September 22, 2023 • 47 mins
The name John Rhadigan is synonymous with years of great sports coverage for fans of North Texas sports. It is also now becoming one with the DUB Network as John joins Harp as a regular guest/co-host on the show moving forward. Get ready for some great stories and unique takes you won't hear from either of these two over the normal airwaves!
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A special thanks to our sponsor Herman Marshall Whiskey. Built from the grain up. Just like good whiskey should be.
www.hmwhiskey.com
––––––––––––––
A special thanks to our sponsor Herman Marshall Whiskey. Built from the grain up. Just like good whiskey should be.
www.hmwhiskey.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Wake up, everybody. It's Harp'sCourt once again. I'm Derek Harper,
your host. I'm joined by avery special special co host and John Radigan,
one of the best in the Metroplexwhen it comes to sports. Welcome
in partner. How you doing,brother, I'm doing Gray, Harp,
And I appreciate it so much.I appreciate the lies, I mean,
(00:26):
the kind words, and I appreciateI appreciate having a chance to get back
together with you in a broadcast typeforum. We've done this many times in
the past, but it's awfully coolto be back together. And you know
it's cool for me, Harp.Is that like you had this great ability
to play basketball, and you playedit at the highest level possums, and
(00:50):
then you have then since because ofyour immense talent and everything you are and
everything the way you were raised andall right, you then had the chance
to do what I do. Right. I never had the chance to do
what you do because I don't haveany talent. So now I am in
Hart's court. Man. There wasno way for me. You're taking words
(01:15):
out of my thoughts, is whatyou're doing right now, because I never
in my wace dream thought we wouldbe back together in this capacity. But
let's make the best of it.How about that, man? I absolutely,
man, I think it's a beautifulthing. Yeah, it's gone full
circle force. So in any event, man, let's get into what is
going on basketball wise. First off, we just finished the World Games and
(01:38):
the USA man didn't fare so well. Why didn't even they didn't met No,
they didn't even finish on the metalstand and uh, to me,
that is tragic. But before becauseyour thoughts to me are so important on
this topic and there's a lot toexplore. But before we get to that,
(01:59):
I want to let Pepill know howlong you and I have been interacting,
working together, don't know on eachother, right, So I'm gonna
take you back to nineteen ninety andand you know, for our viewers,
I just told a harp you know, before we got on the air,
I said, Hey, I'm gonnatell you a story that you may not
(02:19):
remember, but it's haunted me forthirty three years. Okay, so remember
having hair back then? For whateverit's Yeah, in nineteen ninety Uh,
you know, I'm brand new inthe market. I've only been here a
couple of months, and young twentysomething kid, you know, trying to
make my way out of Flint,Michigan in the big Dallas forward market and
(02:44):
harp, harp and and row.You two guys, man, anything the
MAVs did. You guys were sogreat. You were the go to for
media and all that. It wasn'tjust us that went to you, you
know, Kevin Sullivan Sully back inthe day and Tony Fay when they needed
some think they went to you.So it's NBA Draft night and they're having
a watch party at Reunion Arena,and so Channel five. I'm with Channel
(03:07):
five at the time. They sendme down to Reunion and we're trying to
decide where to set up. Andthe live truck gets there late, and
I haven't done a lot of thistype of work yet, and I'm nervous
and kind of freaking out, youknow, and uh, he finally gets
he goes, well, we gottaset up outside. I can't get a
signal inside, So we set upjust outside in the front door of Reunion.
(03:29):
You probably get late word of thatyou've come walking up like at the
last minute, like they're introducing me. I don't I don't have you know,
anybody standing next to me. Yetbut you come walking up right at
the last minute, perfect timing.Hey yeah, thanks very much. I'm
John Radigan here with and my eyesgo blurnt. Man, my mind goes
(03:50):
plank and I'm like like somebody elseand then I go here with pull the
mic over towards your mouth and goDerek Harper, Oh wow. You know
I remember that, I really dobecause it was I mean, Draft night
is always a big night. Sothat's the main reason I remember it.
(04:11):
You talked about Tony and Sally,so brings back good memories, no question
about it. For me. Yeah, you were You were great and you
were so kind about that because youcould have looked at me like, wow,
look at this dude with no credibility, and you were just cool when
we talked. We talked afterwards,you know about hey man, sorry,
it was like crazy and you're like, I get it, no problem.
But then what happened and those now, if that happened today, harp ye,
(04:33):
man, that would be all overthe end would be social media.
Oh my gosh, I'd be everywhere. But in those days, we just
everybody taped their air check, youknow, every night the TV station.
I went back that night, man, I erased that air check. I
did not want to be on theChristmas blooper reel, you know, so
I'll tell you what if you wouldhave been. That's exactly yeah. But
(04:55):
listen, John, you know,it's so funny how you're talking about what
happens behind the scene, you know, as far as production and all of
those kind of things. That's themost fascinating part of doing what we do
to me, because I think whenyou start talking thinking about directors producers,
those guys are the ones that makeyou look good or bad. And if
(05:17):
you ever have if you have agood producer and a good director, it's
easy breezy, right. Yeah,it can cover up cover up so many
mistakes if you have that great one. And I know, of course I
know personally both of your guys onthe Mavericks broadcast, Dave Keeney and Clay
Armstrong as your Clay's the director andDave's the producer. This I'm so old.
(05:41):
Dave used to be my intern whenI was a channel Now he's a
producer of the Mass Games. Incredibleman, you know. Yeah, you
keep calling yourself, Oh, we'rethe same age, brother, So you're
not gonna get any sympathy coming fromDerek har from except except that you look
younger. What's up with that?Man? I die my beard? How
about that? Yeah? Yeah,yeah, yeah yeah, you just you
(06:03):
just wear yours? But anyway,man, moving moving to what's been going
on this summer as far as dealdeal world games are concerned. Yeah,
what what surprised you about it?I never thought we would be five and
three coming back from over across thepond. Yeah, there's there's so much
(06:24):
uh that is surprising that maybe shouldn'tbe. But what you know, what
surprised me is that there was athere was a struggle in almost every game,
right and what but again, whereit shouldn't be surprising, Harp is
the fact that this is the evidenceif anyone ever needed it, and they
don't, but if you needed evidencethat basketball is a world game, this
(06:47):
is the evidence right here. Everycountry has great players, Every country has
great players. Now, it's Amazing'sno doubt about it. I still feel
like I feel very scumly though,that if we sent our best dream team,
whatever you want to call our best, we're still up here. We're
(07:09):
at a different level as far asI'm concerned. Now, I think the
problem with this year's team, therewas a very young team. And the
other thing that I want to makenote of is that I don't think people
realize Rats, how hard it isto find continuity in such a short period
of time. If you would,I mean, those guys don't have a
lot of time. You kind ofthrow a team together. I don't care
(07:30):
how talented they are. It's gonnatake some time. And I don't think
there was just enough time. Andthe fear factor is gone as far as
I'm concerned, because all of thoseguys, Joki has been the MVP two
out of the last three years.You look at it from that standpoint,
I think that gives everybody their confidencethat they can come out and be victorious
(07:50):
against us, and they prove thatthis year. And now you have the
interesting thing, Rats, is thatyou have so many different guys now talking
about jumping on the team. Yes, just just just I think that's very
interesting your thoughts. I love it. I love it. It reminds me
of when that dream team that youmentioned, when that dream team kind of
(08:13):
we kind of got our ire upas a country and said, well,
wait a minute, wait this iswe invented this game, right, we're
not we're not taking a backseat toanybody on this this deal. But they
they so that that dream team cameinto play, and it's like okay,
all right, yeah, all rightus still and I and I noticed,
(08:33):
I saw that Lebron, I sawthat Kyrie Irving saw that, Yeah,
all of them, Kyd They're alllike, yep, I'm in next time,
Like we're still the best. Wedidn't. We didn't realize that these
other guys had come so far along. And and when you look at a
team like Germany, which I think, uh, you know, they made
(08:56):
it to the finals, they beatthe US and in that semi final game,
and that team was it was nota team with a superstar. Obviously,
Slovenia has got a superstar Luca donChich, you know all these others
Lori Markt and you know, there'ssuperstars and a lot of teams. I
feel like that German team kind ofproved a little bit like what European style
(09:18):
basketball is and can be, whichis such a team more team focused game.
I totally agree. And the otherthing that I'll add to that,
I mean, that's a perfect analogy. When you start talking about the different
guys that you were just talking aboutJohn. But I think the other thing
for me, and this is justthe way I kind of broke it down
(09:39):
and dissect the situation the way theleague is now, if you can't make
a three, you can't get onthe floor more or less. I think
that has a play in it aswell. If you think about the Dream
Team and the teams prior to thisyear, year before, or a couple
of years before this year, theyhad bigs, you know, Patrick Ewing,
(10:03):
David Robinson, Carl Malone and theinside they had a big presence.
And I just think that when youtalk about basketball and all you're gonna do
is launch up threes and don't makea large percentage of him, John,
you're gonna you're gonna be in troubleand your teams are gonna be in the
game against you. And again there'sno fear factor. You know, Shrewder
(10:24):
did he look like he was afraid? He was the MVP right of the
kid of the game. I mean, those guys have played against it,
played with, played against and Ithink that has a big presence in it.
I also just feel like the style, our style of play now,
I think it bodes well for theEurope, for the guy's overseas, then
(10:46):
it does for us. I mean, if you don't have somebody you can
dump it into and get to thefree throw line and get some easy buckets.
Man, it's hard to be consistentas a basketball team. So I
think the style of play not havingbiggs, you know, they took the
bigs out of the game because ofthree points shooting. It has been successful.
(11:07):
You can't argue that. You canargue that it's been successful, but
not for everybody. For certain teams, it's been successful. As far as
winning and losing this concern. Ithink the Warriors in that model winning four
championships. I think that really kindof changed the league in general where teams
don't care about a post presence andI think rebounding, defending the paint,
(11:31):
those kind of things help you tobe successful. Yeah, I know it,
and I hate to see that partof it somewhat disappear in this new
modern NBA. And look, weknow everything cyclical. It'll probably come back
to that at some point where you'reyou're working it down to the big.
But but even now to your point, harp, when you've got a big,
like a two time defending you know, a two time MVP in Joki.
(11:54):
I mean, he doesn't play likethe old Biggs used to play.
He's throwing passes, man, he'sdealing Dino, He's out there taking threes.
He's an amazing he really is anamazing way. But yeah, it's
not with that size. I expectsomething completely different out of him. Were
He and Luca are very unique players, but their brit Yo kids certainly can
(12:18):
shoot it. Luca. I alwaystold everybody here that when Luca was at
his best, he was gonna bein the paint, dominating getting to the
free throw line. Luca average morefree throws than anybody this past season,
mainly because he operated on the blockso much. Yeah, and I just
think that guys like Luca yo kismarketing, you know, those kind of
(12:45):
guys. They're unique in the sensethat they they're fundamentally sound one rats and
the other thing that they have isthe ability to see the floor better than
most big that I've ever seen.Elijahwan he had that. Well, Patrick
was a black hole and I lovePatrick Ewing. He wasn't trying to pass
(13:07):
the basketball. David Robinson had thoseunique skills to move the basketball and do
those kind of things. But Ijust think you said it's gonna come back.
I don't see it coming back,brother, I really don't. I
just think all the kids now,look at Victor, he's one of those
guys that's doing just what you seethe best Euros do in the league right
(13:31):
now. He's a shooter, heputs it on the deck. I just
think that's where the game has gone, and the youngsters that's what they're practicing.
I mean, these kids aren't workingwith their back to the basket like
Elijahan, like Patrick Ewing Kareem thoseguys from the past. They're working on
their handles. And I think wegot to face it. The game has
(13:52):
changed and will be changed for along time thanks to the late David Stern,
because he's the one that implemented theeuro He's the one that that that
kind of started that European vibe,if you would. It's amazing too.
To your point about these bigs,a lot of them are completely comfortable if
(14:13):
they get a rebound bringing the ballright up the floor. Yes, they
have. Their handles are so goodand I'm like dang Man back in the
day, a big just threw thatas far as he could get it out
of my hand less somebody quickly bringit up the floor. Yeah, you
know, and you think about whenyou lose over there as the United States,
every the coaches get to blame,you know what I mean. Now,
(14:35):
Steve Kerr can't coach, right,they had the best coaches in the
league. Sposefo was there Toronto,lu Jeff van Gundy, Linda the hand
as well, even though he's outof coaching. I don't think you put
it on the coaches. I justdon't think that the the talent that was
there for us was good enough.It's just that simple. And I love
(14:58):
all of those guys. I mean, Jalen Hart, Bridges Jackson from the
Pelicans, not Pellgans, but fromMemphis. All of those guys can play.
I mean, you think about theyear that all of those guys Haliburton.
They had sensational seasons, all stars. Okay, but it's something about
(15:18):
that that experience, man, andthat stability which you hope the coaches staff
will bring. But I think theyran out. They didn't have enough shooting.
That's what I saw. Yet again, you know, it's it's funny
when you mentioned that thing about bringinga team together that quickly, right,
that's a it's a difficult thing todo. And I always remember, you
(15:41):
know, years and years of coveringthis game. Everybody says we'll know how
good this team is around Christmas time, and I'm like, Christmas, I
mean, we're more than a quarterof the way through the year. We
don't know till then. But that'swhen you feel like a team, especially
especially if there are new pieces,any new pieces to team. Right,
you don't know that they're gonna gelor what they're gonna be, how they're
(16:03):
gonna fit in until around that pointin the season. It takes longer than
people think, doesn't it hurt,no question about it. Outstand excellent point
that you make. I think that'sthe biggest thing. That's why I don't
think you can judge the Mavericks ifyou would. As far as Luca and
Kyrie are concerned. You know,everybody says that they can't play together.
Kyrie wants to go, he wantsto play fast, Luca wants to slow
(16:27):
down and play even that, rats, I think it's gonna take time,
and I think a full training campfor those two guys together will help them
immensely. As far as the Mavericksare concerned. In general. I got
a quick question that I want tothrow at your rats. Who are your
top say not even five four playersin the NBA right now, since we're
(16:52):
comparing the Euros to the American players. Yeah so, and I'm going,
you know, obviously with a coupleof bigs, you know, Joki obviously,
Jannis Luca, you know for sureas one of my top players.
And then I'll tell you this andI you know, in the in the
NBA season, I cover a lotof Oklahoma City Thunder too. I believe,
(17:15):
I believe, I believe what you'redoing, Jay giljis Alexander might just
have something to say about top five. This kid is and he did a
great job. He did a greatjob for Canada. Yeah, play very
well. I'm a big fan,no question about it. He was first
team all the NBA. I thinkmaybe second team, yeah maybe not which
(17:38):
one he landed. I think hemight have been on first team. Yeah,
yeah, I think he was firstteam. Had a remarkable season.
I mean, let's face that,he was absolutely outstanding throughout the regular season.
I think he has unique quiet leadershipability. He's not on a very
outspoken guy and a loud guy.He just gets it done, you know
(18:00):
what I'm saying. And the Clippershad it they they they took a chance
on him and gave up on him. And I think that kind of stuff
motivates these young players. But mytop five, since you you through u
Shay in my top five is exactlywhere you went, it would be Yokich.
I think Yokich has proven that he'sthe best player in the league right
(18:23):
now, just won the championship,you know, with decent pieces around them,
you know. And then Luca.I can't say enough. I've watched
Luca since he's been with the Masksevery single night practically, right And when
I tell you, Luca only hasto grow up a little bit more,
(18:45):
be a little bit more mature whenit comes to dealing with officials and things
of that nature before he will bethe most valuable player of this league.
There's no way when you look atwhat Luca does night in and night out,
that he's not the most valuable playerin the game. I mean,
he has that written all over AndI'll be honest with you, I thought
he would have won MVP. Alot of it predicated on how well you
(19:07):
do as a team things like that, of course, right, But then
you talked about Yannis. Jannis isthat guy. He's that dude, no
question about it. You know,winning and losing has a say right when
when when it comes to MVP andall the best players in the league.
(19:29):
So with that being said, I'mgonna go with Lebron because I think Lebron
still has a crazy impact on winningand losing. And I know a lot
of people will just disagree with that, but I'm not one of those guys.
And then I like Jason Tatum.I think he's study of a basketball
player when in Boston. When itcomes to top players in the league,
(19:52):
I think those type guys, tome, can really carry your team.
John, I don't think I gotto my fifth, but that was tATu
was my fifth. I got distractedby the Shay talk, but yeah,
Tatum was my fifth. And look, I'm not I'm not going to argue
the Lebron point much because, asyou know, as long in the tooth
as he has become, as longas his career has been, you can't
(20:15):
argue with the difference A and thatteam when he's there or when he's not
there, And then be just thepure numbers and then see we get to
see him that eyeball test. Youwatch him out there. He hadn't lost
He hasn't. It doesn't seem tome like he's lost a step. I
mean maybe a little bit, butthat's because before Yeah, he averaged twenty
(20:37):
eight seven and seven yea, ifI'm not mistaken last year, those are
MVP type numbers. And then therest of the guys, you know,
I think KD with injuries, Yeah, people don't talk about and give a
lot of credit to. Right now, Kawhi Leonard to me, when he's
at his best, is right therewith the best players in the league.
(21:02):
Kyrie Irving is the most entertaining playerthat the league has as far as I'm
concerned. I mean, the leagueis talented. Man, it's just deep.
But like everything, out with theold, in with the new.
And when you start thinking about Lebronso people are gonna gonna take him out
because he is almost forty years old. So I just find it interesting.
(21:27):
Yeah, to be honest with you, that's that's where I was thinking.
The thought process was on the KDthing. I mean, look, this
is a guy who he's he's atop five talent for sure, talent today
right now. I was kind ofthinking about guys with the with the upside
a little bit, you know,which which pretends to some younger guys.
(21:48):
But Kevin Durant, man, heis still, like you say, when
he's out there, he's special,totally special. I think KD is a
freaking nature when it comes to whenit comes to talent. Like you mentioned,
well, this thing is all aboutwinning, man. I mean,
we hadn't even talked about a guylike Steph Curry yep, who is still
(22:11):
to me must see TV. Heyou talk about Shay's sort of quiet leadership.
I mean, Curry is that guy. Curry's that guy who is follow
me and then they do man,you know that they follow him as he
goes, that team goes. Itis so much fun to while I'll never
(22:33):
forget first time I saw him whenhe was young in person, when they
were just establishing this style of basketballthat they have now now proliferates the game,
but at that point nobody else wasdoing it right. And I saw
him and I just thought, thisis unbelievable. His offensive mind, his
creativity is just so unbelievable to watch. And like I say, and no
(23:00):
days it was noticeable. Now you'dwatch them and go, oh, that's
that's pretty much what everybody does.But they didn't do that until Step basically
made that the thing, and that'show that's how the game's played now.
To your point, yeah, it'sa copycat league. I've always felt.
I don't know if you remember afterthe Warriors won their first championship Washington,
(23:22):
the Wizards had John Wall and Bradleyville. Yeah, and they tried to play
that style. But the only thingis shooting hides a lot of puts a
band aid on a lot of problems. And I just think the reason it
doesn't work for everybody else is theydon't quite have the prolific shooters that the
(23:45):
Warriors had. Then they have avery unselfish guy like Draymond Green that's just
gonna run around and do dribble handoffsand let those guys do what they do.
So I think I still think itcomes down to the concept as far
as their style is concerned, becausethey really feed off of each other very
(24:07):
well. What do you what doyou think the state of the NBA is
right now as we come close tous starting this season. Yeah, four
season, I feel like this leaguecontinues to just skyrocket. Man, I
think people have begun to enjoy it, you know, are continuing to enjoy
(24:27):
it, but enjoy it even more. And I think, you know,
guys like us always have but youknow, it's it's it's demographics trend.
Very young people love the pace ofthe game. And I think to the
point we've been making about kind ofwish there were some bigs down there plotting
it out and you know, justputting their you know, butt into people
(24:48):
and then you know, laying itup off the glass. Man, these
young people today don't want that.They want this fast pace, flying up
and down the court thing that wesee. And I think it's one of
the reasons that the league is doingso well. I think, you know,
it's always a credit to the leaguetoo. I mean, I think
they do a masterful job of marketingthis whole product, not only here,
(25:08):
but as you know, you wellknow, they market it very well overseas,
which is one of the reasons thatall these kids grow up in all
these countries that we've barely even heardof, and they come here and and
they're fantastic. Immediately, another guy, and we have heard of this country.
But another guy on that Thunder teamwho I marvel at is what's his
(25:30):
name, the Australian kid, JoshGiddy. How about Josh Gine? Oh
my goodness, you win with guyslike that, John, Yeah, yeah.
And I think what you have youknow with that Warriors group, maybe
not quite as much when KD wasthere, but what you and you mentioned
Draymond, you know, the guywill do the dirty work what you need.
(25:53):
And what I think and hope thatthis Mavericks group will find I think
they will is you've got to haveof superstars that are so willing to,
you know, sacrifice self for teamright. And that I think is one
of the things that Steph Curry probablyfostered. Certainly Steve Kurse started it.
(26:14):
Steph Curry fostered it in that organization. And when you can sacrifice your own
personal stats, look they're gonna comeanyway, look at STEP's numbers. But
when you sacrifice sort of that kMe attitude for the US attitude, and
that is when you start to haveultimate success. And I think I think
that's uh maturity, right, Ithink that's growth, and I think that
(26:36):
is here's a big one. Hertrust trust, right, that might be
the biggest one. That's an extrapoint. Yeah, that might be the
biggest one. You know you goahead, John, I'm sorry. No,
when Kyrie and Luca have had moretime together and completely trust each other,
yes, boom, there it goes. All of us at the Dumb
(26:56):
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(27:40):
Thank you so much, Herman Marshall. Just recently, John, the
NBA came out talking about on NBATV, they came out talking about load
management and how they're going to tryto rectify that problem. Clearly, over
the last say, three four years, it's been what of a problem.
(28:02):
What are your thoughts on load management? I, personally, I don't like
it. As an ex player,no, I'm not a fan because,
again, I think about it fromthe fans standpoint. There's a kiss whose
whose kid loves Steph Curry, rightthat he lives in DFW, His kid
loves Steph Curry. He only getsto go to one game a year,
(28:22):
right, and he goes to theMavericks game against the Warriors, and men
his kids all fired up to gosee step And that night, you know,
Steph and Draymond are sitting down becauseof load management, and you know,
the poor kid's disappointed, you know. And that's that's one that happens
a lot at league, at venuesaround the league, And I just think
it's unfair. Now, I don'tknow what the answer is. You'd know
(28:44):
better than me from that standpoint ofit. This is a difficult schedule,
ridiculously difficult, and to play everyday is very hard to do and it's
hard on the body. But again, you guys played eighty two games back
in your day, and you guysdidn't need load management. All we did
not rat. And here's the deal. I don't know you You don't know
(29:08):
whether a guy is hurt or notright that that that's not on the league,
or that that's your team that hasto rectify that problem. Be honest,
up front and honest about it.But if a guy goes through shoot
around and then you get an emailor a text message at two o'clock,
(29:30):
they're not gonna play. That's whatthrows it off, I think. And
you have to take people for facevalue when it comes to whether or not
Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are injuredor they don't want to push it.
I don't know how we got there. And then you go back to the
San Antonio days when Duncan, Jenoble, Tony Parker, all those guys were
(29:56):
together, winning championships. Pop restedthose guys all the time. Yeah,
at his leisure. You know,he didn't ask anybody, didn't feel like
he had to explain it to anybody. I just think it's a goofy,
a goofy game being played sometimes andI just personally just don't like it,
you know, just resting guys toget ready for the playoffs. So I
(30:19):
mean you you what do you getpaid to the wide receiver gets paid to
catch the football, right, yeah, so you get paid to play basketball,
man. So if you can getout there, I think you should
get out there. I couldn't agreemore In that Pop situation, remember the
one time he didn't even take likeDuncan Parker. Yea, yeah, he
(30:40):
didn't even take him on the road. They were back in San Antonio,
and the league did find him thattime, because look that like, you
can't do that, Pop. ButI think the reality is you said it
already in earlier in the show Hart. It's a copycat. League probably started
something with that, didn't he.People looked around and said, oh that's
smart. You keep him, Yougive them a little less you know,
(31:00):
wear and tear on the body,and then by the playoffs they're a lot
pressure. So it's a double edgedsword. Every everybody wants to see their
team be as good and as freshand as healthy as they possibly can when
it comes playoff time, but notnecessarily at the expense of robbing many other
fans of the opportunity to witness someof the greatest guys you know in the
(31:23):
world. Athletically do their thing ona nightly basis. There needs to be
a happy medium. I know theleague has tried to minimize the number of
back to backs. I know they'vetried to sort of called down the travel
to a point where you don't havequite as many things where you you know,
where you start in Golden State andyou end up in Miami the next
(31:45):
game, or you know something crazylike that. Right, they're trying along
those lines, but there's probably needsto be a little bit more of that,
and I do believe a little bitless of load management. Yeah,
the load management thing, I don'tthink anybody wins because I've been at the
American Airline Center and you see hundredsand hundreds of little kids walking around with
(32:10):
Steph Curry jerseys on, and Ialready know, because of just being in
the know, I already know thatthese kids are gonna be disappointing. And
it's disappointing to me when I getto the arena at four thirty five o'clock
and these kids are just gun holeand then I'll never forget. One night,
(32:34):
I told one of the parents,well, I'm sorry, but STEP's
not gonna play man. The lookon those kids faces are just like devastating,
they really are, yeah, right, breaking for the kids. So
I think that's the only reason whythey are revisiting the situation before the season
starts. Here. Now, youknow there's gonna be a tournament this year
(32:59):
for the first time. That'll bedifferent, don't you think? How does
that play out? In opinion?Yeah, it's so weird. I've looked
at the scheduling of that and it'svery difficult for me to get my brain
around. Now, I'm one ofthe few, uh in you know,
sports broadcasting that has never gotten intothe Premiership and all the different soccer leagues
(33:22):
over the over four season, Iknow they do this, right, they
do this over there, So ifyou followed those teams, you probably get
it a little bit more. Andand look, they swear by it,
and they think and the league's beentalking about it, as you know,
harp for a long time quite awhile about doing this. They know that
creates an atmosphere of excitement that wouldn'tnecessarily exist on December. Second, you
(33:49):
know, when the when the MAVsare playing the you know, the Cleveland
Cavaliers or something, But all ofa sudden, it's a tournament game,
and now there's a new found excitementand a new level of of interest and
enthusiasm from the fans. I thinkchange sometimes is good, and I give
Adam Silver a lot of credit becauseyou know, he's trying something new,
(34:14):
and like you just said earlier,they've been talking about this for a long
long time, about trying to implementthe tournament play and it comes pretty quick.
Season starts in October, and Ithink this starts in November. The
early part of the middle of Novemberis what I saw. So I think
(34:36):
it'll give the it'll give the leaguea little pop because you know as well
as I know, all all overthe dog Gun United States, it's football
season many and you gotta do somethingto shake it up. It's football season,
and you know what football is herein Dallas, especially to the start
that they got off to against Italian. So yeah, this could be interesting.
(34:59):
It could be really interesting just toadd a different flavor to what's gonna
be an excited NBA season. Right'sa lot of talk about the Goat,
and you know, we we've beentalking about a lot of different things.
In your opinion, Lebron Michael Jordan, I guess that's who it's between.
(35:19):
You can add other guys if you'dlike. Who do you think I mean
Lebron Michael and your opinion? Wesaw Michael and we saw Lebron. We
were fortunate. But the new generationknows. If you go and do a
survey on the young guys that arethat are the best players, now you
know what they're gonna say, they'reLebron fans. And it's maybe because John
(35:43):
that they haven't. They didn't seethe best of Michael Jordan. What about
most of these guys did? Butwho who? Who? Which side do
you lean on when it comes tothose two guys both phenomenal players and will
be on that Mount Rushmore mountain thatwe talk about all the time. Yeah,
(36:04):
there's it's clearly going to be bothof them. You know, if
there's only four two of them,are those two that's for sure? On
Mount Rushmore. I still lean moretowards Jordans. I still say, first
of all six championships, six championshipswith a break in the middle to go
(36:24):
play baseball for all the reasons thatmay or may not be available, right,
you know, but he takes abreak to go play baseball, and
then he comes back, and Ican't. I can't dispute that. And
I also think as good at Lebronis a great, unbelievable talent, might
(36:44):
be a greater talent right than Jordan. But what Michael was able to do
was what we talked about earlier.He was he galvanized a team. Obviously
Lebron has that ability to I justthink Michael's was much greater. It was,
you know, it was one ofthose things, and part of it
is generational too, right, MichaelJordan would give you that look like your
(37:07):
teacher gave you that may shut upand you know, do right and do
right, you know, And andMichael would give you that look. And
his teammates knew what that look meant, and they did do right by him
at that point. And I thinkthere's that's a skill that is just so
I think maybe even lost in thisgeneration, and or it's one that Lebron
(37:32):
just doesn't seem to have as muchdo. Lebron will take over a game
and he will just like if they'renot like falling in line, well,
okay, fine, I'll do itmyself then, you know. And I
think Michael had the ability to alwaysmake sure you know it was a team
game, even if he scored fiftysix. Yeah, I agree with everything
that you had to say. Ofcourse there'll be times where I won't agree
(37:54):
with the job. But yeah,yeah, everything you say, I really
do it. The thing that I'llsay, hopefully it'll make sense to you.
Michael Jordan played on a self madeteam, so to speak, right,
And I think when I think whenwhen when Lebron weighed Bosh, when
(38:21):
they somewhat teamed up, I thinkthat puts a little bit of Astrich by
Lebron's name. And let's face it, there was a time in Lebron's career
right he didn't want to take thatlast shot. And I saw stat where
he has more game winners than anybody, but he also has more missus than
(38:45):
anybody, more attempts, more missus, all of that. So if it's
interesting, I'm old school, oldschool, you know. I played eighties,
nineties, two thousand, played throughtwo generations in my sixteen year career,
and I just leaned to Mike's toughness. You talked about his will to
(39:08):
win, his his ability to gavanizethe troops. I played again, I
never played against Lebron. I playedagainst Michael Jordan. And when I tell
you it was it was the toughestshit you ever had to face. Man,
I'm not kidding. Yeah, yougot your rest the night before a
(39:31):
Chicago Bulls game, mainly because ofMichael Jordan and his ability to to just
dominate. Quick story on Mike.And it was a night when I was
in New York. John Starks wasguarding him and at halftime, I think
he had like thirty plus or somethingat halftime, and I was talking to
(39:53):
the staff about switching out, likegive me a shot, you know,
get try somebody else against again,you know. And man, Mike told
me. He says, Man,it's too late. I'm already hot.
You can forget about it too.And the dude was just the dude was
just one of those dudes, manthat just simply got it done, plain
(40:15):
and simple, you know. Andand and his in the biggest moments.
This is greatness in the biggest momentswhen you have to produce. Michael Jordan
produced. I think everybody has toadmit that. But you can't take anything
away from Lebron because he has fourchampionships. He kind of general manage them.
(40:39):
A couple of he was a gmto get it done. But all
all the all of that, youstill have to give him a lot of
props too. I do, andI say, I'm more impressed kind of
to your point about the building ofhis of his buddies as a team.
Right, I'm almost more impressed withwhat he did, this success that he
(41:00):
had in Cleveland. You know,I took him to the finals during his
first stay, they went to thefinals, lost to the Spurs. Right
second stay they win one there.I'm almost more impressed with that, to
demonstrate some of those Jordan like skillsthat we've been discussing here. You know,
that's what Lebron did in those instances. But I love the thing the
(41:22):
story you told about Jordan, whereyou know, like Ali used to say,
it ain't bragging if you can doit. So when Jordan comes up
to you, Jordan says to you, Hey, yeah, you're sing me
tonight. Nobody's gonna stop you.And that was on the Nick team,
man that prided themselves and getting stopsbeing hard, those tough minded But whenever
(41:45):
that dude showed up man, especiallyat the garden, he gave us a
double nickel there and just just asensational competitive man. Golf course. You
know you've heard the stories about thegolf course and just how he competed out
there and all of those different things. Man. Yeah, absolutely, yeah,
(42:05):
Yeah, Well, John, whenyou think back, okay, we're
talking the top two players of alltimes. Who are some of your favorite
all time players? There's Kareem,There's Magic, Oscar Robinson, Bill Russell.
Whip Chamberlain had fifty and a hundredin a game as a sixer.
Well, what what are some ofthe great memories, man, we're close
(42:27):
to the same age. Yeah,some of your best best memories come.
Yeah. My NBA consciousness doesn't quiteget me to Oscar and to Bill Russell,
and I wish it did. Ijust just a week or so ago,
my wife and I watched the BillRussell documentary. Man, it is
(42:49):
fantastic. I've seen it. Yeah. Yeah. You forget about all that
he did in the social aspect ofthis world during a very difficult time and
civil rights, and I couldn't havemore respect. I had so much respect
for him anyway as a player,but as a man, unbelievable. Those
things that he endured and the thingsthat he went through, and I loved
(43:12):
I'll recommend that to anybody watching this, watch that Bill Russell documentary. But
I don't really remember Russ and anduh and you know, Oscar Robertson.
My first consciousness is of the battlebetween Will and I think maybe then still
low Alcinder, but uh, butcertainly Kareem and Will and the battles that
they had against one another was epicand phenomenal. And you know, yeah,
(43:38):
yeah, those those teams were sogreat. And then when I really
really began, uh to start toI guess to love this game. I
have just such a soft spot inmy heart for Magic right because I was
in I'm a Michigan guy. Iwatched him. I watched and play at
(44:00):
Lansing Everett High School. I watchedMichigan won a championship there won a championship
at Michigan State of course. Andthen and then I think her and you
know, if we ever got intothe other two on the on that Mount
Rushmore, we pretty much had decidedto I'm not sure, but what Magic
may not earn a spot up theretoo. He revolutionized the game and the
(44:22):
things that he did as an NBAplayer, Uh, you know, and
look, there's there's the narrative outthere that he and Bird kind of saved
the NBA. I don't think theNBA was going anywhere, but hey,
they gave it a shot in thearm. I really did. I was
coming up around those at the sametime, those guys. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, he gave ita shot in the arm. And
(44:45):
the other thing that I was gonnasay everywhere that Magic Johnson. You were
speaking about Magic Johnson. John everywherethat he went, he was a winner.
Yeah. He was a winner atEverett High School in East LANs right.
(45:05):
He left there, played against LarryBird in Indiana State his his sophomore
year. Was that his sophomore year, his sophomore year, beat Bird,
which is not easy to do.It that we've got one of these one
of these Wednesdays, we're gonna talkabout the greatness of Larry Bird and how
(45:25):
unappreciated he is. But then Magic, which a lot of people forget.
As a rookie in the NBA withKareem Abdul Jabbar in La, he went
to Philadelphia and beat Moses Malone,doctor Jay Maurice Cheeks, Andrew Tony Mark
(45:50):
AVARONI here here, here's a name, uh for you. John Bobby Jones
out of the University Jones out ofthe University of North Atlanta. Magic single
handedly, single handedly beat those guys. So when you talk Magic Johnson,
he beat him as a center.As final he had to play he's a
(46:12):
point guard, he had to playcenter. Yes, no, real quick,
and we were running out of timeof course, on Hart's court.
So happy to have Yah, manfor so glad to be on the court.
Man, I'm on the court.And the thing about courts, the
(46:32):
courthouse, you can talk about alot of different things. And that's our
plan. Man, that's my planfor us, because this isn't about me
as my co host. Man,you can bring it. You can bring
whatever you want to bring, andI will get in the passenger seat and
let you run run the courthouse wheneveryou uh, whenever you want to.
(46:53):
So this was a lot of fun. Yeah, and I am so looking
forward to, uh to having youon again on Harp's court very very soon.
Thank you, thank you, thankyou. You're one of my favorite
pleasure of heart. Yo, you'reone of mine, and I am I'm
honored. I'm thrilled to be onthe same court as Harp. That's a
(47:15):
it's an unbelievable thing. And yeah, I'm just it's so it's so full
circle for me. It's great tobe back together with you on the air.
That sounds good, brother, Godbless you. Okay, we'll talk
soon, John
Wake up, everybody. It's Harp'sCourt once again. I'm Derek Harper,
your host. I'm joined by avery special special co host and John Radigan,
one of the best in the Metroplexwhen it comes to sports. Welcome
in partner. How you doing,brother, I'm doing Gray, Harp,
And I appreciate it so much.I appreciate the lies, I mean,
(00:26):
the kind words, and I appreciateI appreciate having a chance to get back
together with you in a broadcast typeforum. We've done this many times in
the past, but it's awfully coolto be back together. And you know
it's cool for me, Harp.Is that like you had this great ability
to play basketball, and you playedit at the highest level possums, and
(00:50):
then you have then since because ofyour immense talent and everything you are and
everything the way you were raised andall right, you then had the chance
to do what I do. Right. I never had the chance to do
what you do because I don't haveany talent. So now I am in
Hart's court. Man. There wasno way for me. You're taking words
(01:15):
out of my thoughts, is whatyou're doing right now, because I never
in my wace dream thought we wouldbe back together in this capacity. But
let's make the best of it.How about that, man? I absolutely,
man, I think it's a beautifulthing. Yeah, it's gone full
circle force. So in any event, man, let's get into what is
going on basketball wise. First off, we just finished the World Games and
(01:38):
the USA man didn't fare so well. Why didn't even they didn't met No,
they didn't even finish on the metalstand and uh, to me,
that is tragic. But before becauseyour thoughts to me are so important on
this topic and there's a lot toexplore. But before we get to that,
(01:59):
I want to let Pepill know howlong you and I have been interacting,
working together, don't know on eachother, right, So I'm gonna
take you back to nineteen ninety andand you know, for our viewers,
I just told a harp you know, before we got on the air,
I said, Hey, I'm gonnatell you a story that you may not
(02:19):
remember, but it's haunted me forthirty three years. Okay, so remember
having hair back then? For whateverit's Yeah, in nineteen ninety Uh,
you know, I'm brand new inthe market. I've only been here a
couple of months, and young twentysomething kid, you know, trying to
make my way out of Flint,Michigan in the big Dallas forward market and
(02:44):
harp, harp and and row.You two guys, man, anything the
MAVs did. You guys were sogreat. You were the go to for
media and all that. It wasn'tjust us that went to you, you
know, Kevin Sullivan Sully back inthe day and Tony Fay when they needed
some think they went to you.So it's NBA Draft night and they're having
a watch party at Reunion Arena,and so Channel five. I'm with Channel
(03:07):
five at the time. They sendme down to Reunion and we're trying to
decide where to set up. Andthe live truck gets there late, and
I haven't done a lot of thistype of work yet, and I'm nervous
and kind of freaking out, youknow, and uh, he finally gets
he goes, well, we gottaset up outside. I can't get a
signal inside, So we set upjust outside in the front door of Reunion.
(03:29):
You probably get late word of thatyou've come walking up like at the
last minute, like they're introducing me. I don't I don't have you know,
anybody standing next to me. Yetbut you come walking up right at
the last minute, perfect timing.Hey yeah, thanks very much. I'm
John Radigan here with and my eyesgo blurnt. Man, my mind goes
(03:50):
plank and I'm like like somebody elseand then I go here with pull the
mic over towards your mouth and goDerek Harper, Oh wow. You know
I remember that, I really dobecause it was I mean, Draft night
is always a big night. Sothat's the main reason I remember it.
(04:11):
You talked about Tony and Sally,so brings back good memories, no question
about it. For me. Yeah, you were You were great and you
were so kind about that because youcould have looked at me like, wow,
look at this dude with no credibility, and you were just cool when
we talked. We talked afterwards,you know about hey man, sorry,
it was like crazy and you're like, I get it, no problem.
But then what happened and those now, if that happened today, harp ye,
(04:33):
man, that would be all overthe end would be social media.
Oh my gosh, I'd be everywhere. But in those days, we just
everybody taped their air check, youknow, every night the TV station.
I went back that night, man, I erased that air check. I
did not want to be on theChristmas blooper reel, you know, so
I'll tell you what if you wouldhave been. That's exactly yeah. But
(04:55):
listen, John, you know,it's so funny how you're talking about what
happens behind the scene, you know, as far as production and all of
those kind of things. That's themost fascinating part of doing what we do
to me, because I think whenyou start talking thinking about directors producers,
those guys are the ones that makeyou look good or bad. And if
(05:17):
you ever have if you have agood producer and a good director, it's
easy breezy, right. Yeah,it can cover up cover up so many
mistakes if you have that great one. And I know, of course I
know personally both of your guys onthe Mavericks broadcast, Dave Keeney and Clay
Armstrong as your Clay's the director andDave's the producer. This I'm so old.
(05:41):
Dave used to be my intern whenI was a channel Now he's a
producer of the Mass Games. Incredibleman, you know. Yeah, you
keep calling yourself, Oh, we'rethe same age, brother, So you're
not gonna get any sympathy coming fromDerek har from except except that you look
younger. What's up with that?Man? I die my beard? How
about that? Yeah? Yeah,yeah, yeah yeah, you just you
(06:03):
just wear yours? But anyway,man, moving moving to what's been going
on this summer as far as dealdeal world games are concerned. Yeah,
what what surprised you about it?I never thought we would be five and
three coming back from over across thepond. Yeah, there's there's so much
(06:24):
uh that is surprising that maybe shouldn'tbe. But what you know, what
surprised me is that there was athere was a struggle in almost every game,
right and what but again, whereit shouldn't be surprising, Harp is
the fact that this is the evidenceif anyone ever needed it, and they
don't, but if you needed evidencethat basketball is a world game, this
(06:47):
is the evidence right here. Everycountry has great players, Every country has
great players. Now, it's Amazing'sno doubt about it. I still feel
like I feel very scumly though,that if we sent our best dream team,
whatever you want to call our best, we're still up here. We're
(07:09):
at a different level as far asI'm concerned. Now, I think the
problem with this year's team, therewas a very young team. And the
other thing that I want to makenote of is that I don't think people
realize Rats, how hard it isto find continuity in such a short period
of time. If you would,I mean, those guys don't have a
lot of time. You kind ofthrow a team together. I don't care
(07:30):
how talented they are. It's gonnatake some time. And I don't think
there was just enough time. Andthe fear factor is gone as far as
I'm concerned, because all of thoseguys, Joki has been the MVP two
out of the last three years.You look at it from that standpoint,
I think that gives everybody their confidencethat they can come out and be victorious
(07:50):
against us, and they prove thatthis year. And now you have the
interesting thing, Rats, is thatyou have so many different guys now talking
about jumping on the team. Yes, just just just I think that's very
interesting your thoughts. I love it. I love it. It reminds me
of when that dream team that youmentioned, when that dream team kind of
(08:13):
we kind of got our ire upas a country and said, well,
wait a minute, wait this iswe invented this game, right, we're
not we're not taking a backseat toanybody on this this deal. But they
they so that that dream team cameinto play, and it's like okay,
all right, yeah, all rightus still and I and I noticed,
(08:33):
I saw that Lebron, I sawthat Kyrie Irving saw that, Yeah,
all of them, Kyd They're alllike, yep, I'm in next time,
Like we're still the best. Wedidn't. We didn't realize that these
other guys had come so far along. And and when you look at a
team like Germany, which I think, uh, you know, they made
(08:56):
it to the finals, they beatthe US and in that semi final game,
and that team was it was nota team with a superstar. Obviously,
Slovenia has got a superstar Luca donChich, you know all these others
Lori Markt and you know, there'ssuperstars and a lot of teams. I
feel like that German team kind ofproved a little bit like what European style
(09:18):
basketball is and can be, whichis such a team more team focused game.
I totally agree. And the otherthing that I'll add to that,
I mean, that's a perfect analogy. When you start talking about the different
guys that you were just talking aboutJohn. But I think the other thing
for me, and this is justthe way I kind of broke it down
(09:39):
and dissect the situation the way theleague is now, if you can't make
a three, you can't get onthe floor more or less. I think
that has a play in it aswell. If you think about the Dream
Team and the teams prior to thisyear, year before, or a couple
of years before this year, theyhad bigs, you know, Patrick Ewing,
(10:03):
David Robinson, Carl Malone and theinside they had a big presence.
And I just think that when youtalk about basketball and all you're gonna do
is launch up threes and don't makea large percentage of him, John,
you're gonna you're gonna be in troubleand your teams are gonna be in the
game against you. And again there'sno fear factor. You know, Shrewder
(10:24):
did he look like he was afraid? He was the MVP right of the
kid of the game. I mean, those guys have played against it,
played with, played against and Ithink that has a big presence in it.
I also just feel like the style, our style of play now,
I think it bodes well for theEurope, for the guy's overseas, then
(10:46):
it does for us. I mean, if you don't have somebody you can
dump it into and get to thefree throw line and get some easy buckets.
Man, it's hard to be consistentas a basketball team. So I
think the style of play not havingbiggs, you know, they took the
bigs out of the game because ofthree points shooting. It has been successful.
(11:07):
You can't argue that. You canargue that it's been successful, but
not for everybody. For certain teams, it's been successful. As far as
winning and losing this concern. Ithink the Warriors in that model winning four
championships. I think that really kindof changed the league in general where teams
don't care about a post presence andI think rebounding, defending the paint,
(11:31):
those kind of things help you tobe successful. Yeah, I know it,
and I hate to see that partof it somewhat disappear in this new
modern NBA. And look, weknow everything cyclical. It'll probably come back
to that at some point where you'reyou're working it down to the big.
But but even now to your point, harp, when you've got a big,
like a two time defending you know, a two time MVP in Joki.
(11:54):
I mean, he doesn't play likethe old Biggs used to play.
He's throwing passes, man, he'sdealing Dino, He's out there taking threes.
He's an amazing he really is anamazing way. But yeah, it's
not with that size. I expectsomething completely different out of him. Were
He and Luca are very unique players, but their brit Yo kids certainly can
(12:18):
shoot it. Luca. I alwaystold everybody here that when Luca was at
his best, he was gonna bein the paint, dominating getting to the
free throw line. Luca average morefree throws than anybody this past season,
mainly because he operated on the blockso much. Yeah, and I just
think that guys like Luca yo kismarketing, you know, those kind of
(12:45):
guys. They're unique in the sensethat they they're fundamentally sound one rats and
the other thing that they have isthe ability to see the floor better than
most big that I've ever seen.Elijahwan he had that. Well, Patrick
was a black hole and I lovePatrick Ewing. He wasn't trying to pass
(13:07):
the basketball. David Robinson had thoseunique skills to move the basketball and do
those kind of things. But Ijust think you said it's gonna come back.
I don't see it coming back,brother, I really don't. I
just think all the kids now,look at Victor, he's one of those
guys that's doing just what you seethe best Euros do in the league right
(13:31):
now. He's a shooter, heputs it on the deck. I just
think that's where the game has gone, and the youngsters that's what they're practicing.
I mean, these kids aren't workingwith their back to the basket like
Elijahan, like Patrick Ewing Kareem thoseguys from the past. They're working on
their handles. And I think wegot to face it. The game has
(13:52):
changed and will be changed for along time thanks to the late David Stern,
because he's the one that implemented theeuro He's the one that that that
kind of started that European vibe,if you would. It's amazing too.
To your point about these bigs,a lot of them are completely comfortable if
(14:13):
they get a rebound bringing the ballright up the floor. Yes, they
have. Their handles are so goodand I'm like dang Man back in the
day, a big just threw thatas far as he could get it out
of my hand less somebody quickly bringit up the floor. Yeah, you
know, and you think about whenyou lose over there as the United States,
every the coaches get to blame,you know what I mean. Now,
(14:35):
Steve Kerr can't coach, right,they had the best coaches in the
league. Sposefo was there Toronto,lu Jeff van Gundy, Linda the hand
as well, even though he's outof coaching. I don't think you put
it on the coaches. I justdon't think that the the talent that was
there for us was good enough.It's just that simple. And I love
(14:58):
all of those guys. I mean, Jalen Hart, Bridges Jackson from the
Pelicans, not Pellgans, but fromMemphis. All of those guys can play.
I mean, you think about theyear that all of those guys Haliburton.
They had sensational seasons, all stars. Okay, but it's something about
(15:18):
that that experience, man, andthat stability which you hope the coaches staff
will bring. But I think theyran out. They didn't have enough shooting.
That's what I saw. Yet again, you know, it's it's funny
when you mentioned that thing about bringinga team together that quickly, right,
that's a it's a difficult thing todo. And I always remember, you
(15:41):
know, years and years of coveringthis game. Everybody says we'll know how
good this team is around Christmas time, and I'm like, Christmas, I
mean, we're more than a quarterof the way through the year. We
don't know till then. But that'swhen you feel like a team, especially
especially if there are new pieces,any new pieces to team. Right,
you don't know that they're gonna gelor what they're gonna be, how they're
(16:03):
gonna fit in until around that pointin the season. It takes longer than
people think, doesn't it hurt,no question about it. Outstand excellent point
that you make. I think that'sthe biggest thing. That's why I don't
think you can judge the Mavericks ifyou would. As far as Luca and
Kyrie are concerned. You know,everybody says that they can't play together.
Kyrie wants to go, he wantsto play fast, Luca wants to slow
(16:27):
down and play even that, rats, I think it's gonna take time,
and I think a full training campfor those two guys together will help them
immensely. As far as the Mavericksare concerned. In general. I got
a quick question that I want tothrow at your rats. Who are your
top say not even five four playersin the NBA right now, since we're
(16:52):
comparing the Euros to the American players. Yeah so, and I'm going,
you know, obviously with a coupleof bigs, you know, Joki obviously,
Jannis Luca, you know for sureas one of my top players.
And then I'll tell you this andI you know, in the in the
NBA season, I cover a lotof Oklahoma City Thunder too. I believe,
(17:15):
I believe, I believe what you'redoing, Jay giljis Alexander might just
have something to say about top five. This kid is and he did a
great job. He did a greatjob for Canada. Yeah, play very
well. I'm a big fan,no question about it. He was first
team all the NBA. I thinkmaybe second team, yeah maybe not which
(17:38):
one he landed. I think hemight have been on first team. Yeah,
yeah, I think he was firstteam. Had a remarkable season.
I mean, let's face that,he was absolutely outstanding throughout the regular season.
I think he has unique quiet leadershipability. He's not on a very
outspoken guy and a loud guy.He just gets it done, you know
(18:00):
what I'm saying. And the Clippershad it they they they took a chance
on him and gave up on him. And I think that kind of stuff
motivates these young players. But mytop five, since you you through u
Shay in my top five is exactlywhere you went, it would be Yokich.
I think Yokich has proven that he'sthe best player in the league right
(18:23):
now, just won the championship,you know, with decent pieces around them,
you know. And then Luca.I can't say enough. I've watched
Luca since he's been with the Masksevery single night practically, right And when
I tell you, Luca only hasto grow up a little bit more,
(18:45):
be a little bit more mature whenit comes to dealing with officials and things
of that nature before he will bethe most valuable player of this league.
There's no way when you look atwhat Luca does night in and night out,
that he's not the most valuable playerin the game. I mean,
he has that written all over AndI'll be honest with you, I thought
he would have won MVP. Alot of it predicated on how well you
(19:07):
do as a team things like that, of course, right, But then
you talked about Yannis. Jannis isthat guy. He's that dude, no
question about it. You know,winning and losing has a say right when
when when it comes to MVP andall the best players in the league.
(19:29):
So with that being said, I'mgonna go with Lebron because I think Lebron
still has a crazy impact on winningand losing. And I know a lot
of people will just disagree with that, but I'm not one of those guys.
And then I like Jason Tatum.I think he's study of a basketball
player when in Boston. When itcomes to top players in the league,
(19:52):
I think those type guys, tome, can really carry your team.
John, I don't think I gotto my fifth, but that was tATu
was my fifth. I got distractedby the Shay talk, but yeah,
Tatum was my fifth. And look, I'm not I'm not going to argue
the Lebron point much because, asyou know, as long in the tooth
as he has become, as longas his career has been, you can't
(20:15):
argue with the difference A and thatteam when he's there or when he's not
there, And then be just thepure numbers and then see we get to
see him that eyeball test. Youwatch him out there. He hadn't lost
He hasn't. It doesn't seem tome like he's lost a step. I
mean maybe a little bit, butthat's because before Yeah, he averaged twenty
(20:37):
eight seven and seven yea, ifI'm not mistaken last year, those are
MVP type numbers. And then therest of the guys, you know,
I think KD with injuries, Yeah, people don't talk about and give a
lot of credit to. Right now, Kawhi Leonard to me, when he's
at his best, is right therewith the best players in the league.
(21:02):
Kyrie Irving is the most entertaining playerthat the league has as far as I'm
concerned. I mean, the leagueis talented. Man, it's just deep.
But like everything, out with theold, in with the new.
And when you start thinking about Lebronso people are gonna gonna take him out
because he is almost forty years old. So I just find it interesting.
(21:27):
Yeah, to be honest with you, that's that's where I was thinking.
The thought process was on the KDthing. I mean, look, this
is a guy who he's he's atop five talent for sure, talent today
right now. I was kind ofthinking about guys with the with the upside
a little bit, you know,which which pretends to some younger guys.
(21:48):
But Kevin Durant, man, heis still, like you say, when
he's out there, he's special,totally special. I think KD is a
freaking nature when it comes to whenit comes to talent. Like you mentioned,
well, this thing is all aboutwinning, man. I mean,
we hadn't even talked about a guylike Steph Curry yep, who is still
(22:11):
to me must see TV. Heyou talk about Shay's sort of quiet leadership.
I mean, Curry is that guy. Curry's that guy who is follow
me and then they do man,you know that they follow him as he
goes, that team goes. Itis so much fun to while I'll never
(22:33):
forget first time I saw him whenhe was young in person, when they
were just establishing this style of basketballthat they have now now proliferates the game,
but at that point nobody else wasdoing it right. And I saw
him and I just thought, thisis unbelievable. His offensive mind, his
creativity is just so unbelievable to watch. And like I say, and no
(23:00):
days it was noticeable. Now you'dwatch them and go, oh, that's
that's pretty much what everybody does.But they didn't do that until Step basically
made that the thing, and that'show that's how the game's played now.
To your point, yeah, it'sa copycat league. I've always felt.
I don't know if you remember afterthe Warriors won their first championship Washington,
(23:22):
the Wizards had John Wall and Bradleyville. Yeah, and they tried to play
that style. But the only thingis shooting hides a lot of puts a
band aid on a lot of problems. And I just think the reason it
doesn't work for everybody else is theydon't quite have the prolific shooters that the
(23:45):
Warriors had. Then they have avery unselfish guy like Draymond Green that's just
gonna run around and do dribble handoffsand let those guys do what they do.
So I think I still think itcomes down to the concept as far
as their style is concerned, becausethey really feed off of each other very
(24:07):
well. What do you what doyou think the state of the NBA is
right now as we come close tous starting this season. Yeah, four
season, I feel like this leaguecontinues to just skyrocket. Man, I
think people have begun to enjoy it, you know, are continuing to enjoy
(24:27):
it, but enjoy it even more. And I think, you know,
guys like us always have but youknow, it's it's it's demographics trend.
Very young people love the pace ofthe game. And I think to the
point we've been making about kind ofwish there were some bigs down there plotting
it out and you know, justputting their you know, butt into people
(24:48):
and then you know, laying itup off the glass. Man, these
young people today don't want that.They want this fast pace, flying up
and down the court thing that wesee. And I think it's one of
the reasons that the league is doingso well. I think, you know,
it's always a credit to the leaguetoo. I mean, I think
they do a masterful job of marketingthis whole product, not only here,
(25:08):
but as you know, you wellknow, they market it very well overseas,
which is one of the reasons thatall these kids grow up in all
these countries that we've barely even heardof, and they come here and and
they're fantastic. Immediately, another guy, and we have heard of this country.
But another guy on that Thunder teamwho I marvel at is what's his
(25:30):
name, the Australian kid, JoshGiddy. How about Josh Gine? Oh
my goodness, you win with guyslike that, John, Yeah, yeah.
And I think what you have youknow with that Warriors group, maybe
not quite as much when KD wasthere, but what you and you mentioned
Draymond, you know, the guywill do the dirty work what you need.
(25:53):
And what I think and hope thatthis Mavericks group will find I think
they will is you've got to haveof superstars that are so willing to,
you know, sacrifice self for teamright. And that I think is one
of the things that Steph Curry probablyfostered. Certainly Steve Kurse started it.
(26:14):
Steph Curry fostered it in that organization. And when you can sacrifice your own
personal stats, look they're gonna comeanyway, look at STEP's numbers. But
when you sacrifice sort of that kMe attitude for the US attitude, and
that is when you start to haveultimate success. And I think I think
that's uh maturity, right, Ithink that's growth, and I think that
(26:36):
is here's a big one. Hertrust trust, right, that might be
the biggest one. That's an extrapoint. Yeah, that might be the
biggest one. You know you goahead, John, I'm sorry. No,
when Kyrie and Luca have had moretime together and completely trust each other,
yes, boom, there it goes. All of us at the Dumb
(26:56):
Network would like to thank the crewat Herman Marshall Whiskey for sponsoring another episode
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(27:40):
Thank you so much, Herman Marshall. Just recently, John, the
NBA came out talking about on NBATV, they came out talking about load
management and how they're going to tryto rectify that problem. Clearly, over
the last say, three four years, it's been what of a problem.
(28:02):
What are your thoughts on load management? I, personally, I don't like
it. As an ex player,no, I'm not a fan because,
again, I think about it fromthe fans standpoint. There's a kiss whose
whose kid loves Steph Curry, rightthat he lives in DFW, His kid
loves Steph Curry. He only getsto go to one game a year,
(28:22):
right, and he goes to theMavericks game against the Warriors, and men
his kids all fired up to gosee step And that night, you know,
Steph and Draymond are sitting down becauseof load management, and you know,
the poor kid's disappointed, you know. And that's that's one that happens
a lot at league, at venuesaround the league, And I just think
it's unfair. Now, I don'tknow what the answer is. You'd know
(28:44):
better than me from that standpoint ofit. This is a difficult schedule,
ridiculously difficult, and to play everyday is very hard to do and it's
hard on the body. But again, you guys played eighty two games back
in your day, and you guysdidn't need load management. All we did
not rat. And here's the deal. I don't know you You don't know
(29:08):
whether a guy is hurt or notright that that that's not on the league,
or that that's your team that hasto rectify that problem. Be honest,
up front and honest about it.But if a guy goes through shoot
around and then you get an emailor a text message at two o'clock,
(29:30):
they're not gonna play. That's whatthrows it off, I think. And
you have to take people for facevalue when it comes to whether or not
Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are injuredor they don't want to push it.
I don't know how we got there. And then you go back to the
San Antonio days when Duncan, Jenoble, Tony Parker, all those guys were
(29:56):
together, winning championships. Pop restedthose guys all the time. Yeah,
at his leisure. You know,he didn't ask anybody, didn't feel like
he had to explain it to anybody. I just think it's a goofy,
a goofy game being played sometimes andI just personally just don't like it,
you know, just resting guys toget ready for the playoffs. So I
(30:19):
mean you you what do you getpaid to the wide receiver gets paid to
catch the football, right, yeah, so you get paid to play basketball,
man. So if you can getout there, I think you should
get out there. I couldn't agreemore In that Pop situation, remember the
one time he didn't even take likeDuncan Parker. Yea, yeah, he
(30:40):
didn't even take him on the road. They were back in San Antonio,
and the league did find him thattime, because look that like, you
can't do that, Pop. ButI think the reality is you said it
already in earlier in the show Hart. It's a copycat. League probably started
something with that, didn't he.People looked around and said, oh that's
smart. You keep him, Yougive them a little less you know,
(31:00):
wear and tear on the body,and then by the playoffs they're a lot
pressure. So it's a double edgedsword. Every everybody wants to see their
team be as good and as freshand as healthy as they possibly can when
it comes playoff time, but notnecessarily at the expense of robbing many other
fans of the opportunity to witness someof the greatest guys you know in the
(31:23):
world. Athletically do their thing ona nightly basis. There needs to be
a happy medium. I know theleague has tried to minimize the number of
back to backs. I know they'vetried to sort of called down the travel
to a point where you don't havequite as many things where you you know,
where you start in Golden State andyou end up in Miami the next
(31:45):
game, or you know something crazylike that. Right, they're trying along
those lines, but there's probably needsto be a little bit more of that,
and I do believe a little bitless of load management. Yeah,
the load management thing, I don'tthink anybody wins because I've been at the
American Airline Center and you see hundredsand hundreds of little kids walking around with
(32:10):
Steph Curry jerseys on, and Ialready know, because of just being in
the know, I already know thatthese kids are gonna be disappointing. And
it's disappointing to me when I getto the arena at four thirty five o'clock
and these kids are just gun holeand then I'll never forget. One night,
(32:34):
I told one of the parents,well, I'm sorry, but STEP's
not gonna play man. The lookon those kids faces are just like devastating,
they really are, yeah, right, breaking for the kids. So
I think that's the only reason whythey are revisiting the situation before the season
starts. Here. Now, youknow there's gonna be a tournament this year
(32:59):
for the first time. That'll bedifferent, don't you think? How does
that play out? In opinion?Yeah, it's so weird. I've looked
at the scheduling of that and it'svery difficult for me to get my brain
around. Now, I'm one ofthe few, uh in you know,
sports broadcasting that has never gotten intothe Premiership and all the different soccer leagues
(33:22):
over the over four season, Iknow they do this, right, they
do this over there, So ifyou followed those teams, you probably get
it a little bit more. Andand look, they swear by it,
and they think and the league's beentalking about it, as you know,
harp for a long time quite awhile about doing this. They know that
creates an atmosphere of excitement that wouldn'tnecessarily exist on December. Second, you
(33:49):
know, when the when the MAVsare playing the you know, the Cleveland
Cavaliers or something, But all ofa sudden, it's a tournament game,
and now there's a new found excitementand a new level of of interest and
enthusiasm from the fans. I thinkchange sometimes is good, and I give
Adam Silver a lot of credit becauseyou know, he's trying something new,
(34:14):
and like you just said earlier,they've been talking about this for a long
long time, about trying to implementthe tournament play and it comes pretty quick.
Season starts in October, and Ithink this starts in November. The
early part of the middle of Novemberis what I saw. So I think
(34:36):
it'll give the it'll give the leaguea little pop because you know as well
as I know, all all overthe dog Gun United States, it's football
season many and you gotta do somethingto shake it up. It's football season,
and you know what football is herein Dallas, especially to the start
that they got off to against Italian. So yeah, this could be interesting.
(34:59):
It could be really interesting just toadd a different flavor to what's gonna
be an excited NBA season. Right'sa lot of talk about the Goat,
and you know, we we've beentalking about a lot of different things.
In your opinion, Lebron Michael Jordan, I guess that's who it's between.
(35:19):
You can add other guys if you'dlike. Who do you think I mean
Lebron Michael and your opinion? Wesaw Michael and we saw Lebron. We
were fortunate. But the new generationknows. If you go and do a
survey on the young guys that arethat are the best players, now you
know what they're gonna say, they'reLebron fans. And it's maybe because John
(35:43):
that they haven't. They didn't seethe best of Michael Jordan. What about
most of these guys did? Butwho who? Who? Which side do
you lean on when it comes tothose two guys both phenomenal players and will
be on that Mount Rushmore mountain thatwe talk about all the time. Yeah,
(36:04):
there's it's clearly going to be bothof them. You know, if
there's only four two of them,are those two that's for sure? On
Mount Rushmore. I still lean moretowards Jordans. I still say, first
of all six championships, six championshipswith a break in the middle to go
(36:24):
play baseball for all the reasons thatmay or may not be available, right,
you know, but he takes abreak to go play baseball, and
then he comes back, and Ican't. I can't dispute that. And
I also think as good at Lebronis a great, unbelievable talent, might
(36:44):
be a greater talent right than Jordan. But what Michael was able to do
was what we talked about earlier.He was he galvanized a team. Obviously
Lebron has that ability to I justthink Michael's was much greater. It was,
you know, it was one ofthose things, and part of it
is generational too, right, MichaelJordan would give you that look like your
(37:07):
teacher gave you that may shut upand you know, do right and do
right, you know, And andMichael would give you that look. And
his teammates knew what that look meant, and they did do right by him
at that point. And I thinkthere's that's a skill that is just so
I think maybe even lost in thisgeneration, and or it's one that Lebron
(37:32):
just doesn't seem to have as muchdo. Lebron will take over a game
and he will just like if they'renot like falling in line, well,
okay, fine, I'll do itmyself then, you know. And I
think Michael had the ability to alwaysmake sure you know it was a team
game, even if he scored fiftysix. Yeah, I agree with everything
that you had to say. Ofcourse there'll be times where I won't agree
(37:54):
with the job. But yeah,yeah, everything you say, I really
do it. The thing that I'llsay, hopefully it'll make sense to you.
Michael Jordan played on a self madeteam, so to speak, right,
And I think when I think whenwhen when Lebron weighed Bosh, when
(38:21):
they somewhat teamed up, I thinkthat puts a little bit of Astrich by
Lebron's name. And let's face it, there was a time in Lebron's career
right he didn't want to take thatlast shot. And I saw stat where
he has more game winners than anybody, but he also has more missus than
(38:45):
anybody, more attempts, more missus, all of that. So if it's
interesting, I'm old school, oldschool, you know. I played eighties,
nineties, two thousand, played throughtwo generations in my sixteen year career,
and I just leaned to Mike's toughness. You talked about his will to
(39:08):
win, his his ability to gavanizethe troops. I played again, I
never played against Lebron. I playedagainst Michael Jordan. And when I tell
you it was it was the toughestshit you ever had to face. Man,
I'm not kidding. Yeah, yougot your rest the night before a
(39:31):
Chicago Bulls game, mainly because ofMichael Jordan and his ability to to just
dominate. Quick story on Mike.And it was a night when I was
in New York. John Starks wasguarding him and at halftime, I think
he had like thirty plus or somethingat halftime, and I was talking to
(39:53):
the staff about switching out, likegive me a shot, you know,
get try somebody else against again,you know. And man, Mike told
me. He says, Man,it's too late. I'm already hot.
You can forget about it too.And the dude was just the dude was
just one of those dudes, manthat just simply got it done, plain
(40:15):
and simple, you know. Andand and his in the biggest moments.
This is greatness in the biggest momentswhen you have to produce. Michael Jordan
produced. I think everybody has toadmit that. But you can't take anything
away from Lebron because he has fourchampionships. He kind of general manage them.
(40:39):
A couple of he was a gmto get it done. But all
all the all of that, youstill have to give him a lot of
props too. I do, andI say, I'm more impressed kind of
to your point about the building ofhis of his buddies as a team.
Right, I'm almost more impressed withwhat he did, this success that he
(41:00):
had in Cleveland. You know,I took him to the finals during his
first stay, they went to thefinals, lost to the Spurs. Right
second stay they win one there.I'm almost more impressed with that, to
demonstrate some of those Jordan like skillsthat we've been discussing here. You know,
that's what Lebron did in those instances. But I love the thing the
(41:22):
story you told about Jordan, whereyou know, like Ali used to say,
it ain't bragging if you can doit. So when Jordan comes up
to you, Jordan says to you, Hey, yeah, you're sing me
tonight. Nobody's gonna stop you.And that was on the Nick team,
man that prided themselves and getting stopsbeing hard, those tough minded But whenever
(41:45):
that dude showed up man, especiallyat the garden, he gave us a
double nickel there and just just asensational competitive man. Golf course. You
know you've heard the stories about thegolf course and just how he competed out
there and all of those different things. Man. Yeah, absolutely, yeah,
(42:05):
Yeah, Well, John, whenyou think back, okay, we're
talking the top two players of alltimes. Who are some of your favorite
all time players? There's Kareem,There's Magic, Oscar Robinson, Bill Russell.
Whip Chamberlain had fifty and a hundredin a game as a sixer.
Well, what what are some ofthe great memories, man, we're close
(42:27):
to the same age. Yeah,some of your best best memories come.
Yeah. My NBA consciousness doesn't quiteget me to Oscar and to Bill Russell,
and I wish it did. Ijust just a week or so ago,
my wife and I watched the BillRussell documentary. Man, it is
(42:49):
fantastic. I've seen it. Yeah. Yeah. You forget about all that
he did in the social aspect ofthis world during a very difficult time and
civil rights, and I couldn't havemore respect. I had so much respect
for him anyway as a player,but as a man, unbelievable. Those
things that he endured and the thingsthat he went through, and I loved
(43:12):
I'll recommend that to anybody watching this, watch that Bill Russell documentary. But
I don't really remember Russ and anduh and you know, Oscar Robertson.
My first consciousness is of the battlebetween Will and I think maybe then still
low Alcinder, but uh, butcertainly Kareem and Will and the battles that
they had against one another was epicand phenomenal. And you know, yeah,
(43:38):
yeah, those those teams were sogreat. And then when I really
really began, uh to start toI guess to love this game. I
have just such a soft spot inmy heart for Magic right because I was
in I'm a Michigan guy. Iwatched him. I watched and play at
(44:00):
Lansing Everett High School. I watchedMichigan won a championship there won a championship
at Michigan State of course. Andthen and then I think her and you
know, if we ever got intothe other two on the on that Mount
Rushmore, we pretty much had decidedto I'm not sure, but what Magic
may not earn a spot up theretoo. He revolutionized the game and the
(44:22):
things that he did as an NBAplayer, Uh, you know, and
look, there's there's the narrative outthere that he and Bird kind of saved
the NBA. I don't think theNBA was going anywhere, but hey,
they gave it a shot in thearm. I really did. I was
coming up around those at the sametime, those guys. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, he gave ita shot in the arm. And
(44:45):
the other thing that I was gonnasay everywhere that Magic Johnson. You were
speaking about Magic Johnson. John everywherethat he went, he was a winner.
Yeah. He was a winner atEverett High School in East LANs right.
(45:05):
He left there, played against LarryBird in Indiana State his his sophomore
year. Was that his sophomore year, his sophomore year, beat Bird,
which is not easy to do.It that we've got one of these one
of these Wednesdays, we're gonna talkabout the greatness of Larry Bird and how
(45:25):
unappreciated he is. But then Magic, which a lot of people forget.
As a rookie in the NBA withKareem Abdul Jabbar in La, he went
to Philadelphia and beat Moses Malone,doctor Jay Maurice Cheeks, Andrew Tony Mark
(45:50):
AVARONI here here, here's a name, uh for you. John Bobby Jones
out of the University Jones out ofthe University of North Atlanta. Magic single
handedly, single handedly beat those guys. So when you talk Magic Johnson,
he beat him as a center.As final he had to play he's a
(46:12):
point guard, he had to playcenter. Yes, no, real quick,
and we were running out of timeof course, on Hart's court.
So happy to have Yah, manfor so glad to be on the court.
Man, I'm on the court.And the thing about courts, the
(46:32):
courthouse, you can talk about alot of different things. And that's our
plan. Man, that's my planfor us, because this isn't about me
as my co host. Man,you can bring it. You can bring
whatever you want to bring, andI will get in the passenger seat and
let you run run the courthouse wheneveryou uh, whenever you want to.
(46:53):
So this was a lot of fun. Yeah, and I am so looking
forward to, uh to having youon again on Harp's court very very soon.
Thank you, thank you, thankyou. You're one of my favorite
pleasure of heart. Yo, you'reone of mine, and I am I'm
honored. I'm thrilled to be onthe same court as Harp. That's a
(47:15):
it's an unbelievable thing. And yeah, I'm just it's so it's so full
circle for me. It's great tobe back together with you on the air.
That sounds good, brother, Godbless you. Okay, we'll talk
soon, John
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