April 15, 2025 • 16 mins
Former UConn player and three-time NCAA champion, as well as former WNBA player, Ashley Battle, joined The Rob Dibble Show to discuss the UConn Huskies winning another Women's basketball national championship, what the pressure of playing for such a pretigious program on the biggest stage feels like to these ahtletes, some of the Huskies' most valuable players this season and a look ahead to the WNBA draft with Paige Bueckers and other teammates involved!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ashley Battle, former national champ from Yukon. Oh my god,
so many things that she's done, played in WNBA. She's
now a scout on the world champion Boston Celtics staff,
but also doing play by play in the WNBA and
the NBA. In fact, I think, were you not a
part of the first all women's team to do a
(00:20):
Celtics game? The other day that I saw you, know
how you doing, Ashley Battle.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm doing great.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Did you do that that game with the other lady moment?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, it was pretty cool. I did in studio. So
I did pregame, halftime, and postgame, and I don't think
people realize how late it is with postgame. I was
so tired.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I'm glad you have to deal with this, all right, excellent,
So let me give you a tip on the guys
that are on the other side. Wrap it up. I
know that you got all these things to say, you
got stats, he got shut up, We got to go home.
I know you got to work in some endorsements, some
live reads, and some commercials, but.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Keep it quick. Let's do gosh. I wish you could
tell Bob Joyce on the other side. All right, So
one of the things I want to have you on
about though, is the national championship and number twelve and
stuff like that. But I know how big it is
(01:26):
for the players that are playing in it and their futures,
and Gino talks about that, how it's going to change
their lives. But for the alum, it seems like you
guys really love being a part of it, coming back
going to the games and stuff like that, and and
supporting the next group, the next and and and and
their pursuit of that championship because it is not easy.
(01:49):
It's so difficult. And that's all they were talking about
is page page page and stuff. You know, she needs
her whole team, she needs everybody to supports staff, tell
everybody how difficult it is to win a national championship.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
It is so incredibly hard. It's one of those things where,
you know, I mean at Yukon too especially, you have
the weight to the world on you all the time
because that's the expectation. It's championship or bust. And you know,
the three championships that I won while I was there,
each of them were completely different for different reasons. The
(02:21):
first one, you know, we had arguably one of the
the the greatest teams ever assembled, and we went undefeated,
and it was like if we didn't win, it was
like it was a travesty. The second one, it was
really unexpected because we had lost Sue Swin, Tamika, and Asia,
and people were like, oh, they have Diana, but who
(02:44):
else they have. I think we were like preseason sixteen
or something like that, and we're like, whoa, whoa, whoa whoah,
whoa whoa, whoa, whoa whoa. I mean we didn't we
went undefeated, but they didn't do all the work. You know,
we put it. We put in some time, you know,
and so we were just highly prepared, you know. It
just really had a chip on your shoulder the whole time.
(03:05):
And then the third one, we're beat up or hurt.
Everyone is just tired, and you're just like, can we
do it? And we end up doing it. And with
the least probably talented teams in Connecticut's history of championships,
we probably the second and third year, you know, I
(03:27):
call us the bad News Beers and we and we
made it. We made it work just because we always
can't prepare it every day, ready to work, ready to play,
and everyone did their role perfectly and it just fit
all really well together. And you have to have a
little lady luck on your side, like you have to,
like it takes so much into winning, whether it's college NBA,
(03:49):
you have injuries, like I mean, everything has to go right.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Well.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
I don't want to call this lady lucks. I think
it's bad luck. But Juju Watkins going down made the
road a little bit easier for this team. But this
team I thought really evolved over the season. I didn't
think this was a national championship team back in November,
but I definitely did at the end of February. Sarah
Strong for me, is something different. It's something special, and
(04:14):
I know that she is going to be on the
Naismith watch list starting next year, and it's going to
be a dynamite talent. It's gonna be fun to watch.
Give me your cliff note evaluation on what you see
in Sarah Strong's game.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Two things that's really crazy. One I used to babysit her.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
What which just a little bit about it because right,
her dad? And how did this work out? How you
got to babysit her?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Her mom and her dad, Alison Feaster and Danny Strong,
the three of us we all played in Spain together
in the same club where Danny played on the men's team,
and I would just come over and they wanted a date,
I would go and babysits.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
So now that she's like eighteen, and like, you've seen
her through the run because you've seen her in high school,
you've seen her in au, you've seen her in the
you know, the youth Olympic games. But now at this stage, like,
give me what you think you knew about her and
what you didn't expect her to perform or do on
the basketball court at this level.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Well, I mean, I know the work that her parents
put into her and all of the things that they
would do on the side, whether it be watching film
after every game and really teaching her how to play.
And she had a European base, you know, like her
first exposure, real exposure to basketball game in Europe. So
(05:43):
to me, and I've been saying this all year because
people always ask me, were like, who's there play? Like
what is she like? I'm like, she's really like Joker,
And she plays just like Joker for Denver. She moves
the ball, her best quality is shooting and paste and
she knows the game really well, and she wants to.
She's super unselfish with the ball. And the biggest thing
(06:06):
that Gino would really coach her on all year was like,
be a little bit more selfish. We need to score
shoot the ball, you know, and shoot more. And it's
just it's difficult when you're a freshman and that to
ask of you because you're trying to fit in, you
don't know what you want to do yet, and you're
trying to figure out this paste and playing at this level.
And they were like, you're good, shoot it and he
(06:28):
really doesn't give the keys up that easily.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Talking to Ashley Battle, I want to get back to
I want to talk about Page, but I do want
to talk about Sarah Strout. First of all, she's so humble,
but she didn't talk. Like even Gino after the National
Championship was like, you could kind of expand you know
what you're talking about. She won't. She doesn't really say
a whole lot. The one thing that I thought was
(06:53):
hilarious was after the Big East Championship her talking about,
oh we get another t shir I mean.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
She's still kid, yeah, but she she's a baby, and
we I don't think we realize that because I mean,
I'm freaking ancient, but they're just babies, my god, and
they've they've already accomplished so much.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
She's so good, she's so good, so humble, and you know,
she's really funny, just really shy. You know, it's a
lot being in front of the camera. And I think
you know her agency, who she's with with Wasserman, they're
gonna they're gonna have to you know, she might need
some media training to like let her personality show a
(07:35):
little bit, but you know, she's she's pretty funny.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
I want to know what you think of the role
in fitting in in the next level, Paige Beckers, She's
probably gonna be first pick overall tonight and she's gonna
be going into a locker room with grown women that
have been playing in the w for years. One of
my like if she gets drafted by Dallas, just that
collection of ladies, like my favorite Dja Carrington's on that squad, Like,
how she's gonna walk into that lockerom with that lady
(08:01):
and then fit in or assume her role? You've done this, Like,
how is it when you go to that next level
into those locker rooms? How you fit in?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
I think for Pages, just for her to just be herself,
you know, and I think that's that's great enough, and
like her personality and how loving she is as a
person will shine and she just always wants to do
the right thing. And I think for someone like Djana
or Erique, they're gonna love it because she likes to
get off the ball, you know. So this is you know,
(08:35):
you have a lot of point guards, you know, who
may want to score first, but if you run and
get up the court, she's gonna find you and give
you easy, easy looks, and that's what you want out
of a point guard, and she's gonna do that. So
she should really make help make Erique's life a little
bit better. And Dja gets out in transition all the time,
so she should be able to get some easy buckets.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Do you think they'll be as physical with Page as
they were with Caitlyn Clark?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
For sure? For sure. I mean she still has to
earn her stripes, and you know she's she's skinnier, you know,
she's skinny, and I think this season you saw pitchers
of Caitlin looking buff going into this season, so so
I'm sure you know, after next season, she's gonna be
in the weight room working out, and you know it
(09:20):
takes time to get your girl a woman's strength.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
I'm glad she signed with Unrivaled and we're set up
for this league to have some superstar power in a
three year deal as well. I know I've asked you
this as well, but your thoughts on Unrivaled and just
the legs that it has to keep going for over
the years.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
It's everything that I read was accurate, which I believe
it to be. You know, they earned twenty seven million
in revenue this year, and I think that's really great.
We'll preparel into the next season. You have more and
more star power coming in, and you have more and
more people who are going to watch and invest into
the league, and I think that's great.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
How about Page in the net? She didn't take it
off for like three days? Really yeah, I mean she
was wearing an underneath her sweat sweatshirt and stuff like that.
Did what what did you do with the pieces of
the three National Championship nets? And did you ever get
like a complete net?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Uh? Yes, I definitely have a complete net and all.
And I have a little pieces ones on the back
of a hat and the ones on my uh uh
Defensive Player of the Year Trophy, and you know, it's
just I think, given you know, Page's career at Yukon
(10:42):
and the expectations that were placed upon her and and
the injuries that she had, you're just I mean, it's
just such a beautiful way for her career to end
at Yukon, and then the magnitude and how in the
way in which she did it, you know, scoring amazing.
She was just really unstoppable. And I think you ever
since we lost to Tennessee earlier in the year, was
(11:04):
a completely different team. And when we beat the Brakes
off of the South Carolina the first time, I knew
we were gonna win it all.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Talking to Ashley Battle, not only former Yukon great, you're
also in the front office the Celtics. I have plenty
of NBA questions to get to, but I know we're
not gonna have enough time for even ten percent of them.
But Eastern Conference Finals. I know it's not right around
the corner. But if it's not Cleveland or Boston, like,
who is a team they three through eight or three
(11:31):
through ten. I guess with the playing teams that you
think is a viable contender for an Eastern Conference. Uh.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
I mean, I think New York has the talent. If
they could just stay healthy and put everything together, there's
some a team to be to watch out for. I'm
not sure what the situation is going on with Dame
in the Bucks. If he's healthy, like just him and
Giannis on the same team, you just got they're impossible
to guard, so you hope that they don't score of
(12:00):
fifty each every game. And the sleeper team for me
is just Detroit. I think they're up and coming. They
play really hard, they have a young star in Kate Cunningham,
and they're just really a team that kind of found
the pieces that they needed. They put some shooters this year,
Elie Beasley and guy he used to play in Philly,
(12:26):
but he you know, they put some shooters around there
and they've been playing really well season.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Ashley about the Western Conference, another coach was fired. We've
had some coaches fired in the last couple of weeks,
which is especially even the Denver Nuggets. Explain what's expected
of these head coaches, and you know, why is it
so difficult for these guys to stay on the job.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
It's a really hard physician to be in. You know,
I think I really don't know, honestly, and I think
if Kerr had had a really good quote when he
was asked this question as well. He mentioned about how
now a lot of the teams are being run by
it's not necessarily like family based owners anymore, where a
(13:14):
lot of the a lot of the teams in the
past were always owned by a family. You have the Moors,
the Rooneys and like that. Who's owned a lot of
a lot of teams for twenty years, thirty years, And
now you're starting to see like people coming in that
are businesses, you know that own businesses or CEOs that
are coming in and now they're purchase of teams and
(13:36):
they're running organizations similarly to like, you know, a business,
and if you're not meeting Sarah standards, then you know
you got to go. But it's it's a very difficult
position to be in. You have to manage a lot
of personalities. You have to you know, you take a
lot of flag from the media and sometimes you know
(13:57):
what you're trying to do it doesn't align with like
the Fun Office, for example, the situation that was going
on in Denver, so like it's a very tough position,
and you know, it's a blessing for someone like Malone
to be in Denver for eight or so years. In
recent years, you just haven't seen that.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
It's a great point. I think that's going to be
applied in almost all of these leagues. You're rolling with
a good one. I mean the Boston Celtics with Brad
Stevens been able to put together. And I love coach
Mizola now like he's becoming one of my favorite press
conferences to watch as well. I know he's crazy, he's
got those crazy eyes, but he reminds me so much
of Belichick in how he does it press conference wise,
(14:36):
And I think everyone sat out that was a starter
in this last possible game. But with Peyton Pritchard possibly
scoring thirty or forty on the drop of a hat
coming off the bench, You've got players all over the
place that are positionless. Like a lot of people can
play two through four, at least maybe even two through five.
I'm still trying to find out the secret sauce of
the Boston Celtics. I think it's positionless basketball or Zingis
(15:00):
being on the court really helps out, like what's clicking
right now for being town, Like, why do you feel
so confident the Boston Celtics can repeat as champions?
Speaker 2 (15:09):
You know, I believe we have a really great shot
at it. You know, we've sustained all year and had
a pretty good record throughout the season the regular season,
and now it's time to turn it up a little bit.
You know, we have one of the best players in
the league that's on our team in Jason Tatum, and
he does so many different things, and I think one
of his best qualities is that, you know, he's gotten
(15:31):
so much better as a playmaker the last couple of
years where he's able to see and manipulate the game
and understand what the defense is going to be and
if I take a step here, this is going to
force other players to move, which is going to free
up someone like Sam Houser in the corner for three.
And so you've had in his Unceltics basketball, which really
(15:54):
trickles down throughout the rest of the team. And I
think when you bring in someone like Christopher Persingis and
when he's healthy, he just brings it. We play totally
different when he's on the court, and he just the
defense so much with his shooting ability. I mean, I
(16:14):
think the last New York game is a really great
example of that, where he was just hitting threes all
over the court and it just allows driving lanes. It
just opens up like the red seat where you could
just get to the bask get to the rim, and
it's going to cause the defense to get in rotation.
And when that happens, you really have the defense at
your Mercy Ashley battle.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
You are terrific. Thank you so much for giving us
a few minutes of your day, and we will, I'm
sure talk to you soon now at the NBA playoffs
are underway.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Let's go.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Thank you guys,
Ashley Battle, former national champ from Yukon. Oh my god,
so many things that she's done, played in WNBA. She's
now a scout on the world champion Boston Celtics staff,
but also doing play by play in the WNBA and
the NBA. In fact, I think, were you not a
part of the first all women's team to do a
(00:20):
Celtics game? The other day that I saw you, know
how you doing, Ashley Battle.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm doing great.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Did you do that that game with the other lady moment?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, it was pretty cool. I did in studio. So
I did pregame, halftime, and postgame, and I don't think
people realize how late it is with postgame. I was
so tired.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I'm glad you have to deal with this, all right, excellent,
So let me give you a tip on the guys
that are on the other side. Wrap it up. I
know that you got all these things to say, you
got stats, he got shut up, We got to go home.
I know you got to work in some endorsements, some
live reads, and some commercials, but.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Keep it quick. Let's do gosh. I wish you could
tell Bob Joyce on the other side. All right, So
one of the things I want to have you on
about though, is the national championship and number twelve and
stuff like that. But I know how big it is
(01:26):
for the players that are playing in it and their futures,
and Gino talks about that, how it's going to change
their lives. But for the alum, it seems like you
guys really love being a part of it, coming back
going to the games and stuff like that, and and
supporting the next group, the next and and and and
their pursuit of that championship because it is not easy.
(01:49):
It's so difficult. And that's all they were talking about
is page page page and stuff. You know, she needs
her whole team, she needs everybody to supports staff, tell
everybody how difficult it is to win a national championship.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
It is so incredibly hard. It's one of those things where,
you know, I mean at Yukon too especially, you have
the weight to the world on you all the time
because that's the expectation. It's championship or bust. And you know,
the three championships that I won while I was there,
each of them were completely different for different reasons. The
(02:21):
first one, you know, we had arguably one of the
the the greatest teams ever assembled, and we went undefeated,
and it was like if we didn't win, it was
like it was a travesty. The second one, it was
really unexpected because we had lost Sue Swin, Tamika, and Asia,
and people were like, oh, they have Diana, but who
(02:44):
else they have. I think we were like preseason sixteen
or something like that, and we're like, whoa, whoa, whoa whoah,
whoa whoa, whoa, whoa whoa. I mean we didn't we
went undefeated, but they didn't do all the work. You know,
we put it. We put in some time, you know,
and so we were just highly prepared, you know. It
just really had a chip on your shoulder the whole time.
(03:05):
And then the third one, we're beat up or hurt.
Everyone is just tired, and you're just like, can we
do it? And we end up doing it. And with
the least probably talented teams in Connecticut's history of championships,
we probably the second and third year, you know, I
(03:27):
call us the bad News Beers and we and we
made it. We made it work just because we always
can't prepare it every day, ready to work, ready to play,
and everyone did their role perfectly and it just fit
all really well together. And you have to have a
little lady luck on your side, like you have to,
like it takes so much into winning, whether it's college NBA,
(03:49):
you have injuries, like I mean, everything has to go right.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Well.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
I don't want to call this lady lucks. I think
it's bad luck. But Juju Watkins going down made the
road a little bit easier for this team. But this
team I thought really evolved over the season. I didn't
think this was a national championship team back in November,
but I definitely did at the end of February. Sarah
Strong for me, is something different. It's something special, and
(04:14):
I know that she is going to be on the
Naismith watch list starting next year, and it's going to
be a dynamite talent. It's gonna be fun to watch.
Give me your cliff note evaluation on what you see
in Sarah Strong's game.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Two things that's really crazy. One I used to babysit her.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
What which just a little bit about it because right,
her dad? And how did this work out? How you
got to babysit her?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Her mom and her dad, Alison Feaster and Danny Strong,
the three of us we all played in Spain together
in the same club where Danny played on the men's team,
and I would just come over and they wanted a date,
I would go and babysits.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
So now that she's like eighteen, and like, you've seen
her through the run because you've seen her in high school,
you've seen her in au, you've seen her in the
you know, the youth Olympic games. But now at this stage, like,
give me what you think you knew about her and
what you didn't expect her to perform or do on
the basketball court at this level.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Well, I mean, I know the work that her parents
put into her and all of the things that they
would do on the side, whether it be watching film
after every game and really teaching her how to play.
And she had a European base, you know, like her
first exposure, real exposure to basketball game in Europe. So
(05:43):
to me, and I've been saying this all year because
people always ask me, were like, who's there play? Like
what is she like? I'm like, she's really like Joker,
And she plays just like Joker for Denver. She moves
the ball, her best quality is shooting and paste and
she knows the game really well, and she wants to.
She's super unselfish with the ball. And the biggest thing
(06:06):
that Gino would really coach her on all year was like,
be a little bit more selfish. We need to score
shoot the ball, you know, and shoot more. And it's
just it's difficult when you're a freshman and that to
ask of you because you're trying to fit in, you
don't know what you want to do yet, and you're
trying to figure out this paste and playing at this level.
And they were like, you're good, shoot it and he
(06:28):
really doesn't give the keys up that easily.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Talking to Ashley Battle, I want to get back to
I want to talk about Page, but I do want
to talk about Sarah Strout. First of all, she's so humble,
but she didn't talk. Like even Gino after the National
Championship was like, you could kind of expand you know
what you're talking about. She won't. She doesn't really say
a whole lot. The one thing that I thought was
(06:53):
hilarious was after the Big East Championship her talking about,
oh we get another t shir I mean.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
She's still kid, yeah, but she she's a baby, and
we I don't think we realize that because I mean,
I'm freaking ancient, but they're just babies, my god, and
they've they've already accomplished so much.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
She's so good, she's so good, so humble, and you know,
she's really funny, just really shy. You know, it's a
lot being in front of the camera. And I think
you know her agency, who she's with with Wasserman, they're
gonna they're gonna have to you know, she might need
some media training to like let her personality show a
(07:35):
little bit, but you know, she's she's pretty funny.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
I want to know what you think of the role
in fitting in in the next level, Paige Beckers, She's
probably gonna be first pick overall tonight and she's gonna
be going into a locker room with grown women that
have been playing in the w for years. One of
my like if she gets drafted by Dallas, just that
collection of ladies, like my favorite Dja Carrington's on that squad, Like,
how she's gonna walk into that lockerom with that lady
(08:01):
and then fit in or assume her role? You've done this, Like,
how is it when you go to that next level
into those locker rooms? How you fit in?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
I think for Pages, just for her to just be herself,
you know, and I think that's that's great enough, and
like her personality and how loving she is as a
person will shine and she just always wants to do
the right thing. And I think for someone like Djana
or Erique, they're gonna love it because she likes to
get off the ball, you know. So this is you know,
(08:35):
you have a lot of point guards, you know, who
may want to score first, but if you run and
get up the court, she's gonna find you and give
you easy, easy looks, and that's what you want out
of a point guard, and she's gonna do that. So
she should really make help make Erique's life a little
bit better. And Dja gets out in transition all the time,
so she should be able to get some easy buckets.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Do you think they'll be as physical with Page as
they were with Caitlyn Clark?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
For sure? For sure. I mean she still has to
earn her stripes, and you know she's she's skinnier, you know,
she's skinny, and I think this season you saw pitchers
of Caitlin looking buff going into this season, so so
I'm sure you know, after next season, she's gonna be
in the weight room working out, and you know it
(09:20):
takes time to get your girl a woman's strength.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
I'm glad she signed with Unrivaled and we're set up
for this league to have some superstar power in a
three year deal as well. I know I've asked you
this as well, but your thoughts on Unrivaled and just
the legs that it has to keep going for over
the years.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
It's everything that I read was accurate, which I believe
it to be. You know, they earned twenty seven million
in revenue this year, and I think that's really great.
We'll preparel into the next season. You have more and
more star power coming in, and you have more and
more people who are going to watch and invest into
the league, and I think that's great.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
How about Page in the net? She didn't take it
off for like three days? Really yeah, I mean she
was wearing an underneath her sweat sweatshirt and stuff like that.
Did what what did you do with the pieces of
the three National Championship nets? And did you ever get
like a complete net?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Uh? Yes, I definitely have a complete net and all.
And I have a little pieces ones on the back
of a hat and the ones on my uh uh
Defensive Player of the Year Trophy, and you know, it's
just I think, given you know, Page's career at Yukon
(10:42):
and the expectations that were placed upon her and and
the injuries that she had, you're just I mean, it's
just such a beautiful way for her career to end
at Yukon, and then the magnitude and how in the
way in which she did it, you know, scoring amazing.
She was just really unstoppable. And I think you ever
since we lost to Tennessee earlier in the year, was
(11:04):
a completely different team. And when we beat the Brakes
off of the South Carolina the first time, I knew
we were gonna win it all.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Talking to Ashley Battle, not only former Yukon great, you're
also in the front office the Celtics. I have plenty
of NBA questions to get to, but I know we're
not gonna have enough time for even ten percent of them.
But Eastern Conference Finals. I know it's not right around
the corner. But if it's not Cleveland or Boston, like,
who is a team they three through eight or three
(11:31):
through ten. I guess with the playing teams that you
think is a viable contender for an Eastern Conference. Uh.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
I mean, I think New York has the talent. If
they could just stay healthy and put everything together, there's
some a team to be to watch out for. I'm
not sure what the situation is going on with Dame
in the Bucks. If he's healthy, like just him and
Giannis on the same team, you just got they're impossible
to guard, so you hope that they don't score of
(12:00):
fifty each every game. And the sleeper team for me
is just Detroit. I think they're up and coming. They
play really hard, they have a young star in Kate Cunningham,
and they're just really a team that kind of found
the pieces that they needed. They put some shooters this year,
Elie Beasley and guy he used to play in Philly,
(12:26):
but he you know, they put some shooters around there
and they've been playing really well season.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Ashley about the Western Conference, another coach was fired. We've
had some coaches fired in the last couple of weeks,
which is especially even the Denver Nuggets. Explain what's expected
of these head coaches, and you know, why is it
so difficult for these guys to stay on the job.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
It's a really hard physician to be in. You know,
I think I really don't know, honestly, and I think
if Kerr had had a really good quote when he
was asked this question as well. He mentioned about how
now a lot of the teams are being run by
it's not necessarily like family based owners anymore, where a
(13:14):
lot of the a lot of the teams in the
past were always owned by a family. You have the Moors,
the Rooneys and like that. Who's owned a lot of
a lot of teams for twenty years, thirty years, And
now you're starting to see like people coming in that
are businesses, you know that own businesses or CEOs that
are coming in and now they're purchase of teams and
(13:36):
they're running organizations similarly to like, you know, a business,
and if you're not meeting Sarah standards, then you know
you got to go. But it's it's a very difficult
position to be in. You have to manage a lot
of personalities. You have to you know, you take a
lot of flag from the media and sometimes you know
(13:57):
what you're trying to do it doesn't align with like
the Fun Office, for example, the situation that was going
on in Denver, so like it's a very tough position,
and you know, it's a blessing for someone like Malone
to be in Denver for eight or so years. In
recent years, you just haven't seen that.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
It's a great point. I think that's going to be
applied in almost all of these leagues. You're rolling with
a good one. I mean the Boston Celtics with Brad
Stevens been able to put together. And I love coach
Mizola now like he's becoming one of my favorite press
conferences to watch as well. I know he's crazy, he's
got those crazy eyes, but he reminds me so much
of Belichick in how he does it press conference wise,
(14:36):
And I think everyone sat out that was a starter
in this last possible game. But with Peyton Pritchard possibly
scoring thirty or forty on the drop of a hat
coming off the bench, You've got players all over the
place that are positionless. Like a lot of people can
play two through four, at least maybe even two through five.
I'm still trying to find out the secret sauce of
the Boston Celtics. I think it's positionless basketball or Zingis
(15:00):
being on the court really helps out, like what's clicking
right now for being town, Like, why do you feel
so confident the Boston Celtics can repeat as champions?
Speaker 2 (15:09):
You know, I believe we have a really great shot
at it. You know, we've sustained all year and had
a pretty good record throughout the season the regular season,
and now it's time to turn it up a little bit.
You know, we have one of the best players in
the league that's on our team in Jason Tatum, and
he does so many different things, and I think one
of his best qualities is that, you know, he's gotten
(15:31):
so much better as a playmaker the last couple of
years where he's able to see and manipulate the game
and understand what the defense is going to be and
if I take a step here, this is going to
force other players to move, which is going to free
up someone like Sam Houser in the corner for three.
And so you've had in his Unceltics basketball, which really
(15:54):
trickles down throughout the rest of the team. And I
think when you bring in someone like Christopher Persingis and
when he's healthy, he just brings it. We play totally
different when he's on the court, and he just the
defense so much with his shooting ability. I mean, I
(16:14):
think the last New York game is a really great
example of that, where he was just hitting threes all
over the court and it just allows driving lanes. It
just opens up like the red seat where you could
just get to the bask get to the rim, and
it's going to cause the defense to get in rotation.
And when that happens, you really have the defense at
your Mercy Ashley battle.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
You are terrific. Thank you so much for giving us
a few minutes of your day, and we will, I'm
sure talk to you soon now at the NBA playoffs
are underway.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Let's go.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Thank you guys,
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