Speaker 1: You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Speaker 1: Sports Radio.
Speaker 2: Gina Oriema is set to join us the freshly minted
Speaker 2: head coach of the national champion Yukon Huskies. Did you
Speaker 2: forget about this feeling? Did you remember what it was
Speaker 2: like to win a national title?
Speaker 3: Almost? You know, we have those moments our senior citizens.
Speaker 3: You know you ought to know so, but it didn't
Speaker 3: take long to remember.
Speaker 4: Though.
Speaker 3: Never ceases to amaze me, the feeling that you have
Speaker 3: when when you watch those faces and it's just really
Speaker 3: really unbelievable.
Speaker 2: But take me back to preseason and you said that
Speaker 2: the girls they lost a scrimmage.
Speaker 5: Yeah we did, we did.
Speaker 2: And is that where you go home and you say
Speaker 2: to your wife, oh god, I don't know what we
Speaker 2: have here. We may not even make the tournament.
Speaker 5: Well, it's that's exactly what we say. We said we
Speaker 5: make the NCAA tournament this year.
Speaker 4: You know, is.
Speaker 5: We didn't take it seriously, you know we we.
Speaker 3: Kind of everybody thought, yeah, we're gonna be good because
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 5: We're healthy. We got everybody back.
Speaker 3: But it was a it was a good reminder, but
Speaker 3: it was it was a struggle throughout. I would say
Speaker 3: November December, trying to find some consistency. We would have it,
Speaker 3: lose it, have it lose it. And I think it
Speaker 3: wasn't until we got back from South Carolina the first time,
Speaker 3: when we played so well that we actually understood, all right,
Speaker 3: this is what the level is, this is.
Speaker 5: Who we can be. And that's when it all changed.
Speaker 2: Is it a grind?
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, oh yeah?
Speaker 2: But is it a different kind of like let's say,
Speaker 2: fifteen years ago, similar kind of grind.
Speaker 5: A little different? I think a little different.
Speaker 3: It being that the players I'm coaching today are more challenged,
Speaker 3: They're way more distracted, They've got way more voices in
Speaker 3: their head. They've got way too much information coming at
Speaker 3: them from all sources of people.
Speaker 5: Things that it's hard.
Speaker 3: To make your voice really be a you know, the
Speaker 3: voice like you know when you played, like your coach said,
Speaker 3: you know, today's Wednesday. You go home and tell hey, mom,
Speaker 3: today's Wednesday. Man, No it's not. It's Monday. Coach said,
Speaker 3: it's Wednesday today. What's your coach say today?
Speaker 5: I don't know. I wasn't listening. I mean, that's it's
Speaker 5: just a little bit harder right now. Man.
Speaker 2: But you're not dealing. You know, we hear the men's
Speaker 2: coaches talking about transfer portal. Nil. Yeah, how prevalent is
Speaker 2: that for you? On a daily, weekly, monthly basis. No,
Speaker 2: I don't deal with it on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. No,
Speaker 2: we don't have somebody on our staff that's calling AAU
Speaker 2: coaches and handler and all that. You know, you know
Speaker 2: is you're a kid interested, Hey tell them we're interested,
Speaker 2: like a lot of schools do. No, we don't deal
Speaker 2: with that.
Speaker 5: We just coach our team.
Speaker 3: We know at the end of every year, because we
Speaker 3: get pretty good players and if they don't all play
Speaker 3: as much as they want, those days I'll wait my turn.
Speaker 5: Those are gone, you know. So we know that the
Speaker 5: end of.
Speaker 3: Every year, some kids already halfway out the door when
Speaker 3: they realize I'm not getting the time that I thought
Speaker 3: I was going to get. And it's like, you know,
Speaker 3: we understand we might lose a couple every year, but
Speaker 3: there's a couple kids that want to come every year.
Speaker 3: What makes it hard is in the NBA they have
Speaker 3: a free agency period of time. This is when you
Speaker 3: can talk to free agents, this is when you can
Speaker 3: sign them. Blah blah blah. Our free agency is the
Speaker 3: whole year, and every kid there's three hundred and sixty
Speaker 3: five Division one schools plus Division two.
Speaker 5: Every kid's a free agent every day the whole year.
Speaker 4: It's just.
Speaker 3: And then the portals open during the NCAA tournament. Can
Speaker 3: you imagine the NBA playoffs and free agency is going
Speaker 3: on during the playoff. I mean, it's insanity. So whoo,
Speaker 3: but luckily we don't have to deal with as much
Speaker 3: as obviously it's happening on the guys and the money.
Speaker 3: Don't even get me started on the money some of
Speaker 3: the money that I hear programs have to spend. And
Speaker 3: now obviously it's football and men's basketball to drive this.
Speaker 5: But it's out of hand, man, it's out of hand.
Speaker 2: What was your pregame speech?
Speaker 3: What's my pregame speech? Probably, you know, the same as
Speaker 3: it was the previous three games that we just want
Speaker 3: you know, this was our fourth game, you know, two
Speaker 3: and two.
Speaker 5: I like to talk about how many times this one
Speaker 5: was really good.
Speaker 3: I like this one because I said, you know, this
Speaker 3: is our twenty fourth Final four, and our record in
Speaker 3: the Final four before last night was eleven wins, twelve losses.
Speaker 5: In twenty three.
Speaker 3: Final fours, I said, So, I'm the winningest coach in
Speaker 3: the history of college basketball, but I have a losing
Speaker 3: record in the final four, I said, But when I'm
Speaker 3: introduced at some events, you know, they go and ladies
Speaker 3: and gentlemen, Gino Orima.
Speaker 5: You know, he's lost twelve, I said.
Speaker 3: They don't do that. They say, you know, you know where,
Speaker 3: He's won eleven national chams. So you know, nobody gives
Speaker 3: a damn about who loses. They just care about winning.
Speaker 3: So why worry about losing because nobody cares. So I
Speaker 3: think the thing that I always try to do is
Speaker 3: try to make them understand.
Speaker 5: To not be afraid to lose, because that's.
Speaker 3: What gets in the way of teams winning, especially at
Speaker 3: this point in time in the season, when your whole,
Speaker 3: you know, career is riding on it. Of losing is
Speaker 3: just so powerful, and I think it's my job to
Speaker 3: try to diffuse that as much as I can.
Speaker 2: At any point during that nine year maybe it's not
Speaker 2: fair to say drought, but for you it would be.
Speaker 2: But did you at any point doubt yourself of am
Speaker 2: I still able to motivate them? And am I losing it?
Speaker 2: Or you know, any kind of concerns about you and
Speaker 2: your coaching.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, of course, because well a couple of things.
Speaker 3: We went to fifteen straight final fours, but we didn't win.
Speaker 3: After number eleven, we didn't win the next four or
Speaker 3: five years. You know, six years out of those nine
Speaker 3: years that we didn't win, we went to the Final
Speaker 3: four eight times, and we were never healthy. I shouldn't
Speaker 3: say six of those times we were never healthy. So
Speaker 3: I kept saying, you know, when we get healthy, we'll
Speaker 3: be fine. But I gotta tell you, Dan, I'm brutally honest.
Speaker 3: There was so many times when I would go home
Speaker 3: and I would say, I don't think I'm as good
Speaker 3: a coach as I used to be. I don't think
Speaker 3: I'm as able to do what these players need in
Speaker 3: today's world. I don't know that I can do that,
Speaker 3: which is crazy because we're going to the Final four
Speaker 3: ever year. But it does creep into your mind when
Speaker 3: it's you're having all these things thrown at you. This injury,
Speaker 3: that injury, this key player's out, that one's out for
Speaker 3: the season.
Speaker 5: You know, yeah, it really really really made me.
Speaker 3: Question, am I still the right person to be doing
Speaker 3: this at this time in my career? At a place
Speaker 3: like Yukon, where championships is the standard.
Speaker 2: And you know how this works. We get to a
Speaker 2: certain age and people go, oh, how much long are
Speaker 2: you going to do it?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 2: Oh, you know, be a great time to retire, you
Speaker 2: just when you walk off. Finally, I mean, so how
Speaker 2: do you deal with this? Just because I decided in
Speaker 2: three years I'm retiring. I just said I have to
Speaker 2: mark this is when I'm going to retire, or I
Speaker 2: don't think I would retire.
Speaker 5: Is that five years ago? You made that commitment?
Speaker 2: A year and a half ago, I said I would retire,
Speaker 2: and I gave the date I was going to retire.
Speaker 2: Good for you, okay, but I needed to do it
Speaker 2: because there's other things I needed to do, and to
Speaker 2: be fair with my family and my wife. Have you
Speaker 2: had those discussions of and I don't know if there's
Speaker 2: anything else that you want to do, because maybe you're
Speaker 2: like you know, coaches coach till they die. It's like,
Speaker 2: this is what I want to do. This is all
Speaker 2: I know. I don't know if I'm wired that way.
Speaker 3: No, no, I no, I don't know why I still
Speaker 3: do it. Be honest with you, most people my age
Speaker 3: have enough sense not to do it, and I I
Speaker 3: think one thing that helps me then, like when I
Speaker 3: get back to school and whatever recruiting has to be
Speaker 3: done or whatever I would say. By the time May
Speaker 3: comes around, I don't give basketball a thought until next September.
Speaker 5: I get it. I just walk away. I'm done. And
Speaker 5: luckily I have.
Speaker 3: A staff and I got a program that that that
Speaker 3: can do that. But I don't live at twenty four
Speaker 3: to seven. I don't take it home with me like
Speaker 3: the way. You know a lot of these guys do.
Speaker 3: That just wears on them day after day. Now we
Speaker 3: have the privilege of doing that because of our success.
Speaker 4: I get it.
Speaker 3: If you're grinding it out, trying to make DNC tournament
Speaker 3: every year, keep your job. But I'm not in that situation.
Speaker 3: If I was, I would have got out a long
Speaker 3: time ago. Uh So, you know, I'm able to put
Speaker 3: it away, and there's so many other things that I
Speaker 3: would love to do. You know, when and you retire,
Speaker 3: let me know, because I'll sit there and ask great
Speaker 3: questions like you do, and make fun of people like
Speaker 3: you do.
Speaker 5: I would love to do that.
Speaker 3: However, I got I got an email today from a
Speaker 3: friend of mine, Tom Sherman play for play for Penn State,
Speaker 3: and he played for Joe Paterno and he emailed me
Speaker 3: today and he goes, hey, forty years at you kind
Speaker 3: of because it's unbelievable.
Speaker 5: He goes, you know what, Joe.
Speaker 3: Paterno was at Penn State sixty four years, so you
Speaker 3: can still catch up. And I thought to myself, you
Speaker 3: got to be kidding. Sixty four years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so no, it'll be.
Speaker 5: Some time before that, trust me.
Speaker 2: And I'll leave you with this that you get your
Speaker 2: women to stay, you know, they're they're there for years.
Speaker 2: So you develop a friendship, a relationship whereas you know,
Speaker 2: men's college coaches, if you're good, you know it's a
Speaker 2: six month you know, transaction here. Yeah, but you could
Speaker 2: see that where you with Paige Becker's you're watching her
Speaker 2: be this great player to being injured to never winning
Speaker 2: a title. Now he's your chance to win a title.
Speaker 2: Then just being overcome by emotion because it's real. It's
Speaker 2: like a daughter, I guess. I mean, you're hugging a
Speaker 2: daughter of sorts in that moment and you're kind of
Speaker 2: at a loss for words. Correct it was awesome though, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it is.
Speaker 5: It is because.
Speaker 3: We do get them at an age where they're very impressionable,
Speaker 3: so to speak, and they're seventeen, eighteen years old, and
Speaker 3: we know, if things go well, we do get them
Speaker 3: for four years. We do get to see them at
Speaker 3: the beginning, and then we get to see them at
Speaker 3: the end, and we get to see them when they're struggling.
Speaker 3: When it is it's like raising your kids, and it's like,
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, you send them off after a
Speaker 3: period of time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, if.
Speaker 3: This was like men's basketball, there's no way I would
Speaker 3: even have close to twelve national championships. Diana would have
Speaker 3: been one and done. Stewie would have been one and done.
Speaker 3: Mayan War would have been one and done. I can
Speaker 3: go on and on page Becker's would have been one
Speaker 3: and done. All these guys. So the fact that I
Speaker 3: think we can it goes back to the old days.
Speaker 3: It's like the way it used to be. You know,
Speaker 3: we we get them young and then we you know,
Speaker 3: work with them, and then does create a bond that
Speaker 3: I think is missing in men's college basketball. And football
Speaker 3: is a little bit better because those guys have to stay,
Speaker 3: you know, for about three years. But now the portals
Speaker 3: become Yeah, look, I'm here as long as I can
Speaker 3: get what I want. Otherwise I'm out. And so the
Speaker 3: coaches feel like, Okay, well, if this guy's going to
Speaker 3: walk out on me any day now, why should I
Speaker 3: invest all of myself and in or her. I'm just
Speaker 3: going to coach you get what I need to get
Speaker 3: out of you, and if you leave, you leave.
Speaker 5: If you stay, you stay, that's fine.
Speaker 3: So it's really kind of created like a professional environment
Speaker 3: where we're just doing this. You're and this nonsense about
Speaker 3: well they're not employees. Yeah, they are employees. We're paying
Speaker 3: them to play basketball for us, and when they don't
Speaker 3: like their job, they quit and go go work someplace else.
Speaker 5: So I'm lucky, I really am.
Speaker 3: I've got a great situation, and I know a lot
Speaker 3: of guys on the men's side envy it, and and
Speaker 3: I feel bad for those guys.
Speaker 2: Uh congratch, hair still looks great, and uh, thanks for
Speaker 2: joining us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And you know, I can't believe you're still doing this.
Speaker 3: And I know I tell people all the time, you're
Speaker 3: one of the few guys in America that ask questions
Speaker 3: that are way shorter than the guys answer.
Speaker 5: And I really appreciate.
Speaker 2: That I want to shot clock Gino. I like that brevity, brevity,
Speaker 2: get to the point that shit, Hey, congratch, thanks for
Speaker 2: joining us.
Speaker 5: Yeah, thanks for having us.
Speaker 2: That's Gino Orima.
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Speaker 2: He's the head coach for the men's team at Connecticut,
Speaker 2: two time defending national champs at least until tomorrow or
Speaker 2: late tonight. Dan Hurley joining us on the program. Good
Speaker 2: to talk to you again, coach. Did you watch the games,
Speaker 2: the semi final games?
Speaker 8: I did, unlike uh, you know, unlike after the twenty
Speaker 8: two season where you know where we had that first
Speaker 8: round exit and I ignored the rest of the tournament.
Speaker 4: Uh. I.
Speaker 8: I've watched as many of the games as as I
Speaker 8: possibly could. Since we've been eliminated.
Speaker 2: You lose to Florida second round. But do you take
Speaker 2: any solace with the fact that Florida is here playing
Speaker 2: for a national championship?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I do.
Speaker 8: I think it's a uh, it's more honorable that, you know,
Speaker 8: kind of at the run we've been on. Uh, you know,
Speaker 8: where where we kind of fell out the hands of uh,
Speaker 8: you know, of a championship level team that's you know,
Speaker 8: one game away from experiencing the championship glory.
Speaker 9: So yeah, I mean if we would have lost to
Speaker 9: like a lower seeded.
Speaker 8: Team or a team that, you know, it was not
Speaker 8: of the championship caliber, I guess it feels more honorable,
Speaker 8: you know, have a one thirteen in a row in
Speaker 8: that tournament in the fashion we did, you know, to
Speaker 8: have it all, you know, to have it all end
Speaker 8: at the hands of of the Gators, there's there's probably
Speaker 8: some honor in that.
Speaker 2: How do you explain what happened with Duke and Houston
Speaker 2: at the end of that game.
Speaker 9: I mean, I mean.
Speaker 8: I can't you know, imagine, you know, just kind of well, no,
Speaker 8: I can't imagine you know what what John and his
Speaker 8: staff and those players are feeling. I mean, it felt like,
Speaker 8: you know that they were the best team, you know,
Speaker 8: the best team in the country this year. I think
Speaker 8: their roster, the way they it together was, uh, it
Speaker 8: was meticulous. I think the the quality at both ends
Speaker 8: of the court, you know, was they were playing basketball
Speaker 8: at an incredibly high level, you know, with high level
Speaker 8: NBA players, But just the fact that they were not
Speaker 8: in enough close games. I think, you know, I think
Speaker 8: the fact that they dominated so much throughout conference play,
Speaker 8: I think, you know, the separation between them and the
Speaker 8: other teams and their conference really hurt them when they
Speaker 8: got to those end of game situations where they haven't
Speaker 8: had to shoot.
Speaker 9: A lot of pressure want to pressure free throws, one.
Speaker 8: Ones, they had to inbound the ball versus full denial.
Speaker 8: With a three point lead or a one point lead,
Speaker 8: they were, uh, you know that they were in a
Speaker 8: type of game that Houston had been in a bunch,
Speaker 8: uh you know, because of you know, playing in the
Speaker 8: Big twelve afforded them more opportunities, and I think that
Speaker 8: came back.
Speaker 5: To haunt them.
Speaker 2: I brought this up a long time ago. I brought
Speaker 2: it up. Subsequently, you go to you and l V
Speaker 2: when you and LV blew out Duke, your brother's team,
Speaker 2: and then that following year, and we thought they were invincible.
Speaker 2: And I remember talking about you want to see a
Speaker 2: team play a close game. You just want to have
Speaker 2: that feeling you know what you're doing. And this isn't
Speaker 2: all on the freshman at Duke, but still you got
Speaker 2: young players, and you got a veteran Houston team and
Speaker 2: sometimes freshmen act like freshmen no matter how great they are.
Speaker 2: But as a coach, what role would you play in
Speaker 2: a situation like that?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think, you know some of the I would say,
Speaker 8: the situational things that you experience in a you know,
Speaker 8: with that true game pressure, you know, and you know,
Speaker 8: Duke goes in as the favorite, just kind of like
Speaker 8: we were last year, where you know, we're.
Speaker 9: Playing at such a high level.
Speaker 8: They had, you know, dominated the first you know, four
Speaker 8: rounds of the tournament. Obviously, the Arizona game ended up
Speaker 8: being an eight point game or an eight point win,
Speaker 8: but you know, at times in that game they look dominant.
Speaker 8: But I just think that they You could practice situational
Speaker 8: basketball all you want, but you cannot simulate the game
Speaker 8: pressure that you feel. You know, when your inbounder has
Speaker 8: got to run the baseline and throw a pass through
Speaker 8: a narrow window to a player being face guarded by
Speaker 8: a wolf. I mean, Houston's got some wolves out there,
Speaker 8: you know, making it really tough on you. And you know,
Speaker 8: for us last year, we weren't very good in close games.
Speaker 8: You know, the games during the course of the year.
Speaker 8: I don't think we were great in one possession games
Speaker 8: the last two years, but there was a window I
Speaker 8: think for duking that game to keep that game double figures,
Speaker 8: keep that game twelve fourteen, back down to ten, get
Speaker 8: it back up to fifteen, you know, but they just
Speaker 8: they stopped scoring.
Speaker 2: The difference in coaching a freshman and coaching a junior,
Speaker 2: what's the biggest difference.
Speaker 8: I just think, Uh, you know, repetitions, game experiences, you know,
Speaker 8: just having been in those positions you know before, you know,
Speaker 8: more practices under their belt, more, uh, you know, more
Speaker 8: life experiences. You know, just you know a little bit more.
Speaker 8: You know, maturity a little more. Uh, you know, worldliness
Speaker 8: a little bit, you know, just a little bit more.
Speaker 8: You know, prepared to have experienced more failures, have experienced, uh,
Speaker 8: you know, different types of successes.
Speaker 9: Just a little little uh, a little more grizzled.
Speaker 2: Talking to Dan Hurley, You're still the reigning national champs,
Speaker 2: at least for twelve more hours.
Speaker 9: That's why I got I'm wearing it today, Dan, I'm
Speaker 9: wearing it.
Speaker 2: Uh. There's a trophy behind you. There's a pair of
Speaker 2: shoes on top of that trophy. Whose shoes are those
Speaker 2: Oh j R.
Speaker 9: Smith, Uh, you know Jr. Swish.
Speaker 8: That was my first great player that played for me
Speaker 8: at S. Benedix And uh the first play went to
Speaker 8: the NBA out of high school, so was Uh that
Speaker 8: was his rookie year shoe with the hornets.
Speaker 2: Okay, any other memorabilia that might surprise.
Speaker 8: Us, Uh, I got Well, I think a lot of
Speaker 8: people like the underwear over those are my underwear. Not
Speaker 8: many men have their underwear on a plaque in their office.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 8: Obviously the Gladiator health So that explains a lot about
Speaker 8: me right there, the lion head behind it.
Speaker 2: You haven't gotten in trouble in a while, have you?
Speaker 8: No, I've I've got a lot of self aware. Well,
Speaker 8: I don't have a lot of self I have enough.
Speaker 8: I have enough self awareness and situational airness that I
Speaker 8: skipped San Antonio and uh I decided not to parade
Speaker 8: myself around the final four and to uh, you know,
Speaker 8: to take a break, to let people have a little
Speaker 8: bit of a break for me, and then uh, you know,
Speaker 8: just to you know, reflect on the year, the run
Speaker 8: we've been on, and uh, obviously, uh it was the
Speaker 8: first real chance Dan I've had really since we were
Speaker 8: eliminated for the tournament twenty two, you know, through to
Speaker 8: that Florida loss in the tournament.
Speaker 9: You know, your my life's been a whirlwind.
Speaker 8: Uh of some incredible moments and and some moments that uh,
Speaker 8: you know are Arnes uh arnest.
Speaker 5: Arn is great.
Speaker 2: But I remember when you turned down the Lakers and
Speaker 2: we talked and you said you weren't mature enough yet
Speaker 2: for a job like that. Your words, Yeah, all right,
Speaker 2: how do you mature?
Speaker 4: Like? What do you?
Speaker 2: What do you what are are you doing anything to mature?
Speaker 8: You know that that's a tough one. I think Number one,
Speaker 8: I'll say this a lot of I feel like the
Speaker 8: biggest mistake I made this year was not being able
Speaker 8: to uh, you know, put together uh and develop a
Speaker 8: championship team. You know, I when I look at this
Speaker 8: year for me, you know that that's the thing that
Speaker 8: I regret the most is that I wasn't able to uh,
Speaker 8: you know, to put together another team that was could
Speaker 8: experience championship glory.
Speaker 9: You know.
Speaker 8: Some of the things I think that uh, you know,
Speaker 8: whether it's you know, my relationship with officials, or you know,
Speaker 8: some of the fan interactions or the different things that
Speaker 8: come with me part of what makes me successful is uh,
Speaker 8: is my passion, it's my intensity, It's it's this you know,
Speaker 8: when when you're winning it, when you're winning championships, these
Speaker 8: these same things have gone on when you're winning championships.
Speaker 8: It's called relentlessness. You know, I've been called relentless the
Speaker 8: past two years, even though I've been experiencing the same
Speaker 8: types of interactions with fans and officials. You know, this
Speaker 8: year it's been called, uh, you know, immature. It's been
Speaker 8: called a lot of things because you know, my team
Speaker 8: isn't on top.
Speaker 9: I haven't changed a whole lot that way.
Speaker 2: If you had a little ear piece and your wife
Speaker 2: was allowed to talk to you on the sideline during
Speaker 2: a game, how do you think that would go.
Speaker 9: I think that I'd be here, stop.
Speaker 4: Shut up.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean I would say that from a I
Speaker 9: think that my relationships with officials. Now you know the
Speaker 9: Florida you know the Florida post game. I regret that
Speaker 9: one greatly. You know that that was I There was
Speaker 9: literally one play call.
Speaker 8: Uh, there was one drive to the rim that I felt,
Speaker 8: if we clearly got fouled on, that would have kept
Speaker 8: that game in a two possession game. That was just
Speaker 8: it was ringing in my mind. And it wasn't like
Speaker 8: multiple calls I felt were miss dan. It was just
Speaker 8: this one play, uh, that I could not get out
Speaker 8: of my mind as I was heading through that tunnel
Speaker 8: and as I saw the Baylor players, I deeply regret that.
Speaker 8: I mean we we we missed a lot of open shots.
Speaker 8: And credit Florida and Clayton. I mean this, uh, you
Speaker 8: know the their their championship level, but you know.
Speaker 9: That one I regret deeply. I didn't believe that.
Speaker 8: And then that was embarrassing when I look at other
Speaker 8: ones that were, you know, embarrassing that I'm the best
Speaker 8: coach in the country. That was embarrassing. I wish somebody
Speaker 8: could have stopped me from having that moment. A lot
Speaker 8: of some of the fan interactions. I've got to get
Speaker 8: somebody I think that maybe could just walk me on
Speaker 8: and off the court. Maybe like college football has those
Speaker 8: guys that walk the coach to the other coach and
Speaker 8: then just get him off the court. Maybe I need
Speaker 8: to get somebody that could just when the game ends,
Speaker 8: just get me on and off the court. Because I
Speaker 8: don't think that my in game coaching. I want to
Speaker 8: change a lot because we've been really successful.
Speaker 2: But what is it about officials?
Speaker 9: Though I don't think it's as bad as it's made
Speaker 9: out to be.
Speaker 8: I've watched these other officials and listen, I've earned you
Speaker 8: earn your reputation.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 8: I'm definitely a tough coach to officiate because I'm very demanding.
Speaker 8: Uh And I value every single possession in the game
Speaker 8: because I know how important.
Speaker 4: They are, you know.
Speaker 8: And and but I've also modeled myself after maybe an older,
Speaker 8: you know generation of coaches. You know, I'm just an
Speaker 8: intense coach, and I think I'm intense in a very
Speaker 8: similar way to Coach Sampson tonight. I think if you
Speaker 8: watch Coach Samson closely tonight, he's a very intense coach
Speaker 8: and he's going to be very demanding of the officials.
Speaker 2: Well, you're like your dad, though you would.
Speaker 9: Hate my father, I mean everyone and my dad.
Speaker 2: I know, I like being around your dad socially when
Speaker 2: he puts his teeth in and he you know, you know,
Speaker 2: we we have a conversation. I enjoyed being around and
Speaker 2: we were I don't know what we were watching, like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, some sitcom or not even a sitcom
Speaker 2: is some cop show. When I went to his apartment
Speaker 2: in Jersey City and I'm going, it seems really nice.
Speaker 2: He's just a nice guy. Then you hear these horror
Speaker 2: stories about how demanding your dad was.
Speaker 8: Yeah, well, I mean, Dan, you know, it's like you've
Speaker 8: got to be able to separate the competitor, you know,
Speaker 8: the combatants.
Speaker 2: But could you coach like this like you are right now, No,
Speaker 2: you couldn't.
Speaker 8: Just be like, it doesn't line up with our play style.
Speaker 8: It doesn't lie, okay, with with the intensity that we
Speaker 8: play with. It doesn't it doesn't line up with how
Speaker 8: we attack the offensive glass or you know how hard
Speaker 8: we played defensively. And it's not just me, it's our
Speaker 8: whole bench. I mean we lead the country in warnings
Speaker 8: from officials to have everyone sit down. I mean everyone
Speaker 8: on my bench is like out of pocket, like it's
Speaker 8: it's just we're an emotional program. We're a passionate program.
Speaker 8: And I don't think I'm going to change a whole
Speaker 8: lot of that. I would, but I do you know,
Speaker 8: upon reflection, I think that the interaction with you know,
Speaker 8: people not on my team or you know, I would
Speaker 8: like to probably have less of that.
Speaker 2: When do you walk down the hall to congratulate Gino.
Speaker 8: I guess I'm gonna wait for him maybe to sober up.
Speaker 8: I mean, I wouldn't remember.
Speaker 2: I talked to him last hour.
Speaker 9: How did he look.
Speaker 2: He looked like a million bucks, hair was calmed. I
Speaker 2: mean it looked like Gino.
Speaker 9: I mean, he he he.
Speaker 8: I mean we we we text, we talk, you know,
Speaker 8: we were texting before, you know, all of his games
Speaker 8: and and I mean he he saved my season from
Speaker 8: completely unraveling in November.
Speaker 9: So I owe a lot to Gino.
Speaker 2: And uh what did he do?
Speaker 9: I mean, right when we.
Speaker 8: Got back from Maui as as I as I had
Speaker 8: erupted like a volcano in Maui and and come back
Speaker 8: to try to pick the pieces up. I was in
Speaker 8: a bad, bad place. I was coaching, angry, I was
Speaker 8: coaching frustrated. I you know, I I knew I didn't
Speaker 8: have deep down I knew, you know, I didn't have
Speaker 8: a team that could compete for a championship. And I
Speaker 8: was trying to come to grips with that. And and
Speaker 8: he helped kind of talk me through, you know, like
Speaker 8: if all you're in this force to win championships and
Speaker 8: and like, if that's the only joy that you get
Speaker 8: from coaching, you've become basically a monster.
Speaker 2: How's the transfer portal, by the way.
Speaker 8: Oh my god, yeah, I mean like no one is
Speaker 8: I mean when I that Monday, when when you come
Speaker 8: to the realization that like literally no one is on
Speaker 8: your team, you know, like that Monday, because even if
Speaker 8: you're not in the portal, because it's now a lot
Speaker 8: of it is being conducted by agents, you know, So
Speaker 8: even if you're not in the portal, you're you're you're
Speaker 8: in the portal because schools now, you know, they they
Speaker 8: reach out for the agent, and you know, these agents
Speaker 8: are representing the players. So even if a player hasn't
Speaker 8: kind of formally gotten in the portal, schools will now
Speaker 8: reach out for agents and make offers to players, you know,
Speaker 8: that way indirectly, and and a lot of deals I
Speaker 8: guess are agreed upon before players even go in, which
Speaker 8: is not the way that that we do business.
Speaker 9: We you know, it's it's a mess.
Speaker 2: How many players are officially on your roster?
Speaker 8: I think right now I could sit here and say
Speaker 8: that we definitely have eight players on our team, you know,
Speaker 8: and we could have as many as ten. I think,
Speaker 8: you know, maybe two potentially or are are undecided whether
Speaker 8: that's you know, going to the NBA. Obviously, Alice Caravan's
Speaker 8: got to make a decision what he wants to.
Speaker 9: Do with this last year.
Speaker 8: You know, I'd imagine he'll be deciding at some point
Speaker 8: soon here, maybe this week, and then you know, then
Speaker 8: we have another player who's you know, deciding. So yeah,
Speaker 8: I mean right now and listen, it's better than it was.
Speaker 8: You know, last week. I think there was a point
Speaker 8: where I think I felt like I had like one
Speaker 8: guy plus the high school guys, and we got three McDonald's,
Speaker 8: all Americans, and a Tasmanian dude who I think is
Speaker 8: gonna be really good.
Speaker 9: So we're excited about that.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 2: If you need help in filling out the roster, like practicing,
Speaker 2: just let me know. Wait, don't laugh like that.
Speaker 9: We're used to deep.
Speaker 8: When you get used to deep runs, Dan, I feel
Speaker 8: like I gotta do better.
Speaker 5: You do.
Speaker 2: Good to talk to you. Thank you, coach. That's Dan Hurley.
Speaker 1: Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Speaker 1: Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific
Speaker 1: on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio Wapp Dwight Howard.
Speaker 2: He'll be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame coming
Speaker 2: up in September. Former NBA champ, three time Defensive Player
Speaker 2: of the Year, five time All NBA First Team Dwight,
Speaker 2: how are you doing?
Speaker 4: Many blessed man.
Speaker 10: I'm so happy and thankful to be back on your
Speaker 10: show again. We ever did a show in a while.
Speaker 10: I think the last time I did a show, I
Speaker 10: was actually in Orlando. I was driving in my car.
Speaker 10: He was like, hey, you turned down music a little
Speaker 10: bit so we can hear you.
Speaker 2: What was your reaction when you got the call for
Speaker 2: the Hall of Fame?
Speaker 4: Man, I cried so hard.
Speaker 10: It was just like the first day soon as he
Speaker 10: got as soon as I got the call, seeing the
Speaker 10: name the Nasmith Basketball Hall of Fame calling my phone,
Speaker 10: you know, seeing that, and then hearing them actually say
Speaker 10: you have made it in to one out of four
Speaker 10: hundred and fifty six people who have been in.
Speaker 4: The Hall of Fame for basketball.
Speaker 10: I just every memory of basketball that started, my youngest memory,
Speaker 10: shooting on my first basketball go watching my magic justin tapes,
Speaker 10: and then just the tiers start flowing, and uh man,
Speaker 10: it's this an incredible journey with a lot of ups
Speaker 10: and downs, but to make it.
Speaker 4: To basketball heavy it is for me, it's everything.
Speaker 2: What would you be like? What kind of player if
Speaker 2: you were coming into the NBA now, given the way
Speaker 2: the NBA is, Oh.
Speaker 4: Man, what kind of player would I be? Well?
Speaker 10: I feel like my time in Orlando I was very
Speaker 10: unstoppable with office and then the side that I played.
Speaker 10: I believe that if I was playing now, I would
Speaker 10: still be a dominant player, top five center.
Speaker 4: I believe if I was playing right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the game has changed so much with the perimeter.
Speaker 2: And I knew you grew up idolizing magic, but maybe
Speaker 2: you would have geared your game to be more perimeter based.
Speaker 2: I mean, we got seven footers playing on the perimeter
Speaker 2: on that look.
Speaker 4: That's true.
Speaker 10: Actually, when I started playing basketball, I didn't play center.
Speaker 10: I didn't play center actually until I got to the NBA.
Speaker 10: Uh So, when I got to the NBA, that's when
Speaker 10: my positions changed. And back then, there were no stretch forwards.
Speaker 10: There were no stretch no stretch fives. It was only
Speaker 10: dirt and the whisky and the next person close to
Speaker 10: him that was shooting that much was Tim Duncan and
Speaker 10: he was shooting more so off the glass shots and
Speaker 10: free throw line and air shots. And I remember the
Speaker 10: last conversation I had with Kobe before we joined team
Speaker 10: was what he wanted me to work on was those
Speaker 10: free throw line and then jump shots and stuff like that.
Speaker 10: But today's game, well today's game, and when I was
Speaker 10: coming up in the game, that shot was taken out.
Speaker 10: So now I would be a perimeter bass player and
Speaker 10: that'll be a lot of fun. I'd get to show
Speaker 10: people my other skills and the skills that I've had
Speaker 10: growing up.
Speaker 4: And I go back to just being a kid again.
Speaker 2: How tough was Kobe on you?
Speaker 4: I would say he was that tough on me?
Speaker 10: What what like people would assume because I was a
Speaker 10: hard worker, You know, it wasn't. I wasn't somebody that
Speaker 10: he had to worry about getting in the jail, working
Speaker 10: hard in the games and stuff like that. I just
Speaker 10: think we just at the time, we was in two
Speaker 10: different places in life, and uh, we didn't see how
Speaker 10: to eye. We didn't give each other a task to
Speaker 10: eat to see how to But are you living?
Speaker 2: You learn if I gave you a mulligan on getting
Speaker 2: out of Orlando. Would you have still left Orlando and
Speaker 2: gone to the Lakers.
Speaker 10: Uh, My intentions was not to go to the Lakers
Speaker 10: after Orlando. I now do it what I know now.
Speaker 10: Leaving Orlando, Uh taught me many lessons in life that
Speaker 10: I needed, and I feel like if I would have
Speaker 10: stayed in Orlando, maybe I wouldn't have learned those same lessons.
Speaker 10: And it's just how you look at it, you know.
Speaker 10: I hate the fact that I did have to leave Orlando,
Speaker 10: that was my first home. But I believe that everything
Speaker 10: happens I was exactly supposed to happen, and I can't
Speaker 10: question fate. The only thing I'm glad about is that
Speaker 10: it led me to the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2: Most physical player you ever played against?
Speaker 4: Was who?
Speaker 10: Most physical player? Pekovich from Minnesota. Father was the strongest
Speaker 10: player that I could say, I've played this really Okay,
Speaker 10: the most out or to anybody else?
Speaker 2: What was your welcome to the NBA moment?
Speaker 4: Welcome to the NBA moment? Oh, Kobe Bryant Duncan on.
Speaker 2: Me, Well, You're not alone in that category there, Dwight.
Speaker 10: It was a funny one because I remember actually Brian
Speaker 10: Grant actually after that play.
Speaker 4: He said, welcome to the league.
Speaker 10: I'm telling and I couldn't wait to dunk on him
Speaker 10: back or block his side or something. So when we
Speaker 10: played against him in Atlanta Hawks, I took it personally
Speaker 10: to just try to destroy him.
Speaker 2: Did Kobe say anything to you when he dunked on you?
Speaker 8: Uh?
Speaker 10: He just said in an interview that he baptized me,
Speaker 10: and he woke me up in actuality.
Speaker 4: He did that dunk.
Speaker 10: Was so embarrassed, and I was like, I gotta block
Speaker 10: everybody's dunk. I put it everybody to the ground, and
Speaker 10: I'm gonna go get me a defensive Player of the Year.
Speaker 4: So it did wake me up. He baptized.
Speaker 2: He had forty one in that game.
Speaker 10: Jesus ripe, we must have had the thirty eight thirty eight,
Speaker 10: thirty nine.
Speaker 2: Who is the best player you faced?
Speaker 4: The best player that our face? Oh that's playing that
Speaker 4: our base? Oh my goodness. Uh? Skill wise or do
Speaker 4: you mean like overall overall?
Speaker 2: Just best player? Like that guy is he's different?
Speaker 4: Oh? Man? Uh? Well, obviously uh cobD Uh.
Speaker 10: Kobe did a shot in the finals, and I'll never
Speaker 10: forget the shot.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 10: He was driving to the basket and he went up
Speaker 10: and I put my hands up and try to block
Speaker 10: the shot, and he took the ball between my arms
Speaker 10: and then brought it back, came back up and then
Speaker 10: shot the shot. It was It was incredible. After that moment,
Speaker 10: I was like, this, that's the coldest player that I've
Speaker 10: ever played me.
Speaker 2: You think you and Shaq will ever be friends?
Speaker 4: Uh? Yes, we Actually I saw him in Orlando.
Speaker 10: Actually after I was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 10: I was out at a restaurant eating with my family
Speaker 10: and my friends, and the owner said that Shaq was
Speaker 10: actually at the restaurant, and I said, I'm going to
Speaker 10: go talk to him, and everybody was like what I said, Yes,
Speaker 10: I'm going to go talk to him. I got up,
Speaker 10: went over to where he was at, shook his hand
Speaker 10: as we have a minute a loan, and we had
Speaker 10: a real good conversation and I was very happy about it.
Speaker 10: We expressed some things and yeah, the next time you
Speaker 10: see both of us together, we'll talk about the stuff
Speaker 10: that we had a sit down about.
Speaker 4: But it was a really good talk and I'm glad
Speaker 4: that the.
Speaker 10: Universe everything worked out perfectly for us to be in
Speaker 10: Orlando at the same place at the same time.
Speaker 4: I have a conversation.
Speaker 2: But when did it go south or sideways between you two?
Speaker 4: I have no.
Speaker 10: I really believe that it was outside noise and people.
Speaker 10: He says, she says stuff like that, and then now
Speaker 10: I make both of us irritated. So when I hear
Speaker 10: something on TV that he says, I'm pissed off about it,
Speaker 10: and I responded to him and vice versa. And to
Speaker 10: be honest, I'm just just like, man, we're too old
Speaker 10: for this. You know, we have children, we have people
Speaker 10: who look up to us, and you know, we both
Speaker 10: need a lot to a lot of people in this world.
Speaker 10: We both doe some amazing things, and you know, we
Speaker 10: don't need this.
Speaker 4: I don't.
Speaker 10: I don't like it. I grew up watching Shaq. I
Speaker 10: respect him as a player and a man in a
Speaker 10: businessman that he is. When his father passed away years back,
Speaker 10: it's one of the first people to reach out because
Speaker 10: I knew how much that, you know, losing his father.
Speaker 4: You know, it was hurting him. Man.
Speaker 10: You know I really as a as a young man,
Speaker 10: you know, looking up just smiling like sagas like my
Speaker 10: big brother.
Speaker 4: So we just had to miss.
Speaker 2: Unsett Yeah, I thought it was you were both in Orlando,
Speaker 2: both had Superman nickname. You end up following in his
Speaker 2: footsteps to the Lakers, So it's maybe he was thinking
Speaker 2: you were following in his footsteps, trying to be like Shack,
Speaker 2: and for some reason he had a problem with that.
Speaker 2: That's all I how I viewed it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well I wouldn't.
Speaker 10: So my thing is this, Also, if someone is trying
Speaker 10: to follow in my footsteps, that means to me that first,
Speaker 10: that's an honor, that's un humbling, and that means that
Speaker 10: I've done such a great job with my life and
Speaker 10: my career that somebody wants to follow in those footsteps.
Speaker 4: So I don't see anything wrong with that. No, now
Speaker 4: I did not do that.
Speaker 10: It's just everything seemed to pan out like it was
Speaker 10: a mirror image of Shacks like and career. We're both tall,
Speaker 10: we're both funny, we're both comedians, like to have fun, dance,
Speaker 10: we both talked the ball a lot, with both dominant centers.
Speaker 4: I understand that we both say we're Superman, So I
Speaker 4: get it. If I am following his footsteps, I shoot,
Speaker 4: I would love that.
Speaker 10: You know, Shaq has saved away for so many big
Speaker 10: men He's done an amazing job. So you know, that's
Speaker 10: amazing to follow in the footsteps of one of the greatest,
Speaker 10: most dominant big men to ever play.
Speaker 2: Who's gonna present you at the Hall of Fame?
Speaker 11: Oh?
Speaker 10: Well, I would love Kevin Gardinett, uh, keem Elijah one,
Speaker 10: and Shaquille O'Neill to walk me in.
Speaker 4: If it's not Shaquille, if he can't do it.
Speaker 2: Mark Jackson, Wait, have you reached out to these guys?
Speaker 2: Are you reaching out to them now?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 10: Yes, I have to reach back out to Mark Jackson.
Speaker 10: Mark Jackson's story about him. I met him in high
Speaker 10: school at the Top one hundred camp and I asked
Speaker 10: him could he meet me every morning at around six
Speaker 10: point thirty to work out before a cap started.
Speaker 4: And he thought I was playing around and I wasn't
Speaker 4: going to show up.
Speaker 10: I told him I was serious about being the number
Speaker 10: one pick and the best player in the Nations. I
Speaker 10: was there every morning, he was there every morning. That
Speaker 10: helped me get better, and I remember that they really
Speaker 10: helped shape the mold before the NBA. So you know,
Speaker 10: I would love for hear you know, walking in, But
Speaker 10: I don't. I said, I think it's players who have
Speaker 10: made it into the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I mean it sounds like you got a
Speaker 2: posse there, not just one person twice so Shack, Kevin Garnett,
Speaker 2: a team Elijah, team Elijah. Yeah, well you got to
Speaker 2: pick one. I don't know. Can you have three?
Speaker 4: I think you can have too.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 10: Uh my favorite player all time is what Chamberers, So
Speaker 10: if he could do it, I would love what Timing
Speaker 10: to be there.
Speaker 4: That's my favorite player.
Speaker 2: Uh So, yeah, well that's not gonna happen, so I
Speaker 2: think it would be awesome. I mean, if Will Chamberlain
Speaker 2: walks you in, hey, that'll be a pretty great moment.
Speaker 2: He's been dead for a long time. Dwight, I think
Speaker 2: Shack walking you in would be awesome. That would be
Speaker 2: pretty special to see you two walk in together. Hopefully
Speaker 2: it would.
Speaker 4: It would.
Speaker 10: It would be very special, not only because of all
Speaker 10: the noise that over all the years.
Speaker 4: People would love that.
Speaker 10: But one thing we both say is people would love
Speaker 10: to see us fight, and we're not fighting.
Speaker 4: We don't need to fight.
Speaker 10: But the moment that people would really love to see
Speaker 10: is I think that moment right there, and it shows
Speaker 10: that we have mature in a lot of different ways.
Speaker 10: We're able to squash whatever beef people to say we're having.
Speaker 10: And you know, he's inducted me into that level, that
Speaker 10: that space that he's always pushed me at every single
Speaker 10: time he's been, uh, you know, the shows at tn
Speaker 10: T and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: So just to see him do there, I think it'd
Speaker 4: be really awesome.
Speaker 2: And this I'm gonna script this for you. You and
Speaker 2: Shoq walk in and then you open up your jackets
Speaker 2: and you got Superman T shirts on.
Speaker 4: Ah, that would be hilarious.
Speaker 2: All right, we just got to get Shack on board.
Speaker 9: You know.
Speaker 2: That's it. We we we get. We got a little
Speaker 2: bit of time. You got a couple of months.
Speaker 10: I think I think we got some time. I uh,
Speaker 10: I will start working on sending us some more message
Speaker 10: and see if.
Speaker 2: The work well. More importantly, congratulations on all of this
Speaker 2: and thanks for joining us.
Speaker 10: Thanks for having me man. I don't know if you know,
Speaker 10: I'll be joining the Big Three this year. Uh play
Speaker 10: some Big Three basketball with ice CE and if you
Speaker 10: have any players that's interested in playing, and I have
Speaker 10: my whole professional league and Asian it's called the age
Speaker 10: A Tournament We're having a draft April eleventh and April
Speaker 10: twelve this month coming up.
Speaker 4: We have twelve teams in our league.
Speaker 10: We want to expand it and get more guys in
Speaker 10: America and the States opportunities to play in a national
Speaker 10: ball did an awesome job for me my career, and
Speaker 10: it could do an amazing job.
Speaker 4: Of the guys. I would love to give him that opportunity.
Speaker 2: Can Cube play anymore? I mean, he messed around and
Speaker 2: got a triple double, Dwight, which I don't know if
Speaker 2: he really did. Dwight, he kept his own stats in
Speaker 2: a pickup game.
Speaker 4: You are less.
Speaker 1: He was so good.
Speaker 2: Can Cube still? Can Cube play?
Speaker 4: He can still play?
Speaker 2: That's why he had it to four point four point shot?
Speaker 2: Oh man, Good luck with all this, and again, rats
Speaker 2: and thanks for joining.
Speaker 4: Us, Thanks for having May I have an awesome Day's.
Speaker 2: Dwight Howard going to be inducted into the Basketball Hall
Speaker 2: of Fame.
Speaker 1: Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Speaker 1: Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific
Speaker 1: on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio w APP.
Speaker 2: It was great, great day yesterday, Brent. Congratulations on going
Speaker 2: into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It's the Pete
Speaker 2: Rosel Radio and TV Award. I don't take any credit
Speaker 2: other than letting people reminding people that you weren't in
Speaker 2: the Pro Football Hall of Fame. You did all the work.
Speaker 2: I just wanted people to remember all the great work
Speaker 2: you did. So congratulations, Dan, thank you so much.
Speaker 12: I know that a couple of years ago we had
Speaker 12: a conversation out at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas.
Speaker 12: I think we were on the rooftop of the Fountain
Speaker 12: Blue Hotel and you mentioned it, and I know it
Speaker 12: wasn't even on my mind, but.
Speaker 5: You you actually put it forward.
Speaker 12: And then later I'm told as I was leaving you
Speaker 12: at Jim Nance and Jim Nance also echoed what you
Speaker 12: had said. So I want to thank both of you.
Speaker 12: It was such an honor yesterday and you would have
Speaker 12: got a kick out of I was honestly just brushing
Speaker 12: my teeth and my phone rang and I looked down
Speaker 12: and I said NFL Hall of Fame, and I said, well,
Speaker 12: I wonder what that. And so I said hello, Brent,
Speaker 12: coach Vermeo and I said, yeah, Coach, I said, this
Speaker 12: is not your cell phone, this is a different phone.
Speaker 12: He said, congratulations, you're the winner of the Pete Rose
Speaker 12: Ell and it was, you know, mind blowing. I said, listen,
Speaker 12: Dan Patrick, Jim Nantz and you coach. You're the ones
Speaker 12: who put this forward and I owe you a debt
Speaker 12: of gratitude.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 5: It was great moments.
Speaker 12: I just wish Dan irv Cross, Phyllis, George.
Speaker 4: Jimmy, the Greek.
Speaker 12: I wish they were still with us to shareing this
Speaker 12: because they meant so much to the NFL today and
Speaker 12: actually the start of my career. So again, thank you
Speaker 12: so much for your platform.
Speaker 2: Well, you gave me almost an opportunity to dream because
Speaker 2: when I watched you do your show when the NFL today,
Speaker 2: I remember watching and saying, I can do that. I'm
Speaker 2: not a play by play guy. I can do that.
Speaker 2: I don't know how to do that. I don't know
Speaker 2: if I'd ever get a chance to do that. But
Speaker 2: it's the first time in my broadcasting career, or like
Speaker 2: the beginning of it, that I had a direction and
Speaker 2: you gave me that direction. And you provided a soundtrack
Speaker 2: for people's lives for fifty years, and that's the staying
Speaker 2: power is remarkable. But I thank you because you made
Speaker 2: it look like you can do. You know, you and
Speaker 2: costas Bryant Gumbel, guys who are really good. They make
Speaker 2: a hard job look easy, and that's why there's a
Speaker 2: lot of people who want to do this job. And
Speaker 2: and you did that. It's not easy, but you provided
Speaker 2: that soundtrack and I'm forever grateful for that.
Speaker 12: I'm so appreciative to hear that. And so many youngsters
Speaker 12: through the years Dan have come up and said, you know,
Speaker 12: I really want to get into sportscasting. I love what
Speaker 12: you do, and I would spend some time and talk
Speaker 12: them through it. But I you know, you touch a
Speaker 12: lot of lives. And I was asked yesterday, anybody ever
Speaker 12: get upset with you? And I chuckled and I said,
Speaker 12: occasionally I would get a letter, a little nasty from
Speaker 12: a preacher somewhere who said that I was spoiling church
Speaker 12: attendance on Sunday.
Speaker 2: Did you get any feedback, negative feedback when you were
Speaker 2: saying you were looking live.
Speaker 5: No, it's interesting.
Speaker 12: No, everybody sort of gravitated to it without knowing how
Speaker 12: it started. And it started because my director Bob Fishman,
Speaker 12: who was a Hall of Fame director by the way,
Speaker 12: he at a meeting of the NFL Today once earlier
Speaker 12: in the week, said that his father had a friend
Speaker 12: who loved to bet over unders and we were coming
Speaker 12: into November and he wanted the weather at the Darius
Speaker 12: stadiums that we were going, and we didn't have enough time.
Speaker 12: Remember the NFL Today was a half hour show. Now
Speaker 12: those pregame shows go on for days. But so well,
Speaker 12: I said, we can't do a weather report. But I said, Bob,
Speaker 12: what if you give me a live picture?
Speaker 5: And we started.
Speaker 12: I think the first one, damn might have been Soldier
Speaker 12: Field in Chicago, because I know it was in November,
Speaker 12: and so we used you are looking live and it
Speaker 12: was kind of a drizzly, gloomy day at the lake
Speaker 12: front of Chicago. And so the next one at the
Speaker 12: at the meeting, Uh, Bob said, hey, my father's front
Speaker 12: really loved that. He thought that was great, and so
Speaker 12: we went from there to two three different stadiums that
Speaker 12: we could flash around the country, and so it became
Speaker 12: the trade Bard. Honestly, the only thing I ever insisted in.
Speaker 12: Bob followed, I said it has to be live. I said,
Speaker 12: we can't tape stadium pictures and make this up.
Speaker 5: If I say you were looking live, let's do.
Speaker 12: It so so so it went from there and but no,
Speaker 12: I never I never received. I don't remember Pete Roselle,
Speaker 12: who was a good front of the shows. He would
Speaker 12: come by, you know, two or three times a year
Speaker 12: when he wasn't on the road watching games. I don't
Speaker 12: I don't remember Pete ever asking me specifically about but
Speaker 12: you are looking.
Speaker 5: I've just became the trademark of the show. That's how
Speaker 5: that's how we are.
Speaker 2: But you were kind of dancing around gambling without.
Speaker 5: Oh yes, oh yes.
Speaker 12: And I remember now, remember now, Jimmy, we weren't dancing, okay,
Speaker 12: we were hugging me. I mean when Bob Wesler called
Speaker 12: me before year two of the NFL Today and he said, Brent,
Speaker 12: do you know a gambler by the name of Jimmy
Speaker 12: the Greek? And I did, because when I was covering baseball,
Speaker 12: I would stop off in Las Vegas and I.
Speaker 5: Had met the Greek. I knew him.
Speaker 12: And he said, I want to put him on the
Speaker 12: NFL today to talk about the games. And I said, Bob,
Speaker 12: that's fine, but what are we going to do with
Speaker 12: the commissioner Roselle? And of course that led to the
Speaker 12: famous meeting that we had for about an hour down
Speaker 12: the Park Avenue, NFL offices, and Roselle could not have
Speaker 12: been more favorable to what the Greek being on the show.
Speaker 12: And then when we got up to leave to go
Speaker 12: back the commissioners, Oh, by the way, listen, guys, do
Speaker 12: me a favor now when you were at a meeting
Speaker 12: with the commissioner and he says favor, we knew here
Speaker 12: came the marching order and he said, please don't use
Speaker 12: minus three plus seven minus ten on the segment.
Speaker 5: Yes sir, yes, sir, you got it.
Speaker 12: Never even thought about it, walk out and say, how
Speaker 12: are we going to talk about if we can't use
Speaker 12: the points spreads?
Speaker 5: Okay?
Speaker 12: So that that led to the famous checkboard with the
Speaker 12: Greek and people would figure out if the checks were
Speaker 12: all on one team side, he made cover of the spread.
Speaker 12: So so we went from there. And the only time
Speaker 12: I got in trouble after the NFS we were doing
Speaker 12: the NFC of CBS then was after the NFC Championship game.
Speaker 12: The Greek would always slip me a piece of paper
Speaker 12: with the spread on the Super Bowl, and I would
Speaker 12: always give it and I'd always get the phone call
Speaker 12: on Monday.
Speaker 5: Don't you ever do that again? Oh gee, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: I forgot until the next year when you forgot again.
Speaker 5: That exactly.
Speaker 12: Yeah, you know, I always knew, honestly, if you go
Speaker 12: back to the founding of the National Football League. I
Speaker 12: mean there were people at ball with Caama Art Rooney
Speaker 12: he gets his stake in the Pittsburgh Steelers by winning at.
Speaker 5: The horse track, and even Peter Roselle.
Speaker 12: Every time I went to the Kentucky Derby, Peter rosel
Speaker 12: was there, usually with Wellington Marraw, the owner of the jobs,
Speaker 12: so I knew. And the underground was just full of
Speaker 12: people who like to bet on the National Football you know.
Speaker 12: You know, I'm glad that it's now illegal. And obviously
Speaker 12: you have to be careful because a gambling addiction is
Speaker 12: like an alcohol addiction.
Speaker 5: You got to be careful. You got to watch people.
Speaker 12: And I try to tell youngsters all the time.
Speaker 5: You're not going to beat it. I said. You may
Speaker 5: think you are, but you're not.
Speaker 4: I said.
Speaker 12: If you want to do it for recreation, as I do,
Speaker 12: I said, go ahead and enjoy it.
Speaker 2: If I would have told you nineteen seventy five, hey, Brent,
Speaker 2: you're going to be a Hall of Famer and gambling
Speaker 2: is going to be embraced by all sports. What would
Speaker 2: you have thought that we've gotten to this point that
Speaker 2: gambling is now commonplace. It's it's almost like you're guilted
Speaker 2: in if you don't gamble on things, I'm.
Speaker 5: Gonna thought you were crazy. Okay, let's tell you the truth.
Speaker 5: I uh both.
Speaker 12: I never got into this, you know, dreaming about Hall
Speaker 12: of Fames. I met to Canton early in the NFL
Speaker 12: career to shoot a segment for it, but I never
Speaker 12: dreamed about about going in a and the gambling. I
Speaker 12: guess I always thought it had a chance to be legal,
Speaker 12: but I didn't realize how sports were going to embrace it.
Speaker 5: And you're so right. I talked to people all the time.
Speaker 12: I mean, think about ESPN, which did not exist when
Speaker 12: the NFL today started. I mean, we didn't have cable
Speaker 12: television like we have. If you up, I was watching
Speaker 12: last night, like a lot of people are watching. In
Speaker 12: the bottom line, you know, there were NBA spreads and
Speaker 12: over unders were coming under. And I always smile when
Speaker 12: I see it because I was so for voting back
Speaker 12: in the seventies and now it's just part of the coach,
Speaker 12: and I think, Dan, that's a good thing because I
Speaker 12: think it'll just kind of be accepted and go on
Speaker 12: its own way down the road.
Speaker 5: To tell you the truth, I.
Speaker 2: Was wondering if you could get Joe Namath to introduce
Speaker 2: you at the Hall of Fame. I mean, you were
Speaker 2: there when he made his big proclamation, Oh yeah, and
Speaker 2: then they were going to win Super Bowl three.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's great.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 12: You know, you were talking about stadiums, you know, and
Speaker 12: the old Orange Bowl. I think for me, the stadiums
Speaker 12: always stand out where I have memories of what happened there. Okay,
Speaker 12: and Super Bowl three was really something because earlier in
Speaker 12: that week we'd gone to Fort Lauderdale and the bellman
Speaker 12: sold us that Joe Namath was out back, and there
Speaker 12: were a handful of us. I was a writer then,
Speaker 12: and I also worked at BBM, the CBS radio station,
Speaker 12: and we went out back and there was Joe in
Speaker 12: a lounge chair, the famous picture with you know, there
Speaker 12: was a lady behind him getting an autograph, and people
Speaker 12: came up and wished him good luck. And I tell people,
Speaker 12: it wasn't braggadocio. It wasn't it wasn't like, oh, I
Speaker 12: guarant it was just kind of a matter of fact,
Speaker 12: and we're gonna win the game. I guarantee it. And
Speaker 12: it was just kind of thrown out, to tell you
Speaker 12: the truth. It did not become a big story until
Speaker 12: after the fact. Dave Anderson, great Columns of the New
Speaker 12: York Times, was with me at a country club that
Speaker 12: Joe spoke at, believe it or not, on Friday night.
Speaker 12: He was a guest of honor and he he did
Speaker 12: it and it was Dave who And it was such
Speaker 12: a small story in the Times, and now it has
Speaker 12: become it has become bigger than life. But as for
Speaker 12: the game itself, Okay, I was upstairs, I had a prespass,
Speaker 12: but I was in the photographer's box.
Speaker 11: But guess who was next to me. Howard Cosell giving
Speaker 11: me the.
Speaker 1: Flay by plane of the I was the.
Speaker 12: One man audience for Howard Cosell at Super Bowl three.
Speaker 11: And of course he hated.
Speaker 12: The NFC because the NFC would not lie, and he
Speaker 12: loved the AFL.
Speaker 11: That was that was his dream. So he was so
Speaker 11: proud of Joe.
Speaker 12: Willie names I'll tell you you know.
Speaker 11: He called me mush I was thinking Mush, I'll tell
Speaker 11: you he's the best.
Speaker 2: So but that's one of the iconic moments in NFL history.
Speaker 2: Like when you think about it, what it became. You know,
Speaker 2: then you had guys who started to guarantee things. Then
Speaker 2: it became almost like common place where somebody was like, hey,
Speaker 2: we're gonna win, do you guarantee it? I guarantee it.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: It was in the footsteps of Joe Willie.
Speaker 12: Absolutely absolutely, and I'll tell you Dan, that game to
Speaker 12: me meant more to the merger than anything.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 5: Now, Al Davis meant a lot to the merger because he.
Speaker 12: Started signing quarterbacks were in the NFL, and when the
Speaker 12: George Hallises of the world saw what it was going
Speaker 12: to cost them, they also made a move toward merging.
Speaker 12: But once Joe Namas you know, I mean remember now
Speaker 12: of Greek and Las Vegas made the Baltimore coltson eighteen
Speaker 12: point favorite eighteen point favorite in that game, I mean,
Speaker 12: let that sink in right.
Speaker 5: Now with everybody who didn't you have.
Speaker 12: You know, I did not bet the game, and I
Speaker 12: never I never, I don't think I always.
Speaker 5: Thought the Cults were going to win. Listen, I was
Speaker 5: a Bears guy.
Speaker 12: Okay, I mean covered them and knew the Hallas that I.
Speaker 5: Kind of looked down a little bit at the AFL.
Speaker 12: You know, I was kind of one of the establishment
Speaker 12: reporters back in the day, and so I really thought
Speaker 12: the Colts were going to win. I don't think I
Speaker 12: would have given eighteen points, but as it turns out,
Speaker 12: the bet of the year would have been on Willy
Speaker 12: Names and the Jets.
Speaker 2: My friend, congratulations again and good luck with Thank you
Speaker 2: v's in the sports betting network that you've been that
Speaker 2: you co founded there, but uh, long time coming. Glad
Speaker 2: to play any role in this, but once again, thank
Speaker 2: you for being a friend.
Speaker 11: Oh, by the way, the Gators did well in your pool,
Speaker 11: Yes they did.
Speaker 2: You won the contest, you won the bracket. Is that
Speaker 2: more important than going into the Pro Football Hall of
Speaker 2: Fame for me?
Speaker 4: Is whatever?
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 11: So much, Dad, Thanks for all your help.
Speaker 2: Thank you, buddy. That's Brent Musburger.