July 25, 2025 • 25 mins
On this special Friday edition of the show, Craig Way welcomes longtime friend and legendary voice of the San Antonio Spurs, Bill Schoening, for a fast-paced, story-filled ride through sports, music, and memories. From tales of Texas high school football to covering executions (yes, really), and all the way to Spurs basketball and South by Southwest chaos, this episode is a blend of insight, humor, and nostalgia. 🏈 Craig and Bill revisit their days calling Longhorn games
🎤 Why Bill thinks Sam Presti is the smartest GM in the NBA
🍷 Popovich’s softer side—yes, it exists
🎵 Music Survey Fridays return, with a nod to Austin's live music legends
🎙️ Plus: "Florida Man Friday," the Live Music Update, and karaoke with Big Jim Whether you're just starting your workweek or coasting into the weekend, this episode will keep you entertained. Tune in, laugh a little, and maybe learn something too. 📻 Sports Radio AM 1300 The Zone – where Texas sports and stories live.
🎤 Why Bill thinks Sam Presti is the smartest GM in the NBA
🍷 Popovich’s softer side—yes, it exists
🎵 Music Survey Fridays return, with a nod to Austin's live music legends
🎙️ Plus: "Florida Man Friday," the Live Music Update, and karaoke with Big Jim Whether you're just starting your workweek or coasting into the weekend, this episode will keep you entertained. Tune in, laugh a little, and maybe learn something too. 📻 Sports Radio AM 1300 The Zone – where Texas sports and stories live.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I always say that is if you're a Monday to
Friday guy, good on, You're good for you. Good that
the weekend has a ride for you. For those of
you for whom Friday simply mark's the middle of the week,
maybe our Wednesday through Sunday guy, or whatever that might be. Hey,
hope you're getting over the hump down, Aaron. For those
of you for whom it's just starting the work week,
(00:21):
Hey hope it goes well for you. Good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to the program here on Sports Radio AM thirteen
under the Zone. My name is Craig Way. Glad have
you with us. Joined us always by the producer Cameron D.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Parker.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
The D on the birth certificate stands for Dallas in
in as in being named for his favorite pro football
team that he refuses to watch right now while they're
still under the ownership and iron Fist control of Jerry Jones.
But but you said you're optimistic about Brian Schottenheimer.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
You like Shoddy I do, I do, and it helps
me turn my microphone on the start. Yeah, you know,
we'll see. I don't think we're gonna win the Super Bowl.
I don't think we're gonna win the nfcas I don't
think we're gonna make it to the title game. But
I have more faith in Schottenheimer as an ex's and
o's football coach than I did well the clapper, Jason Garrett,
Mike McCarthy and anyone else like that.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yeah, okay, and you have you. You have some dack
sound for us today.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I think so. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
There's a lot of a lot of stuffs happening at
the Dallas Cowboys training cap and it's not really on
the football field.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Everything is outside the football field. That's Jerry Jones likes it.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
That's the way Jerry likes it. As he would say,
they're in Oxnard. Uh so, we're glad to have you
with us.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Now.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
This is a proddy and on Fridays in the summer
we bring back the music Survey.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
We did this three years ago at the station.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
I got the idea basically, just copied it really from
my friends George Jhvan and Craig Miller the morning show
on the ticket they did the music survey. I heard
it when it was up in Dallas. I bet this
would go over in the live music capital the world.
It's been great. We've had all staff members do it,
and some celebrities we have have that.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
We have a former.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Staff member and a current celebrity with us if retired.
William Joseph Schoning semi retired. That that's true, and we'll
get some clarification on that I was retired.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
It would not be on the show today, that's not true.
To be somewhere held.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
He'd either be in a golf course or some other
Eastern Bloc nation or something like that. Bill Schoning, of course,
the play by play voice of the San Antonio Spurs
for twenty four years. I know it's twenty four years
because it coincides with my play by play entree as
that of the Texas Longhorns.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Is Bill moved over a seat, That's all you did.
As Bill and I.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Used to always say neither of us had rings until
he left town. That's exactly right then, and then it
worked out from Bill do ring.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Before I did, though. Yeah, that World Series championship in two,
that's correct.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, Ian his.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
First year in the chair, and right after Texas had
won the national championship, I had beaten South Carolina twelve
to six. I was at dinner with a group of
people wasn't on the charter, was going to fly back commercial.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
The next day.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
And the phone rings and I'm at dinner with three
of the guys and Bill's name comes up, and I said,
this ought to be good. So I answer and hell,
and this is what I hear on the other line.
So let me get this straight. I do these sobs.
Is the way you put it for twelve years, And
the closest I get is the semifinals and first shot
(03:25):
out of the box you get a national title.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
And I said, I guess we know where the problem
was or something like that, but yeah, it was great.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
So Bill Showing is with us now, and I want
to give you an opportunity. There's a couple of things
we're gonna do. First hour of the program. We're swapping
a lot of lies, just telling, telling stories and embellishments
and things of that nature about our time together. But
we'll also talk about some other things, including that young
man they're in San Antonio who towers over seven feet
(03:53):
and has a lot of excitement about him. Luke Cornett, Yes, exactly,
Luke Cornett from from Lantana, Texas, Santana.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
That's very good. That's up near Dallas. Right near lake.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
It's it's it's between it's kind of between Denton, Dallas
and Fort Worth, Okay, near near Trophy Club and Copper
Canyons and near South Lake not far okay, not far
from the Flower Mountain time and then and I.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Saw lake there, so I thought that was the big
it's a bed bedroom community.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
It's come up. Yeah, it's near Lake Lewisville. Okay.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Remember remember when we were doing the Long War Games,
Ryan Fee Bigger Shut Center.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
He went to Marcus.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
He was from Highlands, Yes, and he was from Highland
Village which fed into that. And that's that's right near
where that is our friend Bill Land before he took
the Spurs play by play job and moved to the
San Antonio area, he was from.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
I think his sons went to Marcus High School.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
And Luke Cornett's mom has been a news anchor on
Channel eleven and Dallas for a long time. I don't
know if she's still doing it, but she has been
for a long time.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Yeah, Luke, I guess yes, So I've heard good things
about it.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, So.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
I I wanted to give you a chance to tell
folks a little bit because so you did this Spurs
for twenty four years. You and I did ten football
and nine basketball seasons together of Texas.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Had a talk show for a while four.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Years on the talk show on this signal, You and
I you kind of, I won't say coerced, but you
definitely encouraged me to come down here. We had already
been doing as a broadcast team the Texas games for
five seasons ninety two through ninety six. So we're on
(05:31):
the eve of the ninety seven season, and that's when
you informed me that our friend Jeff Ford was going
to cross Town to team up with mister Radio to
go over there to Kobe Jackson.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
He was going over to do his own thing for
a while, and now they're together ats and radio. Yeah,
that's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
So your words to me at that time, I don't
think I've ever said this on the air, but I'm
gonna say it down. Your words to me at the
time because we understood each other really, really well. We've
known each other since the eighties when you were doing
Sam Houston and I was working with Bill Mercer doing
North Texas and I was working at KRLD full time,
(06:12):
and your words to me there in early September of
ninety seven were you know me, I love doing Texas,
but my goal is to do a is to do
a pro sports teams play by play, whether it be
Major League Baseball or NFL or NBA, whatever it might be.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
That's my goal.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
And if you're down here, chances are if I lead you,
knowing that I was a play by play guy at heart,
that you would probably move over to the deal. And
I talked about it with my now late wife, Laurie,
and she was all about it and said, yeah, you
need to go down there and get set up, and
we need to get one house ready to sell an Irving,
and the other one ready to buy down here. So
(06:59):
I did doubt at Riotta for ten months. And that's
when Jerry Jones came out to Riatta and you introduced.
You introduced him on the air because Jerry owned basically
Riatta Young the Land.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
And the Cowboys were training in Austin at the time,
that's right, And he said, and you said, blah blah blah.
And of course I'd done Jerry's show for two years,
but it had been three years since I had seen Jerry.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
And you said, you know, I know.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
You know this guy. Will I do, and it's great
to see you. Bill, Good to see you too, Greg, Greg.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
And John and Dan. He was our producer at the time.
He now a ESPN radio fame and he produced a
promo that said sports Day with Bill and Craig. We
were so glad to bring Craig on because he's well connected.
You know, he and Jerry Jones are tight all they
go way back. And then you hear that sound bite
where he was good to see it Greg. Then you
hear John go, hey, Craig, can you get me two
for the Washington gig. So so that was that's kind
(07:54):
of the back ground.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
That's what it all started.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Yeah, Yeah, Bill and I actually knew each other back,
Like I said, in the eighties when you were when
Sam Houston stayed in covering the prison beat.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
How many executions did you got? Cuts? Twenty nine, twenty
nine and witness how many in person? Six? Six?
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Yeah, and you made eighty bucks per execution.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
It's terrible to say, it's true.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
You got to do an interview with Henry Lee Lucas,
the acclaimed multi mass murderer, in exchange for what a
pack of cigarettes and an Orange jury.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
He wanted a pack of cigarettes and an orange soda.
And I've seen since seeing a documentary on Henry Lee Lucas,
who died in prison, did not get executed. He died
of natural well not natural causes, lung cancer, because all
he did was smoked cigarettes.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
So that last pack you bought him put him over
the top, That's what it was.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
But I saw a documentary about him, and law enforcement
was talking about him, and they said, well, he wouldn't
cooperate with us until we got up a cart and
the cigarettes. It just cost me a pack, I think
er seriously. So that's the way he cooperated with law
enforcement as a way that his media interviews. He got
through life by smoking cigarettes so they didn't have to
execute him. He died on his own at the age
(08:57):
of sixty four. But real quick thing about that interview.
He had a weak eye, so the one eye just
kind of stayed and I wasn't sure which one it was,
which one was the good eyes? So which one of
your eyes should I concentrate on. I'm interviewing a serial killer,
so I want to make sure I don't offend him
in any way, even though we were separated by a
pane of glass, and I just didn't know what I
to make eye contact with it, so I kind of
(09:18):
guessed it looked at.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
The bridge of his nose in the middle and hope
it worked out. So so Bill and I knew each
other long time, and then we worked together, Like I said,
ten football, nine basketball seasons. The ten football season from
nineteen ninety two through two thousand and one. Our first
game together was against Mississippi State. It was John Mackovic's
(09:40):
first game as head coach nineteen ninety two. Of course
Texas goes to Startville this year, and of course, what's
that Jackie Cheryl still coaching? No, but I saw him
the other day at the coaching school. He was good.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Yeah, that's probably you know, we haven't talked to it.
We're just a rambling by the way, no format here.
But you going to coaching school, you probably run in
guys like that. They have all the rc slogan all
the time. I see guys like that. Yeah, And that's
one thing, you know. When I made the decision to
go with the Spurs, I left football, you know, I mean,
and it was hard because that first next training camp
for US didn't start till October. But August is when
(10:16):
football training camp starts, and when you're so used to
going to football practice and you're so used to hearing
the pads pop and smell the fresh cut grass and
all that kind of you know, Americana stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
But it's still players sweat everything and the whole thing.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
And coach speak, Yeah, we only ride for the brand
at Marble Falls High School anyway.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Whatever we actually had, we actually had a feature that
we ran on our show called coach Speak with Carl
bull rees He was the defensive coordinator at the time.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
That was the show that we had done part part
of the show we had done. And I'll say this
about Coach Macovic he always allowed and Coach Brown access
to the coordinator. So we were able to sit down
and visit with the defense coordinator in the offensive coordinator
on Thursdays, I think is the day we did it.
But when we had Carl bull Reese, he would at
least once maybe twice per session, throw something out there
(11:04):
that you and I would look at each other.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
And say, what was that.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
So we started doing coach speak and we would get
him and say, all right, today's coach speak is feathering
the option. Well, that's where you get your dvs. And
he kind of worked that option or decided to get
old babers out there, and he would try to work
you over there to the sideline. Remember that, yes, remember
he said, getting ready to play Missouri or Missouri he
used to say, because it was from Western Missouri, which
late Billard will always said, Missouri. That's right, anybody from
(11:29):
Western Missouri, it's Missouri. From the eastern side, it's Missouri,
and especially the Saint Louis side. But he would say, yeah, yeah,
this is uh, this is a week uh that you
did you call the cho as theory And I said,
what is that? He goes, that's when if you don't
win the game, the people in the office next day say, yeah,
we beat.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
Joe A's and uh so he was. He was a
great character. Yeah, that's one of the great Yeah again.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So one of the things I.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Miss is football coach, and you know, I really miss
and I know he passed away a few years ago,
but he was my favorite coach. On the opposing side,
that was Spike Dike's of course, a longtime head coach
at Texas Tech. And uh I got to know Spike
very very well through the years, and he would come
on the show all the time, and you know, just
that folksy humor, you know, and just realed down to
earth and had that West Texas kind of flavored to
him and always got on me because he always called
(12:16):
me the former voice of the La Mesa Golden Tornadoes
because I was in La Mesa for three years and
he couldn't believe I was there. So uh but uh yeah,
so little guys and not a little guys, but guys
like that I missed because I just didn't need a
chance to really spend a lot of time with them
after I left for the NBA. Not that I made
I made the right decision, but certain that you make
a decision and it's the right of certain things, but
you miss certain things. You know, there's certain things going
(12:37):
to miss no matter what the next step is.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
So what do you think you're going to miss by
not doing? And again to bring this full circle, Bill
had decided in what you kind of decided before this.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Right before the season it was gonna be my last,
that it was going to be your last.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
So you went through and uh, you were lauded. Did
they give you like rocking chairs and stuff like that
and all the other places.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
We didn't official announce until just before the end of
that series, so it was like about it, but.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
You were recognized and plays like Portland thing and a
couple of places.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Where the Phoenix was not.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Yeah, the people are really not And of course we've
got so many Spurs folks working for different organizations, like
our last road game I think was in Phoenix, my
last road game, and Brent Barry is an assistant coach
of Phoenix and at the time, and Mike Botenholds was
the head coach. So anyway, and those of course former Spurs.
Brett former player in front office guy, and Bud was
a former assistant. So the thing about the Spurs is
(13:27):
we got people all over the place. So when you
go to a place like Portland or Phoenix or wherever,
there's a good chance you're going to run into somebody
to know that worked one time for the Spurs. Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma City's got a bunch of them. Yeah, Sam Presty
of course, and hats off to Sam. You know, I
interviewed Sam when he was an assistant GM my first
year with the Spurs, and he was a young kid.
He was much younger than me, but I just was
(13:47):
so impressed with how smart he was.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
And I'll never.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Forget after the interview, says Bill, do me a favor.
Listen back to an interview, and if you can give
me a tip or a pointer on how to be
a better interview, let me know. And this is assistant
GM and and he was serious about this, And that's
just how smart he is that he always wanted to
get better. And I don't know anybody in all my
years in basketball, Craig that can assess talent better than
(14:10):
Sam Presty.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
He's amazing.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
He really insisted to the Spurs that they draft Tony Parker.
They weren't really sure about drafting Tony, and he didn't
do very well. His first workout, Tony when they brought
him in, went up against a guy named Lance Blanks,
and Lance basically kicked Tony's butt. But what happened was
Tony had just gotten off the plane from France. It
was in Chicago when this happened, and Sam said, look,
that's not the Tony Parker I saw in France. Give
(14:33):
this kid another chance. They gave him another workout. He
did much better. They drafted him, and of course now
he's in the Hall.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Of fam absolutely, And of course, and you know Cameron Parker,
the producer and resident Oklahoma City thunder fans.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Oh, congratulations camra And now it's an organization that deserved
the championship this year without a doubt, and a GM
that really put together quite a roster.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
No doubt about that.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
I've seen Sam Presti a few times on the road,
usually when we put the Norman. He's always there at
practice walking around, and talked him a few times, standing guy. Yeah,
he really is, standing, extremely bright. He went to Emerson.
I don't think I could get in Emerson to you, Craig.
Do you think you get it?
Speaker 2 (15:07):
It might be a little difficult, might be difficult.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Bill Shounning's with us and what you just heard in
the prior fifteen minutes, Yeah, that's probably gonna be the
whole first hour. We're gonna do stuff like that, but
we're going to talk about some other things. Then Bill
is gonna take the music survey in the three o'clock hour.
That's where my sacks and pub t shirts.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
I like it. Yeah, Yeah, we got to get you
out to a show, Craigs. Out there when you before.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yeah, I was out there when you performed when you
did the CD release.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Yeah, was it for that? Oh cool? Yeah, it was fun.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
No, it's just it's one of those you know, I
hear people complain about the Austin scene has gone or
it's not.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
You just got to know when to go, where and
where to go.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Yeah, there's still Anton's, there's still the Continental Club, there's
still the Sacks, and there's still a bunch of other
places popping up on South Congress.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
There's a lot of good music in this.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Town, which reminds me of another little feature we did,
and we'll get to that coming up here on a
Friday afternoon.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Glad to have you with us here.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
By the way, if you want to text into the
program and you got some dirty remark to make about Bill,
that's fine too. Text the word Texas followed by your
question or comment to eight one five three zero. Also,
we're going to give away two more copies of Dave
Pampbell's Texas Football Magazine, the brand new twenty twenty five edition.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
We'll do that.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Today, all that more when we continue on a Friday.
I'm thirteen under the zone. Exaggeration or Truism in twenty
four years is the play by play voice of the Spurs.
You interviewed Greg Popovich twenty four times.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
That's over. That's over. That's that's over. So it's not
an exaggeration. No, no, no, you did not want to do.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
I don't want to say exactly how he told me
he didn't want to do Prehaim interviews. But he made
it clear to me that this is not something he
wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
But you told me the first year, the first year
which had as part of the pregame, the Greg Popovich Show, that.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Never got sponsored. So that's the way to about the time. No,
I went in several times to do the show, and
he'd say, get Hank. Hank was his assistant coach, Hank Egan.
So after about nine or ten times to get Hank
in a row, you know, every time I go get Hank,
get Hank, get Hank.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I didn't want to bother the guy.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
He didn't want He clearly didn't want to do it,
but he said keep coming back. So I was like
about over eight, over nine in a row, whatever it was,
and I said, hey, Pop, you want to do the
pregame interview today? He goes get Hank and I said,
you know, Pop, I write songs on the side. It's
something I do like as a hobby. And he put
down his glasses and he put down his three by
five cards. He looked up at me because so I said, so,
(17:24):
I want to let you know that I just wrote
a new song.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
It's called get Hank. And he laughed, and I.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Said, I'm not going to come back and Bobby anymore.
You clearly don't want to do it. And he says,
I really don't.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
I said, that's cool. I'll just get Hank or I'll
get somebody else.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
I started doing players on a more regular basis, and
you know, so it was no big thing. Pop just
didn't like doing pregame interviews and didn't like doing in
game or post came in aound out all those reporters
for TNT. You know that they got to get abused
a little bit by Pop. I never had to worry
about that because after the first few weeks, I didn't
worry about it, you know. But he just I'll tell
you this though, he's got a big heart. He's a
(17:57):
really really good person. And I've seen that time and
time and time again on the road where I'll give
you a real quick example, and that's just one example.
I'm at a wine bar in Denver and I had
a spur of course off night, and I spur shirt
on and he goes, I really love your coach.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I said, why is that?
Speaker 4 (18:14):
He said, We last year I was working at the
steakhouse down the street and the coaches came in and
we had to kind of stay late for them. And
he came over to me and he says, how many
people at this restaurant are still working because of us?
Speaker 2 (18:24):
And he says, well, coach is a couple of.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Dishwashers, a bus boy, and they're probably about seven of us.
You know, he gets seven one bills, he says, give
everybody a hundred bucks. And they were only there for
like an extra half hour an hour. But anyway, that's
the kind of guy he is. And there's a million
stories like that.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Sure, sure, absolutely, Now, how do you think el Hefe
is going to do? Is being el Hefe and not
so much with the coach? Did you, by the way,
did you find it interesting that both of you went
out at the same time?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah? I did. I did.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
And of course when that happened, I got a bunch
of sacks. Say, Pop just couldn't stand the fact that
you were going to be gone. I had nothing to
do with me promise. I was very touched by the
fact that Tim and Manu went I they're with him
for that press conference. You know clearly, uh, he had
the stroke and he had some physical limitations, but I
think he's still.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Very sharp mentally.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
He's very very good at assessing talent, and that's one
of the things I'm sure he'll do as the president.
Try to figure out that they're really on the I
say they now it's weirdness, not say we But I
think the Spurs are a very good upward trend. They've
got the last two rookies of the year. This Jilan
Harper kid's gonna be really good. And I think they're
doing some really good things to kind of supplement those
guys and and uh, you know, compliment those guys and
(19:28):
fill out the roster. They're gonna be good. I don't
know that they're gonna be a contender, but I think
they're on.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
The way up.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Tell us about the man succeeding Pop. Mitch Johnson's a
good guy. Mitch Johnson played at Stanford. He's younger than
some players in the league did he.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Was he playing on the Stanford team that played Texas
in the Sweet sixteam.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
The Robin brook Lopez team.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Yah, Robin brook Lopez who is the other guy on
that team. Landry Fields was on that team, I believe,
and of course him, Mitch was a good point guard.
His dad, John Johnson played for the Seattle Supers.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah, not related to Trent Johnson, who was the coach
of that Stanford tea.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
That's exactly right, that's great.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
That's the team they played Texas in the Sweet sixteen
in oh wait, Texas beat them and then lost to Memphis.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
In the Elite eight. And Mitch was here too. He
was with the Austin Spurs for a while. Like a
lot of the people that go through the whole development
process with the Spurs, they spent some time in Austin
as well.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Okay, how about Wimby's development?
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Yeah, unfortunately, you know, he got that blood clot this
year from bosis or whatever they call him in the
shoulder and that cut his last thirty one to thirty
two games out, and that really hurt our chances to
make the playoffs. I think we might have been able,
you know, he was starting to really come on and
then we get to Aaron Fox and he breaks his
picky Figer. He already had the broken picky finger. They
decided to shut him down too for the last sixteen
or seventeen games. So without Wimby and without Fox, it
(20:50):
was very, very difficult. But I think Victor is going
to continue to get better and better. He's very bright,
he's twenty one years old. He's a very hard worker.
He's very serious about this and he recognizes and I
might have told you this in a previous interview Craig,
but it was very early in his tenure with the Spurs,
and when he was just twenty years old. I asked
him about the responsibility he has with the entire city
(21:12):
and the entire organization just kind of building on him.
He goes, this is why I'm here. I accepted, this
is what I this is why I'm here. And for
a twenty year old to accept the responsibility of an
entire franchise, city organization building everything on him and him
willingly accepting that, that says a lot.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Yeah, No question about do you like the draft?
Speaker 4 (21:35):
Yes, yes, I think that the Dylan Carter, the Carter right, Harker, No, No,
the second pick, oh right, the Kiff Arizona.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Carter.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
I think Carter Bryant. I think he's going to be
really good in time. Defensively, he's really good already, but
his offensive skills are going to have to come along.
And I think that with the plethora of guards that
the Spurs have, we're going to probably see him in
Austin's as he tries to develop his offensive game. But defensively,
I think he's going to be elite.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
You said in Austin, the Spurs can play continue to
play games, two more games.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
I haven't seen the sched well, the schedule didn't come
out till another couple of rights.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
But they're committed to playing a couple more games of movie.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
A couple more games. Moing.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
I absolutely loved it, and seriously, and one of the
reasons was.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
You didn't have to drive to San Antonio. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
And you know, one year though, they had it thrown
south By Southwest and I forgot how crowded and crazy
south By SOUTHWESTCOT because I usually out of town for
south By now, so I was actually in town and
the traffic was crazy and I couldn't get to any gigs.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
It was like it was bad.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
It's like I remember you used to be able to
really kind of hang out.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
And I mean you were around.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Yeah, I remember that time that you and I were
at the airport getting a flight and it was a
Japanese punk band that looked like Devo.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
They were in the wild yellow.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Outfits and this this little girl went up to her mom,
what is that?
Speaker 2 (22:54):
What is that?
Speaker 1 (22:55):
And and then not long right after that, we saw
was it Sunny Colvin?
Speaker 4 (22:59):
Uh talking about Sean? Sean Covin was in the airport too,
right at the same time. Yeah, yeah, but anyway, the
young lady asked her mom what that was over There
was a Japanese punk band, and I interrupted, said that
is south By Southwest, That's what that is.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Well, and and of course our our resident uh intern
and drummer uh and ton't like him. You know that
his band Whisk they play girl punk.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
He told me that, and I didn't realize that there
was even a genre.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
I guess. So it is all right, So uh Bill
showing is with us? All right?
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Now, you're you're familiar with what we do on Friday,
but I have this segment inconceivable, inconceivable, and on Friday Conceivable.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
By the way, it's always in Florida.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Fridays, we have Florida Man Oh okay feature It's Friday.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Normally, it's just some of your stories for whatever reason,
have been in Florida for whatever on Fridays.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Florida Man Friday, okay. So we have that coming up,
but we should tell people before we take his break.
You and I had a different kind of funky feature
back in the day, funky funk that we called the
Live Music Update on Fridays, and you would usually roll
in the B bop into the station with a couple
of copies of the Austin Chronicle, and this would be
(24:16):
an hour or two before the show, and we would
sit there with a highlighter and just highlight unusual band
names and or venues. So when we would say, they'll
know us by the Trail of Dead, and then later
they just shortened the name to Trail of Dead. Playing
at Emo's Alternative lounging just.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Like I Love You, but I've Chosen Darkness, they later
changed their name to just I've Chosen Darkness.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
We would always say, we'd always say.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
And out at La Palapa, it's karaoke.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
With Big Jim.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
I think Big Jim called he wasn't really happy about that.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
So anyway, that was a feature we did back then.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
This one is actual news stories and on Friday days
it's a Florida Man Friday, so that that's sprinkled in
with the other stories.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
So you're about to hear that coming, right, we'll do that.
We'll continue right here on thirteen under the Zone
I always say that is if you're a Monday to
Friday guy, good on, You're good for you. Good that
the weekend has a ride for you. For those of
you for whom Friday simply mark's the middle of the week,
maybe our Wednesday through Sunday guy, or whatever that might be. Hey,
hope you're getting over the hump down, Aaron. For those
of you for whom it's just starting the work week,
(00:21):
Hey hope it goes well for you. Good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to the program here on Sports Radio AM thirteen
under the Zone. My name is Craig Way. Glad have
you with us. Joined us always by the producer Cameron D.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Parker.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
The D on the birth certificate stands for Dallas in
in as in being named for his favorite pro football
team that he refuses to watch right now while they're
still under the ownership and iron Fist control of Jerry Jones.
But but you said you're optimistic about Brian Schottenheimer.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
You like Shoddy I do, I do, and it helps
me turn my microphone on the start. Yeah, you know,
we'll see. I don't think we're gonna win the Super Bowl.
I don't think we're gonna win the nfcas I don't
think we're gonna make it to the title game. But
I have more faith in Schottenheimer as an ex's and
o's football coach than I did well the clapper, Jason Garrett,
Mike McCarthy and anyone else like that.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yeah, okay, and you have you. You have some dack
sound for us today.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I think so. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
There's a lot of a lot of stuffs happening at
the Dallas Cowboys training cap and it's not really on
the football field.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Everything is outside the football field. That's Jerry Jones likes it.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
That's the way Jerry likes it. As he would say,
they're in Oxnard. Uh so, we're glad to have you
with us.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Now.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
This is a proddy and on Fridays in the summer
we bring back the music Survey.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
We did this three years ago at the station.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
I got the idea basically, just copied it really from
my friends George Jhvan and Craig Miller the morning show
on the ticket they did the music survey. I heard
it when it was up in Dallas. I bet this
would go over in the live music capital the world.
It's been great. We've had all staff members do it,
and some celebrities we have have that.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
We have a former.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Staff member and a current celebrity with us if retired.
William Joseph Schoning semi retired. That that's true, and we'll
get some clarification on that I was retired.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
It would not be on the show today, that's not true.
To be somewhere held.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
He'd either be in a golf course or some other
Eastern Bloc nation or something like that. Bill Schoning, of course,
the play by play voice of the San Antonio Spurs
for twenty four years. I know it's twenty four years
because it coincides with my play by play entree as
that of the Texas Longhorns.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Is Bill moved over a seat, That's all you did.
As Bill and I.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Used to always say neither of us had rings until
he left town. That's exactly right then, and then it
worked out from Bill do ring.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Before I did, though. Yeah, that World Series championship in two,
that's correct.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, Ian his.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
First year in the chair, and right after Texas had
won the national championship, I had beaten South Carolina twelve
to six. I was at dinner with a group of
people wasn't on the charter, was going to fly back commercial.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
The next day.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
And the phone rings and I'm at dinner with three
of the guys and Bill's name comes up, and I said,
this ought to be good. So I answer and hell,
and this is what I hear on the other line.
So let me get this straight. I do these sobs.
Is the way you put it for twelve years, And
the closest I get is the semifinals and first shot
(03:25):
out of the box you get a national title.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
And I said, I guess we know where the problem
was or something like that, but yeah, it was great.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
So Bill Showing is with us now, and I want
to give you an opportunity. There's a couple of things
we're gonna do. First hour of the program. We're swapping
a lot of lies, just telling, telling stories and embellishments
and things of that nature about our time together. But
we'll also talk about some other things, including that young
man they're in San Antonio who towers over seven feet
(03:53):
and has a lot of excitement about him. Luke Cornett, Yes, exactly,
Luke Cornett from from Lantana, Texas, Santana.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
That's very good. That's up near Dallas. Right near lake.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
It's it's it's between it's kind of between Denton, Dallas
and Fort Worth, Okay, near near Trophy Club and Copper
Canyons and near South Lake not far okay, not far
from the Flower Mountain time and then and I.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Saw lake there, so I thought that was the big
it's a bed bedroom community.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
It's come up. Yeah, it's near Lake Lewisville. Okay.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Remember remember when we were doing the Long War Games,
Ryan Fee Bigger Shut Center.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
He went to Marcus.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
He was from Highlands, Yes, and he was from Highland
Village which fed into that. And that's that's right near
where that is our friend Bill Land before he took
the Spurs play by play job and moved to the
San Antonio area, he was from.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
I think his sons went to Marcus High School.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
And Luke Cornett's mom has been a news anchor on
Channel eleven and Dallas for a long time. I don't
know if she's still doing it, but she has been
for a long time.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Yeah, Luke, I guess yes, So I've heard good things
about it.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, So.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
I I wanted to give you a chance to tell
folks a little bit because so you did this Spurs
for twenty four years. You and I did ten football
and nine basketball seasons together of Texas.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Had a talk show for a while four.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Years on the talk show on this signal, You and
I you kind of, I won't say coerced, but you
definitely encouraged me to come down here. We had already
been doing as a broadcast team the Texas games for
five seasons ninety two through ninety six. So we're on
(05:31):
the eve of the ninety seven season, and that's when
you informed me that our friend Jeff Ford was going
to cross Town to team up with mister Radio to
go over there to Kobe Jackson.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
He was going over to do his own thing for
a while, and now they're together ats and radio. Yeah,
that's exactly right.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
So your words to me at that time, I don't
think I've ever said this on the air, but I'm
gonna say it down. Your words to me at the
time because we understood each other really, really well. We've
known each other since the eighties when you were doing
Sam Houston and I was working with Bill Mercer doing
North Texas and I was working at KRLD full time,
(06:12):
and your words to me there in early September of
ninety seven were you know me, I love doing Texas,
but my goal is to do a is to do
a pro sports teams play by play, whether it be
Major League Baseball or NFL or NBA, whatever it might be.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
That's my goal.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
And if you're down here, chances are if I lead you,
knowing that I was a play by play guy at heart,
that you would probably move over to the deal. And
I talked about it with my now late wife, Laurie,
and she was all about it and said, yeah, you
need to go down there and get set up, and
we need to get one house ready to sell an Irving,
and the other one ready to buy down here. So
(06:59):
I did doubt at Riotta for ten months. And that's
when Jerry Jones came out to Riatta and you introduced.
You introduced him on the air because Jerry owned basically
Riatta Young the Land.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
And the Cowboys were training in Austin at the time,
that's right, And he said, and you said, blah blah blah.
And of course I'd done Jerry's show for two years,
but it had been three years since I had seen Jerry.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
And you said, you know, I know.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
You know this guy. Will I do, and it's great
to see you. Bill, Good to see you too, Greg, Greg.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
And John and Dan. He was our producer at the time.
He now a ESPN radio fame and he produced a
promo that said sports Day with Bill and Craig. We
were so glad to bring Craig on because he's well connected.
You know, he and Jerry Jones are tight all they
go way back. And then you hear that sound bite
where he was good to see it Greg. Then you
hear John go, hey, Craig, can you get me two
for the Washington gig. So so that was that's kind
(07:54):
of the back ground.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
That's what it all started.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Yeah, Yeah, Bill and I actually knew each other back,
Like I said, in the eighties when you were when
Sam Houston stayed in covering the prison beat.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
How many executions did you got? Cuts? Twenty nine, twenty
nine and witness how many in person? Six? Six?
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Yeah, and you made eighty bucks per execution.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
It's terrible to say, it's true.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
You got to do an interview with Henry Lee Lucas,
the acclaimed multi mass murderer, in exchange for what a
pack of cigarettes and an Orange jury.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
He wanted a pack of cigarettes and an orange soda.
And I've seen since seeing a documentary on Henry Lee Lucas,
who died in prison, did not get executed. He died
of natural well not natural causes, lung cancer, because all
he did was smoked cigarettes.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
So that last pack you bought him put him over
the top, That's what it was.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
But I saw a documentary about him, and law enforcement
was talking about him, and they said, well, he wouldn't
cooperate with us until we got up a cart and
the cigarettes. It just cost me a pack, I think
er seriously. So that's the way he cooperated with law
enforcement as a way that his media interviews. He got
through life by smoking cigarettes so they didn't have to
execute him. He died on his own at the age
(08:57):
of sixty four. But real quick thing about that interview.
He had a weak eye, so the one eye just
kind of stayed and I wasn't sure which one it was,
which one was the good eyes? So which one of
your eyes should I concentrate on. I'm interviewing a serial killer,
so I want to make sure I don't offend him
in any way, even though we were separated by a
pane of glass, and I just didn't know what I
to make eye contact with it, so I kind of
(09:18):
guessed it looked at.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
The bridge of his nose in the middle and hope
it worked out. So so Bill and I knew each
other long time, and then we worked together, Like I said,
ten football, nine basketball seasons. The ten football season from
nineteen ninety two through two thousand and one. Our first
game together was against Mississippi State. It was John Mackovic's
(09:40):
first game as head coach nineteen ninety two. Of course
Texas goes to Startville this year, and of course, what's
that Jackie Cheryl still coaching? No, but I saw him
the other day at the coaching school. He was good.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Yeah, that's probably you know, we haven't talked to it.
We're just a rambling by the way, no format here.
But you going to coaching school, you probably run in
guys like that. They have all the rc slogan all
the time. I see guys like that. Yeah, And that's
one thing, you know. When I made the decision to
go with the Spurs, I left football, you know, I mean,
and it was hard because that first next training camp
for US didn't start till October. But August is when
(10:16):
football training camp starts, and when you're so used to
going to football practice and you're so used to hearing
the pads pop and smell the fresh cut grass and
all that kind of you know, Americana stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
But it's still players sweat everything and the whole thing.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
And coach speak, Yeah, we only ride for the brand
at Marble Falls High School anyway.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Whatever we actually had, we actually had a feature that
we ran on our show called coach Speak with Carl
bull rees He was the defensive coordinator at the time.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
That was the show that we had done part part
of the show we had done. And I'll say this
about Coach Macovic he always allowed and Coach Brown access
to the coordinator. So we were able to sit down
and visit with the defense coordinator in the offensive coordinator
on Thursdays, I think is the day we did it.
But when we had Carl bull Reese, he would at
least once maybe twice per session, throw something out there
(11:04):
that you and I would look at each other.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
And say, what was that.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
So we started doing coach speak and we would get
him and say, all right, today's coach speak is feathering
the option. Well, that's where you get your dvs. And
he kind of worked that option or decided to get
old babers out there, and he would try to work
you over there to the sideline. Remember that, yes, remember
he said, getting ready to play Missouri or Missouri he
used to say, because it was from Western Missouri, which
late Billard will always said, Missouri. That's right, anybody from
(11:29):
Western Missouri, it's Missouri. From the eastern side, it's Missouri,
and especially the Saint Louis side. But he would say, yeah, yeah,
this is uh, this is a week uh that you
did you call the cho as theory And I said,
what is that? He goes, that's when if you don't
win the game, the people in the office next day say, yeah,
we beat.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
Joe A's and uh so he was. He was a
great character. Yeah, that's one of the great Yeah again.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So one of the things I.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Miss is football coach, and you know, I really miss
and I know he passed away a few years ago,
but he was my favorite coach. On the opposing side,
that was Spike Dike's of course, a longtime head coach
at Texas Tech. And uh I got to know Spike
very very well through the years, and he would come
on the show all the time, and you know, just
that folksy humor, you know, and just realed down to
earth and had that West Texas kind of flavored to
him and always got on me because he always called
(12:16):
me the former voice of the La Mesa Golden Tornadoes
because I was in La Mesa for three years and
he couldn't believe I was there. So uh but uh yeah,
so little guys and not a little guys, but guys
like that I missed because I just didn't need a
chance to really spend a lot of time with them
after I left for the NBA. Not that I made
I made the right decision, but certain that you make
a decision and it's the right of certain things, but
you miss certain things. You know, there's certain things going
(12:37):
to miss no matter what the next step is.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
So what do you think you're going to miss by
not doing? And again to bring this full circle, Bill
had decided in what you kind of decided before this.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Right before the season it was gonna be my last,
that it was going to be your last.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
So you went through and uh, you were lauded. Did
they give you like rocking chairs and stuff like that
and all the other places.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
We didn't official announce until just before the end of
that series, so it was like about it, but.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
You were recognized and plays like Portland thing and a
couple of places.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Where the Phoenix was not.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Yeah, the people are really not And of course we've
got so many Spurs folks working for different organizations, like
our last road game I think was in Phoenix, my
last road game, and Brent Barry is an assistant coach
of Phoenix and at the time, and Mike Botenholds was
the head coach. So anyway, and those of course former Spurs.
Brett former player in front office guy, and Bud was
a former assistant. So the thing about the Spurs is
(13:27):
we got people all over the place. So when you
go to a place like Portland or Phoenix or wherever,
there's a good chance you're going to run into somebody
to know that worked one time for the Spurs. Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma City's got a bunch of them. Yeah, Sam Presty
of course, and hats off to Sam. You know, I
interviewed Sam when he was an assistant GM my first
year with the Spurs, and he was a young kid.
He was much younger than me, but I just was
(13:47):
so impressed with how smart he was.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
And I'll never.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Forget after the interview, says Bill, do me a favor.
Listen back to an interview, and if you can give
me a tip or a pointer on how to be
a better interview, let me know. And this is assistant
GM and and he was serious about this, And that's
just how smart he is that he always wanted to
get better. And I don't know anybody in all my
years in basketball, Craig that can assess talent better than
(14:10):
Sam Presty.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
He's amazing.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
He really insisted to the Spurs that they draft Tony Parker.
They weren't really sure about drafting Tony, and he didn't
do very well. His first workout, Tony when they brought
him in, went up against a guy named Lance Blanks,
and Lance basically kicked Tony's butt. But what happened was
Tony had just gotten off the plane from France. It
was in Chicago when this happened, and Sam said, look,
that's not the Tony Parker I saw in France. Give
(14:33):
this kid another chance. They gave him another workout. He
did much better. They drafted him, and of course now
he's in the Hall.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Of fam absolutely, And of course, and you know Cameron Parker,
the producer and resident Oklahoma City thunder fans.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Oh, congratulations camra And now it's an organization that deserved
the championship this year without a doubt, and a GM
that really put together quite a roster.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
No doubt about that.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
I've seen Sam Presti a few times on the road,
usually when we put the Norman. He's always there at
practice walking around, and talked him a few times, standing guy. Yeah,
he really is, standing, extremely bright. He went to Emerson.
I don't think I could get in Emerson to you, Craig.
Do you think you get it?
Speaker 2 (15:07):
It might be a little difficult, might be difficult.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Bill Shounning's with us and what you just heard in
the prior fifteen minutes, Yeah, that's probably gonna be the
whole first hour. We're gonna do stuff like that, but
we're going to talk about some other things. Then Bill
is gonna take the music survey in the three o'clock hour.
That's where my sacks and pub t shirts.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
I like it. Yeah, Yeah, we got to get you
out to a show, Craigs. Out there when you before.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yeah, I was out there when you performed when you
did the CD release.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Yeah, was it for that? Oh cool? Yeah, it was fun.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
No, it's just it's one of those you know, I
hear people complain about the Austin scene has gone or
it's not.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
You just got to know when to go, where and
where to go.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Yeah, there's still Anton's, there's still the Continental Club, there's
still the Sacks, and there's still a bunch of other
places popping up on South Congress.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
There's a lot of good music in this.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Town, which reminds me of another little feature we did,
and we'll get to that coming up here on a
Friday afternoon.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Glad to have you with us here.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
By the way, if you want to text into the
program and you got some dirty remark to make about Bill,
that's fine too. Text the word Texas followed by your
question or comment to eight one five three zero. Also,
we're going to give away two more copies of Dave
Pampbell's Texas Football Magazine, the brand new twenty twenty five edition.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
We'll do that.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Today, all that more when we continue on a Friday.
I'm thirteen under the zone. Exaggeration or Truism in twenty
four years is the play by play voice of the Spurs.
You interviewed Greg Popovich twenty four times.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
That's over. That's over. That's that's over. So it's not
an exaggeration. No, no, no, you did not want to do.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
I don't want to say exactly how he told me
he didn't want to do Prehaim interviews. But he made
it clear to me that this is not something he
wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
But you told me the first year, the first year
which had as part of the pregame, the Greg Popovich Show, that.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Never got sponsored. So that's the way to about the time. No,
I went in several times to do the show, and
he'd say, get Hank. Hank was his assistant coach, Hank Egan.
So after about nine or ten times to get Hank
in a row, you know, every time I go get Hank,
get Hank, get Hank.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I didn't want to bother the guy.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
He didn't want He clearly didn't want to do it,
but he said keep coming back. So I was like
about over eight, over nine in a row, whatever it was,
and I said, hey, Pop, you want to do the
pregame interview today? He goes get Hank and I said,
you know, Pop, I write songs on the side. It's
something I do like as a hobby. And he put
down his glasses and he put down his three by
five cards. He looked up at me because so I said, so,
(17:24):
I want to let you know that I just wrote
a new song.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
It's called get Hank. And he laughed, and I.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Said, I'm not going to come back and Bobby anymore.
You clearly don't want to do it. And he says,
I really don't.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
I said, that's cool. I'll just get Hank or I'll
get somebody else.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
I started doing players on a more regular basis, and
you know, so it was no big thing. Pop just
didn't like doing pregame interviews and didn't like doing in
game or post came in aound out all those reporters
for TNT. You know that they got to get abused
a little bit by Pop. I never had to worry
about that because after the first few weeks, I didn't
worry about it, you know. But he just I'll tell
you this though, he's got a big heart. He's a
(17:57):
really really good person. And I've seen that time and
time and time again on the road where I'll give
you a real quick example, and that's just one example.
I'm at a wine bar in Denver and I had
a spur of course off night, and I spur shirt
on and he goes, I really love your coach.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I said, why is that?
Speaker 4 (18:14):
He said, We last year I was working at the
steakhouse down the street and the coaches came in and
we had to kind of stay late for them. And
he came over to me and he says, how many
people at this restaurant are still working because of us?
Speaker 2 (18:24):
And he says, well, coach is a couple of.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Dishwashers, a bus boy, and they're probably about seven of us.
You know, he gets seven one bills, he says, give
everybody a hundred bucks. And they were only there for
like an extra half hour an hour. But anyway, that's
the kind of guy he is. And there's a million
stories like that.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Sure, sure, absolutely, Now, how do you think el Hefe
is going to do? Is being el Hefe and not
so much with the coach? Did you, by the way,
did you find it interesting that both of you went
out at the same time?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah? I did. I did.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
And of course when that happened, I got a bunch
of sacks. Say, Pop just couldn't stand the fact that
you were going to be gone. I had nothing to
do with me promise. I was very touched by the
fact that Tim and Manu went I they're with him
for that press conference. You know clearly, uh, he had
the stroke and he had some physical limitations, but I
think he's still.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Very sharp mentally.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
He's very very good at assessing talent, and that's one
of the things I'm sure he'll do as the president.
Try to figure out that they're really on the I
say they now it's weirdness, not say we But I
think the Spurs are a very good upward trend. They've
got the last two rookies of the year. This Jilan
Harper kid's gonna be really good. And I think they're
doing some really good things to kind of supplement those
guys and and uh, you know, compliment those guys and
(19:28):
fill out the roster. They're gonna be good. I don't
know that they're gonna be a contender, but I think
they're on.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
The way up.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Tell us about the man succeeding Pop. Mitch Johnson's a
good guy. Mitch Johnson played at Stanford. He's younger than
some players in the league did he.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Was he playing on the Stanford team that played Texas
in the Sweet sixteam.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
The Robin brook Lopez team.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Yah, Robin brook Lopez who is the other guy on
that team. Landry Fields was on that team, I believe,
and of course him, Mitch was a good point guard.
His dad, John Johnson played for the Seattle Supers.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah, not related to Trent Johnson, who was the coach
of that Stanford tea.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
That's exactly right, that's great.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
That's the team they played Texas in the Sweet sixteen
in oh wait, Texas beat them and then lost to Memphis.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
In the Elite eight. And Mitch was here too. He
was with the Austin Spurs for a while. Like a
lot of the people that go through the whole development
process with the Spurs, they spent some time in Austin
as well.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Okay, how about Wimby's development?
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Yeah, unfortunately, you know, he got that blood clot this
year from bosis or whatever they call him in the
shoulder and that cut his last thirty one to thirty
two games out, and that really hurt our chances to
make the playoffs. I think we might have been able,
you know, he was starting to really come on and
then we get to Aaron Fox and he breaks his
picky Figer. He already had the broken picky finger. They
decided to shut him down too for the last sixteen
or seventeen games. So without Wimby and without Fox, it
(20:50):
was very, very difficult. But I think Victor is going
to continue to get better and better. He's very bright,
he's twenty one years old. He's a very hard worker.
He's very serious about this and he recognizes and I
might have told you this in a previous interview Craig,
but it was very early in his tenure with the Spurs,
and when he was just twenty years old. I asked
him about the responsibility he has with the entire city
(21:12):
and the entire organization just kind of building on him.
He goes, this is why I'm here. I accepted, this
is what I this is why I'm here. And for
a twenty year old to accept the responsibility of an
entire franchise, city organization building everything on him and him
willingly accepting that, that says a lot.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Yeah, No question about do you like the draft?
Speaker 4 (21:35):
Yes, yes, I think that the Dylan Carter, the Carter right, Harker, No, No,
the second pick, oh right, the Kiff Arizona.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Carter.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
I think Carter Bryant. I think he's going to be
really good in time. Defensively, he's really good already, but
his offensive skills are going to have to come along.
And I think that with the plethora of guards that
the Spurs have, we're going to probably see him in
Austin's as he tries to develop his offensive game. But defensively,
I think he's going to be elite.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
You said in Austin, the Spurs can play continue to
play games, two more games.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
I haven't seen the sched well, the schedule didn't come
out till another couple of rights.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
But they're committed to playing a couple more games of movie.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
A couple more games. Moing.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
I absolutely loved it, and seriously, and one of the
reasons was.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
You didn't have to drive to San Antonio. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
And you know, one year though, they had it thrown
south By Southwest and I forgot how crowded and crazy
south By SOUTHWESTCOT because I usually out of town for
south By now, so I was actually in town and
the traffic was crazy and I couldn't get to any gigs.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
It was like it was bad.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
It's like I remember you used to be able to
really kind of hang out.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
And I mean you were around.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Yeah, I remember that time that you and I were
at the airport getting a flight and it was a
Japanese punk band that looked like Devo.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
They were in the wild yellow.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Outfits and this this little girl went up to her mom,
what is that?
Speaker 2 (22:54):
What is that?
Speaker 1 (22:55):
And and then not long right after that, we saw
was it Sunny Colvin?
Speaker 4 (22:59):
Uh talking about Sean? Sean Covin was in the airport too,
right at the same time. Yeah, yeah, but anyway, the
young lady asked her mom what that was over There
was a Japanese punk band, and I interrupted, said that
is south By Southwest, That's what that is.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Well, and and of course our our resident uh intern
and drummer uh and ton't like him. You know that
his band Whisk they play girl punk.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
He told me that, and I didn't realize that there
was even a genre.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
I guess. So it is all right, So uh Bill
showing is with us? All right?
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Now, you're you're familiar with what we do on Friday,
but I have this segment inconceivable, inconceivable, and on Friday Conceivable.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
By the way, it's always in Florida.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Fridays, we have Florida Man Oh okay feature It's Friday.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Normally, it's just some of your stories for whatever reason,
have been in Florida for whatever on Fridays.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Florida Man Friday, okay. So we have that coming up,
but we should tell people before we take his break.
You and I had a different kind of funky feature
back in the day, funky funk that we called the
Live Music Update on Fridays, and you would usually roll
in the B bop into the station with a couple
of copies of the Austin Chronicle, and this would be
(24:16):
an hour or two before the show, and we would
sit there with a highlighter and just highlight unusual band
names and or venues. So when we would say, they'll
know us by the Trail of Dead, and then later
they just shortened the name to Trail of Dead. Playing
at Emo's Alternative lounging just.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Like I Love You, but I've Chosen Darkness, they later
changed their name to just I've Chosen Darkness.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
We would always say, we'd always say.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
And out at La Palapa, it's karaoke.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
With Big Jim.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
I think Big Jim called he wasn't really happy about that.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
So anyway, that was a feature we did back then.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
This one is actual news stories and on Friday days
it's a Florida Man Friday, so that that's sprinkled in
with the other stories.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
So you're about to hear that coming, right, we'll do that.
We'll continue right here on thirteen under the Zone
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com