You Can't Comp This: NBA Trading Card Podcast
You Can't Comp This: NBA Trading Card Podcast
Episode 167: Robert Steinfeld Author of 3... 2...1... We're on the Air: An Inside Look at Sports Television, Journalism, and Gender Equity
Join Adam and Russell as they welcome ten-time Emmy-winning TV producer Robert Steinfeld to the show. This October, Robert releases his new book, "3... 2... 1... We're on the Air: An Inside Look at Sports Television, Journalism, and Gender Equity," which delves into his decades-long career in sports media. Filled with captivating stories from his work with NBA and WNBA legends, Robert shares his behind-the-scenes experiences with icons like David Robinson, Tim Duncan, and Gregg Popovich. He also discusses the evolving landscape of women’s sports, with insights on the WNBA, the New York Liberty, and rising stars like Caitlin Clark. Don’t miss this insider’s take on the dynamic world of sports television!
Go to Robert's website for more information and Amazon to secure your copy.
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00:00:09.76
Adz
Welcome everybody to episode 167. So you can't comp this NBA trading card podcast. We are your host, Adam, Amy and Russell Gibson. And today we have a very special guest on the show, ah Robert Steinfeld, Emmy award-winning TV producer. Russell, how have you pulled this off?
00:00:30.72
youcantcompthis
I had an email from Camille and I think it was just as as easy as that really.
00:00:31.15
Adz
yeah
00:00:35.12
youcantcompthis
So Robert, we're very gracious. We're very happy that you've come on board and we can't wait to hear your stories about your time in the, in the basketball fraternity.
00:00:45.22
youcantcompthis
I think that's the best way to say it. So let's just get straight to it. Please introduce yourself. Tell us about your Emmy and then we'll, we'll go from there, I think.
00:00:55.65
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, um I've been involved with the NBA ah since 1980. And I worked for the ah Dallas Mavericks in their initial season for nine years.
00:01:09.19
Robert Steinfeld
Then I went to the San Antonio Spurs for 23 years. And my first season was in 1989 when David Robinson came in.
00:01:14.06
Adz
Wow.
00:01:18.18
Adz
Mmhmm.
00:01:19.89
youcantcompthis
Yeah, well, yeah.
00:01:20.79
Robert Steinfeld
It was his rookie season. So I got there with the Spurs. And fortunately, I was there during the heyday where we had David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Mona Ginobili, Tony Parker, on and on, and Sean Elliott, who's in my book, and, well, of course, David Robinson and Tim Duncan, too.
00:01:33.61
youcantcompthis
Yeah. Yeah, what a team.
00:01:43.08
Robert Steinfeld
And we got four championships while we were there.
00:01:46.05
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:01:46.35
Robert Steinfeld
And it was even presented with championship rings, which was really nice.
00:01:46.27
Adz
Awesome.
00:01:49.83
youcantcompthis
Yeah, right.
00:01:51.32
Robert Steinfeld
ah But, you know, there's a story about that too, but I'll tell you in a minute. But yeah, then I worked with
00:01:56.29
youcantcompthis
Do you wear it around like when you you go down the street to do your shopping or?
00:01:59.67
Robert Steinfeld
Well, no, but I actually wore it this morning. I was at a Texas, Oklahoma football luncheon. They're playing tomorrow or today in your world.
00:02:12.15
Robert Steinfeld
I guess it would be tomorrow for you, but anyway, Saturday, our time.
00:02:14.33
Adz
yeah
00:02:16.03
Robert Steinfeld
And yeah, there was a luncheon sponsored by the Goodyear Cotton Bowl and all the media was there. And so I actually wore it like a few hours ago today, ah you know, one of them.
00:02:28.42
Robert Steinfeld
but I don't wear it around normally. It's kind of big and I don't want to like show off or anything, but when you go to a big event like that, it's kind of cool.
00:02:37.18
youcantcompthis
Yeah. A hundred percent. What a talking point.
00:02:38.30
Robert Steinfeld
Then I moved on to the, yeah, then I moved on and did ah the New Orleans Pelicans when David Rob, I mean, when the Anthony Davis was there.
00:02:39.10
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:02:47.68
youcantcompthis
yeah
00:02:47.87
Robert Steinfeld
So we got got got that and, you know, we went to the playoffs um and and stuff.
00:02:47.82
Adz
yep
00:02:48.42
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:02:53.71
Robert Steinfeld
So,
00:02:54.57
youcantcompthis
Eric Gordon was on the team then.
00:02:54.91
Robert Steinfeld
ah Yeah, um there was a, was it was it was fun to do the team and they just changed names from i New Orleans, what was it, jazz or something?
00:03:08.23
Adz
Yep.
00:03:09.16
Robert Steinfeld
No.
00:03:10.57
Adz
New Orleans hornets.
00:03:11.81
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, the Hornets, yeah. And then, yeah, I got there when they were the Pelicans, right?
00:03:12.89
youcantcompthis
Yeah. Yeah.
00:03:13.17
Adz
That's right.
00:03:16.57
Robert Steinfeld
They were the New Orleans Jazz originally until that team moved to Utah, you know, when they were in the ABA, that's when that happened.
00:03:19.86
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:03:21.46
Adz
Yeah.
00:03:22.03
youcantcompthis
That's going way back, isn't it?
00:03:23.08
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, that one when I was a kid, I used to follow the ABA.
00:03:23.19
youcantcompthis
Yeah. Yeah.
00:03:26.69
Robert Steinfeld
But anyway, yeah, then I not only won one Emmy, though, won 10 Emmys. And those.
00:03:33.90
youcantcompthis
Oh, okay.
00:03:34.93
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, and a few of those are from the Summer Olympics. And some are also for, you know, NBA and Major League Baseball and and others. So, you know, it's it's been a fun career and I'm still working in the league.
00:03:49.24
Robert Steinfeld
So
00:03:50.15
youcantcompthis
Yeah. And so probably for someone like myself, do you know what the Australian equivalent is for an Emmy?
00:03:59.85
Robert Steinfeld
No.
00:03:59.99
youcantcompthis
but Is that like a logie or add help me out here?
00:04:02.02
Robert Steinfeld
Oh, no, it's it's like an Academy Award, but for television.
00:04:07.26
Adz
Television yes, that's a like you're right in in Australia and you probably don't and we've got the Logie Awards, which is our television Awards locally.
00:04:07.56
youcantcompthis
Right. Okay.
00:04:13.79
Robert Steinfeld
Okay, so yeah, these are national awards and some are regional, but yeah, it would be the equivalent like
00:04:13.90
Adz
Yeah Yeah Yeah
00:04:14.55
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:04:22.20
Robert Steinfeld
someone going up for you know an Academy Award in motion pictures, but this is in the televisions version of it.
00:04:28.29
youcantcompthis
Sure.
00:04:30.97
youcantcompthis
TV, yeah.
00:04:31.85
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah.
00:04:32.97
youcantcompthis
So in Yukonkomptheist tradition, we have to ask you, what's your earliest hobby memory?
00:04:39.35
Robert Steinfeld
Well, I used to collect baseball cards you know when I was growing up.
00:04:42.25
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:04:43.00
Adz
Yeah.
00:04:43.84
Robert Steinfeld
Actually, I lived in New Jersey till I was nine. But when we lived in New Jersey, you would get those top baseball cards and you would open them up and it would have the pink bubble gum in it and you were hoping it wasn't gonna be like a real hard stick of pink bubble gum.
00:04:54.19
Adz
Yep.
00:04:54.19
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:04:57.45
youcantcompthis
Yeah, fantastic.
00:05:02.23
Robert Steinfeld
your hope And if it was, then there was a trick just to put the cards back in the wax paper ah pack and stick it in your pocket for a while and then the gum would soften up, right?
00:05:13.04
Adz
Oh, wow.
00:05:13.94
Robert Steinfeld
But you had to be careful because you didn't wanna ruin the edges of your cards, right?
00:05:17.47
youcantcompthis
ah yeah
00:05:17.55
Adz
Correct, correct.
00:05:18.56
Robert Steinfeld
but But because we lived in New Jersey right outside of New York City, you were just hoping you were going to get a Yankee card. Like you wanted a Mickey Mantle card, ah Tom Tresh, Bobby Richardson, Joe Pepitone, you know, that era, Roger Maris, you know.
00:05:27.89
Adz
Yep.
00:05:38.79
youcantcompthis
Do you have any mantle rookie cards stashed away in your shoe box?
00:05:39.22
Robert Steinfeld
yeah i Don't have a rookie car, but I do have a lot of Mickey Mantle memorabilia I have it just to my right can't see it, but I have a hat That was authenticated and signed a Yankee real wool cap that was signed by Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford and they didn't know it but they signed it twice on the top of the bill and underneath and I actually and I've got that authenticated and So I moved to Dallas
00:05:43.07
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:05:50.49
Adz
Oh, nice. Oh,
00:06:02.02
youcantcompthis
Yeah, right.
00:06:02.16
Adz
oh wow.
00:06:10.29
Robert Steinfeld
No major league baseball team and it's really unbelievable, but. I end up playing baseball, high school and junior high school. And who's my teammate and junior and and and and and and senior high school in Dallas?
00:06:24.62
Robert Steinfeld
It's David Mantle, Mickey Mantle's son, because Mickey lived in Dallas and his kids went to public school.
00:06:26.26
youcantcompthis
Yeah, right.
00:06:28.07
Adz
oh wow
00:06:31.92
Robert Steinfeld
And David looked just like his dad. you know and so And he had a natural ability to hit. He didn't get his dad's speed.
00:06:38.51
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:06:40.40
Robert Steinfeld
His dad started out as a shortstop. But I ended up playing with him. And I was wondering if his dad ever came to our games. And and he said, no.
00:06:51.02
Robert Steinfeld
He goes, but I see his mother there all the time.
00:06:50.93
Adz
Oh,
00:06:52.90
Robert Steinfeld
Well, it turns out that when Bob Costas from NBC, the old the announcer, I'm not sure if you know who he is in Australia, but a very big you know name, a Mimi award-winning announcer from NBC Sports for years, he was a big make
00:06:54.63
Adz
wow.
00:07:06.79
youcantcompthis
Yeah, we know the voice. He was NBA announcer, yeah?
00:07:09.73
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, so he was a a big ah Mickey Mantle fan too and still carries a Mickey Mantle card in his wallet to this day.
00:07:10.51
Adz
Yep.
00:07:11.12
youcantcompthis
Yeah. Yeah.
00:07:17.06
Adz
Oh, wow.
00:07:17.30
youcantcompthis
Yeah, right.
00:07:18.04
Robert Steinfeld
Well, he interviewed Mickey right before he passed away and he said one of his biggest regrets was um was not watching his sons play baseball and sports and that and coming out ah of ah meeting mingling with the parents, the other parents. And he would come, but he would stay in his car in the parking lot because he didn't want to mess with with the other parents.
00:07:43.22
Robert Steinfeld
And he said he wished he had done that. He goes, because he didn't want to deal with with the other parents, but he now he looks back and he goes, you know, that would have been very fulfilling, not only for the other parents, but for my kids, seeing their dad mingling you know with the other parents.
00:07:57.75
Robert Steinfeld
So I wrote about that. That's a story, actually, in my book.
00:08:01.35
youcantcompthis
Yeah, right.
00:08:01.67
Robert Steinfeld
um And it's it's weird that you know but there's the a
00:08:02.38
youcantcompthis
So what was his perspective?
00:08:06.27
Robert Steinfeld
ah the lineup card had ah like Danoski, Taboloski, and then stein ah Steinfeld, and then Mantle, and it was really a Mantle. It wasn't just like a fake name, so that was really cool.
00:08:21.53
Adz
Well...
00:08:22.25
youcantcompthis
So what was his perspective on that, that he just had too much fame to be sort of in a public domain or he couldn't handle watching his son because he would not be able to manage, you know, his son's success or failure.
00:08:34.33
youcantcompthis
Like what was his sort of mindset or yeah.
00:08:34.66
Robert Steinfeld
No, I think it was the the first thing you mentioned you know about having you know to deal with the fame publicly.
00:08:38.34
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:08:42.38
Adz
Hmm...
00:08:43.16
Robert Steinfeld
And you know he wasn't really ah around much to to play you know catch with this with his kids and and do all that kind of stuff.
00:08:54.51
Robert Steinfeld
But he used to live right across the street from the synagogue that we used to go to. So you know a lot of our friends would
00:09:00.58
youcantcompthis
yeah
00:09:02.91
Robert Steinfeld
head over to Mickey's house to see David mantle and Nick would come out on a Sunday morning and say, you guys, it was too early. You guys need to go back to Hebrew school. You know, so anyway, yeah.
00:09:14.08
Robert Steinfeld
So he lived in, you know, not too far away in our neighborhood. So that was kind of cool. But, you know, as far as recollection, you know, getting back to your original question, yeah, that's when I remember starting to collect cards.
00:09:22.19
youcantcompthis
Yeah. Yeah.
00:09:28.26
Robert Steinfeld
um you know baseball cards mostly but then you know then uh basketball cards as well and I still have some I do have a David Robinson rookie card um I have you know other cards that I've collected a Magic Johnson, John Stockton um and uh you know I have those I you know even have some rare
00:09:31.33
Adz
yeah
00:09:35.41
Adz
Nice.
00:09:50.88
Robert Steinfeld
Collecting cards. I've been Michael Jordan when he played baseball. So I have a baseball card I produced the celebrity heroes of baseball game for yeah ESPN at the all-star game three different times and upper deck was a sponsor of that game and so they gave me some collector items of original cards and that I still have that gave them to me in those plastic ah folders.
00:09:55.19
youcantcompthis
Yeah, right.
00:10:17.99
Robert Steinfeld
And so they're staying pristine shapes in a notebook.
00:10:18.43
Adz
Yeah.
00:10:21.33
youcantcompthis
Yeah, right.
00:10:21.53
Robert Steinfeld
So I still have just looking at them. They're in the closet right behind me. So like I still have those and and cherish those.
00:10:29.74
youcantcompthis
So I say most people over the years, they start off with a pretty big box and over the years it sort of gets thinned out of the, you know, some gets thrown away, some you know gets lost. What cards have you got left over and sort of what are your most cherished ones that, you know, come to your mind, I suppose.
00:10:45.11
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, well, pretty much what we talked about. Those are the ones that I've saved.
00:10:49.75
Adz
the The key ones, yeah.
00:10:51.45
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, the the big the big name ones. I ah do have like baseball, ah Greg Maddox rookie card, which is you know pretty big, um you know and some other rookie cards.
00:10:54.30
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:11:04.67
Robert Steinfeld
um But yeah, i just I keep them. And I've got some of them that my son ah took and sent off to Beckett.
00:11:14.16
Adz
Yup.
00:11:14.61
Robert Steinfeld
And then Beckett took them and then graded them.
00:11:14.58
youcantcompthis
You help.
00:11:16.85
Robert Steinfeld
And then I'd send them back to me, you know, in the case with the grade. So actually, oh, yeah, even that, you know, from what I was telling you from the Celebrity All-Star Game, um some of the players that are now in the Hall of Fame, they gave me those with with the autographs on.
00:11:21.43
Adz
The great other card,
00:11:33.13
Robert Steinfeld
So Gaylord Perry and some other, you know, Ferguson Jenkins baseball names. And I also have like autographed baseballs with all-time greats on it.
00:11:45.14
Robert Steinfeld
And I also have right over my shoulder, which you can't see, but I can bring down.
00:11:45.43
Adz
yeah.
00:11:49.67
Robert Steinfeld
I have a basketball signed by the complete championship team of the San Antonio Spurs.
00:11:56.37
youcantcompthis
Oh, man, that's amazing.
00:11:57.55
Adz
Oh, wow. That's like, that's, yeah, that's a piece of like sporting history.
00:12:02.06
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, I mean, but and also the championship rings that I've been given.
00:12:02.16
youcantcompthis
so
00:12:06.27
Robert Steinfeld
I mean, they give you an insurance company appraisal.
00:12:06.18
Adz
yeah Yep.
00:12:11.04
Robert Steinfeld
if anything ever happened in the ring.
00:12:11.05
Adz
Yep.
00:12:12.94
Robert Steinfeld
and but But on the appraisal, they say, this is why it would cost material to replace this, but we can't put a value. It's invaluable because it's a one of a kind of article.
00:12:22.37
Adz
Well, they can't, they can't replace it.
00:12:22.76
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:12:24.92
Robert Steinfeld
you you you you can't You can't say,
00:12:24.94
Adz
Yep.
00:12:28.62
Robert Steinfeld
how much it it's it you can't place a value on it because it's one of a kind you can't replace exactly that and it means so much to that individual person so yeah that's pretty cool to look at that appraisal and see what that says and you know and it's i've got three of those rings and then also a watch from the first one so
00:12:36.36
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:12:39.99
Adz
Yeah.
00:12:50.40
Adz
That's awesome. That's that's incredible.
00:12:51.30
youcantcompthis
So I think.
00:12:51.96
Adz
Yeah.
00:12:52.98
Robert Steinfeld
Oh, and let me go back real quick to the story I was going to tell you about on the ring. You know, a lot of times when they present you a championship ring, um you know, usually they present the NBA championship rings like on the first game of the next season on national TV, right?
00:13:07.85
Adz
That's right. Yeah.
00:13:09.03
youcantcompthis
yeah
00:13:10.01
Robert Steinfeld
Right. So, but with me, My ceremony was out by the production truck and the production truck parked right next to the dipsy dumpsters, you know, the garbage bins.
00:13:18.27
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:13:21.77
Robert Steinfeld
So my ceremony was, here's your own Xbox, your name on it, and here's your ring. Okay. That was my ceremony. And I thought to myself, I don't care where I get it.
00:13:27.98
Adz
That's it.
00:13:30.80
Robert Steinfeld
I got it.
00:13:31.38
youcantcompthis
yeah Yeah, that's right.
00:13:31.60
Robert Steinfeld
Okay.
00:13:31.86
Adz
Yeah, very true, very true.
00:13:32.76
Robert Steinfeld
It's it's kind of like golf, you know, it's like you get, you get a par. But it was a hard par. Your first shot was a riot.
00:13:40.52
Adz
Yep.
00:13:41.50
Robert Steinfeld
Your next shot, no one cares. All they do is they look at the score and they go, OK, you got a par.
00:13:45.38
Adz
They say the scorecard at the end of the day, that's it.
00:13:46.26
Robert Steinfeld
That's great. I got the ring. I don't care how I got it or got from point A to point B. It might have been a dipsy dumpster, but I'll take it.
00:13:53.41
youcantcompthis
yeah So Karim sold four of his championship rings and three of his MVP awards for 2.8 million, which would be US dollars. So that would put your ring.
00:14:04.20
youcantcompthis
I reckon at around what, 1.5 to $2 million, dollars something like around that.
00:14:06.99
Robert Steinfeld
i
00:14:07.59
Adz
Oh my goodness.
00:14:07.68
youcantcompthis
What do you reckon?
00:14:08.03
Robert Steinfeld
I don't think so. I mean, that's very kind. But but they at least he's got a name, right?
00:14:11.65
youcantcompthis
and
00:14:13.38
Robert Steinfeld
And, you know, well, I'm Robert Steinfeld. And now that I have a book. We plug again, three, two, one, we're on the air.
00:14:19.74
Adz
Yeah.
00:14:20.92
Robert Steinfeld
We talked about that a little bit about how nice it was of the of the Spurs to present that to me because, you know, a lot of times I have friends in the business that they've worked for other teams and they didn't give them rings.
00:14:35.13
Robert Steinfeld
So, you know, I feel very privileged.
00:14:35.62
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:14:37.45
Robert Steinfeld
It was great to work for the Spurs organization. It's a fantastic organization to work for.
00:14:40.90
youcantcompthis
It seems like the culture there is very important to them around Popovich and what he's trying to create down there.
00:14:43.00
Adz
Yeah.
00:14:46.28
Robert Steinfeld
yeah
00:14:49.02
youcantcompthis
Definitely.
00:14:49.21
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, a family atmosphere.
00:14:49.26
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:14:51.25
Robert Steinfeld
And I write about that in the book, too, about a private wasn't so private. I had a moment, you know, a bunch of moments with pop, but one particular, I was working for the Pelicans and I hadn't seen them for a few years.
00:15:05.36
Robert Steinfeld
And, nor you know, ah before the game, I don't know if you know the routine with the NBA about an hour and a half before the game, the coach comes out of the locker room and all the media is right outside the locker room and he answers questions for, you know, about 10 minutes, five or 10 minutes.
00:15:20.47
Robert Steinfeld
And it's like,
00:15:20.53
youcantcompthis
So are you talking about pop in this specific instance?
00:15:23.38
Robert Steinfeld
Pop, yeah, so pop was actually, so I go, out I'm in the world as I knew this there. I'll go back. I hadn't seen him in many years. And I go, so I'm just going to go back there. And if I get a chance to say hello, I will. So now the PR person is coming out with pop and all the media is outside the locker room in the hallway. It's kind of cramped in there and they're all waiting for him and he comes out and he looks and before he even addresses the media or he looks, he sees me and I've seen him in years. He goes, stiny.
00:15:51.73
Robert Steinfeld
He goes, how are you and this's in front of all the media? And I go, I'm great. I hadn't seen you in a while. I i just wanted to check in and say hello. And he goes, how are you doing?
00:16:02.34
Robert Steinfeld
And I go, whoa, I've been with the Pelicans. but now He goes, no, no, no. I don't mean how are you doing professionally. I want to know how you are doing personally.
00:16:08.57
Adz
professionally.
00:16:09.73
youcantcompthis
yeah
00:16:10.96
Robert Steinfeld
yeah And we're having this conversation where all the media is wanting to ask questions.
00:16:10.95
youcantcompthis
yeah
00:16:13.49
Adz
All the media want to want to want to hand him about stuff. and
00:16:16.82
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah. And then we talked about other kind of you know things from the past while the media is still waiting. And I'm just saying that's the type of person Pop is.
00:16:27.51
Robert Steinfeld
you know He's very loyal and dedicated to the people that have worked for him and with him.
00:16:28.45
Adz
Yeah.
00:16:31.52
youcantcompthis
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:16:32.38
Adz
Yeah.
00:16:33.18
Robert Steinfeld
so
00:16:34.28
youcantcompthis
So for me Pops a really interesting one because I feel like for a while he went through this phase of being quite brash bordering on rude to courtside reporters where it almost became like a shtick that he was doing in that people would ask him questions and he would sort of give them that funny look that he did for a bit and then and then something happened and he sort of mellowed out a little bit, rounded out a little bit. And actually now he seems a little bit more, uh, maybe friendly towards reporters. This might be like like the correct phrase. Um, what's your experience? Did, did you ever get the pop treatment back in the day?
00:17:10.61
Robert Steinfeld
um and No, because you know the ground rules, right? And so you know what he does and does not like and what he will and will not do, you know, so you don't tread on that.
00:17:16.69
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:17:19.35
Adz
Hmm.
00:17:21.05
youcantcompthis
Yeah, right. Yeah.
00:17:22.08
Adz
You see, it seems like a no nonsense kind of guy. And it's like, if this is this is rubbish that you've scripted, I don't want to hear it.
00:17:25.03
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah.
00:17:28.12
Robert Steinfeld
Right.
00:17:29.87
Adz
And that's why you get that blank response where it's like, really, you're gonna ask the the the generic merry-go-round questions, ask me something for real, like actually ask me a real question.
00:17:40.05
Robert Steinfeld
Ask a respectful question and you'll get a respectful answer.
00:17:41.73
Adz
Exactly right.
00:17:43.53
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah.
00:17:43.37
youcantcompthis
Yeah, yeah.
00:17:43.66
Adz
Stop, stop with the clickbait. How about we? we Yeah.
00:17:47.04
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, I don't...
00:17:46.98
youcantcompthis
I mean, it would be 82 games a year asking, you know, the same questions about defensive coverages.
00:17:51.25
Adz
And that's probably the...
00:17:52.78
youcantcompthis
It would be hard to like go through that sort of process every day.
00:17:54.02
Robert Steinfeld
Well, okay.
00:17:55.66
youcantcompthis
I do get that. Yeah.
00:17:56.75
Robert Steinfeld
Well, let me say this, and my wife is not a big sports fan, but when we do see things like this, like interviews, the coaches being interviewed,
00:18:04.96
Adz
Yep.
00:18:06.27
Robert Steinfeld
we We actually were watching a WNBA playoff game the other day and they're interviewing one of the coaches coming out of a break. And she's she she was like astonished. And I know I work some of these network games. I know about how that goes about. And she goes, how could the coach actually agree to do that in the middle of the game while they're coaching? And I don't understand why they actually ask the coaches to do this while the game's going on.
00:18:36.06
Robert Steinfeld
You know, that was pretty astute question to me, you know?
00:18:38.70
Adz
i But I mean, sport is obviously there there's the actual sport element to it, but there's some big dollars involved with the entertainment value these days.
00:18:48.76
youcantcompthis
Yeah, that's right.
00:18:49.42
Adz
and And that's the production value is all about entertainment, really.
00:18:52.40
Robert Steinfeld
Well, You're right. And I know why we do it, you know, is we want to give you an insight to what's going on.
00:18:56.28
Adz
Yeah.
00:18:58.75
Robert Steinfeld
And we're you we're still trying to pop up popularize the sport.
00:18:59.15
youcantcompthis
Right, exactly.
00:18:59.64
Adz
Yeah.
00:19:01.40
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:19:02.76
Robert Steinfeld
And I think when we do things like sounds of the game, or we mic the players up and roll it in, sometimes when I'm listening to some of those things back before the air, I'm saying to myself, that's not much, but maybe it is.
00:19:03.12
Adz
yeah
00:19:15.95
Robert Steinfeld
And then when you play certain things back, Almost every time, whatever we play back, the fans are going, wow. One fan said to me afterwards, a friend says, she goes, I didn't even know the players talk on the court.
00:19:29.42
Robert Steinfeld
And I go, yeah, they're everyone's kind of talking and communicating on the court.
00:19:30.12
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:19:32.81
youcantcompthis
The whole time. Exactly.
00:19:34.34
Robert Steinfeld
They go, that is so cool that you can hear that stuff.
00:19:34.43
youcantcompthis
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:19:37.26
Robert Steinfeld
you know Even their reactions and things.
00:19:37.28
youcantcompthis
yeah
00:19:39.14
Robert Steinfeld
So yeah.
00:19:40.04
Adz
There must be some hardworking editors that that go about that with some of the things that get said, I would assume, but yeah.
00:19:40.55
Robert Steinfeld
but
00:19:46.21
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, you got to be careful until we screen everything before it airs.
00:19:48.11
youcantcompthis
I'm surprised. Yeah, I'm surprised more profanity isn't picked up though from the sort of the court side cameras and the ring, you know, marks, because some of the stuff they do say is pretty wild. Um, just really quickly going back to pop, because tell us maybe your favorite story about him. Cause look, pop has got a very big place in my heart. So I could talk about him all day, but you know, let's probably not do it for an hour, but tell me like, you know, your favorite story about him or, you know, your best memory or yeah.
00:20:16.44
Robert Steinfeld
Well, my best memory I kind of talked about already, you know, about, you know, about, you know, seeing him after all those years and him coming over to me and, you know, acknowledging me and all that, you know, but, and I talk about this in my book, but he's also, you know, when a coach who worked for him or assistant or some other person that worked as a general manager or something,
00:20:20.32
youcantcompthis
Okay, okay. Yeah.
00:20:45.19
Robert Steinfeld
he'll come hill He'll help them out if they're if they're out of work like Bernie Bickerstaff or some of these other coaches or players. He'll have them come over and work as a color analyst on our broadcast.
00:20:58.50
Robert Steinfeld
And I think little things like a little loyal things in PJ Carlissimo comes over and does color analyst for us, you know, and they're, they're really good friends.
00:20:58.36
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:21:09.09
Robert Steinfeld
And so yeah, he's loyal to his former players, people that work for him and, you know, he helps out. So I think he has a really good heart and he's very intelligent man.
00:21:17.68
youcantcompthis
Yeah. Yeah. do Where do you see his next phase of his career? Because he stepped away from Team USA basketball.
00:21:28.44
youcantcompthis
Do you think he'll end up as a consultant for Team USA? Or do you think he'll stay in the Spurs fraternity?
00:21:35.46
Robert Steinfeld
Well, you know, I can't speculate what he's going to do in his career, but I can tell I can.
00:21:35.54
youcantcompthis
Yeah,
00:21:38.41
youcantcompthis
yeah that's fair.
00:21:39.46
Robert Steinfeld
But I think as far as a. An honest answer from from me or one that I think, you know, anyone that's been a coach for Team USA is pretty much always a consultant because the past coach is going to go back and consult with them about what you did or what you didn't do.
00:21:53.80
Adz
Mmm.
00:21:54.18
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:21:55.45
Adz
Yeah.
00:21:59.04
Robert Steinfeld
And, you know, I'll tell you what, Steve Kerr, the current Team USA coach, you know, played for the Spurs and and worked with it. I know Steve really well. He was a color analyst for a while on that and on college basketball.
00:22:09.45
youcantcompthis
Yeah. Yeah.
00:22:12.94
Robert Steinfeld
So I know he consulted back with Pop. So you may not be an official consultant, but if you did, you know, I'm sure Pop consulted with ah Coach K, you know, when Coach K was team, you know, before him.
00:22:23.68
youcantcompthis
yeah Yeah.
00:22:26.16
Robert Steinfeld
And so, yeah, once the Team USA coach, I know it was, you know, he was coaching Team USA while he was coaching the Spurs and like, same thing with Kerr. It's a lot of added responsibility.
00:22:37.13
Robert Steinfeld
You've got to be involved in scheduling two teams.
00:22:37.40
youcantcompthis
That's huge. Yeah. Yeah.
00:22:40.48
Robert Steinfeld
You have to delegate stuff and you don't want your teams to suffer from it.
00:22:42.45
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:22:42.69
Adz
Yeah...
00:22:45.30
Robert Steinfeld
So, um yeah.
00:22:46.08
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:22:46.23
Adz
It's a huge undertaking.
00:22:49.17
youcantcompthis
So the other name that was in your spurs part was Larry Brown.
00:22:49.65
Robert Steinfeld
um
00:22:52.56
youcantcompthis
Can we talk about Larry Brown for a little bit? So my love for Larry Brown is that he won the NCAA championship and then obviously the NBA championship.
00:22:55.43
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah.
00:23:01.54
youcantcompthis
And I think for me, why it's significant is because he took that Detroit team that probably had no business beating that Shaq and Kobe team. Like I think in terms of coaching achievements for me, that's, you know, that's right up there.
00:23:12.35
Adz
Mmm.
00:23:13.98
youcantcompthis
Uh, I would say the same thing. He's sort of been known to be a little bit prickly with reporters over the year and sort of that interaction part, but I'm just Googling now he's 84 years old and he's still coaching like, you know, the true definition of a basketball life. Oh, you know, that's yeah.
00:23:29.43
Robert Steinfeld
He's always a coach. I mean, we we did a show, which we also talk about in the book. It won two Emmy Awards called Icons of Coaching. And Larry Brown was one of our subjects of our our special.
00:23:42.14
Robert Steinfeld
So you can read about that in the book.
00:23:42.60
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:23:45.04
Robert Steinfeld
And he then, when we did that interview, he was actually the head coach of SMU basketball at that point. This is after his and NBA career. This is like 10 years ago, or not even that long ago.
00:23:57.45
Robert Steinfeld
But um yeah, we met him up in Dallas and interviewed him and talked he talked about so much about, you know, the Sixers with Allen Iverson. And, you know, when he was with the Spurs, I used to wear like the tortoiseshell glasses, and like he did.
00:24:15.16
Robert Steinfeld
And when I would come off the team bus, people would think I was his son. So like, I was like known as Larry Brown Jr.
00:24:19.75
Adz
Nice.
00:24:21.84
Robert Steinfeld
or something. But But yeah, he was ah very much a defensive-minded coach.
00:24:23.98
Adz
Yep.
00:24:28.22
Robert Steinfeld
And so like Sean Elliott, who played for us, you know he was more of an offensive-minded player. But when Larry Brown was our coach, he would really push you know Sean and teach him to be a great defensive player as well.
00:24:45.39
Robert Steinfeld
But yeah know always nice to us, friendly, and you know was a great coach.
00:24:45.23
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:24:56.21
youcantcompthis
Alrighty, so I think just looking through this Spurs bit a little bit more, I think Dennis Rodman was the next one that definitely caught my eye and you had a bit of a story about him Madonna in the elevator.
00:25:08.23
youcantcompthis
Are you able to chat us through what they were talking about or
00:25:11.78
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah. Okay. So there was a rumor that Dennis Rodman and Madonna were an item back in his bad boy days and when he was playing for the Spurs.
00:25:21.99
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:25:23.55
Robert Steinfeld
And, you know, he actually had a quote in his book about Madonna and said, and I put this in my book too, that, you know, about how he thought that Madonna was really attracted to the bad boys, you know?
00:25:38.88
Robert Steinfeld
And so that's why he figured he liked her.
00:25:41.25
Adz
Yeah.
00:25:42.43
Robert Steinfeld
But we didn't know for sure. We had only heard about it. So we were in Salt Lake City and we were staying like at the Marriott, you know, down a few blocks from the Delta Center in Salt Lake City or playing the jazz.
00:25:57.55
Robert Steinfeld
And yeah, it was about 12 o'clock and I was about an hour relay, I was about to leave to go to the game, walk down the block to the production truck about one o'clock for the seven o'clock game.
00:26:11.36
Robert Steinfeld
When I start hearing it like a really loud knock on my door, I hear like a pounding, bam, bam, bam, bam. And I'm going, okay, the housekeeper's a little bit impatient, right? i go I go, let me just look.
00:26:21.66
youcantcompthis
yeah
00:26:24.11
Robert Steinfeld
And I looked through the peephole and it wasn't my door. It was so loud. It was a door across from my room, directly across the hotel door, across.
00:26:30.95
Adz
down the hall.
00:26:34.83
Robert Steinfeld
But my door was like shaking, it was so loud. And I look out to people and I go, what?
00:26:37.64
youcantcompthis
yeah right
00:26:41.33
Robert Steinfeld
so And I looked and it was Madonna, but I didn't know for sure because like the players normally stay on different floors from us. But apparently Dennis Ron was right across the hall from me and I looked out the door and she's going, Dennis, Dennis, Dennis, let me in, let me in.
00:26:54.88
Adz
Robin was probably probably trying to stay away from the players. God.
00:26:59.69
Robert Steinfeld
And so he lets her in. Apparently she caught him by surprise.
00:27:03.87
youcantcompthis
Yeah, right.
00:27:04.80
Robert Steinfeld
And then he had some, so then about an hour later, I'm leaving to go to the game. I walked down the hallway and there's, Nothing in the hallway, no noise or anything, but the elevator door, I didn't have to wait at all.
00:27:17.53
Robert Steinfeld
It was open and I go, okay, this is great. So I get in the elevator and about to push the button and then I turn and I'm not the only one in this elevator. It's Madonna and Dennis Rodman and the door is going to close and they're having an argument and I'm the fly on the wall.
00:27:34.54
Robert Steinfeld
I go, okay.
00:27:35.20
youcantcompthis
ah
00:27:35.58
Robert Steinfeld
just
00:27:36.35
Adz
Wow.
00:27:36.83
Robert Steinfeld
Don't say anything. What is going on? And he was getting ready to go somewhere. And she wanted to go with him, but he didn't want her to go with him. And I'm listening to this whole conversation. So that was pretty much that.
00:27:49.51
Robert Steinfeld
And then I think she came to the game that night, but not true.
00:27:52.31
youcantcompthis
I feel like back in the day, that would be like front page of TMZ or something, you know, like that was free, you know, Twitter and free Insta.
00:27:56.12
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah.
00:27:56.93
Adz
Yeah, yeah.
00:27:58.48
Robert Steinfeld
it Yeah, I could have just taken my camera.
00:27:59.28
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:28:00.68
Robert Steinfeld
into But you know, what you don't do that.
00:28:02.53
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:28:03.51
Robert Steinfeld
You really know when you're kind of in inside and you don't want to screw with that, let them do what they want in a private life.
00:28:06.49
youcantcompthis
yeah
00:28:06.62
Adz
Mm.
00:28:09.81
Robert Steinfeld
But yeah, but I mean, there's other stories like, you know, with Tim Duncan. I know a lot of people.
00:28:16.02
youcantcompthis
Sure. Let's do Tim Duncan. I can't wait to talk about this actually. Yeah.
00:28:19.61
Robert Steinfeld
Well, this is I think you guys might share with me a little opinion about this, but Tim Duncan is actually a very engaging, funny guy.
00:28:30.37
Robert Steinfeld
and you you But on the court, you only know him as a big fundamental you know with his bank shots and very serious with what he does.
00:28:34.78
Adz
Yep.
00:28:35.11
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:28:35.94
Adz
This goes to work. Yep.
00:28:38.34
Robert Steinfeld
but and he's he yeah not so He's more of an introvert you know on the court.
00:28:44.13
Adz
Yep.
00:28:44.68
Robert Steinfeld
he's He doesn't try to be showy. That's why San Antonio was a perfect place for him.
00:28:49.52
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:28:49.81
Robert Steinfeld
No pressure to be a celebrity or a star.
00:28:51.29
Adz
No nonsense as well. Yep.
00:28:53.17
Robert Steinfeld
He could kind of just do his career kind of like in a small, or
00:28:53.16
youcantcompthis
Sorry. just Just to interrupt and just to like go back to Rodney for two seconds. I feel like he would have lost his mind in San Antonio. Cause I've been there. That place is like quiet as anything at night.
00:29:03.57
youcantcompthis
You know, where did he go to party?
00:29:05.70
Robert Steinfeld
Oh, don't don't worry about that.
00:29:05.91
youcantcompthis
Did he?
00:29:06.64
Adz
Rodman Yeah
00:29:07.26
Robert Steinfeld
There's plenty going on in San Antonio.
00:29:08.98
youcantcompthis
Okay. Maybe I still know the places where to go then.
00:29:09.77
Robert Steinfeld
Okay, you're wrong about that.
00:29:11.38
youcantcompthis
Okay.
00:29:11.69
Robert Steinfeld
there's part It's this Fiesta town, man.
00:29:11.78
youcantcompthis
Okay. Okay. Yeah.
00:29:15.31
Robert Steinfeld
that's the and They got the river, you got Fiesta going on.
00:29:15.28
youcantcompthis
Yeah, right. Okay.
00:29:18.35
Robert Steinfeld
I mean, yeah, San Antonio can have a really great time down there.
00:29:19.89
youcantcompthis
Okay. I just assumed he flew back to Dallas for the evening or something on a private jet.
00:29:25.36
Robert Steinfeld
No, but he's he's from Dallas, right?
00:29:25.88
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:29:27.84
Robert Steinfeld
So that's where he he played high school and, you know, anyway, so so anyway, so yeah, so yeah, so there was one game where, you know, I used to fly from Dallas and meet the team on the road.
00:29:33.37
youcantcompthis
Yep. Sorry. Tim Duncan. Yep.
00:29:45.63
Robert Steinfeld
And so we're playing in Toronto one day, Air Canada Centre it was then, and it was about 12 o'clock. I arrived at the marina, but and normally the truck production truck opens about one o'clock.
00:29:59.53
Robert Steinfeld
But so I sauntered on my way onto the into the arena and the Spurs were still doing their shoot around. And for those that don't know what a shoot around is, that's kind of like where they walk through the the game plan for the night. It's usually about a 45 minute to hour practice.
00:30:15.71
Robert Steinfeld
on the court and then they go back to the hotel and then they don't come back till about two hours before the game in a bus then the team bus but the team was out there and you know you're not really supposed to talk to the players at all really unless they happen to be
00:30:29.85
Adz
Yeah.
00:30:32.41
Robert Steinfeld
Walking by or even you see them in the hotel lobby and they come but you still really just let them do their own thing and you know And you just mind your own business and you'll be you'll see keep your job well um So now I remembered that Tim had not been feeling well the day before and so I he starts the practices ending and now I He started walking over right where I was sitting on the side of the court and I kind of looked down and I go, wow, there's some like warm ups and stuff.
00:30:33.20
Adz
Hmm.
00:30:39.13
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:31:03.38
Robert Steinfeld
I guess he's coming for his warm ups and he's coming right to me. It's literally right in the next seat. So he comes up to me and I say, I said, well, I've got to say something.
00:31:15.07
Robert Steinfeld
I go, Timmy, how are you feeling? He goes, oh, You know, I'm all right. I'm going to play tonight. How are you? And I thought to I said, wow, he's asking me, how am I? and i got I feel great, Timmy. I scored 21 points in the JBA, the Jewish Basketball Association, yesterday. And he looks at me and he goes, he goes, seriously, he goes, got to dominate where you can, man. So nice guy.
00:31:47.46
youcantcompthis
i I actually, rob that's a really good joke.
00:31:48.82
Adz
so... and
00:31:50.86
youcantcompthis
i um
00:31:51.07
Robert Steinfeld
And it's true. It was just a look on his face. He was serious.
00:31:55.73
youcantcompthis
yeah
00:31:55.94
Robert Steinfeld
But he was. It was like funny. Got to dominate where you can, man. So i really I really talk about that in the book. And that's my like little slogan. you know When I sign books, got to dominate where you can, man.
00:32:07.64
youcantcompthis
I've heard he's like quite a funny guy outside of, you know, sort of forward facing media and all that type of stuff.
00:32:09.69
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah.
00:32:12.07
Adz
Yeah.
00:32:13.40
youcantcompthis
So that's yeah, that's really cool.
00:32:14.32
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah.
00:32:16.82
youcantcompthis
ah Do you want to talk about your book for a little bit now? This seems like the perfect opportunity to to run this through.
00:32:22.16
Robert Steinfeld
No, I don't really want to talk about my book. No, I'm kidding.
00:32:25.67
Adz
yeah
00:32:25.97
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, for sure.
00:32:26.68
youcantcompthis
ah
00:32:27.48
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, it took me about four years to write it. um not Really, 40 years to write it, actually, because you know I um wasn't planning on writing a book, but I knew that if when I had any like kind of big moments in that I would, like you know most people do, you know you journal it.
00:32:35.26
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:32:46.30
Robert Steinfeld
you know Write down things because you never know sometimes when you want to relive a story or someone to ask you.
00:32:51.80
Adz
Yeah.
00:32:53.86
Robert Steinfeld
And you know what? You really don't actually realize, you know, 20, 25 years ago, you have a big moment and you're going to think, well, I'm always going to remember every detail about this moment.
00:33:07.44
Robert Steinfeld
You really don't.
00:33:07.32
Adz
Yeah.
00:33:08.36
Robert Steinfeld
And so if you write it down and journal it, then maybe when you tell the story or write a book later on, you actually have the points pretty accurately.
00:33:19.15
Robert Steinfeld
Right.
00:33:19.29
Adz
Yeah.
00:33:19.50
youcantcompthis
Yeah, that will be my thing.
00:33:20.48
Robert Steinfeld
And.
00:33:20.86
youcantcompthis
If I was not writing something down, there's no way I could go back and remember all this stuff.
00:33:25.50
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, and so and sometimes people will remind me of more details because they were involved in the story, but
00:33:26.12
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:33:30.37
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:33:32.51
Robert Steinfeld
um So then during COVID, um when there were no sports to produce, there was nothing going on.
00:33:39.40
youcantcompthis
Yeah, right.
00:33:40.25
Robert Steinfeld
We couldn't do anything.
00:33:40.78
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:33:41.33
Robert Steinfeld
you know And so I'm home a lot.
00:33:41.78
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:33:43.51
Robert Steinfeld
And my wife looks at me one day and says, You know, you're really starting to get into my hair. Why don't you go write a book or something?
00:33:49.98
Adz
ah Yeah.
00:33:51.85
Robert Steinfeld
So I did.
00:33:51.70
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:33:53.05
Robert Steinfeld
I wrote a book i wrote the book and it took me, that's about when I started, but it takes about four years from that point, you know, know once you find the publisher and then you do, if you do, most people don't.
00:34:03.92
Robert Steinfeld
It's like 98% can't get a publisher, but I was lucky and they wanted to publish my book and TCU Press in Fort Worth. And yeah, and so now they help and distribute it all over the place.
00:34:18.21
Robert Steinfeld
But, you know, it's not just a book about, you know, producing sports events. Well, there's a lot of that, right? And directing big events.
00:34:26.43
Adz
Yep.
00:34:29.25
Robert Steinfeld
But it's basically a story about some kid teenage kid and that knew what he wanted to do when he was in elementary school and set a path of getting a hard journalism background and then not having anybody basically handing him a job or you know or offering him stuff without
00:34:37.06
Adz
Yeah.
00:34:50.80
Robert Steinfeld
him blazing his own path and trail. you know so And so people that have read the book already you know look and say, you know I want to make sure every parent that I know gives this book to their kids so they can read it and learn how to be successful on a personal basis and the professional basis.
00:34:54.08
Adz
Yeah.
00:35:06.83
Adz
Yeah.
00:35:13.58
Robert Steinfeld
you know and doing it on your own. And he goes, that's it's kind of a subliminal message of the book.
00:35:16.03
Adz
Yeah.
00:35:19.86
Robert Steinfeld
you know And and you know you get a sense from me that I really enjoy what I'm doing, and I'm passionate about it. Because one of the things that I tell students when I talk to them is,
00:35:29.73
youcantcompthis
become.
00:35:37.32
Robert Steinfeld
Whatever you want to do, make sure you're passionate at what you're doing because you will be the best at what you like doing the most and when you're competing in a sport or anything that you do, especially in our business where there are finite opportunities.
00:35:56.75
Robert Steinfeld
you know There's only 12 WNBA teams and you know finite number of MLB and NBA teams.
00:36:00.55
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:36:03.90
Robert Steinfeld
you know And so there's not that many people that have that opportunity.
00:36:04.53
Adz
Spot on, yeah.
00:36:08.63
Robert Steinfeld
So you have to be passionate at what you do. You always have to do the best job you can every time it And it doesn't matter whether you're on a like doing a starting out doing a little league game or a lower level game, you know the championship means as much to those people participating in that level of sport and their parents as the other people do.
00:36:15.61
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:36:32.67
Adz
Yeah.
00:36:33.82
Robert Steinfeld
The other people may win a ring and everything like that. How many times have you watched something where you know junior level or teenage kids win and you and they show a shot of parents and there's tears coming down their eyes and and everything?
00:36:47.50
Adz
Yeah.
00:36:47.87
Robert Steinfeld
so So when I produce an event, I'm giving it my all and I know how much it means to everyone that's in that game. They want to win.
00:36:56.94
Adz
Yeah.
00:36:57.52
Robert Steinfeld
And so you want to get that across. And so you have to have that inside of you. um to be get to the top level, I think, and then maintain your career for as long as as I have and I'm still doing it. You know, because sometimes people will go, we were at dinner a few weeks ago and one of my friend's wives said to my my wife, without me hearing this, because I think I went to the bathroom or or something, she goes, whoa.
00:37:27.32
Robert Steinfeld
I don't understand it. My husband's been retired for a few years and everything. Why is Bobby still working? he does Do you guys really need the money?
00:37:39.30
Robert Steinfeld
Are you financially a thing?
00:37:39.42
youcantcompthis
needed. Yeah. Yeah.
00:37:41.06
Robert Steinfeld
And she goes, you don't get it. you know so he He loves what he does.
00:37:45.45
Adz
yeah Yeah.
00:37:45.69
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:37:45.98
Robert Steinfeld
and that's yeah Anyway, I know I've been talking a lot. but but but
00:37:49.89
Adz
No, the I think the the love loving what you do or ah like the passion really just shows through if you if you do what you love, then it's not it's not a job. It's yeah, it becomes part of your life.
00:38:00.95
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, exactly.
00:38:03.23
Adz
Yeah, exactly.
00:38:04.56
Robert Steinfeld
It could be work.
00:38:04.95
youcantcompthis
That's why Larry Brown is still coaching at 84, right? It's exactly the same like philosophy.
00:38:07.73
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, exactly.
00:38:08.70
Adz
yeah Yep, yep, yep.
00:38:09.27
youcantcompthis
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm definitely very interested in successful people and. what makes them there and and how that sort of journey gets there. So what you touched on before, actually that part of my head I'm really interested to, you know, to listen to. So that I'm, I'm actually really keen to get in and have a read of that part of your book. I'm not going to lie to you. The part of the book i I did read before we came on to do the interview was the Spurs part. And other than that, I haven't read, you know, much more, but I'll definitely go back and read that bit because I think I've got two young kids and that's probably something else that goes through my head too. It's like, how do you,
00:38:44.38
youcantcompthis
motivate, you know, your children to have that drive. And I'm not too sure.
00:38:51.10
Adz
yeah I guess you you get you let them discover what they want rather than than because there are a lot of parents out there that do want to pass on what they want.
00:38:53.87
youcantcompthis
That's exactly right. How do you? Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. But how do you motivate someone to have that drive to be successful?
00:39:00.04
Adz
Yeah, yeah.
00:39:00.38
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, well, okay, this is a perfect segue to my son.
00:39:03.54
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:39:06.95
Robert Steinfeld
And my son oh went to the University of Texas undergraduate, and then he decided in his senior year, he wanted to go to law school.
00:39:18.11
Robert Steinfeld
And I said, Lee, I go, if you I've been putting money away for your college for 20 years, 18 years till you got to college. Okay, we're good with that. And it's not that we're financially strapped, but if you were planning on going to law school, maybe you might've told us this a few years ago, so we could put money away.
00:39:37.87
Robert Steinfeld
It costs a lot of money to go to law school, right? And for a few years.
00:39:40.08
youcantcompthis
Yeah, right.
00:39:42.44
Robert Steinfeld
And we said, okay, you get in, you know, so we got into SMU law school in Dallas, which is really good. And then he ah worked you know for a law firm and then he became a staff attorney for NTT data. And then we were at did eating dinner one night at home and he was eating with us and he said he goes mom and dad there's something I really wanted to talk to you about and I go what because you know I started this YouTube channel and it's doing pretty well and I think if I quit my job as an attorney and devote my full time to this YouTube channel I think I can do a lot better and we we all hit ourselves
00:40:23.01
Robert Steinfeld
so Well, yeah, that's a lot of money invested in that career. But but we but we've both immediately said, you know what?
00:40:28.00
Adz
Yeah.
00:40:30.94
Robert Steinfeld
If that's what you're most passionate about and that's what you want to do, pursue it. You know you can always go back to being an attorney. And and guess what? You can still use your law ah education in negotiating your contracts and everything with YouTube and these other channels.
00:40:48.17
Adz
Yeah.
00:40:49.01
Robert Steinfeld
that So now,
00:40:50.90
Adz
Good point.
00:40:51.20
Robert Steinfeld
He has 1.9 million subscribers and is very successful and has Leon Hartz's handle and he specializes in the Pokemon cards collecting.
00:40:53.73
youcantcompthis
you know,
00:41:02.60
youcantcompthis
do you remember what year he had that conversation with you and how many years he'd been doing it before that?
00:41:07.27
Robert Steinfeld
I would say it's probably, you know, about nine years ago, somewhere in there.
00:41:13.13
youcantcompthis
Yeah, yeah.
00:41:13.44
Adz
Yeah.
00:41:14.41
youcantcompthis
So maybe he was then entered at maybe one or two years before he Yeah, because I feel like, um,
00:41:17.12
Adz
The right stage.
00:41:21.75
Adz
The YouTube boom, I think would call it.
00:41:23.17
youcantcompthis
Yeah, you he, it sounds like he was in at the ground floor and he could sort of see like what was coming.
00:41:23.74
Adz
Yeah.
00:41:28.09
youcantcompthis
Whereas I think, you know, part of the issue now is there's 25 billion, I'm using air quotes now, content creators, right?
00:41:28.14
Adz
Mm hmm.
00:41:28.75
Robert Steinfeld
Yes.
00:41:35.70
youcantcompthis
And so the people that, you know, did it 10 years ago, are you know, doing fantastically out of it now. So like good on him for, you know, seeing the writing on the wall and yeah.
00:41:44.69
Adz
it that visionary level stuff where yeah the content's consumed but and and you see a need there or just a want there from the market, yeah.
00:41:46.91
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:41:47.78
Robert Steinfeld
Right. and
00:41:53.89
Robert Steinfeld
Right. And then he's also involved in a company called Rare Candy, which works with the collectible cards, rare collectible cards, and kind of acts as a ah little broker or an auction house.
00:41:57.42
youcantcompthis
yeah talk to us about that that's
00:42:01.23
Adz
yeah yeah Yep.
00:42:06.71
Robert Steinfeld
you know So people, when they want to invest in the card, they know that their money is going to be safe and they know that the money coming in is going to be guaranteed. you know So
00:42:15.42
Adz
Yeah.
00:42:15.95
Robert Steinfeld
ah You know and then they have a auction site called it's called rare candy you can look it up and and the term rare candy i believe actually comes from pokemon that's what kind of fuels them.
00:42:22.43
youcantcompthis
Yeah, talk to us about that.
00:42:23.70
Adz
It's a Pokémon set, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:42:25.96
Robert Steinfeld
People don't know that but ah but yeah they've also ah just come up with this scanner that will take a card.
00:42:30.00
Adz
They, yeah.
00:42:33.75
Robert Steinfeld
And if you scan it, it's an app on your phone and it scans the card and gives you an accurate reading of what your card is worth. And that has become wildly popular. They just debuted it recently.
00:42:45.69
Robert Steinfeld
And so you don't have to send your card in and it'll grade it.
00:42:45.60
youcantcompthis
Interesting.
00:42:49.60
Robert Steinfeld
And, you know, I mean, one time my son sent one of his $35,000 worth Pokemon card into Beckett or wherever it was to get graded and they lost it.
00:42:49.72
Adz
it up.
00:42:59.69
Adz
Yeah.
00:43:00.95
Robert Steinfeld
They lost it in the factory or wherever it is, their company. And then three months, they didn't at first, they said, well, I don't know what, but then three months later out of nowhere, they found it.
00:43:05.52
Adz
Tell me they they reimbursed.
00:43:14.52
Robert Steinfeld
And so, That was a big save thing, but but that's what I'm saying.
00:43:18.05
Adz
If I went to PSA, it would have been guaranteed, wouldn't it?
00:43:18.93
Robert Steinfeld
That's why, yeah, I don't think I would let something of that value out of my hands, but you know, then now things are evolved to where you don't have to do that.
00:43:26.79
Adz
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
00:43:30.09
Robert Steinfeld
So anyway, that's, that's his company, but, um, um, but anyway, you know, so there's a lot of things in this book, uh, you know, that get into not only my career with, with the NBA, but the WNBA because
00:43:31.32
youcantcompthis
Oh boy.
00:43:45.45
youcantcompthis
less Let's talk about that.
00:43:46.18
Adz
That was, yeah, I was gonna say that's probably the next the the next thing is is talking about, I suppose, women in sport and and the and the the recent, um I guess, is it the resurgence, the spotlight?
00:43:46.99
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:43:57.29
youcantcompthis
It's a boom. I think the last 12 months has been a boom.
00:43:58.77
Adz
The spotlight that's finally been shone onto the WNBA recently, which is is which just great.
00:43:59.82
youcantcompthis
Yeah. Yeah.
00:44:03.82
Robert Steinfeld
You know, I was talking about that exactly because earlier today when I was with a bunch of journalists and You know one of the sub the subtitle in my book is an inside look at sports television journalism and gender equity Because i've been involved in women's sports since the 70s even when the women's college game was not nca basketball was it was aiaw so, uh, you know, it's been that long but um
00:44:29.52
Adz
wow.
00:44:33.26
Robert Steinfeld
And I also had the honor to work for ESPN um and Lifetime Network. It's a cable, a national cable channel and in the United States.
00:44:41.41
Adz
Yep.
00:44:43.65
Robert Steinfeld
And I produced the first inaugural season, the first season of the WNBA for those networks. So I've been involved in the league since its inception.
00:44:51.64
Adz
Wow.
00:44:54.35
Robert Steinfeld
And now I'm executive producer of the WNBA Dallas Wings for the last nine years.
00:44:56.86
Adz
Yep.
00:45:00.72
Robert Steinfeld
And, you know, we, some of our announcers are legendary ah players. Cheryl Swoops has been as our announcer this year, Nancy Lieberman um and ah and others, you know.
00:45:07.86
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:45:12.84
Robert Steinfeld
So I really think that Caitlin Clark you know obviously people know what kind of impact she has but on the league but it's not it's not just her but but i want to tell you just give you a couple stats
00:45:26.37
youcantcompthis
let's not
00:45:29.47
Adz
Yeah.
00:45:31.66
youcantcompthis
Yeah, so let's deep dive into this because I think um but let's not make assumptions in this space is what I'd like to say because I think I would love to hear your insights into this.
00:45:32.58
Robert Steinfeld
ah
00:45:40.33
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:45:43.10
Robert Steinfeld
Okay, so ah attendance in the WNBA is at 48% over last season.
00:45:43.87
youcantcompthis
yeah
00:45:49.11
Robert Steinfeld
There were 154 sellouts compared to only 45 in 2023.
00:45:49.09
youcantcompthis
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
00:45:55.31
Robert Steinfeld
There are now three teams that are going to be added to the WNBA, Golden State in 25 and then Portland and Toronto in 2026. The WNBA social media drew 2.2% 2 billion video hits, which quadrupled the number from 2023.
00:46:11.82
youcantcompthis
Yep.
00:46:12.30
Robert Steinfeld
The media rights deal for the and NBA and the WNBA is reportedly like 2.2 billion ah for 11 seasons. 22 regular season games average at least a million viewers on TV.
00:46:24.75
Robert Steinfeld
um And last year, the league averaged 9,807 fans per game compared to just 6,615 the preceding year.
00:46:35.70
Robert Steinfeld
so
00:46:35.96
Adz
Massive.
00:46:37.27
Robert Steinfeld
um there's
00:46:38.18
youcantcompthis
I think there's another step to around that her games have been sellout. So they've been moving the games to bigger arenas to basically facilitate, you know, more fans.
00:46:42.22
Robert Steinfeld
There's... Yeah, almost... almost all of them.
00:46:46.46
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:46:46.65
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, the big arenas.
00:46:47.07
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:46:48.15
Robert Steinfeld
And even, I was in Indianapolis for one of her last game, her game where she scored her career high 35, that was on September 15, just last month.
00:46:48.28
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:46:57.45
youcantcompthis
yeah
00:46:57.81
Adz
Yep.
00:46:58.84
Robert Steinfeld
And you cannot believe the feeling when you're walking in there, how loud and boisterous and how exciting it is, you know, around that. But I'm gonna say this, um she's not the only reason why the league, it's like now,
00:47:12.46
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:47:13.58
Adz
Exactly, exactly, yeah.
00:47:13.70
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:47:15.69
Robert Steinfeld
What's happened is she's opened a lot of eyes. I had a friend a good friend of mine He's still a good friend of mine. I played golf with him yesterday. Actually, he he said to me, you know Wow, he goes I'm watching Caitlin Clark game tonight a texted me this a few months ago He goes I didn't realize these women were so good.
00:47:35.56
Robert Steinfeld
You know all the players, you know, they're I go I Yeah, they are. I go, but it took an impetus of Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark, you know, it was kind of a carryover from the NCAA Final Four.
00:47:44.62
Adz
Mmm.
00:47:45.95
youcantcompthis
Aja Wilson.
00:47:48.20
Robert Steinfeld
It's like, they were all watching that and they carried in and now they're seeing that, you know, and Nafisa Collier from the Lynx, who's a teammate of Alanna Smith, Australian, and um
00:47:48.18
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:47:55.15
youcantcompthis
Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
00:47:59.61
Robert Steinfeld
Then ah you know ah Asia Wilson from ah the Las Vegas Aces, Brianna Stewart you know from the New York Liberty.
00:48:05.11
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:48:08.15
youcantcompthis
Liberty.
00:48:09.24
Robert Steinfeld
I mean, there's all these great players that are in the league.
00:48:09.16
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:48:11.88
Robert Steinfeld
And now you're saying, hmm, yeah, this is actually really good. And if last night's basketball game was fantastic. It was the game one of the WNBA Finals.
00:48:21.71
Adz
The finals, yeah.
00:48:22.15
Robert Steinfeld
It was one of the most thrilling games that you could ever see in in any sport at any any level. it was You thought one team was going to win and a second later the other team and then it went to overtime and then you thought New York is going to win the game and that she misses the free throw.
00:48:36.02
Robert Steinfeld
ah you know It's like you couldn't have scripted it better and it was.
00:48:39.82
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:48:39.97
Adz
Yeah.
00:48:41.43
Robert Steinfeld
It was great.
00:48:44.05
youcantcompthis
So what do you think Caitlin Clark's 10 year career arc is going to be? And this is a bit of a leading question to my sort of my follow up question.
00:48:52.26
Adz
Yeah.
00:48:53.29
Robert Steinfeld
She's going to be. one of the greatest players that have ever played the game and she kind of already is like as all around player. Okay, so I was sitting at mid court working for the WNBA and the League on a game that I didn't produce but I also work in the capacity as a
00:49:02.23
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:49:02.45
Adz
oh
00:49:12.17
Robert Steinfeld
Court administrator timeout court in our national telecast. So I am the and NBA rep at the game. I'm talking to the game officials. I'm dealing with replays. I'm talking to the network.
00:49:22.50
Robert Steinfeld
i' ah I'm sitting right at center court.
00:49:22.75
youcantcompthis
Yeah, right.
00:49:24.84
Robert Steinfeld
I have a good job and responsibility. And I'm watching her game in Dallas when she set the WNBA record for 19 assists in a game.
00:49:35.77
Robert Steinfeld
and
00:49:36.19
Adz
Wow.
00:49:36.87
Robert Steinfeld
Well, let's go back to May 3rd, earlier in the year, where I actually, during the shoot-around, I interviewed or asked her a question about, I said, you know what, people talk about your scoring, but you're such a ah great passer, and her eyes lit up, and she smiled.
00:49:47.47
Adz
Mm.
00:49:50.57
Robert Steinfeld
Wow, someone's actually asking me about my passing.
00:49:53.43
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:49:53.73
Robert Steinfeld
And she said, ah know like, ah Leah Boston, some of these other players are just can't wait for you to get in there and get the ball.
00:49:54.31
Adz
Yeah.
00:50:00.27
Robert Steinfeld
She goes, yeah, I can't wait. you know The practices have been fantastic, but I can't wait to play tonight. you know And then in that game that I did with her in July, I think it was, um she had 19 assists.
00:50:11.55
Robert Steinfeld
and it was like And I put this in the book. I got this added to my book. After the book was already kind of proofed, I had him add this got this little sub-chapter added.
00:50:22.73
Robert Steinfeld
There are a few players that I can talk about that have the ability that she does as far as getting the ball to you as a player. She's not necessarily throwing it right where you are, but she can intrinsically be able to to know where you're going to be.
00:50:30.18
Adz
Yeah.
00:50:38.28
Robert Steinfeld
And she'll pass the ball to where you're going to be, not necessarily where you are. And like not a lot of players can do that. and
00:50:46.11
Adz
That's that cerebral level of basketball IQ. Yeah.
00:50:50.56
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:50:51.09
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, Sue Bird could do that. A few other Magic Johnson, you know, I mean, Nancy Lieberman could. um There are a lot of great players that could can do that.
00:51:02.29
youcantcompthis
yeah
00:51:02.57
Robert Steinfeld
But I'm just saying, she was underestimated at her passing ability.
00:51:07.51
Adz
Yeah.
00:51:08.21
youcantcompthis
Sure.
00:51:08.57
Robert Steinfeld
and And she also was really good at quarterbacking it.
00:51:09.15
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:51:12.20
Robert Steinfeld
Hail marrying it all the way down the court and still getting it to you.
00:51:12.70
Adz
Oh, wow.
00:51:16.34
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah.
00:51:16.34
youcantcompthis
Yeah so the stat that I think sticks out to me the most is her shooting distance so she actually shoots on average further than Steph Curry does and so I think that's really interesting for a couple of reasons obviously because of the the physical differences in their stature but she can still you know shoot bombs from that distance and I actually wonder if
00:51:16.64
Adz
Yep.
00:51:26.74
Robert Steinfeld
Okay.
00:51:39.32
youcantcompthis
really the comparison for me in my mind moving forward for her is going to be Steph Curry. The impact that you see Steph's had on the game and then outside of the game too. And I suppose, yeah, ah like in terms of international impact, I actually wonder if she is going to have as equal amount of, you know, impact on the game and also outside of the game.
00:51:47.61
Adz
Yeah, that's a good point. ah Like revolutionize the sport like it's brought it into the yeah.
00:51:59.53
Robert Steinfeld
I, I, I, shit, shit.
00:51:59.69
youcantcompthis
yeah and the other part about her too that's really fascinating for me is like they gave her a really raw deal like they they gave her like a trial by fire and she took every lump every hard foul every foul to the back she just stood up and she's tough as nails and then her mental toughness is on display too because
00:52:12.41
Adz
Yep.
00:52:18.02
youcantcompthis
They didn't go easy on her, you know, and they left her off Team USA, all that type of stuff. And I'm sure there was a part of that that was like mental warfare, right? And she's just been so gracious. She's been so respectful to the elders of the WNBA.
00:52:32.00
youcantcompthis
You know, I think she's just got it all, you know, and I think you're talking about her assists and her playmaking.
00:52:35.16
Robert Steinfeld
She does.
00:52:38.13
youcantcompthis
And I know, and but I think even I've overlooked that in terms of her impact, perhaps.
00:52:42.30
Adz
yeah
00:52:42.92
youcantcompthis
So yeah.
00:52:43.45
Robert Steinfeld
Well, what I was going to say, and I also included this in the book and I keep, it's funny when you do interviews and you hear people being interviewed about the book, they keep referring back to the book. Right. But I did, I did, I'm doing it ah time five decades to, but anyway,
00:52:53.70
youcantcompthis
so Okay. You, you can talk about your book. You deserve four years of, of labor for an hour interview. It's fine. Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Five decades.
00:53:03.61
Robert Steinfeld
right Yeah, but but I've talked about you know her maturity and her mental toughness and the fact that you know when these other players are knocking her down or saying things publicly, she's always like keeping that straight attitude, almost like she's almost subliminally telling you, I understand that's what the game is when you're a rookie.
00:53:04.04
youcantcompthis
Yeah. Yeah.
00:53:09.99
youcantcompthis
yeah Maturity. Exactly. Yeah.
00:53:19.56
youcantcompthis
Yeah. She's up, man. Yeah. Yeah.
00:53:23.14
Adz
Yep.
00:53:26.11
Robert Steinfeld
um Now, she's very she's very vocal on the court.
00:53:26.60
youcantcompthis
That's tough, that's toughness though, yeah.
00:53:31.20
Robert Steinfeld
Don't get me wrong.
00:53:31.62
Adz
ah Yeah.
00:53:32.00
Robert Steinfeld
like ah you can She's vocal to the game officials and to other players. she's yeah But she's that's good. It's good to have that fight in you. But and when you walk when you see her up close, you know sometimes you can see some of the bruises you know that she's gotten from you know being knocked down unfairly.
00:53:41.39
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:53:49.27
Robert Steinfeld
but you But she's handled it like a really true pro. She seems well beyond her her years. um and
00:53:58.06
Adz
Yeah.
00:53:58.48
Robert Steinfeld
I think that that's going to help her. And she has revolutionized. She already has revolutionized the game, you know, with the ratings and the fans and everything that they're purchasing.
00:54:05.22
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:54:05.48
Adz
Yep.
00:54:09.51
Robert Steinfeld
And, you know, I'll tell you what, when the next Olympics comes around and she's on that team and you know she will be, that's going to even push her even even more.
00:54:14.76
youcantcompthis
yeah Yeah.
00:54:18.03
Adz
and we Are we po are we and we positioned for like a, that you remember the dream team, how that was the handing of the torch from magic and bird over to Jordan.
00:54:25.09
youcantcompthis
Oh, I like where you go with this. Yeah.
00:54:28.13
Robert Steinfeld
I can because I can be.
00:54:28.25
Adz
that this is this is that Michael Jordan dream team moment, the next Olympics with Kaitlyn Clark.
00:54:33.64
Robert Steinfeld
It is. And I'm going to tell you a couple of things about that. Number one, if you read my bio a little bit, you'll know I actually produced the official dream team video for NBC Sports in the 92 Barcelona games.
00:54:44.52
youcantcompthis
Yeah, right.
00:54:44.62
Adz
Yeah.
00:54:46.27
Robert Steinfeld
So I was literally staying in the hotel right next to the boutique hotel where the dream team was staying. And you could see all these people and the helicopters that would hover over wherever their bus went and everything in the security.
00:54:56.17
Adz
Yeah.
00:54:58.64
Robert Steinfeld
It was pretty amazing.
00:54:59.06
youcantcompthis
Sorry, I have to ask this. Did you get to go to the practice where it was like um team A versus team B from the dream team? Were you there for that?
00:55:06.57
Robert Steinfeld
That wasn't, I think that was in training camp before they they got to, yeah, that was where they got into the fight, like with magic and them and all that.
00:55:11.12
Adz
and Yeah Yeah
00:55:12.33
youcantcompthis
Okay.
00:55:15.92
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, that was like, with that, you know, you got to keep your egos, you got to see take your egos aside once you get to the level of the Olympics.
00:55:18.54
youcantcompthis
I want to see that whole game.
00:55:23.33
youcantcompthis
The footage is rumored to be out there. You know, I want to see that.
00:55:25.67
Robert Steinfeld
yeah know Yeah, they'll say that's one of the hardest games they've ever played.
00:55:26.77
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:55:30.25
Robert Steinfeld
yeah know I know what you're referring to.
00:55:30.27
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:55:32.45
Robert Steinfeld
But um as far as passing the torch goes, I think it's very similar because it's on with the passing of the torch from like Diana Taurasi who hasn't really officially announced her retirement unless she has in the last day or two and I missed it.
00:55:46.52
Robert Steinfeld
So she's the logo on the WNBA logo is Diana Taurasi.
00:55:50.70
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:55:50.91
Adz
Yeah.
00:55:51.92
youcantcompthis
Yep.
00:55:52.14
Robert Steinfeld
And you know, so when she's leaving, and now, you know, you got the next group coming in. And I think, like you said, Caitlin is seems like a sure bet to be the face of the league for the next 10 to 15 years.
00:56:10.59
Adz
Yeah.
00:56:13.75
youcantcompthis
So why don't we, is there anything else you want to talk about? Otherwise I do have one more question and that will probably be our last like thing we'll be able to talk about today. Is there anything on your mind or would you like me to ask you about the WNBA finals?
00:56:28.81
Robert Steinfeld
No, yeah you take it away.
00:56:30.94
youcantcompthis
All right, great. Why don't you walk us through that? Because I feel like at the moment you literally have the best seats in the house. Like give us a bit of a breakdown and where you think it's going to go.
00:56:40.48
Robert Steinfeld
yeah Yeah. Yeah.
00:56:44.92
Robert Steinfeld
You know what? A lot of times, you know, in any sport, they'll say that defense helps win a championship and you have to have defense.
00:56:52.38
Adz
Mm hmm.
00:56:52.95
Robert Steinfeld
You have to have good offense, but, you know, the Minnesota Lynx have been known
00:56:53.64
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:56:58.62
Robert Steinfeld
their coach Cheryl Reeve is known for that, for great defensive teams.
00:57:01.39
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:57:03.13
Robert Steinfeld
Look, they just upset the the New York Liberty in game one on New York Liberty's home court.
00:57:05.10
Adz
Mm hmm.
00:57:10.21
Robert Steinfeld
You know, people don't realize that the New York Liberty is an inaugural team in the WNBA.
00:57:10.44
youcantcompthis
yeah
00:57:17.47
Robert Steinfeld
They've been to five finals, but they've never won a championship with all the great players that they've had through the years.
00:57:20.50
youcantcompthis
Yeah, right.
00:57:23.65
Robert Steinfeld
And so,
00:57:23.52
youcantcompthis
Just like their pro team, hey?
00:57:24.93
Adz
I was gonna say it's like a New York curse, isn't it?
00:57:27.58
Robert Steinfeld
yeah it's Yeah, but a little different. ah New York's been around a while, the Knicks.
00:57:32.77
Adz
yeah
00:57:33.15
Robert Steinfeld
but And they have had some great players and they've actually achieved it. But you know the Liberty really had the chip on their shoulder. And then when they lost last night, I think that that
00:57:43.54
Adz
we
00:57:48.76
Robert Steinfeld
that could that could be They're going to come out with gangbusters in game two, I know but but and they kind of you know, but great defense can stop the team.
00:57:53.09
youcantcompthis
yeah
00:57:58.38
Robert Steinfeld
And they did last night, the Lynx did, and they ended up winning that game. And so now, you know it's only a best of five. It's not a best of seven. So you know winning the first game, I believe the stat I saw last night, the team that wins game one, when 78% of the ah the time wins the championship.
00:58:11.30
Adz
Wow.
00:58:17.76
youcantcompthis
yeah
00:58:19.00
Robert Steinfeld
So we'll see what happens. i'm going to I still feel like New York, they're not out of it, obviously. They still have more depth than the Lynx do, but but defensively, you know and the Lynx were not even, they were like,
00:58:25.66
Adz
Yeah. Yeah.
00:58:36.05
Robert Steinfeld
Predicted to finish like eighth or something, you know at the beginning of the year, you know And now here they are in the championship game and they're up championship series. They're up one.
00:58:45.64
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:58:45.90
Robert Steinfeld
This is zero so
00:58:46.70
youcantcompthis
Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, can you talk about the defensive coverages on Sabrina on esco? Cause I feel like for me, that's sort of the key matchup or the key part of the taking the Liberty, you know, down really.
00:59:00.89
Robert Steinfeld
Well, they did. She didn't have a good shooting night last night, but you know what?
00:59:01.53
Adz
and Yeah.
00:59:03.44
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:59:04.25
Robert Steinfeld
She's known as pretty much the snake of the team. You know, like you cut the head of the snake off and... Well, she's the head of the snake. you know So if you cut her off, you have a chance to win.
00:59:13.08
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:59:16.43
Robert Steinfeld
But even then, they still have like so many other weapons. But she didn't have a good shooting night. And that could be because of the effort ah the of the team in covering her you know with the Lynx.
00:59:25.74
Adz
Yeah.
00:59:26.73
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:59:27.45
Robert Steinfeld
And the Lynx, like I said, are a very good defensive team. And s Sabrina needs to have a better game for them to win. And she's a tough player. She had a big third quarter, I believe last night, but she needs to have a good four quarters total.
00:59:35.14
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
00:59:42.94
Adz
yeah Yeah, and if the if the Liberty don't bounce, I guess if they fight if the links keep they they the pressure on or the clamps on, this yeah this could be an upset series very quickly.
00:59:55.84
youcantcompthis
I've only watched half of the game. I actually haven't, because it happened our time when I was working yesterday. So I've sort of watched about half of the game. I haven't watched the whole thing, but the thing that I've really noticed was how much pressure they were putting on her even before she had the ball.
01:00:08.24
youcantcompthis
And then just the amount of ball pressure that had on her when she had it, it was, it was actually quite, I feel like that was their game plan was just to sort of take her out of it. And then after that, that was, I feel like they're almost prepared to deal with, you know, whatever else happened, you know, that it's almost the,
01:00:19.93
Adz
Well, it makes it a level playing field if you take that piece off the board, right?
01:00:22.83
youcantcompthis
Yeah, it's almost like the Alan Iverson thing where it's just like, you know, send two or three defenders at him and then let the rest of the team score, you know?
01:00:24.88
Adz
Yeah.
01:00:26.89
Robert Steinfeld
Well, it's true, but it wasn't working.
01:00:29.12
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
01:00:32.00
Robert Steinfeld
it really they were They were down by double digits a lot and they they were only in the fourth quarter.
01:00:32.56
Adz
No, no. Yeah.
01:00:36.00
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
01:00:36.08
Adz
the like The last quarter to push it to overtime. Yeah.
01:00:38.69
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, there's no way, even like with a minute and a half to go, it looked like they didn't have a chance to win. But Courtney Williams and then Nafisa Collier hits that shot.
01:00:44.11
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
01:00:47.25
Robert Steinfeld
So I mean, you need to see that shot that Courtney Williams hit at the end of regulation. And then you'll see how exciting the game, thought that whole last three minutes of the game is worth watching for anyone that didn't see it.
01:00:57.65
Adz
Yeah.
01:01:00.29
youcantcompthis
I haven't watched the second half yet, so I definitely need to go back and check it out. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
01:01:05.03
Robert Steinfeld
um But anyway, just for my book, you know, if anyone wants more information about it, you know, yeah,
01:01:10.52
youcantcompthis
Yeah, sure. Where can we find out about your book? Where can we buy it from? Tell us about it. That's totally fine. Let's do it.
01:01:15.14
Robert Steinfeld
my name, robertsteinfeld.com, and you can look that up.
01:01:15.36
youcantcompthis
Yeah. yep Yeah.
01:01:18.92
Adz
We'll put we'll put all this in into the into the show notes and our posts on socials and stuff.
01:01:21.80
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
01:01:22.09
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah.
01:01:25.58
Robert Steinfeld
And it's available everywhere. I have a bookstores worldwide as far as like online bookstores and then it will be in bookstore.
01:01:31.50
Adz
Yep.
01:01:32.79
Robert Steinfeld
It's actually being released on October 22nd. So that's just in a few days. And then I'll be making a ah book tour around the United States, a mini book tour starting on October 20th.
01:01:45.93
Adz
Perfect.
01:01:46.70
Robert Steinfeld
Don't have a stop in Australia at this point, but someone wants to find me out there and sponsor me.
01:01:49.03
Adz
ah
01:01:51.70
youcantcompthis
It's pretty far to fly to be fair.
01:01:53.01
Robert Steinfeld
I might might might go.
01:01:53.45
youcantcompthis
yeah I don't think our you can't comp this budget is going to stretch to a business clock flight for you.
01:01:56.01
Robert Steinfeld
um
01:02:00.26
youcantcompthis
I'm sorry, Robert.
01:02:01.41
Robert Steinfeld
by the way By the way, no, they're not. By the way, if you you read a little bit more in my book, you're gonna find that I actually have a chapter on someone that was in the known one as one of ah Australia's greatest ah commodities was Olivia Newton-John.
01:02:20.51
Adz
Olivia Newton John Wow.
01:02:20.98
youcantcompthis
Yeah, right.
01:02:22.21
Robert Steinfeld
And she was one of my favorites, but I actually went to one of her first United States concerts and I wrote a review for my college newspaper and I reprinted that in my book.
01:02:32.48
Robert Steinfeld
And then I actually got to meet her in Las Vegas um about ah eight years ago, maybe not that long ago.
01:02:33.53
Adz
Yeah.
01:02:40.28
youcantcompthis
So is that pre-Grease you were writing reviews about her?
01:02:42.91
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah.
01:02:43.08
youcantcompthis
Was that Xanadu?
01:02:43.91
Robert Steinfeld
Yes. sure
01:02:44.11
Adz
yeah
01:02:45.36
youcantcompthis
What song tour was that for?
01:02:46.14
Robert Steinfeld
it was No, she was just starting out. She was performing at the Houston Livestock in Rhode Island.
01:02:49.41
youcantcompthis
Yeah, right.
01:02:51.54
Robert Steinfeld
It was her first big concert in the United States. I knew she was because she had one hit song out.
01:02:54.72
Adz
Wow.
01:02:57.56
Robert Steinfeld
I Honestly Love You, I think.
01:02:57.68
youcantcompthis
What was the hit song she had?
01:02:59.59
Robert Steinfeld
and then
01:02:59.82
Adz
Yep. Yep.
01:02:59.97
youcantcompthis
Okay, yeah. yeah
01:03:00.97
Robert Steinfeld
and then um And then her agent, Lee Kramer, I believe his name is, he talks in the book and he goes, yeah, she's getting real popular. She's starting to look at scripts for movies, but she's only going to do one that kind of she feels most comfortable with, you know?
01:03:17.23
Robert Steinfeld
And then then Greece came out a few years later and Xanadu after that.
01:03:19.30
youcantcompthis
Yeah, that was ridiculously, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:03:24.11
Robert Steinfeld
But yeah, um so I did get to meet her backstage and and everything. So that was kind of neat. So I had to put that in there because my friends knew how much I really liked her.
01:03:33.20
Adz
Yeah.
01:03:35.41
Robert Steinfeld
um So I know along with the Bee Gees.
01:03:35.66
youcantcompthis
Oh, she's an Aussie icon. You can't, um, that's fine.
01:03:37.91
Adz
That's it. That's it.
01:03:41.85
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, I love the Bee Gees. So.
01:03:44.59
youcantcompthis
Well, thank you so much. I've had an absolutely fantastic morning. um We're honored that you'll come onto the show and share all of your stories with us and we wish you best of luck with your book release and we hope it does really well.
01:03:56.92
Adz
yeah and
01:03:58.30
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
01:03:58.71
Adz
Yeah, and and for those who are playing at home once again, it's called the book is called 321 we're on the air. um And I've just noticed on the cover, it says an introduction by Bill Walton.
01:04:09.94
Robert Steinfeld
Right. And Bill passed away in May, unfortunately, obviously.
01:04:14.06
Adz
Yeah.
01:04:14.07
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
01:04:15.23
Robert Steinfeld
But I've worked with Bill Walton on the beach volleyball for NBC Sports in the Olympics because he played volleyball.
01:04:15.53
Adz
Yeah.
01:04:23.49
Robert Steinfeld
I actually worked with him doing basketball.
01:04:24.14
Adz
Yeah.
01:04:26.43
Robert Steinfeld
And then when I did an Icons of Coaching episode with about John Wooden, the former I had a legendary coach for UCLA who he played for.
01:04:33.19
Adz
Mm hmm.
01:04:34.98
Robert Steinfeld
We actually flew out to San Diego and we went to Bill Walton's home, ah which is really cool and with all grateful dead music stuff and paraphernalia and there's a picture in the book of us together.
01:04:37.77
Adz
Wow.
01:04:46.59
Adz
Awesome.
01:04:47.49
Robert Steinfeld
Well, I i just asked him if he would write a little introduction for the book. and this was And then about it was may of ah that it was June of a year ago, and then not this past one, the prior one.
01:05:00.85
Adz
Yeah.
01:05:04.03
Robert Steinfeld
And he sent it to me.
01:05:03.99
Adz
Yeah.
01:05:04.99
Robert Steinfeld
And then i then I was surprised. I didn't know he was that gravely ill, though, later, a year later, and then passed away in May, which what a great guy he was.
01:05:11.15
Adz
Yeah.
01:05:14.17
Robert Steinfeld
But when you read the introduction, if you knew Bill Walton, you know that Bill Walton wrote that because it's like such
01:05:14.70
Adz
yeah
01:05:20.94
youcantcompthis
Yeah, I can hear his voice like reading it out to you.
01:05:22.82
Adz
Yeah.
01:05:23.26
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
01:05:23.51
Adz
yeah
01:05:24.14
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
01:05:24.43
Robert Steinfeld
Yeah, yeah, it was like it's like it's like Fanta it's it's not very long um I'd like to if you got a second I can read it I can read it too.
01:05:34.45
Adz
Of course.
01:05:34.58
youcantcompthis
Please.
01:05:36.21
Robert Steinfeld
Okay, so
01:05:39.11
Robert Steinfeld
Dr. Bob Steinfeld's latest masterpiece, 3-2-1, We're On The Air, perfectly captures the essence of our lives. Storytelling, which is the basis of knowledge, education, and entertainment.
01:05:49.89
youcantcompthis
Yep, that's Bill Walton, yep.
01:05:50.12
Robert Steinfeld
Leadership, a requisite for success in production, actually making it all happen. There are two elements that define Bob Steinfeld. He has spent his life in the cockpit of high stakes, intense pressure of media content,
01:06:03.98
Robert Steinfeld
creation and delivery. He's forever behind the camera in the production truck, calling the shots, steering the show, keeping it real and ensuring his team stays on track. I know I was there.
01:06:16.17
Robert Steinfeld
He's as good as it gets, as is his tail. Bob is at the top of the mountain. Come with us here on our wild ride through life, on our way to the promised land.
01:06:24.02
youcantcompthis
yeah
01:06:26.09
Robert Steinfeld
The countdown has begun, the pressure's on.
01:06:27.93
Adz
and
01:06:28.59
Robert Steinfeld
This space is getting hot. Three, two, one, we're on the air. Bill Walton.
01:06:34.62
Adz
Oh God, that is classic.
01:06:35.22
youcantcompthis
That's awesome.
01:06:38.71
Robert Steinfeld
Anyway, I appreciate you guys having me on and I really enjoyed it.
01:06:38.65
Adz
Oh, awesome.
01:06:40.82
youcantcompthis
Yeah, thanks for coming. Yeah, great.
01:06:43.98
Adz
ah Thanks so much, Bob. We really appreciate it. And yeah, we look forward to reading, reading the book.
01:06:49.22
youcantcompthis
Yeah.
01:06:51.57
Robert Steinfeld
Thanks a lot, guys.