Coat Check | Steve Mix

family road Trip sales event at land Rover Wilmington. Stop by their location at forty three ten Kirkwood Highway in Wilmington, Delaware, or visit land Rover Wilmington dot com for more information. I'm Matt Murphy back with another episode. The goal is to do as many of these as possible during the

NBA G League offseason. Look out for new episodes every two weeks on the seventy Sixers podcast network, and you can also find the show under Delaware Bluecoats a fantastic guest for this episode, we're throwing it back to former

Sixer the mayor Steve Mix. This conversation was originally posted on our Bluecoats YouTube channel, so in addition to myself, you will also hear my Bluecoats beat co host Joe Richmond, who of course is the ambassador of basketball for the Bluecoats, and Joe brought the energy as always what else would

you expect from Joe Richmond. We discussed Steve's connection to the G League, his playing career with Doctor j and the seventy Sixers, and much much more, all of which is coming up in a moment after this message from Christiana Care. Of course, as doctor's nerves and caregivers, and as neighbors and friends, Christiannacare is a partner in everyone's journey to greater health and well being. Why do they do it? For the love of health? Visit Christiannacare dot org.

Very pleased to be joined by a long time Philadelphia seventy Sixers player, an All Star, and a former seventy Sixers color commentator, the Mayor Steve Mix. We're really looking forward to this one, Steve. We're gonna jump right into it. Thanks for joining us today. What have you been up to most recently, well about five years ago, we ended up moving down here to Vero Beach, Florida, from Toledo, Ohio, and down here I've been putting on, trying to put

on some basketball camps down here. Not very successful as all the All the sports basically is an outdoor sport down here. Your football, your baseball, you know everything else. Basketball is about the fifth sport down here. But you know, I stay in shape by riding my bike, swimming and playing golf. Playing golf, I can appreciate that I've been trying to get out as much as I can. And Joe, I know, Steve is someone you and I have been looking forward to chatting with for ever since we've heard

about it, So it should be a lot of fun. Yeah, And I'm I'm gonna start off by just I'm gonna die right, is Steve? Because Matt Steve had to Steve had to deal with you owed me? Was Steve Steve? How was that? Well? You know, it was interesting because Doug Collins and I came in together back in seventy three seventy four, and the year after they won nine

games and lost seventy three. Fact I was cut from the nine and seventy three team, but I came back the following year and made the team then, and I was I was a comeback Play of the Year and then an All Star after that, and then Doc comes and he takes my spot, so I become the unofficial six man a year. But you know what, it was a ton of fun watching watching us as a team, you know, with Billy Cunningham and then and then George mcginnison and Doc and you know, that whole group of

guys going through there. I'm thrilled to death that they will were able to win a championship. But I was on the Lakers team that year that they won, so I'm like, okay, I was old for four as a as a guy that got into the NBA finals, but that's okay, I got there. I know guys that played in the league for ten twelve years and never even made the playoffs. So I had what I considered a very good, good career. Wow, quite the comeback story at

the start of your career. And we will get to your NBA and seventy sixers career well also at the end, touch on maybe a little bit of your Big Three coaching career and some other fun mission topics at the buzzer. But before we go there, first things first. With the Blue Coats being the NBA G League affiliate of the seventy Sixers, what is your connection Steve to the NBA G League former league D League. That was interesting because what I ended up doing back in nineteen ninety ninety

two tells you how old I am. Uh Tony de Leo came to me and asked me if I wanted to go around the league and be their big man coach. So I was able to go around that year and try to develop the big guys in uh, in the D League. There are some guys that I was able to help them made it in the NBA, and UH, you know you did. You talk to them, you show them things, you work with them, but you're only there

for a short period of time. But I thought I was pretty successful in doing that and showing the big guys what was what was necessary to get that next level up. That was for all the teams in the league. All the teams in the league, I went around. They had a shooting coach and then they had a big man coach, and I was their big man coach. So I went around. I traveled around to all the teams and tried to help the big guys get to the

next level. Wow, how about that? That's that's that? But that fits right in with who you, Steve, when you was with the Sixers six seven six eight Bruiser. You came in, you stuck some of the toughest guys on the opposite team. You knew how to mix it up. I remember that one series against Boston with the almost booed you out the gym every time you came. I got off the base because you just created havoc every time you went down there, moving bodies out of the way.

And I always told Matt, I know, Doc had a joke with you used to call your sky but you never really jumped that high. But you were guy. You knew how to get into certain places and positioning yourself. Playing against the parishes of the world, the Marcus Johnson's of the world, the more Reese Lucases of the world. You just knew how to position to yourself. And I always, I always, I was telling Matt. We when we were younger, and you used to get the game, you and Bobby Jones.

It's like you guys are coming in. It's like somebody's about to get their teeth docked out right there. You know. It was interesting too, because I mean I had growing up, I had two older brothers, you know, and the one thing that I always tried to do. I always My oldest brother is about eight years older than I am, so my goal was to beat him. And I was able to beat him when I was in high school.

And I couldn't beat the middle brother until I got into college because he played at the University of Toledo as well. And I was taking a butt whooping every day from that guy. And I would show up the next day and I'm okay, here I am, I'm going to get you again. But he put me under his wing and took me all the places that he played.

And I hadn't had a great high school coach and college coach and Bob Nichols and then came to came to the NBA, and it is interested in the NBA because I did not have an outside jump shot at the time. So my goal was to develop an outside jump shot eighteen foot nineteen foot jump shot was I was able to do. And then in the low post,

tried to develop more low posts moves. So by the time I retired after thirteen years in the NBA, I had thirteen moves in the low post that I could go to that I knew I could get guy up off the ground and get in the least contact or get to the bucket. Anyway, Oh, speaking to your development as a player, We'll talk about the NBA more in a second, but I gotta squeeze in a CBA question because you did briefly play in the Continental ballotball of

a minor league. So I feel like everyone who either played, coached, was involved with the CBA at all has all types of crazy stories. But for those who don't know, where did you play and what was it like? Well, it was a weekend, weekend tournament, so you would play on Fridays or Saturdays or Saturdays and Sundays. And if we won the game, I got one hundred and five dollars. If we lost the game, I got eighty five. So

I was working really hard for twenty bucks. And you know, so in that league, I was playing for a team called Grand Rapids. They're in Michigan, Grand Rapids Tackers. The owner owned a carpet company, so obviously the attackers. George Gerbin was in that league in the average about forty eight forty nine a game, perhaps a season before he ended up going to Virginia. Guy out of Michigan by the name of Dennis Stewart average about forty. Dennis. With

my team, I average about thirty eight or forty. In our point guard average about twenty two, so three of us average almost one hundred points per game. But that was where I went to develop my jump shot. That was my main goal was let's develop an outside game, which I was able to do that year. And you won a championship as well, and we won the championship too, so I think I got an extra hundred and five

bucks out of it. We'll have more with Steve Mix shortly, but first, Nomore's Sports Medicine believes that highly personalized one on one physical therapy for young athletes is paramounts to a speedy and complete recovery. Learn more at Nemour's dot org slash PT. And now in the NBA, you've mentioned the longevity you had, You found your footing more than ten seasons, most of those coming with the seventy six ers. What was the turning point for you in your career?

Was it that jump shot? I think so. I think it was the ability excuse me to go out recognize my strengths and my weaknesses, and take my weaknesses and develop those ever try to develop those even every single day and take my strength and even work on those even more so. So once I realized what I could do and can't do, that's when I went out and worked on on the weaknesses because I knew that was preventing me from getting back into the NBA. And once I got back in, then it was a matter of

just knowing the opponent's offense and defenses. So I knew what I could do and the opponent themselves, whether they'd go for a shot fake or whether they'd close out on my right hand if I was on the perimeter, and what I could do from that point on. So it's a matter of understanding the opponent's offense because I was second in the league one year and steals, and then also under standing the opponent and what they like

to do on defensive end. Do they go for the punk fakes where they stay on their feet, Can I shoot turn around jump shot on him or a little fade away. So comparing rors, John bringing you in here because I know you want to talk about Steve's style of play as well as some of his matchups during

his career or the team's matchups during his career. But I want to I want to bring back to it was so amazing as Steve, if you listen to how he did, He's all the way around, when he was with the G League, going to different teams and when he was teaching those guys. It was perfect for someone like him because, as you and I know, man, the G League is about grinding, and that's who he was. He one possession at a time when your guy dawn to get to be the successful person you have to

be so the team could be successful. And that's what the G League is about today. Those guys grinding, grinding, grinding, so they had the perfect teacher that did it on every level. And I'm glad because I kind of see why some of those players that you did help get to made it because they needed to hear those stories and know the type of person you were and your personality going into it. But I want to say this, you gotta remember I'm of your error, Steve. You were

my hero pictures. That team was me and my brother, my brother. But Mike Richmond played at Utah, got drafted at eighty seven by the Dallas Mavericks. But when he played at Utah under coach Don Haskins Tiny eight Archer Bald was on that staff. Tim Floyd on that staff. He also played in the CBA. My brother he played the Charlie Rosen, Henry Bibby, Yes, and the Funniest State. When he went to school. You gotta remember coming up, it wasn't over thousand TV, so all we followed was

the sixers. And you were the same as my brother six seven six eight. You were left handed. Yeah, my brother's left handed. If my brother ward number fifty when he went to college, Oh, here you go, here you go. I love a guy like that, right, that's super. So my oldest brother only had you as a you know what I mean, as somebody compare him to run because he wasn't a superstar player. He had to grind to

get to where he was. Yeah, my brother was. I wish he could be here because he wanted to say thank you, but I want to thank you for that on behalf because he couldn't believe I was doing this interview with you today. Now did he have the same motto that I did, run fast, jump high and shoot straight one out of three isn't man Because because he could really jump high, I couldn't jump high. That's why Doc called me Sky. I couldn't run fast, but I could get to where I wanted to go. And boy,

I could shoot. I could shoot the heck out of the basketball. So and he had to develop his left hand his jump shot just like you, and you were the perfect example. So this is awesome. And I know, as man, I don't want to take up too much. But when you look at the G League and we watch it Matt and I, and Matt watches a little bit more to me because he goes around. That's what those guys have to do is a daily grind and

game after game after game, series after series. Steve, when you came in with that second unit, that's what you brought to the table. Man, No load management in the league, is there? The whole load management? Now, league, you gotta show up every night, show the guys what you got otherwise you're gonna be in that league for a long time. That's there, absolutely. And Joe, you bring up watching those Sixers teams, and I know you were enamored with the

Sixers Trailblazers and and that whole matchup as well. You gotta remember when when Steve played and when it was the East coast, you still had the Hawk. Yeah, the Rockets in the Spurs was in the East back then, Yeah, back is seventy nine in those days, and you know it was it was the Washington Bullets, not the Wizards.

So he was going up against some great guys and and and you know, and then it transferred you because when the Bucks came in, the Sixes in the Bucks, he ever, he's probably to me, was more brutal than the Sixes in the Celtics. It was just tough matchup all the time. That was a good matchup, yes it was. It couldn't beat us, but it was a good matchup. But they may but they but they took us to

six and seven. They gave us. They did that. Yeah, no question, And Steve a lot of Doctor Jay stories from you, I'm sure, but I want to I want to bring up the Big Three because you ended up coach Doctor Jay squad in Ice Cubes the Big Three League, if I have that correct. Yeah, you know, it's interesting because when when when Ice Cube started that a couple of years ago that you know, they got their coaches. Basically they're all Hall of famers, you know, and Clyde

Drexler was there that year. He's he's the commissioner now. But George Gervin, Gary Peyton, h rick Berry, guys like that are the head coaches that first year. So Doc called me and asked me if I wanted to be his assistant coach, and, uh, you know, after taking a look at it, obviously, I said, yeah, if you're there, I'm there. So it's been a lot of fun being being part of being part of that Big Three League,

of being his assistant coach. We've had a lot of fun together just continuing to be great friends that we are and in joining the heck out of each other's company. And you even coached one of our former guys in Delaware, Nate Robinson, who spent some time in the G League. Nates a trip. Nate's a trip. There's no doubt about that. You know, he's a he's a funny guy. Um, he's just I'll say that he's spirited. That's probably a pretty good word, Nade. He's spirited. And but he's very talented.

And you know, I always felt just watching him play coming off the bench for an NBA team a couple of years ago, was I think he could have done that, but it's hard to get get a big three guy back into the NBA one once they're gone. But he's a tremendous player. Then we got Maury stottam Meyer on the team too. That all these guys are very nice guys. They really are very very nice and kind, uh to go out of your way to help you and do

whatever you need to have done. So I want to I want to get to our final few questions in a moment, but I feel like it's it might be necessary for me to leave a bit of a window here for Joe to squeeze in any more sixers questions or points right now. So take the floor, Joe, if you got anything else on the sixers side of the thing, I got, I got two things. I got two things. Wheez, Steve. First of all, how was it was there any hazing

or any going after Lionel Hollans? No with that two years later and then he comes over I always look on TV. It wasn't like I wouldn't be ever messed with his locker or moved the sneaks, did you guys? You know why that that's something that we never really did. You know, if the players just wanted to play hoops, you know, they wanted to get out on the court and play um. You know. So it was the group

of guys it was. It was a group that when we went to a different city, traveled to a different city because we would catch a flight about three I don't know, depending on where we were, but you know, we would get there and there'd be always six or eight of us or so though that would always go out to dinner. We were a fairly tight knit group

that uh. And then wherever everybody went after that, it's different, but we would generally six or eight guys would always go to dinner and shoot the breeze and have a lot of laughs that way. And my second one is, you know, like you said that that group was so tight. It was a different era, different time, a different way

of playing and relationships was built. And you've played with against so many guys, and guys like Phil Jackson who was with the Nuts, and Eddie jordans Man Brederkoff, Tom Dono Bitch with the they became coaches in the league and things of that nature. But I know at that time, because we were so like I said, I was so

six er loyal would tell him to today. But when Harvey Catchings left and he went to the Bucks, how was it to play against Harvey and you know that relationship and you were one of those main guys that was the bruiser the fight. How was well, yeah, you know when when Harvey left, it's always sad to see the guys that you're friends with go somewhere. My second year in the league, I roomed with a guy by

the name of Tom van Arsdale. My first year back with the Philadelphia Thomas traded my second year and I really felt bad almost traded. At anytime. You're with a guy you know for a couple of years and you get to know him and you get to know the family, and all of a sudden they're trading, and that's the nature of the business. Um, you know, it's always a

sad day, but you gotta go on. You know when you play against them, the coach, you're sitting in the locker room before the game and the coach asks you, what can you tell me about Harvey? Well, Harvey's Harvey's a defensive player, but he's a shot blocker. So give him a pump fake see if you can get him up in the air. You give him the fifteen eighteen foot jump shot. If he's out there, don't let him drive right, you know, stuff like that. So things you

have to know. But you're you're you know, once you get on the hardwood, it's like, Okay, that's it. They're no friends out there anymore. Oh man, that's that. That is truly amazing. And I got one quick fun fact. I toured with the world famous Haul Them Blue Trotters nine five seasons and in nineteen seventy five the six is drafted one of the best in sweet Low Dunbar. Did you ever get did you play with Natte Wood?

Nonette was before my time I came. I came in two thousand and seven to two thousand and twelve, so sweet Lew was my coach. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a sad day to see metal Lark go Curly Neils in sad days for globis Yes, Sir Steve. My final

question at the buzzer. I don't know if Joe has anything else after that Globetrotters one, but what was your favorite road city during your NBA playing career or as a broadcast West West Coast Normally I would I liked San Francisco because we generally have a day off and I could get a car and up in Napa and see some friends up in nap and have a good

time up there. Um, you know, you get on the East coast and January in February, you know, Boston, New York, not that not that exciting, Cleveland, Detroit, not that exciting, you know. But San fran said, La, there's always a lot of fun, And so with San Francisco had a lot of friends out in the Phoenix area though too in those days, so that was always It's always good to get into the sunshine during the season, go see

some friends and go out to dinner with him. Absolutely, I got one quick question, if I can't Matt, go ahead. Ye Steve, you was there to watch Dot coming to the league, and when he came to the NBA, it was like a like it was just something that we've never seen. How did you How was it knowing that you've been around so long to see all that you fire that Doc, that one person went to the league, how would you compare with Michael Jordan became who Michael

Jordan was in the league. Well, you know, we ended up because of Doc. We ended up being kind of like a rock group. There were there were tons of people that filed and then you had Darren, you had World and and you know, and people wanted to get to the game early just to see our layup line. You know, see everybody dunked the basketball. It was crazy. And then you know, you had you had fans every

in every NBA city. There were fans that were cheering for you, So it wasn't like you were except for Boston. Boston never cheered for you except when we beat him in the seventh game and they said bat la But you know, yeah, but you know that was and then Jordan comes in fan fair to start with. But it certainly got a lot better for him as time went on. But we were I think we were the first team that was kind of like a rock group. Even even the Knicks back in the day when they won championship,

they weren't like that at all. But things have changed dramatically in the NBA from from late seventies to today. The han't no doubt about that. This was awesome and that's gonna do it for this episode. Follow the Blue Coats on Twitter at Blue Underscore Coats on Facebook and Instagram at Delaware Blue Coats, Steve, thanks so much for joining us today, Matt Joel appreciate it. Thank you very much for having me. That will do it for this episode.

Thanks again to Steve Mix and Bluecoats Ambassador of Basketball Joe Richmond, and thanks to you the listeners. I'm Matt Murphy. Until next time, take it or leave it at the coach check