The Jim Jackson Show: Mike Bibby

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Savings vary, subject to terms, conditions, and availability. Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Thanks for joining the Jim Jackson Show. Live and direct from Newark, New Jersey, here covering the Sweet 16, the Elite Eight.

You can follow the show, of course, on IG at Jim Jackson Show, and also on YouTube at Rich Eisen Show, YouTube.com, or wherever you download your favorite podcast. Listen, man, this is one of the best time of the year, and I've been fortunate for the last five, six, seven years to be a part of March Madness. And I know a lot of the luster has, is the luster been tainted a little bit, dimmed because of NIL and because of Transfer Portal. Maybe, but it's still exciting. I mean, because it may not be the Cinderella's that we're looking at. And generally, by around the Sweet 16, you may have one still hanging around that could get to an Elite Eight to a Final Four. We've seen that in the past, but the things have changed. But I am happy to be a part of what's going on. I was in Lexington last week for the first round, now here for the second round. And here tonight, we got to, we got to, I mean, just, I think we have the best part of two games. And the reason why is because you got the headliner with Duke in Arizona, the rematch when Duke won it back in, I think it was in November. You got Cooper Flagg, you know, the consensus number one player in upcoming in the 2025 draft. Tyrese Proctor, who is coming back, kind of showing his rares as a player, as a point guard, Khan Knipple, another outstanding freshman against an Arizona team, and Kata Love, who's been there, who's played against Duke nine times now, this will be the 10th through his career, even when he was with North Carolina. It's two great historic programs.

So that kind of is like the headline, but then you can't leave out. If you love offense, if you love up and down, if you love three point shooting, if you're an analytic type of person who wants three pointers, layups and free throws. Well, the first game with Alabama and BYU was it. I mean, two of the top teams in the country from, you know, points per game from the number of three point shots to offense efficiency, offensive efficiency.

These are the two that have been in top five all year. So two different kind of contrasting styles, up pace, fast tempo, a lot of threes in the first game and second game, you're going to have a little bit of that. Arizona wants to get up and down, but you have big, you have paint touches, you have big guards, you have some defensive philosophies involved. So, I mean, just an outstanding night for college basketball, and I'm just fortunate to be a part of it. I'm also fortunate to in this show today have a former teammate of mine, one that I duly really respected. When I went to Sacramento, it was a transition for me.

I didn't go to training camp. I kind of went in at the beginning of the season, but one player that kind of accepted me right away, kind of opened me, opened his arms to me, his family was Mike Bibby. And my time there, as you'll see when we have our conversation, Sacramento was a special place, not just for me, but I think for a lot of players that played there because there was a family atmosphere. So to have him be a part of the show to talk about his legacy there, Sacramento, what he did at Arizona, but now a new chapter in his life, which is he got named the new head coach of Sacramento State. So we'll be able to dive into that AAU NIL transfer portal. How has it changed? How has it not college basketball, but it's special for me because it's NCAA tournament time.

Talked to my man, Mike Bibby, who did it at a high level, 1997 national championship game where they beat Kentucky. And then now the backend is that we're kind of closing in on the end of the NBA season, trying to figure out what it looks like in the playoff pitcher and can Boston, you know, repeat, or is it going to be somebody else, Cleveland or OKC? I kind of taste the mantle. So I'm looking forward to this conversation. A really good friend of mine, someone who used to always tell me to pass him the ball when I was in Sacramento with him, Mike Bibby, since it is the tournament time, was it 1997 your freshman year, Arizona won the national championship beat in Kentucky following year, sophomore year, then you got drafted. What was it? 98. 98.

Yeah. Number two, overall to Vancouver. People don't understand what Vancouver that Vancouver did have a franchise. And then from there was on the all rookie team got traded.

Was it 2001 to Sacramento? And then history was made. Once you got there, then I connected with you and all three men. I thought it seemed like when I got there in all three, it felt like you had been there longer. That's that's, you know what I mean? Yeah. That's just the characteristics that Sacramento had. Like everybody fit in, like no matter who it did.

Yeah. So like the fans, the fans made me feel like I was playing there forever. Like the, the teammates, there was never no egos, no matter what they had, other people had going on before they came. It was just like, everybody can push each other's buttons and mess with each other.

And everybody's cool. That's just how we were. That's what that's. I think that's what made us so good when we were there. You know, what's funny is that I tell people all the time, I feel, I fell in love back in love with the game when I got there.

And that was a big part of it. And you know, by being on other teams before and after that, that guys collectively don't hang around like that. But we, the one time we went to a Raiders game and we was out there in the box at the Raiders game. We'll go out to the movies. We'll connect.

We'll go to dinner. But did you see a lot of them even gambling on the plane? Remember everybody be on four or five.

There'd be 15 people gambling with bring his radio radio on the front radio. Hey, listen, what, what was the, what was, where were we at? We had a game in between and we went to Vegas. Remember?

Remember we'll see where I won that money. Yeah. I don't remember. So we were in between. I think we were playing Denver. We had a night off. We flew to Vegas. We've stayed at the Palm. I'll see.

I might not have win. Yeah. See where I've hit a lick them that night too. Oh, we, yeah. I remember none of that.

You don't remember that one. Yeah. But that's, but that's D Jones who didn't play a lot of the team. He Jones and them were there. I didn't go cause I know D Jones loved the game. Oh yeah. He loved the game. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But that, but that's what made the team special. Whether it was body. Many of the time I got locked in the steam room. Yeah. I remember we was about to sit out here. Boom, boom, boom.

Yeah. Somebody must be fighting back there. You came out.

She almost lost your life life. That day skis bloody bloody bloody. What do you lock you in? Cause D Jones was in there.

Right. And you know, I would hit it every after practice and I ain't paying no attention. And then I left, he left, man, the door was shut. I was like, man, you gotta be kidding me. So I'm banging on the door.

Right? Yeah, I heard it. So I had to get on the ground, you know, that little piece.

There's a little, some air that come underneath the door. I was down there on there yelling, breathing out of it. And I remember, I remember your face too. When you came out of there, you, you almost like, we almost lost you, bro. We almost lost you. But how disappointing was it not to be able, your time in Sacramento, especially it was the Robert Horry shot. And then the next year C web gets hurt. I know they brought in Brad. Your Kim was with us during that time. But how, you know, I know so close, but yet so far of how disappointing it was not to get one or at least get to the finals there in Sacramento.

I mean, it was very disappointing, especially how I think it was taken from us because they were definitely the best team in the league that, that year. And I got a story that I tell everybody, you know, Chuckie Brown, like we're, you know, you know, with the loose, you're not in the loose tree, the best owners in the world, unbelievable. They asked a red carpet events and, you know, going to movie premieres and doing all this shit. And, you know, we're in LA, so I'm talking cash shit to everybody, all the actors, you know, they're around and I'm like, there's nothing they could do.

I'm on the radios in LA talking shit. And it's just upsetting that we kind of shit the bed in game seven. But as far as that was ours, I think that they, that we were that they did at our own expense as far as to, you know, what, let's try to have this three feet, you know, and what they do.

But I mean, I heard, I mean, I heard that a TV, a TV deal was coming up that year, the next year. So I think they wanted a bigger markets in that, in that championship. But I mean, I think, I think we win that championship, our team, it goes in a whole different direction.

They don't break up as quick. And, you know, we bring in other pieces that maybe we got rid of before, maybe keep our core, but like maybe bring you in that, you know, play for a while and playing on good teams and bringing guys like you. And it just would have been different.

I think all the way around. So, so how were you when it, when it went down that you got traded, how were you, what did it, did you know what was about to happen when you got traded to Atlanta? So, so two years before that, so like a year and a half, like maybe a year before, maybe the year before two years, maybe I heard rumblings. Like it was supposed to, yeah, I talked to Colby was supposed to go to LA, talk to Cleveland was supposed to go to Cleveland. So it was in between Cleveland and LA. I was going to go to, and I didn't think the moves to send me in the same division to our rivals. So it was a quick talk with Kobe and, and from there it kind of went out the window, but then it was supposed to be Cleveland for two years. And I mean, it was like a done deal, like one game, like one year I was walking down, we were playing the wizards.

I remember, and they were like, Hey, let's go celebrate down in the lobby, you know, have some drinks or whatever, hang out. Mike's about to get traded. So we went down Sarah Drake. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Oh, he said that again.

What the night before? Yeah. Cause I mean, there was a trade deadline and right.

We heard the rumblings coming and like, you know, could go down to the wire and it hadn't happened yet, but it was so strong, strongly supposed to happen to the wizards. Yeah. No, to Cleveland, to Cleveland, to Cleveland, okay.

Oh, you're playing the woods. Okay. All right. Okay. And so we get there to the game, you know, my agent, David Fox superstar agent was, uh, he was in, in, in DC. So we're, I mean, we're talking the night before.

Yeah. We're pretty sure it's going to happen. Don't expect to play the next day trade deadline right before I get on the bus and be ready to play Mike. So, I mean, you get in that mindset, like, and I didn't know, like that was the year before I got traded. So the next year, um, it was supposed to be Cleveland again. I've never heard anything about Atlanta. So like, so I'm in, I'm talking to my agent, David, and there's two trades.

He said he didn't hear about his whole career. Both of them were mine. I got traded. So the first one, Vancouver to Sacramento. No, no.

The other one from Atlanta to the wizards. Okay. So, cause I mean, he has so much power. He could block whatever he wanted to block if he needed to. So I think that's why they didn't tell him. So, um, he was good friends with one of the owners from Atlanta.

And so, you know, also breaks. So I go to, it's like an all-star game, whatever. My name goes across the bottom of the screen. Mike may be traded to Atlanta Hawks for so-so. So my son comes in and was like, dad, you got traded. I was like, nah, I called Dave like David. They said, I got traded to the Hawks. He was like, nah, nah, just wait till after the, after the, I said, David, it's on the bottom of the end. He's like, hold on, let me, let me call you back.

He calls him back. It's like, yeah, they traded you and go in there. It was like, uh, I had to play the bloody role going into Atlanta. Joe Johnson was the only person that ever played in the playoffs there. We reached the playoffs.

It was a bear like 36 and I mean like 38 and whatever it was, we were led at 38, 44, maybe. And I had to take a different role. I came in, I still average around 14, 15 points a game, but they didn't rely on me. Like they relied on me in Sacramento for the ball.

You know, we had Joe Johnson, Al Horford as a rookie, Marvin Williams, Josh Smith. And it was like, I didn't have an ego enough to where it's like, you know what I got to, I got to do this. I got to score. I got to come here. I kind of fit in and kind of like, Hey, let's, let's have fun. It's kind of the same stuff we did in Sacramento, Jimmy, to where when we land, all of us, and we're going to go eat at California pizza kitchen, boom, everybody goes, we're going to walk around the mall for a little bit. We're going to do this. We're going to hang out.

We're going to play games that Dave shoot around. And it kind of changed the culture of the team. And as far as like, okay, we're supposed to be here, let's go out there and play with nothing to lose. And by the time I left there, I think we had, like, I think the last year I was there, we won 50 some games, you know, coming from winning 30 to win the 50 games is a big turnaround. So it was a good change for me going to Atlanta. And like I said, I learned from you guys being in Sacramento, talking about you guys as being the, you know, the older guys on the team to be able to control myself when I go to a different team, how to make things work, how to have everybody on the same page. Hey, Rich Eisen here, I hear from a lot of business owners like you about the work it takes to pursue your passions.

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They've got an expert who knows what they're doing all the time. Now this is taxes into a TurboTax. Get an expert now on TurboTax.com. Was it, and it's still a challenge though. I mean, because you went from the Mike Bibby of leading the Sacramento Kings to Western Conference Finals to a potential championship caliber team to the ball in your hand to all of a sudden, this is a whole different role. How did you reconcile? That's not easy.

That's not easy. I was fine with that. I was still getting shots. I was still, I was still doing stuff. I still handed the ball. I was throwing lives.

I was still doing the same thing I did. It's just that they didn't rely on me like how they did in Sacramento. I was fine with that. I have no problem with, like even when I got traded in New York, I'm kind of done before that, but Mike Woodson was like, Mike, come play one more year. And you know, I had a workout before the games and he had always feel like he had to play me. And you know, I told him, I was like, Woody, don't feel like you don't make it. I don't want you to feel like you had to play me. Like think I'm cool over here. I don't have no problem being a cheerleader.

I'll clap and do what I got to do for the guys in order for us to win. But if you need me, I'll get in there and play. And so my mind said, you know, I am Jimmy. I was never, I was never like that. I never had like that, have a bad attitude. If I had a bad game, I'm going to be a different person on the plane. I've never been like that.

That's true. And I mean, I just, I was blessed to be in the NBA and I was happy to be there. So once you retire, like a lot of people don't understand this and I tell people the retirement part because 99% of athletes pretty much get pushed out the league, whether that's injury, you got too old or just can't play anymore. Rarely do athletes get a chance to say, I'm done. I'm a retire my own remission.

I'm going to do it on my own. When you decided to walk away, was there a time period in between you retiring until you did something else that was an easy, difficult, challenging, or was it just, I, I'm like, I'm, I'm doing something else. You just move on. I was ready to go the year before, you know what I mean? The drive for me was gone. Like I lost all the drive. Like I, like, you know, I work out hard, I do all this and I got to the point where it's like, I'm, I think I'm done. I told my agent, like, I'm done. He's like, well, just try one where I said, I'm like, David, I'm done. Like I don't, I don't have any more left in me.

You know what I mean? And like, when I got done, I was okay with being at home. Cause I can, now I get to see my kids grow up.

I get to be with my family and was now I could go places. I don't need, I don't have a time, time sheet to where Mike, you got to be here at 11. You got to do this. And at five o'clock, we got a banquet. We got to go to, I was good with just, I'm going to the gym. I stay at the gym, however long I want. I get to go home, eat. If I'm going to go golf, I go golf.

I could come on the couch, take a nap. I was fine with that. And I was okay with that, but you know, I've always wanted to coach. Like I coached Michael after that in high school, like the first year I retired, the next year I was coaching the high school. And so I got into that and it was just like, okay, I want to teach these kids. And I got to, I got to the point where I love teaching kids and want to make them better and get them to the next level.

Not as, not just in basketball terms, but as young, young, young men. Was that, was that at shadow mountain? Yeah, shadow mountain.

Shadow mountain in Phoenix. And then you went to Hillcrest. Yeah. After that.

Different man. It was, it was, you know, a lot of prep kids, five star kids that were, it was like, you know, you get a certain, you only get an hour and 15 minutes to practice, but you know, you got to get out the gym, the volleyball is coming in. And I mean, it's like kids will show up when they want. What?

Yeah. I'm not practicing. So, I mean, I was only there for a couple of weeks, but I was like, man, I can't coach like this. And, you know, promises at that level promises are made to kids to, Oh, I told him if he comes here, he's going to start. Or if I told him this, he's going to play this amount of minutes.

I can't coach like that. I got it. I got to see what's going on and give you the benefit of the doubt. And you earn, you earn your way out there on the court. Wow.

Yeah. And people don't understand too, coming from your side of it too, being at a high level, you still want to be able to teach and have responsibilities for these young men that come into your system to understand what it's all about. And that, and that led you now to congratulations. And we don't want to bury the lead of you being named the head coach at Sacramento state. Why Sacramento state? Why now?

And what does the future hold for the pro for you in the program? Well, when it opened three years ago, I was trying for it then. Really? Yeah.

And in the time it wasn't right now, everything's on God's timing and the time wasn't right. And so this, it came up again and, you know, I put my bid in right away in Sacramento. Like I was, I was telling people Vancouver, I started in Vancouver, but playing in Vancouver, no one really seen sees you. You know, there was times when I was walking around like, Hey, Mike, maybe you like, you still play. Yeah.

You know, I just, I just got drafted, you know what I mean? Right. Right.

Right. It kind of restarted my career going there. And I think it would be great to go ahead and reach to start my career coaching career there. And I mean, I think just, I mean, Jimmy, I've got probably over 200 calls from people for kids already, like, like over a hundred kids trying to come to the school already. And I mean, we're going to have our pick of the litter and, you know, we got, you know, you got to do the NIL stuff now, but I mean, I think with the caliber kids that are calling the caliber kids that we're going to get at this program can be turned around in the first year. So, but why, why, why might be for the program? What, what, what makes you a little bit different than the other coaches that have been there before?

And how can you make it successful? I played the challenge. Yeah. It's a challenge.

I don't mind Charles. I played the game, Jimmy and I, and I I've taught kids and I like to teach. You get a lot of kids, you get a lot of coaches now that even that Michael played for it. And they get kids out there and one mistake you pull them. I mean, now when that kid goes back in the game, what do I got to do to stay in the game?

What I, what I, what I usually do, he just pulled me out for us. I'm not going to do that. So you got kids second guessing themselves. I'm giving these kids the benefit that I know mistakes are made.

Go out there and play hard. We're going to let's win some games. I'm going to give you confidence. I'm let you play the way that's fun. I'm going to let you be held accountable.

A lot of kids aren't held accountable either. And you know what I mean? Just Sacramento. I mean, it's a, it was a second home to me. I played half of my career there and, you know, it's like a second home. You go back, you know, the fans still treat me amazing. There's like, you know, every time I come back, there's still a lot of pictures, the love they show. And I think that Sacramento state is looking for a coach in that aspect. You know, I mean, even if it was me, even if it was way with somebody that had spent good time attachment to it, right.

Yeah. It had good days there that you think that could attract kids because there's no, there's really never been any attraction to Sacramento state. You know, I might have the first five star kid to ever sign to the school and just being there, just being the coach for three days, you know what I mean?

So just, just changing that aspect and being able to get kids and get them wanting to play. How about this? So Mike Bibby head coach of Sacramento state, we got Doug Christie head coach at a Sacramento King. I mean, bananas, right.

And they should hopefully announce something that they're going to sign them for long-term. Yeah. You know, there was Sacramento, but let me ask you this with, with, you know, I'm, I'm in, I'm in, um, New Jersey now for the sweet 16 elite eight. So it was Duke, Arizona tonight. And then it's BYU. I mean, well, BYU in Alabama, but the game is different because of NIL and the transport portal. How do you evaluate that? And you can answer this too. Did those two components help or hurt college basketball?

And if it did or didn't, why, why not? I think it hurt because now you get all these mid major. Now, look, now there's no Cinderella team and everybody's wondering why, because all, you know, you throw a little money at these kids and these kids want a quick fix. You know what I mean? You get a quick fix. Now you blame them.

Huh? No, I don't blame it. Jimmy, you know, when we were playing, we couldn't even get a slice of pizza for free. You got that right.

Like I said, I think, I think it was right to give them something, but maybe we're giving them too much. Cause you know, you got kids riding around Rolls Royces, that's cool at cut. What, what, what do you mean? Like, just put it on like this.

If you were making more than your coach in college. Yeah. Well, like what, like, Oh, you can't, like this kid, Oh, you can't tell me the code.

I'm making, you're making three. And then you could tell me they're going to get rid of you before they get rid of me. You know what I mean? So I don't like the aspect of that, of that.

I don't like the portal either. As far as you, you, you, you see adversity. Now I want to tuck my tail and run, run it brought up like that. I mean, if I wasn't starting, I'm gonna find a way to get, I'm gonna find a way to start.

That's right. Like, you know what, let me go to a different team and just make it easy for myself. And I mean, that's the two parts that I don't like, but in one year here and now you, you know, you, you got to go to everything. I get the kids from the mid majors and stuff doing it.

Cause I mean, they have a better chance, but the guys that are like going from power five to power five, just power five. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I don't like that, man. I don't like it.

Yeah. You know, my aspect, I think about it like this, Mike, one, I think an AAU was good and bad and you've been, you've been around and through it is that one, the aspect of AAU and not all programs are like this, but because you play so many games during the day, the consequence of losing is not the same. I think a lot of kids in their families, well, we lost this one. Don't worry about it. We, we, we, we play again at 12 o'clock. We play again later on.

So that consequence, I'm not saying for all kids, but now it's okay. Well, we lost. So it don't really matter or, and well, this coach is not playing me here. So I'm gonna go play for this AAU team.

I'll go. And we see that now being played out in college where again, like you said, the adversity part, okay. Of I'm not playing right now. I don't want to wait. I don't want to earn my stripes. And then I want to go now some instances, some guys got to transfer to, got to get out.

Situation is not going to work, but I do think people lean in too much on where the coach is too hard, whatever. I'm not playing right now. I'm getting out of here. Then they don't find it on that other side at that other school.

Brass ain't always greener, Jimmy. Right. It's been the same for a long time. And I think the NIL and the transfer portal, the NIL is, is going to go through some regulation. There's going to be something, there's going to be a cap. I heard of like a $20 million cap, especially for the power five schools where, you know, 85% of that money goes to football. I mean, 75% goes to football, 15 goes to basketball.

Five goes to women's sports and five gets distributed. Okay. So you have some kind of cap that you can deal with because what Alabama, Ohio state does with their money and what can raise ain't the same as Sacramento state at D one or Ohio, you or Arizona, even Arizona, even UCLA. Yeah. You know, so it's not balanced across the board on how this is, it's no regulation. Yeah, for sure.

And I mean, like, I mean, that'd be the best thing to change because like, that's what I'm saying. There's no cinderella's like you ain't, you don't see those teams. Cause you see the superstars from those Cinderella teams are now at big schools. I saw something on Instagram the other day.

It was like 10 kids, Cinderella, Cinderella stories. Now they're at Alabama. They're at, I mean, like I said, it's, it's not fair to all these other schools. Cause there's like, you know, that Jimmy there's, there's players everywhere.

It's just, they don't get the right, they might not be in the right situation or this and that, but there's kids to play everywhere, man. But I mean, if they do that, what you just said, I think that that would help, you know, like even like, like even the thing that happened with that, that I heard about Cooper flag, if they're offering a 15 million, if he doesn't like who the first pick is, he'll go back to school, go back to school. You know what I mean? And like, when we were playing, they take that out, like shit, either you're either you're coming here or you're not.

So, I mean, he'll be getting paid more than probably he would in the first year that was contracting an MBA. I mean, it's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy.

But you know, it's part of the times too. It's just like, it's a catch 22 because you, you want the athletes, the male student athlete to be able to benefit from their name, like likeness and image. Nobody saw the collective coming where they eventually pay players to come. Okay. Nobody saw that coming. So I do think it needed time for the system to work out so they can see what's right, what's wrong, and then implement the change.

And I think that time is coming. And unfortunately it does affect and I'm in the game and I see it. It does affect the mid majors because now they've been the last couple of years, kind of like a minor league to the higher school. You develop a guy for two years, boom, they're gone. And now you're stuck and you can't recover like a power five school can recover when they lose somebody majors get hit, man. Yeah.

And the same thing, like, I think like, I'm kind of glad it wasn't like that when I was there. Cause I think my drive, you know, my drive was to get to the NBA. Like I come, I have nothing at home.

You know what I mean? I need to make a living for my family. I need to, I'm a bust my butt to work hard to get to the NBA. Now I can provide for my family instead of, I want to play one year, see how it goes. And then just play like that. I would have lost my job.

I probably wouldn't have made it to the NBA if that was the case, if I had it there. Right. I know I get it because too much too soon for some people you can't handle, you know, and it's easy and eat.

Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's made what I, what I think hurts the two things hurts the young man, young woman is it's easy to give up and go somewhere and not kind of go through it. But right now I think the young men and women are understanding the pressure of playing for money because when they command the money, whether that's their parents or themselves, they're not thinking about now you're going to be held to a higher standard of, of what your play is. Like when you came in as a freshman, it was expected that you had to grow and learn. So you, you know, the fans were patient and also the program was patient, but now that you're getting paid, yeah, guess what we expect you to play at a certain level. And I don't think the families and those young men and women understand that they're starting to now, but understood that at the beginning when they were asking for these, for this summer money, see, but it's still like, if I screw up here, I'm going to the next one cause, cause of what they think I'm supposed to be, you know? So like, even if I do, even if I don't do good here, like, see, he's still, we still like his capabilities.

We're still going to give him this money. You can just go and it makes it easy. And it's like, you're not held accountable for nothing. Like me going to Arizona, there was a never in my mind, I thought of if I don't start, I'm going to go somewhere else. My mind was like, I'm starting, I don't know, I'm coming in. I'm starting. And it was never, never in my mind. If I didn't start, I want to tuck my tail and go run somewhere else.

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See store or sleepnumber.com for details. We'll see how they play off. And before we get out of here, I got to touch on the NBA stuff real quick. I don't know how much you've been following this year, doing all the other stuff you're doing, but it looks like Boston, Cleveland in the east, in the west, OKC.

And then after that, it kind of feels, you know what I mean? Because Denver's playing a lot better. Thought Minnesota would be there. Houston has its limitations because of offense.

Yeah, I think they might be too young too. Like you look at Denver, like Denver's been there. They got the best player in the NBA. And like you still look at games that get beat by 30. I mean, I know it goes like that sometimes, but sometimes they look bad. Sometimes they look good. I've never, I haven't seen OKC look bad yet. Right.

In any game. So I mean, I think I have OKC coming out. I have OKC against Boston in the final.

Really? So is it a Boston, is it a Boston Cleveland Eastern Conference final? Yes, I think so. Yes. Who you got Oklahoma playing in the Western Conference?

Denver. Really? Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

No Memphis, no Lakers. I don't think that I don't think they could push over that, huh? And like, I mean, there's still some questions about OKC as far as they're having a killer regular season. Yeah. But you know, you know, Jimmy, as soon as that gets to the playoffs is a whole different game. Yeah. And they haven't been around. They haven't been past second round yet. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

So that's a group. But I mean, you can't leave Shea out. You know, Shea is killer right now. I got him for MVP too.

So just the stuff that he's doing and the numbers he's putting up and you're the number one team, you got the number one record in the league, you got MVP. So you think that Luca, the Bron combo, second round, but not. I think they could get through the first round, maybe second might be a little tough because I mean, I like what Austin Reeves is doing, but.

Will Austin Reeves, if you if you kind of put a do a defensive like a crazy defensive game on Luca and make these other guys do anything, I don't think awesome Reeves could come through like that every night. Yeah. In the playoffs. So, I mean, like I said, it's a different season. It's a different season in the playoffs. Everything's like what your favorites are doing.

They don't. Now it's going to be harder. You'd like to go right all the time. You go right at all. Yeah.

It's going to be different for some of the guys that like haven't really been there. You know what I mean? Yeah. Are you surprised that the Damon Giannis thing didn't work or is it?

Well, it's not working up to this point. I mean, I don't know. Like you get to a point like like who's around them.

You know, I love that. Like Dave's one of my top point guards in the game. Hey, Giannis is different because you're honest. Like, I mean, he's going to run you over, blow you over the basket. Like, I mean, but I mean, it's like Dave could give you stuff.

So I mean, it's like kind of like do we do we kind of let Giannis get his stuff and kind of try to slow down Dame. But I mean, you always there's all new coach. Doc's a great coach. I get that.

But I never I've never been around it. I don't really know what he does. But in order for like for you to be such a great coach and you have two great players like that, you got some got to come to light. Yeah. You know, I mean, it's like it can't be it's either the players or the coach. I mean, it can't be you. I mean, the players don't get the benefit of the doubt.

You know what I mean? And then what they're doing is trying to find younger younger coaches and stuff to bring them in out so they can relate to these kids. Doc, I've been coaching for a long time. Doc been coaching in our area in different different things.

You're in line. I played against Doc too would make it so bad. I'm afraid it gives up your first year like what 81 to about the 80 man. 92 man was my first year, man. Whatever. I remember y'all was my favorite team out there, man.

Mass burn kid. I love my favorite player, man. Watching y'all play, man.

It was good look for me, man. But I tell you what, man, during that time period, too. It's funny how you want to be remembered like that's the team that most people, of course, how long is tenure and how continuity didn't play because we had three different owners, four different coaches in five years. And people think that it was then I got hurt and Jamal got hurt.

But people think the infighting or Tony Brett broke it up. I said, listen, it wasn't that we had no stability up top the front, you know, and if you don't have like we had great owners at Sacramento, so you were stable for a certain number of years. You made some incremental changes with rosters, but not everything. So you were stable and you won.

We did. We I mean, I had two first year coaches, right? Three different owners that had three different ideas. I had three different owners of five years because Donald Carter was who I got drafted by. After my second year, he sold it to David McDavid, who was a car dealer. He only had it one year and he sold it to Ross Perot, Jr., who eventually sold it to to Mark Cuban later on. But that's it. Then my rookie year, Richie Adubato got fired before I got him because I held out.

So it's Gar heard interim. The next year it was Quinn Buckner, first year coach. He only lasted a year.

Big Motta. Two and then my fifth year with Jim Clemens, first year coach. How we go? I mean, really, how do you? I was doing the same thing in Vancouver. I had three coaches and two owners in in Vancouver as well.

I was only years. And how do you how do you have any kind of continuity? That's kind of like how you how you were just talking about Milwaukee.

You have all you have those stars there. Yeah. They fit or what's going on in the background.

People don't say that. Like even even in Phoenix, I think they got a good arm that's trying to help them. The team get better and grow and stuff. But I don't see how they lose with Bill Booker and Katie. I don't I don't get it like I'm here watching it. Right. And you see like the coach goes to grab Katie's on.

He's pull away. I just so just like the kind of the vibes that's going on. I've never really been on a team where I've seen that happen.

And I only been on I've been on a few bad teams, though, too. You know what I mean? So and still didn't see that. Yeah. Yeah.

So I mean, you never know what's going on behind these closed doors. Well, I know you got to travel today, bro. And I appreciate you coming on. And, you know, of course, you know, I wish you all the best.

And I'll be following you because I know that you'll be able to change your culture there and bring some players in. And before we get out of here, too, like you got a legacy, you got you built a legacy there in Phoenix from high school. Of course, you always be remembered as one of the greatest point guards that played at Arizona to get the national championship revered in Sacramento. But how do you want to be remembered for the type of player, but more important, the person you were during your time at NBA? I just want to be that I made an impact on some people's lives. And you know, like I said, I'd rather be more known from being a good guy off the court than being a good basketball player.

That's just the way it is. And and like people from now on, you know, everybody sees me, the kids that I've coached, people I've seen a long time where they always come to hug me. I never I don't ever want to change. I want to be the same.

That's the same way. And like I said, I want to be remembered for off the court stuff more than on. Bro, that says it all right there, man. I appreciate you, brother. Good luck.

I need you on my podcast to straight game podcast, Jimmy. All right. Give me on there, man. I got you.

We'll have you coming up a couple of weeks. OK, bro. Safe travels today, too. Thanks, brother. OK, later.

Man, what a great conversation. I'm wishing the best for my man, Mike Bibby. I think he can.

It's a tough it's a tough ass. I mean, dealing with NIL, dealing with transfer portal, trying to get young men to come in and buy into a system. But I think if anybody can do it, Mike can do it. And it's who you pick to. I should have asked him, Mike, from a coaching staff perspective, what he's looking for. But I'm sure he'll figure that part out. So wishing him nothing but the best. Looking forward to the games, not only that I'm doing tonight, but this weekend to the crown tournament, the first ever with Fox next week, which fits in between the Elite Eight and the final four will be in Vegas from next Monday to 31st till April 5th.

So to be 16 teams competing for the crown championship and I'll be on the call for that started on the quarterfinals. So please tune into that. And before I get out of here, man, I know it's a lot of stuff going on in the world, man.

I just I'm just sending some shout outs. There's a lot of changes going on. I read a book and how things are impacting the world. And it's about 25, 30 years ago and it talked about phasing out. And this is a totally different subject, but you start to see how things are starting to change.

And in our world, what we're used to doing is I kind of going from the radio to the television to now computers and to streaming services, how things change when you're used to it, going from a newspaper, reading it every day to downloading everything on your computer and how different that is. Well, I read a book 25, 30 years ago about the phasing out of paper money. And it talked about it at the time because it was trying to get to a one world currency. And you hear that a lot nowadays. And to simply put Bitcoin crypto that way, money exchanges across the world a lot easier.

But it's also easier to track. But in this book, it talked about how phasing out money will begin to happen. And it did, because if you look at back then, I think this is mid 90s, I read the book. Credit cards were huge. You really didn't have a lot of debit cards at the time, but then credit cards or debit cards to being able to pay for things just with those two aspects. And I think what really accelerated this conversation was during COVID when cash was not accepted. But even post COVID, a lot of companies, businesses stopped accepting cash. Everything had to be done, i.e.

the phone, credit card, combination of both. When you're online buying stuff, everything is that way. And it accelerated that process that made it easier for you to say, okay, I don't need the cash. But it was, it's starting to become the norm, kind of like facial recognition. When that first kind of came out, people were like, oh, I don't want to do facial recognition.

It's like, it's evasive. It gets into your personal business. So what did the government do? They say, you know what, you know, facial recognition for your phone.

If you go to the airport, you got clear, get you through. They got you used to using it, used to using it. So now it wasn't the same threat.

So now when you got your iPhone or your computer or your iPad or whatever it is, facial recognition doesn't have the same threat that it did in the past because you're more comfortable. Same way it's going to be with, and it is right now with people using paper dollars. It's not going to be worth anything in the future. Think about it right now.

How many times do you really have cash on you to pay for something? And I bring that up just because the world is steadily changing in front of our faces. A lot of times we get sidetracked with sports, with music, with entertainment, with something going on and not seeing the bigger picture where the actual world is evolving to. And I always say, just pay attention. People are telling you what's going on right in front of you, but a lot of times we're caught up rightly so in our own stuff and we don't pay attention to the changing aspects of what's happening in our world in front of us.

And then we get caught off guard. And when things really go down, not prepare for how to react to it. So just something I've been thinking about, something I've been watching, hopefully you'll pay attention to it too and kind of prepare yourself for the next stage of what's going to happen because something is going to happen.

We may be out here one day when the system shuts down, trading horses and trading gold and silver and other stuff for bartering because paper money is going to be non-existent. I appreciate it. Have a great weekend. Enjoy the basketball game.

Look forward to catching up with you next week. This episode is brought to you by Universal Pictures. From Universal Pictures and Blumhouse come a storm of terror from the director of the shallows. The woman in the yard. Don't let her in. Where does she come from? What does she want? When will she leave? Today's the day. The woman in the yard. Only in theaters March 28th.