Here are the interviews or segments of interviews that will be played on air for tonight's Santa Cruz Warriors-Bakersfield Jam game in B-Town.
Casey Hill and I talk about the loss to Austin, coaching against his former boss Nate Bjorkgren (Bjorkgren was HC at Dakota and Santa Cruz while Hill was an assistant) and trying to contain a potent Bakersfield offense.
James Michael McAdoo talks about how he loves to surf, playing volleyball with his wife and trying to get to the NBA.
Nate Bjorkgren reminisces on his time in Surf City and waxes poetic on Elijah Millsap and Earl Barron, guys who are averaging double-doubles for the Jam this year.
Clink on the link text leading each of those mini-grafs to hear the interviews.
Game is coming up shortly here in Frisco so check out this interview with Legends assistant GM Travis Blakeley. Really good dude- have had a chance to talk to him every time I've come to Frisco and he's always fun to chat with.
Here's the unedited version of what will play on air. Before you get all excited, "unedited" doesn't mean this thing is laced with f-bombs or controversial remarks. All it means is that I didn't cut it down for time for radio purposes. The pregame version that will air is one question shorter (3-point shooting will be saved as an in-game soundbite).
We cover the two-game homestand against LA and Iowa, rebounding (1st in oreb% and last in dreb%), 3-point shooting, sharing the basketball and trying to contain a high-powered Legends attack that is averaging 128.5 points through two contests.
If you're a Santa Cruz fan, you'll want to knock on wood after reading these two statements -- Santa Cruz is 4-0 all-time against the Legends (3-0 in Frisco) and has never spent a day under .500 in either of their first 2-plus years. Santa Cruz is 1-1 entering tonight's contest.
No Bernard James for the Legends; he is off to China, per numerous reports.
Photo Credit: ripcityproject.com, at least that's where I found it. Don't sue me, please.
As I've done the last two years and will this year, I interview a different Santa Cruz Warrior and play it at the half of every road game (can't do it at home since it's a simulcast on YouTube, and I personally don't feel like running audio only for 5 minutes for something that is also supposed to have a video component).
This year, I'ma do best to post these interviews on Backpack Basketball, along with coaches interviews and whatnot.
Today, I sat down with 2-year NBA man Elliot Williams, now with the Santa Cruz Warriors. The former Blazer and Sixer has averages of 14.5 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists through 2 games. And, because this is my personal blog, I will not write out numbers below 10 because it's quicker that way and I'm not gonna be getting my Ralph Drusso on anytime soon.
Anyways, listen to the interview with Elliot Williams here that I've posted on SoundCloud. Since I'm too cheap to get a premium account, eventually I'll have to clear this to free up space for more interviews. Such is life. Anyways, we talk about 3-6 Mafia (he's from Memphis), him tucking his pants into his socks (I do the same thing with one of my jumpsuits -- yes, I have a jumpsuit, and it's freaking awesome) and other important matters.
I rarely remember
anything that the person I'm interviewing says. As an unskilled interviewer myself, I’m
more focused on trying to get the next words out of my mouth without sounding like
a total idiot or slipping up on my words (which, well, happens all the freaking
time. Just go and look at any one of my interviews with the Cardinal Channel.
Anytime I look good in any of those videos is because of the editing job done
behind the scenes by Bud Anderson, Hunter Armor, Anthony Benares or Mike
Johnstone. Trust me – interviewing is not my forte).
But at Summer League in Las Vegas last July, things were
different for one Q&A. The NBA D-League Select team was fresh off a win over the Denver
Nuggets late on a Wednesday night in a game in which barely anybody bothered to
stick around and watch, and I had the chance to speak with Tre Kelley, a guy
whose game I had admired from afar while watching him destroy opposing defenses
on YouTube (he probably indirectly sent the Santa Cruz Warriors to the 2013
D-League finals after his 4th quarter performance in Game 2 of a
first round series with the Austin Toros against the Bakersfield Jam; the Jam
went 4-1 against Santa Cruz that year and were the last team the Sea Dubs
needed to see in the semifinals). I was looking forward to finally get a chance to speak to the former South Carolina Gamecock.
The interview started off normal enough, but I’ll never
forget Kelley’s response when I asked him about D-League Select having a collective
chip on its shoulder playing against NBA teams in Summer League.
“They have what we want.”
There was more to the response, but that's the part that struck me right away. I don’t think there is a better five-word phrase to describe
a D-Leaguer’s mindset, be it player, coach, staffer, whoever.
They have what we
want.
You’re in the D-League because you’re chasing a dream – to play
or work in the NBA, something you’ve aspired to your whole life. There are much
better opportunities to get paid elsewhere in basketball outside of the
D-League if you’re a player; there are much better opportunities to get paid
elsewhere in life if you’re not lacing ‘em up.
But you’re in the D-League to reach that pot of gold at the
end of the rainbow, fueled by doubters or maybe your own self-doubts.
That phrase will stick with me as long as I am able-minded.
It might not translate well in the video above (which, yes, I know, has
horrible audio quality. Our budget for Summer League included our iPhone
cameras and that’s it), but I could sense the hunger in Kelley; he was seethingfor a chance to finally make it
through a training camp and stick on an NBA roster. He was ‘bout it (it hasn’t
worked out yet for Kelley, who is now playing in Italy according to RealGM, but
there's always the chance that we’ll see him back in the states at some point for another go at his
NBA dream).
Now it’s time for a new D-League season, filled with new
teams, new coaches and new players. It’s time for more guys to grind away in
hopes of fulfilling that lifelong dream.
It’s one reason why I love working in the D-League so much. Like
the music I listened to growing up, the D-League is the basketball underground; it's backpack basketball. The
D-League is “The Life of The Party” remix by Little Brother; it’s full of the
best basketball players in your apartment complex. Not rich enough to have their own crib, but dammit, they can play, even if you don't really know who they are because who do you really talk to in your apartment complex, anyway?
Outside of basketball circles (and even in some -- just ask Larry Brown), it's a league that gets little respect. I was listing for a friend of mine all the broadcasting jobs
I do, and he asked me, “so which one of those is the highest-profile, the high
school football gig?”
I nonchalantly responded, “Nah, it’s my radio gig with the
Santa Cruz Warriors,” but inside, I was sort of pissed like the Utah women's basketball team was after being picked to finish 11th in the Pac-12 this year (yes, I just made a reference you almost certainly didn't get so I could link to an article I wrote three weeks ago). Are you serious? High school football players, more prestigious than
professional athletes?! It served as
a reminder that I have to keep plugging away.
I’m far from being polished enough to score super-duper major
broadcasting gigs, which is why the D-League is a great place for me
personally. Hella games means hella reps. Archived games on YouTube just allows
me more practice time. Do I want to one day do NBA radio? Hell yeah; no doubt
about it. But I’m in no hurry to jet from the D-League, a place that has given
me a platform to hone what I want to be my craft for the rest of my life.
The best thing about the D-League is that you have to grind to survive and advance, to
borrow NCAA tournament terminology. It’s the only way; you can’t survive on
$25K (around the highest allotted salary for a player) forever.
It’s time for the games to begin, and I can’t wait to get my
verbs straight, to work to get to the point where every action on the court is narrated
by a descriptive-and-not-repetitive action verb to come out of my mouth. I can’t
wait to hit the road and stay in hotels that aren’t five-star accommodations
(for the most part, the hotels are usually pretty decent, but you know who
you are if a place is known to have bugs in its towels and Pepsi cans with 1990s labels in the soda machine…).
The next five months are going to be filled with 185-175
games between the Reno Bighorns and Rio Grande Valley Vipers (featuring 115 combined three-point attempts and 70 combined turnovers) and four-and-a-half-hour
bus rides from Sioux Falls to Des Moines. May the spirit of Tre
Kelley be with everyone trying to grind their way to The Association.
