Washington's Quincy Pondexter Calls Out KJR's Dave Mahler For Lack of Support (2024)

The University of Washington Huskies have arrived in Las Vegas for the start of the Pac-12 Tournament and despite a difficult season filled with injuries, a COVID-19 disruption, and inconsistent play, the team is finding its chemistry just at the right time to make a run for a championship.

Head Coach Mike Hopkins is reportedly on the hot seat as his team, seeded sixth in the tournament, is set to take on the No. 11 Utah Utes from T-Mobile Arena. Joining Hopkins on the coaching staff for his first season is former NBA forward and All-Pac-10 selection at Washington, Quincy Pondexter. The former first-round pick played in the Association from 2010 to 2019 and had stints with five different teams, including the New Orleans Pelicans and Chicago Bulls.

Now, though, he is focused on helping elevate the program to be “respectable” on a consistent basis, and that starts with confronting members of the media who speak negatively about the team.

On Tuesday morning, Pondexter was a guest with Chuck and Buck on Seattle Sports Radio 950 KJR, and called out another on-air host on the station for hurting the development of the team and the culture around it.

“I preach positivity, especially from the people in media powers like your guy over there who could really change things around for us,” Pondexter said referring to on-air host Dave “Softy” Mahler, who very much has a love-hate relationship with the team. “If he’s more positive and has our back more than anything, I think we’ll have more fans in the crowd; we’ll have more support, and our guys will feed off of that and play even better.”

Both Chuck Powell and Bucky Jacobsen were able to figure out prior to Pondexter speaking about him who the on-air host was by asking him if the accused’s name rhymed with “Lofty Faller.” Pondexter confirmed that is who he was talking about, leading to Powell declaring that “the word is out now.”

Pondexter addressed Mahler on Twitter before coming on the air after Mahler sent out a Tweet saying, “Before the Pac 12 Tournament starts, how would you grade Mike Hopkins performance this year?” In reply, Pondexter said, “It’s ok for you to show us some love Softy.” He elaborated on his answer on the air when asked by Jacobsen what it was like to turn the season around.

“It’s all about building things, and I think Mike Hopkins is an extremely great coach, and you have two… former [Huskie] players on your staff, and so there is no way to go besides up,” said Pondexter. “Me and Will Conry – we leave it all out there because we love this school; this university; the city more than anything. It’s only going to go up.”

Optimism is surrounding the University of Washington Huskies as they enter the tournament, and Pondexter knows that his experience from both the perspective of a player and a coach will help him be a leader among his players in the quest for a championship. Additionally, it affords him the unique perspective of looking at media criticism in a different scope, seeing what it will do to the entire team rather than how it may affect one player; that is, a part of the whole.

“I’ve been on both sides of this,” said Pondexter. “I’ve won this conference tournament and lasted until the end. The other side is you get eliminated early. You have to have intense focus, take care of business one possession at a time, and leave it all out there on the floor to give yourself the best opportunity… The guys are loving each other, and we don’t want this dance to end.”

Powell encouraged Pondexter, who had evidently perceived a lack of support for his team from certain members of the media, not to take the criticism too seriously ahead of the tournament.

“That guy loves Huskies more than anything,” said Powell in reference to Mahler. “I think more than life itself. Maybe you just caught him [in] a sour mood there.”

Earlier in the week, Jim Rome officially launched the live video stream of his popular radio program, The Jim Rome Show, on the X platform. Listeners of the show on terrestrial radio and digital outlets are now able to utilize the social media network, which was formerly known as Twitter, to watch a live stream of the program.

The functionality change in the video component of Rome’s show came after it aired on the CBS Sports Network for six years. Rome’s show can continue to be heard on the Infinity Sports Network and a variety of radio affiliates on the AM and FM dial across the country. Because of the show’s continued presence on airwaves regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, it must adhere to guidelines pertaining to obscenity, indecency and profanity within the broadcast.

One of the program’s callers at the end of the first hour began his discourse by commending Rome for his presence on the new platform. In fact, he stated that he no longer has to hear the show on “scratchy AM” radio, the frequency on which Rome first started broadcasting the show when he worked on XTRA Sports 690 in San Diego, Calif.

The caller discussed how the Dallas Mavericks held a 29-point lead on the Minnesota Timberwolves at halftime of Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals on Thursday night, claiming that the team should have effectively abandoned the game. As he continued, he made an inappropriate remark about what Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving did to the team, prompting Rome to interrupt the caller.

“You know what dude?,” Rome articulated. “Unfortunately people heard you say that in a clear video stream and not on some scratchy AM radio station.”

Rome denounced the take that had been provided on the show, along with the caller himself for making such a statement. He also stated that he was in the scratchy Radio Hall of Fame and that listeners can still hear the show through that medium.

“Don’t dog our radio stations,” Rome said. “We have a few hundred radio stations that believed in me and us and put our product on the air, and it’s still on the air. This is a radio show still yet, but it is a radio show that is being streamed live on the X platform, and so far, so good. We’ve had a really good first week, and I’m having an absolute blast.”

Before Rome proceeded to commence the second hour of his program to end the week, he explained that he was enjoying the new project. Throughout his career, he has been on terrestrial radio, along with linear and network television, and is now trying to assimilate into digital media as the outlets continue to evolve.

“We have never actually streamed,” Rome said. “I am embracing new media – I love this, it’s a blast. Dude, don’t bring us down. I like this a lot…. I don’t want you doing anything to jeopardize this great new thing we have. My man, do better. Do better or don’t do at all.”

Concurrent with the end of the NBA Western Conference Finals on Thursday night, the popular TNT Sports studio program Inside the NBA signed off until next season. Warner Bros. Discovery reportedly did not reach a deal with the National Basketball Association during the exclusive 90-day negotiating window for incumbent rightsholders and now faces losing media rights for the league entirely. Although there is reportedly a chance that the NBA could create a fourth media rights package for Warner Bros. Discovery or that the company itself could match another deal, the expected outcome according to several reports is that the entity will not broadcast NBA games past next season.

The future of Inside the NBA with Ernie Johnson, Kenny “The Jet” Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal has been a point of concern among basketball fans, although losing media rights may not necessarily indicate the end of the show. Barkley in particular has spoken about the issue across multiple platforms and addressed the issue on the air in a variety of ways. When Johnson was signing off the end-of-season broadcast last night and exclaimed that next year would be a “blast,” Barley asked if he said “blast” or “last.”

Earlier in the show, Barkley opined that he believed the Boston Celtics would defeat the Dallas Mavericks to win the NBA Championship, a sentiment that catalyzed discussion on Friday’s edition of The Greg Hill Show on WEEI. After explaining if they concurred or dissented with Barkley’s opinion, the program discussed what makes Inside the NBA distinctive compared to other studio shows.

“Can I just say – that show, any sport – pregame, halftime, postgame – that grouping of those guys is the best by far in any sport,” co-host Greg Hill said on Friday morning.

Co-host Jermaine Wiggins explained that a reason for the success of Inside the NBA is in Barkley divulging the reality and his true thoughts without being restricted. Show producer Chris Curtis further elaborated on this point, conveying that he feels that everyone likes something but can never end up doing it themselves.

“That show, people relate it to it not because of NBA talk – it’s great – but it’s about how Barkley and Shaq and Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson are friends, and it translates,” Curtis said. “I put on ESPN, no offense, and it’s like Greeny and Pat McAfee, and I’m like, ‘What am I watching?’”

Wiggins mentioned Stephen A. Smith and Paul Bissonnette as two people in particular who come off as serving a similar role to Barkley on their studio programs on ESPN and TNT, respectively. Additionally, he implored people just to be who they are on the air, part of what encompasses Hill’s belief that Tom Brady will end up being a strong live game analyst for FOX Sports. Brady will join play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt and reporters Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi as part of the lead broadcast team for the NFL on FOX this upcoming season, which will culminate in its broadcast of Super Bowl LIX from New Orleans, La.

“If you watch Barkley and they do the interview with the players, Barkley will say right to him, ‘Listen, you’ve played like trash. What are you going to do differently moving forward?,’” Wiggins outlined. “Is Tom going to do that when he’s having an interview with Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes?…. Is he going to do what we love that he does, [which] is keep it honest, or is he going to go in the Tony Romo mode or even Troy Aikman of, ‘Everything’s great. Oh, he just made a bad decision here,’ and I think that’s why a lot of people love the show because Barkley will.”

“Barkley, Shaq, Kenny Smith is really good in that role,” Hill added. “It’s just, it’s great.”

KNBR afternoon drive host Adam Copeland has been away from the station for the last several weeks, during which he stepped down from his position as program director of KNBR, KGO and KTCT in San Francisco. Copeland’s abrupt exit from the position came just five months after he began the role and came four days after a column from Barrett Media President Jason Barrett discussed his questionable behavior on social media. Barrett Sports Media was the first to report of Copeland’s exit and obtained an internal memo containing a message from Cumulus San Francisco regional vice president and market manager Larry Blumhagen revealing that Copeland will continue to host his afternoon drive program, Tolbert and Copes, alongside Tom Tolbert.

Copeland returned to the air on Thursday in studio with Tolbert where they reacclimatized and hosted their four-hour program. Tolbert started the show by exclaiming that Copeland was back and asking what had been going on with him. In response, Copeland stated that there was not much and laughed shortly thereafter, ostensibly delivering such a message in a flippant manner. Tolbert added some light humor about being out of breath from getting off to a late start because of a cooking endeavor before Copeland addressed the events that had recently ensued.

“I was out for the last couple of weeks obviously,” Copeland said. “In that time, I’ve stepped down as the program director of KNBR and KNBR 1050 and KGO 810 The Spread. There’s been a lot written about me, a lot said about me and painted me a certain way. If you haven’t read it, check it out. Any press is good press, I’ll take it.”

Copeland then promoted his social media handle as he implored listeners to check out the articles and other press materials that had been written about him. From there, he mentioned a point that he felt needed to be said about himself.

“This job, this show, this station – it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do,” Copeland explained. “It was my childhood dream to work here, it’s my childhood dream to have a show on KNBR and in this timeslot, [and it’s] even better to work with guys that are genuinely some of my best friends, and to work with people like Tom and Murph and get a chance to work with Gary and Paulie Mac and Rod Brooks and so many guys who were here that I looked up to and inspired me – all I’ve ever wanted to do is just do the show, and get back to doing the show.”

As he continued offering his perspective, he addressed the posts on social media that were the subject of criticism. Copeland initially questioned Barrett Sports Media about writing a story if KNBR defeated 95.7 The Game in the ratings. Barrett responded by stating that Barrett Sports Media had published stories about the ratings when KNBR won in the past, along with stories about talent at the station. While some of his social media posts and interactions have been in question, Copeland averred that they were executed while thinking about the station and listeners.

“As much as I care about this place and every decision I made about myself and my career and things that I put out there were all with the station in mind and support for the station and love for you guys in mind. I understand that some of that was perceived and painted and read differently,” Copeland said, “and my reactions and my responses to some of that were at times taken out of context but at times fair in the way that they were received.”

Before returning to KNBR on Thursday, Copeland attended the San Francisco Giants game on Wednesday against the Philadelphia Phillies and had the chance to speak with listeners and discuss baseball. While Copeland looked forward to talking about the Giants on the air, he concluded his message by thanking the listeners and demonstrating a sense of relatability.

“Always love the listeners,” Copeland said. “I am and was a listener, and I just want this place to still be a place after I’m here so I can continue to be a listener, so that’s what it’s all about is just getting back to doing the show.”