MadBum, Kobe and more: Best quotes from Day 1 of Newsmakers Week
Feb 10, 2020, 12:03 PM
Former Phoenix sports executive Jerry Colangelo interviews with Doug & Wolf on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station on Feb. 10, 2020. (Matt Layman/Arizona Sports)
(Matt Layman/Arizona Sports)
Newsmakers Week 2020 is underway.
With a full lineup of guests on Monday, and plenty more where that came from for the rest of this week, there was a lot to absorb from the likes of ASU football head coach Herm Edwards, Suns GM James Jones and others.
Here are some of the best quotes of day one:
Kevin Guy, Arizona Rattlers’ head coach
How difficult is it to find players for your league with the XFL returning?
“It hasn’t been difficult to find players. There are a lot of football players out there. Obviously when the NFL cuts them, the perception is Canada is the No. 2 league. I’ve always felt like with Canada, the Indoor Football League, the arena league, the XFL, we are all going after the same players and it really comes down to what’s the best fit for the player.”
Rick Schantz Phoenix Rising head coach
On comparing this year’s team to last year’s:
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“Last year’s team, you caught lightning in a bottle there on a 20-game win streak. To say that we would do that again would be pretty impressive. I think this year’s team, they are a little bit more dynamic all the way through from top to bottom.”
Torey Lovullo, D-backs manager
What kind of impact will Madison Bumgarner have on Robbie Ray?
“I feel like they are going to buddy up to one another. I feel like Robbie is going to watch because Robbie is a tremendous student of the game and he wants to learn, he wants to get better. Some of those pitfalls, he doesn’t ask for and it tears him apart. I think Madison being able to step into his world a little bit, they’re going to definitely have some conversation. I think that’s what really good elite starting pitchers do, is they pay attention to everything and they help out when needed.”
Herm Edwards, ASU football head coach
Why he embraces recruiting:
“It’s the lifeblood of what you do. It’s about relationships. I realize that. It’s more than one relationship. It’s the relationships that affect this young man’s process of how he is going to decide where to go. And that’s deep. There are a lot of different avenues now. It’s not just mom, dad, or grandma or their uncle. It’s a lot of people even below that and you got to deal with it. I think the more you get connected with those people that helps you.”
James Jones, Suns general manager
On winning more games than they did all last year:
“This isn’t about how many games we won last year. I didn’t have 19 as a benchmark last year. So to say we’ve won more than last year I think would be an error for me to let our guys think that just exceeding last year’s win total is good enough.”
Jerry Colangelo, godfather of Valley sports
His favorite Kobe Bryant Olympic moment:
“I said, ‘Kobe, what if I said to you that we want to change your role on this team?’ He said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘Well, rather than you being the scorer, I want you be a distributor.’ He kind of looked at me in a funny way and he said, ‘I’ll do whatever you want me to do, I just want to be a part of it.’”
