Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Sports Bubble, a production of I Heart
Radio Entree Fork Media. My name is Jensen Carp and
I'm a sports fan, and yes we've hit some roadbumps,
but here we are in August with MLB, n h
L and NBA games on TV, MLS set with their semifinals,
UFC events, NASCAR races, p g A, and Pro wrestling
(00:25):
all moving along. This is hands down the busiest August
in sports history. Sure we thought Yo n s A
Spatus was dead for about twenty minutes, and Terrence Davis
is walking around the Disney World bubble with a hole
in his mask as a political statement. But for now
we're k I T keeping it together with Scotch tape
and some Elmer's glue. And I know this because I'm
still interviewing athletes and sports industry professionals to find out
(00:48):
how they're doing during this very weird time, because someone
has to. This is the Sports Bubble with Jensen Carp.
Sean Elliott is the perfect athlete to talk to in
twenty twenty. He knows firsthand what it's like to do
two very relevant things. One win a championship during a
short and somewhat criticized season and to play the game
(01:08):
of basketball while juggling the extreme fear of getting sick
and dying. So I couldn't be happier about having this
chat with the former member of the San Antonio Spurs
and one of the greatest modern day college basketball players
to step on the court. He was a two time
All American and would an award winner at the University
of Arizona, where he broke llewell Senders all time pack
ten career scoring record and still holds the school's record
(01:28):
for most points. He was the number three pick in
the NBA Draft, where he was a two time All
Star and was an essential member of the NBA championship
Spurs in a season that got a late start thanks
to a players strike. Go ahead and google Memorial Day
Miracle to see his truly insane buzzer beater against the
Portland Trailblazers, and keep in mind he did all this
while battling a crippling kidney disease, something that got worse
(01:51):
every year, while somehow his stats got better. It wasn't
until late in his twelve year NBA career that he
finally slowed down and his ailment caught up with him,
and that's only because he needed a kidney transplant, something
he miraculously recovered from fast enough to join the Spurs
for two more seasons, one where they had the best
record in the league. The dude knows hardship and he's
an inspiration. During these times. We talked about his health struggles,
(02:13):
the difficulties with announcing from home, and his terrifying experiences
with racism growing up and playing in Arizona. Today, it's
a candid talk with Sean Elliott in the sports book
from Sean Elliott to accept Press one. Well, I wanted
(02:36):
to start off by saying, you know, because people obviously
are at like varying degrees of going outside these days,
so I want to know where you've been laying low
and staying safe these last few months. For me, I've
been laying low at the house. Honestly, I've been really
careful about who I've come in contact with for the
first four months or so of quarantine. I mean, I
(02:57):
know we're around the four months five month period, I
went into maybe one or two other buildings besides my
my house. Uh, and I wore a mask when I
was going in, so most I've done is walk the
dogs around the neighborhood. I'm not trying to go into
any type of public places. I'm considered a high high
(03:18):
risk because of my kidney transplant that I had ninety nine,
So I take immuneal uh suppressing drugs every day, and
so my doctor's basically it told me just to you know,
keep my distance and be smart and be aware of
my surroundings. Yeah, I mean I was going to get
into that obviously, with quarantining in a high risk situation,
like for you, you don't listen to sort of what
(03:41):
other people are suggesting. You have to go at it
with a completely different set of protections. I mean, my
wife and I uh don't have any pre existing conditions
and still find ourselves like, why do I need to
go sit in a restaurant? For you, it's a completely
different fear. Yeah. No, I haven't sat in a restaurant
since March eleventh, And that was the day that the
NBA season was suspended, And so we were actually sitting
(04:04):
down at dinner and it started, you know, the tweets
or Twitter started going crazy, and we saw that the
NBA season was canceled. You know, we go home and
a few days later. We're kind of in lockdown. So
I haven't been in a restaurant again, I mean since
since that day. So I can't afford the risk to
put myself in a situation where, you know, people are
(04:25):
three or four feet away from me and I end
up being sick. Yeah. Absolutely, I did want to talk
to you a little bit about your battle with kidney disease,
which I know you celebrated recently. Congratulations a twenty year
anniversary of the procedure last year. I believe, while doing research,
it was insane for me to think about the pain
and discomfort you had during your basketball career, especially in
the nine season with the Memorial Day miracle. I mean,
(04:47):
how were you able to play with this stuff going on?
I mean that's such a basic question, but you were
an All Star and a champion and you were kind
of weeks away from needing surgery. Did did you not
feel that kind of horrific you know, kidney pain? Yeah? Well,
you know, my whole sauga started way back in season
(05:07):
where I had an injury and my back was really
hurting and bothering me for the second half of that season,
and I was taking a lot of nonsteroidal anti inflammatory.
At the time, I was taking everything under the sun,
even taking a drug. Now that's outlawed. You can't even
give it to people anymore. And so, uh, you know,
I was doing whatever I could to play during that season.
(05:30):
And it was after that season that my kidney disease
was discovered. But I did have at that point, I
did have a lot of pain my mid section. Everybody
thought it was back spasms and that's how it was treated.
Then later on that summer was you know, again my
kidney disease was discovered. But you know, I played with
elevated creatning, which is uh indication of your kidney function.
(05:53):
I played with elevated crattening for the rest of my career,
so the last seven years. And so there were time
many times, especially when I was in Detroit, I had
just come off of two months of high doses of
prestic zone therapy, which really weeks havoc on your body.
And many times when I come up that like when
(06:14):
I was going to walk into half court to start
the game, I would feel like my legs were water balloons.
I had so much watery tension in my body and
in my hands, and as the game progressed that a
little bit of that would go away. But you can
see after Jensen, like, you know, everybody gets taked up
before the game around your ankles, and so when I
(06:35):
would cut the tape off at the bottom where my
ankles were, it looked like I used to call it
a pirate's leg my calf, you know, my eyes and
my calf would be swollen. And then where my ankles
were taped, it was incredibly skinny, like it stopped the fluid.
So I'm running down into my ankle and my feet.
So it was something that I played with four pretty
(06:57):
much over a twelve year career. I played with any
disease for seven or so for a majority of my career.
Unbelievable the statistics you were able to put up with that.
I mean, did your did your teammates know that you
were battling this stuff. I think people started to find
out after I had sailed my physical when I tried
to get traded from Detroit to Houston. When I failed
that physical, h then you know, it became pretty public
(07:20):
knowledge that there was something going on with me, and
players didn't quite know that. They thought, well, I had
something going on with my kidneys. But you know, no
one really knew to what extent, and even at that point, Jensen,
I didn't know because my diagnosis early on was something
called minimal change disease, and that meant they went in
I had a kidney biopsy. They went in and they
(07:41):
take out a piece of your kidney and then looking
at it under a microscope, and they had minimal change.
But later on the disease was actually it was early
signs of vocal scurosis. And so later on when the
disease started to really ramp up and really start to
damage my kidneys, then it became apparent what was really
wrong with me. Well, I'm so happy to talk to
(08:03):
you because no one knows what it's like to play
through adversity more than you. So let's talk about the
NBA bubble. We have a few games under our belt now.
The process seems to be working against coronavirus. What are
your thoughts about what you've seen so far? Oh? Wait, man,
there's been a lot of positive signs. I gotta tell
you a lot of things that really made me feel
proud to be an NBA long of obviously a former
(08:24):
player and the member of the Spurs, organization. First off,
I mean the fact that the NBA is leading the
way when it comes to all sports leagues. They've been
extremely conscious of the players, of the fans, of personnel.
They've done a first class job of presenting the games,
protecting everybody involved. I wasn't sure how they'd be able
(08:47):
to pull it off. One of my main concerns was,
how do you actually play games without fans? Fans matter.
Fans to me are there everything, and you can put
the fans in the stands. They provide the environment to
give players adrenaline and a huge boost for the home team.
You know, three fans mean everything, and so how are
you going to pull off you know, the same type
(09:08):
of excitement without those people in the stands. And they
the way they stage the games, the way they're they're shot.
I think they've done a treminute job. Even you know,
piping in fake crowd noise, it actually actually works. You know,
we've called three games so far and they've been a
lot of fun. We've you know, the games have been exciting.
I think the fans are enjoying the product, and so
(09:28):
in that regard, I think the NBA has a huge
feather in the cap especially if they can get all
the way to the finals and actually pull this thing off.
And and the other part that I'm just extremely proud
of is the way that they've helped push along the
social justice issues. They didn't censor their players. In a
matter of fact, they encourage their freedom of speech. They
(09:49):
enhanced the guy's platforms, and and and the and the
players have been to me, they've been very responsible with
their message, and they've been tolerant. I mean I said
last night or telecast the players right now that they
said of a great example for society. You know, they
have guys that stand for the national anthem, and you
(10:11):
have guys that neil for national anthem. No one's being
pressured to neil. No one's being pressured to stand Myers.
Leonard stood the other day and after the nation anthem,
you on his house when he gives him a fist
bump and says, hey, you know you're you're still our brother,
We're still we stand with you too, you know. And
the guys are extremely tolerant of each other's stands and
(10:32):
they understand each other. And so to me, that's a
great lesson for society. And these guys are just been
great examples. Yeah, and you you brought it up a
little bit. How has announcing from home been for you?
I mean, I know that everyone's used to being there
on the core, being able to see what's going on.
Is it different for you? I mean, I've seen some
of the clips of you know, local broadcasts where the
(10:53):
kind of zoom vibe of the boxes on top of
the screen. I mean, well, is it difficult? Is this tricky?
It's a little trickier. It's harder to even call the game.
You know, some of these arenas nowadays, they're taking away
announcers from the first couple of rows and they're putting
up high in the arena. And I don't like that
because if you take away the nuances of the game,
(11:15):
you don't get to see interactions between the coaches and
the players, or the players on the court. You miss
a lot of that and to me kind of sterilizes
the game. And so if you want to get the
best kind of seal across to the viewers, and so
it is a little bit more difficult. There was even
times last night where I know, misidentified a player because
(11:35):
I'm watching it off the screen, you know, fifteen feet away,
and so you know, sometimes that's going to happen, and
that's okay. I mean, we we understand what it is now,
and sometimes those mistakes are gonna be made. But that's
not a big deal. As long as you can still
get your point across, get your message across, I think
we'll be just fine. But yeah, I mean, it still
(11:56):
is a little tricky because we can't see exactly what
Pop is gesturing or what what's he's saying to some
of the players out there in the court of the
interaction between the players. If the past and missed or
decase of Simon is blown, you can see the communication
between the players a lot clearer when you're on the
first or second run, you're actually there. This past week
(12:18):
we saw games like the Rockets Mavericks where the final
score was a hundred and fifty three. It went into
O T. But the truth is this game would have
been I don't know, ten points less if they didn't
go into OT. Are are we to believe these games
are part of the cannon of NBA we know and love.
Are they playing defenses? I mean, it just seems there
was another high score this past weekend as well. I mean,
(12:40):
is this normal basketball? Should I Should I be watching
it with the same I. Well, that's a that's a
tricky question there because, uh, you know I've been saying, oh,
you're a long with the fenders in this league. Now
are handcuffed? I mean you're you're defenseless. You're absolutely defenseless
as a defender. When I first got in the league
in eighty nine, you know, the veterans would always talk
(13:02):
about using the arm bar on defense. And you know,
the kiss of death as a defender was if an
offensive player was able to get his body into your body,
if it was torso, the torso he got you, and
so you could use that arm bar to keep his
body from getting into you. Because if you know as
an offensive player, if you know how to use your
(13:22):
body and pull your arms through, you can get physical
with the defender and there's nothing you can do with
you if you get body to body with him. Well,
nowadays that's the only way that you can guard anybody,
and you can't put up that arm bar. You see
guys that are moving and sliding their feet with their
hands in the air like a splaye kind of chicken.
If you will, your hands are up there and their
(13:44):
backs and you show the official and you're not touching
the player, and the fact that everybody's shooting three balls.
So when you look at the court and I made this, uh,
I told my producer other day when I was watching
the Rockets game. Actually watching the Rockets game, to me,
because everybody is so spread on the court, it almost
looked like there weren't ten guys out there, right because
(14:06):
everybody's guarding the three point line. If James Harden beats
initial defender, he may have one health of fender that
rotates over and if he can sides at tilm, it's
it's an easy lay up. It's almost like a drill
right now. On the offensive end of the flour. I mean,
if you're an offensive player, you're gonna score the ball, uh,
because the defender is just gonna have a nightmares time
(14:27):
trying to stop you. So it's kind of twofold as
to why everybody's scoring so many points. Yeah, I mean
I've been like you said, I guess the three point game.
It's so NBA involved now, like when we you know,
when I watched you coming up, and when you know,
in the eighties and nineties, it was such like a
slam dunk game. You know, it was like we we
gravitated towards Shack and Barkley and David Robinson obviously with you,
(14:50):
like guys who were big men who were driving underneath.
And now I assume every kid coming up wants to
be Steph Curry. Every kid coming up wants to be hard,
and so they're almost shooting from the half court line
at times. Yeah, it's insane. I mean you get to
guard a lot of people right when they come over
half court. I mean the one that comes to minds
Damian Lillard, and he's got in the gym range, and
as soon as he comes across the half court line,
(15:12):
you have to guard him. And so it's just it's
spreads everybody out. And if you watch an old eighties
or nineties game, or even early two thousands, the court
looks condensed. Every everybody is within the three point line.
If you penetrate, it's not beating just your defender. You
might have to beat two or three other other guys
back there because there's so many people in the paint.
Now it's just the wide open freefall, and three point
(15:35):
ball is largely responsible for that. You have a rare
perspective on this whole thing because you were part of
the championship spurs a season cut short by the labor strike,
and you faced all the asterisks. Talk back, then, what's
your answer to that criticism? Then? And now I guess
you know, obviously you guys had that, and now whoever
wins this championship is gonna hear the same thing. Can
(15:56):
can this be defended as a serious championship? Yeah? Can be,
It can be for sure. And you know, we won
a ninety nine. We heard the talk after, and to
me it was puzzling because the people that were criticizing
were the same people that we went through and the
fact that if they had one, they wouldn't have asked
for an asterisk next to the championship. And it's not
(16:17):
like we played a shortened playoff schedule. The season was.
The season was shortened, but the playoffs were exactly the
same amount of games. If you said, oh, you only
got to win eight games winning championship, that's completely different.
But we had to win the required amount of games
that everybody else had played previous years so previously, so
I don't get the asteric talk. I mean, if you
(16:38):
have to play the same playoff format, and so it's
going to be the same thing here. You're you're still
taking the best teams. The only thing is that you're
you're not gonna have really, to me, any kind of
home court advantage because you're not gonna have the fans
behind you. So I almost think it's gonna be tougher.
I almost think it's gonna be tougher for a team.
You know, the Lakers have a home court advantage of
(16:59):
the Bucks have home court I'm putting home court advantage
in quotation fingers. If they have that, you don't really
have it. You know, Milwaukee is not going to have
their fans behind them, so it's gonna be much more
difficult for them that they're facing the Lakers in a
seven game series on really which is essentially a neutral court,
as opposed to facing them at the arena where they
(17:20):
have the fans getting behind them and ducing them up. Yeah.
I I'll tell you, the season did give me a
lot of hope this last weekend when the Raptors did
beat the Lakers, because it does seem okay, you know,
with the level playing field, feels feels much better now. Yeah,
I mean it's really interesting. Uh, you know, there's a
lot to talk about there because you know, for me,
and I joked about it on our air, I wasn't
the best practice player. You know. I played well in practice,
(17:42):
well enough in practice, But for me, when the lights
were on and people were there, it brought a heightened
sense of focus for me, and so I felt like
I performed much better when people are in the stands
than just a practice or a script situation. And I'm
sure that might that might hold true for some of
the players that are playing. But again, the NBA has
(18:03):
done such a great job kind of stage in the
games that maybe it doesn't impact guys. Yeah. Well, as
you said above and beyond your historic run with the Spurs,
you're also now broadcaster for for the team, and Popovich
has said that his main focus in Orlando as player
development guys like Heldon Johnson, You Banks, Luca, Lonnie Walker.
I when I heard that, I'm a god, I'm a
(18:23):
Popovitch stand. I love the dude. I just am always
nervous with him putting his health on the line, you know,
because he's obviously in a heightened age group for just
to get young guys reps. I mean, I bummed me out.
I mean, do you think it's still worth it to
hear they're not going for the championship, they're just trying
to get guys into the game. Well they see riding
on the wall. I mean there's no LaMarcus Aldred he's
(18:44):
out with the shoulder injury, no trade Lyles, So you're
missing arguably your best player and LaMarcus. And yeah, I'm
sure you know you look at it on the situation
where you have to win a certain amount of games
just to get in the playoffs situation and then you're
probably are most likely to play the Lakers in the
first round. You kind of have to understand and be
(19:04):
realistic about your chances. And so, you know, I like
what they're doing right now, playing the young guys and
kind of seeing what you have going forward. And as
a matter of fact, it's paid off so far. I
mean we've won the first couple of games. Uh, the
young guys look good, and they're they're playing, you know,
loose out there, and they're playing with no pressure. Uh,
(19:25):
they know that they're gonna play thirty minutes tonight, that
they know that they're going to be able to make
mistakes and and Pop's not gonna pull them, And so
you have guys right now they are just letting it flow.
They've gotta sets the freedom out there, and it's paying
off before us and we're getting a chance to see
our young guys shine and see what you have going forward, Sharon,
(19:45):
and you're one of the most storied college players of
all time, University of Arizona's leading scorer still at this time, Uh,
the n C double a season up in the air. Really,
do you think there's any way they can make it
work safely to have these kids in college and playing.
I'm not sure. I I think right now, when I
look at what's going on in all the sports, the
only way that anything's gonna work is probably in a bubble.
(20:08):
Because you know, you can control the variables, you can
control the environment around the players. Can't do that in college.
And furthermore, you know these guys coming in eighteen nineteen
years old, how are you going to tell them the
socially distance and not go to the frat party and
and stay away from your girlfriend or other people. And
(20:29):
that's just not going to happen. I think the players
in the NBA, obviously, you know they've done a great
job of respecting each other and respecting the mission or
the goal and what the league trying to achieve. So
they've done a great job with kind of policing themselves
and staying uh in the quarantine. I don't think you
can pull that off with a bunch of college kids. Yeah. Well,
(20:50):
before sports did come back, fans clung onto the last
Dance on ESPN. I think one of the big revelations
that people took out of it was that Michael Jordan
sure hated the Pistons. H you were the Detroit Piston
that is the last in season. Do you remember anything
from those matchups with the heated kind of feelings that
he gave off during the dock? Well, I got there,
(21:13):
and Michael, that was the year, I want to say,
the first year that he had retired, and then he
came back the next year halfway through the season. So, yeah,
the Bulls were still good. There was still a good team,
but the Pistons weren't the same Pistons. It was Isaiah
Joe and Bill Lambier essentially that were left over from
(21:35):
those bad boy teams. The rest of the guys, the
rest of that roster wasn't there, and so you know,
there wasn't a lot of talk about it. I had
watched those matchups. I was obviously not only a player,
but a huge fan of just watching games, and so
I've seen all that drama unfold. But but there wasn't
a lot of talk about it, honestly in Detroit anymore. Wow,
(21:58):
So you didn't hear any Isaiah talk about ordinance stuff
while all that kind of is he coming back? Is
he is? I mean, it was such a big deal
in those seasons right before he came back. You didn't
hear anything kind of going on. No, No, I didn't.
But they didn't talk about it a lot. And I
know why because it didn't end all of them, and
so I'm sure they didn't want to rehash, you know,
(22:18):
what Michael had done to on that last season. After
this More with san Antonio spurs legend and current analyst
Sean Elliott. Right now, Feeding America is working tirelessly to
ensure our most vulnerable populations, like students who were out
of school, the elderly individuals whose jobs are impacted, and
low income families continue to have access to food and
(22:41):
other needed resources. During the COVID nineteen pandemic, the Feeding
America Food Bank Network is committed to serving communities and
people facing hunger in America, and their greatest need is
donations and support of local food banks. This podcast is
committed to donating a portion of the proceeds from the
show to Feeding America and we hope that you can
join us in this effort to find out how you
can help Feeding America dot org backslash COVID nineteen and
(23:10):
now the rest of my chat with Sean Elliott. With
the world finally waking up to a lot of the
racial injustices for the past hundreds of years in our country.
Uh really sparked by the murder of George Floyd. I
thought about you a little bit when I was researching
because I went to University of Arizona for a year.
I went to Tuson, Arizona, then transferred to USC Why
in the world to do that, I would listen. I'm
(23:33):
from I'm from l A. You couldn't keep me there.
I'll tell you other than Bison, which is that sandwich
restaurant which I still think about once a week. I
don't miss a ton there. Because I'll be honest with you,
I did hear a lot of racism in Tucson, Arizona,
and I wanted to know what your experience was like
growing up there and playing there, especially because you played
(23:53):
in Texas, which isn't necessarily known for its unity. Yeah,
there was a lot of races. There was. That's the
reality of it. There's racism everywhere, but there was racism
in Tucson. And you know, I got called names plenty
of times or got looks. And you know, my my
mother grew up in Mississippi, Holly Springs, Mississippi, and so
(24:14):
you know, I come home and tell her, Hey, mom,
you know this happened today or this haping. She'd say, well,
that's racist, and you don't have to stand for that.
But I would, you know, I was still young and
naive and say, oh, mom, come on, you know not
at all that can be racist. And then as I
got older, you know, lo and behold, my mom got
a lot smarter in my eyes. So yeah, I mean,
there was just definitely that there's no there's no way
(24:34):
to avoid it. And and Tucson is a lot more
liberal than probably any other towns in in Arizona. So
but I still love TUCSONA wouldn't trade my experience growing
up there for anything, But yeah, I mean it definitely
had episodes and times that were tough. I you know,
it's hard to imagine, and a lot of people when
(24:55):
I tell them miss to go no way. But literally
in elementary school, I thought, almost every day, almost every
single day, I got in some kind of scuff or
a fight almost every day. And what percentage of that
school was white? It was all white, I mean all
white and hispanic, I think, coming up all the way
until the sixth grade when I moved and I went
(25:18):
to a school that had a lot more black students.
And up until that time, I mean I was like
I'd be one of the only two black kids in school,
two or three black kids in school. And so you know,
it's like, you know, the one story that I that
I tells when Ruth came out, you know, the teacher
would I was talking about it in class, and like
every time she would say something about the slaves, Everybody's
(25:41):
turned around looking at me like I'm some kind of authority.
And then when I the one instant that really got
me in a lot of troubles, when I got off
the bus one day and I had about twenty or
thirty kids waiting for me when I got off the bus,
and there were tenny Roots and so I just yeah,
so I just got off the bus just ready to wing.
You know, I was just already you know, it was
(26:03):
already tense because you know, I was watching the miniseries too.
So just what you did. It was only three television channels,
not like you had, you know, five channels to watch,
so everybody sat down at night and watched Roots. And
so I watched it, and you know, I get the
Kunta Kente's and the Toby or you know, people call
you Chicken George, you know, thinking it's funny, and so
(26:23):
it was. It wasn't the best time for you know,
maybe it was the best time for a young black kid. Yeah,
that is brutal. I I it's weird because you think
a school like University of Arizona is liberal arts to
an extent, and I remember so vividly going there and
being shocked. I guess may because it's such a feeder
school for Scottsdale, which is like Snowtown. It's so white.
(26:46):
But like the thing about about black kids that were
at you have a it was it was mostly athletes
and I went there in nineties seven. I mean, it
didn't feel like a very diverse campus at all. Well,
you know, most of the black kids that I went
to school with an Arizona were athletes, maybe all of them.
I had a funny instance. We were all of us
(27:09):
were in freshman English or so my recruiting class six guys,
five were black. The one white guy that was on
our team was from Iowa. And the five of us,
the five black freshmen, we all tuted into English one
hundred I believe it was. And so all of us
(27:29):
were taking the same class at the same time, and
we had a black professor and we were discussing a
book about a black musician, and a white girl raised
her hand. We were fresh discussing this book, and the
white gool raised your hand. And in class she asked,
She said, if black people's bottom of their feet are
(27:51):
white and their hands white, are their hands are white?
Are their butts white too? And the yes, The class erupted.
Bruce Wheatley was laying on the floor laughing. The teacher
was chuckling. He he didn't know what to say. Some
of the other students are like, going, my goodness, how
(28:12):
didn't you ever seen like Nassal Geographic. I mean, it
was a time where you know, it was so funny,
it wasn't offensive. It was just like, my goodness, like
people really don't know. You don't know about black people, Sean,
I'll tell you this one. And I don't mean to
dog you of a because I really I honestly, the
education there was much better than than you would think
(28:33):
based on the things you're hearing right now. I actually
learned a lot of stuff that was I think I
learned about HD television there for the first time in
like nineties six. But but I will say I have
a friend Adam Pally, great comedian. He showed up on
this podcast once recently, and he has a story. We
went there at the same time, and he has a
story where he went on a date with a girl
and she asked and he thought she was kidding. Yeah,
(28:55):
she asked where his horns were because he was Jewish,
and he thought she was joking, so they laughed, and
then she wasn't laughing and she had been taught by
her parents that Jewish people have horns. Yeah. Yeah, I've
heard a similar story like that from one of our
media relations people in Detroit. The same thing where one
of her black girl friends went out actually with a
(29:16):
white girl, and the white girl picked her up and said, hey,
that's a cute dress. Where where do you hide your tail? Unbelievable. So,
I mean, but you know that kind of thing. When
I hear that, I don't get offending because I've heard so.
I mean, we could sit here for an hour. Yeah,
and I could tell you this kind of story, and
some people will think that all that they can't possibly happened.
(29:37):
Yeah it happened. Yeah, it happened. And I guess, you know,
to sum it up and not make people so sad
about what we're hearing. The good news is in we
have a great awakening that's going on. You see it
with the NBA, with the you know, the social issues,
like you said, they're facing so elegantly. And I'm happy.
I'm happy to see where we're at this year at least,
you know, I'm happy that the conversation is still going on. Yeah,
(29:59):
I'll honestly against and I mean, I'm I've become really cynical,
and I'm wondering if a year from now, if we're
just going to be in the same situation or everybody
forgets about it, and it's going to take something else
and where everybody's gonna start writing again. Are we, you know,
really set up to make a change. A big part
(30:20):
of me feels like we are because the younger generation there,
they're woke, if you will, and they have trends that
are different colors, different sexual orientation, and they're open about it,
whereas you know, our generation wasn't. I was with a
(30:40):
group of friends the other day. We were talking about
the same thing, and I said, Hey, how many you
guys went to school with a gay guy? And they
were like, well, well, you know it was an older
obviously an older group of people. And they're like, well,
we didn't know they were gay, because they're gonna open.
I'd say, exactly. You know, we went to school with
all kinds of people, um that had to hide who
(31:02):
they were, hide their their true self from us because
we were, you know, so backward and intolerant back in
the seventies, eighties and nineties. And now this new generation
they're not like that. You know, my daughter and my kids,
all our kids are now out of college. But when
they were in high school, even a few years back,
they had friends that they knew were gay or lesbian,
(31:25):
and so you know, the whole way that they think
and the way they brought up now different. They're ways
more tolerant of each other than our generation and our
previous generations were, And so that kind of gives me
hope that the younger generation is gonna, you know, topple
this thing and put us over the edge and and
(31:46):
really really change hearts and change minds. Same I I
depend on them. So let's end on a bit of
a goofy note here. During this odd time in history,
you've been hosting a show on zoom geniusly titled Between
two Spurs. It's minute zoom interview with Spurs legends like
Avery Johnson and David Robinson. I wanted to end the
interview by me bringing up some past Spurs players, maybe
(32:07):
some obscure ones you didn't think about, and you tell
me if you think they'd make a good zoom interview. Yes, okay, First,
he only played one season on the Spurs. But you
blab blob, you say it better than I do. Yeah,
he's a big german guy, went to Washington. That's a
good question because I can hardly remember Huve and even
(32:30):
though I played against him, in college. So uh, all right,
all right, we'll hold off on that one. That's a
good one. I'm not sure. Okay, well hold off. Maybe
you'll hear the other ones and you'll you'll set up
who you want to. He played one season seventies s
seventy seven. I didn't even know he was a Spur.
Mike D'Antoni. Mike D'Antoni. I think Mike D'Antoni would be
(32:52):
a really good dream interview because he's been around but
here and there, and he's got a good personality. I
think he's just a generally he's a good guys. He
would be good interview. All right. This one's an old
teammate of yours. He played one season Sleepy Floyd. Uh,
Sleepy Floyd. I missed Sleepy Floyd by a year. Um
(33:13):
he was I think I missed him, but I admired
him when he was in college. I loved his nickname
and I was a big college basketball fan, So I
would love the interview Sleepy Floor. Okay, moving on. Uh,
This guy, at one NBA's largest personalities, played one season
on the Spurs fifteen sixteen. Boban is the best. I mean,
(33:33):
what a great dude. Yes, absolutely love Boban Marianovitch. Yes,
if you said no, I would have been very mad. Alright.
Two seasons on the Spurs oh nine through eleven. Antonio mcdice.
Is he a good interview in h Yeah, yeah he is,
because it's a cool, cool dude. I loved the way
he played early on in his career when he played
(33:54):
for the Denver No, he was a nightmare. He one
of the only guys. He was the only one of
the only guys that gave Tim Duncan problems. He he
could jump out the gym too. Man. It was was
an athlete. He could and he could shoot it. He
could shoot it with decent range. I mean, he had
a great low post game. He was He was a
lot of fun to watch, all right. This one maybe
didn't have his great of an NBA career, great in
college one season with the Spurs O one, O two
(34:17):
Cherokee Parks. He would be a great interview. Uh. Free spirit, yeah,
free spirit. The tattoos and stuff. Now he's out of
his mind. Yeah, yeah, it's a cool another cool just
I mean down to earth guy that you could have
a great conversation with. You sit down with anybody and uh,
and have a good time to stall to the earth
type of guy. I love it. Last one one season
(34:38):
with the Spurs and again a guy didn't even know
I'd see him as a nick. I guess I don't know. Oh,
three oh four, Charlie Ward played on the Spurs. Charlie Ward,
he would be a good interview. He eat on me
any time because he's High Sman Award winner. Yeah, ends
up playing NBA basketball. How many guys have done that? None? Yeah, Yeah,
(34:58):
he's he's got quite a as a mate. And you
know he's he's been in some battles and and and
watching Florida State in Miami back in the day. You know,
those were the games that people would I mean clam
around the TV set to watch. Guys were hitting each other.
They were so exciting. That was some of the best
football that was being played. Yeah, and Charlie Ward had
had deep through some dimes even in the NBA. He
(35:19):
was a pretty good assist guy. You did. He was
fun to watch the quarterback. I mean, he could scramble,
he could pay, had an arm. Yeah, he was fun
to watch. Well, Sean, I appreciate the candid talk. And
stay safe and healthy and We're excited for Spurs basketball.
Yes there anytime. The Sports Bubble is produced and distributed
(35:44):
by tree Fort Media. The show was executive produced by
Kelly Garner, Lisa Ammerman, Matthew Coogler, and me Jensen Carr.
Tom Monahan is our senior audio engineer and sound supervisor,
with production and editing by Jasper Leek additional production help
from Tim Shower, June Rosen, and Hayley Mandelberg. Our theme
music is composed by Spilkus. If you've enjoyed what you've heard,
(36:06):
please subscribe, rate us and review us on the I
Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts,
and please visit Feeding America dot org if you're able
to make a donation, any amount makes a difference, and
you can learn more about other ways you can help
on their website. For more information on The Sports Bubble,
links to the socials, and for show transcripts for our
hearing impaired listeners, go to tree Fort dot fm. Be
(36:28):
safe and be Well. The Sports Bubble is a production
of I Heart Radio and tree Fort Media. For more
podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast or wherever you listen to your favorite shows