Speaker 1: You have to love the laugh. Welcome back to Eve
Speaker 1: Sports Radio. It is May the twenty first, twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: How quickly Derby has passed. Welcome back to the show.
Speaker 1: Of course, hump Day is Wednesday, as everyone knows if
Speaker 1: you have a regular job. I haven't had a regular
Speaker 1: job in a long, long time, so most of the
Speaker 1: days are all the same. Sometimes Thursday is my vacation day.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's Sunday.
Speaker 2: You just never know.
Speaker 1: But for people that do work Monday through Friday, it
Speaker 1: is hump day. You're almost pass halfway there. But you
Speaker 1: got to work today. Give your employers, give them a
Speaker 1: little work today. Make them say, God, Lee, what a
Speaker 1: great day. My employees were just so good. Give them
Speaker 1: a great day's work.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: You know, we got my younger son on another line.
Speaker 1: Let's bring him on, Shannon, And how are you.
Speaker 3: I'm doing great this morning. I'm still trying to figure
Speaker 3: out what you over. You're talking about saying good morning
Speaker 3: to our service workers. You're talking about the people right
Speaker 3: now that are doing the lawn outside of our us.
Speaker 3: As Blad would say, you know, yeah, a palace.
Speaker 1: Yeah, bland It's crazy. Everyone understands that Blanding is crazy. No,
Speaker 1: we're just talking about people in general that work, and
Speaker 1: we all work. Punch the clock anyway, phone numbers five zero, two,
Speaker 1: five seven, one, seventy nine hundred, and we do have
Speaker 1: people that punch the clock. You have to be there
Speaker 1: at eight o'clock. You should be scurrying around getting ready
Speaker 1: to leave so that you don't have to rush. Beautiful
Speaker 1: day outside. We don't have the issues that we had yesterday.
Speaker 1: And again, let's just think about the people that our
Speaker 1: last Friday and Saturday was just devastating. So let's just
Speaker 1: make sure we think about the Paduca Tillman area and
Speaker 1: all the areas that were affected by the tornadoes. I mean, guys,
Speaker 1: Kentucky has really been hit these last three or four years.
Speaker 1: We have gotten everything. So we just want to make
Speaker 1: sure that we keep them in our prayers.
Speaker 2: So here's what we have.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna though it to you for national news, but
Speaker 1: I first and foremost have to I picked up you great,
Speaker 1: gave me the p I looked at it and I
Speaker 1: see down at the bottom. One of the nicest horse
Speaker 1: trainers there was, Larry de Merritt died at seventy five,
Speaker 1: and he was on the show last year, nice as
Speaker 1: gentleman from the Bahamas, had worked his way up to
Speaker 1: where he had a Kentucky Derby contender West Saratoga in
Speaker 1: twelfth and the twenty twenty four Kentucky Derby, and he
Speaker 1: passed from complications of the cancer that he has had
Speaker 1: that he has been fighting from cardiac arrests.
Speaker 2: I just wanted to make sure I got that out.
Speaker 1: But now, Anthony, I'm going to throw it to you
Speaker 1: before we bring on my one and only I call
Speaker 1: him Big Hard. Everyone else knows him. Has Rodney McCrae,
Speaker 1: tenyure veteran in the NBA, played in NBA Finals, which
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about and his experiences because Anthony,
Speaker 1: so many of the players are crying now about too
Speaker 1: many games, not enough time, all the excuses that we're hearing.
Speaker 1: I wanted to bring on a person that who has
Speaker 1: experienced it, who has played every game of a season
Speaker 1: six times. I mean, guys, he didn't miss I just
Speaker 1: want you all to know you talk about a person
Speaker 1: that was reliable. That's Ridney McCrae, without a doubt. So
Speaker 1: we'll have him on after the seven to fifteen breaks.
Speaker 1: So I'm throwing it to you, Anthony, let's get some
Speaker 1: national news in before we take some calls.
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course, obviously we got tons of We got
Speaker 3: so many events going on in sports, it's it's ridiculous.
Speaker 3: It's almost hard to keep up with. I know that
Speaker 3: one of the first things we do want to get
Speaker 3: into is obviously SEC and ACC baseball. Most conferences are
Speaker 3: going into their postseason. But we had a couple of
Speaker 3: losses going through the state of Kentucky. Obviously Kentucky got
Speaker 3: up there last night in the SEC tournament first round
Speaker 3: Oklahoma five to one, and our Cardinals got upset in
Speaker 3: the first round the ACC Tournament to Pittsburgh thirteen to eleven.
Speaker 3: They didn't make a comeback because they were down like
Speaker 3: eight to one at one point, So I'm surprised it
Speaker 3: was even that close.
Speaker 4: But I don't know.
Speaker 3: I remember when you and Oo had Will Smith used
Speaker 3: to be and we were trying to go to the
Speaker 3: super Regionals. Now we're struggling, got the first.
Speaker 4: Round of a SEC tournament.
Speaker 3: It's twenty How it's worth it. It goes in waves
Speaker 3: of roller coasters. Because I even went to the games
Speaker 3: we were hosting the super Regionals, and I was I
Speaker 3: used to love going to watch and play, you know,
Speaker 3: and it happens. Every team goes through stretches where they're
Speaker 3: really good and players started graduating. It's almost kind of
Speaker 3: a rebuild and restart, and you know, I think that's
Speaker 3: one of the phases that Louisville's going through right now.
Speaker 3: Even Kentucky as well in baseball, and we've seen it
Speaker 3: in basketball too, So you know, baseball is not the
Speaker 3: only sport we've seen it in.
Speaker 4: Kentucky was really good baseball.
Speaker 1: But Atney last year, Kentucky was really good, and truly
Speaker 1: they were Oklahoma. Oklahoma was thirty four and nineteen Anthony.
Speaker 1: That wasn't an upset. Oklahoma was a better team. Kentucky
Speaker 1: was twenty four, twenty nine and twenty four. Now Louisville's
Speaker 1: was an upset. Pittsburgh that they were twenty eight and
Speaker 1: twenty six. Louislle was thirty five and twenty one. People
Speaker 1: expected Louisvillo to beat Pittsburgh the Oklahoma game. People expected
Speaker 1: Oklahoma Kentucky had beaten them, but it wasn't expected yesterday.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna tell you what a show you're talking about.
Speaker 1: The drought louis was going through a drought.
Speaker 2: You're right.
Speaker 1: I mean Will Smith, who lives down the street from
Speaker 1: us in Martin's neighborhood. When he's here in the summer,
Speaker 1: a KC D boy. We all know about the Dodgers
Speaker 1: World's champion, but Anthony, gosh, coach McDonald's making a ton
Speaker 1: of money. We did a show on it. We didn't.
Speaker 1: Someone did put it in the paper, Anthony, so all
Speaker 1: I was doing was reading from the paper. I didn't
Speaker 1: go in research at this time. I didn't want to
Speaker 1: be the negative person, downer Jerry.
Speaker 4: That was not me.
Speaker 1: He makes a ton of money in the staff, makes
Speaker 1: a ton of money, Anthony. To be losing in the
Speaker 1: first round of the ACC tournament and it's been about
Speaker 1: a four or five year stretch, something is going to
Speaker 1: have to give it. Louisville, hopefully they'll still get into
Speaker 1: College World Series. Both teams were Anthony, Louisll's got to
Speaker 1: do something this year, period, point blank. I mean, either
Speaker 1: coach McDonald has to take a pay cut, they can't
Speaker 1: afford the ating their and he made boatload of money,
Speaker 1: or or he had to find a different venue. But
Speaker 1: something has happened because there's just too many seasons like this.
Speaker 2: Now Anthony to work.
Speaker 1: Louis was just falling apart at the end, so we
Speaker 1: had to wait and see what else we got going
Speaker 1: on in national news.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but obviously we did have our first round of
Speaker 3: the NBA playoffs too. Obviously we had the Western Conference
Speaker 3: Finals go on last night, and it was we ro out.
Speaker 3: The first half wasn't but the second half. I woke
Speaker 3: up and I didn't expect the score to be that bad.
Speaker 3: The Timberwolves were up in the first half about two.
Speaker 3: I think they were all bout two. If I was,
Speaker 3: I'm not, No, there were about four. They're by four
Speaker 3: in the first half, forty eight to forty four, got
Speaker 3: out scored seventy to forty in the second half. Yes,
Speaker 3: to lose, to lose by twenty six.
Speaker 1: Jeez, Randa is the only reason they were leading at halftime.
Speaker 1: He carried I mean carried the Timberwolves. That's the only
Speaker 1: reason Randa was playing the lights out in the first half.
Speaker 1: He carried them. Only reason after that, Uh, it was Well,
Speaker 1: here's the problem I have with Anthony Edwards. You know,
Speaker 1: he had a little sprained angle, but he came back
Speaker 1: from that and he played. He played okay in the
Speaker 1: second half, and he even said it himself. There's no
Speaker 1: way in the Western Conference Finals he can go five
Speaker 1: for thirteen.
Speaker 2: Honestly, there's no way.
Speaker 1: He has to. He is the best player. He has
Speaker 1: to try to create for others. He has to create tempo.
Speaker 1: He has to force the action. That's what Minnesota needs.
Speaker 1: Shake gild Is Alexander. I think he was three for thirteen,
Speaker 1: two for thirteen at halftime, Anthony, but the kid continued
Speaker 1: to push, got me and to be in ten for
Speaker 1: twenty seven over four from the three eleven for fourteen.
Speaker 1: But Anthony, his team needs him to he thirty one
Speaker 1: is thirty one and Anthony Edwards.
Speaker 2: I guarantee you the next time they play.
Speaker 3: And he's going, He's going, that's a nasty thirty one
Speaker 3: thirty one.
Speaker 4: It is. No.
Speaker 3: I can't agree with that and be like thirty one,
Speaker 3: he's crust. She's twenty seven times.
Speaker 2: You better have thirty shit, No, I agree. But here's
Speaker 2: the deal, Anthony.
Speaker 1: I agree with that, But when you are the best player, Anthony,
Speaker 1: you have to take the responsibility.
Speaker 2: Got me two.
Speaker 1: Put it on the line to where at least you're
Speaker 1: able to say, hey, he was ten for twenty seven. Anthony,
Speaker 1: that means he put it on the line. My man
Speaker 1: aunt Man five for thirteen. Any he didn't put on
Speaker 1: the line, Anney, he knows he didn't.
Speaker 2: He didn't put it in.
Speaker 4: Didn't.
Speaker 3: But you can't put all that blame on an You
Speaker 3: can't put all the blame on the nose. You gotta look.
Speaker 3: You gotta look at the supporting cast. Look at the
Speaker 3: porting cast. Outside of Randall, Jane McDaniels seven points, three
Speaker 3: for five, Rudy Gobert three two points, one for three,
Speaker 3: Mike Conley two for eight, seven points, nobody else scored
Speaker 3: double figures except for Edwards and Randalls. And Edwards was
Speaker 3: out for like an entire core because he rolled his ankle.
Speaker 3: If you look at the thunder supporting cast, hol Room
Speaker 3: is six or nine fifteen points, Jaylen Williams seb for
Speaker 3: eighteen nineteen points, Hardenstein six freight for twelve points. They
Speaker 3: have four. He had three other players in double figures,
Speaker 3: and he had a bench supporting cast that had almost
Speaker 3: probably you know, four or five people that could have
Speaker 3: scored double figures.
Speaker 4: There are short five pointed two seven eight difference.
Speaker 3: And I hate to say it, Why did I choose
Speaker 3: Why did I choose okay See?
Speaker 1: And they've got a better team now, that's all.
Speaker 2: I said.
Speaker 1: Okay See in Cleveland, and I picked okay C to
Speaker 1: win it.
Speaker 2: They have a better team.
Speaker 3: Athony top Okay, they should win it off realistic, But
Speaker 3: I hate to say it, and I would say I
Speaker 3: feel I can't say. I say. I feel bad for
Speaker 3: Anthony Edwards. He technically plays the two guard for him,
Speaker 3: but he doesn't have a real point and he's not
Speaker 3: a point either. He has to developed into that role
Speaker 3: or the timber Wis have to go out and get
Speaker 3: a real one.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: They do have Dillinghams, who was a young and upcomer.
Speaker 3: They have Karen Shannon junior that has a chance. They
Speaker 3: have two young guys. They have an opportunity twenty three
Speaker 3: minutes and seven points with only one foule. He's one.
Speaker 3: He's just too old to play that long and he's
Speaker 3: not really a facilitator.
Speaker 2: He kind of had a great career, but yeah, so
Speaker 2: he's just and he's old.
Speaker 3: He's done now, he said, he said he doesn't have
Speaker 3: a lot of time less, so he was trying to
Speaker 3: win a championship. But I don't think it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: Here's the deal, though, Anthony Cason Wallace, I never, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna get to break. We got Ridney on hold.
Speaker 1: We're gonna bring him on after the break. I never,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna let Rodney answer all these questions. Cason
Speaker 1: Wallace from University of Kentucky thirty three minutes and he
Speaker 1: only shot it three times, seven assists. But what is
Speaker 1: his reason out there? He's out there to guard ant man,
Speaker 1: and he guards and man. That boy is much better
Speaker 1: than I everets he doesn't. He just didn't play this
Speaker 1: way in college defensively. So anyway, we're gonna get to break.
Speaker 1: We got the one and only big Heart on the line.
Speaker 1: Rodney m all the information to see the most unselfish
Speaker 1: teammate would pass it to Marty Pulliam before he would
Speaker 1: shoot the ball. Is the one and only Ridney McCrae.
Speaker 1: After the break, Welcome back to Eve's Sports Radio. As
Speaker 1: we're gonna introduce Shannon. Please bring on the one and
Speaker 1: only Rodney McCrae to Eve Sports Radio.
Speaker 2: Big Heart, what's going on?
Speaker 4: Good morning, Good morning, how you doing?
Speaker 1: Come on, Rodney, you don't have to be the calm Rodney.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows you can come on and say what's up, Eve.
Speaker 4: It's earlier in the morning down here.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: Understand Rodney my youngest son. So you got to understand, Anthony.
Speaker 1: Rodney would throw the ball into me ninety and iverson
Speaker 1: the time he took the ball out of bounce Coach
Speaker 1: Crumb and he'd throw it in. And if I made
Speaker 1: a mistake, Rider, I turned it over. I just looked
Speaker 1: back and he'd be giving me this eye, Anthony. He'd
Speaker 1: just be staring at me, like, wait to the door
Speaker 1: room tonight.
Speaker 4: We're gonna talk about that.
Speaker 5: Wait to the door, It writes in locker Room the
Speaker 5: good old days.
Speaker 1: Here's what I want people to know about Rodney mccrade
Speaker 1: before I introduce this man correctly, because we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about NBA players and time management, not playing. But Rodney's
Speaker 1: first year nineteen eighty three eighty four, he played seventy
Speaker 1: nine games. There's only eighty two regular season Anthony. His
Speaker 1: second season, he played eighty two games out of eighty two.
Speaker 1: His third season, Anthony, he played eighty two games out
Speaker 1: of eighty two. His fourth season, Anthony, he played eighty
Speaker 1: one games out of eighty two. His fifth season, Anthony,
Speaker 1: he played eighty one out eighty two. I don't have
Speaker 1: to say anymore. I really don't have to introduce Olympia
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty. People don't even know that National champion Night
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty played in the finals of the NBA nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty six against thee Larry Bird, which we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about, came from a phenomenal high school team, Mount Vernon.
Speaker 1: Great parents. I mean, Anthony Rdy came up the way
Speaker 1: you came up. His daddy didn't play. That's all their hard.
Speaker 1: Your father didn't play, did he.
Speaker 4: Ridney, No, No, no, not at all. I don't all
Speaker 4: tough lessons learned, guys.
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened, Rodney, But we had real parents.
Speaker 1: Frank didn't play. Your dad did not play. I knew
Speaker 1: your father, boy, they were the best of friends. But
Speaker 1: because they had control of their kids, we knew we
Speaker 1: did wrong things, Rightney, You know we did everybody's bad.
Speaker 1: I tell people that, but we knew when we were
Speaker 1: doing wrong. Now today I don't know if the parents
Speaker 1: know what the kids do wrong. But that's a whole
Speaker 1: different subject, right, But you got great parents. Your mother
Speaker 1: still living? Oh, how she doing right? How's your mom doing?
Speaker 4: Pretty good? Pretty good? Getting up there in age a
Speaker 4: little you know, memory losslor here and there. So she's
Speaker 4: hanging in there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my mom's ninety five, lives with me, Rodney, And
Speaker 1: you know, I understand. So Scooter and I talk about
Speaker 1: it all the time, and everyone knows that Rodney's the
Speaker 1: younger brother. He didn't act that way of Scooter. Rodney's
Speaker 1: the younger brother of the great Scooter McCrae.
Speaker 2: Rodney. We had a ball at Frankie's wedding.
Speaker 1: Oh god, Scooter, Wilie and I you talking about acting up.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. I've got to get the tape. I
Speaker 1: know Terryll was taping it. I've got to get it
Speaker 1: because I got.
Speaker 2: To post it. We brought back the eighties, Rodney.
Speaker 5: We brought back the eighties, brother and we had a ball.
Speaker 2: Monica Smith, Derek's wife. We had so much fun.
Speaker 1: Hey, I don't know if it was Frankie's wedding or
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighty Miller Hall reunion, but we had a
Speaker 1: great time.
Speaker 4: I'm telling you we.
Speaker 2: Did.
Speaker 1: But anyway, rod here's the deal, and I'm gonna let
Speaker 1: Anthony start, because a lot of people don't know about
Speaker 1: your Olympics experience. So Anthony start, get Rodney first with
Speaker 1: our first question.
Speaker 2: The other day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so this is this is actually the news to me.
Speaker 3: I didn't know that you're technically a part of the Olympics,
Speaker 3: but the one that got withdrew of the one in
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty, if that's if I'm not wrong on the
Speaker 3: year there you got told us about that because I
Speaker 3: didn't even know that.
Speaker 4: Well, my experience with the Olympic came from gosh, they
Speaker 4: probably the trial declined the invitation, and the real reason
Speaker 4: I got invitation was the success that we had at
Speaker 4: the University of Louisville, of course, of winning the national championship.
Speaker 4: So I'm thinking that they are going to invite a
Speaker 4: couple of guys from you know, championship team, which they
Speaker 4: did myself and Derek Smith, and I'm sure they invited
Speaker 4: of Louisville living legend Griff, but he was, you know,
Speaker 4: paying for the next level was the next career countae
Speaker 4: of you know, playing in the NBA. So of course
Speaker 4: when I went down there, confident, proud, happy, you know,
Speaker 4: coming off national championship. But it was another challenge for
Speaker 4: me to go out there and play against It had
Speaker 4: about two hundred, you know, all the players down there,
Speaker 4: and went down there and just you know, stuck to
Speaker 4: my value to kind of, you know, play with the fundamentals,
Speaker 4: making the right plays, doing what I knew I could
Speaker 4: go out there, and uh it gave me opportunity to
Speaker 4: make the team, along with a couple of guys that
Speaker 4: I got a chance to play with later on in
Speaker 4: the NBA. So it was a great experience. We would
Speaker 4: have loved to go on to the the Olympics, but unfortunately,
Speaker 4: deal with things going on in the world that the
Speaker 4: President decided that we wouldn't participate. Uh So when they
Speaker 4: talk about Olympians, I'm proud that I made the team,
Speaker 4: but of course we didn't get a chance to compete.
Speaker 1: Runney yor did play. Though you all played exhibition games.
Speaker 1: Who did you all play against and who we called.
Speaker 4: It the gold medal games. We played against NBA players.
Speaker 4: We played against a group of guys who made their
Speaker 4: home in Los Angeles, We played in New York, we
Speaker 4: played we played about five or six games against NBA
Speaker 4: players and it was great experience to you know, play
Speaker 4: against guys that were, you know, playing in the NBA. I'm
Speaker 4: talking about high level guys that kept themselves in shape
Speaker 4: and they you know it. You know, it was eye opener.
Speaker 4: We had a pretty good team, confident guys who who
Speaker 4: you know, believed in their themselves, and we we wind
Speaker 4: up winning five our mom in games. It was I know,
Speaker 4: we only had lost one game out about about five games.
Speaker 4: So it was a taste of something that he thought
Speaker 4: about it sometimes, like, hey, it's going to have to
Speaker 4: you know, you're going to be better, get better between
Speaker 4: now and your time when you graduate college if you
Speaker 4: want to play at this level. So it was a
Speaker 4: great experience to see that at a young age experience.
Speaker 2: It tell me something you stepped in.
Speaker 1: You always kind of set between Scooter and had in
Speaker 1: the locker room at Old fair Grounds and you were
Speaker 1: a little upset that you didn't get in that first.
Speaker 2: Game, and Scooter looked that.
Speaker 5: You said, what are you mad about, Rodney, And you
Speaker 5: were like, I didn't play it.
Speaker 1: Scooter said, you didn't expect to play.
Speaker 4: I tell that story all the time. Well, uh, you
Speaker 4: know when you're playing in high school and you're and
Speaker 4: you're you know, you're playing you don't really practice that much.
Speaker 4: It's just be you know, Frank, so you know, you
Speaker 4: you play the game, so not really understanding well for
Speaker 4: me at that age, the preparation part of the game.
Speaker 4: And and you know, we used to have those scrimmages
Speaker 4: that we all look forward to after just practicing for
Speaker 4: weeks without you know, you know, breaking up and get
Speaker 4: a chance to just go up and down. And I
Speaker 4: had a little success, and you know, the scrimmages and
Speaker 4: I'm all excited. Seasons getting ready to start and first
Speaker 4: game coming out. You remember, like it was yesterday we
Speaker 4: played South Alabama. Was a nip and tuck game. You know,
Speaker 4: co I would look down there at the bench and
Speaker 4: I looked back down there at him. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 4: get ready call my name, like come on, and first
Speaker 4: half to him line, I was like, okay, all right,
Speaker 4: he don't want to get a freshman a chance to play.
Speaker 4: S second half come and the buzzer goes off, and
Speaker 4: of course I'm happy it was a nipp and tug game.
Speaker 4: But then the selfishness comes in, like I can't believe right,
Speaker 4: and you know, I ain't get a chance to play,
Speaker 4: and you know, Randy, our team manager guys taking uniform
Speaker 4: off and throw them, throw it in the middle of
Speaker 4: the room, you know, so you can collect them and
Speaker 4: you know, wash him getting ready for the next game.
Speaker 4: So I'm taking my shocks off in the uniform, all
Speaker 4: mumbling in myself like you ain't really got to watch
Speaker 4: my uniform because I ain't get a chance to say,
Speaker 4: just you know, hang it up on the hangar, don't
Speaker 4: even watch it. So I'm sitting there mumbling, and you
Speaker 4: as good as you hear him talking to me. He's like,
Speaker 4: what's wrong with you?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 4: I can't believe. I ain't get it. Man, I did
Speaker 4: work in them scrimmagers. I just like, really, I said, yeah, really.
Speaker 4: She was like, he thought you was gonna get some
Speaker 4: place time. I said, yeah, I played well in the scrimmagers.
Speaker 4: He was like, it's not about that, It's about preparation.
Speaker 4: How do you You don't even work hard in practice,
Speaker 4: because y'all was giving me that too during practice. You know,
Speaker 4: even the coaches coach Oh said, would be like, come on, man,
Speaker 4: when we ran that mile, come on, keep up with me.
Speaker 4: I bet you I could beat you. And I was like,
Speaker 4: I bet you can too, because you wanted and you
Speaker 4: wanted to practice or you wanted in the game, because
Speaker 4: I wasn't getting it between the as at that time.
Speaker 4: So I was like, you know, you never was. It's
Speaker 4: just it.
Speaker 1: I remember, like yesterday Anthony Rodney would not want to practice.
Speaker 1: He didn't like practicing. He didn't He wasn't an issue,
Speaker 1: he wasn't a negative. He just didn't practice hard. Now, Anthony,
Speaker 1: we had scrimmage games to where we would go around
Speaker 1: the state and we would play amongst ourselves and it's
Speaker 1: quae scrimmages and Bill Olson, Rodney and I are on
Speaker 1: the second team. I had not earned a starting job
Speaker 1: yet this my sophomore year. Bill Olson, we're doing work.
Speaker 2: We're killing them.
Speaker 1: Bill Olson looked at Darryl Wiley, Derek Scooter and said, y'all,
Speaker 1: let no scrubs Anthony.
Speaker 2: He says he didn't say it, but Rodney, you know
Speaker 2: he said it. We said scrubs.
Speaker 1: We looked at each other, said scrubbs, Anthony. We were
Speaker 1: doing work, right. So Rodney doesn't get in. I earned
Speaker 1: a starting job the last week, Anthony. I don't get
Speaker 1: a certain job to the last week. I'm off sophomore season,
Speaker 1: and right now I never forget it. I had sixteen
Speaker 1: points against South Alabama. I was like, sure, maybe I
Speaker 1: can earn this job and he'll leave me alone for
Speaker 1: the rest of the year. But Roddy didn't get in,
Speaker 1: and Scooter, his brother and Anthony tell you, we are
Speaker 1: you serious, says you don't work hard enough for practice
Speaker 1: to get in Rodney, we don't have that anymore.
Speaker 2: See, there are no more Scooters. That's his brother.
Speaker 1: Today brothers would be saying, hey man, this and right,
Speaker 1: we got to get out of here. He mistreated you.
Speaker 1: Scooter said, what's wrong with you? You don't practice hard enough.
Speaker 1: Those days are done, Anthony. There are no more Scooters.
Speaker 1: He was very unselfish, Anthony Riody, most unselfish superstar you
Speaker 1: ever see.
Speaker 2: I scored all my points. Right.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you, man, because you know you made me
Speaker 1: look good. I had great teammates. I had great teammates.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you, Anthony. Right in and I broke all
Speaker 1: the team's presses. Whatever was anything. We had to get
Speaker 1: the ball up, get the ball in bounds. Coach Crumb
Speaker 1: put it on us. And if we messed it up,
Speaker 1: but did we hear it? I'm telling you Roddney was
Speaker 1: a point center in college. Now, right before we go
Speaker 1: to break, I want you to talk about the last
Speaker 1: thing we're touching college. When Scooter goes down at Tennessee
Speaker 1: and you do step in his freshman year and lead
Speaker 1: us to a national championship.
Speaker 2: What was the switch, Anthony Rodney? What made you change.
Speaker 4: The switch when he when he got hurt in the
Speaker 4: States kick? Then I was more worried about it. The
Speaker 4: game of Tennessee is is he okay? Is he gonna
Speaker 4: be all right? And you know, Coach Houston and UH,
Speaker 4: Coach Crumb, the whole coaching staff and you guys called
Speaker 4: me in and said, hey, he's gonna be all right.
Speaker 4: Let the medical staff take care of him. We need you,
Speaker 4: you know, get in the game. And I'm like who,
Speaker 4: me like, yeah you because you know, we get ready
Speaker 4: to play. We play in Tennessee at Tennessee with Reggie
Speaker 4: Johnson all American and uh, I go in the game
Speaker 4: and you know it's a nip and tuck game. We
Speaker 4: win the game, and I'm just thinking about all the
Speaker 4: the practice, all the fundamentals, all the things that I've
Speaker 4: learned up to that point, and what I've learned so
Speaker 4: far at the University of Louisville, just you know, go
Speaker 4: out there and you know, play good defense. Know this
Speaker 4: guy as a senior, this team is good. We are
Speaker 4: on the road. But I was so confident and our
Speaker 4: guys because I know the kind of work that we
Speaker 4: had put in in practice, We had senior leadership, We
Speaker 4: had you guys sophomore I thought, with the best sophomore
Speaker 4: group really in the country, because you guys are the
Speaker 4: number one recruiting class the year before. So you know,
Speaker 4: we went out there and got that w and we
Speaker 4: came back home and both Krunk called me in the
Speaker 4: office and you know, talked, sent me down and said,
Speaker 4: you know, school's going to be out for the rest
Speaker 4: of the year. We need you to step up and
Speaker 4: be the player that we think you could be. But
Speaker 4: it's got to start with your practice habits. And when
Speaker 4: I walked out that his office, that was the turning
Speaker 4: point not only in my career on the start of
Speaker 4: my career at the University of Louisville, but I carried
Speaker 4: that that conversation with me until I retired in ninety
Speaker 4: two ninety three, that I was going to be physically
Speaker 4: in shape, whether the season was going on. I just
Speaker 4: kept myself in good condition year round, and when I
Speaker 4: experienced things coming more easily on the court as I
Speaker 4: got in better shape, I was like, Wow, I can't
Speaker 4: believe I did that. It's not you know, it's not hard,
Speaker 4: it's just coming natural. And just the light switch came
Speaker 4: on and then you know, we went on that magical run.
Speaker 4: And the team we had it was just so strong
Speaker 4: with very good players that if you were having a
Speaker 4: good game, having a bad game and you got substitute,
Speaker 4: it was our chance that you might not get a
Speaker 4: chance to get back in that game. And how deep
Speaker 4: we were and it just built the confidence up and
Speaker 4: and me with our team, we had a lot of
Speaker 4: guys that went on to play at the next level,
Speaker 4: and it was because of the brotherhood that we pushed
Speaker 4: each other. We could talk to each other and we
Speaker 4: thought that you had more to give and you might
Speaker 4: be going through things because it's more than just what
Speaker 4: you do on the court. It's you know, being a
Speaker 4: family off the court, hanging out together and just it
Speaker 4: just brings the best s oide of you, I believe
Speaker 4: on the court. So it all started when you know,
Speaker 4: got there Uniersha Louisville, and uh, you know, with you
Speaker 4: guys at a young age, and we just became a
Speaker 4: family and a successful family for the three years we
Speaker 4: played together and the four years that I was there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Rodney went to three final fours, you all, I
Speaker 1: went to two and then us read Rodney, you'd have
Speaker 1: gone to four in a row. People don't know how
Speaker 1: good we were and how strong mentally were in Anthony
Speaker 1: and Rodney's talking to you all about we could talk
Speaker 1: to each other and we weren't always hugging and kissing.
Speaker 2: We'll tell each other, you got to pick it up,
Speaker 2: get your game going, let's go.
Speaker 1: It wasn't oh, you know, we're all the coach is wrong,
Speaker 1: and it was none of that.
Speaker 2: It was the truth. We used to tell each other
Speaker 2: the truth.
Speaker 1: We had truthful conversations, and our team was really Rodney,
Speaker 1: we were really, really good.
Speaker 2: Right, we gotta get to our first break.
Speaker 1: When we come back, we're gonna jump into a league
Speaker 1: that you played in for ten years at a very
Speaker 1: high level. And like I said, I counted Rodney's first
Speaker 1: five seasons. Rodney yam is five games and five seasons,
Speaker 1: and you got people crying about playing too many games,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna talk to.
Speaker 2: You about that after the break. This is EVE Sports Radio.
Speaker 1: We have the one and only, my opinion, top three
Speaker 1: best player ever to play at University of LOUISVIO because
Speaker 1: the multi talented five four, three two one, he could
Speaker 1: play all five positions. Rodney McCrae will be back with
Speaker 1: us after the break. Welcome back to EVE Sports Radio
Speaker 1: at seven forty one. Of course, it's the twenty first
Speaker 1: of May. We have the Rodney McCrae University of Louisville,
Speaker 1: great Houston Rocket, great NBA champion with the Chicago Bulls.
Speaker 1: There's nothing that Rodney did not accomplish in this Olympian
Speaker 1: Everything that could be accomplished basketball wise, Rodney McCrae accomplished,
Speaker 1: and that's Rodney.
Speaker 2: It's a heckler an accomplishment.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie to you, but quick story before
Speaker 1: I thought to you for the next ten minutes, Anthony,
Speaker 1: I'm living in Dallas, Texas, working working five days a week,
Speaker 1: not working too hard, but working, and I would go
Speaker 1: almost every other weekend to Houston to either watch Houston
Speaker 1: play during the winter or in the summertime.
Speaker 2: I would go and hang out with.
Speaker 1: Roddy and we'd always it was always Anthony wrapped around
Speaker 1: a workout we did. That was just who we were. Anthony.
Speaker 1: It was probably nineteen eighty seven. I'd been out of
Speaker 1: the league or a year or two, had just come
Speaker 1: back from the Philippines, and you know, I'm still I'm
Speaker 1: in good shape, Anthony.
Speaker 2: Rodney says, let's go to the track. Guys.
Speaker 1: I want you to know, we're talking about Houston in
Speaker 1: the summertime. Let's go to the track. Let's exercise Rodney.
Speaker 1: He's Rodney six seven, two thirty.
Speaker 2: Anthony.
Speaker 1: You know I'm still one eighty, in good shape. And
Speaker 1: he beats me in a foot race. That's what I quit.
Speaker 1: He took his Whisper CD and left and went home.
Speaker 1: And Anny, I can pick him up, put him down.
Speaker 1: Don't get it twisted. I could pick him up. I
Speaker 1: never lost a race at Louisville, right, and he never
Speaker 1: while he tried to give he never, I never lost one.
Speaker 1: But Rodney got me. I said, I'm done. He retired me.
Speaker 1: I said, that's when I knew this boy is a superstar.
Speaker 1: Talk about preparation that you've done with your body and
Speaker 1: these NBA player's mindsets of not wanting to play. Rightney,
Speaker 1: you missed five games in five years, what do you think.
Speaker 1: You're a great person to tell us what's going on?
Speaker 4: Well for me, And during that era, I thought that
Speaker 4: everybody in the league goal was to play all eighty
Speaker 4: two games. I know that that's what my goal was.
Speaker 4: And you know, back in the early eighties and even
Speaker 4: at the University of Loisville, we didn't have a strength
Speaker 4: and conditioning program. You remember, we used to go to
Speaker 4: the track on our own. We had the little universal
Speaker 4: weight system that had the different stations on one machine.
Speaker 4: So never really was in into the weightlifting that these
Speaker 4: guys are a lot of them are pretty much all
Speaker 4: of them are doing now with strength and conditioning coaches.
Speaker 4: So I did just just simple push ups, did the
Speaker 4: sit ups, did the dips. Didn't want to get bulky.
Speaker 4: But I did a lot of running. I did a
Speaker 4: lot of basketball playing just the normal things.
Speaker 2: But I.
Speaker 4: Kept true to anytime I played, whether it was back
Speaker 4: in u of L in the summer time against the
Speaker 4: current U of L players or you some of the
Speaker 4: former players before us would come out there and play.
Speaker 4: But always pride of myself on keeping the fundamentals, not
Speaker 4: getting into bad habits because you know season you're just
Speaker 4: playing for fun. You're out there just staying in condition.
Speaker 4: You can get some pick up bad habits. So you
Speaker 4: know you're playing against left handed, you're sending them right,
Speaker 4: you're not letting them go based on the stuff that
Speaker 4: we work on in training camp. So but conditioning wise,
Speaker 4: it was just we talked about my experience as you
Speaker 4: not wanting the practice to just enjoying practice really more
Speaker 4: than the games. Because if you can you have success
Speaker 4: running your sets, doing things in practice, when everybody in
Speaker 4: the gym when we call to play, you know what
Speaker 4: the player is coming in a lot of guys play play,
Speaker 4: so you kind of you know, like I said, you
Speaker 4: have success in practice, you can running and practice you
Speaker 4: should be able to run it in the game. But physically,
Speaker 4: I just love to work out once I got it
Speaker 4: between the ears, and I just you know, you got
Speaker 4: a new group of guys coming in because it's a
Speaker 4: draft training camp and you got to go each year
Speaker 4: for me establish yourself that I'm ready to go day one.
Speaker 4: If we were called the player game or October first
Speaker 4: or fifteen, whenever training camp started, I was I was
Speaker 4: ready to go in game shape in game one. So
Speaker 4: I just, you know, as always my mindset that somebody
Speaker 4: next year is going to try to, you know, get
Speaker 4: you the minutes or get your job. So I just,
Speaker 4: you know, love to compete, love to be prepared for
Speaker 4: the task at hand, and after experience that first year
Speaker 4: in the league that you had no other choice because
Speaker 4: the league was tough. That position that I played when
Speaker 4: I came into the league, the three spot, and you
Speaker 4: looked up at the top league scorers in the league,
Speaker 4: it was a bunch of guys that played the three man.
Speaker 4: So you really didn't have any nights off, and you couldn't,
Speaker 4: you know, you had to be here physically fit year round.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's Larry Bird. You had to match up
Speaker 1: with Larry And how was that just playing against lay
Speaker 1: Bird in the files?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 4: It was when we when we beat the Lakers. I
Speaker 4: remember traveling back and Coach Fitch he would always have
Speaker 4: that seat next to him available because when they opened
Speaker 4: up the jetway, guys forgot what seat Simon they had.
Speaker 4: You come in, you're looking at it, You're sitting in
Speaker 4: my seat and there's only one seat left. But coaches
Speaker 4: like right now, come on back here and we need
Speaker 4: to talk. So we were just talking basketball where we
Speaker 4: had just accomplished, and he was like, you know, in
Speaker 4: order for us to have a chance that I was
Speaker 4: gonna have to do some things in this series. Of course,
Speaker 4: it was gonna be a tall task. I knew it.
Speaker 4: You knew it. Anybody didn't follow it. The basketball knew it.
Speaker 4: For the Celtics during that time. I didn't know until
Speaker 4: years later that they regard that team as the best
Speaker 4: Celtic team of all time. But Larry Bird, everything you
Speaker 4: hear about him in these thirty for thirties you see
Speaker 4: clips and stuff, was all that answer, and you know,
Speaker 4: you get the things I just can't understand. He's slow,
Speaker 4: he can't jump, he can't do this. He's just a
Speaker 4: ballplayer that understood the game. If he got a separation,
Speaker 4: I don't care. If it was having a step on
Speaker 4: you and he got that ball, you get pretty much
Speaker 4: counted in. My focus was playing against him. He's gonna
Speaker 4: make shots, he's gonna he's gonna get his you know
Speaker 4: how we called it. He's gonna get his. But you
Speaker 4: can't get frustrated. You just gotta do the best you
Speaker 4: can you're not gonna get any help, especially when you
Speaker 4: got a LaJuan having the guard, Parish, you got Ralph
Speaker 4: having the guard, Kevin McHale, everybody, You're not gonna get
Speaker 4: no help. But you know, when we played in the
Speaker 4: finals in eighty six, the guy who hurt us was
Speaker 4: though Walton. Bill Walton came in and you know that
Speaker 4: was two three to two series. In order for us
Speaker 4: to have a shot, we needed to win all three
Speaker 4: games back here. We went down two, came back home.
Speaker 4: We won the first game. The second game we made
Speaker 4: a mistake, and when you're playing against teams like Boston,
Speaker 4: you can't make mistakes. We made a mistake in the end,
Speaker 4: uh where we talked about how we were gonna play
Speaker 4: the pick and roll and we got caught. Uh. I
Speaker 4: was part of it, myself and elidge On. We got
Speaker 4: caught on a switch and we were both to switch
Speaker 4: and we didn't and Berg got loose and hit a
Speaker 4: hit a jumper and we lost game four. We won
Speaker 4: game five and we were back to Boston. And you
Speaker 4: know what happened when you when you go to Boston,
Speaker 4: you got to play near perfect game just to even
Speaker 4: have a chance to win. And but it was the
Speaker 4: experience that you know, growing up and watching NBA. I
Speaker 4: would say to myself, and I'm sure a lot of
Speaker 4: other people would say, why is it always the Celtics
Speaker 4: in the Lakers. I'd like to see somebody else in there,
Speaker 4: you know, than these two teams. But what it took
Speaker 4: to get to the finals three rounds? You know, you
Speaker 4: got the three out of five the first year back
Speaker 4: then it was three out of five. Then you play
Speaker 4: the second round and then you go to the Western
Speaker 4: Conference final and then you got the finals. And I
Speaker 4: was like, wait oooh. I was like, you have to
Speaker 4: be a really really good team to be able to
Speaker 4: do this year in the year out. So it's just
Speaker 4: the respect factor just hit you like a the Celtics,
Speaker 4: the Lakers, you know, later on the Bulls, the Pistons,
Speaker 4: these guys that win championships, multiple championships. What it takes
Speaker 4: to get to the championship. It's grinded, it's grinding, and
Speaker 4: you have to, you know, take care of yourself off
Speaker 4: the court. You know, you have to sacrifice. So you know,
Speaker 4: people will look at the money that's out there that
Speaker 4: you get paid, but we put in a lot of work.
Speaker 4: We have to. You know, we do a lot of
Speaker 4: damage to our bodies, but we stury rewarding. We didn't
Speaker 4: know it at the time, but look at all of us.
Speaker 4: I mean, I got hit replacement. I need knee replacement.
Speaker 4: I need my other hip replace. I just got that news,
Speaker 4: you know, last week. So we put a strain on
Speaker 4: our bodies. Man, we did.
Speaker 1: I've had both my hips and one knee. We did,
Speaker 1: but we loved it. Anthney, go ahead, that's Rodney the
Speaker 1: last question the other day. I need to I want
Speaker 1: to hear his opinion on this.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I'm just gonna pull some of the stats, even
Speaker 3: from your own career. So you paid seven hundred and
Speaker 3: sixty eight games in the ten season span. You appeared
Speaker 3: in pretty much ninety four percent of your games throughout
Speaker 3: your entire career. And something that we brought up is
Speaker 3: that Aaron Gordon complained about in an interview once they
Speaker 3: lost in their Game seven to Minnesota that they needed
Speaker 3: or breaks in between games because they're too tired and fatigued,
Speaker 3: and that the competitive scoring and the gas and scoring
Speaker 3: would be a lot better. But I know in your area,
Speaker 3: y'all didn't have these giant breaks in between games like
Speaker 3: they do now two or three games in between each one.
Speaker 3: So we're just trying to figure out what's your thought
Speaker 3: is on that of what Aaron Gordon said his interview
Speaker 3: just about a week ago.
Speaker 4: Well you know this, you know, I don't know and
Speaker 4: working today game or what I do know is they
Speaker 4: get a lot of time off when we travel. We
Speaker 4: travel commercial. I played ten years, nine years we traveled commercially.
Speaker 4: It wasn't until I got to Chicago that I experienced
Speaker 4: charter and I found that out when the first road
Speaker 4: trip I was talking to one of the guys. I
Speaker 4: was like, Okay, where do we park at Ohio Airport?
Speaker 4: And DJ Hosson looked at me like, come on, rob
Speaker 4: we trust we go around the backside. We we parked
Speaker 4: our car, they take us out to the plane. I
Speaker 4: was like, really like yeah, man. He looked at me
Speaker 4: like that what championship championship teams do, right.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I hate to run, Rodney, We're done. I
Speaker 1: can't believe it, Rodney. I gotta get you back, Rodney.
Speaker 2: Love you.
Speaker 1: Most consistent brother you'll ever meet in your life is
Speaker 1: Ridney McCrae e Sports Radio. You'll have a fantastic day.
Speaker 1: God will, and I'll be back tomorrow. Bye bye,