The Dave Pasch Podcast - Al McCoy

of Fame. The Media Center at the Sun's Arena is named after Al and Alice, also in the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame. Today we talked a number of things, broadcasting his love for the NBA and the Suns. How he came up with his catchphrase Shazam, how he still has the energy and the passion to do this at age eighty eight, How Al keeps in shape, what has

diet is like to do his job. Some of Al's favorite places to call games and favorite cities to go, and also some of his favorite moments over his fifty years of calling games. We are presented by ben MGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Hotels and Casinos. Sign up for BETMGM today using code cards one thousand and get your first bet risk free up to one thousand dollars. New customer offer paid in free bets. Visit benmgm dot com for

terms and conditions twenty one and over Arizona only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem called one eight hundred. Next step here. He is the legend, Al McCoy. Al. I just worked with Hall of Famer Hube Brown this past Saturday. Hughbee is in his fiftieth year in the NBA like you, and I am amazed at his energy and how sharp he is. And when I listen to you, Al, I hear the same Al McCoy that I heard when I

got here twenty years ago. And I've talked to people that have been here since you started calling games and they tell me the same thing. It's still the same, Al McCoy. So I'm curious, man, how do you do it? How do you have the same energy and stay so sharp doing it as long as you have Well, you know, it's interesting yet Obviously a lot of people ask me the question, and I guess maybe Huby and I might

have the same answer. We loved the basketball from the first time we picked up or saw a ball, or he coached it or played it, and I think we still have that compassion for the game. I know through the years, as we all might experience, some days are better than others. But you know that old saying, when you get to the ballpark, it's just the game that matters.

And it seems as if, and I guess maybe I'm blessed in that area that when I get to the arena, the things that might have been a problem that day seem to disappear when the ball is thrown up in the game starts. So other than that, it's hard to say. Maybe a good bringing up in the Midwest and I'm raised on a farm, who knows, but I've been blessed, no question about that. Is there anything you do all to stay as healthy as you are at eighty eight?

Do you? Is there anything you avoid? Do you have like a routine on game day or anything that you do specifically to stay as healthy as you are? Well? I've always felt this way that as a broadcaster and as an announcer, we have to take care of our health just as months as if we were playing out on the court, because we have to be ite and physically ready when the game starts. And I think I've always been concerned about my diet, about getting rest, and

about being ready for the game. So I think my philosophy has always been that you have to prepare yourself just as if you were actually playing the game. I've always told young broadcasters if there were two of the most important phrases for me as a broadcaster, one would be preparation and the other would be concentration. You have to be prepared for the game, and you have to

have that ability to concentrate on the game. Obviously, we can't be thinking about where we're gonna have dinner afterwards while we're doing the game, particularly in a game as fast paced as basketball is. So I've always said preparation and concentration very important, and the fact that you have to take care of yourself physically and mentally just as

if you were a player, no question about it. Can you talk to my Cardinals broadcast partner Ron Wolfley about having a better diet, because wolf heats the worst of anybody I've ever worked with. Well, that's the wolf, and he can get by with anything. He's tremendous, no question about it. But and I think as I've gotten older that my food and diet requirements have chained. Obviously, I don't partake as much as I did when I was twenty one years of age, and I think that's a

factor also, it is, at least for me. So people laugh at me and mock meek al because I won't have dairy and like, maybe I'll have dairy in the off season pizza cheese, yeah, but not not in season. Are you a dairy guy or he? Is that something you stay away from? No milk products for me? I mean I will have an occasional cheeseburger that doesn't seem to bother me, but no milk products. And I have to tell their little story. At one point in my career, I had a summer announcing job in Chicago and at

the radio station. In those days, they used to have every week they would have announcer auditions. If announcers were coming in for a job, they could come in an audition. That certainly is years ago, and those of us that were working used to set out in the lobby area, and when an individual was coming in and we knew they were going to be auditioning, we'd say, oh, hey, how about a milkshaker? Do you want some ice cream

or something here before you go in? Because I've always felt that milk products have no business being involved with an announcer, and so I have no milk products. I'm with you on that day. Yeah, there we go, all right, good to know him in Club McCoy. The other thing. The other thing al I stopped doing about ten years ago because I got scolded by the great Marv Albert.

I don't have pop He used to eat popcorn. I come into his booth sometime to say hello, because Marv and I go back some twenty five years when when I was the Syracuse announcer. He scolded me for having popcorn because he said, you know what if a colonel gets stuck in your throat. So I'm curious, is that something you avoid as well? The popcorn or nuts, anything that can you know, possibly get stuck in your in your throat and mess up your vocal cords before you

go on. Eric, Well, you probably know one broadcaster that eight more popcorn than any of US and he was the late great Bill King. Bill I had known going back to our Midwest days, and then he went to the Bay Area and became the most popular played by played broadcaster in the San Francisco area with his work on baseball, basketball, and football. Bill King and the son of a gun at popcorn during the whole game. I don't know how he did it. I certainly could never

do it. But Bill King is the one and only that a popcorn during the entire game. I never knew how he got by with it. I remember doing a game once with Greg Anthony. I don't know if Greig still does this. Former nick U and LV guard he works for tnt S man. He sat there and eight an entire bucket of popcorn during the game. I had never seen anything like it. I don't know if he still does it. You know, I'm curious because I remember back when the Cardinals made the Super Bowl and they

lost the Super Bowl. How long it took me to recover because as you know, you know, I'm doing a lot of ESPN games, and so the Cardinals they're my team. I mean, I worked for the team, and you know I'm unbiased when I call the games, but they're my team. I get to root for the team, and you kind of live and die with the good moments and the bad moments. And I remember how long it took me to recover after the Super Bowl loss. It hurt for

a while. And I'm curious because I'm sure you didn't know when you'd get to call a Son's Finals again. You got there last year, you got so close. Haul hard was it for you after the Game six loss? And are you over it yet? Well? As as you know, David, was the third time in my fifty years with the Sons that I had the thrill of calling a final series the Suns that are initially against the Celtics, again against the Chicago Bulls, and then of course against Milwaukee.

And I have to be very honest with you, I probably got over it quicker this time than I did the previous two occasions. And I'm gonna tell you why. In recent years, because of a lot of different things, as a broadcaster, you're just not as close to the players and to the team as we were back when the Suns were in the finals on those two previous occasions. A lot of reasons, one his age, the players mostly are most younger now, so we don't have that togetherness,

and we just don't spend that much time together. For a lot of reasons. Most clubs have declared locker rooms clubhouses off limits for broadcasters. Sometimes you can't travel the same way with the team. You don't have that togetherness that we had years ago. And you know, when I came into the NBA with the Suns, you were with the players all the time. He traveled on the planes, the buses, you were in the locker rooms, he went

out for hamburgers and beer after the games. But that started to change a number of years ago when we had nineteen and twenty year old players coming into the league. Plus the fact that going back fifty years ago, you had a lot of things to talk about. It's a little more more difficult now with today's players. I mean, how many Mercedes can you talk about? Or how many eight million dollar homes can you discuss? So it's it's a little different. So kind of a long answer to

your question, I guess, Dave. But even though obviously I want to see the Sun's win, I'm pleased when they do. When they went to the finals, I was excited, but I got over it a little quicker this time than I had the previous two occasions. Yes, I want to go back to your answer or party of your answer about that you used to go out, you know, after games with players for burger or a beer. Who was the coolest guy or was there a particular player back in the day that you would go out with all

the time after games? Well, we had so many, of course, Dick van Arsdale was the original son. I was very close with him, and then when he retired he worked with me on our broadcast television and radio for fifteen years and still is a very close friend. Dick van Arsdale cross Connie Hawkins, the first real Hall of Famer for the Suns. I was very close with so many players in that era of Walter Davis. I could just

go right down the list. Neil walk and he just had a closure relationship because of the age and because they weren't making multimillions of dollars per year, and you weren't traveling on charters. You're on commercial planes, so you were staying over after games, where today after games the clubs just get on their private jets and leave, So you just don't have those opportunities to be that close, and I'll be very frank with you, that's the part

of the business that I think I miss more than anything. Obviously, I still enjoy the games, I still joined the competition, but I do miss that closeness that we were able to have in those early days with players with coaches. As you know, Cotton Fitzsimmons was one of my closest friends. He coached us Sons twice. He worked with me on television and radio. Those days are gone, and those are the things that I probably missed the most. I know

you're not doing a lot of road games. No one is right now with everything that's going on, But I know you specifically cut back on the travel when you were traveling regularly. Did you have a favorite place to call a game or a favorite stop when you would be in a particular city that you just had to go, either for breakfast or a postgame drink. Yes, Chicago. Chicago was always my favorite of the NBA cities. I had spent time there, I had worked there, I grew up,

and I woke to the closeness. I knew all their teams from the Chicago Cubs on down, and they have some of the greatest restaurants in the world. So Chicago was always a place that I look forward to spending a few days during the season and having an off night Chicago. Do you miss traveling? Would you know? Would you like to? I gotta imagine it'd be very difficult to do that in forty one games a year. Is

that something you miss? You know, being on the road and to travel, and you know how much longer out? Do you think you're going to do this? I like, I look at you, and I say, why not just keep going forever? Why stop? If I were you and you still sound great and you're in great health, well, you know it's interesting on the road games. I became concerned several years ago when the league allowed the arenas to move our broadcast locations to areas where we could

not even see the full court. We couldn't see where the three point shots were coming from. We were way up high, and I started to get very concerned at that time as to what the league was allowing. They were giving up seats that they wanted the teams to be able to sell and make money, but they were also giving up our broadcast locations. So over the last couple of years, I had decided that I did want my career to end when the listeners or the viewers

would say, what's wrong with McCoy. Doesn't he know who's shooting these three pointers or what's going on? So I

became a little more disenchanted with doing road games. And then, of course, when this pandemic hit, the club became more concerned about who was going to travel, when they were going to travel, and of course the whole travel situation changed, where you could not be on the team bus, you could not be around players, you could not be around coaches, you could not do on the locker room, and almost

came to the point of why travel. And so that's really the biggest reason that I became disenchanted with games on the road. It's just I have to tell you one story. You may be familiar with the name Joe Tate. Joe was the broadcaster in Cleveland for many, many years, unfortunately since his past, but when they started moving these broadcast locations, he was in an arena and one of

the locations he was at the broadcast the game. You couldn't see the three point corners, and during the course of the game he's doing the play by play and he says, there goes the ball thrown into the corner. There's a shot from three point range. It's good a three pointers good by a player to be named later, A great line line. Yeah, I mean it. Look, it's I know people probably listening are is concerned about our comfort,

but yeah, it's it's hard. Some of the ball stadiums are like that where you're in the corner and you can't see. It's hard to see. You need binoculars just to see the players. But you just you get through it and you do the job. You know. When that happens, you know, sometimes you're more prone to mistakes. And I think of you know, one of the biggest mistakes that I had in my career was in the Super Bowl.

James Harrison has the interception of Kurt Warner runs it back for a touchdown and I couldn't really see and I saw a two, and I thought it was a twenty two instead of a ninety two. The problem was William Gay is who I thought it was, and he's about one hundred pounds lighter than James Harrison. Kurt Warner, who threw that interception, had some fun with me after that. He said how did you mistake James William Gay for James Harrison? And I said, well, how did you mistake

him for ran Kwan Bolden? He was here trying to But anyway, do you do you have anything you look back as they're like a big mistake that you had that you look back on that you say, man, that's the worst thing I've ever set on radio or television. Well, fortunately, if I have, I was able to slide over it and keep going because I was told a long time ago by veteran broadcasters you never stop if you make

a mistake. You just keep going because it will take the listener a long time to discover whether it was a mistake or not. I do want to mention one thing, and I think you might tend to agree with me, because we both have done radio and television. Right now, I'm doing radio, but I did the TV for many, many years. I think a lot of our leagues, and I include the NBA, the NFL and baseball for getting the power that radio has. And I have to tell you this past year I did twenty two playoff games

in the NBA, including the finals. I can't even imagine that I would get the response that I got from our radio broadcasts all over the world world, Germany, Poland, Japan. I was getting texted emails from all over the world

for people that were listening to our radio broadcasts. And I think our leagues forget the fact that radio is still the media that goes worldwide, and they still don't have TV in cars, and there's so much commuting and driving people depend on radio, and we forget that in some of these foreign countries, everyone does not have TV,

they all have radio. And I have to tell you, the response I got the last year from our radio broadcasts was almost unbelievable, it really was, and that was really encouraging to me to try and make our radio

coverage even better than it has been. I don't think there's any question I agree with you wholeheartedly, and it always touches me when you know, I hear from somebody that doesn't have a television, They don't have a way to be able to watch, so their only choice is radio wolf And I actually met somebody who is blind and the only way he can follow the Arizona Cardinals is to listen to our broadcast. So when I have

heard they have not to interrupt you. I have heard from so many sightless people throughout my career that thank god it is responsible maybe for me keeping doing my broadcast shut ins, people in hospitals, veterans and sightless people. You know, it's that's a great feeling to realize that just maybe maybe we can make some of those folks that are suffering as they are have just a little bit more fun, maybe put a smile on their face

with our broadcasts. And that's something that radio certainly can do. Absolutely. Do you remember the last time you did football? And I'm curious, so is there a sport that you didn't do that you look back and say, man, I would have loved to have tried that. Well, I always thought baseball was going to be what I would do, and of course when I was growing up, I followed the Chicago Cubbs on baseball. Burt Wilson was there, played by

play broadcaster. He was my idol, and of course later Jack brook House and Harry Carey and that whole crew, and I initially came to Phoenix to do Triple A baseball, and then through the years I was offered the San Francisco Giant job twice. And also of course I had the opportunity to do the Diamondbacks when they came into the league, and I always felt it would be baseball. But I loved basketball. I had been fortunate enough to

play in high school, so I loved the game. And my real dream was that if I was able to get into this business and be involved and played by play broadcasting, I wanted to be associated with a team as Vince Gully was with the Dodgers. Soon as I'm into simony, the baseball players were, the baseball announcers were with their teams, and I always wanted to do that. And when I got the opportunity with the Sons, that was the pit of me and everything else kind of

turned away. But initially I thought that baseball would be the sport I would be doing. It just turned out to be basketball, and it was the right, right decision. You mentioned some legendary names and broadcasting, and I think of some of the people that have taken me under their wing to help me along when I was getting started or even recently. I mean, I've still people in my life that are very involved in terms of feedback

or encouragement. Mike Tarico, Sean McDonough, Bob Costas, those are three people that come to mind who invested in me when I was young and coming up. I'm curious, Jack Brickhouse, you mentioned a lot of people in Arizona probably don't know that name, that legendary Chicago broadcaster Harry Carey. Most people know Harry from the Cubs games and being on WGN, which would air games nationally for the most part on cable.

Did those guys help you? Is there anybody else that you can think of al that mentored you or took you under his or her wing to kind of help you grow well? And not really, I'm going to tell you about cost the story in a minute. But as I said, Burt Wilson was the radio play by play for the Cubs when I was growing up in Iowa, and I listened every game. Harry Carey was in Saint Louis. Jack Brickhouse did everything in Chicago. He did the Bears and then he was the first to do the TV

of the Cubs. So and Jack Brickhouse through the years tried to hire me many times to come back to Chicago after I had come to Phoenix. But just listening to them on a daily basis, I'm sure that I gained a lot from them, and I think Harry Carey used to have so many great lines, like we don't care who wins, just so it's the Cubs. And he would say, and we go to the bottom of the ninth, the Cubs are down by nine, but don't forget they need ten to win. Go Cubs. I think I probably

captured some of that enthusiasm. And at one point they used to call it a Midwest school of announcing. I don't know if they ever did at Syracuse because of Burt Wilson and Earl Gillespie who was in Milwaukee, and Harry Carey in Saint Louis and brick House, because they were so involved in the games themselves. And I think I've picked up probably my enthusiasm from that. Now. One

Bob Costs a story. Bob was a young guy working at Cambels in Saint Louis, and CBS had the rights for the NBA at that time, and they decided to do a few regional games, and Bob was selected to do some of the regional games, and one of his first was in Phoenix. And when I came into the arena that night to do the game for us Bob Costas, who I had never seen, came up to me, introduced himself, and he said, al McCoy, He said, I've listened to you for years, and he said, I'm so excited about

getting a chance to meet you. He said, I've just picked up so much of listening to your broadcast. Now this is Bob Costas. So I said, well, gee, Bob, it's great to see you. So on and so forth. Well, in a matter of a few years, he was on

with NBC and in New York. So every time that we would go into New York to play the Knicks, we would go to a little bar restaurant that was kind of a hangout for broadcasters and writers in New York City, and I would go in with whoever I was working with to have the lunch or dinner or whatever, and it was a hangout for Bob Costas. So whenever and I would go in and Bob was there, he would come up to him and say, Oh, I don't know if you remember me. I'm Bob Costas well, Sarah.

I knew Bob Costas because by now he's with NBC, But it just got to be kind of a joke for me because every time I would see him, and it might be at the gardener or it might be at this restaurant, he would always come up to me with his hand the extent and say, oh, I'm Bob Costa. This is wanted to say hi. So many years later, the Arizona State University, you know, to give an annual award, the Cronk Eye Award to broadcasters, and I don't know,

this is maybe nine ten years ago. Bob Costas got that award and I went to the luncheon and I had not stuck to him or seen him. But they had a little private room where you could go in if you were one of the heavy hitters and get an autograph from Bob. So I knew where the room was, so I went in. And when I went in, there was a line maybe of ten or twelve people waiting to get up and shake hands and get an autograph

with Bob. Well, he spotted me. He saw me in the back of the line, and he waited for me to come on. And when I got up to the top of the line, I just reached my hand out. I said, excuse me, my aom McCoy, he says, line Bob Costas and they both just started to last. He is one of the most talented broadcasters ever in our business and just a great guy. Oh absolutely, no, Bob is incredible and a guy that really cares about the craft of broadcast any particular play by play. I feel

like I've buried the lead. We're about twenty five minutes into this and I haven't asked you about any of your signature calls. Every Sun's fan knows what that is. I don't have one. I'm never really I don't know. I just when I got the Cardinals job, I always thought, you know, it's going to be four if I try to come up with one, or I could bounce it off somebody and see if it works, or try in the game and people like it, then stick with it.

I guess my the one that people know is just the fact that I work with Bill Walton, so it's really about another person as opposed to my call. But everybody knows about Shazam, and we hear it multiple times a broadcast, and I believe that I've read it and seen you talk about that it came from reading comic books as a kid, So tell us that story out. But also I'm curious when when did you start using it on air? Did you try it out at first? Did it take you a while to finally employ that

on the air? Was it right from from the get go when you got the Sun's job. Well, when I got the Sun's job, they didn't have the three point shot. When it went into effect as a broadcaster, I looked at it as like what would be a home run call in baseball? Because most baseball or broadcasters have a called it might be could be it is or it's

going going gone or whatever, you know. So I looked at that point that the three point shot is not going to be a big factor and it'll be just kind of like maybe a home run that might call the game. So I did think, you know, what could I use? Because I guess I should come up with some type of a home run call that would fit a three point shot. So I went back when I was growing up on a farm in Iowa, I did

read a comic book about Captain Marvel. Now, Captain Marvel was a Superman type character, but he turned into being Captain Marvel from a little guy named Billy Batson who was a radio reporter, and when he became Captain Marvel, he said show zam, and that was taken from the first letter of Socrates, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury. So I thought, you know, that might not be bad because in the comic book when he said shazam, it

was all kinds of lightning and thunder and excitement. So I said, I think that might be what I should use, thinking that there might be one or two a game. And in fact, I like to tell the story because when the three point shot went in, one of the great shooters in that time or anytime for the sunss Walder Davis. He took one three point shot that first year at one and so anyway, that's where Shazam came from.

And it's kind of stuck around a long time, although I do have to admit sometimes I might pass over because we do have a few Shazams, a few three pointers in every game. Now has become a big, big factor of NBA basketball, right. Imagine if you were the Warriors broadcaster, you'd say shazam. You just said it over three thousand times. Now for Steph Curry, do you follow that? I got a couple more, I'll let you go. Do

you follow the Cardinals much. I mean, you were year and you know well into your career with the Sons. When the Cardinals moved to Arizona. Have you followed them the entire time? How much of a fan are you? Well, you know, I'm a sports fan, period, all the sports. I love basketball, football, baseball. I'm a great hockey fan. You know. I did hockey for five years the old Phoenix Roadrunners of the Western Hockey League, and I loved, loved the sport. And certainly we're not going to go

back and forth complimenting one another. But you know of the tremendous respect I have for you, Dave, and you can do any sport and do it so well and so professionally. But you know I love all the sports. I follow all of them on radio and on TV, whatever that possibility might be. I'm I'm just a fan.

I guess the gentleman that I replaced when I got here in two thousand and two, the late Tom Dillon, who is so gracious and kind to me, coming in here as a guy at age twenty nine getting an NFL job, when Tom had been in this market for so long and had done the Cardinals for so long, How well did you know Tom and what was your

relationship like with him? Oh? We were very good friends. Tom, you know, came from Texas into the arena, so to speak, here in Phoenix, and he was basically, first of all, did the sports on TV, and football was really his game he did, you know, like he did all the a as youth sports at one time. But his love and his best work, I always thought was on football. And he was an excellent broadcaster, a great guy, excellent broadcaster,

and we were very good friends, all right. Last one, have you ever been yelled at by a player or a coach for something you said. I've had interactions with coaches or gms. I can think of one GM in particular in the NBA. Won't say his name, but he's still a GM that didn't like something that was said one time. And sometimes there are players who will say things. Occasionally they hear something, or they won't talk to anymore, or when they do talk to you, some are afraid

to bring it up. Some will bring it up. I don't know if you had, if you had anything like that in your tenure doing the Suns. You know, I guess I probably have been fortunate because I've been around so long, and I think one of the reasons early for many many years, when the Suns would go to training camp, I would have a session with them when I would talk with all the players and the coaches

and talk about their responsibilities to the media. Now that's gone by the wayside because the league takes that all over, and I would tell the players at that time, I said, now, there are going to be times during a game broadcast that I may be critical of the way you're playing that particular night, and I want you to be able to accept that, whether it's from me for somebody else. I will tell you I will never embarrass you personally or I will never refer to anything personally concerning you.

But if it's concerning the way you're playing the game, then you can expect it to be analyzed perhaps, but I said, I would never say anything that would be something concerning you as a person, and I think I got respect from the players initially. In recent years, as I said, I just don't have the closeness with the players that month. There's probably only two players on the Suns team right now that I really feel close to.

Devin Booker of course, would be number one because he's been here for five six years and we know each other and he's such a terrific young guy. And DeAndre Ayton. DeAndre Ayton knows me because he spent time into a and followed the Suns on our broadcasts. But I've been fortunate, and I think one of the reasons is coaches and players alike knew that I would always be fair, that they're not above criticism. They're they're having a bad game

and their shots aren't going. I can't lie about that, but I never would attack them on a personal basis, and I think they respected me for that then, and that has been my approach. Al you are and always will be the greatest broadcaster in the history of the city. And I'm so thankful for you spending some time with me doing this podcast. I hope you do this for twenty more years. I would love to see it out.

I'm amazed still, man. I mean this, every time I listen to you, how descriptive you are, how energetic you are, every game you treat the same, and I always feel like that's the mark of a great broadcaster. It can be the first game of the season, a playoff game, or game number fifty in the middle of a long NBA season, and you sound just as excited to be there as you ever have. Well, I can be honest, Dave, coming from you, that means a great deal to me.

You're such a professional person and I admire everything you do. It's just I've been a very, very fortunate guy. And I'll just tell you one story in closing. As you know, I'm a piano player, and I played professionally for a number of years, and I love jazz, and my favorite piano player is Erl Garner. And a year ago, I was on my way to the arena and I was listening to a CD with ERL Garner in my car, and I started to think. I said, you know, it's kind of interesting here. I am. I'm going down to

the arena. I'm going to broadcast a basketball game that I love and I love doing and I love communicating and talking all about the game, and I'm listening to my favorite piano player, ERL Garner. And I thought for a moment and I said, you know what, it's been a pretty good ride. And you know what, it's been a pretty good ride, dude. Well, hey, if this broadcast thing doesn't work out, for you. Maybe we'll hear smooth Jazz with Al McCoy on another radio station or something.

But I appreciate it Al so much. Man, I look forward to seeing you here. I've got some Suns games in January and February to look forward to seeing you. Then sounds great. I'll look forward to a day. Always a pleasure to visit with you. Happy Holidays, you two. You're the best. Al. Thanks. Well, maybe you had heard that story before, but that's the first time I've heard Al go that in depth on how he came up with Shazam on a three pointer. It came from reading

comic books as a kid. Going back to Captain Marvel, I had no idea that each letter stood for something at the acronym sha z am, and how he didn't have to use that moniker very often when he started doing games in the NBA because there wasn't a three point line. Now he's got to use it all the time. But it was great to catch up with out really appreciate his time. He was actually going to do a Sun's game and he spent some thirty minutes with us

talking about his favorite moments. Broadcasting games for the Suns had a great story about Bob Costas talked about how we love Chicago. That's his favorite road trip. And it's interesting that in all his years of broadcasting, he can't remember a mistake that really got him. And that's saying something because we've all had some bad moments on the air. But I'm not surprised given how professional Al is. He

is the consummate professional and incredible gentleman as well. We are presented by BETMGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Hotels and Casinos. We didn't talk a lot about the Cardinals. They're not playing too well right now, but still enough time to turn things around. We'll see if they can do it on Sunday in Dallas. We'll talk to you then. Thanks again for listening to The Day Pash Podcast three.