On today’s episode, Jason is joined by The Athletic’s Vik Chokshi. During the conversation, Chokshi discusses the ongoing NBA Finals, the biggest differences between the sports betting markets and the prediction markets, what’s next for disgruntled NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, whether we can expect someone to swoop and steal Austin Reaves from Los Angeles in free agency, which players make the most sense for the Chicago Bulls near the top of the upcoming NBA Draft, why he’s so optimistic about year two of the Caleb Williams Era with the Chicago Bulls, and which teams to bet on in the upcoming World Cup.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, Fire Fan, It's me Jason McIntyre, Straight
Bowyer for Friday, June the fifth. We've got NBA Finals
Game two tonight in San Antonio. Very exciting, and we've
also got a great guest. Guy I used to work with.
He's now moved on to bigger and better things. I
(00:32):
had him at the Big Lead, then he came over
to Fox Sports. Now he's at the Athletic running the
air betting department. Vic Chokshi awesome guy, very sharp individual.
We talk a lot of Chicago sports because he's in
Cowherd's neck of the woods now. Also prediction markets versus
sports books. We're still a little old school fuddy duddy
(00:54):
when it comes to that stuff. But well, real quick,
before we get to Vic, I would like to talk
about Game two, folks. This is Spurs minus six and
it's headed towards six and a half. I'm mildly surprised
it's that high, but at the same time, I do
have to respect the zigzag theory and the fact that
(01:16):
this was a one point game with two minutes left
before an eleven to nothing run against tired legs now
here's the thing. Only one day off betweens game one
and two. There'll be two days off between two and three,
which is a huge one for the Spurs. I actually
am of the belief if the Knicks somehow win Game two,
I don't think the series is over because I think
regardless of who wins Game two, I'm gonna go and
(01:40):
predict that the Spurs, who will be rested over the weekend,
will win Game three. I know that sounds insane. What
are you talking about? I don't. It doesn't matter the result.
I just think when you give Wemby an extra day
of rest. The last time he had real rest, he
came into Game one of the Thunder series and had
forty one and twenty four on the road. Now, wait, Jay,
(02:01):
what about the rest after Game seven? No, guys, Game
seven was a brutal, grueling series that Wemby survived with
the help of his friends. And I mean again, I'm
sticky with the next pick in the series. I'm not
moving off it regardless of what happens in game two
and three. I do think the best bet is once
again Spurs. First quarter. They are four and oh in
(02:23):
the last two rounds. In the first quarter, just running
away early and getting out a big league because their
starters are incredible. I do think something I mentioned, Steph
Castle perhaps guarding Towns gathered some steam that was talked
about on ESPN yesterday. I was flipping to the channels
and I heard someone say Castle on Towns makes sense.
(02:44):
By the way, Castle on Brunson. He was three of
eleven Brunton versus everyone else nine of twenty. So Castle
is a factor, and then you're able to put Harper
on Brunson.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Harper is day.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
He's a guy's a beast. I do think we see
more Harper. I'm not out on Deer and Fox. He's good.
I just think they can toggle their lineups. You know,
they've got a lot of options and ultimately no bet
for the game. Just first quarter spurs for me, I'm
seeing right now spurs minus two, but it could head
to damn could head to minus two and a half.
(03:18):
Don't love two and a half. I'd rather pay the
juice anyways, Without further ado, let's get to my guy,
Chicago's finest from the Athletic Vic Chokshi.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
You know a guy Jason likes to think he knows
everything when it comes to sports.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I know what sports fans wants, but for.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Everything he doesn't. He knows a guy who does.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Let's just say I know a guy who knows a
guy who knows another guy.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
All right, let's welcome back to straight fire guy. I
know him for a while. Man, he's a good dude.
He's got a great job. I worked with him for
many years. The only problem is he's a big Bulls
Bears fan. I think he's on the Jordan side of
the Jordan Lebron debate. I think obviously, let's welcome in
Vic chalk chie Vic. How are you my main man?
Speaker 3 (04:02):
I'm doing great and what do you mean you think?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Of course, yes, he's a hardcore Jordan stan obviously being
a Chicago guy. He is at the Athletic, he's got
a very robust role. I mean he was at Fox
with me. He was at the Big Lead. Why don't
you tell the audience what you've been up to lately
at the Athletic building out a strong group there.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, thank you man. Of course I was at the
Big Leader with you. You gave me my first gig. So
it's been a while since then. Now I'm over at
the Athletic I'm heading up the sports betting vertical. I'm
heading up the streaming verticals, so basically handling our partnerships
with Fubo and sports betting partners, Managing a group of writers, editors,
working with the business team, a bunch of different stakeholders,
(04:43):
just creating really cool content on the side and app
which has been a lot of fun. Man, I've been
here for about a year and a half now.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Damn, he's just rolling. I mean, so it's interesting the
gambling space. Remember the gambling gold rush? What was that
like twenty maybe pre COVID twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, some
more around there, And now there's the prediction market gold rush,
which is starting to catch some heat. I don't know
how much you've followed the online battles between the sides,
but you know, as a gambling savant, how do you
(05:13):
handle this, whether it's gambling or prediction markets? Do you dabble?
We had your buddy glasspeg Lawn and he messes around
with prediction markets, don't. I don't know so much.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
It's interesting because I feel it's good that you brought
up that point about twenty eighteen almost because I feel
like we're at that same tipping point when it comes
to prediction markets, right like when FanDuel and Draftking turned
the switch from fantasy to betting and the whole world
opened up. I feel like we're at the same point
when it comes to prediction markets right now with Calshi
(05:44):
and polymarket. So I've dabbled in it, I've to have
had to learn about it. I think we're at a
point where like, no one really is doing it really
well in terms of content, so that there's a big
opportunity there. And then I also have a group of
buddies that like, we're never sports betters that are loving
it because they're used to trading stocks, for instance, and
(06:06):
to them this is speaking their language, whereas like my
sports betters, they are a little confused, like hey, what
does this actually mean? So it's almost like the roles
are reversed, where my buddies who never bet, we're always
like what does minus three twenty five mean? What does
moneyline mean? And now I got my stock market guys
that are almost explaining it to our sports betting buddies,
(06:26):
where they're like, hey, these are contracts, this is how
much you know each one goes for, and this is
how the system works. So you know, I think we're
right at the beginning of all of this. It'll all
also depend on like the administration, as you know, because
I know you're into politics a lot, but oh gosh,
right now, it's it's all steam ahead for prediction markets.
(06:47):
And that can always change if if we have another
president and another regime. I do think there's going to
be some more regulation towards it. But right now, man,
there's nothing stopping it. Younger people, you have young kids,
and I know, I know you have a son that's
always on the internet. But I have a lot of
(07:07):
friends that have like high school buddies or high school
kids that are now like on the phones with their
parents doing prediction market stuff like trading contracts, which to
me is pretty crazy.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
But you think that's good. You think that's a good thing.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Though, Vick, I don't. I think. I mean, I don't know.
Every parent's different, right, Like I'm still one of those
guys holding out on cell phones with my kids. Yeah,
every parent's got to do what's best for them. You know.
Some people are like, hey, this is the way of
the world. It's changing. Ais here, prediction markets are here,
stock market you know, this is like teaching our kids
the stocks and when I was in high school, we
(07:41):
did have a stock market class in high school. So
you know, I personally think it's it's an interesting space
because I can see the pros and cons. The good
part about our industry almost is like we can stick
to sports. I think there's a whole insane world if
you open it up where you can put money down
on war and people dying in like missiles and things
(08:04):
like that, and insider information that has already been pretty
well documented that is already occurring. So you know, if
we stick to sports, I do think it can be
what you make of it, which is kind of fun.
And there's a lot more like there's always like any
guy that's rumored like Yiannis we can talk about right
now where everybody's talking about where you know, where's Gianni's
(08:26):
going to end up? To me, it's just another way
looking at like numbers, implied odds and probabilities and outcomes. Right,
So you know, it's this whole world that's I think
really just at the beginning of where it's going to
get to be in the next few years.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Yeah, you say, a lot of make a lot of
good points. The whole betting on war and oil markets
that is really bad and should be outlawed. But of course,
you know the political space right now, anything goes, which
is I think terrible. The Atlantic had an interesting piece
on polymarket in Calshi, really taking down them hardcore. There's
(09:04):
been a couple of sub sac writers I've read about
how this just this is not something we should have.
I totally understand a game like betting on a game, sure,
but betting on where Yannis is gonna land. There's a
reason you can't really bet that at a lot of shops,
right I mean, I'm sure there's some that you can.
But for instance, somebody could be on the inside, have
(09:24):
a family member who's in the war room for the
I don't Let's just say the Brooklyn Nets and the
husband comes home and he tells his wife how stressed
he is, and the kid hears it, and then the
kid decides, I'm gonna go put a bet on it,
tells his friends and they all gel like it. Just
you can't do that with games. That's why I'm totally
fine with betting on games. You feel like you can
find an age. We'll talk about some NFL bets later.
(09:46):
But I'm with you, I don't. I just feel like
it is a little of the wild wild West and
probably not great.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
On Survivor. You can bet on pre recorded shows, which
to me is what do we do because like people
already know the outcome of these things, right and so
so to your point, yeah, I mean there's just right now,
it's the wild wall rust you hit it bust like
there's no regulation. I think that will come, and when
that comes, I do think there is a pathway for
(10:14):
this thing moving forward. It's just yeah, it's just crazy
right now. Man, there's no there's no checks and balances.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah, I'm sure you read the article about somebody who's
betting on the weather at an airport and some clown decided, who,
I can manipulate this by holding up a hair dryer
to the thermometer. Nobody's gonna notice and it will register. Meanwhile,
it was obvious that no other area had a spike
in weather except this one, so they busted the guy.
But like everybody's trying to get rich quick, man, It's
it's yeah, and that's.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Where like sports betting comes in right with the regulation
and kind of like the monitoring of these things. So, yes,
we're hearing a lot about the newest scandals, but there's
a reason for that. It's because there's monitoring taking place
now where like if you see any irregular you can
flag those right away. Like there's nothing like that right
now with prediction markets, and that's where you know it
(11:07):
is a bit of a gray zone.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yeah, all right, So let's go to the NBA Finals.
Something I don't know if you bet on it. I
like the Knicks in this one. I had said it
before the series, before the playoffs, I like Spurs over Nicks.
Game one obviously happens, and now the Knicks are favored
in Brunson's favorite to win the MVP. I don't know, Vic,
My gut tells me that this is the market saying, hey,
you know what, a lot of people are going to
(11:30):
overreact to one game, and you know what, a lot
of new money out there, new Knicks fans, right, and
they just know, let's just let's shift everything, and the
Knicks fans are moving the markets. I am curious. Do
you think this is legit? Hey, we got to move
the markets because the sharp betters or do they see
something after game one? Or is this just Hey, let's
(11:51):
wrote more people in by saying the Knicks are favorite.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Now, I think it's a little bit of the ladder.
I think it's all Nicks all the way. Baby. We
had Doug Cazerien. You know Doug a little bit, but yeah,
he wrote a story for us right before the finals
about just how everyone's piling on the Knicks and in
this playoff run, and so it's there's almost a Knicks
tax part of this thing. And to me, it's a
(12:14):
little bit of like, hey, how do we get just
more action coming in? And honestly, if you're better, you
can probably take the Spurs today and then you know,
you can arbitrage a little bit after the win game
two and and this is good to me. This is
gonna be a six to seven game series. And same
thing with finals MVP. Me and you were talking a
little offline, but you do the same thing with m VP.
(12:35):
You can bet Webby right now at plus money when
he was a big favorite coming in, and then if
Brunton has a big game, you know it's gonna they're
gonna go back and forth. There. You can grab Cat
right now at plus eleven hundred, which is I.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Had one good game Vick. Yeah, but had a good postseason.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
He's had a monster post mister clutch Man, Yeah again.
I think to me, it's just they want to bring
in some new and everyone's going insane about the Knicks
right now. The public, you know this, man, there's the Cowboys,
there's the Lakers. There's always attacks on these big teams,
and everyone's all in on the Knicks right now. And
(13:13):
for good reason, they're playing awesome basketball. Like I'm not
hating on the Knicks. I did think the Spurs would
win the series before the series started, but I also
had this one going seven, and I think it's going
to be another like happy one, just like the West
Western Conference finals.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
I also noticed, I think it's seven straight years we'll
have a new champion, and I know the league has
to love that because hey, everybody's got a shot. Look,
hey look at this, seven years, every different champs, no
dynasties anymore. I don't know if that's great long term
for the league. I think movement and the excitement over
you know what is it the twenty tens. Every summer
(13:49):
it was like, oh my gosh, who's moving, what's happening
to chaos? And there really isn't much this summer except
for Giannis maybe Lebron unless your bulls make a play
on Austin reeze or something. But I don't know what
do you kind of prefer? Do you prefer? Hey man,
I love the new aprons and the taxes and the
intricacies of trades or I like kind of its wide
open craziness and chaos is going to ring.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
They You know, people love the NFL because every year
your squad has a shot, right unless you're like sad
to say it. Since I've known you, like the Jets
and the Bears have been in that category. And we
can talk about the Bears too, like Jets, Browns Bears
are always but otherwise, like every year going in the season,
you know, you feel good about your squad and like,
(14:32):
look at this year, the Spurs were like plus sixty
five hundred I think when before the season started. So
it's something like that, you know. So I think the
NBA is thrilled about it, Like you said, the Commission's
probably thrilled about it. I've been talking to a lot
of like just I have a lot of friends in
the industry, so like agents and players and like people
in that realm of the world are not happy, of
(14:55):
course about the second Apron and all of these kind
of things, right because it live. It's kind of the
potential money that these athletes can make in the long
term over their career. And so for me, I'm a
Bulls fan, as you stated earlier, So like it doesn't
matter for like a team that's been run so poorly
(15:17):
for so long. But to me, I think the league
is thrilled with how it's going and they're probably gonna
want more of this kind of going forward, and it's
set up to be that way for sure.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, So what do you got with Yannis? Interesting report
this week that a long time Bucks reporters like, it's
weirdly quiet. There is no chatter right now about Giannis,
and meanwhile, there's been chatter like seemingly every week all season. Vic.
I gotta say, I wonder if there's a handshake agreement
with the Bucks and the NBA. Hey, guys, can we
(15:50):
enjoy the finals. It's Wemby and New York. It's going
to be huge. Can we focus on that? And you
do all, Yannis as soon as it's over. I just
wonder if things are happening behind the scenes your best guess.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Yeah, I mean I definitely think they want to wait
until this finals is done and this thing is pretty
much over with. I mean, Sham's is kind of alluded to,
like this is happening no matter what. And so basically,
our writers at The Athletic, you know, they had a
good article this week about like what they're hearing about
Giannis and it was the Heat, the magic.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
They wait, Let's touch on the heat real quick. Fox
Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio dot com
and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to listen live.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
I'm assuming they'd give up Tyler Hero, Hame, hawk As whoever.
But they're not Bam, right, So if Jannis and Bam
are the two centerpieces of the Heat, are the Heat
that much better than the Bucks? I don't just address
it like I don't I don't buy any of this
Heat stuff.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Yeah, I don't think so. But again, man, like a
lot of people love going to Florida, people love going
to Texas the money, you know, And I don't think so.
If you're looking at the overall roster construction, and if
I'm him and he's actually serious about winning a championship,
like he should be going to the Spurs, he should
be going to the Thunder, like those teams have assets.
(17:19):
But yeah, I mean the Knicks seam said this week,
which was interesting, like the Knicks were definitely calling about
Giannis in the off season. I don't know if you
saw that that, but last offseason, yeah, and they were
close and now it's like completely off the table. Something
happened where they were basically too far apart, and he
(17:41):
was just like, Nick's not happening moving forward. But you know,
I don't know, man, I think he's done for sure.
I agree with you. There's some kind of handshake deal
where they need to keep the chatter on a low
right now until the finals are done. And then as
soon as it's done, I think a lot more things
are gonna leak and we're to hear a lot of stuff.
I mean, the Cavs do have some like good young players.
(18:04):
I don't know if that's another squad to kind of
keep an eye on. But there's the magic. The heat
the Celtics was the interesting one, which I know you
me and you and glasbey Will have texted a little
bit about Jalen Brown and just kind of how they're
going to break that team apart a little bit. To me,
that was probably the most interesting one when I was.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Reading, so just hypothetically Jalen Brown for Giannis. Right, maybe
there's other stuff involved, picks whatever.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Yeah, there were some picks involved, but pretty much it
was like, those are the two marquee headline names.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Okay, so let me ask you. When you look at
the NBA Finals Nicks nine deep, maybe ten. You look
at the Spurs nine deep, sixth man of the Year,
I mean, Dylan Harper is coming off the bench nine deep,
maybe ten thunder, clearly ten deep, and I think it's
safe to say these are the three best teams in
the league, right. Depth is like a huge priority right now, Vic,
(19:02):
if you trade for Giannis, you're sacrificing your depth. And
I just wonder it is, you know, similar to how
some of these teams that you know, I think like
the teams would like the of the ten highest paid
was it quarterbacks last year, only like three made the
playoffs whatever the number was. But the quarterbacks are soaking
up so much of the cap that it's tough to
build a roster. Enter Seattle enter New England who have
(19:25):
cheap quarterbacks, you know, Rookie Deal and then Sam Darnold
getting thirty milis and you build a roster that way.
I just wonder, do you think we've reached a breaking
point where like teams are like, I'm I'm Yannis at
sixty million, I can't build a roster. I can't compete
because you need eighty two games twenty playoff games. I
just wonder if Jianni's market is going down or up
(19:46):
at this point.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
I do agree with you. I think we're seeing a
shift in the league that it is going to be
more just like I think the Knicks are the best
best example. I mean, they got a guy like Brunson
who took a little bit of a haircut out to
rest the team, and they are nine to ten deep,
and I think gone are the days of the like
two man super teams and that they're gonna have you know,
(20:09):
a bunch of just random role players on that squad
or some older vets. I think Team Knicks are going
to be like the template moving forward of how teams
want to construct a roster, and you know they're gonna
want teams want to have like seven eight really good
players they want to have. Of course, you need stars
in the NBA to win a championship. But at the
(20:30):
same time, I think the Big three kind of days
are over and more and more teams are gonna shift
towards what you're talking about, like the cap is you know,
the stars are going to continue to just get paid
more and more, and so I think dearon Fox makes
fifty five million, see which like to me, I know
(20:50):
you would mean you were texting about the Bulls a
little bit, Like the Spurs are definitely gonna, in my opinion,
move off of Fox next year, like he's great for
the squad, but man, they have a young guar wait.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Oh sorry, hold on, so uh Fox is at thirty
seven mil this year, but despikes up to forty nine.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Okay next year, go.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
But by far highest paid player on the team.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
So around fifteen mil next year. So you know, I
wouldn't be surprised if, like the Bulls or that, there's
some teams that are out there that have a lot
of cap space but are far away from winning a championship.
Like if the Spurs were like, hey, take this guy
off of our books. We'll give you some picks. I
think the Bulls are like an interesting squad to like
(21:32):
do something like that. Like, the Bulls are still far away.
They got a couple of good draft picks coming up,
but they got a ton of cap space, and so
to me, I think just going back to your earlier point,
like that's my point is, I think even the Spurs,
which is a great young squad, is gonna go away
from that mega contract because they're gonna need the money
(21:54):
for Wemby. Yeah, and then they're gonna want to build
out the rest of their squad to get more deeper
for next year.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
I wonder if Wemby's one of those guys he's gonna
make so much off the court that he says, I
don't need the Jalen Browns seventy million dollars a year now.
I mean, if he wants to keep Harper and Castle,
they'll have to. Speaking of taking less, you mentioned Bruns.
It took one hundred and thirteen million less Austin Reeves. Okay,
I think he will be willing to take less to
(22:21):
stay with the Lakers. I don't know how much less.
But what if your bulls, Like, would you be upset
if your Bulls offered him forty MILLI year.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
I kind of look in I'll caveat that by saying
I think he's a really good player. I just think
the Bulls are not close to winning a championship right now.
So for me, it's like, hey, we lucked into this lottery.
We got the fourth pick in a four man draft,
like we got the fifteenth pick. We got a bunch
of you know, why not build this thing. We got
(22:51):
a couple of good young players, and maybe this is
a year from now or two years from now where
the squad is really ready to take that step. Then
you go out and get a good guy like in
whether it's there's always gonna be a young player that
you can kind of make a move for. So I
don't think he's a bad player. I just think that
the Bulls are not in a place right now to
make a move like that. But you know, he's highly
(23:13):
regarded in the league. There's a lot of people out
there that would probably make that move for him, you know, overnight.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
So it's funny you mentioned the contracts again. I'm on
Basketball Reference real quick. Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown next
year combined will make one hundred and fifteen million, just
those two vic okay one hundred and fifteen million. The
Knicks their top two guys. I mean it depends who
you call their top two, but you want to say
brunts in a cat yep. Combined they make ninety four million,
(23:42):
So that twenty million dollar difference is Josh Hart. You
could get Josh Hart because Brunson took less.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
That's huge.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Josh Hart led the assists of rebounds steals in game one,
like he's your ultimate blue guy. And again, I'm not
telling these guys to take less. I'm not in their pockets.
But I don't know, Vick. You had to make a decision, right,
I mean, you get Foxead offered you athletic. I'm sure, Hey,
do you want to move what? What do you value?
More quality of life in Chicago versus living in la
(24:10):
versus here there? You got to make these decisions and
it's tough, But I don't know, man, I'd be hard
pressed if I'm Austin Reeves. Yeah, I don't need forty
give me thirty five million year if it enables us
to go get another guy. Like honestly, if you're Austin Reeves,
your set generationally, are you not.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Yeah, I mean, listen, the best of the best players
of all these kinds like Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes brunting down.
I mean, like they understand that they can't do this
thing alone and that twenty million dollars or whatever that
number is makes a gigantic difference to help them win
the championship, like their goals were to win the championship.
(24:49):
And so if Austin Reeves is and again I'm like you, man,
all players should get. All of us in life should
get what we deserve, and like how you know what
we work for. But the the problem is he's young man,
Like he probably wants that first big contract and you
get that guaranteed money and then after that you can
kind of make some of those kind of moves. But
(25:10):
he's also in la man las u, a different world.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
But you can make money off the court real quick.
Let let me go to your bulls. Would you be
up for giving out the fourth pick if it meant
bringing a quasi big name star to Chicago or do
you want Hey, I'd rather go the young route. Let
me get Caleb Wilson Boozer whoever it for and and
built from the ground up.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Yeah, I'm sorry you cut out a little bit there.
But when it comes to the Bulls, I think they're
just in a great space where like you can just
basically take whoever for like you said, whoever drops to us,
that's who they're gonna drive. I know there's a bunch
of Bulls fans that are like my buddies, that like, hey,
we don't want Carlos, we don't want Boozer. He's gonna
be just like his dad.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Or they're like fighting about who we want it for.
And I'm like, guys, just happy, like we jumped into
the fourth pick in a four man draft, like this
is the lack of the Irish, Like let's ride this thing. Yeah,
happy with whoever we get. And all four of those
guys are really really good players. So I'm excited about that.
For sure. It does look like it's gonna be Caleb
(26:17):
Wilson from a lot of like, you know, you're a
big mock draft guy. I know you do mock every
couple every year. So from what I'm hearing and seeing,
it looks like it's gonna be Caleb Wilson. But it's
gonna be fun regardless. It's a it's a good time
to be a Bulls fan. Like we have hope right now,
new GM, new front office, right new coach, a couple
of young players, some money, and we can see where
(26:38):
that leads us.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
We could wrap up with your Chicago Bulls. So, Vick,
I'm nerding out on AI currently. My son got me
into it, so I got Claude and Cowork and I've
got an agent working for me. Like literally, I just
feed it tasks all day. It finds numbers and crunches
it one of the best I haven't written this up
for the newsletter yet, but one of the best bets
on the board is the Chicago Bears. Under That's what
(27:16):
this thing's telling me. So I'm not going to give
everything away, but it is saying it has an extremely
difficult schedule. The defense massively overachieved due to turnovers, which
is very, very difficult to duplicate year over year. And
you know, I know there's gonna be tough to stomach.
You know, we all love Caleb Williams. He was in
the twenties, like in the nineteen to twenties range for
(27:39):
success rate, EPA, all the advanced stats. He was. He
benefited by some splash plays in the clutch. Where are
you on the Bears who are riding high with Ben Johnson?
But you know the win total nine and a half
and the numbers are saying bet the under.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yeah, I mean, listen, I think a lot of sharp
betters are taking the under from what I've seen and
what I've read. Okay, the schedule, A lot of the
things you mentioned are true, Like the schedule is tough,
but last year, on paper, our schedule was super tough
as well. You never know until you play the games,
and a lot of times you get breaks of the
(28:19):
game where someone gets hurt unfortunately. And you know how
that is the turnover thing, you were right, Like, you know,
we did lead the league in turnovers and basically that
is very hard to replicate. That being said, like they
added a lot of really good pieces this offseason, Like
they wanted to get a lot faster on defense, and
they did that via free agency, Kobe Bryant, Devin Busch,
(28:41):
the kid they got out of Oregon. The safety Dylan
Theme is a stud So, you know, I actually think
the defense is going to be pretty good and the
offense is going to progress in the second year under
Ben Johnson. Like the guys in Maniac, they look good.
I actually think Luther Burton is going to have a
monster year. That that's one guy like I don't know
(29:03):
if you saw this coach Ben Johnson himself, that by
Luther Burton stock last week. He last year was just
pure off his like instincts. And now this guy, you know,
knows the playbook. He's dynamic. I've never seen a Bear's
receiver at least in my lifetime with that much like explosion.
Every time he touches the ball, he could take it
(29:24):
to the house. He's one of those kind of guys.
But to answer your question, listen, I think they can
win ten games, eleven games, but things have to go
well just like they did last year. Like we gotta
you know, catch some breaks we got, we gotta stay
injury free. We don't have a lot of depth, right
They're a young squad. If they get a couple of
big injuries in certain places, I can definitely see this
(29:46):
thing going south pretty quickly. But the even though the
schedule is hard. I don't know if you saw this,
you know Warren Sharp, I know you, Yeah, all his
tweets he had the travel kind of breakdown and the
bear are actually like one of the have one of
the best schedules if you're just looking at travel, like
the amount of the rest they're going to have and
(30:08):
travel in general, and bye weeks and some of this
kind of stuff like it did all play out in
their favor. But a lot of things you hit were
definitely true. And here's the big thing, man, We've seen
it time and time again in the NFL, like offense
and a quarterback can have a really good year and
then once people defensive coordinators get film on them, like
(30:30):
year two is when you really find out if they're
legit or not right, they have a lot of primetime
games and now this is going to be year two
where people have film on what they can do. And
so that's gonna to me, is gonna be the biggest
like question mark is are they ready for this? Are
they ready for the spotlight? Can they do it? But
you know, you brought up some Klyb stats which are
(30:51):
very true, but he also had a lot of like
very positive stats that a lot of people that are
taking this completion percent and narrative of a little bit overboard. Right,
you can use stats however you want to, Yeah, yes, sure,
like they he also had. They also had led the
league in drops in the most yards off of drops
as well, if you wanted to look at that, he
(31:13):
was top ten in a ton of categories. He was
top five and like every big throw statistic you can
look at, which obviously showed that he can replicate some
of that. It wasn't just like you know, the luck
of the Irish again I love that phrase, but like
one or two times he can. You know, he showed
that he was like built for some of these moments.
(31:33):
And you know, you're texted me about the Madden curse, like,
of course that's a big thing that is around like
on our group chains. But you know, Patrick Mahomes won
the Super Bowl when he was on the Madden cover.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
There you go, no big deal.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
And again, like to me, it's just really cool to
have a quarterback that's on Madden. Like think about this, man,
you're a Jets fan similar to us, to have an
actual Bears play. He's the first Bear to be on Madden.
To have an actual Bear quarterback on the cover is
really cool, like his he did it with the Green
(32:08):
Bay Packers throw. I don't know if you saw, like
a little bit behind.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
The scenes, but yeah, I saw that that that.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
Was really cool. It's that throw to like beat the
pack almost or like charge that comeback. He's got an
overlay of the city. Like I don't know, man, I
grew up a very superstitious kid when it comes to sports,
But now that I'm older, I'm just like, if these
if these guys are legitimately the great ones, which like
we hope he is, does a Bear's quarterback like, I
(32:34):
don't know, I wouldn't worry too much about curses. I
would like to see them win ten games, make the
playoffs again, and just like continue to build on what
last season was.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
So I guess the Lions because they finished third, have
the easiest schedule, and ESPN's FPI, which I, by the way,
fed into the little model that the Cowork a Claude
agent built for me, has the Bears sixteen in the league,
behind the following NFC teams Packers, Lions, Eagles, Cowboys, So
(33:09):
as of now they're a fringe playoff team. I don't know,
it's something. Something's fishy here. Everybody loves the Bears. I
had liked them a lot. I mean that playoff run,
come on, that was amazing. I don't know, it's gonna
be a stressful year for you, for sure. I mean,
let's sen stressful summer. Aren't there World Cup games in Chicago?
Speaker 3 (33:28):
No? No, Chicago?
Speaker 2 (33:29):
No?
Speaker 3 (33:30):
But World Cup starts next week, man.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Because yeah, I know, yeah, that World Cup bigger, A
lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
You know how it is because you me and you
have been there. Of course at Fox when there's no
it's on our hair and it's awesome. Man. It's insane
and every day is a grind if you're thinking about work.
But it's also pretty amazing, and uh, I'm excited for that. Man.
I think everybody in the industry is, who are you
gotta I know we gotta jump soon, but who are
(33:55):
you putting some money onto?
Speaker 2 (33:57):
When the boys, well, you know, the newsletter had I've
already bet Ecuador and the opening MAT's pretty heavily. The
next bet I've coming is Checchia. I think they play
South Korea again. The Claude and now I don't know
what's going to happen. Maybe this agent and all these
numbers are wrong, but I'm just betting the numbers. No emotion, right,
you're taking the emotion out of it. Hold on, I
(34:17):
have a whole file that I'll be writing up all
the games.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Here's a fun one that I want you to run
through your agent or your bot. So I had one
of my writers like, take all the historical trends you
can think of, like the categories, the filters, and just
start narrowing the teams down. And basically what he came
up with with all of these different frent like elo
rating and all of these things, was there's only five
(34:41):
teams that can win this thing, So only five after
you break down and eliminate, you know, through all of
these different categories. He it was it was a fun post.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Can I guess them?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Yeah? Go ahead, that's.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Spain obviously, France, Englandland?
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Nope, not England, not England.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Oh wow, I'm bullish. I have Harry Kane as to
win the Golden Boot. I don't think Brazil should be
on there.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
Nope, they're not.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Okay, because I'm I'm Morocco's a bet in the first game.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
You're missing one obvious one which is the best Argentina. So,
and then there's two more left is Portugal one no,
Portugal is not. There's one old school like always good squad.
Oh Germany, yep, Germany. And then there's the last squad
is kind of like a high flying offense that hasn't
(35:37):
won ever. As my hint to you, not Netherlands, Netherlands.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
It is Netherlands.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Interesting, So Argentina, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain. So I would
love for you to now put this into your ear
Claude Botter agent and and see, like basically prompted to say,
take into account every historical trend in category and see
what they spit out.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Well, one tough thing this year is there's way more teams.
So one of the things that the model keeps saying
is listen, eight teams can finish third in their thing
in their group and advance, so they're more incentivized to
be careful play. More defense draws can get you to advance,
so they expect a lot of unders betting wise under
(36:24):
usually it's under two point five goals and expect which
also could lead to some major upsets because if you
just hunker down on defense VALPK Boom, Oh my gosh,
you know, we got a major upset. So I don't know,
it's it's a little wacky, you know.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
For I'll give you the opposite side of that though,
there's also there's also teams that are now in the
field that probably shouldn't have been. You might see some
absolute waxing. So where like a lot of these stack
squads they're bench warmers, not bench warmers, but you know,
bench can score like circles around some of these guys.
So like the Golden Boot, for instance, is a fun
(37:02):
one to like track in my opinion, because there might
be a game or two where one guy just goes
off and has three or four goals against some of
these like bottom feeder squads, yes, and then no one's
gonna be able to catch them.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Right.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
The guy to watch there is the stud at Norway Earl.
He plays at Manchester City. Yeah, so I get. I
think he plays Iraq or one of those countries that
really has no chance. And it basically is like listen,
if you want to take a chance on him for
the Golden Boot, he could easily score three or four
goals in that game and then he has a huge
edge because nobody scores three or four goals exactly.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
That's what I mean. It's like if they're trying against
some of these bottom feeder teams. But like, again, you're right,
it'll be interesting to see the logic is true, Like
especially for some of those like bt C tier teams,
they're gonna play defense and like hunker down and like
really hope to just like get draws or lose one
zero and like to try to get those like wild
(37:56):
card positions for this year. But the other there was
a fun bet with like you, I know you love
betting on USA me and you used to do some
of these.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
For It's tough. I don't know what to make of
this year, teap, but.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Yes, fun. But like them to get out of their
group is like plus money, and to me, it's like, dude,
they would have to, are you sure? Yeah, that's what
I mean. That's why I saw a week ago. I
don't know about right now. But in like even if
it's like very like you know one for one, Like
to me, how are they not getting out of the group, man,
(38:29):
Like that would be an embarrassment if they lost every
game and so they got Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
The Paraguay opener is it could be a tough one
because their style that a lot of teams want to
mimic what Morocco did in twenty two, making a deep
run basically by playing the low block defense, we're gonna
hunt it down. You're not gonna get past this. But
Morocco had superstars. Paraguay does not have superstar defenders, so
it's gonna be fun to see what happens.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
Australia does the game. To me, that's like a layout basically,
So that's a win or plus one for US one
sixty at a couple of books. I'm looking at it
right now. But like that's a fun one to make
if you just want to like cheer for the USA,
like get out of the group, get some plus money,
just hope they beat Australia, which is like one of
(39:14):
the worst teams in the tournament. Of course, anything can happen,
but you know, that's a fun one that I'm definitely
just gonna sprinkle a few bucks on. And like leading
USA scorer is another fun one just to like put
a few bucks on if you think Baaligan can outscore Polisick,
which I do, and so you know, there's some good
money to be had there, but it should be fun
(39:35):
to watch, man, But I don't think. Yeah, they don't
have the goods to win at all, but it would
be nice if they can make the knockout stage.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
It would be awesome, all right, Vic is it the athletic.
He is a gambler. He is a Bulls fan. We
didn't even get to Jordan Lebron. We'll say that for
next time. Vic. Vic does a good job of not
getting angry when I keep posting Lebron as the goat.
He just brushes it on.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
You do not know how many.
Speaker 4 (40:00):
Tweets linked like Instagram LinkedIn messages I get from people
that watch your show and follow you on social media
that all like Bulls fans are Some are not even
Bulls fans.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
They're like older heads, you know that, like and they
will message me and be like, what is your boy
talking about today? Like it's funny. I should show you
some of those texts. But that's why sports are fun.
Man like it to me. I used to be that,
but now I'm a little older. Maybe this parenthood and
like now that I have kids, like everyone can have
their own opinion. We can still have fun. Behind it,
(40:34):
and like that's what makes sports pretty amazing to me.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Fun. Yeah all right, Vic, thanks a lot, buddy
Speaker 3 (40:39):
Of course, thanks buddy, yeah,
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, Fire Fan, It's me Jason McIntyre, Straight
Bowyer for Friday, June the fifth. We've got NBA Finals
Game two tonight in San Antonio. Very exciting, and we've
also got a great guest. Guy I used to work with.
He's now moved on to bigger and better things. I
(00:32):
had him at the Big Lead, then he came over
to Fox Sports. Now he's at the Athletic running the
air betting department. Vic Chokshi awesome guy, very sharp individual.
We talk a lot of Chicago sports because he's in
Cowherd's neck of the woods now. Also prediction markets versus
sports books. We're still a little old school fuddy duddy
(00:54):
when it comes to that stuff. But well, real quick,
before we get to Vic, I would like to talk
about Game two, folks. This is Spurs minus six and
it's headed towards six and a half. I'm mildly surprised
it's that high, but at the same time, I do
have to respect the zigzag theory and the fact that
(01:16):
this was a one point game with two minutes left
before an eleven to nothing run against tired legs now
here's the thing. Only one day off betweens game one
and two. There'll be two days off between two and three,
which is a huge one for the Spurs. I actually
am of the belief if the Knicks somehow win Game two,
I don't think the series is over because I think
regardless of who wins Game two, I'm gonna go and
(01:40):
predict that the Spurs, who will be rested over the weekend,
will win Game three. I know that sounds insane. What
are you talking about? I don't. It doesn't matter the result.
I just think when you give Wemby an extra day
of rest. The last time he had real rest, he
came into Game one of the Thunder series and had
forty one and twenty four on the road. Now, wait, Jay,
(02:01):
what about the rest after Game seven? No, guys, Game
seven was a brutal, grueling series that Wemby survived with
the help of his friends. And I mean again, I'm
sticky with the next pick in the series. I'm not
moving off it regardless of what happens in game two
and three. I do think the best bet is once
again Spurs. First quarter. They are four and oh in
(02:23):
the last two rounds. In the first quarter, just running
away early and getting out a big league because their
starters are incredible. I do think something I mentioned, Steph
Castle perhaps guarding Towns gathered some steam that was talked
about on ESPN yesterday. I was flipping to the channels
and I heard someone say Castle on Towns makes sense.
(02:44):
By the way, Castle on Brunson. He was three of
eleven Brunton versus everyone else nine of twenty. So Castle
is a factor, and then you're able to put Harper
on Brunson.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Harper is day.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
He's a guy's a beast. I do think we see
more Harper. I'm not out on Deer and Fox. He's good.
I just think they can toggle their lineups. You know,
they've got a lot of options and ultimately no bet
for the game. Just first quarter spurs for me, I'm
seeing right now spurs minus two, but it could head
to damn could head to minus two and a half.
(03:18):
Don't love two and a half. I'd rather pay the
juice anyways, Without further ado, let's get to my guy,
Chicago's finest from the Athletic Vic Chokshi.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
You know a guy Jason likes to think he knows
everything when it comes to sports.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I know what sports fans wants, but for.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Everything he doesn't. He knows a guy who does.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Let's just say I know a guy who knows a
guy who knows another guy.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
All right, let's welcome back to straight fire guy. I
know him for a while. Man, he's a good dude.
He's got a great job. I worked with him for
many years. The only problem is he's a big Bulls
Bears fan. I think he's on the Jordan side of
the Jordan Lebron debate. I think obviously, let's welcome in
Vic chalk chie Vic. How are you my main man?
Speaker 3 (04:02):
I'm doing great and what do you mean you think?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Of course, yes, he's a hardcore Jordan stan obviously being
a Chicago guy. He is at the Athletic, he's got
a very robust role. I mean he was at Fox
with me. He was at the Big Lead. Why don't
you tell the audience what you've been up to lately
at the Athletic building out a strong group there.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, thank you man. Of course I was at the
Big Leader with you. You gave me my first gig. So
it's been a while since then. Now I'm over at
the Athletic I'm heading up the sports betting vertical. I'm
heading up the streaming verticals, so basically handling our partnerships
with Fubo and sports betting partners, Managing a group of writers, editors,
working with the business team, a bunch of different stakeholders,
(04:43):
just creating really cool content on the side and app
which has been a lot of fun. Man, I've been
here for about a year and a half now.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Damn, he's just rolling. I mean, so it's interesting the
gambling space. Remember the gambling gold rush? What was that
like twenty maybe pre COVID twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, some
more around there, And now there's the prediction market gold rush,
which is starting to catch some heat. I don't know
how much you've followed the online battles between the sides,
but you know, as a gambling savant, how do you
(05:13):
handle this, whether it's gambling or prediction markets? Do you dabble?
We had your buddy glasspeg Lawn and he messes around
with prediction markets, don't. I don't know so much.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
It's interesting because I feel it's good that you brought
up that point about twenty eighteen almost because I feel
like we're at that same tipping point when it comes
to prediction markets, right like when FanDuel and Draftking turned
the switch from fantasy to betting and the whole world
opened up. I feel like we're at the same point
when it comes to prediction markets right now with Calshi
(05:44):
and polymarket. So I've dabbled in it, I've to have
had to learn about it. I think we're at a
point where like, no one really is doing it really
well in terms of content, so that there's a big
opportunity there. And then I also have a group of
buddies that like, we're never sports betters that are loving
it because they're used to trading stocks, for instance, and
(06:06):
to them this is speaking their language, whereas like my
sports betters, they are a little confused, like hey, what
does this actually mean? So it's almost like the roles
are reversed, where my buddies who never bet, we're always
like what does minus three twenty five mean? What does
moneyline mean? And now I got my stock market guys
that are almost explaining it to our sports betting buddies,
(06:26):
where they're like, hey, these are contracts, this is how
much you know each one goes for, and this is
how the system works. So you know, I think we're
right at the beginning of all of this. It'll all
also depend on like the administration, as you know, because
I know you're into politics a lot, but oh gosh,
right now, it's it's all steam ahead for prediction markets.
(06:47):
And that can always change if if we have another
president and another regime. I do think there's going to
be some more regulation towards it. But right now, man,
there's nothing stopping it. Younger people, you have young kids,
and I know, I know you have a son that's
always on the internet. But I have a lot of
(07:07):
friends that have like high school buddies or high school
kids that are now like on the phones with their
parents doing prediction market stuff like trading contracts, which to
me is pretty crazy.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
But you think that's good. You think that's a good thing.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Though, Vick, I don't. I think. I mean, I don't know.
Every parent's different, right, Like I'm still one of those
guys holding out on cell phones with my kids. Yeah,
every parent's got to do what's best for them. You know.
Some people are like, hey, this is the way of
the world. It's changing. Ais here, prediction markets are here,
stock market you know, this is like teaching our kids
the stocks and when I was in high school, we
(07:41):
did have a stock market class in high school. So
you know, I personally think it's it's an interesting space
because I can see the pros and cons. The good
part about our industry almost is like we can stick
to sports. I think there's a whole insane world if
you open it up where you can put money down
on war and people dying in like missiles and things
(08:04):
like that, and insider information that has already been pretty
well documented that is already occurring. So you know, if
we stick to sports, I do think it can be
what you make of it, which is kind of fun.
And there's a lot more like there's always like any
guy that's rumored like Yiannis we can talk about right
now where everybody's talking about where you know, where's Gianni's
(08:26):
going to end up? To me, it's just another way
looking at like numbers, implied odds and probabilities and outcomes. Right,
So you know, it's this whole world that's I think
really just at the beginning of where it's going to
get to be in the next few years.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Yeah, you say, a lot of make a lot of
good points. The whole betting on war and oil markets
that is really bad and should be outlawed. But of course,
you know the political space right now, anything goes, which
is I think terrible. The Atlantic had an interesting piece
on polymarket in Calshi, really taking down them hardcore. There's
(09:04):
been a couple of sub sac writers I've read about
how this just this is not something we should have.
I totally understand a game like betting on a game, sure,
but betting on where Yannis is gonna land. There's a
reason you can't really bet that at a lot of shops,
right I mean, I'm sure there's some that you can.
But for instance, somebody could be on the inside, have
(09:24):
a family member who's in the war room for the
I don't Let's just say the Brooklyn Nets and the
husband comes home and he tells his wife how stressed
he is, and the kid hears it, and then the
kid decides, I'm gonna go put a bet on it,
tells his friends and they all gel like it. Just
you can't do that with games. That's why I'm totally
fine with betting on games. You feel like you can
find an age. We'll talk about some NFL bets later.
(09:46):
But I'm with you, I don't. I just feel like
it is a little of the wild wild West and
probably not great.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
On Survivor. You can bet on pre recorded shows, which
to me is what do we do because like people
already know the outcome of these things, right and so
so to your point, yeah, I mean there's just right now,
it's the wild wall rust you hit it bust like
there's no regulation. I think that will come, and when
that comes, I do think there is a pathway for
(10:14):
this thing moving forward. It's just yeah, it's just crazy
right now. Man, there's no there's no checks and balances.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah, I'm sure you read the article about somebody who's
betting on the weather at an airport and some clown decided, who,
I can manipulate this by holding up a hair dryer
to the thermometer. Nobody's gonna notice and it will register. Meanwhile,
it was obvious that no other area had a spike
in weather except this one, so they busted the guy.
But like everybody's trying to get rich quick, man, It's
it's yeah, and that's.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Where like sports betting comes in right with the regulation
and kind of like the monitoring of these things. So, yes,
we're hearing a lot about the newest scandals, but there's
a reason for that. It's because there's monitoring taking place
now where like if you see any irregular you can
flag those right away. Like there's nothing like that right
now with prediction markets, and that's where you know it
(11:07):
is a bit of a gray zone.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yeah, all right, So let's go to the NBA Finals.
Something I don't know if you bet on it. I
like the Knicks in this one. I had said it
before the series, before the playoffs, I like Spurs over Nicks.
Game one obviously happens, and now the Knicks are favored
in Brunson's favorite to win the MVP. I don't know, Vic,
My gut tells me that this is the market saying, hey,
you know what, a lot of people are going to
(11:30):
overreact to one game, and you know what, a lot
of new money out there, new Knicks fans, right, and
they just know, let's just let's shift everything, and the
Knicks fans are moving the markets. I am curious. Do
you think this is legit? Hey, we got to move
the markets because the sharp betters or do they see
something after game one? Or is this just Hey, let's
(11:51):
wrote more people in by saying the Knicks are favorite.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Now, I think it's a little bit of the ladder.
I think it's all Nicks all the way. Baby. We
had Doug Cazerien. You know Doug a little bit, but yeah,
he wrote a story for us right before the finals
about just how everyone's piling on the Knicks and in
this playoff run, and so it's there's almost a Knicks
tax part of this thing. And to me, it's a
(12:14):
little bit of like, hey, how do we get just
more action coming in? And honestly, if you're better, you
can probably take the Spurs today and then you know,
you can arbitrage a little bit after the win game
two and and this is good to me. This is
gonna be a six to seven game series. And same
thing with finals MVP. Me and you were talking a
little offline, but you do the same thing with m VP.
(12:35):
You can bet Webby right now at plus money when
he was a big favorite coming in, and then if
Brunton has a big game, you know it's gonna they're
gonna go back and forth. There. You can grab Cat
right now at plus eleven hundred, which is I.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Had one good game Vick. Yeah, but had a good postseason.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
He's had a monster post mister clutch Man, Yeah again.
I think to me, it's just they want to bring
in some new and everyone's going insane about the Knicks
right now. The public, you know this, man, there's the Cowboys,
there's the Lakers. There's always attacks on these big teams,
and everyone's all in on the Knicks right now. And
(13:13):
for good reason, they're playing awesome basketball. Like I'm not
hating on the Knicks. I did think the Spurs would
win the series before the series started, but I also
had this one going seven, and I think it's going
to be another like happy one, just like the West
Western Conference finals.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
I also noticed, I think it's seven straight years we'll
have a new champion, and I know the league has
to love that because hey, everybody's got a shot. Look,
hey look at this, seven years, every different champs, no
dynasties anymore. I don't know if that's great long term
for the league. I think movement and the excitement over
you know what is it the twenty tens. Every summer
(13:49):
it was like, oh my gosh, who's moving, what's happening
to chaos? And there really isn't much this summer except
for Giannis maybe Lebron unless your bulls make a play
on Austin reeze or something. But I don't know what
do you kind of prefer? Do you prefer? Hey man,
I love the new aprons and the taxes and the
intricacies of trades or I like kind of its wide
open craziness and chaos is going to ring.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
They You know, people love the NFL because every year
your squad has a shot, right unless you're like sad
to say it. Since I've known you, like the Jets
and the Bears have been in that category. And we
can talk about the Bears too, like Jets, Browns Bears
are always but otherwise, like every year going in the season,
you know, you feel good about your squad and like,
(14:32):
look at this year, the Spurs were like plus sixty
five hundred I think when before the season started. So
it's something like that, you know. So I think the
NBA is thrilled about it, Like you said, the Commission's
probably thrilled about it. I've been talking to a lot
of like just I have a lot of friends in
the industry, so like agents and players and like people
in that realm of the world are not happy, of
(14:55):
course about the second Apron and all of these kind
of things, right because it live. It's kind of the
potential money that these athletes can make in the long
term over their career. And so for me, I'm a
Bulls fan, as you stated earlier, So like it doesn't
matter for like a team that's been run so poorly
(15:17):
for so long. But to me, I think the league
is thrilled with how it's going and they're probably gonna
want more of this kind of going forward, and it's
set up to be that way for sure.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, So what do you got with Yannis? Interesting report
this week that a long time Bucks reporters like, it's
weirdly quiet. There is no chatter right now about Giannis,
and meanwhile, there's been chatter like seemingly every week all season. Vic.
I gotta say, I wonder if there's a handshake agreement
with the Bucks and the NBA. Hey, guys, can we
(15:50):
enjoy the finals. It's Wemby and New York. It's going
to be huge. Can we focus on that? And you
do all, Yannis as soon as it's over. I just
wonder if things are happening behind the scenes your best guess.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Yeah, I mean I definitely think they want to wait
until this finals is done and this thing is pretty
much over with. I mean, Sham's is kind of alluded to,
like this is happening no matter what. And so basically,
our writers at The Athletic, you know, they had a
good article this week about like what they're hearing about
Giannis and it was the Heat, the magic.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
They wait, Let's touch on the heat real quick. Fox
Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio dot com
and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to listen live.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
I'm assuming they'd give up Tyler Hero, Hame, hawk As whoever.
But they're not Bam, right, So if Jannis and Bam
are the two centerpieces of the Heat, are the Heat
that much better than the Bucks? I don't just address
it like I don't I don't buy any of this
Heat stuff.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Yeah, I don't think so. But again, man, like a
lot of people love going to Florida, people love going
to Texas the money, you know, And I don't think so.
If you're looking at the overall roster construction, and if
I'm him and he's actually serious about winning a championship,
like he should be going to the Spurs, he should
be going to the Thunder, like those teams have assets.
(17:19):
But yeah, I mean the Knicks seam said this week,
which was interesting, like the Knicks were definitely calling about
Giannis in the off season. I don't know if you
saw that that, but last offseason, yeah, and they were
close and now it's like completely off the table. Something
happened where they were basically too far apart, and he
(17:41):
was just like, Nick's not happening moving forward. But you know,
I don't know, man, I think he's done for sure.
I agree with you. There's some kind of handshake deal
where they need to keep the chatter on a low
right now until the finals are done. And then as
soon as it's done, I think a lot more things
are gonna leak and we're to hear a lot of stuff.
I mean, the Cavs do have some like good young players.
(18:04):
I don't know if that's another squad to kind of
keep an eye on. But there's the magic. The heat
the Celtics was the interesting one, which I know you
me and you and glasbey Will have texted a little
bit about Jalen Brown and just kind of how they're
going to break that team apart a little bit. To me,
that was probably the most interesting one when I was.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Reading, so just hypothetically Jalen Brown for Giannis. Right, maybe
there's other stuff involved, picks whatever.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Yeah, there were some picks involved, but pretty much it
was like, those are the two marquee headline names.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Okay, so let me ask you. When you look at
the NBA Finals Nicks nine deep, maybe ten. You look
at the Spurs nine deep, sixth man of the Year,
I mean, Dylan Harper is coming off the bench nine deep,
maybe ten thunder, clearly ten deep, and I think it's
safe to say these are the three best teams in
the league, right. Depth is like a huge priority right now, Vic,
(19:02):
if you trade for Giannis, you're sacrificing your depth. And
I just wonder it is, you know, similar to how
some of these teams that you know, I think like
the teams would like the of the ten highest paid
was it quarterbacks last year, only like three made the
playoffs whatever the number was. But the quarterbacks are soaking
up so much of the cap that it's tough to
build a roster. Enter Seattle enter New England who have
(19:25):
cheap quarterbacks, you know, Rookie Deal and then Sam Darnold
getting thirty milis and you build a roster that way.
I just wonder, do you think we've reached a breaking
point where like teams are like, I'm I'm Yannis at
sixty million, I can't build a roster. I can't compete
because you need eighty two games twenty playoff games. I
just wonder if Jianni's market is going down or up
(19:46):
at this point.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
I do agree with you. I think we're seeing a
shift in the league that it is going to be
more just like I think the Knicks are the best
best example. I mean, they got a guy like Brunson
who took a little bit of a haircut out to
rest the team, and they are nine to ten deep,
and I think gone are the days of the like
two man super teams and that they're gonna have you know,
(20:09):
a bunch of just random role players on that squad
or some older vets. I think Team Knicks are going
to be like the template moving forward of how teams
want to construct a roster, and you know they're gonna
want teams want to have like seven eight really good
players they want to have. Of course, you need stars
in the NBA to win a championship. But at the
(20:30):
same time, I think the Big three kind of days
are over and more and more teams are gonna shift
towards what you're talking about, like the cap is you know,
the stars are going to continue to just get paid
more and more, and so I think dearon Fox makes
fifty five million, see which like to me, I know
(20:50):
you would mean you were texting about the Bulls a
little bit, Like the Spurs are definitely gonna, in my opinion,
move off of Fox next year, like he's great for
the squad, but man, they have a young guar wait.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Oh sorry, hold on, so uh Fox is at thirty
seven mil this year, but despikes up to forty nine.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Okay next year, go.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
But by far highest paid player on the team.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
So around fifteen mil next year. So you know, I
wouldn't be surprised if, like the Bulls or that, there's
some teams that are out there that have a lot
of cap space but are far away from winning a championship.
Like if the Spurs were like, hey, take this guy
off of our books. We'll give you some picks. I
think the Bulls are like an interesting squad to like
(21:32):
do something like that. Like, the Bulls are still far away.
They got a couple of good draft picks coming up,
but they got a ton of cap space, and so
to me, I think just going back to your earlier point,
like that's my point is, I think even the Spurs,
which is a great young squad, is gonna go away
from that mega contract because they're gonna need the money
(21:54):
for Wemby. Yeah, and then they're gonna want to build
out the rest of their squad to get more deeper
for next year.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
I wonder if Wemby's one of those guys he's gonna
make so much off the court that he says, I
don't need the Jalen Browns seventy million dollars a year now.
I mean, if he wants to keep Harper and Castle,
they'll have to. Speaking of taking less, you mentioned Bruns.
It took one hundred and thirteen million less Austin Reeves. Okay,
I think he will be willing to take less to
(22:21):
stay with the Lakers. I don't know how much less.
But what if your bulls, Like, would you be upset
if your Bulls offered him forty MILLI year.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
I kind of look in I'll caveat that by saying
I think he's a really good player. I just think
the Bulls are not close to winning a championship right now.
So for me, it's like, hey, we lucked into this lottery.
We got the fourth pick in a four man draft,
like we got the fifteenth pick. We got a bunch
of you know, why not build this thing. We got
(22:51):
a couple of good young players, and maybe this is
a year from now or two years from now where
the squad is really ready to take that step. Then
you go out and get a good guy like in
whether it's there's always gonna be a young player that
you can kind of make a move for. So I
don't think he's a bad player. I just think that
the Bulls are not in a place right now to
make a move like that. But you know, he's highly
(23:13):
regarded in the league. There's a lot of people out
there that would probably make that move for him, you know, overnight.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
So it's funny you mentioned the contracts again. I'm on
Basketball Reference real quick. Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown next
year combined will make one hundred and fifteen million, just
those two vic okay one hundred and fifteen million. The
Knicks their top two guys. I mean it depends who
you call their top two, but you want to say
brunts in a cat yep. Combined they make ninety four million,
(23:42):
So that twenty million dollar difference is Josh Hart. You
could get Josh Hart because Brunson took less.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
That's huge.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Josh Hart led the assists of rebounds steals in game one,
like he's your ultimate blue guy. And again, I'm not
telling these guys to take less. I'm not in their pockets.
But I don't know, Vick. You had to make a decision, right,
I mean, you get Foxead offered you athletic. I'm sure, Hey,
do you want to move what? What do you value?
More quality of life in Chicago versus living in la
(24:10):
versus here there? You got to make these decisions and
it's tough, But I don't know, man, I'd be hard
pressed if I'm Austin Reeves. Yeah, I don't need forty
give me thirty five million year if it enables us
to go get another guy. Like honestly, if you're Austin Reeves,
your set generationally, are you not.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Yeah, I mean, listen, the best of the best players
of all these kinds like Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes brunting down.
I mean, like they understand that they can't do this
thing alone and that twenty million dollars or whatever that
number is makes a gigantic difference to help them win
the championship, like their goals were to win the championship.
(24:49):
And so if Austin Reeves is and again I'm like you, man,
all players should get. All of us in life should
get what we deserve, and like how you know what
we work for. But the the problem is he's young man,
Like he probably wants that first big contract and you
get that guaranteed money and then after that you can
kind of make some of those kind of moves. But
(25:10):
he's also in la man las u, a different world.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
But you can make money off the court real quick.
Let let me go to your bulls. Would you be
up for giving out the fourth pick if it meant
bringing a quasi big name star to Chicago or do
you want Hey, I'd rather go the young route. Let
me get Caleb Wilson Boozer whoever it for and and
built from the ground up.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Yeah, I'm sorry you cut out a little bit there.
But when it comes to the Bulls, I think they're
just in a great space where like you can just
basically take whoever for like you said, whoever drops to us,
that's who they're gonna drive. I know there's a bunch
of Bulls fans that are like my buddies, that like, hey,
we don't want Carlos, we don't want Boozer. He's gonna
be just like his dad.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Or they're like fighting about who we want it for.
And I'm like, guys, just happy, like we jumped into
the fourth pick in a four man draft, like this
is the lack of the Irish, Like let's ride this thing. Yeah,
happy with whoever we get. And all four of those
guys are really really good players. So I'm excited about that.
For sure. It does look like it's gonna be Caleb
(26:17):
Wilson from a lot of like, you know, you're a
big mock draft guy. I know you do mock every
couple every year. So from what I'm hearing and seeing,
it looks like it's gonna be Caleb Wilson. But it's
gonna be fun regardless. It's a it's a good time
to be a Bulls fan. Like we have hope right now,
new GM, new front office, right new coach, a couple
of young players, some money, and we can see where
(26:38):
that leads us.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
We could wrap up with your Chicago Bulls. So, Vick,
I'm nerding out on AI currently. My son got me
into it, so I got Claude and Cowork and I've
got an agent working for me. Like literally, I just
feed it tasks all day. It finds numbers and crunches
it one of the best I haven't written this up
for the newsletter yet, but one of the best bets
on the board is the Chicago Bears. Under That's what
(27:16):
this thing's telling me. So I'm not going to give
everything away, but it is saying it has an extremely
difficult schedule. The defense massively overachieved due to turnovers, which
is very, very difficult to duplicate year over year. And
you know, I know there's gonna be tough to stomach.
You know, we all love Caleb Williams. He was in
the twenties, like in the nineteen to twenties range for
(27:39):
success rate, EPA, all the advanced stats. He was. He
benefited by some splash plays in the clutch. Where are
you on the Bears who are riding high with Ben Johnson?
But you know the win total nine and a half
and the numbers are saying bet the under.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yeah, I mean, listen, I think a lot of sharp
betters are taking the under from what I've seen and
what I've read. Okay, the schedule, A lot of the
things you mentioned are true, Like the schedule is tough,
but last year, on paper, our schedule was super tough
as well. You never know until you play the games,
and a lot of times you get breaks of the
(28:19):
game where someone gets hurt unfortunately. And you know how
that is the turnover thing, you were right, Like, you know,
we did lead the league in turnovers and basically that
is very hard to replicate. That being said, like they
added a lot of really good pieces this offseason, Like
they wanted to get a lot faster on defense, and
they did that via free agency, Kobe Bryant, Devin Busch,
(28:41):
the kid they got out of Oregon. The safety Dylan
Theme is a stud So, you know, I actually think
the defense is going to be pretty good and the
offense is going to progress in the second year under
Ben Johnson. Like the guys in Maniac, they look good.
I actually think Luther Burton is going to have a
monster year. That that's one guy like I don't know
(29:03):
if you saw this coach Ben Johnson himself, that by
Luther Burton stock last week. He last year was just
pure off his like instincts. And now this guy, you know,
knows the playbook. He's dynamic. I've never seen a Bear's
receiver at least in my lifetime with that much like explosion.
Every time he touches the ball, he could take it
(29:24):
to the house. He's one of those kind of guys.
But to answer your question, listen, I think they can
win ten games, eleven games, but things have to go
well just like they did last year. Like we gotta
you know, catch some breaks we got, we gotta stay
injury free. We don't have a lot of depth, right
They're a young squad. If they get a couple of
big injuries in certain places, I can definitely see this
(29:46):
thing going south pretty quickly. But the even though the
schedule is hard. I don't know if you saw this,
you know Warren Sharp, I know you, Yeah, all his
tweets he had the travel kind of breakdown and the
bear are actually like one of the have one of
the best schedules if you're just looking at travel, like
the amount of the rest they're going to have and
(30:08):
travel in general, and bye weeks and some of this
kind of stuff like it did all play out in
their favor. But a lot of things you hit were
definitely true. And here's the big thing, man, We've seen
it time and time again in the NFL, like offense
and a quarterback can have a really good year and
then once people defensive coordinators get film on them, like
(30:30):
year two is when you really find out if they're
legit or not right, they have a lot of primetime
games and now this is going to be year two
where people have film on what they can do. And
so that's gonna to me, is gonna be the biggest
like question mark is are they ready for this? Are
they ready for the spotlight? Can they do it? But
you know, you brought up some Klyb stats which are
(30:51):
very true, but he also had a lot of like
very positive stats that a lot of people that are
taking this completion percent and narrative of a little bit overboard. Right,
you can use stats however you want to, Yeah, yes, sure,
like they he also had. They also had led the
league in drops in the most yards off of drops
as well, if you wanted to look at that, he
(31:13):
was top ten in a ton of categories. He was
top five and like every big throw statistic you can
look at, which obviously showed that he can replicate some
of that. It wasn't just like you know, the luck
of the Irish again I love that phrase, but like
one or two times he can. You know, he showed
that he was like built for some of these moments.
(31:33):
And you know, you're texted me about the Madden curse, like,
of course that's a big thing that is around like
on our group chains. But you know, Patrick Mahomes won
the Super Bowl when he was on the Madden cover.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
There you go, no big deal.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
And again, like to me, it's just really cool to
have a quarterback that's on Madden. Like think about this, man,
you're a Jets fan similar to us, to have an
actual Bears play. He's the first Bear to be on Madden.
To have an actual Bear quarterback on the cover is
really cool, like his he did it with the Green
(32:08):
Bay Packers throw. I don't know if you saw, like
a little bit behind.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
The scenes, but yeah, I saw that that that.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
Was really cool. It's that throw to like beat the
pack almost or like charge that comeback. He's got an
overlay of the city. Like I don't know, man, I
grew up a very superstitious kid when it comes to sports,
But now that I'm older, I'm just like, if these
if these guys are legitimately the great ones, which like
we hope he is, does a Bear's quarterback like, I
(32:34):
don't know, I wouldn't worry too much about curses. I
would like to see them win ten games, make the
playoffs again, and just like continue to build on what
last season was.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
So I guess the Lions because they finished third, have
the easiest schedule, and ESPN's FPI, which I, by the way,
fed into the little model that the Cowork a Claude
agent built for me, has the Bears sixteen in the league,
behind the following NFC teams Packers, Lions, Eagles, Cowboys, So
(33:09):
as of now they're a fringe playoff team. I don't know,
it's something. Something's fishy here. Everybody loves the Bears. I
had liked them a lot. I mean that playoff run,
come on, that was amazing. I don't know, it's gonna
be a stressful year for you, for sure. I mean,
let's sen stressful summer. Aren't there World Cup games in Chicago?
Speaker 3 (33:28):
No? No, Chicago?
Speaker 2 (33:29):
No?
Speaker 3 (33:30):
But World Cup starts next week, man.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Because yeah, I know, yeah, that World Cup bigger, A
lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
You know how it is because you me and you
have been there. Of course at Fox when there's no
it's on our hair and it's awesome. Man. It's insane
and every day is a grind if you're thinking about work.
But it's also pretty amazing, and uh, I'm excited for that. Man.
I think everybody in the industry is, who are you
gotta I know we gotta jump soon, but who are
(33:55):
you putting some money onto?
Speaker 2 (33:57):
When the boys, well, you know, the newsletter had I've
already bet Ecuador and the opening MAT's pretty heavily. The
next bet I've coming is Checchia. I think they play
South Korea again. The Claude and now I don't know
what's going to happen. Maybe this agent and all these
numbers are wrong, but I'm just betting the numbers. No emotion, right,
you're taking the emotion out of it. Hold on, I
(34:17):
have a whole file that I'll be writing up all
the games.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Here's a fun one that I want you to run
through your agent or your bot. So I had one
of my writers like, take all the historical trends you
can think of, like the categories, the filters, and just
start narrowing the teams down. And basically what he came
up with with all of these different frent like elo
rating and all of these things, was there's only five
(34:41):
teams that can win this thing, So only five after
you break down and eliminate, you know, through all of
these different categories. He it was it was a fun post.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Can I guess them?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Yeah? Go ahead, that's.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Spain obviously, France, Englandland?
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Nope, not England, not England.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Oh wow, I'm bullish. I have Harry Kane as to
win the Golden Boot. I don't think Brazil should be
on there.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
Nope, they're not.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Okay, because I'm I'm Morocco's a bet in the first game.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
You're missing one obvious one which is the best Argentina. So,
and then there's two more left is Portugal one no,
Portugal is not. There's one old school like always good squad.
Oh Germany, yep, Germany. And then there's the last squad
is kind of like a high flying offense that hasn't
(35:37):
won ever. As my hint to you, not Netherlands, Netherlands.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
It is Netherlands.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Interesting, So Argentina, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain. So I would
love for you to now put this into your ear
Claude Botter agent and and see, like basically prompted to say,
take into account every historical trend in category and see
what they spit out.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Well, one tough thing this year is there's way more teams.
So one of the things that the model keeps saying
is listen, eight teams can finish third in their thing
in their group and advance, so they're more incentivized to
be careful play. More defense draws can get you to advance,
so they expect a lot of unders betting wise under
(36:24):
usually it's under two point five goals and expect which
also could lead to some major upsets because if you
just hunker down on defense VALPK Boom, Oh my gosh,
you know, we got a major upset. So I don't know,
it's it's a little wacky, you know.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
For I'll give you the opposite side of that though,
there's also there's also teams that are now in the
field that probably shouldn't have been. You might see some
absolute waxing. So where like a lot of these stack
squads they're bench warmers, not bench warmers, but you know,
bench can score like circles around some of these guys.
So like the Golden Boot, for instance, is a fun
(37:02):
one to like track in my opinion, because there might
be a game or two where one guy just goes
off and has three or four goals against some of
these like bottom feeder squads, yes, and then no one's
gonna be able to catch them.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Right.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
The guy to watch there is the stud at Norway Earl.
He plays at Manchester City. Yeah, so I get. I
think he plays Iraq or one of those countries that
really has no chance. And it basically is like listen,
if you want to take a chance on him for
the Golden Boot, he could easily score three or four
goals in that game and then he has a huge
edge because nobody scores three or four goals exactly.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
That's what I mean. It's like if they're trying against
some of these bottom feeder teams. But like, again, you're right,
it'll be interesting to see the logic is true, Like
especially for some of those like bt C tier teams,
they're gonna play defense and like hunker down and like
really hope to just like get draws or lose one
zero and like to try to get those like wild
(37:56):
card positions for this year. But the other there was
a fun bet with like you, I know you love
betting on USA me and you used to do some
of these.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
For It's tough. I don't know what to make of
this year, teap, but.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Yes, fun. But like them to get out of their
group is like plus money, and to me, it's like, dude,
they would have to, are you sure? Yeah, that's what
I mean. That's why I saw a week ago. I
don't know about right now. But in like even if
it's like very like you know one for one, Like
to me, how are they not getting out of the group, man,
(38:29):
Like that would be an embarrassment if they lost every
game and so they got Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
The Paraguay opener is it could be a tough one
because their style that a lot of teams want to
mimic what Morocco did in twenty two, making a deep
run basically by playing the low block defense, we're gonna
hunt it down. You're not gonna get past this. But
Morocco had superstars. Paraguay does not have superstar defenders, so
it's gonna be fun to see what happens.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
Australia does the game. To me, that's like a layout basically,
So that's a win or plus one for US one
sixty at a couple of books. I'm looking at it
right now. But like that's a fun one to make
if you just want to like cheer for the USA,
like get out of the group, get some plus money,
just hope they beat Australia, which is like one of
(39:14):
the worst teams in the tournament. Of course, anything can happen,
but you know, that's a fun one that I'm definitely
just gonna sprinkle a few bucks on. And like leading
USA scorer is another fun one just to like put
a few bucks on if you think Baaligan can outscore Polisick,
which I do, and so you know, there's some good
money to be had there, but it should be fun
(39:35):
to watch, man, But I don't think. Yeah, they don't
have the goods to win at all, but it would
be nice if they can make the knockout stage.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
It would be awesome, all right, Vic is it the athletic.
He is a gambler. He is a Bulls fan. We
didn't even get to Jordan Lebron. We'll say that for
next time. Vic. Vic does a good job of not
getting angry when I keep posting Lebron as the goat.
He just brushes it on.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
You do not know how many.
Speaker 4 (40:00):
Tweets linked like Instagram LinkedIn messages I get from people
that watch your show and follow you on social media
that all like Bulls fans are Some are not even
Bulls fans.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
They're like older heads, you know that, like and they
will message me and be like, what is your boy
talking about today? Like it's funny. I should show you
some of those texts. But that's why sports are fun.
Man like it to me. I used to be that,
but now I'm a little older. Maybe this parenthood and
like now that I have kids, like everyone can have
their own opinion. We can still have fun. Behind it,
(40:34):
and like that's what makes sports pretty amazing to me.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Fun. Yeah all right, Vic, thanks a lot, buddy
Speaker 3 (40:39):
Of course, thanks buddy, yeah,
Fox Sports Radio News
Host
Jonas Knox
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