The Three Muskateers

Posted: April 8, 2002

In the 8:30 p.m. segment of the KTAR 620 Sportsline, Brad Cesmat and Dan Majerle were joined by a couple of the veteran's former teammates and close friends. The following is a transcript of the question-and-answer session...

Cesmat: Now coming up now, let’s go to Arkansas.

Majerle: Oh no.

Cesmat: The grizzly bear (Joe Kleine).

Majerle: How’s the pulled pork and the curly fries over at Corky’s?

Kleine: How’s the chili cheese fries at Majerles?

Majerle: The last time I talked to Joe, he was out mounting TVs on the patio at Corky’s and delivering to office people. So this guy has really sunk to a different level.

Kleine: Times are hard, baby. You’ve got to make ends meet.

Majerle: I hear you.

Kleine: How come I didn’t get to come on tape?

Majerle: You’re better live, because you’re so unpredictable.

Kleine: If when we’re talking, I start to cry, just give me a moment.

Cesmat: What is the deal between the two of you. You two have had this unique friendship. Where did all this start, Joe?

Kleine: I’m sick and he’s sicker.

Majerle: I just remember him coming to town and I said, “Who is this guy?” We just clicked. I think we’re both the same type of player. Joe’s the type of guy who works extremely hard and does whatever it takes to help the team win. That kind of attitude is the same with most of the players I hang around with. Joe is one of those guys who just came to work every night and is just a fun guy to be with. He’s a family guy who’s got some beautiful kids and a beautiful wife, who keeps calling me, by the way, Joe. Tell her to quit calling me (laughs). He’s just a good guy to hang around with and a good guy to play with. He’s a hard worker and just a fun guy to play with.

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Majerle: Stop, Joe.

Kleine: Hold on a minute (sob, sob). He’s just a hard worker.

Caller: Hey, shut the #%&$ up, Whitey!

Majerle: What was that?

Kleine: Speaking of tissue paper.

Majerle: Oh, that’s Charles (Barkley)!

Kleine: Where’s Ernie Johnson and Kenny “The Jet” Smith?

Barkley: They’re working. What’s up guys?

Majerle: Charles, how are ya?

Barkley: I’m doing great. How are you doing?

Cesmat: He’s retiring, Charles. He wants to do your job.

Barkley: He’s earned the right to retire. He had a good run.

Majerle: Not as good as you, but good enough.

Barkley: You know what, as my friends told me when I retired, “You got ‘em good!” It’s been a good run. You’ve had a great career. I had the pleasure of playing with you. It was fun. We had a great time, you, me and big head.

Kleine: Oh Charles, it’s so good to hear your voice.

Barkley: (Laughs) Hey, weren’t those the good old days? That was so much fun. That’s the most fun I ever had playing basketball, playing in Phoenix. There was nothing like that. It was fun. The fans were great. We had a great team.

Majerle: Yeah, we definitely had a good time playing. We won a lot of games, which was the most important thing. But we definitely had a very good time playing and Charles and Joe, you two were probably the favorite guys I ever played with. You guys definitely made it interesting, both on the court and in the locker room.

Barkley: Well, I can honestly say this, Dan. Man, you treated me when I came here… You know, any time you crash somebody else’s party… I mean, obviously, it was you and Kevin (Johnson)’s team before I got here, but I just appreciated the way you treated me the three years we played together. Me and Kevin never really quite bonded. I liked Kevin, but we just never bonded. But me and you, man, it was so much fun playing with you. Number 1, everybody knows you’re a helluva player. But I just appreciate, from a teammate standpoint, just the way you treated me when I came here and kind of rained on your parade. Because it’s tough when somebody comes to you and they’ve got to get a lot of pub and you were getting that pub (before). But you always made me feel great and I always tell people, Rich Mahorn, Mike Gminski, you and Mark West are my four favorite teammates ever.

Cesmat: What about Joe?

Barkley: Forget Joe.

Kleine: That’s all right. I don’t mind.

Barkley: I just liked having Joe on the team because he had a bigger head than me.

Kleine: Hey, don’t worry. Maurine (Barkley’s wife) thinks I’m one of the best players ever.

Cesmat: (Laughs) What was it about off the court with you guys?

Barkley: We just had fun. First of all we had a great team. You know, when guys retire, obviously they miss the money, but the only thing they ever talk about missing is the camaraderie with the guys, and there are very few guys that you actually click with and get along with. People might think that’s strange, but everybody kind of has their own agenda. But Dan Majerle, me and Joe Kleine, we clicked. And it was the same for me and Rick Mahorn and Mike Gminski in Philly. I never felt that in Houston when I went there. We had a pretty good team, but I never clicked with any of the guys, even though we had fun together. But me, Dan and Joe just clicked.

It was funny. The weirdest thing for me when I first came to Phoenix was, every girl I met wanted me to introduce them to Dan. That’s the thing that was funny. I would be minding my own business and I would have complete strangers wanting to meet Dan Majerle.

Majerle: Why was that hilarious?

Barkley: I couldn’t believe that a woman would rather be with Thunder Dan but Thunder Chuck.

Majerle: Well, you’re right. But you were right about the chemistry thing. You kind of take that for granted. That ’92-93 year, when you came in and we opened America West Arena, you kind of just took this city by storm and pretty much just put this team on your shoulders, we had a great chemistry team. You did the dirty work on the floor. You did the rebounding and the scoring. We had guys who did other things. We had Danny (Ainge), who came in and played well.

Barkley: Well, Danny was just mooching off of us.

Majerle: That’s true. He would just feed off of your passes.

Barkley: Thank you.

Majerle: But it was fun. We had great chemistry and it was tough when they broke that team up because you don’t have chemistry like that on every team.

Barkley: I don’t think you probably ever got the credit you deserve and I’m not just saying that to blow smoke. I think you know me better. But I feel like other than myself, and that’s not a knock on anybody else, you were the reason that we got to the Finals. People forget that Kevin struggled a little bit in the playoffs, but you were the second most reason why we made it to the Finals and I don’t think you ever really got your credit.

People don’t want to admit this, but the Suns went downhill after they traded you. I was still on the team one more year, but once they traded you we dropped like rocks. That’s just the truth. We had other good players, but you brought the intangibles. There’s no coincidence that right when you left the team, we started going downhill. It’s unfortunate that people don’t understand that. People always look at players as good players, but there are other intangibles. You brought a great toughness to our team. When we used to play the Suns, before I got to town, you know the team was soft. You were the toughest guy on the team, you and Mark West. Putting us together and Kevin and the other guys, it was just a great mix. I just hope that people understand what you meant to the Suns organization. I’m just kind of glad you got a chance to finish your career in Phoenix.

Cesmat: Joe, let me ask you something about Dan. When you look back at his career and the time you spent here in Phoenix, what stands out to you about Dan’s run with the Suns?

Kleine: When I think of Dan, I think of toughness. I was fortunate to play with Charles and I played with a lot of great players, with the Celtics and those guys, I got to have a cup of coffee with Shaq (in L.A.), got to play a year with Michael (Jordan). But when I think of toughness, I think of two guys, Larry Bird and Dan Majerle. It’s like what Pat Riley said, you give him an assignment and he doesn’t complain and talk about it’s fair or not fair. He doesn’t worry about who gets the credit. I think that’s why Charles respected him so much and that’s why I respected him. It’s why all veteran players respected: him so much, because they saw the time and effort he put into things. They saw what his motives were. His motives were not more money. His motives were not personal motives. His motives were getting to the Finals and winning a championship. When you ask Dan what his best year was it was getting to the championship (series), because that was his ultimate goal, to get that ring and to play in the championship. For team oriented guys, it’s a great thrill. And I think his toughness, as Charles said, was the glue that held the Suns together and when he went a lot of that toughness went, too.

Barkley: It’s got to be mentally, obviously it’s physically, demanding to know that every night you go to the building, you’re going to have to guard the best player. We put Dan on the best guard or small forward that team’s had, the best scorer most of the time, and he didn’t complain. There was never like, “Hey man, am I going to get any shots on offense?” It was like, “I know I’ve got to guard the best player every time we go into a building.” That was the thing that amazing to me. Most guys are like, “When are you going to run some plays for me?” Or “I’m underpaid and I’m not getting any recognition.” Dan was like, “I’ve got the best player” and that was it. Then we went out and drank beer after the game.

Kleine: Another thing, the mentality of the fan and the players, you look at the box score, you look at the points, you look at your shots. And what people didn’t realize was, Dan took the toughest shots. You know, they’d look in there a lot of times and they’d see 3-for-8 or 2-for-9, but they didn’t realize that Charles was holding the ball for 22 seconds and throwing it out to him, making him shoot a three, just so he could make Dan have a worse shooting percentage than he had.

Barkley: Hey, don’t be giving away my old tricks.

Cesmat: Who’s the better golfer between the three of you?

Majerle: Oh, there’s no question about that. Me. Are you going to be in Phoenix any time soon, Charles? We can go out and play here in about a week and a half.

Barkley: Well, I’m actually only going to work three days during the playoffs and the rest of the time I’ll be in Phoenix getting my game ready. You know what, we should go to Vegas one weekend just to get drunk and play golf and celebrate your retirement.

Majerle: (Laughs) You got it. I’m there.

Barkley: You know what you’ve got to do next? You’ve got to get you one of these scam TV jobs.

Majerle: I’m working on it, actually.

Barkley: Get you a good one. It’s like stealing.

Cesmat: You know he’s got a fourth child on the way, guys.

Barkley: I saw Tina the other day. I saw her working out. I knew she was either pregnant or she’d been eating good.

Majerle: You know we’re having a boy, though, Charles?

Barkley: A little Chuckster Majerle?

Majerle: Yeah. Little Chuck we’re going to call him.

Barkley: I like that. Chuck Majerle. I like that.

Kleine: Please don’t do that.

Cesmat: Hey Joe, you and Dana and the kids doing well down in Arkansas?

Kleine: We’re good. Everybody’s good.

Barkley: Hey man, if you’ve got like $1,000, you can live like a whole year in Arkansas.

Kleine: You know what’s great, though? If you’ve got $250, you can live 10 years in Alabama (laughs). I’ve got to go to Alabama twice a year. I’ve got to go to Tuscaloosa and I’ve got to go to Auburn. I’ll tell you what, if you went to Alabama to do anything, you got paid for it big time. Especially Auburn, you had to get paid big time.

Barkley: Hey, I never said I didn’t get paid in college. Of course I did. I just thank God for Arkansas and Mississippi, so Alabama is only ranked 48th in education and poverty.

Kleine: You’ve got the worst state in the world. No wonder you live in Phoenix (laughs).

Click here for part five of the Tribute to Thunder, in which Majerle takes calls from fans.