- [Seth] In 1978, an NBA player saved the life of a dolphin
by reaching directly into its stomach.
- [Ryan] Like during a game?
(all laughing)
- So, 1978, there's a zoo in Redwood City, California
called Marine World.
It was like a zoo-aquarium complex thing.
They have a bottlenose dolphin named,
depending where you look, (dolphin noises)
either Mr. Spock or Dr. Spock.
I don't know whether it was named
after the pediatrician or the Star Trek character.
- Okay.
- Some workers were doing maintenance on Mr. Spock's tank
and a screw came loose and the dolphin
immediately dove down and ate it,
I guess thinking it was a fish.
- Sure, as one does.
- As one does.
So, as you might imagine, having a screw in its stomach
is not good news for a dolphin
and especially if it had been swimming around,
the screw might sorta rattle in there
and do some internal damage.
So, they pulled the dolphin out of the water,
took it to the hospital, and they tried to get it out.
They considered surgery,
but I guess determined that would be too dangerous.
They had some big, expensive $10,000 instrument
that they tried to use to reach in there,
but I guess it wasn't dexterous enough to grab the screw,
so someone tried just reaching in with their hand.
- So, this poor dolphin just got stuff
jammed down its throat. - Yeah.
This dolphin, by the way, is wide awake and is like,
"Well, this is not great.
"I'm not gonna eat that kind of fish again".
- [Kofie] Worst operation game ever.
- So, after the person reached their arm in
and determined their arm wasn't long enough,
a publicist for the zoo had an idea.
The publicist thought,
"My friend is Clifford Ray".
Clifford Ray you might know now as,
he was an assistant on the Celtics
when they won the championship a few years ago.
He's a gigantic assistant coach/consultant for teams, now.
But at the time, in the 70's, he was on the Warriors.
He was like a big defensive center.
6'9, with like a seven-plus foot wing span.
The Warriors are on the road, I think out east right now.
But, he just happens to have a knee injury and be at home.
"Why don't I give this dude a call?"
And so they called Clifford Ray and they said,
"Listen, we need someone with super long arms
"to reach into this dolphin's mouth
"and, in fact, all the way into its stomach
"to retrieve a screw."
- You can't really say no to that,
'cause there's only so many tall people
that you can call. - Yeah, I kinda figured
that in the whole Bay area,
he was probably the most qualified person.
- Sure. - So, anyway,
he said, "Yes, got nothing better to do that day".
He showed up at the hospital.
They put some scrubs on him.
They clipped his fingernails,
which is thoughtful. - Good.
- They lubed up his arm with Vaseline
or KY Jelly or something. - So good, yeah, this is
sounding really special. (Kofie laughs)
- They had some sort of specialist veterinarian
speaking to him over the phone
on like an intercom or something to kind of guide him.
And they had two technicians hold the dolphin's jaws open.
Dolphin's not gonna bite your arm off,
but you don't wanna get bit by a dolphin.
They pumped the dolphin's stomach,
which I guess didn't remove the screw, just everything else,
and he went in there.
He had about three minutes 'cause dolphin's need to breathe.
They're not fish.
But, after two minutes up to his shoulder
inside of a dolphin, he came out with the screw.
- Oh, my goodness gracious.
- And it was in the papers the next day.
He was a hero.
He returned to playing with the Warriors
like a couple days later and it's a happy story.
The dolphin went on to live a long, normal life.
- He lived long and prospered.
- Ooh. - Hey, nice, nice.
- Wait, so I gotta know, I gotta know
what that phone call must have been like,
where they were like,
"Hey, is this Clifford Ray?
"Hey, it's the zoo".
- Thankfully, it sounds like someone actually knew him.
It was legitimately like he had a friend that worked there
in PR. - That's the craziest
"I know a guy" in history.
- "Oh, I know the tallest person in the county.
"I'll call him".
So, I don't wanna put any onus on you, Ryan.
- [Ryan] Sure.
- But, you are what?
6'5, 6'6? - I am 6'5, 6'6-ish, yeah.
- You are not as tall or long-armed as an NBA center,
but you're a large guy. - [Ryan] I got the goods.
- Let's say you had that--
Actually, let's say you had exactly this opportunity.
- I would love it.
I would lose my mind.
- Let's say-- - Hypothetically.
- Hypothetically, some animal needs you
to reach into his stomach and they're like,
"We need our tallest boy.
"The Knicks and the Nets
"are all too s****y to help with this.
"We need Ryan Simmons.
- Yeah.
- You would say yes?
- Absolutely.
Most of my time is spent avoiding obstacles
or like hitting my head or generally being in the way.
So, the opportunity to like help out in some way, hell yeah!
I would love that.
As a matter of fact, hearing this story,
I kind of wanna just roam around Coney Island Aquarium
and just be like "Hey, you guys need any screws extracted?"
- So, when you are a hero to a dolphin at a zoo,
you get some things.
He got a plaque.
I don't know if it had the actual screw on it
or just like a replica screw,
but it's apparently at his family's home,
and, and this is my favorite thing,
he got a tiger cub named after him at the zoo.
- Oh, word. - Would not have guessed that.
- I think that's really awesome
and I would do almost anything.
- That's incredible.
If you were given the opportunity,
would you rather them name the cub after you
or be given the opportunity to name the cub
whatever you want, like blank slate style?
- Okay, so the tiger cub is either named Seth
or I get to name it like--
- [Ryan] Dr. Awesome, or something.
(chuckling) I don't know.
- I think it would be cool to go to a zoo
and see a tiger named Seth.
- [Seth] Well, so I was gonna--
- Like, "There goes
"Seth, the tiger" - Specifically the name Seth
is kind of funny for an animal.
- Sure.
- Like if you have a tiger that sounds like
it had a Bar Mitzvah at some point, then--
- You got Tony the Tiger, you got Seth the Tiger.
- Yeah, it's just not a very ferocious animal
kind of name. (Kofie laughs)
It does make one wonder,
if you were an athlete is this a viable side gig?
You know?
- Yeah, like if I could make 50 bucks a pop,
just going around town
grabbing s*** off of high shelves for people,
I absolutely would do that.
- Yeah, I'd be a nice linebacker on Sunday
and then have my own moving company.
- Yeah, absolutely. - You could put up a flyer
with the little dangly things at the bottom,
like put it up at the public library, just like,
"Hey, I'm really tall and have long arms"
- Yeah, will grab for food. - For cash.
- For cash.
What was the rest of this guy's career like?
- Played a couple more years in the NBA,
became an assistant coach,
he has a lifetime pass to that zoo.
- Oh, good.
- [ Seth] Well, I guess the zoo doesn't exist anymore,
but he had a lifetime pass to the zoo.
- Too many animals kept eating screws.
- (laughing) Yeah.
There were screws everywhere.
- I also like that we spend a lot of time
talking about how smart dolphins are
and yet, they're just running around
eating pieces of metal that float in their tank.
Can't be that smart.
- We respect the intelligence
and agency of dolphins on That's Weird.
- I'll say it, I think they're dumb as s***.