Speaker 1: Welcome to this league and cut rule a twenty four
Speaker 1: hour NBA news miters you lou Chris hands, it's no time,
Speaker 1: works time, It's so time. This league un cut is
Speaker 1: underway in on fire. This should be a good one.
Speaker 2: All right, friends, it's time. As promised, our special guest
Speaker 2: this week. In one more week, you will have to
Speaker 2: address him as a Hall of Famer on all first references.
Speaker 2: But he joins us now from a top secret location
Speaker 2: cannot be revealed, far far away from his spiritual harm
Speaker 2: in Dallas. Is this audience ready for a good ten
Speaker 2: to twelve minutes with almost a Hall of famer? Girk
Speaker 2: Werner VI, Ski, Wow, you are actually on the show.
Speaker 2: This is really happening.
Speaker 3: This is big, this is big. I'm excited for the
Speaker 3: new show. I can't wait to listen in. But like
Speaker 3: you said, I'm still overseas and I'm working my way
Speaker 3: home so I can get ready for Springfield.
Speaker 2: Excited, I mean it's crazy jersey retirement international jersey retirement
Speaker 2: statue unveiling. I think there was a street named after
Speaker 2: you in there somewhere.
Speaker 4: And now, like you said, all you have to say.
Speaker 2: In basketball is the word Springfield. Everyone in the game
Speaker 2: knows what that means. But has it sunk in yet?
Speaker 2: Are you ready for this?
Speaker 3: I mean as ready as I can get. I guess
Speaker 3: I'm super excited, obviously, a little anxious already. I think
Speaker 3: it's going to be a super cool, fun couple of days.
Speaker 3: I have family and friends coming from all over the world.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I'm already a little nervous. Obviously I'm not
Speaker 3: a great speaker and holding a big speech there and
Speaker 3: then just the whole hoopla there, and you know, the
Speaker 3: limelight is not really my thing, so it's, uh, it's
Speaker 3: gonna be a little bit uncomfortable at times, but I'm
Speaker 3: gonna I'm going to just try to really enjoy it
Speaker 3: and enjoy my family. And my kids are now old
Speaker 3: enough to really understand what's happening, and so.
Speaker 5: I'm looking forward to to a great time. And and
Speaker 5: like you said, all this stuff, all the.
Speaker 3: Honorings and the street naming and all that, people are
Speaker 3: now like we got to celebrate you again, Like when when.
Speaker 5: Is this over?
Speaker 3: Uh, this this retirement tour. And I would say this
Speaker 3: to me, the Hall of Fame is like the absolute
Speaker 3: tip of the iceberg, and it's the coolest thing, and
Speaker 3: it's an honor to be there, and and sort of
Speaker 3: I think things will sort of for me at least
Speaker 3: slow down after that. But it's been literally one thing
Speaker 3: after the next, and I'm extremely proud of all these things.
Speaker 2: So you're gonna have Steve Nash and Jason Kidd there
Speaker 2: with you on stage.
Speaker 4: And the way presenters work.
Speaker 2: For the Hall of Fame for people who don't know,
Speaker 2: you have to be a Hall of Famer to be
Speaker 2: eligible as a presenter. You knew those guys were going
Speaker 2: to say yes when you ask them, But what was
Speaker 2: it like to actually, you know, are you nervous asking them? Hey, guys,
Speaker 2: will you come up there with me? Because it's also
Speaker 2: weird for the presenters. They don't get to say anything.
Speaker 2: They just they just sit on a stool.
Speaker 5: They just sit there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, you know me, I wasn't.
Speaker 5: I wasn't doing it all formal. I was Steven, do
Speaker 5: you mind that? So I just kind of threw it out.
Speaker 3: And when we talked about Hall of Fame and Sandwich
Speaker 3: a kid, you know, obviously they're they're not only teammates
Speaker 3: of mine, they're really really good friends and friends for life,
Speaker 3: and so you know, It was sort of informal.
Speaker 5: I kind of threw it out.
Speaker 3: Hey, I'd love for you guys, or for love, would
Speaker 3: love for you to be up there with me, and
Speaker 3: and they both were kind of no brainer obviously, And
Speaker 3: uh and so they're they're looking forward to it, and
Speaker 3: I'm looking forward.
Speaker 4: To seeing them.
Speaker 5: I'm seeing their families.
Speaker 3: And just spending an incredible three four days up up
Speaker 3: in Springfield.
Speaker 2: You know, I always say this when people ask me
Speaker 2: about the early days, and you know, you and Steve
Speaker 2: both had a rough first year in Dallas, which was
Speaker 2: a long long time ago, but having been there, I'm
Speaker 2: certainly not going to forget it when you think back.
Speaker 2: I mean, how crazy does it sound to you that
Speaker 2: there were two future MVPs and two future Hall of
Speaker 2: Famers on that lockout nineteen ninety nine MAVs team when
Speaker 2: you and Steve first were teammates. Man, it's almost twenty
Speaker 2: five years ago.
Speaker 3: Yeah, crazy, crazy how the time has flown by, and
Speaker 3: also crazy how that worked out. You know, you know me,
Speaker 3: I'm always a little negative. I'm shy, you know, it's
Speaker 3: my German in me, and so I that first year,
Speaker 3: I just I wasn't sure gonna make it. I had
Speaker 3: doubts creeping. And of course there were games you were there,
Speaker 3: there were games where I didn't play at all.
Speaker 5: I was, I was frustrated. I was you know, I was.
Speaker 3: Uh, I've just basically questioning myself.
Speaker 5: Did I make the right decisions here and.
Speaker 3: Uh to come over? Or should I have stayed in Europe?
Speaker 3: Should I have gone to college? And I guess all
Speaker 3: that's normal when things don't really you know, work out
Speaker 3: well or or work out as planned. And and then
Speaker 3: all we really did was Steve and I was saying, Hey,
Speaker 3: all we can do is is is you know, work
Speaker 3: hard and and we'll we'll we'll go from there. That's
Speaker 3: all you can do is control what you can control.
Speaker 3: We used to go back to the gym every night,
Speaker 3: to the old Landry Center there. We didn't even have
Speaker 3: a own practice facility, uh, and just you know, played
Speaker 3: horse played one on one, played shooting games, played uh,
Speaker 3: played with other guys three on three and just you know,
Speaker 3: just trying to work hard as hard as we can
Speaker 3: and get extra sessions in and so we you know,
Speaker 3: it wasn't really if it didn't work out, then people
Speaker 3: can't say, well, you didn't work hard enough. So that's
Speaker 3: what we both didn't want, and so we just really
Speaker 3: busted our tails.
Speaker 5: And trying to get better and trying to make it.
Speaker 3: And then, you know, I always mentioned and you were
Speaker 3: there the end of my first year when we were
Speaker 3: finally out of the playoffs.
Speaker 5: We were never really in it.
Speaker 3: I think we're like four or five games out of
Speaker 3: the playoffs at all times. But then when we were
Speaker 3: finally eliminated, Nellie came up to me and say, hey, listen,
Speaker 3: I'll start you again. We have whatever ten games left.
Speaker 3: Why don't you just you know, get adjusted to the
Speaker 3: game and have some fun and really love playing. And
Speaker 3: that stretch, to me, was one of the biggest turnarounds
Speaker 3: in my career. And Steve obviously started playing well earlier,
Speaker 3: but for me, that was a big turnaround.
Speaker 5: I got to be comfortable.
Speaker 3: I had one game I had like twenty eight and
Speaker 3: that kind of showed me, hey, if you actually work
Speaker 3: hard and you have the skills to succeed, and obviously
Speaker 3: Nellie will put you in positions with us with this
Speaker 3: mismatched style, that that even my body I was a
Speaker 3: little underdeveloped, I could be in a position to play
Speaker 3: well and contribute.
Speaker 5: And so that that meant, that meant the well to me.
Speaker 3: That thought those last ten games of my on my
Speaker 3: first year that really changed everything.
Speaker 2: One and only Dirk Noovitski joining us here on the
Speaker 2: Saturday Steinline on ninety seven to one The Freak presented
Speaker 2: by Panini America, And you guys should know this show
Speaker 2: has now moved into it second month.
Speaker 4: Dirk volunteered to be.
Speaker 2: The first guests in show history, our very first show.
Speaker 4: But I told no I wanted to wait. I wanted
Speaker 4: to wait to do this right before his induction into
Speaker 4: the Hall of Fame. And we are doing this now
Speaker 4: one week before that induction.
Speaker 2: With I'm I'm you know, I can't say I'm as
Speaker 2: excited as you, but I'm pretty damn excited too.
Speaker 4: I just I can't wait.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to see all because it's not just
Speaker 2: you going in, but everyone you're going in with to like,
Speaker 2: just what do you think it's going to be like
Speaker 2: to be You're with all your rivals, Pow, Tony, Pop,
Speaker 2: your buddy Wade, like to go in with all.
Speaker 4: These guys too at the same time.
Speaker 3: I mean unbelievable at times, you know, there there were
Speaker 3: times where where all of us didn't really get along great,
Speaker 3: but I think that's that's part of part of competing
Speaker 3: at the highest level and part of you know, trying
Speaker 3: to win and at all costs. And so there were
Speaker 3: times where it didn't speak with pal Mush, there were
Speaker 3: times where did in speak with Dwayne, Uh, Tony and
Speaker 3: I were always pretty okay. But it's just that just
Speaker 3: funny how that works out that now all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: we're we're all together in this class and uh, we
Speaker 3: talked about it a little bit when we got introduced
Speaker 3: in uh in the final four in Euston when they
Speaker 3: announced us, and we spent a couple of good days
Speaker 3: together there, and uh, it's.
Speaker 5: Just funny how that worked.
Speaker 3: And we competed against Power and Tony since we were
Speaker 3: I don't know, twenty nineteen, twenty years old on national
Speaker 3: teams and so it was it's super cool to be
Speaker 3: part of the crew. And you know how much I
Speaker 3: inspect Pop. I mean, to me, he was he's probably
Speaker 3: one of the goats of coaching and the respect that
Speaker 3: and all the stuff they's done for me in my
Speaker 3: last game, and I mean, I can I can go
Speaker 3: on minutes about the guy. So I'm super, super humble
Speaker 3: to be part of this, this amazing class. And like
Speaker 3: I said, we're gonna have some fun.
Speaker 5: We're going there.
Speaker 3: I think we have some We're going golfing one day
Speaker 3: with the whole class and h so's It's gonna be
Speaker 3: a fun, fun couple of days and I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 3: gonna enjoy it.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I got to ask you this one because I've got
Speaker 2: MAVs fans asking me all the time, like are we
Speaker 2: are we supposed to know?
Speaker 4: Are you and Dwayne Wade now buddies? Are you guys? Friends?
Speaker 4: Is that how we are supposed to refer to you two?
Speaker 5: I think friends.
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously friends reach out to each other all
Speaker 3: the time, talk all the time. I wouldn't say we're friends.
Speaker 3: I think there's a mutual sense of obviously respect for
Speaker 3: each other's career, and obviously we're cordial. We were sitting
Speaker 3: actually in Houston at that one dinner. We were sitting
Speaker 3: at at the same table. Our family sat together, and
Speaker 3: so there's just no there's no bad blood obviously anymore people.
Speaker 3: We all moved on. Things were said on both sides
Speaker 3: are done that neither neither side light But you know.
Speaker 3: That's like I said earlier, that's part of competition at
Speaker 3: the highest level, it's there. To me, I'm still old school.
Speaker 3: There were really no friends at at the highest level.
Speaker 3: I understand now it is. Everything is a little different
Speaker 3: in the league, but at the you know where when
Speaker 3: I came in, there were really no friendships at the
Speaker 3: highest level. And and so that's that's where that comes from.
Speaker 5: So are we friends, No, we don't text.
Speaker 3: Each other, but I think where there's a lot of
Speaker 3: respect there and we're we're both happy to it to
Speaker 3: go in the Hall of Fame together.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna have to do a poll among the audience.
Speaker 2: How many how many listeners have moved on? That'll be
Speaker 2: a good that'll be something good? I threw out there. Now,
Speaker 2: Actually you did the It was in the recent past,
Speaker 2: a year maybe a year ago, maybe more, maybe a
Speaker 2: little bit less, but you did a podcast with Tony
Speaker 2: krus and Felix Kruse's brother, you know, both professional soccer players.
Speaker 2: Obviously everyone knows Tony's still playing for Real Madrid, and
Speaker 2: you talked about you were really candid with with that.
Speaker 2: I'm guessing in your own language and with fellow athletes,
Speaker 2: maybe it was.
Speaker 4: Easier, and you you talked about how.
Speaker 2: You said something to the effect that the last couple
Speaker 2: of years you were questioning were they worth it?
Speaker 4: Because you know, you've you've had some.
Speaker 2: Foot issues since playing, and I think you said something
Speaker 2: along lines of you could probably move better today had
Speaker 2: you retired earlier, but with a little bit more time.
Speaker 4: How do you feel about that part?
Speaker 2: And how you know because you stayed twenty one years,
Speaker 2: but that gave you that also gave you an incredible
Speaker 2: record that may never be broken. Twenty one years with
Speaker 2: one franchise. How do you look at that now?
Speaker 5: Yeah, sort of the same.
Speaker 3: You know, I think it's normal to go back and
Speaker 3: ask yourself questions and when you that's part of reflecting.
Speaker 3: If you're done with something in life, and then you
Speaker 3: kind of look back and reflect a little bit, and
Speaker 3: then it's normal.
Speaker 5: To ask questions, Hey, what if?
Speaker 3: What if if I would have squit two years earlier?
Speaker 3: Would that I've made a difference? Honestly, it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 3: I'm I'm super, super proud of having played twenty one
Speaker 3: years for one franchise. Nobody can ever take that away
Speaker 3: from me. And of course the last years were a
Speaker 3: little tough. I mean, in my last season, I could barely.
Speaker 3: I didn't practice anymore. I missed the first thirty games.
Speaker 3: It took forever from me to somewhat play decent basketball.
Speaker 3: So those times are not necessarily fun. But you know,
Speaker 3: like I said, it's part of my career now, and
Speaker 3: I'm proud of it. Played twenty one years at an
Speaker 3: older age and trying to keep up with, you know,
Speaker 3: guys that were half your age, and so I'm proud
Speaker 3: that I made it this long. And of course here
Speaker 3: and there I have some ankle issues, but I think
Speaker 3: that's just you know, even if I would have quit
Speaker 3: after nineteen, I would have.
Speaker 5: Still had some issues. It's just part of part of sports.
Speaker 4: Our last few moments here on ninety seven to one.
Speaker 2: The Three with the one and Only Jerk Davitsky, one
Speaker 2: week away from his Hall of Fame induction, I asked
Speaker 2: Tyson Chandler this a couple of weeks ago, when we
Speaker 2: had Tyson on the show actually having a championship ring.
Speaker 2: Is it do you do you look at it? Do
Speaker 2: you just keep it away and try not to think
Speaker 2: about it? Or how much on it? How much on
Speaker 2: a daily basis can you feel yes, I'm a champion,
Speaker 2: because obviously in your case, I think you know you
Speaker 2: heard for so long when you hadn't won, I mean
Speaker 2: you were just remind I get about it constantly, constantly,
Speaker 2: So how much on a daily basis can you feel yes,
Speaker 2: I actually have that ring?
Speaker 5: So I don't look at the ring a lot.
Speaker 3: Only when I really have new guests or whatever and
Speaker 3: they come over and they want to see it, But
Speaker 3: it's usually in a safe place, so I don't see
Speaker 3: it myself much, maybe every couple of weeks, every couple
Speaker 3: of months. But I am reminded of the championship every day.
Speaker 3: I mean I have I have a photo at home
Speaker 3: in my little man.
Speaker 5: Cave where obviously hoisted trophy and the whole.
Speaker 3: Team is behind me, and I have the banner somewhere
Speaker 3: around that, the remake of the banner with all the
Speaker 3: names on it.
Speaker 5: So I am reminded of it daily.
Speaker 3: Which is of course amazing, and it puts me a
Speaker 3: small on my face every day.
Speaker 5: But the ring, I would say.
Speaker 3: Only every couple of weeks, every couple of months, I'll
Speaker 3: look at it. So actually a matter of fact, I
Speaker 3: haven't seen it now in months now, since we traveled
Speaker 3: a bunch, so when I get home, I might have
Speaker 3: to lay eyes on it before I come to Springfield.
Speaker 2: Incredibly happy for you that you have that ring, Incredibly
Speaker 2: happy for you for what awaits this coming week, huge
Speaker 2: week for you. You've got a restaurant opening at THEFW
Speaker 2: and then we all make our way to Springfield for
Speaker 2: this incredible ceremony.
Speaker 4: Still can't believe it's happening.
Speaker 2: But huge, hugely grateful to catch up with you today
Speaker 2: and have you on the show, and thank you honestly
Speaker 2: for I mean, there's no thank yous I can say.
Speaker 2: They're sufficient for the twenty five years that you've let
Speaker 2: me pester you. I actually been thinking about it that
Speaker 2: September is going to be twenty five years since I
Speaker 2: came to work word for the first time, which is
Speaker 2: just what happened to us.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, thank you, thank you for coming along on
Speaker 3: this journey. And you know, at the beginning we kind of,
Speaker 3: you know, we both started talk soccer and we had
Speaker 3: a great bond there and so I really appreciate you
Speaker 3: being a part of this journey and it's been, uh,
Speaker 3: it's been so much fun. So thanks thanks to you
Speaker 3: as well for being part Dirk Navitski.
Speaker 2: Everyone the future Hall of Famer, and future means only
Speaker 2: one week. A week from today, you will be eternally
Speaker 2: referred to as the Hall of Famer Jerk Davitski.
Speaker 1: And that'll do it for us. See you next time.
Speaker 1: This league un Cuttage and iHeartRadio production Christine and Mark
Speaker 1: Stein