Wednesday, June 25, Hour 2

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is I on the Ball with Steve Ramira on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on
the iHeartRadio just search I on the Ball.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, welcome back to Eye on About herel Fox Sports
fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera, your blake eager, and I
was gonna ask you. You've been around town all your
life except for the time you left. Uh, when did
baseball become part of your life and maybe impressionable for
other people to watch?

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Ten years old day nineteen two two? For me?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, I know that you started paying attention and you
saw this guy's pretty good or whatever?

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Oh, how good? Although I was playing with yeah oh
to eight eight year old?

Speaker 4 (00:46):
Yeah, there's a kid in my little league that through
absolute fuzz. And I think I got to play majors
when I was nine, maybe ten.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
So don't tell me in your in your recollection and
your memory bank, who are the top three five best
player as you saw from Give me a time, give me.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
I mean, listen, it's gonna say.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
I think my generation for two Sonans is by far
the best generation for baseball players in tu Son's history.
I mean, you can make the argument, right, you had
the Duncans, you had Harriston, you had Kensler, you had
JJ Hardy, you had Would I'm just I'm just naming
the Jamie Vermilia you had. I mean, just naming the
big leaguers. Right then you start going down the list

(01:25):
of guys. Every team you played had two guys that
were pro guys. Mhm uh, I mean Pallaverdi had three
top draft guys. You know, you had Jared Fuel, you
had Will Smith, you had Jason Hannah. Like, it's it's
why every literally every school you played had a minor league.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
But how so that's not Gilbert de Vera.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
That's not the same now right, It's not the no, no,
no to the high school baseball Listen. And I hate
to say this because I ran an academy for pretty
much my adult life. But the development stage is now
where you're just trying to go out and win trophies,
like they're just trying to pick him pick the best
players and go win.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
There's no development so high school level.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
And this isn't a knock on anybody, but there's no
there's no sense of what high school was. There's a
few out there, like there's some good high schools out there,
but as a whole you look around, it's just you're
not seeing developed competition. Why is that because you play
year round. You've got coaches telling twelve year olds they
need to pick one sport like it's absurd.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
Yeah, yeah, and you're against that. I'm one against that.

Speaker 4 (02:24):
I don't want to listen no offense to anybody, but
I don't want a baseball mentality on the mound. I
want a football mentality, Like, give me somebody that's not
scared to run over somebody. Right, it's plus you're telling
you're telling people like I tell you about this with
girls softball, Like, I don't know how those girls by
the time they're sixteen, you're just like, I never want
to play the sport ever again. Right, you're spending every

(02:46):
single weekend of your life and it's not like you're
going to Phoenix. You're traveling over the country. Hey, I
don't know how parents afford it. And then it's not
a knock, but you don't have the development at that level.
It's just you're trying to play as much you can.
You're trying to take as many swings as you can.
That's not really like there's too much going into the
sport at this point. There's too much information out there
to do that. I think it happens with soccer two
I happened. I think it happens with every sport. Right

(03:07):
you're getting into academy model. From a soccer standpoint, if
you're in Europe or you're in South America, you're going
into academy when you're ten. I mean you're looking in
Asia America too. It's the same thing.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Chinese, like Chinese ping pong players are going and playing
at like six years old. So how would you fix it,
or at least not fix it. Fix this is not
the right word. How would you handle it?

Speaker 3 (03:28):
That's a really good question. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (03:30):
I don't know if you can reverse the course we're on.
But you're looking at look at the NBA. Look at
where NBA players are coming from. Like the international game
is huge, right They're they're not just playing basketball all
year round right there, You're you're finding different athletes and
going through the system. You're looking at baseball. Baseball is
an international sport, but they're starting early, starting earlier, and

(03:50):
the emphasis has to be on I think the mentality
that winning doesn't really matter at a young age.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
They shouldn't.

Speaker 4 (03:56):
Who cares, Like nobody's asking nobody's asking me if I
want a TENU championship on a resume, like nobody cares.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Just what they'll guess what. We live in a place
where that's all that matters, you know, who cares the most?

Speaker 4 (04:09):
Parents, that's and the coach is always wrong, the umpire
is always wrong, you're my son's never wrong. My son
he's not playing enough. It's like, well, you've got three
big league coaches in the dog, Well he needs to
play more. It's not the spot for you, like he's
not good enough. Yeah, no, no, no, I don't. I
don't disagree with you at all because it's true.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
And the parents, right, and they talk about winning, winning, winning,
it's not about winning, it's about getting better.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
And it's my age, it's my age culture, right.

Speaker 4 (04:35):
I mean you look at parents all my age that
were not raised like that, that are raised now. And
we've had this conversation a couple of times that the
action has to stop with them and they have to say, listen,
I don't care if they get a trophy, like I
don't care if they get a ring, like are they
becoming better human beings?

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Should be your number one question.

Speaker 4 (04:54):
Are they second questions should be are they having fun?

Speaker 3 (04:58):
Maybe you can flip flop both of them.

Speaker 4 (04:59):
If both some of them are, yes, you're in a
really good situation in life.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Okay, Okay, I totally agree with you, and I wish
more people would think that way. How realistic is it
today to have parents think that way?

Speaker 4 (05:11):
I mean, you're asking the person this is what I
went through, right, I mean you're you actually coach like
it's not realistic, it's and it's not realistic.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
Okay, let's say we had unrealistic in every fifteen we
have fifteen kids.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
You're just a number fifteen kids, and of the parents,
how many of those believe that? I listen, there's a
handful of people that But yeah, agree, Yeah, it's not
like it's not one hundred percent across the board. But
how many times did your parents ever talk to a coach?
My dads were friends with them. So, but he's not
your playing. He didn't talk about that.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
I was good. I was good, But no, that never happened.
Never happened.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, if I wasn't good enough, because what
I wasn't good enough? Yeah, it's wild to me yeah, no,
it ended with my time. I think with my and
I had friends whose parents did that, you know, and
we knew who they were.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
Yeah, and you couldn't stand them. There were our friends.
It's not that was in it.

Speaker 4 (06:03):
We just says, why he's just not good, and that's
a hard it's maybe it's just not the line where
they want to go, right, Like maybe they're just not athletic,
and that's okay. Yeah I'm not very smart, that's okay, right,
I try to make do with what I've got.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, there's not enough fit in where you fit in, right,
or getting where you fit in, or well he's a
heckless Evins player, or he's a heck of a guy
to help with a whatever.

Speaker 4 (06:25):
I'm an only child, so obviously you can take that
how you want. But my parents did a really good
job at a very young age of making sure that
to choose a path that I was that I cared about.
But I like I thoroughly. I enjoyed going to work, right,
and that's that's not always the case. You don't always
get that option, true, right, So outside of that, there
should be some kind of self sustainability where it's work

(06:46):
life balance, whatever you want to call it. Yeah, I
think you're putting so much pressure on these young kids
to perform at a level that's unrealistic to the most
quest degree that you're you've got You've got eleven year
olds that are and listen, they came to me taking
pitching lessons, taking any of the lessons, taking catching lessons.
Then they're going to a personal trainer, and then they're
going to like, let's like.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, maybe step back a little Todd marinovi Che, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:11):
Give him a bucket of rice, get your hand in there,
see how much you can develop those forums, and then
go from there.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
That's funny.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
No coach Nopus said this last time he was on
you were on here, But I think this is when
he was personally on, said one of the parents or
one of the kids talks about you know, because he
teaches with his sons. Right, one of the kids came
up and said something to me. I got a calls.
I'll bring up the story. It was when I was
on Okay, Hello, you're on the air nine of the ball.
Who's this Hello, You're on the air.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
Hello, Hello, Jim, turn off that radio you call him
from the past. Hello, Hey, what happened. You turn off
the radio so you can get us in real time?
What's off?

Speaker 5 (07:52):
And I couldn't even hear you?

Speaker 3 (07:53):
Guys, Hey, it's yes, Well your thoughts? What's up?

Speaker 5 (07:58):
Well, we're talking about I spend a little time at
I coached for eight or nine years in the Little
leagues and juniors and pony leagues. And Blake, is that
your guests name?

Speaker 3 (08:09):
Yes, yes, I hope.

Speaker 5 (08:11):
So I agree with what you said that and what
Steve said, primarily that you know, you've got to sell
the team and the parents on the idea that.

Speaker 6 (08:30):
This is done.

Speaker 5 (08:31):
Best with twelve people who man who play a role,
not necessarily a position, but they play a role which
we map out them as their performance changes or grows
during the year. And sometimes your role is, you know,
have your butt on the bench.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah, Jim, let me ask you real quick, how long
did you coach? And who was your last year?

Speaker 5 (08:58):
Oh? Man, twenty ten was probably the last year I
did it. And I coached for ten years.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
Oh okay, so not a long time. But sometimes so
when did it start to change? Maybe it's probably started
to change before you, but did you see it change
on you?

Speaker 5 (09:16):
I'll tell you what I what I noticed, Steve is
you know, and one of the reasons I got involved
is kids had a hard time having success hitting the ball.
Just a really difficult process to master, and nobody really
masters it, but to gain some consistency, I should say.

(09:40):
And and so we tried to give kids and I
think we did that. Jay would attest to that, we
give them the fundamentals, and our two or three approaches
of that, Blake's probably hurt all of them.

Speaker 6 (09:58):
You know.

Speaker 5 (09:58):
We focused on rotation, a little bit of batley lag
and looking for a fastball out over the outside part
of the play if you want to hit the ball consistency.
So kids had a hard time with, you know, learning
to hit, learning why they're not hitting with another thing.

(10:20):
And then soccer. I mean I wasn't a soccer guy,
so I don't want to come down on that, but
I mean, baseball, you're swinging at a hard ball, that's
what is it, two and a half inches in diameter
something like that, and it's harder to hit it than

(10:41):
it is the mythic soccer. You're dealing with a ten
or eleven inch ball, and if you whiff on a
soccer ball, you must be blind. So just the contact.
The field of success is a little different, a little
easier to achieve, and so we started seeing the numbers

(11:03):
in the league start to slowly drop. Yeah, and that
was ten twelve more years ago.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah right, right, Okay, Well, thanks Jim for the call.
Gotta go.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
Okay, I appreciate it, right, thanks for listening. Kay, welcome.
So so Blake, So you.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
Were on the call, But did you talk about I
don't know if you were here when we talked about
this though, that he was.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
Teaching the kids and talking the kids.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
And maybe batting or whatever it was, and the guy says, well, you.

Speaker 3 (11:29):
Need to do Lopez is telling you need to do this.
Do this, coach. Offensive players are the ones who make
the money.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
No, don't get paid to hit. Yeah, don't get paid
aunt right yeah not coffee baby.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
That's a unbelievable to me.

Speaker 6 (11:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:44):
Literally, you have the chance that you're talking him, one
of the greatest college coaches of all.

Speaker 3 (11:48):
Time, like some ten eleven twelve year old saying this. Yeah,
that's it is Back in.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
My day when I told when Jason Terry was playing
and he was, you know, defensive player and he didn't
make the All Star team or something coach, you know, well,
defensive players don't drive Cadillacs. Then he kind of looked
at me. Shut up. You know, he was kind to me,
but because it's all stupid. Yeah, I mean, what does
it matter? Just win, just playing.

Speaker 4 (12:17):
It's like Jack McDowell, right, the old picture for the
White Sox and everybody like he didn't have great eras,
but they won a lot of games, right, That's all
that matters in the today.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
Yeah, no, crazy crazy about sports, especially with the kids.
And it's gonna get worse because it's all end the result. Yeah,
I mean, we'll see. You wouldn't go back, would I
go back?

Speaker 3 (12:39):
Yeah? And do which part? Coach? I I hope.

Speaker 4 (12:43):
I don't want to Alma helmbta No, I mean I
did it forever, right, Like that was a phase of
my life that I think I'm over with. I'd like
to continue on what I'm doing now. Yeah, everythink I
provide more to the community at this point. Yeah, but
you know what I'm saying, it's give him the chance,
and it gave me some scratch and I would lose
my mind.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah, yeah, especially at a certain teaching, certain age of kids. Yeah,
you've got it's just yeah, well I'll give you this.
Uh could you coach? What agentes or you had? My
academy was nine, you to I had up to eighteen years. Okay,
so you had you had a bride. I went to
go substitute teach here when the paper closed, just to
pass the time and earn some money. I did it

(13:21):
for a friend who went and got all my grades here.
So it's it's junior high. You know me, I'm gonna
I'm gonna be helping with pe YadA YadA. I'll enjoy
the kids have fun. It was the worst experience of
my life.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
They were using words I've never even heard of. Yeah,
and I'm thinking to other people, says, how is this allowed?

Speaker 3 (13:42):
What did they?

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Just as long as the building name burning, we're doing okay,
and I you last of the week, last of the week.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
I couldn't deal with it. Were you so?

Speaker 2 (13:51):
Were you a substitute or yeah? I was a substitute.
So yeah, first of that strike one What year was
this maybe five six years ago? Probably pretty COVID And
I'm thinking, oh god, I'll never.

Speaker 3 (14:01):
I couldn't do this.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah, it was too stressful and I didn't want to
do it anymore. I just so I didn't I played
after a week. I mean, it's that's that's an occupation
to me. That's wild, right, because you're you're a teacher.
You've got to have a college degree, right, Yeah, you're
gonna and there's plenty of teacher jobs out there.

Speaker 4 (14:18):
You're gonna find a position. It might not be in
the place that you want to, but you're probably gonna
find a position. But you get on campus, especially in Arizona,
especially in Tucson, you're making thirty four thousand dollars a year,
you can't dictate, you can't take away cell phones from
kids like they're they're.

Speaker 3 (14:31):
Literally able to do it.

Speaker 4 (14:32):
And then after that you've got to answer to their
parents and you're like, what am I doing?

Speaker 3 (14:36):
Why am I doing this?

Speaker 4 (14:38):
Like I get I get a lot of occupations, and
I listen, more power to them. We definitely need great
teachers that obviously a special person. It is that is
a sometimes a very thankless job, and you're definitely not
doing it for the money, no question. But you know what,
you get two months off a year to go figure
out another job, right, and then realize.

Speaker 3 (14:57):
You've got to go back. Yeah, you gotta go. Yeah,
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Speaker 1 (20:01):
This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteenth fifding.
I want to take part in the show called up
Steve now went five two oh four one, six seventy
four fortnight.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
Hey, welcome back to my the ball here on Fox
Sports fourteen fifty I'm Steve Rivera. You're Blake Eager Now
on the phone. I think we have Corey Williams Corey's issue.

Speaker 6 (20:21):
Yes, sir, how you doing fine?

Speaker 3 (20:22):
How are you?

Speaker 6 (20:24):
I can't complain, can't complain? Good, good, good, It's a
little hot.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
Everybody's under the same conditions. Then let me ask you
back nineteen ninety six, you were senior. You're playing in
a Desert Classic.

Speaker 3 (20:39):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
And when you're playing in the Desert Classic, what are
you thinking in a few months, I'm gonna be ready
for the NBA or what what is the hope of
a twenty one year old and twenty two year old?

Speaker 6 (20:49):
Well, the Desert Classic you're bringing back fond memories. For me,
I was a fringe player.

Speaker 16 (20:54):
I was a guy who because I played at Arizona,
we had a solid program.

Speaker 6 (20:58):
I came on strong my senior year.

Speaker 16 (21:01):
I had a very very thin shot to get my
name called.

Speaker 6 (21:05):
At the very end of the draft, they were saying
that I could go anywhere between fifty two and fifty eight. Now,
you know, I was just like hoping just to hear
my name called. I knew I wasn't going to be
a lock first round guy.

Speaker 16 (21:16):
I knew that if I just wanted the opportunity to
try to make a team in the NBA.

Speaker 6 (21:22):
So for me, everything happened very fast.

Speaker 16 (21:25):
My performance in the NCAA tournament turned the head of
a lot of scouts and I quickly got added to
some of these lists for the Desert Classic and the
Chicago pre draft workout, so I got thrown in the
mix of the very end of my career. So I
was just blown away that I was considered one of
the top forty seniors in the country. I was super

(21:46):
excited to have the opportunity to play. So for me,
I just was on cloud nine. But I was also
felt pretty confident. I felt like I was an undiscovered secret.
I had kind of been a team Arizona, but getting
to the next level you really had to show yourself.
So I was excited about the opportunity.

Speaker 3 (22:05):
And I can't remember what exactly happened.

Speaker 6 (22:08):
I did not get drafted.

Speaker 16 (22:11):
One of my claims to fame is being a part
of that nineteen ninety six draft, and if people google it,
they will see that, to my my opinion, is probably
the best draft in NBA history when you look at
the level of players that were in.

Speaker 6 (22:24):
The nineteen ninety six draft. Also in nineteen ninety.

Speaker 16 (22:27):
Six, I believe there were twenty six underclassmen that declared.

Speaker 6 (22:31):
That was the first year of the big.

Speaker 16 (22:33):
Push of underclassmen coming out early, and there were some
pretty solid players that came out early, and they altered
the draft and I just ended up on the outside
of the second round.

Speaker 6 (22:43):
And I know now I'm not bitter about it. It
is what it is.

Speaker 16 (22:46):
It was a hell of a draft class that was
the beginning of people leaving school early in ninety six.

Speaker 6 (22:53):
And you know, I still ended up having a good
career and a great experience.

Speaker 16 (22:57):
But yeah, ninety six was was was a definitely a
life altering time for me and for the NBA as well.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
So if you're Caleb Love who by all intensive purposes,
we think he's an NBA guy, right, Coach Lloyd believes
that wholeheartedly, as he should, but everyone's many people aren't
saying that he is. Well, what would he be thinking one?
And what do you think his hopes are?

Speaker 10 (23:23):
Well?

Speaker 16 (23:23):
I think the crazy part about it is there's a
group of men who decide what names get called later
on the night. They don't pay attention to Instagram, they
don't pay attention to Twitter, they don't pay attention to Nil,
they don't pay attention to people's mother's, grandmother's well wishers
or girlfriends. So what happens tonight is a few people's opinion,

(23:49):
and their opinion comes out in the form of the draft.
The very last player added to the nineteen ninety six
as a classic was a guy nobody had ever heard
of from a little over university called Derek Fisher. He
just got added at the last minute. Somebody got hurt
and Fisher was the last guy added, and we all

(24:10):
know what an NBA career he had. So the big
thing for guys, no matter what names get called tonight,
you still write your own story.

Speaker 6 (24:19):
It doesn't matter.

Speaker 16 (24:21):
There's so many different ways into the NBA now more
than ever, whatever happens on draft night is not the
be all end all of it.

Speaker 6 (24:27):
You've got an opportunity to.

Speaker 16 (24:29):
Play, You've got an opportunity to play summer league basketball,
You've got free agency, you can go to Europe and
call your way back to the NBA. But you can't
look at this as the coronation because I know guys
whose names.

Speaker 6 (24:42):
Did get called and.

Speaker 16 (24:44):
They never played any beyond their rookie contract. So I
think so much is made of it as a benchmarking
for talent and an ultimate goal. But your ultimate goal
is to get better every year as a player. And yes,
obviously make it to the NBA at one point, but
where you get picked, if you're Gilbert Arenas, did that

(25:07):
really impact? Did that decide whether or not Gilbert Arenas
was going to be an NBA player?

Speaker 6 (25:13):
I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, But gil was
the second round.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
Pick, yeah, early second, and he was the.

Speaker 6 (25:19):
Cover of NBA two K. So you've got to look
at it.

Speaker 16 (25:25):
And it's hard to tell a young person nineteen twenty
twenty one years old to have an older person's perspective
on tonight, but they you've got to because no matter
what happens tonight, you're gonna have to.

Speaker 6 (25:37):
Show up somewhere and hoop. So you didn't get your
mind right real quick. If you like your draft spot,
if you don't like your draft spot, if you did get.

Speaker 16 (25:44):
Drafted the corner, everything changes. There's no empathy, there's no sympathy.
You're in the business of you now. You know you've
got to be a one man. You got to sell yourself,
You've got to perform.

Speaker 6 (25:58):
You got to have your head right, your mental health,
your physical health, all of it is now on you.

Speaker 16 (26:03):
And I literally say the training wheels have come off
your career right, and it's literally up to you at
this point.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
At what point, because You're a bright dude.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
We all know that, and I know that very well
having covered you, and you know our friend you you're
When did you realize it's a business. If you already
knew going in, you probably already knew what's going in.

Speaker 16 (26:21):
I realized it was a business when I went to
play for the Milwaukee Bucks the summer of nineteen ninety six.
They had already drafted Ray Allen, so they really didn't
need a two guard, but Johnny Newman was getting.

Speaker 6 (26:32):
Old and they wanted to replacement. So I'm in there
playing with Sherm Douglas and I'm absolutely killing it.

Speaker 16 (26:38):
In summer camp, We're going two times a day. I'm
knocking down every shot I throw up. I'm playing defense,
I'm grabbing boards. Chris Ford is looking at me, like, man,
this kid can play, This Williams kid out of Arizona,
and I'm like, not only I know I'm coming in
auditioning for Ray Allen's backup, but I'm a pretty good
player and I've got a chance to make this team. Steve,

(26:58):
I've got a real chance to make the Milwaukee Bucks
team in the fall, because they literally don't have any
two guards. About the fifth day of a five day
two a days, but we'll go two hard practices a day.
On the fourth day, three or four guys come into
camp that were never there, and a handful of.

Speaker 6 (27:19):
Us get bumped and cut.

Speaker 16 (27:21):
Right before we take the flight to Los Angeles to
play in the Long Beach Summer Pro Am. I got
cut from the team because the three or four guys
that they.

Speaker 6 (27:31):
Decided to take and added the last second.

Speaker 16 (27:35):
They were being added to the team as a favor
to Magic Johnson. They had got through playing in one
of his amateur semi pro tour situations, and he called
in a favor with Chris Ford and said, hey, can
you let my guys play for the Bucks this summer?
And four legitimate hoopers that had busted their butt all

(27:56):
week got cut a day before we were set to
go to LA to make room for some guys who.

Speaker 6 (28:02):
Played at UIC.

Speaker 16 (28:05):
Not to trash their program, but they were not even
nowhere close to being on our level, but they were
touring with Magic Johnson's little semi pro all Star team.
Magic called in a favor. We got bumped, and that
gut wrenching me laying in a hotel crying experience introduced
me to the business of basketball. It wasn't loud Olsen

(28:27):
where the best guys play. It wasn't you have a
good weekend practice you get rewarded with minutes.

Speaker 6 (28:32):
It wasn't merit based anymore.

Speaker 16 (28:35):
It was a business, and who your agent was and
who your friends were had a great deal of impact
on who got opportunities.

Speaker 6 (28:43):
I'm so glad I learned that lesson.

Speaker 16 (28:46):
Four months out of college, not even four months, two
and a half, three months out of college.

Speaker 6 (28:51):
It was July.

Speaker 16 (28:53):
I was in a hotel crying my eyes out because
I had never been wronged like that before.

Speaker 6 (28:58):
And you know, we.

Speaker 16 (29:01):
Talked about meritocracy in sports, that's why people love them,
because they are a meritocracy. But the business side of it,
who gets opportunities, whether we're talking about Bronnie James getting
with the Lakers and all the dust up and that
that caused, or you know, who gets invited to camp,
and who makes teams and who doesn't make teams. It's
so layered that you have to develop thick skin instantly,

(29:23):
otherwise you're just simply not gonna make it.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
Yeah, Mike Kin, I think yeah, No, Corey, I mean
what you were you able to do and everything like
that was incredible. But so at that moment, what was
your what was your thought process? What was your next
step in that journey? Because I think I think we've
all been in that position in some kind of way
or shape or form in life. What did you do
in that in that moment that got you to.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
This point because you're so successful.

Speaker 6 (29:47):
Well, it was a lot.

Speaker 16 (29:47):
Of what my father put in me and a lot
of what I picked up from Coach Olsen. I had
my little pity party for about twenty five thirty minutes.
Then I walked down there and asked me with the
coaches and we met.

Speaker 6 (29:57):
I'll never forget we.

Speaker 16 (29:58):
Met at the lobby and the matter of the marriag
got down there in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and I shook everyone's hand.
I said, thank you for this opportunity. I just wanted
to know, you know, what do I need to improve on?
Can you give me any feedback to make me a
better player? Obviously you know I wasn't good enough for this.
And it was met with absolute silence. They did not
say anything. They offered me no feedback because they knew

(30:18):
that wasn't what this was about.

Speaker 6 (30:20):
And I'll never.

Speaker 16 (30:20):
Forget looking at Chris Ford. He couldn't even look me
in the eye.

Speaker 6 (30:24):
And I knew a Scott feeling sorry for myself.

Speaker 16 (30:28):
B don't burn any bridges, go shake their hands, be professional.

Speaker 6 (30:32):
You'll get another opportunity.

Speaker 16 (30:34):
And I had a very similar situation happened, but the
other way. The following summer, I played for the Phoenix.

Speaker 6 (30:43):
Suns and they had no room for me.

Speaker 16 (30:45):
But Danny Ainge loved my hustle and he said, I normally,
you know, we've got Jeff Honisek and Jason Kitt we
don't need you, but you busted your butt in camp.
If you can pay your own way to Salt Lake City,
you can play for the Suns this summer. I can't
fly you on the plane, but if you're there, we'll
get you in a jersey.

Speaker 6 (31:04):
And that was one.

Speaker 16 (31:06):
Of the situations where you know, fortunate and luck swung
my way, but I earned it. But the quickest thing
I did in that situation is you stop the pity
party and you don't burn bridges, and you try to
become solution based, like, Okay, what do I want and
how do I make that happen. It's hard to change
gears after you've been punched in the gut. I mean,
as adults, we've been through those situations before. But man,

(31:29):
for the kids that don't get called tonight, you got
to bounce back.

Speaker 6 (31:32):
If you really love basketball as much as you say.

Speaker 16 (31:35):
I mean, I played basketball anywhere they would let me
for the following twenty twenty six months. Twenty seven months
after leaving college, I played in Manila, I played in
the Philippines. I rode on buses semi pro. I remember
playing in Canada for two hundred and fifty dollars a week,
chasing the dream, and then finally the moment I was
ready to quit, everything fell into place and I played

(31:58):
another eight years in Europe after that. So mentality is everything.
You write your own narrative, you write your own script,
be professional, and make sure you give yourself opportunities, don't
burn bridges, create alliances, and you're.

Speaker 6 (32:15):
Giving yourself the best shot of their career.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
So now here we are with Caleb Love, a guy
who's not listed in many places whereas muck drafts, but
we see that he has that ability to play at
the next level.

Speaker 16 (32:26):
What are your thoughts, Caleb Love when you talk about
an NBA player you're talking about a game changer, and
Caleb Love is no question a game changer.

Speaker 6 (32:36):
He was at the head of everyone's scouting report for
the last two years at Arizona.

Speaker 16 (32:41):
Not a lot of players who have been the go
to guy for two years in a row at Arizona, so.

Speaker 6 (32:47):
He, by that definition, is an NBA level player.

Speaker 16 (32:50):
When you talk to coaches what's the key to beating Arizona,
the first name out of their.

Speaker 6 (32:54):
Mouth was we got to stop Caleb Love.

Speaker 16 (32:56):
Why because he can knock down five or six three
pointers like somebody getting out of bed.

Speaker 6 (33:01):
He's that good.

Speaker 16 (33:02):
Now, The fact that he saw every gimmick defense known
to man, He saw every variation they sent defenders at him,
gimmick defenses all season, and he still managed to have
a quality season shows you that there's a lot of
talent there and a lot of time. You have guys
sitting on players hoping that nobody else drafts them.

Speaker 6 (33:21):
You even have guys bad mouthing guys.

Speaker 16 (33:24):
We always plan to take Kayle Love with the thirty
second pick, but we didn't want anybody to know that.
So the the prognostictors are all full of it.

Speaker 6 (33:34):
The websites are all full of it.

Speaker 16 (33:35):
The only people who know what's gonna happen are the
people in that war room.

Speaker 6 (33:38):
Steve.

Speaker 16 (33:39):
There's gonna be names called from Europe tonight that you
and I have ever heard of. It's going to be
a domino effect. But the thing about it is, you know,
with two ways in the G League, there's tons of
success stories. There's more pathways than ever to the NBA.

Speaker 6 (33:53):
So I think Caleb loves an NBA talent.

Speaker 16 (33:56):
I think any team that has a good insight presence,
you want to surround those guys.

Speaker 6 (34:02):
With a player like Caleb Love. He without questioning his
size and strength.

Speaker 16 (34:08):
His ability to shoot the ball, He's a no brainer.
I I would say, talent wise, You've got to show
me anybody else in the country that's revered as much
for their outside shots as Caleb Love was.

Speaker 6 (34:23):
That's this past year.

Speaker 16 (34:24):
I mean, if you're if you're taking scorers, there's only
a handful of guys that I think shooting on.

Speaker 6 (34:30):
The level of Caleb Love.

Speaker 16 (34:31):
So I'd be surprised if he went undrafted because there's
just not guys that can shoot.

Speaker 6 (34:38):
Yeah, you got guys that.

Speaker 16 (34:39):
Can jump and dunk and rebound, and there are no defenders.
Let's just get that out there in the open playing defense.
But man, the name of the game is knocking down shots,
and Caleb Love can do that. You can make them
a defender, you can you know, make them a team player.

Speaker 6 (34:54):
But man, what you can't do at.

Speaker 16 (34:56):
This stage of a player's development. You can't fix anybody's jumper.
If you're if it's draft night and your jumper is
so so, it's probably not going to improve over the
course of your career.

Speaker 6 (35:07):
So I'd be surprised, But I think he's definitely an
NBA player.

Speaker 16 (35:11):
I would I would be taking Caleb Love early second round,
no question about it.

Speaker 4 (35:16):
When's the last player that was drafted just because of
his defense? Or who was that? Because you just said that,
I thought about that.

Speaker 16 (35:25):
Ninety six was the year Alan Iverson was in that draft,
and it was also when you started to see a
change in Reggie Gary was drafted out of Arizona to
go to Cleveland and he was known as a defender.

Speaker 6 (35:37):
Ninety six. You know, Jason Kidd was a West Coast
guard a couple of years, a year or two earlier.
Who win the earlier draft?

Speaker 16 (35:43):
Who was you know, assist guy? They didn't take him
for us jump shot. They took him for his ability
to run the team, being a bruiser and a defender
and a shot blocker. They stopped using draft picks on
those guys in the early two thousands. I don't know
specifically who it was, but I do know when they
remove move the hand check from the NBA game to
free up Allen Iverson, they made a conscious effort We're

(36:06):
gonna be all about scoring, and the teams followed too.
You used to be able to get a job in
the NBA Steam You remember there in the eighties and nineties,
there was two or three goons on air.

Speaker 6 (36:15):
Yeah, guys who just got to check the foul people.

Speaker 16 (36:19):
Michael Jordan had enforcers, Isaiah Thomas had enforcers. You know,
every team had two or three guys whose job it
was protect the star and protect the rim. And you know,
it's funny because everybody looks at Draymond Green and I'm like,
Draymond Green is just the guy through some miracle time travel.

(36:39):
He's in eighties basketball play, Yeah, and he's playing. You
guys are so enthralled by him. He's every team had
three Draymonds in the eighties and even more in the seventies.
So you look at you know, getting drafted for your defense,
getting drafted for your ability to rebound. Now you're shooting

(36:59):
in the dark. You're drafting a nineteen year old kid
with one year of basketball under his belt for a
coach who knows if he listened or paid attention, and
then previous to that, it's just five years of AAU
basketball Right, Well, that's that's the profile of your first
round pick.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
Well, you're right, and guess what happens to be Arizona
has one of those guys in in the Carter.

Speaker 6 (37:25):
Carterbryant.

Speaker 16 (37:26):
You liked what you saw, but you didn't It's hard
to figure out.

Speaker 6 (37:30):
What you're seeing is crumbs on the table.

Speaker 16 (37:33):
Okay, they forgot to box out Carter because they were
focused on Toby. Oh he got the three because Jayden broke. Like,
what with the things that you saw out of Carter?
Why are you seeing them? Are you seeing them because
he's he's coming off the bench, or are you seeing
them because he's the fourth or fifth option and nobody's

(37:53):
thinking about him. See Caleb Love and Jaden had the
ball in their hands out front.

Speaker 6 (37:58):
They're seeing hedges.

Speaker 16 (38:00):
Teams traps, second defenders coming, They're seeing junk defenses boxing ones.

Speaker 6 (38:05):
Carter Bryant was.

Speaker 16 (38:06):
Not the defensive focus of the coaches in the Big Twelve.
And that is not to take away from how great
he is. I think Carter Bryant is on some Tracy
McGrady type trajectory.

Speaker 6 (38:16):
He's going to be a hooper.

Speaker 16 (38:19):
But he's very hard to evaluate because he didn't have
the offensive weight of the Arizona basketball program on his shoulders.
At no point was that placed on his shoulders. Could
hit a couple of three. When he would hit a
couple of threes, and he'd shine and look good. You know,
I'm in the barbershop arguing, well, Carter Bryant should play

(38:40):
more minutes. That's like saying Corey Williams hit four threes
in the Final four against Arkansas, he should have played
the whole game. No, I hit those threes because we
had two NBA guards that were cold and Nolan Richardson
was daring me to shoot. I wasn't a four to
three pointed game player as a sophomore Arizona. But you

(39:02):
know that it all fit all factors into it. Carter
Bryant's skill set, his height. But what I love about
the kid, he's got so much heart. He's a good kid.
He's going to be a hooper. But somebody's gonna have
to bet on his upside and his promise because we
don't have a huge cross section of work to look at.

Speaker 6 (39:23):
When you talk about Carter Briant.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
Right right, I mean last thing real quick, if you
can't know, I totally agree it. He'll probably go in
the top twelve for sure.

Speaker 3 (39:30):
House things. How are things going at the Tucson Summer League?

Speaker 2 (39:33):
Man?

Speaker 16 (39:34):
You know it's boys and girls ages ten to thirteen.
What else could be better? I mean, we're having fun.
We're playing basketball, you know, just letting the kids play free.
We have coaches, but it's really an open style of play.
That's the age where kids fall in love with basketball,
and that's our whole folkus prevent, you know, create a
safe space for these kids to hoop, learn about themselves,

(39:54):
play with kids from all over the city.

Speaker 6 (39:56):
And really enjoy basketball.

Speaker 16 (39:58):
Because you know, once you start getting co coaching and
training and club, you know, basketball can beat the life
out of gas if they're over exposed. So we're just
trying to slow that process down and give the kids,
a fun, fun outlet, knowing that the current culture and
climate of youth basketball perfect.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
Thank you, Corey. We'll take uh, we'll take a look
at what happens tonight. Appreciate your time as always, no problem.
You gotta take care of than Corey Williams. He's talking
about exactly what we were talking about at the end with
you just enjoy enjoy your time when you're playing ball,
no matter what it is.

Speaker 4 (40:31):
Yeah, I think, uh we got to go about a minute.
Uh no, what he just said right now is like
the greatest thing ever. So when I was coaching in Sweden,
we would do these school visits to pe classes right
to try to get because nobody knew about baseball over there, right,
it's hockey.

Speaker 3 (40:45):
You'd live or die.

Speaker 4 (40:46):
So you get these kids to come out to the
baseball field and you literally just let them play the game.
And that was the greatest time ever because I would
just throw it and run around and play with them,
just kids being kids.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
And it's a great novel. Hell novel is up right? Yeah, yeah, okay,
take a break, come back.

Speaker 3 (41:01):
If you're an.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
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nearly forty years now, take a look back at the
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(41:23):
insight to how he built the program into a national powerhouse.
Want one Email me at Steve dot RIVERA ninety five
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Speaker 6 (41:31):
Where do you buy exercise equipment?

Speaker 17 (41:34):
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Speaker 1 (44:32):
Streaming live on the iHeartRadio wipp This is Eye on
the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.

Speaker 3 (44:42):
Hey, welcome back to me on the bar here on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty on Steve Rivera, your Blake Eager.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
We have a little time, maybe seven minutes before we
call it a day. We want love with Corey Goo's
good stuff, good show today, mister Eager. Despite us Jason
Gardner and Corey Williams. Yeah, I mean, you couldn't asked
for two better guests. You did a great job. It's
funny because I didn't know some of the stuff that
I knew about the because that's why I asked the
question about the cactus plastic or the summer thing in Phoenix,

(45:11):
but I didn't realize the Milwaukee thing. I didn't realize
a couple of other things with Corey because he had
a pretty good career overseas, and like I say, with Caleb,
whether he's in the NBA or not. I wish I
had his career hit his future, because he's gonna.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
Have his career future.

Speaker 4 (45:26):
I mean, I think when Jason Gardner said it, we
obviously knew it, but I didn't even think about it.
I mean, to be an All conference player in three
different conferences and three of the five power conferences. M h,
it's pretty impressive, right, highly regarded ACC and Big twelve
at that point, right, Maybe not so much Back twelve
in the last couple of years or decades or maybe
two decades, but yeah, very very very highly regarded. And

(45:50):
you know what the difference is now is basketball is
such a sport where and I've seen this from a
financial standpoint, you can make a living playing overseas, oh right,
and have quality, really good living very on.

Speaker 3 (46:00):
So you can't.

Speaker 4 (46:01):
You really can't do that in football. There's really nothing
overseas anymore. That German League's pretty much dead.

Speaker 3 (46:05):
Then fail one.

Speaker 4 (46:06):
Uh, baseball you can, it's just very specific a lot
of Winter League.

Speaker 3 (46:10):
But I mean, how is.

Speaker 2 (46:12):
Life if you don't mind me, how was life at
Double A or whatever you do? It's grind, yeah, but financially, oh.

Speaker 4 (46:21):
It's not great. You're not going to get I mean
you're not as a minor league player. Now, it's way better.
They're they're in the union, right, so they have salaries.
They fall into the same union as Major League Baseball
for MLBPA, so they much better than when I was playing.
But you don't really make that much money until your
six year can you can renegatiate your contract after and
the miners. Yeah, so then if you've got double, A,

(46:43):
triple A major league experience, you can make quite a
bit of money.

Speaker 3 (46:46):
And then you make a lot of money in Winter League.

Speaker 2 (46:47):
Yeah okay, but but again you're getting to do what
you want to do and the only thing you really
want to do.

Speaker 3 (46:54):
Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, it's I mean, it's professional sports, right.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
Sure, what did you say? Okay, this is what I
want to do the rest of my life too? Two
and you can you can say that confidently. But you
were thinking this too.

Speaker 4 (47:07):
The only the only time I don't think I've ever
said another profession in my life.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
I was giving given me by bottle. I want my bottle. Yeah, yeah,
I still asked for the bottle though. Yeah. It makes sense.
Your only child, Yeah, that comes with its own complications.

Speaker 4 (47:23):
Yeah, I am the only child with both my parents
and both sets of grandparents here, and I was the
only part was spoiled.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
I was unbelievably spoiled. Yeah, it kind of makes sense now, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (47:33):
No, it definitely made the checks, all the boxes, all
all all, uh, all roads to lead to spoiled.

Speaker 3 (47:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
We get a chance for one call if you'd like
to call five two o four one six seventy four
forty if you want to call and agree with with
anybody that's talked today about even today's kids sports. We
talk about this a lot because you coached them and
I kind of coached them. You had kids, sucker kids. Yeah,
it's not it's sports. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did X.

(48:00):
My ex was a soccer player, so she started with it.
I was on the road a lot with the teams,
so uh and then they turned out to be pretty
good players.

Speaker 3 (48:06):
So that's good. Yeah good. You've talked about that before. Yeah, yeah,
that's incredible.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
So I mean, come on, anybody who's a parent with
who has kids who play sports and turned out to
be Okay, you're pretty good.

Speaker 4 (48:17):
My poor, my poor dad came to every soccer game
I ever played it. And then let's just say I
was not a good soccer. Well, it takes a it
takes a knack because I wasn't either. But I'm sure
he was at every baseball game then too. No, he
never came to my baseball. No, my dad would sleep.
But my dad would sleep on my couches in college.
You drive all the way to Denver to come watch.
Very cool and so my mom, that's special. That was

(48:38):
super special. Hell, you're on the air and I on
the ball.

Speaker 3 (48:41):
Who's this? I see?

Speaker 15 (48:44):
This is done?

Speaker 9 (48:44):
How you doing?

Speaker 3 (48:45):
Hey? Don good?

Speaker 2 (48:46):
We got about three minutes, three minutes, Okay, I.

Speaker 15 (48:50):
Just wanted.

Speaker 2 (48:53):
Oh you broke and I went to the drive through. Yeah,
you broke it up. We wait, wait, started again and
started again because you broke up.

Speaker 15 (49:00):
I just want to pick up what we were talking
to you guys were talking about the youth.

Speaker 3 (49:04):
Sports and stuff earlier. Yeah, and I coached.

Speaker 15 (49:08):
I coached Little league and up the pony and stuff
from ninety five to six. And I did some recreational stuff,
like in winter ball with some of the guys. We
went and played before we got to we were still
in the majors, and we went played high school rules
for one year just for the heck of it, and

(49:29):
stuff just to have some fun and stuff like that.
And had I had a friend that he had a
daughter played ball.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
Here in town. She went to a Pac.

Speaker 15 (49:40):
Ten school and didn't make it to the spring with
the pressure that the game came and stuff. And we
always thought that, you know, for most kids, they only
have certain amount of innings in them and when they
reach it, they're done. And I always thought it was

(50:01):
unfair for the girls to play competitive ball. They have
to play tournaments all the time, so it's blood and
gut every weekend, not like where the boys play in
a Pony league or American Legion and stuff, and you
get to play a whole season and then at the
end of the season you get to play the tournament
for the championships.

Speaker 4 (50:22):
Yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right down. But they had
Bobby Socks forever. That was kind of the league structure,
wasn't it for the girls?

Speaker 15 (50:30):
Well it was, but then when girls started Bobby socks
is kind of well when back when I was doing
it at the at the turn of the century, it
seemed to be it seemed to start lagging a lot.
It didn't it didn't seem as big as it was
when when my sisters were playing back in the eighties,

(50:54):
and I just think that. You know, I got to
be All Star manager a couple of times, and I
had I had parents come to me like, hey, my
son has been raising money and doing all this stuff
and he has his church camp and this and that
and he but he didn't want to lose his spot
on the All Star team. And I said, hey, your

(51:16):
kid earned his spot here. He can go to camp,
but just know he's going to be behind in the
you know, the coach trying to get the team together
from all the guys from the different teams and stuff.
But hey, let him go to camp. And he's still
an All Star in my in my eyes.

Speaker 3 (51:33):
Yeah, always we got to go.

Speaker 15 (51:36):
I always hated the guys limited the rosters too.

Speaker 3 (51:39):
But okay, thanks guys, Hey, thanks thanks for getting us
to the end. Here we are. Thanks for coming in.
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
Yeah sure of course, uh thanks for coming in. Yeah,
thanks for having me. Sorry I was running late. No,
no deal with adult situations. You you'll run your laps
after today. Thanks everybody for listening. I'll be in tomorrow.
I see what goes on. I'll be here Friday and
then get on Monday and taking some time off. Let
us know where you're saying so we can all send
you nasty notes. Please come to Denver, she said no,