Last Monday CDub mentioned something to me that I thought was interesting.  He said we needed to interview Mike Rice. I thought it was a great idea, so during courtside, as many of you know, I shot them an e-mail and hoped for the best. Mike graciously accepted my request and he agreed to meet me before the game against the Warriors on Saturday. I met Mike at Schonely's Place at 5pm and he took me down to the court so we could do the interview courtside while Joel, LaMarcus and Brandon were shooting around. It was my first official Bust a Bucket interview and Mr. Rice made it a great first effort. He also agreed to do a little spot for the website which is posted below and on the right sidebar. I'd also like to publicly thank Mike one more time for being such a great announcer and a great guy, a hybrid of sorts.

We took a bunch of the questions submitted by our readers, the reader who submitted each question is labeled right after the question below.

PS. Last but not least, after the interview with Mike I was able to finally meet up with Ben from Blazer's Edge. He was sitting courtside by the Warrior shoot-around, getting shoe and tattoo pictures, it was good to finally meet one of the masterminds behind Blazer's Edge. Also shout outs to Mike Acker from Trailblazers.com, Michael Tillery from the Portland Observer, & Zach, our man with the Red Bulls. Anyway, let's get onto the interview, Mike Rice's responses are all in italics, enjoy!

If you look at the teams who have won NBA championships over the past few years like the Celtics, Spurs, and Heat--you can see that each one had a player that opposing fans would call "dirty".  Do we have a player who is scrappy, clutch and hard working like that? Someone like James Posey or Bruce Bowen. Is that a piece we still need? (T. Boyd)

Each team had their own philosophy of how to win and most of those included a physical philosophy, you can't be pushed around. If you look at the Blazer team, probably the only guy that fits that mold is Joel Przybilla. He has the philosophy, most of the guys are young and they really havent found the best way to win basketball games. I think Nate McMillan is an old school coach and will agree with you that we need a player that's more physical on the outside, we don't have one yet. I think Kevin Pritchard would look at that and think we need somebody more physical, it is one of the things we need. We have to get more physical if we are going to be a championship contender.

What are your feelings on Travis Outlaw?  I know he is well liked by his teammates but do you see him in the long-term plans? (DPJones)

Travis has been [in the league] for this is his sixth year, and I think Travis has improved his offense every year. He's getting better. I think to help this team take another step he needs to improve defensively. We haven't seen that as much as we've seen in his offense. I think whether he stays or not will depend on how much he improves his defense the rest of this year. That will determine whether he's with us in the future.

Regarding trades, who do you see as a more expendable player, Sergio Rodriguez or Jerryd Bayless? Both are certainly trade bait, but which one would fit in with the future of our team? (O Storm!)

Well, I think Jerryd Bayless is the type of player that will make up the Blazers future. I think he's hard nosed, he's a competitor, he's a modern day basketball player who can get to the rim and shoot foul [shots] like Brandon Roy, he can shoot outside, I think he'll be around for a long time. Unless, there is a super star involved in the trade and the other team wants Bayless, that's the only reason they'll make the trade. Otherwise I see him here. Sergio Rodriguez, it just depends on what the Blazers do in the trade market, whether he stays.

Who are your favorite Trail Blazers of all time? (Friend of the Blog Jerry)

I enjoyed Danny Ainge, I enjoyed Terry Porter, Clyde Drexler.  Simply because they were guys that when you weren't on the basketball court, you were traveling or had dinner with, you could talk basketball with them.  They were guys that knew the history of the NBA, who had played in the NBA, who did well.  There are a lot of modern day players that really don't know the NBA before Michael Jordan.  And so I enjoy those three a lot.  I enjoy, modern day, Brandon Roy.  I think Brandon Roy is the type of super star that every team is looking for.  He's friendly off the court, he knows the history of the NBA, he's appreciative of what he has, so he'd be the modern day guy I really enjoy being around.

Who is the better radio play by play man, Schonely or Wheels? (CDub)

You know, it's interesting.  My career here with the Blazers, I've been with Schonely and Eddie Doucette.  They were two of the great old time anouncers.  Eddie Doucette was with Milwaukee for years and he introduced the phrase, "Sky Hook" and so he had a great past.  And Schonely, of course had "Rip City."  And in the modern day, Wheels is the modern day guy.  The type of anouncer that has, you know, Schonely had "Rip City," he has "Boom-Shaka-laka."  They're very much the same.  I think Mike Barrett is also in that category.  He does tv now and you don't have as many sayings on tv, but I think Mike Barrett is a modern announcer along with Wheels.  But I don't think you can pick a best, they were all super announcers.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you don't have a signature sign off phrase when the Blazers win do you? What do you think about, "We're eating steak tonight!?" Any other ideas? (Scotty B!)

Well, you know, that's infringing on the play-by-play guys' territory.  Play-by-play guys make up nicknames, they have signature phrases, where analysts know the game.  They shouldn't jump in over a play-by-play guy.  For instance, when he's making a final call:  "The shot is good!" and he goes crazy.  Cause if you break in there, that's really not your job.  An analyst on tv talks a lot.  A lot more than radio.  A radio analyst hardly talks at all because you can't see the game, so the play-by-play guy has to do most of the talking.

So have you ever broken in on the play-by-play guy?

On tv, yes, because in tv, you're kind of allowed.  They can see it.  And Barrett lets me have a lot of room to work.  A good television play-by-play man is very difficult because you got to know when to let the analyst in.  You got to know what to say.  It's two completely different jobs.  It's easier for me to be a television analyst because you get to talk more.  On radio, you hardly get to say anything at all.

It's not too often that a player gets drafted (1962, 8th round) by the NBA but doesn't even attend training camp, do you have any regrets about not giving the NBA a shot?  (CDub)

Not really.  I blew out my knee right before I was supposed to go.  Otherwise I might have gone cause really, there were only eight teams in the NBA at the time, so I was really a second-round draft pick in today's world.  When I blew out my knee, I got a coaching job immediately, and I had to make a decision... Rehab my knee and go back to the NBA or take a coaching job?  And I took the coaching job.

I know you're a big golfer, a 6 handicap is pretty impressive, over the years have you played with any Blazer players? Who were the most memorable? (CDub)

Yeah, I've played with all of them.  Terry Porter and Ainge were the best golfers.  And almost everybody plays; Clyde Drexler, Buck..  They all played golf.  Today, the young guys really haven't gotten into that.  The last 3 or 4 years, I can count on one hand...  Even Steve Blake's dad is a 2 handicap and Steve Blake doesn't play, and you would think he would play because his dad plays all the time.  Modern guys don't take their clubs.  When I used to go on road trips, all the players took their clubs.  Especially... Greg Anthony was another guy that I played with all the time on the road.  But today, I take my tennis racket and I play with Barrett tennis cause it's too tough to find anyone to play golf with.

Okay, so golf courses around Portland, what's one of your favorites?

I like The Reserve, you know, I've played every course there is in the city, or almost in the state. Everyday I find something good about any golf course I've played, I really don't have a favorite, anywhere that's free.

You're the only announcer to ever get kicked out of a game. I have to ask you about this, as some young blazer fans have never heard about it. Can you share the story with us? (More info on the incident here)

At the time, Steve Javie, the official, was a young official.  That previous week he had kicked out a mascot, a fan, and kicked somebody else out, a trainer or something like that.  He was on a roll that week, he had made a call, and I looked on the monitor and saw it was a bad call on Cliff Robinson. I kind of put my hands like that [two hands waived at the official] and he ran over, Cliff thought he was going to call a technical on him, because Cliff was standing there doing the same thing. He ran by Cliff and that's when he kicked me out of the game, the rest is history.

Have you talked to Javie since the incident?

No, We have not talked since that day, it was probably 12 years ago, 10 years ago something like that, we have not talked since. Javie really doesn't have a...I wrote a big article in our Rip City magazine about...I didn't call it Steve Javie...I talked about the abuse of power, and we made up a story about it and I think he had read that and we have not talked since.

What is your relationship with Mike Barrett off the court? I think you perfectly compliment each other on the air, but what about when the cameras aren't rolling?

Yeah because, a lot of the old time announcers did a lot of sports, Dick Stockton would do football on a Friday and basketball on a saturday, you know they bounce around a lot.  The guys I worked with, Wheels, I worked with Wheels for about 5 years, and Barrett are career basketball people. They know the game as well as analysts do. You can go down and talk basketball with Barrett and he really knows the game, they study the game. They're not looking for there next [game], like the announcer for the Lakers, Joel, he's probably doing football this weekend and so he really doesn't live basketball like Wheels and Barrett do.

What are your thoughts on the NBA game compared to when you played and/or coached?

The athletes are so much more talented as far as athletic ability. Because of that, they don't have to know the game as well, it's not pass and cut. It used to be you had a lot of people on the team who could pass the basketball now you have one or two, and the are designated to do the passing, other guys shoot.  It's almost specialized, in the old days, guys did a couple more things, your inside guys could rebound, but they could have post moves and all that stuff like that. The athletes are just more specialized and bigger and stronger then they used to be.

Sometimes radio and TV analysts claim to not be a fan of the team, I sense that you are one of the biggest Blazer fans around? Am I correct in this assumption?

Well, in the NBA, it's not like we're on TNT or CBS, we work for the Blazers. Every announcer who does local TV works for their team and gets paid by their team. So, if you're not a fan of that team and you don't really deep down hope they win, you probably wont have a job long, simple as that.

Are you much of a computer guy? Do you ever read any of the Blazer fan blogs?

I spend about 3 hours a day on the computer and mostly I read articles from every city. Every day I touch base with every team in the NBA. I read something about the other 29 teams everyday. I want to see what our fans are thinking so I do read the chat rooms and I read the blogs. I'll read what Canzano says in his blog, or Quick and what the fans comments are to those, I'll read Barret's blog. So I do that, in order to keep up with your own fans you have to do that.

If you could sit down with any person in the world, sports or otherwise, who would it be? why? What would you talk about?

I think right now it would be Obama, I think he's as interesting as it gets today, to see what makes him tick, to see what his other interests are. If it weren't [Obama], it would probably be someone like Ghandi to see what his world views are and how he thinks the world will survive. It would be Obama [though].

Have you ever seen our site, BustaBucket.com?

Yeah I have, Barrett showed me. You know I wasn't that familiar with it. (Me: It's pretty new) Yeah yeah it's new, I will follow it from now on. Because now I know of it. As soon as I know of something I put it down so I can click right on it.

In response to discussing the song Bust a Bucket: I'll tell you, we played it the other day, where was it? (Me: It was on when Terry Porter had his number raised) Yeah, yeah that was it, I looked up and thought, damn, that's Bust a Bucket.

Comments

friend of the blog Jerry

0

 

 

I used to enjoy him... now I LOVE him! but not in a creepy way just a regular bromance. I wish you could get an exclusive Rice update from now on that was like week to week.

Sunday 11 January 2009, 17:47

Post Reply

Name *
URL
Code   

Submit Comment

Cancel

KyleC

0

 

 

That was sweet! I love Rice, him and Barrett are classic during the games. I had never heard of the Javie incident, that's great. Now i know when Mike B. is giving Rice a hard time about the refs not liking him, it's probably true. Such a cool dude to take time out of his day to do an interview with some guy he had never met. Nice work!

Sunday 11 January 2009, 17:53

Post Reply

Name *
URL
Code   

Submit Comment

Cancel

Scotty B!

0

 

 

Mike Rice just made himself a little bit cooler in my eyes. I'm an even bigger fan of his now. Nice work Sheed.

Monday 12 January 2009, 02:04

Post Reply

Name *
URL
Code   

Submit Comment

Cancel

DogPissJones

0

 

 

Awesome!

Monday 12 January 2009, 02:15

Post Reply

Name *
URL
Code   

Submit Comment

Cancel

CDub

0

 

 

Another great idea by CDub. JK. Great stuff Sheed! Also thanks to everyone who submitted a question. They were good questions.

Monday 12 January 2009, 02:34

Post Reply

Name *
URL
Code   

Submit Comment

Cancel

Scotty B!

0

 

 

Yeah, but I'm pissed he brushed off my question. That was my favorite part of the Minnesota game this year. It should have caught on like wild fire. Excuse me while I go have a pity party.

Monday 12 January 2009, 02:57

Post Reply

Name *
URL
Code   

Submit Comment

Cancel

O Storm!

0

 

 

I didn't think I could be more of a fan of our tv/radio guys, and then Rice does this interview and blows me away. They are unabashed homers that make the game more enjoyable to watch because it feels like they genuinely care.

Great interview.

Monday 12 January 2009, 04:25

Post Reply

Name *
URL
Code   

Submit Comment

Cancel

Rip City Girl

0

 

 

Mike seems like a really nice guy. I can see you interviewing him again down the road...or maybe doing "Fireside chats" every now and again.

Monday 12 January 2009, 07:38

Post Reply

Name *
URL
Code   

Submit Comment

Cancel

Lame Face

0

 

 

That was an awesome interview! It was nice to see that many great answers, he's a class act.

Monday 12 January 2009, 08:12

Post Reply

Name *
URL
Code   

Submit Comment

Cancel

22baylor

0

 

 

well done Sheed! Keep talking Rice! - Elgin

Monday 12 January 2009, 10:17

Post Reply

Name *
URL
Code   

Submit Comment

Cancel

Scotty B!

0

 

 

When's the exclusive interview with Rebecca Haarlow?

Monday 12 January 2009, 12:44

Post Reply

Name *
URL
Code   

Submit Comment

Cancel

blomax

0

 

 

AMAZING!!!! Sheed you blow my mind, I can't believe you got an exclusive with Wild Rice!!!
MBN

Monday 12 January 2009, 15:52

Post Reply

Name *
URL
Code   

Submit Comment

Cancel

Sheed

0

 

 

There he is! Glad you enjoyed the interview Lomax!

Monday 12 January 2009, 16:06

Post Reply

Name *
URL
Code   

Submit Comment

Cancel

Name *
URL
Code   

Submit Comment