Sam Smith

speaker

542 appearances 4 recordings 4 series first heard Dec 2025 last heard 1 Jul

Sam Smith’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 4 in all, peaking in Apr 2026 with 2.

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Fresh Air · A Courtside Look At NBA Legends, From Jordan To Kobe · 11 Dec 2025 podcast

And the reason they called them cagers is

is that the game was so physical and so rough in its early years that they literally played in cages to keep the fans and the players separated because there was so much violence in the game.

And so you talk about evolution of the game.

These guys were literally playing in cages, and that's why they called them cages in the 50s and the 60s.

I just want to add, every time Michael got there, to the finals meaning, the opportunity to win a championship, he finished it off.

And LeBron had a great run.

I think he was in the finals eight times, which is an extraordinary accomplishment.

But he didn't only finish it off about three or four times.

And from a writer perspective, one of the ways we sort of judge greatness is in basketball terms.

I get the old make the right play and team sport and all that.

But can you give the ball to somebody and he can finish it off for you?

And LeBron has never been that kind of player.

He doesn't like to get to the free throw line at the end of the games because he gets a little nervous at the line.

We talked about, you know, Elvin Hayes was kind of like that, one of the great scorers in history, but didn't want the ball at the end of the game.

People are different, and some people just don't want that spotlight on them.

Michael drew the spotlight on him, and that provoked him to play even better.

I was around Michael from the beginning when he came to Chicago in 84 and at the draft, Rod Thorne said, look, he's a really good player, but it's not like he's going to change the franchise or something.

So, so it's like, okay.

And he, I watched this development of his, his stages going through multiple coaches at different coach first three years, every year, different players he was playing with.

He mentioned in his last dance documentary about his, uh,

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