Jim Deshaies
π€ SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
One of the other ones that stands out to me was when the Bulls were
when Derek Rose was coming back from his knee injury, and he hit the shot in Milwaukee.
You know, Derek with his fantastic playing career and Stacy with his unbelievable calls.
And I think that the excitement that Stacy showed from night to night really β
helped elevate Derek in his career.
Obviously, Derek's talent was sensational, but Stacey almost took him to a new level with his calls that were played nationally on ESPN and all over the country.
And Stacey took a lot of pride in that.
He talked often on the podcast that that Dragic call really elevated his career to another level because he got so much national love after that that people were always keeping an eye out on what the Bulls were doing and what kind of calls Stacey and Neil were going to be giving him.
Yeah, it was interesting.
The games that I filled in for Adam doing the play-by-play, Stacey would show up uncomfortably late at times.
He would make me incredibly nervous because we'd re-tape the opens, and I'm like, where's Stacey?
And all of a sudden he would walk in the entrance on the far side of the court,
And it was like a presidential figure walking in and people calling out his name and wanting just to touch his hand and stuff.
He was a huge presence.
Well, Stacey was incredibly intelligent, and his ability to turn a phrase always amazed me.
You guys know from doing long-form radio, sometimes if you're talking repeatedly, you tend to use the same words or repeat yourself after another hour.
He would always come up with a unique way to express himself, and I think that's one of the things that really caught the imagination of Bulls fans, is that it wasn't just the same old former players saying the same old things.
Stacey had a unique way of analyzing the game, and make no mistake about it, his basketball IQ was off the charts.
As I mentioned, he coached in the old Continental Basketball Association with the Rockford Lightning.
That was just too much work trying to get minor league players to comprehend some of the things he wanted them to do.