Monday, April 27, 2020

Pod Report

Our man with the Sentences has recommended some excellent podcastery over the past several months, and I'm certain I would've learned something had I listened to anything he singled out. I'm still mad that The Test went off the air, so I ignored him.

I hope the rest of you will give this shout a bit more consideration.

I've long been a fan of Men in Blazers. Hell, I'm basically a cast member, as you'll recall. And while Rog and Davo remain the most entertaining U.S.-based soccer podcast, they've branched out in recent years. In particular Roger Bennett has established himself as an accomplished interviewer. There are those that may criticize his ever-enthusiastic appreciation for his guests, but to my mind, it's less obsequious than a measure of his authentic joy.

In November, Rog interviewed Warriors coach Steve Kerr. The roughly 25-minute interview covered everything from Kerr's upbringing in foreign locales from Egypt to Tunisia to his father Malcolm's assassination during Steve's freshman year at Arizona, to his time with Michael Jordan's Bulls, to his current run as three-time NBA Champion coach.

In the interview, Kerr touches on so many of the things that are foundational to my worldview as a leader that I found it uncanny and reassuring. Kerr speaks of the importance of empathy, of the extreme value of joy in personal and team health and success, saying, "I love the concept of joy in sports. It's one of the most important values to me and the Warriors. Steph Curry, you watch him play, there's so much joy. It's a powerful emotion. A powerful factor for any team in any sport."

The interview closes with a discussion of perspective and priority. Kerr told a story about his father, who would tell him, "Steve, you're a modest fellow, with plenty to be modest about." Coaches Greg Popovich and Phil Jackson both offered Kerr similar lessons, Jackson saying, "Treat every practice, every play as if the fate of the world rests on your effort, with full awareness that this is a frickin' basketball game and nobody cares." Popovich's favorite phrase was "Get over yourself", according to Kerr. Kinda like, "take everything you like seriously, except yourself".

Pretty Gheorghie, that Steve Kerr.


10 comments:

Squeaky said...

I haven't listen to a podcast in ages. Maybe need to check out this one and few Dave has suggested with all the yard work in my future.

Going to back to the air fryer topic, we also have a ninja. It has two different lids. One for air fryer tasks and the other is a pressure cooker/one pot lid. It's a bit weird to use the one pot lid as the air fryer lid is still vertically attached. Complete eyesore but can handle double duty.

rob said...

i tweetified this last night, but holy shit does bj armstrong not age. dude is 52 and he looks like he's in his 20s.

TR said...

BJ looked like he was 12 when he played in the NBA. He now looks 25. Horace Grant looks like he can kick some ass. Rodman is pretty much incoherent.

Whitney said...

Looks like next episode will be where Horace Grant gets more of the story. Which will likely not bode well for him.

rootsminer said...

Cool. I like Kerr, only in part because it reminds me of my freshman year Yates hall neighbor Larry Lovelace, who would inject a game of NBA Jam with a STEVE KERR! call to rival Marv Albert, if Marv sounded like a very effeminate black guy from the North Carolina Piedmont.

zman said...

I remember Lovelace. He wound up in the Unit M suite with you, me, Shpfeck, Juan Carlos and some young lady he came with. Juan put a Rick James CD on and Lovelace turned to the girl and said "Damn, how come we never listen to some Rick James?" She had no answer but seemed to agree that they should.

rootsminer said...

As Lovelace would say "I'm fittin' to go home and ask my woman why we aren't listening to some Rick James?". Or maybe I'll just put on some Rick James and see where things go.

TR said...

Nancy Pelosi needs a makeup consultant. She made some odd decisions around her eyes today.

rootsminer said...

Why the fuck don’t we have any Rick James records?

rob said...

speaking of documentaries (i assume we were at some point), there’s a cool one on netflix called ‘abstract’. each episode features an artist or designer as they discuss their creative process. episode 2 is squarely in mark and zman’s collective wheelhouse: it features nike shoe designer tinker hatfield.