Latest / The Craig Way Show / Spurs broadcaster Bill Schoening previews 2024 NBA season with Craig Way
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Bill Schoening also when high school could throw that speedball
- 0:02Speaker 1: past you too, when he wasn't playing first base, big
- 0:06Speaker 1: left handed hitting first baseman now was Yes, and now
- 0:10Speaker 1: his voice of the San Antonio Spurs. He's here to
- 0:13Speaker 1: tell you on the eve of their opener, how the
- 0:16Speaker 1: man from France is going to get it done this year. Yes,
- 0:20Speaker 1: he's going to tell us all about City Sissoko.
- 0:22Speaker 2: Right. Well, Ceed, he actually had a pretty good game
- 0:25Speaker 2: last preseason game. But CEEDI is not the freshman that we're.
- 0:27Speaker 3: Going to talk about. I would have matched.
- 0:28Speaker 2: It's probably Victor Webbinyam the last year. He's an Adam's
- 0:31Speaker 2: choice for the Rookie of the Year. You know, it's
- 0:33Speaker 2: opening night, Craig, and I know how you feel about
- 0:35Speaker 2: opening night in football.
- 0:36Speaker 3: Basketball, baseball season.
- 0:38Speaker 2: It's you know, the most wonderful time of the year
- 0:40Speaker 2: is Christmas, right, but this is right up there with it.
- 0:42Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt about it, all right, So apropos of
- 0:46Speaker 1: getting everybody caught up with you.
- 0:47Speaker 4: You know, you remember when when you were when you.
- 0:50Speaker 1: Were going to a private Catholic school in Philadelphia, and
- 0:53Speaker 1: Sister Benedictas was you know, was making you making sure.
- 1:00Speaker 4: That which he was, which he was the leading thing there. Uh.
- 1:03Speaker 1: The when we were in school and you were up
- 1:07Speaker 1: the growing up in Philadelphia and I was in North Carolina.
- 1:10Speaker 1: We had those compositions we had to write, uh what
- 1:13Speaker 1: I did on my summer vacation? So, so what did
- 1:16Speaker 1: you do with your summer vacation? Because you get your
- 1:18Speaker 1: entire summer off and in the case of the spurs
- 1:22Speaker 1: of late most of the spring as well.
- 1:24Speaker 4: So I mean, you know, what, what all? What all
- 1:27Speaker 4: did you do this year?
- 1:28Speaker 2: Well, first of all, there was a six month off
- 1:30Speaker 2: season this year, Craig, So I am the opposite of you.
- 1:32Speaker 3: You are the hardest working man of shopen this.
- 1:34Speaker 2: I am the opposite. Okay, but I am back at
- 1:36Speaker 2: work today. I am we we aim tonight. I did
- 1:40Speaker 2: a lot of things this offseason. I did some college
- 1:42Speaker 2: baseball uts A and also Texas State.
- 1:45Speaker 1: Uh.
- 1:45Speaker 3: And then I did a lot of travel starting in June.
- 1:47Speaker 3: So we went to Canada. Have you been to Lake
- 1:49Speaker 3: Louise and Alberta?
- 1:51Speaker 1: No, but everybody, my son Andy just just went there
- 1:54Speaker 1: and said it was wonderful.
- 1:56Speaker 3: Beautiful, beautiful. Yeah, you need to take Lynd up there
- 1:58Speaker 3: at some point in time.
- 1:59Speaker 2: But traveled, you know, did the East coast thing, So
- 2:02Speaker 2: went all over the place, really hit national parks on
- 2:04Speaker 2: up upstate New York or upstate Washington rather and saw
- 2:08Speaker 2: your old friend Dave Cody from KYD.
- 2:11Speaker 3: He's living up there in Bellingham, Washington.
- 2:13Speaker 2: Now, so I got to see him get caught up
- 2:15Speaker 2: and then get ready for the season, you know. So
- 2:17Speaker 2: obviously now we've had the five preseason games and the
- 2:20Speaker 2: regular season openers today.
- 2:21Speaker 1: Okay, before we get to Victor h I gotta ask
- 2:26Speaker 1: you because I saw the graphic this morning.
- 2:28Speaker 4: I'm sure you're well aware of it.
- 2:30Speaker 1: They had this, They had this extensive graphic that shows
- 2:34Speaker 1: what NBA teams were at where they were record wise percentage,
- 2:42Speaker 1: things like that the season before Chris Paul arrived on
- 2:45Speaker 1: their roster, and then the exponential winning percentage and all
- 2:50Speaker 1: that sort of stuff going up. Now, obviously Chris is
- 2:53Speaker 1: a little longer in the tooth. Nevertheless, the numbers don't lie.
- 2:57Speaker 1: So what's it been like with him being a part
- 3:00Speaker 1: of this group and the vibe you get from him
- 3:03Speaker 1: and how he affects the team and how he's folded
- 3:06Speaker 1: into the team.
- 3:07Speaker 3: Well, first of all, he's really a NonStop talker. He's amazing.
- 3:11Speaker 3: He just yap, yap, yap all the time, all the time,
- 3:14Speaker 3: talking to his teammates.
- 3:15Speaker 2: And he says that the number one thing about defense
- 3:17Speaker 2: is communication. So when he is out on the floor
- 3:20Speaker 2: of practicing, shoot around all the time talking talking to
- 3:23Speaker 2: him to his teammates, and Pop loves that. And of
- 3:25Speaker 2: course pops out an opening night or on media day
- 3:28Speaker 2: that he despised Chris Paul for nineteen years and now
- 3:32Speaker 2: he's going to get to work with him.
- 3:33Speaker 3: And I think one of the reasons.
- 3:34Speaker 2: Why he brought him in was to have a coach
- 3:35Speaker 2: on the floor and have these young guys learn from
- 3:38Speaker 2: a guy like that. Also, Harrison Barnes is another veteran
- 3:40Speaker 2: player that the Spurs required during the offseason, and he's
- 3:42Speaker 2: a real steady player of course, the former Maverick. So
- 3:44Speaker 2: I think those two veteran players will help these young
- 3:47Speaker 2: guys along. You mentioned Victor wember Yama, he of course
- 3:50Speaker 2: is the centerpiece, but they've got some other really good
- 3:52Speaker 2: young players. And I'm really impressed Craig with Steph Castle,
- 3:55Speaker 2: the rookie from the Yukon He was the fourth pick
- 3:57Speaker 2: in the draft. Really solid defensive player real sick. He's
- 4:00Speaker 2: about six y five. He's listed to two ten. I
- 4:03Speaker 2: think he's about two fifteen to twenty really, and he's
- 4:05Speaker 2: very aggressive offensively.
- 4:06Speaker 3: He's been to the free throw line.
- 4:07Speaker 2: I think during the preseason five games he got to
- 4:09Speaker 2: the line twenty four times and very very aggressive. And
- 4:13Speaker 2: I think the more and more we see him, the
- 4:15Speaker 2: more and more comfortable he's going to get.
- 4:16Speaker 3: I think he's really going to contribute this season.
- 4:18Speaker 4: Wow.
- 4:19Speaker 1: By the way, did Chris Paul try to sell anybody
- 4:21Speaker 1: on State Farms bungling their price their price bundle thing
- 4:25Speaker 1: or something like that on your No, I.
- 4:26Speaker 3: Haven't seen anybody from State Farm the whole time I've
- 4:28Speaker 3: been here.
- 4:29Speaker 4: You know.
- 4:29Speaker 1: Yeah, we're buddy, Yeah, where's our man? Where's Jake from
- 4:32Speaker 1: State Farm? Anyway? All right, we're visiting with Bill Shone
- 4:35Speaker 1: talking about this how I don't know if different is
- 4:38Speaker 1: the right word.
- 4:39Speaker 4: Evolved maybe is a better word.
- 4:42Speaker 1: How how much evolution has this Spurs roster and team
- 4:48Speaker 1: undergone since last season?
- 4:50Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's a whole different year. You know,
- 4:52Speaker 2: last year was Victor's first year. They were kind of
- 4:55Speaker 2: unsettled in the beginning of the year. They tried some
- 4:57Speaker 2: different things in the beginning, and now they're much more sat.
- 5:00Speaker 3: They have a whole year under their.
- 5:01Speaker 2: Belt, not just Victor but some of the other young guys,
- 5:03Speaker 2: and this offseason was.
- 5:04Speaker 3: Very, very important for them.
- 5:05Speaker 2: They had open gym throughout the entire summer and then
- 5:08Speaker 2: a lot of guys participated in that. The coaches were
- 5:10Speaker 2: involved as well. That the shooting coach, Jimmy Barron, worked
- 5:14Speaker 2: with a lot of guys during the offseason, so they've
- 5:16Speaker 2: been working really hard. I think that's one of the
- 5:17Speaker 2: reasons why there's certain optimism, especially from Victor, because he
- 5:21Speaker 2: saw not only himself putting in the work for all
- 5:23Speaker 2: of his teammates as well this summer.
- 5:24Speaker 1: By the way, Cameron Parker, producer, you know as our
- 5:27Speaker 1: resident NBA Honk he is as an he's an NBA savant,
- 5:31Speaker 1: So I invited him invited in the joining the conversation here.
- 5:36Speaker 4: Good to see you, Bill, I'm good to hear from you.
- 5:38Speaker 5: As Wenby begins his second season, what do you think
- 5:43Speaker 5: realistically can be his ceiling this year?
- 5:46Speaker 2: You know, last year he averaged twenty one and a
- 5:48Speaker 2: half points in ten rebounds and three and a half blocks,
- 5:51Speaker 2: which were obviously very very good numbers. You would expect
- 5:53Speaker 2: those numbers to increase, but also he's got more help
- 5:56Speaker 2: this year, so there might be more people helping him
- 5:58Speaker 2: out offensively, especially the Spurs really need to improve Cameron
- 6:01Speaker 2: this year in three point shooting. They did not shoot
- 6:04Speaker 2: the ball very well from three point range last year,
- 6:05Speaker 2: so that'll be very very important offensively. Defensively, I think
- 6:09Speaker 2: the step they need to take is get better at
- 6:10Speaker 2: field goal percentage defense. There were in the bottom third
- 6:13Speaker 2: and points allowed and field goal percentage defense, so they've
- 6:15Speaker 2: got to take that step defensively. I think Chris Paul
- 6:17Speaker 2: helps in that regard because of his communication skills.
- 6:20Speaker 3: And of course he's got Wemby back there.
- 6:21Speaker 2: But as I just mentioned to Craig Steph Castle, he's
- 6:24Speaker 2: not gonna start, he's going to come off the bench,
- 6:25Speaker 2: but he's really a good defensive player. They got another
- 6:28Speaker 2: young guard his third year from Notre Dame who's taking
- 6:30Speaker 2: some positive steps this season.
- 6:31Speaker 3: That's Blake Wesley.
- 6:32Speaker 2: He's lightning quick, more of a defensive player than an
- 6:34Speaker 2: offensive player, but he's learned how to discribute the ball.
- 6:37Speaker 2: Things have slowed down for him quite a bit, so
- 6:38Speaker 2: I would expect Blake Wesley maybe to work his way
- 6:41Speaker 2: into the mix and that second team on especially when
- 6:44Speaker 2: they try to mix it up defensively and try to
- 6:46Speaker 2: force some turnovers.
- 6:47Speaker 1: Jeremy Sohan, the former Baylor Bear with the multi colored hair.
- 6:51Speaker 1: They had to rely on it. He got a lot
- 6:53Speaker 1: of minutes last year. Does his role change now with
- 6:56Speaker 1: this roster being remade.
- 6:59Speaker 3: I think he's basically the power forward on this team.
- 7:01Speaker 2: Craig, He's going to be relied on to provide energy, defense,
- 7:05Speaker 2: run the floor. He's a really pesty defensive player. I
- 7:08Speaker 2: think he can improve in that area, and I think
- 7:10Speaker 2: he's gonna get better. But he's still young. He's twenty
- 7:12Speaker 2: one years of age. You mentioned the fact that he
- 7:14Speaker 2: played at bail Or. He played at Baylor one year,
- 7:16Speaker 2: so they draft him knowing that his upside was going
- 7:19Speaker 2: to be down the line, and I think he's starting
- 7:20Speaker 2: to come into his own a little bit, very aggressive player.
- 7:23Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, one year, and he he took it to
- 7:25Speaker 1: Texas both times that he played in the games.
- 7:28Speaker 4: In those as.
- 7:29Speaker 1: We visit with Bill Bill Schoening here. Now, Bill, if
- 7:34Speaker 1: if you were to name someone who whom you have
- 7:40Speaker 1: not yet named, that you think has a chance either
- 7:43Speaker 1: to have a breakout season or the folks just don't
- 7:45Speaker 1: know that much about and they're going to learn quite
- 7:47Speaker 1: a bit about this guy during the year.
- 7:48Speaker 4: Who might that be.
- 7:50Speaker 2: Julian Champenni is the guy that I would pick right now.
- 7:53Speaker 2: He's the starting shooting guard. He'll probably be back to
- 7:56Speaker 2: the bench once Devinvesselle gets helfy. Devin Misseell had offseason
- 8:00Speaker 2: foot surgery and he is almost ready. He's gonna be
- 8:03Speaker 2: re evaluated November first. I think they're anticipating him being
- 8:06Speaker 2: ready to go right after that, but he's not going
- 8:08Speaker 2: to start the season. So Champagney shot forty two percent
- 8:11Speaker 2: from three point range during the preseason. He looked very,
- 8:13Speaker 2: very comfortable. He's one of those guys who put a
- 8:15Speaker 2: lot of work in. He's only twenty three years of age.
- 8:17Speaker 2: He's long, He's about six eight and two ten. He's
- 8:20Speaker 2: a willing defender with long arms. He could be a
- 8:22Speaker 2: real three and D guy, I think in the future
- 8:24Speaker 2: for the Spurs.
- 8:24Speaker 3: So keep rying on.
- 8:25Speaker 2: Julian Champagne from Brooklyn, New York, and went to Saint John's.
- 8:27Speaker 2: He's a former Saint John's is the Red storm now
- 8:30Speaker 2: no longer the red men.
- 8:31Speaker 4: Right, that's right, that's right.
- 8:32Speaker 1: In Champagne, you just you put the eye before the
- 8:35Speaker 1: e between the end, right, just like Champagne, except with
- 8:39Speaker 1: an eye before the e.
- 8:40Speaker 3: Yeah, Jim Pagney, Yeah the way it looks.
- 8:44Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, Bill.
- 8:45Speaker 5: Looking at the Western Conference, I mean absolutely loaded from
- 8:48Speaker 5: from top even the bottom. But looking at the top
- 8:50Speaker 5: in terms of your playoff contenders. Obviously at Dallas winning
- 8:54Speaker 5: the West this past season, defeating Minnesota, who made some
- 8:57Speaker 5: big changes, getting Julius Randall, sent Karl Anthony Tallons to
- 9:01Speaker 5: New York the thunder of back. They had Alex Caruso
- 9:04Speaker 5: and Isaiah Hartenstein who will be out for I think
- 9:06Speaker 5: about six weeks. But and of course you still have
- 9:09Speaker 5: Nikola jokicch who I think is the best player in
- 9:10Speaker 5: the NBA. Who do you see coming out of the
- 9:13Speaker 5: West this season.
- 9:14Speaker 3: I really like Oklahoma City for a number of reasons.
- 9:17Speaker 2: I think Mark Dagnault's a really good young coach, but
- 9:19Speaker 2: he's got a lot of different players he can work
- 9:21Speaker 2: with here. He's got a lot of depth. And I
- 9:23Speaker 2: think that Jalen Williams, the way he came on last
- 9:26Speaker 2: year really surprised some folks. He really took a step forward.
- 9:29Speaker 2: Sam Presty's done a marvelous job as a general manager
- 9:31Speaker 2: at Oklahoma City building this thing. So I think that
- 9:34Speaker 2: OKAC is going to be right up there with Dallas Minnesota.
- 9:38Speaker 3: You know, look at Dallas now, they've.
- 9:39Speaker 2: Got Lay Thompson for goodness sake to add to Kyrie
- 9:41Speaker 2: Hrvan and Luca Dntrid. So that's going to be a
- 9:43Speaker 2: very very formatile offensive unit when you look at what
- 9:46Speaker 2: they've done.
- 9:46Speaker 3: But okay, see, I think might be the team to
- 9:48Speaker 3: beat in the West.
- 9:49Speaker 4: Wow.
- 9:49Speaker 1: All right, So it's funny because Cam just beating me
- 9:53Speaker 1: to the punch because every year we do this before
- 9:55Speaker 1: the start of the year, I ask you for your
- 9:56Speaker 1: thoughts on who are the teams to beat in both
- 9:58Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference in the West Conference. So you just
- 10:00Speaker 1: outlined okay, seeing, which by the way, makes Cameron happy
- 10:03Speaker 1: because he's a Thunder fan.
- 10:04Speaker 4: So so there's that. No, But what about the East.
- 10:07Speaker 4: Your thoughts on the East, Well.
- 10:09Speaker 2: It's often and everybody else right now. I mean that
- 10:11Speaker 2: they're clearly the class of the Eastern Conference. There's a
- 10:13Speaker 2: lot of different teams that might be able to contend
- 10:15Speaker 2: and give them a push. The Knicks obviously are one.
- 10:19Speaker 2: But you know it's funny with the Knicks getting Karl
- 10:21Speaker 2: Anthony Towns.
- 10:22Speaker 3: I think that's good.
- 10:23Speaker 2: But I think we're really good to miss Devincenzo and Randall.
- 10:26Speaker 2: I really do, because those guys could have Randall can
- 10:29Speaker 2: score and Devincenzo is a tough defensive player and a
- 10:32Speaker 2: really good glue guy to have on the roster. So
- 10:34Speaker 2: Minnesota is one of those teams I think is going
- 10:35Speaker 2: to be in the mix as well.
- 10:36Speaker 4: Okay, all right. Favorite NBA city to visit.
- 10:43Speaker 2: Well, Philly, of course, because it's my hometown. I get
- 10:45Speaker 2: to see the family and see some friends. But I
- 10:47Speaker 2: really dig LA. When we stay in Santa Monica, Craig,
- 10:50Speaker 2: now we say at LA we stay at LA Live
- 10:53Speaker 2: sometimes that's cool.
- 10:54Speaker 3: You know the Grammy Awards museums right there, so that's
- 10:58Speaker 3: pretty nice. But I like the beach. I like Anamonica.
- 11:00Speaker 2: So this year we've got like the Clippers and the
- 11:03Speaker 2: Lakers a couple of days apart, so we're gonna have
- 11:05Speaker 2: like about four or five days out of the coast.
- 11:06Speaker 3: So I might or might not make it to the
- 11:08Speaker 3: arena for the game.
- 11:09Speaker 1: Okay, most I'm not gonna I'm not gonna have you
- 11:12Speaker 1: trash in NBA city. But but but least desirable to
- 11:17Speaker 1: visit for any number. He could be broadcast location, could
- 11:20Speaker 1: be a hotel, could be a dearth of fine restaurants.
- 11:26Speaker 1: If if there's a if there's a an NBA city
- 11:30Speaker 1: that you had to excisee from the list, which one
- 11:34Speaker 1: would it be?
- 11:35Speaker 3: Wow, that's tough because I've got a lot of friends.
- 11:37Speaker 2: I just I just gave a lot of flowers to
- 11:39Speaker 2: the thunder And now I'm gonna say that Oklahoma City
- 11:41Speaker 2: is by least favor I'll tell you why, and it's not.
- 11:45Speaker 2: I like Oklahoma to day, I really do. And Craig,
- 11:47Speaker 2: you've been there many times. We've been over to Bricktown Ballpark.
- 11:49Speaker 2: You and I have shared a drink with Charles Barkley
- 11:51Speaker 2: in Oklahoma City.
- 11:52Speaker 4: In the Red Diano Lounge. You have to scurve an hotel.
- 11:56Speaker 3: That's exactly right. And he picked up the tab for
- 11:59Speaker 3: that entire night. I had no idea.
- 12:00Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll drop.
- 12:01Speaker 3: I think it was.
- 12:02Speaker 2: I don't know how much money space my thap was
- 12:04Speaker 2: one fifty. I thought I was ready to pay it. No, sure,
- 12:07Speaker 2: because you introduced him to a good looking one from
- 12:09Speaker 2: San Antonio from the and he used to say, no,
- 12:12Speaker 2: they shipped you in from Houston. You're not from San Antonio.
- 12:15Speaker 2: Players one of the coach's girlfriends. But anyway, long story short, Okay,
- 12:20Speaker 2: see only because they don't have a lot of restaurants
- 12:23Speaker 2: and there's not an awful lot to do.
- 12:24Speaker 5: Uh.
- 12:25Speaker 3: But I still like that city. It's still a good town.
- 12:27Speaker 1: Uh.
- 12:27Speaker 3: But it's thirty out of thirty for me.
- 12:30Speaker 5: What player or team are you most excited to see
- 12:33Speaker 5: in person this upcoming season?
- 12:35Speaker 3: The team tonight.
- 12:36Speaker 2: I'm really looking forward to seeing Klay Thompson play for
- 12:38Speaker 2: the Mavericks. I'm anxious to see exactly how they're going
- 12:40Speaker 2: to work this, you know, with Luca and Kyrie shandling,
- 12:42Speaker 2: their sharing the ball handling responsibilities. You know, they can't
- 12:46Speaker 2: forget about Thompson because he's sixth all time and three
- 12:48Speaker 2: pointers made in the NBA. Uh, And he probably has
- 12:52Speaker 2: a little something to prove this year. You know, Golden
- 12:54Speaker 2: State did not have a great year last year, and
- 12:56Speaker 2: I'm sure he wants to make an impression on his
- 12:58Speaker 2: new fans. He's thirty four years old now, though I'm
- 12:59Speaker 2: looking at numbers, and he put up some decent numbers
- 13:02Speaker 2: last year, but not real typical play Thomps and numbers.
- 13:05Speaker 2: He averaged eighteen points. But he's thirty four years of
- 13:08Speaker 2: age now, in his twelfth year. I think he's going
- 13:10Speaker 2: to be an important contributor to the.
- 13:11Speaker 4: Match of the season.
- 13:12Speaker 1: Best position broadcast position in the NBA, and worst Toronto.
- 13:18Speaker 3: We're in the front row or the second row.
- 13:20Speaker 2: There's only about four or five arenas now, Craig, where
- 13:23Speaker 2: we're on the floor, so most of the places were upstairs.
- 13:26Speaker 2: The worst location is Boston. They've got us in a
- 13:28Speaker 2: tunnel just above the tunnel, kind of catty corner. It's
- 13:32Speaker 2: very difficult to call the game from that angle. Usually
- 13:35Speaker 2: you're on the side, not behind the basket, so from
- 13:38Speaker 2: that perspective it's a little difficult. You know, it's kind
- 13:40Speaker 2: of the corner and not behind the basket. But you're
- 13:42Speaker 2: low too, which is kind of weird. You know, I
- 13:44Speaker 2: prefer being a little higher. If you're going to be
- 13:45Speaker 2: off the floor, you might as well be higher up
- 13:47Speaker 2: where you can see everything. It reminds me a little bit, Craig,
- 13:49Speaker 2: you've done a football game at Syracuse in fact, we
- 13:52Speaker 2: did just together where you're so low at the Carrier
- 13:55Speaker 2: Dome it's hard to sing inside the ten yard line.
- 13:58Speaker 1: Yeah, and let me tell you there's Syracuse is a
- 14:02Speaker 1: prize compared to what it used to be called FedEx
- 14:06Speaker 1: Field and DC. Trust me on that low and in
- 14:08Speaker 1: the end zone, not good. Yeah, that's h that's why.
- 14:12Speaker 1: And I saw that location talking about because Chuck cooper'steen
- 14:15Speaker 1: was broadcasting from it obviously during the NBA Finals, and
- 14:18Speaker 1: it reminded me, and this will you know, warm your heart.
- 14:22Speaker 4: It reminded me of what I had to do a Texas.
- 14:24Speaker 1: Game at Madison Square guard against Villanova. And it was
- 14:27Speaker 1: a position just like that in the corner. And so
- 14:31Speaker 1: while it was difficult to see anything down at the
- 14:33Speaker 1: far end, one thing we could see was the huge
- 14:36Speaker 1: fight that broke out amongst fans on the baseline there
- 14:39Speaker 1: and the Haymakers being thrown.
- 14:41Speaker 4: I thought, eh, well they're from Philly.
- 14:42Speaker 1: They came up for the game, you know, so it's
- 14:45Speaker 1: it was that kind of thing, all right.
- 14:47Speaker 4: Now. One other things, Yes.
- 14:50Speaker 2: The first time ever violence has been associated with the
- 14:52Speaker 2: Philadelphia fan.
- 14:53Speaker 1: Yeah, Y's just absolutely amazing. All right, I've got to
- 14:56Speaker 1: ask you one other thing. I thought about you a
- 14:59Speaker 1: couple of nights go because you didn't end up graduating
- 15:06Speaker 1: from a specific university. You went to the American Academy
- 15:09Speaker 1: of Broadcasting, where they teach you to sound like God
- 15:12Speaker 1: if I remember.
- 15:14Speaker 4: Yeah, all right.
- 15:15Speaker 1: So the closest thing I would say for you to
- 15:20Speaker 1: a quote unquote alma mater maybe Texas, but I like,
- 15:23Speaker 1: I also think of you as Sam Houston. And here's
- 15:26Speaker 1: Sam that's Bowl eligible for the first time they're gonna
- 15:29Speaker 1: get to go to a bowl game. How excited were
- 15:30Speaker 1: you to see that happen.
- 15:33Speaker 2: I was very, very pumped and very excited. Six years
- 15:36Speaker 2: of my life I was at Sam Houston State.
- 15:37Speaker 3: So I guess that really is kind of my.
- 15:39Speaker 2: Alma mater because most of the students go there for
- 15:41Speaker 2: four years. I was there for six. It didn't really attend.
- 15:44Speaker 2: I learned a lot in Huntsville, that's for sure. But
- 15:46Speaker 2: I'm really happy about that because you know that school
- 15:48Speaker 2: has grown just like Texas State. You know, I was
- 15:49Speaker 2: on that campus the other day. It's forty thousand students
- 15:51Speaker 2: there in so Marcus. It's crazy. I think there's almost
- 15:54Speaker 2: twenty thousand now. It's Sam in Huntsville, and they've got
- 15:56Speaker 2: good facilities, they've got a really good football coach in Keeler,
- 16:00Speaker 2: and I think that you know, it's a team. You know,
- 16:02Speaker 2: it's it's interesting you look at these teams that are
- 16:04Speaker 2: coming up and there's so much talent in the state
- 16:06Speaker 2: of Texas.
- 16:07Speaker 3: Craig as, you know, in.
- 16:07Speaker 2: Football, you're going to see good football at all levels,
- 16:10Speaker 2: even at that level, the FCS level.
- 16:13Speaker 1: And now and now that they've gone to FBS, it's
- 16:16Speaker 1: really cool that they're going to wind up in a ball.
- 16:17Speaker 1: By the way, do you still tell people that you
- 16:19Speaker 1: did a six.
- 16:19Speaker 4: Year stretch in Huntsville? The way you describe your time there.
- 16:22Speaker 2: Downs FBS used to be FCS yees six years in
- 16:25Speaker 2: Huntsville mostly on the outside, although I did spend some
- 16:28Speaker 2: time on the inside because Craig as you know, I
- 16:30Speaker 2: had to cover the prison system as a newsman, So
- 16:33Speaker 2: you know, Cameron, that meant death Row interviews at nine
- 16:36Speaker 2: am on Wednesdays. So you know, I'm still the only
- 16:40Speaker 2: guy that I know that's a sportscaster that did a
- 16:42Speaker 2: one on one with Henry Lee Lucas. Yeah, you know,
- 16:44Speaker 2: not too guys can say that they sat down with
- 16:46Speaker 2: a serial killer. But you know, Craig, that cost me
- 16:48Speaker 2: a dollar fifty because he needed a pack of pale
- 16:51Speaker 2: meals and an orange soda before he could talk to me.
- 16:53Speaker 2: So but I got paid by AP for that interview
- 16:56Speaker 2: fifty dollars, so I cleared forty eight to fifty.
- 16:59Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right.
- 17:00Speaker 1: I remember how many actual executions did you personally witness.
- 17:05Speaker 3: I witnessed six of them.
- 17:06Speaker 2: I covered twenty nine of them, so I was actually
- 17:08Speaker 2: at the prison for twenty nine.
- 17:10Speaker 1: Which I would actually watch six people breathe their last Yes, yeah, yeah,
- 17:16Speaker 1: Now that that will shape your outlook on.
- 17:19Speaker 4: The world, won't it? Will? You know?
- 17:22Speaker 2: It was It makes you think about a lot of
- 17:24Speaker 2: different things because you're in the in the chamber there
- 17:26Speaker 2: and the family of the victim is on one side,
- 17:29Speaker 2: the family of the guy that's getting executed is on
- 17:31Speaker 2: the other side. And it was just a really weird
- 17:33Speaker 2: I was so happy to get news, full time out
- 17:36Speaker 2: of news, full time sports when Tom dor hired me
- 17:39Speaker 2: a Kalbja and often in nineteen eighty nine, no more prisons,
- 17:42Speaker 2: no more, no more going in to interview death row
- 17:44Speaker 2: in these.
- 17:45Speaker 4: All right, Well, who do you have for you a
- 17:49Speaker 4: pregame interview tonight.
- 17:51Speaker 2: I am probably going to track down Harrison Barnes, who
- 17:53Speaker 2: played in Dallas and you know, of course as one
- 17:57Speaker 2: of the news firsts. It's a new season, so and
- 17:59Speaker 2: HB has always been one my favorite opposing players, and
- 18:01Speaker 2: now of course he's.
- 18:03Speaker 1: He's with the good guys. Yeah, he was a tar heel,
- 18:05Speaker 1: so that makes him a good guy to you.
- 18:06Speaker 3: Right, Sorry, of course you like him from way back when.
- 18:09Speaker 1: Hey, I appreciate you doing this. Listen, have fun, ton
- 18:12Speaker 1: I have fun this season. We'll check back in as
- 18:14Speaker 1: we go along anytime. Greg, We'll see thanks.
- 18:18Speaker 4: All right.
- 18:18Speaker 1: That's Bill Shooning. We're all part of the iHeart family.
- 18:23Speaker 1: And Bill, of course the voice of the San Antonio Spurs.
- 18:26Speaker 1: Bill and I did ten football and nine basketball seasons
- 18:29Speaker 1: together and hosted a show together on this station for
- 18:33Speaker 1: four years before he left in the fall of nineteen No,
- 18:41Speaker 1: two thousand and one.
- 18:43Speaker 4: Two thousand one is what he left. So, yeah, we've
- 18:45Speaker 4: known each other. We knew each other when he was
- 18:47Speaker 4: doing Sam Houston and I was doing North Texas. We'll
- 18:49Speaker 4: go back to the eighties. That's how long we known
- 18:52Speaker 4: each Did you cover any executions in North Texas.
- 18:54Speaker 1: Nope, nope, nope, they didn't have him up there. That's
- 18:57Speaker 1: LUs one. That's LUs one down there in Hunt's bills
- 19:01Speaker 1: on hand for that.
- 19:02Speaker 4: He was there.
- 19:03Speaker 1: He had a you know, he had a stand up
- 19:04Speaker 1: act where he did part of that where he did
- 19:06Speaker 1: like death row standings and stuff like that.
- 19:08Speaker 4: Really, yeah, it was pretty good to get.
- 19:11Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, So we have more coming up inconceivable
- 19:15Speaker 1: next on Sports Radio AM thirteen Under the Zone.