My voice may not last until six o'clock tonight. Drinking the tea, drinking the water got the cough chops going, so bear with me. But luckily, our next guest is a brilliant, phenomenal storyteller, so I can simply just bring him in, ask maybe one question, and let him talk for the next twenty five minutes. One of my favorites, one of the best to ever do it at the University of Utah, returning to the program is our guy, Brittan Johnson. On a Monday Brett, Happy Monday, brother, How are we doing?
Goode? What's going on with your voice? Man? Who you been screaming at?
Well? No one.
I went to Orlando with my brother over the weekends and we saw the Bayhill Golf Tournament Arnie Spot, which was fun. And I must have been on the flight home, dude, because you know those planes, you got a lot of kids, a lot of people coming back from Disney, people not feeling well. Because I felt great on my trip and then I landed went home. Within a couple of hours, I had this chest nasal Whatever the hell's going on things? So I don't know, man, I'm just doing my best
to make it through. What's what's good with you?
Man? You got sounds like sounds like you need to get down to Murray and have yourself a pizza bender. Nice. Stop, you'll hey, you'll feel better in the morning.
How dare you put that in my head during the show. You know what a big fan I am. What is it called the village?
What is it? Italian village?
Man?
My my people, Britt, my people.
Well, yeah, where we always hung out after our Murray High basketball games and yeah, pizza bender, dude, cal zone, it's it was good for the stomach experience. I'm doing brave man. It's good to hear your voice and good to join you here for a minute. Now.
I miss you, man, I miss you up here.
But I know that everything's going well down in Saint George, and I just you know, you were one of the first people I thought of when I heard the rumor that it might be Alex and certainly appreciate your time today now that it is official, Britt. So let you start with your instant reaction when you heard that it might be Alex and then later on heard that it would be What went through your mind?
Well, when when I first heard it, I text him. I said, ow are we coming or not? And he he responded back in his very Alex fashion, it was myself and Jeff we were on a thread together. He responded back, Man, I absolutely love Dallas and this is a This is just such a nice job. So not giving me anything right and also just saying I know that's going to be a huge responsibility to try and get the youths back to where they were supposed to be. So I'm in my mind thinking, kay, he's playing coy.
But the fact that he responded to my text about the about the topic, it was encouraging. So Jeff and I are both like, I think there's going to be helped. Alex plays his cards really close. You know, he's not like me, Spence. He doesn't throw up all over himself and tell everybody every aspect of their life. That's probably you know, like like Lindsay said, less is more, that's probably a good thing that he does, you know, not
just flinging random things out there. But when I heard he actually took the job, Spence, nothing but excit nothing but I would just say anticipation in regard to this program going the right track. Is he going to come in and and absolutely turn it all around overnight. No, but he is going to be the best option that they could have gotten for sure. I mean, I don't know who else I would choose other than him.
So let's dig into a couple of things here.
First, I wanted to get your thoughts on Craig, as Craig has been, uh you know, given the door and relieved of his duties after just you know, almost almost five years, just under four years, six years on his deal. So Craig walks away with a little change. He's gonna he's got a five million dollar parachute. So of course he does not have to take a job at Maverick anytime soon.
He'll be fine for a minute.
Why do you think this ultimately with Craig did not work? Now, I know you're down south. So did you have a chance to hear Josh Grant on my show by chance?
Yes? Yes, Okay, several people sent that to me.
Okay, so give me, give me, give me your thought that.
Bright Oh, Josh is a battling idiot. He doesn't know what he's talking about. I'm just kidding. I assume he's listening. Josh, Josh is a good friend. No, there was. There was definitely some key spots to what he was talking about with with Craig, and Josh has a great pulse on the program. By the way, Josh dated my oldest sister, Expand, so he came to our house picked her up. We all thought he was the greatest thing in the world because he was the superstar of Utah. So the so
Josh and his brothers, we all go way back. Listen, Craig had an awesome this is what's hard. He has that awesome season at Utah State, but he also had, you know, one of the best shot blockers in the country. He had Sam Merrill. I think for a minute with Craig a great coach. He was a fine coach. He was a good man, someone I would have my son played for. Worked hard, but but you know, you got to have players, and I think just at the end of the day, you got to get the right players.
And I remember hearing I Josh talked a lot about getting the best players in Utah and kind of that recipe like what we had in his air in my air, well, I agree with that to a degree, like, look, that's going to win you whack championships in Mount West Championships. That's not winning you a Big twelve championship. Alex Jenson's got to go out and get players. And we all know to get players in today's world is not about selling the coach and the opportunity of Salt Lake City.
It's freaking changing money. Let's go. You gotta get some money. You gotta simnil donors in there. You freaking think the number one player in the country is going to just go down and PLoP into provo. No, you got to get money. Now. We got to get a couple of big time players, one or two, kind of like we did with Andre Miller, Mike Doliak, and then you fill in some in state guys, the Britton Johnsons, Jeff Johnson's, the Josh Grants, Alex Jensen's, and then you have a
coach that's got a brilliant mind like Majeris did. Alex Jenson's is that coach. And now we're talking. Now we're rocking and rolling, But think about it. To get an Andre Miller or a Mike dol Or to keep those two guys like say, you know they made their names here, right, and then you keep them for year two, year three, in today's world. Yeah, you're gonna have to pay up. Otherwise Andre would have transferred to Texas and Mike would have transferred to Oregon and they both would have made
a million dollars. So let's just not kid ourselves. The name of the game is someone's gonna have to like donate some money or there's gonna have to be a big pay where you get one or two players, and then Alex will get some good Utah guys and he'll take care of the rest with his brilliant coaching and his preparation and his exes and O's and is his ability to find guys around him to go out and recruit the right people like like mcjeri's got Jutty and
Donnie to get to get the players. So that's kind of its kind of my mind, that's kind of what I'm thinking. I mean, Josh kind of said that. But other than I think Josh mentioned that he would rely heavily on getting the in state guys, and I think they're going to be our second tier guys we need to get.
So a couple of things.
First of all, when it comes to and I was paraphrasing you about the past couple of weeks, because I can remember oftentimes you sharing stories about coach Majeris ripping into this player or that player, or you quite frankly, but never really did with Alex. Am I remembering that correctly, and then attendant to that tell us anecdotally some of the things that Rick used to share about Alex Jensen. He's on the record saying that Alex was one of
the smartest players he ever coached. But I seem to remember oftentimes, Britt you sharing a lot of stories about that relationship. And obviously Alex went on to coach with Rick before Rick passed away, So I wanted to get your thoughts on that.
Yeah, I specifically remember Alex spends like on that final four run during the year, especially in the tournament, grabbing my jersey, screaming in my face, the right spots to be on the floor, the right way to position myself, the way to play somebody. I remember him behind me screaming like force some left force, the right timeouts. We'd walk out of the timeouts, he'd come over and grab me,
Andre everybody and explain things. He was a coach from you know, he probably started having a coaching mentality was five years old. He just he was a player's coach and he knew how to win. I mean, listen, coach mcjaris did all the preparation stuff, right, he was. He was the ultimate preparation. Get us all in the hotel ballroom. He had charts on the walls of every single player their tendencies. He had his assistant coaches doing that, and then coach would do a really good job of, you know,
laying it out, sort of teaching it to us. But the execution of it all came from Alex. He was the one, and Drew Hansen as well. You know, we just had smart players on our team, but Alex was the leader of that. I look at that and kind of like football term Spence, like that that smart quarterback that can become a head coach one day, right, I mean, your energetic, raw rack kind of dufices like me on
the court were not born to be coaches. Right. It's like Mike Singletary who tried to coach the forty nine ers. You look at the guy, he would smash anybody in front of him, but extras and o's and coaches he didn't exactly work well. Alex just was was thinking like a coach as a player, and then he got his chance to coach, you know, in the in the G League. He's an assistant coach for Saint Louis. He's an assistant coach
at the Jazz. He developed Rudy Gobert. He taught Rudy Gobert the game, and and and then sometimes Spence, it's just when you're sitting down and having conversations with someone and you're you're listening the way that the game kind of plays out in their mind, and you're like, holy crap,
that's something that I would have never thought of. You know, like if I'm playing this team, I would pick up their point guard with my six nine guy who's athletic, just to disrupt the point guard in his fast break play or something like that. Alex would just say things about games and situations, and you're like, my gosh, that's actually really smart. So along with what he learned from Rick and preparing for games, that just his kind of
brilliant extra notice. He's he's going to be phenomenal, I think for Utah.
So your points about the collective are very well taken. And I said this a couple of times over the past few weeks as the search was kind of going on, whether it's Alex, whether it's Richard Patino, whether you resurrect Rick macjeris, whoever it is, is going to ask Mark Harland and Taylor Randall simply the same question. Where are we at economically? What is the financial infrastructure of this program?
Can I keep up with not just the schools in the Big twelve, but every school across America, not the least of which Britt is the school about forty miles down south that this year has two seven figure players on their roster and next year is paying aj Debants is seven mil for five months of basketball. So as you talk to you know, your former teammates and other people connected to the program, what is I guess the way I'll ask you, Britt is what's the confidence level
they're right now? The Crimson Collective or whatever UTAH is going to utilize for the economic health of the program is where it needs to be to compete, because it doesn't matter how good your coach is, Like, there's no such thing as a great coach that did not have great players. You have to have talents, and I don't think Craig had enough talent quite frankly, but that's a
different topic. There is there optimism and confidence in the alumni base that this school is where it needs to be to support its basketball program financially.
Yeah, No, it's a great it's a great question. I don't know. I don't know numbers on the budget, but and I just know that there needs to be, obviously, something brought to the table to give Alex something to work with, because you're absolutely right, Alex can be as good of a coach as we possibly can get. He is, but you know, but the but the players got to
be able to utilize the coaching or be talented. And it's it's like it's like I've always said, either you or somebody I said, you can give Stevie Wonder a corvette, doesn't mean he can drive it. Right, So you can give Alex Jensen and all of his amazing coaching to a bunch of crappy players, doesn't mean they're gonna be able to utilize it. You got to get good players. And I don't think he needs I don't think Alex needs six, seven, eight phenomenal players. I think he needs
two to three. And honestly, that's what Majerius did. That was his and that was his. Like I said earlier, Zambo, he had three NBA guys, maybe a fourth in me who dipped his toes in the NBA waters, and a fifth with Alex himself a little bit, but you get three just absolute studs. And we've got to find a way. The university has to find a way to give Alex,
you know, a budget to do that. And I think again, you know, everyone can say they're a good coach, but there really are just some that get the game at an intelligent level. I apologize I keep using football terminology, but there's just some of those special coaches out there right that you see that know how to take whatever roster they have a Nick Saban right and turn it into a championship caliber team because it's not the Texas.
And though that, it's culture as well, and you you create a culture that's like when you come into this practice, no one's better than the other person. Everyone treats each other the same, everyone works just as hard as the other person. You know, I'll never forget. I think it was you and I were either questioning or asking questions to coach Papovich or we were listening to David Locke asking him questions, and Papovich said something that I'll never forget.
He said, I can yell at Tim Duncan the same way I can yell at a rookie. And that's culture that he created there at the Spurs that made them such a winning franchise forever, and Matteis created that right, winning coaches create that, That's what Alex will be able
to create. So again, three to if you can get four yeah studs, but the rest of them, I think he'll be able to recruit players from Utah or the Mountain West area and just make up for what he doesn't have in a depth of seven players with really good coaching with team basketball, you know. So I hope Spans and I believe that they're capable of doing it, that they can come up with a budget to take
care of, you know, some of those big stars. It might not happen next year, right, but I think if you give Alex a chance to prove himself and he brings in some awesome assistance that can go out there and find the right players, I think it's doable.
All right, let me move in this direction, because you know, I can remember talking with you and some other alums as the Larry Kroscoviac era was kind of unfolding, and it felt like there were I don't want to speak for you, so I'm just gonna ask the questions and give you the space. It felt like there were maybe some alums that didn't feel like Larry was embracing you know,
that element of what Utah basketball is. I don't fully recall, but I'm bringing it up because then I'm gonna play Devil's advocate here a little bit, britt and then again, I'm just gonna lay back and give you the space. Because when I add josh On, he referenced that a lot of alums attempted to contact Craig during the four years and he wasn't necessarily amenable to those connections. Paraphrasing a bit. You can go listen to the Josh Grant
interview up on our podcast page. And look, while I look as much as anybody I respect and appreciate the history of Utah basketball and guys like you and that team that was around when I was in school with you as your peer, I don't know that it really is the job of the head coach to answer every alumni phone call when you have a job to do. So to be clear, I think there is a role for past utes, certainly. I mean now that Alex is
the coach, I'm sure it will change. But what's fair to say about what portion of the job description says that that's something that you need to do And how do you balance that line, Britt between appeasing the alums and also doing your job.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, it's a good question. Every I feel like every alumni former player feels like they're not getting treated like good enough. I mean, I remember I was mentored by some dude in State when I was in the D League, and he was complaining to me the NC State wasn't treating him good enough. And yet he and I sat on the front row of an NC State North Carolina basketball game, and I'm looking around, like, what are you
complaining about? You know, I've heard BYU football players, you know, complain that they're not I kind of feel like that it's just something we all like, if we're not getting all the gear we want and not being treated with like front row tickets, we all just bitch and complain. I think it's kind of just in our DNA. So, I mean, Josh might be right about some stuff, but every time I called Craig, he was nice, invited me
to practice, had me speak to the team. But I'm a real likable guy and so people really liked having me around. Something difference there. And Josh I'm like, he you know, I don't know if i'd invite him to the dinner table. No, I'm kidding. If Josh is listening, he's gonna hate my guts listen. I just think everyone kind of gets that that fill and that mentality like I should be being treated better and who knows, right.
Maybe maybe for Craig because the team wasn't doing that great, it was hard for him to have some of the former superstars like Josh Grant around. Maybe for him and his staff, it just felt like almost like they were letting us down. So it's like, what do you think they're gonna do? Call us up and invite us over for breakfast every morning? Probably not, you know. I mean, look,
winning solves everything. It even solves like all this former alumni guys boohoone that we're not getting good enough treatment if the if the program is winning, the doors are open and everyone they want everyone to practice. They want everyone a part of it, But that would just be My guess is that Craig was probably not feeling like all that great and and and you know, Josh, I know, has a good a good relationship with Alex, and so maybe they're maybe he'll be inviting Josh in every once
in a while into practice. I don't know what he wants, but Alex is gonna bring his own team, his own, you know, his own coaching staff that he wants. I keep hearing rumor Spence that he might get Andre Miller.
I think it would be a smart move to do that, But I don't know right until you're like in that coaching world and you're making all those daily decisions and phone calls and you're in the trenches the bus trips, the plane trips, the hotel trips, and you're around the personalities you know that are going to help you win. Who knows, right, So I actually have no idea who Alex is going to bring on board. I mean, I've had people texting me tell outs to bring you in.
I'm like, yeah, I've been working for General Motors for the last nine years. In the car world, He's going to bring me in, what the hell am I going to tell all these players your tires look like they they have bad tread on them. Like, I'm like, people are so funny, you should call you to be an assistant. I'm like, good, hell, no, he's not going to call me to be an assistant if I'm going to go cheer him on.
You know, would you be interested? For real?
Would you be interested in being an assistant coach for Alex?
No? I would be flattered if he asked me, But no, I would not be interested. I just want him to do well. I want the university and I just want to quit. I want to keep on complaining as a former player that I'm not getting enough gear.
And look, I don't mean to be disrespectful, right, Like, by the way, can you imagine? And I told Josh this when we joined the show for our younger youth fans who didn't get to see him play. If Josh Grant was born like ten or fifteen years later, he would have been a fifteen year on BA guy.
Yeah. Probably, Yeah, I.
Know I always say that about you too. I don't mean to rub it in.
No, it's okay. You've told me that hundreds of times We've had wonderful conversations on that listen. I mean, you can sit and play the game all the time, like you know, I should have dis career. I should have that career. At the end of the day, I got to play in a national championship. I got to make
amazing friends. And now when we have barbecues, we all just sit around and make fun of coach with Jeris God rest his soul as he's dead, and we just we lough our heads off, you know what I mean, because what else is there to do other than just try to make fun of the sitch euations we were in that were actually pretty brutal. You would probably consider a lot of them straight up mental abuse. The way he coached us. He ain't coaching that way in today's world. I'll tell you that much.
But no, no, no, you can't go.
No. But we had good We had a good group of guys. Funny enough, we still have a thread, a text message thread with myself, Jeff Nick Jacobson, Trace Kane, and Chris Burgess. He's on there, but we spend most of the time just ripping on BYU because we're still mad at him for being a trader and leaving us and going down there, but we've kept him on the thread just because we feel like it's still the good thing to do, you know.
For sure, I actually wondered if they would talk to Burge about taking head coaching job. But since you brought up Burgess, let me move over here, Britt, because.
I love Burgess by the way, I think he's a trader who doesn't Yeah, he's a good first.
Yeah, everybody loves birds. There's no there's nothing not to love. If if you don't like Chris Burgess, it's a you problem, quite frankly, but let me, let me, let me discuss this dynamic. You'll be good with this because you know, I've known Alex a long time. I'm and his wife Natalie. They're great people, but you know them on a level that I don't. And Alex is what I would describe as a little bit of an introvert. I don't think that's a bad thing per se, And don't mistake his
quiet nature for anything other than him being introspective. But is he going, Britt, to have to come out of the show a little bit? And you know a lot of guys that are a little bit quiet and a little bit dry. Are the funniest guys behind the scenes with loud and funny personalities. They just don't like to
be front facing to the public. So if we take away the dynamic of Alex as a coach and a player developmental mind, which he's obviously elite at, Alex the person, what does that look like on the recruiting trail, you.
Know what, he'll probably have to adjust, right, just like all of us when we go into some kind of a new situation. This is his first head coaching job as the face of the program. But Alex actually, yeah, he's a funny, witty guy. You know. He and I are a lot of the same similarities and movies. We
joke about the same stuff. But but as far as like, you know, just going in and sitting down in a living room and kind of brightening the place up, I mean, that's okay, that that's not like his like exactly like like his number one strength, but his ability to probably sit and tell a parent why his coaching style and what he already knows about the player and what they need to get better at and how he'll help them get to the NBA or how get he'll help them
have the best career possible will probably be how he'll close deals and so and win, you know what I mean, that's that's going to be his strength. Will he probably find himself needing to to I don't know, get a little more enthusiastic. Maybe, I don't know. I mean, for heaven's sakes, Majeris came in my living room and told me I looked like an age victim right to my face. To my parents. I still sign and I still signed
to go play with the guy. So I did it because they kept saying I would be the next Van Horn or you know universe. Utah is the place to put people into the NBA, so you know, yeah, thanks coach for the wonderful compliment. Where do I sign? Yeah? Kind of weird, right, but I still went. So Again, that was a different era than the era today, So I I will adjust, He'll he'll figure it out. He's actually a pretty fun guy to be around, so I'm
not I'm not worried about that. And he's going to get some fun some some probably pretty dynamic assistant coaches. I mean, that's where I would actually love I if I think about being an assistant coach fence, I would have a lot of fun going to people's living rooms and selling their kid on why they they would thrive and have a phenomenal experience in Salt Lake in Utah, being around you know, incredible people there, building a network there.
It's a strong economy. So if they want to try to have a business mindset after basketball, there's opportunity there. That's where I would have fun. But I'm too locked into a career right now where I don't want to leave, and and I'm not about to pull a Josh Grant and go beg Alex to hire me on radio. You know what I mean. I'm just kidding. He didn't do that, but it kind of felt like that.
Wow, Wow, Britton Johnson coming off the top rope, You're gonna get a text for you.
You heard the interview he was be was pretty much making it sound like he and Jimmy Soto should be hired. Thought it was funny. Good for him, man, britt I can probably would be helpful.
I conducted the interview. I didn't hear it. I was the one who interviewed him.
That's right. See, I didn't put those I didn't put two and two together.
You heard the interviews, says, Hey, I.
Thought it was those bleep those bleepy you know what's down the street on the other station.
I don't know what you're talking about. You know, you have to you have to pull ratings to exist in this market. Only one afternoon drive show does.
So, the ones, the ones that freaking fired me because I forgot the general managers meeting those guys.
Yeah, I don't. Again, it does not strike in a chord.
I don't know what you're talking about, you know, Lord Voldemart stuff over on this program. You know, I appreciate how self deprecating you are. I honestly think you'd be a phenomenal assistant coach. I really believe that to be true. I know that you're locked in and you've got a good career, and you guys are doing, you know, doing
well down South and all that. But I I always tried to build up your like I was the doc Rivers to the Britton Johnson on the radio right, like I was trying to build up your confidence and remind you that you are an NBA player, you did have a great career, and you were again just a few years too late with how the modern day game is played, you would have played in the pros for for the NBA in you know, for more than a decade. Britt, I appreciate the self deprecated. Here's the deal. A guy
built like you needs the confidence I have. The guy with the confidence that I have need to build like yours. If if there was some way to merge our strengths, it would it would be we'd be the white lebron together as what we would be.
Who wait, wait, whose space would we take mine? Dude?
Come on, come on, dude, come on.
Don't be saying did you look like Bradley Cooper? And I look like.
Stop it. See, I appreciate you're a handsome guy.
Look Lindsay, Lindsay's at ten, she's not marrying some goob, all right, take that.
As right, Like she doesn't. So it's like, man, I ain't gonna lie.
Lindza is the best. Yeah, he's great. This is bringing this is bringing back good memories. So before I see but that's okay, Oh.
Good man, before I set you loose, you've kind of alluded to it.
The rumors are andre as the lead assistant.
Now Andrea is coaching in the G League, and look, I obviously as a gen X or somebody who grew up in the nineties believes that the instant credibility and cashier you have when you walk into a gym with Andre Miller on your bench is too good to pass up. I don't know if the younger generation believes that. But before I set you loose, what would you have to say to our listeners about the type of assistant that Andre would make if Alex goes in that direction and Andre takes the job.
Oh man, I My interactions with Andrea are always like surprising because he was quiet, but he's one of those guys that when you just get him talking and you get him kind of loosened up a little bit, he starts to like really tell you, like just how experienced he is in life. I mean, because he grew up in one of the poorest areas of the country in Compton, California, but grew up with a phenomenal mom that put education really,
really high as a priority. And then you take a black kid from Compton who absolutely thrived in Salt Lake, Utah, right, and then he goes and has a nineteen year NBA career. Now he's coaching. I was with him when he learned a water ski in Lake Powell. He's one of these guys that he's always he's always absorbing information and trying to learn as much as possible, and you just appreciate
that about him. He's easy to be around, he's fun to be around, and he makes you a better He's going to make you a better player if you play with him. But I'm almost positive as a coach, he's going to be able to teach people. You know what he went through, He's gonna be able to teach that and help them the game, make themselves a better player, whether that's on the court, whether that's making better decisions in life. Andre Andre coming from probably not the greatest influences,
you know, in his childhood. I'm not talking about his parents or his family, but you know some of the trouble that you can get in in an area like that. Growing up, he became an incredible human being and made a ton for himself, not only just in basketball, but he's he's quite the business mind as well. I know he and our buddy Nick Jacobson do some businesses together.
But then you don't just get handed a head coaching job in the G League in today's world, unless you know you're a good coach, unless you show that you can lead a team. I think he would be phenomenal Spins. I don't know how you you wouldn't want to take him. That ultimately is up to Alex Jansen. I know that there's some other candidates out there. I know that Alex is still close with Donnie Daniels, and Donny Daniels's son is coaching in the college ranks right now. He's a
phenomenal coach. And then Alex probably has a list of guys that he's passed through in his NBA career and his time at Saint Louis that we don't even know about that he could bring in. That would be awesome. So yeah, Andre to me, Phil's you know, sounds like a no brainer. But but I'm going to trust whatever Alex Jensen does.
You know what, do you have time for one more because you just jarred by mind you have time for one more question?
Hey, I mean your listeners are like just listening with all yours right now, like people have pulled over on the side of the road to keep this coach. Let's go.
Now, that's what we do that you and I it's what we do, all right, So one more questionnaire because you just you just jarred something you played in the D League, which is now the G League. And Richard Smith you know Smithy, he's now a consistent guest on the show. He did really good job of kind of laying everything out last week about how hard it is
to coach in the G League. Because whether you're a player, whether you're a coach, whether you're a front office exec or a broadcast or whatever, you don't want to be there, you are there as a means to an end, as a conduit to the big leagues. So, John, what does that say about Alex that in a difficult, challenging coaching spot he won a G League title and won G League Coach of the Year.
What does that say?
Well, listen, it says it's enormous because everyone is like a wild dog going after you know, a mill that it hasn't had for like twenty days. Everyone's hungry, you know players. It was funny because you know, when I was in the G League, in my mind, I'm like, Okay, this isn't as hard as the NBA, but it was harder than the NBA. In a lot of ways to spence. You and I said, and watched NBA GEPs. Guys don't
play defense the first three quarters. There was a night when I guarded Kevin Garnett and I was like, oh my gosh, like he doesn't seem like he cares that he's guarding me. I kind of just thought it because he couldn't care less because he didn't know who I was. But he's playing eighty two games and they start to kind of sager. They start to sort of, you know, drag a little bit in the middle of the season,
and then they save it for the fourth quarter. Where in the G League, D League, the minor leagues, from the moment the ball goes up, it's one hundred miles per hour. Everyone's trying to get out of there. Every coach is coaching as intense as possible. The referees are dialed in, the front office, like you said, is dialed in. So the intensity of it was insane because everyone wanted out of there. So yes, for him to win in
an environment like that. Look, it wasn't like the NCAA tournament, but there was a physicality, physicality and an aggressive and aggressive kind of manner on the floor that reminded me of like the NCAA tournament, because again it was like every man for himself, but everyone trying to just absolutely go as hard as possible because you looked up the stand and it was full of NBA scouts, and if it wasn't full of the scouts, you knew every game your agent was trying to get the best game possible
to send it to the mixed team. So I think it's a It's remarkable that Alex won a championship in that league because he was coaching in a very intense environment. So yeah, I think that's huge. I'm glad you brought that up.
Well all right, by guy, Thanks so much for the time today. We miss you up this way, but I know you're doing well, so nothing but love and respect for you. And of course Lindsay and all the kids. How's my girl Goldie?
Is she hanging in there?
She's good man, She's a little gangster. I love it, a footy little girl. And then Houston gets back in five and a half months. Wow, just out there trying to survive in the jungles of Africa. So he's doing good.
Good man, great to hear well. Loved everybody. Thanks for the time and let's shot soon. Okay, all right, bron Britten Johnson, one of the best to ever do it at the University of Utah. Good buddies with Alex Jensen. Some good inside there from Britt