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Speaker 1: Whether Even before I stepped foot on campus at the

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Speaker 1: University of Notre Dame, I knew I wanted to work

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Speaker 1: in sports broadcasting. My dad, Mike Storn, made a career

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Speaker 1: in sports management, and I spent my childhood surrounded by players,

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Speaker 1: geames in the business.

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Speaker 2: So Annahlin grew up in an atmosphere of professional sports,

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Speaker 2: and that was simply a way of life. As she

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Speaker 2: went to college, she said that she wanted to be

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Speaker 2: a broadcast major, and her father, not unused to giving advice, said, oh, no,

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Speaker 2: you don't want to go into broadcasting, you need to

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Speaker 2: major in something else. So she doubled major, one for herself,

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Speaker 2: and she got one for me, and began her sports

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Speaker 2: career not as a fan, but as a on air

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Speaker 2: entertainer in our own right.

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Speaker 1: I had a double major in international government and broadcasting.

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Speaker 1: While at Notre Dame, I got as much experience as possible,

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Speaker 1: hosting a sports talk radio show, DJing at our campus

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Speaker 1: radio station, and doing reports for our local South Bend

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Speaker 1: TV station. In the summers, I interned at both TBS

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Speaker 1: and a Houston TV station. By the time I graduated,

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Speaker 1: I actually had a TV reel that reflected all that

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Speaker 1: hard work. But there was just one problem. It was

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three and sports broadcasting jobs just didn't exist

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Speaker 1: for women, save for one or two that appeared on

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Speaker 1: NFL telecasts. After disappointing seasons in Dallas and New York,

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Speaker 1: the Denver quarterback seems kind of revitalized with the broad

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Speaker 1: gos having grown up around sports. I knew it would

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Speaker 1: be a lot more fun than, say, covering city council meetings.

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Speaker 1: I was determined. I answered all the want ads in

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Speaker 1: the back of broadcasting magazine, typing letters, and mailing my

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Speaker 1: tapes to TV stations around the country, hundreds of them.

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Speaker 1: I set aside the rejection letters that flooded my mailbox,

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Speaker 1: and I managed to get a handful of interviews, but

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Speaker 1: they inevitably led to more rejection. I was barely twenty

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Speaker 1: one living at home this summer after graduation. My dad

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Speaker 1: and I used to go jogging together and we would

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Speaker 1: talk about my job search.

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Speaker 3: On a run. One day, he reminded me that it

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Speaker 3: takes just one person to say yes, and he pointed

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Speaker 3: out that mathematically, there were more radio stations in the

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Speaker 3: country than TV stations, so why not try that. I

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Speaker 3: wrote and recorded some radio tracks for sportscasting and for DJing,

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Speaker 3: which I sent to stations around the country and that worked.

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Speaker 3: I got my first job at a.

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Speaker 1: Heavy metal radio station in Corpus Christi, Texas.

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Speaker 4: We rock because you rock C one oh one Rocks.

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Speaker 5: CE one o one Baby Yeah.

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Speaker 6: And actually that's where the name Hannah Storm came from, too,

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Speaker 6: right right. They renamed you to Hannah Storm because the

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Speaker 6: storm's blown in by the sea at C one oh one.

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Speaker 1: Rock and Roll CE one oh one. Our station was

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Speaker 1: licensed in farm country. The studio itself was actually in

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Speaker 1: the middle of a pasture and there were so many

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Speaker 1: cows in the area that every night on my way

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Speaker 1: in from my ten pm to two am shift, I

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Speaker 1: had to show them away in order to get inside.

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Speaker 1: The station was a little concrete bunker under the shadow

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Speaker 1: of a transmitter tower. When the station went down occasionally

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Speaker 1: I had to crak it up by hand. And while

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Speaker 1: I loved sports.

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Speaker 3: That wasn't what I was there.

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Speaker 1: I was the station's newest DJ, and that was the

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Speaker 1: headbanger era. I played def Leopard, Black Sabbath, The Scorpions,

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Speaker 1: Motley Crue, and Quiet.

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Speaker 3: Riot back to back to back.

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Speaker 1: Hannah's storin is my given name not very rock and

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Speaker 1: roll or, according to my boss, easy to remember, and

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Speaker 1: there were hardly any Hannah's at the time. It wasn't

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Speaker 1: a popular name. My boss wanted to change my name

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Speaker 1: on air to Anna Storm. I didn't want to totally

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Speaker 1: lose myself, so we reached a compromise.

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Speaker 3: I could keep my first name.

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Speaker 1: Thus Hannah Storm, the Storm by the Sea ce one

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Speaker 1: oh one. You get the idea, and it just stuck.

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Speaker 3: I guess it's worked for me all these years.

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Speaker 1: Hi, everybody had a Storm back at Madison Square Gardal

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Speaker 1: on Rocket Central.

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Speaker 3: My name is Hannah Storm.

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Speaker 7: I'll be hosting me halftime and postgame shows for you.

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Speaker 7: I ran a Storm thirty six Sports.

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Speaker 1: From the NBA and iHeart podcast This is NBA DNA

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Speaker 1: with Me Hannah Storm, Episode three, h Town. After six

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Speaker 1: months in Corpus Christy, I was still looking for sports

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Speaker 1: gigs and still answering one ads. This time I found

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Speaker 1: one in a publication called Radio and Records for a

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Speaker 1: drivetime sports announcer and weekend DJ at a major Houston

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Speaker 1: rock station, KSRR ninety seven Rock. I was tired of

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Speaker 1: getting rejection letters, so I changed up my tactics. I

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Speaker 1: drove to the radio station on my day off, camped

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Speaker 1: out in the lobby, and when the program director left

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Speaker 1: for lunch, I handed him my tape and resume. I

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Speaker 1: was pretty terrified, but it worked. About a week later

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Speaker 1: I got the job.

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Speaker 8: That fuzzy sweater except from the eighties, Yes it is

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Speaker 8: from the eighties.

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Speaker 3: I would have massive I would have massive ear rings on.

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Speaker 3: If I was really really doing.

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Speaker 7: Me too, mine would be dangling airplanes.

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Speaker 1: Ninety seven. Rock is where I met one of my

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Speaker 1: best friends, Judy Cohen.

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Speaker 8: We were the only girls, I mean and I mean

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Speaker 8: girls because we were young. There were people in sales

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Speaker 8: and that kind of thing, but we were the cool ones.

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Speaker 1: We really bonded because it was all dudes and you know,

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Speaker 1: rock and rollers and stuff, and then and then there

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Speaker 1: was you and I exactly barely out of college. So

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Speaker 1: we became friends, like really like kind of like sisters.

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Speaker 1: To be perfectly honest. Why do you think we hit

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Speaker 1: it off so quickly? Besides being completely outnumbered.

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Speaker 8: I I just because our age and just we had

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Speaker 8: a lot of the same things. We liked, really really

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Speaker 8: bad fashion taste.

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Speaker 1: There's that saying. The higher the hair, the closer to God. Yep,

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Speaker 1: that was the reality in Houston in nineteen eighty four.

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Speaker 1: And you know, everything's bigger in Texas. Big hair, big earrings,

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Speaker 1: big nails, big shoulder pads, and lots of leather. North

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Speaker 1: Beach Leather maybe there is the store called North Beach Leather.

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Speaker 7: The shorter the better, Oh my gosh.

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Speaker 3: Shorter the better. Yeah, the glitter the so.

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Speaker 1: North Beach Leather had like wild leather suits, leather dresses,

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Speaker 1: leather outfits. And we got them to give me my

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Speaker 1: clothes for that season and they were epic. It was like,

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Speaker 1: oh my god, mini skirts, big shoulder pads, all the fringe.

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Speaker 3: I mean, just think tells.

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Speaker 8: Right, do you remember going to the grand opening of

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Speaker 8: the hard Rock Cafe. I do, so here's what I

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Speaker 8: remember with that number one Kenny Logins performed. If that

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Speaker 8: isn't just synonymous with the nineteen eighties right there, right,

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Speaker 8: Oh yeah, you and I will silver le may.

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Speaker 1: Of course we were silver lemet. I mean it was

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Speaker 1: either that it was either something shiny or leather, like

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Speaker 1: there were two food groups of clothing.

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Speaker 8: I just remember it was like the craziest night because

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Speaker 8: it was like, oh my god, the.

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Speaker 7: Hard rock Cafe came to Houston, Texas, and.

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Speaker 1: Right, I put us all the people ex all these

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Speaker 1: people were there, and then like sports people were there,

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Speaker 1: and you know, all the radio station people were there,

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Speaker 1: and we just walked in thinking we owned the joint.

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Speaker 1: And I guess we did sort of own the joint.

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Speaker 1: Ninety seven rock KSRR for kick Ass Rock and Roll

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Speaker 1: doesn't actually exist anymore, but in the early eighties it

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Speaker 1: was a Houston institution. I did sports reports in morning

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Speaker 1: and afternoon drive, and we hosted tons of events with

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Speaker 1: musicians and athletes. We were famous for our Friday beach

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Speaker 1: parties in Galveston, Texas, broadcasting live to huge crowds in

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Speaker 1: the summertime.

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Speaker 8: Arnell Saint James was the disc jockey in the afternoon,

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Speaker 8: so it was his beach party, if you will, on

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Speaker 8: a Friday afternoon, and it was insane. People would line

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Speaker 8: the streets and to get into the beach to get

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Speaker 8: a free koozy, and they'd be throwing coozies everywhere, and

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Speaker 8: you and Colonel were signing the coozies in some unmentioned

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Speaker 8: areas of certain individual bubbles.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we signed a lot of body parts, Yes you did.

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Speaker 3: People weren't wearing.

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Speaker 7: Much Oh my gosh.

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Speaker 8: But it was like we would go down in the

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Speaker 8: morning to set it up and we have the bands

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Speaker 8: down there, and just god, it was like hundreds and

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Speaker 8: hundreds and thousands of people all just crammed onto this beach.

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Speaker 7: And they would just do anything to see you and Colonel.

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Speaker 8: You would do your sports from there, and Colonel would like,

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Speaker 8: you know, play the music and whatever, and just the

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Speaker 8: Kozies and bumper stickers, Kozyven bumper stickers that we would

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Speaker 8: throw out, and it would be like every Friday in

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Speaker 8: the summer, every Friday.

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Speaker 1: On a much smaller scale. I occasionally convinced the station

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Speaker 1: to send a band of one me to cover big

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Speaker 1: sporting events like the Final Four or the Super Bowl,

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Speaker 1: and Judy always tagged.

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Speaker 3: Along with me.

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Speaker 1: Back in the day, I would watch the games and

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Speaker 1: then call in live updates from a payphone.

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Speaker 7: Well, you mentioned the Super Bowl.

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Speaker 8: That's that's by far one of the best stories ever,

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Speaker 8: just because we've totally scammed our way into the game.

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Speaker 7: I mean, you had two tickets. I don't even know

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Speaker 7: how you had those two tickets.

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Speaker 3: From Warren Moon. Warren Moon gave me two tickets.

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Speaker 1: I remember, because like Warren Moon was like, okay, we

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Speaker 1: needed tickets. I mean sure, the radio station was like,

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Speaker 1: you could go cover the Super Bowl, but you'll have

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Speaker 1: credential or anything like that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so I wasn't going to get credentialed. So yeah,

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Speaker 3: I got two tickets from Warren Moon.

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Speaker 7: But then we grabbed two friends and we had four

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Speaker 7: of us, and.

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Speaker 3: We're all from the radio stations.

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Speaker 8: All from the radio says a year before you had

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Speaker 8: gone to New Orleans and you're like.

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Speaker 7: Oh, it's so easy.

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Speaker 8: You can just buy tickets right outside the stadium, everyone

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Speaker 8: selling their tickets.

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Speaker 7: Well, I guess by the next year.

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Speaker 8: When it was Super Bowl twenty one, nobody was selling

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Speaker 8: their tickets. It was at the Rose Bowl and we

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Speaker 8: were walking around and walking around. We gave our friends

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Speaker 8: Andrea and Jenny the tickets and they went in and

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Speaker 8: then they lost us.

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Speaker 7: Okay, we had no tickets.

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Speaker 8: We had no tickets, so we were trying to buy

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Speaker 8: tickets and we see these two guys and we're like, hey,

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Speaker 8: we gave our friends our tickets and they were supposed

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Speaker 8: to like pass them through the fence to us.

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Speaker 7: We can't find them. Can you think you can do that?

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Speaker 7: So we can just get in and they're like.

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Speaker 3: Sure, I know.

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Speaker 1: They literally passed their use their tickets that had been torn.

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Speaker 1: That's what they did back in the day. They tore

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Speaker 1: the tickets through the fence and.

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Speaker 7: Said, please make sure you get them back to us.

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Speaker 3: Somehow, how did we get in with a torn ticket?

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Speaker 7: So we talked our way in. Who knows?

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Speaker 3: I mean, isn't that funny?

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Speaker 7: And then we never found them.

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Speaker 1: If those guys are listening, Judy still has your tickets.

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Speaker 1: And soon I had multiple jobs, finally getting on television

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Speaker 1: by writing and reading the local sports calendar every Thursday

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Speaker 1: on Home Sports Entertainment with Rockets announcer Bill Worrell. That

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Speaker 1: morphed into a gig at Channel twenty, which had the

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Speaker 1: rights to both the Rockets and the Astros road telecasts.

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Speaker 1: I hosted pregame, halftime and postgame in addition to my

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Speaker 1: radio shows.

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Speaker 7: I'm in the Rockets Central. My name is Hannah Storm.

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Speaker 7: I'll be hosting the halftime and postgame shows for you

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Speaker 7: at the half elemisade.

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Speaker 9: Hey we got history, man, remember our halftime shows back

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Speaker 9: in the day.

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Speaker 1: Dale Robertson is a legendary sports writer in Houston who

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Speaker 1: also happened to be my studio analyst. Why don't you

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Speaker 1: tell people about our famous halftime shows, Dale, Well.

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Speaker 9: I'm not exactly sure how I ended up on them,

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Speaker 9: but it was flattered to be there with you. You

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Speaker 9: were you were still show we saying your formative period

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Speaker 9: as a broadcaster.

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Speaker 1: John Lucas had sixteen points leading Houston a chem olaje

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Speaker 1: one with fourteen.

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Speaker 10: Lewis Floyd had to We had fun.

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Speaker 9: We did all the all the road games, or at

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Speaker 9: least most of the road games. As I recall, this

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Speaker 9: was the probably mid late eighties.

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Speaker 3: Here's Judy again.

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Speaker 1: What do you remember about the Houston Rockets and covering

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Speaker 1: the Rockets back in those days?

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Speaker 7: Well, person of all the Robert Reid Show.

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Speaker 1: How could we forget the Robert Reid Show. So he

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Speaker 1: was obviously a member.

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Speaker 3: Of the Houston Rockets the team this year and.

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Speaker 1: Somebody had decided to produce a show like a talk

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Speaker 1: show with him in.

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Speaker 7: A bar off the Interstate ten.

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Speaker 3: Off of I ten, I mean, and it was a club.

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Speaker 8: Yeah, it was one of those just cheesy places that

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Speaker 8: you knew nothing good was happening, but it was really CD.

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Speaker 7: But it was awesome because there you were, and you

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Speaker 7: were just.

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Speaker 8: I knew then that you would not be doing the

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Speaker 8: am PM radio sports thing for much longer because you

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Speaker 8: were so in your element.

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Speaker 7: It was just so awesome to watch.

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Speaker 8: You know, you started getting gaining a lot of respect,

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Speaker 8: not just from your bosses, but from like the players

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Speaker 8: and stuff. Because you would hang out at the summit

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Speaker 8: where the Rockets played, and that was always fun to

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Speaker 8: tag along with you to go to go like see

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Speaker 8: all these different people or whatever. But you were never

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Speaker 8: phased by it. You were never phased by it was

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Speaker 8: always just you were in your element.

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Speaker 1: It's funny because I also really didn't love going in

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Speaker 1: the locker room. You know, it was pretty overwhelming. I mean,

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Speaker 1: here you are. You know, you're a young woman, you're Yeah.

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Speaker 1: There was a wonderful woman, Emanina Martini, who had been

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Speaker 1: in Houston for a long time.

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Speaker 3: It was really cool, so she was there. She was

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Speaker 3: like the og.

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Speaker 1: But really I was like vastly, vastly outnumbered, and you

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Speaker 1: know I got it like a lot of pushback and

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Speaker 1: like even like in the press box. You know, just

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Speaker 1: as a female, you're just you just stick out like

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Speaker 1: a sore thumb.

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Speaker 3: A lot of people aren't necessarily thrilled with.

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Speaker 1: You being there, and you know, then you kind of

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Speaker 1: multiply that you go out on locker or like a

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Speaker 1: huge football locker room or whatever.

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Speaker 3: So I never went in the locker room.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I would stand outside the locker room with my

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Speaker 1: little microphone. Yes, my taper corner, my corner exactly players as.

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Speaker 3: They were leaving to do an interview.

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Speaker 1: The cool thing is you got a lot of one

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Speaker 1: on one interviews that way. I still carry the torch

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Speaker 1: for Houston because to me, h Town has one of

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Speaker 1: the best fan bases in America, not just because of

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Speaker 1: Houston's successes but also all those years of near missus

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Speaker 1: that left their fans starving for a title.

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Speaker 9: In the early nineteen seventies, it was almost a nobody

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Speaker 9: town because all of our teams were drefful. The Oilers

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Speaker 9: were in the middle of having back to back one

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Speaker 9: in thirteen seasons. The Astros were ten years into their

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Speaker 9: history and had not even had a winning season yet.

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Speaker 9: And then, of course here were the Rockets. And I'm

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Speaker 9: going to say that first team in seventy one seventy

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Speaker 9: who probably finished fifteen sixteen games under five.

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Speaker 1: Hundred Rockets legend Rudy tom Jonovitch, who would later coach

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Speaker 1: the team, was a power forward at the time, basket and.

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Speaker 2: They need one.

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Speaker 9: Now, I'm Janet's put it up out a hook.

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Speaker 3: And he moved with the Rockets from San Diego to Houston.

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Speaker 6: Yeah.

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Speaker 5: I was in my apartment ready to leave, and a

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Speaker 5: bulletin came on and it said, the San Diego Rockets

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Speaker 5: have been sold to a group of people in Houston, Texas.

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Speaker 5: You know, we came to town and we found out that

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Speaker 5: basketball wasn't a big deal.

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Speaker 6: It was a football state.

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Speaker 5: They had us out at a mall one day, meet

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Speaker 5: a couple of players, and they have a banner, Meet

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Speaker 5: the Houston Rockets, and nobody recognizes us because we're brand new.

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Speaker 5: We don't get to sign autographs. Finally, elderly lady comes

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Speaker 5: up and says, oh my god, I loved you guys.

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Speaker 5: How do you fit in those spaceships? She thought we

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Speaker 5: were with mass up. We said, no, we're with the

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Speaker 5: basketball team.

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Speaker 6: See. Oh god, you know.

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Speaker 3: That is hilarious. Oh my gosh. So what were those like?

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Speaker 3: What was that first season? Blake?

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Speaker 1: I mean, what do you remember? You said Houston was

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Speaker 1: a football town. So were people showing up.

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Speaker 3: What was it like.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, we had text Winner as our coach, and tex

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Speaker 5: wound up getting in the Hall of Pain and did

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Speaker 5: so many wonderful things with the triangle offense. However, he

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Speaker 5: was a college coach. He needed to make some adjustments.

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Speaker 5: So we started the season two and eighteen, two wins

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Speaker 5: and eighteen losses, and we were blessed because one of

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Speaker 5: those ris the refereemade a mistake on a goldtending and

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Speaker 5: called it the wrong one.

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Speaker 6: We got to win the.

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Speaker 5: Game, but you know, we battled that and you know, I.

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Speaker 6: Think we run thirty games after that horrible start.

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Speaker 1: By the time I got to Houston, the team had

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Speaker 1: turned a corner.

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Speaker 6: You know.

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Speaker 11: The first years were tough. I can remember. You know,

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Speaker 11: the revenues were not great. We had several owners who

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Speaker 11: went bankrupt because there were other businesses that did well.

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Speaker 11: I mean, Houston was a boom bust, oil wildcatting kind

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Speaker 11: of a town. I remember one time we almost couldn't

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Speaker 11: make payroll. My father was talking to the Knicks about

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Speaker 11: selling Rudy Tom Jonathan's contract to the next to keep

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Speaker 11: the franchise afloat.

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Speaker 3: That's Steve Patterson.

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Speaker 1: When we met in nineteen eighty four, he was working

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Speaker 1: his way up the ranks of the Rockets front office.

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Speaker 1: Like me, Steve grew up in basketball. His dad, Ray Patterson,

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Speaker 1: was president of the Rockets at the time and the

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Speaker 1: original president of the Milwaukee Bucks, A big pleasure shot.

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Speaker 10: Again, I can't believe.

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Speaker 11: He was investing in the team. And he was running

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Speaker 11: a prep school called Whale Academy in Wisconsin at the time,

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Speaker 11: and both he and the school invested in the Bucks

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Speaker 11: because they were going public and al maguire was supposed

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Speaker 11: to be the coach at GM. He was the head

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Speaker 11: coach at Marquette University for a successful college coach, and

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Speaker 11: at the last minute, the night before they were getting

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Speaker 11: a public the school wouldn't let him out of his contract.

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Speaker 11: So the guys on the board looked around and said, well,

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Speaker 11: there's only one guy here knows anything about basketball, Ray,

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Speaker 11: will you do it for a year, because yeah, I'll

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Speaker 11: come do it for a year. And so he kept

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Speaker 11: both jobs actually for two years.

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Speaker 3: It's crazy.

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Speaker 11: Yeah, he was headmaster of the school and ran the

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Speaker 11: Bucks for two years.

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Speaker 7: Let's go to the pip off right now.

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Speaker 1: That's so crazy because at the time my dad was

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Speaker 1: with the ABA, and they tried really really hard to

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Speaker 1: get Louel Cinder to come to the ABA. It was

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Speaker 1: kind of a battle between the two leagues, but he

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Speaker 1: ended up in Milwaukee.

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Speaker 12: Yeah.

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Speaker 11: I mean both teams actually were putting up money to

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Speaker 11: get him to each league, and it was actually really interesting.

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Speaker 11: I think it showed some of Kareem's character because what

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Speaker 11: he told both teams both leagues was make me your

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Speaker 11: best offer.

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Speaker 1: There's some kind of crazy rumor that George Mike and

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Speaker 1: had a million dollars in his pocket, but he was

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Speaker 1: so convinced that that Korea was coming to the ABA

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Speaker 1: that he never gave it to him.

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Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure. I don't know if that's true or not.

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Speaker 11: It was the first million dollar contract over forty years now,

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Speaker 11: of course it's not.

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Speaker 3: And it's so crazy.

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Speaker 1: Would you think how far the game has come that

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Speaker 1: your dad was actually running a prep school and the

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Speaker 1: Milwaukee Bucks at the same time.

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Speaker 3: I mean, that blows my mind right there.

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Speaker 11: Yeah, I think there was always like seven or eight

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Speaker 11: people in the front office. The marketing campaign was seen.

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Speaker 11: The Bucks for a buck tells you a little bit

402
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Speaker 11: about pricing its versus today.

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Speaker 1: Steve's dad, Big Ray did not mess around after drafting

404
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Speaker 1: Leuel Cinder in nineteen sixty nine. He traded for Oscar

405
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Speaker 1: Robertson in nineteen seventy. Milwaukee won its first title in

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one, and Ray left the next year to

407
00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:24,040
Speaker 1: lead the Rockets in Houston. When did folks start to

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Speaker 1: kind of warm up to the Rockets and warm up

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Speaker 1: to the basketball scene?

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Speaker 6: Well, we made it to the playoffs. Finally.

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Speaker 5: We were playing the mix and very close contest and

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Speaker 5: we weren't really experienced in that kind of competition, and

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Speaker 5: we lost our close game and our fans went crazy.

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Speaker 5: We didn't really get good till Bell Harris came in

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Speaker 5: and we actually wound up going to the finals with

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Speaker 5: a losing record.

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Speaker 3: What was that playoff like?

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Speaker 1: Again, you guys just just scooted in there at the

419
00:22:04,560 --> 00:22:07,760
Speaker 1: very last second end of the playoff picture. But then

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Speaker 1: you kept winning as time went on. So kind of

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Speaker 1: take me through that magical postseason.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, it was very interesting.

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Speaker 5: I was on the team, but I had gotten hurt,

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Speaker 5: and Del Harris went with Billy faults and Moses three.

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Speaker 2: Seconds on the shot clock too, Billy cluckt Bell There's

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Speaker 2: more again.

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Speaker 5: Alone and then Calvin and Mike Dunlevy. We would change

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Speaker 5: the pace on people, grind it out. You know, we

429
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Speaker 5: had to beat La to get out of the West.

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Speaker 5: And you know that was magic when he was here.

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Speaker 3: Awhile he's opening, Magic blocked it beautifully.

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Speaker 5: And just remember seeing how uncomfortable they were. They couldn't

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Speaker 5: get into showtime because we slowed it down so much

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Speaker 5: and we had two big guys protecting the basket.

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Speaker 1: The eighty eighty one Rockets team was stacked. They were

436
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Speaker 1: led by Hall of Fame center Moses Malone, part of

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Speaker 1: a monolithic starting five known league wide as the water Buffalo's.

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Speaker 11: No, I mean they were not an actual bunch. Mike

439
00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:26,960
Speaker 11: Nolan and Calvin Murphy in the back court and see

440
00:23:27,040 --> 00:23:29,280
Speaker 11: Jack Maarn you know, a couple of other big LUNs.

441
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Speaker 11: That was a different game those days. You can smack people.

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Speaker 6: You can't do that anymore.

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Speaker 1: Yes, that was a whole different kind of basketball back

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Speaker 1: in the day. And then the Rockets went to the

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Speaker 1: NBA Finals in eighty one.

446
00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:46,600
Speaker 11: Yeah, a sub forty two and we snuck in on

447
00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:47,359
Speaker 11: the last.

448
00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:50,359
Speaker 1: Day and then had this crazy run and made it

449
00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:52,800
Speaker 1: all the way to play the Celtics for the championship.

450
00:23:53,040 --> 00:23:54,200
Speaker 3: What do you remember about that?

451
00:23:54,359 --> 00:23:56,280
Speaker 11: Moses just put the team on his back.

452
00:23:57,280 --> 00:24:04,480
Speaker 2: I was just Malone now with fourteen twenty eight point.

453
00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:06,000
Speaker 11: What a phenomenal player. People sort of don't remember how

454
00:24:06,119 --> 00:24:08,480
Speaker 11: Grady was. I mean, that guy could go for thirty

455
00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:11,600
Speaker 11: and twenty every night. And you know, we had some

456
00:24:11,680 --> 00:24:13,920
Speaker 11: young guys like Robert Reed and who hit Rudy and

457
00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:16,760
Speaker 11: Mike Nolan and Murph and you know, it was a

458
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:20,560
Speaker 11: lot of fun. The summit was rocking, and you know,

459
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:22,600
Speaker 11: the community then really started to kind of wake up

460
00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:25,320
Speaker 11: and embrace the team as we went into the eighties.

461
00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:29,679
Speaker 1: From there, that eighty eighty one Rockets squad lost to

462
00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:37,200
Speaker 1: the Celtics and a young Larry Bird in six games.

463
00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:38,320
Speaker 10: Great three points hung by Larry Bird.

464
00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:43,879
Speaker 1: The Rockets came back and had another good run the

465
00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:48,080
Speaker 1: next season, making the eighty one eighty two Western Conference Finals,

466
00:24:48,160 --> 00:24:51,200
Speaker 1: but they couldn't afford to keep Moses Malone, so they

467
00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:54,240
Speaker 1: sent him to the Philadelphia seventy six ers for a

468
00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:57,880
Speaker 1: few first round draft picks, one of which was used

469
00:24:57,880 --> 00:25:00,760
Speaker 1: to acquire Hall of Famer Ralph Sampson.

470
00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:05,200
Speaker 10: Sampson double team on him the seventh.

471
00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:08,359
Speaker 1: Foot three or whatever Ralph's arrival in Houston marked a

472
00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:12,280
Speaker 1: new era. He was, as they say, a unicorn, the

473
00:25:12,359 --> 00:25:17,040
Speaker 1: prototype for a guy like the Spurs, Victor Wibanyana, the grass.

474
00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:21,320
Speaker 10: Ralph crap fund with a great morven.

475
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:24,199
Speaker 1: What was it that the organization saw in Ralph to

476
00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:25,320
Speaker 1: make him the number one pick?

477
00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:26,280
Speaker 3: Was it pretty obvious?

478
00:25:26,840 --> 00:25:27,080
Speaker 6: Yeah?

479
00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:31,760
Speaker 11: I mean completely obvious. He was seven for he could

480
00:25:31,760 --> 00:25:35,600
Speaker 11: play point guard, extremely talented, very athletic, hard work.

481
00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:39,720
Speaker 6: They're very professional Ralph Sampson. You know, we knew where

482
00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:40,440
Speaker 6: we're taken him.

483
00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:47,040
Speaker 5: He was a super versatile player, had a great touch,

484
00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:50,439
Speaker 5: could play with his back to the basket. He was

485
00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:56,800
Speaker 5: so tall and almost was a disadvantage, especially in driving

486
00:25:56,880 --> 00:26:03,320
Speaker 5: the sexuastings he could be, but he was a un protector.

487
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:05,880
Speaker 6: He was a phenomenal player.

488
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:08,199
Speaker 10: Right and he dumps at home and Shapson with his

489
00:26:08,280 --> 00:26:08,920
Speaker 10: first bucket.

490
00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:13,560
Speaker 1: Ralph was soft spoken and serious. He majored in rhetoric

491
00:26:13,640 --> 00:26:16,720
Speaker 1: at the University of Virginia, where he was a three

492
00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:20,280
Speaker 1: time National Player of the Year. Ralph led the Who's

493
00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:24,240
Speaker 1: to the nineteen eighty NIT Championship, the nineteen eighty one

494
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:28,440
Speaker 1: Final four, and big regular season victories over the Likes

495
00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:33,639
Speaker 1: of North Carolina's Michael Jordan and Georgetown's Patrick Ewing. You

496
00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:38,560
Speaker 1: were such an unusual player right at seven four, but

497
00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:41,800
Speaker 1: with interior and perimeter skills. Kind of take us back

498
00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:44,920
Speaker 1: to how your game developed as a big man back

499
00:26:44,920 --> 00:26:45,360
Speaker 1: in the day.

500
00:26:45,800 --> 00:26:48,040
Speaker 4: Rightly, I didn't like basketball when I was growing up.

501
00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:50,520
Speaker 4: I played baseball, and I was really good baseball player

502
00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:53,840
Speaker 4: a pitch. I played basketball, But basketball at an early

503
00:26:53,920 --> 00:26:56,560
Speaker 4: age was you can only score sixteen points a game,

504
00:26:56,800 --> 00:26:58,919
Speaker 4: and I had sixteen points in the first five minutes.

505
00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:02,240
Speaker 12: It's crazy. By the way, evolved from.

506
00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:05,640
Speaker 4: That to high school, and my high school coach let

507
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:08,919
Speaker 4: me play at any position I wanted to if I

508
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:09,600
Speaker 4: practice it.

509
00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:10,320
Speaker 3: Oh wow.

510
00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:13,159
Speaker 12: So six seven in ninth grade, I was getting beat up.

511
00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:14,919
Speaker 12: I was probably one hundred pounds, soak and what.

512
00:27:15,359 --> 00:27:17,400
Speaker 4: So he was very innovative and got to a wave

513
00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:20,920
Speaker 4: room at that stage, which no one said that weights would.

514
00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:23,200
Speaker 12: Mess your jump shot up or mess you dow up. Right,

515
00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:24,320
Speaker 12: So that was kind of there.

516
00:27:24,359 --> 00:27:26,760
Speaker 4: But he was innovative and he led me in practice

517
00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:29,880
Speaker 4: practice every day against the fastest guard that we had.

518
00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:33,040
Speaker 4: But it started with him making me do that in practice.

519
00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:35,879
Speaker 4: That evolved at an early age from high school to

520
00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:37,160
Speaker 4: Collage College to the NBA.

521
00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:40,439
Speaker 1: So you were running the floor like on a regular

522
00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:42,280
Speaker 1: basis and practice against the guards.

523
00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:47,000
Speaker 4: Oh, absolutely, that's wild guarding and driveling. He would have

524
00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:47,880
Speaker 4: double teem me.

525
00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:50,399
Speaker 12: As well, because I would literally get frustrated because there

526
00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:52,119
Speaker 12: was a boxing on or his own and I couldn't

527
00:27:52,119 --> 00:27:52,520
Speaker 12: get the ball.

528
00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:55,240
Speaker 4: Everybody was somebody in front of me, somebody behind me,

529
00:27:55,960 --> 00:27:57,800
Speaker 4: So I can never get the ball only when the rebound.

530
00:27:57,880 --> 00:27:59,920
Speaker 4: I gets frustrated. I'd grow up and not turned over.

531
00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:02,560
Speaker 4: And he was left handed, he would stop his foot.

532
00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:04,879
Speaker 4: He called me stick. He said, stick, you can't do that.

533
00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:07,280
Speaker 4: You're gonna turn the ball over. So he said he's

534
00:28:07,280 --> 00:28:08,920
Speaker 4: gonna do it at a game regardless. So he put

535
00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:11,280
Speaker 4: me in practice and the rest of history after that.

536
00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:15,560
Speaker 1: By the time he was a senior in high school,

537
00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:18,760
Speaker 1: Ralph was the most sought after recruit in the country.

538
00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:22,320
Speaker 1: After his first season at UVA, he was being courted

539
00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:23,080
Speaker 1: by the pros.

540
00:28:23,600 --> 00:28:26,879
Speaker 4: So imagine read our back and mister Fitzgerald, the owner

541
00:28:26,920 --> 00:28:29,879
Speaker 4: of the Celtics, came knocked on my parents' door with

542
00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:32,280
Speaker 4: a brew caase that only had a million dollars in

543
00:28:32,359 --> 00:28:33,959
Speaker 4: and so I say, all these one hundred dollars buildings.

544
00:28:34,119 --> 00:28:35,720
Speaker 12: I always have my parents, are we okay?

545
00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:37,359
Speaker 4: Every year that I had the opportunity to come out

546
00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:39,080
Speaker 4: of school, I would go back and say.

547
00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:40,160
Speaker 12: Are you all right?

548
00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:42,560
Speaker 4: Do we need anything or et cetera, And my dad

549
00:28:42,600 --> 00:28:44,800
Speaker 4: would say, my mom would say, and we worked all

550
00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:47,440
Speaker 4: these years. You know, is your decision. We don't read

551
00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:50,800
Speaker 4: anything because we have everything we want. And so with

552
00:28:50,840 --> 00:28:52,640
Speaker 4: that in mind, I didn't need to come out. I

553
00:28:52,720 --> 00:28:54,080
Speaker 4: just need to develop my game work.

554
00:28:54,520 --> 00:28:59,200
Speaker 9: Houston Rockets select Ralph Sampson University every.

555
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:03,600
Speaker 1: D So you get drafted by the Houston Rockets. What

556
00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:06,880
Speaker 1: kind of situation do you walk into there in Houston?

557
00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:09,040
Speaker 1: And what was Houston like as a basketball town at

558
00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:09,440
Speaker 1: the time.

559
00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:11,200
Speaker 12: Houston was massive?

560
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:13,920
Speaker 4: And then the biggest thing there that I remember, mcclorey,

561
00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:17,680
Speaker 4: is that I've gotten drafted. Well, we moved from New

562
00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:20,560
Speaker 4: York on two private little jets. We get there, we

563
00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:22,400
Speaker 4: land and we go to the inn to bring us

564
00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:25,080
Speaker 4: packed with people in the summit. So that was like

565
00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:27,120
Speaker 4: a special moment for me that oh, this is real

566
00:29:27,360 --> 00:29:29,760
Speaker 4: right and now we are coming to really be the

567
00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:32,000
Speaker 4: Ilmark guys on the team that's going to hope We

568
00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:33,040
Speaker 4: get this to another level.

569
00:29:34,160 --> 00:29:38,080
Speaker 1: Ralph's rookie year nineteen eighty three eighty four, he averaged

570
00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:41,680
Speaker 1: twenty one points, eleven rebounds, and two blocks a game

571
00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:45,000
Speaker 1: and earned Rookie of the Year and All Star honors.

572
00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:47,160
Speaker 3: The team was bad, though.

573
00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:51,800
Speaker 1: The Rockets lucked into the first pick again. They had

574
00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:55,320
Speaker 1: a twenty and fifty three record and then won the

575
00:29:55,520 --> 00:29:57,360
Speaker 1: draft lottery coin flip.

576
00:29:57,680 --> 00:29:58,840
Speaker 3: Here's Steve Patterson.

577
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:02,520
Speaker 11: For some strange reason, my father got accused of tanking

578
00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:12,840
Speaker 11: the year, which was totally the truth, because we had Elijah,

579
00:30:13,240 --> 00:30:15,480
Speaker 11: we had a keem Olijah. I played right there in

580
00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:19,840
Speaker 11: town at the University of Houston. So like Elvin Hayes,

581
00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:22,640
Speaker 11: came back to the team after his after playing in

582
00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:24,400
Speaker 11: Washington win in the championship there, and I think he

583
00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:27,320
Speaker 11: was about, I don't know, sixty eight years older some

584
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:29,800
Speaker 11: of this time. The last game of the year, so

585
00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:36,120
Speaker 11: that we could lose, they played him fifty minutes, including overtime. No, oh,

586
00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:39,200
Speaker 11: my gosh, I was so tired he couldn't hardly move.

587
00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:46,520
Speaker 2: The Houston Rockets select a team Elijahwan of the.

588
00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:47,880
Speaker 12: University of Houston.

589
00:30:49,760 --> 00:30:53,560
Speaker 3: It is a pushole, no well attired a team.

590
00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:57,160
Speaker 1: Elijah won and started playing basketball just five years ago

591
00:30:57,320 --> 00:30:58,280
Speaker 1: from Nigeria.

592
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:00,920
Speaker 3: Is now the number one Vick does not have to

593
00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:02,520
Speaker 3: go too far from the university.

594
00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:04,400
Speaker 11: People would say, well, you should take in Jordan or

595
00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:07,840
Speaker 11: somebody else. You could not not take Alajuan with the

596
00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:09,840
Speaker 11: first pick of the draft. You know, Ray and the

597
00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:11,160
Speaker 11: rest of us would have been to run out of

598
00:31:11,280 --> 00:31:12,120
Speaker 11: town and rare.

599
00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:16,640
Speaker 1: Then the Rockets did something which really could have been

600
00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:20,480
Speaker 1: considered unconventional at the time. You already have Ralph Samson

601
00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:24,760
Speaker 1: and then you draft a kiem Olajuan. Yeah, obviously a

602
00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:29,480
Speaker 1: kim Olajuan was a huge local favorite. You know, University

603
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:34,200
Speaker 1: of Houston Star already formed and you're sitting right there

604
00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:38,200
Speaker 1: with the number one pick. Nonetheless, you know, not everybody

605
00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:40,800
Speaker 1: would put two guys that size on the floor at

606
00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:41,520
Speaker 1: the same time.

607
00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:42,920
Speaker 3: So what was the thinking there?

608
00:31:43,640 --> 00:31:46,640
Speaker 11: He really was to do something very different. Two great talents.

609
00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:49,080
Speaker 11: Ralph liked to play away from the basket a bit,

610
00:31:49,280 --> 00:31:52,960
Speaker 11: and Alajuan was great down on the block and uh,

611
00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:56,400
Speaker 11: you know, great shot blockers. The guys that played with

612
00:31:56,520 --> 00:31:58,640
Speaker 11: them used to laugh and say, yeah, go on, go on,

613
00:31:58,760 --> 00:32:01,000
Speaker 11: gown down the lane and see what happens, right, Because

614
00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:03,160
Speaker 11: the ball's coming back out to me and I'm going

615
00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:05,640
Speaker 11: to have a fast break and square at the other end.

616
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:09,680
Speaker 11: And it really for a while changed how the league played.

617
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:10,320
Speaker 6: You know.

618
00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:13,400
Speaker 11: The Celtics were built that way with with with Biggs,

619
00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:16,600
Speaker 11: with Parrish and McHale and Walton. The Knicks tried to

620
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:20,840
Speaker 11: do that with Cartwright Ewing, you know, so people tried

621
00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:24,120
Speaker 11: to emulate it. It just made you so tough on defense.

622
00:32:24,440 --> 00:32:28,520
Speaker 11: People couldn't get to the rim. What a shot that

623
00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:33,400
Speaker 11: was under total control at eighteen for a key.

624
00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:38,720
Speaker 1: A Keeme the dream was already a legend in Houston.

625
00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:41,800
Speaker 1: He and Clyde Drexler, who would later join him on

626
00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:46,040
Speaker 1: the Rockets, led the University of Houston to three consecutive

627
00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:51,880
Speaker 1: final fours, the famed five Slama Jama. Can you describe

628
00:32:51,960 --> 00:32:54,480
Speaker 1: for people, you know, what had happened obviously at the

629
00:32:54,560 --> 00:33:00,440
Speaker 1: University of Houston with Fi Slama Jama and how big

630
00:33:00,560 --> 00:33:05,000
Speaker 1: a deal it was to keep a cam olajuwon in Houston.

631
00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:08,480
Speaker 11: Yeah, I mean he had a great career there, played

632
00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:12,040
Speaker 11: with Drexler and Larry Nishah and Rob Williams and a

633
00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:15,640
Speaker 11: bunch of guys that played in the NBA. Very successful

634
00:33:15,760 --> 00:33:18,920
Speaker 11: collegiate team. You know, wound up losing a national championship

635
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:21,040
Speaker 11: game at a blue air ball shot that got the

636
00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:25,080
Speaker 11: back in. But that was so huge that they called

637
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:27,960
Speaker 11: him the fly by slam a jan elect fraternity.

638
00:33:37,480 --> 00:33:43,400
Speaker 10: The team doubled quickly by bird minds away. That was

639
00:33:43,600 --> 00:33:44,200
Speaker 10: just amazing.

640
00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:46,320
Speaker 3: It was easy to root for a team.

641
00:33:46,680 --> 00:33:49,800
Speaker 1: He immigrated to the United States from Nigeria as a

642
00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:53,560
Speaker 1: college student. He was a devout Muslim, a gentle soul

643
00:33:53,800 --> 00:33:59,640
Speaker 1: in many ways, but extremely competitive and insanely talented.

644
00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:04,040
Speaker 10: Guys turn around mold. Is he quick for a big man, Well,

645
00:34:04,080 --> 00:34:06,720
Speaker 10: he's got that quick drop strips.

646
00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:09,279
Speaker 11: Are a great shot blocker, Defensive player of the year

647
00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:11,799
Speaker 11: a number of times. I was on the All Defensive team,

648
00:34:12,440 --> 00:34:15,160
Speaker 11: great scorer down the block. Played soccer as a kid,

649
00:34:15,239 --> 00:34:16,960
Speaker 11: so its foot forth was real different. It's kind of

650
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:20,120
Speaker 11: interesting to watch him that way. You know, just continue

651
00:34:20,160 --> 00:34:21,960
Speaker 11: to grow as a player a year after year of

652
00:34:22,080 --> 00:34:25,600
Speaker 11: the year, playing at Bondi Rep, playing against Moses Malone

653
00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:29,879
Speaker 11: every day, really learned the craft and you know, became

654
00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:30,960
Speaker 11: one of the all time greats.

655
00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:36,520
Speaker 13: Inside to Elijah On he thanks looking's up, Sampson copses

656
00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:37,120
Speaker 13: inside of.

657
00:34:37,120 --> 00:34:39,239
Speaker 10: The fast in the count in East Fouler.

658
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:42,920
Speaker 1: The Twin Towers of Texas now a team, and Ralph

659
00:34:43,280 --> 00:34:44,720
Speaker 1: two seven footers.

660
00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:47,680
Speaker 3: They quickly became known as the Twin Towers.

661
00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:50,000
Speaker 1: You're there's a big man and then they draft a

662
00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:53,440
Speaker 1: Keem Olajahwan and all of a sudden, the Twin Towers

663
00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:53,919
Speaker 1: are born.

664
00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:56,160
Speaker 3: But that kind of changes everything.

665
00:34:56,680 --> 00:34:59,839
Speaker 12: What was that like, bro Tom? So you know, think

666
00:34:59,880 --> 00:35:00,560
Speaker 12: of about Patrick.

667
00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:04,680
Speaker 4: You ain't going to the Knicks, Kareem in Latworthy in

668
00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:06,920
Speaker 4: La Magic and l A Burning in Boston.

669
00:35:07,560 --> 00:35:09,960
Speaker 12: So the n BEING is a big business and so

670
00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:11,600
Speaker 12: you know you got to get the players in the

671
00:35:11,680 --> 00:35:14,160
Speaker 12: right right position to develop it. And back then the

672
00:35:14,280 --> 00:35:16,719
Speaker 12: NBA was struggling a little bit in their late seventies

673
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:19,719
Speaker 12: just to make sure it worked. So whoever made those

674
00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:22,200
Speaker 12: draft picks or whoever behind pushing no buttons did a

675
00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:24,719
Speaker 12: really good thing within the structure of the NBA. Well,

676
00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:26,640
Speaker 12: for me, they came to me and said we're going

677
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:28,600
Speaker 12: to draft the team and create this Twin Tower thing.

678
00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:30,400
Speaker 12: They showed me pictures that I said, cool, I can

679
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:32,719
Speaker 12: go and not be in the post and get beat up.

680
00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:35,960
Speaker 12: But I thought that when I saw him play in

681
00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:39,520
Speaker 12: Houston and going to the Final four, and to see

682
00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:41,600
Speaker 12: him play, he was very raw. Uh you know, the

683
00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:43,600
Speaker 12: dream shake and all that wasn't created at that point

684
00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:45,919
Speaker 12: in time. It became one of those things. Well, okay,

685
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:47,680
Speaker 12: we could get him in. And then Moses Belone sent

686
00:35:47,719 --> 00:35:49,399
Speaker 12: me down and said, you know, he can be really good.

687
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:51,640
Speaker 4: Because Mody was really taught the team early on, and

688
00:35:51,719 --> 00:35:53,759
Speaker 4: so I respect him all this because the Virginia we

689
00:35:53,840 --> 00:35:57,720
Speaker 4: had that kind of camaraderie. So I cherished the idea

690
00:35:57,760 --> 00:35:59,719
Speaker 4: of them drafting me and creating the Twin Towts because

691
00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:01,560
Speaker 4: some of the different in the league to seven fo

692
00:36:01,640 --> 00:36:04,480
Speaker 4: the de could play. So I cherished it and I

693
00:36:04,640 --> 00:36:06,840
Speaker 4: took it as something special.

694
00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:18,800
Speaker 1: The Twin Towers had a strong supporting cast, Rodney McCrae,

695
00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:22,680
Speaker 1: Robert Reid, Lewis Lloyd John Lucas the point guard, the

696
00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:25,839
Speaker 1: piece that made the other pieces fit, but the team

697
00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:29,480
Speaker 1: lost Lucas at mid season, sending him to rehab to

698
00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:33,200
Speaker 1: fight a cocaine addiction. With no true point guard, the

699
00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:36,680
Speaker 1: team ran their offense through Reid. After winning the Midwest

700
00:36:36,719 --> 00:36:39,560
Speaker 1: Division with a fifty one and thirty one record, they

701
00:36:39,719 --> 00:36:43,240
Speaker 1: bulldozed their way to the Western Conference Finals against Magic

702
00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:46,759
Speaker 1: and Kareem's Lakers, the Magic.

703
00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:49,960
Speaker 10: Man, what's going and one man really can't stop him her.

704
00:36:50,440 --> 00:36:54,640
Speaker 1: After dropping Game one, the Rockets reeled off three straight wins.

705
00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:57,440
Speaker 1: Game five looked like it might go the other way

706
00:36:57,640 --> 00:37:01,239
Speaker 1: when a Keem Olajahwan was ejected for fighting after being

707
00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:03,440
Speaker 1: baited by Mitch Kupchak.

708
00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:14,600
Speaker 11: Cupcheck figured out how to get in a fight with

709
00:37:15,360 --> 00:37:18,160
Speaker 11: so they both got tossed. So teams in the locker

710
00:37:18,239 --> 00:37:22,640
Speaker 11: room with Rudy and yeah, one second left, I think

711
00:37:22,640 --> 00:37:25,239
Speaker 11: it was Byron's guy had missed a shot and we

712
00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:28,239
Speaker 11: rebound in a second. We tossed it in and Ralph

713
00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:30,880
Speaker 11: and I was like, he's really gonna have to ticklar

714
00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:34,400
Speaker 11: Ver size. But you know, in practice, he used to

715
00:37:34,600 --> 00:37:37,360
Speaker 11: play games just like you know, like playing horse and

716
00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:40,600
Speaker 11: make funny shots. And there was one play that Denver

717
00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:42,960
Speaker 11: had and they used to be in the series before

718
00:37:43,280 --> 00:37:45,960
Speaker 11: where they throw the ball into Rascus and at at

719
00:37:46,040 --> 00:37:48,360
Speaker 11: that at the foot goal line and he turns and

720
00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:51,640
Speaker 11: shoots quickly. So Ralph has sort of imitated that in practice.

721
00:37:52,080 --> 00:37:56,239
Speaker 11: And so yeah, ball gets logged in quickly because we

722
00:37:56,320 --> 00:37:59,400
Speaker 11: didn't want the Lakers to get their defense set and

723
00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:02,040
Speaker 11: thrown it in a rout in the air, turns and

724
00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:04,480
Speaker 11: throws it up and it bounces around and Wiggans almost

725
00:38:04,520 --> 00:38:06,640
Speaker 11: touches it. You could see it pulls at.

726
00:38:06,480 --> 00:38:17,120
Speaker 10: The hand one second on the clock, and it.

727
00:38:17,200 --> 00:38:20,239
Speaker 11: Bounces around and falls in and we knock off the

728
00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:21,960
Speaker 11: Lakers in Game five.

729
00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:28,160
Speaker 1: I was there covering it, like for my radio station

730
00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:31,040
Speaker 1: for some reason. I don't even know why they sent

731
00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:32,080
Speaker 1: me all.

732
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:34,680
Speaker 3: The way to do that, but they did.

733
00:38:35,719 --> 00:38:41,120
Speaker 1: And that was my first experience being in an arena

734
00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:45,160
Speaker 1: where it's just totally silent, you know where you see

735
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:49,040
Speaker 1: that huge, huge shot. The complete silence in the LA

736
00:38:49,200 --> 00:38:51,640
Speaker 1: Forum at the time was absolutely stunning.

737
00:38:51,760 --> 00:38:52,120
Speaker 12: Yeah, it was.

738
00:38:52,280 --> 00:38:55,320
Speaker 1: It was a really cool moment. Can you just describe

739
00:38:55,360 --> 00:38:58,719
Speaker 1: the scene in Houston? I mean, Houston just I mean

740
00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:01,239
Speaker 1: went insane. Can you kind of describe what it was

741
00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:03,960
Speaker 1: like like after you guys beat the Lakers and before

742
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:05,800
Speaker 1: you went to the finals, just sort of the reaction

743
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:06,719
Speaker 1: of the town.

744
00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:09,320
Speaker 4: Well, I started in the forum, You're like, okay, we

745
00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:11,440
Speaker 4: got to go back, and you know, all the PREPLU

746
00:39:11,520 --> 00:39:13,600
Speaker 4: dudes and everybody's like, okay, great, We're going back to

747
00:39:13,680 --> 00:39:16,279
Speaker 4: the finals, et cetera. So when we land, it was

748
00:39:16,360 --> 00:39:18,160
Speaker 4: just crazy. We go to the Summit and we got

749
00:39:18,239 --> 00:39:22,120
Speaker 4: fans all over the place and interviews and any restaurant

750
00:39:22,160 --> 00:39:24,120
Speaker 4: you want to go to, and we had to really

751
00:39:24,200 --> 00:39:26,600
Speaker 4: focus on what we had to do. We could enjoy

752
00:39:26,640 --> 00:39:28,799
Speaker 4: it for a couple of days, but Bill fish Out

753
00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:31,279
Speaker 4: has repurpated very quickly because he knew what we was

754
00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:34,320
Speaker 4: up against in Boston with the Boston Celtic and the fans.

755
00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:36,759
Speaker 12: As well, so he had prepared us really really well

756
00:39:36,840 --> 00:39:37,000
Speaker 12: for that.

757
00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:41,759
Speaker 1: After the Celtics grabbed a commanding three to one lead,

758
00:39:42,040 --> 00:39:45,719
Speaker 1: the Rockets faced elimination at the Summit in Houston, the

759
00:39:45,800 --> 00:39:48,200
Speaker 1: game intensity was at a fever pitch.

760
00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:52,400
Speaker 4: Well you know they were. They were, uh, because they

761
00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:54,160
Speaker 4: beat us the first two games. And I come back

762
00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:55,160
Speaker 4: to Houston, I said.

763
00:39:55,040 --> 00:39:57,359
Speaker 12: My motto was, if you're gonna beat it, but you're

764
00:39:57,360 --> 00:39:58,600
Speaker 12: not gonna beat us on our own court.

765
00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:02,520
Speaker 1: Now, you had the kind of infamous moment. I was

766
00:40:02,600 --> 00:40:05,479
Speaker 1: there in the summit. You and Jerry Shesting got into

767
00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:10,080
Speaker 1: it and that is your love. Now what do you

768
00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:13,160
Speaker 1: remember about that? In Counting Sea Stinging.

769
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:16,520
Speaker 10: Sens it And now Dennis Judson and know Meylee is

770
00:40:16,560 --> 00:40:21,840
Speaker 10: broken out here a meleeus broken out the Ventures of

771
00:40:21,880 --> 00:40:25,080
Speaker 10: Empty then they have brought police onto the floor.

772
00:40:25,600 --> 00:40:27,759
Speaker 4: I was having a pretty good first quarter because I

773
00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:31,240
Speaker 4: was greater play this, that other and lovely Danny Ainge

774
00:40:31,320 --> 00:40:34,160
Speaker 4: and Jerry would come around to pick. After I'm sitting

775
00:40:34,239 --> 00:40:36,359
Speaker 4: down on Robert or somebody to get open. They would

776
00:40:36,480 --> 00:40:38,200
Speaker 4: hit me in first is that you don't want to know,

777
00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:40,719
Speaker 4: and so I'm like, okay, great, if you do this

778
00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:43,120
Speaker 4: one more town. I was hyped up and greater play.

779
00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:45,880
Speaker 4: I probably had fifteen point seven rebounds subsists in the

780
00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:49,400
Speaker 4: first quarter. No remember all the details, but once it

781
00:40:49,520 --> 00:40:51,759
Speaker 4: broke out, it just took their level. After one more hit,

782
00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:53,279
Speaker 4: like okay, rid of me for you, and then my

783
00:40:53,360 --> 00:40:55,520
Speaker 4: emotions got carried away and then we went to fighting

784
00:40:55,719 --> 00:40:58,279
Speaker 4: to another. But the most reable part about that I

785
00:40:58,360 --> 00:41:00,919
Speaker 4: looked up and my two sisters were on the edge

786
00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:01,399
Speaker 4: of the court.

787
00:41:02,080 --> 00:41:03,360
Speaker 3: Here's Steve Patterson.

788
00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:07,560
Speaker 13: The Celtics had a thing they did where they would

789
00:41:07,600 --> 00:41:10,520
Speaker 13: take seas things and he would pick whoever the free

790
00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:13,759
Speaker 13: throw shooter was. As they were going back down, Ralph

791
00:41:13,880 --> 00:41:18,520
Speaker 13: felt that Jerry submarine and tried to hurt it. And

792
00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:20,640
Speaker 13: it's this kind of insane fight right in front of

793
00:41:20,680 --> 00:41:23,160
Speaker 13: me because I'm sitting courtside, and it was a dirty

794
00:41:23,200 --> 00:41:26,160
Speaker 13: play in our view, and they had done it over

795
00:41:26,160 --> 00:41:29,880
Speaker 13: and over and over again repeatedly, and so you know,

796
00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:30,880
Speaker 13: it got out of hand.

797
00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:33,280
Speaker 11: And I really thought the referee should have called something sooner.

798
00:41:33,600 --> 00:41:36,160
Speaker 11: I remember turning around and screaming at David Stern. I

799
00:41:36,200 --> 00:41:38,439
Speaker 11: had to go up and apologize to him a week later.

800
00:41:41,280 --> 00:41:43,560
Speaker 3: Wait, what did you scream at him? What did you say?

801
00:41:44,200 --> 00:41:48,720
Speaker 11: This is your effing fault, David, because you won't referee,

802
00:41:49,520 --> 00:41:51,040
Speaker 11: they won't take care of the state.

803
00:41:51,080 --> 00:41:53,200
Speaker 10: But yeah, that was not very good at the bottom

804
00:41:53,239 --> 00:41:53,720
Speaker 10: of the pile.

805
00:41:54,120 --> 00:41:54,920
Speaker 3: What can I be honest?

806
00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:58,040
Speaker 1: It was out of control. It was completely out of control.

807
00:41:58,440 --> 00:42:00,880
Speaker 1: I mean, people were scattering away from the court like

808
00:42:01,040 --> 00:42:01,400
Speaker 1: it was.

809
00:42:02,120 --> 00:42:02,880
Speaker 3: It was wild.

810
00:42:03,440 --> 00:42:05,280
Speaker 1: And then the Rockets had to go up to Boston,

811
00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:09,160
Speaker 1: and I remember the Boston newspapers. It was like headline news.

812
00:42:09,560 --> 00:42:13,200
Speaker 1: It was Jerry Shesting versus Ralph Sampson and Ralph's a

813
00:42:13,320 --> 00:42:19,040
Speaker 1: bully and they're like quoting like Jerry Shesting's mom. It

814
00:42:19,160 --> 00:42:23,399
Speaker 1: was I mean it really it really provided a lot

815
00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:27,800
Speaker 1: of fodder for the Rockets as as villains.

816
00:42:30,360 --> 00:42:32,400
Speaker 4: So you walk into the arena and out there. So

817
00:42:32,600 --> 00:42:36,040
Speaker 4: they have this mummy or stuff, the animal or stuff

818
00:42:36,400 --> 00:42:39,080
Speaker 4: whatever it was person and it was number fifty on

819
00:42:39,160 --> 00:42:41,600
Speaker 4: it and it was like hanging on the noose over

820
00:42:41,680 --> 00:42:42,080
Speaker 4: the manner.

821
00:42:42,200 --> 00:42:42,600
Speaker 6: Oh wow.

822
00:42:43,080 --> 00:42:45,520
Speaker 4: And Cedric, we talked about it all the time. I

823
00:42:45,560 --> 00:42:46,799
Speaker 4: said back in the nay they did that. They had

824
00:42:46,800 --> 00:42:48,640
Speaker 4: they home me over the news for that, and that's

825
00:42:48,680 --> 00:42:50,480
Speaker 4: a bitch of it somewhere a lot. You had to

826
00:42:50,560 --> 00:42:52,399
Speaker 4: be very careful in Boston at that point in time

827
00:42:52,440 --> 00:42:55,880
Speaker 4: because something could happen bad. And then when they was

828
00:42:55,960 --> 00:42:58,560
Speaker 4: winning and re root it was when they built Fish

829
00:42:58,640 --> 00:43:01,319
Speaker 4: called time out, which is raised good on his part,

830
00:43:01,400 --> 00:43:03,359
Speaker 4: right cause I got all the starters in the locker

831
00:43:03,440 --> 00:43:05,120
Speaker 4: room because he knew they was from the court.

832
00:43:05,560 --> 00:43:08,120
Speaker 12: When when we are in the locker room and we

833
00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:10,800
Speaker 12: got so the memorians there was traded. But he knew

834
00:43:11,600 --> 00:43:12,239
Speaker 12: what he needed to do.

835
00:43:12,280 --> 00:43:13,959
Speaker 4: At that point, Job Cup, we've probably have been fighting

836
00:43:14,040 --> 00:43:15,279
Speaker 4: or so I might have been fighting on the court

837
00:43:15,360 --> 00:43:16,279
Speaker 4: or something like that going on.

838
00:43:17,480 --> 00:43:19,560
Speaker 12: You know, command Bill Fish for that noise because we

839
00:43:19,600 --> 00:43:20,640
Speaker 12: didn't know what was going to happen.

840
00:43:21,280 --> 00:43:25,279
Speaker 1: The Boston fans were all over Ralph in Game six

841
00:43:25,600 --> 00:43:29,520
Speaker 1: and the Celtics won one fourteen to ninety seven Boston

842
00:43:29,600 --> 00:43:30,680
Speaker 1: Celtics will have.

843
00:43:30,680 --> 00:43:32,040
Speaker 10: Won their forty first.

844
00:43:31,920 --> 00:43:32,640
Speaker 11: Right hole game.

845
00:43:34,120 --> 00:43:34,279
Speaker 6: Yeah.

846
00:43:34,320 --> 00:43:36,200
Speaker 11: It was a great young, up and coming team and

847
00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:40,600
Speaker 11: we lost to the Celtics in eighty six. They had everybody.

848
00:43:40,640 --> 00:43:42,920
Speaker 11: It would have been, Yeah, I think a different series

849
00:43:43,719 --> 00:43:46,120
Speaker 11: and you know, would have been a different decade.

850
00:43:46,160 --> 00:43:46,359
Speaker 6: Really.

851
00:43:47,120 --> 00:43:53,000
Speaker 1: The next year was devastating really for the franchise. Here

852
00:43:53,040 --> 00:43:57,080
Speaker 1: you are coming off the finals and the entire backcourt

853
00:43:58,040 --> 00:44:02,839
Speaker 1: gets busted for drugs. I remember as I was working

854
00:44:02,880 --> 00:44:05,960
Speaker 1: at Channel twenty at the time and the news came

855
00:44:06,040 --> 00:44:10,440
Speaker 1: down and it was just this complete disbelief because it

856
00:44:10,640 --> 00:44:14,680
Speaker 1: wasn't just one player, it was the top three guards

857
00:44:15,040 --> 00:44:15,520
Speaker 1: on the team.

858
00:44:15,640 --> 00:44:19,120
Speaker 11: Yeah, we had lost Lucas Ewan in a rehab. Mitchell

859
00:44:19,120 --> 00:44:22,640
Speaker 11: Wiggans Lewis Light were different. Lewis Light always shut up

860
00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:24,640
Speaker 11: for practice, always showed up for the plane, always showed

861
00:44:24,719 --> 00:44:28,520
Speaker 11: up for the bus, never had an issue. And Wiggins,

862
00:44:29,120 --> 00:44:31,520
Speaker 11: after his first year as a rookie, he was the

863
00:44:31,600 --> 00:44:35,440
Speaker 11: same way. The league had had issues with players and

864
00:44:36,480 --> 00:44:40,520
Speaker 11: using drugs, particularly too much coke. They decided they wanted

865
00:44:40,520 --> 00:44:44,520
Speaker 11: to crack down with Mitch and Lou. They were the

866
00:44:44,600 --> 00:44:47,719
Speaker 11: first guys that really got tagged by the league, and

867
00:44:48,560 --> 00:44:53,360
Speaker 11: I think they were treated differently than the Orlando Origins

868
00:44:53,440 --> 00:44:57,600
Speaker 11: or others who came later, who were confronted and allowed

869
00:44:57,680 --> 00:45:00,680
Speaker 11: to turn themselves in and could go through having come back,

870
00:45:00,840 --> 00:45:04,319
Speaker 11: versus being confronted with the proposition of you to take

871
00:45:04,360 --> 00:45:07,160
Speaker 11: the test. If you pass it, you're okay to flunk,

872
00:45:07,200 --> 00:45:09,319
Speaker 11: your out for life, and if you don't take the test,

873
00:45:09,360 --> 00:45:10,080
Speaker 11: you're out for life.

874
00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:10,560
Speaker 6: You know.

875
00:45:10,680 --> 00:45:12,440
Speaker 11: So there were many in the organization that felt that

876
00:45:12,560 --> 00:45:16,239
Speaker 11: wasn't fair, and I shared that position. I do think

877
00:45:16,239 --> 00:45:17,880
Speaker 11: it sent the message to the rest of the players

878
00:45:17,920 --> 00:45:20,880
Speaker 11: in the league. But Wiggins wanted to turn himself in,

879
00:45:21,040 --> 00:45:23,279
Speaker 11: the league would let. I was there in room with them.

880
00:45:23,640 --> 00:45:24,880
Speaker 3: I didn't realize that.

881
00:45:27,800 --> 00:45:31,239
Speaker 1: Samson and Akeem were so good that even missing their

882
00:45:31,440 --> 00:45:36,640
Speaker 1: entire backcourt, the Rockets remained contenders. But in February, Ralph

883
00:45:36,840 --> 00:45:39,960
Speaker 1: seriously injured his knee. Correct me if I'm wrong, but

884
00:45:40,120 --> 00:45:43,759
Speaker 1: I believe you were supposed to be out six weeks, right,

885
00:45:44,800 --> 00:45:46,759
Speaker 1: but you kind of rushed back because you wanted to

886
00:45:46,800 --> 00:45:50,000
Speaker 1: be back for your team for the playoffs. Take me

887
00:45:50,160 --> 00:45:54,080
Speaker 1: through that decision and what the implications of that decision were.

888
00:45:55,000 --> 00:45:58,480
Speaker 12: I had a really bad fall in Boston at a

889
00:45:58,680 --> 00:46:01,640
Speaker 12: regular sevening game and on my left hip. I went

890
00:46:01,680 --> 00:46:04,799
Speaker 12: to UVA and took treatment at that point in time

891
00:46:04,800 --> 00:46:06,319
Speaker 12: because I wanted to get back. I felt they were

892
00:46:06,360 --> 00:46:09,000
Speaker 12: the best that I knew and trusted at that point

893
00:46:09,000 --> 00:46:09,279
Speaker 12: in time.

894
00:46:09,360 --> 00:46:12,319
Speaker 4: So it came back early from that, and I think,

895
00:46:12,320 --> 00:46:14,680
Speaker 4: I don't think my leg had ever bounced back totally.

896
00:46:15,080 --> 00:46:15,839
Speaker 12: And so we played.

897
00:46:15,880 --> 00:46:18,719
Speaker 4: We played with play and I'm guarding Bill Hanslick. I

898
00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:21,360
Speaker 4: remembered the whole scenario right, and he's trying to go

899
00:46:21,520 --> 00:46:24,719
Speaker 4: back door and twisted my leg and I hear a pop,

900
00:46:24,920 --> 00:46:27,239
Speaker 4: and then I go into the locker room. I had

901
00:46:27,239 --> 00:46:30,359
Speaker 4: a bucket handled tear on my meniscus. If I'd known

902
00:46:30,400 --> 00:46:32,080
Speaker 4: what I know now, I would stayed out the whole year.

903
00:46:32,280 --> 00:46:34,080
Speaker 4: I would have just arrested the whole year. I wouldn't

904
00:46:34,080 --> 00:46:35,839
Speaker 4: never came back. But I thought we could get back

905
00:46:35,880 --> 00:46:37,920
Speaker 4: to the finals again, and you want to play, and

906
00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:41,040
Speaker 4: back in the day, there was no sitting out games

907
00:46:41,120 --> 00:46:43,560
Speaker 4: and load management to another that right he was gonna play.

908
00:46:44,160 --> 00:46:46,719
Speaker 4: One doctor wanted to throw it back together, but they

909
00:46:46,719 --> 00:46:48,400
Speaker 4: didn't have the technology of the day to sew it

910
00:46:48,440 --> 00:46:48,880
Speaker 4: back together.

911
00:46:48,960 --> 00:46:50,520
Speaker 12: So it would rejuvenate itself.

912
00:46:50,680 --> 00:46:52,279
Speaker 4: So he just took it out, so it became bone

913
00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:55,120
Speaker 4: on bone, and you know, me, I'm jumping and running

914
00:46:55,200 --> 00:46:57,879
Speaker 4: with my thing and still beating that meniscus to death.

915
00:46:57,920 --> 00:47:00,560
Speaker 4: And then fragments come off lodging, so you gotta have

916
00:47:00,640 --> 00:47:03,560
Speaker 4: multiple operations. So it just had trajectory now held you

917
00:47:03,680 --> 00:47:05,239
Speaker 4: on the top of the world right at that point

918
00:47:05,239 --> 00:47:06,759
Speaker 4: in time, and then all of a sudden Andrew takes

919
00:47:06,760 --> 00:47:08,360
Speaker 4: you out, which is a nature of the beast of

920
00:47:08,440 --> 00:47:10,200
Speaker 4: the game, no matter who you play or who you are.

921
00:47:10,880 --> 00:47:12,560
Speaker 4: But today's technology's totally different.

922
00:47:12,920 --> 00:47:16,000
Speaker 1: The Rockets finished third in the Midwest that year, going

923
00:47:16,120 --> 00:47:18,920
Speaker 1: forty two and twenty. They made it to the semifinals

924
00:47:19,040 --> 00:47:22,960
Speaker 1: where they ran into the Seattle SuperSonics, losing in sixth.

925
00:47:25,000 --> 00:47:25,640
Speaker 6: They had more.

926
00:47:25,719 --> 00:47:28,200
Speaker 4: Yeah, we thought we had a new piece of people.

927
00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:30,600
Speaker 4: We felt that we had the opportunity to get back.

928
00:47:31,080 --> 00:47:32,359
Speaker 4: All we needed was a point guard.

929
00:47:32,600 --> 00:47:34,680
Speaker 12: But we could not get that point guard that we

930
00:47:34,800 --> 00:47:38,480
Speaker 12: needed to momniscus, and we had some injuries. We had

931
00:47:38,520 --> 00:47:39,560
Speaker 12: the megans of a great team.

932
00:47:39,600 --> 00:47:41,080
Speaker 4: We just never care it together, and I think that

933
00:47:41,200 --> 00:47:44,000
Speaker 4: franchise didn't keep it together for whatever reason they did

934
00:47:44,120 --> 00:47:44,480
Speaker 4: or didn't.

935
00:47:45,239 --> 00:47:48,680
Speaker 1: Steve Patterson took over as GM around that time. He

936
00:47:48,880 --> 00:47:52,040
Speaker 1: traded Ralph to Golden State about twenty games into the

937
00:47:52,200 --> 00:47:55,360
Speaker 1: eighty seven eighty eight season, closing the book on the

938
00:47:55,480 --> 00:47:56,759
Speaker 1: Twin Towers era.

939
00:47:57,880 --> 00:48:00,400
Speaker 11: He made a choice on knee surgery to go have

940
00:48:00,560 --> 00:48:03,279
Speaker 11: his cartilage taken out instead of sewing back together. But

941
00:48:03,800 --> 00:48:05,960
Speaker 11: you know, taking that partilage out in the way his

942
00:48:06,200 --> 00:48:12,800
Speaker 11: knees were formed just caused a really rapid decline of

943
00:48:12,840 --> 00:48:17,200
Speaker 11: his career after that. It's really unfortunate because you look

944
00:48:17,239 --> 00:48:19,759
Speaker 11: at him in college and the first couple of years

945
00:48:19,800 --> 00:48:21,960
Speaker 11: before he got injured. I mean he was, you know,

946
00:48:22,280 --> 00:48:26,719
Speaker 11: all Rookie, All NBA All Star Team, you know, all

947
00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:29,480
Speaker 11: all the awards. He would have had a career if

948
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:30,200
Speaker 11: you stay healthy.

949
00:48:30,719 --> 00:48:34,360
Speaker 1: By nineteen ninety one, Ralph was out of basketball completely,

950
00:48:34,719 --> 00:48:38,000
Speaker 1: but leaving a legacy which earned him enshrinement into the

951
00:48:38,200 --> 00:48:40,040
Speaker 1: National Basketball Hall of Fame.

952
00:48:40,200 --> 00:48:43,279
Speaker 4: Been watching this thing on TV every year with all

953
00:48:43,360 --> 00:48:47,799
Speaker 4: the grace that played his game and words Kate really describe.

954
00:48:47,480 --> 00:48:48,000
Speaker 12: How I feel.

955
00:48:48,560 --> 00:48:52,160
Speaker 1: Do you have a favorite memory of playing with the

956
00:48:52,280 --> 00:48:54,640
Speaker 1: Rockets or what would you consider the high point of

957
00:48:54,760 --> 00:48:55,160
Speaker 1: that era?

958
00:48:56,000 --> 00:48:58,960
Speaker 4: I mean, they are the great great games that we

959
00:48:59,080 --> 00:49:01,600
Speaker 4: played in for sure, are and you know when me

960
00:49:01,680 --> 00:49:03,960
Speaker 4: and King would see how to eye and we said, okay,

961
00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:06,480
Speaker 4: big Feller, let's go and me he was ready to play.

962
00:49:06,480 --> 00:49:08,080
Speaker 12: I was ready to play. We said, okay, what door

963
00:49:08,120 --> 00:49:09,680
Speaker 12: were we running this team out of Tampa?

964
00:49:09,760 --> 00:49:11,439
Speaker 10: Down the middle, tam on bank, no good.

965
00:49:11,480 --> 00:49:13,480
Speaker 3: We bought us off Matt we wanted but to take

966
00:49:13,480 --> 00:49:14,560
Speaker 3: aim by Elijah wants.

967
00:49:15,080 --> 00:49:16,400
Speaker 12: So we had that calaraderie.

968
00:49:16,840 --> 00:49:18,920
Speaker 4: We had the col roder when we played Kareem so

969
00:49:19,120 --> 00:49:20,839
Speaker 4: came Wuld playing underneath and I always thought to boy

970
00:49:20,840 --> 00:49:21,680
Speaker 4: at shot owed with a top.

971
00:49:21,719 --> 00:49:24,880
Speaker 12: But we had a great one two combination that is

972
00:49:24,920 --> 00:49:27,040
Speaker 12: still special for me today. And show him as well.

973
00:49:27,960 --> 00:49:31,560
Speaker 3: I mean, you're such a smart and thoughtful person.

974
00:49:32,760 --> 00:49:34,440
Speaker 1: How have you kind of come to terms with the

975
00:49:34,560 --> 00:49:38,800
Speaker 1: fact that you know, it's really injuries really shortens you know,

976
00:49:38,920 --> 00:49:41,759
Speaker 1: what you might have been able to do in the NBA.

977
00:49:42,800 --> 00:49:45,160
Speaker 12: Yeah, I mean I've had those my first couple of years.

978
00:49:45,200 --> 00:49:45,799
Speaker 12: Hours of the NBA.

979
00:49:45,800 --> 00:49:47,600
Speaker 4: I think, Okay, wish I could have done this, I

980
00:49:47,640 --> 00:49:50,359
Speaker 4: could have stayed longer, played longer, et cetera, et cetera.

981
00:49:50,440 --> 00:49:52,719
Speaker 4: Didn You like realize it's the nature of the beast

982
00:49:52,760 --> 00:49:55,000
Speaker 4: and what can you do after the fact you know,

983
00:49:55,080 --> 00:49:57,600
Speaker 4: what can you do now? Because you can't go back

984
00:49:57,640 --> 00:50:00,080
Speaker 4: and change anything. You would if you could, when you can.

985
00:50:00,040 --> 00:50:00,680
Speaker 12: And changing things.

986
00:50:00,719 --> 00:50:03,720
Speaker 4: So having the ability to have friends like Robert Bard

987
00:50:03,760 --> 00:50:06,080
Speaker 4: that's stayed there for many many years, became general, married

988
00:50:06,160 --> 00:50:09,160
Speaker 4: Rudy t and the crew that you build our relationship

989
00:50:09,200 --> 00:50:10,360
Speaker 4: with have become very special.

990
00:50:10,520 --> 00:50:12,800
Speaker 12: That's what you focus on at de foid job. You

991
00:50:12,960 --> 00:50:14,439
Speaker 12: have no other choice but to figure it out.

992
00:50:14,600 --> 00:50:16,680
Speaker 4: And so I take all that with a great assault,

993
00:50:17,040 --> 00:50:19,040
Speaker 4: and I use the same work ethic and business now

994
00:50:19,120 --> 00:50:21,040
Speaker 4: that I had when I played to try to be

995
00:50:21,120 --> 00:50:21,920
Speaker 4: the best that can be.

996
00:50:22,040 --> 00:50:24,440
Speaker 12: After the career of World overay.

997
00:50:24,600 --> 00:50:27,680
Speaker 1: As for me, my time in Houston was wrapping up too.

998
00:50:28,200 --> 00:50:32,000
Speaker 1: I still wanted a full time TV sports job, and

999
00:50:32,239 --> 00:50:35,920
Speaker 1: even though I loved Houston, I kept applying to openings

1000
00:50:36,080 --> 00:50:39,719
Speaker 1: all over the country, finally getting an opportunity to cover

1001
00:50:39,880 --> 00:50:42,800
Speaker 1: an expansion franchise in a new city.

1002
00:50:43,080 --> 00:50:45,439
Speaker 7: That NBA feeling is coming to Shaw and it's nice

1003
00:50:45,440 --> 00:50:48,040
Speaker 7: to have our own team on the floor.

1004
00:50:49,360 --> 00:50:56,000
Speaker 3: Next time. On NBA DNA, we were like, what what

1005
00:50:56,120 --> 00:50:56,800
Speaker 3: are we in for?

1006
00:50:57,080 --> 00:50:59,920
Speaker 10: The scoreboard crashes before even sipping.

1007
00:51:00,760 --> 00:51:18,239
Speaker 1: Cover NBA DNA with Hannah Storm is a production of

1008
00:51:18,400 --> 00:51:23,000
Speaker 1: iHeart Podcasts, the NBA, and Brainstorm and Productions. The show

1009
00:51:23,160 --> 00:51:27,080
Speaker 1: is written and executive produced by me Hannah Storm along

1010
00:51:27,160 --> 00:51:30,960
Speaker 1: with Julia Weaver and Alex French. Our lead producer and

1011
00:51:31,080 --> 00:51:35,560
Speaker 1: showrunner is Julia Weaver. Our senior producers are Peter Kouder,

1012
00:51:35,880 --> 00:51:40,319
Speaker 1: Alex French, and Brandon Reese. Editing and sound design by

1013
00:51:40,480 --> 00:51:44,520
Speaker 1: Kurt Garren and Julia Weaver. The show's executive producers are

1014
00:51:44,600 --> 00:51:49,360
Speaker 1: Carmen Belmont, Jason English, Sean ty Tone, Steve Weintraup, and

1015
00:51:49,600 --> 00:51:50,520
Speaker 1: Jason Weikelt.