05-27-25 KOA Sports Hour 3 with Nick Ferguson

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I handed things off to Rockies Baseball. Here five point

(00:02):
thirty is there still on the road taking on the
Chicago Cubs. Actually feel really good about tonight's game. I
think they're gonna get to ten wins tonight date.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
What what gives you optimism?

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Well, uh, ramand Marquez looked really good on his last outing.
I think that he's he's maybe starting to turn some
things around. And I'm not a big Kida Horton fan.
The picture he's too and oh so far as a starter,
but what.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Don't you like about him? If he's two and oh he's.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Uh, he's sorts again, this is a little bit in
the weeds.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
I don't know what get th far the weeds, but well,
he's had decent run support.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
He has not had a ton of control. He doesn't
throw a lot of strikeouts.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
So for the Rockies, who tend to strike out a lot,
especially on the road, I think there's gonna be some opportunities.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Now this is going to be more of a pitcher's
duel game.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
But I think that's the er.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
I do like the under Okay, I like the under line.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
All right, yeah, I hope you're right.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Maybe kind of a colder name so like the Rocky side,
I want to get to this to Marus Thomas thing
on one quick thing here on the X line. A
lot of great reaction, mostly negative towards me, but that's okay,
that's part of the deal.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
This one.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
They are one of the few times on the show
Ryan wants to win something and you guys are hating
on him for it. It's a gold flipping medal for
crying out loud, yeah, thank you?

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Are you sure?

Speaker 4 (01:18):
I think Nick and I might say thank you that exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
I think you're you're you're anyway, Well, listen.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
The football was by yourself.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
I'm gonna take you know, the one that didn't come
after me, and tell me that idea I am.

Speaker 4 (01:30):
I think he's right, he or she needed a texture.
The fact that you you have a real interest in
winning in this case of gold medal, to me is.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
A step in the right direction.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
Okay, you're finally influencing me. And I think that.

Speaker 4 (01:48):
Trying to yeah, you know, trying to find that competitive
thing in you.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Maybe I need a face out of the mom So this
was a this was a great statement here we were
celebrating earlier and if you missed it, a long conversation
in the first hour about da Marius Thomas going into
the Ring of Fame. This from his mother. The Broncos
posted this on their social media for Damarus in our family.
This is a dream come true. Like I told mister
Greg Penner, one of the things DT always said was

(02:15):
he didn't want to be forgotten when he was finished
with the game. It wasn't just about football for him,
but how he wanted to be remembered as a person.
This will make d marius dream come true to be
part of the prestigious Denver Broncos Ring of Fame. It's
definitely going to be emotional and I am honored to
represent him. I know DT is smiling in heaven with

(02:36):
his exciting news that came out today.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Very strong.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
That's very strong.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Yeah, I tell you like like I told you from
the beginning, Dave, he's a hard and soul guy.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
He was that.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
I know he was out for the locker room for
a lot of the guys in the locker room, but
I know for the fan base this is this is
one of those resonating kind of players. Like the interaction
I'm seeing on social media to the post that the
Broncos and putting out They've been doing a fantastic job
all afternoon, putting out videos, putting out statements, all sorts
of cool stuff. But the reaction is universal. And I

(03:08):
mean we talked about it right at the end, because
you're part of the committee. It's universal. This is what
There's nobody, absolutely nobody out there that would do for
a second pushback about this decision.

Speaker 4 (03:22):
Excuse me, No, I think you're right, and I think
I mean, I think that and I made this comment
to h Parker the Denver Post a little bit earlier today.
When you think about Colin Broncos games for thirty five years,
I've had the pleasure of dealing with a lot of

(03:46):
great players, a lot of players, a lot of those
a lot of those guys. You know, I would I
would call my friend today. But I can't think of
one other player in thirty five years that really you
just never heard anything bad about, right, Whether it's there's

(04:07):
a lot of in professional sports, in the NFL, there's
a ton of ego, there's jealousy, there's I mean, there's
a lot of things, a lot of human emotions that
maybe can skew one's behavior from time to time. But
I just don't remember ever having somebody even remotely sort

(04:31):
of approached the man he just wasn't a good guy,
or I had a situation that DT acted a certain way.
I've heard that about a a lot of players, but
never one time about Damarius Thomas.

Speaker 5 (04:46):
Yeah, the idea for a guy going into the Ring
of Fame, there's certain things that in my mind, you
have to have. Obviously your contributions to the community, the team,
and what type of player you were on the field.
That aspect that Davis talking about is being an all
around guy where everyone's going to say nothing but good
things about you. You know, you know sometimes we joke

(05:07):
about that, but that is a huge by product of
what you do as a player. Hearing those comments from
you know, the mayor, Thomas's mom, and and that's the
thing that we deal with as people and as players
that once we know the lights go off and we
take off the shoes, how are we still going to
be remembered by the game and going into the Ring

(05:30):
of Fame? No matter what happens ten or twenty years
from now, and as long as there's a stadium here
in Bracklay's country, his name will be forever posted up
there with some of the team's greatest players.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
I'm glad you brought that up because and I've talked
to enough players, especially as they were getting ready to
leave the game, and that that comes up often about
how am I going to be remembered as part of
the game. I know, Dave, you've You've mentioned it before
when you were talking about sort of your first post
playing time, you didn't really kind of I mean, I'll
let you tell the story, but like you're saying, how
IRV invited you to join his broadcast and at that

(06:05):
time you hadn't really given a thought to broadcasting.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
Yeah, you were just kind of, Okay, it's my post career.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do,
and then there's IRV saying, hey, why don't she comes
in here with Yeah?

Speaker 4 (06:14):
I mean, I mean I never listened to talk radio
one time in my life. I was a music guy.
So but then, I mean, IRV, who I'd known for
a long time and was the baseball coach at see
You called and said, hey, what are you going to do?
I said, I don't know, Coach, he said, why don't
you come in and.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Do a Super Bowl special?

Speaker 4 (06:36):
And of course having you know what a dumb response
I had, I said, well, because I'd never done that.
I said, was what am what am I going to
talk about? And there's this pause and IRV and his
sort of dry sense of humor, said the super Bowl?
So you know that's I mean, you need in any business,

(06:57):
you need advocates, right. But I think, from an NFL standpoint,
back to the sort of original point, you never really
think as a player while you're playing. I mean, very,
very few times do players think about what's going to
happen when my career is over, because they they are,

(07:18):
at least in my opinion, they are wired in such
a high frequency of competitiveness that they just don't allow,
and I mean ever, their mind to think I could
get cut or I'm I'm I'm not going to be
able to make this team, or they don't think about it,

(07:39):
or how long can my career go?

Speaker 2 (07:41):
You you think about.

Speaker 4 (07:42):
This week and next week and next week and next
week and then the next year, and you just think
it's going to go forever until somebody comes and says.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
Hey, it's not so. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:53):
I think I think it's I think it's interesting that
Demarius would would have made that comment about I want
to make sure that I'm remembered in my career. I
can tell you this, He'll be remembered, if not as much,
almost as much for just being a great human being

(08:15):
as he will for being a great and he was
great wide receiver for the Broncos. That guy had a
smile on his face all the time when he talked
to you. You know, he would look you at dead
in the eyes. I mean, he just had had a
really sort of cool aura about him that you just

(08:39):
you notice if you take the time. So yeah, I'm
I'm I'm really glad the committee decided on DT and
the Super Bowl fifty championship team. And I think it's
going to be a fabulous It's going to be the
weekend of the Giants game. The Broncos will have played
the Jets over in London the previous weekend, so it'll
be spectator acular weekend.

Speaker 5 (09:02):
As a young player coming into the league, that was
one of those things that you thought about, how do
you make your mark? How would you be remembered? And
you see, like once upon a time on the Full
Letter Network they used to have jacked up. That was
one way to do it or with ad Sable in
NFL films, that was another way that you would be remembered.

(09:24):
And the play that we opened up the show with
with Dave on a call and playing in that Pittsburgh game,
that is going to be a memorable play for Damarius.
And when you look at the number of top plays
in NFL history, I don't know exactly where it sits,
but that is one of those plays based on what

(09:45):
the Broncos organization was going through during that time. So
we all have this thing that we do as men
as people, and I can say, as an athlete, what
impact did I make on society? What impact did I
make on the game. And to know that there's only
a small amount of guys that get into the Hall

(10:07):
of Fame, a small amount of guys get into a
ring of fame, that means something. And for those who
are cousins, uncles, mothers or whatever of Demarus, they should
take a bow because someone in your family got to
a pinnacle that only a faction of the public actually

(10:27):
gets to.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
Perfectly said, man, yeah, so really cool.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
And again it's going to be coming up on the
weekend after as Dave mentioned, after the London game, the
Giants will be alumni weekend and we can't wait to
celebrate that.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
It's gonna be really cool. So we got we get
the NBA back in action tonight.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
I want to take a couple of minutes here, a
So we haven't talked what'sch NBA about the NBA playoffs.
So we have the Pacers and the Knicks tonight Game four.
Credit to the Knicks for battling back in Game three,
it looked like they were they were toast and then
that fourth quarter happened with Kats he went off. I
do want to ask you, though, Dave, about the other
series about the West, because I think it's a little

(11:03):
more dialed in here with the Nuggets. So you watch
now three to one series lead for the Thunder over
the Timberwolves. Does that say more in your opinion about
the Thunder or the Timberwolves.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
I think it says more about the Thunder. I thought.

Speaker 4 (11:22):
I thought in most cases, the way Oklahoma City played
last night, that that would have been a twenty point
blowout road victory over Minnesota. And if Minnesota is not
knocking down three after three, they made eighteen threes in
that game, but they had twenty three turnovers, some of

(11:42):
them unforced, but many of them just being absolutely.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
Locked up on defense.

Speaker 4 (11:51):
I think I think Oklahoma City is really even better
than I thought they were when it comes to the
defensive end. But I think that I think oak City
is the most talented team, and I think they're going
to close it out more than likely tomorrow night. But
you look at Minnesota. If I mean, if you're a
Minnesota fan, Ryan, I would be very very disappointed that

(12:15):
my two main guys, and I'm a huge Anthony Edwards fan.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
I've never really been Julius rant.

Speaker 4 (12:25):
I've never you know, I don't dislike him, but I've
never really loved his game that much. But Anthony Edwards
is a superstar in this league, immensely talented. He goes
five for thirteen in a two point loss at home.
His team played their butts off and defended, And I mean,
you've got de Vincenzo knocking down shots, You've got Alexander

(12:50):
knocking down shots at an unbelieve they made eighteen threes,
their bench outscored the starters. Yeah, so it's it's one
of those games. And then you know, I listen this
morning at ESPN, and you know, people are saying, well,
I don't know why they're saying he had a bad game.
He made every place supposed to make. Listen, if you're
that talented and he is, you you cannot. I thought

(13:13):
he was passive at the start of the game, and
even though he did make correct plays when driving, when
the defense would collapse on him, he's got two or
three defenders. You kick it out to a wide open three,
You've got to find a way to take more than
thirteen shots, and you got to find a way to
impact the game offensively. From a scoring standpoint, you couldn't

(13:34):
stop Oak City, so you had you were in a
contest where you basically had to outscore. I just thought
Anthony Edwards, really, when you look back at that, and
Julius Randall as well, they will look at that game
and say, man, oh man, we should be two to two,
and now all the pressure would be in Oak City
going back home.

Speaker 5 (13:52):
This is the pressure of being considered to be a
top player in NBA. And I know Anthony Vera was
asked a while back about, you know, being the face
of the NBA, and he didn't want it. And you
could tell based on watching these last couple of games. No,
he didn't want it because for me and I go
back to the guys who I watched, it was Michael
and Kobe. They rose, They elevated their love of play

(14:16):
in these types of moments. They wanted the ball in
the hands. And even if they knew that they were
not going to be the best player because maybe they
were going to get trapped, they found a way to
distribute the ball to other individuals and allow to get
them involved. I'm not seeing this with ant Man. I
mean in this series against ok See twice thirty point games.

(14:36):
Now they lost when he score I believe thirty two
they lost. But once again, you have to come out motivated.
And Julius Randall, I mean, he had a great game
in the last series against the Warriors. It's like he
just disappeared. He's not even the same guy.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
That he was.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
Like as many points as turnovers in this last game.

Speaker 5 (14:54):
Yeah, and once again that's the biggest thing. And coach
Malone used to harp on this with the Nuggets. Obviously,
you can't turn the ball over against any good team
because you're giving them extra possession. It's the same thing
in football, right, you have to be able to control
those particular possessions. But to know that your bitch players
outscored your starting players, that's a bad look.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
It's a bad look for Minnesota all around.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
Man twenty one turnovers overall.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
And one thing you learn about Oklahoma City they were opportunistic,
Like I mean, we saw that against the Nuggets. Like
you you don't show up and you have lazy passes
or you you don't you just sort of put your
back to the player and you think that that's going
to they have somebody sneak it up on the other
side to poke the ball away.

Speaker 5 (15:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (15:39):
What I again, last night, what I saw was Oklahoma
City embarrassed about Game three, probably watched the tape, heard
about it, read about it, and then just decided listened,
we're coming out. We're coming out tonight with a defensive mindset,
and we are going to be a monster to deal with.

(16:00):
And they took Minnesota almost right from the jump, completely
out of their half court offense. Yeah, I mean, and
Edwards really couldn't ever catch a breath without a body
like right in his face. And lou Dort, I mean,
he's the first team All defensive player, Ryan's got the

(16:21):
Well you got to learn how to say it lou Dort,
but he's he is uh and then filling the blank
on defense, I just like it. He's a pain in
the ass. He arm bars you. He's two hundred and
thirty pounds, so he's he's rooster strong, he's quick enough,
he's got great anticipation, great hands. Then you bring in Caruso,

(16:45):
who's another pain in the butt right plays passing lanes.
I mean that that team is built on defense, and
then you have three guys to score the ball. And
Williams was I thought his absolute best last night. You know,
of course Sga is a great player and winds up
getting forty, but Williams I thought was the key early.

(17:08):
He got Oak City off off this night.

Speaker 5 (17:11):
The one thing with Oka, see is that they want
to dominate the boards them both ends of the floor.
That's the thing that helps them, and they helped them
against the Nuggets getting those second chance points, getting those
tapouts right, and that's where Minnesota is losing, and that's
where your bore.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
Rudy.

Speaker 5 (17:25):
I thought, your guy, you know, you're Minnesota guy, So
I thought Rudy would be great at grabbing those rebounds.
Even though he had thirteen points that's where they need
him to step up, because we know he's not an
offensive jargonaut, block shots, rint protector, grave rebounds, get him
out of transition. They're not doing that, so their offense

(17:46):
is becoming stagnant, and I don't know what they need
to do, how they actually overcome it, because now you're
going back to Okay see where they're looking to close
it out.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
Yeah, I mean, I just think your star players got
to show up.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
I mean, in this case, you lose by who and
Julius Rail gave you five you mentioned it, Antonine gave
you sixteen.

Speaker 3 (18:04):
There were certainly opportunities and to.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
Your point, very quickly and said after the game, hey man,
I made every play that was out there.

Speaker 3 (18:11):
So he said that too.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
That's why they're echoing that because he was asked, do
you think you could done more?

Speaker 3 (18:15):
He's like, I did everything I could.

Speaker 4 (18:17):
Well, I mean I did think Oklahoma City was really
good on defense, and I thought he made a bunch
of right plays when he tried to take the ball
of the basket. And you know they've got another player
and then a third player at times coming. I mean,
you got you're going to get wide open shots. But
here's the deal. You're not considered to be one of
the great great players in the league. If if it's that,

(18:42):
even though I thought Oklahoma City played really played hard
on defense, You've got to find ways to get your
two best scorers going, whether the pace has to be quicker,
whether you've got to take the ball of the basket.
He did a little bit of that in the second half.
I mean, he had one shot in the first quarter.
I don't think ever in life Anthony Edwards with his ability,

(19:03):
can go through a quarter, especially in the game this important,
and take one shot in a quarter. So I think
he's got to be more aggressive. I think you'll see
him aggressive. The problem is now in Game five, they're
back at Oak City, where the crowd gets into it.
They feed on that energy, and I just think it's

(19:24):
a very difficult ask for Minnesota to get a win
tomorrow night, no.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Doubt about it.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
The Nuggets, by the way, are going to introduce David
Adelman tomorrow at noon to the press. So I saw
this one float across my timeline today. Paul Pierce says
the Nuggets should trade Michael Porter Junior for DeMar Derozen
You're big tomorrow de rozen fan, aren't.

Speaker 5 (19:42):
You, Dave?

Speaker 4 (19:43):
I do love his mid range game. If the money
is equal, how old is tomorrow now? Thirty two? DeMar
is thirty five? Thirty five? Straight I mean, straight up,
I would take Damar Rosan over Michael Porter Junior.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
Now he's not he's not.

Speaker 4 (20:09):
Lamar Rosen is really not a three point score. I
mean he can shoot the ball and make a few,
but that's not his game. His game range. His game
is the mid range. I mean his game is a
little bit like Kawhi. Yeah right, but he's he's tough,
he's physical, he gets to his spots on the floor.

(20:31):
He's a big guard sixty six sixty seven. So yeah, man,
I would I'd have to listen to that for sure.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:37):
Here's the quote from Paul Pierce.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
I feel like if they had DeMar de Rozan with
that team right now, with the joker, they don't need
He doesn't need to be the best player or the
second best player.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
Every night.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
He's going to give you more than what Michael Porter
Junior gave you.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
I think that is accurate. Yeah, you just.

Speaker 5 (20:54):
Need someone to be a party on tumble casts like
DeMar DeRozan.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
Every time you shoot. It goes in me.

Speaker 5 (21:00):
Because that mid range game seemed to be unstoppable in
the baseline.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
If you add that to the offensive repertoire.

Speaker 5 (21:06):
That you can count on consistently, because with MPJ it
wasn't always consistently, a little inconsistency, and with Damar you
get a little more defense than you get with MPJ.

Speaker 3 (21:15):
I think so too.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah, the money, it looks like MPJ makes more than
tomorrow rows. And he signed a three year contract before
he was traded from the Bulls. He's making around twenty
three twenty four million, and I want to say that
Mpj's making like forty No.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
I think MPJ this year was like I thought he was,
like twenty seven. Wasn't he old.

Speaker 3 (21:33):
I'll tell you I had it up here a second
ago and then I closed it.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
MPJ made thirty five this year, He's making thirty eight
next year and then forty in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 5 (21:45):
That's too much money for a guy who doesn't always
show up when you need to show up. Not to
count his pockets, but we're just looking at peer production
per dollar, you being paid.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
Well, and that the perfect eximp right there is.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
I asked you just player for player right, Dave, I said, hey,
would you rather half like take out the contracts for
two seconds?

Speaker 3 (22:02):
Who would you rather have? And you said to Martin Rosen,
it's pretty easy.

Speaker 4 (22:05):
I really think MPJ and I would wish him well,
and he's done some good things and he's battled through
a whole bunch of injuries.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
The guy said, two backs is a two or three?

Speaker 4 (22:15):
He said multiple back surgeries, And I think that is
difficult in and of itself. I just think that sort
of experiment has run its course, and my feeling is
there there are there are a couple of players on
the team that would be in favor of a move.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
It was funny on the screen a little bit ago
they actually flash so far in the playoffs, the Pacers
have lost Game three in the other all three series,
but then they bounce back and one, four and five.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
Well this, I mean, this is a huge, huge game
for both teams, but even I mean bigger for the Knicks.
The next you can find a way to win. They
get home court bat, you're tied at two, you got
two or three if necessary in the garden. So I
think Indiana, I think i'd almost pull for the next
but I think Indiana may be the right side.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
Well, here's what we do know.

Speaker 5 (23:06):
They need to avoid the exfoliating innimfoliating animal.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
Yes, that's a good way to end the show. Yes,
waits some.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
Up somehow, an entire conversation.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
That you know what, you're all the facema whatever.

Speaker 3 (23:34):
It actually might be a million dollar idea. Now that
he's prey.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
You know what's shark tank next up for you?

Speaker 3 (23:40):
Make sure you cut off the piece there for Dave
because he's the one that gave it the idea.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
Yeah, my customary ten percent.

Speaker 3 (23:46):
Thank you, great, great job. We'll be back to borrow
three o'clock. We got Rockets baseball coming up next ring.
You're in kaway the long ball.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
It's like a facial m