This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports
fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure your most Prized Possessions kat Z
R Twosa at iHeartRadio Station. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to
Friday Show and welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve Rivera. Jay is out again today on the beach somewhere.
You got Andy Brown? How are you? Andy? I'm great? What's
Jay? Jay's out on a cruise or something. He's just in Rocky Point.
Oh well, that's kinda joined Servesa the beach his family. Oh good,
body's gonel like to see here and be with you? Yes, yes,
and thanks for coming in. And we got our guy Juan in working
the studio. Buttons soon to be a Wildcat for life, Senior year one.
Nice bro. Can't wait, Open doors, open doors. We'll see
what happens, right, See what he's a journalist, major is going to
take your Spotty said that's fine with me. With me pushed me out.
It'd be the old what do you call that? Well, you don't leave.
You just got press buttons. Yeah, well I don't talk, you
press buttons. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know how to do that stuff.
That's why we have Want and the rest of the guys in the year,
all those colors. I don't understand it, and people will understand No
me, no exactly that I'm not like that. Well, happy Friday,
but yes, welcome. And it's been a while it has been. What's
up man? When you keep me in the dark, Well, you gotta
be. You're busy, man, You're busy out doing your stuff. You
have stuff going on today. You have people working at the old stadium.
Yeah, sold out crowd to night six o'clock game. So tell me how
many it's over nine thousand tickets have been sold for this game. Wow,
it's going to be awesome. Should be only one hundred and two yeah,
yeah, right in the shade. Yeah. Being a former athlete, I
don't know if you can answer this, but you're a former athlete. I
don't think everyone has an advantage because of the heat. Because you play,
and you play. It's about playing. It is. It's the same,
bad, same all roll it out and you play right. So who can
manage it better? Who can mentally manage the game better? That's it.
That's what it comes down to. Totally agree with that. Thank you for
agreeing with me. So but you pulled off our little magic from your pocket
today, thankfully, Thank you very much. Yeah, a good friend of
mine and next teammate friend of mine too. He's a very hard elusive guy
to find, and you found him for us. He's the hardest working man
in the NBA. Joseph Blair. Yes, he just needs to well I
get on a better team. But that's their job to get make him better.
You know. I don't think Joseph ever is shied away from any time
trying to make something better. Right. He likes that challenge and I commend
him mine. Yeah, he's gonna make a name for himself and he's gonna
do it. He has, he has. I know his name has been
floated around for a few jobs. I think it was last year when he
was up for a job or tour as a finalist in Minnesota somewhere, a
couple of places. So he's in Minnesota or not Minnesota. He's in Washington
now with the Wizards, East Coast bias. Ask him about Ma's better Tucson
when he hit Yeah, well, bigger city. He's bigger city. The
vegan, the Vegan coach, The Vegan coach. Yeah, Vegan Diaries.
If you follow him, he said, it's a great little podcast, little
great thing he does on social So I'm going to introduce him just like that,
the Vegan coach. I love. It looks really well in those seas,
seeing he's still dunks it once in a while. In practice, you'll
see it. He shows the young guys. I can say year nineteen ninety
six was almost thirty years ago, ninety four, final fourteen thirty four.
So I'm just thinking when he finished, when you guys, you have thirty
years ago. So he's got to be about fifty like you. Fifty two
is fifty. I think he's fifty to fifty one. Okay, I'm fifty
two, so he's younger than me. Okay, so he's about fifty fifteen.
Carry the two out of d by s, those buttons I don't know
and dog ears I'm still seven years old. Yeah, yeah, that's why
you go into the gym, right, Yeah, back in the gym after
a couple of months of cibernation. Yeah, A couple of quick things are,
uh, in your capacity of your work, you're kind of like the
coach whisper. When you go to games, you walk to coaches to their
to their not necessarily me, but my folks to hang out there. Wat,
I've got this one. I got this one. You know, I
know you. I make it a point to be there and say hello,
hey, coach, how you doing. Welcome? So in your in your
line of work for all these years, did you happen to spend some time
with mister Bill Walt Bill Walm. Of course, he's been in McHale several
times, as he calls it, and he loves to go on rants about
the magic of McHale and you know, bitting everywhere and talking. But the
guy walked into a room and just like you see on ESPN, he commanded
presence, and he just brought a smile to people's faces. And he was
very welcoming. Never did I see him like tell somebody you couldn't do something.
He didn't want to take a picture, he would he send sign autographs
for hours after games sometimes, and my guy wanted to go home. Let's
go, we gotta go right. The first time I met Bill wall and
I was living in Vegas and I was working a Bank of America Basketball clinic
that he was helping put on his traveling Give me the time frame nineteen ninety
six, ninety seven, ninety six because Luke had just signed I think Luke
Luke eight. Yeah, because Luke had just come on the team Richard Jefferson,
him and Ricky Anderson. So that's ninety eight and yeah, so that's
right around the time. So I'm I signed up to coach to help coach,
and he's brings me on the on the court and we start talking.
He's gonna he does his little lunchtime special right right chosen. He's like,
God, I need I need somebody to come out Andy, You're an EU
of a guy. Come out here Bay defense on me. He was trying
to teach guys how to offensive move boss, you know, low box stuff.
And he used me a couple of times. And this guy to me,
I was like, this guy can't even move. There's no way,
and he scored like two in row was like, yeah, he's making me
look horrible out here. And I'm grad student. I'm twenty three, twenty
four years old. On so I start digging him up. I started pushing
it in his back and I was like, I'm tad to kick him in
the knee cap or something. But he turned around a shot and I gave
him a little elbow push, you know, and his shot went long.
He's like, oh, did coach Eilsen teach you the move? I go,
you know he did at slap on the elbows? Know what he sees
it? Well, I remember that was but he was great. He's like,
hey, thanks for playing along, and say, hey, I understood.
I know. I'm a role guy. I know my role. I
said, you're supposed to score. I'm supposed to let you score, but
once in a while, I'm gonna tap you on the shoulder on you're an
elbow and you're not gonna make Where did that come from? Oh that's the
Arizona and you I go, yes, Well we talked about this a couple
of days ago. When when you know, Tuesday don't gets we passed Monday.
How there was? He was divisive, he was polarizing, but people
loved him, but they just didn't like his approach to the game, right,
But once he passed, everybody loved him. Yes, I didn't know
watching all those all those news clips that he sat out in Portland that year
because they didn't agree with how they were treating players and their injuries. I
didn't. I never knew that about it, right, because and then he
went to the Clippers and was right away trained to the Celtics. And then
he actually called Parish right he said, hey, do you mind I'm coming
to back you up? Are you okay with me coming in the sun?
Well? Yeah, well I think maybe that was before he talked to reddt
Aarback because her back. If you saw his specials thirty on thirty, No,
it's fantasic, the Walton Walton, Yeah, the luckiest guy in the
world. Yes, fantastic. Watched it two times. So he called the
Celtics and arabea Arback was on the front phone, can I come and join
it? And I guess Bird was in the room when he was on the
phone, right, he says Versus Balmon wants to come, said yeah,
I bring him, yeah, because he was his idol got up, so
bring him. And he turned out to be this fantastic, perfect guys man,
right, perfect guy because you don't and you saw Luke play. I
saw. I still say Luke has a lot of Luke a Bill in him
where he could see the court. Yes, see the court. And even
with you guys back in the ninety ninety four, ninety five, they six
ninety four for you, Uh, you didn't have a guy like Luke.
I want to say Luke, but liter Luke who saw the court like him.
You know, Damon was fantastic, but he was a heck of a
player saw the court, but in a different way. Sure, and Kalid
and Khalid was just a guy who just give me the ball and wards the
basket, clin getting the bunk out of the way. Yeah, yeah,
make sure you were in the right spot. Rayo's maybe maybe, but not
really. I mean, he was the guy in ten foot twelve foot jumper
crashed the board a little jb was the guy underneath. Yep. You don't
see a lot of guys like Walton anymore that you can hit that consistently eleven
foot that's an odd shot, right turn around Now it's all turn around in
two day's world. Yeah, yeah, no, you know, you don't
get those fifteen foots anymore because when you lose that touch, you move out
to the three point line. Like Channing fried Man living out there the last
four five years. It's phenomenal. Yeah, and then that all the analytics.
You know it's better to shoot a three. You shoot you know him
on two blah blah blah, and the midrage game is gone. Yes,
you know what's bringing it back is Anthony Edwards. Edwards so and KD does
it now and again because he's more of a turn around jumper guy. And
you know, I like watching when he is on Jason Tatum when that guy
can he just turn around shoot and you're like, that's not going and it's
nothing but net like, how does he do that? Yeah? But when
he's off, he's off. Let me tell you how he does that.
Andybrid If I paid you a few million, I would shoot every day.
You would be good at that because guess what, you get paid lots of
money, lots of It's like a surgeon. If I'm going to the hospital,
I better have one of those good surgeons right that knows how to do
what they're doing everything because he's getting paid a lot of money to save my
life. Even on a bad day, you're still scoring twenty. I'm not
going to to some someplace with wood off. Basketball and surgery really lines up.
But you know what I'm saying, These guys get a lot of money.
They get paid a lot, You get paid a lot of life.
Yeah that's true, right, this guy gets a lot of money to get
to make baskets. Yeah, you better make baskets. Well, I'm gonna
sneak in a little plug from my Centurion organization. You just met with the
TMC which is in the hospital in town that we donate money to, Okay,
and they are raising money. We actually raised money for them, and
they're looking at upping their simulation processes in the hospital where you actually go to
a simulator just like you would do a find a plane and you see how
many errors they've weeded out, and you know in the in the industry of
onyx, but doing it in the pradical profession as well with simulations simulator babies
and and kids. So we're like, yeah, that's that's help. But
they're gonna do so talking about this, they're getting people to practice along,
like the whole team, so the nurses, with the doctors, with the
people in the room, and it's gonna cut down airs medical errors by in
some cases. Well, I thought it was about you know that toy game
with the operation right now, this is not your mom's operation game. No,
these kids talk their eyes open and close, their their their lungs actually
move up and down, and it was amazing. We went Wednesday, we
went to a little demonstration. We actually got to do chess compressions and watch
monitors. And I tell you what, maybe basketball and surgery now makes more
sense. You got to practice. You can practice. Thank you, Thank
you for helping me out with that analogy. I know we stretched it,
but we made it. Well, that's fine, that's fine. Uh Okay,
So we have JB here in about eight minutes or so. Uh and
then in the second hour, you know, we have our guy, Jake
Fisher, who has always a lot to say. Now that with basketball going
on, with love coming, people going, YadA YadA, Bradley coming back,
we'll talk more about that. I won't talk a lot about it throughout
the and I know JB can't probably talk a whole lot because of that collision
but tampering, But we'll ask him just what his thoughts on the program.
Sure, that'll be funny. I'm interested in how Yeah, when he wanted
to decide to do this. We've had him a couple of times, especially
after he won the Coach of the Year at the at the Vipers. I
think it was real Grand Vipers, Real Grand Yeah, was helping with Rosieie
right and Rossie we had the loot thing a few years ago, and Brozzie
says, you know, JB's pretty good at this. Uh And and what
he's good at, which is not gonna surprise you, is he's a bs
er in in terms of he knows how to deal with people. He's a
people guy. Yeah, absolutely, And that bs is not the right word,
but you know what I'm saying. He can communicate with people very very
well. He knows your button, he knows what motivates you as a person,
can press that button. Yeah, good coaches do that. Excellent.
I have a great story on that if you have time. Yeah, okay,
well let's go and do it right now. Yeah. We got about
a minute and a half. This was Dick Tony. My brother played for
Dick Tomy. I might have told this story before. And my brother wanted
to quit. He's a walk on the same time as me, and he
went in to see coaches. I have a meeting with coach. I'm gon
tell him I'm gonna quit. Blah blah, I said, Okay. I
saw him on campus about six hours later, and I was like, hey,
Han, the meeting with coach go. He's like, oh, it's
great. I go, so are you on the team. He's like,
yeah, I thought you were quitting. He's like, no, coach talking
me out of it. I go, what do you say? I have
no idea, but I want to run through a wall. And I left
his office. The guy. The guy was fabulous. He goes, I
wish I'd talked to him more. I go, maybe you should, right,
So that's coach. A good coach like Tony and Loop can grab you
and make you feel like you're the best in your focus. Right, that's
their focus for that time. You know, this guy really knows and cares
about and the old school dudes who says, you see that door some on,
don't forget to shut it right, let me talk to the man tell
you. And he's happy that he stayed. I won't say it was happy.
No, But he played, and he played one more year and he
finished, and yeah, he did what he wanted to do. Okay,
he proved the point that he could do it. Yeah, when you're a
walk on, guys with scholarships or in front of you just don't get that.
No, you know fair shape. No, there's a reason why they
have scholarships exactly. Yeah, okay, let's take the break here, come
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fourteen fifty. Hey, welcome back to wind the Ball. Here on Fox
Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's not Jay, but he is
Andy Brown. And now on the phone, we have Joseph Blair, the
Vegan coach, the Washington Wizards coach, assistant coach. How are you,
Joseph? You there? Hello? Go Jamie there you are there? You
are Hey? How are things? Were you? Joseph? Good to hear
your voice you as well. I am blessed and I'm blessed for sure.
Yeah, been a long time since we have you on the phone. How's
how's life in the NBA for you? It's been good. It's been one
aggrant experience, you know, for someone who loves basketball and play basketball for
so long. Being able to coach at this level now and just seeing the
other side of the game has been such a great experience for me, and
it really makes you appreciate my former coaches even more. Yeah, but also
just as really gave me a bird's eye view of the evolution of the game
of basketball since from when I played to where we're at now. So it's
been just a great experience for me. I've learned from a lot of great
coaches and been around some of the amazing players as well. You know,
I tell everybody like this is it is literally the best league on planet Earth.
So to be a part of it is an honor. To work with
the people I work with, I'm just super blessed and honored. So I
think I met you when you're eighteen. Had to be like ninety two ish,
maybe ninety two and eighty three maybe, no, ninety one ninety two.
What would what would Joseph Blair today tell that kid way back when?
What would he tell him stop being such a dumb ass together? No,
but you would tell that to launch it. Honestly, it's easy to say
all that, But you know, I'm at this point in my life where
if everything didn't happen the way it happened, I wouldn't be where I'm at
now, and I'm so blessed to be where I'm now. I wouldn't want
to go back and change one thing, because the ripple effect could have me
not being here right now. So I would love to say I'd go and
part all this with them on myself, and I'd make all these different changes,
but any one of those changes would change the way my life is right
now where I've transpired, and I wouldn't be on the phone with you guys
right now, and God forbid that happen. When did you de sign that
coaching was going to be your thing, or a good question your paston or
something you wanted to proceed. You know, it's interesting there's a story of
how the can of coach. You know, when I was in Tucson,
you guys knew I was doing a lot of nonprofit work. That was my
thing. And while I was doing that, I got approached by a couple
of people, just some influent, influential groups I'm not going to say their
names in Tucson. They wanted me to that told me if I ran through
politics, they'd endorsed me. And at the time, I thought, you
know what I want to do that I love the community so much that I
can represent this community I love. I'm totally down to do it. But
the one thing is I hadn't finished my degree yet, so I want to
get back and finish my degree as well. So that's why I reached out
to Sean Miller at the time, and I said, hey, Sean,
look if you guys pay for the rest of my schooling, which I know
you can do and I already looked it up, and I know an undergraduate
assistant is actual thing as my compliance wise, you guys do that, I'll
help with the team. Win win for both of us. My name recognition
goes up even further because now I'm coaching with the team. I win my
political race. Everybody's happy. But what happened was as I got there and
I started working together with the team. As everyone knows Caleb Karzuski. He
was my one of my closest players. We worked together a long time on
a certain move for Caleb, and it was one of the first preseason games.
Caleb made that move and he scored the ball, and as the team
ran down the other end, the whole bench turned and looked at me and
said, JB, that's all you. I got goosebumps all over and I
said, you know what, I love this coaching. I'm gonna do this
coaching thing instead, and hell with politics and held t Son politics. Not
really that, because you know, I still love Tucson, but I always
said, you know, I know I can come back and still be involved
in the community at some point in my later life. But the coaching just
it was a God called right there, and I think they got put things
before you and just asked that you act on them. And that's why I
did. For years when I worked in the community in Tucson, I felt
like it was a calling for me to do that. And then it was
just another the next door was open and I need to step through it.
And that's what I did, and that's what I've been doing. Right In
fact, I remember doing a story for BIZ Tucson. I know that I
talked to a lute about it and he was very proud of you because you
too, and he was honest. You come along, You had come along
the way to that point, Oh for sure. I mean, anyone who
knows me, you know, it's interesting. I'm actually putting a book together,
and it's just like I'm having one lady, just interview people and say,
tell your most vulnerable JB story. Yeah, and I think that if
you asked people from even when I went to high school to even my first
couple of years of college, and then you asked people five six years ago,
now the stories are so diverse, just because I know I've evolved.
I've really grown into myself and have a different understanding of life, of God,
of love of everything, joy and happiness and what it means to be
alive comparatively when I was young and really hard headed. But also at the
same time, you know, I, you know, if anyone knows my
upbringing, coming up so meekerly, I definitely had a different perspective of life
as a whole. And even sports, you know, sports was an escape.
Now I understand sports is not only escape but it's also a means of
bringing people together. So it's just I really the spectrum of JB is is
extremely wide. So so let me ask Andy real quick, because you were
a teammate of his one or two years now one year okay, So so
I know JB. He's exactly how we describing something. Something hard headed,
sometimes the pain and the next sometimes not. What are you doing? Come
down now? I can't, but I'm conf what you're saying. What would
you say and be honest and be honest. I'm be honest. Joseph didn't
hold that didn't matter if you're walking on, if you were a five star
player, he gave you the best, and then it didn't take anything.
I don't say granted, but he didn't give you anything right, So I
didn't matter if I was a walk on or if I was the guy trying
to take a spot. He didn't take it easy on nobody. He played
as hard as one and I remember a couple of times getting used and going
that ain't gonna happen again. I'm gonna hold him and foul them and do
whatever I gotta do. But that was it. It was like I'm gonna
go one hundred percent and if you can't catch up, then we'll find somebody
else. Well, that was Joseph. I mean, I love playing with
Joseph. It was every day was a battle. If it wasn't him,
it was dre O's and I was having a foul. Or do something every
day and keep it right right. I have a question for Joseph is did
basketball give you the confidence to try new things and opportunities when they arose to
jump out him, like coaching or you know, doing your fundraising things like
that. Is that something you got from Coach Olson or from basketball or is
that something you've always had in your soul. I guess I think that a
lot of it. I mean, I want to credit basketball because it took
me across the globe based and I think that a lot of me playing overseas
made me understand more of what could be done in the community. Even with
the basketball camps. You know, I ran those camps for twenty years in
Tucson. That it had to do with when I was at the glowth Charters,
I ran their camp and I was like, well, how come we
can't we should have a camp like this in tucsonwhere it's just people come together
that like basketball. They now be great at basketball, but you get to
learn about basketball. And I love your time there. I love your time
together. And then my understanding of just people and taking these big jumps.
I mean, you can imagine for someone that's never left the country outside,
you're going to leave the country on your own to live and mind you,
when I first went overseas, there was no internet, there were no cell
phones, there was no Skype, WhatsApp, none of the things you have
now, it was just you going overseas, and that leap itself, just
to be on my own and do that really is what gives you the confidence
that you can fight and live by myself in another country for over a decade
where I don't speak the language and manage what can I do? And I
just felt like that really gave me the comp has to do a lot of
different things and try to different things right. And you were able to speak
a few languages, now, don't you. I do well. I speak
Spanish decently, I understand better than I speak. I'm fluent Italian and I
speak very fluently Bonics, and I can and I can curse you out in
about four other languages. Well, just do it once in some certain language.
I'm fine with that. So one of the things I just had to
be four or five years ago at an event and then Brazzi we were talking
okay and blah blah blah, and he says, you know what, Steve
JB's got this. He's he's got this. And the reason he's going to
be good at coaching is he knows how to deal with people. He's a
good communicator. What'd you say, Andy? He he gets me, he
knows the button, the push, he knows your button, and he knows
how to kind of motivate you to get you going. And is that accurate?
You think? And I think so? I think. You know,
I'm obviously I can articulate myself pretty well, but I think a lot of
it. And I tell this all the time. Part of why I'm such
a good coach is that time I spend tuthon doing just my community community work.
If you think about I really was just involved in a nonprofit community as
much as possible. And what do nonprofits do like? They don't They're basically
trying to get everyone to believe in their mission and their vision. And that's
your goal constantly and then you're asking for people for through their money, their
time, or just their beliefs, and you have nothing to give back in
return other than the mission and a vision. Well, that's really what coaching
is all about, is getting everyone to believe in my mission and my vision
and get them on the same page or articulate myself well enough where they see,
they feel seen, hurt, and valued all at the same time.
So they want to be a part of what we're trying to create, what
we're trying to do. So my goal is constantly to trade to create a
community inside of my basketball team. And that's the way I've looked at it
since I've been coaching. It's the only way I knew to look at it
because I've done it so much leading up into my coaching. Yeah, us
articulate that much better than I. Joseph tails still taking me to school.
Yeah, so real quick, do you have a title for that book?
Sounds like a lot like my Loop book. No, not yet, not
yet. I'm going back and forth on it, and I don't want to
tell you because then I'll be stuck in after use this. Let's just say
no, Okay, that's right, that's right. Hey, I don't know
if you can speak to the Arizona basketball program in your capacity. I don't
want any uh collision or tampering or whatever. Can you say just your thoughts
on the program. I gonna say this like I'm I'm I'm happy the way
it's going. I think that Tommy's doing a real job, and you know,
I think that I've heard you know, some people are unsatisfied because we
didn't get too fun of four. But I'm like, so what you kept?
Understand what he's been doing and how quickly he's done. It is amazing.
When he came, no one expected what he's already done to be done.
So now we're sitting back saying why has it more been done? But
no, like the patients you had when you signed him, where did that
go? As soon as he did? Had a great year. I won't
to expect something different, but I'm very satisfied with it. I think the
program is going to continue to grow, continue to thrive. I know also
there's been such transitions with everything happening in college basketball as a whole, with
the transfer portals, with the NILS and now the school's being able to pay
players. I think it's just I can only imagine how if I was at
college coach rob My head would be spending trying to keep up with all the
constant changes that are happening. So the fact that Tommy's done that and the
other coaching and to mind you, I'm an assistant coach, I can't help
but to get props to all the other assistants to work under Tommy, because
nobody does it on their own to be able to do that and still bring
the players in. And you know, obviously the support in Arizona in Tucson's
amazing. I went to a game this year and it's just it's so crazy
how much of the game's constantly evolving and the McHale's evolving, and how they're
just making a true experience of the basketball game. So I'm super I'm super
pleased with theirs on the basketball. Obviously, personally, we all want to
see a championship. We all want to see a Final four, but I
believe it's in the pipeline. I believe it's in the pipeline. Yeah,
totally agree with you. In time, in time and all you guys got
through the Final four ninety four. So another thing real quick, because your
name had come up a time or two last year or the year before on
head coaching possibilities. I'm sure deep down that's a possibility in the future for
you or you want that I do. I do. I'd love the opportunity
just to guide the own team. You know, I have my chance with
the G League. We want a championship the year as the head coach with
the G League, so I'm proud of that, but obviously this is the
next step to that is NBA, and just constantly I would love the opportunity.
But I'll say I'm going to take what God gives me. If I'm
never that, I'm fine. If I am that, that's fine. Either
way, I'm gonna do my best and just you know, try to support
the people around me. My goal is just a as as a may few
as I can grab and bring up with me. That's my goal. And
you have to get somewhere to pull them up right. It's hard to get
somebody else at the top of you never been there. So that's the goal
for sure. If I'm blessed enough to have it, I'll be ecstatic.
Let me ask you real quick, because you did bring it up. I
don't know if you can't talk about it too. The anil, the transfer
stuff. I'm thinking that back in the day, you guys would have made
a killing in ninety four. Damon you Collid all these guys. I'm not
sure about Andy. But but and then the transfer thing. Maybe a young
JB Mean not have lasted three four years here. He would have just left.
You know, we can speculate on everything, right. I know for
sure we would have made some money. That would much, we know.
But as far as me leaving, I'm gonna say, hell no, I
would have never left Arizona. I left there. Good answer, Good answer.
Joseph would have been a face man for anything. He was. Yeah,
he's yeah, more charasma than I've ever seen. Yes, I will
say the one thing I think I differed from a lot of people, and
when it came to Tucson, I mean at Arizona's because I was totally involved
in the community. I didn't really do a lot of on campus stuff.
I was always trying to you know. I had a summer job every summer
at different locations were reaching Son. I worked at Jim Klick, I worked
at World Buick, I worked at Bombas Travel. I DJ'ed on the radio
there at the local station for two years. You know, I I really
was really involved in the community. I worked at the boys and girls clubs,
all the clubhouses as well one summer, so I was really just involved
in the community. Even all the girls I dated in Tucson were two sonns.
Actually they weren't even one. Weren't even a university is on a students
or they happen to be students. That's that's where you learn your Spanish.
That's where you learn claud which means yes, indeed. Hey, JB.
Good to hear from you. Great to talk to you. Thank you guys
having me on. I miss you guys. Thanks come out here anytime soon.
I know you're a regular every now and again. I try to get
out whenever I can. If I do, I'm coming over to your house.
We're going to have some cold ones. Yes, he said, thank
you, JB. Appreciate it. Thanks Jason, Jbot sit up here.
Wow. Cool, very cool. He's you know, fun, he's a
fun dude. Oh he can. I can listen to them all day.
I could. Yeah, he'd be a great preacher. When he came back
to when he came back for the game this year, he had tickets and
he's like, where do I sit? And I go, we just sit
in my seats right there because that was the I think it was the last
game Oregon game. Oh really, I said, sit right there because those
are my seats and I'm working. So it just set in mind. You
can have two seats, right and you can spread out. He's like,
all right, thank you, yeah, yeah, yeah. But he's been
sitting talked to him and he wants to know about your family and you and
he's just all in all, just down to earth dude, right right.
I think he still has a home there, doesn't he. No, he
sold it. Okay, let's take the break and come back. If you're
an Arizona Man'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 to the eyes
of twenty five former players, coaches, and friends to give insight to the
coach and the man who led the competed against them and inspired them twenty five
chapters for his twenty five years as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from loot 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. Hi,
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dot com, Tips Rocks, Polling, Keeting and Plumbing. Steve Bravera and
Jacin Salez, they have their eye on the ball on Tucson's sports stage Jeff
Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live on the iHeartRadio. Wapp Hey, welcome back
to our the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera,
sitting in for j is Andy Brown, one of the great sponsors. We
got Kwan with us today fourteen minutes Stuft. We're looking for some calls.
Juana has it under control five two oh four one six seventy four forty.
So let me ask you, how many assists did you have in your career?
My assist in my career at the UFA R J zero. You had
one today? Oh nice, you got you set it up? I set
you up, set me up? No, I don't. I don't think
did you How many shots did you have? Man? I had two,
two shots and you, Mick, I made both? You did? Yes?
Okay? And I was fifty for fifty from the line. So I
had a total of five points, five points, no assists, probably two
or three, Okay, I got one. I don't know if it counts
that. It was the final four games it had okay, so the last
shot of the game. Okay, And what was the previous game? Which
game? Well, you got these? Oh, the first game I can
tell you all about it. First game is North New Orleans Arena. That's
one of the big man they had, the big man New Orleans came in,
University of New Orleans came in. I don't know if Ivan Johnson was
on that. I think so maybe it was, but we killed him.
Yeah, that's why I got to play. Obviously I scored. And then
the next game, believe it or not, was Michigan. Oh, the
final the Fab four, Fab four, we blew them out. People still
talking about that game. I got to play that game. Khalid was fantastic.
I didn't even take my ankles that game. I didn't think I was
going to play. I'm glad I put shorts on underneath my warm up side
game. Right, it was a great, great night at the Ubay.
Oh yeah, Kalid went for He could have gone for one hundred that night,
right, I think he finished with forty one. Oh my god,
he could have gone for fifty. We want to coach and leave him in
and we want to leave him in there. Let him give fifty. Coach
like, nope, no, We're done. No. And then Damon?
Were you there when Damon was the Stanford and't know he were gone? I
think he was a senior ninety five. He went for Stanford forty two.
Stanford was a tough game we played there. That's when the core would would
bounce. Yeah, what a fantastic They've never seen that before. In fact,
everybody raves about Duke and yeah, yeah, I was went there this
year for the game. And to tell you truth in my heart of hearts,
and I'm saying this not to blow smoke, is that Stanford in those
days was much better than Duke. Now, because you saw the games it
was. It was two rivalries, and the and the kids over there are
pretty funny and clever, you know, funny. And the court would bounce
and bounce like not just a little a lot, it would wave. It
would just like this. You can be sound on the line, I think
would just and the basket would bounce. No, for my money, I
would take Stanford over Duke. But I only had one chance at Duke,
so it's fine. It's fine. But now they fixed the floor or not
fixed for they adjusted the floor. Uh, and you don't say that the
program is going to crab Yeah, okay, that's that's my highlights right there.
Lit it up and do minutes. That's those good though you have.
You had a career. Many wishes in my career actually consisted of water bottles
and gum. Oh give me that blue gum story because I can't remember it.
So goach would we had red gum and blue gum? Yeah? And
you were the how many on the roster? Twelve twelve roster twelve twelve players?
You were the twelfth guy. I was the twelfth man because you could
only travel with twelve. We had more, but they weren't eligible to travel.
Okay, so you're a twelfth man. So I'm twelve man, and
I sit right next to the water and the gum and the towels, and
Coach would come down and go blue or red, depending on what mood he
was in, and I'd give him a piece of gum according to the color,
or a water bottle if you asked for water, brown, give me
blue, Hey, give me red. I said, okay, So one
game. I'm looking down. I'm thinking I'm going into the game. I
think I'm going into the game like I hadn't been in the game yet,
had not been in yet. Where was this? That is this at home?
I'm waiting and I'm looking down. Everybody's getting to play. I'm like,
man, he's not gonna put me in, Like I guess I'm gonna
walk on. I guess I'm not playing at all. Well, then he
comes down, and guys had warned me that Coach was gonna f with me
a little bit. They're gonna he's gonna do something like I don't see it.
The guy's business all the time. Right then he comes down and goes
brown, and I jump up like I'm ready to rip off my warm ups,
and he's like, give me him blue. Gum this month, and
I turned around to get the blue gum, just dejected, like like a
kick dog, and he's like, no, no, no, no,
no, God, just getting with you. Get in, get in,
go get so And so I was like, oh my god. The whole
bench is just roll and just laughs. From then on, I was like,
hey, Brown, give me some blue gum. And that was that
was his humor because it was very dry. It was and very you know,
it's hard for him to tell jokes, but you would kind of know
when he told the joke because it was very dry. Yeah, and he
chuckled a little bit. He got to wait, he kind of give you
a little calf gread. Yeah, like, oh, he's playing with me.
Yeah. But he never really told stories about No, it's not a
good storyteller. No, No, that was Bobby. Bobby is the one
that Bobby was his best point gun ever. She talked about assists. So
it was great. But so bringing those kids in on recruiting trips and getting
the pancakes in her house, sit them in pancakes, apple pancakes. She
was, she was, she was from She's the MVP. You had no
question. See, my boy, Juana is getting the background in the good
old days, good old days, missed Bobby knew more about me than I
think coached it. Probably she sat you down, like on the bus rides
usually she grabbed somebody and sit you down. This coach was always lasting on
and she'd sit next to She'd pull you down and say, hey, Andy,
how are you. I'm like, good missus though, oh call me
Bobby. Okay. I hear you have a girlfriend, and I was like,
okay, she doesn't. Okay, Like, and you have you know,
you're taking this class and that class, and go, oh, this
lady knows everything about me. She's like, and your mom and dad they
live in town, and your mom's a nurse. I'm like, oh my
god, how do you know all this stuff? But she made you feel
like part of a family, right, and that I think one of the
most things that influence guys that stay here and come here was that feeling of
a family. Yeah, that you belonged to, that people cared about it.
Well. One of the things that there was notorious just she when she
knew that you were going through some stuff, she'd approach you and say,
don't worry, I'll have it with lot, or I'll be the buffer.
If it wasn't her, it was Ross. That's what I went through.
Yeah, Coach, doesn't you know about this? Does he no? Right?
Right? And there's truly the good old days. But I never had
that problem. I never had it. Did you go back for did you?
And you were back of the bus, probably with Chucky White? And
and did they something because they were they were up at the front. They
were always in the front, and they didn't hear what coach is always in
the front. And did she come back and said what do you guys up
to? She never really came back that I recall. No, she didn't.
Coach. Let us kind of police ourselves, and it was it was
Damon. It was actually Damon would be the first to talk. And then
if it wasn't him, it was Colid. And if Colid had to talk,
you know something was up right because he never talked. Clid one time
just said can we please get a moment of silence? Look right at Corey.
I remember going, oh, he has spoken. I laughed because I
know what it's like. Ray. Ray never spoke. No, but Ray
was tougher than what he looked. Yes, yeah, Ray knocked me out
when practice once I had to foul him. That was my job all day,
just coach, you could just foul him. I don't care. How
many are you trying to be? I don't remember, because we were supposed
to be something was U C l A or somebody and somebody that just that
he just because Ray had a hard time playing right man and he got mad.
He kind of lost his touch. But so I my job was a
foul him. And I fouled him and fouled him, and I might have
hit an eyeball at one point and he elbowed me. And I remember waking
up staring at Michale lights and the ceiling and having to go to the dentist
because I think I broke my jaw. Like, your job is, you're
the role player. If they had concussion protocol back in there, I would
have been in it. You're the role player, Like, oh my god,
I can't hear on my right ear. So we're kind of just going
back in time. Anybody wants to call police, do five two, four,
one, six, seventy four, forty and I have you because you're
kind of like the guy who observed ninety three ninety four best Best Road Trips,
or again probably just fun trips. Ninety four I love the l trip.
The l a trip was fun. But you know what, we got
to play in the stable I mean the arena coliseum right, No, it
was the the like nor where the Lakers the form we played in I don't
remember being We played in the form I thought was the ugliest, most run
down place. It was the Sports Arena. No, no, no,
it was the Lakers four. I can't remember that. It was. We
played USC on a Sunday. It was on a Sunday and there was nobody
in there. Off the afternoon was like a Sea Yes game and there was
nobody in there. They had they had baby Jordan and what was the big
guy's name that played there. Yeah, I remember Barry Jordan. He was
exactly him. But ninety four we played in the Forum and I just remember
going, oh, we're going to play where the Lakers playing. We got
in there and I go, this place is need some paint. See,
well, that was the Sports Arena too, so I'm gonna have to verify
that. And you're throwing me some sup because I remember going that Laker purple
does not look that color on TV. It actually looked like okay, I'm
gonna verify I try to verify that. But so at the beginning of the
year, you have you have two guards of Salim and and that's Damon and
Kalid, and then Reggie with jb and and Reyo's and Ben Ben was not
here yet. Ben was not here yet, and you guys go to Maui
and uh, that's when it all kind of you said, hey, these
guys could be good. Yes, so we actually we started our Maui trip
in Santa Clara, if you recall, on the road in Santa Clair and
we opt them. We had to get our revenge, our vengeance, right,
and then from there, from San Francisco, we flew to Malui and
yes, we played some really good ball in Mali. We lost to Kentucky
in the last minute, and we knew at that point that we belonged with
everybody. And then if you recall, we come back and we stopped Michigan
in the Festa Bowl Classic right after that. Yeah, and we didn't look
back in the Kentucky game in Maui. Uh, Collid I forgot to box
somebody out well and then the guy got the rebound and scored the squid.
Yeah, it is what it is. Yeah, and I think if we
had won that game, things would have been different. But I think we
would have got a big probably and probably would have been because you guys were
rolling. You hadn't lost a game until that until and then we came home.
I remember the opener we played Cal at home and they beat us in
like double overtime. If you recall you did you did no three, but
no overtime, no overtime. I thought we lost. It was like overtime.
Oh, you're right it it was overtime here you Gondy and ninety three
at home. That never happens. So we lost to them. It was
Lam Murray and Jason. Oh no, no, that's when the streak.
Was that the streak? No, because yeah, that was the streak we
lost? Yeah, that was a street Was that the streak? Because because
the Martin was Martin Derk Martin hit the shot over over over, Damon.
I don't think that was that year. It was in ninety one ninety two.
It was a different time. No for cal I was there, cal
are you? No? No, No, it was col Yeah, yeah,
no, no, no, Jason, But I'm talking about the streak
of losing the seventy one. That was like in ninety two. But you're
right, you're right in the cal the lost, but no, the streak
had been broken before. We wait, before that, that was like in
third grade. Yeah no, but losing at home back then it was still
kind of like what the heck? And so the next game we play cow
over there over there. We're supposed to play it in the big arena,
and they're like, no, We're going to play it in the little shack
that we hauled yea Carmen and we packed people in there. I remember that
was the loudest game I've ever been at. The loudest. Yeah, back
and forth, and that's when Reggie told Coach Chosen he wanted to guard Lamal
Murray. Yeah, He's like. Lamon's like he's like six seven, what
you got one? And you get we gotta call go ahead. Hey,
welcome tying the ball. You're on the air, he Steve, this is
done. How you guys done? Fine? How are you? Hey?
I'm all right? Hey, I just wanted I don't know if you guys
have reported it or not. I just saw on Twitter that the baseball game
tonight has sold out. Yeah. Jb Andy said that he's a kind of
security guy there. Yes, so you to go there? Are you going?
Well not now, I'm going to try to get out there before the
end of this regional But how many seats? How many people? Is that?
It's almost ten thousand, almost ten thousand people. It's just over nine
thousand changed And that's a standing room only two sure, because I don't think
it's ten thousand proceeeds. It's nine thousand plus. It's a lot. It's
a lot because it was almost eleven thousand I think the first night that they
played their back on the two thousand and twenty twelve season, Yeah, because
we were there for that. We got the commemorative ticket that night. Yeah.
I think what I think what messes up that capacity is you have the
four teams. Four teams get so many tickets as well, So there it
already takes about a thousand tickets off the books right there, because all those
teams have to have so many tickets, right, Okay, So there could
be some so yeah, there could be crazy. But we had we had
somebody call in a couple of weeks ago, what's it going to take to
get people to the ballpark? Right right? We talked about that. For
a while, I thought maybe five six thousand, but well, I think
it's the end. The team likes to win in the ninth inning, so
I think it's They're fun to watch. Those games are great. Yeah,
you know, coming down, they got the drama the bottom of the ninth
guys, thanks for calling down. We've got to go. We're taking a
break right now. Appreciate that. Guys, Thank you to thank you,
and we're gonna come back in the second half of Juan gonna get to work
here with some breaking news and then we're gonna have Jake Fisher on the other side.