Subpar - Dan Majerle Interview: Talking golf with Michael Jordan, playing on Dream Team II

Episode Date: March 23, 2021

On this week's episode of GOLF's Subpar, former NBA player Dan Majerle joins former PGA Tour pro Colt Knost and his close friend and on course rival Drew Stoltz for an exclusive, in-studio, interview. The three-time NBA All-Star talks being part of the second Dream Team, talking golf while playing basketball against Michael Jordan, and if he trusts Charles Barkley with his driver more than Shaq at the free throw line.

Hello world. Welcome to another week of golf subpark, Colt Nost and Drew Stoltz. What a show we have lined up for today's, Sleys. First, let's just to discuss real quick, the Honda Classic. Matt Jones, the Aussie, put on an absolute clinic, one by five to get his second PJ Tour win. Surgical. Around a course, they can make you look like an idiot. Made a lot of great players look like idiots over time there. But dude, what do you pick up? 14 shots, I think, Tita Green on the week, the highest at that golf tournament since they started recording. I mean, he was incredible Tita Green. And I mean, he was incredible Tita Green. Now, how fun to watch the dude just play unbelievably fast. I mean, if everyone on tour was Matt Jones, we get this thing done in 315 every single week. But he's the anti-modern day player. He just picks a club, goes, and it's really fun to watch. It's refreshing to watch.

It is. It was just a dominating performance. It opened with 61, tying the course record, which you just don't see 61 around PGA National. It's insane how good that is. But he put on a show and deserved to win. Dude, I saw that first round scores. Like, what do we do? Have they changed the golf course?

Like, what was 61? one out there? I mean, that is a, that is so, so hard. There's so many holes that can jump up and snatch you at any time on that golf course. To get around there with no blemishes, and I mean, 61. It's just, that's unheard of. And he kept it going, man. Watching him yesterday closed that thing out, which he did fairly easily. There wasn't the drama that we're used to seeing at the bear trap. It makes you wonder, like, I mean, he looks so good. Why haven't we seen more? You know, it's been seven years since his last win. Why haven't we seen more of them? Everything looked perfect. And maybe this is just a little shot of confidence

he needs. But, I mean, God, I don't care who was there yesterday. If that field had all the best players in the world it would be tough to beat Matt Jones. Yeah, I mean, golf is hard. That is the simple answer. But congratulations to Matt Jones. And speaking of things that are difficult, we have some breaking news into golf sub bar. Next week, the time has finally come sleaze.

We've talked about it with a lot of our guests. I've always liked to get, especially our hockey guys, their opinions on this. The bet with the great Ray Whitney, former NHL superstar. Y'all made about four to five years ago, and nothing's ever happened. It's always been a lot of shit talking going back and forth.

About this bet. There's three different. bets going on. Correct. We've got the ice den. We've ruined it out. Home of the coyotes. Practice.

But the three bets consist of, you've been on skates once when you're like nine years old. Yeah, nine or ten. I cruised around a lake one time that was frozen over. I felt like I was pretty solid. If you're lying to us and you look like a superstar

when you get out there, we're going to be hard. If I look like, yeah, all these nights, late nights when you think I'm at home, I've been sneaking out for some skating sessions. All right. Well, just to remind everyone at home, we got three bets. You got to go around the rank.

You can't walk. You actually have to try to skate. Technically I can walk. I will not. There is no time constraint in terms of getting around the arena. So I could just baby step it around. I won't because I'm a man. No falling.

No touching the boards. Correct. Bet number two from the blue line. Yeah. Which is further than you thought it was. Seems to be a lot. Are they moving that thing back? But you are on skates.

You get 50 pucks. You got to fly one into the net. Yes. First of all, the skating around the rink, that's done. I will do that. I'll book anybody. bet anybody wants on that. I have confidence in myself, even though I've never been on skates other than one time, I can do that. This is where it gets interesting on the shooting. A, the blue line is way

the hell further away from the net than I thought. B, I was thinking about the other day and I was like, well, even if I am able to get around, if I don't skate around the rink, the rest of the bets are dead because I won't be able to do it. But I was looking at it, I was like, even if I can lift one from the blue, if I can get it to where I can lift it, wrist shot, slap shot, whatever. It's got to go in the net in the air. The thing is freaking tiny. But, yeah, it's not a soccer goal down. Now, I'm coming out first shot. I think my strategy is going to be wrist shot, but my first shot will be a full bore slap shot.

And if the stars align and I just hit some laser beam directly in the net and walk off, they'll be the end of time. Well, no, because you can't walk off because there's a third bet to get to. I'll walk off and then just concede the last one. Yeah. Because I really don't want to do it. The third bet, we got Ray Whitney,

22-year NHL veteran. Because you think this was after some cocktails, some delicious Austin cocktails. You thought you could go from one end of the rink towards Ray, who is planted. at the far end of the ice, you get to your top speed, whatever that is going to be fast. And Ray says you will not move him one inch. Yeah, a little background on this bet.

This bet came about about five years ago. We're playing the twin fin, the Desert Marlin at the time out here at Greyhawk, and there was 15 guys. We all go after the first round to grab dinner. Drinking all day, right? It's a long day out there. Probably five, six hours of drinking, head to dinner, have a few more. And I mean, at this point, we are loud. We are being asked to leave, things like that.

And I mean, there's not, you could have bet me. Hey, Drew, do you think you can land on the moon in the next 48? I was like, yep, what do you want to bet? I could do anything. I was Superman at the time. So they would start popping off with Ray. And that's where the origin of these bets come from. But yes, this last one, moving Ray Whitney.

It's basically the more I'm thinking about it, it'd be like running into a fire hydrant. Can you get, he's built like a fire hydrant. He's low to the earth and he's just a little shit house. So I'm going to have to be coming with some serious, serious velocity. But dude, I'm not going to sell out to Ray. I cannot wait. This Wednesday. I might go skate.

first on his ass. No, you're not. See how bad he wants it. This Wednesday, March 24th, 545 p.m. Eastern Time. It's going to be awesome. On next week's episode, we're going to break it all down for you. I got a little video on the highlight. I got sweaty palms right now talking about it.

It is going to be a lot, a lot of fun. Hopefully you don't die just in case, send all your resumes. Your resumes for another co-host here on Golf Subpar to our wonderful producer, and we'll pick someone if please dies. There could be a vacancy. And I've had some hockey players reaching out to me on. Instagram and things like that, coaching me up, give me some advice. If you are a hockey player or know anything about hockey at all and have any strategy for me in terms of hitting the puck

in the net from the blue line, fire them at me because I'm open for anything. But 50 pucks, dude, I can try a lot of different strategies. It's going to be a lot of fun. I can't wait. But Sleeze, we got a massive guest this week. It's March Madness. And who better to have than Thunder Dan Marley in the building. Oh my God, dude, Thunder Dan, a Phoenix legend. He'd be one of the guys that's on the short list for icons. I mean, it was before I moved here, before you moved here. But back in the 90s when Dan was doing his thing, let's just say it was good to be Dan Marley in this town. The sons were rocking. They had Barclay, Marley, Kevin Johnson. They were the show. And I mean, Marley was the deal in this town. He was as big a deal as you can get in this town.

Yeah, and he's a huge golfer and can actually really, really play. Legit good. Low round of 66. Yeah. You'll learn about his golf game, basketball, and a lot more. But before we get to Dan Marley, a word from our official sponsor, Rock Form. Slees? I mean, we talk about it every week. It's the greatest speaker we've ever seen. We've ever used. We use it every weekend when we're out there getting amongst it on the golf course. Best battery life I've ever seen. Six rounds, no problem. Keep on using Rockform. There's no second in this category. It's Rockform or bust. We're going to have a couple out there tomorrow night. Might sink them up so we can create some ambiance in that arena. You know, I like playing in front of a packed arena, get the juices going. But there's no better, there's no better speaker in the game than Rockford. Don't play around a golf anymore without one. Wouldn't even imagine it. Nope. Waterproof can't beat it. You know what? You need, you need room

in your cup holder. Of course, dude. With Rockform. First thing first. Magnet right on the side of the will not, there's no possible way for this thing to fall off. You could run into Ray Whitney in a golf cart and that magnet will stay. That's how strong it is. You might need a golf cart to move Ray Wendon. It might take that. But seriously, go out there, get you a rock form. Go to rockform.com intercode subpar for 25% off.

That's R-O-K-F-O-R-M dot com, typing code subpar. Get you 25% off your rock form speaker. All right, here he is, Thunder Dan Marley on Golf Subpar. We have a Phoenix icon in the building here with us today. We got 14-year NBA vet, three-time NBA All-Star, probably one of the coolest nicknames in all of sports and a hell of a stick, Thunder. Dan Marley, how are we doing, my man? I'm good. As far as the stick, it depends on the day.

That's why golf is so frustrating. One day I'll go out and shoot a 69 and I'll go out and shoot a 79. I've seen it. It's pretty good. It's multiple times. I played with you the other day. That was a good day. That was a good day.

That's why golf is so frustrating for me because I love it. And I go out there and I think I got this great swing thought or something. I'm hitting the ball great. and I'll be like coming in, it'll be like a 79, be like, what the hell just happened? Mm-hmm. You know? How much different is that from basketball?

And basketball is it just, I mean, does your like fundamentals or does your technical? Well, you'll have bad days in basketball because you'll, you'll miss shots or something, but you can make it up for defense and rebounding. And I always say in golf, if I get frustrated, you can't do a whole lot. And basketball, I'd go, you know, if I was playing against you, I'd give you a nice hard box out or not get a side of the head or something. Please don't do that. I won't.

I'm sensitive. But golf, you can't do that. You're just just you on that ball. And it's such a mind game for me. it's mental. If I hit one bad shot or if something's not feeling right, then I just, I struggle in basketball. If your shots are going well, you can always get to the free throw line or you can go hard at the basket, get fouled and make some layups or make other kind of plays. And to me, that's why golf so hard. And you got into golf when you were still playing, yeah? Yeah, it was funny. I never played,

well, I can't say I never play. I played a little bit as a kid. I grew up. My dad, you know, was a single chair barber, and he'd play maybe on a Sunday. And I played baseball and I was a left-handed hit her in baseball. So every time we'd go to the course, we had to go through this pain in the ass of renting left-handed clubs. So I finally said, all right, I'm just going to start using my dad's club. So I started playing right-handed and didn't play very much. And then I bought a house on the Biltmore. So it was probably back in 1990 or 91. And I lived right on the 19 of the links course. And when the daylights, you know, it was going down and people were stopping play, I'd go out and I had this black lab. And I'd go out and I'd take like 20 balls. And I'd

I'd take a little seven iron, I'd hit shots down the fairway. And this black lab would run down, and no matter where I hit the ball, I'd walk, you know, 150, 160 yards down the fairway, there'd be 20 balls sitting down the middle of the fairway. So I would do that for like 30 minutes where I'd just hit every shot, and that lab would go get every ball, and I would just continue to do that. And got addicted to the game. And then finally joined Arizona Country Club, and that's over for them. It was more like it was something that took my mind off of basketball.

I would go to Arizona and just hit balls for. hours or hour and a half after practice just to clear my head and just stand on the back range and hit balls and just it's a game that I just I can't get enough of. Did the clubs travel when you were still playing? No, no, you can never play especially, you know, early. We flew commercial so we never chartered when I first got to leave. How things have changed. And then when you were playing, there was no use to take any clubs because once we started chartering flights, you would go in, you would play the game, and then you'd leave right after game and go in next city and then get up and have shoot around or have practice,

and so there was really no time to play. Pitchers are the only worthless athletes to get to play while they're working. So I said, if I had to do it again, I'd be a pitcher. No kidding. I'd work once every five days and then play golf. Yeah, like 30 million. That'd be, you'd be the highest paid guy. You'd work the least.

Be a hard throwing left hand or it'd be awesome. They got, they pay those guys. Mark Mulder. Yeah, you'd be Mark. And he's good looking. God. We hate him. Don't we wish.

Yeah. I hate that guy. But tell, we've played golf for you. Tell the people at home, like, what's the strength of your games? What's the one thing you'd like to improve the most? Short game, chipping. Worst part of my game by far. That's one of those things that some days I'll go out there

and I can hit chips. And the other times, though, I think you actually saw it a couple times we'd play. I scold it over green. I just cannot figure out the chipping, especially against tight lies, can't do it. Driving is a pretty good part of my game. Iron play is not bad.

Pudding come and go, but the chipping is the worst by far. The driver's pretty damn good. You move it. I mean, obviously you're a great athlete, but like we played, especially up in Flagstaffer where there's no air, and you hit some seeds. Yeah, well, you know, I'm pretty big and tall.

I got a short back swing due to a lot of injuries and no flexible, no flexibility. But, yeah, driver, I usually hit pretty solid. Favorite, favorite golf course you ever played? Well, I was talking about there was a golf course and I think it was called Eldorado and Cobble. That's the name. That was the one. Yeah, I played, you know, Pebble. I played Olympic.

I've played Pine Valley. I played them all. But for some reason, El Dorado was the best. I have some do with what they put in the water. Yeah. It could be those little huts, those little underground burial sites where they put all the booze. Those help, too. That might be it, too.

What's on the wish list that you haven't played? Augusta. Yep, that's a good one. Cypress Point. Those are probably the two right now. You're so dialed. I feel like that's a quick phone call away for you. Yeah, well, I need...

A couple dudes in town, maybe could... Well, there's a guy named Craig Neal, who's the assistant coach in Nevada, was a coach at New Mexico, who's a Georgia Tech guy, and he told me there's a lot of members that went to Georgia Tech at Augusta, and he said, for your 50th birthday, I'm... I'll get you on Augusta. Well, I'm 55. And I still haven't gone yet. And there's a place in Atlanta where they have a picture of Augusta in the airport.

And I actually stand there every time I go and I take a picture and I send it to noodles unless I still waiting. Yeah. That's funny. Are you a big golf fan? Do you watch on TV and stuff when you're home? Yep. glued to the TV? As much as I can be.

I do. I love golf. I was telling you earlier. I was watching replays the day of the TPC and all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, I love just watching golf. It's fun. Why don't you think it is like we've had a lot of athletes on it. We have a lot of golfers, but a lot of athletes from other sports too.

And clearly golf's like the unifier here. What is it about golf that like every single athlete that whether they're still playing or retiring, gravitate towards golf? For me, it's probably the only way I can get a whole lot of competition anymore. You know, I grew up playing basketball and baseball, that kind of stuff. And when you play in the NBA, one thing that really kept me going, even when I was coaching was the competition part of it. I love to compete.

And at my age now, I can't do a whole lot of stuff physically and a good way for me to compete as golf. And I've been a part of team sports my whole career. And as we talk about, this is more of an individual sport. So it's just you and the ball. I actually have a hard time when I'm playing in a member, member, something where I'm with a partner because I hate letting people down now. Especially on the golf course.

I hate it. So when I'm out there playing golf for money or whatever, it's just me and the ball. And it's just what I do. So it's a competition for me, I think, is what keeps me going. And you play every damn day. Well, I play probably nine times a week now. Yeah.

I got nothing else. I got nothing else to do. That is the only sport where you can drink. No, it's not the one. Well, it's not the only one, but I'm not very good at bowling. Yeah, I don't know. We can count that, yeah. Let's talk a little of basketball because you were obviously,

you grew up in Michigan. You were stud and high school, ended up going to central Michigan. Was that kind of the plan all along, or were you just, were you open to going anywhere? And you decided to stay home? Well, it was funny. When I grew up in Traverse City,

my junior year was the first year that high school athletes could sign after their junior year. So I average like 21 and 8. my junior year and all the mid-American schools kind of recruited me with central Michigan went down to central Michigan western Michigan and Toledo my assistant coach had graduated from Toledo and went on to play for the Washington Bullets a guy named Tom gazelco so I narrowed down to Toledo and central Michigan and a great story is that I was going to I made my decision I said I'm going to I'm going to Toledo I'm going to follow this guy's

footstep so I told the two coaches not to call me for the weekend before I was going to make my decision. So on Sunday night, I had made my decision, and I get a call about 11.30 at night from the Toledo coach. And I'm like, what are you doing calling me? And this guy was drunk when he called me. But he was so excited that he was going to like, are you going to come and hung up the phone,

told my mom and dad, I'm going to Central Michigan, changed, went to Central Michigan, played my senior year. My senior year in high school, I averaged 38 and 16. I was the second leading score in the nation. So I could have went anywhere I wanted to. I could have went to Michigan. I went to Michigan State.

Bill Frieder at the time had told me before I signed, he said, hey, don't sign after your junior year. We want to watch you play through your senior year. I took the scholarship, so no, I'm going to do it. But it's probably the best thing it ever happened to do. Because when I went to Central Michigan, my first year, I had my first back surgery, so I ended up registering. So going to Central Michigan, they ended up waiting on me.

And I was able to, you know, if you went to Michigan or Michigan State, they're going to always probably recruit over you. so I was able to wait and had a great career at Central Michigan. Stayed all five years. Funny thing, yeah, funny thing was, is that I was probably projected to be a third-round pick at Central Michigan. So they invited me to Portsmouth, which was back then, was like where all the second or third-rounder was going to go. And I wanted to go to Chicago camps, which is going to be all the first-rounders.

They said, don't, we're not going to invite you to Chicago. You're going to go to Portsmouth. I ended up going to Portsmouth. I won the MVP, won the championship there. They invited me to Chicago, said, no, I did my business. Because of Portsmouth, I got invited to the Olympic team to try out. Went to the Olympic team. There was 103 players invited to the Olympic tryouts.

I was the 103rd player invited to the Olympic trials. The first day I was sitting, we were all sitting on the floor, we were all dressed in blue practice jerseys, all said USA. John Thompson was the coach. George Ravling was the assistant coach. And I'll never forget. at the very first day he went through roll call. And when he got to my name, he said, Dan Majorly.

So I raised my hand. I said, I'm here. And I said, there's no way in hell I'm going to make this team. So the day went by, next day went through roll call, called me Dan Majorly again. Long story short, I kept on making the cuts. I kept on making the cuts. And then before you know it, I got invited to the select team, went to Spain, did well over there, and was finally one of the last 12 guys to make the team.

ended up playing on the Olympic team in 88, went to Seoul Korea, led the team in minutes in scoring. I think I was third in rebounding. I think I was named the male athlete of the year that year for the Olympics. So from going through just nobody knowing my name and hardly being invited to making the Olympic team and having that experience with John Thompson and that whole thing. And I always say that we're the reason there is a dream team won because we were the last college team to play in Olympics.

We lost, and they said there's no more losing. We're going to invite the pros, so we have the best team going. And that's why they invited the Dream Team 1. So you went from 103 to on the top 12 to the athlete of the year, male athlete of the year basketball. That's incredible. Before you play an NBA game, you led the team in Skron. What was that like going over there?

Is this a young kid? Like, holy shit, I just graduated Central Michigan. Now I'm playing on the U.S. Olympia. Yeah, it was nuts because all I thought about is every practice. I knew I was playing for John Thompson's just never show on. I'm tired, just play as hard as I can. They said, go through drills.

You know, said, okay, we're going to go through this drill. just go 70% I went 100%. John Thompson was so tough that there were guys begging to be cut. I mean, his he would go through a weed lineup after practice on the baseline and we'd be getting ready for sprints and he would always say this. He said,

you guys want this to be your dream? I'm going to make it your nightmare and blow the whistle and then we'd just run and run and run. So it was a hard camp, but I just kept my head down and just worked as hard as I could and I think he kind of fell in love with how hard I worked. I played hard defensively. And, um,

one of the best coaches I ever played for. And because of that, I was able to be drafted by the Sons in the first round, the 14th. Was that kind of a surprise to you that you went 14th? Or did you think you should go to higher considering the Olympics you had? Well, it was funny because I thought I was going to go 12 to Milwaukee. I was sitting in the base of my home in Traverse City, Michigan.

And after I got back from the select team, I had visited a couple teams. I never even talked to Phoenix. The only thing that Phoenix did was call me at midnight one night for one of those psychological tests. Like if you're coming to a traffic light, it's yellow, do you speed up, do you slow? So they give you these answers or these questions. I don't know. But they give you these questions that you have no idea what the answers are.

There's no right or wrong answers. It's just what you are. So anyway, I went out and worked out for Milwaukee. And Milwaukee told me that if you're there at 13, we're going to pick you. So I'm sitting there in the basement with my mom and dad, and 13 comes. and Milwaukee takes Jeff Greer, who incidentally was a Flint, Michigan guy who went to Iowa.

So when Milwaukee took Jeff Greer, I was like, I have no idea where I'm going now. I hadn't talked to Phoenix, so I hadn't worked them out, just did this little test. So 14 came, and they said my name, so I was shocked. They said you tested, like, off the charts in that. Yeah, I said I was the best guy I've ever tested.

Whoever did the test, like immediately called the gym, was like, this is the kid, take this kid. And I had no idea. I mean, I didn't know. So when the 13 pick was, I have no idea where I'm going. And then the next thing I knew Al McCoy was calling me on the phone, and that's when he said, everybody's booing you here. How do you feel?

Yeah. I said, I could care less, Al. I'm just in the NBA. I'm happy. But then the Olympics got you more exposure. Then people kind of, because you were at Central Michigan, you don't get the TV exposure of the Blue Bloods, the Michigan, the Dukes. So no one really had gotten to see you play, really, until the Olympics.

Yeah, by the time I got here, people had changed their mind and everything was great. And it was just a perfect situation because before I got here with the sons, it was before Tom Chambers and Kevin Johnson. And they made that trade for Tom. So my rookie year here, we had a great team in Phoenix. And at that time, it was one of the biggest turnarounds for a franchise in NBA history where the sons went from, I know, 20 wins to 55 wins or something, all because of Tom and Kevin Johnson and Jeff Hornacek and all those guys.

And I was a part of that team. So I was very lucky. My 14 years in the NBA, the only time I never made the playoffs was my last year with Phoenix. I was going to say right out of the gate, y'all's a year of a playoff. My first 13 years, we won 50, 60 games of every team I was at. That is incredible. I mean, was it hard for you to go because I heard before Barclay came in? I mean, you're the guy that would drive inside, you know, be physical, and then he comes in,

and now you're, you become a three-point weapon. Yeah. Was that a tough change for you? It was a little bit, but, you know, what I did is when they, we traded Jeff Hornacek for Charles. Jeff was a great player, but you got to obviously have to give up somebody to get somebody like Charles. So I literally, and I tell my kid this, my son Max, all the time, that you can become a great shooter if you want to be. I was a guy who didn't shoot any threes. In high school, I never left the paint.

I scored 38 points within two feet of the basket. I was a center. In college, I was a center for my first three years at Central Michigan. Moved out a little bit, but hardly shot any threes. My first three or four years in the league, I hardly shot threes. So that year, knowing that Jeff was gone and we were going to throw the ball in the Charles all the time in the post and it would be a lot of double teams, I locked myself in the gym. I shot 1,000 threes every night, never, never took a day off and just spent the whole summer shooting three.

and just trained myself to become a better shooter. That's incredible. I mean, it worked out obviously very well. I don't know how active you are in social media, but earlier this year, Steph Curry, they showed him hitting 105 in a row from the corner. Yeah, that's amazing.

What's the highest you think you've ever been? Well, I used to do this thing at Miami that we'd shoot 100 consecutive threes from different spots, so you'd shoot 20 in a spot, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, all the way around. I shoot 100 consecutive threes without stopping. And the most I ever made was 90.

That's still credible. I know, but maybe. But making, and that's moving, but to make 105 threes in a row, I mean, that's, Steph Curry is the best shooter it's ever walked this planet. Bar none. That's, it's freakyish. Bar none. Being the way the NBA is right now with like the Invis, it's all dunking and it's threes,

basically, right? It's up and down. Being that you became such a great three-point sure, what do you think your career looks like in today's, in today's game? Different? Different, but I wouldn't change it, but I would say this. I think the most threes I shot in the game was with when I was with Miami.

We were in Minnesota. I shot 10 threes and I made nine. Correct. Most of the shot, I think. In today's game, I'd probably average 12 or 13 threes a game. Yeah, it's just all threes and don't. So I'd probably average maybe five, six,

threes, four. Some games shoot two or three, some shoot six, seven. But in this game, especially the way I played, I'd probably average 11, 12 3s a game. So it'd be a totally different game. Yeah, you're stud from three point range.

You're a hell of a defensive player. Cheching in today's game. You're pretty good, and they pay a lot. That's a max deal, bud. That's a max deal, bud. They pay a lot more. We got to talk a little bit about Barclay. He's been on the show.

We know him, obviously, played a lot of golf with him and all this. What was it like when you found out Charles Barkley was getting traded to Phoenix? I was Jack, man, because, you know, we were so good before he came, but we could never get over the hump. We'd won 50-plus games. We'd lose to L. or we lose the Portland. We had great players. We just didn't have that one guy that kind of could throw us on his shoulders and lead us.

And we knew Charles could be that, especially coming off with the Dream Team One deal. So when he got here, not only is he a great individual and a great guy, but he's the best player I've ever played with. I remember the first game that we played, I think it was against the Clippers at home. And everybody was kind of struggling, and he just took over the game. I mean, literally won the game by himself. And I said, this is going to be great. We went on to win 62 games that year.

He was the MVP. We had the best record in the league. I opened Marley Sports Grill downtown. The arena opened that year. I mean, it was just a dream season. And it had everything to do with the type of player that Charles was, but also the guys that we had around. We had a great mix of guys.

I mean, we had Danny Aange, Kevin Johnson, myself, Tom Chambers, Cedric Saviles, Mark West. I can keep naming them all. I normally forget a few. But a different mix of players. but our chemistry was off the charts. Yeah, he used to happen to run into Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.

Unfortunately, yeah. Yeah, that was a tough deal? Let's get that in a second. But was Charles the same dude that you see off the court now, like in the broadcast booth and things like that when he got to the locker room? Oh, yeah.

Yeah? Great story about Charles is that he was a terrible practice player. So we would hate it if he practiced because he would screw up practice. He would come down and just jack threes. So you never want him to practice. And when you play in the NBA, you're supposed to be there an hour and two hours before the game or whatever.

And usually at 40 minutes, they call you in and they go over the game plan. The coach is going to come in. He's got everything written on the whiteboard. We're going to talk about your coverages and what you're going to do offensively. And here's our game plan. Well, there's about 39 minutes on the clock, game clock. Whiteboard's full. Paul Wessel's sitting up there.

Everybody's in their seat, but Charles, nobody's seen Charles. So here comes in Charles and the street close. You know, it's about 39 minutes, walks in, stops, stares at the board. takes the eraser, erases it, writes win, sits on his chair, and Westfall kind of looks, says, all right, guys, let's just go win. Put on our closing, we did it 62 times that year. We probably could have done it 66 times because we took, like, the last five games off because we had the best record in the league and he had to play to the starter.

That is hilarious. That's just how good he was. Let's stop overcomplicating this coach. Yeah, let's just win. Yeah, throw me the ball. Yeah, help me guard my guy. Yeah. I'll get all the rebounds, too, and we'll win.

You'll put my golf together? You know, I used to play a lot with Charles. When he came here, I actually got really into the game because of Danny. Danny Age is a good player. I used to play a lot. So I used to play with him. And Charles back then was probably a legitimate eight handicap. He was a good player.

Yeah. Had a good swing. Had a tremendous short game. So, yeah, we would go out, Danny and I, Charles, when Joe Klein came the next year, us three particularly would go out and play a lot of golf together. That's awesome. How about his little resurgence right now, getting rid of the hitch? A little better.

I hope it does, yeah, because I feel so bad for him because he loves to play. And like I said, he was a great player. I guess from what I hear when he went to Houston, when he got traded to Houston, he took some kind of lesson and he got that mental hitch and then it turned into that, what you see now and just ruined his game. But that was a guy who loved to play and it wasn't a bad player. Utley apparently is fixing him. McCord played with him a couple days ago.

He beat McCord in their game. He what? Giving him some pops. He beat Gary McCord in their game. I would never admit. But he beat him. He said he's hitting it like legit. That's good to hear, man, because he loves to play.

He does. He loves it. But we got to go back to the 93 finals a little bit. I mean, I can't imagine. What's it like getting ready to go to the NBA finals? You're going against Michael Jordan and Chicago Bulls. What was that like leading up into that? Like you said, everything was going, everything was buzzing in Phoenix.

Yeah, it was great. It was kind of hectic. You know, we have this, we have this was great year. The city's absolutely in love with us. I mean, we were the biggest ticket in town. I don't think I paid for one thing that year, probably because I went to Marley's all the time. That helps.

Yeah, that helps. but I remember going to a movie theater sometime and people stopping and giving us like standing ovations. I mean, it was just crazy how much people loved at Phoenix Suns. So they had this great idea that after the regular season was over, that they were going to get us out of town to get away from the fans and just kind of focus on the playoffs. So I think we went to Prescott.

So we end up driving to Prescott and we pull up the hotel and there's probably 200 people there standing outside the hotel. I mean, it backfired unbelievable. Nice getaway. Yeah, unbelievable. We couldn't rest. We couldn't do anything. People all around.

So we end up, okay, get back to Phoenix. We open up against Los Angeles, the Lakers, who I think we'd beat eight times that year. So they were the eighth seed with the first seed. And back then it was just a five-game series. We opened it up. We get beat the first game at home against the Lakers. Okay, that happens.

Second game. We lose. Now we're down 02 to the Lakers, the eighth seed. Now this is only a five-game series. We got to go to L.A. And not only went, we got to win two games there. So we end up going. Now, that's when Westfall, I know if you guys heard the story where he says,

he made this great quote that he said, we're going to go to L.A. We're going to win the first one. We're going to win the second one. And then we're going to come back here and win the third one. Everybody's going to talk about what a great series it was. We go to L.A., we win the third one. We win the fourth one.

We're like, all right, we even this thing up. We're going to go home, game five. Well, that night I went out, had something to eat, got food poisoning. So I spent the whole night in the hospital. Couldn't eat anymore. I'm having IVs in my arm right before the game. We get out there. I end up hitting a shot with like four seconds to go to send it into overtime.

We beat the Lakers in overtime in game five of the 1992-93 playoff series. If we don't beat the Lakers, this story doesn't go on. Catch fire from there. We beat San Antonio. Charles has a big shot in San Antonio. We beat San Antonio in a great series. So then we face Chicago. Chicago, we have the home court advantage,

so we're excited about that. We get to play at home. Same thing happens. We lose our first game to Chicago. We lose our second game to Chicago. Now we have to go to Chicago, and we have to win three games there, or at least two games.

So there's two, three, two series. We ended up winning the first game in a fantastic triple overtime game. Excuse me. We lose the second one, very close game. third game is about to tip off. They're talking about boarding up the city to save Chicago. Barkley says, forget that. We're going to save Chicago.

We're going to win the game. So we go out, we beat Chicago. So we end up beating Chicago two out of three games, come home to Phoenix, end up losing in game seven or game six. John Paxson with the three, end up losing in six games. But it was funny because nobody could win at home. We beat Chicago two out of three there.

They beat us three games. Yeah, that's true. And I don't know if you saw Jordan's documentary in the last dance, but he talked about going into that series. Their GM, Jerry Krause, had talked about how much he loved you. And they knew that. And Jordan knew that.

And the same way they did with Kucoach and the Olympics. Like, you were the guy. Jordan always picked a guy. It's like going to motivate him. You were the guy. Did you know at the time that he had targeted you? I didn't know that until I was going to make his life. Yeah, I didn't know that until I watched the last dance.

I really did. I was sitting there on the couch watching this. And I was thinking, okay, is he going to mention me? I hope he doesn't kill me. I think, oh, I just, maybe he shouldn't mention me. So when he said that, I was just shocked as anybody that he would say that. But it's, and people bring that up to me all the time. Like, I think it's a badge of honor.

I mean, the greatest player in the world. You got his attention. He was trying to kill me, which he did. And it doesn't make me feel anyway, because he is the greatest player in the world. That guy was so great, not only offensively, but defensively. If he wanted to score on you, he's going to score on you. If he didn't want you to score, you weren't scoring. My whole philosophy of playing Jordan was a talk golf.

That's all I did. Smart. I was like, hey, Mike, how's the game? What kind of ball you're playing? What's your driver? How you doing? You're guarding him right there. My thing is, I'm just trying to keep him me mellow, so maybe he'll give me 35.

Yeah. Because if I piss him off, he's going to give me 55, right? So I'm just talking golf. So I didn't know that that was one of his motivations, and now it kind of makes sense. Were you guarding him on the defensive side? We kept on switching because I tried it. Kevin tried it, Johnson. They put Richard Duma.

We put everybody on them. And he would have great Danny. Danny Aange, he was just, like I said, the guy was unbelievable. And he carried their team. He was that good. Yeah, that is a badger model, though. Because he had to pick somebody every time to get him motivated me against the world, and you were that guy for that series.

And there's no way. All I try to do is beat him up because the only thing that I was stronger than him. I wasn't faster, quicker, obviously not more talent anything. So I just tried to hold, grab, beat him up, hold him, try not to them get to a spots. That didn't work either. And Scotty was in on it too. I mean, the same way with Kuko.

So you got to guard Jordan on one. and be defended by Scotty sometimes. That's probably the hardest thing there is to do. It is. But I'd be honest with you, if Scotty was on me, I was like, thank God. Oh, really? Was he a reprieve from Jordan? Well, anybody's reprieve from Jordan.

I'm telling you, he was the best. Whatever he did, he was the best. If he wanted to guard you and not let you score or touch the ball, you weren't touching the ball. Was that one like the night, even right before the game or the night before you? You're like, okay, I got MJ tonight. This is, I'm in for a long way. Yeah, what's that night like before?

I loved it because I wanted to play against it. It was fun, man. I really did enjoy. And that old Chicago Stadium, it was, you'd literally dressed in the basement. And when you go up to the floor, it was like you went up these old crickety stairs and like these doors open. And it was like walking in like the old, it's like you were a gladiator. Like you're walking up. And back then people were smoking.

There was, you know, smoke all in the building. Everybody was on top of you. There was no better feeling in the world going up those stairs and into those little arenas like that and playing in that kind of stage. I mean, that's the kind of stuff you miss. It was awesome. I got to go to a game there one time, and it's to this day one of the coolest sporting during that year when they were, when it was Michael and all the, and Scotty and all those. It was a while.

You gave him 34 in one game that series, though. I played well, yeah. I had on that, Scott. Yeah, I had a record. I think seven threes and that tells you how far are we going. Seven threes and the finals was a record for a while. Yeah, that was seven threes. That was a record.

So, yeah, it's been a while. Obviously, yeah, you played against him. And now there's, there's always the top, M.J. LeBron. Give us Dan Marley's thought. Is it even comparable? Yes, it is now. You know, when I was coaching, that was a big conversation with our recruits, because they've grown up LeBron fans.

I'm a Michael Jordan fan. So you're never going to get me off that Michael Jordan's the best, and I still think he is. But if LeBron continues to do what he's doing at this age and at the clip that he's doing it, I don't think there's going to be a conversation. I think he's going to have to be the best because he's been able to do it, what's it, 18 years or something? Yeah, dude, he's our age, basically. I mean, it's unbelievable.

And he just keeps going and he keeps getting better. I mean, that's unheard of. Now, it's a lot different now because of the travel and the practice and how everybody does things. But he is amazing. But to my money, all-around player, a guy, and the other thing about LeBron is his size. I mean, the guy's 6-8, about 260. I mean, the guy's huge. You know, Michael was my size, 6-6-220 or whatever.

But with LeBron doing it that size, it's amazing. But to me, Jordan will always be the best. All right, riddle me this, though. You got three seconds left. you got the ball, you're down one, you're going to inbound it to somebody. Would you rather inbound it to Jordan or LeBron? Jordan.

Yeah. That's like my thing on that. No question. Yeah. I don't think there's a wrong answer, but I, no, they're both. Jordan was just a killer. Guys would get upset.

I'm not saying the Bronby. Yeah, LeBron's the second best. Yeah. That's really awful. But yeah, he's second. He's setting to Michael. Yeah. I mean, come on.

Exactly. Oh, that's incredible. Who do you enjoy? You mentioned Steph Kerr earlier in today's game. Who do you really enjoy watching? Joker. The Joker from. Denver. Oh, that's the Sleases guy.

I love you. The best passing big man. Oh, I love, I love guys who have a high basketball IQ. And you just, I just fixate on him. And just the way he's thinking, like, he sees plays two or three steps before anybody else. I mean, just the passes he makes and his vision. And

sometimes he'll catch the ball and you'll just stand there and then he'll make a quick move for him, a quick move, or he'll dribble and you'll, like, fake you and then drop a pass. Just his mental IQ, I just love watching him play. Defensively, he knows he's slow, but he's always in the right position. And you don't do that if you're not thinking the game.

And that's what I love watching guys who think the game. And he's the best at it by far. He's like Billy Hoyle. Like I feel like you're drafting. I know he's enormous. But you're like, all right. I get, pick a guy. Who do you want?

That guy right there. It doesn't look athletic. Doesn't look anything. But when he gets out there, it's a joke. He can shoot it. He posts up, great passer, all that stuff. Yeah, he's sick. But mentally, he's so far ahead of everybody else when you're watching him play.

I just sit there and I'm like memorized by the plays he's making and how he sees the floor. That's really cool. Can we talk about the 94 World Championship team? That's one of the coolest teams, I think, ever is something. You got Dream Team 1, which gets all of them. And that was like the pros, pro. They were the guys buttoned up. Then you got Dream Team 2.

And it's probably the cockiest, swaggiest group of dudes to ever be on a team before. Can you tell us a little A, just name some of the guys that were on that team for people that don't know and just what it was like playing on that team. Because it's the sickest squad. Yeah, it was cool. It was Shaq, Derek Coleman, Larry Johnson, Reggie Miller.

Sean Camp. Sean Camp. How can I forget Sean? Is Derek Richmond on that team? Alonzo Morning. Mark Price said to be the odd man out on that team. Joe Dumars. Joe Dumars. Who else do we got? Derek Coleman, Kevin Johnson. Yep, Kevin Johnson. Yeah, it was, we very, very talented. But when you say cocky is not, that's an understatement.

Yes, we had some guys, I mean, guys jumping, you know, grabbing her, you know, all that guy. It was, it was the anti-dream team one. Yes. So it was different, but it was a lot of fun. coached by Don Nelson. The best. I used to play a lot of golf with coach Nelson, and it was funny. I don't know if I should say this, but we were on the golf course,

and we used to gamble a lot at night, and then we'd go on a golf course and we'd play in, and we'd have these big drinks of whatever we're drinking, and I'm driving, and we're driving, and he hits the ball right or something, so we're driving, and we're going over to the bumpy ruff or whatever, and his drinks filling. And he's sitting there yelling me, he said, damn Dan I like to drink some of my drink white and I said well hit it in the damn fairway I'm not the one

hitting it over here in the rocks come on coach yeah hit in the fairway it wouldn't be so bumpy so we had a good time but he was he was so anal about us losing because there's so much pressure that we had shack jumping and we were practicing jump balls dream team two was practicing jump ball situations what was with shack yeah with shack who at the time was skinny shack young shack nobody's out jumping jack big as freak of all Anyway, nobody's beating us. We won by 30 or 40. Yeah, well, it was a close.

But, you know, I can understand, you know, that's a lot of pressure of a coach. Can you imagine losing Dream Team 2 if you're just following Dream Team 1? But a great story about that is when we used to have our team meals and everything. And we had our team breakfast. And we came down to our team room and there was a huge bowl of cereal, you know, one of those huge bowls where they would take out the whole box of cereal and they'd pour the whole, like a rice christies, the whole box into the cereal thing. and then they take one of those big scoops

and put a gallon of milk there. And the premises was that all the guys would come down, take a bowl, take the scoop, and put it in, pour some milk, and go sit down. Well, here comes Shaq. Shack walks in, takes the whole damn bowl and the big scoop and the gallon of milk and goes and sits at his own table,

pours the gallon of milk and starts eating the cereal out of the scoop. It's a normal little soup. That's like, Shaq, that's our... This is my size. That's skinny Shaq, too. Yeah, I mean, that's how huge. that man was. That is incredible.

What a great story. This might be a dumb question. Who was the, with that team? Who was like the vocal leader of that team? Or was there one? Because you had so many guys. Yeah, Reggie Miller.

Reggie Miller talked a lot and guys like that. I mean, we had a lot of guys. We had, Reggie and I had a big thing going with ping pong. I liked to play ping pong. He was a good ping pong player. So we had a lot of ping pong tournament. A lot of smack talking going there.

But I would think probably the most worker guy was, you know, Tim Hardy was vocal. Kevin and I pretty much stayed in the back. Mark Price, Joe Dumars, Sean Kemp, Derek Coleman. Dominique was on that team too, right? What a team. Yeah, it was, I mean, it was a great team.

Holy shit, it was a joke. Yeah, it was ridiculous. So that was a lot of fun too. I mean, we spent training in Chicago and then Toronto's such a great city. That's where we played. So it was awesome. Do you guys get to go out while you're there?

Oh, yeah. Because you're going to win every game by 40. I mean, you did win every game by 40. So you're in Chicago, training all the whole time, then you go to Toronto. two really, really fun cities. You got to enjoy it. Yeah, we got to have a lot of fun.

Practices had to be harder than the games. Was there any blow-up practices? We did. Like the Dream Team 1? But I go back to it, and I love Coach Nelson. I go back that he was so, he was just so, I think uptight about not that I would just like to say, okay, let's just go scrimmage.

But we were working on crap. You know, there's plays and defense and slides and all this stuff. Just let us go out there and scrimmage and have fun. That's awesome. It all worked out. Yeah, that was a lot. That was a different dream team. That team was fun.

All right. Well, let's get to some more fun. All right, before we get to the Emergency 9 with Thunder, Dan Marley, a little word from our people at Austin Cocktails. These things are delicious. When you're looking to get amongst it, no other way to go than Austin cocktails. Oh, these things are fantastic. Our guests have been drinking them on the show. I knocked down a couple of these sparkling mojitos just a couple days ago, and the thing is crisp.

And by the way, packs a bit of a punch more than two times. There's typical alcohol by volume content in these badly. Ab-B-B-V. ABV, just a little acronym we like to throw out in the liquor game. Yep, 12.5% alcohol. It's basically two cocktails in one. They are delicious. Perfect for the golf course.

Just put them right there in your cup holder. Slam them. No big deal. They're refreshing, lightly carbonated, low carb, low calorie. That's why I like. Great thing to have at home, dude. You just knock down two of these. Like, why you drink?

I've only had two. Relax. Really, it's four. So you can have about three or four before you start getting any flak for. It's a nice way to sneak in, double drinking. Totally agree with you. That's a very well-set point. All right.

We'll go check them out. Austin cocktails. Go get amongst it. Here's Dan Marley on the Emergency 9. We do nine fun questions. We get to know you a little bit more. We'll get to know you a little bit more. We're going to let Sleeze start it off. All right. This is one we ask everybody. All right, movie being made about the life of Dan Marley. Who do you want playing you? Yours might actually be believable. Well, people, I've heard people say that Woody Harrelson looks a little bit like. That's who I have written down to. He's not tall enough. Yeah, he's not good looking enough either. There's a guy, Vince Vaughn.

Vince Vaugh. He's like 6'5. Yeah, he's a big guy. I love Will Ferrell. Love Will Ferrell. The Tropics. What was his name in the tropics? Yeah, Tropic Moon.

Yeah, there he goes. He's in the post? Nope. Give it back. Nope. Give it back. Yep, give it back. Yeah, that's good.

So yeah, probably Vince Vaughn because he's a big dude, he's a big dude. Yeah, most people pick the best looking. Leonardo Cabro gets picked all the time. All these dudes that aren't good. You're actually like a good little in-shaped dude. So, yeah. I had Bradley Cooper. for you. I don't know if he can hoop at all.

No, it's not bad. Bradley Hooper. You're going to need to work on it a little bit. All right. I just threw this one in there because of what you said earlier, you told your kid that a great shooter can, you can develop into a great shooter. We have this argument all the time about golf,

and I know you're a big golfer. So there's always the argument of whether great putters are either born or you can learn to be a great putter. You said you can learn to be a great putter. God, I hope so, because I'm not. God, I hope so. Because we always talk about like Roy McElroy and these guys that are so.

talented but they're not that great a putter. Depends on what you say great. I think you can obviously become a lot better putter because I've become a lot better putter. I think, well, I think with your shooting, if you, there's always guys who have different shots and different forms. And if you do it enough, you can become a really good shooter.

But if you have great form and you work on it, you can become a great shooter. So I don't know, you guys know golf obviously a lot better. If somebody could teach you putting as far as everything you have to do when you work on a lot, could that make you a great putter? Or is it more feel? It can get better. I've always believed great players of this conversation. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm in the same way. You probably agree because it's a feel. Right elbow out, right? Not great form. You wouldn't teach that, right? You had that dangling right arm. But if you had the ball with two seconds left, just like you said Jordan earlier,

you want Reggie having that ball. But that's what I'm saying. Reggie's done it millions and millions. Because if it's repeatable, then you know what you're doing. And obviously, Reggie does something that's very repeatable. Like Larry Bird. Larry Bird has a different shot.

He throws it way up here. It's behind his head. But it's repeatable. And he does the same shot every time. I actually had really good form on my jump shot. And I used to work on it all the time. And I think that's what made me a better shooter is I had really good form. And it's something that I just trained and I worked.

So when I was doing it, I didn't have to think about it. It came more of a feel than anything. You played center in college? How are you in college? How are you in gross part? I was, like, 22. I was 5-4 as a freshman in high school. then I was 6-2 in sophomore.

I looked like a Q-tip. Well, we were tired as a freshman. I was a white kid went after. I really looked like a Q-tip my sophomore year in high school. And then I grew to 6-5 as a high school kid, grew an inch in college. And I was 6-6. I played center all through college until probably about my junior year. And I started stepping out a little bit.

Senior year started out a little bit. And then when I first got to the Sons, I was offensive rebound slashed her dunker. Hardly ever shot from the outside. So I just changed my game totally when Charles game. You told me when you got to the NBA, too, you went from size 14 shoe to 16 shoe. I did. It's unbelievable. I mean, well, it came actually after, it had to be after 94.

Yeah. Because they made up, Nike made up these special shoes for us. And I saved them. And I looked at them like a year ago and it was a size 14. And I tried to put it on. Couldn't even put my foot into it. I wear 16 now. So you hit puberty twice.

Yeah, I guess. Jesus. It's just not fair. My feet and my ears keep growing. That's all. All right, clock winding down. Game on the line. You got to pass to any teammate of yours from any team all time for the game winner.

Who do you feel most confident passing it to? Ooh, man. Am I team? Any guy you played with on any team? So it could be the heat, could be the Cavs, could be the sun. But not the dream team. Not the dream team? Yeah, leave them out.

Yeah. I might know. Oh, man. Game on the line. I got to throw it to somebody. That's a good question. I'm trying to think of who I am. I can't be you.

You could throw it off somebody's back and then. shit. You know, this would probably surprise you, but with the game on the line, it would probably be Charles. Wow. We can't let him hear this. All right, we'll edit this question.

Say somebody else. You know, I play, you know, Danny Angel is a great. I was going to say Danny. Danny Angel is a great clutch shooter. If he would have made the three in Chicago in game three, we wouldn't have triple overtime. So I can't, I got to, he missed a wide open one.

So he's out. Trying to think. But I just think of guys who were clutch and were kind of born for that. And Charles hit a lot of big shot. when I played with him. And he wasn't a good shooter. But if you needed him to score, he was going to find a way to do it. That's the thing with the puttting.

It's just something he got that he's got. All right. That wouldn't have been the answer I would have pegged with, but I like that. All right. Next question. Correct me if I'm wrong. You're a huge Larry Bird fan growing up. I heard the first time you ever went up against him.

It's a pretty cool story. Can you share that with us? So Larry Bird, you said it. He was my guy. I loved him. My favorite player still is my favorite player. So my rookie year Going up against him

Madhouse at McDowell I check in the game I'm guarding Larry So perfect Yeah So I figured After about 10 minutes I caught myself and I said well I better stop

idolizing this guy Should probably start guarding him because he's killing me But in the process There was a ball out of bounds on the side And Larry's standing underneath the basket And next to me is I think it was Robert Parrish and Mark West, the two centers. Mark West is on our team.

Robert Parrish was under Boston. So Larry looks at Mark and he says, hey, Mark, he said, we're going to inbound the ball. I'm going to come off a screen from Robert, catch it to the top of the key. I'm going to turn. I'm going to look at the rookie. I'm going to laugh and I'm going to shoot it and make it. And he's saying this right in front of me. Hey, Larry, I'm right here.

Hold on. Am I the rookie? I'm like, what I'm talking about me? So they inbound the ball. They in bounds the ball. Larry goes up, comes off of Robert Parrish, catch at the top of the key, turns, looks at me, laughs, shoots it and makes it, and then just jogs down the floor. That's so good.

Well, I have arrived. Thank you. That's got to be a tail between the legs moment. That was awesome. I think my first game I lined up against the Lakers. I started that game, and I talked about knowing you made it. Jump ball. Kareem's jumping.

You got magic, James Worthy, Cooper, and Byron Scott. Not in central Michigan. And you're like, yep, I'm not at Mount Pleasant. This ain't the chippewa. How about looking at that lineup for your first game? That's crazy. That's gnarly. All right, next one.

Do you think you, or have you ever considered changing your nickname from Thunderdand to Lightning Dan, given the speed of your back swing? I'm trying to slow it down. It's short. It is. You know, the funny thing about that nickname is in college, it was Dan Thundermarly,

because I was an inside player, and we had a guy named Irvin Levy, and he was a great outside shooter. Actually made it to the final cuts for the Chicago Bulls. We had a really good team my junior year when he was a senior in college. So they nicknamed him Lightning and they called me Thunder. So it was Thunder and Lightning. And I hated that nickname.

I absolutely hated it. So when I graduated from Central and I got drafted by the Phoenix Suns, I said, thank God this whole Dan Thunder, because it was Dan Thunder Marley. It's over. Well, the first exhibition game, Phoenix went back to Mount Pleasant, and we played the Denver Nuggets for an exhibition game. exhibition games, they usually take it back to small cities or small places or, you know, draft picks places. So we went there and they introduced me and the PA announcer at Central Michigan

said, and welcome back, you know, Dan Thunder Marley. Well, Al McCoy was there. So what do you think he did? He brought it back to Phoenix and said he's calling me Dan Thundermarly. He just started calling me Thunder Dan. So I was like, dang it. So we get back here and he starts calling me Thunder Dan. And now it's grown on me. I actually, I like it now, obviously. But I couldn't wait to get rid of that nickname when I got here. I mean, your friends, we call, everyone calls you, like, you walk up, what's up, Thunder? Like, no, I don't know another athlete whose nickname is used as much as yours.

No, it's amazing. I'll be listening to shows or listen to TV stuff and somebody will like, I'll listen to, I'll be watching college basketball games and somebody had mentioned my name. Oh, they were, uh, comparing me to the CRISPR from the Gonzaga about who they, and you said, oh, an old school guy would be Dan Marley and the other

announcements, oh yeah, Thunder Dan. So you're right. That's what people remember. Yeah, it's stuck. Yeah, it's sweet on Gonzaga, by the way. Yeah. He's nice. He's very nice. They got to, I don't know if they're going to get beat.

They're great. Yeah, it's going to be fun. Not yet. For sure. Not yet at least. All right. Well, you already mentioned, MJ, great trash talker. Larry Bird, great trash talker.

Was there anybody else? Who was the greatest trash talker you went up against the NBA? Gary Payton? Oh, the glove. Never stopped talking. Like, would he get personal? Yeah, never stop talking. Never stopped talking.

I'm trying to think there was so many back then. I mean, it was nonstop. Reggie Miller talked a lot of trash. It was funny. I played, you guys remember Dale Ellis? Yeah, dude, Denver Nuggett. Yeah, of course. Another big guy.

He played, he played Center in Tennessee in college. And he came in the league and was one of the all-time best three-point shooters ever. So I hated Dale Ellis. Absolutely hated Dale Ellis. And him and I got in a fight one game when he was with Dallas and I just couldn't stand him. So when I got traded in Miami, I think it was my second year, he actually got traded to Miami. And he turned into one of my best friends on the whole team. Oh, wow.

Yeah. And the same thing with Aange. People hate Aange. If you're playing against Danny Aange, one of the dirtiest players ever to play the game. I mean, you should see, there's a picture of when we were playing the Boston Celtics with Kevin McHale doing a turnaround jumper just off the block. And Danny Ager's guarding him. And the picture, he has his whole hands around his nuts.

Wow. The good old days. Yes. I mean, that's just, and he would just, and you hated playing against him. But he was one of my favorite teammates ever. He would do anything for you, play as hard as he could. So Angel is one of those guys that you would just hate playing against, but love playing for it.

And Dale Ellis was the same way. I used to talk crap to him, and he would do the same thing to me. But once when we played with each other, he was a great guy. I feel like Reggie Miller would be kind of the same way. I mean, he's over there talking shit to Spike Lee in the stands. Oh, yeah, he never stopped. And he could talk because the two Davis brothers, remember those guys? Yeah.

6-9, 610, about 260, 270. Imagine guarding Reggie Miller, and that guy never stopped moving, ever. and all he did was run from a pick from one Davis brother to the other Davis brother. And I was the guy that had to guard him. So I'm running into him. And then once I got around him, I had to run into the other other guy.

And then it was unbelievable. Get that ice bath ready after the guy. Oh, Patrick Ewing separated my shoulder one time. I was running through a pick on the top of the key. And he hit me so hard. My whole left shoulder just went down like that. I mean, back in the day, guarding guys like Reggie Miller and John Starks

and guys who were running through picks. I mean, they were head hunting it. It was a tough deal. Yeah, Reggie would run through five. picks. Oh, he never stopped moving. The guy like you having to guard him every position, and then go down and score on the other hand. And guys think it's so easy for like Kobe and Michael and all

these guys and Curry to score 40 points. Oh, if you take enough shot. It's hard to score that many points in the league because there's a lot of moving and energy and never stopping. It's hard to score that many points. It's absolute work. Yeah, no no doubt about those dudes are getting picks constantly.

All right, next question. You had a weird superstition where you wore only your right sock inside out. How did that originate? My sophomore year in college, I went into the training room and I had literally had a size of a blister on my right foot on the bottom of my right foot was probably three quarters of my foot. It was that big. I mean, it was huge. And the trainer, she said, well, all I can tell you to do is wear your sock inside out because it cuts down on friction. I said, that's true. That's it? I don't know. I was a sophomore in college. I don't know what that was going on. I just know

I had a big blister on my foot. So I turned my sock inside out. I said, that's true. That's it's it. I don't know. I was a inside out and I think I scored like 40 or something that game. Had to be the sock. So I have not, to this day, in this honest guy, since my sock You know, I noticed this. Look at it. It's a reverse Jordan. You're never going to. So we're playing golf at Greyhawk the other day. And me and Kevin Chapel both of each other and like,

his one sucks inside out. This guy can't even dress himself. To this day, he's not, that's incredible. To my sophomore year in college, never. Not one day I have not had my right sock. inside out. It's like a reflex now. That is so funny. We talked about it the other day and I was like, oh, he just messed up. He's still doing it. I ruined my next question, which is going to be, do you still, are you do that for like a big member guest or something?

I've never not had my sock, my right sock inside out since my sophomore year in college. I'm going to start trying it. All right. Last one for me. Got a big member guest coming up. Your good buddy, Vinny Del Negro. He told me this story and I didn't really believe it, but now I'm starting to believe it just because what you told us about Michael Jordan. But did you really, during a key moment in the game, start asking him about his golf game

while someone was at the free throw line to distract him. I did and to this day he still thinks it was intentional but it was unintentional. So we're playing at home against the San Antonio Spurs. Vinnie's playing. We're staying at half court. One of their guys is shooting a free throw. And I started just talking

because I knew Vinny played. And I didn't know Vinny that well at the time. We were friends, but we weren't like we are now. So I just started talking. I was like, hey Vinny, how's your game? You know, you're playing much? You know, whatever. or whatever. And as I'm talking, the guy shoots it and he misses it.

And I'm like, and I just break. And I think Charles had grabbed it or something and threw a full court pass and I just laid it up. And I felt so bad because it was not intentional. So the next time I could talk to Vinny during that game, I said, Vinny, I did not.

He's like, shut the hell up. He made me look bad. Popovich is mad at me. I'm getting cussed out. And I'm never going to talk to you again. I said, Vinya, what? So this day he hasn't forgiven me. That is awesome.

It was totally unintentional. But you talked to MJ about golf. now you're talking to Vinny Del Nagle about golf? I think that was your thing. It was my thing, but I was not, I wasn't scared of Vinny. Let's get this straight. I didn't need to try to stop Vinny from giving me 35.

Now, Vinny was a great player, but he wasn't Jordan. So I was, I was being kind of, I was being sincere in that moment. I was trying to stop Vinny from giving me eight. That's awesome. Oh, shit. All right, all right. Last question. Here we go.

Your life is on the line here, Dan. All right, you follow me? Your life is on the line. Which would you rather have determined the outcome of your life? Shack shooting a free throw. or Charles Barkley in the fairway with a driver. Yeah, I do. Do the numbers.

I think you're dead, Dan. There's a good chance you're not with us anymore. On a normal side of a fairway. So Charles is what now? He's in the- Charles has to hit the fairway with a driver. And you live. He misses it.

You die. Doesn't matter how far he hits it? No. No, I mean, he's got to hit. I don't know. You can have him hit it however far you want. I got to go with my guy, Charles, man. You got to.

You just said he's the most clutch guy. He gives the rock. Mark. Yeah, Shaq. No, it's got to be Charles. Yeah. That's not even a question now I think about it. Tough thing to have your life laying the balance.

Oh, I wouldn't want either one of them. Let's make sure that's, but yeah, I'd have to go with my boy, Charles. That is awesome. All right. There you go, Chuck. He's back now, no hitch. That's great. Well, Thunder, this has been a blast, my man.

Thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, I appreciate you guys having me anytime. Thank you. Thank you, so much. Thanks. All right. Well, that was Thunder Dan Marley on Golf Subparts. I mean, it's so cool talking this guy, a guy who got to play against Michael Jordan

in his prime talked about battling against him. Yeah, I love the fact that he didn't know that Jordan had singled him out as the guy to go up, like the guy that he had the chip on his shoulder for until he watched the last stance. He's like, I wonder if he'll mention me. I wonder what he's going to say. And then all of a big part of it. I was going to rip Dan Marley's face and after. I mean, that's the shittiest deal in the world.

You got the best player in the world. And he has to have somebody to create that me against the world vibe. And it's like, oh, it's you, Dan. Because our owner, our GM loves you. That is awesome. I love sitting down with Dan. And him talking about how he chose Charles Barkley to save his life over skill, Neil, shooting a free throw crazy shit not uh i don't like my odds either way might want to add me into ken drew

hit the blue line the net from the blue line that'd be about the same odds on that yeah but life's in trouble at that point i know you got really really excited talking about dream team two with him i've never seen it's almost like the rat was sitting here oh it's close to the rat's in a league of his own but talking about dream team too i just love that team because dream team one is the team right that's the arguably the best team ever symbol but they were like the consummate professional you know larry and might they all handled themselves the right way and all this stuff and then here comes dream team two world championship and they were like the opposite of that they were dunking on people i mean they won every game by 38 or something grabbing their nuts as they ran down the court they were like

the opposite of that and they just got up and down the floor kind of like more like how the modern day NBA looks like that was the way they were playing they were dunking and shooting threes and that team was fun to watch well it was a lot of fun sitting down with thunder dan marley thank him for coming on it's the ladies we got to get to the gambling portion of the show and last week for those who out there that don't know you did take daniel burger and our one and done but he had to withdraw before he teed off. So no problem. We let our producer, Mark, know that you took Adam Scott. So don't everybody freak out. Slees actually did make some money this week. He had Adam Scott instead of Daniel Berger. So you get to save Boog for another day. I got Boog coming to a date to be

determined. All right. And I had my man Sung J.M. who brought me home a little top 10 finish. So producer Mark, how the standings looking? Yeah. So the transition to Adam Scott worked out for slees there got a cool buck $125,000. You, however, with that T8 got 190. Stretch your lead to 83,000. Oh, snug as a bug and a rug. This thing is tight. It is. I can't believe none of us pick Mac Jones.

I know. I was right on the brink with him too. All right. Well, this week we got another WGC, the Dell Technologies match play down at Austin Country Club, one of my favorite golf courses in the state of Texas. This one's fun. And also, one of the hardest tournaments to bet of the year.

I mean, anything can happen. In a survivor pool, it's like, okay, you want a guy that's going to try to win the thing, but there's no sure things going through and looking at these brackets. There's nothing, that's guaranteed. So if you pick one of the big, big guys, Dustin Johnson, let's just say. You pick him, love him this week, and he doesn't make it out of first round. You might as well pick

Dylan Fatelli. No disrespect to anybody. You know what I means? But like you can easily get snubbed with a very, very small week here because it is such a crapshoot in matchplay. So I basically said, all right, who do I want for the majors? Save those guys and then go to my next tier down from that. And I also look for the easiest first, you know, like pod to get out of, and there really aren't any. There's no. And how they do this is there's 16 groups of four. They play round robin play, whoever earns the most points, boom, you go on to the sweet 16,

and then it's just match play from there, single elimination. So like I said, this is tough. I mean, the groups are brutal, just to make it out of the groups as an accomplishment. And with me, being the low man last week, with some J.M., I have the honor.

And this is tough for me. I hate this. There are so many guys I want to take. But like you said, you could go out and play great. Shoot four under in all three matches. Go home. Lose.

You run DJ, Rom, run into a buzz thought. See you. All right. Well, I broke it. down. I got my final four right here, and I went with a lot of chalk. I got DJ coming out of one side, Bryson DeShambo coming out of one, Justin Thomas, and then I got one little fellow that's not like the other. Okay, three ones. Looking for his first win. Scotty Sheffler, University of Texas product played Austin Country Club a lot of times. I'm actually taking him to face Dustin Johnson

in the finals. And I'm going with the upset, Sleas. Scotty Schaeffler. Get his first PGA tour win at the WGC Dell Technologies matchplay. And he's going off at 40 to 1 so you can make some cash if it happens. Well, his first win is coming. I hope it's not this week. No offense, Scotty, but his first win is coming. And, yeah, being a Texas kid, you know, UT playing this golf course a lot of time, that definitely doesn't hurt.

Like I said, I tried to find the top guy that I don't know that I'm not going to pick for a major in whoever has the easiest route to get out of his first round after that. I think it's even more of a crap shoot. But it's hard to find, but I'm going with Patrick Cantlay. He's at 20 to 1 odds on the week. I mean, he's top 20 and six of his last seven. He missed the cut at the players who cares, throw that away.

It doesn't matter to me. I always expect Cantley to be in good form. But he's the 10 seed, and he's in a pod with Hadeki Matsiyama, another great ball striker, Carlos Ortiz, and Brian Harmon, who's going to be a tough out too. So like I said, I love Cantlay to come out of that group, but would it shock me if Brian Harmon comes and wins that thing? No, would it shock me if Matsuyama gets hot and wins? No, it's a hard thing to get out.

So Patrick Cantley is like my next tier of guys I'm not going to pick to win a major who's next up. And it was Cantley. This is a week if you're wanting to gamble, maybe just stick to March Madness and stay away from the golf because this is, this is brutal. Yeah, if you think there's a lot of upsets going on right now in basketball, wait until you see the bracket come, you know, once this is first round ends. There's going to be some weird numbers up on the board. All right. I got Scotty Sheffler. You've got Patrick Cantley.

Best luck to all of y'all out there. And Slees, everyone, get ready. Next week, it's going to be a lot of fun. We're going to bring you a lot of coverage. I mean, this could possibly be the next miracle on ice. This is, it would, if this, if I go three for three somehow, it's bigger upset. than that in sports history. By a gazillion. This would be the biggest upset in sports history if you went three years. I'm going to the store. I'm getting some eye black. I'm going to have all the best stuff. He's

bringing all the good equipment. He had texted me other night. He's like, what's a, what size? What's skate? Do you wear? I said, if Ovechkin wouldn't wear the shit, don't bring it. I need to top end stuff. So I'm going to be suited and booted. And I'm going to get, I'm giving them hell, dude. I can't wait. There's no laydown in me. Wednesday, March 24th. It is going to be awesome. And we will bring it to you all on next week's golf subpar. Everyone have a great week.