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Gordie Chiesa - Who are the top five teams in the NBA leading up to the 2026-27 season + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Peace out.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Let's get the latest on the Utah Jazz with former
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Jazz assistant coach Gordy Chiesa. He's forgotten more about the
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: NBA than any of us will ever know.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: Let's not get crazy.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Come for the Hoops Talk. Stay for his list of
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the day.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: My list today.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Here's OC with basketball savant Gordy Chiesa on the Sean
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: O'Connell Show.
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: All right, no OC today.
• 0:41
  Speaker 5: But Gordy Chiesa is here in studio. James Peterson filling
• 0:44
  Speaker 5: in for OC. He's in Chicago calling some PFL fights.
• 0:48
  Speaker 5: Maybe we catch up with him tomorrow. Maybe air some
• 0:51
  Speaker 5: grievances with him tomorrow. We'll see if he's available. But
• 0:55
  Speaker 5: right now, you heard the big voice guy say it.
• 0:58
  Speaker 5: Gordy Chiesa in studio, live on YouTube at ESPN 700
• 1:03
  Speaker 5: Sports Utah. You can see all of his papers spread out.
• 1:08
  Speaker 5: bevy of information as we talk Utah Jazz and NBA
• 1:11
  Speaker 5: for the next hour here.
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: Gordy, so excited to do this with you. How are
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: you doing?
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: I am doing well, James. Thank you. Thanks for the invite.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: It's our 10th season together, all of us here in
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: the studio, and we're excited for the NBA season and
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: also the NFL and also, James, for all the fans
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: around the state, including BYU and Notre Dame. Absolutely.
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 1:36
  Speaker 5: Game day in town. And the big news on that,
• 1:39
  Speaker 5: I don't know if you heard, Gordy, Steve Young coming
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: back to town to be the celebrity guest picker.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: Oh, sure. Absolutely.
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: For game day.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: You know, one time, James, I went to the game
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: one time, BYU-Notre Dame, back in 2004.
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: I was invited.
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: I was there. I was sitting there.
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: At the game. Was that in Provo?
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: In Provo.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: Yes, I went to the game.
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: That's the last time Notre Dame's come to Provo.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: Okay, James, I was there. I was there. And I
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: remember I met the president of BYU.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: He was a jazz fan, and so we're some sort
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: of event tent. I'm not sure I got invited, so
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: it sounds like I'm skeptical here. I somehow got invited.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Who knows how, but they invited me. So I went
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: to the game, and I remember talking to the BYU people,
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: and BYU won.
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and that was back when you were still on
• 2:24
  Speaker 5: the bench, coaching with Jerry Sloan.
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: That's right, back in 2004. I coached with Jerry from 1989.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: We came together in 1989. I left in 2005 to
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: go to the Nets, and Jerry left coaching in 2011,
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: and Tyrone Corbin followed him.
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: Was Bobby Marks with the Nets at that time?
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: Yes, he was. Yes, he was. Bobby Marks is with us,
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: and Bobby Marks listens right now. Bobby Marks works for ESPN,
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: the national affiliate, and does a great job in-house as
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: far as front office. That guy knows every nuance of
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: the salary cap. James, you and I, we know the
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: basic parts of it, These people know all of it.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: The nuances, like anything, here's the question of professional sports.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: How do you develop a roster within the framework of
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: the salary cap slash luxury tax?
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: And he knows, we know that aprons are involved. He
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: knows exactly what that means. And he also knows how
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: to avoid doing what Steve Ballmer and the Clippers did.
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: He knows the salary cap circumvention rules and everything. what
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: lines not to cross. So he knows it down to
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: those minute details.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: Oh, very much. Also, you mentioned the word apron. See,
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: guys like me, apron to me is like a barbecue.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: You have an apron at barbecue.
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: Or in the kitchen or something.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: In the kitchen, yeah. But Bobby Marks type people, because
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: they're much smaller than we are, is that they know
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: the apron.
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: It's the first apron and second apron. And before that,
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: it's a salary cap. And it sounds to everyday folk,
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: it sounds very confusing. And it is somewhat. However... When
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: you get it right, it's magical because the question is,
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: you could be a wonderful team, but if you have injuries,
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: is your roster good enough to fight through adversity? Because
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: we know in the NFL and also in the NBA,
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: it's a battle, James, of attrition. Yeah.
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: Attrition.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: Where suddenly you're in basketball, your 10th man is now
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: your 7th man on a road trip in the middle
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: of January, and he plays well and outplays the starting
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: small fold of the other guys. Suddenly on a road trip,
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: you go 4-1 versus what? 1-4.
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: Absolutely, and there's a significant jazz injury. You've already talked
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: about it with OC. I want to get into it
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: with you as well. Before we do that, I want
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: to let you know, This segment brought to you by
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: an Aladdin injuries, your V Lux skylights dealer, and also
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: brought to you by you went to golf by worldwide golf.
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: Get there.
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: And, uh, Tyson, we talked so much college football in
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: the first segment. We failed to mention that there is
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: an ALCS game happening right now in Cleveland. Guardians and Rays,
• 5:08
  Speaker 5: that series is tied at one apiece. It's a pivotal game.
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: Did the Guardians just score, by the way? Is that
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: what I'm seeing, Tyson? Looks like Nathaniel Lowe just hit
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: an RBI double bottom of the second inning.
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: Cleveland now leads Tampa 1-0.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: 1-0.
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: Former Jazz man Gordy Donovan Mitchell in attendance. He was
• 5:24
  Speaker 5: on the field. You saw him on the TBS pregame
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: show getting interviewed. He probably threw out the first pitch
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: or something in his Cleveland Guardians gear.
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: But he's a baseball guy because of his dad.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: His dad played for the Mets and worked for the Mets.
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: Still a Mets fan, but he plays in Cleveland now.
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: He's doing the right thing, repping the hometown city, trying
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: to be that community advocate.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: Very much. But speaking of your rep, James, I live
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: in a neighborhood where there's so many Dodgers fans. And foolishly,
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: I was talking to them this morning.
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: Foolishly.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: They're about to get swept. Exactly right. It's dangerous by you.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: You're exactly right, James. I was trying to give them encouragement.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: Because I'm a man of the people.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: And so, but these people, Dodger fans, they, some of
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: them that I know that they lost their bravado.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: Two-time, two-time defending champion that we're going to three-peat.
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: Every, every great player in the league, it seems like,
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: whether it's a pitcher or a hitter or a fielder,
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: two on that team.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: So getting back to, so James, segue, part of it
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: is that with the Jazz is that We mentioned about
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: the salary cap roster thing. It's a thing called chemistry.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: So you can never equate chemistry towards having knockout talent. Now,
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: you need talent to win in the NBA and also
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: in the NFL. Yes, talent rules. But within that talent,
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: if you don't have a roster that plays together with
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: connectivity in any sport, the chances are winning twice. greatly
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: as far as getting to one getting to the playoffs
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: to advancing the playoffs and in three get to the
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: promised land a gate to heaven meaning what nba or
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: nfl super bowl champions and that's where it gets so
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: interesting you could pay a whole bunch of money for
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: a lot of players but if they don't play together
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: and there's an element of of fun when they play
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: slash respect and that's what gets interesting.
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: It It absolutely does. I'm old enough, Gordy, and I
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: know you are too.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: Old enough, you're young.
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: To remember that the.
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: Yankees were the Dodgers, the way the Dodgers are now.
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: It's like, oh my gosh, they got another all-star? Hate that.
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: That's the way that anyone who's not a Dodgers fan
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: reacts any time they sign or trade for a great player.
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: They're down 3-0, though. Even with all that talent, down 3-0.
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: You're exactly right about the chemistry thing. You're exactly right
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: about what we were talking about before we got on
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: that baseball tangent.
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: This is where he keeps saying I'm exactly right. I
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: wish my wife was listening. I wish she was listening.
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: Nancy, are you taking notes?
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: Come on, James. Thank you so much.
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: Hello to you, by the way.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: I'm getting confidence here.
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: No, but you're right about this, too, Gordy, before we
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: got on that baseball playoffs tangent about how roster– Construction
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: has just as much to do about making sure you
• 8:19
  Speaker 5: have good depth as you have great stars and great
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: starting lineup and great players to begin games and get
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: you to close out games. And the Jazz are going
• 8:29
  Speaker 5: to find out just how much depth that they have.
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: I'm not sure they have enough at the center position, Gordy.
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: I was feeling that way after they traded Walker Kessler,
• 8:39
  Speaker 5: of course, even with bringing back Yusuf Nurkic. After that,
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: I did not like what they did to shore up
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: the backup center position. Jackson Hayes, their best player that
• 8:50
  Speaker 5: they got this offseason at that position. And now, Yusuf Nurkic,
• 8:54
  Speaker 5: is he out four weeks? Is that right, Gordy?
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: Yes, he's out.
• 8:58
  Speaker 5: They're going to find out just how big a hole
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: they have with Jackson Hayes as their starting center, probably.
• 9:05
  Speaker 5: That's who it's been in the preseason, if I'm not mistaken.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Correct.
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: Rather than having a healthy Yusuf Nurkic.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: Very much. Yusuf Nurkic, for the listeners, is that he'll
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: come back roughly, I'm guesstimating, November 20th of this year.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: So he'll miss roughly between 14 to 16 games.
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: Could be much worse. Like, that's only a month. A month, yeah.
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: And there's like six months in the season. So, Jez,
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: there's plenty of time to overcome this. I just wonder
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: how big a hole they're going to dig. They're going
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: to have to dig out of, With Jackson Hayes as
• 9:37
  Speaker 5: their starting center, I'll do respect.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: Okay, but add to that, though, but the Jazz got
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: a good early schedule where the Jazz first six wrestling
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: games fire at home. So the Jazz have a chance
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: to start out very, very well. Now, getting back to
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: Yusef Nurkic, the Bosnian bully, is that he has a
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: plantar fasciitis tear on his second toe of his right foot.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: And again, us normals, if we had a soft foot,
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: we'd be able to rest it for a few weeks
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: and we'd feel better. But when you're a basketball player,
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: and by the way, when you're 6'11, 290 pounds, there's
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: so much stress on the lower part of your body.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: So that's why the chairs are using Good judgment by
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: the doctors to get it healed properly and to be
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: able to go. All right, so to Jazz, as far
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: as James alluding to about the Senate position, Jackson Hayes
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: has a bouncy game, but he's not physical. Mo Bamba's
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: got a shot-blocking ability, but he can't score on his own,
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: which we call then he's a recipient scorer. He needs
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: help to score, either dribble drive to the penetration, lob
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: pass and short corner spacing, offensive rebounding, broken play scoring.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: but you can't go to him as far as in
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: the mid-block to score or face up jump shot. All right,
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: so now Jaron Jackson, part of the equation. He's a
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: finesse big. Hey, we love him outside. He can make
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: three-point shots, and he's a highly skilled big guy. But
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: he doesn't rebound his position. He only averages 5.1 rebounds
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: per game. And so in this Jazz lineup, without the
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: Bosnian Beast, you need him to rebound more. Larry Markkinen
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: got hops. He got some serious hops.
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: So, but he's a finesse rebounder. So it's almost like
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: the two guys that are going to have to rebound,
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: they're both finesse. They've got to be more gritty in
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: the present tense. And then with Jackson Hayes and with
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: Mo Bamba, as far as giving one start, one reliever,
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: is that they've got to almost overachieve offensively to make
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: it work. Last point about rebounding. Besides effort and tenacity,
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: you need what? Technique. So the Jazz, though, The Jazz
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: perimeter guys have James have to rebound down, which means
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: that so suddenly Keontae George, Darren Peterson, Ace Bailey, who's
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: got talent, certainly, Isaiah Collier, Josh Green, Steve Mihailuk, who
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: should play a lot, is that those guys, they can't
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: watch and stare. They're going to get involved in a mix.
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: So they got to rebound down to help out the
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: big guys in the game. Will they do it? Let's
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: find out.
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: If you've got a question for Gordy, by the way, 877-353-0700.
• 12:18
  Speaker 5: We got him for the next 45 minutes here in studio,
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: so go ahead and send that in, 877-353-0700. Jazz, NBA,
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: whatever kind of question you've got for Gordy Chiesa, I'll
• 12:32
  Speaker 5: try to read it off for you here as we
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: discuss some basketball with our basketball guru here in studio.
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: One other thing when it comes to roster construction, Gordy,
• 12:43
  Speaker 5: This one kind of snuck up on me. The rookie
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: extension deadline is Monday. So got a few days until then.
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: And thankfully, the Jazz extended their main.
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: Guy who they wanted to give an extension to. That's
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: Keontae George, who's in this rookie class eligible for an extension. Thankfully,
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: they got that done. So there's only one other guy
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: from that class. They traded away Taylor Hendricks. To get
• 13:13
  Speaker 5: Jaron Jackson Jr., so that leaves Bryce Sensabaugh, who was
• 13:16
  Speaker 5: a first-round pick of that 2023 draft. So that's the question.
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: Do you think the Jazz will extend Bryce Sensabaugh, or
• 13:28
  Speaker 5: do you think they'll let him enter free agency? And
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: in your opinion, I want to give your opinion, too.
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: Should they extend him, or should they just wait until
• 13:35
  Speaker 5: he's a restricted free agent? What do you think they
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: should do with Bryce Sensabaugh before Monday?
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Wait.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: I'd wait, yeah, just wait. They like him. He's a
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: good shooter. He plays hard. That's commendable. But I just
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: wait because he has very little leverage as far as
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: in the big picture of the NBA. But the Jazz
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: like him. He's homegrown. He's the 28th pick of the draft.
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: You feel you have good moments with him as far
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: as coming off the bench. So he can play in
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: the NBA. But I just wait because a lot of
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: times you might need his skill set as far as
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: in a trade later on. in February. It's possible because
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: he does have value. And if he overachieves right now
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: this year, which is wonderful, the Jets are successful, then
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: he's a restricted free agent, then you can reassess then
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: as far as by giving him the qualifier offer, then
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: wait until someone bids on him. Then if a worse scenario,
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: next July where he had a great season and he
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: has a contract as far as other teams, then try
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: to sign and trade him to get value for him.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: So I just wait, even though I do like him
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: as a player. I'm talking more the business side.
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: Of it right now.
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and it also sounds like, Gordy, based on that
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: opinion that you have, I think we share this one.
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: I think we both like him as a player. We
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: both see how he could contribute to a team that's
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: trying to contend for a championship, especially in that microwave, 6th,
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: 7th man guy off the bench situation. instant offense, whatever
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: number he is off the bench, he's instant offense whenever
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: he's out there. You can absolutely picture that on a
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: team that's trying to win, which the Jazz, we assume,
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: are starting this year, right? But all that being said,
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: he also feels like he's more of an end-of-the-rotation guy,
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: and so for that reason, it does feel more prudent
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: to go the route that you're talking about Let's wait
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: and see. Let's see how he develops this year. Maybe
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: he's a guy who's going to prove, hey, no, I
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: am towards the beginning, the top of the rotation here
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: as a bench player or as a fringe starter. Not
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: towards the end of the rotation. And if he does that,
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: then you absolutely want to bring him back in a
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: long-term deal. More likely, he kind of stays the same
• 15:55
  Speaker 5: and maybe then you're thinking more about, hey, let's look
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: at some salary cap flexibility for him. Let's look at
• 16:02
  Speaker 5: some Can he be used in a trade? If he
• 16:06
  Speaker 5: were a player that is obviously a lot better than
• 16:10
  Speaker 5: he's shown, we probably wouldn't be thinking that way about him, right?
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, correct.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: Also, part of it is getting playing time. So James
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: alluding to, again, the ninth man of a team versus
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: the seventh man. So the better teams get the contracts
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: correct towards winning. either presently or future tense, as far
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: as being successful. And that's why most times when you
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: just use an element of patience. Now, the Jazz probably
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: are going to wait, but with Keontae George, they're committed
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: to him. So philosophically, to your point, I'll call Keontae
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: a guard, and that's a compliment. He can score the ball, certainly.
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: So the Jazz already committed to Keontae George as far
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: as in that class right now.
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: And Darren Peterson, who they just drafted second overall.
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: Very much.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: And also, let's not forget Ace Bailey. What's interesting with
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: Ace Bailey is that probably, it seems to me, he'll
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: be the six-man starter. And that's the catch word, starter.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: All right, where he's going to play. So the question is,
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: end of the game, who's in the lineup? So Ace
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: Bailey is a major young fella talent, and he's good.
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: And it seems to me he's a good guy also
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: as far as his personality on the court. He's very coachable.
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: People tell me that he listens very intently, which is commendable.
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: And he's got talent. So what you want to do
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: is that with Ace Bailey, probably is that he's part
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: of the Jazz future, certainly. So really, Jazz future in
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: the big picture is Keontae George, Darren Peterson, Ace Bailey,
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: and then we'll see how it plays out with the others.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: Larry Markin and Jaron Jackson, they're all good players. The
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: question is the second or third contract, which is absolutely
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: part of it.
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: And they're in their early 30s, not their late 20s anymore.
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: So as far as how they fit into what you
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: think is your potential title contending window, as far as
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: age goes, that's certainly something to consider here. Got a
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: question from the text line, and then we're going to
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: go to our first break here. Spencer on the text
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: line says, question for Gordy. Is there a player you
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: coached who was particularly difficult to deal with or one
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: that the staff worried about while off the court? Is
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: there one that comes to mind?
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: Oh, many of them.
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: Many.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely many. It's a family show here on ESPN
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: Radio 700.
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: We don't have to go into details as to why
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: you might have been worried about them.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: No, the answer is yeah.
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: But if you're comfortable naming some of them.
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: No, I'm not. That's like, you know, the guys right
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: now are retired. He's 53 years old.
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: They're listening to the show. We don't want to embarrass them.
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: The guy living in Mexico City right now, you know.
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: On the ESPN 700 app, tuned in. No, he should be, right?
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: No, however, every... Everybody has coaches, guys like that. They have, again,
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: it's not a perfect world as far as your roster,
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: as far as personalities. And again, you know, as always,
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: when does the maturity kick in to a person? Is
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: it age 22? Is it 27? Is it 33? Is
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: it 43? Hey, James, I know some guys I hang
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: out with who are 80 years old. They're immature.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: Really? Yeah. Really?
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: 80? Immature?
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: What?
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: What are you talking about?
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: So the question is, when you're a basketball player or
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: in the NFL, you have all this money around you
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: and all these other vices right staring right in front
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: of you. How do you react? And again, the better teams, though,
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: truly the better teams have dramatically less guys because they
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: police themselves. So that's the team.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Do.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: So even though the coaching staff is the voice of authority,
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: when it's all said and done, it's the players in
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: the locker room that they determine so much as far
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: as what they do. I call that being an A
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: & E, is that when the team leadership is that
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: they enforce the rules properly, of the coaching staff, and
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: they encourage players to what? To be the best they
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: can be. That's what? Being on time. Curfew. Imagine having
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: curfew in jazz basketball. And last year, during playoffs, we
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: had a self-appointed captain's curfew where Carl and John, those guys,
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: they were the ones in charge of curfew. And guess what?
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: They ruled. And there was nobody messing around. Being hall
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: monitors at the hotels? The answer is yes, they were.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: Very much. And if someone got a little bit wayward,
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: if you get my drift, James, wayward, that we didn't
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: know about it, I'm sure they did because those guys
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: took it in charge of it. Because you know why?
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: The stakes are so high. So, for example, James, who
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: was the guy in the Super Bowl in New Orleans?
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: How come it always happens in New Orleans Super Bowl,
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: someone that's on Bourbon Street, there's something weird, so the
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: guy's playing Super Bowl and suddenly... He's what? A distraction
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: to the team because he gets in trouble at 2
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: o'clock in the morning on Bourbon Street.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Really?
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Really?
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: Before the biggest game of your life.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: So suddenly it's a distraction for the team.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: Why?
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: So that's what happens. So at least one guy every
• 21:17
  Speaker 5: team you coach probably?
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: Some knucklehead, if you will, a head case, whatever.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: Oh, very much. And also remember, it's the person's also
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: people around him. So a lot of times- The guy's
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: wayward because it's his people around him that lead him
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: to that. And by the way, when a guy's knucklehead
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: retires from the NBA, you know what happens also? His
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: whole people retire also. Because now they're what? Less important now.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: They're less important. So when they're there, they're banging their chest.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: My guy, my guy, my guy. Okay. When you retire, though,
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: you're not important at all.
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: They got a different guy who's still playing, probably.
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, great story by you, Gordy. We're going to head
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: to a break here.
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: Continue with Gordy for another half hour, 40 minutes or
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: so here on the Sean O'Connell Show. James Peterson filling
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: in on Utah's number one sports talk and your home
• 22:10
  Speaker 5: of the U.
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: CSPN 700, 92.1 FM.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: Peace out.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: Let's get the latest on the Utah Jazz with former
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Jazz assistant coach Gordy Chiesa. He's forgotten more about the
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: NBA than any of us will ever know.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Come for the Hoops Talk. Stay for his list of
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: the day.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: Here's OC with basketball savant Gordy Chiesa on the Sean
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: O'Connell Show.
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: Continuing our hour with Gordy Chiesa here in studio, brought
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: to you by Aladdin Industries. excuse me, your V Lux
• 22:47
  Speaker 5: skylights dealer. And you went to golf by worldwide golf.
• 22:52
  Speaker 5: Get there.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: Gordy.
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: We were talking as, as you came in about some
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: of the teams that are around the jazz in the play.
• 23:02
  Speaker 5: They'd probably be in the plan mixed six fifth or 16.
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: The West maybe is the ceiling there. The Dallas Mavericks
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: are one of those teams, and they got themselves a
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: brand-new head coach. No Jason Kidd. What did I just
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: hear Jason Kidd's going to be doing now?
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: ESPN.
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: ESPN. That's right.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: In studio.
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: Studio analyst. So no Jason Kidd anymore.
• 23:25
  Speaker 5: Kyrie Irving's back, but the new head coach is Dusty May,
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: national champion coach with Michigan.
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: But you know, you worked with.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: James, with Kyrie Irving being there, do you think the
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: world's flat or round?
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: Nothing.
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: What do you think?
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: I mean, round. Round, okay, good. I'm a round earther.
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: You're a round earther. Good, that's good.
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: We all know Kyrie is famously a flat earther.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: Yes, it is.
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: As are maybe some of our listeners. Shout out to
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: you guys. Okay, so that's the first thing. All right,
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: with Dusty May, national champion's commendable. First thing is right
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: now his coaching staff. His lead assistant is Willie Green,
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: who is a five-year NBA head coach with the Pelicans,
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: former assistant with the Warriors and the Suns.
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: Long-time NBA player, too.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: Very much. NBA players also on the staff are Garrett
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: Temple and Tyson Chandler.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: Oh.
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: So they're on the coaching staff of the Dallas Mavericks.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: All right, what are some adjustments? Here's the first thing.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: As a college coach going to the NBA, the speed
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: and physicality of each game, you think you know about physicality.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: You don't know until you see it up close every
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: single night. The second thing, there's more offensive half-court possessions.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: So you got to be able to have some level
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: of execution of either set offense. And within that offense
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: is swinging the ball from side to side. The next
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: one adjustment is that most times in college basketball, again,
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: is always outlier. Most teams have, we'll say James, no
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: more than six or seven talented people where it's defined
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: who the starters are in the NBA. You have to
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: develop a skillful bench. So how do you get those
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: NBA bench guys out? One, committed, and also development about
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: putting them in the game at a certain time. Next
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: part of it, adjustments. Oh, by the way, if you're
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: really an elite college team like Michigan was last year,
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: you might play 37 to 40 games. In the NBA,
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: are you kidding me? You play 82 games. James, I
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: know college coaches and also first rookie players, they can't
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: believe how long this season is. Whoa, just a second.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: It's only February 4th, and we already played. We still
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: have 44 games left in the season right now.
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: They call that the rookie wall, right, Gordy?
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: They get to game 30-something, 40-something, and all of a sudden.
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: They got no energy. They're like, hey, my body's not
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: built for this yet.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: Very much. So there's more games, which means what? More
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: plane rides, which means what? More practices, which means what?
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: More individual workouts. So it's unbelievable the cumulative effect hazard
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: equals what? Burnout. As a young guy, suddenly you're fatigued.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: From a coaching standpoint, you're tired mentally because you don't
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: used to how there's so many games and pressures on yourself.
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: And that's why it's so critical to sometimes walk away
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: from the game and practice and clear your head because
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: otherwise it's overwhelming.
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: Let me give a few, when you have a.
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: day when you don't have a game, maybe in the
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: college realm, certainly you're probably accustomed to, okay, obviously we're practicing,
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: we're not playing. Maybe you have more of those. You know,
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: it's just a complete day off. We don't even need
• 26:41
  Speaker 5: to practice today because we need a break from basketball.
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: Maybe more of that?
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's an understatement. The answer is yeah. One of
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: Jerry Stone's greatest traits ever was he knew when to
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: read the locker room where, where no practice today and
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: everyone else, and that means that no one comes in
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: to the office on the practice court.
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: Not even Karl Malone lifting weights or anything?
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: No.
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: Nobody come in to give everybody in the organization a
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: mental health break. Not physical health break, a mental health break.
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: So the guys who work in the video room, do
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: not come in. Everybody take a day off. hang out
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: with your new girlfriend, wannabe girlfriend, old girlfriend, wife, wannabe wife,
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: whatever it is, I don't care what it is, is
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: that hang out, get yourself ready to go the next day,
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: every once in a while. And that's what you do,
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: not all the time, but it really helps so much.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: You learn that. Also add to this, player-coach relationships. You're
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: learning how to adapt to coaching older people. Oh, it's
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: easy when you're the voice of authority and suddenly you,
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: as a college coach, that you're coaching someone 18, 19
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: years old. Yes, and the pros, you do that also,
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: rookies and first-year players, second-year players.
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: Nowadays, more than ever, you're coaching teenagers or 20-year-olds, for sure.
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: But the better teams have guys, what, 38 years old?
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: So you're 38 years old, so you're coaching older people,
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: and that's a whole different skill set is that the
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: question is, How do you coach these guys? You have
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: to be friendly towards them. That's the catch word friendly,
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: but you're not their friends. It's an unbelievable visible line
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: and that's any business right now. So I'm talking about coaching.
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: I was a coach for 36 years. All right. So
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: I say firsthand, as far as you're, you're friendly with everybody,
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: but you're not friends. Next one about doing this is
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: that you're dealing with more damage control on a weekly basis.
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: There's more damage control because there's so much scrutiny by
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: the media that these people are known throughout the world.
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: So you're coaching, we'll say, Kyrie Irving. You're coaching Cooper Flagg,
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: who everybody knows who he is right now. He's only
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: 20 years young, but you're coaching him. You're coaching guys,
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: veteran players on that team and that there's more scrutiny.
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: And how do you deal with the outside influences in
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: the locker room and team practice? And the last point
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: about that is understanding this one. This is absolutely critical.
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: Understanding that the star players and or players are more
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: important and valued than the head coach by ownership.
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: That the star Cooper flag is more valued than Dusty Baker.
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry, Dusty Baker. Dusty May. Dusty Baker. I love
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: Dusty Baker.
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: I love him.
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: All right? Dusty May.
• 29:40
  Speaker 5: He's more valuable. Is Najee Marshall still on the Mavs
• 29:43
  Speaker 5: this year? Yeah. There's different rules for Cooper Flagg than
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: there is for Najee Marshall.
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but also– but more importantly is that from ownership
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: and management group where if things get a little bit wayward,
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: they're going to– you're our guy. You're our guy. You're
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: our guy until what? You're not a guy anymore.
• 30:00
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah.
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: And that was Jason Kidd. In other words, objectively, sitting
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: here in Salt Lake City downtown talking to James Peterson
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: here on this wonderful Thursday afternoon at 12.07, no one
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: can tell me that Jason doesn't know basketball, Jason Kidd.
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: And when he played the game, he was what?
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: Pass happy. Yeah.
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: So that when your point guard's pass happy, the locker
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: room is happy. So Jason Kidd, NBA coach with the Bucs,
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: with the Nets, and with the Dallas Mavericks, they let
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: him go for whatever reason. And that only we know
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: behind the doors what would actually happen is that, boy,
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: you can't say what. Doesn't know basketball and doesn't know why.
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: Can't relate to people.
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: Really?
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: You're delusionary. Yes, he can't.
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and you're absolutely right.
• 30:48
  Speaker 5: We're going to head to a break, but I remember
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: you telling a story maybe more off-air than on-air, Gordy,
• 30:55
  Speaker 5: about how the Jazz, with Jerry Sloan as the head coach,
• 30:59
  Speaker 5: had a much more unique dynamic where it was, yeah,
• 31:03
  Speaker 5: Malone and Stockton, very important ownership, very important to Larry Miller,
• 31:07
  Speaker 5: but equally important was the head coach, and Jerry knew that, right?
• 31:11
  Speaker 5: And he was able to coach really hard because he
• 31:14
  Speaker 5: knew he had security to the point where, hey, if
• 31:18
  Speaker 5: these guys sour on me, ownership's going to back me.
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: Correct. That's an understatement. And so 23 years later, oh,
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: by the way, in case you forget this, the Jazz
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: went to the playoffs 20 straight years in a row.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: Unfortunately, the Jazz. 23 out of 26 or whatever.
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: Very much. And let's talk about this. If we get
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: the break, is that the Jazz probably would have been
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: champions if we didn't lose the world's greatest player of
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: all time to do the greatest things to beat us.
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: So is any other great player probably a championship? Probably.
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: But that number 23, James, he wouldn't cooperate. How dare you?
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: Absolutely not. So on the other side, last segment with Gordy.
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: We'll go another 20 minutes with him. Delta Center renovation,
• 32:06
  Speaker 5: downtown entertainment district renovation between City Creek and the Delta Center.
• 32:13
  Speaker 4: That whole block there.
• 32:15
  Speaker 5: Few blocks if we're being honest uh ryan smith had
• 32:18
  Speaker 5: a big announcement about that also gordy's seen what the
• 32:23
  Speaker 5: jazz arena looks like the jazz configuration looks like in
• 32:26
  Speaker 5: the delta center now i've just seen the hockey configuration
• 32:28
  Speaker 5: very curious as to as to gordy's thoughts on that
• 32:33
  Speaker 5: and we got his list we're going to talk nba
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: title contenders as well all that and more On the
• 32:39
  Speaker 5: other side, in about three minutes here on the Sean
• 32:41
  Speaker 5: O'Connell Show, James Peterson filling in, Gordy hanging out in
• 32:44
  Speaker 5: studio for another segment. Here on Utah's number one sports
• 32:47
  Speaker 5: talk and your home of the U, CSPN 700 and 92.1 FM.
• 32:52
  Speaker 6: More than 4,500 professionals provide accounting, tax, and advisory expertise
• 32:56
  Speaker 6: to help businesses grow and succeed, both in Salt Lake
• 32:59
  Speaker 6: City and across the country. Visit citroncooperman.com.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: The Sean O'Connell Show, from the Murdoch Chevrolet studio of
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: ESPN 700 at 92.1 FM.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: The Sean.
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: O'Connell Show continues.
• 33:17
  Speaker 5: We officially start Hour 2. I'm not that different from Sean.
• 33:22
  Speaker 5: I'm noticing a little long-winded, Gordy, at the end of
• 33:26
  Speaker 5: the breaks.
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: But that's okay.
• 33:27
  Speaker 5: Aladdin Industries sponsors our conversations with Gordy Chiesa on Tuesdays
• 33:33
  Speaker 5: and Thursdays every week. They are your VLUX Skylights dealer.
• 33:36
  Speaker 5: We got Gordy in studio today for another 15, 20
• 33:40
  Speaker 5: minutes here. Brought to you by Aladdin Industries. Also brought
• 33:44
  Speaker 5: to you by You Went to Golf by Worldwide Golf.
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: Get there. Gordy, I don't know if you saw this.
• 33:51
  Speaker 5: Ryan Smith, there's been a lot of talk over the
• 33:54
  Speaker 5: last few years about how downtown is going to be
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: reimagined by the Smith Entertainment Group in partnership with the
• 34:00
  Speaker 5: state legislature and the mayor's office, Mayor Mendenhall. We now
• 34:05
  Speaker 5: have some more detailed renderings of what that's going to
• 34:09
  Speaker 5: look like. Did you see these?
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: Amazing.
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's going to look amazing.
• 34:16
  Speaker 5: Just to give our listeners some details, you may have
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: missed it. It's on Ryan Smith's Twitter, by the way.
• 34:21
  Speaker 5: He's got the actual videos and pictures that you can see,
• 34:24
  Speaker 5: but I'll just kind of describe it for you verbally here.
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: There's going to be....
• 34:29
  Speaker 5: It's going to connect City Creek to the Delta Center, right?
• 34:34
  Speaker 5: And what that means is if you can picture, or
• 34:37
  Speaker 5: if you're working downtown, you look outside your office window,
• 34:40
  Speaker 5: you're working from home downtown, you're around the Salt Palace,
• 34:44
  Speaker 5: the Delta Center area. The Salt Palace... kind of blocks
• 34:50
  Speaker 5: off the end of City Creek and to where the
• 34:53
  Speaker 5: Delta Center is, right? They're going to completely change the
• 34:57
  Speaker 5: Salt Palace so it doesn't just create a wall like that,
• 35:01
  Speaker 5: and they're going to change Japantown Street as well so
• 35:06
  Speaker 5: that from the end of City Creek, what's that Nordstrom
• 35:09
  Speaker 5: that's at the end there?
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 35:11
  Speaker 5: Right across from the Salt Palace from there to the
• 35:14
  Speaker 5: Delta Center is going to be a walkway. I don't
• 35:17
  Speaker 5: think any cars are going to be allowed on this.
• 35:18
  Speaker 5: It's just going to be a pedestrian walkway that will
• 35:21
  Speaker 5: connect the two places there. Abravanel Hall is also right
• 35:25
  Speaker 5: there next to the Salt Palace. That's going to get
• 35:29
  Speaker 5: revamped as well right there in the middle. If you
• 35:32
  Speaker 5: haven't seen the video or the pictures, again, Ryan Smith's
• 35:35
  Speaker 5: Twitter has some great pictures there. It looks really cool.
• 35:41
  Speaker 5: Gordy also part of this. You heard the, we heard
• 35:43
  Speaker 5: the announcement about the live nation downtown concert venue. Apparently
• 35:47
  Speaker 5: that's going to be part of this big entertainment district
• 35:50
  Speaker 5: as well. Not that far from the Delta center. So
• 35:53
  Speaker 5: you said you saw this.
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 35:56
  Speaker 5: Your thoughts on this re-imagined downtown. We finally have a
• 35:59
  Speaker 5: picture of what it's going to look like.
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, very much. It's commendable. It's going to be spectacular
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: to think about downtown where they're trying to attempt to do.
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: It's really a community hub.
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: No matter what, what you're interested in is going to
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: be there. And now with the, with the walk inside walk,
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: as far as a bad weather or not, it doesn't matter.
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: That's part of the reason why I think it's great. Most,
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: most cities that have a big time feel have a
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: vibrant downtown, just generally speaking. And this will absolutely add
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: to downtown and where, again, whether you're a sports fan,
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: whether you're a fan of music, whether you're a fan
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: of the shopping, whether you're a fan of just hanging out,
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: whatever it is, it'll be downtown. I think it's going
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: to be great. I moved here in 1989, so I've
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: seen the unbelievable growth in Salt Lake City, and it's
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: really great.
• 36:49
  Speaker 5: It's already, I imagine, changed so much, this part of
• 36:53
  Speaker 5: downtown in the time that you've been here.
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: City Creek, for example, it was the old DCMI mall.
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: that was underground, right?
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: Right. Right.
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: Temple square. Right.
• 37:03
  Speaker 5: And now that's above ground city Creek. So that's been
• 37:06
  Speaker 5: a big change to downtown since very much since you
• 37:08
  Speaker 5: moved here.
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: And the Delta Senate didn't exist. It wasn't there.
• 37:11
  Speaker 5: That's a good point. It was the salt palace. No,
• 37:14
  Speaker 5: it was, they play the jazz played at, right?
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: Exactly.
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: Jazz, jazz played a salt palace, uh, until, um, night.
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: Excuse me. My year's right.
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: Was it 93? No, 92, 92.
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: No, night. Uh, first year Delta center was, um, 1991-92 season.
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: That was the first year. So the Jazz played in
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: the old Salt Palace, which held 12,844 people. I remember
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: the day Larry Miller said to me, I've got to
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: build an arena because John and Carl are entering their prime.
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: There's so many clamoring for tickets. I've got to build
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: an arena. Thus, it became what? The Delta Center. At
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: that time, back in the late 80s, because of the
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: banking loan industry scandals, now one bank in America was
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: owning was loaning money to people with a speculative investment.
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: Larry had to borrow $ 100 million out of Sumitomo Trust
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: in Tokyo via L.A. branch for the seed money to
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: build a Delta Center. Let's fast forward. More importantly, Ryan
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: Smith right now is doing a great job as far
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: as making downtown such a different vibe for it. And again,
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: it's one guy did it this way. 35, 37 years later,
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: now it's a different viewpoint. Both were great.
• 38:28
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and we talked about City Creek is a newer
• 38:33
  Speaker 5: thing since the Delta Center was built, of course. Now
• 38:37
  Speaker 5: it feels like it's been around for a really long time,
• 38:39
  Speaker 5: but it's a lot newer than the Delta Center. But
• 38:42
  Speaker 5: between the Salt Palace and the Delta Center, that's basically
• 38:45
  Speaker 5: stayed the same.
• 38:46
  Speaker 4: For most of that time.
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: Correct. Right.
• 38:48
  Speaker 5: So this is the first time that we're going to
• 38:50
  Speaker 5: see a drastically different look to downtown in what?
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: 40, 50 years.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: Correct.
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, very much.
• 38:59
  Speaker 5: And I love, and I love the, the way the renderings,
• 39:02
  Speaker 5: the plan that they have to make it look one
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: note on this to Aaron Mendenhall, the Salt Lake city mayor.
• 39:08
  Speaker 4: She's in this SCG video talking.
• 39:10
  Speaker 5: About, uh, the salt palace and a Bravino hall in particular.
• 39:16
  Speaker 5: She says that they expect five million visitors to the
• 39:20
  Speaker 5: district every year once it's going to be completed, which
• 39:24
  Speaker 5: there's some of us that are like, you know what,
• 39:25
  Speaker 5: it's already too crowded.
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: But, hey, that's going to bring in more.
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: You talked about a lot more vibrant downtown and obviously
• 39:33
  Speaker 5: more people coming in. That's more tourism dollars and revenue
• 39:38
  Speaker 5: for the city and for these local business owners that
• 39:41
  Speaker 5: are going to be part of this.
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: And also it can't be that bad.
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: It gives Salt Lake City an unbelievable big town feel
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: in a great way. And that's the goal. And where
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: people of all different faiths, all different walks of life
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: can come together and enjoy a hockey game, a basketball game,
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: a concert. Just hanging out with family, new friends, old friends.
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: A lot of different shopping experience. Very much.
• 40:07
  Speaker 5: They want the Salt Palace to be the number one
• 40:10
  Speaker 5: destination for national and international conventions after this. Which you're
• 40:14
  Speaker 5: going to have a hard time competing with Vegas on that,
• 40:17
  Speaker 5: just saying.
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: But!
• 40:18
  Speaker 5: I love the ambition. I love the aspirations there. So
• 40:23
  Speaker 5: that's the latest on the downtown district. They're calling it
• 40:27
  Speaker 5: the Sports Entertainment Culture and Convention District. That's what they're
• 40:30
  Speaker 5: going to call this after it's completed. They did not
• 40:33
  Speaker 5: give a timeline. They just said it will be done
• 40:35
  Speaker 5: in advance of the 2034 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: So sometime.
• 40:42
  Speaker 5: In the next eight years, this will be finished is
• 40:44
  Speaker 5: what they told us, which that's a long range, but
• 40:47
  Speaker 5: we'll see. Real quick, Gordy, I want to get into
• 40:51
  Speaker 5: some NBA title contenders here, our short list here. But
• 40:56
  Speaker 5: before we do that, speaking of the renovations and stuff,
• 41:00
  Speaker 5: you've been to Jazz NBA preseason games. I've been to
• 41:05
  Speaker 5: Utah Mammoth, the opening night game. with the new arena configuration.
• 41:11
  Speaker 5: I'm really curious what you think of the Jazz configuration
• 41:16
  Speaker 5: with this new gondola seating, which look awesome for hockey.
• 41:22
  Speaker 4: What's the look like for Jazz games? How do you
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: feel about it?
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: Spectacular. It's great. It's a great feel.
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: The Jazz have good players, so it's going to be
• 41:31
  Speaker 3: a great home court, wonderful advantage. It looks great. Fans
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: love it. Looking at it and also reacting to it
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: as far as cheering for the home team, it's wonderful.
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: So they've done a great job as far as combining
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: the newness of it with an old feel also in
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: a good way.
• 41:49
  Speaker 5: Still got that steep pitch that's always been unique to
• 41:53
  Speaker 5: the Delta Center over the years, which is awesome.
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: No, but the Delta Center, James, it's loud. It's a
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: loud arena. I'm simplifying it, but it helps the home
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: team and the fans love it. Utah Jazz fans, they're
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: number one. They love their team. Objectively, I could say
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: the Jazz, the Spurs, the Trailblazers, those smaller type markets,
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: just generally speaking. And also, it sounds weird saying it, James,
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: Sacramento Kings. Despite, you know, ineptness, they have a great
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: fan base. I know it sounds weird saying it, but
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: they actually do.
• 42:29
  Speaker 5: We saw that when they got back to the playoffs, what,
• 42:32
  Speaker 5: four years ago, and it was like, oh, this feels
• 42:34
  Speaker 5: like the old Arco Arena, the newer Golden 1 Center.
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 42:39
  Speaker 5: Feels like early 2000s Arco Arena. They still got a
• 42:42
  Speaker 5: great fan base. You're absolutely right about that. Yeah, so
• 42:45
  Speaker 5: that's– I'm excited to get in. I'm going to go
• 42:48
  Speaker 5: opening night. It will be my first Jazz game, Gordie.
• 42:51
  Speaker 5: excited to see you there and then see what that
• 42:53
  Speaker 5: configuration looks like with the new Delta center, by the way,
• 42:57
  Speaker 5: one more phase of upper bowl renovation to be done
• 43:01
  Speaker 5: in the Delta center. That's the other side of where
• 43:03
  Speaker 5: the gone, the new gondola seating is. That's the, the
• 43:06
  Speaker 5: Southwest side of the arena. If I'm not mistaken, that's
• 43:10
  Speaker 5: going to happen this coming summer and then it'll be,
• 43:14
  Speaker 5: it'll be absolutely complete. Uh, so excited for that. Uh, Gordy, uh,
• 43:19
  Speaker 5: NBA title contenders. I wrote this short list for each
• 43:22
  Speaker 5: conference after LeBron committed to sign with the Sixers, which
• 43:28
  Speaker 5: kind of signaled Kawhi's thing.
• 43:32
  Speaker 4: Trade hadn't been finalized.
• 43:33
  Speaker 5: With the Raptors, but we were kind of assuming it
• 43:35
  Speaker 5: would eventually happen, which it did. And so I was
• 43:39
  Speaker 5: assuming Kawhi on the Raptors at this point. Why don't
• 43:43
  Speaker 5: I I'll give you my Eastern Conference first, and then
• 43:47
  Speaker 5: maybe you can give me yours.
• 43:48
  Speaker 4: Does that sound good, Gordon?
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 43:49
  Speaker 4: And then we'll do the West?
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 43:51
  Speaker 4: So I'm going to go.
• 43:52
  Speaker 5: I have five teams in the East that I think
• 43:54
  Speaker 5: could win a championship. There's more than that. They're going
• 43:57
  Speaker 5: to play for a championship in the playoffs. I only
• 43:58
  Speaker 5: think five of the eight that are going to play
• 44:01
  Speaker 5: for a championship as playoff teams have a truly realistic chance.
• 44:06
  Speaker 5: I will go five to one. So I've got Kawhi's Raptors.
• 44:09
  Speaker 5: New Look Raptors is five. Some people have them a
• 44:12
  Speaker 5: lot higher. I've got them at five. I've got the
• 44:15
  Speaker 5: Boston Celtics at four. And that's one you might be going,
• 44:20
  Speaker 5: you're crazy. They don't have Jalen Brown anymore. They signed
• 44:23
  Speaker 5: Mike Conley to help their depth at point guard, which
• 44:26
  Speaker 5: was a sneaky lack of depth for them this past season.
• 44:30
  Speaker 5: One of the reasons why they couldn't get out of
• 44:32
  Speaker 5: the first round, despite being a number two seed last year,
• 44:35
  Speaker 5: in addition to injuries. They signed Mitchell Robinson to shore
• 44:40
  Speaker 5: up their center position. Their most glaring weakness on the
• 44:43
  Speaker 5: team last year. And Paul George can still play. I
• 44:47
  Speaker 5: know he's not Jalen Brown, but when he's healthy, he
• 44:52
  Speaker 5: can still be a good.
• 44:53
  Speaker 4: Number two scorer for them.
• 44:55
  Speaker 5: I'm not as low on the Celtics as some people
• 44:57
  Speaker 5: might be, Cordy. Number three, I have the Sixers. They
• 45:00
  Speaker 5: add LeBron. They trade for Jalen Brown. Tyrese Maxey is
• 45:06
  Speaker 5: an all-world player. Vijay Edgecombe, incredible rookie season last year,
• 45:10
  Speaker 5: expected to take another leap this year. And then it
• 45:14
  Speaker 5: all hinges on Joel Embiid's health. But even if Embiid
• 45:18
  Speaker 5: doesn't play a lot in the regular season, they should
• 45:21
  Speaker 5: still have a really high seed because everybody else on
• 45:23
  Speaker 5: the team is really good, Gordy.
• 45:25
  Speaker 4: So I like this. Sixers I have.
• 45:27
  Speaker 5: Is my third best Eastern Conference NBA title contender. Two,
• 45:31
  Speaker 5: I have the defending champs. This is where I have
• 45:33
  Speaker 5: the Knicks.
• 45:34
  Speaker 4: And you might go, if.
• 45:35
  Speaker 5: Someone's listening, might go, are you crazy? That is so
• 45:39
  Speaker 5: disrespectful to this Knicks team. They brought back almost everybody.
• 45:43
  Speaker 5: They replaced Mitchell Robinson with Andre Drummond, which, to use
• 45:47
  Speaker 5: your word, Gordy, yikes. I do not like that for
• 45:51
  Speaker 5: the Knicks. Their depth was one of the reasons why
• 45:56
  Speaker 5: they were able to get to the finals and then
• 45:58
  Speaker 5: beat the Spurs.
• 46:00
  Speaker 4: Because they had a coach who was willing to use
• 46:01
  Speaker 4: their depth, too. That's going to really hurt their depth.
• 46:04
  Speaker 4: That's just one reason why I don't have them, number one.
• 46:06
  Speaker 5: Number one, I have the Indiana Pacers, and I'm not
• 46:10
  Speaker 5: sure anyone else who's not a Pacers fan who follows
• 46:13
  Speaker 5: the NBA, Gordy, probably has this Pacers team, number one,
• 46:16
  Speaker 5: but they get Tyrese Halliburton back. Zubats is a big
• 46:20
  Speaker 5: upgrade compared to Miles Turner off the bench. They go 10,
• 46:24
  Speaker 5: maybe 11 guys deep, too. They signed Kelly Oubre. which
• 46:29
  Speaker 5: was a big signing to help shore their depth up.
• 46:31
  Speaker 5: They still have all their great depth pieces off the
• 46:35
  Speaker 5: bench that they had when they got to game seven
• 46:37
  Speaker 5: of the finals two years ago. The Pacers are my
• 46:40
  Speaker 5: favorite to win these this year.
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: What do you think?
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: Okay. I like it. Well said. I'm going to go
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: just quickly as far as I'll just give you, without
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: going into detail, here's my top five in the East.
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: Number five, the Cavs. Number four, the Celtics. Number three,
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: Defending champ, Knicks. Number two, 76ers. Number one, the Heat.
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: The Heat. The Heat.
• 47:06
  Speaker 5: I would love it if it's the Heat. I love
• 47:08
  Speaker 5: Giannis to the Heat. I don't know if they have
• 47:11
  Speaker 5: enough pieces around Giannis.
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 47:15
  Speaker 4: Tell me why you have the Heat, number one.
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: Because, one, the coaching is terrific. They've been there before.
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: They battle. They play defense. They play fast offensively and defensively.
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: They've been overcoming, the last few years, they've been injured
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: as far as with key positions. I just like the
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: way they play. They have enough talent. And I believe
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: that coaching is so important. So what they're going to
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: probably try to use off the bench. You remember now,
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: they added Tim Hardaway. They added Klay Thompson as a starter.
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: So they start Davian Mitchell, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Giannis,
• 47:55
  Speaker 3: and Bam Adebato. That's a very good starting team, but
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: they've done a good job with the bench, adding Tim
• 48:02
  Speaker 3: Hardaway will help them, and Fontecchio, and they added Bobby Portis.
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: So I like their coaching. I like their team. I
• 48:08
  Speaker 3: like Giannis being motivated. I like Pat Rowley as the
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: main guy that runs the organization. I think they're going
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: to have a great season in the West quickly.
• 48:19
  Speaker 4: Five, Rockets.
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: Four, Nuggets. Even though we love Jokic. Four, Nuggets.
• 48:25
  Speaker 4: Three, T-Wolves. Okay.
• 48:28
  Speaker 3: A mellow ball.
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: Good.
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: Anthony Edwards. Good. They got some crew there right now.
• 48:35
  Speaker 4: Two, Spurs.
• 48:37
  Speaker 3: One, Thunder.
• 48:40
  Speaker 5: I feel like probably everyone in the world has those
• 48:42
  Speaker 5: last two, either Spurs one, Thunder two, or vice versa
• 48:47
  Speaker 5: the way you had it.
• 48:48
  Speaker 4: I'm similar.
• 48:49
  Speaker 5: I only have three teams in the West that I
• 48:52
  Speaker 5: think can truly win the championship, Gordie. Number three, the
• 48:57
  Speaker 5: Houston Rockets. I think Fred Van Vliet gives them an
• 49:01
  Speaker 5: adult in the room at point guard that they did
• 49:04
  Speaker 5: not have last year, and we saw that that was,
• 49:06
  Speaker 5: we all learned just how glaring that was, especially in
• 49:10
  Speaker 5: that first round series loss to the Lakers, who had
• 49:13
  Speaker 5: nobody playing except for LeBron, it seemed like, and they
• 49:17
  Speaker 5: still lost to them. Fred Van Vliet's to make a
• 49:20
  Speaker 5: huge difference for them. And then I have the Spurs.
• 49:23
  Speaker 5: I have the same as you.
• 49:24
  Speaker 4: Spurs 2, Thunder 1, Jalen Williams, J.
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: Will.
• 49:29
  Speaker 5: He's going to be healthy to start the season. If
• 49:32
  Speaker 5: he's healthy in that series against the Spurs, the Thunder
• 49:35
  Speaker 5: probably go back to the finals and maybe they're back-to-back champions, right?
• 49:40
  Speaker 5: If he's healthy, even with as bad as Chet Holmgren
• 49:44
  Speaker 5: played in that series, and if Chet Holmgren doesn't get
• 49:47
  Speaker 5: any better if he's healthy, they ought to be able
• 49:49
  Speaker 5: to win the West this year, even with the Spurs
• 49:52
  Speaker 5: being improved in the offseason and another year older, which
• 49:56
  Speaker 5: is huge for a young team like that with a
• 49:58
  Speaker 5: lot of talent. But it's going to be close between
• 50:01
  Speaker 5: those two. It's like Thunder Spurs here, and then kind
• 50:05
  Speaker 5: of a big gap. Then for me, it's the Rockets.
• 50:07
  Speaker 5: You have, who was your third team?
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: The T-Wolves.
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: T-Wolves, yeah. Nuggets four, Rockets five.
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 50:14
  Speaker 5: So I think the Nuggets are going to regress this year.
• 50:16
  Speaker 5: I think the Lakers are going to regress this year
• 50:19
  Speaker 5: a little bit. But we shall see how it all
• 50:21
  Speaker 5: plays out.
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: And that's the beauty of the whole thing in the NBA.
• 50:23
  Speaker 3: You think you know, you know nothing.
• 50:25
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 50:26
  Speaker 5: Gordy, we're over time already, but we still have time
• 50:30
  Speaker 5: for your list, of course. Give us your list of
• 50:31
  Speaker 5: the day.
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: The list today, James, is the 15 greatest all-around NBA players.
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: Yikes.
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: 15 greatest. Here's the criteria. So you're driving right now
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: on I-15. Don't be start wigging out when I give
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: these names out. So here's the criteria.
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: One, scoring. Two, passing.
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: Three, defending, including shot blocking. Four, rebounding. Five, end the game,
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: clutch two-way plays. Six, longevity. Seven, NBA titles. You have
• 51:03
  Speaker 3: to win a title. As great as you are, certain
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: players are, you got to win at least one title.
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: Here we go. Number 15, Oscar Robinson. One title. Number 14,
• 51:14
  Speaker 3: he plays for the Rockets right now, Kevin Durant. Two
• 51:19
  Speaker 3: NBA titles. Number three, former Rockets, the all-time leader in
• 51:25
  Speaker 3: shot blocking and the greatest ever stealer in the NBA
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: for a big guy, Hakeem Olajuwon. Two NBA titles. Number 12, all-time,
• 51:35
  Speaker 3: four NBA titles, Shaquille O'Neal. Number 11, talked about it
• 51:40
  Speaker 3: a second ago, the Denver Nuggets, one NBA title, three-time MVP,
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: Nikolai Jokic. Number 10, one of the greatest ever clutch players,
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: three championships, Larry Bird. Number nine, the world's greatest shooter
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: of all time versus off the dribble versus what, catch
• 52:00
  Speaker 3: and shoot. Four NBA titles at six foot three hundred
• 52:04
  Speaker 3: eighty six pounds. He's once in a generational talent. Steph Curry.
• 52:09
  Speaker 3: Number eight. Mr. Fundamentals. Five championships. Tim Duncan. Number seven.
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: 11 titles in 13 years, including being a player coach.
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: I'll go later on quickly about him. Number seven, all-time,
• 52:25
  Speaker 3: Bill Russell. Number six, five NBA titles. He did it
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: with a smile, Magic Johnson. Number five, all-time greatest player.
• 52:33
  Speaker 3: Five championships. He left his weight too early in life,
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: Kobe Bryant. Number four, they changed the rules to try
• 52:40
  Speaker 3: to guard him in a game because he's impossible to guard.
• 52:43
  Speaker 3: One time someone said that you don't pass ball enough,
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: led the NBA in assists the following season, Wilt Chamberlain,
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: with two championships, four all-time. Number three, he did it
• 52:52
  Speaker 3: with a skyhook. He did it with goggles, six NBA titles,
• 52:57
  Speaker 3: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Number two, 24th year in the NBA coming
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: up right now.
• 53:04
  Speaker 4: Still playing, Gordon.
• 53:06
  Speaker 3: Still playing. Plays for the 76ers. LeBron James with four
• 53:09
  Speaker 3: titles and the number one greatest player of all time.
• 53:13
  Speaker 3: Six NBA titles. There was nobody like him ever. Both
• 53:17
  Speaker 3: two-way sides of the ball. You know what I'm going
• 53:19
  Speaker 3: to say right now? His name is Michael Jordan with six. Quickly.
• 53:23
  Speaker 3: Who might on his list someday could be added? What
• 53:26
  Speaker 3: about Victor Wembeamba? Someday. could be on this list. And
• 53:29
  Speaker 3: let's go back to Bill Russell.
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: Feels like only a matter of time.
• 53:32
  Speaker 3: Very much. All right, Bill Russell. Here's Russell's stat line.
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: I have to bring it up because he's such a
• 53:38
  Speaker 3: unique player. Five-time league MVP. He was 10-0 in game
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: sevens of playoffs, undefeated. He averaged 15.1 points per game
• 53:50
  Speaker 3: in his career. He averaged rebounds, 22.3 rebounds per game,
• 53:53
  Speaker 3: and They didn't keep block shots until 1973-74 season. He
• 54:01
  Speaker 3: retired in 1969. But if they did, he'd average blocks
• 54:07
  Speaker 3: per game, James, I'm tempering my words here, at least
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: five blocks a game. Thus, That's my list of today.
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: Please text James Peterson and give James Peterson your list
• 54:23
  Speaker 3: of the 15 greatest players.
• 54:24
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 54:26
  Speaker 5: If you do, we'll 877-353-0700. We might compare that a
• 54:30
  Speaker 5: little bit later in the show. Gordy, thank you so
• 54:32
  Speaker 5: much for coming in studio. So much fun. Have a
• 54:35
  Speaker 5: good rest of your day.
• 54:35
  Speaker 3: Thanks, James.
• 54:36
  Speaker 4: Peace out. All right, that's.
• 54:37
  Speaker 5: Gordy Chiesa brought to you by Aladdin Industries, your... Velux
• 54:41
  Speaker 5: Skylight Stealer, and you went to golf by Worldwide Golf.
• 54:44
  Speaker 4: Get there.
• 54:45
  Speaker 5: Daily Dump next, including a Thursday night football preview. Seahawks
• 54:49
  Speaker 5: and Broncos on the station tonight around 6 o'clock. That's
• 54:54
  Speaker 5: next during the Daily Dump on ESPN 700, 92.1 FM.