This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jaconsalis on Fox Sports fourteen
fifteen powered by Nova Insurance Services Ensure your most Prized Possessions. Katz R two
side at iHeart Radio Station. Good afternoon, everybody, welcome to I on
the Ball here a Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, you're Jagonzos.
Got our guy Jackson and with us today. We have a good show
today. A lot of stuff going on in the world. Yes, athletics.
How about them Nuggets protecting home court like they're supposed to be supposed to.
Yeah, I don't, no big deal to Jason. We got this
right, No worries, no worries. It's okay. You can talk all
you want. I like the text we got today though, Oh you didn't
see that I sent it to you, didn't. We gotta We got a
text from listener Bill said he was having breakfast today at at at at an
East Side location. Huh, and some people at the next table, we're
wondering if the Lakers lost because I picked them. Thanks for listening, But
yes, I wonder if that Ko d J. Gonzalez has the Lakers.
You ever heard that conversation. That's so funny. That's so funny. But
hey, that shows that people are listening, does you know, and and
be paying attention to your stuff. Exactly. I tell you, man,
if he zigs, you zag, baby, he zig zag. I do
think the Lakers will in tomorrow? Yeah? Um, Boston tonight and tomorrow
you get the Lakers. Yeah for yeah, they can go on to after
home and there's a better team, you think. But Miami. Yeah,
yeah, we all know that paper doesn't do nothing but wipe. Yeah,
there's that. Okay, well that's that's fine. We'll talk about that later
in other situations. We have a good show today. We have at three
fifteen Reggie Gary, another the one of the Father's Day Council Tucson Fathers of
the Year, like Dave Hkey, frequent guest helps us out. I think
he's been a guest host with you. Yeah. Um, always always available
to us to talk Arizona basketball and other stuff. But you know, he's
been honored as being a great dad, So we want to talk to him
about what that means to him. And uh, you know why he thinks
he got that a word? Yeah, you know, okay, people,
but you know, look, I think I'm a pretty good dad. Didn't
you think you're a pretty good dad. Yeah, that's my kids. But
yeah, really you kids say, have our opinions. I think my kids
would say, yeah you do TikTok thingis yeah exactly. But you know,
but you don't sometimes you don't know. No, you don't know. Of
course you don't know. You think you are and you're not, or you
or you think you're not. You are right and you do what you can.
Yeah, but uh yeah, looks always got a smile on his face.
I mean, I lay, I've never seen him, you know,
looking grumpy. No, just on the court. Yeah, he gets on
the court and he's like you want to tear your neck off. But you
know, you see him around, you see him at McHale, you see
him at a game or whatever. He's always got to smile on his face.
Yeah, nice job over there. So you know Tiki, Heky talked
about him yesterday. Um I did you see my note? Did you see
note on my Facebook about Tiki yesterday? I don't know if he listened to
the show, but uh heard hekey, I don't know what he said.
This says always with the corporate line, always just you know, giving the
corporate speech from Yester's conversation, that's sort of his job. Yeah, I
mean, you know, I mean you you kind of you know, us
as as reporters try to break it down. But look, you know,
when you're in a position like that, you know, you you you you're
you're prepared for you have answers prepared for just about anything, and and you
use those and you know, some of the stuff he said we've heard before,
um, you know, in other in other circumstances. But that's that's
what it is. I mean, what what what did you he said?
What what we thought he was gonna say? Kind of what we wanted him
to say. You know, we get we tagged him with that last question
about the Dolores situation, but you know, as as we said, you
know, we asked it in a way that we would get some sort of
an answer, because if we asked the exact the exact question we wanted to
ask, we weren't gonna get an answer. Right here, does he ever
say anything newsworthy? No, he is mister corporate straight from Fortune five PR
department. Oh I'm not try I agree with that. I mean, Dave,
you know, Dave like most people in his position when they when when
they're doing an interview, they're kind of on right right there. They're on,
they're representing, they're trying to be a professional. Uh and they're and
they're trying to make sure that they put the best possible face on whatever it
is they're talking about. Well, um, I think you said who said
this yesterday? Say two days ago? And and someone else commented, oh,
so you're saying when do you leave? Or I can't remember what the
what the guy read into it? Yeah, oh yeah, I can't remember.
It was your yeah, yeah, yeah, see it was it.
He could it said it was he was. It was Hekey in a in
a quote I think that I think that might have been from a Mike luke
Um interview where Hekey said that the last part of his statement was that whatever
happens Arizona will land in a great spot. And somebody said, oh,
you're leaving for the big club you listen to and knowing that you got to
be careful Steve, and he said that he says, I gotta watch what
I say because you know it's today, it might be this way, tomorrow
might be different again. As as somebody who who did this work with executives
of a pretty large company here or Tucson. You know, you prepare those
guys to be ready for stuff like this, and you want them to you
want them to answer the questions in the way that you've prepared them. And
when they go off the rails is when bad things happen. Yeah, and
it just becomes more of a story when you either misspeak. What did he
want him to say yesterday that he didn't say? Yeah? Well, you
know it's funny because Bill, who you know, a good friend of years
and in a new friend of mine. Uh, you said you can talk
about all this stuff, And I said, yeah, but how important is
it? It's very important. We've been waiting nine months for this baby to
happen. Je Willer has been on top of it and he's still waiting.
Right whether it happens tomorrow or in August or June or June, we've been
waiting. I mean, how important? My life has been pretty fine without
knowing. Never mine. Mine you have is juice. I'm stressed. Oh
god, I know you're joking, but you know you're living life. You're
finance. Yeah, and lets me know we know and move on. Hey,
Look, you know, I got a grand kid that I've I'm dealing
with here and there. That's way more important than anything, right, exactly
exactly the grand scheme of things. Whether they're in the Big twelve in the
back twelve in the back, then guess what tomorrow the sun road. And
I think I've said, I think I've said more than once. If the
worst case scenario is that there is that they're in the Big twelve and they're
in an incredible basketball conference, and yeah, the road drifts for football will
be crap um. Hey, if that's the worst case scenario, I'm fine
with it, right, I mean, you know, would I rather go
to San Diego State and Stanford and Cal, you know, and Eugene over
Lubbock and in Waco and Lawrence and Lawrence and still Water on hundred percent?
Sure. But you know, if you're in the Big twelve, you're still
in a really good football conference, you're in a great basketball conference. If
that's the worst that we get, then Arizona is fine. Yeah, And
I think that's kind of what Jim and Jim, It's kind of what Dave
was saying. Yeah, basically, I think he was basically saying that look,
we want to be in the Pac twelve. We hope we hold the
Pack twelve together, but we know we're gonna land somewhere that we're gonna that's
gonna be good for Arizona, right right. Even I asked the Willner of
that the stories of the stories that he's done. He said one to twin.
I was a little bit surprised because, Okay, although it is important,
and he gave me the magnet dude of it. He's done some pretty
good stories. Yeah, nobody knows more about this than John who's not on
the inside. Yeah, but my point is the importance of the story.
He says, one through ten, this is the stories of them. And
I was a bit surprised by that because, Okay, it's big, but
he's gonna take his one through ten. It's what he's done other big stories.
Yeah, but this is historic, Steve. I mean, this is
what I get that this is going to start to set the landscape for college
football until we die. It'll feel one and two stories in the life of
a reporter. Because he's done other big things, you know, you know
what I'm saying. The magnitude of it, and I get it. He's
he's on top of this, and that's great, great that he's doing this
because um, we don't want to do it. Very few people are.
And he pays close attention to it. He's got he's got the details,
he's got the sources and and you know, as as we've said number times,
we rely on here for that information. You know, you know we
can put it on our show because we know that it's stuff we get from
him. You know, there's a lot of guys out there who are not
right. Well, and that's what I said to him. I mean,
every you read other things and how come this is right? Not right?
Or you heard this and they heard this, and it's you never know,
you never know who to believe. So okay, uh and then in the
second hour, we're gonna have our trusty guy, uh, mister Fish.
You think Jake remembers he doesn't remember him, but he knows that Jim Brown
is. Oh yeah, I'm sure he does. You know who Jim Brown
is? Yeah? A little bit, Okay, yeah, Yeah, we'll
talk to him. I don't think we've talked to him about Dolora. Have
you? Have you had him on? Yes, when that was gone,
when you were gone? What did he say you didn't want to talk about
Okay, Well he hadn't. He hadn't really boned up on it. Okay,
so we talked about it, and I can't, I can't. You
were here, weren't you. I don't think so. I can't even remember.
Friday had to be a Friday. So it was just kind of you
know, stuff happens, kind of thing, you know, and and if
it's you know that he I think he was pretty confident that you have a
handled it the best way you could hand I think that's the answer, the
best way that you could have handled it, no one what you know or
what you didn't know or whatever. Yeah. Okay, so yeah, we
we did talk about well, bring it up to him all break. I'm
here with you, Jason. So you you just got a new job.
I did, Well, what is that job? I am now the assistant
sports editor for the day lock Out. Guess what you'll have all next semester
this story to write about, right exactly. Yeah, it's good for you,
man. Yeah, so you know this is this is kind of the
way of the world. Yeah, it's like Jason, um, Jason,
Jason just spe was talking about. This is not what he signed up for,
right, but it's part of it, right. Unfortunately, you can't
always go to games and have free food. Yeah, exactly. He was
really upset when this story broke. I saw him. I told you I
saw him at the Sugar Scalls game the next day and he was still mad.
You know, yeah, because it takes a lot of your time to
check into things and and takes away from the stuff you really like to do.
And it's like, Okay, I love driving the car. Okay,
now go the oil gas, change, the tire rotate, the tire wash.
Well the one told me about that. I'm just gonna sit on this
car and the parking lot and look good at it. Exactly exactly. But
yeah, so yeah, Jacob beyond well, you know, I'll laughing about
Jim Brown some of this other stuff going on. Yeah, um, you
know, uh you know there's been some basketball recruits. Yeah, tomorrow there's
supposed to be one. I already knew its kind of broke. Uh.
You know how the Facebook Internet, what they say journalists are. One guy
said that the Sundiego kid is already going to commit to Arizona. You know
why because they had those crystal balls, those crystal balls. Everyone knows until
they don't know. It's like it's like the creating kid always coming. He's
coming. Oh what happened? Yeah, Tommy screwed it up. Well,
he was already through the building. It wait, be patiently. Well remember
Rick Bettino about a house and yeah, yeah, yeah, it wasn't yet
the recond market. Yeah, it was at the Ringcon Market having lunch with
somebody too. You know. You know what we're talking about. It that
no, no, it's all this bs about Jerald. And that's another thing
about journalists. It's just don't don't worry about being first. You gotta be
right. Yeah, I've learned that. So yeah, yeah, okay,
we got a little little time here. Remember to call us in the second
half of this uh show. For the first hour and the second half of
the show, we have a geary and then we have the free time to
get calls. Um Arizona baseball talk the crap that's here, right, that's
the postponed the from last night. Yeah, postpone. They got double headed
today. So they played this game at one o'clock. If they how many
do they have to win to get it? I don't know. Like then
they got to win on well, they can't take any chance. Part of
it is how much what's going on with Cal in Washington State? Who both
I think I've already lost one, so they just got they were They went
into the weekend tied with Cal but owning the tiebreaker. Washington State lost its
first game to to to Stanford. The assumption is what, Washington State's gonna
lose three games at Stanford unless Stanford decides to you know, say pictures and
stuff. But um, they just have to finish in ninth place. They
can I think if they sweep and other things happen, they can actually move
up to I believe six plays. Okay, okay, that'll be a little
nice, little as you would say, momentum going into this from But as
of a few minutes ago, they were up nine to one, and yeah
Cal has lost. Cal lost Washington and in Arizona is not tied with Washington
State for eight, so they can actually they can move up a little bit.
Um and uh and Utah's way down. Okay, it's now that we're
kind of running out of gas, and the first let's let's go to break
and then get ahold of Reggie in three minutes that way we get us still
three seventeen three Reggie Gary Father of the Year, coming right up. Stick
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I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteenth fifteen.
Subscribe now to the podcast on the Heart radio while just Surgery on the
book here, Welcome back to Win the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty
I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jakins. Also now on the phone, we have
Reggie Geary Farmer. You'll be basketball star and father of the Year one of
them. How are you, Reggie, I'm doing good. Steven coming good.
Good to hear your voice. Yeah, do reed to have you on
the show talk about your nice little uh nice big award here along with some
great people that you'd be up there with. Yeah, you know, um,
this this is father father of the Year, UM council here usan um.
You know, surprised me with with this honor. I've been completely humbled
by it. Obviously, all fathers we kind of strive to be the best
and for some you know, for an organization, for some members of the
community to recognize that in you, it's pretty special. So Reggie, when
you the career that you have, it's I mean, it's not it's hard
to be a great dad when you're traveling, you're coaching, you got so
many things going on, and then trying to pay attention to your kids.
We asked, uh Dave Hiki this yesterday. How do you manage all that
and then being a dad as well? I mean, how do you pull
that off? Yeah? I mean I think I think it comes down to
UM, you know, for for me and I think I think Dave probably
mentioned it. I know the other recipients, Peter Back is Shan Clark Vance
problem. I think we all say the thing. It's all about teamwork.
And I'm blessed just like Davis Um with Liz that h have a fantastic wife
and you know, uh, I think being a good parent UM is a
teamwork. It's not just one person by themselves. And so as you mentioned,
you know before I came to the U of Van to u of A
the last four years in my current role as the development Obviously before that it
was twenty three years in professional sports, uh nine as a player, in
fourteen as a coach. And there's a lot of travel, as you mentioned,
and a lot of time away from the family, and so you really
have to have a wife, and my wife, Kenneth do do a lot
of heavy the thing. And then when you're around UM and when you're not
at work and you're at home, it's really important to be present and to
find out what's going on in your kid's lives because they grow so quickly and
you can get busy at times, you can kind of forget to really check
in or do check in. Maybe you're not fully engaged, and so I
try to work as hard as I can to be engaged. UM. I
know you know, like all fathers, I want the best, um and
I and I try to give the best, and I make a lot of
mistakes in doing so. But end of the day, I know my kids
know, UM, whether I'm right along, it all comes from a place
of love. Right, A lot of things you've done. I think I
can kind of wrote this a little, but it may be the toughest job
you've ever had or will ever have. Oh, without question, without question,
UM, you know you just you want you just want. It's so
you want it so much for your children, for them to be successful,
for them to be happy and healthy and um. And you go about your
life and you try to guide in that way, but you never know,
really you know how how much is enough or not enough in terms of in
guiding them. You don't want to coddle them and put them in a bubble
or now once they leave the nets or away from you, they don't know
how to really to um out and live life or except some of the mice
challenges. Um, you don't want them to struggle too much. So that
balancing line for all of us, it's so so difficult, and you just
have to pray you're doing the right thing. So when when you talk about
being a good dad, you mentioned you're being present and that kind of stuff.
But you know there's more. I mean, you know we all have
you know, we run our kids to events, we let them participate in
stuff, we give them advice. What do you think you do best?
Um, I just think I'm just willing. I just made myself born to
I mean, even though I'm their father. Um, I really just I
like to be open minded. Um, you know, I think I know
it's best for them. But I've realized over the years, as they've got
older that these are individuals. That my two sons, Quincy and Westley,
they're two individual people, and they have ideas and dreams and aspirations of their
own and and how that plays out in their mind. And so I have
to make sure overbearing. Um, you know, I was kind. I
laughed. My family laughs with me because I kind of treat my team.
I treat my family as almost like one of my basketball teams. When I
was coaching, and I realized even when I was coaching, I had my
most success when when I gave my players my team, when I gave this
an ownership in the process, that it was just me telling them. It
was me also listening, and so I've tried to be a better listen over
the years. Oh well, that's a good way to look at it.
Things just kind of give them some ownership to grow up. I think my
son is happy that I did not treat him like one of my baseball players,
because when the way I treated him when I was his baseball coach was
way different from the I treated Oh yeah, well that's a whole another dynamic.
You know. I tried to coach mine and my oldest don quick team
basketball, and you know, it doesn't matter if you're a Namebamber Heller like
myself, or just a father who's one of the help. It seems like
they're never gonna listen to the dad. They're always do to a third party
before they come back to you. So that's a whole other day namic.
But yeah, it's it's just one of the challenges again of being a father
and a coach and just want to be a mentor for your kids. No
It's funny you get to talk about that because it's true. Uh, the
kids will listen to somebody else before they listen to you. It's like the
dag with Bumpstead, Uh, the guy from how Much How Much Children?
But the guy who puts this, um, you know, the TV guy,
the TV dad's Bumpstead and the Lopez guy and m married with children,
that guy, we really don't pay attention to you. But UM, I
was just gonna say something. I just they kind of until until your friends
they're friends do they Their friends probably say do you know who your dad is?
Instead? Yeah, it's just my dad. But you know what I'm
saying, you get more not respect, but more admiration from the other kids
than you do for the kids your kids. Um, you know what I
mean. I think I think my kids are old enough now I quenty nineteen,
less than sixteen, and so they have they have a good understanding what
I did as an athlete and as a coach. Um. But right now,
you know, I think kind of like my days are over in terms
of my main books is really on them, um and kind of where they're
going with things. And um Quincy, you know, he was Quincy's he's
our basketball player in the family. He handled that situation really really well over
the years where people maybe puts them undue expectations on hand him were due pressure
on him. Dicky dad, he had to live up to something and he
was very very good at established himself early on. Thing. Yes, my
dad played the NBA, he was a great basketball player at the University Arizona.
But I'm Quincky Gary, and I think I can do these things well.
And I thought he handled it really really well. Westley, my youngest
son who's sixteen, it never went into sports. He told us at an
early age that he was gonna be on Broadway and so he's all into into
musical theater and plays the violin and so he didn't have to experience that so
much. But my hand, my kids handled it great. And I love
the fact that now I'm Quincy's dad and Westley's dad more so than Reggie Gerry.
Yeah, we all get that. We all get in. That's that's
awesome. So so Reggie, um, you know this again, it's a
great honor, and uh, you know, not everybody, not everybody gets
it. But again, what do you like most about hearing this from other
people? Yeah. I mean, obviously it's nice to be recognized or something
like this because, as I mentioned, it's something we all tried to do,
you know. Um. Now, you know, being around the Father's
Day Council of Tucson and learning more about their mission, you know, first
of all, um, you know, this is just a win win for
our community that we have something like that, that we recognize individuals in our
community for study collectives. And on top of that, um, you know,
the Other's Day Council has a has a relationship with the Steel Children's Research
Center here over at Banner where, Um, they really really focus on type
one diabetes and addressing that, and that's something that's close to our heart.
I have we have diabetes and aren't that And my wife, um, she
you know, she is dealt with Drew about the diabetes at the age of
nine. She's done a great job with it. We have two healthy children.
And so you know, getting this to war but also bringing in funds
and bringing in um awareness what's going on here in town with the Still Children's
Resource Center. It's just it's just a great thing. Yeah, Okay,
let's want to transition it to some of the things. Uh, what who'll
we talk to you since basketball finished and recruiting and all that stuff, a
lot of things going on at Uba basketball was no, it is is there
are a really interesting time of the year. Um. Even though I you
know, I work with Brian jeffreyes Um as the you know, the expert
analyst for the men's team, when it comes to the accurity, I kind
of stay I kind of you know, since I'm not on staff, I
kind of just take a step back and I'm kind of observing like everybody else,
saying, all right, where are we ating? UM? I know,
I know Tommy and staff are working hard. We've just got some recent
um so recent commitments from a big man from overseas. UM. I know
we have a player from the class from the Transferportal and Alabama coming. It's
probably gonna be some more names here in the next day in weeks. So
I'm just, like everybody else, really interested to see kind of you know
what what you know, who we're adding and where our teams are look like
for next year. Do you like the way the recruiting cycles has changed?
I guess. I mean back in the day you'd sign your guys that show
up in the fall and now it's like, you know, three hundred and
sixty five days a year, you don't know until the end of the summer
who's on your team. Do you like that? You think it's it's a
better way to do things, which it was still the other way around.
I mean, what do you think of all that? Yeah, you know,
the recruiting, the calendar is just so crazy now as you make in
his three hundred and sixty five days, there's no off there's no off button,
which I don't think is helping for their coaching staffs or for players in
their families just to be inundated with text messages and messages just throughout. I
know they went to this because they felt with the old model, people just
weren't following the rules. People have back you know, had second phones and
just weren't you know, they just want to follow in the rules. They
said, Okay, we're just going to open it up. And so I'm
not a fan of that. I just think the kids need to bake,
the coaches need to break um. But you know, it just it is
the way it is, and so you have to be on top of these
kids. And even if you get a commitment and mean if you sign a
kid, you know, another school could still come in the last second and
try to steal them away within il dollars or just whatever. So um,
it's just a very very difficult situation. I don't envy the coaches. It's
sort of all the recruiting they have to do with, you know, seventeen
and sixteen year olds, which can be difficult at times. But it is
what it is, and I think, you know, coach Tommy and his
staff are making the best of it. So let's go back to nineteen ninety
six and I'll give you some names here. Okay, Joe McClean has done
an unbelievable job with what he does now with managing some of the best athletes
of money. You're doing what you're doing. Corey does what he does.
Rayo's I don't know what Rayo's is up to, but I'm sure he's doing
okay. And then you got a guy, a former guy named JB who
just got interviewed with Milwaukee Bucks. What's up with JB? Yeah, he
is, he is doing an incredible job. He got into coaching, you
know probably uh, let's say five or six years ago, you know,
held up, he hooked up with Matt Brodzy down at their Rio Gras Valley
and G League. They wont h I think they came in. I think
they lost in the final. The first year. Brodzy went on to the
Houston Rockets and JB became the head coach and met one a G League Taggle
the following year, and and then ascended into the NBA as an assistant.
And I think he's been with two or three organizations, but now he's to
the point where his second third chair with the Wizards, and he's starting to
get interviews and so we uh I spoke to him the other day. He's
excited. We're super proud of him. And he's a long line of UFA
guys that you mentioned that have found success afterwards. And I think a lot
of that, um A lot of that to me means they had great experiences
here here at the UFA and they've been able to take those lessons and go
for it with him. How good of a how good of a head basketball
coach do you think he'll make and what will he Now let me let me
ask it this way, what do you think he'll be best at as a
as a as a head coach in the NBA relating to players. I think
he has an excellent job of that. UM. I think you know,
just his communication, his ability to talk to players, UM, the e
they have with him, UM, and that goes I'll go along way in
terms of getting his message across. And and I know of these last four
or five years he's getting more more responsibilities. UM. I think particularly on
the on the offensive end in terms of what the team is doing. So
he's gaining knowledge. Now if he's given this opportunity, which we're all praying
he does, he just needs to surround himself with a great staff with people
and huge respects on people that are going to be loyal to him, that
are also very knowledgeable. And I think you'll have, you know, continue
to have a great career. So let me go somewhere where we haven't talked
to somebody about this yet. You're inside of you. You work for the
developmental development program, right are you? I do so, so now you're
raising money for what for the purposes of You'll let us know, But now
nil money. So bell people, we talk about the deep pockets or the
not deep pocket pockets of of of of fans and UM and alums and all
that. So now they have to you want them to get to you guys,
so you can keep the thing afloat. But now NIL money comes in
and you need to get they need to get money for that to keep that
afloat. How difficult is it? Yeah, I mean it's always challenging anytime
you're trying to raise money, especially in the community like Tucson. You know,
this is a great community. We have great loyals, supporters and donors
and fans and just UM I just love it here. But it's not La.
We don't have, you know, millions and millions of people to wish
to reach out to UM. Luckily we have a you know, a really
solid base here are people that UM are committed and really are supportive of the
UFA. And yeah, as a development officer who doesn't do NILS UM,
it can be it can seem like welkipedia against one another. But at the
same time, whether you're giving to the UFA, to one of our projects,
to our fifty nine eighty fund, which is our version of NILS,
how we can kind of you know, share some money with our student athletes,
or to an NIL we built all going to be a positive in terms
of putting a product on the floor field that people will be happy about.
And we still can you know, COMPI with a lot of the things that
we want to do here you have in terms of teaching our kids and getting
um educated, making sure they have all the resources. Yeah, these are
not sure your times twenty six years ago, twenty seven years ago. These
are totally different times. Yeah. I mean yeah, I mean it really
is. I mean I go back and forward this, you know. I
think these these student athletes today are so blessed to be at a time where
they are that they're able to get in il money or fifteen eighty money to
kind of help them m I know, just a college life. Um.
But I'm torn because a lot of times I feel like this generation that they're
getting, they're getting I don't know how to say it. The fact that
we didn't get money, I liked, it doesn't bother me. I like
the fact we kind of had to hustle around town kind of it kind of
made it come together a little bit more, right, And I don't know
if they're really experiencing that nowadays. And so I think, yeah, it's
good to getting the money more for that, But I think there's a lost
I'll say it for you. They're spoiled. They're spoiled. I'll say it
for you. I didn't want to say I didn't want to be there,
Sport. I want to say I've never had a generation dot got so much
for doing so little, but no to their to their credit. You know,
it's year one, so it's still kind of new. We're going into
our second year of the I l I think it will calm down, and
I think um players will calm down. Yeah, okay, well I'm gonna
hold you to that. Reggie Everna, hold you too, Thanks man,
Thanks for coming on. Congrats. Oh I really appreciate thanks for having me
on. Guys A right, Reggie, Gary whatever, great guys. Yeah,
And to repeat on the on the event where both Reggie en Dave Hekey
will be two of the five honorees. It's June the fourth at Ventana Canyon.
It's uh Sunday evening. There's a cocktail hour, the dinner starts at
seven. You can get tickets at the Father's Day Council Tucson website. That's
f DC Tucson dot or god. Go there and you can still get tickets
to that event and watch these guys get honored. So excuse, we'll be
right back. We'll take your college five two zero four, seventy four forty.
If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for
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team security dot net. Steve and Jacob solids they have their eye on the
ball on Tucson sports station Fox Sports fourteen fifty deal. Hey, welcome back
to the ball. Here a Fox Sports fourteen fifty young Steve. He's Jake,
Jason and with us. If you want to come to a second,
give us a call or five to two zero four one six seventy four forty.
Do we appreciate it? Um slow news? Yeah, well yes,
and I mean not a lot, but some big news. I think we
should talk about Jim Brown because that you know, we're gonna take that one
away from Jason. Sorry Jason for your first days. But Jim Brown was
a big deal and in so many ways, in a lot of ways.
And I don't know that people really you know, I mean he finished playing
in nineteen sixty. I bet you yeah, okay, So I was just
gonna say, I bet you under four you know, and you know who
you was? Just yeah, but under forty. Give me a time frame,
because um, I knew him. I didn't watch him. You probably
watched I remember, I have vague recollections of seeing him. You know because
I would have been you know, he played to nineteen six. He retired
when I was six years But but someone like your son in the third the
earty thirties to the thirties, don't know him only the name, right,
I mean, like like with like with those guys. I mean, they
never saw Michael Jordan play. They didn't see him in right even and then
Michael Burden came a whole lot later than that. Yeah, you know,
well, Um, Jim Brown is sort of that for me. I don't
vague recollections of seeing him play. I remember him more from The Dirty Dozen,
right, the movie. I mean that's that's that's my big memory of
Jim Brown, and then all the all the stuff he did for for um
civil rights and stuff like that. Um, you know, to me,
he's a he's a guy that uh was so much more than being a football
It's almost like he was a great football player, and he played football for
as long as he could take it, and then he got to a point
where he felt like he had more important things to do. He transcended the
sport with question uh in so many ways. He helped race relationships in California
when they were going bad. He don't forget the love scene he had with
Raquel Welchi, who kind of who sent the world of fire. At the
time, you know, he was an advisor to so many people. You
know, he was an advisor to Muhammad Ali and or catch his clay at
the time, trying to trying to you know, console him through stuff there.
If you've ever, I used to be a big fan of Richard Pryor
in his old uh his old Vegas acts and comedy shows and stuff. And
you know, Richard Pryor has a very um I mean it was part of
his comedy act, but very He tells the story of Jim Brown trying to
pull him out of his drug problems, you know, and so he would
go do those things. Yeah, and uh, and it was almost like
being a football player was so far back in his background, right to him,
and he knew, he knew that his power would be beyond football.
Right. He only played nine years, like he said, uh, then
had a great career outside of football. Right. Barry Sanders kind of the
same type of things, minus the social right. It just felt that,
you know, his life and his quality of life is more important than the
game, right, And and that's what and that's what uh. Um,
you know, that's what Jim Brown did. And then he went on he
was you know, he was an actor. But in all that time,
I think being an actor and continuing to stay in the public eye allowed him
to do all those other things that he did. Another day where he passed
away to eighty seven, and we talk about our age all the time,
kind of like, you know, two old dudes doing the show, um
or eighty seven and I have my mom's in our eighties. Um, we
know people in it's that's just scare the crap out of me. And you
know what I'm saying, Well, my dad passed away twelve years ago and
he was he would have been let's see this year he would have been ninety
something, loot pass away. I think eighty five, eighty six. Uh,
just the eighties have just especially with COVID, my dad would have been
been year my dad would be and my dad would have been eighty three.
So yeah, I don't know, eighties scared the crap on him. Sixties
so the CP oh god, but yeah, no, when I saw that,
it was like, that's the eighty seven man, and you're thinking he's
more than football football and and I don't know this because you see this probably
the best athlete ever in all in whatever, and I don't know that.
Well, somebody that you know, as usual, you know, I was,
I was following all this on Twitter, and a thing got tossed out
on Twitter saying the top five multi sport athletes, and they had Jim Thorpe
number one. Could he was an Olympia, he was a track guy,
he was a football player. And then Jim Brown. You know, in
second somebody told the story that he in high school he ran one hundred yard
dash, you know, one a hundred yard dash and then ran into the
locker room put on a baseball uniform and when played in the baseball Jim Brown
did in high school, you know, just stuff like that. So so
top five, who were the other three? Uh uh? Bow Jackson,
Dion and there was a female. Um I don't remember. Well okay,
okay, I would have put d on end Dan bow Jackson up there.
Yeah, because Bow was pretty dolla. So so tragic what happened to Bow
and and the injury and stuff like that, because he was I mean,
he was to everything and he could golf with a seven iron. I told
you that story. I golfed with him in you know, when he was
with the White Sox and he just showed up. He had a seven iron.
He had a seven iron, didn't put on golf shoot and he would
he would hit a seven iron as far as he hit my driver. I
bet you. He didn't dress well either. Oh he well he had on
you know, sweatpants, and well that's my point. That's my point.
So you didn't need to dress for success. And he told some stories,
he had some fun. We had we had a lot, and then he
played like eight holes and left. But you know, I golfed with Bo
Jackson and it was and it was cool. That was the day. That
was the day you shot I was like, how can I say this?
Seven holes? Holes? What you say? Yeah that you shot fifty six
with you shot sixty two with Bo Jackson, he shot sixty sixty. He
was fun, he was hilarious. He you know, he he didn't just
come out and you know, just hang out. I mean he talked to
us, he told great stories. He was fun. He was he was
and he was imposing big dude about a big big dude. I mean he
to me, when I think of that, I see him as like a
giant, right, I mean he's he's what six two, maybe you know
he was super tall, but in my mind my vision of that day golfing
with him, he feel I feel like he was about eight feet tall.
And he's very cool anyways, but you know, again, Jim Brown is
just uh one of those and again you know somebody, uh my brother texted
to me when I texted to him, he said, you know, we're
seeing the end of an era. You know that those guys, you know,
those people no, no, you know, and whether it's a doing,
an athlete, uh, celebrity, you know, the Mick Jaggers and
they and the Mountain Johns and those guys were all going to be gone.
More your more your brothers, yeah, idols than your idols. I mean,
I think Keith Richard is not ever gonna die. He's gonna be around
forever, but share but everybody else you know at some point. But yeah,
all these all these people who were the icons of ar youth, you
know, are going away. So so Jason just real quick to kind of
put it in perspective. Who were your older dude not idols, but like
older dudes that you said, Oh well, I would assume Jordan. Yeah,
so's I don't know. You weren't even born when Jordan was playing weird
I was, I wasn't. But but you you you've seen play Yeah,
yeah, I've seen of them, those those big foot footage, the old
black and white. Yeah, yeah, I've seen some of that. But
so who would be your your time frame for older dudes, for old like
playing in like any league right now? But yeah yeah yeah, UMT Smith
probably too old? Too old? Yeah, I don't know. I grew
up watching you know, like for basketball for example, like Kobe Shock,
Lebron come that was yesterday for us. Yeah, yeah, like they came
in the league when I was like, you know, got a got you
out of it? How you're on the r and I on the ball.
Hey, good afternoon guys. Tommy Lang, how are you tell me what's
up? You know, you start talking about age and I just keep thinking,
well I should stand up or something here. You know, Hey,
how how great is it you know that we have somebody like Reggie Geary you
know in our development office. Uh right, I mean you know I know
a great friend of yours, Ray Martinez. You know that was a dream
job he had, right you know, absolutely won the lottery to be able
to have that right, you know, that that that that ability to be
a part of that team. And I can't imagine, you know, the
pressure that those guys are under. Um, you know, I'm probably gonna
lose my mind pretty soon because I just get so upset with people on social
media, you know. Uh, and if we don't get the kids from
San Diego State, you know, I'm gonna have to like, you know,
take the apps off my phone for a week or something. You know.
Um, but what these what these coaches do? You know? And
then of course I went back and looked and you know Lutolson's fifteen out of
twenty five years, we had seven losses or less, seven or less for
fifteen years, you know, twenty one or twenty five, it was ten
or less. And then you got the first year in the last too,
and Tommy Lloyd. You know, these guys have families. You know,
you're talking about the Man of the Year awards, you know for the peeky
and and may what these guys do, and we know they don't ever have
any time to speak of, right, Yeah, so you know people just
need to relax, to put it in a in a term I can use
on the radio because we don't get the guy. You're you're on the Tommy
train or or you've missed it. There's gonna be late boarding for people,
but it just it gets hard and it's frustrating. Hey, one quick thing
you mentioned is we get older. Uh you know, they have these great
golf tournaments for many of the different sports, you know, and that's a
great way to give you know, I played and you did, you have
too? I think Jay at least and many of the lud Olsen's out of
the Elk and Kistador remember those optic and blot it all, you know,
you know, all these guys were out there and uh, you know,
I am old. I saw the rolling stones at scum Double Stadium in like
nineteen eighty one. I barely knew how to put my pants on, I
think, you know. Yeah, yeah, okay, I appreciate you guys
today. Thank you to appreciate it. Thanks, We're all getting old.
That's all I got from that. Well, by the way, would you
guys call in please try it out to cuss yesterday we hit the button,
but clarifying, okay, on further review you upon further review. Howard did
say freaking. Now he said it in a way that it was close enough
for us to go who woa, whoa whoa, and if you listen to
it, if you're if you're just I mean somebody texted me and said,
he said the f wort And I listened to it, and he did say
freaking, but he said it in a way that it was I think he
was about to say it, and then he stuck an orange at each other,
like, oh good, the button right, um, and then you
got two those you got two times. Some two people said, did he
said it? Yeah, so so he didn't. But I cut it out
of the podcast. Anyway, I still haven't asked it. I still haven't
asked Nick though. Why we hit the dump button and it didn't dump.
So we got to figure that out. So please keep it clean and keep
it clean. Damn is okay, crap is okay. You can't say the
S word, the F word, and a few of the other words.
I won't go into all the initial We try to do that too, So
we're trying to learn. You know, I've slipped a time or two.
Three Yeah, yeah, anyways, but again, getting getting back to Jim
Brown, I mean just a guy that well, okay, we were talking
to you. It was Kobe and those guys, right, Yeah, those
are a couple of guys that I kind of grew up watching from a young
age. Um. That's why I really gone to the sport of basketball for
the for the because like I don't have a team that I roote for exactly,
but because I grew up watching some of those guys, like my favorite
players, Lebron. I like the Lakers because of like Kobe and Shock.
Right, So so Hope would be like forty ish forty one ish, Yeah,
because Kobe, because Lebron's thirty eight is thirty eight, so you were
so yeah, you were only twenty twenty one, so that's about right,
you know, seventeen age difference or whatever. Yeah, Kobe, and that's
nothing for us because we you know, Kobe, who not even Gary Payne.
Gary Paine was more. I feel I didn't even pay that much attention
to Kobe. Yeah, I mean I think it was a Speah and I
know they won the you know, the all those championships with Shack and I
remember all that stuff. Michael Jordan, you know, obviously, you know
I would I would say you know, I would sit down and watch a
game to watch Michael Jordan play. I didn't do that with Kobe and Shack
or anybody else to this day, nobody else right in the NBA at least
that I sit out and say, I gotta see that guy played. But
I would if if the Bulls were on on a Sunday afternoon, I'd put
the game on because I wanted to see what he could do. You know,
I watched the playoffs. You know, He's the only guy that I
would say it was like that, you know, back with the man Magic
Johnson, a Kareem abdul Jabar Lakers against the Larry Birds Celtics. I would
watch them if they went up against each other in the playoffs, but I
wouldn't watch them leading up to that, Okay, right, yeah, you
know, if whoever the Lakers were playing in the playoffs, I didn't pay
attention to it until they were playing the Celtics, right, So that that
kind of thing, you know, to me, To me, the guy,
the guys to me were baseball players and football players, you know,
NFL players, you know, and I'm going way back to a guy like
Johnny United who played during the Jim Brown Years. All right, we got
to hit the road real quick, so let's get out of here. We'll
be back in. We'll get breaking news.