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November 20, 2020 • 51 mins

Ben Maller takes a trip down memory lane with his old friend Lee Klein.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Boom. If you thought four hours a day, minutes a
week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants of
the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He treats
crackheads in the ghetto Cutter the same as the rich
pill poppers in the penthouse the clearing House of Hot
takes break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with

(00:23):
Ben Maller starts right now in the air everywhere. Yes,
another weekend is upon us, and that means the weekend
cannot start until you hear the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller. Because,
as we like to say, four hours are not enough.

(00:43):
We do this eight days a week, eight days a week.
This is a spinoff of the Overnight Show. You knew
that already, right, and we thank you. Although I am
told by some that they listen to this podcast and
not the radio show, which is mildly offensive. Which is
mildly offensive. And you can get this podcast, as you've
already found out, anywhere anywhere you get podcast. It's part

(01:04):
of the I Heart podcast network. But it's available on
all of the platforms. And if you want to send
a Hello to me, you can contact me on all
the social media channels at Ben Maller at Ben Maller
on Twitter, Instagram, Ben Maller on Fox Facebook, Ben Maller Show.
And if you're a super duper p one in the

(01:25):
Mallard militia, you can reach out to me on cameo
and get a personalized video message. And birthdays, weddings, bar
mitzvah's or you just want a positive note, any of
those things. You can reach me on cameo dot com.
It's not free, but it's not that much. Just search
my name cameo dot com and Ben Maller. And so

(01:48):
this is an interview podcast. An interview podcast, and you
know what that means. That means not a lot of
me B s ng I welcome and this is a
return engagement to the Fifth Hour pod cast. One of
my old grizzled radio veterans, Uh the man who has
been in the sports talk radio wars. Actually did a
show with this guy in my early days in the

(02:09):
radio business, but I've known him way before that. He's
done political talk radio, he's done a lot of sports talk.
He's been in Philly and Los Angeles and other cities
around the country working in the radio industry. He hosted
Clipper postgame coverage and pregame coverage for years. And he also,

(02:29):
as I said, did some political radio at big talk
stations like kf I and k ABC in Los Angeles,
and so welcome in. Well, we'll give it up here
for Lee Klein and Lee I want to start here.
We're gonna go down and do some confrontations with athletes
and players here kind of a theme of the podcast.

(02:51):
And why don't we start with Hall of Fame coach
Bill Fitch. And it was at a Clipper media game
events years and years ago. We were all playing basketball.
Bill Fitch, the Hall of Fame coach, was coaching us.
You can verify many of the stories that I have
told on the radio over the years about random people

(03:13):
and Bill Fitch, hall of Fame basketball coach. He coached
the Boston Celtics, the Houston Rockets, but at the end
of his career he coached the Clippers. And Bill Fitch
was the coach of a media basketball game that we
both played in. And do you remember what Bill Fitch
said about me? Who can never forget that? Hey? It

(03:39):
was an Irvine at the University of California, Irvine at
their gym, and Norm Peters was there along with you
and I and Bill Fitch. You were so out of
breath at this moment of time. Your face was beat red,
sweat pouring profusely out of every single pore of your body.

(04:00):
Blew the whistle. You were standing next to him. I
was standing next to you, and Norma was on the
other side. And Bill Fitch looked at you and he said,
and I quote, you are the worst basketball player I
have ever seen in my life. That is a ringy endorsement.
And uh, and I got tak you. Now. I loved

(04:22):
Bill Fitch. Bill Fitch was awesome. Uh. And he's still around,
he's in his eighties here, But that that was the
greatest endorsement I had ever gotten leave from someone in
sports of my athletic powers. There, And you gotta remember
this was when I this was before I lost the weight.
I was huffing and puffing. And as you said, I

(04:44):
I've always been a prolific sweater. I've had the ability
to sweat. Uh. And keep in mind the other problem
there is that we were we were covering l a
Clipper training camp at the Brent Events Center as I
don't know if it's still called that, but in Irvine Uh,
and so Bill Fitch and we we I don't think
any of us anticipated that we were gonna be asked

(05:06):
to play in a media basketball clinic with Bill Fitch
is the coach and all that. It just kind of happened,
as I remember, and I don't remember them saying, hey,
we're gonna be playing basketball at the end of the
open of training camp. I don't recall that. Uh, and
it happened. And I also like to point out Lee
that you know, well, I was the worst of the worst.

(05:27):
I believe Bill Fitch also pointed something out that you
were You were not great either, and that the other
media people who were playing that day, we're all a
bunch of slubs pretty much. Yes, yeah, I would agree,
But keep in mind something and this is for the audience,
not for you. The basketball team. The Clippers had about

(05:47):
twenty guys, because this is training camp before the cuts came,
they were watching this and most likely as horrible as
the Clippers were every year in those years, they probably
were looking at us and saying, this is the only
team we can beat all season. I just want to
point out I told this to Coach Fitch later on.

(06:09):
You know, he was only with the Clippers for a
few years and uh and I loved it. The team sucked,
but he was fun, as we said. But he coached
the Boston Celtics to an NBA championship, and he had
Larry Bird, he had McHale and Parish uh And and
corn and Cornbread Maxwell was was also Cedric Maxwell was

(06:30):
on that team as well. So people think of that
great Celtics team in the nineteen eighties, most people think
of Casey Jones as the coach of those great Celtic
teams in the eighties. But the first championship, that Group
one was under the tutelage of Bill Fitch with Red
Arbach as the executive and the owner of that So

(06:50):
I my my statement, and I told Fitch this is
that the greatest player you coached was was either Larry
Bird with the Celtics or he was with Houston and
they got to the finals and lost with he had
Elijah one. So it was one of those two. But
the worst player there is no debate. There is no debate, Lee,
and you heard it, and that's why I wanted to

(07:12):
One of the reasons I want to have you on
the podcast again is because Bill Fitch confirmed all those
he coached in the NBA from nineteen seventy to nine.
And the guy coached all over the place. And uh on,
I'm the worst player. I'm the worst player least. So
I take that as a badge of honor, a feather

(07:32):
in my cap. I certainly do. And he and it's
not just that he goched some bad teams with the nets. Also,
remember he went to New Jersey before he went to
the Clippers, and they were they were pretty lousy there also,
as I remember it. Also, can I add this two
quick things, One of all of the teams and the
players that he coached in his long career, that's why

(07:53):
he's in the NBA Hall of Fame. That actually the
college also, but if he had a gigantic list of
every ballplayer we ever coached, you are last on that
list and Larry Birds on the top. So you truly
are on the same list. Yeah, because you're you know,
and you you taught me this years ago, Lea that
you remember the very top and the very bottom. The

(08:15):
middle kind of get lost, right, it gets lost. Like
it's the same concept in sports. You want to either
be a championship contender or you want to be the
worst team. You don't want to be like the five
hundred team. You don't want to be because nobody no seriously, right,
I mean, who remembers average? Who remembers that I just
looked by the way I cheated here, Bill Fitch his

(08:37):
first year in the NBA with the Cavaliers in nineteen seventy.
There's a guy that has one of the great nicknames
as a name. Bingo Smith played for the Cavaliers that year,
the great Bingo Smith. There were so many great names
in the seventy yet the greatest of all time world

(08:57):
be free, but Bingoes the seventy he was in Philadelphia
seventies six, or he played with the San Diego Clippers
even before they moved to Los Angeles. But keep in mind,
Dingo could be the first name above you on that list,
that's right. He might be just slightly slightly above other Well,
this was not a great nickname. But the the Clippers,

(09:20):
you remember there when they were in Buffalo, the Buffalo Braves,
Bob McAdoo, right, was their big star. Do you remember
the time I was doing radio locally in l A.
We had Bob mcado I don't think you were with me.
That day we had Bob McAdoo on. He was an
assistant for the Miami Heat and and I was, you know,
regaling him with stories about the Clippers because he he

(09:41):
was at that time the clip He led every offensive category,
not anymore for the Clippers because of the Buffalo Braves connection.
And he wanted nothing to do with the Clippers, Bob McAdoo,
and he just wanted he wanted to distance himself like
he was going away from hot lava as as I
were call. Uh, But I want to move on and

(10:04):
another great you know story since we're going back, and
this is the theme of this podcast is like locker
room confrontations. Alright, I want to stop you for a second.
I want to bring something up quick and then you
can bring up your next thing. Do you remember when
you and Dave Smith were doing the show together and
you called a hotel and I believe he was a ballplayer,

(10:28):
baseball player for the Houston Astros when they were in
the National League. And if the name escapes me, but
I got knocked on the door, I'll be right back.
Do you remember what I'm speaking of? Yeah? Not only
do I remember that, that's one of the great all time.
One of the reasons I hate interviews and I you know,
I don't do interviews on the show is because of

(10:49):
this I have PTSD. You are referring to a baseball
player for the Astros in he played with a bunch
of different teams, Derek Bell. Remember Derek Bell. Yeah, Derek,
Derek Bell. And this is in the you know, most
of these stories are like in the nineties, but Derek
Bell was playing for the Astros. They had the Killer
Bees going on and they were gonna play the Dodgers,

(11:12):
as I remember it, and we were doing a midday show.
And I also remember the other thing I remember about
that is we were on remote at a car rental
place by L A x Um and I forget which one,
but there I remember trying to do the show and
every like two minutes a plane was flying over our
head to land at L A x and, uh, a

(11:35):
lot of ambient noise there that that was like a
degree of difficulty. But we had Derek Bell on and
this was you know, a guy that had some big
years in Houston, was a key part of that Astro
teams was pretty good and so we had him on
and you know, he was nice enough and then like
he I guess somebody knocked on his door in the
hotel and he's like, hey, I'll be right back, and

(11:58):
so we're like, okay, um, he put the phone down
and then he never came back. He just I guess
there was some ut. Yeah, but but the beauty was
you kept holding on. You went through a commercial break,
you kept on holding on, and come back from a
commercial break, you're still holding on for him. Yeah, exactly.

(12:19):
Uh and and as I know, that's the technique I usually,
as you know in the Overnight show, when someone falls asleep,
I do the Derek Bell. I just keep going back
to them. I go back to them to see what
they're they're doing that, you know, that's my my mantra there.
But yeah, that was one of the all time That
was the only all time greats. And speaking, one of
the all time greats. This guy's also a Hall of Famer.

(12:41):
It's a basketball Hall of Famer play by play guy,
Ralph Lawlor. And you were there. You were a witness
to one of the funniest things that has happened in
my life. You can verify I'm not making this up.
In fact, you kept this story alive for over twenty years,
you kept this story alively. I am referring to the

(13:04):
nineteen NBA draft. So we're going over twenty years back
in the way back machine. And before you go any further, people,
every word is going to be absolutely true. Not only
am I going to verify it beforehand, I don't have
to verify it when it's over whatever, Ben says, I

(13:24):
guarantee you it's gonna be truth. And you know you
gotta keep it clean, don't you. Well, no, I don't know.
We're on the podcast. We have different regulations here on
the podcast, but I think for Ralph, maybe we should
keep it clean. Maybe for Ralph's sake, he's retired. He's
retired now. But be sure to catch live editions of

(13:45):
The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two a m. Eastern
eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
Heart Radio app. So and the great thing, My favorite part,
I'm gonna tell a story and say my favorite part
is I have the reputation lee of being like the
Clippers kabana away right, Like I'm in the tank for
the Clippers and all that stuff, and I do like
the Clippers and I want them to win but you know,

(14:06):
I liked when they when they do something wrong, I
pointed out, and I I like to highlight that as well.
I don't run away from that kind of stuff. When
they for example, when they choked against the Denver Nuggets.
We we both were going back and forth. I wasn't
on We'll get to I mean, I was on social media,
but I was texting you as the implosion was happening
with the Clippers. We were we were going back and forth.

(14:27):
And for those that didn't hear, the Lee actually hosted,
you hosted postgame Clipper Talk, so you were around thee.
I worked with Ralph for for uh six seasons, uh,
in addition to my regular sports show. UH. And what
you're about to tell is one of the top three
of all time. Get told properly, So go ahead and

(14:48):
tell me. Now you're putting pressure on me. So Ralph is,
Ralph is a Hall of Fame broadcaster. He, as we said, retired,
he's I think he was in Florida now. But my
my computer of like mind. As Ralph would say, you know, Bengo,
holy smokes, I fasten your seats. So the nine draft
was perceived to not be a great draft. The idea

(15:11):
was it was not a great draft, and the Clippers
went out into left field and picked a guy from
the University of the Pacific, which most of your great
players don't come from the University of the Pacific, which
is in I think Stockton, California. So there was a
center named Michael Michael Oldawad Candy was the guy's name,

(15:32):
and it was the debate was like between Olaad Candy,
Mike Baby I think was the other guys. I I
kind of flashback, So there was the debate who the draft,
and of course the Clippers in this era drafted the
wrong guy, Michael Wacandy. But at the time I was
doing the midday show, and I'll never forget I went

(15:53):
to the l A Convention Center they were building Staples Center.
They were building Staples Center. They had a GALLA news
conference to welcome Michael Ilawa Candy to the Clippers, and
he made all these bold statements about how he was,
you know, because Shock was the star for the Lakers
and there you know, it's a two center town now
with Candy Man and all that. So and then I

(16:16):
watched him play like the first exhibition game, and I
knew this guy was as stiff. I knew this guy
was a dog with fleas, you know, and I and
and very rarely, I think we can both agree on
this lead. When you see someone the first impression, you're
very rarely that far off, you know, like if you think,
you know, very few times has someone come out and
can't play and then all of a sudden turn out

(16:37):
to be great. It happens, but it's very rare that
it happened. Usually your first impression is your correct impression.
So I saw him play an exhibition game. He was terrible.
So I went on the show. I was doing the
midday show, and I took some shots at Michael Ilwa
Candy and you know, another terrible draft by the Clippers.
What were they thinking? Why they draft this guy? You know,

(16:59):
that kind of stuff. And the Clippers later on they
played like that. In those days, they played like eight
or nine exhibition games. They played a ton of them,
and the Clippers were playing the Lakers. And this was
obviously before Staples Center. It was in the bowels of
the Fabulous Forum. And I had known Ralph. We have
been out of the games for years, and you were
with me, and Ralph approached me in one of the

(17:23):
tunnels underneath the Forum, and I think it was right
near the media room where they served that that beef
with noodles. How small was that compared to the one
in Staples Center at the closet. Uh it was always
meat on top of noodles or they had They also
had ravioli some number. It was lasagna with garlic breton.

(17:46):
That was the two meals they served at the Forum
in the media room that I remember that. And I
also remember Jack would the great actor would come in there,
Jack Nicholson and he would come in there and have coffee.
Sometimes you become there. But anyway, so I'm getting off
the beaten track here. So Ralph approaches me, and he
was very upset. He was very defensive of Michael Obawa

(18:07):
Condi the Center, and he said something that would follow
him at least with us, Me, me Lee and Ralph
for over the next twenty years. It was a very
uncomfortable wager that Ralph made. By the way, it still is,

(18:30):
it's it's it's a cold case. It's not closed yet.
It's not no, it is not over. So Ralph was
so convinced, and I love Ralph for this. He was
so convinced that Oliwa Candy was gonna be amazing, that
Oliwa candy was gonna be great. Uh that he said,
if as I remember it, he said, some of the

(18:52):
effective OLIVERA Candy is not one of the top five
centers and an all like an all star level player
within X number of years, forget how many was within
a couple of years that he would um go to
center court at the at the at the at the
sports arena or the forum, and he would pull my

(19:14):
pants down and kiss my ass. I believe is that?
Am I correct here? I believe that's what he said
right that? Well he might have no, No, that's not
what he said. You're keeping it clean. Allow me without
going overboard. Okay, all right, you you give the lea
version here. Okay. The bet was, the original bet was

(19:35):
that if it didn't come true, he was betting you
that if what he said wasn't true, he would get
down on his knees and give you a blank blank
Okay okay. And then I said I wanted at half court,
and he said it's fine with me. So to this day,

(19:58):
Michael oh a hand over all of the years following
then and I would go over to the scorer's table
before a game when they were setting up for route
to sit there on broadcast for the Clippers, and I
would always say with then next to me, don't you
owe him a bet right now? And his reply, over
every year, the hundreds of times we did this was

(20:22):
it isn't over yet. He's still playing. Yeah, that that
was his reply. And then once he retired, ol Over
Candy and he retired like, oh man, probably he stopped
playing like ten twelve years something like that. From where
we are right now, he said, he kept saying, well,
he could come back, he might he might make he

(20:44):
might make a comeback. There. I think the bet is
now old. Kenny's about to turn forty six years Oh,
I think he's forty five something like that right now. Yeah,
there is no there is no comeback and there was
no career. But is he called ace as I mentioned?
And still yeah, Favor and olthough Candy average less than

(21:11):
ten points in less than seven rebounds per game as
the number one pick. Now I went back, do you
remember who the Clippers? And I know doing the hindsight
thing is always a dangerous deal, but who was in
that draft that was not supposed to be a great draft.
Who the Clippers passed over. They passed over everyone. There
are at least three Hall of Fame players who would

(21:36):
be considered among the top fifty of the last fifty
years of the NBA who played and were in that
draft that year that was Let me give you the names.
Really this was Vince Carter, Vinceanity was was in that draft.
How about Paul Pierce, the Celtics star who won a

(21:59):
champ a Chip in Boston. And Dirk Novitsky who was
not supposed to be good as I remember he was
as stiff his first year, but he turned out to
be pretty good, obviously with the marriage. So there are three.
Those are three bona fide studs that were in that draft,
and the Clippers took Michael Kandy. And the great thing
about it is that they weren't even considering any of

(22:21):
those guys. The other option was like Mike Bibby. They
weren't even considering any of the players that actually turned
out to be good. They passed on all those other players. Diana,
who else was in that draft? Who? Okay, he went
in the in the second round. The new head coach
of the Clippers, Tyron Lou Oh, the Great Tylu. Yeah,

(22:44):
well he's he's the guy that kawai Wan. He's a
championship coach. Lee. Yeah, I don't know how much. I
don't know how much he actually I don't know how
much he actually coached. But yeah, there you go, the
Great Tylu. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Stern Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. All right,

(23:06):
so that's one Ralph. We have a bunch of Ralph Lawler.
The stories that we can get. We should We shouldn't
pick on him because out of love and respect as
he had for us. We went through a lot of
years with with Ralph and he to this day when
you go to Staples Center, in the whole history of

(23:27):
the Clippers, meaning the Buffalo Braves moving to San Diego
and from that moment until today, Ralph Lawler up until
he retired a year ago, was the announcer for all
of those years. And he the Vince Scully, the Johnny
most of Boston. Uh so many years and the Clippers,

(23:51):
as you will know, do not have one banner for
anybody or anything up there. Well, listen, Clippers don't need banners.
They've got memories. You don't need banners. Right then banners
get dusty and all that. And then when they build
that new arena which they're building right now in the
hood in Inglewood, the Taijmal Hall of the NBA, which

(24:13):
they're building, hopefully by then when it's open, people actually
be able to go to the games again. But when
they open that arena, I'm guessing Ralph's getting a statue,
right will that have been too far away from him
calling the games? Because Chick Current has a statue, Bob
Miller has one in l A. I mean, I'm not
a big statue guy, but if you're gonna give someone
from the Clipper past a statue, if you're if you're

(24:35):
gonna get into the statue game, Ralph Lawler would have
to be there, and they what they should do, and
I say this with the greatest amount of respect, Uley,
is what they should do with the Ralph statue is
have him with his microphone and they can have like
a piece of paper with one of his end of
the year monologues on it where the future is bright

(24:57):
for the Clippers. Don't though there was such a with
such a Homer that the Clippers would win fifteen to
twenty games every single year. You win twenty games, you
lose sixty two. So that's how bad the Clippers work
for so many of these years at the Sports Arena,

(25:18):
and he would always, always, and we would laugh about
it at the end of the season, give his prediction
for next year to wrap up the final game of
the year. I like these Clippers. They have the number
one draft choice coming up in May or June or
whatever it would be, and they have the nucleus with
whether it with Bill Fitch or Geene Shoe, whoever the

(25:39):
coach was, and the future looks awfully right for this
young team. I like, what's coming next year? And get
your tickets now season tickets are available. Yeah. And then
it was always like they'll have a new or like
they'll have a new coach, they'll make some trades and
they have a draft pick. Things are looking up. You
know that that same raw it was great and he

(26:00):
had it down. He hit it down to a science.
Ralph had it down to a science. By the end
of that he is deserving of a microphone batterer or
of a statue. And and it won't be at Staples Center,
because as you mentioned, the Clippers will be moving to
a new arena whenever that's completed. That that arena will
be located right next to where the Rams new football

(26:21):
field is, and so it'll be a sports conglomerate sort
of like what what was years ago the racetrack in
the forum, next to each other at that time. But
in all honesty, you and I both love Ralph very much.
I know you do. He was always good and kind

(26:41):
to us, and he was always a homer, and he
was a prankster, and he's yet to pay off his debt.
And as long as we both all of us live,
and Ralph lives a long life, I will always remind
him of that. Yeah, And I remember the last when
they when he was retiring and they had that Gallas
ceremony and we went over and snap some photos and
all that we we brought. You brought that up. You

(27:04):
made sure to bring that up there. And and I
also remember that you were so bad. You're very One
of your skills that you're not good at is taking photos.
Remember I had to we had to redo the photo
because I had to take a photo of me and Ralph,
and then the angle was not the greatest angle there.
Have you worked on that? By the way, have you
worked on your camera camera skills? Have you know? If

(27:26):
you were here, I'd punch in the nose. You know,
people tell everybody how tall you are. I'm like five ten,
you know something like that. Come on, um, six five
six six? If I stand up with good a gust
or something like that, all imagine with your cell phone
taking a photo and you gotta stand close and he's

(27:50):
six ft five and the other person is five ft ten.
You gotta go back. You gotta keep on going back
to get him to get then in the entire photo
from his shoes to the top of his head. If
I went any further back, I'd be out of Staples Center.
So I had to take the best that I possibly could,
chopping off as little as I could to take this photo.

(28:12):
And this man is criticizing me for doing this. Please,
why don't you take a selfie? Moron? Do you just
have two faces? Wow? Does the defense rest nally? You
have no further questions your honor? Okay? All right? Do
you want to you want to call in any expert
witnesses or anything like that. Yeah, I don't need forensics.

(28:34):
It's okay, all right, very very good. Now, since there's
a theme here, we're doing the Clippers and one of
the all time iconic names of the Clippers. This is
before my time a little bit. I was just a
fan when he played Benoit Benjamin ben Wab Benjamin and
we we had no I I dealt with Benoit a little,

(28:56):
but he was still in the NBA when I started
in the media business, but he was not with the
Clippers and anymore. But we we have some legendary uh
confrontations and run ins with Benoit. I think the first
time we had on the podcast you I think we
touched on I don't remember, but the the I'm almost
positive we did. But the interaction with you and Benoit,

(29:19):
he had hired Don King as his agent. He was
actually out of the NBA for a little bit and
in Europe. He played in Europe at that time. Yeah.
And the legendary story that one of the great Lead
Klein stories of all time is when you asked Benoit
Benjamin a question about life in Europe, but Benoit gave

(29:40):
you one of the great answers of all time. Um,
I noticed that he was there. I hadn't seen him
in years. Uh. And by the way, if you were
talking about Michael Olo and Candy as the number one
draft pick of um, if there was anybody on the
Clippers as a center could make Bennoy Benjamin look like

(30:02):
an All Star Hall of Famer, it was Michael Old
or Candy, isn't it. Oh? Yeah, well yeah Old Candy
was a total stipp and he was the third pick
in the draft. Uh right, you know if you play
that game, that was the car. They could have had
Carl Malone or Joe Dumars, there's somebody like that, and

(30:22):
they picked Annoyit Benjamin, the pride of Creton. But so
you you asked. You asked Annoy It about where you
know he had been in Europe and all that, and
he gave me. I asked him, wait, wait, hold on.
The first thing I said was hello. He recognized me,
and he was with his wife. Now here's a guy
that's seven ft one or seven ft two, and his
wife was about five ft one and nice lady, okay,

(30:45):
and there's a little crowd around us, and he sees me.
I see him. I walked over. I shook his hand.
And where you've been, Bennoit? Uh? Europe. You've been playing
in Europe? Yeah? Where did you play? Uh? I was
playing in Europe? No? No know? Where were you playing
in Europe? All over? No? No, no, name some cities

(31:05):
that you played in. Okay, That's how it got this way.
And when I asked them to name some cities, this
is the reply. First off, the cities Germany, Spain, countries,
not even cities. Right, So I decided to abandon that
avenue of conversation immediately right. And then out of the

(31:29):
clear blue he looks at me and he says, do
you know any NBA team that's looking for a center? Okay?
And I'm thinking, huh what? And I immediately dashed over
to where you were and I begged you whoever you
were talking to come with me, come with me, and

(31:50):
I slept you by the by the arm to run
over to Bennoit. And then I said to Bennoy Benoit,
this is Ben Mallor hello, Hello. Asked him the same
question you asked me, and he says, do you know
any NBA team center? So we became at that moment

(32:11):
his agent for looking for any team that needed not
just the center, but Bennoy Benjamin, who had been out
of the NBA for at least two or more years,
not a celebrity star, to say the least, looking at
us to get him a job. I was outstanding. We
became scouts. We were NBA scouts at that momently. We

(32:32):
were scouts. We were trying to figure out where to
put Benoit. And so when people say, hey, you know,
I give advice, they ripped me. You're giving advice to
these NBA teams. I've had NBA players ask for advice
and you're a witness to it. I'm glad. I'm glad
you told me that. Sorry. The other Benoit story that
I wanted to mention for the purposes of this podcast
was when he was briefly with the Vancouver Grizzlies. The

(32:56):
Clippers in those days were playing. They played a few
games at the Pond in Anaheim, which has a different
corporate name now but where the Mighty Ducks play, and
the Clippers were trying to get a fan base. They
were trying to cultivate a fan base in Orange County,
so that's not really the story. They played in Orange County.
I'm an Orange County guy, so I always made sure
to go to those games, and I had to do
anyway for work, and so it had been a tradition.

(33:21):
Bennoy played with the Clippers until like the early nineties,
like the beginning of the nineties, and every time he
came back, he played like another ten years off and on.
But every time he came back to the Sports Arena
or played the Clippers, the few Clipper loyal loyal fans
that they had would always boo Benoy. So tradition. And

(33:41):
so I was covering a game he was playing for
the Vancouver Grizzlies at the time. I don't think he
played very long for the Vancouver Grizzlies. And remember, but
he played in Vancouver. They were playing the Clippers in Anaheim,
and it might have even been an exhibition game. I
don't recall. It was. No, this was a real game.
This was not the next Hibision game. This is a

(34:03):
regular scheduled game that went from the Sports Arena because
they would play about eight games a year, which is
now called the Honda Center as their home court. Because
Darnald Sterling was thinking maybe maybe we can move to
the pond and get out of the Sports Arena, so
that he was testing the waters and for two years
they played almost every team in the West one game

(34:28):
at at the what is now the Honda Center and
down in Anaheim. So that was the regular season game,
all right, So it's a regular season games. Fine, So
they're playing Vancouver, and I think Vancouver like Byron Scott
or something this it was a weird hodgepodge Vancouver team.
Uh that that might have been the either the expansion
year or right after. But anyway, so Benoit's there and
we had the idea. You know, we knew Benoit was

(34:50):
gonna get boots, so I was trying to get some
sound of what Benoit thought about being booed before he
actually got booed. So we went in the locker room.
I was Dave l a San Diego radio legend, Dave
Palay who does his own podcast, and so we went
in to interview Benoit and asked him, you know, what's it.

(35:10):
I forget exactly what the question was. It was something like,
you know, can you believe after all these years, the
fans are still you know, still booing you every time
you play the Clippers something along those lines. I didn't
phrase it exactly like that, but something along those lines.
And Benoit the two things I remember is He started
out fine, but he was chewing gum, and no one

(35:31):
choose gum quite like Benoit. Benjamin, right, I mean this
guy should he should teach him masterclass on how to
chew bubble gum. Uh, just very in your face, like
just the oh my. Anyway, so he was doing that
and he started out fine. You know, he gave some
as I remember the answer, we have the audio I
have been on a cassette tape somewhere. But Benoit started out, okay.

(35:55):
You know that he's had a career. You know he's
okay with that. You know, fans can do what they want.
And as he starts giving the answer, he starts working
himself into a lather, getting upset with people bulling him.
And then he remember the body language. He starts punching
his fist into his hand. He takes his right fist.

(36:16):
I don't know if you can hear that. He starts
punching his hand, and then he gave one of the
great great speeches. At the end of that, he said,
I will take on anyone on any court in the
United States or Canada, and I'll kick their ass. Uh.
And I'm paraphrasing, obviously, but but he went on this

(36:37):
legendary rant and it was it was hilarious and I ran,
I remember running, I said, And I was big, fat guy,
couldn't run that fast. But I had to play the
tape for you. I had to play the audio for
you lead because it was an amazing clip. You are
absolutely correct. He also he also mentioned in that because
you came running out just as you said, I was

(36:58):
standing near the locker room. He ran right over to
me like whoa, like overwhelmingly running right at me, and
then hear this. You gotta hear this, you know. And
you played the tape for me. And in that tape
when he was pounding his fist, I'll take on the fans.
He also mentioned, I'll take on the media. Yeah, that's right.
I forgot about that, oh man. That as I was saying, hey,

(37:20):
I looked it up. That was the nineteen nine five
Vancouver Grizzlies. You want to take again. How many players
can you name in the nineteen Vancouver Grizzlies. Probably none,
I would say zero. It wasn't that long after that
they wound up moving to Memphis, right, Uh they had Well, yeah,
they're only in Vancouver for a couple years. They had
the great Blue Edwards, remember him from the Utah Jazz.

(37:43):
He was on the team. Greg Anthony, who was kid
Cole Anthony was just drafted by the Orlando Magic this week.
He was on that team. Derrick Martin, our buddy Derrick Martin,
who was played with the Clippers later on Big Country.
Bryant Reeves. Uh, he was on my add the team
I haven't heard in twenty five years. He was a rookie.

(38:04):
Byron Scott was on that team at the end of
his career. Gerald Wilkins. Remember he was a pretty good player,
Gerald Wilkins. He had a long career, Yes he did.
He was the brother of Dominique, right, I think direct. Yeah,
he had a good career. There you go, boy, This
podcast is reaching a new lowly We're doing We're doing
Vancouver Grizzly. All right, well, all right, so let's let

(38:27):
me switch this up. Maybe you do not remember this
because I've never talked to you about this. You and
I have seen hundreds upon hundreds of games together at
Dodger Stadium, the Angel games, Laker games, Clipper games. It
surpasses well into the hundreds together. Yeah, therewith Also, if

(38:49):
you remember during that great run of USC between two
thousand two and two thousand nine. We used to go
to the USC games on a Saturday, you remember, yes,
every Saturday for years when they were bad, when I
started going, and then we were fortunate enough to go
during the glory days of Pete Carroll and how when

(39:10):
they were wonderful and they were like an NFL team
for a couple of years. Well, there's two stories in particular.
One of them you may not remember, the other one
you will. The first one is, in order to get
uh a press pass, you had to call the athletic
office in order for them to send it to you, remember, yes,

(39:33):
and you would get and you would get it usually
in the mail or something of that nature. They sent
it to the radio station and you somehow wangled that.
You always got a parking pass along with your press
pass to get into the game. I was at that time.
I never got a I got a press pass, but
I never got the car pass. So there were games

(39:53):
where we were actually together in the same car going
to the coliseum. In one particular killer instance, for some reason,
I did not get my media pass to get into
the game. But that didn't stop me because I was
told that they had either forgotten but it's okay to
come or whatever. So I do not have a pass,

(40:15):
but then has a pass and a parking pass. So
we parked our car, and at that time they had
the beginning of that underground parking where they first opened up.
So we parked the car. We walked all the way around,
halfway around the Coliseu and to go where the press
entrance is. And you were the only one who had
a big red pass at this big thing. And I
was at that time smoking cigarettes, so I had an

(40:39):
empty Marlborough box, not the pack, but a box. And
I said to you, because you had to take the
elevator all the way to the top, and we're standing
by the elevator and you can't get into the elevator
without a pass. So Ben could go in and I couldn't.
So I said to Ben, when you get up stairs,

(41:00):
walk over to the edge above and put your pass
into the Marlboro box and throw it all the way
down to me. I'll go in. Now. The press box
at the Colisseum is at the very very top of
the Colisseum, so when you walk out the side door
of the press box, you are above every fan in

(41:24):
the colisseum. There is no place to stand higher than
where you are. There's nobody that is above you, and
there is a cement wall at the tippy top of
the Colisseum. I'm way down there, you know, twenty yards
away at least thirty yards away down below. And then

(41:45):
did what he did. He folded in half, stuffed it
into the Marlborough box and tossed the Marlborough box down
and it landed between on the ground. It landed between
the colisseum cement down at the bottom and a row
of hedges. I had to go through hedges that had
no cut through to bend over and pick it up,

(42:09):
and I finally went in and then held up. Other
than watching the game at that type with binoculars in
the press box, the main reason we both went was
what did they serve in those days? Oh yeah, yeah,
Well I until you had just mentioned that story, I
wanna begin by saying I didn't even remember it, But
then you started talking about it, and I do remember.

(42:31):
I remember that. I remember also having to like pick
you up at some shady parking lot in the wrong
part of town to go. We'd leave your car and
then we drive in car pool into the colisseum and
uh and all that. But yeah, in those days, and
they don't do this anymore now they give you like
a turkey sandwich and an apple. But in the old days,
they had a chef like you'd see it a find

(42:54):
like a lowry steak place with one of those chef
hats on and a big carving life. And they had
one side. They had prime rib and they had turkey,
and it was amazing. It was just the most amazing
and the media would just go out like us just
to eat. The team wasn't that good. They had been
good before, but they were kind of going through a

(43:14):
lull and so, oh my god, that was amazing and
I was that was my big eating days only. I
love that. That was It's great, wonderful and they and
they had better than Dodger Stadium Dodger dogs. They had
great hot dogs at half time too. Yeah, well, we
could do all different. We'll have to have you back
another time, Leader, just to talk about the food that

(43:35):
we consumed, the massive amount of foot But you never
gained weight. You're very You've always been pretty lean. And
I'm the one that gained the weight eating all the food.
So you survived not being able to gain weight, which
what is your secret? Is it your genetics? I mean,
because you didn't really gain any weight despite eating the
same crap. I ate a little more than you, but
you still ate a lot of bad food those days.
I would say, I credit all right, now, last thing

(44:00):
here ly, and then we'll let you out of here.
Will It will free you from the shackles of the podcast. No, no,
I got one, and then and then you'll go the
last one. Another instance, another instance. You know how crowded
it was in those days when they got good that
these games started thanks to ABC either at four thirty

(44:21):
five o'clock twelve thirty, that they arranged the times because
USC was number one in the nation, they would always
have them televised on ABC National Television and television controls
to start time, there's this afternoon game and the traffic
it's so horrible around the coliseum. It's downtown, just a

(44:44):
little south of downtown Los Angeles. It is horrendous, and
so you have to follow what the police are directing
traffic in the handful of streets in order for you
to find a parking spot. Do you remember the time
where the top and It wasn't a real cop. It
was just somebody that was hired to direct traffic. I
asked you to pull forward, but you couldn't pull any

(45:06):
forward because you were gridlock crossing over figure oh and
to go into the tunnel to the parking and couldn't move.
The lights have changed and you're in the middle blocking
gridlocking traffic going north south because you're facing east west
right in the middle of the street. Remember that, I do,
And you remember what was said to me after that?

(45:28):
You remember what was said as I recall, as they
they asked me to block the intersection, and then, as
I remember, didn't they get upset with me for blocking
the intersection? They were yelling at you. It was it
was a female and she was yelling at you because
you were driving and she was on your side, and
I yelled at her, how stupid she is. You're blocking traffic.
Why did you pull us forward? Because she was blaming

(45:51):
you for blocking traffic, although she's the one who puts
you there. I know. It was outstanding in competence. It
was outstanding and comf well. And you let me say
I got not only did you get me in trouble.
The late Alex Russo. My my guy, Alex double overtime Alex.
He got me in trouble too. I was driving him
to a game one time and the same thing happened.
We got stuck. They wouldn't let us enter where we

(46:11):
needed to enter. There was like one spot we could
enter into the parking lot. They wouldn't let us. It
was blocked off. So we kept driving in circles and uh.
And then finally Alex the like the fourth time we
drove around the block trying to get in where we
need to go. Uh. He He then rolled down the
window and started yelling at the traffic cop that and
then and I'm like, Alex, they have my license play

(46:32):
what are you doing you? I said the same thing
to you too, by the way, But anyway, my last
story here. And I told this story on the air
last week on the podcast. I ranted about it and
I you were there, you were part of this. It
was one of the great nights. It's it's in the
top five nights I've had dealing with somebody in sports.

(46:52):
We had dinner with Tommy Heinson, who just passed away recently.
The Great, the Great, the New Year's Eve. Yeah, it
was New Year's even and you were at the table
and and UH and Tommy just started regaling us with
these amazing stories that we had not heard before about
the early days in Boston. And it was an awesome

(47:16):
conversation and one of the all time greats. Tommy had
so much personality and he just kind of started casually.
And my favorite part of that. There were a couple
of parts. I mentioned it on the on the podcast
last week. Remember when he said that pat Riley ripped
off what the Celtics had done when he came to
the Lakers and was coaching the Lakers and all that.
I think that Tommy Hinson, for those that don't know

(47:38):
who he was, he did pass away about a week
or so an NBA Hall of Fame seven or eight
rings because he played with Bill Russell, and that incredibly
great when they won uh ten of eleven championships, ten
out of eleven years, ten championships. Uh a broadcaster back
in New England for the Celtics color man for years.

(48:01):
You and I both knew he hated the referees, didn't he?
Oh yeah, yeah, it was. It was. It was legendary
his rants about the referees on he did he put
on TV. But who he was. I grew up knowing
who he was as a great basketball player. And there
we are on New Year's He's sitting down Ben and

(48:21):
I and maybe two other people and Tommy Heinson had
the chair. He was talking to us for almost an hour.
Remember what he said about Walter McCarty. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
I think it said it last week. But he he
was so excited because they actually the Celtics at that time,
we're pretty dull and they were a boring team, and
that Walter was actually one of the guys that I

(48:41):
think he said something I'm paraphrasing that he moved around
and the other guys just stood around, right, There's something
like that along those lines. And Walter had just been
uh put on the roster of the Clippers as a
bench player. Yeah, he was at the end of his
career and he wasn't it wasn't exactly playing much at all.

(49:03):
But yeah, that was that was anyway, Remember he told
the story. I feel exactly what he had said Tommy
about trying to get people in Boston and New England
to play basketball, and it was had some issues. They're
trying to get basketball to become a popular sport. This
is back in his early days with the the Celtics
and Red ar back and all that, But it was
it was a great night. Do you have anything to promotely?

(49:24):
Do you have a book, do you have a podcast?
You have anything you would like to promote? Would you
like to promote where you're going to be having a lunch.
I'm in the middle. I'm in the middle of writing
a book called this is not a book I am doing.
You know me personally, what's going on in my life
which I don't want to discuss, which is not negative,

(49:46):
awaiting the arrival and not and not necessarily of a child.
There's a great mit, It's a great mitch. Yes, if
I was awaiting the arrival of a child, I would
congratulate myself at my age being able to even do that.
But nevertheless, I'm making the days under COVID go by

(50:07):
as quickly as possible. Um. I do know that there
are so many stories that you and I haven't even
discussed or remembered one by one. When you did the
remote from from the from from Sprint in Santa Monica,
that's one. I mean, I don't want to go on
with there's another podcast in the future that we can

(50:28):
discuss other things with. Uh. We we had on the Clippers,
but we haven't even touched the Dodgers. We haven't touched
about Matt Williams. Do I have to Yeah, Yeah, we
have another. We've had so many lock I've had with you,
locker room confrontations with old athletes. We could do, We'll do.
We'll have you on again. You'll be a rotating guestly,
so I'd like you to have not that we pay

(50:50):
you and that that you're gonna make get any money
out of this, but but we do thank you, and
you want to give out your email. I people want
to contact you. Leave some of the old time listeners
from back in the day who are finding this well.
I want to thank the people that listen to your podcast.
I know there's quite a few. I've listened to them myself.
And when I gave out my email address about two
months ago when we did our last one, I actually

(51:10):
got two people, two people that emailed me. So if
those that remember me from either from being doing my
regular sports show for three hours a night in Los
Angeles for a million years, or from the Clippers or
anything that nature You can get a hold of me
by just emailing me at clippers Man that's plural, clippers
man at yahoo dot com and I'll be more than

(51:33):
happy to answer you. So I appreciate you asked me
for that, and and and how's everything in your life going. Oh,
I'm doing podcasting. I'm at the top of my life now.
Everything's good, everything's we'll catch up. Thank you, We appreciate it.
You stay well, stay healthy, and say hello to your
wife and family for me.
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Host

Ben Maller

Ben Maller

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