Speaker 1: Welcome back in drivetime on a Friday here on ESPN
Speaker 1: seven hundred. It is a football Friday, but we're taking
Speaker 1: a little break from the football conversation chatting with our guy,
Speaker 1: big T thorough Bailey, reacting to the NBA trade deadline,
Speaker 1: talking a little jazz and more. But as I mentioned,
Speaker 1: it is a football Friday, it is Super Bowl weekend,
Speaker 1: and even yes, even when our guest is a former
Speaker 1: college national champion, former NBA player, and many other things.
Speaker 1: To be clear, very talented thorough Bailey, We're still going
Speaker 1: to ask him about the Super Bowl, Big T?
Speaker 2: How much does it move the needle?
Speaker 1: What's your football fandom look like, especially on a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl Sunday.
Speaker 3: Well, my dad was a Redskins fan growing up because
Speaker 3: I was born and raised in DC, and so I
Speaker 3: think the highlight of my life, I think part of
Speaker 3: his was when I was traded from the Jazz so
Speaker 3: the Timberwolves. The Super Bowl was in Minnesota and the
Speaker 3: Redskins were in it. So I flew him out and
Speaker 3: he got to see his team in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3: But I grew up, you know, I like the Redskins,
Speaker 3: but I ended up. You know, sometimes people don't believe this,
Speaker 3: like I jumped on the bad way. But I've been
Speaker 3: a Kansas City Chiefs fan for a lot of years now,
Speaker 3: I mean almost but nine ten years, and even became
Speaker 3: more so when a good friend of mine named Porter Elliot.
Speaker 3: You need to look that name up.
Speaker 2: We were just discussing Porter on the show.
Speaker 3: I know him well, yeah, yeah, well I knew Porter
Speaker 3: when he had his accident. I went to business him
Speaker 3: in the hospital when he was a kid when he
Speaker 3: lost his.
Speaker 2: Arm, just as you were playing with the jazz. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and my wife, being from Richfield, knew their family
Speaker 3: and asked me to come down. And then his story
Speaker 3: is amazing and just made me a stronger poor Elliot fan.
Speaker 3: And then you know, obviously they started winning. So I
Speaker 3: wasn't about to jump jump bandwagons, but yeah, I'm a
Speaker 3: Kansas City guy.
Speaker 2: Thrill.
Speaker 4: You interestingly have so many great, deep connections to this community.
Speaker 4: I mean, you played here, that's one thing, but you
Speaker 4: now are known so much for you know what you
Speaker 4: give to the community, the way you give of your time.
Speaker 4: I know I've experienced it personally, and you and I
Speaker 4: have been a part of different things before, but you
Speaker 4: have really flexed the muscle in terms of community outreach
Speaker 4: and engagement. But your authenticity and just ultimately who you
Speaker 4: are is what has drawn so many people to your
Speaker 4: kindness and what you've been giving. When did you feel
Speaker 4: that this place, the state of Utah, Salt Lake City,
Speaker 4: was really congruent with your personality, your heart, and your
Speaker 4: overall desire to help others.
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, Tea, did just hear your manage
Speaker 3: talk to you? You're not in transfer long time, new
Speaker 3: little teat whenever we're on big T, right, I don't
Speaker 3: get that so.
Speaker 4: Hot ride with.
Speaker 3: Bailey, That's right. Well, you know, I think it's always
Speaker 3: you know, I think the community embraced me early on
Speaker 3: in my career. Uh, there was a changing of times
Speaker 3: for the jazz. We were starting to win more and
Speaker 3: you know, as a from a fandom point of view,
Speaker 3: I think, you know, the fans were always there, but
Speaker 3: I'm not sure I realized it until I left. I
Speaker 3: was traded, and then I came back with the Timberwolves
Speaker 3: and got just a fantastic welcome. But ultimately it was
Speaker 3: when I was away for a while after I went
Speaker 3: overseas and I came back my last year in the season,
Speaker 3: I walked through the tunnel and I got a standing
Speaker 3: ovation from the crowd.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then.
Speaker 3: I knew it wasn't just from my basketball player. That
Speaker 3: was a lot of it, but I felt it was
Speaker 3: deeper than that, and so for me, it kind of
Speaker 3: sealed the deal that the community appreciated who I was
Speaker 3: as a player, but even maybe more so the person
Speaker 3: I try to try to become as someone in the community.
Speaker 4: So when I was a kid, I used to hate
Speaker 4: the fact, as a junior jazz player, we would always
Speaker 4: get the tickets to see Minnesota. That was the only
Speaker 4: team we would ever get to see, and it was
Speaker 4: always frustrating because it was like, man, we got why
Speaker 4: do we always get to see them? But then you
Speaker 4: were there and it changed everything. And I remember how
Speaker 4: excited I was to go and see that, and I
Speaker 4: definitely remember how warm a reception the fans gave to you.
Speaker 4: So it's always great to see you. Obviously, you and
Speaker 4: jazz basketball together. You know, people know the statues outside
Speaker 4: and they know so many of the personalities from Hot
Speaker 4: Run Hunt lead to Jerry Sloan. But I think when
Speaker 4: you think the heart and soul of Utah Jazz basketball
Speaker 4: and what it means in this community.
Speaker 2: And you know, you have to.
Speaker 4: Be here and be around here to know what I'm
Speaker 4: talking about. And I know you definitely do. I think,
Speaker 4: uh uh, nobody represents that better than yourself. So anyway,
Speaker 4: I just it's always something I thought you'd have a
Speaker 4: chance to experience.
Speaker 3: I appreciate that, to appreciate that a lot.
Speaker 1: To expand on that thorough, to see your your Utah
Speaker 1: connection from a different point of view. I remember when
Speaker 1: I was I was a young I want to say,
Speaker 1: six seven years old, and my dad and I we
Speaker 1: ran into one John Stockton out out in the city.
Speaker 1: And I'm not I'm not speaking badly of John. I'm
Speaker 1: not this merching John, but let's just say it wasn't
Speaker 1: exactly what a fan experience. Uh what would you'd like
Speaker 1: if you run into one of your you know, you know,
Speaker 1: heroes out on the out, on the move. Now, we
Speaker 1: weren't disrespectful, we didn't try to waste his time or
Speaker 1: take much of his time, but it was just, you know,
Speaker 1: it's dismissive and and we were we were a little
Speaker 1: a little bum by that. My dad and I talked
Speaker 1: about it in the car as we left a little
Speaker 1: upset as we leave. And then a week later, a
Speaker 1: week later, we see a big te thorough Bailey and
Speaker 1: I'm still a young kid.
Speaker 2: At the home Depot.
Speaker 1: In the aisles of the home depot, not only Thurle
Speaker 1: did you take like fifteen to twenty minutes to stand
Speaker 1: in the halls of home Depot and talk hoops with
Speaker 1: me and my late father. At that time, you helped
Speaker 1: us take heavy stuff to our car and continued the conversation.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's long ago, and I'm sure you've had
Speaker 1: a bunch of these different types of memories, but it
Speaker 1: left an impression on me that lasted throughout my entire life.
Speaker 1: As I went to jazz games, as I watched all this,
Speaker 1: and then eventually got to meet you and do this
Speaker 1: thing on the radio every once in a while.
Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate that, and let me say just off
Speaker 3: the beginning of that is that you will never meet
Speaker 3: a kind of man than John Stockton. The one thing
Speaker 3: John was not comfortable with was stardom, which I didn't
Speaker 3: have the kind of Yeah, I didn't have the kind
Speaker 3: of stardom that John Stockton had. And so for a
Speaker 3: guy who like that, who's always been a gym rat,
Speaker 3: just wanted to play the game without all the accolades.
Speaker 3: It just was not comfortable with it. A lot of
Speaker 3: times it would come off as dismissive, right, well, maybe
Speaker 3: mean so, But you know, John and I still talk
Speaker 3: to that. I love the guy. He's one of my
Speaker 3: best friends ever that I've ever had, not just within basketball,
Speaker 3: but outside of it as well. But you know, it's
Speaker 3: it's you know, there's there's different approaches, there's different things
Speaker 3: that you know different. I promised my mom years ago
Speaker 3: that that I would always I would always take the time,
Speaker 3: even if if it was inconvenience for me, I'd always
Speaker 3: take time because it wasn't about me, right at that point, right,
Speaker 3: It's about maybe how I could touch person's life in
Speaker 3: it for a few seconds and they would remember it
Speaker 3: or whatever. But that's that's the world we.
Speaker 4: Live in, man.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, it's what you sign up for,
Speaker 3: and you may not like it on some days, and
Speaker 3: it's your choice how to react or not react to it.
Speaker 3: But I just chose to, for the most part, make
Speaker 3: it a favorable experience. It wasn't always comfortable or convenient,
Speaker 3: but didn't have to be, you know, something that that
Speaker 3: person walked away with with a bad memory.
Speaker 4: Right. I saw John at a college basketball game, oh
Speaker 4: Coled just about a week ago, week and a half
Speaker 4: ago maybe, and he was very gracious with the fans
Speaker 4: that were there. I mean, everywhere he goes, he's going
Speaker 4: to draw some attention and stuff like that. But you
Speaker 4: could tell that it still may not be something that
Speaker 4: you know, he's overly cut. He'll do it, but you
Speaker 4: could tell it since there's something about that and having
Speaker 4: that that you know, he wanted it to be about
Speaker 4: his son. He wanted it to be about anything else
Speaker 4: other than but but he was still good.
Speaker 1: With And just to be clear, uh, no one is
Speaker 1: entitled to your time. No one, whether they're a celebrity,
Speaker 1: uh famous athlete, is entitled to like go out of
Speaker 1: their way for a fan of any kind. And I
Speaker 1: didn't want to, you know, it never would feel entitled
Speaker 1: to their time.
Speaker 2: It just was.
Speaker 1: It was the the way that thorough went out of
Speaker 1: his time man for some random kid from Oakley, Utah,
Speaker 1: for you know, way more time than than he needed
Speaker 1: to uh to do that. It was super cool and
Speaker 1: it it left a pretty good impact on me. You
Speaker 1: you and also the late Mark Eden. I got to
Speaker 1: know Mark be in a park City local really well,
Speaker 1: uh before before he ultimately passed. And both of you
Speaker 1: made me feel really small and in another way really.
Speaker 2: Big, which is which super cool?
Speaker 3: That's good.
Speaker 4: I've never felt big around thorough Bailey, especially swatted my
Speaker 4: shot in the sixteenth throw of the stands and as
Speaker 4: the crowd ooed and odd in front of a bunch
Speaker 4: of junior jazz players, and crowd got a good time.
Speaker 3: Out of it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I did decide I I okay, so long rebound
Speaker 4: and I've got a full head of steam, thinking all right,
Speaker 4: I've got an easy layup here, I've got everybody behind
Speaker 4: me the floor. Then on the back angle at a
Speaker 4: forty five degree I see these long strides coming at
Speaker 4: me and I'm thinking, all right, but I'll probably win
Speaker 4: this race. And then maybe two steps later you realize, oh,
Speaker 4: I'm not going to win this race. But then I thought,
Speaker 4: what the heck? You know it's for the kids. Let's
Speaker 4: see if I can score on thorough Bailey. No, No,
Speaker 4: that ball was in the fifteenth row in the blink
Speaker 4: of an eye, and the crowd ooed and odd. They
Speaker 4: had a great time with it. And I'll never forget
Speaker 4: a little kid sitting in one of the close rows
Speaker 4: before we inbounded, going.
Speaker 2: Mom, that guy sucks. That's lovely. Just need a pump fake.
Speaker 2: You just need a pump fake.
Speaker 4: No, he would have handled that, he had it dialed
Speaker 4: in on.
Speaker 2: I wasn't going.
Speaker 3: Mid range games.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well the inbound I had a three pointer out
Speaker 4: of the corner. That's a different discussion, but that's that's
Speaker 4: the part of the story. We don't tell a girl
Speaker 4: it's a different era kind of a jazz basketball, right,
Speaker 4: I mean this is I know that it's kind of
Speaker 4: a unique approach when it comes to the patients that
Speaker 4: would be needed overall to take the long game to
Speaker 4: winning big. As you watch kind of you know, young players,
Speaker 4: as you see so much happening night in and night out,
Speaker 4: and you look at all the different eras of jazz basketball.
Speaker 4: You see what the Jazz have in front of them, picks, assets,
Speaker 4: things like that. You know, you take this in day
Speaker 4: to day and you always have a great perspective of it.
Speaker 4: What are the biggest things that kind of jump out
Speaker 4: to you? Is you kind of digest everything that is
Speaker 4: jazz basketball in this moment.
Speaker 3: Well, I think I think if you're watching Jazz basketball
Speaker 3: and you're part of the Jazz Nation and you're not
Speaker 3: you don't understand what the blueprint or what the plan is,
Speaker 3: then then you should understand that that's where you need
Speaker 3: to start. This team is really trying to develop the
Speaker 3: young guys. They're trying to put themselves in a position to,
Speaker 3: you know, get a playoff spot and potentially buy it
Speaker 3: for a ring in the next few years. And the
Speaker 3: only way really that you can do that in the
Speaker 3: market that we're in, I believe, is to go about
Speaker 3: it in this way, in this long term way, and
Speaker 3: Justin and Nanny have really tried to make that clear.
Speaker 3: And I know it's not a pretty thing to do.
Speaker 3: It's not easy to do, but I think when you
Speaker 3: can see progress, like if you couldn't see any progress,
Speaker 3: it's a lot more frustrating. The arena's aren't is crowded,
Speaker 3: but Jazz Nations seeing progress. They're seeing what happened against Indiana,
Speaker 3: albeit a loss. We were in the game, and seeing
Speaker 3: what happened against the Warriors in clutch time, and so
Speaker 3: that's why they're still hanging on. That's why they're still
Speaker 3: loving Jazz basketball. Is because they understand where we're trying
Speaker 3: to get to and so it's been interesting to watch
Speaker 3: as a former player. You know, veterans come out and
Speaker 3: buy into the plan and raise their value along the way.
Speaker 3: You know, trade deadline just ended. So for guys to
Speaker 3: come out like John Collins and Jordan Clarks and Colin
Speaker 3: Sexton and understand that they have to develop these young
Speaker 3: guys as well as you know, raising their own value,
Speaker 3: I think it's something that's happening and just a crazy business,
Speaker 3: as you guys know. So you know, we're at it
Speaker 3: again tonight with a team who tried the free superstar
Speaker 3: route and it doesn't seem to be working out well
Speaker 3: for him. So it doesn't work all the time, and
Speaker 3: you have to be portunate and lucky. But I think
Speaker 3: the Jazz are on the right track.
Speaker 1: Thirl, you mentioned the trade deadline. What was your big
Speaker 1: picture reaction first to the Jazz involvement in the Luca
Speaker 1: Donta trade and that trade big picture and then around
Speaker 1: the league? What was maybe the most active trade deadline
Speaker 1: in modern NBA history, at least as you talk about
Speaker 1: bigger names, it's it's on the upper upper end of
Speaker 1: that list. How did you intake trade deadline day and
Speaker 1: how the Jazz involved themselves.
Speaker 3: Oh, I think everybody was shocked about the Conta Anthony
Speaker 3: Davis trade, and I think some even part of it
Speaker 3: more than the trade itself, was that nobody knew but
Speaker 3: just a few people, right, And in this day and age,
Speaker 3: it's hard to do. It's hard to keep that under wraps.
Speaker 3: But you know, you have to make your own opinion
Speaker 3: about who won that trade. It was certainly unusual with
Speaker 3: the Mavericks, you know, going to the finals recently, and
Speaker 3: so that just shows you that you know that this
Speaker 3: is the business of basketball, and as a player, you
Speaker 3: always are like, I don't know if it's tens of needles,
Speaker 3: but you always wonder if you're going to be moved, right,
Speaker 3: And I'm sure it's no different than on this team.
Speaker 3: I'm sure players were kind of wondering and thinking, well,
Speaker 3: there's something going to happen with the Jazz. But you know,
Speaker 3: as somebody who's been in it and been involved in
Speaker 3: it and has been traded, it doesn't surprise me as
Speaker 3: much as people who are kind of entrenched in the
Speaker 3: real business of it, if you will. But look, the
Speaker 3: Jazz are who they are right now. Even though the
Speaker 3: trade deadlines over, there's off season coming up, so I'll
Speaker 3: have to wait to see if something happens. Then.
Speaker 4: You gave me a story once about how one of
Speaker 4: the biggest ways you had such a trust and a
Speaker 4: love for Jerry Sloan was he took you to dinner
Speaker 4: ones to let you know about some of the things
Speaker 4: that were coming and why he was trying to kind
Speaker 4: of go to bad for you.
Speaker 2: If I recall that right during a moment in your career.
Speaker 4: Do you see something like that being a part of
Speaker 4: today's NBA, with that transparency and with the way the
Speaker 4: business is.
Speaker 3: Now, I hope. So. I just thought it was, uh,
Speaker 3: it was. It was unusual back then or coach too,
Speaker 3: you know, to sit down with the players and say,
Speaker 3: look this possibly something happens. Just wants you to know.
Speaker 3: I thought it was really big area to do that.
Speaker 3: It was in Miami actually, and you know, so it
Speaker 3: wasn't like a super serious blow. I know there's in
Speaker 3: this day and age, there's you know, the the possibility
Speaker 3: of players busting up a trade or something like that.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean in this in this day and age,
Speaker 3: it's I think it's it happens more that players kind
Speaker 3: of get that trust even though it's a business, their
Speaker 3: trust in gms and coaches and and just talk reality.
Speaker 3: This is the reality of the business. So you know,
Speaker 3: I think there's a there's a communication there that should
Speaker 3: be there.
Speaker 1: Big T tonight in Phoenix. You got the Suns at
Speaker 1: eight pm. What are you expecting to see from the Jazz?
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe not from XM's no standpoint, but as you mentioned,
Speaker 1: there's always a different feel post straight deadline after you
Speaker 1: know that you're not on the move or you're staying put,
Speaker 1: or you know, maybe players that have been moved. Uh
Speaker 1: kJ Martin of course the only addition for the Jazz,
Speaker 1: But uh, what are what are your expectations for a
Speaker 1: matchup with Phoenix tonight?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, you never know what's going on in
Speaker 3: that locker room and what will motivate a team and
Speaker 3: what we'll just continue to to be, uh, you know,
Speaker 3: a problem in the locker room. So I just know
Speaker 3: that the Jazz need to have some carryover for how
Speaker 3: they've been playing the last few games. I think they
Speaker 3: can do that. I think they're they're you know, they're
Speaker 3: they're really consolidated on the buy in as a team,
Speaker 3: and so I expect them to go out and uh,
Speaker 3: you know, and go out and try to win this game.
Speaker 3: It's off of back to back, so the first quarter
Speaker 3: is going to tell me a lot about, you know,
Speaker 3: where their mindset is and how much carryover we will
Speaker 3: get from that Warriors game.
Speaker 1: Big T, we know you got to run, get to that,
Speaker 1: get that arena, and uh what we'll see on the
Speaker 1: on the television screen here momentarily.
Speaker 3: Thanks man, hey, thank you guys, appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Big T thorough Bailey, Big T thorough Bailey, and it's
Speaker 1: hover loving beast, one of the love that man, one
Speaker 1: of the greats in jazz land, of course on the
Speaker 1: floor and in the community and on the broadcast.