Wednesday, May 22, Hour 2

GUESTS:
Roman Bravo-Young, Olympic wrestler, NCAA wrestling champion
Steve Kerr, Arizona basketball All-American, NBA champion

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Steve Rivera and Jaken Salez. Theyhave their eye on the ball on Tucson's
Sports Bag Jack Fox Sports fourteen fifteenstreaming live. I mean iHeart radio wapp
Hey, welcome back to Wing theBall here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve Rivera, He's jacins Aus. Now we have Henry who's breaking news.

(00:26):
We'll just go straight into this then. So Arizona will be playing Washington
in the Pac twelve tournament tonight atseven pm in Scottsdale. Washington had lost
the COW twelve nothing yesterday. WhoArizona plays tomorrow and Arizona has to win
one of the next two games toadvance out of the pool play to the
semifinal rounds. Right, So Ididn't realize that Washington got beze so bad

(00:53):
last night by cal So. Yeah, we were explaining that the how the
bracket works. So aarri Zona winsboth its games and Oregon State can beat
as they can still be in thein the fourteen bracket. If aar Zone
loses a game, but it winsone and loses one, they still get

(01:14):
in the bracket. It's just butthat could kick Oregon State to the curb,
so we'll see what happens. ColtonSmith of Arizona Tennis won his third
round game today and is now inthe Elite eight of men's singles, where
tomorrow he will take on Murphy Cossonaof Arizona State. What he's what?
What see does he? He wasthe twenty second there was there's a guy.

(01:37):
Yeah, and the issue guy ishe's done unbelievably. Yeah. Well
the guy he beat today was sixteensixteen, so he's knocked off two.
Yeah, she's ahead of it right, right, and you know he's planning
to be, you know, anindividual national champion, which will be a
huge deal. You know, Arizona'sother guy that got into that into the

(01:57):
individual bracket got beat in the hisfirst match. But Colton Smith is there
and it was cool too. Theybecause the Arizona So this tournament's being played
in Stillwater and that's where the softballteam is. So the whole softball team
went to chair Mint at his match, which is very cool. Cool.
Yeah, I saw I saw that. I was running what he was talking

(02:19):
about. It was a meme oryeah thing from you yeah, yeah,
So the whole softball team was thererooting him on and he said he really
felt like it helped him, youknow, to have people cheering for him
in the crowd. So that's verycool. Yeah to ask you guys number
eleven. Okay, so maybe anotherupset. Yeah, that's great. The
Arizona versus Kansas State game time wasannounced for five pm Mountain Time on Friday,

(02:40):
September thirteenth, and this does countas a non conference game for Arizona
Central Clutch. When's the first gamethe Labor Day weekend? It's the thirty
first against? Is it the weekzero? Is it the week that's week
one? Week one? Week zerowill be the week before first? Yeh,
it's Labor Day weekend day week.The thirty first is a Saturday,

(03:01):
and then the Kansas State game isa week later, weeks two weeks.
It's the third game of the season. Who's the second game? Au no
NAU then New Mexico? Oh,I thought it was in New Mexico,
and then I think they opened withNAU right. Oh wait they opened with
New Mexico. My bad, SoNew Mexico, that's what thirty first Labor
Day weekend? Uh? Then theyget then they got an AU here.

(03:22):
Then they go to Kansas State doesshould be a good game with New Mexico.
But here's what I'm already liking inthe game times. What five o'clock,
Well, just that you know it'sgonna be This would have been an
eight o'clock game or seven o'clock gameor something. You know, you getna.
I want to remember Henry Shustill withus. Remember to talk to him
five o'clock about these games when it'sone hundred and two on the field.

(03:44):
I don't I have no problem withyou know why because I sit on the
side of the field where you're inthe shade at five o'clock. Selfish fish,
you know what I mean. Allabout me, Steve. It's all
about me and the fam. Youknow, we're on. We're on.
We sit on the west side fora reason. And that's one of the
reasons. Well, no question,because the times are going to be better,
yeah, but in the first monthit's still going to be. People

(04:05):
are just gonna still say, oh, it's too hot, too good the
game, Steve. They always do. It's either too hot or it's too
cold, or it's too early orit's too late. It's never right on
the money. Goldilocks A bunch ofpeople, a bunch of wienies. Hey,
I'm on your side. I complainedabout these fans. Who I mean,
I've sat there at a at aday game because they people bitch and

(04:28):
bitch and bitch and bitch a bitch. Game's too late. Seven thirty is
too late. Seven o'clocks too late, eight o'clock too late. Then you
got a day game. It's abeautiful day, and now it's too hot
too. I'm in the sun.I don't want to be I don't want
to go to this game. I'min the sun, Like, shut up
and go. You can't have it. Yeah, I can't have it everyone.
No, I've tweeted at a gamesaying, where the hell is everybody?

(04:48):
Because you beg for this game,you got it and now it's still
you know, now you're not here? Yeah, all right. I hate
that UCLA and Arizona have final Line. It's an agreement to begin a multi
year series for basketball. And nextyear they're gonna play at foot Print Center.
Twenty twenty five, they're gonna playat Las Vegas. They're not gonna
play twenty twenty six and twenty twentyseven. They're also going to play a

(05:11):
last fagas well. Jay, allI have to say is I hate going
to Vegas, but I know Ihave to go. You're already looking at
flights six and a half hours.Okay, I this came up in my
list today with that my group,right, my group of fans, basketball
fans, football fans. The complaintnow about this is, yeah, there's

(05:35):
a complaint of course. Why can'tthey play these games at the school sites?
Why won't they play at Michale andPolly. Why do they have to
play it in Phoenix? Why dowe have to go to Phoenix? Why
do we have to go to Vegasfor this game? Isn't the answer obvious?
It's a it's a neutral court gameand they get to play each other

(05:56):
normally. I mean it's I likeit. I'll go to Vegas. Yeah,
Phoenix, so Vegas, and thethird one would probably be back in
Vegas, or so thought. Ithought the third one was in l A
somewhere, like maybe it's Staples orsomething like that. Well, and that's
fair. I saw to Vegas toPhoenix. Okay, so even better.
But I get the question, butno, it's a special game. Put

(06:19):
them on a true course. Butthat's what they're saying, they're special games
to play. It's a rivalry game. Whatever you say, it's still a
rivalry game. Play these at thecampuses. Don't play them a neutral car
was the question from more than oneperson. A couple. Yeah, and
the reason, well until until wesaid one of them is in Vegas.
The like, okay, that's fine, I'm good with that. Yeah,

(06:43):
I understand. That's it's perfect.They're not there. It's not a home
and a home situation. You know, if it's a set, you know,
if it's a Saturday afternoon game onyou know in Vegas up on Friday,
spend the night. Yeah, goto a buffet, gamble little,
go to the game on Saturday,come home Sunday morning. A nice,
cool, fun weekend. Yeah,it's like going to the Indiana game back
in the a couple of years ago. Yeah, yeah, I think it'd

(07:06):
be fun. I don't know.Your friend, you're old guys, your
friends they are they are. Actually, this was promon of the younger guys
though, just saying I wish theywere playing these amachale because he'd want to
go Yeah right, right, no, just right. For you know,
it's the atmosphere, it's a homegame for each team, and it's like,
keep keep it like it's been.I'd rather go there than go to

(07:27):
UCI because you may not get aticket to go watch that game. Yeah,
you will, because they don't.Therefore, well, in Arizona they
actually said that's the one game,that's the one game. Yeah, but
you know, I think I thinkwe heard didn't didn't Ben Bolts do a
story or tell us that, youknow the only times right that Mitt Cronin's
not coming back to Tucson Like ever, Oh, that's right that I heard
maybe the line you know what,that could be? Right? I have

(07:48):
some kind of that they're that they'reI think Ben told us that because of
the spitting incident and then the situationthat happened at this last game and the
Justin spears, Uh yeah, thatthey just that they're just not gonna want
to come here. That I thinkhe predicted that if they continued this series,
it will be on the neutral.Yeah, and that makes sense.
That that makes even more sense becausenow you know, you know, the

(08:11):
the degenerates that do cause problems,that probably aren't gonna spend the money.
And it's funny you say that becausewhen sales Crown is a baby. Well,
remember that you didn't go back toNew Mexico for a reason, right,
same kind of reason. It's hardto win there. Well without saying
that, right, right, Imean there's really he didn't play Indiana all
those years, and Bobby Knights,he just look, I don't have to

(08:31):
play those games, So I'm notgonna have why should I? Right?
And you say it's going to haveenough issues of its own. Moving over
to the Big ten. Last thingNext year will be the last year of
NBA on tn T, as theNBA is forming contracts with ESPN, NBC,
and Amazon for rights that would startthe twenty twenty five twenty twenty six

(08:52):
season. Yeah, out of here, those three guys are one of those
guys that again, I like thatshow. I just do. I make
my plans to sit around and watchit. No, but you know,
if I'm watching an NBA game,particular playoff game, you know the halftime
show comes on, I'll watch it. You know, I'll watch ten minutes

(09:15):
of the postgame show because I thinkthose guys are entertaining. So I think
they'll be a that show gets moved. Okay, Well we'll see if all
of them come back together too.Yeah. I think there's reports that Ernie's
definitely saying on TNT. But theother three micro yeah, yeah, they're
kind of free agents anyways. AllRight, So here we go with some

(09:39):
of the we're going to start tosee the Big twelve media, all right,
just kind of the whole I'm goingto say, the whole media bias
thing is going to exist for awhile. That, Okay, Arizona and
these schools are coming over to theBig twelve. Well, we still think
we're all better than you guys.So a two four seven sports, a

(10:01):
guy named Isaac Trotter put out aa too early packed a Big twelve football,
basketball, Basketball, okanky, okay, where do you think well twenty
four seven? Okay, yeah,where do you think you put Arizona?
Third? No, seventh, fifth, fifth? Who'd he's got? Kansas

(10:26):
Okay, okay, which that's legit. Houston, Houston, Okay, Kansas
Houston, Iowa State they're good.And Baylor okay, and then Airs.
They won't finish fifth, They're notgonna they won't finish fifth. They may
finish third, but they won't finishin the top If they fish in the
top two, that'd be fantastic.It's gonna be that kind of kind of

(10:48):
thing you hope for that. Idon't know if you hope for that.
But it's gonna be competitive and it'sgonna get you better for the for March
until you don't show up in Marchand then you lose and you say,
what the hell are you doing here? Yeah? So fifth, you can
live with that. It's gonna beit's gonna be like the It's like the
sec of the of the I thinkyou gotta put them at least third.

(11:11):
I said there, I did.But those teams that they're there, they're
very good teams. But yes,because Arizona was gonna face stuff they had
never seen before in the back twelvepacked crowds, crazy crowds, obnoxious crowds.
Uh and and and and Arizona's gonnahave its mark. People are gonna
say, Arizona will show you youcome from from uh uh not so good.

(11:39):
PAC twelve. I'm trying to findthe word for it. But you
know the the soft PAC twelve Welcometo our building. Yeah. So anyways,
but to me, this reeks ofyou know, we don't know you
well enough. So that's true.And that's true. You know, we
don't know you well enough, sothat's true. But you but you know,
going in because we've with a lotof people, it's gonna be tough

(12:01):
and it's gonna be hard. Iknow, how many teams eighteen, how
many teams there's sixteen, sixteen,eighteen, eighteen, but fifteen and eighteen
in a tough conference. If theywin it, more power to them.
Got them. I don't have thenumber a seconds, still looking, but

(12:26):
I don't know. Sixteen six sixteen, they've got Colorado sixteenth. Uh,
they've got U toh fifteen, OklahomaState fourteen, ASU thirteen, So three
of the four teams coming over theygot him from thirteen to sixteen in the
league. It's like, you know, we we always thought the Pac twelve

(12:50):
sucks and we think the Pack Dovestill sucks. So here you go.
You know, we'll see, well, I think it's fair, but it's
you know, we'll see Arizona caneasily prove that otherwise finished top three and
maybe win it. Who knows.Again, they'll be underdogs, so they'll
play well until they don't. Anif you get else lest minute, No,

(13:11):
you know, I was gonna look, you know, who do we
have on Roman Bravo Young. Okay, so let's let's go. No,
I just think his four seventeen willbe about that time we said we call
him so yeah, all right,okay, stick around a Roman Bravo Young.
We'll talk about again his path tothe twenty twenty four Olympics coming up,

(13:31):
how he feels about that, andwe'll see what he's got to say.
And then again after that in thelast segment of the day at four
point forty, Steve Kerr will joinus and we'll just have all kinds of
fun with him when he gets whenhe gets on, so stick around.
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(18:56):
Steve Bravera and Jay Gonzalez Fox Sportsfourteen. Hey, welcome back to you.
I in the Ball here on FoxSports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera.
It's Jacobs always. Now on thephone. We have Roman Bravo,
young Olympic wrestler, big time wrestlerat Penn State and locally. Roman,
how are you very Hey you guysdoing Thanks for having me on. Yeah,

(19:18):
No, great to have you on. You're what just a few months
away? Where are you at inpreparation. Yeah, I just picked up
prep uh pretty heavy. Now I'llbe competing here in about three weeks in
Poland. We'll go up there toget some reps and competition in in the
Warsaw Poland. I think I headout in June nineteenth and then we'll come

(19:41):
back finish out training camp, andthen we'll fly out to Mexico maybe like
a sendoff, and then we'll headto Paris and kind of just the opening
ceremonies and training camp, and thenI think wrestlings were the last events in
for Suth August. So some ofthis international traveler. Have you traveled much
as a you know, certainly youknow as an as a college athlete around

(20:02):
the United States, But have youhad much experience with international travel and how
is that going to be for you? Yeah, you know, this is
my first year on the international scenes. So I went to Grands back in
January of rust in Mexico a coupleof times, and I qualified in Uncle
Poco. So you know, it'san international competition of day thing. It's
a lot better you travel, Youget to see all these new class and

(20:26):
you know, at the end ofthe day, I'm doing what I love
and I'm wrestling to get against thebest in the world, so it's definitely
exciting against fun Romant. You mustbe about twenty three years old something like
that. I'm twenty five. Yeah, twenty five. Okay, what would
fifteen year old Roman be thinking?How did you make it this far right?

(20:48):
I mean, come on, youmust think he must think there there's
no way, or maybe there isa way. What would he be saying,
I can't believe this might happen.Yeah, it's crazy. I kind
of I don't get my credit sometime. I really enjoy the things that
I've done, so I look backat it and now I'm just trying to
just enjoy everything day by day andjust be present. You know, my
Grandpa's always been hard to me growingup. Just keep your hand down to

(21:11):
work and you're not doing enough.So I kind of have that mindset.
But as I'm being don I'm sartingto realize that I have done some cool
things and just to make sure thatI'm enjoying it and still having fun with
it. So yeah, where I'mat right now, Like I tell everyone,
I'm living my dream and I getpaid to strain my butt off every
day and I'm grateful for it.But when did that dream start roman to

(21:33):
be, you know, in theOlympics as a restaurant. I mean,
was it, you know, inmiddle school? Is it at Sunnyside?
Was it a pencil? When didthat become maybe even real for you?
I think it really some came andwhen I got to Penn State and I
was in the starting lineup. Imean, obviously I did well and twos
on Arizona at Sunnyside, but youknow, I feel like a lot of

(21:56):
kids in Arizona is something that I'mtrying to be a role model. And
I go back and how when thetimes ride, it's just these people the
doorway that there's more than this highschool state championships and stuff like that.
Let's use when the spot we useto get to callers to get to make
world teams, national teams, becauseit's it's doable. But it's hard for

(22:18):
kids in Touson. I feel liketo buy any because they don't have someone
leading them who's done there and beenthere. And that's why it's so easy
to be successful and here at PennState. Because I can look back in
my corner, I know that Igot Klee Sanderson who's been there, done
at all, and I can buyinto him and trust him as a leader.
If he tells me to run offarun through a brick wall, you
know I'm gonna do it, evenif even if I know I shouldn't.

(22:38):
So I think this comes down tothe leadership. And I think it all
really started obviously in Sunday Stop,but I really got to Penn State.
That's when everything just teems and yeah, it's the mindset everything, just because
even this moment, the whole newperson. Well, I would have thought
you would have said when you werereally young, what did you still remember
your first match and how that wasand how maybe you thought maybe I can

(23:02):
continue to do this. Yeah,I don't really think as much as I
kid. I justmet my grandpa takingme to the Saturday tournament, and I
think nowadays it's kind of you don'tknow why we're doing it, and uh,
for me to find my why wasn'treally tough. I got to college
and it was like, Okay,this is why I was working so hard
because the me in the moment,I really to undershot why we're going to

(23:23):
practice this. Boy, it's notfun and it's hard to be my community.
But you know, we started gettingthe disclosure. You know, thinks
of the line the winning is winning, the more winning, more matches,
and and people are starting to lookup to you and stuff like that.
I feel like, now I knowwhy, but you know, it's kind

(23:44):
of the way I see it.Now, what was your record in high
school? I think I was undefeated, but I don't really talking about it.
You know, origin I asked,you could say one hundred thousands of
zero, but I'm thinking, youmean to tell me you didn't know where
your wing you can. Everybody's askedI do I do it? Go to

(24:06):
be a four time stage champ?But my grandpa always wanted me and that
was it for me, Like hedidn't expect to expect me to do any
of this stuff. We always justsaid he wanted a four time state champion
and that was the cosed mind hehas. And now everything that I'm doing
is kind of for him. Andhe's one of my wives, and now
that I'm doing this stuff, it'ssuper easy for me to both be motivated

(24:26):
and I just like to make himhappy. So okay, so, so
as we as we mentioned, you'reyou're representing Mexico, there were some issues
with I think the weights and stufflike that. It got changed for the
Olympics, and it really kind ofput you in a in a tough spot.
So tell us a little bit abouthow that, how that happened,
and and and and what your situationwas as it relates to, uh,

(24:48):
you know, the the Olympic competition. Yeah. So, I mean,
obviously I could stick around here andtrying to make the US world team,
or I can go rest for Mexic. Go and you know, it's one
of the things where I can justsit down in the mirror and think about
what you want to do for yourlife and the goals and how you want
to set yourself up. So youknow, I took that leap of faith
and I went to go wrestle fromMexico. And now I switched this.

(25:11):
I got dual Ciniship and then Iswitched and I can't never wrestle with us
again. But when Olympic year comesaround every four years, is only six
weight classes and then call it.I wrestled with one hundred and thirty three
pounds and now the Olympic weight isone hundred and twenty five point eight pounds.
So as you can say that's eightpounds liar than what I've wrestled for
about five years in college, andI'm only growing. So I really had

(25:34):
to do really how to get withthe right people, get super disciplined to
make this weight and do everything right. There's no taking shortcuts, there's strict
diet, there's a lot of workbeing put in, and you know,
I think that's one of the biggestthings I've proud about myself, is just
how discipline has to be to getdown that way, because people don't understand
how hard it is to shrink yourbody down to weight that you never competed

(25:56):
after college when you're still growing rightnear maturing. Yeah, you know it's
hard, but you know life parts. So I don't do what I gotta
do and that week. Now Ican say I'm Olympian for the rest of
my life, but that's the job'snot done, and that's not what I
want to want move So now,so now comes a task of your family,
family members trying to go see youout in Paris. Did they see

(26:19):
you a lot in college and andwhat are you trying to do and how
can we help get people out there? Yeah, I don't go back home
to Tucson much more than I wantto. I'm just so busy walked in.
You know, we had to plantit out and I've been I've competed
like every two months and mean thatsmall injury I got to take care.
But yeah, when I want toget it back to Tucson, I want
to get my family out of Paris. So yeah, I started to go
fund me just to help get myget my family because people don't It's like

(26:41):
me from Tucson. It's not allthe easiest, and you know that's why
I work. I work my buttoff because when I go back home,
there's not much there for me.So this is what this is why I'm
so motivated. But yeah, ifanyone wants to help, you know,
greatly appreciated. To get my familythere. Obviously, this is the once
in a lifetime opportunity, but mygoal is not. This is not gonna

(27:03):
be my last Olympics. Obviously wantto make it to twenty twenty eight too,
but uh, you know, thiswould be a cool experience for them.
And I'm just gonna go out thereand appreciate all all the support so
far. And I've had just mywhole career and then I'm just gonna keep
doing, keep doing my best,and that's all I could do. But
yeah, you know, I appreciatethe support. And eventually, when I'm

(27:23):
done wrestling, I'm definitely gonna helpout the community and Tucson and get some
wrestling fitness going out there. Butjust waiting for that, for that movement
I want to be. Uh,I'm gonna be a light there at Tucson
for young athletes. Yeah, Ijust got to wait for my time.
But I'm still competing before we getback to the go fund me. There's

(27:44):
another reason why you don't come backto Tucson. You have burritos. You
know why you're gonna make wait here. I'm pretty I'm pretty disciplined now,
but I do this though. Soafter I'll go after August, I'll go
back for a couple of weeks.Hopefully I go back with the metal run
mind. So right, yeah,you can eat whatever you want. So
okay, So how do people findthe go fundme? They'll go fundme page.

(28:07):
I think it's on my Facebook.I'm not really too sure how to
work it too much. I postedit, but I really haven't posted it
too much because I'm not really Idon't really like to ask people for but
you know, if it's for myfamily or do whatever I need to.
But I'm not too sure that.But I know if you look up on
my Facebook, it should be onthere. All right, we're looking at
that right now. I think wemight have an all sports twosun dot com.
I think I of your shared itas well. But anybody who's listening

(28:32):
to us, you can go toyour to your your Facebook, right yeah,
yeah, okay, yeah, Ijust found it. It's right at
the top of your Facebook. Andif you go on to the go fundme
page, I think if you justsearch Roman Bravo, you'll find you'll find
the page trying to get your familyto pair. So goal of fifteen thousand

(28:52):
dollars, you're about it a littleover a third of the way there.
So let's get going. So sometime, let's get going. Yeah, you've
been a great you know, you'vebeen a great representative Tucson, so you
really deserve this, right right,let me ask you a dumb question because
Jay were wondering why I'm asking youthis. I mean, I asked you
when you were here last time withus. You you're one thousand and zero

(29:14):
as a as a as a highschool guy, you did very well in
at Penn State. How did itfeel when you lost for the first time.
Yeah, I think that's a goodquestion and no questions. But I
feel like losing is good at thesame time. Obviously it sucks, but
you know, now looking back itup, maybe I had to lose to
make the Olympic teams. You'll neverreally know what if a loss is a

(29:38):
blessing at the same time, becauseobviously I was just lagging a really long
winning streak going for my third titleand I end up losing in the finals,
and you know, hurt, andit sucked, and I questioned myself
if I even wanted to wrestle,and then you know, something happened and
it clicked at me and I waslike, you know, I'm gonna wrestle,
and I'm gonna take this leap atsayth to Mexico and look where we're
at NATS. Now we're going tothe Olympics. So like I can you

(30:00):
can do all in the past,or you can kind of just put your
head down your work and double downyourself and now look where we're going.
So I feel like losing, obviously, no one likes to lose. But
in the big picture, the bigeternal picture of life, like, it's
not that big of a but it'sjust a repping match. So I think
as they're going up and get youhave kid in Marizona and then you don't

(30:21):
get the same video all like youthink, like the Olympics, people make
it a big deal, but atthe end of day, it's just it's
just more repping matches and that's it, and then it's be common. It
can go thing. Losing is good. It definitely helped me get me to
where I'm at. I could,I could be excuse of it. Yeah,
tell us a little bit about thequalifying process. You know, how

(30:41):
do how do you make the team? You know, what did you have
to do all the way from howdo you just sign up? Right?
And then you mentioned you had togo you had to get dual citizenship,
so you had to go through aprocess and then you had to go through
the qualifying Walk us through that alittle bit because I'd be interested to see
how this happens. Yeah, sojust getting builds. So people who don't

(31:03):
know what wrestling is. Obviously it'sinternational and there's a lot of the just
don't be good rushing in the world. There's Russians to wrestle with Belarus and
things like that. So like thethe world champ at my weight last year
named Stefan Michik. He lives inthe US trains here, but he wrestles
for Serbia, so it's known everywhere. But so how to get dual citizenship.
Our grandparents are born there, sothey got a bug certificate. My

(31:26):
mom's for her birth certificate. Igot mine done, and then you get
that, you get a Mexican passportand then once you're once you have that
in your citizenship, then you goto the United World Wrestling and tell them
that you want to switch nationalities,so that I just have to like pay
a fine to leave the US rightswitch national aladies, And then now I'm

(31:47):
competing for Mexico. So now Igot to get in contact with the Mexican
Federation. Okay, what's the process? This is my goal. He's like,
you're this because of your resume,Like, doesn't mean crap. I
don't want nothing given to me,So I gotta make weight scratch, I'm
gonna earn everything. So I showedup to two tournaments. One of the
tournams I needed to. Then therewas a qualifier in Alca, Polco in
February. They get into the toptwo to qualify the weight for Paris.

(32:10):
So I went there, made theweight, qualified, got top I mean
you make the finals. They don'twrestle the finals match because top two go.
So I made that and then onceyou qualify the weight, then you're
good to go. They take sixteencountries to the Olympics. Well, have
you faced any of the other onesyet? Before I faced one of the

(32:30):
Egyptian guy, I wrestled them inFrance. So I wrestled him, I
beat him, and that there waslike four or five Yews in the US
that I've just known. I wrestledfor different countries, but the US citizens
that I know who they are.But yeah, you haven't wrestled anything.
The world champions, the multiple worlds, not a winnings, World Champions,
the limit champions, the weight.It's gonna be fun, and you know

(32:52):
all you can do is show upand hope for the best. But I
know that I'm prepared and I'm gonnabe putting in the work and leave no
sounds don't turn. So I'll beat piece. What's whatever happens. But
I'm excited to go out there andget my hands on the best guys in
the world because this is something thatI've been chasing for a while. Do
you let yourself think about being onthe podium, you know, with any

(33:12):
kind of a metal deed, Doyou let your mind go there or would
that be kind of distracting for you? Yeah, I mean, I mean
it's always good to matifest I thinkit's good to write down your goals of
stuff. I really just like tokeep my goals to myself and don't really
put it out there too much foreveryone, because that's when it starts losing
value. But but yeah, Imean, like I said, that's obviously

(33:35):
the goal of everyone going there.So I got pulling first though, So
we're gonna take that one at time, and then my next goal for me
is just we win a world medaland I'll be done wrestling. So however
long it takes you, very nice, very nice role, Roman, We
appreciate your time. Good luck again. Go to his Facebook young looking him

(33:55):
up. Look him up on Facebook. There's a link to it. But
if you go straight to the fundme page, I think if you search
Roman bravo, young you'll find aRoman. Bravo, You'll find it.
So and you get to the golftrying to raise fifteen grand you get your
family over there, so good luckwith it, Roman and all the best.
Thank you so much on come blessbe well, thank you. That's

(34:16):
cool. That's cool, dude,to be that tough. And let me
tell you the wrestlers of the toughdudes in the world. Ud you know
right right, watching these guys inhigh school, right, you thought those
are the badasses of the school,right, Football players, yeah, whatever,
But wrestlers, you just go.They make fantastic football players to angles,
big leverage, all right, stuff, Okay, we gotta go.

(34:37):
We have luck, We have ag take a break. We're gonna come
back in about six minutes. We'llhave Steve Kerr on, so come back
and uh we'll be chatting with him. Stick around. If you're an Arizona
men's basketball fan, you know it'sbeen successful for nearly forty years. Now
take a look back at the Ludolsenera in my new book, Lessons from
Loot. It was a labor oflove through the eyes of twenty five former
players, coaches and friends to giveinsight to the coach and and the men

(35:00):
who led them, competed against them, and inspired them. Twenty five chapters
for his twenty five years as Arizona'sbeloved coach. Lessons from Loot is an
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net. Breaking down all the excessat alls. It's Steve Rivera and Jagin
Salvinz. This is I on theBall on Fox Sports fourteenth Theory. Hey,

(38:00):
welcome back to Eying the ball hereon Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm
Steve Rivera. He's Jenkins Owes Snowon the phone. We had one of
Tusson's favorite sons, Steve Kerr.Steve. How are you? I'm good?
Thanks? How are you guys?We're doing well? Thank you very
much for joining us. How theheck you doing? And now that the
season is no longer the season.Well, definitely feeling rested. Not that

(38:25):
I want to feel rested. I'dmuch prefer to be playing still, but
that's the way it goes. Soyou got to take advantage of the time.
Do you sit down and watch theNBA playoffs or how much attention do
you pay to them? I thinkI'm a bitter guy, so I think
if I was out, I wouldjust get not even care about him anymore.
You know, when we lost theSacramento in the playing game, I

(38:47):
went home and I swore I wasn'tgonna watch anything, And two days later
I had every game off. Ican't can't stay away. Yeah, I'm
sure, I'm sure. Sure,that's pretty funny. Do you how do
you look at the games? Becausewe always ask ex players, how do
you look at the games? Yeah? I think it depends on the time.
There are some nights I just havethe game on in the background and

(39:10):
I'm not really paying close attention,and maybe if the game really grabs me,
like last night's game, which wasincredible, I really pay attention to
what. You know, what eachteam is doing down the stretch, plays
they run, what what what they'redoing defensively? And you know, there

(39:30):
are times where you pick something upand you file it away and you go,
yeah, I think I'd like ourteam to do that. Okay,
So like you know that Rick Carlisleis not going to have his guy foul
when there's three, you know,when they're down, when they're up three
at the end. You know,it's funny they mentioned that on the on
the broadcast, but it's h It'sactually one of the hardest things to do.

(39:54):
At the end. It seems likeit's an easy one, you know,
to have that lot of fouling,but there's so many variables and we've
been on both sides of that.You know, sometimes you foul and they
you know, they determined that itwas in the act of shooting. So
you're worried. You know, thenext time you're worried about fouling. And

(40:16):
you know, like I thought thatplay last night. You know, see
hackem was clearly nervous about fouling inthe corner because he didn't want to give
up retreat throws. So's it's alwaysa hot button topic, but it's more
difficult than people realize. Over theyears you had you guys have had a
great run since you started back inwhat fifteen sixteen, whatever it was.

(40:37):
Do you kind of look back andsay, you know, it's been pretty
good to us, to me,oh every day? Are you kidding me?
You know, the ability to toor the opportunity I should say to
coach Steph Curry and Draymond and Clayand Andrea Gadala you meet these guys are
are legends and for them to allbe on the same team, you know,

(41:02):
at various times of their careers,it's it's just been, uh,
you know, it's complete honored tocoach them. Have you ever given Steph
Curry your shooting tip? You knowyour your elbow is out or you're you
know, anything like that. Yeah, if you're old enough, you remember

(41:22):
the the advertisement TV for the mayTag repair Man. Yeah, much,
you're your younger listeners are like,what the hell are those guys talking about?
But yeah, the may Tag repairMan was was basically never busy because
may Tags were perfect like being stepsshooting, you're the may Tag repair Man.

(41:43):
It's funny because you know obviously followyou and follow you from all time
and as a I'm a Golden StateWarrior fan. When I'm thinking, you
know what I wish I could beSteve Kirk for a weekend. And then
I realized you put up with alot of crap, and I just never
mind. Uh no, you know, I think that's uh, that's part
of it. The job is youjust have to understand you're going to take

(42:06):
a lot of crap and the fansare never happy. Uh you know,
I I'm I'm well aware that thereare lots of fans who would love to
see me get fired and all thatstuff. But that's that's the life of
the coach in professional sports, youknow. And and the sooner you get
used to that, the better,and you just you just don't worry about
it, and you just do yourjob and enjoy all the the great parts

(42:30):
of the of the job and ignorethe rest. Okay, So now you're
you're you're you got yourself into theOlympics. You're going to go do this
this summer. When when does allthat start for you? You know?
In earnest and have you ever thoughtwhat the hell did I get myself into?
Or is it you know you're lookingforward to this? Oh I can't

(42:51):
wait. It's that We start inJuly July third, we go to Vegas,
players arrived the fifth and we practicefor a week or so, we
get right into exhibition games and andand then to Paris, so it's all
in all, it's only about afive or six week journey and I can't
wait. I mean, it's gonnabe so exciting. We have great players,

(43:15):
great talent, hell of a coachingstaff, and obviously going to Paris,
one of the most beautiful cities inthe world. So it's it's gonna
be really exciting, but very difficult, you know, even though we have
the best players in the NBA onour team, so do other teams in
the Olympics, by the way.Yeah, uh, there's some really really

(43:37):
talented teams out there. And PIBAis a different game than the NBA,
and our guys have to make abig adjustment. And you know, these
teams now are very capable of beatingus, and we know that very well.
Yeah, the European game with theinternational teams. Are you are you
nervous at all about this because youknow what they you know they hearing this

(44:00):
expect gold medal. Does that makeyou nervous at all? Of course it
does, you know, But that'sthe nature of competition. And I love
the competition. I love being inthe auction and having something on the line,
having a challenge. You don't getthat juice, You don't get those
feelings unless there's a downside, andthere's definitely a downside here. We I

(44:25):
coached the World Cup team last summer. We lost to Germany in the semi
finals and uh, and then lostto Canada and in the in the bronze
medal game, and uh. It'shugely disappointing. But at the same time,
it was an incredible experience. AndI think all of this. When
you're coaching at this level, youreally learn to appreciate everything and and understand

(44:51):
that these are the best athletes inthe world, best coaches in the world,
and you know, winning and losingis all part of it. That.
Yeah, when you're the coach ofUSA men's basketball, you're supposed to
win, for sure. Those arethe times I didn't want to be Steve
Kirk. Well, yeah, Imean, what if you have to what
if you have to yell at oneof those guys, right, or you

(45:12):
know, go sit on the bed, go sit down. You know,
how's that going to fly? Yeah? Well, you know, it's it's
an interesting experience for these guys becausethey're also used to being the stars on
their team, and all of asudden, they're looking across the locker room
at eleven other Hall of famers,you know. And I think it's one

(45:32):
of the appeals to the experience forthe players is that they really get to
play together and be together, youknow, when they're used to competing against
one another, and in my experience, they really do just kind of got
their egos aside and enjoy the ideaof being being one. Let's talk a

(45:54):
little about Arizona. We talked yesterday, J and I about those guys that
have come through the the Mikhale Dooreshistorically and guys you needed on their team.
I think you were one of them. I don't think. I know
you were one of them back inthe mid eighties because people played for you.
And in fact, Harvey Mason inthe book talks about he was he

(46:15):
played hard because he went he didn'twant to disappoint Loot and he didn't want
to disappoint Steve Kerr. Did youno, No, And I'm not I'm
not joking, I'm being serious,because you had that presence about you.
I think even Pete Williams talked aboutit a little yesterday. Did you sense
that when you were on the teamwith them? Definitely not. I mean,

(46:37):
you know, especially with Pete.Pete was a junior when I was
a freshman, and my freshman year, I was just trying to you know,
survive. And I think my sophomoreyear it was a different vibe and
I had a lot of more confidenceand became a starter. But I think,

(46:59):
you know, my experience that Uof A was special because it was
five years and I really did feellike I just grew from this, you
know, a young kid or didn'tknow anything to you know, a fifth
year senior and you know, playingon a final four team. It was
just an incredible experience the whole run. And to be there for Luke's first

(47:22):
year and to see him build itfrom the ground up was just amazing.
Well, we talked about when yougot hurt that summer. We don't think
that the history of the program wouldhave been the same had you not and
gotten hurt, because it seemed likeeverything fell into place in eighty eight where
they needed you, you needed them, You helped tremendously with the team.

(47:45):
Does that make any sense? Itdoes it does. I think if I
hadn't gotten hurt before that my senioryear, my fourth year, we would
not have been a final four team. I think the rest of the guys
that year that I sat out,they all made such huge strides and we
brought everybody back and we were justloaded that that that last year for me,

(48:07):
and I think that final fortrait reallykind of validated the program, validated
each of us individually, and andI think it helped set the course for,
you know, the next twenty yearswhere Coach Olsen just built this this
amazing program. Well you know,yeah, I mean you'll always be thought

(48:28):
of as one of the as wecall Pete, you know, Pete Williams,
you know, the cornerstones of whatArizona basketball is today. You know,
through Sean Miller now now with withTommy Lloyd, that you'll always be
thought of as the guy who helpedbuild what is even happening today. Is
that I don't know, do youput your hand on the pillow at night
and ever think about that? Wheredo you think your place is there?

(48:53):
Well, it's a great source ofpride for sure. And that was one
of Loot's messages to you know,his first year or two was you know,
we're building something special and and youknow you're you're going to be you
know, one of the you know, one of the groups that really got

(49:13):
it started. And I think weall said a lot of pride in that.
You know, that's that's a prettyunique thing to be able to do.
And obviously the way my career turnedout and the way the fans you
know, took to me and tookcare of me and cheered for me,
it became something that I never couldhave even imagined. But when you were

(49:35):
here and Sean was going through hishis stuff here and being becoming Sean Sean
Elliott right. Uh. In thebook he admitted that he wanted to leave
a time or two because was onhim. He was on him a lot.
I'm sure you saw that. Anddid you know that, Oh yeah,
oh yeah, yeah, Sean wasyou know, he was so good

(49:57):
but so so raw and coach alsoand coached him hard. And I think
if that happened today, he probablywould have tried. Yeah. But but
but but back then, it didn'twork that way, and it was a
much healthier environment, to be honestwith you, And in terms of player
development, especially with with a coachlike lude Olsen who would coach you hard

(50:21):
but had total respect were you andand treated you like like a grown up.
You know. He was never demeaning, he was never insulting. He
was just very demanding and most youngplayers need that. They don't always know
it though. Yeah, well,well Steve, thanks for your time.
Good stuff, Steve. We appreciateyour time always, we know it's valuable.

(50:44):
And best of luck at the Olympicsthis summer. We have some fun
with that, I will. Iwill appreciate you guys having me on.
Yeah, well, Steve Kerr,thanks so much. Yeah, great to
have one on the show. Wealways get him like, you know,
it's kind of like we've got toHe's one of those guys. I mean.
One of the best things I've everwritten read from him. Remember he

(51:05):
was a student and he went tocal and he wrote a column about about
their band. Everything was a funnyjoke about everything, fantastic view of other
teams. He's never look, he'sa serious guy on a lot of things.
He's very good at what he does, but he's never taken himself so
seriously that you think, you knowhe's so I mean, he's just he's
he's a he's an average guy whohappens to be incredibly successful and that and

(51:30):
that's I think that that's the coolthing about say this, without any regrets.
He is the smartest dude I've evermet. Yeah, because he goes
a lot of different directions he does, and he handles a lot of different
things. Whether you agree with hispolitics or not or whatever, it's just
sense. I mean again, aguy who came here, as he said,
just that, you know, ayoung guy just trying to find his

(51:50):
way. And when you think aboutwhat he's built in his you know,
in his life is as a collegebasketball player, a professional basketball player,
an NBA CO she was a generalmanager. I mean, you want to
talk about a guy who's pushed everybutton, and it seemed to seemed to
have pushed the right buttons. Butyou're right, though you think it's harder

(52:12):
than anybody think I want to do. It's very harder than anythings. All
right, Thanks so much to SteveKirk for joining us. That was very
cool. So all right, Ithink that's it. Have fun. Show
went fast, went fast. We'llbe back tomorrow, but we're gone Friday.
We'll be off on Friday and Mondayfor Memorial Day, so catch us
tomorrow. Would love to take yourcalls five to zero, four one,

(52:36):
six seventy four forty. If you'rejust catching the end of that or missed
it, it'll be up on thepodcast today so tonight, so so be
sure to check that out. Sothanks for being here and we'll see tomorrow.