Speaker 1: And we continue on. Jonas Knox is in today for
Speaker 1: Rodney at five seventy LA Sports. He's on the line,
Speaker 1: so let's not keep him waiting. What a treat to
Speaker 1: welcome on the basketball coach at UCLA, Mick Kronin and Mick,
Speaker 1: it is good to talk to you.
Speaker 2: How you guys doing. What's up? Fred?
Speaker 1: It's all good, Mick, it's all good, all right. I
Speaker 1: am just amazed at what has happened in college basketball.
Speaker 1: And you've basically put together a roster of players that
Speaker 1: really weren't even around last year. You needed better players,
Speaker 1: you got better players. You're probably going to be a
Speaker 1: better team, much better team than you were last year.
Speaker 1: What has that process been like for you? Just basically
Speaker 1: turning college basketball into an AAU league.
Speaker 2: Actually we've turned into professional sports. Now. I don't claim
Speaker 2: to know what's going on in AAU, but you know,
Speaker 2: our players are all getting paid, so you know, it's
Speaker 2: really become professional, my friends. So that's uh. And they put
Speaker 2: in two rules at the same time. That in the
Speaker 2: NIO rule. At the same time, you can transfer every year,
Speaker 2: so you know you got free agency. Your whole team,
Speaker 2: you're literally your whole team can transfer without penalty every year,
Speaker 2: meaning you can also get a bunch obviously you're going
Speaker 2: to be able to get a bunch of new transfers
Speaker 2: every year. So it's just it's really crazy right now.
Speaker 2: They got to fix it, obviously, but uh, you know,
Speaker 2: I got to ride the wave, and you got to
Speaker 2: play the game that's being played, right. You know, you
Speaker 2: go to poker night at Fred Rogan's if he if
Speaker 2: he's playing, if he's playing a seven cards stud and
Speaker 2: the queenes Bay down gets half the pot. That's what
Speaker 2: you got to play, right.
Speaker 3: The coach we've seen, uh, you know, specifically Chip Kelly,
Speaker 3: who was there who decided I want to go be
Speaker 3: an offensive coordinator elsewhere, felt some pressure. We've seen it
Speaker 3: in football to where it was the stuff out side
Speaker 3: of coaching that was just too much for a lot
Speaker 3: of guys to want to deal with and they wanted
Speaker 3: to just go be a coach again. Like, is this
Speaker 3: the most difficult part of your job? The having to
Speaker 3: resell players every year on why they should stay with
Speaker 3: you and play for you.
Speaker 2: Well, no, I'd say no, absolutely no on that. I
Speaker 2: think the most difficult part of the job is raising
Speaker 2: millions of dollars to play pay your players because nobody's
Speaker 2: doing it for you. I think you got to understand that.
Speaker 2: You know, one day when they changed all these rules,
Speaker 2: you wake up and somebody says, hey, by the way,
Speaker 2: you've got a pretty hard job, but you're getting well paid.
Speaker 2: But it's year round. Guys can visit unlimited visits. You know,
Speaker 2: really get about two dead periods. You know, people say
Speaker 2: what are you doing in the off season, whether you know,
Speaker 2: practice recruit every day, practice recruit, raise money every day.
Speaker 2: We wake up one day and they say you got
Speaker 2: to raise you know, you got to go raise million,
Speaker 2: you know, four or five, six million so you can
Speaker 2: have a team. And by the way, you're competing with
Speaker 2: your athletic department because they're raising money too, because they
Speaker 2: got to pay their scholarship bill, all the bills for
Speaker 2: twenty five sports. But you know, so you're you're going
Speaker 2: to ask the same people for money. It's just ludicrous.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just you know, I don't know what
Speaker 2: else to tell you, guys. So that's the hardest part
Speaker 2: of it. You know, as far as players, you know,
Speaker 2: you're at UCLA, you got a track record as a
Speaker 2: coaching staff. You got a track record as a program. Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, if you got money, you're gonna be able
Speaker 2: to get at least a solid team. As far as
Speaker 2: convincing guys to stay, I don't really believe in that.
Speaker 2: I would go to the opposite on that if I
Speaker 2: have to convince you to stay, you should probably leave.
Speaker 3: It is funny you bring that up, because that was
Speaker 3: one something that Rick Patino brought up last year when
Speaker 3: you know, they were in the midst of a losing streak,
Speaker 3: and one of the points heam made was, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm not making excuses. Love the job, but I've had
Speaker 3: to spend a lot of time trying to raise money
Speaker 3: for this program, which was never something that I had
Speaker 3: to do before. So it is kind of wild just
Speaker 3: to see in such a short amount of time how
Speaker 3: the extra responsibility has been kind of added to the
Speaker 3: plate of things that you guys already had to do
Speaker 3: as coaches.
Speaker 2: You get no choice, You're not gonna have any money,
Speaker 2: you get no players, So it is what it is.
Speaker 2: You got to embrace it. So to your point, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm not complaining, I'm just answering your questions. So I
Speaker 2: think I think the you know, the the job is
Speaker 2: what it is. I mean, you know it's gotten harder
Speaker 2: for sure, but it's going to change now. It's going
Speaker 2: to shift it, you know, with what they call the
Speaker 2: the House Settlement, uh and by it could be as
Speaker 2: early as this summer to where the ruling on the Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm not trying to confuse your listeners, but there's a
Speaker 2: there's a huge settlement, a couple of billion dollars right
Speaker 2: that they're going to pay back pay for basically shutting
Speaker 2: people out of NIL for the last twenty years in
Speaker 2: the revenue sports for the ninety percent of it. And
Speaker 2: then they're going to pay the players from the schools.
Speaker 2: You know, the question is are you still going to
Speaker 2: pay them through NIL? And that's that's a fifty to
Speaker 2: fifty depend you know, who knows what's going to happen there,
Speaker 2: but she's still so now the guys probably going to
Speaker 2: get double what they're getting right now. So if a
Speaker 2: basketball team's got a budget four or five six million
Speaker 2: in NIL, and they'll tackle on what the school's going
Speaker 2: to pay them as well through their revenue share. So
Speaker 2: it's it's it's it's wild times, guys. You're trying to
Speaker 2: like so Basically, what I'm telling you is I don't
Speaker 2: know in nor does anybody else with my job. Because
Speaker 2: we all talk, none of us know for sure what
Speaker 2: the rules are for next year? How about that? Jeez? Yeah?
Speaker 4: How about it?
Speaker 1: Nick Cronin is whether so you talked about you had
Speaker 1: to go out, Rick Patino had to go out, and
Speaker 1: everybody's got to go out and raise their own money. So,
Speaker 1: all right, make how much money does it cost to
Speaker 1: run a college basketball program and get players?
Speaker 2: Oh, it's it's it's put it down to say this,
Speaker 2: it's more than four million. How's that? All right?
Speaker 1: So you had to go out number for it. You
Speaker 1: had to go out and get more than four million.
Speaker 1: The basketball program had to raise more than four million. Correct,
Speaker 1: It's just do you have people it working in the
Speaker 1: basketball program helping you with that?
Speaker 2: Nick? Here's the thing, Fred, if you were a rich
Speaker 2: a rich donor rich supporter, would you really want to
Speaker 2: talk to my assistant?
Speaker 4: Fair? That's fair?
Speaker 2: Who you want to talk to? You know, who you
Speaker 2: want to play golfers, who you want to go who
Speaker 2: you want to go to dinner with? You know, who
Speaker 2: you want to meet for a happy hour? You know,
Speaker 2: you know, let's be honestly, you know, and hey, look
Speaker 2: it's just the way it is, man, I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: and it ain't gonna change either, so you got to
Speaker 2: embrace it. It's uh you know. Now, some places they
Speaker 2: may just have that all set up and the coach
Speaker 2: don't have to do much. But you know, I'd say
Speaker 2: eighty percent of us got to are out there on
Speaker 2: a NonStop basis trying to come up with ideas. Now,
Speaker 2: obviously we have our collective, the mental Westwood and the
Speaker 2: and the you know, there's a board and those guys, uh,
Speaker 2: they're they're they're donating their time. Our collective is donating.
Speaker 2: I mean, they're not getting Those guys aren't getting paid,
Speaker 2: they're not taking a dime. They just love the program,
Speaker 2: you know. So, uh so the guys on our board,
Speaker 2: whether it's Ken Gray, were you know, Tyler Rutkin, Jeff Stuttleson,
Speaker 2: I think Michael Price, you know, those guys, they're trying.
Speaker 2: But again, if they get if they get a prospect,
Speaker 2: they Hey, Fred Rogan loves usha basketball. He wants to
Speaker 2: donate some money. Guess who he wants to go to
Speaker 2: dinner with? Yeah, you know what I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: so I mean that's that we're right back to this.
Speaker 2: It just is what it is. I mean, that was
Speaker 2: giving you guys a lay of it. I mean, you've
Speaker 2: got to embrace it, you know. I think the harder part, guys,
Speaker 2: is what is the free agency every spring? I think
Speaker 2: you know Justin alluded to it earlier. You know, right
Speaker 2: now as we sit, I don't know the rules for
Speaker 2: next year. Are we going to pay players through the school?
Speaker 2: We're going to pay them to nil? Are we going
Speaker 2: to do both? And none of us know the definitive
Speaker 2: answer there. That's number one. Number two is your whole
Speaker 2: team can transfer in the spring, and it's you know,
Speaker 2: that's a crazy rule every spring. But yet if I
Speaker 2: leave in the spring, I think I owe u c
Speaker 2: l A ten million, right, But you know they if
Speaker 2: my players leave and some of them are making five
Speaker 2: hundred thousand or whatever, they're making two hundred thousand, there's
Speaker 2: no penalty. So at some point, guys, and this is
Speaker 2: what some of your you know, I don't know how
Speaker 2: well you follow it. You know your listeners follow it.
Speaker 2: It needs to just become pro sports where they're they're
Speaker 2: employees and there's contracts. Right, there's got to be employees,
Speaker 2: and there's got to be it's got to got to
Speaker 2: be contracts because what's happened is we're trying to hold
Speaker 2: on to an old model and we're trying to piece
Speaker 2: together the new model with the old model where there's
Speaker 2: NCAA rules on transferring and they keep changing them. You know,
Speaker 2: it's just you need to just throw the whole thing
Speaker 2: out the window. There are there's only one rule right now.
Speaker 2: You can transfer every year. Every other rules out the window.
Speaker 2: Out the window. Kids, every kid's got an agent. By
Speaker 2: December fifteenth, kids that aren't happy or aren't getting at
Speaker 2: what playing time that they want, their agents are going
Speaker 2: to start calling coaches all over the country talking about
Speaker 2: the portal for the spring. By December fifth after you
Speaker 2: play about six or seven games, that'll start happening because
Speaker 2: the agent's going to take ten percent of what they
Speaker 2: get that kid into portal, so they want them to transfer.
Speaker 2: So it's the whole thing that's really crazy.
Speaker 3: Right now, How does it impact your coaching from a
Speaker 3: coaching standpoint because of the turnover and all the changes,
Speaker 3: do you have to adjust your expectations for your team
Speaker 3: as to your chemistry early in the season and how
Speaker 3: you guys perform.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that would be the hardest part. When
Speaker 2: you talk turnover that do you have some guys that
Speaker 2: how many guys do you have returning? Isn't very important.
Speaker 2: I think if you look okay. If you were to
Speaker 2: say to me, hey, Mick, what's the most shocking result
Speaker 2: early season college basketball? You guys may have an opinion
Speaker 2: on this, but I will tell you without question, if
Speaker 2: you ask a basketball coach, the answer would be Auburn
Speaker 2: winning at Houston. Now, I believe the game wasn't on campus,
Speaker 2: it was at wherever the Rockets played at Toyota Center,
Speaker 2: but still in the city of Houston. Auburn winning at
Speaker 2: Houston and shooting fifty four percent from the field would
Speaker 2: be the most shocking basketball result. Houston's number one in
Speaker 2: the country and defense. They have I think seven of
Speaker 2: their first eight players back, but Auburn has eight. They
Speaker 2: played nine guys in the game, eight seniors. Seven of
Speaker 2: them had been at Auburn multiple years. Four of the
Speaker 2: eight seniors are playing their fifth year. So they played
Speaker 2: nine guys, eight seniors, four of them fifth year seniors.
Speaker 2: So they're a rare team. Now they better enjoy it
Speaker 2: because they're all gone, and you know, and they're going
Speaker 2: to have freshmen transfers and be like the rest of
Speaker 2: us next year. So it's just, you know, it's a
Speaker 2: huge advantage. Justin to your question. Sure, you know, if
Speaker 2: you've got guys that you've coached, that's the problem. It's
Speaker 2: not and it's going to take everybody time. It's not that.
Speaker 2: You know, I've got some really good transfers. They haven't
Speaker 2: played for me yet. They still got bad habits. So
Speaker 2: even though you're a junior, but if nobody's coached the
Speaker 2: turnovers and the careless passing and the gambling on defense,
Speaker 2: if nobody's coached that out of you, it's kind of
Speaker 2: irrelevant that you're a junior, right you know, Now, if
Speaker 2: you were a junior here, I've coached that out of
Speaker 2: you by that time, that you take care of the ball,
Speaker 2: you're solid on defense and those things, because you've been here,
Speaker 2: you know, for two and a half years worth of
Speaker 2: games and practices. So that's definitely the biggest challenge and
Speaker 2: what I've learned because I you know, this is all
Speaker 2: new for coaches. Guys come in. They don't necessarily you
Speaker 2: would think I would. I kind of expected guys that
Speaker 2: have a little bit better habits. And when I say that,
Speaker 2: I mean coachable habits, take care of the ball, being
Speaker 2: solid on defense, knowing how to talk and communicate, basic
Speaker 2: things that I think that I've had to coach more
Speaker 2: than I thought I would have to with the with
Speaker 2: our transfers. But they're working at it, and you know
Speaker 2: they're older, so I think they'll pick it up quicker
Speaker 2: than a freshman. MT.
Speaker 4: Cronin is where there's two questions.
Speaker 1: First about that you talk about, you know, you got
Speaker 1: to coach it out of them to get them to
Speaker 1: where you need to be. But maybe by time you
Speaker 1: coach it out of them, they're gone. They're going to
Speaker 1: another school.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there you go, Fred see see exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, so you know you're working. You finally get
Speaker 1: them to a point where okay, I can play them.
Speaker 1: But the December day has come, their agent has put
Speaker 1: them into the portal for next year, and the guy's
Speaker 1: gone and you.
Speaker 2: Don't even Yeah, very possible with a lot of places.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you have a general manager at UCLA that
Speaker 1: oversees all of this, because there's no way you can
Speaker 1: be looking at the portal and figuring out what's going
Speaker 1: on every day.
Speaker 2: Well, so just so you're clear, you got listeners. Two things. One,
Speaker 2: the portal doesn't open until sometime in March, okay, and
Speaker 2: they shortened it. It's this year, so sometime in March.
Speaker 2: My point to you earlier though, was when you get
Speaker 2: to mid December, behind the scenes, people are recruiting each
Speaker 2: other's players. Agents, agents are calling around saying, you know,
Speaker 2: so and so is unhappy, he's going to leave. He's
Speaker 2: you know, for whatever reason. So that goes, That goes
Speaker 2: on all season, and it's unhealthy for our game. But
Speaker 2: nothing's going to stop it. Absolutely nothing's going to stop it.
Speaker 2: But to your point, if your players keep leaving every year,
Speaker 2: it's going to be hard to be, hard to build
Speaker 2: a winning team, really hard to be, you know. And
Speaker 2: that's for anybody.
Speaker 4: H Do you take a personal when you players leave?
Speaker 2: No, not at all, Not at all. I would say
Speaker 2: that here we have a saying in recruiting, Okay, this
Speaker 2: isn't for everybody and your you know, your choices, and
Speaker 2: this is anybody in life. Your choices are a reflection
Speaker 2: of you, not me, and who you are. You know,
Speaker 2: we get the best campus in the world. We got
Speaker 2: one of the best schools in the world. We get,
Speaker 2: we get the most championships ever in men's basketball, we
Speaker 2: get the most drafted players ever in men's basketball. I've
Speaker 2: only been here five years. I think we've got six
Speaker 2: guys in the NBA right now. We've already been to
Speaker 2: the final four or nine and three in the NCAA Tournament.
Speaker 2: Since my staff's been here. Okay, we've proven We've had
Speaker 2: one and done guys Maury Peyton Watson, We've had two
Speaker 2: and done guys. We've developed im Hakez over four years.
Speaker 2: Like so, if you don't choose us, I think you
Speaker 2: know it's more of a reflection on you than it
Speaker 2: is us.
Speaker 5: Coach, How are you better?
Speaker 3: How are you better now as a coach as opposed
Speaker 3: to when you first started.
Speaker 2: I think you're more analytical as you get older, you
Speaker 2: make you see the big picture much more, definitely, the
Speaker 2: big picture, much much more than than than day to day.
Speaker 2: You know where you're trying to get to. I think
Speaker 2: I've gotten better where my teams are playing better in
Speaker 2: the NCAA Tournament. We're getting better later in the year.
Speaker 2: And that's a definite for me here. Knowing that that's
Speaker 2: what it's all about at U C l A. And
Speaker 2: I think, you know, I try to tell younger coaches
Speaker 2: is and this I guess in general, don't complain. Don't
Speaker 2: complain because whoever you're complaining to, they might act like
Speaker 2: they care, but they really don't. I mean they don't.
Speaker 2: Let's just be honest. I mean they don't. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, if your wife comes home complaining, I mean,
Speaker 2: I know, you have to act like you care for
Speaker 2: it for the sake of you know, the marriage, but
Speaker 2: you really don't. You just wanted to stop complaining. I mean,
Speaker 2: just be honest about it, you know, I mean, come on,
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, it's just this, don't complain. Nobody cares.
Speaker 2: Everybody's got problems. And I think I tell in the
Speaker 2: coaching world, people complain they're not getting enough support, Like
Speaker 2: people hit me, you know, you don't sell enough tickets
Speaker 2: or get enough support. Well, you know what, Yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: at UCLA and four miles from the beach. It's seventy
Speaker 2: five every day. You know, when the games get big,
Speaker 2: our people are here. We got you know, it's just this. Well,
Speaker 2: certain schools, you know, they're you know, they're they're packed early. Well,
Speaker 2: you know. Yeah, but they got to live there, you know,
Speaker 2: they gotta. You know, I'm not going to name the names,
Speaker 2: but I mean something you want to live in some
Speaker 2: of those places, you know. So you can't have everything right,
Speaker 2: you can't. You can't. You cannot have everything in every job.
Speaker 2: So every job has their strengths, every job has their challenges,
Speaker 2: and you you know, you got to embrace it and
Speaker 2: know it for what it is. Obviously you can try
Speaker 2: to work on things and improve things, but coming to
Speaker 2: work worried about things that don't matter. As you get older,
Speaker 2: you become a head coach, you better focus on winning.
Speaker 2: Everything else is ancillary everything you know, which is you know,
Speaker 2: for me, coaching and fundraising for Aniele.
Speaker 1: Make one final one. Let you go, okay, how are
Speaker 1: you going to do in the Big ten this year?
Speaker 2: Isn't it's crazy? Fred? Think about you? Just do you
Speaker 2: ever think you were going to say that? No?
Speaker 4: I never thought. Even when it was happening, I didn't think.
Speaker 2: So it still sounds crazy. They brought me that they
Speaker 2: I don't know why they gave me something they had
Speaker 2: like this big ten bag backpacker bag that they gave me.
Speaker 2: It was sitting on my desk, and I'm just looking
Speaker 2: at it like because it's still and when I look
Speaker 2: at it and I read the logo, it's still unusual. So,
Speaker 2: you know what, I don't really think about the conference
Speaker 2: the way I used to, you know, I think, because
Speaker 2: really it's like, you have twenty games. Yeah, so you
Speaker 2: have three teams in our conference kind of the way
Speaker 2: I look at it, because you only played three teams twice, USC, Oregon, Washington,
Speaker 2: everybody else should play once. So what's the difference between
Speaker 2: them and our Gonzagar, Arizona and North Carolina games. You're
Speaker 2: gonna play them once, you know, So how you're going
Speaker 2: to judge? You really want a league with an unbalanced
Speaker 2: schedule tred. You should see the tie breaker sheet they
Speaker 2: sent out to try to see the pack the bissy.
Speaker 2: I can't even say the Big Ten Tournament the tie
Speaker 2: breaker literally okay, literally, I would say it might have
Speaker 2: been easier to crack the German codes in World War
Speaker 2: Two then to figure out this tie breaker, because that's
Speaker 2: how many ties they're anticipating. And because you know, everybody doesn't,
Speaker 2: doesn't who played who on the road at home? Who
Speaker 2: played who? Twice? So I guess I'm My answer is
Speaker 2: I really don't look at it that way as much
Speaker 2: as I look at you know, your team's got to
Speaker 2: just continue to improved, get better so you can win games,
Speaker 2: get yourself into the tournament where you got a chance
Speaker 2: to in that tournament in March. So just different times, right,
Speaker 2: the conferences. It's just it's just different times, and football
Speaker 2: may have different rules. I don't know what that playoff like,
Speaker 2: do you get an automatic bid if you win the
Speaker 2: Big Ten championship? So if you get into that title
Speaker 2: game and you win it, do you get an automatic
Speaker 2: berth into the college football playoffs? I don't know. Do
Speaker 2: you guys know?
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 5: You gotta wait and see that shakes out. I mean the.
Speaker 2: Radio show you things like it's the that's.
Speaker 3: Going on the Big Power for whoever wins the Big
Speaker 3: Ten is going to get in and then it's just
Speaker 3: high automatic.
Speaker 2: I'm going to if you win the SEC, you get
Speaker 2: to that championship game and you win it, do you
Speaker 2: get an automatic.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you're in and you're probably and you get.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm just want to see, like we you know,
Speaker 2: so for us, you know, you only get that automatic
Speaker 2: bit if you win the you know, you play bad
Speaker 2: all year when the conference tournament can get in, you know,
Speaker 2: but in their deal, you got to be one two
Speaker 2: so you can get to the finals. You know, you
Speaker 2: can't get into that game. So I don't know fred
Speaker 2: the long answer, I guess, but it'll be interesting, you know.
Speaker 2: I think the better answer for the question would be,
Speaker 2: you know, like playing into big ten the venues. I
Speaker 2: think it'll be much more challenging playing in front of
Speaker 2: sold out crowds and all the big ten venues versus
Speaker 2: you know, the PAC twelve. It was definitely not like that.
Speaker 2: We probably played only in front of one or two
Speaker 2: every year in the PAC twelve. As far as tough
Speaker 2: road environments, we're going to face a lot more tough
Speaker 2: road environments when when we've been facing in the PAC twelve,
Speaker 2: I'd say that's the biggest difference. That is going to
Speaker 2: be tougher than to travel to.
Speaker 4: Me, Maig, thanks for taking time today. It is so
Speaker 4: good to catch up with you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we covered that. I mean you were you were
Speaker 2: diving deep on the rules, know the rules and basketball
Speaker 2: so hopfull we get your listeners totally confused.
Speaker 1: That was our goal, That's all we wanted to do
Speaker 1: so mission accomplish.
Speaker 2: All right, man, you have a have a good one.
Speaker 2: All the best if I don't talk to your happy
Speaker 2: holidays as it come up?
Speaker 4: Got it?
Speaker 5: Thanks Mitt, Thanks coach.
Speaker 1: All right, there he goes mc cronin, the basketball coach
Speaker 1: at UCLA. I love having him on, Justin. I love
Speaker 1: having it.
Speaker 3: That's just it is just like at some point, like
Speaker 3: somebody's got to fill me in on the joke here, Like,
Speaker 3: you know, was it Mark Medinho called me Jonah?
Speaker 6: Vinny called you something at one point?
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, somebody called me.
Speaker 4: Jacob called you something.
Speaker 3: Jacob called you Jonas, Yeah, Jonas, which hey listen, which
Speaker 3: let me tell you something.
Speaker 5: I'm okay with that because that's.
Speaker 3: You know, every day with the in laws, so like yeah,
Speaker 3: like so I mean Christmas Eve when Tamali's are flying,
Speaker 3: Like listen, I hear Jonas fifty times like so.
Speaker 5: So like I'm okay with that.
Speaker 3: But like you know how I think we're running out
Speaker 3: of names, like who's going Jose next?
Speaker 5: Like can we figure out like.
Speaker 3: Like can we start a pool, like what's going to
Speaker 3: be the next name used? Because now it's justin Jonas
Speaker 3: and Jonah.
Speaker 5: I'm going with Jason.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think somebody did use Jason like Jason was
Speaker 3: used before, which is you know, it's the same, you know,
Speaker 3: the same, you know letters, it's just mixed around a
Speaker 3: little bit. But I'm thinking Jose's the next step in
Speaker 3: the whole evolution of this.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, Jonas, you do have a brother named Tyrone,
Speaker 5: so maybe Jalen is in your future. That's true. Jamaal
Speaker 5: could be, uh could be on the books as well too.
Speaker 3: So it's very you know, it's a little disappointing, but
Speaker 3: also very entertaining at the same.
Speaker 1: I look at it like this, and and perhaps when
Speaker 1: you're you're here, I'm going to start letting people know.
Speaker 1: If we just let whoever came on know that you're
Speaker 1: actually Amish, then Jonas would work. Agreed, And you know
Speaker 1: that's my bad. I you and I have disgusted agreed
Speaker 1: your ancestry. But if we just said he's Amish, it's Jonas,
Speaker 1: then there would be no questions.
Speaker 5: Agreed. Look, and I'm okay with that.
Speaker 3: Whatever can clear this whole thing up and to where
Speaker 3: we can get a little bit of respect back on
Speaker 3: this show.
Speaker 5: I appreciate.
Speaker 1: Do us all a favor, just do us one. No
Speaker 1: one's asking for the world. We're asking for one thing.
Speaker 1: Please put on goggles.
Speaker 4: That's next.
Speaker 1: Got thanks to make Cronin love him, one of my
Speaker 1: favorite people. Broke it all down if you missed it,
Speaker 1: and he tried to explain what it's like the coach
Speaker 1: in college basketball today. Check out the podcast. Kevin will
Speaker 1: put it up the minute we get off the air.
Speaker 1: It's on education for any fan.
Speaker 3: What a pain in the ass man, Like you can't
Speaker 3: like your main focus is not are these guys ready
Speaker 3: to play?
Speaker 5: It's do we have enough money? And you have to
Speaker 5: go raise that money?
Speaker 3: Like what like to it's the whole And I don't
Speaker 3: think because you know, people look at it. And he
Speaker 3: had a you know, the right approach, which was, hey,
Speaker 3: is what it is. You've got to adapt, like this
Speaker 3: is the way it goes now. But like that's why
Speaker 3: I don't fault guys like Chip Kelly for being like
Speaker 3: f this man, Like I've made a good amount of money.
Speaker 3: I've had my stint in the NFL. I've had a
Speaker 3: couple of stints in the NFL. Like this is no
Speaker 3: longer about the money. I'm still gonna get paid great,
Speaker 3: but I just want to go do what I what
Speaker 3: I wanted to do when I got into this in
Speaker 3: the first place, which was just go coach football or
Speaker 3: go coach sports, not have to like recruit and be
Speaker 3: a salesman on the side. Like it's just the whole
Speaker 3: thing is so strange. But I don't know that coaches
Speaker 3: get enough credit for having to go through all that
Speaker 3: and still try and put a product on the court
Speaker 3: that that people can be happy with.
Speaker 1: Well, you heard what he said. People say, you get paid.
Speaker 1: You're getting paid, so do the job. But it's it's
Speaker 1: very different than it used to be. All Right, we're
Speaker 1: only handle two. So a couple of other things we
Speaker 1: want to touch on, and we'll talk about AD and
Speaker 1: the goggles coming up in a bit. But Kevin just
Speaker 1: got this Paul of Paul Paul George on the podcast
Speaker 1: p I was talking about how LA fans reacted to him,
Speaker 1: and he was here in Los Angeles playing for the Sixers,
Speaker 1: and if you remember, it had been reported that he
Speaker 1: himself had said that the Clippers are the B team.
Speaker 1: So he responded on the podcast PE podcast.
Speaker 7: I did not call Clippers the B team. I said
Speaker 7: it felt like the B team just because of everywhere
Speaker 7: you go, people in LA say you should be a Laker,
Speaker 7: you should be a Laker. That wasn't minimized minimizing that
Speaker 7: wasn't you know, I was a Clipper, Like that's who
Speaker 7: I chose to play for. Like I wasn't comparing them
Speaker 7: and saying that they were underneath the Lakers. It was
Speaker 7: just how LA interprets that or how LA treats players
Speaker 7: that are in LA, like they think you should be
Speaker 7: a Laker. They think there's not another team there. So
Speaker 7: that that was where that comment was from. But they
Speaker 7: proved me right. They didn't pack out and they and
Speaker 7: they aren't packing out into it. Don't like that's y'all home,
Speaker 7: that's youall team. Go and support them, like, go be
Speaker 7: there every night, Go show that this is who our
Speaker 7: players are, This is who our team is. Again, I
Speaker 7: was a free agent. It's not like I asked to
Speaker 7: get out of a contract or ask to leave. If
Speaker 7: y'all knew the whole transcript of how it played out,
Speaker 7: you know they would understand where it came from.
Speaker 4: All right, there you go, Oh what do you think
Speaker 4: I think?
Speaker 3: Well, first off, you know the idea that anything changed
Speaker 3: from when he grew up in southern California to now
Speaker 3: to where the Lakers were the team and the Clippers
Speaker 3: were sort of secondary. It's always been that way. Everybody's
Speaker 3: known that. You know, it's not a reflection of success,
Speaker 3: because the Clippers have pretty much dominated that match up
Speaker 3: the past several years. But all like, there's also this
Speaker 3: like when he points to you know, you're still not
Speaker 3: showing up at games. Okay, well, you were there once
Speaker 3: and we talked about this yesterday, Fred, when we were
Speaker 3: there and they were launching into a doma. They were
Speaker 3: going to have the first regular season game. We were
Speaker 3: across the street at Hollywood Park Casino, Yes, and we
Speaker 3: were giving away tickets to that game at a place
Speaker 3: that we were at because people wanted tickets to the
Speaker 3: Dodgers in the World Series. Like I don't, like, let's
Speaker 3: not judge what the fan base is showing up to
Speaker 3: and the numbers just yet. Like if we want to
Speaker 3: talk about patients, let's talk about patients, bro Like every like,
Speaker 3: the same people who are going to Clipper games probably
Speaker 3: paid a pretty penny to get it into Dodger games.
Speaker 3: And you can't go to everything all at once. The
Speaker 3: holidays are around the like there's a lot going on.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: Nick Croner just talked about it. The beach is four
Speaker 3: miles away, Like, there's a lot going on. This idea
Speaker 3: that we're going to sit here and judge the fan, Well,
Speaker 3: you're still the B team because you're not showing up
Speaker 3: to your ven. It's okay, hold on, it's kind of
Speaker 3: a crowded house right now. People are still reeling off
Speaker 3: what the Dodgers did. I don't know that we can
Speaker 3: make a statement on the venue and the fan base
Speaker 3: this early in the season based on what Paul George
Speaker 3: had to say.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, and we talked about that yesterday and I
Speaker 1: thought every point you made was valid.
Speaker 4: But let me toss this in. Let me just lost
Speaker 4: this in.
Speaker 1: If in fact the Clippers were must watch basketball, must watch,
Speaker 1: I think that place would be packed.
Speaker 5: Is there a team that's must watch in the NBA?
Speaker 1: Back in the day, the Lakers we must watch. Okay,
Speaker 1: they were absolutely must watch, And I would say that
Speaker 1: even in the Lob City era of the Clippers, which
Speaker 1: was really exciting, it looked like every seat was full
Speaker 1: of it. Probably wasn't, but I think that's about the
Speaker 1: close they came to must watch, you had to see them,
Speaker 1: and Lakers for years we must watch, you had to
Speaker 1: see them. Now the Lakers have become what the Lakers.
Speaker 1: The Lakers have become what you never wanted them to be.
Speaker 1: You don't go to the game as much to see
Speaker 1: the game as you do to be seen because the
Speaker 1: Lakers are an event. I'm going to see the Lakers.
Speaker 1: The Clippers, You're going to see a basketball game. So
Speaker 1: it's a different field to both of them. And I'm
Speaker 1: not so sure the Clippers were really ever sold out.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if into it Dome would be
Speaker 1: sold out, because I don't think the Clippers really were
Speaker 1: even if they said they were, they kind of weren't.
Speaker 1: But I do think if there was, I got to
Speaker 1: be there and see it, people would be there.
Speaker 4: Then I think.
Speaker 3: Not in the middle of a Dodgers World Series run. Look,
Speaker 3: I don't think anybody's going to anything at that point.
Speaker 3: Look when they the game one of the World Series?
Speaker 3: What was going on in town? Yet you see it
Speaker 3: usc playing, the Lakers were playing.
Speaker 5: What else was it? Were the Clippers also playing that night?
Speaker 6: There was a few concerts. Yeah, like there was Roosevelt
Speaker 6: Football game going on, all of it.
Speaker 3: You also had a modern day Saint John Bosco, like
Speaker 3: all of that was happening in southern California, and all
Speaker 3: of it took a backseat to the Dodgers. Like, so
Speaker 3: I just I don't know, and let's just say that
Speaker 3: all right, year one and the Clippers aren't drawing capacity
Speaker 3: every game at the end to a dumb like, let's
Speaker 3: just say that's the case, and it probably will be
Speaker 3: the case.
Speaker 5: Paul George knew all of this before he signed.
Speaker 3: He said it himself, So why why even make the
Speaker 3: comment that you know, you know, felt like it was
Speaker 3: the B team, but you knew that, and it's not
Speaker 3: like the checks did in cash, like like you were
Speaker 3: still getting paid. So like this idea that like it's
Speaker 3: this big revelation that the Clippers are the B team,
Speaker 3: but everybody's known that, like like we know what the
Speaker 3: situation is when you go to Sofi State, Like I
Speaker 3: think people all recognize if you ask him, hey, whose
Speaker 3: house is that, Oh, that's the Rams place, and the
Speaker 3: Chargers are along for the It doesn't mean the Chargers
Speaker 3: aren't a better team. It doesn't mean the Chargers won't
Speaker 3: go to the playoffs, and the rams won't. It's just
Speaker 3: sort of a reality where it stands right now. Paul
Speaker 3: George shouldn't have been surprised by that when he signed.
Speaker 3: If he grew up here, he knows that.
Speaker 4: Look at it like this.
Speaker 1: So the aborted moment where the Lakers thought they had
Speaker 1: Chris Paul all right, and then of course the NBA
Speaker 1: stepped in and said, no, Chris Paul is not coming
Speaker 1: to the Lakers, and he ended up going to the Clippers.
Speaker 1: If you remember that. Yeah, So Chris Paul, who was
Speaker 1: a Laker for let's say twenty minutes then no longer
Speaker 1: was one, ends up on the Clippers. So Chris Paul
Speaker 1: goes to Dodger Stadium and the Dodgers acknowledge Chris Paul
Speaker 1: is there, and they show him in the crowd. Forty
Speaker 1: thousand people boo boo. Now, if he'd wore the other uniform,
Speaker 1: forty thousand people would have stood and cheered. It's the
Speaker 1: same guy, he would just wearing a different uniform and
Speaker 1: it wasn't even his fault. Forty thousand people booed because
Speaker 1: he played for the Clippers. If he played for the Lakers,
Speaker 1: forty thousand people would have cheer and it was just
Speaker 1: because of the uniforming war. So Paul George knew that
Speaker 1: when he came here.
Speaker 3: Of course, I mean, like, who doesn't, like you've been
Speaker 3: here long enough. I grew up in southern California. Who
Speaker 3: doesn't know that? Like who?
Speaker 2: Like man?
Speaker 3: I can remember when I would go do reports from
Speaker 3: Staple Center and they would say and most of the games,
Speaker 3: you know, the great Jeff bigs kind enough to say, Hey,
Speaker 3: I know you want to get into the business. Here,
Speaker 3: I'm on later tonight if you could do a couple
Speaker 3: live call ins for me, and he would send me
Speaker 3: out the Staples Center. But it was always to a
Speaker 3: Clippers game. And why do you think that was? Because
Speaker 3: it was so much easier to get a credential to
Speaker 3: go to a Clippers game that it was to a
Speaker 3: Lakers game. In fact, when I went to a Clippers game,
Speaker 3: I sat what was it, section one oh eighth. The
Speaker 3: media is just that at Staples Center. I would sit there.
Speaker 3: Dave mcmanimon was there. That guy would eat popcorn like
Speaker 3: there was one thousand dollars at the bottom of the
Speaker 3: bag from the media room.
Speaker 5: I've never seen anything like it.
Speaker 3: He looked like lard ass off stand by me at
Speaker 3: the pie eating contest. Dave mcmanimon, you do a tremendous job.
Speaker 3: You could house a bag of popcorn. It was wonderful.
Speaker 3: But the point is the Clippers were always easier to
Speaker 3: get into because it was never Team A in town,
Speaker 3: so to speak.
Speaker 1: Well, if that's how we equate it, let's talk about
Speaker 1: Team A and the man who won't wear goggles next.
Speaker 4: Jonas Knutsen.
Speaker 1: Today for Rodney, we're almost out of here, but Lakers
Speaker 1: are back at it. They got a crack at Memphis again.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is going to play, but he said, I'm
Speaker 1: not wearing goggles unless you make me, unless somebody makes me,
Speaker 1: I will not wear goggles. Now here's the point. This
Speaker 1: guy is poked in the eye all the time, Kareem
Speaker 1: war goggles that were just fine for him. Why would
Speaker 1: you risk this happening again because it's happened in the
Speaker 1: past and not just put the goggles on. I understand
Speaker 1: it's different, but I think you would probably get adjusted
Speaker 1: to them pretty quickly.
Speaker 3: Jonas Well, I mean with eyebrows like that, I mean
Speaker 3: you got to commend the accuracy from the people that
Speaker 3: are still able to get to the eye, you know,
Speaker 3: like I mean, because I mean those are basically rolled
Speaker 3: up towels on his face.
Speaker 4: I don't know if that was necessary.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm just saying, like, if he's got that ability
Speaker 3: to grow that, why not just use it to your
Speaker 3: advantage and like, you know, grow them out a little
Speaker 3: bit more, like you know, create some almost like like
Speaker 3: those beads when you would go into the dirty video
Speaker 3: section at the video store. You'd walk through that room,
Speaker 3: that would be a bead separating you at them, like
Speaker 3: grow your hair out almost like hair beads in front
Speaker 3: of your eyes. That way you don't have to use
Speaker 3: the goggles and you can take advantage of it.
Speaker 1: How about this, If you're thinking about growing them out,
Speaker 1: why don't you grow them out like those electric awnings
Speaker 1: that people use.
Speaker 5: Yeah, take the sun out and.
Speaker 1: They can you know, hit the button and they go back,
Speaker 1: or you roll them out and maybe for games he
Speaker 1: hits a button and his eyebrows extend.
Speaker 3: That's a great call, Like how long could you grow?
Speaker 3: Like who's got the longest eyebrows in the world, do
Speaker 3: you think? I mean, like the type that you could
Speaker 3: dread you know to where like you know, you could
Speaker 3: really really, really like, come up with something creative, because
Speaker 3: I just don't feel like they could grow that long.
Speaker 4: I mean, maybe check Guinness Book of World Records.
Speaker 6: Long Guinnis says there was an eighty one year old
Speaker 6: man in China whose eyebrows were seven and a half
Speaker 6: inches long.
Speaker 1: Jesus okay, so that would oh no, that would easily
Speaker 1: be enough.
Speaker 5: Hold on a second.
Speaker 1: But what you'd have to do is put mustache wax
Speaker 1: on them, right, to keep them extended.
Speaker 3: To keep them hard. Seven and a half inch long eyebrows?
Speaker 5: Yes, Like, what is he like?
Speaker 3: That's like Chewbacca hanging off your face.
Speaker 5: It was a Shaolin kung fu masters names I don't
Speaker 5: even like.
Speaker 3: I don't that's like rawley fingers and his mustache. Like
Speaker 3: that doesn't even make sense. How is it possible? That
Speaker 3: doesn't make sense? Seven and a half inch long eyebrows?
Speaker 4: All right?
Speaker 1: Speaking of that, the Guinness Book of World Records, did
Speaker 1: you guys hear the story about the woman that pumped
Speaker 1: four hundred gallion, four hundred gallons of breast milk?
Speaker 2: Ye? What?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 4: Did you hear that story? I have not No.
Speaker 1: Four hundred gallons of breast milk and one sitting. No,
Speaker 1: I'm sure.
Speaker 5: Now that would be something you imagine that. Hey, how
Speaker 5: do you we've been here since breakfast? Can we go?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: But she is the Guinness Book of World Record titleist
Speaker 1: in volume of breast milk pumped four hundred gallons?
Speaker 5: Did the pump burn out halfway through?
Speaker 3: I like, that's there's no way all of that's getting
Speaker 3: used though, if I I mean, if I had to guess,
Speaker 3: like I mean, look, unless you know Tyreek kills a
Speaker 3: customer like.
Speaker 5: That, that could be I'm just I'm just saying.
Speaker 6: I'm just saying Antonio, Okramarty.
Speaker 3: Listen, he's got a lot of kids. Fred, That's all
Speaker 3: I'm saying. I'm trying to find a customer in this
Speaker 3: whole chaos.
Speaker 1: All right, Ronnie, thank you, good job, great job, you know,
Speaker 1: Fred Jonas, back at it tomorrow.
Speaker 5: Fred. I love your eyebrows.
Speaker 2: Thanks.
Speaker 4: Justin.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're five inches Justin.
Speaker 2: Oh No,