TED SOBEL SPORTS AUDIO VAULT: Your Inside Access to TOUCHING GREATNESS

I’ve been waiting since a few games before his long ‘Grammy road trip’ for Clippers all-star Blake Griffin to show us some of that locker room personality he promised me after I gave him a big thick book with over 7,400 jokes in it (which he told me that he had read plenty of on the trip) that covers almost any subject you might imagine? If you are not aware, this all stems from an L.A. Times article that labeled Blake as a boring non-personality during his postgame interviews so I took the initiative to get him to prove otherwise. Two times since he’s been back in town after wins, Griff said he could only remember the dirty jokes (that he of course wouldn’t repeat for me into my recorder). So tonight against ex-Clip Elton Brand’s Philadelphia 76ers is my first game back to see what our new ‘Standup flying-dunker Comic’ has for us folk who have a sense of humor? And remember that you can hear the game on KFWB Newstalk 980 beginning at 7pm with the Clippers pregame show. I’ll try to see Blake before the game to get something (anything) from him or else it will have to be after the game (and of course, we’ll need a Clippers win to understandably get a joke out of him then!).

Wish me good luck as we’ll all be better off for it with laughs galore hahahahahahahahahahaha! 🙂

March 14 is not only the start of hoops madness but it’s also the ‘umpteenth’ (at least) birthday of my longtime friend and colleague Paul Olden who’s now in his umpteenth life as the public address announcer at Yankee Stadium and currently enjoying the Florida sun working the Yankees home spring training games in Tampa. I thought it would be a fitting tribute (and a wonderful birthday gift!) to bring back Paul’s most infamous moment when back on (so appropriately) Mother’s Day 1978, he asked then Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda “What’s your opinion of Kingman’s performance?” after Dave Kingman had destroyed Dodger pitching with 3 homers (including the winning 3-run shot in the 15th inng), and 8 rbi’s in a 10-7 Cubs win at Dodger Stadium.

I’ll never forget that night as Paul called me asap to explain the un-explainable as a young reporter who got blind-sided by this verbal barrage and I knew immediately what his opinion of the moment was…it was ‘F&#&in Horse$#!t’… so here’s the complete un-edited and un-bleeped volcanic moment that is forever etched in baseball lore…and remember to put the ear plugs on the little kiddies in the room or else they will never be the same…(also listen for the last reporter who finally gets his appreciative postgame quote, you gotta love his patience!)…

Paul and Tommy at their postgame best:

Happy Birthday Paul…and mannnnnnnnnnny more! (and I already know your opinion of my belated birthday wishes!) 🙂

Sports Illustrated just sent me today their latest NBA Players Poll on “Which coach is most annoying during games?”. Unfortunately it wasn’t available yesterday because almost two-thirds of players selected the Orlando Magic’s Stan Van Gundy (65%) as their runaway ‘winner’ and I can only imagine his reaction if I would’ve had the opportunity to ask him about it after losing to the Lakers last night? I can guarantee his response would be anything but annoying-try entertaining! (you can hear Coach Stan speak in the previous post below) And it’s always worth the time to hear New Jersey’s Avery Johnson’s reaction to anything-I’ll have to find my favorite Coach Avery’s passionate enunciation of ‘TRANSITION DEFENSE’ and post it for you here asap. Now that’s a sound byte!

Get your brackets filled out (click on the picture to enlarge) and then please listen in to KFWB Newstalk 980 starting at 9:30 in the morning on Thursday and Friday, as I’ll be giving 1 minute hourly NCAA tournament scores and highlights into the evening hours sponsored by the Southern California Chevy Dealers Association. If you’re not near a radio, you can also catch me online at losangeles.cbslocal.com and click on listen live on the KFWB icon. And good luck with your pics, you’ll need it!

Also besides all of our So-Cal schools in the tourny, best of luck to Memphis and my new favorite college hoops head coach Josh Pastner who takes on his alma mater Arizona in the West region on Friday. I heard Coach Pastner on a national radio interview for the first time 2 nights ago and was so impressed with his candor and non politically correct demeaner and personality that I complimented him via email. And he was kind enough to respond right back along with some nice words on my new blog. Good luck Coach and remember that Tigers should always have an edge over Wildcats…so scratch and claw your way into round 2! (to learn more about Josh and how even his online bio refreshingly pokes fun at himself, checkout gotigersgo.com).

The big question going into this one was would Kobe Bryant play or not on that badly sprained left ankle? Well Kobe did his usual magical quick rehab trick to help his Lakers beat Orlando 97-84 at Staples Center on Monday night avenging last month’s 14 pt. loss in Florida. Bryant looked and felt better than expected scoring 16 points in his almost 31 minutes of action but it was big Andrew Bynum who was the player of the game with 10 points, 18 rebounds (11 in the first quarter) and 4 blocked shots including the one in my picture above that sent Dwight Howard’s close-in shot into the stands. So it was only appropriate that right after the game I go directly to ‘Superman’s’ coach Stan Van Gundy, who you never need to ask too many questions of to get enough postgame sound to write a mini novel…as in his 1 minute 37 second opening statement…

Stan Van Gundy:

So we media types then had to wait until after 11pm for Kobe’s postgame thoughts due to his need to get treatment on the ankle, but it was worth it as I got several good comments and some laughs from ‘The Mamba’…

Kobe Bryant postgame vs. Magic:

A nice way to end a long night where the Lakers improved to 10-1 since the All-Star break that I just can’t let Kobe forget about, no matter how much he tries!

And the rest of the Lakers’ locker room was all smiles including Lamar Odom and Derek Fisher who each had plenty of praise for their newly regenerated big man and Bynum was the first to respond to why he’s become such a dominant force in the paint since the All-Star game?…

Lakers postgame locker room talk with Bynum, Odom, and Fisher:

Did you catch Fish calling his Lakers great? Sounds like a 3-peat in the making as long as those knees and ankles remain intact…and that mostly means you, Drew! And you should see the looks I’ve received from the media types when I compared Bynum’s play as of late to how Bill Russell helped the Celtics in his heyday? I’m not comparing rings or leadership, just what he’s doing in the middle…rebounding, defense and intimidation! So you doubters out there, listen and learn from someone who’s seen them both play and not just read about it, ok?

At 71 years of age, Lee Trevino more than hinted to me yesterday that he’s done playing competitively after the final round of the Champions Tour Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach Country Club (when Lee said final round-he wasn’t kidding!). As you’ll hear in the following post-round chatter (alongside veteran Orange County Register columnist Randy Youngman), the always jovial ‘Merry Mex’ who’s won 89 professional tournaments including 6 PGA Tour majors and 4 on the Champions Tour was simply worn out from a long day and said it was just time!

Lee started out by describing how he almost (and should’ve) broken his age for a 2nd time in 3 days, but…

Lee Trevino:

If it’s true that we won’t see Trevino on tour anymore…I’ll just say adios and buenos noches to a great ride that will live on in golf lore forever!