The Brian Sieman Episode

one last night with Doctor Chap on Clippers Talk. I gave out one the show prior with Joseph Riah Ward here. But now join the show is Clippers Royalty. It's the voice of the Clippers, Brian Seaman, who has pipes in his vocal cords more golden than the Larry O'Brien Trophy, and as it turns out, he was the king of clever all along and here with his wordplay and went pertaining to your favorite Clippers players and plays nightly during

the season. He has seamlessly taken in the baton from Ralph Lawler and is lapping the competition with his informative and entertaining broadcast. Whether he's next to Jim Jackson or Mike Furtello the Bizarre. And you know, I'm especially proud because I worked with him for multiple years on the radio side, and he has settled into the big chair now, and I couldn't be more happy for him because I know how talented he is and how hard he works to make sure he's always at the top of his

game and stuck in a perpetual prime. We'll call it. It's my friend and yours Clipper Nation. Brian Siemens joining me here on Clipperstock be how we're doing well.

with the family. What is it you know?

I don't know what I would actually do. But with that said, our first year here, we had our first child, and two years later had our second child. So I've been home with the boys all summer. Once my season ends, I'm kind of a homebody. They're now teenagers, so I don't know if you remember being a teen, but you don't really need your parents around that much. That's the drift I'm getting by the eye rolls, the shoulder shrugs, and the I don't care. So that's what I'm kind of feeling from them.

watch movies at night. It's simple. It's really nothing major. Other people I know are super busy writing or reading books and doing fun things that are absolutely out of my comfort zone. I enjoy just being a homebody with my family. It's pretty simple.

literally the king of the states. I drive to Iowa City, I talked to players, I watched the game, and then I go on the air and I'm on TV for five minutes. I go home, rinse, and repeat, go to Ames, Iowa the next day. So I'm just talking with athletes all day and I'm like, this is a job, this is it. And so it was a six ten job, is what they're called an anchor job. But back then that's in the Midwest. The news comes on at six and ten. But then I saw Magic Johnson play and

my DNA changed. Lightning struck. I was nine years old and it was maybe the eighty four finals and I saw him. I was playing basketball. I didn't even like basketball at that time so much. I saw him play and I was absolutely captivated. And then I thought, I just want to talk about basketball all day, every single day, and that's what I have done for the last forty years or so. I love it. I'm blessed. And there's been some challenges, as everybody has in life and adversity

to get to where you want to go. Stubbornness is for sure, but I didn't have a real good plan b and I think that actually helped. I don't know if that's what I would encourage everybody else to have, but I knew that I didn't have anything else to go back on, so I kept going and going. I had a great support system, And I mentioned my wife and I were both from West and Mooyines. She's been with me from before I ever call the game ever,

so she's always been in my corner. And I've been very blessed with people around me, helping me make decisions, helping me get opportunities, and taking advantage of those.

Are you giving me stuff that I know is just in the game notes that we all get? Are you doing research on your own? Have you talked to players and coaches? Do you have backstories that don't necessarily need to take up three paragraphs of a game? Just a little side note, Oh yeah, he played for that coach ten years ago. They've remained close ever since. They texted each other. This morning, he makes two free throws back the other way, just like little things like that. And

then how do you capture the big moment? And that doesn't mean you have to be in my favorite doing that of all time, And I think no one has ever captured a moment better than Kevin Harlan. Ever, it doesn't have to be that level of excitement. It's just how how do you? How do you what do you say? How do you frame it? And those are the things that I look for. And then I listened to that.

I listen and watch all of my games multiple times throughout the year, and I'm a tough critic and I do the same thing, and there are days where I just I'm like, who did you fool to get here? Don't don't tell anybody because you are. And it's I watch him during the summer, and it can be it can be fine, and it can be very frustrating because I know I've got a long time until I call another game. When I watch him during the season, I'm like, Okay,

you weren't your best last night? Here's where you struggled. Don't do that again tomorrow. So I'm a fine tooth comb guy. I'm obsessive about the craft to play by play, not only for myself but for others. If I hear someone doing something really well, I'll call him and ask him where they got that idea. If I think somebody could be really good and I think they're kind of like Iffy in certain areas, I give them one man's opinion for them to throw it out, take it, do

whatever they want with it. I just love the craft of storytelling that is play by play.

NBA references. He played off Dwayne Wade incredibly. Well, Yeah, Mike Turco might be the face of NBC, but make no mistake, Noah's the best basketball play by play guy they have on that roster. I was so proud of him, and I wasn't surprised, but I was just so happy for him. He was so good. So I would just say, I just who has it? Noah? Noah has it.

skill set that you are born with. But I was just so happy for him, and not in the least way surprised at how good he sounded.

trying to bring on a personality too strong. That was always one of my things I didn't like about the ESPN anchors back in the nineties. A new guy would show up and then boom, he'd have like eighty catch phrases. You're just like, bro, slow down, man, Like that's too.

Ha ha ha. Clippers lead by eighty or whatever it was. It was it the preseason, so I actually got some tweets that were like, no, we like coffee puns, keep doing it. Amir didn't really have much of a role that year until the Bubble, and so when I look at the role of a play by play guy, what do I have that that the regular fan? What do we have at them that regular fans don't have access to the team, ability to talk to coaches and players,

get behind the scenes stories. When the when the scene shifted to the Bubble, I no longer had any of that. I was just basically I had all the information that my next door neighbor had by reading the paper. I had nothing. I had nothing. So I felt, Okay, I don't have info, I don't have background stuff. But we need to be entertaining now. We need to have something that is fun. So when Amir came into the game, I had a few in my head and then we would joke about it. Chauncey Billups and I we would

joke about it. Christina Peak, we would have fun in our pregame meetings and come up with stuff like that. But that's how that came up. I don't like to premeditate those things. To be very honest with you, A lot of whatever calls I might have, let's say it's just a regular a dunk happens, and I'm like, you know what would be next time that happens? Say this in in the moment, like you kind of file it away, and you know, sometimes they're they're good, sometimes they're forgettable.

I enjoy the creativity part. I'm learning as you go on to kind of narrow it down. It's not not every game has to be the super Bowl of catch phrases. You know, one or two a game gets it done. And I'm really not trying. I don't have a list, I don't have a I need to get this in. This is I haven't said this today in the next game, next next play, I'm going to just force it in there. I don't really care. I don't really I don't really keep tabs on it so much.

speed up here is not faster than anybody's. It's just the way that we have been wired to do this. I just think it goes through your mind of all these things that you can say, have said, maybe want to say, so I never really grade them, and I never go back and look and be like that was lame. I'm never going to say that again. There are probably many that people think are lame that I wish would never be heard again. But I don't like grade them

that way. The only one that I think I ever went into premeditated was it was a playoff game in twenty twelve. We're playing Memphis and it was May fifth, and the day before Adam Yak passed away with the Beastie Boys, and I was a Beastie Boy fan, and I remember the night before. I'm like, I want to just give a hat tip that maybe only I recognize. So I look through all of their I look through all of their songs and I'm going through lyrics and I'm like, there's nothing I can do here that wouldn't

be super contrived. Don't do it. The Beastie Boys would not appreciate it, So don't do it. And so I let it go. And then we get into the game and Reggie Evans has a breakaway dunk and he throws it down, and the mental rollodecks. Again, it's not that we're smarter than anybody else. I'm like, wait a second. The album was Hello, Nasty and Honest to God, That's

how that came about. That was I wanted. I wanted a premeditated Beastie Boys thing, but I didn't have it in line, and it was that was I always liked that one and if nobody likes it, that's fine. I just dig the Beastie Boys and my sons. Actually that we had a bond with the boys and it was good. It was good.

draw a basketball court. I would draw the benches, and I would draw the crowd, and I'd be like, okay, these are the things, all the things that I can describe in a game. And when I do a game, I would follow the court with a pencil, making sure I had all the places where the ball was. I just miss, you know, staying on top of the action that way.

have something to say here? Or Hey remember that conversation we had. Here's the time to talk about it. I just love the team element that we have on television, so they both have amazing attributes. If all of the same, I think I probably prefer the group effort, like the Big ten to twelve production crew. But I think at the end of it, all those have been I remember Ralph would always say, this is like a tin can and a string. This is the best way to do it.

You know how you communicated with treehouses back in the late and you know whatever in the late nineteen hundreds. Maybe it's just fun. It's just a fun way to do it, and you just have your own world. You don't have graphics, you don't have any of that stuff. It's just being a play by play guy is all I've ever wanted to do. I've been lucky to do it on both mediums, and I just I pinched myself every day. I never take one of these days for granted. I really don't.

knew his style, they knew his knowledge. And I'm being I can't be more serious than I am right now. So it's nineteen ninety. NBC just got the NBA rights, Okay, So now they got him again here in twenty twenty four and it'll start next year. So twenty thirty four years ago, Mike Fotello and Marv Albert are calling games. Bob Costas is the pre im post guy for the

NBC broadcast. And I learned everything I could ever learn about how I'm in right now because of all three of those guys, the wit and the charm of Bob Costas, the delivery the understated delivery of Marv Albert, and the knowledge of the game. And no one is better at the tellustrator. There's a reason he's called the Zar of the Illustrator. That's why he got the job. No One in NBC, all the people that they brought in, no one knew how to work the telestrator, but the czar.

He was supposed to be the kind of analyst in the studio. But because he could work it so well and then they had lightning in a bottle with he and Marv, they shipped them over to TV. So for thirty four years plus, because I remember him being the coach of Atlanta. Remember TBS the superstation, and they would broadcast all of the Hawk games. So I lived in Iowa, I still saw the games in Atlanta, every NBA game they had them on in Des Moines. So I've known

of the czar since I was in single digits. And my wife and I just started dating when he was doing NBC, and I would be like, you understand the world that I'm living in going with Mike Frtello, So I went around the block to go next door. I keep it a lot more simple and pretty more straightforward with the czar. We start that way with Jim, and if the game can get sideways, I know we can go off on a little bit of a tangent. That's

kind of fun, just a possession or two. I hope it doesn't go longer than that, where we can make a pop culture reference, or he can draw the veins on Bill Kennedy's arm when he's doing an official review and talk about how he's lifting. And when the game gets sideways or it gets kind of to be a rock fight, I like to lean on that a little bit, just so that there's something that's of value and entertaining other than the game, which sometimes can be difficult to watch.

But I tell you, I watched Jim Jackson. I grew up in the Midwest. I watched Jim Jackson on Big Mondays. I followed his career. He was one of my favorite college players of all time. And here I am, so many years later, working with these guys, texting these people, going to dinner with them, sometimes not picking up the phone when they call because I'm like, all right, for tello, I got stuff to do. Like it's just crazy. It's

a crazy world that I've been living in. I really don't know how I got here, who I fooled, and whether I was born unto a lucky star or made a deal with the devil. One of those things is true. I've been very lucky.

But one that just really stood out to me wasn't the thirty one point comeback against Golden State. It was the Game five where we controlled from start to finish, And it's worth pointing out at that time and maybe we could still make this case. You argue with me if you want to. Is that the greatest starting five of all time? Curry, Durant, Klay Thompson. I mean, I mean, is there a better one than that? No, I think And that was the best offense in league history at

that point in time. And what ended up happening in Game six, because the Clippers had played so well and Doc Doc was really coaching that team and it was really fun, they had to make the first real in game adjustment they had to. They I think they started Sean Livingston when we were starting Jamichael Green. We made the best team in the league play differently, and then we won that game fair and square. It was an absolute I just remember the feeling of control that whole game. Adam,

There's literally three dozen games that I could list. Those are the ones that just currently jump out. Now, there were some fun games this year, the thirty five point comeback in Washington. Any double digit comeback is fun. Really love all the games for their value, I really do. But when you have a buzzer beater, you have something on the line, it's it's just a lot of fun.

It's just it's really the adrenaline and just the connection you get to that game and that team is it's hard to describe what's.

I drink it. I actually go to bed. I go to bed quite easily after a game, even though I just drank, however many eighteen ounces sixteen ounces of a heavily induced caffeine beverage. But my pregame routine is that, and then I like to the forty five minutes before tip I just kind of sit by myself and I just think of all the possible scenarios how I want

to start it out just in my head. If I have a question of the analyst, I'll say, hey, do you want me to talk about this, or hey, kind of bring this up with you at some point in time. But I like to be very quiet just about forty five minutes before the game and just get into my own little world.

know what they're going to do with that. I don't know if you saw the box scores at him that that did not happen, and I thought it was an easier decision to move on. I'll be honest. I was very disappointed in his play in the playoffs, but he gave us some fun moments. You know, getting the getting to the conference finals is not going to be the peak of the mountain for this organization. It's just not

going to be. And there's going to be several trips to the finals and there's going to be trophies over the next ten fifteen years. I promise you, I know it. I will just say Paul George led led us to the conference finals, and I will will never be a moment I will forget that night leaving Staples. The crowds were that, the streets were packed, everyone was yelling Let's go Clippers. It was such a community, it was so awesome. That's what I'll remember Paul George for. That's what I

would like to remember. He was a very nice guy. I think he talked too much. I don't think he I don't think he held himself accountable as much as he should have. But I wish him well in Philadelphia. He's a very nice guy. There's he was always approachable and I always appreciate that in players. And I'll never forget the joy we all had. It was a July fifth, twenty nineteen when we found out Kawhi was coming, PG

was coming. I mean, that was a great day. And there'll be more days ahead for Clippers fans, I promise.

But if you're gonna not do that, give me the max so I can get it, because I can get it somewhere else, but I want to be here. But his comments on his podcast were disappointing. I think the B team remark was unnecessary. Some of his cohorts took to Twitter to kind of like bash the Clippers. The social media guru who has maybe over one thousand followers started taking shots at the Clippers. I don't even know their names. To be honest with you, I would always

just fast forward to the interviews. If you're a guru in social media, to me, I think you need to have more than a thousand followers. I'll let you figure out who I'm talking about. I am not a social media guru, as you can tell. But I was disappointed. In that in the way that was handled. But I think he's gonna get some jeers and some cheers, and I think it's going to be probably more of the former than the latter. But there'll be a great tribute video for him. There'll be a lot of those twenty

twenty one highlights. There's some game winners in there. He did a lot of good for the Clippers. It just wasn't enough. And to be fair, they were never whole. They were never whole even when they were a hole in the bubble. Mentally, no one was hold They didn't even want to be there. And we've only learned recently that they basically quit on that team. So they were never whole in their last game of the year, and

that's always the thing. I'm going to be so disappointed at the what if with this team, and there's no one that's gonna tell me different. We have two championships, maybe three if those two guys are healthy and rolling. There's no one telling me that we wouldn't have won two or three times.

I don't know. I don't know if our offense is going to be that great, but James has a chance to be high up there and assists in terms of league average. And I think this is a great year for Terrence Man. I'm super excited for him. I'll probably say this on the air when we get to the preseason in the regular season, but I've never once judged Terrence by his numbers, never, and I'm not going to start doing that this year. But I think you're gonna

be able to see tangible things with Terrence. He found that stroke, that three point shot at the start of the new year. He just knows where to be. He's just a great dude to have on the team. So I'm looking forward to those guys. Those are your four scores. After that, we've got Norman Powell and then I'm a little concerned on the depth chart of scoring. Who's gonna

get it done. But I'm really looking forward to seeing Zoo, who I thought was could you make the case he was first or second best player in that series against Dallas after James, Right, Yeah, I think he's gonna get a real opportunity. That's just how I feel. Tyler might see something different. But I'm looking forward to those two guys. I've been fans of there since day one and looking forward to see how they do this year.

I mean, that's what I would predict. If you can get sixty games out of Kawhi in the regular season, I'd be happy about that. Again, we would just be happy having him in the playoffs. I think that would be great. Now, what are the playoffs? What what are we looking for? I mean, the ceiling is, let's be honest today in the middle of August. The ceiling to me is a sixth seed. That's what I think we're going for, and that listen to me. I think this year is going to be a blast, if you want

me to be really honest. Last year was so much fun once they found their groove. But one thing that I love are big games, and when you're one of the elite teams, there's not as many big games. Right Like, there's you can play Boston, you can play ok See, you can play now Minnesota is pretty good. But not all those games pan out, not everybody's playing. I think we had maybe four, maybe five big games last year

where everyone was playing. No one was on some kind of crazy bender of a schedule that they were just wiped out. This year, you're gonna have I think double triple that in terms of games that matter for the Clippers, and we're gonna have vibes that we did back in twenty one twenty two where it was so much fun and those guys played so hard. We've got a lot of role players on this team that can play defense. We've got two superstars, one that's won a title, one

that's won an MVP. If they can put together, if those two guys play one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty games between the two of them, we could have a real shot at the six, maybe the five, but I'm anticipating mid forties in the wins and but really competing and being in that top six is what I think the goal would be in the regular season, and I think that's a fun year. I really do.

Like if you're not gonna win, it, have something that you can achieve, not just get in the playing game, but be in that top six. I think it's gonna be a blast. I think this team's gonna play hard, it's gonna be a lot of fun.

This was about almost a month ago. So they had a beta test where they wanted to see how how the software worked and how the facial recognition worked and all this kind of stuff. So there were six thousand people there and I'm getting to the point of what I think this is going to be the really best part of it. They were all scattered. There were maybe I want to say, maybe thirty people consolidated in the wall only thirty of the huge wall, six thousand people

spread from top to bottom. There was no like massive gaggle of fans aside from that one area in the wall that was maybe one twentieth full. So during this presentation, Steve Palmer says, let's see how loud we can get this place. I happened to be sitting right behind where the visiting bench would be. I want to be abundantly clear about this again, six thousand people completely spread out. It was so loud at them I had to plug

my ears. The decibel level and I don't know if this is high, I will say that it's pretty good. Was one twelve six thousand people, the way it is angled and and the way that the sound was just jumping around that place. I literally plugged my ears. It was that loud. And I just looked over to my wife and we just started laughing. Staple Center is a wonderful arena, and I will always consider that a home

of mind. But the way it is designed, and the way these arenas are designed, it's flat and the end they can get loud. Don't get me wrong, Staples has been amazing. This is going to take it to another level. And the wall I promise you is going to be the heart and soul of that building. It will be a place, in my opinion, if you're a Clipper fan, you have to go to at least one game and sit in that wall. I think it's going to generate

an atmosphere unlike any in the NBA. I sincerely believe that, certainly for the big games, You're going to see NonStop cheering, hollering, all of it. It's going to be awesome. I'm very proud, I'm and I'm I'm super happy for Steve, Gillian Zucker, Chris Wallace. They all had a big hand in putting that together and it is flawless. It is wonderful, and it is a It'll be a real source of pride for Clippers all around forever. It is that great of an arena.

We'll start with that. I'm gonna just, you know, cheapen this a little bit and say, my favorite thing is just having you on today. I'm way too excited about posting this. Could we hurry up so I could post this episode? Give me, give me a favorite, a recommendation to the audience you'd like to.

I know what he was wearing. It was Britian.

you could have literally seen them. You saw the actual player. I didn't know is that Blake Griffin or cam Christy. I mean, I don't know what that one was. I don't know who Jamal.

win many games. What's that due to Blake? What's that due to DeAndre? And there were just so many questions. And Jerry gets up and he goes, let me just tell you something. What's right isn't always popular, and what's popular isn't always right. And I said to myself, Yeah, these guys are gone, these guys are going to be We're going to start anew He gave you instant credibility. I already trusted Lawrence. I knew Lawrence. I knew that that front office was going to be great with or without.

But what the Clippers did not have at that time was championship credibility at the highest level. That doesn't mean that Lawrence doesn't know more than Rob Polinka, who won a title in twenty two or you know pat Riley in Miami. It just means that he hasn't done it yet. So now that they bring in Jerry, Jerry's able to call the free agents and call these people and say, man, this is it, Steve Balmer, is it? These guys are going to win. Come here and be a part of it.

He was a wise, wise man, and one thing that was always interesting Jerry would come into practices and come in to shoot a rounds and there'd be a huddle. Sometimes it was players, sometimes it was his cohorts in the front office, and within five seconds of him approaching that group, there was always gut busting laughter. So he came in there, busted someone's balls real quick and everyone laughed. I mean, he always brought some kind of humor with them,

and he was beloved in that front office. And I think he made the Clippers an infinitely better place. I really do. Just his presence, just him saying that he's part of the Clippers was super important and he will be missed, but his job was absolutely well done, and I'm glad he was. I'm glad he was a Clipper. He really helped us out.

for the job. And I wouldn't have this if it wasn't for your encouragement and support. And I can't say enough about how much I appreciate you as a coworker and a friend. And when things are going hard and I'm struggling and you give me a hug, itet lists my spirits and your phrase that rings true always the worst day in the NBA is the best day anywhere else. And so I just thank you. And I couldn't be happier, I know, Clipper, couldn't be happier that you are the voice of the Clippers.

the Lakers, but we're definitely not the bottom feeders. Were realistic and you help bring that out. And I just trust what you say. You have an elite level sense of humor, a distorted view of fonts. But nevertheless, I love you, and I know I speak for everybody. We're so lucky to have you. We really are. I think you do a wonderful job. You You brought the humor when we were on the show together, you and Noah brought it together. And now you and Carlo are doing

the same thing. Carlo Jimenez, the young talented superstar to be. It's just Clipper is very blessed to have you for the last what is it now, six years?