June 15, 2020 • 43 mins
Last year, starting pitcher Zach Plesac had one of the most impressive debuts in Cleveland Indians history, taking the mound in a rainy Fenway Park against David Price. Now, instead of following up that fairytale start in what was to be his impressive rookie season, he’s moving from city to city as a young contract signee without his own house yet. Zach talks to Jensen about the eerie drive across the country during a pandemic, why he’s already got the best pickoff move in the majors, and how his incredible first game was made even more memorable thanks to a letter from David Price. Then, Jensen chats with director Michael Jacobs about his new Quibi docu-series, BLACKBALLED, following the controversy over former Clippers owner Donald Sterling. This episode and series supports FeedingAmerica.org. For more of The No-Sports Report, visit treefort.fm/the-no-sports-report
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the No Sports Report, a production of I
Heart Radio Entree Fort Media. Small note this episode was
recorded prior to the murder of George Floyd and the
resulting global reaction in protests, which is the only reason
it's not mentioned. Something to keep in mind while listening.
My name is Jensen carp and I'm a sports fan,
(00:24):
and just like you, I'm sad about the breaking news.
Oh not the pandemic. I've been sad about that for months.
I'm talking about no Taiwanese baseball teams offering a contract
to forty seven year old Manny Ramirez after he announced
he likes to play there in I know it's just
Manny being Manny, but we already live in a fantasy world.
Eighty two game baseball season, Basketball at Disney World, Brady
to Tampa Bay, a primetime specialist, celebrities cutting their own hair.
(00:48):
There's already a glitch in the matrix. Let's just go
full acid trip. Let Manny play, Let, Manny play Let,
Manny play. I'm gonna assume you're chanting with me, but
even if you're not, I'm talking to fleets and sports
industry professionals about what they're doing in quarantine, hoping to
figure out if the fame is competing as much as
I miss watching it. This is the No Sports report
(01:12):
to become a professional athlete. The amount of dedicated work
and focus training required is something most people could never do.
I say this while eating a large bag of nacho cheese.
Dorito's years of work go into achieving a dream that,
in less than one percent of cases actually does happen.
And if you're one of the chosen few live it up,
the work is paid off. But what if you can't
(01:33):
live it up because right now it can't pay off?
What if you're stuck in a global pandemic, unable to
participate in your first opening day, moving city to city
and quarantine because you're a rookie pitcher who rightfully hasn't
bought a house yet. And even though you had one
of the most impressive starting pitture debuts in Cleveland, Indians history,
taking them out at a rainy Fenway Park against David
Price in two thousand nineteen, well that has nothing to
do with coronavirus. And your story is still delayed in
(01:55):
finding its fairy tale end. And sure, some people might
think you have the best pickoff move in the majors,
and you added an off speed pitt during the spring,
and you're a dark horse favorite for a starting rotation spot.
But what's it all worth if you can't actually celebrate
the winds? These are all questions for today's guest, Zach Pleisach.
We talked about being a pandemic nomad, his surreal first
major League appearance, and the stuff your grandma collects. And
(02:17):
I chat with Michael Jacobs, the director of Quimby's new
series about Donald Sterling in the two thousand fourteen Los
Angeles Clippers black Ball. All of this on the new
episode of The No Sports Report. How from exactly that
(02:39):
to accept press one? Hello Zach, Hey, buddy, I've noticed
you've been moving around a little bit during quarantine. You're
staying safe, obviously, but I want to know where you're
currently hunkered down. I'm right now currently in northwest Indiana.
I started off obviously in Florida, was in Cincinnati, and
my family staring north this Indiana. So I had a
send some time with them before I really head out here,
(03:00):
you know, to get ready for the season that's gonna
be coming up Staine hopefully. Yeah, So before that, who
are you with my agent? See now that's the thing
I had heard you were living with your agent, and
I realized I need a new agent mine. I would
never let me live with her, let alone. She sent
me just an edible arrangement for Christmas. I mean, I'm
gonna I'm in the wrong situation. Man. That's maybe she
(03:21):
doesn't have the extra room fit. Maybe I don't know.
I feel I feel jipped. Uh. You've been able to
also see your teammate and your friend Mike Clevinger, which
is more than most players have been able to do.
So how have you been able to stay active and
fit and healthy getting ready for this new season? Yeah,
I mean at first it was we were down in
Florida together, so it was nice outside. It was, you know,
(03:42):
nice enough to be out and about. Obviously can't go
in any public places, but we you know, had the
outside ability to play catch in the street and you know,
around some sprints or do some band work in the driveway.
So I mean, at first, it was super limited to
activity that was basically just like in her house and home.
Idem Um. I had some weighted balls and some bands
that I had, you know, just from spring training and
(04:04):
things that I took with me to continue to train,
and we were just using those things and really just
playing catch, but weight listening kind of slowed down, which
it normally would at that point of the year anyway,
because we've been getting into the season. Um. But you know,
like there still has to be a point of keeping
that strength and making sure that you know, as we're
moving forward, we're not regressing and work at least we
(04:25):
get a positive direction sure, and and beyond working out,
staying fit getting ready for baseball. While you're traveling doing
these things, have you been able to watch TV shows
or do any of the things these normal humans like
me are doing. Yeah, I mean I've definitely been spending
more time like with my family, and I've been watching
a lot more TV um on my computer at least. Uh,
(04:47):
you know, I've really been I've kind of been bounced around.
It's like as soon as I kind of like get
like settled in somewhere, like about time for me to
make a different move, you know. So I'm just kind
of staying a lot of my COEs. I don't have
a house yet for myself, so that's really the next
step for me, somewhere where I can actually punker down
and get all my stuff, you know, packed in and
have like a home base. But you know, at first
is you know, I was with my friend and I'm
(05:08):
with my agent and with my family, and you know,
so I was trying to figure out what's gonna work
best for everybody, you know. So, yeah, you are different
than most people I've spoken to for the podcast because
you've actually been having to move to different places. What
has it been like traveling during this time. Yeah, I
mean it's when I'm traveling, I'm just in the car.
You know, It's I'm not like staying overnight anywhere, like
you know, really coming in contact with anyone until I'm
(05:30):
getting gas out of my car. You know. It's really
the only time so um, when I'm When I was
in Cincinnati traveling there, you know, my agent had a
great set up with a gym and uh, you know,
trainer and play this stuff to get my work in.
And yeah, I mean there's just like a blessing from
to be able to have that and make the most
of it there. And I have you know, the prisoners
to have a gym here at home, and me and
my training together down in Florida's as good as it
(05:52):
gets to because you know, we're pushing each other and
we're you know, become a scientists on our body, I guess,
so to speak, based on you know, mechanics and try
to just reach our full potential and get the most
out of ourselves. Yeah. I mean, I know it's kind
of a cheap comparison, but I guess people that I
know who have had to drive kind of far places
say it does have a bit of like a walking
dead vibe. Is like, no traffic on any freeways, the
(06:13):
streets seemed pretty quiet. I mean, I guess I was wondering,
was it much quicker for you than normal? Oh? Yeah, yeah,
actually that yeah, now that you say that, driving up
from I'm you know, staying from the Panhandle of Florida
to Cincinnati. You drive to Louisville, and I remember just
going through that city at Louisville and it was an
absolute ghost town of like the city of downtown. So
that's not like dang, No one is really outside right now.
(06:36):
Even on the roads, they're pretty open. I could say. Now,
I feel like they're getting more um, I guess rush. Yeah,
it seems people are starting to go outside at least
a little bit. Now, I know, you have a brother
that you're staying with that was a high school senior,
younger brother, so did a bump him out to have
his graduation cut short and not have a prom and
and all the things you and I now barely remember,
(06:57):
probably but meant a lot to us at the time. Yeah,
he was definitely bummed at first. You know, this season
taken away from him his senior year high school, of
his friends. I mean, that's probably one of the most
memorable kinds of your life, you know, So for him
it was it was hard at first, but you know,
you know, we just kind of gotta keep our heads straight,
you know, just you know, he knew that he's got
to look forward to what's next in his life. He's
got to take care of some things and looking to
(07:19):
go to place somewhere, and you know what he has
to do in order to do that, and just kind
of with everything, you know, he's got to reorganize and
a justice like everyone has to do eventually, you know,
just adjust of what kind of gets done your way.
So this is just something he realized he has been
battling with. It's unfortunate, but yeah, he's he's good now.
He was. He was definitely bummed before and he was
playing sports. Is that what I'm under the impression his
season was cut out? Yeah, he was a senior. He
(07:40):
was I mean a picture. I'm sorry, he was a
picture in the baseball team and they were about to
start their season, I think top five. They were ranked
in the state and had a lot of buzz going
their way, had other good arms on their team and
some other good players. So um, there was definitely some
buzz before the season for their squad going into this
this year. So yeah, I didn't even think of that really.
(08:00):
I guess I just weirdly focused on prom but it
is true. I mean he didn't even really get to
see you know, the scouts didn't really get to come
out all those things too. Yeah, I know, right, So
now I think even I don't even think Scots are
allowed to come watch guys during the squortancing time anyway.
So it's like, yeah, crazy for those guys who are
looking to go go play or get recruited or even
you know, have a chance to get drafted, because it's
kind of difficult. It's like you got to do it
(08:21):
all over our phones now videos. Yeah, how hectic was
it for you. You don't have your own place yet,
you're looking into doing that. Obviously you're kind of new
to the league. How hectic was it for you one
day to be completely president focused on spring training and
then the next trying to figure out where you're gonna stay. Yeah,
it's kind of like that's how it's been the past
couple of years, Like trying to figure out where you're
(08:42):
gonna stay, where you're gonna be. Everything, he's kind of
up in the air. It's kinda gotta just whatever. You know,
it's kind of blown your way. But um, you know,
I didn't even have a place set up yet for
the season. During spring training, I was kind of waiting
to see where everything is playing out and you know,
just moving along. I just had to see what's been
going to be a good situation for me to get
my training in and keep my mental good, you know,
everything just being a good spot. So because I wasn't
(09:04):
even looking forward, I have to it's my responsibility as
starting pitcher for the Fluting Indians to prepare and keep
myself ready for when we do have to go play.
You know, it's not like we were I wasn't off
during this time so I was moving around from with
my teammate to my agent to my family. I was
in Cleveland for a little bit and then I'm back home.
Um yeah, and I'm just, you know, do what I
(09:24):
gotta do to make the best of what we got. Uh.
I guess too, Like I don't mean to to pour
salt in the wound here, but you know it was
gonna be your first pro opening day. Uh. Did you
have sort of that whole process planned out in your
head to walk out the call of your name, the
whole thing. I mean, how big of a bummer is
it to not have that? Yeah, for sure, I had.
(09:45):
I had all that stuff ready. Uh it was. It
was a bummer. I mean I wasn't sore set to
make the team, you know. So it was definitely competition
to the end. But looking looking forward to opening day, man,
that's something you know, I dream about, um and hopefully
you know, in the future sometime I'm able to experience it.
But for now, you know, my opening days whenever we
get our first game this year? Yeah, well, you you
had a great strong eight and six under four e
(10:06):
r a season. I know you said it was a
battle to make roster, but you were obviously a favor
to do. So, uh, you found your groove right away
kind of coming in and and that's not easy to
do obviously. Does this kind of does the pouse and play?
Does it mess with your flow at all? No, honestly, Like,
I don't think it has it all. Uh. I really think,
you know, I've done as much as I could. I
mean in the grand scheme of a season and in
(10:29):
terms of reading guys swings and doing all that and
understanding the league and what's going on, like that's part
of it. Definitely we're gonna have to, you know, adjust
as you play when we get going again. But you know,
I feel like I've done everything and been blessed with
the resources around me to be able to continue to
train and just stay on top of my craft. You know,
it's just more than work to me. It's something that
you know, I've carried with me every day. So um,
I wake up and get ready to work. So I think,
(10:50):
you know, in the end, it's it's a bummer our
games got pushed back, but you know, I think I'm
really ready to play right now. So your major League
debut was at the Storied, and I guess intimidating Fenway Park.
Mookie Betts was the first batter you faced. You had
a like a four hour rain delay. You still went
five and a third innings. You gave up only one run.
(11:11):
If any picture conservative survived this pandemic, it is clearly you.
Is there a way you could go through? How difficult
that day was for you? Yeah, that day was one
I'll never forget. Just steven from the night before. But
my agent has set up a fake dinner at Morn's
and they catered us really nice. They must my agent
must told him that I was pitching the next day
and they were just pitching me good luck and being
(11:32):
really cool. Had a great dinner, welcome to the next morning,
and wanted just to get my mind off the game
as much as I could and just enjoy the day
and the experience of my my family. But I couldn't
really hang out with my mom a whole bunch because
she was stressed me out, probably just being stressed out herself.
So I hang out with my brother and my agent.
We got some pasta for lunch, and then my agent
actually got me these white pair of lebrons that it
(11:53):
just came out at fourteen lows and Tom at the shoe.
So we were walking up and down Boston and it
was kind of raining out, so was it being a day,
you know, So we're just trying to find stuff to
do and like make it right. But he gives me
these shoes. He's all white, you know. I take them
into the into my warm up and I'm running on
the warning track. I got them all muddy, and I'm like,
you know, this is when I can trash these shoes
I just got Today. We're in the babies like we can.
(12:14):
That's like, what are you supposed to do? You know,
getting near this tomorrow? I didn't really know. It's so lost,
just like being so president, you know. So ends up
getting a gift from my agent. Took him in and
got loose. Uh. Yeah, it came all the way to
the game time. You know, it's probably missing out and
that wasn't really raining, but it wasn't not raining, so
like it was a question in the air if we're
gonna play, waiting to see if the weather was gonna
hold up, and so uh this kind of waiting game.
(12:37):
I had to do a bunch of paperwork before the game,
and like signing to your contract getting transferred over from
trip to the big leagues, and I had to Puy.
I had never met before like big league. Uh you
know obviously our big league staff and other athletic trainers
and pubbies ever met, and so that was all new.
Everything is super new. You've never been the friend way before,
so I was new too, So everything was just so
(12:57):
new to me. I was just trying to absorb it.
One of my warm ups, I'm just nervous as hall
of hell, and my family and friends are standing behind
like the guy I'm playing catch with, so that's the
only thing I see when I'm playing catch, you know.
So it was like welcoming, but at the same time,
it's just you know, you don't want to overthrow one
and then throwing the bleachers and everyone's watching. You know.
That's like how I felt um going in you know.
(13:17):
The first inning. Well, I was warming up next to
David christ To, who you know, is as great as
they get. You know, I was even watching some with him,
trying to throw like him as a righty, but I
know he's left seeing just being in that moment just
throwing next to him too. It's almost a real So
I get to the first ending. I throw my first
pitch to Mookie Best and I yank get hard on
the glove side. The ball felt like a tennis ball
for real, and um, the next pitch is supposed to
(13:39):
be down in a way and I missed like kind
of up and in just trying to throw a strike,
you know, I'm feeling like I'm throwing a golf ball.
And then he rolls over the third thankfully, and I
saw if I don't think he swings at that, it
might have been a ball. And I don't know if
I was gonna strike after that, so shout out to
move to back, getting me see that first out, and
then uh, ever's next that bat struck him out and
that was my first strike out is the third guy
(14:01):
set out, so you know, it's rain delay after that.
So like an hour waiting around and running a bike,
you know, text with my family, listen to music, trying
to stay like cool and just kind of playing the
waiting game to see what was going on. And luckily,
you know, the stash were I mean, they trusted me
enough to go back out there, even in the rain delay.
So I went back out and got through five and
(14:22):
me and they're coming back late that game and winning,
so overall is a really good day. When I got
taken out of again, there's a letter from David Probace,
just a saying, you know, like I wish it would
have been a better day for you, Good luck, sy
and yeah as long in my career, and it's just
really cool. It was just like one of those things
like I'm actually here at the clash saxt uh. When
you when you look back at it, is it like
an out of body experience where you're sort of watching
(14:44):
over you still remember, I mean obviously you know the details.
Does it feel like you did it? Or does it
feel like it was someone else? Uh? No, I mean
it's definitely a moment that I won't forget. It felt
like an out of body experience, I guess, But I
mean I definitely can have vivid memories of throwing on
the foul line and even getting on the mound and
just being warming up in between anything. I knew exactly
where I was. I could still see it, so it's
(15:06):
something that would be stuff in my head first rest
of my life. Did you end up with clean lebrons?
Are you still have those dirty ones? Yeah? Honestly I
got them cleaned up and they were good to go.
So I'm just getting another pair of those shoes, the
same pair after I had wrecked them. So okay, good.
I was gonna say, someone's gotta take care of you there.
During the off season, you added a curveball to your arsenal.
Like I said, you're coming off a very strong season. Uh.
(15:29):
In any other staff, you're you're kind of building up
to be, you know, a two or three option almost immediately.
But the Cleveland staff is stacked. How do you feel
about your chances of making the team slash starting rotation
are now? Well, I mean there's there's no promises. With
how deep our staff, this is blessing for real. I mean,
if there's not a lot of things like you should
(15:49):
they have a deep pitching staff. So I mean that's
definitely advantage we have. We have a lot of great guys.
I mean, I feel really confident where I'm at with
all my pitches and mentally physically, I'm in a great
spot to pitch into big league. So, um, you know,
isn't new who makes the decisions. So I just do
my part and prepare myself as well as I can. Right. Well,
that's great? Uh, you and I are both big tattoo guys.
(16:11):
I have a bit less than you. I'm more of
a pick and shoes spots dude, but you have great
work on your sleeve and chest. Uh. With social distancing
becoming a bit of the norm, I've asked this a
couple of guys already. Do you see, like, how does
tattooing go on? Like? Does do people have to be
tested and then you're you're safe to go get a
tattoo from that guy? What does it look like post pandemic? Yeah,
tattoo artists are pretty much closed through July, so they're
(16:34):
on backburners right now. I don't think people can get
private apparently specially private sessions and put those guys out
of business. So I think right now in a lot
of states, it kind of depends. But um, yeah, I
do have a lot of tattoos and it looks like
it won't be getting anymore for a little bit. But yeah,
I wonder if the future once everything's like, oh, I
wonder if private is the way to go just but
I mean I do think like if I'm going to
(16:55):
be that close to someone for a few hours, in
some cases, it's like I need to know that they've
tested net ative, it would be it would be a
whole thing. Yeah, I agree. So I mean who knows,
uh well, moving forward to keep it positive? Is there
anything you think that we've adapted to during this time
of the pandemic that you think should stick around for
when everything works out and we're back out in the wild.
(17:16):
I think I hope no one's scared from everything that's
going on, you know. I think it's becoming more aware
of how to do your part more. You know, I
think we as people need to start taking you know,
responsibility for things that we do and how it can
affect not only us in our future, but our generations
to come. So, I mean, I think this is definitely
just woke into the grand audience of all everyone. I mean, hopefully,
(17:38):
you know, move forward, people just kind of learn how
to do their thing and you know, kind of have
a little more awareness to what good health is and
how we can just better our whole planet. That's right,
it's just a little bit of a rain delay, right,
We'll come back, stay stay stay warm, all right. So
I usually end these podcasts with a little bit of
some suggestions things that can help you during the pandemic,
(17:59):
so I wanted to give you a couple of them
and see what you think. All right, First, theme parks
have obviously been closed. They are one of the most
I think damaged industries because you just imagine, you know,
tens of thousands of people in one spot, and so
they've been closed during the outbreak. Now whether or not
they can reopen still up in the air. But Disneyland
(18:19):
and Disney World is known for a very specific food
and its recipe has always been a mystery until now.
With everyone stuck at home and no chance of visiting
the parks, they've released the coveted doll Whip soft serve.
Do you know about the doll whip. I've definitely had
it before, I'm not Why don't you tell me what
they're about? Okay, So it is people for years have
(18:41):
been obsessed with it. They serve it only near this
weird tiki room that has like talking birds in it,
and even when you've tried to do it at home,
it never tastes the same, and people are like, oh,
I gotta go get the doll whip at Disneyland. So
they totally like just out of nowhere, went to the
Disney blog and the Disney app and just posted the recipe,
(19:02):
which is just three ingredients, vanilla ice cream, pineapple juice,
and frozen pineapple chunks. That's it. That's it, that's all.
That's it. I'm gonna go. I have to make a
trip to the grocery store. I think it's see how
mine will compare. They have to add sugar or something
has to I feel like they're lying, but people can
the suggestion just go over, bring a little Disneyland to
your house, make some It's all viewable on the Disney
(19:24):
Parks app. Great for a hot day. Um now, my
other one is for you and your friends, teammates who
want to catch up or whatever it is. It is
a zoom poker game. So this this is a way
to play poker, which, by the way, today I saw
a photo of a casino that is trying some things
out in Florida, and I will tell you it was
(19:45):
a poker table and around the whole poker table was
fiberglass and you can just put your hands in little
holes in the fiberglass, like it's like your baby was
just born and you want to touch it. Do you
know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, but maybe I
don't know, don't know if I trust it, but it
looks weird. But I think an easy way is to
just get on Zoom online handful of great online poker sites.
(20:07):
You can download those apps and then set up a
private table, send invites to your friends, and then use
a second screen like an iPad to set up the
zoom and then you're like calling each other all in
the same room. You're just sitting there. And if you
wanted to involve money, which is illegal, I do not
at all suggest it. It would be easy to set
up a venmo to collect the money, but I'm not
encouraging that's I mean, it sounds like a lot of
(20:28):
tablet different in your room. But I mean still as
long as you're not catching your hand, I mean, it
doesn't matter when their money agreed. Lastly, Uh, now, I
know we all have we all have different families, uh,
and we we've all grown up in different areas across
the globe. But I do think that we all have
or had similar grandparents. Okay, so grandparents are kind of
(20:50):
one species. Their house smells like a mix of mothballs
and cinnamon sticks. They always have worthers in their pocket.
We know these lovable creatures. But the one thing I
missed most about my grandparents are there chat keys. Do
you know what chat keys are? Okay, they're like the
little things around their house that are like insanely breakable
(21:10):
and appear to be worth a bunch of money. Like
my grandma had this crystal candy dish, and she had
a curial cabinet filled with humble statues which are basically
just these porcelain figures of like young boys and leader
hose in opening a mailbox or like playing hop scotch.
Do you know what I'm talking about? I don't know.
I don't think I do. Man, do you Grandma? Grandma?
Did they have like like weird things. They collected it
(21:33):
all like penguin statues or mugs. They have some collections.
See now those are I can't get into all that
right now. Well those are chos. So that's okay. You
don't even need to get into it. You just need
to know that those are chat keys. So when we
when we reopen as a nation, I am suggesting that
you take advantage of this with a store in Indiana.
You can even do it there. The store is going
(21:55):
to be called zach Plesack's knickknacks, okay, Nicknack, and you
specialize in like ornate desk clocks that don't tell the
right time or never could, or like commemorative spoons that
celebrate stuff like NASA re launches and very fancy plates
that look like Saddam Hussein owned them. Like it's just
all the things grandparents have. I don't know if that's older.
(22:18):
I'm kind of new. Two ways, honestly, my Adam make
them like con join it started collaboration, right, Yeah, that
doesn't make sense for you, like a drip collaboration like
a streetwear thing. Yeah, I get it. Well it's a
real look and don't touch type of store, so I understand.
But but I I let you have that. But for now,
I just want to thank you for coming on the
show and I want you to stay healthy and I
(22:39):
can't wait to see you out on the field. I
for one to have you in the starting rotation, so
I'm thrilled to get baseball back out there. Let's go, man.
I appreciate you, and uh yeah go try Thanks for
having me. After this break, my chat with Michael Jacobs,
director of black Ball, the new Quimby documentary about the
controversy over former Clippers owner Donald Sterling. Right now, Feeding
(23:03):
America is working tirelessly to ensure our most vulnerable populations,
like students who are out of school, the elderly individuals
whose jobs are impacted, and low income families continue to
have access to food and 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
(23:25):
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. Now here's my chat with Black
(23:45):
Ball director Michael Jacobs. Michael, how's it going, ma'am good?
How are you? I'm good. Well. First, I wanted to
congratulate you on the release of the documentary. It is
called black Bald. You can find it currently. I think
in its first few chapters on Quimby, I assume there
is not a better time in the universe ever to
release a basketball documentary. Uh, did you have to rush
(24:06):
it out after the success of the Last Dance? We did. Yeah,
Originally we were slated to aar in June, and once
the Last Dance rushed their you know schedule up, and
once it became the cultural phenomena that it that it
was going to be, um, you know, we had to
get our our film series done much more quickly than
(24:26):
we had anticipated. So we were really you know, making
last minute changes and tweaks and um delivering you know,
down to the wire here about a week and a
half ago. Oh, I'm sure that's very easy to do
in the pandemic, right right. I can't speak enough about
the team of people working on this, you know, across
all different facets, from the producers down to these post vendors. Um,
(24:50):
it was. It was an extremely difficult set of circumstances
on an extremely tight timeline, and they just did such
a phenomenal job. Well, people who don't know it tells
the story of the Wild two thousand fourteen season, in
particular the playoff run of the l A Clippers, where
the garbage person we know is Donald Sterling was outed
for being a racist with a tape conversation my first question.
I am a die hard Clippers fan since I was
(25:11):
about seven years old. Uh, why would you voluntarily start
watching this team so many hours when you had the
choice not to? Right exactly, this was such a wolful
basketball team, and you know, in a weird way, that's
what made you know part of this story. You know. Obviously,
of course Donald Sterling and his I love how you
(25:33):
described him as the garbage man, this awful human being, um,
who was in control of this team for too long,
who made horrible decision after horrible decision, both personally and
from a basketball perspective. He basically ran this team into
the ground until things just sort of despite himself, turned
you know around. But that's what makes our story, you know,
(25:53):
all the more interesting, is that, like, this was a
huge turnaround, and that you know, by two thousand fourteen,
not only did he have a team of of you know,
really competitive, top quality players, but they were storming into
the playoffs. And so you know, it was important to
us to make sure we go into that backstory to
remind audiences that, like, hey, the Clippers weren't always like this.
In fact, you people have probably knew much about them, um,
(26:17):
and if you knew stuff about them. You you know,
you knew that they were one of the worst franchises
in professional sports. So the turnaround was so important to
make sure that we you know, captured along with um,
you know, setting the table for the quick Uh and Painful. Um,
you know Demise after his tape came out. Quick and
Painful is the other team name for the Clippers. Uh
(26:38):
did you where are you? Where are you originally from?
I grew up in Boulder, Colorado, And um, I went
to high school in Denver, UM, So I'm a Colorado guy.
So I grew up a Nuggets fan. UM. And you know,
we had a you know, we also have not had
great teams, and you know, there were eras there, especially
when I was in you know, middle school and really
up until high school, we were we were all so
(27:00):
not a laughing stock in the same way the Clippers were.
But it was hard to feel the competitive team. But
then that the can be Ma Tumbo years came along,
and you know we had a little, a little playoff
run there and then of course now we're back in
the mix. Yeah, you had to sit through the Lofonso
Ellis years. I you've you you understand the plight, you know,
the plate. It's funny because it's kind of mentioned in
the documentary a little bit like if you're a Clippers fan,
(27:22):
you you knew what you were ignoring, you knew what
you were willing to do. And I actually am on
record doing it because the Rolling Stone magazine had me
write an article in the first year of Lob City
about how excited I was, which was very nice of them,
And in there I even say in a sentence, let's
forget that our owners are racist. Like I actually used
that sentence. And I guess did you run into that
(27:43):
when you talked to fans that we were just woefully
ignorant to how far it went? Number one, because I
just assume all rich white guys are racist. Uh? And
did we know it was? Did anyone know it was
this much? I mean, that's such a good question, And
I mean it's kind of a question, you know. I
think everybody you know, who's a who's a fan of
(28:04):
professional sports should ask themselves, you know, once in a while,
is what am I supporting here? And what am I
sticking my head in the sand about, you know? And
I think, as you point out, like it was a
little bit of a probably more than an open secret
with Donald Sterling, right, And there were there was some
very publicized transgressions prior to this tape, you know, and
there was the anti discrimination settlement and there was Elgin
(28:28):
Baylor's lawsuits. So there were these moments, um that we're
on record that we're shameful, and it probably did make
it hard for fans to be fans. And you know,
I think it's fans we we turn away from a
lot of stuff. And I think that's probably the other
really important part of this documentary is setting it in
(28:50):
in America, and because I think it just it forced
the heads in the sand to look up and look
around again, you know. And because we had an African
American president, because we had the rise of the Black
Lives Matter movement as a response to the shooting of
Trayvon mart you know, because we had athletes, a new
generation of athletes led by Dwyane Wade and in our case,
(29:13):
Chris Paul and then of course Lebron James starting to
be more aware and politically active. And so as a
result of that, I think stands you know, we're just
forced to start to pay attention again. Um. And for
the better, right, But yeah, I mean I think we're
all a little bit complicit when it comes to these
things and and the sports we love and the ways
that we want to and and of course we're it's
not like you, as a fan, we're ever rooting for
(29:34):
Donald Sterling, right, You're rooting for players and and this team,
and so it's complicated. Yeah, it's very much, very much.
So you spoke to Chris Paul J. J Reddick, DeAndre
Jordan's post career Matt Barnes, which is my favorite Matt Barnes. Uh,
Doc Doc Rivers. They all agreed to help with this story.
I assume they've talked about it in their opinion maybe
(29:54):
quote unquote enough. How did you get them to agree
to doing the doc? Yeah? So, um, my producer Sam Widows, Um,
you know, he had a relationship with Doc Rivers and
and he heard Doc Rivers tell this story about the
first time that the players had this you know, confrontational
meeting with him after the tape came out, and then
(30:15):
he convinced Doc to you know, put a little sizzle
tape together and you know, once you know, he and
my other producing partner, Chris Gary, you know, showed me
the tape. I was like, if we have access to doc,
you know, hopefully the rest of the guys will follow.
And so, you know, Will Packer and his producing team
were able to get Chris Paul to agree to sit
(30:36):
down with us, and then Chris was really helpful and
instrumental in getting some of the other players to agree
to sit with us. And so he kind of, you know,
once once he had had you know, once he um
got for an interview and had a good experience, and
we just sort of gave him the space to share
his side of the story for the first time and
just be good listeners. Um. He went on on a
limb for us and reached out to DeAndre and JJ
(30:59):
and said, I really think you guys should should sit
down and and share this story. And and here's you know,
an opportunity for the first time ever to just be
given full control of the microphone about what happened. UM.
So it just kind of, you know, the stars just
kind of aligned. And like I said, that great producers
who came together and just worked all the angles to
get all these folks to sit down with us over
(31:20):
a pretty tight timeline. And um, and then you know,
once people started talking about this. I think it was
almost a sense of relief that they were able to
sort of share for the first time ever what they
went through. And you know, obviously there is the lack
of participation on Blake Griffin's behalf. Is it just that
he I mean, he's sort of talked to death about it.
Is that what the feeling you got was, Yeah, we
(31:40):
reached out to him, um, but he had um he
had just done Ramona Shellburn's um great podcast for ESPN,
The Sterling Affairs, and so I he had communicated back
to us that he had said enough, and so we
just sort of left it there and and that's when
we were able to get Matt Barns and like you said,
that post career Matt Barnes retirement, Matt Barnes was permission
(32:02):
to speak freely, which was which was awesome because he's
just such an awesome personality and had such a different
and interesting perspective, right because this is a guy who's
faced some pretty intense you know, racism throughout his life,
and he comes from a biracial background, and so he
had a really really um interesting perspective to share about,
you know, his experience both in life prior to this
(32:25):
tape and then you know how the tape made him
feel in his reaction to it. Sure, Uh, you have
some appearances and expertise from some talking heads, from Bob
Iger to Remember Brown to the mayor of l A. Uh,
you got you got a big plethora of people. Did
you get any interaction or reach out to Shelly Sterling
or Vista Viana we're sort of the juicier aspects of
(32:47):
this story going to be involved at any point. Well,
we thought about it um, you know, and for a
little while there we were, you know, in earnest considering
it um. But at the end of the day, you know,
Donald Sterling and said enough, you know, he had said
his piece and he had made clear you know, who
he was, and you know, so it didn't feel like
it was going to add too much to the story.
(33:09):
And then I think more importantly, we had just gotten
so much really deep and personal storytelling on behalf of
the players. You know, they really shared with us, you know,
some some of these more uncomfortable experiences you know, in
their lives about race again that that pregated the tape. Um.
But then also just some of the ways that they've
made them feel that they've never expressed before, and so
(33:31):
we got a little bit of protective of that, and
it just felt a little it didn't feel right to
go out to the Sterling camp and get them in.
And then we felt like, you know, I knew, of
course that Donald was going to be plenty present in
this film, right between the archival that tape itself. Um
so there's really gonna be no mystery or curiosity about
who this guy as it was. Um So, you know,
(33:53):
we just sort of let it be and said, let's
focus on, you know, making this just about the players
and giving them full control of the microphone because they
had never been given the opportunity to, you know, have
that you know chance prior. Yeah, and I don't want
to spoil a bunch for people, so I'll tell you.
I am a lifelong Clippers fanatic, and I feel like
I've heard or read everything about it, but I learned
(34:15):
a bunch of new things. One of them was that
Donald Sterling didn't want to sign JJ Reddick because he
was too expensive for a white player. I had never
heard that. It's nuts, right, I mean, it was one
of those things that on set we were like, what's
like it just added that extra layer of you know,
this guy, you know, Donald's clear warped understanding of of
(34:40):
of race and this idea of the ownership of others
right as an owner. Um, it just it made it
all the more creepy. It made it all the more
layered and complicated. His whole view of race at large,
just added this other dimensionality. When j J and Doc
started telling us that, it was like, you know, A
didn't really make sense of it, and I still don't
(35:02):
get it. Was it because he's he's threatened by paying
a white player this much that he feels like, you know,
it's a different experience than what he what he pays
as African American players, Or is it that this guy
is so twisted up around the actual around race that
you know, just paying this amount of money to a
white player, you know, seems wrong on some fundamental level.
(35:22):
It's just just really messed up a lot of layers. Uh.
I noticed quickly as a big film school guy, you
have these subjects looking directly at the camera, which means
you obviously have an influence of Errol Morris. Was was
the eye contact important for you? It was? Yeah? I
mean I think both as um you know, as an
interview technique, and really a desire to have a conversation
(35:44):
right as the as the person you know, engaging in
these conversations and and you know, having these conversations. I
kind of wanted us to just be able to have
those conversations directly and be able to look into each
other's eyes and and you know, read each other's expressions,
especially around sensitive subject her, and then yes, you have
the I guess the benefit of that is that when
the audience goes to watch it, then the subjects looking
(36:07):
directly at the audience, So there's this feeling of direct intimacy.
So I felt like the right tool for the project.
Released in the newly launched content provider Quimby. Your episodes
are going to be under ten minute intervals, right, and
they recently were only available on your phone. They've changed
out to the television. I've heard. Was it a challenge
putting this heavy, racially intense show into those kind of parameters?
(36:30):
It was, yeah, I mean, just in general, the challenge
of of, you know, a story like this is making
sure that it can hold together as sort of a
ninety minute feature length documentary. Would that's about you know,
this moment in time and these issues around race in
America and this basketball and professional athletes story. But then
also we really need to make sure that you could
chop it up into these twelve chapters, all under ten minutes,
(36:53):
and make sure that there was a really satisfying beginning, middle,
and end um to each of the episodes. And like
you said, doing that alongside these you know, conversations about
about race and culture and and America it provided a
really unique challenge. UM. But my editor, big shout out
to Clayton Warfolk just such a fantastic job of making
(37:14):
sure that we were able to include all those necessary ingredients,
the contextual ingredients about you know, America and um and
these real intimate conversations alongside you know, making sure that
we stayed true our core narrative, you know, and our
really strong pre built narrative about what happened over these
five days. What was the for you most kind of
(37:35):
crushing or cringe worthy moment you stumbled on for this
story in series? I would say, I mean there were
a lot right when you're dealing McDonald Sterling, there's a
lot of cringe um, and you know, Sterling provided endless
cringe and I think, um, once we got ahold of
that white party footage, it was the because it's so raw, right,
(37:56):
it's just um, you know, it's it's not well shot
by home video footage, right, so it's almost it's just sloppy,
it's poor framing. But as a result of that, you know,
it's just this raw capture of this little world, right
of Sterling's little world of all these people, um, you know,
at this private party at his house where he's showcasing
(38:19):
his players. And I used the word showcasing because that's
the way that they described it, that they felt like
they were sort of trophies to be showcased. And you
can see the players faces and they're just so uncomfortable
as he's sort of displaying his players to to this
group of people that are I assume as peers and
his friends, and it's just gross and it was really uncomfortable,
(38:40):
and it was just one of those raw moments where
you just sort of get a peek at um, you know,
because the tape is so sensational, right, and the tape
is such an obvious crossing the line of how this
guy felt in such a lage bear cruise about who
he was, um, but this footage of this party was
just another dimension to that that to a certain extent,
(39:01):
was just creepier, you know, and grosser. So that was
for me, that was by far the most cringey. But
there were plenty of crunching. I mean, his his interview
with Anderson Cooper is a wow. You couldn't have written it.
And not only that, the white Party stuff. It's like
a documentary forget Out. It's like a Jordan Peel moment.
It's so weird, totally it is. It really is a
get out moment. You know, it just is so so
(39:23):
so bizarre. Would you have thought without the distraction and
don't play kate me here, was this a championship team?
I don't think so. I think that maybe maybe maybe
they would have got past okay see, without this distraction,
I could also have seen them losing in game seven.
Okay see, but I don't know if anyone was going
(39:43):
to beat tan Antonio that year, right, Yeah, No, That's
sort of how I feel. And I was at that
game seven. I was also at the game five. I
mean I was, I was watching your duck and thinking
to myself, was I there? And then had to pretty
much look at my calendar and I and I was,
and I feel like I may have pushed it out
of my mind the way I did my parents divorced.
That's awesome though, that you've got to, you know, be
(40:05):
at these games and sort of see that Lop City team.
I mean, such a fun team and such an interesting
you know, part of the Clippers history and the Laura
now you know, and in a weird way, right, it's
like lob City ends, and you know the Donald Sterling
stain is is behind us, and now look at the
Clippers now you know it is. It is almost a
little bit of a fairy tale ending, hopefully for for
(40:28):
you Clipper fans. Well, you can blame me if I
jinxed it, I'll blame everyone in your opinion. You've talked
to two players, experts, cultural analysts. You tell me, can
the curse ever be lifted? I mean, if anyone can
lift the curse, it's it's a man by the name
of Doc Rivers. I mean, the guy is an incredible
(40:50):
human being. You know, what a what a leader, what
a coach um, what an awesome capable dude? You know
who who I would never bet again. So I'm all
in on doc you know, saying what curse? Yeah listen,
I'll take it from your mouth to God's ears. Has
there ever been a better year to be Todd Boyd
also got hey the notorious PhD. I am happy for
(41:16):
him getting his shine and getting his you know licks
and wherever he can. He is an awesome, awesome guy
and such a great articulate spokesperson on behalf of pop
culture and race and the intersection of hip hop and basketball. Yeah, listen,
I I took his class at USC. I'm a fan.
I love seeing him and stuff, and he is clearly
(41:36):
all over the place, uh this this year, So listen.
I thank you for your documentary as a Clippers fan.
Happy to have it out there. It's blackballed on Quimby.
It gets released in these sort of small pockets, but
they're really good and people will love it. And I
just ask you one thing. How about NFL owners next? Yeah? Well,
thank you man, And again I love the doc. It's
awesome and I appreciate it. Thanks. I appreciate the No
(42:06):
Sports Report is produced and distributed by Tree Sport Media.
The show was executive produced by Kelly Garner, Lisa Ammerman,
Matthew Coogler and me Jensen Carr. Tom Monahan is our
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(42:28):
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(42:49):
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The No Sports Report is a production of I Heart
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Welcome to the No Sports Report, a production of I
Heart Radio Entree Fort Media. Small note this episode was
recorded prior to the murder of George Floyd and the
resulting global reaction in protests, which is the only reason
it's not mentioned. Something to keep in mind while listening.
My name is Jensen carp and I'm a sports fan,
(00:24):
and just like you, I'm sad about the breaking news.
Oh not the pandemic. I've been sad about that for months.
I'm talking about no Taiwanese baseball teams offering a contract
to forty seven year old Manny Ramirez after he announced
he likes to play there in I know it's just
Manny being Manny, but we already live in a fantasy world.
Eighty two game baseball season, Basketball at Disney World, Brady
to Tampa Bay, a primetime specialist, celebrities cutting their own hair.
(00:48):
There's already a glitch in the matrix. Let's just go
full acid trip. Let Manny play, Let, Manny play Let,
Manny play. I'm gonna assume you're chanting with me, but
even if you're not, I'm talking to fleets and sports
industry professionals about what they're doing in quarantine, hoping to
figure out if the fame is competing as much as
I miss watching it. This is the No Sports report
(01:12):
to become a professional athlete. The amount of dedicated work
and focus training required is something most people could never do.
I say this while eating a large bag of nacho cheese.
Dorito's years of work go into achieving a dream that,
in less than one percent of cases actually does happen.
And if you're one of the chosen few live it up,
the work is paid off. But what if you can't
(01:33):
live it up because right now it can't pay off?
What if you're stuck in a global pandemic, unable to
participate in your first opening day, moving city to city
and quarantine because you're a rookie pitcher who rightfully hasn't
bought a house yet. And even though you had one
of the most impressive starting pitture debuts in Cleveland, Indians history,
taking them out at a rainy Fenway Park against David
Price in two thousand nineteen, well that has nothing to
do with coronavirus. And your story is still delayed in
(01:55):
finding its fairy tale end. And sure, some people might
think you have the best pickoff move in the majors,
and you added an off speed pitt during the spring,
and you're a dark horse favorite for a starting rotation spot.
But what's it all worth if you can't actually celebrate
the winds? These are all questions for today's guest, Zach Pleisach.
We talked about being a pandemic nomad, his surreal first
major League appearance, and the stuff your grandma collects. And
(02:17):
I chat with Michael Jacobs, the director of Quimby's new
series about Donald Sterling in the two thousand fourteen Los
Angeles Clippers black Ball. All of this on the new
episode of The No Sports Report. How from exactly that
(02:39):
to accept press one? Hello Zach, Hey, buddy, I've noticed
you've been moving around a little bit during quarantine. You're
staying safe, obviously, but I want to know where you're
currently hunkered down. I'm right now currently in northwest Indiana.
I started off obviously in Florida, was in Cincinnati, and
my family staring north this Indiana. So I had a
send some time with them before I really head out here,
(03:00):
you know, to get ready for the season that's gonna
be coming up Staine hopefully. Yeah, So before that, who
are you with my agent? See now that's the thing
I had heard you were living with your agent, and
I realized I need a new agent mine. I would
never let me live with her, let alone. She sent
me just an edible arrangement for Christmas. I mean, I'm
gonna I'm in the wrong situation. Man. That's maybe she
(03:21):
doesn't have the extra room fit. Maybe I don't know.
I feel I feel jipped. Uh. You've been able to
also see your teammate and your friend Mike Clevinger, which
is more than most players have been able to do.
So how have you been able to stay active and
fit and healthy getting ready for this new season? Yeah,
I mean at first it was we were down in
Florida together, so it was nice outside. It was, you know,
(03:42):
nice enough to be out and about. Obviously can't go
in any public places, but we you know, had the
outside ability to play catch in the street and you know,
around some sprints or do some band work in the driveway.
So I mean, at first, it was super limited to
activity that was basically just like in her house and home.
Idem Um. I had some weighted balls and some bands
that I had, you know, just from spring training and
(04:04):
things that I took with me to continue to train,
and we were just using those things and really just
playing catch, but weight listening kind of slowed down, which
it normally would at that point of the year anyway,
because we've been getting into the season. Um. But you know,
like there still has to be a point of keeping
that strength and making sure that you know, as we're
moving forward, we're not regressing and work at least we
(04:25):
get a positive direction sure, and and beyond working out,
staying fit getting ready for baseball. While you're traveling doing
these things, have you been able to watch TV shows
or do any of the things these normal humans like
me are doing. Yeah, I mean I've definitely been spending
more time like with my family, and I've been watching
a lot more TV um on my computer at least. Uh,
(04:47):
you know, I've really been I've kind of been bounced around.
It's like as soon as I kind of like get
like settled in somewhere, like about time for me to
make a different move, you know. So I'm just kind
of staying a lot of my COEs. I don't have
a house yet for myself, so that's really the next
step for me, somewhere where I can actually punker down
and get all my stuff, you know, packed in and
have like a home base. But you know, at first
is you know, I was with my friend and I'm
(05:08):
with my agent and with my family, and you know,
so I was trying to figure out what's gonna work
best for everybody, you know. So, yeah, you are different
than most people I've spoken to for the podcast because
you've actually been having to move to different places. What
has it been like traveling during this time. Yeah, I
mean it's when I'm traveling, I'm just in the car.
You know, It's I'm not like staying overnight anywhere, like
you know, really coming in contact with anyone until I'm
(05:30):
getting gas out of my car. You know. It's really
the only time so um, when I'm When I was
in Cincinnati traveling there, you know, my agent had a
great set up with a gym and uh, you know,
trainer and play this stuff to get my work in.
And yeah, I mean there's just like a blessing from
to be able to have that and make the most
of it there. And I have you know, the prisoners
to have a gym here at home, and me and
my training together down in Florida's as good as it
(05:52):
gets to because you know, we're pushing each other and
we're you know, become a scientists on our body, I guess,
so to speak, based on you know, mechanics and try
to just reach our full potential and get the most
out of ourselves. Yeah. I mean, I know it's kind
of a cheap comparison, but I guess people that I
know who have had to drive kind of far places
say it does have a bit of like a walking
dead vibe. Is like, no traffic on any freeways, the
(06:13):
streets seemed pretty quiet. I mean, I guess I was wondering,
was it much quicker for you than normal? Oh? Yeah, yeah,
actually that yeah, now that you say that, driving up
from I'm you know, staying from the Panhandle of Florida
to Cincinnati. You drive to Louisville, and I remember just
going through that city at Louisville and it was an
absolute ghost town of like the city of downtown. So
that's not like dang, No one is really outside right now.
(06:36):
Even on the roads, they're pretty open. I could say. Now,
I feel like they're getting more um, I guess rush. Yeah,
it seems people are starting to go outside at least
a little bit. Now, I know, you have a brother
that you're staying with that was a high school senior,
younger brother, so did a bump him out to have
his graduation cut short and not have a prom and
and all the things you and I now barely remember,
(06:57):
probably but meant a lot to us at the time. Yeah,
he was definitely bummed at first. You know, this season
taken away from him his senior year high school, of
his friends. I mean, that's probably one of the most
memorable kinds of your life, you know, So for him
it was it was hard at first, but you know,
you know, we just kind of gotta keep our heads straight,
you know, just you know, he knew that he's got
to look forward to what's next in his life. He's
got to take care of some things and looking to
(07:19):
go to place somewhere, and you know what he has
to do in order to do that, and just kind
of with everything, you know, he's got to reorganize and
a justice like everyone has to do eventually, you know,
just adjust of what kind of gets done your way.
So this is just something he realized he has been
battling with. It's unfortunate, but yeah, he's he's good now.
He was. He was definitely bummed before and he was
playing sports. Is that what I'm under the impression his
season was cut out? Yeah, he was a senior. He
(07:40):
was I mean a picture. I'm sorry, he was a
picture in the baseball team and they were about to
start their season, I think top five. They were ranked
in the state and had a lot of buzz going
their way, had other good arms on their team and
some other good players. So um, there was definitely some
buzz before the season for their squad going into this
this year. So yeah, I didn't even think of that really.
(08:00):
I guess I just weirdly focused on prom but it
is true. I mean he didn't even really get to
see you know, the scouts didn't really get to come
out all those things too. Yeah, I know, right, So
now I think even I don't even think Scots are
allowed to come watch guys during the squortancing time anyway.
So it's like, yeah, crazy for those guys who are
looking to go go play or get recruited or even
you know, have a chance to get drafted, because it's
kind of difficult. It's like you got to do it
(08:21):
all over our phones now videos. Yeah, how hectic was
it for you. You don't have your own place yet,
you're looking into doing that. Obviously you're kind of new
to the league. How hectic was it for you one
day to be completely president focused on spring training and
then the next trying to figure out where you're gonna stay. Yeah,
it's kind of like that's how it's been the past
couple of years, Like trying to figure out where you're
(08:42):
gonna stay, where you're gonna be. Everything, he's kind of
up in the air. It's kinda gotta just whatever. You know,
it's kind of blown your way. But um, you know,
I didn't even have a place set up yet for
the season. During spring training, I was kind of waiting
to see where everything is playing out and you know,
just moving along. I just had to see what's been
going to be a good situation for me to get
my training in and keep my mental good, you know,
everything just being a good spot. So because I wasn't
(09:04):
even looking forward, I have to it's my responsibility as
starting pitcher for the Fluting Indians to prepare and keep
myself ready for when we do have to go play.
You know, it's not like we were I wasn't off
during this time so I was moving around from with
my teammate to my agent to my family. I was
in Cleveland for a little bit and then I'm back home.
Um yeah, and I'm just, you know, do what I
(09:24):
gotta do to make the best of what we got. Uh.
I guess too, Like I don't mean to to pour
salt in the wound here, but you know it was
gonna be your first pro opening day. Uh. Did you
have sort of that whole process planned out in your
head to walk out the call of your name, the
whole thing. I mean, how big of a bummer is
it to not have that? Yeah, for sure, I had.
(09:45):
I had all that stuff ready. Uh it was. It
was a bummer. I mean I wasn't sore set to
make the team, you know. So it was definitely competition
to the end. But looking looking forward to opening day, man,
that's something you know, I dream about, um and hopefully
you know, in the future sometime I'm able to experience it.
But for now, you know, my opening days whenever we
get our first game this year? Yeah, well, you you
had a great strong eight and six under four e
(10:06):
r a season. I know you said it was a
battle to make roster, but you were obviously a favor
to do. So, uh, you found your groove right away
kind of coming in and and that's not easy to
do obviously. Does this kind of does the pouse and play?
Does it mess with your flow at all? No, honestly, Like,
I don't think it has it all. Uh. I really think,
you know, I've done as much as I could. I
mean in the grand scheme of a season and in
(10:29):
terms of reading guys swings and doing all that and
understanding the league and what's going on, like that's part
of it. Definitely we're gonna have to, you know, adjust
as you play when we get going again. But you know,
I feel like I've done everything and been blessed with
the resources around me to be able to continue to
train and just stay on top of my craft. You know,
it's just more than work to me. It's something that
you know, I've carried with me every day. So um,
I wake up and get ready to work. So I think,
(10:50):
you know, in the end, it's it's a bummer our
games got pushed back, but you know, I think I'm
really ready to play right now. So your major League
debut was at the Storied, and I guess intimidating Fenway Park.
Mookie Betts was the first batter you faced. You had
a like a four hour rain delay. You still went
five and a third innings. You gave up only one run.
(11:11):
If any picture conservative survived this pandemic, it is clearly you.
Is there a way you could go through? How difficult
that day was for you? Yeah, that day was one
I'll never forget. Just steven from the night before. But
my agent has set up a fake dinner at Morn's
and they catered us really nice. They must my agent
must told him that I was pitching the next day
and they were just pitching me good luck and being
(11:32):
really cool. Had a great dinner, welcome to the next morning,
and wanted just to get my mind off the game
as much as I could and just enjoy the day
and the experience of my my family. But I couldn't
really hang out with my mom a whole bunch because
she was stressed me out, probably just being stressed out herself.
So I hang out with my brother and my agent.
We got some pasta for lunch, and then my agent
actually got me these white pair of lebrons that it
(11:53):
just came out at fourteen lows and Tom at the shoe.
So we were walking up and down Boston and it
was kind of raining out, so was it being a day,
you know, So we're just trying to find stuff to
do and like make it right. But he gives me
these shoes. He's all white, you know. I take them
into the into my warm up and I'm running on
the warning track. I got them all muddy, and I'm like,
you know, this is when I can trash these shoes
I just got Today. We're in the babies like we can.
(12:14):
That's like, what are you supposed to do? You know,
getting near this tomorrow? I didn't really know. It's so lost,
just like being so president, you know. So ends up
getting a gift from my agent. Took him in and
got loose. Uh. Yeah, it came all the way to
the game time. You know, it's probably missing out and
that wasn't really raining, but it wasn't not raining, so
like it was a question in the air if we're
gonna play, waiting to see if the weather was gonna
hold up, and so uh this kind of waiting game.
(12:37):
I had to do a bunch of paperwork before the game,
and like signing to your contract getting transferred over from
trip to the big leagues, and I had to Puy.
I had never met before like big league. Uh you
know obviously our big league staff and other athletic trainers
and pubbies ever met, and so that was all new.
Everything is super new. You've never been the friend way before,
so I was new too, So everything was just so
(12:57):
new to me. I was just trying to absorb it.
One of my warm ups, I'm just nervous as hall
of hell, and my family and friends are standing behind
like the guy I'm playing catch with, so that's the
only thing I see when I'm playing catch, you know.
So it was like welcoming, but at the same time,
it's just you know, you don't want to overthrow one
and then throwing the bleachers and everyone's watching. You know.
That's like how I felt um going in you know.
(13:17):
The first inning. Well, I was warming up next to
David christ To, who you know, is as great as
they get. You know, I was even watching some with him,
trying to throw like him as a righty, but I
know he's left seeing just being in that moment just
throwing next to him too. It's almost a real So
I get to the first ending. I throw my first
pitch to Mookie Best and I yank get hard on
the glove side. The ball felt like a tennis ball
for real, and um, the next pitch is supposed to
(13:39):
be down in a way and I missed like kind
of up and in just trying to throw a strike,
you know, I'm feeling like I'm throwing a golf ball.
And then he rolls over the third thankfully, and I
saw if I don't think he swings at that, it
might have been a ball. And I don't know if
I was gonna strike after that, so shout out to
move to back, getting me see that first out, and
then uh, ever's next that bat struck him out and
that was my first strike out is the third guy
(14:01):
set out, so you know, it's rain delay after that.
So like an hour waiting around and running a bike,
you know, text with my family, listen to music, trying
to stay like cool and just kind of playing the
waiting game to see what was going on. And luckily,
you know, the stash were I mean, they trusted me
enough to go back out there, even in the rain delay.
So I went back out and got through five and
(14:22):
me and they're coming back late that game and winning,
so overall is a really good day. When I got
taken out of again, there's a letter from David Probace,
just a saying, you know, like I wish it would
have been a better day for you, Good luck, sy
and yeah as long in my career, and it's just
really cool. It was just like one of those things
like I'm actually here at the clash saxt uh. When
you when you look back at it, is it like
an out of body experience where you're sort of watching
(14:44):
over you still remember, I mean obviously you know the details.
Does it feel like you did it? Or does it
feel like it was someone else? Uh? No, I mean
it's definitely a moment that I won't forget. It felt
like an out of body experience, I guess, But I
mean I definitely can have vivid memories of throwing on
the foul line and even getting on the mound and
just being warming up in between anything. I knew exactly
where I was. I could still see it, so it's
(15:06):
something that would be stuff in my head first rest
of my life. Did you end up with clean lebrons?
Are you still have those dirty ones? Yeah? Honestly I
got them cleaned up and they were good to go.
So I'm just getting another pair of those shoes, the
same pair after I had wrecked them. So okay, good.
I was gonna say, someone's gotta take care of you there.
During the off season, you added a curveball to your arsenal.
Like I said, you're coming off a very strong season. Uh.
(15:29):
In any other staff, you're you're kind of building up
to be, you know, a two or three option almost immediately.
But the Cleveland staff is stacked. How do you feel
about your chances of making the team slash starting rotation
are now? Well, I mean there's there's no promises. With
how deep our staff, this is blessing for real. I mean,
if there's not a lot of things like you should
(15:49):
they have a deep pitching staff. So I mean that's
definitely advantage we have. We have a lot of great guys.
I mean, I feel really confident where I'm at with
all my pitches and mentally physically, I'm in a great
spot to pitch into big league. So, um, you know,
isn't new who makes the decisions. So I just do
my part and prepare myself as well as I can. Right. Well,
that's great? Uh, you and I are both big tattoo guys.
(16:11):
I have a bit less than you. I'm more of
a pick and shoes spots dude, but you have great
work on your sleeve and chest. Uh. With social distancing
becoming a bit of the norm, I've asked this a
couple of guys already. Do you see, like, how does
tattooing go on? Like? Does do people have to be
tested and then you're you're safe to go get a
tattoo from that guy? What does it look like post pandemic? Yeah,
tattoo artists are pretty much closed through July, so they're
(16:34):
on backburners right now. I don't think people can get
private apparently specially private sessions and put those guys out
of business. So I think right now in a lot
of states, it kind of depends. But um, yeah, I
do have a lot of tattoos and it looks like
it won't be getting anymore for a little bit. But yeah,
I wonder if the future once everything's like, oh, I
wonder if private is the way to go just but
I mean I do think like if I'm going to
(16:55):
be that close to someone for a few hours, in
some cases, it's like I need to know that they've
tested net ative, it would be it would be a
whole thing. Yeah, I agree. So I mean who knows,
uh well, moving forward to keep it positive? Is there
anything you think that we've adapted to during this time
of the pandemic that you think should stick around for
when everything works out and we're back out in the wild.
(17:16):
I think I hope no one's scared from everything that's
going on, you know. I think it's becoming more aware
of how to do your part more. You know, I
think we as people need to start taking you know,
responsibility for things that we do and how it can
affect not only us in our future, but our generations
to come. So, I mean, I think this is definitely
just woke into the grand audience of all everyone. I mean, hopefully,
(17:38):
you know, move forward, people just kind of learn how
to do their thing and you know, kind of have
a little more awareness to what good health is and
how we can just better our whole planet. That's right,
it's just a little bit of a rain delay, right,
We'll come back, stay stay stay warm, all right. So
I usually end these podcasts with a little bit of
some suggestions things that can help you during the pandemic,
(17:59):
so I wanted to give you a couple of them
and see what you think. All right, First, theme parks
have obviously been closed. They are one of the most
I think damaged industries because you just imagine, you know,
tens of thousands of people in one spot, and so
they've been closed during the outbreak. Now whether or not
they can reopen still up in the air. But Disneyland
(18:19):
and Disney World is known for a very specific food
and its recipe has always been a mystery until now.
With everyone stuck at home and no chance of visiting
the parks, they've released the coveted doll Whip soft serve.
Do you know about the doll whip. I've definitely had
it before, I'm not Why don't you tell me what
they're about? Okay, So it is people for years have
(18:41):
been obsessed with it. They serve it only near this
weird tiki room that has like talking birds in it,
and even when you've tried to do it at home,
it never tastes the same, and people are like, oh,
I gotta go get the doll whip at Disneyland. So
they totally like just out of nowhere, went to the
Disney blog and the Disney app and just posted the recipe,
(19:02):
which is just three ingredients, vanilla ice cream, pineapple juice,
and frozen pineapple chunks. That's it. That's it, that's all.
That's it. I'm gonna go. I have to make a
trip to the grocery store. I think it's see how
mine will compare. They have to add sugar or something
has to I feel like they're lying, but people can
the suggestion just go over, bring a little Disneyland to
your house, make some It's all viewable on the Disney
(19:24):
Parks app. Great for a hot day. Um now, my
other one is for you and your friends, teammates who
want to catch up or whatever it is. It is
a zoom poker game. So this this is a way
to play poker, which, by the way, today I saw
a photo of a casino that is trying some things
out in Florida, and I will tell you it was
(19:45):
a poker table and around the whole poker table was
fiberglass and you can just put your hands in little
holes in the fiberglass, like it's like your baby was
just born and you want to touch it. Do you
know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, but maybe I
don't know, don't know if I trust it, but it
looks weird. But I think an easy way is to
just get on Zoom online handful of great online poker sites.
(20:07):
You can download those apps and then set up a
private table, send invites to your friends, and then use
a second screen like an iPad to set up the
zoom and then you're like calling each other all in
the same room. You're just sitting there. And if you
wanted to involve money, which is illegal, I do not
at all suggest it. It would be easy to set
up a venmo to collect the money, but I'm not
encouraging that's I mean, it sounds like a lot of
(20:28):
tablet different in your room. But I mean still as
long as you're not catching your hand, I mean, it
doesn't matter when their money agreed. Lastly, Uh, now, I
know we all have we all have different families, uh,
and we we've all grown up in different areas across
the globe. But I do think that we all have
or had similar grandparents. Okay, so grandparents are kind of
(20:50):
one species. Their house smells like a mix of mothballs
and cinnamon sticks. They always have worthers in their pocket.
We know these lovable creatures. But the one thing I
missed most about my grandparents are there chat keys. Do
you know what chat keys are? Okay, they're like the
little things around their house that are like insanely breakable
(21:10):
and appear to be worth a bunch of money. Like
my grandma had this crystal candy dish, and she had
a curial cabinet filled with humble statues which are basically
just these porcelain figures of like young boys and leader
hose in opening a mailbox or like playing hop scotch.
Do you know what I'm talking about? I don't know.
I don't think I do. Man, do you Grandma? Grandma?
Did they have like like weird things. They collected it
(21:33):
all like penguin statues or mugs. They have some collections.
See now those are I can't get into all that
right now. Well those are chos. So that's okay. You
don't even need to get into it. You just need
to know that those are chat keys. So when we
when we reopen as a nation, I am suggesting that
you take advantage of this with a store in Indiana.
You can even do it there. The store is going
(21:55):
to be called zach Plesack's knickknacks, okay, Nicknack, and you
specialize in like ornate desk clocks that don't tell the
right time or never could, or like commemorative spoons that
celebrate stuff like NASA re launches and very fancy plates
that look like Saddam Hussein owned them. Like it's just
all the things grandparents have. I don't know if that's older.
(22:18):
I'm kind of new. Two ways, honestly, my Adam make
them like con join it started collaboration, right, Yeah, that
doesn't make sense for you, like a drip collaboration like
a streetwear thing. Yeah, I get it. Well it's a
real look and don't touch type of store, so I understand.
But but I I let you have that. But for now,
I just want to thank you for coming on the
show and I want you to stay healthy and I
(22:39):
can't wait to see you out on the field. I
for one to have you in the starting rotation, so
I'm thrilled to get baseball back out there. Let's go, man.
I appreciate you, and uh yeah go try Thanks for
having me. After this break, my chat with Michael Jacobs,
director of black Ball, the new Quimby documentary about the
controversy over former Clippers owner Donald Sterling. Right now, Feeding
(23:03):
America is working tirelessly to ensure our most vulnerable populations,
like students who are out of school, the elderly individuals
whose jobs are impacted, and low income families continue to
have access to food and 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
(23:25):
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. Now here's my chat with Black
(23:45):
Ball director Michael Jacobs. Michael, how's it going, ma'am good?
How are you? I'm good. Well. First, I wanted to
congratulate you on the release of the documentary. It is
called black Bald. You can find it currently. I think
in its first few chapters on Quimby, I assume there
is not a better time in the universe ever to
release a basketball documentary. Uh, did you have to rush
(24:06):
it out after the success of the Last Dance? We did. Yeah,
Originally we were slated to aar in June, and once
the Last Dance rushed their you know schedule up, and
once it became the cultural phenomena that it that it
was going to be, um, you know, we had to
get our our film series done much more quickly than
(24:26):
we had anticipated. So we were really you know, making
last minute changes and tweaks and um delivering you know,
down to the wire here about a week and a
half ago. Oh, I'm sure that's very easy to do
in the pandemic, right right. I can't speak enough about
the team of people working on this, you know, across
all different facets, from the producers down to these post vendors. Um,
(24:50):
it was. It was an extremely difficult set of circumstances
on an extremely tight timeline, and they just did such
a phenomenal job. Well, people who don't know it tells
the story of the Wild two thousand fourteen season, in
particular the playoff run of the l A Clippers, where
the garbage person we know is Donald Sterling was outed
for being a racist with a tape conversation my first question.
I am a die hard Clippers fan since I was
(25:11):
about seven years old. Uh, why would you voluntarily start
watching this team so many hours when you had the
choice not to? Right exactly, this was such a wolful
basketball team, and you know, in a weird way, that's
what made you know part of this story. You know. Obviously,
of course Donald Sterling and his I love how you
(25:33):
described him as the garbage man, this awful human being, um,
who was in control of this team for too long,
who made horrible decision after horrible decision, both personally and
from a basketball perspective. He basically ran this team into
the ground until things just sort of despite himself, turned
you know around. But that's what makes our story, you know,
(25:53):
all the more interesting, is that, like, this was a
huge turnaround, and that you know, by two thousand fourteen,
not only did he have a team of of you know,
really competitive, top quality players, but they were storming into
the playoffs. And so you know, it was important to
us to make sure we go into that backstory to
remind audiences that, like, hey, the Clippers weren't always like this.
In fact, you people have probably knew much about them, um,
(26:17):
and if you knew stuff about them. You you know,
you knew that they were one of the worst franchises
in professional sports. So the turnaround was so important to
make sure that we you know, captured along with um,
you know, setting the table for the quick Uh and Painful. Um,
you know Demise after his tape came out. Quick and
Painful is the other team name for the Clippers. Uh
(26:38):
did you where are you? Where are you originally from?
I grew up in Boulder, Colorado, And um, I went
to high school in Denver, UM, So I'm a Colorado guy.
So I grew up a Nuggets fan. UM. And you know,
we had a you know, we also have not had
great teams, and you know, there were eras there, especially
when I was in you know, middle school and really
up until high school, we were we were all so
(27:00):
not a laughing stock in the same way the Clippers were.
But it was hard to feel the competitive team. But
then that the can be Ma Tumbo years came along,
and you know we had a little, a little playoff
run there and then of course now we're back in
the mix. Yeah, you had to sit through the Lofonso
Ellis years. I you've you you understand the plight, you know,
the plate. It's funny because it's kind of mentioned in
the documentary a little bit like if you're a Clippers fan,
(27:22):
you you knew what you were ignoring, you knew what
you were willing to do. And I actually am on
record doing it because the Rolling Stone magazine had me
write an article in the first year of Lob City
about how excited I was, which was very nice of them,
And in there I even say in a sentence, let's
forget that our owners are racist. Like I actually used
that sentence. And I guess did you run into that
(27:43):
when you talked to fans that we were just woefully
ignorant to how far it went? Number one, because I
just assume all rich white guys are racist. Uh? And
did we know it was? Did anyone know it was
this much? I mean, that's such a good question, And
I mean it's kind of a question, you know. I
think everybody you know, who's a who's a fan of
(28:04):
professional sports should ask themselves, you know, once in a while,
is what am I supporting here? And what am I
sticking my head in the sand about, you know? And
I think, as you point out, like it was a
little bit of a probably more than an open secret
with Donald Sterling, right, And there were there was some
very publicized transgressions prior to this tape, you know, and
there was the anti discrimination settlement and there was Elgin
(28:28):
Baylor's lawsuits. So there were these moments, um that we're
on record that we're shameful, and it probably did make
it hard for fans to be fans. And you know,
I think it's fans we we turn away from a
lot of stuff. And I think that's probably the other
really important part of this documentary is setting it in
(28:50):
in America, and because I think it just it forced
the heads in the sand to look up and look
around again, you know. And because we had an African
American president, because we had the rise of the Black
Lives Matter movement as a response to the shooting of
Trayvon mart you know, because we had athletes, a new
generation of athletes led by Dwyane Wade and in our case,
(29:13):
Chris Paul and then of course Lebron James starting to
be more aware and politically active. And so as a
result of that, I think stands you know, we're just
forced to start to pay attention again. Um. And for
the better, right, But yeah, I mean I think we're
all a little bit complicit when it comes to these
things and and the sports we love and the ways
that we want to and and of course we're it's
not like you, as a fan, we're ever rooting for
(29:34):
Donald Sterling, right, You're rooting for players and and this team,
and so it's complicated. Yeah, it's very much, very much.
So you spoke to Chris Paul J. J Reddick, DeAndre
Jordan's post career Matt Barnes, which is my favorite Matt Barnes. Uh,
Doc Doc Rivers. They all agreed to help with this story.
I assume they've talked about it in their opinion maybe
(29:54):
quote unquote enough. How did you get them to agree
to doing the doc? Yeah? So, um, my producer Sam Widows, Um,
you know, he had a relationship with Doc Rivers and
and he heard Doc Rivers tell this story about the
first time that the players had this you know, confrontational
meeting with him after the tape came out, and then
(30:15):
he convinced Doc to you know, put a little sizzle
tape together and you know, once you know, he and
my other producing partner, Chris Gary, you know, showed me
the tape. I was like, if we have access to doc,
you know, hopefully the rest of the guys will follow.
And so, you know, Will Packer and his producing team
were able to get Chris Paul to agree to sit
(30:36):
down with us, and then Chris was really helpful and
instrumental in getting some of the other players to agree
to sit with us. And so he kind of, you know,
once once he had had you know, once he um
got for an interview and had a good experience, and
we just sort of gave him the space to share
his side of the story for the first time and
just be good listeners. Um. He went on on a
limb for us and reached out to DeAndre and JJ
(30:59):
and said, I really think you guys should should sit
down and and share this story. And and here's you know,
an opportunity for the first time ever to just be
given full control of the microphone about what happened. UM.
So it just kind of, you know, the stars just
kind of aligned. And like I said, that great producers
who came together and just worked all the angles to
get all these folks to sit down with us over
(31:20):
a pretty tight timeline. And um, and then you know,
once people started talking about this. I think it was
almost a sense of relief that they were able to
sort of share for the first time ever what they
went through. And you know, obviously there is the lack
of participation on Blake Griffin's behalf. Is it just that
he I mean, he's sort of talked to death about it.
Is that what the feeling you got was, Yeah, we
(31:40):
reached out to him, um, but he had um he
had just done Ramona Shellburn's um great podcast for ESPN,
The Sterling Affairs, and so I he had communicated back
to us that he had said enough, and so we
just sort of left it there and and that's when
we were able to get Matt Barns and like you said,
that post career Matt Barnes retirement, Matt Barnes was permission
(32:02):
to speak freely, which was which was awesome because he's
just such an awesome personality and had such a different
and interesting perspective, right because this is a guy who's
faced some pretty intense you know, racism throughout his life,
and he comes from a biracial background, and so he
had a really really um interesting perspective to share about,
you know, his experience both in life prior to this
(32:25):
tape and then you know how the tape made him
feel in his reaction to it. Sure, Uh, you have
some appearances and expertise from some talking heads, from Bob
Iger to Remember Brown to the mayor of l A. Uh,
you got you got a big plethora of people. Did
you get any interaction or reach out to Shelly Sterling
or Vista Viana we're sort of the juicier aspects of
(32:47):
this story going to be involved at any point. Well,
we thought about it um, you know, and for a
little while there we were, you know, in earnest considering
it um. But at the end of the day, you know,
Donald Sterling and said enough, you know, he had said
his piece and he had made clear you know, who
he was, and you know, so it didn't feel like
it was going to add too much to the story.
(33:09):
And then I think more importantly, we had just gotten
so much really deep and personal storytelling on behalf of
the players. You know, they really shared with us, you know,
some some of these more uncomfortable experiences you know, in
their lives about race again that that pregated the tape. Um.
But then also just some of the ways that they've
made them feel that they've never expressed before, and so
(33:31):
we got a little bit of protective of that, and
it just felt a little it didn't feel right to
go out to the Sterling camp and get them in.
And then we felt like, you know, I knew, of
course that Donald was going to be plenty present in
this film, right between the archival that tape itself. Um
so there's really gonna be no mystery or curiosity about
who this guy as it was. Um So, you know,
(33:53):
we just sort of let it be and said, let's
focus on, you know, making this just about the players
and giving them full control of the microphone because they
had never been given the opportunity to, you know, have
that you know chance prior. Yeah, and I don't want
to spoil a bunch for people, so I'll tell you.
I am a lifelong Clippers fanatic, and I feel like
I've heard or read everything about it, but I learned
(34:15):
a bunch of new things. One of them was that
Donald Sterling didn't want to sign JJ Reddick because he
was too expensive for a white player. I had never
heard that. It's nuts, right, I mean, it was one
of those things that on set we were like, what's
like it just added that extra layer of you know,
this guy, you know, Donald's clear warped understanding of of
(34:40):
of race and this idea of the ownership of others
right as an owner. Um, it just it made it
all the more creepy. It made it all the more
layered and complicated. His whole view of race at large,
just added this other dimensionality. When j J and Doc
started telling us that, it was like, you know, A
didn't really make sense of it, and I still don't
(35:02):
get it. Was it because he's he's threatened by paying
a white player this much that he feels like, you know,
it's a different experience than what he what he pays
as African American players, Or is it that this guy
is so twisted up around the actual around race that
you know, just paying this amount of money to a
white player, you know, seems wrong on some fundamental level.
(35:22):
It's just just really messed up a lot of layers. Uh.
I noticed quickly as a big film school guy, you
have these subjects looking directly at the camera, which means
you obviously have an influence of Errol Morris. Was was
the eye contact important for you? It was? Yeah? I
mean I think both as um you know, as an
interview technique, and really a desire to have a conversation
(35:44):
right as the as the person you know, engaging in
these conversations and and you know, having these conversations. I
kind of wanted us to just be able to have
those conversations directly and be able to look into each
other's eyes and and you know, read each other's expressions,
especially around sensitive subject her, and then yes, you have
the I guess the benefit of that is that when
the audience goes to watch it, then the subjects looking
(36:07):
directly at the audience, So there's this feeling of direct intimacy.
So I felt like the right tool for the project.
Released in the newly launched content provider Quimby. Your episodes
are going to be under ten minute intervals, right, and
they recently were only available on your phone. They've changed
out to the television. I've heard. Was it a challenge
putting this heavy, racially intense show into those kind of parameters?
(36:30):
It was, yeah, I mean, just in general, the challenge
of of, you know, a story like this is making
sure that it can hold together as sort of a
ninety minute feature length documentary. Would that's about you know,
this moment in time and these issues around race in
America and this basketball and professional athletes story. But then
also we really need to make sure that you could
chop it up into these twelve chapters, all under ten minutes,
(36:53):
and make sure that there was a really satisfying beginning, middle,
and end um to each of the episodes. And like
you said, doing that alongside these you know, conversations about
about race and culture and and America it provided a
really unique challenge. UM. But my editor, big shout out
to Clayton Warfolk just such a fantastic job of making
(37:14):
sure that we were able to include all those necessary ingredients,
the contextual ingredients about you know, America and um and
these real intimate conversations alongside you know, making sure that
we stayed true our core narrative, you know, and our
really strong pre built narrative about what happened over these
five days. What was the for you most kind of
(37:35):
crushing or cringe worthy moment you stumbled on for this
story in series? I would say, I mean there were
a lot right when you're dealing McDonald Sterling, there's a
lot of cringe um, and you know, Sterling provided endless
cringe and I think, um, once we got ahold of
that white party footage, it was the because it's so raw, right,
(37:56):
it's just um, you know, it's it's not well shot
by home video footage, right, so it's almost it's just sloppy,
it's poor framing. But as a result of that, you know,
it's just this raw capture of this little world, right
of Sterling's little world of all these people, um, you know,
at this private party at his house where he's showcasing
(38:19):
his players. And I used the word showcasing because that's
the way that they described it, that they felt like
they were sort of trophies to be showcased. And you
can see the players faces and they're just so uncomfortable
as he's sort of displaying his players to to this
group of people that are I assume as peers and
his friends, and it's just gross and it was really uncomfortable,
(38:40):
and it was just one of those raw moments where
you just sort of get a peek at um, you know,
because the tape is so sensational, right, and the tape
is such an obvious crossing the line of how this
guy felt in such a lage bear cruise about who
he was, um, but this footage of this party was
just another dimension to that that to a certain extent,
(39:01):
was just creepier, you know, and grosser. So that was
for me, that was by far the most cringey. But
there were plenty of crunching. I mean, his his interview
with Anderson Cooper is a wow. You couldn't have written it.
And not only that, the white Party stuff. It's like
a documentary forget Out. It's like a Jordan Peel moment.
It's so weird, totally it is. It really is a
get out moment. You know, it just is so so
(39:23):
so bizarre. Would you have thought without the distraction and
don't play kate me here, was this a championship team?
I don't think so. I think that maybe maybe maybe
they would have got past okay see, without this distraction,
I could also have seen them losing in game seven.
Okay see, but I don't know if anyone was going
(39:43):
to beat tan Antonio that year, right, Yeah, No, That's
sort of how I feel. And I was at that
game seven. I was also at the game five. I
mean I was, I was watching your duck and thinking
to myself, was I there? And then had to pretty
much look at my calendar and I and I was,
and I feel like I may have pushed it out
of my mind the way I did my parents divorced.
That's awesome though, that you've got to, you know, be
(40:05):
at these games and sort of see that Lop City team.
I mean, such a fun team and such an interesting
you know, part of the Clippers history and the Laura
now you know, and in a weird way, right, it's
like lob City ends, and you know the Donald Sterling
stain is is behind us, and now look at the
Clippers now you know it is. It is almost a
little bit of a fairy tale ending, hopefully for for
(40:28):
you Clipper fans. Well, you can blame me if I
jinxed it, I'll blame everyone in your opinion. You've talked
to two players, experts, cultural analysts. You tell me, can
the curse ever be lifted? I mean, if anyone can
lift the curse, it's it's a man by the name
of Doc Rivers. I mean, the guy is an incredible
(40:50):
human being. You know, what a what a leader, what
a coach um, what an awesome capable dude? You know
who who I would never bet again. So I'm all
in on doc you know, saying what curse? Yeah listen,
I'll take it from your mouth to God's ears. Has
there ever been a better year to be Todd Boyd
also got hey the notorious PhD. I am happy for
(41:16):
him getting his shine and getting his you know licks
and wherever he can. He is an awesome, awesome guy
and such a great articulate spokesperson on behalf of pop
culture and race and the intersection of hip hop and basketball. Yeah, listen,
I I took his class at USC. I'm a fan.
I love seeing him and stuff, and he is clearly
(41:36):
all over the place, uh this this year, So listen.
I thank you for your documentary as a Clippers fan.
Happy to have it out there. It's blackballed on Quimby.
It gets released in these sort of small pockets, but
they're really good and people will love it. And I
just ask you one thing. How about NFL owners next? Yeah? Well,
thank you man, And again I love the doc. It's
awesome and I appreciate it. Thanks. I appreciate the No
(42:06):
Sports Report is produced and distributed by Tree Sport 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 Hailey Mandelberg. Our theme music is composed by Spilkis.
(42:28):
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Any amount makes a difference, and you can learn more
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more information on the No Sports Report, links to the socials,
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(42:49):
to tree Fort dot fm. Be safe and be Well.
The No Sports Report is a production of I Heart
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