Hello and welcome to the Who Collective Podcast. We talk about the NBA. We're doing it on Sunday evening.

Joining me from Washington, D.C. worries on a road trip with the Brooklyn Nets is Nick Fribell. Hello, Nick.

Hey, it's good to hear your voice, my man. How you doing?

I'm doing good, although I got bad news today, Nick. Paul Silas passed away 79 years old.

Paul Silas was a mentor to me and you don't normally, um, is a reporter. You're not supposed to have relationships like this with people that you cover.

Um, and all I can say is I was 25 years old in 2003 and back then, Nick, people that age didn't cover the NBA. Now, there's a lot more younger folks covering the NBA today.

Some of the best analysis and, you know, um, writing and stuff comes from people in their 20s.

That wasn't the case back then. Back then you couldn't get on the NBA in your 20s. It took something special. Not that I'm saying I was special. I just, you know, fell into it.

And he was the first coach I covered. And I remember, um,

the second or maybe the second preseason game. It was an Asheville, North Carolina.

Wait till I'd ever been to Asheville, North Carolina. He was hired just that year to coach the calves and LeBron James. He had been a head coach with the Charlotte and then New Orleans Hornets before.

One, I think three championships, a couple with the Celtics and one with the Sonics was at a long career as an assistant coach.

And big, burly man, you know, I don't, you know, in today's day and age, he's, he's built kind of like PJ Tucker.

But, you know, not that, not that muscular, but, you know, maybe we'll talk in PJ, but that kind of of a brawler of power forward.

And I remember in Asheville, Rick Benel, who was the former beer beer, Rick passed away on fortune I last year.

He came up and gave Paula hug. He had covered Paul for years in the Hornets, Charlotte Hornets before they moved to New Orleans and Nick. I remember looking at like, what the heck is going on?

A reporter comes up and hugs a coach.

I was, I was like, what is going on? Well, I get it. He was like, no coach I ever covered.

He taught me so much about how the NBA game works, which, you know, he was in his mid 60s at the time.

I was in my, you know, early to mid 20s. I didn't know anything, Nick. I didn't know anything. I was barely getting by day to day.

He could have looked at me and a lot of people did by frankly, I don't even blame him. He could have looked at me as like this, no nothing past, who, you know, wasn't worth the time of day.

And that wasn't the way he treated me at all.

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