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Let me start with Lebron going over fifty thousand career points. We knew it was going to happen. He was at forty nine, nine hundred and ninety nine. Wasn't a lot of drama there other than how was he going to get it? Was it going to be a dunk, a layup, a free throw or three point shot, which is what it was. And you start to look at these numbers and I don't want to dive into the Mike versus Lebron.
I don't, we won't, but he is going to be statistically the most decorated player in the history of the sport. And it's not even going to be close. Fifty thousand points regular season, postseason combined, and he's still one of the top ten players in the game. Truly remarkable. And I started to wonder because last year, I remember there were reports speculation it's starting to slow down a little bit. I feel like the Luca trade revitalized him. I think he gets into this. Hey, that guy might be a
future Hall of Famer. He might be one of the top five players in the game. I want to prove to him on a nightly basis, I can be great as well. I can continue to be great. And I'm not saying they're competing with each other. It's complimenting each other. And Lebron is so bright at being able to find what do I need to do to make you better? Because he came into the sport that way. He was a pass first guy. I'm ever afraid to take the shot.
He won't take the big shot. Well, if you saw him in high school, the biggest guy on the floor was the best passer, and he loved to pass. And even in the NBA, I think you know, you look at when he played against Sacramentum when he first started out, makes a great pass to start his career because that's what he thought, that's what you need to do. I think he was more magic than Michael, even though everybody wanted to emulate Michael. But I see Lebron more as
magic than I do Michael. And he continues to do it, and last night, you know, they win again. Now granted they're beating the Pelicans, it goes back to defense.
For me.
I'm not worried about the offense because of Luca and Lebron and Austin Reeves and maybe you know, Dalton connect will be able to be a little bit more of a score, you know, come postseason time. I'm worried about defense.
Now.
They let Zion Williamson have his way in the paint, and that's something that the Lakers have been really good at preventing points in the paint. They're letting you shoot the three. They want to make sure that you don't take advantage of them inside because they're undersized in the paint. But Zion Williamson has played really well since January. Now, I know you're gonna go, well, that's not exactly a large sample size, and you're right, but he has played
really well and more importantly not missing games. This is going to be a you know, this off season is going to be tricky, I think for the Pelicans, like, what are you doing with your franchise? What do you want to do with your franchise? Can you luck into Cooper Flag and change your franchise? Is Zion your franchise? Now Brandon Ingram wasn't their franchise, so you're trying to
figure that out. But I'm watching and I'm going Zion is doing whatever he wants to do, and he's undersized, but he's so powerful inside, and the Lakers didn't have an answer, but Pelicans didn't have an answer for Luca and Lebron. So Lebron is the first of fifty thousand career points. We tend to look at numbers and we go, nobody will ever break that. Well, I remember when Gretzky set the all time goalscoring record and we all said, nobody's going to top that, And here we are. Alex
Ovechkin is going to top that. Emmett's with all time rushing record, Nobody's going to top that eighteen thousand, almost nineteen thousand, just because running backs trying to stay around, although maybe a resurgence on running backs getting more carries now with Saquon Barkley, who just got a two year contract extension. But you got to be healthy. Like Frank Gore was just there and ended up with what fifteen thousand, oh, by the way, fifteen thousand rushing yards, but you can't
remember one of his runs. But he just sort of stayed healthy, stayed in the lineup, and he was on a variety of teams. Emmett's rushing record is not going to be broken Lebron's scoring record. Even though scoring is up, you still have to be great for over twenty years. And that's the tricky part. Can you stay healthy? Can you stay great for twenty years? And Lebron has done that, and then so Jerry Rice two hundred touchdowns, the number
of catches probably not going to be broken. Seaton, Do you have a list of unbreakable records, or at least what we think is unbreakable.
Yeah, this list is current, at least until I don't know about a year ago or so. Right, you have you mentioned Emmett, you know over eighteen thousand rushing yards. The next closest is Derrick Henry and he's at about fifty percent of that. Wilt Chamberlain averaging fifty point four points per game in a single season. Yeah, nobody's really even close to that. The closest I could see here is James Harden at thirty six point one.
You know what happening that when Will scored one hundred points and we just had the anniversary That was smart second that week, I think he played four games in five days, and I think he scored sixty or more points in four of the games, and scored one hundred in the other game. I mean, imagine that week for Wilt Chamberlain. Okay, back to your seton.
Let's see Wayne Gretzky one nine hundred sixty three career assists. The at least at the time of this the active leader was Sidney Crosby and he had nine hundred and seventy two.
That's that's not even close. That will never that will never, ever, ever ever be broken. Cy Young seven hundred and forty nine complete games. Nobody's touching that. Cal Ripken Junior two thousand and six hundred and thirty two consecutive games. Nobody's even people are still he had twenty six hundred, and people are still at least two thousand short of that, So that one's pretty safe. Ricky Henderson career stolen bases, He's at fourteen oh six. Nobody is even remotely close
to that. Elvis Andrews I have it well at the time of this list. Anyway, this has changed, but three hundred fifty, that's not even close. Yeah, Michael Phelps twenty eight Olympic medals the active leader. There is eleven the next closest to him, So is that Katie Ledecki. Do we have her total?
Let's see I have Yeah, maybe this needs to be updated. But and then there's another Olympian on here. But this is for the World Gymnastics gold medals. Simone Biles has twenty three of those. The next closest is nine.
Yeah.
Yeah, so that's you know her. Her dominance is a little not underappreciated, but it's massive.
Is anybody going to approach Barry Bond's all time home run record? I mean it's still a home run hitting sport. I just wonder, can you stay healthy enough to hit that many home runs? You know, five hundred is you know, that's the Hall of Fame Mark. You get to five hundred and you know, unless you've used steroids or caught using steroids, then you're going to go to the Hall of Fame.
Yeah.
Point, you need to hit fifty home runs for fourteen years to be in the neighborhood.
Think about that.
Yeah point.
I was thinking about this because you've often said that Kareem abdul Jabbar is underrated. Kareem abdul Jabbar all this points records were his until le Brown showed up. Kareem played four years of college basketball correct. Imagine if he had a couple more years of professional basketball. He scored his first couple of years in the Bigs about twenty four hundred points per season if he could have come
in at age nineteen twenty twenty one. So it doesn't match up apples to apples with the career scoring.
Yeah, if Kareem had come out of high school instead of going to UCLA, then you get that four year window that Lebron has, and he has that over just about everybody on the all time list because Mike stayed what three years at North Carolina. But yeah, just some of those records, I'm sure this audience will have other ones that are unbreakable. Yes, yes, Marvin.
Joe Dimagio fifty six game hitty streak.
Yeah, I don't see that happening. I don't see anybody breaking that. You know, Pete got to forty four and that was a big deal. But you know, the specialty of relievers now that you're going to face somebody, I mean, everybody's throwing a one hundred and it's not like you're going to have a tired pitcher that you're facing. You know, it's five innings and then all of a sudden you bring in the bullpen. But yeah, fifty six games, even getting on base in fifty six consecutive games, that's not
going to be. We won't come close to that. I don't think like we get to thirty and now you get our attention, But you know, is somebody going to get to forty one of the They're not contact hitters anymore. You know, back when Pete Rose was playing, you put the ball in play and you had Wade Bogs and Rod Carew you know, some of these great artists here now even each year Row as great as he was, as fast as he was, I don't know what his consecutive games streak was for hits.
Yes, yeah, if you look at current you know, active players home run hitters, you can't even find somebody that you can put on pace to come close. Even I think John Carlos Stanton, he's at four to twenty nine, but if you look at his sort of production rate, he's not even going to come close to bonds. And there isn't anybody that you can put anywhere in their career like a trajectory right now that comes close.
Yeah, you're hitting seven hundred and sixty two home runs. Now, Hank Aaron had seven fifty five, Babe had seven fourteen. Pouholz is there? What's seven oh three? Yeah, just not going to happen. By the way, Justin Verlander turned forty two last month, Is that right to just a couple of weeks ago. Okay, here's Lebron James talking about fifty k.
A first thing come to my mind is like where I'm from, and uh, you know, just picking up the game when I was like a little kid and just having a love for the sport and was hoping that someday I'd be able to play at the highest level. And I've been able to do that in and and really enjoy, you know, and really enjoy my career. So it's definitely honor. It's pretty cool. Should just see that.
Yeah, it is. It's remarkable. I feel honored to be able to have chronicled his entire career and be there when he was in the NBA finals, be there when he won an NBA title, a couple of NBA titles. Was there for all of Michael's NBA titles, And you know, that's what you want to be part of history. You want to watch history. And I was able to do both, and Lebron is an incredible player. No matter what you say about Lebron, you got it. You have to almost
put a period at the end of the sentence. You can't put a comma or a semi colon or whatever you might whatever grammar, because you know the next thing you're going to say is is he better than Michael? Could he be Michael? What's he needed to do to be better than Michael? This is one of those you know, he reminds us now when you get to a certain level, you know, like Jannis has to remind us sometimes how great he is. Even though he's great, he has to
remind us. I think he had a triple double last night, a joker that you get to that level and you're like, okay, And Lebron is reminding us almost on a nightly basis. And the fact that they are now, they're in the mix. They are truly in the mix to be a championship contender. And as I said a couple of weeks ago, if they play defense, and sometimes that's a big If you stay healthy and you play defense, now you've got everybody's attention. It's like Golden State has changed because of Jimmy Butler
and watching last night. Jimmy Butler might not have a great game, but he takes care of the ball, he shoots free throw like, he does things where you go, okay, I mean you really have to keep an eye on what he does because Steph is so charismatic, so dramatic, and you can't take your eyes off of it. Jimmy Butler, you do take your eyes off of him, but then all of a sudden you'll see stats and you'll go, oh, okay, And he plays defense. These are little things that will
mean a whole lot in a couple of months. Yes, Martin.
And the thing about Lebron is he's almost like Tiger Woods, where this was the expectation, Like when we saw him as a high school junior, you were expected if he had Joe Johnson's career, we would consider him to be a bust.
You know, crazy that sounds.
You know, people would kill to have Joe Johnson's career, But he had to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest player ever for us to say, all right, you're worth the hype. Like he's the one guy that probably probably lived up to the hype more than any other player.
Well, he put the spotlight on him, on himself, but then Sports Illustrated put him on the cover as well, and then all of a sudden things change, Like Bryce Harper when he was on the cover Sports Illustrated at what fifteen. Now, you know, I think was it Tom Berducci who did a cover story on him? And who did the It was a Grant Wall who did the cover on Lebron that story. So now all of it's it's changed. Now all of a sudden, you're part of
the sports world vernacular. Now everybody knows you. Now they're waiting for you. And what he did in Cleveland with those teams, just to get to the finals against the Spurs is to me a herculean effort. There's a there's a couple of teams like Iverson with the Sixers, like you just go, how did he get them to hear?
And with Lebron and that team. Now granted the Spurs were you know, that's an all time team, but just the fact that he got them there, that that to me is as impressive as any of his titles that he wont because he took that team to an NBA finals.
Yeah, Pauli and after Lebron, Sports Illustrated tried it again. A few times they'd put a high school kid and say is this next Lebron? Jabari Parker out of Chicago and others, and it became the measuring stick.
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He's Justin Verlander. Just turned forty two years of age. When do you feel forty two.
Now?
When I'm forty two? Apparently I still feel great.
So I get out of bed in the morning and I keep expecting these eggs and pains everybody talks about, But I feel pretty good.
I'd like that you gave me a nice backdrop there at Scottsdale Stadium.
We thought about it. You're welcome.
I appreciate that instead of some sterile room there. I like that you got a career as a cinematographer.
Here.
Let me start with the automated strike zone with you having done this for so long, and now you see the younger pitchers who we're going to grow up with this adapt to this? Is there an upside in your opinion to an automated strike zone.
Yeah, I think there's upside to it.
I I like the appeal system over the full automated zone, and the reason being, I think these umpires are are asked to do a really difficult job and you know, they're also the best in the world at it, even though they they're not perfect, but they're you know, that's that's a that's a tough zone to call, especially when guys are throwing one hundred miles an hour with.
Nasty, breaking balls.
So I don't want to take away the part of the game that I love, which is catcher framing. You know, the pitcher hitting his spot and getting a call because everything everything presented correctly and it looks like a strike, and the umpire calls calls it even though it's maybe a you know, half an inch off and the batter doesn't quite know. So in a in a big spot, in a big spot in the game, maybe he challenges. But if it's the first, second, third inning, nobody really
knows if it's if it's actually a ballers strike. So I don't want to take away that part of the game. But I think, you know, there's obviously opportunities where it's an egregiously wrong call where you can turn that over, or late in the game in a big spot where you know both sides want to make sure we get it right. Well, I say both sides, but you know everybody wants to make sure you get it right.
I saw where Max Sure's there's not a in favor of this, and then I had to laugh because you guys are veterans. You know, you guys got calls. You know, the umpire might give you the benefit of the doubt, you know, Greg Maddox, Tom Glavin, you sure's are you know, the automated strike zone. They don't know who you are.
You know, I wish they don't. They don't do that anymore for us. You know, you go back, you know when I first came in the game, and you know you had those guys that you mentioned, Rocket Roger, you know, Maddox, Johnson, all those guys. You know, you come into a game and it's like, hey, you're gonna have a little bit biggerzoned today. These guys have earned it, you know, they
tell all the hitters that. And but with the umpire is being monitored now, they they get even though it's not an automated strike zone they get they get graded on every single game.
So you know, I'm sure some of these older.
School umpires would like to give us a little bigger zone, but we don't get that advantage anymore.
Unfortunately, I would love it.
How important is three hundred wins to you? You're a two sixty two?
Yeah, yeah, Look, I mean i'd be lying if I said it wasn't it wasn't important. I you know, I I see pretty clearly that, you know, unless something changes that I'd probably the last to have a chance to do it. So it's something that is off in the distance. Uh, I'm not I'm not saying that. I'm you know, the only reason I'm playing is he at three hundred, I still feel good. I still feel like I can be successful,
quite successful. I don't want to go out there and make a fool of myself just to try to try to reach that goal. But you know, I think the injuries that I sustained the last last year particularly actually I learned a lot from and you know, I I I think I can be the pitcher that I was three years ago when I won the cy Young So
you know, if three hundred happens. It happens, but it's something that like a lot of the things I've I've been able to achieve in my career, it just happens because you're out there taking the ball and doing all the right things and just pitching.
That's it.
What's the conversation like when you sit down with Kate and you go, well, tell me what the conversations like where you decide you want to play another year?
Yeah?
Yeah, she's super supportive. Man, I'm uh, you know, it's it's getting harder. Our daughter is six now and in kindergarten, so you got real school happening where they can't just pick up and transplant the family for the baseball season. But you know, she knows how much I care and how how much passion I have for this, and and and and my analogy is, you know, I want to set a good example for my daughter. And you know, my analogy is, like I've spent my entire life training for this marathon.
I literally since I'm five years old.
Since I was five, I picked up at baseball and told my parents I wanted to be a major League baseball player. And here I am living my dream and still feel like I can can play at a high level. So you know, I've I've trained my entire life to be in the middle of this marathon. Here I am running it, and I feel like I'm you know, I don't know how close I am the finish line, but
I'm damn close. And and you know what a disservice it would be to me and my you know, my daughter to to to give up now, So you know, I'm gonna keep playing and working as hard as I can.
And and and then talking to my friends, they tell.
Me, Uh, the guys that are retired, they say, when you know, you know, And I don't know exactly what that means yet, so that tells me I'm not there.
He's justin Verlander. And now with the Giants signed a one year deal. Uh do you have to hate the Dodgers more because you're a Giant? Is there a pamphlet that they give you on disliking the Dodgers?
Uh?
No, it's more just a vibe, you know. I think you can pick up on it. I'm actually excited.
I haven't. Look, I've had some rivalries, but it's it's it's nothing like this.
It doesn't have the history it's had some just like you know in Detroit there were you know, for a few years the Whites were really good and we were battling, and then the Indians, and then with Houston, the v A's were really good and the Rangers were really good.
I haven't had a rivalry.
Like this, so I think just it just happens when you start playing the games against each other and you just feel it and the stadium, you know, has that atmosphere to it that's just different, feels like a playoff game.
I'm pretty excited about it.
If you could take one pitch off, and you know pitchers in your era, So if it's somebody's fastball, somebody's breaking ball, somebody's slider. Uh give me, give me who you would you would pick? And which which pitch?
Geez uh does it have to I mean I would love Lemons splitter.
That would be yeah, all right, all right that I have a hard time.
Uh, Like, my change up hasn't been a pitch I've been able to utilize much the last like five or six years, even though I threw it a lot when I was younger, I don't have a pitch that really moves that way.
So that would be. That would be lovely if I could use that.
Okay, but what about curveball? What about fast I.
Mean Kersh's Curseh's curveball. You know, uh iconic tea.
Can you teach Kershaw's curveball?
No, I don't think so.
I think this is actually a problem that a lot of people fall into. It's a trap where everybody with all of the analytics now you can find out.
You can watch video.
You can see exactly how he throws it, and and the spin that he gets on it, just like any other's, any other anybody else's pitch. But I think there's something innate with the way that you throw a baseball. It's like the gate of a horse, you know, like it's just so unique to you, and that's what allows you to be successful at certain things.
You know, you talk about a fastball, I would want. I want my fastball.
I think my fastball is one of the one of the best, if not, you know, it's one of the best in the history of baseball's it's.
Uh so, I think that's just how I.
Throw a baseball though. It's just what I was born to do and and the way my body works. I can't throw a sinker to save my life, you know, I I it just it just it just doesn't work.
You know.
But the reason that it doesn't work is because you know, the way I throw creates such a great beneficent forcing.
But if you were coming up now, I wonder the longevity of your career because you would be a different picture.
Very different.
I I often wonder about this because I mean, it permeates all the way down now to the to.
Little league level.
I mean you see all these Instagram famous places where you go to to learn how to throw harder, and and you know, I, well, look, they have a place, they do. But for me, you know, if if I look back at my my trajectory when I was a young kid, and I clearly got to the point pretty quickly where my father was like, uh, you know, you're you're past my expertise. I don't know what the hell I'm doing here, you know. So he found me a local coach and that coach talked baseball back then, you know,
talked about uh mechanics and feel and flow. And his name was Bob Smith and in Richmond, Virginia, and you know, uh.
That is gone now.
I think I think now if my dad were to be in the same position, he would send me somewhere that teaches me how to be a little more cookie cutter and try to throw as try to throw as hard as you can instead of instead of learning your own mechanics and cultivating your own movement pattern and and learning how to pitch a little bit more. And and I don't know, I don't know where that leads. Yeah,
I I talked about this a lot. I don't know if I would have been able to have this career had I came up in today's.
Age, toughest out in your career, Like this guy came to the plate and you go, all right, let me just try something totally out of left field.
Salvador Perez has done really well against me in division. Yeah, I would say.
You know.
The good thing is.
Though he didn't have a ton of homers against me, so in Salvi, sorry Salve, He's not the fastest guy on the on the face of the earth, so uh, it didn't bother me so much. But if he came up with men on base, it was trouble for me.
But would you rather give up a bomb or one that trickles right over the left field wall?
Great question. It depends on the situation in the game.
Let's say it's just you know, you're up five to nothing.
Bomb, I'd rather gere up a homer, like, yeah.
Four hundred and fifty feet. You're okay, I'm completely fine with it.
I at least I challenged you, you know, and you know I can move on from that.
We're still up for it.
Not then there's nobody on base, I still feel comfortable, a little blooper. And then, you know, and then another guy gets a base hitting out's you know you got you know, then a guy hits a homer and it's a you know, chewer run ball game.
That's a little different.
Greg Maddox said, I said, describe the sound of a home run. He says, it's like a it's like a car crash.
Yeah, boy, I mean these guys you know it right?
Do you know it right away without even turning around?
Sometimes? Yeah, a lot of times.
No, it's kind of like, you know, you just had that reaction where you're like, you know, get down, your you're in your head the whole you know, you got a few seconds, so you get down, get down, get down. You just don't you know it's going to be closed, and then some of them you're just like, oh boy, yeah.
Uh, when you're not pitching in spring training, what's what do you do?
I like, you know, I uh, there's been a lot of guys here playing chess, so that's been fun. We've been getting some good chess games going on, and we're gonna start a San Francisco Giants Chess club.
Not in the dugout.
Not in the dugout, No, no, in spring training you don't really, I mean, especially especially with my tenure, they don't make me be in the dugout anymore.
But it's been fun this year.
I mean, that's one of the positives of my family not being out here, which has been difficult.
Is my first spring training in Arizona.
But I've had more time to connect with the younger guys and and spend some time at the field.
So I really, uh enjoy just.
Taking that, taking that all in, you know, and I think the perspective of where I'm at in my career, you know, I think you want to you want to enjoy it a little bit more and realize that it's not indefinite that you get to play this game. And so it's been fun being around hey, around the park lot.
What happened will you wear when you go into the Hall of Fame?
Oh gosh, uh, you know, I I honestly, I I honestly do not know.
I don't think I would tell you even if I did.
But it's a good problem to have, justin it is a good problem to have.
You're right, you know, who who could have known what would have happened in Houston when I got traded there in seventeen you know, like, uh, like how much success I was able to have? No, like I I couldn't have forecasted that. You know, no, nobody really could have.
So you just I just have this mentality that, you know, just head down, I'm working hard and however far this career takes me, and where it takes me, you know, when the dust settles, when I sit back and I look back, that's that's when I'll I'll ask those questions. But yeah, I mean I get asked. I get asked a fair amount and and and quite frankly, I just haven't even try to make that decision yet. It's obviously been thought of, but I'm trying not to make the decision.
You still have your Tiger uniform, don't you.
Of course I did.
Yeah, and your tiger had.
I have a lot of a lot of gear every year.
Every year at the end of the season, I send it all back to my house and just it's like, I'm honestly not looking forward to going.
Through all of it.
Could I get the Mets gear? I mean, really, that's nothing. I mean, yeah, I'll send you something. Okay, I'll send you something. We'll put it in the man cave here. That sounds good, I'll send it. Hey, have fun, good to talk to it. Thank you again, how best to your wife? Thank you?
All right?
Justin Berlin.
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio WAPP.
Steph Curry last night leading the Golden State Warriors to another win. They played Brooklyn tomorrow night than a seven game homestand after that, here is Steph on the magic of playing at Madison Square Garden.
This massive square garden. It speaks for itself. This is a place that brings it just naturally, has great, unique, authentic basketball energy and like the fans are unreal, like the Who's Who a celebrity rowing on that, but just everybody's anticipating great basketball, and from my first game here in college to now, like it's always delivered. So and for us on the Western Conference, we'll only get one chance here and I'm trying to take to make the most.
Of it, and they did. Iron Eagle was on the call TNT Nicks Warriors. What is it about the Garden and why is it different?
There is a palpable buzz before the game even starts, and it's nothing that's being pumped through the speakers. It's not artificial in any way.
It's real.
There is something special and unique about it. Even during the lean years, you would go into the Garden and maybe just the way the arena in captures the sound. It just bounces in a certain manner. So as the game was about to get going, you could feel it. You could feel that energy. It's tangible. And I know what Steph is saying. It is special for him and he makes it even more special when he's there because it creates an added layer of electricity.
How do you know when you've done a good job doing a game?
I know, I know if I've covered the storylines, I know if I've met the moment I know if I've.
Hit the right beats.
I think it's based on just doing so many games. There's a way to view it. For me, the amount of games that I do helps me because it keeps me in that mindset.
It keeps me locked in.
I don't ever drop off because I'm not off for three weeks and I got to get back into it. I'm doing sometimes five games in a week, and there's a certain standard that comes with that.
You want to do your best.
It doesn't matter if it's a Wednesday night for a local Nets Washington game, or a Thursday night for a big Lakers Boston game, or a Sunday in the NFL, or a Thursday night on the radio.
It doesn't matter.
You just get to a point where you can gauge it in the moment if you're doing your job correctly and you're hitting all the high notes.
I still find it interesting that when a player or team plays New York, they're playing the Garden. They're not playing the Knicks. Yeah, they're playing the Garden. I don't know if we do that at any other venue or any other sport. Can you think of anything where you go now it used to be the Garden, Boston Garden. Yeah, you know, then it became like the Fleet Center and TD Bank, and so it kind of lost a little bit, you know, yeah, playing the Crypt, maybe the Forum. Yeah,
great Western form. But I don't know if there's any like Fenway. You don't say, oh, you're playing Fenway, you're playing the Red Sox. Even Yankee Stadium is not the original Yankee Stadium, even though the Garden's not the original Garden. But yeah, you're playing the Garden as opposed to it. It's like you're a musical group. Yeah, we're on tour and then we play the Garden.
Yeah, Billy Joel is no longer doing it once a month, but you're right, Billy Joel is playing the Garden and the Warriors were playing the Garden. I don't know if it's an extension of Broadway in some way that you're in New York and it's this historic venue. You're right about the ever changing names. That is a part of it that chips away at the mystique a bit. I remember I did a game years ago NFL on CBS game in Oakland, and at that point it was a
revolving door of names, and literally, I'm not exaggerating. Dan fifteen minutes before kickoff, someone I'm not sure if they were affiliated with the Raiders or the State, and they walk in, they hand me a sheet of paper and they say, hey, just to let you know we're going by this now. Fifteen minutes before the game, I go theold dot co What what is this? And that takes away from from the sense of place and the sense of history.
You're right, even with the Boston Garden.
Once they went down that road, the Boston Garden became a thing of the past.
And now you've got to rack your brain and say, what is it now? Is it TD Garden?
What?
It's still Madison Square Garden named after, by the way, James Madison, the former president.
That was the connection. I was going to use that.
Over the weekend in regards to the Saint John's Seen Hall game and make the point that Bill Raftery was actually classmates with James Knapson and that he knew quite well.
But we never got there.
Who is more unexplainable? Steph Curry's successor Lebron's Steph Curry. Steph Curry, he was the number seven pick in the draft. There were major questions as to whether or not his style and approach would translate to the NBA.
Would he get his shot off, Like, think about that for a moment. If we go back and check the scouting reports, it would say great three point shooter, creative offensive player. But will the NBA be too physical for him? Is he big enough to handle the wear and tear of the NBA. Those were questions coming out of Davidson. That was the other part of it. He was coming out of Davidson. He was not coming out of Duke.
His brother had gone from Liberty to Duke. So you saw him on a bigger stage and thought, Okay, he can do it, it'll translate. And obviously he's had a nice career. Steph has had an all time career, and I think at this stage, the rejuvenation that we're seeing with Jimmy Butler now on the team Dan, I'm sensing that there's even a greater appreciation for Steph than ever before.
Because as you see these incredible athletes hit the NBA, these physical specimens, these adonises, Steph, it just feels like he could be anybody. And he's obviously a terrific athlete and He's in great shape, but he would blend in if he didn't know who he was, and that's part of.
The charm of it.
This guy is doing it in a manner that I don't know if we're going.
To see it again the way he does it.
And just again Dan my experience, They're playing in Brooklyn, so I'm going to see this for the second time this week. I just happened to walk out onto the court of my broadcast location as he was going through his warm up and the groundswell of people that I want to watch him warm up warm up. That to me says everything you need to know that there is a special quality and people realize that this is just something a little different. This is just not a normal NBA player.
He's an Eagle. He was on the call last night TNT Warriors Knicks. He's got the Warriors' nets tomorrow night, and then Michigan, Michigan State coming up on Sunday. Is that right? That is right?
Right? Thank you.
I didn't know where I was going until you mentioned it, so I'd better book that flight.
Is there a backup plan in case you can't show up at a game?
It's a hologram we've worked that up. They have a soundboard of all my calls and then they just project me onto the screen. We're actually trying to do that with Raff.
At this point. We don't even need him to be at the games.
We just have onions on a loop, double order on a loop, and then you're good.
You're good to go for the tournament.
Bill Raftery is and people will find him entertaining on a game. He's a million times more entertaining when he's not doing a game. And that's saying a lot. But the first time I met Raf, I was in Atlanta, Craig Sager's bar, Jackson Jill, that's right, And I just got through I was working at CNN and I went over to Seger's bar. I come in and Raf has the corner of the bar. As you walk in the corner of the bar, there had to be twenty five
beers and he had ordered twenty five beers. Yes, And it was just if you came up to talk to him, just grab a beer. That's first time I met him, And I mean, he is a delight.
So can I interject one thing to him? Because it
just spurred a memory of mine. We were in Seattle for a net game, and we ended up going to dinner, large group, and then the group got a little smaller, went out to a bar afterwards, and we got to the bar, and literally ten minutes into our stay at the bar, they call out last call, and I see like Bill's whole demeanor change in that moment, and he just leaves the group and he goes to the bar and he obviously gets in an order for last call, and normally last call what ends up happening.
They still let you hang around a little bit. They did not. They kick us out of this bar. We spill out into the street.
It's not even that laid out, and feel's a bit upset about it, and I understand that they cut off his evening. So he's wearing a long trench coat and we get outside now and our director who passed away, great guy, Dave Hagen. He shows us that he snuck one beer out to the street and we all laugh like, oh, that's a mez rap. Opens his trench coat. He has eight years, but he has snuck out two in each side pocket, two on the interior in his pants.
This guy is at another level.
I'm wondering I brought this up when I interviewed Sonny Vaccaro. I said, I hope that he would get into Basketball Hall of Fame contributions to the game, And they're certain like Dick VII tow contributions and Bill Raftery, Yes, you know, because he was a former college coach, he's in, Yeah, but to have but Sonny vccaro is not. Yeah, And I don't know if we look at the shoe business and the CD under belly of this and that's like
he had contributions to the game. He signed Michael Jordan, he signed Kobe, almost signed Lebron and you got these coaches who got paid. I mean, he changed college basketball. You may say, maybe not for the better, but where do you stand on contributions to the game and you know people getting inducted.
Yeah, he should be in. He should be in.
He played a large role in the development of the game. And you're right, there were some things happening that nobody was completely aware of and it changed the sport. But it was inevitable. If it wasn't him, it was going
to be somebody else. I do think the fact that he had a big personality was a big part of what made college basketball what it was, and I don't know if that's lost now a little bit, Just like everything in life, as it goes to a different level financially, business wise, commerce, you lose a little bit of what made it so special. But the personalities made college basketball, coaching, personalities,
behind the scenes, broadcasting personality larger than live. Dick Vitale obviously played a big raff as you mentioned, and I think it is a little bit of a lost art now when it comes to sports, because it's much more corporate and we're not going to have that kind of viscer rule reaction like we used to have to people that had the impact that that Sonny had.
He he belongs in there, no doubt about it.
Your thoughts on Rick Patino still make it. It doesn't matter. He's He's on the short list of greatest basketball coaches of all time. I mean really, you know the Celtics, he couldn't control the roster, didn't get Tim Duncan, but every place, like we plugged him in at Iona and we thought, oh, that's a cute lot story.
And he wins anyway, Dan, he wins.
This is who he is and as the rules have changed, Look, he's adapted to them. He recognized way back when you may have to do things in your way in a certain manner, and maybe you bend it when and.
The situation calls for it.
I think that Rick was so far ahead of his time in the eighties that eventually others picked up on it and figured it out. But the thing about Rick that still strikes me to this day is he always adjusts. He's just a great coach. He's an incredible motivator. He's a tremendous tactician. His x's and o's are through the roof. He's smart, he gets it. He understands the media side of it. He gets all of it, and you could
find great coaches that get some of it. He understands every aspect of this job and the fact that he's done it so quickly. At Saint John's, I was at the garden this past weekend. It was sold out. Dan, it is a happening again. You have to go back, really to my youth in the eighties when it felt
like this around New York. They've had good teams, they've had competitive teams, they haven't had this, they haven't had this kind of buzz and this kind of chain reaction in the city and it's Rick that's done.
It save travels to Brooklyn tomorrow for the thank you for the nets tilt tree with Golden State, and then and then just to let you know, on Sunday you have to do Michigan and Michigan State. Hold on, let me Michigan, Michigan State, Michigan that is in east Land, Lansing. Okay, yeah, okay. And they they got a player, you know, Jason Richardson's son, Jase. He might be a top five pick in the in the draft.
Yeah.
I had them earlier this season at the Garden against Rutgers. He was coming off the bench. He is not coming off the bench.
How do you explain Rutgers will have two of the top four players drafted and may not make the tournament.
Yeah, chemistry means so much. You play basketball growing up, it was important to you. I'm sure there were years where you thought, oh, man a great individual talent and then it didn't fit. Unfortunately, it just doesn't fit or it doesn't translate into wins. But you're going to hear about those two guys, Harper and Bailey for a long time because they're going to play in the NBA for a long time.
But they're going to.
Look back at the fact that they didn't take advantage of the opportunity in college and there's nothing they can do about it.
Like Ben Simmons didn't make the tournament at L make the tournament yep.
At LSU.
I actually had a game of his his freshman year. I was wowed by his skill set. Their team just wasn't that good.
Tell tom Izzo, I said, alot. I will, Yeah, I will, He's great. Tell him I sett alone done.
I will say it.
Tell him it's, you know, getting about that time that maybe steps down and lets somebody else. I'm not gonna say that, No, don't don't.
Hey, Dan Patrick says hello, and maybe it's time to step aside.
He would appreciate it, he's got to say. Probably. Of course, I'm going to deny it when he says, I have said, he said.
I will produce.
You can produce that tape, all right, tape doesn't lie. Alright, thanks, all right, that's iron Eagle