The Dave Pasch Podcast - JJ Redick

One of the reasons I wanted to get Jj on was on the heels of Duke's run to the Final four. Wanted to get JJ's thoughts on Mike Shashevsky's final season, what coach k meant to JJ, his thoughts on Duke going forward. I was around him for four years. I never saw him have a bad day and that was the biggest lesson that I learned from him, as well as being adaptable, and by adaptability as a coach, I mean year to year, he was willing to work with

what he had. We'll also talk about the NBA Playoffs and all the awards that will be announced here in the next few weeks, specifically with regard to the Phoenix Suns. Where does Devin Booker fit into the MVP conversation? What about Monny Williams for Coach of the Year. We'll also talk about JJ's podcast, The Old Man and the Three, how it started and where it's headed. We are presented by bet 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 and free bets. Visit betmgm dot com for terms and conditions. Twenty one and over Arizona only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem called one eight hundred. Next Step. Here's our guest on this week's Dave Pash Podcast episode,

JJ Redick. So, JJ, Since the last time I saw you, I watched Tenant again and I still can and figure it out. And you're telling me that Robert Pattinson is at his name, the lead actor who just played the lead and the Batman, which was really good, by the way, So you're telling me he's supposed to be the son because I still can't figure it out. And now I need to go back and watch it again, but I get more and more frustrated every time I watch it.

So the prevailing one of the prevailing fan theories about the movie is that Neil played by Robert Pattinson, is actually Max, and Max, of course, is the young son of Kat. And when I like something, I just deep dive. And we've talked about this when we did our games together in March. But in anything I do in life, when I like it, it's just becomes an obsessive deep dive.

So not only did I watch Tenant I think six times in the first ten days it came out, but I spent hours on YouTube watching fan theory videos and spend some time on Reddit of course. But yeah, that's I mean, that's how I operate my life. Unfortunately, I don't do that with everything. It's just the things that I'm really into. And one of those things that I'm

really into is Christopher Nolan movies. Well, the way he does the movies, it makes you think, and it makes you question it, and then you watch it again and you question the theory that you came up with. Like Inception, it seems like it's one or two things either it was a dream the entire time or it was real. But Tenant, there can be like ten different theories about

who is playing who and what's actually happening. Like I thought the first time I saw it that he dies, like when they show Tenant, you know, that's when they're pulling his teeth out, And I thought it died, And this was just again some state that he's in, you know, maybe on his deathbed. And I know Interstellar is your favorite, right because that's what you have on your emoji for Twitter. My advata, yes digital avatar is is a picture of

Matthew McConaughey and his space suit. Um. Yeah, Interstellar is my favorite Nolan movie. I I when Inception first came out, that sort of was it for me, And I look, I was a fan of all of the Batman movies, specifically The Dark Knight, the second one in the trilogy that Nolan did. Prestigi is amazing, Mementos, amazing m But

for me, it's it's Interstellar. And I always say this, like, to me, it's the greatest combination of storytelling science And obviously you can argue whether not the science is real, but science and then the visual effects you know, and to some degree, you can't beat that soundtrack. There's some moments where the music and what you're what you're seeing, the auditory and visual experience, the combination of both those scenes are just they're chilling. Man. It's I just I

just love that movie. I'm very passionate about it. Well, this is technically a football podcast, but we have had JJ as I told you, a number of basketball related guests. We've had an actor on, We've had Frank kelliendo on. But every time we have somebody on that's either not connected to football directly or has no connection whatsoever to football, I still at least ask who your team was growing up. And I think I know the answer to this one. If you played football. I think I remember you said

something about your parents wouldn't let you. Then they eventually did and you broke your wrists you couldn't play anymore. Is that right? Yeah, it's so I had asked them my whole childhood. Once I started playing sports, started playing sports. When I was eight, I got into baseball, I got into basketball, and I was like, I can I play football? My friends play football? Can play football? And they I

was very frail. I was very skinny, and they said no, and they said no, And then the summer between seventh and eighth grade they said I could play football well at nationals that year, I got undercut and I broke my right wrist. And right when school started, I was going to go out for the football team, and I was playing pick up and I broke my left wrist getting undercut on the basketball court. So that pretty much ended my football career. But I was gonna go play

wide receiver. That was what I was going to play. We already had a really good quarterback. My high school randomly had this two year stretch to class above me and then my class where we had a ton of Division one athletes. We were a relatively small public school in Ronoke, Virginia, but we had multiple ACC athletes, a number of low D one football players. We actually had

an ACA player that played a wake Forest. But we just had this influx of high level Division one athletes, and I think I think I would have been fine in football. I don't think I would have continued to play football throughout high school because because I would have gotten so many chiefs, somebody was going to try to

take me out. Because at that point by the end of my freshman year in basketball, you know, I was nationally ranked and pretty good, and you know, similar to Duke, the other schools probably didn't like me that much, and so somebody would have taken a dirty shot at me, and I probably would. I probably would have quit football. Baseball was my passion, though baseball was my passion. Really, yeah, baseball was my passion I was. I pitched, and it

was the first sport I remember watching. I started watching basketball and ninety two, that Duke team and then subsequently that Bulls playoff run when they beat the Blazers. But I started watching baseball the year prior, and I was a huge Atlanta Braves fan. Eventually became a huge Indians fan because of Manny Ramirez and then when he went to the Red Sox, I started watching the Red Sox

and Pedro Martinez was my favorite pitcher. They went within two years, they both go to the Red Sox, and from that point on, I was a Red Sox fan. To answer your question about football, though I never had a team professional sports, a lot of times I just rooted for athletes. So I would root for specific players and run us in this weird place where you know, we're three and a half hours from Charlotte, where four hours from Washington, DC, So there wasn't the hometown team

that I could root for sure. Well, obviously things worked out for you with basketball. He became one of the greatest players in the history not only a Duke but of college basketball. Leaving Duke is the all time leading scorer, not just there but in the conference. Four year player. I know you didn't win a championship, but you accomplished so much there and I know how much Coach k still means to you. It was really thrilling to watch

that run. It was a neat story for everybody, even if you're not a Duke fan, because of what Mike Shazowski's meant to the game to see that team go to the Final four. What do you I'm sure you've spoken with him, and I know you were at his last home game, which, like the final four game, the national semifinal game was. You know, it was a loss in North Carolina. What do you think it meant to him JJ to get this group in his last go

around to the final four. It was very meaningful and coach always has he talked about it, but y'alls has a next play, next team mentality. I was around him for four years. I never saw him have a bad day. That was the biggest lesson that I learned from him, as well as being adaptable. And by adaptability as a coach, I mean year to year, he was willing to work with what he had. There wasn't a system, it was how do I make this group good? And on top

of that, he was very invested in each group. And so I know with this particular group, a very young team. Obviously Wendel Moore was a junior, but mainly playing young players to get to the final four was a huge deal. And the growth that they showed, you know, anytime you're a coach and you see your team grow in a period of time as they did over the last six

weeks of the season was huge. That that Michigan State game in the to go to the Sweet sixteen, the Texas Tech game to go to the lead eight, those were two of the best duke wins that I've seen in a long long time, in several years. So just I was really proud of the group. And of course Carolina wins the game and Cameron and they beat us

in the Final four. And by the way, I was at the Final four game to fantastic basketball game, high level college basketball, and it's very sad as a Duke fan because in this rivalry for them to win probably the two biggest games ever in that rivalry, the first time we've met in the tournament in the final four, potentially coaches last game turns out to be his last game as well as his last home game. For them

to win those two games, oh, it's soul crushing. I'll have to hear about it the rest of my life. I certainly feel for you on that one. Well, on the other side, I was just with Vince Carter the other night doing the game, and he was obviously upset about what happened Monday with them. But here's a part of him that I think a lot of Carolina for Carolina players and Carolina fans field the same way. Yeah, we lost in the championship game, but you know what,

we beat Duke. Well, they can definitely hang their hat on that. And for a team that didn't necessarily have high expectations and ended up being an eight seed, which turn you know, selection committee a terrible job with seating the ACC Miami should not have been a ten seed and Carolina should have been an eight seed, But to be an eight seed and get to the championship game, that that team huge accomplishment for them, big moment for

Hubert Davis, really really really really happy for him. You know that that that rivalry, the the meaning of playing at a school, and now John Shire will get to go through this as Hubert's going through it right now. That playing in that rivalry, playing for that school and then going back and coaching and getting to beat Duke just a huge moment for him. Huge moment. Well, as you and I talked about, I've worked with so many different analysts over the years, and one of my first

analysts on college basketball at ESPN was Hubert Davis. I did two years with Hubert. We were doing a lot of games out west, and he was living in Chapel Hill and then eventually went to studio and then wanted to get into coaching, went back working for Roy at North Carolina, and I was so happy for him. He's such an encouraging guy, positive guy. You can see his imprint on that team over the course of the season.

I got to imagine when you're struggling and you're at a place like North Carolina and the pressure is high and your head coach is constantly encouraging you and being positive, and then you start to see some results. It builds confidence, and I don't feel like he's getting the credit held when you take over for a legend like Roy Williams. I mean, imagine if John Shire next year goes to the championship game replacing Mike Shashevsky, what people will say

about him. I feel like it will be disproportionate maybe to reality, because both jobs are incredibly hard when you consider who you're replacing. I always felt that playing at Duke it felt like living in a fishbowl, and at the time, college basketball, maybe in terms of sports culture, maybe was a little more popular just because of the one and done era has kind of changed college basketball.

So my takeaway from this season and specifically with March Madness, was that was one of the best tournaments period that we've seen in a few years in terms of the upsets, high level basketball, clutch shot making. We saw it on the wim inside as well, a number of amazing games that I got to watch in the women's tournament as well, And so I think there's been a narrative around the demise of college basketball, and I am so happy that

we're getting back to high level college basketball. And I think when this transfer portal thing happened, oh it's going to ruin college. But what's happened as actually is there's older players. It's not just eighteen and nineteen year old kids, and so you're seeing guys the added value of staying in school and learning the game and being coached. And then you have this influx like Hubert Davis who are bringing modern concepts to basketball. I went on an epic

not an epic rant. Our video producer put that in the title of the video, but I went on a rant on the podcast this week with Kevin Durant about what I view is as archaic strategy in college BASKETBA. And there's such a stark difference between watching a team that implements modern concepts offensively and defensively versus teams that don't.

And so watching UNC for me was actually a real pleasure because I thought they ran great sets, they have great spacing, they have shooting, they have guards that can break you down off the dribble, a rim running big, and then they ice everything in pick and rolls, which is another NBA concept like we need to we need to sort of get some more modern concepts into college basketball, and so for a guy like Hubert Davis to bring

that into it, I think is phenomenal. Well, most of my career at ESPN doing college basketball has been the one and done era, and I remember doing I did Kevin Durance McDonald's All America game and then a bunch of his games that first year at Texas. I remember doing a game at Texas Tech when Bob Knight was a coach there and Durant goes for thirty seven and twenty three rebounds, and obviously he was so talented he

wasn't going to stay. Needed to go. And that's the case with most guys that are that you know anywhere in that same realm in terms of talent level. You just go. And I think a lot of people like I struggle with trying to present like every year it's a new team every year college basketball, unless you're a diehard Duke fan or North Carolina fan, blue chip programs like Kentucky, Syracuse even it's you kind of bounce around and it's hard to really get you fall in love

with Saint Peter's the coach leaves. You're not gonna remember the players' names once they lose. And you know, back when you played, I mean you got attached to guys, and I know you didn't like being disliked, but there were a lot of people that were attached to you because they wanted to root against you, and it's really hard to do that now in college basketball. What are the things that people inherently enjoy about watching sports is

watching athletes grow. They grow through adversity, they grow through failure, they grow through success, but watching growth over a three or four year period, that's the attachment. You know, I remember watching this kid as a freshman. Now look at him as a senior. I remember when he rode the bench as a freshman. Now he's starting and he's all conference. There's something that's really enjoyable as a sports fan to

see that. We have that, of course in pro sports, where guys have a much longer runway and we can see that maturation and that growth. Jannis is a great example of that. To watch him early in his career as the number one option in the playoffs, and then to see him last year close out of Finals with a fifty ball in game six. There's that growth and it's fun to root for that. And when you're seeing guys for one season thirty games, it's it's harder to

get that attachment. And by the way, the other thing I wanted to add is I've always said that, but guys should be able to leave out of high school go to the pros. I really believe that. The negative byproduct to me of the one and done era is if you're a highly touted, highly recruited McDonald's all American, you go to a school, there's almost an expectation or an obligation to leave school early. We've created this sort

of demarcation line. Now it's like one and done era. Okay, I go for a year, I leave, And really it should be culturally it should be more about you leave when you're ready. Maybe some guys that's high school. Maybe some guys it is after your freshman year, maybe you need another year. But now it's it's part of the culture that you go to school for a year. And Duke's had a number of guys do this where they go to school for a year and you know it doesn't pan out. I would have loved to see them

stay for an extra year or two. I'm glad you brought up, you know, the enjoyment for fans of seeing a player grow over the course of his or her collegiate career. And you've been pretty open and honest and humble about some of the mistakes that you made in college that maybe people at the time didn't know about. And I'm curious for you, when did you recognize that. Was it while you were at Duke after meetings with coach k or was it once you're in the NBA

and you grew up a little bit? When when did I recognize the growth or yeah? Like, when did you look back and say, wow, you know I made I made a mistake when I was a freshman or so I spent too much time focused on other aspects besides basketball, Like when you and coach when when things started to click for you, when you kind of figured things out.

Did you know it at the time or did you have to look back once you're in the NBA, And like, man, I could I can pinpoint that moment at Duke when I figured it out And here's why I figured it out, right, I figured it out at the end of my junior year. And so I'll try to be very succinct with this explanation and story. But my whole life I got you know, I was a massive Duke fan, die hard Duke fan. I wanted to go to Duke. I wanted to play a Duke. I get to Duke and everybody hates me.

I'm taken aback by it. I take on this persona, this brash, cocky, arrogant persona on the court that creates a cycle of more hatred, of more animosity towards me, and there was this feeling of this isn't what I signed up for. I didn't realize it was going to be this hard. I thought this was supposed to be fun. And so I went into what I would like to call a rebellious phase my sophomore year, and I wanted to quit. My sisters talked me out of it. I

spent most of that season on antidepressants. I was also behaving in a way that was coming of of a of a collegiate athlete period, much less a duke basketball player where the standard is so high and coach and I had a number of meetings after my sophomore year that culminated in a meeting around May twentieth, and he brought me into his office with Woejoe and Collins, and it was it was a come to Jesus moment, and he laid out a plan for me. I started seeing

a therapist weekly. They gave me a schedule to the hour, and I stuck to that schedule the entire summer. I went from about two hundred and twenty pounds at the end of my sophomore year, I started first practice weighing about one ninety two. I was an unbelievable shape. I won every conditioning drill that offseason, and I got National

Player of the Year, ACC Player of the Year. And there was a moment in Coach's hotel room in Austin, Texas after we Austin the Sweet sixteen where two things happen. I realized that it worked, and I realized that Coach and I were now friends, that we weren't just player coach, we were real friends. And I lived that out the

rest of my career. There was no going back. I saw what being diligent and being disciplined and being fully invested in being fully committed, what the result of that was Now I didn't always get the result that I wanted, but I knew that that was my benchmark, that was my standard that I had to have in order for me to play at a high level. So you leave Duke, you come to the NBA, you're the eleventh overall pick.

And I remember when he came into the NBA and there were a lot of people, and I'm sure you heard it that said, JJ Reddick, great shooter in college? You know, is that going to translate to him being around in the NBA for a long period of time? Is he just going to be a role player? Can

he do anything else besides shoot? And you played fifth teen years, you had a great NBA career, And I'm curious, JJ, do you think you would have lasted as long in the NBA and it had as much success as you did in the NBA if you didn't go through that transition at Duke and didn't learn from those mistakes that you talked about at Duke. No chance. Now I think

I would have played in the NBA. And if I had gone to University of Florida or the University of Virginia or Texas or Stanford or any of the other schools, that were really recruiting me. I would have had a good college career and I would have played in the NBA. I would not have had the success that I had in college or the success that I had the NBA if I hadn't gone through what I went through. And so I'm grateful for it. And you know, there was a lot of there was a lot of guilt, There

was a lot of low moments. There was a lot of self doubt. There was that in my NBA career too, but I intuitively understood at that point what it took, and so there was always that work to go back to. There was always that discipline, getting my sleep, eating right,

being in the gym, taking care of myself. So if the results weren't there, if the self doubt was there, if the guilt was there over missing a shot laid or letting my man score, whatever it was, I just went back to work and I went back to the things. I guess they were my grounding principles of my career. And so to learn that at nineteen, that was the biggest boost I ever could get for having success in

the NBA. One of the things I've appreciated in the short time working with you and then just kind of watching you operate when I see you in the studio. Is you take the craft of broadcasting seriously? When I listened to your podcast, like you sound like you've been doing this for twenty five years. I said the same thing to you after we did our two games together. It just you're a natural, but you take it seriously and you care. And I know this was something you

were thinking about doing while you were still playing. But ultimately, when you made the decision to stop playing, something you had been doing for twenty plus years, more than twenty if you include high school, was it a difficult decision? Was there a transition period where you were missing, you know, being with the guys on the road, you know, playing cards on the road, talking wine, movies with your teammates, or do you still miss that? I still miss that.

I'll always miss that, and I don't know that I can replicate that in any other way in my life. There's something that's very sacred to me about being on a team. It's weird because I fell in love with basketball as a as a home schooler who would get his work done early in the morning and have the rest of my day because I had. You know, my parents didn't make a lot of money, so both my parents worked. You know, my mom would teach us some days. I would go to work with her and do my

work there. One of five kids, so there was a lot of autonomy that I had in my childhood, and I had to fill time. And I liked going out on a basketball court and shooting for hours. And that's initially how I fell in love with it. And then I started playing AU basketball and I would travel and we'd stay in hotel rooms and I'd stay up late with people that came from a different background of me, and we'd talk about life. And I did that for thirty years. I made so many great friendships. I had

so many great moments off the court. I'll miss that. I missed you mentioned card games. I missed the action. I missed the action. I missed the action a lot. And it was it was I was ready to retire for a while. It wasn't about that. It was about just squeezing every last bit I could out of my career and my inherent love for the game. I wanted to keep doing it. The decision to retire ultimately came down to a time value. Proposition, you know, what, what

is it I want to do with my time? And because my kids were getting older, and because I had missed so much over the last few years and specifically in the bubble year. Once I started doing those exercises about being in a hotel room in Cleveland in February versus taking my kid to Florida for spring break, it became pretty clear to me that it was time. And

I was fried physically, emotionally, mentally. I mean, you know, my wife and I always talk about this, Like I even when I was home, I was still thinking about the game and practicing and training. It was just it was all compassing all the time, and I was ready for a break. I was ready for change. And I had no idea that I'd be busier in retirement somehow than I was as a player. And so the camaraderie and the team thing is what I'll miss the most.

And then the second thing, which I'm still navigating, and I think it takes time to navigate. But the second thing is we've talked about the structure. I need structure in my life, and I enjoyed the structure of being a professional athlete so much. I enjoyed knowing every day where I was supposed to be, when I was going to train, when I was going to go to sleep, when my meals were going to be. I sometimes forget to eat now, you know. I'm like, oh, it's five o'clock.

I forgot to eat lunch, you know. So I really those are the two things that obviously I'm miss shooting a basketball, but those are the two things that I'm I'm still working my way through and I look up. Maybe I'll never be able to replicate that first thing ever again, but certainly grateful that I got to do it for so long days like this. Maybe you miss it more when you're spending time a pile and flooring for your house. It was enjoyable. It was enjoyable. It

was enjoyable. I learned a lot about about Limestone today your podcast The Old Man in the Three. When did you come up with the idea, how did it start? And what are your plans for because obviously given your connection to so many different current players, I remember the game I did with you in Philly, the embrace that you had with Joel Ebid. I can just see the love that he has for you and all the players that come up to you. Clearly you built some deep

friendships and great relationships with a lot of guys. What are the plans ultimately long term for the podcast? You know, you can't it's hard to have It's hard to have a podcast. We've talked about this. It's hard to have a podcast without an audience. So I don't think about anything else sides building an audience, and I in some ways got lucky because of timing. I was the first active player to have a podcast, so there was a

novelty in that. Working at the Ringer and you know, being associated with the scale of that company in sports and media culture was important. We launched The Old Man in the Three. We started our own company. We launched The Old Man of Three. We owned, We owned the podcast. We launched that in the middle of the bubble. There was no other player that was doing a podcast out of the bubble. Like, there's just been a bunch of things that I've just gotten lucky on. There's no there's

not a grand vision ever for the podcast. It's something that I enjoyed doing. And what I realized about a year and change into doing The Old Man of the Three is I really just enjoyed basketball. I enjoyed talking about basketball. So we we sort of made a strategic shift in late October. Let's just focus on NBA content.

Let's focus on having guests on that are associated with the NBA, mainly players, And we've seen our audience grow because of that, so you know, we're going to continue to sort of use that model to continue to grow our audience. You know, I think about when you start something in media, it's it's driven really by two things. It's driven by content. Do you have good cut content? And can you build a community? And that's what we're trying to do with the podcast, and whatever comes of that,

that's great. You know, besides the podcast, there's a lot of other things that I'm working on actively right now, including a I don't know how to describe it, but it's a TV show. It's a TV show, so we're working on it. It would be it's called Eat, Prey, Dunk, and you know, it's it's about capturing the essence of a player. It's out trying to answer the question of

why sports matter, why athletes are who they are. We do that to some degree on the show, but on the podcast, but this would be a more a more visual experience, I think. And uh so we're talking. We're talking with different high level production companies, streaming services, etc. To try to try to get this thing made. Um. But you know, it's funny because you mentioned the media stuff and I didn't even I didn't plan on getting into media, and I was hesitant to even start at ESPN,

and and Dave Roberts, who who you know. Dave was more than accommodating with just creating a schedule for me this this year. That wasn't too taxing because I was like, I'm gonna take a year off. But then I'm like, I got a podcast that I got to do weekly and I need something else to fill my time. And so it kind of all happened organically. I Dave. My life plan is not like I wanted to be an NBA player. I put everything into it, and right now

it's just like just flow with the river. You know, Well, I don't know where the river is going to take me. I don't know where I'll be in three years. Do any of us really know? We think we do, We think we can control. You've had Chris Paul on and you know this podcast. As I said, is primarily Arizona Cardinals based. We do branch out beyond just the NFL, and obviously people that you know a lot of people that live in Arizona or Cardinal fans are also Suns fans.

So we had mckel bridges on, we had James Jones, al McCoy, they've all been on and with the run to the finals last year and then having the best record in the NBA this year, there is a there's an appetite for Suns content. And because you probably know Chris Paul as well as anybody, maybe you can put your finger on it more than weekend. Because the transformation of the organization from when Chris prior to Chris's arrival

to what they are now, it's remarkable. I'm not sure we've seen anything quite like this, like you see a player. When Kurt Warner came to the Cardinals, he led them to a super Bowl, but it wasn't like they went fifteen and one. But because of Kurt and how good he is, and obviously there were other talented players around him, we went to the Super Bowl the next year, which was Kurt's last year, had even a better record, ended

up losing the Saints who win the Super Bowl. But it wasn't like you went from the worst team in football to the best. The Sons were the worst team, close to the worst team, if not the worst. They're not the best team. Now, they don't won a championship. They're close last year, maybe they win it this year. And everybody tries to say, well, here's why they're different, here's what Chris Paul brings to the table. But you

know this, you played with him, you know him. Well, what do you think it is that goes beyond what we can see the fan in the media. Well, I'll answer that question. But there's another really important ingredient to the formula for their success over the last few seasons, and that's Monny. Because Monny, in some ways is they're not the same, but in some ways it is very similar to Chris. The attention to detail, the basketball intelligence. Monny has that at the highest level, and I think

the combination of them. Chris, of course, being an extension of a coach on the floor, is really important. In regards to Chris. He is as demanding of a teammate as I've had, and I loved that he has a way of getting your best every night. There was there was no not that I did this ever, but like for all of us, there was no I'm going to go into the game and half ass like because Chris was there and so he wasn't gonna half ass it, and he was gonna tell you if you were half

asking it. So there's there's an accountability to Chris as a teammate and as a player because he does it and because his agenda ultimately is to win. Now there's shenanig. It's Chris is Chris. You know, he's gonna he's gonna talk to other players. He's gonna he's gonna do the rip through move and draw fouls. He's gonna talk to the refs like there's other things Chris. You know, Chris is an annoying little pest. We all know that. But but in terms of the agenda, Chris is as competitive

of a player as I ever played with. And he's an incredible strategist. And we talked about this, I think when he was on the podcast, but I know I've mentioned it in other episodes. Chris is probably the best cards player that I've played against. You know, in anything he does, he figures out how to win. What gives him the best chance to win. I saw this great graphic.

You may have seen this as well on Twitter. You know New Orleans that franchise franchise wins when he was there, franchise record for wins when he was there, Houston franchise record for wins when he was there, Phoenix franchise record for wins when he was there, Clippers franchise record for wins when he was there. So, although he hasn't want to ring and I think they're the clear favorites to win one this year, he is as good of a winner as we've had in this era of sports. Now,

he doesn't have the championship. I get that, and that may be controversial thing to say, but he is as good of a winner as we've had in sports. So I have a vote for MVP and all the NBA awards that I have to turn in here, and I'm waiting till the last possible second to turn it in as you should. That's you know what, You're being the

responsible voter. And I appreciate that the money for you guys that now is attached to these awards, which I think, by the way, I know Adam Silver the commissioner came out and said NBA players aren't playing enough games. They're trying to figure out ways to fix that. A solution that I think would would work, or at least would help, would be if you put for the voters, you say, okay, to be the MVP, you have to play at least sixty eight games or whatever, or to make All NBA

you have to play sixty eight games. You can't vote for somebody if they play fewer than sixty eight games. There is an incentive now because there's so much money attached to contracts. If you make All NBA, maybe that will result in guys playing more games because they want to make sure they're getting their max contracts. So I don't hate the idea, but in any sort of games

played scenario, context matters. You know, if a guy breaks his wrists and miss a month of the season and the Aliens up playing in sixty five games, but that team has the best record and he's got great stats,

that guy should probably still be All NBA. You know, the context betters might change, might change to the All NBA voting is just to have the fifteen best players have three teams of five, but make it about the five best players should be first team All NBA, the next five players should be second team ALLANBA, the positional stuff, and then now they're complimentating things like why why is Joe Ellenbiad and Yokich? Why are they? Can you vote for them as forwards? They haven't played a minute of

four at all season. They're centers. But you know what, they both should be a first team All NBA, and there's a good chance that one of them won't be. The other part that's tied to it, of course, is that you reference is max contract extensions, being eligible for a super max that's tied to All NBA, and then and then the rookie supermax, which you have to reach.

You know, obviously you know in your rookie contract to to uh sort of trigger that that supermax, So guys will sign for it'll be reported two hundred million dollars, but if they don't reach it, they get one sixty five. Trey Young is a great example of this. You know, he's eligible for the supermax, that's what he signed um, but if he doesn't make All NBA this year, he loses out on thirty five million. This is what happened

to Jason Tatum. Jason Tatum when a long run on the podcast about this um, this is something that was collective collectively bargain bier union. I don't I don't know that there's a solution to that outside of renegotiating that with the NBA UM. And I think where where players get frustrated is in some of the voting. What I think doesn't get appreciated by the players is how serious the voters are taking it. You guys all know about

these clauses in the contract. You know, Howard Beck when the pod came out with Jason and his rant kind of went viral. Howard Beck, He's like, Jason, I don't like it either, you know, he tweeted, I don't like it either. I don't want my vote to be tied to whether or not you get the money. Good. Look, you can't tell me that Jason Tatum in his fourth year didn't do his job. He did a MAX level worthy job and he should have gotten paid according to

his market, which was as a MAX player. So outside of renegotiat I don't think you can you can do it. The all NBA stuff this year is really interesting, and you know you mentioned you've mentioned Chris, I know, off the air we're talking about stuff. It's like, where where do we figure out how some of these players go? And Trey Young is a great He's had an unbelievable season, an unbelievable season. He should be All NBAUM. But it's

really hard, it's really hard. The MVP this year is probably as hard as this in a long time trying to figure that out. So I don't have Trey Young on my All NBA team as of this moment, and if I end up not voting that way, I feel badly that it could cost him thirty five million dollars. But looking at their record and some players on some other teams that maybe the numbers aren't as gaudy, but

their teams are better. I mean, to your point, you only have six guards the front court, you can fudge it a little bit because like I've got Janis embating, Yokis All first Team. Yeah, none of those guys have played I mean, Mbat never plays forward. I mean, you could you could make the case that Yoki he's he's whatever.

He's a guard, he's a forward, he's a center. But right DeMar de Rosen will probably make an all NBA team, but he'll make it as a forward, even though nominally he functions as the primary playmaker in the half court. This is why, you know, the defining lines of position has been so skewed because of the way the modern NBA works now, which is why I think the solution is you just vote for the fifteen best players. My comment on Trey and my comment towards the MVP as well.

We talked about this last night on Countdown with Jalen is. You know, perceived value is relative to expectations, and I think with Trey this year, because of what was a surprising run last year, there were more expectations on Trey and the Hawks this year and they probably underperformed to that. But he has not. He has not, and I probably

one of the six best guards in the NBA. Problem is, as I know, we brought up my Yannis comment on the Joel Pod when we were off air, and you know, the problem, as I said this on the pod, there's too many good players, Like there's too many good players. I can remember even in my career five six years ago, we're like, oh man, there's thirteen guys that are really all NBA and there's like five guys that you're kind

of like, I could I could fit them in. I could, I could make an argument to put them in the last two spots. Now there's like twenty guys, and you're like, how do we how do we make this fair and fit it in fifteen slots with positions? It's tough, it's very tough. Well, I've already kept you much longer than I was anticipating, but I do want to just get a couple more in here. How do you think you'll if you had to pick the MVP, W how do you think you'll land? Like? Does it? Is it based

on Devin Booker? To me? Deserves consideration. Now, I don't think that's how I'm going to vote number one, but he's going to be in my top five. I think ultimately it's Yokich, Giannis and Embed but there's no real criteria. Like I'm inconsistent when I look at how I vote for MVP or Coach of the Year, Rookie of the Year, even the all NBA teams. I mean, I'm in consistent. Most voters are most voters are most voters are? You know?

With books specifically, there's been nine previous players that have averaged twenty five, five and five on a team that had a winning percentage of eight hundred or better. I think the Suns are a little under eight hundred, and he's averaging four point nine assists, so he could end up being the tenth, but he's right there to be the tenth player. Ever, eight of the previous nine guys that have done that have one MVP. Look Book is a deserving MVP. In any other year, he's probably the MVP.

The problem is the three most dominant players have had historical seasons in Janie mbid and historical you know, the numbers don't lie, and book is going to get hurt because of advanced stats. That's just a reality. He's third on his team in winshields. Mcel Bridges has more win shares than Devin Booker. That's just how analytics work. And

more than enough voters now factor in analytics. So when you talk about analytics, well, then the clear guys Yokich, when you talk about narrative, it's probably embed and you talk about you know more, I test in moments right now it feels like it's Yannis I test and the last two three weeks of the season when you talk about those moments, those MVP moments, that that three against the nets, whatever it may be, it's probably Yannis. I tend to land on today, whatever it's, you know, Thursday,

the seventh of April. I tend to land on a fluctuation between Yokich and Yannis for MVP, and it sucks because there's like, there's legitimately four guys that should be MVP. How many it takes when you did the State Farm commerce and you're the mad professor talking to the coffee pot for people that have seen that, it's very good, by the way, how many takes did you need? We

filmed a bunch of different lines. I had about ten or twelve lines, and then we filmed all of the lines at three different camera angles, so there were probably forty or fifty takes total. The other thing to note is in the video in the final cut, I should say in the final commercial there's a there's about an inch left of coffee in that coffee pot. Well, I spent about twenty minutes doing takes where instead of talking

to the coffee pot, I would chug the coffee. So that was my second pot of coffee that I was on and it was lukewarm coffee. It was room temp coffee. But look, I was just my I didn't look at the call sheet till I got in the car to It was a busy week. We had Draymond in San Francisco that week. I flew to LA. I did NBA to Day on Tuesday, at NBA to Day on Wednesday, and I and I was set to go film the commercial right after my second day at NBA to Day, so I did not have time to look at the

call sheet. And I looked at the call sheet on the five minute right over to where we were shooting the commercial, and it's like, I'm by the way, my hair's done, I've got you know, I've got my makeup. My groomer came, I got my makeup done. I'm wearing a great suit, just looking looking like I'm ready for a photo shoot. And I read the call sheet. It's like JJ is manic. He's he's disheveled, his shirts unbuttoned, his hair's messed up. We're gonna draw black circles under

his eyes. I'm like, oh God, I did not know any of this. So there's this moment I'm like, do I just I just gotta lean in. I just gotta lean into the crazy guy. And I went for it. You really had to act because that's not you, like, it's the anti Jake. No, no, it's not me at all. But I thought, you know, the the director was he had the same voice and laugh as Charlie Day from

Uh It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. And there's that gift of Charlie Day with the board where he's like pointing the thing, and I was like, that's that's my inspo, Charlie Day. I'm going for that, all right. Last one had during the football season, Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton on the podcast together. They were both together here with the Cardinals at the same time. And asked them towards the end, because they're big wine guys, as are you.

And I asked them towards the end, okay, for people that are listening that maybe you know, don't want to, you know, spend a thousand dollars on a bottle of wine, give me some good value buys. And I think Carson threw out like opus one. I'm like, that's not people lessening,

They're not going to that's that doesn't qualify. I don't know if you've got anything, because you I know you're white Burgundy, red Burgundy guy, which you'll but you'll drink anything, right, But I know you have some particulars I do, I do, um, So I'll say this Alborino. It's a native to Portugal, but in northwest Spain. It's called Alberino in Spain. Alvarino in Portugal, but in northwest Spain, Alberino is a white wine.

Good Alberino, like high level Alberino, is under thirty bucks, and you can find good bottles for fifteen to twenty bucks. That's that's to me, is like an ultimate value to sit by the pool. Um, maybe you're gonna go grab some Moisters bottle Alborino phenomenal in red wine. I think one of the greatest values is Brunello de Montecino. And you can find phenomenal producers in great years for fifty bucks fifty five bucks. Look, I know for a lot of people that's insane for a bottle of wine. Well,

let me tell you about Burgundy. And look, there's a bunch of people that ask me for wine recommendations. To me, the best place to start in Burgundy because that's what I collect. That's what ultimately if I'm going to spend money on wine and I and I have a collection, you know, I have a seller all that stuff. But when I say I'm gonna buy and I'm gonna spend my hard earned money on wine, I'm going to spend it on Burgundy. That to me is the greatest wine

in the world. I love red Burgundy, which is made from pino, and I love white Burgundy, which is made from chardonnay. And a lot of people say I don't. I don't like pinot, I don't like Chardonnay. That's because you're drinking swill made in America. All right, you're drinking swill. You're drinking mass produced swill. But the best value to me in Burgundy is there's four classifications of Burgundy. There's a grind crew, which is you know, expensive at every level,

premiere crew, where you can find some decent deals. And then there's village and regional. And so if you see borgone on a bottle, that is a regional that is the fourth sort of bottom tier. If you go up one level to a village level red or a village level white made by a great producer. You can find

phenomenal wine in the like eighty to ninety range. Again, I know that's crazy, but if you can find like a furry A or you know lair Wag, which is you know their grond crews go for thousands of dollars, she skirts the rules and when she makes her village level and regional white burgundy, she takes the leftover grapes from the ground crew and premier sights and she mixes it in. She's not technically allowed to do that, but she sort of runs Burgundy and and that so that

to me is like the ultimate value. It tastes like a five hundred dollars bottle of wine and you spend eighty bucks. Well, it's certainly more in depth than we got from Carson. Appreciate it man, Thanks so much, JJ for doing this. Always fun, great stuff from JJ talking about his relationship with Mike Shashevski, how coach K helped JJ turn his life around at Duke and how that translated into a lengthy NBA career and now a successful

new life as a podcaster and broadcaster. We are presented by Ben MGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals and by Hila River Hotels and Casinos. We will get back into the football space next week. On the Dave Pash Podcast, we talk with Daniel Jeremiah from NFL Media. He's also the radio analyst for the Los Angeles Chargers. We'll talk about the offseason for the Arizona Cardinals so far and look ahead of the twenty twenty

two NFL Draft. Thanks again at jj Reddick, and thanks to you for listening to another edition of the Dave Pash Podcast.