FULL THU POD @SpenceChecketts on NBA culture building, Utah FB Roster Changes, Jazz + more

Alright, what is going on drivetime Thursday afternoon? Look at it about thirteen minutes past the hour at two o'clock.

It is another really warm.

Mild December Salt Lake City day outside, and as it is every single day, it's good.

Have you along for the rides, Bence check.

It's behind the Maya coasting the program today, as I do most every day.

It's the name of the show, after all.

Porter Larson out and about on vacation, Olivia filling in, doing a great job as always, and we got a jam packed, busy Thursday show for you guys today live from the road Home. Okay, So we do this every year, and I was thinking about this morning, going over some notes and going over just some you know, some of the memories I.

Have of being here.

This is year nineteen for me here at the road Home doing radio both here at ESPN seven hundred in my old radio station as well, and it's one of my favorite things, if not my favorite thing I get to do with this job all year long. So we're asking for your donations today. Okay, so here's the number. I'm gonna hit you guys with this pretty much all show long, both today and tomorrow.

We will be back here tomorrow as well, so keep that in mind.

Phone number to make a donation is eight oh one eight one nine seventy three hundred. Website is the roadhome dot org slash donate. You can always come in person. I always encourage that because you can actually see the faces. You can see the desperation, you can see the need, you can see the sadness, you can see the weight, and we're asking you to help out here at the Connie Crosby Family Resource Center. It's five twenty nine ninth Aves,

Come on bye. We'd love to shake your hand, meets you and.

Say hello, and you can do some good this holiday season and donate to people experiencing homelessness at the Connie Crosby Family Resource Center, which is five twenty nine ninth Aves, seventy three hundred south here in Midvale.

Okay.

So also, if you are in need of shelter tonight, you can dial eight oh one nine nine zero nine nine ninety nine and the team will direct you to where you can get out of the cold tonight. So come on buy and do some good, or give us a call today and donate at one nine seventy three hundred.

That's eight oh one eight one nine seventy three hundred.

All right, busy show on this Thursday afternoon live at the Road Home.

We have a lot to get to on the program today.

Of course, we're one day away from the beginning of the CFP Okay, so the college football playoff bracket will start to unveil itself. Coming up tomorrow, it's an in state game between Notre Dame in Indiana. The Fighting Irish are seven point favorite as of now. Inclement weather seems to be the common theme among all of these games,

By the way, keep this.

In mind, SMU Penn State on TNT, Clemson Texas on TNT and MAX, and then Tennessee Ohio State on ABC and ESPN. So it is the modern day and age of consumption of both pro and college sports, where you need to have streaming options, you need to have linear options, and you need to kind of stay frosty.

But a fun triple header of college football ahead.

Bullseason has already begun and will continue, namely for Brigham Young coming up against Colorado in the Alamo Bowl.

Should be a really, really fun one.

Both by U and Colorado seem have indicated that their best players are gonna play now. Colorado is a four point five point favor. That line has swung the way the Buffs a couple of different times. The over runder is a very healthy fifty four point five, and we're gonna get to some BYU on the program today, Chase Roberts, will he stay, will he go?

Some comments from Chase today and that.

Chase Roberts Travis Travis Hunter matchup should be a lot of fun. So college football in the program today, the latest on the transfer portal for the University of Utah. Nothing really all that news worthy and noteworthy has happened since we saig good night last night at six o'clock, but of course we'll update you on that Pro Football Week sixteen gets rolling tonight Thursday Night Football. Don't forget we are your home of the NFL here in this market.

Two really good.

Defensive teams with decent quarterback play, and if Denver wins, they lock in a.

Playoff spot for the first time in a number of different years.

So we'll get to a bunch of pro football, bunch of college football on the show today. The Jazz are back in action. They're gonna take on the Pistons tonight. Utah Hockey Club picked up a dramatic home.

Win last night.

They're on the road on Friday taking on a really good team in Minnesota BYU Basketball and Action on Friday against FAMU, but apparently Yegor Demon and Richie Saunders are hurt and will not play. Utes Back in Action Saturday four o'clock on the Big Ten Network against Iowa. So a very good early preseason test for Utah men. Women will welcome in Asu to Salt Lake City coming up Saturday at four, so a lot to do on the show today. Gordon Monson bat's lead off my old buddy from.

The Old Show. Gordon will be here.

I'm sorry if I'm cracking up a little bit of a inside baseball behind the curtains. Every time I'm here, I just I always get a kick out of the DJs. They want to yell, so they're on your show instead of their So that's gonna happen all day's day.

So Gordon Monson will stop by today.

Craig Bowler, Jack TV Voice of the Utah Jazz rolls by as well.

Richard Smith live on site here at the Road Home.

For an entire hour, do a little sports court on the program today. Then Dennis hay Spurt's gonna join us. You might not know who Dennis is, We'll tell you who he is, what he is doing.

Here in town.

Very famous guy, very famous guy. So we're gonna interview him later on as well. So Thursday, Live from the Road Home, our first guest will be none other than Gordon Monson.

But before we get to Gordon.

Courtesy of our good friends and you're good friends too, over at Standard Restaurant Supply. It is your one stop shop for all of your tailgating needs. Visit them online or check out their great location right downtown Salt Lake City.

It's time now for your opening tip.

Welcome to the Drive with Spence Check it's on Utah's number one sports talk. Now into the studio of ESPN seven hundred to set the scene for the show. The opening tip of the Drive is brought to you by Standard Restaurants Supply, your one stop shop to build the best tailgate in town. Stand Restaurants Supply thirty five hundred Southwest Temple.

So gonna set that's seen for a topic that I want to talk to all my guests about today, and it is culture building, and.

It's a little bit of a kind of rints and repeat topic.

Pretty much any sports soccer radio host, or quite frankly, anybody who's in media talks about culture building in pro and college sports.

It's no longer just pro sports. It's college sports.

It's always been college sports, but it's different now, and we're going to talk about why.

All right, So we're live today at the road Home.

I want to remind you give us a call at eight o one to eight one nine to seventy three hundred, or check out the roadhome dot org slash donate to give us a donation five dollars, ten dollars, whatever you can afford. You will do a lot of good here at the road Home. But there's an article today from

This is a real thing.

Apparently there was a trade on the table for Jerry Judy because Denver was gonna move off of Jerry Judy, who, by the way, has killed it in Cleveland despite having to deal with a couple of different quarterbacks. Woody Johnson did not like the Madden rating of Jerry Judy, according to what his sons told him. So therefore they did not make the trade. Okay, And so this is not a Jets topic, Okay. It just made me think about, as a Jets fan, how this culture has bred pathetic football for so long.

They haven't been to the playoffs in thirteen years.

Every time they have somebody who appears to have some potential, they just blow it up and they screw it up. Sam Darnold, who's killing it this year in Minnesota, even Gino Smith who's had a good.

Year in Seattle.

And I guarantee BYU fans forever and ever and ever will talk about what Zach Wilson's career could have looked like if he did not land with And I say, this is a fan the most dysfunctional franchise pro football, and it's been that way.

For a long long time.

And so unfortunately when the owner is just the guy in charge, because we follow the Golden rule here on the drive, here on the show, you guys know the golden rules, say with me out loud, the man with the gold makes the rules. Ultimately, it's been Woody for a long long time. People that know Woody Johnson say he's a sweet man, and that's great. He's a horrible football owner, a horrible football owner. And you know, there are a bunch of different examples of this, and namely,

And that's what it is.

By the way, teenage sons of Woody Johnson their names are Brick and Jack.

It sounds like an FM rock show, kind of interesting.

But I wanted to kind of spread this out topically, do a couple of different things here locally, because right now I find ourselves to be a really interesting.

Crossroads with the Utah Jazz.

Okay, so if you're a longtime Jazz fan, you know that for years and years and years, the Jazz had.

One of the more enviable cultures in the entire NBA. That's not hyperbolic, Okay.

When Greg Popovich was inducted to the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame, he talked about when he took the job with the Spurs, he wanted to build the Spurs the way Jerry Sloan built the Jazz and Greg Popovitch built a dynasty over the course of six seven, eight years with Duncan, Jenobli and Parker, multiple titles, multiple NBA Finals runs, And because of that era of Spurs basketball, I've never bought it in the whole. Like, it's not possible here in Utah because San Antonio comparable market.

To Salt Lake. And honestly speaking, if you've ever been to San Antonio, Salt Lake's a better city.

I'll live here all day, every day, but market size is pretty similar.

The ownership stuff.

Was pretty similar between the San Antonio ownership and the way the Millers kind of approached everything. And yes, the Jazz never won a title, but for the better part of two decades, this was one of the best cultures coaching, playing front office in the entire league.

You can ask anybody around Pro basketball back then.

David Stern as the commissioner, I referenced the Spurs the Synergy's there. Charles Barkley often talked about coach Sloan and really we should stop here and give a lot of the credit to the culture that was basically built and the foundation that was laid from by the Leyden family, Frank and Scott Laden and then Frank giving it over to Jerry, and then Jerry took it to places that a lot of people never thought it could be taken to.

Here in Salt Lake City.

The precipice of Pro basketball championships on a number of different levels for a number of different years, not just ninety seven ninety eight. Those teams the nineties had four or five championship level teams. Michael Jordan ripped rings off a lot of people's fingers, including Patrick Ewing, including Charles Barkley, including John Carl and Jerry, including my father. That was

Sorry, if that's graphic, but it's undeniable that the.

Stewardship of the Millers for two plus decades built one of the most incredible cultures and enviable cultures and all of pro basketball. It also led to winning. It also

You gotta get lucky.

I don't even think Frank Laydon would tell you he thought Carl was gonna be Carl, John was gonna be John. I don't think Dennis Lindsay will tell you in an honest moment he thought Donovan would be Donovan and Rudy would be Rudy.

But we had those players, right.

Maybe Kevin O'Connor saw something Darren that allowed Darren to be one of the best league guards in pro basketball here for about four years. But you do have to have a little luck. But as of right now, if you analyze who these draft picks have been over the first couple of years, Walker feels like a win. And that's about it where you at on Keyante, Poor Taylor goes down for an injury, Cody Geelee, Isaiah Geelee, Kyle Philipowski moments here or there.

But there are no success.

Stories as of yet on this roster as it pertains to the town that's been drafted. And hopefully it changes because, like I said, this is three and a half years in and we have what twenty five years issh of the Miller stewardship, and so they needed time and space. Larry, as a young owner needed to learn how to do it,

All we can analyze is the product on the floor.

And before we catch a break in the Jazz fifty Year documentary, Will Hardy turned the camera and said, these aren't your grandfather's Utah Jazz. My question to you, willis who are you? Who are the Utah Jazz? Then you're not winning. You don't have exciting young talent. There are a ton of questions. So if you tell us that you're changing things, we're gonna watch to see if you change it for the better, because the results so far have just not been good. Gordon Monsel would be good

Right off the top.

Want to remind you that we're live today at the road Home, Okay, doing some good this holiday season, asking for your donations. A couple of different ways you can do it is dial eight oh one eight one nine seventy three hundred. That's eight oh one eighty one nine seventy three hundred. You can also go to the website which is the roadhome dot org. Slash donates come on buy in person to the Connie Crosby Family Resource Center at five twenty nine nine Fabs seventy three hundred South in Midvale.

Just put that in your GPS now.

If you are in need of shelter tonight, you can also call and they'll direct you to where you can get out of the cold.

Give them a call it eight oh.

One nine nine zero nine nine nine nine. That's eight oh one nine nine zero nine nine nine nine. All right, Gordon Monts and our first guest right out.

Of the gates on a Thursday, and keep it right here on ESPN seven hundred. Hey, dude, don't make it bad.

Take a side side then make it Batner Leaman the du Letter deal Home.

Then you can.

Start do make it.

Ban Hage broadcasting live today nineteenth year out here at the road Homes, thinking about that. This morning, we are asking for your donations to help families in need. The road Home operates eighty percent of our communities year round shelter beds. Tell you more about the spot out here. The Connie Crosby Family Resource Center serves up to three hundred individuals with families nightly. So here's how you donate five bucks, ten bucks, whatever you can do, no amount

It's been a minute.

Gordon Monson back on the drive on a Thursday. Gordon, Happy Thursday, sir.

How are you.

I'm doing fine, thanks, Vince say. The road home is always close close to the heart, you know. I mean, anybody who goes out there and sees the work that's gone, I think would be happy to open.

The wallet, no doubt.

And I always have these memories because back in the day, they don't do this anymore. But back in the day they used to have like a competition among the stations as far as who could get the most donations, and I think they saw that that was probably a little bit cringey to do, so we don't do it anymore.

So I was kind of remember that, remember those days, back in the day.

GORDA, I do remember those days. It was kind of like it was a friendly competition, and we knew we knew Spence was coming in with the big ammer, and so that always gave us a big boose. So we were grateful to him, and he used to bring like his entire family down and I have great respect.

For him for that, no doubt, no doubt.

All Right, Gordon, I want to start with you where I started the show today, because I think you'll be good with this. And the you know, the sports talk radio or the sports columnist topic of culture building is not new and sometimes probably hit over the head a little bit too much. But there's an article today in The Athletic about my hapless, hopeless, pathetic New York Football Jets.

It is bad.

And so I was thinking about this today from a local standpoint, Gordon, about the culture that the Miller's built in, you know, twenty five ish years owning and operating the Utah Jazz and even though it never led to an NBA Championship. It was one of the healthiest and most enviable cultures in all of pro basketball. When Greg Popovich took the job with San Antonio, he said, I want to build it the way Jerry built you know, the Utah Jazz. And look, I'm not saying what Ryan has

Front facing, authentic and honest.

Ryan seems to prefer to do a lot of his business behind the scenes and in more of a clandestine way.

That leads to a lot of questions.

And then we'll get an occasional puff piece from his PR team that they give to ESPN. But we don't really know this group the way that we all knew the Millers. And again, I want to be clear, it's not good or bad, it's just different. But from your seat, the way the Millers built this thing up over the course of twenty five years, juxtaposed to the way that Ryan approaches it and his group over the course of about three and a half.

Well, when it comes to culture and you bring up the Jets, I mean it's not who you say you are.

You are right.

That's what builds the culture, right. And I had great respect for Larry and for his you know, it was funny because if you used to talk to him all the time, you know, and he would say things that you would think, Okay, that's unusual for an owner to say, but you knew where it was coming from. It was coming from deep inside that vast brain of his. And

Who he is.

And maybe those who are closest to him know that. But based on what we've seen, certainly out of the culture that's being built with the jazz, that's a big old question mark. Right now. I mean, we've seen what's happened with that team. You and I have watched it closely, and we have asked questions and we're still asking questions. You know they were going to tank. Why didn't they tank?

Yeah.

And also I want to follow up because I want to be very fair here, and you bring up a really good point because and we're going to discuss this rough other the course of the show. There is a little bit of a different approach with the modern day and age of roster construction. What Danny and and Justin are tasked with is a little bit different than what Scotty Layden was tasked with, or Kevin O'Connor or Dennis Lindsay.

Kevin O'Connor, I doubt knew that.

You know, Darren was gonna be well, maybe Darren because he was like a top three guy.

But Dennis Lindsay has said to me and you as.

Well before, no idea Donovan was gonna be Donovan and Rudy was gonna be Rudy. You know, the O'Connor stuff is different because he drafts Darren early, he hits on that, he signs Booze and o'currance. So that's a great group, and Kevin did a hell of a job. But you reference to luck portion and as of right now what we have as far as the three year sample size of talent that has been acquired via draft, I think

I think it's a little bit of both. And as was the case when I did the show with you for all those years, I can't say it any better than you just did. I think you put a rap on it perfectly, and I think that that is an issue. It's funny you bring up Frank for Frank saying, hey, if we knew, if we knew these guys Stockton Malone was going to be as good as they ended up, I mean we would have moved up to draft them.

Hell of a lot beer for people that are listening that may be work over at the old spot.

I love the Utah Jazz.

In this job, you have to be agnostic, and Gordon, you taught me as much as anybody did about that.

I care about the Utah Jazz.

I want nothing more than in five years from now to and again, I want to be clear about today. I'm not saying it's good or bad, it's just different. But I want to be proven wrong, you know. And if the starting front court Gordon in three years is Lowry Market and Cooper Flag and aj Debantza all eat some crow, okay, happily.

So right, absolutely absolutely all right.

Away from that for a moment, over to some college football. Since since you and I last spoke, Isaac Wilson, who hit the transfer portal to potentially look at playing at other places, ends up back where he started. And I gotta say, Gordon, I give him a lot of credit for wanting to compete. I got to be clear, I do not know what the status is of his knee. We got to remember that he hurt his knee, and so will he be ready to compete come springball. I'm

Well, let me start a little broader than that, and I'll get to that specifically. But what did Kyle say at the end of the season. He said, essentially, Hey man, we're going to go out and we're going to sign a bunch of guys. We're going to get a bunch of guys. What didn't he say? I think he said they were looking at to get forty some guys and half of those would come through the transfer. What are they at now about pen you know? And so they are changing it up because Kyle sees the need to

So, according to the dad I have in front of me, ten additions to the transfer portal from the youth so far. Cameron Calhoun announced that he's had to di Alabama, which is a big time gut punch, And there are a bunch of other players still in the transfer portal that have not landed in a spot. You reference Carson Ryan and who's headed to Brigham Young And then we'll get to the BYU side of this in just a moment.

But Gordon, I haven't talked to you about the dynamic.

I mean, it's a statement and a testament to the power of the game of college football, in the product of college football that a business that is run by a confederacy of dunces continues to bring in the consumer.

Numbers that it does.

I can't believe that the transfer portal is open when coaches are trying to win national championships. Can you imagine if the NFL playoffs are about to start. Lamar Jackson was like, yeah, I'm out, just so you know, Like it's so it's beyond stupid, and it's even dumber that the idiots in the room haven't done anything about this.

Like, what's your.

Thought on this dynamic of essentially having free agency during the season.

Yeah, it's chaotic. They need to do something about that. And at least the teams that are in the College Football playoff have something to play for, you know. I mean when Deon Sanders said that his stars were going to play against BYU and the Alamo Bowl, I mean a lot of people were shocked by that. That's what he said. We'll see if it actually happens that way, but with these bowl games, be I don't want to call it a meaningless but it seems like that's what

To the BYU side of things. According to the data have in front of me. Maybe I should just ask Crittle. Here is Chase Roberts coming back? Okay, okay, I've got a BYU host next to me. I should just tap into his knowledge. Eleven BYU players in the portal as of now. The one player they picked up was Carson Ryan. But Chase Roberts did some media after practice and it said he's going to announce his intention via social.

Media this week.

You know, we have this really fun matchup with Chase against Travis Hunter coming up in the Alima Bowl that we all kind of want to watch. And Chase I love what he said this week. He said, I'm gonna find him and follow him, so he has to cover me.

So that's kind of.

The white whale out there right now.

BYU again one edition eleven players have left and we're waiting on Chase Roberts. But you know, Klonie, well, how do you think he's traversing because they're not in the CFP. But it's an awesome ball game. They're gonna get like six mil I think is a payout and Kilanie's got to deal with the same stuff with the game coming up on Saturday.

Yeah, a lot of people are wondering where are all the transfers for BYU Yu had a pretty good year. I don't know if the need is as great for them as it is for some other teams to make a whole lot of moves. But Chase Roberts is a guy you've got to hold on to. If this guy sticks around, he's going to be in a very strong receiving Core. He's going to be the star.

Yep, the star.

They will utilize him in a way that they utilize him a lot this last year, nothing compared to what he'll be next season if he stays at BYU. And if I'm Jake Ritz laugh, I'm talking to him aag. I'll give you the ball every other down. Come on back because I need you to come back. And I I kind of agree with Ben. I think he will come back. But we've all been shocked before. But he's a clutch receiver, he's got great size. He's a guy that I think can improve his drafstock if he stinks around.

So it was announced.

I don't think I talked to you about this, and of course it's BYU, so we don't know all the details. Kolonie given his extension, and you know I was thinking about this, and because you know him well, I want to get your thoughts on it. The one job I think Kilanie might leave BYU fours USC and Lincoln Riley's buyout is like seventy million dollars or something like that, which is just insane. That's the nature of college football coaching.

Yes, he answers the phone. I'll say it this way, and I'm not going to quote Kilane in any way here, but I do know him well, and I think he's been somewhat pissed off about the amount that he's gotten in the past. I do not know the details of this particular extension. My guess would be that it was enhanced substantially. But I'll go back and quote what gorbe Chow said many years ago when I was talking to him, and of course he was the offensive coordinator down at Troy.

Gordo.

I gotta say, I got your family Christmas card in the mail last night, so thank you so much. Everybody looks like they're thriving and doing well, so I'll set you loose, but happy holidays to you and Lis and the girls.

And you know, only love from this direction to you guys, Hope.

You know that well what they do, know that there's nothing but the admiration in our family for you. And I'll say that on a professional level. On a personal level, nothing belove in this direction too, Spett, thanks for having me on.

Okay, Gordo, Happy holidays, my man Gordon Monson from the Solid Tribune, my long time radio partner. We're live today at the road Home. Hope I say this correctly, Keegan Kalchman, right, Hey, oh, you know, we're gonna try that again. I usually have an engineer, but I'm doing all this myself and I'm the wrong guy to do so let's try that again.

Yeah.

Hey, there we go, Keegan. How are I man?

I'm doing well.

How are you? I'm well?

Thanks again for having us out. I was referencing earlier. This is my nineteenth year doing this and a couple of different by sixth here back at this station. So I love what we do here. It's one of my favorite projects. You know that the station allows us to do. What do you want our listeners to know? Right out of the gates?

Oh gosh, you guys just donate, donate, donate, We need.

It and that's it.

Yeah.

What do you do here, Kegan? What's your role?

I'm the support of services manager here, so I oversee all of our case managers who are working with our families to get people into housing out of their homeless situation.

So here's what you do you dal eight oh one eight one nine seventy three hundred. You can go to the roadhome dot org slash donate. So, I guess I'll ask you this, Kegan. What we're our listeners' donations. What do you guys do with the money?

So the money, it goes to the nonprofit as a whole, and from there we distribute it out to all of our different programs. Our physical donations they go to all of our different warehouses at our different shelters. But ultimately, at the end of the day, all of these donations they make their way to the clients and they make their way to the people who need it.

Most physical donations. What are you guys looking for this year?

Oh gosh, I mean I work at the Family Shelter, so we're always looking for diapers, We're looking for kids clothes, We're looking for uh, we're looking for coats, especially this time of year. We're looking for that sort of thing. In addition to that, you know, we also always need socks and underwear. Those are the things that seem to run out the fastest and are the things that people need most.

Right on and give me a quick I don't know if it's a list or wherever. If people want to physically donate the items instead of call, where's the best place to drop them off?

The best place to drop them off is here at five twenty nine West ninth Avenue, Midvale, Utah. That's where we're doing a donation drive right now. We're taking donations today until seven pm.

Keigen, great to meet you man, Thanks for stopping by. All right, Keegan Colkman here at.

The road home.

Come on buy in person at five twenty nine ninth Aves seventy three hundred South in Midvale. You can also call if you're not able to get out here at eighth one, eight one nine seventy three hundred. The website is the road Home Org slash donate. Also, if you're in need of shelter tonight, good news for you. They've got a spot for you. All you have to do is call eight oh one nine nine zero nine nine nine nine, and that's eight o one nine nine zero ninety nine ninety nine.

All right, One hour down, three hours to go.

The Big Hour, the Big Show, Big Hour on the Drive continues next with a great Craig Bowler Jack. So keep it right here on ESPN seven hundred. All right, I got Spitty live on site coming up from three thirty to four thirty today, So we'll call that about twenty minutes from right now or so. And we are live today at the road Home asking for donations at eight one eight one nine seventy three hundred.

Donate a little cash that way.

If you want to donate some gently used goods itams like coats and and uh beanies as well as socks and gloves. Come on by the Connie Crosby Family Resource Center at five nine nine seventy three hundred south in Midvale Utah. Our next guest, you know him, you love him, is the TV voice of the Utah Jazz Live in the Motor City, Craig Bowler. Jack I believe is where we find you, sir.

How are you, hey, Spath. I'm doing well.

Actually, you just caught me in the media press room at Little Caesars Arena, so big T just went back for his third helping. So that's kind of the night we're having.

There you go, there, you go, and you know what you get, you got. You gotta at least enjoy the food, Craig, because the basketball is probably not gonna be awesome.

Let me say that.

We'll let me just say this. I'm filling up and getting an extra dish of soft serve. If you know what, it gets me through the day.

I love it. I love it all right.

I want to start with you today on a topic that we've talked about throughout the show. I started the show with it. I brought Gordon in with it last segment. And you know, it's the oft talked about written about culture building in professional and now college sports. It's different

They haven't made the playoffs forever.

And I was just thinking about our local products here, And you've had a front row seats to what the Miller's built over basically twenty five years of a ownership stewardship type situation with the Jazz and now a front row seat on three and a half years of Ryan Smith and his group owning the Jazz.

And these things take time, right, and.

The Miller's built what was one of the most enviable cultures in all of professional basketball. From a front office standpoint with the Leyden's Kevin O'Connor Dennis Lindsay, from a coaching standpoint with Frank and Jerry and I could keep going personnel, broadcasters, everything, and the team won a lot of games. They never won a championship, but they won a lot of games. Are there similarities between what the Miller's built and what Ryan is trying to build. It

Similarities difference is Craig, what are your thoughts?

Yeah, that's a great question, Spence.

I was here in eighty five, the same summer they drafted Karl Malone, and all of a sudden things changed, right, and you have to you got to hit They already had Stockton, they had my partner, Big T in eighty three, stock in.

Eighty four, Karl Malone in eighty five.

So you know, what you hope is that the similarities continue, that the draft picks Danny and Justin have made develop and blossom quickly, and so far we have not seen that, but you hope in a very short period of time that it will. I think Walker's made improvement this year. Hendricks now is behind this proverbial eight ball. Just because of the injury and his status fence. We may not see him until January of twenty twenty six, depending on

Got an OT win again last night.

But Spence, you know, the Jazz used to be the dominating of the dominant pro team in Salt Lake City, and that included college football basketball, even when Majeris was up on the hill. But yeah, it's it's kind of a time where you wonder where this team's going and I'm along for the ride as his big tea and our new sideline reporter Lauren Green, you know, we talked about it a lot, and I think defense is going

Know, ultimately, as you referenced the moments that we see with his roster, the difference between hope and consistency is showing up every night and doing the things that we see occasionally all the time. Right when when the consistency seems in, that's when a promising young team turns into a team that actually.

Can win at a high level.

And consistency in pro basketball comes with age for ninety nine.

Percent of players that enter the league.

It's like, I have Dennis appointment this week and it was my six month checkup, went in, had the X rays, did the cleaning.

Dennis, You're good to go. I'll see you in six months.

I'm like, sweet, don't have to come back in And he said, you know, as you age, you just.

Develop better habits.

And it's just like basketball, as you age, you just developed better habits. So right now, the moments we're seeing somehow, some way, whether it's will or talent acquisition and addition have to become consistent night in and night out, or the teams keep getting their heads kicked in because they're playing against men that have better habits because they've been doing it longer.

It might be as simple as that.

No, I like the analogy.

I mean, congratulations on the there no check up man, Thank you sir. You know what when you when you but when you check up on the jazz, you know you do see some work that needs to be done, whether it's a cavity, a crown or whatever, or six extractions, take six extractions. But you know this is where the data points that Danny and Justin Zanik are using to determine.

Who are the.

Players that stick? Who are the ones that depart, who are part of trade?

And who just falls down to the league?

Right Spence, We've seen it for years. That's just the way this business works, and it's it's a big business, billion dollar business, and you have to play at a high level to make rosters each and every year.

And so these data points I speak of, you know, the.

Jazz are very analytical and the way that they progress, how they proceed, I should say, and I think you know all this and all these numbers are beginning to kind of show you know, who these guys are, what they hope they can become.

But you make a good point.

Look, it's disappointing, absolutely, but you know in that three year window we see Walker Tester make strides. It is kean They've gotten better than he did his rookie year. Yes, can he get better? That for Danny and Justin Xanti to his side and look at the statistical numbers, but also who is he? I mean how bad does he want to get to that next level? And that's about work during the season and off season as well. It's

Who develops and who's moves on.

Heyward moved on, Donovan moved on. They traded Gobert as well, So you know that to me are hard questions that they're going to have to answer and the money they spend and how much effort they put into the development into these guys, and how keen of an eye does Danny Ainge and Justin have on those draft picks and the one they covet this year so much.

So before I say you loose, I know you got to catch a bus to your thing for the game tonight. I wanted to get a college football thought from you, because when I was prepping for the show kind of unwrapping this topic of I was found it interesting.

In the pros, your culture is set by your owner. It just is.

Now it is executed by several people from top to bottom, but it's set by the tone that is established by the ownership group or the singular family or figurehead. In college, it's the coaches, Craig. Isn't it like the celebrities in college football and basketball are not the players.

They're the coaches.

It's the Tom Izzo's, Mike Krzyzewski's, Kyle Whittingham's, Nick Saban's Like It's It's an interesting difference, isn't it. In the pros, your culture is from the top to bottom, started by the ownership. But in college it does seem like hiring the red coach is the best way to build a better culture.

Oh, Spence, it's everything because recruiting comes down to, hey, I'm playing for this guy.

Now look, I'm not foolish.

I know that's changed some because nil money is going to do a lot of talking as well. Right, So that's that's going to be the most interesting part moving forward is how much does the money speak instead of who's coaching me?

You know?

And the transfer portal. I'm upset I didn't get the reps I was promised or I thought I was going to get, So I'm going to transfer out man Spence things have changed since you and I were in college, man, because really the coaches were keen, and you make a great point, Showsky, even even during the days up on the hill man Majeris. You know, he wielded a big hammer and it was able to do a lot of great things because of who he was and the success he had. But I'm concerned that it may change because

So all I've seen is an online rumor, Craig. I, So maybe here's the problem, like who online is credible these days?

Like you know, So I'm not.

Sure as far as the person who sent that out that I am familiar with their work. So I've been trying to verify that and nothing as of now.

Yeah, I did the same, looked up the source, and I wasn't sure who that source would be. I don't know if that's just to float it out to get a rise out of Utah fans with Spence. You and I are in a business now where what used to be fact is sometimes fiction. Or you have to make sure befo you report that's a responsible way and you're talking about a young man's future. Whether he decides to go go try his luck in the NFL or if

I find that.

Intriguing that they're well paid to represent, but also they realize they keep their job, they may have to funnel some of their cash, their salary back into the NIL or back into just the athletic program. It's an interesting time. It's a crazy time.

It is, for sure. And let me just say this. This person who sent it out. His Twitter handle is at byu fan A and I just think this is a dude that is trying to stroll Utah fans. So if we get anything efficient on CAM, I'm glad you brought it up because I should at least address it. If we get anything efficient on CAM, we'll bring it to you. But Bawler, thanks for the time. Men have a great call. Ton I best of luck to travel safe, happy holidays, Okay.

I appreciate you. Felle have a great holiday. We'll talk soon, thanks, buddy.

All Right, we're live today here at the road Home.

Jake, Hey, Jake, can we go?

So we're live today here at the road Home.

We're gonna bring on a guest to kind of tell you what we have going on here.

Don't forget. Richard Smith's gonna.

Be live on site for an entire hour. I usually have a tech out here to help, but nobody's here, so I am trying to operate our com rex book guests all by myself.

It's no big deal.

I'm a grown up. I can handle it. Let's see if somebody stops by, they may not. In the meantime, I'll just remind you where we're at today. We're at the road Home.

Okay.

So, family homelessness in the US rose dramatically from twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three, and families now represent more than twenty eight percent all the country's homeless population.

So we're asking you to donate today.

Okay, here's the number. It's eight oh one, eight one nine seventy three hundred. That's eighth one, eight one, nine seventy three hundred online at the Roadhome dot org. You can come by in person to the Connie Crosby Family Resource Center at five twenty nine ninth Thaves seventy three hundred South in Midvale.

You tah come on by and say hello.

Richard Smith is gonna be live on site in just a little bit and we're joined here. Actually, you know what I've got to do this one, I promise. Usually I have a tech but I don't have anybody today. Is that Pauline?

Is that the name that is? How are you, Pauline?

I'm doing great?

How about you?

Well, so what do you do out here at the road Home?

I am the president of the boards.

Jake, you brought me the boss. Okay, I've got to behave myself. Well that's excellent. You know I was thinking about this earlier. Pauline.

I there's my nineteenth year.

Congratulations.

Well, thank you.

Certainly not about me at all, but it's truly one of my favorite things that we do every year at Broadway.

At the station of my old station as well.

Ultimately, what has always struck me is how many families you guys help, you know what I mean? It's not just and you also help single people that are homeless, But there are so many families, mom and dad, children that roll through here.

Here's what I want to ask you.

What is in place to help mom and dad get back on their feet and kind of help.

These families get whole again here at the Road Home.

Yeah, I mean, they're the one that need the most forward, right, because you've got to handle kids and jobs and so forth. So the biggest thing I feel we do. Of course, we provide shelter, we provide a roof over their head and safety. But the second thing is case managers to help them reintegrate, get support, get additional governments will support, make sure that the kids are going to school, etcetera right, et ceter and eventually get into a permanent home. It's

For sure.

And the other thing I've learned about the Road Home in all my years doing this, people can be skeptical about nonprofits and if I donate, is the money really going to where you say that it will? And here the money goes to where you say that it's going.

People don't need to worry about that.

Yeah, absolutely, we get four star rating every time for our management of our finance. Essentially every time goes towards what we call programming, which is support of our client for sure.

Now we're asking, of course five dollars, ten dollars whatever people can give.

What about physical donations this season? What are you guys looking for.

In that realm coats and such.

Coats, socks always welcome, brand new, much better gently used as fine but warm backpacks. We're always looking for kids to go back home when they enter into their home they have nothing, so those kind of things. The best ways to go on our website to get the full list of items that we need.

Very nice.

And the website, by the way, is the road Home dot org slash donate before we set you loose. Pauline, how did you get involved? What's your origin story of getting involved with the Road Home?

Yeah, I was working for an ad agency as a president of an ad agency, and I was looking about and saw people on the street and decided it was time for me to donate to my community. And the Road Home came to me and I realized it's an extreme extremely good organization, a lot of integrity, doing very very good work and always coming up with new ways to help our clients.

Wonderful, well, pleasure meeting you. Thanks for stopping by. Okay, thank you.

It's Pauline, president of the board. Wow, we've got the big boss lady here at the road Home. Come on by and say hi. You can give us a call if you want to donate that way. The phone number is eight oh one eighty one nine.

Pauline. Good to meet you.

Okay, I have a good day, seventy three hundred. Their website is the Roadhome dot org slash donate. Come by in person of the Connie Crosby Family Resource Center at five twenty nine nine Thabs, seventy three hundred South in Midvale.

Richard Smith is standing regally in front of me. He joins us.

Coming up next, we'll talk a little culture building. We'll talk a little football. We'll talk a little basketball, maybe a little little tennis, maybe a little baseball.

We'll get weird for an.

Hour during the holiday season with my guy, Richard Smith, coming up next right here at ESPN seven hundred. All right, live on side today, both today and tomorrow.

Keep that in mind. At the road.

Home, Santa Clause is in the freaking building. What is going on. Santa is in the house. Look at that Santa is here. So if you guys want to stop by it and hang out with Santa, your timing is impeccable. The address is five twenty nine nine seventy three hundred South. They'll tell you what he's about to do, because I've gone and seen it, and he's about to go in and see if homeless.

Shelter full of children.

It'll tug at your heartstrings if you've never been out here before. We're asking for physical donations of coats and blankets and anything warm, uh new, gently used. We're also asking for financial donations of any kind at eight O one eight one nine seventy three hundred eight oh one eight one nine seventy three hundred or online at the roadhome dot org slash donate.

So Santa rolls in, Just Richard Smith.

See that.

You see what happens. I come as soon as I get here, Spence, somebody has to come in and take any whatever little thunder I have in my entrance.

Is that a takeaway?

Take it all away?

There's that Richard Smith right over in the corner. Get him out of the way. Santa comes rolling through his bells are jingling. He's got the perfect Santa suit on, and as if you didn't know who it was, he had a big wide belt that said Santa across the back.

Just in case you weren't sure who it was.

So instead of being excited that Santa's here for the kids, you're upset that he's taking attention away from you.

No, no, I'm just observing that that's that's literally whatever happens wherever I go, someone else goes.

Get him out of here.

Come on, let's fair enough, fair enough, smitty, good to see man.

How a great same to you, Spencer, and I appreciate your invite to come out here and spend a little time with you on a Thursday at the road Home to The people here do such a great job and it's always fun to come out in the years that you've invited me to come out during the stealthon to try and get some donations here, and I brought a couple of things from our home, bags of clothes and stuff.

So come on by if you want to meet Smitty, I would encourage you. If you don't think you have items at home, my guess as you do. If you clean out your stuff like blankets and socks and gloves and hats and coats, you can drop them off in person out here at five twenty nine ninth Apps seventy three hundred South, or donate anything you can give the holiday season at eight o one to eight one nine seventy three hundred online at the roadhump dot org slash donate.

We had his brother at RSL, so I know the family.

And of course I've heard the story just this time, well, any time of year, but this time of year. Three kids, just forty six years old. Kleidis gone far too early. You'll gut punch for the community. A lot of people at the U knew him, loved him, and you were at the services today.

Can you take us kind of inside what that was like.

Yeah, for our listeners who don't know, Cletus Woodbury, a great fixture in the Utah Athletic department, passed away this this past week after incurring a seizure and spending time and the intensive care at the University of Utah and ended up passing away and several days ago. And he and he was just a stalwart of the Utah Athletic department.

You know, he was the guy.

He was the consummate ticket guy who you know, we ran the ticket operations.

There for for many many years.

And as people you spoke today at his services, he was, uh, you know, they all commented on the fact that that Cletus was the guy who always figured out what how he could help you and to figure out whatever your ticket the deal was, or you were go into the Rose Bowl the last couple of years with the Utah football team and people who needed tickets and wanted tickets, and he was always the guy who figured out how

A very sad day in the in the in the Utah community.

So I can send you, guys to a GoFundMe that has been created for Cleatis Woodbury.

You go to GoFundMe dot com and just search for Cletus.

Woodburry at c l e a d Us Woodburry as spelled as you would expect. And then there's picture of Kletis, his wife and their three children, and we're asking for donations to take care of his family as he leaves them behind.

Just you know, you hate to say the whole cliche.

You know, a reminder of how precious this trip around the globe is or whatever, this trip on this blue marble.

Whatever I'll call it.

You hate to say that you need things like this, But you know, out here at the road home, you see these families walking in with children. They don't know where they're going to sleep tonight. Cletus leaves behind a family of three kids. It just reminds you how precious.

This thing is.

He's about your age, right exactly.

Yeah, so and you know those of us who are older, you know, I turned seventy earlier this year. And you know, whether it's your age or or or you're getting closer to the end zone, so to speak. You you know,

Yeah, well said.

And obviously the University of Utah community is well known for taking care of its own. Uh So, head on over to that gofund me page for cletus in support. It's funny how people come and go, whether it's death or just you changed relationships.

And you never know. Sometimes it's entirely unexpected.

But Smiddy, I've been talking about this topic today and I was excited.

To see you on the rundown because I knew you'd be good with it.

And this is not a Jets topic, but there is a new piece in The Athletic about Woody Johnson, the owner of the Jets, and how he apparently relies on the advice of his teenage children who play Madden the video game to make some personnel decisions. And according to the Athletic, and I like the Athletic, they do a good job. There was a trade on the table that the Jets would acquire Jerry Judy, who has killed it in Cleveland. But what he said, no, because this kid

In pro basketball.

Greg Popovich talked often about his fondness of Jerry and wanting to build the Spurs the way Jerry built the Jazz. And I want to be clear, three and a half years under Ryan, I'm not saying either good or bad. I am saying different. I think we have enough data at our disposal and say difference and we'll see if it breeds something long term that it hasn't been able to breed so far.

But juxtaposed to the two approaches, you.

Were under the mill under the Miller umbrella for a number of years.

You saw at front row.

How did they go about their business of building such an enviable culture and what are we hoping that this early project of Ryan ultimately ends up looking like?

Well, the Millers came in remember Spence, in the mid eighties, in eighty forty five eighty six, and bought the team from Sam Batistone who was who was looking to sell the team, and Larry Miller came in and and and grabbed them and save them from moving. Really, they were about to move to Heathen, Minnesota or Miami at that time.

They had been there for five years and expansion team.

The only thing they had to market at that time was a one legged Pete Maravich and and they tried to do the best they could, but Pete only played a handful of games, you know, in Utah and was moved to the Boston Celtics, and and and he was at the end of his career because of injuries. But Frank built the team up in the eighties, block by block, you know. It was Daryl Griffith in the nineteen eighty draft as a number two pick. It was Thorough Bailey as a number six pick. It was Mark Eaton as

Pass real quick. That's a phenomenal hit rate.

Yes, well yeah, historically special hit rate.

Sorry, yeah, yea yeah, continue, he got done.

On me, you know. And and and you're throwing Bobby Hanson.

Who was a four a third round pick, yeah, out of Iowa in that mix, and and those are the guys that they brought in. But it was, you know, a block by block building spens and they came here.

Seventy nine, Frank took over.

Then he took over as a coach and general manager in eighty two, and then it was eighty four that they won their first division tie know, coach and executive the year for our guys, the only.

The only person who's ever done that in the NBA history.

And then uh, and then a eighty five they draft Karme alone and and uh. But but these were all things, you know, some of them were things and you say, okay, okay, I'm a pretty smart guy. I knew that guy would be a good player, okay. And some of it is, as I know you talked about earlier, you have to be lucky. And other guys have said this, and and people don't want to hear that because then it sounds like, well then why is why are these guys running the show.

It sounds like anybody can do.

It if you're just relying on luck, and anybody can go to Vegas and Roll of seven or whatever. Yeah, but but what you have to have is you have to have some kind of a game plan. You have to have some kind of consistency and and willingness to stick to that and the belief that what we're doing we believe makes sense. We think it's gonna work out, but we just have to stick to our guns in terms of how we're doing it. The Jazz in the eighties did it blocked by block. They get John Stockton,

And I remember Scott Layden saying, and.

That was the The John Stockton draft was the first one I was involved in directly, and the Karmelone was the second. But yeah, I remember Scott saying to his dad, well, you know, if Malone is there at thirteen, we just have to take him because he's he's the best talent that's there, and we just have to roll with that and see what that is.

And then I remember Frank in the post.

Draft interview saying to the to the press, well, somebody asked him, you know, do you hope Malone comes in and scores the way he wasn't Louisiana Tech, And Frank famously said, well, we have enough scoring.

Okay.

We have Daryl Griffith, we have Adrian Dantley, we have the sixth Man of the Year, John Drew. We have Ricky Green as more of a scoring point guard. What we need is someone to come in and get rebounds because we're the third worst rebounding team in the league. Okay, we're becoming competitive, but we need to show up our rebounding. So we hope he does that and provides us some

And so the Jazz got him in a trade.

They got Marking in as part of the Donovan Mitchell trade. So they got him in a trade. So those are two guys that they like at the moment. Marking and shown he's an all star level player. Kessler's getting better in his third year. Okay, maybe they got two guys. Now they got all the draft picks they've used the last two years. You know, smattering of result Alt's good, bad, in between something something that's still to be determined. Okay,

You know.

Darren Williams, you know, was an All star level Olympian player for the Jazz for six years. You know, But Darren Williams didn't start when he was a rookie. You know, he came off the.

Bench and he didn't like it, and Jerry didn't want to start it, and.

Want heard about that situation.

Well yeah, but his second year but but I mean, Darren, I think personally a better player because Darren realized, well, they're not gonna give me anything.

I gotta go get it right.

And so his second year he became, you know, a bona fide player.

His third year he was a cornerstone.

Then with Carlos Boozer and Memeto, core Andre Carolenko and Ronnie Brewer and those guys started getting it going. So that's what the current Jazz are hoping happens and has not yet. Uh, their guys have not s own up yet.

And that's what they're doing with their players now.

So that's why you see players coming in, maybe playing weird rotations, maybe looking at stuff where guys are out of position. You don't like where they're playing, don't like how they're playing at that position. But that's what where they're at the moment. They're experimenting to see, do we have anybody here that we.

Can use going forward, that we can develop.

And at some point they'll look at it and they'll say, that guy we like some we can keep working with him.

That guy over there, we don't like him as much.

It doesn't look like he's making any progress, and we're going to try and move on from him and just keep trolling in the river and trying to get guys in here who we think can help us move forward in the process.

Does Frank get enough credit for being a talent talent evaluator because the list you just and I talk about this all the time, because Danny Ainge has a really solid draft track record that includes a lot of big time hits and a lot of big time misses, some who didn't play in the league.

With everybody, that's where I was going.

And there's no exception at Dennis, who I think we all liked and respected, hit two massive Grand slams, some other singles, and some guys that didn't work out.

It's part of the deal.

But the list you just ran off. We think of Frank as a great coach. We think of Frank as a great communicator. We think Frank has a great leader of men. We think of him as an entertaining, funny personality. Does he get enough credit for the way he evaluated talent for those early days.

I all that he does.

Yeah.

I think part of it, Spence, is that he tried to deflect how bad the team was in the early years by using his personality, you know, and his affability with the press and with the public to kind of deflect some of that stuff. He was a tough basketball master. You ask any of the players who played for him, in terms of day to day in practice, demanding how they do certain things. That's why he brought in Jerry Sloan as an assistant coach.

That's why he turned it over.

To Jerry Sloan in eighty nine because he felt like, hey, Jerry can do this better than I can. But Frank was very good at getting the most he could out of the players by understanding who.

They were and then playing to their strengths.

But also the guy who doesn't get enough credit in my opinion during that time was a young Scott Lade.

Because Scott was.

In charge of the personnel, He's in charge of scouting spends. This is an age in the eighties when an assistant coach on the bench like Scott Laden also had like five other jobs in the organization of them for him was scouting and and and running the draft.

When when each time when.

The spring, when spring came around, and so Scott was coaching and helping in practice, devising a game plan and practice and then if they had an off date, getting on a plane at three o'clock and flying to Vegas or flying to l A or wherever it was to see a college game that night, to do college scouting, because that's just how thin the staff was at that time.

That's how I got involved initially, was to.

Come in and try and help in terms of doing some of the college scouting and and uh the personnel stuff in that regard and and uh. But but Frank and Scott built the foundation, and they built that culture with the idea, with the Miller's consent, and and and with with the UH, with the foresight of saying, we're gonna do this the the right the way we think is right, and we're gonna do it step by step.

Right.

We thought Carllone in that draft was gonna go five to sixt seven, right, There's no way he.

Was falling past Dallas at seven.

That was our that that was our feeling, our evaluation and talking to other teams around the league as you always do in draft preparation. So Carl alone gets drafted by Dallas. He has the career that he had here in Dallas. He's Novitski right in Dallas. But they don't they take They take the Garnet kid for Wyoming. Then the team is picking eight, the team was picking nine picking twelve was Washington who took Kenny Green out of wake Forest instead of Carl, and so we the Jazz

A team three picks in front of them took him.

And so you never hear about, oh, those guys had it wired.

It's just that they didn't.

Get to that guy to be able to exercise that pick and to show that they that they had done their homework and were on target.

And so the Jazz were fortunate in those years.

And the other part of that equation that people have heard before is that now you've got two Hall of Fame players, they play together for eighteen years, and thirteen of those eighteen years neither guy misses a game. So they play eight preseason games, they play eighty two regular season games, they play in the playoffs every year, so you're talking about the neighborhood of one hundred games a year.

Beyond your control.

And anybody on the jazz who says, oh yeah, well we we had special medicine, and we had special medical knowledge and foresight to know that that John Stockton was going to play every game every year, and Carl alone was gonna miss twelve games in his eighteen year Jazz career.

And you'd go, come on, man, come on, you know that you can't plan for that. Yeah.

Yeah, So let's let me ask you this and we'll move on to some other things. But I think this is fascinating topically, and I just want to reset, you know, because I really am. My goal is to never be unfair. I never want to be unfair. I want to be honest, authentic, call the way I see it, and then just ask questions about the process. That's the role of the fourth

Picks pulled up.

You guys didn't hit everything out of the park, as we already talked about, because no front office does. But oftentimes, whether it was Kevin drafting Hayward or you guys taking care Linko in the second round, it felt like more often than not, whether it was in the draft or via trade or whatever. Scottie, Kevin Dennis able to make acquisitions that felt like they were your guys. I think the jazz DNA Dennis. You talk about jazz DNA and so you guys would go about your business. Paul Millsap's

But Cody Williams ge league. To your point, none of the.

Six players they've drafted over the course of Danny justin.

Doing their thing have popped so far. And I don't want to be unfair, but is it just gonna take some.

Time to build the culture so we kind of get the same feeling we used to get when you guys would draft a Paul Millsaff or Gordon Hayward where it felt like, Okay, yeah, that's a Jazz guy.

Well, again, the current the current group that's making those decisions for the Jazz, Uh, they have, whatever their their game plan, that blueprint is, you know, the kind of guys they want to get.

I'm not privy to what that is.

The you know, when I was with the Jazz all the years that we had, whether it was Scott Laden or Kevin O'Connor, Dennis Lindsay, we had a specific blueprint in mind of the type of guys that we wanted to get right, not just skill wise, not just basketball ability and talent, but the type of people off the floor and not not just being a goodie two shoes guy, and that sometimes I got blown up in the in the in the local.

Media because well with Salt Lake.

Or you know, we're conservative communities, so we need all these you know, angels, you know, on the team or whatever.

It wasn't it wasn't anything like that.

It was about guys we thought were good people who would come and work hard, who really had some kind of intestinal fortitude where they had pride in being as good of a professional basketball player as they could, so they would come to work every day and and lay it out there and and and try and get better and had the pride in doing that.

I'm sure the current group of the.

Jazz has some you know, some measure of what they're trying the kind of player they're trying to get. Maybe they haven't gotten him at time. Maybe there's some guys who are terrific young players in the league who the Jazz would say, well, we had that guy, that's what we wanted, but so and so took him two picks before us, or whatever it is, and so and those things happen all the time to your point. To this point, the one thing I would say, just in looking at

Okay, let's see what we got.

And for whatever their reason, which which I don't know, they decided in quick order and within really like an eighteen month period, that they didn't think that was gonna be good enough to compete year in and year out, and so they got rid of everybody and they started over from scratch.

And so that was a decision they made to do that. They've got put the.

Team in the position they're in now, which is struggling, which is trying to find young guys they can do. You know, what's interesting to me is that they not only have young guys that they're trying to develop, but they also have young coaches that they're.

Trying to develop.

Will Hardy obviously is a young, the second youngest coach in the league is hadn't been a head coach before, and it looks like he.

Knows what he's doing. A really good guy, a.

Really solid guy, a hard nosed basketball mind, if you will. But they also have all of their coaching staff for young guys. They don't have any veterans who have been through the NBA wars. They don't have any guys who who who have been through the ups and downs and can kind of, you know, leverage things a certain way.

So that's the part that's interesting to me.

It's gonna be interesting to see if that's the game plan they hold to going forward.

We'll switch gears coming up. Smitty is live on side for another thirty minutes. I want to let you know we're live today at the road home. All this squealing and yelling you here in the background are children excited to see Santa who rolled into town and apparently took Richard Smith shine.

I thought they were I thought that was for me. I'm suck Oh, I.

Know this was This was a peek into the psyche that I did not know was real.

I mean, it's just a bruised ego. It's kind of.

Saturn that well, you know, screaming and kids yelling and running around. Usually it somehow follows me. But okay, Sana Smitty.

Is jealous, jealous of Santa today, So stop by in person at five twenty nine ninth As seventy three hundred south in Middale. Website is the roadhome dot org slash donate. You can also call us at eight oh one eight one nine seventy three hundred. This Hour of the Drive is brought to you by Big OD Tires. Tis the season for savings at Big O Tires. The team you trust save up to two hundred dollars after mailing rebates

Hundred unmarry Little Christmas, Let.

Your hor.

Live from no.

I suppose we could say in honor of Frank and honor of Frank lad and we decided to do a little Frank Sinatra Christmas album.

You'll be with Frank tonight. Yeah, You're gonna be hanging out with with Coach tonight.

Yeah, we're gonna we go to on Saturday.

We go to the holidays Robagan down brab O' Hall on Saturday Saturday night.

Yes, with he and Barbara. Yeah.

Very nice. So happy Holidays to everybody.

Richard Smith is live on site for another big segments.

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Direct you where you can get out of cold.

So Smitty, We were talking last segment about culture building in pro basketball as a result of this article that came out about the Jets today, and I've always found this interesting. We were talking a bowler about this earlier. In professional sports, your culture is set by your ownership group from the top down, and then you rely on people you hire to execute the vision of the culture.

Go so much.

Well, well that's who players go to play for college. They go to play for for for Roy Williams, or they go to play for Mike Krzyzewski, or they go to play for Rick Nageralis.

Or whoever it is.

And uh if and when that coach leaves for whatever the reason would be a lot of times he used to see the players would also leave because they they really didn't have that you know, affinity, if you will, for the for the school as much as they had for the coach they were they had that relationship with and and and also in college Spence. When you see the big time games on TV, you see Kentucky Duke, you know, play half the time, the cameras seem to.

Be on the head coach, the celebrity on the sideline.

And so even maybe more so than the than the players, because as you say, if you're one of those guys and you have longevity at a at a highly competitive program, you become the guy because the players just rotated in and out. Used to be three or four years, now it's three or four months, you know, and the guys are just coming in.

I mean, the.

Demansa kid uh, last week, you know, and they they they announced he's coming, but but there's already it's no you know, they make very publicly known that he's only going to be here for one year and then he's leaving for the NBA. And so you know, that's already part of the plan, which the plan was never used

Side note, non Secretary, how is Frank not in the Naysmith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Yeah, you'd have to ask the people who both. I'm not sure that the overall record, you know, don't at that. And and also he didn't have that longevity at least as a coach, you know, in the the NBA level.

He coached from eighty eighty two to.

Eighty nine, so that's seven years, seven plus years where he had obviously success and and turned the team from a perennial loser to a perennial winner and competitive team, you know, But he he turned it over to Jerry Sloan at a time where he felt it was best for him and for the team, you know. And obviously Jerry had the success that he had over a two decade period, and and and then with Frank Constrant and

And then most of it was because of, you.

Know, somewhat of a family atmosphere, and everybody preaches that that's you hear that from all corners, you know, which which is kind of kind of silly really. You know, it's a business, and if you don't produce in the business, then they move on to the next guy. And you know,

So we just have to we just have to figure that out.

Now.

It seems like nowadays coaches a little bit too sometimes too concerned in my opinion, and appeasing the players because they're afraid otherwise the player is gonna run to the owner and it's gonna complain, or they're gonna make a public statement about wanting to be traded or what have you. And so it seems like the players have more control over those kinds of day to day things than they used to.

All right, moving over to some some big picture topics here league wide, you know, one of the interesting conversations in NBA media over the past couple of weeks has been about the lack of ratings for pro basketball and how linear numbers are down.

Now. Sports Media Watch.

Did a really good piece on this they released this week to provide some context. Fifty two percent of folks have cut the cord from cable over the past five years, so every product is down on linear numbers, even the NFL.

Now, the NFL is only four percent. Pro basketball is down.

Forty eight percent year over year, the opening night down twenty nine percent for last year. I wanted to get your take on one dynamic that I've heard people talk about, and that is every team plays the same way, trying to hunt threes.

Doing everything they can to hunt three point shots.

Now, I think teams go about that differently, and teams have different personnel, But is the game that much different than it was? Where if you hear somebody say to you, smitty, it seems like every time I'm watching basketball and every team plays the same way, What's what's your response to that?

Well, every team, it seems now nobody goes through the post, nobody goes goes down will nobody uses high tunament. Now everything is athletic is run and jumping. Everything's five out, everything's drawing kick.

I'd say that that.

You know, a lot of teams try and play screen and roll with screen and pop, but most players don't set screens. Most players, you know, slip screens is what we call it, where they go to fake like they're gonna screen you, and then when you get a step away from them.

They they bail out.

A because they don't want to get hit, first of all, but b because they they're either concentrating.

On trying to get the ball from the ball handler.

Either on a roll to the basket or on a pop to try and shoot a jump shot.

And so you see everybody is playing that way. Now.

The interesting thing is that the players who seem to play at the best really from my perspective, are the guys who have learned that outside of the United States. In other words, a lot of the European players and some of the Australian players, they learn how to pass the ball, they had to learn how to move the ball.

They really know how to execute.

In the US, young players in the AAU system or you know, even high school systems, the eyb L in the summertimes uh, these these under leaves. The travel teams that the kids are on, if they're that talented, they don't they don't teach them how to play, how to set a screen, how to move the ball, how to space out properly, and and they and they also don't teach them how to shoot.

Everybody just wants to run and dunk the ball.

And so that's why when somebody shoots thirty eight percent from three, everybody says, Wow, he's a really good shooter, you know, But he's not a really good shooter. You know, it's just because nobody else can shoot thirty eight percent comparative, you know. So it's it's it's interesting that that our game has gotten to that point at the NBA level. It's really to me is most of it's a sloppy game. I think a lot of it's a lazy game because

And so a lot of the research now.

Is coming out in the Nordic countries who have been looking at the skiers, the winter sports, or whether it's downhill skiing or ski jumping or skating and ice hockey and those kinds of things. They don't allow they're not allowing their young kids to train in any of those sports for longer than.

A particular period of time.

I think it's like three months, or it might be like sixteen weeks or something like that. And then they're forced to take a break from that because their research is showing that their their muscles, their bones, their joints are starting to uh disintegrate, are starting to break down more frequently because when they keep doing the same thing over and over and over and over again, it just

The sad part about.

That is that it's not about the kid, the fourteen year old kid that they're trying to develop into the next Lebron. It's really about the coach who's got an ego, who thinks, you know, this is I don't coach in the NBA, So I'm going to coach the little junior high team and I'm going to coach them into the ground because I'm gonna show people I know what I'm doing, and you know, and it's just I.

Think it's terrible.

And that's why you see players in the NBA mid twenties starting to break down, having more You think they would have fewer injuries because of all the training techniques and all the the the progression of medicine and of research and that kind of thing, but they seem to have more right. I mean, back in the day, Bob Gibson used to throw one hundred and twenty one hundred and thirty pitches in a complete game for the Cardinals, and then three or four days later he'd do it again.

So a lot there, But the main thing that and my takeaway continues to be this, and ultimately, if you want to understand issues in commerce, you follow the money.

In business, you follow the money.

And whether it's AAU coaches, they feel like they get they get paid more, so they want better kids on their team there in bed with high school coaches. So if you're not on the AAU team as a ten year old, you're not gonna be on the high school team.

Then you can't go to college.

Like It's all a system in place that was just really coming into its own when I was playing AAU in high school basketball. But you said something that I believe to be. And we all come at this on our own prism, our own unique prism, our own echo chamber. And the way you watch basketball probably has something to do with the way you were raised watching basketball. I was raised watching the Jazz and then the Knicks of the nineties. Teams have played with precision and teams have

Yeah, you're exactly right.

And what happens is a large part of it is the guaranteed.

The guaranteed deal.

The NFL has a small percentage of guys who get guaranteed contracts, right. The larger percentage of guys in the NFL are really independent contractors who are playing week to week. And you see that played out more so in football with the kickers, right, Some teams change kickers two, three, four times a season. If the kickers don't get the job done on Sunday on Tuesday, they cut him in

Detroit and some of them don't even show up SPA.

Yeah, but I mean that's you know, and sometimes you know, but you're exactly right. If you were playing like the guys were the other night, right in Vegas for the NBA up. They're playing for five hundred thousand dollars. You know, And I, in fact I told I told Coach Layden I was with us earlier today. I said that he was not aware of that. He said, Oh, I thought I thought they got like like an extra fifteen thousand dollars.

I said, coach happened.

Oh no, the guys who won the game the other night, they were playing for half a million.

He goes, half a million dollars. I said, that's that's what they're doing now.

Now.

You can argue all day whether that makes sense, whether it doesn't matter because you've got sponsors who are paying the money, or you know, or billionaire owners who are paying that doesn't you know they don't care. But that part of that, there's some kind of feeling in there that that it's a little distasteful to me that that

That's where it takes. I don't know. I don't know well.

And I know that younger NBA fans are probably laughing at the conversation because they've been a part of.

This NBA reality for a long time.

And these are the This is the generation of fans that pulls up their phone and watches House of Highlights on Instagram as opposed to watching a game. And I just grew up watching games just what we did. You know, even if we weren't at games, I would be home. I'd watched games. And I come from this job through the prism of very much preferring to talk about games and talk about teams and growth and how the process

Trying to do now.

The easiest thing about those two examples is to say, well, OKC has Shay and Orlando has Apollo, and those.

Are both a level guys.

Houston doesn't really have a level guy. They've got a bunch of nice players, and Udoka has done a really good job. Jalen Green's are leading scorer. A lot of people love the Shngoon kid, who's eighteen ten, five and two, So they have some good young players. But from a roster construction standpoint, the Jazz are where these three teams were three four years ago. Sam Presty might be in a category of his on right now with.

What he's done with OKAC.

But is there anything that we can learn here in the market about what the Jazz are trying to do juxtaposed to what these teams now have done.

Yeah, well what they're the Jazz are trying to do what they've done but also spent.

It's not anything new.

They're not reinventing the wheel, and it's not any big secret.

Look. OKC is a good, good, solid team.

They've got a very good coaching by a young coach who's insisted that they play defense, and they're one of the top defensive teams in the league.

They got, you know, some smarts.

Okay, you got to give him some credit and some luck in the Paul George trade because they get Shake Gildess Alexander who is just coming off his rookie year. Nice player, Okay, yeah, we'll take him in the in the trade, and you know, okay, yeah whatever, you know. I think Sam pressI would be the first one to step and go, well, we didn't know he was going.

To be down this, okay, So so you got him.

You got Memphis who's in second place currently with a healthy, mostly healthy John Morant. They got John Moran in the draft because they evaluated that correctly and they knew that he had an NBA type game. Houston got Jalen Green, who I think is going to be a very good play. They've got Jabari Smith, who is a young player who I think is also going to be pretty good in a few years. They've got shng Goon, who is probably

You got the Celtics, who you know, built their team the.

Way they have, you know, entirely on the idea of we're gonna outshoot everybody from the three point line. And they've got you know, highly skilled guys and it's working for them. You know, Orlando was bad for a number of years and they were waddling around and they weren't getting much traction. And then they hit on a couple of picks. But they hit on a couple of picks.

Drafted him on and up.

So the point being that the Jazz are just doing the same thing other teams have done. They're in that process. Is it gonna flesh out? Are they gonna get those guys to get better? Are they going to improve? Are they gonna stay the course that they've set and and and do they have the confidence that.

This is actually gonna work eventually?

Is anybody gonna gonna get short circuited, whether it's the owner, whether it's the front office guys, whether they get tired that they're not winning so they blame on the coach or whatever it is. Or can they stick to their game plan and believe that we're going.

To get there.

But we just have to we just have to stay the course. And that's the part that's going to be difficult for fans.

Got to end it there. But man, great to see you. Okay, Hi Man, it's welcome in to you as well. Let's welcome in Ryan from the Dish professionals. More affordable options for your wireless internet, for your cable television in addition to your cell phone bill. So give them a call at eight oh one, four to two four Dish. Eight oh one four to two four Dish.

What's going on right, Spence?

Thanks so much.

As always, you know, this is just a great time of year to be in the dish business for us because every single provider I swear has just been slapping up these rate increases, and we've seen pretty significant with Direct TV in October and the cable company, and then also you've got a pretty amazing increase with Fiber and also with YouTube TV guys. This is something that I fully anticipate. This rate increase is just one of many that you're gonna see, especially if YouTube TV guys listen.

All right there, he is Ryan from the Dish Pros live at the road Home and we have Nick from Modelic.

Stop you by, Nick? How are you man?

How's it going?

Tell me about Modelic? What's Modelic?

We're web design and development agency here in Salt Lake City. We designed and built the road Home website and the media thon tracker of Santa's telling me I'm naughty right now.

Now Santa's rolling by, so that.

This is one of the best things I've done all year.

What are you talking about?

Yeah, it's really cool. So how did you come to be involved with the road Home out here?

Yeah, so we've built their website years ago and their media thon tracker. So when you make those donations to ESPN, you can hop on over to the roadhome dot org slash media Thon and track the progress and the little horse race that we've got going there. We've got a team of developers working around the clock to field all those donations and make sure everyone is tracked and you know where the standings are. We need to update the zoom on the chart or anything like that.

Very nice.

See people like you fascinating me because I do not have that skill set at all, So I think it's a fascinating thing. So what would you say to our listeners about what you need this time of year?

Don't nations financially physically otherwise? Oh yeah, of course.

I mean the Road Home is great at allocating resources. So if they just get enough money, I mean they're looking at raising you know, quite a bit, and they have that the total track too about how much they need, and then they are so good at getting people what they need, be at food, clothing, access to shelter, warming centers, anything like that.

Right on, Well, Nick, thanks for stopping by. Man, really good to meet you.

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If you can't make it out, you can always call at eight oh one eight one nine seventy three hundred or online at the Road Home. All right, we're gonna do a little sports court with our friends Handy and Handy. We're gonna do college football in the five o'clock hour. Dennis Hayespurt stops by very famous person who's in town for an event that we're gonna tell you about as we broadcast live from the Road Home on a Thursday

All rus, it's time to check in with Preston Handy and Garrett Handy of Handy and Handy for sports courts. Handy and Handy are your accident and personal injury attorneys ready to assist with any related questions you may have. Visit them online at Handy Law Utah dot com. Big firm Experience, Small firm Attention. Now, let's get out to sports court on the Drive with Spence. Check its on Utah's number one sports Talk, ESPN seven hundred.

It is sports court time.

We do it every Thursday right about now. We're the good friends Garrett and Pressed Handy from the law firm of Handy and Handy Gentlemen.

Happy Thursday, Happy holidays.

How we doing, Hey Spence, happy holidays.

Great to spend time with you as we always do on this Thursday. And this story certainly caught my attention after it came out a lot of attention back in the day eighteen years ago on the Duke University lacrosse player scandal, and Crystal Mangum, who was the alleged victim back then, has come out eighteen years later admitted that she basically made the whole thing up.

The time is yours. What should we know about this one?

Yes, Spence.

When this story hit this week, we thought, hey, this might be interesting to talk about more of not what's going on now, but more of a review of the legal issues of this. And as we know, this was a highly publicized case. It grows out of a incident where some Duke lacrosse players had a party shall we call it get together among the players and Crystal Mangum she was invited to come. She's an entertaining entertainer of sorts. Well after it, Ms Mangum went to the police and

Jumped on this.

Duke University took action and these three players, who were captains of the team were all arrested and charged with rape, sexual assault, and kidnapping. Well, what happened after that was a firestorm. It ended up getting to the Attorney General of about a year later, gets the Attorney General of North Carolina and they come out with a statement that says, hey, there was insufficient evidence. I mean, there was no physical evidence.

There was inconsistent.

Statements across the board of what happened, a lot of testimony, no physical.

Evidence, DNA evidence. And he came out and he said.

We believe these cases were the result of.

A tragic rush to accuse and a.

Failure to verify serious allegations. And he says, based on this, we believe these three individuals are innocent of these charges. Well, in the meantime, what these individuals did, these three guys, well, they lawyered up and they filed lawsuits against the County Attorney's office against Duke University, and it resulted in a settlement that was a confidential settlement.

And as you.

Mentioned, Spence, here we are what eighteen years later, and Crystal Mangam she comes out as a statement this week and it's all reported interviewed that she.

In fact lied about these allegations.

And so is there any legal thing going on now? I assume that if someone wanted to, they could. She probably falls into the category where she lied, and they could be charged with some type of providing false information. But guess what, Crystal Mangham, she's in prison right now for murder.

Garrett, let's move it over to you. You know, I'll never forget watching the press conference. You know, my little brother went to Duke, had a high school teammate who went to Duke, and the captain of the Duke lacrosse team, stepping up and saying, you've all been told some fantastic lies, and Garrett, eighteen years later, it appears that was the case.

Your shot. You're turning to take a shot at this one.

Yeah, absolutely, and we kind of knew that, right. But I think Crystal Mingham coming out now and making this statement really puts it to rest right what happened. But on that issue of her being charged with anything, I don't think it's going to happen. There's I think like a two year statue of limitations on like a perjury charge or something like that. So it's way beyond that.

Yeah, definitely worth your time. All right, let's move over to My.

Guy Oak the latest Charles Oakley, Madison Square Garden. I thought we were done with this, but apparently this holiday season it's the gift that keeps on giving.

What's the latest with my Guy Oak versus MSG.

Yes.

Speaking of legal sagas that never end, this is one of them. It's been going on. I cannot believe this, but it's been going.

On for nine years.

It was twenty seventeen when he got removed from his seat at Madison Square Garden and it just set off this whole case. And we've talked about it quite a bit on Sports Court. And part of the reason we're still talking about this case and it's still going on and why it's been so slow going to get to this point is the case has actually been dismissed twice

Sides Madison Square Garden and also Charles Oakley.

They're trying to get information out of each other. Oakley wants he filed the motion. He wanted to take more than ten depositions. He wanted to compel Madison Square Garden to give up cell phone records of a bunch of employees. The judges denied those motions, and I thought it was

It's a single.

Instance of this alleged assault. Can't we get this done in a more expeditious way? I mean, and it's rich coming after nine years, but I you know, it looks like the judges trying to push this case along.

All right, Preston, you're up, buddy.

Oh just quick.

I'm glad Garrett unwrapped that. I mean, you know, Oakley, what does he want?

My question?

What?

Nine years? What does he want?

Dismissed twice, appealed it twice, he spent a lot of money.

What does he want?

Good question?

Probably somehow some way either respect, money and combination of the two.

But probably time to get it done. Probably time just to let it go away.

All right, let's move over to a college football storyline. Lane Kiffin quote shakedown copyright lawsuit. Looks like Lane came out on the right side of this one. Fill us in what's going on here?

Yeah?

I love this one. And again this is a case where I think.

A judge was very reasonable minded and he went right to the issue. Lane Kiffin came out with a post kind of a motivational post where he showed a photo copy of a guy, mister Bell, who is a motivational guy. He had a win passage, and mister Bell has copyrighted his win passage, which kind of more or less says that winning is highly unusual and requires extraordinary action and things that are seen in a lot.

Of motivational speech. Well, what did he do?

He sues Lane Kippen, saying, wait a minute, this win passage is mine. It's copyrighted, so guess what.

You can't use it. It is copyright infringement, and you got.

To pay me money. And the judge he finally came out and he said, this is a bunch of crap.

He dismissed it. And I love some of the things the judge says.

He says, mister Bill Bell, appearing to have exceedingly high opinion of his literally literary value of the win passage, this extraordinary assertion with which Shakespeare, Tolsoy, and Faulkner might take issue. And he says, you know, and you claiming that there's economic gain by Lane Kippen coming out, one of the things Bell said, he goes, no, Lane kipping, he used my win passage. He wanted economic game because of players out there saw this and saw how cool

All right, scare it. You're trying to take a crack at this one.

Well, yeah, I mean and Lane, what Kevin did was he retweeted this quote, right, and then get sued for it. And that's something that happens all the time on social media, right, some inspirational quote or whatever, and this one happened to be copyrighted, and like Preston said, he's just sitting there on the lookout waiting for somebody to post it and then he.

Files a lawsuit.

So he's good to see that this case get dismissed.

All right.

I was glad to see the next one on the rundown because there's some local ties here. Jake Rhetz Laugh is a junior college transfer for Brigham Young with one year left to play. Maybe because Diego Pavi has been granted preliminary injunction against the NCAA, so he may be able to come back and play for Vanderbilt, even though technically he's out of eligibility. But he played his first couple of years in JUCO, and if he's able to do this, maybe other junior college's players are able to

No, that's that's exactly right, and I think it's setting a precedent for sure, and you have to start to wonder whether any n CUAA eligibility.

Rules are going to have any meaning.

So what happened with Diego Pavia? I mean, he spent two years at two different junior colleges and then was it New Mexico State, and then of course Vanderbilt and beat Alabama. And you know he'll go down in Vanderbilt lore for doing that. And well, he's like another bite at the apple. He'd like more eligibility, and all of a sudden, now as a rising star, wants to take advantage of some nil compensation that would be coming his way. And so that's what the lawsuit is about.

That's been filed.

But with this.

Preliminary injunction that's been granted, what's going to happen is he's at least going to get it. He's going to get up play next year. His attorney said he's going to play it Vanderbilt. But yeah, it starts to wonder, now right, I mean, and I think it's a great point about retslof I mean, does he get additional time? And I think it's safe to say that this is the case to really keep a close eye on.

All right, preston your turn, Bud.

Yeah, you know, additional times important with the nil stuff going on, you know, I will throw a little twist on it.

This is just a.

Preliminary injunction which essentially enjoins the NTA from enforcing this rule and not allowing him another year. Too bad, it's not being the ruling wasn't made in August where he's playing, and he could be in there enjoined and he plays this whole season. There's a chance that they appill it and in the next eight months there may be.

A switch with a judge, and who knows what's going to happen.

But as for now, he's going to be a player on Vanderbilts team and earning a good chunk of nil money.

As the steward and author of the sports Court bylaws, I am aware we're unable to have this second without talking about schools suing the NCAA or conferences. So we must move over now to Colorado State and Utah State suing the Mountain West over penalties for exiting the league.

And going to the new PAC twelve. Gentlemen fill us in.

Yes, Bence nil and conference ree alignment and transfer portal have given us a lot of material for sports Court, no doubt. And we saw this coming. The Utah State and a few other schools left, the left the Mountain West. They vowed not to Everyone got together and said we won't and when they jumped, what happened? The Mountain West said, well, guess what you owe some big transfer fees in the range of nineteen million to thirty eight million. So what's

Right.

But yeah, they filed this suit because simply they don't think they should pay this money. And so we'll see what the response from the Mountain West is.

All right, Garrett, your turn, bud Well.

These conferences, I mean, they've they've got to have some idea of who's going to be in their conference over the long term so they can negotiate these TV contracts. I mean, we're all pretty familiar with that storyline and how that all plays out. I mean, I have to think that the Mountain West kind of has the upper hand here.

I mean, these are.

Super sophisticated institutions, you know, wide eyed entering into these contracts with the Mountain West over the long term, and of course, you know, things change, and they knew there would be consequences for leaving the conference. So I mean, obviously, I think at this point they just want to mitigate that damages on what's going to happen and see if they can cut a deal and save.

A little money.

All right, last one for this Thursday, the latest on the goat Michael Jordan. Preliminary injunction in the NASCAR case and right now his airness is on the right side of the early ruling.

Yeah, what's going on here?

Yeah, this is crazy, Spence.

We talked about it last week as most recently as last week, be real quick. This grows out of claims of anti trust that Jordan, his two racing teams claim that unfair competition with NASCAR and as part of the charters that they have these franchises they have, and so they sued NASCAR and there's been a lot of back and forth. NASCAR tried to dismiss it. And here's the

Can't stop us from doing it.

Well, originally it was denied, and lucky to Jordan, guess what happened.

They filed it again.

And we got a new judge on hand, and the new judge decided, you know what, I think you have met the burdens showing that you're entitled to an injunction because you've shown that there would be irreparable harm.

And economic damage.

So right now he's on the right side of it. A new judge comes down off so what the other judge did, and Jordan's going to be racing this year his two teams.

There you go, Garrett, final word is yours.

Well, although the you know, as we've talked about, the prelimary injunction isn't the end of the case.

It certainly sends a signal to NASCAR that the judges is you know, it looks like on Michael Jordan's side on this, and so I think it'll guide probably some future settlement negotiations or remediation. I mean, but we'll we'll let you know.

All right, there you go before I say you loose.

For any of our listeners who have legal questions this holiday season, how can they get hold of you over at Handy and Handy.

Yes, Bence, we love coming on here with you and talk about these issues.

But Andre and we'd help love to.

Help anyone's been involved in an accident, help them through the process. Give us a holiday zero one two six four six six seven seven, or jump on our website at HANDYLAIU dot dot com.

Well, thanks so much for the time.

I won't be able to speak to till after the holidays, so I just want to let you know how much I appreciate you too, your presence on the show, and if we can be better let us know.

Happy holidays, guys, we chat soon.

Okay, great, Thanks Bence, Happy holidays.

Thank you all right, Garrett and Preston Handy from the law firm of Handy and Handy. It's time now for Ryan from the Dish pros save some money the holiday season. Who doesn't want to do that? Cable, wireless options, internet too. All you have to do is dial eight O one four two four Dish.

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All right there he is Ryan from the Dish Pros. Coming up next. We have a celebrity on the show. Dennis Haysbert joins us. We're back to some college football after that. Second night at six on a Thursday, Live at the road Home. Keep it right here on the ESPN seven hundred.

Are the herld Angel scene Glory to the new bon King.

All right, we're lave today out here at the road Home the Family Homeless Shelter.

Come on by and say hi.

We do it every year. This is my nineteenth year out here at the radio Thon. We're asking you to make a financial donation to help families in need this holiday season. At eight oh one, eight one nine seventy three hundred. You can go to the Roadhome dot org slash donate. Come on by in person at the Condie Crosby Family Resource Center at five twenty nine nine. Thats seventy three hundred south in Midvale, Utah.

All right, really excited for this.

The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Squarre is holding its annual Christmas Conscience this week with a very special guest who will serve.

As the MC of the events.

It's just a pleasure to have Dennis Haysburg on the show on a Thursday.

Dennis, how are you, sir?

I'm doing great. How are you?

I'm well.

I appreciate the time I have to say, Hey, you're on a sports talk radio show. I am a sports talk radio host and a big sports fan. So I first became familiar with you, of course, with your role in Major League.

Way back in the day.

And I know that sports are a big part of your family and also you personally, as your brother Adam Haysberg played at Brigham Young a year ago, so excuse me back in the day. So I know that you're an actor known for a lot of things, but I actually want to know how what you know what role sport has played in your life?

Dennis, Well, it is the sports I've always played a large role in my life because that's what I do to stay in shape. You know, I still play. I play a lot of golf. I used to play football, baseball, land track. I used to pin a little bit. Now my principle exercises of a lot of swimming, golf, and weightlifting. So I stay.

I was stayed pretty busy, very nice.

How did your brother Adam end up at Brigham Young back in the in the late eighties?

Heany, you know, it's just like any kid, you know. You know, we grew up in Santa pel California. And then he wanted to get out of the house, and so YU came calling, and he thought it would be a very interesting challenge, which it was. And there you have it. It was there. I remember hearing the Pittsburgh game on the radio. I was working at the time. I was working on a movie. I can't even tell you what the movie was at this moment, how much you remember that?

Was it?

There you go?

And and I was on set when I heard about the touchdown catch, you know, and I said, all right, that's it's my little bro. And I had no idea they were going to go on and in the National championship.

That year an amazing year, for sure. I wonder from what I read about you.

You were an athlete, as you referenced, and you had opportunities to maybe play sports collegiately, but.

You elected to go the acting route.

What kind of motivated you to do that as a young person, and did you foresee this unbelievable life you've built, you know what?

In a strange way, Yes, I've always, like I said, I've always been an athlete. All my brothers were athletes. But I always loved movies and I knew when I was ten years old that I was going to be an actor. How I knew that, I don't know. God only know, but I knew. I felt it very strongly, and I knew it was something I was going to have to pursue.

See, I find that so fascinating, And honestly, I'm in awe of courage like that and so be already reaps.

Only God only knows. But did you.

Always traverse through the space of the early days knowing that you were going to see it through to the other side to find all of this success because you've done so many incredible things.

Oh, thank you. I really don't know what the question was in there.

So I always find it fascinating because I think most people don't ever know what they want to be. And when I hear somebody new at the age of ten, like, did you always know? Because you chose a field that very few people find success in? So did you always have that confidence that if you kept going you were going to be very successful?

At this?

Oh? I knew, really, I mean because I can look back in retrospect and say, yeah, of course, But I really didn't. I just knew that I loved movies, and the movies that I love turned out to be classics, so I knew I had taste. How that was going to translate into working in film and television, I don't I really don't know. All I knew is that that's

Well yeah, and you proved them all wrong.

Yeah. I just started getting into theater. And I got into theater when I was in high school, you know, and it was. It was a blast, and all during the time I was being made fun of while I was playing football and said, what you're in a school play? What are you talking about? And then you're a football player.

We'll see. Yeah.

I'm also an actor, So if I if I got too much heat in practice, I would make sure that the whoever was doing all the jawing I remembered them in practice and make sure I give them an extra.

Hit love it.

I got to ask this question the.

Reason I say that I was a defensive end.

Oh, there we go. Well, you're six ' five. You certainly have the size for it. When, like I said, I first saw you, I probably watched Major Major League two hundred times. Did you have to work to learn because your swing looked so.

Natural and you were an athlete?

What was the process like to learn how to you know, you know, look like you were a major league baseball hitter in that.

Movie I was, you know, Steve Jegert helped me a lot, But I've always been like I said, I played baseball. I played about little league baseball, Babe Ruth baseball. You know, I was a pitcher. I played, I played, I think. I played first base, right field, left field, and I called a little bit as well. So I love the sport. I think baseball is the perfect game.

Now, of course, before I set you loose, I want to hear about your role as the narrator for this upcoming Christmas special that I've been to with my family hundreds of times. I'm excited to see you, But from my seat sports talk radio radio host, how do you give the voice?

Man?

What do you do? What's the secret? How do you get that voice? I got to know.

I tell you something. I got it from my father. My father had a dep voice and he used it to be a great disciplinarian. All my brothers have, you know, like the same kind of voice. But mine is just mine. Was weaned on a thirteen hundred theater. In high school, we had the district theater. Everybody in our district graduated from. So I got to at that back wall with my voice every play I did. So it was developed in a theater.

Amazing.

All right, Tabernacle Choir, Temple Square, you will narrate the Christmas Concerts nineteenth twenty twenty. First, what would you like our listeners to know? And how did you get involved with this as well. I'd be curious because it's such a perfect fit.

Well, they have a special guest who's coming in. I don't know how much of this is known, you know, so I don't know how much I can tell you. But I'm not just narrating. I'm actually recounting a real life story, and I'm telling the story to the audience, which I hope will have a very lasting effect.

Very cool. Well, look, this has been a pleasure.

I don't know how much more vague I can be.

Yeah, I mean so, just so you know, Dennis, that's.

To be a storyteller, and.

I'm okay, I love it. So I have a press release in front of me.

But because you're pump thinking, I'm pump thinking, I'm not gonna give any more information out on there. But just just a pleasure. I've long been a fan, and I'll be there to see you. So best of luck, and thank you so much for the time.

Oh well, what night are you coming? Because you should you should stop buying I should you know, at least see you and shake your hand.

I'll be there tomorrow night. I would love to see you tomorrow night, for sure. I'd love to do that.

Excellent, Thank you sir, all righty, thank all right.

Dennis Haysbert.

Uh, the press release I have says he is narrating the Christmas concerts. According to what he has to say, he will be much more involved than that. Uh, they start tonight and then it'll be tomorrow night, Saturday night at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. If you've never been, I mean, obviously, the Mormon Tabernacle choir is insane. No, it's just a tabernacle choir, now, my bad. And then Dennis Haysbert has one of the most powerful, unique voices out.

But that was really cool. I've seen a ton of his movies.

He's been in a bunch of things, a lot of TV shows as well. Like I said, twenty four may have been the television program to kind of put him on the map.

He was on that for seven years.

Justice League could keep going and then, yeah, the commercial stuff is what a lot of people know him for. As far as the All State commercials, he was the All State insurance guy for what like fifteen years, So appreciate his time. He will be in town. Is in town to narrate the tabernacle. Require Chris's program down to the conference center. All right, we'll catch a quick break.

They do a great job out here.

This is my nineteenth year at the road Home Radio thon so number eighth one, eight one nine seventy three hundred the Roadhome dot org slash donate or the address to come by in person is five twenty nine ninth Avenue seventy three hundred south in mid Vale, Utah. All right, more coming up on the other side on a Thursday, Right here on ESPN seven hundred.

All right special thanks to Dennis Haysburts stopping by.

He's gonna be narrating the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Program in the Consent Conference Center. Got off to a rough star with that interview. Not gonna lie a little bit nervous. I've been watching that dude in movies and on TV for a long time and said like three things incorrect to start, but it was fun.

Appreciate his time.

Check him out at the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Program down to the Conference Center. We're live today at the road Home. We are asking you to donate if you can this time of year. If you're looking for something kind to do to the community, this is a great place to do it. The money goes where they say it's going to go. Some nonprofits can't say that, but helping families in need this holiday season. The phone number is eighth one,

Stay tuned.

NFL Week sixteen gets rolling with Thursday Night foot ball. Don't forget we are your home of the NFL in this market. So coming up in just under an hour from right now from Sofi Stadium in Inglewood, California, is where we'll find the Broncos and the Chargers. You can hear that game on this radio station. The Charger are a two point five point favorite. Utah Hockey Club picked up a win last night. They'll be back in action

We're back here tomorrow. Keep that in mind.

It's always a two day situation and two of my favorite days all year.

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That was cool for this sound you may have missed.

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