Wildcat Blue Nation, I am about to give you a treat. I was able to get an interview with Les Smith of Channel 13, myfoxmemphis, the man we all came to know as Les “The Door Man” Smith, when the John Calipari to Kentucky saga was just getting fired up about 16 months ago. I know a lot of you, myself included, kept an open window on your computer at home and at work, watching for any activity, movement, or whatever might happen at that door for what seemed like an eternity. Fox Memphis streamed the door from the time that the hiring first became a possibility, to the time it was announced that Calipari was on his way to Lexington to sign his contract and become the next head coach at Kentucky. And the man responsible for entertaining us all for that time was none other than Les Smith, a Newsman, Reporter, and someone who I came to learn was a really great guy. There is more info about Les and the circumstances of the interview over at A Sea Of Blue. I posted the preface of this interview there since I actually started on this when I was writing exclusively there. You can see that part of the story here.
Les seemed a bit surprised that anyone actually cared about anything he had to do with the whole door business, but was extremely enthusiastic about talking about what he knew about “The Door”, John Calipari, the history of Memphis Tigers Basketball, the NCAA, and over 35 years of experience reporting on everything from sports to the 9-11 crisis. Trust me, a conversation with the man is like a history lesson, but on things you really want to hear about.
I did this interview by phone from my home, and was caught with my pants down, so to speak, because I did not have a recorder on me, so everything is from my notes. It hit me while writing this up that I had a voice recorder on this high-tech phone I have. So much for how tech savvy I am. So here we go, enjoy this and feel free to comment either here or over at http://www.aseaofblue.com/. Also I wanted to thank Glenn Logan, Ken Howlett, and Paul Jordan for kind of guiding me in this process. Glenn and Ken gave me my start by putting a few things I wrote over on A Sea Of Blue on the front page, and that got me this gig writing for you folks. It really is a lot of fun.
Les Smith Interview
Les, you are aware that you are now a part of the history of the Winningest Program in the History of College Basketball, Right?
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"Well, I wasn’t until now ( he laughs). But it was fun to do and came aboutcompletely by accident. We knew that we were going to do a live webstream at thecampus and the thing just kind of came to life. We looked up at one point and wehad gotten over 300,000 hits in one day. We just kind of played to the emotionof the event and it took off on it’s own. Whatever came to mind that is what wedid. Kevin Barber and Matt F. ( I could not nail down a spelling forthat gentleman’s name and I did not want to do it wrong, so if someone has it,please feel free to e-mail me or put it in comments and I will correct that)helped put it together and it just took off in a hurry.I am a ham, they justhanded me the mike and let me go"
Any really strange moments during the process?
"Well, I got a marriage proposal, three or four offers for tickets,invitations to come to Lexington, which I did later, and it was a wonderfulcity. The people there were great. It was just overwhelming how many people were watching and hanging on our every word."
Tell everyone about the Memphis Tigers and John Calipari’s time there in Memphis.
"I have been covering the Tigers since 1983. I covered the 1985 FinalFour, and I was around when Dana Kirk was here, with the NCAA scandals and all.When John arrived, I knew he was not going to be here for life. John gave us theattitude that Memphis could be a national program, and that’s what he did. Herecruited from everywhere, not just the local kids he could get here reallyeasy. He put Memphis Basketball on a national stage. We wanted to acceptwhatever John could bring to the program. And he brought everything. He gotinvolved in the community, and did everything he could to make Memphis anational program and we loved it. John did things he didn’t want press for andnever made a big deal out of. (Les told me that John Calipari paid forhealth care costs for a former Memphis Tigers Coach, and never wanted it to bepublic, so I am not giving out the name)"
"And John was honest, he told a local reporter here 4-6 years ago thatKentucky was his dream job. John looked at N.C. State and Arizona. We knew thatthere was no way we could keep him here. How do you keep a man from his dreamjob? You don’t. We couldn’t have offered him anything to keep him here. John wasa very big thing for us."
The NCAA stripping those wins away had to hurt after Coach Cal left, did everyone really feel like Do you Do you feel Memphis got hosed by the NCAA?
"Oh yeah, we did. We felt like we really got hosed. But you can’t blameCal for that completely. I blame Derrick Rose, and I REALLY blame Derrick Rose’sparents. Those are the two people that should have known what was really goingon. I mean, he takes the test and cannot pass it, then he up and says, I tookanother test while I was in Detroit. And all of a sudden he passes?? And hisparents knew it. They knew it and they ignored it. That’s not John’sfault. Let’s face it. The NCAA is archaic. They don’t handle thesesituations well at all. Their rules are nowhere near up to date. These kidscan’t even have summer jobs? What do they expect is going to happen when youtake a kid who has never had anything in his life and some guy says here, usethis car and here is some cash to get you through until you go pro? And the sadfact is that this is the second time for us to go through this. TheNCAA has forced kids, parents, and even coaches into a corner.They need to understand that a kid who brings in millions to theirschool and to the NCAA should be able to work and make some money in their fieldas they go through school. Forget this nonsense of basket weaving and otherthings, put in a curriculum for these guys in school. Make them learn about whatthey need to know for their career in basketball. Make them learn how to handlemillions of dollars. Years ago I interviewed Melvin Barnes ( forMelvin’s history and background see here, he still holds NCAArecords),Melvin was drafted by St.Louis in the old ABA, and got a big bonus.When I interviewed him I asked him what he was going to do with his money, andhe said he had bought like 18 TV’s for his house. I said, 18 TV’s? And he saidyeah, I put like three in my bathroom. Three in your bathroom, I asked, and he said yeah, when I was growing up I was poor and we didn’t have no TV. He played a couple more years and then he was broke. Someone should have taught that kid what to do with his money when he got it. Have classes in that. One of the reasons I quit doing sports was because I realized that I was making heroes out of 17,18, and 19 year olds who weren’t ready to be heroes. It was just too much."
How is Memphis now with John Calipari and what has happened? Is there still a lot of anger?
"There are places where you can go in Memphis and they still love him, andthere are places you can go where you can’t even speak his name. It hurt, sure.But the only thing that is going to heal this is winning. Winning cureseverything.If we win, it will all be forgotten and in the past. John gave a lotto this city."
Speaking of anger, have Geoff Calkins and Cal always been at odds? It seems like Calkins really has it in for Calipari.
"Yeah, it has always been a love-hate relationship between Cal andGeoff. Calkins would run hot and cold during a season all the time.When Memphis won, Calipari was the greatest thing ever, when they lost, it wasget rid of Calipari, and these one and dones, and alwayscomplaining. (For a sample of Calkins and his love-hate, see this one)"
How is Josh Pastner doing? You guys seem to have gotten a good one there.
"Josh is great. Josh and John are like night and day, but he is a lotlike Cal in that they are both really motivated. John is all aboutbasketball is a business. You take care of business and then things will takecare of themselves. John took kids of what some people would call “questionable”character and he got the very best out of them. You could not argue with hissuccess. He really got those kids to buy into what he was selling. John is anincredible salesman. He wants you to enjoy it while you can but in the end it isa business and you have to run your business. Josh really wants to make thisprogram what it needs to be, which is a really great regional program,recruiting every great kid we have locally. He got a great situation with theBarton kid being able to play, he is a great local talent. Josh takes a regionalconcept to recruiting. He wants the very best of the best this area has tooffer, and he is getting them. He has a great recruiting class this year. Wedon’t know about Pastner’s coaching ability yet. He surrounded himself withexperienced coaches who do a really great job, so we don’t know just how good heis yet, but he has a great first season with what he had. Josh is a player-coachtype of coach. He really wants to make his kids great. I can see us doing a backand forth series with UK in a few years, maybe 2-3 years down the road. I thinkthe coaches, players and the fans would love it, and it would be good for bothschools."
Would Memphis hire another John Calipari-type coach again?
"I don’t think so. We don’t need any more big name coaches. Maybe wehave to live with being a jumping off spot for coaches who move on to biggerprograms, but if we do, then so be it. I think this is the road where we feelmost comfortable. Now if we don’t win, then we might do it again, but if we win,we are going to feel justified in going this way."
After all of this, are you convinced that the Kentucky fans are what Calipari says, completely crazy?
"You know, we want to be what Kentucky is, a “national program”, but Ijust don’t know if that is possible. The Memphis fans are just as committed tothe Tigers as the Kentucky fans are committed to Kentucky, there just are not asmany. we really love our Tigers though. Memphis basketball is everything aroundhere. We have the Grizzlies and that is great, but the Tigers are itman."
Les gave me a lot more than this, but because I don’t have word for word notes on it all, I am going to try and go back another day and talk to him again and get some other info and clear up some of the things he told me, and maybe we will have another segment to this later. I hope you all enjoyed this and believe me, he is really a great guy to talk to, and I plan on doing that very thing. I am going to take him up on his invitation, and at my first opportunity to go to Memphis, sit down with the man and just talk. Who knows, maybe it will be for a UK-Memphis basketball game in a couple of years? That would be one hot ticket.
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