The Daily Zeitgeist - MJGMB #128: The Past, Present and Future of the NBA with Coach Eric Musselman

Episode Date: August 28, 2024

Miles and Jack were honored to be joined by longtime NBA and NCAA coach, USC Men’s Basketball head coach Eric Musselman on today’s episode! The trio enjoyed a wide-ranging conversation about the current state of affairs in the NBA, the international game, Coach Musselman’s prior experience working with the late, great Jerry West and plenty more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Caitlin Clark vs. Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball.

And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. What's up, y'all? It's Cam Jordan from the New Orleans Saints here to tell you it's going down on season two of my podcast, Off the Edge with me, Cam Jordan. Catch new episodes every Wednesday, and I'll have the biggest NFL stars join me to give

a player's perspective of the biggest storylines, trends, and did that really just happen moment from around the league. So tap in to off the edge with cam jordan's podcast your ultimate playbook for all things football and not football listen on the iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts well well well we're back again for episode 128 and we've got a very special episode in store for you today as we continue getting ready for the upcoming season with a former long-term NBA assistant and head coach, currently the head coach of USC's men's basketball team, Eric Musselman on today's episode. What a pull for us, Miles. Hey, look,

this is a top tier show. What? Wait. It's what we do. It's what we do. We got Eric Musselman? Yes. Yes. Okay. Him. He's here now. Okay. Or in a moment. But let me introduce myself. I'm Miles Gray. There he is right there. And I'm Jack O'Brien. And this is Miles and Jack on Mad Boosties. Donchich deep three.

Got it. And Luka Donchich hits 10K. There you go. And B, driving, spinning, fading, hitting. Banner number 18 has been secured. The Celtics are NBA champions. Over the double T. Oh! 9-9. Giannis with the take. Uh-oh, look out. A little showtime. What you got, Giannis?

Eric Musselman, Coach Mus, welcome to the show. Even though I am a former Bruin at heart, I welcome you as the USC men's basketball coach to our illustrious show. Thank you so much for joining us. I mean, look, we were saying before you actually got on, I think this guy has probably seen the game from almost every conceivable angle in terms of coaching and whatnot. So it's really great to have you here so we can pick your brain a bit. No, thanks, Miles. I appreciate you and Jack having me on today.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. So we have so many questions. We don't even know where to start. Which way should we go, Jack? I guess it's up to us since we are the hosts yeah i mean you uh you recently told a story about working with jerry west uh that was pretty interesting to us that like gets at sort of just the the level of skill the level of intensity that i feel like you only see behind the scenes can you talk about just your experience with Jerry West, just to give people a little taste of what kind of, you've seen it all. The journey, yeah, yeah.

It's like the end of Blade Runner. You've seen some wild stuff. There's so many stories. You know, working at Memphis, the head coach was Mike Fratello. I was one of the assistant coaches. Obviously, Jerry West was the general manager. My coach was Mike Fratello. I was one of the assistant coaches. Obviously, Jerry West was the general manager. In the draft room, the most competitive person I've ever been around. There was a game where Kenyon Martin was not blocked out by one of our bigs, and Jerry West came in after the game in the locker room and addressed the non-blockout in about the most intense post-game locker room situation I've ever seen.

Can't really use a lot of the words that were used in that locker room that night. I'm not blocking out Kenyon Martin. I was in the locker room that night. I'm not blocking out Kenyon Martin. But there were so many stories. One of them, I was rebounding or working out, whatever term you want to use for Dante Jones. And the phone rang at the scorer's table. It was like a 4.30 in the afternoon for a 7 o'clock, 7.05 tip-off, and the phone kept ringing. And Scott Adabata was one of the assistants, and he said, Mos, go answer that phone. It's probably Jerry West. And I had just joined the team because, remember, that was the year that Fratello took over for Hubie Brown once the season was already underway, and the only coaching changes were Fratello and then myself. And what had happened is Jerry was watching the workout

that I was putting Dante Jones through and didn't agree with some of the skill development stuff. I was working on some of the areas that I thought Dante needed to improve on. Wow. Jerry just wanted him to work on what he was going to do that night. And he used to sit up in the owner's suite and watch. He wanted to know who the first players on the floor were for the opposing team and our own home team. And then he wanted to watch the players work out to look at their intensity level, attention to detail.

And he wanted to watch the assistant coaches on both teams to see who knew what they were doing. So that's just one example of his attention to detail. And then his work ethic, obviously, for a guy of his stature, I mean, he's the logo and he's their first executive in the building at 430, already up in his little perch waiting to see and look down and evaluate everybody that was on the floor way before even the first bus came. Because obviously in the NBA, there's a first bus, second bus. He wanted to see about those guys that were in a taxi cab with maybe a lower level assistant coach at the time. So

super, super detailed and about as competitive as any human being I've ever been around. How is his competitiveness in the in the draft room specifically because i mean legendarily the guy who saw kobe before anybody else saw kobe but like how is how is that manifesting itself yeah i mean i think all those kobe stories i wasn't around obviously Sure. I think they're all true. I know that, you know, the year that I was with him, he went and saw a Monte Ellis play before anyone really knew who Monte Ellis was. And he came back and said that he thought he saw a guy that could average 15 and 20 points a night, and he was right.

And, you know, that was evaluating a high school player, which is, you know, super, super hard to do. Where we drafted that year, it was more in the mid-first, so we were not going to take Monte that early. But I remember him keep saying, hey, Monte Ellis is going to be better than any of these guys that we're going to draft in the mid-first. But he had his eye on Gerald Green and Danny Granger.

And both those guys went pretty close to right before we pick. And he walked out of the draft room. He was so frustrated that those two guys had gone directly in front of our pick, which ended up that year being Hakeem Warwick. directly in front of our pick, which ended up that year being Hakeem Warwick. But he was so competitive and was so fired up to get one of those two guys. And he was so right on with his evaluation of players and how they would fit in with the current roster. Yeah, I get that.

I sometimes get frustrated when I got my eye on someone in a fantasy draft and they're taking, you know, a couple of picks before me. So basically the same thing. In a way, we're on the clock. You know what I mean? Yeah.

It's like, Hey man, we're down to nine minutes now. Yeah. I've got to make a pick and it's, he's just leaving. Cause he's so mad. Yeah.

Between an NC state guard that Denver took and Warwick. And we're trying to make this decision. And then Jerry came in about a minute and a half before the draft and went with the guy that had a little bit more size. There you go. Was it hard to argue with him when you're taking a call from him? I'm assuming he's being very diplomatic about telling you what you should be doing with Dante Jones and your workout and just being like taking your feelings into consideration.

But do you, did you have a moment where you looked down and looked at the logo and you were like, the logo is calling me? Yeah. Yeah. Well, the first encounter with,

with, um, with Jerry West was, uh, we had made a trade in Golden State going into my year two. And we had a really good year one with a lot of young pieces. But Gilbert Arenas walked after year one. And there was a shift in the organization where they went with a lot of older vets, probably knowing they were going fire me and they were going to fire the general manager gary saint gene and chris mullen was going to take over right oh avery johnson popeye jones nick van exel we got a a whole group of

older guys that were coming uh into our program but uh a trade was made and jerry called me and said you're gonna get fired um sometime in the next 12 months based on the way the roster was moving and he was a thousand percent right that was literally the first time that i ever talked to jerry west hey man sup you're gonna get fired coach hey let me start the clock really quick. There's the countdown. She hit my phone and said, hey, Jerry West is on. At that point, I was like a 37-year-old coach, and I'm like, hey, just direct it to Jerry St. Jean. I don't want to be involved with talking to another GM. She said, no, he insists on talking to you.

It's not necessarily about a trade proposal. I got on, and literally he said, you're not going to you it's not necessarily about a trade proposal and i got on and literally he said you're not going to make it bad chemistry stuff going on there with your with your with your additions and so on and so forth and he goes you'll be fired in 12 months click and wow he gave me three months uh more than what i actually got from the moment of that phone call. You beat the odds. Was he just doing that to talk trash? Or was he like, so keep us in mind when you're looking for the next job? Or what was his purpose in telling you that you were about to get fired?

Just like something he had figured out and wanted to make sure you knew? I'm not really sure. You know, Jerry was mysterious. I'm not really sure what it was. Jerry Watson, mysterious. I'm not really sure what it was. When he made the hire of Coach Fratello, I got a phone call right after he and Coach Fratello came to an agreement. And he was the one guy that I brought on with Mike. So I don't know if he had been watching, studying, or what.

But I was fortunate enough to then end up working for him, obviously. Yeah. I mean, in terms of identifying talent and stuff, I know you've seen a lot of players come through and had your own sort of opinions on them and what their careers could be. I mean, I've heard that when you were in Orlando in 98, you were like, D in 98 uh you you're like

dirk dirk like what was sort of like you know give me a little bit of texture in terms of like what your experience has been because i know you had also seen vince carter or like deer and fox and seen something special but sort of describe like for you like what those experiences are like and seeing them and kind of immediately sort of trying to get get your gears going and you're like okay i see the weaknesses here these are are the strengths. Pass. Nope. This will be good in a couple of years. Or, you know, how does that work in your mind, especially after, you know, being around so many really gifted people in the game? Yeah. I mean, you know, my role kind of in Orlando was John Gabriel was the general manager and

Chuck Daly was the head coach. And it was kind of a bridge between, because I had come from the minor leagues in the old CBA. So when we needed to call a player up, I was heavily involved in that stuff. But then Coach Daly, because I was so young, wanted to mentor me in evaluation and how to kind of go maybe potentially in that player personnel development role. And, you know, that particular draft, like John Gabriel sent me to watch Vince Carter play in Daytona Beach because he was from Daytona Beach, and they played Bethune-Cookman. And I came back, and, you know, my eval was that, you know, he was always grabbing a different body part. He looked like he was always hurt. I think in a particular game, he got poked in the eye

and went in the locker room for a brief moment. And then I look back all these years later, and I'm like, how dumb was my eval? My worst eval ever. I don't know. He didn't have a long career did he yeah he only played in four decades yeah yeah yeah yeah of course but that that same draft um richard lewis had come out um and part

of my stuff was hanging out in the weight room when the strength coach tested him, and Mick Smith was our strength coach, and I just remember how little Rashard Louis could bench press. When I tried to report back to Coach Daly and John Gabriel, I just continually talked about, hey, I don't know how his body is going to withstand NBA force and NBA. And then obviously another guy. But I feel super lucky that I was part of remembering my opinion and how that opinion was wrong because I lacked experience. And I lacked the vision and looking long term. So I think it's really helped me at the collegiate level

looking back at some of the stuff that I said about players when they were coming out of college. You weren't the only one, by the way, who had that year's draft wrong. Michael Oluwakandi went number one. Mike Bibby, who was, you know, all these things made sense at the time. Rafe LaFrance maybe didn't make as much sense at the time uh and then anton jameson his own teammate went before vince carter i still remember that draft because uh my dad was an assistant for the boston celdics and it was like peak me being like super bought into just whatever was going on, like, you know,

needling him for any extra information that he could get me. And he was like, there's this guy, Dirk Nowitzki that like, if we can, I think he might slide to us. They were at 10 and like, he was just like all week,

all we care about. We're just like begging, like hoping that Nowitzki slides to us. And he went one before. He went number nine. But Paul Pierce slid that year for no good reason. Nobody has a good explanation for why he ended up at 10. And so they ended up with a generational player anyways. The Dirk story, too, that I experienced, Jack,

was we did not know who dirk was about 30 days before the draft we had not his name wasn't on the draft board word started circulating about three weeks before the draft at least for our you know draft war room in orlando and then we tried to go over there we tried to send different staff members over there. And to my memory, Don Nelson just had him on lockdown. There was all types of stories about how Dirk couldn't play. And I really, truly think a lot of it was fabricated by the Dallas Mavericks and Don Nelson. One of the stories with the Timberwolves was in the inaugural year, Don Nelson had called my dad and told him how bad Tim Hardaway's knees were.

And we drafted Pooh Richardson, and he turned into a really good player for us. But obviously, Tim Hardaway's a Hall of Famer. And who took Tim Hardaway? Don Nelson. Don Nelson. Don Nelson. Who was telling my dad he had a bad knee. That's part of the game. Never believe anything you hear in the draft room.

Yeah. Right. Amazing. All right. We should take, let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll get into just kind of the the different eras the conversation that

started with ant but we like to talk about about whether basketball is progressive are the guys getting better is the game getting better um we'll be right back all right here we go it's cam jordan from the New Orleans Saints here to tell you it's going down on season two of my podcast, Off the Edge with me, Cam Jordan. Can't stop it. You know what's going to happen. Can't stop it. That's right.

Catch new episodes every Wednesday, all season long. That's what you look for in year 14, to do more. No days off. And I'll have my friends, who happen to be some of the NFL's biggest stars join me on the pod. We'll give you a player's perspective of the biggest storylines, trends,

and did that really just happen moments from around the league. And you know we'll have fun doing it. Oh, and I'll have a special guest each month join me to mix it up a little bit. Who is it? None other than... Psych! You'll have to tune in to find out. Who is it? None other than... Psych!

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rest of the crew every Wednesday for a new episode. Listen to the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Señora Sex Ed is not your mommy sex talk. This show is la plática like you've never heard it before. We're breaking the stigma and silence around sex and sexuality in Latinx communities. This podcast is an intergenerational conversation between Latinas from Gen X to Gen Z. We're covering everything from body image to representation in film and television. We even interview iconic Latinas like Puerto Rican actress Ana Ortiz. I felt in control of my own physical body and my own self.

I was on birth control. I had sort of had my first sexual experience. If you're in your señora era or know someone who is, then this is the show for you. We're your hosts, Diosa and Mala, and you might recognize us from our flagship podcast, Locatora Radio. We're so excited for you to hear our brand new podcast senora sex ed listen to senora sex ed on the iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast and we're back and coach this is something i think the first episode we talked about this idea that basketball kind of has this specific shape to it at least that this is my thinking that like

you know baseball part of the appeal is that it's been the same game for a long enough time that like the stats are comparable and you know uh basketball really like you can just look at games from 10 years ago, 15 years ago, and like see a pronounced difference in how the game is played. Um, and it seems like they're adding new skills. Like you, you can see the players getting better and,

uh, or at least getting good in different ways. And so, uh, just curious to hear your thoughts on that. Like, is that something that you kind of are keeping in mind or that gets you excited about the game? Yeah, I think so.

I think, you know, I'm a big baseball fan. I think like, you know, when you look at baseball, I mean, it's predominantly played in the United States, in places like Dominican Republic, in Venezuela. So it's kind of a smaller world participation. And what I believe has changed the NBA is the influx of the overseas coaching and players and the fundamentally sound players that have come over from outside the United States. fundamentally sound players that have come over from outside the United States.

The coaching right now, like if you're sitting in USC's office and you want to try to come up with a new offensive scheme that's a little bit outside the box, more than likely you're turning on a FIBA game because there's body movement, there's player movement, there's five to six, seven passes being made. There's three to four to five options instead of one or two options. I think the creativity of FIBA basketball right now is at a way, way high level. I don't think the coaching is any necessarily better in the NBA than it has been in the past. I look at QB Brown and your dad and his defensive reputation and the Mike Fratellos and the Chuck Ditt and the Pat Rileys.

I don't necessarily think the coaching in the NBA is any better. I actually think the coaching has dipped in the NBA and has slid a little bit compared to what it was. The guys like Cotton Fitzsimmons, those guys worked their way up and were unbelievable X and O coaches. Guys like Doug Moe, way ahead of their time from a passing standpoint.

George Carl. But I do think the European coaching and European players have changed the NBA and made the game better than it ever has been. And nobody 15 years ago would have thought a player would have the shot selection of Steph Curry. So because of player development, because of the work ethic and guys solely focusing on one sport, when I grew up, if you were a decent athlete, you played three sports. That does not happen anymore. Players going into their eighth grade year, pretty much have to commit to one sport. And that's another reason why I think you see better players than maybe what you've seen in the past.

A lot of people, I hear criticism a lot, is like that a lot of the players coming from overseas, there's so much emphasis on teamwork and team play, where in the U.S. it's become a lot more individualized. team play where in the U S it's become a lot more individualized and, you know, we're like in the business of really churning out stars rather than getting kids more familiar with playing like a team game. How do you look at that? Or, or how do you like sort of balance the two or does,

do you see that as a deficit or more just that the emphasis is different and they sort of kind of blend together and they sort of compliment each other. Once these players are together. No miles. It's really interesting. Um, when I these players are together. No, Miles, it's really interesting. When I ask our players or recruits, hey, who is your favorite NBA team? Almost 9 out of 10 guys say,

oh, I don't have a team, I have a player. I like whoever Durant's playing on, or I like whatever team Kyrie's on. When I grew up I mean you were either a Laker fan right or a Celtic fan I mean for the most part for sure sure and I never almost never hear a player say hey I got this team it's always hey I like Miami when LeBron was there I like the Cavs when LeBron's there I like the L Cavs when LeBron's there. I like the Lakers now because LeBron, that's a whole different mentality, you know, than when I grew up, for sure. So I think that the star power has changed.

I think even when you look at women's basketball, like the star power right now is really, really prevalent in the women's game, in the WNBA. So I think it's just a different mentality of maybe what younger people feel about the game and how they're attached to stars. I mean, shoot, when I grew up, if a guy played on your favorite team and then he walked for free agency or got traded, he's dead to you. You didn't like the player at all. Right, right, right, right, right.

Yeah. What's wrong with you? You never forgave him, right? Yeah, of course. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I totally get that. So this is in the news lately because somebody who didn't do the one sport thing, who actually was more of a football player i think through high school um

anthony edwards and then like kind of started coming around to basketball and became one of the best players in the in the world uh was asked about players in the 80s and uh his his quote uh starts out i didn't watch it back in the day, so I can't speak on it. And that should have been the end of it. Yeah. Right. But he's feeling himself. He's a confident guy.

Yeah. He's like, but if I must answer. But then, yeah, he kept on. They say it was tougher back then than it is now. But I don't think anybody had skill back then. Michael Jordan was the only one that really had skill you know what i mean so that's why when they saw kobe they were like oh my god now everybody has skill it really feels like my six-year-old trying to like having watched three youtube videos like

trying to come up with an explanation of what's your take on the years of that so they saw this guy and then this other guy who also has a lot of highlights everyone was like wow wow then that guy dunked really good in that one clip yeah oh so magic uh johnson who i'm just hearing about now in this uh in this story but apparently also a good player no uh magic uh in response i never respond to a guy who's never won a championship he didn't win a college championship i don't even think he won a high school championship so it's getting a little snippy yeah um but i do i don't know like this seems like it takes it too far in the other direction of like nobody was good back then yeah but then i don't know then kevin garnett on his

show with Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett was like, he's like, I don't think these kids could have even lasted 20 years ago. Which felt like, again, I know that I'm like, I have great love for the 90s, 80s, and 2000s. So I understand the pain to hear someone say, Michael Jordan was the only player with skill. But that felt like a bit of like a overreaction to that response. He kept saying like

you can't hit no triple step back three like anymore now and sure that's one thing we're talking about but to say that they couldn't last i don't know i think they would adapt if that's how the game is being played i guess two parts do you just look at that as like sort of like the hubris and confidence of a young player like anthony edwards like obviously he's starting off acknowledging his ignorance there but also as someone who has coached young people who are getting in the game, how much emphasis do you put on people understanding the foundations of the game and how the game has been played, or do you kind of think it's not as relevant to how we're playing now? Well, to answer the second part, I think for sure it's relevant. I think that

young players should watch Magic Johnson and see his vision, see his willingness to be a passer, see his willingness to make teammates better. I mean, he's probably one of the greatest teammates, maybe the greatest teammate ever because, I mean, you saw in that Philadelphia series when Kareem couldn't play and Magic went and played the five spot and was shooting hook shots. I mean, how many guys could ever play the one in the five in the same championship round? It just doesn't happen, but he could do it.

He's probably the only player in the history of the game that could play the one, one night, and then go play the five and be equally effective. But I do think there's some brilliance in Anthony Edwards, too. Like, he's must-watch TV in an interview because you never know what he's going to say. Sure, yeah. And so there is beauty in the fact that he can bring attention with some of his, you know, comments and, you know, cause discussion points. But look, when I look back at game planning, you know, when you had to game plan for Charles Barkley,

that's about as hard a guy as ever to game plan. Yeah. Mid post, draw fouls, six foot four, but built like a linebacker, like could draw a free throw attempt as well as anybody in today's game so i think that all the young players should really sit down there should almost be like a a history class right for every college player where they they take a class you know once a week for an hour where you go back and you look at, you know, how did Carl Malone improve as a free throw shooter? Like that thing is that story on his free throw percentage increase is a

phenomenal story. Um, so I think that you got to know the history of the game. Um, cause I think it's, it's the only way to learn. It's the only way to, to try to get, you know, little nuggets that can help you improve as well. I mean, part of, I think, Ant's appeal also is that he brings a sort of new-to-this-earth point of view. Like that one interview where he heard an Irish accent for the first time and was like, hey, that's kind of cool. Yeah, I like that. I kind of like that.

Are you from Ireland? Yeah. So that's what his description of NBA history seemed like to me is like someone who just found out about that. There wasn't an NBA in the eighties and nineties. And it wasn't just Michael Jordan playing himself. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It's like, huh. Okay. I saw the documentary space jam and I was intrigued. So I wanted to learn more after that uh but yeah i but i mean i think that's kind of like what makes the comment obviously not like feel like too antagonistic or anything because he does start off admittedly just saying like

hey i didn't watch so i can't so like so what i'm about to say don't bother taking it seriously because that's not the world yeah but it's just funny to even to do that like you say and then still give the answer um and then everyone's like it comes out with their pitchforks but like as you talk about history for you uh we've been talking about sort of some older players that you know we have like listeners that span many generations in terms of fandom a lot of younger fans you know some like to get into highlights and look at old tape and see how like the players of yesteryear played but who are like some people that you feel like you would you would emphasize to your players who are you're kind of like does everybody know about this player

does everybody know about this person's game or the the evolution they had with their game like who are some people like that do you feel as somebody who's leading younger players, who are those sort of important players that you'd want them to be familiar with? I think when you look at the point guard screening of John Stockton, I think point guards need to look at tape of John Stockton and see how physical he was

at setting screens. Obviously, we all know about the assist with Stockton. I think when you look at off guards, you can think about Rip Hamilton running off the screens and the pace that he used to come off the screens. I think when you think about small forwards like Dominic Wilkins, everybody talks about the human highlight reel,

but in reality, guys like Dominic Wilkins, Bernard King, those guys were great small forward rebounders. You know, you could rebound your position, and then you had a small forward like those guys that could range rebound, rebound outside their area. So I think there's, you know, Carl Malone's pick-and-roll game, understanding when to roll, understanding when to pop, understanding how to draw fouls at that power forward spot.

And then certainly, you know, if you're a big guy, you know, if you watch Bill Walton's passing and his vision and his full-court passing or Wes Unsell and his outlet passing or even his inbound passes after a made basket. And then, you know, I'm surprised that more guys that are 6'10", 6'11", 7'0", have not tried to emulate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with this hook shot. So I think there's a lot of guys, that's just off the top of my head. If you're a player that's being moved to the point guard position, you have size, certainly you should watch the way that Magic Johnson would get his team into offense, where he might have to play with his back to his rim because of his size, but he could look over his shoulder and find people. I know that we did that with Cody Martin a little bit, where we tried to convert him from a four to a point guard, and Magic Johnson clips were something that we felt

were important. That's cool. All right, Coach, Let's take one more break. We'll come back and you are in for the rapid fire round of questioning, the fastest question answer segment in the history of this podcast. So we'll take a quick break. We'll be right back. Get in your triple threat position because it's going to be, yeah. Deny, deny, deny. Deny, deny deny deny deny deny deny all right here we go it's cam jordan from new orleans saints here to tell you it's going down on season two of my podcast off the edge with me cam jordan can't stop it you know what's gonna happen can't stop it that's right Catch new episodes every Wednesday, all season long.

That's what you look for in year 14, to do more. No days off. And I'll have my friends who happen to be some of the NFL's biggest stars join me on the pod. We'll give you a player's perspective of the biggest storylines, trends, and did that really just happen moments from around the league. And you know we'll have fun doing it. Ha! Yeah! Oh, and I'll have a special guest each month. Join me

to mix it up a little bit. Who is it? None other than... Psyche! You'll have to tune in to find out. Ha ha! So tap in to Off the Edge with Cam Jordan's podcast, your ultimate playbook for all things football and not football. Listen

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Mike Wright from the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty Podcast. You heard that right. The Fantasy Footballers have officially entered the Dynasty space. Every week, we bring you the same in-depth analysis and entertainment you've come to expect from the Fantasy Footballers only now from a dynasty perspective maybe you've been living in the dynasty fantasy football space for a while well we're here to take your game to the next level maybe you love fantasy football and you've been feeling that itch to jump into the dynasty format but it feels a little bit intimidating no matter matter where you're coming from, the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty Podcast has something for you, and you're going to have a great time listening, I promise.

Join me and the rest of the crew every Wednesday for a new episode. Listen to the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When you think of Mexican culture, you think of avocado, mariachi, delicious cuisine, and of course, lucha libre. It doesn't get more Mexican than this. Lucha libre is known globally because it is much more than just a sport and much more than just entertainment. Lucha libre is a type of storytelling. It's a dance.

It's tradition. It's culture. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of Lucha Libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, the emperor of Lucha Libre and a WWE superstar. Join me as we learn more about the history behind this spectacular sport from its inception in the United States to how it became a global symbol of Mexican culture. We'll learn more about some of the most iconic heroes in the ring.

This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask as part of My Cultura Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts. And we're back! We're back! Oh, Coach Moss, you know,

they're going to say I'm really enjoying this because you're the head coach of SC Men's Basketball, but really the hot seat is for everyone. It doesn't discriminate and it's hot for everybody. This is the fastest question answer segment in all podcasting history, at least on this podcast history, where we're going to ask you a question.

Just, just take a quick second to think about it. Just chest pass it right back, fire it right back. Don't give too long of an answer because we want to keep our title of the fastest question and answer segment in all podcasting history and if you take too long we will be rude to you and i just want to warn you that that's just that's the caveat i want to enter with so there's no hurt feelings or surprises because we take our superlative title very seriously

that we gave ourselves that we gave ourselves obviously there's an asterisk by that but don't read the fine print uh jack you ready yeah coach musk you ready yep let's do it all right brian start the clock this is the fastest segment of all time should we uh who's gonna go first do you should i go i could go first i think i wrote this first one so all right go first uh are you familiar with the concept of nominative determinism where a person's name determines what they do for a living uh examples being usain bolt becoming a sprinter doug bowser is the name of the person who is the head of nintendo america or uh somebody who works in a gym and in sports with the last name Muscleman. Has that ever come up?

That has never come up. No. We just made history in your life? Yeah, that's history. Oh my, okay. You're kind of shredded and you've got dumbbells on your shirt right there. Yeah, exactly. I saw your workout routine. I saw you in Nevadaada i saw that clip of

you on a on a treadmill highlighting while running i was like this yeah how you do that yeah that's i still do it i go six miles every day with the highlighter and uh print articles before i leave for work and then uh highlight the next morning. And then the staff all gets a cliff notes of leadership articles, coaching articles. I do it every day. Oh, amazing. I was going to say,

you're highlighting cartridges. Are you running through a lot? Yeah. You're a regular at staples, aren't you? Yeah. You're like, Hey,

coach is back. Just load up his toner. With the Atlanta Hawks, Stan Kasten actually called me into the office and told me, stop printing. And if I printed an article that was in color, I had to use black and white. That was straight from the Atlanta Hawks president at the time. Wow. Wow.

Wow. Wow. Now the president of the Dodgers. Yeah. What a guy. Okay. Next question. This is something we've been talking.

We've been talking about players of yesteryear but i'm just curious even though we wrapped up our 90s nostalgia series we want to play a game of would he be even better now in this era and i'll give you three players and you kind of give me your thoughts if if they ended up in our current era amari stoudemire andre kirilinko and lam Odom. How do you see, when you look at those three players, who do you feel would really thrive in our current era? Lamar Odom, I think he was one of the first

positionless players, a guy that could play 3, 4, 2, if need be, could play a little bit of point forward. So I would say Odom. That's pretty easy. Wow. I agree. That was the wow i agree that was the right answer that was the right answer that was but i you didn't need to make fun of us for how easy it was but all right well that's the easiest question i've ever been asked i answered that with my eyes

closed do you is there a player other than those three that sticks in your mind like you mentioned barkley being really hard to game plan for but is there a player that you those three that sticks in your mind like you mentioned barkley being really hard to game plan for but is there a player that you're like god if he had come along 20 years later he would have been incredible dr jay yeah he was just like he could play in any era and i think about social media now and how every highlight gets exemplified and put out there. Dr. J would make a lot of money when you think about his personality, when you think about how artistic his game was. That his name was Dr. J. Yeah.

That's pretty cool. The dopest name ever. I remember as a kid, I thought he was an actual doctor. Like when I first heard of him. You can't prove he's not. But I was like, but don't you go to college for like four years and then you go to the NBA? But then he became a doctor and my dad was like, he just never told me. He's like, yeah, but he's a doctor.

And I embarrassed myself in fifth grade pretty bad. Coach Mus, from your perspective, you know, looking at this upcoming NBA season, who do you see as kind of like a dark horse team? Like someone we're not talking about, but as you've seen some bit of progression, you feel like, okay, this is a team that I think, you know, is going

to make some noise. You know, we're so, I'm so immersed in the, in the college game. I mean, I do like, so, you know, like Timberwolves are in my mind are a team that if they remain healthy, if their coach can remain healthy as well. I like what Minnesota has with the size and a superstar player and a team that continues or organization that continues to get better and better. And, you know, for me, I like watching the Utah Jazz play, just from studying a younger roster with a younger coach that runs really, really good stuff. So that's a team that I like to watch.

And then Oklahoma City is another team that I love to watch. Another really good young coach with some really great young pieces. They actually have two of our Arkansas guys. So, you know, I'm a big Thunder fan. And I think the Thunder and T-Wolves both can make noise this year. Wow. Word for word. Again, he got it exactly right.

The answer is exactly right. Is he looking at our notes or something? I think he might be copying off of me, off of my answer sheet. I think he's printing in color, too. Well, Coach Musselman, what a pleasure having you on Miles and Jack Got Mad Boothies. Yes. Congratulations, and looking forward to seeing what the Trojans do this year here in Southern California. Where can people find you, follow you, you know, all of that stuff?

Yeah, on Twitter, it's just EP Muscleman. And we're pretty active on social media. I know it's a little bit outside of the way I was raised with, you know, coming much like you did, Jack, when, you know, your dad was pretty old school, so was my dad. But you've got to change with the times, and so I'm pretty active on social media, at least I try to be for recruiting. But hey,

it's been great joining you guys. I appreciate it. Jack, Miles, thanks so much for having me on. Oh yeah, thanks Coach. It was a blast, man. Alright, well you can follow us at the hashtag MadBoosties, B-double-O-S-T-I-E-S, for show links and updates. And you can join the conversation on our Discord server.

And you can follow me on Twitter at MilesOfGrey. I'm at Jack underscore O'Brien. And that was another splendid edition of Miles and Jack got MadBoosties with Coach Eric Musselman. Thank you so much for joining us again. And we'll see you next week. Bye. Bye.

Bye. I'm Carrie Champion and this is season four of Naked Sports Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history people are talking about women's basketball just because

of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports.

I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball. And on

this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. What's up, y'all? It's Cam Jordan from the New Orleans Saints here to tell you it's going down

on season two of my podcast, Off the Edge with me, Cam Jordan. Catch new episodes every Wednesday, and I'll have the biggest NFL stars join me to give a player's perspective of the biggest storylines, trends, and did that really just happen moment from around the league. So tap in to off the edge with Cam Jordan podcast, your ultimate playbook for all things football and not football. Listen on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts.