Inside The Lockers

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Hawke and I always chop it up talking about all things sports till all hours of the morning and I said, you know Hawke, why don't we just do it over the airwaves? So good morning and excited to have you here with me.

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Excited to be here, Jerry. All the sports and everything we talk about all the time on our own, why not do it over the airwaves?

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Well, the only thing is we can't argue loud because there are mic limits, but we can chop it up and we can get animated about it. One of the things that's most exciting for us is we're both Hoopers. I played for Hofstra and as mentioned, David played for Temple. And coming out of last night, we had the NBA Finals game five. And I think right away, you and I always had had a difference on how the season was gonna play out. You were pretty much locked into the Lakers. I was locked into Phoenix. And then moving forward, the Lakers did wind up with a lot of injuries So I'll give them a little bit of a pass, but I think even healthy They were not the best team this year, but Phoenix after jumping out to that 2-0 lead

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I think Milwaukee's figured some things out now you did pick the Suns I got to give you that when I was on the link the Lakers bandwagon

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But and you and galaxy shout out galaxy wherever you are right now I got galaxy galaxy watches Lakers go down and for all you football fans, you'll start hearing the Cowboys chirp. Pretty, you know, Galaxy will be all, and he'll be joining us too from time to time. But what are you shocked about most in terms of the adjustment that Milwaukee has made?

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Well, it just seemed like the Suns were, like you said, jumped out to that 2-0 lead. It just looked like that they were, that they were ready, you know, CP3 to get that championship, Devin Booker to be coming to his own as a superstar in that league.

0:01:44
I think also part of it was, to your point, there was some momentum from Phoenix. They just did not have the tough path that Milwaukee had. Milwaukee was coming out of all of these, you know, hard-fought series and then, people don't even talk about it anymore, but Giannis may have not even played in this series, he was coming with an injury and now look what he's doing.

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Exactly.

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It wasn't really expected, I'm happy about it because I didn't want to see a sweep.

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Exactly. Not only the sweep, the one thing I never want to see, especially in a championship contest, whether it's basketball or baseball, you never want something to be decided because somebody's not there. You never want to see a matchup where...

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You want everybody to be at their full strength.

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Right, full strength. And the funny thing is, talking about the Lakers, a lot of people want to throw asterisks all over the Lakers' championship from last year, saying that they didn't win it. But I'm not about that. As long as the setting is fair for everybody, it's fair. And everyone played in the bubble, so the Lakers have that championship. And it looks like Milwaukee may have theirs, the first time since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar days. What do you think? Do you think Milwaukee can close it out in game six in a couple days? For some reason I think it's going seven. Well, Monty Williams, in his press conference, he basically said the same thing. It's whatever it takes, all hands on deck.

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Right. It depends on the mentality of the players. But I feel like the Suns know that it's win or go home. And Milwaukee, knowing that they have another chance, sometimes you're a little lax, you don't attack the game the same But if they have the same mentality going into it like they for them is when to go home Then that'll be we just want to see some good basketball and we're saying it so far. Well, we're seeing it

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And that's the thing I mean the brand of basketball that this finals has brought and we're gonna talk about that later with one of our Surprise guests, but it has been more traditional. I mean, Hawk is a little younger than me, but basically we grew up in that same era of inside basketball. The penetration game, the big man was very relevant when we were playing hoop in college. Today's game is an aerial show. Everything's from outside the arc, but this particular finals has kind of a little bit of a return because you have a traditional center in DeAndre Ayton with Phoenix and then the Greek freak. And he's anything but traditional, but certainly doing his damage from inside the lane. As a matter of fact, one of the things I always found was kind of funny watching him play when Reggie Miller, a notorious three-point sniper, is announcing, whenever Giannis shoots a three, you could just hear, you know, if a person's facial expressions could make a sound on microphone you just you hear Reggie Miller cringe like no sir No, you're honest just you know get out of that. You know get out of that, but

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Remember Giannis came into the league Shooting the three very well, and then he balked up a little bit, and I feel like when he balked up Lost some of that flexibility on his stroke when you when you go into the weight room and everything if you're not shooting as much You should shoot more afterwards to so your body can adjust to it But nobody wants to see you on the shoot the three because he's so dominant and so athletic It feels like you he's settling and taking letting the defense off the hook when he shoots that three to me You know what? He reminds me of I noticed might be a crazy analogy

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But I believe he's like a Dirk Nowitzki on steroids and I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you why because Dirk had the three-point shot, but Dirk had all the inside moves and he was basically able to do a lot of it. Giannis takes that to the next level with his athleticism, but he's shooting all those 15-inch shots. He's a great foul shooter and everything kind of runs through him. So at the end of the day, he's just like another level of a Dirk Nowitzki, but all of those kind of elements that that championship Mavericks team had, it just reminds me of that championship because you had Jason Terry, you had the guard play, you had Jason Kidd. You just had, and that's what you have I think with Drew Holiday and Chris Middleton. You know, they're not just launching. They're not just coming up launching. They're complimenting and I don't know that they're going to come back. I have to say I never want to go back on my predictions but it just looks like, you know, after Phoenix jumped out and there was a couple of adjustments from Milwaukee. I'll tell you what a thin line coaching is. Budenholzer was said to be basically fired if they didn't get by the nets. That story was out. That was not a rumor. That was a leak. That was completely out there and here he is probably going to get a contract extension if they win it. So he literally went from, and you know what it reminds me of and again my New York roots this is very similar to Tom Coughlin who was basically being told he would not be invited back if the Giants didn't make a deep run in the playoffs then winds up winning the Super Bowl gets signed to an extension then winds up winning another Super Bowl before eventually actually getting fired from the Giants so it is such a thin line in the coaching world but to your point about good basketball that's what I want to see. I want to see good sports. And for those of you just joining us, just a reminder, this is our first show, Inside the Lockers with JC and D-Hawk. It's every Sunday from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. right here on Public Radio, KUNV 91.5. We broadcast from the campus of UNLV and we're going to be taking call-ins. We'll be putting out that number. We're going to have guests. The theme of our show, folks, is for us to speak with a person from an organization on game day. So as football season falls upon us, you may have the Raiders against the Bills. You may have the Dolphins against the Patriots. It doesn't matter what part of the country. And we'll actually be speaking with a player several hours before they're about to go take the field. So very exciting to get that access and a lot of that's provided from our company which David Hawkins is we're going to tell his story with our company but you know the B1 patch has just really opened up a tremendous outlet to all these athletes who wear our product when they perform and we're very excited to get them engaged in our show. Let's get to that part of it. Our friendship started actually the Big For those of you who don't know Ice Cube, you can't really call him a famous rapper anymore because this man's taking on the word of mogul. He's making movies, he's producing movies, he's writing. I mean of course he owns the big three so at the end of the day shout out to you know those great men that have a vision that not only explore their dreams But then expand upon them and it goes on and on right Jay-z P Diddy all of these men and women too, right? I mean Megan thee Stallion Queen Latifah the list just goes on and on of all these Artists that did not stop and pigeonhole themselves into music only they've actually taken themselves Out as entrepreneurs and you know, it's just great to see because it just inspires every aspect of our youth that you don't have to just limit yourself. You can expand out. So Ice Cube started a three-on-three basketball league, for those of you who don't know, about four years ago. And the premise of that league, I think, has changed from where it is now. But it started where, as people around 37, 38, 39 were going to start leaving their NBA careers but still had some juice left, the Paul Pierce's of the world, Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, these very, very elite marketable players might find some fun playing at that high level competition, Amari Stoudemire in the big three. I think what wound up happening is they were not able to secure those players, but the one thing they did do is they did secure some very legendary coaches. You have Gary Payton still there, Dr. J, of course Rick Barry, Rick Mahorn who potentially could be our mystery guest. We will see how that plays out, but it's a league that is founded upon the game that we all grew up with playing in the playground, that's three-on-three basketball. And you actually were not formally a part of it, you came in on the draft or on a secondary

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part of it. I came in as a reserve for Three's Company, that team, the original league had Kenya Martin, Allen Iverson as the captains, Jermaine O'Neal, Corey McGetty, and Mike Bibby. And it was just a great opportunity for the fans to see some of their favorite players after they retire from the NBA. You know, sometimes you go on the broadcast, and you go on the TV, do other things. But sometimes you're out of sight, out of mind.

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Still do what they love to do.

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You love the game, but the change in the people that love you and love watching you play are still there. So it was a great opportunity, like you said, just intuitive and just how innovative that idea was.

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And Cube did a great job of promoting it. I mean, again, to his credit, he, where he could, would do a performance. He would come and do a performance because he knew he was a draw. I mean, again, his career was as strong as ever. You know, he's making movies straight out of Compton. Of course, the Friday series is incredible. He's still making records, of course You know even his the songs that we all know and love he was going on tour So when he would pull up and say hey listen, you know, there's gonna be games tomorrow on Saturday But I'm gonna do a little show for y'all on Friday and he was able to generate that Enthusiasm so you actually to tell our story a little bit you actually were reserved. We had Bonzi Wells Who was gonna wear our patch the first game because he was known to Pepper Johnson who's a part of our company Shout out pep in Florida. Hopefully listening right now five times football champion and Bonzi was gonna be down that particular game wasn't gonna play and I think he's the one who came to you, right? Wasn't it Bonzi who came to you? Yeah Bonsie came to me it was like, hey man uh try these out. You don't even know what it is just put on a patch. Just and I just I mean Bonsie I know he

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wasn't going to give me anything to harm, harmful anything and um and he had I noticed he had his custom patch had Bonsie on it the one he gave me just had B1 there. Right. So I remember wearing that patch and this is my first game in the big three as the draftee. The year before when I came on as reserve, you know, I didn't play that much, but I got a little taste of the big three was all about. Right. Came back and got drafted and got to play for legendary coach Dr. J, which was very special to me being from Temple University in Philadelphia. Absolutely. I remember getting out there and we had some success. I played well and it was just a great feeling.

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It was great for us too because the funny thing is a lot of people didn't know who you were as much as they knew the other players and all of a sudden you're rising up. You didn't just play well, you played exceptionally well. Thank you, JC. From a company standpoint, we were like, it's not him, it's the patch.

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Of course.

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You know, marketing 101, you know, but let's talk about that for a second because that's pretty exciting. So for those of you who don't know, David did have, you know, some short time with the Rockets. Of course, was very short, but still, listen, you know, if you've ever done rock climbing, you know, the wall climbing at a mall or something like that, you know, Hawk, you just get to the top and ring the bell. It counts. A lot of people don't make that climb for whatever the reason. Maybe it's the height or whatever it is, but ringing the bell, that counts. So you did do it. There is evidence out there on the Internet, ladies and gentlemen. You will see David Hawkins in a Houston Rockets jersey somewhere. It does exist. In the deep, dark web of Google. Exactly, but in all seriousness, you did play for one of the greatest coaches in the history of basketball in Coach Chaney at Temple. You have just a tremendous basketball background because you did actually go play overseas and win some championships overseas, which is professional basketball. I think when people hear the word professional basketball in this country, they just gravitate toward the NBA, but we're going to talk about the growth of foreign basketball because look what's happening with Team USA. They're struggling. They're struggling to win games.

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Took a couple of losses and people are kind of shocked by that, but the international game has been growing for years and they shouldn't be too shocked. The possible, probable MVP of this finals is a Greek National Team.

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He will be a foreign national. Well, the funny thing is that you're exactly right.

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The MVP of the league.

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You shouldn't be shocked because again, you're talking about Serbia right now is ranked as the top 3 on 3 basketball team. Of course, Djokic was the MVP this year. If you go through just the last several years, Ginobili was a tremendous contributor. Look what Doncic is doing for Dallas. Tony Parker of course, it's just littered with Tony Kukoc all the way back with the Bulls. So the international game has been strong. I think a lot of people just lock in on the dream team that just went and blew everybody out so there's a false sense of our superiority but it is not like that anymore. But when you come and play, and the funny thing is I actually coached Dr. Jay's son at a basketball camp many, many years ago. So I actually was a fan of Dr. Jay and how surreal it was to be coaching his son. And then he had walked up to me, one of the more famous stories is, you know, hothead Sicilian, Italian, East Coast, we speak our peace. And a lot of people at that camp at Villanova were babying his son a little bit because it was Doc's son and nobody wanted to kind of tell him right from wrong. Like anything else, people say, he's spoiled. I don't know that any 9, 10, 11-year-old is spoiled. I just think they're 9, 10, and 11. I just think they're kids. Because maybe they're the son of a superstar, son of a millionaire, they try and label him or say something negative when he's just being a kid. Like anything else, every child needs a little guidance. So he actually was being given quite a long rope, so to speak, to do what he wanted to do and I kind of pulled the reins in a little bit and said, hey listen, we have practice at 4 o'clock, you got to be here and if you don't show up, you won't play in the scrimmage. Well I paid my money like everybody else, I'm the son of Dr. J, and Dr. J is just a super cool epitome of class, but at the end of the day I am 5'10". He is 6'6". So when a 6'6", you know, athlete comes up to you, and also it's a parent, any parent, there is a little bit of nervousness. And much to my surprise, he was actually complimentary that I was coaching his son rather than just giving his son a pass on everything. So we kind of had that connection. But when you first were going to play for Dr. J in the big three, had you seen or met him before? Or was this your first kind of interaction with this incredible legend?

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Well, I actually met him face to face for the first time during one of my seasons playing in Europe. Oh, a great, late great Willie Sojourner actually played with Dr. J I'm not sure what on which team but you know, they were in the NBA or were back from the ABA Maybe even the ABA. Okay, that's going old school right there so Willie Sojourner played for the team that I was playing for and That country of Rieti, Italy and he was he was there, you know coming back to work with the team and everything and he actually passed away. He had a heart attack in the car and for his memorial, Dr. J came over, him and his wife.

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Interesting. So the first time you met him, actually was in a surreal moment where he's coming to grieve his friend.

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Yeah, in Italy. And so when, funny thing, when he did draft me and we got a chance to talk and everything. Of course, with the Temple background and Coach Chaney, he remembered that meeting me then. So and then it started from there. But let's get him back to the patch, play well, and that's

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where you can do it. That's a company man, folks. He keeps it on topic. He comes right back to the patch.

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But getting back to how our relationship started because you're not gonna think that people don't know how much Time we spend with each other or either over the phone through sharks and also all the traveling We had to do with the company well

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The only the funny part is you did mention Italy one of the first connections we had is of course I'm Italian and you played for predominantly for Italy and Maybe even spoke a little more Italian than I did at the time.

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I said, wait a second.

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I was in Europe and Italy and we spoke and I was...

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You're dropping a little Italian on me. And the other thing we have in common, which we're actually going to incorporate into our show, is you and I have an affinity for movies and all movies of all kinds. Oh, all genres. And comedies, all genres, love it, of course. we're going to be playing a song from a sport film, and we're going to be looking for people to call in and mention what film that song appeared in, and there'll be tickets for Raiders games or Knights games or T-shirts, just paraphernalia. And that's what we're looking to do here with this show. We really want to get the fans engaged. We really want to make it an experience to get up early with us, whether you're driving out for coffee And you know the funny thing about Sunday is I always did equate Sunday with sports And it was always a little bit of guilt because being being being that Italian Sunday is the day of the Lord and You know for me. I I did you know develop quite a frequency of going to church But as I became a better athlete you know in Brooklyn if you didn't get to the park, I'm not kidding, if you didn't get to the park by 8.30 a.m. on Sunday, Hawk, you might not see the court till 2 p.m. I'm not kidding. I mean, it just was a line literally around the block. And then once you got on court, you make sure you won. And on the concrete, when I say no blood, no foul, I'm not kidding. Because when it was point game and you're looking at knocking on the court for a couple hours, you trying to get an open look was not easy when people draped all over you. I imagine, and for those of you who don't know, Hawk grew up in the D.C. area predominantly, although he did play in Philly with Temple. Was it similar? Is D.C. that kind of playground, hardcore, all day long? I know there's a lot of one-on-one on the internet. We see now

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Yeah, now it's gotten to that, but I think in any inner city images You know in the city with the playgrounds and basketball was the sport because you someone always had a basketball Oh, we said a basketball, and you didn't even need a court Then you had the crates you had to I remember Shooting on a brick wall in the basket you scored when the ball bounced off that wall a certain way. It had to hit the corner and bounce off.

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Now that's funny, Hawk, because you shot against a brick wall and I shot bricks. So there's a subtle analogy there. It brings me up to something yesterday. So if you know the movie Along Came Polly, and one of the reasons why Hawk and I continue to work together not only through the B1 company, but we're actually together on this TBT journey, which is going on right now. So again, I know we're rocking and rolling with all things basketball at the moment, and we will be talking about other sports, but I guess basketball will always be something that you and I will lean on because we just have that in our history. But the TBT, which stands for the Basketball Tournament, is an annual event that's $2 million a year. This year, it's back down to $1 million because of the pandemic. But it's a winner-take-all 64 team NCAA format where just like you would with March Madness, you know, they get the four regions together and the teams are predominantly comprised of alumni teams. So last year it was won by the Marquette alumni and you have teams in there like Bayheim's Army which is the Syracuse alumni, you know, Tubby Time which is, you know, Tubby Smith, Minnesota So you have you have all these different teams playing and we have entered our first team ever the b1 ballers Which Hawk took some GM rains and and they helped us recruit some guys and very very excited about that Have you been able to see? Any of the TBT games so far because it started on Friday Friday

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Friday I seen I never I haven't seen any games in full I just only seen a couple of the endings and the highlights and Like you said that that type of the platform and the way that it's set up is that when I go home So each game is exciting it is game. He's finished each win. Well the stakes are so high

0:23:33
I mean a million dollars That's real money because even if you have 10 people, that's still about 100k for each. I mean, you know, to play 5 weeks or 4 weeks of basketball and get $100,000, that's a whole year salary for somebody, so if not double. I mean, even a teacher right now, what are they making, $40,000, $50,000? So this is big money and we're excited not only for the publicity aspect of it, but we think we can win it. The reason why I started this conversation is yesterday we were running a practice and I wanted to demonstrate. I was talking about bricks. I did throw up a shot and it was not one of my better efforts. A hawk started to come.

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Let it rain.

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The great Phillip Seymour Hoffman, God rest his soul, another one who has left us too soon. But that great scene where they're playing two-on-two basketball in the park with Ben Stiller and he's just announcing all the basketball stuff that a normal shooter would say. Got this, make it rain, let it rain. But of course he's throwing up bricks. It's a very, very funny scene for our listeners out there. We're going to just more and more incorporate. Again, you know, Hawk, it's just you and me chopping it up, the stuff that we always spoke about and again, we are going to go into some other sports. One of the things that is relevant, but we're going to again still transition from basketball, the U.S. Olympic team has not only had a struggle with winning against the Europeans. Right now, they're struggling for healthy bodies. I mean, I heard Tatum's hurt. We look like Bradley Beal. He's gone because of COVID. Kevin Love, was it the ankle or the Achilles? He had the leg injury and he's out now. And then brought on JaVale McGee who is to me an odd selection. Again not that he's not a quality player but when you're looking to pick people up I guess

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he's not the first name that would pop to my head. It's a team made up of different talents and I feel like you know JaVale has always been that player that knows his role and he's actually won some changes to the champions. He's going to bring some shot blocking, running the floor, manning the paint a little bit and he's still spry, he's still jumping, he's still athletic.

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I think that championship pedigree always speaks volumes. Some of the things that you were just talking about earlier, that the game's Mike 0-7, I think if there's one reason why it could, it's because of a guy like Chris Paul I think a guy like Chris Paul can kind of settle people down in the locker room where I'm not sure if Milwaukee had that same dilemma again Giannis is a leader no doubt about it, but who is that veteran guy? You can't call him a veteran guy You can call him a leader because he he just speaks the same good message every time in his interviews We want to play good basketball even after yesterday's win when they were asking him what he thought he basically Wasn't even making predictions. You know he actually said you know we're going to Just continue to play good basketball and let the chips fall where they may so We're we're very very excited to see how these finals are going to play out and certainly Interested to see what happens with the Olympic team, but we have another half hour coming up at the bottom half of the hour. We're gonna tackle all other sports, but you are listening to Inside the Lockers with JC and Dee Hawke every Sunday, seven to eight a.m. right here on Public Radio, KUNV 91.5. We're broadcasting from the campus of UNLV, and we'd love to have you call into that show. We're gonna give the number in the bottom half to ask some questions. Please listen on the go by downloading the KUNV mobile app. It's either on the Android or the iPhone, you know, Hawk That's how big-time we are. We got an app ready to go and you can hear us anywhere around the country. I'm gonna be waiting We're back Hawk on inside the lockers and we've been you know, right off the top of the hour We were we were just right into basketball. And of course, we're sports and more so we're not only going to be tackling You know sports but we're going to be talking about some topics outside of sports. This is kind of a scary situation and hits home for you being from the DC area. But last night we had an interruption between the San Diego Padres and the Washington Nationals because of a shooting outside the stadium. I believe nobody passed but there were some injuries and of course a scary situation happening inside that contest.

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Yeah, I could just imagine how, you know, frightening that scene was. But apparently right outside the stadium, you know, it's a busy street. I think somebody, it was an altercation between people in two different cars and, you know, they let some shots off at each other. I think one of the injuries was actually a lady that was attending the game. She was standing outside. Thankfully, there were no fatal injuries and of course no kids or anything because a lot of kids go to these baseball games.

0:28:37
But these things happen at these live sporting events. I mean, sometimes, obviously, a natural disaster, a World Series back in the day when you had the earthquake with the Giants and the A's. And then of course I happened to be at the Super Bowl where the 49ers were playing the Baltimore Ravens and the power grid went out. Now that was just a grid situation but before it got revealed that it was a grid situation because it was a Super Bowl and because there was always that threat of somebody outside of our freedoms doing something nefarious. You didn't know what it was and it was just a fear factor. And the thing about being at a sporting contest when things like this happen, you really feel you got nowhere to run. Yeah, you feel very vulnerable. Very vulnerable. So it's a very scary situation but it looked like it was an internal incident. I heard that maybe somebody was even an employee, that kind God to your point, no fatalities. Speaking of baseball, Stephen A. Smith almost had a fatality. He almost had a career fatality. He was mentioning about Shohei Otani not being able to be the face of baseball because of the language barrier and also being an Asian American. and not only was he mistaken in that and did apologize, but this All-Star game which happened on Wednesday, the number one selling jersey was the Shohei Ohtani jersey, and not just by a small margin. 28% of all sales was Shohei Ohtani, so good to see Stephen A. be contrite and apologize and certainly shout out to Shohei for doing what he did. But speaking of stars, we spoke about we're going to get to people who are game day ready. And you know, we were speaking basketball, and we're going to reference it right now. You know, we have Rick Mahorn, who's going to be joining us. And Rick is an NBA champion with the Bad Boys, won a championship with the inaugural of the Trilogy, his very first year coaching at the big three and a lot of people don't remember that he was on staff with the Detroit Shock with his teammate Lambeer. So you know for someone that an 18-year career 13 times in the playoffs I think that speaks a lot to his influence and then of course look what he's doing outside of basketball. So Coach Mahorn are you there? Yes I am good morning. Good morning coach thank you so much for joining us and you're on Inside the Lockers here with JC and one of the Big Three alum, David Hawkins. Dee Hawkins and I were just speaking about the different aspects of this finals, different than what we've seen in the past. As a big man, are you surprised to see a lot of the interior basketball in this series as opposed to the last few years where it's mostly been an outside aerials show?

0:31:39
Well, I mean, basketball change. It goes up and down. We're accustomed to it. I'm accustomed to the physicality of the game, but it's been pretty interesting with this playoffs because when you look at a guy like Giannis Anstetokounmpo, to me, I don't consider him a wing player. I consider him a force inside because it's not like he's gifted to shoot the three ball all the time, but in the inside he's carving out space and it's difficult for the Phoenix Suns to kind of match him once they go small because he ends up playing center anyway. So the inside game is still around, it just depends on how well you utilize it for your

0:32:19
teams. And I agree with that tremendously because I think one of the aspects of the Phoenix Phoenix Suns success has been the play of DeAndre Ayton, who hasn't had as great a finals as he was having a series, but this is really two traditional big men. Of course, when we're talking about traditional big men, coach, you certainly come right to mind. One of the things I did want to ask you is, we highlighted as we were introing you, all of your success as a coach, and it's completely documented. There have been multiple MBA coaching jobs. As a matter of fact, Wes Hunsell Jr. just got another job yesterday. Has there been an interest to go into the MBA as a coach? Because again, your success in your resume is as impressive as anybody's.

0:33:05
Well, come on, JC.

0:33:06
You got to know my resume. You got to know my documentation. I was assistant coach with the Atlanta Hawks.

0:33:12
I know.

0:33:14
It didn't work out well because, you know, different philosophies for, you know, coaches. I thought once I left the NBA as far as a player, it would kind of blend in as a coach where you can add your, you know, your two cents and, you know, nobody would feel threatened in it. And then in the NBA, it's a little tricky. It's like who you know and what you know, and that's how it is in Hawk Nose when either playing or you want to coach, it's two different variables out there because you see a lot of them are being recycled. I'm so proud of Weston Jones Jr. knowing him as a kid. Also, Bernie Vickerstaff, who's at the Cleveland Cavaliers. These are two young men that I've had the pleasure of playing with their dads. And I'm just proud to see them in a position to showcase their skills. They never made it in the NBA, but they're in the NBA because of the legacy, but they're also in the NBA because they're good enough to coach.

0:34:11
I couldn't agree with you more. It's all about opportunity. I think nobody could take away from, number one, the job that Monty Williams is doing. I mean, Monty Williams has done an incredible job. And again, although he didn't make it all the way, I think he was able to show that it wasn't all LeBron James. Ty Lue did an amazing job with the Clippers. Of course, Kawhi was down and eventually got revealed. He just had the surgery, had the tear. To your point, coach, I think a lot of these men were just not given opportunities for one reason or another. I think politics is a part of every sport, but to see them getting the opportunity and then proving themselves on the biggest stage, that's very great to see. And again, now you have all these movements that are changing because for me, again, I'm 50 now and Hawk, you've seen it as a black athlete, as also someone who's even participating next week in the celebrity basketball, Breonna Taylor. This particular movement just seems sustained where people are not letting things slide. There has to be a movement toward, if there's one league I think that's still maybe dragging their feet a little bit, which is the NFL with coaching. I know that they did just announce yesterday that before every game, the adopted black national anthem will now be sung as well. I know that they did do that during the Super Bowl. going to hopefully be a sustainable push to make sure that slights in politics that are biased, I mean there's always going to be politics. I think that just exists anywhere in any neighborhood, in any culture. I'm Italian. I know that in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, if they see an Italian versus something else, they go with the Italian because I think that's just a part of culture. But where we're trying to hope it goes to is that these biases do get kind of pulled out and everybody gets a fair chance and once they get that chance. And with that coach, I think it's very cool that the Big Three is going to have games at traditional HBCUs and of course you went to Hampton and if I understand correctly you were also the first player ever drafted from a historically black college into the NBA. Is that an accurate stat? Yeah, you're correct, JC.

0:36:24
I'm the first NBA player from the Hampton Institute, which has now changed their name to a university. I guess they couldn't get the attraction of a lot of people keeping the Institute, but you're correct about the inclusion of all races, all nationalities. It's a point in time where everybody feels like they want to have a fair shake, no matter what color, what ethnic, where they're from or whatever. You know, you just want to make sure that you're productive in whatever field that you do. So the inclusion of women in the NBA, you know, I was hoping to see Becky Hammond get a job or people who play professional sports because when we look at it, all entails is sports is sports. You know, it may be a gender thing. So I just love the way that everything's moving forward. People are being accepted for who they are and not what, you know, not the color of their skin. So with that being said, coming from a historically black college, it was a lot of things that I had to learn and understand once I got in the NBA because, you know, you figure that your skill level should be enough to understand that you can play in this league and that doesn't matter what school you go to because the NBA and all sports facets are looking at everybody from high school down to even middle school age. They're so advanced now that you try to be ahead of the curve by looking at people who can play and perform at a high level in your different fields.

0:37:58
I agree with that a thousand percent. You think about pro sports. I mean, obviously, Oak, I think, Virginia Union was a D2 school,

0:38:05
right? That was our conference.

0:38:07
We called it the Old Negro League. And even in football, wasn't Walter Payton? I mean, again, Jackson was... Jackson State. Yeah, so, and that's the funny thing that I also want to say. Sports was always that great equalizer. If you had the talent, especially growing up in Brooklyn, I was fortunate enough to qualify to play on these all-star teams. The all-star teams was a collection of the Italians and blacks and we had an Asian kid and people who could just play. It was all about talent. We were all just friends. At that age, that's all you know as teammates. You don't know colors and races. All of that shouldn't matter. It shouldn't matter. That's the thing about our show, Hawk, is that we are Sports & More. The station we're on is Jazz & More. Again, you're listening to Inside the Lockers with JC and Dee Hawk. And right now also our guest, legendary NBA champion, Big 3 champion, WNBA champion, Rick Mahorn, 18-year veteran. And every Sunday from 7-8 a.m. right here on public radio, KUNV, on the campus of UNLV and that's 91.5. We'd love to, Coach, if you could just take one question, you know, part of our show. And I don't know if you know this, Coach, but this is our inaugural show and you are our very first guest ever. So this will go down in history because... I want to thank you again, Coach, for coming on. You can only have, you can only be the first one time.

0:39:35
So we're gonna try to take a call in. If you could call in 702-895-5868. If anybody has a call for coach Rick Mahone before he gets ready for his game.

0:39:49
And let's talk about the game real quick. So you know you started out coaching trilogy then you move to enemies. Now after Tiny Archibald left, and shout out to Tiny, you're now coaching the Aliens and you're going against the Bulldogs which have been predominantly a downed team but they did get their first win 1-0 and look like they've picked themselves up. What do you see for this afternoon's game over at Orleans Arena?

0:40:14
The thing that really does, when you look at the Bulldogs we always thought they were the Clippers back in the day. We were like, okay, we'll get a win. The thing that Scalabrine and Rick Bates have done is that they made sure that they can compete because you don't want to be an embarrassment in a three-on-three. And I think the physicality is totally different than what you see in the NBA. But what I love about playing against the Bullhawks today is that they have Barbosa, they have Jody Meeks, they have two very good guards that can score relentlessly when they get on and get started. So it's going to be our defense sets the tone. Hawk knows that physicality is part of it and making sure guys don't get to their sweet spots. And understand me, the three on three is a pickup game. Basically, it's a three on three pickup game when you don't have 10 people. You're out there trying to stay on the court to win. First game, the 50, I thought it was a great idea when the first, in his inception, that when Ice Cube said we're going to have three on three and we're going to have former pros that play this game. So I love it. I mean the first year I was undefeated, probably never be done again, but the way that Joe Johnson is playing with the triplets, they've been playing pretty doggone well. They came back with a vengeance to try to repeat as champions. So with that being said, it's going to be a tough game. We can't take the ball hogs lightly, because they do also have hogs who can shoot the ball. Big, big lanky guy that played in the NBA. So not worried about Scalabrine. I think he's more of the coach now, with Rick Barrett, assistant coach. But it's fun. It's been a joy. Too bad we didn't have it last year. And Hawk, I miss busting up on you. You know I like when you start talking.

0:42:02
Yeah man, I miss it too. I'll be there one of these weeks so hopefully for your sake it's not playing against you because you know I owe you.

0:42:10
Well coach, I can't thank you enough but hold on. This is actually legendary. We really were excited about the fact that we were starting this sports show on a traditional jazz station and our premise is to get somebody from game day and our first caller is Rick Barry, the coach of the Bulldogs. Oh, so you set me up, huh? No, I did not. I did not. Actually, Coach Barry and I spoke about him coming on yesterday, and we're always trying to work schedules out, but Coach Barry, are you there? I'm here. Coach, good morning. So, Rick Mahorn has been sharing with us his thoughts on today's NBA finals and Coach Barry and I talk about this all the time, that right way of playing basketball and him and I share the same frustrations. We love the talent. It's hard not to love the talent. One of the things I remember about the Warriors, D-Hawk, they did move the ball really well. People forget that with all that firepower, there was a lot of ball movement.

0:43:13
There was a lot of self-esteem.

0:43:14
Yeah, it was a very unselfish team. Played the right way. When you mix talent with people playing the right way, I think they're unstoppable. Of course, one of the guys who has always played the right way is Coach Barry, top 50 of all time. Thank you, Coach, for joining us this morning. You are going into this game against the Aliens. You're 1-0. The lineup has been retooled. Your team not only won, but you felt that they played the style that you guys need to play moving forward this year.

0:43:43
Yeah, actually, I mean that's the one thing about it is that most of the time it's all one-on-one stuff and if you can do some things and force the defense that makes decisions and you're intelligent players, you capitalize on the mistakes that the defense makes but if they don't have to make decisions then it becomes a total one-on-one game. And that's one of the things about the NBA that I don't like so much nowadays, just so much one-on-one stuff going on. But when they do move the ball, like the Warriors did during that five-year stretch when they could conceivably have won every one of those years, it was fun to watch. I think it's more fun to watch. It's more fun, I know, to play that way, to know that you're involved. So it's fun now, and it's a little bit harder to do that when you're playing three-on-three because you have a big court. It's kind of hard to do stuff trying to play health defense. You just kick it out. The guy's gonna have a wide open three. What it comes down to here is who does the best job of guarding the individuals when they do the one-on-one stuff and hope that you shoot the ball a little bit better than they do. But you got to be able to have some shooters. That was our problem over the last few years. Very inconsistent shooters. We were like the second worst team in the league shooting. You're just not going to win games if you can't put the ball in the basket. You talk about defense winning championships, but you still got to score.

0:44:54
You still got to score.

0:44:55
You still got to score. Well, listen, I mean, it's just been an incredible morning for us. This is our first show ever, and you're talking about, and again, this is not lip service. You're talking about two of the greatest. I mean, Rick Barry needs no introduction. Coach, I did want to ask you one other thing. How prideful was it, or was it just something that you knew it worked to watch your son Canyon shoot underhanded throughout his career? And shout out to Canyon Barry who's still very, very much active. Hope to see him on an NBA roster. Of course, played with the USA 3-on-3 Olympic team. When they got knocked out, it is important to note Canyon was nursing an injury. He did not play in that game. And I've spoken to Canyon and he felt, and I agree with him, that his inclusion would have made a difference. As we move to the Olympics, we will not see a USA three-on-three team. Coach, we all want to see our children just do well, first and foremost. I know that one of my sons loved basketball, my other son couldn't get him to a court with a crowbar. that have adopted and played so well and now to have Canyon mirror your shot. And not only mirror your shot, but he did very well with it. I think he had the longest consecutive streak at Florida and shot 90%. Is that something that he took up on his own or was it something that from very early on you said if you shoot it this way and perfect it, it'll do you well?

0:46:21
Well, I just basically told him that he should think about doing it. I didn't try to put any excessive pressure on him. He made the choice himself because he's a very intelligent young man with a Master's in Nuclear Engineering.

0:46:32
There you go.

0:46:33
He understands physics and everything else. All the physicists have said it's the most efficient way, and less moving parts that he could use at the free throw line. He took it upon himself to do it and has worked on it. He's been as high as 90 percent, so he's an outstanding free throw shooter. And it was extremely disappointing for him to have twisted his back late in training before going to the Olympic qualifying tournament over in Austria. And wow, I mean, so yeah, he feels really badly because they really didn't do a good job of shooting what is a two-point shot there. They only get one for a basket and two for a three-point shot. And it really hurt them, and they lost in the quarterfinal game and then they wound up losing because the other team made a bunch of twos and they didn't make twos. And Kenyon's a 40% shooter from that distance and he would have certainly helped them some. So I was just disappointed because he had a chance to become an Olympian. The one thing in my career that I didn't get an opportunity to do and it's probably my biggest disappointment in basketball other than being in the championship finals and not winning in 75, 76. So yeah, but it's great to see your kids doing stuff and maybe they'll get an opportunity and get a chance that somebody will pick them up and realize that they have a really intelligent player who doesn't have a glaring weakness but can shoot the hell out of the ball, can

0:47:49
get to the basket and knows how to play the game the right way.

0:47:51
Well, knows how to play the game and that's what we've been talking about all morning is just doing things the right way. For you listening out there who do still play athletics, coach gave you the tip of the day, less moving parts. I think the more quiet your swing in baseball, I think the more quiet your shot in basketball. I think if you could just master the mechanics and one of the guests that we're going to have on in the future is a friend of mine, Ken Griffey Jr. Probably the sweetest swing I ever seen. But gentlemen, I cannot thank you enough for getting up early with us this morning. I wish both of you tremendous success this season and certainly good luck going head-to-head today and just as someone who has admired both your professional careers and also has become friendly with both of you just the gratitude for joining us on this inaugural show there was just on the words to describe it thank you so much well there it is I mean Hawk you talk about you know kicking off our first show we have one of the top 50 players of all time in Rick Barry and one of the top players. He was nicknamed the baddest of the bad, but the only word that comes to mind when I think of Rick Mahorn isn't bad is winner. Winner right? Anywhere he's gone as a player or as a coach, that team wins and they win strong. Trilogy undefeated and I know what coach was saying. He was saying, listen, I did try the NBA with the Hawks and nobody wants to hear that tough love. It's funny because when I talked to Pepper Johnson, who's now the head coach over at IMG but who has coached in the NFL, he's another old school guy who believes in a certain philosophy of what it takes to play championship sports. Rick Barry touched upon it. He said, playing the right way. Playing the right way is a theme for all sports, not just basketball, even in baseball, taking the shore out, making the bunt, you know, football, you know, executing, getting that first down. I think what's happened in this YouTube era, Hawk, is a lot of people want to show out a little bit and that individual

0:50:10
aha moment, which definitely lights up, you know, followers and lights up likes and all that kind of stuff, doesn't necessarily,

0:50:04
And we'll talk more about that culture, but what do you think so far about our first show and where we're headed with our sports and more?

0:50:11
Well, I'm excited to see where it goes. I mean, like you said, to have Coach Barry and Coach Mahone come on, two Hall of Fame players and two Hall of Fame people. People, that's the thing, absolutely. I was able to spend some time with both of them. I know what they mean to the game, but more importantly, just how down to earth they are. You can learn from them just about life and everything. I had a chance to speak to both of them about life and not just basketball. I'm excited and I'm very happy that they came on.

0:50:46
That's just great stuff right there. We promised you inside one locker. We got both lockers. That was good. And speaking on coaches, just some local news. So Kirby Wilson, who has coached for over 20 years, regarded as one of the top running back coaches in the history of NFL and has been with the Raiders a number of years and has had an impact on Josh Jacobs running, actually announced his retirement suddenly. We don't know why. Certainly wish him all the best. We hope it's not something that is precipitating this, whether you get some news that somebody is battling something. I'm always going to be a New York Giants and a New York Rangers fan, but I definitely have adopted the Golden Knights and the Las Vegas Raiders living here now. I'm rooting for them. Plus they play in different conferences, so that's always good. I never have to sweat it out who I'm rooting for until they meet up in the championship. But we do want to wish Coach Wilson all the best and certainly he'll be missed. But we're excited that football will be kicking in soon. As we continue to roll to the next top of the hour, just to let you know out there, we are going to be always taking some calls. We're also gonna be adding music to our Show Hawk because we want to capture our affinity for movies and what will happen is we'll put a song out on the radio, it'll play out, the song will play, and then you'll be able to call in and let us know what movie that song appeared in. And there could be multiple movies that the song appeared in, any movie that you name will count, and there'll be tickets, there'll be giveaways, there'll be merchandise. If you name both the movies, you get double the prize, right? Well, I don't know if that's in the budget, Hawk. We're still looking for our morning donuts, which never arrive, by the way. I don't know if that's a budgetary thing, a logistic thing, or somebody just dropped the ball there. But again, I want to thank you for being a wingman and also a top of FYI for next week. The host will be you and Galaxy Glenn and the guest will be yours truly I will be next week in Peoria, Illinois The b1 ballers will be going head-to-head against the number one seed in the region for the TBT tournament last year's champion the Marquette Eagle Golden Eagles and the Locker room discussion will be yours truly because we'll be taking the court six o'clock Eastern on ESPN to do battle and to begin our journey, hopefully to a TBT championship by knocking off last year's champs. So there you have it, A Hawk. It's all documented, it's recorded. Show one is in the books and I got to tell you, we may have started the bar too high. You put two Hall of Famers in right in the locker room. But again, thank you so much to everybody listening to Inside the Lockers with JC and D-Hawk. It's every Sunday from 7 to 8 a.m. It's Sports and More on your station that brings you jazz and more. Public radio, KUNV 91.5. We're broadcasting live, Hawk. This is not a recording. This is not a tape. You're sitting next to me. You're starting to get the morning out of your eyes, but we're broadcasting from the campus of UNLV, listen to the show by downloading the KUNV mobile app for your campus of UNLV, listen to the show by downloading the KUNV mobile app for your Android or iPhone and we'll see you next week.