June 7, 2026 • 33 mins
Joseph Potasnik and A.R. Bernard interview David Checketts, the former high-ranking executive of Madison Square Garden and the New York Knicks. The discussion chronicles Checketts’ career trajectory from rescuing the Utah Jazz in his twenties to navigating the high-stakes environment of New York sports, specifically detailing his strategic efforts to improve team culture and fan experience during the 1990s. Central to the dialogue are Checketts' personal anecdotes regarding basketball legends like Patrick Ewing, where he emphasizes the necessity of stability and continuity in leadership to achieve franchise success. Beyond athletics, the conversation explores the intersection of professional achievement and religious devotion, as Checketts reflects on how his faith and family values provided a moral foundation for his life in the public eye. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Speaker 3 (00:30):
The Rev and the Rabbi on the Red Apple Podcast Network.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Good morning, I'm Rabbi Joshptastik.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
And I'm Reverend a Ar Bernard Rev.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I don't know if you've heard anything, but the Knicks
are in the playoffs. I don't know if you get
the news out.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
There yet, Have I heard?
Speaker 5 (00:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Right, So obviously we got to discuss all the ramifications
of that. But today we're privileged to have David Checketz,
who was the president of the Knicks from nineteen ninety
to nineteen ninety four, then became president of Madison Square
Garden nineteen ninety four to two thousand and one. So
(01:07):
he has a lot of information he's going to share
with us from Boston. I can tell you this. I
told miss the Checkers, I've hired two bodyguards. I walk
with security wherever I go in this city. Now I've
hidden all my Boston memorabilia. You know, I try. I
can pick up a New York accent. So you want
to keep saying anyway, it is a great moment, Dave
(01:29):
check us. Thanks so much for being with the reverend
Rabbi Listen it is.
Speaker 6 (01:34):
This is the honor of my life to be on
this particular program with the two of you. I admire
you both so much. And don't I don't even WinCE
at all the ribbing I get from Rabbi Pedata right.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
And well deserved, well deserved. That's what I can tell you.
Speaker 6 (01:53):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Look, I'm happy for you. I told you, Dave the
other day, once every fifty three years, I mean, come
on my support. Anyway, What is it.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
About the Rangers?
Speaker 6 (02:09):
Now? Remember the Rangers had gone fifty four years when
they wanted in nineteen ninety four, So maybe this is
the charm.
Speaker 5 (02:18):
You know, what does it.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Mean president of Madison Square Guard? What are those responsibilities?
Speaker 6 (02:24):
Well, it's the president and CEO of Madison Square Guard
means that you are over In those days, it was
all one company, it was all together. So I had
the Knicks.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
The Rangers.
Speaker 6 (02:41):
We launched the women's team, the Liberty in nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
So it was over them.
Speaker 6 (02:47):
Then MSG network, the television, the regional television Sports network,
and then the arena itself and then you know all
of the other theaters that we were trying to buy
in those days. In nineteen ninety seven, we bought Radio
City Music Hall. We renovated it and brought it right
(03:07):
back to nineteen thirty two with improved sound and lights
and made it beautiful again. And that's part of the
MSG family now too.
Speaker 7 (03:17):
Yeah wow, wow, wow, No, that's beautiful. How do you
even come into that. I mean, you started out in
nineteen nineties president and then became CEO so president over
the Knicks, right, So that's just one thing. But when
you became CEO of MSG, now that brings in the
(03:38):
hockey teams, right, what else does it bring?
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Under power Jurisdics.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
And the women's team, the women's.
Speaker 6 (03:44):
Basketball team, the Liberty, right, they later sold to.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
The group in Brooklyn and they now play in the
Brooklyn Arena.
Speaker 6 (03:52):
But you know, I had graduated from business school, I'd
gone to work for a company, and I did live
in Boston. I was a Boston sports fan. I know
it's hard to believe because I'm a.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
Nice guy, but I as a Boston sports thing.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
I loved you.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Yeah. And then from there I went to by the.
Speaker 6 (04:18):
Strange set of circumstances, I went to be president and
general manager of the Utah Jazz.
Speaker 5 (04:25):
I was twenty seven years.
Speaker 6 (04:27):
Old when that happened, and I had never run a
lemonade stand at that point, so that was a step
up for me. But the Jazz were really in bad shape,
in bankruptcy. This is in nineteen eighty three. But I
just loved it. I loved rebuilding that team. We drafted
(04:48):
Carl Malone, we drafted John Stockton, we built a new arena,
we put that We put that club on good ground.
And then David Stern, the commissioner of the NBA and
dear friend and mentor who's sadly no longer with us,
David asked me to come back and run a division
(05:09):
of the NBA called NBA International in nineteen ninety so
I moved my family I had five kids at that time.
We have six total. That we moved our family from
Salt Lake City, where I grew up, to New York
and I took over NBA International. And it was only
(05:30):
six months or so when Dick Evans, who was president
and CEO of Madison Square Garden, falled and said, you
need to come and help us sort out the Knicks,
make the Knicks great again. And I couldn't resist because
that was my team from when I was a boy.
(05:50):
I always loved the Knicks, even though my whole neighborhood
were Laker fans in Utah. I always loved Red Holzman,
and then you Clyde Fraser, Dave de Busher, the Willis Reed,
Dick Barnett, all of them.
Speaker 5 (06:09):
I loved, loved that team.
Speaker 6 (06:11):
And so when I was offered the job to come
and try to sort out how we're going to use
Patrick Ewing and make the Knicks great in nineteen ninety,
I jumped at that.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
By the way, Dave, can you share a story. You
told me a while ago that the Knicks would get
booed even when they called the time out right. You
initiated something that was I thought ingenious.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Oh boy, Joe, you get me in trouble here for
all the purest Nick fans who that.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
So only in the garden, they had no other entertainment
other than basketball, and they they actually stood on that
as almost self righteously as we are here for basketball.
Don't bother us with all of the other acts and
music and everything else. Just don't do it. But what
(07:09):
happened that first year that I came in.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
I realized that the Knicks.
Speaker 6 (07:15):
Had the worst home record in all of the NBA,
by far the worst home record. And here they had
Patrick Ewing in a fairly talented team.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
But if you can't if you can't win at home,
you have no chance. So I went to a game
and I watched these players, and you know, there's nothing.
Speaker 6 (07:36):
Worse than really getting loudly booed by your home fans.
And I had joined in March, so the season was
coming to an end and the team was struggling to
finish in the eighth spot. The team would finish in
the eighth spot and play the Bulls in the first round,
(07:59):
and actually the first playoff game, the Knicks lost by
forty one points in Chicago, which was a playoff record.
But when they came home for Game three, they were
so loudly booed. There was first of all, there was
only six thousand people in the building, and they were
so loudly booed that I said, I got to do
(08:20):
something about this. I mean, at home, you don't want it,
you don't want that, because I watched the look on
players faces.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
They didn't want to be there. They didn't want to
be there on.
Speaker 6 (08:31):
A team that was so bad that they were getting
booed by their home fans. So I introduced the Knick
City Dancers, which still are part of the whole act.
So that there's a time out the team's teams having
a rough time. You know it's they're down ten, they're
down twelve in the first quarter, coach calls a time
(08:54):
out and they crowd instead of booing onto the floor.
Comes this high energy group of women answers with high
impact music and no one could hear anybody bo.
Speaker 5 (09:10):
Brilliant. That's why I did that.
Speaker 7 (09:13):
Wow, Well, we're gonna have to take a break and
we'll come back with more of the rev and the
Rabbi and our incredible guests, mister Teckers and the Knicks
and MSG.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
So stay tuned, We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Welcome back. I'm Rabbi Joseph Tasta and.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
I'm Reverend Aar Bernard and.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
We are speaking with Dave check. It's President CEO Madison
Square Guarden nineteen ninety four to two thousand and one,
President of the Knicks nineteen ninety to nineteen ninety four,
and obviously talking about New York Knicks fever in the
history of the organization.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Rev.
Speaker 7 (09:51):
Yeah, no, I'm just I'm just fascinated, of course, the
doing everything you can to deal with the booing that.
But you have stories that go back with individual players.
Shares some of those stories with us.
Speaker 6 (10:09):
Well, you know, when I first arrived, Patrick Ewing was
in his.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Was just finishing the sixth.
Speaker 6 (10:17):
Year of his ten year historic contract that he signed
with the team, and he was drafted in nineteen eighty five,
the first player picked in the draft, this seven foot two,
massive human from Georgetown. And of course for anywhere that
(10:38):
Patrick went, you would expect that that team would compete
for a championship. But the Knicks over six years really
had never even advanced in the NBA playoffs. The furthest
they've gotten in Patrick six years was to the semi
finals of the Eastern Conference, and no matter who they
(10:59):
put around him, they couldn't settle on a coach. So
Patrick in his six seasons has had six different coaches
and four different general managers. And when when Dick Evans
asked me to come, I said, well, we're going to
stop right there. We are not going to let that
happen because the lack of continuity of knowing who you
(11:22):
play for, of knowing who you play with, that just
creates all.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
Kinds of.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
A lack of performance and people to blame and people
to point fingers. And if if if players know that
their coach is going to get fired anyway, they don't
they you know, they have long term contracts, so they
don't think anything of just saying.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
We're not going to listen to him.
Speaker 6 (11:50):
And so so Patrick Patrick was in that state and
after six years, his agent had negotiated clause that if
Patrick was not in the one of the four highest
paid players in the NBA, he could escape and become
(12:11):
an unrestricted free agent, and that would have just killed
the franchise. So that that's when I was joining, he
was coming up on this clause. So I immediately started meeting
with him as often as I could, and he would
bring his lovely wife in. She read as she was
(12:32):
just great a lawyer, smart, really calmed, really a great.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Part of those talks.
Speaker 6 (12:41):
And I was just saying to Patrick, look, I've just
taken over and been on the job only a few weeks,
But Patrick, how do we solve this and keep you here?
And he said, look, I think I think there's no
question I'm not going to be one of the four
high A paid players. There's four players ahead of me, clearly,
(13:04):
and as a free agent, I'm going to look around
because I haven't been able to win here and the
only thing I want.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
To do is actually win. And I said, I understand that.
Speaker 6 (13:15):
But believe me, things are going to change. We're going
to have a world class coach. We're going to have
a world class staff. We're going to put the right
people in places and they will stay there.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
You're not going to have all of.
Speaker 6 (13:28):
This this change that has.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
Given you the feeling of instability.
Speaker 6 (13:34):
And we had all these meetings and we just became
better and better friends. But the reality was his agent
believed that he was not one of the four highest
paid players. And I absolutely was sure because we'd tested
it with all.
Speaker 5 (13:52):
Of our lawyers.
Speaker 6 (13:53):
The one thing I had in the garden was plenty
of lawyers, seventeen of them. We had tested it with
all the legal crew. I was quite sure that he
was number four in the league and that he would
not qualify to become a free agent, even though we
would go to arbitration for that.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
But then I found out that there was a.
Speaker 6 (14:18):
Movement underway to take Chris Mullen, New York's own Chris
Mullen from Saint John's, who was playing for Golden State.
Golden State was going to amend his contract toward the
end of that season and load more money into his contract,
meaning that he would then pass Patrick Ewing Springing Patrick
(14:43):
Ewing free to become a free agent.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
And he would sign with Golden State.
Speaker 6 (14:49):
And they had already tampered with him. Golden State had
already tampered with him and offered him this very expensive contract.
I found out about that, and I went after the
owners of Golden State. I called them and I said,
I know all about your plot. I know if you
(15:10):
change Chris Mullen's salary, the spring Patrick free The one
thing I have at Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
There's plenty of lawyers. I'm just telling.
Speaker 6 (15:19):
You, I'm coming after you and interference into a contractual relationship,
You're not going to get him. You'll be suing us.
I'll be suing you for years and years. So you
better think before you do that. And here's the best
part of the story. They still tried to do it,
but Chris Mullen found out that they were trying to
(15:43):
change his contract just for the purpose of springing Patrick out.
And to his credit, I will always love Chris Mullen,
he said, I'm not doing that to my hometown of News.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
I'm doing that.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Hey, I want to ask you you talked about down
with Patrick. You're dealing with a lot of egos. People
who are well paid, treated royally, you know, glorified by
the fans. How do you deal with that?
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Well? Yeah, they I mean look to be that.
Speaker 6 (16:16):
Talented and that accomplished to get into the NBA and
be one of the best players in the world. There
are some real egos, not just with players, but with
coaches and general managers, and you know, everybody's everybody has
an ego of some kind, but the players, some of
(16:38):
them are are really very very difficult. I was lucky
in Utah that I had John Stockton and Karl Malone
because they were both from small towns. They both were
very humble. They both were happy to play in Salt
Lake for their whole careers twenty years. And when I
came to New York, I found Patrick to be a
(16:59):
maze humble and kind in our meetings. And you know,
he didn't like the fact that we won the arbitration
and that kept him restricted to that tenure massive contract,
but still I still added on to his contract a
couple of very big compensation years because I just felt
(17:23):
like he was so valuable to us, and we became
the closest to friends and still every I can count
on this. Every Father's Day. First thing in the morning,
I'm getting a note from Patrick Ewing the says Happy
Father's Day. He will send me a personal note every
year because over that time we just grew so close.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
So I think sometimes.
Speaker 6 (17:48):
A big ego Joe is is just a cover for
the insecurity of I'm not sure I deserve all of this,
and the worst kind of egos are those that are
the most afraid.
Speaker 5 (18:01):
But I I still like with.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
The Knicks, Charles Oakley, Patrick Ewing John Stark's, Latrelle Spreewell,
Alan Houston, Charlie Ward, these were Anthony Mason. These were great,
great players, and for the most part, they could they
could leave their ego at the door and in that
(18:25):
locker room they were part of a great team.
Speaker 7 (18:28):
Well, we didn't even get a chance to talk about
this current season that the Knicks are in and the
excitement here and do you have time to hang around
for another segment?
Speaker 5 (18:39):
Of course, of course sure.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
By the way, read The other thing I want to
touch with the Dave is his incredible love for his faith.
He's a person in deep faith and that that's something
that really should be stressed as well.
Speaker 7 (18:55):
Excellent, So stay tuned. We're going to be back with
more of the Rev and the Rabbi right here on
Red Apple Radio Networks.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Welcome back. I'm Rabbi jose Patasha and I'm Reverend A
ar burn Ar talking with Dave check Its President CEO
Madison Square Garden nineteen ninety four two thousand and one,
President of the Knicks nineteen ninety to nineteen ninety four.
And you know, it's Nixon Mania in New York, Dave,
(19:29):
as you well know, and I'm sure in other place
as well. It's an incredible atmosphere and it's very healthy
for the city. Yes, right there, there's something that brings people,
and we're so divided in so many ways, but it
takes this kind event to bring people closer together and recognize, well,
we're on the same team.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
Talk about that, Dall the Knicks fans are the greatest fans,
and actually Knicks fans are different than any other New
York team because I feel like.
Speaker 6 (20:05):
I feel like basketball is the is the sport of
choice in.
Speaker 5 (20:09):
Many ways for the city.
Speaker 6 (20:11):
I do think Look when the Rangers won the Cup
in ninety four, that was just an amazing time.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
But basketball really.
Speaker 6 (20:20):
Is the heartbeat of the city and all those playgrounds
and all those playground legends and and just the game
is a city game. It really really is. And so
so it is fun to see them celebrating and that
that actually is my only regret. I feel like I
(20:41):
had a great almost eleven years at the Garden with
the Knicks and then as CEO, But my one regret
is we couldn't quite get there in ninety four. We
were a better team, I thought than the Houston Rockets,
and it went to seven games, and I mean it
was it was one shot one way or the other
(21:04):
all the way the seven.
Speaker 5 (21:06):
Games, and we ended up losing at the end, and it.
Speaker 6 (21:09):
Was devastating to us because to get that close to
grabbing that trophy and not be able to get it
was well, that was that was devastating. But it's the
city game, and it's and these are great fans and
I hope they can just enjoy this and I really
(21:29):
really hope the next can deliver.
Speaker 7 (21:31):
Do you think the momentum is different this time around.
I'm excited the fact that, you know, we're talking about
the beginning games on the road, because that's always a challenge,
and the Knicks win on the road and they've they've
been done it.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Yeah, Yeah, I think.
Speaker 6 (21:48):
The momentum is different this time Yes, because there's actually
a belief that I mean the nixt or on some
kind of terror, they've won twelve or thirteen in a
row in the playoffs. It's never happened before, and so
people not only believe, but they believe in the.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
Next but they believe they.
Speaker 6 (22:09):
Can actually reach out and grab the cup now, as
Joe says affectionately, for the first time in fifty.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
Three years affectionately.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah, you know, I've been with you New York, Salt
Lake City. Would I really have a loving friendship with you?
And I admire your love for your faith. You're a
proud member of the Church of Latter day Saints. Talk
about that, talk about that journey.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
Well.
Speaker 6 (22:42):
I grew up just outside Salt Lake City, Utah, in
a little town called Bountiful, Utah. My folks met after
World War Two. My dad was a World War Two marine.
He was in Guadalcanal, he was in Iwo Jima, he
was in Oakanawa. He had a really tough, a tough
(23:05):
battle at that point in his life. He came home
and met my mom. He had seen my mom in
a picture while he was on Okanaala with another guy
who was married to a woman, and he pulled out
his wallet to show him my dad a picture of
his wife, and standing next to his wife was this
(23:26):
lovely girl. And my dad said, who's that And the
soldier said, oh, that's her sister. But don't get any
ideas you're nothing good enough for her.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
She's like a bee. And finally my dad started writing.
Speaker 6 (23:45):
They married a year after he came home, in nineteen
forty six, they had five kids, and our lives revolved
around our small community, our family, and our church. And
so the Church of Latter Day of the Latter day Saints,
Church of Jesus Christ the latterday Saints was our church.
(24:08):
And I was raised in it, and I had such
wonderful tutors and mentors and examples. I served as a
missionary for the church. When I was nineteen years old.
I was called to serve in the worst parts of
East Los Angeles.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
I mean I was.
Speaker 6 (24:30):
We had to be in our apartment by six pm
because the gang violence was so bad. And meanwhile I
was walking around in a white shirt and tie this.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
Gang, nineteen year old teaching people about the Bible and.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
The advent of Jesus Christ and his ministry and his
gift to us, his atoning sacrifice is as resurrection. And
I just gained such a strong witness that I wanted
to become a disciple.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
Of his and I've been.
Speaker 6 (25:11):
All these years. I'm now seventy, and I'm happy to
say I have remained devoted, as has my family, to
the church, so much so that deb my wife, and
I were called to go to London and live for
three years twenty eighteen to twenty twenty one and supervise
the efforts of seven hundred missionaries in the Greater London
(25:35):
area who were from fifty four different countries. And it
was one of the great experiences of our lives.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
So it could be more grateful for our faith.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
So tell us what's the retention power?
Speaker 7 (25:51):
Because when you think about how do we measure the
strength of a church and its influence, I like to
look at its retention of people because sometimes you know,
people grow up in a faith and then venture off
in other directions, But there's a retaining power.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
What is it that you experience personally?
Speaker 6 (26:12):
I really think it's an emphasis on the family. You know,
the family is the unit that that God.
Speaker 5 (26:22):
Aims for children to be raised in.
Speaker 6 (26:25):
And and families are all different.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
We know that somehow are single parent.
Speaker 6 (26:31):
Families and other kinds of families that come together. But
being with loved ones and being with loved ones who
have similar faith and strengthening each other is is really
It has a permanence of feeling to it. And then
(26:51):
of course we build temples all over the world, taking
away from from by Patasnik in his his Great Traditions,
of the Jewish faith. We build temples, and in those
temples marriages are performed not just for time and eternity,
not just for time, but for time and eternity. So
(27:14):
there's a belief in a permanence of the family and
being with those that you love long after this life
is over.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
You know, Dave. One of the things that I will
always treasure. We have the New York Wort of Rabbis.
We honored you with others, but we honored you and
deb and you demonstrate that you can be a person
of faith, You can be a person committed to your profession,
and you can succeed in both. You can treasure both.
(27:45):
You don't have to hide your identity and also the
relationship you have with people of different faith communities. You know,
as a Jew, I admire the relationship that we share
so as much as a problem.
Speaker 6 (28:00):
No, I think to be on with both of you
is really special for me because I admire you both
so much, Reverend and the Rabbi. It's a it's a
great forum for the similarities and not the differences between
us and and there's many more similarities, you know, than
(28:21):
there are differences. And I just admire you both.
Speaker 5 (28:25):
For what for all the great work that you do.
It's it's uh, it's amazing. I'm I'm big. I'm a
big admirer of both of you.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
That's honor.
Speaker 7 (28:35):
We appreciate those kind words. And yeah, you have to
be intentional. I love what you said about the family.
I am now joined the ranks of chiefs.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
You know.
Speaker 7 (28:47):
Of course, Rabbi the Tastic was chief before I was.
He's chief chaplain for FDNY, and now I'm chief chaplain
for NYPD.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
But so have.
Speaker 7 (29:01):
Okay, you got it. But we were talking about I
was talking to some police officers, existing chiefs actually, and
I said, you know, policing has to kick in when
the moral systems fail, and the legs of the moral
system in our society begins with the family, then educational system,
and our houses of worship. Those are the three legs.
(29:21):
And when those are failing, that's when policing has to
kick up because the values, the development of conscience, the
formation of principles, you know, when they're not taking place
in those institutions, beginning with the family, all of a sudden,
police activity has to increase to respond to that shortage.
(29:42):
How do you respond to that?
Speaker 6 (29:45):
Well, I absolutely believe that that has to happen. I
had an older brother who sadly is not with us anymore,
but it was He's spent his career as a police
officer and then an undercover drug enforcement agency or an
agent for the US government, and his whole existence was
(30:06):
to make the world a better place, especially to get
harmful drugs off the streets and save people who become
addicted and who need help. And so yes, that's the
way that it is. But it's in the home. It's
in the family. It's with parents who care the children
(30:29):
learn values from a young age. My mother sat on
our beds at night. There were three I had two brothers,
and she was in there every night, reading to us
from the Bible or the Book of Mormon. And and
I remember there were times where all of a sudden
(30:51):
she stopped and I look over and she was sound asleep.
But I loved her with such affection. She was such
a powerful part of my life. And you know, right
was right and wrong was wrong. And I was taught
great principles and lots of integrity from my father, who
(31:15):
I worked with as a teenager and preteen as in
his business. And I just I loved them. I wanted
to be like them. I wanted to make them proud.
And I was really very happy that my mother and
father nineteen forty six.
Speaker 5 (31:36):
May eighth, her dad was in his.
Speaker 6 (31:40):
Marine uniform home from the war, and they went to
the Saltlake Temple in Salt Lake Studies, you know, beautiful
iconic temple, and that's where their marriage was performed. And
in my mind, that meant our family would be together
for well.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
You know, Dave check it's I remember somebody said to me,
I learned all my values at the kitchen table sitting
around with the family, and you echo that. David. It's
been an honor. Reb. I don't know how to break
the news to you, but I want to surprise you.
Dave has given us two places at the playoffs. Unfortunately
they're at the watch parties outside of the garden. But hey, listen,
(32:22):
he gets a little bit clock.
Speaker 7 (32:27):
What's our congressman approved the watch party. By the way,
that was last week.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
All right.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
People have called me, Rabbi had to say, can you
get a ticket?
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Shot?
Speaker 5 (32:41):
I have I have less influence than anybody you can.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Well, you have a lot of influence in many areas
that we we really admire. So thank you, so thank
you for all you do. Thank you for who we
are and we're blessed to.
Speaker 7 (32:54):
Know you, and thank you for who you are. Yeah,
thanks for being on the program, and thank you for
this segment of The Reven the Rabbi with an incredible guest.
We'll be back with more a tune.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Thanks for listening to The Rev and the Rabbi. You
can hear The Reven the Rabbi Sunday mornings at seven.
If you like the podcast, share it with your friends
and listen anytime at WABC radio dot com and download
to WABC radio app. Hit that subscribe but on all
major podcasts platforms. Plus, follow WABC on social on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook,
(33:34):
and X see you next time for a new episode,
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Speaker 3 (00:30):
The Rev and the Rabbi on the Red Apple Podcast Network.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Good morning, I'm Rabbi Joshptastik.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
And I'm Reverend a Ar Bernard Rev.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I don't know if you've heard anything, but the Knicks
are in the playoffs. I don't know if you get
the news out.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
There yet, Have I heard?
Speaker 5 (00:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Right, So obviously we got to discuss all the ramifications
of that. But today we're privileged to have David Checketz,
who was the president of the Knicks from nineteen ninety
to nineteen ninety four, then became president of Madison Square
Garden nineteen ninety four to two thousand and one. So
(01:07):
he has a lot of information he's going to share
with us from Boston. I can tell you this. I
told miss the Checkers, I've hired two bodyguards. I walk
with security wherever I go in this city. Now I've
hidden all my Boston memorabilia. You know, I try. I
can pick up a New York accent. So you want
to keep saying anyway, it is a great moment, Dave
(01:29):
check us. Thanks so much for being with the reverend
Rabbi Listen it is.
Speaker 6 (01:34):
This is the honor of my life to be on
this particular program with the two of you. I admire
you both so much. And don't I don't even WinCE
at all the ribbing I get from Rabbi Pedata right.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
And well deserved, well deserved. That's what I can tell you.
Speaker 6 (01:53):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Look, I'm happy for you. I told you, Dave the
other day, once every fifty three years, I mean, come
on my support. Anyway, What is it.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
About the Rangers?
Speaker 6 (02:09):
Now? Remember the Rangers had gone fifty four years when
they wanted in nineteen ninety four, So maybe this is
the charm.
Speaker 5 (02:18):
You know, what does it.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Mean president of Madison Square Guard? What are those responsibilities?
Speaker 6 (02:24):
Well, it's the president and CEO of Madison Square Guard
means that you are over In those days, it was
all one company, it was all together. So I had
the Knicks.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
The Rangers.
Speaker 6 (02:41):
We launched the women's team, the Liberty in nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
So it was over them.
Speaker 6 (02:47):
Then MSG network, the television, the regional television Sports network,
and then the arena itself and then you know all
of the other theaters that we were trying to buy
in those days. In nineteen ninety seven, we bought Radio
City Music Hall. We renovated it and brought it right
(03:07):
back to nineteen thirty two with improved sound and lights
and made it beautiful again. And that's part of the
MSG family now too.
Speaker 7 (03:17):
Yeah wow, wow, wow, No, that's beautiful. How do you
even come into that. I mean, you started out in
nineteen nineties president and then became CEO so president over
the Knicks, right, So that's just one thing. But when
you became CEO of MSG, now that brings in the
(03:38):
hockey teams, right, what else does it bring?
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Under power Jurisdics.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
And the women's team, the women's.
Speaker 6 (03:44):
Basketball team, the Liberty, right, they later sold to.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
The group in Brooklyn and they now play in the
Brooklyn Arena.
Speaker 6 (03:52):
But you know, I had graduated from business school, I'd
gone to work for a company, and I did live
in Boston. I was a Boston sports fan. I know
it's hard to believe because I'm a.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
Nice guy, but I as a Boston sports thing.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
I loved you.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Yeah. And then from there I went to by the.
Speaker 6 (04:18):
Strange set of circumstances, I went to be president and
general manager of the Utah Jazz.
Speaker 5 (04:25):
I was twenty seven years.
Speaker 6 (04:27):
Old when that happened, and I had never run a
lemonade stand at that point, so that was a step
up for me. But the Jazz were really in bad shape,
in bankruptcy. This is in nineteen eighty three. But I
just loved it. I loved rebuilding that team. We drafted
(04:48):
Carl Malone, we drafted John Stockton, we built a new arena,
we put that We put that club on good ground.
And then David Stern, the commissioner of the NBA and
dear friend and mentor who's sadly no longer with us,
David asked me to come back and run a division
(05:09):
of the NBA called NBA International in nineteen ninety so
I moved my family I had five kids at that time.
We have six total. That we moved our family from
Salt Lake City, where I grew up, to New York
and I took over NBA International. And it was only
(05:30):
six months or so when Dick Evans, who was president
and CEO of Madison Square Garden, falled and said, you
need to come and help us sort out the Knicks,
make the Knicks great again. And I couldn't resist because
that was my team from when I was a boy.
(05:50):
I always loved the Knicks, even though my whole neighborhood
were Laker fans in Utah. I always loved Red Holzman,
and then you Clyde Fraser, Dave de Busher, the Willis Reed,
Dick Barnett, all of them.
Speaker 5 (06:09):
I loved, loved that team.
Speaker 6 (06:11):
And so when I was offered the job to come
and try to sort out how we're going to use
Patrick Ewing and make the Knicks great in nineteen ninety,
I jumped at that.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
By the way, Dave, can you share a story. You
told me a while ago that the Knicks would get
booed even when they called the time out right. You
initiated something that was I thought ingenious.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Oh boy, Joe, you get me in trouble here for
all the purest Nick fans who that.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
So only in the garden, they had no other entertainment
other than basketball, and they they actually stood on that
as almost self righteously as we are here for basketball.
Don't bother us with all of the other acts and
music and everything else. Just don't do it. But what
(07:09):
happened that first year that I came in.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
I realized that the Knicks.
Speaker 6 (07:15):
Had the worst home record in all of the NBA,
by far the worst home record. And here they had
Patrick Ewing in a fairly talented team.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
But if you can't if you can't win at home,
you have no chance. So I went to a game
and I watched these players, and you know, there's nothing.
Speaker 6 (07:36):
Worse than really getting loudly booed by your home fans.
And I had joined in March, so the season was
coming to an end and the team was struggling to
finish in the eighth spot. The team would finish in
the eighth spot and play the Bulls in the first round,
(07:59):
and actually the first playoff game, the Knicks lost by
forty one points in Chicago, which was a playoff record.
But when they came home for Game three, they were
so loudly booed. There was first of all, there was
only six thousand people in the building, and they were
so loudly booed that I said, I got to do
(08:20):
something about this. I mean, at home, you don't want it,
you don't want that, because I watched the look on
players faces.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
They didn't want to be there. They didn't want to
be there on.
Speaker 6 (08:31):
A team that was so bad that they were getting
booed by their home fans. So I introduced the Knick
City Dancers, which still are part of the whole act.
So that there's a time out the team's teams having
a rough time. You know it's they're down ten, they're
down twelve in the first quarter, coach calls a time
(08:54):
out and they crowd instead of booing onto the floor.
Comes this high energy group of women answers with high
impact music and no one could hear anybody bo.
Speaker 5 (09:10):
Brilliant. That's why I did that.
Speaker 7 (09:13):
Wow, Well, we're gonna have to take a break and
we'll come back with more of the rev and the
Rabbi and our incredible guests, mister Teckers and the Knicks
and MSG.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
So stay tuned, We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Welcome back. I'm Rabbi Joseph Tasta and.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
I'm Reverend Aar Bernard and.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
We are speaking with Dave check. It's President CEO Madison
Square Guarden nineteen ninety four to two thousand and one,
President of the Knicks nineteen ninety to nineteen ninety four,
and obviously talking about New York Knicks fever in the
history of the organization.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Rev.
Speaker 7 (09:51):
Yeah, no, I'm just I'm just fascinated, of course, the
doing everything you can to deal with the booing that.
But you have stories that go back with individual players.
Shares some of those stories with us.
Speaker 6 (10:09):
Well, you know, when I first arrived, Patrick Ewing was
in his.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Was just finishing the sixth.
Speaker 6 (10:17):
Year of his ten year historic contract that he signed
with the team, and he was drafted in nineteen eighty five,
the first player picked in the draft, this seven foot two,
massive human from Georgetown. And of course for anywhere that
(10:38):
Patrick went, you would expect that that team would compete
for a championship. But the Knicks over six years really
had never even advanced in the NBA playoffs. The furthest
they've gotten in Patrick six years was to the semi
finals of the Eastern Conference, and no matter who they
(10:59):
put around him, they couldn't settle on a coach. So
Patrick in his six seasons has had six different coaches
and four different general managers. And when when Dick Evans
asked me to come, I said, well, we're going to
stop right there. We are not going to let that
happen because the lack of continuity of knowing who you
(11:22):
play for, of knowing who you play with, that just
creates all.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
Kinds of.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
A lack of performance and people to blame and people
to point fingers. And if if if players know that
their coach is going to get fired anyway, they don't
they you know, they have long term contracts, so they
don't think anything of just saying.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
We're not going to listen to him.
Speaker 6 (11:50):
And so so Patrick Patrick was in that state and
after six years, his agent had negotiated clause that if
Patrick was not in the one of the four highest
paid players in the NBA, he could escape and become
(12:11):
an unrestricted free agent, and that would have just killed
the franchise. So that that's when I was joining, he
was coming up on this clause. So I immediately started meeting
with him as often as I could, and he would
bring his lovely wife in. She read as she was
(12:32):
just great a lawyer, smart, really calmed, really a great.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Part of those talks.
Speaker 6 (12:41):
And I was just saying to Patrick, look, I've just
taken over and been on the job only a few weeks,
But Patrick, how do we solve this and keep you here?
And he said, look, I think I think there's no
question I'm not going to be one of the four
high A paid players. There's four players ahead of me, clearly,
(13:04):
and as a free agent, I'm going to look around
because I haven't been able to win here and the
only thing I want.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
To do is actually win. And I said, I understand that.
Speaker 6 (13:15):
But believe me, things are going to change. We're going
to have a world class coach. We're going to have
a world class staff. We're going to put the right
people in places and they will stay there.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
You're not going to have all of.
Speaker 6 (13:28):
This this change that has.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
Given you the feeling of instability.
Speaker 6 (13:34):
And we had all these meetings and we just became
better and better friends. But the reality was his agent
believed that he was not one of the four highest
paid players. And I absolutely was sure because we'd tested
it with all.
Speaker 5 (13:52):
Of our lawyers.
Speaker 6 (13:53):
The one thing I had in the garden was plenty
of lawyers, seventeen of them. We had tested it with
all the legal crew. I was quite sure that he
was number four in the league and that he would
not qualify to become a free agent, even though we
would go to arbitration for that.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
But then I found out that there was a.
Speaker 6 (14:18):
Movement underway to take Chris Mullen, New York's own Chris
Mullen from Saint John's, who was playing for Golden State.
Golden State was going to amend his contract toward the
end of that season and load more money into his contract,
meaning that he would then pass Patrick Ewing Springing Patrick
(14:43):
Ewing free to become a free agent.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
And he would sign with Golden State.
Speaker 6 (14:49):
And they had already tampered with him. Golden State had
already tampered with him and offered him this very expensive contract.
I found out about that, and I went after the
owners of Golden State. I called them and I said,
I know all about your plot. I know if you
(15:10):
change Chris Mullen's salary, the spring Patrick free The one
thing I have at Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
There's plenty of lawyers. I'm just telling.
Speaker 6 (15:19):
You, I'm coming after you and interference into a contractual relationship,
You're not going to get him. You'll be suing us.
I'll be suing you for years and years. So you
better think before you do that. And here's the best
part of the story. They still tried to do it,
but Chris Mullen found out that they were trying to
(15:43):
change his contract just for the purpose of springing Patrick out.
And to his credit, I will always love Chris Mullen,
he said, I'm not doing that to my hometown of News.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
I'm doing that.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Hey, I want to ask you you talked about down
with Patrick. You're dealing with a lot of egos. People
who are well paid, treated royally, you know, glorified by
the fans. How do you deal with that?
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Well? Yeah, they I mean look to be that.
Speaker 6 (16:16):
Talented and that accomplished to get into the NBA and
be one of the best players in the world. There
are some real egos, not just with players, but with
coaches and general managers, and you know, everybody's everybody has
an ego of some kind, but the players, some of
(16:38):
them are are really very very difficult. I was lucky
in Utah that I had John Stockton and Karl Malone
because they were both from small towns. They both were
very humble. They both were happy to play in Salt
Lake for their whole careers twenty years. And when I
came to New York, I found Patrick to be a
(16:59):
maze humble and kind in our meetings. And you know,
he didn't like the fact that we won the arbitration
and that kept him restricted to that tenure massive contract,
but still I still added on to his contract a
couple of very big compensation years because I just felt
(17:23):
like he was so valuable to us, and we became
the closest to friends and still every I can count
on this. Every Father's Day. First thing in the morning,
I'm getting a note from Patrick Ewing the says Happy
Father's Day. He will send me a personal note every
year because over that time we just grew so close.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
So I think sometimes.
Speaker 6 (17:48):
A big ego Joe is is just a cover for
the insecurity of I'm not sure I deserve all of this,
and the worst kind of egos are those that are
the most afraid.
Speaker 5 (18:01):
But I I still like with.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
The Knicks, Charles Oakley, Patrick Ewing John Stark's, Latrelle Spreewell,
Alan Houston, Charlie Ward, these were Anthony Mason. These were great,
great players, and for the most part, they could they
could leave their ego at the door and in that
(18:25):
locker room they were part of a great team.
Speaker 7 (18:28):
Well, we didn't even get a chance to talk about
this current season that the Knicks are in and the
excitement here and do you have time to hang around
for another segment?
Speaker 5 (18:39):
Of course, of course sure.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
By the way, read The other thing I want to
touch with the Dave is his incredible love for his faith.
He's a person in deep faith and that that's something
that really should be stressed as well.
Speaker 7 (18:55):
Excellent, So stay tuned. We're going to be back with
more of the Rev and the Rabbi right here on
Red Apple Radio Networks.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Welcome back. I'm Rabbi jose Patasha and I'm Reverend A
ar burn Ar talking with Dave check Its President CEO
Madison Square Garden nineteen ninety four two thousand and one,
President of the Knicks nineteen ninety to nineteen ninety four.
And you know, it's Nixon Mania in New York, Dave,
(19:29):
as you well know, and I'm sure in other place
as well. It's an incredible atmosphere and it's very healthy
for the city. Yes, right there, there's something that brings people,
and we're so divided in so many ways, but it
takes this kind event to bring people closer together and recognize, well,
we're on the same team.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
Talk about that, Dall the Knicks fans are the greatest fans,
and actually Knicks fans are different than any other New
York team because I feel like.
Speaker 6 (20:05):
I feel like basketball is the is the sport of
choice in.
Speaker 5 (20:09):
Many ways for the city.
Speaker 6 (20:11):
I do think Look when the Rangers won the Cup
in ninety four, that was just an amazing time.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
But basketball really.
Speaker 6 (20:20):
Is the heartbeat of the city and all those playgrounds
and all those playground legends and and just the game
is a city game. It really really is. And so
so it is fun to see them celebrating and that
that actually is my only regret. I feel like I
(20:41):
had a great almost eleven years at the Garden with
the Knicks and then as CEO, But my one regret
is we couldn't quite get there in ninety four. We
were a better team, I thought than the Houston Rockets,
and it went to seven games, and I mean it
was it was one shot one way or the other
(21:04):
all the way the seven.
Speaker 5 (21:06):
Games, and we ended up losing at the end, and it.
Speaker 6 (21:09):
Was devastating to us because to get that close to
grabbing that trophy and not be able to get it
was well, that was that was devastating. But it's the
city game, and it's and these are great fans and
I hope they can just enjoy this and I really
(21:29):
really hope the next can deliver.
Speaker 7 (21:31):
Do you think the momentum is different this time around.
I'm excited the fact that, you know, we're talking about
the beginning games on the road, because that's always a challenge,
and the Knicks win on the road and they've they've
been done it.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Yeah, Yeah, I think.
Speaker 6 (21:48):
The momentum is different this time Yes, because there's actually
a belief that I mean the nixt or on some
kind of terror, they've won twelve or thirteen in a
row in the playoffs. It's never happened before, and so
people not only believe, but they believe in the.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
Next but they believe they.
Speaker 6 (22:09):
Can actually reach out and grab the cup now, as
Joe says affectionately, for the first time in fifty.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
Three years affectionately.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah, you know, I've been with you New York, Salt
Lake City. Would I really have a loving friendship with you?
And I admire your love for your faith. You're a
proud member of the Church of Latter day Saints. Talk
about that, talk about that journey.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
Well.
Speaker 6 (22:42):
I grew up just outside Salt Lake City, Utah, in
a little town called Bountiful, Utah. My folks met after
World War Two. My dad was a World War Two marine.
He was in Guadalcanal, he was in Iwo Jima, he
was in Oakanawa. He had a really tough, a tough
(23:05):
battle at that point in his life. He came home
and met my mom. He had seen my mom in
a picture while he was on Okanaala with another guy
who was married to a woman, and he pulled out
his wallet to show him my dad a picture of
his wife, and standing next to his wife was this
(23:26):
lovely girl. And my dad said, who's that And the
soldier said, oh, that's her sister. But don't get any
ideas you're nothing good enough for her.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
She's like a bee. And finally my dad started writing.
Speaker 6 (23:45):
They married a year after he came home, in nineteen
forty six, they had five kids, and our lives revolved
around our small community, our family, and our church. And
so the Church of Latter Day of the Latter day Saints,
Church of Jesus Christ the latterday Saints was our church.
(24:08):
And I was raised in it, and I had such
wonderful tutors and mentors and examples. I served as a
missionary for the church. When I was nineteen years old.
I was called to serve in the worst parts of
East Los Angeles.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
I mean I was.
Speaker 6 (24:30):
We had to be in our apartment by six pm
because the gang violence was so bad. And meanwhile I
was walking around in a white shirt and tie this.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
Gang, nineteen year old teaching people about the Bible and.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
The advent of Jesus Christ and his ministry and his
gift to us, his atoning sacrifice is as resurrection. And
I just gained such a strong witness that I wanted
to become a disciple.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
Of his and I've been.
Speaker 6 (25:11):
All these years. I'm now seventy, and I'm happy to
say I have remained devoted, as has my family, to
the church, so much so that deb my wife, and
I were called to go to London and live for
three years twenty eighteen to twenty twenty one and supervise
the efforts of seven hundred missionaries in the Greater London
(25:35):
area who were from fifty four different countries. And it
was one of the great experiences of our lives.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
So it could be more grateful for our faith.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
So tell us what's the retention power?
Speaker 7 (25:51):
Because when you think about how do we measure the
strength of a church and its influence, I like to
look at its retention of people because sometimes you know,
people grow up in a faith and then venture off
in other directions, But there's a retaining power.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
What is it that you experience personally?
Speaker 6 (26:12):
I really think it's an emphasis on the family. You know,
the family is the unit that that God.
Speaker 5 (26:22):
Aims for children to be raised in.
Speaker 6 (26:25):
And and families are all different.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
We know that somehow are single parent.
Speaker 6 (26:31):
Families and other kinds of families that come together. But
being with loved ones and being with loved ones who
have similar faith and strengthening each other is is really
It has a permanence of feeling to it. And then
(26:51):
of course we build temples all over the world, taking
away from from by Patasnik in his his Great Traditions,
of the Jewish faith. We build temples, and in those
temples marriages are performed not just for time and eternity,
not just for time, but for time and eternity. So
(27:14):
there's a belief in a permanence of the family and
being with those that you love long after this life
is over.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
You know, Dave. One of the things that I will
always treasure. We have the New York Wort of Rabbis.
We honored you with others, but we honored you and
deb and you demonstrate that you can be a person
of faith, You can be a person committed to your profession,
and you can succeed in both. You can treasure both.
(27:45):
You don't have to hide your identity and also the
relationship you have with people of different faith communities. You know,
as a Jew, I admire the relationship that we share
so as much as a problem.
Speaker 6 (28:00):
No, I think to be on with both of you
is really special for me because I admire you both
so much, Reverend and the Rabbi. It's a it's a
great forum for the similarities and not the differences between
us and and there's many more similarities, you know, than
(28:21):
there are differences. And I just admire you both.
Speaker 5 (28:25):
For what for all the great work that you do.
It's it's uh, it's amazing. I'm I'm big. I'm a
big admirer of both of you.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
That's honor.
Speaker 7 (28:35):
We appreciate those kind words. And yeah, you have to
be intentional. I love what you said about the family.
I am now joined the ranks of chiefs.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
You know.
Speaker 7 (28:47):
Of course, Rabbi the Tastic was chief before I was.
He's chief chaplain for FDNY, and now I'm chief chaplain
for NYPD.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
But so have.
Speaker 7 (29:01):
Okay, you got it. But we were talking about I
was talking to some police officers, existing chiefs actually, and
I said, you know, policing has to kick in when
the moral systems fail, and the legs of the moral
system in our society begins with the family, then educational system,
and our houses of worship. Those are the three legs.
(29:21):
And when those are failing, that's when policing has to
kick up because the values, the development of conscience, the
formation of principles, you know, when they're not taking place
in those institutions, beginning with the family, all of a sudden,
police activity has to increase to respond to that shortage.
(29:42):
How do you respond to that?
Speaker 6 (29:45):
Well, I absolutely believe that that has to happen. I
had an older brother who sadly is not with us anymore,
but it was He's spent his career as a police
officer and then an undercover drug enforcement agency or an
agent for the US government, and his whole existence was
(30:06):
to make the world a better place, especially to get
harmful drugs off the streets and save people who become
addicted and who need help. And so yes, that's the
way that it is. But it's in the home. It's
in the family. It's with parents who care the children
(30:29):
learn values from a young age. My mother sat on
our beds at night. There were three I had two brothers,
and she was in there every night, reading to us
from the Bible or the Book of Mormon. And and
I remember there were times where all of a sudden
(30:51):
she stopped and I look over and she was sound asleep.
But I loved her with such affection. She was such
a powerful part of my life. And you know, right
was right and wrong was wrong. And I was taught
great principles and lots of integrity from my father, who
(31:15):
I worked with as a teenager and preteen as in
his business. And I just I loved them. I wanted
to be like them. I wanted to make them proud.
And I was really very happy that my mother and
father nineteen forty six.
Speaker 5 (31:36):
May eighth, her dad was in his.
Speaker 6 (31:40):
Marine uniform home from the war, and they went to
the Saltlake Temple in Salt Lake Studies, you know, beautiful
iconic temple, and that's where their marriage was performed. And
in my mind, that meant our family would be together
for well.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
You know, Dave check it's I remember somebody said to me,
I learned all my values at the kitchen table sitting
around with the family, and you echo that. David. It's
been an honor. Reb. I don't know how to break
the news to you, but I want to surprise you.
Dave has given us two places at the playoffs. Unfortunately
they're at the watch parties outside of the garden. But hey, listen,
(32:22):
he gets a little bit clock.
Speaker 7 (32:27):
What's our congressman approved the watch party. By the way,
that was last week.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
All right.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
People have called me, Rabbi had to say, can you
get a ticket?
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Shot?
Speaker 5 (32:41):
I have I have less influence than anybody you can.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Well, you have a lot of influence in many areas
that we we really admire. So thank you, so thank
you for all you do. Thank you for who we
are and we're blessed to.
Speaker 7 (32:54):
Know you, and thank you for who you are. Yeah,
thanks for being on the program, and thank you for
this segment of The Reven the Rabbi with an incredible guest.
We'll be back with more a tune.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Thanks for listening to The Rev and the Rabbi. You
can hear The Reven the Rabbi Sunday mornings at seven.
If you like the podcast, share it with your friends
and listen anytime at WABC radio dot com and download
to WABC radio app. Hit that subscribe but on all
major podcasts platforms. Plus, follow WABC on social on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook,
(33:34):
and X see you next time for a new episode,
so you never have to wonder
Speaker 1 (33:38):
What the heck is going on here
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