This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagon Zalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat z
R two side at iHeartRadio Steve Show. Good afternoon, everybody, welcome to
I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera,
He's Jagan Zalaz. We got Ryan in with us today. It's Thursday.
This isn't it? Yep? It is? Yeah? Does today feel like
a Friday tea? It's kind of. I feel like it's been such a
long week that I feel like you should already. Yeah. It's gone slow.
We haven't got even started this show, but it should go fast because
usually when we have good guests, it goes fast. Yep. And today
I hope that we have some great guests. Right, So, what's going
on? In addition to one hundred and thousand degree weather, My air conditioner
didn't work on the way in in my car today. Oh, I got
a lot of miles on my car. I need to figure it out.
A new car in the making. Yeah, okay, that's a reason buying
new cars to get in your conditioner that works yeah, yeah, especially in
two sons. Yeah, okay, welcome, welcome Big Twelve. We're kind
of done with that, are we. Yeah, you know, a lot
of over you know, overhanging conversation listening to a podcast on the way in
talking about would would Florida State and Clemson really really think about going to the
Big twelve? And it kind of you know, my first thought was that
I could see that, you know, because they're not well, the SEC
doesn't want them, The Big Ten doesn't want them. So if they don't
want to be in the a SEC, where do you go? There's only
one other league to go to. But financially and all those other things,
that doesn't make sense. But you know what, where we are today doesn't
make sense for where we really should be. So uh, it wouldn't be
a shocker, but it seems like once you start breaking it down, it
doesn't seem very likely. Yeah, so we'll see some more transition possibly.
I mean, it would be for a fantastic conference. Yeah, but you
know, Brett, you or Mark, you know, he said that thing
again. He said we're open for business, so you know what he's talking
about, and what kind of business they're still open for? What kind of
business is still available. Yeah, I think he came off very strong yesterday
for people who didn't know who he is or he hear from him. I
think he says what he does or does what he says. And because he's
done everything he said he's gonna do, he has, you know. And
I mean when when we were on the outside the PAC twelve watching fall apart
and break, Yormic was kind of running the show and thinking, You're thinking,
man, what an arrogant dude. But now he's our arrogant dude.
So uh, you know, well it works. If it works at works,
if he's doing things to make the league stronger and Arizona's in that league,
well then I don't know. I guess I shouldn't have a problem with
Sure. You know, you could be a very Bonds fan for the Giants
and he's your guy. Yeah, as long as you're guy, is nothing
somebody else cheering for him? Yeah, So, I you know, I
don't know. I mean, he seems seems fine, seems fine to me,
trying to do some stuff and we'll see, you know. I mean,
I I kind of would like to see things settle for a little while,
right with the conferences and stuff. Let's just yeah, let's just play
this out for a little while. Let the let the college football playoff play
out for a little while. Let's let this new Big twelve basketball league play
out for a little while. You got this for a year, We've got
this for a year. Who knows what that's not a while? How many
months do you need? I need? I need like three or four years,
three or four years. Just let's play these leagues. Let's see how
they flush out. By the time you're sixty eight, things could be different
or before that. Actually, yeah, you know, it's it's it's all
you know what about now and let's get this done now. And that's it.
Everybody's in it for you know what we can do now. So I'm
I'm I'm hoping that we do. We have the asue A d tomorrow,
right, we can take them from I'm hoping to get this right here soon
in the next week or so. Everybody had a chance with her at Vegas,
and actually somebody asked me, how can we didn't go to Vegas?
Now we were reserved all the time for big games in Vegas. Although we
could have gone, we could have gone. It might have been good to
go and do some live shows from there. But I don't know. I'm
okay with that. We're here, we did this from here. We got
some good people there. But I wanted to ask her a lot of different
things. You know, they talked about tickets. Everyone's enthusiastic about what's happening.
She knew she's going to be enthusiastic. Uh, But there's so many
pressing issues. You know. Obviously Brennan was not her higher none of them,
none of them. She was the last one. Yeah, right,
But I think that she's she's coming in a good time. I'm talking athletically
in terms of in terms of good coaches with a good future. Then programs
are in good shape. You know, they're they're winning games, they're in
you know, postseason, that kind of stuff. Financially not so much,
not so much. Yeah, So there are different compartments and how she's coming
in athletically pretty good on the up trend, uh, financially on the down
trend or or I don't know. Maybe they were right ridden the ship to
a to a possible straight line. For now, it's too soon. I
don't think I told you agree with that. There still has to be a
lot of stuff going on internally, a lot of probably you know, you
just hear that there's a lot of changes happening over there. You know.
You know, some people say it's not so great, and but it's not
going to be great when you're trying to fix the financial situation. They're sure
in right, right, you know. You look at you you have a
car. It's a nice car, and you need a new car probably,
yeah, And there's only one thing you could put out to do, get
a new Get a new car. Get a new car, because the old
car is served its purpose and then you get to move on. It's got
a lot of miles and that's what she's in now. I mean, it
served its purpose and now they have to move on because they're in that situation,
right, you know. And and again you know, it changes hard
usually, you know much so you know on stuff like that, when it's
a big change like that, I know, you know, I came into
you know, going to my history I community TEP at the time that it
was going through a lot of change like that, and initially a lot of
people didn't like the change that was taking place. But ultimately we you know,
we got you know, we got that ship right, and and then
and it's been good ever since. And then more and then more change yeah,
and then yeah yeah, and then it continued to change. It continued
to change until they changed me out. So you know, but it's it's,
uh, you have to go through these things, and and when when
you have to fix something, you sometimes the first thing you do you do
some very drastic and dramatic things to kind of not to get everybody's attention,
but to let people know, look, it's it's it's different now, and
it has to say it has to be different because what we've been doing hasn't
been working. So we'll see how things go over there. But yeah,
we need to get her in here and and just talk a little bit about
you know, maybe some plans, some you know, some some theories or
thoughts are moving forward, right because she did not come into a good spot
pinentially, but you know who I mean who was in a good spot?
Steve? You know, there's a there's you know, you can probably count
him on one or two hands, the number of athletic programs that consider themselves
in good shape. Right, and then with all this stuff that's coming down
the pike, particularly this whole issue of paying athletes and twenty plus million dollars
a year, you know, in revenue sharing. That's that's hard, and
it's gonna be hard on everybody. And and I don't know how you how
you look at it any other way, and it's gonna be a big challenge
for everybody, right right, And some people, well, the Joneses are
getting better, and then the jones who aren't. The Joneses are not.
And and really what you need to do is you need to keep your programs
in good enough shape so that they keep winning. So you keep selling tickets,
generating revenue, selling gear, getting on TV. Uh, you know,
get get fans interested in your stuff because that that comes with it.
You know, winning It's not going to solve everything, but it can solve
some things, or it can get you towards solutions if you're bringing in a
lot of revenue for your for your your sports, particularly football. We'll try.
We'll probably have the same conversation with a shoe tomorrow. Just the new
life that they have in the New Big twelve, the new ed the financial
situation, right, because it's no secret they're in trouble too. Yeah,
no, everybody is. And I think they're worse trouble than Arizona. And
yea, here you got a guy who's been in the department and so you
know, you want to talk about a challenge, he's got to do something
other than what they've been doing. But he's been in there already, right
with a with a with athletic success not that good right there historically. Yeah,
I mean, you know, they've got a couple of teams that you
know, they won a national swimming championship and stuff like that then immediately lost
their coach. But you know it's uh, yeah, it's gonna be.
It's tougher if you're especially football and basketball those teams that they just have to
win to generate revenue for your program. Right, Okay, so let's say
talk about real quick about today's guess. We have Joseph Blair former. You
have a basketball player here coming in in about fifteen minutes, uh ten minutes
actually, and then that should be fun because we've had him on about a
month ago. He's coming back to town to have a basketball camp. He
was known for his camps, but when he was coming in and out of
Tucson every now and again. So that'll be fun. Yeah, well he's
always good too. He's he's big body, history, a lot of experience,
will you know, talk to him about what's going on, what's going
on around the NBA, you know, the the the the Olympic team is
uh started playing exhibition games. I didn't watch any of it, but I
saw that they that they beat Canada. It was a good game. It
was a fun game to watch, you know. In Vegas, a lot
of discussion of you know, with the with the Kawhi Leonard going out,
who they brought in, you know, and who they didn't who they didn't
bring in, right, And that's what the conversation was about who they brought
in, but who they who didn't who didn't get in, and that was
Jaylen Brown. So uh, you know, but you know, I'm gonna
have fun watching that because one didn't action's that forgot just didn't think about the
fact that Steve Curtz coaching that team. So uh, you know, I
was thinking as they were talking about it today, I was thinking, man,
he's got he's got his work cut off from to be coaching you know,
Kevin Durant, Lebron James, Uh, you know, all these guys
that are on this team, all these egos that are on this team,
they're giving their time to do this. I'm sure the game pay something,
but you know, they're giving their time to do this where they otherwise might
be just relaxing and getting ready for the for next season. And now he's
got to put them together and get him to play some basketball. Plus USA
is not used to losing the basketball, but they have, but they have
yeah recently, Yeah, with with the spread of basketball internationally, right,
right, So, so yesterday I was sold Canada is the second betting favorite
to win the Gold and they paid them last night. And their roster's pretty
pretty good too. Uh So, so we'll see. And it's the first
came up with an exhibition, so who knows. But there's a lot of
great talent out there. And you're right, Steve, Steve Curry has a
lot of workout cut out for him. And you know what, I don't
I don't think they care if they play or don't play, or how much
minutes they play. Well, but see, that was the conversation because you
know, like maybe a Kawhi Leonard who's got you know, injured a lot
and stuff like that, he's like, Okay, I'm here, I'll play
if you need me, YadA, YadA, YadA. But let's say you
go get somebody who's maybe not been there before and who thinks he's really good
and it maybe is really good. Well, he wants to play. Edwards
from Minnesota was pretty fantastic yesterday. He's he's going to be the new star.
Yeah. Well, and Kahi is not playing obviously. Uh, that's
what I'm saying. He's out. So you know they're not going over there
to spend their summer to be sitting at the end of the bench either.
None of those guys are used to being on the bench. Right. Well,
I'm sure he's got a way of doing things like this, so you
know how to work it. And then in the second hour we're going to
have mister Rick McGee who will be in. He's a local Refuh, he's
gonna bring our guests on to another another referee. There's and this is not
a shock to you, Jay, because you're a coach. There's a shortage
of refs everywhere because they're get tired of getting yelled at. Right. I
know some of them don't get paid, some of them do, but very
little you know, you you suck ref get it fixed, four eyes.
There's there's no glory in it. I can tell you that, right,
No, No, So we'll talk about that, the need for more referees
in everything and everything, because it's it's not and it's not a safe sport
either. I mean it's not. It's not. And you see, you
know, you see stuff on social media and stuff about refs getting you know,
getting beat up or getting you know, threatened, threton getting uh uh
you know, I mean I I I refed a city league one summer,
and uh, you know, we would have they would have occasional meetings just
to and we had a meeting and they say, I'd be careful. You
know. One of our one of our refs got a gun pulled on them
in the parking lot after city league basketball game, right, And I said,
you can take me off the schedule after this week, right, yeah,
you know for twenty bucks a game, you know, go ahead and
take me off the schedule. And you know, it's not that important to
me. I was kind of having fun, but not not very not not
not that you know, I'm not I'm not going to some you know,
be walking out of some gym in the dark and have a guy come up
and pull a gun on me. Not happening, you know. Yeah,
No, it's of times. We well that was what was That was probably
years ago. I know, it's only escalated, escalated, you know,
and we see it now more because of the social media. Because of social
media, you know. I just probably a week ago, something came across
my my thread and there was a Little League game and a parents. All
of a sudden, you see a parent come into you know, come come
into the picture and walks up to the umpire shoves him to the ground.
Yeah, like, what are you doing? Could not be that important?
What are you doing to that important? What are you doing? Yeah?
And this pretty sense the the guy's on video, so I'm guessing he maybe
spent a night in jail or you know, had some you know, it
cost him a little bit of money or something. But what are you doing?
Yeah? Right, Okay, Uh, let's uh it's a three thirds
We got about a minute we can then we're gonna get ahold of Joe so
player or the other side he is and call us anything else. Yeah.
Well, I'm I'm just you know, for for our listeners, for our
listeners pleasure. I the Dodgers lost to and rode to the Philly, So
I put a little, a little ten dollars money line on him right now.
And it's the top of the first standing, so we'll keep track of
that. They got to run around first, so you Dodger fans expect it's
going to zero for three. It's Steve. I'm doing well the spaceball sea.
Just let me alone, okay, I believe you. All right,
let's take a break. We'll be right back with Joseph Blair. The Window
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your free evaluation today. Dreamy Live, I mean, iHeartRadio WAP. This
is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen
fifteen. Hey, welcome back to win on the Ball here on Fox Sports
fourteen. Cookie, I'm Steve Rivera, He's Jacob saus Now I want to
poa. We have one of my favorite guys, Joe sol Blair from the
UFA Best Buck Team in the mid six mid nineties ninety six, he almost
said mid sixties. I want to say thinety six, Jam, how are
you? If you would have said sixties? I might have hung up the
phone. I'm doing better now that you're correct. I won't tell anybody how
old you are, but you're you're getting up there. You know what,
though, every time I see you on the video, you're in the best
shape of your life. You know, God loves me. That's all I
can say. And I take care. I try to take care of myself,
you know. I'm you know, I'm a big advocate for veganism as
well. So you guys need to get on that vegan tip if you want
to look like this. No, he's honestly, yeah, no, I
hear you this forever too, like at least twenty years, baby that been
vegan. Yeah, it'll be ten years in November. Ten years. But
you know, you know, honestly, I was vegetarian for a very long
time. I was vegetarian for ten years, TESCA team for three then I
you know, slipped up for about seven before I started to becoming before I
became vegan. So now I'm here to stay though. Yeah, six foot
ten, in great shape, and I'll mean, we're those suits, those
dapper suits. JB. Now you're back. You're going to be back in
Tucson for a while. I am. I'm excited, man. You know,
I don't get honestly, I don't get any chance to come back to
Tucson anymore. So I'm coming back in a couple of weeks. I'll be
there. So watch out, Tucson. Here I come. I'm excited for
it. Well tell us, tell us you got your You do some camps,
right, so tell us about all that. But what's going on so
many Tucson is no For twenty years I did the Arizona Basketball Academy there in
Tucson, just for all the kids. In a sudden Arizona's a free charge
of basketball camp based on social skills and leadership skills that we tried to implement
through the camp process about six years ago. Because I left Tucson and just
couldn't because of my schedule with the coaching, I wasn't able to continue the
camp. But this year, I'm bringing it back and I'm naming asked my
mother for I don't know. My mother passed away about four years ago from
complications with lung cancer. So you know, she got the name Mama Blair
from working in the basketball camps. I figured it's the best thing I could
do is bring it back, and now it's a Mama Blair basketball camp.
So bringing it back the end of this month for two days Friday Saturday July
the twenty seventh, twenty sixth, and twenty seventh. So I'm excited about
it. And also this time I'm bringing in some of my NBA coaching friends
as well. They're flying into town just for this support it. So it's
going to be a good, good opportunity, not just for these coaches to
learn about a sudden Arizona, but a lot of these kids to work with,
work hands on with some NBA coaches or high level coaches. Are you
are you in DC still or that area? I'm right now. I'm in
Houston. I'm going through the hurricane right now. Honestly, I just we
just had a big we just had a big storm come through again. My
power went out. So I'm sitting at Whole Foods right now on the phone
because I know that they have a generator here. Wow, So your Houston's
tough. I know DC's going through. It's a heat wave. So you're
bringing back your guys to one hundred and ten degrees. I hope they like
it. It's a dry eat. They'll be fine, you know. Both
all everybody just signed up as soon as I told them it was from my
mom, they said, sign me up right away. I'm on board.
They know how much my mom meant to me and also how important she was
in the Tucson community and in just my life to push me to where I
am basketball wise. So they really signed up and they're all on board as
soon as they knew was about my mom. So I'm happy to say that,
and just I honestly I honored that they even would take the time out
of the schedules. You know, the NBA schedule is pretty tough. You
don't get a lot of time off. So the fact that we're coming to
dedicate that time to the Tucson community, it means a lot. So I've
known you for a long time. You came here in ninety two, ninety
three I think it was, And you know how much I know your mom
loved you. She was your pr person back then. She was always and
your biggest fan. Oh, without a doubt, anyone that anyone that ran
into my mom found out about me, exactly where I was, what I
was doing, and what I had for dinner. My mom will definitely always
talked it up, not just me, but also my brother Jonathan and all
her grand kids as well. And you know, I can't tell you how
much the Tucson community meant for her. I remember every year, right around
the time in which she moved to Tucson, the anniversary of it, she
would call me and just say, Joseph, thank you again forgeting me to
come out to Tucson. I love it here. I left the people,
and she was the person that if you ran into her, she never acted
like she didn't know you. She always acted like she was your best friend
or pray over you, talk over you, and then even to spend time
to choose days just to drive around saying hello to people to make sure they
felt so close to her. So there's the community is so close to and
I'm so happy to bring this back to the community. In fact, I'm
also which I'll push you more information that comes out. I'm working with the
City of Tucson to redo the Palaverta Park on the east side. We're going
to redo that court and name it after my mom as well. So working
now to raise funds for that, so forthcoming. If you're interested, reach
out to Steve and see, reach out to me, and then you give
me the information and let's make this happen. Okay, so they can send
to our Facebook page. Absolutely, Yeah, get some stuff to us and
we'll get it up on our on our social media. Joseph, I love
hearing stuff like that because, you know, as a native Tucson and you
grew up here and been here my entire life. You know, when I
see somebody come from somewhere else and care as much as you do, that's
that says a lot. And I think it says a lot about our community.
What ELSEO says a lot about people who come here and stay and fall
in love with the place. So I really appreciate you you doing that.
Let me ask you, so when you when you do this the camp,
what do you want the kids participating in that to walk away with? What
do you want them to have when they when they leave? And by that,
I mean what's the experience you're trying to give them. Well, you
know, when I first started those camps years ago, the big thing with
it for me was a community involvement. What I wanted is kids from all
different socioeconomic backgrounds, if in areas of the city, to come together and
create friendships, create community. That's what it's about. Right. You know,
anybody's ever seen me speak in front of you the last thing I said
is go and introduce to someone yourself, to someone you don't know, so
we can create community in southern Arizona. And I still believe that to this
day. So number one, first and foremost, what I want them to
walk away with is hopefully a new friendship, seing that they didn't know and
now they walk away from that camp knowing, but also the just confidence in
themselves. You know, our goal is to kind of walk them and talk
them through basketball skills but also life skills, and encourage gym and push them
and let them learn about what team being a team means and that automatically transfers
over to the end and the community means. But also for those that are
already skilled in basketball, we definitely want to leave them with some kid bits
of information, knowledge and wisdom that they can become better at their sport as
well. So just a number of things. And honestly, the other great
thing is I'm partner with with Ray Floyd is over the el Chorrow, they're
bringing in lunch for the kids. There's going to be all vegan lunch for
the kids too, so for them to experience what a good vegan meal meal
is as well. So I'm excited about so many different things, having the
guys come in from out of town, and really just I think that a
lot of times in Sudden Arizona, the kids that I've recognized there have felt
like the Southern Arizona's kind of this corner of the country that no one knows
about. But I want to introduce them to people that know about Arizona or
there to support Arizona and help build not only the community but also them as
individual. So I saw on the press release you're hoping to get seventy.
Where are you at now and if people want to have their kids play or
sign up, how do they do that? Yeah, so we have a
few spots, just a couple left, but after that it would be more
of a wait list. But what I will do. I will also send
you the link you can put on your Facebook page so that you can put
that up for anyone who's interested in registering. And I'll probably put something out
on my Facebook or or my social media links in the next day or so
as well. Okay, no, super, we're talking Joseph Blair as a
basketball player. Final four guy, right, Joseph, Yeah, you're paying
attention much to the Olympics. You've heard of the coach over there, and
what's what's going on with that? Well, I mean, of course it's
a it's a big deal, and I think that not only that, but
the competitive nature of the Olympics right now is at all time high. I
think no one's ever thought, first of all, let's talk about basketball wise,
because I'm talking about basketball right now. The competitive nature of what we're
expecting for the basketball games is going to be so high. I think it's
a must watch TV. There's so many NBA players that European and just worldly
global influence on the NBA itself. And now I was going to transfer over
to Canada's USA team play together, I hope. So I love Steve and
he's got a great opportunity to coach these guys, so I'm cheering for them.
But I will say there's other teams. You know, we saw Canada
the game last night and they didn't beat them by thirty points. So it's
continue to get better. You look at the Bahamas has a good team now,
Puerto Rico qualified, which no one expected. So there's just a lot
of really good teams. You know, the Serbian teams always going to be
good as well, So it's going to be very interesting to watch these games.
And then as a whole, I think that sports has had such a
global impact now, I mean that it wasn't in the past. That I
think everything's going to be so much more competitive than what we've ever experienced up
until this point. So it's going to be exciting time to watch the Olympics.
So I said this, I think maybe last last week to the listeners.
Back in nineteen ninety one ninety two. I think it was when I
first started coming the basketball team with Luton and all these guys. They did
a camp him and Huggins, some of the Nike guys, and we talked
about just the influx of international players only because they were going to Europe and
coaching at Perniki camps, right, And he said, I asked them,
well, when do you think it's going to eventually come where they're going to
be just as good? He says, it's going to happen soon enough.
And it's happened soon enough. Oh yeah, for sure. I think that
one of the big things that you have to recognize is, you know,
there's a big difference on what it means to be growing up in a basketball
world in Europe or outside of America, I should say in in America.
Number one, you know, most of these teams there's not high school basketball
teams. There's not AAU teams anywhere, but in America. Outside of America,
it is a professional team that takes these kids science into multi year contracts
when they're young, even if they're not getting paid, and they grew up
in the system of that basketball team. So they're so fundamentally sound in everything
they do. Where conversely, you look at us, I think years ago
we were ahead because we played so much pickup basketball. We kind of learned
to move and groove without the basketball and really put us ahead skill wise.
Well, now the skill of their fundamental work is really catching up with our
skill as far as our athleticism, and now it's become more of a skill
based game. You have the three point shooting big men that are shooting more
where in America we're all like, okay, let me dunk on somebody,
let me do this, let me make that big move that leads to this,
And now their fundamental skills have caught up with us as well. And
then also I have to say I think that they they're beginning to value the
game a little bit more than we have because of AU basketball. It's just
say you have a tournament you're going to and you're going to play five games,
regardless. They don't get that. They go to the tournament, they
lose, they go home, So they really prize and they value each game
for what it is. It's not another game coming that weekend. If you're
going to a tournament, you're playing that tournament. You're playing in leagues where
each game matters, so you really play with that pressure constantly throughout your youth.
And that includes there under sixteen teams under fifteen, hunder eighteen, whatever
it is, they're in the league itself, so every game really counts compared
to a lot of our kids. What's happening now is and nothing against it
because I do think has provided a lot of opportunities and it's also a good
strategy for avoidance of keeping kids out the streets and keep him out of trouble.
But this complete influx of these games that really quote unquote don't matter or
are becoming problematic and helping other countries catch up with us basketball wise, skill
wise, well you you wouldness this too because you your career was mostly in
Europe. Yep, yep, for sure. And you know, and that's
when I noticed it right away, because even on my team, you know,
we have young guys that they might not played, but they got to
practice with us. They really got to practice at a very high level and
understanding what it meant to be a professional. So as they come into the
NBA, these guys know what it means pretty professional. I mean, you
look at a Lucradancic. I mean, obviously he's an amazing representation of European
basketball, but he's been playing at a very high level since he was a
very young child. Does this doesn't happen in the United States? So I
think it's going to continue to be that way. They're going to find these
diamonds in the rafts and they're going to have the experience that we don't.
We can't provide our youth here in America as well. So it makes them
not only more fundamentally sound, but also just more experience in general. Let
me ask you something because this is this has been a big I guess the
topic of conversation is, you know, you're being a big guy played in
the middle back to the basket kind of guy, and we talk about how
that guy's sort of disappearing from the NBA, you know, and you see
a guy like Zach Edy, who was so dominant in college basketball. You
know, five maybe not five years ago, maybe little longer, he would
have been the number one pick hands down in the NBA draft, and there
was a question whether he would even go in the first round this year.
Tell us a little bit about the evolution of that position in the NBA and
what's happened to it and where do you think it's headed. Well, you
know, the issue here is like the speed of the game has changed.
You know, you look back in the day to win, to see an
NBA game, you could easily see a score of seventy five to eighty one
and you think, oh, that was a good game. Now, if
you saw a score of seventy five to eighty one, NBA be like,
what the hell happened that they only scored eighty one points. Everyone expects one
hundred and twenty points, for sure, over one hundred points. If you
still score one hundred points, it's something something's gone haywire. Where ten years
ago, fifteen years ago, it wasn't like that everyone. You know,
if you got a hundred, it was a big deal. You know,
if you think it back in high school days and even before that, the
clocks didn't even go up to one hundred points. Now every clock goes at
least hundred points because that's expected. So with the speed of the game happening
like that, the evolution of that or back to the basket big man has
kind of falling off. And honestly, you know, not to get into
analytics, but analytically speaking, a post player is really is a bat percentage
shot unless you're dunk in the basketball every time. So a guy like Shaquille
O'Neil that turns down the dunks on everybody, heck, yeah, you're going
to give him the ball. The guys are shooking, shooting hook shots from
the middle of the paint, fayaways, those type of things, unless they're
high, high percentage players. And I'm not taking anything away from a guy
like Joel Embiid as a special player. You can do that. Kawhi Leonard
in the post is a special player. He can do that. But what's
happening is these guys from college they have yet to prove that they can be
that high percentage back to the bashit player. So you're not going to look
for them because you already have guys that are on your team. They're scoring
twenty five to thirty a game, and if you're posting up, you're getting
in their way, right if they want to get to the rim and they
want to shoot threes. So those are two big percentage shots you want to
do. Number One, you want to get to the rim at the highest
percentage shot outside of a free throw, and hopefully you'll get found if you
don't make the rim attempt. Other than that, you want to get to
the threes, corner threes and working their way back out to long range threes
above the break threes. So if you have a big guy that's constantly posting
up, you really just end up being in the way. So a lot
of you you know, pick and roll actions that are high, all time
high is going to continue to be so. So if you're an athletic rim
rolling big, you're going to do well. If you're a guy that can't
move very quick, you're not you know, and this going kind of goes
to your example. He's not a super super explosive player, but he does
have the size, So the one thing he will always be good at is
they're going to use some defensively. You look at a guy like Rudy Gobert,
He's utilized well because he's so well at protecting the room so defensively,
they'll always be around offensively, in my opinion, is where it's going to
be a little bit different. One quick last question, Jab, you're not
in the league now after some time with the Wizards, you hope to get
back in it, and I know you took you had a chance to be
a head coach for a few games. I think he was doing COVID or
maybe a little after COVID. How was that. Yeah, as far as
my job opportunities right now, you know, I just finished my contract with
Washington Wizards. I'm kind of just waiting to see what door God's going to
open up for me. I'm not really stressing it. I have faith that
everything's gonna work out the way it should work out for me. That always
has You know, I didn't plan on being where I'm at now or where
I was the last few years, but God made a way for it.
So I'm super faithful and know that it's going to happen and as far as
the the games I coached, it was yeah, so was there any kind
of that COVID period? At three games, three big games Philadelphia, Toronto,
and Brooklyn, and I one of those three and the other two I
lost by combined five points, So it was right there. On top of
things. We beat Philadelphia, which was my first win as an NBA head
coach. An awesome experience and just really caught me off guard. That day.
I found that our game was an afternoon game at three o'clock. I
found a ten to fifteen in the morning, ten thirty that I was going
to be the coach that day. Wow, So running to the arena,
trying to get everything situated prep for the game, put my plays together for
after timeouts, beginning of quarters, those type of things. But it was
an unbelievable, great experience. And I will say that being a head coach
in the G League, I won the championship as the G League head coach,
it really cultivated me to be ready for that opportunity when it came up.
So I'm super blessed for this experience in the NBA and and the G
League and all the people along the way, every player and staff, remember
I've ever worked with as part of the success I found and the man that
I am today. Okay, well, get your PR people to send you
the stuff, you know, the stuff that we need and we'll post it
for getting up there. You got it, You got it. Thanks JB.
Man. That will see you soon. All right. Always a blessing
brother. Good talking to you. I'm here, Jamie, appreciate you.
Joseph Bler, all right, take care. We'll come back and the side
take a little bit more about some of the stuff you talk. We're very
back. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful
for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at the Ludolsen era in
my new book, Lessons from Loot. It was a labor of love through
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from Lut is an insight to how he built the program into a national powerhouse.
What one email me at Steve dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com.
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Slash Someday State up second. It's so hot and sticky. I can't
stand this humidity. I'm melting. So you can either check for hot flashes
than duck or call picture rocks, cooling, eating and plumbing. It's not
hot flashes. We're calling pick rocks cooling. He didn't and plumbing right now
at five two zero four, nine, two zero seven or eight comming breaking
down all the exes at OHS. It's Steve Rivera and Jagen Salax. This
is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Hey, welcome back
to Iron the Ball Hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's
Jagan Zalaz. He's got a guy Ryan with us today. Fifteen minutes if
you want to call five two zero four one six seventy four forty. We
really appreciate it. Good to have Jav back on the show. He's always
good at these camps and people and the kids love him and he does really
well with these Well. He's a really thoughtful dude. Right, he's smart
as hell, well spoken, right, arn't hell well spoken? Heart's in
the right place. Yeah, just wants to do this and give some kids
a great experience. I did a story. I don't know if you're working
for a biz two soon at the time. But I did a story on
him, I don't know, eight ten years ago because Steve wanted it because
he was doing so much in the community. And one of the things that
the storyline was how much he had changed and being a college guy, right
uh he and how kind of he grew up and he grew up and he
got it and it was so many so much to the community. Uh,
Loot. It was very proud of him because of he give Loot a lot
of crap. He was he was, remember that he wasn't easy, right,
And and that's it. That's the impression he got from you know,
watching him play, watching him on the sideline. Yeah. Uh, just
an image that he had of a guy that was, you know, he
had his own way of Lincoln right right. Uh. And he did that
and now he's this guy he's, you know, an entrepreneur, but a
guy who rallies the troops for for locals, well you know, and and
he went, you know, he went to Europe and played basketball, made
the most of it financially secure and and then it gave him options. And
then when you're you know, you're you're that kind of a thoughtful kind of
guy with you, who wants to do things for other people. And you've
got the means to do that, man, you can make a huge impact.
And that's and he's just trying to do that, right. Well,
it's there's a lot to be said for him. And to your point of
asking that question, it's like the Cory Williams who does the same thing with
his summer league, uh, dedicated to a court for somebody a while back
from the city. JB's gonna try to do that into Pelaverti. Uh,
you know, the Joe Nells who have stayed in town, those guys who
have stayed in town did Lamont's. I love all those guys, you know,
because they came Some of them came from far away places, you know.
You know, the Huntleys are from Pennsylvania, right, Virginia, Virginia,
Virginia, and you know, and and and they're here and they've made
it, they've made their lives here. And I love guys you know who
do that, who come to a place that means so much to me,
right, and that they see what we see and and and they stay here.
And I love the all those guys that do that. You know,
Corey, Corey Williams Lamont love it. Uh. Uh, Joan Nell's.
Uh, there's a few. There's a whole bunch of those guys you know,
in in in various who just come here to place, you know,
play sports. And it stuck around the Bobby Elliott's and that group too.
We had herm Harris, Herman Harris, that group of guys came in,
Harvey Thompsons and Bobby Thomson. Bobby Ali came here in the mid seventies,
you know, and you know, fifty years later, he's still here.
You know. To me, that's just really cool as a again, as
a native and somebody who's you know, I'm proud of this place. You
know, it's been good to me and I you know, I've tried to
do things for it and and uh, it's cool that these guys come here
and kind of see the same thing. And you know, I mean JB
doesn't have to come back here and do this stuff, but you know,
the place was important to his mom and that became the fact that became important
to his mom says a lot about you know, what we have here.
So I think it's very cool and I love you know, we can do
whatever we can to help. I saw we got the link for that,
so we'll get that up. We'll get to Okay, cool, cool,
we did already. Yeah, I sign it on my watch. Okay I
didn't, so I didn't get it, So that's cool. Oh I think
you know, I think may It may have sent it by to our Twitter
feed or something. Oh okay, all right, anyways, so no,
that's very cool. So yeah, well we'll be sure to get that stuff
up for everybody. You get two weeks I think it's two weeks from today
and tomorrow, the twenty sixth and twenty seventh. Yeah, yeah, all
right, Uh anything else with this, It was good. Good to talk
to him. In the next hour, we're gonna have uh, mister McGhee
to talk about talk about reference referee, yeah and all that, the need
for it. They're always looking for people to come on the scene and do
a good job with that too. Yep. Okay, yeah for sure.
So you know, I'm I'm flipping through flipping through social media. It's my
Gundy thing is getting more and more legs. Yeah, tell me, just
there's just more and more people going on there and ripping him for what he
said. And what you know, don't you think that? Okay, so
you know it's been done. The guy got it, d u I it's
been said. He kind of excused it away. Don't you think that the
school needs to step in and just say something? If you were to say
something, right, if you're an administrator and you've been in a PR department
for a long time, wouldn't you say something? Wouldn't you do something?
Well, Steve that it just goes to show that the power of a football
coach in a place like still Water, Oklahoma. Well, let me say,
and Tucson Arizona, right right, that's why. Yeah, I mean
we're in that way, you know, but last year as well, last
year was the same thing. If you can run thrown in the past whatever.
We don't care if you had sex with a sixteen year old, right,
you know, I mean it's just I don't know, but I guess
we could sit here and talk to a blue in the face about what he
did and what we think he did wrong. You know what, he doesn't
really care. Well, here's the thing about here's the thing that I think,
and I talk about this all the time. What's college for? What's
college for? You mean? And what we would call you to learn,
to learn, to learn a skill and go get a job, to get
exactly uh, and to specifically to learn and kind of grow up. Wouldn't
this be a great teaching moment, wouldn't it be? Yeah, it's supposed
to be. He screwed up. We kind of give you something. Take
a seat, Take a seat, you know, a couple of games because
of what you did, You're gonna lose something that you value. There you
go, right, I mean that that that was how we got disciplined when
you were a kids, right. Right. It's easy for two dudes and
son to talk about it, right, but it's universal apparently, what what's
the switch the beef? Now? What are they saying just the same thing
that you can't You can't say it's okay to drive drunk because I did it,
because we all do because we all did it. It's okay, you
know, and and and and that's the that's the main thing that people are
saying, What the hell are you doing? You know, you're you're you're
giving this guy h a free pass on something that people shouldn't be getting free
passes for. And a lot of people don't get free passes for you know,
they lose people lose jobs for for things like that. And this kid's
not even gonna miss a game. Yeah, well, you know, and
then to say, well, he's making a lot of money, so you
know, he's gonna it's gonna cost him some stuff, so he'll take care
of it there too. You know, he'll have to pay for his lawyer
and YadA, YadA YadA. So yeah, that's his punishment. You can't
well, and he even admitted and he's okay with it because he has the
money to do it, right, paid a lot of money. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, he'll he'll lose some money, and but you know,
but he makes a lot of money, so not that big a deal.
It is a big deal. It is a big deal, you know.
Uh, coming on the heels of all these accidents we've seen, you know,
all the stuff that was going on in the Georgia program of of you
know, of players and athletes who again think that the law doesn't apply to
them. So I'm gonna go, I'm gonna drive drunk and I'm gonna do
all these things and you can't stop me. I still believe that the Oklahoma
state people should and will have something to say about it, because he's what,
he's underage. School policy has to say something. I remember a ton
of times back when I was doing this as a young kid here at the
citizen tracking down student not student privacy stuff, but uh uh breaking student code
of conduct because it all applied, it all applied, and and and as
much as the coaches hated it to talk about it, loot and and dick
and all that, you know, Melvin was shooting up a fire shot at
you know, he gets suspended from from their team to go to Hawaii.
I think it was you didn't get a but uh, it was student conduct.
So if you screw up as a student athlete, you're held accountable for
as a student athlete, not so much as a football player, as a
student. So I don't know why I didn't apply for that. I don't
either. I don't either. Well, I mean, if you got it,
if you'd gotten to Duan College, would you would your university have done
anything to you? Probably? I don't know. They got caught in un
campus police. I don't. Yeah, I don't know, you know,
yeah, I don't know. It's just well, I know, let me
tell you who A good good guy Hassan Adams did that he got caught up.
Uh. In his follow years, Lute had to talk about it.
I think he was suspended a little time or two. Uh. And at
the time he was a junior senior and a big part of the team.
I don't you probably don't rematter that you remember that. I remember because I'm
looking at you, like what well and Khalid Reeves's situation so when he was
in trouble that became very public. I don't know if anything happened suspended wise.
I think he was thrown out because not nothing ever came in he came
with that. So you don't what I'm saying. It's it's it's very it's
a fine line and a slippery slope, as you said, But but this
one, I mean, they've acknowledged that he did it right and so but
they're still saying, well, yeah, yeah, that's so bad. Well,
the thing about it with you, because you're in the pr of the
world you were before he he should have known what to say before he actually
went yea. And that's a part of what what people are saying as well,
too, Like you knew this was coming. You specifically brought him to
answer the questions about this, So you should have been ready to answer the
question about this. Instead you come up with this off the cuff kind of
flipping the lackadaisical flipping, perfect flippant, you know, commentary about you know,
a player getting the d u I and why you think he doesn't need
to be missing any games or be you know, disciplined and beyond what what's
gonna happen with him? Uh, you know, with the law. And
it's like, I guess that's what we've gotten to, that's where we are.
So I don't know, I'm just I brought it up just because I
you know, during the break, I was looking at there's still he's still
getting ripped. Dan Walkin wrote a column about him the podcast with Pat forty
and and Dan Wets and those guys Ross Stellinger. They were ripping him.
They ripped him for a good ten minutes about just you can't do that right
and and and again. But the bottom line is he doesn't care what anybody
thinks because he if he did, he wouldn't have said what he said right
right, and and he would have changed it by now it's what two three
days removed. Yeah, at least two days removed. Yeah, but you
know he's his star, he's his star running back. They've got it.
They've got a chance to have a really good team, and that apparently supersedes
everything else. Well, this is my thing that I've said when Delora was
in whatever, in trouble, at least publicly, what price victory? What
price victory? Yeah? Your your dignity or how much do you say?
I would have been okay with it if he'd gotten us to a rose.
I'm just kidding. There's your price. We found your price. That was
a joke, everybody. That was a joke. Sorry, it's all in
the delivery. Well yeah, yeah, but you know it's there's this kind
of okay, you know whenever he's young, well you know, I know,
and you know what, I'm sorry, he's twenty right in year old
guys. You know things. Right at sixteen, I knew I shouldn't treat
drink and drive, right, you know. My dad threatened me. He
said, he gave me the keys to the car and he said, I
catch you drinking and driving one time, I'm taking all the tires off.
That's what he touch car. Who's car? It was my car? He
gave me a car. He said, He said, if you if I
if if, if I catch you drinking and driving, I'll just put the
car and blocks. And that's what's gonna happen. And I believe that.
I really believe, you know, I believe that he would do that.
He'd put the he'd put the car and blocks not only to take the car
away from me, but so that everybody could see. Yeah, everybody could
see that. You know, Oh, he must have got busted. It's
like just like the parent or the husband or wife who make their significant other
ware billboard signed on the court, I'm a thurd or whatever. You know,
I's gonna say something else, but you know, yeah, I did
this. I did this, so I have to wear this. Yeah.
The two harshest punishments I got in I got in my high school years for
doing stuff was once he in my junior and senior year. Once once each
school year for a month, I got my car taken away from me.
You know, I'd rather my dad beat the hell out of me, right,
I said, just beat me up. You hit me with whatever you
want, but don't take the car. And he knew which one was worse.
You do which one was worse both. Yeah, yeah, he took
this was I got cut. I got caught ditch in school one day,
and you know, did you ever do it again? Well that was my
senior year. Well that was my senior year. But he just walked you
know, he comes home from my mom had told you. My mom had
busted me, told me to go wait in the room, get my bedroom.
And I'm in there thinking, just beat me, just beat me,
just beat me. And then my dad just walked in. He opened the
door, he put his hand out, and I knew what he wanted.
You wanted my keys, and I handed him the keys and he goes a
month and he walked out. That was it. And I'm like that was
the worst possible scenar. And then you learn the well, I yeah,
I was walking to school again, and you don't get girls on the bus,
you don't, you don't. You gotta go, we gotta go.
So we got breaking news, right, and then we're gonna have uh mister
McGee, yeah, Rick McGee, uh uh and some and a and another,
and then I guess high school basket, high school football ref talk about
the need for refs and maybe some of the things that they go through so stick around