WEBVTT

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I'm with Ray Scott, and he
didn't need me, you know this way,

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and I mean, the spotter can
help, but I didn't know what

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I was doing, so Ray didn't
need be at all. And he was

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next to Pat Summerl who had not
I don't remember exactly when he had started

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his career, but he was relatively
new at that point. This was in

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the early seventy seventy one. Maybe
Wow, Well, the president of CBS

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Sports was in the booth. It
was a big deal. So I got

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my exposure to television right there,
and I went, Wow, this is

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great. And so the spectacle of
all of that kind of hit something in

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me. I was a kid who
wouldn't talk in front of two people.

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I was very shy. I mean, I hated anything like that. But

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I'm up there and I'm going,
oh, this is this is pretty good.

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So when I got out of the
Navy, I went back and went

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to school in Minneapolis and got a
job in Knoxville, Iowa. And there

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we are today. This is the
Laravian la Pey Podcast, a production of

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iHeartRadio Podcasts, and is presented by
UW Credit Union. Here for every U

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Hi, everybody, I'm Wayne Laravie
and I'm Matt Lopez. On this episode

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of the Laravie La Pay Podcast,
we visit with the legendary television voice of

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the Milwaukee Bucks and Jim Pashke.
Stay tuned, good stuff Just ahead.

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Uw Credit Union another local team that's
owned by fans, offering great rates that

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help Wisconsins enjoy greater possibilities. Pop
in or hop online at UWCU dot org.

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We welcome in Jim Paske, who
for thirty five years was the television

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voice of the Milwaukee Bucks. In
October two thousand and seven, Jim was

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inducted into the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Hall
of Fame as a friend of basketball.

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It's a heck of an honor.
He's an eight time Chicago Midwest Regional Emmy

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Award winning winning a broadcaster. In
twenty thirteen, inducted into the National Academy

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of Television Arts and Sciences prestigious Silver
Circle and honor given to outstanding individuals who

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devoted twenty five years or more to
the local television industry. Also a member

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of the Milwaukee Press Club's Media Hall
of Fame. I first ran into Jim

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in Maryvale. I want to say
Maryvale Arizona. Jim, I was broadcasting

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Cubs games. You were doing Brewers
games, and that's got to be going

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back maybe ninety three, ninety four, somewhere way back then. Well,

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let's see, that would have been
ninety five or ninety six probably. That

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was my second stint with the team. I had been out of baseball for

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three years, as you recall,
So I remember that very clearly. We

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had a nice chat back then,
and it was a pleasure to meet you,

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And of course we have been able
to keep tabs on each other,

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all three of us, for a
long time. Yeah, you really have.

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Jim was one of the first guys
over in Milwaukee who supported me.

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I put it that way. I
think of Jim Pasky. Dennis Crawsey was

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another one of those guys. I
didn't know too many of of the Milwaukee

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media folks, Tim van Horn,
but Jim was always really supportive of my

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career when I first moved here in
nineteen eighty eight. Jimmy Vettich has to

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do a lot of different sports.
What was your first love? Well,

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I grew up in Minnesota, and
I always tell people I ended up in

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basketball for thirty five seasons, but
in Minnesota. It was always hockey in

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the winter, right. Basketball was
probably the sport that I was least exposed

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to, and then I end up
in the NBA or around the NBA for

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thirty five seasons. The first day
I ever worked for a living was at

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a Minnesota Twins gay. It was
the sixth game of the nineteen sixty five

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World Series. I was fourteen years
old and worked as an usher for Game

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six and seven World Series against the
Dodgers. Baseball was probably my favorite as

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a young man, and to be
able to do seven seasons on the television

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network with the Brewers was a great
thrill also, so I guess baseball when

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I was younger, but now the
sport is basketball, no question about that.

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Jim. Did you did you do
any hockey or did you play hockey

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as a kid? Growing up very
poorly? We used to build a rink

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every October and we'd flooded in the
neighbor's backyard and play every day after school.

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You know the skates they have today, If I'd have had those,

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I probably could have been a little
better at it. We have the old

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leather ones at the ankles, were
you were on your own with the ankles

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today they have a little bit more
support. I was a terrible hockey player,

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but I love the sport. Worked
the first NHL game again as an

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usher. I worked through high school
and college for all the pro events in

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Minneapolis, and so I was there
when the North Stars debuted and loved that

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sport. But you know, moved
away and I did a little bit of

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hockey with the Milwaukee Admirals, did
a few games on television. That was

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Everything I've done is one hundred years
ago now except for the buck. Yeah,

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I enjoyed the sport. That's a
tricky one because of the free substitutions.

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You have to be on your game
when you're doing hockey, and I

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found it very enjoyable. And you
just have to be patient and work your

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way through the free, free exchange
of players and that sort of thing.

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You have to be around that one
every day, I think, to figure

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out what guys look like. Can't
see the numbers, and you know,

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you have to be visually locked in
on that. But I enjoyed that sport

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very much, and quite frankly,
if no one's listening, I'm paying attention

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to the NHL playoffs now through out
of the NBA playoffs. I kind of

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shift over a little bit. I've
always enjoyed the National Hockey League playoffs.

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It's quite a spectacle. Yeah,
I do. I tried calling hockey in

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college Ohio State for a couple of
years. It's day and night. You

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think of the variety of you know, going from hockey to a baseball game.

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I mean, that really is day
versus that's day versus night. You

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mentioned that about hockey too, when
we were all doing the remote broadcast.

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Each sport had its challenges. I
think trying to call hockey remotely might be

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the worst. Would you imagine that? Well, high definition television probably help

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that sport more than any other sport, right because you could, you know,

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start to see the puck a little
bit better. In the old days,

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with those you know kind of you
know, not the same quality of

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television, you couldn't see the puck
at all. You had to kind of

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you could tell by movements and motions
where the puck was if you do the

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game. And I think that's why
it struggled to catch on back in the

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days of those old McLaughlin era television
broadcasts, you know, and yeah and

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so, but but the high def
is helped that a little bit. But

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no, you're right. You know
it's coming around and people are starting to

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catch on to it a little bit, you know, guys, I tell

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you, and I grew up in
Massachusetts. Hockey's big in New England to

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Jim, as it is up in
Minnesota. And I tried calling a few

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hockey games. I just the hard
part for me, guys is the scrum

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in front of the net and the
puck goes into that. Who scored?

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You know what I mean, it
exists to follow the puck and you know,

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and I'm watching these NHL playoffs to
my when I when I was in

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high school, I was a New
York fan and so the Rangers were my

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team back that and I'm watching them
now. My oldest son, Scott's a

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big Rangers fan, and he and
his little boy stay up to watch the

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games. And the speed of that
game even you know, and I agree

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with you, oh artly, Jim. I mean, I def TV has

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really helped hockey, but the speed, the skating ability. I said to

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my wife last night watching the game, said, wow, these guys are

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good skaters. It's amazing how good
they are. Well, my son played

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high school hockey, and so I
followed that, and you know, I

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learned a little more through him too. But I think the average body fat

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on a hockey player is the lowest
of all pro athletes. Maybe soccer players

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are down there too, but it's
around five six percent I think on average,

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at least it used to be.
I mean, they're in great shape.

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People say, why do they only
skate for two minutes? Well try

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it sometime you're carrying about thirty pounds
of equipment. When I played hockey until

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I was fifty five years old,
and to this day, that is absolutely

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the most perspiring inducing workout that I've
ever done. I mean, you sweat

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quickly and profusely when you're skating,
and it's you have to be great shape

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to do that. I was the
wrong body build for hockey. But you

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know, you're absolutely right, great
great athletes and fun to watch. And

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I don't know what their speed is
anymore, but they're out there moving and

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they have clubs too well. It
is amazing. And you know some guys

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that Wisconsin through the years who played
in the NHL, like a Tony Grenado,

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who was he was a linemate with
Wayne Gretzky without the La Kings many

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years ago. And remember one of
the first conversations I had with Tony it

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was about really and you speak to
this gym when you're watching the Stanley Cup

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playoffs here. I mean, most
people will tell you that is the most

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intense postseason the ball and that it's
not it's not so much winning it,

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it's just enduring it. The guys
who look like the guys who are hoisting

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the cup look like they've gone fifteen
rounds with Tyson and in his prime.

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And you know, Tony would talk
about guys, you know, they're iv

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in the locker room. Obviously we
see that with football too, but the

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grueling nature of the NHL playoffs,
I mean, each sport has its own

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set of challenges, but Hackey might
be that the top of the list.

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Apparently they don't even have time to
shape, don't lift their arms or your

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tires, grow those beards. You
know, Yeah, I know that's true.

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It's uh, it's very intense and
and I mean there have been some

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great games, overtime games at Boston
game the other night was fantastic, and

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uh so yeah, it's uh,
it's a tough sport and uh, it's

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it's interesting. Uh. Once I
think fans get involved with the sport there,

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they it has a stickiness to it. You know, if you if

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you get involved with that sport,
you tend to stay with it. Uh,

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you see what it's all about.
And uh, it's pretty sticky in

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terms of interest, you you know, just to kind of finish up this

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hockey that we're talking with. Jim
Paski, the legendary voice of the Milwaukee

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Bucks. But you know where they
the Admirals play Now they play in that

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little arena u W. Panther Arena, and it's great for basketball, and

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it's really kind of neat the Bucks. Luel Sindor and all those great teams

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Mack and Oscar Robertson, they all
played in there at Wilt Chamberlain and then

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some of those great Knicks teams all
played in that building. But it's a

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small building. And now they put
a hockey rink in there, and guys,

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I'll tell you what an adbrose game, you're right in the middle of

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the action, even if you're in
the back row, it's outstanding. I

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mean it was like that for the
Bucks. There was not a bad seat

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in that building. There still isn't
a bad seat in that building for any

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of the sports they play in there, great atmosphere and you know, yeah,

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I keep track of them too.
And what a tricky thing they had

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in the first round. They had
the top seed or a higher seed,

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but they opened on the road and
Austin lost to and then had to come

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back and win three to move on. I mean, that's and they did

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it. It was pretty impressive,
Jim. What was interesting about that is

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that they had the call on that
they could either take the two at home

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at the front end or the three
on the pad. They took the two

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on the road. That's really interesting, and that's interesting. I guess their

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thought was all they had to do
was steal one on the row and then

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come home and take two out of
three. But they made it tough on

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themselves. But it was very impressive
the way they got through that. The

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Lerivial of Pay podcast is presented by
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today at UWCU dot org, who
knew that we would be talking to hockey

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for as long as we have,
but it has got to called. But

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John Greenberg, long time you know, worked with the Brewers for a number

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of years. We all know him
and obviously doing a great job with the

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Milwaukee Admirals. I want to kind
of bounce topics here a little bit because

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I was looking up a story on
eu Jima. I can't remember if it

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was within the last couple of years, but I think fans of a certain

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age would be interested in hearing your
connection to Ray Scott. Yeah, oh

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well, yes, Ray Scott was
serendipitously in my life. And it goes

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back to working at the ballpark.
I started when I was fourteen, and

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again I worked through high school and
college at Old Matt Stadium in Bloomington,

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Minnesota. So I was there for
Twins games, Viking games. We worked

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the hockey games next door at the
met Center. But one of his sons,

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predominantly one of his sons, I
think two of them worked at the

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ballpark. But one of his sons
was a chief usher for Andy Frayin and

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we got to be very good friends. And I hang out with Bill Scott

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for many years and Ray was never
home, of course, he was traveling

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working for CBS the voice of the
Packers. At that time, CBS assigned

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announcers two teams, and Ray was
assigned to the Green Bay Packers the Lombardi

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Packers, and the family knew me. I'd been around, and one day

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Ray asked me if he could take
my parents to dinner. He was moving

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to Phoenix, and he had never
met my parents, but he asked if

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he could take them to dinner.
And at dinner, he asked my parents

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if they would be guardians for one
of his sons, Patrick, who needed

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to finish high school. So Patrick
lived with my family for a couple of

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years. And that's right when I
left. I went in the Navy at

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the same time, and I'm out
in California and I get a phone call

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from Ray Scott and he said,
Jim, I need a spotter for the

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NFL game on Sunday was Dallas and
the forty nine ers way and it was

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a player aff game. And I
said sure, And it was his way

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of doing something for me because my
parents had helped him out. And I

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walked into that both and I'm with
Ray Scott and he didn't need me,

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you know this way, and I
mean, the spotter can help, but

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I didn't know what I was doing. So Ray didn't need be at all.

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And he was next to Pat summerall
who had not I don't remember exactly

207
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when he had started his career,
but he was relatively new at that point.

208
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This was in the early seventy seventy
one. Maybe Wow. Well,

209
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the president of CBS Sports was in
the booth. It was a big deal.

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So I got my exposure to television
right there, and I went,

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Wow, this is great. And
so the spectacle of all of that kind

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of hit something in me. I
was a kid who wouldn't talk in front

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of two people. I was very
shy. I mean, I hated anything

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like that. But I'm up there
and I'm going, oh, this is

215
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this is pretty good, you know. So when I got out of the

216
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Navy, I went back and went
to school in Minneapolis and got a job

217
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in Knoxville, Iowa. And here
we are today, amazing serendipitous situation where

218
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Ray, you know, just did
some thing for me. And the night

219
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before that game, he took me
to the production dinner. There were thirty

220
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people from CBS at this dinner,
a big fancy restaurant in San Francisco.

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And I mean, so I got
an exposure at a pretty high level,

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and you know, it took me
a while. I don't know that obviously

223
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I didn't get back to that level. But you know, I told myself

224
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when I started, I'm going to
do this myself. I never asked Ray.

225
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He got upset with me because I
didn't ask for any help and wouldn't

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take any help, and you know, just the way I wanted to do

227
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it, and it worked out pretty
well. And I remember when then he

228
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came to Green Bay, very late
in his life. He was working in

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Green Bay in radio, so I'd
get to see him once in a while.

230
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One quick story about him. So
this all happens, and I go

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to Knoxville, Sioux City, Peoria, and then I'm in Madison. And

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this is in seventy seven or seventy
eight. The station in Madison was on

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the Brewers networking week take one trip
a year. So I go to Texas

234
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and Ray Scott was doing the games
and I was going to do it inning

235
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sit down and I'm sitting next to
him, and he does the first inning

236
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and then he tells the producer he
wasn't feeling well. I did the next

237
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nine innings with zero preparation next to
Ray Scott. So he did that for

238
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me. Also, I did a
whole baseball a major league game, and

239
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I mean, you know, unbelievable, right, So he paid back that

240
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little thing my parents did for him
pretty well in my opinion. Well,

241
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no kidding, did it happen too
fast to be nervous? He said,

242
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you weren't quite prepared for it,
but they just happened all of a sudden.

243
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Just go, don't worry about it. Yeah, you know, I

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had prepared a little bit for my
inning, you know, and I'd studied

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and you know, I would never
go into something like that without thinking about

246
00:17:45.799 --> 00:17:51.880
it and doing some work, right, And but it was probably the best

247
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thing that happened. I had no
choice. I probably said what are you

248
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talking about? And he said,
you know, three two, one go,

249
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And I did the final eight innings
with him sitting next to me,

250
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you know, helping, you know, come in a little bit here and

251
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there. But I did baseball that
night on my own, with no no

252
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real preparation. So it was great, you know, it was wonderful.

253
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Yeah, you know, that guy, I had a chance to get to

254
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know him a little bit, and
then he was hostumously inducted to the Packers

255
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Hall of Fame, I would to
say around two thousand and two thousand and

256
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one, and I happened to be
m seeing that night and his son,

257
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I believe it was Bill. I
believe it was his oldest son. Yes,

258
00:18:36.440 --> 00:18:41.519
well, Bill was his second oldest
son. Okay, let's see,

259
00:18:41.519 --> 00:18:45.359
he had one two, three,
four boys and one daughter. Patrick was

260
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number three, and then he has
a son in Phoenix and any son in

261
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San Francisco at that time. But
if Bill was probably there because Bill always

262
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stayed in the midwell. Yeah,
and you know he accepted the the award

263
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for his late dad. But I
had had a chance when I was in

264
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Kansas City at a doing a pregame
show on the Chiefs Network and sat down

265
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with the Ray Scott and talked to
him and talked to him about the ice

266
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bowl in that Dallas Green Bay back
and forth in nineteen sixty six and sixty

267
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seven. And he put it in
such a succinct way, I guess it,

268
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which should not be surprising. Everything
Ray said was succinct. But he

269
00:19:26.359 --> 00:19:30.759
said, you know, the whole
thing came down to two drives in really

270
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two plays on the goal line in
Dallas, the Cowboys had a chance to

271
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get in and tie the game and
maybe win the championship in Dallas, and

272
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the following year, the Packers are
in the same position on the goal line

273
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with a chance to win. The
Cowboys didn't get it done. Tom Brown

274
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made an interception. The Packers got
it done on the quarterback sneak, and

275
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that was really he said, that
was the difference those two plays, with

276
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the difference of those two teams.
Isn't that amazing? And while you're describing

277
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that way, and I'm thinking about
all three of us having the distinct pleasure

278
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and honor to be around moments like
that, We've all had moments and what

279
00:20:11.559 --> 00:20:17.160
a gift that is. As I'm
retired now, I think back on that

280
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and I'm so grateful for the opportunity
to you know, the fifth baseball game

281
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I ever did at the major league
level was the one heavis no hitter and

282
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we'll hit her. That's crazy.
That's still crazy to me. And then

283
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of course all the NBA stuff that's
happened. But we're very privileged to have

284
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those moments and be right there alongside
history. It's fantastic and the two of

285
00:20:42.359 --> 00:20:49.480
you had great moments. Awesome was
the announcer Jinks in play within the Heavies

286
00:20:49.559 --> 00:20:53.519
no hitter. Did you avoid mentioning
it as it was going on, or

287
00:20:53.559 --> 00:20:56.680
did he say, hey, he
doesn't given up anything yet you got to

288
00:20:56.720 --> 00:21:00.160
report the story. Well, it
was a little different back then, you

289
00:21:00.200 --> 00:21:04.559
know, we were kind of well. I was sitting next to Mike Eagan,

290
00:21:04.599 --> 00:21:07.079
the world champion, right and in
the seventh thing, I said,

291
00:21:07.079 --> 00:21:11.279
what do we do? And he
said, don't mention? So this is

292
00:21:11.279 --> 00:21:15.039
my fifth game now, and you
know I'm gonna defer to Mike, so

293
00:21:15.160 --> 00:21:18.920
I don't mention it, and neither
did he. I mean the line scores

294
00:21:19.079 --> 00:21:22.200
over the pitcher full screen. I
mean, you know you have to be

295
00:21:22.519 --> 00:21:25.880
I don't know what you'd be doing
if you didn't know what was going on.

296
00:21:26.039 --> 00:21:29.440
If I had it to do over
again, I and I did get

297
00:21:29.720 --> 00:21:33.359
a few other opportunities. Higea in
Kansas City came close, and I used

298
00:21:33.359 --> 00:21:37.119
the language a little better the second
time, and kind of you know,

299
00:21:37.240 --> 00:21:44.319
took people on that word journey.
But I remember getting back to Milwaukee the

300
00:21:44.359 --> 00:21:48.720
next day and the media, you
know, was questioning whether that was the

301
00:21:48.799 --> 00:21:52.279
right thing to do. And I
went to the ballpark that night, and

302
00:21:52.319 --> 00:21:53.720
but Seeley said, don't worry about
that. He said he got it,

303
00:21:53.720 --> 00:22:00.400
didn't he. You know, I'll
never forget that. You know, it

304
00:22:00.839 --> 00:22:07.319
probably wasn't the right thing to do
back then. It was a little different.

305
00:22:07.480 --> 00:22:10.400
Today. You couldn't get away with
that at all. And whenever the

306
00:22:10.440 --> 00:22:12.079
Brewers are close, my phone blows
up. They have a no hitter in

307
00:22:12.079 --> 00:22:15.400
the simthinning, and you know,
they want me to fans want me to

308
00:22:15.440 --> 00:22:19.400
tune in and see what happens.
And you know, they had the combined

309
00:22:19.480 --> 00:22:22.680
no hitter, but Gwan still has
the only single picture no hitter. He

310
00:22:22.799 --> 00:22:29.359
was But yeah, so that was
that was interesting. You have to talk

311
00:22:29.400 --> 00:22:32.480
about it. And you couldn't get
away with that today. But I deferred

312
00:22:32.519 --> 00:22:34.759
to Mike, and you know,
it's a good story. Well, those

313
00:22:34.839 --> 00:22:40.279
baseball guys, they don't. I
I was working with Rock. It was

314
00:22:40.440 --> 00:22:44.440
Chris Bryant. He had just been
called up by the Cups and he had

315
00:22:44.440 --> 00:22:47.319
had a like the previous week,
and there, you know, there was

316
00:22:47.359 --> 00:22:49.960
all this hype about him. And
I mentioned uh at the beginning. As

317
00:22:49.960 --> 00:22:52.640
a boy, you know, it's
a matter of time. He hasn't hit

318
00:22:52.680 --> 00:22:56.200
one out yet. It's a matter
of time, and he's he turns and

319
00:22:56.279 --> 00:23:02.119
stairs daggers and here it. Ryott
watches one over the wall and left and

320
00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:06.400
then all like I'm done. But
no, it's no, it's no matter

321
00:23:06.440 --> 00:23:10.920
what you do in those situations,
you're gonna somebody's gonna somebody's gonna love it,

322
00:23:11.039 --> 00:23:15.519
somebody's not. How did that come
about the opportunity with the Brewers for

323
00:23:15.559 --> 00:23:21.920
you, Jim Well, I mean, it was very strange. I had

324
00:23:22.039 --> 00:23:26.799
only worked local sports news. I
was at the Channel six and I had

325
00:23:26.799 --> 00:23:32.480
worked with a person who was behind
the scenes named Lyle Sulsey, and he

326
00:23:32.519 --> 00:23:37.000
moved over to Channel eighteen. And
then there was an opening and I got

327
00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:38.960
a phone call. I'm at my
desk and Lyle called and said, would

328
00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:42.599
you consider doing the Bucks and the
Brewers? I mean, you know,

329
00:23:44.079 --> 00:23:47.920
are you kidding me? Let me
think about that? Sure? I didn't

330
00:23:47.960 --> 00:23:49.799
even think about it. I said
yes I would, And people said,

331
00:23:49.839 --> 00:23:53.400
are you sure you're making the right
decision? And I, you know,

332
00:23:53.759 --> 00:23:57.359
I couldn't understand why they were asking
me that, but you know, I

333
00:23:57.440 --> 00:24:02.119
rolled the bones a little bit on
now and it turned out Okay, I

334
00:24:02.119 --> 00:24:04.279
didn't know what I was doing at
the beginning, and I had to learn

335
00:24:04.279 --> 00:24:07.799
how the fly, and that's how
it happened for me. Each one of

336
00:24:07.880 --> 00:24:14.119
us has a different story on how
the doors open, but mine was a

337
00:24:14.200 --> 00:24:18.000
crazy phone call and two sports at
the same time, which was wow,

338
00:24:18.359 --> 00:24:25.079
ridiculous. Yeah, I mean that
almost never happens. And you're exactly right,

339
00:24:26.039 --> 00:24:29.759
Pash. If people ask all the
time, well, how did you

340
00:24:29.799 --> 00:24:33.640
get started? Or can I follow
that same path? There's no single path

341
00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:37.400
in this business, and it's a
lot There are a lot of intangibles involved,

342
00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:42.440
timing and everything else to get to
where you eventually end up. But

343
00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:48.160
no two paths are the same.
So it's very hard when kids ask that,

344
00:24:48.279 --> 00:24:51.279
and you know, you try to
tell them what, well I imagined,

345
00:24:51.400 --> 00:24:53.519
why I did this, this and
this, But that doesn't apply to

346
00:24:53.960 --> 00:24:57.440
tape because that was two thousand years
ago. You know that would be out

347
00:24:57.480 --> 00:25:02.359
of context today. But at any
rate, you get to the Bucks and

348
00:25:02.440 --> 00:25:08.359
you team up with Johnny mac John
McLaughlin, a member of the world Champion

349
00:25:08.480 --> 00:25:14.759
Bucks of the early seventies with Louel
Sindor in company, a legendary team to

350
00:25:14.799 --> 00:25:19.359
this day, and you guys made
up a legendary broadcasting team. It seemed

351
00:25:19.359 --> 00:25:22.759
to me from the outside looking in. And I never really ran into you

352
00:25:22.759 --> 00:25:26.119
guys on the road, but you
guys seem to be really close to,

353
00:25:26.319 --> 00:25:30.559
really good friends to just spend a
lot of time off camera together. What

354
00:25:30.759 --> 00:25:37.920
was that relationship? Like, Well, you two would understand this more than

355
00:25:37.960 --> 00:25:42.319
anybody in our business. They throw
two or now maybe three people together,

356
00:25:42.440 --> 00:25:47.519
and you know, they wonder if
it's going to work, and sometimes it

357
00:25:47.559 --> 00:25:52.759
does. And that's what happened with
John and me. It just worked,

358
00:25:52.839 --> 00:25:56.039
and we were close. We were
close for a long long time, still

359
00:25:56.079 --> 00:25:59.200
are to this day. Things change
over. I mean we worked together for

360
00:26:00.039 --> 00:26:03.279
twenty eight years, almost thirty years, twenty eight years exclusively and then the

361
00:26:03.319 --> 00:26:07.720
last two years others were involved a
little bit as John took some time off.

362
00:26:08.160 --> 00:26:12.720
But yeah, we we were very
close. We spent a lot of

363
00:26:12.759 --> 00:26:18.440
time, you know, going to
dinners, and we spent a lot of

364
00:26:18.440 --> 00:26:22.440
time talking on airplanes, and we
were close. We did things when we

365
00:26:22.480 --> 00:26:26.680
were back in Milwaukee on occasion,
and then Ted Davis came in and John

366
00:26:26.720 --> 00:26:30.160
and Ted kind of, you know, did their thing a little bit,

367
00:26:30.279 --> 00:26:33.000
and there was some other stuff going
on and but but yeah, we're still

368
00:26:33.039 --> 00:26:36.400
close to this day. I just
talked to John a couple of weeks ago.

369
00:26:36.480 --> 00:26:41.759
We stay in touch, and that
was really magical and and such again

370
00:26:42.039 --> 00:26:47.359
a great stroke of luck for me, because I showed up every night at

371
00:26:47.400 --> 00:26:51.480
the beginning, not knowing what I
was doing, and I was concentrating on

372
00:26:51.519 --> 00:26:55.359
that, and I never had to
think about or be concerned about what John

373
00:26:55.519 --> 00:26:57.960
was going to bring. It was
there every single night for thirty years.

374
00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:04.240
And what great blessing that is for
people in our position right right, It

375
00:27:04.359 --> 00:27:10.000
was great. And so I can't
say enough about the man. He's doing

376
00:27:10.079 --> 00:27:12.920
well, and I think he's enjoying
his retirement. He's staying closer to home

377
00:27:12.960 --> 00:27:18.160
than I ever before. But he's
in great spirits and doing very well.

378
00:27:18.279 --> 00:27:21.200
I think folks would like to hear. I mean, we all go through

379
00:27:21.319 --> 00:27:23.319
really good seasons in the case of
both of you guys, you know,

380
00:27:23.559 --> 00:27:30.000
championship seasons of NBA and obviously the
Lombardi Trophy, but we probably all you

381
00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:30.880
know, you do this a certain
number of years, you go to have

382
00:27:32.039 --> 00:27:34.720
really tough years for the team that
you cover, right, Jim, I

383
00:27:34.759 --> 00:27:40.079
can't remember the exact year, but
it was back in the day when maybe

384
00:27:40.720 --> 00:27:45.440
thirty to forty games were televised,
and I think early in the year the

385
00:27:45.480 --> 00:27:48.319
Bucks won a game and I think
that might have been it. I think

386
00:27:48.359 --> 00:27:52.119
it was a year where what year
was that? Yeah, I think I

387
00:27:52.200 --> 00:27:56.920
told you that story. Bill King, who was the pr director for the

388
00:27:56.960 --> 00:28:00.359
Bucks, came up to me at
the end of the season, and I

389
00:28:00.400 --> 00:28:03.559
don't remember which year it was.
We did thirty televised games, and at

390
00:28:03.559 --> 00:28:07.079
the end of the season he said, Jim, do you realize what you

391
00:28:07.240 --> 00:28:08.799
just did? I said, what
are you talking about? He said,

392
00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:12.440
you did Opening Night on the road. The Bucks won that game and they

393
00:28:12.480 --> 00:28:18.599
lost the next twenty nine on television, so they were one and twenty nine

394
00:28:18.640 --> 00:28:22.480
on games that we did. And
I had no clue, no clue.

395
00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:26.839
I got into this business because I
enjoyed the spectacle of sport. And I

396
00:28:26.880 --> 00:28:29.599
still have a book. It's the
first book my parents bought for me.

397
00:28:29.640 --> 00:28:33.480
It was a sports illustrated coffee table
book, and I keep it. It's

398
00:28:33.559 --> 00:28:36.680
kind of it's in decent shape,
but not great shape, but I keep

399
00:28:36.720 --> 00:28:41.680
that on my desk. It's a
picture book from the fifties of all the

400
00:28:41.720 --> 00:28:47.839
sports around the world and the spectacle
of sport is what attracted me. And

401
00:28:47.960 --> 00:28:52.119
so when you get into seasons.
We had twelve straight seasons where the Bucks

402
00:28:52.119 --> 00:28:55.920
were struggling. My first three years
with the Bucks, they had good teams

403
00:28:56.960 --> 00:29:00.160
and then they went downhill for a
long period of time. And I just

404
00:29:00.279 --> 00:29:04.000
always approached it on you know what, it's a sporting event. There's another

405
00:29:04.079 --> 00:29:07.599
team on the floor, it's the
NBA. What could be better? And

406
00:29:07.720 --> 00:29:12.839
the spectacle is going to be there. Sports is beautiful because on any given

407
00:29:12.960 --> 00:29:17.640
day or night, you may see
something you've never seen before, and you

408
00:29:17.799 --> 00:29:22.599
may see something that's never happened before. And so I always approached it mentally

409
00:29:22.680 --> 00:29:29.720
that way that no matter what the
team situation is, just be ready for,

410
00:29:30.039 --> 00:29:33.960
you know, the spectacle of what
you might experience and kind of look

411
00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:36.920
at it that way. So I
never had any problem and John never did

412
00:29:36.920 --> 00:29:41.359
either. He was always very up
and energetic about the game of basketball and

413
00:29:41.400 --> 00:29:45.839
the NBA, and so that got
us through a lot and hopefully the fans,

414
00:29:47.000 --> 00:29:48.759
you know, enjoyed that part of
it. But I don't know how

415
00:29:48.759 --> 00:29:52.279
you would do it other than that, you know, if if you got

416
00:29:52.319 --> 00:29:56.440
into every game and you lived and
died with it. We do a little

417
00:29:56.440 --> 00:29:59.759
bit, but you have to kind
of control that because if you let your

418
00:30:00.079 --> 00:30:04.640
motions in your work be affected by
what you're calling, could be a problem

419
00:30:04.680 --> 00:30:08.200
for twelve straight years. In my
case, Martin's knowing for people who don't

420
00:30:08.200 --> 00:30:12.079
do this to understand too, right, even medias like certain media folks,

421
00:30:12.440 --> 00:30:17.559
they don't. And I could not
agree with you more. Yeah, you

422
00:30:17.559 --> 00:30:19.519
want to see the Bucks win,
the Brewers, Packers, Badgers, all

423
00:30:19.559 --> 00:30:25.680
that, but if you let that
dictate your life, it's well, good

424
00:30:26.160 --> 00:30:29.720
luck with that. Well. Players
have to deal with that, and so

425
00:30:29.839 --> 00:30:32.240
do we, right, I mean, we have to be professional. We

426
00:30:32.319 --> 00:30:34.279
have to get our job done.
We have to be in the right I

427
00:30:34.319 --> 00:30:37.640
call it a slot. We have
to be in the slot every night.

428
00:30:37.680 --> 00:30:41.559
And you can't get too high or
low in and out of that slot.

429
00:30:41.599 --> 00:30:45.079
You have to figure out where your
slot is and stay there. You know,

430
00:30:45.160 --> 00:30:48.960
guys, it's interesting because I had
a chance in Chicago obviously to do

431
00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:52.160
the Jordan Bulls. But after that
and Jim, you'll remember very clearly the

432
00:30:52.200 --> 00:30:56.240
Bulls really were. They sucked,
They were awful, and as matter of

433
00:30:56.279 --> 00:31:00.480
fact, they haven't been close to
really good in a long time. Maybe

434
00:31:00.519 --> 00:31:04.440
Derek Rose for a brief moment before
he blew out his knee. Those clubs.

435
00:31:04.480 --> 00:31:07.559
Tom Thibodeau was the coach they should
have kept, and now he's doing

436
00:31:07.559 --> 00:31:11.799
a bang up job with an injury
riddled New York Knicks team in the playoffs.

437
00:31:12.000 --> 00:31:17.000
But they were terrible. Jerry Krouse
thought he could rebuild this thing on

438
00:31:17.039 --> 00:31:19.640
the fly at all these draft picks
that traded Pippin and rob Bit and everybody

439
00:31:19.680 --> 00:31:23.319
else. And Jordan didn't come back, and they he ran Phil Jackson out

440
00:31:23.359 --> 00:31:26.839
of town, the whole bit,
and it just it's amazing. But we

441
00:31:26.920 --> 00:31:30.480
had some really bad years where I
mean, I don't know, they won

442
00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:36.759
ten twelve games or something like that, and I just remember when we would

443
00:31:36.839 --> 00:31:41.359
do a game, I always kind
of said, Okay, this game on

444
00:31:41.480 --> 00:31:45.119
this night is going to be It's
like, okay, we don't know that

445
00:31:45.160 --> 00:31:48.480
they're two and twenty five, all
right, We're just going to do this

446
00:31:48.599 --> 00:31:49.960
game, and you know, hey, if they do well, if they're

447
00:31:49.960 --> 00:31:53.640
winning, then you kind of build
that game. So each game kind of

448
00:31:53.799 --> 00:32:00.839
is its own canvas and you paint
on that. Especially in seasons, you

449
00:32:00.880 --> 00:32:04.400
know, this is really something to
kind of focus on that game how don't

450
00:32:04.400 --> 00:32:07.519
if that makes sense to you,
Jim or not, Well, absolutely,

451
00:32:07.599 --> 00:32:10.480
I think you know, I don't
know if fans appreciate the cliche one game

452
00:32:10.480 --> 00:32:15.359
at a time. It's so worn
out that you know, people disregarded,

453
00:32:15.480 --> 00:32:19.559
but it's really true. It's true
for players you have to have a short

454
00:32:19.599 --> 00:32:23.160
memory. You have to show up
after yesterday and especially in baseball, and

455
00:32:23.279 --> 00:32:27.480
and do today's game. And you
have to approach it like everything's great,

456
00:32:27.599 --> 00:32:31.240
and sometimes it might turn out that
way if you approach it like that.

457
00:32:31.359 --> 00:32:37.039
It's just a matter of it's being
a professional and it's understanding what your role

458
00:32:37.160 --> 00:32:40.039
is. And so I never really
had a problem with that. I was

459
00:32:40.079 --> 00:32:44.880
excited to work every night, no
matter what the record was. Both of

460
00:32:44.920 --> 00:32:49.039
you. Yeah, you have to
always say at the approach that if someone's

461
00:32:49.079 --> 00:32:52.240
going to tune in, chances are
that person actually works for a living.

462
00:32:52.440 --> 00:32:57.680
We don't, you know. I've
always disputed that people say, you know,

463
00:32:57.880 --> 00:33:02.039
beats working. We work in a
different way. Yes, we do

464
00:33:02.200 --> 00:33:06.920
work. Let's not let people understand
think that we don't work, because I

465
00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:10.160
know how hard you work to do
what you do. It's not physical labor,

466
00:33:10.400 --> 00:33:15.519
but it's it's a mental exercise and
it's a craft that we do work

467
00:33:15.599 --> 00:33:20.519
at and I'm proud of that,
and I'm proud of the people that do

468
00:33:20.559 --> 00:33:23.599
it. And you know, you
guys understand that we joke about not having

469
00:33:23.640 --> 00:33:28.319
a real job, but if you
do it right, it's a real job.

470
00:33:28.680 --> 00:33:30.160
Yeah, well said. I keep
trying to tell people that. They

471
00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:35.640
don't believe me. They just think, yeh tip, you know, yeah,

472
00:33:35.680 --> 00:33:37.559
we're at the toy department, and
we can't dispute part of it.

473
00:33:37.599 --> 00:33:42.279
But you know that toy department can
be aligned, the toys can be in

474
00:33:42.279 --> 00:33:44.759
the right spots, and you you
know, after everybody goes through looking for

475
00:33:44.799 --> 00:33:46.359
toys, you have to straighten it
up again. Right. That's yep,

476
00:33:46.839 --> 00:33:53.640
that's what we do. And I
don't diminish the amount of mental work and

477
00:33:53.960 --> 00:33:59.839
preparation that goes into it. It's
it's really pretty phenomenal. And the test

478
00:34:00.319 --> 00:34:02.640
is that most people who do this
at a high level tend to make it

479
00:34:02.640 --> 00:34:06.839
look easier than it is. Yeah, yeah, I would agree with that.

480
00:34:06.960 --> 00:34:08.920
And you know it's funny, guys. I think you could say this

481
00:34:09.039 --> 00:34:14.039
about a number of professions, okay, but you certainly can say it about

482
00:34:14.119 --> 00:34:19.119
our profession. If you love what
you do. It's not really the same

483
00:34:19.199 --> 00:34:22.840
kind of work as if I don't
know, Like my uncle was on shift

484
00:34:22.840 --> 00:34:25.280
work at the paper mill year after
year after year. We couldn't wait to

485
00:34:25.360 --> 00:34:29.440
retire. There are a lot of
people I know that are like they're you

486
00:34:29.440 --> 00:34:31.199
know, I have an attorney friend
like that. It just can't wait to

487
00:34:31.239 --> 00:34:36.079
get to retirement type of thing.
But if you love what you do,

488
00:34:36.960 --> 00:34:40.159
I think that's where people get misconstrued
a little bit. And it's not like

489
00:34:40.199 --> 00:34:43.840
you're working a day in your life. Yeah you're working, but you'll love

490
00:34:43.880 --> 00:34:46.519
the work you're doing. And that's
a whole different ballgame. Well, I

491
00:34:46.559 --> 00:34:52.159
don't think it's a job as much
as it's a passion. Yeah, And

492
00:34:52.239 --> 00:34:54.880
when you have a passion for something, no matter what that is. You

493
00:34:54.880 --> 00:34:59.400
can have a passion for law,
you can have a passion for engineering,

494
00:34:59.440 --> 00:35:01.840
you can have a passion for anything. Well, when you have a passion,

495
00:35:02.440 --> 00:35:07.639
then it takes away that quote work
aspect to it because you can't wait

496
00:35:07.719 --> 00:35:14.119
to get to the passion the next
day. And we're all lucky. Sports

497
00:35:14.159 --> 00:35:19.199
gives us that and it's a great
blessing. We talked about the you know,

498
00:35:19.239 --> 00:35:22.440
the tougher years but the championship season, Jim, which was obviously your

499
00:35:22.519 --> 00:35:28.679
last working with the Bucks, when
did you think it was the previous year?

500
00:35:28.880 --> 00:35:34.159
Maybe early that year, When did
you truly believe that that Bucks team

501
00:35:34.239 --> 00:35:38.519
had the chops to go all the
way? That's a great question, Matt.

502
00:35:38.559 --> 00:35:43.559
That started for me when they were
beaten by Toronto in twenty nineteen.

503
00:35:43.599 --> 00:35:45.400
They were up tow to zero in
that series, then lost four straight games.

504
00:35:45.440 --> 00:35:49.480
They got a little happy, in
my opinion, they you know,

505
00:35:49.639 --> 00:35:53.199
weren't quite as focused after I think
they'd won ten games at that point in

506
00:35:53.239 --> 00:35:58.599
the Eastern Conference Finals, they went
up to nothing and probably thought that they

507
00:35:58.599 --> 00:36:00.679
were going to cruise through that and
get to the finals. Well, it

508
00:36:00.679 --> 00:36:04.440
didn't turn out that way. And
after that happened, in my mind,

509
00:36:04.480 --> 00:36:07.079
I'm going, Okay, this is
a big turning point. Are they going

510
00:36:07.119 --> 00:36:10.880
to learn from that and are they
going to you know, buckle down here

511
00:36:10.960 --> 00:36:15.599
and make something happen? And two
years later they did. It could have

512
00:36:15.639 --> 00:36:17.159
gone the other way. I mean, that could have unraveled the team.

513
00:36:17.599 --> 00:36:21.360
Annis wasn't going to let that happen. I mean, that was a hard

514
00:36:21.440 --> 00:36:25.559
lesson. So it started there and
then during the championship season. Very early

515
00:36:25.719 --> 00:36:30.079
on, I felt and I talked
about it on the earth, I felt

516
00:36:30.119 --> 00:36:34.239
like they had everything in place.
It was just an odd year because COVID

517
00:36:34.320 --> 00:36:37.239
was still in play and we were
doing games remotely and all of that,

518
00:36:37.400 --> 00:36:39.639
and so it was an odd year. I wasn't even at the championship game

519
00:36:39.679 --> 00:36:44.239
because I had COVID. I got
COVID when the team went to Phoenix for

520
00:36:44.320 --> 00:36:47.760
the first two games in that series
in the finals, So everything was just

521
00:36:47.840 --> 00:36:52.199
all over the place. But I
felt early on that season that with Drew

522
00:36:52.239 --> 00:36:59.400
Holliday, they had what it took
to win a championship. And then he

523
00:36:59.559 --> 00:37:01.760
was cruise to me, and I
talked about this throughout the course of the

524
00:37:01.840 --> 00:37:07.920
year. The most masterful job of
blending into an alpha dog team that I've

525
00:37:07.960 --> 00:37:12.559
ever seen. He did that so
seamlessly. I don't even think Giannis knew

526
00:37:12.599 --> 00:37:15.079
what was going on the way.
He was working it, working at working

527
00:37:15.119 --> 00:37:19.239
it. And when they got to
the finals, Drew Holiday was not only

528
00:37:19.280 --> 00:37:22.280
stirring that drink, he was drinking
that drink with them, and he got

529
00:37:22.280 --> 00:37:25.480
them to that point. God did
Jim. I just this was the next

530
00:37:25.480 --> 00:37:28.639
point I was going to bring up. You took it right out of my

531
00:37:28.719 --> 00:37:31.719
mind. I'm watching the Celtics last
night and Drew Holliday and I'm saying to

532
00:37:31.760 --> 00:37:36.519
myself, you know, I understand
everybody understated. You can got a chance

533
00:37:36.519 --> 00:37:38.920
to get a talent like Damian Lillard, you go out and get him.

534
00:37:39.159 --> 00:37:44.440
But the problem for the Bucks was
they had to give up Drew Holiday and

535
00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.320
what so you understand on paper that
looks like an okay deal, but you

536
00:37:49.440 --> 00:37:52.840
go behind the scenes exactly what you
just said. That chemistry piece that he

537
00:37:53.039 --> 00:37:57.639
brought. He was the final piece
of chemistry. And I'm on the outside

538
00:37:57.639 --> 00:38:00.079
looking into the Bucks, but I'm
really your Bucks teams. I've followed very

539
00:38:00.079 --> 00:38:05.440
closely because I really enjoy watching them
play, and I've been so disappointed the

540
00:38:05.480 --> 00:38:09.079
last two seasons because I like to
watch the Bucks into May and June.

541
00:38:09.119 --> 00:38:12.679
You know what I mean, I'm
really missing the fact they go out in

542
00:38:12.719 --> 00:38:16.400
the first round. As a fan, but I thought Holiday was the final

543
00:38:16.440 --> 00:38:21.559
piece of that championship in what he
brought. Yeah, he was a good

544
00:38:21.840 --> 00:38:23.679
one of the better perimeter defenders in
the league, no doubt about that.

545
00:38:23.960 --> 00:38:28.639
And they need that because they're not
a good defensive team. But they needed

546
00:38:28.639 --> 00:38:32.760
that. But I thought the glue
he brought and in you just so eloquently

547
00:38:32.800 --> 00:38:39.000
demonstrated it and enunciated it. That's
what I think made them a championship team.

548
00:38:39.360 --> 00:38:44.000
And when they lost him, did
they get a better player and Lillard

549
00:38:44.039 --> 00:38:47.679
go, yeah, probably statistically,
but what they lost they couldn't replace.

550
00:38:47.800 --> 00:38:52.559
And I never felt this year that
they were on the right track. Well,

551
00:38:52.679 --> 00:38:55.079
I'm a defensive guy. I always
think that you have to have defense

552
00:38:55.119 --> 00:39:00.280
to win in most ports and certainly
in the NBA, and set aside the

553
00:39:00.639 --> 00:39:07.920
unbelievable intangibles I just spoke of with
Drew Holliday in the first year in the

554
00:39:07.960 --> 00:39:12.239
championship season and last year. What
they missed this year with him, in

555
00:39:12.280 --> 00:39:17.239
my opinion, was that maybe one
second or split second situation point of attack

556
00:39:17.800 --> 00:39:22.440
where he slows everything down. He
slows the ball down. And I'll say

557
00:39:22.440 --> 00:39:25.960
it this way. Earlier in the
season, when brook Lopez was blocking shots,

558
00:39:27.320 --> 00:39:30.599
they were going out of bounds.
He was moving into position to get

559
00:39:30.599 --> 00:39:34.599
the block, and that second that
Holliday used to buy him at the top

560
00:39:34.679 --> 00:39:38.800
allowed brook Lopez to be in position
for the block shot and then he could

561
00:39:38.840 --> 00:39:45.519
control the block shot. Margins in
all sports are very narrow, very small,

562
00:39:45.079 --> 00:39:50.519
very critical, and that one second
on the ball was crucial. And

563
00:39:50.559 --> 00:39:53.159
that's what I saw early this year. They were lacking that. They never

564
00:39:53.199 --> 00:39:57.119
really had it. They tried to
cover it up what you can do,

565
00:39:57.800 --> 00:40:02.280
but you know, they lost something
defensively that that holiday, and frankly a

566
00:40:02.280 --> 00:40:07.679
couple other players gave them two So
that was that was a big deal this

567
00:40:07.760 --> 00:40:12.599
year. I didn't think they had
the defense down the way they added in

568
00:40:12.639 --> 00:40:15.480
the championship year to the point where
they could rely on it again to uh

569
00:40:16.000 --> 00:40:20.079
to win a championship. They have
the talent to win a championship, but

570
00:40:20.119 --> 00:40:23.039
that defense was lacking in my opinion
this year. Yeah, all of that

571
00:40:23.119 --> 00:40:29.960
and then Yannis not able to go
in the playoffs. People who have any

572
00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.360
familiarity with the Bucks know the relationship
that you and Giannis were able to build.

573
00:40:35.239 --> 00:40:37.239
Do you still I know you do
a few things every year for the

574
00:40:37.320 --> 00:40:42.639
organization, appearances for them. Do
you still stay somewhat in touch with the

575
00:40:42.800 --> 00:40:46.480
honis here even post post career.
You know, I enjoy talking about this

576
00:40:46.599 --> 00:40:51.840
because people think that we're like this. They think Giannis and I are like

577
00:40:51.960 --> 00:40:57.159
McLaughlin and I, and the truth
is we were around each other every day.

578
00:40:57.480 --> 00:41:00.480
But we spoke in an interview situation
why a year before the seasons,

579
00:41:01.280 --> 00:41:04.960
and they would have to stop us. We'd go two hours and say,

580
00:41:04.960 --> 00:41:06.960
hey, you know, we have
to you know, guys, we have

581
00:41:07.079 --> 00:41:08.880
to stop this, and neither one
of us knew how long we'd been talking,

582
00:41:09.280 --> 00:41:14.079
and we didn't want to stop.
So we developed the relationship that way.

583
00:41:15.800 --> 00:41:17.679
I'm around the team. I did
fifteen events for them this year,

584
00:41:19.840 --> 00:41:23.679
just to interview situations with John Horace. More sponsor related, no game related

585
00:41:23.679 --> 00:41:29.880
stuff, just sponsor events and that
sort of thing. I spoke to Giannus

586
00:41:29.920 --> 00:41:32.400
once I was walking by and he
stopped and shooting and shook my hand,

587
00:41:32.440 --> 00:41:37.840
and then I saw him at an
event outside of I I serve form.

588
00:41:37.880 --> 00:41:39.840
But that's it. Do we talk
about all the time, No, when

589
00:41:39.880 --> 00:41:45.119
we talked. Are we comfortable with
each other? Absolutely, But so that's

590
00:41:45.199 --> 00:41:50.440
kind of interesting. I always kept
a buffer between myself and players, you

591
00:41:50.480 --> 00:41:55.159
know, I just I just made
that distance always be there because I would

592
00:41:55.159 --> 00:42:00.119
have had to talk about if you
become real close friends with players, then

593
00:42:00.199 --> 00:42:02.639
you have to talk about what they're
doing wrong, and that doesn't work.

594
00:42:02.679 --> 00:42:07.760
And then over thirty five years do
you know how many players have left the

595
00:42:07.800 --> 00:42:10.719
bus. All my friends would have
moved away. So always just kept that

596
00:42:10.880 --> 00:42:15.440
buffer and it allowed me to do
my job in a way that was you

597
00:42:15.480 --> 00:42:17.760
know, Freese, your mind up
to do the job properly. You don't

598
00:42:17.800 --> 00:42:22.239
have to think about you know,
his is his wife going to be upset

599
00:42:22.360 --> 00:42:24.119
or his girlfriend going to be upset? Sometimes thereon, no matter what you

600
00:42:24.159 --> 00:42:29.840
say. But I just always kept
that distance. And I'm sure both of

601
00:42:29.880 --> 00:42:31.920
you have a similar way of doing
that too. You just have to keep

602
00:42:31.960 --> 00:42:36.719
a little buffer there. But you
know, if we ran into each other

603
00:42:36.760 --> 00:42:39.480
on the street, we would stop
and hug and talk and we had our

604
00:42:39.519 --> 00:42:43.519
moments. What he did after they
won the championship, when he put on

605
00:42:43.599 --> 00:42:46.760
the T shirt at the podium was
just I mean, I can't even describe

606
00:42:46.760 --> 00:42:51.559
that. I get tears in my
eyes thinking about it. You know,

607
00:42:51.679 --> 00:42:55.119
my son was in Austin, Texas, and his neighbor called because my son

608
00:42:55.159 --> 00:42:58.960
couldn't talk on the phone. He
was crying when he saw that, and

609
00:42:59.239 --> 00:43:01.519
you know, just a moment and
then you know we turned it down Green

610
00:43:01.679 --> 00:43:07.159
night and so those were great things. But to think that we are going

611
00:43:07.199 --> 00:43:12.360
to launch every week, No,
we don't have to get you professional situation.

612
00:43:12.519 --> 00:43:17.480
And the only time it's ever happened
in my career is with you,

613
00:43:17.519 --> 00:43:22.079
honest, and that's a credit to
him. I think, Yeah, it's

614
00:43:22.559 --> 00:43:25.159
he seems to he got through to
me. Yeah, yeah, you know,

615
00:43:25.400 --> 00:43:31.880
I'm fans. You know. The
hardest team to get close to is

616
00:43:31.920 --> 00:43:37.760
an NFL football team, because you
get I don't know, forty five minutes

617
00:43:37.800 --> 00:43:39.599
in the locker room at lunchtime or
something, and you can see him on

618
00:43:39.639 --> 00:43:44.400
the practice field, but you don't
really unless you do an event with them

619
00:43:44.400 --> 00:43:49.280
outside of the team situation, you
don't really get close to a football team.

620
00:43:49.519 --> 00:43:52.559
I noticed Jim traveling with baseball teams. You're on the plane with them

621
00:43:52.880 --> 00:43:57.360
constantly. You're there every day,
you're at the batting cage. You get

622
00:43:57.360 --> 00:44:01.039
pretty close to those guys and they
get close to you. Vin Scully,

623
00:44:01.079 --> 00:44:07.920
though, espoused your thinking in that
the great Dodger announcer said he would never

624
00:44:07.960 --> 00:44:10.360
go down. You'd never see him
at the batting cager rarely. He did

625
00:44:10.400 --> 00:44:15.119
not want to get close to the
players because it would impact how he had

626
00:44:15.119 --> 00:44:17.800
to call the game. And so
what you just said was the Vin Scully

627
00:44:17.880 --> 00:44:23.199
rule. Two of the tea basketball
teams, you know, you can kind

628
00:44:23.199 --> 00:44:28.079
of get close to them as smaller
group. You've got fifteen guys you know

629
00:44:28.119 --> 00:44:30.159
in the coaching staff. You so
you get close to those teams. But

630
00:44:30.360 --> 00:44:34.880
football and man, I don't know. I know you travel with the teams.

631
00:44:34.920 --> 00:44:37.400
I know you probably closer. My
guess is you'd be closer to basketball

632
00:44:37.440 --> 00:44:42.119
players than you would be the football
team because there's just so many people on

633
00:44:42.159 --> 00:44:46.039
a football operation and it's so regimented. It seems like, yeah, yeah,

634
00:44:46.079 --> 00:44:51.239
that get true. When I did
college football, you knew him a

635
00:44:51.239 --> 00:44:55.199
little bit, but not anywhere near
the level that you get to know baseball

636
00:44:55.199 --> 00:45:00.039
and basketball players. In basketball,
you know, I was at practice almost

637
00:45:00.119 --> 00:45:02.760
every day. I was at shoot
arounds all the time, on the road

638
00:45:02.800 --> 00:45:06.920
and on the buses on the planes. But I'd walk from the front of

639
00:45:06.920 --> 00:45:08.719
the bus to my seat in the
back or my seat in the back of

640
00:45:08.719 --> 00:45:13.719
the plane and sit down. And
Janis always asked me to come up and

641
00:45:13.880 --> 00:45:15.960
play cards with him so he could
take my money, but not one time.

642
00:45:17.360 --> 00:45:21.760
That's not our job, that's not
our role. So you know,

643
00:45:22.000 --> 00:45:24.400
keep your money. I'll keep my
money, and you take other people that

644
00:45:24.519 --> 00:45:29.960
big NBA per d of Yeah,
yeah, yeah, I tell honest was

645
00:45:29.960 --> 00:45:32.480
great because you know, some guys, I mean, I've I've stepped over

646
00:45:32.800 --> 00:45:37.239
a lot of money on a plane, but Giannis plays for little tanny amounts,

647
00:45:37.280 --> 00:45:40.159
you know, like whatever, ten
twenty dollars maybe, But he's a

648
00:45:40.199 --> 00:45:43.519
smart guy. He's not going to
give his money away, but he wants

649
00:45:43.519 --> 00:45:49.199
yours. And so you know,
I just I just stayed to myself and

650
00:45:49.840 --> 00:45:53.119
I always told myself, I'm a
guest on that airplane, I'm a guest

651
00:45:53.159 --> 00:45:58.840
on that bus. And I tried
to act accordingly, and it worked pretty

652
00:45:58.880 --> 00:46:01.239
well for me. And I've watched
people who didn't do it that way,

653
00:46:01.280 --> 00:46:07.400
and frankly it doesn't work as well. Yeah, well, what thing it's

654
00:46:07.440 --> 00:46:09.920
not about us, right exactly?
One thing. One thing that I've found

655
00:46:09.960 --> 00:46:13.639
through the year is what a part
of the beauty of getting older. I

656
00:46:13.679 --> 00:46:16.639
can't relate to those guys anyway.
College guys eighteen used to be eighteen to

657
00:46:16.679 --> 00:46:21.039
twenty two, I guess nowadays more
like eighteen to twenty four. You know,

658
00:46:21.320 --> 00:46:23.159
I'm sixty two. It's not like
they're going to really care what I'm

659
00:46:23.199 --> 00:46:27.800
doing in my world. Going to
bed at nine thirty or ten o'clock if

660
00:46:27.800 --> 00:46:30.760
it's not a game night. And
those guys are, they're young, and

661
00:46:30.800 --> 00:46:34.440
they've got their own they've got their
music. They listen to that I have

662
00:46:34.519 --> 00:46:37.400
no idea what it is. So
that makes it a little bit easier still

663
00:46:37.480 --> 00:46:42.800
even now, to create that buffer. But aren't we lucky that we spend

664
00:46:42.840 --> 00:46:46.239
our entire adult lives around young men
and young women. And yes, if

665
00:46:46.320 --> 00:46:52.159
you young in the NBA, you
know that league is they all are now.

666
00:46:52.199 --> 00:46:54.639
But the NBA has always been a
driver of fashion, of music,

667
00:46:54.719 --> 00:46:59.840
of trends of everything. And you
know, just look at us. We're

668
00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:01.599
bunch. We're three old guys here
and we didn't look that old. We

669
00:47:01.639 --> 00:47:06.840
don't shame that old. You know, they keep us young. You know,

670
00:47:07.159 --> 00:47:08.760
I'm near oldest and I don't and
they're not doing it's got a job

671
00:47:08.800 --> 00:47:13.880
with me anymore. But they do
keep you young. It does, and

672
00:47:14.039 --> 00:47:17.559
it's your thought process. It's who
you think you are. And I the

673
00:47:17.639 --> 00:47:21.000
same way as you guys are saying, know, yeah, they keep you

674
00:47:21.079 --> 00:47:23.519
kind of young. So I think
I'm like, I don't know, thirty

675
00:47:23.599 --> 00:47:28.679
some years old, thirty or something, And then I look at a picture

676
00:47:28.719 --> 00:47:31.360
to say, who the hell's that
old guy there. Oh wait a minute,

677
00:47:31.400 --> 00:47:36.119
it's me. That's what I really
looked like. My bonny tell the

678
00:47:36.159 --> 00:47:38.840
Amber seventy three, and my mind
tells me I'm thirty five or forty,

679
00:47:38.880 --> 00:47:43.719
and yeah, exactly know what I
will take that at this point, I

680
00:47:43.760 --> 00:47:49.239
will yeah, yeah. You guys
have both called college games Jimmy were called

681
00:47:49.280 --> 00:47:52.880
Bill Wisconsin football and basketball. If
I would have told you then, and

682
00:47:52.920 --> 00:47:57.119
weighing same question to you, if
I told you then that in today's world

683
00:47:57.119 --> 00:48:00.239
of college athletics. There was a
story earlier this week of a guy who's

684
00:48:00.280 --> 00:48:06.519
transferred from Utah State to Washington,
where he will make upwards of two million

685
00:48:06.599 --> 00:48:10.239
dollars, or about the equivalent of
the thirtieth overall pick coming up in this

686
00:48:10.320 --> 00:48:15.159
year's NBA draft. If I'd have
told you that that money would be available,

687
00:48:15.159 --> 00:48:21.639
what would you have said? Well, it's kind of been going toward

688
00:48:21.760 --> 00:48:25.920
that, and now we have the
unionization situation, right, It's interesting,

689
00:48:27.000 --> 00:48:30.760
it'll be intriguing to watch what happens. I mean, it's pretty crazy.

690
00:48:31.280 --> 00:48:37.880
I have a wild idea, and
you know about if they come to college

691
00:48:37.039 --> 00:48:43.000
and just work and play football and
get a scholarship that they can use anytime.

692
00:48:44.079 --> 00:48:45.599
If they go to the NFL,
you know, they can use it

693
00:48:45.679 --> 00:48:50.159
later if they want to or whatever. But you know, the blend now

694
00:48:50.199 --> 00:48:54.760
gets tricky for me. Now you
have a two million dollar quarterback. Is

695
00:48:54.800 --> 00:49:01.840
he really thinking about chemistry? Yeah? I mean, is somebody ordering him

696
00:49:01.880 --> 00:49:06.400
to go to class? Yeah?
I mean, so, you know that's

697
00:49:06.440 --> 00:49:09.360
the part that I mean. If
I'm if I'm getting paid two million dollars,

698
00:49:09.360 --> 00:49:15.000
I'm gonna try to keep getting paid
two million dollars. And so to

699
00:49:15.119 --> 00:49:19.400
me, that's gonna be the trick. Is you're asking an awful lot of

700
00:49:19.400 --> 00:49:22.760
people when you put money on top
of a college situation in terms of athletics

701
00:49:22.760 --> 00:49:27.519
and academics. To me, yeah, it's a different game, and it's

702
00:49:27.599 --> 00:49:31.519
kind of more I think it's evolving
into more of a pro type of situation.

703
00:49:31.679 --> 00:49:37.079
I know, also, Matt,
the NCAA is trying to get this

704
00:49:37.280 --> 00:49:40.239
genie back into the bottle. I
don't know if that's possible, but you

705
00:49:40.239 --> 00:49:45.360
know they're working with some of the
major conferences to try to come up with

706
00:49:45.400 --> 00:49:49.920
a plan. Okay, let's figure
we're gonna pay the players. Let's just

707
00:49:49.920 --> 00:49:53.159
figure out how to do it.
Because you know, there's only so much

708
00:49:53.199 --> 00:49:58.079
money donors, and you've hit donors
and you get donor fatigue and everything else

709
00:49:58.159 --> 00:50:00.280
is becoming a term now. I
don't know how it's going to pan out.

710
00:50:00.920 --> 00:50:05.760
I do know this, The impact
we saw in the NFL Draft was

711
00:50:05.800 --> 00:50:10.639
I thought fairly acute. There were
fifty two early entry entries into the NFL

712
00:50:10.719 --> 00:50:15.199
Draft. On a lot of years
they're one hundred plus. Okay, so

713
00:50:15.440 --> 00:50:20.880
people, but kids are staying in
school longer because number one, they're making

714
00:50:20.880 --> 00:50:22.960
money. Number Two, if they're
going to be a second round draft choice

715
00:50:23.199 --> 00:50:28.719
or third round raft choice this year, maybe stay in a year another year,

716
00:50:28.719 --> 00:50:31.079
and maybe they're a first or second
round draft choice the following year type

717
00:50:31.079 --> 00:50:35.440
of thing. And oh they're still
getting They're making money and maybe making more

718
00:50:35.480 --> 00:50:38.920
than they'd make as a fourth or
fifth round draft choice. So that's happening.

719
00:50:39.079 --> 00:50:43.599
But on the other side of that, you got all these transfers and

720
00:50:43.639 --> 00:50:47.000
nobody there's no team building, And
as a fan, I have trouble.

721
00:50:47.119 --> 00:50:51.239
Matt and I have talked about this, Jim, I have trouble following.

722
00:50:52.000 --> 00:50:54.119
I like what Greg Guard did with
Wisconsin the past two years, brought back

723
00:50:54.159 --> 00:50:58.000
the bulk of that team, added
a player here or there. But now

724
00:50:58.079 --> 00:51:00.760
everything scatters And you know, if
I was a Duke fan they had a

725
00:51:00.760 --> 00:51:05.119
really good season, they lose what
eight of their top ten players. Well,

726
00:51:05.159 --> 00:51:07.760
they've got this big class coming in, but you know what I mean,

727
00:51:07.840 --> 00:51:12.159
it's hard to grow as a fan
with these teams. It's all about

728
00:51:12.159 --> 00:51:15.519
one year. It seems like.
Well, the NBA at at one point

729
00:51:15.599 --> 00:51:21.199
tried to change things so that players
stayed with their teams. You could make

730
00:51:21.239 --> 00:51:24.199
more money to stay with your team, so they wanted the identity that team

731
00:51:24.239 --> 00:51:30.800
building gives franchises and leagues. If
people don't know where players are and they're

732
00:51:30.840 --> 00:51:35.960
confused, the stickiness again, I'll
use that term because that's a term that's

733
00:51:36.000 --> 00:51:40.079
used in television and for advertising and
everything else. The stickiness isn't there,

734
00:51:40.119 --> 00:51:47.239
and so it's very interesting. I
mean high school kids now, didn't Wisconsin

735
00:51:47.400 --> 00:51:52.760
just decide that they weren't going to
allow nil for high school or Yeah,

736
00:51:52.800 --> 00:51:57.320
they turned it down. I think
a lot of states though, have given

737
00:51:57.360 --> 00:52:00.559
that the green light, but not
here. To me, that's I mean,

738
00:52:00.639 --> 00:52:06.719
that's crazy. You know, it
just changes it so much. I've

739
00:52:06.760 --> 00:52:13.440
always been kind of suspect regarding the
true amateurism in our country. I mean,

740
00:52:13.480 --> 00:52:15.960
I don't think there has been such
a thing at the college and Olympic

741
00:52:16.079 --> 00:52:21.400
level. It's really not amateurism in
my view, and this exposes all of

742
00:52:21.400 --> 00:52:22.599
that. It's in the open now. So that's a good thing, I

743
00:52:22.639 --> 00:52:27.320
guess. But Matt, you could
talk to this more than I can for

744
00:52:27.400 --> 00:52:31.679
sure. Is it a good thing? I don't know. Yeah, I've

745
00:52:31.719 --> 00:52:36.840
always thought that play maybe not all
he's been from the last at least twenty

746
00:52:36.920 --> 00:52:39.400
years or so. I thought players
should get something. I mean, how

747
00:52:39.400 --> 00:52:46.159
many times in the local bookstore on
Cambus you'll see a jersey with rod Dan's

748
00:52:46.239 --> 00:52:51.119
number, you know, thirty three. But he didn't get anything from that.

749
00:52:51.320 --> 00:52:54.400
You know the problem. And everybody
in athletics, I think who paid

750
00:52:54.440 --> 00:53:00.440
any attention could see this coming when
all of this hit, which is in

751
00:53:00.559 --> 00:53:04.480
il. The green light for that
was July of twenty twenty one, so

752
00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:07.920
almost three years ago, and that
coupled with the transfer portal. They had

753
00:53:07.960 --> 00:53:14.519
this pie in the sky mentality that
it can't be a recruiting inducement, and

754
00:53:15.159 --> 00:53:17.360
we're all biting our lips and try
to, you know, keep from laughing.

755
00:53:17.719 --> 00:53:21.239
Of course it is. You know, it's not supposed to be paid

756
00:53:21.239 --> 00:53:27.000
for play. Well guess what.
So, yeah, it's it now.

757
00:53:27.039 --> 00:53:30.960
Did it accelerate faster than some people
thought? Yeah? I think Greg Guard

758
00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:32.719
admitted that a couple of weeks ago, where you know, you try to

759
00:53:32.760 --> 00:53:37.920
have a certain amount of money for
in il, and it turned out that

760
00:53:37.000 --> 00:53:42.239
they needed maybe two or three times
that total, So it accelerated faster.

761
00:53:42.440 --> 00:53:45.239
But I think what they're going to
end up doing, guys, is there's

762
00:53:45.280 --> 00:53:52.280
going to be revenue sharing, so
schools will directly pay athletes and that will

763
00:53:52.480 --> 00:53:57.639
whatever that total is, however,
many millions of dollars per school. But

764
00:53:57.760 --> 00:54:00.360
you're still going to have an eye
on top of that. I would think

765
00:54:00.400 --> 00:54:05.159
an athletes still has the ability to
go out and if there's a you know

766
00:54:05.199 --> 00:54:08.079
whatever business, you could go indoors
for that. I mean, it's it

767
00:54:08.199 --> 00:54:14.039
just got like a lot of things. The idea originally Jim made sense.

768
00:54:14.480 --> 00:54:16.960
It just it was like a wildfire. It got out of control in a

769
00:54:16.960 --> 00:54:22.880
big hurry. And now, you
know, unlike professional sports like baseball doesn't

770
00:54:22.880 --> 00:54:24.599
have it. But the NBA,
in the NFL is a cap. You

771
00:54:24.639 --> 00:54:29.800
know, we're they're playing without a
cap right now. So if you don't

772
00:54:30.440 --> 00:54:32.920
have it all the money in the
world doesn't guarantee you're gonna win championships,

773
00:54:34.519 --> 00:54:37.159
but not having much money at all
all but guarantees that you have a little,

774
00:54:37.199 --> 00:54:40.760
if any chance. Well, it's
free agency now, right. The

775
00:54:40.800 --> 00:54:45.559
portal airshone that it's total free agency
in college sports. You know, as

776
00:54:45.599 --> 00:54:50.480
you're talking, I'm thinking about the
difference between in the NBA and other sports.

777
00:54:50.519 --> 00:54:52.800
Baseball you get a salary and then
at the end of the year you

778
00:54:52.880 --> 00:54:59.760
get a check for the merchandise sales. In total. Oh, it's kind

779
00:54:59.760 --> 00:55:04.039
of an escro situation on that side. Maybe they could figure out a way

780
00:55:04.119 --> 00:55:07.280
to funnel money to players. I
don't I don't know if you can do

781
00:55:07.280 --> 00:55:12.079
it equally or how you would do
that, but there's there are different levels

782
00:55:12.119 --> 00:55:16.000
of income usually and maybe they can
figure out a way to you know,

783
00:55:16.320 --> 00:55:21.000
get Ron Dain a little money for
that jersey being sold. You know,

784
00:55:21.159 --> 00:55:23.360
that could be a merchandise category.
But I mean, right now you have

785
00:55:23.440 --> 00:55:29.079
total free agency, and uh,
you know, it's pro sports in my

786
00:55:29.199 --> 00:55:30.639
view, I mean, it sure
looks like it's from here, Yeah,

787
00:55:30.639 --> 00:55:36.480
I know, you're right, You're
right, Jim kind of wrap things up

788
00:55:36.519 --> 00:55:40.880
here and Jim Pasky our guest the
Lay via the pay podcast. Jim,

789
00:55:42.519 --> 00:55:45.880
what do you see going forward with
the Bucks? And I know you're still

790
00:55:45.960 --> 00:55:52.079
following that, the whole situation and
everything. A couple of disappointing playoff runs

791
00:55:52.119 --> 00:55:58.239
since the championship. Where can this
team go because they're up against it on

792
00:55:58.320 --> 00:56:02.480
the cap and that type thing,
and what do you foresee here? Well,

793
00:56:02.480 --> 00:56:08.199
winning a championship in many ways makes
life more difficult or general managers and

794
00:56:08.239 --> 00:56:13.320
owners. It gets very expensive.
They are a second apron team now,

795
00:56:14.039 --> 00:56:21.559
and they've also left a large amount
of revenue on the table after being ousted

796
00:56:21.599 --> 00:56:24.039
from the playoffs in the first round
two years in a row. So the

797
00:56:24.039 --> 00:56:29.000
math is getting very difficult. Right, you're not taking in the revenue when

798
00:56:29.039 --> 00:56:35.280
you get beaten the first round,
and you have costs that are that require

799
00:56:35.400 --> 00:56:39.159
that revenue. And now we're talking
about patients. What kind of patients and

800
00:56:39.239 --> 00:56:44.960
deep pockets do you have to keep
playing this out? And how long is

801
00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:49.000
the window going to stay open?
They went from being a very young team

802
00:56:49.039 --> 00:56:52.079
when they won the championship three years
ago to now they're one of the oldest

803
00:56:52.079 --> 00:56:57.960
teams in the league. That's in
three years. So again, the margins

804
00:56:57.960 --> 00:57:02.639
are very slight, it's very very
delicate. It's it's difficult. I'm watching

805
00:57:04.159 --> 00:57:08.320
how this all unfolds. We have
the situation with John Horst and Detroit and

806
00:57:08.400 --> 00:57:12.719
you know, all of that going
on, and who's going to be leading

807
00:57:12.719 --> 00:57:16.360
the team and we'll see, but
I know it's not going to get easier.

808
00:57:16.400 --> 00:57:21.599
They'll find their way through this.
But the ownership then there's you know,

809
00:57:21.719 --> 00:57:25.960
Jimmy Aslam came in and now there's
a new voice on that level of

810
00:57:27.000 --> 00:57:30.159
the organization too, So there's a
lot of moving parts. There are a

811
00:57:30.159 --> 00:57:36.280
lot of difficulties going on right now, and they just have to figure out

812
00:57:36.320 --> 00:57:39.119
how to do it. In terms
of restocking the team, the draft choices

813
00:57:39.639 --> 00:57:45.000
are largely gone because they built this
team with draft choices, So now you're

814
00:57:45.039 --> 00:57:52.400
going to have to get veteran minimum
players that fit specific needs, and we

815
00:57:52.519 --> 00:57:55.519
all know how difficult that is when
you have to do that. Now you're

816
00:57:55.559 --> 00:58:01.920
down where your margins are extremely narrow
and you can't make mistakes on that.

817
00:58:02.199 --> 00:58:07.440
The money, you know it works
in your favor, but you know it's

818
00:58:07.480 --> 00:58:10.440
it's hard to get a great player
for no money, and so that's kind

819
00:58:10.480 --> 00:58:14.159
of where they're going to have to
build this up as they move forward,

820
00:58:14.199 --> 00:58:19.000
I think, but it's fascinating.
People are going to get upset perhaps that

821
00:58:19.519 --> 00:58:22.320
you know, they didn't win two
championships in three or four years. But

822
00:58:22.360 --> 00:58:27.440
it's hard to do. And you
know, some people are happy with one.

823
00:58:27.639 --> 00:58:30.119
I mean, I retired, so
I'm happy with one. But you

824
00:58:30.119 --> 00:58:34.360
know, this team should probably win
more than one. When you have your

825
00:58:34.400 --> 00:58:37.599
honest you win the first one,
you have to validate it, you know.

826
00:58:37.960 --> 00:58:39.679
That's what most people would say,
and hopefully they can do that,

827
00:58:39.800 --> 00:58:44.599
but it does not get easier.
That's what we should be learning from all

828
00:58:44.639 --> 00:58:47.719
of this. This was fun.
Yeah, yeah, this was This was

829
00:58:47.760 --> 00:58:52.400
a fun trip down every laying great
perspective and I like what you said of

830
00:58:52.440 --> 00:58:57.039
all the things we do actually work
a little bit for a living sort of

831
00:58:57.079 --> 00:59:01.880
guy. Well, I mean we're
in good shape, but we love what

832
00:59:01.920 --> 00:59:05.679
we do. And that's the key. I always tell kids, if you

833
00:59:05.719 --> 00:59:07.960
can find something that you love,
your way ahead. Well, yes,

834
00:59:08.639 --> 00:59:13.199
no doubt, Jim Pasky, thank
you so much for taking time out with

835
00:59:13.280 --> 00:59:16.079
its spend it. It's been like
an hour. But listen, you know

836
00:59:16.159 --> 00:59:20.079
I could go on and on,
but come back next year. Well,

837
00:59:20.119 --> 00:59:22.039
yeah, we have more questions for
you, and we'd love to get your

838
00:59:22.079 --> 00:59:27.639
perspective on things moving forward as we
get toward the next NBA season. I'd

839
00:59:27.639 --> 00:59:30.679
be happy to join the two of
you anytime. Thank you. This has

840
00:59:30.679 --> 00:59:35.000
been a great pleasure for me,
and you know, hopefully people can see

841
00:59:35.079 --> 00:59:37.559
things through our eyes a little differently. You know, we we know what

842
00:59:37.639 --> 00:59:42.920
we're going through and we love every
minute of it, and it's fun to

843
00:59:42.960 --> 00:59:55.760
share that with you guys. So
thanks. The Lyrivial of Pay podcast is

844
00:59:55.800 --> 01:00:02.679
presented by u W Credit Union.
Here for for you. That was fun

845
01:00:02.840 --> 01:00:07.239
catch it up with Jim Pashky,
not only a legendary broadcaster, but just

846
01:00:07.280 --> 01:00:10.199
a just a really good guy.
You know, I said, I meant

847
01:00:10.199 --> 01:00:13.559
what I said at the beginning of
that interview. He was one of the

848
01:00:13.599 --> 01:00:16.719
first over in Milwaukee, Jim,
or one obviously would be in that group

849
01:00:16.760 --> 01:00:22.039
where I work with him a little
bit, the OLDWTMJ days with the Badgers,

850
01:00:22.559 --> 01:00:25.280
and but Jim was one of the
free maybe because he had worked in

851
01:00:25.360 --> 01:00:30.280
Madison and he was relatively new with
the Bucks and the breweries at that point.

852
01:00:30.360 --> 01:00:36.000
But just you know, our path
has never crossed a ton, but

853
01:00:36.119 --> 01:00:39.119
it was always very cordial just just
a really, really good guy, just

854
01:00:39.159 --> 01:00:43.480
so happy to see his career unfold
the way it did. It was really

855
01:00:43.840 --> 01:00:46.480
just a terrific broadcasting career. Yeah, it really was. And he's such

856
01:00:46.519 --> 01:00:51.400
a class individual. And you know, in our business man there are times

857
01:00:51.760 --> 01:00:55.280
when things go well and things don't
go so well. But whether it was

858
01:00:55.360 --> 01:01:00.760
a good time in his career or
maybe not so good a time, Jim

859
01:01:00.840 --> 01:01:06.760
Paskey handled everything with class and dignity, and you have to respect that in

860
01:01:06.800 --> 01:01:09.760
addition to the fact that he was
a terrific broadcaster, because you don't have

861
01:01:09.800 --> 01:01:15.239
a career that long if you're not
good. And he was excellent at what

862
01:01:15.320 --> 01:01:19.199
he did, especially with the Bucks
that obviously is television work with the Brewers

863
01:01:19.239 --> 01:01:22.440
as well. But no, it's
really good to catch up with him.

864
01:01:22.639 --> 01:01:25.880
This is our last of the season, our last podcast of the season,

865
01:01:25.920 --> 01:01:30.679
folks. We'll pick it up with
you again in August. And mathis kind

866
01:01:30.679 --> 01:01:34.880
of the off season. I know
spring football is over now, and you

867
01:01:34.920 --> 01:01:39.199
know you're probably going to be spending
some off season time away from Madison a

868
01:01:39.239 --> 01:01:42.840
little bit, you know, tell
us a little bit about what you have

869
01:01:42.920 --> 01:01:45.920
going. Yeah, we've got as
we speak right now, or I call

870
01:01:45.960 --> 01:01:51.519
it the North Woods Bureau Dark Cabin
in Bilas County that we're doing some work

871
01:01:51.519 --> 01:01:52.679
ont up here, so we try
to get up here where we can.

872
01:01:53.519 --> 01:01:57.320
I've got an Ohio trip. You'll
appreciate this, I know, as you

873
01:01:57.400 --> 01:02:02.039
continue getting your back in order.
A lot of fellow broadcasters in the Big

874
01:02:02.119 --> 01:02:08.920
Ten we've been getting together like the
last three or four summers for some really

875
01:02:09.000 --> 01:02:15.039
bad golf, bad jokes, and
good cocktails. So this year's edition will

876
01:02:15.079 --> 01:02:19.039
be at Ohio State Paul Keels,
who we both know well. He is

877
01:02:19.679 --> 01:02:25.119
our cordial host. So that'll be
late next week leading up into Memorial Day

878
01:02:25.159 --> 01:02:29.480
weekend. So I guess the family
time there as well. But yeah,

879
01:02:29.480 --> 01:02:30.679
it's the time to do it,
you know. I keep tabs on the

880
01:02:30.719 --> 01:02:36.760
portal, you know who. They're
picking up football and basketball along the way.

881
01:02:36.840 --> 01:02:40.440
But it's kind of a getaway times
as well. I don't know how

882
01:02:40.480 --> 01:02:45.280
this works in the NFL now with
OTAs and you have the fun stuff,

883
01:02:45.280 --> 01:02:47.400
but hopefully you get a little bit
of time away from that too. Right.

884
01:02:47.719 --> 01:02:52.800
OTA start next week and they're basically
three days of on field work for

885
01:02:52.840 --> 01:02:57.880
the players, and I usually go
to at least one of those practices.

886
01:02:58.000 --> 01:03:00.960
Larry will see all three of them, but that happens for the next three

887
01:03:00.960 --> 01:03:05.679
weeks, and then there's the mandatory
mini camp, which essentially by then Matt

888
01:03:05.760 --> 01:03:10.199
Lafleur probably runs two days of full
out practice in and then they kind of

889
01:03:10.280 --> 01:03:14.159
let them go maybe a little early, or they do a bonding thing or

890
01:03:14.199 --> 01:03:17.239
something like that, but that'll wrap
it up in by mid June, but

891
01:03:17.519 --> 01:03:21.719
you know, the Packers will be
pretty much done and then they'll have like

892
01:03:21.760 --> 01:03:27.639
a five or six week period where
you know, they're off until training camp

893
01:03:27.719 --> 01:03:30.280
begins. I'm thinking somewhere around the
twenty fourth of July. That's not a

894
01:03:30.400 --> 01:03:35.360
date officially or anything like that,
but I'm just guessing, and then the

895
01:03:35.400 --> 01:03:37.480
preseason begins. But yeah, you're
right, we're coming up on that window.

896
01:03:37.559 --> 01:03:40.119
It's a great time of year for
you and I. We get to

897
01:03:40.159 --> 01:03:45.760
be fans watching other sports and get
to do things, yeah, work around

898
01:03:45.199 --> 01:03:50.559
the house and the yard and everything
else. And for me, hopefully in

899
01:03:50.639 --> 01:03:54.159
July I'll be trying to swing a
golf club again and seeing what that's like.

900
01:03:54.280 --> 01:03:59.800
But you know, it's I kind
of relish this time of year,

901
01:03:59.840 --> 01:04:02.280
man, But I also you know, I get a little antsy. I

902
01:04:02.320 --> 01:04:05.079
don't know about you, but by
the time we get into July, I'm

903
01:04:05.079 --> 01:04:09.920
thinking, Okay, shouldn't we be
getting back into this thing now? You

904
01:04:09.960 --> 01:04:13.239
know? Yeah, my wife actually
tells me that, like, shouldn't you

905
01:04:13.239 --> 01:04:16.119
be getting back any I get out
of here on my phrase. Yeah,

906
01:04:16.159 --> 01:04:23.559
I definitely enjoy the downtime. You
know, we're putting together some content and

907
01:04:23.599 --> 01:04:26.840
there's some stuff that we'll be doing
over the summer for both football and basketball.

908
01:04:26.880 --> 01:04:30.719
But it's not it's not really heavy
lifting. But yeah, the body

909
01:04:30.719 --> 01:04:33.519
clock kind of tells us when it
gets Yeah, when you get to that

910
01:04:33.559 --> 01:04:38.519
third week or so at July,
that it's probably about time to get things

911
01:04:38.519 --> 01:04:42.280
cranked up. But we know all
that works that'll get here before we know.

912
01:04:42.559 --> 01:04:45.000
Yeah, it does. The off
season flies by, that's for sure.

913
01:04:45.440 --> 01:04:48.559
Well, Matt, listen to take
care of things up at the Northern

914
01:04:48.599 --> 01:04:53.440
Bureau there with the big people you
have coming in, and you never know,

915
01:04:53.480 --> 01:04:56.760
you might have to have an nil
party there at some point. I

916
01:04:56.800 --> 01:05:01.880
don't know, Yeah, but good
luck with all of that. Special thanks

917
01:05:01.880 --> 01:05:05.559
to our guest Jim Pasky, the
legendary television voice of the Milwaukee Brewers,

918
01:05:05.800 --> 01:05:11.280
our producer, engineer is Dave McCann, our executive producer Jeff Tyler for MAP,

919
01:05:11.360 --> 01:05:14.840
This is Wayne. Thank you very
much for listening to the Laravian La

920
01:05:14.840 --> 01:05:19.079
Pay podcast and we'll talk again in
August. This has been the Larravian La

921
01:05:19.119 --> 01:05:24.960
Pay Podcast, presented by UW Credit
Union, Here for every you. The

922
01:05:25.039 --> 01:05:29.840
Larvian La Pay podcast is a production
of iHeartRadio Podcasts and is produced and engineered

923
01:05:29.840 --> 01:05:33.360
by Dave McCann with coordinating assistant Ajma
Sewer. Be sure to listen and to

924
01:05:33.440 --> 01:05:39.760
share. Every episode of the Larvian
La Pay Podcast available on iHeartRadio, Apple,

925
01:05:40.000 --> 01:05:42.280
or wherever you listen to your favorite
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