May 3, 2024 • 38 mins
Firebirds move to 2-0. The difference between Albany, Nashville and the AFL so far this season Knicks take down Sixers in six games Lakers fire Darvin Ham... why?!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Clavac and Goz on ninety five nineFox Sports Radio. Ah, what is
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this? What does it smell?I spell? Oh, it's excellence,
just excellence. That's the studio.He's smells. Smell of excellence, not
just following me around, said yesterday, just been following me around and where
I go, I smell excellence.Welcome back, by the way, second
time I've seen I've seen you inperson. It's it's Slovak and Goz.
Like Callie said, Fox Sports ninetyfive, that scent is not just the
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studio, but is it? Isthat a two and old record for the
al Many Firebirds, the undefeated neverlost a many Firebirds. That's right,
that's right, my friend, thedamon waar Lad Darius Prince, Jake Medlock
lead owned by three amazing local businessmenMike Quarda, Andy Gelcher. Richie says,
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not, yeah, that's that's that'sthat smell. Get a whiff,
breathe it in. My voice isgone, doesn't care dealing with this,
whatever the hell it is. Giveme a raspy void. Lady. Hello,
ladies, Hello, that's val Venusright there, It's Jeff Venus.
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That's new. It's a whole newone. You are ready? Two?
And oh how about that? Yeah? Two crazy games in a row,
two like classic games in a row. Two times the NFL networks has peed
down their legs because they they didn'ttrust us. I know there's other teams
in the league that don't deserve yourtrust. We deserve your trust. We
earned your trust. We're here foryou, I said, joking to Uh.
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I called him. I called himformer vice president President Hobart Alum,
Matt Woods. I believe his girlfriend'sname is Leah by the way, right,
that's wonderful, Leah the beautiful.I saw them in the stairwell and
he was all excited about saying,oh gods, man, I was bummed.
I want to hear you on NFLnetworking. Actually I'm the reason the
game's not on. And I thinkfor a second he knew I was joking,
but I didn't see him in somelong He's like, wait, yo,
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did something happened. So next timeyou see Matt and Leah, tell
them that's actually not my fault.I think he's concerned about it. No,
he's not. He's over No.It was awesome, man, it
was It was cool. It wasweird because I like Jeff Fisher was in
the building. I never saw him. I know that he was there,
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and I'm go, I didn't seehim because I would have felt the need
to. I would have felt theneed to call him, you know,
captain seven and nine or nine andseven, you think you're a president of
Fish, I mean, call himcoach or anything. No, well,
I wouldn't call him any of that. I would call him, uh,
mister mediocre. Yeah, because that'swhat he was. Okay, No,
like there was. It was crazinessbefore the game. So anybody who's been
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watching the AFL, the football sucked. They're good collectible footballs, they're awesome
looking. The actual football's not thefootball on the field, the sport of
football, you mean the physical brokeand leather stitch together lace is on the
top AFL logos. They're just notwhat we thought they were supposed to be.
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They're not what we So we made. We we called the league,
We called everybody that we could,and we said, look, if we
can get a comparable Wilson football,because Wilson makes the football, get it
approved, can we can we playwith these? And the league was like
fine, yeah, go ahead.Other teams were fine, go ahead.
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So Nashville tries to push back.They're like, no, no, no,
we didn't practice these footballs. Sowe let them use the footballs during
their warm ups. They're like andthe quarterback Everbody's like, yeah, we're
using these footballs, like these arebetter for their good footballs. So so
we go to do because we don'tget like ten of them. We gave
if you got one of those balls, we gave you one of the AFL
balls, like the actual the officialgame ball, which is a great ball
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to play around within your yard orhave on a mantle with an autograph,
but not good enough for pro footballplayers like Jake Medlock and Darius Prince and
Mark Rosco. So like they triedto fight that. Then there was they
tried to push back on substitutions,which is ironman football and the substitution rules.
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They wanted to just play. Theywanted to play indoor football where you
don't substitute the way the way wewon in twenty one. They wanted to
play that kind of football. We'relike, no, no, no,
no, no, no, it'siron man. We built this team for
this. I mean, daven't wheredid all the work, but we you
know, and It was back andforth a lot before the game, a
lot of gazership, a lot ofgazership before the game, but ultimately the
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style of football that was presented andsold to the fans was played and we
came out triumphants we should. Inthese conversations we have about the Firebirds,
at times it will feel awkward fornot just you because you're doing the dual
role of a president but also aradio host. But for me sometimes like
moments like this are awkward for mebecause I know the answer to some of
these things, but somebody listening isgoing to get really confused. So I
have to almost think of the mindof the listener who wants to find out
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to answers. So I asked thisto be not insulting, but just because
they know someone's gonna ask the questionthat you just answered, how are those
things not figured out? They arethough they are, okay, explain that
because I think some people are like, wait, how did the football and
the rules not get figured out betweenthese teams in week one Week two.
The one of the cool things abouta league this size and this you know
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of this level, is if something'snot right, you can change it like
you can vote on it, youcan change it and get it done.
We're all we're all available. LikeI've been on a bunch of nine o'clock
at night phone calls. The footballswere shipping issue, so they're not they're
not the exact they are. Basically, what happened is everybody agree we're gonna
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change football at the end of theyear, and Mike and everybody on Albany
was like, why wait if wecan get them and they match the specs.
The specs are the same, butit's a better football. Can we
use it? And no one pushedback until they had to come play as
I was like, oh man,I don't know about that, but I
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think what I think at this moment, I'm not speaking out of school saying
that the league's going through some things. You know you got Iowa said they're
out. They're accusing the league ofwhatever. Philadelphia's I think, changing ownership.
There's some things going on in theleague, the smaller teams. So
this is the moment where smart peoplewho may or may not may or may
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not love the way the game isplayed are pushing back right now. So
a guy like Jeff Fisher and theNational Cats who are more familiar with indoor
football, not arena football, arepushing back and they're trying to get it
played that way. And the interestingthat and I will tell you that the
game they played in Nashville, theyhad good reason because it was it was
an ugly game until they till theydid that. They cleaned it up by
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doing that. Luckily here we wereable to help them get there, so
we but it was like everything wentbetter here, but it was everybody's everybody's
trying to do what they think isright and it's just not But it's just
not gonna happen in our expense.The biggest flex as people like to use
now, the biggest thing for theAlbany Firebird franchise from last night's game that
will stick around, hopefully for weeksand months to come, is a storyline
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for the twenty twenty four season istwo things. One, Nashville destroyed Minnesota
in Week one. So the storylinegoing into the game was that is Nashville
really this good or is Minnesota maybestruggling or not that good? It seems
like and albody will find out theanswer is you guys got Minnesota. I
believe in the next game. Thenext away game coming up right. Yeah,
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so the myth is the next teamon the schedule. Nashville got tested
by Albany, so it seems likeNashville's likely. If we did power rankings
of the AFL, I would putthem third behind Alberdy in Orlando right now.
But they're a very good team.That defensive line in that second ear
are some of the best players I'veseen step on the turf in about six
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years. Here Fast Howard up front. I compare them to Joe Sykes on
the broadcast. That's how good thisdude is playing up front, the big
man number nine, that's how goodhe was. So Nashville's got some players.
They got some speed in the backfieldand everything else. And their kicker
was doing some things that if youhaven't watched in an Arena Football League game,
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bouncing, I'll do a crossbar comparison. I think it's easier to digest
for some people haven't followed arena footballas closely. Imagine there's a hitter that
knows how to hit it off theGreen Monster at Fenway, and when he
hits it, he can also throwoff the outfielder. That's what the kicker
was doing. Clark for Nashville.Poor Markel Wade couldn't do anything about it.
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Ball was kicked over his head.I had to go up played off
the net. Well, So everyplay was exciting in that game, like
o to the half. We're uptwenty to seven with under a minute left.
Because of the kicks, we endup going into the half down twenty
one to twenty. Like that's that'show that's how different this game is when
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you use the right rules. Now, mind you, we come back out,
Mark Rosco beautiful kick hits the bottombarrier of the of the nets,
bounces up in the air like twofeet, just like just a little like
whoop rouge. We tackled the dudein the end zones one point. Now
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the game is tied. Here wecome. Mark kicks a deuce, first
deuce of the season, I believe, by the way, better footballs,
and the we just start going.Now we're going. They make a little
comeback late in the game, butDarius Prince was on one. Jake Medlock
and the quarterback and Darius Prince thegoat are now starting to sync up,
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and it's and it's beautiful. Thatwas the second storyline from the game.
Last night, five touchdowns for DariusPrince, where he is the best player
in the Arena Football League. Alot of fans of the All but the
Empire, the first in Car,I should say, the second incarnation of
this. They remember Malachai Jones isa dominant player on the outside. But
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this is the first time that allmany fans have seen Darius Prince is an
Arena Football League player wearing the hometeam's uniform. They might remember him when
he played for the Soul. Theymight remember him following the coverage you go
on for other teams for the AFL, the AFL because the al did play
arena rules. Yes, yes,it says the AFL, I should say,
so this is the first time fansget to see Darius Prince at that
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level and watch him still dominate.And it's not just he's fasting everybody else.
It's catches along the boards, onehanded catches, beating a guy.
It's not just one skill set he'sbetter than than anybody else in the league.
It was a bunch of different plays. And the consecutive scoring street continues
to eleven straight possessions with a touchdownmight be thirteen. It's something outrageous that
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every time albody's had the football thisseason on offense, they have scored a
touchdown. Yeah, pretty good.There were some cool stuff that happened as
the game went on that like youwouldn't have picked up on unless you were
down where I was. So iflaid in the game, is seal it
up. Jake Medlock, the quarterback, runs in a touchdown. He saw
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it out, he went for thehead. He looked like instead of diving
left, which he could have doneand got in the end zone, he
drove right and went right into thedefender, scored the touchdown, came running
over to ownership, which you know, all three of the guys are right
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there, scra and now he's notas doing what they're doing. Everybody's doing
what they're doing. Darius Prince runsover, pulls his helmet up just enough
not to break the rules. AndyGelcher, who took everybody out for a
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nice steak dinner after our last lastvictory, pulls his own just enough,
goes Danny Glcher goes, we're goingto sis. Pulled this down with down
ran away and then we're in theback and he goes and he looked at
Jake and went, well, Iguess, I guess we gotta go back
to you know, have a steak, and Jake goes. Jake Medlock,
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quarterback just won game, kicks thedoor in the locker room, open door
shuts. You hear him, yellall of your everbody cheer. They're because
they all get to go up anothersteak dinner and celebrate. Yeah, it
was like, that's gonna be.The symbol of this team is steak,
like it just let them eat steak. Like that's gonna be because these guys
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they know that when they win,they're gonna take care of better than anybody's
ever take care of their lives.Andy Geltcher is a mad man. If
you need reasons to root for thisteam, how about a moment like that
where, uh my wife has toldme this about she works with kids,
where it's still the great incentive forkids is candy or some type of staff.
I remember it was a fribble thatif you made a great play on
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Scout team, coach would get youa fribble, you know, like the
milkshake. I remember a helmet stickerwas a huge deal. The fact that
pro athletes are still easily incentivized byhood makes them so likable. I love
a story like that. Well,and and let's be clear, they don't
always get this, like we've alwaysdone good things for them, like we've
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always tried to take better care ofour players than everyone else did. Andy
Kelcher is insane. Andy Elcher isin the best possible way, and Mike
corn is right there with him,and Richie's right there with him. But
Andy's the ringleader of this. That'slike, no, no, we did
good. Let's go, let's let'scelebrate this, let's utilize Let's like these
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guys have been busting their butts forsome of them ten fifteen years at you
know, some form of indoor arenafootball level. I guarantee you none of
them have ever been to the kindof dinner that Andy took everybody. Andy
and Mike took everybody to after thefirst victory, and they they appreciate being
taken good care of. I knowyou told that story because you want to
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talk about the Firebirds and being twoand oh and what it means to the
local community and what it means topeople like Andy who have invested. Morton
Steakhouse was an amazing host, Yes, amazing shout out to all those things
that happened. But I have afeeling the last three or four minutes of
this conversation in about two weeks mightbe the most downloaded and listened to three
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minute segment in the history of theshow on the Fox Sports side. Because
this is not to bring down themood, but we want to talk about
irony right now. In the ArenaFootball League. You just told the story
about the two to zero Firebirds teamowner taking the winning team out to a
steak dinner. Yes, let's justsay there's other players in the league who
would enjoy that setup in a muchdifferent spot than they could be in right
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now. That's not the rubbing anybodysays that was not the attend of that
sort that story is. Look whatyou've said from preseason, Lovac, how
Albany's treated the best athletes in theleague, and how other cities and ownership
groups have treated their players in theleague. It's it's amazing to me because
I can tell you for a factthat our ownership group cares more than any
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other ownership group. Then Jackson wasup there. I'm not gonna lie like
they always were up there. Butwhen it comes to safety and the actual
nuts and bolts of the game.Mike Cord is an advocate beyond all advocates,
Like it's I can tell you timesthat I would be about to order
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something and then he would read areview on it. Then it wasn't as
safe as something else, and thatsomething else was out of our budget,
and he would find a way toput it in our budget. And then
Richie, like, while we're tryingto get the field right and everything right,
he's finding these logistical ways to getthings done so the guys get exactly
what they need to play on.And then there's Andy Golcher and you know,
you and I have worked with Andythrough Mohawk for a long time,
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and Andy sees the world in avery different way than I expect people who
have Like when you think of somebodywho owns a dealership and owns these things
and and you know, becomes partof a football team, you don't envision
them at being one of the guys. You don't. You don't envision that,
but he is. That's who heis. Now. He's the boss.
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You're something wrong, he will he'llhe'll crack down, but he's but
at the same time, he's oneof the guys and he knows what it
means to them to be rewarded fortheir actions and and it's just it's really
it's touching. I literally, asthe team president, as the guy who
sees the bank accounts, I literallyhave to pull any aside one point and
go dial it back, dial itback, like like, let's let's can
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we just can we set it likea certain level where you know, we're
not just going crazy. And he'slike, no, no, I'm want
these these guys are going to warfor us, and we're gonna they're gonna
know that we appreciate them. Youknow. I I did get him to
limit major, major things until achampionship. But these guys, like they
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just they see it, you know, they see it. They just see
what's going on out there. Andthese players, some are new, they're
ruined. They're ruined. If you'rea rookie and this and you think this
is how every team in the leagueis gonna treat you, you're ruined.
The rest of them have been doingit for a while. Darius Princes,
Dwayne Hollis's, Jake Medlocks of theWorld or said there going, Sean Brown's
They're just like this was up.It's becoming very cliche thing that coaches love
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to say. And I know I'vesaid the story before, but I think
it really sums up last night's AlbanyFirebird game and the overall organization. And
again, what's happening is the socialmedia nonsense across in twenty twenty four.
Control the controllables. Levatt can't controlwhat's going on in the league. He's
the team president of a team.That all, but he can't control what's
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going on across the country. Allall but he can do. And all
you could do is the Capitol Regionalsports can't well. As a Capitol Region
sports fan, you can go outand support the Firebirds the next weekend game
the next or tuning their at home, or root the team on FOALM on
social media like any other team.We're gonna talk about today, and we
got the Knicks coming up in alittle bit and all the local teams,
the firewelves will talk about them andscan any wall but Internet. You can
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control supporting the team, having positiveenergy. The ownership group can control how
they can treat it players. That'sall we can talk about what all mony
can do and what they can control, because everything else is out of Albanies.
Can't worry about anything else. Yougotta worry about yourself and how you
treat people. I'll do this.The vision, the dream that we were
presented by the AFL, I verymuch love, I very much believe in,
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and I will fight to have thatbe part of what we do.
But you know this, and Iused to get I actually got in trouble
for saying this, not locally,but when we brought the other team,
I've always I've always admired the teamsthat never went away, that were not
dependent on any one league, Likewhen the AFL went away, the Predators
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kept playing. You know, theSharks keep playing like I admire that.
I want that. I would loveto tell you twenty five years from now
that we just want our you know, fifteenth AFL championship or something like that.
But I will tell you this rightnow, without a doubt, whatever
league we're in, where I'm goinganywhere. These three owners want this forever,
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and I love it, and theseguys want to play here forever.
So I've been telling you it's alwaysAlbany. It's all I know is we're
joking you and I've been joking,and it'll come up again. I don't
even know what else is going onin the world because all I've been doing
is focused on trying to do myjob with the Firebirds. Well I do
know, you know this that theKnicks won last night. The game aired
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right here on Fox Sports twenty five, nine to ninety. The end was
after the Firebirds wrapped up because Igot home, I know, I got
to recap all the action and watchit later on the old on demand set.
So let's talk about the next.I think people might even be surprised
we didn't leave with the next today, but when local and big wins
happened, we lead with that.So let's talk about the Nicks next.
Right here on your home for thenext Fox Sports twenty five, nine to
nine eighty. Slovak and Gaze onthe Voice of the Capitol Regions Sports Fan
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Fox Sports ninety five to nine andnine eighty live from the GT Toys Studio.
That's Toys with a Z. Thisis the GT Toy Studio. It's
been a wile so they've been here. Yes, yes it was. You
have a little haunting feel there.With a raspy voice. It sounded like
a like a throwback horror movie.You know it was not a We just
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had twenty solid minutes on the Firebirds. You know, no, no,
no, it was a compliment struggle. Right, let's talk about the Nicks.
They have punched their ticket to theconference semi finals. I was wrong
about this. You were right aboutthis. This was a wild game,
Like it feels like every game hasbeen in this series. But clutch plays
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in the fourth Quarterlevak, which hasbeen the overall theme of this Nick team.
That's so different from Knicks teams inthe past. Big shots at the
end on the road, the Knickstake down the Sixers in this series,
man, I was there was apoint where I was getting really nervous towards
the end because again, this thingit was it was a tail of like
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six different games. It felt likethere would be the charge, then the
advance for the other team, andthe charge back the advanced it was.
It was really impressive they were ableto hold on and win. This thing
did go into the bench. Stilldidn't bring out the big sneeze. I
don't know what. I don't knowwhat pressures that you was done, but
it was you know, Jalen Brunsonat its finest today You're seeing the debate,
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see the best Nick player since WaltFrazier, you know, over Mellow
and Ewing ya all the way back. I always leading the NBAME playoff scoring,
but that stat can get stats inthe postseason is odd track. But
dude, that's gosh, that's abig, big ask, maybe best guard.
I can't put him over Ewing untilhe does something Ewing didn't do,
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and that's win a championship. Solike, that's that's the one that like,
like, bring me a championship andI'll put you over you Ing.
But like, right now, I'msorry, he's better than Mellow. Now,
let's not get crazy. You wouldif both in their prime right now,
you would take Mellow over Jalen Brunson. Let's not make the conversation about
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that. It's not even close.It's Mellow by far. But I don't
want to even make that conversation.Jalen Brunson's won one playoff series with the
Knicks. Let's not make it aboutMelo versus Brunson. I think, I
mean, that's what it is.We're talking. We're talking he's he's a
special player. He makes everyone better. I would say what Jalen Brunson did
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post game got me really excited.He did the postgame conversation with Kenny Smith
and Barkley and Brunson seems to bethe guy who has like the no nonsense,
like always looks fierce look on hisface, and he actually opened up
a little bit. I know hedoes it with his teammates and like the
podcast, and he doesn't in postgamepress conferences. But the fact that Kenny
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Smith gets on the head, he'slike Kenny Kenny twenty sixteen. We're here
in Philly. The banner's up there. Who they play in the game.
Kenny Smith beat a Carolina love givingit to him. So brunts it in
this great mood, willing to celebrateleading the NBA and scoring, having the
big shots, all these things thatthe Knicks could have potentially choked the way,
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could have potentially not made the plays. At the end, it was
New York hit in the big shots, Josh Hart with that massive three.
Shout out to Pat o'keef and MonicaMcNutt bringing all the energy on the radio
side broadcast. What a great teamto listen to. They were better than
Philadelphia. Now it's not even inBead getting the most heat today in Philly.
Either it's Tobias Harris, who playedclose to thirty minutes and scored zero
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points in that game. It's NickNurse, and everybody looks like punks right
now doing the postgame press conference andeverything else. It looks like the Philadelphia
seventy six or roster who right nowgoing into next season, only has two
guys under contract. That's right,two guys, and one of them is
Embiid, who's do fifty million dollars. Oh yeah, And one other thing
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to note on Tobias Harris, whoscored zero points in that game. He's
a guy who just made forty milliondollars and just made over two hundred and
forty in his career, Tobias Harris. So, Philly's got a lot of
issues. The fact that that happened. New York be thankful. It's not
that bad the Knicks. And let'sadd this, they get the Pacers,
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well, fact, they get theDana Pacers, not the Milwaukee Bucks.
In the semi final matchup. AfterIndiana takes down Milwaukee, Damian Lillard,
what a weird year in Milwaukee.Complain anybody, he's got nothing to do.
Eh, And all of a suddenMilwaukee gets knocked up. That's about
as great as the night as youwant for a Knicks fan in a long,
long, long time. I couldhave used the blowout, you know,
I'm sorry. A couple less pointsfrom Embiid would have a nice I
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want to hit my my Nick Kickerparlay. But but no, it was
it was special and like this teamis just that, it's a team,
and that's why if they can keepthis up, there's really no limit to
where they can go. Pacers arescary. Let's not pretend the Pacers can't
play basketball. They can. They'llsixth seed, I know, but they're
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a good team. I need tosee the Knicks put somebody away, like
I need to see it over earlyin the fourth quarter against the Pacers at
least once or twice, and thenI'll start thinking about Boston because I think
this is this is a team thatcan give Boston a series. I don't
know if they can beat them,but they could give Boston a series.
But they got it. Whatever itis in them that keeps letting the seventy
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six ers back in the games,they cannot let the Pacers back in the
games. They're they're younger, they'redeeper, they're healthier. Yeah, that
is gonna be that storyline in thisseries coming up. By the way,
actually gets underway on Monday, sothey get a little bit time to breathe.
If you're a Knicks fan, Mondayare covered set to the game underway.
It's seven tip off set for seventhirty in game one on that series
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between Indiana. So yeah, I'mwith you on that storyline of how can
New York hang on to leads?How can New York continue to match up?
Can they just trade to outshoot Indiana? Can de Vincenzo do that?
Can Josh Hart continue to grow andnot be six foot four at least he
doesn't act like that on the court. That will be a very intriguing series.
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But today's a day to celebrate.If you are a New York Knicks
fan. You are the underdog inthis series against the team that nobody wanted
to face. You had a massive, blown lead in the game before,
talked about in the same breath asthe Reggie Miller choke job in ninety four
and others, and you flip itaround, win the game, win the
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series, and advance. They're thenumber two seed, which again traditionally if
you're the two seed, the expectationwould be to get to the conference finals.
And there's still that chip on theshoulder. Don't trust them, not
quite sure yet involved in this NewYork team, and I believe you've seen
that dominant and we haven't seen wehaven't seen this since what Villanova? Because
again Villanova, John, they weren'tthe team that had all the stars.
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You knew who Brunson was, youknew who Heart and Deevin chansenw was you
didn't know and what Devin Chandswell actuallymade his name the year after, but
like you didn't. None of themwere the guys where you're like, oh,
these guys are dominators. This isbad. They were the team they
played team basketball. We're not usedto that anymore. Just the fourth playoff
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series win for the New York Knickssince the year two thousand, no one
of them game last year just great. But the Knicks franchise heading in the
right direction. How about that?The New York Knicks making the biggest headlines
in the NBA for winning basketball games. I love it. Let's keep it
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going like this is there's some magicto it. Actually see you know,
are you curious what the major winnerparlays. Oh if those who don't know,
usually you might not be listening thistime slot. With the back update,
Levac has a parlay going that theRangers, Knicks, and Yankees would
all be champions this year. Allright, so it's an eighteen dollars parlay
(28:12):
to start twenty five twenty five.They aren't, they're not. They're not
enticing me to buy out yet.What like if it's supposedly it's like a
fifty thousand dollars parlay forty forty nineand change, what would a number?
What's the number where you where youbue out? Uh? That gotta be
a comma right, Yeah. Seethe hard part about that is that if
(28:34):
I had to pick a champion ofthose three, the Rangers would be the
one. But you don't know therange. The Ranger season is more likely
to go on that parlay. I'dhave to be like three grand to get
out if I don't know the resultsof the games. Deed, If then
what you're asking, right, you'reasking me, with these teams all still
in play, what number would makeme dive out? I'd say three grand.
(28:56):
Doing the math of what your payoutwould be at fifty thousand dollars thinking
that teams are now advancing in therounds. The Yankee one harder to read
because they're not in the postseason they'reso early. But I wouldn't touch one
with that potential of them still winningthe championship till you get to like a
massive two percent of the playoffs.Pretty good. Yeah, I would say
about three grand. One percent wouldbe fifty thousand, probably eighteen hundred,
(29:19):
ten times in the investment. Iprobably would have to Okay, I have
to think about it at least,you know, Yeah, I think I
think I said one percent. Onethousand dollars of the fifty thousand would be
two percent. Yeah, I wouldjust say ten times. Oh, I
feel pretty good. I probably fail. Second, there's a common and be
(29:40):
like, ah, I haven't cashanything that big legally, I mean,
ever ever that big. So I'dhave to think about it, think about
that. But realistically, realistic expectationfor the next how far conference finals.
I'll still stick by the conference finals. You and I talked about this through
February and March and April, thatif you get to the conference finals,
you're willing to see what happens inthe Boston Series. The toughest obstacle that
(30:03):
it's always been for the draw wasthat if the Knicks got the Bucks,
and at that point it was pacingfor the Knicks to be the three or
the four rather than the two,that if you get Milwaukee in the semi
finals, that's a tough matchup.However, not a healthy Greek freak,
not a healthy Liard. Indiana wasprobably next up. You could have faced
off Indiana in the four to fiveat one point, which would have been
a coin flip series, but yougot home court advantage. You're playing better
(30:26):
than Indiana. Indiana benefited, nodoubt from the Buck injury. So it's
a little harder for a team toread. You could make a really good
case right now of all the teams, and I know the Clippers and MAVs.
We can get to them later.Magic calves will get to them later.
As of the teams who would haveadvanced Thunder, Timberwolves, Nuggets,
Knicks, and Celtics, the hardestteam of them to read is the Pacers.
Okay, because the Wolves dominated theSuns. The Nuggets have always been
(30:51):
better than the Lakers. The Thunderare supposed to sweep. The eight seed
is a one seed and the Celticsare supposed to blow out an eight seed.
How good is Indiana? Is itbecause they were missing their best players?
Are they that good? That's thetoughest team to read of the squads
who have advanced so far in theNBA playoffs. All right, so get
through this and we went at all? Okay, all right? I agree?
(31:11):
All right, good there talk.There is another storyline that's taking over
the world of sports from the NBA'sa national storyline. Let's get to that
next Fox Sports ninety five, nineand nine to eighty. It's Lavak and
Guz on ninety five to nine FoxSports Radio. Nothing better than working with
a co host who's a team presidentmidseason. Lavac is taking a call right
(31:33):
now, he's waving me off.That's okay, no' sorry, we only
got a few minutes here in thehour. I will handle this. I
will talk about some of the breakingnews. We're gonna get it to the
top forward for the four bigges storiesin the world sports coming up an hour
number two. But this is oneof these moments where this story would probably
not have made the top forward foryou though what happened earlier, because it's
such a packed weekend Friday's Joe,So I could just discuss it right now
(31:53):
that no, no, you're good, You're good. That Los Angeles Lakers
have announced earlier today that they firedhead coach Darvin Ham after two seasons back
to back seasons, the Lakers areknocked out of the postseason by the Denver
Nuggets. The Nuggets win the championshipin twenty twenty three, two buzzer beaters,
and more Lakers get knocked off inI'm borderline shocked if this happened,
(32:15):
because Frank Vogel helped the Lakers wina championship in twenty twenty and he got
fired in twenty twenty two. ThenDarvin Ham gets hired and because he lost
to the eventual NBA champions potentially twoseasons in a row, he's getting canned.
Gosh, Lebron James now in histwenty plus year career, has six
(32:40):
head coaches that have been fired.Now, if you're a Lebron hater or
you just maybe you just want totell the truth, Lebron has had six
head coaches fired that he's played for. Vogel, Ham, Mike Brown,
David Blatt, Tyron lew a missingone. Gosh, it's gonna drive me
nuts all day. I know I'mmissing one more in that mix of coaches
(33:02):
he's had canned. So they didn'twin the championship. So Lebron's the hardest
athlete to coach? Is that anend all be all? It's done.
Like I want to say, it'sKyrie or Kevin Durant or somebody else.
You could point to other sports likefootball or baseball and say somebody, The
answer is Lebron. They didn't winthe championship. It's the LA Lakers.
(33:22):
Colin Coward said it before us.It's so true. It's one of the
few markets, maybe the only marketthat is a professional football team in a
professional basketball team, and the basketballteam is more popular in the city than
the football team. In the yeartwenty twenty four, the Lakers have had
(33:43):
more of a tradition than the Ramsand the Charters and everybody else. And
it's a Laker town for sure inLA. But what makes us even more
interesting is that is it even thefuture of Lebron in the Laker uniform,
the purple and gold. We sawthis already happen in Lebron James remember when
he was playing for the Heat.Now he won two championships with the Heat.
(34:05):
Lebron two titles with the Heat,one with the Cavaliers, one with
the Lakers. History could tell usyounger sports fan when they evaluate the legacy
and career of Lebron James. Somesports fans are gonna scratch their head,
be like, why didn't he staywith the Heat? He won the most
championships there, that team was stacked. He went back to Cleveland for what
to constantly get beat by the Warriorsexcept one of the greatest comebacks in history
(34:29):
to win a championship for the Lakersin the COVID season. Why did he
leave the Heat? But remember thatfinal season with the Heat before he took
off, and pat Riley schenected hisown was upset about and rightfully so.
He was tweeting during the NBA draftand said the Heat should get Shabaz Napier
from Yukon when they won the championshipthat year and they drafted Shipaz Napier and
(34:50):
then Lebron left. Anyways, thisfeels like the Lakers are doing the same
thing. Hey, Darvin Ham's notthe head coach. Whether Lebron said that
to ownership, wh said that tomanagement they needed to entice forty year old
Lebron one more time to come backto LA. Whether that's because of showtime
or the business or anything else,it looks like it feels like, Lebron,
(35:15):
we want you back. If you'regonna do the retirement tour. We
don't want you to do it asa member the Wizards or the Hawks or
somebody else. We want to behere in Los Angeles to sell tickets and
give you the proper send off withthe goodbye. What can help you make
that happen? Oh, you wantto pick the next head coach. You
want to figure out the guy who'sgonna lead it. Oh, the incentive
(35:36):
is that the coach has to playyour son, deal Lebron. The fact
that Lebron still has that type ofpower at forty years old. Could I
be proven wrong? Sure, maybewe'll find out Lebron's leaving the Lakers and
they were all set up. ButI got twenty years of examples of Lebron
set in the tone of how afranchise is gonna run because of his super
stardom. Why would I think somethingdifferent in your twenty one or twenty time
(36:00):
I'm shocked Darwinham's fired. I understandthe expectations of the Lakers, but gosh,
man, like, when you're associatedwith Lebron and the expectation is that
high, it's just championship or bust. Even if it's a rational, who
are they gonna hire. They're gonnahire Lebron's high school coach? Who was
(36:22):
he coaching up Oakland at one point? Wasn't that the dude from Saint Vince
Saint Mary? Is that a differentguy Detroit Mercy that might have been the
coach for Lebron? It's insane.We don't know if he's signing back for
the Lakers. Darvingham fire man.I feel like he's actually gonna get another
opportunity in the league two. Hewas like, you hot, can't miss
(36:42):
assistant, and everyone thought was gonnamake the difference, and instead he's out
the door. So we have thetop four to four, so we will
not be talking Lakers with Levac comingup at the top four four, but
we're gonna talk a lot of local, a lot of NBA, Kentucky Derby
baseball. We got all that stuffcoming up in the top four to four
before we get to hourver too.To tell you about our friend Drew Prescott.
Prescott PW dot com is the placefor you if you're looking to start
(37:06):
figuring out, Hey, uh,what am I gonna do with these assets
that I've acquired. Maybe you're somebodywho's worked for twenty five thirty years and
you've continued to grow your profile andmore. How are you gonna spend it
over the next few decades? Gottwo hundred and fifty thousand plus and all
of a sudden you're like, Ihave these assets to use, What do
I do with him? And whodo I work with? You want to
work with Drew Prescott five one eighttwo oh three nineteen eighty three. Five
(37:28):
one eight two oh three nineteen eightythree, that's the number you call to
get a hold of Drew. Andis Lavaka always likes to say when he
clicks on our team, it's Drue. Drew is the guy who's gonna work
with you to continue to make surehe's the one who's making the decisions for
you for the future. PRESCOTTPW dotcom. In Prescott PW dot com,
great guy, you're gonna sit downwith lunch, dinner, whatever he might
(37:49):
be, He's gonna talk, Okay, what do you think could be some
of the strength for you. Drew'sgonna find out, he's gonna give you
some advice, and then all ofa sudden you go forward. Prescottpw dot
com Top four to four on theway next, Fox Sports thirty five, nine eighty
Clavac and Goz on ninety five nineFox Sports Radio. Ah, what is
(00:08):
this? What does it smell?I spell? Oh, it's excellence,
just excellence. That's the studio.He's smells. Smell of excellence, not
just following me around, said yesterday, just been following me around and where
I go, I smell excellence.Welcome back, by the way, second
time I've seen I've seen you inperson. It's it's Slovak and Goz.
Like Callie said, Fox Sports ninetyfive, that scent is not just the
(00:29):
studio, but is it? Isthat a two and old record for the
al Many Firebirds, the undefeated neverlost a many Firebirds. That's right,
that's right, my friend, thedamon waar Lad Darius Prince, Jake Medlock
lead owned by three amazing local businessmenMike Quarda, Andy Gelcher. Richie says,
(00:51):
not, yeah, that's that's that'sthat smell. Get a whiff,
breathe it in. My voice isgone, doesn't care dealing with this,
whatever the hell it is. Giveme a raspy void. Lady. Hello,
ladies, Hello, that's val Venusright there, It's Jeff Venus.
(01:14):
That's new. It's a whole newone. You are ready? Two?
And oh how about that? Yeah? Two crazy games in a row,
two like classic games in a row. Two times the NFL networks has peed
down their legs because they they didn'ttrust us. I know there's other teams
in the league that don't deserve yourtrust. We deserve your trust. We
earned your trust. We're here foryou, I said, joking to Uh.
(01:38):
I called him. I called himformer vice president President Hobart Alum,
Matt Woods. I believe his girlfriend'sname is Leah by the way, right,
that's wonderful, Leah the beautiful.I saw them in the stairwell and
he was all excited about saying,oh gods, man, I was bummed.
I want to hear you on NFLnetworking. Actually I'm the reason the
game's not on. And I thinkfor a second he knew I was joking,
but I didn't see him in somelong He's like, wait, yo,
(01:59):
did something happened. So next timeyou see Matt and Leah, tell
them that's actually not my fault.I think he's concerned about it. No,
he's not. He's over No.It was awesome, man, it
was It was cool. It wasweird because I like Jeff Fisher was in
the building. I never saw him. I know that he was there,
(02:19):
and I'm go, I didn't seehim because I would have felt the need
to. I would have felt theneed to call him, you know,
captain seven and nine or nine andseven, you think you're a president of
Fish, I mean, call himcoach or anything. No, well,
I wouldn't call him any of that. I would call him, uh,
mister mediocre. Yeah, because that'swhat he was. Okay, No,
like there was. It was crazinessbefore the game. So anybody who's been
(02:44):
watching the AFL, the football sucked. They're good collectible footballs, they're awesome
looking. The actual football's not thefootball on the field, the sport of
football, you mean the physical brokeand leather stitch together lace is on the
top AFL logos. They're just notwhat we thought they were supposed to be.
(03:05):
They're not what we So we made. We we called the league,
We called everybody that we could,and we said, look, if we
can get a comparable Wilson football,because Wilson makes the football, get it
approved, can we can we playwith these? And the league was like
fine, yeah, go ahead.Other teams were fine, go ahead.
(03:25):
So Nashville tries to push back.They're like, no, no, no,
we didn't practice these footballs. Sowe let them use the footballs during
their warm ups. They're like andthe quarterback Everbody's like, yeah, we're
using these footballs, like these arebetter for their good footballs. So so
we go to do because we don'tget like ten of them. We gave
if you got one of those balls, we gave you one of the AFL
balls, like the actual the officialgame ball, which is a great ball
(03:46):
to play around within your yard orhave on a mantle with an autograph,
but not good enough for pro footballplayers like Jake Medlock and Darius Prince and
Mark Rosco. So like they triedto fight that. Then there was they
tried to push back on substitutions,which is ironman football and the substitution rules.
(04:08):
They wanted to just play. Theywanted to play indoor football where you
don't substitute the way the way wewon in twenty one. They wanted to
play that kind of football. We'relike, no, no, no,
no, no, no, it'siron man. We built this team for
this. I mean, daven't wheredid all the work, but we you
know, and It was back andforth a lot before the game, a
lot of gazership, a lot ofgazership before the game, but ultimately the
(04:30):
style of football that was presented andsold to the fans was played and we
came out triumphants we should. Inthese conversations we have about the Firebirds,
at times it will feel awkward fornot just you because you're doing the dual
role of a president but also aradio host. But for me sometimes like
moments like this are awkward for mebecause I know the answer to some of
these things, but somebody listening isgoing to get really confused. So I
have to almost think of the mindof the listener who wants to find out
(04:56):
to answers. So I asked thisto be not insulting, but just because
they know someone's gonna ask the questionthat you just answered, how are those
things not figured out? They arethough they are, okay, explain that
because I think some people are like, wait, how did the football and
the rules not get figured out betweenthese teams in week one Week two.
The one of the cool things abouta league this size and this you know
(05:16):
of this level, is if something'snot right, you can change it like
you can vote on it, youcan change it and get it done.
We're all we're all available. LikeI've been on a bunch of nine o'clock
at night phone calls. The footballswere shipping issue, so they're not they're
not the exact they are. Basically, what happened is everybody agree we're gonna
(05:38):
change football at the end of theyear, and Mike and everybody on Albany
was like, why wait if wecan get them and they match the specs.
The specs are the same, butit's a better football. Can we
use it? And no one pushedback until they had to come play as
I was like, oh man,I don't know about that, but I
(05:58):
think what I think at this moment, I'm not speaking out of school saying
that the league's going through some things. You know you got Iowa said they're
out. They're accusing the league ofwhatever. Philadelphia's I think, changing ownership.
There's some things going on in theleague, the smaller teams. So
this is the moment where smart peoplewho may or may not may or may
(06:23):
not love the way the game isplayed are pushing back right now. So
a guy like Jeff Fisher and theNational Cats who are more familiar with indoor
football, not arena football, arepushing back and they're trying to get it
played that way. And the interestingthat and I will tell you that the
game they played in Nashville, theyhad good reason because it was it was
an ugly game until they till theydid that. They cleaned it up by
(06:45):
doing that. Luckily here we wereable to help them get there, so
we but it was like everything wentbetter here, but it was everybody's everybody's
trying to do what they think isright and it's just not But it's just
not gonna happen in our expense.The biggest flex as people like to use
now, the biggest thing for theAlbany Firebird franchise from last night's game that
will stick around, hopefully for weeksand months to come, is a storyline
(07:10):
for the twenty twenty four season istwo things. One, Nashville destroyed Minnesota
in Week one. So the storylinegoing into the game was that is Nashville
really this good or is Minnesota maybestruggling or not that good? It seems
like and albody will find out theanswer is you guys got Minnesota. I
believe in the next game. Thenext away game coming up right. Yeah,
(07:31):
so the myth is the next teamon the schedule. Nashville got tested
by Albany, so it seems likeNashville's likely. If we did power rankings
of the AFL, I would putthem third behind Alberdy in Orlando right now.
But they're a very good team.That defensive line in that second ear
are some of the best players I'veseen step on the turf in about six
(07:51):
years. Here Fast Howard up front. I compare them to Joe Sykes on
the broadcast. That's how good thisdude is playing up front, the big
man number nine, that's how goodhe was. So Nashville's got some players.
They got some speed in the backfieldand everything else. And their kicker
was doing some things that if youhaven't watched in an Arena Football League game,
(08:11):
bouncing, I'll do a crossbar comparison. I think it's easier to digest
for some people haven't followed arena footballas closely. Imagine there's a hitter that
knows how to hit it off theGreen Monster at Fenway, and when he
hits it, he can also throwoff the outfielder. That's what the kicker
was doing. Clark for Nashville.Poor Markel Wade couldn't do anything about it.
(08:33):
Ball was kicked over his head.I had to go up played off
the net. Well, So everyplay was exciting in that game, like
o to the half. We're uptwenty to seven with under a minute left.
Because of the kicks, we endup going into the half down twenty
one to twenty. Like that's that'show that's how different this game is when
(08:54):
you use the right rules. Now, mind you, we come back out,
Mark Rosco beautiful kick hits the bottombarrier of the of the nets,
bounces up in the air like twofeet, just like just a little like
whoop rouge. We tackled the dudein the end zones one point. Now
(09:15):
the game is tied. Here wecome. Mark kicks a deuce, first
deuce of the season, I believe, by the way, better footballs,
and the we just start going.Now we're going. They make a little
comeback late in the game, butDarius Prince was on one. Jake Medlock
and the quarterback and Darius Prince thegoat are now starting to sync up,
(09:37):
and it's and it's beautiful. Thatwas the second storyline from the game.
Last night, five touchdowns for DariusPrince, where he is the best player
in the Arena Football League. Alot of fans of the All but the
Empire, the first in Car,I should say, the second incarnation of
this. They remember Malachai Jones isa dominant player on the outside. But
(09:58):
this is the first time that allmany fans have seen Darius Prince is an
Arena Football League player wearing the hometeam's uniform. They might remember him when
he played for the Soul. Theymight remember him following the coverage you go
on for other teams for the AFL, the AFL because the al did play
arena rules. Yes, yes,it says the AFL, I should say,
so this is the first time fansget to see Darius Prince at that
(10:20):
level and watch him still dominate.And it's not just he's fasting everybody else.
It's catches along the boards, onehanded catches, beating a guy.
It's not just one skill set he'sbetter than than anybody else in the league.
It was a bunch of different plays. And the consecutive scoring street continues
to eleven straight possessions with a touchdownmight be thirteen. It's something outrageous that
(10:41):
every time albody's had the football thisseason on offense, they have scored a
touchdown. Yeah, pretty good.There were some cool stuff that happened as
the game went on that like youwouldn't have picked up on unless you were
down where I was. So iflaid in the game, is seal it
up. Jake Medlock, the quarterback, runs in a touchdown. He saw
(11:05):
it out, he went for thehead. He looked like instead of diving
left, which he could have doneand got in the end zone, he
drove right and went right into thedefender, scored the touchdown, came running
over to ownership, which you know, all three of the guys are right
(11:26):
there, scra and now he's notas doing what they're doing. Everybody's doing
what they're doing. Darius Prince runsover, pulls his helmet up just enough
not to break the rules. AndyGelcher, who took everybody out for a
(11:46):
nice steak dinner after our last lastvictory, pulls his own just enough,
goes Danny Glcher goes, we're goingto sis. Pulled this down with down
ran away and then we're in theback and he goes and he looked at
Jake and went, well, Iguess, I guess we gotta go back
to you know, have a steak, and Jake goes. Jake Medlock,
(12:07):
quarterback just won game, kicks thedoor in the locker room, open door
shuts. You hear him, yellall of your everbody cheer. They're because
they all get to go up anothersteak dinner and celebrate. Yeah, it
was like, that's gonna be.The symbol of this team is steak,
like it just let them eat steak. Like that's gonna be because these guys
(12:28):
they know that when they win,they're gonna take care of better than anybody's
ever take care of their lives.Andy Geltcher is a mad man. If
you need reasons to root for thisteam, how about a moment like that
where, uh my wife has toldme this about she works with kids,
where it's still the great incentive forkids is candy or some type of staff.
I remember it was a fribble thatif you made a great play on
(12:48):
Scout team, coach would get youa fribble, you know, like the
milkshake. I remember a helmet stickerwas a huge deal. The fact that
pro athletes are still easily incentivized byhood makes them so likable. I love
a story like that. Well,and and let's be clear, they don't
always get this, like we've alwaysdone good things for them, like we've
(13:09):
always tried to take better care ofour players than everyone else did. Andy
Kelcher is insane. Andy Elcher isin the best possible way, and Mike
corn is right there with him,and Richie's right there with him. But
Andy's the ringleader of this. That'slike, no, no, we did
good. Let's go, let's let'scelebrate this, let's utilize Let's like these
(13:31):
guys have been busting their butts forsome of them ten fifteen years at you
know, some form of indoor arenafootball level. I guarantee you none of
them have ever been to the kindof dinner that Andy took everybody. Andy
and Mike took everybody to after thefirst victory, and they they appreciate being
taken good care of. I knowyou told that story because you want to
(13:54):
talk about the Firebirds and being twoand oh and what it means to the
local community and what it means topeople like Andy who have invested. Morton
Steakhouse was an amazing host, Yes, amazing shout out to all those things
that happened. But I have afeeling the last three or four minutes of
this conversation in about two weeks mightbe the most downloaded and listened to three
(14:18):
minute segment in the history of theshow on the Fox Sports side. Because
this is not to bring down themood, but we want to talk about
irony right now. In the ArenaFootball League. You just told the story
about the two to zero Firebirds teamowner taking the winning team out to a
steak dinner. Yes, let's justsay there's other players in the league who
would enjoy that setup in a muchdifferent spot than they could be in right
(14:41):
now. That's not the rubbing anybodysays that was not the attend of that
sort that story is. Look whatyou've said from preseason, Lovac, how
Albany's treated the best athletes in theleague, and how other cities and ownership
groups have treated their players in theleague. It's it's amazing to me because
I can tell you for a factthat our ownership group cares more than any
(15:05):
other ownership group. Then Jackson wasup there. I'm not gonna lie like
they always were up there. Butwhen it comes to safety and the actual
nuts and bolts of the game.Mike Cord is an advocate beyond all advocates,
Like it's I can tell you timesthat I would be about to order
(15:26):
something and then he would read areview on it. Then it wasn't as
safe as something else, and thatsomething else was out of our budget,
and he would find a way toput it in our budget. And then
Richie, like, while we're tryingto get the field right and everything right,
he's finding these logistical ways to getthings done so the guys get exactly
what they need to play on.And then there's Andy Golcher and you know,
you and I have worked with Andythrough Mohawk for a long time,
(15:50):
and Andy sees the world in avery different way than I expect people who
have Like when you think of somebodywho owns a dealership and owns these things
and and you know, becomes partof a football team, you don't envision
them at being one of the guys. You don't. You don't envision that,
but he is. That's who heis. Now. He's the boss.
(16:11):
You're something wrong, he will he'llhe'll crack down, but he's but
at the same time, he's oneof the guys and he knows what it
means to them to be rewarded fortheir actions and and it's just it's really
it's touching. I literally, asthe team president, as the guy who
sees the bank accounts, I literallyhave to pull any aside one point and
go dial it back, dial itback, like like, let's let's can
(16:38):
we just can we set it likea certain level where you know, we're
not just going crazy. And he'slike, no, no, I'm want
these these guys are going to warfor us, and we're gonna they're gonna
know that we appreciate them. Youknow. I I did get him to
limit major, major things until achampionship. But these guys, like they
(17:02):
just they see it, you know, they see it. They just see
what's going on out there. Andthese players, some are new, they're
ruined. They're ruined. If you'rea rookie and this and you think this
is how every team in the leagueis gonna treat you, you're ruined.
The rest of them have been doingit for a while. Darius Princes,
Dwayne Hollis's, Jake Medlocks of theWorld or said there going, Sean Brown's
They're just like this was up.It's becoming very cliche thing that coaches love
(17:26):
to say. And I know I'vesaid the story before, but I think
it really sums up last night's AlbanyFirebird game and the overall organization. And
again, what's happening is the socialmedia nonsense across in twenty twenty four.
Control the controllables. Levatt can't controlwhat's going on in the league. He's
the team president of a team.That all, but he can't control what's
(17:48):
going on across the country. Allall but he can do. And all
you could do is the Capitol Regionalsports can't well. As a Capitol Region
sports fan, you can go outand support the Firebirds the next weekend game
the next or tuning their at home, or root the team on FOALM on
social media like any other team.We're gonna talk about today, and we
got the Knicks coming up in alittle bit and all the local teams,
the firewelves will talk about them andscan any wall but Internet. You can
(18:10):
control supporting the team, having positiveenergy. The ownership group can control how
they can treat it players. That'sall we can talk about what all mony
can do and what they can control, because everything else is out of Albanies.
Can't worry about anything else. Yougotta worry about yourself and how you
treat people. I'll do this.The vision, the dream that we were
presented by the AFL, I verymuch love, I very much believe in,
(18:33):
and I will fight to have thatbe part of what we do.
But you know this, and Iused to get I actually got in trouble
for saying this, not locally,but when we brought the other team,
I've always I've always admired the teamsthat never went away, that were not
dependent on any one league, Likewhen the AFL went away, the Predators
(18:57):
kept playing. You know, theSharks keep playing like I admire that.
I want that. I would loveto tell you twenty five years from now
that we just want our you know, fifteenth AFL championship or something like that.
But I will tell you this rightnow, without a doubt, whatever
league we're in, where I'm goinganywhere. These three owners want this forever,
(19:18):
and I love it, and theseguys want to play here forever.
So I've been telling you it's alwaysAlbany. It's all I know is we're
joking you and I've been joking,and it'll come up again. I don't
even know what else is going onin the world because all I've been doing
is focused on trying to do myjob with the Firebirds. Well I do
know, you know this that theKnicks won last night. The game aired
(19:40):
right here on Fox Sports twenty five, nine to ninety. The end was
after the Firebirds wrapped up because Igot home, I know, I got
to recap all the action and watchit later on the old on demand set.
So let's talk about the next.I think people might even be surprised
we didn't leave with the next today, but when local and big wins
happened, we lead with that.So let's talk about the Nicks next.
Right here on your home for thenext Fox Sports twenty five, nine to
nine eighty. Slovak and Gaze onthe Voice of the Capitol Regions Sports Fan
(20:03):
Fox Sports ninety five to nine andnine eighty live from the GT Toys Studio.
That's Toys with a Z. Thisis the GT Toy Studio. It's
been a wile so they've been here. Yes, yes it was. You
have a little haunting feel there.With a raspy voice. It sounded like
a like a throwback horror movie.You know it was not a We just
(20:23):
had twenty solid minutes on the Firebirds. You know, no, no,
no, it was a compliment struggle. Right, let's talk about the Nicks.
They have punched their ticket to theconference semi finals. I was wrong
about this. You were right aboutthis. This was a wild game,
Like it feels like every game hasbeen in this series. But clutch plays
(20:44):
in the fourth Quarterlevak, which hasbeen the overall theme of this Nick team.
That's so different from Knicks teams inthe past. Big shots at the
end on the road, the Knickstake down the Sixers in this series,
man, I was there was apoint where I was getting really nervous towards
the end because again, this thingit was it was a tail of like
(21:10):
six different games. It felt likethere would be the charge, then the
advance for the other team, andthe charge back the advanced it was.
It was really impressive they were ableto hold on and win. This thing
did go into the bench. Stilldidn't bring out the big sneeze. I
don't know what. I don't knowwhat pressures that you was done, but
it was you know, Jalen Brunsonat its finest today You're seeing the debate,
(21:33):
see the best Nick player since WaltFrazier, you know, over Mellow
and Ewing ya all the way back. I always leading the NBAME playoff scoring,
but that stat can get stats inthe postseason is odd track. But
dude, that's gosh, that's abig, big ask, maybe best guard.
I can't put him over Ewing untilhe does something Ewing didn't do,
(21:55):
and that's win a championship. Solike, that's that's the one that like,
like, bring me a championship andI'll put you over you Ing.
But like, right now, I'msorry, he's better than Mellow. Now,
let's not get crazy. You wouldif both in their prime right now,
you would take Mellow over Jalen Brunson. Let's not make the conversation about
(22:17):
that. It's not even close.It's Mellow by far. But I don't
want to even make that conversation.Jalen Brunson's won one playoff series with the
Knicks. Let's not make it aboutMelo versus Brunson. I think, I
mean, that's what it is.We're talking. We're talking he's he's a
special player. He makes everyone better. I would say what Jalen Brunson did
(22:38):
post game got me really excited.He did the postgame conversation with Kenny Smith
and Barkley and Brunson seems to bethe guy who has like the no nonsense,
like always looks fierce look on hisface, and he actually opened up
a little bit. I know hedoes it with his teammates and like the
podcast, and he doesn't in postgamepress conferences. But the fact that Kenny
(22:59):
Smith gets on the head, he'slike Kenny Kenny twenty sixteen. We're here
in Philly. The banner's up there. Who they play in the game.
Kenny Smith beat a Carolina love givingit to him. So brunts it in
this great mood, willing to celebrateleading the NBA and scoring, having the
big shots, all these things thatthe Knicks could have potentially choked the way,
(23:19):
could have potentially not made the plays. At the end, it was
New York hit in the big shots, Josh Hart with that massive three.
Shout out to Pat o'keef and MonicaMcNutt bringing all the energy on the radio
side broadcast. What a great teamto listen to. They were better than
Philadelphia. Now it's not even inBead getting the most heat today in Philly.
Either it's Tobias Harris, who playedclose to thirty minutes and scored zero
(23:45):
points in that game. It's NickNurse, and everybody looks like punks right
now doing the postgame press conference andeverything else. It looks like the Philadelphia
seventy six or roster who right nowgoing into next season, only has two
guys under contract. That's right,two guys, and one of them is
Embiid, who's do fifty million dollars. Oh yeah, And one other thing
(24:08):
to note on Tobias Harris, whoscored zero points in that game. He's
a guy who just made forty milliondollars and just made over two hundred and
forty in his career, Tobias Harris. So, Philly's got a lot of
issues. The fact that that happened. New York be thankful. It's not
that bad the Knicks. And let'sadd this, they get the Pacers,
(24:32):
well, fact, they get theDana Pacers, not the Milwaukee Bucks.
In the semi final matchup. AfterIndiana takes down Milwaukee, Damian Lillard,
what a weird year in Milwaukee.Complain anybody, he's got nothing to do.
Eh, And all of a suddenMilwaukee gets knocked up. That's about
as great as the night as youwant for a Knicks fan in a long,
long, long time. I couldhave used the blowout, you know,
I'm sorry. A couple less pointsfrom Embiid would have a nice I
(24:56):
want to hit my my Nick Kickerparlay. But but no, it was
it was special and like this teamis just that, it's a team,
and that's why if they can keepthis up, there's really no limit to
where they can go. Pacers arescary. Let's not pretend the Pacers can't
play basketball. They can. They'llsixth seed, I know, but they're
(25:19):
a good team. I need tosee the Knicks put somebody away, like
I need to see it over earlyin the fourth quarter against the Pacers at
least once or twice, and thenI'll start thinking about Boston because I think
this is this is a team thatcan give Boston a series. I don't
know if they can beat them,but they could give Boston a series.
But they got it. Whatever itis in them that keeps letting the seventy
(25:41):
six ers back in the games,they cannot let the Pacers back in the
games. They're they're younger, they'redeeper, they're healthier. Yeah, that
is gonna be that storyline in thisseries coming up. By the way,
actually gets underway on Monday, sothey get a little bit time to breathe.
If you're a Knicks fan, Mondayare covered set to the game underway.
It's seven tip off set for seventhirty in game one on that series
(26:03):
between Indiana. So yeah, I'mwith you on that storyline of how can
New York hang on to leads?How can New York continue to match up?
Can they just trade to outshoot Indiana? Can de Vincenzo do that?
Can Josh Hart continue to grow andnot be six foot four at least he
doesn't act like that on the court. That will be a very intriguing series.
(26:23):
But today's a day to celebrate.If you are a New York Knicks
fan. You are the underdog inthis series against the team that nobody wanted
to face. You had a massive, blown lead in the game before,
talked about in the same breath asthe Reggie Miller choke job in ninety four
and others, and you flip itaround, win the game, win the
(26:44):
series, and advance. They're thenumber two seed, which again traditionally if
you're the two seed, the expectationwould be to get to the conference finals.
And there's still that chip on theshoulder. Don't trust them, not
quite sure yet involved in this NewYork team, and I believe you've seen
that dominant and we haven't seen wehaven't seen this since what Villanova? Because
again Villanova, John, they weren'tthe team that had all the stars.
(27:08):
You knew who Brunson was, youknew who Heart and Deevin chansenw was you
didn't know and what Devin Chandswell actuallymade his name the year after, but
like you didn't. None of themwere the guys where you're like, oh,
these guys are dominators. This isbad. They were the team they
played team basketball. We're not usedto that anymore. Just the fourth playoff
(27:30):
series win for the New York Knickssince the year two thousand, no one
of them game last year just great. But the Knicks franchise heading in the
right direction. How about that?The New York Knicks making the biggest headlines
in the NBA for winning basketball games. I love it. Let's keep it
(27:51):
going like this is there's some magicto it. Actually see you know,
are you curious what the major winnerparlays. Oh if those who don't know,
usually you might not be listening thistime slot. With the back update,
Levac has a parlay going that theRangers, Knicks, and Yankees would
all be champions this year. Allright, so it's an eighteen dollars parlay
(28:12):
to start twenty five twenty five.They aren't, they're not. They're not
enticing me to buy out yet.What like if it's supposedly it's like a
fifty thousand dollars parlay forty forty nineand change, what would a number?
What's the number where you where youbue out? Uh? That gotta be
a comma right, Yeah. Seethe hard part about that is that if
(28:34):
I had to pick a champion ofthose three, the Rangers would be the
one. But you don't know therange. The Ranger season is more likely
to go on that parlay. I'dhave to be like three grand to get
out if I don't know the resultsof the games. Deed, If then
what you're asking, right, you'reasking me, with these teams all still
in play, what number would makeme dive out? I'd say three grand.
(28:56):
Doing the math of what your payoutwould be at fifty thousand dollars thinking
that teams are now advancing in therounds. The Yankee one harder to read
because they're not in the postseason they'reso early. But I wouldn't touch one
with that potential of them still winningthe championship till you get to like a
massive two percent of the playoffs.Pretty good. Yeah, I would say
about three grand. One percent wouldbe fifty thousand, probably eighteen hundred,
(29:19):
ten times in the investment. Iprobably would have to Okay, I have
to think about it at least,you know, Yeah, I think I
think I said one percent. Onethousand dollars of the fifty thousand would be
two percent. Yeah, I wouldjust say ten times. Oh, I
feel pretty good. I probably fail. Second, there's a common and be
(29:40):
like, ah, I haven't cashanything that big legally, I mean,
ever ever that big. So I'dhave to think about it, think about
that. But realistically, realistic expectationfor the next how far conference finals.
I'll still stick by the conference finals. You and I talked about this through
February and March and April, thatif you get to the conference finals,
you're willing to see what happens inthe Boston Series. The toughest obstacle that
(30:03):
it's always been for the draw wasthat if the Knicks got the Bucks,
and at that point it was pacingfor the Knicks to be the three or
the four rather than the two,that if you get Milwaukee in the semi
finals, that's a tough matchup.However, not a healthy Greek freak,
not a healthy Liard. Indiana wasprobably next up. You could have faced
off Indiana in the four to fiveat one point, which would have been
a coin flip series, but yougot home court advantage. You're playing better
(30:26):
than Indiana. Indiana benefited, nodoubt from the Buck injury. So it's
a little harder for a team toread. You could make a really good
case right now of all the teams, and I know the Clippers and MAVs.
We can get to them later.Magic calves will get to them later.
As of the teams who would haveadvanced Thunder, Timberwolves, Nuggets,
Knicks, and Celtics, the hardestteam of them to read is the Pacers.
Okay, because the Wolves dominated theSuns. The Nuggets have always been
(30:51):
better than the Lakers. The Thunderare supposed to sweep. The eight seed
is a one seed and the Celticsare supposed to blow out an eight seed.
How good is Indiana? Is itbecause they were missing their best players?
Are they that good? That's thetoughest team to read of the squads
who have advanced so far in theNBA playoffs. All right, so get
through this and we went at all? Okay, all right? I agree?
(31:11):
All right, good there talk.There is another storyline that's taking over
the world of sports from the NBA'sa national storyline. Let's get to that
next Fox Sports ninety five, nineand nine to eighty. It's Lavak and
Guz on ninety five to nine FoxSports Radio. Nothing better than working with
a co host who's a team presidentmidseason. Lavac is taking a call right
(31:33):
now, he's waving me off.That's okay, no' sorry, we only
got a few minutes here in thehour. I will handle this. I
will talk about some of the breakingnews. We're gonna get it to the
top forward for the four bigges storiesin the world sports coming up an hour
number two. But this is oneof these moments where this story would probably
not have made the top forward foryou though what happened earlier, because it's
such a packed weekend Friday's Joe,So I could just discuss it right now
(31:53):
that no, no, you're good, You're good. That Los Angeles Lakers
have announced earlier today that they firedhead coach Darvin Ham after two seasons back
to back seasons, the Lakers areknocked out of the postseason by the Denver
Nuggets. The Nuggets win the championshipin twenty twenty three, two buzzer beaters,
and more Lakers get knocked off inI'm borderline shocked if this happened,
(32:15):
because Frank Vogel helped the Lakers wina championship in twenty twenty and he got
fired in twenty twenty two. ThenDarvin Ham gets hired and because he lost
to the eventual NBA champions potentially twoseasons in a row, he's getting canned.
Gosh, Lebron James now in histwenty plus year career, has six
(32:40):
head coaches that have been fired.Now, if you're a Lebron hater or
you just maybe you just want totell the truth, Lebron has had six
head coaches fired that he's played for. Vogel, Ham, Mike Brown,
David Blatt, Tyron lew a missingone. Gosh, it's gonna drive me
nuts all day. I know I'mmissing one more in that mix of coaches
(33:02):
he's had canned. So they didn'twin the championship. So Lebron's the hardest
athlete to coach? Is that anend all be all? It's done.
Like I want to say, it'sKyrie or Kevin Durant or somebody else.
You could point to other sports likefootball or baseball and say somebody, The
answer is Lebron. They didn't winthe championship. It's the LA Lakers.
(33:22):
Colin Coward said it before us.It's so true. It's one of the
few markets, maybe the only marketthat is a professional football team in a
professional basketball team, and the basketballteam is more popular in the city than
the football team. In the yeartwenty twenty four, the Lakers have had
(33:43):
more of a tradition than the Ramsand the Charters and everybody else. And
it's a Laker town for sure inLA. But what makes us even more
interesting is that is it even thefuture of Lebron in the Laker uniform,
the purple and gold. We sawthis already happen in Lebron James remember when
he was playing for the Heat.Now he won two championships with the Heat.
(34:05):
Lebron two titles with the Heat,one with the Cavaliers, one with
the Lakers. History could tell usyounger sports fan when they evaluate the legacy
and career of Lebron James. Somesports fans are gonna scratch their head,
be like, why didn't he staywith the Heat? He won the most
championships there, that team was stacked. He went back to Cleveland for what
to constantly get beat by the Warriorsexcept one of the greatest comebacks in history
(34:29):
to win a championship for the Lakersin the COVID season. Why did he
leave the Heat? But remember thatfinal season with the Heat before he took
off, and pat Riley schenected hisown was upset about and rightfully so.
He was tweeting during the NBA draftand said the Heat should get Shabaz Napier
from Yukon when they won the championshipthat year and they drafted Shipaz Napier and
(34:50):
then Lebron left. Anyways, thisfeels like the Lakers are doing the same
thing. Hey, Darvin Ham's notthe head coach. Whether Lebron said that
to ownership, wh said that tomanagement they needed to entice forty year old
Lebron one more time to come backto LA. Whether that's because of showtime
or the business or anything else,it looks like it feels like, Lebron,
(35:15):
we want you back. If you'regonna do the retirement tour. We
don't want you to do it asa member the Wizards or the Hawks or
somebody else. We want to behere in Los Angeles to sell tickets and
give you the proper send off withthe goodbye. What can help you make
that happen? Oh, you wantto pick the next head coach. You
want to figure out the guy who'sgonna lead it. Oh, the incentive
(35:36):
is that the coach has to playyour son, deal Lebron. The fact
that Lebron still has that type ofpower at forty years old. Could I
be proven wrong? Sure, maybewe'll find out Lebron's leaving the Lakers and
they were all set up. ButI got twenty years of examples of Lebron
set in the tone of how afranchise is gonna run because of his super
stardom. Why would I think somethingdifferent in your twenty one or twenty time
(36:00):
I'm shocked Darwinham's fired. I understandthe expectations of the Lakers, but gosh,
man, like, when you're associatedwith Lebron and the expectation is that
high, it's just championship or bust. Even if it's a rational, who
are they gonna hire. They're gonnahire Lebron's high school coach? Who was
(36:22):
he coaching up Oakland at one point? Wasn't that the dude from Saint Vince
Saint Mary? Is that a differentguy Detroit Mercy that might have been the
coach for Lebron? It's insane.We don't know if he's signing back for
the Lakers. Darvingham fire man.I feel like he's actually gonna get another
opportunity in the league two. Hewas like, you hot, can't miss
(36:42):
assistant, and everyone thought was gonnamake the difference, and instead he's out
the door. So we have thetop four to four, so we will
not be talking Lakers with Levac comingup at the top four four, but
we're gonna talk a lot of local, a lot of NBA, Kentucky Derby
baseball. We got all that stuffcoming up in the top four to four
before we get to hourver too.To tell you about our friend Drew Prescott.
Prescott PW dot com is the placefor you if you're looking to start
(37:06):
figuring out, Hey, uh,what am I gonna do with these assets
that I've acquired. Maybe you're somebodywho's worked for twenty five thirty years and
you've continued to grow your profile andmore. How are you gonna spend it
over the next few decades? Gottwo hundred and fifty thousand plus and all
of a sudden you're like, Ihave these assets to use, What do
I do with him? And whodo I work with? You want to
work with Drew Prescott five one eighttwo oh three nineteen eighty three. Five
(37:28):
one eight two oh three nineteen eightythree, that's the number you call to
get a hold of Drew. Andis Lavaka always likes to say when he
clicks on our team, it's Drue. Drew is the guy who's gonna work
with you to continue to make surehe's the one who's making the decisions for
you for the future. PRESCOTTPW dotcom. In Prescott PW dot com,
great guy, you're gonna sit downwith lunch, dinner, whatever he might
(37:49):
be, He's gonna talk, Okay, what do you think could be some
of the strength for you. Drew'sgonna find out, he's gonna give you
some advice, and then all ofa sudden you go forward. Prescottpw dot
com Top four to four on theway next, Fox Sports thirty five, nine eighty
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