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Billy Packer Responds to Charles Barkley, all day Friday

Dan Sheldon — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 13:29:51 +0000

"If Charles Barkley wants to get in a room..."

After Charles Barkley took some time on TNT Thursday night to tell Billy Packer to "shut the hell up," it didn't take the radio world very long to bring Packer on for a response.

The former lead color commentator for college basketball on CBS toured the sports talk show circuit the day after Barkley took exception to Packer's stance that the sport would be better served by having ESPN call the NCAA tournament rather than by broadcasters at Turner Sports who haven't been following the teams all year.

Predictably, Packer didn't back down, beginning in the morning on 790 AM in Atlanta:

"I really admire what he did as an athlete, as a professional athlete when he decided to get himself in shape and become the great player that he did. But if Charles Barkley wants to get in a room to debate intercollegiate athletics and college basketball I would have no problem being in a room with him. As a matter of fact, I don't think it would be much of a contest. I wouldn't have to call him any kind of name."

Packer then reiterated that sentiment throughout the day...

On 610 AM in Houston where he added the "forgotten more than he knows" cliche:

"I would have no problem debating Charles Barkley about intercollegiate athletics, basketball, and otherwise. I don't think he's really prepared to be in such a debate as that but I have no idea what brought that on but, believe me, I probably have forgotten more about college basketball and intercollegiate athletics than Charles Barkley ever knew existed."

On "Petros and Money" in Los Angeles:

"I don't have a relationship with Charles Barkley. I didn't know anything about his comments, I hadn't seen them. I think it was a station from Atlanta called me this morning and let me just say this. I have no issue with Charles Barkley. Evidently, he has one with me. But I have no problem debating him on any issue involving basketball and intercollegiate athletics and I don't think it would take me long to go ahead and establish the fact he knows little about it and so I don't have any other issue with him other than that."

You get the gist.

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Charles Barkley tells Billy Packer to “Shut the Hell Up”

Dan Sheldon — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 04:45:12 +0000

"I don't let people say stuff to me and get away with it..."

It only took Charles Barkley about 3 weeks to respond to Billy Packer's critical comments about the new TV deal that will add Turner Broadcasting to NCAA basketball tournament coverage.

The former lead color commentator for CBS's tournament coverage told USA Today he doesn't believe NBA announcers are qualified to enter the college fray when they haven't been watching games all season.

At halftime of the Mavericks - Knicks game on TNT Thursday night, Barkley pulled no punches in his response to Packer:

"I don't let people say stuff to me and get away with it. Hey, Billy Packer, you might be right. We might not be very good and know all the players and all the teams on college basketball. I don't know any players on Wofford or UNC-Asheville. You are absolutely right.

But stop being a jackass. Listen, we're going to do a good job and I know you said, 'They should've went to ESPN.'

There was one problem. ESPN didn't have $11 billion. We did. That's why we got it.

So sit back, enjoy the March Madness with Greg Gumbel, Clark Kellogg, Jim Nantz, and all of us. And shut the hell up!"

Barkley and Packer are, historically, two of the most brutally honest analysts in broadcasting.

Packer may have worn out his welcome at CBS a few years ago, but it's time to bring him back to face Barkley in a cage with Gus Johnson and that ridiculous Canadian guy calling the action.

Okay, I'd settle for Barkley and Packer sharing a studio this March.

Sadly, that's not likely either.

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Danny Ainge Suspects Brandon Davies got his Girlfriend Pregnant

Dan Sheldon — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 18:02:12 +0000

Ainge: "I would suspect that based on the consequences that are happening..."

The president of the Boston Celtics and former BYU basketball star weighs in on the controversy surrounding his alma mater.

Danny Ainge believes the punishment Brandon Davies faces is the result of more than premarital sex and that there's a pregnancy involved.

Telling WEEI radio:

"I would suspect that based on the consequences that are happening. I don't know that. I would just suspect that that's the case.

And in the Mormon faith, sins against life and irresponsibly creating life are sins and they are violations of the honor code.

Brandon Davies is a great kid and regardless of what sort of thing he's done to violate the honor code, I think he's a really nice kid.

I met him. I think he's a terrific kid and I'm certain the school will stand behind him and I believe he'll be back next year.

I think, in the long run, it's all about raising men. It's not about winning national championships and that's what their goals are."

Those who don't believe the details of his violation should be made public, should understand that's an essential function of outsiders getting a true understanding of the BYU Honor Code.

Without full disclosure, you'll continue to hear jokes about a Starbucks trip being grounds for dismissal at Brigham Young when that's simply not the case.

There are many who will cry about protecting the privacy of a "student-athlete." When it comes to actions that effect your team, you sign away your privacy when you accept a scholarship to play big-time college athletics.

When a team becomes one of the major stories of the college basketball season prior to a negative incident, the cameras aren't going to stop rolling when adversity hits.

There have been honor code violations in the recent past. This is the first one to become the top story on "Pardon the Interruption" and fodder for late night talk show hosts.

BYU, and those associated with the program, should take this rare moment as an opportunity to educate the public on one of the more misunderstood elements of the religious institution.

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Nets GM checked on Deron Williams – Jerry Sloan Relationship

Dan Sheldon — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 22:40:02 +0000

Billy King: "No, I'm not concerned..."

When a franchise desiring a reboot meets up with a billionaire seeking to save face, things can happen quickly.

The Jazz and Nets spoke the day after New Jersey lost out on the Carmelo Anthony sweepstakes and had a deal to announce 24 hours later.

New Jersey Nets general manager Billy King tells WFAN radio in New York that he believes he has the best point guard in the NBA and didn't feel uncomfortable about Deron Williams in his locker room after a conversation with Utah Jazz GM Kevin O'Connor:

"No, I'm not concerned. Kevin O'Connor, the Jazz GM there, he and I worked together in Philly when I was the GM. He was my assistant GM. So I talked to him actually the day that Jerry (Sloan) was stepping down and retiring. So I'm comfortable where everything is."

King did not elaborate and was not asked for further details on the topic.

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Rick Carlisle is Tired of People saying Jerry Sloan didn’t Adapt

Dan Sheldon — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 10:24:12 +0000

"People can say all they want about how his system was the same. It was not..."

While Jerry Sloan always had the "same ol' pick and roll" stereotype attached to him, anyone who watched the changes in the offense as Stockton/Malone transitioned to Andrei Kirilenko and then transitioned to Williams/Boozer, knows better.

Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle shared his perspective on Sloan's evolution on ESPN radio in Dallas:

"I came into this league as a coach in the Fall of 1989 which was a little less than a year into his tenure as the head coach in Utah and I was studying his teams for over 22 years. And the thing that has been most remarkable to me is how much he has adjusted and adapted to the landscape of this league as the rules have changed, as his personnel has changed...

People can say all they want about how his system was the same. It was not. It was very, very different and the fact that he was able to adjust the way he did and still have the same level of success was, to me, a phenomenal thing."

I appreciated the element that always stayed the same: his approach with the media. He respected other people who had a job to do and talking with him never got old. He was never done with you until you were done asking questions. Once you figured out how to ask the right kind of questions that would penetrate through a few of the cliches he inevitably developed over the years, it was always a great education in basketball and life.

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Kris Humphries: “It would’ve been great to see (Jerry Sloan) go out the right way.”

Dan Sheldon — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 10:05:17 +0000

Former Jazz player offers his take on Jerry Sloan's resignation...

Kris Humphries is now best known for the Kardashian social circle he travels in but once upon a time, he was a young Utah Jazz player trying to figure out how to satisfy the demands of his first professional head coach, Jerry Sloan.

Humphries, who has previously talked about how much he appreciated Sloan's approach after the fact, laments the way the coach left the franchise to WFAN radio in New York:

"After a total of 26 years with the Jazz, it would've been great to see him go out the right way.

They've kind of stuck with him and he's stuck with them for so long, you'd like to see him at the end of the year kind of do it the right way.

I don't know exactly what went on, I think only Jerry and the guys who are on that team know that but it's one of those things where you'd like to see it finish the right way.

But I'm sure next season, early on, they'll honor him. Put him up there with the statue of Karl (Malone) and John Stockton. They'll throw him in there, pointing or something. Doing one of his sideline poses."

As the milestones began to pile up in recent years, it seemed to be a very unpleasant experience for him. I remember specific instances as he continued his march up the all-time victory chart where Avery Johnson had to sprint across the court and almost into the tunnel to congratulate him after a victory and Larry Miller presenting him a commemorative basketball before a game with Sloan looking to turn and bolt back out of the spotlight as soon as the owner handed it to him.

You could tell it was never out of a lack of appreciation but more of a sense that his influence was being overemphasized and that unless it was the Larry O'Brien trophy, what's the point?

He never got to hold the trophy thanks to Michael Jordan and Tim Duncan but if there's anything positive to come out of his retirement, perhaps Sloan will now be able to enjoy some of his accomplishments now that the journey is over.

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Deron Williams still doesn’t quite “Get It”

Dan Sheldon — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 22:54:55 +0000

"That's why I'm always so short and rude with the media..."

It's always the broad brush strokes that get me. Never am I more entertained than when I hear an athlete, coach, fan, or even media member say the word "media" and then attach an attribute that is supposed to apply to everyone within that group of people.

So when Deron Williams vented his frustration to 1320 KFAN's David Locke over the way he was being portrayed by Ric Bucher of ESPN, it struck a chord:

"That's why I'm always so short and rude with the media because they're your friend, you know. Ric comes by and sits by me every time I see him and acts like he's my friend but the day that they find something that they want to turn and spin, they jump on it. So that's why I am the way I am and will continue to be the way I am."

Williams never explains specifically what upset him about what Bucher had been reporting. Bucher had actually called Williams a "good soldier" who was seeking, if anything, more out of his coach than less.

Bucher did offer up an unconfirmed report that Sloan wanted to suspend Williams in the wake of Wednesday's locker room incident and did not receive full support on the matter.

Either way, it's one reporter. One man. Not "the media." And it's curious that Williams believes his personal remedy for incomplete reporting is to be less communicative. But he has a lot of company when it comes to that counterintuitive approach.

Flash forward less than 24 hours later and Deron Williams answers questions as openly and as honestly as one could ever hope for out of the leader of a basketball team:

"We're going to do most of the same things now that Ty's here. He was under Jerry for what, the last 7, 8 years. He still has those same principles. He's going to be the same style. We're going to have the same offense so hopefully we can keep on moving."

"I'm not the smartest guy but I'm also not stupid and I would never try to force out a hall of fame coach. Somebody who's so loved in this community. Where I'm playing at right now. I've been smart how I've handled the free agent talk and all that stuff so why would I go and do something stupid like that."

"Maybe arguing was the last straw. So there, I am guilty of that but anyone who believes I could force coach Sloan to resign is crazy. He's stronger than that and personally if I went and said that to him he'd probably tell me to go... do something. (laughter)"

"We talked about it yesterday. We'll definitely watch some more film than we have in the past. You can't just go and change everything you're doing, you know, like that. It's going to be a process. That's up to Ty and the coaching staff. We have full support in him, full trust in him, and he's our coach now."

Also, if he sensed less energy from Sloan recently:

"At times. At times. He's getting older but he still had the fire to do it I thought."

It was six minutes of the fully engaged, look you in the eye, candid version of Deron Williams. The version that you always hoped you'd find walking out of practice or shootaround and into the glare of the camera. The version that also re-enforced a lot of the themes Bucher spoke of in his report.

Far too often, in my experience, it was the suspicious, disengaged, mumbling version that would emerge from the locker room. The version he spoke of during the brief phone interview with Locke.

Hopefully, for his sake, the same energy he yearned for out of his coach is the same type of energy he begins to apply to all aspects of his own job on a regular basis.

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Jim Gray Insists he Wasn’t Paid to be part of LeBron’s “Decision”

Dan Sheldon — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 03:44:58 +0000

"You have a right to your opinion. You don't have a right to the facts..."

Not that anyone's really dying to rehash that abomination from almost 7 months ago but Jim Gray would like to set you straight on at least one fact when it comes to his participation on the LeBron James "Decision."

He didn't get paid. Not by LeBron's camp as was widely reported. Not by ESPN. Not by anybody.

Gray travels back down that well worn road with Sid Rosenberg on WQAM in Miami:

"There are some things that I would do differently.

Everybody's allowed to have a comment and an opinion and I respect people's opinions. I don't respect when people say things that are not true. When they make the facts their friends. So, you have a right to your opinion. You don't have a right to the facts.

[It wasn't true] that I was paid by LeBron James. Never occurred. Never took one penny. All the money went to charity. I wasn't paid by LeBron, an entity, a producer, anything. All the money went to charity. Anything that I would've been paid went to charity.

So now for that to become in people's fact check, that's not a fact. That's not right. That's not an opinion anymore. That's just wrong."

You'll notice that there seems to a slight modifier in the middle there with "anything I would've been paid."

In the same way that James attempted to use children and charity as a shield against the backlash coming from Cleveland and beyond, Gray seems to sidestep the payment issue.

He's missing the point when it comes to public perception on the matter.

The real question from the beginning was, 'Why would a sportscaster scheme his way into appearing on a network that did not employ him to conduct an interview for LeBron James?'

That question is still largely unanswered and one that Gray has likely been asking himself every day since that fateful night in July.

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Kobe Bryant takes a Shot at Shaq on Conan’s Show (Video)

Dan Sheldon — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 07:21:18 +0000

While Conan O'Brien is just now becoming aware of the nickname, "Black Mamba"...

There was at least one moment of the interview on TBS worth holding on to. When broaching the subject of the Lakers-Celtics rivalry and Boston's recent win in LA, O'Brien asks Bryant if Shaquille O'Neal engages in trash talk.

Conan: "When you're out there with Shaquille O'Neal. When you're out there with Shaq, does he try to trash talk you? Does he try and get inside your head? What's it like at this point?

Bryant: "Nah, not at all."

Conan: "Does he say anthing to you?"

Bryant: "If he did, I wouldn't understand him anyway."

The Lakers head to Boston for the 2nd of two regular season meetings next week.

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Questions about Jimmer Fredette are Race Based according to Lakers Radio Analyst

Dan Sheldon — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 19:24:32 +0000

"I am exasperated with the idiots and the ignorance out there in our business..."

Former overall number one draft pick and current LA Lakers radio color commentator Mychal Thompson gets upset by criticisms of Jimmer Fredette's game.

Thompson tells the Mason and Ireland radio show in Los Angeles:

"Remember this happened to Kevin Love coming out of UCLA. Well, you know, he's this. He's that. Code words for, 'He's white and we don't think he can translate what he's doing in college to the NBA level and I am sick of it because it's the same thing or just as bad as people downplaying Cam Newton. The best player in college football. The best quarterback in college football and he's not going to be the number one pick for a team that is desperate for a quarterback? Go figure."

"I keep hearing that he's not athletic. I'm going, 'Are you kidding me?'"

"This guy dunks on people. No one goes around him off the dribble. He creates his own shot off the dribble. And he's not athletic? Code word for, 'He's white and we don't know if he can really play at the next level.'"

"What are these scouts not watching?

The radio hosts then try to compare his skills to Adam Morrison's (personal aside: that comparison is about as relevant as John Stockton vs. Adam Keefe.)

"Whatever scout says that, fire him on the spot. Are you kidding me? This kid reminds me, he's a version of Stephen Curry and Steve Nash and you're trying to tell me those skills don't translate to the NBA? Come on.

If GM's are stupid enough to let this kid fall in the 20's... the Lakers should jump, try to get what they can to move to get him."

Thompson's passion on the subject may derive from his own personal frustration with what he perceives to be prejudice:

"My son is biracial. I'm black. His mother is white. He's more his mother's color than I am and there's no doubt in my mind that he's suffering the same stereotype."

Klay Thompson is a junior shooting guard at Washington State.

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