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Adventures in Broadcasting with Brian Anderson · Rosters to Rings Podcast

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Rosters to Rings With Ryan McDonough, I am
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: fad Levine. We got a wonderful show for you today.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: In our second segment, we're going to be joined by
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Brian Anderson, one of the most pre eminent broadcasters in
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: all of sports, fresh off of covering the French Open.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: But our tradition in the first segment is we get
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: to our listeners questions. One of the most pressing things
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: in sports today. And Ryan, the questions came in in droves.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: I'm going to attribute this one to JW who is
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: a self described nix Zellot living in southern California, and
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: he wants to ask you, what do you make of
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Tom Thibodeau's firing by the New York.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Knicks fad There's not much in the NBA that shocks
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: me anymore really in pro sports in general, but this
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: one was surprising just because of how much recent success
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: the Knicks have had compared to the lack of success
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: they've had really over the past two decades. Going back
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: to two thousand, Tom Thibodeau had the team within two
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: games of the conference finals forcut me the NBA finals
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: for the first time in twenty five years. He was
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: the most successful Knicks coach in decadestad he won fifty
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: games in back to back seasons in New York. That
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: had not happened since nineteen ninety four nineteen ninety five.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: And keep in mind, this is a team and obviously
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: in the Mecca, the Marquis in New York City, the
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: country's biggest media market. That but they have not won
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: an NBA championship since nineteen seventy three. And I think
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: that's one of the things that's so hard about these
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: jobs is what is the expectation. Because by any objective measure,
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Tom Thibodeau did great, not good. He did great with
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: the New York Knicks, getting them into the playoffs for
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: on the last five years, advancing in the playoffs, going
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: further every year. This year, you know, losing in Game
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: six of the conference finals, and that I want to
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: get your take on it, you know, relative to MLB.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: But it's one of the things that I think makes
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: these jobs so difficult in this day and age because
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: guys like you and I I think when we came
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: into the league, if you want enough, even if things
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: weren't perfect away from the court of the field, you
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: stayed employed. Now it seems like in certain instances, winning
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: on its own just isn't enough to keep you employed
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: for a long period of time.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Well, it absolutely isn't. I mean. The thing that was
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: most remarkable as I was preparing to respond to Jadaw's
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: question is I was just shocked to see Major League
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Baseball they have a National League and American League Manager
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: of the year. So over the LAT over a period
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: of time from twenty seventeen to twenty twenty three, fourteen
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: people were named manager of the year, seven in the
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: National League, seven in the American League. Of those fourteen,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: only four are still employed by the team for which
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: they won the award. Okay, so four out of fourteen,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: so there's some proxy of those were the best managers
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: in the game, and there's that level of attrition. So
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: I just jumped over into your world and I looked
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: at the NBA. Over that same timeframe, seven guys were
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: named the coach of the year. Of those seven, all
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: seven have been fired. And what was even more remarkable,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Sultan the Wound, is two them have been fired twice
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: since then. So the seven guys who were named the
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: coach of the year have been fired collectively nine times
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: over that period of time. It's just a staggering figure.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: And it just goes to show the average tenure for
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: an NBA head coaches two and a half years in
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Major League Baseball, it's three point seven years. The volatility
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: of these roles is so pronounced. And we're not talking
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: about the teams that finished in last place. We're talking
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: about the teams that had the head coach of the year,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: the manager of the year, and they are losing their
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: jobs at that level. And it was incredible. Eighteen percent
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: of NBA head coaches lose their job within the first year. Ryan,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: when you were in the seat, when you were making
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: selections and influencing selections, when you weren't in the seat
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: about who the head coach was. How do you pitch
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: these guys on, Hey, we want you to believe in
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: a five year plan when this is the reality of
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: the volatility of these positions.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: I think the reality of it that is there only
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: thirty of these jobs in the NBA in Major League Baseball,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: so even a franch guys just have history of churning.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: I think as a young executive, you and I grow
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: up and dream of becoming a president or a general manager,
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: which we're fortunate enough to achieve. And same on the
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: on the coaching side. You know, you grow up dreaming
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: of these jobs. So not many people, I mean maybe
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: a few former players who have made a lot of
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: money that are in a position to turn it down
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: and say no, I don't want to do that. But
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: I don't know many people, including your and Iddy, my buddies,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: I probably don't know any of them would say, now,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: I don't want millions of dollars in a guarantee contract
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: the opportunity to be head coach channel manager.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: I'm going to pass on that.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: So I think you have to know getting into it
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: that the Steve Kerrz and Eric Spolstra's you know, Greg Popovich,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: you're recently retired from coaching in San Antonio now moving
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: up to the front office. Those guys are the outliers.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: They're the anomalies. You pointed out the numbers, the average
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: lifespan as far as the head coach is or manager
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: is two or three years, and that it's the winning
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: teams now too. That's been the recent trend in the
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: NBA is that just before the playoffs started, with three
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: games left in a successful regular season, the Denver Nuggets
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: fired not only their head coach, Michael Malone, who is
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: the winningest coach in franchise history, but also their general manager,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Calvin Booth. There was a power struggle in Denver, and
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Josh Kroncky, the owner, did not pick one side or
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: the other. He said, both of you guys lose. I'm
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: firing both of you guys. They promoted David Adalman to
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: interim head coach. They've since given him the full time gig.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: After a successful playoff run in which they lost to
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: the OKC Thunder in seven games. But their thad and
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: then I go down to Memphis Taylor Jenkins, the winningest
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: coach in the history of that franchise. He was also
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: a late season firing. I believe there are nine games
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: left in the Grizzly season. So turning it back around
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: to you and looking at baseball, this is a recent
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: trend in the NBA that I'm not sure it's a
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: good trend. But like the teams going to the playoffs
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: in Major League Baseball ever make managerial changes, say in
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: September or just before the postseason begins.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Honest to goodness, Ryan, I've never seen it. I've never
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: seen what you guys experience in the NBA this year,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: where you had two coaches leading up to it an executive.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: You also saw the Atlanta Hawks fired their gmfter a
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: playoff run. I think that's a little bit more common
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: in baseball. So twelve teams make the playoffs every year
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: in Major League Baseball. Now with the expanded format, that
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: means you have twelve lead executives, you have twelve managers.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: That's twenty four people. I think it's not uncommon to
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: see one or two firings in that group for lack
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: of reaching expectations. But it's never done in August, it's
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: never done in September. Heading into it, the coaches and
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: executives who are losing their jobs, there are ones who
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: willfully fell short of expectations. They're not tracking to the playoffs.
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: One observation I have, and I'd be curious if your
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: thoughts on the next situation is I will say, sometimes
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: you do need a new voice, you know, and it's
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: not necessarily singularly linked to winning percentage. So you know,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: I was looking up the records you just mentioned Eric Spolster,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: who I think is regarded one of the best coaches,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: not only in the NBA, but maybe across all sports well. Interestingly,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: he is the exact same career winning percentage as Tom Thibodeau,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: who just got fired and has been fired a number
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: of times. Eric Spulsure has never been fired, and so
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: it's not just about the winning percentage. Sometimes it is
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: about the voice and the presentation. And Tom Thibodeau unequivocally
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: has had success everywhere he's been. I'd be curious your feelings,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Ryan about are some of the things that you could
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: attribute his success to. Also the reasons why maybe he's
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: not necessarily meant to be the guy who's coaching for
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: say eight to ten to twelve consecutive years, just because
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: it wears thin after a while. So it works different
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: in certain timeframes. But depending on where you are cyclically,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: sometimes the voice does need to change.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think Tom's personality. He's a single guy, He's
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: a grinder. I work with him for three years in
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: the Celtics. We had a great run and won the
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: NBA Championship in two thousand and eight, lost to the
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Lakers in the twenty ten to five, and then shortly
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: after that he got his first head coaching job with
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: the Chicago Bulls. So I think, like a lot of
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: us had, our strands can also be looked at its
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: as weaknesses at certain times. So yeah, I think, you know,
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: a guy like Tom does have a tendency to to
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: maybe push too hard and great, but look he won.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: And that's what's hard about this objectively is if if
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: you do okay or poorly, and you grind and great
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: on people, I think it's easy to make a change
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: if you win. If you asked me to go, make
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: a bet on it that. I think whoever's the next
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: head coach of the New York Knicks, whether it's Jason
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Kidd or we'll see who they get, they're not going
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: to do as well next year or in the next
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: couple of years as Tom Tividdter just did. Taking this
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: team to Game six of a conference finals. I think
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: the team at best goes sideways. I think more likely
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: it goes backwards. So that's what's so hard about it
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: that these these coaching hires you never know. But I
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: do think you make an excellent point. The ones who
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: last the longest, like Steve Kerr, who comes out of
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: the Phil Jackson tree, there's a balance and a lack
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: of intensity, and don't mistake that for lack of preparation
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: of caring. But they manage the ups and downs very well.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: And I also think that an important factor is that
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: maybe the most in fact important factor is ownership in
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: the stability of it. Miami, in the most positive sense
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: of the word, as a coach or an executive is
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: an outlier where they look for every reason to stand
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: behind their coach and their president and general manager and
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: support those guys. We had that with the Boston Celtics
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: when I was there. We did not have that with
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: the Phoenix Suns and certain organizations the Knicks are one
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: of them, the Sons or another that if you look
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: at the pattern and the history of it, it kind
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: of repeats itself that whether they're looking for a new
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: head coach or a new executive, seemingly every couple of years,
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: and Ryan, you.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Brought it up earlier. These jobs are so coveted that
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: people will take those jobs. But it is you're remiss
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: if you don't look at the track record of the
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: owner when you take these jobs, and so you should
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: not be surprised when three to five years down the road,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: maybe the Knicks or maybe the sons are making another change,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: because the best indication of what their behaviors are going
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: to be moving forward as their past tendencies. And so
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: I just would you know, my last point here is
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: just I think sometimes like voices do run their course.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: I have to believe that guys like Steve Kerr, Eric
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Spolstrou have been in their places for so long, they've evolved,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: They've changed, They've changed their voice, they've changed their message.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Because any singular voice, any singular message does there's some
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: fatigue over a timeframe and you have to freshen it up.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: So unless that person is showing the ability to change
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: and evolve, you sometimes have to change to the person.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Guys like Tom Thibodau have been so massively successful everywhere else,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: what is inspiring him to change because he's had such
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: great success. And so that then is where the rubber
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: meets the road, and sometimes changes have to be made.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: And coming up next, we're going to have a guy
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: who covers all of it, the NBA, Major League Baseball,
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: the French Open Golf, Minor League baseball. He's the voice
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: of two K. We're going to get into that right
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: after this with Brian Anderson on Rosters.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: Welcome back to Rosters, to Rings everyone.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: I am Ryan McDonough, joined as always by Thad Levine,
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: and we have a special guest for you today, that
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: is Brian Anderson. Brian started calling Milwaukee Brewers games back
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: in two thousand and seven. In two thousand and eight,
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: he began to work with Turner Sports. You've seen him
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: on Turner now for close to two decades. You can
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: see and hear him on national NBA and Major League
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: Baseball broadcast, plus big golf events and the NCAA Men's
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: basketball tournament. Just a few days ago you heard him
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: call the French Open Men's final, which is already considered
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: among the best tennis matches in the history of the sport. Brian,
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Rosters, to Rings, and let's start there. What
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: was it like watching and calling the historic match between
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Carlos Alcaaz and Janick Center this past Sunday.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: Great to be with you guys. What a role reversal too.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: I'm the one supposed to be asking you guys questions.
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: Now you're you're the big executives. How the tables have
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: turned former execuew too.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: Just to be clear, former that's.
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: Why you're never a former, You're always an executive. Uh yeah,
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: that was really one of the coolest things I've ever
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: been a part of, I've ever witnessed as a sports fan,
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: I've ever called as a sports announcer. The setting, the play,
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: the fact that it not only went five sets, but
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: it was an epic five setter. They're not supposed to
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: go that long, five and a half hours, longest ever
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: at roll on Garros, and it was just one of
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: those moments where you thought it was going to end,
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: and then it didn't end, and you know, the river
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: went so many different ways and had so many different forks. Ultimately,
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Carlos Halkaaz withstood at all and and went back to
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: back defended his title, and Johannix Center number one player
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: in the world Alcoraz defending champions. So it was a
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: collision course of these two great tennis players that are
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: the next wave. Jim Currier labeled him the new two
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: coming off the Big three era from Rafi Nadal who
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: had won fourteen titles at Roland Garos and of course
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: Roger Federer. You could even add Andy Murray in that
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: group as well. With Novak Djokovic and Federer and Nadal.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: Djokovic is still playing, so he got knocked out in
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: the semifinals. So he had all this drama and all
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: this theater set up and all these backstories, and you
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: just feel for ninety seven percent of the tour, the
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: ATP tour, especially because their window after the Big Three
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: was very closed, very much closed quickly because these two
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: new players are on the scene at age twenty two
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: and twenty three in alcoraz In Center, So it was
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: all of that. It was the first time they'd ever
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: met in a Grand Slam final, because it was the
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: first time they would ever seeded one and two in
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: a Grand Slam final. So they met in the semifinals
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: at roll On Garrels a year prior. But this was
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: it had all the juice, man. I mean, it was like,
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: you know, I've called six hour extra inning, eighteen inning
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: baseball games. I've called epic NBA moments Lebron James scoring
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: record or Stephen Curry's three point record. Those were small,
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: micro moments inside of a regular season game. I've never
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: called an epic like this from start to finish. So
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: I was an honor to be there, and it was honor.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: It is our first year TNT Sports to have it.
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: And then we got Cocoa Golf in the final and
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: winning a US woman winning for the first time in
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: ten years on Saturday, and then this epic match on Sunday.
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: So what a gift that was from the tennis gods
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: to us. That's what you get if you pay sixty
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: five million dollars a year for ten years. I guess
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: we bought our way it, Brian.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: As I was watching the match, I was thinking of
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: a story that Jerry Depot used to tell us, which
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: was a Jerry Depota, now general manager of the Seattle
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Mariner's good friend of mine. He would challenge the interns
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: every year. He would say, hey, if you got five
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: hundred played appearances in the big leagues, how many hits
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: would you get? And everyone would contemplate. They'd say I
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: could get five hits, I could get ten hits. One
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: bold guy would say I could hit one hundred in
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: the big leagues, and he'd say, no, no, The answer
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: is always the same, it's zero. You would never get
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: a hit. And so as I was watching those two
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: guys play, I was thinking of the reality show Pros
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Versus Joe's that came out of the early two thousands,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: and how much I would love to see one fan
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: try to return or serve from one of those two guys,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: and how woefully behind they would be. But one thing
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you, Brian about about the match itself,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: was you guys talked about the statistics. Center was eighteen
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: and one in his career, went up two sets to
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: love and Alcarez was zero to five in his career
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: when he was down two sets to love. One of
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: the things we talk about on rosters to rings is
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: when you watch a lot of sports, you kind of
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: get the sense, you get the field, that there's a
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: momentum shift, and often that happens before the shift actually
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: takes place. There are countless games I've watched where we've
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: been down six to three and I think, you know what,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: they didn't score right here, they didn't put us away.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: We're going to win this game. And unfortunately the opposite
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: is true. When you were broadcasting this epic match, was
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: there a time in which you turned to John mcnroe
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: and said, Hey, I think he has a chance to
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: come back here, like the tides just turned. And if so,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: when when was that in this match?
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well there were a few of those moments and
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: it went both ways. So of course I'm new to
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: tennis broadcasting, so you know, my eyes are untrained on this.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: So I was constantly throughout the whole two weeks, whoever
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: I was working with, I was constantly firing off that
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: those kinds of questions that you're saying. So in this
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: particular match, I'm asking John McEnroe, who's endured a loss
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: at roll on Garos when he was up two sets
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: to love in a final against a Van Lendel, so
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: he you know, he's lived that. So those were common
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: questions and I would ask him man if and I wasn't.
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: I didn't say like was that a turning porter or
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: inflection point? You can kind of feel that it was
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: more like in advance of it. So when he when
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: he finally did so, Alcoraz was facing three championship points,
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: meaning Alcaraz was serving. But if Centner wins any of
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: the next three points, when it was three to five
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: in the fourth set, he loses, he's out, it's over.
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: And then he came back and he won that game.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: He came back and won that service game, got a hold,
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: and that's when I asked mac I go, like, what's
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: that going to do to Center, because now the crowd
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: is fully behind Alcarez. He's already beaten him here on
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: the clay. He just beat him three Sundays prior in
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: Rome in a final on the clay. And now that
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: was a three setter, but he you know, Alkarez had
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: beaten Center for consecutive times. This is the number one
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: player in the world. Center who's dominated everybody, hadn't even
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: lost a set to get to the finals. He'd won
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: eighteen straight and then won the first two twenty consecutive sets,
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: one and thirty one consecutive sets at Major's. Remember he
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: won the Australian Open in January. This is like the
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: most dominant force. It'd be like, you know, the the
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: most dominant closer in baseball, and there's only one guy
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: who can beat him, and he just keeps clipping him
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: every time. It's like Mariano Rivera, but pick one guy,
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: Luis Gonzalez maybe who gets him every time. So that
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: was kind of the dynamic. So those questions were flying,
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: and definitely Johnny Mack brings such incredible perspective, you know,
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: for me, it just it morphed into a side of
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: aside from what was going to happen in the match
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: and what the result was going to be, there was
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: great entertainment value. Obviously, it lofted tennis to a place
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: that it really probably hasn't been. That was probably the
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: statement that surprised me the most from Johnny Mack. You know,
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: you think about Nadal and Federer and Djokovic, Andy Murray,
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: they elevated the game, and then these two have taken
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: all of that sweet stuff and elevated it even more.
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: And we're watching tennis literally that we've never watched before.
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: So just like in other sports, you know, we're seeing
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: hoopers make three pointers at ranges we've never seen before.
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: We've seen baseball players though at velocity that we've never
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: seen before, hit the ball with velocity and maybe we
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: haven't seen before. And so that's where we are now
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: in tennis with these this new group of players and
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: especially these two. So for me, it was like pulling
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: all of the knowledge that I had covering all these
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: other sports from you know, thirty years of broadcasting, then
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: the confluence of not having done tennis and trying to
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: make it make sense in my mind. The thing I
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: did know about and was sure about was the competitive
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: spirit and just the incredible will. And I said this
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: on the air, but and I mean it even today
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: to watch elite athletes play at an elite level with
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: great care and want to playing for an elite title,
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: like it all matters to them, so you're getting peak performance.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: It was like a case study in sports psychology. It
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: was all of that. There's no load management that Ryan
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: had to deal with in his sport. There's no you know,
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: we're not pushing starters back to get them a few
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: extra days rest. This is when all the chips were
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: in the middle. And man, when you get to witness
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: that like I did personally, and then to be able
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: to put my voice on it, which creates a whole
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: different kind of stress. But that's what really gets me going.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: So I knew that I knew about that angle, like
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: I could sense that and feel that. But the tennis
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: stuff was not you know, that's not off the top
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: of my tongue. I don't have the context for how
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: great this is. Is this the best ever? Is it
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: top three? Is it top five? So bad? To your question?
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: Those were the questions I'm asking literally every commercial to
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: John McEnroe, Good Brian.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: Some of the initial feedback we've gotten here in rosters
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: to rings is people enjoy listening because they may want
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: to go on to be a front office executive like
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: that and I were, or may want to go on
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: to be a head coach or a manager like aj
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: Hinch was who we had on our last show. For
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: anyone listening who wants to be a broadcaster, take us
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: inside your preparation. You cover as many sports as anybody.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: I imagine this was a unique challenge doing tennis for
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: the first time, with men and women coming from all
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: over the world. The punt pronunciations, I imagine weren't very easy.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: So take us inside how it's different preparing for a
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: tennis smatch, say, versus preparing for it an MLB or
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: an NBA game. And also, what is it like working
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: with a larger than life personality in John McEnroe. I
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: know you have some experience working with Charles Barkley at
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: Turner Sports, but with Johnny Mack is probably as identifiable,
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: maybe more identifiable with men's tennis as anybody in the country.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. I mean that's an easy one. Johnny
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: Mack was very similar to being around Bob Buker for
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: the last eighteen years until we lost him this January.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: It had that gravitational pull. You know, Bob Buker walked
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: into a room, you knew he was in the room,
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: and all eyes were on him, and then that's what
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: that was like. And then working with Jim Currier and
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: Andre Agassi throughout the match, and then in the semi final,
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: it's the same kind of perspective and vibe. They bring
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: security guards with him, people, you know, just having watching
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: them navigate through the crowds to get from our compound
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: green room to the booth. It was exactly like being
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: in the bob ecosystem. And I'm actually I kept saying
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: to myself, how fortunate am I that I've been around
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: you can in that bubble with the Brewers, with Bob
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: Uker for you know, almost two decades that this is
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: not new to me, and I can experience that and
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: understand some of the sensitivities that go into that. You know,
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: when you walk through a scene like that and you
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: finally arrived to the I don't know, let's call it
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: the serenity of the booth, and you can finally just relax.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: I thought, I thought that was exactly what I've experienced
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: with you. So that helped me understand them more and
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: know that scene better and also know how to navigate that.
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: And then he's great on the air, and all those
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: guys are great on the air, and their tennis knowledge
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: is incredible. So I learned a lot throughout the two weeks.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: The preparation for it was, I would say a little unusual.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: It's probably my own maniacal way, but you know, I'm
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: I'm an athlete. I was never to the level of
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: my brother Mike, you know, who played professionally made it
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: to the major leagues briefly, but you know, I played
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: college baseball and I played every sport and it's really
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: helped me call every sport similar to your brother Ryan.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: Like Sean McDonald was one of my great idols. He's
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: the guy looked up to and I watched him call
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: these other sports with such ease and fluidity. He was
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: one of the guys that I wanted to kind of
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: be like. I wanted to be versatile, you know, number one,
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: because I wanted to make sure I had a job
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: and if I was versatile. In the early days. Doing
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: multiple sports kept me working, so there was a practical
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: sense to it. But also I enjoy all of that,
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: like I enjoy telling stories of players, because that really
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: doesn't change no matter the sports are on the rhythm
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: of it and the vocabulary changes, but the essence of
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: what we do is to try to deliver these reasons
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: to care about these individual athletes or the subjects. That
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: doesn't change. So for me to start tennis, I found
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: out eight months ago, and you know, my first thing
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: was I'm going to go reconnect with the game from
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: a playing perspective. So I went. I hired a coach.
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: I did high level. He coaches like high level younger
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: tennis players, elite level tennis players, so he has no
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: business with a fifty four year old man, but he
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: took it on here in Wisconsin through the winter. His
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: name is Tim Hartwick, and I told him to teach
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: me and talk to me like you would an elite player,
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: because I need to hear lingo verbage. He would line
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: up his high level talent and they would serve at
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: me like cook and serves at me one hundred and
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: thirty miles an hour, just because I wanted to feel
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: what that looked like on the other side. So that
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: was my first step was as a player, just to
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: start playing again and not really like playing matches, but
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: the training part. And obviously I'm not any good, but
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: I'm like a three and a half level player, maybe
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: a four at this point. But so that was number one.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: Number two was then traveling out there to see So
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: I flew to Paris in November. There's an indoor event
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: called the Rolex Masters in bear Sea, which is where
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: they played the Olympic basketball and gymnastics if you remember
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: that venue. So that's where the tennis tournament was. It
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: was only atp only men's but at least you know,
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: I sat there at that had like a baseball scout.
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: This is like I took my brother, who's a scout now.
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: I basically took all those principles and I sat there
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: for four matches a day, for eight hours a day,
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: like a baseball scout, and I made notes, and I
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: had my phone and had my notepad and my voice memo,
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: and I watched match after match and I did that
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: for four days. I watched sixteen matches in four days,
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: and I barely moved from that seat. So I took
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: a lot of the principles that I knew from that
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: to prepare for that. Then I did the same thing
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: at Indian Wells in March, and obviously watching Tennis channel preparing,
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: like learning just the rhythm and the flow, when do
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: they take commercials, when do they speak, when do they not,
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: how they navigate the broadcast and kind of the finishing steps.
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: Where I went to Indian Wells and that really for
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: me was it was between NBA games, and I asked
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: T and T to put me on some West Coast
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: games during that run. So I did a Lakers game,
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: a Clippers game, a Nuggets game, a Sun's game, and
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: so I was able to bounce back and forth between
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: those locations and Indian Wells, California, you know, Palm Springs area.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: So that was more like to connect with certain media
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: people and that's where I met these you know, like
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: authors and writers and French writers from La Keep and
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: Christopher Clary who wrote the adult book that's just out
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: now which I highly recommend, called The Warrior. So that
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: was more to expand a little bit on the you know,
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: the connections, the network of people who have been doing
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: this for a long time. John Wertheim and a guy
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: from Tennis Channel named Prakash Armitrage who it was my
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: tennis yoda. So that's a detailed answer, but that was
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: my way to get to the point where when I
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: showed up on the grounds at roll On Garos, now
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: I'm doing the things that I know how to do,
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: and that is talk to players, talk to coaches, gather
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: quotes like things you can't read in a media guide
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: are on a Wikipedia page. Tell me about Tommy Paul
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: right now, the fact that his orthodox were stolen and
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: he's having issues with his feet like those are the
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: things that really motivate me when I show up on
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: the ground, similar to that, you know when we would
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: go down to batting practice and you're around the turtle,
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: you know the cage, and you're just acquiring knowledge things
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: you may be able to use on the air. So
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: I laid it out in multiple phases, from actually playing
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: the game to learning, to watching the scouting to then
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: talking to the individuals when I felt comfortable to be
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: able to ask the right kind of question. So it
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: was a huge process. I'm really glad I did it.
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: Haven't done anything new in about twenty five years and
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: by the way. I did that exact same those same
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: steps when I got the Golf Channel job, when I
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: got rescued out of minor league baseball, where I got
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: stuck for nine years calling minor league baseball games, which
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: I loved but was ready to move on. I did
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: the exact same thing for golf and so it worked
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: for me in the past, and that was basically why
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: I wanted to pursue it this way. And thankfully T
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: and T had the resources to send me these places.
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: And you know, there's prettym involved in hotels and transportation,
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: so I'm really grateful for all of that.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Brian, you just alluded to it. We have a lot
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: more broadcasting questions for you, but we do want to
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: jump over to baseball for a second here. You talked
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: about everyone knows you for being on the center stage
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: of the best sporting events around the globe, but you
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: got your start in minor league baseball. One thing we
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: try to do on Rosters rings is one of the
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: tie that binds all of us together is this notion
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: of we all have an origin story that where we
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: fell in love with sports. We'd love to hear your
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: origin story and walk us through a little bit about
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: getting that first job and how you paid your dues
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: before you got your big break.
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll try to be quicker, but it was very
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: unorthodox path too. And again it all leads back to
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: my playing career. So my brother Mike was he was
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: not drafted. He's an amazing story, my brother Mike, and
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: he signed out of a tryout camp. He was ready
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: to go be a stockbroker, got passed up in the draft,
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: you know, multiple times through from high school even into
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: his college years. He's just going to go get in
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: the workforce like the rest of us. But he found
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: something mechanically and he signed Chuck Lamar, who would go
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: on to be the general manager of the Tampa Bay
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: Rays then known as the Devil Rays, signed him out
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: of a tryout camp. A cattle call. I mean, there's
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: guy's in blue jeans and cowboy boots there, and so
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: that was like I mentioned that, because without Mike doing that,
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: there is no me doing this. Because you know, Mike,
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: he's five years older. He looks like he's twenty years older,
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: but he's only five years older, which is his problem.
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: I feel bad for him sometimes, but he broke this
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: paper ceiling that we didn't even know existed into another
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: life and world of achievement. So he breaks through nineteen
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: eighty eight, gets signed, he makes it to the big leagues.
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: So through his path through the minor leagues, I'm going
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: to visit him. I'm still playing competitively at college, and
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: so I'm training and spending time with him every summer
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: for weeks at a time. So during those steps, through
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: those years in the early nineties, now as Mike's marching
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: up the ladder in the Reds organization, I'm spending time
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: with the radio announcers, and I'm just kind of like,
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: I think I could do that. I mean, that seems
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: like a cool job. And it's also about I'm realizing
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to be good enough to get drafted
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: to get signed. So now I'm really searching for a
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: plan B. And was I going to go be a
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: baseball scout, which I got offered to do by the Reds,
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: or go into broadcasting. And that happened in ninety four.
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: So I graduate my college team, we went to the
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: NAI World Series. It was a great ride. My career ended,
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: I got my degree. We shared the field, we actually
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: leased our field to the DODGERSUAA team, and so I
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: was very much in the mix with the professional team
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: that would come in in the summers after our season ended.
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: And so I just stayed and I worked for the
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: Spurs and I worked for the San Antonio Missions, and
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: I just kind of got to know those guys and
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: I pulled tarp and I helped with the grounds crew
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: and all kind of stuff. And then they moved into
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: a new stadium and they wanted a secondary announcer, so
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: they asked me at twenty two if I would do that.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: I had a lot of technical background because I had
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: done a lot of TV tech work while I was
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: in college, so I was able to bring some of
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: those skills to it. And then that's where it started.
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: And so now you know, I started calling minor league baseball.
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: I was brutal. I was an English major. I didn't
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: study journalism or communications like I wouldn't have survived two
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: weeks at new House at Syracuse or Northwestern or some
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: of these great, you know, broadcasting universities. I wouldn't have
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: made it. I was awful. I didn't even know how
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: to like speak properly and do any of this publicly,
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: but I did have a rhythm of the game. And
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: I had played all these sports, so I knew all
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: these different games. And I'm getting high school Texas high
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: school football games to call on the radio basketball games.
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: I'd also been an official when I was in college.
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: It was part of our head coach ran not to
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: go on a rabbit hole, but he hired all his players.
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: It was before nil, so the way to get us
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: paid is we were referees and officials and umpires. So
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: that was our game. So you know, I kind of
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: seen the game from so many different levels. I took
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: all of that to minor league baseball and high school football,
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: and I was calling like high school basketball on the
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: radio and doing all kind of whatever I could do.
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: I never said no, I did everything. I was doing. Swimming,
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: I did Big twelve swimming and diving, women's hoops, men's hoops,
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: it didn't matter, college hoops. And I was working for
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: the Spurs as well as first as on the technical side,
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: and then ultimately I got on the air with the Spurs.
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: That was really one of the major breaks. So five
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: years after I started calling minor league baseball games on
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: the radio, I get the Spurs job. I had called
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: some minor league like double A All Star game for ESPN,
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: Little League World Series games on television, and then you know,
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: it wasn't a fast rise. I mean, my agent calls
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: me the twenty year overnight success, you know, and he
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: still calls me that because I spent nine years calling
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: minor league baseball. I worked for the Spurs for eight
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: years on the air, fourteen total. But things really snapped
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: when I got the Brewers job in two thousand and seven.
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: And when I got that job, and that was a
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: miracle to even get that job. I had no major
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: league experience whatsoever, and they were looking for that. That
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: was a major parameter for them. But I broke through that.
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: Thank goodness, they gave me a chance, and literally from
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: seven it was the TV voice of the Brewers. Eight
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: I'm doing, I get hired by TBS to do the
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: Baseball playoffs, and I've been with both of those entities
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: ever since. This is my nineteenth year of the Brewers
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: and my eighteenth year with then Turner Sports now TNT Sports.
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: That's a long time in this industry, Brian, And you're
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: going back to your minor league days. Reminds me of
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: when I was in college In two thousand and one,
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: I was the second guy in the radio booth for
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: a double A team called the Carolina Mudcats.
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: They played games. We own that team now, the Brewers.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, the Zebuline, North Carolina. They played a five
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: county stadium and that I remember opening night in my
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: first game, I'm very excited. I had my one pair
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: of cocky pants, you know, pressed nicely by one pair
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: of nice shoes. I go out there and it starts
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: raining and some guy looks at me. He goes, you
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: go get the tarp, and I was like, what you know?
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: And so I went out there and rolled the tarp.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: As Brian mentioned that, that's just what you do in
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: minor league baseball, So that was a fun.
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: I screwed in seats. I remember opening day. We were
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: literally screwing in seats. It's a brand new ballpark, nineteen
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: ninety four Wolf Stadium. I know Thad's been in there
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: many times, but back then it was nice and new,
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: and we were all down there with drills, just screwing
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: in seats because the seats weren't in the concrete yet.
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: I caught bullpens and I threw the first group of
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: BP my first five years, and that was like another
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: thing with my playing days, to be able to connect
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: on that way, on that level. You know, I threw
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: the first like that, I'll tell you Ryan, the first
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: group of BP's kind of the show group, you know.
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: But I had to throw the first group because I
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: had to go shower and changing it ready for the broadcast.
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: So when they found out I could throw batting practice,
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: I mean, they signed me up. Like Louis Tiant was
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: our pitching coach, the late great Louis Tia. He wasn't
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: about to throw VP, so he just kept and they
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: paid me twenty five dollars a day the Dodgers did
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: to throw batting practice. So you know that I loved it.
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: I was I was totally content. This is going to
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: be a great life. I'm here, I'm in the uniform,
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: I got a locker. I'm not good enough to be
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: a player, but I'm the closest thing to it. Oh yeah,
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: and I got to be a broadcaster and figure out
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: how to do this, which was a train wreck in
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: the first couple of years.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: Brian, and my guess is we could go around the
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: horn and tall all these crazy stories of what we
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: did when we were more junior. But one thing real briefly,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: you know, Ryan actually was a broadcast journalism major and
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: I was an English major.
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: So this is the.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Exact juxtaposition you referred to. I remember when I was
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: my first day as an assistant general manager for the
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: Texas Rangers in spring training, one of the minor league
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: players walked up to me and then general manager John
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: Daniels and handed us their laundry and said, hey, could
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: you guys get this done for me and put it
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: back up in my locker? Because I thought we were
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: just clubhouse.
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: Guys, and so you guys were all so young though,
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: I mean your prodigies.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: We said, we said, yes, we'll do it, but allow
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: me to introduce you. This is John Daniels. He's the
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: general manager of the team I love and that and
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: that player is Jase Tinkler, who's now the bench coach
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: of the Minnesota Twins.
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: Wow, that's so good. I mean, you guys got you know,
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: you were young into it. I was young into my world,
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: but I was not in that big league world yet.
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: You know, I I had a chance to to be
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: bad in a place that didn't have the scrutiny. Both
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: of you guys did at such a young age. You
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: know that that's the difference between our our careers. You
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: guys were, you know, in the analytics age. I mean,
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: you guys were at the forefront of that, and you know,
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: going the World Series and speaking of that, you know,
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: when when I was watching this this match Sunday, I
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: was thinking about you guys. But because obviously through through
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: my brother's lens, you know, my as a broadcaster, I
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: celebrate the champions. Of course you have to lay those
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: words on it, but I immediately always resonate with with
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: the ones who come up short, and you know, for
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: you guys in the World Series, and just how that
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: ended in Saint Louis, and it's just like I can
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: remember those or even in my brother's own career, you know,
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: his major league debut is part of one of the
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: most famous games in baseball where Mark Witten hit four
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: homers and had twelve RBIs and Mike gave up those
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: two home runs in the middle and that was his
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: major league debut, And there's so many bats. There's such
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: a backstory to like Mike getting to the major leagues
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: at that moment, but here he is kind of a
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: footnote in a historical moment. But you know, he's no
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: footnote in my family and in my life, just as
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: I can attach to a player who or a pitcher
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: who gives up a dramatic home run, or Nelly Cruz
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: unable to make the catch in right field and the
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: agony that all of you guys felt. And right, I'm
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: sure you've dealt with your fair share of agony. You know.
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: It's these these are human beings, and there's more than
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: just footnotes and historical sporting moments. And I try to
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: bring a little bit of that sensitivity to the air,
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: you know. And I learned that from vern Lunquist, and
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: Lunquist used to always attach these incredible lines to moments
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: of despair or failure. Jackie Smith dropped a pass in
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: the in the Super Bowl, remember, and he and Verne
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: Lunquist said he's got to be the sickest man on earth,
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: and that was all he needed to say. And because
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: now you go from all this celebration or anger if
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: that's your team, to like, oh yeah, that's a that's
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: a heartbeat underneath that helmet, underneath those those shoulder pads.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: And right, I'm honored that you thought of me in
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: such a face of epic film Exactly.
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: I always think of that that moment for all you guys,
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: you know, but.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: I'll joking aside, Brian. You know, we had Greg Anthony
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: on a couple episodes ago and he just talked about
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: how much more galvanizing the losses ever were than the winds,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: Like it is character building, But I think one of
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: the art forms you're talking about is humanizing those moments.
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: And you have the ability on the mic to do that.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: And you know what's not lost as an executive watching
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: a sport, I don't know that well. But Janix Sentner
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: just lost one of the most epic battles he's ever
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: fought and he has to put a mic in front
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: of him and give a ten minute speech in a
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: foreign language right after that, Like that is that is
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: a remarkable feat for him. Like what he did on
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: the court was just extremely talented talent on display. But
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: getting in front of that mic and having the composure
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: to be gracious in that moment, I just can't imagine.
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: Because in the face of epic failure, which we've all felt.
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: If you've been in sports long enough, you felt it
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: like composing yourself in those moments. I just can't imagine
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: for a young man. He's a young man and he's
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: speaking in a foreign language and showing the grace he
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: did was incredible.
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's one thing about these these elite tennis players,
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: you know, they all speak multiple language. It's languages. It's
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: really incredible. I mean English is probably Center's third language.
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: He's Italian, but he grew up, you know, two and
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: a half hours from Munich, up kind of where it's
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: German speaking northern Italy, so he speaks German, Italian, he
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: speaks English. He's even thrown a little French in there
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: it to yeah, you're right, man, And that that was
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: like that just just like warmed my heart to see,
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: like the we have so much poor sportsmanship, so many
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: opportunities for players to be above and set an example,
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: and so many failures in that. And it kills me
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: when that happens, because I'm imagining these ten year olds watching,
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: and you know, you guys see it in all these
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: youth sports. They model the players ahead of him. And
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: that's why tennis is in such an incredible position. And
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: for Yanick Center to go through that and then deliver
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: that kind of speech, with that kind of class, and
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: he actually got hosed a couple of times, and he's
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: got the whole crowd against him the whole match. He
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: could have just walked out of there and said, you know,
• 43:14
  Speaker 3: see you guys later, I'm never coming back, or I'll
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: see you next year. But he was the opposite, and
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: it was a beautiful moment of They should be a
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: book written about that, in my opinion, because that that's
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: what sports is all about and what it can be,
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: and what a what a ripple effect that's going to
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: have every coach, every executive. You know, if you want
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: to get to a player and you've got a player
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: that's being a bit of an idiot, you know, that's
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: the kind of thing you show him. You say, look
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: this guy, your loss or your devastation, even your win.
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: Even Alcaraz his speech if you watch the first what
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: two minutes of his speech was all about Janick Center,
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: the guy you just beat. It wasn't he wasn't pound
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: in his chest. It was respect. It was so great.
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: It was just like, man, can we get more of
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: this in all of our sports?
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: Ran When you mentioned that, and I coming up short,
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: I'm glad you went with the twenty eleven Rangers instead
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: of the twenty ten Celtics when we were at fourteen
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: to Kobe Bryant the Lakers in Game seven in the
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: Staples Center. So I appreciate you going that way with
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: the reference. But one of the things that I want
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: want to get into is your different vantage points, the
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: literal vantage points. When you're broadcasting these games. For baseball,
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: you're up in the press box. For tennis, you're higher up.
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: For the NBA, which I'm obviously more familiar with, you're
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: right there courtside and the best seat in the house.
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: What is that like?
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: You know, there are any neat stories where you've heard something,
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: you've seen something, a conversation between a player or an official,
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: or you know, coaches going back and forth that you say, well,
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: that was interesting, but that may be on a hot mic.
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: We're probably not going to get into that on air.
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd say the first thing that pops in my
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: mind about that is is, and you know this, Ryan,
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: because you've sat down there, You've been down there. But
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: these athletes in the NBA are so big and fast
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: and strong you feel them running by you when you're
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: that low. I can remember the first Lebron James game
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: I ever called. He's sprinting by me with a dribble
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: and I can feel it in the the on the hardwood.
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: I can just feel him his steps and he's just
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: the way he's breathing. It's like it's literally like a
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: thoroughbread is and I'm going, oh my god, you know,
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: and he's just and he's flying by me just the
• 45:28
  Speaker 3: speed at six' eight and two point, Fifty, like how
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: can a human being move like? That and so that's first,
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: thing you, know it just it shocks the system because you, know,
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: baseball you're up. Top you don't really get that. Prospective,
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: tennis you know you're up top unless you're At wimbledon
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: and you're down. Low football you're up. Top, hockey you're up.
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: Top but to be to be able to sit on the,
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: floor and a lot OF nba teams are moving their broadcasters,
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: up which is a real shame because you do hear so,
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: much you can bring so much to an audience based
• 45:56
  Speaker 3: on just being down. There even you know those minutes
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: before the, game that scene where all the players are
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: on the floor warming, up, stretching referees are, there the
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: whole scene you, know and there's cameras, everywhere and you
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: kind of break through that little bubble and you can
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: you can gather some quick intel in the layup. Line,
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: hey how you feel and how you? Doing talk to an?
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: Official what are you looking at? Today these two teams
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: have been. Scrappy it really pays off in a playoff
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: series in THE nba because you, know these officials do
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: their homework and you know they advance what the history
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: has been between certain players a certain, team so and
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: you know you can get some of that and you
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: can bring that to the. Broadcast so those are nuggets
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: that you can. Offer and then you know the speed
• 46:39
  Speaker 3: of the, game so you're you're seeing. Things you get
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: blocked a. Lot i'll be, Honest like in THE, nba
• 46:45
  Speaker 3: you're on the monitor more often Than i'd like to
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: be just because people are standing. UP i, MEAN i
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: remember like doing a game At Madison Square garden And
• 46:55
  Speaker 3: Fat joe there's a call against The knicks And Fat
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: joe sitting right next to. Me he's like right in
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: my face asking, me what do you? Do what do you?
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: Do he's asking why they called a foul on his,
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: team And i'm trying to call the. Game he's, This
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: he's twelve inches from my. Face and so those are
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: the kind of THINGS i think about being on the
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: floor at AN nba. Game you, know it's just a
• 47:19
  Speaker 3: it's a scene down. There it's, like And i've done you,
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: KNOW Nba All Star, game did THREE Nba All Star,
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: games AND i Did All Star, saturday and, man you
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: just got famous people all around. You and you, know
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: when you work With Reggie miller Or Greg anthony or
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: Stan Van gundy or you, Know charles this, year you,
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: know everybody wants to be in that. Scene so you
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: got rappers and singers and. Actors it's just like you
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: got to put the blinders, up you. KNOW i. CAN
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: i always remind myself what my vision of it speaking
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: a booth. PERSPECTIVE i always capture that image in my,
• 47:57
  Speaker 3: mind And i've had it forever AND i do it
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: all the time of what it was like overlooking the
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: minor league baseball field THAT i worked at with fifty
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: fans on a Rainy tuesday night in the middle Of,
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: august maybe fifty, Literally AND i just think about, that,
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: like all, Right i've been there And i've done, that
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: and Now i'm, here you, know With Tracy morgan sitting
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: next to, me or you know, Whoever Jason bateman or
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: whoever it may. Be so those perspectives can add some
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: nerves and anxiety to your broadcast when you're in those.
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: Moments the serenity of the booth in tennis and baseball
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: and hockey football even like that's pretty easy to get
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: yourself in focus. Mode but, man down on the floor
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: at AN nba game or our big time college basketball,
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: game that's another level of concentration to try to be.
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: Yourself you, Know, brian you just revealed a character trait
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: that you have That i've always, admired which is your.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: Humility you, know you've just never lost your, grounding your,
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: appreciation your reverence for your. Brother you know you did
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: telling your story that you were the bullpen catcher for
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: him as he was building up to that one. Tryout
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: but you, KNOW i want to build off. That you,
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: know one THING i don't think listeners realize is how
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: much executives tap into broadcasters to get. ADVICE i harken
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: back to my career WHEN i Left texas AND i
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: came joined The Minnesota, twins when we were prepping for
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: WHAT i knew was going to be a, tough a
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: tough press. CONFERENCE i would Call Evan, grant a good
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: friend of mine from The dallas, market and, say, HEY
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: i want you to be in the, room, like ask
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: me the toughest questions you could ask, me so THAT
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: i was well prepared for BECAUSE i had a friendship
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: With evans AND i knew he'd hit me. HARD i
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: just be curious if you could share with the. Listeners
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: have you been that type of conciliary to an, executive
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: to an, owner to a, player even to maybe an
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: official or a coach that you could share with us
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: throughout your. Career, YEAH i.
• 50:00
  Speaker 3: WON'T i won't name names because you probably wouldn't want,
• 50:02
  Speaker 3: that but, yes quite often you know managers and general
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: managers and even even you know like sometimes our Owner Mark,
• 50:11
  Speaker 3: attanasio who wouldn't mind, Me, Sharon but we talk about
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: those kind of things and you know how things would
• 50:17
  Speaker 3: be perceived or at least like the questions THAT i
• 50:20
  Speaker 3: would have as a journalist about a move that's, made
• 50:23
  Speaker 3: a trade that's, made or. Whatever AND i don't sugarcoat
• 50:27
  Speaker 3: those things. Either AND i that's WHEN i KNOW i
• 50:29
  Speaker 3: can connect with. SOMEONE i can IF i know that
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: an executive is asking me THAT i know that executive
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: is on it and at least covering every possible layer
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: of his. Job so that actually impresses me more WHEN
• 50:47
  Speaker 3: i get. That but, yeah through the, years you, know
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: there's been a lot of conversations about you, know even
• 50:55
  Speaker 3: disagreements Where i've, SAID i just don't like the way
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: you guys handle. THAT i don't think that was you,
• 51:00
  Speaker 3: know to give you an, example there was a case
• 51:03
  Speaker 3: where it required it required a statement from our club
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: and there was no. Statement and then you, know the
• 51:14
  Speaker 3: clock's ticking to me being on the, air to our,
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: audience and there was no. Statement SO i kept saying to, myself,
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: like all, right somebody's got to tell me what is
• 51:25
  Speaker 3: THE i need to quote. SOMEBODY i can't just go
• 51:28
  Speaker 3: on and give my own opinions about. THIS i need
• 51:30
  Speaker 3: a quote and then we. Can and, so you, know
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: finally we, did but it, was it was there was
• 51:35
  Speaker 3: a lot of, hesitance, Uh and then after the FACT
• 51:37
  Speaker 3: i expressed that, LIKE i just don't think that was properly,
• 51:41
  Speaker 3: done and you kind of left me and us as
• 51:44
  Speaker 3: broadcasters in a tough position because we don't, know we
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: don't we don't even have a baseline to go off
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: of from the club's perspective or you, know whatever the
• 51:58
  Speaker 3: perspective would. Be the play didn't speak. Either so there's
• 52:02
  Speaker 3: been those moments, too AND i think over the, YEARS
• 52:04
  Speaker 3: i don't, EVER i don't ever like bore my way.
• 52:07
  Speaker 3: IN i will answer if. Asked you, KNOW i respect
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: the symbol of the closed, door and that's a really
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: important THING i would teach younger broadcasters is make sure
• 52:18
  Speaker 3: you don't walk through closed, doors and you better know
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: when you're welcome and when your opinion is, welcome and
• 52:24
  Speaker 3: not to offer. It so many of us just want
• 52:26
  Speaker 3: to spout out everything that we, think when really we
• 52:30
  Speaker 3: need to be listening more and then be prepared if.
• 52:33
  Speaker 3: Asked and so that's kind of been my motto all these,
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: years and you, KNOW i have on a number of
• 52:39
  Speaker 3: occasions through especially the last fifteen, years you, know been
• 52:44
  Speaker 3: able to do that and been asked to do. That
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: And i'm always nervous to do, that But i'm always
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: willing to do that, too because it does show that
• 52:51
  Speaker 3: extra layer of preparation from whoever's on the other side
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: of that.
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: Seat, Brian we're going to let you go after this last.
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: Question thing we do on Rosterster rings is we ask
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: the listeners to hit us with what they think is
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: the most pressing sports topic of the. Day and in
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: our first, segment we talk to our listeners about the
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: firing Of Tom thibodeau and maybe on a bigger, stage
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: just how many head coaches in THE nba who were
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: on playoff bound teams At Memphis denver lost their jobs
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: before the playoffs started and how kind of atypical that,
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: is just as your parting, shot do you have any
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: perspective on, that and also how that tied into your.
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: Career your first nine years working for The, brewers you
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: worked with four or five different, managers then you settle
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: into a nine year run With Craig. Council how different
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: is your job when there's volatility in that position relative to.
• 53:41
  Speaker 3: Consistency, YEAH i mean it does change a little. BIT
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: i would say that you know that part of. It
• 53:48
  Speaker 3: when there is a new voice or new, face it's
• 53:50
  Speaker 3: up to. You the work starts because it's up to
• 53:52
  Speaker 3: you to try to learn what the new parameters are
• 53:56
  Speaker 3: going to be and what the rules are going to
• 53:57
  Speaker 3: be for the new. Person you, Know and And i'm
• 54:00
  Speaker 3: close with a lot of these coaches, too Like Mike,
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: budenholzer AND i go back thirty years to The, spurs
• 54:05
  Speaker 3: AND i hate what happened To Mike. BUDENHOLZER i don't
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: think it's. RIGHT i think he's a great. COACH i
• 54:11
  Speaker 3: hate what happened to him In milwaukee and certainly don't
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: like what happened to him In. Phoenix but you, know
• 54:16
  Speaker 3: also that, happens and we step into these spotlights and
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: we have to deal with that part of it. Too
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: and you know a lot of these, owners they have
• 54:28
  Speaker 3: people in their ear that are making helping them make,
• 54:32
  Speaker 3: decisions and you, know they're trying to sell tickets and
• 54:35
  Speaker 3: they you, KNOW i think the most important, thing LIKE
• 54:38
  Speaker 3: i would say the most dramatic thing that's going on
• 54:42
  Speaker 3: in our industry from your perspective as executives to players to,
• 54:47
  Speaker 3: broadcasters is the collapse of cable. Television the fact that
• 54:51
  Speaker 3: we're going into streaming now is having ripple effects throughout the.
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: Industry and as these cable outlets start to CROs and
• 55:00
  Speaker 3: as these rsns regional sports networks start to, crumble like
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: they are at least changing the dynamic on how we
• 55:07
  Speaker 3: cover these sports and the money that's. Available you, know
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: the cash cow that these rsns provided for the organizations is.
• 55:14
  Speaker 3: Over it's just not going to be. There on a national,
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: level there's still, good big national, contracts especially in THE,
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: nba which just did a massive contract which did not
• 55:25
  Speaker 3: include my network, unfortunately but that's still there to some.
• 55:29
  Speaker 3: Extent but you, know they don't do all the games,
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: either and they, do they're doing the big markets when they.
• 55:34
  Speaker 3: Can so how do you get your message and your
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: product out to the local fan Base and that is
• 55:42
  Speaker 3: being disrupted in a major, way and it's it's literally being.
• 55:46
  Speaker 3: Disrupted and how much money you can offer a player
• 55:48
  Speaker 3: to come play for, you and how much you can
• 55:51
  Speaker 3: pay and set your budgets for your staff and for
• 55:54
  Speaker 3: how you do. This SO i can see a lot
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: of younger and more expensive options getting chances now because
• 56:03
  Speaker 3: of that. Dynamic SO i and that's it's happening. Now
• 56:07
  Speaker 3: it's been going on for a few, years and it's
• 56:09
  Speaker 3: going to be another five eight years before we see
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: the full breadth of this court cutting, moment which is
• 56:18
  Speaker 3: one of the most significant moments in broadcasting for, sure
• 56:23
  Speaker 3: as significant as going from radio to television and really
• 56:27
  Speaker 3: for the first time in. Ever instead of building up
• 56:31
  Speaker 3: to the next best, thing we're actually starting to peel
• 56:34
  Speaker 3: down to a thing that's not as good as it
• 56:36
  Speaker 3: was because we're we're trying to save money and do things,
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: cheaper and we're you, know we have we call them
• 56:43
  Speaker 3: cloud coverage or remote crews where you're not even on.
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: Site so it's definitely affecting the industry in a major.
• 56:50
  Speaker 3: WAY i don't think players feel that, yet but they're
• 56:52
  Speaker 3: they're about to on some. Level and executives certainly feel
• 56:56
  Speaker 3: it because they know what their budgets look. Like owners
• 56:59
  Speaker 3: feel it even though their organizations are worth more than
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: they've ever they've ever. Been you, know every owner who's
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: bought a team has made tremendous amount of money when he.
• 57:09
  Speaker 3: Sold SO i would, say like that's the biggest piece right.
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: Now how to navigate all that and the, organizations, executives
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: broadcasters who figure that out and understand that dynamic and
• 57:22
  Speaker 3: accept what's about to happen are going to be the
• 57:24
  Speaker 3: ones that probably end up on the other. Side and
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: it's going to be painful though for a lot of.
• 57:28
  Speaker 3: People he Is Brian.
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: Anderson you can listen to him On turner sports where
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: recovers a number of different. Events we're gonna Let Brian.
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: Roun he's got to go RECORD nba TWO k is
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: one of the.
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: Voices.
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: Brian i'd ask that you give him a plug if
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: you need an. EXECUTIVE i have some broadcast experience as,
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: Well so, yeah you do with you And Greg. ANTHONY
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: i hope IF i keep bringing it, up somebody will
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: you throw me a. Bone but, anyways, thanks thanks for joining.
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: Us He's Brian, Anderson I'm ryan. McDonough He's Stad. Levine
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: that AND i will be right back with you after.
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: This On rosters D, Ring.
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome back To Roster strings Alongside ran. McDonough I'm Dad.
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: Levine we just had an opportunity to hear a great
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: conversation With Brian. Anderson. Ran one thing that jumped out
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: to me about our conversation was the notion THAT i
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: brought up With brian about how when owners and coaches
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: and executives had tapped into him and his perspective on.
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: That BUT i think what the listener may be surprised
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: to hear is just how rare it is for us
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: to do those types of, things because, candidly you just
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: don't know who you can trust and information is. King
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: So i'd be curious in your, career how did you approach,
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: That how did you build your inner, Circle what were
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: the qualities of the people you put around, yourself and,
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: how if, ever did you step outside that inner circle
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: to seek. Advice really good, Question.
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: Thad and one of the things THAT i think is
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: interesting About Brian anderson is he is known as a national,
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: broadcaster right he talked about The French, open THE, Nba
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: Major League baseball all. That he does that For Turner
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: sports on a national, Level but he's also a local
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: broadcaster with The Milwaukee. Brewers he's done that since two
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: thousand and, seven and SO i think those two situations
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: are a little bit. DIFFERENT i felt like a lot
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: of the local broadcasters WHEN i was with The Boston
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: celtics or The Phoenix, suns especially THE tv and radio
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: broadcasters who are around the team not only every, game
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: but basically every. Practice they fly on the team, planes
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: they stay at the team, Hotel they have access to
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: a lot of. Information SO i think there is a
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: different level of, trust especially when you get to know
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: those guys and exchange information with. Them that and a
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: lot of times as you know as an, executive they're
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: around the team more than you are because if you're out,
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: scouting if you're traveling all over the country evaluating, players
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: those guys are. There so a lot of times WHEN
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: i come back off a scouting, TRIP i talk to
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: some of, them get your perspective because they, are you,
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: know somewhat more, independent right than the coaches or players
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: in the locker room who are riding the rollercoaster of
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: the wins and losses and may, have you, know their
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: own different agenda depending on playing time or contract status
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: or whatever the issue of the day. Is but it's
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: gotten so, competitive and that's one of the THINGS i
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: want to get your take on a national, level especially
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: as far as breaking news stad THAT i didn't WHEN
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 2: i was youneral manager of The Phoenix. SUNS i didn't
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: go to national media members that much say, hey here's
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: what we're thinking about. Doing because in The, twitter instant
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: reaction social media, age one of the THINGS i was
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: worried about was it getting out and leaking and screwing
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: up a deal or having some kind of negative, reactions
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: say from an owner that would prevent me from doing
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 2: what we wanted to.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: Do, OH i think you're nailing. IT i, MEAN i
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: think as that was one of the probably the worst
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: evolutions of our, jobs was the advent of social media
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: and just how quickly these things got. POSTED i, remember
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: and this was one of the probably downpoints of my. Career,
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: CANDIDLY i was a guest lecturing AT smu sports law
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: class THAT i did once a. Year we had made
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: a trade with The Detroit, tigers AND i remember to
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: this day it turned out to be a trade that
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: didn't work out for our, team but we Traded Ian
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: kinsler For Prince, fielder and during the time in WHICH
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: i was in front of the, class we were exchanging,
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: medicals so you don't want to publicize. It at that,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: point we thought this was going to be a, long laborious.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: Process it was going to take a couple, hours AND
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: i said to the, Students, HEY i want this to be.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: Interactive ask any questions along the. Way at about eighteen
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: minutes into me, talking somebody to raised their hand and, said,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: hey did you just Trade Ian kinsler to The Detroit?
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: Tigers AND i, said allow me to step out for
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: one minute and lo and. Behold, unfortunately in that, case
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: it was the worst case. Scenario ian's wife and his
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: family had read on social media that he had been.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: Traded he was a very valued member of The Texas
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: rangers at that. Time it was a monumental. Trade it
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: got out because somehow it was, leaked and we had
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: to deal with the repercussions of, that and rightfully, so
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: my relationship With Ian kinsler and his relationship with The
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: rangers to years to mend after. That SO i think
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: we try to do the best we can to communicate
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: how we try to use members of the media as
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: partners in, this because they do get access to a
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: lot of, information and they do have great insights because
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: they are covering our. Teams they have the finger on
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: the pulse a. Lot but when you get burned like,
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: that and when a player gets, burned it's really, devastating
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: and that's never the intent of the. Executive but there's
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: a lot of red tape you got to go through
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: before you can actually announce the. Trade oftentimes that doesn't
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: align with social media getting to handle. THIS i don't
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: know if you've ever had that type of, experience but
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: that one clearly colors me to this. DAY i look
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: back and then and, say, MAN i WISH i could
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: have done something differently to Prevent ian and his family
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: from experiencing that the way they did.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 2: Well the FAMOUS nba example THAT i wasn't directly involved
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: in is when The New Orleans, pelicans their Owner George,
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: schinn was having a hard time financially and on the
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: verge of. Bankruptcy THE, nba the league office run By David,
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: starring the commissioner at the, time took over control of
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: the The, pelicans and The pelicans were in the process
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 2: of Trading Chris paul to THE La. Lakers, coincidentally thad
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 2: when THE nba had The board Of governors meeting In
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: New York city with owners from all thirty teams around
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: the table OR i guess twenty nine teams around the
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: table If David stern counted as one owner with the.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: Commissioner and sure, enough because of social, media owners you,
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 2: know phone started, buzzing they got, notifications they got text.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: Messages and what happened was it was brought To stern's,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 2: attention who's you, know supposedly in charge of signing off
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: on trades like, this That Chris paul was getting traded
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: From New orleans to The. Lakers the other owners weren't
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: an uproar because think about, it especially at that Time
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 2: fad fifteen or so years, ago a very small market
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: team trading with the MIGHTY La, lakers and some of
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: the small and mid market, owners as you can, imagine
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: did not really like the optics of. That so the
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 2: guys in the room told me That David stern essentially
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 2: shut it down because of. That they, said, no it's been,
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 2: reported it's going to, happen and he, said, no it's.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: Not you, Know i'm in charge of The, pelicans that
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: that deal's not going to, happen and that became a
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 2: whole nother. Story so that's SOMETHING i want to dive
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: into a little bit and bring our listeners inside that
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: Because i'm curious from A Major League baseball, perspective how
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 2: these deals actually are. Finalized because one of the challenges
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 2: in THE nba is just because used to Be Adrian
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: morjanowski now Cham sherania the top, newsbreakers just because they
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 2: tweeted out doesn't mean it's. Done in, fact it's not
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 2: even close to done at that. Point it needs to
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: happen in THE nba is all the teams involved need
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: to get on a phone call with the league office
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 2: to confirm every single term of the, trade and then
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 2: the process starts where you get information from the players you're,
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: receiving you call the players you're sending out and you
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 2: wish them, well and then in the off season that
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: in THE, nba the players have up to a week
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 2: to report to your market and pass a medical. Physical
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 2: so just because you see it on social, media in THE,
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 2: nba there are a lot of steps for the deal
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 2: to actually get done and finalize. Legally AND i think
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 2: a lot of fans either they don't understand that or
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: they don't care about, That but that is a reality
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 2: in THE, nba AND i think as executives that can
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 2: put guys like us in a very difficult position because
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 2: you legally cannot comment until the deal is.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: Finalized well, right you, know as AN nba, fan but
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: not an. EXECUTIVE i think didn't we see that with
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: The lakers, deal which ultimately Got ki bosh because somebody
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: failed as a medical after the, fact and so you
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: have to, then from an executive, standpoint pick up the.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: PIECES a player now knows that he was being. Traded
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: multiple players in that deal knew they were being. Traded
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: they didn't feel devalued by the. Franchise but you know
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: the additional thing we see a lot In Major League,
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: baseball AND i know it was made known With Bradley
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: beal as kind of a little bit of an. EXCEPTION
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: a lot of guys In Major League baseball have no
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: trade clauses or what are called limited no trade. Clauses
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: so from an executive, perspective they maybe can't get traded
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: to five, teams and As Murphy's law would always play it,
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: out those tend to be the teams that may be
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: very interested in that. Player and so in addition to
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: exchanging medical, information oftentimes you're on the phone with the
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: agent to, say this player has a no trade clause
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: or limited no trade? Clause would he waive? That and
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: the answer is given. Consideration so now you're negotiating value
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: into their contract so that that inspires them to be
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: willing to accept the trade that otherwise they. Wouldn't but
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: all this requires a lot of. Time it's a lot
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: of back and, forth and meanwhile somebody is getting that out.
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 3: There.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: Now it gone are the days where you wait overnight
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: and read it in the sports. Page anyone could be
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: a member of the, media anyone can post that it's
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: a family, member it's a member of the, agency, somehow
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: it's part of the league, office somehow gets a hold of.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: It and there's just so many points of. Leakage AND
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: i think the challenge on the decision making side for executives,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: is once you get, burned your tendency is to narrow your.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: Circle but the more you narrow your circle as an,
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: executive the less morale you have of the people around,
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: you because now they're being. Excluded AND i always felt
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: the worst thing to do was to have your leadership
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: team have to read in the equivalent Of Major League
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: baseball trade rumors that a trade just was made and
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: they had no idea about. IT i think there's nothing
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: more disenfranchising about. That so as executives were always walking
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: that balance of wanting to provide information for the people
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: with whom we work and also knowing by so doing
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: your enhancing the risk of a leak taking. Place and
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: once that leak takes, place you live in this paranoia
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: of where did it come from and from whom in
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: every member of the media has journalistic integrity and they're
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: not going to share that with, You so you then
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: are making decisions in the future that are a little
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: bit more. GUARDED i always tried to ward that off
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: and say IF i got, burned it was not shame
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: on me or shame on somebody. ELSE i had to
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: continue to include people in the decision making. PROCESS i
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: just knew that meant we were making better decisions and
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: we were building. Morale and you just hoped as best
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: you could that you were the front office that had
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: fewer leaks than the rest of the LEAK.
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 2: I think you have to trust your, staff especially for
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: the young men and women who are starting out working
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 2: fifteen hour, days year round and not making a lot
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 2: of money. Fad they want to feel, included. Right they're
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 2: not doing it for the, paycheck especially at that point
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 2: in their. Career they're doing it because they enjoy working
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 2: in pro. Sports, yes obviously they want to climb the,
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 2: ladder have more, responsibilities make more, money and all, that
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 2: but they really want to feel like they're a part of.
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: It and you're.
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 2: Right when they see it come across social media that
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 2: their team did, something especially they've been working on it even,
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 2: peripherally that is a blow to. Morale but on the other,
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 2: hand if there is a leak and the deal is
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 2: not agreed upon by all, parties it can blow up the.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 2: Deal see weigh that risk as an. Executive And i'm
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 2: glad you brought up The Mark williams failed trade with
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 2: The lakers because that was a very interesting. Example so
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 2: as a reminder of our, listeners The Luca downstage to
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 2: The lakers trade happened about five days before the trade.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 2: Deadline and part of the reason that not only THE
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 2: La lakers did that deal when they, did but The
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: mavericks did it was so those teams could then do
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 2: other deals because it's stripped down the. Roster there were
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 2: multiple players, Involved Max, Christy Mark Keith morris going out you,
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 2: know FROM la To, dallas along With Anthony, davis and
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 2: then you know a number of players coming back in
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 2: addition To Luca, dontich you, know from From dallas TO.
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 2: La so so that you, know there was a number
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 2: of reasons on both sides to do that deal. Early
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: but then what happened that with The Mark williams, deal
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 2: When charlotte agreed to Trade Mark, williams a young center
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 2: out Of duke who's in his third year to THE La.
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 2: Lakers that was just before the, deadline and so by
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 2: the Time Mark williams reported To Los angeles and The,
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 2: lakers Who i'm sure had seen their medical. Records and
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 2: keep in, mind, folks that there are hippo laws and
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 2: medical privacy acts and things in place where The lakers
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 2: or The hornets they can't just go out and say
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 2: exactly what. Happened they WOULDN'T i think even if they,
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 2: could but legally they. Can't they could get sued for.
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 2: That so what happened to that there was the deal
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 2: was agreed upon obviously prior to the trade. Deadline but
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 2: then by the Time williams got From charlotte TO la
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 2: The lakers doctors and specialists got their hands on, them
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 2: something was. Wrong and the challenge, is now that the
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 2: trade deadline is coming, gone they can't amend, it they
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 2: can't fix, it and so really history will judge did
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 2: The lakers do the right thing that as we sit
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 2: here today that deal happened about three or four months.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 2: Ago we don't, know because who, knows you, know how
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 2: Healthy Mark williams is going to, be what the rest
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 2: of his career is going to look. LIKE i think
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 2: we do know for certain now that it hurt The
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 2: lakers in the short term BECAUSE i thought the biggest
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 2: hole on their roster with two Future hall Of famers
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 2: In Lebron james And Luka, donsich was that center. Position
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 2: and you saw in the first round of the playoffs
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 2: against The, timberwolves a, big physical team A Jj, reddick
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 2: the first year head coach IN, la was not real
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 2: confident going With Jackson. Hayes he tried to go small a,
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 2: lot and The wolves just beat up The. Lakers lakers
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 2: had no answer for that. Inside so has that ever
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 2: happened In Major League baseball where there's a deal agreed
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 2: upon right around the deadline and then you, know after the,
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 2: deadline either for medical reasons or some other, reason it is.
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: Unwomped, yes the answer is, yes.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 3: You.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: Know IT'S i think there are fewer safeguards In Major
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: League baseball than what you're referencing in the NBAS so
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: point point of, fact when we made, trades we had
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: to have medical clearance in advance of the. Trade once
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: we could lay physical hands on, players we had a
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: very finite win to be able to make an amendment
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: if we wanted to that. Deal but the point you
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: just made is the biggest, issue which was so many
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: of the, TRADES i think it's over sixty five percent
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: of trades In Major League baseball are made within an
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: hour of the trade. Deadline so there's really no fundamental
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: recourse you can have other than just sending the player.
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: Back but by that, point you had made the acquisition
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: because you thought it would competitively really enhanced your, team
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: and so you're reluctant to do. So and, furthermore if
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: that player, comes let's say he's a, pitcher and he
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: just goes and throws on the side just to warm,
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: Up like once he throws a, pitch he's now your
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: responsibility because you've cleared him, medically and then there is
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: enough of a gray area as to when did he
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: actually contract the injury and we had signed off on,
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: Him so the safeguards are really. Limited and in, baseball
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: maybe different than some other, sports it's such a deadline
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: driven sport such that really there's no amends to be
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: made at that, point and you're just kind of like
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: holding on in hope that they. Rebounds but the facts
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: of the, facts you have two months. Left you needed
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: him for the whole two month, run and now he's
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: going to be down for at least fifteen, days and
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: you got to navigate some pretty choppy waters at that.
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 2: Point, well the other big issue, too in addition to
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 2: what you did not get what you thought you were
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 2: getting but then didn't get when the deal is, unwound
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 2: is how do you manage those players then coming back
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 2: because they know their, families know their, agents know the,
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 2: fans media and everybody else knows that you just tried
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 2: to send them. Out now they're back ninety plus percent
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 2: of the, time maybe ninety nine percent of the time
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 2: that they're not really happy about that outcome because they
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 2: know you just gave up on me and you wanted
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 2: something else or a combination or other players thought were,
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 2: better but now something happened and we have to come.
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 2: Back so, yeah there's a lot of internal tension and,
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 2: management and from my, experience those relationships usually don't last that, long.
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 2: RIGHT i think it's rare where a player is traded
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 2: and then comes back and then goes on to have
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 2: a long career with that. Team usually for, me that's
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 2: the beginning of the. End where if a guy was you,
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 2: know you tried to trade them that didn't work out
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 2: for some. Reason usually it's time to move. ON i
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 2: think from all parties, involved you have to cut the
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 2: cord and let the guy, run even if it's the
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 2: next offseason or the next available opportunity to trade.
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: Him, well And, RYAN i think this is a longer
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: conversation and maybe this is how we get out of
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: this segment, here which is we talk in sports about
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: the name on the front of the, jersey which is
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: the team, name and then juxtaposed against the name on the. Back,
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: well when you do these types of things and you
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: put a player in a, Trade i'm thinking Of Dalton
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: connect and other players that were involved in that. Deal
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: on the other side Of Mark, williams they know you're
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: prepared to trade. Him now all of a, sudden you've
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: lost a little bit of your footing to ask that
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: type of player to really only focus on the name
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: on the front because you've just now told them that
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: they were expendable in some. Regards SO i think what
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: you're telling the listeners now is let's keep an eye
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: On Mark. Williams so let's keep an eye In Dalton.
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: Connect And i'm sure there are other players involved in
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: that deal to see if they're still part of their
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: existing franchises moving. Forward but maybe that's a conversation for
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: our next episode On rosters To rings when we talk
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: about the juxta position of the name on the front
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: and the name of the, back and how you build
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: that team unity when you're talking about individuals' careers in their.
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: Lives thank you to everyone for. Listening we look forward
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: to seeing you soon On rosters To. Rings please join
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: me host That, Levine ryan McDonough and other general managers
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: every week For roster Sy rings On, Apple, spotify or
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: wherever you get your. Podcasts