Tuesday, May 28, Hour 1

This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jagon Zalez. Sound Fox Sports fourteen to fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat z R two SA at iHeartRadio Station Goo. Good afternoon, everybody, Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, He's Jagan Zalez. We got our guy Ryan with us today working the board. Big day to day. What a weekend it was, Oh man hes and lows heis and Low's you know, good news, bad news,

Yes, terrible news on a couple of fronts. Yeah, crazy crazy Weekend's let's start with the good news because we can transition into other things. The good news is the men's baseball team right continue to find some magic. They're just you saw three four games. I watched them all no, no live, yeah four for you. I went three and one by the way, just so you know, well they overcame the jinks. I watched what I saw on TV. Uh disappointed that I didn't go see any but who

knows, maybe the weekend. But they continue to find ways and sometimes that's magic that happens during the year. Well, you know, yes, and and that's what you know, that's what good teams do. Special teams do that. You know. There their walk off against against Oregon State, then the walk off against against USC on Saturday night to win to win the tournament. You know, that's just you know, when when you have a team that is meant to be doing certain things, those are the things that happen,

right, No, no question. The number one thing they needed to do on Saturday was get their starter out and they eventually and then they rocked the rest of the way, you know, file and found a way. So so there's that they played this weekend. Uh here, which is a great thing. You're not gonna be able to go, are you not out? No, I'm headed out of town tomorrow. I'm gonna try to get out there. I think you were thinking about going, right Ryan, Yeah,

so that should be good. Uh. And then the women the softball team, I got eliminated while we were they got to legend. Yeah, it was not even close. In fact, Vick, who I hope calls later not now. Uh, he was disappointed in how they played. And sometimes Jay and I always believe this, and he'll let him say what he's said to me, teams, you find you run into a team that's better than you. It was very simple and much better than you. It was

very simple, or Oklahoma State was a lot better. Arizona did not have the pitching, uh to to to stay with him, which has been an issue all year long. We knew going in the pitching was. I mean, Oklahoma State put up eighteen runs in the in the two games, shut out Arizona. In the first one, Arizona got four, four runs.

You know, it seemed to well, you knew going in that they were gonna have to piece it together, right, you know, I was looking when I was listening to uh, watching, watching, I think it was the first game, and uh the announcers made the made the comment that Arizona had the worst pitching staff left in the tournament. Of the sixteen teams left, Arizona had the worst. Is a bad word. They just you know,

they just get it. You know, they did. They had the they just didn't have the pitching staff, and so it was gonna take some magic for them to go any further, which means a couple of things. Jay. They got that far with that pitching staff, which is the good news, which is great news, right, because who would have thought that they would get that far already? Right, get through the Arkansas. But the bad news is that was their pitching staff and that's and sometimes that happens.

You know, they had some injuries and that's that's what happens. Sometimes Caleb Love and the rest of the guys can shoot straight and they get to beat right, it happens. But you know, watching Oklahoma State, I think Arizona could have played Oklahoma State ten times and would have lost eight or nine, eight or nine times, yeah, without question. I mean, and who wants to say that's it's uh uh, it's a bad thing. They get to that point and they did well what you rated them eight point

nine? Now I got them back to an eight point nine, which like athletic with a point four. Well, when when you think about what the baseball team did, right, they were picked finished ninth, they won the conference, and in the way they won it, they beat Oregon State, who's just you know, ranked higher, you know, theoretically a better team than Arizona, and then to come then to come and win the tournament as well. Yeah, you know, if they get to the College World Series,

you bump it up over ten over nine. Yeah, okay, so we'll see what happens there. Uh. And those are the two biggest things connected to Arizona here locally. And then, uh, we lost a friend of ours, right, a friend of many. It's funny. It's funny that, uh, he was polarizing. I don't know if you read my story I posted ten years ago, and then I posted again yesterday, how

polarizing he was. I thought he was great going because he's the dad of Luke, and Luke is a fantastic guy played here, obviously a big fan favorite. But he was polarizing, and all of a sudden, everybody, everybody, everybody loves it. Doesn't matter if he was if if you if he upset you on the TV or not TV. Everybody was connected looking all the photos. Everybody had a photo with him. Yeah, exactly, everybody exactly. You don't hate you, Bill, do you have time can be?

You had yours? Mine? Uh, everybody, my son has one, my you know, my god son has one. I mean they're just everybody's got one, you know. Uh. And that and that was the thing, you know, I told the story about, you know, the those two China games that I worked that the packed well, played up up in Shanghai. You know, I had breakfast with him, you know a

couple of times and just he just sit down and we would chat. Well he did most of the chatting, but you know, but you know, he would just sit down with anybody, right and have and have breakfast or lunch or lunch or whatever. Or you'd go talk to him at the arena and sit down with him. And yeah, everybody's got them. Didn't mind, didn't mind you sitting down with him, or you know, if he was hurried, you eat and make sure that you knew that he was hurried.

But I always had time and always had had some funny stories. They were a little long, but they were funny. Yeah, at his antics where mostly show did you watch? So? I watched the thirty thirty seven? Gone to see it? I saw it. I saw it for the second time last day, four hours. It's uh, it was I would see the third time. It's just so damn good. He's such a good dude, miss misidentified or misunderstood by so many people. I would watch the

third It's fantastic. Yeah, Well, say what you want about whether or not you would want to listen to him, do a basketball game. One hundred percent of the people out there say he was a good guy, without questions, right, without question So whether you liked listening to him to a game or not, you had to admire the kind of a person that he was and that that he would that he would take time for anybody. You know, and everybody's got their stories. Uh, you know, Jay Bill

has told his story today. Dan Patrick was Dan Patrick was having a really tough time with it, you know, because he I mean, he was just like, yeah, he said a couple of times. You know. I have to keep thinking that Bill would be pissed at me if I was sitting up here, you know, crying and emotional and all that stuff, and I thought, you know, everybody felt like they had that connection with

you. I guess it's what I'm saying, even if you just met him for a little more, right, because oh I met him at this place. Someone sent me a note last night saying that I remember meeting him with you, and that says everybody knew a place time place. We were at the at the MGM Grand during you know, during packed off tournament, and I was walking with my son and we were headed we were headed for I

think we're headed for the food court. And Bill was walking back the other way and my son just stopped him, said, Hey, can I get a picture? He stopped, smile, gave a picture, shook his hand, put his arm around him, and then went about his business. I mean, just that's darn enough people like that. It's funny because you know people, we all have people who have passed, uh, and he passed unfortunately because of cancer. But what you think is, I don't know anybody

anybody who has had a bad word for him. Uh, And wouldn't if you passed today or tomorrow or whenever, how many people would say it would would be Well, he was a good guy, Bud. You know, he was a good guy. But you know what I'm saying, Yeah, how many people are gonna say a raven reviews from everybody, from everybody, from everybody, you know, and like I said, everybody thought they were

his friend, right, you know? Justin Spears posted a picture Matt Ansor from the you A. The communications office has posted a couple of pictures of Nate Weakers, who you know, the basketball guy. Everybody's got their you know, their time with him. You know that the picture that I posted, well, he photo bombed us. Somebody's taking a picture of us at the at the press table at the PACTFF tournament, and he photo bombed us. And you know, just you know, and and and you know what.

We're trying to get our we're trying to get our our clips up from our our last interview with him. There were I think we're having some technical problems with it. We do. Oh, they're they're okay, they're in so so. Well, it's seven minutes, we got about six minutes. We let's let's do it after after after the first because we got a special guest coming up. Yea, yeah, of course we have a show to

do. We do have a show to do. Well. One more thing before he got off this, because there was another very uh, you know, very tragic thing that happened over the weekend. There was a golfer PGA Tour, golfer Grayson Miller who who uh was in the turn. He was in the tournament. It was the uh the Charles Schwab tournament played on Thursday, played on Friday. In the middle of his round on Friday, he

quit the round, said he didn't feel good. He left the golf course and then in the next twenty four hours you found out that he had committed suicide. And you just got a thirty year old guy. First of all, the word came out that he had passed away, and he thought, God, he got he got sick. What did he you know, what did he pass away from? And then then the family, the family announced

that he had actually taken his own life. He had had some alcohol and drug issues in the past, but there was it wasn't any indication that any of that led to anything. He had just preshed anxiety. And here's a guy, pro golfer, he had actually won a couple of tournaments. He wasn't just you know, a guy out there trying to, you know,

make his way. I mean, he was a good, solid PGA tour golfer and uh and and he took his own life and you just go, yeah, you know what what goes You know, you can't you can't fathom it. You know, any when anybody takes your life, you think, you know, how bad? How bad is it? And how could you have helped that? Especially for a pro golfer who is living what you and I would think would be living their lives in a dream world. Yeah,

yeah, no, one hundred percent. And you know, and and uh, you know, to think about but to think about that Steve that he was playing. He was playing, he was in he was in his round, and in the middle of his round he decided, I'm gonna I'm gonna go do this and then he went and did it. And you go, man, what uh the kind of despair that somebody has to has to be

going through? Well for that time. One of the big issues today is mental health and trying to get that not fixed fixed, of course, but trying to get it corralled and makes it, making it better for people who suffer from it. Yeah. No, In fact, you Ryan making that coming in Ryan, Uh And I said, yeah, well you're gonna mention that early, so you know, you just uh, you just go oh

man. Right, So we're gonna talk more about about mister Walton. Bill obviously in the second hour, I got a good buddy of mine and God tell me, Bryce Miller worked with him at you say Today and and get and all that he did. You read his column, I'm gonna read it fantastic. Call him about Bill. He's in San Diego. He's a native of San Diego. Bill is obviously and wrote a waxing poetic very fantastic for

call him about him. So we'll talk about that and just kind of what he meant to San Diego, the Game Everything Conference, the NBA did you you know he was a bright dude, right? I think that was that bright dude. And I think that not pissed off people when he did basketball games because he was well read. You don't want the reasons why he was. You know why he was so well read, just a guess his mom

was librarian. You know, his mom was librarian, and and he would read books all the time because he'd say, she'd say, check out a book, take it home, read it, took it out. And he was a shy dude. He was just he happened to be. How can I say this at Stokes and Stokes a big dude who was seven footer. He didn't really like playing basketball, but he did because he was Bil was the same kind of way. He was a big dude, but he wanted to play basketball and wanted to win. But he was a geek to make

sure, and so he read a lot. He he loved being around people, but he but he had a hard time communicating because he was a stutter. Wow, just you gotta you got, I gotta go watch. I'm gonna watch. I'm gonna watch it in down in Rocky. You got it's four hours and you won't say, God, this is getting old. No, four hours. I'll watch it for my second time. I'm thinking I missed that part. I missed that part. Yeah all right. Well, the special guess we do have coming up is Terry Francona. We wanted to

get his his uh, just his take. You know, he was he was there for the first first three years six pack baseball, when Arizona got into the uh into the PAC ten uh won an Astro Champ chip in nineteen eighty. Uh. Most people that are around now know him as being the manager of the Red Sox and the Indians won a couple of World Series with the Red Sox, broke that horrible, uh historic streak that the Red Sox went through without winning the World Series, and he was the manager who won

it. I think he's headed for the Hall of Fame. Yeah, yeah, uh but uh we we also wanted to talk to him about his time here at Arizona in the early days of the PAC twelve and what this means to him. You know, everybody's you know Roxy Bernstein, uh Wes Clements, who was who was calling the game the baseball games with with Roxy. You know, everybody had their their their take on what this the end of the PAC twelve you know, means to them. And and so we'll get

to we'll see what what Terry Francone has to say. He's been a guests for the show a number of times. Yes, and he has time for us. Who yeh us, Okay, cool, let's go get him. All right, So let's go and take our break. We're going to come back. Terry Francone will be joining us, and then we'll have some more about Bill Walton. So stick around. The window depot has everything you need to create the kitchen or bathroom of your dreams. Frowsy aisles of instock cabinets

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welcome back to win in the ball hero Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jigginsauce. Now on the pole, we have Terry Francona. There is gonna be small all American. If I give you all these titles, they would take all the time we have. Terry. How are you? I'm good, guys. How you doing. We're doing well. I guess it's a good time to be a un baseball fan. I think it's a great time, although I don't think there's really ever been a bad time.

Well you know, uh, I mean this team has done some magical stuff with the walkoff for you know, to win the conference championship and then the tournament championship and all that kind of stuff. Just from from where you said as a guy who played, you know, for Arizona. I know it was quite a long time ago, but you did and you won ton as a championship with them. You know, when you follow Arizona baseball, I mean, how much does it mean to you? And are you on

the edge of your seat watching this team. You know, I went to the first couple of games of the Oregon State Series and you know, those first two games, you know, they got beat around a little bit, and then that third game seemed kind of apropos. I mean, they've been coming back all year and to come back like like that in that situation and then in the Pac twelve tournament. You know what, guys, sometimes you have years like that and it's pretty special and you try to take advantage of

it. Yeah, we were talking about that before you got on the show, where teams find some kind of magic, they find some kind of elixir or whatever. Things happen and you move. Look at Mississippi two years ago, nobody thought they'd get in. They get in, they win, Arizona with under Andy Lopez, right, goes on that crazy ride because they were just playing so well. Baseball's like that, right, coach, It's very much like that momentum. Certainly pitching and Arizon. I'm so impressed with what

they've done with their pitching. You know, Kevin Vance came in and a guy from Boston College, and they've really turned their pitching around. They don't walk people, and in today's game, make them or earn it, and they're doing that really well. When you think about think back to your nineteen eighty national championship team, because when we when we talk about this team, we will we'll talk about the pitching, the three starting pitchers who could be

the number one starter at a lot of different places. So when you think back to your nineteen eighty team that won it all, what was the main thing that that team had that you know, led to a championship. I think the best thing we had was a ton of balance. I mean we had we had speed. We had you know, Johnny Moses and Dwight Taylor. We had power with Wes Clements, with Clark christ who was a shortstop that hit three nine, the Scott Stanley who was as steady as as you

could be. We just had a and then a pitching. You know, It's like Ed Vossberg and Craig Lefferts and I don't want to leave Jeff Morris. And then we had Casey Candell who was like you know, everybody, the energy bunny. You know, It's like it was just it was just, you know, and it wasn't easy that year. Like there was a lot of times during that year. I think coach Kendall wanted to ring it ring our next but then we got on that role and we were pretty good.

Yeah it's that role, right, Yeah, well that's the role. Yeah. You got to win a bunch of games in a row to win that, and you did so. So Telly, you go to a lot of basketball games. You're very visible on the sidelines. Are you party just as big a baseball fan and it's not bigger? Right? Well, I certainly love baseball. I try to kind of be a little more low key maybe at the baseball games, just because of my history. I don't want

to ever be you know, they deserve this was their time. But I've probably gone to six or seven games this year and when I'm in town, and I'm certainly going to go to the regional this weekend. So we have athletes like you, guys, former athletes. How do you watch the game? What do you mean by that? You watch it as a manager, as a player, a fan? You know what I get? Okay,

that's a good question. I don't think you can ever manage a game from the stands or the press box or and I know people probably laugh at that, but when you're in the dugout, you're in the flow of the game. You have you have information that nobody else has. You know who's pitching, who's available, who's not, who's hurt, who's nicked up? I mean, and you And the other thing is you just get in the flow.

And I when I was sick in Cleveland, I'd go sit upstairs with my bosses sometimes and they'd ask me questions and I'd be like, guys, I can't manage game from up here because I just I just don't have the information I want, and I just I just feel really strongly about that. Yeah, so it's more of a fan you watch it now, Yeah, it's just for enjoyment. Yeah, I met you. That's good because you don't have to worry about stuff, right, you know who the hit and

run, who the pinch hit. It's it's really nice not having to worry about things that go haywire. Now. I did go out the other day when they played Oregon State, and I wanted to watch the kids Bizano because you know, Cleveland has the number one pick next year, so I wanted to kind of get my eyes on him a little bit just for organization. And he was impressive. So it's going to be interesting to see what happened. Yeah. So, so you know, it was the This was the

end of the PAC twelve as as we know it. I mean, there may be some some form of it down the road. But you know, both Roxy Bernstein, the play by play guy, and Wes Clements, who was your teammate you both on on Friday and Saturday, had kind of send offs, you know, for the PAC twelve, and you know, just talked about the history and you were a part of that history. You came in in the first years of what became known as the six Pack. That

the three years that you were here in Arizona. Think about that right now in terms of what the PAC twelve in baseball has been and was, both during your time as a player and then since then as a as a fan. Yeah, there certainly are a lot of changes that have happened. I mean, I think, in my opinion, the six Pack was the best baseball in the country at the time. Now I know the SEC has just gone bananas and how good they are and everything. I thought. Wes and

Roxy both did a really good job. It was heartfelt and you could tell it's hard. I mean, things are changing. It doesn't mean you always have to love it, you know. I mean there's so much history the PAC twelve. I mean all the national championships, and I'm not just talking about the sports, but you know, the Olympic sports where I think the PAC twelve has really excelled. And yeah, it's okay to say you're going to miss it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we are going to miss

it. I think outside of your title in eighty, can you maybe reflect on a couple of great moments. You don't have to be necessarily in them unless you want to be, but some great moments during those times who were kind of talking to people that can kind of give us some great memories of the PAC ten. PAC twelve. Oh my goodness, I thought, guys, I thought my freshman year, I thought that was our best team. And USC beat us in the regional and they were loaded, but I mean

we had Craig Chamberlain and Dave Crutcher and Bobby Chalk. We were loaded. We just again I think they'd beat us like three to two and two to one and they went onto the World Series. So I mean it was just really good baseball, and it was year after year after year. I mean playing in Arizona State. Man, I remember the first time going up to Arizona State thinking, oh, you know, what did I get myself into? Right? It just it was such a high caliber of baseball was so

good. Yeah, and it was, and I think I think at that time the six Pack was widely recognized as you know, as the best conference with you know, USC, Arizona and ASU and all the national championships they won, and Stanford came along and won a couple. Uh that that was some crazy and just going to those games, and it didn't matter which of the which of the other five teams were here, it was always a big

deal. It seemed like, you know, especially in Tucson and col was really good, right, I mean we you know, everybody I think forgets. But in the in the in Omaha, I think we beat Cal twelve to eleven in a crazy game and they had kind of had their away with us during the during the season, so it was it was it was really

good competitive baseball. I'm assuming you're gonna probably be there this weekend unless we've got to call security and have have a you no, no need for security, because I'll definitely be out there part of the fun of not working is being able to have a hot dog and a beer and watch the game and enjoy it. Yeah, roote like crazy. But this was pretty cool. It's pretty cool for Tucson. It's really cool for the U of A. I mean, I can't think of a better sendoff to the Pac twelve than

to see them go all the way. And this is a first for you, right because you'd be working in your real world. Oh man, this was the first time in forty four years that you know, I'm able to do something like this, and I kind of planned to take advantage of it. Nice. So what do you think of the job that the Chip Hale has done, because you know he's i mean even even earlier this year, you know, I mean here he's one of these two, these two championships.

Earlier this year, there were fans who were, you know, shaking their heads, wondering is he the right guy and stuff like that. I don't know how well you know Chip. I'm sure you ran into him, you know, in the at the at the major league level. But just the job he's been able to do, especially after the tough start that they had, Yeah, I know, Chip really well known him for a long time, and I think he's done an extremely good job. And it's not

just Chip, it's just coaches. I think what people lose sight of sometimes is it doesn't mean you're not going to have struggles, but when you do have struggles, where do you go? And that's to me what good coaching is and what you guys were just alluding to. Yeah, they were having a tough time. I mean they went down to Texas. I think they struck out nineteen times, two games in a row. You know, things weren't looking real great. And then whatever MESSI he had and the way he

delivered it resonated and look where they've gone. Yeah, yeah, no question, no doubt, no doubt. When you were in that turn again, going back to the tournament that you won, the national championship, being in the tournament, just getting in, first of all, I don't know how big a deal it was if it was a regular thing to you guys. You mentioned the same in the eight team that was that was or seventy nineteen. That was so good. When you're going in what what's on the mind

of a player? You know, because you guys are young at that time and now you're in this tournament, it's a big deal. The fans are behind you, you know. In your case, Arizona had won a national championship just a few years before in seventy six. What's going through your head as you're getting ready to play in the in the NCAA tournament in seventy nine, I think we were kind of just happy to be there, and when we got there, we got beat around pretty good and had a quick exit.

In eighty, you know, we went there and we lost to Saint John's in the first game, and I think we were all mad because I think we felt like, hey, this is our time. And fortunately we kind of fought our way back through the loser's bracket because that's not an easy thing to do. But our mindset was definitely different that year because we felt like we could win that thing. Yeah, without without question, we have a just about three minutes enough with you, coach, let me ask you,

what do you think about today's deal with Ni l oh Man. I'm probably sounding old, you know, I think it's great where because I know when I was in college there were times where I wanted to go to dinner or something and I couldn't do it, and and you know, just didn't have any money, but for them, so for kids to have money to be able to do I think it's great. Now, I think it's probably gotten a little out of hand, and I think everybody would probably agree with

that. But I think the NCAA kind of kind of fought so long that now this is what's happened, and now they got their hands full. And I don't know where it's going to go, but it's almost like free agency for college kids. And I don't know if that's the healthiest thing for for for the for the college sports. But I'm also glad I'm not in charge because I don't about how they're going to fix it. Right, you're no ideas, no idea, no ideas. Okay, last thing, So this

was your first year off of baseball for however long? Right? What did you do this? What did you do during this season? What have you been doing? Do you miss it? Well? So far, I've been golfing like crazy. I wish I could report that I'm getting better, but I don't seem to be. But I'm enjoying the heck out of it. I found myself actually watching more baseball because the last couple of years I was getting kind of worn out, and I would watch, you know, like

the team we were going to play. And now I find myself like, I'll turn on the TV and if a score is four to four in the eighth inning, I'll watch a game, and you know, I find myself watching more now than I have in the last number of years. Did they at least give you, like a free major le MLB TV package or anything like that, or you have to pay for like the rest of us. They did, and they did. Ah, so you miss it? Do you miss it? You know, guys, I love it, and I

don't love the game any less just because I'm not doing it. But I was ready. I was you know, I think to do the job right, you got to have a certain amount of energy, and it was getting harder and harder for me to have that energy. And I just thought, Okay, if that's how I feel, it's time to move on. And it doesn't mean I don't love the game, because I do. It's all I've ever done. But I did think it was time to step aside, and I thought it through pretty thoroughly. Okay, then I'll ask you,

do you do you see yourself going back to it? And doing it again. I got to ask that about an hour ago. The idea was when I retired, that I would retire. I don't know that you ever put a blanket statement, but the idea was to retire and again at some point if I missed the game or I missed certain aspects of the game, well you know what, then I'll try to figure it out. But right now I'm kind of enjoying just not being as busy as I've always been my whole

life. That's cool, all right, man, Well, and enjoy the golf and feel free to invite us sometime. Uh, and we'll we'll go out there with you. You got it, guys, A good talking to you, man to be thanks, Terry, Yeah, no, cool, cool, He's always good. He's always good. And I don't know sure if I was identifying him correctly because he's a coach. But you don't call him coach because he's a manager. Yeah, but he's a coach. Yeah. You know. Well, when you're talking to I mean you're in the

doug, you say hey, hey manager, Hey coach. Right, No, that's cool. All right, Well, thank thanks to Terry for joining us. That's awesome. It's always great. To have him. He's always he's always a great kids. All Right, we're gonna take a break and then we're gonna go back into into uh some you know some of our talk about Bill Walton. I think we've got a clip from a past the last time he was on our show that we're gonna bring up. It's kind of

a funny story. So we'll we'll take this break and we'll come back. If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at the Ludolsen era. In my new book, Lessons from Loot, it was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches, and friends to give insight to the coach and the man who led them, competed against them, and inspired

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from picture rocks, pooling, beating and plumbing. Make sure your home is cool and comfortable all summer long routine maintenance can often prevent major breakdowns. All us before the first sign of trouble. All Today ive Q zero four ninety two zero seven four eight or picture rockspooling dot Com takes streaming Live. I mean, iHeartRadio. Wow. This is I on the Ball with Steve Robera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteenth fifty. Okay, welcome back to wyn

the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve, He's Jay. We got Ryan with us today. I think we're gonna take a quick look a quick one of the half of the clip. Right. So we had Bill Walton on our show in December of twenty twenty two. So that was during the non conference season for the year that the Dulis Sabellas Umar Bello Show a front Line, Tommy Lloyd's second year, the Gerald what's in I mean, Courtney Raimie and the other guy I can't I can never remember his name,

the other guard, the other transfer guard. Yeah, okay, anyways, whatever, So you'll hear the clip because we're coming out of a break and we've got Bill on the show, and he had actually was going to be on the show on the previous Friday his car broke down and he couldn't make it. Then we got him like on Tuesday, so uh, we're just you know, wanted to talk to him about Arizona basketball. So here's here's Are we gonna do both? Yeah, well we'll do one. They're

both seven minute clips. I don't know if we'll have time for the second one, so we'll be the other one. But this is the start of the interview. Basically, we asked two questions. Well, and that's kind of the part. That was the funny thing that we asked two questions and we got two really long, long, long answers. So here's here's here's Bill Walton on our show back in December of twenty two. They can't hear me. They're not playing. Stop playing. So that's all right, we'll

we'll we'll find a way. We'll find a way here in the second hour, we'll get ahold of our guy and we'll see what happens. All right, we'll figure this out, crut. But that was part of the that was part of the part. You asked him two questions and it took fifteen minutes, all right, because you know, he was just kind of a

long with a lot of different things. I last saw him in February, I think it was home before he did the last game with with Pash and asked him if ye had he read my book yet about Luke And he says, Steve, I'm too busy right now. I'm flying everywhere and I can't read it again to it. Ironically, I said, you know your son wrote the forward for me, right, Luke, And he says, yes, I do know that, Steve. I'm gonna get to it what I can well again, and that was that was the funny thing. I'm really

upset that this didn't that this didn't play. I gotta figure out what's going on here. But uh, you know, we asked him. All you said was Bill, how are you doing? And we got a seven minute, seven minute answer. Then then you asked him a question about the big guys, and then we got another seven minute and that was it that we had to go. And so but again, you know, you know, going back to it, you know, just a really great guy, uh, somebody who's you know, always fun to be around. And it's just

too bad. Sure, you know, I mean, you know, when when he kind of went dark, I just thought it was all about the because the PAC pop had broken up. Oh yeah, stuff like that. Well they had said that at least the people had talked to you. He had been ill to that severity. I did not know. But but Saturday Friday night, Saturday night, when Roxy started watching Poetic co the PAC twelve and he mentioned Bill at the end, right, not just once for the

PAC twelve network and then for the ESPN network. You're thinking, I wonder what's going on. That didn't even enter my mind. I thought I just thought it was appropriate that he was because Bill, if you talk about a personality attached to the PAC twelve network networks, it was he was the number one personality. Right. There were a lot of other guys, Yogi, Roth, Ashley, Adamson, all the all the people that came through there

and were part of you know, football or basketball or whatever. But if you if you lined him up in terms of who was the most if you brought up to say, name me one person from PAC twelve networks that that you know it reminds you the most of it, it would have been it would be Bill Walton because of the cinder that he yeah in a runway. So when when Roxy was doing that. I think it was just appropriate that

because Roxy worked games with you know, with with Walton. I know that the two China games, remember the games that Arizona but Stanford, and the very first one was Stanford and Harvard, and then the next one was I went it was Washington and I can't remember, it's been about five six, but there were the first two. I was asked to do stats for those two games. I all the way to China to go do stats for those two games. Bill Long called both of those games with Roxy Burnstein, though

I knew that they had a connection. Yeah. Yeah. One of the big reasons too that he was here often more often than not, was he loved his bike, right, we all know that. Yeah, and he rode in el tour, so Eltur would have a big banquet before the big ride and he would come and be part of it. Uh. And that's when when when I was sitting with him with somebody else and Luke was there, I invited Luke to come because Bill was there and he'd talked wax Poetic

about his bike. Because you saw the show, I mean, you see the show, if you see the documentary, he's always on his bike. Or a lot on his bike, uh, to exercise. Yeah, yeah, so you know, and and that's sort of his connection with Tucson really, you know, was the whole biking. Did you have your story today? No Sports USA A fantastic story about hav his most, his most, his last significant win as a college basketball player was here. I did not I always I did see that. I did not see. I didn't see

that. Well, they went to triple overtime to get to the final four, right against against who the North Carolina State. I did not know that. I didn't have that one. I didn't have that one because I didn't realize that that was Walton's last year. I thought he went out as you know, as having winning lost. David Thompson, Yeah, they had that eighty eight game winning streak and all that stuff. And uh, I didn't I didn't realize that. And I remember when when you sell in Loston Carolina

State fourteen. Yeah, when North Carolina State beat them in the in the in the final four. It was a big deal, right because you see, just didn't lose national championship, but they had. And in the documentary from last night, uh, they kind of kind of explained it away. Because the guard uh, they were having kind of internal stuff with with with uh with Wooden and a player or two where he went to them. He went to the guys and said, it's my understanding guys that you are smoking

marijuana. And Lee, I think it's Greg Lee, I can't remember his first name. Lee told him told him, uh, well yes kind of you know, yes, reluctantly he told him the truth, and so he kind of suspended him and he went to Bill and Bill says, uh, after was pausing a while and said, I don't know what you're talking about. So he didn't get in trouble, but Lee did, but to be killing the truth, Yeah, it just you know, well, there's so

many things that was really fun. Yeah, because Dan Patrick, who you know, felt he was very close to Walt and had him on his show all the time. And they were doing their show I guess, I guess from the Final four or somewhere where they were outdoors, right, they're doing the show out of the Past out doors and there's a siren goes by and

Bill says, Dan Patrick, is that for you or for me? And that he could laugh by and then he went into a little bit of that like Yeah, I got some trouble back in the my you know, back in my dad you know, caused a few issues, but it was it was pretty funny. But you know, well they talked about about it because he was in so much pain. He says, did you kind of dabble in it or whatever? He says, uh, yeah, but a lot

of it was for my pain. After he had his back fused nineteen eighty something, yeah, or maybe even after that, maybe in nineteen ninety because he wanted title in eighty six with the Bust and Celtics right uh after after after sitting out for a while. Yeah, because it's because it was yeah, because yeah, and the hell the health issues were. I mean, god, you just saw him walk and you knew his pain because you were you were impressionable at that time. You were in your teens, guys,

ryeah, teens, twenties, and that's when you remember stuff. So today everybody talks about Lebron, and everyone talks about Mike and Michael in my time was the best player. Lebron to me, he is not. But you see Larry Bird play, you're thinking, holy craft. Just the way they played basketball, right, They're not athletic and you can see why or what you know, whatever you want to say. But Bill Woton, excuse me,

very very basketball start. He was and he was underrated. He was underrated as an athlete and to do the things that he was able to do. You know, the twenty two out of twenty three or twenty one out of twenty two championship game and I'm sorry, you're pretty damn athletic. Did you do this too? And I didn't know this. I don't know why I didn't know this. He was disqualified for four shots because he would have

gone twenty five for twenty six, four of them did not count. You know why he don't get it because he done yeah yeah, five twenty yeah. His his predecessor at UCLA. Because he was dunking over everybody, they created a rule that you couldn't dunk. Was actually not correct. He was twenty five out of twenty six. Yeah, yeah, not yet, and and and and it was really there was always they you know, they didn't

have they didn't revert to instant replaying. There were a number of times where he really didn't dunk, but they called it a dunk and you couldn't do anything about it, right, right, No, I watched it again, Like say I saw for the second time, I'd watch it for a third

time because he does get emotional. It's hard not to get emotional. Uh. And he was just a fantastic And you could see Luke if you if you paid attention to Luke when he played here, how Arizon gonna put him at the top of the key because he was the best passer and he could see the floor. That was Bill, Yeah, that was Bill. He could get the ball to Res or Lauren Woods or Richard or whatever because he saw the court. Yeah. And I'm gonna have Jim Rosborough on tomorrow and

we'll probably talk about that where Luke didn't fall far from the tree. He just wasn't seven foot he was ft tall. Right, Well, you know, because you know growing up in that time, you know, my early days of watching UCLA was Luel Cinder, right, Kareen Meduligaba and thinking, I who historically rooted for the underdog, But I was always rooting for U. C. L A because they were so great runner. No, I'm not, I'm an Arizona fan. I've been a Dodger fan through thick and

thin. I resent that comment, okay, And you know, but watching watching those guys play him, like I felt like I was watching something clearly special. Instead of rooting against him, I was rooting for them, you know, when they got to the final fours and stuff. And I remember watching Leuel Cender and then Bill Walt comes along and I'm like, he's pretty

close to you know, he's pretty close to Uell Center. He didn't have that skyhook that that that Leuel Cinder would would shoot and just nobody could do anything about. But the way he moved with the basketball was crazy, and you just couldn't stop him. And he was so fundamentally sound. He loved the glass, yes, exactly, they just go up and bank everything. He was. The purpose of the glass was exactly why he used it.

Just simple off the glass shines right, And partly was because you couldn't dunk, you know, they didn't, they didn't let you, just so he would bank it. But he but you know, you can you can be in a banking you know, doing doing the little off the glass, even underneath the basket. There's people there to block your shot from behind or wherever. But he would get in position where you couldn't do anything about it. Yeah, and he was just so good at that, yeah, fantastic.

And then they showed that when he got Portland to the title. This Portland team that nobody thought would ever come into anything had just become a franchise just years earlier, and they went it with Lucas who Lucas name wore, and then went it in seventy seven I think it was seventy seven. And then he six Ers, right, think the Sixers with with the best player to my in my time, doctor Jas remember that. And then they were just

a pretty good team. And then and then it comes and goes to the Celtics or goes to the Clippers, and that didn't go well because it was injuries, right, and then goes to the Celtics and wins the champions and wins the champions, right, So you know he only played far under fifty camel a lot even well. Again, his health, you know, his career wasn't you know, wasn't super long. He extended as long as he possibly could well and and you know, and yet he got got a couple

of rings. In fact, somebody somebody said this, I think yesterday or maybe somewhere after the showyk, I mean passing big man, a guy can shoot it, who does a lot of things. He was yoked before before you could see the court and see the see open people. The fat guy, well look oh another thing that I saw, fat guy, but he can play god. NBA is all European. Look at you. Look at

dunk dunkinch dunkin from from Dallas is not saying the word yeah. So come on, he's probably one of the best players in the in the in the world right now. Uh. The Greek freak to two years ago. Uh, the Denver guy. Like we said, all these guys, you'll get all these Europeans. But I was gonna say, when you see this show, Waltman was a wispy, skinny out of college dude, right, yes,

skinny skinny he was so there goes to years. He wasn't a big physical until later Your Oklahoma guy, your Gonzaga guy, Oklahoma guy, right, the skinny guy, Oh yeah, chat chet holmger chit. And then this year and then Victor Webber, Yeah, this guy because Walton was that dude. Walton was that dude in seventy fought that. Yeah at that time. At that time, my names were escaping me. But I mean, and I was gonna say that's Jay j would think that Bill couldn't play because

he was so thin. Well, he wasn't an airport guy. He wasn't. He was tall. No, no, no, and that's it. He was not an airport guy. Yeah, because Louell Sender looked a part. Even though he was kind of slender, he was still had a physical look about him. We got a call, but you can have to call can't take this call. Yeah, we can't take this call. You just called call us after the break because we were about him or less than a

minute up against the top of the hour here. But now, yeah, yeah, you're you're you're right, and and you know, people like to, you know, compare the generations and stuff like that. But if you didn't get a chance to see Bill Walton, you know, when he was in college, especially the young dudes would say, Okay, all right, I get it, I get it. I get why people talk about him

the way you're talking about All right, let's take a break. We're gonna try and get this thing fixed and be able to play the clips, and if not, we'll just keep chatting. But we do have Bryce Miller coming up, who did an extensive He has done some pieces on on Bill Walton and had some some experience with him as well, so but before that, it'll be breaking news from Ryan