Will Cain Country - Can You Be A Radio Host & A College Basketball Coach?

Episode Date: June 14, 2024

On this edition of The Will Cain Show’s Friday sports episode, Will sits down with Head Basketball Coach at UW Green Bay & Host of The Doug Gottlieb Show on Fox Sports Radio, Doug Gottleib, to discuss what it's like recruiting in the NIL era while running a radio show, what the NBA is going to look like in future seasons, and why the Boston Celtics so thoroughly dominated the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals.   Tell Will what you thought about this podcast by emailing [e-mail]   Subscribe to The Will Cain Show on YouTube here: Watch The Will Cain Show!   Follow Will on Twitter: @WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small iced coffee for five bucks plus tax. Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery. Did the NBA foul up by fouling out? Now, Luca Donchich, and are the Celtics, a team put together by geniuses? Plus, how hard is it to run a sports talk radio show and be the head coach of a college basketball team? We hang out with Doug Gottlieb.

It is the Will Cain show, which streams live every Monday through Thursday, at 12 o'clock Eastern time. At foxnews.com, the Fox News Facebook page, and on the Fox News YouTube channel. Just subscribe to us, though, on Apple or Spotify, or on. YouTube and hang out with us anytime on the Will Kane show. Today we have the host of the Doug Gottlieb show on Fox Sports Radio, a longtime commentator at CBS, Fox, and at ESPN, who's now taking the job as the head college basketball coach at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay. Doug and I have bounced around the sports universe, met each other once or twice, never hung out at any extended period of time. But we didn't

only talk about the Mavericks and the Celtics. He had some interesting opinions about the future of the Dallas Mavericks, but we also got right into it over, how's he going to do this? He just took this job as a college basketball coach, but he's going to keep his sports media job. How's he going to juggle all of that? Here's Doug Gottlie.

This is Jimmy Phala, inviting you to join me for Fox Across America, where we'll discuss every single one of the Democrats' dumb ideas. Just kidding. It's only a three-hour show. Listen live at noon Eastern or get the podcast at Fox Across America.com. I'm Janice Dean. Join me every Sunday

as I focus on stories of hope and people who are truly rays of sunshine in their community and across the world. Listen and follow now at foxnewspodcast.com. This is Jason Chaffetz from the Jason in the House podcast. Join me every Monday to dive deeper into the latest political headlines

and chat with remarkable guests. Listen and follow now at Fox Newspodcast.com. Or wherever, you download podcasts. Hey Doug, I really appreciate you going into studio, you know, getting dressed up for your parents here today on the Will Kane show. I appreciate you. What are you fresh off of practice?

No, I'm actually, I'm in Oklahoma. My son is, he's working out with his high school. He's going to go to high school here. So I'm actually in the press box of football stadium. so yeah really you're like you know it's like a billion degrees outside so yeah you know

I'm going up to the bay what is your how are you going to do this man how are you going to do and we are rolling by the way so I want to just do all of this because yeah because I'm curious as well how are you going to

do a radio show and coach are you moving are you gonna you gotta live in Green Bay what are you doing you're the now head coach of University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, and you're the host of Doug Gottlieb show. How? My radio show is from locally, it's from two to four. We have a podcast which we record for it, which goes live after it. So you just carve out that window in the middle of your day.

And you get up a little earlier and prep for everything. And you hire good people and you get after. Like, dude, I've had like eight jobs my, since I left ESPN and at ESPN. I was, I did ESPN the magazine to ESPN.com. I did ESPN news. I did studio, remote, radio, TV shows, whatever. So, obviously coaching college basketball normally is a 24-7 job. So in this case, it's a, you know, 21-7 job. That's really what it is. So I'm excited. I mean, I, I, I, It's a full day every day, but it's a fulfilling day every day. So we're going to see. And, you know, I'll tell you this, like reality, college basketball coaches.

And I know thousands of them. My brother is one. My late father was one. They spend a lot of their day BS. They just do. They spend a lot of their day BS. So my BSin is on the radio. My lunch break is on the radio.

So you carve out time and you make it work. listen i don't doubt that you have the work ethic and the experience in life that's going to lend itself to juggling this schedule but i do know that doing a daily sports talk radio show or any show uh and you do it well and i don't i'm not just i don't throw rose petals if i don't think they're necessary we did the same time slot you did my time slot right at ESPN right you did my time slot yeah you did my types of. Yeah, three to six. Then it was, then it was, then it was the coach, then it was Levantar, then it was Bimani, and then it was you, right? Wasn't it? And then they moved you up. Yeah. Then they moved you. I remember correctly. That's good history. And by the way, you couldn't keep up with it after me, I don't think. I don't know what it is now, to be honest. I'm not trying to insult anybody, but it changes a lot, so I don't even know.

I can insult people okay it is it is I don't even know on that radio network anymore right like we got everybody and eliminated everybody and then you know you smartly did did your own thing like yeah I can I love the place when I was there it's not the same place you know what I loved it when I was there as well I mean I felt it changing while I was there but I don't know I liked it I had a good time but here's the thing I in and in You know, like, again, I'm not even going to throw rose pedals at my own feet, but, like, I did it well. The ratings were a relief for the network. It was a big success. And I know how much work it took. I took it seriously. And I say that because I was throwing rose pedals at your feet. You did it well, man. I mean, like, to do a three-hour radio show for me, and I think that Colin Coward works in the same way, it takes a good amount of prep because I went into it with a, you know, a real idea of what I had to say and how I wanted to say it. you want to be natural and authentic once you're in there but it takes a lot of work and like as you said okay fine so college basketball coaches BS a lot it's still like a 24-7 job only gotten worse with the transfer portal and nil i do think you guys have it better than college football coaches just because of the lower roster numbers you don't have to i mean i don't even know how they do that with those roster numbers i don't know man you've got a real schedule ahead of you i don't and i'm not saying you can't pull it off okay so i'll give you the what i've been working on

day to day now. Okay. So I get up at about 53545, right? And at that time, I usually like to do a little reading. And honestly, if I read for half hour, 40 minutes, like I'm pretty well in tune with what I want to do and how I want to do it within kind of a radio show sort of mindset. And remember now that I've moved from Pacific time zone, central time zone, we don't start recording pod until one. So I'll send off, fire off usually a text of kind of what I'm thinking. And then, and then honestly, like, I don't delete that from my memory, but now I get to work on the coaching aspect of it.

I like to get up and I'll go work out and go work out with usually one of my assistants and it's like a kind of a working sort of meeting third deal. And then you get into your office and you kind of get started, get about your day. Obviously, you got to get coffee at some point in time, figure out what's going on for lunch. And then you kind of lock in and then at 11 o'clock, which is 9 o'clock West Coast time, I have a call with my producer, Jason Stewart. I know you know Jay Stewart. And we lock in on what we want to do and if there's anything breaking and what he's thinking.

And then he sends me a long laundry list of stories that I need to read, some of which I've read previously. And then we print them out. I got them on my desk. And then I check off if I want to add anything. And then he puts it on the, we got a G-chat going. and then again kind of put it to the side

get through everything else within my day Dennis who's my director of basketball ops comes in and if there's any calls that need to be made they're made then and everything else is planned

for after the show and my door you know you can simply come in during a break you have to know when the times are and then in about 1 o'clock we start recording the podcast and then we go from the podcast

the radio show the great thing about the podcast is you can start and stop. I think ideally I'd actually like to record parts of the podcast first thing in the morning so that it's all ready. And then all I have to do is add in some of the takes, if you will, like an interview first thing in the morning. And then you're done at 4 o'clock. The only thing that's going to change is once we start going in terms of practice, I want the guys, I like practicing shorter rather than longer. And my idea is many times you go twice in a day,

you go an hour in the morning skill, and then you go team stuff. an hour, hour 15 in the evening. And so that changes, again, that eliminates your ability to do something in the morning and you change that until another time that's open. But remember, like, that's not starting practice. We'll have summer workouts where you get four hours in the gym with them per week. We're going to do those in the morning. So the middle of the day is completely wide open.

and then the evening is left for recruiting or playing golf with donors or raising an I.O. money. So it's a full day, but, like, it's a job, and you can't say you want something and then complain about the hours of something when you know what you're getting into. So I have no complaints. I love what I'm doing. Go ahead. I want to explore the coaching side for just one minute with you because, I mean, I know you're new to this, although you've been around coaching really your entire life, your dad,

you as well, by the way, even when you were in college at Golden West. But it's new. It's all different. And like, I don't know, what actual coaching seems like now would be about 30% of the job, 40% of the job. Whereas there's a reason that college football coaches were moving this way. They're going to have general managers. They're going to have roster managers. And again, their numbers are way different than yours.

But, like, in college basketball, it's really. reasonable, you might have a 75% roster turnover year to year with the transfer portal. So what that would mean for you is constant recruiting, constant high school, constant scouting in the college ranks, constant NIL, you know, negotiations in raising money. I see I already saying, I'm not so sure, but it's just like the coaching plus the general management. Yeah. So when you take over the program, okay, they had two that they had. gotten from the portal, and I knew we weren't getting those guys. So we had eight left on the

roster. One was an incoming freshman. Three of them jumped in the portal. So immediately you've got to kind of re-recruit your team. I had five. So we're in the process of putting together a roster. So as much as I think some would say, hey, you know, you haven't done it yet. I'm actually doing it. So I actually know how it works. A couple things. One, I come from the AAU. world. Okay. This is all you do in AAU basketball. Okay. This is all you do. You're constantly adding a kid, losing a kid, trying to talk kids and families into staying. You know, I wasn't running it to make money. So I didn't, I never did, you know, like, hey, you got to pay five months or six months in advance. I just, hey, you want to show up in the tournament? Let me know. Send out an

email or a text. But you're constantly doing kind of this changing of the guard thing. And on some level there's recruiting. So I do actually have a great basis, a base to start with. And I understand the perception of it. But the reality is like, look, first of all, I have an army of people that I would consider friends all over the country that I played with, played against, played for my dad, played for my brother, agents I know, coaches I know, and they send you kind of players. Honestly, the hardest part is there's so many people who want to help and they send you a player and you want to do your due diligence and really watch a lot of tape. So the great thing is college players, we have something called Synergy, which by the way is

based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Every college coach has synergy. You can watch every play, every defensive play, every offensive play, every pick and roll, every catch and shoot, everything, just at the press of a button. So what it takes is a deep dive, right? You go and you get a kid, hey, you look at them. Like, hmm, there's an analytics company called HDI. We use their service.

Their service gives you an analytic rating and shows you if they're at your level, below your level or above your level, right? So if they're at about your level, then you go dig in with the video. If you like the video, then you call somebody. And then you've got to find out, does this kid want money? If he wants money, is he in kind of the neighborhood of what we want to spend? And I do think that one of the things that is a misconception of the world of NIL is not all these kids need money in order to make many of them, at least at our level, value the opportunity, right? In the same way in which I value the opportunity and I'm taking less money, you know, to do my job, there's there's a lot of kids that they, look, I just want to play a coach.

And I said, all right, but we're going to support you. We have cost of attendance. if you achieve a 3.0 or better. We have Alston money. So we provide them with money in their pocket so they can go around town so they can be regular college students. But they don't lead with and they never ask for NIL. I think the perception is, and maybe my perception even when I was a radio host only and calling TV games, was that everybody had their handout.

It's not that way. There are kids that you have to compete with financially. And there are kids in which the initial ask you, like, hey, that's not even our ballpark. We're not doing that. And you have to worry about whether or not you upset the apple cart. And then in regards to the recidivitous rate, like, again, I think, and I think that it costs a lot more to replace a player than it does to keep your players. So to me, the way you go about it is you don't need to throw a bunch of money at kids to bring them in. That may help you, but it's like sugar, right?

to hide up and then all that they leave they're not loyal to you at all and what you do is you bring in good kids or you keep good kids and then you do your best to compensate them to stay and you do that one with some sort of academic bonus if you can or two you raise the NIL and you keep those kids and maybe they're not the four and the five star maybe they're not as athletically talented but you increase your culture and they can improve as athletes and improve as players so that's the game plan that's what Purdue has done that's what two back two years ago, UCLA has done. Can you keep your players and build and have continuity year to year to year? And I think if you have that, you can compete against higher, talented, better, you know,

better financially supported programs than your own. That, I think that is absolutely true. We've seen the rise of many of these mid-majors based upon the idea that you can keep a guy around for his fourth or fifth year when Kentucky's turning over the roster every year. That's got to be, but even still, I'm a Longhorn fan, I see them, I see who they're rating every year, you know, and the truth is they're going to Green Bay, Wisconsin. If you have a standout player, New Mexico, and pulling a guy over and up a level, at constant, up a level in terms of, you know, national brand and exposure and level.

Listen, you don't have to, you don't have to shy away from levels, right? There's high major, mid-major, and low-be, and one of the things that's happened is because of the transfer portal. High majors aren't really recruiting a lot of four stars. They're just not. There's several that are available. And those kids are like, okay, do I go to a high major? Do I go to a Texas? Do I go to a Florida? Do I go to an Arizona and sit and run the risk of them bringing somebody else in next year? Now, I may be compensated really well to do so. Or do you come to my level, which is down the level. Like, we're not shy away from it. But, you play well, you make a name for yourself,

you put up some numbers, you look a lot better on synergy, you look a lot better in the analytics, and then you bounce to the higher level. And again, that's a balancing act for me. So there was a player last year. How hard do you think it is, Doug? For those guys, though, how, I mean,

the model that Kentucky and Texas are doing, they're at 75% roster turnover every year. I mean, regardless of talent, to bring that roster together in one year. I don't know how you do it. I don't know how you get the guys on the same page, culture and chemistry. I don't know how you do with that kind of turnover.

It's a great question. And here's my working answer, and maybe we'll circle back in a year, and I'll tell you if it's a reality. Again, I believe I'm actually better equipped for it than traditional college coaches, because they've always done the other model, right? They've been doing this. They've had transfers, but remember, up until a couple years ago, transfers had to sit out for a season. So you could embed them with culture. You know, you can make them really feel a part of it. They could also improve their games and they get older. Now it's very transactional.

I agree with you. So, again, when you're coaching A.U basketball, you've got to get them to love playing together and to play within a system in short order. Twice I've coached teams that went to Israel and what's called the Maccabi Games. It's like the Jewish Olympics. It's important because you have to make them a team in one month. You have one month of practice and then games to make them a team playing against older, more mature kind of players and get them to be a cohesive unit.

So it's actually an expertise of mine, but because I come in from outside the college basketball world as a broadcaster and then an AAU coach, I wasn't doing it the same way for 20, 25 years. I haven't had to make an adjustment. I'm parachuting into something that actually fits how I've had to coach, how I've had to build groups in the last 15 years with AAU and with coaching overseas. So I understand. How do you do it? There's lots of little different techniques. One, you've got to get the type of kids that all fit together. Secondly, you have to get them there.

You know, my idea is to get them there in the summer. A lot of guys are like, well, we'll wait and take a guy in the fall. That can screw up the whole Apple card. Even if he's a really talented player, a lot of these additions that haven't worked out, it's because they were added late, and they're lack of chemistry. And then you have to build it. And my way of building it is, we're going to do everything together. everything. And that includes have a ton of fun to get. So, you know, on weeks in which we'd go an hour a day for four days, we're going to go an hour day, four days hard. And then they're going to lift weights for an hour a day. And then they're going to play ball in the evening together. Coaches are allowed in there. And then on Friday, we're doing some fun, you know, and we're in a part of a country where you can do, it's like America's playground up in Door County. We can go play golf. We can hop on a boat. We can, you know, we get foster wonder claims to be.

be the world's greatest fisherman. He's from Iron Mountain, Michigan, and he's going to take everybody fishing. So you just do things to make them one, make them a unit. And it's a lot like, were you in a frat in college? No, I played sports, though. I know I know I played water polo at Pepperdine. And so I know what you're talking about because a team is like a frat. Yeah, right. Your team, but again, like, it's all those things you do in the first months together that makes you won, right? And and then we'll see November 4th's our first game

you'll find out if we're a unit or not if guys are playing for each other and playing for themselves. That's the challenge but I'm not alone of that challenge I just have an area of expertise which is different Are you on the Would you, are you in the Jewish basketball, are you on the Mount Rushmore?

Like what is the Jewish basketball Mount Rushmore of players? I don't know Doug, help me Uh, I mean Dolph Shays is he's there but I mean I didn't play in the NBA

it was just a really I mean John Shire the Duke coach won a national championship so he's got to be there Bruce Pearl in terms of coaches Red Arbock of course a Jewish coach Eddie got it's the famous Eddie Gottlie

no relation we've got to your dad but we've quickly jumped into coaching we've got to go back to playing you and don't chase Jewish players? Yeah. Spencer Weiss was the player of the year in the Ivy League.

David Blumenthal played in USC. I was more known. I don't know if I was that good, but people knew me because I never shut up when I was playing. So that's how I made the name for myself. Well, what did you lead the nation to assist? A couple times. J.K.K.K.K.K.K. And, of course, Nancy Lieberman,

was she's on Mount Rushmore. I would be on the side side. She was analyzing the Mavericks last night on local Dallas reaction to the NBA finals. Let's do that. I saw you tweet, man, which I appreciated because you were on the same page as me. To some extent, you tweeted about the Luca foul out with four minutes to go. You tweet about then the PJ Washington foul afterwards. It was a, you know, a blocking foul.

well against true holiday here was my thing Doug do I mean by the way I was kind of like you I don't I don't think it was a charge but you weren't calling much all game long it was like 10 foul shots for each team how about a no call or how about just not through the course of a game blow your whistle to where a guy who's fouled out three times in his entire career fouls out in the NBA finals it's just like well there's a couple things to it there's a couple things to okay I'm going to tell you something that no one else is willing to say okay Brian Winhorst doesn't know what he's talking about. Luke is not a good defender, and they're going at Luther.

But here's the thing, okay? Wendy, I completely respect Wendy as an insider. That's his role. If he wants to be an opinionist, which he was last night on Scott Van Pelt, fine, that's a different role. But you also have to know what you're talking about. And he didn't. You've seen Dallas play, and you know this to be true.

The way in which they play, when you have that skyscraper behind you, by design, Luca, he's not supposed to be a traffic cone, and sometimes he is a traffic cone defensive. But he's supposed to stay in front as long as he can. If they get by, then he goes and picks up whoever's man, the big dude is guarding. They want to funnel you into mid-range pull-ups over a seven-foot center. So the idea that he's not guarding anybody, again, he's right and he's wrong. He's wrong because he doesn't understand the defensive rotations and how Dallas is playing. He's not an analyst.

It's okay. He's giving opinions, and he's not really an opinionist, but he's a basketball inside. People are like, attaboy, yes. But he, again, doesn't actually know what he's talking about. My point is that everybody's pointing out that Luca doesn't play defense. That's not new, okay? And obviously, he looks a little bit heavy and he's a little bit wounded, but a good portion of it is by design. by design without

Prozingus in the game obviously Al Orford plays out there by the three point line you play in front and then you let him go and you want to make him take mid-range jump shots and then when he goes by you

you go pick up the nearest man that's actually the design of their defense that's first second thing like what are we doing and you and I've watched the NBA our entire lives did Michael Jordan

ever foul out in a big game like he would have five like he'd have five forever magic never fouled out Erd never fouled out like Lucas is the best player in the league and the last two fouls were a joke especially considering when you get to this level of basketball one they swallow their whistle at both ends and secondly

you got to know you got to know he's got five fouls and i mean unless he literally goes into the crowd takes out an axe and murders jalen brown he's got to be out of basketball i mean a 50-50 call at best is ridiculous. That was ridiculous. It was bad for the sport. It doesn't mean you want the Mavericks to win the game. It's that why are we taking the best player and putting you on the bench on some 50-50 call? So, yeah, I mean, it was, it was abysmal.

It was abysmal, and it's made it an impossible hill for the, for the Mavericks to likely climb over the next, you know, one to 40. And we don't know. We don't know if they would have won. We don't know if the maps would have won the game. game if Luca's in in the game but I will say this and I'm a homer Doug I own it I'm a Dallas homer through and three every single one of my teams you sit there and you sit there and die every year in the playoffs for your cowboys I can get it yeah I do I do but and I don't I'm I'm embarrassed if we get swept by the Celtics but I'm still proud that they went this far to the NBA

finals but I do wonder about Luca and his emotion and his attitude like I do like there were going around, showing, like, complaining to the ref, not getting back on D numerous times. And I, by the way, I think, Luca, the people call him a foul merchant, a foul hunter. Well, yeah, but he's also fouled all the time. There's like swipe fouls against his arms all the time. But sooner or later... He's really hard to officiate. He's really hard to officiant.

He really is like James Harden. Like, like LeBron James. Right. Okay, LeBron James is hard to fish. But sooner or later, Luca. Agreed. Like Luca? 3. But Luca's got to rise above it.

But Luca's got to rise above it, and I'm worried that he hasn't. It's fair. I think here's a healthier way to look. This is me saying honestly. You know, when LeBron first got to the finals, he didn't have a good enough team around him, and people even now be like, remember when LeBron got to the finals with Boobie Gibson as his starting guard. I understand that he has Kyrie Irving, and Kyrie Irving is a great player. Kyrie Irving is not the player he was five years ago.

I don't think anybody. So again, perfect example is, you know, Kyrie Irving with the cabs, he could put together four out of seven games where he was great. He's had one good game out of three, right? The proper expectation the ratio lowers as you get older and he's had a ton of injuries. So the point is this is not a classic great Dallas Mavericks team. And my belief is four or five years from now, we're going to look back and go, Can you believe that he had a rookie center, he had PJ Washington that they picked up at the trade deadline, you know, and, you know, they lost Brunson.

It was just him and Carrie Irving, and they went all the way to the finals. They went through the Western Conference, right? I think that's how we're going to look back at. Does he need to continue work on staying in shape during the season? Yes, he needs to lose weight. He's still, he's never going to be fleet of foot, but he's not moving particularly well. And some of that's injury. Does he need to complain a little bit less?

Yes, what's lost in when he fouls, he says, I foul. Like, he's just a flamboyant dude. It doesn't bother me at all. You got to get back on defense when you think you got fouled and you turn it over or you miss a shot or whatever. But these are things that you learn at the highest level. It's his first NBA finals. He's like, what, 24 years old or something, 25 years old? I mean, the guy is unbelievable.

I think he's the best offensive player in the league. And my expectations are to see him in the finals. in future years. And I think we're going to look back and go, that roster in Dallas wasn't particularly good. So he's either going to rise to another level of what you're saying, or they're got to have to do something about the roster around him, which, by the way, I think there will be some internal improvement.

Lively looks really good, and who knows where he goes. He's only 20 years old. He's awesome. Awesome. Awesome. But LeBron, Dallas Mavericks, what do you think? It's not happening. Come on, he wants to play with Kyrie. Why would he go to the Dallas Mavericks?

He loves Luca, thinks Luca's great, loves Kyrie, wants to play with Kyrie. I don't know if the Maver's can get Brawny. Bronny may go in the top ten now. Who knows? But yeah, I don't think it's unrealistic. LeBron James, Dallas Maverick. It's unrealistic. It's one of those.

It's one of us. Okay, first thing is, like, you can, LeBron can say he loves whatever. LeBron can't play on a team where he doesn't have, at least for a substantial amount of time, the ball in his hands. Now, he does let Austin Reeves control the game when he's tired or whatever,

but the idea that those two guys are going to be doing their thing with the ball, and he's going to stand in the corner like, yeah, that is. Secondly, you know, he's a son in high school. He's got a daughter who's, he's not leaving L.A. It's just not. It's not happening. that doesn't mean they can't add they can't add a piece and can't add the bench and you know change the bench but they have an absolute superstar at as a young center who's on a rookie contract for the next I think three years um and they got what one more year with with Kyrie and they just and PJ Washington's a keeper and they got to pick and choose what else they add and how they add I honestly think they got to be surprised they got this far because if they knew they were going to get this far because if they knew they were going to get this far. maybe they would have had some veterans and buy-out guys to their bench.

Speaking of LeBron James, what do you think about J.J. Reddick, head coach of Los Angeles Lakers? Well, far be it for me to question a hire of a guy who hasn't coached before. You know, like who am I? What am I? I would say that. Careful. Careful. Jason Kitt got the job. Jason Kidd got his first coaching job right after he retired, right? And basketball is a little bit different now. Like, you play for 20 years, like, it's the other things that you do, that you don't know how to do,

that you hire people and they teach you and you kind of assimilate to the job. I think the challenge is going to be that JJ's super bright. He obviously understands what he thinks he wants it to look like. It's different when you coach. And then how does he handle the. relationship piece with LeBron because LeBron is not your best player. It's not your best player. Anthony Davis is your best player. And probably next year, Austin Reeves is your second best offensive player. And so you have to manage that relationship. That's really what NBA coaching

is and to a certain extent college coaching is. You're managing relationships as well as coaching the game. And then when you get to the playoffs, now it's about ex and now it's about, you know, about finding mismatches now it's about being clever and creative with all your adjustments game to game whereas you know for the 82 games a lot of that is roster management more so and i do think that he because he's been a starter because he's been a bench guy because he's been on tv because he's been a star in college because he's had all those roles he understands how to have the stay ready group how to how to talk with guys that are just shooters how to how to how to express himself like I think he'll be fine.

I really do. The question is, can they find the staff around him? And can he manage that relationship with LeBron? Because you got to coach LeBron. And LeBron, like, he takes a lot of plays off on defense now. He takes plays on. He takes a lot of plays off on defense. And how do you handle that?

How do you manage that? That's the big challenge. Can he do it? Yeah, why not? You got me thinking about the role of TV. I mean, here's TV and radio. You're going into coaching. talking about J.J. Reddick going from TV to head coaching the Los Angeles Lakers.

Donald Trump is a, you know, celebrity TV, yes, business as well, phenomenon to the presidency. A good friend of mine was saying the day, like, the future of, like, politics is more TV than it is congressmen. So, I mean, like, it's a better platform to run for governor or president from, let's just say, being a host on Fox News, than to be some congressman from Wisconsin. it's kind of interesting how TV has become this platform to all these other huge leadership positions. Well, at least in sports, it kind of always has been. Like, people forget, Doc Rivers, you know, got done playing, went to TV, then was a head coach. Like, there's been several of those transitions. And then look, there's a ton of really successful NBA coaches that went the other route.

Eric Spolster's went video room all the way up. Now guys are going video room G-Leak and all the way up. There's no one way that's the right way. to prepare you. But I do think that when players know you, and in this case in the world of politics, when people think they know you, there's that name recognition. It does help. I mean, look, the criticism of President Trump, and I have friends who worked with him in the Oval Office, was he wanted the job, but did he really do the job when he had the job? He was good at the presentation of it, right? But it's, you got to read the briefs. You got to do all those

things and then you got to again hire people around you that know how to do what you don't know how to do and you have to empower them and listen to that's that's the big thing so look I've been kind of researching and trying to prepare for this for 22 years of being in the media and the great part again this is doing basketball not being president is I got to go to practices I've been at games I've had working relationships so I've understood some of the elements of it that the public don't get a chance to see that even TV and radio doesn't get to see. But I do think that, yeah, radio, podcasts, these are powerful platforms that create a relationship with people. And so you don't need to introduce yourself.

They already know who you are. And you take JJ Reddick, you take Donald Trump, you take Dion Sanders. And, you know, in some way you take my rise and you say, okay, it can work. at some point then you have to have the substance behind it you can't just get the job you got to make the job work and you got to understand the work ethic it takes with that job you know you're kind of like me um in that there's a group of us been in sports media that no matter what you say like godlieb ridiculous you know at least on social media in those worlds sure they do that with me i don't know there's uh there's a group i mean cow is kind of in that group where it's just like you've never been um a internal media darling for your opinions you know uh and i wonder why you think that is like i by the way i don't know your politics you know mine because i put mine out there um so i mean radical it's because you don't i'm a radical center yeah radical center you i don't you and every other self-described person in america like no no i i i don't have to go along with every person with every

policy of the left or the right, I think, I think all the fringes are crazy, okay? But, you know, it's like, I can believe in universal health care and believe in capital punishment. Why those have to be, like, why not? Like, if you commit a crime against humanity, you know, you deserve to not be on the face of this earth, right? Like, I have no problem with that one. On the other hand, like, we're the greatest country in the world, and we should find ways that

everyone against health care, because we're already paying for it anyway. I can get hit by a car if you don't have insurance. We're still paying for it. We've got to find a way to do it. Maybe a smarter way than has been done previous. Again, so I'm a radical centrist. I will not abide by any one person or one side's politics. I don't believe in being a lemming and go, well, you know, I vote a Republican,

so I have to go along with everything Republicans say. Point is... Well, why do you think... Yeah, I... Why do you think so many people think what you have to say is crazy, then? Is it because you don't fit into a box neatly? I'm a little bit, I'm irreverent. I've never really cared that much what people think.

That usually works for me. I think you don't know. You can't put somebody in a box. I think that's part of it. I just think there's also like, look, you know this. Once you succeed and when you say succeed, like people, people say, oh, that's arrogant. Like, okay, well, I've survived in this business for 22 years. years. And I was a good, not great college player. I was not a great student. You know, I didn't go to Duke. I didn't go to an Ivy League school. So I've, I've succeeded in this business. And you've succeeded, right? You've had your own radio show. You have your own TV show. You're on Fox News. You've, by anybody's estimation, you've hit me over, I've hit me over. Right? Once you've succeeded, people want to take shots at you. That's it. And you're either built for it or you're not. You know, I think one, I think one

One of the things that happens, especially to, like, now that we're in, like, the Caitlin Clark thing, like, now that women have become a prominent part of the social media discussion, they're not used to, or maybe their fans aren't used to the regular critiques that we get. Like, I would do a broadcast for CBS, the NCAA term. I work with Ion Eagle, who's a great, I've worked with a lot of great play-by-play guys. There's nobody better on Earth than Ion Eagle. I'd get done with the broadcast. I'm like, man, I freaking killed it. I was good. How did I know I was good?

Because I ain't said I was good. I ain't says I'm good, right? And you just know in your heart when you do a good job. And then you open up social media and, you know, just the worst, the worst, the worst, the worst word of order. So the idea is that once you've succeeded or once you become prominent, there are people that are going to find fault with anything and everything you do. And like, look, if you're going to spout your opinions, you're going to have a stray or two which you'd want to take back, which worked great.

Right? You just hope your ratio is pretty good in terms of. Things that are moronic and things that are pretty smart. And you've got to be willing to every once in a while say I was wrong. But I just think it's once you succeed, people feel bad about their lot in life and they want to blame you for it. And so they take shots at whatever you do. And again, if you want to be in this part of the business, if you want to have the Will Kane show, you're going to have to have thick skin. And if you don't have the – and I didn't say it's fair or it's right.

And there's people that step way over the line and who they think you are as a human being. But at the end of the day, you've got to have thick enough skin to either mute or not look at replies or not care and just know you did the best you could at that particular time. One thing I like, and I hope that this remains true for you, is that coaches end up being like politicians. And your goal whenever you talk is to say nothing. Nothing strategically, nothing controversial, nothing. You want the Mac Brown? No, I'm just saying it's what. coaches in the state of Texas, right?

All those great high school coaches in the state of Texas? No, I'm saying that's what happens. And it doesn't seem to be happening to you yet. It'll be interesting to see you, Doug Gottlieb, you know, irreverent, abrasive, unabashed opinionist now also head coach. I mean, because that head coaching thing is something that there's very few that let their opinions fly. Greg Popovich, Steve Kerr, that's about it, you know.

Well, it'll be interesting to see how that industry puts pressure on it. I'll give you an example. I'll give you an example, okay? So obviously, the conflict in Israel is something near and dear to my heart. And what, here's how I've grown as a human being is I still have opinions, but I try to have opinions on things that I know about. Right? Social media, you have lots of people who spout opinions about things they know nothing about. Like, I've lived in Israel. I've been at dual citizenship in Israel as the United States citizen as well. I've been there for four different summers in my life. So I feel like I am more than qualified to comment on the realities of the situation. I'm not, and to admit that the Israeli government is just as screwed up, if not more so than ours. But again, so the point is that in the opinions that are outside of the purview of being a basketball coach that I know you're talking about and being a basketball coach, you know, if you say it, you got to own it. You do have to understand, you know, is it worth the fight? Is it not worth the fight? But also talk about things you know and don't say anything about things you don't know anything about. You know, just listen to people who know what they're talking about. And, you know, I just I have I have so many friends.

in the financial world and i don't understand that sector i just don't like they start throwing out ets and other things and i'm just nod my head just tell me where to put my money guys i don't really know um but in basketball and in sports parenting some relationship stuff um middle eastern politics i've lived in russia like the things that i know those are the ones i feel comfortable having an opinion about things that i don't i just listen and listen to the people that know what they're taught. And by the way, now you're also not just a coach, you're on a university campus, which is like the antithesis of free speech at this point.

I'm going to ask you this. You don't have to go anywhere you don't want to go, but you just said you have first-hand experience in Israel, and that's a part of your career I'm familiar with as well, is you have firsthand experience in Russia. You played basketball in Russia as well. What are those two experiences lend to you right now? about the way the world looks at what's going on in Israel and the way the world is approaching Russia? It's a great question, okay?

And here's the honest answer, is we, and we do this as a country and as citizens all the time. We look at it from our perspective, right? You look at it from our perspective. You have to be there and understand it's a completely different way of life. right in the middle east you know one side values human life one side values death right and you can't you can't have a conversation with an american and say like okay what if it was actually more valuable to die for a cause like well it doesn't make any sense okay but you were raised to believe that life is valuable and if you're christian you know when you die your sins are forgiven but

you know not to take anybody with you that's not how people are raised so you have to you have to understand how people are raised how they're brought up their value for human life is completely different than ours and if you try and implore our values on people that don't value things the same way you're it's an ill-fated conversation ill-fated thought the same is true in russia i was in russia again it was a long time ago it was uh 2001 for seven months playing for you're all great, which is in a city of Perim, and I learned to speak Russian, still you know, Gavrit and Chutupadrowski, I understand a little bit of Russian. And again, it's the, that was, you know, after Perestroika, when you had ultimate capitalism,

and you start to see what pure capitalist capitalism at that time, what happens when it runs them up? You have the very, very rich and the very, very poor. And, you know, when you're, you have money, you can literally do whatever you want in that country. So I think it's one of those people say, well, like walk a mile on my shoes. I just, I think you have to understand that not everybody grew up the way we grew up, not everybody's values the same, that we value. And when you, when you allow yourself to realize that, then you can better form an opinion or maybe not have an opinion on something you don't know anything about.

The thing about social media, this is the vicious truth about social media is, people feel empowered to comment on everything on everything and then the worst shows on in media you even take the the Hollywood shows well they'll they'll say some dress well XYZ 417 says who cares what they say they have they don't know anything about anything so what I've learned from those two situations was again until you've understood stood and absorbed somebody else's culture and how they're raised and what they value, you putting your American values and your Western values on it, that sounds good. It may win you friends on social media.

It may sound really good over dinner conversation. But the reality is, to those of us who've lived in those places, we know you have no idea we talk. And we completely eliminate your opinion from the discussion. that is a i i i totally agree and love what you have to say not just on opinion formation but on honestly and you don't have to comment on on world you know foreign policy but like the idea from a conservative perspective that we were going to export democracy and freedom and it's going to be met with open arms is just not real based upon the way other cultures form their values and the way they live their lives um and the idea that we're just look we all are human in the end but

we are very different. The lens through which we view the world and what we want from this world is just so very different. And for me, that's why you work on, you know, perfection at home. That's why you focus on your immediate tribe. In my mind, the immediate tribe is America. It's not ethnic. It's not racial. It's not even ideological. It's America. In understanding that people are inherently different. I really like what you had to say there. Lastly, I want to go back to the finals. I don't want to do a disservice. I got producers on my show that are big Boston Celtics fans. and you can't just talk about the side that is trying to avoid a sweep here. I'm going Friday night to watch. Hopefully the Mavericks not get swept. But the Celtics are really good, Doug, like really good in my estimation. And I'm just continually frustrated by how many guys are hitting threes and how good in stifling their defense is. Every time I look up, Luke or Kyrie are doubling into a dribble team in the lane somewhere.

They're waiting for them there, it seems like. And they're not afraid of anybody else hitting a three. And they shouldn't be. And then I just am really impressed with this team. Jalen Brown's really good. Jason Tatum's really good. I think Brown will win MVP. But it doesn't matter.

It's like it's a team. They lost Porzingis, still good. You know what? If they lost Brown? If they lost Brown, still good. Well, I mean, look, obviously Joe Missoula has done an outstanding job. But let's give credit words to you. Brad Stevens is amazing.

You know, he was. And I called a game against Valpo. And again, here's the, like, you want opinions that are dumb? I'll give you. So after his first or second year at Butler, the Oklahoma State job was open. And Mike Holder, the former athletic director, called me, and we talked for a while. And he said, what do you think of the guy at Butler? I was like, oh, coach, I don't know.

Like, that's a big step from Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State a different type of student athlete, different part of the country. I don't know if it fits. He's only been doing it a couple of years. You know, he came from the business sector. Like, I didn't, I love Brad. We were really good friends. We remained really good friends.

But I should have said, like, yes, go all in. Go get him. Pay him as much as he wants. But a couple things. One, Brad Stevens essentially kicked himself upstairs. They had kind of tuned out Brad. And so he went to the front office room. And then the value of,

For example, Drew Holiday, and you look at where the Bucks butchered this thing, right? Drew Holiday is a better basketball player for a championship team than Damien Lillard is. And you say, well, Damien Lillard could average 30 a game, not on a team that wins a championship, and there's two ends of the basketball floor. So, you know, they trade away Marcus Mark, who everybody loved, and they've actually gotten better defensively, and he was defensive player of the year. You know, so what they've been able to do in getting Al Horford, when they got Al Horford, people that say, you overpaid Al Horford. No, no, you don't understand that because of the leadership that he exudes and because he can hit three pointers, it keeps the lane open, so you can't block all those shots when they drive.

Like, it all works together beautifully, which brings me back to when I saw Brad Stevens coach, and it started out when he was a Butler, he ran a lot of sets that everybody else ran. The difference was Brad always had the right guy in the right place at the right time. It was like magic. Like, how do you do that? And he's done the exact same thing as an executive, getting just the right piece at just the right time. And not everything has worked out perfectly, but, you know, but the addition of Prisengis, who hasn't been healthy, but a stretch five who opens up the lane and a guy who can protect the rim and brings out forfeit off the bench. That's genius. The addition of Drew Holiday.

That's genius. What they've done with their bench. all brilliance i give a ton of credit to brad and then joe's a guy who's open to all of the different use of analytics and how basketball you know they 60% of their shots in the first half were three pointers and that seems like a high number and you're like wow they're just coming down playing old man basketball okay but there's a there's a math to that there's a logic to that and they had the personnel to do it so i think it's a beautifully put together roster and it starts with brad it ends with Joe Missoula, and then the players that fit in and bought in as well.

They're going to be a deserving champion. I don't think this will be the one time in history when somebody comes back down 3-0 in the NBA finals. In the NBA playoffs. All right, Gottlieb, I wish you the best of luck, man, at Wisconsin Green Bay. And I know you'll kill them. Are you going to come to a game? Now, the Cowboys don't play in Lambo, but do you want to come to – Have you ever been a Packer game?

I've never been to a Packer game. But I don't, I mean, I would much rather sit floor seats. Consider this. You can have both. Your team. This is, you can have both. Like, this is not an either or, okay? But consider this an open invite, okay?

An open invite to come, and if you want to do both, I'll set the schedule. We can do both. All you have to tell me is you're coming and when you want to come and we'll make it happen. Done. Awesome. All right. Doug Gottlieb. Thanks so much, man, for being on the Will Kane Show. I know we only did this so you can get packed tickets.

You're welcome. I didn't even know it was coming. Thank you. I got a robot. Thanks, Doug. Awesome, man. There you go. That's my interview with Doug Gottlieb.

Check him out on the Doug Gottlieb show on Fox Sports Radio. You can check out his podcast, as he mentioned there, and pay attention. Let's watch. University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. That's going to do it for me today here on the Will Kane Show. I will see you again next time. Listen to ad free with a Fox News Podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcast. And Amazon Prime members, you can listen to this show, ad-free, on the Amazon Music app.

From the Fox News Podcasts Network. Hey there, it's me, Kennedy, make sure to check out my podcast. Kennedy saves the world. It is five days a week, every week. Download and listen at Fox Newspodcast.com or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.