Speaker 1: He's the pride of Norwich, Connecticut and an adopted son
Speaker 1: of Salt Lake City. After forty years with the Utah Jazz,
Speaker 1: there's no one better to talk some hoops. Richard Smitty
Speaker 1: Smith is back on the Drive on ESPN seven hundred.
Speaker 2: All right, coming up at the end of this segment,
Speaker 2: we are giving away one round of golf to Davis Park,
Speaker 2: which is a great track up north.
Speaker 3: It is the Festival of Teas.
Speaker 2: I have tasked Smitty with coming up with a trivia question,
Speaker 2: an NBA jazz related, maybe Draft related trivia question that
Speaker 2: he's going to.
Speaker 3: Drop on you coming up.
Speaker 2: We'll call that about twenty minutes from right now, and
Speaker 2: the first person to text in the answer, We're going
Speaker 2: to send you up to play Davis Park in honor
Speaker 2: of our Festival of Teas, brought to you by the UGA.
Speaker 2: So stay tuned for that and live in studio. Fresh
Speaker 2: off a trip down south where he was watching some
Speaker 2: of the world's greatest LPGA golfers play at the Black
Speaker 2: Desert Championship.
Speaker 3: Is Richard Smith, Smitty? How are you, man? Man?
Speaker 4: It was a fun weekend too. It's a great golf
Speaker 4: you know you you watch the uh the women in
Speaker 4: the LPGA up close, and you recognize quickly how how
Speaker 4: precise they are and everything they do when they get
Speaker 4: over the ball and they get ready to hit it,
Speaker 4: everything is lined up. Everything is just textbook, I mean,
Speaker 4: and I mean everybody, every single player. I'm I was
Speaker 4: just you know, fascinated by by how uh precise and
Speaker 4: distinct they are when they get over the ball. Uh,
Speaker 4: you know, whether it's on the tee, in the middle
Speaker 4: of the fairway, on the green. It's uh, it was
Speaker 4: fun to watch, fun to be a part of course.
Speaker 3: In good shape. The highlights. That's awesome.
Speaker 4: Course was in great shape. The uh the Black Desert
Speaker 4: administrative people down there, they just uh they go all
Speaker 4: out to make sure that that that that tournament, the
Speaker 4: course is ready to go. And I think the players
Speaker 4: loved it. And look the winning score uh by uh
Speaker 4: by you was the it was twenty sixth and the
Speaker 4: winning score last fall and the PG but Matt McCarty
Speaker 4: was was I believe it was twenty five under. And
Speaker 4: so the players love it. The players love the course,
Speaker 4: and it's a scorable course. You know, it's not there's
Speaker 4: a lot of places you can't get in a lot
Speaker 4: of trouble. As long as you hit the ball pretty straight.
Speaker 4: I mean, you're gonna be rewarded.
Speaker 2: Well, I almost broke eighty. There can't. I can't relate
Speaker 2: to what the pros do. Is it hard for you
Speaker 2: to deal with your newfound celebrity status after coming on
Speaker 2: this radio program?
Speaker 4: Yeh yeah, this is tough.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm sure people were coming up to you
Speaker 2: left and right like, aren't you Smitty from the.
Speaker 4: Dry I had that, but but you know, I fortunately
Speaker 4: the radio station here is kind enough to send two
Speaker 4: bodyguards with me wherever I go, and for that that
Speaker 4: takes care of a lot of the crowd issues.
Speaker 3: Good good, good, well good.
Speaker 2: Great to have you in on a daylight today where
Speaker 2: some unexpected news drop that the Utah Jazz and their
Speaker 2: head coach Will Hardy have agreed to a contract extension
Speaker 2: through twenty thirty one and Smitty, as you know, Will
Speaker 2: was hired in twenty twenty two after Quinn left, and
Speaker 2: they gave him a five year contract with three guaranteed
Speaker 2: years and then two years of team options what they've
Speaker 2: already picked which they've already picked up, so prior to today,
Speaker 2: he was under contract through twenty twenty six. Now he's
Speaker 2: under contract through twenty thirty one.
Speaker 3: This is pretty rare.
Speaker 2: I mean for a coach, you get a nine year runway, right,
Speaker 2: And so I wonder what you make of the decision
Speaker 2: of both the Jazz to offer and Will to accept.
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, I think the Jazz are smart,
Speaker 4: smart because they have a guy in place that they've
Speaker 4: worked with now every day for three years. So they've
Speaker 4: had obviously an expansive ability to look at, you know,
Speaker 4: what they think about him. It's not so much obviously
Speaker 4: as we know Spence at the current iteration of the
Speaker 4: Jazz on the floor. It's not about the wins and losses.
Speaker 4: It's about setting a culture, setting an approach, a philosophy
Speaker 4: that you feel you're organization can can wrap its arms
Speaker 4: around and it can be part of going forward over
Speaker 4: a long term basis. They've obviously looked at that the
Speaker 4: last three years and determined that Will Hardy is a
Speaker 4: guy they want to they want to work with long term. Uh.
Speaker 4: He's a guy that they feel fit what they're trying
Speaker 4: to to get accomplished there and uh, and so it's
Speaker 4: a great, you know, great idea for them to lock
Speaker 4: somebody up like that, uh, that that they feel comfortable with,
Speaker 4: that they feel is is doing things the way they
Speaker 4: would like them to get done. On the flip side,
Speaker 4: for Will Hardy, it gives him, you know obviously not
Speaker 4: not just some some some coaching stability uh and longevity,
Speaker 4: but allows him the idea that, hey, these guys believe
Speaker 4: in me, and so I've got to do whatever I
Speaker 4: can to return that faith in that trust by working
Speaker 4: hard every day, by trying to get us better, by
Speaker 4: trying to get this program back on track the way
Speaker 4: we all want it to be. And so it gives
Speaker 4: him an inner piece. And it's not just about the
Speaker 4: length of the contract and the money and all that
Speaker 4: kind of stuff, but it's about the idea that obviously,
Speaker 4: the people I work for have this kind of trust
Speaker 4: in me, so I have to true the best I
Speaker 4: can to return that to them in terms of how
Speaker 4: I do my job.
Speaker 2: So, Smitdie as you know better than anybody, these coaches
Speaker 2: oftentimes are hired to be fired.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: This is a profession and an industry with tremendous volatility,
Speaker 2: and oftentimes a new owner comes in and it's like
Speaker 2: if you buy the house, you're gonna put your own furniture.
Speaker 2: In if you buy the house, you want to remodel it,
Speaker 2: so it's what you want it to be because it's
Speaker 2: yours now. So I get Will Hardy jumping at the
Speaker 2: opportunity to essentially, like I said, have a nine year
Speaker 2: runway between the day he took the job and the
Speaker 2: day is contract expires. Now, does it mean that he's
Speaker 2: going to be here for nine years, No, we know
Speaker 2: the deal. I mean he could be fired tomorrow and
Speaker 2: who knows what's going to happen. So and certainly this
Speaker 2: year with a coaching cycle, Taylor Jenkins losing his job
Speaker 2: after doing a great job in Memphis, Michael Malone wins
Speaker 2: a championship two years ago, and that's not enough to
Speaker 2: allow him to keep his job and coaching a team
Speaker 2: that was and still is in the playoffs and was
Speaker 2: really good.
Speaker 3: It's a wild.
Speaker 2: Industry, and I get it that if your will, you
Speaker 2: jump at the opportunity to do it because you have
Speaker 2: security in a space where there really isn't security even
Speaker 2: for some of the greatest that we've seen. But is
Speaker 2: this a risk for Will because and you know, I
Speaker 2: keep talking about this twenty one years since the Charlotte
Speaker 2: Hornets have won a playoff series twenty one year since
Speaker 2: the Kings have won the playoff a playoff series. The
Speaker 2: Detroit Pistons, who once upon a time were a great,
Speaker 2: great team back in the day, have not won a
Speaker 2: home playoff game since two thousand and eight. You were
Speaker 2: part of several front offices that were able to pivot
Speaker 2: quickly to get back to competitiveness.
Speaker 3: They're not close.
Speaker 2: And whenever I talk about any of these really long
Speaker 2: playoff droughts, it's a reminder to our community how lucky
Speaker 2: we've been about how quickly front offices that you were
Speaker 2: a part of were able to pivot to get us back.
Speaker 2: If we're honest and we're looking at the Jazz roster
Speaker 2: and we juxtaposed it to the teams in the Western
Speaker 2: Conference playoffs, they're simply not close. With the talent that
Speaker 2: Will has in the locker room. Is this a risk
Speaker 2: for Will to decide he wants to sign on for
Speaker 2: this long term project with no guarantees that you've got
Speaker 2: the talent that you need to compete heading this way
Speaker 2: anytime soon?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would. I would push back on that spence.
Speaker 4: I don't if you're a coach and you're getting offered
Speaker 4: a multi year contract extension with any organization you're you're
Speaker 4: going to take that primarily because as I mentioned I'm
Speaker 4: minute ago, it's two things. One, you're you're getting that
Speaker 4: kind of support from the people you're to that we
Speaker 4: like you, we believe in how you're doing it. You
Speaker 4: keep on doing what you're doing and we're behind you
Speaker 4: and we're giving you this kind of support to make
Speaker 4: that happen. And then the other part is as a coach,
Speaker 4: you want to be in a position where you can
Speaker 4: show that you can improve the situation you're in. You
Speaker 4: can get a team better, you can get players better,
Speaker 4: and the stability it brings and the confidence it brings
Speaker 4: to someone is really something that you have to take
Speaker 4: in large measure. There's a smaller part of it, Spence,
Speaker 4: that nobody ever talks about, which is simply that there's
Speaker 4: a real world issue to this, and that is that
Speaker 4: if you're a will hardy and you're in a position
Speaker 4: like that, you have a house payment to make, you
Speaker 4: have children to feed, you have a family to take
Speaker 4: care of. So you know, when if you get an
Speaker 4: opportunity to to sign a deal like this to be
Speaker 4: able to be part of something that you believe in,
Speaker 4: that you think has a chance to improve with your
Speaker 4: input in your leadership, and the organization is saying, hey, yeah,
Speaker 4: you're our guy. This isn't some what I call sometimes
Speaker 4: spence a fake extension where the guy got an extra
Speaker 4: year put on his contract because he had a good season,
Speaker 4: which we see a lot of times in professional sports.
Speaker 4: The organization went out and said, we're gonna give you
Speaker 4: this extension for another six years, you know, which is
Speaker 4: a long time for someone who quite frankly hasn't had
Speaker 4: a winning record. You can say we haven't had the players,
Speaker 4: he hasn't been able to do that, Okay, But obviously
Speaker 4: they believe in his approach and his philosophy enough to
Speaker 4: say the wins and the lack of wins to this
Speaker 4: point really doesn't matter. We believe in how you do
Speaker 4: your stuff. We've been around you for three years. We
Speaker 4: know that you're the kind of guy that we want
Speaker 4: leading our group going forward. And all of that is symbiotic.
Speaker 4: You know, they help you, you help them. Everybody's in
Speaker 4: it together, and it's a big it's a big moment
Speaker 4: for the organization to all be on the same page
Speaker 4: in that regard.
Speaker 2: With Greg Popovich stepping down, and I do want to
Speaker 2: get to that in a moment. Eric Spolster is the
Speaker 2: longest tenured coach in pro basketball seventeen years in Miami,
Speaker 2: Steve Kerr eleven years in Golden State. The third longest
Speaker 2: tenured coach is Tom Thibodeaux with the New York Knicks.
Speaker 3: Five years.
Speaker 4: Here we go.
Speaker 3: So if Will coaches through the.
Speaker 2: End of his contract, and it's nine years, it would
Speaker 2: make him the third longest tenured coach as we currently
Speaker 2: sit here. And that underscores your point, doesn't.
Speaker 4: It if you get there right, If you get to
Speaker 4: that right. I mean, so Tibbs is the third longest
Speaker 4: tenured five years. That just there's thirty teams in the league, spense,
Speaker 4: So you're talking about the third longest tenured guy. There's
Speaker 4: another to twenty seven teams that are after him who
Speaker 4: have had coaches less than five years. I mean, come on,
Speaker 4: how do you expect to gain any traction? How do
Speaker 4: you expect to have any stability in your organization to
Speaker 4: be able to build upon something when you just keep
Speaker 4: stopping and starting, stopping and starting hiring a guy, firing
Speaker 4: a guy, changing general managers, changing the head coach. Like
Speaker 4: that's why you see a lot of these organizations can
Speaker 4: never get anything going because they don't have the patients.
Speaker 4: They don't have the foresight to be able to see
Speaker 4: that if you get something in place that you think
Speaker 4: makes sense for you, that you want to keep that
Speaker 4: in place over an extended period of time so you
Speaker 4: have some longevity, so you have an ability to get
Speaker 4: some traction, to get some footing to see what's going on. Obviously,
Speaker 4: the Jazz front office led by Danny Ainge justin Zanik,
Speaker 4: and then their ownership of course with Ryan and Ashley Smith,
Speaker 4: have looked at it and said, we want will Hardy
Speaker 4: to be here long term. That's the only way we
Speaker 4: can put some stakes in the ground and and continue
Speaker 4: to drive this thing brick by brick by brick, and
Speaker 4: and that's the commitment they made today.
Speaker 2: I'm not even gonna ask you to guess who the
Speaker 2: fourth longest tenured coach is if you want to go ahead,
Speaker 2: but you would have how about Tyler? Tyler is fifth
Speaker 2: the fourth day, It's not he's sixth.
Speaker 4: Okay, I'm in the I'm in the vicinity, right hold on,
Speaker 4: let me let me scan it quickly.
Speaker 2: It blew my mind when I read it quick because
Speaker 2: I feel like he was hired yesterday. Quickly, Chris Finch,
Speaker 2: it's Billy Donovan. It's Billy donald I feel like they
Speaker 2: hired him last week. Yeah, yeah, I see.
Speaker 4: And Billy's had you know, they've had uneven results, right,
Speaker 4: They've had uneven results. And they've had a team that
Speaker 4: they put together a few years ago that they thought,
Speaker 4: you know, you know, it could be sustainable with a
Speaker 4: Lionzo Ball and and and Uh and zach Lavine and
Speaker 4: and uh and the big Kid and they just you know,
Speaker 4: they couldn't get any you know, they were okay but
Speaker 4: not great. But they they've stayed in that gray area. See,
Speaker 4: And that's that's what the killer thing is in the
Speaker 4: NBA spence is if you're an organization, if you're an owner,
Speaker 4: you know, we always would would say, you want to
Speaker 4: be one of the top five teams, or if you
Speaker 4: can't be that, you want to be one of the
Speaker 4: bottom five teams to have a chance to improve your
Speaker 4: your situation going forward. If you're one of the middle
Speaker 4: twenty teams, it doesn't make any sense. You're not You're
Speaker 4: not going anywhere. That's what's happened to this point with
Speaker 4: the Chicago Bulls. They've they've they've gone with Billy so
Speaker 4: far because he's proven that he's a winner both in
Speaker 4: college and in his days. That a case, but you
Speaker 4: have to have some stability, you have to believe in
Speaker 4: what you've got set up in order to give yourself
Speaker 4: a chance long term to have some sustained level of success.
Speaker 4: They haven't had it in Chicago, but obviously to this
Speaker 4: point they've stuck by their guns and part of it's
Speaker 4: their roster thing that they've started to remake also in
Speaker 4: this last year.
Speaker 2: So speaking of Greg Popovich, we heard from coach pop
Speaker 2: today for the first time since November of twenty twenty four,
Speaker 2: and I gotta say it kind of made me a
Speaker 2: little sad.
Speaker 3: And you know, I'm old.
Speaker 2: Enough now to have seen people and coaches that I
Speaker 2: loved and respected in this league age. I can remember
Speaker 2: the first time I saw Jerry after I heard that
Speaker 2: he wasn't well, and Jerry and his wife Tammy were
Speaker 2: good enough to invite me to a playoff game and
Speaker 2: I sat with them, and it just makes you sad,
Speaker 2: you know, when you see Jerry Sloan, who you used
Speaker 2: to being that demonstrative leader, just kind of age and
Speaker 2: not look like the way that he did. And seeing
Speaker 2: Coach Pop today kind of made me sad. You know,
Speaker 2: he spoke very softly. You could tell he's been through
Speaker 2: helen back and he lost his bride a couple of
Speaker 2: years ago, his wife of you know, I think forty
Speaker 2: fifty years passed, and obviously he's had the stroke that
Speaker 2: clearly has had a detrimental effect on him. I wonder,
Speaker 2: Smittye if you could put some color and context into
Speaker 2: a conversation that's happened over the years a number of
Speaker 2: different times, which is the synergistic approach between the San
Speaker 2: Antonio Spurs and the Utah Jazz and how Greg Popovich
Speaker 2: has spoken often about how he wanted to use Coach
Speaker 2: Loan as a model. There was this great clip that
Speaker 2: was going around after Pop broke Coach Sloan's record for
Speaker 2: wins with an individual team. A reporter asked, I know
Speaker 2: that wins and losses aren't everything to you, but you
Speaker 2: did break Jerry Sloan's record, and Greg paused and said,
Speaker 2: I'm not in his league and I never will be.
Speaker 2: There was always this reverent respect between coach Popovich and
Speaker 2: coach Sloan. You got a front row seat. I wonder
Speaker 2: if you could provide some context to that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, you know, Pop would always say that. You know,
Speaker 4: early on, remember in the early nineties, Greg Popovich was
Speaker 4: the general manager of the San Antonio Spurs. He had
Speaker 4: Bob Hill as his coach. They decided to make a
Speaker 4: change ownership did in the mid nineties, and they put
Speaker 4: Pop in the coaching seat for the time being, and
Speaker 4: he stayed there for, you know, for what seemed like forever.
Speaker 4: They also, let's let's let's call it the way it is.
Speaker 4: You know, you can be a good coach and and uh,
Speaker 4: and I've heard many coaches, you know, say this along
Speaker 4: the way, you know, whether they want to take credit
Speaker 4: or not. But you know, what makes a good coach
Speaker 4: is good players. And Pop had the good fortune of
Speaker 4: of coming in right at the time when he had
Speaker 4: David Robinson in his prime. Uh. They the ping pong
Speaker 4: balls that year fell their way. They got Tim Duncan,
Speaker 4: happened to be in the draft that year. It just
Speaker 4: happened to be the year that David Robinson missed seventy
Speaker 4: games during the season, and they go back. Yeah, and
Speaker 4: they and and so they they they got in the
Speaker 4: lottery and they ended up put the number one pick
Speaker 4: in that year in that draft just happened to be
Speaker 4: Tim Duncan. So now they got Tim Duncan. And then
Speaker 4: they they they got lucky, uh, you know, with the
Speaker 4: monogenobiley pick, which was late in the second round. You know,
Speaker 4: he was he was playing in Italy and uh, and
Speaker 4: they they took him as as kind of a lark
Speaker 4: and hopefully that they could get him over at some point,
Speaker 4: which they did. And then they took Tony Parker, who
Speaker 4: everybody thought could be a decent player, didn't know if
Speaker 4: he could be a point guard at the NBA level
Speaker 4: or not, if he was an undersized two. And he
Speaker 4: came in with that group and again, suspence, it's not
Speaker 4: just about you as an individual, but all the players
Speaker 4: that you're you're with and and how you how you
Speaker 4: call us with each other, and how you work with
Speaker 4: each other. And Tony Parker was the beneficiary of playing
Speaker 4: with three other Hall of Fame level guys as it
Speaker 4: turned out, and they had the terrific run that they did.
Speaker 4: But coach Coach Pop was always very a complimentary of
Speaker 4: of of Jerry Sloan and always talked in during the
Speaker 4: nineties while the Jazz were running the show. The Jazz
Speaker 4: didn't win a championship. They played for two of them
Speaker 4: in the finals. But also during the decade of the
Speaker 4: nineties spent a lot of people either don't know or
Speaker 4: forgotten the fact that the Jazz won more games in
Speaker 4: the nineties than any team in the NBA. They won more,
Speaker 4: they won more games in the Chicago Bulls, they won
Speaker 4: more than the Lakers, they won more than they won
Speaker 4: more games than anybody. Okay, they were they were a
Speaker 4: competitive team, and the championship level team for a lot
Speaker 4: of years didn't work out. Had a couple of you know,
Speaker 4: last minute shots by a guy named Jordan that that
Speaker 4: won a couple of finals games. Okay, that's the way
Speaker 4: it goes. But Pop always said during that time, we're
Speaker 4: trying to emulate our franchise after the Utah Jazz, the
Speaker 4: way they conduct themselves, the way that they're coached, the
Speaker 4: way their front office runs their business, all of those
Speaker 4: kinds of things, which was always a very nice compliment,
Speaker 4: and and he continued to say that whenever the opportunity
Speaker 4: would come up, even after they were winning multiple championships,
Speaker 4: to say, well, we're just I remember I remember talking
Speaker 4: to Sam Presty one time at a game we were
Speaker 4: both scouting down in Phoenix when when Sam was with
Speaker 4: the San Antonio front office before he went to Seattle,
Speaker 4: and that became okay, see thunder, and I remember him
Speaker 4: saying to me, well, Smiddy, we're just We're just trying
Speaker 4: to be like you guys. We're trying to figure out
Speaker 4: how to Jazz do it and and and do it
Speaker 4: the same way. And you know, which is the ultimate
Speaker 4: compliment when when someone is saying they're trying to do
Speaker 4: things away, your organization does. But the Jazz had that
Speaker 4: kind of reputation all during the Miller ownership because of
Speaker 4: the way things were handled, especially with Jerry being at
Speaker 4: the forefront, and of course the Laden's running the office
Speaker 4: in the nineties and then Kevin O'Connor in the two
Speaker 4: thousands and Dennis Lindsay and the twenty tens, and you know,
Speaker 4: had such a great run. But you have to part
Speaker 4: of it is you have to have the players. You
Speaker 4: have to have good players to be able to compete.
Speaker 4: That's the main thing. But behind that you have to
Speaker 4: have some level of stability and some continuity to what
Speaker 4: you're trying to do. And the announcement today that the
Speaker 4: Jazz have given Will Hardy this long extension that says
Speaker 4: we want him to be the guy leading us on
Speaker 4: the floor and giving us that kind of continuity and stability.
Speaker 4: He says a lot about what they think of Will
Speaker 4: and also what they think about how they're trying to
Speaker 4: conduct their business long term.
Speaker 2: All right, Smitty, you're ready to drop a trivia question.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do my read, and while I'm doing my read,
Speaker 2: I want you to come up with a good jazz
Speaker 2: draft related you got one.
Speaker 4: I got it, I got it in my head. I
Speaker 4: got you know, I got to think of if I
Speaker 4: get Yeah, I got I got it.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll do my read and then you dropped the question.
Speaker 2: It's time now for the ESPN Festival, a tas powered
Speaker 2: by the Utah Golf Association. Each day of spring, ESPN
Speaker 2: seven hundred is given away rounds of golf to the
Speaker 2: best courses in the state. Listening to The Down and
Speaker 2: Dirty with Scott Mitchell from ten to eleven, The Sean
Speaker 2: O'Connell Show from eleven to two, and of course this
Speaker 2: program which is called the Drive with Spence check its
Speaker 2: from two to six for your chance to win each
Speaker 2: day from ESPN seven hundred and the Utah Golf Association
Speaker 2: detail is gonna be found at ESPN seven hundred sports
Speaker 2: dot com. Now, Smitty, it's got to be a good
Speaker 2: one because we are sending a lucky listener to Davis Park,
Speaker 2: which is one of the most under the tracks that
Speaker 2: we have in the state.
Speaker 3: I love that court.
Speaker 4: Hopefully I'm going there Thursday if I can get on
Speaker 4: out a guy. That's one of my favorite places.
Speaker 2: Okay, So today's Richard Smith trivia question is what.
Speaker 4: Yes, I'm gonna I'm gonna throw this out actually for
Speaker 4: for our movie lovers as well and our Hollywood people. Okay,
Speaker 4: there's a famous, famous actor in Hollywood. His name is
Speaker 4: Jason Siegel. He's He's worked in a lot of TV shows,
Speaker 4: a lot of movies. I think a lot of our
Speaker 4: our listeners may know him as a very successful actor. Well,
Speaker 4: Jason Siegel, when he was in high school, played on
Speaker 4: the high school basketball team with a former jazz player.
Speaker 4: We want our fans to figure out who the jazz
Speaker 4: player is that Jason Siegel played with in high school.
Speaker 2: Spence Go that well, I can't say it into the microphone,
Speaker 2: and I'll be honest with you, I don't even know
Speaker 2: the answer. Usually you drop a trivia question, like last
Speaker 2: week it was the second rounders, I knew it was
Speaker 2: millsap and MO. I honestly don't know what the answer is.
Speaker 2: So you Internet's loose, get to it. Jason Siego played
Speaker 2: high school basketball with a former member of the Utah Jazz.
Speaker 3: First person who.
Speaker 2: Texts that into eight seven seven three five three zero
Speaker 2: seven hundred, We're going to send you to Davis Park,
Speaker 2: one of the best tracks that we have in the state.
Speaker 3: All right, we'll catch a break. We got two hours
Speaker 3: down on a Monday. We got two hours to go
Speaker 3: on a Monday.
Speaker 2: Coming up next, the NBA Draft lottery is one week
Speaker 2: from today. What's the emotion like in the front office
Speaker 2: when you have a lottery pick that could mean so much?
Speaker 3: We'll also do some playoffs.
Speaker 2: Round two starts tonight Richard Smith live in studio for
Speaker 2: another big segment. Cut up on the other side right
Speaker 2: here on a ESPN seven hundred. All right, not to
Speaker 2: give you the answer to the question, but the former
Speaker 2: jazz man who Jason Siegel played high school basketball with.
Speaker 2: It's actually up on his Wikipedia page, so you can
Speaker 2: find it a lot easier than I thought you could.
Speaker 3: Smitty, I got to say, let's get Smithy's.
Speaker 2: I got to say, the most surprising part of this
Speaker 2: little rabbit hole you sent me down is to learn
Speaker 2: that Jason Siegal won a slam dunk contest a senior
Speaker 2: in high school.
Speaker 4: Well, why why why are you giving like clues to
Speaker 4: people to go with find the answer? Like?
Speaker 3: This is many?
Speaker 4: I mean, this is like you know, like the high school,
Speaker 4: like the high school teachers us. Yeah, I just want
Speaker 4: to get these kids out of the clown want to
Speaker 4: get out of here. So yeah, give them, give them
Speaker 4: the answers.
Speaker 3: To the test and respectfully, sir. Uh.
Speaker 2: My guess is that a listener who probably has already
Speaker 2: been able to get the answer, simply googled Jason Siegel
Speaker 2: and went right to his Wikipedia page. I'm quite sure
Speaker 2: I did not wet some crazy clue out there. That
Speaker 2: would be my guest. Porter, Do we have a winner
Speaker 2: to go golf and Davis Park?
Speaker 3: We do? We do, okay, so then we can you
Speaker 3: can you can expand so.
Speaker 2: Then we can say that the high school the teammate
Speaker 2: of Jason Siegual was one Jason Collins.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, he played with Harvard Westlake, which is a
Speaker 4: very prestigious private high school in the southern California, LA area.
Speaker 4: And both Jason and Jared Collins went to Harvard Westlake
Speaker 4: and from there obviously got recruited both of them to
Speaker 4: go play at Stanford collegiately and then had they both
Speaker 4: had very extensive NBA careers, and Jason Siegel decided to
Speaker 4: fake left go right and ended up going south instead
Speaker 4: of going north to Stanford, went south to Hollywood and
Speaker 4: and and that was it.
Speaker 3: Do you know Sieagul was a good player at all.
Speaker 2: I mean, according to this Wikipedia page, those teams won
Speaker 2: state championships. But my guess is that's more about the
Speaker 2: Collins twins than it was about Jason.
Speaker 4: So I would I would say so, But I don't know.
Speaker 4: I don't know any of I just you know, I
Speaker 4: only know that because one time, in some conversation I
Speaker 4: was having with Jaren, it was just like some random
Speaker 4: thing that came out. I think somebody had mentioned something
Speaker 4: about a movie at a dinner one night when we
Speaker 4: were on the road, and and Jared Collins said, yeah,
Speaker 4: that's funny. He goes, you know, I gotta, I gotta
Speaker 4: call him and tell him that something. I can't remember
Speaker 4: what it was about. And somebody said, what do you mean,
Speaker 4: call him? He goes, you know, you know, I played
Speaker 4: in high school with him. What are you talking about?
Speaker 4: You played high school with him? Jason Siegel? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: he's I call him up right now. We said, get
Speaker 4: out of here, and he said, no, I'm serious. You
Speaker 4: played with us at Harvard Westlake. Okay, that's what I
Speaker 4: knew of it. I didn't know anything about a slam
Speaker 4: dunk contest. I'd heard that or something Jason, Jason or
Speaker 4: Jaron one of them was supposed to be in a
Speaker 4: slam dunk contest or something. And and they deferred and said, hey,
Speaker 4: let Jason do it, you know, let him do it whatever.
Speaker 4: Give him some give him some some props, you.
Speaker 2: Know, Okay, I just Jason Seagal has never struck me
Speaker 2: as like a great athlete, just like one of those
Speaker 2: big you know, loopy Ben handlogged and tattoos.
Speaker 4: Ben hand logged in.
Speaker 2: Shout out Ben hand lockdon right ha, shout out our
Speaker 2: guy Ben handlock out there.
Speaker 3: I want to see Jason siegeal dunk. I'm very curious
Speaker 3: about this.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: Anyway, we can move on Smitty one week from tonight,
Speaker 2: and I just found out this morning we will have
Speaker 2: the draft lock live on our radio station coming up
Speaker 2: next week five o'clock straight up. We will say good
Speaker 2: night a little bit early for our show so we
Speaker 2: can bring the draft lottery to you guys. And I
Speaker 2: can't remember a lottery as consequential for the Jazz as
Speaker 2: this one could potentially be. Uh. As a guy who
Speaker 2: scouted and was part of four rooms for decades, what's
Speaker 2: it like over there, Prepper, you know, as far as
Speaker 2: their preparation for next Monday.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, you know, they're preparing just for the
Speaker 4: draft in general. Sure, Obviously they have no control. This
Speaker 4: is one of those things we've talked about before, Spence,
Speaker 4: where the Jazz have certain things under their control that
Speaker 4: they can work at to try and get their team better,
Speaker 4: which is, you know, you know, how you draft who
Speaker 4: you draft. Obviously they've had several picks in the last
Speaker 4: couple of drafts in this the jury's still out. I think,
Speaker 4: I think, at least my own opinion on all of
Speaker 4: those guys, whether they're going to be you know, substantial
Speaker 4: NBA guys of any of any sol But you could
Speaker 4: control those things and how you do your scouting and
Speaker 4: how you do your evaluation. But then there are things
Speaker 4: that you don't control that just happened to you that
Speaker 4: could potentially fall in your lap that can help or
Speaker 4: hurt you know what you're trying to get done. And
Speaker 4: of course the draft lottery in a week is going
Speaker 4: to be one of those things that can help or
Speaker 4: delay what they're trying to do. If they get the
Speaker 4: first pick, which is they're going to go into it
Speaker 4: with a fourteen percent chance of getting that first pick,
Speaker 4: then they would most likely, as everybody would think, be
Speaker 4: looking hard or drafting the freshman out of Duke Cooper
Speaker 4: Flag who I think is going to be a very
Speaker 4: good pro. I think he's gonna be a very good player.
Speaker 4: He's going to remind people when he comes in the
Speaker 4: league whoever he plays for of a to me some
Speaker 4: kind of a combination of Gordon Hayward slash Larry Bird
Speaker 4: type skills because he passes the ball, he's a team player,
Speaker 4: he's smart, he gets he plays both ends, of the floor.
Speaker 4: He's not the shooter uh that that Larry Bird is.
Speaker 4: You know, I think he might be a little bit
Speaker 4: better defender, maybe uh than both Larry Bird and Gordon
Speaker 4: Hayward early in their careers because he's a very competitive guy.
Speaker 4: He's a tough guy. He also has some ability to
Speaker 4: actually uh be a rim protector at his size at
Speaker 4: six nine, he has a very good instincts as a
Speaker 4: help defender. And so he's He's a guy they're gonna
Speaker 4: be looking hard at whoever whoever gets the number one pick,
Speaker 4: And I think, I really think there's there's a there's
Speaker 4: an argument to be made between him and uh and
Speaker 4: the Dylan Harper kid out of Rutgers, who who I
Speaker 4: think is gonna be a terrific uh n b a
Speaker 4: point guard because he has the size at six five
Speaker 4: sixty six, he has the mentality, he has the toughness.
Speaker 4: He's a great pick and roll guy. He's a very
Speaker 4: good free throw shooter. He doesn't mind getting in the lane,
Speaker 4: taking hits, getting back to the floor, get up, go
Speaker 4: to the free throw line, knock him down. He's got
Speaker 4: some toughness to his game. So I like both of
Speaker 4: those guys if the Jazz end up with the first
Speaker 4: or second pick, it's gonna be interesting.
Speaker 2: Nine times in the draft lottery for the Jazz, which
Speaker 2: is stunning if you think about it. Fifty years of
Speaker 2: jazz basketball, nine lottery appearances. Of course, the lottery as
Speaker 2: we know it started in eighty four with my guy.
Speaker 3: Patrick Ewing Lady in New York.
Speaker 2: Sacramento has been in it twenty seven times, Golden State
Speaker 2: twenty three times, Charlotte twenty three times, Philly nineteen times,
Speaker 2: the Lakers fourteen times.
Speaker 3: Nine times is pretty stunny.
Speaker 2: I mean that goes to what we were talking about earlier,
Speaker 2: how quickly you guys were always able to pick.
Speaker 3: Didn't get back to being.
Speaker 4: Good well the Jazz over the years during the Miller ownership.
Speaker 4: Obviously they had great teams with Stockton Malone, who a
Speaker 4: lot of people you know about their Hall of Fame careers,
Speaker 4: but a lot of people aren't aware of the fact
Speaker 4: that the reason they were good for so long is
Speaker 4: that for thirteen of the eighteen years that stocked In
Speaker 4: the Malone played together, neither guy missed the game.
Speaker 3: So they say that into that microphone.
Speaker 4: Well, this is the thing, Spence. At that time, we
Speaker 4: used to play eight preseason games. They would always play
Speaker 4: in all of the games because they wanted to play
Speaker 4: and get ready for the season. Jerry wanted them to
Speaker 4: play to make sure everybody, everybody around them, you know,
Speaker 4: knew how to play with them and all that kind
Speaker 4: of stuff. So they would play eight preseason games. They
Speaker 4: would then play eighty two regular season games. They get
Speaker 4: them up to ninety and then they were always in
Speaker 4: the playoffs. So every year spenced for thirteen of the
Speaker 4: eighteen years they played together, both John Stockton and Carl
Speaker 4: Malone played in the neighborhood of one hundred games every year,
Speaker 4: and then next year they played in one hundred games again,
Speaker 4: and then the next year they played in one hundred,
Speaker 4: and then the next year, and then the next year,
Speaker 4: and so Jazz fans became spoiled by that, obviously, because
Speaker 4: those guys never got hurt. You know. John's one injury
Speaker 4: had during his entire nineteen year career was his was
Speaker 4: his knee in ninety eight in the early season ninety eight,
Speaker 4: where he missed sixteen games, and uh and Carl Malone
Speaker 4: during his eighteen years with the Jazz, missed a total
Speaker 4: of twelve games and the thing that a lot of
Speaker 4: fans don't know, Spencers. Of those twelve games he missed,
Speaker 4: eight of them were because of league suspension. They weren't
Speaker 4: because of injury. They were because he knocked down Isaiah
Speaker 4: Thomas Silbo, this guy and whatever, and got got got
Speaker 4: whacked a game of two here and there, you know.
Speaker 4: But but Carl missed four games because of injury or
Speaker 4: illness in eighteen years. And it was funny because during
Speaker 4: that time it was almost like they were competing against
Speaker 4: each other to see who could be the most durable, Like, well,
Speaker 4: he's he's he's got the flu, right is he? Is
Speaker 4: he playing tonight? Yeah, well then I'm playing. I'm not. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna let him. I'm not gonna let him
Speaker 4: get ahead of me. Kind yeah yeah yeah. And so
Speaker 4: then you had the changeover when they left in three
Speaker 4: oh four, And then you had the quick turnaround in
Speaker 4: the summer where where Kevin O'Connor was able to convince
Speaker 4: both Carlos Boozer and the metocor Uh to come to Utah,
Speaker 4: and and and and a quick turnaround. Then the following
Speaker 4: year draft Darren Williams moving up from the sixth pick
Speaker 4: to the to the third pick and and then have
Speaker 4: a quick turnaround with Andre Kerlenko and Ronnie Brewer and
Speaker 4: had a very competitive team then. And then and of
Speaker 4: course the re the turnaround when those guys were gone
Speaker 4: with Dennis Lindsay and drafting Donovan Mitchell at thirteen and
Speaker 4: making the trade with Denver and drafting Rudy Gobert of
Speaker 4: course at twenty seven and buying that pick also from Denver.
Speaker 4: You know, that's always a thing that's interested me. Spence's
Speaker 4: with all the success Denver had with Tim Connolly at
Speaker 4: the Helm in Denver in the twenty tens, they would
Speaker 4: have the exact same team that they have now. The
Speaker 4: guys they drafted, they drafted Jokics, they drafted Maury, they
Speaker 4: drafted Porter. They could also have go Bear and Mitchell
Speaker 4: on those teams. All they had to do was draft
Speaker 4: them or evaluate it the same way as the Jazz did.
Speaker 4: They didn't, you know, but those are guys that they
Speaker 4: could have had just by picking them when they had
Speaker 4: their picks come up. And that just illustrates how how
Speaker 4: fluid the draft can be and how different teams evaluate
Speaker 4: and look at players. When you get into that situation
Speaker 4: where you have to make a decision between A and B.
Speaker 4: It becomes it becomes very interesting.
Speaker 2: Jazz have moved down three times, They've never moved up
Speaker 2: and they've stood Pat I misspoke earlier. This will actually
Speaker 2: be the tenth Lottery appearance for the Jazz, So they've
Speaker 2: moved down three times. They moved down last year where
Speaker 2: they had the eighth best odds and they picked tenth.
Speaker 2: They took Cody Williams. Year before that, they stayed nine,
Speaker 2: they took Taylor Hendricks. Going all the way back to
Speaker 2: two thousand and four, Chris Humphreys was the pick at fourteen.
Speaker 2: Martel Webster technically the pick in two thousand and five,
Speaker 2: but that was the deal you guys made for Darren.
Speaker 2: Yeah right, yeah, yeah, so you moved up to three
Speaker 2: to take d will let me ask you while we're
Speaker 2: in that space, how early in that process were you
Speaker 2: guys on Darren Because for our listeners that may not remember,
Speaker 2: that was the Chris Paul Darren Williams debate, right, and like,
Speaker 2: how early in the process did you guys identify we
Speaker 2: want do you will?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 4: It was, you know, it was a debate because also
Speaker 4: in that Mixpense was Raymond Felton. So we had so
Speaker 4: the the top point guards in college at the time
Speaker 4: were considered Darren Williams from Illinois, Chris Paul from Wake Forest,
Speaker 4: and Raymond Felton from North Carolina. And and so it
Speaker 4: was it was a race to the finish line, if
Speaker 4: you will, between those those three guys as to who
Speaker 4: who teams thought might be the better pro who teams
Speaker 4: liked and you know, and you know, in different regard,
Speaker 4: you know, d Will he wasn't the so called slam
Speaker 4: dunk pick. It wasn't him. All the time. There was
Speaker 4: a lot of internal debate, a lot of discussion about
Speaker 4: the different you know, pros and cons of those guys.
Speaker 4: I would say that Raymond Felton was a little bit
Speaker 4: behind Chris Paul and d Will in terms of the
Speaker 4: heart horse race to the finish line, so to speak.
Speaker 4: And at the end of the day, the Jazz made
Speaker 4: the decision they liked d Will's size a little bit better. Uh,
Speaker 4: they liked his you know, maybe his toughness a little
Speaker 4: bit better, you know, and and uh, you know, hey,
Speaker 4: you can argue it either way. Now, you know, Chris
Speaker 4: Paul is still playing and has had a hall of
Speaker 4: Fame career. Obviously, Darren Williams, you know, the first four
Speaker 4: years or five years where he was with the Jazz
Speaker 4: or something, our teams played Chris Paul's teams. I think
Speaker 4: the Will was like seven and two against Chris Paul
Speaker 4: or something or whatever. But a lot of that has
Speaker 4: to do with the team you're on as well. But
Speaker 4: and and and Darren Williams is also part of two
Speaker 4: Olympic teams that won gold and and so you know,
Speaker 4: people forget how good of a player he was early
Speaker 4: in his career with the Jazz, you know, but you
Speaker 4: could argue Chris Paul, yep, he's had that career, and
Speaker 4: and he was, you know, would be a jazz type
Speaker 4: of guy. And uh. At the end of the day,
Speaker 4: I think it was just decided that, you know, we
Speaker 4: like the idea of a little bit of a bigger guy,
Speaker 4: a little bit more size, uh, that that we could
Speaker 4: put on the floor. And that's that's how that that
Speaker 4: decision went down.
Speaker 3: Who did you want?
Speaker 4: I'll be honest, I was really mixed with those guys.
Speaker 4: I you know, I could see the argument for both
Speaker 4: of them. I I like the d will size thing
Speaker 4: a little bit. You know, Chris Chris Paul is six
Speaker 4: feet you know, and and but he showed some toughness
Speaker 4: when I saw him playing college at wake Forth. He
Speaker 4: had a couple of games where where they got into
Speaker 4: a little skirmish on the floor and he was right
Speaker 4: in the middle of it and wasn't backing down from anybody.
Speaker 4: So you could see that he had some internal toughness
Speaker 4: that that, you know, would would serve him well. Uh,
Speaker 4: but you know, looking back on it, I would have
Speaker 4: never said, well, one guy's going to finish his career
Speaker 4: and then the other guy is gonna play five, six,
Speaker 4: seven years after that guy. I would have never said
Speaker 4: that either way, because you can never know how those
Speaker 4: things are going to play out. But uh, but it
Speaker 4: was it was a I would say it was. The
Speaker 4: room was very mixed, and it was very uh you know,
Speaker 4: it wasn't like lopsided, like we got to have this
Speaker 4: guy and whatever and table pounding and all that kind
Speaker 4: of stuff. And you know, and I think Jerry, I
Speaker 4: think Jerry liked the idea of the of the size
Speaker 4: a little bit too in the lineup, you know.
Speaker 2: So that's actually what I wanted to ask you because
Speaker 2: I had always heard and look, I just Chris Paul
Speaker 2: has always been my guy, you know, so like I
Speaker 2: think two thousand and five may have been my first
Speaker 2: year on air full time, and so I can remember
Speaker 2: Draft night without any knowledge of what you guys were
Speaker 2: going to do. When I saw that you had traded up,
Speaker 2: I stood up off my couch and I said, Chris
Speaker 2: Paul is going to be a jazz man. And I
Speaker 2: was so pumped for that possibility. But you had heard
Speaker 2: over the years that it was Jerry. And look, I
Speaker 2: know you guys all collaborated and Kevin was that type
Speaker 2: of leader. So I'm not saying it was a monolith,
Speaker 2: but how much truth was is the is the old
Speaker 2: adage that Jerry is the one, and it said, I
Speaker 2: like the bigger guard, I want to go with Darren.
Speaker 4: Well, well, I think that's what he felt like, you know.
Speaker 4: But Jerry. This was one of the great things about
Speaker 4: working with Jerry Sloan all the years that I was
Speaker 4: fortunate enough to do this. He was great during the
Speaker 4: draft in that he would watch film of guys, he
Speaker 4: would come into our group meetings, he would be prepared
Speaker 4: to offer his, you know, his take on what he
Speaker 4: saw and what he thought on film. But he was
Speaker 4: always Spence the first guy to stand up and say, look,
Speaker 4: I have an opinion I think this about you know,
Speaker 4: play or so and so. But you guys, meaning the
Speaker 4: scouts and the guys who go out and research it
Speaker 4: all year and see him in person and do all that.
Speaker 4: You guys work at it much harder than I do.
Speaker 4: And you guys have studied it much longer than I have,
Speaker 4: and you have a better feel for it. So I
Speaker 4: will give you my opinion about this, but I am
Speaker 4: not going to, you know, try and override anybody's opinion.
Speaker 4: You guys have do it, you know for your day
Speaker 4: to day business. You know, I'm gonna end up going
Speaker 4: with what you guys think because and that was one
Speaker 4: of Jerry's great attributes was that whatever job you had, Spence,
Speaker 4: whether you were you know, the front office scouting personnel guys,
Speaker 4: whether you were one of the guys who worked for
Speaker 4: the public relations group, whether you worked for the marketing group,
Speaker 4: whether you worked in the in the ticketing office, whatever
Speaker 4: your job was, that happened to intersect with what Jerry's.
Speaker 4: Jerry's responsibilities were as a head coach. He was always
Speaker 4: the best I've ever been around it, saying, hey, I
Speaker 4: could override this decision to you know, make some public
Speaker 4: appearance for the team on a Tuesday afternoon or whatever.
Speaker 4: It's no, we're not going. But Jerry would say, well,
Speaker 4: Patty Patty Bally r pr P, Yeah, community relations person
Speaker 4: for a long time. Patty says, we have this thing
Speaker 4: tomorrow at three. So we have the thing tomorrow at three.
Speaker 4: And you know, some players might go, oh, you know,
Speaker 4: I don't want to go, or I got something, and
Speaker 4: he would say, hey, I don't know what to tell you.
Speaker 4: Patty said, we got to be there at three, so
Speaker 4: we'd be there at three. And that's why everybody loved
Speaker 4: working with him because everybody, no matter what your responsibility was,
Speaker 4: everybody knew that Jerry had your back because he understood
Speaker 4: the time and the effort that you put into doing
Speaker 4: your job to the best of your ability. So you know,
Speaker 4: and likewise, when it came to the draft, you know,
Speaker 4: he would have an opinion, but he would always finish
Speaker 4: it by saying, but you guys know it better than me,
Speaker 4: so whatever you guys think.
Speaker 2: So ultimately final call back than made by Kevin. I
Speaker 2: would imagine Kevin was the guy yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was Kevin. You know, it would be Kevin.
Speaker 4: And you know, if there was any kind of you know,
Speaker 4: pulling tug or you know, uh, you know, nose line
Speaker 4: at the finish, you know, Jerry and and Kevin would
Speaker 4: would hash it out and they just you know, and
Speaker 4: and but I'm telling you, I can't remember a time
Speaker 4: when Jerry ever said, you know, hey, this is the guy,
Speaker 4: come on, what are we talking about. He always would
Speaker 4: say at the end, well, Kevin, you guys, you guys know,
Speaker 4: so you guys decide whatever. Because Jerry felt, you know,
Speaker 4: very comfortable saying that because he also felt like at
Speaker 4: the same time, so I hope you will reciprocate. When
Speaker 4: I'm the coach, don't tell me I'm making a decision
Speaker 4: in the fourth quarter of the game, right. I don't
Speaker 4: want to hear after the game that you're second guessing
Speaker 4: me or you know, saying well you should have done
Speaker 4: this or that. I mean, that was never said, but
Speaker 4: it was always understood that Jerry's giving you your space
Speaker 4: and he's allowing you to do your job, and he's
Speaker 4: with you in that regard, and he hopes that you reciprocate,
Speaker 4: you know, with the same kind of the same kind
Speaker 4: of support, you know, for him and the job he
Speaker 4: was trying to do.
Speaker 2: See, I find this to be really fascinating and I
Speaker 2: don't know how it works currently over there. Will Hardy
Speaker 2: was asked during his post season media availability, how involved
Speaker 2: are you during the draft process, and Will said, I'm
Speaker 2: very involved. He will be in Chicago for the draft lottery.
Speaker 2: But I believe I'm a firm believer. I've already I've
Speaker 2: always been a firm believer in just front offices that
Speaker 2: I've had a chance to be around, that it is
Speaker 2: important to have one final voice who does make the call.
Speaker 2: I do think the best roster constructors have a team
Speaker 2: of people around them who they talk to and they
Speaker 2: take input from. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: you've got to have one guy who's brave enough to say, no,
Speaker 2: this is my call, even if he doesn't necessarily agree,
Speaker 2: and that can bring mixed results. And you know the
Speaker 2: way that Ernie Grunfeld and Pat Ryan worked together, you know,
Speaker 2: Pat was very much a part of it, but he
Speaker 2: allowed Ernie to make the call. And then it was
Speaker 2: the same thing with Grunfeld and Van Gundy until it
Speaker 2: wasn't And those two got loose, and this decision had
Speaker 2: to be made. I've told you before. I can remember
Speaker 2: being in the war room when Ed Tapscott went rogue
Speaker 2: and just drafted Frederick Weiss, when most of the nick
Speaker 2: Scouts wanted run our test.
Speaker 3: What is the best way for that to work?
Speaker 2: Because I think it's probably fair to say if there's
Speaker 2: one voice that makes the call over there, my guess
Speaker 2: is that it's Danny's. It's never a good idea for
Speaker 2: the ownership group to have the voice. I don't know
Speaker 2: if Ryan wants to be the guy that actually makes
Speaker 2: the call. If it is, I think that's horrible news.
Speaker 2: My guess is that the voice is Danny's. That's my guess.
Speaker 2: But there's justin Zanik, there's Will Hardy. Any thoughts on
Speaker 2: the synergies over there?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 4: No, I'm not there, Spencer, I have no idea. I
Speaker 4: would assume that that's why Ryan Smith brought in Danny
Speaker 4: Ainge and who's been in the NBA at all levels
Speaker 4: and has made his his life's work. And and you
Speaker 4: bring a guy like that in who had retired, who
Speaker 4: was living his retirement life and in in Utah County,
Speaker 4: and and uh, just trying to have a quiet life,
Speaker 4: and Ryan Smith went and got him and convinced him to,
Speaker 4: uh to take up this this project with the Jazz
Speaker 4: And so I would make it just a guess that
Speaker 4: you know that he's relying on Danny Aingel's you know,
Speaker 4: ability and and instincts and and uh knowledge and all
Speaker 4: that stuff of the league to be the final decision
Speaker 4: maker on between A and B. You know, with our
Speaker 4: groups that I was part of all the time, Uh,
Speaker 4: it was always the the the the person who sat
Speaker 4: in that decision making seat, whether it was Scott Laden
Speaker 4: or whether it was Kevin O'Connor, whether it was Dennis Lindsay.
Speaker 4: You know, they were the guys who had the control
Speaker 4: of that. And they were all very collaborative guys. They
Speaker 4: listened to everybody in the room. They gave everybody a
Speaker 4: chance to have their voice heard. You know, they would
Speaker 4: you know, and you know we even had a couple instances.
Speaker 4: You know, I can remember where we're Kevin o'conna made
Speaker 4: decisions on some stuff that he didn't tell anybody about,
Speaker 4: and then after the fact, you know, we would say, hey,
Speaker 4: you know a week later, a month later or whatever, Hey,
Speaker 4: what was that thing about that what was that deal?
Speaker 4: And he would say, hey, I had to I had
Speaker 4: to make a decision. But I didn't want to implicate
Speaker 4: any of you guys, because if it didn't work out,
Speaker 4: I felt like, that's not fair to you. I'm the
Speaker 4: guy in the hot seat, so I deserve to get
Speaker 4: all the blame, you know, or all have all the
Speaker 4: slings and arrows you know, aimed at me if if
Speaker 4: it didn't work out. So I didn't want to tell
Speaker 4: you guys that we were going to do that because
Speaker 4: I didn't want you to be part of that process,
Speaker 4: because that's that's my job to have to deal with that.
Speaker 4: And so you know, and again, those are the kind
Speaker 4: of guys you want to work with, because those of
Speaker 4: the guys who who have your back and and respect
Speaker 4: what you bring to the process, and how hard it
Speaker 4: is to make those kinds of decisions.
Speaker 2: All right, before I set you loose, Nobody is giving
Speaker 2: the next a chance. Nobody believes the next have a
Speaker 2: chance to be the Celtics four times and seven tries.
Speaker 3: Neither do I. Neither do I.
Speaker 2: All Right, So New York goes out and they make
Speaker 2: the move for og and on Obi. They sacrifice their
Speaker 2: draft capital for mckill Bridges, two big wing defenders that,
Speaker 2: in theory, can at least provide some pushback for Tatum
Speaker 2: and Brown. Where I think this is just untenable for
Speaker 2: New York is Drew Holliday, Derek White on on Jalen
Speaker 2: because look at Tom Thibodeau has forgotten more about basketball
Speaker 2: than I ever know. But when I watch the Knicks offensively,
Speaker 2: there are so many possessions where it's one four flatter
Speaker 2: isolation and Jalen has to do it all, and he's
Speaker 2: so good at times he's able to pull it off.
Speaker 2: But four times and seven tries again and too, I
Speaker 2: think the best team in basketball is round two starts tonight.
Speaker 2: Do the Knicks have a Mike Tyson uppercut chance four
Speaker 2: times and seven trys?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well you always have a chance, So you know,
Speaker 4: look that everybody, everybody's starting with a clean slate. You
Speaker 4: don't know somebody's gonna have a buddy healed night and
Speaker 4: go off for you know, thirty three points off the bench,
Speaker 4: or somebody's gonna Jason Tatum is gonna twist his ankle
Speaker 4: in Game two and he's gonna miss several games. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean, you have to play it out. I think
Speaker 4: the knicks, you know, made the right moves and getting
Speaker 4: guys like you just mentioned, and and then you'll be
Speaker 4: in bridges because if you have a chance to get
Speaker 4: those kind of guys and you have a chance to
Speaker 4: be competitive with whoever the other teams are, then then
Speaker 4: you have to take that that opportunity. That's what you're
Speaker 4: in the business for. You're in the business to compete.
Speaker 4: You're in there to try and give it your best shot.
Speaker 4: Maybe it's not good enough, but you take it and
Speaker 4: and you go you go to to the jump ball
Speaker 4: and you see what we got tonight. And then if
Speaker 4: it doesn't work tonight, then we make some adjustments and
Speaker 4: we go to the next game and so forth. But
Speaker 4: that's what it's all about, man. And so you know,
Speaker 4: I think they have a chance. I don't know what
Speaker 4: that will look like, you know, but again, you're gonna
Speaker 4: have to have the best version of the guys you have,
Speaker 4: you know, for a vast majority of each game in
Speaker 4: order to have a chance. But that's you know, as
Speaker 4: they say, Spence, that's why they play the games.
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, great to see you.
Speaker 2: Are you in town for the foreseeable future, or you
Speaker 2: on some anxiety.
Speaker 4: Look, I'm gonna I'm gonna be on pins and needles
Speaker 4: a week from today to see what happens with the
Speaker 4: with the draft lottery. I'm gonna be I'm gonna be
Speaker 4: sitting in my lucky seat and have all my fingers
Speaker 4: and toes crossed and do whatever and and uh, and
Speaker 4: we'll see how that all plays out.
Speaker 2: All right, my friend, Well, great to see you as always.
Speaker 2: We'll see next week we get man, all right, The
Speaker 2: Great Richard Smith