Latest / Rosters to Rings Podcast / No Cap and All Pressure With Arkansas GM Remy Cofield

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No Cap and All Pressure With Arkansas GM Remy Cofield · Rosters to Rings Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Rosters, to rings everybody. I am Ryan McDonough,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: joined as always by Thad Levine that we have a
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: pack show today. We have Remy Cofield coming up. Longtime
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: NBA executive with the Boston Celtics, he recently moved to
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the University of Arkansas where he has a broad role
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: overseeing a lot of sports including football, men's basketball, and others.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: He'll be in segment two. There's a lot going on
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: right now across sports. We saw this weekend some high
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: impact to NBA games, college basketball games, and then of
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: course the lion's share of the attention on football. The
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: NFL playoffs are approaching, and then a lot of strong
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: opinions that in college football, should Tulane and James Madison
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: have been in They didn't exactly quit themselves well in
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: the first weekend of the college football playoff. Now we're
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: down to the final eight and their eight powerhouse teams.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: But that where I want to start this show is
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Major League Baseball because we're in the heart of the offseason.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: We have Christmas approaching. You've talked about the importance of
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Christmas at times in MLB, being a deadline of some
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: sorts to get deals done. But that I want to
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: back up a little bit because, as you and I
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: were talking before the show, we wanted to bring our
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: listeners inside kind of what an entire offseason looked like
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: from a front office perspective, if you're a Major League
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Baseball channel manager or an executive at a high level,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: So that where do you start? Where do you start?
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Once the season ends, the manager, the players go home,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: and then you have to present something to ownership. Hopefully
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: you're still employed and presenting it, not you know, have
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: somebody else coming in and make that presentation for you.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: But that how would you start your off seasons as
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: far as what you would lay out and what you're
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: trying to accomplish to your owner.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Ryan, first of all, I agree with you, what
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: a wonderful weekend. From a football perspective, I can't wait
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: till we have our next football guest under really dive
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: into it. It's hard to envision a playoffs potentially without
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: the Baltimore Ravens or Kansas City Chiefs in it. And similarly,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: I'd just be curious in the college football programming, like
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: the fact that Miami won and played really well in
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Alabama one as two teams that were question marks as
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: to whether they deserve to be in. Does that legitimize
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: those picks or does that not at all as you
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: look at the process. But in terms of those presentations
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: to ownership, you know, it all started to me. So
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: we've talked in episodes past about how you assess where
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: you are from a competitive standpoint. So what you do
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: is you go into those meetings and what I always
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: found the most rewarding is really bringing in your leadership team.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: So it was never a conversation just between me and ownership.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: I felt like when ownership asked me questions, I wasn't
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: there to give him my best answer. I was there
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: to give him the best answer, and oftentimes I had
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: the best answer, but other times I wasn't the content expert.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: So I wanted to have my chief lieutenants in the
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: room with me when I was making those presentations, not
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: only to give the owner the best answer possible from
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: the source, but also because it's a great morale opportunity
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: for them. They deserve those opportunities to see their work
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: primarily impacting the decisions that the owner ultimate endorses us
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: to make. So I think fundamentally, you wanted to have
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: a group of people in that room together. What we
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: would always do, Ryan, is we would have three plans
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: that we would have to present to ownership. One was
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: effectively status quo, we're going to maintain the same payroll
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: level next year as we had this year. And then
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: embedded in that would be three or four different options
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: we would present to get better trades that we could make,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: free agent acquisitions, we could make, areas of strength we
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: could deal from, in areas of need that we absolutely
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: had to address. We also would boldly go in and say, hey,
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: if you wanted to spend significantly more money, here's some
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: ways that we could do that, and here are some
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: of the biggest impact plays we could make this off
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: season on the free agent and trade markets. And similarly,
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: if you need us to peel back the payroll for
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: whatever reason, here's ways we can do it and maybe
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: still stay competitive. And then within each of those paths,
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: we would always have multiple routes to go because Ryan,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: I'm sure you felt the same way, But I always
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: felt today's Plan A was great until it got exhausted,
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: and then today's Plan B had to become tomorrow's Plan A,
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: and so on. And so forth. So we always had
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: to be nimble, we always had to have different plans.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: But we try to come out of those meetings with
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: ownership with an clear endorsement of we want, you know,
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: payroll status quo, payroll addition, payroll subtraction. We were going
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: to be ready to hit the ground running. How is
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: that with you when you when you were presenting to ownership.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, very similar to that. I think one of the
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: keys and the things I always tried to do was
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: be optimistic but realistic, right right. I think will be
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: better next year for whatever reason. But here's why. One
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: of the things I don't think you can do. And
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: this is a difficult trap that's easy to fall into
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: for executives to say we're going to be a lot
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: better next year because we can go do these lofty things,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: and that sounds great in a meeting, and the owner
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: or whoever comes out of the meeting at a high
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: level says, boy, that'd be great if we can do
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: all that, and then you fall well short of that
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: as an executive team, and then the owner gets so
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: wait a minute. You put up some big names, some
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: ambitious things that you acted like we could get done,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: and we weren't even close from my experience, that could
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: get you in trouble eecutive from you know, a job standpoint,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: so you always tried to be optimistic but realistic. The
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: main thing I wanted to establish that right away was
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: here's what we think the general path should be as
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: an owner. Are you okay with that?
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: If it's go for it. If you mentioned the different payroll,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: you can increase your payroll, you can kind of hold
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: status quo, or you can reduce you know, those really
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: depend on how aggressive you're being as far as pursuing
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: a championship and is competing for a championship the next
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: year realistic or not? Or is that something you're building
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: for down the road. So I was tried to lay
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: it out and then you know what I tried to do, honestly,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: was feel out the owner in terms of okay, you know,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: is he going to be patient even if he says, yeah,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: rebuilding's fine. Now you know I understand what we reduced salary,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: We'll trade our veteran players for draft picks and all
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: that is. Is he still going to feel the same
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: way that if in January in the NBA were six
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: and twenty two. You know, it's a lot easier said
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: than done. Right in the off season, everybody's undefeated. As
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: you know, when you're getting kicked in teeth night after night,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: it becomes hard to kind of stay, you know, status
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: quo and maintain a positive attitude. So that's what I
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: always try to establish, you know, is he going to
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: stay with that? And I think that one of the
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: things that's universal across sports are the external pressures and challenges.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: So to take us inside that, because you and I
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: have talked about it a little bit on the show. Already,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: we're not even the Christmas yet, but they're major League Baseball,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: the winners and the losers. And you know, this team
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: was allegedly brilliant some people's opinion for signing this guy,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: and this team was stupid for letting that guy go,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: as you pointed out before Astute Lee. Time will tell
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: whether those decisions were good or not. But that doesn't
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: mean when you're sitting in that seat that those external
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: pressures and all that noise is something that's easy to manage.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: And Ran I think that's exactly why anchoring this whole
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: process with realistic projections and managing your owner's expectations is
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: just so key. When you overstate where you're going to be,
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: you're exposed to those pressures really blowing up in your face.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: And so I think probably the realities, like we all
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: sandbagged it a little bit. We want to underpromise and
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: over deliver rather not than not the other way around.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: That's where you really get in trouble. So you really
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: want to manage your owner's expectations, and the pressures are
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: so immense. So you have these plans that you put
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: in place, but those are done in a boardroom, they're
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: done in a vacuum, and then all of a sudden you
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: start feeling the media you reference the winners and losers concept.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: I was just, you know, before the show today, I
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: was looking around the ESPN. A very accomplished writer, David
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: Schanfield wrote an article. It's entitled MLB's Aggrieved Fan Index,
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: the ten most Frustrated fan Bases of twenty twenty five,
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: and this is something he's updating on a regular basis
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: to put pressure on those franchises to do something more
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: than what they're doing. And as we've discussed in Baseball,
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: I think I really short sightedly, but all the members
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: of the media want to assign winners and losers, and
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: the winners are always the teams that are the most
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: active in an offseason, and typically the losers are the
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: least active. But there's almost no correlation between that act
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: activity and wins in the future. Those pundits don't rewrite
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: those articles midway through the season and say, hey, we've
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: blown it. This is the ninth consecutive year that the
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: winner that we had assigned for the offseason didn't actually
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: put together a winning team on the field. But so
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: you're feeling that as an executive, you're feeling the pressure
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: from the fan basis. You know, social media can be
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: so vicious right now, And I don't know how you
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: conduct yourself, Ryan, but I actually just I just turned
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: it off for the last year and a half of
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: my career, and I think I was much more healthy
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: from that. But you know, the drum beat you hear
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: from fans all along is every one of these owners
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: that owns a professional sports franchise as a billionaire, So
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: why doesn't my owner just spend more money? And part
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: of the reason they are billionaires is because they make
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: good business decisions throughout their course of their lives. They're
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: not just throwing good money after bad And then to
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: a certain extent, Ryan, I think we had an obligation
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: to the employees. You know, we were seen as the
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: senior decision makers, and so we had a little bit
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: more impact on whether we could deliver a winner or
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: a loser two to those employees. And that's a constituency
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: that matters, because culture and morale of your workforce does matter.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: And then one of the biggest pressures that we always
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: feel is that from ownership. You know, as much as
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: you strike, try to stay true. You know, we're not
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: trying to win popularity contests. We're trying to thrive, not
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: just survive in our roles, and really help make decisions
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: that are most important for the franchise's success, not just
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: our own personal success. And so we kind of are
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: able to maybe block out those pressures from the media
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: and from the fan bases and that fervor. Well, sometimes
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: the owners have a little bit more difficult time doing
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: that because they are truly the face of the franchise
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: and so then helping manage that ownership through that process
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: to understand, we've got to stay true to these plans
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: and these courses make adjustments when it's prudent to do so,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: but not not just from the kind of knee jerk
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: standpoint emotional response from the fan bases.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: And I think one of the things that cuts across
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: sports that I've seen it in Major League Baseball. I've
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: seen it and lived it in the NBA is the
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: the media and especially the fan remembrance of a player
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: for what he has done. And you know, in pro sports,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: we're not as worried about what a player has done.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: We're trying to figure out what's he going to do right,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: especially if we're going to trade for a player or
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: sign a player as a free agent. And so that's
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: one of the challenges. Especially some of the biggest mistakes
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: I think you and I have seen, Mate, We've talked
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: about it on the show, is when teams pay guys
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: based on what they have done a veteran and then
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: the guy's just not the same player anymore. But from
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: an organizational perspective, it's difficult if you're on the wrong
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: side of and I'm not picking on any but he
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: was just named a couple of Hall of famers who
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: are clearly on the downside of the career Chris Paul
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: or Russell Westbrook somebody like that. If you sign or
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: trade for the player immediately that the fans are going
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: to say, well, I know that guy. That's great, he's
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: a Hall of Famer, you know, but doing so maybe
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: at the expense of a younger player, you know, having
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: him in the line up, maybe at the expense of
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: a younger guy. And so that's the challenge, right, it's
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: I think you and I based on you know, popular sentiment,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: could could even maybe in fact get ahead of popular
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: center And guess how are the fans going to react? Well, usually,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: like you said, if the owner spends money, they're going
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: to react positively. If the team signs or trades for
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: a guy who was a veteran star, not even necessarily
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: is a Veterans star, but was a veterans star, they're
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: going to react positively. Generally speaking, if the team does
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: the opposite and reduces payroll or trades players away, you know,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: for young prospects or future draft picks, the fans are
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: going to react negatively. So so you kind of have
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: to know that going in. Even if you know you
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: think the veteran guy you're you're as confident as you
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: can be he can't play anymore, so we should not
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: re sign him, or we should trade him to get
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: some value. There's going to be blowback on that, There's
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: no question about it. So I think that that's what
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: the guys who sit in our seats that have to
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: have to manage, and you put it aptly, it's not
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: a popularity contest. And yes, survival and staying in these
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: jobs is part of human nature. But at the same time,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: you have to do what's best for your franchise and
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: and in your heart sometimes you realize what's best for
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: the franchise may ultimately your job, but you have to
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: be okay with that. You have to be selfless enough
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: to pull the trigger, even if the benefits may become
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: after your tenures over.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: With the organization and right, I think you brought up
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: some great points there about those veterans, and I think
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: we're always hunting that veteran presence on the team, that
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: the person who can be the leader and lead by example,
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: lead verbally, and those sorts of things. But I think
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: the other relationship we have to be mindful there is
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: with our head coach or manager. They're partners for us,
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: and when we bring that person into the clubhouse who
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: has formerly been a superstar who in our sport hit
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: in the top four in the order per se or
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: was a number one starter, and for you, who is
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: a key, key contributor as a starting five member, but
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: they're not really capable of playing that role anymore. It
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: puts a lot of pressure on that player to assume
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: a new role and have the humility to be able
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: to do it. But it also puts a lot of
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: pressure on your head coach because there's an expectation by
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: that player maybe that he's going to get a rejuvenation
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: and be treated like what his star status deserves. But
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: it's really challenging in those instances when the star sets
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: on you, because then it really becomes problematic for the
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: coach who now is telling the player he's having to
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: assume a different role when he may be en route
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: to being a Hall of Famer it doesn't necessarily want
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: to assume that new role with you. It becomes problematic.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Now you're not playing the player who's better than him
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: at a deference to him. You're hurting your team in
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: the short term. When the goal was to bring this
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: person in to really elevate the roster, and.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: That was the hardest player for me to manage. That
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: the former superstar, not not just a star, but a
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: superstar guy who is an all star, who is a
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: household name. He's not the same player anymore. You know,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: the mental toll that takes on an athlete that when
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: the guy was among the best handful of the dozen
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: or still players in a sport at one time, everything
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: came pretty easily to them. They were great at it,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: and they're not great at anymore. So that not many
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: guys handled that exceptionally well. Some do, but a lot
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: really struggle with that that the former great players. And
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: the challenge is, if you bring a guy like that in,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: you have to realize how much attention he's going to
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: get from the fans and the media because of who
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: he is and what he's done and the name recognition
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: he has. He also may need to realize that that
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: he might block some of your young players, the guys
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: you're trying to develop who today could very well be
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: better than the veteran guy, but they don't have the
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: name in the cachet. So yeah, it's certainly a challenge.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: You know, it can be a fun challenge at times.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: But that I think that's where the conversation with ownership too,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: about okay, if we bring in this specific player. You know,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: because owners are fans too, so certain owners say, okay,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: what about this guy, and they might be thinking of
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: a guy, a game that guy had against them, or
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: a season he had three or four years ago that
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: which is not really applicable to what he's able to
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: do today. So I think managing expectations specifically with your
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: owner before acquiring a big name player is such an
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: important part of the job. Right.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: I'll leave you with this one example person example. After
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: the twenty ten season in Texas, we went to.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: The World Series.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: We lost the World Series, but it was a little
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: bit on the strength of an acquisition mid season of
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: Cliff Lee, a left handed pitcher who became a free
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: agent at season's end. We had the endorsement from ownership
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: to go to try to be very aggressive to resign them,
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: and we pursued them extremely hard. We were crestfallen when
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: he ultimately signed with the Philadelphia Phillies, great deal, having
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: a great run with them. We pivoted immediately to our
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: Plan B at that point, who turned out to be
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: Adriane Beltray who went on to be a Hall of
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: Famer and went in wearing a Texas Rangers hat. So
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: it just speaks to the fact that anytime you feel
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: like a door is being closed, there's a window opening somewhere,
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: and it's our jobs to get off the net as
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: quickly as you possibly can and dive into the next opportunity.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: There can never be only one way to build a
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: championship organization. You have to have multiple ways to do that.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: Stay with us here on Rosters Rings. On the other side,
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: we're going to be having a great conversation with Remy Cofield,
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: longtime executive with the Boston Celtics, now the general manager
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: of the University of Arkansas. Stay with us on Rosters
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: to Rings. Welcome back to Rosters to Rings. Alongside Ryan McDonough,
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: I am Thad Levine. We are honored to be joined
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: today by Remy Cofield. The year is two thousand and seven.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: As a senior at the venerated Roxbury Latin School in Boston, Massachusetts,
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: which interestingly is listed as the oldest boys' school on
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: the continent, Remy distinguished himself on the basketball court, earning
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: the prestigious recognition as a McDonald's All American nominee and
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: runner up for the Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Remy attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he continued his
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: amateur basketball career on route to securing a bachelor's in sociology.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: Remy furthered his education, earning an NBA in Business and
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Analytics from Bentley University. Remy got a start in professional
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: athletics in twenty thirteen when the Boston Celtics hired him
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: as a business development intern. He quickly shifted to the
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: Celtics scouting department, where he ultimately ascended to the role
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: of Director of Scouting. Remy also served as a general
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: manager of the Celtics G League affiliate, the Main Celtics.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: In twenty twenty five, Remy was named the general manager
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: of athletics for the University of Arkansas and as a
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: member of the Oletic director's cabinet. Remy's role includes overseeing
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: revenue sharing, leading recruitment and retention strategies, and navigating the
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: complex world of nil compensation and representation. Remy, Welcome to
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: roster to Rings.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: Oh thanks, I appreciate you guys having me on. It's
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: a pleasure to be.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: On remy kind of as a tradition on rosters to rings,
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: we ask everybody, what is your origin story? How did
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: you fall in love with sports as a kid.
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it started pretty early with my older brother.
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: My older brother was huge into basketball. I mean, he
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: did every type of sport, played baseball, early on, soccer.
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: You know, basketball was kind of the one sport that
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: he ended up sticking with. He ended up growing to
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: be I want to say, six to six what was
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: all said and done. But early on, just watching him
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: out there competing at a young age, it was just
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: something that you know, I was really into. And then
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: I just started branching off and watching different sports on
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: my own. And my favorite, you know athlete of all time,
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: you know, Shaquille O'Neil. I ended up watching him when
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: he first got into league and played Orlando Magic and
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: just watching the power that he played with, the the
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: off court stuff, him just being almost a gentle giant
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: funny into other things other than basketball.
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: It kind of mirrored kind of my personality in a
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: lot of ways.
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: And so you know, going from there, I was able
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: to continue to kind of branch off in other sports, football,
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: or baseball, lacrosse. I just wanted to be really well
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: rounded at the end of the day, but ultimately just
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: you know, making sure I was involved with basketball and
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: I stuck with.
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: It going forward.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Remie Thad mentioned yet an excellent playing career as an amateur,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: but then your career ended, as it does for nine
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: point nine percent of people before they get to play
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: professionally and get paid to play. So then take us
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: inside that process. We have a lot of listeners on
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: roster to rings young folks who want to get into
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: pro sports, and one of the lessons I think that
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: and I always try to give them, is the path
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: is not always linear. So you're obviously known for working
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: in the Celtics basketball operations department, helping Danny H. Brad
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Stevens the company build great teams. Before you went to Arkansas,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: I'll even start there. You start in the business operations department.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: So if you could take us kind of inside that,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: you know, what was that like working on the business side,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: and then as a young man transitioning from business to basketball.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: What were some of the key aspects that you learned
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: along the way.
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: Well, I'll take you back to Bentley where it all
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: kind of started Bentley. One of my first days there
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: at the marketing professor, I was talking to him about
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: potential internships in the sports space and about the Patriots
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: versus the Celtics and kind of wanted to branch into
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: pro sports, and he gave me a couple of contacts
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: with the Celtics.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: I followed up. I was able to land that internship
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: where I worked there for them that summer. And that's summer.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: There's not a whole lot of stuff to do.
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: You're out of season, right with the Celtics, you're mostly
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: kind of coming up with spreadsheets, different ideas, things they
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: can use during the season when it comes up. But
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: I was able to meet a whole host of people,
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: some higher ups that were there, they're still currently there,
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: and just build a name for myself and just someone
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: that would be there all the time to support the
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: staff and do whatever that.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: Was asking me in a timely fashion.
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: My last day for my internship, you know, I'm sitting there, uh,
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: and my supervisor turns her chair around. She says, you know,
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: Basketball Operations is hiring for a Basketball Ops assistant role.
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: Would you want to you know, interview for it. So,
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: of course, I'm like, yeah, that's the whole purpose of this.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: I want to get on the basketball side of things.
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: So one thing kind of led to the next.
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: I ended up talking to a few people in basketball
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: operations and doing a couple of projects, going to a dinner,
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: and then ultimately interviewed for it and was hired that fall.
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: But you know, it really taught me that, you know,
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: maybe a week later, I might not.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: Have gotten that opportunity.
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: A week before that, I might not have even gotten
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: that opportunity, and maybe I'd have gone to somebody else. So,
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: you know, luck and timing play a huge role into
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: kind of getting these opportunities in the sports world. I
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: think a lot of people say, if I do X,
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: Y and Z, then I'll get there.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: I just don't agree with that, you know.
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: I think you do everything you possibly can to put
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: yourself from the best position to be successful when you
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: get those opportunities wheen those opportunities arise. But at the
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: end of the day, a lot of it is luck
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: and timing. A lot of people don't like to hear that.
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: I think a lot of people say, well, you know,
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: if I put the time in, the work in, things
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: will happen.
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: The way I wanted to.
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: But it's a lot of times it's who you know,
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: who you're around, who you're working for, what people can
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: kind of get you in the door so that you
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: could be successful.
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: And then once you're in the door, how good of
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: a job do you do? Right?
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: How often are you there helping out the people that
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: are in front of you so that they take more
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: interest in you as a person, as a young professional,
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: to give you everything that you need so that you've
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: that it be successful on your side of.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: Things, Remy, I couldn't agree with you more. I've always
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: felt like when people ask me, Hey, what type of
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: jobs should I take to get into professional sports? And
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: usually they're asking me questions about baseball, and you know
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: they're hunting titles or hunting responsibilities even sometimes pay And
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: I tell them that's not where I would be focusing
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: my attention. I'd focus on the people you get a
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: chance to work with. How much are they going to
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: invest in your personal growth and development? How much are
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: they going to give you those opportunities that you just
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: reference so that you can shine and provide you with
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: the resources to not only do well in those opportunities,
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: but really to excel and then it's up to you
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: to deliver, right like that, that's the relationship, and if
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: you can deliver in those opportunities, then there'll be more
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: opportunities that come. But it all starts with the wisdom
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: and the experience of the people who you get a
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: chance to work with and their willingness to invest in you.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: So remy, one of the questions that Thad and I
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: are asked, I'm sure you get it as well, is
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: what is the benefit of having a degree, an advanced
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: degree beyond an undergraduate degree? You know, you have your
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: MBA in business analytics. You know how helpful has that been?
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: I only went to public school, so I'm not the
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: right person to, you know, to give advice on such things.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: But how helpful has that been to you? And now,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: looking back with the benefit of hindsight, obviously you've had
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: a tremendous career. What advice would you give to young
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: people who are thinking about doing that as a way
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: to potentially help them get into sports?
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: I think first and foremost, I think whatever education, whatever
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: school you go to, look at their alumni, right that
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: are from that school. You're paying not necessarily to get
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: the day to day kind of in the trenches type works.
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: It's who you're rubbing elbows with. I think at the
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: end of the day, right, And I even go back
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: to my undergrad you know, I had three people I
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: had was in a dorm room with and three of
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: them all three other three people are just working on
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: Wall Street right now. And who would have thought back
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: then that point in time that that would have been
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: the case, right? And so I always tell people, Yes,
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: it's important if you're going for specific trade or something
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: it's law school, business and some of these things you
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: have to use in her day to day, but also
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: understand what the alumni connection is, right, who's going to
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: be able to You're gonna be able to network with
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: to imput in your field that you feel like can
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: get you maybe in the door somewhere that you need
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: to be. So that's a that's an important part of
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: it for me. The business analytics part of it was
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: trying to figure out how processes work, how do we
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: shape what we're doing, how do we use numbers to
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: help come up with the answers that we need to
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: get to. That was important to be able to have
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: those conversations with people that are are really analytical and
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: looking at the numbers on a day to day basis,
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: not me specifically coming up with those mechanisms and methodology,
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: whatever have you, but asking the right questions to those
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: people that are doing that on the day to day basis.
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: I thought it was pretty important what I use on
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: a day to day basis today, being able to kind
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: of sit down and talk through different ideas that are
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: somewhat over a lot of other people's head but having
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: that background in stat work and number I think helps
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: me on a day to day basis as well.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: I think every one of the things that you and
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: I have in common is we started entry level scouting
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: with the Boston Celtics about a decade apart. So take
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: us inside your path. What was that Like you mentioned
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: the internship and business operations working for the Cole Federico
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Risk Gotham, No. Ricefeld is a great team in Boston,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: and then you transition to the basketball office. And for
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: those who don't know, the Celtics have two separate physical offices,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: not in the same building. There's some distance between the two.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: So on day one of the Celtics, you show up
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: and there's Danny Ainge, there's Brad Stevens and there's you.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: So what are you working on and kind of how
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: did your career begin in the Celtics Basketball Operations Department.
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: Yes, I'll give you. I'll give you a quick story
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: and kind of touch on both. I guess Danny Austin
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: ands there, and so I go for my interview right
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: for this job internship, and I'm walking through the BSc.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: As you know, the BSc is attached to the backside.
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: Of the Basketball Operation Facility wherever we were, like all
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: the regular people are working out and everything. So we
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: walk across into the front office and I sit down.
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: I started talking with Austin, and Austin has me go
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: through the entire roster. Right We're going from Rondo at
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: that point, I think it was Jeff Green all the
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: way down. And we get to one guy and I'll
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: never forget. He's like, oh, so just tell me about
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: this guy. I'm like looking at him, like I don't
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: know who this guy is, Like you know, I'm blanking
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: on him and gone through everybody had listed out, everybody
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: knew exactly who they were. He's like, Oh, don't worry
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: about that's Shaft. With Randolph, I was like Okay, he
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: probably didn't play too much, you know, So then that
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: that was a pretty unique thing. We laughed about that.
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: Then I went to the next room. As you know,
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: those rooms are right next to each other. And I
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: went to the next room, and Arran's in that room,
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: and I you know, continued the foot in my mouth tour.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: And so I asked Aaron.
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: One of the questions I asked him was, you know,
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: I heard you're in the news about going to the
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: Philadelphia seventy six ers of the Hanky situation, right and
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: the Hanky took that job instead of Zee.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: So I asked you it was like, when do you
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: plan on leaving? Are you leaving at any time?
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: And so I'm like, looking back on it now, it's like,
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: why would I ask an executive like are they playing
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: on leaving? So I can you know, eventually get move
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: up the food chainb blah blah blah.
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: But again, you know, he took it in his stride.
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: He laughed at it and said, you know what, I'm
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: still I want to be a part of the Southist
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: thing's rebuild. We want to try and get back to
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: another championship. And he stuck true to his word. He's
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: still obviously in that role. So then I go to
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: the next meeting, the final meeting with with Danny Ainge,
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: going to his office. We're sitting there talking and as
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: you know, Danny walks around, he gets up, He's making
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: jokes and things like that. It gets to the end
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: of the conversation and he's like, all right, well, we
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: want to bring you on and would you accept the
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: role of being an intern here?
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: So I said, of course, I'd love to do it.
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: A few seconds go by, and I'm thinking, I didn't
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: talk to this guy about salary or anything like, you know, I.
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: Have no idea what I'll be making, and so I
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: tell him think of back, I'm like, listen, I went
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: to the University of Pennsylvania, I have my NBA, I'm
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: working towards.
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: Right now, I need something, So I say Danny, like,
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: I don't think you can just you know, pay me nothing.
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: Can I get, you know, thirty five thousand dollars a
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: year right now? I just want to be able to
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: pay some of my expenses. And he goes and he
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: waits a second, he thinks about it.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: He's like, sure, brother, I'll give you thirty five thousand.
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: Deal I look back on it, I'm like, man, Danny
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: was about to make me go for the entire year
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: like not making anything if you could have gotten that
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: deal across. But no, it goes back to kind of
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: thinking of you know what kind of person Danny was,
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: and you know, if he could get the best deal,
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: he was going to get the best deal regardless. But
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: then you know, I start my first day, going back
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: to your original question, I started my first day and
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: I show up and Ryan, you'll find this when I
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: show up in like a dress shirt and dress pants
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: and some shoes, right, and no one in the office
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: where's any of this? Everybody shows up uly in some
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: some sweatpants and sweatshirt or whatever it is, like athletic gear.
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: And so Dave, you know, would laugh and say, you
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: know what, that's you. You can just come back to
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: work in some athletic year. You don't have to worry about,
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: you know, showing up to work in in the you know,
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: a nice polo and all this other stuff. But essentially
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: when I first started, it was doing a lot of
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: spreadsheet work, right And to our point before we got on,
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: before we got on, here is you know, Danny want
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: us wanted to ask us questions myself included what we
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: thought about players. And I didn't have the background of scouting, right,
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: I had not done this work before, but he wanted
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: to see how my brain worked, even from you know
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: the get the get go uh. And so there's a
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: lot of spreadsheet work put together list watching a lot
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: of film in the office, having meetings about what guys
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: were at different conferences, starting to rank out different players
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: in different conferences. You look towards the you know, the
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: draft and everything, and you kind of start to see
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: over the course of the next few months, who is
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: likely to be towards the top of.
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: That you know, draft conversation.
• 29:54
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: My first scouting trip outside of the area, outside of
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: you know, going to U or I or b C
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: year whatever it is, but actually flying somewhere was to
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: the MGM Graham in My first game was Colorado versus
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: Oklahoma State. And I don't know if you.
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: Remember who's on those two teams, Ryan, but obviously Marcus
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: Smart who Danny had a major affinity for it his
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: freshman year but also his sophomore year when I first
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: got there and watching him play against the player at
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: Colorado who ended up being Spencer, Dinwiddy, and so both
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: those players were competing against each other in that atmosphere,
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: and you know, looking back on it, you you had
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: no idea that those guys were gonna be who they
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: are today. But they've survived the last twelve thirteen years,
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: you know, bounce around in the NBA, Spencer doing you know,
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: going up and down for the G League. But it
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: gave me a really good insight into Okay, this is
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: where these players were, this is how they're progressing through
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: the year. Danny may like Marcus Smart, so let's make
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: sure we're getting at all the intel, all the information
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: we can about, you know, this player, so that he
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: has everything he needs to make the right and most
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: informous and durance raft time. So that's how I started.
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: That was kind of the first year it was. It
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: was a whirlwind and it went pretty fast, but it
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: was definitely a great introduction to a career in sports.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: Remy, I wonder when you were negotiating with Danny aingelf
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: he actually had fifty thousand dollars in the budget and
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: was ecstatic.
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: That yes, probably he probably had more. Probably, yeah, I mean.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: That he didn't know what the budget was East ben
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: zero seconds thinking about what's the budget, reamy throughout a number.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: He thought it sounded decent, so he just go.
• 31:35
  Speaker 5: After.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: I had the exact same experience when Josh Burns offered
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: me my first job. I was so ecstatic. I got
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: off the phone called my dad telling him all about it.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: He's like, just out of curiosity, what are they going
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: to pay you? And I was like, allow me to
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: pause for a second, let me make one one quick call.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: And I called Josh back and I said, I know
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: this is out of order. I've already accepted the job,
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: but what are you actually paying me? He told me
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: it was twenty four thousand dollars and I was like
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: just ecstatic. Hindsight, like, it's crazy that we were living
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: off that that that amount of brea. I mean to
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: take us through some day one to the point where
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: you become the scouting director, Like how did you manage
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: that that process? And also how much did scouting in
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: the NBA change during your tenure your twelve years with
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: the Celtics.
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so I mean, like I said, it's a small office, right,
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: so you're you're able to be immersed in so many
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: different aspects of it, and you know, you try and
• 32:28
  Speaker 4: chip away at your own way of understanding specific athletes.
• 32:33
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: We always had this thing where you talk about the
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: athlete and what they look like, their physical makeup, does
• 32:38
  Speaker 4: this player look like an NBA player right size, length, athleticism,
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: and then you kind of go on from there. The
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: character stuff that goes along with it, the intel that
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: you're bringing to the table having talked to not the
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: head coach or the top assistants, but you know, the
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: managers the gas that are kind of willing to spill
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: their guts because essentially they want to be in roles
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: that you're in, let's be honest, right, And so they're
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: able to kind of give the information that that you
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: would like and you form those relationships. But I was
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: able to I think a massive network of people within
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: college sports that I could, you know, reach out to
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: and say, you know, I need help on this guy
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: that's on your roster. Can we go through your entire
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: roster and and and see what makes sense for for
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: us and UH and gather this information and put it
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: in place that was accessible to everybody.
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: And as I slowly built.
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: Out that you know, not only a way to you know,
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: come to meetings and discuss certain athletes that we're looking
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: at or maybe entertaining for the draft, but also be
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: able to say, I have an end at this school
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: to be able to discuss what this athlete is and so,
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: you know, coming up with you know, working with Dave
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: and and and Austin in that office and coming up
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: with ideas to how we wanted to approach the structure
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: of relaying this information onto the rest of the department,
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: working with our analytics staff on different ideas that they
• 33:53
  Speaker 4: may have that we might not see just from a
• 33:55
  Speaker 4: visual standpoint, and making sure we clean all that up
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: to you know, make sure, like I said, Danny or
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: even Brad further on in my career, they had all
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: the information they need to make inform decisions, whether that
• 34:06
  Speaker 4: was trade deadline, free agency, or the draft itself.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: Remy scouting is always difficult. We know, there's the intangible
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: aspects that are very tough to measure. You know, what's
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: in the guy's head, what's in his heart, how's he
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: going to respond when you give him a bunch of money.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: So it's a difficult job. I think what does make
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: it a little bit easier is when you have organizational stability,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: especially at the top of an organization. We've seen it
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: in Miami with the Heat. We've seen it in San
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: Antonio with the Spurs, We've seen in Boston. We still
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: see it in Boston with the Celtics. So as you
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: think of your time working for two guys who probably
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: very well headed the Hall of Fame someday and Danny
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: aingeent Brad Stevens, what comes to your mind when you
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: think of You mentioned some of the you know, characteristics
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: of scouting, general characteristics, but when you think of a Celtic,
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: you know, championship quality, Celtics DNA. What are some of
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: the things that stand out that maybe differentiate the players
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: that Boston drafts from some of the other franchises.
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think character is huge. Right? Are you going
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: to give everything you possibly have for this rule, for
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: the for the organization? Are you going to.
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: Care about how you bring yourself to the table every
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: single day, whether that's in practices, workouts, you know, are
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: you going to treat people the right way? Are you
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: going to come into the office and know who the
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: janitor is versus the top executive?
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: Right? Are those things ingrained in you? Right? And then
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: who else are you bringing to along with you.
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: Are you doing this just for personal gain or are
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: you doing this, you know, to bring the team together
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: and rout the troops and push toward a common goal.
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: And so I think when we talk about north Stars
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: and Brad brings this up a lot too. Obviously we
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: want to win championship, but what goes into the process
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: of winning a championship. It's the peaceless people that are
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: involved in that process on a day to day basis
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: that really, you know, make up what it is that
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: you're trying to achieve. And when you have a lot
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: of talent, that doesn't always equate to winning at the
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: highest levels. Right, the pieces have to fit on and
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: off court to a certain extent. And I think that
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: was important for everyone in Boston to understand, is that
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: if we're going to build this team, we have to
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: build it with the right people.
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: First and foremost talent matters.
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: We all understand that, but if there's you know, everybody
• 36:15
  Speaker 4: is all equal here from a talent perspective, We're going
• 36:17
  Speaker 4: to take the guy that has that intangible just the
• 36:21
  Speaker 4: character side of things wrapped up and sewed up so
• 36:23
  Speaker 4: you don't have to deal with a lot of stuff
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: that comes along with the bad character people.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: Remy dive a little bit deeper view with there, Like
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: the twenty twenty four Celtics end up winning the championship.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: Who are a few of the guys you're thinking about
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: when you're talking about Obviously talent is vital, but like,
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: who are some of the guys who really elevated their
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: production on the court and in the locker room due
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: to some of that character elements that you just discussed.
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: I mean, I can talk about the whole roster. I
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: think you know Al Horford it comes to mind, you know,
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: at the top of that list. I think ol even
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: the young players from day one, from training camp all
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: the way through the season.
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: You just see how he treats his body. You know,
• 37:01
  Speaker 4: how intentional he is, coming into the facility at the
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: right times, eating the right stuff, not staying on his
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: feet his feet too long, going through his workouts with intentionality,
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: talking with the coaching staff and meetings and trying to
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: figure out what he needs to do. Not being the
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: loudest one in the room all the time. I think,
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: which carried a lot of weight because whenever he did
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: say something, everybody listened up to him and appreciated the
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: stuff that he was coming to the table with.
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: But then that kind of permeates throughout the rest of
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: the roster. Right. A lot of teams go after older
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: vets because they.
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: Feel like at the back end of their roster they
• 37:40
  Speaker 4: can have some level of impact on the young guys,
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: and sometimes that works. But you know, if someone like
• 37:45
  Speaker 4: Al who's in that sweet spot, you're older, you're also
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: contributing at a high level, and then your words you're
• 37:51
  Speaker 4: actually matching with exactly what you're doing on a day
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: to day basis, And so that was so helpful to us.
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: I think we had a whole locker room of those
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: types of people, even someone that like Luke Cornette.
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: Luke Cornette was, you know, the epitome of a great teammate, right.
• 38:06
  Speaker 4: He's, you know, cracking jokes, but he also knows when
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: it's time to get out there and produce. He's not
• 38:13
  Speaker 4: begging for extra playing time to get out there and
• 38:17
  Speaker 4: show what he can do. He's trying to just fit
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: because he knows that we have a chance to win.
• 38:22
  Speaker 4: Derek White very similar. Derek White I think has had
• 38:25
  Speaker 4: developed once we got him from San Antonio in that deal.
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: He had developed.
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: Even more on the court while also maintaining his character
• 38:34
  Speaker 4: right at a high level.
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: He's not now asking to do X, Y and Z more.
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: He's trying to fit into what the program is because
• 38:42
  Speaker 4: he knows that we have an opportunity to.
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: Win at the highest level.
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: So we had a whole roster of those guys in
• 38:46
  Speaker 4: twenty twenty four that I felt it matched the talent.
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: We have the top end talent right in the league.
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: But to push us over the hump, you have to
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: have those guys that are willing to sacrifice, that are
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: willing to do everything possible because they know that at
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: the end of that road is a championship waiting for
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: him if we all kind of stick together and kind
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: of stay in our lane and add to the to
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: the group.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: I mean. Now, I want to go to the middle
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: of your time with the Celtics. We mentioned how at
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: the beginning you started entry level in basketball operations, coming
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: over from the business side. You went on to become
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: director of scouting. In the middle of that, the main Celtics,
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: the Celtics minor league team. I was controlled by the Celtics.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: They came calling and it's the same group that it's
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: kind of that, you know, the same guy's running. But
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: what was that conversation like, was it Danny Ainge or
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: Brad Stevens or someone else who suggested that? And take
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: us inside your thought process was it? Was it a
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: no brainer that you're going to take the GM job
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: no matter what? Or did you have any reservations because
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: that the Main Celtics and any NBA league's G League team,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: the budget and everything else is pretty different, maybe one
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: hundred and eighty degrees different from the NBA team. So
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: take us inside that. What was that like going through
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: the process and how was your experience as VM of
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: the Main Celtics.
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: We I'll say this, the G League has, you know,
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: grown immensely from when I first started working with you know,
• 40:06
  Speaker 4: Dave on G League matters and then obviously assuming that role.
• 40:08
  Speaker 4: But when I did assume that role wasn't a huge ceremony.
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: Back then.
• 40:12
  Speaker 4: It was Hey, Danny's like, hey, well, Remy, you're gonna
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: run the J League this year. I'm like, okay, all right, great,
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: so I have the GM title and I just got
• 40:20
  Speaker 4: to start putting things into place. It was really a
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: mom and pop shop, I think early on when we
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: started doing the G League stuff, And halfway through my tenure,
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: the Celtics actually bought the team and renamed it from
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: the Main Red Clause to the Main Celtics, so we
• 40:34
  Speaker 4: had a lot more kind of saying what what happened
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: on a day to day basis, where our players were staying,
• 40:40
  Speaker 4: you know, meals and all that. But you honestly, in
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: the league, it gives you a lot of hands on
• 40:47
  Speaker 4: experience with different facets of an organization and what you're doing.
• 40:50
  Speaker 4: You're you're hiring the coaching staff, right, You're you're putting
• 40:54
  Speaker 4: the players on the team, You're you're drafting guys, you're
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: communicating up to the Celtics organization about what guys they
• 41:03
  Speaker 4: might want to send down on assignment. How that also
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: works into your preparation to actually building the team, right,
• 41:10
  Speaker 4: if you have x amount of point guards and x
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: amount of bigs and things, you need to focus on
• 41:15
  Speaker 4: wings to try and make everything come together. And then
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: just the constant fluidity of the G League makes everything
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: so much harder at that level. Right, It's the only
• 41:25
  Speaker 4: league to my knowledge that you know, guys get called up,
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: guys get injured, You can't really replace guys at the
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: level that you want. Then you're talking about doing trades.
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: But most of the guys on the market are are
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: bad apples that teams don't necessarily want, and so there's
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: not really players and ways to fix your team if
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: guys get called up in a way and they don't
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: come back to your team, and so you're trying to
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: balance all that out all the while you're your head
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: coach is upset with you because you can't, you know,
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: turn your star player into another star player readily, that
• 41:54
  Speaker 4: easily if they get taken away. So it's a great
• 41:58
  Speaker 4: it's a great first uh step into being a top executive,
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: I think in the NBA, especially now when when people
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: UH step into that role at the G league level,
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: it's a it's a great way to get your feet
• 42:10
  Speaker 4: wet with so many different ways organization has run, uh
• 42:14
  Speaker 4: and the communication part of it, talking to agents is huge.
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: You get your feet wet with that if you hadn't
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: done so before. But I think those jobs will become
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: more and more coveted because like I said, there's it's
• 42:26
  Speaker 4: a it's a way and a peek into what you
• 42:28
  Speaker 4: know big clubs actually do on a day to day basis.
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: It sounds to me like there's a common theme here, Remy,
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: which is Danny Ainge was a wonderful boss to have
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: because I'm sure he was very, very thoughtful about putting
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: you in that spot and understanding your capabilities and how
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: that can really accelerate your development. I'm guessing you also
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: tapped into both your degrees here, that that MBA and
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: probably them that sociology degree, because what we have in
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: baseball is, you know, developed minor league systems, and our
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: people who manage our Triple A affiliates always talk about
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: their role as a therapy because you're constantly dealing with
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: players who maybe got demoted from the NBA who are
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: trying to figure out how they get back there. They're
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: disappointed they didn't make the most of the opportunity. But
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: then you also have some probably some hard chargers there
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: who wonder why they haven't gotten the first shut. How
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: did your interpersonal skills help you provide counsel to those
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: different types of players as they were navigating their career
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: development in Maine.
• 43:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I think transparency is huge, right, I'm not
• 43:29
  Speaker 4: huge online to you, like, obviously we got to get
• 43:32
  Speaker 4: deals done, we got to figure out what things look like.
• 43:34
  Speaker 4: But I think being as transparent as you possibly can,
• 43:37
  Speaker 4: like understand the workings of the G League. There's a
• 43:40
  Speaker 4: lot of people there that have two kids, three kids,
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: that are not getting paid a whole lot, and their
• 43:45
  Speaker 4: whole livelihood, their future depends on them playing well in
• 43:48
  Speaker 4: the G League. And then you look at an eighteen
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: ninety year old that the self is sending down to
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: kind of take your minutes away, and you can ge
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: upset about that, right, And so just managing that, I
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: think open communication and I would always talk to guys
• 44:02
  Speaker 4: on the roster on a day to day basis, shooting
• 44:04
  Speaker 4: the text, how things going, you know, what are some
• 44:07
  Speaker 4: things that we can do to help you in this process?
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: Because I looked at the players as partners in this situation.
• 44:14
  Speaker 4: Right, your team changes every single year, but in that year,
• 44:18
  Speaker 4: you're trying to develop players so that you can get
• 44:21
  Speaker 4: them or they can get to the next level. But
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: also we want to win. So there's that two that
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: duality there that you're trying to navigate. And I think
• 44:30
  Speaker 4: when you tell athletes, Okay, we're partnering with you, what
• 44:33
  Speaker 4: are some ways that we you feel like we can
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: make this better for you your experience better help you develop.
• 44:39
  Speaker 4: We'll also, to be quite frank, we're trying to help
• 44:42
  Speaker 4: our young guys from our.
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: Subjict squad develop as well.
• 44:45
  Speaker 4: So if we all can get that same development and
• 44:48
  Speaker 4: push towards getting as many guys called up to the NBA,
• 44:51
  Speaker 4: that's great. And then I also have a responsibility to
• 44:53
  Speaker 4: my head coach and the rest of the team. Let's
• 44:56
  Speaker 4: win while we're doing all that. So, like I, I've
• 44:58
  Speaker 4: always said that G league is one the hardest places
• 45:01
  Speaker 4: to manage because there are so many different people pushing
• 45:06
  Speaker 4: and pulling in different directions. The best teams that see
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: the success not only on their season their wins total,
• 45:13
  Speaker 4: but also guys getting called up are those teams that
• 45:15
  Speaker 4: have honest and open communication back and forth in partner
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: with the athletes that are on their team.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: So LEMI take us inside your decision earlier this year.
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: You're with the Celtics for over a decade, even that
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: now we're talking about it before we started recording. That's
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: one of the most coveted jobs in the NBA because
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: of how good the people are, starting with ownership on
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: down on the basketball and business sides, and the stability
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: the Celtics have it's unusual. I think, you know, three
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: of us at workplaces certainly that and I have where
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: that's not the case, you know, trying to figure out
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: if somebody's coming to get you with the Celtics, I
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: always felt like everybody was rolling the boat in the
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: same direction. So it seemed like you're on a great
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: track there, either staying with the Celtics for a long
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: time or potentially getting other opportunities in the NBA coming
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: out of the Celtics Runt office. Take us inside your
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: decision earlier this year and what led you to join
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: the University of Arkansas.
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I was fully honest and transparent with
• 46:08
  Speaker 4: with those guys in Boston that I wanted to kind
• 46:11
  Speaker 4: of expand and do more at some point, you know,
• 46:14
  Speaker 4: beyond that that last year that I was in Boston,
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: and as you know, there's there's there's guys ahead of
• 46:19
  Speaker 4: me that that just weren't leaving at that point in
• 46:21
  Speaker 4: time too, and so you know, I wanted to see
• 46:25
  Speaker 4: what else was out there, and this opportunity to kind
• 46:27
  Speaker 4: of came out of left field. It was, it was,
• 46:30
  Speaker 4: it was such an opportunity, such an immense opportunity that
• 46:33
  Speaker 4: was like, you know what, I got to take this seriously. So,
• 46:36
  Speaker 4: you know, I sat with Brad and Zarin at the
• 46:39
  Speaker 4: Michigan Arkansas game. I think that was in December of
• 46:42
  Speaker 4: last year, and you know, while we're sitting there, we
• 46:46
  Speaker 4: were to talk to the a D that's here and
• 46:49
  Speaker 4: a couple other people that had ties to the program,
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: and uh, basically just you know, you meet a bunch
• 46:54
  Speaker 4: of different people when you go to these events. I
• 46:56
  Speaker 4: wasn't really thinking much of it at the time and
• 46:58
  Speaker 4: just you know, shaking hands, saying hello. A few weeks
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: go by, and you know, I get reconnected with some
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: of the people at Arkansas to check in and they
• 47:06
  Speaker 4: asked me about kind of, you know, this whole new
• 47:09
  Speaker 4: revenue sharing coming. I had no idea what was going
• 47:11
  Speaker 4: to be happening. What it was, uh, this infusionive money
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: into college athletics.
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: They wanted to see what a pro model would look
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: like with the cap system at the college level, and so, uh,
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: it already got my gears and my head turning like okay, wow,
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: there's there potentially could be a cap system in college sports.
• 47:29
  Speaker 4: Okay, that's that's relevant to my work experience. That's that's
• 47:32
  Speaker 4: something I could you know understand. Then, you know, a
• 47:35
  Speaker 4: couple of months went by and they created a role
• 47:37
  Speaker 4: that they wanted to have inside their athletic department, WHI
• 47:40
  Speaker 4: should be a GM that kind of oversaw the revenue
• 47:42
  Speaker 4: sharing aspects of their their department along with some nil
• 47:47
  Speaker 4: stuff trying to work above the cap number that we
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: have within our athletic department. And so as it kind
• 47:53
  Speaker 4: of came together, it was like, oh, this is a
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: real opportunity, that would be something that I'd be interested
• 47:59
  Speaker 4: in and pulled me away from you know that what
• 48:03
  Speaker 4: I'd known for the last twelve years, right, I think
• 48:07
  Speaker 4: mixed with the fact that we had just won a
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: championship and achieved that level of success and made it
• 48:12
  Speaker 4: a little bit easier to have those conversations because you know,
• 48:16
  Speaker 4: you're you're looking at it from a total like you
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: saw what it was from day one.
• 48:20
  Speaker 3: You built it up with the rest of the group
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: to get that.
• 48:23
  Speaker 4: Kind of over the hump finality portion of it, and
• 48:26
  Speaker 4: then you're kind of looking at it like what else
• 48:28
  Speaker 4: is out there?
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: What else is out there for me? I've done this
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: for twelve years.
• 48:33
  Speaker 4: I want to do challenge and I thought that this
• 48:37
  Speaker 4: was a way to, uh, to see that, you know,
• 48:40
  Speaker 4: kind of better myself type of thing you're not.
• 48:43
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 48:43
  Speaker 4: The NBA always looked at as the rules already in place,
• 48:46
  Speaker 4: you have your your breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: You know where things are going to be.
• 48:51
  Speaker 4: In college athletics, things change from day to day, week
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: to week, month to month, and I think that challenge
• 48:58
  Speaker 4: of being able to build systems and processes that aren't
• 49:00
  Speaker 4: already in place was intriguing to me. And to kind
• 49:03
  Speaker 4: of be on the forefront of that and be able
• 49:06
  Speaker 4: to look back twenty years from now and say, well,
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: we did that.
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: Whether it was a disaster or was.
• 49:10
  Speaker 4: Something pretty special, it was something that intrigued me to
• 49:14
  Speaker 4: be able to find answers for different things that just
• 49:17
  Speaker 4: weren't available. So that's what eventually kind of pulled me
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: me away. And I also thought that there's ways if
• 49:23
  Speaker 4: I wanted to go back to the NBA, and maybe
• 49:25
  Speaker 4: I do that too. Right, I'm still developed, I'm still
• 49:27
  Speaker 4: talking to agents, I'm still conversing with NBA personnel on
• 49:30
  Speaker 4: a day to day basis, but also I'm conversing with
• 49:34
  Speaker 4: NFL personnel, which is different. Right, NFL agents, which is
• 49:38
  Speaker 4: different all the way down to women's basketball and gymnastics
• 49:41
  Speaker 4: and all these other different sports, and you're bringing all
• 49:44
  Speaker 4: these ideas together. And sometimes I've gotten ideas from working
• 49:48
  Speaker 4: with a women's basketball agent or something. You know, I
• 49:52
  Speaker 4: can pull over work with the football program too, And
• 49:56
  Speaker 4: so it's really unique that you're able to leave the NBA,
• 50:01
  Speaker 4: and I get it. People say, you know, I might
• 50:04
  Speaker 4: take it for granted and working the NBA, but once
• 50:07
  Speaker 4: you accomplished that, you try and look for different things
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: and ways to challenge yourself and and build your resume
• 50:12
  Speaker 4: and ways that you feel like are good for your
• 50:16
  Speaker 4: future as well. So that was the reason why I
• 50:18
  Speaker 4: ended up leaving, and I love it here. It's been good.
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: Remy.
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: You just to address the fact that you had this
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: vision of how you could make an impact based upon
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: your experience. How did that play out? Where were the
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: initial opportunities that were the most ability for you to
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: make a profound impact right out of the shoot based
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: upon your NBA experience, And then also like, what were
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: some of the surprises along the way, What were things
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: that you weren't expecting Some of the biggest challenges you've
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: had over the course of the first year.
• 50:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we have our general accounts that has done a
• 50:48
  Speaker 4: fantastic job and drafting our contracts, but you know, pulling
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: different ideas from our NBA contracts, you know, how can
• 50:55
  Speaker 4: we institute different ways that keep our athletes in house,
• 50:59
  Speaker 4: how do help retain our athletes here at the university.
• 51:02
  Speaker 4: And so leveraging some of those ideas into our contracts
• 51:05
  Speaker 4: and also our our negotiations as well, you know, has
• 51:09
  Speaker 4: really really helped me. And just having talked to agents,
• 51:12
  Speaker 4: I think there's there's a level of you know, coaches
• 51:15
  Speaker 4: in college sports that just don't have that experience, you know,
• 51:18
  Speaker 4: being able to talk to agents and feeling that pressure
• 51:21
  Speaker 4: in the moment or trying to get a deal done
• 51:23
  Speaker 4: while also not messing up the relationship for you know,
• 51:26
  Speaker 4: down the road athletes. A lot of coaches sometimes will
• 51:30
  Speaker 4: We'll just say, you know, it's just just give them
• 51:31
  Speaker 4: the money, give them money, like let's just figure.
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: This, Like no, no, no, we can talk about this.
• 51:35
  Speaker 4: Be patient, let's let's talk through some of the different
• 51:38
  Speaker 4: nuances of the deal, because at the end of the day,
• 51:41
  Speaker 4: you know that could you know, prohibit you from getting
• 51:43
  Speaker 4: another play that you want in your roster, right if
• 51:46
  Speaker 4: you over expend somewhere else, maybe you're not going to
• 51:49
  Speaker 4: get you know, two other guys that can help you
• 51:51
  Speaker 4: out down the line, and then that could have been
• 51:52
  Speaker 4: the difference between you winning the conference championship and you know,
• 51:56
  Speaker 4: an NC double.
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: A championship right there.
• 51:58
  Speaker 4: And so those things I think trying to think more
• 52:01
  Speaker 4: strategically in this college space when we have a certain
• 52:04
  Speaker 4: allocation of funds for different sports, I think that's huge
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: and what I know I bring to the table and
• 52:09
  Speaker 4: add value in and just talking through those different things
• 52:13
  Speaker 4: in college sports.
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: As a GM in the NBA, you know, you have
• 52:17
  Speaker 3: final decision with your ownership group on kind of what
• 52:20
  Speaker 3: the decisions are with your roster going for.
• 52:23
  Speaker 4: In college different you're partnering with the head coach. The
• 52:26
  Speaker 4: head coach is essentially the president. They have to sign
• 52:28
  Speaker 4: off on everything that goes on within their their program
• 52:32
  Speaker 4: and they have the vision for what.
• 52:34
  Speaker 3: Their program needs to look like. And so I think
• 52:37
  Speaker 3: dancing around those different ideas like, coach, we can do
• 52:40
  Speaker 3: this right, here's option that you can do this. This
• 52:43
  Speaker 3: is option B.
• 52:44
  Speaker 4: What are some things that you want to get done
• 52:46
  Speaker 4: and how can we do that most effectively? To get
• 52:48
  Speaker 4: it across the finish line so that the athlete their
• 52:51
  Speaker 4: agent are happy, but also the university is happy because
• 52:54
  Speaker 4: these are university funds and you want to make sure
• 52:56
  Speaker 4: that we're spending the right way. So I think that's
• 52:59
  Speaker 4: what people don't necessarily understand in this space.
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: It's just it's not me saying we're doing this. We're
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: doing this. It's the coach.
• 53:06
  Speaker 4: Setting a vision right for what they want for the
• 53:08
  Speaker 4: program in us, trying to find the resources and structuring
• 53:12
  Speaker 4: deals the right way so that they could be as
• 53:15
  Speaker 4: the most competitive and use those resources to their advantage.
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: Remy, you talked about how important fundraising is in the
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: NIL era of college athletics, and that's where that didn't
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: want to make a big deal of it. But he's
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: going to send you a million dollars from his prod piggybank.
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: Just send him an invoice. And he said, you know,
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: hanging out of the show. But yeah, L E V
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: I N E. Is the last name you send him
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: over today. I'll get it back to you before the
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: before the holidays. Now, in all seriousness, to talk a
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: little bit more about your relationship with John Calipari. Full disclosure.
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: I've known Cal since I was a kid and he
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: was at UMass. He and my father are close, so
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: I've known him thirty five or forty years at this point.
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: Hall of Fame coach obviously a big personality. He knows everybody.
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: I mean that, I know you probably know this given
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: who he is, but but the guy is really incredible.
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: His relationships, his recall. I have some funny stories about
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: when I was Yam of the Suns, he'd call me
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: on the clock and just like have a conversation. It's okay, Cal, hold,
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: Like can you hold because I actually have to pick
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: somebody right now? I got the big office, so uh
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: if you could. I know it's only been you know,
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: less than a year at this point, but take us
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: inside Coach Cal. What it's like working with him and
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: and all that comes around with the Cal show, because
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: there are a lot of people around and he seems to, uh,
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: like I said, somehow impact so many different lives.
• 54:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, No, Cal has been great.
• 54:30
  Speaker 4: I think with him when I first got here, they
• 54:33
  Speaker 4: were finishing up the portal, right, and I think, you know,
• 54:36
  Speaker 4: trying to get him on the horn. I told somebody
• 54:38
  Speaker 4: else this the other the other day, like I'd only
• 54:40
  Speaker 4: spoken in the first three months like a couple of
• 54:42
  Speaker 4: times because they were so really entrenched in getting into
• 54:45
  Speaker 4: what the portal was and getting their roster together. They
• 54:48
  Speaker 4: had retained a lot of their athletes already. H and
• 54:50
  Speaker 4: quite frankly, I was learning the space early on too, uh.
• 54:53
  Speaker 4: And so the summer we had talked about just you know,
• 54:56
  Speaker 4: nil systems and things that we could potentially, you know,
• 54:59
  Speaker 4: put into place to help him out.
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: And then you know, when it came to August.
• 55:04
  Speaker 4: Because my role has to do with all sports, I
• 55:06
  Speaker 4: had to shift my thought process all the way to football, right.
• 55:10
  Speaker 4: And so now what we're planning on doing is, you know, January,
• 55:14
  Speaker 4: coming back to the end of January, coming back to
• 55:15
  Speaker 4: the table and talking about what it is that he
• 55:17
  Speaker 4: necessarily needs from my standpoint, and then kind of putting
• 55:21
  Speaker 4: those systems in place so that he can go out
• 55:23
  Speaker 4: and get the players that he needs for his roster
• 55:25
  Speaker 4: and retain some of the athletes that we want here
• 55:27
  Speaker 4: back at the university. You Know, one of my things
• 55:30
  Speaker 4: I wanted to do coming into this situation was let
• 55:33
  Speaker 4: cal know that I'm here to help, right, I'm not
• 55:35
  Speaker 4: here to.
• 55:36
  Speaker 3: Try and supersede or take credit for anything that he's done.
• 55:41
  Speaker 4: As you allude to, he's one of the bigger personalities,
• 55:45
  Speaker 4: great human beings.
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: Athletes speak extremely highly of him and what he's done.
• 55:51
  Speaker 3: His track record speaks for itself.
• 55:53
  Speaker 4: And so I think Cal has always been and I
• 55:55
  Speaker 4: think he's the first kind of CEO head coach type,
• 56:00
  Speaker 4: and so he's lived in this space dealing with with
• 56:03
  Speaker 4: athletes and understanding kind of, uh, the business aspect of
• 56:06
  Speaker 4: it and what these athletes are, you know, want from
• 56:09
  Speaker 4: their experiences, and you know, I think he's really well
• 56:13
  Speaker 4: versed obviously, having been you know, in the NBA himself
• 56:16
  Speaker 4: and and and coaching at that level of what that
• 56:19
  Speaker 4: looks like. And so, uh, partnering with him has been,
• 56:22
  Speaker 4: you know, fantastic. His staff has been open.
• 56:24
  Speaker 3: I go over to practice every you know, so often
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: and talk to them about different things and get their perspective.
• 56:29
  Speaker 3: A couple of people on their staff deal with uh,
• 56:32
  Speaker 3: you know, the personnel and and talking to some of
• 56:34
  Speaker 3: the agents as well from those type of things, and
• 56:38
  Speaker 3: we come up with different ideas that that might be
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: you know, beneficial to them long term. And so Cal
• 56:43
  Speaker 3: being in season right now, they're doing a fantastic job.
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: You know, they're they're one of the best teams obviously
• 56:48
  Speaker 3: in the country, and I think for for him, it's
• 56:51
  Speaker 3: just how can we get more above the cap money
• 56:55
  Speaker 3: for our athletes?
• 56:56
  Speaker 4: How can we uh manufacture or turn you know, our
• 57:00
  Speaker 4: are seven to twelve on our roster into even better
• 57:05
  Speaker 4: athletes with more money, more funding, and so that that's
• 57:08
  Speaker 4: going to be key, I think for them going forward.
• 57:10
  Speaker 4: But the experience overall from you know where I sit
• 57:13
  Speaker 4: has been fantastic so far.
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm just curious. You know, in professional sports,
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: were always currently running a one, three and five year plan.
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: Does that have any practical application in the collegiate space.
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: Like you mentioned earlier, you're focused on trying to retain
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: athletes with the transfer portal.
• 57:31
  Speaker 3: How do you do that? How do you.
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: Convince athletes to not only come to Arkansas, but to
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: stay once they get there.
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's very interesting because, like I said before, those
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: it changes so fast, The rules change so fast. You know,
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: how you're attaining athletes in this year might be totally different.
• 57:49
  Speaker 3: We talk about some schools out there using bio clauses
• 57:54
  Speaker 3: or liquid at damages or just a template for their
• 57:57
  Speaker 3: contracts that it resembles more of a you know, uh
• 58:01
  Speaker 3: an employment contract right with your coaching staff. And that's
• 58:05
  Speaker 3: all somewhat going away because take football for example, you know,
• 58:10
  Speaker 3: they're the football portal shifted in you know, the middle
• 58:12
  Speaker 3: of the year to go back to January right when
• 58:16
  Speaker 3: it was actually in December, and so some of the
• 58:17
  Speaker 3: language that might be in other people's contracts does not necessarily,
• 58:21
  Speaker 3: you know, fit that framework anymore. And so you're going
• 58:24
  Speaker 3: back to the tables like, okay, how do we retain
• 58:25
  Speaker 3: our athletes? How to retain our athletes? From a contractional standpoint,
• 58:30
  Speaker 3: we try to do the best we possibly can. But
• 58:32
  Speaker 3: I also believe it's you know, what are the invisible
• 58:34
  Speaker 3: barriers that you're creating to keep your athletes here?
• 58:37
  Speaker 4: Are they enjoying their experience? Are we getting them involved
• 58:41
  Speaker 4: with the big time donors that are currently here, the
• 58:44
  Speaker 4: Walmarts of the world, the JB Hunts of the world,
• 58:46
  Speaker 4: the Stevens Group, and all those tea people that have
• 58:50
  Speaker 4: immense and massive networks. I think that's important to show
• 58:54
  Speaker 4: them that we're investing in them. And then you know,
• 58:57
  Speaker 4: how are we helping them with their fine answers?
• 59:00
  Speaker 3: Right? Are we putting them in front of people to
• 59:02
  Speaker 3: help them flip their money into more right, Are we
• 59:05
  Speaker 3: helping them build their own LLC?
• 59:07
  Speaker 4: Are we helping them find the right tax people? Are
• 59:11
  Speaker 4: we helping them actually invest right their money and their
• 59:13
  Speaker 4: funds versus just buying cars and chains and all these
• 59:17
  Speaker 4: other things that don't hold value. And so I think
• 59:20
  Speaker 4: it's investing in your student athletes, even outside of just
• 59:22
  Speaker 4: the money, giving them the tools that they need to
• 59:25
  Speaker 4: be successful, and showing them that they can only get
• 59:28
  Speaker 4: some of that stuff here, right. And like I said,
• 59:31
  Speaker 4: there's other things contracts that we have that you know
• 59:34
  Speaker 4: have been advantageous to us. One thing that's great that
• 59:37
  Speaker 4: we leverage in some of our negotiations is there's no
• 59:40
  Speaker 4: in state taxes on rep share contracts here in Arkansas.
• 59:44
  Speaker 4: And that's in different places around around the country too.
• 59:46
  Speaker 4: Obviously Florida California don't have state taxes. But there's that's
• 59:50
  Speaker 4: a that's an uptick for us. That's an advantage that
• 59:53
  Speaker 4: we currently have over some other places that we tend
• 59:56
  Speaker 4: to use at a big way of costs of living
• 59:58
  Speaker 4: down here is fantastic. The facilities that we have are
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 4: second to none down here. I think that the people overall,
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 4: I haven't had anyone beat their horn at me since
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 4: I've moved down here. So it's a very nice place
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 4: to live. So you talk about all the things, even
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 4: outside of the money. We try to build those invisible
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 4: barriers so that athletes want to stay here and be
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 4: a part of this for just more than one.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: Year, Remy, you mentioned your involvement in a number of
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: different sports. From a public perception looking at college athletics,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: two sports get the most interest by far. You talked
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: about basketball, your relationship with coach Calipari in football in
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: particular in the SEC. I believe you guys had a
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: coaching change, a new hire this offseason at Arkansas. Take
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: us inside, just from your perspective, what is that like?
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: It seems like the intensity and scrutiny, especially on the
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: head football coach at some of these SEC schools as
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: it is at an all time high. It comes with
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: a lot of money and that's great, but also comes
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: a lot of pressure because of the intense fan interest
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: from your fan base.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean the SEC country. I mean football is
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 3: king like that. That is the you know, all your
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 3: programs that we've We've had a lot of success across
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 3: the board even way well before I even got here
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 3: from we had four I think four athletes get the
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 3: highest individual honor this past season in baseball, softball, I think,
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 3: I want to say track, and there was one more
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 3: that we had just get the top award in their sport.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 3: And that's unprecedented territory, right that you have a pretty
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 3: broad scale, you know, athletic department, and is you know,
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 3: flourishing at that level, but it is.
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 4: It is very difficult when your football team is not
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 4: where it needs to be. And we know, we acknowledge that,
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 4: you know, we we take that and we're we're fixing that.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 3: I worked with three head coaches i think over the
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 3: last four months in football, all with different visions for
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 3: what they want their team to look like. All with
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 3: different visions for what they want their team to look
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 3: like two three years from now, how they're going about recruiting,
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 3: how they're going about the portal, how they're going about
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 3: the guys that are even currently on their roster. And
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 3: so now it's it's just kind of you know, formulating
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 3: those that relationship with the head coach.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 4: I talked to him via text or over the phone,
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 4: you know, multiple times during the week and trying to
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 4: get him where he needs to be and kind of
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 4: marrying that with you know, this is what we have
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 4: for you. Please, you know, ask any questions and let's
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 4: kind of, you know, chip away at this thing. But
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 4: it's been it's been great and a good learning experience
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 4: for me to see how things move and change so
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 4: fast in this environment. And you have to have different
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 4: plans for different people, and you know, I have to
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 4: come up with those ideas fairly quickly. But again back
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 4: to your point, football is king down here in the South.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 3: We have to get it right.
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 4: We've taken the proper steps I think in our process
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 4: to get it right. Now it's just going out there
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 4: and doing what we need to do over the next
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 4: month or so here and hopefully we're on the right track.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 3: Come next all.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: Us well, Remy, we want to thank you so much
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: for coming on Rosters to Rings, educating the listeners and
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 2: Ryan myself alike. I feel like we just scratched the surface.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 2: We'd love to have you back on at some point,
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: but please stay with us through the break. We got
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: listener questions on the other side here at Rosters to Rings.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Rosters to Rings. Everyone that I really
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: enjoyed that segment with Remy Cofield. The Celtics front office
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: folks that I know and work with for over a
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: decade speak very highly of Remy, and you can see why.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: I'm sure he's going to do great things at University
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: of Arkansas. We know what the sec is, the money,
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: the pressure, all of that that, and he's overseeing a
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: lot of sports. So I'm really excited to follow that
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: young man's career. I think he's got a bright future
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: and he sits in a great spot with the Razorbacks
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: that as usual. In segment three, we're going to get
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: into our listener questions. Producer Wyatt. I think he's on
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: a yacht somewhere cruising around the Mediterranean. I think he
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: let the success of the you know, first handful of
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: shows doing these listener questions go to his head. Uh
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: and and he actually did spend it all in one
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: place from when I'm told it's probably uh probably advancing,
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: doing cash advances and at the pawn shop right now.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: So to replace Producer Wyatt uh. For segment three, we're
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: gonna have our big boss, actually the brains behind the
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: operation here at Roster Rings. That is producer Jason. He's
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: going to ask the listener listener questions and somebody has
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: been you know, behind the camera, off camera and and
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: behind the mic for you know decades. Now, excuse me
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: a dozen of shows now, Uh, Jason, welcome on the
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: air to Rosters to Rings.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 5: Thank you so much, Ryan. I appreciate that intro, and Uh,
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 5: you know, I'm gonna do my best to fill in
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 5: for the Mediterranean club hopping abisa nightclub producer Wyatt.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 3: Uh, you know who's up.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: To no good?
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 5: I'm sure all right, guys. Uh had a kind of
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 5: an interesting question to start this one because it kind
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 5: of picks up off the end of our first segment
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 5: from today, which A line nicely and A two six
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 5: eight four wants to know what's more stressful building a
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 5: contender or trying to keep one together, something of which
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 5: I know both do.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: I think have some experience in this, so, you know,
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: I think it's a great, great question, and the you
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: know what my experience was when I built a team
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: in Texas, which is the team that went to back
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: to back World Series. So that's the closest I can
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 2: came to winning a championship. I think, like so many instances.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 2: In twenty ten, we entered the season think we were
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: still maybe a season away from actually being the best
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 2: we could be, and then all of a sudden, the
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 2: team just vaulted forward forward. We found ourselves in a
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 2: playoff hunt, and we were very aggressive at the trade
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 2: deadline trying to add to that team, recognizing that we
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 2: were probably a little further along than we had expected.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 2: So I think you know it's in the moment when
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 2: you see those opportunities, don't miss on them, because don't
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 2: take for granted that you're going to be as good
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 2: next year as you were this year. There's just so
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 2: many things at factor in every team out there is
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 2: trying to build these championship teams. Talent is tantamount to winning,
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 2: but so too is staying healthy and quite candidly, at
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 2: some points, getting lucky at the right times matters. And
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 2: so when you have those three things align, don't miss
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 2: on those opportunities. We see that across all these sports,
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 2: where everyone thinks that this franchise is going to be
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 2: a contender for the foreseeable future, and in practice maybe
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 2: they're one and done, and you wonder what transpired there.
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 2: So sees the opportunity, I'd say was the first thing.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 2: And then when you're trying to build out that kind
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: of extending that window, I think you can't take anything
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 2: for granted. You can never fall into that trap of
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 2: complacency that well, we have this figured out, so we're
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 2: going to just be as good next year as we
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 2: were this year. I think when you are building those
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: championship teams, it's it's essential that you add to that group.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 2: While you're winning. You need to change the dynamic in
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 2: the room a little bit to try to make sure
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: that you continue to try to get better year in
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: and year out, at least get a little bit different,
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: if not discernibly better. And I remember after we lost
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 2: the World Series in twenty ten, in Kinsler, who is
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 2: one of our best players that year, turned to me
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: after the last game that we lost and said, I
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: wish we could just fast forward to August and we'd
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 2: be in first place. That's kind of the mindset of
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 2: the championship, which is exhausting getting to those playoff scenarios.
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 2: You have to stay energized, you have to stay motivated
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: and make sure that you're rejuvenating that clubhouse and keeping
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: that north start crystal clear, which is to win a
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 2: championship and be contenders for year to come.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, good question by Anna that I thought from my
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: experience it was harder to build a championship contender. And
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: the reason I say that is every team in the
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: league is trying to do it. As we know, in
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: the NBA, only a handful of teams like MLB, only
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: a handful of teams actually do it successfully and have
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: a chance to win a championship in a given year.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: And for us in Boston, I think that was because
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: the first four years that we went kind of in
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: a straight line down from above average to poor, and
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: then we built it so quickly, historically quickly. We got lucky.
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: As as Remy Cofield discussed, you know, luck does play
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: a factor, just the fact we're able to in the
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: same offseason acquire two future Hall of famers in Kevin
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: Garnett and Ray Allen, to add to another Hall of
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: Famer in Paul Pierce, and then we had Rashon Rondo
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: maybe there as well. That doesn't happen often, in fact,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: it's only happens once in NBA history, and I was
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: fortunate enough to play a part of that. And then
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: I think that when you have success, it's not easy
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: to maintain it because you know the veteran role players
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: you have in particular who contribute to that, they tend
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: to get paid well, some would say overpaid. You know,
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: we had after a great year in Boston in the
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: two thousand and eight championship, James Posey got a big
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: deal from the New Orleans Pelicans. We just could not
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: match that contract. We had to let him go. But
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: the reason I say it's harder to build it that
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: because the difference is when you're at a championship contending level.
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: I do think you get the occasional veteran player who
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: was willing to take less to have a chance to
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: compete for a championship. Doesn't happen often, it doesn't happen
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: all the time, but every once in a while there's
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: a guy who would say, Yeah, I just want to
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: win a ring, and I'll take less because I've made
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: my money, I've had my success at an individual elsewhere.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: I see the opportunity here, so that happened. I think
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: back to David West, who was a very good power
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: forward in the NBA. He was playing, if not on
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: a minimum contract, on a low money contract in Golden State.
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: Believe won a championship for two with the Warriors at
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: the end of his career. So that's where I think
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: success does beget success sometimes, and if you're able to win,
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: there may be some opportunities available to you that are
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: not available to you if you're a bad team or
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: even just a pretty good team who's not a championship contender.
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 5: Thank you, guys, good question from Anna there. Now we're
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 5: going to switch over. We're going to go from the
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 5: controlled to the uncontrolled. We saw this past weekend DK
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 5: Metcalf get into an altercation with a fan, which as
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 5: of now, about an hour and a half ago, it
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 5: was reported that he had an altercation with this same
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 5: fan in Seattle. Shed's a little more light on that story.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 5: You know, we saw a couple of weeks ago, Ryan
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 5: Josh Giddy, you know, going at it with a fan
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 5: a couple of rows deep, right on the edge of
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 5: the court. You know, in all fairness, when I was younger,
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 5: there was nothing more fun than buying a ticket to
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 5: a Major League baseball game, sitting over the visitors dugout
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 5: and yelling at every guy in the on deck circle
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 5: over and over our fans too close, guys, and you know,
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 5: how much should players ignore and where is the line
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 5: you know that that gets cross there.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all good questions, Jason, with no easy answers, because,
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: as you know, fans pay a lot of money across
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: sports now for that access and the ability to sit
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: right behind the dugout. In basketball, they sit on the court.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: It's something that the leagues are certainly concerned about, you know,
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: cause in the NBA there's nothing stopping from a fan
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: in the front row or even maybe even front first
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: couple of rows, from just walking onto the floor even
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: as a live gameplay is going on. So it's something
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: the leagues are aware of. And so that's the trade off.
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: It's it's the greatest sport in the world, I think,
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: or a cross sports when you can sit in the
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: first row behind the dugout or look into the dugout
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: and see what the manager is doing, Here are the players, here,
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: the conversation with the umpire. There's nothing like that. It
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: feels like you're a part of the game when you're
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: in those seats. Same in the NBA. To anybody who's
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: you know, kind of lukewarm on NBA basketball or may
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: not love it. I said, look, if you get a chance,
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: I know it costs a lot of money, but if
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: you can go to a game, sit in the first
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: ten or so rows on the sideline between the baskets,
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: just do it. Because the speed, the size, the athleticism
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: is unparallel. So I think that's the tradeoff. The DK
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: Metcalf situation, that was interesting context by Jason. It seems
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: like a one off that would that did not seem
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: random to me that As you know, fans say stuff
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: to players all the time, especially visiting players in a
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: hostile road environment. It's very rare to see a player
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: take a swing at a fan, which is what DK
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: Metcalf did yesterday in the Steelers Lions game. So I
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: think there's something where, you know, to Jason's point, there's
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: more of a backstory there. I don't think somebody who
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: goes to an NFL game next week and sitsts in
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: the front row he needs to worry about a player
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: randomly swinging at them. So I'll be fascinated to see
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: what the story is like. And because that is, you know,
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: they're always going to be some jerks who maybe take
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: it too far, say something personal or have some kind
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: of history that the rest of us are unaware of
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: that contributes to an incident, and it seems like that
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: was likely the case with DK Metcalf in Detroit over
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: the weekend.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 2: O Ryan, I think he answered it perfectly. I just
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 2: add a few things from my perspective, and we've talked
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 2: about this in past episodes. Is I think, unfortunately, you know,
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 2: what Jason was referring to when he was younger and
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 2: went to you know, sit behind to dugout and maybe
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 2: ra as a player like that was probably done with
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 2: some level of decorum and innocence. Like today's social media platforms,
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 2: I think give the fans in boldened view that they
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 2: can really say whatever they want to players and hold
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 2: them accountable. There's this perception that they're getting paid so
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 2: much money, so they should just have to endure it,
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 2: and in practication they do need to endure.
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 3: Most of it.
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 2: But when it becomes threatening, when it becomes racially incendiary,
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 2: or when it's a personal attack, like I think that's
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 2: where the lines get crossed. And I don't know exactly
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 2: what transpired here with DK Metcalf, but I think these
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 2: guys are human beings. Ultimately, we've talked about this many
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 2: times on the show, and there's a critical mass of
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: that that they can weather. And when the commentary starts
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 2: becoming about their children or about their well being, their livelihood,
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 2: you know, unfortunately some of the fan bases, they can
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 2: get a little bit racially motivated in some of these comments.
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 2: We've all heard those things. They're deplorable and I'm not
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 2: saying that justifies a fan a player lashing out against
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 2: a fan, but it's pretty despicable behavior and it's something
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 2: that we need to monitor on both sides. That the
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 2: players do need to weather a lot of storms here,
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 2: they need to have thick skin. But I think fans
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 2: also have to recognize these guys are human beings. They
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 2: are fathers, they are husbands, their wives. You know, these
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 2: are people who are trying to provide for their families,
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 2: protect their families. And when those lines are crossed and
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 2: done with enough frequency, it's going to spark some action
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 2: that is really unseemly for all these sports and for
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 2: the players and fans alike.
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 5: Yeah, thank you JP and Tampa for the question. Interesting stuff.
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 5: As you know, the role between the fans and then
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 5: the players, you know, seems to get closer and closer.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 5: All right, last one, guys, in the spirit of the holidays.
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 5: And you know, those of us who work in sports
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 5: know that sports is weekends, holidays, night times, all of
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 5: those types of things. I know both of you, you know,
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 5: sort of share, you know, different seasons. But is it
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 5: hard for a team and the staff on pro sports
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 5: team or really any team who plays and gives up
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 5: their holidays? You know, is it hard to work during that?
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 5: And what do you guys do as gms to kind
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 5: of fill the void for that holiday spirit?
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 2: Well, Jason, I you know this is this is one
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 2: of probably the sad realities of professional sports, is that
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 2: you're on call almost three hundred and sixty five days
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 2: a year, and you try to put your phone down periodically,
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 2: but then you have this concern that maybe the day
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 2: that you get beat. And I'm actually as I'm looking
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 2: at my background behind me, that is a picture of
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 2: Nelson Cruz and it hearkens back to a time when
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 2: on Christmas Eve, I signed Nelson Cruz to come join
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 2: the Minnesota Twins, and everybody in the workplace was just
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 2: incredulous that I did that. And part of the reason
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 2: was because the agent had intimated to me he was
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 2: about to sign with somebody else. So if we didn't
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 2: step up on that day, that wasn't my preference to
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 2: work on Christmas Eve. But my desire and my strong desire,
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 2: was to sign Nelson Cruz, and he helped really transform
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 2: the Minnesota Twins. So there's a little bit of a
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 2: sense of One of the blessings of the cell phone
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 2: is that we can reach anybody whenever we want to
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 2: reach them. The curses that they can also reach you,
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 2: and if you're not prepared to answer those calls, well,
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 2: usually it's not a matter of life or death by
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 2: any stretch. Sometimes it is the key player. And if
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 2: an agent feels that pressure that they have to accept
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 2: another deal and can't let that one go for a
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 2: couple of days to wait for your response, we may
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 2: have to act on one of those hellow days of
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 2: Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, and so you
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 2: have to be prepared to do business on those days
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 2: if you're working in professional sports. Now that I took
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 2: the year off, I plan on getting a lot of
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 2: R and R during this week and really relaxing and
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 2: maybe taking my family on Dare I say a little
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 2: bit of a vacation, So that's what I'm looking forward to.
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the same. In the NBA, as we know,
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: Christmas is a marquee day that there are five games
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: in Christmas or ten teams are also known as a
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: third of the league is playing on Christmas Day. The
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: game started about now and Eastern time, they go to
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: about midnight or after midnight. So it's an honor to
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: play on those days. But it's a big responsibility obviously,
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: especially for the road team. It's different if you're at
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: home because you can have an abbreviated Christmas. So what
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: we tried to do when I was with teams to
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: try to even shift the holiday, say, okay, if we're
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: going to play on Christmas, you know, maybe we give
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: the guys the twenty third off and kind of shift
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: everything up a day, right, act like the twenty thirds
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: Christmas Eve and the twenty fourth is Christmas Day. That way,
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: on the twenty fifth we can come in and get
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: ready for the game. It's not ideal that I remember.
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: I think it was my second year's GM of the Suns.
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: We had to deal with Detroit where we sent Anthony
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: Tolliver to the Detroit Pistons. I think it was on
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: Christmas Eve, if I remember correctly. I let him know
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: he had fallen out of the rotation for us. We
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: had some other guys coming back, we were getting healthy
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: and playing well, and I just thought he was going
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: to get buried. And we're only, you know, a month
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: and a half or so away from the trade deadline
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: at that point. So Detroit had a role for him.
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: They wanted him, they had a need for him. But
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: it was a difficult conversation. It's difficult at any time
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: that as you know, if he's either December twenty third,
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: or like I said, I think it was actually the
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: twenty fourth, say hey, Merry Christmas. By the way, you know,
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: as soon as he can get a flight after the
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: holiday whatever, you're headed to the Pistons. They get a game,
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: they want you. So my thing as an executive that is,
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: you know, the job and the games are important, but
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: family always comes first. So on the days, the special
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: days of holidays, I wwould said, look, if you have
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: to be here, come on down. We're going to do
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: our job, or we're going to get in and out
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: as quickly as possible. I think we're some others really
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: you know, create some resentment among staffs as having people
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: in the office like it's just any other day. It's
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: not another day. It's it's Christmas Eve, a Christmas day.
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: So we're going to come in get our work done.
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: But then as soon as your work's done, get out
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: of here. Everybody, get out of here. We're going to
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: get in and out. We're going to be professionals. We're
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: going to get in and out to enjoy the holiday because,
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: as you pointed out that this is a year long grind,
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: and when you're in it, it's easy to get sucked
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: up into fifty Every day needs to be a fifteen
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: hour day, twelve months a year, you know, seven days
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: a week. I think the organizations that do it with
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: class and dignity and realize that people aren't robots. They
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: have families and lives, you know, engender loyalty from their
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: employees and ultimately have more success.
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 2: I couldn't agree with you more. Well, thanks to Remy
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 2: Cofield and a heartfelt thanks to you, Ryan. We are
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 2: going to have a best of show next week in
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 2: between Christmas and New Year's We'll be back on the
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 2: air January eighth, on behalf of Ryan all the family
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 2: here at Rosters Rings. Happy holidays to everybody from.
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 3: Rosters to rings.
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 2: Please join me, host bad Levine, Ryan McDonough, and other
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 2: general managers every week for Roster Syrings on Apple, Spotify,
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 2: or wherever you get your podcasts.
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 3: Welcome