Speaker 1: We continue on Fred Rogan and Rodney Pete an AM
Speaker 1: five seventy l A Sports. Before the top of the hour,
Speaker 1: we were talking about Dalton Connecting, the game he had
Speaker 1: last night and what he could mean to the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Now going forward, Let's bring on our Laker insider from
Speaker 1: the LA Times, Dan White Game. Dan Good afternoon, Hello guys,
Speaker 1: How are you well? Dan? We're fine?
Speaker 2: Daniel, Yeah, I am.
Speaker 3: I am open and ready to also take shots. Should
Speaker 3: the Lakers need another another shooter, yep, an hooter as
Speaker 3: we're calling them now in the Lakers locker.
Speaker 1: I don't think you'll knock them down like Connected last night.
Speaker 3: Probably not, Fred, probably not. I think, uh, I think, uh,
Speaker 3: there's there. We have some minor differences. Dalton connected that,
Speaker 3: and I think one of those differences he can play.
Speaker 1: Them.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say.
Speaker 3: Is that he is like an unflappable, like I don't
Speaker 3: care type of person. And then whereas I am very
Speaker 3: much flapped, but I really.
Speaker 1: Dan in life who doesn't enjoy a good flapping every
Speaker 1: once in a while?
Speaker 2: Okay, easy his daytime radio.
Speaker 1: Fread Okay, So he looked really good. He's studied three
Speaker 1: games in a row. Are you seeing a difference now
Speaker 1: with the Lakers.
Speaker 3: You know, I think it started before kind of his
Speaker 3: move into the starting lineup. You know, I would point
Speaker 3: back to the the you know, he had a good
Speaker 3: fourth quarter against Sacramento early in their first home stand,
Speaker 3: and then the Memphis game at home really was when
Speaker 3: he like got like we'll just call him like kind
Speaker 3: of like Clay Thompson asked, heaters, right, And I know
Speaker 3: that's really high praise, but like just these moments where
Speaker 3: it's like the Lakers haven't had guys like this that much,
Speaker 3: where it just like every time they shoot, you think
Speaker 3: it's going in. And uh, he's sort of entered that
Speaker 3: stratosphere this week. And then it kind of coincided with
Speaker 3: Ruey Hotchimer hurting his ankle in this opportunity in the
Speaker 3: starting lineup, presenting himself.
Speaker 2: I know J. J.
Speaker 3: Redick is not concerned about should Dalton connect start or
Speaker 3: not start. That's not where his mind is right now.
Speaker 3: I think, though, this is more about play and style
Speaker 3: and minutes and opportunities, and he's earned all of that.
Speaker 3: And I think when you play like this and you've
Speaker 3: done it now, you know a few games in a
Speaker 3: row and you've had a really good week, you get
Speaker 3: a chance to make that really good week a really
Speaker 3: good month. That's how you build out young players and guys.
Speaker 3: He's going to get great opportunities. I was talking with
Speaker 3: somebody today about, you know, how did he end up
Speaker 3: with the Lakers at seventeenth?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: Like, what what happened? How did everybody and Lebron's you know,
Speaker 3: mess it up? We'll say, in the nice version of it.
Speaker 1: How did everybody and what everybody?
Speaker 4: In?
Speaker 1: What everybody?
Speaker 3: Everybody mess it up? Lebron used it more colorful, a
Speaker 3: more squipped it, yeah, a more a more satellite, more
Speaker 3: satellite friend.
Speaker 2: Yes, a bunch of.
Speaker 1: The nights after dark after dark friendly.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly.
Speaker 3: It was, uh, you know, And I think the reason
Speaker 3: why I is a couple of things.
Speaker 1: One.
Speaker 3: I do think that, you know, front offices sometimes when
Speaker 3: it comes the draft time, especially when you're a team
Speaker 3: that's like projecting out deep into the future, you spend
Speaker 3: a lot of time thinking about upside and you don't
Speaker 3: spend as much time thinking about like what you have
Speaker 3: directly in front of you. And I think the other
Speaker 3: thing that happens is that teams also focus on sometimes
Speaker 3: what players can't do or what they think they can't do, right,
Speaker 3: Like the Connect can't get younger, you can't defend in
Speaker 3: the way that you know, maybe Ron Holland or somebody
Speaker 3: like that who has taken you know, in a place
Speaker 3: where you know, I think Detroit took them fifth, and
Speaker 3: that was a spot I thought, you know, I talked
Speaker 3: to some people who thought maybe Connect would end up there.
Speaker 3: That was where sort of his board started. You know,
Speaker 3: Ron Holland is a nineteen year old who's athletic and
Speaker 3: has like these like upside things, and yeah, let's gamble
Speaker 3: on that instead of like this known quand Well, you know,
Speaker 3: the known quantity in this case fell to the perfect
Speaker 3: spot in the Lakers, and he is getting high quality
Speaker 3: looks like like this was a guy that you know,
Speaker 3: spent the last two and a half months of college
Speaker 3: basketball with every scouting report tailored around stopping him, and
Speaker 3: now he is getting open threes playing around Lebron James
Speaker 3: and Anthony Davis, and he's making them in ways that
Speaker 3: guys who had this job have been cast in this
Speaker 3: job over the past four years, like, haven't done it consistently.
Speaker 4: Dan, Do you think that this is you know, I
Speaker 4: know it's way early, and he yes, he's been on
Speaker 4: a run. But for the last three years, four years, really,
Speaker 4: I mean we've been talking about the Lakers need that
Speaker 4: third star, the Lakers need that third person. And then
Speaker 4: he said it's okay. They did it by committee. Uh
Speaker 4: and and that was okay because it didn't matter on
Speaker 4: a given night. It could be Austin Reeve, it could
Speaker 4: be Ruyachama, it could be anybody, D'Angelo Russell. From time
Speaker 4: to time, they didn't need it. But is Dalton connect
Speaker 4: does he have the capability of being that third guy
Speaker 4: that the Laker's been looking for for the last three years.
Speaker 3: That does feel early to me around me a little bit,
Speaker 3: But I mean I think, like we know, but but
Speaker 3: we do know that he can be a primary scorer. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean that's that's a superpower, Like that is the
Speaker 3: thing that he does right, And I think, like, you know, obviously,
Speaker 3: like a lot of this has been built off of
Speaker 3: shooting and stuff like that, but you know, during the
Speaker 3: course of the game, like you know, before even like
Speaker 3: the bonkers third quarter which turned a good game into
Speaker 3: like an incredible game, you know, I mean, he's back
Speaker 3: cutting for dunks, you know he's getting out in transition.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 3: Lebron James called them sneaky athletic, which is a great
Speaker 3: sports euphemism for white guys at dunk like and but like,
Speaker 3: he is a pretty good athlete, and he gives them
Speaker 3: some stuff around the basket, around the baseline, and you know, look,
Speaker 3: he opened the game by two threes, just in rhythm,
Speaker 3: like you know, spacing to the corner. I think there's
Speaker 3: like I mean, it does sort of feel like his
Speaker 3: floor is high level offensive role player, like high level,
Speaker 3: and if that's your floor, sure.
Speaker 2: I mean we can maybe get there.
Speaker 3: I think I'm always hesitant generally speaking, when it comes
Speaker 3: to like counting on rookies and stuff like that. I think,
Speaker 3: you know, the track record of teams to get really
Speaker 3: meaningful contributions from rookies, like deep into playoff runs is
Speaker 3: fairly minimal. But you know, like I said, I mean,
Speaker 3: this is a guy who's not afraid of moments.
Speaker 2: He's played in big games.
Speaker 3: He wants the ball in his hands, not afraid to
Speaker 3: shoot it, loves to shoot it. And you know, I
Speaker 3: think within this Lakers team, there are guard rails around
Speaker 3: that he doesn't have to like worry too much about
Speaker 3: like the pressure of being the third guy, Like that's
Speaker 3: not a thing that like, like the game will come
Speaker 3: to him in a very easy manner between what the
Speaker 3: Lakers are going to do on the gorton terms of
Speaker 3: Lebron James and Anthony Davis.
Speaker 2: Being there and Austin Reeves being there and drawing.
Speaker 3: Attention through those guys to then also like the fact
Speaker 3: that and I love that Jaju reddicks of this post game.
Speaker 3: He feels sometimes like he's drawing plays for himself, you know,
Speaker 3: Like I mean the coach wants to get this guy open,
Speaker 3: right Like, so like he's not going to be forgotten.
Speaker 2: Whether we annoying him as star or not. You know,
Speaker 2: he's gonna be a big part of what they do.
Speaker 1: You wrote that he has a pretty good relationship with
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: They Last year, during the middle of the season, Reeves
Speaker 3: send him a message on Instagram basically saying, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm you know, my age is somebody keep my eye
Speaker 3: open for you. I've been watching you and like keep
Speaker 3: it up with me. No can need anything. And you
Speaker 3: know it came at a time when Connect was playing
Speaker 3: like actually like a pretty bad stretch of basketball. And
Speaker 3: you know, I haven't talked directly to Dalton about this specifically,
Speaker 3: like whether or not that message helped him or any
Speaker 3: of that stuff, but he keeps bringing it up. He's
Speaker 3: brought up a by you brought up again last night,
Speaker 3: and I think, like, you know, he has their confidence.
Speaker 3: You know, Lebron last year after a game in Washington,
Speaker 3: was asked sort of about the state of the women's
Speaker 3: college game versus the men's college game, and you know,
Speaker 3: he talked about Juju, We talked about Calen Clark, and
Speaker 3: then he talked about Dalton Connect and you talked about
Speaker 3: Zach Edie and think these stars and stuff, and like,
Speaker 3: you know, Lebron was Lebron was adamant. You know, he
Speaker 3: told me last night after kind of that viral sort
Speaker 3: of like you know, we didn't find Dalton Connect. You know,
Speaker 3: sixteen other teams made the mistake that, you know, like
Speaker 3: he would have been furious.
Speaker 2: If they didn't take Connect.
Speaker 3: That like, it's just sort of felt like just a
Speaker 3: lot of like what they've been looking for was just
Speaker 3: sort of dropped in their lap. So I think that's
Speaker 3: the thing, right too. And if you're a young player,
Speaker 3: and I mean, Ron, you could speak to this right, like,
Speaker 3: you enter that situation and you're no matter how confident
Speaker 3: you are, when you level up like that, you need
Speaker 3: to either ac results or be have people constantly and
Speaker 3: here telling you. Don't worry, you're good enough to be here,
Speaker 3: You're good.
Speaker 2: Enough to have these you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: And like he's got both of those things and we're
Speaker 3: fifteen fourteen games into his career.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's pretty amazing he got.
Speaker 3: That's already been answered.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And and the fact that look it and it's documented.
Speaker 4: You know, people will you know, criticize Lebron because they
Speaker 4: like to criticize Lebron, but he talked about this and
Speaker 4: like I said, his documented talked about this kid when
Speaker 4: he was at Tennessee before he you know, hit all
Speaker 4: these trees last night. It was almost like, hey, this
Speaker 4: kid is pretty special and and really, you know, his
Speaker 4: sentiment was he won't be around for us, and he
Speaker 4: actually was and they got him.
Speaker 3: And I think, I mean, he was one of the
Speaker 3: best players in college basketball. I mean point right, Like,
Speaker 3: this is not some great scouting to This is not
Speaker 3: the story that you know Lebron is told about you know,
Speaker 3: seeing Austin Reeves or anything like this is like I mean,
Speaker 3: like this.
Speaker 2: Was like he had CBS. Yeah, he like he had
Speaker 2: access to a television with Rabbit ears and.
Speaker 3: And I just again, I do think that you know,
Speaker 3: there is a focus a lot of times and what
Speaker 3: guys aren't good at or what guys can't become, and
Speaker 3: sometimes you you because of that, you forget. And I mean, look,
Speaker 3: the Lakers on immune to this. They did it last
Speaker 3: year with Jimi Hawkashimi Hawkins is a really good basketball player,
Speaker 3: right who at every at every stop along the way,
Speaker 3: has answered the questions that have been asked of him,
Speaker 3: has always figured out a way to help teams win. Right,
Speaker 3: And whether he was too old or not athletic enough,
Speaker 3: or they didn't think you'd shoot whatever, they folks, the
Speaker 3: Lakers focused on those reasons they didn't draft and they
Speaker 3: dress of Jalen Hichefino instead, right, and they they they missed,
Speaker 3: they missed the opportunity to have a homegrown player, you know,
Speaker 3: from their.
Speaker 2: Backyard who loves the Lakers, who you.
Speaker 3: Know, they didn't focus on the things that he did.
Speaker 3: They did not make that mistake with don't connect.
Speaker 1: So so now Dan the Lakers have won six straight
Speaker 1: real pools.
Speaker 3: Gold pretty real, I mean offensively, certainly real. I think
Speaker 3: this is a team that if they're healthier, are are
Speaker 3: going to be able to score, and they be able
Speaker 3: to score pretty efficiently. I think, you know, these next
Speaker 3: two games are just massive for them, right like that,
Speaker 3: that's when this is really going to get answered. The
Speaker 3: Lanta Magic are a good basketball team and they do
Speaker 3: a lot of the things that the Lakers have struggled
Speaker 3: with so far, and that's you know, they defend with physicality,
Speaker 3: and so can the Lakers match that physicality? Can they
Speaker 3: meet that physicality? It's going to be a really hard game, guys.
Speaker 3: That's gonna be a really really tough game here on
Speaker 3: Thursday night. And then you know, you gotta you gotta
Speaker 3: slay Denver, which is which is like kind of that
Speaker 3: other thing that's sort of been lurking, right and the
Speaker 3: players in the past would complain on we weren't prepared
Speaker 3: enough for Denver, we didn't go over there stuff enough,
Speaker 3: we didn't know what we were doing, we weren't organized enough,
Speaker 3: all that stuff. Well, like, this is a team that's
Speaker 3: trying to be more organized. It's trying to communicate better,
Speaker 3: that's trying to be more prepared for these situation. So
Speaker 3: I think these two games are really big tests for
Speaker 3: the Lakers, certainly not season defining tests. My gut and
Speaker 3: Laker fans aren't gonna love to hear this is that, like,
Speaker 3: we will be reminded that this is a team that
Speaker 3: is still in the first quarter of its season, you know,
Speaker 3: But I think there's been a lot to be really
Speaker 3: encouraged about in these fourteen games.
Speaker 4: Yeah, what's the word on the job JJ Redick done
Speaker 4: so far? I mean, you know, when people looked at
Speaker 4: the off season, what they did, you know, Yeah, and
Speaker 4: leading up training camp all that, guys, Well season started.
Speaker 4: Now what's the what's the talk around the water cooler
Speaker 4: about JJ Reddick and the job he's done so far
Speaker 4: with his team.
Speaker 3: I was speaking last night to a pretty prominent coaching agent.
Speaker 3: We were talking about let's ays and coaching and how
Speaker 3: it's you know, it's tough, right, Like, is Will Hardy
Speaker 3: a bad coach?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 3: You know, I think most people around the NBA would
Speaker 3: tell you that Will Hardy's one of the smartest coaches,
Speaker 3: you know, But he has a team that's very young.
Speaker 3: They're playing you know, six guys under the age of
Speaker 3: twenty two. It's hard to look like a good coach
Speaker 3: when that's happening, right, Like, And I say all that
Speaker 3: to say like it is like when your team has
Speaker 3: won six games in a row, like you look like
Speaker 3: a great coach. That is just like part of it.
Speaker 3: I think the stuff that we can point to that
Speaker 3: that speaks favorably for JJ Redick is watch the way
Speaker 3: Lebron James has played in terms of how willing he's
Speaker 3: been to be a secondary offensive option, how willing he's
Speaker 3: been to cut into screen. Look at what D'Angel Russell
Speaker 3: did defensively yesterday, you know, blocking John Collins at the rim,
Speaker 3: orchestrating an offense like winning without shooting.
Speaker 2: You know, you can look at these the things. Look
Speaker 2: at how Austin Reeves has been empowered, I mean.
Speaker 3: To the to the stage where that s how somebody
Speaker 3: posted so I hate stealing, but it is.
Speaker 2: A good point.
Speaker 3: Like he had seventeen points in five assists, and I
Speaker 3: like kind of felt like he didn't play well, you know,
Speaker 3: but like that that's being guys being put in positions
Speaker 3: to succeed. That's there being a belief in a system
Speaker 3: and having that to fall back on, having a foundation,
Speaker 3: like a real foundation. That isn't just Lebron James's greatness,
Speaker 3: That isn't just Anthony Davis's individual greatness. You know, that
Speaker 3: isn't just finding the best possible mismatch, you know, which
Speaker 3: is I think at the bed rock of kind of
Speaker 3: how they've played the past few years. And so yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean I think that points to to JJ Redick
Speaker 3: doing a pretty good job. He has those guys buying
Speaker 3: in and and an incalculable amount of coaching is buying
Speaker 3: getting buy in. You know, Like the plays and the
Speaker 3: schemes are all pretty much the same, like largely across
Speaker 3: the league, but like you need the guys to go
Speaker 3: do them and to do them with purpose, and right
Speaker 3: now Laker players are doing them and they're doing them
Speaker 3: with purpose.
Speaker 1: Then final question before we let you go, Anthony Davis. Uh,
Speaker 1: he gets hitting the most bizarre places. He gets hit
Speaker 1: in the eye, and last night he got hit in
Speaker 1: the crotch and he went down. What did that look
Speaker 1: like in person?
Speaker 3: Uh, it looked like a good luck tern for Dalton
Speaker 3: can Act. That was after after he went out. It
Speaker 3: was sort of like the one bell got wrung and
Speaker 3: then you know, Dalton started starting in threes.
Speaker 2: I asked Ad after the game if.
Speaker 3: He's willing to the sacrifice like this on a nightly basis,
Speaker 3: and and then ask.
Speaker 1: What that looked like in person? I mean, I mean
Speaker 1: I just wondered, what did the clod do? What? What
Speaker 1: did people think?
Speaker 3: Like all the men, all the men make the same noise?
Speaker 3: Right where that that kind of like wind grown? Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean it was like right, like I do think
Speaker 3: whenever Anthony Davis had ground right like the there is
Speaker 3: still sort.
Speaker 2: Of the PTSD of like, oh my god, what is it?
Speaker 3: Right, like when he got poked in the eye, like
Speaker 3: like I didn't.
Speaker 2: Think he got poked in the eye. I thought you
Speaker 2: just loo geted his shoulder.
Speaker 3: Like just that was like my initial reaction was to
Speaker 3: go to the worst, right And when you got hit
Speaker 3: in the nuts, I say that, yeah. Sorry, Sometimes I
Speaker 3: forget that there are people listening, guys. You know when
Speaker 3: when you when you got when you get like hit,
Speaker 3: like when you get hit like that, like you know,
Speaker 3: when you crumbled out like you.
Speaker 2: Were like, oh is it like it's so bleak?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 2: You know? And it's like no, you just got you
Speaker 2: just got racked this.
Speaker 3: Like you'll you'll be all yeah, you'll be all right,
Speaker 3: you know, yeah, you're just needed to catch a breath.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's what it looked like. That's what it
Speaker 3: looked like in burs in front. It looked like it
Speaker 3: looked like one of the few times where every person
Speaker 3: in the arena said, you know who, I don't want
Speaker 3: to be like right now?
Speaker 1: All right, Dan, thanks for coming on.
Speaker 2: Good job, All right, guys, take care, all.
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Speaker 1: At USC, there seems to be a flu Sometimes people
Speaker 1: get sick around the big game and we'll talk about
Speaker 1: it next.
Speaker 4: Oh yes, let's get back on a humpy roddy p
Speaker 4: fed rogan. Come on now, all.
Speaker 1: Right, Rodney flu bug going around the USC locker room
Speaker 1: since last Saturday. Many of the guys missed practices this week,
Speaker 1: and Lincoln Riley says, well, we hope everybody will be
Speaker 1: through the worst of it by Saturday. And by the way,
Speaker 1: this flu has been nasty. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: know anyone who had it, but this has been nasty.
Speaker 1: No knocked people out. Yeah, that's what I've heard.
Speaker 4: That's why I've stayed inside and not gone out and
Speaker 4: interacted with anybody, because it is nasty.
Speaker 1: It's one of those, uh yeah, one of these.
Speaker 4: Not too long ago, maybe a year or so ago,
Speaker 4: we had one of these bad flu bugs that was
Speaker 4: out there that was attacking people. But yeah, this is
Speaker 4: this is very you know, speaking of it, you know,
Speaker 4: being an outbreak at USC, very reminiscent of the time
Speaker 4: I was there at USC almost thirty some years ago,
Speaker 4: almost thirty years ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a story that made national news.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it was very similar, like early in that
Speaker 4: week and I hadn't heard about it though, but early
Speaker 4: in the in the in the week, there was an
Speaker 4: outbreak on campus of measles at USC. And you know,
Speaker 4: measles is usually you know, associated with a childhood disease.
Speaker 4: You get it when you're young, and you get measles,
Speaker 4: you get the red dots on your face and you know,
Speaker 4: you lay in bed for a week and Mama gives
Speaker 4: you soup and you're all good after a while. But
Speaker 4: what I was told during that time is that when
Speaker 4: you get it when you're older, it could be very
Speaker 4: dangerous and and and have many complications. So there was
Speaker 4: an outbreak on campus. I didn't know this though. We
Speaker 4: had just played Arizona State on Saturday before we get
Speaker 4: got ready to play Ucla, so we were coming back
Speaker 4: from from Tempe Arizona and on uh. So we got
Speaker 4: back Saturday night and hung out like we did. It
Speaker 4: was a day game, so we you know, celebrated a
Speaker 4: little bit Saturday night and enjoyed ourselves. And then Sunday night,
Speaker 4: I started feeling very sick, you know, like those flu
Speaker 4: like symptoms, nausea, all those things, and it's like, man,
Speaker 4: I just need you know. So went and got just
Speaker 4: some over the counter medicine to see if I could
Speaker 4: just stop the the aches and pains that I had
Speaker 4: in nausea. And it was okay, but I still couldn't
Speaker 4: sleep with sweating all night, and then in the morning
Speaker 4: it got worse and I went into our athletic trainers
Speaker 4: actually called them and they came to me and took
Speaker 4: me in and said let's just go go into the
Speaker 4: to the training room the office to get some testing done.
Speaker 4: And they tested me and said maybe we you know,
Speaker 4: there's something else going on here. Let's go let's go
Speaker 4: into uh let's let's stick at the hospital so we
Speaker 4: can do more tests and do some blood tests and
Speaker 4: blood work and all that. So they took Yeah, So
Speaker 4: they took me into the hospital, and sure enough I
Speaker 4: had measles and I had not felt out like I
Speaker 4: don't remember, and I didn't up until then, never had
Speaker 4: anything where I felt like that. I had to flu obviously,
Speaker 4: you know a bunch of times growing up, and you know,
Speaker 4: still this day, get the flu, and you're like, you
Speaker 4: deal with it and go. But I had never felt
Speaker 4: anything like that. I had had, you know, chicken pox,
Speaker 4: even had measles as a kid, but never felt anything
Speaker 4: like what I felt on that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Speaker 4: well the week again, nausea. I couldn't keep anything down,
Speaker 4: throwing up. Eventually had to I had to be uh,
Speaker 4: you know, fed through a tube because I couldn't eat
Speaker 4: anything through my mouth because it was coming up.
Speaker 1: So they fed me through a tube.
Speaker 4: And I was in the hospital, checked in the hospital
Speaker 4: in Long Beach and h and stay there. I think
Speaker 4: stay there Monday night, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night. Stayed
Speaker 4: in the hospital and lost probably like twelve pounds in
Speaker 4: those three days. Then I was in the hospital, did
Speaker 4: not practice. And then it became, as you mentioned, became
Speaker 4: national news because at that time, we were undefeated, UCLA
Speaker 4: had only lost one game. The game was coming down
Speaker 4: to whoever won the game was going to go to
Speaker 4: the Rose Bowl. And then we still had and both
Speaker 4: UCLA still had national championship hopes that were that were
Speaker 4: still alive at that point because I mentioned were we
Speaker 4: were undefeated, they had one loss, and then on top
Speaker 4: of that, both Troy Aikman and myself were up for
Speaker 4: the Heisman Trophy, and so there was a lot at
Speaker 4: stake for that week and for that game and for
Speaker 4: this to happen. I was like man of all things
Speaker 4: in all weeks, for this to happen to me, I
Speaker 4: gotta have this happened week of Ucla. And so yeah,
Speaker 4: I would sit there in the hospital. I couldn't do
Speaker 4: anything but watch TV and then you know, read the
Speaker 4: paper and see what was out there. And then and
Speaker 4: it would be on the front page. Starting on Wednesday,
Speaker 4: it was on the front page of the of the
Speaker 4: La Times, Orange County Register. They had, you know, everything
Speaker 4: you could think about to lead off the newscast, not
Speaker 4: just sports, but leadoff newscast.
Speaker 1: It was the measle watch, the measle watch whether I
Speaker 1: was gonna play or not.
Speaker 4: And and my mom she kept every single one of
Speaker 4: those articles and people would send her stuff and she
Speaker 4: had them all and still has them all to this day.
Speaker 4: About the attention that got until and then uh, and
Speaker 4: it just happened and by one of my mom's friends
Speaker 4: called her and said she heard it on I think
Speaker 4: it was an NPR station of Paul Harvey talked about
Speaker 4: Rodney Peats got measles and that's how big it got.
Speaker 4: And so it was a it was a crazy week.
Speaker 4: I said, I didn't practice, didn't really didn't know I
Speaker 4: was going to play.
Speaker 1: Started to feel better on UH.
Speaker 4: When I woke up Friday morning, I started to feel
Speaker 4: much better better and ended up going to our walkthrough
Speaker 4: that we had on campus on Friday. Wore a mask
Speaker 4: and all of that, so I didn't affect anybody else.
Speaker 4: But there are a few other guys on the team
Speaker 4: that that were infected, but there was a big mandate
Speaker 4: that they quarantined. I mean the guys were like not
Speaker 4: that you could quarantine or did they quarantine back and end,
Speaker 4: but they were strongly encouraging guys not to go out
Speaker 4: of their dorm room or their apartments and just try
Speaker 4: to be you know, around you know, your teammates and
Speaker 4: don't go out and have, you know, to parties or
Speaker 4: anything like that during that week because it's going around campus.
Speaker 4: And sure enough it was. It was a big gigantic
Speaker 4: outbreak around campus. I didn't realize that until the Thursday
Speaker 4: of that week, and so I go to I go
Speaker 4: practice and walk through on Friday, but I feel still feel.
Speaker 1: Very, very weak.
Speaker 4: And then then we wake up Saturday, and normally at
Speaker 4: the night before game, we'll stay at a hotel in
Speaker 4: town stay in kind of the mid Wiltshire area. It
Speaker 4: was a Marriotte that we would stay at before the
Speaker 4: games and usually at s C. Which was pretty cool
Speaker 4: is that Friday nights we would go to a restaurant
Speaker 4: that would they would they would block out the restaurant
Speaker 4: and rent it out and so as a team we
Speaker 4: would go to a restaurant, whether it be you know,
Speaker 4: there was a tailor steakhouse. There are other like you
Speaker 4: know Asian places that we would go to, or whatever
Speaker 4: it may be. We would we would have the access
Speaker 4: to the whole restaurant, go there and eat, and then
Speaker 4: we would go to Paramount Studios and watch a movie
Speaker 4: like a new released movie or something that a very
Speaker 4: popular movie or inspirational movie. But we would go right
Speaker 4: on the lot at Paramount and watch the movie. And
Speaker 4: then we would all meet back at the hotel and
Speaker 4: we take all these buses, go back to the hotel
Speaker 4: and and then go to you know, go to bed
Speaker 4: have you know, bed check and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: But it was kind of a cool tradition that we
Speaker 1: did at see. I always look forward to it.
Speaker 4: But that night I couldn't do it because they didn't
Speaker 4: want me to be, you know, so much around that
Speaker 4: atmosphere or come in contact with anybody at Paramount or
Speaker 4: anywhere else that might make my situation worse. But we
Speaker 4: wake up, we wake up Saturday morning, and I feel
Speaker 4: much better. And there was like by Friday night, I
Speaker 4: knew I was gonna play. I just it was just
Speaker 4: actually before that you know, it was. It was gonna
Speaker 4: take a lot. I mean, like I couldn't. It would
Speaker 4: take me not being able to get out of bed
Speaker 4: for me not to play in that game against UCLA.
Speaker 1: This is what you dreamed about.
Speaker 4: It's what you you know, when you go to USC,
Speaker 4: they preach about, you know, playing your crosstown rival for
Speaker 4: the chance to go to the Rose Bowl. And all
Speaker 4: the chips are on the line, and that's that's why
Speaker 4: you come to USC to play it in games like this,
Speaker 4: And so I was not gonna miss it. Uh. They
Speaker 4: were gonna have to kidnap me in order for me
Speaker 4: to miss that game. But started to feel pretty good
Speaker 4: on Saturday morning and we're driving.
Speaker 1: We leave and get ready to go to the Rose Bowl.
Speaker 4: The games at the Rose Bowl that year, and probably
Speaker 4: was the longest bus ride that I've ever had going
Speaker 4: to a game, and I just couldn't wait to get
Speaker 4: there and get the game. Started to get through all
Speaker 4: the mess and all the whatever was going to happen
Speaker 4: before the game.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to get there and play the game.
Speaker 1: And we pull.
Speaker 4: Up to the Rose Bowl and our buses are pulling,
Speaker 4: you know, into the tunnel and they're after Rose Bowl
Speaker 4: were already and normally we get there really early, so
Speaker 4: there's not a whole there's people tailgating, but not a
Speaker 4: whole lot of students or anything like that or at
Speaker 4: the at the at the stadium at that point. But
Speaker 4: this game, there were thousands of students lined up waiting
Speaker 4: for our bus to pull up to the Rose Bowl.
Speaker 4: And as we get closer, I'm like, what is why,
Speaker 4: you know, why are all these students out here? What's
Speaker 4: the commotion? Why why are so many people out here
Speaker 4: waiting for our bus? And I think it was like,
Speaker 4: you know, TV, because it was a nationally televised game,
Speaker 4: it was the game of the week and all that,
Speaker 4: so yeah, maybe there's cover and all that. We get
Speaker 4: closer to the tunnel and I pull up and there
Speaker 4: are all these students that have some got doctor's outfits on,
Speaker 4: some got nurse's outfits on, they all got mask on,
Speaker 4: and all of them had red dots pointed painted on
Speaker 4: their face. As our bus is pulling up, and I'm going,
Speaker 4: this is this is crazy crazy. I'm not talking about
Speaker 4: like fifteen people. I'm talking about there are literally about
Speaker 4: a thousand students that are out there with with red
Speaker 4: dots on their face as we're pulling up, and I'm
Speaker 4: just all you can do is laugh.
Speaker 1: At that point, It's like, Wow, it is that big
Speaker 1: a deal.
Speaker 4: And I just remember going out and I still have
Speaker 4: the clip of it of.
Speaker 1: The the call god it.
Speaker 4: I can't remember his name, it was Keith Checkingjaon. Yes,
Speaker 4: Keith Jackson did the game. Keith Jackson did the game
Speaker 4: with Bob Greasy, and I remember the clip was one
Speaker 4: hundred and six thousand people are waiting to see if
Speaker 4: number sixteen comes out to take the first snap. You know,
Speaker 4: only way, the only way Keith Jackson can do it.
Speaker 4: And that feeling, that feeling of running on the field
Speaker 4: to take the first snap was as exhilarating, exciting goosebumps,
Speaker 4: more of those than I ever have, and anything I
Speaker 4: ever did just to feel it. And even though it
Speaker 4: was at the Rose Bowl, you see, those games are
Speaker 4: half of USC and half UCLA fans, and they separated
Speaker 4: and our fans got so loud when I ran out there,
Speaker 4: and I still hear it to this day. With just
Speaker 4: I had just such an appreciation and love that I
Speaker 4: got from our fans and them knowing that okay, everything's
Speaker 4: gonna be all right, I'm going out to play, because
Speaker 4: at that moment, I went through a little bit of
Speaker 4: the warm ups, but I went in early, and so
Speaker 4: people that were trickling into the stadium didn't necessarily see
Speaker 4: me warming up all, you know, all before the game.
Speaker 1: And then I came out for the first play and
Speaker 1: it was it was amazing.
Speaker 4: Then we ended up winning the game and you know,
Speaker 4: beating them going to the Rose Bowl. Ended up losing
Speaker 4: a Notre Dame, which is bad after that, but but
Speaker 4: what a what a great moment in a crazy week
Speaker 4: for that outbreak to happen, and then find out after
Speaker 4: after that game, it was just it got worse on
Speaker 4: campus where more and more students were hospitalized and had
Speaker 4: to go in and so there's again there was all
Speaker 4: kinds of speculation that you know, I was caught in
Speaker 4: somebody else's dorm and the dorm I wasn't supposed to
Speaker 4: be in, and all these kinds of things that were
Speaker 4: rumors that were thrown out there that you know, he
Speaker 4: was hanging out in a in a in a a
Speaker 4: girl's only dorm, you know, the night after the Arizona
Speaker 4: State game, when we came back from Timpe, which was
Speaker 4: not the case.
Speaker 1: Was not the case? How many girls in there? That's
Speaker 1: what I want to know. Dorm?
Speaker 4: Oh oh it was probably a unit norm Yeah, so
Speaker 4: you could have got lost in there. If you had
Speaker 4: lost in there, I could have got lost in there.
Speaker 4: I'm not listen. I'm not going to say I've never
Speaker 4: been to that dorm, but I wasn't.
Speaker 1: There that night that they're that is in question. Put
Speaker 1: it that way.
Speaker 4: But crazy, crazy week, Fred, Crazy week. It's rivalry week.
Speaker 4: We'll get into it later this week. But I love
Speaker 4: this this time of year. I mean, it's not getting
Speaker 4: the hype that it normally does. And then when the
Speaker 4: teams are not great, you know, it is the way
Speaker 4: it is, but a changing a little bit. But it's
Speaker 4: still internally USA UCLA is still such a big game.
Speaker 1: All Right. You call the police, you say you've been robbed,
Speaker 1: They come to your house and they arrest you. That's next.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, come on, Now, what hard on a home day?
Speaker 1: It is a wind day? Rody peat Fred Rogan. Now
Speaker 1: what were you saying, Freddy? Somebody burglarized your house. Yeah,
Speaker 1: here's the deal, So tell me if this has ever
Speaker 1: happened to you. No, it hasn't. Okay, well, but let
Speaker 1: me tell you the whole story. Then you tell me
Speaker 1: what you're thinking. All right, go ahead, all right. So
Speaker 1: a Florida man is sitting in his home. All of
Speaker 1: a sudden, he realizes there's a noise. He looks up.
Speaker 1: Someone has kicked his door in. These people come in
Speaker 1: to EVANTT. Brown's house and basically beat him with a broomstick.
Speaker 1: Beat him with a broomstick. Okay, a group of kids
Speaker 1: did it, but hit it with a broomstick. So Everett Brown,
Speaker 1: the victim, called nine one one. You would do that, rotten?
Speaker 1: He somebody broke into your house? And right, okay, so
Speaker 1: he called nine one one. The police arrive, They come
Speaker 1: into the house, they get the statement from mister Brown. Yes,
Speaker 1: they realize that he has been hitting with a broom
Speaker 1: he has been hitting. He's been hit with a broomstick,
Speaker 1: and they will find the perpetrator. And they did. By
Speaker 1: the way they did. They found the group of juveniles
Speaker 1: and the kids specifically that did it. So that's the
Speaker 1: good news. But they come in, they take his statement
Speaker 1: he's been hit, and then they immediately immediately arrest him.
Speaker 1: He's arrested.
Speaker 4: Now wait, wait, wait, they arrest the man who called
Speaker 4: nine who was hit with the broomstick. Yes, beaten with
Speaker 4: the broomstick. Yes, they come in and they arrest him. Yes,
Speaker 4: they arrested him.
Speaker 1: For burglarizing his own house and beating himself. No, that
Speaker 1: wasn't it. They had acknowledged he was burglarized and beaten,
Speaker 1: but they arrested him because he called nine to one one.
Speaker 1: They came into the house, they started interviewing him, and
Speaker 1: there was his cocaine. Oh, he had left his cocaine
Speaker 1: out in plain view. So while they were taking the statement,
Speaker 1: they looked at the table and went, you're not supposed
Speaker 1: to have that. Now. The guy's just been hit with
Speaker 1: a stick. But that didn't matter. So they arrested him
Speaker 1: and took him in and he was released on five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Pod. Wow, if you're gonna listen, if you
Speaker 1: find yourself in a situation where you've been beaten with
Speaker 1: a broomstick and you call the police, which is the
Speaker 1: right thing to do, please remove your cocaine. Please take
Speaker 1: it off the table, because the police are going to
Speaker 1: show up. You've been assaulted. They're going to come into
Speaker 1: your home. They're gonna check to see if you're okay.
Speaker 1: They're gonna take a statement. And while they're sitting in
Speaker 1: your home, because they have eyes, they will probably look around.
Speaker 1: Now they're not looking for anything specific, but they're human beings.
Speaker 1: They're looking at their environment. And if you happen to leave,
Speaker 1: I don't know, an eight ball of coke out, that's
Speaker 1: gonna be a problem. They're not gonna give you a pass.
Speaker 1: You're not okay.
Speaker 4: Listen, this is the middle of the night, correct, Yeah,
Speaker 4: middle of the night. You hear somebody kick down your door, right,
Speaker 4: you get up immediately. I don't know if he's got
Speaker 4: he had family there, or wife, a girlfriend, whoever, boyfriend,
Speaker 4: I don't know whoever he's got in the house, kids,
Speaker 4: but he's up and trying to figure out what's going on.
Speaker 4: How do I defend myself? This might be the end
Speaker 4: of my life. These guys just broke in, which means
Speaker 4: they're they're capable of doing anything. They start beating me.
Speaker 4: All I'm trying to do is I'm thinking, just survive.
Speaker 4: Survive it and give them whatever they want, and please
Speaker 4: let them just be on their way. You are not
Speaker 4: thinking about cleaning up. Your mind is so discombobulated. You
Speaker 4: are not thinking about, oh, we had a nice night
Speaker 4: last night. Everybody came over and we had some cocaine,
Speaker 4: we had some weed, we had some drinks at the girls.
Speaker 1: We had we were good. It was good.
Speaker 4: You're not thinking about I gotta clean that all up.
Speaker 4: You're thinking about nine one one. I'm beat. Somebody's beat
Speaker 4: the out of me and they they came in and
Speaker 4: broke into my house. Get here immediately, immediately, And that's unfortunate.
Speaker 4: That's really unfortunate because you're you are not in the
Speaker 4: right frame of mind to think I gotta clean everything up.
Speaker 1: Well, you had to clean up before you go to bed.
Speaker 1: There's a lesson to be learned there. The sheriff offered this.
Speaker 1: Mister Reverett did not deserve to have his home broken
Speaker 1: into and be battered by this hooligan. But he should
Speaker 1: have hidden his cocaine before dialing nine to one one.
Speaker 1: That's what they said he should have, sheriff said. Sheriff
Speaker 1: said he should have hit it before. He didn't say
Speaker 1: don't use it, he said hid it right. So lamral here.
Speaker 1: Always make sure you clean up after the party. Wow,
Speaker 1: how about we make the quarters less in NBA games.
Speaker 1: How about we shortened the quarters. H. I've got an idea.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about it next