The Right Time with Bomani Jones - Howard Bryant on March Madness Nostalgia: The Big East, Randolph Childress, Steph Curry, and More | 3.26

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

Bomani Jones is joined by Howard Bryant of ESPN and Meadowlark Media to talk about some historic College Basketball moments with March Madness underway. Bo and Howard start off by talking about some pop culture scandals including Lionel Richie wife being arrested (1:17), Al Green shooting himself (5:08) and Tiger Woods infamous incident in 2009.(6:56) They move onto some classic March Madness stories like John Thompson's Georgetown team being a phenomenon, (14:03) Randolph Childress' historic performance (22:38) and Steph Curry's tourney run with Davidson. (26:48) They round out the show by discussing how long it took for LeBron James and Dr. J to win their first NBA title (35:06) and comparing the NFL today vs the 1980's. (46:22) . . . Subscribe to The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok for all the best moments from the show. Download Full Podcast Here: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6N7fDvgNz2EPDIOm49aj7M?si=FCb5EzTyTYuIy9-fWs4rQA&nd=1&utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-right-time-with-bomani-jones/id982639043?utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Follow The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Social Media: http://lnk.to/therighttime Subscribe to Supercast for Ad-Free Episodes: https://righttime.supercast.com/ Support the Show: Discover faster, more reliable search with Perplexity today. Download the app or ask Perplexity anything at perplexity.com! https://pplx.ai/bomani-jones Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time. A Wave Original presented by perplexity. My name is Bomani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater and you need to be inclined to believe, ladies and gentlemen,

and I'm a lover because I'm on vacation. But I got this for y'all just so I could hold y'all down while I was gone. We brought in, G Among Gs himself from me. Metalog Media et al Howard Bryant joining us here. What's up, Bo? I am not on vacation. You just got back from vacation, though. Life's a vacation. Yeah, you look like a man who just got off of vacation.

But I'm going to run something by you right fast that you may not have thought of in a while. I don't know why Instagram decided that I needed a reminder of this, but I am going to read the UPI wire story from this event just to see your reaction because somebody else needs to relive this today just as I am. Dateline, Beverly Hills, California. Grammy Award winner Lidal Ritchie's wife was arrested Wednesday for allegedly hitting the pop singer and a young woman after she found them together in the woman's apartment.

Police sit. Oh, I know why this happened because I commented on it. that just popped up on Instagram and so I went to look up the story of what had actually happened this time and for those of you who don't remember this or don't know this that in the 1980s Lana Ritchie was a gigantic star

after he made the calculated decision to sell out in 1982. There's no other way to put it. There is no like in black people world no greater chasm, schism. schism, whichever one of ism you want to break out between before and after selling out as there is Lada Ritchie in the Commodores and Lada Ritchie

just out here by himself. So anyway, Lada Ritchie had been married at this time. He is 39 years old. He has begun to date a 22-year-old white woman who was in the band. Had to put that piece in there, didn't you? Yes, yes. Because that piece is key. Yeah, yeah, that piece is key. That piece is the whole reason why his wife pulled up at her crib, kicked him in the stomach, and whooped her ass.

And when the cops pulled up per news reports, Lado Ritchie actually told the cops, yeah, she kicked me in the stomach too. Come on, pelt you ain't have to, you weren't supposed to do that. You're going to go to the T-shirt? And let me tell you this. That happened in 1988.

Lotta Ritchie's previous last album came out in 1986. It was called Dancing on the Sillet. A lot of Rish did not put out another album until 1996. I got a home boy. He ain't my home boy no more because he borrowed $200 from me, didn't pay it back. and then 10 years later when I asked him about it, he said, you must not know this, but I gave my life to Christ.

And I was like, well, did you give him my $200? But anyway, he was a Jamaican cat. Non-sequiters of non-sequitans. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, I'll give it. He is a Jamaican cat, and his say his pops was a big old Lionel Richie fan, because you know they're some soft rock lovers down there in Jamaica. They about that life.

And he said that after Lana Richie got his ass what by his queen? Not another note. of Lano Ritchie's music was played in his home. What do we do with this? Right? I mean, can you go back to all right, I'm just go

rock with him from like the Commodore's days? Or is it just over? It's over. I am a fan of the Commodores. Like I get upset when the B&T Awards does this from time to time when they give the Lifetime Achievement Award. Like they gave it to Lionel Richie.

No, we give it to the Commodores. They did the same thing. They gave to Charlie Wilson and they did not give it to the Gap band. And I'm like, no. There's nothing that Charlie Wilson did that truly matters that is without the gab ban. Like we, you know, yes, he's done a lot of things with the youngsters, but that's not why we're here, right? Well, Brenda Rishi, we know, knew kung fu, right?

She was a karate expert. Oh, I didn't know that. Which is why she kicked him in the stomach. Oh, I didn't really. I didn't know. I didn't know she had techniques. Yes. And the reason why you got that Instagram memory was because I posted on that remembrance with the sentence.

Hello, she just had to let you know with a karate little kimono emoji. You put it into the algorithm and now the rest of us are going to find out. And those who did not know. That's how it happens. Yeah, so those who don't know, they're going to find out about the time that Lada Richie got his ass with his ass with by squeak. And I ask you this question. Is that the most Jet Magazine ready story of all time? Is it that or what I think might beat it out for number one when Al Green got the grits, man.

Got the grits. My parents talk about how in the news news, it said that Al Green has suffered these burns from breakfast cereal. And the consensus among the blacks at the time was, it's cool. We'll just wait for jet. That is completely accurate. Because that is what Jab Maggs do is for. Again, that Al Green story is actually really messed up. Like she poured the grits on him, took his gun, went outside, and shot herself.

We just cut it off at the grits. That piece, I didn't know. Yes. Yeah, and the reason you didn't know is because if somebody is trying to tell the whole story, and you're like, man, she came in there and she poured some grits on them. And then you'd be like, oh, no, no, no, no, ain't no then. Let's get back to talking about her pouring these grits on Al Green while he was in the bathtub. You know what? I was doing some research yesterday. And the beauty of research is the

serendipitous nature of it. Like you look for A, but you find B. So I'm sitting here looking at some stuff. And on the front page of the St. Louis Argus in 1947, there's a story of the great Louis Jordan getting stabbed by his woman, which reminded me then of Lee Morgan getting shot on stage, the great jazz trumpeter. I did not know this. Did not know this. Right. Lee Morgan, 19 years old on Blue Train, the Great Coltrane, his first album as leader, which then brings us to Brenda Ritchie, with maybe, you know, a little tag of woods in the middle somewhere. But yeah, oh yeah. There's Tiger Woods. It gets a little grizzly. I will never forget when the Tiger Woods story first popped, right?

And I mean, first, I believe the news hit the streets the day after Thanksgiving in the year of our Lord 2009. Right. And the story was that Tiger Woods suffered serious injuries in a car accident in his driveway. And I said, hold on. That was my version of Will. just wait for jet. You can't get enough speed up in the driveway to suffer serious injuries.

Something else is going on here. And then we found out, unless you was either being chased into the driveway or being chased away from the driveway. Right. But the serious injuries that you would get from the driveway would require you to run into the house. You know what I'm saying? Like it would not be, there's nothing in your driveway. The basketball pole is not going to result in you have. Mailbox. Yeah, yeah, that's not going to do it. I was like, no, more is coming. Now, of course, there is no way in the world that I could know that the more was like this. What would it be if that story happened now, right? Because it's in the nascent social media days. And so we kind of got it around and got it to talking. But I'm like the magnitude, it's hard to explain if you weren't there. And look, man,

we're now at a point where that was almost, that's 15 years ago, the magnitude of Tiger Woods in 2009. And he got his ass whooped by his woman. With his, with his clubs. With his mama there. You know how in the wrong you got to be? For your mama to just be like, well, go ahead. And then wasn't it Vanity Fair that did the, you know, the layout on all of his paramours. I'm like, damn, maybe you don't want to be famous after all. Well, I don't think it's that he didn't want to be famous. It's that for what he was into, he didn't need to be famous.

That's the, that is the best way. He was, with the notable exception of his wife, he was trafficking in circles that I believe that he could have trafficked in, whichever way he wanted to. I did an interview with a gentleman name of Pimp and Ken from the documentary Pimp's Up, Hose, Down, about Tiger Woods when this was all cracking. He was a different time. And the way that, the way that, the way that, the way that, the way to Pimp and Kim put it was he could have had Oprah. cuisine or Beyonce

cuisine, but instead he went for broke cuisine. Yeah, he went to TV dinner. Yes, and on top of that, Tiger Woods, as you may recall, was treating him like he was not famous. Because he was like, how about I pick you up a sandwich from Subway all my way over? That's right. Now, you imagine that in the modern media landscape.

No chance for misunderstanding that. Speaking of misunderstanding, it all reminded me of the time. I was in Boston, I was on the beat first year, 1998, A's come in to play the Red Sox, covering them for the San Jose Mercury News. No, 99, sorry, 99, second year. And I went and had, you know, I only in town for a couple days, but I went and had lunch with my sister. Later after the game, I went out with her best friend, who I used to babysit. You're my little sister, right? And so I took them for a drink because I'm only in town for a couple days.

That was that. Coming to the clubhouse the next day, I got one of my all-time favorites, and I'm going to shed a tear, and may he rest in peace, Tony Phillips. Anyone knows Tony Phillips? Baseball people, you know crazy Tony Phillips, one of the greatest ever, just one of my all-time favorites. And he yells out in the middle of the clubhouse in Boston, Hey, yo, ain't you got no crepe to you?

I've seen you black women by day, white girl by night. In the middle of the clubhouse. I was like, Tom, I used to babysit that girl, I need no excuses. He said, he said, he wasn't trying to hear like, all he heard was grits, right? All he heard was the grits. And he tried to get to the rest.

And he's like, no, no, no. No, I had somebody. I went to NABJ one year. I was in Miami. And I was going back to the hotel. saw a woman who is notably younger than me, but who worked on the show that I was working on at the time. And we're going in the same direction. I don't know what they, I don't know who's paying for what for them or whatever. But I'm like, hey, you know, jump in and ride with me.

Uber's hard to come by. You know, we're going in the same direction. Cool. So we did. And so the next day, I jump on Twitter and some dude is in my mentions talking about, yeah, and I saw Beaumonti getting the call with some girl at night. Yeah, yeah. at night. Yeah, and I hit him. I was like, hey, brother, you need to chill right now.

Right? Like, number one, if it was what you thought it was, you need to chill. And if it wasn't, you still need to chill. Like, you really need to chill.

Like, hey, hey, hey, man, you can't, you can't, that ain't enough data. That is not enough data, man. That's not even small sample size. you just don't have enough info.

No, no, no, no, not enough data, but, man, what a time. Speaking of what a time, this is kind of why I just brought this whole thing in. I wanted to have an episode for the people that was somewhat evergreen, and I was thinking this year. And it just, this is an interesting year to me because with the NCAA tournament, it's some interesting anniversaries, right? It's 1975, which is the last year of John Wooden as UCLA won that championship. 1985, maybe not the most shocking win in tournament history, but for the magnitude of the round in which it was played, Villanova beating Georgetown. I can't talk about that one.

Oh, you're still there? You still? Yeah. I haven't gotten there. See, this is, I was just. That one was so bad, right? That was so bad that my mother, who didn't even care about sports, laughed about caring about sports. You know, laughed that we cared.

much about sports. Came up to me when I got ready for school the next day and she said, I saw your team lost. I'm sorry. Wow. And see, the thing was, Georgetown was Black People's Team and this was before Black People had a much more unifying cause, which was hating Duke. Duke had not risen to the place where we galvanized around that but what you had was Georgetown right i didn't even know because i that was what that was that was uh that was junior year in high school i didn't even know because i hadn't gotten to philly yet to go to school that villanova was called vanilla nova so that just made it worse i did not know that and as i have discussed many times and i say this with no shame because i know i am not alone

here. I was in my mid-teens before I realized that Georgetown was not a historically black college. I didn't know that until I got to college. All I knew about Georgetown. And it was, and again, it wasn't just that Georgetown's basketball team had all black dudes, though that was in that day, not necessarily common. It was those black dudes with that black dude as the coach. Like, John Thompson looked like a fair east side motherfucker out there. You know what I'm saying? Like, he looked like he would work. Like Temple looked like. Like Temple looked like. like a black college. I said this before because they had volleyball lines on the floor. Like everything there was giving the U.Temple alum. Like everything there was given black college

vibes. But now Georgetown losing that game to Villanova. I don't have recollection of that one because that was before the shot clock high happened. That's the other part. And Harold Jensen had the game of his life. And it was just all bad. What was it? Gary McLean was the other one? And Gary McLean was hopped up on cocaine killing Michael Jackson. It was just bad. And all for that, they shot, what, 78% in the second half and only won by a basket. John Thompson suffered two of the biggest losses that anybody can think of, and they were by like a combined six points or something like that. And I'm not just talking, and the other one is the 1988 semi-final game against the Soviet Union

that made them go get the professional basketball player. Exactly. It ended it. It was BC. That was it. Yes, but that game was also like a two-point loss or something like that. That hurt so much. And it was like a fascinating hurt because, I mean, the entire Georgetown phenomenon is very, very, very specific to you had to be there. Yeah.

You know? Because the big East came out of nowhere. And all of a sudden it was like the thing. And growing up in Boston, we got all the games because of BC. So we'd get to Georgetown games and Providence and the rest of it. and, you know, to see John Thompson hovering over Louis Coniceka and Raleigh Massimito and the rest of them, and Sleepy Floyd was my guy. It was like the whole thing that like got you into basketball. I was like, what? It was, you know, 11, 12 years old. There was no getting around that. And then the fact of the matter was,

was that, you know, the Big East was so big. And even then, Georgetown was separate. And you still had good brothers all over that conference. and you still had, you know, St. John's had good players. Syracuse had good players. Everybody had good players. It wasn't like they were the only team with black players, but it was the way Georgetown presented. And then one day in the 1990s, I went to Washington, D.C. and went to Georgetown and didn't see like a single black face.

I'm like, oh, the basketball team must be on the road. I didn't, that was when I realized. I was like, oh, oh, this is idiosyncratic. Well, the other thing is. John Thompson's a little bit of a bully. John Thompson, God rest his soul, enjoyed knowing that you were a little bit uncomfortable by his big old black presence, right?

He tried, he was like that all the way into the 21st century, right? That was his get down. And he had a whole basketball team that did this. A whole team, and that part didn't bother. him at all. In fact, they decided they were going to weaponize that. That's right. Well, my favorite Georgetown, my favorite Georgetown story of all of this was now that we know, now that we're not kids anymore and you're not just watching it as a basketball, you know, now that you understand all of the, the elements of it, I just would like to see Michael Graham receiving his acceptance

letter into Georgetown. How'd you get into Georgetown? In a way you got into Georgetown. But I love that Dodd's plan was, I want nothing but guys who wouldn't get into Georgetown. Exactly. I'd get you into Georgetown. And also you got to remember during that time as well, you know, the players and the game was under serious. It sounds so quaint because education was at the center of this, Prop 42 and Prop 48 and the grades and all of this other stuff. And, you know, John Thompson was one of the guys out there talking about how racist those propositions were.

And now it's like grades, school? What are you talking about? What are you talking about? We have for the Monet. Did you see where Dias Anders was talking about how he would like to see the spring games in college football now be like NFL teams do where you compete against another team? And he's like, I don't. And I think the argument was like, why don't we do that? And my immediate thought was class.

Class? Finals? Silly me. Silly me. So naive. All right. I like, like nobody wants to go to class, huh? Oh, no way.

Okay, I guess that's what we do. Who's the, Ed Pinckney was the best player on that Villanova team. Ed Pinkney was, and had been pro career too. Yeah, future Boston Celtic. Future Boston Celtic, Ed Pinkney, Gary McLean, Dwayne, they're a good team. They were an eight seed. But they were a good, they were, but it was the Big East. They were an eight seed.

They were an eight seed, but them dudes had played each other so much. It was like a rivalry game. It was like, you did. That was the, I did not want to see. them play Villanova. I was like, do not see them. You don't want to have to keep playing the same team over and over again, right? Because they all that goes out the window. They know how to beat each other. I do think there's something to that. By the way, whenever somebody says something about Sleepy Floyd, it reminds me, my brother has a friend who played college basketball, whom I will

leave nameless, but he had some beef with Sleepy Floyd that I think involved him holling at a woman and Sleepy Floyd trying to holl at her also and dropping the line. Come on, baby, he ain't even in the NBA or something to that effect. And so my brother's homeboy calls him creepy. Anytime Sleepy Floyd comes up, creepy. It's called him creepy. Now, granted, I don't imagine the Sleepy Floyd has come up in many conversations in the last 30 years.

So he may not call him creepy anymore, but something tells me if you go around him and make a reference to Sleepy Floyd, he will then call him creepy. While the hoop, Sleepy did hit for 29 in the fourth quarter against the Lakers. He did, he did. And I would like to point out

that we need to get back to the era of nicknames like those. You know, like what your life has to be to where, no, I'm just sleepy from here on now. Like, I think what happens is he tried to make that Eric thing happen in different places at different points. But it's kind of like if you go, it's kind of like if you go by your middle name at home, that the first time somebody goes home with you,

now that this is what it's going to be. Like you're like, oh, okay, this is what your real name is. And I think that's the same thing must have happened with Sleepy Floyd, that he tried to, he tried to, He tried to make Eric work. He tried to put Eric on the road. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. What's people find out about sleepy?

That's what they want, a.k.a. sleep, you know what I'm saying? Like, you can take it, but he did put them when he played for the Warriors. And I think George Carl was the coach of that team. But he put 29 in back in the day quarters. No three-port of quarters. I mean, they lost that series and went five games, but he had his moment. Yeah, yeah, hey, hey, hey, yeah.

You know, ain't no need to focus on the wrong things. You know what I'm saying? Just give me my moment. Like he got there. All right, we're going to come back in a second, but I'm going to talk about in this year five as I just nostalgily go through March Madness, my in the year blank five moment that actually wasn't in the NCAA tournament.

All right, we're back with Howard Bryant. And another had to be there sort of situation. I feel like I'm just going to drop a name that you can only drop. I only got to do is drop these two words. I mean, the first and last name, and everybody's going to get it. And if you are honestly not, I don't even know if 40 is enough.

Like you're going to maybe need to be a little bit older to 40 to really appreciate this. But what you know about that boy Randolph Childress? Oh, man. I mean, that was wild, right? I mean, I was not an ACC guy because that was Big East ACC. They were opposites back then. Syracuse and Boston College hadn't quite crashed the party yet. That tournament, it was like, who's that?

There was another dude like that who just went off. You know? And the thing about it is, I don't think people necessarily understand this, because the games are so similar now, going off in college was going off. Yes. Because going off in college meant one, it's a coach-driven game. Two, a lot of times there was no shot clock back in the day.

So their teams just holding the ball. To score 30 points in a college, college game. 30 points and 40 minutes is a lot anyway. And by the way, after they had put in the shot clock, it was a 45 second shot clock. And it was exactly. And once they did that, it was a 45 second shot clock. That's right. And so now, I don't remember if he went off, was that the 199, three point area yet? Or was, or was it? Okay. So, so, okay, so he had some opportunities. Nineteenine three point is like a layup, right? And so he went wild and it was sort of like, and it was like, you know, and that's what see, man, that's what the tournament is for, right? I mean, the tournament is for those moments where you're starting

looking at guys that you hadn't seen. I mean, it's like a Steph Curry thing where it's like, who's that? And immediately, immediately I'm thinking, oh, I can't wait to see him in the NBA. Right. And so like with Randolph, it was interesting because it was the conference tournament where he did, where he scored like 30, 40 a night, like every night in the ACC tournament. And the conference tournament landed different back then because the conferences were smaller. Like conference tournament weekend was as good as the first weekend of the NCAA tournament in a lot of ways. And so Randolph Childress went to Wake Forest. And so this is the thing about Wake Forest that I didn't fully get until I lived in North Carolina for 10 years. Rodney Rogers,

for example, is a beloved figure across the ACC. And that is what I understood, kind of the unique place that Wake Forest plays in that, which is people did not think that Rodney was, and by the way, when you talk about a great college player, Rodney Rogers is 100% on that list. Teams did not think that he was going to qualify academically, so they did not recruit him that tough Wake Forest figured it out, and then they got him in. But what that meant was no school got turned down by Rodney Rogers. Therefore, it wasn't like Carolina fans hated him because he didn't go there. Like, he became a player that everybody could get behind because nobody hates Wake Forest. It's just not how it works. Why? Like, like, what do you have in your heart?

anybody. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, what do you have in your heart to be out here, hate and wake for us? And so Randolph Childers was out there. And this is a team, by the way, that had a sophomore Tim Duncan. And Randolph Child just carried his big ass and everybody else. And me and my brother remember this. I can't find the clip of it, but we remember hearing him tell them in the huddle. Man, just give me the ball. If we lose, it's my fault. If we win, y'all can have it. Let's go. And then he did the move that none of us will ever forget. He hit Jeff McInness, who played in the NBA for a very long time. That Carolina team they were playing against, went to the final four, had Jerry Stackhouse,

had Rashid Wallace. He crossed Jeff McInnis over. Jeff McKinness fell down. He looked at Jeff McKinness with his hand, told him to get up and then hit the three. Gave me a little Matrix, a little, a little Morpheus. Come here? Yes, yes. Let's go.

Let's go. And then hit the three. I said, oh my goodness. What are we doing here? Like, I don't know if it's possible for the tournament to have that kind of electricity. Of course, by the time of this year, it may have been like the greatest first weekend ever, right? But there was something to be said about the idea. And I think you were right on one hand.

I can't wait to see this guy in the NBA. But on the other hand, what makes Steph Curry's tournament run interesting is he's the rare guy who had that tournament run. And that wasn't the greatest athletic moment in his career. Did something in the NBA. Exactly. Yeah. There was another dude. Like, it's actually real interesting.

And I, like, I haven't decided yet if whose fault it is because, you know, we got to assess blame on everything. Yes. So I can't decide if it's my fault for just getting older and having other things that I care about. Or if it's the NCAA's fault for just messing up the whole damn thing. And for, you know, USC and UCLA being in the Big Ten, I don't know. I don't know what the reason is. And for the nondescript nature of the NCAA tournament. Now the March Madness is essentially.

all sensation and no players. Like last year was the first year, I was like, I can't name a player in this tournament. Like, who's the player in this tournament? But the one thing that the tournament, and the conference tournaments too, that were really, really good for, was the dude who went off.

There was a guy who played for Dayton, Roosevelt Chapman, never to be seen again. Went off in the tournament one year. Just, and he was a score and everything, but he was, like, you would look at some of these, guys, you know, because you'd be seeing them for the first time. And it was just kind of fun to see these guys because, you know, the conferences were so disparate back then. And, you know, when I was growing up there, my guy, I feel so damn old, right? Because I grew up in the middle

of nowhere, so we didn't have cable. So everything was CBS, right? You weren't getting 25 games a week. And in the tournament, you would start to see these dudes who hadn't seen before. And it is interesting. It's so funny you think about it, like, because Steph Curry was a good college player. But Steph Curry wasn't the guy you looked at and said, oh, he's going to become one of the top 10 players of all time. It wasn't like, oh, we just can't wait to get him to the NBA. So he's actually the anomalous one who gets off in the tournament, has the whole world looking and then has a second act that dwarfs the first. Yeah.

The tournament was good where all he really had to have was a game. That boy, Toby Bailey in 95 went off in that final game for UCLA. It wasn't never quite like that. Again, you get to do like Mike Bibi where like Miles Simon is the one who didn't turn it into something else. But Mike Bibby, oh, we learned who Mike Bibi was and then Mike Bibi, you know, wound up, you know, having the career. But no, you're right. It would be those guys. and not just a shot, right? Not just like Keith Smart, Chris Jenkins. Right. Like, not just that, but like they have gone off. Or there's cases like Danny Manning, who we thought he would be

the NBA player, but injuries primarily did. Purvis Ellison against Duke. Yeah. Yeah. But see, Purvis Ellison was a guy on a good team, right? You know, a freshman, never nervous purpose, all that stuff. Danny Manning, nobody has taken more bums on his back to a national championship than Danny. Carried that team. Maybe Byrd. Oh, not a championship.

Yeah. Bird was, yeah, you are correct. Bird, I don't, I don't, I don't, who, who are those guys? He had one teammate who made the NBA. Carl Nix played for the Utah Jazz. Oh. How about that?

Okay, well, yes, that, there we go. They're like, we can't get Bird, huh? Okay, what's the next? Who the other one they got? We got Carl Nix. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

And I was not a Danny Manning fan, but it was like, okay, you can't beat this guy. I mean, it was kind of crazy. Not it was, I mean, look, it was a combination of two things. It was the greatness of Danny Manning. And if there's anyone who would relish the chance to how do I cook something up with just one guy and the rest of these dudes, it is Larry Brown. It's Larry Brown. Mm-hmm. As we would see later for us.

Yeah, but I say exactly, right? Like, Larry Brown is like, oh, this is a mess. I bet Larry Brown was impossible to be around until they won those six games in that tournament. I think I talk about with the tournament that it's different now is, and this isn't like a get off my long thing, as much as it seemed like a good idea, but maybe it wasn't.

The tournament was better when you couldn't see all the games. Like, the original Red Zone channel is NCAA tournament coverage. And they would just type in on CBS. Like if you had a local game, they would get that to you, but otherwise they just give you the best. You don't want to watch all of these games, man. Like you don't really want to watch all the sixes and all the 11s. You don't want to watch that whole game. You just want them to let you know to watch it if it is something worth watching.

And so now all these games are on all the channels and exposure gets you exposed. You did? Like that's not what we need. Unless you're just a straight up addict. Like I remember one time it was like, I'm like, oh shit, it's midnight. but on true TV you can watch the West Regional I'm like I'm going to bed

but no it's true the number of games the volume of it and that you know that's that's just kind of where we are right I mean the beauty of the games the scarcity was exactly the thing that made you want more and then when you got more ESPN and the rest of the 24 out no 247

it was sort of like okay can we have less right but you can't go back right so the thing to me is the first weekend of the tournament is about anomalies, right? Like generally speaking, if there is a good game in the first weekend of the tournament, it has to be an upset because the nature of the seating process is supposed to like create those gaps. It's that second weekend where it's like, oh, we're playing basketball.

And the elite eight matchups, you don't really get too many blowouts there. Even if you do get a blowout, everybody's coming in there with a spectacular level of enthusiasm, right? Everybody, like, what was it, St. Peters in Jersey City a couple years ago? They were super gay ass before they went in there and got their ass kicked by North Carolina. Why wouldn't they be?

My wouldn't they be? I remember, once again, Georgetown, when Princeton, yep, 50-49. Yep. I was like, we're gonna lose. We're gonna lose to, you know. Hey, hey, hey, hey, let me tell you,

this has some real talk about this. I think that was in 1988. or nine, I don't think morning was on that team. I think it was 1988. Brother, if they had lost that gang, those particular Afro-Americans had lost that gang to Princeton? To Princeton. What was Princeton? The northernmost outpost of the Confederacy? I have, I did not realize

until very, very recently the idea that Princeton was the Southern Ivy League School. Yes. I had no idea that that was the thing. To lose to them dudes and to watch. Woodrow Wilson Academy. Well, that would, exactly. That would have been similar to one of the most under-discussed, but maybe the most racist basketball game ever played in the NBA,

which is in 1977 NBA Finals. Oh, the Sixes and the Blazers. Say more, I've never heard this. Oh, yes, it's the, you know, the playing the game the right way, to Jack Ramsey, Bill Walton, against, you know, them ruckard dudes, Dr. Jay and McGuinness and Lloyd Free. And that was Dr. Jay's first year. And it was his first year.

It was the first year of the merger. It was the first year of the merger. And the people don't know this, obviously. It was a thousand years ago, it feels. But the entire ABA was black basketball. It was, okay, y'all want to play streetball? Go over there. They don't know how to play the way we play.

And I believe that I should look at the coverage, that there was some serious, serious race commentary, shall we say, going on about who, you know, if these Negroes win against the way the game is supposed to be played. And then, of course, the Sixers go up to O. And then they lose four straight. and that is really a pivotal moment in NBA history because the looking down the nose at the way the ABA was played and it wasn't like there wasn't dudes with afros and stuff in the NBA but the NBA was the legitimate league. Think about how we were on LeBron's neck

for not winning a championship until his ninth year in the league. Now, granted, ninth year in the league after coming straight from high school, right? But still, his ninth year in the league, we were on his neck about that. It took Dr. Jay until his seventh year in the NBA and they had to go get a better player than him. And he had been to the finals three times and lost each time. That's right. Including in 1980, they got beat on their own floor. with the Lakers not having the best player in the NBA

without Kareem on the court. Can you imagine what it would be? Well, and especially what's really interesting about that is when you add all of the other elements, which was Dr. J being known as the classy guy. Would they have like soften the fangs or just ripped him to shreds? Because that team they didn't win.

And that was the beginning of the we owe you one. We owe you two era in Philadelphia. Philadelphia, and then you go get Moses, and then you kill everybody. But kill, killed, kilt, right? I mean, there's no way around how much grief. And Julius was getting it, and then he became beloved. And once you win, you know, everything changes. And now, you know, you're having the farewell tours and everything else.

But I don't think anybody really said it because he had come in in 72. And he had won championships in the ABA. was Dr. Jay a loser. Right. And particularly with the flash of his game and his explicit desire to entertain. Like his recognition of what his role in the ecosystem was had a lot to do with entertainment.

But I think, and I say this is somebody who did not get to watch him play but can read an advanced statistical profile pretty well. I think history has made him into an underrated player where we think about him in the context of his athleticist, and what he's capable of, and ignoring, no, he was up there as maybe the best player in the NBA in an era where wing players were not the best player in the NBA.

But you look at 1981 and 1982, he led the league of Winchairs for 48, which again, Matt's cleaner to MVP than anything else. And he got one of those too. That's right. Well, and also, you know, the problem that Dr. Jay had is the same problem that Will Chamberlain had. when you're the first, they forget about you.

I can't believe that people question whether Willett Chamberlain was a good player. Are you out of your mind? You know what I'm like, how are you out of you? That's when I just, he's the one that history has done a colossal disservice. You want to talk about doing somebody the dirtiest? Are you out of you? That's like saying, I'm Wayne Gretzky. I don't know, maybe he's kind of good.

But, but Gretzky had championships. But Wilt won two titles. But, you know, should Wilt have 110 or whatever because he was that dominant, whatever it was. But people look at Dr. Jay because you went from him because Michael came immediately following. And then I remember there were two players that people who, you know, I mean, obviously he didn't move exactly the same way. But James Worthy had a lot of Dr. Jay in his game early in college the way he could swoop and then he became a low post player. Then Dominique was there around the same time. And then Michael came and then this quote, you know, and so all of a sudden everything that Doc was doing was becoming.

commonplace for the really gifted athletic players. And then people were like, well, yeah, well, he didn't have a jump shot. Well, back then the game was so packed in, it was a penetration game. It wasn't a game where you had to be out there shooting 25 footers. And so people just don't understand how the game was played. I actually still feel just to give people a little nostalgia, either for an All-Star game or whatever, they should play at least one quarter with no three-point shot just to see the congestion. It would be like being on a lot. a 405 at like three in the afternoon. Like you could not get into the lane.

It was a different basketball. And Dr. Jay could get into the lane over you. And he was averaging 10 rebounds a game as well, you know, in the ABA and everything. He was a great, great, great player. I contend that ain't nothing more overrated than a jump shot. A jump shot is an as needed tool. And now the game is different now. So I can't go as lean in as hard on this as I,

used to, right, because of the way the game has changed and the way that it's played. However, the, he don't have no jump shot. He didn't need no jump shot. He was Dr. Jay. Like, what are you talking about? I'd be like, yeah, Kareem Abdul-Jubbard didn't have a job. So what? Like, if you, if you got to, if you got to take your shots from all the way out there,

you go ahead. I'd be getting right here, man. I'd be getting right here in a, right here at the rim. You out here throwing it, throwing it from the ocean. That's true. The only thing we didn't get from Julius, because you played one year in college was any sort of NCAA moment. Yeah. But he's just killing. What was he averaging 30 and 20? Like he's just out of, I mean, how are you going to call, how are you going to call that? Oh, I don't know if he was,

if he could play or not. People just need to wait that fuck up. In the year 1970, 1971, Dr. Jay in 38 minutes. And again, again, with no shot clock, average 27 points, 26.9 points in 19 and a half rebounds. coming off of his sophomore season, which is the first season he played, where in basically the same minutes, he average 25.7 points and 20.9 rebounds. Kind of speaks for itself. It's a little unfair to they let him play at UMass though.

Like, keep it real. Like, that's, that's, that's, that's, there's, there's, there's, there's just times and things, but I just can't believe that like this person. Well, it makes you just go, there? Right. Why? Exactly.

like how'd that happen. I'll leave one for you before you got to go. Robert Parrish, Centenary? Oh, so you know the story on that, right? I do. That's why I said it. Yeah, the story on that is so amazing. And so I think Robert Parrish is interesting in that people like me, he always been old.

There was never a time in me watching Robert Parrish or Robert Parris was old. So my daddy, you know, my daddy from Louisiana. So he has a different fondness for Parrish. and have it as Centenary, but he got recruited to go to Centenary in Shreveport. And the NCAA called shenanigans, I think, all his grades or test scores and the rest of the teams. And they told Citnery that, all right, but if these boys come here, we're going to shut you down. We're not going to acknowledge anything about your time. And the school and the boys said, I guess you just go do what you got to do. They do what you got to do. And they went and they

dominated. But it's like, but if I'm not mistaken, it's the team with like, those like these four dominant black dudes and then the white dudes that would be player for sitting there anyway just dominate it you got any other like tournament moment like it's i guess it's like the fab five in the unlv like i feel like those have been talked about at nauseam whereas like it's like it's almost like there's not much else to discuss i do miss the days of full court press and run nola richerson rick cito basketball arguson 40 minutes of hell man can you imagine what it had to be like to try to play He gets to play them, exactly, right? Yeah, I mean, the biggest one for me, once again, not really the biggest, but one that I remember specifically was the beginning of the three-point shot.

I think it was 87 when Providence just demolished Georgetown. Rick Petino. It was Rick Petino, Billy Donovan's team. And I remember because I was Georgetown guy. I was like, what is happening, right? What is happening? And that's when you, you started to realize that defense, you know, that the John Thompson defense, I only want guys who are going to grind and you don't really need a lot of offensive players. That was coming to an end. And then, of course, to happen in 88 the very next year, why did they lose to the Soviet Union? Because John Thompson didn't get the offensive players that you need to win in the, you know, an international play. That was a big one for me. I think also, you know, then there was a tournament

that I just didn't really watch, you know, Duke Arizona. I was like, y'all just don't want me to watch this. You just don't want me to watch your game today. You know, there's 93, Chris Reppel calling a timeout. Because that was the Freddie Brown moment for me. Yeah, can you imagine that in the first take era? Like, Freddie Brown was just like, you know, throwing the ball away at the end against Carolina in 82.

It was just like, oh, that's a bad break. Chris was out of position. He was behind him. There was no reason to him to be there. And he turned and he panicked and it was like, ah. But Chris Weber calling the time out with the added element of Michael Talley on the bench. The dude who got benched for the Fab Five telling Chris Weber to call a time out leading to fair questions as to whether or not he sabotaged his own team. Can you imagine all of this in the first take era?

No. I can't. I mean, those are just, just wow. Didn't Derek Coleman miss a free throw that led to? to the Keith Smart Shot and did did Billy Packer say he choked? Hey, let me tell you this.

Guys that we won't be able to explain to other people what the big deal was, Derek Coleman is the prototype for the modern NBA power forward. It just never

all the way came together in the league boy, but good gracious, the talent the talent. DC had it. If the Nets could have kept that going where they had Kenny Anderson another, I mean took Georgia Tech

to the Final Four in 1990 as a freshman, Kenny Anderson, Derek Coleman, and Drozhen Petrovich who you need to understand. Luka Dantz's daddy is still like, yeah, my boy ain't that. Yep.

He ain't that. Man, if they had kept that thing together, I mean, obviously a lot of that was beyond anybody's basketball control. But, who, boy. Now, that's all the old school stuff. I mean, I think getting into the, you know, into the 2000s and you start looking at some of the other teams, I, you know, it's fascinating when you think about college basketball, the same way I think about football when you, you know, you live long enough and you can see, remember the generations. I think for your viewers or your listeners, it'll be interesting for them to think about it the way that I think about it, which is what year were you when you remember a player from high school to college?

to pro to retirement. Yeah. Like when you saw the whole thing, right? Yeah. And it changes how you, you know, how you view it. You know what I mean? And so for me, when I look at like the NFL, I'll be like, okay, when I was a kid, you couldn't write the history of the NFL without the Raiders and the Dolphins.

And they did Dominique Dio, Raiders, Dolphins, Steelers. That's the whole AFC. Today, you could write the entire history of the NFL without the dolphins or the Raiders. So it's really interesting. And that's crazy. And that's insane, right? And so you figure the Raiders had three of the first, what, 18 Super Bowls? Like, I mean, seriously, they were in the first one.

They were in the, they were in the first one. They were in the first one, right? No, they were in the second one. The first one was the Chiefs. Got it. You know, by the time you get to the 2000s, my big East Roots have been completely uprooted because now Yukon dominates and now Villanova dominates. You know, and Syracuse got one with Mello.

Georgetown's long gone, right? I mean, Pitt was there for a bit and then they're gone. So it's just interesting watching who's taken over. But the one thing that still remained was Duke Carolina. Yeah. That still indoors. And if you're of a certain age before me, you can't remember, you know, your time was UCLA. Right.

Hey, look, man, they put Carolina in that play in, so they could get that TV number up. Look, you ain't fooling me. It's fine. Right? Like I get it. We know what it's here for. Exactly. Yeah. But they went out here. They did what they had to do, though. Beat them boys by a zillion points in that game. Like everybody was like, they're like, okay, we get it now. That's what we need. That's what we need it. But that is Howard Bryant. Check him out. Metal Arc Media here and there at ESPN, getting things done. My brother, I appreciate you. No, man. Thank you. Enjoy the rest of your vacation. I appreciate that. Now, hold on. Don't have these people thinking I came back for my vacation to do this.

We take well in advance. I don't want anybody to get it confused. I don't love y'all nearly that much. Oh, no, no, no. But ladies gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on the right time. We do this here three times a week on a regular basis. Sean, you handles everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. Also, remember to hit our voicemail line. 3, 2, 3, 5, 677. We're asking you, your stories of your worst vacation memories. Go ahead and send those in. Follow the right time. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us. Give us five stars. You only give us I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. We'll talk to you guys in a couple of days. Take it easy.