November 10, 2025 • 28 mins
In the second hour, Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain talk to Hugh Millen about the total domination by the Seahawks, the Rams coming up, and UW’s loss in Wisconsin. Then the guys remember the late, great Lenny Wilkens including an interview from May 2022.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Need more, a little more. And four with our friend
Hugh Millin. Hey, guys, I know we're pressed for time,
Hugh and Dick. Can I give you one twenty second
bit on why the A people continues to be ridiculous?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hugh, you're ready for this one?
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Yeah? Oregon Oregon?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
And I'm no Duck fan, you know that?
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Is that right?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Oregon drops a spot from six to seven after beating Iowa.
They switch places with ole Miss who beat the Citadel.
Jez Explain that one to me.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Hugh, Yeah, uh, I can't listen. You're yeah, you're you're
just danger in dangerous waters with me on on the
AP Yeah, no kidding with the nineteen eighty four. I know,
I know the history of the AP. Well, let me
let me put you sixty to eleven forty, but he remembers.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, nobody does. Let me put you back in a
good mood. How good is this? How good is honestly?
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Dude?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Is the Seahawk football team that we're seeing right now?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Well? You know, I almost so good that you wonder
if they're peaking too soon? Yeah? You know, And and
I only say that partially in jest, but uh yeah,
I just you look at even when they don't have
their middle linebacker, their you know, their their quarterback, of
their secondary and Julian Love, I mean that it seems
like no matter what they're missing, they they have just
(01:23):
they're tied to a string. It's really apparent in zone blitzes.
I mean they come into the game and they are
in terms of their their rush percent Now I don't
have the damn thing in front of me, but uh,
the the number of of four man rushes, that's all.
They're almost the highest in the league. The percentage of
(01:44):
five man rushers are the fewest, but they're they're number
of dbs who are rushing are in the top five
in the league. And so what that means is they're
creating a lot of mayhem. So if you're only rushing
four but you have a high person percentage of plays
where at least one dB is rushing, that's just a
(02:05):
stat that speaks to all the mayhem that you're creating.
And the mayhem was a factor in both of those fumbles.
So it's certainly a great ascension that they're on right now.
And I cannot wait for this Sunday against the Rams
and the battle between Sean McVay and Mike McDonald.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Well, how concerned should we be that the two legitimate
playoff teams that they faced they lost those games? Now,
should we be concerned about that? Or because they were
so long ago September seventh, in October fifth, that this
is a different football team than it was back then.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, it's a fair concern. And ask me in seven days, right,
you know, I mean, I understand why the Rams are favored.
There have been two really big breakdowns that I've done
of the Ram defense in this calendar year, and one
of them was the Rams against the Vikings when Sam
Darnold was the quarterback in that playoff game. And the
(03:04):
other one the thirty third team just asked me to
break Daniel down Daniel Jones, which you guys would know
that I kind of just got a smile on my
face because they didn't know what I've thought of Daniel
Jones for the last three or four years. You know,
I thought that he was vastly underrated anyway. So I've
looked at about three hundred and fifty plays or more
(03:25):
from the Colts this year, and the two defenses that
absolutely jumped out at me, like way beyond anybody else
that the Colts have played is the Broncos. They've got
a hell of a defense and the Rams. The Rams
are some get after it for their schemes, their dudes,
they fly around, they don't hesitate, they're athletic. I mean,
(03:46):
I mean, that's that's maybe one part of the NFL
that I'm surprised I don't hear more people talk about
it's the Ram defense because of Sean McVay, and it's
Matthew Stafford MVP, and it's Puka Niku was is he
you know, is he gonna be able to catch jaysn
and all these DeVante Adams? Like, there's a lot of
stories of the Rams, but nobody just talks about how
(04:09):
they have just got a hoss defense man. So yeah,
it'll be fun to watch.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah, the Rams are interesting to me.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Remember they won the championship in twenty one and everyone said, well,
they're selling their soul to do it. Remember that they did.
They're selling out, They're gonna be terrible, And they were
terrible the next year. They were five and twelve the
next year, but then ten and seven, ten and seven,
and now they seem like they're back to championship caliber
at seven and two. So I guess the question is, Hugh,
(04:36):
when you look at this upcoming game on Sunday. And
we can talk more about yesterday's game in a second,
but I want to jump ahead to Sunday for a minute.
Of all the four main units Seahawk offense, Seahawk Defense,
RAM Defense, RAM offense, which unit would you want if
we're having a draft, which one would you take first?
Speaker 5 (04:54):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
That's that's damn. Oh who's coaching the unit?
Speaker 2 (04:59):
The guys that are coaching now, I guess so I.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Might take the RAMS unit with Mike McDonald coaching defense.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yeah. Yeah, that's a great question because I think I
think both defenses are pretty I think both defenses are
top five. Now maybe not statistically, but what they can
rise to, you know, their ceiling. They get that RAM
defense has a really high ceiling. I mean they can
create all kinds of havoc and they prove that against
(05:27):
the Vikings. Yeah, yeah, I gotta be honest.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Well, I just wonder, if totally healthy, you'd take the
Hawk's defense because of what you said earlier with Mike McDonald.
I said the exact same thing to Dick at three
o'clock that it doesn't matter that Reid, Ernist Jones and
Julian Lover out. This guy just keeps taking players out
of the stands, plugging him in and they keep kicking
people's asses every week.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Yeah, it's incredible. And it's not just that day, but
it's it's how those guys they improve. I mean, Tyo
Cotta Oh, I was just like, oh man, what is
this August player doing in here? You know? And and
in the first game, you know, you know what an
August player looks like. It's like he's trying really hard,
but you know he's gonna get cut, right, God bless him.
(06:11):
And yet now he makes the team on that who
we played, We played the Packers in the last preseason game, right,
he had that incredible one handed interception because they was
thought that Derek was Derek Reid, that the safety was
going to uh to be the last safety on the roster.
But then all of a sudden, Tyle Cotty has that
(06:31):
incredible one handed interception in the preseason game. And then
the next series he has this this he comes up
and he feels like he's you know, I don't know,
Ken Kenny Easley or something, and you just go whoa
who's number thirty nine and now all of a sudden
he makes the team, then doesn't play well when he
gets the first shot. But now he's you know, it's
(06:52):
like he's like Troy Paula Molo. He's just everywhere and
and you know, throwing his body around, good instincts, you know, recognition,
you know, jumping forty inches up, making one handed interceptions.
I mean, you know, yeah, he's he's showing signs of
what Mike McDonald one of the great things that he does.
He's a great teacher, you know, emon worry the whole thing.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Hugh Sam Darnold's passer rating in the first half has
won thirty six on the season. Now in the second half,
it's only ninety two. So is that drop concerning to
you or is it because the Hawks are just up
by thirty points sometimes going into the second half.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Yeah, they've certainly been sharper. It's not concerning to me
yet because I've seen you know, I saw a clutch
against the forty nine ers that that go route that
he threw up the left side and up the west sideline,
you know, to get him in the position to win
the game. The clutch, the clutch two clutch throws that
(07:51):
he had in the last drive against the Cardinals down
in Arizona. You know the play that he made in
the second half. I get Patrick Queen spinning around in
the second half and getting twenty seven yards on a
third and long. I mean, that was so I've seen,
and that's not the entire list, but I think that
there have been moments where you say, Okay, this is
(08:13):
a clutch moment, Donald, how are you gonna respond? And
for the most part, he just shows like he's got
ice water. So I'm not real concern about that. As
far as the interception, if you're bothered by the interception
that happened yesterday, then I want you to tell me
(08:34):
how to coach Sam Darnold as the quarterback. Because he
goes play action to his left, he turns his back
on the defense. He's got a little skid route coming
right in the mill. Watch the end zone copy. You
got jsn coming right in between. It's going to be
an easy completion. But you got a J Barner who's
the tight end on the right in what's called an
off position in the yard. There's a pros and cons
(08:56):
for having him in the off position, meaning he's not
on the line of scrimmage. He's in the off now
the backside defense. The reason why you have him off
is he's in a in a threat to do a
seal block or run a slip route also called a
slice route. He can come and be part of the
blocking scheme. So you have to account. You're got to
communicate on the backside when he's in an off position.
(09:17):
But the protection that the Seahawks we're in, you've got
the right tackle coming down in a Lucas. He's gonna
come down and there's a little momentary gap for that
linebacker to slice in in the sea gap, and AJ
Barner's got to recognize that he's got to come down
hard on that. Cannot let somebody cross his faith that
(09:38):
is that is an F for that play. That's an F.
But Sam Donalds got to do his job. And so
when when Sam A J. Barner's guy gets pushed literally
into the pocket immediately like he's on rollerskates, then now
he goes to throw it, he goes off a helmet.
If you're upset with that, I can't help you. Like
sometimes in sports, just crap happens, but it was not
(10:00):
the quarterbacks. That is not the quarterback's fault. A center
exchange fumble with a backup center. This is what I
can tell you. As you take your middle finger and
you put it right up the ass crack of the
of the center, and then you try and find a
little spot with your wrist, like, okay, this seems like
the spot right. You don't want to be too close
to his junk because then he's gonna snap it. Ont
(10:23):
like it, but you can't be too far away. Like
every single anatomy, there is the right spot, and you
get used to one guy and then you drop it
when another guy comes in. That happens right right then,
and then the other one the other fumble he had,
he's moving to his left and the guy, Josh Sweat,
beats Abe Lucas and he reaches out with eighty what
(10:45):
I looked it up, eighty four and an eighth inch wingspan,
which is ninety fifth percentile of all defensive ends. That
guy was almost the Super Bowl in the MVP last year.
If it wasn't for for Jalen Hurts, Josh Sweat would
have been the MV look it up in that Super Bowl.
You know, he's just creating mayhem, and he created mayhem
(11:06):
on one play for a Lucas and Sam Donald is
looking to his left, he's throwing his hand. Is he's
not protecting the ball because he's in the act of throwing. Right,
if you get your hand hit in the act of throwing,
you're gonna fumble. So I don't know. I think there's
a lot of hand ringing. And you heard Mike McDonald,
I'm on his side. What is Mike mcdonaldy was asked,
are you concerned about that? He's like, no, you know,
(11:29):
for all the reasons I just said, right, Well.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
On top of that, thirty five nothing, thirty eight seven,
thirty eight, fifteen, thirty one seven.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Those are the.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Scores of the last four turnovers by Sam Donald. Hey
here we got about five minutes here. I feel like
sometimes the best question doesn't even really come with a point.
I just want to say two words and have you
go husky football man, Oh jeez, what do you think?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Well, I think it's very discouraging that that what you
thought was going to be the strength of the team,
the offense and the playmaking ability. It was just bone dry.
And I've watched the coach's tape and I'll choose my
words very carefully. If you watched only that tape from
(12:14):
Wisconsin and your job was to grade Demand Williams for
the NFL, that's an undrafted free agent. Like he's late,
he's his his vision is poor. Like I don't think
he's being coached well. And I don't think that. I mean,
this is a continual thing that the free runners at
(12:36):
the quarterback. Uh, this one wasn't so much some blitzers,
although late in the in the in the fourth quarter,
there was some cats, some some edge pressure coming off Totally,
It's like it's like Washington's never even talked about it,
let alone practice it and have a plan to execute.
This was more the stunts, time and time again. The stunts.
(12:57):
It's like the offensive lineman, you know, and and every
everybody at some point was a culprit. But they're there.
They got poor job of communicating on the stunts, poor
job of recognizing too many free runners. It just looks
like it looks like, I don't know, it looks like
street ball too much, and so very very extremely disappointing.
On the offensive side.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
The wide receivers, Hugh, what are you seeing on the
all twenty two because it looked like a lot of times,
Demon's going back there one thousand and three, you know,
thousand and one, thousand and two, thousand and three, thousand
and four, and he's got to take off. Was really
nobody open or is he missing guys?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Well on that third and six, you know that pre
preceded the last play, the second last play, he's got
Desmond Roebuck coming wide open on a dagger right to left.
He's he's got to turn that loose. Course, that was
bad protection on that one. But you know on the
the interception in the second quarter, the the stutter go
by by by Desmond Roebuck, that corner, like the light
(13:55):
can't get any redder, Okay, it can't. Like it's first
and ten. You've got you've got Chris Lawson coming in
with what's called the OTB sitting right over there. There
was nobody, I mean nobody around right in front of you.
It's first and ten. That like can't get more red.
On the fact that the corner's bailey now there there,
(14:16):
you don't have it. It shows all the signs of
complete predetermination, like I'm gonna throw this double move no
matter what. Right and then on the fumble. You know, uh, Dick,
you you texted me, Hey, what about that fumble? Look,
they called wystick to the left side. They're going whystick.
That is the most ubiquitous concept in high school, college,
(14:39):
in pro If you can't call wystick and then he's
got a slant to the right, and he's got Boston
on a go route. So it's probably like, hey, if
you like the go route in Boston, cause third and twelve.
By the way, the whystick isn't gonna get you the
first down. I hate when offensive coordinator calls a play
that if I throw it to my first choice at
the front, primary receiver, I'm not going to get the
(15:01):
first down. Now, there's a lot of times I'm not
gonna throw for a first down because I'm gonna throw
to my second or third or fourth guy. But I
want my first primary guy that if I throw to
the first guy on the on the progression that he
gets the first down. And third and twelve is not
so long that you can't expect that. But in any event,
so he runs around and Dick, here's the thing you
remember in the bowl game when when Demon made that
(15:23):
incredible play where he spun around in the fourth quarter
against Louisville, went to his left and everybody was how
many flowers through did they throw at demon for that time?
Like it was a heroic play, right, right, So so
him extending those plays has been something that's fed in, Hey,
do it, do it, do it? And that's where I
say there's a street ball nature to what they're doing.
The execution is like it whatever NFL execution is. They
(15:47):
are so they're not even an eye distance of it. Yeah,
in terms of like, okay, these are the reads, this
is what you do. It's just it's just too much
off script stuff.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Well, let me ask you this because Jed was asked
and here we got like two minutes left here, Yeah,
I meanes.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Jed was asked today Dan Rayley. I think you know.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Dan asked him basically, do you worry about losing the
locker room? And I think his terminology was the air
coming out of the balloon, you know, no CFP all
that blah blah blah. Do you worry about that that
at six and three this thing might really fall apart already?
You kind of put yourself in that locker room, and
those kids choose and think no, they're young and they'll
(16:25):
they'll play hard.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Well, there's no question that there's a deflation mentally, Like
to deny that would be just illogical. So it's a
big hurdle mentally for them that now the leadership, whether
it's the coaches, whether it's the captains, whether it's the quarterback,
what have you. They now have got to go play
with emotion, you know, And you saw yesterday in the
seat game, you know, one team was playing with a
(16:47):
great emotion. One team was flat as hell. Sure, and
ostensibly they would have had similar situations. They both had
great wins on Sunday or Monday night football just a
week ago. Right, I'm so so I think the Huskies
it's a big deflation given that clearly they know they
can't be in the playoff. Now it's just you know,
(17:08):
a bowl whatever a bowl is going to be. But
you know that's it's football, it's not baseball. You can't
just say, well, that's one on one sixty two. Yeah, right,
you know, it's one of twelve games and there is
no excuse, and the leadership has got to make that
very clear. There is no excuse for anything less than
your best. Yeah, it's a good question.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
You may have stumbled upon something that is a hell
of an idea for a name of a bowl game?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
A ball? Which bowl game?
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Guys going to a ball? Going to the ball? A ball?
Speaker 1 (17:38):
All right here, you're the man. We'll talk about Friday.
All right, man, all right here, melling with us. Lenny
Wilkins was announced yesterday afternoon had passed away at the
age of eighty eight years of all you heard Kevin
Harlan mention that in the Fox CBS Sorry broadcast yesterday
on television, everybody I think has some kind of connection,
some kind of story to Lenny. He was on our
(18:01):
show multiple times over the years, many many times over
the years. We're going to replay a few minutes of
an interview that we did with him a couple of
years ago.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
One final time.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Get to hear the voice of maybe the biggest basketball
figure this talent has ever seen. Lenny Wilkins dead at
the age of eighty eight. Well here from the multi
time Hall of Famer. Next on ninety three to three KJRFM.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
From the R and R Foundation Specialist Broadcast Studio. Now
back to SOFTI and Dick on your Home for the Huskies,
Kraken and the twelfth Man Sports Radio ninety three point
three KJR FM.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
All right, we're back on a busy Monday Eagles, Packers,
Monday Night Football coming up, five o'clock.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Little textimonials four forty five.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Obviously, we're talking a lot about the Seahawk game yesterday,
the Husky game on Saturday. But we all found out
the news during the Seahawk game on Sunday that Lenny
Wilkins had died at the age of eighty eight years old.
Just got a statue outside Climate Pledge Arena a few
months ago, and all of us I think we're hoping
beyond hope that the team could come back so Lenny
(19:06):
could be a part of it, and that is now
not going to happen. But the tributes are pouring in
from all over. I mean, this is a guy who
was not just a sonic legend as a player and
a coach, but he was an NBA coach Dick for
thirty six years. Think about how much the NBA changed
from nineteen sixty nine to two thousand and five. It's
like a different world, for God's sakes, the NBA from
(19:27):
the late sixties to the early part of this century,
and he was a part of all of that, the
way that he had to adjust, the way that he
had to get used to the different style of play,
was just amazing that he was able to survive in
the NBA. But look, I think for a lot of us,
he was our first real big time sports heroes. I
was five and a half, you were four and a
(19:48):
half when the Sonics won the NBA title in nineteen
seventy nine, and if you were in your mid fifties
early sixties, right now, Lenny Wilkins is basically a legend
for what he did in this town. Passed away yesterday
at the age of eighty eight. We had a chance
to catch up with him multiple times, too many times
to count on this radio show. One of the final
(20:11):
times was in person at the Sports Star Banquet May
twenty six of twenty twenty two, three and a half
years ago. He's not just a one time Hall of Famer.
He's not just a two time Hall of Famer. He's
a three time Hall of Famer as a player, a coach,
and with USA Basketball.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
The Great Lenny Wilkins is with us on the ear.
How are you, coach.
Speaker 6 (20:30):
I'm doing fine, thank you, and thanks for having me.
It's fun to be here and see so many people.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
What was it like for you living in Seattle in
the late seventies early eighties, and how you fired up
youth like us, right, guys that were guys that were
six to fifteen years old becoming Sonics junkies.
Speaker 7 (20:50):
I was five, by the way, don't remind me.
Speaker 6 (20:54):
Yeah, But you know, I like to tell people, you know,
I came here kicking, a screaming.
Speaker 7 (20:59):
I left the playoff team, the Saint Louis Hawks.
Speaker 6 (21:02):
They had just moved to Atlanta, and we had a
contract problem and I never signed a contract and got
traded to here. And this was a team that was
only here one year. It was expansion team. But we
fell in love with the area, with the fans, and
my kids grew up here and we made our home here.
We're still here and we love it. I have two
(21:26):
daughters that live in the Woodenville area, and I have grandkids.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
I have.
Speaker 6 (21:31):
My son is in Georgia because he worked there with me,
and he works for the Boys and Girls Clubs of
America and their headquarters is in Atlanta, so he's there,
but he comes back to see us all the time.
Speaker 7 (21:47):
But this is a wonderful area. We got great fans.
Speaker 6 (21:51):
Really, I mean I and I still to this day
feel like the championship team was a wonderful team.
Speaker 7 (21:59):
We had some great play and I don't think they
get the full.
Speaker 6 (22:04):
Credit that they should get, but it was wonderful and
they all know that they were a part of it.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Well, that's why we like having you on the air,
to keep the flame alive and tell stories like that.
You know the name James Worthy, obviously from back in
the day. James Worthy was on a radio show in
Dallas and talked about the fundamentals of today's player in
the NBA. He said, guys are coming to the NBA
who are not fundamentally sound. All they do is practice threes,
(22:30):
lift weights, get tattoos and tweets.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Do you agree with James Worthy, Well.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
I agree this that they're great talents and but yes,
they don't understand the game totally and and and they don't.
Speaker 7 (22:45):
Make them work at it.
Speaker 6 (22:46):
You know, if I were coaching a young talent, you
wouldn't know how to defend you. You wouldn't know how
to deal with screen and roll. You know, you would
know how to help and recover. I mean, those are
basic things that worked on all the time. And I
think that if you want to be good, if you
want to have a chance to win a championship, you
(23:06):
have to understand that and you've got to be able
to put it in practice.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
Well, what can be done to fix that? Because we
argue all the time over what rights that eighteen year
old kids should be having to make money?
Speaker 7 (23:18):
And I see the value in going to college.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
I see the value in having Mike Krzyzewski coaching for
two or three years. I see the value in those things.
But yet there's the free market economy too. And let
but are those guys learning how to play basketball before
they get into the NBA?
Speaker 7 (23:32):
Well, you know, you know, I've always felt this.
Speaker 6 (23:34):
I felt that when a young man goes to college,
he should have to stay two or three years.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Yeah, and so how do we do that?
Speaker 6 (23:41):
You know, I think you have to entice that, because
you know, they can leave to earn make a living. So,
all right, what can we do about that? I think
that you could set up some kind of a trust
fund or where that if they stayed two years, they
would come into that, they stayed three years, they would
come into that. Now, the college just can do that
(24:03):
if they put their mind to it so that this way,
if a young man is afraid that he might get
hurt and lose his earning power, here's something that.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Would help him.
Speaker 7 (24:14):
So if you had that type of fun available, maybe.
Speaker 6 (24:19):
That would entice a young man or a young woman
to stay for two three years.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
How's your game these days? By the way, you ever
go out and throw it up a little bit?
Speaker 7 (24:27):
Nah No, I don't.
Speaker 6 (24:29):
I just in my mind, you know, when I go
visit my grandson.
Speaker 7 (24:34):
In Georgia, it's funny, you know.
Speaker 6 (24:37):
He he's a nice little athlete.
Speaker 7 (24:40):
So he has a hoop outside his house and he
wants to go out and shoot.
Speaker 6 (24:45):
So he'll go out and he'll throw me the ball,
you know, and I take it, take it to the
basket and lay it in there.
Speaker 7 (24:52):
You go, because I.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Know I could do that. I would love to see that.
It's awesome to see you again. Thanks for doing this, coach,
and we'll talk down the road, Lenny.
Speaker 7 (25:02):
Okay for Sheila.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Thank you. That was three years ago.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Guys made twenty six of twenty twenty two, and Lenny
Wilkins passed away over the weekend at the age of
eighty eight. I don't know about you, guys, When you
think about being on a list that includes five people,
and John Wooden's one of them, that's pretty amazing. There's
only been five coaches that have been inducted into the
Hall of Famous Players. Lenny Wilkins, John Wooden, Bill Sharmon,
(25:26):
Tommy Heinzen, and Bill Russell. That's it in the history
of the Nasmith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
And he is our guy.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
I mean we share him obviously with Atlanta, Cleveland, places
like that, but didn't win a title there like he
won for us, and for years and years and years
and years and years until Pete Carroll came around. I know,
you get this, Jackson Dick, you certainly do. He's really
all we had.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
That was it.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
All we had for a title was the seventy nine Sonics.
And you knew the names off the top of your head, Lenny,
Freddie Guss, JJ, Wally Jack, all those guys, and Lenny
Wilkins was the leader of that group. And when you're five,
six years old, seven eight years old, growing up in Seattle,
late seventies, early eighties, and it was more of a
community minded thing back then. You could go to places
(26:14):
like for me growing up the JCC or Mercer Island,
the Pro Club in Bellevue.
Speaker 8 (26:20):
And these dudes are all there, and they're all hanging
around like normal people, going to their car, changing their clothes,
in the locker room, playing basketball, playing pickup five and
five with whoever is going to show up.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
These guys became a part of the community, and Lenny
Wilkins was the leader.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
Well, and you mentioned you know sharing, I mean, heck,
he decided to live here the rest of us. I
never lost his accent, he never lost his access. And
I think maybe people don't realize that he wasn't just
like a top ten, top five winning as coach. When
he retired in two thousand and five, he was number
one in NBA history in most wins with thirteen hundred
(26:57):
and thirty two. He still holds the record for coaching
the most games. No one has ever coached more games
in the NBA than Lenny Wilkins. And to your point
about you know him not being able to see the Sonics,
that is that is a tragedy. But I will say
I am so glad that he got the opportunity to
see his bronze right next to that new stadium. And
(27:18):
he was there for that day, and that would have
been a real shame had that had gone up two
three years from now.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
He would trade it for the team back. Of course,
you know that he would trade it for the team back.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I mean you think about the thirty two years that
he spent as an NBA head coach. I mean, obviously
between sixty nine two thousand and five. He wasn't a
coach for every single one of those years, but the
coaching career spanned, you know, thirty six seasons, and the
thirty two years total on the job as an NBA
head coach is also number one games and years. I
(27:51):
mean Don Nelson, Greg Popovich, Jerry Sloan, Doc Rivers, pat Riley,
Rick Carlyle, Eric Spostro. With what he's done, nobody coach longer,
nobody than Lenny and to be able to survive in
two totally different eras is unbelievable.
Speaker 6 (28:09):
Man.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
And again, just a class guy. You mentioned the word, class,
class guy all around. Was always the first guy anything
basketball related. We sit here in the radio program and
think about who do you call?
Speaker 4 (28:19):
It?
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Was Lenny Lenny, Lenny Lenny.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Every single time he was the guy you had to
get the opinion from.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
He's on the Ironic News. He's the first guy we called,
do you think Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
We're gonna miss him, just miss just having him on
the air and having him around. And when they do
bring the team back and his number goes up on
the rafters and his name goes up in the rafters,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
I heard Mark say today. I think he's right.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
The NBA should do a moment of silence at every arena,
and they should wear his initials on every player's jersey
for the rest of the year. That's how much he
meant to the NBA.
Need more, a little more. And four with our friend
Hugh Millin. Hey, guys, I know we're pressed for time,
Hugh and Dick. Can I give you one twenty second
bit on why the A people continues to be ridiculous?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hugh, you're ready for this one?
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Yeah? Oregon Oregon?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
And I'm no Duck fan, you know that?
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Is that right?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Oregon drops a spot from six to seven after beating Iowa.
They switch places with ole Miss who beat the Citadel.
Jez Explain that one to me.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Hugh, Yeah, uh, I can't listen. You're yeah, you're you're
just danger in dangerous waters with me on on the
AP Yeah, no kidding with the nineteen eighty four. I know,
I know the history of the AP. Well, let me
let me put you sixty to eleven forty, but he remembers.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, nobody does. Let me put you back in a
good mood. How good is this? How good is honestly?
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Dude?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Is the Seahawk football team that we're seeing right now?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Well? You know, I almost so good that you wonder
if they're peaking too soon? Yeah? You know, And and
I only say that partially in jest, but uh yeah,
I just you look at even when they don't have
their middle linebacker, their you know, their their quarterback, of
their secondary and Julian Love, I mean that it seems
like no matter what they're missing, they they have just
(01:23):
they're tied to a string. It's really apparent in zone blitzes.
I mean they come into the game and they are
in terms of their their rush percent Now I don't
have the damn thing in front of me, but uh,
the the number of of four man rushes, that's all.
They're almost the highest in the league. The percentage of
(01:44):
five man rushers are the fewest, but they're they're number
of dbs who are rushing are in the top five
in the league. And so what that means is they're
creating a lot of mayhem. So if you're only rushing
four but you have a high person percentage of plays
where at least one dB is rushing, that's just a
(02:05):
stat that speaks to all the mayhem that you're creating.
And the mayhem was a factor in both of those fumbles.
So it's certainly a great ascension that they're on right now.
And I cannot wait for this Sunday against the Rams
and the battle between Sean McVay and Mike McDonald.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Well, how concerned should we be that the two legitimate
playoff teams that they faced they lost those games? Now,
should we be concerned about that? Or because they were
so long ago September seventh, in October fifth, that this
is a different football team than it was back then.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, it's a fair concern. And ask me in seven days, right,
you know, I mean, I understand why the Rams are favored.
There have been two really big breakdowns that I've done
of the Ram defense in this calendar year, and one
of them was the Rams against the Vikings when Sam
Darnold was the quarterback in that playoff game. And the
(03:04):
other one the thirty third team just asked me to
break Daniel down Daniel Jones, which you guys would know
that I kind of just got a smile on my
face because they didn't know what I've thought of Daniel
Jones for the last three or four years. You know,
I thought that he was vastly underrated anyway. So I've
looked at about three hundred and fifty plays or more
(03:25):
from the Colts this year, and the two defenses that
absolutely jumped out at me, like way beyond anybody else
that the Colts have played is the Broncos. They've got
a hell of a defense and the Rams. The Rams
are some get after it for their schemes, their dudes,
they fly around, they don't hesitate, they're athletic. I mean,
(03:46):
I mean, that's that's maybe one part of the NFL
that I'm surprised I don't hear more people talk about
it's the Ram defense because of Sean McVay, and it's
Matthew Stafford MVP, and it's Puka Niku was is he
you know, is he gonna be able to catch jaysn
and all these DeVante Adams? Like, there's a lot of
stories of the Rams, but nobody just talks about how
(04:09):
they have just got a hoss defense man. So yeah,
it'll be fun to watch.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah, the Rams are interesting to me.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Remember they won the championship in twenty one and everyone said, well,
they're selling their soul to do it. Remember that they did.
They're selling out, They're gonna be terrible, And they were
terrible the next year. They were five and twelve the
next year, but then ten and seven, ten and seven,
and now they seem like they're back to championship caliber
at seven and two. So I guess the question is, Hugh,
(04:36):
when you look at this upcoming game on Sunday. And
we can talk more about yesterday's game in a second,
but I want to jump ahead to Sunday for a minute.
Of all the four main units Seahawk offense, Seahawk Defense,
RAM Defense, RAM offense, which unit would you want if
we're having a draft, which one would you take first?
Speaker 5 (04:54):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
That's that's damn. Oh who's coaching the unit?
Speaker 2 (04:59):
The guys that are coaching now, I guess so I.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Might take the RAMS unit with Mike McDonald coaching defense.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yeah. Yeah, that's a great question because I think I
think both defenses are pretty I think both defenses are
top five. Now maybe not statistically, but what they can
rise to, you know, their ceiling. They get that RAM
defense has a really high ceiling. I mean they can
create all kinds of havoc and they prove that against
(05:27):
the Vikings. Yeah, yeah, I gotta be honest.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Well, I just wonder, if totally healthy, you'd take the
Hawk's defense because of what you said earlier with Mike McDonald.
I said the exact same thing to Dick at three
o'clock that it doesn't matter that Reid, Ernist Jones and
Julian Lover out. This guy just keeps taking players out
of the stands, plugging him in and they keep kicking
people's asses every week.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Yeah, it's incredible. And it's not just that day, but
it's it's how those guys they improve. I mean, Tyo
Cotta Oh, I was just like, oh man, what is
this August player doing in here? You know? And and
in the first game, you know, you know what an
August player looks like. It's like he's trying really hard,
but you know he's gonna get cut, right, God bless him.
(06:11):
And yet now he makes the team on that who
we played, We played the Packers in the last preseason game, right,
he had that incredible one handed interception because they was
thought that Derek was Derek Reid, that the safety was
going to uh to be the last safety on the roster.
But then all of a sudden, Tyle Cotty has that
(06:31):
incredible one handed interception in the preseason game. And then
the next series he has this this he comes up
and he feels like he's you know, I don't know,
Ken Kenny Easley or something, and you just go whoa
who's number thirty nine and now all of a sudden
he makes the team, then doesn't play well when he
gets the first shot. But now he's you know, it's
(06:52):
like he's like Troy Paula Molo. He's just everywhere and
and you know, throwing his body around, good instincts, you know, recognition,
you know, jumping forty inches up, making one handed interceptions.
I mean, you know, yeah, he's he's showing signs of
what Mike McDonald one of the great things that he does.
He's a great teacher, you know, emon worry the whole thing.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Hugh Sam Darnold's passer rating in the first half has
won thirty six on the season. Now in the second half,
it's only ninety two. So is that drop concerning to
you or is it because the Hawks are just up
by thirty points sometimes going into the second half.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Yeah, they've certainly been sharper. It's not concerning to me
yet because I've seen you know, I saw a clutch
against the forty nine ers that that go route that
he threw up the left side and up the west sideline,
you know, to get him in the position to win
the game. The clutch, the clutch two clutch throws that
(07:51):
he had in the last drive against the Cardinals down
in Arizona. You know the play that he made in
the second half. I get Patrick Queen spinning around in
the second half and getting twenty seven yards on a
third and long. I mean, that was so I've seen,
and that's not the entire list, but I think that
there have been moments where you say, Okay, this is
(08:13):
a clutch moment, Donald, how are you gonna respond? And
for the most part, he just shows like he's got
ice water. So I'm not real concern about that. As
far as the interception, if you're bothered by the interception
that happened yesterday, then I want you to tell me
(08:34):
how to coach Sam Darnold as the quarterback. Because he
goes play action to his left, he turns his back
on the defense. He's got a little skid route coming
right in the mill. Watch the end zone copy. You
got jsn coming right in between. It's going to be
an easy completion. But you got a J Barner who's
the tight end on the right in what's called an
off position in the yard. There's a pros and cons
(08:56):
for having him in the off position, meaning he's not
on the line of scrimmage. He's in the off now
the backside defense. The reason why you have him off
is he's in a in a threat to do a
seal block or run a slip route also called a
slice route. He can come and be part of the
blocking scheme. So you have to account. You're got to
communicate on the backside when he's in an off position.
(09:17):
But the protection that the Seahawks we're in, you've got
the right tackle coming down in a Lucas. He's gonna
come down and there's a little momentary gap for that
linebacker to slice in in the sea gap, and AJ
Barner's got to recognize that he's got to come down
hard on that. Cannot let somebody cross his faith that
(09:38):
is that is an F for that play. That's an F.
But Sam Donalds got to do his job. And so
when when Sam A J. Barner's guy gets pushed literally
into the pocket immediately like he's on rollerskates, then now
he goes to throw it, he goes off a helmet.
If you're upset with that, I can't help you. Like
sometimes in sports, just crap happens, but it was not
(10:00):
the quarterbacks. That is not the quarterback's fault. A center
exchange fumble with a backup center. This is what I
can tell you. As you take your middle finger and
you put it right up the ass crack of the
of the center, and then you try and find a
little spot with your wrist, like, okay, this seems like
the spot right. You don't want to be too close
to his junk because then he's gonna snap it. Ont
(10:23):
like it, but you can't be too far away. Like
every single anatomy, there is the right spot, and you
get used to one guy and then you drop it
when another guy comes in. That happens right right then,
and then the other one the other fumble he had,
he's moving to his left and the guy, Josh Sweat,
beats Abe Lucas and he reaches out with eighty what
(10:45):
I looked it up, eighty four and an eighth inch wingspan,
which is ninety fifth percentile of all defensive ends. That
guy was almost the Super Bowl in the MVP last year.
If it wasn't for for Jalen Hurts, Josh Sweat would
have been the MV look it up in that Super Bowl.
You know, he's just creating mayhem, and he created mayhem
(11:06):
on one play for a Lucas and Sam Donald is
looking to his left, he's throwing his hand. Is he's
not protecting the ball because he's in the act of throwing. Right,
if you get your hand hit in the act of throwing,
you're gonna fumble. So I don't know. I think there's
a lot of hand ringing. And you heard Mike McDonald,
I'm on his side. What is Mike mcdonaldy was asked,
are you concerned about that? He's like, no, you know,
(11:29):
for all the reasons I just said, right, Well.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
On top of that, thirty five nothing, thirty eight seven,
thirty eight, fifteen, thirty one seven.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Those are the.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Scores of the last four turnovers by Sam Donald. Hey
here we got about five minutes here. I feel like
sometimes the best question doesn't even really come with a point.
I just want to say two words and have you
go husky football man, Oh jeez, what do you think?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Well, I think it's very discouraging that that what you
thought was going to be the strength of the team,
the offense and the playmaking ability. It was just bone dry.
And I've watched the coach's tape and I'll choose my
words very carefully. If you watched only that tape from
(12:14):
Wisconsin and your job was to grade Demand Williams for
the NFL, that's an undrafted free agent. Like he's late,
he's his his vision is poor. Like I don't think
he's being coached well. And I don't think that. I mean,
this is a continual thing that the free runners at
(12:36):
the quarterback. Uh, this one wasn't so much some blitzers,
although late in the in the in the fourth quarter,
there was some cats, some some edge pressure coming off Totally,
It's like it's like Washington's never even talked about it,
let alone practice it and have a plan to execute.
This was more the stunts, time and time again. The stunts.
(12:57):
It's like the offensive lineman, you know, and and every
everybody at some point was a culprit. But they're there.
They got poor job of communicating on the stunts, poor
job of recognizing too many free runners. It just looks
like it looks like, I don't know, it looks like
street ball too much, and so very very extremely disappointing.
On the offensive side.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
The wide receivers, Hugh, what are you seeing on the
all twenty two because it looked like a lot of times,
Demon's going back there one thousand and three, you know,
thousand and one, thousand and two, thousand and three, thousand
and four, and he's got to take off. Was really
nobody open or is he missing guys?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Well on that third and six, you know that pre
preceded the last play, the second last play, he's got
Desmond Roebuck coming wide open on a dagger right to left.
He's he's got to turn that loose. Course, that was
bad protection on that one. But you know on the
the interception in the second quarter, the the stutter go
by by by Desmond Roebuck, that corner, like the light
(13:55):
can't get any redder, Okay, it can't. Like it's first
and ten. You've got you've got Chris Lawson coming in
with what's called the OTB sitting right over there. There
was nobody, I mean nobody around right in front of you.
It's first and ten. That like can't get more red.
On the fact that the corner's bailey now there there,
(14:16):
you don't have it. It shows all the signs of
complete predetermination, like I'm gonna throw this double move no
matter what. Right and then on the fumble. You know, uh, Dick,
you you texted me, Hey, what about that fumble? Look,
they called wystick to the left side. They're going whystick.
That is the most ubiquitous concept in high school, college,
(14:39):
in pro If you can't call wystick and then he's
got a slant to the right, and he's got Boston
on a go route. So it's probably like, hey, if
you like the go route in Boston, cause third and twelve.
By the way, the whystick isn't gonna get you the
first down. I hate when offensive coordinator calls a play
that if I throw it to my first choice at
the front, primary receiver, I'm not going to get the
(15:01):
first down. Now, there's a lot of times I'm not
gonna throw for a first down because I'm gonna throw
to my second or third or fourth guy. But I
want my first primary guy that if I throw to
the first guy on the on the progression that he
gets the first down. And third and twelve is not
so long that you can't expect that. But in any event,
so he runs around and Dick, here's the thing you
remember in the bowl game when when Demon made that
(15:23):
incredible play where he spun around in the fourth quarter
against Louisville, went to his left and everybody was how
many flowers through did they throw at demon for that time?
Like it was a heroic play, right, right, So so
him extending those plays has been something that's fed in, Hey,
do it, do it, do it? And that's where I
say there's a street ball nature to what they're doing.
The execution is like it whatever NFL execution is. They
(15:47):
are so they're not even an eye distance of it. Yeah,
in terms of like, okay, these are the reads, this
is what you do. It's just it's just too much
off script stuff.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Well, let me ask you this because Jed was asked
and here we got like two minutes left here, Yeah,
I meanes.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Jed was asked today Dan Rayley. I think you know.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Dan asked him basically, do you worry about losing the
locker room? And I think his terminology was the air
coming out of the balloon, you know, no CFP all
that blah blah blah. Do you worry about that that
at six and three this thing might really fall apart already?
You kind of put yourself in that locker room, and
those kids choose and think no, they're young and they'll
(16:25):
they'll play hard.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Well, there's no question that there's a deflation mentally, Like
to deny that would be just illogical. So it's a
big hurdle mentally for them that now the leadership, whether
it's the coaches, whether it's the captains, whether it's the quarterback,
what have you. They now have got to go play
with emotion, you know, And you saw yesterday in the
seat game, you know, one team was playing with a
(16:47):
great emotion. One team was flat as hell. Sure, and
ostensibly they would have had similar situations. They both had
great wins on Sunday or Monday night football just a
week ago. Right, I'm so so I think the Huskies
it's a big deflation given that clearly they know they
can't be in the playoff. Now it's just you know,
(17:08):
a bowl whatever a bowl is going to be. But
you know that's it's football, it's not baseball. You can't
just say, well, that's one on one sixty two. Yeah, right,
you know, it's one of twelve games and there is
no excuse, and the leadership has got to make that
very clear. There is no excuse for anything less than
your best. Yeah, it's a good question.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
You may have stumbled upon something that is a hell
of an idea for a name of a bowl game?
Speaker 2 (17:33):
A ball? Which bowl game?
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Guys going to a ball? Going to the ball? A ball?
Speaker 1 (17:38):
All right here, you're the man. We'll talk about Friday.
All right, man, all right here, melling with us. Lenny
Wilkins was announced yesterday afternoon had passed away at the
age of eighty eight years of all you heard Kevin
Harlan mention that in the Fox CBS Sorry broadcast yesterday
on television, everybody I think has some kind of connection,
some kind of story to Lenny. He was on our
(18:01):
show multiple times over the years, many many times over
the years. We're going to replay a few minutes of
an interview that we did with him a couple of
years ago.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
One final time.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Get to hear the voice of maybe the biggest basketball
figure this talent has ever seen. Lenny Wilkins dead at
the age of eighty eight. Well here from the multi
time Hall of Famer. Next on ninety three to three KJRFM.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
From the R and R Foundation Specialist Broadcast Studio. Now
back to SOFTI and Dick on your Home for the Huskies,
Kraken and the twelfth Man Sports Radio ninety three point
three KJR FM.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
All right, we're back on a busy Monday Eagles, Packers,
Monday Night Football coming up, five o'clock.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Little textimonials four forty five.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Obviously, we're talking a lot about the Seahawk game yesterday,
the Husky game on Saturday. But we all found out
the news during the Seahawk game on Sunday that Lenny
Wilkins had died at the age of eighty eight years old.
Just got a statue outside Climate Pledge Arena a few
months ago, and all of us I think we're hoping
beyond hope that the team could come back so Lenny
(19:06):
could be a part of it, and that is now
not going to happen. But the tributes are pouring in
from all over. I mean, this is a guy who
was not just a sonic legend as a player and
a coach, but he was an NBA coach Dick for
thirty six years. Think about how much the NBA changed
from nineteen sixty nine to two thousand and five. It's
like a different world, for God's sakes, the NBA from
(19:27):
the late sixties to the early part of this century,
and he was a part of all of that, the
way that he had to adjust, the way that he
had to get used to the different style of play,
was just amazing that he was able to survive in
the NBA. But look, I think for a lot of us,
he was our first real big time sports heroes. I
was five and a half, you were four and a
(19:48):
half when the Sonics won the NBA title in nineteen
seventy nine, and if you were in your mid fifties
early sixties, right now, Lenny Wilkins is basically a legend
for what he did in this town. Passed away yesterday
at the age of eighty eight. We had a chance
to catch up with him multiple times, too many times
to count on this radio show. One of the final
(20:11):
times was in person at the Sports Star Banquet May
twenty six of twenty twenty two, three and a half
years ago. He's not just a one time Hall of Famer.
He's not just a two time Hall of Famer. He's
a three time Hall of Famer as a player, a coach,
and with USA Basketball.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
The Great Lenny Wilkins is with us on the ear.
How are you, coach.
Speaker 6 (20:30):
I'm doing fine, thank you, and thanks for having me.
It's fun to be here and see so many people.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
What was it like for you living in Seattle in
the late seventies early eighties, and how you fired up
youth like us, right, guys that were guys that were
six to fifteen years old becoming Sonics junkies.
Speaker 7 (20:50):
I was five, by the way, don't remind me.
Speaker 6 (20:54):
Yeah, But you know, I like to tell people, you know,
I came here kicking, a screaming.
Speaker 7 (20:59):
I left the playoff team, the Saint Louis Hawks.
Speaker 6 (21:02):
They had just moved to Atlanta, and we had a
contract problem and I never signed a contract and got
traded to here. And this was a team that was
only here one year. It was expansion team. But we
fell in love with the area, with the fans, and
my kids grew up here and we made our home here.
We're still here and we love it. I have two
(21:26):
daughters that live in the Woodenville area, and I have grandkids.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
I have.
Speaker 6 (21:31):
My son is in Georgia because he worked there with me,
and he works for the Boys and Girls Clubs of
America and their headquarters is in Atlanta, so he's there,
but he comes back to see us all the time.
Speaker 7 (21:47):
But this is a wonderful area. We got great fans.
Speaker 6 (21:51):
Really, I mean I and I still to this day
feel like the championship team was a wonderful team.
Speaker 7 (21:59):
We had some great play and I don't think they
get the full.
Speaker 6 (22:04):
Credit that they should get, but it was wonderful and
they all know that they were a part of it.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Well, that's why we like having you on the air,
to keep the flame alive and tell stories like that.
You know the name James Worthy, obviously from back in
the day. James Worthy was on a radio show in
Dallas and talked about the fundamentals of today's player in
the NBA. He said, guys are coming to the NBA
who are not fundamentally sound. All they do is practice threes,
(22:30):
lift weights, get tattoos and tweets.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Do you agree with James Worthy, Well.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
I agree this that they're great talents and but yes,
they don't understand the game totally and and and they don't.
Speaker 7 (22:45):
Make them work at it.
Speaker 6 (22:46):
You know, if I were coaching a young talent, you
wouldn't know how to defend you. You wouldn't know how
to deal with screen and roll. You know, you would
know how to help and recover. I mean, those are
basic things that worked on all the time. And I
think that if you want to be good, if you
want to have a chance to win a championship, you
(23:06):
have to understand that and you've got to be able
to put it in practice.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
Well, what can be done to fix that? Because we
argue all the time over what rights that eighteen year
old kids should be having to make money?
Speaker 7 (23:18):
And I see the value in going to college.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
I see the value in having Mike Krzyzewski coaching for
two or three years. I see the value in those things.
But yet there's the free market economy too. And let
but are those guys learning how to play basketball before
they get into the NBA?
Speaker 7 (23:32):
Well, you know, you know, I've always felt this.
Speaker 6 (23:34):
I felt that when a young man goes to college,
he should have to stay two or three years.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Yeah, and so how do we do that?
Speaker 6 (23:41):
You know, I think you have to entice that, because
you know, they can leave to earn make a living. So,
all right, what can we do about that? I think
that you could set up some kind of a trust
fund or where that if they stayed two years, they
would come into that, they stayed three years, they would
come into that. Now, the college just can do that
(24:03):
if they put their mind to it so that this way,
if a young man is afraid that he might get
hurt and lose his earning power, here's something that.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Would help him.
Speaker 7 (24:14):
So if you had that type of fun available, maybe.
Speaker 6 (24:19):
That would entice a young man or a young woman
to stay for two three years.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
How's your game these days? By the way, you ever
go out and throw it up a little bit?
Speaker 7 (24:27):
Nah No, I don't.
Speaker 6 (24:29):
I just in my mind, you know, when I go
visit my grandson.
Speaker 7 (24:34):
In Georgia, it's funny, you know.
Speaker 6 (24:37):
He he's a nice little athlete.
Speaker 7 (24:40):
So he has a hoop outside his house and he
wants to go out and shoot.
Speaker 6 (24:45):
So he'll go out and he'll throw me the ball,
you know, and I take it, take it to the
basket and lay it in there.
Speaker 7 (24:52):
You go, because I.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Know I could do that. I would love to see that.
It's awesome to see you again. Thanks for doing this, coach,
and we'll talk down the road, Lenny.
Speaker 7 (25:02):
Okay for Sheila.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Thank you. That was three years ago.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Guys made twenty six of twenty twenty two, and Lenny
Wilkins passed away over the weekend at the age of
eighty eight. I don't know about you, guys, When you
think about being on a list that includes five people,
and John Wooden's one of them, that's pretty amazing. There's
only been five coaches that have been inducted into the
Hall of Famous Players. Lenny Wilkins, John Wooden, Bill Sharmon,
(25:26):
Tommy Heinzen, and Bill Russell. That's it in the history
of the Nasmith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
And he is our guy.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
I mean we share him obviously with Atlanta, Cleveland, places
like that, but didn't win a title there like he
won for us, and for years and years and years
and years and years until Pete Carroll came around. I know,
you get this, Jackson Dick, you certainly do. He's really
all we had.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
That was it.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
All we had for a title was the seventy nine Sonics.
And you knew the names off the top of your head, Lenny,
Freddie Guss, JJ, Wally Jack, all those guys, and Lenny
Wilkins was the leader of that group. And when you're five,
six years old, seven eight years old, growing up in Seattle,
late seventies, early eighties, and it was more of a
community minded thing back then. You could go to places
(26:14):
like for me growing up the JCC or Mercer Island,
the Pro Club in Bellevue.
Speaker 8 (26:20):
And these dudes are all there, and they're all hanging
around like normal people, going to their car, changing their clothes,
in the locker room, playing basketball, playing pickup five and
five with whoever is going to show up.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
These guys became a part of the community, and Lenny
Wilkins was the leader.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
Well, and you mentioned you know sharing, I mean, heck,
he decided to live here the rest of us. I
never lost his accent, he never lost his access. And
I think maybe people don't realize that he wasn't just
like a top ten, top five winning as coach. When
he retired in two thousand and five, he was number
one in NBA history in most wins with thirteen hundred
(26:57):
and thirty two. He still holds the record for coaching
the most games. No one has ever coached more games
in the NBA than Lenny Wilkins. And to your point
about you know him not being able to see the Sonics,
that is that is a tragedy. But I will say
I am so glad that he got the opportunity to
see his bronze right next to that new stadium. And
(27:18):
he was there for that day, and that would have
been a real shame had that had gone up two
three years from now.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
He would trade it for the team back. Of course,
you know that he would trade it for the team back.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I mean you think about the thirty two years that
he spent as an NBA head coach. I mean, obviously
between sixty nine two thousand and five. He wasn't a
coach for every single one of those years, but the
coaching career spanned, you know, thirty six seasons, and the
thirty two years total on the job as an NBA
head coach is also number one games and years. I
(27:51):
mean Don Nelson, Greg Popovich, Jerry Sloan, Doc Rivers, pat Riley,
Rick Carlyle, Eric Spostro. With what he's done, nobody coach longer,
nobody than Lenny and to be able to survive in
two totally different eras is unbelievable.
Speaker 6 (28:09):
Man.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
And again, just a class guy. You mentioned the word, class,
class guy all around. Was always the first guy anything
basketball related. We sit here in the radio program and
think about who do you call?
Speaker 4 (28:19):
It?
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Was Lenny Lenny, Lenny Lenny.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Every single time he was the guy you had to
get the opinion from.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
He's on the Ironic News. He's the first guy we called,
do you think Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
We're gonna miss him, just miss just having him on
the air and having him around. And when they do
bring the team back and his number goes up on
the rafters and his name goes up in the rafters,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
I heard Mark say today. I think he's right.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
The NBA should do a moment of silence at every arena,
and they should wear his initials on every player's jersey
for the rest of the year. That's how much he
meant to the NBA.
Dave 'Softy' Mahler and Dick Fain News
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