If you were a young NBA fan in this country in the early 1990s, odds are you spent a half hour most Saturday mornings glued to a television watching Ahmad Rashad give you “the inside stuff.”
NBC’s NBA Inside Stuff — a 30-minute, weekly magazine show featuring a flashy and high-paced mix of news, highlights and off-court profiles of the game’s biggest stars — was conceived by Rashad, so perhaps not surprisingly, the show took on the personality of its creator: hip, energetic, stylish, but most of all, fun.
It represented to many Canadian viewers not only must-see TV, but on many occasions, the only NBA TV they might see in a given week, especially in the pre-Raptors early ‘90s when NBA regular-season games on television were as common then as a Steph Curry missed free-throw today.
NBA Inside Stuff had a mandate to entertain, engage and inform young fans. It did so by relying on regular features such as Re-wind (a high-paced look back at the week that was) Jam Session (a pre-internet collection of the week’s best slam dunks worthy of any YouTube playlist today), and Rashad, a suave, four-time Pro Bowl wide receiver in the NFL, who began working with NBC sports in the early 1980s in a variety of roles covering the NFL and MLB.
On NBA Inside Stuff, Rashad served as executive producer, managing editor and co-host alongside a trio of women over the show’s 16-year run: Julie Moran (1990-91), Willow Bay (1991-1998) and Summer Sanders (1998-2005).
Almost 30 years after NBA Inside Stuff first debuted, for a generation of basketball fans in this country, Rashad remains an iconic personality for the role his show played in fostering a budding passion for the NBA during both the early days of the Raptors and in prior years when a team in Canada seemed like nothing more than a dream.
Earlier this week we had a chance to chat with the 69-year-old, NBA TV host in Toronto at Jimmie Simpson recreation centre during an event for NBA Cares.
Ground covered during our conversation with Rashad included: The legacy of NBA Inside Stuff; The time the B.C. Lions tried to sign him away from the NCAA; His Game 1 impressions; How Damon Stoudamire became his “main man”; What Michael Jordan texted him about Game 1; And his admiration for Wayne Embry.
Sportsnet.ca: Do you have a sense of how influential NBA Inside Stuff was in nurturing a love of the NBA among young Canadians in the early ‘90s, especially before the Raptors hit the floor?
Ahmad Rashad: It was like Twitter before Twitter. One of the only places you could get this kind of information (player profiles) was Saturday mornings and we did it with a lot of fun. There’s not a day that goes by that somebody doesn’t come up to me and say ‘every Saturday morning I knew right where I was to watch that show, to get the information. And as a producer, I always felt it was better to entertain as you inform, so that’s what we did. We tried to entertain and have a great time. You saw players as they really were and the only place you could find it was on Saturday mornings.
Sportsnet.ca: The show was your idea, but who did you pitch it to?
Ahmad Rashad: David Stern. He was the commissioner at that time and NBC had just taken over (the national television rights deal) for the NBA. So (NBC) was trying to get a little show going that we could springboard into the actual basketball. So that’s what we came up with. Trying to present an insider’s “stuff.”
Sportsnet.ca: Earlier you mentioned Twitter, but looking back recently at some clips on YouTube the show looks a lot like Instagram before Instagram, with a behind the scene look at players while running errands, participating in hobbies, on vacation, etc.
Ahmad Rashad: I wanted to be a fly on the wall. I wanted to show players doing things you’d never seen them do–going to the grocery store, the gas station. Anything. We had so much fun doing it. It was such a hot show that I would go to games and players would run by me and say, “Hey, put me on Inside Stuff.” “What about this idea?” And it was cool for 15-16 years. Just a really great show.
Sportsnet.ca: When you heard Toronto was getting an NBA franchise, what was your first thought?
Ahmad Rashad: It was exciting. I’m from Seattle, so Canada was nothing foreign to me. It was very exciting it was coming to Canada because Toronto is such a great city. I knew it would have a little bit… between hockey because hockey is so strong in Canada. But there’s room for basketball. And then they got (Damon) Stoudamire. I went to school at the University of Oregon and played basketball against his father. And I knew (Damon) since he was a kid. So when he got (to Toronto) he became “my main man Damon Stoudamire.” And then we always put (the Raptors) on TV every week.
Sportsnet.ca: It did feel like the Raptors got a lot of play on the show for an expansion squad…
Ahmad Rashad: Anything he did I had to shout out to “my main man, Damon Stoudamire.” With (Damon) it got to be such a joke with how much we put him on his first name became “Main Man” Stoudamire. But not many people knew that I had known him since he was a kid.
Sportsnet.ca: How much has Toronto changed since you first visited?
Ahmad Rashad: Toronto’s one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It’s a world-class city with a lot of different influences. Great people, all kinds of different cultures. Safe. It’s just a great city. Canada’s not foreign to me as I said before, having grown up in Seattle. We would drive up to Vancouver all the time. So, I never felt Toronto was way out somewhere.
Sportsnet.ca: What would you do in Vancouver?
Ahmad Rashad: When I was in high school we would get groups together and go up there for the weekend. Stanley Park. I also went to a Grey Cup game in Vancouver with the Toronto Argos playing Calgary. This was when I was in college. And the Lions were trying to get me to leave college and go play for them. They took a group of us up there. I took some of my college teammates, like five guys, and said, ‘Hey, I’m going up to the Grey Cup. You guys wanna go?”
Sportsnet.ca: What would have been the incentive to leave school back then? Did you consider it?
Ahmad Rashad: I guess to get money right away. But I wasn’t going to leave school. I just remember we had a great weekend at the Grey Cup. They brought us up and we had a great time.
Sportsnet.ca: During your opening remarks earlier you mentioned that Raptors senior basketball advisor Wayne Embry has been an inspiration to you over the years. How so?
Ahmad Rashad: He was one of the first African-American (NBA) executives. And it wasn’t popular during that time, but he was such a great player and always so well-respected. I have watched the NBA religiously, my whole life. He just became one of those guys — a big, strong, proud black man that was a real inspiration. To be that way, you know because we all came from nothing, so for him to carry himself the way he did… I wanted to do that too. He’s such a good guy too, Just a wonderful, wonderful human being.
Sportsnet.ca: Did anything from Game 1 of the Finals surprise you?
Ahmad Rashad: No. The Raptors don’t look up to Golden State. They look across at them. Nobody was intimidated because they popped them right in the nose. That was wonderful. That was just a beautiful thing.
Sportsnet.ca: What do you make of Jurassic Park?
Ahmad Rashad: It’s kind of a college thing. It’s very cool. And the beautiful thing about sports — it brings people together. The Raptors not only bring Toronto together, but they also bring a whole country together. And they got an international team. They got players from everywhere and it really does reflect the city.
Sportsnet.ca: It’s well-known you’re tight with Michael Jordan. Do you text with him during basketball games?
Ahmad Rashad: We texted this morning. We talked last night too.
Sportsnet.ca: Did he share any thoughts on Game 1?
Ahmad Rashad: He was so impressed with Pascal. He said if Pascal plays like that every night, they’ll win the thing.
Sportsnet.ca: Does Jordan use emojis when he texts?
Ahmad Rashad: No.
Sportsnet.ca: He doesn’t sign off with a goat?
Ahmad Rashad: (laughs) No. If he did, I’d know that wasn’t him. We talk about basketball like two teenagers. The whole time.
Sportsnet.ca: What do you think about Drake’s antics. Can he impact the series?
Ahmad Rashad: I honestly believe that you can impact the series, in a bad way. Let a sleeping dog lie. You don’t want (Golden State) to have any extra motivation. You’re not even playing, so you don’t want the wrath taken out on your team. Throughout my life, I’ve seen players get up to quiet the crowd. So it’s a trap. You mess around and get the guys fired up… it doesn’t really work.
Sportsnet.ca: What was your prediction for the series prior to Game 1 and what is it now?
Ahmad Rashad: I never made a prediction before. I just felt like in order for Toronto to win, the guys like Pascal, the guys like Green, their other guys were going to have to play really well and not put the whole pressure on Leonard and if they did that, they could beat anybody. It’s not like they’re playing Cleveland and all they had to worry about is LeBron James. This team is a real team. They’re legitimate championship contenders. I believe (the Raptors) have a chance of winning this thing. Absolutely.
