SLO LIFE Magazine Jun/Jul 2019

et’s take it from the top, Mike, where
are you from? I was born in northwest
Indiana. Crown Point, Indiana. They call
that area “The Region.” It’s where you can
find all of the old steel mills. It’s the Rust
Belt, and a lot of those Upper Midwest
cities are barely hanging on today. I have
a brother who is two years younger than Lme, and a sister who is two years younger than him. My family said my
first word when I was eleven months old was, “Ball.” Sports were a big
part of my upbringing. We always had the radio tuned into the game,
whether it was the Cardinals, or the Chicago Bulls, or the Celtics; it was
always on. We were always running around the neighborhood, playing
games constantly. My mom was our biggest fan, she would always host the
post-game gathering at our house. She kept an eye on us and created an
atmosphere of inclusion. She was a school teacher, high school English, so
she also made sure we had a good balance of sports, school, and home life.
And, what about your dad? Dad worked in HR for Dow Chemical and
we moved around for his job quite a bit. We moved to South Carolina for
a while, about 18 months, when I was in elementary school, then down
to Texas for 6th grade through 10th grade. After that, we moved back to
Indiana to Carmel, greater Indianapolis. High school was 5,000 kids and
they were a powerhouse in basketball. To someone who is not familiar,
Indiana high school basketball is special; it’s second-to-none. We would
have a packed gym, 5,500 on a Friday night coming to a game. Just an
A+ experience; people would really get into it, and they’d follow the team
to away games. I decided early on that I wanted to earn a basketball
scholarship. I had a genuine feeling that I wanted to try to give back to my
parents for everything they did for me and everywhere they took me and
all the opportunities they provided. I looked at playing nearby—Ball State,
Butler, Indiana State, Miami of Ohio—but something told me, “Hey, you
know what? I want to give the West a try.”
What was it about the West Coast that was calling your name? Growing
up, I really viewed the East and West Coasts as someplace really different.
I didn’t live on those edges of the country. I had been kind of carved
in the middle. So, I had an opportunity to come visit this place called
San Luis Obispo. I flew from L.A. in a really old, really small plane. It
didn’t even have a walkway down the middle. You had to climb over the
seats. I just kept thinking, “I sure do hope the propeller holds out.” Then
we’re banking and descending, and I see only ocean and hills and I’m
wondering, “Where are we going to land this thing?” When I stepped
out, the air just felt so fresh, and the sunshine; but it did have a somewhat
familiar Midwest vibe to it. I remember seeing a palm tree for the first
time and practically yelling, “Oh my gosh, look at this thing, this is so
cool!” I was sticking out like a sore thumb. You could definitely tell that I
was not from around here.
How did things go on the basketball team? Well, I was able to go work
my way into the lineup at Cal Poly and went on to become Freshman
of the Year in the Conference; I was an All-Conference player. My
sophomore year was even better. When I was at Poly, my mom would
fly out to watch some games here and there. Before she left, she would
get this certain cut of beef from the butcher in Indiana and she’d freeze
it and stuff it into her purse and sneak it onto the plane with her. When
she arrived, she’d get set up in the kitchen and cook for us day after day.
We’d be dialed in for weeks after she left. So, let’s see, my junior year, for
about four weeks through the start of the year, I was leading the country
in scoring. And then my senior year, I finished strong; was the all-time
leading scorer at the school, three-point records, and free throw records. I
was pumping gas at Costco the other day. An older lady was like, “Wow!
I remember watching you play!” [laughter] I’m obviously indebted to
this place for giving me an opportunity to come out and get schooling. I
finished in four years. I was really, really disciplined in the classroom. And
then I played professionally for a little while.
Wow, pro basketball, let’s talk about that. My agent was out of
Indianapolis and he got me into the now-defunct IBA, the International
Basketball Association. My team was in Fargo, North Dakota. Now, by
this time, I had fully adjusted to the Central Coast weather and suddenly
I’m traveling around the northern states in the middle of winter. I’ll never
forget one night we were at the team hotel and there was a complete
white out, that’s blinding snow and wind. It was 30 to 40 degrees below.
The restaurants were closed, so we went to this nearby gas station. We had
to wear hoods and walk backward so our lungs wouldn’t freeze. It was so
cold that you can’t breathe. From there, I played in the ABA, the old red,
white, and blue. I played on my hometown team of Indianapolis. I have
very, very few basketball regrets, but one of them was in not saying, “Okay,
I’m doing it,” and going overseas to play, to really pursue it as a profession.
But, it’s a grind to break in, a real grind. And somewhere along the way I
lost the love to compete for it like I would have needed to, and that’s when
I decided to come back to California.
What did you do when you returned? I went back to school, joined Cal
Poly as a grad assistant for the team while I did my master’s in business
there. My senior project as an undergrad had been this thing called 3Ball.
That name, 3Ball, was slang for “three-point shot.” That was my shot. I
always figured that I didn’t have the size to go into the lane for a dunk,
which was worth only two points anyway. I decided that three points was
better than two. So, when I went in for my master’s I was able to convince
the group, “Hey, you know what? Let’s keep working on this project. I’ve
already done a little work on it as an undergrad. We got some stuff jumpstarted,
let’s go for it.” From there, we really dug into the business side of
it. My classmates had a vision for it far beyond what I did with volleyball
and batting cages and indoor soccer and its own building. I just wanted
to focus on basketball. It really started from, it really grew from people
who saw me play at Poly. They’d ask me, “Hey, will you help little Johnny
or little Sam with their shooting?” And, okay, the kid likes it. The kid gets
really good. Then he tells his buddy and then his other buddy. It really
spread that way. Now we’re up to almost 200 kids in the program.
So, when did the radio side of your work come into the picture? Well,
one day, the radio guy at Cal Poly asked me if I could help him out for a
game as the color analyst. I said, “Sure,” and it went well. Afterward, he
told me, “Hey, you know, you’re pretty good.” That was my first experience
in radio. From there, I continued to help out and it was a few years later
when the local ESPN station, 1280-AM, asked me about doing a daily
sports show. I’ve been doing the show, it’s called “The Sports Bite,” ever
since. That’s an hour a day from 5 to 6pm Monday through Friday for the
past 12 or 14 years. It’s not just basketball, it’s a sports talk show covering
everything. And, when one of our producers moved on to Westwood
One Compass Media in L.A., he helped me get one of the national color
analyst positions for that company, where I will go do the Duke-Carolina,
or Michigan games, or wherever they send me.
How do you make all the pieces fit together? It’s an interesting symmetry,
radio and 3Ball. Beyond the focus on the game and being able to talk >>
JUN/JUL 2019 | SLO LIFE MAGAZINE | 47