The Best of the Week of Stugotz and Company LIVE!

On this edition of The Best of the Week of Stugotz and Company LIVE!: Dan Beyer, Monse Bolanos and the gang filling in for Stu and the guys as they discuss the rant played round the world by Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White. Dan and Monse react to the NBA's announcement that Lebron James and his new Sixers' team will play in New York to play the Knicks on Opening Night. Plus, the crew partakes in this week's edition of "Mt. Rushmore Monday". 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of ste gottson Company
Live podcast. Find your local station for Stu Gotson Company
Live at Foxsportsradio dot com, or stream us live every
day on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
This is the best of Stu Gotson Company Live on
Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Okay, so again the Lakers are sold. Russell Westbrook is retiring.
Ben Johnson says something absurd. Monty tells you how to
do a handshake in Stu chats with Matt vs Kershen. Okay,

(00:40):
that all follows the WNBA. Stephanie White in the Indiana Fever.
It is Groundhog's Day once again. Monzie blanios it sure is.

Speaker 4 (00:50):
Did Pablo Tori investigate the Lakers? Did he give us
all the details on that?

Speaker 5 (00:53):
I'm just wondering, like investigators? Oh, okay, so he had
no idea.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
I mean, he's an investigative journalist when it comes to
people doing sketchy things.

Speaker 5 (01:04):
With money with an NBA team. But it's not the Okay,
not the Lakers. Okay, got it.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
I'm Kawhi Leonard. When I need a jumbo tron in
my living room, I go to Dektronics. Ectronics is the
only JumboTron for me. That's probably what pabulatory is investigating
the Lakers. The Lakers for whatever may happen with Mark
Walter h two billion dollars more than when he bought
the Lakers from for you ago.

Speaker 6 (01:28):
He's pretty good the Lakers.

Speaker 5 (01:30):
He flipped them.

Speaker 6 (01:31):
That was a good turnaround.

Speaker 4 (01:32):
Yeah, like if flipping a house that was undone so quickly.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
If only the WNBA could flip the script, but it
ends up always being the same script.

Speaker 4 (01:41):
They need to tear down the house completely. There's no
flipping the WNB.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
There's They need a one eighty. They don't need the
three sixty to get back to where they are. They
need the one eighty. And last night's story is not
what happened after the fever routed the New York Liberty.
That's what Stephanie White and other I honestly thought. I
just silenced my phone yesterday on that.

Speaker 5 (02:03):
You just have your phone, not silent, it's fine.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Well, I wish the WNBA would be silenced, Yeah, because
they just keep talking and things keep happening, and I
just continue to scratch my head and say, huh, and
if you don't know what we're talking about, it was
a pregame press conference from Stephanie White of the Indiana
Fever Monzi, who made a bunch of headlines for what
she said, how she said it, in the way that

(02:29):
she left the press conference. We here at Fox Sports
Radio and Stu gottson Company Live are going to bring
you the entire Stephanie White press conference, but we're going
to do it almost in a.

Speaker 6 (02:41):
Four part play.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
This is Act one Stephanie White pregame last night prior
to the New York Liberty on the heels of the
various controversies including the Djna Carrington fowl on Sophie Cunningham
and Stephanie White also responding to her comments that she
made in saying that she didn't see the foul and

(03:02):
stuck up for DJing NAE Carrington after that game against
the Chicago Sky. This is part one, Act one of
Stephanie White last night.

Speaker 7 (03:11):
This is more for an online community that's trying to
create narratives that simply don't exist.

Speaker 5 (03:20):
Trying to create a fabrication or disortion of.

Speaker 7 (03:22):
Who I am, of what I'm about. Our players success,
our player's health and wellness, our player safety is always
a top priority for me. One of the things I
pride myself on is my relationships with players.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
So I think she's talking about two separate things at
the beginning. When she talks about a portion of the
community trying to trying to divide the WMBA, I think
that could be wrong. I think like that could be
Clay Travis trying to start as Nashville Balls team. That's

(03:56):
what I think of having the men play against the women.
I can understan and why the WNBA is I don't
want that? Can I hear act one just one more time,
Chris Burfett. So when you hear that first line, that's
who I think that she's referencing.

Speaker 5 (04:09):
You're probably right on that.

Speaker 6 (04:10):
Let's take a listen.

Speaker 8 (04:11):
This is more for.

Speaker 7 (04:13):
An online community that's trying to create narratives.

Speaker 8 (04:17):
Yeah, yeah, simply don't.

Speaker 7 (04:19):
Exist, trying to create a fabrication or disortion of who
I am, of what.

Speaker 6 (04:24):
I'm about now that changes our.

Speaker 7 (04:26):
Players success, our player's health and wellness, our player safety
is always a top priority for me. One of the
things I pride myself on is my relationships with players.

Speaker 4 (04:36):
You're it's funny because she's like these narratives that aren't
there that we're making up.

Speaker 5 (04:42):
But I'm sorry.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
I actually have not seen you straight up defend your
players the way I think you should have with everything
that has surrounded the Indiana fever.

Speaker 5 (04:52):
I straight up lie right there.

Speaker 4 (04:54):
We're not creating these narratives, We're not pulling them out
of nowhere. It is something that you have actually done
the last couple of years. In my opinion, we can
even talk about Alyssa Thomas and the fists to the
throat of Caitlin Clark when she spoke on that she
definitely gave more grace to Alyssa Thomas than I thought
needed to be because it was your player that was

(05:16):
with the fist in their throat. Even what we said
yesterday with Sophie Cunningham and Jne Caring tens like, even
if you believe that, you don't say that because that's
your team, you stand by your team entirely, and you
have not done that.

Speaker 6 (05:30):
I agree wholeheartedly.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
And at some point in the segment we'll probably play
what Stephanie White had to say after the foul, but
I want to I want people to get lost in
this entire speech that Stephanie White made.

Speaker 6 (05:42):
Here is act too.

Speaker 7 (05:44):
For those who have anything to say about the play
in the last game, I didn't see the play in
real time. I went straight to a press conference. I
thought the play got called right, thankfully Sophie's Okay, was
it egregious?

Speaker 9 (05:56):
Absolutely?

Speaker 7 (05:57):
When you have a chance to watch that over and
over her on replay, you can see that I didn't
have that.

Speaker 5 (06:03):
In real time.

Speaker 4 (06:05):
What I laughed when I heard that the first time.
I laughed out loud.

Speaker 6 (06:11):
You know what.

Speaker 3 (06:12):
It reminds me of the guy who cheated in golf,
the thief yesterday, who said, I mean we were giving
shots back to the field. I mean, that's what we
were doing like that. That was the excuse. That's her excuse.
She didn't she didn't have the real real time. But
that's not her fault that she didn't have the real time.
She didn't see it. But now when she's saying that
she didn't see the clip, we've now seen see the

(06:33):
foul in its entirety. You're saying it's splattered all over
social media.

Speaker 5 (06:37):
Oh, it was one of the funniest clips.

Speaker 4 (06:38):
After this that there is the foul, and standing right
behind the fowl with her arms crossed on the.

Speaker 5 (06:44):
Sideline is Stephanie White.

Speaker 4 (06:46):
It looked like she had a clear view of what happened,
and even if you did it okay, Even if you
did it Sophie Cunningham's reaction should have been enough for
you to know that it was not okay.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
That is your default. Your default is your team. Yes,
when you don't have the information, you don't default to
the other side and say it's not that bad.

Speaker 5 (07:04):
Great point.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
Your default is to support your team, and she did
not do that. After this intermission, we now take you
to Act three of the Stephanie White Show.

Speaker 7 (07:14):
I take personally any suggestions that I don't one hundred
always have my player's bad I ride with them ten
toes down all the time.

Speaker 6 (07:21):
All the time.

Speaker 7 (07:23):
They know that it's a shame that we can't have
an opportunity to talk about what great basketball they're playing
because they are playing. The reality is with me, I
will always lead with love, I will always lead with grace,
I will always lead with humility, and I will always

(07:44):
lead with integrity.

Speaker 10 (07:46):
Doesn't mean I'll always get it right.

Speaker 7 (07:49):
I'm also human. The hate, the fear mongering, the divisiveness,
the stuff that's trying to hijack our league will not
win it.

Speaker 6 (08:00):
Won't win.

Speaker 7 (08:01):
We are united, we are connected, we.

Speaker 10 (08:04):
Will not be divided.

Speaker 5 (08:07):
Where was all of this before you were personally attacked? Sure,
where was this statement?

Speaker 6 (08:13):
Because you said enough?

Speaker 4 (08:14):
Yeah, it changed that the tone of the of the
statement changed.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
I also think that the head coach of the Indiana
Fever is not an easy job. But when she says
I ride with my players ten toes down one hundred
percent of the time, and she's coming off of a
game where she didn't ride with her players right like
I would say ninety eight point five percent of the time.
Because the last time it didn't seem like she was
riding with Sophie Cunningham and the other Caitlyn Clark instances

(08:39):
or whatever the case may be, she could say that
she was. But in the since then again she defaulted
to the other team while her own player was sitting
there bloodied after the unnecessary foul, and then it becomes
a change of they are unified. Let's talk about great basketball.
If Jimmy Butler Karl Anthony Towns in the face and

(09:03):
drew blood in a game, because there's a little history
between the two and Mike Brown after the game sat
down and said, well, Jimmy Butler is a great player.
I'm sure he probably didn't mean anything by it. Could
you imagine what the New York media would have done.

Speaker 5 (09:17):
Not fly? Oh no, no, yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
And by the way, that has nothing to do with
transgenders playing. That has nothing to do with race in
the WNBA, That has nothing to do with heterosexuals or
homosexuals in the WNBA. This is a player committing a
foul on your player in drawing blood, and you defaulting
to the other team's player by saying they probably didn't

(09:41):
mean it. It probably wasn't that bad. They're they're a
good playing she's tough, she's tough like those. That is
the issue, which, by the way, is more basketball than
you can It's about team, it's about players, and if
you're sticking up for the other player, that means you're
not sticking up for your player, which tells me that
you're also not unified. Then in the way, so that

(10:01):
whole Act three was basically a lie. With the numbers,
with the words, with the unifying all of that. Complete bs.
It's not the reality.

Speaker 5 (10:10):
No, it's not. In this Act three. I'm telling you.
I felt like she changed the script. I feel like
we moved to a different play.

Speaker 6 (10:14):
Sure, now moving on later into the program.

Speaker 4 (10:18):
Yeah, it's like, wait, how did we shift to this? Okay,
all right, do we have the final act?

Speaker 6 (10:22):
All right?

Speaker 3 (10:23):
Well, now we do because it ends with a with
a grand finale. Okay, right here, let's go the final act.
Give me the fireworks from Stephanie White.

Speaker 7 (10:30):
Every day these women put their ass on the line.
Every day when they go low, we go high. Love
will win, Grace will win, Humility will win, and kindness
will win. I stand by them.

Speaker 10 (10:46):
I will always stand by them.

Speaker 5 (10:48):
Everybody else can go to hell.

Speaker 3 (10:53):
Kindness will win, go to hell. Within ten seconds of
each other, Grace will win, Love will win, go to hell, Love, grace,
kindness will all win, go to hell. What a what
a cherry on top? Magnificent? She wants the league like

(11:17):
it was before. Just go, just go off in a
far away do whatever you do. Just that's that's what
Stephanie White wants. I'm what really resonates with me, Mancy
is you knew this was a moment, This was a
pregame speech, This had been written, this had been gone
over hours. I'm sure she run it to her her partner,

(11:38):
Lisa Salters. Who you know from the ESPN broadcast like
is this gonna is this you know from media wise,
is this gonna be good? And that this was the
opportunity to do it, and it just completely missed the mark,
like an Angelry's layup, like it was just it was
brick city. It didn't address the real issues. We are
actually talking about basketball. We're talking about you not sticking

(11:59):
up for your place, which isn't something coming from the outside.
It's at any level of basketball whatsoever. So you could
talk about kindness, you can talk about love, you could
talk about going to hell. She completely missed the mark
in what she read yesterday.

Speaker 4 (12:12):
I also feel like if you're trying to deliver a
speech and trying to make a point and get a
message across that you really want people to resonate with,
you can't be angry when delivering the message.

Speaker 5 (12:26):
You can't. And so throughout this entire thing, she was angry.

Speaker 4 (12:30):
She was mad, but it felt like you're mad because
you're getting personally attacked because I haven't heard you say
any of this when the attacks were around your team
or other.

Speaker 5 (12:40):
Women in the WNBA. So I don't know where this was.

Speaker 4 (12:42):
But from the beginning she seems like she's on the
defensive things, on the defensive side.

Speaker 5 (12:47):
Of things, and I don't.

Speaker 4 (12:49):
It's like it didn't resonate, it didn't hit the way
you think, the way you thought because you were just
angry the whole time, and then you didn't you didn't
even again. You switched plays in that third act, completely
missed the message there. You went from one message and
then you took us to somewhere else. So it didn't work.
It didn't work like you said planned. Who knows how
many times she read it. It was not effective.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
We all know people who have a difficult time accepting fault.
Some are better than others, right, But do we know
the people that have a hard time doing it? What
they do is they deflect? Will they point out something
else that somebody else did wrong. I think she understands
that she was wrong in that situation. Heck, she even
kind of admitted it, saying like I didn't see the replay,

(13:30):
but she didn't take accountability for that. She didn't explain
why she defaulted to taking Djna Carrington's side and not
Sophie Cunningham's side. And I think that's also the reason,
maybe like why she's angry, and she's angry at herself,
so she's angry at everything else. But at this time
she may have showed her true colors or showed her

(13:51):
colors at the time of how she feels. Because the
anger in the statement sure makes it seem like you
don't want anybody talking about this league, and the league
isn't unified. It still isn't after these couple of years.
I don't know what the NBA is is unified, but
I'll tell you what. Like as a whole, they sure
seem to be on a on a variety of topics.
There are rivalries. They're Jimmy Butler, Karl Anthony Towns, you know,

(14:14):
Jalen Green, Kid Cunningham don't like each other like there's
there's all there's there's rivalries within the rival reason of
how things are going. The djn A Carrington rivalry has
been around for a while, so you know it's there.
So if there was anybody to commit a foul on
your player that you would go against, it would be
DJA Carrington for what she has tried to do to

(14:36):
Caitlin Clark or to Sophie Cunningham. In this instance, this
isn't that player's first time, So you can't tell us
that you're unified when there's obviously the divide between those players.
They want to make it at all kumba ya sort
of thing and keep everybody else out. We're actually talking
about basketball, that's the thing, Manzies. This is an actual
basketball thing, and that's all that they want us to

(14:58):
talk about. If this would have happened in the NBA, the
New York media would have taken Mike Brown and raked
him over the coals if he didn't stand up.

Speaker 6 (15:05):
For his player.

Speaker 4 (15:06):
Absolutely, and I like what you said, you're right. She
didn't even acknowledge it. She should have said you're right.
So I let Sophie down on that.

Speaker 5 (15:12):
That was my bad.

Speaker 4 (15:13):
Yes, that's just that line. I let Sophie down. That
wasn't my intention at the time. I won't do that again.

Speaker 5 (15:19):
But she didn't. She did not do that. You're so right.
She went around it.

Speaker 4 (15:23):
She made us believe that she was leading in that direction,
but then she never got there. She took a turn,
and I was like, oh, okay, so we've moved on
from this. I agree with you that it's tough. It's
got to be tough to be the Indiana Fever coach.
It has to be tough. But the stuff that I
feel like I'm being critical with her about are things
that I think are obvious, like you didn't have you

(15:43):
have not had your team's back multiple times. And the
perfect example of dj A Carrington, like I told you,
I don't even know if we said it during the show,
if I said it to you in the pre show,
that I shouldn't be able to see all the terrible
fouls that dj A Carrington has done over her career.
If this was a one off, if this was just
a one random Oh she played tough here, then I

(16:05):
should not be able to see all of these other.

Speaker 5 (16:08):
Fouls that have come up because this happened. It's not
your first time.

Speaker 4 (16:11):
And like you said, Stephanie White, you knew that, you
knew that it wasn't the first offense against your own team,
but it wasn't j Nae Charingters first offense.

Speaker 5 (16:19):
Just in general, she tends to foul fell real, real, real,
real hard. If not pull your hair when you're coming down.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
Stephanie White, in a summation of your word, says, the
buck stops here because it happened to me, like that's
that's what.

Speaker 6 (16:32):
It's not that the buck stops here.

Speaker 3 (16:34):
It's well, now it happened to me, So now now
we're gonna put a on the set.

Speaker 5 (16:38):
Yes, now it's not just Caitlin Clark getting the dead threats. Okay,
now I'm mad.

Speaker 3 (16:41):
It wasn't tense the entire two minute speech because there
was one moment of levity. O why okay, at least
for me, is when the reporter thought that Stephanie White
had stopped to take questions.

Speaker 6 (16:56):
All right, this is what that sounded like.

Speaker 7 (17:03):
You can see that.

Speaker 5 (17:04):
I didn't have that in real time. I take personally.
I thought she was done too. I get it.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
There was no no, we'll be taking questions. It was
a dramatic pause.

Speaker 5 (17:23):
Give it up for that reporter though. He was like,
I'm gonna I'm gonna be the one I'll try. Let
me see.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
I thought his grace period was sufficient. Yes, yes, I
thought it was very sufficient. A but I think was
a light moment in what seemed to be a tense
situation in Indiana. Caitlin Clark did address Stephanie White's comments
after the fever routed the Liberty there was.

Speaker 11 (17:44):
No way we were losing this game for her, and
you know, it's tough, Like that's my head coach. Like
I hated that our fans booed her before the game.
That made me a little sick, to be honest. And
you can disagree in this and that, and I get it,
it's professional sports. People are gonna boo but like, at
the end of the day, that's our head coach, and
we're going to for her and we're always going to
have our back and that's never going to tear our
locker room apart.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
I think what's what's key is I don't think that
they I don't think that the ten fifteen thousand fans
that that watched the game last night knew about Stephanie
White's comments pregame. I think they booed her for what
she didn't say with the Stephanie Cunningham agreed Sophie Cunningham
foul from Djna Carrington. Now that's why I think she
got booted, not from what she said in the two
minutes prior, because those things don't get out to the

(18:28):
media as quickly as you would think they would.

Speaker 5 (18:30):
But what a great answer by Kaitlyn Clark.

Speaker 4 (18:33):
Sure, what a great answer, because you know I also
think Caitlin Clark doesn't love Stephanie whit. You can just
kind of see the way that they have handled each
other in their three years together, you know what I'm saying,
Like you can tell that there's a little bit of
I don't know what it is, That's what I think
watching it from the side.

Speaker 5 (18:50):
But yet, like you said, she's still defended her coach.
She's still she.

Speaker 4 (18:54):
Did with default, default to defend my coach, even if
I don't feel like it.

Speaker 3 (18:58):
Jason Stewart's the show's exact producer. I know you love this, WNBA.

Speaker 9 (19:03):
She's sort of, yes, I do. If they go low,
we're going to go high. Now go to hell. Going
to hell is the lowest of Well. I thought that
was great. I do like the fact that Stephanie White
in this moment is really trying to like take up
for her and her league against all these online people.

(19:26):
The online people that are instigating this derisiveness, I guess,
are the division, and within her two minute SoundBite she's creating,
she's making the division wider. Like over the last twenty
four hours, those same people that were riding her for
not reacting the right way just exacerbated their reaction like

(19:49):
she didn't do anything to calm the waters here. There
was no de escalation in this moment.

Speaker 6 (19:55):
No, absolutely not.

Speaker 3 (19:56):
And I think that by her getting booed again, I
think defans boot for how she reacted to it. Those
aren't fifteen thousand bots sitting in the stands. Those aren't
actual people who aren't hiding behind avatars that let you.

Speaker 6 (20:09):
Know how they feel.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
So don't think that this is a you know, a
right wing conspiracy sort of thing. There are point like
there's there's again you know, Clay Travis and Clay doing
the the National Balls thing and Ennis Freedom and all that.

Speaker 6 (20:26):
It's that's, that's all.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
Whatever, okay, And I think that in a way she's
trying to attack that stuff. I think so too, But
ultimately she's missing the mark on what is a big
problem within the league, and that is the division that's there.
So while she wants to tell everybody there to you know,
go to hell, she's missing out which right in front

(20:49):
of her, and that she became a victim to by
defaulting to her to the comments that she made prior.

Speaker 6 (20:54):
It's a that's it's tough.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
I I gave her the benefit of the doubt so
much because I thought it's a tough spot to be.
It's really one of the toughest head coaching spots to be,
I think in because of how Caitlin Clark and now
Sophie Cunningham draws so much attention in a certain way,
you have to be really, really good at it, and
it's why the first coach is gone and Stephanie White

(21:19):
ended up moving in. But now it feels like in
a way she's either cracking under the pressure or just
now is letting her own feelings come out, which isn't
unifying by any means.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
Be sure to catch live editions of Stu gottson Company
Live Weekday said three pm Eastern twelve pm Pacific, on
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Speaker 3 (21:42):
Why would you do this, NBA? Seriously, why would you
do this? So much good will towards the association, Mancy Belanos,
but the NBA has done one team very very.

Speaker 4 (21:56):
Wrong, acting like there's only one game in the season, right,
that's it.

Speaker 5 (22:00):
It's one game and you have to do it all today.

Speaker 6 (22:02):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (22:02):
All of the eggs in this basket, this basket October twentieth,
all of.

Speaker 5 (22:08):
Them, all of it all the good put it in there.

Speaker 3 (22:11):
If you think that we are crazy, if you're trying
to figure out what we're talking about, Josh Hart is
in the same boat as we are. Josh Hart is
riding shotgun with us. If you remember, Josh Hart a
member of that NBA Championship winning team in New York,
the Knicks, your NBA champions the highest of highs manci

(22:36):
and we knew, we knew that the New York Knicks
would be opening up the NBA season. We knew that
was going to be the case. Let's unfurl the banner,
Let's raise it up to the rafters. Let's get our
one last ounce of juice out of it NBA championship.
But the NBA says, not only that we are going

(22:59):
to completely overshadow all of the Knicks accomplishments that they
accomplished during that magnificent playoff run, we are going to
completely overshadow that by bringing in Lebron James and the
Philadelphia seventy six ers. What a slap in the face
to the New York Knicks.

Speaker 4 (23:18):
Absolutely audacity to do this, especially after seeing how much
attention was taken by Lebron James's decision that we were
all waiting for for weeks. It felt like, and now
to do this. Honestly, if I'm the Knicks, I'm like, Okay,
we are not raising our banner the first night.

Speaker 5 (23:36):
Guess what we're doing. Guess what we're not. We're not
doing that.

Speaker 4 (23:39):
We're gonna do it this second game that we play
here at Madison Square Garden, because clearly you want us
to focus on Lebron James's first game.

Speaker 5 (23:47):
As the Philadelphia seventy six er, Like this is so rude.
I would be so mad.

Speaker 4 (23:51):
Also because I feel like the Knicks were unlucky in
the sense that the World Cup came in and kind
of took the shine away so.

Speaker 5 (24:01):
Fast from the Knicks.

Speaker 4 (24:03):
The World Cup got so exciting so quickly, we stopped
talking about the Knicks way.

Speaker 6 (24:07):
Earlier than I thought we were gonna stop talking fair enough.

Speaker 4 (24:10):
So I feel like they did not get to, you know,
have the glory and enjoy the moment. And then the
World Cup ended, and it was kind of weird to
go back into the Knicks right like, It's like it
felt so far away and now here you are you
get to go back into in having the glory of
winning the NBA championship, and they said, oh, but we

(24:32):
actually we actually care more about this.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
I think there's also there wasn't even just the World Cup,
which was great. There was the Yannis.

Speaker 5 (24:39):
Move, the Yannest move.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
You mentioned the Lebron situation. You even had the Kawhi trade,
which we.

Speaker 5 (24:44):
Don't know how nobody in Toronto.

Speaker 3 (24:46):
But it did allow us to move on quicker from
the postseason on Knicks fans not the case. They have
continued to celebrate, but it's also the opportunity. It's your
last chance to really celebrate that championship. And I think
that the NBA did this at the expense of the Knicks.
I mentioned Josh Hart, he wrote, can't lie. I'm extremely shocked.

(25:09):
This is the slate and I am shocked as well.
And I think it's the NBA being so fearful of
the National Football League there are now they are now
getting drunk on the success of the Knicks, that they
ended up hurting the Knicks, that they are obsessed with
the number Monzie. They wanted to get the biggest number
that they could get so they could say opening nights

(25:31):
in the NBA had thirty two million viewers on NBC
watching the Knicks unveil their banner with Lebron James playing
his first game against Philadelphia. In a way, I almost
feel like it's short changing Lebron in a little bit
in that he isn't the focus or the seventy six
ers aren't the focus in their own game. But this

(25:53):
is more of a Knicks conversation than anything else. It's
the NBA trying to what they think is maximizing the
output or trying to strive for that number, trying to
max out instead of doing a three reps of ten.
It's max out day for the NBA. They wanted to
get the maximum amount of viewers you could in that
one window, all of those eggs in that basket, and

(26:16):
by doing so, they completely rain on the parade of
the New York Knicks getting one last opportunity to celebrate
that magical championship. And it's really too bad. It really is.
You could have put anything, you could have put Giannis there.
It's not going to overshadow Giannis and the heat coming
to town. I think that's enough reason to watch. The
Knicks are enough of a reason to watch Manzi. They're

(26:36):
enough of a reason to watch, but the NBA shows otherwise.

Speaker 5 (26:39):
That's what I was just about to say.

Speaker 4 (26:40):
I was like, this is major mismanagement because if you
were paying attention, the Knicks were loved by majority. The
Knicks were not a controversial winner. We've had that in
recent years, but the Knicks. I jumped on that bandwagon.
A lot of people did. Like you said, you didn't
need to do much. The Knicks would have been enough.

(27:01):
You could have had them play the Lakers in Luka
Dancic and that would not That would have brought in
so many eyeballs.

Speaker 5 (27:07):
Because people want to see what the Lakers are gonna do.

Speaker 4 (27:10):
Now we thought Lebron James and not take away from
what the Knicks we're doing. It just feels like if
you would have put another team, like you said, the
Miami a perfect one, it does feel like we could
have separated the two events that would have been happening
on opening night at Madison Square Garden, and now you
can't separate it now.

Speaker 5 (27:28):
Lebron James's debut.

Speaker 4 (27:30):
With the Philadelphia seventy six ers, because of how big
he still is in this league, is definitely going to
bleed into the celebration.

Speaker 5 (27:37):
That is for the Knicks, and when.

Speaker 4 (27:39):
We've had eight different champions in the Eastern Conference, you're
you this might be the only chance they get to
do this, like a major mismanagement.

Speaker 5 (27:49):
Also, NFL is king there's nothing you can do about it.

Speaker 3 (27:52):
Well, the Christmas Day slate reveals that the NBA says,
all right, we're gonna try to challenge your Christmas Day slate,
and the NFL Christmas slate is really good. And for me,
it's highlighted by the Seahawks and Rams in a game
that I mean last year it ended up being the
super Bowl of the season, but the NBA tried to

(28:14):
counter act what the NFL is doing on Christmas Day.
I don't have as much of a problem of that, Manzi,
because the NBA is trying to take back Christmas Day,
and I feel that the opening night is more of
the Knicks. And I think last year the NBA had
a pretty good Christmas Day if I remember, and I

(28:36):
can't remember exactly what transpired, so maybe that tells me something.
But yeah, it was a bigger deal than what it was.
But the NBA is going to have to go up
against Packers at Bears, Bills at Broncos in the aforementioned
Rams Seahawks matchup. This is what they've done for Christmas Day.
Spurs at the Knicks, NBA Finals rematch, Heat at the Celtics,

(28:58):
Giannis going to Boston, seventy six Ers at the Lakers,
Lebron returns to LA. I'm not mad at that game
at all.

Speaker 6 (29:05):
I think that's a good spot for it.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
That's that's fine it it is the only trip obviously
that the Sixers will make to LA that will be
a must have ticket in LA. Thunder at Timberwolves, Nuggets
at Warriors. Those are all fine matchups. The seventy six
Ers and Lakers. One I think is the is the
really go to one. But that also tells you something
that even on a Christmas Day, Manzi, the Knicks, who

(29:27):
will play usually in that early in that first game,
that even as NBA champions, I still don't think that
they are the marquee game on the schedule. So the
marquee for the NBA tells you that it is Lebron
James at a seventy six Ers uniform. And if the
Knicks aren't your main draw this year, that's what makes
it worse that you couldn't even allow them to have
their day that you had to bring in your big draw,

(29:47):
Lebron and bring them in. Have Lebron open the next
night right against any other team in the NBA except
the New York Knicks. Like that, that's all that you
had to do, NBA, But it's a disrespect in New York.
Lebron is gonna overtake the moments and it may be
there for Knicks fans that night, but the buy and
large the topic of conversation will be the Philadelphia seventy
six ers.

Speaker 4 (30:07):
And with that logic, again, this is mismanagement at the top, because,
like you said, you could have just done this day
two and then you would have had two really good
days of numbers. Because I have a hard time believing
that on Opening night everybody was not gonna and I
mean like everybody who's already into the NBA right was
not going to tune into the Knicks because I feel
like the Knicks people were happy that majority of the

(30:29):
country was not hating on the Knicks when they won,
so they were gonna tune in. The Knicks, like you said,
were enough of a draw. You could have had back
to back nights that made people tune in, But instead,
you put as we set upstart show, you put literally
every single egg in.

Speaker 5 (30:42):
This one basket on the first night. Slap in the face.

Speaker 4 (30:47):
Disrespectful and mismanagement because you could have you could have
spread the eggs out and made it benefit the league.

Speaker 5 (30:53):
This doesn't make sense in so many different ways. I
understand what Josh Haard is feeling.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
I hate the disrespect to the next. Jason Stewart is
our executs of producer, Jason, what's going on?

Speaker 9 (31:02):
I think what you just said, I didn't even think
of this point. But let's droll down on this. So
it's the NBA telling us, the media and the world
that the Lebron James is the market name and not
the Knicks, and it kind of speaks to maybe we're
overthinking the Knicks interest level. I think it was a

(31:22):
big deal because Knicks fans are so obnoxious. I think
the Knicks have maybe the largest fan base, loudest fan base,
and they were starving. But maybe we overvalued what the
Knicks winning the NBA championship meant to the MBA. Maybe
that's what we were overvalue. And I do think that
this definitely cuts under their celebration. But I think the

(31:43):
point you just made is important. This is the NBA saying, yeah,
Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, the Q rating isn't that high.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
Yeah, And I think that's what it is. This is
for the sake of a number. This is a sake
for how many millions of viewers they will get what
that rating is. That's what this is about. I would
tune in to watch the Knicks raise that manh right,
like that's they didn't win it at home, they didn't
win it in New York, so that this is that

(32:12):
carryover and that's what I want to see, Like, I
want to see that at Madison Square Garden. I don't
want it to be hijacked by Lebron James of the
Philadelphia seventy six is. By the way, it's not even
Lebron's fault. We blame Lebron for a lot of stuff.
This is totally the NBA trying to figure out it's
overshadowing Spurs Thunder, which is the nightcap of that opening

(32:33):
night game as well, which is a great rematch of
the Western Conference final and probably the best rivalry that
we've got maybe right now in the NBA. But there's
it's not even Lebron's fault for that matter, it's the
NBA trying to get greedy, trying to It's like they're
they're drunk off that that high of the Knicks getting
the numbers that they did. They loved hearing us report

(32:54):
what Game one got, what Game two? The highest rated
series since nineteen ninety eight. They love all of that
stuff and they couldn't get They can't get enough of it.
So how do you do it. Let's throw Lebron James
and his new team into the mix when it really
should have been. Let's just honor the New York Knicks,
give them their night, their one last night, and then
we'll let the Lebron train take over some other time.

Speaker 4 (33:17):
I don't know if I agree with you, Jason. I
understand what you're pointing out. I honestly don't think the
number would have been that much lower without Lebron James.
I agree that this is the league trying to get
the highest possible number for this game.

Speaker 5 (33:34):
That's clearly what they care about.

Speaker 4 (33:36):
But I really do think that most people embraced the Knicks.
It wasn't like when we saw the Thunder win Man.
The Thunder were not embraced in any way, shape or form,
and so I feel like the shift was so big
that most people were really okay with the Knicks winning,
and it was maybe because they hated the Thunder so much.

Speaker 5 (33:54):
That is just anyone but the Thunder, anyone but the Thunder.

Speaker 4 (33:58):
So I feel like that number without Lebron James would
still be a really good number.

Speaker 5 (34:04):
This is going to be a bigger number, of course
it is, but not for the right reasons. And that's
what sucks about it.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
There was a Christmas Day game in two thousand and
four between the Lakers and the Heat that had about
thirteen million viewers to it. That's pretty big for a
regular season game that was twenty two years ago, when
our viewing habits were different. I think that's what the
NBA wants to do, is that's what they want us
saying the next day. Is they want us to say

(34:30):
fifteen million people watch the seventy six ers and Nicks
on opening night. What it should be is eight million
people watch the next raise their banner on Opening Night.
Like that's that's what it is. I understand, coming out
with a bang. There were other intriguing matchups. You could
have done a finals rematch if you wanted to, there's

(34:50):
different ways to do it. But I do think the
number is going to be less if the Knicks would
have played one of those other opponents. But to me,
it's not about the number. It's about the moment. It's
about what the Knicks we're going to be able to do.
And if Josh Hart is taken aback by it, sure
Josh Hart thought to himself, well, any other team but

(35:11):
Stephanty six Ers will probably be our opponent, and that
wasn't the case. I don't know if it's if you
got fifteen million to watch this game, if it would
have been ten, or if it would have been five
without Lebron. But what the Christmas Day slate tells me is,
I know the Knicks have their traditional spot, just like
the Lakers have their traditional spot in the Christmas Day lineup.

(35:32):
But there's no doubt that Sixers at Lakers is way
more compelling than Spurs at Knicks, which is a Finals rematch.
So that tells me that the NBA recognizes that Lebron
in the new uniform is the biggest cash cow and
we're going to try to cash in those chips night
one at the expense of the New York Knicks, and that's.

Speaker 6 (35:48):
Just too bad.

Speaker 5 (35:49):
Yeah, I'm telling you.

Speaker 4 (35:49):
If I'm New York, I'm like, we're not doing the
chit that we're not raising the banner today.

Speaker 5 (35:54):
Why would we do this today? This makes no sense
for us and our fans.

Speaker 4 (35:58):
If I'm supposed to care about our fans, as Jason
pointed out, so obnoxious, so loud, we heard about them
for weeks during the NBA Finals. If I'm the Knicks,
I'm like, this is about the fans. We're not doing
this today.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
Knicks fans join us Saturday night when the Washington Wizards
come to Madison Square Garden where it's banner and Ring night.
That's a razor banner and get their championship rings in
front of the home fans here on at MSG.

Speaker 4 (36:23):
And all the fans could get wild, have the best time.
They're not worried about having to beat a team. They
don't have to worry about Lebron. They can just go
and beat themselves and probably win the game.

Speaker 5 (36:35):
Unless everyone's getting too drunk.

Speaker 3 (36:36):
They should unveil a banner that just says psych Psych right,
see you tomorrow Joint Saturday. Ben and Stiller would have
it on his camera phone. He would be filming it.
But this is either it.

Speaker 6 (36:49):
Just is I'm sticking up for the Knicks.

Speaker 3 (36:51):
Yeah, like I am, and I think that the Knicks
realize that lebron is the big ticket here the NBA.
The NBA is trying to tackle the NFL in the
best ways that they feel possible. It's an impossible task.
It's not going to be able to be done. I
think the NFL is going to beat the NBA pretty

(37:12):
well on Christmas Day Sands at seventy six Ers Lakers game.
But when you have Packers Bears and you have Rams
Seahawks sandwiched around Bill's Broncos, that's the NFL playing, you know,
meaning business, and the NBA can only do so much,
and so they decided, well, let's try to also then
dominate Opening Night. And it's too bad because it's it

(37:33):
comes at the expense of the Knickerbockers. I can't believe
I'm feeling bad for New York nick fans. But that's
where we are here on Stu gottson Company Life, maybe
Taylor Vipolis is in Stuc Gotts are rubbing off on me.
She's Manzi Boloinios hit her up at Mantzi Bollagios. You
can find me at dan Byer on Fox.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
Be sure to catch live editions of Stu Gotson Company
Live weekdays at three pm Eastern twelve pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 3 (38:01):
A happy Monday to you as we are in for
Stu gottson Company Live. But I feel like we're part
of the company as well. I get to hang out
with Stuc Gotts during the weekends. Does our executive producer,
Jason Stewart, I said, Glone Crown is at the news
desk and Chris Purfett is our technical producer. A fun
Monday Monty and a weekend that we get closer and
closer to more football preseason games resuming from the Thursday

(38:25):
Hall of Fame game. We'll be doing so this Thursday.
On Thursday too, There's games Thursday, Friday, and Saturday this weekend.
No Sunday games, which I was surprised next weekend, but
then after that there will be Sunday preseason games and
then after that we've got Week zero in college football.
So football is yeah, it is basically here. You also
want to you want to know why I know that

(38:47):
football is almost here.

Speaker 6 (38:49):
Little league is on TV.

Speaker 5 (38:51):
Yeah, and.

Speaker 6 (38:54):
He gained the eye roll. I know some people aren't
fans of Little League.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
I love it just because I would like to go
to a little league park and try to hit home runs. Yeah,
you know, just hit these monster dingers. Seeing some of
these kids. But it's gotten to the point where we're
not even doing Southwest Region championship game. We're doing the
games leading up to it.

Speaker 7 (39:15):
Oh.

Speaker 6 (39:15):
Some say it's a little bit too much. I say,
it's a little league there.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
It is, Thank you very much, Isaac Longcrown, he liked
that one.

Speaker 5 (39:24):
He did like that one. That's good. At least someone
did stime.

Speaker 6 (39:26):
For a Mount Rushmore Monday.

Speaker 3 (39:29):
Judging by Monsey's response, he was not a fan of
my joke. Isaac Longcrown, Can you be the judge of
our Mount Rushmore Monday?

Speaker 10 (39:36):
Yes, and I will go on a complete power trip
on it.

Speaker 6 (39:39):
Yes, perfect? All right? Do we have imaging? I'm here
every day for Mount Rushmore Monday. Let's get to it.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
You there, Yeah, you the guy with the spreadsheet pretending
to work. Do you find yourself needing a pick me
up as you're dragging in your cubicle start the week.
Are you ready to put the sports back in sports talk? Well,
then you're in luck, because every Monday we climb the mountain.

(40:08):
We talk the legends, and we argue about things.

Speaker 10 (40:13):
The truth you can't handle the truth.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
That absolutely do not matter and are completely subjective. This
is Mount Rushmore Monday, Monday.

Speaker 6 (40:24):
All right.

Speaker 3 (40:24):
So even though Stugats and company, Izzy Taylor, Mikeye aren't here,
we're going to do our own person.

Speaker 6 (40:29):
Isaac will be the judge.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
Monte Blaios, Jason Stewart, Chris Purfett, myself, Dan Bayer will
be drafting today. The worst nicknames in pro sports, not college,
not high school. By the way, Texas West just got
out of a basis loaded jam against Louisiana.

Speaker 5 (40:46):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (40:47):
Top of the third, no four, nothing, Texas West again.
Not even the Williamsport yet.

Speaker 6 (40:52):
All right.

Speaker 3 (40:52):
Worst nicknames in team sports pro sports. Not nicknames of players,
but just the actual team nicknames. I will go first, Chris,
you go second, Jason is third, MONTI do you want.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
To go first?

Speaker 5 (41:07):
Fine, that's fine, it's fine.

Speaker 6 (41:09):
I would rather be at the back end.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
I thought I was kind of taking the you know,
taking the taking one for the team by going first,
because all right, we're just gonna keep it. All right,
We're just we're just gonna keep it. I'm gonna go
first because it's the nickname that has annoyed me ever
since I found out what it was. And there's a
lot of reasons. Number one, it's not even it's not original.

(41:35):
It's very simple, and I just think it's catering to
your audience, which I'm not a fan of. Make them
embrace something else instead of trying to embrace them the
Houston Texans. There was the Dallas Texans before the Houston Texans,

(41:56):
so it wasn't even original. It just it makes me
it would be like the Los Angeles Californias like that,
and it doesn't make any sense to me. And if
it was original, I could maybe buy it, Moncie, but
just of being a Texan, well everybody is are you
just trying to trump the Cowboys. I appreciate the Houston

(42:19):
football organization. I know they couldn't be the Oilers. I
wish there was some sort of spinoff from the Oilers
that they could have done. But choosing the Texans the
day I heard it is the day I started hating it.
Give me the Houston Texans number one. All right, all right,
Chris Purfett, you're up at number two.

Speaker 8 (42:36):
My first overall pick here is kind of in your wheelhouse.
But this one's even more cute because we're not just
talking about a team choosing a name to represent an
entire state. We're talking about a team that just literally
got so lazy they just decided we're just going to
shorten the name of the city the Philadelphia Phillies. I

(42:57):
don't know, I don't know what you what your deal is.

Speaker 10 (43:00):
I hate it. I genuinely hate it.

Speaker 8 (43:02):
I end up tripping over myself when talk about Philadelphia
because you already shortened to Philly and we you know,
so you could accidentally use the other places, but like, really,
the Philadelphia Phillies. Yes, you're gonna call it the Pittsburgh Pit.
Come on, what are we telling at Pittsburgh.

Speaker 5 (43:18):
That's actually not bad?

Speaker 3 (43:19):
Would they be armpits or they'd be like that would
be great, that would.

Speaker 4 (43:25):
Be what the rivals are calling them.

Speaker 3 (43:29):
You just got waxed, right, waxing armpits sticks in the pit.

Speaker 6 (43:34):
All right, Jason Stewart your pump.

Speaker 9 (43:37):
So I'm I'm looking at teams that are not plural,
Teams that do not end in an s, I think
are just generally lame. And when these teams were named,
I'm like, that's kind of like an arena football kind
of thing. And let me let me foot a coin here,
and I'll go with the Miami Heat.

Speaker 10 (43:59):
Lazy.

Speaker 9 (43:59):
It's not plural, and it's just kind of a weather reference.

Speaker 10 (44:05):
Uninspiring. Miami Heat just won't play into my judgment, Jason.
But would you have found the Miami humidity?

Speaker 6 (44:13):
That's Harry, It's more aproposle. I'll tell you that much.

Speaker 9 (44:18):
The Sunburns was the plural and more original.

Speaker 8 (44:21):
I was gonna say, we do have a heat related
team name in the Calgary Flames, but as you say,
they figured out how to make that plural.

Speaker 10 (44:28):
Yeah, great logo in Calgary.

Speaker 12 (44:30):
By the way.

Speaker 6 (44:31):
All right, Manzi, you got back to back pics here.

Speaker 5 (44:33):
I do, I do?

Speaker 3 (44:34):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (44:34):
This one drives me nuts. And when I see the jersey.

Speaker 4 (44:38):
For this team, I love the colors and I love
seeing the mountains and the purple and the silver, and
then I see Jazz.

Speaker 5 (44:50):
Why I thought you're in Utah. I think they moved right,
made right.

Speaker 13 (44:56):
I shared all that, but we've moved so now Jersey's
got mountains and snow on them, and I like the color,
but it just says jazz.

Speaker 9 (45:05):
Just like there's no lakes in LA. It's called Sammon
up the game and Monty. By the way, I don't
know what Isaac's uh, what you're judging this on, but
I don't even know what I'm judging this on. I
think the nicknames that aren't updated with the new city
is a big pet peeve of mine as well. And

(45:25):
jazz qualifies for my non plural So jazz is a
great one.

Speaker 5 (45:29):
Oh, thank you, thank you, and I get to go again.

Speaker 6 (45:31):
Yes, yes, all right, there's a few.

Speaker 5 (45:34):
How many do we need in totals?

Speaker 6 (45:35):
We're gonna have four four, So it.

Speaker 5 (45:37):
Just depends on how okay, all right, y'all.

Speaker 4 (45:41):
Again, I don't I don't get this name. And then
like the Jerseys are fine, and then you know, I'm
good with it. The Nuggets, Nuggets, the Denver Nuggets, I
hate that, especially.

Speaker 5 (45:53):
Not because everything.

Speaker 4 (45:55):
When I think of nuggets, I think it's a kid's meal,
someone's about to eat, someone's about.

Speaker 6 (45:59):
To eat ahead, Like you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 13 (46:02):
I think of nuggets and it's just like it's food
and it's kid food, and you can't Denver nuggets when
when Denver has so many other things in the state,
whether it's the mountains, whether they just have other things.

Speaker 5 (46:16):
And you go to nuggets. No, no pointal taking Denver nuggets.

Speaker 10 (46:20):
That's a good point.

Speaker 9 (46:21):
They could be the Black Diamonds and that would be
like so many thought of that before.

Speaker 5 (46:25):
They could be so many things.

Speaker 10 (46:27):
When did Chicken nuggets first start. It might have been
before their franchise. That's interesting.

Speaker 3 (46:32):
They should sell they should have an alternate tenders uniform.

Speaker 5 (46:36):
Yes, that would be funny. That would be leaning into it.

Speaker 10 (46:39):
That would be cool that you lean into it.

Speaker 5 (46:41):
I like that.

Speaker 6 (46:42):
I like you.

Speaker 4 (46:43):
You don't need me Anymoreggie nuggets.

Speaker 6 (46:46):
Okay. I was going to say there is a difference
between nuggets and tenders.

Speaker 5 (46:49):
Yes, there are.

Speaker 6 (46:50):
I will differentiate.

Speaker 8 (46:52):
Depending on I totally agree the Denver saucy nugs.

Speaker 6 (46:57):
All right, Jason, you're up at number six.

Speaker 9 (46:59):
So months did just tapped into my third pet peeve,
which is team names that aren't intimidating at all, Like,
no one's intimidated by a nugget.

Speaker 6 (47:06):
So if you guys all know my credentials.

Speaker 9 (47:09):
Singular names, uh, teams that don't nickname or update their
nickname with a new city, and they're not intimidating. This
one meets a lot of those qualifications. The Los Angeles Lakers,
as Chris just mentioned three minutes ago, Lakers in Los Angeles.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
It did kind of lose the sting because I heard
I heard earlier.

Speaker 12 (47:27):
Yeah yeah, silver Lake online one by the way.

Speaker 9 (47:33):
As well, Yeah yeah, Castick, I want to say some
more unoriginal person was just like, it's a literation, the
Los Angeles.

Speaker 10 (47:41):
Let's just keep the Lakers because it's a literation. People
love that.

Speaker 3 (47:44):
Yeah, all right, Chris, you're up at number seven, all.

Speaker 10 (47:48):
Right, number seven.

Speaker 8 (47:49):
I so this might rub some people the wrong way,
but I think there is a tipping point you you
Jason doesn't like names that aren't intimidating. I think sometimes
you can tip too far into being too agro to
try hard with a name to make it unique and
fierce and ferocious. And that line is when you start

(48:11):
drawing upon mythological creatures, creatures that aren't real, like how
we have the Seattle dragons in in the in the
in the uh, what was it? The UFL the XFL,
the second XFL. Okay, but this one is in the
Big four. This one isn't the Big four. I'm not
going I'm not going there. That's a little cheating, but
I'm sorry. But when they named them the Seattle Kraken,

(48:35):
I can't go there. That's too much. That is way
too much to be lost with crack In, Like nobody's
a crack.

Speaker 5 (48:42):
In a second, I like Seattle. I think there's a
tequila named kracking.

Speaker 10 (48:48):
No spice frump.

Speaker 3 (48:50):
There we go on the heels of Chris and I've
got the next two picks here. Stuff that is just there,
and I'm I'm gonna do it. Well, I was gonna
do a double dose. I may hope for this other
pick to last later on. I'll say this. I'm gonna
go with the Chicago sky. Okay, it's not it's the sky.

Speaker 10 (49:16):
Awful.

Speaker 3 (49:18):
It's not partly cloudy. Yeah, there's no storms. It's not
even the thunder. It's just the.

Speaker 4 (49:23):
Sky when Chicago's full of storms and thunder, run snow
and it's on.

Speaker 10 (49:28):
And it's such a culture city with so much other stuff.

Speaker 3 (49:31):
Yeah, it's a big rivalry though when they play the
team that doesn't have a sky wait like what like
that doesn't know, So the Chicago Sky goes number uh.
It's my second round pick at number eight, number nine.
This was a part of it. This team changed their
name because of pressure and wanting to have a more

(49:53):
positive outlook. But then they just became very generic. Maybe
a ray of sunshine. But when I think of the
Tampa Bay Rays, I think of guy's name Ray. I
had an uncle Ray. He was awesome. I loved my
uncle Ray. They were better as the Devil Rays, and

(50:14):
so losing the devil for whatever reason was absurd to me.
So just I don't know if they wanted to include
all species of actual rays. Could maybe they couldn't be
the Stingrays, but should have just kept it the Devil Rays.

Speaker 6 (50:27):
So the Tampa Bay Rays my third round pick. All right, Chris,
back to you.

Speaker 8 (50:32):
All right, I might need a judgment from everyone on this.
I have a backup pick just in case.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
But worst nicknames in sports here on stut Gotts and
Company Live.

Speaker 8 (50:41):
I really do not like how in Major League Soccer
half of the guys half of the league is called
city FC or city or city name SC like Charlotte FC,
Toronto FC, what's the other one?

Speaker 10 (50:59):
New York City FC, Nashville SC.

Speaker 8 (51:03):
Like I I know I'm picking a lot of them here,
but I really do not like that is like saying
New York and I know we had.

Speaker 10 (51:10):
This in the NFL with the Washington football team and
we all like that ironic.

Speaker 6 (51:13):
I'm not me. I hated it.

Speaker 8 (51:15):
Okay, great, then you know what I'm talking about. That's
this idea, like the idea if you'd go to your like,
I watch.

Speaker 10 (51:20):
A lot of soccer. I'm the biggest soccer fan in
Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 8 (51:23):
You did that during the week in the final, and
no one around there if you said, yes, I am
following the Manchester the Manchester football team, everyone looking like
you chrazy? Like no, we have nicknames for these things.
And when you're in America and doing soccer, be unique.

Speaker 10 (51:38):
Be unique. I don't like any team in the MLS.
That's just sc or FC.

Speaker 5 (51:42):
So you took a lot of teams there, yes.

Speaker 6 (51:43):
In this twenty eight round draft. Now you took all I.

Speaker 10 (51:46):
Assumed none of you were going to go to the MLS.

Speaker 5 (51:49):
Well that's that's where your assumption is wrong.

Speaker 6 (51:51):
Oh really?

Speaker 3 (51:52):
Who?

Speaker 5 (51:53):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (51:54):
All right, Well your twenty two options are off the.

Speaker 10 (51:56):
Board I got.

Speaker 5 (51:57):
Luckily I didn't have an FC one. Is that not
bothered by that?

Speaker 6 (52:01):
I wish there would be the Cincinnati f us.

Speaker 10 (52:06):
Yeah they're called but Bengals.

Speaker 3 (52:07):
Football Football Universe, Cincinnati Football Universe. All right, Jason, you're
up at third round pick number eleven.

Speaker 9 (52:13):
This one kind of feeds into what Chris's explanation was
for his Kraken. But this is one that I know
Brody's going to appreciate. Brody likes himself dinosaurs, right, Yes, Okay,
so when we're growing up, all the popular dinosaurs that
we knew about, Tyronosaurus rex, the platypus terodactyl, we knew
about the majors, right, and then a team name comes around,

(52:37):
and an expansion team comes around the early nineties, coming
off for a real popular movie. I will say this,
I had never heard of a raptor until Jurassic Park.
So up until that point in time, I think nobody
knew what a raptor was other than the few people
that read the Crichton book until nineteen ninety two or
whatever it was. Toronto becomes a team and they call
themselves a Raptors as kind of like a just a

(52:59):
trendy because obviously the Raptors are not indigenous to Toronto.

Speaker 10 (53:03):
You all know that there they were in Africa somewhere.

Speaker 6 (53:07):
You Raptors off the board at number eleven.

Speaker 4 (53:10):
I loved I love the Raptors though, but you're right,
it doesn't make sense.

Speaker 6 (53:15):
I just like it. That was a uniform that I saw.
It was like, huh, And now we're all.

Speaker 5 (53:20):
Like, yeah, the colors, everything.

Speaker 3 (53:23):
Stripes the actual Raptor. All right, Manza, you got back
to back picks, your final two.

Speaker 5 (53:27):
Okay, all right, I've got some here. Let's see. All right,
this one is just so easy.

Speaker 4 (53:36):
To make fun of if you hate the team, if
you're you know, like, it's just so easy to really.

Speaker 5 (53:45):
Make fun of the.

Speaker 4 (53:47):
Browns, the cland browns, like everything with brown, aside from
you know, the color of my skin. Usually brown is
like associated with like something that's like dirty, or like
did you need to use the restaurant?

Speaker 6 (54:02):
We know you define all of that.

Speaker 10 (54:03):
Well, it's actually a real good fit the way they played, right.

Speaker 5 (54:07):
You got to change it. It's too easy to make
fun of you. It is way too.

Speaker 4 (54:10):
Easy to make fun of you. I'm taking the Cleveland
Browns here.

Speaker 3 (54:14):
Also arrogance with it because of Paul Brown, like naming it.

Speaker 4 (54:17):
After his after it's after I even forgot about that.
You're so right even that, But to me, it's just
easy to make fun of you. It is too easy
to make fun of you.

Speaker 5 (54:26):
So I am not a fan of which.

Speaker 3 (54:28):
By the way, just in history, I don't think anybody's
going to have the Charlotte Bobcats, darn, but they were
named after Robert Johnson, the old owner Bob.

Speaker 6 (54:38):
Yes, yes, he put that in the in their name.

Speaker 5 (54:42):
No longer silly, that's silly. And then for my final
pick here, I'm going.

Speaker 4 (54:47):
To take the soccer team Real Salt Lake City.

Speaker 5 (54:51):
Because there's a fake I don't think it's not real Madrid. Right,
we're not saying Salt Lakes.

Speaker 10 (54:58):
Did you say real Salt Lakes City?

Speaker 6 (55:00):
Like so what?

Speaker 5 (55:01):
Like, I'm just like, is there a fake one? Like
I'm really real.

Speaker 6 (55:04):
Salt Lake City was called St.

Speaker 10 (55:06):
George, So let's.

Speaker 5 (55:09):
Get your real ass out of here, because it ain't
working for me.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
That might be a walk off right by the way, Jason,
Chris and I had no chance of winning this when
the game started.

Speaker 6 (55:21):
Isaac is obviously going to.

Speaker 9 (55:23):
Pick Mancy but that is that is that has been
laughing at every line that Moncio said game.

Speaker 5 (55:30):
Yes, I told you we could switch, I would have burst.

Speaker 10 (55:33):
You all have one pick left.

Speaker 9 (55:34):
So because of that along the lines of Bobcats and
brown I found this out when Dan and I went
to the city last year to watch the Bills play
in their stadium for the last time. I found out
that a couple of things are true.

Speaker 6 (55:48):
You look this up.

Speaker 9 (55:50):
Buffalo bison are not indigenous to upstate New York. There
there's nothing that they called the city Buffalo for another reason.
Maybe they were like it was a big buffalo skin
trading post on the er can out whatever. But there's
no buffalo bison in upstate New York. One buffalo Bills
that was named after that, like rodeo clown in the
late nineteenth century.

Speaker 10 (56:10):
Buffalo Bill.

Speaker 9 (56:11):
I always thought that it was a bill was like
just like a young like a calf bison, until last
year when I realized it's the Buffalo Bill's some character
that did a road show in the late eighteen hundreds.

Speaker 3 (56:24):
Now this glorious alternate helmet in front of us of
the buffalo. By the way, I always thought that the
red stripe was its eyes. But it's the horn like
when I was a kid, and I still can't unsee it.
I still think it's like the eye of the buffalo.
All right, Chris, your last pick?

Speaker 6 (56:41):
All Right.

Speaker 8 (56:42):
I actually got really worried Monsey was about to steal
this from me when she took the Cleveland Browns, because
everything you were saying, Moncey was absolutely correct that it's
easy to make fun of this name if you hate that. However,
I can't do half the jokes about it on the air.
It also falls a very weird and very disappearing realm

(57:03):
of teams. I think we're named after jobs. But at
the same time, it's so it's so vague and the
context of it is so lost that it's just a
dumb name.

Speaker 10 (57:18):
And it's it's twenty twenty six.

Speaker 8 (57:19):
We're allowed to say that the name Green Bay Packers
is dumb, means nothing, and very easy to make fun of.
And I know there's a lot of Packers fans out
here that are going to want to come after me
for it. All I'm gonna say is I don't care
Lions football. I hate that name Green Bay Packers. I
have never liked it.

Speaker 10 (57:36):
I've never enjoyed it. It makes no sense.

Speaker 8 (57:38):
And again I can't say the the jokes I want
to say about the packer name on the air.

Speaker 10 (57:43):
I can pack this.

Speaker 5 (57:44):
Oh they can say that right back to.

Speaker 4 (57:47):
You, pack Yeah, you're gonna handle this package.

Speaker 10 (57:53):
See there it is that.

Speaker 5 (57:54):
You know what?

Speaker 8 (57:54):
Dan's right? Look at Ilo just going out there for
a Bonzi call.

Speaker 5 (57:57):
That was a great line, sous.

Speaker 9 (58:00):
Are you referring to their offensive package or a defense
like Nickel and Diamond.

Speaker 5 (58:06):
There's lots of packages have a lot of.

Speaker 3 (58:08):
Fudge to Okay, yeah, we understood, Chris. We yeah, we
That was the part we were trying to avoid. All right, Now,
I got to follow that up. If you were to
name your team, let's just say you were starting a
team I don't.

Speaker 6 (58:20):
Know the WNBA.

Speaker 3 (58:22):
Okay, let's just say the Cleveland Cleveland they just announced
their name is the Sirens. But if you were to
name them the Cleveland speed I would be like, okay, fast, right,
they're moving. But what about if I said Cleveland's speed limit?
We would be like, oh, that's dumb, right, why would
you be the speed limit? That's exactly what the Toronto
Tempo are Tempo is nothing but just being in rhythm.

(58:47):
There's nothing extreme about it, there's nothing strong. The only
temple I want is a good temple in my golf swing.

Speaker 6 (58:54):
Like that is it?

Speaker 3 (58:56):
I think it is a mid nickname and is only
used for what Jason Stewart hates. And that's alliteration. There
is nothing great about tempo. It's just all right. So
if the tempo finished sixth in an eighteen team WNBA
in five years, that's pretty goods with their tempo ninth
it's good. Three too fast, you're too high, fifteen too low. Yeah,

(59:19):
it's a good tempo. Toronto tempo. It's not good, it's
not bad. It's just a rhythm. Final pick.

Speaker 10 (59:26):
Can I throw one name out here? We did not
get too well.

Speaker 3 (59:28):
Let's let's see what Isaac, and maybe we'll have some
some clearing up to do.

Speaker 6 (59:33):
But Isaac, do you have the teams? Do you have
the rosters?

Speaker 12 (59:36):
I have the rosters, so I can go go over
them right now and summarize and give my verdict later.

Speaker 3 (59:41):
Whatever you want to get, Let's do it all right now,
summarize and then give the verdict, and then we'll have
what we left.

Speaker 12 (59:46):
On the coming Monts. The Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets, Cleveland Browns,
Reality Salt Lake.

Speaker 6 (59:53):
Very Utah centric and very.

Speaker 12 (59:55):
Mouthwest Mountains, Mountain Mountainous. Yes, Yes, Jason Stewart Miami Heat,
Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto Raptors of the Buffalo Bills, Chris
Purfett Philadelphia Phillies, Seattle Kraken, multiple MLS, scs and FC's,
and the Green Bay Packers, And unfortunately we don't have

(01:00:17):
enough time to explain his reasoning. And finally Dan Byer Houston, Texans,
Chicago Sky, Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Tempo. Now there is
no last place finisher. I really loved how all of
you guys actually had such great individual and unique reasoning,
and a lot of this I hadn't realized. I'd never

(01:00:40):
thought about it, but you made outstanding points. Chris in particular,
I like the fact that you really went with some
bold choices, particularly the Seattle Kraken and Green Bay Packers,
which I'm a fan of those nicknames, but I understand
your rationale. So across the board, all of you really
gave our listeners a lot to think about. However, my

(01:01:03):
verdict is in and what clinched it for me in
every city in the world.

Speaker 10 (01:01:12):
There's a sky all.

Speaker 12 (01:01:14):
Right, in every scene, in every city, there's a tempo.
What really, honestly put me over the top. I never
thought of it. Why in the world, with all the
great character and tradition in Chicago, are you naming a
team the sky The rationale is because of the Chicago Skyline,

(01:01:36):
we'll call them the Skyline. Even you know that would
be a good nickname for a team in Cincinnati because
of Skyline Chile. But along those lines, Tampa Bay Devil
Rays is fine. When you talk about the Tampa Bay Rays,
it's just a bunch of I'm thinking Ray Romano when
you're thinking the Houston Texans. They already have a team
in Dallas. They're the Texans too. The one argument I

(01:01:59):
did have with you, Dan Los Angeles Californians. I see
your point, but that could be an homage to that
wonderful Saturday Night Live skit the Californians. So all of
you hats off, and I think you should be part
of focus groups for new Pro Sports expansion teams. But again,
by the slimmest of margins, the sky put it over

(01:02:20):
the top for Dan By.

Speaker 5 (01:02:21):
But who got second, third, and fourth? We got Dan
who got second third, You were all.

Speaker 10 (01:02:26):
Dan was one and the rest of you were tied
for your second.

Speaker 6 (01:02:30):
You know, it's you had.

Speaker 4 (01:02:32):
I had sky next to Connecticut sun because you're thinking
about the sky, and I was like, oh, because the
sun is only in Connecticut.

Speaker 5 (01:02:38):
There's no sun on.

Speaker 6 (01:02:39):
The West coun burning hots.

Speaker 5 (01:02:42):
But yeah, I just was like the sun.

Speaker 4 (01:02:44):
But I felt the same way with the sky, and
I clearly should have used it.

Speaker 5 (01:02:49):
That's that's what got him.

Speaker 10 (01:02:52):
I think I think I picked at some scabs with.

Speaker 6 (01:02:55):
This being the judge is no fun. It's three people hate.

Speaker 10 (01:03:00):
If your TikTok.

Speaker 12 (01:03:01):
Happens to me every Monday, well it happened to you
earlier this hour with your Roethlisberger theme.

Speaker 10 (01:03:05):
So that's a good point.

Speaker 6 (01:03:06):
Sure, it's called balance, right, it's a good temple we've
got here.

Speaker 9 (01:03:10):
If