TOM's Talks | Catching Up With Pat Croce

a recent health challenge, and his spiritual quest. Here's Pat croche Thank you so much for doing this, Pat, We appreciate it. It's just great to see you. And I know you've been through a lot health wise of late. How are you doing, Tommy. I'm doing great. I'm truly I feel great. It never stopped me. I mean I really had a mile a mile touch by cancer was c seldom foam on my chest. So I had some surgery and radiation, but nothing compared to the people who I come across in my life now and so I

feel is blessed. And for you, with your personality and your whole mantra, you were like bringing on, what do we do? Tommy? It never stopped me from zero to ten. It didn't stop me. I might have had a little fatigue during the radiation, but I still worked out. It had nothing to do with my mental inspiration because I didn't feel it was me. It was my body, but it was not me. It never so we'll do what's what do I need to do? Okay, let's go. Let's

do it and get it done with. We get together on the occasion of you coming to the seventy six ers game, and as we speak, you'll have already done this, but you're going to ring the bell. And for you, you called it coming home. It was twenty years ago where you know you last led the seventy six ers and that franchise or the franchise and the team at that time made it to the NBA Finals. It will be special for you tonight to ring the bell. You know that ringing the bell. Obviously I just did it

finishing radiation, so it was celebratory. This is also celebratory. The last time I was on that court, I did walk out with Ai when he retired his jersey. But the last time I was invited to come, I'm not even show was invited time because it was the seventh game against Milwaukee we wanted. I ran out in the court and jumped in a Tumbo's arms. That to me was the twenty year delta between men and now where both teams were great, ranked number one in the East,

and the sky was the limit. I mean, the energy, the enthusiasm, and the talent of this team is so exciting. And we'll get into the two thousand and one entry led by Iverson, but there are a lot of similarities. This team has captured the imagination of the Delaware Valley. They both have a major star in the Sixers with Joel embi Now and of course Iverson at that team. They're fun to watch, they play hard, kind of bring

those two worlds together, if you will. From your perspective. Well, and you know they both had great coaches or have great coaches. Doc Rivers, I love Doc Rivers. I've known Doc for a long time, even as a player. And then Larry Brown, So those two really start and lead by example. They listen well, they coach well, they know the x's and those but at the same time they know the buttons to push with each and every player. And then when you get on the court, it all

comes around the star. It all comes around. Well, let's just say the sun, the star that shines the brightest, whether it was Ai or Joel Ebid, that is required in the NBA, and then how you mix the other stars shining lights around it. And this team has the potential to shine really really bright, stay healthy, shine brightly. And the other similarity, or at least one of them, is, you know, back then in ninety nine and six Ers

got into the playoffs. He've been out for nine years, and there was an ascent, if you will, until they got finally through Indiana and then you know, into that run where as you say, they played first Toronto and then Milwaukee and then eventually the Lakers. Same thing with this crew, like you know, they've made it to the playoffs now four years in a row, and it seems like now might be the time, and there's like a crescendo building. It was very similar to that time two

decades ago. Right, Well, it's a great metaphor, you're right, And it was those two first two times ninety nine and two thousand where we made it to the second round, but both times that yellow machine of Indiana and Reggie Miller knocked to say out. And then we have to play him in the first round of two thousand and one. But you learn, right. If you haven't learned, you're going to keep repeating the same mistakes. So two thousand and

one learned. Now we shall see this two and twenty one team if they've learned from their entry into the playoffs, is not good enough. Pat you embody Philadelphia. You know, growing up in Landsdown and being just totally woven into the fabric of what a Philadelphia fan is from your perspective, somebody who was right there in the trenches as a fan and then made it all the way to the boardroom as an owner of a franchise, basically the face the business side of a franchise. How do you describe

a Philadelphia fan smart? I do? I think they're smart. I think they're smart when it comes to sports. Yes, they're a fan. But people say they're so hard. No, they don't want to take any bs. They know when you are bs and them. They know what it takes to win. They know. I'm not saying they're a coach. I'm saying they know the games. They know that's what's required, whether it was the Flyers or the Phillies or the

Eagles or the Sixers. It doesn't matter. They know when you're not giving them as straight, but they also know that when you're giving it all. So if you don't win it at all, they still put you on their shoulders like they did to our team in two thousand and one. They know everything slept out on that court, and I think they know right now that this team has the potential to generate a parade, and they're behind

this team knowing that. I'm not saying they're expecting it, but they will evaluate it along the way to make sure that that team gives everything they got in every possession. You had a lot of fun with it too. I mean that's kind of your nature right to push things to the edge. Whether it was I still honest to Pete and I know it's been Larry Platt wrote that

great piece about you. But when I drive over the Walt Women Bridge, like dozens of times over the years, I think, man, that dude, hey climbed I can barely hold on to the wheel like sometime, but you climbed up there. I remember the one where early on it and we do it. There's a lot going on right now with the playoffs and getting into the marketplace. Still

to this day, it's awesome. But like you did that deal where you cap the cabbies right right there, like it's seventeenth in market, Like a lot of guys would have been arrested, but you were out there handed out caps and sixers hats and like you were out there and it blended well. It made perfect sense. Speak to that a little bit, Tom. No one has ever brought

that up, nor have I ever thought about that. And that was earlier on in my reign, and it was a Dave Kosky creation because I told him I would love to see all the cabbies where our hat because at the time, in ninety six ninety seven, we weren't too good and there weren't that many fans. It was subtle, but not really. The revolution hadn't started yet, and so he came up with the idea to CAPTI Cabby, meaning

we'll go down Center City and give everyone. I think it was a free pep seat and free salt cutzel and a cap too, and we'll just put it out there. I didn't know how we were going to do it. I just knew that when I'm in a city, I always talked to the cab driver. And if they haven't Denver Nuggets, hat On or Lakers had, how's the team I wanted them to wear Sixers had. Well, it was outrageous. We stopped all traffic for hours. There had to be

what hundreds of cabs all interlocked, blocking all track. You're right, I should have been arrested. It was. People were hanging out of their windows in the office buildings, screaming and young as if it was a ticker tape parade. It was so much fun. I'm thinking, oh, this is good, this is good. The Sixers team, the two thousand and one team that we're referring to in the anniversary of them going to the finals, is coming up, including game one.

And this team was so beloved at Sixers team because of Iverson and all of the forces that he brought to the table. And then, like we said, the ability to compete and play hard, and you had so many great role players and obviously they were very successful. But they didn't win the championship. The Sixers fell short. You know, we finished second place to the Lakers, but they did win the first game, and you were out in Los

Angeles's stables. I remember we went to dinner. In fact, I had, and I said, in Beverly Hills, right next to the late Gary Papa. He did a live shot. I was as close to being on Action News, but I was right next to you too. But what do you remember about that? And why did that resonate so much with everybody? Particularly the Game one victory, Tommy, I know you were at that night, that that restaurant we

were at, and I had my own entourage. It was on trash before entourage, without the sex because my wife was there. It was just fun like and it was wild because it went into overtime, like overtime, here is this dark horse and that year the Lakers had never lost a playoff game, right, weren't they undefeated throughout the playoffs? And so here it goes into overtime and Iverson steps over to Ron Lou And I mean I was in

the stands just going. My hair was on fire, I was out of my mind, and it was just such a great feeling that here was an opportunity for all of Philadelphia to show the world that we are winners, that whatever you might think between New York and Washington, that we're second best. No, no dreams do come true. This was regardless of the apptcome of the playoffs, you could be a winner in that very moment, and that's it proved to me. It was wonderful. We'll have more

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with Metals. Racetrack and casino restrictions apply. See DraftKings dot com Slash Sportsbook for details. Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler now back to my chat with Pat Crochet, so of lay Pat and just reading about, like I said, this piece of biography, if you will that, Larry Platt went on, you've you've gone on a journey of sorts right to find oneness, spiritualness and centeredness. Speak to that. I know it goes way beyond the little description I

put forth. But but what have you found? And what did you do? What are some of the things you've done of the last few years? Regarding that a time it started about six years ago, and it wasn't I wasn't not a spiritual seek or something happened and it was this quote. Most of our life occurs in our head and memory, imagination, speculation, interpretation. So if you want to change your life, you'd best be by changing your mind.

When can you change your mind? I know I can change a body, it's a physical therapist train or I've changed all kinds of bodies. I've changed my opinion many times. But can you change a mind? And then I went into it and through that something happened, something cracked. And then I went deeper and went around the world and visited all kinds of sages and yogis and had retreats and along the way what you realize Tom And it's very simple that nothing on the outside and this temporary

external world can bring permanive inner happiness. You have to stop, be still and turn around and look within, whether it requires prayer or meditation. Meditation help with me, because you realize that those crazy ass thoughts in your head aren't you. They're not true, so let them flow through. But unless you learn that and you realize, you start I was always thought I was voice in my head. I didn't know there was such an activity. And what happens is

it can make you suffer. You revert and get pulled to the past in comparisons, and you get protected to the future and expectations, anticipations, judgments. But what about now. A's where life is, and that's what happens. You let go of the past and future unless you're talking about the twenty one team, and that's okay. Anything joyful is okay. And then you bring it back to the now. And so to share with your viewers, be in the present moment as much as you can make the present moment

your friend. How the universe unfolds before you is for you, not against you. You may not want it, you may not like it, but it's for your evolution, for your awakening, and so take advantage of it and then see what it brings and use it. You can change your future. So like I know, when you ran, you know, you ran six miles a day. You did it in the morning, and you used to say that was to tamp down, you know, whatever, voices whatever. Your mom you called her

a saint, she was a devout Catholic. All of those things were woven into your past. But this was wholly different. This was obviously a lot more in terms of research and finding out more knowledge to get to this point. In this realization that you've just spoke of, correct and

that's the word tim self realization. Not this separates up the ego being attached to our beliefs and feelings, but something much bigger that which is aware of your thoughts and feelings, a universal awareness that you and I are the exact same eye, the same I am once where I am Tom or I am pack. Then everything changes. Then we costume the eye. But if we all know, like this green bead signifies, we're all in this together as one one being, one all knowing being, And then

from there, go and enjoy this world of experience. It makes the whole experience different. What happens is your perception of the world is a direct reflection of your state of awareness. So if you're more aware and you take off some of the coloring or customing, then your perception of the world is, Oh, like, this journey is enjoyable no matter what happens, whether it's the motorcycle accident or the cancer, it doesn't matter. Take care of it, take

care of business, and let's move on. That sounds like a recipe, a formula for what is now a fractured world, like we're going through quite a bit. I mean, a couple of doses of that, if you will, could help our society in a larger sense. And that's in part what you're trying to share a little bit in some of this healed work that you're doing. I know that centers around the American Cancer Society, But right, I mean,

doesn't that Now you're totally right. It is ACS healed American Cancer Society's healed health and energy through active living, every day active living. It doesn't say blackett living, white living, Catholic living, Jewish living. No, No, there are no dimensions, no qualifications, no attributes to who is active living, and the more body, mind, and spirit we share, the greater

we are. It's universal, this universal love. When you see when you see your loved one, whoever that might be, whether they have cancer or not, and you look into their eyes and you feel that empathy for them, that love. You're not a subject in them, an object. There's just loving and that's the oneness. That's what this green bead

stands for. So any of your viewers you want to go to acshel dot com just register if you want to make it a little donation, but you'll get this, you'll get this Mala bee with that one green bead. It's our heel bracelet. And Tommy, I want everyone this is a calling for me. Like in nineteen ninety six the Sixers were calling for me to do something good for the city of Philadelphia. This is something good for the world, starting right here in Philadelphia to help heal

that fracture. And once you realize that you don't need to suffer, you don't then share suffering. That's really important. Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional, and we can allow any suffering to go by coming right now to bring it full circle a little bit. Not everybody gets to feel what you'll feel tonight or at other points certainly in your motivational speaking career throughout the years. And that is you know what Iverson did or what can be? Does?

You know you're going to ring that bell and you're going to feel a wave of emotion from tonight eleven thousand people but really collectively around the entire valley that they're going to reconnect, if you will, with you and the sixers. What's that like to feel that wave, to be the conductor and feel that wave of energy coming back and have a course through you. I think it's so grand that it transcends words. It transcends words. But

let me give you a quote. I love this poem poet has He's a soupie poet from the fourteenth century. I am the hole in the flute that the christ breath moves through. Listen to this music. So tonight I'm going to be that hole in the flute and listen to the music. Just listen to the vibration, listen to the energy, and just watch it resonate, not just in

that arena. See, we think that just what we do manifest right in front of no. What we do is a vibrational energy that pervades everywhere, so that high vibrational frequency from that arena will pervade all the way through the fracture you talk about and start the healing. Perfect, Pat, We wish you the best, Thank you so much for the time, and we'll talk to you down on the road. Tommy. I'm so happy for your success and you're still the voice of the Sixers. Yeah, man, be well, Pat. Thank you.

If you like what you're hearing, consider subscribing to the seventy Sixers podcast network feed or giving us a follow wherever you get your paws and if that happens to be on Apple Podcasts, we'd love for you to give us a rating. I'm Tom McGinnis. Talk to you down the road.