October 20, 2022 • 33 mins
On this week’s episode KJ and Milwaukee Bucks play-by-play announcer Lisa Byington discuss her journey as a two-sport athlete at Northwestern University, to becoming the first full time female play-by-play announcer in NBA history. Lisa gives her thoughts on the Bucks chances this season, the greatness of Giannis Antetokounmpo, and sound advice for aspiring sports media professionals. Fantastic conversation with one of the best in the business. #allball
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is kJ Live with Chris john Sallie and Chris
is having conversations with influencers in the sports world and
entertainment in a strain. Now here's Chris Johnson. You're now
found in to kJ Live. Today's guests on the show.
(00:23):
He's a play by play announcement, studio hosts and future
producer reporter. She has broadcast games with Fox Sports, f
S One, ESPN, Turner Sports, CBS, and the SEC Network,
just to name a few. She's a trailblazer in the
field of broadcasting and in one she was named the
first full time female played by play announcer in the
NBA by the Milwaukee Bucks. Let's welcome in, Lisa Buyington
(00:47):
into the building. Lisa, how are you good? Chris, I'm
here a little bit of your dad. Boy. That's that's
a compliment too, election, the pauses, the the pace of
your speech. I love it. I feel like I'm talking
to a younger m J. Which, by the way, I
always want to ask one of his partners, how is
(01:09):
it working with my dad? Shout out to my dad.
He hooked this up side. We got to talk about
markets for a second. How what how is it working?
With my dad, Lisa. I love it. Um, you know,
he's part Hollywood, part Hall of Hall of Famer. I
always feel like he should go into the Hall of
Fame eventually and be a people take no please. Um.
You know that's another maybe that's another podcast for another day.
(01:32):
But you know, Marcus Johnson provides um, what I call
is very unique in an analyst. You know, and whatever
sport you're doing, you know, a lot of people are
either heavy on the excess and nose or heavy on
the entertainment. And there are very few that can bounce
between both, you know, and and teach the game and
be heavy on the excess and os but also be
(01:54):
fun and entertaining. And Marcus Johnson is the unique individual
that can nay it through both worlds and he and
I consider myself a basketball person. I played in college
and and watched it my whole life. My dad was
my high school coach, so I'm not It's not like
I know everything about basketball, but when when you grow
up playing and watching the sport, you know, you notice
(02:16):
things beyond the obvious. And he has just a level
of observations that even teaches the basketball person something about basketball.
So I love yeah, I love to call my dad
your favorite basketball players favorite basketball player. I saw because
I read somewhere or I heard you talk about you
your love from Michael Jordan's growing up and I'm not
(02:39):
sure if you're familiar, but Michael Jordan had MJ had
MJ's poster. That's my claim to favor your favorite basketball
player's favorite basketball player, that's my dad. But talk about
talking about your beginnings, the foundation for you. You turned
into this amazing broadcaster, but you have an athletic back around.
(03:00):
I kind of wanted to touch on that and just
get an understanding of when you know, what what sports
did you play and what got you into athletics so heavy,
you know, I love it. The fact that my mom
and dad they weren't they weren't the parents Chris who
made me specialized. I think too many you know, kids
growing up these days now like they just specialized in
(03:20):
the one sport. And thankfully I didn't grow up in
a household that was like that. So you asked what
sports I played, It was everything from swimming to tennis,
to soccer, to basketball to the softball. Um. They even
have me do some dance and gymnastics, you know, and so, um,
what they did is they let me, as I got
older than than Lisa got to choose what she wanted
(03:42):
to do. You know, So I I gravitated more towards
basketball and soccer. Um, and that's what I eventually played
in high school, and that's eventually what I played at
Northwestern University. I was four years of basketball and two
years of soccer. But the fact that they let me
experience a lot of things, and then on top of that,
the fact that they let me choose is really really valuable,
(04:03):
I think to my growth and just the versatility I
like to I still to this day, like to do
a little bit of everything. Were you a PG, you know,
I joke with not basketball people, so that would not
be you. But I try to joke with people that
I was at five, that I was a center and
had matt hops. But if you've seen me in person,
you know I'm I was listed at five six. I'm
(04:26):
probably more like five four or five five now, But
being a center is a little bit of a stretch.
So yes, I was a point guard, okay, okay, and
I played center. Believe it or not, I'm only six five,
But I got signed to U C l a as
a center six pounds center, so I understand what that's like.
And then in soccer, you were a striker or center
(04:46):
mid or Yeah. I was the Prima Donna forward. I
was just like sending to the corner flag. I'm gonna
chase it down, you know, I want all the glory,
all the goals. Yeah, I feel you, feel you, Yeah,
that's what I was. The soccer. Yeah. I always wanted
to play soccer. I just wasn't quite fast enough to
do it. I loved the game. I love to watch it.
(05:08):
Spent some time in Italy with my dad kind of
fell in love with soccer and that whole culture over there. Um,
while you were at Northwestern, was that when you first
rich is a renowned school for broadcasting and journalism. Was
that when you first got the bug to be in
front of the camera or a broadcast journalist. Well? I
always thought I was gonna be playing sports for the
(05:28):
rest of my life, you know. I had this ocean
that I was good enough, I was gonna play professionally
and find something, you know. But I realized actually in
college that I became the backup point guard for my team.
So I realized that I probably wasn't gonna be able
to play sports for the rest of my life. So
I started to kind of look at real people jobs
and realizing I didn't want the real people job that
(05:50):
had to sit at the desk in the corner office
and and and stare at a computer all the time.
If I was gonna stare at a computer, I wanted
to be like prepping for sports, and so I wanted
to find in a way. I love sports so much.
I talked about how my parents letting me play sports
as a little kid, and a lot of different things.
So I was so I was just thinking, you know what,
I don't want to get rid of that. So I
actually was deciding between becoming a basketball coach um and
(06:13):
becoming a journalist. And I didn't know if I wanted
to be a print journalist and at the time when
newspapers are a little bit more popular, being magazine or
newspaper which would eventually translate to being just an online
reporter that we have now, or if I wanted to
go into TV and so. But McDill School Journalism is
what I unbiasedly or maybe more biasedly, like to consider
(06:35):
as one of the best journalism schools in the country
at Northwestern, thank you, thank you, And so it was
it was really easy to give schooling, the edgication, the opportunities,
(06:57):
the networking. Someone right, Musburgers another Northwestern grad um. So
we like to go to Northwestern Syracuse. You know, we
have our we have our lums, we have our prestige
and tradition, and we like to kind of compare the
journalism schools between the two schools. But it was easy
to do once I once I hopped into that. Yeah, no, um.
I when I was at U c l A, which
(07:18):
isn't as famous for its broadcasting as Northwestern, but it
has produced some pretty solid individuals in front of the camera.
I kind of, you know, I was playing ball on
the team we had won an extra championship, but I
was also focused on kind of, you know, earning my
chops a little bit. I took drama, you know, I
took a couple of classes to learn how to do
stuff in front of the camera, behind the camera. I
(07:40):
took a journalism course. I kind of just at the time,
I was just thinking to myself, you know, hey, you're
at U c l A, You're in l A. You
might as well because this is the type of town
that if you got a little a little bit of
you know, anything, experiencing anything, that you might get a
shot and doing something. But which leads me to my
question about your first shot, when you first got your
first geek um working for a station or a newspaper,
(08:03):
wherever it was, where was it, how old were you,
and talked to me about that experience. I would love
to because there's nothing really the write home about, because
it's it's the It was the second smallest TV market
in the country. And it was all the way up
in Alpina, Michigan. So people who aren't familiar with Michigan,
and actually even people who are familiar with Michigan have
no idea where Alpino, Michigan is. So it's up north.
(08:26):
It's about forty five minutes south of mcinal bridge. I
think some people have heard of that, and in the
Upper Peninsula, so it's it's just really really far up north.
And when I say it was the second smallest market
in the country, for people who don't know market size
in the top of the market is based on populations
New York, in l A and Chicago. It is kind
(08:47):
of your one, two, and three biggest markets. Alpina, Michigan
was sitting I think at like two eleven and they
stopped counting at tot and uh, you know, I mean
it's it was right above Glenn Dive, Montana. I looked
on the list to see where is alf Alpina isn't
the smallest TV market? What is the smallest TV market?
(09:08):
And the answer was Glenn Dive, Montana. But I loved it, Chris,
because I got to do a little bit of everything.
And you know, it very much was a grunt work
kind of job. You know, you're you're working twelve to
fourteen hours because you have to do everything. You are
your own camera person, you are your own editor, you
are your own producer, You're your own reporter and anchor
(09:30):
makeup person. You know you you name it. Um. I
remember several Friday nights where we would hop in a
car and we would do this high school football show.
And we would hop in a car and drive from
high school to high school. And you had to pick
up a camera and you put it on your shoulder
back when you know, the cameras are bigger right back then,
and um, and so you shoot your own high school
football highlights. You get to the three or four high schools.
(09:53):
You come back to the station, you edit your own stuff.
You're looking You're like, okay, I gotta make the eleven
o'clock news. So so it's like ten forty five. You
got a race into the bathroom and change because you
were in sweats and James, because you were just shooting
your own highlights right and you running there, and you
do your hair and makeup, you try to look presentable,
and then you do the uh whatever it was twenty
minute a half hour high school football show, and then
(10:16):
you rinse and repeat and you do it again. And
I got to cover things like the brown Trout Festival
Alpino Community College. They were the Lumberjacks. That was I think, uh,
you know, like twenty different high schools and stuff, and
so like outdoor sports, you know, snowmobil and all that.
So things that nontraditional sports that I would never get
(10:36):
a chance to do now. And and I really got
my foot in the door, which was the message that
people gave me, Lisa. It's not where you start, it's
where you finish. You just need a chance. You just
need your foot in the door, and then work hard
and treat people the right way and you'll carve your
own path eventually. No, that's amazing. I mean there's a
lot to be said for how people start in the surroundings,
(10:56):
the atmosphere and sort of you know what's presented in
front of them. So you had to do a bunch
of stuff on your own, and that taught you a
skill set that's probably invaluable to you today. I mean
it makes a lot of things a lot easier. You're
probably easy to work with because you understand the makeup person,
you understand the camera. I mean, you understand everybody. So
you're probably easy to work with. I have to ask
folks about that. No, I'm just joking. But um, and
(11:18):
that's but that's that's dope. You're listening to Fox Sports. Um,
I love the small town story. It's always ironic to
me how so many of the biggest stories, some of
our big stories, and our big stars and people that
have accomplished come from smallest towns and humble beginnings. There's
definitely something to be said for that. Lisa. In two
thousand and seventeen, you became the first female full time
(11:40):
play by play UM announcer in for the Big Ten
Network College football talk about that experience, and I wanted
to know, do you get into sort of the thing
about being the first female in you know, in the
field of sports doing something, or do you care about
that or is this something that you wear with a
badge of honor. It's a great question, Chris. I understand
(12:05):
why people talk about it. I understand why it's a headline.
Anytime that nothing has been done before, it makes news.
Me personally, when I say this, I don't embrace, not,
you know, embrace being a role model. Let me get
that out of the way. But what I don't embrace
are those adjectives first and female, because I don't look
(12:25):
at myself in that way. I look at myself as
just an announcer. I mean, you know, when I sit
next to your dad and I'm about to call it
Bucks basketball game and I put on the headset, I'm
not thinking I'm a female announcer. I'm I'm putting on
a headset thinking I'm an announcer, and I'm an NBA announcer,
and I'm thinking about what our storylines are. I'm thinking
about matchups. I'm thinking about what Janice is going to
(12:47):
do that night, you know, and so it's it's the
furthest thing from my mind. But in two thousand seventeen
and that opportunity that you reference with football, it was
it was really the first time that I got a
feeling of maybe the implications. I don't want to say heaviness,
because I didn't. I didn't feel like overloaded by it.
(13:08):
But I felt the attention, and I felt a little
bit more of the pressure. And what I really wanted
to do was to be good enough that people would
continue to hire women in some of those positions. And
I've always said this, Chris, is that I cannot wait
when you know, first of all, we lose those adjectives
(13:28):
first and female. But when we watch a sportscast and
and we're listening, and we're watching, and we're not paying
attention to the gender of the announcers, and I do
it too. You know, if I'm if I'm listening to
a men's game, whether it's in basketball or football, baseball, soccer,
you name it, and I hear a female announcer on it,
I stop when I'm doing and I literally try to
(13:50):
figure out who's who's the woman doing this game? And
I think it happens across the country and many different households.
But you know, eventually, um, you know, maybe a female
voice can be back noise on a men's game and
and that's that's that's my dream. You know that that
someday that happens. Is that we're sitting here and we're
(14:11):
doing work, we're on our phone, you know, looking at something.
We got a game out of the background, and it
doesn't make we have a female voice doing an NBA
game or a college football game, and you know what,
we don't not trying to figure out who that female
announcer is doing that game. Yeah that that hopefully we'll
get to that place sooner than later. Um. But I
(14:32):
do enjoy the background noise at times when when that
that that that you reference, because when you hear a
woman calling the game, there's always a perspective that you're
you're introduced to, so you're getting a perspective that it's shared,
but it's also it's a different perspective. There's a little
nuances in there, and so I enjoy it. Um. I
(14:55):
just know that our culture is a little weird about it,
and I'm sure that I saw you talk about it
a little bit. Some of the things social media that
take place where there's really no place for where people
are saying you know things. But just so you know,
we love hearing you. We love your voice, we love
your insight and knowledge, especially the knowledge of the game.
That's the part that I think that is the most
impressive thing about it. It's the knowledge of the game.
(15:16):
And it's like it's like Doors does the same thing
Doors Burke. When you listen to Doors, it's like, Okay, boom,
you know, and you all you almost enjoy some of
some of the takes a little bit more than some
of the dudes. But that's another podcast. UM. Yeah, I've
heard you talk about stuff. You said this many times,
um or not many times, but you've referenced this this phrase.
(15:38):
You said, you gotta do the grunt job to get
the glory job. I want you to expand on that
and just kind of talk about what that means because
that kind of resonated with me when when I heard
it the first time. M Well, it goes back to
my first job. You know, I was making four team
when an Alpina Michigan. Chris and we talked about that job,
and I was making fourteen thousand dollars a year and working,
(16:00):
you know, twelve to fourteen hours a day, and I
loved it. And and that's when I realized I was
doing the right thing, because I wasn't counting the dollars
in in my bank account, which wasn't very many, so
we wouldn't have taked long to do that. Uh, you know,
I wasn't paying attention to my watch and how many
um hours I was lying because I just enjoyed the work.
(16:21):
And you know, I didn't just roll out of bed
yesterday and say, you know what, I think would be
really cool to be an NBA play by play announcer today,
or you know, like you know, brushing my teeth in
the morning and say, you know what I want to do,
and I want to call the Olympics or the World
Cup or n C Double a tournament. And I think
we fall into that trap where we meet someone, you know,
(16:45):
and the person standing in front of us. We forget
that there's so much work that goes into the person
you're standing in front of us, and and and so
many curdles and and so many mountains to climb and
and we all have them. And you know, when I
say grunt took glory a job, I'm talking about that journey.
And sometimes the space between grunt job and glory job
(17:07):
could be a month or five months, sometimes it could
be a year. Um there's a story where for me
that space in between grunt job and glory job was
ten years and and and my grunt job with Alpina Michigan,
and my glory job at the time was to be
a sideline reporter for the men's at c Double, a
tournament for CBS and Turner. And when I made my
(17:29):
first ask it was in um it was in two
thousand and seven. And then when I finally got the
first offer from CBS and Turner, it was two thousand seventeen.
And I asked every single year Chris, and I got
a no no no no year one year, two, year,
three or four or five, six seventy, I mean all
the way to year ten. The irony of that is
(17:51):
I didn't even ask in your tent. I had given
up because I had thought, you know what, I'm good,
I'm getting some good opportunities. But that's my point is
that I think everyone should appreciate the journey that each
person goes on, and we all have a job if
we can yes, M M. How do you stay locked
(18:21):
in through all the nose, Lisa, how did you stay focused,
you know, on on continuing to knock on those doors
year after year? They tell you know, what drove you,
what motivated you? Inspired you to keep trying? I think
that's an athlete in me, quite honestly, you know, like
it's it's the stubborn little you know, blonde point guard
(18:44):
who's trying to, you know, work her way through a
game and trying to figure out everything. And and that
was me. You know, I'm a stubborn person. I'm a
determined person. And um, I decided to not get better.
I decided to get better. And it's one of the
hardest lessons that you can learn. But as a as
a former athlete, you learn to be coached, right. You
(19:06):
learn to be told you're not good enough here, you
need to improve here. And it's probably one of the
everyone asks, like, well, what's the value of translating your
athletic background to your professional background? Is I want to
know where I need to improve on. I want to
know where I could get better. Um, sometimes I want
you to tell me no that yet you know, and
(19:26):
and then I'll figure out how to get to that point.
And so those are the lessons that you learn. You
don't get better, you get better, and you might not
always agree with the nose and you might not always
agree with the evaluation that the person is telling you.
But there's something there. I guarantee you there's something there
with that note coming from that person that you can
learn from and you can use and it can make
(19:47):
you a better person and a better professional. Yeah, that's
a very constructive way of taking criticism or taking a note,
you know what I mean? Because sometimes the nose could
it could break a person. You could it could really
take away your love of something. And you know, if
you're constantly told no, So no, that's great advice. Um,
(20:07):
that's great advice. What when you got to the NBA,
was it everything that you thought it was gonna be?
Covering it on a day to day basis, I wasn't
sure what that what that image is gonna look like?
You know, Um, I grew up, as you mentioned, I
grew up a Michael Jordan fan. I grew up a
(20:29):
Bad Boys fan. I grew up at the State of Michigan.
So watch that. How can you be a Jordan fan
and a Bad Boys fan at the same time, Lisa,
how is that possible? I was a little screwed up.
I was a little messed up, but I always wanted
MJ to get you know, forty and Pistons to win.
So absolutely I navigated through that world in in that way. Um.
(20:50):
And so it's just you know, I love I love
the sports, right, I love I love that that um,
that aspect of it. But you know, it's just it's
figuring out, um early kind of like what you want
to do, right and finding your passion and working your
(21:11):
way through it, um and then just kind of making
the most of it. Yeah, yeah, was there anything about
that when you got to the NBA? Was there anything
about the NBA that might have surprised you? Covering it
from day to day? Were you surprised by the I
mean anything with the players as far as their ability
seeing it up close in personal? Obviously you've been watching
the game for a long time that you know, I
(21:34):
would pay attention a lot and like every like a
lot of people, a lot of basketball people pay attention
to the playoffs, right, and and it's and you really
find an NBA fan when they pay attention in November
and December in January. So so my biggest question was,
was my passion going to be there in November, December,
January be easy once you get February, March, April, as
(21:55):
you're navigating towards the end of the NBA season. So
that was my biggest question in a night out, UM,
when they're throwing out lineups that are unique, let's say,
you know, and and maybe you know, managing minutes right
of of some of the best players and you're not
getting sometimes the best matchups right in December or January
(22:16):
or whatever, was I still going to enjoy it? And
the answer is yes, I mean I just you get,
you know, some of the best seats in the house, um,
and to watch the best players, the best athletes in
the world. And and as a basketball person, as a
pure basketball person, there is nothing better. There's no job
that is better than that. They take care of us,
(22:40):
you know, like we travel with the team, so I
have no complaints about where we stay and how we fly.
And the only thing that I have to make sure
I'm doing is is making that bus on time that
goes to the arena or in the second bus, the
first bus or the second but well I'm always first bus.
I loved getting there early. Your father's would be like
(23:01):
the fifth bus, even though there's three buses available, he
would be on bus five. You can help show up
like five minutes before we have Oh my god, Oh
my god. But he's he's first in line for the
food post game. Oh you know if he's john he's
a Johnson. He knows what's up. He's the last of
(23:22):
the court to arrive in the pre game, but the
first in line for postcame dinner. Absolutely. Oh that's funny.
That's so funny. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. I
wanted to get your perspective on your honest because I
feel like he's one of the greatest basketball players I've
ever seen played a game. Um, do you share this sentiment?
(23:44):
Is it too early to call him that? Where are
you at with him in his historical standing already? I
mean it's he's twenty seven years old, he's going on
twenty eight, and he's a two time league MVP, He's
an NBA champion, he's all offensive player. I mean, you
name it. Um, he just did in in the last season.
(24:05):
He just had four straight seasons of averaging twenty five
or more points. Ten or more rebounds, five or more assists.
No other NBA player has done that. And here's here's
the deal. He's at twenty seven, going to twenty eight.
So this is the sweet spot part of his career.
We've seen so many athletes and basketball players in general,
you know, I think from maybe ages twenty seven to
(24:28):
maybe thirty three really kind of stepped their level up.
And and I think he's He's the one guy where
you tell him you can't make a free throw, honest,
what's he gonna do. He's gonna work on his free
throw you can. All you are is a is a
driver and a dunker, honest. So what's he gonna do.
He's gonna work on his mid range game, He's gonna
work on his three point game. He's gonna do all
of that he has. And here's the other thing. So
(24:49):
I have two favorite honest moments from year one of
calling the Bucks, and I'll tell you what they are.
And and it had nothing to do with setting the
all time Bucks scoring record, which a lot of people
would think, oh, was you know against the nets when
he you know, surpassed Kareem. It wasn't that. So there
was a game, uh, January one against the Pelicans, and
he had a triple double. So he gets you know,
(25:10):
everybody needs that last tenth assist, you get your triple double,
that's the last stat you're usually chasing. So he he
passed it off. I think it was Deconnasson and Pat
Connatson his three pointer and so now he has his
triple double. So then the next time down the court, um,
he doesn't have to worry about passing it off. He's like,
this is my time. So triples across. McCourt pulls up
(25:31):
and uh and just drills the three and it was
at five serf form, and the place goes nuts and
he starts walking back like this. People are listening to
this and they can't see what I'm doing, Like I'm
kind of waving my arms back. You know. He's like
saw turning back like this, and um, and my call was,
you know, this is his night, this is his year.
And and that was one of my favorite moments for
(25:52):
Janice was because I realized at that moment when he's
flaring his arms and he's walking back like I'm honest,
not the pompo, you know, And but it was the joy.
So Number one, it's the joy that he shows that
he never takes for granted with this game. You know,
he's always going to be that seven year old or
eight year old kid growing up, and he will never
lose that passion. He's a multime millionaire and one of
(26:15):
the best, is not eventually the best to ever play
the game. And he still has that joy. That's number one.
Number two thank with the Chris. Number two is his
awareness of the game. He scored, he scored fifty points
against the Pacers in February and he was sitting on
forty eight points, did a little like step back move
from the wing and knocked on the jumper and you
(26:37):
know what he did. He went five zero with his
hands and he did it to the camera. He knew
where the camera was, and he just suddenly as he's
running back, went five zero. He knew the meaning of
that shot. He knew where the camera was. It's just
his i Q, his awareness and number one the joy
and number two that that i Q and awareness that
(26:57):
is in my opinion, going to set him apart absolutely.
I mean when you you saw him this summer in
Greece and just how that joy love for the game
just kind of with his rubbed off on his teammates
and he's like, you know, the jokester. Behind the scenes,
he's picking up, hugging the coach. I mean, he's doing
all kind of crazy stuff, but it makes you just
fall in love with the guy. I mean, there's nothing
(27:18):
about Janice that I don't love. I can't wait to
hear him talking to press conference because he's gonna come
with a joke. He's gonna say something funny. It's gonna
be like an old school dad joke, but it's gonna
be funny. And that's the thing I love about him
is that old soul. Um the Bucks. Can you honest
lead this year's Milwaukee Bucks to the title? He tried
(27:38):
his hardest to do it. Uh In that in that
Celtics playoff series last year, right when when Chris Middleton
is hurt, I mean he was. I just remember the
image of the cameras finding him when when they finally
realized in Game seven, Bucks aren't gonna come back, and
and he just was He's sitting on the bench and
he was exhausted. He I've given everything he could and
(28:02):
it's still the Bucks still felt short. So as good
as Janice is, he's gonna need a healthy team around him,
and and I think he needs all of the Big three.
You know, we saw if you lose one of the
Big three, they're just not which is not the same team.
And so so they need all three of those guys
and Drew Holiday and Chris Middleton and Janice to be
(28:25):
healthy to even begin that conversation. Their defense needs to
get better, and I think we're seeing at the early
part of this season some of the early three point
opponent defensive adjustments that Button his staff are trying to make.
But but that needs to get better. And so do
they have the talent, absolutely, Do they have the health?
(28:46):
I don't know yet. You know, we we haven't seen
Chris Middleton yet return. You know now he's got a
new risk injury from that knee injury that that forced
him to miss the playoffs last year. So health is
number one. They have the talent, but but they have
to it healthy. Joe Ingles is gonna be an important
equation in my opinion. Um, I love what the Sports
(29:07):
Performance stafted last year with Brook Lopez, and they had
a very systematic with his back surgery. So they had
a very systematic timeline of when he would return. You know,
they were they were targeting February March, and they hit
that target. And when he came back, only played what
like thirteen games, but when he came back, it was
so impressive to me. It was almost like he hadn't
(29:27):
missed a beat, you know, especially in those first few
games back, and he was such an integral part. And
I feel like the timeline for Joe Ingles is going
to be in a somewhat similar way. The sports performance
team is going to get him back. They wouldn't have
brought him in if they didn't see that health was
going to be there. He's going to be a key
component because we realized the wing depth wasn't there when
we lost Chris, and so um, he's going to provide
(29:50):
a little bit more of that that wing depth as
a shooter, as a creator, even with his size. So
I think he can be a really key component that
we won't even see until maybe January or February this year. Yeah,
looking forward to listening to you and my dad on
the calls this year with the bucks. Um, you guys
do an amazing job and every game Chris I tried
(30:14):
to I try to listen to it I tried to
listen to every game. We gotta give you more of
a shout out that I know, right, but he never
shouts me out. But that's okay, that's okay. I'm used
to it by now. He talked about his daughter the
other day. Yeah, she's a baller. So she's like, she's
like six one, she's like a k D. Yeah, it's
(30:34):
gonna be good. It's gonna be good. And she works
hard to Yeah, she loves the game as well. She's
obsessed with it. She's looking up stuff on YouTube, watching
old players. You know, anytime you watch looking at video
old players from back in the eighties and stuff, and
you're a thirteen year old today, you love a game
because you know she's got her daddy's heart. With that, right, absolutely, absolutely, well,
(30:55):
at least I wanted you to leave leave us with um. Um,
just just a piece of advice for young broadcasters, men
and women, boys and girls that are coming up that
aspire to be in your shoes one day. Um. Centered
around this phrase that you use, shaping the moment versus
(31:17):
being the moment? What does that mean? And what type
of advice would you give to broadcasters coming up to
use that sort of as you know, it's something that
they should listen to. Well, I use that phrase really
to describe my job as a play by play. You know,
everyone says, hotway, what's your style? What do you try
to do? And and that was my answers. I tried
(31:38):
to help shape the moment and not be the moment.
And so that is meaning, you know, add your own
style and the personality to it, but know that there's
a lot of other people to go into that and um,
you're not the most important person that's going into that moment.
So um. So that's that's where that phrase comes from.
And and my advice would be two people who are thinking,
(32:00):
you know, how do I get in this business or
what do I do? I have all these dreams and goals,
and I think it's you know, dream big, right, but
understand that there's the small steps to get to that
big dream sometimes and and be willing to do it
no matter how much you're getting paid, no matter how
many hours you're working. And we've talked about getting the nose.
So don't let this maybe the most important piece of advice.
(32:22):
Don't let someone else's know be your no. And that's
really important. Let me say that again. Don't let someone
else's know be your no. Might be someone else's no
for you at the time, but it doesn't have to
be your no for eternity. You know, you define your
own road to success, You define the stops that you
say yes or no to along the way, and you
(32:42):
define what your dreams are. So don't ever let anyone
tell you that your dreams are too big or you
can't accomplish those, because it is your life, it is
your world, and you get a chance to kind of
shape that in and around everybody else's world. Absolutely well, Lisa,
thank you so much for your time today. I know
you gotta catch a flight. I appreciate you spending some
(33:03):
time with kJ live. I think everybody's gonna really love
hearing your perspective on a lot of things and find
it a little bit about you. This was a lot
of fun, kJ. I really enjoyed it. I'm happy that
you asked me on. And I'm a big I'm a
big Johnson fans, so with the with the family, and
so it was an offer to be on. We're fans
of yours as well. Thank you. I appreciate ladies and gentlemen.
(33:27):
Lisa buyington
This is kJ Live with Chris john Sallie and Chris
is having conversations with influencers in the sports world and
entertainment in a strain. Now here's Chris Johnson. You're now
found in to kJ Live. Today's guests on the show.
(00:23):
He's a play by play announcement, studio hosts and future
producer reporter. She has broadcast games with Fox Sports, f
S One, ESPN, Turner Sports, CBS, and the SEC Network,
just to name a few. She's a trailblazer in the
field of broadcasting and in one she was named the
first full time female played by play announcer in the
NBA by the Milwaukee Bucks. Let's welcome in, Lisa Buyington
(00:47):
into the building. Lisa, how are you good? Chris, I'm
here a little bit of your dad. Boy. That's that's
a compliment too, election, the pauses, the the pace of
your speech. I love it. I feel like I'm talking
to a younger m J. Which, by the way, I
always want to ask one of his partners, how is
(01:09):
it working with my dad? Shout out to my dad.
He hooked this up side. We got to talk about
markets for a second. How what how is it working?
With my dad, Lisa. I love it. Um, you know,
he's part Hollywood, part Hall of Hall of Famer. I
always feel like he should go into the Hall of
Fame eventually and be a people take no please. Um.
You know that's another maybe that's another podcast for another day.
(01:32):
But you know, Marcus Johnson provides um, what I call
is very unique in an analyst. You know, and whatever
sport you're doing, you know, a lot of people are
either heavy on the excess and nose or heavy on
the entertainment. And there are very few that can bounce
between both, you know, and and teach the game and
be heavy on the excess and os but also be
(01:54):
fun and entertaining. And Marcus Johnson is the unique individual
that can nay it through both worlds and he and
I consider myself a basketball person. I played in college
and and watched it my whole life. My dad was
my high school coach, so I'm not It's not like
I know everything about basketball, but when when you grow
up playing and watching the sport, you know, you notice
(02:16):
things beyond the obvious. And he has just a level
of observations that even teaches the basketball person something about basketball.
So I love yeah, I love to call my dad
your favorite basketball players favorite basketball player. I saw because
I read somewhere or I heard you talk about you
your love from Michael Jordan's growing up and I'm not
(02:39):
sure if you're familiar, but Michael Jordan had MJ had
MJ's poster. That's my claim to favor your favorite basketball
player's favorite basketball player, that's my dad. But talk about
talking about your beginnings, the foundation for you. You turned
into this amazing broadcaster, but you have an athletic back around.
(03:00):
I kind of wanted to touch on that and just
get an understanding of when you know, what what sports
did you play and what got you into athletics so heavy,
you know, I love it. The fact that my mom
and dad they weren't they weren't the parents Chris who
made me specialized. I think too many you know, kids
growing up these days now like they just specialized in
(03:20):
the one sport. And thankfully I didn't grow up in
a household that was like that. So you asked what
sports I played, It was everything from swimming to tennis,
to soccer, to basketball to the softball. Um. They even
have me do some dance and gymnastics, you know, and so, um,
what they did is they let me, as I got
older than than Lisa got to choose what she wanted
(03:42):
to do. You know, So I I gravitated more towards
basketball and soccer. Um, and that's what I eventually played
in high school, and that's eventually what I played at
Northwestern University. I was four years of basketball and two
years of soccer. But the fact that they let me
experience a lot of things, and then on top of that,
the fact that they let me choose is really really valuable,
(04:03):
I think to my growth and just the versatility I
like to I still to this day, like to do
a little bit of everything. Were you a PG, you know,
I joke with not basketball people, so that would not
be you. But I try to joke with people that
I was at five, that I was a center and
had matt hops. But if you've seen me in person,
you know I'm I was listed at five six. I'm
(04:26):
probably more like five four or five five now, But
being a center is a little bit of a stretch.
So yes, I was a point guard, okay, okay, and
I played center. Believe it or not, I'm only six five,
But I got signed to U C l a as
a center six pounds center, so I understand what that's like.
And then in soccer, you were a striker or center
(04:46):
mid or Yeah. I was the Prima Donna forward. I
was just like sending to the corner flag. I'm gonna
chase it down, you know, I want all the glory,
all the goals. Yeah, I feel you, feel you, Yeah,
that's what I was. The soccer. Yeah. I always wanted
to play soccer. I just wasn't quite fast enough to
do it. I loved the game. I love to watch it.
(05:08):
Spent some time in Italy with my dad kind of
fell in love with soccer and that whole culture over there. Um,
while you were at Northwestern, was that when you first
rich is a renowned school for broadcasting and journalism. Was
that when you first got the bug to be in
front of the camera or a broadcast journalist. Well? I
always thought I was gonna be playing sports for the
(05:28):
rest of my life, you know. I had this ocean
that I was good enough, I was gonna play professionally
and find something, you know. But I realized actually in
college that I became the backup point guard for my team.
So I realized that I probably wasn't gonna be able
to play sports for the rest of my life. So
I started to kind of look at real people jobs
and realizing I didn't want the real people job that
(05:50):
had to sit at the desk in the corner office
and and and stare at a computer all the time.
If I was gonna stare at a computer, I wanted
to be like prepping for sports, and so I wanted
to find in a way. I love sports so much.
I talked about how my parents letting me play sports
as a little kid, and a lot of different things.
So I was so I was just thinking, you know what,
I don't want to get rid of that. So I
actually was deciding between becoming a basketball coach um and
(06:13):
becoming a journalist. And I didn't know if I wanted
to be a print journalist and at the time when
newspapers are a little bit more popular, being magazine or
newspaper which would eventually translate to being just an online
reporter that we have now, or if I wanted to
go into TV and so. But McDill School Journalism is
what I unbiasedly or maybe more biasedly, like to consider
(06:35):
as one of the best journalism schools in the country
at Northwestern, thank you, thank you, And so it was
it was really easy to give schooling, the edgication, the opportunities,
(06:57):
the networking. Someone right, Musburgers another Northwestern grad um. So
we like to go to Northwestern Syracuse. You know, we
have our we have our lums, we have our prestige
and tradition, and we like to kind of compare the
journalism schools between the two schools. But it was easy
to do once I once I hopped into that. Yeah, no, um.
I when I was at U c l A, which
(07:18):
isn't as famous for its broadcasting as Northwestern, but it
has produced some pretty solid individuals in front of the camera.
I kind of, you know, I was playing ball on
the team we had won an extra championship, but I
was also focused on kind of, you know, earning my
chops a little bit. I took drama, you know, I
took a couple of classes to learn how to do
stuff in front of the camera, behind the camera. I
(07:40):
took a journalism course. I kind of just at the time,
I was just thinking to myself, you know, hey, you're
at U c l A, You're in l A. You
might as well because this is the type of town
that if you got a little a little bit of
you know, anything, experiencing anything, that you might get a
shot and doing something. But which leads me to my
question about your first shot, when you first got your
first geek um working for a station or a newspaper,
(08:03):
wherever it was, where was it, how old were you,
and talked to me about that experience. I would love
to because there's nothing really the write home about, because
it's it's the It was the second smallest TV market
in the country. And it was all the way up
in Alpina, Michigan. So people who aren't familiar with Michigan,
and actually even people who are familiar with Michigan have
no idea where Alpino, Michigan is. So it's up north.
(08:26):
It's about forty five minutes south of mcinal bridge. I
think some people have heard of that, and in the
Upper Peninsula, so it's it's just really really far up north.
And when I say it was the second smallest market
in the country, for people who don't know market size
in the top of the market is based on populations
New York, in l A and Chicago. It is kind
(08:47):
of your one, two, and three biggest markets. Alpina, Michigan
was sitting I think at like two eleven and they
stopped counting at tot and uh, you know, I mean
it's it was right above Glenn Dive, Montana. I looked
on the list to see where is alf Alpina isn't
the smallest TV market? What is the smallest TV market?
(09:08):
And the answer was Glenn Dive, Montana. But I loved it, Chris,
because I got to do a little bit of everything.
And you know, it very much was a grunt work
kind of job. You know, you're you're working twelve to
fourteen hours because you have to do everything. You are
your own camera person, you are your own editor, you
are your own producer, You're your own reporter and anchor
(09:30):
makeup person. You know you you name it. Um. I
remember several Friday nights where we would hop in a
car and we would do this high school football show.
And we would hop in a car and drive from
high school to high school. And you had to pick
up a camera and you put it on your shoulder
back when you know, the cameras are bigger right back then,
and um, and so you shoot your own high school
football highlights. You get to the three or four high schools.
(09:53):
You come back to the station, you edit your own stuff.
You're looking You're like, okay, I gotta make the eleven
o'clock news. So so it's like ten forty five. You
got a race into the bathroom and change because you
were in sweats and James, because you were just shooting
your own highlights right and you running there, and you
do your hair and makeup, you try to look presentable,
and then you do the uh whatever it was twenty
minute a half hour high school football show, and then
(10:16):
you rinse and repeat and you do it again. And
I got to cover things like the brown Trout Festival
Alpino Community College. They were the Lumberjacks. That was I think, uh,
you know, like twenty different high schools and stuff, and
so like outdoor sports, you know, snowmobil and all that.
So things that nontraditional sports that I would never get
(10:36):
a chance to do now. And and I really got
my foot in the door, which was the message that
people gave me, Lisa. It's not where you start, it's
where you finish. You just need a chance. You just
need your foot in the door, and then work hard
and treat people the right way and you'll carve your
own path eventually. No, that's amazing. I mean there's a
lot to be said for how people start in the surroundings,
(10:56):
the atmosphere and sort of you know what's presented in
front of them. So you had to do a bunch
of stuff on your own, and that taught you a
skill set that's probably invaluable to you today. I mean
it makes a lot of things a lot easier. You're
probably easy to work with because you understand the makeup person,
you understand the camera. I mean, you understand everybody. So
you're probably easy to work with. I have to ask
folks about that. No, I'm just joking. But um, and
(11:18):
that's but that's that's dope. You're listening to Fox Sports. Um,
I love the small town story. It's always ironic to
me how so many of the biggest stories, some of
our big stories, and our big stars and people that
have accomplished come from smallest towns and humble beginnings. There's
definitely something to be said for that. Lisa. In two
thousand and seventeen, you became the first female full time
(11:40):
play by play UM announcer in for the Big Ten
Network College football talk about that experience, and I wanted
to know, do you get into sort of the thing
about being the first female in you know, in the
field of sports doing something, or do you care about
that or is this something that you wear with a
badge of honor. It's a great question, Chris. I understand
(12:05):
why people talk about it. I understand why it's a headline.
Anytime that nothing has been done before, it makes news.
Me personally, when I say this, I don't embrace, not,
you know, embrace being a role model. Let me get
that out of the way. But what I don't embrace
are those adjectives first and female, because I don't look
(12:25):
at myself in that way. I look at myself as
just an announcer. I mean, you know, when I sit
next to your dad and I'm about to call it
Bucks basketball game and I put on the headset, I'm
not thinking I'm a female announcer. I'm I'm putting on
a headset thinking I'm an announcer, and I'm an NBA announcer,
and I'm thinking about what our storylines are. I'm thinking
about matchups. I'm thinking about what Janice is going to
(12:47):
do that night, you know, and so it's it's the
furthest thing from my mind. But in two thousand seventeen
and that opportunity that you reference with football, it was
it was really the first time that I got a
feeling of maybe the implications. I don't want to say heaviness,
because I didn't. I didn't feel like overloaded by it.
(13:08):
But I felt the attention, and I felt a little
bit more of the pressure. And what I really wanted
to do was to be good enough that people would
continue to hire women in some of those positions. And
I've always said this, Chris, is that I cannot wait
when you know, first of all, we lose those adjectives
(13:28):
first and female. But when we watch a sportscast and
and we're listening, and we're watching, and we're not paying
attention to the gender of the announcers, and I do
it too. You know, if I'm if I'm listening to
a men's game, whether it's in basketball or football, baseball, soccer,
you name it, and I hear a female announcer on it,
I stop when I'm doing and I literally try to
(13:50):
figure out who's who's the woman doing this game? And
I think it happens across the country and many different households.
But you know, eventually, um, you know, maybe a female
voice can be back noise on a men's game and
and that's that's that's my dream. You know that that
someday that happens. Is that we're sitting here and we're
(14:11):
doing work, we're on our phone, you know, looking at something.
We got a game out of the background, and it
doesn't make we have a female voice doing an NBA
game or a college football game, and you know what,
we don't not trying to figure out who that female
announcer is doing that game. Yeah that that hopefully we'll
get to that place sooner than later. Um. But I
(14:32):
do enjoy the background noise at times when when that
that that that you reference, because when you hear a
woman calling the game, there's always a perspective that you're
you're introduced to, so you're getting a perspective that it's shared,
but it's also it's a different perspective. There's a little
nuances in there, and so I enjoy it. Um. I
(14:55):
just know that our culture is a little weird about it,
and I'm sure that I saw you talk about it
a little bit. Some of the things social media that
take place where there's really no place for where people
are saying you know things. But just so you know,
we love hearing you. We love your voice, we love
your insight and knowledge, especially the knowledge of the game.
That's the part that I think that is the most
impressive thing about it. It's the knowledge of the game.
(15:16):
And it's like it's like Doors does the same thing
Doors Burke. When you listen to Doors, it's like, Okay, boom,
you know, and you all you almost enjoy some of
some of the takes a little bit more than some
of the dudes. But that's another podcast. UM. Yeah, I've
heard you talk about stuff. You said this many times,
um or not many times, but you've referenced this this phrase.
(15:38):
You said, you gotta do the grunt job to get
the glory job. I want you to expand on that
and just kind of talk about what that means because
that kind of resonated with me when when I heard
it the first time. M Well, it goes back to
my first job. You know, I was making four team
when an Alpina Michigan. Chris and we talked about that job,
and I was making fourteen thousand dollars a year and working,
(16:00):
you know, twelve to fourteen hours a day, and I
loved it. And and that's when I realized I was
doing the right thing, because I wasn't counting the dollars
in in my bank account, which wasn't very many, so
we wouldn't have taked long to do that. Uh, you know,
I wasn't paying attention to my watch and how many
um hours I was lying because I just enjoyed the work.
(16:21):
And you know, I didn't just roll out of bed
yesterday and say, you know what, I think would be
really cool to be an NBA play by play announcer today,
or you know, like you know, brushing my teeth in
the morning and say, you know what I want to do,
and I want to call the Olympics or the World
Cup or n C Double a tournament. And I think
we fall into that trap where we meet someone, you know,
(16:45):
and the person standing in front of us. We forget
that there's so much work that goes into the person
you're standing in front of us, and and and so
many curdles and and so many mountains to climb and
and we all have them. And you know, when I
say grunt took glory a job, I'm talking about that journey.
And sometimes the space between grunt job and glory job
(17:07):
could be a month or five months, sometimes it could
be a year. Um there's a story where for me
that space in between grunt job and glory job was
ten years and and and my grunt job with Alpina Michigan,
and my glory job at the time was to be
a sideline reporter for the men's at c Double, a
tournament for CBS and Turner. And when I made my
(17:29):
first ask it was in um it was in two
thousand and seven. And then when I finally got the
first offer from CBS and Turner, it was two thousand seventeen.
And I asked every single year Chris, and I got
a no no no no year one year, two, year,
three or four or five, six seventy, I mean all
the way to year ten. The irony of that is
(17:51):
I didn't even ask in your tent. I had given
up because I had thought, you know what, I'm good,
I'm getting some good opportunities. But that's my point is
that I think everyone should appreciate the journey that each
person goes on, and we all have a job if
we can yes, M M. How do you stay locked
(18:21):
in through all the nose, Lisa, how did you stay focused,
you know, on on continuing to knock on those doors
year after year? They tell you know, what drove you,
what motivated you? Inspired you to keep trying? I think
that's an athlete in me, quite honestly, you know, like
it's it's the stubborn little you know, blonde point guard
(18:44):
who's trying to, you know, work her way through a
game and trying to figure out everything. And and that
was me. You know, I'm a stubborn person. I'm a
determined person. And um, I decided to not get better.
I decided to get better. And it's one of the
hardest lessons that you can learn. But as a as
a former athlete, you learn to be coached, right. You
(19:06):
learn to be told you're not good enough here, you
need to improve here. And it's probably one of the
everyone asks, like, well, what's the value of translating your
athletic background to your professional background? Is I want to
know where I need to improve on. I want to
know where I could get better. Um, sometimes I want
you to tell me no that yet you know, and
(19:26):
and then I'll figure out how to get to that point.
And so those are the lessons that you learn. You
don't get better, you get better, and you might not
always agree with the nose and you might not always
agree with the evaluation that the person is telling you.
But there's something there. I guarantee you there's something there
with that note coming from that person that you can
learn from and you can use and it can make
(19:47):
you a better person and a better professional. Yeah, that's
a very constructive way of taking criticism or taking a note,
you know what I mean? Because sometimes the nose could
it could break a person. You could it could really
take away your love of something. And you know, if
you're constantly told no, So no, that's great advice. Um,
(20:07):
that's great advice. What when you got to the NBA,
was it everything that you thought it was gonna be?
Covering it on a day to day basis, I wasn't
sure what that what that image is gonna look like?
You know, Um, I grew up, as you mentioned, I
grew up a Michael Jordan fan. I grew up a
(20:29):
Bad Boys fan. I grew up at the State of Michigan.
So watch that. How can you be a Jordan fan
and a Bad Boys fan at the same time, Lisa,
how is that possible? I was a little screwed up.
I was a little messed up, but I always wanted
MJ to get you know, forty and Pistons to win.
So absolutely I navigated through that world in in that way. Um.
(20:50):
And so it's just you know, I love I love
the sports, right, I love I love that that um,
that aspect of it. But you know, it's just it's
figuring out, um early kind of like what you want
to do, right and finding your passion and working your
(21:11):
way through it, um and then just kind of making
the most of it. Yeah, yeah, was there anything about
that when you got to the NBA? Was there anything
about the NBA that might have surprised you? Covering it
from day to day? Were you surprised by the I
mean anything with the players as far as their ability
seeing it up close in personal? Obviously you've been watching
the game for a long time that you know, I
(21:34):
would pay attention a lot and like every like a
lot of people, a lot of basketball people pay attention
to the playoffs, right, and and it's and you really
find an NBA fan when they pay attention in November
and December in January. So so my biggest question was,
was my passion going to be there in November, December,
January be easy once you get February, March, April, as
(21:55):
you're navigating towards the end of the NBA season. So
that was my biggest question in a night out, UM,
when they're throwing out lineups that are unique, let's say,
you know, and and maybe you know, managing minutes right
of of some of the best players and you're not
getting sometimes the best matchups right in December or January
(22:16):
or whatever, was I still going to enjoy it? And
the answer is yes, I mean I just you get,
you know, some of the best seats in the house, um,
and to watch the best players, the best athletes in
the world. And and as a basketball person, as a
pure basketball person, there is nothing better. There's no job
that is better than that. They take care of us,
(22:40):
you know, like we travel with the team, so I
have no complaints about where we stay and how we fly.
And the only thing that I have to make sure
I'm doing is is making that bus on time that
goes to the arena or in the second bus, the
first bus or the second but well I'm always first bus.
I loved getting there early. Your father's would be like
(23:01):
the fifth bus, even though there's three buses available, he
would be on bus five. You can help show up
like five minutes before we have Oh my god, Oh
my god. But he's he's first in line for the
food post game. Oh you know if he's john he's
a Johnson. He knows what's up. He's the last of
(23:22):
the court to arrive in the pre game, but the
first in line for postcame dinner. Absolutely. Oh that's funny.
That's so funny. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. I
wanted to get your perspective on your honest because I
feel like he's one of the greatest basketball players I've
ever seen played a game. Um, do you share this sentiment?
(23:44):
Is it too early to call him that? Where are
you at with him in his historical standing already? I
mean it's he's twenty seven years old, he's going on
twenty eight, and he's a two time league MVP, He's
an NBA champion, he's all offensive player. I mean, you
name it. Um, he just did in in the last season.
(24:05):
He just had four straight seasons of averaging twenty five
or more points. Ten or more rebounds, five or more assists.
No other NBA player has done that. And here's here's
the deal. He's at twenty seven, going to twenty eight.
So this is the sweet spot part of his career.
We've seen so many athletes and basketball players in general,
you know, I think from maybe ages twenty seven to
(24:28):
maybe thirty three really kind of stepped their level up.
And and I think he's He's the one guy where
you tell him you can't make a free throw, honest,
what's he gonna do. He's gonna work on his free
throw you can. All you are is a is a
driver and a dunker, honest. So what's he gonna do.
He's gonna work on his mid range game, He's gonna
work on his three point game. He's gonna do all
of that he has. And here's the other thing. So
(24:49):
I have two favorite honest moments from year one of
calling the Bucks, and I'll tell you what they are.
And and it had nothing to do with setting the
all time Bucks scoring record, which a lot of people
would think, oh, was you know against the nets when
he you know, surpassed Kareem. It wasn't that. So there
was a game, uh, January one against the Pelicans, and
he had a triple double. So he gets you know,
(25:10):
everybody needs that last tenth assist, you get your triple double,
that's the last stat you're usually chasing. So he he
passed it off. I think it was Deconnasson and Pat
Connatson his three pointer and so now he has his
triple double. So then the next time down the court, um,
he doesn't have to worry about passing it off. He's like,
this is my time. So triples across. McCourt pulls up
(25:31):
and uh and just drills the three and it was
at five serf form, and the place goes nuts and
he starts walking back like this. People are listening to
this and they can't see what I'm doing, Like I'm
kind of waving my arms back. You know. He's like
saw turning back like this, and um, and my call was,
you know, this is his night, this is his year.
And and that was one of my favorite moments for
(25:52):
Janice was because I realized at that moment when he's
flaring his arms and he's walking back like I'm honest,
not the pompo, you know, And but it was the joy.
So Number one, it's the joy that he shows that
he never takes for granted with this game. You know,
he's always going to be that seven year old or
eight year old kid growing up, and he will never
lose that passion. He's a multime millionaire and one of
(26:15):
the best, is not eventually the best to ever play
the game. And he still has that joy. That's number one.
Number two thank with the Chris. Number two is his
awareness of the game. He scored, he scored fifty points
against the Pacers in February and he was sitting on
forty eight points, did a little like step back move
from the wing and knocked on the jumper and you
(26:37):
know what he did. He went five zero with his
hands and he did it to the camera. He knew
where the camera was, and he just suddenly as he's
running back, went five zero. He knew the meaning of
that shot. He knew where the camera was. It's just
his i Q, his awareness and number one the joy
and number two that that i Q and awareness that
(26:57):
is in my opinion, going to set him apart absolutely.
I mean when you you saw him this summer in
Greece and just how that joy love for the game
just kind of with his rubbed off on his teammates
and he's like, you know, the jokester. Behind the scenes,
he's picking up, hugging the coach. I mean, he's doing
all kind of crazy stuff, but it makes you just
fall in love with the guy. I mean, there's nothing
(27:18):
about Janice that I don't love. I can't wait to
hear him talking to press conference because he's gonna come
with a joke. He's gonna say something funny. It's gonna
be like an old school dad joke, but it's gonna
be funny. And that's the thing I love about him
is that old soul. Um the Bucks. Can you honest
lead this year's Milwaukee Bucks to the title? He tried
(27:38):
his hardest to do it. Uh In that in that
Celtics playoff series last year, right when when Chris Middleton
is hurt, I mean he was. I just remember the
image of the cameras finding him when when they finally
realized in Game seven, Bucks aren't gonna come back, and
and he just was He's sitting on the bench and
he was exhausted. He I've given everything he could and
(28:02):
it's still the Bucks still felt short. So as good
as Janice is, he's gonna need a healthy team around him,
and and I think he needs all of the Big three.
You know, we saw if you lose one of the
Big three, they're just not which is not the same team.
And so so they need all three of those guys
and Drew Holiday and Chris Middleton and Janice to be
(28:25):
healthy to even begin that conversation. Their defense needs to
get better, and I think we're seeing at the early
part of this season some of the early three point
opponent defensive adjustments that Button his staff are trying to make.
But but that needs to get better. And so do
they have the talent, absolutely, Do they have the health?
(28:46):
I don't know yet. You know, we we haven't seen
Chris Middleton yet return. You know now he's got a
new risk injury from that knee injury that that forced
him to miss the playoffs last year. So health is
number one. They have the talent, but but they have
to it healthy. Joe Ingles is gonna be an important
equation in my opinion. Um, I love what the Sports
(29:07):
Performance stafted last year with Brook Lopez, and they had
a very systematic with his back surgery. So they had
a very systematic timeline of when he would return. You know,
they were they were targeting February March, and they hit
that target. And when he came back, only played what
like thirteen games, but when he came back, it was
so impressive to me. It was almost like he hadn't
(29:27):
missed a beat, you know, especially in those first few
games back, and he was such an integral part. And
I feel like the timeline for Joe Ingles is going
to be in a somewhat similar way. The sports performance
team is going to get him back. They wouldn't have
brought him in if they didn't see that health was
going to be there. He's going to be a key
component because we realized the wing depth wasn't there when
we lost Chris, and so um, he's going to provide
(29:50):
a little bit more of that that wing depth as
a shooter, as a creator, even with his size. So
I think he can be a really key component that
we won't even see until maybe January or February this year. Yeah,
looking forward to listening to you and my dad on
the calls this year with the bucks. Um, you guys
do an amazing job and every game Chris I tried
(30:14):
to I try to listen to it I tried to
listen to every game. We gotta give you more of
a shout out that I know, right, but he never
shouts me out. But that's okay, that's okay. I'm used
to it by now. He talked about his daughter the
other day. Yeah, she's a baller. So she's like, she's
like six one, she's like a k D. Yeah, it's
(30:34):
gonna be good. It's gonna be good. And she works
hard to Yeah, she loves the game as well. She's
obsessed with it. She's looking up stuff on YouTube, watching
old players. You know, anytime you watch looking at video
old players from back in the eighties and stuff, and
you're a thirteen year old today, you love a game
because you know she's got her daddy's heart. With that, right, absolutely, absolutely, well,
(30:55):
at least I wanted you to leave leave us with um. Um,
just just a piece of advice for young broadcasters, men
and women, boys and girls that are coming up that
aspire to be in your shoes one day. Um. Centered
around this phrase that you use, shaping the moment versus
(31:17):
being the moment? What does that mean? And what type
of advice would you give to broadcasters coming up to
use that sort of as you know, it's something that
they should listen to. Well, I use that phrase really
to describe my job as a play by play. You know,
everyone says, hotway, what's your style? What do you try
to do? And and that was my answers. I tried
(31:38):
to help shape the moment and not be the moment.
And so that is meaning, you know, add your own
style and the personality to it, but know that there's
a lot of other people to go into that and um,
you're not the most important person that's going into that moment.
So um. So that's that's where that phrase comes from.
And and my advice would be two people who are thinking,
(32:00):
you know, how do I get in this business or
what do I do? I have all these dreams and goals,
and I think it's you know, dream big, right, but
understand that there's the small steps to get to that
big dream sometimes and and be willing to do it
no matter how much you're getting paid, no matter how
many hours you're working. And we've talked about getting the nose.
So don't let this maybe the most important piece of advice.
(32:22):
Don't let someone else's know be your no. And that's
really important. Let me say that again. Don't let someone
else's know be your no. Might be someone else's no
for you at the time, but it doesn't have to
be your no for eternity. You know, you define your
own road to success, You define the stops that you
say yes or no to along the way, and you
(32:42):
define what your dreams are. So don't ever let anyone
tell you that your dreams are too big or you
can't accomplish those, because it is your life, it is
your world, and you get a chance to kind of
shape that in and around everybody else's world. Absolutely well, Lisa,
thank you so much for your time today. I know
you gotta catch a flight. I appreciate you spending some
(33:03):
time with kJ live. I think everybody's gonna really love
hearing your perspective on a lot of things and find
it a little bit about you. This was a lot
of fun, kJ. I really enjoyed it. I'm happy that
you asked me on. And I'm a big I'm a
big Johnson fans, so with the with the family, and
so it was an offer to be on. We're fans
of yours as well. Thank you. I appreciate ladies and gentlemen.
(33:27):
Lisa buyington
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.