Okay it's been a long time since a bonus episode
has dropped and here you go with the NBA Finals
fast approaching Oklahoma City awaiting the winner
of the New York Knicks in Indiana Pacers series.
I don't claim to be a current Knicks fan but
some people know that back in the mid 90s early
90s I was and still am a big Patrick Ewing guy.
I lived and died with the Knicks as a middle
schooler. Did not continue my fandom into the
2000s for various reasons, but very pleased to
see them back. Down three games to one, but the
series is not over. Would love to see the Knicks
come back and make an NBA Finals appearance.
With that being said, it's been a busy few weeks
and episode number 100, as you know, did not
drop on this past Sunday. A lot of things happening,
events, obligations, and various goings on that
have taken my time and attention away from Dan
time, the podcast. So it's amazing that I've
stayed on track this long, but it's a good thing.
It was good to take some time away and just let
it go just Focus on the things that matter not
not that the podcast does not matter But for
those of you who were Thrown into disarray Monday
morning you woke up there was no episode to carry
it to the office or whatever commute you have
in the morning or or to the gym or wherever From
the bottom of my heart. I apologize You can only
imagine what you were forced to do. What audible
you called to get through The early part of this
week, but here you are a bonus episode. I pulled
a couple gems. I Wanted some basketball talk
hasn't been a lot of it on this show, but a little
bit And I'm going way back halfway back to episode
number 50 To a conversation with my good friend
Denny Lyons who just so happens to be celebrating
his birthday today you're gonna love this Michael
Jordan story and a couple other little tidbits
and Right after that taking it way back to episode
number four with Danny Zimmern the first Danny
on the show and a Big -time guest at the time
and still very proud of this episode It was with
the old mic, so some audio limitations, but I
can easily overlook that because of the quality
of the content. Get ready for this Sunday. You're
going to love the guests coming up. Thanks so
much for listening. Follow the show at DanTimePod
on social media, every episode available on YouTube
and anywhere you listen to podcasts. If you have
a question, request or complaint, Want to rag
me a little bit? DanTimePod at gmail .com. Thanks
so much. And let's get to the bonus content here.
This is Denny Lyons followed by Danny Z. To give
you a little backstory, I've been watching Carolina
basketball since I was a little kid. And before
I was I grew up mostly in Wilmington, North Carolina,
from 11 to 17. But prior to there, my parents
had lived there. They worked for a company called
Corning down there. And they lived up near a
school called Laney High School. And when they
lived there, my older sister, Kate, was probably
in diapers. And my dad played in a church basketball
league, but he was terrible. But he would practice
in his driveway all the time. They had a big
old driveway. And they had these kids who lived
kitty cornered with a bunch of sons. And one
of them would come over and practice all the
time or play with his brothers. And so one day
one of these kids was in high school and he was
getting bigger and stronger. And these are the
old school backboards that didn't have spring
loaded rims or anything. So he learns to dunk
and he breaks the backboard because he yanks
on it and it has no spring. So he just pulls
it and just. splinters it up. So my dad, he's
a pretty big, great guy. He at times said, you
know what, no big deal. Just go home, make me
a new backboard with your dad. If you can make
it out of plywood, I don't care. And we'll hang
it back up here. So that kid went home, took
a piece of plywood, basically got the correct
size square, put it back on there, brought it
back to him. They hung it back up and that kid
still played with his brothers and practiced
on it all the time because he lived right kitty
corner to where he lived. And that kid ended
up being Michael Jordan. And so Michael Jordan
first learned how to dunk on my dad's backboard
and broke it. And what's interesting is in that
documentary about him, they talk about how his
dad built a, built a basketball court in their
backyard, but that is not true. He did not have
a backboard back there and his dad couldn't afford,
he had a bunch of kids he was taking care of
by himself basically. And so they all played
in my dad's driveway when he lived there and
that's how we got to know him also. We watched
him when he went to UNC and then my older sister,
when we had moved back to Wilmington, she went
to UNC and had a great athletic career there
herself, actually. She had never done crew in
her life and then ended up going on the third
boat in the country and getting bronze nationals
her first year doing crew. Then she goes, oh,
this is too early in the morning. Then she decided,
I'll just play lacrosse. They played varsity
lacrosse. I mean, that's just who she was. So
then she after she left her last year, I started
in 2003 and Man, I'll tell you what, I love UNC.
Yeah, it's been a great time, especially my heart,
my place, my heart, especially for the 2005 national
team. But I don't know if I've told you that
story about when I originally got to meet all
those guys. No, no. So I used to play all the
time to this guy named Ethan, and he is just
one of those people that can play anything. Soccer,
baseball, tennis, golf, doesn't matter. He's
a good athlete. So we used to just pack up bags
of basketball stuff and go play every sport,
no demand. But after my freshman year, I had
broken up with a girlfriend and I needed to meet
more friends because you know how it goes, you
get too siloed your freshman year if you're going
out and meeting people. So I was like, I need
to learn how to meet more people here. Everybody's
already friended it up. And so my sophomore year,
I was like, I'm going to learn to play basketball.
I never really played it. And so I started playing
every single day. And there are these courts
at UNC. There's two, there's four sets of two,
and there's like a net in the middle. And the
very back ones, it's Carmichael Gym is what it's
called. And it's the one they originally, the
stadium behind it's now the women's stadium,
but it's the original UNC men's basketball stadium.
It's right behind there. And so I started on
the very back, just terrible. And by the end
of my sophomore year, getting into my junior
year, I was getting really good. And I ended
up playing on the second courts. Now you had
to be like basically on the varsity team to play
in the first course. They would sit open because
people are like, if they had a reference spot,
it could be like 10 teams waiting, but they still
wouldn't play on there. And so anyway, I was
playing against a guy and we were playing pickup
and he had been the North Carolina state dunk
champion. And so he'd won for the whole state.
It was in college and he was a Ph .D. student.
This guy was like six five athletic to twenty
five. Just a beast. Anyway, we're playing and
he goes up to dunk on me and I block the heck
out of it. Knock it all the way across the. However,
he hits me so hard. I go flying like twenty feet
because I was six one maybe one ninety five stitches.
Oh, you blast me across the court. But but I
did block his dunk, which it hurt afterwards.
But he gave me because he had played uh, on the
practice squad with the UNC varsity team prior,
he let me have what they call the Carolina blue
shoes. So you're not allowed to get Carolina
blue basketball shoes unless somebody from varsity
gives you permission. And it's kind of like a,
um, a rite of passage that once you get them,
cause people are serious about it. Once you,
once you have them on, I mean, you're picked
for every pickup game going forward. And so that
was like paradise. So I had started playing a
lot more and all of a sudden I bumped into a
guy and I turned around and he's like six, eight.
And I realized, you know, this is post 2005 national
championship and I had already met the guy named
Raymond Felton. It was the point guard and I
was pretty good buddies with him. And so I turned
around and that's Joad Williams who was on the
national championship team. And the next thing
I know I'm bumping shoulders with Sean May who
I had known a little bit since my sophomore year.
Little known fact by the way, Sean May is super
brilliant. He, I think he was like an economics
major or something or he was double majoring.
He had like a 385. Always had two girlfriends.
But anyway, he's a you would see assistant coach
now So all of a sudden I'm playing pick -up basketball.
I must have played 25 35 times with the national
championship team and the squad that's like Rashad
McCance and It was Raymond Felton to a wide Williams
Sean a Jackie Manuel Melvin's no Melvin Scott.
It was Scott was his last name his backup point
card anyway, a bunch of other really great players
and so We got to play all the time. And then
I occasionally me and another guy would go play
on the practice squad for the women's basketball
team. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Now when you're playing
pickup games with those guys, are they feeding
you the rock? Are you, uh, you trying to just,
you know, they're kind, let's just put it that
way. I'm not playing competitively with them.
So I knew Rashad pretty well. Originally he was
introduced to me in the, there's this famous
place that you would see called the pit. And
Ray Ray, or Raymond Felden, I don't know what
he goes by now, but he introduced me to Rashad
McCance. Rashad McCance did not like white people.
And so he was kind of mean mugging, he wouldn't
really talk that much. And then eventually, I
used to go to this place where they had nickel
shots on Tuesdays at like 5pm when nobody was
there. And him and I would meet there every Tuesday
and do nickel shots. So we ended up getting along.
Yeah. And so I would either guard Rashad McCants,
who was way bigger, way faster, and a thousand
times better than me. And the agreement was he
wouldn't drive on me, but I couldn't guard him
within seven feet of the three -point line. And
he never missed. What do you do? But normally,
the most competitive I could attempt to be, which
he was still so much better than me, was the
backup point guard. And him and I, he was about
my size, height, still way faster and better
than me. But we got to play a lot. It was really
fun. How, when you're setting those picks, tell
me about some of the, uh, or are taken to charge
or, um, Well, I'll tell you one thing. You don't
want to try to block a guy like Sean May, you
know, six foot nine, 295 bounds or whatever he
was. Um, cause not only it's funny, cause you're
used to when you play pickup basketball and you,
you try to let's say play a staunch defense,
which I was known for playing hardcore defense.
When they kind of do that lean back push towards
the rim. Normally you kind of bounce off and
you come back in but when they did it I mean
it was like you went flying across you must have
moved like six feet you like it was like somebody
picked you up and Placed you like five feet away
from so there's Or they'll they'll run through
you man. I'll tell you what there's there's no
mercy when it comes to it So you gotta you know
understand your elbows are gonna hurt after a
game. You'll take a couple busted knees, but
It's worth it. I had this kind of in my notes
here, but I gotta go ahead and ask now the composition
of your closet Denny Um, tell me about the representation
of UNC threads to just everyday wardrobe. How
much Tar Heel blue is, if I open that closet,
it's a sea of blue. It's a sea of either dark
blue with light blue on it or light blue with
probably black or dark blue on it. And, um, it's
a problem we have. It's not just, it's target.
So people, people always laugh. They're like,
dude, you're wearing a Tar Heel shirt and a Tar
Heel hat. And it's not even like basketball or
football season. And I'll say, Well, you know,
that's just, that's what we do. Everybody does,
though. Those Targiles, they're out of the way.
So it's like, my wife just bought me another
shirt that just happened to be on sale from Nike
and it comes in, it's another UNC shirt. So I
would say half of my t -shirts are probably UNC
gear and 70 % of my winter clothes and hoodies
and everything else are UNC. It's, you know,
outside of actual work shirts, which I still
have some UNC polos, it's quite a bit of them.
How do you handle? I know this past season was
tough. There was a tough ending 2023 NCAA tournament.
How do you do when? Obviously, there's the championships,
but what's it like if I'm hanging out with you?
Do I need to just say hey Danny? I'll see you
tomorrow. It's been fun and just leave or What's
it like when the final buzzer hits and it is
not ended? Well, I'll tell you what it's It's
a lot of sadness. A lot of me cursing. So my
cousins actually went to Alabama. And so I probably
said some not so nice things to him and made
a lot of jokes at Alabama's expense. Basically,
my wife went upstairs and just left me and they
just kept telling me to keep it down. But it's
a sad moment. It takes me a little it takes me
some time to get over March Madness because that's
my favorite time of the year. But, you know,
I'll do my best to stay positive. And if we win,
I'm the best to be around though, but it can
hurt. Then of course, there's, you know, Tar
Heel Baseball. They were in the College World
Series, eliminated by Florida State, but I mean,
a pretty competitive program there in baseball,
women's basketball. Yeah, they make it to the
College World Series every other year, if not
almost every year. They have some of the best
baseball coaches in the country. And if you ever
hear like anybody on Sports Center or any of
those talk about They have some of the best coaching
and recruiting people there is. So they produce,
when I went to UNC, there were two that were
like six, nine or six, 10, and they were twins
and both of them were pitchers and both of them
went in the first round to the MLB, which is
crazy, you know, two twins that are that like
basically Randy Johnson going to the MLB. But
this year it was a guy named Travis Honeycutt
who got drafted first round. He comes from near
where I grew up, Wilmington, the Honeycuts. are
a huge set of cousins and families. And it's
not surprising that the honey cut went to the
MO because everybody in their family and all
for the last like 30 years around New Hanover
County and surrounding counties. All of them
are good at sports. They play sports until their
50s and they're always the captain of their teams
the best. It doesn't matter. They're they're
all just the men and women of those families
are just talented. Without going too much down
a rabbit hole here because I want to move on
to some other things but notable UNC baseball
alumni Daniel Baird. Got to do a Dan Time mention
there, but also, you know, guys like Chris Ionetta,
Brian Roberts, Kyle Seeger, B .J. Sirhoff, Walt
Weiss. Yeah, I mean, just tons of them. And it's
almost unfortunate that they don't get as much
love as they deserve because they get a little
overshadowed by basketball. And now, you know,
football is always so big. But I'll tell you
what, there are some devoted fans that go to
those games religiously every game home game
for. decades and so they do get a lot of love
back back at UNC. So played basketball at the
YMCA as a older dude. I was you know I ran my
mouth a lot and had a lot of fun playing basketball.
You can get a lot out of you. Basketball is it's
competition but You really learn about other
people and how they, you know, do they play defense
or do they cheat or, you know, all those sorts
of things. You learn about people. So one of
the guys at the YMCA, I played between three
and five days a week for 20 years, maybe even
more actually, but forever. And so one of the
guys at the gym said, hey, there are these leagues
in the city that are kind of open leagues in
the spirit of you just play. So it's not an age
group. It's not a... a certain level, like an
ABC player or anything like that. It's just open,
so it means it's the best players in our community.
And he said, why don't we put a team in the league?
So we figured out how much it would cost, and
it was about $500. So we said we get 10 people,
that's $50 a piece. So we asked basically the
10 best guys in the gym basically to play, and
candidly about half of them didn't do it. We
picked up some other guys that did do it. And
we lost that year in the city of Pensacola championship
game. We lost, we finished second in the league
for the year, but we didn't win. It was close
to the game came right down to the end, but we
didn't win. And one of the guys that did play
on our team was a guy who went to the university
of Alabama, Birmingham, played basketball there
on scholarship. And he worked with what then
was. golf power. Now it's Florida power, but
he was golf power and he was in charge of generation
for all of Northwest Florida generation of power.
Yeah. So he had a big job on the top floor office
corner suite. And, uh, I said to him, his name
was Mike. I said, Mike, some of these guys, uh,
couldn't afford it. And I said, why don't we,
why don't you and I just split it and then we'll
pick the people we want on our team. And, uh,
He said, okay, that was easy. It was about a
five minute conversation. So we did and we picked
the guys that we wanted. It said, it doesn't
cost anything to play. And basically they all
played, especially in the first couple of years,
they all played. So there were two seasons, a
spring and a fall season. That spring season
we had lost in the finals. So we entered the
fall season with basically the guys out of our
gym that we wanted and we ran through the league.
We won. the first of our, what I like to call
city championships that year. And we won five
more straight, spring, fall, spring, fall, five
more straight. And after every championship game,
we would go out for chicken wings and beer. And
Mike and I would pay for that too. And the guys
all loved it. And we got to always talk in and
maybe the beer helped everybody talk a little
easier, whatever. But we got to be friends because
It wasn't really fights, but basketball games,
you have to work like a team. And so we learned
to kind of depend on each other and we learned
to work together to win. I was kind of the coach
all the, all that time. I only went in when we
were up 20 or down 20 and we were never down
20. So I always went in when we were winning
big basically. And then everybody else was tired
and they pass it to me all the time. And so it
was great for me. I loved it. I felt like I was
a star, but All of those guys basically had been
celebrities in high school, all everything basketball
players in Pensacola as they went through, celebrities
in their school, best player in their school,
and they were celebrities and they all got college
scholarships and virtually all of them blew it.
They lost their scholarships, whatever, and they
came back home, no degree and really no training
and really nowhere to go. except back to basketball.
And I realized after about the third celebration
dinner, it dawned on me that the common denominator
of all those guys was that they basically didn't
have a strong role model, a strong male role
model. And I said, well, you know, here we go
again, right? Here's Danny. I said, I can help
some of that. I don't want to, you know, I don't
want to be their father. but I'm happy to be
trying to help them live better. So I started
making those chicken wings and beer dinners once
a month, and I brought in people to speak to
them, to sit at the table and drink beer with
them. And I brought in like a urologist, and
I brought in a banker who taught them how to
open bank accounts, and I brought in a car dealer
who told them how to buy cars right, because
they were going to these buy here, pay here lots
that were super expensive. It was a waste. And
I brought in a therapist. I mean, you know, but
I brought in all sorts of things to teach these
guys. And slowly, maybe looking back on it wasn't
so slow, but it felt slow. I got about two of
them on with the city. I got, I think, three
on with Gulf Power. I got two on with the local
utility authority. So these were good paying
jobs with retirement, with healthcare. all those
sort of things, and was able to really, really
help all those guys. Eventually, they made it
on their own, and an old white guy was not the
guy they wanted to hang out with on Friday night.
But I get it, and I love those guys, and you
know what, Dan, they love me. If I see them,
they still come to my office. Oh, I know they
do. I know they love you. Yeah, and they come
to my office just to say hello and check in.
But really what I think they're doing is telling
me they're okay, which is better, right? Because
they never had a male figure in their life to
say, hey, Uncle Joe, I'm doing pretty good. Hey,
you'll never believe what I did. They didn't
have anybody to tell good news. I guess it makes
them feel good and it makes me feel good to do
it too. But what's really interesting in all
those years of those guys, it was probably a,
it was a great sort of run about five or six
years. of being around those guys a lot. One
time, one guy ever asked me to borrow money.
And he paid me back. I've been asked to borrow
money by a lot of people and a lot who have not
paid me back. But I'm okay. I mean, it is what
it is. But to me, that's kind of a point that
they would rather keep my respect. Sure. And
they'd rather find a way. I mean, I instilled
a little bit in them to work your way out of
a problem, not borrow your way out of the problem.
Right. You know, you've illustrated something
that I don't think it's talked about a whole
lot, where a young man, 18, 19 years old, blows
a scholarship and it's really just screwed up
one time in a big way. And he just thinks, well,
that's it. Oh, I'm just no good. And then and
then just kind of trails off. Well, or he's got
this skill set that he's not using. and he could
be building a network, but he's not because he
doesn't have anybody believing in him. What a
difference. I thought it was all about just shooting
hoops. Well, when you're... It's a little bit
societal. When you're in high school and you're
the big man on campus, it's hard to go to the
next step and not be the big man on campus, to
be being told what to do when you don't really
want to do it. You know, when you're the all
-star on a... high school team you probably don't
run the bleachers when everybody else does and
you probably can be a little late to practice
and that sort of thing but you're the star of
that high school basketball team but when you
get to the first step of college you know it's
a little different I had one guy on our team
it's a crazy story he is the greatest guy deep
down now he's I mean everybody's got their own
life and he's a little interesting but He grew
up in Chicago and he was an all -star basketball
player in Chicago in high school. And at the
Arch Enemy High School across town in Chicago,
now this is not Pensacola, in Chicago, the Arch
Enemy School across town was where Dwayne Wade
played. And so our guy here, BG, was on our team,
I mean on his team, and Dwayne Wade was on their
team. And they played each other. and BG just
showed Dwyane Wade up. I mean, it was crazy.
But towards the end of BG's senior year, he broke
his ankle playing basketball, and he quit. He
quit school. He quit everything. He never graduated.
Dwyane Wade, of course, went on to Marquette
and Pro Fame. BG, you know, just was lost when
he lost the thing he had, and he never recovered,
really. Now, He did recover and he's a manager
now or a big retail business. He's doing very
well. Uh, but he was a part of this journey to
help him realize how good he was, uh, at life.
And he was easily the best basketball player
around. Not in a great way, uh, not in a one
-on -one kind of way, but what it takes to win
as a team. He had it. I'll never forget Dan.
He played, that guy played against me in the
gym for five years maybe and he killed me. I
never could score on him. Now he was a great
player and I wasn't, but he didn't look like
he was working very hard and he would block my
shot all the time. God dog. And so we got on
this team and I got to be the coach and I got
to be the guy that was kind of watching out everybody.
And we go to the gym, this is after about a season
and a half. of playing the league, and BG goes,
Dan, I gotta tell you. I said, what? He said,
you know that before you shoot, you spin the
ball in your hand. And I said, no, what are you
talking about? He goes, yeah, when you are gonna
shoot, you spin the ball in your hand and line
the laces up. And I thought, I'll be a son of
a gun. I never thought about that at all in my
life, but the whole time guarding me, if I didn't
spin that ball, he knew I wasn't gonna shoot.
So the minute I spun it, he got in my face. and
blocked my shot all the time. He had such a mind
for basketball. It is, it is, he still does.
It's amazing. And I told him that. I told him
that. And I got him to coach a little league
team, I mean a little league, a team of little
people's team. They were great. He made all those
kids into something. He's still got some of those
fathers who talk about him. I mean, you know,
just the kind of stuff. But basketball, you learn
a lot about people. We've had a lot of stories
around here Dan Danny. It's just listening to
these stories I have at the top of my notes and
I don't remember if I said this earlier in our
conversation wants others to thrive and succeed
now that's before we walk sat down in this room
and That's really been the hallmark of your career
from my perspective Everything you do is about
community and about building others up. There's
a lot of talent here There's a lot of talent
on the sidelines. I've just blown away. I like
it I like you played basketball to why I didn't
know anything else about it Yeah. Well, I'm just
picturing Danny running down the court. Oh yeah.
Pulling up for three. Oh yeah. And that's exactly
what I did. And you know, they went in pretty
much more than they didn't. You know, I was a
good shot because of my theory of getting open.
is if you stand still long enough, the guy guarding
you will leave. But you know, it kept me in good
shape and it kept me healthy to be a parent and
it kept me healthy and it would clear your mind.
You can't be thinking about other things when
you're playing basketball.