Speaker 1: For fifteen years, the Big Show dominated the Utah sports
Speaker 1: talk airwaves. First it was Craig Bowler Jack and Gordon Monson,
Speaker 1: followed by Spence Check its in Monson. Now all three
Speaker 1: are reunited on the Drive. It's time for the Big
Speaker 1: Show Hour on the Drive at Spence check Its exclusively
Speaker 1: on ESPN seven hundred.
Speaker 2: It is time for the Big Show, Big Hour.
Speaker 3: And as a result of some logistics, it's been difficult
Speaker 3: to get all three of us in studio, but we
Speaker 3: have accomplished it today on this Thursday afternoon, so we
Speaker 3: have Craig Bowler Jack sporting. I love the look whenever
Speaker 3: it's game day, and let's make sure their mics are
Speaker 3: on whenever it's game day. It just looks like you
Speaker 3: did a set as a crooner down at Graycie, singing
Speaker 3: a little Sinatra and just walking right across the street.
Speaker 4: I just loosened the time. It was a tough three
Speaker 4: hour little gig, but I'm good. It was that lunch crowd.
Speaker 4: It's tough out there.
Speaker 3: I love the look man and just smashing beers. It's
Speaker 3: unreal on a Thursday, Gordon, it looks like that looks
Speaker 3: like a Budweiser in your in your cup, and I
Speaker 3: know I know that you're not necessarily one that in vibes.
Speaker 3: What are you drinking in the early afternoon stages of
Speaker 3: a Thursday.
Speaker 2: It is apple beer, So it's not real beer.
Speaker 5: No, well, I mean it's apple beer, but it doesn't
Speaker 5: I don't think it has alcohol in it.
Speaker 2: Are you sure?
Speaker 5: We'll find out during the show.
Speaker 2: It seems loose Spence. All I know is back in
Speaker 2: the day.
Speaker 3: I know he won't love you sharing this, But for
Speaker 3: about a week if pat Dad was like, man, I
Speaker 3: really love kombucha. It makes me feel grand, Like you know, there's.
Speaker 2: A little bit of hitting there, right, yeah, just so
Speaker 2: you know, bops, that's why you're feeling good. So apple beer?
Speaker 2: Is this a new a new hobby of you?
Speaker 5: Actually, it's a trip in time for me because when
Speaker 5: I was a kid on the East Coast, apple beer
Speaker 5: was a little more of a thing. Sure, you know,
Speaker 5: uh and uh, But I haven't really had luck since then,
Speaker 5: so I thought, what the heck I went grocery shop
Speaker 5: in this.
Speaker 3: I don't believe that for a second or video of this, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't believe that for a second.
Speaker 2: Where'd you go? Because we're calling right now.
Speaker 5: I went to the grocery stores down the street from me.
Speaker 5: I was supposed to pick something up. Yeah, And I
Speaker 5: picked up a cart and went up and down the aisles. Man,
Speaker 5: And you know what, It's just so amazing what's in
Speaker 5: these grocery stores. You take it for granted, right, But
Speaker 5: I mean I'm not there very often. And so I
Speaker 5: started looking around, and I was going, how come Lisa
Speaker 5: never gets that? And so I started just cherry picking
Speaker 5: stuff off the aisle.
Speaker 2: You would wait, did you leave you to your own
Speaker 2: devices at the store.
Speaker 5: Yeah, she wasn't there. It was just me.
Speaker 3: But he's talking like he wants the Nobel Peace bass
Speaker 3: and he went grocery shops?
Speaker 2: You really? Did you hit all the aisles, all twenty
Speaker 2: four of it.
Speaker 5: I didn't go up down every one of them, but
Speaker 5: I went up. I think I skipped the the kitchen
Speaker 5: cleaning applying stunning. Yeah, but I went up and down
Speaker 5: most of them.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: So did you do this as a pushcart or just
Speaker 3: what you got in the little scooter? I would pay
Speaker 3: to see that, just rolling around the store in a
Speaker 3: little the way the way, hold on here, when you
Speaker 3: guys go to the grocery store. Yeah, what do you buy.
Speaker 2: The necessities that I need to live? Like?
Speaker 5: What though? I mean, do you spoil yourself with a
Speaker 5: little treat here and and something that's less than healthy
Speaker 5: over there?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: You know what, Usually it's a list that I'm mean
Speaker 4: given from Sharon saying break free. But sometimes, you know,
Speaker 4: I'll go on my own just because like I need
Speaker 4: idprofen bad, you know, Okay, something like that. After these
Speaker 4: long road trips, I'm out. I got where I need
Speaker 4: some help to. Yeah, exactly, that's a headache right there.
Speaker 5: So what do you buy?
Speaker 2: It's it's whatever, you know.
Speaker 4: Sometimes I'll see a special on Cheetos and I haven't
Speaker 4: had the tough Cheetos in a while. Okay, you know,
Speaker 4: two bags five nine with the card, you know, with
Speaker 4: my card, so i'll see what the heck I'm taking them.
Speaker 4: I'll leave one in my office and then just throw
Speaker 4: one in the kitchen.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: You know what I got today that I've never bought before?
Speaker 2: I can't wait time?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Yeah, those what do you call those little potato
Speaker 5: puff things? Like in Napoleon Dynamite that he was putting.
Speaker 3: Tater tots potato puff things. That's not even a hard
Speaker 3: thing to pull tater tots what do you call potatoes?
Speaker 2: And little slits? And you fry them? What do you
Speaker 2: call those? Do you understand that you have to warm
Speaker 2: those up? Yeah? You just can't open the bag and
Speaker 2: eat them. Yeah.
Speaker 5: In fact, we got one of those do dads that
Speaker 5: air fryer things.
Speaker 2: You can use the air fryer to make some tater tots.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Okay, Well it looks like you're smashing a budweiser right
Speaker 3: in front of it.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: Do you think people would judge me?
Speaker 2: I wouldn't. No, man, I can't speak for the community.
Speaker 4: If it's five o'clock, i'd say on, but it's three
Speaker 4: three oh seven, so I thought maybe a little early.
Speaker 4: But that's okay, it's five o'clock someplace, you know. The
Speaker 4: first thing I thought of was the great late Jerry Sloan,
Speaker 4: who liked to throw a few ice cubes in a
Speaker 4: cold bud light.
Speaker 2: Really. Yeah.
Speaker 3: One of my jobs when I was the pr intern
Speaker 3: for Dave all Read and Kim Turners, I had to
Speaker 3: keep six beers back for hot Rod and two beers
Speaker 3: back for Jerry.
Speaker 2: Because in the media room back in the day they
Speaker 2: had beers. They did absolutely not any longer.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't judge you, but I think there's a portion
Speaker 3: of our community that's been enjoying your recent work with
Speaker 3: the trip that might judge you a little bit.
Speaker 2: If you're smashing beers.
Speaker 5: I think that I'm doing that. Well, look, if that's
Speaker 5: your thing, then go forward. But I'm just saying, when
Speaker 5: I walked in here, there's a police officer driving by,
Speaker 5: and would that be ill?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you would be.
Speaker 3: That's called an open container And I could go down
Speaker 3: all the laws if you want to.
Speaker 2: We can.
Speaker 3: We can dissect every single one of them in Vegas.
Speaker 2: You'd be fine.
Speaker 3: Can you imagine getting an alert on your phone that
Speaker 3: Monson has been detained for an open container in downtown?
Speaker 3: So I would not believe that to be true.
Speaker 5: For but if I had this Benson it was filled
Speaker 5: up because it started up here. If it's filled up
Speaker 5: there and it's got the phamy head on it and
Speaker 5: all that stuff that's they found my head, would would
Speaker 5: would the police officer?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: To me, I think a cop would inquire as to
Speaker 3: what the beverage was in in your plasticut there.
Speaker 4: I don't know if they have like a little scary strip,
Speaker 4: they may have put in there to see if it.
Speaker 3: Reacts to it well. And also since you're new to
Speaker 3: the game, red red plastic cups, Yeah, the red Solar Bear.
Speaker 3: That's why everybody has the red solo cups.
Speaker 5: Okay, okay, because I had one to lose at home,
Speaker 5: I could he.
Speaker 2: Use see this is a giveaway. Well it's also apple beer.
Speaker 2: You're fine red plastic or you had to go if
Speaker 2: you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Okay, So look like that caught off guard bowler, welcome
Speaker 3: back to civilization.
Speaker 2: Friend here, you shouldn't be wearing socks.
Speaker 5: Really, that wouldn't I completed if he was.
Speaker 4: If I was in Miami like I was like five
Speaker 4: days ago, should just warn no socks. And we did
Speaker 4: Big T's idea. We just went the the Don Johnson
Speaker 4: Miami Vice Look no tie, which felt good for change.
Speaker 5: Actually to go down to the South Beach.
Speaker 2: Yeah we actually did. Yeah, not much. It rained the
Speaker 2: entire you know, little no No. That was New York.
Speaker 4: I get mixed up where I am sometimes Miami was beautiful.
Speaker 4: Orlando was very nice as well. But to Spens and
Speaker 4: if we were talking earlier, I mean that the schedule
Speaker 4: has been insane and we hit the road again for
Speaker 4: a quick trip to Phoenix, and then we come back
Speaker 4: and head to New Orleans and by the middle of January, man,
Speaker 4: we've we've, we've, we've put some miles on those airplanes.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you that, right, this is the time
Speaker 2: of year.
Speaker 3: Because I did pre aff and post for seven years,
Speaker 3: and even because I never traveled, we were at the
Speaker 3: at the arena and that was no. This is the
Speaker 3: time of year where you walk out of you and
Speaker 3: for me, it was like one thirty am, and you're
Speaker 3: just like, dude, I need to I don't care if
Speaker 3: you're a coach, a player, a broadcast. This is the
Speaker 3: time of year where you lose track of the days
Speaker 3: and like where you're at.
Speaker 4: Here's the biggest thing to have in me? What side
Speaker 4: of the bed do I get off and out of? Okay,
Speaker 4: I mean it's weird. I wake up and I go
Speaker 4: I am totally lost. I don't know if people who
Speaker 4: travel a lot feel the same WA's. And the thing
Speaker 4: I've been trying to do is make sure you know
Speaker 4: as you get older, you say I can handle it.
Speaker 4: But one night I remember, on this last road trip,
Speaker 4: I stayed in Room nine seventeen, the next night. I
Speaker 4: was in seven nineteen, you see, So okay, all of
Speaker 4: a sudden, my mind flashes back to the ninth floor,
Speaker 4: or mind the seventh floor.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you go crap.
Speaker 4: So you go up to the seventh floor and you
Speaker 4: throw your cart across a little you know, if it
Speaker 4: doesn't beep or go click click, just start knocking loud. Yeah,
Speaker 4: then I go back up to the ninth floor and
Speaker 4: try it again. So that's what I did.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad you're back. It's good to be bad guys.
Speaker 2: I'd love to see you know. This is where you know,
Speaker 2: this is where it all starts. This where it is.
Speaker 5: Yet I gotta ask a quick question about this travel thing.
Speaker 5: You remember back when people were telling us that Carl
Speaker 5: had in his contract that he had to have a
Speaker 5: couple of baskets are fresh fruit in this hotel? Yeah?
Speaker 5: Was that true? I don't know.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, if you hear rock
Speaker 4: stars only have green m and ms right in the
Speaker 4: green room or whatever. I mean, everybody has this, you
Speaker 4: know oddity that they like.
Speaker 5: You have anything that you have?
Speaker 2: Are you kidding me?
Speaker 4: They would laugh me right through, Like Bullerjack wants what Yeah, right?
Speaker 5: You ever you ever raide the bar?
Speaker 2: I try to stay away from that.
Speaker 5: Isn't like two hundred bucks if you if you eat
Speaker 5: a bag of potato.
Speaker 3: Chips, it's not two hundred dollars for a bag of
Speaker 3: potato chips. But it's not economic depends.
Speaker 4: On what city. If you're in San Antonio versus New York,
Speaker 4: if you're in Sacramento versus Miami. It is a night
Speaker 4: and day price difference night and day.
Speaker 5: So people wonder this spencer you drive this bro. I
Speaker 5: think people wonder.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we got an hour here, We're fine.
Speaker 5: Okay. What are the players? What is their situation from city?
Speaker 5: This city?
Speaker 2: Is it?
Speaker 5: I mean, is it posh? Is it just routine?
Speaker 2: Is it? What?
Speaker 5: What are their accommodations?
Speaker 4: Well, it's nice according to the NBA Players Union, I
Speaker 4: do believe hotels are in the five star category. That's
Speaker 4: part of the contract. Yes, per diem, Yes, well, you know,
Speaker 4: food at their disposal in the hotels. But I'll be
Speaker 4: honest with you, all the years I've traveled, I really
Speaker 4: think that it's a routine that everyone has to decide
Speaker 4: on how to do it themselves and what works for you.
Speaker 4: I mean, Tea has told me in the older days,
Speaker 4: because they used to play back to back to back,
Speaker 4: and there were some days in the Sloan era especially,
Speaker 4: but the back to backs are rough.
Speaker 2: I mean there's naps.
Speaker 4: I mean, it sounds crazy for young men to say
Speaker 4: it's nap time, but I think you have to catch
Speaker 4: your best rest whenever you possibly can, and it depends
Speaker 4: on your body. Some sleep on the flight, some one.
Speaker 4: Some stay busy with whether it's movies uh or looking
Speaker 4: at at game film honestly uh. And others just I
Speaker 4: think just try to just just chill.
Speaker 5: The players, watch what they eat. Who is the player
Speaker 5: Spencer used to eat the cheeseburgers.
Speaker 2: I was Mel Turpin Dinner Bell Mel. Yeah.
Speaker 5: I thought there was another one. I'm forgetting his name
Speaker 5: right now, but he he ate like a teenager.
Speaker 4: But you know, I don't think the NBA, any training
Speaker 4: staff in the league now would allow that, the least
Speaker 4: in the sense of them presenting to that on the
Speaker 4: flight or in a hotel gathering where they get together
Speaker 4: for team meetings and then they have a meal. There's
Speaker 4: no way unless they jump out on their own and
Speaker 4: go to smashburger. I don't know maybe once in a
Speaker 4: while they do. They got to treat themselves on occasion.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you this because I love the Gordon
Speaker 3: asked if NBA players staying nice, it's like a lacina
Speaker 3: with Jimmy Johns for life.
Speaker 2: Of course.
Speaker 5: Has Yeah, the buffet, how accommodating.
Speaker 3: Made order pancake Walker just nailed a thousand Marrion points
Speaker 3: so he can get some milk in the morning.
Speaker 2: Give me a break.
Speaker 3: But I am curious. Gordon as Gordon, as only Gordon
Speaker 3: can do. Gordon does bring up an interesting topic. I
Speaker 3: wonder how it's changed because I think it was Wickerstram
Speaker 3: somebody about four years ago, five years ago, because I
Speaker 3: can remember doing postgame my final year doing postgame with
Speaker 3: Britain and we would notice it was a Warriors game
Speaker 3: and there were about six or seven young ladies in
Speaker 3: the arena just sitting there and we're.
Speaker 2: Kind of like what's going on here? Like how'd they
Speaker 2: get in?
Speaker 3: And Klay Thompson walks out and all six or seven
Speaker 3: of them just follow Clay out back and the disappear.
Speaker 5: End of the night.
Speaker 2: Well I didn't follow them. I don't know where they went.
Speaker 3: But the piece that Wickerstram wrote, he called it the
Speaker 3: tenderfication of the NBA. Whereas back in the day, like
Speaker 3: Gordon was talking about, and I saw this, you know,
Speaker 3: in my own travels. But you've traveled with the teams
Speaker 3: of more than I have. You know, players get done
Speaker 3: with a game, go back to the hotel, and then
Speaker 3: they're out. They go to the club, right they want
Speaker 3: to meet women, they want to hang out, and that
Speaker 3: was kind of the deal.
Speaker 2: And now with dating apps, they land.
Speaker 3: And boom, you're swiping and oh, a girl sees Klay
Speaker 3: Thompson match with me on Tinder, so I'm going to
Speaker 3: go meet him after the game. They don't have to
Speaker 3: go out the way they used to if they want
Speaker 3: to meet women. And also there's a little bit more
Speaker 3: of an understanding of how to take care of yourself
Speaker 3: because of the implementation of strength and conditioning coach and nutritionists.
Speaker 3: Like teams, they don't want these twenty one to twenty
Speaker 3: two year old players going out and smash into kuila shots.
Speaker 3: I think they take care of themselves better now in
Speaker 3: a way they didn't back in the day.
Speaker 4: I would agree that there's more on the line today
Speaker 4: than ever because they make it very clear in the
Speaker 4: NBA and the rookie symposiums that are held. Look, here's
Speaker 4: the way you're supposed to act, and the team also
Speaker 4: expects the same thing.
Speaker 5: At what point is an intrusion into privacy? Because you know,
Speaker 5: that's a great point.
Speaker 3: You still have your private life, right. It was Tom
Speaker 3: Habershaw who wrote that piece. My bad Tom Habershaw, Yeah,
Speaker 3: who wrote the piece about the tender use in the NBA.
Speaker 5: But I remember one time at Marina del Rey. We
Speaker 5: were standing at a hotel there and the team hotel
Speaker 5: was next door, the Ritz and and uh, yeah, you've
Speaker 5: been there many times, and the jazz are in the playoffs,
Speaker 5: and there was a certain jazz player who was checking
Speaker 5: his cousin into the hotel right when a few of
Speaker 5: us media people walked and he was checking her in,
Speaker 5: and and he happened to also be married at the time,
Speaker 5: and he was checking this cousin in, and it was
Speaker 5: just really kind of weird because it was like, Okay,
Speaker 5: it's really none of our business what so and so
Speaker 5: is doing, but that's what he was doing.
Speaker 2: How do you know it wasn't his cousin.
Speaker 5: We were pretty sure.
Speaker 2: Can't people have attractive cousins.
Speaker 3: Uh, could be a sister. It's a dangerous question in Utah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, true, it could be a sister. Well, your point is, well.
Speaker 5: I don't want to jump to a conclusion, but we
Speaker 5: kind of did.
Speaker 3: Think.
Speaker 4: I think the bottom line to it is that there
Speaker 4: is space that men live and women who travel in
Speaker 4: the WNBA or whatever, you know, there still is a privacy.
Speaker 4: I think the players respect that, the coaches as long
Speaker 4: as it doesn't impact that the team concept of winning
Speaker 4: and moving forward. Uh, you know, I'll tell you what.
Speaker 4: There's some nights at three o'clock you just don't you don't.
Speaker 4: I can't say it, but you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 4: You just want to go to get your butt upstairs,
Speaker 4: throw your sixty pounds bag that you've been on the
Speaker 4: road for seven days, and just try to find some sleep.
Speaker 5: I think this particular player, jazz player, just wanted to
Speaker 5: take a little comfort.
Speaker 4: Ah, not a pillow, simon. But you know, look, does
Speaker 4: it happen sure? I mean, but is this exclusive to
Speaker 4: the NBA?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 4: I mean business trips whatever you make. You know, you
Speaker 4: can break it downever you want. But look, traveling is,
Speaker 4: in my opinion's still difficult mentally, physically, and if you're
Speaker 4: making the kind of money that is in the NBA,
Speaker 4: the National Football League, Hockey Baseball, there is so much
Speaker 4: at stake now, even more that if you want to
Speaker 4: stay in this league and they're pushing you every day
Speaker 4: because there's somebody else rumored to be on their way,
Speaker 4: and so I think the pressure of just being who
Speaker 4: you are and keep it for six months, that's your job. Obviously,
Speaker 4: you work out during the off season, and you may
Speaker 4: go overseas, you may play in summer leagues or whatever
Speaker 4: it may be. But man, you've got to be uber focused.
Speaker 5: Especially with a team like the Jazz, because you play hungover.
Speaker 2: I can't imagine.
Speaker 5: Well, I mean, if you're a star, if you're an
Speaker 5: established star, then people aren't going to really question you
Speaker 5: about what your routine is. But if you're in the
Speaker 5: Jazz situation and you're trying to prove yourself and you're
Speaker 5: trying to improve as you do it, if I were
Speaker 5: one of those guys that wouldn't be messing around, I.
Speaker 2: Wouldn't do a thing, man.
Speaker 4: I would play ball, sleep and eat, play ball, sleep
Speaker 4: and eat. As they say is you're living in the tube,
Speaker 4: which means the bus, the arena, the hotel, and the plane.
Speaker 2: That's it. That's it.
Speaker 4: That's your life, and the money you make is the reward.
Speaker 4: And right now, the jazz especially, there's a lot of
Speaker 4: players out there that are still unknown in their own
Speaker 4: minds or their contracts, and their agents are trying to
Speaker 4: make sure that they play, they live to play another day.
Speaker 4: Because I loved your interview with Tony coming in, I
Speaker 4: mean Tony spot On. I mean, there's a lot of ifs.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of players that are potentially ready to
Speaker 4: be drafted that could easily jump in and take a
Speaker 4: place or two of multiple jazz players. And over this
Speaker 4: next three years, man, you've got to be solid if
Speaker 4: you're going to survive. Danny Ainge and Justin Zanik.
Speaker 5: Do you remember Ron Fellows O? Yes, Na sounds familiar,
Speaker 5: defensive bag for the Dallas Cowboys. I'm almost certain my
Speaker 5: memory might be playing a trick on me.
Speaker 2: But I was there.
Speaker 5: I was I was interviewing him about Manny hendrick Man,
Speaker 5: the former youth basketball player who was trying to make
Speaker 5: the jump to the NFL, and the Cowboys were having
Speaker 5: their training camp out a thousand Oaks and I went
Speaker 5: out there and to do something on Manny and I
Speaker 5: was starting to ron and he's an established player in
Speaker 5: the NFL, and I'm asking him, tell me about Manny
Speaker 5: Hendricks And he said, well, I don't want to give
Speaker 5: him too much glory or public because I don't want
Speaker 5: my job taken away. That was the first thing he said.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, think about Kante.
Speaker 4: He's looking over his shoulder, looking at a kind of
Speaker 4: a bulldog athletic point guard in Isaiah Collier, right, how
Speaker 4: does he develop? Well, look, man, you know I've got
Speaker 4: I've got my own worries in you two and you know,
Speaker 4: or sends the ball all of a sudden starting to
Speaker 4: look like a sixth, sixth number six player, Or he's
Speaker 4: got a body like a d Wade, you know, where
Speaker 4: he can plow in and get things done. He may
Speaker 4: actually turn out Spence to be a good finisher at
Speaker 4: the rim. Of course, he has to learn how to
Speaker 4: play defense or continue to improve there. But man, there's
Speaker 4: all of a sudden since we've talked, you know, in studio,
Speaker 4: there's been an acceleration of development with the team. And
Speaker 4: I probably would say the Hawks loss was as entertaining
Speaker 4: as we've had all season long on a Trey Young
Speaker 4: heave ho after Sexton goes crazy with with the tie
Speaker 4: and you go, wow, did they grow up a lot tonight?
Speaker 4: But they still suffered the loss. And I know no
Speaker 4: one wants to well, some Jazz fans want to lose,
Speaker 4: and I get it, But for me, it was like, Wow,
Speaker 4: a lot accomplished tonight. Incredible minutes, closing minutes, tight minutes
Speaker 4: against a team that has a really outstanding player to actually,
Speaker 4: but but Trey Young's good man.
Speaker 5: When Sexton hit that that three, I just saw, Okay,
Speaker 5: there it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And next thing they turn around and Trey hits that.
Speaker 5: I texted Quinn and said, what was that? And he
Speaker 5: texted me back and said, crazy stuff. Can't make this up. Yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, it's just what. I don't care what the
Speaker 5: situation is. I don't care what the Jazz are trying
Speaker 5: to do, where they're trying to win or trying to lose.
Speaker 5: That was a great game. That was a fun game
Speaker 5: to watch.
Speaker 4: The last ten I think Spence, and you're probably looking
Speaker 4: at him right now, I think have been competitive. I
Speaker 4: think we've seen growth. I've seen more confidence in this team.
Speaker 4: Will Hardy's a good coach and the players are connected,
Speaker 4: and you know that's part of the whole process. You know,
Speaker 4: you talk about building the foundation, the winning culture. I
Speaker 4: think the culture the bricks are starting to pile up
Speaker 4: a little bit. And you know, a month ago, I
Speaker 4: don't think we could have said that, but I think
Speaker 4: over the last ten games, yes, yes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's funny. I texted Quinn at the game.
Speaker 3: I said, hey, hell of a play call, and he said,
Speaker 3: better to be lucky than good. But that now, that
Speaker 3: was a fun night and I do think, okay, so
Speaker 3: we'll do this topic. Don't catch a break because I
Speaker 3: was thinking about because I've been watching Cleveland. I watched
Speaker 3: the Cabs OKAC game last night, and Donovan is starting
Speaker 3: to really understand. You know, his numbers are about the same.
Speaker 3: He didn't shoot it well last night, but if you
Speaker 3: watch the way he's participating in the team offensive flow
Speaker 3: and he's playing defense. He actually said, not too long ago,
Speaker 3: oh I'm actually trying on defense now.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, thanks, dude, sweet, yeah, you were here
Speaker 2: for five years. What was that?
Speaker 3: But I was thinking about through this prison because I
Speaker 3: could remember Donovan's rookie year when he just like, remember
Speaker 3: Gordon Leaves and everybody said, Okay, they'll be okay because
Speaker 3: Rodney Hood is going to step in and take Gordon's usage.
Speaker 3: And honestly, Rodney had shown a little ability. So it's like,
Speaker 3: all right, let's see if Rodney is ready for that challenge.
Speaker 3: Within five games, it's like he's not. You know, he's
Speaker 3: not that dude. Maybe he can be a role player
Speaker 3: that can hit some shots. And Quinn said to Donovan,
Speaker 3: all right, you're driving the car now throwing the keys.
Speaker 2: Boom, Rookie takes over.
Speaker 3: And then the second year, Donovan's second year, watching that
Speaker 3: playoff run where Donovan was the main scoring option for
Speaker 3: a team that advanced a couple of rounds. They beat
Speaker 3: OKC right, OKAC was supposed to be that super team,
Speaker 3: and I remember thinking like, this is such great news
Speaker 3: because for a second year player to have playoff experience
Speaker 3: as the guy that's leading the charge in four or five,
Speaker 3: six years, it's gonna pay off. Now. Unfortunately it's paying
Speaker 3: off for the Cavs. But I've been thinking, like, for
Speaker 3: a team that has no playoff basketball in their future,
Speaker 3: how are we going to get some of these young
Speaker 3: kids experience in intense game situations if they're not gonna
Speaker 3: have playoff experience like Donovan did as a young player,
Speaker 3: because the experience you have in your one year, two year,
Speaker 3: three manifests, year, four year, five, year six. This is
Speaker 3: a ride of passage league. So the fact that over
Speaker 3: the past ten to twelve games they've had a couple
Speaker 3: of wins here or there, but these games are close
Speaker 3: down the stretch and it's intense, and it's good basketball
Speaker 3: against good teams. These are the games that you want
Speaker 3: Keyante and I know he's been out, but you want
Speaker 3: Kyle in, you want Isaiah, and you want the young
Speaker 3: players to feel what it's like to play intense minutes
Speaker 3: in intense situations. And if it's not going to be
Speaker 3: playoff basketball, this is the second best thing exactly. I
Speaker 3: thought the same thing down those last four and a
Speaker 3: half minutes, was like, Wow, this is what you know,
Speaker 3: players fans all wanted to see, all want to live for,
Speaker 3: and it is a replica. It's the best replica replication
Speaker 3: of a playoff field goro. I mean, you can't replicate
Speaker 3: that until you live it because there is another level,
Speaker 3: but this is as close as you can get. And
Speaker 3: also who closes those minutes. You know, will Hardy is
Speaker 3: using ten player rotations mostly he's gotten a lot of
Speaker 3: guys get a lot of minutes. But Cody Williams is
Speaker 3: in there, you know, since the ball has been in
Speaker 3: there when he hasn't been ill Keyante has been there
Speaker 3: and flip his head some moments as well. So how
Speaker 3: do you do it? You have to throw them into
Speaker 3: a situation that they go, Man, this feels good. I
Speaker 3: don't like to lose, but boy, it felt good to
Speaker 3: get this to this point. What do I have to
Speaker 3: do now to get to the next level? And so
Speaker 3: it's a process, but I still I hold true the
Speaker 3: last ten games. Man, I just get a total sense
Speaker 3: of more confident, more confident Utah Jazz team who seem
Speaker 3: to be handling situations much better. Turnovers are down a bit,
Speaker 3: but they still come back to bite them in just
Speaker 3: stressful times where they haven't been and they seem not
Speaker 3: to know exactly what to do or if they trust
Speaker 3: themselves or their teammates.
Speaker 5: So if I were gonna ask the both of you
Speaker 5: one conclusion, I know we're really not in the conclusion
Speaker 5: business right now with that team, But based on the
Speaker 5: last ten games. If you had to come up with
Speaker 5: one conclusion about what's happening with the Jazz, what would
Speaker 5: you say.
Speaker 3: In a way, it reminds me of the early part
Speaker 3: of Quinn's tenure here where early on Rebuild team wasn't winning,
Speaker 3: but you could see like this this guy can coach.
Speaker 3: Will can coach, and so even on nights like in
Speaker 3: Orlando they sat like half the team, well, it's like whatever,
Speaker 3: let's just go win the thing. He maximizes the talent
Speaker 3: on that roster, and I just I really hope that
Speaker 3: in the next two years he sees enough to stick
Speaker 3: around for the long term, because I remember thinking before
Speaker 3: Dennis was able to, you know, be really savvy and
Speaker 3: a little lucky with Donovan and Rudy, right, but other
Speaker 3: additions ingles pops like nobody thought he would. Then Quinn
Speaker 3: had a team. I'm like, all right, Quinn is good here.
Speaker 3: But I remember thinking like, if Dennis doesn't get Quinn players,
Speaker 3: Quinn's gonna get gone. And I just hope that they
Speaker 3: can give Will enough talent at his disposal that in
Speaker 3: two years from now he sees enough to stay because
Speaker 3: I think he could coach pretty much anywhere in the League.
Speaker 3: I think it'd be a hot commodity if he doesn't
Speaker 3: stick around here.
Speaker 5: He deserves it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, I mean he comes from you know, the
Speaker 4: Popovich tree, and he's obviously well trained, learned, watched listen,
Speaker 4: started in the film room, like Spolstra with pat Riley
Speaker 4: in Miami. There's a lot of comparisons there. But again,
Speaker 4: you know how far? How long? Yes, Tony, this too, Spence?
Speaker 4: What's the run time here of actually being a dynamic
Speaker 4: playoff team in the West, which is aging, which will.
Speaker 2: Help the Jazz in a lot of ways.
Speaker 4: But what if you finish with the five spot and
Speaker 4: maybe Lady Luck doesn't follow on you like it did
Speaker 4: with Atlanta. Now, Rischache, you know the for a number
Speaker 4: one pick, I'm not really sure where that is, but
Speaker 4: you know, the next two years, there's some home runs
Speaker 4: out there to hit and where are the Jazz? And
Speaker 4: the other part of this equation is does Xanik and
Speaker 4: Danny do what they've done the last two years and
Speaker 4: move players prior to the trade deadline, and that is
Speaker 4: yet to be seen if that would really then push
Speaker 4: the Jazz back down from where they are right now
Speaker 4: and open up more minutes for even flip and if
Speaker 4: and for Cody and others.
Speaker 3: I don't think they'll do anything. I actually, I mean, look,
Speaker 3: if a GM calls and says i'll give you first
Speaker 3: for Clarkson, they'll take it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Or you known Collins, Yeah, you know, maybe they can
Speaker 3: get a first for a bad But it almost feels
Speaker 3: like they're built perfectly to stay competitive but continue to lose,
Speaker 3: and that I know it sucks, but that's kind of
Speaker 3: what you want.
Speaker 4: Delta Center. Still, I'm really I got to plod Jazz fans.
Speaker 4: It's still wow. They walk in, they want to see
Speaker 4: this rebuild. They're there and I wasn't sure if that
Speaker 4: would be the case this season, but I think they
Speaker 4: do see what we see, and that is some young
Speaker 4: players who have some excitement to them, and you know,
Speaker 4: it's a wait and see game to see exactly how
Speaker 4: long they'll take.
Speaker 5: Can I use one analogy? I look at it like this,
Speaker 5: I think that the Jazz are putting a puzzle together.
Speaker 5: Only what's the first thing you do when you're doing
Speaker 5: a five thousand piece?
Speaker 2: Don't you want to find something else to do? Or
Speaker 2: it sucks? Is it a five thousand piece? Or we're
Speaker 2: doing here?
Speaker 3: Calfe choice talking about I meant the border on a puzzle.
Speaker 5: Yes, yeah, you do the border, but the Jazz are
Speaker 5: doing the middle.
Speaker 2: First, building out.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because they don't they don't have the framework.
Speaker 2: That makes it tougher.
Speaker 3: We started out the segment with cooking potato puffs and
Speaker 3: the go Daddy instead of tots.
Speaker 2: Here and we're talking puzzles.
Speaker 3: He literally called tater tots potato puffs. He's a sixty
Speaker 3: five year old man calling on. All right, we'll catch
Speaker 3: a break. We're gonna do some football coming up next
Speaker 3: Penn State Notre Dame tonight. And since we last spoke,
Speaker 3: big time transfer heads down to Provo. Gordon Monson, Creig Buller,
Speaker 3: Jack liven Studio. Gordo's almost done with his beer, so
Speaker 3: keep it here on ESPN seven hundred. Got another big
Speaker 3: segment here before we bring in Ted Robinson. A preview
Speaker 3: tonight's Notre Dame Penn State game. Interesting conversation during the break.
Speaker 3: I think it, uh, I think it, it's uh probably
Speaker 3: appropriate and fair to say we should all be very
Speaker 3: grateful for this time and where we find ourselves existing
Speaker 3: in society.
Speaker 5: Yes, I would agree with that one hundred percent and
Speaker 5: I wish, you know, this has been something in my
Speaker 5: thirty years of doing radio. Sometimes I think the breaks
Speaker 5: are more interesting than what we say on the air.
Speaker 5: I wish all of your listeners could have heard the
Speaker 5: story Craig just told. I mean, it's just anyway. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I agree with you one hundred percent. When you see
Speaker 5: what's happening down in southern California right now, people losing
Speaker 5: their homes, people in tough, tough circumstances. It doesn't be
Speaker 5: grateful for the good things, you know.
Speaker 4: I think we've lost track of that. Not to preach,
Speaker 4: but you know, I hope everybody just takes a deep
Speaker 4: breath on occasion and just understands what really is going down.
Speaker 4: You lose a president and Jimmy Carter, you know, half
Speaker 4: staff flags a new president inauguration around the corner. You've
Speaker 4: got fires. It's crazy world, man, make the best of me.
Speaker 4: I don't understand. You know, you know more about that
Speaker 4: the gordl you live there. But the Santa Ana wins.
Speaker 4: They always fear that, they always fear the Santa Anna wins.
Speaker 4: And it can just I mean, those things roar like
Speaker 4: forty to sixty miles an hour, right or.
Speaker 5: More more, and so it would be more.
Speaker 2: It's its own weather system.
Speaker 4: And so once a fire picks up, and they haven't
Speaker 4: had much rain of ending in the last three years
Speaker 4: in Sokows, so it's it's prime picking.
Speaker 5: I talked to a friend of mine last night and
Speaker 5: he sent me four or five videos he drove around
Speaker 5: my old neighborhoods. I had two different houses down there.
Speaker 5: One of them's gone, the other one made it through.
Speaker 5: And I'm like, he's showing me what's going on. And
Speaker 5: I'm like, and people. I heard one person say, isn't
Speaker 5: it a coincidence there was a fire and the wind
Speaker 5: just happened to be blowing at that time, And I
Speaker 5: said no, because there could be a fire when the
Speaker 5: Santa Anna's aren't roaring and they just put it out.
Speaker 5: But in this case, that wind picks up those zmbers
Speaker 5: and they are flying all over the place and next
Speaker 5: thing you know, your city's burning down. It's crazy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's horrifying. Man, it looks like apocalyptic out there.
Speaker 3: But there was this let's see here. Let me give
Speaker 3: this guy the proper credit. So David Bornstein is his name,
Speaker 3: and he's he's the co founder of a organization called
Speaker 3: the Solutions Journalism Network, and he wrote an op ed
Speaker 3: for The New York Times two years ago and said,
Speaker 3: scared by the news, question mark, take the long view.
Speaker 3: Now's the greatest time in history to be alive. But
Speaker 3: the problem is we're all consuming fear based, you know,
Speaker 3: propaganda and for profit news that doesn't give a rip
Speaker 3: about truth. They want to scare you, so you keep consuming.
Speaker 3: And if you get lost in the cycle about who's
Speaker 3: going to be president and then half the country hates
Speaker 3: that Canada and suddenly we're on the precipice of a
Speaker 3: civil war, you lose track of the long game, which
Speaker 3: is truly, this is the best time in human history
Speaker 3: to be alive. And I think it's important to keep
Speaker 3: reminding people of that because it does feel like life
Speaker 3: is so hard for so many people right now. And
Speaker 3: I'm not sure how necessary that is. If you just refrint,
Speaker 3: you're thinking, the.
Speaker 5: Truth does get lost, and that's a scary thing. When
Speaker 5: the truth doesn't matter anymore, and when it comes to
Speaker 5: government and other things, then you've got a bit of
Speaker 5: a problem that needs to be handled. But you're right, Spence,
Speaker 5: when you think of the advances, and I hear people
Speaker 5: complain about doctors, and they complain about this when you
Speaker 5: think about the advances in medicine and how it's helping
Speaker 5: people live rich lives. And I don't not talk about financially,
Speaker 5: they're just being able to live. I mean, we do
Speaker 5: live in a fantastic time. But and people used to
Speaker 5: ask me this all the time, and they say, man,
Speaker 5: the news is so negative all the time. I get it.
Speaker 5: I get what you're saying. But the very definition of
Speaker 5: news is that which is extraordinary. And so if the
Speaker 5: bad news is extraordinary when it gets when don't get
Speaker 5: really bad, is if the good news is extraordinary, and
Speaker 5: that's what's being portrayed. And so take good some optimism
Speaker 5: out of that, you know, be Paul Cartney and say
Speaker 5: everything is getting better. Not John Lennon. It couldn't get
Speaker 5: no no.
Speaker 4: I pick up this phone, Spence, and I think, what
Speaker 4: an incredible development this was. You're what are we on
Speaker 4: the iPhone sixteen going on seventeen? I mean, I don't
Speaker 4: use half of whatever's on this thing. I don't have
Speaker 4: any need for it, but it's you can become addicted
Speaker 4: to it. And anyone now has of everyone has a
Speaker 4: voice but now it's heard more than ever. You know,
Speaker 4: we just grew up in an eras with Gordo and I,
Speaker 4: where of course we sat down and watched two newscasts,
Speaker 4: the six and ten in the old days are the
Speaker 4: five thirty National News with the Kronkite.
Speaker 5: And others I missed Walter.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you know those are those are early memories
Speaker 4: for me. But there was no other way to get news.
Speaker 4: But now news is so fast and current. The six
Speaker 4: and ten is old news, and so now they do
Speaker 4: more local. But I think that's something that you can
Speaker 4: almost become addicted to, is the negativity that you see
Speaker 4: on your phone every day and so many different areas
Speaker 4: of communication. So you have to decide for yourself. And
Speaker 4: I've decided to kind of let it just sit down
Speaker 4: a little bit more, to be honest with you, because
Speaker 4: I went on the road. My office is the plane,
Speaker 4: My office is my hotel room. And sometimes, you know,
Speaker 4: after my fifth run of mash Or Gilligan's Island, you know,
Speaker 4: I've got to do something else. So I picked this
Speaker 4: up and go, no, that.
Speaker 3: Can't be right, and you know, and period, and they
Speaker 3: all have.
Speaker 2: Everyone has their own opinion about every subject. That's out there.
Speaker 5: I read somewhere where there's more computing power in that
Speaker 5: phone you just picked up than the person that put
Speaker 5: the man on the moon.
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly right, Yeah, yeah, you know it's we could
Speaker 3: do hours and hours on this topic. You know, to
Speaker 3: your point about progress in medicine, I mean, our life
Speaker 3: expectancy has gone up over the past one hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty years because we've learned how to eradicate diseases through science.
Speaker 2: This body's only made the last fifty.
Speaker 3: And then I swear, and then ultimately I got knees
Speaker 3: artificial this, and you know what I mean, it's amazing.
Speaker 3: COVID gets politicized and we forget like, no, we need
Speaker 3: to keep eradicating diseases through science.
Speaker 2: That's why we're living longer than we over have.
Speaker 3: Interesting enough, though, life expectancy for white men in America
Speaker 3: has actually gone down since.
Speaker 2: COVID apple beer, what's the apple beer?
Speaker 5: Yes, what's the explanation for this?
Speaker 3: I think there are a lot of lonely, disenfranchised, you know,
Speaker 3: middle aged men that don't have life partners, that don't
Speaker 3: have things to get them out of bed every day
Speaker 3: that excite them. They probably thought they were going to
Speaker 3: be presidents of companies and now they're barely hanging on.
Speaker 3: And so there are things out there that indicate people
Speaker 3: I think are just thinking the wrong way. Though, you
Speaker 3: know that's why this piece where it's like keep the
Speaker 3: long game in mind.
Speaker 2: This is an excellent time to be alive. Not enough
Speaker 2: people I think fully embraced. Embraced.
Speaker 5: I love what's your message there. I couldn't agree with
Speaker 5: you more. Even though we get the extraordinary, we get
Speaker 5: so much of the bad news, it really is probably
Speaker 5: the best time ever to be alive.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna send you this out, bet, I think you'd
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, for as far as opportunity, as far as health,
Speaker 5: as far as UH, as far as maybe some degree
Speaker 5: of open mindedness at least in some camps UH. And
Speaker 5: the opportunity that to be what you want to be,
Speaker 5: if if you're willing to pay the price, and if
Speaker 5: you do have the original opportunity from jump, because if
Speaker 5: you don't have that opportunity, then you can be stepped
Speaker 5: on your whole entire existence.
Speaker 4: And one last thought, I think you have to force
Speaker 4: yourself to spencon Gordo, to actually control your own narrative
Speaker 4: because you can actually become overwhelmed with negativity. And you
Speaker 4: know why do some white men don't make it as
Speaker 4: long as what the norm is. If that's you know
Speaker 4: what the study you just said is that you become depressed.
Speaker 4: You only look at the negative and if you're if
Speaker 4: you're that negative in life, then it draws you down.
Speaker 4: Your health isn't acted by it as well. Mental health
Speaker 4: is a key here, That's my point. Mental health is something.
Speaker 4: Yet you have a friend, if you know someone that
Speaker 4: needs to talk, I think it's super important to try
Speaker 4: to offer that type of help or someone to talk with. Ye, well,
Speaker 4: a guide them to the right people.
Speaker 5: Well, I think I have a good idea about your
Speaker 5: entire background. I could get you in a whole lot
Speaker 5: of trouble. I know so much about you. Yeah, spend
Speaker 5: same thing with you. And when I look at you
Speaker 5: guys's lifeline and how you've sort of gone through and
Speaker 5: overcome certain challenges. And look, I'm not saying that, I'm
Speaker 5: not saying that, oh boy, you guys had it so
Speaker 5: rough from the beginning, but you have had your rough
Speaker 5: spots and you overcame them through some degree of positivity.
Speaker 5: You know. I mean, if you weren't an optimist spent.
Speaker 5: Some of the challenges that you've overcome are unbelievable. It's
Speaker 5: a great story. And same thing with you, Buller. And
Speaker 5: so if there's a message in this for all your
Speaker 5: listeners out there, Spence, I hope they hang on and
Speaker 5: keep climbing and keep working towards something positive, because you
Speaker 5: can make a difference in this world. You can do well.
Speaker 5: I sound like a Baptist preacher.
Speaker 2: You do, amen.
Speaker 3: It's a revival here right here on seven hundred. I
Speaker 3: like the new approach gory. You know, if I told
Speaker 3: you my one resolution, well, I mean it is still
Speaker 3: the first week of January.
Speaker 4: It's like like water Boy when he says the play
Speaker 4: another day. Yes, there we go. See that's think about that.
Speaker 4: Live to play another day. So if you're down, you
Speaker 4: just have to remember tomorrow you continue on perfect well
Speaker 4: said last thing here, and then we'll move on entirely.
Speaker 4: But I find this really fascinating because the leading cause
Speaker 4: of death for middle aged white men it's still heart disease,
Speaker 4: but number two is accidental deaths, meaning suicide addiction related overdoses.
Speaker 3: That's now number two. You know, So you have a
Speaker 3: lot of depressed, like lonely men out there right now,
Speaker 3: that they just get lost in their mind. What's the answer, Well,
Speaker 3: number one, recognize that your mind lies to you.
Speaker 2: Your mind is constantly barking at you about things.
Speaker 3: That aren't true constantly. Yes, there's a difference between thinking
Speaker 3: and thoughts. Thoughts are the things that just come in
Speaker 3: when you're not you're just sitting there and like, oh,
Speaker 3: you're a piece of you know, you did this. You
Speaker 3: can combat that with positive thinking, but it takes practice.
Speaker 4: The thing I've learned is that everyone has just the
Speaker 4: odd thought that you know, when you're growing up, you know,
Speaker 4: you just think that life is just you know, you're
Speaker 4: out of the playground having a good old time playing baseball.
Speaker 4: But then you hit the real reality of life and
Speaker 4: you think, oh, wonder what that popped into my head?
Speaker 4: What what that was? Kind of string dumb thought, Yeah,
Speaker 4: dumb thought. But it's it happens, and people can't sit
Speaker 4: on it and just I think, become obsessed with that.
Speaker 4: And that's why you just observe it and let it go.
Speaker 4: If you can't, you can't get lost in the mind
Speaker 4: because then it goes like this.
Speaker 5: I think that all three of us have been extremely
Speaker 5: fortunate in our lives, but we've also overcome some things
Speaker 5: that people may not know about. And I love it
Speaker 5: when people say, hey, always remember that the guy you're
Speaker 5: talking to or the guy sitting next to you, you
Speaker 5: don't know what his problems.
Speaker 4: Everyone has, what I've learned, everyone has a story. Yeah, everyone,
Speaker 4: everyone has a story. Every person in the arena that
Speaker 4: you set to you're you know, everyone is going through
Speaker 4: something and they're really good at hiding it. And you're
Speaker 4: lucky enough if you can find one or two friends
Speaker 4: along the way that you can actually trust and open
Speaker 4: up and maybe they give you some ideas to either
Speaker 4: alleviate or find answers to some of those stresses that
Speaker 4: everybody takes every day. Well, I think I'm still working
Speaker 4: hard on mind. I mean, look, it never ends. You
Speaker 4: just kind of find ways to say, okay, progress, I
Speaker 4: get it, you know, I get it.
Speaker 2: I understand.
Speaker 5: I have made a profession out of expressing opinion but
Speaker 5: also interviewing people to tell their stories. And I Bowler,
Speaker 5: I did that to you. You did, and we got
Speaker 5: into all kinds of stuff. Did I make you uncomfortable
Speaker 5: with that?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: You know what I need to talk about those things.
Speaker 3: As I get older, there's a great story and people
Speaker 3: more people look at you and say, oh, he's got
Speaker 3: it made.
Speaker 5: Look at what he's doing. Wouldn't that be a great
Speaker 5: job to have. They have no clue what you've overcome
Speaker 5: in your life and spent the same thing with you.
Speaker 5: And this is interesting because when I interview I've interviewed
Speaker 5: people over the last fifty years, a lot of times
Speaker 5: they think, oh, I don't have anything really interesting to
Speaker 5: say about myself. I'm telling you, almost everyone listening to
Speaker 5: your show right now, Spence, you have a story to tell,
Speaker 5: and you have an interesting story to tell, and you
Speaker 5: have a worthwhile story to tell. But people don't give
Speaker 5: themselves enough credit I think for what they've been able.
Speaker 2: To do well.
Speaker 3: And when you share it, it empowers others to help.
Speaker 3: And I will say, before we move on, a little
Speaker 3: football with a few minutes laugh like I just know
Speaker 3: that you're not alone in struggles, in sadness and loneliness,
Speaker 3: and ignore those dumb thoughts, man, let them go and
Speaker 3: get back to center and just get through another day, and.
Speaker 5: Ignore the criticism that comes from the guy behind the hill.
Speaker 2: Doesn't matter.
Speaker 4: I know it's sports talk radio. But I hope that
Speaker 4: if we touch one person in this twenty minute segment,
Speaker 4: then that's a good thing for this day. I'm one person.
Speaker 4: If we just made one person think differently or say,
Speaker 4: you know what, I'm gonna make a conversation about this,
Speaker 4: or I'm going to go look and find somebody that
Speaker 4: can help, then amen, we did the right thing today.
Speaker 4: Sometimes you know, I get ah, you guys get off
Speaker 4: topic and stuff. Yeah, but you know what, We're just
Speaker 4: talking life sometimes too, and I like that.
Speaker 2: And I'm on air for four hours.
Speaker 3: So you can stay tuned for sports for the other
Speaker 3: three hours and forty minutes. So everybody calmed down. But
Speaker 3: let me get both your opinions on this. And I
Speaker 3: think I've talked to you both separately about the dynamic.
Speaker 3: But with a few minutes we have left, let's get
Speaker 3: into this. You know Kiano Tonavasa, who is a professional
Speaker 3: football player. He's going to play in the NFL, absolutely
Speaker 3: and he's awesome. And if you're a ute fan and
Speaker 3: you're following the news and you see that, you know
Speaker 3: Makai Pittman his inners of transfer port, You're like, all right, dude,
Speaker 3: by five, good luck but then you see that Keanu
Speaker 3: does and you go, oh, man, that hurts. And then
Speaker 3: you see he goes to BYU and that hurts even worse.
Speaker 3: I'm happy for Kilani and Jay to get this kid
Speaker 3: who's a stud and also seems like a good kid.
Speaker 3: But the way he announced it was interesting because he
Speaker 3: took a lot of heat because Keanu went at Cameron Calhoun,
Speaker 3: who Cameron said, a Utah manami, and then Caylen Debor said, well,
Speaker 3: do you want to check out Tuscaloosa. He's like, Okay,
Speaker 3: that sounds good. So he goes down to Bama and
Speaker 3: Keanu kind of cracked on him on social and he
Speaker 3: sends out Utah Manami and then boom deletes the tweet
Speaker 3: two days later. And I was told he told the
Speaker 3: Utah coaches two weeks before we found out he heads
Speaker 3: down a provo releases a scripture. His father is very
Speaker 3: active on social which I didn't know this, and he
Speaker 3: said when the heavens open, our family listens. And I
Speaker 3: was told Keano told the Youte coaches, God wants me
Speaker 3: in provo.
Speaker 2: What do you say to that? You know, like what
Speaker 2: I'm not saying.
Speaker 3: He's using it as a smoke screen, and you know
Speaker 3: this is the unique dynamic with Brigham Young in Utah
Speaker 3: and the religious like undertones of the football rivalry. But
Speaker 3: there are a lot of things like, oh, what's the
Speaker 3: what's the number? Okay, help us, we can maybe meet
Speaker 3: this with nil. Okay, what are they promising you? Okay,
Speaker 3: we can send you the NFL as well. But when
Speaker 3: someone says like this is God's will, what.
Speaker 2: Do you do? You give him high five? And there's
Speaker 2: nothing you can really say to it.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, look Kyle Whittingham, former BYU player,
Speaker 4: so you know he understands probably better than the three
Speaker 4: of us. Gordo, you understand it better than I do.
Speaker 4: I'm the outsider here growing up in the Midwest, and
Speaker 4: I remember coming here in eighty five trying to figure out, Wow,
Speaker 4: I didn't wow the BYU Utah rivalry. Man, this is
Speaker 4: a little odd but interesting but intense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this one is. This one's interesting. There's not much
Speaker 2: can't say Smith. I don't think I would say this
Speaker 2: about that.
Speaker 5: Everyone has to make their own mind up about what's
Speaker 5: most important for them. But you can find God at
Speaker 5: Utah just as well as you can at BYU. I mean,
Speaker 5: it's not as much out there and straight in your face,
Speaker 5: but the largest LDS institute in the world is sitting
Speaker 5: up on the hill on Utah's campus, So I mean,
Speaker 5: you can find that if that's what you're looking for. Typically,
Speaker 5: when I hear that, I think, Okay, there are other
Speaker 5: factors as well. There's something going on here. And I'm
Speaker 5: not discounting him his feeling religiously at BYU whatever if
Speaker 5: I'm not saying he doesn't feel that, but there are
Speaker 5: other things as well. And he talked about the coaching.
Speaker 5: I mean, he said that the coaches at BYU would
Speaker 5: love him even if he sucked. They didn't use those words,
Speaker 5: but he essentially said, does that mean that Kyle would
Speaker 5: have been all over what? I don't know what that means,
Speaker 5: but it's to him personally. Whether God spoke to him,
Speaker 5: I don't know, but you know, you got to follow
Speaker 5: your own heart, and if that's what this heart is
Speaker 5: telling them, then go do it.
Speaker 4: The only other thing that comes into play for me, guys,
Speaker 4: is that if there's other situations at at hand at
Speaker 4: both schools that impacts those decisions. What I mean by
Speaker 4: that is the future of Utah football quit in the
Speaker 4: link to time, he stays that he knows more than
Speaker 4: others and that the feel good feeling is gone and
Speaker 4: byus on the upswing, and you know, this is the time.
Speaker 4: But I'm with you if you're if you feel like that,
Speaker 4: the heavens, as his dad said, has opened and spoken.
Speaker 4: What do you say to that? I mean, it's like,
Speaker 4: go with your heart? I guess right. And this bo
Speaker 4: we're living today is the portal, the nil money, all
Speaker 4: those things are those trickle down effects as well. Who knows?
Speaker 4: And you know what, it's hard to I guess counter
Speaker 4: that with other you know, like, oh, was it cash only?
Speaker 2: Was it you know? The is it playing opportunity?
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 2: You know? What? What could it be?
Speaker 4: But if the young man says it's you know, that's
Speaker 4: what the good man wants, then so be it and
Speaker 4: shake his hand and say good luck.
Speaker 5: Do you think God cares?
Speaker 2: That's here we go, buddy, Here we go.
Speaker 4: This has been a question that I get asked constantly
Speaker 4: because it's very in the forefront of sports today interviews
Speaker 4: after games. Yes, intriguing, yes, yes, And I wonder I
Speaker 4: don't know how that really sets or settles in with
Speaker 4: most fans who watched football because it's a violent ass game, man,
Speaker 4: But then at the same time you turn and praise
Speaker 4: your heavenly Father for the victory. So what does he
Speaker 4: think about? And this is what I was gonna go.
Speaker 4: So he didn't like the the opponent. That's always the
Speaker 4: counter to this. I think it's it's tough to intertwine it.
Speaker 4: You know, Tim Tebow really came out, remember, and and
Speaker 4: was on the forefront of that as well. I think
Speaker 4: he had underneath his awn his eye wasn't the sticker
Speaker 4: was the psalms?
Speaker 5: And I was sixteen, John was it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not psalms John.
Speaker 4: Yes, But I think it's really interesting to see how
Speaker 4: people react to that.
Speaker 2: And it's more of a.
Speaker 4: It's it's much more now happening in collegiate athletics. Not
Speaker 4: as much I see in pros but on occasion, but
Speaker 4: a lot now in postgame comments. And I guess even
Speaker 4: on Sunday and Monday Night football, same type of thing.
Speaker 5: I always thought that when Tebow went into the end
Speaker 5: zone and took a knee instead of prayer. I look,
Speaker 5: I'm a religious person, try to be, but that to
Speaker 5: me is the greatest form of smack talk. That you
Speaker 5: can do because you're essentially proclaiming to God, thank you
Speaker 5: for blessing me over the schmuck.
Speaker 4: I just beat in the inZone. Yeah, and I don't
Speaker 4: like it's a tightrope to walk.
Speaker 5: I prefer to have it separate. Not because I don't think.
Speaker 5: I think God. If you believe in God, okay, and
Speaker 5: God can bless your life. He wants you to live
Speaker 5: a happy, productive life, but he doesn't necessarily favor you
Speaker 5: over the guy you just beat.
Speaker 4: Now that's a great topic of conversation, and Spence, I
Speaker 4: got to applaud you.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 4: This show in one hour's time really goes back to Napoleon,
Speaker 4: Dynamite and frozen tater tots and all the way to take. Man,
Speaker 4: think about that where we covered this today. Man, it's
Speaker 4: the world of sport.
Speaker 2: Really.
Speaker 4: I think the lesson for me is it's all encompassing
Speaker 4: of us of life. It is we live for sport, competition,
Speaker 4: for the gladiators that we watch on the field at
Speaker 4: certain times and then praise them or they praise their God.
Speaker 4: It's it's fascinating to me, and it's it's it's it
Speaker 4: is what it is. If you want to take it
Speaker 4: as you like I guess as a as a as
Speaker 4: a consumer.
Speaker 5: If you want to hear a good speech on this,
Speaker 5: listen to Steve Young. He's got some great, deep thoughts
Speaker 5: on the value of sports and the relationship with what
Speaker 5: we're talking about here, and he talks about Ronnie Lott
Speaker 5: in the lessons he taught Steve about the importance of
Speaker 5: what you're doing in the middle of competition, but not
Speaker 5: necessarily that I'm a winner and you're a loser. That's
Speaker 5: not the labeling that any kind of power up above
Speaker 5: would would have in mind, but that's the way it's
Speaker 5: portrayed sometimes. And you want to end the show, was saying,
Speaker 5: praise Jesus.
Speaker 4: Take an aid before the game tonight. Now you know
Speaker 4: it's personal for me, but I feel very connected, but
Speaker 4: I just don't use that verbally in public. And again
Speaker 4: that's something that again is a personal decision to do,
Speaker 4: and I try to respect that. But at the same
Speaker 4: time I get pushed back from fans who say that's
Speaker 4: that's a great thing, or I that does not jive
Speaker 4: with the way that I live my life.
Speaker 3: You can buy a Trump Bible so and sneakers. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but you know that's where we are today. This is
Speaker 3: again as a microcosm of where we are in society today,
Speaker 3: very split on so many issues, and for us to
Speaker 3: come together and just talk about it's a good thing
Speaker 3: and then you make your own decision. And if you
Speaker 3: want to get mad at Gorda Rye or Spen's fine.
Speaker 3: But you know, everyone has an opinion about it. But
Speaker 3: it's right there for us all to consume and see
Speaker 3: do you agree with everything?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: But how do you accept it? I think is probably
Speaker 2: the biggest challenge. And certainly faith.
Speaker 3: Faith is an individual thing and I'm not judging anybody
Speaker 3: for the way they decide to, you know, express their faith.
Speaker 3: But sometimes when it's laid on super thick with the
Speaker 3: outcomes of games, I'm like, does God have like a
Speaker 3: fourteen parlay that he needs one more to hit?
Speaker 5: You? Like?
Speaker 3: Does he pulling up his DraftKings app like, oh I
Speaker 3: need Penn State to it? And I like the way
Speaker 3: it's laid on sometimes is just like I don't know,
Speaker 3: it's a little weird.
Speaker 4: But you know what that comment right there that makes
Speaker 4: me laugh, man, Yeah, a fourteen parlay going tonight?
Speaker 5: So you mean that God is in a Notre Dame season.
Speaker 4: To Notre Dame tonight, Notre Dame, Penn State, Gattle States
Speaker 4: d By the way, it's pretty good.
Speaker 2: Well, thanks for humoring me and leaning in.
Speaker 3: A different direction to come onto still get some puffs.
Speaker 2: Say I got a microwave down here, let's roll.
Speaker 3: I always prefer it in studio. Great to see you guys.
Speaker 3: By the way, Jazz, no, no, no, not Jazz. We
Speaker 3: are sitting next to you. The three time Utah Sports
Speaker 3: broadcast of the Year, Craig, congratulations and no, while we're
Speaker 3: in the space, real quick shout out to clearly the
Speaker 3: best sports rider in the market, Sarah Todd for winning
Speaker 3: her awards.
Speaker 5: First of all, this way, uh that award. If that
Speaker 5: award was properly done, Bowler would have won it ten times.
Speaker 4: Okay, kind of you, my friend. You know what, I've
Speaker 4: worked with some great people and you know, Trav I
Speaker 4: got JB and Joe and Stoke and everybody.
Speaker 2: I got it.
Speaker 4: I've got great support or the Jazz have some great
Speaker 4: people that I work with, and I'm blessed.
Speaker 5: Thank you. Have a great call.
Speaker 2: It's going to happen.
Speaker 3: It's the Bowler every year. In my opinion, it's going
Speaker 3: to happen, Spence. Great to see you guys. Have a
Speaker 3: great call then I okay, appreciate you