I asked
Speaker 5: him the same thing. You wasn't black enough that you
Speaker 5: didn't stand out at the first place. Understanding, but okay.
Speaker 1: Where'd your biker shorts come come into play?
Speaker 4: Biker shorts came into play because I just thought the
Speaker 4: damn shorts were just too damn small.
Speaker 2: I was like, you'll be seeing my ass cheeks up.
Speaker 2: I mean, these things just too small.
Speaker 4: So I just started I decided to wear the bike
Speaker 4: cheeks the bike shorts because I asked Gary B. I said,
Speaker 4: do we got you know, purple and gold? He was like, no,
Speaker 4: we only got blue. I was like, well, I'm gonna
Speaker 4: wear these, you know, instead of the jock give me these.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna wear these. Put my you know, put my
Speaker 4: shorts on us because these shorts just too damn small.
Speaker 4: Became and start for a minute, and I had the risk.
Speaker 4: I had no idea, and I had my wristband right here,
Speaker 4: and people after, why you wear the wristband right there?
Speaker 4: I said, well, most of the time I would wear
Speaker 4: it there just to kind of wipe my face off
Speaker 4: from sweat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I said.
Speaker 4: It wasn't like I was trying to make a you know,
Speaker 4: trying to be stylish and none there something white but
Speaker 4: the but the biker shorts.
Speaker 2: I was like, man, these shorts are too damn small.
Speaker 2: I need something to you know.
Speaker 1: Motherfuckers that during that era starting to wear the biker
Speaker 1: shorts with nothing no shorts on top.
Speaker 2: Who did that?
Speaker 1: A lot of Yeah though, come on, man, yeah, everyone
Speaker 1: was wearing but they had they had the straight there
Speaker 1: was no shorts on top, like the biker shorts was
Speaker 1: in and like the mid I remember when I was little,
Speaker 1: like mid to late eighties, Like, motherfuckers are just wearing
Speaker 1: biker shorts no shorts over the town.
Speaker 2: Crazy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but they say, there's two things that never lie,
Speaker 4: numbers and biker shorts.
Speaker 2: So you wed it.
Speaker 4: With biker shorts, I said, baby, you should not not
Speaker 4: you should not have these own, but okay, you do.
Speaker 2: Your back up.
Speaker 3: I see a lot of y'all walking around here with
Speaker 3: bodies on looking like restlers.
Speaker 2: Look, shouldn't have moaned some of y'all shouldn't have them.
Speaker 1: It ain't got nobody who told us yesterday about Magic
Speaker 1: leader ship ultimate leader. But like your pregame ritual was
Speaker 1: with the music and kind of quizzing guys and what
Speaker 1: their habits are.
Speaker 2: Add to that, like what what what?
Speaker 1: What was that environment like with him and if anyone
Speaker 1: else you know, had a prominent voice as well as
Speaker 1: far as leadership and kind of just steering the ship
Speaker 1: of those teams.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. It was crazy.
Speaker 4: Our team was so cool because we knew Magic was
Speaker 4: the leader. Captain Kareem he was the captain, you know,
Speaker 4: but we knew Magic was our leader, but we had
Speaker 4: you know, Coop was kind of our emotional leader, you
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying. Coop was our guy that you know,
Speaker 4: just kind of jumped around and just tried to get
Speaker 4: everybody going. And the great thing about Magic being the leader,
Speaker 4: Magic had no problem with everybody jumping on him when
Speaker 4: he messed up.
Speaker 2: You know, I think that's That's how you are a
Speaker 2: great leader. True sign of a leader that you you know, hey,
Speaker 2: you you you accept the responsibility as well. You know,
Speaker 2: you talk.
Speaker 4: One of these leaders are sitting there saying, you know,
Speaker 4: he messed up. But when somebody tried to tell you
Speaker 4: you messed up, you looking at them like they're crazy.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: He never had that type of problem.
Speaker 4: So we we would always and we were the three
Speaker 4: Musketeers meet him and Coop, you know, so I would
Speaker 4: be the one normally would jump on Buck Buck come on,
Speaker 4: God damn it, let's go you right, be you right,
Speaker 4: come on, come on? You know I mean that that
Speaker 4: was that we held each other accountable. Uh, but we
Speaker 4: also pumped each other up.
Speaker 2: Man. You know, we wasn't a group of guys that
Speaker 2: the talk shit to other teams when we played.
Speaker 4: We just played. We talked shit to each other, you know,
Speaker 4: to get us scoring against the other team. Maxwell Vernion, Maxwell.
Speaker 2: Who I love. That's my dude, right, Mad Max? Mad Max.
Speaker 2: He was guarding Magic in Houston. He's like, I don't
Speaker 2: need no damn help. I got his ass.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: So we was like, okay, so we get to the
Speaker 2: third quarter and Magic doing what he's doing.
Speaker 4: He just you know, getting everybody involved, and now we
Speaker 4: want to post him up against Max going into the
Speaker 4: fourth quarter, and uh, we start posting him up, you know,
Speaker 4: and we talked and ship to Max, I say, hey, Buck,
Speaker 4: he said, he got your ass. Okay, okay, b okay,
Speaker 4: throwing it to him in the post. He starts scoring,
Speaker 4: right Max, heymn, y'all need to come.
Speaker 2: Down there and help. That's sixth Nights, you know.
Speaker 4: The first time Magic turned around, no no, no, but
Speaker 4: you said you don't need no help, right, And that
Speaker 4: was just our team, you know, so.
Speaker 2: We just kept pumping him up. He's like he can
Speaker 2: guard you, Buck, he said. So.
Speaker 4: I mean, we just really had a group of guys
Speaker 4: and if Cap says something, it was like if hunting
Speaker 4: it was long man. If he said let's go get
Speaker 4: that at man, we was like Cap ready. So we
Speaker 4: just kind of kept each other accountable. But our leadership,
Speaker 4: you know, the main guy was Magic, and he was
Speaker 4: such a great leader because he was you know, he
Speaker 4: was a guy that was tough on you, but he
Speaker 4: also showed you nothing but love.
Speaker 2: You know, he wanted you to do.
Speaker 1: What And I also heard him tell say one time
Speaker 1: in one of his speed, Like he knew, like you
Speaker 1: can't talk to everybody the same way. He knew how
Speaker 1: to talk and push buttons with everybody on the team.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he was like I said he was. He was
Speaker 4: a coach on the floor, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: He knew, he knew all of us. You know, if
Speaker 4: we went four or five times down the floor, he
Speaker 4: would be like, oh no, I got to get beat
Speaker 4: the ball this time. You know, we've been hitting James,
Speaker 4: been hitting Cap And he was one of those guys
Speaker 4: that like, I get mine, you know when I want
Speaker 4: to Matt, you could have average thirty, easy, you could
Speaker 4: average thirty. But he knew that that wasn't the best
Speaker 4: thing for the team, right. You know, so we knew,
Speaker 4: Like you said, he knew the posts of everybody on
Speaker 4: our team.
Speaker 1: What are some of the difficulties because we've seen it.
Speaker 1: I don't know about your era, but I've seen it
Speaker 1: in my era. Guys that come to LA and can't
Speaker 1: necessarily handle the pressure of the lights in l A
Speaker 1: and and people talk like that, Hey that's a myth.
Speaker 2: It's real, It's really what is it?
Speaker 1: What is this?
Speaker 2: It's the LA lifestyle?
Speaker 4: You know, you come here and you got you got money,
Speaker 4: you on the Lakers, so you got everybody tugging at you.
Speaker 4: You know, women, dudes are tugging at you for business
Speaker 4: deals and this and that and the other.
Speaker 2: Uh. It is not a myth, it is it's a lifestyle.
Speaker 2: It's something that happens here in l A a lot.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: We used to love for teams to come here and
Speaker 2: have to, you know, play us on a.
Speaker 4: Friday, and they got here Wednesday, Thursday, so we know
Speaker 4: when they come to the game's gone dog and then
Speaker 4: we're gonna get up and down the floor. So yeah,
Speaker 4: it's just it's and you notice Matt and Jack, it's
Speaker 4: a mindset when you come to l A. If you
Speaker 4: if you've never been to l A for uh extended
Speaker 4: period of time, and you're a guy from the country,
Speaker 4: and all of a sudden, these women are in the lobby, the.
Speaker 2: Dog, it's hard to resist.
Speaker 4: And magic he was sending women, That's what I heard,
Speaker 4: was sending women to the damn hotel.
Speaker 1: The women's in the lobby and then sent to the hotel.
Speaker 4: That wasn't a joke, right, No, dominic Wiggins, He's like, hey,
Speaker 4: Dominicque I got got a couple of friends.
Speaker 2: They gonna come.
Speaker 4: He told us about that women. Yeah, until they star players. Right,
Speaker 4: So y'all, man, it wasn't it just just how we
Speaker 4: rolled in l a back in the.
Speaker 1: Right, No, no cell phone cameras and.
Speaker 2: You had to be there, Yeah, you had to be
Speaker 2: there live and memoricks. Baby, it's straight up like that.
Speaker 1: Why do you feel you got a chance to play
Speaker 1: with Cap? And I think also he's another person thin
Speaker 1: gets over in the hierarchy of the game. Why do
Speaker 1: you think no one else has been able to develop
Speaker 1: or mimic because it's a mimic and copycat league. You know,
Speaker 1: we saw Kobe emulate might a tee to a t.
Speaker 1: Why no one ever tried to emulate arguably the most
Speaker 1: unstoppable shot ever created.
Speaker 4: You know what I heard matter is that it wasn't
Speaker 4: a cool shot. It didn't look Okay, I said it
Speaker 4: didn't look cool.
Speaker 2: Scored thirty eight thousand points. Why does it have to
Speaker 2: look cool?
Speaker 4: And nobody could stop it he either missed or made
Speaker 4: You could do about it. Yeah, it wasn't like you
Speaker 4: could your block it and all that. I mean, I
Speaker 4: think in all the years that I played with him
Speaker 4: all the years that I watched him play before I
Speaker 4: got to lead, I saw one person blocking maybe two,
Speaker 4: and I think Ralph Sampson was one.
Speaker 2: But it's weak side. It wasn't a guy on the ball,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm.
Speaker 1: Saying, almost like, hey, who's upstairs? Oh the wind? Oh okay,
Speaker 1: I thought we had some I thought we had some
Speaker 1: cush ups.
Speaker 4: So I only saw one guy block it, and that
Speaker 4: was from the week side. But you couldn't do nothing
Speaker 4: with that shot. So for guys not to even try
Speaker 4: that shot, it's just amazing to me, you know, because
Speaker 4: I had a guy practice.
Speaker 2: And again, I'm my first year of coaching.
Speaker 4: I'm thirty six, thirty seven, thirty eight, probably my third year, Jack,
Speaker 4: you probably was gone. We had a seven foot African
Speaker 4: kid in Jersey that we're trying to do it, you know,
Speaker 4: trying to bring him into development.
Speaker 2: So some uh you know I'm talking. I can't remember
Speaker 2: his name though, yeah, yeah, I got yeah.
Speaker 4: And so he was like, I block any shot. I
Speaker 4: was like, I said, I tell you what, I'm six four,
Speaker 4: you can't block my sky And I shot this shot
Speaker 4: about ten times in practice on it. He couldn't block it. Yeah,
Speaker 4: And I said, I'm six four. That's why I don't
Speaker 4: understand why it was a shot that wasn't duplicated like
Speaker 4: you said over the years. But from what I heard,
Speaker 4: gods were like, it's got a cool shot.
Speaker 3: It's a young kid that's coming up in the G
Speaker 3: League and he played for the Okay see a little
Speaker 3: bit too.
Speaker 2: He he plays it.
Speaker 3: He shoots it every game and it's effective. Like short guy,
Speaker 3: but he got a little running hook. But that's his
Speaker 3: that's his go to Jack.
Speaker 2: You can't block it, can't do nothing. It's effective. To bro,
Speaker 2: you can't.
Speaker 1: I think you get your arm bar out over the top.
Speaker 3: So just imagine being seven foot and having that right
Speaker 3: we tamp with seven to women that you you need
Speaker 3: to get block it.
Speaker 2: Women need to get there.
Speaker 1: I know a dude in the hood named hook Shot Mike.
Speaker 2: Who was.
Speaker 1: That shot Mike Hooks Yeah, Fresno, Yeah, hook shot And
Speaker 1: he had a Jerry cur And you couldn't block Iteah
Speaker 1: to Jerry Crow, go back real quick dealing. There was
Speaker 1: something else I wanted to Obviously, we lost a legend
Speaker 1: in the game. And and and Jerry rest rest in peace.
Speaker 1: Coop told us yesterday you were one of Jerry's kids
Speaker 1: with him, speak to his influence on the game and
Speaker 1: his knowledge of the game and emotional speaking about speaking about.
Speaker 2: Jerry was.
Speaker 4: The best general man. You're the best assessment of talent
Speaker 4: that I've ever seen. And Jerry and I had multiple
Speaker 4: conversations about basketball.
Speaker 2: Jerry.
Speaker 4: I always called Jerry my basketball dad because every decision
Speaker 4: I made when it came to coach, and I called Jerry,
Speaker 4: you know, and Logo would call me right back and
Speaker 4: I would tell him I just got an offer to
Speaker 4: coach this team. Jersey was the first, and he got
Speaker 4: me the assistant coaching job of Sacramento.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: He called uh, Jeff Petrie and Rick Adelman. He said,
Speaker 4: I heard you guys looking for a coach. Byron Byron Scott.
Speaker 4: I think would be a really good assistant coach for
Speaker 4: you guys. He wanted to get me with with Phil
Speaker 4: Jackson's on the bench with the Lakers, and Phil was like,
Speaker 4: I got my own crew, you know. So Jerry was like,
Speaker 4: I want you to come in and be a sister GM.
Speaker 4: I said, I'm not a suit guy. You know, I
Speaker 4: got to be on that floor, you know. So he
Speaker 4: made the call to Sacramento. I got that job, and
Speaker 4: then when I got offered the New Jersey job, I
Speaker 4: called Jerry. I said, Logo, what do you think about
Speaker 4: the Jersey? And you called him logo? Yeah, I said
Speaker 4: what do you think about New Jersey? And I ran
Speaker 4: down the players. We talked for like an hour and
Speaker 4: a half. He said, I think that'd be a good job.
Speaker 4: I think you could help them, And the same thing
Speaker 4: with New Orleans Cleveland. I called him about every job
Speaker 4: ever got, you know, so uh you talking about somebody
Speaker 4: that was very instrumental in my development as a basketball
Speaker 4: player and as a man. I saw how he treated
Speaker 4: other players with nothing but respect. But he had no
Speaker 4: fear with anybody. He came to the locker room one
Speaker 4: game after we played somebody. We played and we won
Speaker 4: the game, but Magic didn't play well, and which is
Speaker 4: a rarity, you know, when he don't play, you know well,
Speaker 4: and Jerry said, you played, like shit, what's going on
Speaker 4: with you?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 4: Magic just kind of looked and just kind of walked away.
Speaker 4: But he didn't, you know, Jerry West, he's a logo.
Speaker 4: He didn't care. So you talk about somebody know that,
Speaker 4: you know. He brought Coop he made the trade for me,
Speaker 4: you know, he made the trade for Cap. He got
Speaker 4: your magic, I mean everybody. He brought that team together,
Speaker 4: you know, so we're unfortunately for us, we lost an icon.
Speaker 2: Still.
Speaker 4: I think the only the only person inducted into the
Speaker 4: Hall of Fame as a player a GM and he's
Speaker 4: at like two, two or three times he's been inducted
Speaker 4: and he's the only one ever, you know.
Speaker 2: So he you know, he was something special.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 3: You came into the league eighty four in the same
Speaker 3: year David Stern came in as a commissioner. Around that time,
Speaker 3: James Worthy said the league was too black and too
Speaker 3: drug infested. Can't talk about that. When you came in
Speaker 3: the league, How was it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 4: It was crazy back then because cocaine was running rapid,
Speaker 4: you know in the NBA.
Speaker 2: Back drug.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a hell of a drug, is right, obviously,
Speaker 4: because it's you. It ruled a whole lot of your
Speaker 4: brothers lives, man, and you know, it just goes to
Speaker 4: show you get money. Sometimes that money is the worst drug,
Speaker 4: you know, because some guys they misuse it, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So it was running rapid.
Speaker 4: I don't think the part, you know, because the black
Speaker 4: I mean, the players that we had was just brothers
Speaker 4: that can just ball. What David Stern did come and
Speaker 4: do is he brought Uh. He solidified the league as
Speaker 4: far as a brand, you know, he made it marketable,
Speaker 4: you know, because I know when he got to the league,
Speaker 4: there was four teams making money, you know, five years
Speaker 4: later and then obviously I still give Magic and Bird
Speaker 4: all the due respect because when they came into the
Speaker 4: league and he took off, you know, it was watchable again.
Speaker 4: You know, the games wouldn't take the lay. I don't
Speaker 4: even know if you remember that, because I remember in college,
Speaker 4: I'm watching tape the.
Speaker 2: Lay games, championship championship games, not regularly.
Speaker 4: I mean I'm watching games in my dorm at eleven
Speaker 4: o'clock at night of the finals. You know, when those
Speaker 4: two guys got to the NBA, it changed the whole
Speaker 4: complexity of the league.
Speaker 2: Every team started making money, you know.
Speaker 4: And and David, as tough as he was as a commissioner,
Speaker 4: he was still fair, you know, and he wanted to play.
Speaker 2: He wanted it for the players to do well. You know.
Speaker 2: So I love that.
Speaker 4: I love that about you know, David stern that he
Speaker 4: was all about the league and the players as well.
Speaker 1: He found a way to market individuals the right way
Speaker 1: within a team sport without making it making any division.
Speaker 1: Like he knew he had to get some stars. And
Speaker 1: as you said, as you know, pushing the pushing, you know,
Speaker 1: m j or Exkin me pushing Larry and Magic. And
Speaker 1: then along came Michael understanding that hey we had this
Speaker 1: is a team sport one thousand percent, but we can
Speaker 1: you know, shine a light on stars within that concept.
Speaker 1: And that was a concept that I don't think a
Speaker 1: lot of leagues still have or understand now.
Speaker 4: He was, he was ahead of his time. David understood
Speaker 4: the value of marketing certain guys because it's gonna bring
Speaker 4: attention to not only those guys into the league, but
Speaker 4: to the teams as well. And I think, you again,
Speaker 4: you got to, you know, take your hat off to
Speaker 4: him because he was a visionary as well.
Speaker 2: He taught about your overseas.
Speaker 4: You know, bringing the game, making the game global, you know,
Speaker 4: so you know, he did an unbelievable job of getting
Speaker 4: this lead to where it is today. And Adam Silver,
Speaker 4: who I love, I think, is taking it. He's going
Speaker 4: to take it to the next level. He was a
Speaker 4: perfect guy, but it put in a bad situation when
Speaker 4: he took it over.
Speaker 1: I was on that coperate team he had to fire
Speaker 1: old board get out to lay. But I also think,
Speaker 1: with all the respect because I think he's done a
Speaker 1: great job, I think he also has a problem on
Speaker 1: his hands, like how do you how do you clean
Speaker 1: this game? How do you get this game enjoyable again
Speaker 1: and then make it the game that the world loves.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, it's no doubt about it that he has a
Speaker 4: problem on his sad and he has his work cutout.
Speaker 4: Like I said, when you get viewership down this much,
Speaker 4: you know, there's there's a there's a serious issue that
Speaker 4: you got to deal with, you know, and it starts
Speaker 4: with the players, you know. So we got to figure
Speaker 4: out a way to get this game back to where
Speaker 4: the viewers love watching it again, you know, because right
Speaker 4: now it's not attractive.
Speaker 3: It's not Edge of the cy basketball. No, it's not basketball.
Speaker 3: I mean we as players ex players. How many how
Speaker 3: many games.
Speaker 2: Do you go to? Jack? How many games you go?
Speaker 1: I don't really go to games, but I used to
Speaker 1: consistently watch games. I've probably watched forty games thirty five.
Speaker 1: I've watched two games this year.
Speaker 4: Jack, I've gone to two games, and I'll probably go
Speaker 4: to eight to ten more because number one, my wife
Speaker 4: likes going to the games, you know, so I'll go
Speaker 4: to the games, but I do not watch an NBA
Speaker 4: game until the playoffs.
Speaker 2: I watched Collage, well women's basketball, that's all I want. Yeah,
Speaker 2: now I will watch that because they played because they
Speaker 2: played the right way. You know what I'm saying. They
Speaker 2: played the right way. So the NBA got a major
Speaker 2: problem on their heads as far as that's concerned.
Speaker 4: And most of the time, I won't watch the playoffs
Speaker 4: until they get to the you know, conference finals, in
Speaker 4: the finals when it so that's when it gets interesting.
Speaker 4: So they got, you know, a major problem. Adam is
Speaker 4: a guy who I feel is in is in the
Speaker 4: right seat and the right guy to take it over
Speaker 4: and get it back on track.
Speaker 3: But it's gonna take some time. Yep, agreed, battlely MJ.
Speaker 3: What was that like you told you told the story
Speaker 3: before about say m I may say B fifty to.
Speaker 2: Just like that.
Speaker 4: It was it was most of that, but I would
Speaker 4: look look he was he was coming off a bus
Speaker 4: and I had hurt my ankle two games prior to something,
Speaker 4: and uh, he gets off the bus and he said,
Speaker 4: be what's up.
Speaker 2: I said, what's up? MJ said, I heard drink playing
Speaker 2: to night. I said, nah.
Speaker 4: He said, what's wrong? I said, my ankle. He said, damn,
Speaker 4: who gonna guard me? I said, Anthony Peeler. He said
Speaker 4: that rookie fifty.
Speaker 2: This was exact.
Speaker 4: I said, you're gonna give me fifties. I was gonna
Speaker 4: give you fifty, but now he said I'm gonna give
Speaker 4: him fifty. Then I was like, damn. So I come
Speaker 4: to the arena and I said, Anthony, let me just
Speaker 4: give you some advice on playing MJ. I said, first
Speaker 4: of all, don't be all physical like you always trying
Speaker 4: to be in rough with the guy Sai, because he
Speaker 4: gonna take that shit personal. I said, give me space.
Speaker 4: Make him shot jump shots all night. They challenge you,
Speaker 4: I said, and if they go in this, you know
Speaker 4: that's that's that's the bottom line. But if you get
Speaker 4: up on him, now you're getting to the bucket. He
Speaker 4: getting to the free throw line. I said, he already
Speaker 4: said getting fifty.
Speaker 2: I got him.
Speaker 4: I got him be I said, oh okay, So every
Speaker 4: time m J scored, he looked over the bitch at
Speaker 4: me because I was just sitting there like this, right,
Speaker 4: he had fifty folk and missed the wide open dunk.
Speaker 2: You know, had a breakaway dunk. Yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 4: Heard that game and he did it like was nothing.
Speaker 4: Looked at me every time I said nasty. The dude
Speaker 4: was a man playing against boards.
Speaker 2: Damn there.
Speaker 4: I mean, he was one of those guys. You know,
Speaker 4: I didn't fear anybody, but when I play against himself,
Speaker 4: I ain't pissing him.
Speaker 2: Off, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's the only guy I was. I would look
Speaker 4: at it. I ain't gonna piss him off. He hit
Speaker 4: a shot and be a good shot shot him. I said,
Speaker 4: I ain't pissing him off because I've seen him go
Speaker 4: for forty fifty like it ain't nothing. Because the guys,
Speaker 4: you know, being being aggressive or trying to be overly
Speaker 4: physical with him.
Speaker 2: I said, I ain't pissing him off.
Speaker 4: Everybody else I don't give a ship but him, black Jesus,
Speaker 4: I ain't messing with him like that.
Speaker 1: Who else was? Who else was problems during that era
Speaker 1: in the two guard spot that we might not think of.
Speaker 1: I mean Obviously Dominique was tough. Yeah, but who else
Speaker 1: at that time?
Speaker 4: You know a name that a lot of people don't remember, probably,
Speaker 4: but a Rolando black Man. Orlando black Man. I played
Speaker 4: against Orlando my sophomore year when we played when Arizona
Speaker 4: State we went to Kansas played Kansas State, right, and
Speaker 4: just all American guard. My coach is like, you're gonna
Speaker 4: get a taste of a real two guard that's an
Speaker 4: All American and we're gonna see how you you know,
Speaker 4: how you have this? That dude ate me up though,
Speaker 4: I was like, damn. So when I get to the Lakers,
Speaker 4: I get to play against him when he was Dallas.
Speaker 4: You know, I already had mad respect because I saw
Speaker 4: him play and played against him. But now I've seen
Speaker 4: him in the NBA. You know, the next couple of years,
Speaker 4: Orlando Blackman would get buckets. He had game and he
Speaker 4: was a good dude, very competitive, but he was tough man.
Speaker 1: If I'm not mistaken, he was married to Jenny Jones
Speaker 1: to Talk the talk show host for a while. You
Speaker 1: remember Jenny Jones that, right? I remember Jones? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that I'm not mistaken. All I know is he
Speaker 1: was a problem that he was a problem.
Speaker 3: You were critical about JJ Riddick, and when I've read it,
Speaker 3: I understand what you meant about it. I don't think
Speaker 3: it was critical, But you said JJ has no coaching
Speaker 3: experience whatsoever, which at the time he didn't, and it
Speaker 3: is hard jumping in that seat for the first time
Speaker 3: as a head coach. I agree with you said, I
Speaker 3: know what you meant by that, especially being black. JJ black,
Speaker 3: so it's it's a tough, tough job, and really even
Speaker 3: tougher for guys who have never had any coaching experience.
Speaker 3: The reason why I understood that is because I've seen
Speaker 3: so many black coaches get putting shit situations and expect
Speaker 3: to save teams and they get fired. But I've seen
Speaker 3: white coaches be in that same position, don't ship teams
Speaker 3: and lose and still keep their job, and they're allowed
Speaker 3: to go through that phase where they learning that's learned
Speaker 3: to become a great coach, and they can stay keeping
Speaker 3: their jobs. Blacks don't have the experience. So when you
Speaker 3: said that about JJ, I understand what you meant because
Speaker 3: he going into the Lakers, that's a that's a big
Speaker 3: job right there, one of the biggest jobs to have,
Speaker 3: then you're going there the first time.
Speaker 2: You never had no coaching experience.
Speaker 3: You have to be worried about JJ at some point
Speaker 3: if you especially boy like guys, guess that's our homeboy.
Speaker 3: So I was worried for him too, because even though
Speaker 3: he has a basketball IQ, you've never coached. And every
Speaker 3: time I talk to somebody about coaching that's played with
Speaker 3: us that's older than us.
Speaker 2: Man, Coaching is a hard ass job. We take a
Speaker 2: lot of time.
Speaker 3: So I understood that because you talk about what what
Speaker 3: you were thinking when you said that pretty.
Speaker 4: Much just what you said. I've been in that seat,
Speaker 4: you know, hottest seat in sports. I've been in that
Speaker 4: seat numerous of the times. And like you said, i've
Speaker 4: been I've been in that seat where I've been put
Speaker 4: in a situations where I know i got a team
Speaker 4: that ain't got crap. Yeah you know, and they expect
Speaker 4: you to make, you know, make something happen without the talent,
Speaker 4: and they don't give you that time.
Speaker 2: To do it to develop it.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: I've been in that situation a few times.
Speaker 4: Right, So what I'm saying about JJ is that, listen,
Speaker 4: you have no coach at least I went to Sacramento
Speaker 4: for two years as assistant coach.
Speaker 2: You have no coaching experience whatsoever.
Speaker 4: You're sitting in the hotes seat in the NBA because
Speaker 4: that's the Lakers, right the hot to see in the NBA.
Speaker 4: So this ain't gonna be a bet of roses. It's
Speaker 4: gonna be tough, it's gonna be hard, and he's gonna
Speaker 4: learn on the way. But what I also said was
Speaker 4: that good thing he's got Nate McMillan, Scottie Brooks, some
Speaker 4: assistant coaches who have that coach experience experience. So now
Speaker 4: the biggest thing with him is now you got to
Speaker 4: listen to those guys, you know, give him that respect
Speaker 4: of being there and doing that. And you know, we
Speaker 4: all have our own philosophies on how the game should
Speaker 4: be played and how we want to utilize certain players,
Speaker 4: but you have to also be able to when you're
Speaker 4: in that city, you have to be able to make
Speaker 4: adjustments on the fly sometimes, you know, and sometimes that
Speaker 4: shit ain't gonna be going like you wrote ridded down
Speaker 4: on the board, you know, And when it don't go
Speaker 4: that way, that's when it really finds out if you
Speaker 4: can coach or not, because if you can't make those
Speaker 4: adjustments right away.
Speaker 2: You're in trouble. You're in trouble. But like you said,
Speaker 2: I wasn't being negative towards J. J L any thing
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 4: I'm just saying I'm just stating the audience, which is
Speaker 4: the fact that he had no coaching experience. But like they,
Speaker 4: like I said, when he got the job, well, the
Speaker 4: good thing is he got some guys who have experience.
Speaker 4: Now if he listens to those guys, then he'll be
Speaker 4: just fine. Normally, truth sounds like hate to people who
Speaker 4: hate the truth. Look, look, I don'et been there, done that. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I don't have great life. Ain't no reason no hate
Speaker 4: on nobody. You know what I'm saying. I'm at that
Speaker 4: age right now where I'm like, look, I'm I'm at
Speaker 4: I'm at peace with myself.
Speaker 2: I'm people, I'm golfing, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: But I'm gonna speak Yeah, I play golf two three
Speaker 4: times a week, having a good time. I'm gonna speak
Speaker 4: my mind because that's all I know. I'm gonna be honest,
Speaker 4: but I'm not. I'm not, you know, putting down nobody
Speaker 4: or anything like that. Because the guy got a job
Speaker 4: and all that. I'm like, look, bro, do what you do.
Speaker 4: I wish you all of less because for you, yeah,
Speaker 4: I've been there, done that. Before we get you out
Speaker 4: of here. You had young Kobe as a teammate, and
Speaker 4: Kobe at the end talk to us about that journey
Speaker 4: as a mentor brother to him early on and then
Speaker 4: catching him at the end of his career as as coach.
Speaker 4: You know what, Matt, I had the pleasure of seeing
Speaker 4: the maturation of Kobe Bryant that that that, you know,
Speaker 4: it hurts me and it it makes me happy in
Speaker 4: the same way, if you know what I mean. You
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying because I remember that like it
Speaker 4: was yesterday and I was doing this special type of
Speaker 4: thing for ESPN Entertainment and Andy Thompson y'all know Andy,
Speaker 4: Michael Thompson's brother. He wanted to have a day with
Speaker 4: me of going around with Kobe and Shaq and then
Speaker 4: d Fish and just spend the day just talking about
Speaker 4: basketball and life in general.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: So this was one of those days where we're just
Speaker 4: done with practice, I'm all miked up, and I said
Speaker 4: show Boat, you know, that's what our nickname was for
Speaker 4: him at that time. Show bowt come in here, man,
Speaker 4: I said, this is my main man. Because we would
Speaker 4: sit on the bench together, we would sit on the
Speaker 4: bus together. And the thing that was so different about
Speaker 4: him at eighteen that he would be sitting there asking
Speaker 4: you every damn question about basketball, you know, you know,
Speaker 4: you know, just you know, how was it guarding this guy?
Speaker 4: You know, how was it guarding this And we would
Speaker 4: just talk basketball.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: And so after like a month and a half or
Speaker 4: so of practicing and everything, and he would just he
Speaker 4: would go hard in practice. He would be there two
Speaker 4: hours before practice shooting. You know, I came to the
Speaker 4: gym and I would be going there early. I got
Speaker 4: to get my treatment. You know, I'm thirty six years old.
Speaker 4: I gotta get my treatment, get loosen up and get
Speaker 4: warmed and get ready for practice. He out there shooting
Speaker 4: and they ain't even got the lights on at the farm.
Speaker 4: I was like, Gary, tell them, motherfuckers to put the
Speaker 4: lights on, you know, like you know, if he gonna
Speaker 4: be out there, tell them to put the lights on
Speaker 4: so that they start putting the lights on.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: But sitting with him and being with him his rookie
Speaker 4: year and watching how how much he wanted.
Speaker 2: It, you know.
Speaker 4: And even in that conversation there I said with him,
Speaker 4: I said, you know, what do you want to accomplish
Speaker 4: in this league? Said, I want to be one of
Speaker 4: the greatest ever. And he didn't. It wasn't like he
Speaker 4: said it and he didn't believe it. He was just
Speaker 4: saying it for the cameras. He was dead serious, you know.
Speaker 4: And I looked at him, I was like, Oh, it
Speaker 4: will be because I'm seeing him every day.
Speaker 2: It will work. Yeah, I see your work ethic. You
Speaker 2: got the talent.
Speaker 4: Now all you need is experience, you know, knowing when
Speaker 4: to take a game over, knowing when to you know,
Speaker 4: defer to somebody else, you know, which he never was
Speaker 4: gonna do anywhere.
Speaker 2: Companies like I didn't defer to nobody, you know. But
Speaker 2: that was him, you know, that was him.
Speaker 4: He had a he had an inner confidence about himself
Speaker 4: that there was nothing he couldn't do on that basketball court,
Speaker 4: and you had to love that. And then having him
Speaker 4: the last two years. I tell I've told a lot
Speaker 4: of people this. It was my last two years of
Speaker 4: coaching and it was two of my most fun years.
Speaker 4: And the team wasn't that terrible. We were terrible. We
Speaker 4: had you know, Jordan Clarkson who was young, you know,
Speaker 4: Julius Brand who was young. But I knew they were
Speaker 4: gonna be good, but they were young, you know. And
Speaker 4: then we had a bunch of other bets that they
Speaker 4: didn't give a shit no more, you know. And so
Speaker 4: my job, as I told Cove, I said, look, my
Speaker 4: job really, because we ain't gonna win a lot of games,
Speaker 4: my job really is to get you to Game eighty
Speaker 4: two in your twentieth season, relatively healthy, so you can
Speaker 4: go out the way you want to go out.
Speaker 2: I said.
Speaker 4: So I'm gonna cut your minutes. I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 4: what days that you don't need to even be here
Speaker 4: for practice. I'm gonna tell you there's some games that
Speaker 4: I just need you to show up at the arena.
Speaker 4: I don't need you for shoot around. Well'm gonna do
Speaker 4: shoot around with you. You know what I'm saying. You
Speaker 4: went through everything as far as coverages, what you need
Speaker 4: to be here. Just come to the game, look at
Speaker 4: the board, how we guarden certain things, and we go
Speaker 4: from there. So it was it was the last two
Speaker 4: years of us reconnecting too, you know, and we had
Speaker 4: so much fun just reconnecting, talking each other. He would
Speaker 4: call me at five, six in the morning, and I said.
Speaker 2: Don't do that.
Speaker 4: I said, I'm just getting up at six. You calling
Speaker 4: me a five You fucking up my sleep. Let me
Speaker 4: get that last hour in because I'm gonna be up
Speaker 4: all night, so doing this and this, and so we
Speaker 4: were talk at six in the morning, you know, about
Speaker 4: what we're gonna do at practice that day, or about
Speaker 4: how we're getting ready for this game, about and it
Speaker 4: was just it was just great that we reconnected. And
Speaker 4: he was the first person that I told, besides my
Speaker 4: son and a couple of other family members, that my
Speaker 4: mom had passed. He was the first person I told
Speaker 4: because we were in the locker room together and I
Speaker 4: was like, I don't even know why I'm here. I
Speaker 4: just lost my mom. But I know my mom she
Speaker 4: would want me to be here. And Cole came in
Speaker 4: and gave me a big hug and everything. Then I
Speaker 4: had to go out and you know, deal with the media,
Speaker 4: and they had found out and I said, don't ask
Speaker 4: me no questions about you want to talk basketball, Let's
Speaker 4: talk basketball. Anybody asked me a question about my personal life.
Speaker 4: This interviews over us of course the media, so what
Speaker 4: do you I'm out, you know, but it was it
Speaker 4: was two of the best years for me as a
Speaker 4: coach to spend with him, you know, in his last
Speaker 4: two years, and that reconnect, the reconnection that we had
Speaker 4: was even better than I thought it would be.
Speaker 1: Sixty last game. Who goes out with sixty is last game?
Speaker 2: Kobe? Hey, man, yeah, Kobe.
Speaker 4: And if you remember how that game started, he was like,
Speaker 4: oh for five Yeah, he couldn't throw it in the ocean.
Speaker 4: And I'm standing there, going, this is not the way
Speaker 4: I want this in for him. You know, he gets
Speaker 4: filed hits, a couple of free throws, basket gets big
Speaker 4: as the ocean, you know. And I remember the last
Speaker 4: the last quarter, because even at halftime we came in.
Speaker 4: I said, he ain't coming out. I said, I gave
Speaker 4: him six minutes arrest first half. I said, but this
Speaker 4: second half, I ain't taken him out. I said, he's
Speaker 4: gonna have to play the rest of this game, right,
Speaker 4: And five six minutes left in the game, I said,
Speaker 4: you know, KB, you got five six more minutes left
Speaker 4: in that body. And man, I'm talking about you, talking
Speaker 4: about the dude that was tired He was like, yeah,
Speaker 4: and you know him his will yeah, yea, his mental
Speaker 4: his mental capacity to understand that the moment this is it.
Speaker 4: It was something I'll never forget.
Speaker 1: Rest in Peaks, quick hitters. First thing to come to mind.
Speaker 3: Let us know, craziest image you could share from the
Speaker 3: Forum Club.
Speaker 1: And we did and we didn't ask you. Hey, we
Speaker 1: didn't ask you no foreign questions because Coop said you
Speaker 1: were married at that time. We didn't want to do.
Speaker 1: But they got to give us something.
Speaker 4: The craziest image that I remember from the Forum Club, uh,
Speaker 4: where they had a bathroom up there and somebody was
Speaker 4: bent over in there and I'm gonna just leave. That
Speaker 4: was like the craziest Oh my bad, So I'm gonna
Speaker 4: leave that one at that.
Speaker 1: The Forum Club, we had something like it, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't to that extent what down down below wasn't down there.
Speaker 2: Something like it where they were sucking down there. It was.
Speaker 2: There was a lot of doing that. There's a lot
Speaker 2: of going on.
Speaker 1: You are doing that, Iron Scott's Laker all time, starting fire,
Speaker 1: It's gonna be oh, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Uh, somebody,
Speaker 1: you gotta leave somebody.
Speaker 4: Kareem and Wilt and Shack. Oh my god, I gotta
Speaker 4: go with cap. I'm gonna go with cap.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna say James Worthing, Elgie Baylor, James put James
Speaker 4: at the power forward and bringing Elgin at the small.
Speaker 3: For he's just six man, Jerry West. Yeah, logo, now yeah,
Speaker 3: I said that, now you you Yeah, No, No, I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't could being nice.
Speaker 4: He you know, he got one championship, he's been there
Speaker 4: with four years now, sat year, Saturn. Well if he
Speaker 4: can get to ten, if he can get to ten years,
Speaker 4: then I would say, and he can get another another
Speaker 4: another ring. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. He deserves
Speaker 4: statue right now. You got to be ten at least
Speaker 4: ten years. I mean, Lakers standards are different, man. You
Speaker 4: can't look at it. Look at the statues that they
Speaker 4: have right now. Everybody's been there ten plus with easy, Yeah,
Speaker 4: to multiple championship in that uniform, in that uniform, in
Speaker 4: the purple and gold. I don't give you ship what
Speaker 4: you did in maroon and gold and white and blue
Speaker 4: and all that. It don't matter what what did you
Speaker 4: do when you were with purple and gold? If you
Speaker 4: got two or three rings. Okay, now we talk if
Speaker 4: you've been in the league ten plus, now we're talking,
Speaker 4: but not the lead the Lakers. I mean we made
Speaker 4: it known to Maurice, Maurice Lucas God, God bless him,
Speaker 4: rest his soul. We had him from Phoenix and at
Speaker 4: that time we were flying you know, American Airlines Delta
Speaker 4: whatever is available, right, and they had eight first class seats.
Speaker 4: He was like, I've been this league twelve years, but
Speaker 4: you ain't been with the Lakers, dog, And that's how
Speaker 4: we talked you this your first ship with the last dog,
Speaker 4: so cool, magic Kareem. We get the first class, start
Speaker 4: your ass in the back. And he was pissed and
Speaker 4: we was like, school to be pissed, but you.
Speaker 2: Ain't been with the Lakers twelve years in this league.
Speaker 4: So that's how we rolled over him. So you know,
Speaker 4: seven years, he's done great. I mean, obviously he's one
Speaker 4: of the greatest separate it's no doubt about that. But
Speaker 4: when when you come to Lakers standards, he got to
Speaker 4: be here three more years and and get another chip
Speaker 4: to be to have a statue.
Speaker 2: I agree. Child crush was that who was your childhood crush?
Speaker 4: Childhooush childhood crush. Wow, Pam Greer back in the day,
Speaker 4: n man, that was my childhood crush. And then it
Speaker 4: really crushed me when I when I saw Cap with her,
Speaker 4: I said, I'd be damned. Karine was like, yo, yeah
Speaker 4: that's my girl.
Speaker 2: Was like so yeah, Pam, Grid was crushed.
Speaker 1: One album with no skips, one album with no skips
Speaker 1: or record or record with no skips.
Speaker 2: Ah, that's a tough one. See, I'm such a huge
Speaker 2: brother man.
Speaker 4: Who was talking about Frankie listening to Bely Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 4: you know, I'm good. I'm gonna just got brother guilty pleasure,
Speaker 4: guilty pleasure besides golf, No guilty pleasure. Guilty pleasures. Apple
Speaker 4: pile of mold for me an apple pie. That's my
Speaker 4: that's my I can't do it often, but that's my
Speaker 4: guilty pleasure.
Speaker 3: If you could see one guest on our show, who
Speaker 3: would it be? But you have to help us get
Speaker 3: your answer on the show one guest on your show?
Speaker 3: Who would it be? Because I love y'all guests. I
Speaker 3: saw I saw the Magic Man on here you know
Speaker 3: ship you know what would be big game? James was
Speaker 3: a good one. I know, big game. But Larry Bird.
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, we're trying to contact with him. I would
Speaker 2: love to see Larry Bird on because he don't talk.
Speaker 1: Talk just talk to us one time, l B, that's
Speaker 1: Larry Bird.
Speaker 4: Would be great. I don't know if he does podcast
Speaker 4: and everything, but I would love to see Larry.
Speaker 2: I made the connection Good said he's going to come
Speaker 2: on the show.
Speaker 3: He wasn't ready when we wanted to do it and
Speaker 3: All Star time last time, but he said he's definitely
Speaker 3: gonna do it.
Speaker 2: So I'm excited. Matter fact, I love to see that. Well.
Speaker 1: By Man, we appreciate you again. I grew up being
Speaker 1: a huge fan and getting to know you over the
Speaker 1: years as a coach and a man that's been dope,
Speaker 1: getting to play golf with you. Man, So keep being great,
Speaker 1: keep uh man, just keep being you.
Speaker 2: I will appreciate.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I got to come see wife and
Speaker 1: get get my skin together, so tell her me on
Speaker 1: the way.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I would tell. And also I'm I'm gonna
Speaker 4: bring something for y'all. Uh, I'm gonna get some. I'm
Speaker 4: just you gotta tell me where the son because I gotta.
Speaker 4: I got a cannabis company in New Jersey. Oh yeah,
Speaker 4: we'll send you my two.
Speaker 2: I gotta, I gotta. I want to send y'all something real.
Speaker 1: Quick too before your show and where where they can
Speaker 1: find it. You got a show now, so talk about
Speaker 1: your show.
Speaker 4: Oh my show, Byron Scott's Fast Break, that's my podcast.
Speaker 4: I gotta get y'all on there too, man, y'all gotta
Speaker 4: come help you out and bring it. Been on for
Speaker 4: three three months and you can get into streaming on
Speaker 4: YouTube and everything, but Byron Scots Fast Breaking. It's been
Speaker 4: a lot of fun doing that. And like I said,
Speaker 4: I love watching y'all show though.
Speaker 3: And shout out. Shout out to his son too. I
Speaker 3: was basically with his son Tom. We was the same
Speaker 3: age and grew up basically grew up together and now
Speaker 3: we're still doing bench together with the Big three.
Speaker 2: So shout out his son. That's my boy. I'm a Scott,
Speaker 2: my boy.
Speaker 1: We gotta get for you, man. We got our little
Speaker 1: coffee table book and some some knick knacks and Patty
Speaker 1: Wax and some merch.
Speaker 2: So yeah you go, brother, Thank you brother. I appreciate y'all.
Speaker 1: Shout out to our partner, Draft Kings the Crown, it's yours.
Speaker 1: That's a rap man Byron Scott. You can catch this
Speaker 1: on the Draft Kings Network and all the Smoke productions
Speaker 1: you too. We'll see y'all next week.
Speaker 2: Paz m hm mm hmmm
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm,