Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 6/18/24

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports including the Boston Celtics winning their record 18th NBA championship title, plus they chat with Canadian tennis great Daniel Nestor ahead of his Canada Sports Hall of Fame induction.  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. You're listening to Halford & Brough. We have to embrace the hardness. It's going to get really hard. It's over. Time to say it get really hard. It's over. Time to say it again, Boston. Anything's possible. Banner number 18 has been secured.

The Celtics are NBA champions. Anything's possible. I got Kevin. I've been saying it all day. It's like, what are they going to say now? All they said, I couldn't win. And I did it. I kind of live by saying, if you ain't got no haters, you ain't popping.

So hate away. Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. This is Alfred. It is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.

Good morning, Michael. Good morning, Jason. Hey, dawg. Good morning to you. Good morning. And, Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Alfred and Brough for the morning Good morning to you. Good morning. And, Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough for the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda.

Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver.

We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Rafi, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that is what you are waiting for. Our guest list today begins at 6.30. Greg Wyshynski from ESPN is going to join us. It is another opportunity for the Florida Panthers

to win the Stanley Cup tonight. It's another opportunity for the Edmonton Oilers to stave off elimination. Wish will be joining us from Florida at 6.30 as we look ahead to tonight's game. 7 o'clock, get this, Canadian Sports Hall of Fame inductee and Canadian tennis legend Daniel Nestor

is going to join the program. He won it all. He won every tournament you could in tennis. In doubles. Yes. And I'm really looking forward to talking to Daniel about his career and about the game of doubles, which we don't really talk about much.

Laddie did a bunch of research prior to the show. Laddie's a hardworking individual and a key cog of the Halford & Brough machine. Pointed out that Daniel Nestor had a 27-year professional tennis career. 27 years. That's a long time. Especially a sport like tennis, right?

You're taxing on the body. Yeah, and then it's interesting because no one is a doubles guy. I mean, you would think that it would be just one partnership like Halford and Brough. We've been together for almost two decades. But he played with a variety of different guys, although the majority of his success came with Mark Knowles, which Laddie pointed out in the show. So Laddie did a lot of research.

I did a lot of research. Daniel Nestor interviews. Really excited about it. So he had success even after he broke up with his longtime partner. Key point. Interesting, isn't it? What happened to Mark Knowles? He coached.

Okay. He coached who? Milos Raonic. And Milos Raonic, did you see, had 47 aces in a match the other day? It was that pre-tournament event that they do in London. Did the other guy forget his racket? No, that's what I said.

I'm like, who is he playing against? 47 aces in a three-set match set a record on the ATP Tour. Yeah, so we'll talk to Daniel Nestor about all that at 7 o'clock as we are a tennis show now. 7.30, Brendan Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks. We'll talk about the Canucks, whatever else is going on. We'll look ahead to free agency as we inch closer and closer to the end of the NHL season because the NBA season is done.

8 o'clock, BC Lions running back William Stanback is going to join the show. Two games into his tenure as a BC Lion, the former CFL All-Star, most noted for his time with the Montreal Alouettes. We'll ask him about what he's seen so far. I forgot that him and big play VA Vernon Adams were teammates in Montreal.

So I'll ask him about VA in Montreal and then VA now. And we'll get to know a little bit more about BC's new running back, William Stanback at eight o'clock. Brandon Batchelor at 730. Daniel Nestor at seven. Greg Wyshynski at 630. That is today's guest list. Let's get into what's happening.

Without any further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because we know how busy your life can be what happened you missed that what happened what happened is brought to you by the bc construction safety alliance making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools resources and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. The Boston Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 last night in Game 5 of the NBA Finals,

capturing the title and securing their league record 18th title. They move past the Lakers franchise, who won 17 in Minneapolis and Los Angeles, to become the most successful NBA franchise of all time. And they did it in what many are saying. Many, Jason, was the worst NBA playoffs in recent memory. Well, first of all, let's focus on the Celtics because there's a lot of articles out there that are asking the question, is this going to be a dynasty? And I realized that that's what editors ask writers to do a lot. They're like, okay, they got one. How many more could they get?

I remember getting that assignment after the LA Kings won in 2012. And I was kind of like, you realize the NHL doesn't work like this, right? And I realized they did win one more, and I was kind of like, you realize the NHL doesn't work like this, right? It is. And I mean, I realize they did win one more, but it was kind of like hockey's different than the NBA. But it is appropriate in the NBA because I think you're looking at some of the other teams around the league right now and you're going, all right, are they going to be able to pull it together?

Because that NBA postseason, nobody came close to the Celtics. Nobody came close to the Celtics. And I know that there are people that will say, well, like, what if this team beat this team and then the Celtics had to play them? It's like, what? Yeah, but they didn't. They didn't. The Celtics were the best team in the NBA.

By far. By far. Regular season playoffs, the whole thing. And last night was there for a fitting coronation. And now they are the favorites to win again next season. It's not to the level that the Golden State Warriors got to, where they were actually like minus 180 to win a title one year. The Celtics are still plus 200 or 300 depending on the book you go to so it is more

likely than not based on those odds that another team will win the NBA title next season but I think there is a lot of people looking at other teams and going all right what are you gonna do to get into the class of the Celtics because the class of the Celtics, they are way above everyone this year. Okay, so the big question that's hanging out there in the aftermath, and I apologize to guys like Gurp and Sari who texted in all happy. Big Celtics fan has texted in numerous times talking about all the doubters and all the haters,

and there were a lot of them that didn't think Joe Mazzulla was a talented enough coach to lead a team to an NBA title, or that Tatum and Brown were never going to get it done given all their past failings. I'll say this. And we talked about it already. The Coronation last night, very appropriate.

They were the best team in the NBA this year. They were 64-18 during the regular season. And then in the first round, they beat the Heat four games to one. It wasn't particularly close. In the second round, they blew out the Cavs. They lost one game, the token loss, but they blew them out as well. Then they swept the Eastern Conference Finals. Then they went to the final and beat the Mavericks 4-1. So you're doing the math. Gentlemen sweep against the

Mavericks. And it absolutely was, if you look back on it. They wanted to win that at home on the parquet in Boston. If you look at it, they lost three games en route to an NBA title. Now the conversation goes one of two ways. The non-negative people will say, what a great run, what an appropriate coronation, and how many titles is this team destined to be set up for? The haters will say, what happens when Boston has to go up against some real teams? And that's where Halford and Brough come in,

because this NBA playoffs, I'm sorry, including Gurp and Suri especially, I don't want to rain on your parade, but that was an awful, awful NBA postseason. What about the season in general? It was a down season. Yeah. It really was. I thought the play-in was supposed to fix all that. Wasn't the play-in going to be the new exciting thing?

The play-in was meant to give maybe some teams that struggled through the regular season a second crack at it. It hasn't panned out that way. So they couldn't come close to the Celtics? Like, I don't, what's the end game here? Well, okay, let's consider this. The top two seeds in the West in the regular season were the Denver Nuggets, the defending champs, and the Oklahoma

City Thunder. Both were gone in the second round. I think it's fair to suggest the Denver Nuggets, the defending champs, and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Both were gone in the second round. I think it's fair to suggest that the Denver Nuggets, had they gotten past Minnesota and not been upset in the second round, they would have had a good shot at getting past Dallas, and they would have made a more interesting foil to the Boston Celtics in the NBA final. Not only because they were the reigning champs, but also because they possess the MVP, Nikola Jokic, and how difficult he presents a challenge,

especially for a team in the Celtics that didn't really have a big that would have been able to go up against them. When I looked at the odds for next season, the Denver Nuggets were at, like, plus 1,000. Why are people suddenly more down on the Nuggets after they won last season in fairly dominant fashion? Yeah, I do wonder the pieces around Jokic and Murray, probably part of it.

Murray was not healthy this year, and I do wonder if that's going to be a concern moving forward, because he's not exactly a huge framed individual. And I saw those same odds. I was a bit surprised because I think that with a longer offseason, that the Nuggets may be better prepped to come back next year and compete to get out of the West and be that team to get out of the West. The other thing, too, though, is that the Oklahoma City Thunder, a lot of people, that's the team on the rise, the trajectory,

because they finished first in the West this year. They've arrived a little bit earlier than some thought. Shea Gildress Alexander, obviously, the Canadian, has been great. Chet Holmgren turned into a very talented running mate next to him. So I think a lot of people are saying, does the road through the West now maybe start to go through Oklahoma City as opposed to Denver? But for the playoffs in their entirety,

too many sweeps, including the one in the Eastern Conference Final, and that the Eastern Conference Final really should have been Nick Celtics. It would have been far more entertaining than Celtics Pacers because the Pacers were just done by that point. And it's Boston, New York. And then in the final, the Mavericks were done. The Mavericks were cooked. I know that they came up against a better team,

and that better team dominated them. But the Mavericks needed one thing to happen, and it was for Kyrie and Luka to go off in tandem almost every single game. And it just never materialized because Boston was too good, too deep, too swarming on defense, and honestly, probably more committed to the bit. Like, Boston, that...

I'm not saying the Mavericks weren't happy to be there, but the Mavericks did not have as much at stake as Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown. The Celtics had to win. The Celtics had to win that. So the NBA Finals went, Boston wins the first three games, and then Dallas gets a token win at home,

and then Boston goes back to Boston, and there was never any doubt that they were winning game five, especially after it started. It didn't take long until there was some serious separation between the Celtics and the Mavs. Will the Stanley Cup final follow suit tonight? I will be shocked if the Panthers lay another egg

like they did in game four in Edmonton, but I don't necessarily think that means they're bound to win. Like if Boston came with its A game yesterday, and they did, they were going to win because they're a better team. But hockey doesn't really work like that. Hockey can be about bounces. Hockey can be, hockey can just be weird.

You can get goalied. And you can get Connor McDavid, right? Like you, so I mean, I think that the Panthers are going to win tonight. I mean, they're the favorites, but I'm certainly not super confident about it. And like we said yesterday, if the Oilers can find a way to win this game tonight, maybe they play better than the Panthers,

just play well. And maybe Bobrowski is still shaken after that game four performance. Maybe they've cracked the code to scoring on the Florida Panthers. Regardless, right? Maybe Stuart Skinner has the game of his life. That'll make game six real interesting. That's all I'm going to say.

Like I said yesterday, I don't want to say it again. All bets are off on the series. But this is a game where we should see the Oilers play desperately because they are once again fighting off elimination. But I think we should see some desperation and if not desperation, just some pride from the Florida Panthers because they didn't play with a lot of pride in game four. They really didn't.

They got blown out 8-1. They weren't focused. They had a lot of, I guess, their friends and family were in town to watch them win the Stanley Cup. And then when it became abundantly clear that they weren't going to win the Stanley Cup, they kind of gave up. See, the parallels between the NBA final and the Stanley Cup final, it's hard to ignore them.

I don't think one obviously has nothing to do with another, but it's hard not to look at how eerily similar that they were in that both of the favorites race out to 3-0 leads. They have a chance to win Game 4 on the visitors' ice and or floor. They don't, and they actually get blown out in the process. Because remember, the Boston Celtics got blown out by the Mavs in game four. It was one of the most lopsided losses in Boston Celtics playoffs finals history. And I think everyone is very well aware that the Florida Panthers didn't just lose in game four.

They got annihilated 8-1. So there is the element of, did both teams just pack it up and say, let's go win this thing at home in game five? Like after half the game, it was kind of like, well, it's not going to happen today. I mean, I've never seen a coach with a more emphatic shrug of the shoulders about what happened than Paul Maurice in game four. It was pretty funny.

He's like, yeah, you know, we got Bob some rest. He's like, and that's a good thing. But if they lose tonight, I don't think Paul Maurice is going to be shrugging his shoulders. There will be less of a shrug and it'll be more of a nervous energy that he will be emanating. But you seem tight in the shoulders. But he did not seem tight in the shoulders after game four.

He's like, you know what? We didn't do anything right. And we didn't deal with it. Like when Milos gets all angry and he's like. Yeah, he's all bundled up. That's what Paul Maurice is going to be like. So we'll talk to Greg Wyshynski coming up about Game 5 in the Stanley Cup Final tonight.

We're also going to talk to him about the Columbus Blue Jackets who fired yet another coach. What an organization. So yesterday, in news that came as a bit of a surprise given how late it is into the offseason, but maybe in hindsight, not that surprising. The Columbus Blue Jackets fired head coach Pascal Vincent, and that was orchestrated by the new general manager, Don Waddell. Now, if you're not all that familiar with Pascal Vincent's

work, it's because there's not a lot of work to be all that familiar with. He took the job, you'll remember, just weeks before the start of last season. And he had to do that. He was almost forced into it because of the situation with Mike Babcock, who resigned days after the Spittin' Chicklets podcast reported that Babcock had asked for players to share photos on their phone with him in some individual meetings. Vincent took over one year on the job. The Jackets were as bad as they've ever been.

They had 27 wins and 66 points. He was kind of known in his brief time in Columbus for healthy scratching guys. That was his big thing. He did it to Kent.

Not just any guys, but younger, up-and-coming, The one that bothered, the one that bothered, the two that bothered the fans the most were Kent Johnson,

one of their highly touted young prospects who was a high draft pick i saw kent johnson skating locally the other day no not not a while a few weeks ago he just had surgery was he yeah he looked he looked better at hockey than me good that's positive uh they also he also healthy scratch david jirchak and crew march And of course, Patrick Laine, who has now requested a trade out of Columbus. This is the, when they hire their new coach, and they're going to, I don't think they can go rudderless, although it is Columbus. It's going to be their fifth coach since the 2020-2021 season, which is a crazy amount of time.

Are they now the most dysfunctional organization in the nhl now that arizona has moved to utah and has stable ownership if they weren't already they are now um the only other one that's had this kind of coaching upheaval is buffalo which is another very dysfunctional franchise over the last decade and a bit but columbus is like number one with a bullet right now i don't really know what i mean add the layer that's added to all this is the don waddell factor because he comes in at the top and he's like what have i inherited here like let's clean this up and then that's cleaning up the mess from yarmo kekalainen who had to clean up the mess from Jarmo Kekulainen, who had to clean up the mess that he created with Mike Babcock and then had to fix that mess with Pascal Vincent. And then Don Waddell comes in and says, well,

now I got to clean up this mess that you made with Pascal Vincent, because obviously the guys weren't responding to him. It's a mess in Columbus. I'm not going to go on the usual sports radio tangent of I feel bad for the fans in Columbus. I kind of do, but the bigger picture here is that this is a franchise for the last decade that is probably whittled away whatever goodwill they've had with fans because it's not just losing. It's a series of bad choices, bad mistakes compounded by a bunch of on-ice play

that won't make anyone forget about all the bad executive decisions that have been made. And then you look at some of the contracts they've got. I mean, Johnny Goudreau is still a good player, but I don't know, he's getting older now. He's into his 30s. He's got five years left on a deal that's going to pay him $10 million. And he's got a full no-move clause um you know it would be and he's got a full no move clause you know it would be an interesting question for don waddell is that

if you were able to have taken this over before the johnny goudreau contract was signed would you would you have made that offer because i bet he's walking into this thinking that's more of a problem contract than an asset to the organization i i don't think you can blame this on Johnny Goudreau, though. You can blame it on Darmo Kekalina. Yeah, I think they just... I wonder how much is left over from... Remember when they went all in to... And they ended up winning a round.

They beat the Tampa Bay Lightning. But I just I wonder how much how many assets they spent to just get that and now that they're in this position. The other problem they've got right now is they've got Patrick Laine on a contract which is overpaying

him badly. Now there might be some teams out there that are intrigued by Patrick Laine who wants out of Columbus and I don't blame him, but are they going to have to retain half that contract? He's got an $8.7 million cap hit. Now only two years left, he's 26 and you could maybe if you were a non contender that was

looking for a high upside project, maybe you could talk yourself into Patrick Laine. I know a few people have asked, should the Canucks do this? And I even saw an article written on a blog saying that the Canucks should go after Patrick Laine. And my response was, are you out of your mind? No. I don't like him at 8.5.

I don't like him at half that at four. What if they keep eight of the 8.5 and the Canucks just take the.5? Would you do it then? Yes, Andy. Yes, I would. But that's not allowed. Despite being highly illegal.

We can make it work. Yeah. Before we go to break. Let's watch some numbers. Carry a couple zeros. Let's get an update from the Euros in Germany. There's only two matches today. No 6 a.m. match, so that's too bad.

But yesterday, everyone's pre-tournament favorite, France, got things underway. With a 1-0 victory against Austria in a match that was defined more by the broken nose suffered by Kylian Mbappe than the actual scoreline itself. Very uneven performance from the French against a feisty game Austrian side. But the big drama happened midway through the second half when Mbappe was going for a header, collided with the shoulder of an Austrian defender, and right away you could tell something was wrong because the Austrian goalie was waving to the sideline frantically to get somebody on. Mbappe bleeding profusely from the nose,

later confirmed to have a broken nose. So now all of a sudden, his, I don't necessarily think his selection is going to be cast into doubt, but how effective he's going to be because breaking a nose makes it very difficult to do things like head the soccer ball. And also breathe. And breathe, breathing stuff. And you run a lot in in football i don't know if

everyone's aware of this or not so we'll see what happens with mbappe moving forward he tweeted out afterwards if anyone had any good mask recommendations for him so he's obviously feeling okay right but he's gonna have to wear some sort of protective garb in the future matches but france gets the job done that's the big story outside of him he's Mbappe's broken nose. He's going to have to wear a full cage. You know, he might have to wear a full cage. In the other match, which kind of had ties to the Canadian team because Canada played Belgium at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, Belgium once again comes up small in the big moments.

They lose to Slovakia 1-0 in a match that was, if you want to talk about defining moments there was two here two goals wiped off the board for belgium uh after video review var one for barely offside yeah and the other for a handball well early in the well before the actual goal was scored and there was an argument over whether or not that handball should have even been called. I saw the two guys on the competing network really fighting over that. But yeah, tough break for Belgium.

Tough breaks, plural. Two Makaku goals. Screw them though, right? Well, it was funny. Canada should have beaten them. If you were deep on my Twitter with very eclectic feed, there was a lot of Canadian men's national team accounts just bemoaning the fact that Canada didn't get a result against Belgium in Qatar

because it was there for the taking. And yesterday, Slovakia sort of did what Canada wanted to do. And now you look at Belgium. They have gone three straight tournament games without scoring a single goal. If you date back to the 2022 Qatar world cup, a matter of fact, their last goal came against Canada. Right?

So there's a nice little bow on that one. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking

for. Sales, financing service, or parts. We are in Hour 2 of the program. Canadian Sports Hall of Famer Daniel Nestor is going to join us in just a moment here. They kick off Hour 2. Hour 2 is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste.

Primetime is full flavor without compromise. You can get some at a liquor store near you or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider. Powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews, sore feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec.

That's what you're waiting for. Our next guest is a pioneer and an ambassador for tennis in Canada. And this October, he will go into the Canadian sports hall of fame. Joining us now on the show, Daniel Nestor here on the Alfred and Brough show on sports net six 50. Good morning, Daniel. How are you?

Morning. Good. You guys? We're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this and congrats on the induction into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. Let us and the listeners know what it was like to get that call from the hall. Yeah, it was pretty exciting. Obviously, humbling

considering all the great names that are already inducted and then the same for great names that are already inducted, and then the same for the ones who are being inducted this year. It's an amazing group, so pretty happy to be part of it. You had such a long and successful career. How are you enjoying retirement? What are you up to these days? I enjoy it a lot.

The manager of the Jays, like 10 years years ago said he's really good at doing nothing and that kind of uh resonated with me do you still go out and hit balls once in a while i hit with my kids i play i haven't played much this year for myself just to stay in shape. I do other things to stay in shape. But, yeah, I mean, I'm still a little bit involved with Tennis Canada here and there. And, yeah, but basically a retired life. Do stuff around the house, family stuff, that kind of stuff. How old are your kids, and are they top-flight tennis players yet? No, unfortunately not.

They're okay, but they're not that passionate. A little bit too much of a country club mentality but uh the the genes the the hand-eye coordination didn't maybe their kids will be uh i guess i gotta try and convince them to have kids uh at a young age so i can help their kids well tell tell us about tell us about your childhood. How did you get so good? Where did you learn the focus at such a young age to be able to go out and practice? Because in an individual sport like tennis, I realize there are team aspects and of course doubles aspects, which we'll get to, but you need to be able to, and correct me if I'm wrong here, be able to go out and spend a lot of time by yourself,

just hitting balls against the wall or practicing your serve, whatever. Yeah, that's exactly what I did. I mean, remember 40 years ago or 45 years ago, we didn't have the distractions that we do now. So going to hit the wall, I lived beside the school that I went to, and I just walked across the street and took my racket from Kmart and my one ball or two balls if I were lucky

and I pretended I was Jimmy Connors playing against John McEnroe, Borg, whoever and I just played against the wall for hours and that's how I spent my time and I played other sports which helped me, you know, with footwork and conditioning and

all that like soccer and basketball and then you know being a little bit of an introvert I uh stuck with with tennis uh but yeah it's a it's a you know a sport that you need a lot of repetition so you know maybe not the most fun sport for a kid like I just took my kids to a junior tournament on the weekend and you know it's pretty tough because, you know, you're responsible for calling your own line. So there's a little bit of that honor system that's intact and that you don't really have with other team sports. So it's, you know, it's not the most fun sport for children, I would say.

I mean, it is fun considering you're running around and hitting a ball and doing something that is fun, but the competition aspect may not be the most fun you know you're not really in the you know team atmosphere that uh you know you can celebrate with your friends and and win and lose with your friends and that kind of stuff so if it wasn't fun or if it's not fun like why why did you find the enjoyment out of it or why did you find your passion for the game even if you were spending a lot of time just by yourself hitting the ball against the wall i loved it i mean again everyone's different uh you know my personality i didn't mind you know being on my own and and you know partaking in that kind of activity but uh i don't see it necessarily that attractive for all personalities.

But, you know, I see it, you know, it's a sport of a lifetime. I see how it caters to people from all ages. And, you know, it's something you can do to stay in shape your whole life and, you know, get started at an older age and enjoy and all that stuff. And, you know, it's a sport where you're active and moving around. And it's a pretty good fitness workout. But I'm just saying from a young age, I was fortunate enough to enjoy it a lot. I mean, there are kids.

I mean, some of these kids are amazing from a young age nowadays. And it's gotten very competitive. And, you know, these kids seem very motivated. And, you know, they're maybe a little bit different than the average kid that would just rather just you know look at a screen or or purchase something that's uh less stressful we're speaking with canadian tennis legend daniel nester and i'm not afraid to use that word canadian tennis legend uh the first time i ever saw you uh playing tennis on TV. You were playing Stefan Atberg at the Agridome in Vancouver and you ended up

winning that match. He was number one in the world. You were not. What do you remember about that match? It was, I peaked. It was all downhill and singles after that. But yeah, no, it was, you know, one of those things. I went into the match thinking I don't want to get embarrassed.

And, you know, once I kind of kept it close at the beginning, then, you know, different mentalities set in. You know, I kind of felt like I could hang. And then, you know, I kind of got in a little bit of a zone and then had some issues with my serve halfway through the match and then, you know, kind of found that rhythm. And then and then you know the rest of my game felt like it was in the zone and everything just kind of fell into place and I mean it's one of those things where you have I mean you're playing for your country but at the same time no one no one really expects

that much from you I mean it's not the same typical feeling of playing for your country where you feel like you know you if you lose you're letting your country your team uh all yourself down but you know that in that situation I you know no one expected much so I kind of was swinging for the fences and everything kind of went in that day um in terms of the doubles game you won pretty much everything there is to win at that level including the Olympic gold, all the major tournaments. You reached number one in the world in doubles for the first time in 2002, and then you held that for 108 weeks. So I got to ask, like, why did you excel so much at the doubles game?

Well, I was just better at doubles, like, even from a young age. Like, you know, the main focus was singles always, and then, you know, I stopped playing singles when I was about 30 young age like I you know the main focus was singles always and then you know I stopped playing singles when I was about 30 when I was you know I was doing pretty well at singles but I was just getting injured quite a bit because I was still playing doubles and so my body couldn't really handle playing all those matches when when I started playing well on singles I you know I started playing a lot quite a few singles matches and then I was always playing a lot of doubles matches so you, you know, my body kept breaking down. I had to have surgery at the end of 99, which was my best singles year.

And then, you know, guys like Grant Connell that, you know, bled away for so many years, they made, you know, he was pretty good at singles, but he made, you know, a name for himself and put Canada on the map internationally because of his doubles. And, you know, so he was kind of a role model and, and, uh, you know, I'm hoping that he gets in the hall of fame too, because he, he preceded me. So I think he deserves it. He had some serious accolades too.

And he's a Vancouver guy, but, uh, I kind of lost my train of thought. What was that? Why were you so good at doubles? Why did I go to the doubles game? Yeah. But as I said, I was always better at doubles. So one example was just from a really young age, I got a wild card in singles and doubles at the Rogers Cup or NBO, whatever it's called now.

And this was when I was 16, 17. And I wasn't that competitive in my singles match. But then in doubles, we played like, you know, maybe not the best team in the world, but two guys that were established. And, you know, we lost in three sets. And I felt really comfortable at that level, you know, maybe not the best team in the world, but two guys that were established and, you know, we lost in three sets and I felt really comfortable at that level, you know, you know, playing doubles and just my skillset, you know, hand guy, you know, being good at the net, good feel for the game, you know, good serve, that kind of stuff. You know, I didn't really enjoy engaging in long rallies.

So if, when I did play singles, it was playing quick points, trying to get to the net, trying to finish the point quickly, going for my shots. I kind of only had a plan A in singles. So if it worked, it was great. If it didn't work, I wasn't usually going to win. But in doubles, my attributes kind of just made a lot

of sense. So when that time came, when it just became too much of a burden on my body to to do singles and doubles week in week out it made sense to just go to doubles and then all my best results started to come after that the really interesting dynamic about it to me anyway is that it goes from being a one of the most individualistic sports going to all of a sudden you have to rely on someone. So, for example, Jason, my co-host, and I

have been working together for 20 years. We've had a partnership for 20 years, and it's been great, right? Yeah, it's been exhausting. It's been fantastic. Anyway, so when you're out there... Tell us how you broke up with Mark Knowles. What's that conversation like?

Because I want some advice. It's a long one. Yeah, you guys played together for like a long time, and you guys won a lot together. You had a great amount of success together. Like, for example, are you guys close now? I mean, he lives in Dallas. He's got a family.

He's busy. I mean, when we see each other, we obviously reminisce and talk about the good old times. But, you know, we did have a little bit of a difficult breakup. And it's not so dissimilar to, you know, a relationship that, you know, where you're, you know, spend time with someone that you care for. And then all of a sudden, you know, it's, you know, you're not that into it anymore for whatever reason you know it's hard you know to compare it exactly to a partnership uh romantic partnership whatever but it's it's it's somewhat similar considering the amount of time you spend and how difficult it is to you know to you know say that you want

to do something else and you know for in that particular instance we did things that get a little bit stale. And I felt like maybe I was giving a little more to the partnership or maybe a little more professional at the time. And Mark was starting a family and, you know, he was a year older and, you know, maybe not having the same aspirations that I was. And so I felt, you know, it was time for a change. And that was a personal thing. And, you know, fortunately, it worked out for me. But at the time, it was not easy, you know, just having played with someone for 10 years. And, and, you know, you're just getting used to, you know, the off court relationship to being, you know, friends and family friends and families get to be friends and all that. And then all of a sudden, that stops.

It's a little bit uncomfortable to say the least, but, you know, that's something you have to deal with. And I guess it's similar to being traded, you know, like an NHL team or something to another city. You know, things don't work out and it's time to move on. What did you look for in a partner? And what did you say that you brought to the table? Well, I, for sure, my attributes were, you know, winning at the net, you know, that's how I played

singles. That's how I wanted to play in doubles. I mean, the game has changed quite a bit over the last 20 years. I mean, if you watch doubles now, there's a lot more play from the baseline, but I think that's the result of, you know, when I was growing up playing singles, most of the guys had similar game styles. Everyone was, you know, more in attacking mode. Now it seems like people are more in the defensive mode and, you know, they're standing five, 10 feet behind the baseline engaging in rallies. And I think when someone decides to stop playing singles nowadays, and if they want to continue in doubles, they're bringing those skills to doubles and those skills aren't necessarily winning at the net.

So now you'll see a lot of big serving and one guy standing on top of the net and the other guy standing at the baseline and a lot of cross-court baseline rallies, down the line baseline rallies with two guys at the net trying to intercept those balls. That's just basically from how the sport has evolved. Again, I've lost my train of thought.

That was the original question. I'm just going off on a tangent. You know what? That's good. That's very befitting of our show because sometimes we just start saying sentences and we don't know where they're going to end up. So this is all good. We're speaking to Daniel Nestor, Canadian tennis legend here on the

Halford & Ruff Show on Sportsnet 650. Here's another tangent we can go off on. Your international career. So you were a member of the Davis Cup team in Canada from 1992 to 2018. You were a member of that first team to reach the World Group semifinals. What was it like? How important was it to you to represent your country in the Davis Cup? My name was huge.

I mean, Davis Cup Olympics were some definitely my favorite competitions over the years. And in the latter part of my career, that's one of the reasons why I continued to play as long as I did, just because of the group that we had, we started to, you know, produce, you know, superstar singles players, which we'd never done. And, and there was an opportunity to win the Davis Cup, which they ended up doing. Unfortunately, there's a little bit of a relationship between me retiring and them winning, so I don't know. Right, right, right. I don't think it's your fault.

I try to keep that quiet, but it's pretty obvious if you're paying attention. But, no, I really enjoyed the camaraderie, the team, and we had that run in 2013 in the semis. That was amazing. We had other, you know, good moments in Davis Cup. And then I was part of a team that made it to the final, helped coach the guys that made it to the final in 2019. So those were all, like, really fun experiences.

And something that, you know, I always cherish looking back on, you know, the time spent as a team, something, again, that we talked about at the beginning, we don't really experience in tennis from a young age. So those are things that are really special. What was your biggest win? I'm wondering if it's Wimbledon or was it the gold medal at the Olympics?

They were both, I put them both in the same level. I mean, Olympics really helped my career because I hadn't won a Grand Slam up until that point. And, you know, it was just around the time where I was just starting to play doubles. And, you know, a few of the Grand Slam finals that I'd been in before that, I didn't feel like I was playing, you know,

necessarily well enough. And that match, I felt like I stepped up. Obviously, my partner did too. And we played a great match. And that kind of helped me moving forward after that. You know, I was working with a sports psychologist. So it kind of all came together. And then, you know, I started playing better

in the bigger moments. And so, you know, winning Wimbledon, obviously, as a tennis player, is the biggest thing you can achieve. And so those two, I think, I always say are the two most important in my career. You just mentioned working with a sports psychologist. And in reading about you and researching for this interview, a lot of people lauded your calmness under pressure and in the big moments being able to keep your head. What advice did you hear?

What have you learned about playing under pressure and succeeding in the big moments? Well, just because it looks that way doesn't always mean that I'm actually as relaxed as I should be. A lot of it to do, again, I wasn't physically the best athlete, so a lot of it was conserving energy. If I started yelling and screaming and getting fired up, I mean, I think I'd be done after one set.

And a lot of people questioned why I was playing singles. They were saying, you're not running after every ball. I'm like, yeah, because I'm trying to get ready for a whole match here. I can't afford to waste energy on certain points. I'm not the guy that's going to chase five balls in the corners and dig out a point match here. I can't afford to, you know, waste energy on, on certain points. I'm not the guy that's going to chase five balls in the corners and, and dig out a point that way.

But, uh, so, um, again, I, I seriously, I say I'm getting,

I'm getting seen out, but there must've been, you know, we're talking about your coolness under pressure. My coolness. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like they're going off and then I can't remember the original. No, that's okay. We do that. That's our show. You're fitting in perfectly. People have to be patient. Yeah, so with a sports psychologist, you know, I think Fred, I didn't hear the actual speech,

but he gave a speech recently to a graduating class. I believe it was at Dartmouth. And I think the main thing he was focusing on was just, you know, playing one point at a time. I mean, it's easy to say, but I definitely found that I performed my best when I was able to just let things go in the course of a match. So, you know, you have a game plan,

you have goals that you want to achieve and things that you can control yourself. And one of those is how you react to situations that happen during the match. And if you're in a good mood and doing the right things and mentally fresh, then you lose a tough point, you do the right things, you say, okay, that didn't work out, you're ready for the next one. So if you're able to deal with the distractions, tough points that you lose and just move on to the next one, I think that's the most important thing in the course of a match. I think from a mental standpoint, if you're able to just, you hear the comment focus on the process type thing. I mean, tennis, 90% mental, you hear that from a young age

and you don't understand how important or how realistic that is because, you know, you think that if you hit the ball better or you have a better forehand, better serve than your opponent, you're going to beat them. But, you know, you've got to be able to deal with, you know, those moments where you're during a match where you're maybe struggling or you're ready to play a big point and just, you know, those moments where you're, during a match where you're maybe struggling or you're ready to play a big point and just, you know, keep doing what got you to that situation.

There's a lot of times where, you know, you're in a winning situation and you get passive and wait for your opponent to lose the match rather than you kind of seizing it. So it's all these little things that are kind of playing over the course of a match that, you know, you need to perfect. And, yeah, I still think that even at the highest level, perhaps players aren't utilizing that aspect

that's actually so important. I think the physical aspect in tennis has improved dramatically. The players are so athletic now. And I think the technical aspect is just as good as it's ever been and but then you know you wonder like I don't know if you guys know this stat but if I'm going to ask you guys put you guys on the spot so Federer, Djokovic and Nadal are you know the three most

dominant players of all time what percentage of points won I hope you guys haven't actually read this because it's actually interesting what percentage of points won do you think they have won in their career, in the course of a match, like on average? Federer mentioned this during his speech. Ah, I can't remember the number. So there you go, you know. Yeah, but I can't remember.

It's 51.5, is that right? I think it's 55. But usually you would think that someone that's that dominant would, you know, they win 80% of their matches, whatever. That means they win 80% of the points, but it's actually only a fraction over 50, right? Right. So they're playing the big points better and, you know, and that, I mean, obviously they can raise their level because they're more talented and more prepared, more disciplined, whatever.

But at the same time, they're, same time, they're mentally stronger, too. I mean, that's a huge aspect, too. Speaking of statistical accomplishments, did you see what Milos Raonic did on Monday? Yeah. Yeah. Someone reached out to me, and they were like, I want to talk about what Milos did yesterday.

I'm like, I couldn't even imagine. I just imagined his first-round match at Queens. Like, what could have possibly happened? And then 47 aces in three seconds. It's pretty crazy. It's unbelievable. We were wondering if the other guy forgot his racket. He killed with his hands? I don't know how that's possible.

But he's not your, I mean, if you guys watch tennis or you know, I guess it's the equivalent of a baseball pitcher. I mean, he's picking the corners. That's why he's hitting aces. I mean, he's picking the corners. That's why he's hitting aces. I mean, you play a guy that's serving huge, but they're serving to you. You get used to the speed, and you're putting that ball back in play.

But that's why I regard his serve as – him and Sanford are the best servers I've ever played against. I mean, he has all the spins, and he has the pace. It's remarkable how good his serve is. Plus, he hasn't played basically a year and he's coming out and beating these guys because he does have such a huge weapon that you can't really

understand. No one wants to play him. It doesn't matter if he hasn't played a match in so long. No one wants to see him on their side of the draw. Daniel, this was a lot of fun. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. Congrats again on your induction into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. It is well-deserved.

Okay, guys. Thanks a lot. Thank you. That's Daniel Nestor, Canadian tennis legend here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. That was awesome. That was so good. We actually don't talk about doubles in tennis very often.

We don't talk about singles on this show. But I think it's such an interesting dynamic because it's this um you grow up and you are an individual because nobody nobody's like a a junior player like i really want to be good at doubles like they they want to they want to everyone starts as a singles player everyone starts and daniel nester started as a singles player and you know he realized that uh his body wasn't keeping up to the singles game so he got into the doubles game and started committing fully to he didn't play singles yeah uh after a while and he was really good at it but it is interesting that whole talk about about the partnerships and what it was like to essentially break up with Mark Knowles.

You have to have some tough conversations. Like, can you imagine having that conversation? I mean, he said it on the air. He's like, yeah, I didn't think Mark was, you know, he wasn't as ambitious as I was. He was starting a family, so he had other priorities and then you have to have that conversation. You have to have, I think it's time we play with other people like that. That's, that's weird. It's not something we really see with, see a lot in, in sports.

Well, if you go through the chronology of it, he spent, I think it was 12 years as a doubles partner with mark knowles so probably the guy he's most easily identified with in that realm but um if you look at the trajectory who i have word i've been using a lot lately um of his career he had more immediate impact and success with his subsequent partner where they won on wimbledon in 08 and 09 they won more titles in a shorter period of time than he did over this longer career well one of the frustrations with mark knolls was that they would reach the grand slam finals but they wouldn't necessarily win them right if you go i mean just look at nester's wikipedia page like there's a

bunch of finals like grand slam finals losses yeah with noel so it's a very interesting conversation and a very interesting guy that was very cool to get caught up with daniel i too remember him beating stefan edberg at the agrodome it was like one of the first tennis matches i ever sat actually watched start to finish and we were going crazy because it was such an upset at the time and nester was so young and so skinny so skinny they should do a local documentary on the agrodome. All the things that have gone through there? And all the things

that have happened there. Where was it? It's at the Peony. It's right next to the Coliseum. Oh, sorry. The agrodome. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just don't think of it as that.

Okay. What did you think of it as? I don't know. Some other building. God, you're fun. You're adorable. You just thought of it as another building.

Yeah, I always forget that it's called that. Oh, Adon. And there's that building and there's another building. Well, we always forget that it's called that. Oh, Adon. And there's that building, and there's another building. Well, we played minor hockey there, because that was the home of, I guess, Hastings, and probably still is.

And you would go in there and be like, it sure smells like horses here. And yes, make the joke, it made me feel very comfortable there. Yeah, never felt more. Every time you played in that. All my family was there. It was the only building that I've ever been hit over the boards at.

Really? Yeah, right over the boards. I was like, shouldn't there be glass there? And knocked right over the boards there. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough.