Joe Salerno is the reigning National Basketball League of Canada Coach of the Month AND Year for the defending champion and first-place Moncton Magic.

Ahead of this Saturday’s match-up with the Windsor Express at the Avenir Centre in Moncton, he’s a guest on Episode 7 of On Guard For Three.

We start off with the newly-dubbed “Magic Question”, get Joe’s thoughts on being a multi-sport Dad (2:00), on golf being his favourite getaway, and I’m sure he starts ZERO fights over which of his regular playing partners hits it the longest (4:00).

We get into his days as an AAU player and some of the great northeast talent that crossed his path on the court (6:00), the high school glory days in the Barre Auditorium in Vermont (10:00), the injury that ended his playing days (12:00), “Slow Joe” and Joe Sr. (13:15), and he gives us the lowdown on his insane decision to give up a good job with benefits to become a basketball coach (14:45).

Joe discusses his “welcome to pro basketball” moment involving Michael Ray Richardson and his rough initial road trip as a pro coach (17:30), the support he got and gets from his wife Darci (20:30), the hard work he put in and the lessons he learned to become a good coach (25:00).

Next up, we introduce a new segment, Brock’s Big Three! (28:30) before bringing things up to present day and hitting on the Magic’s 8-game win streak (30:30) ALL the parts of the organization that go into making a winning program (33:00), and the good work of his coaching staff (35:45).

We get into the Windsor matchup (40:15), Jeremiah Mordi and coach’s love for big point guards (43:00), Brock’s favourite Magic player Wayne McCullough (45:30), and Dave asks a completely unfair question about his coaching future (50:15). Joe talks about the growth in Canadian basketball since his arrival almost a decade ago (54:15), the environment around youth sports and Joe offers some parental advice (57:15)

We explore being a hockey dad instead of a basketball one (61:00), and Joe subjects himself to the “commissioner of basketball” question and he gives the best answer we’ve had so far (62:00). We learn that coach has ZERO time for the NBA right now, but still has Celtics thoughts (65:30), and he agrees with Dave about who the best player in the NBA is (still)…(67:00).

We remind you about our Bracket Buster Challenge brought to you by the Chris Rock Tavern (71:30), and finish things off with all things college hoops (74:00).