Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye have returned to their alma mater frequently since playing for the Arizona Wildcats, whether it’s to celebrate former coach Lute Olson’s birthday, host a student-athlete event or work out at the practice facility named for Jefferson.
Their return this week was unlike any previous visit.
On Wednesday, the two ex-Wildcats — now retired following long NBA careers — recorded an episode of their “Road Trippin’” podcast in front of roughly 50 people at Gallagher Theater inside the student union.
The two started the podcast during the 2016-17 NBA season, when the two were teammates with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Their podcast is a part of the “Uninterrupted” media conglomerate, which was founded by NBA star LeBron James and businessman Maverick Carter. Wednesday’s episode was their 115th.
“For me, coming back is always nostalgic,” Frye said. “Now that I’m getting older, you see guys like Derrick Williams and Jerryd Bayless, who were here a long time ago — that’s like 10 years ago. Me being gone for 15, 16 years, it’s crazy to see people that know who I am. I’m always humbled.”
The 36-year-old Frye and 39-year-old Jefferson talked at length on Wednesday about their time with the Wildcats. Here’s a look at some of their best stories:
Man in the mirror
When they lived in the La Paz dorms, Jefferson and teammate Luke Walton would constantly blare “Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson. When their downstairs neighbor complained, they took their love of the song to the next level.
“We viewed that as a test,” Jefferson said.
The two wedged a speaker in their dorm room window facing a courtyard and blasted the song on loop from 9 a.m. until they returned from class mid-afternoon.
Gilbert
Jefferson and his UA teammates pranked Gilbert Arenas when the Wildcats were on the road during the 2000-2001 season, turning the bedsheets in his hotel room inside-out.
Arenas got them back.
“He stuck pennies in the locks (of our rooms),” Jefferson said. “Here’s the genius part … normally, there’s someone who has a master key and can open it, but they couldn’t get the master key in, so they called maintenance to come and take apart the entire lock on the door.
“Mind you, we have a game the next day so there are guys sleeping in the hallway until 1 a.m. while maintenance is taking off the entire lock on the door.”
Frye later talked about the time he caught Arenas shooting jumpsuits in the dark inside McKale Center.
Channing Frye, right, and Richard Jefferson recalled “Man in the Mirror” and Candygate among other podcast subjects.
Running man
Frye’s most memorable story has to do with Chris Rodgers, the enigmatic and quirky former UA guard. Frye talked Wednesday about the time they discovered Rodgers running outside in the summer heat, wearing a fleece jumpsuit, bandana and basketball shoes, with a walkman tucked into his pants.
“We were like, ‘Chris, what are you doing?’ He goes, ‘I’m just getting in shape,’” Frye said. “We were like, ‘Well, why don’t you go run on the treadmill?’ He goes, ‘This is challenging my mind better.’ He put on his headphones and started running again.”
Candygate!
Frye also shared some details behind “Candygate,” a now-famous incident from the 2002-03 season. Arizona was in Lawrence, Kansas for arguably the biggest nonconference game of the year. The night before the Wildcats routed the Jayhawks 91-74 at Phog Allen Fieldhouse, a guest staying at the team hotel reported Walton and other players stole candy bars out of a vending machine.
Frye said several KU recruits were to blame. By the time the Wildcats walked past the open candy machine, “there were maybe a couple Twizzlers and a Snickers left so obviously we took that, but that would’ve been $5,” Frye said.
“There were 50 football recruits that had broke it open and then they just blamed us. … And we still whooped that (butt),” he said.
Frye and Jefferson are open books about their days playing basketball at Arizona and in the NBA. They talked Wednesday about Olson barking at his players without cussing, the infamous non-calls on Jay Williams and Duke in the 2001 national championship game, and what they’ve learned from NBA greats like James, Steve Nash and Grant Hill.
It’s not a surprise, then, that they have futures in broadcasting. Frye is in his first year with Turner Sports Network, where he serves as a Twitter analyst on TNT’s live NBA broadcasts. Frye interacts with fans live during games.
“TV feels like (two-dimensional), where somebody talks to you through a screen and you listen. There’s no interaction,” Frye said. “Twitter live is very interactive. … I want you to tell me about your team, your favorite players, let’s have a dialogue.
“We’re so reachable with Twitter, it’s changing the game and allowing players to be seen in different lights. I’m not just, ‘I’m a player and I like wine.’ It’s, ‘I’m a winemaker, I’m a player, I read books.’ People now get to see the different facets of you as a person and they can say, ‘Well, I don’t like the player part of you, but I like everything else,’ so they can attach themselves to that.”
Jefferson, meanwhile, serves an in-studio and color analyst for Pac-12 Networks. He also can be spotted on several ESPN shows, including “The Jump,” “NBA Countdown” and “SportsCenter.”
Broadcasting wasn’t initially in the cards for Jefferson, who joked that his major at the UA was basketball. He began looking into it as he NBA career wound down.
“I just wanted a break and wanted to have fun, watch games and enjoy it,” Jefferson said. “I’ve watched a million basketball games, but now I watch it from a different perspective and listen to what the broadcasters have to say.”
Frye and Jefferson aren’t the only former Wildcats to go into broadcasting. Steve Kerr, Miles Simon, Matt Muehlebach, Corey Williams and Tom Tolbert, among others, have taken to the airwaves.
Jefferson said Kerr, now coach of the Golden State Warriors, showed him the ins and outs of TV broadcasting when he first started. Walton, Jefferson’s best buddy from their time at the UA, coaches the Sacramento Kings. Simon is an assistant coach with the Lakers, Josh Pastner is the head coach at Georgia Tech and Damon Stoudamire runs the Pacific program.
Between the coaches and broadcasters, there’s a strong UA presence in the basketball world. They’re tied together by a common mentor: Olson, who led the UA to the 1997 national championship on the way to a hall of fame career.
“Lute Olson’s big thing was teaching people how to be men,” Jefferson said.
“Even though we’re immature and goofballs and like to have fun, we all respected his approach to the game. … People say, ‘These guys have all had success post-basketball and they’re broadcasting or coaching,’ but we all down the line recruited each other so it’s a family tree in that sense.”
A tree that’s added two more branches in Frye and Jefferson.
