RIP Kobe

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's Ben. I hope you're having a fine day today,
and I thank you for joining us here on the podcast.
This show is gonna sound different than most of the
other shows that we do. Now it's all about Kobe Bryant.
It's one topic that we are going to discuss, but
we're gonna discuss it in different ways. And we reacted

(00:20):
to the passing of Kobe Bryant, the death of Kobe
Bryant in the helicopter asked accident, and we will give
you our reaction, each of us in real time, how
we found out the news. We'll talk about the morning
process which is going on right now. We'll also discuss
the NBA. Did they handle this the right way? The
NBA played the full schedule of games. They did not

(00:42):
cancel games. Some people say the NBA should have shut
down the schedule. Kobe Bryant was also the teflon don
if you will, of the NBA. He had some issues.
It's complex, it's not straightforward with Kobe. There were some
issues there. We discussed that part of the story and
how he was able to continue on while others not
able to continue on. Also, the lasting memories of Kobe

(01:07):
Bryant that he left behind as well, and the One
Name Club which Kobe Bryant was a part of, and
also unfortunately another club athletes that died young that Kobe
is now a part of. But we'll have that and
some other things mixed in as well. It's all coming
your way right now on the podcast. We will get
back to the regularly scheduled fun and shenanigans of the

(01:29):
show tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll get back to that. But here
is today's look back at the life and times of
Kobe Bryant. Well, you know we're talking about Welcome in
the beginning of the Ben Maller Show. We are in
the air everywhere the vast Fox Sports Radio network, emanating
live from the Geiko Fox Sports Radio studios. Fifteen minutes

(01:50):
could save you fifteen percent or more on your car insurance.
Just visit Geiko dot com for a free rate Quotas
I said on social media, it's a Kobe Palooza kind
of a night here. There are some days that you
come in here you're like, ah, I don't want to
talk about and there's other days you come in here
and you're like, I didn't have to discuss that. But

(02:12):
this is one of those odd odd nights, one of
those days. But you have been saved from me breaking
down the Kansas City Chiefs players wearing Andy Reid shirts
as they arrived in Miami. There, you've saved. You've been
You've been saved from that. You've been saved from another
astro's monologue about something that Justin Verlanders said over the weekend.

(02:33):
You will not hear about that. It's all about Kobe Bryant.
In fact, roughly ninety five percent of the show will
be about the death of Kobe Bryant. So if you
are someone that doesn't like that kind of radio, this
is probably not the show for you. It's probably not
the show for you. But I would assume by now,
unless you've been living in a shoe box somewhere down
down by the river, that you know Kobe Bryant and

(02:56):
a bunch of other people who's daughter and people who
made the mistake of going on a helicopter not being
the most famous person. Remembers that that old line years
ago that if you're going to get onto a plane,
you want to be the most famous person on the
plane if the plane goes down, Because that way they
talk about you. But that's a sad thing all the
way around. But Kobe and his daughter are getting all
the headlines. Here a private helicopter, you know, nine people,

(03:18):
eight passengers and the pilot crashing in the Calabasas area
of Los Angeles early in the morning on Sunday. That's
roughly to give you an idea here where we do
the show from the hollowed hallways of Fox Sports Radio
and beautiful Sherman Oaks, California, right off the one oh
one freeway. It's a Pauvada so Paulvida and Ventura right

(03:39):
there at the corner in our student been here for years,
and this is about fifteen miles away from the mothership
studios of Fox Sports Rade. It's about a twenty minute
car ride with traffic three hours. But that's about where
this took place. And so we have a saying in radio,
don't bury the lady, and so we're not going to

(04:01):
bury the lead. This is the story here that everyone
is discussing. So the question what is the initial reaction
to the death of Kobe Bryant That this has not
even been twenty four hours old since this took place, now,
I'm not much different than you. I don't think that
anybody had a much different reaction. Some might be more

(04:23):
passionate than me about Kobe, but I've got gobsmacked, surreal,
and melancholy, and we will put all these things together now. Ay.
As you know from listening to the radio show over
the years, I am not a Kobe Bryant fan, and
it would be disingenuous of me to speak otherwise now,

(04:45):
So we're not going to sit here and do like
four hours of just NonStop hero worship radio. But we
will talk about Kobe with a respect. We'll do what's
appropriate for those that loved Kobe Bryant and I listen,
I had a level of respect for the way that
Kobe approached playing in the NBA. He caused me a
lot of heartache and a lot of things like that
as a fan of basketball. But as far as how

(05:08):
I found out my initial reaction to all this, I
was snoozing in my sleep number bed. I was sleeping
and my phone kept buzzing and you gotta, you gotta
send me. I think I had like twenty five thirty
text messages, all like within the span of like a minute,
or within at least five minutes I don't know. I

(05:29):
was like in a day, so I woke. I grabbed
my phone. I'm like, oh, what the hell is this crap?
You know, I'm trying to sleep in on a Sunday.
I don't I do overnights. I can't sleep, so I'm
I'm like in a bad mood. I grabbed my phone
and then message after message there was a myriad of
text messages, one after another. Kobe's dead, helicopter down, Kobe
on board, no survivors. TMZ says, rest in peace, Kobe.

(05:51):
All these text messages are coming in, and so I was,
whatever were you on these gobsmack thunderstruck flummocks. I was
sitting there, I was laying in bed. I was in
a daze, and I'm like looking at my phone here,
I'm like nah. Then I thought, well, maybe I'm dreaming.
This must be like one of those dreams you have.
And then I realized I never dream. I don't sleep

(06:13):
deep enough to dream, so I don't dream, so this
had to be reality. And then they kept coming one
after another, and that funds all right, I'll go see
what TMZ's got on there. So I went over to the
the TMZ's website. And they had all the details, well
the initial details, which were wrong. They said five people
on they were wrong. It was actually nine people, eight
passengers on the pilot, and so the numbers ballooned up

(06:35):
and all on a foggy hillside in southern California. So
the second part of this part be here. Now, my
emotions are much different than yours. Most likely, I feel
really bad for those that are huge Kobe Bryant fans
that loved Kobe Bryant. It is odd how it works
when you're a celebrity. I was texting an old media

(06:57):
friend of mine about about this whole situation, and we
both covered the Lakers when Kobe was a rookie and
the first couple of years before he became like a
legendary figure in the NBA, his first couple of years
when he was just a punk teenager and nobody knew
for sure whether or not he was gonna make it
or not, because remember the first two years, Kobe Bryant

(07:18):
was not very good as an NBA player. He shot
like I think it was like forty two percent or
something like that, didn't play all that much for Del Harris,
who was the coach of the Lakers in those days,
but we were around him quite a bit, and then
he's become this global icon and it is surreal, is
the only word that you can use to describe to
think that all of that has happened and now it's

(07:40):
all over. We knew he was done playing. They had
that celebration when Kobe's last year, the last couple of years,
there was a celebration of Kobe Bryant, but you knew
he hadn't played in a while a few years. But
now it's like his life is over, and it just
cranks it up a couple of notches there, and we
got to eaves drop in here and the good, the

(08:01):
badly ugly from Kobe Bryant. And again it wasn't all glorious.
Now in the moment of his death, all of it
is glorious, and you're supposed to forget about all the
other stuff. That's how the rules work. That's the rules
of fight club. Can't make the rules those other rules.
But it's not like he was sick. I mean, these
are the things. These these incidents happen every once in
a while involving our little sporting world here. It's not

(08:22):
like Kobe Bryant had terminal cancer and had been knowing
for some time that the end was coming. He probably
had considering the wealth that Kobe Bryant had amassed in
his career, and when you have a lot of money,
you can afford the top medical people out there, so
you know, the normal things that will take me down
and take you down would not likely have taken Kobe.

(08:45):
Now he was looking at least another forty thirty five
to forty years of life because of the amount of
money you could have for medical care and all that.
But it's another reminder nothing guaranteed and all that. And
for some who believe when it's your time, it's your time.
There's nothing to do about it. It's one of the
great mysteries of life. And maybe we'll find out when

(09:05):
we die what happens. Maybe not, but that's something all
of us are going to have to deal with at
some point another. Now the last word here. So I
had to run some errands around the LA area with
the wife and so on Sunday. So I woke up
and I was like, I don't know, I didn't know
what to say. I was like, I don't know, I

(09:26):
gotta say something, and people want me probably to say something,
but I don't know what to say. And I was like,
I was debating. We're going around, We're doing some shopping
because that's what I do, spend money. I want to
get further in debt. My goal is to get further
in debt. So I decided to go out and go
shopping on the weekend. But I had some things to do.
And then we had a nice, nice lunch at a
fine Mexican restaurant in the LA area, and wonderful time.

(09:48):
They're wonderful meal a lot of time. I love the
chip That's what they said. In Mexican restaurant. They had
chips and salsa. Was just wonderful. But everywhere I went
to the places I went, there was this haze. And
I'm not talking about the weather, but it was just
gloomy right now. Not everyone in LA as a Laker fan.
The belief is that everyone's a Laker fan. That's not true.

(10:09):
That's not the reality of it. Not everyone's a sports fan.
Most people aren't. God I wish they were. Our ratings
would go up. If everyone was a sports fan, we'd
do a lot better and we'd have more people listening.
That'd be a lot of fun. Most aren't right, most
people or they're casual fans, you know, they're not at
it like we're hardcore. You listening to a sports radio station,
you are a different level fan than the casual fan.

(10:29):
Not everyone's a Kobe Bryant fan. A lot of people
didn't like Kobe Bryant for reasons off the court or
on the court, but the whole everywhere I went, everywhere,
but everywhere I went, my experience melancholy right everyone down
in the dumps. A lot of people were mourning Kobe

(10:49):
Bryant by wearing his shirt. I saw at Kobe Bryant jerseys.
I saw Coop and Roberto both wearing their jersey. Bobo
was in here earlier. He had as Kobe Bryant jersey
and all kinds of hats and all the paraphernalia and
all that stuff. And I really felt bad. And we
was sart of a Roberto about this before the show,

(11:10):
and I was like, you know, I feel really bad
for you if you've never experienced this up close, the
whole death thing, because man, isn't a kick in the nuts.
It is. It's such a shocker. I mean, for the
hardcore fanatic of Kobe Bryant. Well, I am not one
of those people. If you're of a certain age and

(11:31):
he was like family. He didn't really know him in
real life or anything like that. But through your entire life,
you followed this guy, and you you were all about
Kobe Bryant. So I really feel bad for the people
that are in that and not had a relative, a
close relative, or a loved one or a friend who
has met their demise, and you have not gone through

(11:52):
the five stages of grief, right, denial, anger, bargaining, depression,
and finally you get to the point of acceptance. Now,
I in my life, I'm at the age in my
life where I have lost a number of people that
have died. I said on the podcast that we do
every week to fifth hour, I said, listen, I've done

(12:12):
pretty much the entire funeral Bingo card. I'm only missing
a couple. I've been to almost every type of funeral
you can beat you go to from the different religions
and all that stuff. I only need a couple left
on my Bengo card to complete the Bengo card. But
I built up a lot of scar tissue to this
kind of stuff. But to give you an idea of
how quickly this ended for Kobe. The helicopter corner of

(12:37):
the latest reports from TMZ was flying one hundred and
sixty one knots okay, one hundred and sixty one knots
in foggy conditions and smashed in. Now, if you're not
a pilot and you don't know what the hell knots means,
it's one hundred and eighty five miles an hour, So
imagine driving one hundred and eighty five miles an hour

(12:58):
into a hill. That is what happened according to the
latest reports from TMZ. If that is actual, all right,
so listen, we will take your phone calls if you
would like to be part. I think you know where
this is going here. Throughout the show, we will have
a six line salute. So actually, if you want to
call in now for that, because we'll let some of
these guys say they're PC here, Coop and Roberto and

(13:20):
even Eddie, although not a basketball fan, we'll have an
opportunity to say some things about this. But we will
have the highlight of the hour, if you want to
call it highlight is the six line salute, which is
only gonna be five lines unless because line one is
still not working. So we need We're gonna need like
Cowboy to call in to be our sixth line because
Cowboy has a super secret bat phone that he can

(13:41):
use from Windsor, Ontario to call in. But we will
get to that. And also a rival NBA owner of
the Lakers with some very big plans for the passing
of Kobe Brant. We'll get to that. We will do
it next. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm

(14:02):
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeart Radio app.
It's Mallard twenty twenty. You can be heard in the
democracy of the Ben Maller Show. We encourage and welcome
the voice of the people. That would be you following
the voice of this show that would be your host,
and you could follow him on Twitter at Ben Maller.
You can also follow and tweet at me Eddie Garcia

(14:23):
your humble sign kick the Voice of Reason. I'm at
Eddie on Fox. No play for mister Gray and I'll
lie from the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios. It's Ben Maller.
So I have a six line tribute to Kobe coming
up later in the hour. It's the theme of the
night here on Fox. See here I get some to read.

(14:45):
Ernie the Grado pineer says Ben. I was woke up
with my wife showing me the Kobe News on her phone,
asking is this fake news? So I got on Twitter
and I told her yes. But it hit me hard,
it a surreal way when I turned on the TV
and Ben, should they change the logo or is it
too now? I shouldn't change the logo? Come down, I stop,

(15:08):
stop with the changed the logo. That changed the logo. Okay,
that had changed the logo, because then you know what
Lebron dies they gonna change the logo Lebron after that?
I mean, you know, Jordan, what are you gonna do?
Keep changing the logo? I mean, come on you, no,
don't change the logo. Uh, Brandon says even Minnesota showing
love for number twenty four, and he's send a couple

(15:28):
of pictures there from outside US Bank Stadium. I got
a photo Cobe and his appears to be his daughter
there and then the arena, well, I think that's purple
because of the vikings though, isn't it. No, I don't
know who else do we have? Is it page down?
Page down? And Nick from Ella I'm trying to find
that although Nick doesn't Nick doesn't really NICKI New Hampshire. Rather,

(15:50):
he says uh, he always as a way of killing
the Celtics, says shame there is no son to carry
on the Mamba legacy. What he has to say on that, well,
no daughter could have carried it on there, I guess
in her sport anyway, be Mallers show on Fox and
Eddie you have anything to add here? Eddie, you want
to add anything? We were in a text conversation this

(16:12):
morning or yesterday morning. I guess now, yeah, I mean, look, you,
you and I not Laker fans, not Kobe fans. But
I'm glad I didn't imagine this because, like you, I
was out and about on Sunday after this news and
going doing all kinds of errands, went out to dinner,
and I thought I felt the same thing that it

(16:34):
seemed like, you know, in a very broad sense, that
this town was in mourning, that it was very subdued
everywhere we went. I mean, people are still going about
their business, but there wasn't a lot of laughing or
you know, it wasn't very loud in this busy restaurant
we went. It did seem like it was on a
lot of people's minds, and it was just a huge
bummer for everyone on different degrees, obviously, if you were

(16:57):
a Laker fan or a Kobe fan, or if you
were just a person, and you know, we all look
at these things through our own personal kind of prisms.
So my older sister was killed in a small plane
crash when she was in her early twenties. I was
in junior high, and I you know that when something
like this happens, that kind of a helicopter crash, a
plane crash, Obviously, I think back to that and I

(17:18):
remember in our family, there was our lives before that day,
and then there was our lives after that day, and
it really wasn't the same. There's always something missing, And
so just from a human standpoint, I just keep thinking
about Kobe's wife and in his kids and how they'll
never have their dad and she'll never have her husband.
I know she could remarry and all this stuff, but

(17:39):
it's just a and I know there's other people on
board the plane as well, their families are going through it.
It's just a devastating thing to go through, and your
lives are literally never the same. So yeah, it was.
It was just a big bummer, putting it lightly. Absolutely,
And Nick in Nebraska and Almaha Carpet, Nick in Olmah says,

(18:00):
let me get well, he can't honor Kobe by getting drunk.
He said, he's staying up all night listening to the
show and he's doing shots in honor of Kobe and
the show. Yeah, well, I guess that's fine as long
as you don't leave the house. I mean, that's okay, right,
don't get in a car and can't be arrested for that.
You're allowing your own home to take shots of alcohol.

(18:22):
If you would like to to take part in it,
you're more than welcome to do it. Knock yourself out,
as they say, literally you can literally knock yourself out.
Just Roberto, who is wearing the gold you get the
Kobe jersey on? Oh there you go. Yeah, so I

(18:46):
feel bad for you, Roberto. We were talking before the
show here and you you love the Lakers. Yeah, we
disagree about that. You love Kobe Bryant, and this is
a tough for you because you you have so much
Laker member so much, call me Kobe, sure and hats
I have a Kobe jerseys and about like three four
T shirts. Wow. Yeah, so how how are you handling

(19:09):
this room? It was crazy because I went to Mass today,
you know, because I was trying to be in a a
good Catholic and everything hadn't got a mask like in
a month. Uh and then uh no, no, no, no, no,
it was no. Yeah. When when the new this is
how I found out the news broke. I was in
Mass and then my wife is shocking look in her face.
And then our daughter didn't go with us, so she
was with my in law. So at first I was

(19:29):
like worried that something happened to our daughter. And then
she pulls me out of a master older here let
me show you. And then when I saw it, I
was in shock first after like realizing, okay, nothing happened
without her, Okay, that's great. And then then after I
felt like it was it was like fake news. Man.
I couldn't believe it at first, and then when it
finally started sitting in they know that he had passed away.

(19:50):
Was it was? I was very emotional. Yeah, yeah, I
mean when he was when Kobe was a rookie NBA.
I was a sophomore in high school when he won
the first time. I was twenty one when when uh,
when he lost the Celtics in no Wait, I had
just got I got married that same year with my wife.
I feel like I've grown up with seen seen him.

(20:12):
We grew up around the same time. You know me
and cool, So your life you gotta tie your life
events with Yeah, he's favorite player, yeah, and then so
like and then also gives me the most is that
you know he I. I came a full time father
in twenty fifteen. He became a full time father pretty
much twenty sixteen. And to see him grow as a father,
it was it's and then out to realize that his

(20:32):
daughter's gonna grow up without without a father, it's really
sad man. Yeah, it is absolutely. Frank in La writes
and says, losing Kobe Bryant today and made me realize
that life is too short to hold grudges except for
the astros. Uh he says them, uh f them forever.
That's from Frank and Ellie, who does not support our

(20:52):
show on Twitter. By the way, he supports some other
radio show on Twitter. I don't know what happened. Frank's
been listening to us for years. Anyway, Cooper, Loop, Coop,
you of the see the white you have the white
Kobe Bryant Jersey on Sunday, the Sunday Lights, the Sunday Whites.
That's right, Sunday White. So I know you and over
the years, you're Coop, When every time I would take
a gratuitous, cheap shot at Kobe, you and Roberto would run.

(21:16):
You would run to defend him, and you would savagely
attack me to defend the honor of Kobe Bryant. And
I hope Kobe appreciated that. But you you always had
his back no matter what I would say, even if
I was right, you would always attack me, not him.
And so what do you what do you have to
say you want to add? I mean, uh, I don't

(21:36):
know how often you were right, but uh, you know,
I just I was. I was woken up with the news.
I was still sleeping, and uh, you know, one of
my buddies, one of my you know, closest Laker fan friends,
called me up and he's like, you know, if you've
seen the news today, I'm no. I mean, your phone
call literally woke me up and he told me that,

(21:57):
you know, it's it's being reported, but he's not sure
if it's true. And and I immediately, like you know,
went to you know, look at my phone, and I
see a couple other text messages and then he's like,
he told me that TMZ's reporting it. And then when
he said that, I knew it was true, because you know,
they don't they don't get these kind of things wrong.
I mean, details they got they got wrong, obviously, but yeah,

(22:17):
well the initial reports are always wrong on these things,
right right. Yeah. TMZ's got an army of lawyers over there.
They know, they're pretty good at not getting sued. Yeah,
And it was just it was it was stunning. You know. Um,
I was, i mean eight years old, maybe seven years
old when uh Kobe came into the league, and I

(22:39):
was just starting to like sports around that time. You know,
my dad had always watched sports and I was finally
starting to get into it. He was teaching me about
the different sports and and you know, Kobe was one
of the first people who like I got to see
from from start to finish really and you know he
was as a as a kid, he I idolized him,

(23:01):
you know, he was the coolest I you know, if
people would ask if you know, if you could be
anybody you know, or if you could have any skill,
what would you do? And that was it. I always said, man,
I'd be Kobe Bryant, like that'd be the coolest to have,
you know, his ability, and and it was just he
was somebody that I always admired and he made me
really love basketball, and so it was, you know, it's

(23:25):
it's been a tough day. I've I've been glued to
the TV watching all the news about it, and it's
it's really upsetting. So I mean hear man, I tried.
I didn't want to watch too much too that I
had to stop after a while because it's just, you
know it, it's so over the top. Though a lot
of this stuff like it is it is sometimes sometimes
you you know, you roll your eyes at certain people,

(23:47):
but other times you see there's a lot of opportunities
to right absolutely and that's that gets frustrating. But then
you see the like the real emotion from people like
like Brian Shaw was on there on NBA TV, and
that's tough to watch and it's just I don't know,
I feel like part of you wants to see reactions
as as as you know, but I feel like a

(24:10):
part of you want it. You want people to to
grieve with, you know, because in certain households, like like
mine especially, I'm one of the like the like people
that live there that like sports and so like, you know, nobody,
nobody else really understands, like, you know what I'm feeling.
They're like, oh, you know, the celebrity died. But it's
it's different especially for someone people like us that have
a passion in sports and you know, watch him the

(24:32):
whole time. It's you feel connected even though you never
met him necessarily. Yeah, I got a few messages from
people in my extended family that aren't sports fans, like
they knew they knew Kobe had played basketball, so they're
sending me message like I can add something I don't mean,
you know. That's be sure to catch live editions of
The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven

(24:53):
pm Pacific. Ben, As you might imagine, a lot of
people thinking about the next Lakers game, which is also
a home game Tuesday against the Clippers, and Coope was
telling us earlier in our little text exchanges that he
had tried to go online to check out tickets for
that game, and already the cheapest seats in the thousands

(25:15):
of dollars for that Lakers Clippers game on Tuesday. And
I got to imagine the ratings for that game will
be very high as well as people will want to
see exactly how the Lakers will honor Kobe Bryant and
all the things that go on, and in addition to
a obviously a very good basketball game as well. So
they've gouged the prices on the secondary market. Yes, they

(25:36):
kind of like when you drive out to you to
like Vegas in the rays of the price of gas
out in the desert because they can get away with it,
or hotels if there's a disaster and there's a hotel.
They've come down a little bit since they're now at
nine sixty much more, much more affordable thousand bucks, thousand
bucks for a regular season NBA game. What is the
Ben Maler Show. We are company from the Geico Fox

(25:58):
Sports Radio Studio. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent
or more on your car insurance. Just visit Geico dot
com get a free rate quote. Aaron says, the news
of Kobe and his daughter has sent that mystical haze
of silence across the nation, not just the la Aaron

(26:23):
says as he writes in to the show, So we
have a six line tribute to Kobe Bryant, which I
believe will be a five line salute more than a
six line tribute. Blame line one. Not our fault. But
if you're just turning on the radio this and we
know that on our show, this is the top honor
that you can do. We haven't done one of these
in a long time, and we only do it on special,

(26:46):
unfortunate occasions. Normally we do it when people have even
older and die, not normally when they suddenly die like this.
But the the NBA is suffering a big loss of
the sporting world over the weekend with the death of
Kobe Bryant, the helicopter accident in the suburbs of La
there in Calabasas early in the morning on Sunday. So,
if you're new to the show in sports radio, we

(27:09):
are not allowed, I've asked Scott Shapiro, we are not
allowed to bring guns to the studio. We have a
no gun policy. It's not the Okay Corral. So instead
we use you as the ultimate sign of respect, and
it military attributes. When military figures pass away, these six
guns salute, they shoot offs. And so we have cleared

(27:30):
all the lines. Now we only have five working lines.
We'll have six if Cowboy calls in because he's got
the super secret bat phone, but we're planning on only
having five. And all of you guys will have a
chance to say something in tribute of Kobe Bryant. And
once everyone has said a few words, then we will
all say in unison, rest in peace, Kobe Bryant. We'll

(27:51):
all hang up and go our separate ways. Yes, all right,
So now before you guys get the opportunity, just to
add on to the monologue at the beginning here, I'm
gonna go first. And we've heard from Coop and were though,
and we've also heard from Eddie. But Kobe Bryant and
the loss of his life at age forty one after
just at over three years almost four years since he
last played in the NBA, and his daughter and photos

(28:16):
of the pilot. There's this baseball coach who died with
his family's wife, his daughter and some of the other
victims haven't even been named. Yet in the accident, but
it's more of that will come out, the details on
what happened, what should have happened, which shouldn't have been happened, happening.
But Kobe Bryant's legacy as an NBA player, one of
the all time great players, and I mentioned it in

(28:39):
the open, but when he was early on in his career,
before I became a bloviating gas bag. The reason we're
going to do distribute the main reason because I dealt
with Kobe a little bit before I became the nocturnal colonel,
and I had normal hours. I was a young guy.
I was only a few years older than Kobe Bryant.
When I started getting into radio, well, I started, I
was a teenager, but by the time Kobe came on

(28:59):
the scene, I was a few years older than him,
and I was a radio stringer and I had to
cover all the teams in LA and one of the
beats I was on was the Laker beat when they
were at home. I covered all the games and all
that did a few road games and first few years
in the NBA. So I was around Kobe before he
became this legendary iconic figure in basketball and all that

(29:21):
he was just a teenager. He started was eighteen years
old with the Lakers, and then a couple of years,
the first couple of years not all that great, but
I remember, like the Lakers were pretty pretty bad as
a team in those days. The Lakers when Kobe was
a rookie, they had Byron Scott was still hanging around.
He was still playing Jerome Kersey, who I always remember

(29:43):
Jerome Kercy as a member of the Portland Trailblazers, but
he actually passed away a few years ago. Jerome Kurcy,
but he was on that team. Cedric Soballos, who's done
some work here at Fox Sports Radio over the years.
He was still hanging on. They had Eddie Jones on
that team. The first Kobe team with the LA and
the first couple of years Kobe did not blossom. It

(30:03):
took him a couple of years to get his sea
legs under him, and then the third year he went
gangbusters after that, and the numbers all there, they're all
over the internet. The championships, the MVP of the NBA
Finals a couple of times and all that, and he
was just kind of crazy with the timing on this,
Like there's ever a good time. But Lebron James had

(30:24):
just passed Kobe Bryant by on the scoring list on
Saturday and then on Sunday morning this happened. But we
don't do a hero worship. But I believe this is
the proper thing to do. So we will welcome in
everybody here and fight. Why don't we pause for the
cost that we get caught up on that because I
don't want to screw up the clock because you know,
get in trouble with my bosses. So we will will

(30:46):
check in with everybody. I see we do have. Every
line is full here, so Coop did find a way
to get someone to call in on line one. So
we will have a six line salute to Kobe Bryant
and we will have you guys. Everyone's stand hole will
introduced everybody. We'll get to that and we will do
it next. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk

(31:06):
lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at
foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search
FSR to listen live. If you're a regular listener, you
know that the Ben Maller Show is unconventional sports talk.
We dabble on the outlandish and bond with the freaks
and geeks. Facebook is a digital playground for all of us,
and you can chat with other P one friends of

(31:27):
the show. It's painless and you can cancel anytime. Just
like our page. Go to Facebook dot com slash Ben
Maller Show and ow live from the Geico Fox Sports
Radio Studios. It's Ben Maller, all right, So we're doing
our six line attribute to Kobe Bryant here. I've said
my piece, everyone else here said there. So we're welcome
in all our lines here line number one, which Coop

(31:50):
found a way to get line one to temporarily work.
It's rare that we have line one. We haven't had
a line one in the ear and that would be
Sports Plus. Are you there, Sports Plus? I am mister Maller,
all right, thank you. Hold on a sex Sports Plus,
Sean the Hood guy, you're there, Sean so Man, all right,
hold on a sex Sean the Hood guys there. John
in Tacoma, Hello John, Hey Ben, How are you doing

(32:12):
all right? John? Thanks? Hold on a sec. John's there,
our friend Holiday in La Hello Holiday. What's going on? Ben?
All right? Hold on a sec. Holiday Ed in Spokane? Hello, Ed?
Not too good. All right, you're my line for I
didn't ask you. You're my line five. D Hold on
a second, and the window is my line six. Hello

(32:33):
Wendow the bus driver. Hello, hey, President Encounter for all right,
you're in my line six. So we'll go back to
line one, Sports Plus. You have anything you want to
say here, This is your opportunity to say a few words,
and then at the end we'll put everyone on the
air at the same time. We'll go out line by line. Here.
You can say a couple of words if you want
about Kobe Bryant Well, feeling bad for for obviously the

(32:53):
family's involved in everyone who's who's been affected in this,
and of course from the show, for Coop and Roberto Burrow,
fe feel badly for you guys. So, but just wanted
to call in and uh, just say a little bit
something say say that. That's probably enough for now of
the other guys, all right, A hold on a sect,

(33:13):
don't hang up Sports Plus. You are on my line
number one. Sean the hood guy, Sean, what's up? Man?
What you got to say? Man? A couple of years ago, Man,
I met Kobe man the spot I worked that. Uh,
he's used to come in the mornings near the basketball
facility where they used to practice it. And I was
working at the spot in the parking lot and I
was setting out cones one morning and uh, he came

(33:35):
in and ran over the cons in the manager spots.
So I started going crazy and cousin and I didn't
know it was him until they rolled down the window
and I was like, oh, black mum, but what's going on.
He was like in a park here, and I was like, nah,
I shouldn't let you park here because you know, you
ran over my pacers in the finals and you know
you dogged him out it. He just sees the moment.
I said, what made you do my pacers like that?
He just straight out told me he was hungry, and uh,

(33:56):
I said yeah he was, man, I said, you stay
hungry like that? And uh, after so long, you know,
me and him kind of like every time he would
coming while I was at he would always embrace me.
And he was a good dude. Man. He was tall, brother.
You know, he's always strong. He's like when you saw him, man,
it's like he had that or behind him. Man. And
he was a cool dude. And last time I saw him, man,
you know, he had gotten when he ain't gotten that

(34:17):
little mess whatever. When he said when he sipped my
hand and embraced my whispered in his end. I told him,
I said, hey, hummy, be careful out there. The streets
is watching. Everybody's watching. You are the face of la
I say, and stay strong, man, you know, watch you
watch it back, and watch you surround yourself. When he
gave me two paths from the chest and threw his
thumb up and gotten his car and left, Oh wow,
he so he did he move? Did he get out

(34:38):
of the car to move the cones? Or did he
let him? I let him stay there. I was joking
with him, though, I said, I said let I said,
and let you. I shouldn't let you park it because
you dog my pacers, But I said you can park there.
And he started laughing. He said, you're a Pacer fan.
I said, yeah, man, I said, why do you do
my pacers like that? He said he had to see him,
he had to see that moment because he was hungry. Well,
that's a whole different conversation. While Sean the hood as
a Pacer fan, that would be a whole different conversation.

(35:02):
Hold on a sec John in to Cooma. Hello, John,
you want to say a few words here about Kobe.
Don't hang up there. You're my line three, John. Yeah, Ben, Hey,
a couple of weeks ago I work with wanted a
couple of days off and he couldn't tell me why. Well,
uh uh what happened is uh Kobe and his daughter

(35:23):
who passed away also today went to u a high
school basketball game in eastern Washington to watch Kashmere High
School play basketball. Well, Kashmere has uh the operator in
the country, and Kobe's daughter idolized her, and uh my

(35:48):
buddy went out to Kashmir to watch, and he came
back and showed them the pictures of him and Kobe
and Kobe's daughter, and he said he was just the
most gracious guys. So yeah, well, thank you. I know
you're very much a whole lone of sect. John, Though,
thank you, I didn't know that. Look, Kobe let flew

(36:09):
his daughter up to see a high school girls basketball game.
How about that holiday? Holiday? You are next? You're my
line my line four here holiday on our sixth line
tribute to Kobe. What do you have to say here?
By Budd? Holiday? You know Ben, this morning started off.
You know, I was super excited, ready to watch Mikey

(36:31):
and the Pro Bowl, had a little something going, some food,
and when the news dropped, I honestly forgot it about
the Pro Bowl. That's how much that man meant to me.
I've been around his whole career. I still remember David
Stern announcing that we had made a trade with the
eleventh pick with the start At Hornets and gavewayway Vlade

(36:55):
Divas to acquire this man. And what you're seeing around
the city the saw removed is like you said earlier
in your monologue, that you know it's not even the
sports thing anymore. He transcended past sports because no matter
what you did, you wanted to do it. Like Kobe,
I don't care what you were, who you were, what

(37:16):
line of work you was in. He exemplified for twenty
years exactly what you strive to be as a human
being in life is the best at what you do.
And for that I will carry that legacy. He did
not die today, he died in the physical, but that

(37:36):
Mamba mentality and that strive to be the best that
you can be, that it sparked a generation and it's
up to us to make sure that as long as
you carry that mentality, he will always be here. And
you know, for starters, that's what I want to say. Well,
well said, Holiday, I thank you. Hold on a second,
Ed in spoken, Hello, Ed, So I wasn't bad today.

(38:04):
I was like, who cares? And she's like, Kobe Bryant died.
I'm like, what, I jumped out of bed? So I
just got jumped out of bed. Rest in peace, Kobe Bryant. Okay,
we're gonna do that. And your daughter, Michael Dolan says
to your family, I will never forget to say rest
in peace. All right, Hold on a second, and Wendell

(38:26):
in La, Hello, Wendell. You have a few words you
say here. Yeah, I'm gonna keep a very brief here.
You know, just to everyone you know you have the
charis what's near to you while I was dear to you,
while it's near to you, and to all the families
you know, just uh, keep yourselves up and lifted, and

(38:47):
you know, you don't get over you just try to
get through it. And hopefully the Lakers will rename the
court in Kobe's honor. That would be a small, but
many tributes to come to him. Thank you, all right.
Hold I don't hang out up window. All right? So
everyone said their piece here well said, very emotional thank
you guys. All right, So we'll put everyone back on
line one. Sports Plus. You're there, Sports Plus, I am

(39:10):
all right, thank you. Hold on a sec. You over
my line one. Let see if I can pull this
off without hanging up on anybody. And Sean the hood guy,
you're there, Sean, all right, Sean's my line two. John,
and to call me there, John, I am Ben all right, Holiday,
say hello Holiday, I'm here. All right. That's good. And
no one's hung up yet. Eddin spoken, I mean all right,

(39:32):
Edin's checked in. Weendow. Are you there all right? On
the count of three, I'm gonna say one, two, three, okay,
and then everyone say rest in peace, Kobe Bryant. Everyone
understand the rules here? Yes, everyone says you all right?
All right? Here we go in one, two three, rested?

(39:53):
All right? Thank you all. I appreciate that for your contribution.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Mallor
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
the NBA Not doing Things the right way. Some upset
with the NBA over the way this soul Kobe Bryant
thing went down with the NBA hand that we will
discuss that Welcome in the beginning of the Ben Maller Show.

(40:17):
For this hour, we are in the air everywhere the
vast Fox Sports Radio network, emanating live from the Geico
Fox Sports Radio studios. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen
percent or more on your car insurance. Just visit Geigo
dot com for a free right quote. So we continue

(40:38):
our in depth team coverage here of the big story
in the sporting world Kobe Bryant dying in a helicopter
accident in La in the Calabasas area of LA in
the hills, there is thirteen year old daughter. Seven other
people not famous, also lost their lives in that helicopter.

(41:00):
And so it hasn't even been twenty four hours yet
as we are doing this in real time. If you're
listening to the podcast, it probably has been more than
twenty four hours. But since the accident took place and
a lot of shock waves around the sporting world. Here
I mentioned last hour, I woke up to the news
phone kept buzzing, never a good thing. Normally people know
not to call me until a certain time because I'm

(41:22):
not awake, but people were calling me one everyone. One
thing about human nature is that people love to pass
bad news on I don't know why that is. Like
I've always in my life, anytime someone dies of celebrity,
my phone blows up. People loved to tell other people
about the gossip, like somebody died and they have to
tell you about it. And even I getting messages. It

(41:45):
was a little over the top here, but I did
notice the tributes coming in from different people around the NBA.
But there is a group, a small group of people,
I don't even know how small it is, that are
very upset with the end because they played eight games
on Sunday. All eight games that were scheduled were played

(42:06):
on Sunday, and there was a lot of chatter that
the NBA should have just shut down operations as a tribute,
a day of mourning for the memory of Kobe Bryant.
And I've noticed, and we're gonna get into this year,
but I've noticed, even I did my opening monologue, and
you know, there's a certain group that anybody who doesn't

(42:28):
say anything in lockstep people get very defensive here. And
I understand you're going through the morning process, and I'm
respectful for that if you love the Kobe Bryant here.
But let's discuss now, I did the NBA handle the
schedule the right way by playing by playing the eight games?
And I say absolutely they did. I think they did
the right thing by playing the games. And so we'll

(42:51):
talk about it and on number one, Kobe Bryant and
his impact on the NBA will be tossed around over
the next twenty four or forty eight hours and probably
for the next couple of weeks, and then something else
will pop up and people will move on and talk
about something else. But the NBA handled this the way
that you had to handle the only way to handle it.
And we would have roasted Adam Silver and the people

(43:13):
that run the NBA if they had canceled an entire
day of events because Kobe Bryant happened to die in
a helicopter accident. It's it's a terrible situation. There's a
proper way to pay respects to Kobe Bryant, and it
would have been wrong to shut down the entire league
for a day. You've heard Eddie, if you've been listening here,
Eddie's been telling about teams with different tributes and what

(43:35):
they've been doing here throughout the day. There were sixteen
teams that played. But as as bummed out as a
lot of people are, this is not nine to eleven.
The last time they shut down sports leagues was on
September eleventh in the United States, And so it's a
situation where you're trying to grasp like, why did this happen?

(43:55):
Did it have to happen? Was it the helicopter? Did
it breakdown? Was there a mechanical problem? Humans are fallible?
Was it pilot air? And all that will eventually come
out as much as you can have from the information
in the helicopter. The FAA is investigating, and there are
people there right now that are you going to hike

(44:17):
up there and they'll they'll go through everything what went wrong.
The conditions appear to be the issue. I mean, based
on the early reporting year, it was foggy, it was
cloudy with drizzle. They say the relative humidity where the
helicopter went down was one hundred percent, meaning the air
was like soup. That the helicopter was flying through soup.

(44:39):
So you imagine a helicopter spinning around. TMZ said the
last reported, the last report they got was one hundred
and sixty one knots, which is two hundred and eighty
five miles an hour or something like that. It's it's
a ton of it's a ton of speed going right
into the mountain there, quoting of the TMZ reporting there

(45:02):
and whether it's slowed down. I know there's some video
that has popped up, but it's actually one hundred and
eighty five miles, not two eighty five hundred and five
miles an hour. And just imagine flying through what was
essentially lentil soup in the hillside, and the news that
the la PD helicopter crew was grounded, that they were

(45:24):
not allowed to fly because the conditions were unsafe for
their helicopters. But there was the helicopter with Kobe and
all these other people on it that aren't famous, that
was that was flying. Well, all the other helicopters from
the LAPD we were not allowed to fly. But the
NBA list nevertheless, that'll be debated and talked about in
the coming days and whatnot, But the NBA did the

(45:45):
right thing by playing you can't stop everything, and as
much as it sucks, life goes on and with with
you or without you, no matter how, whether you're a
legend or nobody, life continues on. That's just the way
that this works. The train keeps moving down the tracks. Now.
The second thing here for the hardcore Kobe Bryant fanatics,

(46:10):
and I know I'm not one of them, but I
work with a bunch, and this entire building, ever since
Fox Sports Radio launched, has always had an overwhelming number
of huge fans of Kobe Bryant. And that's that's fine,
it's great, but I'm on the other side. Whatever. But
there's many super fanatical people that are numb right now,

(46:30):
and it's completely understandable. But the NBA, from their perspective,
they've got a business to run there. You look at this,
they have plenty of time for reflection. I know Tuesday
night's going to be a big night. Lakers are playing
their first home game, first game since this all went
down against the Clippers, and that's a hot ticket coops
at a thousand bucks on the secondary market roughly right now,

(46:53):
and so there will be tributes and eulogies and things
like that that will go on and on and on.
And as far as the other people that are taking
gratuitous cheap shots. I mean, you got to do a
lot to get me to defend ESPN and ABC. But
people taking shots at them that they should have cut
away from the Pro Bowl, that they believe the network

(47:13):
should have ceased its coverage of the Football All Star Game,
the Pro Football All Star Game, to help accommodate coverage
of the helicopter crash. I don't. I don't think that
would have been the right thing to do either. I
strongly disagree with that. Now there are a gazillion channels.
The Pro Bowl was a part of the ESPN ABC

(47:35):
package there. It would have also been wrong if they
had cut away from that game and they put it
on the bottom line they have on their channel. It
would have been a disservice to the football fans because
now I don't really care for the Pro Bowl, but
apparently a lot of people do, and they do watch
it and it's something that they like. And the other
thing is when Amy says, well you should have done this,

(47:57):
you should have an X, Y and Z. My argue,
especially in the media, is that you don't live in
the Stone Age anymore. Right, It's not back before modern
television with the different ways you can get TV, whether
it be on the Internet or satellite or cable television.
But there are it's not in the nineteen seventies. There
are forty six thousand different ways you can get information.

(48:19):
I got a lot of my information online. I didn't
feel like watching a lot of them. The television coverage,
I just felt it was too over the top, and
it wasn't. It was just going to annoy me. So
I just wanted to get the facts and I as
much as whatever those really are or what you think
they are. And so there were a lot of people
out there, there were opportunists. They're trying to take advantage
of this, and it bothers me when these things happen,

(48:42):
and it sucks. But if you really wanted to get
the coverage, it was not hard to find. It was
on pretty much every other channel. The news channels were
covering it, and not just the sports channels. It was
all over all. Right now, the final point on this,
so Kobe Bryant's your memory, We've talked about it would
be the entire higher topic of conversation, what his legacy

(49:02):
is and what's going to happen and whatnot. And you
know he'll end up on a stamp, which I guess
you know you have to die to get that so
you can end up on a stamp. But we've had
multiple presidents from from Trump to Obama that have issued
statements the Grammys. I don't really watch award shows, but
several people sent me clips from the Grammys and that

(49:25):
was a very melancholy set up. It was at Staples Center,
and it felt like a wake more than it did
an award show. From the clips that I saw from
that particular event, they had the Kobe Bryant jerseys, the
retired jerseys lit up, they had a spotlight on that.
Alicia Keys hosted the Grammys and she began with a salute,

(49:50):
and I saw several other music acts that did tributes
to Kobe Bryant. So there's a lot the Laker community,
the Kobe Bryant community. I know in Judaism they say
sitting shiva is what they say. That's the term. They're
sitting shiva the days of morning and all that that
are taking place. But again, that Tuesday night against the

(50:10):
Clippers at Staples Center, a lot of tributes and eulogies
will be that night. Lakers will wear some kind of
patch that has not been decided yet on their uniforms
to memorialize Kobe, and then in the next week or so,
there will be a funeral. I would imagine the Lakers
will have a public service similar to when Doctor Bust

(50:32):
died in addition to the private funeral. So we'll have
something along those lines. And then Kobe Bryant will eventually
be in the Basketball Hall of Fame, unfortunately not among
the living, so he'll go in there, and all of
this is going to happen, and there'll be other things
that will pop up. I saw we were gonna talk
about this last hour. We didn't get to it. Mark Cuban,

(50:54):
I don't agree with this. Cubans decided that he didn't
say the number is gonna be hired, but he said
he's no Dallas Maverick is going to wear number twenty
four again, and that was the reaction of Mark Cuban.
And I don't think that's right either. I mean, it's
his team, he can do what he wants, but it
seems like Mark Cuban, I think the way to say

(51:15):
this that it is a that would be an overreaction,
and also it's him making it all about himself. Mark Cuban,
you know what I'm saying. I mean, what are we doing?
What are we doing on that? But the words of
Albert Einstin as far as those and I'm getting some blowback.
People are say anybody that says anything that's just not

(51:35):
in lockstep about Kobe Bryant, people will getting upset with me.
There's a quote from the late great Albert Einstein that
talked about life being like riding a bicycle. You have
to keep your balance and you gotta keep moving. You cannot,
you can't stop. And again he goes on with you
what we out you if it's a sad day, and
we will continue to take your calls, your reaction to

(51:57):
all this. If you want to join us, the lines
are open at eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox
eight seven seven nine nine six sixty three six nine.
We're also on Twitter at Ben Maller for me at
Ben Maller. And they dusted off some audio that goes
all the way back to twenty sixteen that has been reverberating.

(52:19):
We're gonna play it. It's a very eerie considering what happened.
We'll get to that and we will do it next.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. We need to
grow the Mallar Militia. This is the program of the people,
by the people, for the people. Let's help bring new

(52:41):
listeners to the magic radio boxes we burn the midnight oil.
If you'd like to help, please just post messages about
the Ben Maller Show on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and all
other social media. Word of mouth advertising is invaluable. NLI
from the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios. It's Ben Maller.
Er writes in his angers, who are you to criticize

(53:01):
Mark Cuban to want to retire number twenty four? What's
the point of view saying that's too much? Well, somebody
has to say it. He are It is too much
because the only reason he's doing it is because of
what happened in the helicopter crack. Do you think that
Mavericks are going to retire number twenty four if that
hadn't happened. Of course, it's a reactionary thing. I understand
he can do what if he wants. It's dumb. It

(53:22):
would be dumb. If the Dallas Mavericks did that, it's
an overreaction. Kobe Bryant's a Laker. The Lakers retired his number,
both his numbers they retired. They honored Kobe. They're gonna
be a statue outside Staple Center, because everyone has a
statue outside Staples Center. But it's Mark Cuban making it
all about himself. To me, it's over the top. Again.
He can do what he wants. It's fine that the
Miami Heat have a Dan Marino. They don't give out

(53:46):
number thirteen because of Dan Marino, which is also dumb.
But Marino didn't die in a helicopter crash, so I
guess it's not. I don't know. It's the whole thing.
They don't have to I didn't know that. They don't
have to, you know, retire his number across the league.
They just they'll change the NBA logan of Kobe. And
that's fine. They're not gonna do that either anyway. Let's

(54:06):
see here, let's see Jill says wrong again, Ben wrong again.
The Grammys was not a funeral, not at all, just
a few short tributes. But you must be negative always,
am I surprise? Well, Jill, I I didn't. I don't
watch the Grammys because I can't stand awards shows. So
more power to you. Apparently you watched, you enjoyed it.
Good for you. I hate those things. I can't stand

(54:28):
people patting each other on the back telling everyone how
great they are. I find it nauseating. Uh just I
even hate the Bennys, and we give out awards here.
I hate that. Can't stay so but people were sending
me clips of the Grammys. So I'm just reacting to
what I saw from the clips that So I didn't
watch the whole thing. You'd have to pay me a
lot of money to get me to watch the whole thing.

(54:50):
It did not happen. It did not happen. Um So anyway,
all right, so the phones we go. Let's go to
Chris in Houston. Hello Chris, all of you guys with
a heavy heart. Man, I mean, I wasn't a fan
of Kobe, but Kobe played. I hated him it with
a passion. But you know, the last couple of years,

(55:11):
it gave me a new light on his guy. And
I think that's why it hurts a lot, is because
really his daughter does he didn't never make it about himself.
You know what I'm saying. Then it was like more
like you know, you had the Kobe Lebron debas of
Kobe never got into that stuff. He never wanted to
get into it. He kept it like a boys. And

(55:34):
you know the thing with his daughter. Man, it's just hurtful. Man,
it just hurts, you know. Yeah, No, I mean it's
a terrible situation. Anytime someone dies young at me, when
feel like old, I feel bad when they die on
your time at forty one, you expect when people get older,
you know you're gonna check out. But when you're young,
you know, you know, for forty ones, he would have

(55:55):
lived another thirty five forty years if he had Yeah, yeah,
I mean, you know, you know, I don't I don't
want to endorse nothing. But what I want to do
is we you know, we ain't got that big of
an audience or whatever. But if anybody want to put
that tribute to him and do like a five or
three minute tribute to put out, well we'll put it
on our next show. They can just DM me at

(56:15):
Rocket Chris eighty one, are you working in? Are you
working in a promo right now? For your podcast? Is
doing right now? Ben? No? Ben, You're like Mark Cuban,
You're trying to take advantage of the situations. That what
you're trying to do. Now then people people just want
to release, you know, and and a lot of people
want to release it. It's not a lot of places

(56:36):
that they can release too, you know, so I would
like to open up my arms. We don't do call
in so you know, it's just something to do, you know. Man.
And you know, back to the antist. Did you hear
because I mean we can pat On listen. Did you
hear that rat? Did you hear that rat? What? Rat?
I don't know what Trader, there's a lot of that pedophiler. Wow,

(56:57):
I don't use a pedophiler. I mean that's a little arstare.
He's without him. Without him, you would have said nothing happened.
There's no proof nobody said anything happened. Without him, you
would have still been in denial about the astros. You
know what being no, The thing is if they asked
about the question, you know what I'm saying during the
fancast and he's like, I want to move on to baseball. No, no, Mike,

(57:19):
We're not moving on to baseball right now. We're still
trying to figure out what happened, how did it happened,
who did it, and why isn't more done to it?
That's what we wanted. Well, they got away with this
is the Astros got away with it. Baseball said they
don't care. What Rob Manford said by not punishing any
of the Astro players is we don't care. We are

(57:39):
not going to punish these guys. We'll give some token
punishments to the owner and they're fine. And the guys
that we're coaching are gonna be in trouble. But that's it.
Everyone else got away with it. But I would have done.
I would in a whole rant about Justin Verland or
that idiot who spoke at an awards dinner in New
York over the weekend and he noted how the Astros

(58:01):
were technologically and analytically advanced. He said this one in
the middle of this whole controversy, which tells you what
a dumb dumb Justin Verlander is, shows you how stupid
he is. I think he was just joking about that,
because he can't be serious, man. I mean, no, he
he was not. He was not joking. Yeah, they were.

(58:24):
People in the crowd started gaffing, and they were like
could They were trying to hold their laughter, and then
Verlander paused, and then he continued this, I was gonna
do a whole rant about that, but obviously I can't
do my whole rant about that, but I would have. Chris,
you were saved from another astro's Verlander monologue. No, I'm

(58:44):
not saying they're just going on to the next day.
Then the point I will do that tell you that tomorrow.
I will do that tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow will be the
just quick advice to these players. If you're going to
write on stuff and right on, you make sure you spill. Right.
Did you see Josh Heart put forever Kobe with f

(59:04):
the f O you are? Come on, man, Yeah, that's embarrassing.
That's unfortunate report. Oh my god, that that was unreal.
And then she said she said she combined the Knicks
and the Lakers. No she didn't, No, no, no, she
did not, Yeah she did. No, she didn't know hot water.

(59:27):
I'm gonna let you guys talk about it, all right.
I'm gonna give out of people to sign off my bow,
all right, thank you, Chris. No, that MSNBC blooper, which
is making the rounds on social media. That's started with
an ni h. If you can imagine what she said
and she that that is a I give her credit
for for lying, not completely wrong at all. You are different.

(59:53):
Videos are cell phone videos of people's TV where the
audio quality you can eat. You're using the same defense
that Chris used. It was hacked. They were people putting Look,
who would say that? Does that make any sense. I'm
not saying she meant to say it, but she said it.
I'm not saying that her intention was to say that.
She said the word, though, don't own it. She said it.

(01:00:16):
She absolutely said the word. She didn't mean to say
the word. She said the word the clearest day. It's
not clearest day. You can't say she did. I watched
it seven thousand times. I had friends of mine the
work in television said, do you believe she said this
on television. It's ridiculous. I hope somebody releases like the
actual broadcast audience. It's all over the internet and everyone

(01:00:40):
sounds the same. Everyone sounds the same every single video.
I hear the N word. She said the N word
in a tribute about the Lakers Kobe Bryant. She saw
this Pullman on MSNBC and that she says, Wow, I
was compiling the Knicks and Lake. Now you worked. Now
you were not to lie. It's amazing to mean people

(01:01:04):
like Coop believe that, like it's clear you hear it
when your own ears. And it doesn't matter what she says.
She said in the clip, that's seven thousand different versions.
It all sounds the same. It's ridiculous to me that
that people can say that can sit here and say,
like with that certainty that that's what said. I heard
ankers too, I hear I hear that. What do you

(01:01:26):
hear nakers? Yeah? What did you think? I just said
exactly exactly. That proves my point, Thank you, She said, no,
she said the N word eddie clear, you have Eddie's eye.
I guess didn't see it, but it's all over the place.
And I will believe the people I know who work
in the indust but all those other than Coop a

(01:01:46):
loop over there who did not apparently think she heard
the audience bends the anchor there. But it's it's clear.
She said. She didn't mean to say. It doesn't mean
she's racist, doesn't mean she's racist. She says she's saying
the word when I did not, you did say. That's true.
We had to dump you on the A said, you
said the fort. No you'll fox Hello. No, you tried

(01:02:10):
to say Fox, but you said the f wort. That's
what happened. Yeah, Fox, Fox is an f wort. But
you said a different ffort that has a U in it. Yeah,
Fox has an O in it. You said the one
with the U in it. That's the difference. There. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show
weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. We had
the Pro Bowl on Sunday, to the great interest of

(01:02:34):
not very many people. I assumed the AFC beat the NFC.
He usually gets a great rating on television. That's why
they can. If nobody watched, they would get rid of
the problem. But watched it in a long long time,
I haven't. People are watching, though other people are checking out.
I don't know why. I really don't know. I don't
know why either they like Apparently they're entertained by it. Well,
the AFC, I don't know why they how they could
be entertained by thirty eight thirty three was the final AFC.

(01:02:54):
It's not beats the NFC lamar ja, maybe it's become
good again. Yeah you believe that make the Pro Bowl?
Gr No, I don't. I didn't watch a second of it.
Then you're right, it's not any good. But the players
were told about the passing of Kobe Bryant right before
the game started. Now, they were told because they were
gonna have a moment of silence before the game, and
they didn't want him to find out, I guess on

(01:03:15):
the field. They figured they'd let him know beforehand. Yea.
And throughout the broadcast lots of interviews. It was interesting
that the Kobe Bryant news basically dominated the Pro Bowl
and that they were talking about players throughout the game
about what happened with Kobe Bryant. So even though different
sport and all that, it was still about Kobe Bryant.
All right, thanks, So that it is the Ben Maller's

(01:03:35):
Show as we press on here from the Geico Fox
Sports Radio Studios. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent
com for a free ray quote. You can be part
of the festivities of the show here and joined the phone.
We have the third degree coming up here. In a

(01:03:56):
couple of minutes to the phones we go. John is
in Tennessee and John is up next. Hello John, Hey,
how's it going man? Hey John? What's going on? You
talk to me? Matt had to sing about not canceling
the NBA games because it'll happened to Kobe Bryant. Agree.
I agree with you percent. Oh, thank you, John. I'm
glad you agree with It makes me feel better about myself.

(01:04:17):
I have low selfish. They handled it right, don't I
don't think they should have canceled any of the games.
I believe that Kobe Bryant went liked it that way. Well,
I don't know what he would have liked or not liked,
but it's just you can't do it. I mean it.
I mean, like you said, life goes on. Yeah, it
absolutely does go on. John. So I rememb how they

(01:04:38):
handled it. They had moments of silencer in the games.
And I watched the Pro Bowl today and after Pro
Bowl I had a news report about it. I believe
it it was handled the right way. Like, Yeah, I agree,
I agree that one. Thank you. John Eddie said the
Pro Bowl is unwatchable. Did you enjoy watching the Pro Bowl.
I watched the last half of it, But did you
like it? You kept watching, so you must have enjoyed it.

(01:05:00):
I like it since I'll look him all forward to
the super Bowl down the Pro Bowl. I like the
Super Bowl better. Of course. I watched the Pro Bowl
because I want to see the season football. Yeah, so
you just jones this for some football? And are you
going to watch the XFL which starts the week after
the Super Bowl. I'm looking forward of that too. About
any football? You're into it? Man, You're like, I want
to watch football, any football? Who were at the XFL.

(01:05:24):
That's Vince McMahon, who's the big cheese. I'm looking for
early Yeah, the week I think the week after the
Super Bowl. There's some games in the XFL. From what
I understand, I'll look at so it goes. I'm looking
forward to it, all right. What you said about all well,
thank you, John. I'm glad you agree with me. Again.
I have low self esteem, so it makes me feel

(01:05:44):
better about myself. Um So, anyway, it is the Ben
Mallers Show, and Coop wants to do the third degree.
If Coop wants to do the third degree, we'll do
the third degree, here we go, let's do it right now.
It's maller. How about that? To the third degree, you
said that this is one gets grailled, getting grilled, charboiled,
the coop, the lope. Ben. Ozzie Gien was interviewed this weekend.

(01:06:08):
When he was yeah, he revealed that he wishes he
was still managing a big league club. He went on
to see why, Yeah, I bet. He went on to
say that he feels like he's been banned from the
game and he doesn't know why. Yeah, Ben, why do
you think Ozzie doesn't get any interest? Well, I believe
he's a White Sox broadcaster, which is close to being
banned from baseball. But the first thing about Ozzie Gien,

(01:06:29):
he had to blame society because they have no room
in modern professional sports for the loose cannon, and Ozzy
Geen was the definition of not politically correct. The guy
was hired to manage the Marlins to bring in Latin fans,
the Cuban fan in Miami and then sung the praises
of Fidel Castro his first month on the job there

(01:06:54):
in Miami. And so these franchise are run they're run
by people who are paranoid of tessed with public relations,
and so Ozzie Gien is a lethal, lethal cocktail in
that environment. And secondly, listen, Ozzie gen is a couple
of generations too late. For years. What did baseball do?
And a lot of sports still do this. Football does

(01:07:16):
a lot. You hire the nice guy players coach, and
then you hire the hard. Oh. Ozzie Gien is the hard.
Oh he's the old school guy, right, I try to
wake the players up and all that. That's his reputation.
And you think about like the old generations they had.
Billy Martin was like that to a degree. You could

(01:07:36):
say Jim for Gosie or Lou Panella, that kind of
an old school manager. But the problem is, like there's
no place for a player or a manager rather like
Billy Martin around today's game. If Billy Martin was around today,
he'd be working as a bartender. He would not be
managing in the major leagues. Art next, now, the Tampa
Bay Rays pitcher Blake Snell there ace he said that

(01:07:59):
he thinks that the Astros sign stealing is actually worse
than players taking peeds. Do you agree with them on
that end? Well, it's not worse, it's equal. I think
this is an apples to apples comparison about the Astros
and A. What the Astros did was not steal signs.
They knew the signs. They knew via the bang bang

(01:08:22):
and the whistles and all that, they knew what was coming.
It's not stealing signs. Well, maybe you got it right,
maybe you didn't get right. They knew exactly what was coming,
and so that reaches a higher threshold in the legal world.
This was every player on the team that was aware
of what's going on. The offensive players and the pitchers

(01:08:43):
who might or might not have benefited depending on when
the interleague playing. All that, but everyone was the beneficiary
of the extra offense. The pitchers had more runs to
work with the hitters that knew what pitch was coming.
It's absurd and b in the boom days of the
steroid era in professional base, not everyone on the Giants,
not everyone on the St. Louis Cardinals or the Chicago

(01:09:04):
Cubs was cheating. Some guys it was obvious, but others
didn't bulk up. And I always used Dee Gordon as
an example. This bean pole who was caught using steroids.
Right and he didn't gain any weight, he never hit
that many home runs. But he was busted. He failed

(01:09:24):
a steroid test, the PD test, and so there was
suspicion about who did it, and it was whispered in
hush tones and all that. But every single ball player
for the Houston Astros knew what they were doing was wrong.
They still did it. Nobody spoke up until after the
fact when Mike fires. If he hadn't done it, it it

(01:09:46):
would still be going on. A J. Hinch would still
be the manager. Jeff Luneau would still be the GM.
So if you know what's coming, you don't need steroids.
You don't need steries all right. Next, and there's a
growing contingent that thinks that the Panthers could execute a
quick turnaround to contention by tanking next season and lining
themselves up for Trevor Lawrence. Do you think a move

(01:10:07):
like that could turn the franchise around. No, I would
be stupid. That would be dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb dumb.
Trevor Lawrence, as good as he has looked at times
at Clemson, is not the Messiah. He is not guaranteed
of being a iconic figure. You think all time icons
of football, Tom Brady or one of those Manning brothers.

(01:10:29):
But there's no guarantee that Trevor Lawrence is going to
be like that if you drafted number one and two.
The main problem I have with this is tanking is
a disease. It infects your entire team once you set
up through ownership to lose and to try to lose.
The Cleveland Browns tanked. They have not exactly been lighting
the world on fire since they ended the tanking, right,

(01:10:51):
they haven't seen those dividends for the Cleveland Browns. You
need the culture of trying to win. Everyone on the
same page to try to win. And there are more
than one way. There's more than one way to bake
a cake. You don't have to have the greatest quarterback
in the world. Look at some of these like Jimmy
Garoppolo was not a number one pick. He's in the

(01:11:12):
Super Bowl. Nick Foles was a stiff, got hot, won
a Super Bowl. Joe Flacco a bum, got hot, won
a Super Bowl. You can get the hot hand there.
It is mallard to the third degree. How did we do? Ben?
You passed? That is a winner. You can put it
on the ball. Yeah, we didn't do the who am

(01:11:34):
I game? People were complaining about that. I don't know why,
but should we do the instant tribute? Are we do
the instant tribute? Here we get back to the phone calls. Currently,
the NHL goal leader, David Pasternack of the Bruins, had
been named over the weekend the All Star MVP. This
is the first time the NHL's goal leader at the
All Star Break won the All Star Game MVP since Blank. Again,

(01:11:59):
David Pastor Act of the Bruins, he was named the
All Star Game MVP over the weekend. First time the
NHL goals leader at the break is one All Star
MVP honors since Blank. That's the question. The answer back
to your calls on Kobe next doing it with so
many guys. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk

(01:12:19):
Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search
FSR to listen live. Only a few rare birds are
able to listen to all four hours of the Ben
Maller Show live overnight, but thanks to podcasting, you have
no excuse to miss a second of our unorthodox chatter.
Subscribe to the Ben Maller Show podcast on iTunes and

(01:12:40):
give us five stars. It's quick, painless and noise management
and out live from the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios.
It's Ben Maller any time. Now for the Instant Trivia
brought to you by Discover Card. We treat you like
you to treat you. So we go to the world
of hockey and the current NHL goals leader, David Pasternak
of the Bruins, has been named the All Star Game MVP.

(01:13:03):
This is the first time the NHL's goals leader at
the break has won the All Star MVP since blank.
That is the question, What is the answer? Robin Vegas
is going with the Scottish psychopath with Crewe McIntyre as
his answer. Who else do we have here? To see
page down paid down Gordon Bombay guests by Andrew Lee

(01:13:28):
Immortal Gordon Bombay See who else do we have? Brett
Hall guests by Eke in Roseville, Minnesota. Darren Pappa from
Jay Scoop Poopa, I'm sorry from Seattle? Who else do
we have here? I try to clean up his name
for the radio. Tim Mussolani from Matt the Warrior Raider
A's fan, Wayne Gretzky tossed out by Polyde Martin, Saint

(01:13:52):
Louis from Trucker, Joe the moonshine Man. Who else do
we have here? I can't read most of these names, Eddie,
what's the end? I believe it's Dick Clapper. Wow, that's
even a better name. Is that correct? Is it Dick Clappert? Oh?
I'm sorry I thought it was Uh No, it's Pavel Burret.
Is the correct answer, Pavel burrere back twenty years ago, Eddie,

(01:14:16):
nineteen ninety nine to two thousand. He accomplished the feat.
So there there's the answer. And I understand, Eddie. You
did hear the audio? Coop swears this. There's this television
blooper on MSNBC during the Kobe Bryant coverage. To me,
it's clear as I mean, every time I hear it,

(01:14:37):
I hear the same thing. I don't know how anyone
could hear different, other than if you just want to
hear something that didn't wasn't said? You heard the audio, Eddie?
Your thought? Yeah, I listened to it while Coop came
in here with me. Yeah, I had no I was
not going into it thinking of anything. I was going
to be very honest about it. And Cooper is not
happy with me because I heard the bad word. We

(01:14:57):
heard the bad word because she said the bad word again.
She did mean to say, it just slipped out. Coop
is standing, sticking to his guns. He just can't understand
how we're all hearing. When I talked to a friend
of my works in television and they I said, the
woman claims that she combined Knicks and Lakers, and he
could not believe that anyone would be dumb enough to
believe that that is what she combined. It is like

(01:15:19):
it is. Is that gonna work? I said, well, I
don't know. I don't think so, but apparently there's some
people that believe that she did that. Her defense was
she combined the the Knicks and the Lakers, and that
got her to the N word. But not hope I
heard too. That should be fired over this. I don't
know I would. I didn't hear the combination of the

(01:15:40):
Knicks and the Lakers, but I did hear. I didn't
hear that. That's like a word in between, let's not.
I didn't hear the N word, but I heard the
N word. It's like a rap song. I heard with
the N word. That's insane. It's not as clear as
you're you're making it out to the link I sent you, Eddie,
did you play that length? Did you? Yes? Yeah, that's

(01:16:01):
as clear as can be. It's perfect. Say, it's clear
as can be. It's a recording off of a cell
phone on a TV. But it's the definition of unclear.
Now if you if you give me the actual audio
recording and I hear it, then I'll say, yeah, sure,
that's clear in my life. Why I don't watch this

(01:16:22):
woman then? Why because I can hear? Because I think
it's terrible that people are saying that she said, because
she said they're terrible. People are pointing out she said
what she said that's terrible. No, because I don't think
that's what she said. She said, people want what you
want to say, Coop. Is that's not what she meant
to say. No, that's not what I want to say.
I don't think that that's what she said. I don't
think she meant to say it, and I don't think

(01:16:42):
that that's what came out of her mouth either. She
said it. Listen, it's the same thing like Chris and Houston. Well,
all those videos are doctored about the astros banging on
trash cans and all that. No, no, no, every video
there's everyone's televisions get the same. Those you're comparing Apple
an Oranges band. You can't. You can't dispute hearing the

(01:17:03):
bang bang, but you can. Yes, people were doing it.
People were saying, well they did. Okay, are you telling
me that? Are you telling me that that word doesn't
sound like it could be misheard? No? Really, because when
I said it when on the air, You're like, oh,
what you just say? Coop? That was a Joe Coop.
I was goofing on you, I know, but it was
a comedy, it was it was okay, okay, right, all right?

(01:17:24):
So when when when we play that drop of yours
when people call in saying, oh my god, I can't
believe Ben just said that he's a racist. Yes, but
did you say that? No, you didn't. But people hear us.
They want to hear because people pays closed. He's using
he's using that closed all right, How is that any

(01:17:45):
different when we play that dropping all those the same
I was talking about the Joe. I know what you
were talking about. But are you trying to tell me
that said it doesn't exist, dummy. There's no word ever
know my word. You make up the word all the time.
I was asked you a questions by correct word. I
was asked by IT and Spokana question about Phil and

(01:18:08):
Joe nicro. I answered the question, but I do people people,
I didn't make that d yeah, because you guys played
out of context. You don't play it. After he asked
me about the no reguardless people not guard listen. It's
not no, that's listen. I don't know how you can
argue everyone I know other than you, says. She said,

(01:18:29):
what are you talking about? Don't spend some time on Twitter.
There are plenty of people to spend a lot of
time on Twitter. But I'm telling you you do. The
people I know that work in the business all agree
that's what she said. They couldn't believe that anyone would
be dumb enough to believe her excuse, and you will
believe her excuse. I can believe excuse neative, you know.

(01:18:52):
And the other thing is she sped up. She realized
after she said the N word. Oh my god, she
started talking so much fat because she's like, oh my god,
I'm gonna say some more words. So people don't hear
the ed word. I'm gonna talk much faster. You could tell.
That's a give. That's a tell right there, It's yeah,
we've had she down this thing. Be sure to catch

(01:19:18):
live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two
am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. Kobe Bryant dying over the
weekend in a complicated, complicated legacy. He leaves by welcome
in the beginning of another hour. It is the Ben
Maller Show. We are in the air everywhere the vast

(01:19:38):
Fox Sports Radio network, emanating live from the Geico Fox
Sports Radio studios. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent
com for a free ray quote. So there's many layers
to the cake that is Kobe Brian. We continue our

(01:20:00):
coverage here the death of Kobe Bryant on Sunday morning,
and as we look at all of these different parts
of the story, and it's a horrible thing that nine
people losing their lives. The names are starting to come out,
by the way, and we'll give you some of those
names here. The issue of the weather which caused the

(01:20:24):
accent but eight passengers, including Kobe's thirteen year old daughter, Gianna,
and several other people pilot there, so nine total people,
eight passengers on the pilot. It was a baseball coach
from a community college in Orange County from Orange Coast
College that died in the accident as well, and his

(01:20:45):
wife and daughter dying in this. But the focus, obviously
for us as a sports radio show is the life
of Kobe Bryant. We're talking about that, people sharing memories
about Kobe Bryant and all that. But you also have
to talk about the whole picture. You can't just talk
about part of the picture because that would be disingenuous,
although people do want you just to only talk about
that positive part but not any of the negative stuff.

(01:21:07):
But there is a controversial part to Kobe Bryant that
is part of his legacy as much as anything else is,
and it should be mentioned. So what do you make
of that? And the number of people just kind of
overlooking all that. So I've gotten it. First of all,
I will begin this by saying that there is a
phrase never speak ill of the dead, that you know
you want to clean up your act and become a saint.

(01:21:28):
Die because people forget about all the things that you
did that were not appropriate. And I get it. I
understand because if you die, you can't defend yourself. But
we shouldn't sugarcoat the truth either. So that's that's makes
us not a straightforward situation here. We're not talking about
a Disney movie, and Kobe Bryant was complicated. It's a

(01:21:51):
complex thing because you can't tell the good without the
bad and all that not. I am a pretty cynical guy.
It takes a lot to shock me. It takes a
lot of things in my life for me to be like,
oh man, I can't believe it. Kobe Bryant did that
twice over the weekend. I when I woke up, I
thought I was in a dream. I thought, well, and

(01:22:11):
then I was like, I don't dream. And then my
phone kept going buzzing and people were sending me text
messages from what he had happened, with his name being
reported by tams either he died in a helicopter accident.
That was the second time that Kobe Bryant shocked me.
He was like the shock jock because the first time
was back in twenty o three and I got a

(01:22:34):
phone call from a friend of mine in radio who said, hey,
you're not gonna believe this, but Kobe was accused of
rape by a hotel employee. And I remember I then
called one of my friends, the late great Joe McDonald
and LA Sports radio legend. He was like the Mike
Francessa of LA Sports Radio, Big Joe, the big Nasty
they called him. And he was like a huge Laker,

(01:22:55):
a guy I loved the Lakers, and we talked in
it and we were both like a gas like it
didn't make sense, like why was he in Colorado and
all that, And I remember that that was the first
time I was just like blown away by all us
and this helicopter crash doesn't make any sense, Like we
don't never make sense when something like this happens. But
especially considering that the story is being reported now from

(01:23:16):
TMZ that the LAPD helicopter helicopters were not allowed to
fly because of the weather. But then Kobe Bryant's helicopter
was allowed to fly. Why didn't they land? You know,
all these questions, you know, Kobe should still be here,
The people that all died should still be here along
with Kobe, and all those questions but the whole legacy

(01:23:36):
of Kobe Bryant, and I get it. I understand when
you die, all everything gets acid washed away and all that.
It is stunning though, I mean, it's really just an
amazing thing is texting some friends of mine and the
media about the Kobe Now that's over, his life has
ended and all that, and the fact that he had

(01:23:57):
that situation in Colorado where he was charged with sexual
it didn't end his career. It didn't end he didn't
land in jail, it didn't destroy his life, it didn't
destroy his marriage. And he had been able to because
he had enough money. He was able to get out
of that legal peril. And he opened up his check
book and he wrote some checks back in those days,

(01:24:17):
and his troubles many of them went away. The charges
went away, the criminal liability, he settled out of court,
wrote a big check, and he continued playing. Now I
remember when that was going on. We're like, he's not
gonna play, He's gonna be in jail for a couple
of years. And he was able to continue playing. The
sponsorship's returned for Kobe after that, and he did spend

(01:24:40):
a lot of money, but most of the damage was
swept under the rug. Now the second thing here, So
a friend of mine we were going back and forth
and we're like, you know, Kobe, he had lived, you know,
he had written some stuff, and he would have probably
written a book or two down the line, and he
got a little older about his life and all that stuff.
But he eventually would have gotten around to it if

(01:25:02):
he lived the full life and written. But it would
have been fascinating to hear in his own words written
what it was like to go through that and how
he feels because he was He's like the the example,
the Shannon example. There are so many people right now
in entertainment and in sports that mostly entertainment that never

(01:25:23):
got another opportunity to come back in the public stage right,
and the whole me too movement and all that very
unforgiving for celebrities. The rules in the last couple of
years have been, if you get accused of inappropriate behavior,
even if you are cleared or is deemed rather minor,
you are sent to the Who's gaal. Publicly you sent

(01:25:44):
to Siberi. And look at some of the other example,
Louis c K. I think Louis c K is an
amazing stand up comic comedian, and he's been blacklisted from
comedy specials and all that. Al Frankin the Politician, the Senator,
he had to resign. Bunch of TV people, everyone from
Bill O'Reilly to Charlie Rose to Tavis Smiley all lost

(01:26:07):
jobs and all that. I mean, there's a bunch of
other examples. But but Kobe Bryant, to his credit, did
not have to worry about that. He was given a
pardon and welcome back by society with open arms, and
he won an oscar there. Just a couple of years
ago the Academy Awards there for a documentary was it

(01:26:28):
was an animated short film, actually not a documentary, it
was a dear basketball and he won an Oscar for that.
Although he was denied membership from the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences there, there were conflicting reports. There's
some people that say, well, he wasn't allowed in because
of the rue barb over the me too movement. Other

(01:26:49):
people said, no, it's just because he hadn't been in
the movie business long enough and they had to do
more stuff before they would allow him in. I don't
know whatever came of that, all right, So the final finger,
So Kobe, you know, there were other incidents. A friend
of mine reminded me that, you know, there Kobe is
again a complicated past during his playing days and all that.

(01:27:10):
But in twenty eleven he got fined one hundred thousand
dollars he said a gay slur at a referee and
that didn't stick to Kobe either. So it's really I mean,
he was able to dodge a lot of these landmines
of life would bring other people down from celebrity, and
he was able to dodge them throughout his career. And
now we'll see what happens in the coming days and weeks,

(01:27:32):
and the tributes will come in and worshiped and canonized
by many Laker fans, Kobe Bryant fans and all that
in the coming days. All right, it is the Ben
Maller Show on Fox. To the phones we go and
Rob is in Phoenix and it says here on my
screen he's a professional pilot. Is that true? Rob? Yeah?

(01:27:53):
How you doing? What's going on? Rob? What kind of
pilo are your playing? The helicopter? What do you do? Well?
Right now? I'm an airline captain applying Lax Burbank Ontario
Orange County. All those airports also military background fighter pilot,
So obviously I spent all day focusing on how did

(01:28:13):
this happen? And the bottom line, to cut right to
the nitty gritty, they should have never left, John Wayne.
The weather was horrible for a helicopter to be flying.
Those guys are generally flying under a visual flight rules
type flight plan, which means they have to remain clear
of clouds, they have to be able to fly at

(01:28:34):
a certain altitude, and you know, be able to see
obviously the ground and three miles out in front of them.
They didn't have any of that. And watching or seeing
the actual flight plan overview of where the helicopter actually flew,
it was very obvious. They took off from Orange County,
tried to track I five up through the valley there,

(01:28:56):
uh you know, a cross La and up through the
you know, over to bank and then on over two
thousand oaks. He was circling around over in that area
looking for a hole. Obviously, every pilot has been in
that situation, been where you're flying and the weather's not
what you thought, and you make bad decisions and get

(01:29:18):
yourself into a really bad place. Lots of guys don't
get out of that situation, and lots of us have
been able to many times. For me, it's just really sad.
I think when the news finally breaks and they start
to actually indicate the no kidding details of all that,
it's going to really it's going to be a really
really sad event and it's going to make a lot

(01:29:41):
of people really angry. Yeah yeah, no. And geography, I mean,
you fly into ls you know, but if the helicopter
had done the other direction, it would not have been
Yeah yeah, what I mean, you know what what they
were trying to do. They obviously could not continue to
follow visually. Now I five, well, they were like the

(01:30:02):
one on one actually, yeah, what they ended up trying
to do, that's what they did, or the pilot did era. Um,
he tried to go back to the west and shoot
the one on one gap. You've obviously driven that road
driver I drive every day to get to work. Yeah yeah,
so you know how you drive that gap up through
the little gap into the burbank. So he was trying

(01:30:22):
to hope for better weather. Um. Ben, I've been in
that situation in both fighter aircraft and even light aircraft,
and it's a it's a crappy, crappy situation because you're
not expecting it. Well, could they have TMZ said that
they were like circling, as you said, around Burbank the
Burbank Airport. Couldn't they have just landed at the Burbank

(01:30:44):
Airport and well they never made it. Yeah, they never
made it up there, Ben, So what the guys were past?
They were passed Like the hell Kobe's helicopter went down
with other people. It was past the Burbank Airport. They
had gone zoom passed. It was, uh, you know, past
the World five freeway. Yeah. It basically was coming back

(01:31:04):
over across the northern part of like downtown LA and
was trying to shoot that one on one gap over
the little ridgeline there to drop down into the San
Fernando Valley. Um, it's very obvious. I mean again, I
the NTSB will do their thing. Then. The bad thing
about that, Ben is it takes like a year or

(01:31:26):
more for them to actually get a full off, don't
you don't. But there'll be stuff that will. TMZ will
have stuff in a couple of days, some stuff out
because this is a high profile case. So this stuff Yeah, yeah,
I mean, so essentially, here's the deal. Probably should have
never taken off, for sure, should have taken off with
an instrument flight plan. I looked that guy, how do

(01:31:48):
you now, You've been a pilot for your whole life.
You've been a pilot forty years, forty years bad Like
when you fly, it amazes me. These planes can fly
through a fog and land and bad again. Ben, that's
what you know. You train, We train. I've had more
training in my life than a than a brain surgeon.
That's the truth. We practice it. We have to train

(01:32:09):
for it. Our jobs on the line. Every year twice
we have to do check rides and simulator. I mean
I don't fly. I mean, you obviously fly all the
time's your job. But I don't fly very much. But
a few times I've been on a flight where the weather,
you know, I'll be flying to the East coast and
the weather is not very good. I'm like, oh, I
can't believe that these things can land in this weather
and take off. It's nuts. It's curry. Well, you know,
you you get ratings, and obviously this guy I checked

(01:32:32):
his ratings on the FAA database. He actually did have
an instrument rating, but that doesn't mean he was real
current with it. You know, helicopters normally don't fly in
the weather. They normally fly, you know, in good weather,
and and they do, they're flying by basically we call
it I fr but it's called I follow roads. So
they basically are kind of going you know along, you know,

(01:32:55):
geo references on the ground to figure out where they're going.
The h The sad part about this one, it was,
like I say, totally avoidable. The guy should have basically
looked around and told all the guys, hey, look, we're
not we're not getting there today. It's a hard decision
to make, especially in that world when you're flying VIPs
in corporate. I know a lot of guys who have

(01:33:18):
had you know, that background, and it's really tough on
the pilot because you're getting pressured, well, yeah, now you
want to keep the if you're the pilot Kobe, you
want to keep Kobe happy. You don't want him to
be able well you know, And that's the other thing
that helicopter was actually I guess it had belonged to Kobe,
but then he had sold it to this you know,
this you know leasing company, and so he was basically

(01:33:41):
chartering that that that aircraft. Now apparently he was familiar
with that pilot, but but it certainly wasn't like a
I own the aircraft, this is my pilot type situation,
which I thought it was initially, but I found out
it wasn't. Um. Yeah, just sad, dude, I mean, thank you.
I appreciate you sound like you know what you're talking
about there. I have no way of verifying that, but

(01:34:02):
you certainly sound very believable and credible, and I believe you.
So I believe you. Rob. Well again, you know, I'm
a Suns fan and I used to actually have cours seats.
So I saw Kobe the last time in twenty fourteen.
I have actually got a photo of you know, and
I sent that over to my son who actually lives
in that line now. And yeah, it's just sad. That

(01:34:22):
is really sad. All right, Well, thank you, Rob. I
appreciate it for calling and sharing your expertise. There, Rob,
and the Valley of the Sun that check it in.
All right, it is the Ben Mallers Show. As we
press on, we'll take some more of your phone calls.
We also have to decide whether to do the incident
AdviceLine or not. We did the third degree all right,
you know, if you guys want it, we'll do the
incident AdviceLine. Although that's usually just people calling up doing

(01:34:45):
sand dumb stuff, but that's, you know, it's the way
the show works. So we could still do that late
in the hour and what almost was, what almost was.
We'll get to that and we will do it next.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two I'm Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeart Radio app. It's Mallor

(01:35:06):
twenty twenty. You can be heard in the democracy of
the Ben Maller Show. We encourage and welcome the voice
of the people that would be you following the voice
of this show. You can follow Ben Maller on Twitter
at Ben Maller, and you can tweet at and follow
our executive producer. He is manning the phones. He is
the liar, Liar, am a menace of the Fox Sports
Radio network. It's the Coop de Loup Justin Cooper and

(01:35:29):
he's at you, h bronco fan. His ernis and olive
from the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios. It's Ben Maller, Oh,
Nike really just a new better job marketing that guy
nobody knows who he is. That job by then Ernie
the Great old Piner ben as someone who frequently calls

(01:35:50):
the instant AdviceLine as a lot of fun. As it is,
it probably should not be done today, but if you
do do it, I will start dialing immediately. That's from
Earnie Great Opiner Chris, and Houston says, I got an
idea instead of the instant of iceline, how about the
rest in Peace line. It's one time for those that
want to grieve. Well, that sounds like a good idea, Chris.

(01:36:11):
But when you do unscreened radio, it's just going to
turn nasty, is what's gonna happen. And there's certain percentage
of people will call up and it will be a
joke fast and it'll be a problem. I think that
would be a good idea either. So we'll probably give
it a week of rest and we'll bring it back
next week. And we're talking about Kobe Bryant. What happened

(01:36:32):
with Kobe? How about the story to talk about the
life of Kobe's a basketball player? Because we're a sports
radio show and that's what we do in these parts
and what he contributed to the NBA and what would
have been different if back in twenty oh four, the
summer of twenty oh four, when Kobe Bryant came these
close to leaving the Lakers and playing for the Clippers,

(01:36:55):
he could have been Kawhi Leonard Before Kawhi Leonard, you know,
Kawhi turned the NBA and by going to the Clippers.
But Kobe Bryant seriously considered leaving the Lakers. In fact,
the people that worked for the Clippers at that time,
I talked about it, We talked, we were here at
Fox Sports Radio, God forbid, but we talked about it,
and they thought the deal was pretty much done, that

(01:37:17):
really they were gonna get Kobe Bryant within the organization
the Clippers believed. In fact, Ralph Lawler's gone on the record,
the Voice of the Clippers and said it the deal
was basically done, that Kobe Bryant had given a verbal
commitment to play for the Clippers, but it hadn't been
a done deal, hadn't signed it. Obviously, this was when
Mike dun Levy was the coach of the Clippers in

(01:37:38):
that run. Former Laker coach Mike dun Levy, but they
were they could not believe the Lakers, like, wait a minute,
he actually wants to play for us. But at that time,
the Lakers had just lost in the NBA Finals. Shaquille
O'Neill had asked for a trade. Phil Jackson was leaving.
There was the walls were caving in on the Lakers
at the time, and so he also was involved. He

(01:38:02):
was still a couple months away from the scheduled trial
in Colorado. And now I am convinced, and I've told
people this. I don't know if I've said it on
the air or not, because I say a lot of stuff.
Sometimes I don't say stuff on the air. I leave
it off the air. But if Kobe had decided to
sign with the Clippers, I'm guessing the woman would not
have taken the plea deal and he would have been

(01:38:22):
guilty and would have gone to jail. And that would
have been that, and and the payout and all that.
If he had signed, because the curse of Donald Sterling,
I would have would have done in him at that
particular time. Anyway, so the phones we go. Let's go
to our friend in Berkeley, California. The sports sorceress, and
she is up next. Hello Andrea, Hi, man, how are you.

(01:38:45):
I'm all right, Andrea? How are you doing? Yeah? Kind
of surreal. I was at the eighth fantast on Saturday
and yeah, just so you know, Mike Fire's got a
standing ovation and then I was you know, it was
a long day and then Sunday all right, you know,
I'll take it easy, I'll watch the Pro Bowl. So
what was it like at the A's FanFest before you

(01:39:05):
continue on your sports sorcers, So like kind of paint
the picture. What are we looking at? How many people
were there? What was did they have giveaways? What was? Yeah,
it was a nice live crowd. Basically it was at
Jack London Square. So they're kind of moving away from
the coliseum because they want to build a new stadium.
Oh yeah, they want to build a stadium right over there, right, Yeah,

(01:39:25):
so that's where the energy is going. They had it
there last year, they had it there this year. They
should just put a pop up stadium and play some
games there and see what happens, you know, why not? Yeah,
then you wouldn't have to deal with all those city
council and all the environmental impacts. And just throw some
stands together and then boom, there you go. You're good. Well,
they did have some pop up food trucks and that

(01:39:46):
was kind of nice, and it was a Chinese New
Year and they were part of the player parade and
it's really good. Q and a Billy Bean was there.
I told Dave Cavill to avoid mercury retrograde dates. You
know you're giving advice. You were feeding the A's key
day parts of the schedule era to help them out.
I understand, all right, Now onto the topic at hand
here though, we are discussing the tragedy that took place.

(01:40:08):
I understand we're trying to get the names here. I
don't know why we need to get the names, but
people want to hear the names of the people that
passed away in the helicopter crash. I believe KTLA here
in Los Angeles released the names Channel five in LA.
But anyway, Andrea, what do you have to add here? Yeah?
You know what's interesting. I remember I actually wrote about
Kobe Bryant's sports astrology for ESPN page two in two

(01:40:33):
thousand and three, and I actually predicted it would be
a tumultuous year. And I just reposted the article and
it was obviously he had some transgressions, but we all
do evolve. He was born August twenty third, nineteen seventy eight,
Sun Saturn conjunction in Virgo. And they talk about his
work ethic and I really do admire that as a

(01:40:54):
fellow Virgo. That kind of meticulous, exacting, you know, discipline,
skillful quality he had about his work. I mean, what
was it like an eighteen time All Star? I mean,
he really did have that. And he transcended the sport
ben after basketball, he was an Oscar winning producer for
the Dear Basketball And you know his daughter that's so

(01:41:17):
sad because she was a big basketball fan and she
was bringing it back into the game and he was
supporting the WNBA, and you know, I know everyone wants
to know, you know, his legacy transcended. But the transits
that were in place for the accident Mars to Neptune,
which is confusion, disillusionment. I heard that was really interesting.

(01:41:40):
That segment with the airplane pilot almost reminded me of
the JFK Junior tragedy and Sun Square Uranus. Of course,
Uranus is in the mix, sudden changes, upsets, expect the
unexpected best to reschedule your plans. So the you know,
hindsight's twenty twenty. But um, he does leave a powerful legacy,

(01:42:02):
and you know, it just reminds you of the preciousness
of life. I mean, you know, everyone's problems were put
in perspective. It's like, you know, I'm kind of tired.
Yesterday is a long day. Maybe I'll just take it
easy today. And then the news came on right when
the Pro Bowl was starting, and yeah, you know, well
that's true. I mean, by listen, we all you know,
it's part of human nature. Right after a couple after

(01:42:24):
a couple of days, we'll be back to complaining about everything.
And that's the way life works. And so where it's
life supposed to work. Right a couple of days, you're like,
all be lazy whatever, lay around the house, not do
anything that kind of stuff. All right, Andrea, thank you,
thank you. Then good care, Virgo in service. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays

(01:42:45):
at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. The men, as
you well know, I'm required to tell you about Tiger
Woods and how he did over the weekend. U the
contract it is contrast the old golf tournament they're going
on at Tory Pines and Tiger Woods, finishing in ninth place,
six shots off the lead. Mark Leishman wins by one

(01:43:06):
stroke over John ram Leashman at fifteen hundred. Part they're
at the Farmer's Insurance Open Tiger Woods. Other is a
Kobe Bryant tie in. Tiger was told right as he
came off of the of course, there after the eighteenth hole,
about the news of Kobe Bryant's passing, his caddie Joe Lacava,
telling him there's actually a video and some audio of

(01:43:28):
Tiger learning the news, and then of course being asked
right afterwards in his press conference about his thoughts on
on Kobe Bryan. He said people were chanting during his
round do it for Mamba, and he had no idea
what they were talking about until obviously after the round.
He didn't ask while he was playing, like, what's going
on here? I guess not? Then pop up there, I
got you? All right? Is the Ben Maller Show as

(01:43:50):
we pressed on here from the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios.
Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on
your car insurance. Just visit at Geico dot com for
a free rate quotes all you have to do. So
the reports coming in here over the last few hours

(01:44:11):
here some of the more names have been tossed out
people that were on that helicopter that crashed. Kobe Bryant
and his daughter Gianna were on the baseball coach has
been out there for a while, the Orange coach college
coach and his wife, John Altabelli, who is not no
relation Eddie two. If you were old you remember the

(01:44:32):
orig Yeah, Joe Altabelly was the Orioles manager when they
won the World Series a million years ago. No relation there.
I read that their daughter was a teammate of Kobe
Bryant's daughter who was also on the on the helicopter unfortunately,
yeah said among the victims Christina Mauser and assistant coach
at Harvard Day School in Corona del Mar in the OC.

(01:44:57):
Apparently this person had worked with Kobe at the clinic
for w NBA players that that person named no age
on that and also Sarah Chester and her daughter Peyton Chester,
I assume playing on that team there. They also lost
their lives in the crash. So that's some more names

(01:45:20):
that have popped. I think the total of eight have
been named so far, and the pilot's name is out
there also, So condolence to everybody involved here. The helicopter
went down and Kobe had been flying, not flying, but
he had been using helicopters to get from Staples Center
to his He lived in Newport Beach to avoid the

(01:45:41):
highways for years, and he did motorcycles and the helicopter too,
although yeah he would ride motorcycles too, Yeah he did,
he did both. Hum. I mean, I guess you gotta
live your life right in the engine. All that all right?

(01:46:01):
Ben Maller's show on Fox. Let's go to Slug in Vegas. Hello, Slug, Wow,
the Lakers actually let them ride motorcycle. Is this the
slug that used to call the show that vanished for
like seven years? Husband years? I don't know about that
at all me, But where have you been the Slug?
You used to be a regular caller and all of it?

(01:46:23):
Did you just get out? Is that why you're calling
the show now? Dude? I'm a little bit less of
a loser now. You cleaned up, right, you cleaned up
your act. I'm gonna see that. That's what I mean.
I get a wife, I got a couple of kids.
Now the house. Whoa, you're all you're all growing up? Slug?
What happened? Man? You were such a you were such
a loser when you used to call the show back

(01:46:43):
in the day. Absolutely. Yeah, Look, I'm proud of you.
But it's it's affecting. We don't have a caller. I mean,
you were one of our guys. You were a key caller. Man,
Trust me, After today, it teaches you, like a short
I'm gonna be calling it more, many more. I'm telling
you right now. All right, I'm telling you right now.
I love you guys. And don't think I don't listen. Yeah,

(01:47:05):
it's just I don't. I just don't have a whole
What do we tell I'm trying to remember because I
you were like you called all the time back in
those days. How long ago is that? Though? How many
years has it been there? No, it hasn't been It's
been a lot. It has been a long time. It's
twenty twenty, man, it's been a long time. It's been Alike,
twenty just sounds like the future. It is. We are

(01:47:26):
living in the future. Where have you remember me? Do
I still love all you. No, I remember you. Yeah,
I used to talk to you like four nights a week.
I remember you save years ago. No, it's been a while, though.
I won't say how many. You want to say how long?
I would venture to say maybe like three at least
or four at least four years twin calling twenty minutely

(01:47:49):
my hands something to say. I don't worry enough of that.
We're It's just always odd when someone calls after not
calling you a long time. It's very odd. It's like
you're like a voice from a path. You're a voice
from a different generation of callers. Well that I'm glad
to here. I don't want to sound like some millennial.
So wow, at any rate that that pilot made a point. Man,

(01:48:13):
I don't know about his geography, but you know, I
grew up out in Thousand Oaks. I graduated from the
same high school as Jonas. I'm pretty sure his brother
work as Chuck E. Cheese. Did you work as Chuck? No?
I did, but I worked right across the street at
Jan's Mall as a security guard with his brother name
Dropper nap Oh. But that's so sad. It really hits

(01:48:38):
close to home. It's like, yeah, he was heading a
Thousand Oaks. That's where I grew up, dude. I mean,
I'm slug in Vegas now, but at one point I
was actually slugged from you know, the OA area in
Thousand Oaks. Yeah, and uh, you know, basically, dude, I
used to scalp Laker tickets when they were back to

(01:49:00):
the Forum. I used to get those kl is Kkel
nine still around the channel nine. Yeah, they didn't turn
it off. It's still broadcasting channel Well, I didn't. I
think it was originally Cage J. It used to be
Caged J. And then wow, look at you over there, dude, Yeah,
you're right. Hey, hey now I remember you big wow.

(01:49:20):
Any which way, seventeen dollars. I would buy these tickets
for and then scouting for like one hundred bucks at
the sold out games like Knicks games and stuff at
these stupid Knicks fans that would come out there and stuff. Dude. Yeah,
I remember seeing you guys in the parking lot at
the Forum there scout, trust me, hanging out over to
Hollywood Play. They chase you away. You'd have to go
over to Hollywood Park and stand across the streets out

(01:49:40):
the tickets, or you go down to the corner at
the seven to eleven down there, and standing out there
the taco the taco bell. Oh, the taco bell. That's right,
there was a There was a seven eleven also though,
right over yeah, yeah, right, there was the churches right
there too. Yeah. You probably you didn't do mortuary right there.
You didn't scout at the mortuary you No, No, there's
a big a little bit. I have a friend of

(01:50:01):
mine that's buried in the cemetery over there. Yeah about
that cemetery, yeah, big, I mean it was it was
a different world back then. I'd go to the games.
I'd get in there and I got in good with
the security, and there was his gameing Garrett. He was
a head of security, and they seemed to go to
so many games, and he let me down eventually. And

(01:50:22):
after the games, I get down right outside the locker
room with the Paris family and stuff like that, and
they would come out and I'm just like, this is
this is freaking incredible. Yeah. I had some some amazing
members of the forum too. I remember one in particular.
This is when Ryan Leaf the Chargers San Diego Chargers

(01:50:44):
there that night. Were you there that night? You think
when Michigan with a whole Michigan was in there. Well, well,
I remember Ryan Leaf was so excited to get in
the Laker locker room and meet Kobe Bryant and then
I but I recall like he had like like five
guys with his He had like a posse with him,
and and he he took a cab because back then
there was no Uber and they all squeezed into this cab,

(01:51:06):
all these big burly guys, and it was like it
was like a clown car watching them leave the forum.
Those nuts. Okay, Mallard, you think you're gonna think I'm lying,
But I was there the night that. I think it's
the exact same night you're talking about. I was there,
man seven. Yeah, this was nineteen ninety seven. Okay, Michigan's
team was there too for the for the Rose Bowl. Correct,

(01:51:28):
I don't remember that any which way. I'm down there
underneath the forum, underneath with locker running the Honey Jones
and another dude from Michigan's team is down there, and
they missed their school bus. I gave him ride back
to Pasadena. True story, really just a random stranger. They
random Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm a

(01:51:48):
Michigan fan. So well, that makes all the difference in
the world. You're a Michigan fan, chopped them off. Yes,
I gotta go give me like ten minutes. Hey, Malan,
put me off. I'm gonna get you stake. All right,
we'll fine. Then I'll definitely put you on hold. Of
course if you give me steak. Yeah, alright, make sure
you pick up line was the line three? Pickup line three?

(01:52:10):
All right, it is the Bend Mallard Show. We press
on here, we'll take some more calls talking about the
big story, the tragedy, the helicopter accident involving Kobe Bryant
and the total of nine people, eight passengers on the
pilot on the way to a youth basketball game at

(01:52:31):
the Kobe Bryant Mamba facility, and the helicopter went down
in the fog, the morning fog, and do they said
it was like soup the fog there and the LAPD
helicopters were grounded because it was unsafe to fly, but
for some reason, Kobe's helicopter continued on. All right, we
will press on. We'll take your phone calls. Also, we'll

(01:52:51):
talk about some of these other tributes that are popping
up around the town and whatnot. We'll get to that.
We will do it next. His name is Dave Stone
as Dave. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk
Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search
FSR to listen live. If you're a regular listener, you

(01:53:14):
know the Ben Maller Show is unconventional sports talk. We
dabble in the outlandish and bond with the freaks and gigs.
Facebook is a digital playground for all of us. You
can chat with other p one friends of the show.
It's painless and you can cancel anytime, just like our
page by going to Facebook dot com, slash Ben Maller
Show and outlive from the Geico Fox Sports Radio Studios.
It's Ben Maller. So there's a bunch of like makeshift

(01:53:41):
shrines that have popped up since the news came out
about Kobe Bryant. I saw the photos. I saw that
we're from Melrose. There was a side of the Shoe
Palace Eddie. They have a shrine sit up there. There's
a little bit of like a painting there, and people
were putting candles out and all that. And they were

(01:54:01):
Shoe Palace. Am I supposed to know about the shoe
pop That's a famous place. You've never been to the
Shoe Palace on Melrose. What's wrong with you? Man? I'm
sure that's two. He needs high he needs a higher class.
He needs a higher class ship. But anyway, so there
there's a makeshift from Moil that popped up there, and
people are going by and they're using yellow post it

(01:54:23):
notes on because the wall's purple, and they're they're like
writing messages of mourning for Kobe Bryant, a bunch of
yellow posted notes that are popping up on the side
of this particular building in La And there's a situation.
I know all the morning news shows will be out
at Staples Center because there's a shrine out there at

(01:54:44):
Staples Center that popped up and the people were holding
visuals outside Staples Center. The Mamba Sports Academy also in Calabasas, Appilly,
there's some of that going on there as well. All right,
it is the Ben Maller Show on Fox. Make twenty
twenty your year. You could start your new life as
an IT pro and as little as four months go

(01:55:07):
to my computer career dot e du and take the
free career evaluation today. It's not rocket science, it's my
computer career dot e du. Brown is in Boston. Hello Brown, Hey,
how you doing? Ben? Welcome in Brown? What you got buddy?
I want to throw off? Throw off? I want to

(01:55:27):
throw a couple of things out. You're when you said
that Kolbe kind of he didn't he got away with
like the Denver thing. Didn't he have to? Didn't he
buy his wife a four million dollar diamond ring? Yeah?
But yeah, yeah, well that's yeah, he paid I got
a ring, and he brought a big check to the
woman that accused him of the stuff. Right. And I'll

(01:55:49):
say about Mark Kubin, I mean, Jackie Robinson, out of
all the four major sports, I think he's the only
one where no one in MLB with forty two. So
I don't I agree with you. They can't retire his
number for all the teams. No way, no, how, Yeah,

(01:56:09):
I don't think that's gonna happen. But Cuban reacted, and
then Mama will see if he sticks to that. I
guess he kind of has to stick to it now
because he already said it, So you have to stick
with it because you said it. But we'll see. We'll
see about that. But yeah, I think like in hockey,
you think like number ninety nine because of Wayne Gretzky.
But I don't think, I like, that's been retired. I
don't know even wearing it, but I don't think it's
been retired. Maybe it has. I don't know. Eddie's the

(01:56:30):
hockey guy, so he would know, right. Yeah. And one
my thing the thing that bugged me about today. You know,
I from Boston out to the wife and then everybody,
my my condolences and everything. But my friend called me
after I got that movie nineteen seventeen with my thirteen
year thirteen year old son, and uh, he called me

(01:56:52):
and he said, Kobe and his wife, I mean Kobe
and his daughter got killed in the in the helicopter crash. Yeah.
So when I got home, it was like I put
on screaming A. I put on ESPN screaming A. And
he goes on like ever since Kobe retired with best friends,
all this stuff and along the bottom, like you say,

(01:57:15):
they have that little ticket thing going along and it
says Kobe and his daughter. All the people that were
interviewed that I've seen and I knew hour before. No
one's brought up the daughter at all. Well, I'm listen, Brown,
I understand what you're saying, but I feel bad for
the other people too, who aren't famous, and how it
happened to be on the plane and they've lost their

(01:57:36):
lives and we're not talking about them either. But that's
unfortunately how it works with these kind of things. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show
weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. The impact
certainly felt for Kobe Bryant all over the sporting world.
We discuss welcome in the beginning of another hour. It's

(01:57:56):
the Ben Maller Show. We are in the air. Rewear
the vast Fox Sports Radio network emanating live from the
Geico Fox Sports Radio studios. Fifteen minutes could save you
fifteen percent or more on your car insurance. Just visit
Geico dot com for a free rate quotes. All you

(01:58:18):
have to do. So we are discussing the big story
in sports here, which is not the Super Bowl. Typically
on a day like this we would be breaking down
what the Chiefs players were wearing as they arrived in Miami.
They had the Andy Reid shirts on the forty nine
Ers and Chiefs have arrived, and I believe Monday night,
I'm not at the super Bowl. I'm not allowed to

(01:58:38):
be at these things, but the Monday night festivities there
is opening night at Marlins Park. That's where the super
Bowl media event is going to take place. The first
media session for the Chiefs and forty nine Ers, who
arrived a couple hours apart, will take place Monday night
at Marlins, which means they'll be more just having the
teams at Marlins Park will be more than the average

(01:59:00):
attendance at a Marlins game. I hope my friend Marlin's
man Lawrence is going to be there in attendance, but
that we'll get back to talking about the super Bowl tomorrow.
But the big story in sports continues to be Kobe Bryant.
If you were listening at all to our show, this
is our fourth hour. We've been on all night and
it has been a constant dream of people with tributes
and eulogies and memorials from fans of Kobe Bryant, and

(01:59:21):
so what I wanted to talk about this hour is
the lasting impact, if you will, and what is going
to be everlasting. Now to lead off with Kobe Bryant.
The one thing I will say, and I'm not a
Kobe Bryant fan. I talked about that earlier. I'm not
a fan. I do respect though, the hard work that
he put in, and I am having a tough time

(01:59:44):
dealing with load management of today's NBA players. I find
it nauseating and disgusting and all that. But that one
of the things that for me, and again not a big,
big Kobe Bryant fan, but I found endearing was the
fact of the way that he played and he It
was that line that Bill Parcels used to have about
football players that he wanted a beaver because he wanted

(02:00:07):
to Kobe Bryant was like the beaver of basketball because
beavers all they want to do is chop down trees.
They don't do anything else. And Kobe Bryant, for the
bulk of his career, all he wanted to do is
be great at basketball. And he put the work in
the sweat equity and was a gym rat. Might I
add it wasn't the most popular player to play with.

(02:00:28):
People didn't love playing with Kobe Bryant. Part of that
was because he treated the game so seriously and the
other guys didn't treat every game so seriously and suddenly
paid dividends with his success on the court. But that
was the thing he drove his teammates Matt but Kobe
Bryant from the early days when he was a teenager

(02:00:48):
when he came in the NBA because of the way
he was and he wasn't he wasn't the full Kawhi
Leonard introvert, but he didn't have a lot of hobbies.
And I remember being around those teams and the early
days of Kobe Bryant, people like, what's going on? He's
got he got nothing else going on. I mean at
that time, he didn't have a girlfriend and he didn't
do anything other than play basketball, and people were like,

(02:01:09):
what's what the f is? You know? And that's why
it was so shocking. I remember doing local radio in
LA at the time when when we found out that
Kobe was donated dating Vanessa, and I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa whoa, And it was having a field day. That
was in the pre social media days, so we depended
on the tabloid newspapers to give us the inside skinny

(02:01:29):
and all that, but to come from being you know,
his dad, jelly Bean played and we used to have
a running joke on the show. You know, Kobe Bryant's
uncle was named in his name, Chubby Cox. That was
we used to That was a bit on the show.
We used to do back in the day. Uh, you know,
so and so play in the NBA and his uncle

(02:01:51):
was named Chubby Cox and it was it was Kobe,
it was we talked about Kobe. But the other thing
about this is the fact that Kobe was able to
join the One Name Club, which is one of the
great tributes you can get, right. I mean, in modern
pop culture, there are a few celebrities. If I said Beyonce,

(02:02:12):
you know who I'm talking about. If I say Oprah,
She's not even really working anymore. But you know who
I'm talking about, right, Drake is a one named celebrity. Adele.
I all I have to do is say Adele. People
know who I'm talking about. You know who I'm talking about.
But in sports, it very really having a babe Babe
ruth people you say the name Babe, the bab being
he's been dead for a million years. Tiger In sports

(02:02:35):
Tiger Woods. Either that or you're on a safari somewhere.
You hear the word talking Jordan or Mike, even Michael.
You can say Michael and a lot of people reference that.
The Jordan Byrd just the last name. That magic right,
another one Lebron Kobe was right there with all those
others and Shaquille O'Neill, Shack, just say shack. You know

(02:02:56):
that there's not as many in the others used just
a soccer thing like Plee or Ronaldo or somebody like
that in soccer. But but basketball there's been a few
of them. Of course if you're a boxing fan. Butterbean, No,
all right, anyway, listen. Furthermore, Kobe Bryant also joins another

(02:03:19):
exclusive brotherhood. Not only is in the One Name Club,
but unfortunately it's it's one of these groups that you
never want to be a part of, the fraternity of
athletes who died way too young, and Kobe is now
part of that. And you know, we don't know what's
going to happen when we die. We think we know,
we'd like to think we know, but it's a it's
a great mystery of life, and it's the you knows
there afterlife is there not afterlife. We're all going to

(02:03:41):
find out one way or another. But Kobe Bryant, now,
because of what had happened to them at this age,
can now sit in the same line. If there is
such a thing with Roberto Clemente, Thurman Munson from the
world of baseball, that both were part of this just
a couple of years ago. Doc Holiday, the old Blue
Jay pitcher, although there's some circumstances around that whether or

(02:04:04):
not that was an intentional l act or not, driving
like a kamakaze pilot, but he passed away shortly after
his playing career. The NFL, you don't even have players
that died young. I was trying to think of somebody
that was in an air accident put but Sean Taylor,
who was murdered the Redskins in the middle of his career.
Pat Tillman, who died from friendly fire and combat, is

(02:04:25):
someone that was referenced quite a bit. And then in
college you go down the list. I mean, this happened sporadically.
The entire nineteen seventy Marshall football team in a plane
accident died. Ernie Davis is one of those where he
never he was the number one pick in the NFL draft,
but he had played dominant player at Syracuse and then

(02:04:45):
he got leukemia, and I don't think he ever played
in the nf I don't. I don't think he did.
I think he wanted to play, but but he died
shortly after his college career at Syracuse. And the one
that really stuck with me when I was younger was
Hank Gathers of Loyal Amerimount because he was such an
amazing talent. I loved watching those teams play because all

(02:05:09):
they tried to do is score and not play any defense.
And I loved that style of basketball, which pretty much
everyone plays now, but it was new at the time,
and it was Bo Kimball and Hank Gathers, these two
big stars at this little small school, Loyal AMERIMNT in
southern California, and they had this dominant team with his
old NBA coach, Paul Westball, and Hank Gathers died. His

(02:05:29):
heart gave out and he died. It was just a
horrible thing. NASCARS had a few some people say Dale Earnhardt,
he died on the course, Davey Allison, he died a
helicopter accident. If you're a NASCAR buff, you know that.
And the one that I happened to be on the
radio doing live coverage locally when I was doing local

(02:05:50):
radio was Payne Stewart, who's that was unreal, Like everyone
had passed out on the plane. The plane was flying
on autopilot and they didn't know what to do, whether
to shoot it down or what happened and finally crashed
just tore. But but but Kobe Bryant now is the biggest
name I would say, I don't think I'm wrong. Or
his biggest name in the NBA Lenn Bias. I don't

(02:06:11):
even know if Lenn Bias counts as an NBA. He
never played in the NBA. He was drafted by the
Boston Celtics with the number two pick back in the
eighties and then was at a party. They had coke
and he died of some drugs and whatnot at the
party there. But he never played for the Sun. He
was a star at Maryland. Malik Seeley although not a star,
but I knew him when he played with the Clippers

(02:06:32):
and he died and he played with the Minnesota Timberwolves
and he was killed by a drunk driver so just
because I knew him, I want to throw his name
out there. But anyway, listen, I remember I was talking
to a friend of mine. Actually, a bunch of people
were texting me, because everyone wants to text everyone and
tell them bad news. It's part of human nature. But

(02:06:53):
a guy that's connected in Hollywood that doesn't work in
the sports business. We're talking about this and the name
that popped up is the name it's old Hollywood James Dean.
James Dean. Now, it's too much different. Kobe played his
entire career, so it's not the same analogy. But James
Dean was this actor in the years ago in Hollywood,
rebel without a cause, and was a It's turned into

(02:07:15):
a cultural icon larger than life. He died at the
age of twenty four. Kobe was forty one, So it's
not the same situation, but it is same in the
respect that Kobe will not grow old. We will not
see Kobe Bryant as an old man. We will not
see what Kobe Bryant was going to do the rest
of his life because his life is over now, so

(02:07:35):
we're not going to see him grow old and jaded.
That's not gonna happen. Right, We're not gonna be able
to see that he will be remembered at this age
or younger. He's not gonna be remembering. You know. If
people get old and they say stupid things and do
crazy things and all like that, that's not gonna happen
for Kobe Bryant. He will be forever locked in our minds,
our memories at this age or younger. And Kobe still

(02:07:58):
looked like he could go play solid highlights. They looked
like he could still play all right. Last thing on
this so I mentioned I like the way that he
approached basketball, even though I was not a Kobe Bryant fan,
like the people I work with, he who love him,
and many of the people in Fox Sports Radio and
whatnot over the years. But one of the other things

(02:08:19):
I liked about Kobe and I used him as a reference.
So I'm not being a phony now. But one of
my pet peeves is when athletes or celebrities show up
to a hospital and there's a an entourage accompanying them
to the hospital, you know, visiting sick kids and whatnot.

(02:08:40):
I always find that disgusting because you shouldn't you should
do nice things like that. But it's my belief, and
I've said this before, the charity should be anonymous and
the value of whether it's a donation or an act
of goodwill is reduced if you do it to try
to receive applause and a pat on the back. And
I bring this up because Kobe Bryant was a regular

(02:09:03):
at back in his playing days at the Children's Hospital
in Orange County in LA. And he did not need
a lighting person, he did not need a sound person,
Kobe did not need a camera guy to escort him.
Um it was. It was. The legends was that he
didn't promote it. And the reason we know about it

(02:09:26):
is because people would take pictures and say, can you
believe Kobe Bryant came? Little kids would take pictures with
their parents would and be like, he believed Kobe Bryant
was down here, and it was a it was a legend.
He was like a ghost meeting that he would show
up and we didn't know when he was gonna show up,
but he would show up and the kids would all
be fired up and all that stuff. And to me,
that added to the mystique. I wish more people would

(02:09:49):
do that. Maybe they do, Maybe they do more more
things like that. But I see so many people now
in sports that I feel like they're doing the act
of goodwill so they can get some add of boys
and some applause some people on social media and always
rubs me the wrong way. And Kobe, he did so
many of these make a Wish deals for sick kids

(02:10:09):
that the Organization Act gave him an award about about
ten years ago. A little less than that, they gave
him their Shining Star Ward. At that time, he had
taken part in a hundred and make a Wish situations
for sick kids around the country whose wish was to
meet Kobe Bryant at that time. And so that's another

(02:10:31):
part of this. All right, it is the Ben Mathers Show.
We'll take your phone calls if you'd like to be part.
We've put the game shows on embargo because we felt
it were kind of inappropriate to do that, but we
will take your phone calls eight seven, seven ninety nine
on Fox. And don't forget that if you're listening to
Fox Sports Radio all day. Everyone else is at the
super Bowl. They don't send us, but everyone else is
in Miami, Miami, Miami. So we'll have live coverage, though,

(02:10:55):
I think it's gonna be mostly about Kobe all day.
I would think on Monday will be a Kobe Day,
which is going to be weird because all these guys
have guests that are scheduled from Radio Row to talk
about the Super Bowl. So I guess we'll find out
what NFL legends think about Kobe Bryant from Radio Row.
But that'll be coming up all day long on pretty

(02:11:15):
much most of the sports stations have sent a contingent
to Miami for the Super Bowl. All right, eight seven,
seven ninety, let's go to the phones. Tammy in Montana
is up first this hour. Hello Tammy A Ben. So,
you just said a lot of what I wanted to
say in your monologue that you know, it's a tragedy

(02:11:38):
when anybody loses loved ones in their life, but when
it's a public figure. Obviously, Kobe touched a lot of
people and they cared about him and felt their lives
around you know, his playing and stuff. And I wasn't
a Lakers fan, but I respected his work ethic like

(02:11:58):
you did, and his talent, and you know, he was
just a polarizing figure because he was so competitive. But
I really feel that if he was playing nowadays, there's
no way in hell he would have done or been
happy with load management. So that, you know, says something
about his character. But I found his, uh, his public

(02:12:23):
display of affection with his daughters very endearing. I think
that just made him such a special person to be
able to show that to his family in front of
again thousands and thousands of people that were watching every
move that he made. So and you know, and and
one other thing. Um, I mean, he'll he'll definitely obviously

(02:12:47):
be missed and he'll be talking about him for a
long time. But back to the msn reporter, I do
agree with Coope Ben. I think she she started out
saying a word and switched words so fast that it
sounded a little odd. But it sounded odd because she
said the N word on MSNBC. That's why it sounded odd.

(02:13:08):
What what do they call the team in New York?
What's it called? Is it called the Knicks? Or is
there an E R s at the end of the
name of the Knicks. But if you say, if she
started saying knicks and then what didn't realize that he played,
how do you get how do you get to the
how do you get to the end part of that word,
the N word combined Lakers, nix. How do you get
to the N word? Because that she said the N

(02:13:29):
word just to own it. She didn't, I don't. I'm
not calling you a racist. She was a slip. I mean,
mistakes happened, but own it. It's amazing to me. And again,
I have people that I know the working TV that
they're like, no one's gonna believe that, right, I said, well, no,
I don't know why anyone to believe that. Sure enough,
people believe it. I mean, some pr hack came up

(02:13:49):
with an excuse. She tweeted it out, and people are
dumb and they're like, oh gosh, she would never say that.
It's unbelievable, but people believe that anything. That's why the
I guess these excuses do work because a certain percentage
of people are gonna believe anything they're told. Well, what
I found very um. I don't know if it was
what the word is, offensive, rude, disrespectful, or whatever. But

(02:14:11):
there was an FSR host that actually reported apparently he
wanted to break some news, but he reported that Kobe
and his four daughters perished in that helicopter I don't.
I don't know anything about that. I always didn't hear that.
So people people make mistakes. But anyway, well, thanks for you,
all right, thank you damn you appreciate that. All right.

(02:14:33):
It is the Ben Mallers Show as we press on.
So within the Grammy Awards at Staple Center last night
and the red carpet, which I also find nausea. But
the celebrities were interview on the right car. Well, we'll
hear from some of that, including some of the comments
about Kobe. We'll get to that and we will do
it next. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm

(02:14:55):
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. It's
Malard twenty twenty. You can be heard in the democracy
of the Ben Maller Show. We encourage and welcome the
voice of the people that would be you. Following the
host of the show, you can follow him on Twitter.
He's at Ben Maller and you can tweet at and
follow our technical producer. He plays all the music and

(02:15:17):
most of funny sound bites all the Ben Maller Show.
His first name is Robertso who his last name is Flores.
You can follo him at Raider Underscore Rob twenty four
I Feel Naked and Ali from the Guico Fox Sports
Radio Studios. It's Ben Maller. All right, we'll pressed on here.
We had a lot of audio I did not get
to earlier because we've been all over the place. Do

(02:15:37):
we have Let's see what we havena. I'm gonna put
Roberto on the spot. The audio from Kobe and his
own words, do we have that? This goes back the
Ringer had this. The Ringer did an interview with Kobe
Bryant back in twenty sixteen and the issue of death
came up. And now, considering what happened, people are going

(02:15:58):
back and they're like whoa, whoah, And this is the
interview and you'll hear Kobe in his own words in
the Yeah, we'll play we'll play the full one because
at the beginning here, well you'll hear you'll hear the
questions and the answers. This is from an interview done
in twenty sixteen on the Ringer talking about with Kobe

(02:16:19):
Bryant talking about death. We are sitting on top of
a messo American muralists hating of a clock. Yeah, I
gotta ask because I feel like the setting is begging
for it. What's your relationship with death? A comfortable one? Yeah,
it's a comfortable one. It's a it's an understanding. You
can't have life without death, can't have life without the dog, right,

(02:16:41):
So it's an acceptance of that when came time to
decide whether or not you retire, that's really an acceptance
of that mortality that all acids face, right, And if
you combat it, you'll have always that inner struggle within yourself,
you know what I mean. And so it's a I'm
comfortable with the next part. I have to ask this

(02:17:03):
because I'm dying to know. What do you think happens
after you die? I don't know, No, I don't know,
But I don't know when I die, you know what
I mean. Like it's it's like it's to me, it's
it's it's it's that simple. I don't know. We'll see,
just see when you get there. Well that's Kobe back
in twenty sixteen, and yeah, I have a similar outlook

(02:17:25):
to that kind of stuff. You know, it's a great mystery.
You know, we're gonna find out. Hopefully we'll like the answer.
Maybe we won't like the answer. I don't know, but anyway,
it's some audio there that I thought was interesting I
wanted to play for you. We also have what else
do we have? You? Why don't we go through some
of this stuff? How about the the wisdom of Billy

(02:17:46):
Ray Cyrus. He brought up the fact that he met
Kobe Bryant years ago, and he was in reference to
his daughter's TV show What Yeah, let's go to the
audio tape. Here we go on the red carpet, the
Grammy's last night in La We spoke yesterday before you
headed into the club. Davis Cartier was a very celebratory mood.

(02:18:07):
How do you process what you're feeling now? I really
I haven't process yet. Got me in the row right now,
like I'm I'm processing as we speak. Any special memory
you can share with us that you have of Kobe, Yeah,
I think when his kids came to the Hanna Montana taping.

(02:18:28):
I remember trying to look extra hard to be funny
that night because I knew that some of Kobe's family
was out in the studio. And you know, Kobe Bryant's
a legend, He's touched a Saul I'm a man that
you know, such a great man, such a great man
and a great talent. Him being here in his house

(02:18:48):
today on this given day and this given moment, it's, um,
that's just bittersweet. As I was Billy Race Sires. That
is love though. If you have to go to a
hand in Montana taping, that is he did love his daughters.
If you're gonna go do that, all right, let's go
to the phones. Reverend Ray Green is up first. Hello,

(02:19:09):
Reverend Ray. Hey, even Ben, Uh, just let us you know.
I'm back in my hometown at Doin, Iowa, home of
cats and know the morning rush. Yeah now in the
FM dial by the way, Yeah FM stereo radio sounding
much better. Yeah, yeah, we're on MFM. Now. I am

(02:19:31):
east to the Rockies. But as I told you before,
my last name it is Lakers, and I'm a lifelong
member of the Lakes Nation. I was born a champion
and rest in peace, Kobe Bean, Bryan Man. I'm devastated
and usually a bust down and cry and stuff like

(02:19:51):
that when I an athlete or a favorite entertainer goes.
But you know, I gets so emotional and it just
hasn't hit me yet. Man, and I just wanted to
offer my condolences to the Madam militia and the Laker
nation and rest in peace, Kobe. All right, thank you,
Reverend Ray. I appreciate that reverend'sment with us for a

(02:20:12):
long time. They're checking in. He says, the last name
is Lakers, But isn't isn't that the story about Adam Carolla? Right?
His middle name is Lakers. He wrote it on the
DMV thing and nobody corrected it. So s driver's licenses
like Adam Lakers, Corolla or something like that. That's the story,
he tells. I don't know if it's true or not.
All Right, it's Ben Maller's show on Fox. On Fox.

(02:20:35):
As we press ontic some more your reaction, you're eight
seven seven ninety nine on Fox. We have more audio.
Somebody who really should not have said anything has said
something about Kobe Bryant, and you can imagine what this
person's getting. We'll get to that. You got to hear
this audio, It's well, what are you doing? Be sure
to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays

(02:20:56):
at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. So we play
Billy Ray Cyrus with a heartfelt tribute to Kobe at
the Red Carpet the Grammy's Last Night. Well, now we
go to the other side of the equation, Ojay Simpson
and OJ could not help himself from a Las Vegas

(02:21:16):
golf course wearing a titleless cap. I'm sure the people
that titleists are excited that OJ is wearing their hat
there and a pink shirt and a hoodie. My man,
OJ had to give his ten cents on Kobe Bryant. Hey,
Twitter worlds a sad day. Just heard the news about
Kobe Bryant. Life doesn't promise us Tomorrow doesn't promise us anything.

(02:21:41):
I guess you got to live for the day. Great guy,
terrific family, God bless take care. I'm sorry I can't
help but laugh because I'm reading the replies to OJ's
tweet video there at you did it? You belong in prison.
Ron and Nicole deserved to live their lives? What's wrong

(02:22:04):
with that? OJ? And Yeah, I did notice, though I didn't.
This just popped up on the Twitter machine here that
OJ actually was hiding some of the replies. But Twitter
allows you to see the replies that were hidden by
OJ and the one he only blocked one of them.

(02:22:26):
Then it said f off OJ, and OJ that that
upset OJ. He saw that and he hid that reply,
which is amazing because literally everyone on his timeline is,
you did it, OJ, You killed the two people? What's
up with that? OJ? You know every single person on there?
All right, it is the Ben Mathers Show on Fox.

(02:22:47):
To the phones we go and we saylo to weed Man, hippie,
who's in Miami? Hello, weed Man, Hippie, why are you here?
I was not invited? It was not Yeah, no, I
was told. I was told because the NFL does not accommodate.
The facility is not open all night, so we are

(02:23:08):
not allowed. Apparently they will not accommodate the overnight radio
shows because they are I don't know if that's true
or not. COBE's a shooting star man, a real shooting star.
People come to life for different purpose. Not everybody comes
to live a long life. Cobe didn't want any part

(02:23:29):
of my sixty one years of BS. Kobe did something
showed people dedication an accomplishment in this world. If you

(02:23:49):
focus and you are in Philadelphia, you're taking those shots
as a kid at night. Well, actually, using Italy grew
up part of his youth in Italy. So I heard
the story. You know what, if there is radio, No,
I don't want to known people that listen to the
radio most of my waiting hours. That's because you don't

(02:24:13):
have a television. That's true, you know what, but I
can watch if you wait. Man, if you if you
had a television, you would leave us. We'd be done
to you. You would be no, no, no, no no no.
I think it was this. I can watch anything on television.
I know you don't have, but you don't have a
physical TV though. That's what I'm saying. That's true. But
I like this for I like this relationship, the sharing

(02:24:36):
of ideas. But this radio has cleansed. I tried to
get I tried to help you. I know this is
not the night to do this for the morning, but
I tried to tell me that any job, the only
thing I do is this. Okay, this isn't paying, this
isn't paying anything. I found there was a guy you

(02:24:57):
live in I'm not gonna pay you to be in Miami.
Live in Miami, but there was guy trips for me
to go to South Beach right now and we'll take you.
Said you lived near the Marlins. How far away are
you from the Marlin Stadium? Why not? They're having That's
where everyone's gonna be tonight. They're gonna have tonight. Oh

(02:25:19):
my god, I'm telling him I have the schedule. I
have the itinerary in front of me. The forty nine
ers and Chiefs tonight are gonna be at Marlin's Park.
That's where everyone's gonna betel every night with every beautiful girl.
It's gonna be a foul blue They're gonna be a

(02:25:40):
radio lower convention center. Are you choking on the grounds
of the convention center? All right? You're not allowed to
go on the grounds of the convention center. Is that
the things you don't expect to hear when you ask

(02:26:02):
a question? All right? Listen weed man, Yeah, you want
to go down there, take your bicycle and go down
there and have a good time. All right? Give us
man on the street, give us reporting and we'll have
a good time. Yes, all right, I gotta go. Thank you.
He's back. I guess let's go see any MENI money mo.
Let's go to John in Omaha. Hello? John? Oh yeah, Ben?

(02:26:28):
You know what I what reminded me when I first
heard of the news was the helicopter crash was when
Speevie ray Vaughan like a Tyrens singer. It was either
ninety or ninety one when there he was playing at
Alpine Valley and Wisconsin and his helicopter crash went down

(02:26:51):
early the morning and then found they were going up there.
He was trying to catch a flight back to Ohare
Airport in Chicago, and it was really a dense fog.
It was, yeah, and kind of just similar to kind

(02:27:11):
of the reporting that I heard today that I think
there is a Bruce Springs, the drummer for Bruce Springsteme
was on that helicopter. Yeah, I got you, yeah, yeah,
so yeah, I mean we had a pilot. I don't
know if you were listening earlier, John, but the pilot
called up thanks to the call, and he from Phoenix

(02:27:31):
and he told the stories about flying in fog and
weather and whatnot. Go back and here on the podcast
if you want to hear that. All right, it is
the Ben Mallar Show. We're going to continue or take
some more calls all the way up. We've embargo the
dumb game shows for tonight and overnight here and then
we'll get back to that tomorrow, so we'll have a

(02:27:53):
chance to do unless something else happens, and then we
won't do it tomorrow either. But hopefully nothing else will happen.
Everyone will try to stay alive and Noah acts and
that will happen and all that good stuff, and we
can press on and get back to our normal shenanigans,
as they say, but the tributes continue. We've heard from
OJ Billy Ray Silrs. How about Flavor Flavor? How about that?
We'll hear from him. We'll get to that and your

(02:28:14):
phone calls and we will do it. Fox Sports Radio
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com
and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to listen live.
Only a few rare birds are able to listen to
all four hours the Ben Maller Show live overnight, but
thanks to podcasting, you have no excuse to miss a

(02:28:36):
second of our unorthodox chatter. Subscribe to The Ben Maller
Show podcast on iTunes and give us five stars. It's quick,
painless and noise management and wi from the Gico Fox
Sports Radio Studios. It's Ben Maller. As we continue on
and I saw our gotta just called up Reverend Ray.
He took a photo of his Colorado Identify ocation card

(02:29:00):
and it does appear to indicate that his last name
is Lakers. So he wasn't lying by that, I mean
unless he photoshop this, which would take a lot of work.
It seems like the real deal, seems like the real
McCoy there. So these tributes come in a lot of
heartfelt tributes at the Grammy's other people who are opportunists
trying to take advantage of that. One guy I did

(02:29:21):
see it Laker Games back in the day was Flavor
Flav and he was at the Red carpet And here
is the SoundBite we have from Flavor Flav commenting on
the passing of Kobe Bryant. My heart is broken, man,
So my condolences goes out to his family and also
to everybody else that loved Kobe and everybody that got

(02:29:42):
to play with Kolby. Yeah, it's so sad. You don't
know all I'm saying. But God is good though, God's
got his back, you know all I'm saying. So Kobe,
he's still here. He's still here. Yeah, I had worked that,
but he is like, wait, I'm getting a little too
gotta I gotta add something on the end this year.
All right, let's go to the phones and let's see here.

(02:30:04):
Let's go to Flexus in Buffalo, just outside Buffalo, formerly
known as America's favorite drag queen caller, now just known
as Flexus. Hello, Flexus, No, I am a drag queen.
I'm still a dray queen. Don't you forget it. You're
not a working drag queen anymore. So you're just I
was gonna give you a great compliment and already you

(02:30:25):
just blah pushing my buttons. And I'm gonna call my
doctor because I think we made if you almost made
sense today, But I don't know. I think, Hey, Flexus,
how many fingers am I holding up? Flexus? Six? Now
it's incorrect, and so you're not past the sobriety test.
You did not pass its bad job by you. Well,

(02:30:46):
my fingers wasn't it was three? It was three. I
had three fingers. That was I was not a one
finger salute. I had three? All my fingers? Am I
holding up? Then? Number one? Hey? I was not say
this has to be one of the good shows that
I've listened to. You done ever? Since I listened to
the show, which is for many many decades. Now, don't

(02:31:10):
say I am a living legend of this show, Okay,
I should get You're not. You're not allowed to say that, though.
If other people have to say you're a legend, you're
not allowed the rules of engagement or you're not allowed
to say you're a legend. If I want to be
a legend, I'm going to be a legend. But you
can't choose to be allowed like some other people saying, Hey,
that guy's alleged. You can't say because you sound like
a douchebag when you say that, what Eddie am I

(02:31:33):
a legend? Eddie? Um m hmm. Legend is a strong
word anytime now, Eddie, you know, I mean, you know,
I guess you're you're a legend. Oh Eddie, look at that.
You pressured Eddie, You bullied, bullied Eddie to give you
call you a legend. Alexis is a legend. He loves me.

(02:31:56):
He loves me, not he loves me. He loves me. Now,
I feel like, if you've got to care, sure on
that old mad clown T shirt, you're you're a legend. Yeah,
But like I told Kope, off the air. Nobody heard
that conversation off here the magic of radio. They only
hear the conversation on the radio telling you and don't
have to You don't have to preference it by saying,
as I said off the air, it's fine. What dead

(02:32:18):
to the two sentences? Hurry up, chop chop Okay, I said,
I'm not a great fan of Tolby Bryant. I'm sure
a lot of people are. But as a human being,
he was a human being and all respects him for that.
And you know, as a good Christian, Jewish person and
a Buddhi person, I am. I have to say, you know,

(02:32:39):
I think you have to. I think you got to
pick one of those. I don't know you can be
all three. I think you gotta like pick pick a
team and whatever I want. You got to pick a tribe.
You can't be all three everything. Okay, I'm gonna go
back and watch forn Okay, it's better and better. How

(02:33:00):
were in? James in Minneapolis, Minnesota? Hello, Holler and James,
And I bet she thought holler and James was asleep.
But he's got to keep his indoor voice slow otherwise
who'll be evicted and thrown out under the street, or
they'll be wailing and grinding of keys. Yeah, all right,
so you're in your indoor voice, Hollary James. So you
gotta talk, You gotta talk a lot like this. I

(02:33:22):
do gott to talk a little bit, Like did she
know Kobe made a mark in the NBA he won
some championships with Shack, But why couldn't he get along
with Shack to win more and being more of a
predominant sports figure. Well, they just they burn gnawing at
each other. Kobe did not his personality and Shack's personality didn't.
Didn't mesh Shock enjoyed living life and going out and

(02:33:46):
having a good time. Kobe was all about that action.
Boss just didn't. What happens all the time, James, people
I worked with worked with over the years, I don't
get along with them for whatever reason. That's just it's life.
That's what happens. Yeah. But you get along with Eddie
and you get along with the Cooper loop. Well yeah,
but but you you work with people and you're around
them all the time, and if they don't share the

(02:34:07):
same work ethic or something like that, you get upset
and you get annoyed from time to time. That's what happens.
And Tammy from my panel was the worst. That woke
me up this morning. Did you know that? I was.
I know you had to work this morning. Yeah, but
she woke me up this morning. Man, when I heard
her was a popped prayed up like a pop tart. Okay,

(02:34:28):
all right, thank you? All right? It was like that's
a drop like a pop tart. No Marcel calling up?
Why now he's so happy Marcel won. Marcel and Brooklyn
won last week, he decided not to call up here.
I have a feeling if Marcella had called up, he
would have given us some breaking news here that would
have really just not been appropriate, if you know what

(02:34:50):
I'm saying. Let's say hello to Alex, who's in southern California. Hello, Alex?
What up? Some characters calling in the past couple of minutes?
Pretty cool, keeping me awake out here in LA at
two fifty two in the morning. Yeah. Well, if you've
never heard the show, you might not have heard the show.
This is uh, this is actually less than normal, less
than normal? Right, What's what's going on? Alex? Now? So

(02:35:12):
I'm just calling because I'm on my way to work,
and I'm worrying my Lakers' jersey twenty four representing, and
I think, out of everything, the sad thing about this
is that, uh, you know, he was with his daughter,
Gianna and she passed away. Another young one that seems
like passed away. And it just hurts because I'm a
dad and my dad and my son just started basketball,

(02:35:33):
and of course, you know, we post on Instagram and
we tag Mamba Junior Mamba. You know, it's just it's
just a reality here in LA. And he was a
huge legend. He's more than a legend. And I'm getting
tiderode here because he just meant so much to La.
And I hear so many reports that a part of
LA died today, and it's so true, and I think

(02:35:55):
that brought us together, unfortunately here in La at least.
And I just want to give my respect to, you know,
the Bryan family, Vanessa, her daughters, and the other family
that passed away in that plane crash. Well more than one,
it was several families and friends have been affected. All right,
Thank you, Alex. You got some crazy hours, man, You're
going to work right now. You got like call that

(02:36:16):
radio hours, call that radio is ridiculous, crazy hours. But yeah,
Verbertals and Coop both wearing the Laker Kobe Bryant jerseys here.
I mentioned that earlier in a previous monologue about how
the whole everywhere I went there were people wearing Kobe
jerseys and shirts and all that, and it was just

(02:36:36):
a just a weird, weird time for everybody. Right now,
it really is

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Host

Ben Maller

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}RIP Kobe