On the NBA Beat

Marshall Garvey, author of Interstate '85: The Royals, the Cardinals and the Show-Me World Series , joins the show. Enjoy! Here are some highlights – 3:26-4:39 : “The ’85 Series always stuck in my mind in a really weird way just because of all the emphasis on Don Denkinger’s missed call. It just seemed a little jaundiced to me, but it stayed in my head for 20 years, kinda rattling around in there....

Paul Knepper, author of Moses Malone: The Life of a Basketball Prophet , joins the show. Enjoy! Here are some highlights – 7:02-7:42 : “He realized very early on that these people... were trying to get something out of him. He was cautious and kind of withdrawn before that, and I think that maybe that experience made him add even another layer between him and the outside world or certainly between...

Steve Steinberg, co-author of Mike Donlin: A Rough andRowdy Life From New York Baseball Idol to Stage and Screen , joins the show. Enjoy! Here are some highlights – 8:34-9:55 : “Our interest is what was really ticking in the guy’s mind, what was he feeling, what was he thinking. And the years that we write about, and especially Donlin’s years, there were so many newspapers in New York City, more t...

Historian, journalist⁠ and novelist extraordinaire Kevin Baker , author of⁠ the 2024 CASEY Award-winning book on the history of New York and baseball, The New York Game, Baseball and the Rise of a New City , joins the show. Enjoy! Here are some highlights – 6:23-7:28: “I had this contract some years ago. I had to write several other books through it; I kept kind of going away from it and coming ba...

New York Times bestselling author Keith O'Brien ⁠⁠, author of⁠ the widely acclaimed Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball , joins the show. Enjoy! Here are some highlights – 9:32-11:24: “From a process standpoint, what the records really helped me to do was create timestamps on a timeline. When you’re writing a narrative, and that’s what I’m lookin...

Writer and historian Tim Newby⁠ , author of The Original Louisville Slugger , a fun, thorough and important narrative covering the life and baseball career of Pete Browning, joins the show. Browning, one of the best hitters of the 19th century, a deeply flawed but charismatic and pioneering man, has largely been forgotten more than a century later, although Tim's endeavor has worked to bring m...

Nonfiction baseball writer Eric Vickrey comes on to discuss his terrifically poignant and inspiring book, Season of Shattered Dreams , which recounts the deadliest accident in the history of American professional sports, the 1946 Spokane Indians’ tragic crash as their bus was passing over Washington's Snoqualmie Pass. Here are some highlights – 12:23-14:45: “No one from that [‘46 Spokane Indians]...

Evan Ream, Communications Manager for NorCal Premier Soccer, comes on to discuss his colorful and inspiring debut book, Not When, But If? Here are some highlights – 8:35-9:17: “Nobody really knows what Sacramento is, especially from a national standpoint. The chapter of branding the team there, ‘Well, we need to brand the team, but first we need to brand Sacramento.’ Because what does Sacramento s...

Sports writer and scientist Brad Balukjian stops by to discuss his fascinating, thought-provoking and important new book, The Six Pack: On the Open Road in Search of WrestleMania . Here are some highlights – 5:29-5:49: “The book really is about the line, the border between fiction and fact or myth and reality and work and shoot in Kayfabe terms. … to really find out where myth blends into reality...

On the heels of the Dallas Mavericks’ 9-3 start, Jason Gallagher returns, and you bet the head of production at The Old Man and the Three (and ThreeFourTwo Productions more broadly) comes ready with analysis of the Mavericks’ scalding start as Luka Doncic has led the way with 30.7 points per game, the second-most converted treys after Stephen Curry, and the lowest usage rate of his career other th...

Alex Kennedy , Chief Content Officer at BasketballNews.com and host of Running Up the Score, a biweekly live sports show airing every Tuesday and Friday night, stops by to wind through the Western Conference just as the league readies for tipoff. The Nuggets are Alex’s leading squad but far from the conference’s only contenders. Oh, and he has firmly taken a seat aboard the Wemby Train. Who’s comi...

Jake Fischer , Yahoo! Sports senior NBA reporter and the author of B uilt to Lose , makes his fourth appearance to break down the Eastern Conference's biggest storylines as the season approaches. Tune in to hear why he regards the Celtics as favorites, his thoughts on Evan Mobley's next leap, rookies you should keep an eye on, Jake's dark-horse team out East and so much more. 4:16-6:30...

Andy Liu of the Light Years podcast is back yet again; for a record ninth time, in fact. His task this time? Helping Aaron preview the Golden State Warriors as they attempt to bounce back from a 44-38 campaign in which just six games separated them from 11th-place Utah and they were eliminated by the Lakers in the second round. Andy and Aaron discuss last season’s challenges, summer acquisition Ch...

Enjoy Ethan Scheiner discussing his new book, "Freedom to Win." Here are some highlights: 3:23-6:23: “The thing that is so incredible about this story is that it is an unbelievable marriage of politics and sports. That really is the thing that jumps right out. … This communist country, Czechoslovakia, which had started to become free, suddenly got invaded by the Soviet Union. The Soviet...

In a tightly packed Western Conference, where only a handful of games separate the first- and thirteenth-place teams, Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report is encouraged by the Portland Trail Blazers’ start. Specifically, the Blazers have gotten All-Star-caliber, not to mention career-best, contributions from Jerami Grant and Anfernee Simons. Such stellar play from Portland’s secondary stars has enab...

On the heels of a 2022 Western Conference finals berth, the 9-10 Dallas Mavericks are mired in mediocrity despite receiving historically brilliant contributions from superstar point guard Luka Doncic. Emmy Award-winning director Jason Gallagher, now head of production at The Old Man and the Three, triumphantly returns to shed light on what exactly isn’t computing.    4:38-5:14: "I believe that the...

After an 8-1 start to the season that had some prognosticators pegging them as dark horse title contenders, the Cleveland Cavaliers have been hit with the On the NBA Beat curse and have lost their last four games. To help us get into the ins-and-outs of this enigmatic team, we've brought on Cavaliers expert and long-time friend of the show, Justin Rowan, host of The Chase Down Podcast. Justin take...

Last season's Memphis Grizzlies announced their arrival by earning the 2nd seed in the Western Conference and with the fifth-youngest roster in the NBA and proven success building through the draft and player development, there's no reason to believe their upward trajectory should not continue into this season. To discuss how this up-and-coming team can continue to bolster their franchise's histor...

After their 2021-22 season ended with a first-round playoff exit at the hands of the Memphis Grizzlies, the Minnesota Timberwolves retooled by trading for three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert in what many called the most surprising and impactful move of the offseason. They also re-emphasized their commitment to franchise cornerstone Karl-Anthony Towns by offering him a super-max...

After a grueling, injury-marred 2021-22 season, in which the Los Angeles Clippers clawed their way into the play-in games but failed to advance any further, the Clips have returned for NBA preseason with a clean bill of health and championship expectations. We’ve brought back our friend Law Murray, Clippers beat reporter for The Athletic, to help us delve into the team some are calling the deepest...

After two seasons of missing the playoffs, the Golden State Warriors are back on the main stage, making their sixth Western Conference finals appearance in the last eight years. Ahead of Sunday night's Game 3, they find themselves with a commanding 2-0 series lead over the Dallas Mavericks and are poised to make their return to the NBA Finals. Joining us for a record fifth episode is Andy Liu of t...

With the Memphis Grizzlies and Golden State Warriors tied through two games of an intense Western Conference semifinal series, we're joined by Keith Parish, host of Grind City Media‘s Fastbreak Breakfast and Grits and Grinds podcasts, who provides insight from the Grizzlies' perspective. 3:47-4:17: “These Ja Morant highlights, 140 million people saw them, and that’s by far the most of any NBA play...

With the Boston Celtics (arguably) improbably leading the Brooklyn Nets 3-0 in an opening-round 2-7 matchup, we're joined by John Karalis, host of Locked on Celtics, Celtics beat reporter for The Boston Sports Journal and author of The Boston Celtics All-Time All-Stars 5:07-5:45: Most importantly, defending at an extraordinarily high level; that’s what got them to this place. In this series, they...

Shamit Dua, host of the In the NO podcast, discusses the promising, young New Orleans Pelicans, whose vastly improved defense and deadline acquisition of guard CJ McCollum has them tentatively in a play-in spot. Shamit discusses McCollum's arrival, including what it's unlocked for star wing Brandon Ingram, before exploring New Orleans' new dual-big man starting lineup, Herb Jones' seismic impact o...

Caitlin Cooper, contributing writer for SB Nation’s Indy Cornrows, has experienced quite a memorable 2021-22 Pacers season so far. Although the team stands at 20-40 at the All-Star break, well below expectations, it boldly traded 25-year-old two-time All-Star Domantas Sabonis, just days before the deadline, in a package that most notably returned super-talented second-year guard Tyrese Haliburton...