- 10 hours ago
Willard and Dibs continue to reminisce about the late great Don Nelson, who passed away yesterday. He was such a unique figure in sports.
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00:00What would you have rather attended?
00:06Game six elimination.
00:08We believe Warriors take down the number one seed, the Dallas Mavericks.
00:12Okay.
00:13Could have attended that game.
00:16Or what happened after?
00:20Which was?
00:21Oh, you don't know?
00:23You want to hear about it?
00:24I would love to.
00:25Okay.
00:26Because I believe I was at both.
00:28So, yeah.
00:31Wait.
00:33I mean, game six might have.
00:36No, that would have been home.
00:37Yeah, exactly.
00:38Were you there?
00:39Oh, for sure.
00:40And then you were at the after party, too?
00:42Oh, no.
00:43I thought you meant what happened after, which was over Kirilenko.
00:48An elevation sensation.
00:51No, no, no, no.
00:51No, no, no.
00:52Not that.
00:53Oh, not that.
00:54And I don't mean.
00:56Yeah, I don't mean, like,
00:57whatever party you had after the game when the Warriors defeated the Mavericks.
01:02I mean their party.
01:03Oh.
01:04Their party.
01:05Didn't make that one.
01:06Check my email.
01:08Didn't get an evite.
01:09Well, it seemed to be a little bit of an extemporaneous piece.
01:13I bet.
01:14I don't know that actual invites and there was no, you know, registry or anything for this.
01:19It just kind of happened.
01:21Matt Barnes, Stephen Jackson, all the smoke podcast with a little story about what happened
01:28after the game.
01:292007, we believe, game six, legendary night.
01:34So we beat the Dallas Mavericks, man.
01:35First number eight seed to knock a number one seed out in the seven game series.
01:39Unconscious.
01:39The kicking spot after every game was Jack's house.
01:41This is what's legendary about the night.
01:43Yeah, we won.
01:45But I don't think some teams who won the actual championship did what we did after the first
01:50round.
01:51You lame mother.
01:52So we go to Jack's house, you know, drink, smoke.
01:55There was a couple of us.
01:56Who was there?
01:56Baron had Kate Hudson, Jessica Alba.
02:00And what's his name?
02:01Owen Wilson.
02:02Owen Wilson.
02:03Owen Wilson was there as well.
02:04So the party started at my house.
02:05So then we go upstairs.
02:06So we chill the Jacks and we go upstairs.
02:08So Nelly has the whole floor at Jack's complex.
02:10What floor are you on?
02:11Like 17?
02:12I was on 11.
02:13He had the roof.
02:14He had the whole penthouse.
02:16The whole roof was his.
02:17As soon as we get in there, Nelly's show.
02:18This is all you hear.
02:20Fellas!
02:21Woody Harrelson in the back rolling doobies.
02:23And we look at each other like, what the f***?
02:25That's our coach.
02:26I mean, he was always cool.
02:27He knew we smoked, but it wasn't.
02:28I didn't know he didn't care that everyone else knew.
02:30So another person that happened to be in town was Snoopy.
02:32He came to the game.
02:33D-O-double-G.
02:34And he told me to hit him when we get done.
02:35So I hit Snoop and he, you know, you know, Snoop, pull up, nephew.
02:39So we go to the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco.
02:42This is when he had just dropped the blue carpet treatment.
02:44Ritz-Carlton now.
02:45We in there.
02:46Obviously, we start smoking.
02:47So all Snoop would do is Snoop would break it up, roll it, hit it one time, pass it.
02:5150 boxes of Swisher.
02:53And start going on another one.
02:54We had like two blunts in our hands getting one pass to us.
02:58Like, it was the most epic smoking session ever.
03:00Like, crazy.
03:01My sister got so hot, she didn't even smoke.
03:03She passed out from a contact eye.
03:05Just fell asleep on the couch.
03:07Then we ordered everything off the menu.
03:09So this is the crazy part.
03:10So room service brings the food in, right?
03:13The room is, I'm talking about, you can't see it's all smoked out.
03:17Remember, we in the Ritz-Carlton.
03:19After they bring the food they leave out, they come right back and knock on the door.
03:22So, you know, when you hear that knock, you think you smoking a hard knock.
03:24I'm looking at Snoop like...
03:26Because we still in season.
03:27As players, when you hear that heavy knock, like that police knock, it's like,
03:31God damn, here's the security.
03:33I'm like, they told on us.
03:34Ritz-Carlton.
03:35They told on us.
03:36Man, these motherfuckers come in the room.
03:38Excuse us, how y'all doing?
03:39Open windows.
03:41Unscrewed.
03:42Unscrewing the windows.
03:43They make it...
03:43Open the windows just so the smoke can go out.
03:46Told us, good gang, what's up, Snoop.
03:49Let them know if we need anything.
03:50We get that knock.
03:51They come and pull our ass out the room.
03:53Throw us out the hotel.
03:54I'm going to go scale the side of the hotel wall and hide.
03:56With Snoop, they come open the windows for them.
03:58They'll lock windows and let the smoke out.
04:00Unscrewed windows in the Ritz.
04:01I think I'm still high from that night.
04:03Hell of a night, man.
04:04Game 6, 2007, we believe.
04:07Wow.
04:08I had never heard that story.
04:10That is incredible.
04:11Okay.
04:12There's so much to unpack there.
04:14First of all, you and I have been working in radio for a long time.
04:18Yep.
04:18We've been doing this for a number of years.
04:19I have never heard that long of a censorship beep in my entire career.
04:28I wonder, like, what the combination of words could possibly be.
04:31It was one word, just the F word, and really emphasized the U.
04:35Gotcha.
04:36Duck.
04:38Yeah.
04:39Okay, Matt.
04:40Okay.
04:43I didn't know that those hotel windows opened.
04:46I didn't even know you could do that.
04:48Like a sliver, right?
04:49I mean.
04:50They were open to where you could, like, get out.
04:52No, you just said they had to unscrew them.
04:53Like, you had to bring a toolbox in there.
04:55Start opening up windows.
04:58Open windows in hotels and high-rises.
05:01Freak me out.
05:02Everybody's partying, and now the windows are open, and you're 1,000 feet in the air.
05:06But anyway.
05:07Literally, they open, like, about two inches.
05:09Yeah, exactly.
05:10To where, like, even, like, the smallest baby couldn't get through there.
05:13But, yeah, I was surprised to hear that.
05:15Like, I had no idea that that happened.
05:17And then, as I was listening to that, I went back to the game log and just looking at that
05:23game, game six, where, you know, the Warriors trying to close them out at home and, you know,
05:27do something unheard of, and they absolutely owned them in the third.
05:33I think it was 36 to 15.
05:35Yeah.
05:35And I'm looking at the log, and it was Steven Jackson, three.
05:39Steven Jackson, three.
05:40Steven Jackson, technical free throw.
05:43And then another three.
05:45Another three.
05:45A 13 straight point from Steven Jackson.
05:48Nice.
05:48And now, all of a sudden, you're up by a dozen.
05:51Barron makes a layup.
05:51You're up 14.
05:52And it's all about night-night, Avery Johnson.
05:55Hmm.
05:57That team had a way, and I'll never forget this.
06:00It was actually the next series against Utah when they lost.
06:05But if memory serves, God, which game was it that they won?
06:09I think game three.
06:11I think they won game three in a five-game series loss against Utah, if I'm remembering correctly.
06:18But I was at work, and I remember the guy I was working with.
06:24His name was Craig Larson.
06:26And he was, I don't know if he was our producer.
06:30By then, he might have been assistant program director or whatever, but I'll never work with him for a long
06:34time.
06:35And he was not a Warrior fan, because this was down in L.A., but I was a Warrior fan,
06:39and he knew that.
06:40And the We Believe thing had happened.
06:42They had eliminated Dallas, but then they went up against a different animal in Utah, and they were falling short.
06:49But the energy of switching game three back to Oakland, they had the Curry flurry before Curry existed, is kind
07:00of the way I would describe it.
07:02That team would just get going from three.
07:06And if they hit you with a flurry, that's what would happen, what you just described in the third quarter
07:11of game six.
07:13But from Barron to Jack to Al Harrington and even Matt Barnes and the rest, like they could just get
07:21going, and they would put up points in bunches.
07:25And I think it was that game three against Utah, it may have been the second quarter where they finally
07:31started, they had one of those flurries.
07:33And he just looked at me, my producer, and he goes, here we go, here we go.
07:38And the reason it stuck with me is because that was like what was quintessentially that team.
07:45They weren't just good at basketball.
07:47They weren't just hot.
07:48They had this show to them.
07:52And when it started hitting, the whole thing would just start rolling downhill, and they could turn a six-point
08:00lead into a 19-point lead in the blink of an eye.
08:03And it very much, from a team standpoint, reminds me of what Steph and Clay and the rest of the
08:11group perfected to another level years later.
08:14But that just, whap, where like you think, okay, we're doing this, they're doing that, and the next thing you
08:20know, they're like, whoa, whoa.
08:22They just hit us with a 15-2 run.
08:24Right.
08:25And we're out.
08:25And part of that was like the Nelly genius, I think, that he was ahead of the curve on so
08:30many different things.
08:31And I'm looking at the box score right now of that very game, game three, where the Warriors won it.
08:35And, you know, Baron dunks on Kirilenko, hello.
08:39And it's one of the all-time great calls.
08:41Like, Hubie Brown is making a point about something, and Mike Tirico, oh, oh.
08:46And then Hubie's like, hello.
08:48It's a great call.
08:49But in that game, Utah took 14 threes.
08:53Yeah.
08:53The Warriors made 15 threes.
08:56Oh, yeah.
08:57I mean, if you think about it through the years, I love what you're saying, because in a way, through
09:01multiple generations, the Golden State Warriors franchise has elevated the three.
09:07They have perfected the three.
09:09All of those things.
09:11They have the Splash Brothers, but they had this before that.
09:13You know, the Monte Ellis thing we were talking about there during the crossover was interesting.
09:18It led Ephraim and I last night to start looking at stats between Monte and Steph and some others.
09:26And basically, through those early years where Monte was when he was a little bit of a veteran, and then
09:35Steph sort of came into his own as a player with the Warriors, listen to this.
09:39The number of threes that Steph averaged in a game, just an average number of makes, it took Monte two
09:49and a half games to attempt that many.
09:52Wow.
09:52On average.
09:53That's how, you know, the elevation of that shot, the perfecting of it.
10:00So I think even the early stages of it are Don Nelson's teams.
10:06Right, and I go back to his teams in Milwaukee in the 70s when I was a kid, and, you
10:11know, my brother was a big fan of Sidney Moncrief for whatever reason.
10:14And so, like, Sidney Moncrief, and he went to the point forward back in Milwaukee in the late 70s and
10:19early 80s, and he was always pushing that envelope.
10:21And, you know, he got here, and it didn't work out with Weber, and then he came back, and he
10:26had this unbelievable group.
10:27And, you know, sometimes the coach lands with just the right group at the right time, and that was that.
10:32And, again, they won five playoff games.
10:35They didn't win all 16 and get a chip, but until we got to the Steph Curry dynasty, that was,
10:41like, the high-water mark.
10:42Like, that was it.
10:43No doubt.
10:43And for some of the side reasons we've already discussed, but also because there was an entire generation plus of
10:50fans who had barely never seen any success at all.
10:54So going to the second round back then was tremendous.
10:58You know, you didn't have any of the stuff that's happened since Steph and Clay and Steve Kerr and Iguodala
11:05and Durant.
11:06You didn't have any of that yet.
11:07So our bar was completely different.
11:10It's a completely different bar.
11:11Right.
11:11You had the run TMC, which was a brief, like, and we all think that, oh, I mean, Timmy and
11:17Mitch and Mully, they played here for a long time.
11:19I think it was a year and a half.
11:21Was it that short?
11:22It might be two and a half.
11:24It was not much more than that.
11:25It had to be more than a year and a half.
11:26It's crazy that you say that because I've actually looked it up, and it was not that long.
11:31And, you know, they made that little flash in the playoffs and then awesome and run TMC, great moniker, and
11:38then, you know, Mitch left.
11:40And Billy Owens left and, you know, Tim left and Chris left and all the rest of it, but between
11:451987, when they made the playoffs and 89, they made the playoffs, it was a whole long stream of, like,
11:5419, 21, 19 wins.
11:56And, I mean, and this is where Stiney's book, I mean, I hope you're listening, Stiney.
12:01I know you're not, but that's the book that you need to write, like, the long, long desert of Golden
12:07State Warrior basketball.
12:09Because he was here for all of it.
12:11Well, there's your title.
12:12The Desert.
12:13The Desert.
12:14Yeah.
12:15Right.
12:16And then there'll be a subtitle that explains what it's about.
12:19Right.
12:19The Warriors were really bad, and I had to sit through it without a glass of water.
12:25Royalty on the line, Philmo Mike.
12:27Hey, Philmo.
12:28I was hoping you'd call today.
12:29What's up, brother?
12:31Hey, man.
12:32What's up, Patrol?
12:34Man, Nelly, man.
12:35Just to talk about Monte real quick.
12:36I know it's about Nelly, but when Monte was, like, in his first year, or the first two years,
12:43his pull-up jumper game was, man, he was so good.
12:48It was, it's crazy how good, how he used to finish.
12:52He was probably one of the prettiest finishers I've ever seen.
12:56So, with that being said, Nelly was awesome.
12:58I remember, see, a lot of this talk about Nelly is funny because he, he, he, he fell
13:04from top away his final year, and he brought Chris Webber back.
13:08That was, it was a weird situation.
13:11And that team won about, I think they won 50, 48 games still, or whatever, how many games
13:15they won, but didn't make the playoffs.
13:18But, still, it's a decent team.
13:21But, I remember vividly, Don Nelson, it was after Chicago, he played Chicago on the road.
13:29He said to the team, or he said to the reporter, he said, man, I think I, I can't, I
13:33just can't
13:34seem to get enough out of these players, man.
13:36Like, I don't know.
13:37Like, he almost like, was like, it was like a, it was like a, like a sad rallying cry.
13:43Like, man, we got to do something about this.
13:46And right after that, and you were totally right, Mark, those teams would blitz you.
13:52It was crazy.
13:52Like, they would just blitz you and go on like these many 16-4, 22 runs, and the game would
13:58be over.
13:59And they, and they did that before.
14:01And the interesting thing about, we believe, wow, somebody just called me Big Lips.
14:05That's hella funny.
14:06Anyway, the game before, we, they said, hey, Big Lips.
14:10Oh, wow.
14:10Anyway, the game before, that season, we had Dallas's number for whatever reason.
14:18We had that number.
14:20We keep, like, Stack Jack was good at pressing up on Dirk, and he was long.
14:25If you look at Stack, he's super long.
14:27He's like 6'9", when you see him in person.
14:29It's incredible.
14:30But man, rest in peace to Nelly, man.
14:32My condolences to the family.
14:34Like you said, Mark, like, all I could think about with Nelly, complete opposite of PJ Carlissimo.
14:40It was a, it was really a great timeout.
14:43Really.
14:43Hell yeah.
14:44We had fun.
14:45We had fun teams.
14:46And yeah, man.
14:47So he's just a, you can hate Nelly, and then you'll love him on the other side.
14:52It's crazy.
14:53Philmo, it's a good call, man.
14:55Appreciate Philmo Mike checking in on all of that.
14:58Yeah, like I, in a way, there's almost, I don't know if you feel this.
15:04And jealousy is not the right word.
15:06I think admiration is more it.
15:08I think a lot of us look at a person like Don Nelson, and we sort of wish we had
15:15the guts to act that way.
15:17That's the way I look at it.
15:19We wish we had the guts to act that way.
15:21Because most people don't.
15:22I don't.
15:23I get it.
15:24It's really hard to zig when everyone else is zagging.
15:27It's very hard.
15:29Sometimes you, whether it's, you know, having to have blind faith, or if you get to a spot where you've
15:34got the resources to do so, I think there's levels to this.
15:37It's one, like, having a different style of basketball.
15:40But then all of a sudden, it's like, I'm going to take the players that other people don't want.
15:43I'm going to let them do whatever the hell they want.
15:45I might do it with them.
15:46But then, you know, you become a man of resource.
15:49He becomes a very rich man, and all of a sudden, he's like, yeah, that's how I'm going to do
15:55the last third of life.
15:57I'm going to go to Hawaii, grow out gray hair, and openly tell people that I smoke tons of weed.
16:04It's just like, boy, that sounds like a ton of fun.
16:08But most humans that I've met, including myself, you just would never, and again, I don't know if it's have
16:17the guts to do it, but just that freedom, that it looks like he, that peace within that he had,
16:26I don't think most human beings ever get to achieve that.
16:30I wish that for all of us.
16:31Right.
16:32I mean, I really do.
16:33And at 86, it's not like he got there for the last, like, three months of his life.
16:37He's been doing this for 10, 15, maybe even more.
16:41And, you know, Willie Nelson is one of his closest friends, and they're playing poker in Hawaii.
16:45And, you know, you've got this life where you decide that you want to do these things, and so you
16:50go do it.
16:51And I do think that that's a great point that you make about all of us, you know, getting to
16:55that spot.
16:56And right now I've got an almost four-year-old daughter, so I can't totally check out and, like, you
17:01know, go to the lettuce around the clock.
17:03It's probably going to be frowned upon in certain sectors of my house.
17:07I would think.
17:08Right.
17:08But, you know, for Nelly, it's like you played, you were a champion, you coached, you didn't win a title,
17:14but you were, like, number one all-time in wins when you retired.
17:17And then, like, I'm good.
17:18And, by the way, it doesn't need to be weed or alcohol.
17:22Whatever it is for you, whatever that is for you, I wish this for all of us.
17:29Can you get to a point where, A, you are completely, authentically you, and you truly, and I mean 100%,
17:40do not give a rip what anyone else says, thinks, or does.
17:50Can you do it?
17:52The answer for most of us is no, but that's okay because I also think that means it remains this
18:00carrot that's out there for us to chase.
18:04Whether you get there 30, 40, 50, 60, or never, I think that's the goal, and I think that's why
18:11Nelly is so well-liked is because he did that.
18:16You could tell that that's how he was living, and people gravitate to that.
18:20No doubt, and I also think that the whole, like, redemption story of Nelly himself where he comes here and
18:27the Weber thing happens, and I remember, you know, not being on the air, of course, because it wasn't really
18:32sports talk radio times, but I remember you either were Team Weber or Team Nelly.
18:36Nelly is, like, a bad guy.
18:38He's trying to coach him the wrong way, or Weber's being a crybaby, and he should do what the coach
18:43says, so it was kind of split down the middle, 50-50, and then the fact that Weber left,
18:48and then Nelly left, that was the part to me that was like, what are we, I mean, what are
18:52we doing?
18:52What are we doing?
18:53Like, if you're going to make that call, then whoever you keep, you keep, and I thought they should have
18:58kept Weber the whole time.
18:59Of course.
18:59And so Nelly eventually leaves, and he goes and coaches, what, the Knicks, and then did Dallas, and, you know,
19:05his son's there, and he eventually comes back.
19:07It's like, oh, I mean, is this what we're doing?
19:09And then the we believe thing happens, and that was the absolute high-water mark of my life as a
19:14Warrior fan.
19:15Well, that's because of so many of the other things you're describing that came before it.
19:20You know, yeah, that's perfectly Golden State Warriors.
19:24We've got Weber and Nelly.
19:26Who do you want?
19:27Take a side, and the answer is neither.
19:30You get nothing, Warrior fan.
19:32I mean, for those of us, and again, I don't know, to what level, like, did 1975 register with you?
19:39What were you, eight?
19:40Six?
19:41No, I was six, yeah.
19:42Okay, so no, not really.
19:44Not really.
19:44And I'm not throwing that out, you know, with the bathwater here.
19:49I'm like, if you're 70.
19:50No, they tried to throw me out with the bathwater.
19:52I was six.
19:53Yeah, but I mean, if you're 70 in 1975 and Rick Barry and everything meant a lot to you, then
19:58that's great.
19:58Like, I was born, I was five months old when all of that happened.
20:02So, I have no recollection of it, and after that.
20:05Conceived in the regular season.
20:07Well, nothing else to do.
20:09You do.
20:10The Warriors are the road in Detroit.
20:11Watch some game against the bullets or something like that.
20:13Yeah, Tom.
20:14Tom, Tom, turn the TV off.
20:15Seriously, exactly.
20:15Get up off the couch, go over there and push the knob.
20:19That's right.
20:19Turn the TV off.
20:20And we go to the other room.
20:22So, anyway, that's what we got as Warrior fans.
20:25Bubkiss.
20:27Bubkiss.
20:28Right.
20:28And so, we were entertained.
20:31We were easily amused.
20:33We were entertained by a lot less.
20:35And, you know, it's a conversation for a different day, but I don't think it's an unworthy conversation, which is
20:42to say, like, that's the innocence that you do lose after a dynastic run.
20:48Not saying I want to go back.
20:50But sometimes I do think this is why maybe I get kind of branded or ripped for, you know, the
20:58things that I still think are really good, even though they're not.
21:01Championship or boss.
21:02Championship or boss.
21:02I'm like, no, be entertained by the daily.
21:08Because that's the way it used to be, man.
21:10And you'd get out of the first round and we'd make a documentary about it.
21:14But then the championships come and now those days are gone, man.
21:20It's over.
21:21You can't.
21:22Right.
21:22For now.
21:23For now.
21:24Don Henley, the end of the innocence.
21:25I guess it'll regenerate, but it takes a long time.
21:29The 49ers have not won a Super Bowl in a long time.
21:33And we are not entertained by just making the Super Bowl and losing.
21:37You're right.
21:37And I also think about the Giants as a good example where we're now going to be, assuming they don't
21:42make a run and the math is there,
21:45this will be the 12th consecutive year or the 13th, rather.
21:49I think it's 11 years, one winning season.
21:54Right.
21:54There were a couple of 500s in there, too.
21:56They earned seven and then they lost in five games.
21:58They lost a wild card in 2018, whatever.
22:01But I do think that we are getting to the point now where, especially younger people like Mark Grandy, who's
22:0630,
22:06where, you know, 12 years ago when they won it, he was 18.
22:10And, yeah, that was the good stuff.
22:11But now you're starting to, like, look at it and go, okay, can we at least, like, threaten it?
22:16Well, that's the thing.
22:17I think Giants fans would be a little bit more, rightfully so, calm if the team was at least dancing,
22:26be in the room.
22:28Like, we're sitting out on the sidewalk without an invitation for a long time now.
22:32Red velvet rope.
22:33Red velvet rope.
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