All or Nothing Suns, sons of former Valley athletes, UCLA v ‘Cats in PHX, Danny White book, more…
Brad Cesmat
“All or Nothing” should be the title of the Suns’ marketing campaign for the 24-25 season, and I’m not talking about winning the December NBA Play-In farce(how did that work out for Darvin Ham as the Lakers’ coach?).
So Mike Budenholzer becomes the third head coach in the last year for our hometown heroes of the hardwood. I am hopeful that when he is introduced in person in the coming days, he will say something close to, “If we don’t win a title next season, we’ve failed as an organization.” We’ve repeatedly heard the story of Coach Bud and his upbringing in Holbrook when the Bucks took down the Suns in the Finals; that angle has been beaten into the ground. It’s nice to talk about, but it won’t bring a title to Phoenix 13 months from now. I don’t need to hear about the number of coaches that Kevin Durant has run through in his NBA career. I don’t need to hear about how the Suns didn’t have a point guard last season. I don’t need to hear about Bradley Beal’s no-trade clause being one of the worst contracts in the history of the NBA. That will not play into the “All or Nothing” 24-25 Suns. I want to hear substance from the owner and new head coach from the podium. A simple, “Let me cut to the chase, guys, we will work to bring in a traditional point guard. I had Jrue Holiday in Milwaukee lead us to a title. There are very few in the class of Jrue, but with this team, “yes” we will address the point guard position, it might even be Book or Bradley, but we won’t have any question about who is starting point guard will be by the time we get to training camp in late September.” What I want to hear from the podium from the head coach is, “Yes, we will have KD play to his strengths; we have to get bigger around him, so he’s not trying to do so much.” Rah, rah is not what’s needed here. Look at what the young guns in Minnesota and OKC are forming. Wemby-mania in San Antonio is coming sooner rather than later. Sign me up for less flash and much more substance. I hope Coach Bud can do what the two guys before him couldn’t, but nobody knows…
Legendary sports attorney Leigh Steinberg chops it up with me on Monday’s at 10:15am which will also run on our Football AZ show on Arizona Family Sports all week at 6pm and 11pm Monday through Friday. Business of sports, portal, NIL, and if Leigh is considering a remake of “Jerry McGuire”, the movie loosely based on his career. AZFamily Sports added Direct TV to its distribution just last week. Channel 32, for those who have been asking…
Dan Majerle’s son, Max, is now at Pima CC in Tucson after transferring from Central Michigan. Before Central, Max went from Arcadia High School to Brewster Academy in New Hampshire. I liked Max’s game when he was in high school. He’s now listed at 6″4…
Chip off the old block: Clark Candiotti is now 6-2 on the season for the University of Arizona baseball team. Yep, his dad is Diamondbacks announcer, Tom…
Arizona meeting UCLA on the basketball court in Phoenix is likely to happen next hoops season…
IF Gonzaga is still in the WCC in 2025, I’ll love having the Zags hoop it up vs Grand Canyon twice per year. However, I’d also take Zaga meeting Arizona and Arizona State twice a season too. Stay tuned…
Justin Martinez will be the Diamondbacks closer in 2025…
I watched the Apple TV broadcast of the Diamondbacks vs. Baltimore on Friday night. Apple deserves credit for not being afraid to try new things and speak a language that hits the younger demo that MLB is desperate to reach. I enjoyed the effort.
Remember when former Brophy Bronco Drew Maggii finally made the big leagues last year? Drew is not done with the sport. We chopped it up this past week. I kicked around the “Uneducated Stupidity” title with him for a future podcast. We might have a winner…
Day 181 without white smoke coming from the office of Michael Crow for an Arizona State athletic director…
Big 12 football media days will be held at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas early in the second week of July…
I’m reading through the new book of Sun Devil/Dallas Cowboy legend Danny White. His daughter Heather Jo(HJ) Kennedy co-wrote “Danny White-Spotlights and Shadows.”
Like Danny, It’s very direct and heartfelt. The story of a first date in high school with the girl he ended up marrying, was emotional to me, understanding that she would pass away years later. 100 pages in since Danny and I met up at a local coffee shop yesterday morning. I’ll pass along details of a June book signing in the next week…
Worth the Click – Full Court Press on ESPN+ . The original series first three episodes dropped this morning. I couldn’t walk away from the Caitlin Clark, UCLA guard KiKi Rice and South Carolina center Kamilla Carduso stories all folded together.
Media personality Brad Cesmat first rose to fame in Southern California with the launching of "The Mighty 690" all-sports radio station in the late 1980's and early 90's. Brad came to Arizona in 1993 to begin a 10-year run at KTAR Radio followed by nine years at KTVK-TV in Phoenix. Brad is the Founder/ CEO of Sports360AZ.com. His vision of multi platform content marketing through sports began in September of 2011.
Cesmat has served on the Advisory Board for the Salvation Army for the last 18 years. He and his wife Chris have four children.
