Chapter 1: What is the story behind John Scott's rise to fame?
Hey, it's Latif, this is Radiolab. Today, I'm gonna resurface a story with an interview that was one of, if not the hardest gets of my career. It took me two years of pestering. I regularly pestered the guy's PR people, then his agent, his book agent, even him directly. I got multiple no's at multiple points. And you're probably thinking, who is this guy? Is it the president?
Is it a rock and roll hall of famer? No, it was this humble, unassuming Canadian guy you've probably never even heard of. But I had just fallen for his story so hard. I knew I had to tell it.
So when I finally did get that yes, when I finally did interview him, the only time he offered to talk to me was when he was at home on dad duty and you could hear his kid banging on a piano in the background. And I was like, oh, this audio is terrible. Like I can't do this. I could barely hear him. He wasn't paying attention.
It just felt like one of those moments where the whole thing was going to fall apart. But then something magical happened. You'll hear it in the episode. It's this moment between him and his daughter that felt so intimate, so tender, that it just convinced me, like, oh, this story is going to be even better than I thought. I hope you enjoy. It's an episode from 2019, The Punchline.
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Oh, my God. So this—I had— Hey, I'm Chad Abumrad. I'm Robert Krowitz. This is Radiolab. And we have another story for you, another adventure, courtesy of who else? Well, reporter Letif Nasser. So the way I first learned about the story is that I saw that there was this article trending in this— online publication called The Players Tribune, which is like a kind of athlete's magazine.
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Chapter 2: How did fan voting impact the NHL All-Star Game?
This story really begins on the podcast that I did with a gentleman by the name of Jeff Merrick. Basically a couple of hockey writers. Just shooting the breeze on hockey. Well, you know what industry we're in? We're in the hockey industry. And as you know, the hockey industry is about making money, making new fans, turning heads.
Okay, so this is November 2015, just a few months before the NHL's, you know, big mid-season spectacle. Welcome to Amelie Arena! The all-star game. There is a sense that I have about this game that's worrisome. So, this year, yet again, the NHL, for the 100th time in the last 15 years, was changing the format of the All-Star Game.
This year, the Honda NHL All-Star Game features a three-on-three tournament consisting of four different teams, one from each division.
Hockey's typically five on five. Three on three, however, is supposed to be like, you know, way more action, a lot more scoring, a lot more fun. But for Greg and Jeff, who are, you know, these hockey purists, they're like, yet again, the NHL is just changing things up to get more eyeballs on this game that, by this point, has just become a watered-down, half-speed joke of a game.
It's not a game. It makes a mockery of it, but it's disgusting.
So the two of them, as many diehard hockey traditionalists do, go off on the NHL. And eventually that leads them to talk about the other, what they see as the other really dumb thing about that year's All-Star game. Fan voting. Fan voting has long been a part of the game.
As a kid, there was nothing else better than grabbing a little punch card at a game and knocking out the little circles and trying to grab like 30 of them. to make sure that, you know, Kirk Muller gets a spot in the All-Star game or whatever. But over the years, the NHL had started reducing the number of players that could get voted in.
One year, they were even accused of turning off the vote when they didn't like where it was headed. And anyway, this year, the NHL had limited the vote so much that the fans could only vote in four players, a captain for each division, the Pacific, the Central, the Atlantic, the Metropolitan. But four players, all you could vote in.
That just seems to run counter to what the All-Star Game history tradition should be to what we really want with this All-Star Game, which is fan engagement at the end. I just hope that everyone, that somehow a collective, and maybe we can lead the charge here on this one.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did John Scott face as a player?
And Greg's like, I like that thought. Okay. But who? Who would fit the bill there? And as Greg was thinking about it, he thought, you know what would be funny? You know what would really mess with the NHL? Is if we'd vote in a player. A player who couldn't really keep up. Couldn't really shoot. Couldn't really handle the puck. The slow guy with the bad hands. Couldn't do anything.
Let's really, you know, drop a stink bomb in the room.
And then it hit him.
The perfect guy. A Goliath of the league. John Scott.
Oh my God, John Scott, all-star.
John Scott. So John Scott.
Scott is 6'8 and 270.
Was a behemoth. Yeah, he cracks the ice. He was a guy that would only play between like five and eight minutes a night.
John Scott.
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Chapter 4: What role did Greg Wyshynski play in John Scott's journey?
It's cute for a little bit. That last question was... All right, we're good.
Thanks. Thanks.
Maybe it was too much texture. So you... Oh, yeah. Well, there's something you said that you... Here, let me put her to bed. One second. Sorry, Lateef.
I'm going to throw her upstairs in her room.
Take your time. Totally take your time. I'll keep you on the phone. It'll take two seconds. But even if she cries up there a little bit, she'll be fine.
Follow you.
Is that okay? Yeah, follow me. She's just getting a little squirrely. Good questions, though, Lateef. You're from Mississauga? Yeah, I'm from Mississauga. So you're in Boston, New York now? No, so I'm calling you from Boston. My cell phone is Boston. My job is in New York, but I actually live in L.A., Oh, wow, you're just like all over the map.
Yeah, I'm kind of, well, not, I mean, I feel like compared to you, you've been all over the map for real. All right, let me put her in here. You go in there, mate. All right, now she's done. Perfect. God, what kind of kid do you have that you can put her down so easily? She's like the best kid ever. It's great. I don't know how we lucked out with her, but she was our number five, and
We needed that because if she was anything but perfect, we would have been in trouble. All right, we're back. All right, let's get back. Okay, we're back. We're back. We're back. Okay, so to jump back in, John plays throughout his school years. By the time he's getting close to college, a lot of his friends are getting offers, scholarships to different big-time schools.
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Chapter 5: How did John Scott's unexpected All-Star nomination unfold?
And they didn't really know what to do about it because they didn't have any fail-safes in place to prevent it from happening. After one day of John sitting atop the all-star vote.
We're just like laying in bed. The kids are sleeping.
John gets a text message. He gets up out of bed, goes over to his phone, starts reading it. And he's just standing there for like a while.
Selfishly, I just want to go to bed. But then, you know, I can tell something's just got him stewing over there. And it was his PR guy from the Coyotes.
They thought it would be a good idea to release a statement. And they wrote up this statement for me. And it basically said, thank you for the support. I don't want your votes. Please vote for other guys on my team. Basically, his own team is saying. Step away from the All-Star game.
I saw him respond, yeah, that statement's fine, and then delete it, and then just sit there and look at it. And I just remember asking, would you want to go? And he's just like, well, yeah.
Because as a kid, I watched all the All-Star games. It was so fun to watch, and I would dream to be in it. So yeah.
And I'm like, well, they want you to release a statement. Release a statement, but make sure that it's true.
And so John ends up writing a statement that reads, quote, it's nice to be thought of by all of the fans. And for that, I am truly flattered and grateful. And while I would love to experience an all-star game, I think a few of my teammates are a bit more deserving of a vote. And so it's sort of like I would go if I get voted, but there's other people who deserve it more.
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