Crime in Sports - #344 - The Laziest Kid In America - William Bedford

Episode Date: February 28, 2023

This week, we check out the life of a man who had plenty of good things happen to him, due strictly to the fact that he is 7 feet tall. He squandered his opportunities, while smiling his way ...out of a job, and eventually, his freedom. He was called "the worst driver of any Detroit athlete" by a newspaper, and that was only the start. He ends up being very familiar with prison, due to his constant drug use, and apparent intent to distribute cocaine! Did he ever turn it around, or is he still wandering through life, just hitting his head on things??Be the worst driver in Detroit, threaten to fight a cop, while you have a car full of weed, and be careful not to get "back stabbed" with William Bedford!!Check us out, every Tuesday! We will continue to bring you the biggest idiots in sports history!!  Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman  Donate at... patreon.com/crimeinsports or with paypal.com using our email: crimeinsports@gmail.com  Get all the CIS & STM merch at crimeinsports.threadless.com  Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things CIS & STM!!  Contact us on... twitter.com/crimeinsports crimeinsports@gmail.com facebook.com/Crimeinsports instagram.com/smalltownmurderSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:34 A first listen is waiting for you when you start your free trial at audible.ca. Each week on the Mr. Ballin Podcast, now available wherever you get your podcasts, you'll hear strange, dark, and mysterious stories about inexplicable encounters, shocking disappearances, true crime cases, and everything in between. So go listen to Mr. Ballin Podcast, strange, dark, and mysterious stories on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Crime and Sports. Yay! Yay, indeed, Jimmy. Yay, indeed.
Starting point is 00:01:30 My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co-host. Hi, I'm Jimmy Wissman. Hey, hi. We were just dying beforehand, so that's why we're in such a goofy mood. We were laughing so hard as we rolled into this. I was not in lockstep yeah sorry about that we might have to tell them about lizard candy just because that's so they'll know what know what we're talking about it's so vague we'll tell you about that during the episode
Starting point is 00:01:57 we got a wild one too very quickly before we do that shut up and give me murder.com what's there number one tickets for live shows not only the shows that have been for sale the two shows in seattle the two shows in portland the pittsburgh show the detroit detroit show but march the third the rest of the year will go on sale that's right chicago on sale all of these places on sale san diego denver yes dallas we're coming to you this year we just found out and boston we finally scheduled it it's in november can't wait for that as well the wilbur we're back there and we love the wilbur we have a great time there they treat everyone wonderfully and they have a house dog so fantastic stuff she's such a love so sweet get your tickets
Starting point is 00:02:42 right now shut up and give me murder.com you're there, get tickets for the virtual live show for small town murder for April the 20th. I am going to get Jimmy stoned and make his head explode from laughing. It's going to be awesome. Do you have lizard candy? I have lizard candy. I can't wait to tell him about that. So do that. Shut up and give me murder dot com.
Starting point is 00:03:04 We cannot wait. That's going to be a really good virtual live show to April 20th. Can't wait. If you're outside the country or a place we can't go or you just can't get enough live, do it up because it's just like a live show, except you're at home instead of in the theater. Also head over to patrion.com slash crime in sports and get, first of all,
Starting point is 00:03:23 all the bonus stuff. You get the whole back catalog. There's tons of stuff there, over 150 episodes. Anybody $5 a month or more, you get access to that. And every other week, you get two new episodes. And this week is no different. What you're going to get here is for Crime in Sports, we're going to talk about this. People have posted this and asked us to talk about it for since we've started this show
Starting point is 00:03:45 in the early 1900s there was a death row baseball team oh yeah it had a kid there was like a kid hanging out with them here kid hang out with these murderers and help them with their baseball bats and the worst people it's great it's a crazy story so we'll talk about that how that came to be of the death row baseball team and who the hell was that kid and why was he allowed to hang out with them who was on the team and and then for small town murder we're gonna do something really fun after jim jones last week we're gonna wash our mouths out from his uh don't say his warty bespeckled fucking member there and we're gonna wash our asses out we're gonna talk about defunct theme parks. Terrific. We're going to talk about theme parks that were bad ideas and trying to be an attraction for a small area and it didn't quite work out.
Starting point is 00:04:32 Some really fun ones, too. Some weird ideas. We'll talk all about that. Much lighter. Much lighter. That is patreon.com slash crime and sports. And you'll, of course, get a shout out at the end of the show because, damn it appreciate you we really do we'll show you that by having jimmy mispronounce your name correct by having the one of us who reads more poorly read your name
Starting point is 00:04:54 that's how much we appreciate you more poorly more i can barely read i'm not literally can barely we got an email about what day and i literally added numbers to but at least you were you knew there was march and a three in there somewhere so you had that down i didn't even know that so i can't i can't blame you i'm a moron too just reading for some reason works for me but i don't know anything else i'm not good at it not good at much else here so uh we'll get into this quick well we'll explain lizard candy very quickly um i i took a nap the other day had a quick had a stupid dream about where i'm eating candy you know like a candy like you get in a like a russell stover or something one of those like that it was like that but they
Starting point is 00:05:40 were like thick it wasn't like a caramel it was almost like a like a fudge or like a brownie bite it was like thick like in a candy heart kind of thing caramel. It was almost like a fudge or like a brownie bite. It was like thick. Like in a candy heart kind of thing? I guess it was like, yeah. It came out of a little papery thing, you know, like that it's in. I know that. And I ate it and I took a bite and lizards came out.
Starting point is 00:05:56 Right? In my dream. And there was lizards running around and there was like an iguana and there was a little fucking like a, you know, gecko lizard and there was one of those like dinosaur lizards with like the fan head. Like one of those was in there.
Starting point is 00:06:07 And they all ran out. I don't think it exists anymore, but he was in my candy. Tiny little lizards. And they ran all over the place. And somehow in my sleep, I texted Sarah, just lizard candy. Be careful. One sentence. And was still sleeping.
Starting point is 00:06:24 Without knowing. Very vague. Lizard candy. Be careful. And was still sleeping. Without knowing. Very vague. Lizard candy. Be careful. Insanely vague. And I got up and she went, what the hell are you talking about? Yeah. And I had to go, what?
Starting point is 00:06:37 Oh, I sent you that? Well. But in my sleep, I was very concerned that she would take a bite and end up with lizards in her mouth. And I didn't want that to happen to her, even though she wasn't even in my dream. It was just me. And she had the high step around the house. That is an imminent threat kind of text. It's pretty vague.
Starting point is 00:06:54 Yeah, it definitely is. If you saw that sign while you were driving, you'd be like. You'd take it down 10 miles slower. Just lizard candy isn't that scary because you'd be like lizard candy whatever but lizard candy be careful sounds like it's coming for you yeah they're here and even if you're trying to avoid them they're gonna find you it's lizard candy when did we enter jurassic park i didn't see no one can stop we're here already though lizard candy so i have been dying in my head about this the whole time about my sleepy concern that sarah might
Starting point is 00:07:26 accidentally eat lizard candy it feels like the sign would be telling you you are lizard candy now be careful yeah be careful that's the other thing i'm glad i just sent it to her who knows i was sleeping i could have sent it to anybody. Yeah, your mom. Yeah, any lizard candy. What the hell are you talking about? Our fucking agents? I think they're losing their minds. We got to drop these guys. I wish I had gotten that in the group text. That would have been amazing. Lizard candy, be careful.
Starting point is 00:07:55 Okay, these guys finally snapped. I knew they were weird. My phone would just be ching, ching, ching, and I'd look and it'd just be all question marks. Yeah. We knew they were weird. They do this comedy murder shit, but this is beyond the pale of weird.
Starting point is 00:08:09 This is, I don't know what they're talking about. This is too far. So that said, let's get into our guy here, Mr. Lizard Candy himself. We're going to talk about William Bedford this week. He's a basketball player. You know who he is? I know the name, but why do I know that name?
Starting point is 00:08:25 Because he is an all-time Suns legend for being drafted by them and then being involved in a bunch of drug stuff. Remember that 87 Suns team where like seven of the guys got suspended? And he was one of those guys. Really? And he ended up being really a spectacular wash spectacular washout really i mean yeah his career talk about could have been should have been out huh wow he this is really the quintessential crime and sports story of this some of the things he's called bedford uh no he went by william bedford
Starting point is 00:08:58 but uh yeah sometimes they called him willie b because they're boring nobody had a good nickname what is billy bedford i swear that's something it might be something billy don't tweet me Yeah, sometimes they called him Willie B because they're boring. Nobody had a good nickname for him. What is Billy Bedford? I swear that's something. It might be something. Billy Bedford. Don't tweet me. I don't care. It's like a Western character.
Starting point is 00:09:12 It sounds like a bad guy in a Western. It might be. Billy Bedford runs this town. If you mess with him, he owns all the judges and you're going to end up in jail. It's worse than that. It's somebody that's just a scumbag. I know it. So old William Bedford, born December 14, 1963 in Memphis, Tennessee is where he's from.
Starting point is 00:09:34 He is going to grow up to be a giant, giant person. He is a legit seven foot tall. Holy. A center and a, you know, I mean our seven footers in our in this world are a freak of nature and yeah. Yeah, then it was really rare. It's totally yeah back then I was just reading this book about Michael Jackson and how weird he is, right? Yeah, and we all know about him. We've talked about his his insanely weird butthole predilection and everything else many many times on this show.
Starting point is 00:10:02 And Michael Jackson used to go to like the mall when he was insanely famous like thriller days he'd go to the mall but he just took his he took his hair up in a hat and put some sunglasses gonna work it did you put tuck your hair into a hat put some sunglasses on nobody knew it was michael jackson are you serious no absolutely not and he wouldn't dress like michael jackson obviously he put like jeans on it you know like that's not enough of a disguise if he had like the glove on and shit i don't think it would have mattered he's got a red leather jacket with the glove on like captain crunch with a white leather glove yeah that's correct that was a wonderful chris rock fucking quote there you show up at court looking like captain crunch yeah fuck you want showing up late
Starting point is 00:10:42 looking like captain crunch well this is in the 80s when he wore the red leather jacket with the fucking sparkly glove and the yeah the white socks with the right loafers and all that shit yeah like weird loafers no he'd have to put on like a pair of nikes and some jeans and a sweat and a hoodie and go walk around nobody knew who the fuck he was that's crazy but if you're kareem abdul-jabbar or will chamberlain you can't do that you're even if you have a full disguise on your face people go who the fuck is that giant guy over there guys on his face everyone notices you is that kareem abdul-jabbar you're screwed so it feels like when you do that it brings it just brings more attention to you as a big that's all
Starting point is 00:11:23 it would do yeah shack can Shaq can't hide. Right. You know, he can't. There's no way. When the Baseline Rapist was here in Phoenix and he was wearing disguises around, I saw him. When the Baseline Rapist was here, like a band came touring through. They did a whole month here. It was wild.
Starting point is 00:11:42 You remember Johnny and the Baseline Rapist. That was a really good month of touring for them i feel it horrible i almost fell over imagine on 420 for the virtual live show and i get him stoned and we do this it's gonna be even better a blood vessel will pop i saw him at a bus stop and when they arrested him and I saw his face, I was like, oh my God, that's him. But he was at a bus. He's tall. He's a big guy.
Starting point is 00:12:09 He was wearing weird shit in July. That's not normal in Phoenix. When you see somebody big wearing weird shit, it's crazy. That guy thought he was going to get away. You're big as shit and you can't wear disguises at that. No, you can't. If you're over six foot two, you cannot hide. There's just no way to hide.
Starting point is 00:12:27 You're fucked. It's weird. You stand out. I think he was six two. People stare at you. People look at you. Yeah, six two or above, people notice you, and you can't do it. If you're five eight, you can put a hat on, and people will never even notice you.
Starting point is 00:12:39 They'll walk. You know what I mean? Yeah. A six foot two guy with a Gomez Adams gomez adams mustache that's the other thing shit loads of foundation on you look like a lunatic which didn't stand out sir did not help that was he took it to the extreme he took it to the extreme that he really did yeah yeah michael jackson can get away with that easier than you that's saying something and you know i i i like that about being tiny that i can like dude i can blend right into a fucking crowd so easy.
Starting point is 00:13:06 Yeah. So easy. But I don't like being in crowds, so it's a good story, too. People point at my head from fucking, hey, fuck, be alone. When I'm with you in places where people know us and they'll get our shows out back, people see you before they see me. They go, oh, that's James. Oh, it's James and Jimmy.
Starting point is 00:13:26 Yeah, they see me, tall guy. Then they see you, and they put the two and two together, and they're like, oh, it's those two. Tiny guy, big guy. That's them. Separately, they don't notice us. But together, they fucking, yeah, they notice, which is nice. I don't mind.
Starting point is 00:13:39 It's fucking interesting. So let's get into William Bedford here. All right. So his childhood, we'll talk about that a little bit. He liked sports always growing up. And to be a huge kid like that, I mean, why would you not like sports? You're going to dominate all of them. Right.
Starting point is 00:13:57 It probably is a lot of fun to be big and better than everybody else just because you're big. He was huge. He started talking about basketball in the ninth. He started playing basketball in the ninth grade. Didn't play really before that. He was six foot nine, though. My God. In what grade?
Starting point is 00:14:13 Ninth grade. So when you're 14 and 6'9", they're going to definitely try to recruit you to the basketball team. I don't think anybody's going to let that go. They're going to want to do that. He says, quote, I didn't even like basketball then. I used to get mad when people would tell me about basketball i didn't even used to watch it on tv so he had no interest in it but they were like dude you're huge ninth grade and he doesn't care no i i played football wide receiver tight end strong safety
Starting point is 00:14:40 a quarterback's dream oh my god a seven foot tall tight end just put it up there you go go get that for 10 yards just throw it up in the air high yards are mine with a good vertical leap too you know yeah um he on his junior high team he was six foot six and was a strong safety so he must have been a monster then he grew to six 6'9", and he said, quote, as a receiver, they couldn't overthrow me. I guess not. You're huge. And as a strong safety, well, I never had to jump in the air for one.
Starting point is 00:15:13 I played pretty good football. Yeah. Yeah, but later on. Something standing on his feet? Yeah, just grabbing shit out of the air. Give me that. He's so huge. Awesome.
Starting point is 00:15:26 But he broke his leg in four places in eighth grade playing football yeah if you're seven feet tall you know you're not meant to get your legs hit probably that's the problem yeah they're long foot stuck in the stuck in the turf and you get hit your legs don't go anywhere you're too big yeah you need some some leg gives yeah yeah the bones are going to be too thin there so um that would be the end of football for him because of that. He was done. But he wanted to still play sports because he was huge. He said, I figured I had to try something. I was too tall for baseball, so that was out.
Starting point is 00:15:57 You are. Your strike zone is humongous. You're not going to be a terrible baseball player. You're going to strike out constantly. That's not great. And tennis, well, that just seemed a little too sissified. Really? Sissified.
Starting point is 00:16:10 Like he's fucking Charlie Utter in Deadwood. I bet you got one of them sissified shooting instruments. I love him. Oh, God damn it. He's the best. Him beating the shit out of that murderer guy is the greatest thing ever. Kicking him in the ass. With that mug, that face, and. Kicking him in the ass. And then winning,
Starting point is 00:16:26 with that mug, that face, and winning the hottest chick in the show. Yeah, good for you, Charlie Utter. Good for you, Charlie. Because he was pure. Charlie Utter was pure of heart. He was a gentleman,
Starting point is 00:16:37 and he was pure of heart, damn it. Hottest chick in the show. He kicked that guy's ass about 12 times. I love his run back and field goal to the taint. That was wonderful. His taint punt was really epic, honestly. He sort of wiggled his fingers first. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:55 That was one of the better beatings in TV history. That was like Sonny Corleone, you know, Godfather 1 with the trash can lid level beating. That's fucking wonderful. You're like, yeah, get him. Because he was such a scumbag. He just wanted to be beaten. Piece of garbage. Yes, beat him.
Starting point is 00:17:11 So basketball ended up being the kind of default thing that happened. Basketball wins by default. So he goes through. He plays high school in Memphis. So he goes through, he plays high school in Memphis, and he said that it was the same kids he grew up with playing on the team. He said, I mean, we've known each other since we used to go outside and throw rocks at each other, you know, dirt bombs. Yeah, I remember that. Okay.
Starting point is 00:17:41 God, boys are vicious. They are. We used to shoot fireworks at each other. Yeah. We literally threw rocks at each other. How are we alive? Rocks, BBs, Roman candles. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:56 Not safe. Bottle rockets. It was dangerous shit. Yeah. That's what we did. If you survive, then I guess you're good. I don't know. Pretty tough kid.
Starting point is 00:18:06 What were we thinking? All of that and lizard candy candy it's a dangerous world out there jimmy we're all we're all fucked up he said i never missed a dunk because i couldn't reach oh never missed a dunk because i couldn't reach like i never yeah i was never too short when i started i didn't have to jump that high to reach only about this far and it shows about six inches and he says now i only have to jump that high to reach, only about this far. And he shows about six inches. And he says, now I only have to jump like an inch. So he doesn't have to do much here. Yeah, he's huge. And people said that people kept saying, oh, my God, you're going to be the next, you know, so-and-so and the next Kareem and the next Wilt.
Starting point is 00:18:41 And he just didn't really care. He liked football better. So he didn't really like. He's bummed that he has to be that. Yeah, that's it. He's like, yeah, I guess so. That's fine. He didn't really care he liked football better so he didn't really like he's bummed that he has to be that yeah that's it he's like yeah i guess so that's fine he didn't even care he said my friends and my cousins used to play ball all the time but not me the game just didn't appeal to me back then i'm not i'm not even sure i know why just wasn't into it i guess that's all so um anyway he gets into basketball finally, though. And Melrose High School he goes to. And his coach said that he's so good and he's so excited to have this kid.
Starting point is 00:19:17 When he was a sophomore, he's like, oh, my God, we have this super tall guy. It's fucking amazing. He ends up winning the Mr. Basketball for the state of Tennessee inessee in 1983 awesome so he's very fucking tall and um you know he's looking good and all the local colleges are looking at him he's got his choice of college uh here for his senior year he finished 17 points 11 rebounds and six block shots a game not bad so not a game yeah and this is shots a game. Not bad. A game. A game, yeah. Six blocks a game. Six blocks a game.
Starting point is 00:19:49 And you look at a low point total and stuff like that, there's a lot of high schools that play like a just hold the ball offense. There's no shot clock in most high school basketball. Dude, high school basketball is hard to watch. Yeah, they just had a game that was 4-2. Did you see that? Stop it. It was a number watch. Yeah. They just had a game that was 4-2. Did you see that? Stop it. It was a number one ranked team.
Starting point is 00:20:09 Varsity teams. Varsity teams versus some other team. 4-2. Is that great defense or shitty offense? They held the ball. There's no shot clock. Okay. Both of their strategies was hold the ball forever.
Starting point is 00:20:21 So 4-2. And I think four of the six points were were foul shots oh my god so there's one field goal in an entire game imagine being those kids parents and you had to sit there and watch that i'd scribe you like johnny i'm going home if you don't start fucking shooting it i swear to god yelling at the coach right yeah furious what are we doing this This is bullshit. We're going home to feed your little brother if you don't fucking start playing because this is boring. I paid to be here.
Starting point is 00:20:52 This is stupid. We don't have to buy tickets to these now. Yeah. That's crazy, by the way. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. Well, it's because it also costs money to. Of course. That's true because I had to go.
Starting point is 00:21:05 I had to pay to see my daughter's fucking concerts in high school. Yeah. And we had to pay to do the shit and pay to do everything. And paying reps and people to do the score table, all that shit. Yeah, you got to pay everything. But it's dumb. It's dumb as shit because this is not worth money. Yeah, this is terrible.
Starting point is 00:21:23 This is a bad product, you guys. This is a bad product is what you're presenting for us right now don't want this at all so he uh they they call him and this is from a newspaper article in the orlando sentinel so not even near his hometown in florida they call him the akim alajuan of southern centers. Well, that is big fucking praise. That's a big compliment because that's in 83 when I believe Houston was going to the national championship at that time and shit with Olajuwon here. So, yeah, he's doing really well.
Starting point is 00:21:56 Everybody's very excited for him here. They're talking about his can't get over his unlimited talent. Here's his one coach here. He says he's a guy with unlimited talent. Here's his one coach here. He says, he's a guy with unlimited talent. Right there. He'll be an awfully, awfully good basketball player before he's through. He's well coached in high
Starting point is 00:22:14 school by Dorsey Sims. William can shoot the ball well for a big guy. He's got such a good touch. He doesn't hesitate to shoot the jump shot and he's strong inside. He can play either the high post or the low post. I really like the way he runs the court in a fluid way he's got a great attitude works hard and has a big smile on his face all the time he needs to be more physical but that will come with age and maturity he's got a world of potential so amazing then there is a problem because he this is amazing he might not be able to play because of algebra
Starting point is 00:22:49 yep he's not doing well at algebra at all um he can't he's failing algebra so they're going to possibly make him sit out some big tournament that the high school is going to play that's a problem that's a problem he can problem. He's bad at the books. He's not good at finding it for X. He's just not into that at all right now. X is a bastard. It's a bastard. He's good at finding it on the court.
Starting point is 00:23:15 The X's and the O's there, but not off it. So he does, though, end up going to Memphis State. So that's where he ends up going to college. That's a local college. Isn that's where he ends up going to college, local. Let's see, you know, a local college. Is that where Penny Hardaway went? Did he go to Memphis State or just Memphis? I thought it was Memphis State. It may have been, but all I know is that on the back of his card, it said Memphis. It may be Memphis State, but it may be Memphis. I'm not sure. I think he went to Memphis. That's a good one there. one there so again though he's got problems there because they're wondering whether he's going to be eligible or not because he's got all sorts of
Starting point is 00:23:51 all sorts of dummies yeah his his his transcripts were all fucked up too they were he was blaming the school and then the school was saying no it's him yeah it's a it was a mess is basically what's going on here. So he finally gets there. It's it was delayed pending the results of a state proficiency examination. And they said he'll be that's what he'll be eligible for enrollment. The test scores received at the university showed that he passed the examination that he took initially. It's the examination that he took initially. So now he meets the requirements for a high school diploma and to be an actual student in college. You have to graduate high school first, generally. That's a thing. That's a thing. The athletic director here said our admissions office at the university has received a report of the test scores, and indeed he did pass.
Starting point is 00:24:44 Final exams end on Thursday, so he will go on an athletic scholarship as of Friday. All right. Did we mention he's go on an athletic scholarship as of Friday. All right. Did we mention he's very tall? We need him. Yeah. His fragile, four-spot broken leg. Man, that sounds like you'd have to tape it back together. That's terrible, right?
Starting point is 00:24:57 Oh, my God. You've got to have a weak spot, right? It's like the lamp in a Christmas story. Yeah. Touch it, it's just going to crumble to shit. Lots of glue. Lots of glue and tape and shit. Yeah. Not going to work.
Starting point is 00:25:06 A couple of bubbles in the cracks. Oh, absolutely. It's just scotch tape. He said, his coach said, naturally, I'm tremendously happy that he'll be with us. The big reason is because he'll be able to get to practice. He's missed a great deal. So they're talking about, you know, finally he can get in the mix because they've all been practicing and like playing exhibitions and shit.
Starting point is 00:25:27 And he's been, quote, studying. So they said this is the athletic director here. We petitioned the NCAA earlier on the basis of should he pass the test? When will he be eligible? We were advised by the NCAA that he should. Should he pass the test? He would be eligible upon completion of the semester. So they're ready here. They're ready. Um, he, uh, is he can't wait to is what he says. Um, he says, uh, they said, what do you, uh, what do you want to tell all the people out there,
Starting point is 00:25:59 you know, in the conference that you're coming to the conference and all that. What do you want to say? What threats do you want to make? Yeah, and he said, you tell him I'm seven feet tall. Oh, okay. That's all. That's all you want to tell him? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:15 He's a big guy. That's what I am. You'll see, is what he says. And that's all. That's it. Yep. Just remind him I'm tall. And he says that you can call him Bill is fine.
Starting point is 00:26:29 Oh. Also. That's what he says to a newspaper reporter. You can tell people I'm seven feet tall and you can call me Bill. Yep. So he's very. Jared Walton? Like that.
Starting point is 00:26:40 You know, like that. So it's fucking, it's very, very interesting here. He's, he's, I found in this article, by the way, that was in 1983. Right underneath it, by the way, is a, a sale for the sales, Jimmy, a place called Action Audio. And it was, this is from the Poughkeepsie Journal. So right up by where i live there there is um you can get videotapes in 1983 blank ones blank videotapes 11.95 how many one oh on sale from 27 what yes that's how things were 30 that's how expensive vhs tapes were back in the day
Starting point is 00:27:25 no wonder the movies didn't want us to get anything else yeah they were making a killing that's crazy tdk who made it's a tdk 11.95 yeah that's the top of the line right yeah was it sound design td tdk was sound design right the sound. I don't know. It's one of those two. Even the, they have the, remember the little plastic diskettes that went in, not the floppies, but the other ones that went in computers, they have those. Five of them for $24.95. What the fuck? It's a little expensive. A thumb drive's like five bucks.
Starting point is 00:28:00 Yeah. A beta player. Okay, yeah. Not even VHS. The beta player and VHS players, both on sale for $449.95. Oh, my God. $400 in 1983 money. That's for a Sharp and a Sanyo.
Starting point is 00:28:16 The Kenwood will cost you $549. On sale from $1,000. Almost half off. You better snatch that up. But a turntable, a Sony turntable, $119.95, which is pretty much what they are now. Yeah, they haven't changed at all. That hasn't gotten up at all. Up or down, exactly the same.
Starting point is 00:28:34 How is that? This whole thing defies inflation. It defies everything, this entire ad. I don't get it. Videotapes are worth four cents now. Back then they were worth a pile of gold. Electronics is the only piece of our economy that has no rhyme or reason. It's just fucking insane.
Starting point is 00:28:56 It's insane. It's what they feel like they need to recoup on R&D is all it is. It's what we want out of it. Oh, my God. Jesus Christ. It's what we want out of it. Oh, my God. Jesus Christ. That's amazing. I couldn't believe when I saw how much those were. I was like, videotapes are how much?
Starting point is 00:29:11 Jesus Christ. Holy shit. No wonder why things were expensive back then. Yeah. I remember when I was a little, little kid when Predator came out with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yeah. I had an older cousin who bought it on VHS. Owned it. me and my cousin were
Starting point is 00:29:26 like whoa we were like seven we were like whoa it cost a hundred dollars a hundred dollars for a video to a vhs tape of predator that's so dumb a hundred dollars how crazy is that today It's two dollars. Oh, yeah. It'd be nothing for Predator. It's probably free. Just here. Take a copy of Predator.
Starting point is 00:29:49 You don't want it anymore. The movie's fine, but we have much better media to play it on now. This is terrible. I have no way of watching that. No. How do we. Yeah. Who has this anymore?
Starting point is 00:30:00 So anyway, he's trying to get into games and he's trying to be, you know, he's been working out on his own so he could be what he calls top physical condition. He says he's in good shape. He's ready to go. And he can't wait to get in there. So in his freshman season, he plays in 26 games. Yeah. Pretty good here and averages 9.5 points, 5.3 rebounds a game. Not terrible. Not great. Pretty good..3 rebounds a game.
Starting point is 00:30:27 Not terrible, not great, pretty good. Looks like two blocks a game, too. Two blocks a game is fine. He's doing fine here. Taylor Swift is soaring high, her every move captured in the news cycle and devoured by her devoted fans. She's broken billboard records and made Grammys history, not to mention becoming a billionaire in the
Starting point is 00:30:45 process. But along the way, Taylor has had to wage war, first by taking on a very powerful, very famous manager, Scooter Braun, and then by going up against the biggest live events company, Ticketmaster. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wondery Show Business Wars. We go deep into some of the biggest corporate rivalries of all time. And in our latest season, Taylor Swift will shake up not only the music business, but Hollywood and the NFL. Follow Business Wars wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. If you don't know when Crystal Pepsi was discontinued, what was in Al Capone's vault, or which famous meteorologist is Lenny Kravitz's second cousin, then you haven't spent enough time on Wikipedia. But that's okay. I am here for you.
Starting point is 00:31:33 I'm Darcy Carden, and I'm inviting you to listen to my new podcast, WikiHole, from SmartList Media. Discover the craziest rabbit holes on Wikipedia with me and my funny friends as we bring the cyber frontier directly to your tympanic membrane. And if you listen to my podcast, you'd learn that that's the science-y term for eardrum. We embark on a hyperlink rollercoaster as we start out on a Wikipedia page and go from link to link to link to link, careening through trivia, oddities, and unexpected connections until we collectively shout, how the hell did we get here? Follow WikiHole on the Wondery app or wherever you get your
Starting point is 00:32:10 podcasts. You can listen to WikiHole ad free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. They're excited. They have a big man. A legit seven footer is not everybody has that. Even in the NBA over the years. the Suns went how long without ever having a fucking legit seven-foot center who was a real center? They have a 6'10".
Starting point is 00:32:34 Was Hot Rod the first? Oh, he was 6'10", too, huh? He might have been, but he wasn't a fucking real center. No, you had your Mark West and those guys that were 6'10", 6'11", 6'5", 10 1⁄2". I think Joe Klein was 7 feet tall, but he never played. He was a stiff by then. They had Luke Longley for a minute, didn't they? Or was it Joe Klein?
Starting point is 00:32:53 Yeah, but again, they had Longley too. Yes, because, yeah, that was... But still, that's... The Nixon sons passed him back and forth. I'm like, no! I'm not logging on either of these teams. We don't need him nobody trading me stop my trash to my favorite team fuck me just trading them back and forth
Starting point is 00:33:11 oh they got rid of longley great oh fuck he went there shit god damn it shit i thought i was rid of his bullshit. And the difference between, like, playing basketball, shooting over somebody that's 6'8 or 6'10 is much easier. Like, the difference between that and 7 feet is a drastic change. It's extra arm length. It's extra everything. Yeah, it's literally 6'8 inches. Yeah, it's huge. They can basically have, you know, they're like 9'6", just with their hands in the air.
Starting point is 00:33:45 So you can really get it up there. So they were very excited because one game he scores 21 points and goes 10 for 12 from the field against Olajuwon in a head-on battle. So that was like, they were like, oh, shit, this is, wow, not bad. And this is said by a, who said this? DePaul's coach said, quote, if there's a better freshman in the country, it ought to be against the rules. With him coming back and if Lee doesn't go pro,
Starting point is 00:34:14 Memphis State has the preseason number one team in the country next year. They've got my vote right now. That's some praise. That's some goddamn praise, yes. From the other coach. From the other coach, yeah yeah they're doing so well um uh one of his teammates said i had a very close relationship with william i played on his aau team and roomed with him his freshman year he's a sweet sweet kid what happened to him was he got involved with drugs and it wrecked his life some foreshadowing um and they said when did this
Starting point is 00:34:47 happen and they said you know before the nba and he said it happened at memphis state i'm pretty sure it's gotta be before the nba it's what he said there it's it definitely was before that you don't get into professional sports and all of a sudden have a drug problem you know what i mean i mean it happens because we've seen some of the guys that kind of were innocent in college, and then once they got in the pros, they were like, oh, hanging out at a nightclub. Yeah, that's happened. But they had to have tried it in college.
Starting point is 00:35:12 They had to have. I mean, I guess. I think, too, if you haven't tried it by the pros, you'd be more naive probably by then to be more open to it back then. I don't know. If I made it to the pros, I think I would be sticking with everything I've done before to continue this yeah me too you know what i mean but then again there's
Starting point is 00:35:30 some people that just aren't grateful and and they're young and they don't understand the luck well when you're seven feet tall too you kind of think like well i mean i'm seven feet tall so i mean it's got to be a different mindset it really has to be it has to be you know like if you're like fucking as funny as eddie murphy you're like i don't really like when he was younger yeah like you know fucking early 80s eddie murphy he's like i don't care what people say i'm hilarious fuck you literally eddie murphy yeah i think that's what it feels like to be seven feet tall right like i will put on a leather suit and make your girlfriend want to fuck me while you laugh at me. That's how cool I am. That's cool. And I take your money.
Starting point is 00:36:06 And I take shitloads of your money. How cool is that? You've never seen a seven-foot man at an off-ramp begging for change. It's never happened. No, you figure it out. If you're seven feet tall, there's something out there for you. For sure. His second year, though, his sophomore year, pretty good.
Starting point is 00:36:25 Plays in 35 games. I think that's all of them. Averages 12.2 points, 7.6 rebounds. So he's getting better. And he averages about three blocks a game, too. A little under three. Okay. So pretty goddamn good here.
Starting point is 00:36:38 And he's doing well. They said they have Keith Lee, who's an All-American at forward. They're doing awesome. They can't wait. Bedford said, all we need is a little luck and we could go the whole distance. And he said, we need a nickname, too. We need one bad. I mean, we could go to the final four.
Starting point is 00:36:59 So he's like, you know, come on. What do they need a nickname? Well, he said, somebody came up with Demons of Dunk, but that doesn't sound right. We deserve something better. We need something that will make people want to come back at us. So they end up – Why does everybody want a nickname? They go 31-3 that year, so maybe they do deserve a nickname.
Starting point is 00:37:21 That's a pretty goddamn good team. That coach was right. So maybe they do deserve a nickname. That's a pretty goddamn good team. That coach was right. And one of the players here said, Bedford has taken a lot of the pressure off of Keith this year, who was the All-American forward.
Starting point is 00:37:35 The last couple years, Keith was the whole Memphis State inside game, so to speak. He got all the rebounds, blocked shots, and did all the scoring. This year, Bedford has taken over the blocked shot category. He's second in rebounding. He's just an imposing force inside. He's an intimidator so oh now he's intimidating yeah not bad and bedford said the difference now is that i'm concentrating more i'm getting my rest i'm eating right i used to be out running around too much playing around sure that'll come back um that'll come back don't you worry oh boy um there's there's some problems at uh at memphis
Starting point is 00:38:07 state here uh and that is there's a gambling i guess allegation and a big grand jury and the former football coach and athletic director at memphis state billy spook murphy don't like that don't like that a little bit no uh wow okay he uh now a special assistant to the president of the university there he uh gets subpoenaed by a grand jury and a retired fbi agent hired to shield memphis state athletes from gamblers and dope dealers accompanied murphy to the federal courthouse to be questioned he said murphy is not believed to be a target of the investigation and no Memphis State athletes have been called to testify.
Starting point is 00:38:49 So I don't know what they're talking about. But this is they're calling in a football coach who coached from 58 to 72. So who fucking cares? How's that? How about who gives a shit by now? Right. Unless he's a part of making sure they have drugs today. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:39:07 But there's more to this. These are they're looking into gambling. But also the NCAA is looking into reports that William Bedford, quote, borrowed luxury cars from financial boosters which obviously they said boosters can uh boosters contend sometimes in their zealousness to support the university of crossing over some lines that could be possible ncaa violations and i think we simply want to educate and communicate to them exactly what those parameters are that's what the ncaa guy said so if they don't keep the car or financially benefit from the car, is that still illegal? It's illegal for them to fucking get a ride in a car.
Starting point is 00:39:50 The NCAA rules are ridiculous. I mean, I know they're changing them now, but they were asinine. Fucking asinine. Are the only changes they're doing now is that they can benefit financially? Can they from their likeness? They can benefit from their name. They can go sign autographs and make money for it. Whereas before.
Starting point is 00:40:07 But I'll bet they still can't get cars. No, probably not. That's what I mean, which is stupid. That's dumb. They should be, even if it's just a borrowed car, like if a booster gives a kid a car with the intention of giving it back when they're done with college, you know what I mean? That guy's taking, he's incurring a loss for the mileage and the use of the vehicle. Listen, who gives a shit?
Starting point is 00:40:27 What are we, pretending that college is some pure thing? It's their amateur. Who fucking cares? We're pretending anything's on the up and up? It's not on the up and up. It's a fucking giant business, so who gives a shit? It's a giant business where you figured out how to not pay the employees. It's crazy.
Starting point is 00:40:44 You're paying them in pussy and cars and apartments. Stop it. You're still paying them one way or another. It's a giant business where you figured out how to not pay the employees. It's crazy. You're paying them in pussy and cars and apartments. Stop it. You're still paying them one way or another. It's stupid. It's just stupid. Let's stop pretending here. Come on. For fuck's sake.
Starting point is 00:40:55 William, 17.3 points a game in his junior year, by the way. Wow. So not bad. 8.5 rebounds. Killing it. Doing great on the blocks, too. Not too shabby. Obviously he's going to do well.
Starting point is 00:41:07 He's an NCAA AP All-America also as well. So he's crushing shit is what we're getting at here. One of the best in the country. Absolutely crushing shit. His coach said that he's too sad to think about life without William at the college. He knows it's going to end one day. Yep. He said, I'm not going to think about life without William at the college. He knows it's going to end one day. Yep. He said, I'm not going to think about it right now.
Starting point is 00:41:27 He said, practice will determine who will replace Bedford at center. We'll be there because he is leaving. He's leaving college. He's done. He's done. And their next tallest player is 6'9". So they're like, oh, no. Fuck.
Starting point is 00:41:40 We're going to lose so bad. It was so bad. They said he wasn't the captain, but he had a leadership role. He was the man because he was seven feet and took a leadership role. But that used to make us laugh with that baby face of his. Against Hawaii this past season, he was going up to dunk, and a guy 6'2 slapped the ball out of his hands. William just broke out laughing.
Starting point is 00:42:01 He said, I just hate to see pro basketball continue to rob the college ranks, is what Mississippi State coach said. He's like, I need him for four years. I want to keep my job. I can't stand this guy going and making money for what he's doing rather than just making me money for what I'm doing. I feel like that's, wow. I need the best players in the country for four
Starting point is 00:42:26 years so that i can keep my mercedes yeah so i can get nails done i get it i have a radio show do you understand that i get paid extra for that they give me a house on campus what does that grow on trees no i need that bullshit um so this coach continues to say, I'm sure he was properly advised, meaning Bedford, but another year in college would certainly have enhanced his position, I believe. It all depends on where he'll be drafted, of course. He'll definitely be in the big bucks, but that guy would have been capable of mega bucks. Yeah. So he says he's coming out. Says he's coming out, and by the way, he's coming out,
Starting point is 00:43:06 and the NCAA at the same time notifies Memphis State University that it plans to place the school's men's basketball program on two years of probation and will require the return of almost $1 million from basketball tournament proceeds. Oh, what happened? Well, the letter cited basketball player William Bedford's use of luxury cars owned by Tigers Athletic Boosters. That's why he's leaving. Yeah, he's leaving and leaving them with problems. Yep.
Starting point is 00:43:32 That's what else are you going to do? I guess he was driving around in a brand new Corvette as a freshman. In the 80s? He had a new Lincoln as a sophomore and a Jaguar as a junior. Oh, Jesus. He's driving a new expensive car every year. Yeah, yeah. That's going to stand out.
Starting point is 00:43:52 I mean, what the fuck do you expect at that moment? You're seven feet tall in a Lincoln. It's fucking, yeah. You got the biggest car with the biggest body. We see you. We see you. And a Corvette is just, we see you. Your head's out the fucking sunroof.
Starting point is 00:44:06 Stupid shit. Yeah, you'd have to have the T-tops if you're seven feet tall. So, Christ always. So he goes to the NBA draft, 1986 NBA draft. Jimmy, number one draft pick is? Oh, 86? 86. We've talked about 86 before.
Starting point is 00:44:23 I know who it is. Is it Reggie Miller? No. We've talked about 86 before. I know who it is. Is it Reggie Miller? No. No. I think he was 87, but not number one. He was like number 12 when he got drafted. Brad Doherty. Oh, I was going to say the Robinson.
Starting point is 00:44:35 No, I think he was 89, 88, 87. They got Doherty and Mark Price in the same draft, didn't they? Yes, I believe they did, as a matter of fact. Brad Doherty, number one overall, the center for Cleveland, for the most boring offense in the same draft, didn't they? Yes, I believe they did, as a matter of fact. Brad Doherty, number one overall, the center for Cleveland, for the most boring offense in the history of basketball since the invention of the shot clock. Brad Doherty, Larry Nance, Mark Price.
Starting point is 00:44:55 God damn it! Fuck. Run, one of you! Well, it's better than drafting number two, which is Len Bias from Boston, who we did the bonus episode on, who was dead within 24 hours of that uh number three we've done an episode chris washburn is number three overall we know
Starting point is 00:45:11 him kenny walker with the big high and tight the old uh the big kid and play fucking you know no no not that kenny kenny walker kenny walker kenny walker the knicks big guy on the knicks big power forward yeah yeah kenny Smith, you're thinking of. There it is. There you go. Kenny Smith. He had a high flat top, too. He did.
Starting point is 00:45:28 He did. Everyone had that in 1989. That was just what they had. Also, number seven, Roy Tarpley, another episode of ours. Oh, boy. This draft is chock full of our guys. Chock full of cocaine. And it's no different because at number six, the Phoenix Suns select william bedford wow so they take him
Starting point is 00:45:47 roy tarpley uh-huh the other center who is it then anybody else ron harper the guard for the bulls i mean not bad but not a top 10 pick can't understand him but all right okay that's fine no problem otherwise this draft um not a lot of superstars here. Scott Skiles, number 22. Sabonis, before he was actually going to come here. Yeah, before he was going to come. And Mark Price, number 25 overall. Dennis Rodman, number 27. That's a good pick, yeah.
Starting point is 00:46:14 That's a good pick there, yeah. But not at that time. He was kind of a pain in the ass then. Detroit stole him, though. I mean, that's a steal. So, I mean, that's who we're talking about. Nothing spectacular. But that draft honestly
Starting point is 00:46:25 i mean len bias was going to be the you know the crown jewel there and it turned out that draft is a bunch of mediocre players sure is nothing great but he's drafted number six overall so i mean that's in the bucks right there top 10 as the guy was saying so he's gonna go to oh jeff horn is second late in the second round too where did he go first six uh he went to phoenix phoenix sons drafted him they drafted him absolutely he was there first so let's say it grace yeah that's grace oh no wait was it philly that drafted him i can't see this thing i don't know no i think he went to philly he went to philly for uh for barkley i thought it was yes he went to philly for barclay you're right so uh william is in the nba that is grace definitely um the pacers um bypassed him and in in favor of uh
Starting point is 00:47:14 chuck person and the crowd was pissed the fans were mad the pacer fans wanted a big center that's a great fucking pick chuck person's a great player holy shit yeah imagine being mad well yeah well chuck person said from what i read and heard before the draft i expected new yorker phoenix to select me to be honest i had no preference as far as an nba club was concerned i just wanted to play basketball so he's like i don't really care but the people now they hate me in detroit because now i'm gonna have to go to minnesota yeah um so now coaches are questioning him and his uh mainly his well his his toughness is what they're saying they're saying he's only 225 pounds i was just about to ask that how big is he he looks uh
Starting point is 00:47:58 vulnerable as they said a little bit vulnerable 225 225 yeah so you know they said that's uh a bunch of coaches or yeah they uh they're talking about you know but then again we'll look at akim olajuwon yeah he's a big thin guy but i mean akim's a different kind of guy he's very live and he's he moves a different way um but still they think that he's going to be more like a benoit benjamin of shot blocker that kind of cat but they're saying that um you know they they think he can run the floor but they don't think he can play physically one says to tell you the truth he doesn't like physical play but he can handle it he's similar to benoit benoit benjamin he says uh both are competitive they will fight back they said, yeah, William would turn.
Starting point is 00:48:46 One coach said that he didn't like when they would try to push him around in practice. He would say, oh, coach, you fooled me. Like he would be like, oh, I thought you were serious. So then he wouldn't like fight back that much because he knew he was just the coach fucking with him type of thing. So it's a very weird. He's got a very strange attitude here. There's people talking about where he should have went. The Knicks thought they should have chose him as well instead of picking Kenny Walker.
Starting point is 00:49:15 But they had Patrick Ewing at that point. So what's the point? What are you going to do? That's your future. Bernard King said that, though. Bernard King is another one of our alumni don't trust anything don't trust anything he said he he got caught sleeping with a bunch of crack in his hand in a bad neighborhood behind the wheel at three in the morning he said i don't think kenny walker
Starting point is 00:49:37 was a very smart pick at all if you look at our front line where is he going to play walker's a good player but the idea in new york isn't just to get quality players it's to compete with boston we need help in so many other areas uh i thought we'd take william bedford we could have used him the whole east then was fucking crazy oh christ it was brutal um they said but they they said that he should be able to sign pretty well with the suns his agent said phoenix has been a fair club to deal with in the past. I expect they will be fair this time. And they said that Bedford is in a very good situation right there in Phoenix. It'll be good. They said it was a big surprise to be drafted by Phoenix because other clubs had told us other things. Generally, those clubs are pretty reliable, but Phoenix is a good place for William.
Starting point is 00:50:21 They've never drafted a big impact player and never had a real quality center well they still haven't so that's excellent still waiting still waiting phoenix never dreamed william would be available yeah i think uh kevin durant is their first fucking seven footer but he's not even they had they had shack uh i know for when he was 100 the worst time of his career when he weighed 380 that's perfect that's That's when you want Shaq. Yeah. But they predict a happy marriage between them. They say it's going to go so well. His college coach said, for William, it's just a matter of maturity. He needs to get on the weights a little more, get a little stronger. But he's a tough kid, and he's been very active.
Starting point is 00:50:57 And, yeah, they said a friend brought – oh, he went to a camp where he was trying to work out and get his weight up. And they said he's a gifted individual. Terrific. Some crackpot had him playing football. He got his leg broke. He may have had a broken arm, too, is another coach saying. You know, his basketball development, he didn't really start playing serious basketball until the 10th grade. So there's like he's still developing.
Starting point is 00:51:23 He's only played for five years of basketball. Some crack crackpot meaning himself had him playing football. Yeah. Had him playing. Somebody let that asshole play football. Um, so, um, he said that he, um, you know, he came to on the high school team and, uh, his coach said he's something like Bill Russell. He's going to have quickness. That's a difference in William and a lot of other guys. He could run the floor. They're literally talking about him being Bill Russell. He's going to have quickness. That's a difference in William and a lot of other guys. He could run the floor. They're literally talking about him being Bill Russell. This is unbelievable. His coach said he even looks younger than he is.
Starting point is 00:51:52 His face isn't the face of a 23-year-old. He looks more like 17. Some people say he smiles too much, but I don't think you have to look like Billy the Gruff. Who the fuck is that? Who is Billy the Gru is that did they just mix billy goat's gruff into that billy the gruff i don't know what that is wow i need a decoder ring for lizard candy grime dog what are you lizard candy be careful that is mad vague my friend wow super weird some people smile at you and cut your throat.
Starting point is 00:52:26 So he could be an assassin, he's saying here. That's just the way he is. I don't think he'll be intimidated. If anything, he's going to have to learn that you don't do an Olajuwon. You don't step back and cold cock somebody. You have to go back and lay a lick of your own. I would hope he would learn that quickly and not want to square off. Do you just call Oajuan a bitch?
Starting point is 00:52:45 I think he just called Lajuan a sucker punch guy, which is not what Lajuan was known for at all. That's pretty funny. He'll square up and hit you in the face and tell you he's about to. Wow, that must have been at one point in college or something. His coach said, I think William will be great. That doesn't mean he'll score a lot of points, but he'll take a lot out of the average pro center who tries to run with him. Whoever plays with him will have to run
Starting point is 00:53:09 94 feet. They said he may have learned something already. I think William thought he might have gone a little higher in the draft. Sometimes you end up sixth when you thought you were going one or two or three, and it can have a sobering effect. I think it will help him. Well, Brad Doherty also played for UNC, which is a huge program, and he's going to go one. Len Bias, it was shocking he wasn't one. Yeah. So you weren't going to go one or two. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:53:35 Three maybe, but whatever. So 86-87 with the Suns here. The Suns are not great back then, by the way. No, it took several years for them to be worth the shit yeah i remember they would make the playoffs but big deal uh 50 games he plays in averages 6.7 points 0.7 blocks 4.9 rebounds you know the suns are 30 36 and 46 oh dear lord very mediocre i mean alvin adams and uh Adams and Walter Davis are still on the team. These guys are a lot of older guys on the team here.
Starting point is 00:54:10 So Larry Nance, though. Nance was a bad motherfucker. Ed Pickany. I like Ed Pickany. Not bad. He's a big guy. It's a fun team. So Bedford here.
Starting point is 00:54:20 This is in February. What is this? Yeah, February or July 87. He has a little bit of an altercation in the street in phoenix here this is at where is this on indian school i think it is i want to say it is central like 35th avenue in indian school oh my god what are you doing over there billy yeah well think about where the back then it probably wasn't where the stadium was yeah it's not far from there. It's not far at all. That's the thing.
Starting point is 00:54:46 It might have been three miles away. Getting gas on the way home or something here. But he's involved in an altercation with another motorist here. Apparently a third motorist during this. He gets in an altercation. There's two people arguing, him and somebody else. And because it's Phoenix, a third person pulls up and pulls a gun out. Oh, my God.
Starting point is 00:55:07 Not even involved in the altercation. Maybe he was just showing it off. Hey, guys, look. He threatened to shoot Bedford if he didn't stop fighting. It's because he's seven feet tall. And this is Phoenix in the 80s, Jimmy. It's seven feet tall, and a man that he can be a fucking Superman today. Yep.
Starting point is 00:55:28 There's a giant black guy fighting this guy. Yeah. That's what it is in Phoenix. He's not got a gun. In 87, yeah. I'll stop him. So Bedford has issued a citation for this, but it was withdrawn after the police heard his side of the story and that he had a gun pulled on him
Starting point is 00:55:45 what about the other guy with assault with the deadly weapon let's start there yeah yeah well bedford claimed he was spit on by the guy by the first guy and then he hit the man that spit on him okay and now the other man with the gun claims he was assaulted even though that's doesn't seem to be involved yeah they said at this point it's it's a mutual situation we don't anticipate any The gun claims he was assaulted, even though that doesn't seem to be the... Yeah. They said at this point, it's a mutual situation. We don't anticipate any charges against anybody. How is that possible? What about the third guy?
Starting point is 00:56:13 Yeah, what... How is the guy not in jail? And it was 12.42 p.m. too. Calm down. It's your lunch break. Noon. You're on lunch. Fucking noon. What are you doing?
Starting point is 00:56:22 Gun play at noon? What the fuck? This is nuts, man. He was withheld from the game. Why were you drinking at a La Taqueria? What are you doing? Oh, yeah. What are you fucking doing?
Starting point is 00:56:35 Go back to work. He told a reporter that in addition to some leg pain, he had a sore knuckle on his left hand from fighting and also from being in a game against Portland. He said both of those two things um so they said jerry colangelo the owner at the time said we're well aware of the circumstances no charges were pressed no one was cited it was an unfortunate thing um he denied that the sons tried to cover up the incident and believed that bedford's uh leg was too painful to play and that's why he's not playing. Don't look any more into that.
Starting point is 00:57:06 We're still shocked the man with the gun was not arrested. Yeah, he's fine. Then we went, oh, yeah, it's Arizona. That's right. Unreal. Apparently, Bedford driving his Mercedes pulled out into traffic from a dry cleaner and started heading north on 32nd Street near Indian School. 32nd Street.
Starting point is 00:57:24 32nd Street, yeah. Okay, so he's going north. He's probably in Arcadia or Camelback Mountain or somewhere nice. It was Maroney's dry cleaning right there on the northwest corner. I lived two blocks from there at this time. Yeah, I know exactly what's going on. This is amazing. The second motorist, driving a Ford Maverick, not quite as nice, alleged he was-
Starting point is 00:57:42 It's kind of a shitty car. Kind of a shit box. Alleged he was cut off by Bedford's much nicer car. And he was very angry. And that license plate of better than you really hurt my feelings. Better than you. A shouting match ensued as both cars headed up 32nd Street. Going north. While they're going north both jesus christ both cars stopped uh turned left on was on claremont there and stopped at 33 north of there yep 33rd 3 300 block near bedford's home in the biltmore estates yep as we
Starting point is 00:58:24 thought it's just what we said he's going up toward the Biltmore Estates. Yep. As we thought. He's going up toward the Biltmore Camelback Mountain there. Absolutely. I guess that that's when the fight broke out in the middle of the street there. The man who declined to be identified here, a witness, this guy said he witnessed from the 17th green at the Arizona
Starting point is 00:58:42 Biltmore Golf Course. He watched it happen. He watched it happen he watched it happen he said that the sons uh the built bedford pulled the other motorist from the car and began flailing away he said so he started punching him the other motorist appeared to be in his mid-20s was about 5 8 and 140 pounds lived with his parents out there. I'm sure he did. Sure did. So another guy came in, the guy who was with Bedford, tried to break up the fight. And then a third motorist, a 60-year-old man driving a Ford Bronco, stopped and pointed his gun at Bedford and said, Back off or I'll blow your fucking head off.
Starting point is 00:59:21 What kind of car I'm driving? I'm dangerous. I'm dangerous, goddammit. You don't know that yet. It't happened but trust me um so yeah the police cite him for simple assault then they pull it back and they go i don't know he did get a gun pulled on him for no reason so what a scene what a fucking scene man uh so there's four people total and one person who's not involved in any of this any of this just happens to pull up and shoot pull guns on people he's deciding who's in the right here it's an old man in scottsdale or arcadia area that just has that i don't know you don't know what that little
Starting point is 00:59:58 guy did maybe he did some unforgivable shit yeah maybe maybe he just got done molesting william's daughter and william is chasing him down the street to pummel him and now you're pulling a gun on him you have no idea this is why you mind your fucking business mind your fucking business out there he just felt it was unfair with a seven foot guy pummeling a five foot eight yes i don't know he drives a Maverick. What do you think? He might've had it coming. He probably got the cars mixed up too. Yeah. Oh,
Starting point is 01:00:31 you're the dirt bag. Nevermind. Shit. So, um, the Phoenix police sees several score sheets from the offices of the Phoenix sons, April 10th,
Starting point is 01:00:42 1987 as part of an investigation into gambling and drug ties with the club this is when they took the whole team apart and basically got rid of everybody got suspended and you know for years and shit like that they needed the scores oh to see if they were shaving points or whatever shaving point and there's because there's they're involved with drug dealers who are gamblers gamblers and you know all this type of shit they also reported that William Bedford is the first to retain an attorney right away that doesn't look good it looks bad so
Starting point is 01:01:10 newspaper quote sources is saying game records were seized as part of an investigation which involves allegations of drug use and gambling by Suns players and possible ties to gambling figures in Arizona and California. The Phoenix Gazette said, quote, you're going to see one of the biggest shakeups in the NBA on this one.
Starting point is 01:01:35 And it really was, too. That was the whole team was the most nostalgic sentence you've ever said. That was the Phoenix Gazette. Wow. Remember that bad boy? don't but that's before it was them in the arizona republic and then the republic beat the shit out of them i think yeah did they i think they bought everybody yeah they bought everybody go away yeah yeah so um yeah the suns suck right now i guess they in a law and one of the losses that they had they
Starting point is 01:02:02 were outscored 52 39 during the second and third quarters and committed 26 turnovers in the game. Oh. And the videotape of this game was requested by NBA officials as well. Yeah. Let's have a look, see how you committed 26 fucking turnovers. Let's see how you did this, exactly how bad it is. An agent for William Bedford's agent said that a Maricopa grand jury are going are trying to smear the team by questioning players about drug use. It's just a smear job. It's a witch hunt.
Starting point is 01:02:32 He said some people are going out to smear the sons is what he said. I haven't heard about the feds being involved in this investigation. Does some local people have it in for someone? All you need is to get all you need to get a grand jury as a prosecutor they're putting a lot of people through unnecessary things if they don't want the sons to play basketball in phoenix why don't they just say so okay jesus christ you asshole run the professional team out of town yeah that's what they're doing no one wants them there no they're the only thing they're the only thing here no one wants them there. They're the only thing here. No one wants them.
Starting point is 01:03:05 Yeah, okay. At the time, there was no other teams there, by the way. Everybody hates the economical impact that they make here. Yeah, the only thing that we have so we're not just sitting here with our thumbs up our asses in the desert. Drying out every day. Fuck my life, man. Jesus Christ. The wait is over.
Starting point is 01:03:23 So far, you're not losing. The only thing you're losing is my patience quickly i see that the queen of the courtroom is back i didn't do anything you wouldn't know the truth if it came up and slapped you in the face i see he's not intimidated by anything i can fix that. New cases. She wanted to fight me. Leave her alone. Okay, so, um... This is not a so. This is a period. Classic Judy.
Starting point is 01:03:53 Did you sleep with her? Yes, Your Honor. You married his cousin. His brother. That's not him. Yes, ma'am. I would make a beeline for the door. The Emmy Award-winning series returns. How did I know that? I have a crystaleline for the door. The Emmy Award winning series returns.
Starting point is 01:04:06 How did I know that? I have crystal ball in my head. It's an all new season. It's streaming. You can say anything. Judy Justice. Only on Freebie. So Bedford's got to go before a grand jury.
Starting point is 01:04:22 They're talking about current and former Phoenix players being subpoenaed as well. Law enforcement officials said Suns guard Walter Davis appeared before the grand jury. That's a six-time All-Star. I think his numbers are tired when the Suns and all that kind of shit. Merriweather said that that's one of the cops. Said that he talked to Bedford when news about the investigation surfaced. He said, I told him I had to know. He assured me he is not involved.
Starting point is 01:04:52 Merriweather said, I don't think William Bedford is a target. Just because they've gotten some word he knows something doesn't mean anything. Wow. That is something there. So Colangelo has been criticized for scouting college players in Hawaii all last week instead of staying here and dealing with the crisis. Where the fuck would you rather be? Yeah. When was this? What month?
Starting point is 01:05:15 April. April. Would you rather be in Phoenix or fucking Hawaii? It doesn't matter what month it is. That's not a question. I don't care. I don't know if there's men patrolling the streets in Ford Broncos in Hawaii with loaded pistols in their hands. Possibly. I know where they are.
Starting point is 01:05:33 Oh, my God. So they're also part of this grand jury investigation is to see whether other players for other teams are involved in gambling activities as well. So they're doing the whole deal here. It's blown up into like a full-scale investigation. They said that it's reasonable considering all the mobility of the teams and the mobility of the players between the teams. Sure. So some guy could get traded somewhere and bring all of his bad habits
Starting point is 01:05:59 and gamblers and everything right with a new team. And after a while, guys crisscrossing the country, forget about it. Sure. Everybody's finger-fucking themselves and each other with a new team. And after a while, guys crisscrossing the country. Forget about it. Everybody's finger-fucking themselves and each other with coke on their fingers, so it's nice and numb. So that's what they're trying to do here. They're trying to figure out what's going on. David Stern said the league has been assured the investigation does not involve gambling by anyone having any relationship to the NBA or any of its teams.
Starting point is 01:06:24 But he's the commissioner, so of course he's going to say that. He's got to say that, yeah. Yeah. It's his job. Bedford's agent said, I don't think William Bedford's a target, but you never know. So a couple days later, three Suns players indicted. Uh-oh. That is James Edwards, Jay Humphreys, and Grant Gondrzek.
Starting point is 01:06:47 Gondrzek. And two former players indicted by a grand jury as well uh at the same time the sons suspend walter davis who admitted that he's been doing coke again and uh so this is they basically took the whole team apart here colangelo said we will stand behind our players through this. Despite the problem at hand, we will survive. We will not let this set us back. And his hair turned a little more silver after he said that. Just a little bit. Give me five years, I'll change this, I swear. I'll flip it right around, I swear to God.
Starting point is 01:07:16 Once I get Barkley, everyone will forget. All this shit will be over with. Nobody will know any of this. They'll forget every last drop of this shit. Don't worry about it. shit they'll forget every last drop of this shit don't worry about it so um walter davis uh had to go to uh rehab for uh coke and alcohol abuse and all that kind of shit so he's having problems maricopa county attorney tom collins said make me another please really i don't mind if i do how do you have a job
Starting point is 01:07:45 that's serious with that name I'm Jack Daniels nice to meet you I'm filing charges against you for being on drugs Johnny Walker here you're in trouble Evan Williams you better walk the straight line.
Starting point is 01:08:12 That's so ridiculous. It's absurd. Tom Collins, you can't be that. You don't get to do that. It's just hilarious to say that. That's a spokesperson. Tom Collins here. He says, the players were frequenting a local establishment
Starting point is 01:08:26 and obtaining cocaine. He said the probe focused on individuals and individual acts and not on the Suns organization as a whole. So Edwards, one of the players, was a nine-year veteran
Starting point is 01:08:42 center indicted on three counts, conspiracy to possess a narcotic drug, conspiracy to possess a narcotic drug, conspiracy to transfer a narcotic drug, and conspiracy to transfer or possess marijuana. Humphreys had – I don't like the word transfer. Transfer is weird. Like you're just putting it into accounts somewhere.
Starting point is 01:08:59 I think all these guys were buying Coke together, and that's all it is. They're not selling it to each other and a bunch of people. They're buying it to play basketball. Yeah, it's fun, I guess, if you're into it. Bratz is another guy, 31 years old. He's conspiracied to transfer and possess narcotics and conspiracy to traffic narcotics. See, that's different. Oh, there's the word.
Starting point is 01:09:22 And then Heard. That's a bad one. Heard as well as well someone the other guys one count of conspiracy to traffic uh oh christ he was on the team last time he was on the team was 79 80 oh my god so they were going back a long fucking way years ago holy shit man uh heard was serving as the chairman of the phoenix youth Commission and as a member of a drug abuse task force appointed by the mayor at the time. Hilarious. That is fucking hilarious.
Starting point is 01:09:50 And the mayor says, I'm not asking him to resign at this point, but I feel it's appropriate for him to step aside until the legal process is concluded. Even though that was seven years ago. Right. He might have been a huge cokehead seven years ago, and now he's like, oh, I'm, you know, had a couple of kids. I don't do coke anymore. You know, I'm not partying as much as I used to. Maybe so, but I don't know that I want Michael Irvin showing up to my kids telling them don't do drugs. No, no, no.
Starting point is 01:10:14 Well, he's going to stick a finger in somebody, too, probably. We've covered him. That's the problem. Yeah. You don't know what's going to happen there. He got pulled off of Super Bowl coverage because he's got problems again. Yeah, I know. The man can't leave women alone.
Starting point is 01:10:25 No, I saw he was suing for like, we don't know, allegedly. We don't know if that's true because he's suing people for hundreds of millions of dollars. Right, and it's going to be, it's going to, from what I'm told, there's not enough evidence that he shouldn't have been pulled is the point. No. He said all he did was talk to a woman and now all of a sudden he's losing money. Poor son of a bitch. That's fucking crazy.
Starting point is 01:10:49 That is crazy. So the league has issued, just at this time, lifetime suspensions for drug use against Michael Ray Richardson, Mitchell Wiggins, John Drew, and Lewis Lloyd. Those are some episodes that we're going to be doing in there. I think we did Michael Ray Richardson, but we'll do Drew and Lewis Lloyd. I know. So the NBA's drug program allows the league to ban players who fail to come forward with their own drug problems. Okay. So Phoenix television station KPNX also reported that Bedford had been granted immunity from prosecution in return for testifying before the grand jury.
Starting point is 01:11:27 Yikes. That is interesting. So they did say, though, that he's going to be suspended from the team. Colangelo said this is his second strike in a so-called three-strike program. He's suspended without pay the third time he's out of the league. So they said that Davis, Bedford, and four other guys were present or had knowledge of illegal drug transactions. Two Phoenix area businessmen were also indicted, along with a son's photographer and a son's ticket taker. Oh, Jesus Christ.
Starting point is 01:11:58 And Kevin Merriweather, who's Bedford's roommate and who was the guy who got involved in that fight in the road. Right. That's the guy who was traveling with him. And Bedford's roommate and the son of one of Bedford's three agents. That's William Merriweather, the agent, the silver hair middle-aged white man we were just talking about. That's his kid and Bedford's roommate. Holy shit. Merriweather was indicted on one count of obstructing a criminal investigation.
Starting point is 01:12:23 So, wow, that is fucking hilarious um yeah lots of charges for drugs humphries edwards did they give the name of the businessman they did not give that unfortunately that was but i will say that the the whoever whoever either places the ads in the paper or just someone is incredibly incredibly lucky here because the irony here and just it's just hilarious under this about your new addiction and some sort of fucking under this whole park it says kick the cd habit that's great kick the habit gain valuable yards with tax advantage cash accumulation no front end loan tax advantage liquidity through loans and a bunch of other money
Starting point is 01:13:12 shit i don't payday loan thing i guess martha carpenter insurance is where it's at i don't know so uh june 21st 1987 you know william is traded by the Suns. Oh, he's already gone, huh? It's all toxic there. Yeah, he's already been in, you know, Tom Collins has talked to him already. It's over. There's no, right? It's all lizard candy now. You've got to be careful.
Starting point is 01:13:39 Yeah, you better be careful. You better be careful. So he goes to, they trade him to Detroit for a first-round draft pick. So. Why would, get him out of that drug area and send him to Detroit. But as a team, Detroit as a culture of a team is very tight. They're, you know, multiple-time champions coming out at the end of this decade and they're you know they're the team to beat in the east at this point right after you know uh boston's at the
Starting point is 01:14:09 downswing now this is a real gift for him this is a great thing for him and so um they said it was a tough decision but they had to do it they said they just had to do it they said well it was a tough just a draft pick who turned out to be uh randolph keys so that's why the sun sucked for a long time that's fucking ridiculous trading your number one draft pick for nothing you're gonna stink no shit uh they said well it was a tough decision to trade one of our leading scores i think this particular move benefits our defense in terms of rebounds and defensive quickness. He hurt his knee a little bit, too. His rehabilitation was slow, and his desire and work ethics were questioned by Suns officials. Phoenix assistant coach Al Bianchi called Bedford, quote, the laziest kid in America.
Starting point is 01:15:02 That on Coke is lazy? I think that's the title of the show probably the laziest kid in america well if you do coke all night and you come into practice tired you're lazy yeah you're lazy uh he appeared in just 50 games didn't do very much uh colangelo said given william bedford situation in the current circumstances on our team we felt it would be in his and our own best interest to make a move now yeah yeah that would probably be best he's young and as a future yeah yeah and detroit 87 88 they go 54 and 28 we'll talk about that on their team 54 and 28 first round they beat the bullets 3-2 in the series uh they beat the bulls and michael jordan four to one in uh that year four to two
Starting point is 01:15:44 they beat the celtics who were the perennial going to the finals team in the East. They dethroned them. And then go all seven against the Showtime Lakers to lose in seven. But they lost in seven. That's awesome. That's awesome. That's a beautiful postseason. That's the toughest way to lose ever.
Starting point is 01:16:02 It has to be. Oh, my God. They went through Jordan. They went through the Celtics. And then they had to beat the—so two dynasties and a future dynasty they had to beat. They went five games when the first series was five with the Bullets. And that's with—Jesus, the Bullets were good then. Then they had to play—good enough.
Starting point is 01:16:18 I mean, they're competitive. Then you've got to go through Jordan and then Bird to get to Magic Johnson, and you lose. There's nothing to be shameful about. You have to beat, basically, out of the last eight years, you have to beat six of the champions, because that's the Lakers and Celtics, and then you have to beat the up-and-coming Bulls, who they just got Scottie Pippen that year. Jordan was coming into his prime, so not too bad. William Bedford himself, he plays in 38 games, does not do very well, though.
Starting point is 01:16:45 A few points a game, under a one block, 1.7 rebounds, just not doing much. He does make $637,000, though. That's not bad. So that's pretty good money. And an NBA East championship ring. Yeah, they go to the finals. This team, though, Adrian Dantley, Daryl Dawkins. Fucking love Daryl Dawkins.
Starting point is 01:17:06 Holy shit, that's awesome. Joe Dumars, Vinnie Johnson, the microwave there, Bill Lambeer, Rick Mahorn, Dennis Rodman, John Sally, Isaiah Thomas. That's the squad right there. And they said that, quote, this is Chuck Daly, the coach, we're not asking William to come in here and be the number one guy the way Phoenix did last year. He needs work in all areas, which is why I'm only playing him at one position. He'll have enough to learn just playing center for us. I'm glad he's here. The skills are there.
Starting point is 01:17:37 He can shoot it. He's got some interesting moves and he can run. I'm very happy with his approach so far and I'm going to keep playing him in the exhibitions. When the season starts, I want to know how much he can help us. William said, the people in Detroit have been friendly and I feel comfortable with my teammates. People will learn that I'm a good person who likes to be around good people. I think this is going to be a great situation for me. It takes about a year to get used to a new team, and I'm sure I'll have some ups and downs, but I know I can play well in this league. Yeah, he can do it that's a lot of confidence for a man on that team i mean you don't you don't even have to play you don't have to do a goddamn thing he starts acting a little crazy though um yeah to the point
Starting point is 01:18:17 where the pistons sent their team psychiatrist uh mel hoberman on the west coast trip to help keep william in line you need a handler a handler they don't know what to do with him it's not even a six man because you got lame beer and sally you don't even have to play no you're you're you can very much ease into this yeah why do you need somebody to keep you on the rails he's a fuck up well Well, May 25th, 1988, Daly, Chuck Daly, tells everybody that he has been asked to stay an extended period in the Van Nuys Community Hospital chemical substance abuse program. They said that he is going there for drug rehabilitation from cocaine and marijuana abuse. They said a number of people have talked to him via the phone, and he seems to be progressing. We understand he's lifting weights.
Starting point is 01:19:05 He's added 15 or 20 pounds, which is a good sign. I'm encouraged. We're hopeful he can beat this problem. So he's being treated by a doctor and a psychologist and just trying to get his shit together. If you've got that kind of opportunity on that kind of team, though, and you should be on top of the world and you still can't get off it, there may be no hope for that guy. Yeah. And Chuck Daly's like, I mean, what are we going to do with a guy who can't be relied on? We're going for championship here.
Starting point is 01:19:35 Right. He said, we're playing for serious stakes here. I play an eight-man rotation. I don't give out minutes. Players have to earn them. I don't care who has the biggest salaries. My job is to win games. And one of the things William has to do to play in this league is get stronger.
Starting point is 01:19:50 God, I love Chuck Daly. Stop doing coke. Not good. So he tries to come back. The Pistons, obviously, they would like him to be good, but he's still in rehab. He's in rehab for a while. They say he watches his team sometimes on TV there, tries to do that. But he said he's just plugging along.
Starting point is 01:20:15 Hopefully, he'll be back soon. The doctors and therapists were positive about his progress, but no date's been set for his release. Oh, boy. Wow. They said he's trying to stay in shape to come back next season dennis rodman said i think he's doing all right he's in there indefinitely rodman says he talks to him about once a week on the phone in there hey man hey what's up are you crazy in there crazy in there sweet bro we're all crazy woohoo so um his progress as of September, general manager says that he has matured and is doing well
Starting point is 01:20:50 in the drug rehabilitation aftercare program. So yeah, they said he had turned himself in in March and he was discharged in July. He was in there for months, like four months. And then had aftercare through september still doing it the general manager said william will tell you himself he has to mature mentally he can't be a 14 or 15 year old guy in an adult world this uh the nba is an adult world it's a world where winning is the bottom line and you can't do things that take you out of the realm well not if you're not good enough is how it works there.
Starting point is 01:21:27 So he'll be tested for drugs three times weekly and has to go to twice a week counseling. And they said those are the things that are required of him. Yeah. Period. That's an intense problem. No shit. Jesus, he must have really been fucking. What was he doing?
Starting point is 01:21:41 Testing three days a week? Three days a week. I mean, he's got a really, Coke, it comes out of your system quick, though. Fast, yeah. So, yeah, they said, though, they're letting him back on the team. They're ready to accept him.
Starting point is 01:21:53 And he said, though, you know, the people are a little bit, you know, he said they're a little hesitant. Yeah. He's trying to rid himself. He spent 105 days in drug treatment. And he wants to get back in there. And they said, well, to make room for him, it could upset the chemistry of the team.
Starting point is 01:22:15 And they feel they can win a championship and all that sort of thing. So they don't really want him to come in and disrupt shit. And the general manager said he's going to have to earn the team's respect. And they said, I don't know. Chuck Daly said, I don't know what will happen when William comes back. I know some of the guys are disappointed in his situation, but I'll worry about that when it happens. He's got some offensive skills. Okay.
Starting point is 01:22:39 Oh, that's good. Yeah. Is he going to, you know, not do coke a lot? I mean, that's the problem. So then he's got some offensive skills? Yeah. Is he going to, you know, not do coke a lot? I mean, that's the problem. So then he's got some offensive skills? Yeah. In that he can score and do drugs? He's offensive, all right.
Starting point is 01:22:53 Yeah. He said, when I got traded to Detroit, I thought it was all behind me. It was going to be a new beginning. But he said, nope. Started showing up late for practice. His wife and daughter, quote, lost track of him for a day and a half or so yeah at a time they said after before rehab before he went into rehab his teammates would confront him because he would show up late he denied anything isaiah thomas said i've been around drugs nearly all my life. In Chicago, my hometown, they're everywhere.
Starting point is 01:23:29 I can tell who's been dipping and dabbling and who's got a problem. I went to Chuck Daly and told him I thought William was in trouble. I mean, I like what he's doing, but now I see why everybody hates him. Yeah, that's what I mean. That's what I mean. Like, yeah, it's sort of a nice thing when you're the guy that you went to the coach, man. Right. What? What an asshole.
Starting point is 01:23:45 Yeah. Fuck you, bro. I can tell when anybody's dipping and dabbling, you're an asshole. Yeah. But if I get in a fight in the street, you're going to pull up and pull a gun on me too, Isaiah? Thanks a lot. Worry about yourself.
Starting point is 01:23:58 Jesus Christ. So he's a mess, though. He lost about $200,000 in salary. Oh, my God. And if he fucks up again, he's facing a mess, though. He lost about $200,000 in salary. Oh, my God. And if he fucks up again, he's facing a lifetime banishment from the league. He said, I have two obligations, one to the Pistons and two, I want William Bedford as a man to perceive his potential as an individual. Oh, this is a general manager. If he does that, the basketball will take care of itself because he's very skilled.
Starting point is 01:24:25 he does that the basketball will take care of himself because he's very skilled okay so uh january 15th 1989 should all be behind him uh instead he has returned to a substance abuse center in california for failing to comply with aftercare treatment oh my god uh yep he's returned there uh by the team the team and his agent said he was not improving and required additional treatment even though they noted he had not taken drugs. Yeah, okay. What? They're just putting him in rehab for, you know. Not improving.
Starting point is 01:24:53 Because he's not doing that. If you're not improving, then you're not doing drugs. Well, they said he was nearly reinstated around Thanksgiving but lost the chance to play. They changed their mind because he failed to return a phone call to a counselor. And that was his second offense in his rehab. And a third would, you know, cause him to be banned from the NBA for a minimum of two years. Yeah. So he's back there again now in rehab being a fucking mess. The NBA security director, Horace Balmer, said his office gets phone tips from players about other players they suspect of using drugs. They have a snitch line? Ugh. And the Mavericks owner here, before Mark Cuban, Donald Carter, they said they took a nearly round-the-clock approach to help Roy Tarpley battle his cocaine problem, which we saw how well that happened.
Starting point is 01:25:46 It didn't work out very well. So, you know, they think they can do it. So he doesn't play at all in 88-89. Wow. So 89-90, though, he plays in 42 games. Only averages 2.8 points and 1.4 rebounds a game. That's the season. Not great at all.
Starting point is 01:26:02 That's pretty bad. And that is the team is great. They go 59 and 23. Oh boy. They sweep the Pacers in the first round, beat the Knicks, uh, in five games in the second round. It goes all seven against the bulls this time,
Starting point is 01:26:14 but they beat them. And then they smoked the trailblazers, uh, four to one in the final. So championship. So this guy's got a ring sort of, yeah, kind of,
Starting point is 01:26:24 he's, he's a part of it. He's a part of it he's a part of it half the season he played he's in there somewhere um bedford now in november of 89 he's now he's all he's good now by the way he's good now it's it's fine the detroit pre free press the pre-fresh the detroit free press the headline is bedford afraid for friend tarpley Detroit Free Press. The Prefress. Detroit Free Press. The headline is Bedford Afraid for Friend Tarpley. Now he's going to, oh, Tarpley's a mess. I want him to get one of these rings.
Starting point is 01:26:55 They're worth a lot. He could get a lot of cocaine for it. He could get a bunch of coke for it, man. I'll read this shit. A chill went through William Bedford when he heard his friend Roy Tarpley was arrested for drunk driving because he knew it could have been him. Tarpley, a former Michigan star, has been suspended indefinitely by the Mavericks after being arrested in Dallas Thursday morning. It hasn't been determined whether the incident will constitute a third strike for Tarpley, which would banish him from the NBA for at least two years. Bedford said, it really frightened me. It just reminds you of
Starting point is 01:27:25 how close you could be to falling back. Wow. The Mavericks took shots at the league's adult substance abuse program for pampering its patients and making it difficult for them to adjust to normal life. Bedford said, though, that statement is absolutely off base. He said, we weren't pampered or treated special you were just another person there trying to get help dealing with your disease so uh he said that him and tarpley developed a strong friendship when both were at the clinic at the same time earlier in the year um wow that's how it happens yeah that's how it goes he said i think the problem with roy was that he doesn't have the support system that I have here.
Starting point is 01:28:05 I've got my teammates and management backing me up all the way. So he said also he had regular visits with his therapist. He said, I'm really afraid for Roy right now. I just pray that it's not all over for him. So 90-91 season, the next year, he plays 60 games, or 65, 4.5 points, 2.2 rebounds. He makes $850,000, but I mean, who cares?
Starting point is 01:28:32 Detroit goes to the playoffs. They go 50-32. They beat the Hawks in the first round, beat the Celtics in the second round, then get swept by the Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals. Never beat them again. Never. it's all over now yeah uh all fucking over so uh he's oh man isaiah thomas says he's impatient with
Starting point is 01:28:55 william bedford he said quote anything to do with william bedford is a waste of time i'm not in his corner anymore hey not everybody deserves to wear pistons across his chest. All right. Jesus Christ. Bedford then took himself to a psychiatrist who discovered that he has attention deficit disorder and prescribed him a drug for it. Okay. Now, he sets a record in 1990. Oh, this is going to be embarrassing.
Starting point is 01:29:26 No, it's actually an incredible record that it's amazing that he has it, actually. November 6, 1990, he has the most three-pointers in the shortest amount of time in NBA history. Three? Three? He has three three-pointers in under a minute. Oh. Which has never been done before and never again since. Steph Curry doesn't do it. Really? Nobody's done it. It's this guy. in under a minute. Oh. Which has never been done before and never again since. Steph Curry doesn't do it.
Starting point is 01:29:48 Really? Nobody's done it. It's this guy. In under a minute. In under a minute. If you ask who's got the most three-pointers in the shortest amount of time, the record, it is fucking William Bedford. Wow.
Starting point is 01:29:56 Is that weird or what? He's got no money for it, but he did it. He made a total of seven threes in his entire career. Is that right? Yep. That's amazing. Three of them in under a minute. The fewest minutes played in a game with three or more three-pointers made.
Starting point is 01:30:13 He played one minute and hit three three-pointers that game. Wow. That's incredible. He only averaged 3.6 points a game that year. Reggie Miller put on eight points in like seven seconds, but he got that two-pointer. That two-pointer. That wasn't three threes damn it he does make nine hundred thousand dollars that year for doing just that pretty much um 9192 pistons uh they lose in the first round to the knicks so they kind of suck now there's it's starting to fall apart yeah it's over and october 2nd 1991 during that season oh boy one day after his uh wow uh he gets pulled over for a shitload of traffic file apparently he's been he gets pulled over a lot
Starting point is 01:30:54 for speeding for all sorts of traffic violations so he there's an article in the paper about how he's constantly getting all these traffic citations. And then the next day he's arrested on charges of speeding and driving with a suspended license as well. Yeah. 2.30 a.m. Oh, shit. In his 91 Land Cruiser, which was hot shit at the time, brand new. He's pulled over at 2.30 for driving 60 in a 45 in West Bloomfield. And they discovered his license was suspended.
Starting point is 01:31:25 He's detained for 90 minutes. Car was impounded. He's released, and, you know, there you go. So they're like, you're a jerk-off, basically. He could face 90 days in jail and a $500 fine, though. So the newspaper said Bedford had, quote, the worst driving record of any Detroit professional athlete. Bedford had, quote, the worst driving record of any Detroit professional athlete.
Starting point is 01:31:52 He was the focal point of a Detroit news story that analyzed the driving habits of local athletes. And they said they declared him the worst driver in Detroit sports. We have the Pistons and Tigers, and you're the worst. And the Red Wings. And the Red Wings. And you suck. You're awful. And the Lions. I said that, Lions and Tigers. Oh, I thought you said Tigers and, yeah, you and you suck you're awful and the lions there's like lions and tigers oh i thought you said tigers and uh yeah you're right here so yeah wow that's wild
Starting point is 01:32:11 lions tigers pistons you have four teams you suck them you're the worst the lions literally have 50 people that play for them and you're worse than all of them all of them he uh yeah he was quoted as saying that he planned to continue to drive his car You literally have 50 people that play for them, and you're worse than all of them. All of them. He was quoted as saying that he planned to continue to drive his car, even though his license is suspended, under a, quote, double suspension, which is... I think once it's suspended once, it's just suspended. Yeah. He's a double. He said, quote, I drive because I have to, in a story that revealed that he's received 14 tickets and undergone a dozen license suspensions in recent years he said if it's just a very short distance
Starting point is 01:32:52 i just drive myself and try to do it very safely my christ what a fucking idiot so he's going from downtown detroit all the way out to bloomfield and that area isn't that kind of far I have no idea I mean there's a lot of Bloomfield's where where that that club is that we played last time yeah I don't know where I mean yeah it felt like that was a long ride from downtown I suppose so I don't know yeah I don't know much about the geography of Detroit but I don't know what he considers a short distance if it's not across state lines that's fine you know what i'll find out when we play there in may which you should buy tickets to so he um but yeah he was i guess they also ticketed him for having illegally tinted windows as well he was fingerprinted mugshot released on his own recognizance obviously um because you know
Starting point is 01:33:43 he's seven feet tall we We know where you're at. So he's driving with a suspended license. Second offense, this is a high misdemeanor is what they call it. And he's been stopped six previous times while driving with a suspended license in Detroit. But the law contains no special sanctions beyond those for a second offense. So every time he gets busted, it's just a second offense over and over again. There's no like, they didn't even calculate in the law, what if someone's such an asshole,
Starting point is 01:34:14 they get fucking a dozen times they get pulled over for this. They're like, no one will do that. Yeah, that's crazy. He has eight penalty points on his driver's license and two points were lost due to a clerical error, they said. Interesting. Twelve points means they have their license suspended, but it was already suspended, so it doesn't matter. There was no indication he'd been drinking and no mention in the report of any combative
Starting point is 01:34:35 behavior on his part. Well, that's helpful. The team said, quote, it's between William and the courts. We don't care. Let them deal with it. January 11, 1992, he goes to court. His license has been suspended for a bunch of the past five years, and the judge agrees to, well, he says, you, sir, may fuck off
Starting point is 01:35:00 after pleading guilty to driving with a suspended license three days in jail. Okay. He can do it during the All-Star break since we know you're not playing in that game yeah you won't be there you won't be there probably won't even get a ticket to it so uh yeah he's a sentence to that the judge agreed and let him to do that his attorney said it won't affect his job of what sitting on the bench what are we talking about here christ almighty oh and he was in a minor accident recently too of course when he and a motorcyclist tried to pass a third vehicle and he got an accident oh my god he's racing a motorcyclist is what it sounds like um so he's sentenced here in january on another thing he's sentenced to one year probation
Starting point is 01:35:43 and a hundred hours community service as well so now he's cleaning up all of his uh all of his bullshit here all of his driving shit here he was uh sentenced to three days in jail before that he's to serve that time during the all-star break but he might be able to get that sentence licensed because he's got or a lesson because he's got this one too so maybe he can cram them together now since he's got all this type of shit either way the pistons are fucking done um june 24th 1992 traded by the pistons with don mclean to the clippers for olden pollinus pollinus so our old friend that's how we got there yeah that's how he got there. So he ends up there. But October 8th, 92, he's traded by the Clippers with Don McLean again.
Starting point is 01:36:29 So there's to our package deal to the Bullets for John Williams. Hot rod. Hot rod. There you go. October 12th, 92, he's waived by the Bullets. So he's there for three days. Toss him around the country and send him home. Man.
Starting point is 01:36:44 1992, 93. October 26th, 92. so he's there for three days toss him around the country and send him man uh 1992 93 october 26 92 he's signed as a free agent with the san antonio spurs okay back up david robinson a little bit here um he plays in 36 games oh he um is terrible here uh 1.6 points 0.6 rebounds he goes in when david's got too many fouls that's it he does make 925 000 though not bad so that's it for his career though he's done a grand total there a grand total of 4.1 points and 2.4 rebounds a game and how much money four million dollars he made that's not awful in the 80s. I mean, he did pretty well for himself. That's pretty good.
Starting point is 01:37:27 Not bad at all. But then you take 10% away for agents and then whatever fees you have, taxes. You've got 1.8. Land rovers, lawyers, grand juries. You might have 1.2 left. Court costs. I don't think he's got much left, as we'll find out here. So the bullets dumped him right before Thanksgiving, which I thought was funny. point two left court costs i don't think he's got much left as we'll find out here so um the
Starting point is 01:37:45 bullets dumped him before right before thanksgiving which i thought was funny he missed three of his first four practices is why they cut him by the way why would you he didn't show up at all why would you do that yep and uh before christmas the spurs players asked the coach to cut him because they were tired of him. Yep. Right before Christmas. Fucking Avery. Avery Johnson's like, get rid of this guy.
Starting point is 01:38:13 Get rid of this motherfucker now. Didn't he tell Nigro to add enough? Yeah. Avery Johnson said, get rid of this guy now. However he talks. So weird. The weirdest fucking speech I've ever seen. Very over enunciated. Over enunciunciate but his mouth is moves to the it's just the weirdest mouth ever and moves it's so big it's just a lot
Starting point is 01:38:33 going on there he thinks we're all reading his lips at the same time as the words he's got like four four smiles worth of teeth going on it's just a lot doesn't do he doesn't do conjunctions is out there called constructions i do not yes he doesn't do don't he i do not i do not want william bedford on my team period you are not a center you are not a center david robinson is a center. So he ends up going and signing in 1994. Early 94, he signs with the Memphis Fire. Oh, no. That's not good at all. Oh, boy. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 01:39:16 They said they're very excited to have him. I'm sure they are. It's the USBL, which we talk about all the time, the United States Basketball League. He'll join other ex-Memphis State players like Keith Lee, that All-American that we talked about, and Marvin Alexander. So they're getting back a 1985 Final Four team. Yeah. The core is local flavor around here.
Starting point is 01:39:40 Yep. They said it'll give them a solid inside player. They're very, very excited. They have all this going on. It's going to be a big-time deal. They said, this is the owner, I'm checking the mailbox every day waiting for the Bedford contract. I called his agent, Bill
Starting point is 01:39:55 Merriweather, today, still his agent, and he said, William has signed the contract, but I don't have the contract in hand yet. He'd been playing in Europe before that, quote unquote, which whatever. The fire will stage its last free agent tryouts also in the next couple days, and they can't wait. The next day, or two days later, I should say,
Starting point is 01:40:19 he is shit-canned from the Memphis Fire. He's there for one day. He's there for a scrimmage where, according to the coaches, he appeared to be disinterested and failed to catch a ride with a teammate to the workout as well. They tried to call him, but they couldn't get a hold of him, so they just caught him instead. Can't even reach him to fire him.
Starting point is 01:40:44 He had reported to camp two days late, as it was was and was late to the only practice he attended as well. What the fuck, man? They said they gave him the benefit of the doubt, but then they decided they're better off with him after his no show. The coach said Bedford is history. We start out our season next Saturday. We don't have time to play with someone like that. With his past history of drug rehabilitation, he's already had two strikes against him
Starting point is 01:41:08 coming in here. He knew what we were expecting of him. Unbelievable. These games, by the way, are $5 and $3 are the seats to go in there and watch them. That's crazy. 96-97,
Starting point is 01:41:24 he's arrested twice for drug possession in here. It's really hard because his cases aren't covered that much because he wasn't in the league anymore. He's got a washout. Yeah. Private citizen now. September 97. He was on three years probation and tested positive for cocaine and was sent to a Texas state jail for a year at that point. Oh, so the late 90s, he spends a year at that point oh so in the late 90s he spends a
Starting point is 01:41:46 year in jail in texas in texas um so they go to talk to him down there when he gets out of jail in 2000 he's in katie texas and uh this is an article from espn.com by a guy named greg garber and he says quote he sits at the chilies he sits sits back at the Chili's in Katy, Texas, and allows himself to dream. They say Michael's coming back, William Bedford says, sipping a glass of iced tea. Washington would be nice. Charles says he's coming back too, I hear. Why can't I? Because you're not Michael Jordan or Charles Barkley or any of these other people?
Starting point is 01:42:21 That's who he's talking about? I think so. Charles Barkley? I think so. Make no mistake, Bedford looks good. He says he's only a few pounds from his playing size of 7 feet tall, 235, and he still talks a good game too, but there's a little problem with reality. Well, the reality is he's also like almost 40 years old.
Starting point is 01:42:40 Right. And not doing too well, honestly, here. He's doing kind of shitty and um he's being probation has a substance abuse problem still he's in a basketball he's in a chilies um he got busted with 25 pounds of marijuana that was in an suv that belonged to his parents oh my god he's trafficking in his parents parents car now. Parents' car. Yeah, he's got prior convictions. He's been in jail five times, variety of drug-related charges. He could be looking at 10 years in jail at some point for another charge.
Starting point is 01:43:14 He's a problem, man. He said, quote, it was another mistake I got myself into. And he denies that drugs were in the truck. So there's either 25 pounds or none, depending on whose story you believe. 25 pounds or zero. Or zero. It's not a nickel bag. That's wild, man.
Starting point is 01:43:34 That's a lot of weed, man. Jesus. He said, oh, this is the cop here. This is the Wayne County Sheriff. People many times don't think about the consequences of their act until it's too late. But at the same time, people have to realize there are consequences. Yeah. Thanks a lot for that circle.
Starting point is 01:43:51 A nickel? A quarterback? Oh, no, it was a duffel. It was a fucking yard bag is what it was. One of those, yeah. It was a hefty. It was a hefty, you know those? Cinch sack, one of those deals. 25 it was a hefty it was a hefty you know those cinch sack one of those 25 pounds holy shit oh my god he's uh he's got a uh four-year-old son named zachary at this point
Starting point is 01:44:15 yeah and who he's been i'm sure disappointing for years by now uh they're they said there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest while he's doing this interview as well. He said, it's a point in my life when I'm trying to do something positive. I don't need another thing to come up and backstab me. Whoa, hold on. I think that was a front stab, sir. Backstab me. Wow.
Starting point is 01:44:43 He says that because the cops were literally right behind him. So he thinks that's backstab me wow he says that because the cops were literally right behind him so that he thinks that's wow holy shit take some responsibility so he had a warrant and they he was supposed to turn himself in and he didn't and they said that he would probably have if he turned himself in he would not have been considered a flight risk. It would have been let out. But instead, he might have heavy bail because he hasn't turned himself in. He also he says, yeah, I'm concerned, very concerned, but not enough to do anything. He's made no effort to contact the sheriff's office and has not obtained counsel either. Unbelievable. So they said he could be extradited with the help of federal marshals
Starting point is 01:45:26 and um he said he just doesn't want to be backstabbed um yeah well here's another thing that happened here uh this is how he got busted okay the arresting officer testified he was working as a security officer in a private parking lot of a nightclub when an incident occurred. He observed William, a frequent customer of the club, pull into the parking lot. He had subsequently began arguing with the parking lot attendant with respect to whether or not he had to pay to park in the lot. I'm William Bedford. What a cheap bastard. This officer was standing approximately 20 feet away during this argument.
Starting point is 01:46:06 The officer described William as being very upset, abusive, hostile, and combative during the confrontation. The officer instructed William that he needed to calm down and that he would be arrested if he didn't do so. Those words are always neutral in a situation. That works. Those words are always neutral in a situation. That works. Then William then directed his verbal assault on the officer, whereupon the officer advised him that he was under arrest.
Starting point is 01:46:37 William ignored the officer's instruction by attempting to get back inside of his car. The officer then approached the vehicle to place him under arrest. The officer testified that he smelt burnt marijuana near the car as he placed him into custody. He spelled somebody smoking weed in there. Okay. So it gets worse, obviously. As he's taken into custody, the officer subsequently found marijuana in a door pocket of the driver's door.
Starting point is 01:47:00 They said he will argue later that it was seized as a result of an improper search. And they said that the seizure was a result of a lawful search incident due to the arrest. Right. Which once you're under arrest, your shit's all subject to search. So that's kind of how it works. So the disputed positions are the result of a discrepancy in the officer's testimony regarding the first time he detected the smell of burnt marijuana and the type of search he was conducting at the time it was found. Jesus Christ. This is a fucking mess, man.
Starting point is 01:47:31 What a what a fucking idiot. He's also being cited with disorderly conduct, which is for abusive language and all, you know, trying to be acting a fool in a parking lot, trying not to pay the fees. Well, yeah, the observer arresting officer testified that he observed William argue with the parking lot attendant in a very abusive way. Uh,
Starting point is 01:47:56 appellant used the, use the words motherfucker, bitch, bitch, and bullshit in arguing with the attendant and the, and the arresting officer yeah those are the ones those are the ones i already know what's that so that judgment is affirmed and he's fucked here so motherfucker
Starting point is 01:48:18 i'm paying that bullshit i ain't paying that bullshit you're're a bitch. God damn it. Oh, man. So, yeah. Anyway, he's got fucking 25 pounds of weed here. He says, quote, yeah, I went bust. It was bad because he said now he doesn't have money. Yeah. He says his life's been tough, but he doesn't blame the drugs. He said, yeah, I went bust. It was bad investments mostly.
Starting point is 01:48:43 Plus, I don't think the last few agents I had did things right. It's been tough, but that's all behind me now. Bad investments. What is he saying? When I bought 25 pounds of weed and gave it to the cops. Yeah. He's going to say, if you buy a shitload of coke and do it, that's not a good investment. It's a bad investment. But I'm okay now. Everything's be fine oh man the pistons general general manager jack mccloskey said that william was probably as talented as any player we've ever had he could have had a great career and been financially secure all his life but i've
Starting point is 01:49:16 spoken to drug users in the past who told me how difficult it is to give up and obviously william has never been able to do that wow man, man. You got to feel bad for him. He's a mess. You know what I mean? He had it all and he pissed it away. And now he's a seven foot tall asshole arguing with people in parking lots. I feel bad. Great Dane lifespan.
Starting point is 01:49:35 Yeah, with the lifespan of a great Dane. I feel bad, Jimmy, but not nearly as bad as I feel for William Bedford, owner of Bedford Enterprises in Albany, New York. There's so many. There's William Bedford, a doctor, Dr. William Bedford. William Bedford, Jr., technical consultant and trusted advisor. I don't think this guy's trusted for anything, so that's wrong. He's got to put the word trusted in there so you know it's not the other one.
Starting point is 01:50:00 Nope, it's not him. William Bedford, project manager at Cleary Construction. That's in nashville tennessee too so i swear i can handle your project i can and finally william bedford police officer in jersey city new jersey it's like certainly not me that's awesome oh man so uh 2004 he uh he gets arrested again in 2003 he gets arrested again at the end when he gets arrested again. In 2003, he gets arrested again at the end when he gets out of jail for all the weed. He gets arrested while awaiting trial for that.
Starting point is 01:50:33 He gets arrested for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. Well done, Will. Yep. Now, the problem with this is I still don't know all the details to this because the documents in this case are still under seal for some fucking reason. I'd have to do like a Freedom of Information Act fucking request and all that to get it. We don't have time for that shit. Just not happening. Yeah, we're not on that kind of schedule.
Starting point is 01:50:55 But cocaine, you know what happened. He had a bunch of coke and he was selling it and they busted him. He was probably arguing with, I don't know what. Pick somebody. Pick anybody. He's arguing with them. Some citizen, he was arguing with them and he had a lot of little baggies yeah and that's what happened um he said it's like you're trying to live that same lifestyle your check's not coming in anymore in order to live that lifestyle as a professional athlete or entertainer it takes a
Starting point is 01:51:21 lot of money so me making the wrong decisions and choices getting involved with some people that were involved in drugs um yeah it's almost like you can't afford to live it anymore man weird right isn't that strange um what what a dope um he this is how dummy is too he gets sentenced to you sir may fuck off 121 months whoa whoa that's a sentence that's some shit 10 years and a month 10 years well that's the funny part is he said he's he felt relief upon learning he only had to serve 121 months until and he went back to his cell and an older guy was in there and went motherfucker that's 10 years and a month and william sat there for a minute and went oh shit it is isn't it fuck he's like at least at least i think i could have got 10 years, man. He was like, I only got 121 months, thankfully. So, right?
Starting point is 01:52:33 I mean, what do you even? That's a special kind of dumb right there. Dude. That's special dumb. I'm an absolute idiot. And I made that math connection in no time. Imagine if that was federal prison time you had to serve how fast that fucking math would be done he went poof only 121 months
Starting point is 01:52:52 math thought i was getting 10 years man fuck that shit and then avery johnson popped up and went that is 10 years and one month lizard candyard candy, be careful. And he ran away. You don't understand, Bill. That is 10 years, and once you've done it, you're not done yet. You're not done yet. One more month. So he stayed in federal prison until 2011.
Starting point is 01:53:22 Wow. So he's in there for seven years. And then he's in a halfway house until 2012 oh my god so he did the whole real deal and then he's placed on three years probation in may of 2012 to finish out the rest of it yeah exactly to finish out his 10 um so by 2019 though uh he is he was at the University of Memphis. It was Memphis State. They changed the name. Is that right?
Starting point is 01:53:50 It was Memphis State. Now it's Memphis. That's why you see that. All right. It used to be Memphis State. Now it makes sense. Same university. Same place.
Starting point is 01:53:57 Yeah. Someone has already tweeted that, but still. So he said he's been looking for years for the right kind of help following all his drug charges and everything but over the past six weeks at manhood university not shitting the city the city of memphis's program aimed at reducing recidivism rates and easing re-entry into society. Manhood University. Oh, God.
Starting point is 01:54:29 You are not a man. Oh, yeah. You need to learn. You cannot handle it. He said, why am I here? Hmm. Mainly, I'm here to better myself. I went to the NBA.
Starting point is 01:54:39 That's another part of life. After the NBA, I made some wrong choices and got into some trouble with the wrong people and had to do some time. You really can't find a job that you can make a good living out of being my age and being my height. I went through a few, it's hard, yeah, there's certain things you can't really, you know. I went through a
Starting point is 01:54:58 few programs they had, but they just didn't work. I went to one class with this, the first class, and I was excited. a lot of things they were talking about were hitting home so he graduates from manhood university fantastic which is the first thing he's ever graduated from yeah first university and he said he's working on his autobiography which i'll be waited with waiting with bated breath here selling like hotcakes selling like crazy uh He's a mess.
Starting point is 01:55:26 He said, it's like you're trying to live the, oh, this is his other thing. Yeah, making the wrong decisions. He obviously is a disaster. He said he tried Manhood University because he was searching for something and learned about it through his former U of M teammate, Ken Moody, who runs the program. So he said, quote, I don't know if I was going for myself or someone else. I don't know what it was I was looking for. I don't know what I was trying to get out of it. I was just there.
Starting point is 01:55:53 That's the opposite of what you should say. I don't know what I was doing. I floated through it. I don't know what anything anybody said. I quote, I was just there. What did Moody tell you the purpose of it was? Because that's your reason to be there. That's the same thing as the NBA. I was just there what did moody tell you the purpose of it was because that's your reason to be there that's the same thing as the nba i was just there i don't know i'm really doing it yeah exactly what did your buddy tell you he told you to be here because you need it yeah and so i'm
Starting point is 01:56:16 here no you didn't get it and you didn't even get it he said this one some of the things they were sharing really touched home. A lot of stuff about being a man, the way you were treated growing up, whether it was the right way or the wrong way, and then some things that we took for granted and we didn't do what our parents told us. You've got to humble yourself. Obviously, there's something that you're not doing. You went wrong somewhere. You've been doing it your way so many times. Try it another person's way. My message is to not go backward after you've done your time. So he hopes the program can help him. Also, he said it builds goal setting and time management skills. I would say. He also, he needs that.
Starting point is 01:57:01 Fuck. He said they should have this program set up so that it's mandatory when guys get out, part of your aftercare. When you go to prison, you actually leave that age out on the street. You actually leave that age out on the street. You become a whole person, a whole other person in prison. Their mindset while in prison has got to be there because that's your survival. You've got to survive in prison and getting out. Your mind is still there. You've been gone for so long. That's all you know uh he has no job he said he would like to have one particularly one that helps out the uh the youth in around the city yeah
Starting point is 01:57:36 he said i would work with kids i want to work with kids i had no experience no nothing i would like to be director of a community center somewhere here in town, preferably Orange Mound. Oh, now you have your fucking. You got your pick? Jesus. I want to start working these young kids in our neighborhoods. Start working these young kids.
Starting point is 01:57:55 I'm going to be working. Hey, get out of the corner. Hey, Teresa, you little bitch. I said, where's my money? Little Johnny, take these rocks on the corner, boy. Sheila, where's my money, johnny take these rocks on the corner boy sheila where my money bitch yelling at people eight-year-old what i don't know here's here's the problem he keeps saying how he needs to be humbled life hasn't done it and when it did do it he didn't accept it as humbling or humiliating because he's been given every opportunity that nobody fucking gets based on
Starting point is 01:58:26 zero except you're fucking seven feet tall yeah that's all that's the only the only thing you've ever had going for you and everybody just gave you shit because of that recognize that your height was your economic stability that's all blowing it if you were six fucking three you'd be if you were my height motherfucker yeah if he was my height yeah he'd still be fucked nothing nothing no seven feet tall you don't have to have a whole lot of talent you get the benefit of the doubt you know and uh shit he's a dope he's a dope he talked about in prison uh a lot of people he saw a lot of fights he said numerous people tried to stab him and fight him. Welcome to federal fucking prison, sir.
Starting point is 01:59:08 You're in prison, stupid. Yeah, he said a couple times, a few times it might have happened, but it didn't. You try to diffuse most things that go on because one fight can start the whole compound to fight. Yeah. He said, and then his coach, when asked about his coach in college, they asked about him. And the coach has known him since childhood. And they said, what's the deal with William, man? He doesn't seem to get it. And he says, quote, people do a lot of strange things and you wonder why.
Starting point is 01:59:35 He had the world by the tail, in my opinion. He's not a bad person, but you get to messing with drugs and that stuff just overwhelms you. Yeah. And you end up doing the dumbest shit ever and that's william bedford and his dumb shit ass possibly the dumbest man alive he's definitely well he is the laziest kid in america we found out so that's something he certainly doesn't understand what life is he it just you know i give him this some things that you some people just water flows off him like a duck. He's that kind of guy.
Starting point is 02:00:05 Things come at him. He gets busted multiple times, goes to prison for 10 years, and he's like, ah, it's kind of a weird thing. I went to prison for 10 years. There's no brick wall for this guy. It's all just, I don't know. I'm looking for a job. I'd like to run a community center maybe.
Starting point is 02:00:20 Why don't you worry about just cleaning the ceiling fans in the community center for a little while? Yeah. You have done nothing but play basketball poorly and go to jail. Those are the only things you've done in your whole life. You know, kids can learn from you. They can watch you cleaning the ceiling fans and be like, boy, I don't want to do that. What's your degree in?
Starting point is 02:00:38 Oh, that's right. It's from Manhood University. Your Memphis State degree didn't come through. OK. Why is there a Manhood University plaque in the janitorial closet? Why does it have a coupon for one free Grand Slam at Denny's in it? Also, you just have to cut it out of the bottom left-hand corner. That's weird.
Starting point is 02:00:59 Not even perforated. Not even. You have to cut it with your own scissors. Get scissors. Fucking ridiculous. So that is William Bedford, everybody. And what a fucking idiot. So there you go. If you like that, tell the world about it. Get on whatever app you're listening on. Please give us five stars. Tell the world you like the show. It does help drive us up the charts and helps make the show kind of worth doing. So please do that. It does help. You also want to
Starting point is 02:01:24 follow us on social media at Crime and and Sports, on Twitter and Facebook, at Small Town Murder on Instagram. You certainly want to head over to ShutUpAndGiveMeMurder.com right now to get your tickets for live shows. Let's go. Small Town Murder live. We have so many. And March the 3rd, the rest of the tickets go on sale for the rest of the year. All of them.
Starting point is 02:01:44 Denver, San Diego, Chicago, Dallas, we're coming to you. Washington, D.C., Atlanta, we are definitely coming there. Charlotte, come see us. We can't wait. Boston, we're finishing up New York. We're trying. It's been such a hard thing.
Starting point is 02:01:59 We're trying to go to Westchester. Phoenix did not work and Milwaukee did not work out date-wise. We wanted to go to the... Trust me, Jimmy wanted to go to Westchester. It fell by the wayside. Phoenix did not work, and Milwaukee did not work out date-wise. We wanted to go to the—trust me, Jimmy wanted to go to Phoenix, and so did I. It's so easy. It's easy. It's easy for Jimmy. He lives there.
Starting point is 02:02:13 And then for me, I go see my kids, and I wanted to go there. Trust me. And that just didn't work out. So that's fine, though. It's all right. Next year we'll be there. You'll want us more by then. It's fine.
Starting point is 02:02:25 Don't worry about it. But get your tickets March 3rd for the rest of the year. But right now still two shows in Seattle and two shows in Portland March 23rd, 4th, and 5th. And then we have in May Detroit and Pittsburgh. So get those tickets right now. And, of course, get your tickets to the virtual live show. Those are so much fun. They're so good.
Starting point is 02:02:47 Just like a regular live show. But you're in your living room. Yeah. And we're looking like we're on a theater stage, but we're not. We're in a studio. It's 420, so it'll smell like William Bedford's car. Oh, man. It is going to be smoky in there, and Jimmy will be forced to be stoned.
Starting point is 02:03:01 It's going to be amazing. I can't wait. Shut up and give me murder.com, just like William Bedford's car, but with less cocaine. It's going to be stoned it's going to be amazing i can't wait shut up and give me murder.com just like william bedford's car but with less cocaine it's going to be awesome we can't wait for that so get your tickets to everything patreon.com oh slash crime and sports of course good stuff there anybody five dollars or above you get the whole everything the whole back catalog all the crime and sports bonus all the small town murder bonus, everything. And you're going to get new episodes every other week, two new ones that you'll have access to.
Starting point is 02:03:31 And this week is no different. What we have for you, something that's been requested as much as anything. We're going to talk about the old time eats from the early 1900s death row baseball team. Death row. It's a bunch of death row inmates with like children who hang out and like our bat boys and shit i don't know what's going on with this shit but it's crazy and we're gonna find out we'll tell you all about it and then for small town murder we're gonna talk about something so much fun we're gonna talk about defunct theme parks so easy so so much fun and
Starting point is 02:04:04 so easy to make fun of yeah it's going to be great a lot of fucked up stupid theme parks that went on by the wayside bad ideas hey we'll get lots of people to come to this area for tourism no you won't jim baker that didn't work jim and tammy faye oh jesus oh yeah heritage usa that's one of them land why would USA. That's one of them. Christland? Why would you do it? That's one of them. Oh, there's a couple of those that we'll talk about. Oh, yeah. We'll talk about Freedomland USA. Oh, boy.
Starting point is 02:04:31 That was funny. It burned down. They would recreate the Chicago Fire every hour. Weird that it burned down. We'll talk about all this stuff. That is patreon.com slash crime and sports. Anybody $5 a month or above gets access to all of that, and they get a shout-out. Oh, you bet.
Starting point is 02:04:48 When are they going to get that shout-out, Jimmy? Right now. Right goddamn now, Jimmy. Hit me with them like lizards pouring out of candy. I want to hear the name of these people. Hit me with them now. This week's executive producer is Jordan Bennett, Marion Kahn, I believe. Pat, the OnlyFans guy.
Starting point is 02:05:04 Oh, boy. I don't know who he is. Well, then. Thank you. believe. Pat, the OnlyFans guy. Oh, boy. Know who he is. Well, then. Thank you. Evidently, he's doing fantastic. Good for him. Thanks for sharing your largesse. Thank you for sharing your...
Starting point is 02:05:16 Never mind. I use that word in multiple ways from purpose. Your penis earned cash. Largesse, exactly. your penis earned cash uh yes exactly yeah other producers are alice mueller corporal carl kershner peyton meadows cody lover see in detroit thank you cody liz vasquez good to see you in st louis steve chanel carrie mccall madeline ashton that's from fucking overboard yes. Yes, it is. Wasn't it? Suhail Suhail Suhail Torres and her son Aiden. Happy birthday, Aiden. Janice Hill, Brandi Huntley, Wayne Powers, and Nicole Dunn.
Starting point is 02:05:53 Melissa Voorhees, Lynette Smith, 4BrookJesse, Jamie Belts, Jordan Rua, I think Sheila with no last name, Lena. Oh, boy. I just ate Lena's name. He just broke Jimmy. Lena Dorsey, Jordan Piercy, August Robertson,
Starting point is 02:06:10 Eric Helmers, Jay Bird, Rachel Patterson, Cassandra Harmon, Tyler Brocious. Hey, wait, is that Scott Brocious's little brother or Curly Bill's kid?
Starting point is 02:06:22 Scott Brocious, 98 MVP of the world series. on maybe is this kid tyler maybe that was with an s right yeah yeah this is a c yeah oh jesus jamie rice ashley jackson molly cruz brett marsh lauren wedbetter yankee doodle rob munsweetie man sweaty man sweaty man sweaty man you're sweaty rob adam adam's rob man sweaty adam adam simmons mysterious higgs uh joseph williams sue marrying moreau i don't know uh colin cummer gross uh brandy bell bill mckinnis Colin Kummer. Gross. Brandy Bell. Bill McInnes. Jason Loggins. Elias Elias. Josh Espermama.
Starting point is 02:07:09 Esperam- Erspamer. Erspamer. Esperanza. Fuck it. Josh Esperanza. Kristen Lindell. Heather Holst. Rain Court-
Starting point is 02:07:20 Court-nage. Aisha D. Jocelyn Emerson. Hillary with no last name. McKenna Askin, Maria Chavez-Jeffries, Sammy with no last name, Dennis Quinn, Matt Glassie, Megan Liebernecht, Caitlin Brine, Zachary Rock, Mary Sanders, Sash with no last name, Adrian with no last name, Glenn Burstyn, Kameone Barden, that's not the right word, Kimmy with no last name, Glenn Burstyn. Kimi O'Neill. Barton? That's not the right word. Kimi with no last name.
Starting point is 02:07:46 Steffi B. James Page. Sarah Barks. Angry Mailman. Mr. Bragg. Savannah Lamason. Lamason. Latchie.
Starting point is 02:07:57 Latchie McLaren. Megan Marks. Andy Runner. Lauren Kohler. Hope. Boy, oh boy. Cherie, I think. Kim Toes, Madeline Carroll, Beth Kennedy, Amber Sen, Ashley Quasney, Nellie, oh, Lillibladge, Liljiblad, Liljiblad?
Starting point is 02:08:16 Yeah. Steven Dukes, just Steve Dukes, Adam Gonzalez, Kathy Funk, Michael Mangione, Mangone, Mangone, right? I don't know. It's Italian. Kaylee, no last name. Ashley Lemon, Jessica Coburn. Scott Estep, Carrie Rowling Wilson, Emily Ann Brown, Sarah Roe, Eric Tre... Oh, Krementowski.
Starting point is 02:08:38 Sonia Talementes. I got to really wind up. Nice words, yeah. Ray Jones, Carolyn Springer, Caitlin Butler. I'm on the pitch. Rhiannon Hazel. Oh, Rhiannon Hazel.
Starting point is 02:08:52 Hazel. I think it's Hazel. Yeah, why not? I know that girl. She's wonderful. Roxy Zolman, Amy Goodwin Docket, Sarah Bradshaw Tomu with no last name.
Starting point is 02:09:04 Mary McLean, Sarah Bailey, Bailey Hicks. What? Somebody with a last name of Bailey and then somebody with the first name of Bailey directly behind each other. That's bananas. Lexi Hood, Dakota Maxwell, Danielle Kirkamellis. Yeah, get them. Calker. What is that name?
Starting point is 02:09:24 Brandi Hale, David Hilton, Chris with no last name, Josh Hobing. Cowker. What is that name? Brandy Hale. David Hilton. Chris with no last name. Josh Hobing. Hobing. Yep. Brianna Wilson. Jorge Lara.
Starting point is 02:09:32 Nate Burns. Michael Doctor. Torrell Bird. Baird. Beard. Aaron Ritesema. Ritsema. Ritsema.
Starting point is 02:09:41 Salvaged Unit. Shalo O'Connell. K. Russell. Oh, boy. Naeem. Naeem. Shayla O'Connell. K. Russell. Oh, boy. Naeem. Naeem. Naeem Savage. I don't know.
Starting point is 02:09:50 Savage. Aaron L. Jones. Amber Jones. Who knows? Melanie Revell. Sway with no last name. Gabby M. Olivia Moon loves Jimmy Wisman.
Starting point is 02:10:06 I can say that shit. Hazel Tifatea Wisteria Curry Reese What is that? Reese Reese Reese Margaret Spence
Starting point is 02:10:20 Dustin with no last name John Larson Jason Fonder Monica Hunt. Zoria Elkins. Tammy McLean. Devin Burke. Tracy Heflin.
Starting point is 02:10:29 Crystal Bray. Missy Norris. Brate Bratt. Ramsey. Trista Griffin. Liam Ruff. Joe Estrada. Hosne Abakinar.
Starting point is 02:10:38 What is this? Hosne Abakar. Does magic happen after that? I don't know. Am I supposed to disappear like a rabbit pops up? Justin with no last name. Carolyn with no last name. Marcianne with no last name.
Starting point is 02:10:55 Gloria Polovetsky. Polizovsky. Brody LeBlanc. Winter Steinway. Jen Spracklin Bradley. Alexandria Polowski. Alicia Cianci-Gorder, Audrey Sellers, Ernie Monja, David with no last name, Brian Morse, Joshua Harper, Declan Divers, EK with no last name, Nicole Schuldes, Anna Lee Worley, Ryan P, Christopher Buchanan, Aaron Crossland, Paulette Blunt, Sandy Bricks, Kate Patton, Elias Wyckoff, Melody C, Paige Westover, Ida Sampson, Bobby Q with a W.
Starting point is 02:11:34 What did I do there? That's the best type. Bobby Q? Sorry. Babby Q. Sorry about that. I don't know what to tell you. I ruined it.
Starting point is 02:11:44 Janine Lolek. Lolenek. Liz Gearing. Roger with no last name. Jeff Martins. Matt Coot. Cootie, maybe? Alex with no last name.
Starting point is 02:11:51 St. Knid. Tim Knight. What is this? Mikey Panhandle. Brown. Wayne Powers. Stephanie Minnick. Jennifer Taylor.
Starting point is 02:11:58 Jason Nunley. Josh Haas. Deb Moore. Deb's Moore. Timmy. Time. Time with no last name. Dare.
Starting point is 02:12:06 That's not. That's a fucking. That's got to be an autocorrect also dare mcwilliams uh maybe maybe maybe not maybe just a cool last name andrea bodo vitale uh adam grabowski hey he's a comedian he's a wonderful kid uh i think he lives in arizona i can't remember. Good dude. George Skull, Justin Farmer, Karen A. Day with no last name. I am petty. Me too. Jillian Desso, Tyler St. Bernard, Kimberly Besong, Spencer Bishop, Zach Kroon,
Starting point is 02:12:35 Austin with no last name, Lisa Johnson, Colby Kingsbury, Joseph Stryka, Suzanne Gribble, Kim with no last name, Catherine McEwen, Carol Fudella Erlin Erlin and Kevin Jonna Jonah
Starting point is 02:12:48 Jonna Chappelle Chapple Chappelle whatever your fucking name is Joanna Chappelle or Jonna Chapple one of the somewhere in between there
Starting point is 02:12:59 you knew I was gonna ruin it Katie Nolan Jordan Gwyn The Boulder with no last name Lori Higginbottom and and all of our patrons, you're amazing. Thank you. Thank you so much, everybody, for all that you do for us. We appreciate the balls out of you.
Starting point is 02:13:14 Thank you so much. And we hope you love the bonus shit because we're having a blast putting it out. We enjoy the bonus episodes more than anything. So thank you for what you do for us. Thank you for everything. Come see us at a live show. It's a lot of fun. You want to follow us on social media.
Starting point is 02:13:28 Very easy to do that. All the links are right there. Shut up and give me murder.com. So while you're getting your tickets to the virtual live show and whatever other show you want and getting some merch and you know, who the hell knows checking on other shit, get in there, click on through,
Starting point is 02:13:42 say hi to us either way. Thank you so much for joining us. We will be back more next week, next week, next week. Live from the Crime and Sports studios. We will see you next week. Bye. Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Crime and Sports early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.

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