This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez so on Fox Sports fourteen to fifteen powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your Most Prized Possessions kat z R two, SAG and iHeartRadio Stacia. Good afternoon, Welcome to Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm your host Jay Gonzalez. Steve is again out today and I'll explain that a little bit. I've got Henry with us, So Henry's gonna jump in on the conversation today and we're gonna talk sports.
But before we get to any of that, just wanted to bring up why Steve has not been here since last Friday. Some of you who know him know this, but he did announce on social media staw on Facebook that his mom tragically passed away on Friday. He's been very he's very close to his
mom and they're just dealing with that situation right now. It's very it was a very sudden thing, and Steve is, you know, he's with his fanamily taking the time off that he needs to take off, uh to deal with, uh what what he's going through right now with him and his boys. Uh. You know, we we you know, we all we all lose our parents at some point, but when it's when it's a sudden thing like this, it's it's uh, it's extremely hard. And we know Steve's
going through a very tough time. Uh, he's got his family with him. I think he'll probably be out the rest of the week. You know. Sometimes people want to you know, get back into things, to just kind of start trying to get back to some normalcy. But I think he's gonna need a little more time to just uh deal with what he's dealing with.
And we just want, we want Steve to know we you know, we all feel for you know, we've all, as I said, we've all been through this kind of stuff, and uh it's bad when it happens, and you need your friends, you need your family, and Steve has
that. He's got a lot of friends, he's got a lot of family, a lot of people who follow his rioting, follow the show, uh, you know, just being good friends for a long time, who you know, are hurting for him, and we are so just wanted to give our best to Steve and his family and wish him, you know, as the best that that he can he can be the next few days and hopefully
we'll see him back sometime soon. I'm sure he'll be back probably early next week, but for now, it looks like he's going to be out at least the rest of the week. So there you go. That's the news. We did kind of keep it from everybody the first couple of days. Steve wanted to be able to put the news out on his own, and he did that yesterday afternoon. So we're just letting everybody know in case you didn't don't follow him on Facebook or whatever, that you know what happened and
why he's not here and he will be back. So all our best is Steve and his family. All right, let's do the show. As I mentioned, Henry's here. We've got a lot of things going on that. As Steve likes to say, We've got hockey, there's been there was some interesting stuff in baseball last night. There's you know, more and more he was coming out about. You know, uh, you know, there was
a coach fired today, an NBA coach fired. Today. We're going to talk to Jody Aylor, the host of the Drive his talk show Fox Sports nine ten up in Phoenix. We had already scheduled Jody because we wanted to talk about the Suns, right, the Suns and the end of the NBA season and what now and then up up this WEEKET up this morning. Moni Williams has been fired after after one year in Denver. I mean, what the hell, Henry, I mean, that's the best life of fire coach.
He's making eighty five mil. Just do nothing, yeah, because I think the Sons are still paying him for when they the Sons are paying him, and he's got sixty five million dollars left on his contract with the Pistons over over another because I think it was a six year contract, right, so he's got five years left there. So he could be one of the highest coaching, highest paid coaches in the NBA and he's not coaching in the
NBA right now. And Joe Missoula is making like four million dollars. Yeah, and so Moni Williams, So we'll get you know, he was he was the you know, before he went to Detroit, he was the Son's coach. So we'll see what Joey Aayler has to say about that piece of it. But we also want to talk to him about the NBA season, what we can expect from the Suns. The next thing up is the draft. You know what's what are the Sons looking at there? And then you
know what's the future of the Sons? Right Ryan talking to Ryan yesterday, he said there's a some reports out there that that Sons may may be considering try to make a move for Lebron James and I'm like, what the hell are they doing? So well, that's Jody about that and whether or not that's that's real, something that just got tossed out and or maybe floated by somebody and seeing whether or not anything like that is actually in the cards.
But Jodyaylor will join us at about three twenty. We'll talk to him at length about that, and then in the second hour, we've got Judy McDermott. He's the executive director of First t Tucson, the youth golf program here in Tucson, doing a lot of great things. Their sign up so that are going on as we speak for their youth program. There's summer youth program, So we wanted to get her on the air talk a little bit about
that. She's gonna be calling in from a tournament that she's working, a youth tournament that she's working at yesterday and today, and we'll get some of her thoughts on youth golf. Look, you know, if you live in Tucson, you're you're at least thinking about golfing. Do you golf? No, well you're from New York, though, what do you know? But you know, you know golf golf in Tucson. Really from a youth standpoint, it's a big deal. Although I mean, I've been golfing since I
was twelve, so that's oh god, over fifty years. And you know, and I didn't play in any of the youth tournaments, but as a kid, I wasn't interested in golf. I played golf since I was twelve and I'm still playing golf. And it's a Again, if you're living in Tucson that amount of time, you're either you either play golf or you know somebody who plays golf, and it's and it's a part of your life. So we'll talk to Judy a little bit about the programs that they're doing.
They do a lot of great work and probably can use some volunteers and those kinds of things. So we'll get to get with Judy mcdermmer. She actually is the former executive doctor of the TUSNG Conquisa Doors, ran the PGA tournaments here in Tucson for a really long time, so she's got a lot of
golf background and still doing it kind of. I don't know. I don't know if you'd say she's retired because she's working at this place, but she's uh, you know, ended her career on her terms at the tu Song Conquisa Doors and now she's doing this thing for for the kids, and it's it's a great thing that she's doing. So we'll talk to her. All right. Well, first thing, let's talk about let's talk about hockey. Right. The Edmonton Oilers, you know, took one in in Florida last
night. Now, now it's a series. We talked about Ryan and I talked about this, or no, I wasn't Ryan, it was Kevin and I talked about this before the before the Denver game against the Celtics, thinking, okay, they're both Denver and the Oilers are down three nothing one again, if they could win another one, now you have a series. Well Denver didn't. They got their butts beat. They're done, they're gone.
That series is over. Now this is interesting. The Oilers won on the road so really the series, even though it's three oh, it's back to where it was, it's supposed to be from a home court, from a home home ice standpoint. Right, the Oilers are going home down a game.
Uh, what do you think? I mean? I feel like, compared to the Dallas for Celtics series, the Oilers and Panthers were always closer, even though when they went down three h So I feel like I always had a feeling they could just string together a couple of games, right, I mean Bebrowski, the goalie for the Panthers. He was hot the first three games, but the last two games he's looked really bad. Yeah,
it seems like that all you need in hockey is just good goaltending. You're goally to be hot and you can win a couple of games in a row. Yeah, and you can, you know, And now again the Oilers are going home. Uh, it's it's a it's been an interesting, uh sort of a cont trust in the two franchises. Right, you're hearing like, you know, like I heard somebody on the talk show say today because it's it's the Florida Panthers, I heard somebody talkers say, if you if
your hockey team is somewhere where it doesn't snow. You shouldn't, you don't deserve a Stanley Cup. And that was a pretty a pretty funny thing that that, you know, the Florida Panthers shouldn't get one just because it's not cold there. They shouldn't, you know, probably similar to the Coyotes while they're going to Utah, so it's cold up there. But you know, just a really interesting contrast the oilers in the history with with with you know, gret Ski and the whole bit. But you know, god, it's
it's a series. It's a series again and you have you have to pay attention to it again. Have you watched any of the game? I've seen some of it, you know. When when I saw that, well, I was I was glued to the Dodger game last night and I'll get to that in the second. But you know, flipping channels, you know, I've seen some of it. I'm interested now, you know, at three, Now at three, oh, I'm like, god, dang it. But now you know, this is where what we love about playoff hockey is
happens. The urgency. These guys going out there and you know, they're you know, ready to die on the ice, you know, to win, to win a cup. And this is when it gets interesting to me, who's not really a hockey fan. You said, you know, you grew up playing hockey, you're a fan. I'm sure this matters to you even before, but it matters to me now, and I'm not. I'm not a hockey fan. I know very little about it. You can reel off the names of all these guys and I don't know who they are.
But what I'm what I do know is that it's a three two series. Uh you know, Edmonton's going home they win this. Now we've got a Game seven, and of all the game sevens and all the leagues, a Game seven in the Stanley Cup is the best one. It's also, I would say it's probably the easiest in hockey to come back down three to zho just because it's easy to get momentum. If, like the NBA, the better team will just take over the series. Right, Well, it's gonna
be interesting to say. I'm I'm in. You know, I'm in. I'll watch, I'll watch some of the next game, but uh, you know, the this is when this is when it gets fun. This is to me for the non fan when hockey gets really interesting. And I'm glad to see that this series is going. I mean, you know, when when Edmonton won Game four, I'm like, okay, all right, just win another one and let's so we can talk about it. And they did,
so thank you very much for for for the game. Uh and and you know I'm interested to go to go see so well, we'll see what happens. It's tomorrow, right, do they play on Friday? Okay, so Friday night, Hey, spend your Friday night watching a watching a hockey game that's gonna have all the urgency you can imagine, because clearly in Game four, uh, you know, the Panthers were just kind of like they're just out there, well we'll win this at all, right, we'll win
this one. Well now they didn't, and now they now they've got to kind of gear back up, right, And I mean can they do they? Can you flip a switch like that and all of a sudden start to play And that's that's how people look at this, and so it'll be interesting to see, you know, if can then go go to Edmonton and close it out or are we going to a game seven? I'm looking forward to it, all right, we uh as mentioned, uh, you know,
Manie Williams fired up up in Detroit. Immediately his name started getting mentioned with the Lakers job. So what you know, what are they doing? JJ Reddick? Now, yeah, okay, yeah, you know, I mean, you know, the carousel begins. I can't say I'm surprised or not surprised. I knew that. I knew the Pistons weren't very good. I
don't know Minny Williams. I know he did a nice job in Phoenix until you know, he didn't and got into the situation and you know, ended his thing with DeAndre at and and all that stuff that happened there, and he was gone from the Suns. But you know, the Pistons saw something in him when they hired him. So what do they not see now? I mean, there's no way they thought they were actually gonna compete last year. It was going to be a little bit of a rebuild with him.
So it was kind of surprised, right, right, So it's like, what happened, what's happened in the interim, and what's happened that you're willing to cough up a lot of time? They have to they go settle these things, and maybe he's not going to get the whole sixty five million, but he's still kind of get a ton of money to not coach the Pistons. And you wonder what, you know, what's gonna happen there and what's
gonna happen with the Pistons. So, I don't know, it seems like it's been a really long time since the Pistons have even been any good. I don't think, Yeah, I don't think they've won a playoff series since at least fifteen years. Yeah, so I don't know, I don't know what they're thinking over there, but it's whatever it is, it it's not going well. So and then finally, you know, we'll just we'll kick this around a little bit more later on. But we all got a couple
of minutes left in this segment. But the Great Willie Mays passed away yesterday. You know, look, I'm like a lot of other Dodger fans that you're hearing from. I was a Dodger fan growing up when he was in his prime. He was a giant. I couldn't hate him. I mean it was hard for me to. I didn't root for him. Right, But as a Dodger fan, I couldn't then I couldn't. I couldn't hate the guy because he was such a good player. He had to have a
respect and an admiration for the way he played the game. To me, the best baseball player ever. If you want to say Babe Ruth, if you want to say Jackie Robinson, if you want to say you know, be more recent, say show he Otani. Name a player, and I'm going to tell you why. I think Williae Mays was a better player. He had. He had the power, he had the speed, he had
the defense. He was the all everything guy and for me, a player that even though he was on the team that I hate to this day and I used the hate word in earnest, I've respected him as a ballplayer. You love to see him play. You know, you knew a football got up in the center field that he was going to go get it. And we've seen them. All the highlights that are that are being shown now about all the incredible plays that he made in his career. Came out of the
Negro leagues. He twenty four All Star appearances, he did, he won a World Series, a couple of MVPs at twenty one. I think gold Gloves. The greatness isn't just in the awards, but it just watching him play. And I remember growing up and when you saw the Giants on TV and you saw him play, you said, there's just nobody else like that. You know, the Dodgers have never had a player like him ever,
And I don't know that even you can't even say that about show. Hey, now, maybe he ultimately will be, but today, no, the Dodgers have never had a guy like Willie Mays. Maybe the Sandy Kopex says a pitcher. You know, it was a great picture, but you know his career was pretty short. Willie Mays was the guy. And I'll tell a great story about a documentary I saw one time where they talk to him. But we're run out of time here for this segment. So we're gonna
go ahead and we're gonna take our break right now. We're gonna come back. We're gona get Jodyayler on the line. Talk a little Phoenix Suns with him, talk a little money Williams with him, little of the NBA season, what he thought of how it all came out, And we'll see what he's got to say so. Jodyaylor from Fox Sports nine ten and Fings coming right up. The Window Depot has everything you need to create the kitchen or
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a Ball on Fox Sports fourteen to fifty. Welcome back to on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm jagon Zalez, your host Steve Rivera is out. As we discussed earlier in the show, got my buddy Henry here running the board and being part of the conversation. And now on the phone, we've got Jody Aaylor from Fox Sports nineten in Phoenix. The host
of the Drive. Wanted to get with Jody talker talked some NBA and now there's some new news coming out coming out of the NBA with Money Williams getting fired. Where do you want to start, Joe? Do you want to talk about the Suns? You want to talk about Money Williams being paid sixty five million to not coach anymore? Where do we go? Yeah? It's kind of incredible. I mean, now, between that and the buy out, he's got eighty five million dollars to not coach two teams. So it's
it's a pretty good gig if you can get it. An NBA had fired NBA head coached What's what? What's what? What's the situation with him? Why is he why did why is he getting fired after a year on a six year contract. Well, I think it's pretty clear. He said it last year at the press conference. He took that job partially because the players and money. I don't think money. Williams ever envisioned himself going to Detroit when he got tired by the Suns kind of put an offer on the table
you couldn't say no to. He's dealing with personal issues, as his first wife died tragically in a car accident, which led to one sort of sub bad book from the NBA. He obviously was able to gather himself coach, the Sons leave him to an NBA finals, and then his second wife has been diagnosed with breast cancer. So a year ago everybody thought he'd be taking some time off to attend to his family, and then the Pistons come with this huge offer that you can't say no to, and he pretty much admitted
he took that four job for the money. And I think anybody thing that's ever made a decision purely based on money, it usually doesn't work out great, right. I don't think money Williams is too upset about the turn of events, but he's still a good NBA coach and I think this says more about the Piston than it does money Williams. Yeah, you know, well, well that's the thing. I mean, he had been in the finals. I mean, what do we were? You know, what are we
doing? And why? You know, why is he on the loose like this? Now? Has there been any discussion about what he does? Now? You think he will actually take the time off with you know, a little bit of you know, a little bit bad to rely on. Oh
yeah, I mean how yeah? I think now you just kind of He's got money for the next seven generations of his family, and so you can be very selective, you could be very picky and whether it's coaching, whether you know, he worked in the Spurs front office at one point as well before becoming a head coach. And so I think Bunny Williams will just take
time and you know, he'll have opportunities if he wants him. But you know, as I talked about on my show this morning, I don't think any of this diminishes in any way what Money Williams meant to the Sons in their run was the exact right head coach at the exact right time for a Sun's team, and he did a great job. It's just he's kind of gonna go down and infamy is the guy that got fired twice, And it's infamy but also envy. He got fired twice and made eighty five million dollars
exactly Now. I think I saw either a post or maybe a quote from your from your should you like him? Right? I mean you thought he was a likable guy, or you think he's a guy he's a great guy, great coach. Thought he did a great job with the Suns. You know, I know a lot of Suns fans have an issue with the way things ended. And it's interesting because I think most Suns fans opinion of Bonnie's
Williams falls directly in line with how they felt about DeAndre eight. Right, there's a lot of Suns fans that you Monni Williams is the reason DeAndre Ayton
didn't developed. I feel like I would say I know better than that that DeAndrea eight is kind of an unseerious professional basketball player that Monnie Williams successful coached to be a serious basketball player for about three months during the NBA playoffs, and that's probably gonna be the best coaching job anybody's ever done with Deiondre. Yeah, so he obviously left Phoenix with some tractured relationship with players and two
straight playoff flameouts. But you know it's crazy. Even a year ago, Manti Williams led the Suns to to two wins over the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Playoffs with basically just Kevin Durant Devin Booker. That's better than the Sun's accomplished this year. But still he's kind of viewed unfavorably by some Sun stands, certainly not by me. Again, we're not We're not weeping for him for sure, but you know, it's just too bad. You see,
when a good coach just falls into these kinds of situations. So let's first go to the NBA season. You know, the Celtics are the champs. They were the best team all year, at least in my mind. You know, the Mavericks kind of came around and I don't even think they made it interesting, but certainly interesting in the sense that they got to the NBA the NBA Finals as a five seed. Your take on what the playoffs ended
up being and was it just a matter of playing it out. Yeah, it was a terrible NBA Playoffs. I mean it lacked any real entertainment value, any real big moment, nothing memorable in the finals, nothing really memorable in the conference finals. And the problem with the NBA is that that's a lot of leagues have done some championship games, but the NBA kind of makes
this big bed every year. They're okay with the regular season being diminished, They're kind of okay that the regular season is just sort of a tune up for a two plus month long postseason, but that means the postseason has to
pay off. You know, I've mentioned this before, but you probably remember this, Jade, But like you remember in the nineties when the Super Bowl went on this run of just being awful, Cowboys blowing teams out, the forty nine ers blowing teams out, And that's kind of where the Super Bowl commercial frenzy was born, because the game stunk. And then not like a lot of times you would get to the Super Bowl and the least entertaining part
of it was the game. Now, yeah, that's changed. We've had this incredible run of legacies and Thrillers, and it's really been on a great run for the Patriots and Tom Brady entered the picture. But it's kind of a thing with the NBA finals right now. Most finals in the last ten years have just been bad outside of the Cavaliers, you know, upsetting the Warriors. So I don't know why it's happening. I don't know what the fix is. I just know that right now, the NBA playoffs are not
really worth the late you know. Yeah, yeah, I mean because look, I'm a I'll call myself a semi NBA fan only from the and what I mean by that is, I'm like a lot of fans I really don't pay attention to them in the in the regular season. I've seen I watched some games and I see the effort or lack of and that, like, you know, the good teams are waiting just to get to the playoffs. I get to the playoffs and I watch and you're right, this year,
there was just nothing compelling about about any of it. You know, the Oklahoma's the thunder is the number one seed in the West. I'm like, really, you know, they were the number one seed in the West. It could there be a more unexciting number one seed like in the history of the NBA. Yeah, there's there's there's a lot to like about the NBA right now. Like there's some great young players. Injuries kind of stole the
postseason momentum because they're the first round or two. There was some real drama with the Timberwolves and the Knicks and the Sixers. But you had injuries to Jimmy Butler injuries and the Sixers injuries everywhere. Every team had a big injury. And you know, they've tried load management, they've tried a minimum game. I don't it's just bad luck right now. But you've got Victor wembin Yama, You've got Luca Prime, You've got jo Ki Johannis, You've got
jam Rant coming back next year. I mean, there's there's some really good young talent that could potentially form the basis of a great rivalry. And not to drive this this this car off the road, but like really they they do need a Caitlin Clark Angel Reese kind of rival between some of these players to spark a real interest in the casual fan. And uh that just you know, I think that's partly a reflection of the failed state right now of
college basketball, which has a complete inability to produce national level stars. And I think that's hurting the NBA. Yeah, no, I think I think you know, the thing that I hear hear from the fans is like, these guys are too friendly with each other. Right, there's no as you said, there's no Magic versus Bird, you know, no Kareem versus Wilt. There's you know, you know, the everybody on the pistos and against
everybody else. Right, Uh, we don't see that and that and that's that's kind of what makes it interesting to the sort of fringe fan, uh, you know, to see those kinds of things. You know, when Michael Jordan was playing, everybody wanted to beat Michael Jordan. He was a rival for everyone. And and we you're right, we don't see that anymore, you know, these guys. Look, I commanded Kyrie Irvin for what he did at the end of the game the other night. He went to
the other bench congratulated everybody stuff like that. Back in the day, somebody would have smacked him in the head and said to get back to his side of the car. Right. Well, off speaks to like there have been six new NBA champions in the last six years, and that kind of parody works in the NFL, but I think it doesn't really work in the NBA
because you need that tension and rivalry competitively. I mean, most of the series weren't great, but the Warriors and Cavaliers facing off against each other over and over again created a real dramatic element to each one of those matchups and created a real story in NBA history. And since that ended, we just you know, it's it's the Nuggets, it's the Raptors, the Bucks,
it's the Celtics. It's just one kind of random story after another. And I think basketball is that it's best with real competitive tension between superstars that are battling for the sie a sort of legacy title. And we might have to wait a little bit longer, but Anthony Edwards is coming, Victor winbin Yama Luke is obviously here. There's there's the potential for it is just we got to get lucky and hope that that something really happened, right right, all
right, We've got a few minutes staff. We're talking to Jody Aayler, host of The Drive Fox Sports nine ten up in Phoenix, of Jody, What now with the Suns? Right? You know? They to me, they're kind of in a no man's land, right, they're picking low. They need some they need you know, some star players. What you what? Where do you think they are? Where do you think they're going right now? Well, first of all, any Suns fan should ditch the hope
of winning a championship with this team. They're not a championship caliber team. They don't have the size, they don't have the depth, they don't have the roster flexibility, they don't have the resources to get better. And that's that's just the reality. And it's fine, it's okay, it's not it's
not the worst the end of the world. And second of all, that flows into what this offseason should be, which is pretty much just kind of do what a normal does, which is make a draft the hope you get it right, develop a real culture, develop a real offensive and defensive system, develop some real leadership both from the coaching staff for the players, and they could be first record wise next year, but a better team and might
actually be able to win a playoffs series for maybe even two. But I think everyone just has to recalibrate because this idea that they're going to land stars every years. It's gone. It was a huge failure last year. Kevin Durant, Devin Book and Bradley Deal can be better together, and it should be better with Mike Budenholtzer. But you can't expect greatness from the sun. So it's not that long of a wait. In two years, Bradley Beal
have an expiring contract. Kevin Durant's deal is up in two years if he's not traded before then, and then you'll be right back in cap space and pigs and flexibility. But this year and next year are probably going to be a firm ceiling fixed in place of like a second round NBA playoff team and hopefully finding some good young players in the draft. There was a lot of buzz when Mike Budenholzer got hired, you know in Arizona guy, a lot of folks were very happy to see him in that seat. Now, but
you know, buzz only lasts so long. Now he's got a coach, they got to put a team together, they've got a draft. What's the buzz on Mike Budenholzer? Now, Well, I think there's real optims and he's a real deal. NBA coach. I think he's a very, very accomplished, successful, respected NBA head coach with more depth to his resume than Frank Bogel. I think, now it's a little easy to forget, but the great Popovich coaching tree was once the most sought after coaching tree in the
NBA and kind of the standard for how NBA team should be run. And frankly, the Suns could use that from their old nemesis. So I think Mike Budenholz is going to do a good job. I don't think he's a miracle worker. I don't think he can get Devin Booker to grow three inches overnight play lockdown defense. I don't think he can turn Bradley Beal into Wolverine from X Men and has destructible bones, and so he's he's got a lot
of challenges that are not of his own making. His role is going to be take the current ingredients and put a better dish on the table than Frent Vogel served last year, because that was right in the trash. Well, they're drafting what twenty second? I think, right, yeah, what are they looking for? You know, they could use just about everything. I'm a big proponent. They need a wing, They need size. They got a lot of six y five and undershooters, Beil Booker, obviously, Grayson
Allen, even Roy O'Neil. Whether Eric Gordon comes back or not, they obviously need a big use of nurkices there. So I think they need a wing. Just give me the biggest best prospect between six six and six' nine that has some offensive capability, can commit to playing defensively, and if you just give me a average NBA wing twenty second overall, they can do
one of the ten best players in the rotation next year. I think that is a huge lift for a team that has a bunch of six y five and undershooters, a couple of gigs and Kevin Durant and nothing in between. I think they got to fill that void. Got it all right, Well,
Jody, appreciate the time that went fast. You know, we do know you probably need to go get a nap or something like that with you on your up and unless you already did get your daily nap, got the napped in getting ready for swim, team practice, getting ready for dinner, getting ready. They's just never ended big dumb in Arizona. So we're just stuck indoors exactly well, Jody Ayler on Fox Sports nine ten and Phoenix.
You can listen to him in the mornings on the Drive. We appreciate it as always, Jody, thanks for the insight and we'll talk to you again. Jay, great to talk to you. Appreciate Hi. Man. All right, let's go ahead and take our break. That was Jodeyayler from Fox Sports nineteen Phoenix. We're gonna come back. We'll love to take your calls. Five two zero, four, one, six, seventy four, forty We'll be right back. If your names are an in festival fan, you
know it's been successful for newly 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 them. Twenty five chapters for his twenty five years as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from Lout is an insight to how he built
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Honey. You should call Picture Rocks Cooling, Meeting and Plumbing. They have the solutions for us for all your air condition needs, all today by few zero four ninety two zero seven four eight or visit us at Picture Rockscooling dot com. Picture Rocks Cooling, Cheating and Plumbing Extremely live, I mean radio WIP. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteenth fifty. Welcome back to On the ballin I Fought Sports fourteenth
fifty. I'm Jacob Zalez, your host. Steve Rivera is out for the probably the remainder of the week. I've got Henry here working with me, working the board and kind of keeping me in line. But uh, you know, we've got we've got a show to do, so we're doing it. And you know, we wish all all the best to Steve, but we know he'll be back, and you know, getting through a very tough
time for him. So I want to get back to Willie Mays because we you know, we only gave it a couple of minutes in the first segment, and you know the reason being that, you know, I guess to
put it in sort of a perspective. You know, my dad wasn't a huge baseball fan, but you know, Willie Mays passing away is how I imagine my dad would have seen guys like you know, Babe Ruth, Lou Garrig and maybe that's a little early for him, maybe like to Ted Williams, Joe Demagio, those kinds of guys that you know, It's like, that's who Willy Mays was to me, you know, the greatest player that I can remember seeing Again, I I hated the fact that he played for
the team that I that I couldn't stand. Whenever he played the Dodgers, you knew he was going to do something special, and he always did because I was such a rivalry. But Willie Mays was that guy, you know, Hank Aaron was that guy. Uh but you know, Hank Aaron was
a great power here to a great baseball player. Willie was the whole, the total package and you know, for for a Dodger fan, and I've seen again seen a lot of Dodger fans who say, I loved seeing the guy play as much as I hated how he played against the Dodgers, I loved watching him and they consider him the best player ever and he was that. There's a really funny story that I tell often because it's it. It just tells you what baseball was compared to what it is, and we're always
doing that. But uh, the HBO ran a series, uh god, what was it called. I can't remember, I can't remember what it was, basically a history of baseball and they did it in segments. So the segments that they what they did was started in the like in the fifties and went up through the sixties, kind of when the astro turf era began in the early seventies when Cincinnati and Pittsburgh and Philadelphia they got these cookie cutter stadiums
with astro turf and stuff like that. So in the sixties, which is when Willie Mays was Willie Mays, and there were a lot of great players, a lot of great incredible players, pitchers like Bob Gibson, Don Drysdale, Sandy Kofax. So they're interviewing Willie Mays as part of this, and
they were talking about how they had to respect the pictures. So even a guy like Willie Mays, he talks about how this one time he's coming to the plate against the Dodgers and he gets up to he gets up to the batter's box and he digs in, you know, digs his foot in the batter's box and he completely digs in, gets in, you know, gets in the box, you know, takes his practice swing and looks out to
the pitcher's mount and it's Don Drysdale. And he said, oh no, and he knew that because of what he did, the way he dug into the box, said Don Drivesdale was gonna was gonna throw at him. He said, he immediately called time out, fixed up the batter's box, kind of raked it with his with his shoe to kind of let Don Drivesdale know I didn't mean to do that kind of thing, and then kind of got
back in the batter's box and what happened, Drivesdale threw at him. But it was funny how even a guy like Willie Mays understood won the protocol, but two had the respect, right, he said. Bob Gibson was a similar picture. You did not dig into the batter's box against Bob Gibson. He'll be in you. And back in the day, they didn't throw out the head, right, they put one in your back, you know,
they put one in the back. So he talks about how he was really funny, how he he realized what he had done and who he had done it to, and he tried to let Drysdale know he was he's gonna fix up the batter's box and not dig in the way he did, and still drives out through at him. And it just that's the competitiveness that they all had. Even though Willie Mays shouldn't have feared anybody, right, he didn't
fear him. He respected it. And I look, I'm an old guy, Get off my long guy that says that's the respect that you wish still existed in baseball today or in all sports today. And it doesn't. It just doesn't, you know. You know, we were commenting about, you know, celebrations that you're seeing in the College World Series today and those kinds of things, like you did that back in the day, and you got a baseball in your ear or whatever. You know, somebody took you out
on the football field or on the basketball court. But I don't even get into that discussion. But the point being that, you know, seeing that Willie Mays has passed away, you go, man, that was a guy that you paid money to see. You know, he played in that in that stadium at Candlestick Park, that was one of the worst ballparks ever. The wind howling all the time. Was built right on the bay, wind was always blowing in. He will Willie Mays six hundred and sixty some homers.
How many more homers he would have had had he played in a park that was a little friendlier, right, had a short porch like Yankee Stadium did, or maybe even played in Dodger Stadium where the wind wasn't always whipping the way the way it is now, oh the way it did. Then they're at Candlestick Part. You know, a dangerous outfield, right, they had a chain link fence. Was the fence, no padding over it.
You know, if you went but if you went for a ball out and you know, all all out in center field and you hit the fence, you ran into a chain link fence and you know you could easily you know, catch a knee, catch a spike or whatever. And so just all those things that that that that they put up with, and that were part of Willie Maye's career. And yet you can sit here and say greatest player ever. Some people argue with you. Some will say, well it was
Babe Ruth or was this guy or was that guy? For me? He's the guy and and you know, you feel you feel for you know, his family and whatnot. He was ninety three, lived a long life. Unfortunately, he's missed this great thing that they're going to do playing a game at at at that old Negro League ballpark that was where he lived or where he's from, and you know, sort of in his honor, and he's going to miss it. But it's going to be great to honor him.
That's gonna be a really special special event when they when they do that. But you know, God, I was tempted to bring in Greg Hanson, you know, to talk about William. Maybe we'll still do that at some point. Greg was a big Mickey Mantle fan with Greg's a historian of all sports, but particularly baseball, and I'm sure Greg had has a lot of
great thoughts on Willie Mays. I would love to get you to take your callege five two zero, four one, six seventy four forty If you have a memory of Willie Mays, there should be a lot of people in Tucson who actually either met him or at least saw him. The Cleveland Indians were in spring training or spring training here back when when when Mays was played.
I found out today that actually Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Orlando sopated three greats all in the Hall of Fame for the Giants stayed at my aunt and uncle's house for a weekend when they came down here and we're playing some games here. My aunt uncle were out of town. They were looking for a place to say that stay. That wasn't kind of a time where, you know, these players would stay in the nicest hotels they are sometimes that
they had in spring training. They had to find places to live a lot of my My uncle was good friends with somebody in the in the Cleveland front office. He knew all the Cleveland Indians. I'm I specifically remember meeting a shortstop for the for the Indian named Victavalio so there's probably some people in this
town who know that name and remember the Indians. And my brother told me the story today that, Yeah, these three guys came and stayed at my aunt uncle's house while they were playing, uh, while they're playing the Indians in spring training down here. You know, they used to train right up in Casa Grand at the uh at the the hotel is still there, the field is still there, but you know, they've all the teams are scattered up to Phoenix. But uh, it was a big deal for for that
for that town. It sort of put them on the map. Cassi Ground I think exists because they had spring training there for so many years. And I'm sure I'm sure I saw some spring training games that Willie May has played in. I don't have memories of him, but I'm sure I did because I did good. You know, we'd go to spring training games. So I'm sure that a lot of people here who maybe have had had an experience with him. If you did, and you'd love to you want to share
that with us, We'd love to hear from you. Five T zero four one six seventy four. All right, what else is going on? We? As we mentioned you know the the uh, the NBA Draft is coming up next Uh, you know, uh, it's gonna be interesting to see, you know, de Pelly Larson and uh and uh uh Keishad Johnson, you know outside out of mind right, well, we've already forgotten those guys, uh are going to get drafted. I think they're both on the draft on the month draft. But was he where did you last see him?
Wow? So even getting close to the first round because now it's split up into two days, right right, Well, you know, you know you hope for the best from Look, Keishaw Johnson is a is a talented guy. We know. You know that the guys his size, they have to have an outside shot. He showed that a little bit towards the end of last season, but really didn't have that over the course of his career.
It's something that he'd have to pick up if in fact, if in fact he does but if he's moving you say, he saw him at thirty seven, so that would be Minnesota, the timber Wolves. You know, he's a good physical player. Pelly Larson I thought was a good shooter, you know, like like everybody else in Arizona in the in the n CUAA tournament. They didn't shoot for a craft. But you know PELLEL Larson, you know, when when he went up for a three, I always thought he
was gonna make it, even more so than Catleb B. Love. He didn't shoot as often as Caleb Love, but you thought if Pella was open for three, he was going to hit it. And so we'll see. But again, he's one of those tweener guys. He's not quick enough as a tall guy to maybe you know, be a great defensive player. But he was a good defensive player in college. So we'll see what happens there. But you know, it'll be a strating to see if if either of
those two guys get drafted. Do you know that at the very least they will get an opportunity whether it's as a free agent or or G league or whatever, but it'll it, you know, you hope the best for them. The draft is next week. It's on actually next Wednesday, the twenty six so the twenty sixth and the twenty seven they do it in Brooklyn at the Barclay Center and it'll be on ABC. So I you know, I hope, you know, again, all most of these guys All they want
is a shot. Just give you a chance, get me on the court, let me show what I got and then if you don't think I got it, fine. That's all they're looking for is an opportunity. So we'll see if anybody, anybody gets it's that it's you should be fun, all right. We talked a little bit about about Rory McElroy after losing the US Open. He was kind of grumpy, didn't didn't congratulate in person at least Bryson de Shambo just left, didn't do any of the media stuff like that.
He's issued a couple of statements since then, congratulating to Shambo, saying he's gonna take some time off at least three weeks, so he's not playing in This week is one of those select tournaments where it's a limited field, usually seventy two. It's seventy one because Rory decided not to play. He's not gonna play for a few weeks and then he's gonna get ready for the Scottish Open and the British Open which comes up next month. But you know,
a lot of discussion Rory's his sportsmanship. You know, he's sort of been the picture or the poster boy for the PGA Tour versus Live Tour, and I say he's a bad sport a live tour guy won the tournament, you know, was that part of it? All those kinds of things that are being thrown in there as part of it. So I don't know. I like Rory. He was going through some marital stuff and announced that he was keeping his marriage going and stuff like that. Look, Rory is a
good guy. He's always been a good guy. You know, if he seemed if he was grumpy for a little while, cut him some slack, is what I say. You know, he's good for the game. He'll probably come out later once he's kind of processed all this and gotten through it, and he'll talk more about about how that all ended up. I know. I mean, he missed a three foot but that could have won the US Open or at least gotten them into a player. Well, he missed
two of them that would have won it. You know, how bad do you feel, especially since it's been so long since he won a major? So I feel bad for the guy, But you know, give him a chance to bounce back and he'll we'll see what happens. So good, good for Raorri. All right, what else? What else, Henry? What else do we have on our mind? Well, I was just going to go back to the conversation with about the suns. I feel like a big conversation last year. So I didn't have a point guard. That was a
huge thing. So I'll be interested to see if they look for a point guard instead of just had a Booker or right, Well, you feel like Devin Booker, it doesn't need the added responsibility right of being the point guard that you got to cut him loose, you know, as as as a scorer on the side, get him the ball instead of having him get you the ball. Okay, a good job of that life, right, but that's not when he's focusing all on that, it takes away from the other
parts of his game. Yeah, you feel like you feel like you want to cut him loose a little bit. You know, I'm not a believer in Kevin Durant. I'm just not. I know he'll go down as one of the greatest players ever because because of his skill set as a seven footer. But you know, would he have won a championship if he hadn't gone to the Warriors to win one? Right? I don't feel like you, right, And he's right exactly, you know, And so it's gonna interesting
to see what the sons do here. And as if Jody says, they go get themselves a good wing guy who can just you know, provide some support and take some pressure off some of these guys. But you know, I kind of agree with you. They need a point guard, a true point guard, you know, even if it's TJ McConnell, right, somebody like that who can just kind of run the show and let Booker do what Booker does, Let Kevin Durant do what Kevin Durant does, Let those guys
do what they do. Certainly they've got the talent, you know, with those three guys. Who has more guys other than the Celtics, right, They've got five guys that are all really good. But aside from them, who's got more than three guys that you say, okay, those guys you can win with. But Jody seems a firm believe that they don't have a championship team right now and it's gonna take a while. Well, their caps space, they have no capspace, have any assets. They traded all that
for Kad, So I think funny enough. A player they could really use right now is like a Chris Paul who yeah but you know, yeah, okay, somebody like that, but younger, yeah right, and doesn't have to be as good as Chris Paul. Right. Just somebody serviceable, right, somebody serviceable who can run the run the team and uh and and uh and let them and let them do what they do. All right, we're here at the top of the hour. We're gonna take our breakaway to come
back. Uh, Henry's got some breaking news. And then we're gonna have Judy McDermott from first T two song coming on. Oh, she's gonna be coming on at four thirty five. So we're gonna have two segments where you can even give us call five two zero, four, one six four forty. We'll be right back.