The Ringer NFL Show - Bill Murray on Golfing With MJ, ‘Ghostbusters’ Stories, Improv in Chicago, and Comparing Sports to Moviemaking

Episode Date: May 22, 2020

Steve and Pete provide an update on their respective sports, express optimism on a possible NBA return, and discuss how the NFL is managing in the offseason (00:00).  Then they are joined by the one and only Bill Murray to talk about filming 'Space Jam' and playing golf with Larry Bird and Michael Jordan, the similarities between sports and filmmaking, stories from the set of 'Ghostbusters,' how he got his start in comedy, and more (00:00). Hosts: Steve Kerr and Pete Carroll Guest: Bill Murray This show is raising money for COVID-19 relief. You can help! Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of Flying Coach on the Ringer podcast network brought to you by World Central Kitchen, help the heroes in hospitals and clinics who are fighting for us and help keep your local restaurants alive. Go to the ringer.com slash WCK to donate, please. If you have the means, it's an unbelievably great and useful cause that helps our hospital heroes, emergency workers, and local restaurants. Give whatever you can. The money goes directly to World Central Kitchen. It's a charitable donation. Once again, that is the ringer.com slash WCK. We started flying coach to raise money for the Warriors Community Foundation and the Seahawks Charitable Foundation. But as a thank you to all the frontline workers for COVID-19, Pete Carroll and his company Compete

to Create are offering a free online course and a high-performance mindset coincidentally called Warriors Edge. You can find it by going to his website at compete to create.net backslash Warriors Edge who will be available for free for anyone working with COVID-19. Through the end of 2020 in general, the course is an incredible insider look into Pete's philosophy culture and leadership. A lot of the stuff we talk about on this podcast. Coming up, Steve Kerr, Pete Carroll, flying coach. All right, flying coach. Pete, we are, gosh, 10 weeks, I think, into the quarantine. This is our sixth episode, believe it or not. We're living a totally different life now, by the way, you and I are. We used to be coaches. Now we just hang around on Zoom and talk to each other.

Just dads. It's just dads. Dad's on Zoom. It's a noble calling, though. We got to hang on to that. But yeah, it's different. It surely is. Do things feel at all different for you?

I know you guys have really gotten going with kind of the off-season program, the meetings. I actually jumped on to your team meeting the other day, which was a lot of fun. But can you tell our listeners what you guys are up to? What are the Seahawks doing these days? Yeah, we're just finishing week four of what we're. We would refer to in the old off-season format as phase one. That's the first phase when guys can come in and work out and work out with the strength and conditioning coaches and meet with the coaches, but no football on the field.

And that lasts for three weeks. We are now in week four of that. We've extended that phase one, two more weeks to the end of the month, and then we'll see what happens from there. So what we're doing now is we're doing all of the football meetings virtually. And as we do that, you know, we're taking. our guys along and we're trying to do everything we can to make it as real and is kind of compatible for the learning that needs to take place and hopes that you know the transfer of that

information to the field will happen when when we get there but we've been it's been extensive you know and we've been trying to be as creative as we can and and the players have been fantastic about it this it's all voluntary you know this is not a mandatory time and so they're volunteering their time to come on in so we're working four days a week basically basically those guys and a lot more with the rookies now that they're in. And so we're just answering questions and, you know, we're doing everything we can think of to keep engaged. Is there a physical component too? Like are your strength coaches putting your players through workouts online or how's that going? No. There's a couple choices that the league teams had an opportunity

to make, but how you wanted to do that. And we chose to let the guys work out on their own. And so they have our book and the guidance stuff that we give them, but it's up to them to carry it out. We don't monitor those workouts at all. Every now and then we see something pop up on the internet. Somebody puts out a workout or whatever, but we don't, we're not coaching them in that manner. So there's a lot of cool stuff that we can teach, but we can't get to the physical side of it. Being that this game is pretty dark physical, it's a real important part we're missing out on, but we're making the most of it.

Now, is every team under the same guidelines from the NFL? also, in other words, are all 32 teams under the same restrictions in terms of what you can do? Are any practice facilities open up around the league or no? No, all the facilities are close to the players other than some guys that need to get treatment in the building. But other than that, our building is shut down. There's nobody there. And so everybody's the same. The league's really, really intent on making things competitively the same.

And so they're real strict about that. And we have to check in if we have to drop by the building. or something, you know, we have to tell them why we're going and the whole thing. So it's governed very, very tightly, which is fine. And our players are all over the country. You know, there's some here, but most of them are all over the place and still at home. It's pretty similar to the NBA. The difference, though, is that, you know, the NBA facilities are all basically coming under

the regulation of the city and the state in which they live, in which the building exists. So, for example, under San Francisco regulations, we can't open up our practice facility for another couple of weeks, probably about July or June 1st. Some practice facilities are open already. Now, we are all under similar guidelines in terms of what we can do workout-wise. So players can do individual workouts, one player, one coach, all kinds of regulation, as you can imagine in terms of, safety precautions. You know, the coach has to wear a mask, has to wear gloves. Only four players allowed in the facility at one time.

Four players, four coaches, one strength coach. And so, you know, everybody's just kind of trying to figure out what this means. But, you know, here we are near the end of our regular season. And you've got a lot of teams, you know, fighting for playoff spots, fighting for championship, you know, dreams and playoff seating, all that stuff. but a totally different set of rules based on, you know, the guidelines of the city and the state. So it's really been tricky for the NBA. Yeah, the NFL is working really carefully to not take any false steps here.

You know, they're just doing a really good job, I think, of taking in all the information and watching everything that's going on, following the regulations and all of the format that's happening so that when we finally do make a call, you know, they'll make a decisive call and we'll move forward. But we don't know. we're not talking to the league. They're not telling us much right now because I think they're still holding too. I know that they're working really diligently to figure it out, but it's not time yet to kind of unveil what's next.

So really, we got the word that we're going two more weeks of this phase one format to finish the month and then we'll figure out from there when they tell us what's going on. And a little bit sounds a little different. Sounds like you guys have some options in there that you can exercise. We don't have much of anything that we can do at this point. The league's pretty uniformed. Well, I think everybody in the NBA understands the circumstances. And as my general manager, Bob Myers, said, we are the warriors. We are certainly willing to be good partners. I think that's how every franchise is looking at this. We just have to do what's right for the league and do as well as we can for each other. It's a case where the league is trying to keep teams from gaining. competitive advantage. So head coaches are not even allowed in the facilities. And so the individual

workouts are just that. There's no strategy allowed. Players can't work out together. It's literally just, you know, one-and-one coach and player, you know, shooting workout, go into the weight room, get a weight workout, get out of there, disinfect the whole place. And then the next four players come in. It's really kind of bizarre, but it's, it's really kind of bizarre. But it's, It's the next step, the next phase as we try to return back to the floor. The good thing in the NBA, there appears to be some momentum. And I think there's been some news that's out there, but the momentum appears to be that we could be heading for a conclusion of the season,

you know, maybe under one roof on a campus like Orlando at Disney World, where they have all those courts and hotel space, and they would be able to control the environment and have testing. And so for the first time, really, in a long time, I'm feeling fairly confident, fairly positive that the NBA could get back and continue the season and get to the playoffs eventually. Yeah, there's so much that has to take place here with the logistics

and figuring all the organization of it. If basketball can get started first, you guys have much smaller teams and smaller numbers to work with, at least work to learn how to control your environment. With baseball comes after that, you guys got 15 players, 12, 15 players, and they've got 25 players or whatever. And a substantial support group. But you get to football now. It's 90 at camp. It'll be 65 players anyway.

Then we have a whole host of players. Well, we'll learn from you guys and how you guys proceed. and all that. It'll be a real, real interesting exercise. We'll just all figure it out as we go and do it really well. And there's a lot of great brains on it, so we should figure it out as well as it can be done. Yeah, I feel like we're all kind of learning from each other. I watched a little Korean League baseball the other night. It was on TV. And it was really interesting. No fans. You're seeing some of the players sitting in the stands behind the dugout, you know, six, eight feet apart from one another. but we're going to learn. We're going to learn what's going on there. And German soccer is now back.

Again, no fans. But at least we're seeing positive signs. And I think that would seem to be the key to this whole thing. As we learn more about the virus, we learn more about, you know, how we handle this stuff. You know, can we find the right balance of people getting back to life, getting, getting back to work, but also protecting people, keeping those who are vulnerable, safe and healthy. And that's got to be the plan. That's got to be the idea. But it's a difficult high-wire act, it would appear. You know, one thing I wouldn't worry about at all for the people

that are waiting and the fans and all, you know, how will the players react and how hard will they play? If you put 10 of your guys in a gymnasium and threw a basketball in there and say, go play for you. You got two hours to play. They're going to play their butt off and they're going to go for it the whole time. Our guys will do the same. It doesn't matter whether the fans are there in that regard, because they're just the competition of it all. It'll change the experience drastically. But the players are still going to play really hard, and they're going to compete, and they're going to battle, and they'll fight and claw and scratch every bit, whether the fans are there or not. But the environment will be so much different. But it'll be really interesting,

see what happens. Well, and as we know, if there's something on TV, you know, people are going to watch I'd watch anything right now. I think I'm just like every other sports fan, just to watch two people competing or two teams competing. There's something so compelling about that. And I know from our standpoint with the Warriors, even if we're able to come back and play, you know, maybe they have us play five, seven games, ten games.

I don't know. I mean, we're out of the playoffs already. But just to get some finality to this current season, and then really have a defined offseason, and then have the league tell us when next season's going to start, when the draft is going to be, it will just give us so much more clarity and allow us to plan ahead. And I think everybody's looking forward to that. You know, Steve, one more that thought about our format in the NFL. We have just completed, and we're a week beyond phase one, where we would not have done any football up until this point.

So really this week right now, we just culminated with our meetings today, was the first week we would, have missed on the field. So we're not that far behind in our in our format. And in this next, this phase two of the NFL, you can't even go offense versus defense. It's just you're separate. We're not even on the field at the same time. So it's, we haven't lost, in our world, we haven't lost that much at this point. From this point forward we do. And there's a competitive part about that that we got to use these next couple weeks and whatever as we build up to getting back on the field really, really importantly. But so it's, it's not going to affect us, at least you know, for a couple months, drastically I wouldn't think.

Well, I know one thing, it's bringing out the creative side in a lot of different staffs. I had so much fun. I jumped on your Zoom call for about five, ten minutes the other day. You had trivia. There was all kinds of trash talking going on. You were, you had guys competing against one another. You got to bring out, pull out all the stops right now. I mean, Well, that's why I pulled in a big gun. We pulled you in. Yeah. You know, we were doing some, we did some trivia. We had all watched the thing together, and guys that were behind had to binge watch it and all that. We had some fun with that. And we talked about it as we went through the weeks, as the episodes kept coming off.

And everybody, this guys started to feel like they kind of had a good feel for it. Well, let's really get to the source. Now, we couldn't get Michael. If we could have got Michael, we both would have wanted to hear that one. But it was great to get you in there, Stephen. And you set some stuff straight for him. It was great. That's good stuff. It's good stuff. I appreciate the update on the NFL, and I hope everybody out there is following the news and keeping track of all this stuff and excited about sports returning. I know I know I am, but we have a really cool guest this week. And Pete, I got to admit, I didn't know we would be able to pull off some of the guests that we've had so far.

You got some pop. I don't know about that. There's a lot of people sitting at home. There's a lot of people sitting home looking for something to do. That's right. That's right. Well, maybe we just found somebody who was bored who wanted to come on. But we are so fired up.

Bill Murray is going to jump in with us this week. Amazing. Noted actor. Holy cow. And huge sports fan and Chicago guy. And man, we are fired up to have you built. Are you there? Yes, I'm sort of here.

Start. Sort of. There you are. There you go. Hey, what's up? Not much. I'm holding this up. You got your technical advisor there? Yeah, I have a little technical advisor here. I'm just walking away from a cold glass of water. Yeah, I'm trying to make an extension cord work and get myself, this is, I haven't, I just started doing this a week ago. So I'm not as good as you guys, but I, uh, we have a lot of help.

How are you doing, Pete? Great, great. Great to see you. Thanks for taking part with this. Your headphones sort of keep disappearing. It's kind of, it's a weird visual. Yeah, when you stop one way, it's sort of like half of your head is leaving. I don't think that's happening. I think that just might be your imagination. I don't know. No, I see the same thing.

Oh, I see. This is an intervention. It's an intervention. Exactly. We've called you all together. Thank you. Well, Bill, thanks so much for coming on. I think, you know, a lot of us in lieu of watching sports these days,

are watching a lot of movies, a lot of television. So I got to ask you, I know you're a huge sports fan, Chicago guy. What are you been doing? What are you watching? What are you doing with your time during the quarantine? Well, I've been watching The Lone Ranger, old episodes of the Lone Ranger. And I find it very helpful during the sound of wearing masks to say, I'm on the side of law and order. and when people look at me quizzically, I say,

otherwise I would have walked in with my guns thrown. And that always, that makes everything safe right away. Of course, that makes perfect sense. If this man were going to cause trouble, he'd have pulled his guns right away. But I've been watching that. And of course, I was watching the last dance. I don't know if that's what you're getting, fishing around to. But I watch it, but I'm still.

I want to make this about me. This is about me, Bill. That's right. Well, I haven't watched the last two episodes. So don't spoil the ending for me. I don't know if they win that. In 1998 championship or not. I'm not sure if you're a hero or not.

But I haven't watched the last two. I enjoyed eight so much. And I was watching with people that had to wake up very early to work. I said, okay, I can wait. I can wait. And I watched it. I had to watch episode eight twice. But I liked eight.

I liked it very much. I'm enjoying the whole thing. And it's interesting to watch the, sort of backwash now that it's over of people like now I'm going to get my two cents and people chiming in and throwing rocks from the sidelines it's kind of interesting but it's fascinating watching it's it's very interesting to see and it was a uh it was a wonderful time I don't know who said it maybe you said I've listened to a couple of your shows by and liked him I liked the Michael Lewis show I thought that was a very dynamic show and I

listened to the first one that was just you two talking to each other And I found that fascinating and very, very understandable while you two would hook up and do a show to you. Well, thank you. Appreciate it. Well, I remember seeing you occasionally during that Chicago run. You know, I knew you were a Chicago guy, Chicago sports fan. I guess I kind of knew you as a Cubs fan from just seeing you on TV. But I remember a few times out in the hallway, you know, outside our locker room.

You know, we're getting ready to do the whole, what time is it, game time thing? And all of a sudden you turn around, it's like, oh, there's Bill Murray. That's cool. You know, but have you been, did you go to Bulls games growing up? Oh, no, I didn't grow up with the kind of money that you and Pete that, I used to. I don't think I went to a Bulls game until I was, I registered a boat. I see a lot during that period because I lived in New York. And I had season picks at the garden right on the floor.

I used to take my son Lou. and Homer, they saw more Bulls games as children than I saw until I was 30. They saw them live. There was one great moment when there was a ball racing out of bouncing. You know how players have the opportunity to dive out of bouncing and flip the ball backwards? And it was Patrick Ewing, and he was coming at full speed, and he looked, and he saw that I had two children, one of them sitting on my knee, and he stopped. Sure. I mean, he could have gotten to the ball, but he stopped rather than...

involuntary manslaughter rap. You know, Rodman would have kept going. Yeah, he probably would have. He probably might have, but it was quite a moment. I was, at that time, I've been going to the games for a couple of years, and I was able to actually, I can confess this now. There were only two seats. I had my larger son sitting on one of the seats,

and my other son sitting on my left, but you know, a lot of do. But they didn't care. The guys were nice there to us. I don't know, Rodman would have gone, I never even thought about that. I just think of like the largest person I knew at that time. Stopping. Sure. That was athleticism.

Hey, Bill. You've always been around a lot of the games in sports and stuff and, you know, all the way from playing out on the West Coast and the golf tournaments, all the stuff that you've done. But I, so I was curious. I try to figure out, you know, like, what is this guy's background as an athlete? And I dug and I couldn't find anything. So what I thought I would do is I thought like when I, when I,

When I interview a guy at the combine, and I'm trying to figure out whether we're going to draft him or not, I got a couple basic questions that I love asking to try to figure out what a guy's background is. So I thought I'd ask you. Like, did you play sports when you were growing up? I played everything but hockey, really. Although I could ice skate. I grew up in Illinois near Chicago. And I played baseball was really in my sport that I really love.

I played baseball. I would hit rocks with a bat just over the backyard fence until I'd be. heard lightning would hit one of my neighbors on the head. But that's what I really loved. I loved and I would spend the night on the telephone organizing, trying to get 18 guys to play a real game all during the summer. A little league ended by the time the school year ended, and I just wanted to keep playing. And I really love playing baseball. I was a pretty good baseball player. And I played that into high school. I played Pony League, and then I got interested in girls. and Pony League was in direct competition.

So that was the end of Pony. And I sort of played, and I could play pretty good basketball, but I grew up with my older brothers. We play a game outdoors. We play in the winter, and you guys never grew up where it was cold. But when you play in the winter, the ball stops bouncing after a certain moment. It doesn't bounce any higher. So the game would only last so long you'd have to go back in

and let the ball heat up again, and then you'd go back out. But it was basically a pretty violent game. I was the third youngest. And my brothers would pretty much beat me up because it took a while for my younger brothers to get large enough for me to beat them up. So it was a violent game. And if you shot too much, you were considered a ball haul. So I tried to learn how to do everything else in basketball. It was a pretty good defender.

I rebound pretty well for a guy my size. And I could pass pretty well. But I never, like shooting to me was a ball hog thing. And I never understood until too late that if you can't score, coaches just have no interest in you at all. They don't really, especially at the high school level. They want people that can put it in a hole. They're not so interested about a versatile, you know,

jack-of-all-trades kind of guy that's, you know, just got just a fiery spirit. There you go. Everybody throws around the chemistry stuff, you know. You could be a good locker room guy. you know, are you a good teammate, are you a good defender? But you're right. We all want the guy who can get buckets.

That's true. Yeah. Could you get buckets if your brothers had let you? If I seen the, I remember when I saw my first piece of pistol deep video and I thought, oh my God, if I'd seen that when I was 10, I would have played in college because I would have said, oh, this guy understands it completely. And just learning how to shoot, not that you shoot. But just a little bit of instruction, which no one ever gave me ever.

But just seeing how he shot the ball, I remember watching the first one in shooting, going, oh my God, this is, oh, this is Hartford. There was this guy when I was a kid. But learning how to shoot from a real shooter was fantastic. And if my brothers had ever, you know, I could beat my brothers eventually pretty, I could beat all my brothers. But it didn't matter because none of us were ever real stories. But yeah, you're right.

I didn't get enough courage meant to be a story. It sounds like you were, when you got to play in Space Jam, you sort of got to play the character that you wanted to be on a basketball team. You didn't play defense. You just shot, right? That was your deal? Wait a second now. I don't know if you're familiar with the film, Steve. It's a very powerful American film.

But in the movie, I steal the ball at the end of the game. I steal the ball and I pass it to this other guy on the table. team he's open and then I get to my spot and I'm wide open and I'm calling for the ball and I didn't get it back. You know that feeling? I know it all too well, Bill. You pass the ball of that guy and you don't get it back. But I'm proud of you that you did eventually play defense because early in the movie, I remember this specifically. You said, I don't do defense. I don't do defense. That's right. That was my line of the movie. And it was funny at the time. time. But under pressure, I did what I had. It was later in the movie, we shot the ending. I was

like, oh my God, I'm a hypocrite. I actually played deepens. How was it? That had to be fun. Just filming the movie and just the whole scene there? Yeah, it was fun. I mean, I was one of the producers, Ivan Reitman, was helping out a lot on the film. And he directed me in three or four with me, the Ghostbusters and stripes and meet calls and maybe one other that I can't remember

two Ghostbusters were there. So he was there and I couldn't believe that they built that basketball did any of you ever see that basketball court that they built on the Warner Brothers

a lot? We got to see it just on the show. Oh, but it's, I mean, it's whole size and that they just took over this whole area

and built this building for one movie with a weight room, a beautiful floor, and that was fun. And to hang around there, I was never invited into that game. But it was fun to watch that game. I don't think my shoes were new enough.

I think my shoes were nowhere near new enough for the game. But they were awfully good. And it was great to see all kinds of different guys. And there were young guys and older guys, guys who were already out of the league, all kinds of different people there. And it was quite a situation. But the making the movie was that I wasn't, you know, that was just watching.

the game. I was just a fan and, you know, there was Mountain Dew to drink or something like that. You just sat there and watched it. But the actual making, the movie was, some of it was that green screen stuff where you're talking to light bulbs on a wall. But the fun, the real fun was we had to shoot some golf scenes and we shot it up at the arrowhead, like arrowhead. And I did have a golf cart engine up there, but we would, in movies you do a shot and then they have to turn the camera It takes 45 minutes or an hour or more.

And we would just go play golf for about an hour. And it was Larry Bird and myself and Michael and one other person I can't remember who was playing with. And that's when I realized that I did not want to play golf with Michael doing money. And I was like, uh-oh. So, but it was fun to play with them. And it was fun to goof around with them. It made it easier to shoot the scenes because we got to know. I knew Michael some, you know, just when being going to the bull scenes and so forth.

But Larry, I got to know. It took a little while with him, as you probably know. But he's a delightful person when it gets you're going. Do you work at your golf game? Because you're kind of a big deal out there at Pebble Beach and all that stuff. Do you work at it? Well, I don't work on it as much as I could or should perhaps, but I can't eat as a kid, food.

So I've seen people hit a ball shot. And I understand the rhythm of it. And I understand a lot about how to hit certain kinds of shots. I never really studied all those shots. But I learned how to hit a lot of different shots. And we used to play golf in the caddyards. So you'd never have to hit these shots that went like around the building and up this sort of sand dune and over there by that tree.

We play from out of the bushes. We make up just different holes to it. And so there was always like a creativity component to it. But I've gotten some lessons later in life. and do you guys both play ball? Yeah. I'm not playing. I'm not playing much at all anymore.

I used to. I just kind of let it go recently, but it's a great game. It's a fun game. Can you always pull off some shots now? I mean, you got a couple shots in that bag every down end. Well, I do have some shots.

So thank you for saying that. But I will be completely frank and say that the nice thing about playing those pro-empt tournaments is they only show you a good shots. They do not show your bad shots. They cut to you making like an amazing shot. And I have the ability with my professional training to act as if I do that on a regular face. It looks like, that's what it looks.

It comes across like that. Just like another, you know, walking apart, nothing to it. Yeah, but you must fear the shank into the gallery, right? I mean, those are big galleries. And, you know, I mean, that's got to be a scary thought. Yeah, I don't fear. I'm not shanking into the gallery. I figure if they'd come out to watch me golf, they've got it coming.

And I never really hit anyone with a golf ball until a few years ago. And the crowd's crazy. You see them on TV where you say, like, here's this guy who's now going to hit a ball that's going to go 175 miles an hour. And they all lean in. Like, can I get closer to kind of look directly at the balls? And I like to say to them, hey, you, you know, you're not that good look. to begin with. You want to back it up?

But they really do probably, I didn't hit, but one year, maybe about four or five years ago, I hit about three people in an hour, like Jerry Ford would kill people. I hit three people in an hour. And I hadn't hit anyone in, you know, 15 years, you know. So it was just a bad day. Everyone can have a bad day where people are taking away in an ambulance. Do you have a regular partner that you play with at the Pebble tournament? Well, I played for about 10 years or more with a fellow named Scott Simpson and won a U.S. Open.

Sure. Yeah. I thought when I was first match with him, I thought, oh, this guy's really scared. He's really dry. I don't think this is fair to work. He turns out to have a very strange, unusual sense of humor. And we had more fun than anyone ever had in the term. We really had a lot of fun.

And we usually played, for many years, we played with Jeff Sleman, There's another knucklehead. And Mark Grace, he's playing first stage for the Cubs, who is completely unreliable in most ways. And the perfect person having a golf coach. Hey, Bill, we're always looking to get better, you know, as coaches. And, you know, you've been coached a lot over years. Now, I wouldn't, I don't know how you would describe yourself as a coachable guy or not.

But is there any advice you could give us about how we could handle our, you know, the players that, you know, that they've been around the block, they've played a lot of ball, and, you know, they've won a lot of games and all that, and maybe how to deal with those guys in, you know, some kind of fashion that would help us out? I should say that I have played the last few years of Hell Beach with B.A. points, and we actually won the tournament, the pro-an tournament, and he won the pro tournament. I got two big pieces of crystal, and he got a check for $1.4 million. So I offered the swap, but you still think of it.

about that. When you're trying to get other people to play together, well, my son is a basketball coach, and I can't help him be an assistant coach. I wasn't that bad before, but now it's kind of fun because the game's on TV or I'm there live, but it's fun to watch. I like the idea of how you make people do things at a certain moment

or seeing the weaknesses of another team or something you can exploit some way that, your talent can take advantage of the situation that the team provides. But I would compare it to working with other actors in a scene and that we're all trying to get this thing done. And people get anxious, but when I get nervous, and I think that we could all agree that the enemy of excellence is tension. And being relaxed is really the most comfortable place to work from.

so I tried to really get myself as comfortable as I can it so that I basically try to get quiet myself down and bring my center of attention down lower in my body and I hear you fellas talking about Tim Ballway and the inner game it's a book I read a long time ago I'm going to reread it after this you talk about it again but the idea of um your mind and body being together intellectually that's a that's just a way that people say that. And I don't think everyone understands that people use the term being present.

And I'm not sure everyone understands that they know the word, but I'm not sure everyone sees it the same way. So, Bill, I would think that it would make sense then that to achieve that you've got to maybe work with a cast and a director who could help you get to that place. I know you've done a lot of work with Wes Anderson, George Clooney, Harold Ramis.

Is that the case almost like for an athlete playing for the right coach? Do you as an actor sort of seek out a certain kind of director so that you can get to that mind-body connection yourself? In other words, because you're in the right atmosphere? Well, not in that sense, Steve. usually the idea comes, the script comes to me and there's already a director involved. So it's really easy to look up what the director's done, and you go like, oh, okay, that person knows what he's doing.

I don't necessarily need them all the time to play the game, you know, in the same way that a coach might not teach you, say, Steve, here's how you play the game. You know how to play the game. But he can give you an insight of like, how about if you try this? There's something that, there's some kind of like, What if you came at it from this particular angle?

I prepare myself pretty much the way each time I work. Not every director works that way. I don't know anything like that way. Some do, I'm sure, but not everyone works that the way I work. But we all know what quality is. Everyone's goal is the quality. And I can make something that's good. I'll make something that's good.

And a director will say, how about if you tried this? So I go, okay, let me try that. Or if I think it's not exact, or if I sort of disagree with that I say, I think I know what you want, let me try this. Let me try this and see if you like it. So I'll try this and see if they like it. And as often it's not, maybe they didn't say it in the way that I wanted to hear it. Or maybe I, however, that often works.

But to disagree is never good to say no, I don't think that's really it. you can just say, how about if I try this and you like it? And so if you like it, you're still in the game. You're not denying anyone's idea that it's not perfect yet. And it keeps you active. You keep trying it. And if there's a beautiful scene to do, a fun scene to do, I can do it all day long. I can do it all day long.

I don't know if it's like that with you when you're running a play. And the balls come with you and you get to shoot it and make it all that. You're going to rush you get that over with. You're killing. Yeah. Like if I'm in a scene with a great actress like Francis, McGorman. We've done some scenes.

I've done scenes with her in Wes's movies. You know, Wes says, okay, you guys go and I said, no. We could do this all day long. It's so much fun to work with someone. That's so good. You know, this is such pleasure. Such pleasure to really do the job. It's hard work.

Not easy, but it's a pleasure way for me. Pete, don't you think that's kind of what we're after, too, you know, with coaching? I mean, you're looking for that space where, not only are you you're practicing, but you're seeking this vibe and this feeling of joy and excellence. And when you feel it, it's incredible. It's magic. Yeah, there's nothing more fun when you're making the right connection and everybody's firing on all cylinders and you're having fun. You can't wait to go show, you know, show what you got. And you know, and you know that the people around you're helping you. You're not worrying about nothing. You know, you're just bawling and playing.

And that's when it's at its best for sure. And I'm sure Bill just described how it happens in acting as well, you know. And I think it's fascinating that you guys, because I've heard Steve talk about this, Bill, that you know, that you do mention about nerves and being, you know, having tightness and stuff. When you see a guy that's shot all the shots that he's made, you know, you would think, God, he's got to be just as loose as can be. But he'll tell you, you know, about the tension and the pressure and all of that. Just kind of as you said it as well, you know, it's, that's just part of performing, you know.

It's the build up, the expectations, anticipation, you know, are you going to have it again on this day? Are you going to pull it off like you always want to and like you dream of doing it? There's a build to that and then we have to manage it. And I think Bill, you know, was eloquently, was talking about how just getting centered and quieting down. And you love people that you can work with around you that help you, you know, feel that way and get close to where you're capable of being at your best and all. So it's really, really cool stuff. You know, Russell Westbrook has one of my favorite quotes ever. He said, I have been blessed with the gift of not giving a fuck.

That's not his line. I don't think he made that one up. Maybe he didn't, but he used it. But there's something about that. There's something about that that's true. If you can, I mean, now, it doesn't work if you literally don't care. But if you can play as if you can play as if. if you're just free and loose and you're having fun,

that's what we're all looking for. Yeah, it's one of my favorite lines. It's not one of Bill's movies, but in old risky business, there's a line in there where he says, sometimes you just got to say, what the F, man. You know, you've got to let it rest.

And there's nothing like that freedom, that's for sure. Well, I have a question for you guys, Pete. I was talking to my son who has two very young children. And he sends me photographs all the day long of these kids. in action. And one after another is more hilarious than the one before. And I said to him, wow, you're so lucky. Not in the ordinary sense, but in this time here where you are, you are quarantined,

you're in your house. You have to be in your house with your children. You get to see these things that most dads don't get to see. Dads often have to go to work and they don't see all these magical moments. very understandable as I watch this through him. One reason why children are more connected to their mothers is because their mothers get to see all these magical moments, get to see all these extraordinary moments and not just that they get to see them, but the child gets to see them, see them.

Their child gets to do this thing and then see their parent loving what's happening. I wondered if that works in your bracket, you know, that. If you run a play or you're working at a play and practice, if you show delight when the player performs like that. You know, if there were something to be gained from just a personal delight in their executing it. I always wonder if you guys aren't a little matter of fact sometimes, you know. I know it's always cool like, oh, the coach doesn't react when someone hits a three-point shot to win the game. They just sort of, okay.

time out, you know, or, you know, but just, I wonder if you, are you that way in practice, perhaps, where you go like that? Obviously, you're always encouraging, especially like a more rough violent game like yours speed, but I wonder if the delight of it gets true to the players. I think you're hitting on something that's really, it's home with me, because we have always been really expressive in our coaching and been open to respond and, and willing to show the guys what we feel because we want to show them what we think is the right, you know, the best way to respond and react, give them choices on how they can express themselves. And I think if you work hard enough at something, you know that the other guys care so much about it, that you,

you feel their joy and you respond to their joy and you can energize other people around you. I mean, it's a huge part of our communications and our teaching and coaching. And I don't even know where we'd be without it. And I know there are some guys that aren't that. way. I'm just doing what we know how to do it. But it's a huge part of it. So, I mean, the kid's seeing his dad see him do something. Yeah. I mean, and the mom as well, there's no question that that's got great power. Think of it in the absence of that. You know, without that. And that's, there is a tremendous tribal exchange that's going on right now for families and all. We're all making it. We're working it together and trying to stay close. And I'm sure it's a big challenge

for the people that are living in such close quarters. But it's, it's, this is a rare moment. It's a rare opportunity in time for us to learn about one another and how to deal with one. We may never be the same. We may be changed forever. I hope we are because I think it's going to come from empathy and compassion and getting along and working hard to mix with those that you love around you. So I think you're right on it. Well, that connection is just, I think, what makes coaching so much fun. And I know that, Pete, the whole reason I looked you up six years ago and I wanted to meet you was I watched you when you were at USC and I saw the joy on the sidelines and I saw you celebrating with your players and it was just it there was just this energy

that existed and it came it came from you and it went right through the team but the key is and I think what I've kind of found as a coach is you have to find the balance because you also can't be the you know the clown on the sidelines or you know jumping around on every play every play. So how do you find that balance where your team can feel your joy, your energy, but then also they know you're on it, right? You've got to be focused, you've got to be locked in, you've got to be discussing strategy with your other coaches. And so there's a balance in there somewhere that I think is really crucial. Yeah, and there's all kinds of historical moments where I've gone too far the wrong way, you know, one way or another, and you just kind of log those

away and say the wrong thing at the wrong time, you know, that teaches you, you know, and then really, at this point, I just trust, you know, and our guys, we are acting in the way we like to act and operate enough that we just kind of let it go. And there's times, you know, we've got to reel each other in a little bit and, you know, you put your arm around somebody and say, maybe not now, you know, or that's a little bit too much. I can imagine, I mean, it's, it would be the same in all walks. I, if you let it, I think you can act like this. You can respond to people and energize each other. You know, I mean, just look at Bill's done.

His whole career is just energized and crank people up and made them laugh and have fun and joy and all that. That's a wonderful opportunity we have to be where we are. Bill, you think the same sort of dynamic exists in acting as it does in sports in terms of a cast and a roster being, you know, with a hierarchy, with a chemistry. Like you've got to find the right sort of. team dynamics for a movie to work, just like you do for a team? Yeah.

I mean, in basketball, you talk about spacing, you know, often. And certain people need more space or less space. You know, they need to be able to wheel. But I think when you get a bunch of good actors, they kind of know, they kind of go like, okay, where's he going to be on this? How's he playing this? And you rehearse a couple times you'll see, how's he going to play this scene? How does he start playing this scene?

And there's a lot of room There's a lot of space to fill And you go, okay Well, he's going to do this There's this whole area over here I can I can just Finger paint over here and have all the fun I want And I'm going to be useful

And there's not There doesn't have to be any kind of grabbing You know It's supportive when you're involved And you find that someone's just grabbing for more It's like a ball haul Or someone that won't share the ball but's grabbing and reaching for more.

And one can act that way, two can sometimes make two act that way. Causes someone to do with his anxiety about how they're going to come across, how they're going to be perceived. And I've had that feeling of going in and going, oh, man, this is like a really good actor. I'm in here, what the hell am I going to do?

You know, this guy's such a great actor. I'm just like a willow compared to this man or woman. But that's sort of a false imagination. It's negative imagination. It's not exactly accurate because the scene is written for two people. There better be two people showing up. So I found, and one thing I learned from this great director I had at the second seat in Chicago was how close was, you know, I remember when I was first starting up, I was like a new guy

and, you know, and it felt like the other actors were bullied, you know, by comparison. The same way out there's a little man in the stints and shirt scene. You know, he just said, you know, you make the other people look good. You make the other guy look good. You never have to worry about how you come off. You don't have to worry at all. You make the other guy look good. And no one's thinking you don't look good.

You're part of an organization that's making a success. So you try to make, you know, when I'm lost, I don't necessarily know what I want to how I want to play it seemed. I go like, I don't know, I'll just start by making this person look in and see if that doesn't work. And a really good actor, a co-actor,

I just will acknowledge that, see it right away, see what you're doing, go like, okay, this person's just trying to make me look better, watch me make him look better. And that's how you sort of exchange this energy,

and you kind of raise each other with this level together. You kind of go, if you go here, okay, how about if you come here, you want to come up here? Let's go over here. I'll try this. Let's try that.

And that's that kind of pleasure thing I'm talking about where you feel comfortable in your own skin and you're able to do it all day long because you feel comfortable in your skin. Bill, do you see the connections between the way you've always been such an master improviser and the athletes that you watch? You're like watching Michael play and watching when Kerr's driving down the middle and flying through the air and does those twists and turns.

but you know the improvisation the freedom the the guts to you know to go take the chance because you would seem like a guy that has always taken a lot of chances in your comedy and your fun and you know you got to push the limits so you can't get to those crazy places that you get to but did you see the connection between out in sports and in the performers that you watch well yeah you can score baskets a lot of different ways you can score touchdowns a lot of different ways you know it's kind of nice that people are so much more expensive aggressive scoring touchdowns, there is a certain amount of joy. You know, there's, you know, people say, well,

act as if you've done it before, okay. But there's also a lot of fun, and it's not so much necessarily that you're showing off for the fans in the stands or people on television. You're doing it for your teammates, really. And I like that feeling that, like, if I can, if I can dazzle my teammates, and that's what I really like to see on other football game

in the basketball game, is the teammates enjoying each other. That's when you really go like, hey, they actually like what they do. They really like what they do and they are doing it for each other. You know, after championship, you hear people say, like, we're a family,

we're blessed together, we're all in this together. Well, those are just words unless you can see it. But seeing it is a very different thing. Now, I completely started talking and forgotten exactly what you're asking. I got excited. I got really excited.

But you said, do I appreciate the improvement improvisation on a basketball special. Well, that's what you're so famous for, that you just do some crazy stuff and respond to things. And, you know, you feed off of whatever the other people are doing and that improv, whatever that is, you know, that freedom that you demonstrate. I just wondered if you see the connection in other performers. I see it.

I see it. And it's that same thing of, like, leaving your body. I mean, the surprise is doing what's not expected, you know. And if you're thinking, it's not, that just doesn't happen particularly if you're just in your brain. But if you can do that sort of, if you kind of comfortable and sort of down low, your Santa Gravy's down low, people are not expecting what's coming from you because it's coming from a completely solid place. And it's delivered like a, from a connected individual. You know, it's not flash.

It's not someone, you see someone driving down, driving the corner at full speed and think like, okay, sometimes you know who's going all the way and not going to pass the ball. But sometimes there's a, the joy is when that person can act as if you could pass the ball or not pass the ball. Passive ball or not basketball. That's when it's really fun because he can act like he's going to shoot all the way to the last minute. And for the phone of it, just slip it around his back to someone who's got the layout. or vice versa. He can act like he's going to pass it all the way. I used to love when Scotty would act like he was going to pass to Michael.

And the whole world, including the defender thinks he's going to pass it to Michael. And sometimes the defender would be turned, you know, 75 degrees all the way to Michael and never see Scotty dunk the ball behind his back. It's never see it. Those ones are fun. And that kind of, and even Mike or the guy not getting to go, he's got to laugh at it. He was like, that was good. That's what I would have done.

That's what I feel. You know, they just, people like seeing the other person do the unexpected. And the unexpected is, it's yes and no at the same time. So could you give us, I'll put you on the spot a little bit. Can you give us an example of a movie that you worked on where you just had an unbelievable chemistry with the staff? And there was an amazing vibe. and you were you were just feeling that that magic that we were talking about throughout the throughout the filming and you were just you know you'd get home every night like man

that was fun there been a bunch of movies like that where it was a real challenge to go out and have a situation where okay this is going to be hard and kind of the harder it is the more fun it is you know I mean I guess ghostmasters pops into the head because that was a movie that was a very successful movie, but it was a really funny movie, and it was a groundbreaking movie. It was like an action movie that was a funny movie. There really hadn't been anything quite like that.

And the script was written, and it was Dan Eckraib's concept, and Harold Ramieson, he wrote this great script. And then at a certain point, when all the action starts happening, there's not really a lot of action, because, or not a lot of dialogue, because the action sort of is taking,

taking the main stage. And in that situation, I was kind of the mouth of the team. And we went to Thanksgiving dinner at the director's house. And we had the first, he showed us the first pot of the first scene

where we tried to catch this slimer or in a hotel and we ripped a place to shreds. And it was the greatest turkey I ever had in my life, I think, because I know, he went back to work the next day. And we were slow getting to the set.

You know, we're supposed to be in there. We're all coming in a little slow. And I walk in, people are looking at you're a little slow. I said, relax, boys, we got to kill it. This is a killer. He just knew. We just relaxed, boys.

We got a killer here. And from that moment, even though it was a very difficult movie, we had to wear these packs that weighed 45, 50 pounds for, you know, 14, 15, 16 hours a day, terrible hours. It was incredibly painful physically job and demanding job. But we knew we had it and the crew was with us all the way. We were there with us all the way. We can walk into a scene and be like, okay, we got this. What do we got?

Okay, let's roll. Let's shoot it. We didn't talk about it. We said, let's just shoot it. And in that shooting, our spacing and our bodies working together in this space, we created the dialogue live like that. It's a bang. Good.

And the crew would look and go, God, thing, these guys are. And it was that way. It was really that way. There were a couple movies like that. Stripes was a movie like that. There was a great cameraman and a great music store. And the first day of work, we had to do this hard scene. And we shot most of the scene.

And then it came around to me and they said, oh, what are you going to do? I said, well, I'm not going to read this stuff. So let's take a break. And these are all like real big-time movie shooters. and they're like, okay, to see what these guys are. And I'm blanking that on the straight camera and said, Bill,

anyway, he made a lot of really big movies, and he was a beautiful guy. And he saw him go, okay, we're going to take a break. We don't just tell the crew, like 150 people to take a break, but we did it. And so we went back on the truck

and we, Harold and I picked it around. It's okay. We came back and we did the scene. We shot my side of it, which wasn't the script, there was something different. and I remember the cameraman Bill

he looked at the other to the rest of the crew and he kind of went okay this is our guy we're riding this is our pony this is the guy we're riding and that was it from that moment on they were like

if Bill says we're in not this bill that bill we're all on and that was it and we made a really funny movie on an army base which is kind of a fun thing to do I'm sure you've probably

been on an army basis it's a fun place to play anything but to be in the middle situation and not have to really salute or go to the brakes. Pete, do you quote, you quote stripes in your household at all? Not in the household, but, you know, the whole thing about Francis and all that stuff that happened in the barracks that night. And that little meeting you guys had, that's come up a million times about stuff, you know, so many classics. There's just, well, that was that day, Pete, that was that very first day. That whole Francis, that happened at that time. That's what it all

happen. That's the one. Okay. It looked like, it looked like you must have had a great time. It was just a perfect setting for, oh, you're nuts to go crazy and all. Yeah, it was so. Bill, my daughter's boyfriend, his name is Francis, and we, all the time. I mean, it's just automatic. Lighten up, Francis. There's that one. There's, what about Bob was a favorite in the Kerr household? And so, and we like to cook. We've been cooking like crazy during the quarantine, you know, no restaurants open. So we're cooking every night. And I would say every, you know, every three or four nights, somebody digs into something good. Mm, Mrs. M., Mrs. M. Straight from what about Bob. Our whole family quotes, quotes your stuff. I mean, it's just,

it's been so much fun to watch your movies. And they cross generations, too, you know. Pete and I've been watching you for for a long time. My kids, they're, they're in their 20s now, but, you know, they've taken to all your stuff. And my youngest son is a film student at USC. He's a huge Wes Anderson fan. So I could go on you, but you've made a huge impact just in our, in our daily life and our family life. So thank you for all your work. Yeah. Thanks for all the joy. All that. A lot. A lot of fun doing you. Thank you very much. Well, and thanks for, thanks for coming on. And today, I want to ask you one last thing and we'll let you go. So I, you know, when I was playing for the Bulls, I would go to Second City.

My wife and I would go to Second City all the time. And to this day, when we go to play the Bulls, which is once a year, if we have a night off the night before, I'll take my coaching staff. And I love that show. It's fantastic. I got to just hear, that's, I mean, that's basically where you got your start, right? That's right. So what was it like?

How old were you when you first went to see a show? And how did that help you get your career rolling? Well, I talk about being very lucky. I was my older brother, or one of my older brothers, Brian started at the Second City. And he was there in a cast of Joe Flaherty from SEP, be a very funny guy, Harold Ramas and Eugene and Horattsvone, a bunch of funny people, Jimmy Morton. And I was sort of like a hippie kid that,

It wasn't going over too well at home. So I would basically go out all night, come back in and be asleep when everyone else's house sort of woke up. They'd leave, I'd eat, and then I'd leave just before they came back. My only friend in the house was the dog. I was just not good company. But I would flee.

And where I was, there was no one really to hang out with. So I would hitchhide downtown to the city to where Brian was working in the theater and I would just hang out there because they were fine with me and I'd watch the show and I didn't think anything about it but I watched them many many times I watched

the show and I'd hang out and I go out afterwards with these guys and whatever and only a couple years later did I ever try to improvise there and the first time I tried it I was terrible really really bad and I walked out on WellSuite and I walked

all the way I just started walking and the next thing I knew I was about 74 blocks south. And I looked around and went, oh, Bill, you really shouldn't be right here. I was in a rough and tumble neighborhood, and I had no business being there. And I thought, oh, this is what comes in it. You can't make it on the stage on anybody. I realized I couldn't do it because I didn't know anything. And then I took up and went to live out west a little while and had some life,

lived a little bit. When I came back a couple of years later, I had some really good stories, and I could tell people really good stories. I had really good stories. And I went to try the theater again. I had kind of a miraculous mode. I was underneath the clock at Marshall Fields on Christmas Eve,

and there was a lady who was the teacher, the instructor of the improvisation class. And she said, Bill, would you be interested in taking some improvisation classes? Yes, but I can't really afford that. Yes. well that's okay. I need my kitchen

painting. Do you know how to paint? I said, well, actually I do not have paint. So in exchange for painting her kitchen, she gave me free

in compensation classes. And it wasn't that good because she lived in the basement apart of this three-story townhouse in Chicago, and all the heat pipes from the whole building

came down to the basement level and existed just below the surface of the ceiling. So I had to paint all these pipes, all these pipes that were hot, and the paint was drip on my face, and I would go to the

class covered with purple paint. Purple paint, because that was her favorite color, and the room had to be painted purple. So I was covered with, like, dappled with purple paint. It took me, I mean, it's not like painting a room, you could paint a room in a day. Painting this thing took maybe

eight, nine days to paint, because there were so many pipes to paint. And I was covered with paint and heat, and anyway, that's how I got started. I know what the question is. Once again, I think about the heat and the paint, my eyes and stuff. But that's how it came to be.

I was very lucky. And all those guys dragged me along. Harold and Belushi and Brian, they went to New York and they dragged me into New York. And they got me into work on the National Infoom Radio. And then they dragged me and worked me in the National Enfoon off prognation. And then we all got dragged together, Brian and I and Christopher Guest, to work on the Saturday Night Live at Howard Kossel Shard, which is its own experience. And then we did a Super Bowl documentary, and then I got the Saturday Night Live job. But it was all just, I was in the wake of all these people dragging me along.

And I just tried to pay attention to what they were doing, you know, and I learned it in on the cement. That's how it works, right? I mean, everybody's story is kind of similar. You got mentors, you got, you know, people who kind of show you the way. And you stumble into something, and next thing you know, you got a career. And it's awesome. I mean, it's so cool to, you know, hear about your story and to hear from you. And to know that you actually listen to our podcast.

I mean, that's how bored you are during the quarantine. Well, it was great. I wish Pete would talk about it. I really do. I don't give them. much of a chance, though. Bill, I'm yapping plenty. I'm yapping plenty.

Well, that first one that you two did together, that was really extraordinary. That was a wonderful exchange. That was a really wonderful exchange. And I could see why you're going to have a great success with this. I appreciate you bringing that up. Those tickets I told you about, you know, from when we come your way. You got them, okay. All right.

I hope you guys have a great season. I enjoyed watching both of your teams very much. I was very happy that you got the Golden State job. At the time I was in New York and the Rusaki were coming to New York, I thought, oh, my God, he's too fine a person. So. Thanks, Bill. I'll work out for you.

All right, I'll see you guys in the championship this year, the Super Bowl in the final. All right, Bill. Great to visit. Thank you. I love it. Okay. All right, love it. All right.