Steve Ravera and Jakin Salles. They have their eye on the ball on two
Suns Sports stage yet Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live. I mean I heard
radio am okay, welcome back joining the ball here old Fox Sports s fourteen
fifteen. I'm Steve, he's Jay. Now we have Jason with some breaking
news season I on the ballaking news. Okay. So, Arizona Baseball had
a couple of players get drafted in the twenty twenty three m MLB Draft on
Monday. UM. First one being Chase Davis, the UM super star outfielder
that was on Sunday, wasn't it. Yeah, he got drafted in the
first round on Sunday Sunday story. He went twenty first to the Cardinals.
Yep. There were a couple more. There were a total of six,
right I thought, okay, six I thought was five? Um yeah?
Six? Um t J Nicholas he was drafted at sixth round, one hundred
and eighty three, pure up to the Tampa Bay Rays and Kio Romero was
like the seventh round. Uh, didn't we think he was gonna go higher?
Yeah? I don't know, but I need to try to see if
we can get him on Yeah, local kids, CDEO guy. Yeah,
Yeah, there's a neighbor of mine. I just found out today somewhere,
Yeah, like in CDEO area. I don't know, I just heard it.
Maybe I need to go get a doctor or drink the water over there.
They're not gonna drafty nine year old dude. Man, it's water weight.
I'll tell Speaking of that, I'll tell you another story on that one.
Yeah. The next was Akiko Romero h South Brown to the New York
Yankees. Cool, and then Chris barraza picture yep, right, tenth Brown
Los Angeles Angels. And then it was Nick McClary after the short stop yep,
um saying diego Padres and he was the last one and will and then
their top recruit the picture Um Wolford something like that, Tyler Wolford I think
was the name. Um. He went in the first round, he went,
he went, you know, he went in the second round, and
yeah, he's gonna make a ton of money, so he coming. His
his bonus is in the is over a million, so he's probably not coming
either. So anyways, but yeah, you know, a good haul.
Um. I saw a text that uh, you know, Arizona is one
of the top teams to get you know, he gets got six picks.
C LS. You had the one and two. Yeah, yeah, let
me say this. I saw that list maybe on Twitter, same thing you
saw they had five or six now and they were in the top five or
six all time, and I'm thinking, should they have been better than what
they were? Well? J Nichols gets drafted at mean, he was terrible
this year. He lost his spot as a starter. Yeah, he was
in relief at the end of the year. So you know, again they're
they're drafting off potential. Yeah. Sure, some of these guys may come
back, some may not, but you know, they want to get their
career started. So Uh. The d A men's tennis coach Climsy shields.
He announced that they are harder. Um Alexander Free as our associate head coach
the upcoming season. All right, new head coach coach, I think I
think, uh, you have a golf one too, because golf has a
new assistant coaches like that. I think as men's golf has a new assistant
coach as well. Okay, anyways, Uh, sophomore center Henry Vsar Suffriday
spring ankle during the Estonia's win over Monteguero on Sunday in the FIBA. Um
you twenty European champions Yeah, so you didn't. Yeah, yeah, and
then he hasn't played since. Those things can nagh man. It's probably a
seven footer, yeah, those things can. They said he'd be ready for
the I saw this. I guess. I don't know it's official or that
he'd be ready for the Red Blue game. The problem with that though,
Jays and Jason they go to they go to Israel, Yeah, where he
was hopefully going to get some play. Yeah, he said he might miss
that. Okay, that's too bad. That's too bad. Yeah, there's
no when you have games like that that are important because they're reported, because
you're playing time against good quality teams. You know what I'm saying, it's
you. You can't replace that. Yeah, you know, you established a
rapport with the other guys. Yeah, that's that's why they do those things,
right exactly. So that's okay. Um Joe Va dud Man. Yeah,
he passed away. Yeah, one of the great guys. You know,
did did you You had to a mad him at some he did some.
One of my chapters was on him from the book. It just wanted
one of the cool guys, you know, just kind of an unassuming,
you know, humble guy. You know, everybody grew up, you know,
if you grew up watching you have a sports from the you know,
late seventies until maybe five six, seven years ago, you knew who he
was. You saw him he was. You know, you'd see like at
the basketball games, other teams that were coming to McHale for the first time.
You did go, what the hell is going on? When he'd come
out on the court and they shouldn't be looking in the first place to you,
I know, but you came in the huddle. You can't not look
when he comes out on the court. When he when he was at the
later stages, when he was at the games, you knew before they stopped
letting go out there that if if they were gonna be in trouble, you
knew who was coming out right because he was around at the right time.
That was one of things about him. His timing was was epic. I
mean, he was always at the right time. Um, you know it
was. It was cool. And the funny thing about this, Jay,
I don't know if you agree with me this, So you have about twenty
five let's say twenty five hundred students in the room, right, another twelve
fans, old dudes like you and me. Now, and here's this old
dude coming out. So the kids are pin saying, what's his old dude
due? But the old people loved it because he was one of us.
Yeah, he's one of us. And he was just a dude acting stupid,
right and say, you know, because he was. But he got
the got the crowd going, and he loved it, and the crowd loved
him. Yeah. Well, I mean you know, at the time that
he came, he was a bartender, and so I saw him. Carlos
Murphies was downtown is the old train station downtown. It was Carlos Murphies over
that. Yeah, they build a Mexican restaurant and the bar. It was
a it was very much of a nightclub. I remember that on top of
the But yeah, we'll miss him. Um, well we've been missing him,
right, he's been gone for a while, at least from from doing
the stuff. But a legendary guy. Do you remember you were here?
So I was not in seventy nine when he started. Yeah, yeah,
the omaha, that's how the chant started. He would climb. He would
climb the pole um by the dug out that was holding up the speaker,
you know for the sound system, And he climbed the pole and they started
going omaha and the whole crowd. He just did it one time and the
crowd responded to it, so he just kept doing it. And then uh,
and then in the nineteen they went to the College World Series and they
took him with him and all kind and stuff. It was pretty cool.
He went to the eighty eight final four two. So he said that he
went to he might have there was a funny story in the h we'll have
your draw the story yesterday about it or two days ago. Uh, after
the game with Kerr, right with Kerr. They were the hotel. He
was on the lower level and Kerr was in the higher level and he looked
up and you know, are you gonna jump? Says no, you know
because of that right, Well, if you do, we'll also Steve Kerr
for the last time Steve again. And then you know, I got a
chance to talk to him a few times. It just really cool guys,
really good dude, really nice guy. Um didn't you know, didn't uh
make a big deal about who he was or what he was doing, and
just went about his business and had fun doing what he was doing. Got
to go to a lot of games because of It's very cool, very sad
that he asked some national news the w NBA Phoenix Mercury. Um, they're
hiring the Golden Cate Warriors executive. Nick, you were in ye as general
manager. Wow, the other the Farriors are rebuilding kind of the new GM.
And now this guy left, uh, pool is gone. Well that's
okay, Yeah, that's okay. It's still coming stuff coming out about him
and how totally um, what's the right words, functional, dysfunctional? That
was because of him being there. Well, and they said, whoever pose,
it doesn't matter, just that it was, and that Steve Kerr was
the guy. He was a petel in painting. But to Steve Kerr,
yeah, well we'll get to the tall hire on there and I on the
ball. How's it going today? What's up, Bryan? What's happening?
I was, how was your vacation? It wasn't technically a vacation, but
it was okay, good good. You know your guys are talking about the
man I don't remember. You know, back in the seventies watching him because
I remember, right, he got a start in baseball, right, baseball,
and I think it was I don't know if it was seventy six or
eight. I'm not too sure. I thought it was seven six, but
they say it was seventy nine, but I thought it was seventy six.
Yeah, I thought it went through the first year they went to a world
right when they won that World Series. Yeah, but he just get the
fans fired up to the old sad st peel Yeah, get this clothes on
though, But he was much better. It was amazing to watch him because
he would have have the fans going and and it's really kind of sad what
happened later on in his wife, but just held unfortunately, Brian. He
was living, Brian. He was living the life. He was living the
life you always have dreamed though. Yeah, yeah, yeah, just get
him. They're making a four fourteen thousand people taking your clothes off. I
was referring to, all right, don't do it, don't do it,
Brian. Yeah. Do you have a favorite memory of him or do they
all? It is kind of like you just remember him always coming out of
the court. Well you know, you know, more or later on in
basketball. But it's back whenever, like the UA needed a boost to get
the fans and bobbed in the game, keep them out on the court.
Yeah, and then you know, and then after that the fans are really
into the game again. Yeah, without questions. They needed him a lot
during the final years of Sean Miller. Yeah, because there were fewer fans
and they were just sitting on their hands. Yeah, wow about it because
it wasn't very exciting basketball. Well, there is that. There's that.
Here's that, all right, brank Hey, go ahead, Yeah, you
guys have a good day. All right, thanks a much. I appreciate
it. No, I'm sure a lot of people have memories of him,
my kids, do you know, just the stuff is fun and you know
people do that, and you know, cheer teams and you know, do
you know, do the science, you know, do the letters? A
very all right? The New York Times announced that they're disbanding their sports I
wanted to talk about the huh and you saw what happened the only Times too
right, they're doing this, They're not They're cutting the crap out of that
thing. I didn't see the time the buck scores, the Times of Games
or it's it's not the same sports programs we saw before. Well, Peyton
newspapers are stopping, are not being the paper of record anymore. They're just
reporting stuff that they think is interesting to their readers. That they're not reporting
stuff for the sake of being a record. Here's the problem too. Their
deadlines are three o'clock. I mean, that's what the other Times is going
through right now. Uh, the Stars five, I think, yeah,
yeah, yeah, this thing with the New York I saw the New York
Times stuff and that the Athletic now is going to be there basically their sports
and they just laid off a whole bunch of people. Yeah. Yeah,
what are you doing? What are you doing? Good? Medicine that a
job for life, man. Yeah, you know you don't want to be
a doctor to No, don't do it. You don't like money. Stay
look, you like money, be a doctor, see me. There's plenty
of jobs. There's all kinds of jobs. You might not be working in
a newspaper. Yeah, but there's jobs, definitely. Yeah. Coach,
last question, coach, last question, No one reads you, Jason,
don't worry about it. Uh. The Saints running back Alvin Kamara, he
pleaded an old contest. Did he picked the crap out of that gun to
beat somebody up? Man? Yeah? Custom a few dollars. Yeah,
he might be facing some major, major suspension in the upper Well, that's
right, that's not resolved. That's not resolved. Yes, though I'm looking
into him more so. Yeah, but yeah, that's all the breaking his
eye. Okay, I have one more. Um, The Oakland A's have
actually applied for UM to be able to move their team to h To Vegas.
Um A. Major League Baseball has has established a relocation committee which has
to have evaluate all of it and you know and then give a I guess,
give a report and kind of you know report on it to UH to
Major League Baseball to determine whether or not you're gonna allow the As to go.
But I can't think of anything that would keep the A's from moving to
Las Vegas until unless the stadium deal false right right, and the razor looking
to leave too after the release is done, pare pretty soon. I thought
they were going to be four years. I don't know that. I just
saw two day's report of the team's leaving because the commissioner talked about it.
Wow. Um, talked about. But it's four years away. So yeah,
and have you been paying attention to the summer league Ben Mathrin and these
guys. He's playing very well, really good. I love the way Ben
is. I loved I loved the one he played here. The one thing
above Ben that hasn't changed. Every call is against him. Oh I was
foul. Oh god, I was killed. Every players, like every play
everybody. It's just unbelievable just playing. Yeah, watch it if you would
watch him next time. Yeah, yeah, it's like I got slapped.
Oh come on, Ben, all right, real quick, we got about
a minute. We gotta go. We're gonna have Elijah Russian coming on.
But uh about Rob Manford, The Major Baseball Commission reiterated that even though with
all the change and attitude towards gambling and pro sports and YadA, YadA,
yadda, that Pete Rosa still is ineligible to be elected into the he's banned
from baseball and therefore ineligible to be put in the Baseball Hall of Fame because
he's still in the end, he's still violated Rule number one, which remains
a rule that you can't gamble on baseball. So he's uh, that's nothing's
changed as far as that goes. With all that stuff. All right,
let's take our break. Elijah Rushing, the Soap Point Catholic star who was
committed to Arizona Football for the twenty twenty four recruiting classios be joining us after
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mean my heart Radio Whip. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera
and Jay Getzalns on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to on
the Ball here at Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jay
Gonzals. Now on the phone, we have Elijah Rushing you commit to the
University of Veraras on a football program at a south Point. How are you
doing, Elijah, I'm doing. How are you? We're doing fine?
Great to have you on the show. Let me see something about you.
I've never seen you play. Get all the graziness that the people love you.
But what struck me about you in your press converences? How professional you
were already kind of very tempered and very smart thinking. And that goes a
long way at least for me, Jay, just a very Your parents must
have done a great job with you, because you don't see that kids anymore.
Yeah, yes, sir, thank you. So Todd, tell us
a little bit about first, um, how things have maybe settled for you
in the last week or so. Uh, you know, there's probably a
lot of excitement going into the decision. The decision gets made, you're doing
all this media. You've been on all the radio shows except ours, but
now you're on ours. How you know, how things kind of settled that
you've made the decision. Are you kind of at ease with all of it
at this point? Um? I feel comfortable with my decisions. You know,
no matter where I went or wherever the case was, at least from
the information I was, I'll come to receive it that my outcome is still
going to be my outcome no matter where I go. So for me,
it's like this, this is a good place for me. It made sense
for what I wanted to do. What We both covered the sports for a
long time. Elijah covered recruiting. We hated it. We hated it back
in the day. Did you get tired of it? All the calls you
got or letters, or especially the calls, maybe the text or you just
said Okay, I want to be done with this and no more. Um.
At some point, yes, I felt like, hum I took care
of it really well, or me and my dad took care of really well,
we were a team throughout this whole thing. Whatever I couldn't answer,
he will pick up the pieces. And you know, I always make sure
that made sure, like my mental health is everything going into that. I
was good with it. I wasn't going to consume me, you know,
Elijah for a player like you again, you know, five star, four
star, whatever stars a player like like you is. You know you're getting
You're hearing from so many different schools, you know, how do you go
about narrowing down, you know, narrowing all that down, deciding where I'm
gonna visit, who I'm going to keep paying attention to, you know,
you you put up you know, or at least people thought there were four
schools there at the end. There's other recruits that they might have ten schools
that are kind of in it at the end. How did you narrow it
down? And what were the things that mattered to you? Main thing with
family and I would just say, like the program has made sense for me
as far as their like their makeup, like their coaches, they were the
teachers, they were developers. Um did a family atmosphere and it was just
a good environment. I could see myself being there and for me, I
got to see all those places like complete campuses and tours, So it was
either for me just to already pick those up, like, all right,
I've been to these schools, are enjoyed my experience. Let me put these
to someone I want to look I want to still look into. So so
you felt like you can kind of see yourself on the campus, in the
classroom and all that kind of stuff. I mean just an overall comfort level.
Is that what it was? Yes? Their comfort all right. So
you're the most touted recruit coming into the University of Arizona football program, which
is a huge thing given all the names that have come through here. Is
there pressure? Is there? Whatever the world it is. I don't want
to put word in your mouth. And you're kind of now the new pipe
piper of players to get other players? Maybe right? Um. I feel
like my experience, like especially being a five star those are it already comes
with pressure to perform the way you need to perform. And I feel like
the past year I've had I still proved myself just like when anyone had to
say and whether they thought I deserved this or not, and I think I
said this, I said this, on another radio song. Um, just
the thing that my dad told me, and I'm trying with myself is God
wouldn't put me in this position if I couldn't handle it. You wouldn't give
me this opportunity. He wouldn't give me this vision for being in this place.
Uh, he wouldn't. He wouldn't put me here if I didn't belong.
That's kind of my idea. Yeah, that's a that's a great way
to uh, to think about it and to look at it because you know,
look, you don't know Steve and I, but Steve just an old,
grouchy sports writer who doesn't really care about any teams. I'm an Arizona
fan. I grew up in Tucson, UM and I've been a big and
and loved the fact that you decided to stay here. So, you know,
high expectations, but I also understand you know, when you get there,
you know there's gonna be a lot of eyes on you and how you
how you deal with that. It's something that people are gonna pay attention to,
and so you know, how do you feel you'll you'll approach all of
that. Um. I have a great supports to my family and just the
people around me. Um, they I know they all helped me go through
where I'm at now and whatever notoriety I have, so I know they're gonna
stinkle me to the end. So for me, I'm not too worried about
that. And you, what do you what are your size? What's your
size right now officially? And what do you hope to get to before you
get on campus? Um? Right now? Um six to five, two
fifty and um. For me, I'm just hoping to just maintain throughout the
season. It's funny, uh, I know South Point's gonna sell a lot
of tickets this year because I'm gonna go see you. A lot of people
are gonna go see you, and you have a teammate that's gonna be here
too with Keona. Just how good you guys gonna be on that line?
He said that one more time. Yeah, how good are you guys gonna
be at south Point with you and Keona on that line? I mean great?
Um, at least the experience, well we got the experience last year.
Most of the competition we had, they were in the twenty three class.
So with them leaving, it just gives us more leeway and at least
the abilities that meet him have, Like we're last year I was, I
was being a double team. I was doing this, I was doing that.
But for him, he's a He's another one who's just as good like
he can. He can hold his own he can do whatever he needs to
do, so he can't block both people. So at least for me,
I'm really excited for what the season holds and to see how we compliment each
other. You're talking about family being a big part of why you decided to
stay the Arizona Keona will Hike a teammate, your your brothers on the on
the on the team in Arizona, So you're you're actually you're gonna go in
there with some guys that you're you know, familiar friends with family, was
familiar with. How big a deal is that for you? That shoes for
me because I know something that I heard on every visit I went to was
you want to have a great support system when people leave to go to college.
This is the next step in your life. You're giving your next four
years to these people. Where are you gonna be more comfortable at And there
were a lot of people were telling me this is where athletes come. They
have a great support system getting away from home. At least for me,
I'm like, I have a unique opportunity here with a great support system.
So at least it made sense for me to come here because I have that
support system. I don't need to go look for one when I have already
have a foundation here. Let me ask you if I could go ahead,
go ahead, I can say you did mention. I think in another interview
that you feel like, you know you coming here, that you feel like
you're going to take it upon yourself to try and get other guys at your
level, you know, to come here and sort of you know, get
things you know can continue the movement that Arizona has already made. How big
of a deal is that for you? And what kind of how do you
do that? Um? Do you know? It just really the thing that
my dad told me in a way I've He's led me and I've been moving.
The lead is um just how do you want to be remembered? That's
a That's the thing that I've carry with myselff. What helped me during this
process is what do you what do you want out of this? How do
you want to be remembered? What do you want on your legacy. For
me, Um, all the other choices were safe choices, for resource safe
choices. You could go to that place, you can get the championship,
but you'd be one of those guys, Whereas you can go somewhere and build,
build something with your own hands that has your own name on it.
So for me, it's how do you want to be remembered. You want
to be the first, or do you want to be one of many?
So it's it's you've you've mentioned your dad a couple of times in his in
his phrases, his his isms, if you're dadaisms because I have a few,
two, Well, he must be a big influence in your life.
Huge tell me about that though. Um, you know he especially in this
process, we got really close just going through this process. He coached me
for um say, coming up and literally he coached me then. And he's
always been right by my side working with me, Um, even with my
technique and all the nuances of recruiting. Because he was a D one.
He was a D one ball player over at Florida and Steve spurred Church recruiting
class. So this is not his first time being here. He knows what
it is I has an older brother who had gone through this process. He
went to Wisconsin, and my older brother who went to Florida and back at
the uf A. He went through this process. So for him it was
like it was just good for him having it was good. Sorry, it
was good for me having him by my side to help me walk through this
journey. And I'm just blessed to have him in my life. So how
was it having those brothers? Older brothers? Were you the punching bag of
letter? You probably got better, you know you The way you get better
in any sport is playing better people, playing tougher people. Did that that
must have helped? Um? I say, I learned my work ethic from
my older brother because before UM, the way my dad told me, I
was really more about leaving know my talent. But when I got to change
with my brother, like I said, just him. We share We shared
a room together our whole life. So me getting to see him worked away
he needed to work and get the opportunity he had, it was great for
me to see it. And I was able to take that ability from him
and use it to push me forward the way I needed to be moved forward.
And so it was just great to have him there. Well, and
you have a younger brother, right, he's I think he's going to be
a freshman this coming year. So are you are you now stepping into that
to be his example so that he can you know, do that? I
mean, is that something that you that's on your mind? Yes? Absolutely,
weak. Um, that's already been set in motion and that that's what
we do. That's what we do as a family. We're a really tight
knit family and we all want to see each other's succeeds. So that is
the responsibility that It's like the tourists. You passed on the tourist and the
next one into the next one, into the next one. What's his name?
What's his name? David? Okay, so, so, Elijah,
I'm penciling David's name in for Arizona football right now. No, no,
I'm gonna put it in pen so that will just be more secure. What
position does he play? And how good is he? Um? He plays
receiver dB. But he's an athlete and look at he's probably gonna be the
best one out of the three of them. Wow okay, wow, okay,
okay, Well we can't wait for him too. So, so what
what's got you most fired up about. I know you've got to go through
a whole football season at South Point, and you know you're probably you're gonna
do great and all that stuff. But are you already kind of thinking about
stepping on the field of airs, on the stadium, seeing the crowd,
you know, putting on the uniform, putting on the helmet. Those are
those things running through your head right now? Right now? Not yet?
But for me, I'm just focused on in front of me. Um.
I have this season coming forward, so it's really focused on that. But
there. But of course I have times where I think about that me stepping
on that field from the visits I've been on and the games I've been to,
just seeing the crowd, seeing how it be me being on there.
But as of now, like I'm focused on what's in front of me.
We had Carter Garrett on last week and she was very proud of you,
obviously in the in the press, propressor she was clapping up a storm.
What does she mean to you to this point? Um, She's been huge,
UM, just having someone who's also been another top recruit and when she
was coming through her recruiting process and she knows, she knows what it feels
like to do something different from the pack, and so it was good for
me to have her in my corner, not only as her strength coach and
her expertise in that lane, but also just someone to talk through through this
process and be confident in my decision and what I could do. She as
tough as she sounded on her show last week, because she scared me a
little bit. Absolutely, That's why you are who you are. Yeah,
yeah, she's a little scary, but there We've known Carla for a long
time and you know the stuff that she's doing over there. So your thoughts
going into your your football season this year? What's your approach? I'm excited.
Um, I know I'm taking every step with detail and effort like I've
been doing for the past three years, and so I'm just excited to go
through this season and do what we need to do. So just another maybe
last question. You get to college, what do you hope to study?
What do you want to be when you eventually grow up. I'm still trying
to figure that out myself, see where my passions are. But I know
my strengths are massive science. So for me, just like kind of going
into there and see wherever that takes. Okay, a great to have you
on the show. Like I said, very impressed with We are very impressed
and we wish you all the best. And congress to your family too,
because it just doesn't happen right just you know, they're they're a big part
of it, exactly. Thank you, Thanks for good lock to you again
soon, Thank you, Thank you super good. I really like the way
he sounds. Yeah, you know, it wasn't what were you saying,
It wasn't old. No, he just said confident dude, Yeah, really
confident dude. Again. You know when you when you think you know,
the conversation we had with Mike Gonzalez about Nick, who just you know,
had seemed to have his stuff together seemingly from the time he was two years
old right to you know, knowing what was you know, what was in
front of him. You know that stuff that doesn't happen by accident, It
doesn't. You know, it's it's parents, it's environment, the people around
you. You get the people right or the right people around you too to
help you on this. I'm sure his brother Cruz, who's the one who's
was at Florida's now and Arizona had something to do with that. Teammates Eric
Rodgers, the head coach atself, point, Carl Garrett, all those people
had something to do with Meija Rushing being becoming who he's become. It's very
cool. Okay, let's take a break. Let's get a break show.
We'll close up. Sho'll give us a call five to zero, four,
one sixty. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you'd know it's been
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down all the excess at os. It's Steve Rivera and Jagan Samms. This
is I Am the Ball on Fox Sports four team. They welcome back twice
the Ball here on Fox Sports sporteen fifty on Steve, You're Jake Jason with
US got fifteen and US left great to have him on the show. Hey,
we had the best interview. We did well, Steve, were were
good, and we were in the circles around some of the guys. You
know, I'm glad we got to do this show because I was looking forward
to the show yesterday and unexpectedly for both of the guys, and for both
the guys, yeah, I was okay canceling yesterday, but because you were
gonna be here, I know you were as important to you. Yeah,
So thanks for getting the job. And we appreciate the fact that both Mike
Gonzalez and Elijah Russian decided to stick with us and do the show today because
I think we talked about some some cool stuff. I really loved the interview
with Mike because he you know again, you know, we all wanted to
be that. I was gonna touch you because you brought this up, and
I I totally believe in this. You could be five foot six, five
foot seven, if you know how to play, if you know how to
play the game, any guilty, any game basketball player, if you have
the chops to become a leader. Well, I don't believe in this.
I was gonna say it because we're this crap that uh, the crap that,
oh he can jump this high, he jumps this high. I know
a lot of people who jumped at high. Cam't play. Yeah, but
if you know a guy who can play, he can play. Well.
There's so many pieces that you have to have. One. You have to
have the physical ability right, the athletic ability, and I know a lot
of people that do right. And you can be five six and you can
be seven foot four, and you know, and if you have the athletic
billy, that's step one. We've also have to have the mental aspect of
it. If you're a dumb ass, how many you're it up? Screw
it up? A lot? Yeah, a lot? You know. And
and you know when you hear Mike Gonzalez talk about Nick growing up and you
know, wanting to do the work. You know, Elijah rushing, you
hear you know how his his dad and he were quote unquote a team,
you know, to get him to where he where he got to. You
know, in instances like that, the mental aspect of it, the work
ethic is is it is important, if not more important than just having the
physical So you can teach it, but if the guy doesn't believe in it,
he won't do it. But if you grow with it and you this
is who you are, right, more power to you. And he was
doing it at two years old, right, and he was doing all this
stuff and no one telling him to do it. Look, you know,
we steve you and I have seen over the years guys who you thought that
guy doesn't have the athic ability to do this? All of a sudden there
in the major leagues and a guy that comes to mind for me. And
this goes way back right when I was covering, uh, you know,
I was covering a high school in Pima baseball. It was a kid named
Jack how Over, a Poliver and I remember he, you know, he
hooked on at Pima. And a buddy of mine who was in the same
class but playing at Swar High School, said, Jack, how's night any
good? You know, he's not any good? How was he playing at
Pima? And because he had to go play, he went and played,
you know, at another junior college in the state. And I said,
you know what, he's on the team, right, Well, he's not
that good, It's okay. And then all a sudden, Jack how goes
after two years he goes Arizona, right, he's at Arizona and the next
thing you know, he's you know, he gets drafted and he makes his
way up and the next thing you know, he's in the he's in the
leagues. I go to my but he said, I guess he was not
that good, right, And it's kind of like, you know, and
you're right. I mean, when you know, when you saw Jack Hall
on the field at Pima, you didn't say there's a major league baseball guy
in the making. There were a lot of other guys on those teams,
because that's when Rich all Day was taking teams to the Cultural Series, and
there were a lot of other guys on the team that he thought are better
than Jack Hall. But clearly Jack Hall had something right right consistency, work
ethic, and he had enough athletic ability to put it all together. And
he played dad, didn't his dad play Jack Senior. I can remember reading
or writing about that where he had some baseball experience. Again, this doesn't
happen by accident. You kind of learned it somewhere well. And now you're
seeing so many guys in the major leagues who were there, and you know
it's because their day adds knew how to do this and help their kids do
this. And there's so many. Sure, you know, go go back
to Ken Griffey Junior, Look, Blag Guarrel junior who won the contest last
night, Bobah whose dad Dontevish. You know, all these guys were all
and you go, not only do they do they get the jeans, but
their dads or or if it's a woman's sport, their moms knew what a
tuck beyond the talent, right, no question. You know, well,
look, I'll give you a name right here, Luke Woll. Come on,
the guy can't jump, but the dude as smart as hell, can
get the ball to who's He was perfect at the top of the top of
the key to get the ball to whoever. And then he s had a
shot, he played, and he did the work. He did the work.
And he's still in basketball right right, he's still making a career.
Yes, and and and and and I apologize right now, but I'll bring
up another Salim, Salim who had all this talent fantastic, but didn't have
the rest of it, just just didn't want to kind of stick to it's
a basket game. Yeah, yeah, And it was tough I mean theos
are two extremes and two dudes I admired very much like uh clid was there.
Okay, name a more flat out talented basketball player at Arizona in the
time that you've been Covernors. Don't think the Reeves, No, I can't.
That's you can say undoubtedly had more talent than Kalid Reeves. There's no
right. I made it so fluid and the day I listened to Damon all
the time. If Calid had Damon's work ethic right, he would have been
a pro for what was I mean, Sean Elliott even had to work at
being a better player. By the time he got out of here, he
was a great player. Plus he had the physical attributes to be ultimately an
NBA All Star. The only other guy that I but you know, DeAndre
just had the body. Yeah right, yeah right, but you just had
that. You just had the body. But his game, if you think
about the game that Kalid Reeves have, I'll give you, yeah, agree,
I'll give you number two in an odd and I don't know if you'll
believe me with this. Brian Williams, the dude was a big dude,
talented athletic, could run the court very well. It's like he didn't want
to be there in my life. It was like, I'm a basketball player
because I've got all the physical attributes, but I don't really want to be
a basketball player here because I have to be and I'm pretty good at it
because I shouldn't be doing anything else, right, I'm gonna intellect I like
this, okay and go art stuff and no more power to you. But
he had he was that dude. Yeah, he had that felt like he
had to do that a test that he was probably the best athlete he had
on the team ever. And then he had Kidding Opton on a team exactly
right, exactly. I mean you think of all the talented guys that have
come through here for whatever sport, and you think, Okay, who was
the most talented in each sport? And I'd put Khalid Reeves ahead of all
of them in basketball? Yeah, you know, um football, I don't
know. It's hard to yeah because it's it's it's yeah, but you got
a let those dudes who were kind of like on the friends that were Okay,
Rob Walldrobe, who thought and all of a sudden, he's this dude,
right, he's this dude, guys that we cover, you know,
um the Carson Winner, Um Darryl Lewis who was moved moved from one spot
twenty became this dude and became a legendary truck Cecil. Yeah, I mean,
you don't teach what they have, right. Those guys got there because
of the work, because of the work that they're willing to do. And
like you said, they you know, Cecil had just enough athletic ability right
to the crap out of you, and and fearlessness for him. Right.
But you know Teddy Bruskie right, who again not incredibly blast like you know,
elite blast, but with enough that when you mixed in the mental approach
and the work ethic, he became what he beat. Right. There was
a question yesterday somewhere I'll get the answer from both of you. Uh best
father's son duo in sports ever have. I know we're gonna miss from a
long time ago, but well I have money. I think you started with
the Griffis and that's that was mine. Yeah. I think I think you
started with the Griffis because because I've left me because Junior was so damn good,
right, I think, really good. But he was not as good
as his son, and his son was just so much better at a time
when he was more visible. Did they showed some stuff on ESPN yesterday,
his swing and all that stuff. Davis, It was like Davis, Yeah,
that same, but left something. I think that's the first one that
came to my mind when you asked that question. There's probably some others.
You know, you look at you look at Bob Boone who had two kids,
you know, who played, you know, who were good pros.
But well, neither one of those guys, you know, Brett Boone and
thereon. But we're not Hall of famers. Yeah, anybody you know coming
to my mind right now. I mean there are a lot of them out
there. Well bloodies one now, yeah, but that but we don't we
don't know how how good Boba Chet's gonna some other ones. There's you know,
football football, you have the lungs, the lungs, how we long
and his son sons sons? Yeah yeah, but then and then you know
you have brothers and stuff like that. But we're talking about a parent and
a kid, um, you know, I mean, like Michael Jordan's kid
was never all that great. Let's see how Bronnie how good Bronnie is at
some point. But now they're coming up. I mean the uh the Booker,
who's the duke kid, Dwayne Wade have a kid who's really good,
the duke guy, he has twins or kids. They're playing in the league's
now in the high school duke, the duke, the Florida Boozer, Boozers,
Boozer kids. Oh, Carlos Boozer, his kids, those those that
group and then some other guys, some other kid, uh is going to
go to play with them here. Uh it's it's that time where we're old
enough to cover their parents almost like you see it more in baseball, and
I'm not sure why, right, there's a lot of father's son you know,
uh uh players in Major League Baseball. Well, you named it.
You named it. One of the reasons why the kids grow up on the
field, right, you know they're there there be in the locker room and
there kids played baseball all the time. And the chasing flyballs, groundballs.
Right, there's no better way to blurt the support a curse. Steph Curry
and his dad. Uh yeah, another one. What was his dad's name,
yea Del Curry. People say he had one of the smoothest shots in
the history of the NBA, which you know, nine words. Kid got
that right, right right, And it's practice. I mean he doesn't just
throw up those stuts because he doesn't practice it. Yeah. I just learned
to half course shot. Well, I just got lucky, woke up in
the morning, got it. No, but yeah, you know so I
you know, and right now, if Adams listening, he's going, Dad,
I disappointed to let me down. You let me down, man,
Come my dad. My dad was not an athlete at all. Another reason.
My dad was a very physical guy. Did laws of physical work as
his stuff like that. He was an athlete because he didn't grow up in
an athletic family. He worked, you know, he lived on a ranch,
right and he didn't you know, he didn't play baseball and he didn't
play you know, you worked, man, He worked and then and he
told me I had city hands, but uh you do. Probably still my
dad took me out all the time. He groundballs, groundballs, ground balls,
the poem with us. He didn't let me hit and that was my
dad ball because the ball never got Bobby. But I couldn't hit, you
know. Well, you know, my dad had four boys so you know,
he led us into playing little league baseball, but he wasn't our coach.
We didn't bought in balls with him. You know, we played baseball
with our friends and we played with our little league teams and stuff like that.
And I'm not that's I'm not saying that as criticism. No, it's
just my dad worked and he was circu He was not a guy who was
out on the field with us doing this stuff. Whereas you know Ken Griffy
Senior and Ken Griffy Junior spent a lot of time together on the baseball and
Trey Griffy who played here, I had that ath let us is him,
but he was a different sport. He was a different sport, right,
and so you know I but you know, jeans play so much a part
of it. So you know, my son now, I'm sure he's hoping
that my grandson, you know, is the next you know, the next
generation who because you know, my Adams are very way more athletic than I
ever was. Um you know, he's better at all sports. I wasn't
near the basketball player, um he is. I wasn't even near the baseball
player that that he is or was, So you know, We hope that
our next you know, our grandkid gets a little bit of that. He's
starting to grab things left handed, so open you know, you got a
left handed pitcher in the not doing that. But but Adam did notice that
that his that his kid started. You know, when he reaches for the
spoon, he's grabbing it with his left coas he's six months. Man,
we're already building him. Okay, you know that as well. Yeah,
Tea, you should have. I'm gonna try to get him on the show
mark you know you can kind of he's available. He does a lot of
these shows, so I'll try to talk about you know, life, life
because he's he's he's like a jig down. He's on the tour, talks
about a lot of stuff. Well, you know, he went through a
lot. Yeah, you know, he went through a lot. Who better
than the good people that go through right, you know, kind of like
Ryan Leaf right stuff that you see yan Le. Good for him. I
hated him, but good for him. Yeah, you know you know where
Leaf Washington state quarterback. We're gonna ask questions like it because you ask us
and we don't. We don't know who that. Yeah, Well, did
you do your homework. We gave you some homework for what to look up,
so you were supposed to look up for n Oh, yeah I did
um, but I was like a wow, I kind of forget about what
about the homework? On on down the summer and yeah, music continued turn.
Yeah I looked it up. Yeah, I guess I enjoyed their stuff.
It's not really my but if it came on, I wouldn't like tried
it off immediately. But yeah, that's pretty good. And Forno, you
just didn't have a chance. Yeah, I looked him up, but I
forgot Okay, okay, well we're speaking of have you been doing this immaculate
grid stuff? Do you know what that is? Oh? You don't know
what's that? We don't have time. Well i'll show it to you,
but well we'll maybe talk about it tomorro because immaculate grid is a thing that's
like wordle, you know, New York, but it's baseball and it's really
cool and I'm stuck on it. I'm addicted to it. I'll show it
to you. All right, let's let's get out of here. Hey,
listen to the pod if you if you missed it, would love and then
yep, it'll be up in a little while and we'll be back tomorrow.
Thanks for being here.