* George Blaha, legendary Detroit Pistons and Michigan State football broadcaster

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jack Ebling here with my good friend Matt Sloan of
graph of Okemists. Lots of traffic over here. Things are
going great. Matt whise everyone coming here.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well, Jack, I'm a little biased, but I like to
think it's the people. We truly have a great staff
here to a service body shop sales. A lot of
our employees were here before we bought the store, and
the family atmosphere and the fact that we truly care
and want to take care of our customers and make
it a great experience for them and build that relationship.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Can't ask for more than that, Stoppa. See Matt and
the gang here at graph of Ocamists. They're making friends.
Great afternoon mid Michigan and beyond, and welcome to the
Drive with Jack. It is a spotlight a radio network.
Jack Evlin here with my producer Boston Rob on a
sunny but breezy Thursday afternoon, fifty nine degrees in mid Michigan,

(00:47):
and we have tons to talk about. Tigers with a
double header in Colorado, that's a good way to fatten
up your winning percentage. And we have tons of be
a basketball and Stanley Cup playoff hockey to talk about.
Want to welcome in our first guest, George Blaha, Hall

(01:08):
of Fame, voice of the Detroit Pistons and a man
behind a mic for Michigan State football since nineteen seventy one. Georgia,
congratulations on your New York Knicks, your second favorite team,
and what they're doing to the Boston Celtics.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
And they're tough minded. You know, I love that New
York piss of the series because yeah, both those coaches
are tough minded, and those the teams played to the
personality of their coaches, and same things happening with the
Knicks against the Celtics. I'm not sure they're a lot
to win this series. Just pighte be an up to

(01:47):
all of both wins being on the other guy's floor.
But it's still but a very exciting first two games.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Well, it's got to feel good for the Knicks to
be up by two and have three games of the
last five at home. But it's never happened before, George,
that a team has been down twenty in back to
back games and one in the playoffs. That's what the
Knicks did. And it seems like they're just kind of

(02:15):
hanging around and then they get a surge in the
fourth quarter, and the Knicks have a lot of clutch players.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
And they're fighters. But you were at both games in
the first round at Little Seeds, I don't know you
were at yeah game I was a game six, Yeah, yeah.
But you know, these guys fly around and they play
like you want them to play. And the Fifthings did

(02:44):
as well in that first round series. And when you're
throwing your body around and taking advantage of every conceivable
chance to make a positive play, it makes a big difference.
Nobody's getting back on defense. Nobody was in that piss
the next series, and the Nicks certainly aren't in the
Boston series.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
George. One thing that I can never judge, and I
think it's different from series to series, is what difference
it makes if you have a tough fight in the
series before, as opposed to coasting through and having a
few more days off. They talk about rest versus rust
being a concern for the team that's done, But Nicks

(03:29):
didn't seem like they missed a beat, picked up right
where they left off at Little Caesars Arena and made
the plays with Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart some big
plays and Mitkal Bridges amazing what he can do defensively,
and I don't know if anyone can ever block his
jump shot exactly.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
Well, those guys, first of all, they went through the
mill against the Pistons in those six games in round
number one and nobody got hurt. Yeah, at least seriously.
And a day or two to catch your breath and
just keep it going, you don't. I don't think they
needed any hard practices to get ready. They were already

(04:15):
step to tango with the with the defending champs. I
don't know what's up with Boston. They almost steam like
they think they're going to win no matter what, and
there's no no matter what in the postseason. And really
they should know better, and they probably do know better,
but they're not playing anything anything like a team that

(04:38):
is desperate and every game is important in the postseason.
Every game is really a must win game.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
I think they really missed Chris tops Porzingis and he
was there, just played a little bit last night. But
Al Horford was exposed a bunch of times by Carl
Anthony Towns and Towns another guy who yeah he's not
there every night, but when he's there, he makes a
gigantic difference.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yeah, that's a talented big man, and you know he
is a seventh footer with a great touch, and he's
surrounded by guys who are absolute battlers, So how could
you not play that way? I think the other four
guys always play that way, and Karl Anthony Towns is

(05:27):
starting to copy their attitude. And of course you got
to do that if you expect to beat the Celtics.
Come on.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, And I think the Knicks are going to have
trouble as the playoffs continue because of their bench. Mitchell
Robinson gives them something, but he's also a liability on offense.
But the guy who's impressed me the most in the playoffs,
because I wasn't expecting exactly what I've gotten on defense

(05:56):
is og Annonobi and he has given Jason and Tatum fits.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
George, I agree, he is an excellent all around player.
People always talked about his defense, but until you see him,
until you see him against somebody as highly skilled as
Tatum and in a clutch situation, and you really realize

(06:21):
what a stop or he can be, and then his
offense is very important. Out of the Knicks, and he
had a one subpar game against the Pistons offensively, but
for the most part, he's a guy who you better
defend or you're in trouble.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
George, can you explain why the visiting teams here won
seven straight road games before OKC took care of business
and whacked Denver last night.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
I don't know. I do think the home court is
probably more important in high school and it is in college,
probably more important in colleagues, and it isn't the pros
because these guys are used to playing before hostile crowds,

(07:15):
and you know, they understand that that goes with the territory.
So that's one thing. But sometimes people get somewhere in
their head they think, well, we're at home, it'll be
a little easier. What happened with the Pistons actually was
I think it got a little harder for them because
the fans were so amped up in New York. I

(07:36):
just went out and played figured them. They're playing against
the Knicks and the crowd in Detroit. They were trying
to match the crowd's intensity, and a couple of times
they look nervous. But that's my only explanation. You know,
these guys are are pros and They know what has
to be done and they're not going to let the
crowd drag them down.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
George. Someone told me that if you had bet one
hundred dollars starting with the first game on Sunday on
the road team and you just let it ride, or
if you'd had a parlay, that one hundred dollars would
be worth more than thirty thousand today.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
How much?

Speaker 1 (08:16):
How about you?

Speaker 3 (08:16):
Were you do it better? Originally? One wow? And a parlays?
Would you take two teams right?

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Two or more? And they all have to win? And
if you'd had a seventeen parlay and so many of
them were eight and a half point underdogs, ten and
a half point underdogs. Uh, the only favorite of those
road teams once Golden State was But you wonder about
Golden State now and look like they were poised to

(08:44):
maybe make some noise in the West after acquiring Jimmy
Butler and now with Steph Curry out, can they get
it done? Do they have enough?

Speaker 3 (08:55):
Well, they got one win, so they got that in
the bank because that'll help. I think step will be
beck before the series is over, but they're going to
miss him for at least a couple of games. They
did get a win, and they did get to win
at Minnesota, so that's a major plus for them. But

(09:15):
you can't take Steff Curry off that team and expect
them to be anywhere near as good as they would
be with him.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Right right, It's interesting in charge. Sometimes when a player
is out, other guys played a way that we haven't seen.
Raymond Green has been a terrific defensive player and has
been more of a facilitator, screening and setting up his teammates.
And the other night with Curry out, he had four

(09:42):
straight three pointers. I don't think he's ever done that before.

Speaker 3 (09:46):
And you know, when you watch him shoot threes, you
realize he's got good form, and when he makes a couple,
you think, well, why doesn't he take more of them?
But he really is, as you say, a facilitator. He
does the work and he's a very bright player, so
he is not going to make mistakes that cost you.

(10:08):
And sometimes he gets more credit than he deserves, I
think because he they look at his numbers and I
just ignore him. Sometimes the numbers don't lie, But I
think outbalance, the guy's a winner, and it's hard, probably
hard for Draymond to figure out what do I need
to do tonight? You know, do I need to score

(10:30):
a little more? If he were on the same wavelength
every time, then then we could really judge Raymond by
his numbers. But sometimes his numbers drop off because he's
trying to do other things to help him win.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
Georgia. In these four series, Uh, the okcan win. Last
night was the only victory for a higher seed thus far.
So you wonder what the team like the Cleveland Cavaliers,
they're in trouble. It looks like against Indiana, and with

(11:09):
Boston being down two zero, you might wind up with
the three seeded Nicks and Indiana they were the five
I believe in the East Final, and it shows how
close the Pistons really were. They could have been in
this series with a break here and there and a

(11:30):
proper call.

Speaker 3 (11:32):
I agree. I think everyone's very, very proud of how
well they played, and everybody thought, well, gee, what, I
don't know if we could play with Boston if we
do get by the next Well, now you kind of
know they could have. And they take on the personality
of JB. Bicker seven, that's a never say die guy,

(11:55):
and those guys just continue to fight and they have
enough skill, and you know, some nights Malie Beasley's jumper
isn't as good as it is on other nights, but man,
he's making three and Jalen Durn's not in foul trouble
in Cade's kid. Uh, Tobias, Tobias, that's how he plays.
I mean, they're they're a tough out and they and

(12:17):
they were for the next I'm sure. And I think
some of the things the nick players said indicated that
they felt like they were in a war for six games,
and they were. So I'm going to talk a little
bit about what the Pistons should do. I keep hearing, well,
should they add this person of that person? Well, don't forget.
They're going to get Jade and Ivy who's a potential

(12:39):
All Star, and they'll have a healthy Isaiah Seword. So
I don't know how much they need to do. I
kind of agree with what Trajan Langdon did at the
trade deadline anyway, just to let these guys play until
we find out what their ceiling is. Now, maybe there's
a different way of thinking in the off seat, even

(13:00):
when you have time to really think about a change
you might want to make, and when some of the
guys you played last season get a little older, maybe
you wonder how much longer they can do it at
that level. But I like the fact that Trajan left
them alone at the trade deadline, and the chemistry on
this team Jack is amazing. I mean, I've been around
for a few more years and I'd like to admit

(13:23):
and this is as good a chemistry as the fists
I've ever had. They're as good as the Bad Boys
chemistry and as good as to go into work chemistry.
Are they as good a team, Well, we'll have to
find out. But they love playing together and they really
play unselfish winning team basketball.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
Georgia was one week ago on the way home from
LCA and someone said, Hey, if you were Trajan Langdon
and you could only keep two of three guys who
could be gone contractually, with Malik Beasley, Tim Hardaway Junior,

(14:03):
both of them, maybe back may not be back, but
I think having Dennis Shrewder there meant a ton. And
my answer was that I guess I'd rather have Beasley
and Shrewder because that backup point position turned out to
be so important and helping take some of the load

(14:26):
off Kid Cunningham. And if you have Ivy back at
full strength, then maybe a guy like Hardaway becomes less important.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
Maybe he does athough he's a tough minded, hard playing
guy who's a great locker room guy, doesn't back down
from anybody. So I would hate to see him go.
But the fact that Shrewder takes some of the load
off Cade handling the ball and running the offense is

(14:57):
big time, and his defense is just dogged. And yeah,
you know, Malik Beasley was probably the difference between forty
wins and forty four wins because the Knights that he
started raining threes, the Pistons were very, very difficult to
be almost impossible if he made four or five threes,

(15:18):
and so he was the difference on many nights during
the season. So you almost can't let him go. But
who knows. General managers get paid a lot more money
than we do. Jack. We have to find out what
tragent really wants to.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
Do, George. When you look at how close some of
these teams are and the series are, you can't find
a closer series in six games, and the Knicks and
the Pistons had Sometimes it isn't just a matter of
a shot going in. It's a matter of what the

(15:52):
officials do, and there were two cases. I think you
could look at it and the Pistons would have won
the series games to two. Obviously, there was one in
Game four when the League office said that a foul
should have been called. And then in Game six, you'll
remember the Pistons led one twelve to one oh seven

(16:16):
and Jalen Brunson went to the basket and initiated contact
as he does so well. But I thought Shrewder was
playing about as good defense as you could. He wasn't reaching,
he was backing up, just trying to contest, and they
actually reviewed that for more than three minutes. I was

(16:38):
not replay was meant to correct egregious errors, but now
it seems like they're making these calls at the table
more often than not. And had they reversed that, or
had the call on the floor been different, even if
it was a play on, I think the Pistons will
be playing the Celtics right now.

Speaker 3 (16:58):
Now. You could be right, certainly, certainly Game four. But
I think I think we talked about this before, but
what's happened in the postseason is we're getting back to
rugged NBA basketball, the way I've always felt the game
should be played. And Dick Harter, who put the Bad

(17:20):
and the Bad Boys when he was Shuck Daily's assistant,
God rest his soul would agree with me. But so
when you're not calling anything for the entire game and
what looks like it might have been a brush on
Tim Hardaway's junior on that corner three. I can understand
why he didn't blow the whistle, I really can. But

(17:42):
when he took another look, he realized he should have
blown the whistle. But there were guys knocking each other's
heads off for forty six or the forty eight minutes
out there. So it's hard all of a sudden to
call every foul that might have had something to do
with out or a pass or a rebound. You'd like

(18:02):
to be able to do it both ways, but it's hard.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
I was talking to a former official, George, and he said, yeah,
you have more physical contact under the boards going for
loose balls, maybe with cutters during the postseason, but if
you don't protect the shooter, then you don't have basketball

(18:28):
as we know it. And I think that's sometimes where
officials they're just a little hesitant to make a call
in the final seconds.

Speaker 3 (18:40):
Well, I think the former officials you talk to makes
great sense because you know, a SHOT's a shot. Everything
else is not quite as important because we keep scoring
these games. And you know, if you lose ninety one
to ninety, like the Celtics did last night, they probably
looking back at some call that wasn't made, might to

(19:03):
change that game, because when they're that close, everything matters.
I'll tell you this, I would not want to be
an official. They get paid reasonably good money. Jack, would
you want to trade your job for that job? I
don't think you would. I certainly wouldn't trade mine.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
No.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
No.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
I did just a little bit of basketball officiating a
half century ago, George, and I couldn't get out of
that fast enough. I mean to me, it was brutal,
and you know, you go home and you start questioning everything,
and then you know you knew some of the people. Oh,

(19:43):
it was a horrific experience. I try to defend officials
as much as I possibly can. I just too wish
that they were, you know, a little more consistent. But
I understand that's the human element you're never going to have.
It's not going to be like tennis, where you can evalue, Wait,
where the balls in or out. That's not going to
happen in basketball. I know that you are not the

(20:05):
world's greatest Cleveland Cavaliers fan, So when Indiana beats them twice,
you're okay with that.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
Right absolutely, and you know nothing against anybody in the organization.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
But I.

Speaker 3 (20:21):
Felt like JB did not get a good shake there,
even a fair shake, And so all of a sudden,
the new coach is getting all the credit. And JB
did an awful lot of basic building for that franchise.
I think even before it started with the injuries to Cleveland,

(20:43):
even I felt like the Pacers are a dangerous team.
I mean, I knew that if the Pistons played the Pacers,
it probably was going to be a great series. Yeah,
for some different reasons, just like the next series turned
out to be Indiana's and Halliburton, we all know he
talks too much and all that, yeah, as does his dad,

(21:06):
but he can play, and they're not without other players
as well.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
Indiana really controlled that series against Milwaukee, and you could
tell then that they were onto something. But you know,
so much of it comes down to health. At this
time of year, you have a rotation, and you know
these are like race cars and you get one piece
out of alignment and everything else can go haywire. You

(21:34):
mentioned the organizations here and what happened with Kenny Atkinson
and JB Bickerstaff. You can only have one coach of
the year, and I guess you can only have one
executive of the year. And Oklahoma City Sam Presty did
a great job, no question. But I think Trajent Langda
did too. And Ryan Field, who you know now is

(21:58):
a sports director ABC in New York. What's complaining that? Yeah, yeah,
great guy. When when you look at the Pistons and
what they did and they didn't have any individual award.

Speaker 3 (22:13):
Winners, that's amazing. I thought, in reality JB did the
most amazing coaching job I've seen in years. No matter
what Cleveland did, he probably should have been the coach
of the year. I mean, fourteen turns into forty four,
come on. And in terms of turning making that happen

(22:36):
for JB, Trajan Langdon turned a team that you know,
you lose twenty eight in a row. You could talk
about all you want, how maybe this could have happened
or that could happen. At the bottom line is that's
a lot of games to lose in a row, and
the Pistons were going in the wrong direction, and he
added some key free agents and then got Dennis Shrewder

(22:58):
at the trade deadline. I don't think anybody could have
done a better job than Trajan did this year. So
those guys, they'll probably tell you who cares. You know,
our owners happy with us, our players are happy. But
deep down inside they got to be thinking, what the
heck happened here? How could both those guys note have

(23:22):
won those awards and for Trajan to finish. I think
he was third. I don't know who was second, I
can't remember, but in the Executive of the Year voting,
that's ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
Yeah, yeah, I think so too. Georgia. You look at
what's happened here with the Knicks. Last thing you think
about Brunson and heart Bridges and Dante DiVincenzo was sent
to Minnesota and he's still playing. This is how good

(23:52):
a week it was for Villanova guys. The first thing.

Speaker 3 (23:56):
The folks from Villanova, you know exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
I don't know if he's a Wildcat of the Week
or not. I mean, given what done, Yeah, I would
think so. I would think so George, thanks so much
for joining us. I really appreciate it. Enjoy the rest
of the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (24:12):
Always great to be on with you, Jack, Keep up
the great work.

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Speaker 1 (25:15):
Jack Ebling here with my good friend Matt Sloan a
graph of Ocemists. Lots of traffic over here. Things are
going great, Matt. Why is everyone coming here?

Speaker 2 (25:22):
Well, Jack, I'm a little biased, but I like to
think it's the people. We truly have a great staff
here to a service body shops, sales. A lot of
our employees were here before we bought the store. And
the family atmosphere and the fact that we truly care
and want to take care of our customers and make
it a great experience for them and build that relationship.

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