How does Joe Mazzulla stack up against other NBA coaches? | Bob Ryan and Jeff Goodman Podcast
Bob Ryan and Gary Tanguay evaluate the top head coaches heading into the 2024-25 NBA season, and discuss where Joe Mazzulla stands in relation to his peers. They also discuss the passing of former Warriors player and coach Al Attles.
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SportsTranscript
00:00Time for the Bob Ryan and Gary Tanguy podcast here on CLNS Media, brought to you by PrizeFix,
00:29the exclusive daily fantasy partner of the CLNS Media Network.
00:33Pick more, pick less with PrizeFix.
00:34Robert, good to talk to you.
00:35Yeah.
00:36Hi, Gary.
00:38Not a lot going on.
00:39So what we're going to do is we're going to try, we're going to take a look at the coaching
00:42situation because it's interesting.
00:49I go back and forth.
00:50I don't know what role coaching plays anymore.
00:53I don't know if it's as important as we want it to believe, but there are definitely some
00:58coaches that we want to follow in the NBA this year.
01:01And I do want to start with the Celtics and I want to start with act three with Missoula.
01:05And the last time we spoke about this, none of us really had any idea what he was going
01:10to try to do.
01:11Like what, how do you, you know, you know, like Belichick, we said in 2002, he gave everybody
01:17T or 2003, he gave him a 2002, gave everybody t-shirts that had the records of the AFC and
01:25everybody was zero, zero.
01:27You know, what does Missoula do to inspire these guys to defend their title?
01:34Well that's a very good question.
01:36And I'm sure he's going to be consulting whoever he feels he, he has some respect for and in
01:42this regard.
01:43And, and you know, we, we've learned that he is a thoughtful guy and, and, and he's
01:47not above, I won't call gimmickry, but stick at times.
01:51Yeah.
01:52I don't know, Bob, I don't know if it's, if it's stick or if it's just psychology.
01:56Well, okay, well, maybe, maybe it's one of the same.
02:01I don't know.
02:02Yeah.
02:03I really, I think it is.
02:04I mean, you know, the thing is that he's, he was handed the, the, you know, the Ferrari
02:08and he drove it, you know, he drove it well and, and he drove it home first and, you know,
02:15it's an unusual situation in that we've said, and, and, you know, once again, I keep saying
02:20really easy, you know, that they're all back.
02:23It's just, there's no, you know, nobody went for be free agency and was signed away and
02:28no, none of the subs went and got overpaid somewhere else and they're all back.
02:33And it's, it's, and they all got to be happy with at the same rate or, or is, is, uh, you
02:40know, is somebody going to want to play more than he was playing or what?
02:44We don't know.
02:45We don't think so.
02:46We think these guys are, are, are all completely composed and, and, and, uh, selfless in terms
02:52of the team, but we're going to find out then, you know, they're going, they know the word
02:57target will come up.
02:58They know they're going to have target bullseye.
03:01So I'll be reminding them that every night is going to be a playoff game and for them
03:05to put the other team until further notice, um, that we know is going to have to tell
03:10them that.
03:11And, and that's fine.
03:12So we don't know, uh, in terms of any kind of, uh, let me throw this idea.
03:17This is, but I would, if I happen to be Joe Missoula and I don't know when I would put
03:24this out there, but I would compile the numbers of the Celtics record against the players
03:33who are all missing in the playoffs, because to me, that's the one thing you can say it's
03:38like, and I'm not, I don't know if Missoula says this, but I think it's going to come
03:42up this year.
03:43But the Celtics beat anybody to get to the post season.
03:46I mean, they did beat somebody in the championship.
03:49There's no doubt about that.
03:51And they deserve that.
03:53And I know that there are people at Nixon bruises and all that, but you know, every,
03:56at that point, everybody does.
03:57Yeah.
03:58But you know, they, they missed and bead, um, you know, Milwaukee with the freak.
04:02He was hurt Miami and Jimmy Butler.
04:05Um, you know, so to me, like, that's the one thing, you know, what are you doing?
04:11And you say, okay, guys, don't get cocky.
04:13You know, you have to walk a fine line between, you don't want to tear down your own accomplishment,
04:19you know, but you want to remind them that, that, uh, the other teams might be better
04:24suited to play you this year, uh, you know, and, uh, uh, and, and you don't have to go
04:29in specifically, spell it out that some people are saying your, your championship is tainted
04:34because you didn't face those guys.
04:36I don't think you need to spell that out, uh, uh, necessarily.
04:41But, um, if there's a way you can remind them that the competition, uh, will be marginally
04:48stiffer and will be, and I, first of all, Philadelphia is, you know, that's part B that's
04:52one thing.
04:53And then the other thing is the fact is that, that two teams that you're going to be competing
04:57directly with are better on paper than they were when it's in New York.
05:02And, uh, so that's for sure.
05:05And, and, uh, in Milwaukee, you're going to have it, well, just forget that it was sticking
05:09your division.
05:10So that's that.
05:12Yeah.
05:13There'll be stuff.
05:14It won't, there'll be coaching, uh, approaching us and, you know, a serious coaching approach.
05:19I also think, you know, you have to wait and see, like, I don't know if you pull that out
05:24of your bag of tricks, day one of preseason, you wait and see how the season's going.
05:29Yeah.
05:30See how they, how they react.
05:31Yeah.
05:32You get, you got to pick your spot for them, uh, properly during the, during the, because
05:37you know, when those guys, and you may not even have to say anything because you know,
05:41when those guys are back and they place them in the regular season, like when Butler plays
05:43the Celtics, he's going to go off.
05:45Oh, he's going to, he's got to go off.
05:47Yeah.
05:48Yeah.
05:49He's got 40, 50 points.
05:50He's going to have a night, you know?
05:51So maybe you don't have to say anything.
05:53It's just funny.
05:54You know, I was sitting there and I was thinking, you know, but the coaching team, I'm like,
05:58what does Sula say?
05:59Like, what do you, what do you tell the kids that have received straight A's and never
06:07broken curfew?
06:08Right.
06:09Right.
06:10Yeah.
06:11No, no.
06:12I mean, that's hard to do.
06:13Yeah.
06:14No, that's hard to do.
06:15Um, as far as, do you think, do you think, how do you think coaching has changed over
06:23the years in the league and is it as important as it once was?
06:30Coaching is important, still important because the personnel management, the, the, the, the
06:39bait, you know, your part, you're a counselor, you're a babysitter, you're a traffic cop.
06:47I mean, um, you know, this different stuff, it's, it's not all about, it isn't about X's
06:52and O's.
06:53I mean, it is, but, but it's, it's about your, your relationship with the players and, and
06:58did they buy what you're selling?
07:01That's the number one, that, that comes all down to that.
07:03Did they buy what they're selling and, and can they execute what you need them to execute?
07:08This team, uh, and if they had any technical area, which you might want to address, guys,
07:15we got to clean up.
07:16We got, we, we skate, we, we dodged a bullet, you know, whatever reference you want to use.
07:21Offensive rebounding.
07:22We, we gave up too many offensive rebounds against certain games, uh, that, that, you
07:27know, we made life hard for ourselves that way.
07:28We got to have to dedicate ourselves a little more to the board, not on the boards.
07:33Uh, other than that, you know, you, you know, your, your, your defense obviously should
07:37be paramount, um, in your scheme, but, uh, uh, that's, that's my technical thing.
07:42But no, I, I, coaching is, is management of personnel and, and getting them to buy what
07:47you're selling.
07:48And, and, uh, that, that's, that's, and he apparently was able to do that.
07:53You know, it's interesting.
07:54I've heard people say, well, the coaches now have to placate to the stars, uh, the
08:00big contracts, make it more difficult for them to manage the players.
08:05But then I always remember, and you know, better than, than I, you know, where Russell
08:12would say red, I'm not practicing today.
08:14And he would sit on the sideline and read the paper and smoke a cigarette.
08:17Well, so it's nothing, it really hasn't changed.
08:20You know what I mean?
08:21No.
08:22Oh no.
08:24The, the, the key with red was he didn't, he didn't treat them all alike and, and, uh,
08:28you know, Tommy Heisman would always explain that, you know, he was the, he knew the time
08:32he could take it.
08:33He was just, he was the designated scapegoat sometimes and, and, uh, that you couldn't
08:37yell at Cousy that way.
08:39And you couldn't yell at Charmin that way.
08:42And you didn't have to yell at Russell for anything really, you know?
08:45So, um, but right as time went on, Russell, uh, practiced very little because he was going
08:50to be playing 45 to 48 minutes at, uh, in his mid thirties.
08:54So, uh, and that was okay with everybody and nobody had a problem with that.
08:59So now we're going back, you guys, we're about to retire in 1969.
09:02So now we're going back, uh, 50, 55 years, six seasons and, and, and since he last played,
09:09but, uh, um, personnel management, you know, is still the, the essence of it all.
09:15And, uh, cause there's a million guys out there that can X and O, but it's not, it's
09:20about making sure that they get the message that you're trying to send.
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11:02Are there any particular coaches this season you're keeping an eye on?
11:05Well, of the new ones, I mean, the most intriguing one is obviously JJ Riddick.
11:12Because of the nature of that team and the fact that he's going to be coaching a 40-year-old
11:17on December 30th, LeBron James.
11:19And there's all these excessive expectations in LA, always now.
11:27And LeBron's play in the Olympics is going to whet appetites again.
11:32It's going to get people excited because he was the best player in the game.
11:36And Davis.
11:37Davis did well.
11:39And Davis reminded everybody how good he is.
11:41And with Davis, how many games are you going to get out of him?
11:44And will he be there?
11:45Will he be ready to play when you most need him?
11:48And that's always the issue with Davis.
11:50But they're still not very deep, but they're a little deeper.
11:52They have tried to address the shooting thing that they needed to open up the floor.
11:57They have tried to address the shooting thing, including a drafting of the neck to connect
12:02the first round draft pick.
12:03But Hachimura, I got somebody else I forget.
12:06They're trying to load up with shooters, and they should.
12:09So that was going to be very intriguing to me, above all.
12:13Interesting to see how San Antonio develops with Wimbayana and Pop, who is now 70, God
12:22knows.
12:23Is he going to be rejuvenated with this youngster and that possibility?
12:31You're going to want to see how they do, of course.
12:36In our division, we've got an interesting coach, the new coach of the Nets, Jordi Fernandez.
12:43Jordi or Jordi, I'll say Jordi Fernandez.
12:46The first native, the first Spaniard man to ever head coach in the NBA, and an intriguing
12:53international resume, and spent the last two years as the associate head coach in Sacramento.
13:01And he's got his first head coaching job.
13:04And of course, we have a Serb coaching the Raptors, and Radjakovic.
13:10So two-fifths of our division rivals are coached by Europeans.
13:15Very interesting.
13:18But overall, the Warriors are going to be interesting.
13:24Is it over or not?
13:25The Thompson thing was messy, it wasn't handled well, I don't think.
13:33I think they've got a lot of mileage on the tires, Bob, man.
13:36Yeah.
13:38Curry's 36.
13:42We saw what he can do in the gold medal game.
13:47God, he's still the greatest shooter of all time.
13:50But they have issues.
13:56What do you think about Curry?
13:58I can't.
13:59Maybe I'm forgetting something very obvious.
14:01But I don't have a prime hot seat candidate, necessarily.
14:07Because so many of the teams are dependent on getting healthy key players, such as Milwaukee,
14:13getting Giannis and keeping him healthy.
14:15And if he's not, there's a ceiling on what they can do.
14:23I don't know if he's necessarily in the hot seat.
14:25But I think Tibbs in New York, he's going to feel some heat because they improved the roster.
14:34And I think some people look at the Celtics, again, what we talked about at the top,
14:40I think the perception outside of Boston is that the Celtics might have had an easy path, right?
14:46Yeah, yes.
14:47So I think Tibbs, they can't go back.
14:51They cannot regress.
14:53No, no.
14:54But they just gave him a three-year contract.
14:57I forgot about that.
14:58So that makes sense.
14:58It just shows.
14:59Yeah, Dolan's not going to pay him.
15:01Yeah, he's not going to fire him.
15:02And the players profess fidelity to him in the paper every chance they get,
15:06that these guys, they don't care what people thought in Chicago or Minnesota.
15:11They like this guy.
15:12And they want to play for him.
15:14This is what they're telling us.
15:16And it's to a man, supposedly.
15:18Oh, we'll see.
15:19But they have to.
15:20I'm happy.
15:21That's going to be the opening night.
15:23That's going to be the flag-raising game is the Knicks.
15:25And that'll be fun.
15:27Oh, that'll be a blast.
15:28That's going to be a lot of fun.
15:29And I've said this before.
15:30I'm going to say it again.
15:31It's such a good thing that we kindle the rivalry with New York and Boston and Philadelphia.
15:36Right.
15:36Because I'm telling you, if we can begin to approximate the buzz in that building
15:41from 50 years ago with the Knicks and 30 years ago with the 76ers,
15:45it's going to be a fun season here.
15:47Oh, the regular season tickets would be terrific.
15:49There's no doubt about it.
15:51There's definitely no doubt about it.
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17:43All right.
17:44Well, that brings us to the passing of a great coach and a man that you covered,
17:49and a man that I knew from the 1975 NBA finals with Rick Barry and Clifford Ray.
17:57And is George Johnson a backup center on that team?
18:01George Swatt Johnson.
18:04That was George Swatt Johnson.
18:06George Swatt Johnson.
18:07Let's see if I can get the rest.
18:08And Phil Johnson was on that team.
18:11Gus Williams?
18:13No, no.
18:15Charlie Johnson.
18:16There were two Johnsons.
18:17Charlie was a little guard.
18:20And one of the most intriguing players on the team that year and instrumental in their
18:26playoff success was rookie Keith, not yet Jamal Wilks.
18:31That's right.
18:31Keith Wilks.
18:32That's right.
18:33Okay.
18:33And also the guard who two winning free throws in games for
18:41Kapta his season, Butch Beard.
18:44Butch Beard.
18:45And of course, at the top of the food chain, Rick Barry in one of his greatest seasons.
18:52So this was, this is a fascinating, one of the more intriguing champions in the history
18:58of the league.
19:00First of all, well, we won't go first of all, we'll finish it up.
19:04They had a, they were 48 and 34 in a regular season.
19:07I did not remember that.
19:09They were 48 and 34.
19:10They were nobody.
19:11They were not.
19:12And the heavy, heavy overall favorite were the Washington Bullets, who had defeated the
19:17Celtics.
19:19They both won 60 games that year.
19:21And the Bullets beat the Celtics in six games in the playoffs.
19:26And fair and square.
19:28You know, I thought Tommy didn't coach well, by the way.
19:30I thought he messed Cowans up a little bit and I wrote it.
19:33And, you know, I thought that was, we all know what happened there.
19:36I don't think that was Tommy's finest hour, the eight to 75 playoffs.
19:39But, but anyway, the Bullets were heavy favorites with Unselden, Hayes and company.
19:47And, but it had another good rookie, Bill Smith.
19:51Bill Smith, who, who got better and better as the season went on.
19:55He only played 14 minutes a game during the regular season, but he acquired, he had an
20:00increased role in the playoffs.
20:01And I think I most remember, I remember Bill Smith, the big six, four guard was, his father
20:06was a cable car motor man.
20:11So he was the real San Francisco kid.
20:13And that's for sure.
20:15They were, the coach, of course, was Al Adams.
20:18This is why we're talking about them.
20:19And himself, a warrior, first, last and always.
20:25He was a rookie with the Philadelphia Warriors in 1960.
20:29Moved with them to San Francisco.
20:31Then they became the Golden State Warriors.
20:33And when he died two days ago, he was still, I don't know if he was on the payroll, but
20:40he was in the hearts and minds of anybody, you know, in the organization.
20:44He was a lifelong warrior and 64 years worth of fidelity to the Warriors franchise in two
20:53different cities, three different cities, really.
20:55So a guy who was a, you know, he was as a player and this just, and I don't mean to
21:04disparage the party of the second part.
21:06It's a comparison, okay?
21:08He was the exact same player as Casey Jones.
21:11I think he was better.
21:12He had, he was a more of an offensive threat than Casey ever was.
21:16Same kind of guy, same size, same body, same tenacity on defense, the same intangibles,
21:22the same, you know, good guy quality.
21:25But the difference between Casey Jones and Al Adams was that Al Adams didn't get to play
21:30his entire college career and his entire professional career with Bill Russell.
21:36Casey Jones does not get into the Hall of Fame with any other team.
21:40It's not even remotely, it's not even a discussion.
21:43And Al Adams said he'd been, he could have, now he did get into the Hall of Fame in 2019
21:48as a contributor.
21:49So he is in the Hall of Fame.
21:51And he didn't deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, you know, as a player.
21:53I mean, no question, I'm not saying that.
21:54I'm simply saying if, so for Celtic fans, the frame of reference is he was the Casey
21:59Jones 2.0.
22:00He was absolutely the duplicate of Casey Jones, but he did spend his career with another team.
22:05His coach, now that the 75 finals was fascinating.
22:09It was the first finals with two black coaches.
22:12And then there was a lot was made out of that.
22:14And so that was history right there.
22:17And that was Casey and Al, right?
22:19It's Casey and Al.
22:20And Al's, Casey's lieutenant, Bernie Bickerstaff, there was a moment when they had a time out
22:27and Bickerstaff, they're all talking.
22:29And people tried to read stuff into that.
22:31Right.
22:32And Casey had to carry that with him all the way over to Boston.
22:35You know, that didn't mean he didn't know what he was doing.
22:38It just the way he was, you know, it was the way they did that particular time out.
22:44Anyway, so Adams coached them to the championship.
22:48But that team, they had, in the playoffs, they, I'm trying to get this to run here.
22:54They, well, where is, where is, where is, okay.
22:58Oh, they beat Seattle in six.
23:00They beat the Chicago Bulls with Sloan, Van Leer and company and Bob Love and Chuck Walker
23:07in seven.
23:08And then they went in as absolute underdog.
23:10But there's most, it was a unique, and I'm using that word properly, a unique finals
23:16in that it was a best of seven.
23:19And it was, but it was neither a 2-3-2 or a 2-2-1-1-1.
23:26And the reason was the Warriors, the Bullets had home court advantage.
23:32Right.
23:33They were, let's see, Bullets.
23:37I got them here.
23:38Oh, they were, whatever.
23:45Anyway, they ran a lot.
23:46They ran home court.
23:47But the Warriors played their ordinary, ordinarily played their home games in the Oakland house
23:51and the Oakland arena.
23:52Okay.
23:53It wasn't available.
23:54There was scheduling.
23:56Yeah.
23:57Wasn't available at the time when they needed it.
23:59Right.
24:00So now they're going to play in the Cow Palace, the famous Cow Palace, which, which was among
24:04other things, it was once a site of a democratic convention.
24:08Right.
24:08Anyway, I was in here once, I have to say in the Cow Palace.
24:12But if they had the weekend, the games, if it was two, it was 2-2-1-1-1, it was going
24:18to be, and the two, three games, three and four weekend was Memorial Day weekend.
24:25And that building wasn't available either.
24:29I'm not making this up.
24:31So the Bullets have a choice.
24:33The Bullets, excuse me.
24:35Yeah, they're the Bullets.
24:36They have a choice.
24:38They can go.
24:43Oh, two, three.
24:45Oh, they can go start off at Golden State and then get two, three and four at home.
24:53Okay.
24:54Okay.
24:54Or have their home game, game one at home and then go out to Oakland.
25:03Right.
25:04It would be 1-2-2-1-1-1.
25:07Okay.
25:08I'm not making this up.
25:09They decided they didn't want to give up game one at home.
25:13They wanted game one at home to get an advantage right away.
25:17So it was 1-2-2-1-1-1 if it were to go seven.
25:22Game one, though they had the home, they forfeited their home court advantage in game one to
25:27play the game in the Cow Palace at the new date.
25:33And they lost.
25:34And they lost 1-0-1 to 95.
25:37And they were, I remember, they were stunned.
25:40They just destroyed their equilibrium.
25:44Now they go out to Oakland for two games.
25:47Right.
25:47First game, Oakland wins by one point.
25:50I mean, Warriors win by one, 92-91.
25:53And now the next game is 1-0-9-1-0-1.
25:56So now they're down 0-3, going back home.
25:58Going back home.
26:00I was present at the games in Washington, but not the games in Oakland, in San Francisco.
26:05Okay.
26:07So I covered that final fourth game.
26:09And I remember it very well.
26:12Rick Barry had a great series.
26:14Rick Barry's numbers in his four games, points assist, 24-5, 36-4, 38-6, and in game four,
26:2320-5.
26:25And the game, it was, as I said, it was a 96-95 game at two winning free throws by Butch Beard.
26:33Well, they swept them and they stunned them.
26:34And one of the keys to the series, technically, was young, six foot six, 180 pound, whatever,
26:42Keith Wilkes.
26:43Keith Wilkes.
26:44Held his own with Elvin Hayes, in the peak of Elvin Hayes's.
26:48Yeah.
26:49And that was key without that matchup.
26:52He did a terrific job.
26:54He didn't let Hayes overwhelm them.
26:57So that's their town.
26:58Here's their team, their roster.
27:00We went over it.
27:01But Rick Barry, Jamal Wilkes, Butch Beard, a two-headed center monster of Clifford Ray
27:09and George Swatt Johnson, nicknamed so-called because he was a great shot blocker.
27:15Right, right, right, right.
27:16And substitute guard, Charlie Johnson, another substitute guard, Charles Dudley.
27:22And that was pretty much the bulk of it.
27:25I got to tell you this.
27:27The next year, I'm in Oakland, and I buy a T-shirt.
27:32They have a commemorative T-shirt for the 75.
27:35Right.
27:36And the entire roster is on your back, OK?
27:40And I was going around saying, I'm the only kid in my block with Steve Bracey's name on my back.
27:45Steve Bracey was like the 11th man from Tulsa.
27:49And then Frank Kendrick out of Purdue.
27:53So I had that shirt for like 30 years and finally wore it out.
27:57I wish I still had it.
27:58That's a great shirt.
27:59I loved it.
28:00I loved that shirt.
28:01It was beautiful powder, that nice blue.
28:03Did Barry ever, did he ever have a year like that following that?
28:09He was in the midst of a good one.
28:12Yeah, he did.
28:14And then he was in the midst.
28:17That was in year three of his six-year second tenure with the Warriors.
28:22Originally, he was a warrior in Philadelphia.
28:25Right.
28:26And then he jumped to the ABA.
28:29That's it.
28:29That's where you're right.
28:30Very controversially.
28:32He went to the ABA.
28:32Who did he play for in the ABA?
28:34He played for the Oakland Oaks.
28:37He played for his father-in-law.
28:39He married the coach's son, the daughter in Miami, who's Hale.
28:44And he married Pam Hale.
28:47And then Bruce became coach of the Oakland Oaks.
28:49And he went up playing for his father-in-law, his then father-in-law.
28:53They got divorced after 16 years.
28:56He's the mother of the first crop.
28:59Right.
29:00And his current wife is the mother of Canyon, who played in our three-on-three team in the Olympics.
29:07Okay.
29:08Okay.
29:08So, but anyway, so Barry, you know, until Larry Bird came along,
29:12he was the greatest passing forward that we'd ever seen.
29:15And also the foul shot.
29:16The foul shot was classic.
29:17And the underhand free throw, a consummate scorer, and a highly controversial figure, you know.
29:23Well, yeah.
29:23Let's talk about the personality with him.
29:25He was complex.
29:28The word arrogant seems to fit.
29:32Really.
29:33Yeah.
29:34He was arrogant.
29:35And he was a know-it-all.
29:37And he didn't suffer fools very gladly at all.
29:42And, you know, he was a hard guy to coach, I think.
29:44And, you know, I had a nice, you know, my little tenuous relationship, man.
29:51My little was good with him.
29:53And I'll tell you, he did a nice thing in 1976, when the word got out that I was getting off the
30:00beat the final year.
30:02And we were at the finals the next year.
30:03Remember, he was doing TV.
30:05Right.
30:05I remember him on CBS.
30:07Yeah, right.
30:08And he comes over to me and says, yeah, I hear you're leaving.
30:10You know, I wish you luck and all that.
30:11It was really nice.
30:12You know, a lot of people wouldn't believe that out of him.
30:16Believe me.
30:16But that was him.
30:18Well, I thought he was a very good analyst.
30:20Oh, he knows the game.
30:21And he's very, I won't say bitter, but very angry that his personality preceded him, if you will.
30:29He could never get a coaching job.
30:31He thought he would have had a lot to offer.
30:34And people didn't want to hire him.
30:37Yeah.
30:39You know, he was a very, very specific piece of work.
30:42I'll tell you that.
30:43But anyway, that team, it goes down, as time has gone on now and all these years have gone by,
30:49it still remains the biggest single upset, I think, in the finals.
30:53Well, I think so.
30:54Yeah.
30:54The Warriors, I mean, the Bullets were such a prohibitive favorite.
30:57And the Warriors, and with all these other no-names, you know, I mean, who were getting
31:02time for the Charles Johnsons and Charles Dudleys of the world.
31:08And with the rookie Wilks playing a prominent role.
31:12Now, Rick was the MVP in the finals.
31:15Right.
31:15He wasn't the MVP in the league.
31:17No, no, no.
31:17He never was.
31:18He never won one.
31:19McAdoo was the MVP that year, by the way.
31:21Oh, for the Braves.
31:22Sure.
31:22Okay.
31:22Yes, he was the MVP.
31:24And Barry was the finals MVP, of course.
31:27But it goes down in history, you know, for the number one biggest upset ever.
31:31Yeah.
31:32And B, the two black coaches.
31:33And Al Adels, you know, becoming the first, well, the second black coach, because Bill
31:37Russell had won, you know, a championship too.
31:40But Al Adels, then he went into the front office and he died, you know, he lived and
31:48died as a Warrior from 1960 until he died two days ago.
31:51And a universally popular man, a wonderful.
31:54And also, what a voice.
31:55What a radio.
31:56His voice started down somewhere near his shin.
31:58Oh, okay.
31:59Oh, what a voice.
32:01Yeah.
32:01Fantastic voice.
32:02Also, someone put a great X out today.
32:05And I remember it very well.
32:06It said, and he rocked leisure suits.
32:11This is the height of the leisure suit.
32:12And he had great lapels.
32:16And man could rock the lapels.
32:18He could rock the lapels.
32:20Yeah.
32:21Without question.
32:22Bob, did you ever own a leisure suit?
32:25No.
32:26No, I didn't own a leisure suit.
32:27I did have bell-bottom pants.
32:30Well, everybody did.
32:31I, what I'm saying, that's as close as I would get.
32:33I had bell-bottom pants, but I did not have a leisure suit.
32:36Did you?
32:37No, no, no, no.
32:38In Maine?
32:39No, no.
32:39Flannels shirts, baby.
32:42Leisure suit in Rumford, Maine?
32:44Come on.
32:46What are you, nuts?
32:47I was just up your way yesterday.
32:48I was speaking at a group of authors at the Weld Public Library.
32:55Oh, okay.
32:56And Maddie Bujold, who runs it, was, she put together a panel of 12 authors.
33:0312.
33:04And we spoke for five minutes about writing, or hopefully about writing.
33:09I spoke about writing.
33:10Some of them deviated.
33:14Anybody we know?
33:15Anybody we may know?
33:16Anybody from Mexico or Rumford?
33:18No.
33:19You know, I didn't know anybody myself.
33:21But so, a couple people known.
33:24So, that's some task to gather, well, you know, people, authors in Weld, Maine, on a
33:32Thursday afternoon.
33:33No, that's not an easy task.
33:35It was an honor.
33:35It was nice to be there.
33:36Yep.
33:37Weld, one of the great towns.
33:39All right, Bob, always a pleasure.
33:40We'll talk to you again soon as we remember Al Adels and as we take a look at the coaching
33:44situation for the NBA in this upcoming season.
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