Astros Lose Again - James Harden Exploited - Aaron Rodgers Says He’ll Retire!

The A-Team dives into another frustrating loss for the Houston Astros and what comes next for the struggling club. Plus, the crew discusses whether James Harden continues to get exposed in the postseason and reacts to Aaron Rodgers saying retirement could be on the horizon.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Speaker 1 (01:16):
Now the tenth Inning Show for all of the Astros
great fans On Sports Talk seven ninety. You're a Home
for Astros Baseball.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
A gritty win last night, I'd say, giving away to
a frustrating loss in the finale. I think that's probably
a good way to sum up the last to last
eighteen innings of Astros baseball, if I had to put
it that way. Welcome into the Astros tenth Inning show
here on your home for Astros Baseball Sports Talk seven ninety.

(01:55):
I may see he is WEX four won the final
as well. Look, I want to go back to last
night because who wouldn't thank you? You kind of said
it right there. I mean, it was a little bit
of an adventure with Brian to Bray.

Speaker 5 (02:11):
You put him in a tough spot, you bring in
your closer where the winning run is at the plate.

Speaker 4 (02:18):
Yeah, it's not great, but they got it done. And
then today that lead hat lasted for a whole half
inning for the Astros.

Speaker 5 (02:25):
Yeah, this is Mike Burrows season. Nothing has changed. It's
very unfortunate because it's pretty clear during portions of almost
all of his starts. You know, he mows, throw a lineup,
throws pitches where he wants, gets guys swinging and missing
at pitches that are clearly where he wants them to
be and works hitters, and then he makes his mistakes,
and they are just the worst mistakes any pitcher in
baseball has, at least the American League. I couldn't help

(02:47):
myself today. The American League leader in home runs allowed,
it's Mike Burrows. The American League leader in hits allowed.
Mike Burrows, the American League leader in losses by a pitcher.
It's now as the end of today's game, Mike Burrows.
He dropped the sixth game of his ten starts. He's
been saddled with the loss individually. The six hits he

(03:08):
allowed today pushed his season total to sixty six. By
the way, he's sixteenth in innings pitch. Not everybody has
started ten games. If you want to try to throw
him a bone and say, hey, he's pitched more than
everybody else other than fifteen other pitchers, Yeah, sure he has.

Speaker 4 (03:23):
He just gives up.

Speaker 5 (03:24):
He cannot get out of his own way too often.
And this game, it didn't spiral out of control, but
it got out of control when he the umpire and
his catcher didn't take advantage of what they should have.
He struck out Victor Kartin, he'd end the fourth inning
it's a one to one game. He's at fifty five
pitches and everything's great. He's given up one hit. Instead,

(03:44):
a pitch that was a strike was called a ball.
That's a mistake made by the umpire. He made a
bunch of them today, and the Twins took advantage of
it by overturning his call four times. The Astros chose
not to challenge that one or any other until it
was too late in situation like tomorrow when maybe they'll
have their first challenge. They didn't challenge anything. Why today,

(04:06):
I don't know, and I know catchers and hitters are
worried about it. You know, I want to have my
challenges later. It's a tight game. At that moment in
the game, it's one to one and you have a
pitchers count. Still, you're in a good spot. You throw
one more good pitch and you're out of the inning. Instead,
he throws another pitch that almost hits him, which Victor man,

(04:26):
what a vet move, absolutely moved into the pitch. Luckily
the umpire didn't think it hit him, and hopefully it didn't.
The ten Twins didn't challenge, but he got to first
base anyway, because on a full count, pitch, he lines
a single. Then Burrow itches a it issues a walk
because of a timer violation on a three to one
pitch that didn't have to happen because he had a

(04:48):
timer violation.

Speaker 4 (04:49):
So now two runners are on.

Speaker 5 (04:50):
Two pitches later he greves a ball and a player.
I'm pretty sure we won't say again ever on the
tenth Inning Show this year or any other year. Three
run homer and that's it. The way the Astros offense
is playing right now, and right now means every single
game of this thirteen straight days of baseball. After the

(05:11):
first one, Mike Burrow started the first game of thirteen,
he started the last game of thirteen. They scored ten
runs for him, and he and the Astros shut out
the Reds, and then over the next twelve games, Tractor
Pull just cannot score runs under under two runs per
game over their last twelve. Almost impossible in this day

(05:32):
and age in baseball, even though numbers are down a
little bit. This is not the eighties. This is not
some rule change that's been made to dramatically kill offenses.
The Astros went five for thirty two and back to
back days scored two runs before any of their outs
had been recorded yesterday and then never threatened to score again.
And today they scored a one run on three singles

(05:53):
from the bottom of their order in the second inning
and then never threatened to score again. They had another game,
third time in four where they had zero extra base hits.

Speaker 4 (06:04):
Chandler Rome decided to just pick up where Carlos Korea's
season ending injury came into play.

Speaker 5 (06:10):
I picked up later when they've been significantly worse, right, right.

Speaker 4 (06:14):
And that's what's funny about you saying that, because it
does sort of bump the number. But it's been fifteen games,
which is a nice sample. Think about when you give
these numbers.

Speaker 5 (06:23):
A couple days ago, I said the Astros were at
two point seventy five runs per game this month, which
was worse than every team in baseball other than the Angels.
The numbers Chandler has is at two point six since
Carlos Correa went to the injured list. Since he's gone
to the injured list, Altuve has joined him, Payna has returned,
Myers has returned. I don't want to kill Jake Myers
after a tiny, tiny sample size, But what you're saying

(06:45):
is why it doesn't make any difference. They have four
players when the season started they were counting on to
be good offensive players Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, Jiner Diaz
and Cam Smith. And they're getting zero useful bats from
all four of them for probably the next month unless
camp Smith comes around, and then maybe for the next

(07:06):
six weeks in the case of Jiner and al Tuove together.
Hopefully Yiners back before then. But it does it does matter.
It does take a toll. They are there aren't the
guys that should be in the lineup. But I know
Yanners had a terrible offensive season and the catcher they're
playing every day is at a significantly better season. He
led the team in RBI. Today he had the one
thanks to Christians in an RBI. So I think you

(07:29):
understand what I'm saying. But every it's.

Speaker 4 (07:31):
Day upon day upon day.

Speaker 5 (07:33):
You get Payna, Parrettis, Alvarez and Walker and if they
don't make something happen. And today that quartet went one
for sixteen.

Speaker 4 (07:44):
Your your host. It's hard to go over. It's hard
to call it top heavy when the top isn't heavy.

Speaker 5 (07:49):
Yeah, I mean expecting Paynian games, you know, twelve, thirteen
and fourteen of his season to come out guns blazing
as a bit much. Paraitis homwered yesterday, but he's not
having a good offensive season. Christian Walker has had a
poor May compared to his very good start to the season.
And Jordan Alvarez another zero for four today a day today.
He's just now flirting with being under three hundred on

(08:11):
the season. And the other part of the ease with
which teams can pitch their way through the Astros hitters
is this month they're striking out a lot more and
it has to do with who's in the lineup. They
said a new season worst with fifteen strikeouts. When May started,
they had one game where the team struck out thirteen
or more times. Today was the third time in May

(08:31):
they've struck out thirteen or more times in a game.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
Just going back to that tweet which you kind of
hit on a lot of the numbers, it was a
fifteen game sample size that we're talking about with the team.
Since Correa went down, thirty seven runs the Astros have scored.
Of course, as you mentioned, ten of them came in
one game. Then that makes it, as you said, two
point six runs per game and the fifteen aforementioned strikeouts today,

(08:56):
which is a season high.

Speaker 5 (08:58):
It is the tenth Inning Show. It's a Collin Show
for you guys. We laid out a few of the
items initially. We got plenty of time to get you
in on the conversation seven one three two one two
five seven ninety. We'll get inside the Astros clubhouse here
from Joe A. Spotta and their starting pitcher Mike Burrows.
Updates over the course of the day with both Dana
Brown and Joe spot Of visiting the station at different

(09:20):
times on some of their soon to be returning players
Josh Hater and Hunter Brown at the top of that list.
And we'll do all that as we take your phone call.
So we'll get started at on that and get out
to the phone line seven one three two one two
five seven ninety. Get James in here initially to get
things started here on the program. Hey James, what do
you have for us on the tenth Inning Show today?

Speaker 6 (09:42):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (09:42):
I can't imagine even going to ballpucked to watch this garbage.
I mean, this is hot garbage. They can't hit, they
can't pitch, they can't do anything. They're gonna change the
name of dyk In Park to dying park. We're gonna
figure something out, man, I gotta figure something out. This
is just ridiculous. This is a horrible team. I keep
saying only five five games out, No hope, that's all

(10:02):
I got to say.

Speaker 5 (10:04):
Yeah, I understand the vibe of the feeling that many
people will have on this team, and I do think
that is a valid point, the last one he made.
I don't think they're looking for a new sponsor.

Speaker 4 (10:13):
We welcome you in the dying part.

Speaker 5 (10:15):
No naming right to deal with anybody. I'm not even
sure what company they would be representing.

Speaker 4 (10:19):
That would be some sort of funeral. Yeah, what's the
biggest one in town?

Speaker 5 (10:25):
I don't I don't have any idea on earth, man,
what the biggest group would be.

Speaker 4 (10:30):
That's not something you have off the top of your head.
And you're good at those things, but not this.

Speaker 5 (10:33):
Some people understood they have a hard time putting this
in proper perspective, but that's a pretty reasonable perspective. The
games behind is legit. The math says you're not out
of it. The ball playing says you are. The ball
playing says you. You would have to put this. I

(10:54):
guess if you want to tell me that that the
division winner is going to be eighty one and eighty
one this year. We can start there if you really
want to believe that a team is going to head
to the playoffs by winning one of the six major
league divisions by going eighty one to eighty one, which
is where the Angels are, The Mariners, Rangers, and Athletics
are all striving to be. Athletics are there right now.

(11:15):
Twenty four and twenty four. Okay, the Astros are twenty
and thirty one. That means they can afford only fifty
losses the rest of the season. They've lost thirty one
of their first fifty one. They can only lose fifty
times in their next one hundred and eleven games. So
they're going to go sixty one and fifty the rest

(11:36):
of the way, starting today, not starting when Hunter Brown
comes back, not starting when Josh Hater comes back, not
starting when al Twove comes back.

Speaker 4 (11:43):
Today.

Speaker 5 (11:44):
They have an off day tomorrow, so they get a
day of reprieve. Just to get to five hundred, a
team that's played eleven under through fifty one now needs
to play eleven over over one hundred and eleven game stretch.
Just the math behind that watching a team that can't
put runs on the board has been They're probably after today,
they're the top half of the league pitching this month,

(12:05):
er they're at the very very bottom of the league offensively.
They went into today with the best record in the
division for the month today's May twentieth, and they've played
at a better level than everybody in the division for twenty.

Speaker 4 (12:20):
Days, including the division leader.

Speaker 5 (12:21):
Including the division leader, not by much. All those teams
are clumped together by a half game or a game.
But it's hard to watch a team. They're clearly mentally
fighting and they're trying to do everything they can, but
there's just not a whole lot going on in these games.
They didn't catch a string of bad luck other than
what I brought up in the fourth inning with the
not challenging a call. And I was mad at myself

(12:41):
earlier today. And it's for all the reasons why the
ABS is still limiting. I shouldn't say, man, why don't
you challenge that. I should still be saying why don't
you get the call?

Speaker 4 (12:53):
Right?

Speaker 5 (12:54):
But now that we have ABS, we kind of forget
that's still on the umpire. It's a pretty important call
to be made on two pitch not called a strike.

Speaker 4 (13:01):
Now you have the option.

Speaker 5 (13:03):
It's at your disposal if you haven't wasted your challenges
to fix it.

Speaker 4 (13:08):
The Astros shows.

Speaker 5 (13:10):
Felt like at that point in the game, and really
the Astros, it's really just one person, It's just Vasquez.
There were four challenges of an umpire's ball strike call,
all made by the Twins, and the first three were
all overturned.

Speaker 4 (13:25):
The last one was confirmed. Did you see the other
night in the Royals game where Salvador Perez did too
straight against Las Diez And after the next pitch, like
immediately after the second successful, by the way, challenge, Laz
looked at him, like, you gonna do that one too. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (13:42):
The first pitch was close but called a strike, and
Salvi said, I don't think so tapped his helmet and
it got overturned. The second pick pitch also pretty close,
but it was called a strike and he didn't think so,
so he tapped his helmet again and it was correct.
The third pitch was pretty far outside and Laz kind
of leaned over so Salvey could see him. It was like,

(14:04):
you're gonna challenge this, but to be fair and tell
the whole story, they had had a conversation throughout all
of this. There was no animosity there. They were both
smiling about it through each of the challenges. And as
much as I don't think laz is a particularly good
umpire behind the plate calling balls and strikes, I don't
think there's any lack of respect around the league. I

(14:25):
think he's actually one of the more well liked umpires
seen too, which is crazy, but he just he's awful.
I don't think he's very good at calling balls and strikes.
And then Aaron Judge had one the other night that
was so egregious. He just walked a first base because
he knew. And there now have been a couple of
instances also where catchers have challenged and the umpire said
you didn't do it quickly enough. And in both cases
they that I've seen, they were wrong. The challenge was

(14:47):
almost immediate, working one more phone call and flip it
into our our break. But we got time for many
more of You want to line some more up? Seven one, three, two, one, two, five,
seven ninety Get Alex in here on the Astros tenth
Inning Show Astro's Fall to the Twins for one.

Speaker 4 (15:02):
We you got Alex.

Speaker 8 (15:04):
Good afternoon, you know, bad is bad. I've seen all
kinds of bad, I'm almost eighty, all kinds of beads.
But I've never seen even the last place team. This
team does not know how to come from behind. When
was the last time they came from behind? As soon
as it's three or four runs behind, came over?

Speaker 7 (15:25):
What kind of stuff is that?

Speaker 8 (15:27):
I mean, who's going to sit in the stands and
continue to pay for a seats three one hundred to
five hundred dollars when as soon as the team third, fourth, fifth,
any they fall behind game over? I mean, what is that?

Speaker 5 (15:41):
It's not so much their lack of ability to come behind,
per se, it's their lack of ability to score a run.
You can't come from behind if you're losing, right, can't
score And so I get the point you're making. I
don't think every go ahead.

Speaker 4 (15:52):
I'm sorry, Well, you're exactly right.

Speaker 8 (15:55):
They're not scoring. And in the beginning season they did
nothing but score ones. And another thing is you know,
now that their pitching is shoring up, their hitting is
going south. I mean, what's with this team?

Speaker 9 (16:10):
I don't get it.

Speaker 8 (16:11):
There's tons of talent on this team that might.

Speaker 5 (16:14):
Be where a lot of people probably disagree at this
point there's not a lot of talent on the field.
Maybe adding in the current players that are on the
injured list, I might be more likely to agree there's
tons of talent on this team. But after Christian Walker,
that's fourth in the lineup today. In most days, the
remaining hitters, and you did have guys like Shoemake and

(16:39):
a few others that have been in the lineup but
were not today.

Speaker 4 (16:42):
Nick Allen also on the Astros bench.

Speaker 5 (16:45):
But the guys in the lineup today, Zach colepinch hit
after Walker, You're you're going to Jake Myer, Zach Decenzo,
Bryce Matthews, Cam Smith, and your catcher Christian Vasquez all
have ops under seventy ten. All of them are heavy
strikeout players. They swing and miss a ton, and Cole
is worse than all of them, and he struck out
in his pin shating appearance. I do believe most of

(17:07):
those players have a major league future. I don't know
that any of them are definitive major league starters, and unfortunately,
Cam Smith's certainly not playing like one. I have high
hopes for his future, but I don't think it's realistic
or fair or smart to say I like the long
term starting caliber future for any of the players I

(17:27):
just mentioned Meers Descenzo, Bryce Matthews, Christian Vax says Zach Cole.
I don't think those are anytime soon full time players.
I mean Taylor Tremmell and Joey Loperfito. If they were
both healthy, they're not much better. They'd be starting every
single game.

Speaker 4 (17:42):
Yeah, yeah, that's not There's no question about it. And
I think that's a good differentiation, if you will, of
saying there's not talent on this team versus there's some
like you know you're on Albert Well, the first four
names you mentioned, those are all and by the way,
imagine if Christian Walker was having a twenty twenty five
type campaign, they didn't have even more problems. But you

(18:06):
know it, jose Al two Bay, it's not like he
was lighting the world on fire before he got hurt.
That's just the honest truth. So there's a lot of
names on the back is of the jerseys right now
that maybe weren't getting the job done. I mean Carlos Korea.

Speaker 5 (18:22):
He was having a good offensive season, not a great
offensive season.

Speaker 4 (18:25):
Offensive season, So yeah, that's those are all those are losses,
But how much or how big a loss they are, well,
you tip.

Speaker 5 (18:33):
The scales and we'll leave it at that. On this
side of the break, if you have a fifth hitter,
if it's Altuve, if it's Korea, if it's both, clearly
you tip it more. Right now, half of your lineup
is pretty easy to get out five of those nine.
If you can just get to five, now you've you've
at least length in once. But like you get something
going in the first inning, and heck, there was a
challenge they could have made in the first inning that
would have put two on and nobody out for Jordan Alvarez,

(18:57):
but he Soak Perettis did not challenge what would have
been ball four. It was called strike a strike. It's
the first inning. I kind of get it back to
the umpire. If that call is not missed and your
first base and there's nobody out and you're on, Alvarez
is batting, maybe something would have played out differently. Seven one, three, two,
one two, five, seven ninety here on the Astros Tenth
Inning Show. Of course, the A team here with you

(19:18):
this afternoon will take you through more of the items
from today's game. And drive you into the rest of
your evening. Right here on Sports Talk seven ninety we run.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
On dingers, dumps and drives, not Codd. Sports Talk seven
ninety guaranteed human.

Speaker 5 (19:40):
Continuing here with the Astros tenth Inning Show, the A
team here with you X and AC will take you
up until six o'clock. Continue talking Astros baseball here inside
the Astros tenth Inning Show for the next handful of minutes,
and you guys can jump in at seven one, three, two,
one two five, seven ninety I want to give you
our Astros Player of the game. Our Astros play of
the game, I should say, presented by Marl Mechanical Cooling

(20:02):
and Heating. They scored once. It sounded like this.

Speaker 9 (20:05):
One to one, and that's lined up the middle and
in a center for a base hit. Decenzo getting the
way from Tony Paris Chico around third. The photo the
plate is not nearly in time. Descenzo in with a
headfirst slide. Christian Fasquez an RBI single of making one
nothing Astros.

Speaker 5 (20:21):
That came in the second inning, and unfortunately the Astros
not only didn't score the rest of the way, they
only had two hits of the rest or excuse me,
one hit the rest of the way. I had a
single in the first, three more in the second, and
then one single. Over the final seven innings of this game,
just five hits, all of them were singles. A one
note from today's game that's hopefully a good one moving

(20:42):
forward and is the Astros relief pitcher of the game,
presented by Trajan Wealth Management. The season debut Astro's debut
for Nate Pearson. He was activated yesterday. He had been
injured from or been unavailable since the offseas, and he
had a procedure on his elbow before arriving at spring training,

(21:03):
so the Astros were aware of where he was a
little bit slow and going through spring training a little
bit of a setback, so a long process for him
to return, but went through a bunch of rehab assignments,
appearances and the last several of which were outstanding. Pumped
it up at better than one hundred during those instances
and got it up close to one hundred and this
afternoon's affair only needed to face three batters. It only

(21:27):
took him eleven pitches to get through his one inning
of work. Seven of those eleven pitches were strike so
Nate Pearson does give something to the Astros that they lack. Well,
he's now the hardest thrower that they have. He throws
significantly harder than Brian Abraw. We talked a little bit
about a brallw yesterday getting the job done and closing

(21:48):
out that one run victory, but his velocity remains what
would you'd have to call an issue. It's just not
where it has been throughout the rest of his career,
nearly touching one hundred on occasion ninety nine, regularly, regularly.
No such thing this year, even though he was effective
enough to take care of business yesterday and most of
his last six seven appearances have also been get the

(22:10):
job done type of appearances. Doesn't appear that he's hurt,
and it doesn't really appear that his mechanics are a
huge issue. He is throwing more strikes, but he's certainly
not throwing as hard as he did in all of
his previous crazy effective seasons as a reliever for the Astros.
Continue at the conversation seven one, three, two, one two

(22:30):
five seven ninety Shelley wants in on the Astros tenth
inning Show, and that's why we're here. It's College show.
So you call in, you get in. What do you
have for Hi?

Speaker 10 (22:38):
Y'all doing?

Speaker 4 (22:39):
We're doing great?

Speaker 10 (22:39):
Hey, y'all doing I'm doing We're doing great. Here two
bus the Astros they need help. I'm gonna tell you
how I'm feeling right now about them. Right now, the
offense is not doing as well as they could. But
the training, I think for the Astros, excuse my expression, sucks.

(23:03):
They need to train these boys how to handle situations
on the field, and I'm wondering if they're being careful
not to get themselves hurt like they have been before.

Speaker 5 (23:16):
That's a tough one and I appreciate you preemptively apologizing
for your language. I think you carry the same feeling
that the fans have and the team has. And remember,
they made some changes to the athletic training staff over
the off season, not wholesale changes. A lot of the
people that weren't in place before, and the doctors similarly
that weren't placed before are still there. But I just

(23:39):
I wish I could tell you here's what they're doing
wrong and here's what they need to do to fix it.
If they knew the answer, they would already be doing it.
Multiple oblique injuries are very concerning, and we've now seen
four of them, one with a pitcher, three with hitters.
The other injuries, whether it's a hamstring injury with Jeremy Pania,
and whole variety of arm injuries with pitching staff members.

(24:01):
I just don't think you can know. I can't say.
I don't think you can say it's on the staff
because most of the time would be I do think
there's an element of Major League Baseball as a game
itself where we're seeing a major shift. Twenty two times
the Astros have sent a player to the IL this year.
It's involved twenty one different players. Bennett Susa has gone

(24:22):
on twice for two different injuries. But league wide, it
does appear it's a bigger issue. More players, more pitchers specifically,
are headed to the IL for a variety of pitching
related arm shoulder related injuries, and if every maybe there's
a change that needs to happen, and how all the
teams are figuring out, working through the pitch clock, working

(24:43):
through so many guys just trying to throw as hard
as they can, which is what younger pitchers and players
arriving in your development system are doing. But the Astros
have been on the wrong end of it, still more
so than anybody else for a second consecutive season. We're
not through the second full month of the season, and
I know the feeling that Shelley and most everybody has,

(25:04):
and I'm with you. It definitely seems worse this year.

Speaker 4 (25:08):
Do you feel like so? Jeremiah was the head athletic
trainer that got the ouster, but most of his staff remained.
As I understand it, I could be miss speaking here again.
Just blaming it on the training staff is kind of
like a cop out, I think, but it also has

(25:29):
I think something to do with I just don't In
other words, I don't think you have this many injuries
two consecutive years in a row and think to yourself, well,
maybe a clean slate in that department might not have
been better. It's not an outlandish statement to make.

Speaker 5 (25:44):
We'll think about something that Carlos said in between last
year and this year about people the players need to know,
understand what's going on. We need to be more focused
on what we're eating, how we're preparing for games, how
we're handling our own business. Didn't change the thing, I
bet you they are doing all those things. I bet
they heeded his words. I think he might have thought
it was somewhat on the players, which is not what

(26:05):
you're saying. And now I don't know what you say,
because well, who is it on. It's definitely a combination
of it. Are you really truly doing everything you need
to do? And well, it's a combination of those things.
But let's not dismiss the obvious. They're playing sports, they're
doing things their body's not supposed to do with this
kind of regularity.

Speaker 4 (26:22):
Not normal to throw a ball ninety to one hundred
miles per hour over and over and over and over
and over again every five days.

Speaker 5 (26:29):
Yeah, Jeremy Pannia being back, maybe this illuminates a little bit.
You know, Joe A Spot brought it up the other day.
When you see him need to sprint from home to
first because he's hit a ground ball to the infield
and he thinks he can beat it out. When you
see him going first to third and turn it on
on a play where I'm gonna have to hustle to
get that's when you know he's fully healthy. And that's

(26:49):
when you see that he's over the injury. And guys
swinging as hard as they can. They could have done
it a thousand times before they a thousand first time
they have an oblique, like Janar Diez, he had his
oblique injury, and he said, I had never felt anything before.
I wasn't trying to play through anything.

Speaker 4 (27:08):
A'ltuve.

Speaker 5 (27:09):
I imagine we'll probably speak in Chicago. He's going to
be with the team in Chicago after visiting with the
doctors this week, and I imagine he'll say the same thing,
not that he was trying to play through anything, but
that it just happened. I mean Ryan Jeffers in this
series for the Minnesota Twins, he was trying to continue
his bat and couldn't and went to the dugout. He

(27:32):
got halfway to the dugout before anybody even came out
to realize. I think he thinks he's hurt, and he
immediately went on the aisle because it broke a bone
in his hand just swinging the bat. That's not lack
of preparation, that's not lack of wearing the right protective gear.
That's I'm swinging a bat as hard as I can
when grinding my fingers and hands around this wood instrument.

Speaker 4 (27:54):
And he got hurt. Yeah, it's some of it's if
you want to call it flucish or I mean, I
think when you start talking about, oh my gosh, look
at this rash of injuries the Astros are going through
for a second consecutive season, you obviously have to take
into account what the injuries are, how significant they are,
how long the shelf time is. But the thing that

(28:17):
really I think turned a lot of people against Okay,
what's going on with this training staff in some way,
shape or form, was the back to back handling or
mishandling of both Kyle Tucker and jord On Alvarez's injuries
and consecutive seasons.

Speaker 5 (28:32):
Yeah, we have got nothing like that this year so far.
And you know, good time to mention. Hunter Brown's BP
session yesterday went well, went well enough that he was
throwing ninety six that their next step is hoping that
he feels fine afterwards. It's just one day later, so
they'll have a report on how he felt. They'll have
more reports on Thursday, and if everything was fine, then

(28:52):
he is expected to begin a rehab assignment several starts
worth of it, but maybe the first week in June
or close to it. He would be ready again if
there are no setbacks, that would mean their return to
play procedure for a player who did not have surgery
would have worked out the same as about to happen
with Josh Hater. He made another appearance yesterday. He's now
made several scoreless appearances, getting his velocity up to where

(29:16):
he wants it to be. As he ramps up, he
still has probably a couple more appearances and then at
least one back to back worth of appearances and he
should be back. He's actually eligible to come back in
four days, but they've already planned on when these next
rehab appearances will come, and that's long after that. But again,
first week in June, first fifteen days of June definitely

(29:36):
seems in line. Another player who had an injury at
the end of last year that he did not have
a surgical procedure for, had a different, seemingly unrelated injury,
the tendonitis biceps tendonitis when he just before he arrived
at spring training, which also did not have a surgical procedure,
And so far he's into month three basically without any setbacks.

Speaker 4 (29:58):
Trying to return to them out.

Speaker 5 (30:00):
All those things would be a big difference from what
AC just pointed out. They had major issues with diagnosis.
They had major issues with when players should be on
rehab assignments and getting ready to play and all those things.

Speaker 4 (30:13):
Just asking the player, Hey, do you feel good enough
to play?

Speaker 9 (30:16):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (30:16):
Yes I do. They're always gonna say that, yeah, I
feel fine.

Speaker 5 (30:19):
All right, let's go take a live VP at Dyke
and Park and then after that we'll do some imaging
and see that your hand has a broken bone in it.

Speaker 4 (30:27):
I mean there again, that exact.

Speaker 5 (30:29):
That was the Jordon situation, right, you're unaware.

Speaker 4 (30:32):
And that was again. If that happens isolated, it's not great,
but it doesn't feel as insane as coming on the
heels of what happened with Kyle Tucker. No, it certainly does.

Speaker 5 (30:45):
An Our Astros Player of the Game brought to you
by Hawkins Corporation at Hawkinscorp dot com. I'll give that
to the other pitcher out of the bullpen for the
Astros got them through the seventh inning. That's Aj Bluebaugh.
He continues to throw strikes, he continues to get outs.
Did have a nice defensive play made behind him to help,
but a shutout inning from blue Ball the blow up
innings from earlier this year still have his RA sitting

(31:07):
at four fifty five. But as relievers go, if tried
to talk about this most years we've been doing Astros
Baseball here, all the years I've been on the radio.
You know, you have thirty five, forty fifty sixty appearances
whatever it is. You know how many of them were
successful versus how many weren't. When you have one unsuccessful
outing as a reliever and you give up three runs
while recording only three outs, well your ERA is twenty

(31:30):
seven for that day, for that appearance. That's what can
blow up some You have seven appearances of excellence, you
give up one run over seven innings, and then you
have another inning, another appearance where you give up a couple.
Well you have those up, and all of a sudden,
your RA is it five and a half. Well, eight
times you went out there and delivered. It's more about
how often you deliver than necessarily.

Speaker 4 (31:52):
What your RA is.

Speaker 5 (31:53):
It definitely tells some of the story. I wouldn't discount
it entirely, but he's been one of their more trustworthy
pitchers out of the bullpen. Do you want to hear
a little bit from what was said after the game Joe,
a Spota Astro's manager. After the game today, we dip
into some post game clubhouse audio brought to you by
Mokrum injury lawyers, you know, from your guys offensively and

(32:13):
what's that one with John and.

Speaker 11 (32:15):
Mister Yeah, you know, he's he's tough, you know, fastball
and he's baking, so he's breaking ball, and I feel
like we need to us back to back days with
you know, no walks for us. You know, we were
good when we when we grind the bats, we make
our in which we did early in the game. He
was we were driving the pitch count up, but we're

(32:35):
just not really forcing them to give us, you know,
like pitches to hit right. And we need to start
controlling more of our bats in the outcome of our bats.

Speaker 12 (32:45):
So you see, of course of this month aside from maybe.

Speaker 11 (32:50):
They have the guys that you're missing, you know, but
also we were ran into some good pitching here the
last couple of series, you know, facing some good starters Seattle, Texas.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
Joe is a tough it's stuff as they come.

Speaker 4 (33:02):
But we have to do.

Speaker 11 (33:03):
A better job just kind of controlling the quality of
our backs kind of see the signs and the patterns
of what pitchers are trying to do to us, and
and and stay with our game plan. And that's something
that we need to make that adjustment going into off day.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
And you know, in Chicago.

Speaker 5 (33:22):
Cubs are one of the better teams in baseball. I
don't know that they will be facing those types of pitchers.
Probably see Imanaga on Sunday. Let's see yeah Sunday, Ray
on Saturday and tie on. I believe will start the
opener for the Cubs against the Astros. To a certain extent,
I think Show's right. They have seen a little bit
better pitching Joe Ryan'szra will dip under three in his

(33:44):
next start, and his last several have been very good, Yeah,
and had a ton of success against the Astros, but
obviously was different today. Hard to work counts when he's
throwing pitches in the zone that you aren't handling very well.
Ninety nine pitches for Joe today, seventy one of them
more strikes, and as Joe a spot noted in Ronny
Walks while striking out nine times against him and six

(34:04):
more times over the final three innings.

Speaker 4 (34:06):
I know, by the way, when you get to Chicago,
you'll see Alex Bregman.

Speaker 5 (34:10):
Yeah, the Astros will get to see a familiar face,
just like they did in Minnesota, two of them actually,
Victor Karattini and Ryan Presley, And now they will see
Alex Bregman, who is playing for a very very good team,
probably the best team in their division, although it's a
very good division, the National League Central, maybe the best
in baseball. So the Astros definitely have to They got

(34:32):
to do things better than they're currently doing because they're
quite obviously, I think everybody knows they're going against a
better team. The Twins are four games under five hundred.
They're not good. They're not having a good season. They've
made all sorts of roster moves, letting because they're not
getting production out of players. And now they're going to
play a first place team. That's a big difference and

(34:53):
wrong direction. Speaking of where the Astros stand in the
standings in the AL West presented by Greater Houston Radiation
on Collogey, the Astros do drop a half game as
of right now to everybody else in the division. Nobody
else has played and finished their game today. But the
A's are five hundred. They have a one game lead
on the two games under five hundred Rangers, they have

(35:14):
a two game lead on the four games under five
hundred Mariners, and the Angels are bringing up the rear.
But this is a division that clearly has no clear
favorite and no good teams. Good teams win more than
they lose. That obviously can change as the rest of
the season continues. You know, the Astros have an off
day tomorrow. As we look ahead presented by Marshall Stevenson elevator,

(35:36):
I just kind of ran through the pitching probables for
the Cubs. Astros are expected to give the ball Spence
Araghetti on Friday. He has been their ace. Kaiwai Tang
another start, and remember he was part of their six
man rotation, which is five plus Jason Alexander currently I
haven't mentioned Jason will do that. Desra continue over the
next two hours and Peter Lambert expecting to get the

(35:59):
ball on Sunday. For the Astros, hopefully they do something
with this road trip. They had a ten game road
trip at the beginning of the season. They won the
second game of that road trip after losing the first,
then they lost the every other game on the road trip.
That continued on this road trip. They lost the first,

(36:19):
they won the second, and one game into the every
other game that remains the first of the eighth. The
chin on them, Rickey, Bobby. They did not grab victory.
They really can't afford a second one to nine road
trip and have us saying, well, they're only seven games back,
because they won't be.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
They might be.

Speaker 4 (36:37):
I think the rest of the.

Speaker 5 (36:41):
Nineteen games under five hundred twenty six astros catch the fever.
I just don't see that happening. Hopefully there's better news ahead.
There is more Astros to discuss. There's also a basketball
to discuss. Hopefully there's a good things to be learned about.
A couple of rockets moving forward will be on the
field with the Houston Texans in a matter of just

(37:02):
a few days, as their OTAs will begin. Just as
one NFL player, good old number eight, announces he is
calling it a career. All that and more. As we
wrap up the tenth inning show, and I've headfirst into
the A Team.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
Next, two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam talking your team.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team.

Speaker 4 (37:33):
This is the A team.

Speaker 5 (37:34):
It is Wednesday here on Sports Talk seven to ninety,
obviously coming at you just after the Astros tenth inning shows.
They wrapped things up on their series in Minnesota, a
winning yesterday to one and losing today for one. Since
the last time we spoke spoke on a Tuesday's program
before last night's surprise, Jason Alexander start six innings of

(37:58):
shutout baseball and absolutely in total command. It's amazing what
maybe the difference makes between starting and being an innings
eating bulk reliever to try to save the bullpen. That
was his third appearance for the Astros this year. First
one was out of the bullpen, gave up five runs,
second one was out of the bullpen, gave up five

(38:19):
runs and a billion hits. And the third one was
yesterday and noon yesterday. I think he find out found
out definitively he would make the start for Lance McCullers junior,
the latest Astro who went to the IL with shoulder inflammation.
And he went out there and he pitched like he
pitched most of last season. He gave the team a
chance to win, and that's putting it mildly. He didn't

(38:41):
allow the other team to score and gave them six
innings worth of work. Those are games you win. The
pitcher who gave them six innings and maybe isn't the
pitcher of a record, But when you go out there
and you start a game and the other team doesn't
score off you, you win those games. You're supposed to
win those games. That is pitching your team to victory.
And he did, in fact get the victory because they
scored the two runs before he even threw a pitch.

(39:02):
With Ezac Perettis his monster to run homer and the
first inning of that game, Brian King needing to come
on for what looked like would be a four inning save.
When Friend of the Show Brayden Shoemaker was unable to
catch yet another rocket off of Josh Bell's bat, which
brought home run number one in the eighth inning, it
sent Amyel de los Santos to the bench, and in

(39:25):
his place, Brian King came in. He got out of
the eighth inning and left it at to one. He
started the ninth inning and looked like he was going
to be able to finish things in the ninth inning,
but after a base hit and looming right handed hitters
both in the ninth spot, and in the number one spot,
it was time to bring in Brian Bray, which is
what joespotted did. He hit the first batter, then he

(39:46):
wild pitched them to second and third, so all of
a sudden the winning run was on second base, and
then he got Byron Buxton on a full count pitch
to pop out foul to Eastzach Perettis. Astros got their
twentieth win. Still sitting there obviously, after today's four to
one lost day off Tomorrow Cubs and Astros for three,
all three games, our afternoon game, so we will join

(40:08):
you again on Friday after Astros Cubs for the tenth
inning show.

Speaker 4 (40:13):
Tomorrow.

Speaker 5 (40:13):
We got a full show for you, all four hours worth,
and plenty of things over the two hours we're with
you here today four We will head into game two
tonight on the NBA side in the Western Conference for
the Spurs, trying to take a two games to none
lead over the Thunder, of course, still playing in Oklahoma City.
No trophy presentations planned before the game, so all appropriate parties,

(40:34):
I'm sure we'll act accordingly once the game tips off.
Last night, you don't see it very often, almost never.
The now teams are now one four eight billion. In
these scenarios. The New York Knicks long rest period played
poorly for I don't know, forty one minutes or so,
and then they completely dominated a game they were losing

(40:55):
by twenty two points to win easily in overtime over
the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavaliers did have a twenty two
point lead with seven minutes of forty seconds left in
the fourth quarter at Madison Square Garden and could not
hang on to it. Game went to overtime. Just like
the Western Conference tied at one oh one after forty

(41:16):
eight minutes, both game ones tied at one oh one
after forty eight minutes. The Knicks immediately scored the first
two points, the first four points for six points, and
coasted to a one game to none lead in overtime
over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Speaker 4 (41:32):
Yeah, fourteen to three was the lopsided overtime. It wasn't
nearly as lopsided as thirty two to eighteen, which forced
that thirty to eight.

Speaker 5 (41:41):
Yeah, they were down twenty two with seven forty left.

Speaker 4 (41:45):
Yeah, and we'll they gave up eight.

Speaker 5 (41:48):
Points basically in eight minutes while they could not be stopped.
I'm not gonna ask you guys to figure this out.
I'll just give you the facts.

Speaker 4 (41:57):
I just said.

Speaker 5 (41:58):
A team could not be stopped. They have a very
good guard, and the other team employs NOW number one
James Harden. I don't need to give any more analysis.
Now we will, but it's pretty obvious and everybody in
the building knew it except for one guy.

Speaker 4 (42:15):
He coaches the Cavs.

Speaker 5 (42:18):
And he's a good coach by all accounts, but he
didn't look like it based on what he did, and
definitely not based on what he said. You can protect
your players, but come on, Kenny, well you can't say
what you said.

Speaker 4 (42:31):
I was talking about everything prior to those two things
you just mentioned. So we'll get into that a little
bit more next segment, because I do want to kind
of relish a bit I guess in it and also
give credit where it's due in another sense. But the
other thing that came down the day that I thought
was just the way it's being characterized. It's news, but

(42:58):
it's not breaking news. When Aaron Rodgers tells everyone, yeah,
I'll retire now after this year, why don't you think so?

Speaker 5 (43:06):
Because I know not that people don't understand the dynamic
of the show, and it's totally natural. I mean, he
was asked to point blank question, and you anticipate this.
You know you're doing this for the last time this year.
You know this is my last year. You won't be
playing it.

Speaker 4 (43:19):
No, this is it, he said.

Speaker 5 (43:20):
I mean, he point blank answered a quest, a direct
question about his future. We got a direct answer about
his future. He's been in the league for twenty years.
We've never gotten that before. This is the fourth or
fifth year we've wondered, is he gonna move on for
the Packers or he just retire. He ends up playing
for the Jets and gets hurt. I think he's coming back.
He did and he played. Then he plays for the
like think about his last game. It was against the Texans,

(43:41):
and that's where our last handful of minutes by the
network crew because there was no certainty on it, and
I don't players don't have to announce their retirement. Travis
Kelsey has done the same thing now a couple of years,
and he'll be doing it again. But in this case,
we got a definitive answer. This is it for Aaron Rodgers.
He will have seventeen more regular season games. He is
on an active roster for or an injured reserve for,

(44:03):
and that will be that Are.

Speaker 4 (44:04):
You already putting him on irm if?

Speaker 5 (44:08):
Because I want to be accurate, I'm just making that
point I was making. Is there that won't be any
Last year he did play in one postseason game. He
won't be playing any postseason games this year.

Speaker 4 (44:17):
Doubt he remembers it got smacked around by Will Anderson company.

Speaker 5 (44:23):
This is a Hall of Fame player and he's definitely
one of the best players of this generation. He's definitely
one of the best players of all time. He's not
just a Hall of Famer in my opinion, he is
one of the best players ever at his position. He announced,
he basically announced his retirement. That's news.

Speaker 4 (44:38):
Yeah, it's news. I feel like, is it breaking news?
Should it lead the news cycle for however long?

Speaker 5 (44:45):
I think in light of what today, it will be
over tomorrow, how every show has had a chance to
talk about it.

Speaker 4 (44:51):
That's how every news cycle is these days. Though, I
feel like, if if what you were talking about where
they basically did a pseudo funeral for his career at
the end of the game last year, maybe I wouldn't
have this reaction.

Speaker 5 (45:05):
That's on them, and for sure, I think every network
would have in the we got Aaron Rodgers his last correct,
we should probably handle it as such.

Speaker 4 (45:13):
Yes, that's gonna be key when we talk about this
a little bit later on the show, because somebody on
that network, somebody you might not even anticipate, being the
one to do this, called out his network for doing
this very thing. Now he called out the network for
more of today's handling of the news versus the broadcast.

(45:34):
I don't think Joe Buck and Troy Aikman did anything wrong,
by the way, I do want to clarify that because
we all watched the game, you couldn't not see how
I mean, the Texans just blew them out. And all
the cameras are doing is following Aaron Rodgers around because
everybody thinks it's his last game. And Joe Buck and
Troy Aikman, to their credit or to their to their defense,

(45:56):
I guess what were they supposed to do. They didn't
have a definition to answer like this, right, so they
did what anybody in their position would have in that moment.
Today's handling of this breaking news is what I thought
was hilarious, and what this employee of ESPN kind of
went off on on their network, by the way, so

(46:18):
we get to that a little later. It's later in
the show.

Speaker 5 (46:20):
Can't Wait, I don't it's the off season in the NFL,
handful of teams have OTAs.

Speaker 4 (46:25):
I thought there wasn't one.

Speaker 5 (46:26):
They're one of Well, they're not playing regular season games.
That means it's the offseason. So in the literalist sense
of the word.

Speaker 4 (46:32):
They are.

Speaker 5 (46:33):
They're one of the teams that has OTA is ongoing,
so they're on the field and players usually are made
available to the media at the podium, which he was,
and again he answers.

Speaker 4 (46:43):
Like what you're saying, This is the first time that
this particular player who this topic has been I'm already
talking like four or five years now that it's been
hovering over him.

Speaker 5 (46:53):
He's also famously answered questions without an answer, different questions
about different things, and he's been asked this question before
and he didn't have a definitive answer before.

Speaker 4 (47:04):
Now it does. I think this is if he didn't
play quarterback. It's no different in my opinion than Travis
Kelcey in a lot of senses, because we've been asking
that question about him and assuming things. I think a
lot of people thought he would call it a career
after last season, and then here he is again.

Speaker 5 (47:22):
No, I thought it was handled perfectly fine in his situation.
I think the play and where the team was, and
the fact that Mahomes would be coming back from injury,
all these things would go into it. He talked about
it a couple of times, and one of those times
was on his own podcast about well, I need to
think about this, I need to consider this and consider that.
You know, the timing of a player's decision on whether

(47:43):
or not he's going to retire into that offseason certainly
should be done in concert with the team and the
general manager and everybody else involved, because you're going to
play a role for the team if you're active, if
you're playing another season, and they need to probably, I
mean even the Steelers need to replace Aaron Rodgers. Obviously
the would need to replace Travis Kelcey. They're both starters,
they're both TE.

Speaker 4 (48:03):
One or QB one. It matters.

Speaker 5 (48:05):
And so it didn't take a particularly long time for
Kelsey to to say he was back and then to
come to an agreement on a new deal, and officially
the Steelers had an agreement with Rogers in the last week.
But I imagine, just like I laid out, they didn't just
learn from Aaron in the last ten days he was returning.
They knew this going into the draft. They knew this,

(48:26):
probably in March at some point, that he was going
to be back with them for one more year.

Speaker 4 (48:32):
Now, all right, well until he hits the IR Since
you've put him on there.

Speaker 5 (48:36):
I just wanted to give you the There's only two scenarios.
Either he's on the active roster, he's on the injured reserve.

Speaker 4 (48:41):
Well, he's certainly if he's active, he's doing he's going
to be QB one because of the Texans will.

Speaker 5 (48:46):
Get another shot at him, or he will get another
shot at the Texans.

Speaker 4 (48:49):
I should say, yep, all right, prime time. Oh yeah,
I forgot about that. Okay, here's the deal. We're going
to pick on a former Rocket when we come back.
So we're the Knicks, uh huh, Okay, we're gonna be
We're gonna play the role playing the role of the
next day will be the A team. Yeah, that's coming up.

Speaker 5 (49:04):
Can I be the Brunson Burner? I love when you
make dad jokes about well, they couldn't help themselves all
night in the fourth quarter saying it over and over
and over, and then the inside the NBA crew couldn't
stop saying it over and over and over.

Speaker 4 (49:18):
Did Charles look directly at Max Struss?

Speaker 5 (49:22):
I don't think Max was involved.

Speaker 4 (49:23):
Did you make eye contact with him? And it was
he able to keep his composure? I hope?

Speaker 6 (49:27):
So?

Speaker 4 (49:27):
All right, all of that coming up next the eighteen
on Sports Talk seven ninety, James Harden got hunted defensively
in a playoff game, actually, any NBA game he got hunted.

Speaker 5 (49:43):
I Adam Wexler here on Sports Talk seven ninety, covering
all of James Harden's career from Arizona State through the
NBA through his current stay in Cleveland.

Speaker 4 (49:56):
Have heard that before. Why is your right hand on
a bible? And why is your left hand in the air?
That's kind of weird.

Speaker 5 (50:03):
Not giving a statement or anything like that, But in
case you missed it, they played a great game last night.
Up until they stopped playing a great game last night,
Cleveland was well on their way to winning big in
Game one on the road in New York, kind of
taking some of them momentum from playing every other day
basically for the last week while the Knicks weren't playing

(50:26):
any days over the last week, they had just gotten
done sweeping the Philadelphia seventy six ers, and it kind
of looked like it through most of the game. They
built as much as a twenty two point fourth quarter lead,
and they just kind of stopped doing the things that
were working for them offensively, because it takes both ends.
Their offense completely fell apart and their defense was very,

(50:48):
very easy to pick apart. And it's certainly an unbelievable matchup.
But a little bit of what it sounded like, and
then some of the commentary after, and then some of
my thoughts as I was watching it all unfold last night,
not really shaking my head, but more saying I'm glad
I was entertained.

Speaker 4 (51:05):
That's what I want.

Speaker 5 (51:06):
The NBA games that I'm watching that don't involve the
team that I cover and work for, I want them
to be that the Rockets aren't playing anymore. If you
want people to watch your product, then they better be entertaining.
And that was an entertaining basketball game. But as it unfolded,
a little bit of it sounded like this from the
crew ESPN crew, Mike and Richard and tim working the game.

Speaker 13 (51:28):
Runts some carbile hard he wants a clear out, fakes drive,
gets inside, pull up jumper.

Speaker 11 (51:35):
Got it.

Speaker 13 (51:35):
Look if they're coming after him again, runs it again,
all those polts. So to what he shot, clockets in
bruns and drives, pulls up, shot us up shot.

Speaker 6 (51:46):
At high.

Speaker 4 (51:50):
Yeah, if I want to time out?

Speaker 13 (51:51):
If he scores, runs in pretty Potter.

Speaker 5 (51:56):
They scored, Why didn't I get a bang? Now that's
for later in the show. Okay, Breen, if you missed
the end of the game, all of this stuff we're
saying could have been all true because it all happened,
and the Calves barely missed the game winning shot. Buzzer
probably wouldn't have gone off. There might have been fractions
of a second left when the ball came out, But man,

(52:18):
did they get a good look and a ball that
absolutely got a premature bang from Mike Breen and it
was all over the interwebs. Well, that's not the story
we're telling here in this segment. We're telling the story
of Jalen Brunson, left handed point guard, hunting James Harden,
left handed point guard. And we know what mismatches were
like here in Houston, all those years, the Rockets had

(52:40):
a good enough roster to allow James Harden to not
get exploited on the perimeter quite as much.

Speaker 4 (52:46):
They just said, well, we can handle the perimeter.

Speaker 5 (52:49):
You go inside and you push people around inside, and
you show that you actually are a plus post defender.
We had all the numbers to back it up. The
points per possession when he was the post defender were awesome.
He was one of the league's better post defenders because
all he had to do was lean on you. He
didn't have to chase you, he didn't have to show
his insane lack of foot speed defensively. And Mike Brown

(53:10):
is a good coach, and he told you that multiple
times over his career. He literally used words to tell
you that after the game. What I was doing during
the game before we hear from Mike Brown on this,
I kept going back to the box score and saying,
these numbers have got to be wrong. How is he
only like minus six? How is the only minus nine?
How's the only minus fourteen. I'm watching them score every

(53:33):
single possession while he's on the floor, because they're basically
getting brunts into the spots that he likes, and everybody
else is in the corner. They had three guys in
one corner and another player in the opposite corner. There
if you wanted to help, you need to commit to
a hard double team. And Kenny Atkinson would not use
his timeouts, which he lost because once you get the
three minute mark, they're gone. And then still kept not

(53:55):
he didn't have any I guess he didn't have anything
to tell his defense because he liked what they were doing.
It's it's easy to isolate a player if they let you,
and boy did the Calves let them. Brunson on Harden
over over over. Either he scored or he found a
teammate in the corner for a great look. They just
crushed him from having the advantage on one matchup that

(54:15):
the opponent let him take over and over and over again.

Speaker 4 (54:18):
You know, it's wild about this game, and again it's
it's game one of the Eastern Conference Finals, presumably a
long way to go. I'm not sure on that.

Speaker 5 (54:27):
I don't know how the Calves recover from this. They
signed most writers. Yeah, well, they look the Calves are
trying to steal home court. There's still a chance to
do that. They win game two.

Speaker 4 (54:38):
They're sitting pretty they can go home for two after that,
If you look at the scoring distribution for both teams,
it's a whole lot of meh in the starting lineup
for both squads. And then oh twenty nine points for
Donovan Mitchell for Cleveland's side, and then Jalen Brunson continues

(54:59):
to to beg you to apologize for your comments after
he was traded from the Uh did he sign?

Speaker 5 (55:06):
I never can't remember. He apologize more. I have said
it hundreds of times, you really have. And MAVs fans,
some of them are are there. They're lamenting other things,
thinking of where they were a couple of months ago,
eighteen or so.

Speaker 4 (55:20):
Not to mention they had him too. They had him
with him.

Speaker 5 (55:25):
Brunson and Doncic creative playoff winning clutch players were both
on their team. They have neither, and they're also at
home shocking the Lakers.

Speaker 4 (55:36):
By the way, would not have beaten the Thunder even
with Doncicic healthy, I don't think.

Speaker 5 (55:40):
I don't think so either, But I don't think that
was a four game sweep. And if your issues would
have been much more entertaining than the only one game
that was competitive.

Speaker 4 (55:48):
Well, the free throw amount of shoot shots would have
been nauseating, even more so than it was.

Speaker 5 (55:53):
One thing on that scoring distribution I think worth noting,
and again watching it, you could see it. They were
not giving the ball to Donovan Mitchell down the stretch
as often as they probably should if he might have
missed shots too. He only went one for four in
the fourth quarter. He hit one shot. He had twenty
nine points in the game. Uh yeah, three of them,

(56:13):
the one three, the one shot that he made in
the final. He played the final ten minutes.

Speaker 6 (56:17):
That's it.

Speaker 5 (56:18):
That's all he did. They made five shots the whole quarter.

Speaker 4 (56:22):
Tell you it's crazy, though, And I'm looking at the
totals just to see I won that big of a disperity.
I can't believe Donovan Mitchell shot won for you throw
in that game. Well, but I mean, if you're shooting
from the outside more so than driving to the basket,
which he can do.

Speaker 5 (56:39):
Half of his shots were threes. Eleven were threes, twelve twos.

Speaker 4 (56:42):
And not a lot of them went in, although he
did hit four. But when you're shooting eleven, it's just
kind of like eh.

Speaker 5 (56:48):
So that was one of the reasons, but specific to it,
and there are some people that did dive inside the numbers.
Eight isolations is what you tracked Jason James hardened for
in that fourth quarter. Defensively, it's only happened thirty times
in a game in the tracking era to have that
many isolations for one singular player in one singular quarter,

(57:12):
and they allowed that to happen for just the thirtieth
time in NBA tracking era history. And they averaged one
point nine points per isolation, which killed them.

Speaker 4 (57:23):
Insane. He killed them on both ends though. Guy had
six turnovers.

Speaker 5 (57:27):
Yeah, another game that the wacos and the statlans are
gonna say, another game where he had more turnovers than
field goals made. I don't know if they've noticed. As
his age has gone up and his role on the
team has gone down, each of his last few stops,
he doesn't have any ten to eleven field goal make
games anymore. He's never gonna have one, or he's gonna
have won every postseason. Maybe he doesn't play that way anymore.

(57:48):
He still handles the ball a lot, but he doesn't
take the high number of shots anymore. So of course
we're gonna see more high turnover games than field goal
made games. He already had the high turnover games before,
but this nonsense stat that's come out there, he's not
scoring as often because he's not taking as many shots,
So now it's gonna obviously shift in.

Speaker 4 (58:06):
That wrong direction. Versely, playing the role of Kevin Durant
for the Knicks was Karl Anthony Towns, who had seven.
I don't know how he had seven turnovers and wound
up with a plus thirteen, but he managed well.

Speaker 5 (58:17):
So Mike Brown is the coach of the Knicks, and
he was asked about the matchup, did you know, did
you know it would be advantageous? Did you go at
it specifically because it would be advantageous. He's a good
head coach and he understands the media a little bit.
Took him a long long time within his answer to
give the obvious answer, but ultimately he did.

Speaker 14 (58:41):
Sometimes you gotta do what the game dictates. And they
were trying to do the same thing with Jalen, and
so we said, okay, you know, we feel like we
can play that game. We try not to play that
game much, but we feel like we have a guy
that we can play that game with in Jalen. And so,
you know, just like we have to try to figure

(59:01):
out different ways to guard Harden, and in Mitchell they
got to figure out different ways to guard Jalen. But
we were there is no secret we were attacking a Harden.

Speaker 5 (59:12):
That could have been your whole answer, all three seconds
of it.

Speaker 14 (59:15):
Is no secret we were attacking a Harden.

Speaker 4 (59:17):
Because you can't lie.

Speaker 5 (59:19):
People were there, the reporters were there, the fans were there,
They were the televisions were there, and they were clearly
targeting that matchup. And again the way you get it,
Harden comes down the court and he picks up somebody else,
and whoever that somebody else is say, well, then I
must be the screener. And they would walk out top
and they would go set a screen and the player
that was defending Brunson initially would put no effort into

(59:41):
fighting through it or staying with him, and Atkinson was
fine with it. They just let them do this over
and over and sometimes he would pick up Brunson from
the from the jump, so the match was already set.
It's just insane that they allowed it. Can I can
I give you a quick Kenny Atkinson comment that he
made after the game last night. He asked if he

(01:00:02):
thought Benching James Harden on defensive possessions at the end
of Game one.

Speaker 4 (01:00:05):
He replied, Nope, that was it.

Speaker 7 (01:00:10):
No.

Speaker 5 (01:00:10):
Then he said, he's been one of our best defenders
in these playoffs. I trust him. Smart, great hands. Didn't
think about that. Remember last segment when I said what
Kenny did and then what he said.

Speaker 4 (01:00:22):
You can't say that, especially when you do have that reputation.

Speaker 5 (01:00:25):
Just said, Mike Brown can't lie.

Speaker 4 (01:00:27):
We all saw it.

Speaker 5 (01:00:28):
Kenny Atkinson's trying to lie.

Speaker 4 (01:00:29):
You don't. Well, you don't have to lie, you just don't.
I don't know how you do that, though. That's a
that's quite the dance. You'd have to have to address that. Look,
we did it here in Houston for years. I don't
all these people. By the way, if you're one of
those people on rockets Twitter, we'll just call it that.
That is like, I'm gonna cry real tears if he
makes an NBA finals again. You're a loser, you really are.

(01:00:53):
I mean again, I get wanting to root for a
guy who used to play for you and provided you
so many you can't ignore or how he left. And
I don't care what the circumstances were or how much
blame you want to put on the organization. You can't
do what he did to this franchise and expect me
to be okay with you saying I'm gonna shed real
tears if he makes the NBA Finals. You're a loser

(01:01:16):
and you're pathetic.

Speaker 5 (01:01:17):
Last thing on this this segment, the Mike Brown's path
to the New York Knicks. I'm sure you remember some
of his stops along the way. One in particular, Mike
Brown's most overrated of the Pubovitch coaching tree by far.
Not really what I expected you to say.

Speaker 4 (01:01:34):
I don't you disagree?

Speaker 5 (01:01:35):
Absolutely? Who's more overrated than Mike Brown? From the not
like about his head coaching career.

Speaker 4 (01:01:42):
I think you're I think you're thinking some of his
stops were a lot more successful than they were.

Speaker 5 (01:01:49):
Okay, I don't know how I could be. I mean's
he was since Sacramento. He's the best coach they've had
in fifteen years.

Speaker 4 (01:01:55):
They let him go.

Speaker 5 (01:01:56):
Obviously, you can't win there, and he didn't. He made
the playoffs, but you can't win there, so he gets
credit for that. That's like the worst thing I could
say about him. He lasted five games in LA in
his second season, I'm sure he was definitely worthy of
being fired nothing, nothing else had to do with that.
Went back to Cleveland for one season and they let

(01:02:17):
him go. Sure he deserved to be fired there after
all eighty two games he coached there, his first in
in Cleveland, conference finals, conference semifinals, every single season, NBA
Finals in one of those seasons.

Speaker 4 (01:02:30):
I know who is on his team. That's good.

Speaker 5 (01:02:32):
You should include that because the people that have those
players on their team are the only ones that win
every single year, every NBA season, no matter what. So
every coach that doesn't get to have those players is
looked at like they can't coach, which is nonsense. Again, Okay,
so where actually overrated? Like he's I think people think
he's a good coach. They don't think he's a great coach.

(01:02:53):
They don't think he's all of fame coach. He's a
good coach, nothing more. Like he's a better coach than
the one he replaced, maybe for better because he's there.

Speaker 4 (01:03:00):
Maybe if I wasn't constantly told that he was a
member of the Popovich coaching tree. It's just like Belichick.

Speaker 5 (01:03:06):
It's the same thing, except almost all of the Belichick
coaches are outrageous failures like outrageous.

Speaker 4 (01:03:13):
VA one stop he had where he had Lebron James
in his prime and should have in the Eastern weak
ass Conference made the NBA Finals every time. I'm sorry,
I don't think that was because Mike Brown was such
a fabulous coach and all the other stops you mentioned
he coached like a year. If you so great, why

(01:03:34):
did he not like you? You're almost saying it so great.

Speaker 5 (01:03:37):
I'm not putting him on this pedestal, but I don't.
I don't view him as some overrated coach, like that's
why you probably saw me kind of take a back.
I don't think he's we disagree on this all the
time and we're watching all the same sports and listening
to all the same things. I don't view him as
someone that is overrated. I think he's like when Tom
Thibodeau was out and they hired Mike Brown. I don't

(01:03:59):
think people said finally they're gonna go to the finals
because Mike Brown is there, but they also did say
they could be better. They are better now. They're at
the same spot. Currently, they're in the conference finals, which
is where they have been.

Speaker 4 (01:04:12):
Well, if you were looking for a head coach for
the Rockets. How long would it take for you to
get to Mike Brown's name where you'd be like, A,
you got to him and B yeah, that'd be a
good idea because I'd never get there. He say, he
is how you feel about Doc Rivers. In my opinion,
that's how I feel about Mike Brown.

Speaker 5 (01:04:29):
I mean Doc Rivers comp in that Doc has obviously
accomplished things and has a ton of good seasons. That's
a reasonable statement to make.

Speaker 4 (01:04:36):
And sometimes I was taking it back as to how
much you despise Doc Rivers. But as time has gone on,
I've kind of come around.

Speaker 5 (01:04:43):
Well, Mike Brown's coached one team with talent. Yeah, he
was great, Their teams were great. I guess Doc gets
a lot more teams not just good talent and squandered
out unreal talent. But again that was or was the
worst team he coached. After that, it's been nothing but
hall of famers on it roster.

Speaker 4 (01:05:00):
Right, But again, like, doesn't I know we're getting into
like a crazy minutia thing. Doesn't that have to go
on a lot of those teams with all that talent
it can all be on Doc Rivers.

Speaker 5 (01:05:12):
Well, if it was with one team and one set
of players, over and over over Clippers. Yes, I would
say that, but it's been in every stop and he's
blown multiple Yes, with different high level soon to be
Hall of Fame taliber player.

Speaker 4 (01:05:26):
Right, he sucks. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:05:28):
I think Mike Brown is a good coach. There's probably
ten coaches currently in the league.

Speaker 4 (01:05:32):
I would take over. Himenholzer was on that tree as well.

Speaker 11 (01:05:34):
Do was he not?

Speaker 5 (01:05:36):
He was, and I would put and he has success right,
won a title with Milwaukee, Milwaukee, he was that. I
don't think Mike Budenholzer is a better coach than Mike Brown.
I think he's a worse coach than Mike Brown, but
he has a title. I don't know if I agree
with that. I think my debatable point. I think I
was going to take you on a totally different path.

(01:05:58):
But I think we'll do ourselves and our listeners a
solid and take a quick break here and return to
other topics of the day, like one of the other
both of the other teams in Texas in the NBA
making news, not the Spurs, but the other one.

Speaker 4 (01:06:13):
We'll talk about them.

Speaker 2 (01:06:14):
Next the Age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:06:22):
I kind of want you to share the text message
screen cap that you sent me about this topic. But
I don't know. I haven't asked you off air, so
I'm kind of putting you on the spot. There is
a thread where wex and some people that he knows
that are of the Dallas variety college buddies.

Speaker 5 (01:06:42):
Yeah, Dallas and San Antonio them all now some in Houston,
including myself. So we've I guess ever since the Apple phone,
iPhone whatever was in we started a text thread and
here it still is that we used to meet for
lunch at the union on campus and we would usually
eat our square hamburgers and sit around and talk sports

(01:07:05):
and became what we called our little group on Fantasy
football or ESPN or whatever. Food and Sports. That's the
title of the current thread, still thirty years going. So yes,
in my food and sports thread, it was a pretty
big item yesterday when we hopped out of the elevator
after we wrapped things up yesterday at six oh five,
I said, on my way out, oh, what do you

(01:07:26):
know Jason kidd out as Maverick's head coach Because the MAVs.

Speaker 4 (01:07:30):
Made that announcement they won't be president now like he
wanted to.

Speaker 5 (01:07:34):
They made that announcement yesterday, and I knew I'd been
talking about that with my friends from the Dallas area
for quite some time. I went back to May eighth,
when I had said, oh, you know, these are the
last few days for Jason Kidd, And over the days
since the season ended, they made enough changes elsewhere that
it was definitive. I thought he might get fired regardless.

(01:07:55):
But when they hired their new team president, not only
in that Jason wanted manage him management roles to begin with,
and they hard somebody else, someone he did not have
a good past with. It's so bad and this new
person Massiyoujeri wants things to change and have it his
way and his group and his people that he convinced

(01:08:16):
the owner to say, here, here's a match like forty
million dollars on fire, and be ready to spend another
thirty to forty million on your next head coach. They
extended Jason Kidd each of the last two years. He's
due forty million from the Mavericks and they still let
him go.

Speaker 4 (01:08:35):
So they have new vators coming.

Speaker 5 (01:08:37):
Well, that'll be an offset potentially when he lands another job.
And man, if it's weird, I don't know what to
say about kid. I watched the MAVs a lot the
last couple of years, quite obviously more so than maybe
because of the changes that they made, especially against the Rockets.
They did a lot of things. I'm like, this is
a well coached team. They're moving without the basketball, They're
getting terrible players, good shots, they're they're playing over their

(01:08:58):
heads for the talent it looks like they have and
so it seems like he's doing a good job. But
I do not think Jason Kidd is a good head coach.
And each time he's been hired, and he's been hired
multiple times, I'm like, can't we do better? Someone knew
something A different retread. I guess I all jokes aside
about the MAVs.

Speaker 4 (01:09:18):
They have made back to back outstanding decisions in the
last couple of weeks. Hiring ujerie Is I thought one.
I mean, I I don't know how he was available.

Speaker 5 (01:09:30):
I think he's I mean, if we want to flip
the script here from last segment, Yeah, you're not a
big fan.

Speaker 4 (01:09:35):
I think he's overrated. Oh my gosh, you're crazy. I know,
anybody that got Kawhi and his prime was gonna win
the title.

Speaker 5 (01:09:42):
Not necessarily true to put together a team roster around him, right, Well,
he didn't put the roster together around him. He added
Kawhi to the roster he had already built that wasn't
capable of winning. They were really, really good, they were.
They were one of the bad teams. They were never
gonna win without a star. They were gonna live compete.

Speaker 4 (01:10:00):
But like most teams, look at the Houston Rockets, they
added a star and can't win because of a variety
I know injuries factored in. And ironically Fred Van Vliet
is involved in both of these teams we're talking about.
But like, if you go get Kawhi and add him
to a team that sucks, you're not gonna win a title, right.
I think he's still And I know they had help
because like everybody on the Warriors died, I get it.

(01:10:22):
But he's a good GM and it's better than the
one they had who traded away Luca.

Speaker 5 (01:10:26):
Yeah, from the time of the trade of Luca to
where they sit today and then.

Speaker 4 (01:10:29):
They fire Jason Kidd, those are back to back good
decisions that a rival of yours in the state is making.
That's not good Rockets fans.

Speaker 5 (01:10:37):
Uh It could be worse, sure, but honestly, it's still
about the face if they don't win the lottery last year.
We don't care about the Mavericks at all. I don't
care what moves they make. They're not gonna compete.

Speaker 4 (01:10:49):
Now, Farbius. I don't know what this year would have been.

Speaker 5 (01:10:51):
They probably wouldn't be ninth in this year's lottery, so
maybe this year they'd be getting Debasa or Peterson or
somebody like that. But that was the only thing left
in this year's lottery. Everybody was paying attention to Oklahoma City.
Oh my god, they better not move on from twelve.
What difference does it make. They're already the best team.
My biggest concern was we cannot have the Mavericks move
up from nine. We cannot have that, especially in this draft,

(01:11:14):
and luckily we didn't have any. Yeah, that's Ashley moved
back a spot.

Speaker 4 (01:11:19):
Far be it for me to make it look like
I'm a Henry Abbott fan, But this tweet was amazing.
He sent this out at Center for the NBA.

Speaker 5 (01:11:28):
I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with him
from his time at ESPN and elsewhere.

Speaker 4 (01:11:32):
Yeah, said, he sent this out at seven thirty last night.
I covered Jason Kidd when he played for the Nets.
I know one of his childhood friends. I've been to
his house, met his kids, then wife, and Plate's instructor,
and I have insight from many people who worked with
him in his coaching years. This is a great firing.
What a setup. I love that.

Speaker 5 (01:11:53):
I'm going to back him. I'm going to back him.
I can't believe they did this. This is a crazy idea.
He's going to land on his feet. Was the whole setup,
and then he won. Not a fan of his apparently, No,
there's a lot of people that aren't, and they know
more than New York people that have worked within each
of these teams he's been with.

Speaker 4 (01:12:11):
You can be a jerk. By the way, he's also
a bad guy.

Speaker 5 (01:12:14):
Well, he's got some definitely things that he has done
in his life that make you out to be a
bad guy. What what do you recall his one shining
moment as an NBA head coach This cup of ice?
Oh yeah, that was that was like his greatest coaching move.
Not a great time out late in the game, not

(01:12:37):
drawing something accidental, he was totally accidental. That was a
great move. Yeah, he's he's something, so I can't wait
till he goes back to Milwaukee. A couple of coaches
openings still, Moseley has landed one of the openings late
of Orlando.

Speaker 4 (01:12:52):
Why would you go from Orlando to New Orleans? Why
would you go to New Orleans? Is actually the question.

Speaker 5 (01:12:59):
Well, you're making six seven million dollars, so I know why.
But like no one has success coaching the Pelicans ever,
I think he's probably in trouble because the not overrated
Joe Dumars is running things there.

Speaker 4 (01:13:14):
Yeah, that's a disaster. He'll be out in less than
three seasons.

Speaker 5 (01:13:17):
So Mavericks, you're looking for a head coach, obviously looking
for more talent around Cooper Flag and we'll see what
they come up with. Some of the same names that
have been floating around for most of the other jobs
are out there for them. Mikeah Norri is a name obviously.
James Barrego, who coached this year on an interim basis,
is one of the names. Billy Donovan some people, I

(01:13:39):
don't know how people think he is as an NBA coach.
I think everybody thinks it's a really good college coach.
But he spent all those years with Chicago most recently
dysfunctional organization, probably the most dysfunctional in the Eastern Conference.

Speaker 4 (01:13:51):
They're trying to turn things around too, and he.

Speaker 5 (01:13:53):
Might be the choice for Orlando again. So very interesting
coaching in Florida, and Ben Sullivan got one head coaching
interview request that we're aware of. One of the Rockets assistants.
Portland is a team. There's more news on what Portland
did today, by the way, but he is someone. If
the Rockets coaching staff isn't taken from them taking a

(01:14:16):
different assistant job, a higher ranking assistant job, or landing
a head coaching job, which is remote at best, then
they probably won't be making any coaching changes.

Speaker 4 (01:14:24):
Not adding an offensive coordinator. That's good, Stan Patt, see
how that goes for you. All right, we will take
a quick time out. We'll come back and get into
another interesting thing that was said today around the NFL circles.
This involves another veteran quarterback, not nearly as veteran as
Aaron Rodgers, but his team, according to him, is the

(01:14:46):
most talented he's ever seen. Who was it and what
team does he play for? We'll reveal that next All
right on May twentieth, twenty twenty six. I'm gonna need
you to use one word or maybe a handful to
describe the current body of work by one Joe Burrow.

Speaker 5 (01:15:12):
One of the best quarterbacks in the league. You know,
a short list of the guys you'd pick to build
your team around and play as a guy you think
when the year starts, if I've done my job in
management coaching wise, we have a chance to win the
Super Bowl.

Speaker 4 (01:15:25):
But don't you have to qualify that statement by saying,
when healthy, who's.

Speaker 5 (01:15:30):
In the group of the top five Pat Ma Holmes,
Lamar Jackson, or Joe Burrow all with injury history.

Speaker 7 (01:15:36):
So no, but.

Speaker 5 (01:15:38):
Mahomes didn't have injury history until this year. Right, the
longer you play, it's a bound to happen. It happened
early for Joe, it's happened later for Mahomes.

Speaker 4 (01:15:45):
Yeah, but Joe every it seems like every single season,
say for maybe the one he went to the Super
Bowl and then Lamar.

Speaker 5 (01:15:51):
It's funny how you just sneak that in there, wait
for the seat, Like look at the AFC and who
we always talk about and who's going to be playing
this year to try to get to the Super Bowl.
Who's your starting quarterback? And have they played there before? Yes,
if you're Kansas City and Cincinnati. No, if you're everybody else.
I'm trying to think, and I think that Rogers doesn't count. No,

(01:16:12):
he doesn't count because he's gonna be playing in one. Well,
he didn't get there with them, and that maybe that's
not fair either. But you know what I'm saying, Like
he's played, he took his he took the team he's
on that was drafted number one overall with to the
Super Bowl and went through some of the current quarterbacks
to do it.

Speaker 4 (01:16:27):
But the entry. But the biggest difference between Mahomes and
Burrow is that, you know, Mahomes has been so durable.

Speaker 5 (01:16:35):
All that being said, you pick who you want. If
everybody's on the board, I'll take Joe Burrow before everybody else,
probably except for Mahomes and maybe today I'd be hesitant
to even say that I would take him before Lamar Jackson.
I would take him before Josh Allen.

Speaker 4 (01:16:51):
It's weird because if you could guarantee his health, so
you take that out of the equation. I don't know,
like Joe Burrow is the additional proto type, whereas Mahomes
just does things on the fly that Burrow will never do.
And so I don't know, I mean, I.

Speaker 5 (01:17:10):
Think Burrow does the same of the most dysfunctional in
the Eastern Conference. They're trying to turn things around too,
and he might be the choice for Orlando again. So
very interesting coaching in Florida. And Ben Sullivan got one
head coaching interview request that we're aware of. One of
the Rockets assistants. Portland is a team. There's more news
on what Portland did today, by the way, but he

(01:17:31):
is someone. If the Rockets coaching staff isn't taken from
them taking a different assistant job, a higher ranking assistant job,
or landing a head coaching job, which is remote at best,
then they probably won't be making any coaching changes.

Speaker 4 (01:17:46):
Not adding an offensive coordinator. That's good, Stan Patt, See
how that goes for you. All right, we will take
a quick time out. We'll come back and get into
another interesting thing that was said today around the NFL circles.
This involves another veteran quarterback, not nearly as veteran as
Aaron Rodgers, but his team, according to him, is the

(01:18:08):
most talented he's ever seen, who was it and what
team does he play for? Will reveal that next.

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Speaker 2 (01:24:12):
Be eight on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 4 (01:24:15):
Ninety all right on May twentieth, twenty twenty six, I'm
gonna need you to use one word or maybe a
handful to describe the current body of work by one

(01:24:37):
Joe Burrow.

Speaker 5 (01:24:40):
One of the best quarterbacks in the league. You know,
short list of the guys you'd pick to build your
team around and play as a guy. You think when
the year starts, if I've done my job in management
coaching wise, we have a chance to win the Super Bowl.

Speaker 4 (01:24:53):
But don't you have to qualify that statement by saying,
when healthy, who's.

Speaker 5 (01:24:58):
In the group of the top five to have Maholmes
Lamar Jackson or Joe Burrow all with injury history. So no,
but Mahomes didn't have injury history until this year. Right,
the longer you play, it's abound to happen. It happened
earlier for Joe, it's happened later for Mahomes.

Speaker 4 (01:25:13):
Yeah, but Joe every it seems like every single season,
say for maybe the one he went to the Super
Bowl and then Lamar.

Speaker 5 (01:25:20):
It's funny how you just sneak that in there, lay
for the seat, Like look at the AFC and who
we always talk about and who's going to be playing
this year to try to get to the Super Bowl.
Who's your starting quarterback? And have they played there before? Yes,
if you're Kansas City and Cincinnati. No, if you're everybody else.
I'm trying to think, and I think that Aaron Rodgers
doesn't count. No, he doesn't count because he's gonna be

(01:25:42):
playing in one. Well, he didn't get there with them,
and that maybe that's not fair either, But you know
what I'm saying, Like he's played, he took his he
took the team he's on that was drafted number one
overall with to the Super Bowl and went through some
of the current quarterbacks to do it, but the jury.

Speaker 4 (01:25:56):
But the biggest difference between Mahomes and Burrow is that,
you know, Mahomes has been so durable.

Speaker 5 (01:26:04):
All that being said, pick who you want. If everybody's
on the board, I'll take Joe Burrow before everybody else,
probably except for Mahomes, and maybe today I'd be hesitant
to even say that I would take him before Lamar Jackson.
I would take him before Josh Allen.

Speaker 4 (01:26:20):
It's weird because if you could guarantee his health, so
you take that out of the equation. I don't know,
Like Joe Burrow is the traditional prototype, whereas Mahomes just
does things on the fly that Burrow will never do.
And so I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:26:38):
I mean, I think Burrow does the same things up
until the point where he's passed the line of scrimmage.
Well that's a huge difference, but I think he still
makes plays while on the move while avoiding the rush
while being created a better pure passer, yes, a better
pure passer, I think, no pocket passer maybe. I mean,
every time we pick at the tiny little bits of

(01:26:59):
every quarterback, I want to stop, and that's why I'm
stopping myself.

Speaker 4 (01:27:03):
Like Patrick Mahomes has no peers. Yeah, he really is
one of one, and it sucks because he doesn't play here.
Joe Burrow said, I think this is the most talented
roster we've had since I've been here. I mean, that's
a big deal when you've been to the super Bowl already,
and I don't I don't know that I disagree with him,

(01:27:24):
But then some of the talent that they've had there
has been there all along the way, And if he
had been healthy, I don't know if that would have mattered,
because there were people that were better in your division,
let alone the AFC.

Speaker 5 (01:27:37):
Most of their issues, I think are fair to say
are defensive issues, and then his health is definitely one
of me. He played eight games last year. He's had
three seasons of playing ten games or fewer. We were
allowing for our conversation to maybe dismiss it, but it's
a fact. Half of his NFL career has been seasons
that were not complete. That's a big deal. You're not
going to win when Jake Brown's your quarterback and when

(01:27:58):
everybody else sits behind you as your quarterback, whoever it's
been over those six years, that's a big deal. Offensively,
they could have a better line, but I think they've
made a couple of moves the last couple of years.
It will make it a little better. They have an
unbelievable set of weapons for him. Higgins Chase twsome is
probably the best in the AFC, or very.

Speaker 4 (01:28:15):
Close to it.

Speaker 5 (01:28:16):
If it's not, I think Chase Brown is more than
capable behind him. It's their defense. Their defense has been awful.
They made a couple of moves this year, three of
them actually that should pay humongous dividends, maybe four if
you count Jonathan Allen. But I would start with the
trade for Dexter Lawrence gave away a top ten pick
to get maybe the best interior defensive player in the NFL.
They have a guy on the edge now in Mafe,

(01:28:37):
and they have a guy in the secondary, and Cook
from Kansas City should make a humongous difference in their defense.
Best roster they've had since he's been there, and you
only have to debate it with the one other one
that you mentioned, the Super Bowl roster, and it's probably
pretty close. We can pick Bright back up on that.
I mean usually at five o'clock we talked football at
five into our number two fully of the A team.

(01:28:59):
So we will continue with that. We will hack tip
pat on the back, salute your Houston Texans, the entire
organization for something pretty cool.

Speaker 4 (01:29:08):
When we come back here on the A team, Adam.

Speaker 6 (01:29:12):
Clinton and Adam Weckler are the eight team. So I mean,
did we get to the bottom? Are we cool with
Joe Burrow saying.

Speaker 4 (01:29:31):
It's the most talented Bengals team he's ever seen? Is
we start football at five?

Speaker 5 (01:29:34):
Here?

Speaker 4 (01:29:35):
Wait till CJ says it? You know, in order to
say that, don't you need to be a part of it? Well, ye,
Joe Burrows. The reason nobody disputes that, Joe Burrow is
what you just said last segment. One of the top
quarterbacks in the NFL.

Speaker 5 (01:29:50):
A lot of people dispute't you scroll down to the
bottom of the article to the scroll down the key
line that you should. I think we have the best
since I've been here. We're going to win a lot
of games this year and play great and win a
Super Bowl. Joe Burrow just said the Bengals are going
to win the Super Bowl this year. That seems pretty nice.

Speaker 4 (01:30:10):
Well what if c J. Strauss says, nuh uh? Well, CJ.

Speaker 5 (01:30:13):
Probably wouldn't go that far, but I could see him
saying this is the most talented roster I've played on.

Speaker 4 (01:30:18):
I don't know that it carries any weight.

Speaker 5 (01:30:19):
He could have said out every year he's been here,
and you could maybe even agree that it's gotten better
every year he's been here. The one year with Joe
Mixon maybe stands out because they're not sure what they have,
but this year they have David Montgomery. Just an interesting
set of circumstances for those teams, But coming from a
quarterback who knows what a roster looks like that did
go to the Super Bowl, I definitely think it's a
little different.

Speaker 4 (01:30:39):
I have no issue with it, and I don't I don't.

Speaker 5 (01:30:41):
Really think he's necessarily saying something outrageous.

Speaker 4 (01:30:45):
Week two, they come here. That is a again early
likely not going to be hurt. You're gonna get the
best version closest to it that you can get. I
Joe Burrow and if there's no setbacks in the preseason
and training camp and all that kind of stuff, didn't
mention this the other day.

Speaker 5 (01:31:04):
I don't think anybody cared about who they were playing
other than were they going to practice with them? The
preseason schedule is also announced on Thursday by every team.
The Texans have a pair of games here in Houston
at formerly known as Houston Stadium and will be known
as Reliant Stadium when they play in it again. You
just start calling it that it's not even Houston Stadium

(01:31:24):
just yet, but you know what I mean. The Chargers
are coming to town, the Raiders are coming to town,
and the Texans will take a trip to play the
Carolina Panthers. They are expected to have joint practices with
both Vegas and Fernando Mendoza and the Carolina.

Speaker 4 (01:31:41):
Reaper Bryce Young.

Speaker 2 (01:31:45):
You love that.

Speaker 5 (01:31:45):
I do now, it's like just once I saw that.
Definitely hanging on to that. But those are two of
those three teams they will not see during the regular season.
They do have a game against the Chargers coming up
in November, right out of their off week, so not
having joint practices with them, I definitely get. It's also
the first of the preseason Tilts, but I always advocate

(01:32:08):
for them. I know Demiico believes in them and hopefully
they will provide some value for them. We'll also get
to see the two step brothers, presumably when Kirk Cousins
joins Fernando Mendoza here in Houston before that game. Thursday
game the second week of preseason, Friday game the third
week of preseason. But the Texans open with three or
four at home. You mentioned the Bengals game, the Bills.

(01:32:31):
The Bengals, the Colts, and the Cowboys are the first
four games of the season.

Speaker 4 (01:32:36):
You're going to have a big, big, big time good
understanding as to whether or not this defense is still
as good as twenty twenty five. With those three quarterbacks
that you just mentioned those home dates. Oh, the home
game so not. Daniel Jones. Daniel Jones sucks.

Speaker 5 (01:32:55):
Cowboys presumably will have just as strong an offensive as
they had last year. Most of the pieces are back,
and you know, Javonte Williams, Pickens, Ceedee, Lamb, and Dak
make a very good group of players.

Speaker 4 (01:33:09):
Their offensive line is fine.

Speaker 5 (01:33:10):
And obviously you're playing Allen and Burrow in the first
two weeks back to back. All these games are Sunday
at noon. By the way, all of their first five
games of the year are Sunday at yea.

Speaker 4 (01:33:20):
I wouldn't want to put those matchups in prime time.
They suck.

Speaker 5 (01:33:23):
Yeah, I do think the league probably does more than
the the obvious dumbness would Cincinnati. What were they last year?
Let's look up their record. Oh, they were bad, so
we can't put them in prime time. I think they
do a little bit more research than that. You still
are limited how many primetime games are there in Week two.
There's Sunday night, Monday night, and Thursday night. There's probably

(01:33:45):
some good matchups that landed on those three nights instead
of the Bengals and Texans. I wished having three or
four at home, having four of six at home or
four of six non road games, because that other one
is the London game. They need to start off a
lot better. It's not even because the rest of their
schedule is so difficult. I do think their end of
season schedule could be very difficult other than Tennessee. But

(01:34:08):
they're they're getting home games. You're better at home. Everybody
knows you're better at it. Been better at home with CJ.

Speaker 4 (01:34:13):
They need to win.

Speaker 5 (01:34:14):
They need to win three times in their first four weeks,
and if they don't win one of the home games,
then they have to win at Indian Apple.

Speaker 4 (01:34:20):
They need to be three and one.

Speaker 5 (01:34:21):
They really need to be four in one because Tennessee
is their fifth game.

Speaker 4 (01:34:25):
Dallas at New York is not a better matchup than
Houston television.

Speaker 5 (01:34:28):
Everybody knows it is. It's not really though accepted.

Speaker 4 (01:34:32):
Every year proves it. I mean New York because of
the eyeballs. Yes, people watch the game. We don't know that.
Oh I know it right here. This guy knows it.
That's going to be a long sight.

Speaker 5 (01:34:42):
Jackson Dart and Dak Prescott won't put on a show.

Speaker 4 (01:34:46):
Thank you? Did you hear yourself?

Speaker 13 (01:34:48):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (01:34:48):
Jack you actually said Jackson Dart's name first. He makes
He makes for exciting watch. I'd rather watch cam Skataboo
than Jackson Dart.

Speaker 5 (01:34:56):
I'm sure the people in the sports prediction market will be.
I'll give the injuring when the concussion happens.

Speaker 4 (01:35:01):
Zimver at Kansas City for Monday Night, Indianapolis at Kansas City.
That's not a better matchup than Houston versus Joe Burrow.

Speaker 5 (01:35:12):
No way, Cincinnati and Houston versus the this era's television Darling.
Kansas City is this era's television.

Speaker 4 (01:35:20):
Darling versus Daniel Jonathan. Care who they're playing. I'll give
you New York at Los Angeles on Monday Night that week.
I don't know why New York team not the Jets. Okay, good,
all right, that's week two. Who cares week three?

Speaker 5 (01:35:37):
The standalone games skip over week three because the Colts
already were on national television the last week and nobody
wants to watch Colts Texans.

Speaker 4 (01:35:44):
That's not sexy. So we'll go to week four where
it's gonna be Cowboys and Texans. Well, thank god we
don't have that matchup since we get to see Detroit
at Carolina and Atlanta at New World Orleans the next night.

Speaker 5 (01:36:01):
Fu NFL few So I'll take Tennessee. How is Houston
Dallas not prime time? When those are your matchups? Come
on NFL taking a look suck, taking a look back
at their last couple of matchups with almost none of
the players that are on either of these teams. When
the Cowboys and Texans get together, Atlanta at New Orleans
is Monday night football? That is egregiously bad. They're looking

(01:36:24):
back at the history that what the one of the
most famous games in Saints Falcon's history after the storm hit?
Huh and they had that great Monday night year that again,
Steve Gleason blocked.

Speaker 4 (01:36:38):
Up six, huge memorable mom.

Speaker 5 (01:36:41):
I get it, it's the twentieth, twentieth anniversary.

Speaker 4 (01:36:45):
You wouldn't want to have Houston v. Dallas on Monday
Night football? That would be terrible.

Speaker 5 (01:36:50):
What do you guys think if we put Houston in
Dallas up there? What do you think we put Houston?

Speaker 11 (01:36:53):
Who?

Speaker 5 (01:36:53):
I don't know, man, the textas are probably going to
score eighteen points or thirteen points, maybe seventeen points.

Speaker 4 (01:36:58):
Should we put that on TV? Honestly, the NFL really
of all of the four weeks, well, I'd mentioned three
weeks because I skipped over Week three. I'm looking at
the matchups in week four that they could have put
in primetime. There's others. It's not just Houston Dallas. In fact,
I would take both of these matchups you have on
national television Sunday Monday, throw them in the garbage and

(01:37:20):
light it on fire. And it wouldn't do enough justice
when you could have had, well, Diana Russini's boyfriend's team
against Buffalo in a new stadium. That's just one noon
game that could have been in primetime this week. I'll
give you. How about the Rams at the Eagles?

Speaker 5 (01:37:41):
If you did what you're doing every week all year.

Speaker 4 (01:37:44):
But I'm doing it.

Speaker 5 (01:37:45):
Mcaseems would have nine primetime games and this team would
have eight, and this team would have ten and this
team would have seven.

Speaker 4 (01:37:51):
I know, and I'm doing this about the Cowboys, who
don't need another national game. But Houston and Dallas from
the Texans stadium them is like better than every single
matchup on this every single one. And they could have
put the Cowboys were trash. They are trash on defense.
But Dak Prescott against the Texans defense, that's a way

(01:38:13):
sexier matchup than Detroit at Carolina Wolf. It's not even
in Detroit, it's in the crappier of the two stadiums. Well,
what is in Atlanta New Orleans is it's so bad?
I can't even believe I saw I haven't seen this yet, Like,
what was I thinking, not combing over the entire schedule. Oh,
that's right, I have a life.

Speaker 5 (01:38:30):
Would you feel differently if you knew already that Tua
would be the starter and not Pennix? Would that make
you feel better or worse?

Speaker 4 (01:38:37):
Worse? Tua? Really? Yeah, when he's concussed in the first quarter,
then what he might not even be on the biggest
saying get Gordy in recent here and they would agree
with me. This is a crap matchup. Nobody wants to
see that. Crap, that's what it is. Crap. You can't
just throw them a bone. No, they're in the league.

Speaker 2 (01:38:59):
It's Monday.

Speaker 4 (01:39:00):
It's Monday Night football, Week four. We've all had a
long first day back to work. Well not us.

Speaker 5 (01:39:05):
We'll afterwards locked in on the season. Still in week four, though,
you lock down.

Speaker 4 (01:39:11):
Amazing match up between Atlanta and New Orleans from the
crappy super Dome. Oh right, I guess I'll get locked
in on that. I can't wait. Come on, man, I
mean even Denver San Francisco would be better.

Speaker 5 (01:39:26):
So should they cut down the Steppa would be better?

Speaker 4 (01:39:31):
I guess you guess? I mean tell me the two
quarterbacks playing in that game.

Speaker 5 (01:39:36):
Maybe Malik Willis or I'm sorry, the new backup for
Green Bay when Jordan Love has.

Speaker 4 (01:39:40):
Hurt Jordan Love and Baker Mayfields. Dad absolutely clocks whoever
whatever scrubs are gonna start on Monday night football for
those two losers, and that's what they are losing franchises. Oh,
look at the sexy division matchup we have? Who is it?
Atlanta and New Orleans. Oh, I'm gonna go at the
wall for three hours because that would be a better

(01:40:02):
use of my time.

Speaker 5 (01:40:04):
Hopefully, at the end of the season we'll get the
ratings in on all the games.

Speaker 4 (01:40:07):
Thank god, Dallas at Houston has been over for hours
since they kicked off at noon.

Speaker 5 (01:40:11):
Jackasses, it's gonna be a great Sunday. I already know
it's gonna be all. I mean, come on, be out
at Energy Stadium or Reliant Stadium for the game. I'm
giving Dallas another nationally televised game. What's the problem here, America?

Speaker 4 (01:40:24):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:40:25):
I didn't didn't realize the rage this was going to
bring forward because it's Atlanta New Orleans eighteen weeks.

Speaker 4 (01:40:31):
Those two teams should never snitch national games this year,
none of it. None of them.

Speaker 5 (01:40:36):
You know how many teams are in that commentary that.

Speaker 4 (01:40:39):
Has Thursday written all over him. There's a matter of them.

Speaker 5 (01:40:42):
While we're at it, Pittsburgh at Cleveland that week's Thursday
night game is better than Atlanta.

Speaker 4 (01:40:49):
At New Orleans. I'm just sorry, Like Dallas at Houston
is so obvious for a national matchup. It's just insane.
Who does this?

Speaker 5 (01:40:59):
Houston is good and they have a schedule full of
good opponents. They could have nine national TV games based
on just that this particular week.

Speaker 4 (01:41:09):
It's done. If you're going to tell me Dallas at
Houston isn't either of the national two night games, it
better be two matchups that are just completely unforgivable. If
you did, Detroit at Carolina is awful. Detroit is going
to bitch slap them, and then the next night who cares?
You never want to have a matchup where people say
who cares? But that's what you have on Monday night

(01:41:31):
football instead of Dallas. What's it up against reruns of Friends?
I don't know, people will watch. I know you're right.
No matter what I say or how mad I get.
All you're gonna say is it's the NFL. They print money,
and you're right. I can't argue with it because they'll
put stupid Atlanta at stupid New Orleans in this game.

(01:41:52):
I'm done. I'm done. It's worked up over this, so
it's time to break.

Speaker 10 (01:41:56):
I'm just.

Speaker 4 (01:41:57):
I just I hate stupid sports things. There's so many
of them, they're so one of they're avoidable at all costs,
and yet they find a way to not do it.

Speaker 5 (01:42:07):
The dumbs running the league's into the ground.

Speaker 4 (01:42:10):
I know they know better than that.

Speaker 5 (01:42:11):
Get a time.

Speaker 4 (01:42:12):
It's way there are the executives and I'm just a
sporosh talk show host.

Speaker 2 (01:42:17):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 4 (01:42:19):
Ninety's Kellerman is really stupid. I just discovered that during
the commercial. Actually I'm kidding, already knew that it is
the eighteen Sports Talks seven to ninety. I'm still chopped
about that whole.

Speaker 5 (01:42:37):
You know that they don't just sit down with the
sixteen games or fourteen games or fifteen games each week
the primetime networks and say I want.

Speaker 4 (01:42:47):
This game all right?

Speaker 5 (01:42:48):
Well then I want this game okay, and I want
this game all right now, you guys can fill out
your noon three twenty five games. Fox and CBS say
you can't have this game, and you can't have this game,
and you can't have this game.

Speaker 4 (01:43:03):
Like so that's why this happened. It's one of the
many reasons to be the reason. I mean, it's definitely
or if I was Fox, which is where that game
between the Cowboys at Houston that's going to be broadcast?
Who's there?

Speaker 5 (01:43:18):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (01:43:19):
Who's Fox's a team again? Now I forgot Diana Rossini,
and I don't know. That's not true. She doesn't work anywhere,
is it Joe Davis? No, Uh, that's his name. It's
Brady right, Yes, and whoever the guy is, Yes, Keevin Burkhart.
That's what I was trying to think of. Yeah, if

(01:43:42):
that's indeed what happened here, it was protected, unlike NFL
teams who can't protect their home games now, according to
Roger Goodell, then that that kind of is understandable. But
if you're Fox and you want to protect that game,
I mean, how many do you get? That's my question

(01:44:03):
each week.

Speaker 5 (01:44:04):
I don't know, didn't do my research on the television
scheduling for today's show.

Speaker 4 (01:44:07):
I don't know the answer. Well, to be fair to you,
you didn't know how hot and bothered I was going
to get about something so trivial, even though I'm still
hot and bothered about it.

Speaker 5 (01:44:15):
Yeah, I just had no idea it would be on
Wednesday's show a week after these schedule came out.

Speaker 4 (01:44:20):
This way my fault. Take Dallas at Houston out of things,
Take any of those other matchups that I mentioned. How
you found How you found yourself? At the conclusion of
Week four, putting Atlanta at New Orleans as your Monday
night game, even in the best case scenario for both
of those teams, is laughable. That's a terrible matchup. Objectively,
it just is. It sucks.

Speaker 5 (01:44:43):
I heard you last segment, Floor, that's a bad matchup. Okay,
I got it. I'm actually not going to watch that
game even a little bit. Do you remember when Super
Bowl thirty eight was here? No, you remember when we
had some celebrations around at thirty one? Is that four? Yes,
a lot of great eight celebrities, et cetera that have
been Super Bowl, Yes, but more specifically it was in

(01:45:05):
our city and we celebrated some of the great athletes
and you know, got some great input from some of
the people that mean a whole lot to the city.
Jim Nantz was a big part of that. Yesterday the
league thirty two to nothing. They approved the Super Bowl
in twenty thirty to the new stadium in Nashville. They
held a press conference in Nashville today. Some of the
people that helped put it all together, make sure that

(01:45:27):
they got it there. Some of the things they have
planned for it, stadium updates, et cetera. Their roof which
actually won't be complete when the stadium is complete. The
stadium will be complete apparently in advance of that, but
all well in advance of twenty thirty. But those attending
the press conference there in Nashville were able to hear

(01:45:49):
from and then see a list of all the people
that kind of helped make it happen. The bid committee,
the committee members. They put the list of the thirty
one committee members I believe it was, and there were
a couple of recognizable names. Kirk kerb Street was on it.
Faith Hill's husband is on it.

Speaker 4 (01:46:09):
Dallas or Orlando in for Christ.

Speaker 5 (01:46:11):
I don't remember their names. I just know he was
mister Towey in Blindside. He sings songs country music singer
Tim McGraw. And two names near the top of the
list obviously were also very recognizable, at least to me,
Eric Church.

Speaker 4 (01:46:26):
I think people know his work.

Speaker 5 (01:46:27):
And the first name on the list, because it's alphabetical,
who will be coming to Houston soon. Nate Bargatzy, part
of the bid committee in Nashville. Now, I brought all
this up for a totally different reason. The co chairs
of the bid committee, former governor of the state of Tennessee,
who also is an owner of one of their sports teams,
currently the Preds Bill Haslam. He's on the one of

(01:46:51):
two co chairs of the bid committee. The other co
chair is an award winning national sportscaster Jim Nantz Hello,
co chair of the bid committee to get Nashville, Tennessee
the Tennessee Titans home a Super Bowl Houston's own Houston's own. Now,
he does live in Nashville, and has for the last

(01:47:11):
several years. But the first I caught wind of that
this morning, I was like, I don't know he lived
in Nashville. That's actually the biggest surprise of this whole.

Speaker 4 (01:47:21):
Thing to me.

Speaker 5 (01:47:22):
I learned that after being wait what, well, I.

Speaker 4 (01:47:25):
Mean again, it's the thing. It makes sense like if
he lived here in Houston in the off season, he
would have never done.

Speaker 5 (01:47:31):
This right, he would have done it as he did
before for Houston.

Speaker 4 (01:47:36):
Yeah, how'd he wind up in Nashville? I mean, it's
a great place to live. Told us that, You've just
answered your own question. I just want I mean, of
all the places, he probably has enough scratch to live
wherever or have multiple residences. But that sounds it sounds

(01:47:56):
to me like you're saying that's his primary residence. I
believe that winter there, or I guess in this case
summer there.

Speaker 5 (01:48:02):
Well, he still does a lot of traveling, not quite
as much as he once did, but he still works a.

Speaker 4 (01:48:06):
Lot of games. That was the best part of the
Million Dollar Man, Ted Dbiyassi's gimmick, which was when Howard
Finkel would introduce him coming to the Ring making his
spring residence in you know, wherever it was. If it
was in the middle of winter, it would always be
Florida somewhere. I think it was Boca Raton or something
like that. But yeah, that's that's funny. I had no

(01:48:29):
idea that Jim Nantz reps the Titans, I mean Nashville.
We got a few items that we've not yet gotten into,
in case you missed. It usually helps us take care
of those things. It was twenty plus minutes of doctor
Tom Brady at the commencement address at Georgetown University. We
gave you the two zingers on Bill Belichick yesterday, but

(01:48:50):
he had others. We're definitely worthy of your information, so
we'll bring that to you next. And you brought up
Aaron Rodgers earlier and then the coverage of it, so
we may revisit that also when we hit you with
in Case you missed It next.

Speaker 1 (01:49:04):
Real takes real reaction, Real Houston Sports Talk seven ninety
guarantee human.

Speaker 5 (01:49:14):
That music means we're halfway through the final hour of
the show and it's not for us to get you
got up on a few items we need to revisit
or get to for the first time here on the show.
It's called in case you missed it. Let's see how
many we can get through today. We got Game two
of the NBA's Western Conference Finals tonight. My question for
you is, did you see either of the two hilarious
memes that basically are both titled This is Chet when

(01:49:38):
he faces Wemby. By the way, Chet barely had anything
productive in game one, eight points eight boards in forty minutes,
so if you get the idea if you missed them.
I saw one of them, but I can't remember what
it was. I know I saw it one very very similar. Okay,
so it's just the meme says this is Chet when
he plays Wemby. It was a picture of the numbers

(01:50:00):
seven jersey of the Thunder being worn by mclovin.

Speaker 4 (01:50:04):
No, yes, I did see that one. That's the one
I saw, and the other.

Speaker 5 (01:50:07):
One was exactly the same, except instead of mclovin, it
was Pete Davidson.

Speaker 4 (01:50:12):
That's funny. I could see that looks like McLevin though.

Speaker 5 (01:50:15):
Which is why both of those memes came aboard. We'll
see if Chet and SGA and the rest of the
Whiners their coach is catching it. As he finally is
in this stage the second straight year, I think people
are starting to see as Clanton has done his very
best to tell you you need to see this because
it's all there, a little bit of a this is
not a not a real respectable outfit that they're running

(01:50:38):
there in Oklahoma City.

Speaker 4 (01:50:39):
But that's tonight.

Speaker 5 (01:50:40):
We're two for two so far in the final few
games of the NBA season, very entertaining basketball in each
of the game ones. We'll see if it is the
same tonight and tomorrow. Remember they situated the schedule this brilliantly,
and as long as the series both go, we'll have
a game every single night for the next however many
days these series go, everyone has the same number of
off days, just every other day. So tonight it's the West,

(01:51:01):
tomorrow'll be East, and back and forth. Along the way
two different stories on Texas Tech. Will take the one
where they catch astray first, and then we'll catch the
one where they also catch a stray second. Tom Brady,
Doctor Tom Brady, we learned about yesterday, maybe the commencement
address at Georgetown University and in describing to them some

(01:51:23):
of his past who help encourage them about their future.
What game should he have talked about regarding fighting till
the end, perseverance, etc.

Speaker 4 (01:51:35):
Obviously the comeback against Atlanta, and.

Speaker 5 (01:51:37):
He did and talked about the percentage chance they had
to win when they were in the locker room at halftime,
and then when they scored their first touchdown and it
barely moved, and then when they scored their second touchdown
and it again barely moved, and all along the way
he used some he did in advance of this comment
say sorry for what I'm about to say, and you'll hear.

Speaker 4 (01:51:58):
Why is I give it to you? Hear?

Speaker 5 (01:52:00):
He was talking about, you know, kind of talking to
himself during the course of that Man, we're down twenty
eight to three.

Speaker 4 (01:52:07):
I'm taking you inside my helmet.

Speaker 20 (01:52:09):
At a very vulnerable time in my life and one
of the biggest moments of my life and that inner
self talk that people talk about that should be positive.
You know what I said, I said to myself, don't
be a little bit go out there and fight your
act off, whether you win or lose, fight to the end.

Speaker 4 (01:52:24):
Happy, clat clat flat.

Speaker 5 (01:52:26):
Now I'm going to give you these comments, don't be
a little bee, fights your aoff in succession. So this
middle one actually is the Texas Tech stray, and then
he'll go back to what he was telling himself all
about former Texan, former Woodlands highlander gets mentioned here as
he's running through this game where they came back.

Speaker 4 (01:52:46):
In the Super Bowl.

Speaker 20 (01:52:47):
We called the play was a little square out to
Danny Amandola. Danny went undrafted out of Texas Tech. He
was cut by three NFL teams. He wasn't the tallest,
he wasn't the fastest, but he had a huge heart
and he played his ass off in the biggest moments.

Speaker 4 (01:53:02):
And I hope you guys find colleagues like Danny.

Speaker 20 (01:53:05):
Having business school friends are great, don't get me wrong,
but sometimes you need a kid from a glorified community
college who can bail yours out of any jam. That
was the aforementioned spray, But sometimes you need a kid
from a glorified community college who can bail your out
of any jam.

Speaker 5 (01:53:25):
Forty two thousand plus students on campus in Lubbock at
this glorified community college.

Speaker 4 (01:53:32):
I mean, it's Tom Brady. What are you gonna do?
What are you gonna say? No, you're wrong?

Speaker 5 (01:53:39):
I mean Danny's friends with him and active on social media.
I haven't seen anything yet.

Speaker 4 (01:53:44):
Danny has rings because of him. I mean, all in
good fun.

Speaker 5 (01:53:48):
I would kind of expect a public comment from Danny
on this, but certainly from.

Speaker 4 (01:53:52):
Some or Pat Mahomes, noted community college attendee. We will
be glorified. Sorry glorified I left out a very important
word there.

Speaker 5 (01:54:02):
We'll be keeping our eyes on any comments about that,
not just from people around the University of today, because
I'm sure there's plenty. Last thing from Tom is he
runs through their path to beating up Mattie Ice in
the Super Bowl.

Speaker 4 (01:54:15):
Thirty minutes earlier. I was thinking, don't be a.

Speaker 20 (01:54:19):
Now I'm thinking lock in, laser focus, we got.

Speaker 11 (01:54:23):
This and or.

Speaker 2 (01:54:27):
Lock in.

Speaker 5 (01:54:27):
They're so sta He's giving an impassion to do something
with your lives. Speech to the graduates of Georgetown University
who likely will he? Uh again, I just didn't see
that coming. I would I did not expect him to
be a doctor either.

Speaker 4 (01:54:43):
By the way, Tom Brady a lot more. I hope
this translates to TV. That's what I'm trying to get at.

Speaker 5 (01:54:52):
Yeah, he needs to get better. He's not among He's
on the number one team. We brought that up early.

Speaker 4 (01:54:56):
He should lock in more. Yeah, he's definitely not being
a Bee and start being better as a commentator.

Speaker 5 (01:55:01):
One of his teammates who was bumped down a notch,
Greg Olsen, is among the many at Fox and CBS
and ESPN who are better than he is currently at
Color analysting NFL football game.

Speaker 4 (01:55:13):
You know what, I've got a task for you this
upcoming NFL season. Rank them. No, I want you to
book Greg Olsen on this show. I know you can
do it. I know you know people.

Speaker 5 (01:55:23):
I'm not trying to make that happen. Texas Tech still
in the crosshairs here. We talked about the gambling quarterback
on the Texas Tech unofficial roster since he's currently in
l Brandon soorsby and as he was learned via his
injunction and what was there in the comments I placed
those bets as a way to feel more connected to

(01:55:44):
the team, to root for my friends, and to feel
like I had a real stake in the games that
I otherwise was not involved in speaking of the games
while he was at Indiana on their football team, but
not playing in their games. And this is part of
what he had to say, and everybody learned of the
other things that they are also learned that while he
was doing that, he was also, according to documents, betting

(01:56:08):
on Turkish basketball, Romanian soccer.

Speaker 4 (01:56:12):
Games, Alpa and Shingun is intrigued.

Speaker 5 (01:56:14):
Doubles tennis matches but described in this document as obscure
doubles tennis matches. On July fourth, he was very very
interested in a certain event, Nathan's hot dog eating contest,
wagering on the hot dog eating contest, all in an
effort to stay close with his team at Indiana playing football. Okay,

(01:56:38):
alrighty in the newest news which doesn't have anything to
do with swersby per se, but this legal filing, the
judge in this case recused himself, Judge Philip Hays I
actually heard his name before from another case and renew
this already. He's a Lubbock native with two glorified community

(01:57:00):
college Texas Tech degrees. He didn't give the reason why
he recused himself because it's obvious.

Speaker 4 (01:57:08):
How about this? Props to him for being one of
the rare judges to do that these days, in this
day and age, most of them are absolute activists.

Speaker 5 (01:57:18):
Well, apparently the replacement, according to reports, will be picked
by an administrative judge with degrees from Texas A and
M and Baylor, but not Tech.

Speaker 4 (01:57:26):
I wonder what Thomas Brady thinks about those respective places
of higher learning.

Speaker 5 (01:57:33):
Give yourself a little minute to think it through. Who
mattered on the Patriots roster while he was there or
the Bucks roster? That's an aggie or a bear? Mar
Tellis Bennett, Yeah, a bear, I can't think of.

Speaker 4 (01:57:53):
It is no, I'm asking for help. I know I
was trying. I mean, and Baylor had a good run. Warren,
There's a few. I mean, Martellis is the most obvious
aggie that I can think.

Speaker 5 (01:58:07):
Of, and I'm sure they are very high on the
list of men. No super Bowls for me without them, right, Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:58:13):
I mean, look, I said that he has rings because
of Brady. Brady has it rings because of Danny as well.
Woodland's and the product that.

Speaker 5 (01:58:21):
He is, and just for everybody to enjoy some comments
from you and think about this over the next three
to six games. We're one game into each series, neither
of which you offered a prediction on Spurs up one
game to none, Nicks up one game to none.

Speaker 4 (01:58:36):
Who's playing in the finals. Can I give my honest answer, unfiltered.

Speaker 5 (01:58:41):
We will take a break and we'll hold that over.
I know it's three words, and one of them is
I don't care. Those are the words good tease, though.

Speaker 2 (01:58:54):
The a on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:59:00):
Continues, Well, I don't remember the number of years.

Speaker 5 (01:59:09):
I just saw something that this particular I think it
was forty years ago yesterday the song was released Sound
About Right.

Speaker 4 (01:59:21):
I came out in eighty six. I thought I thought
it was in eighty five. Don't worry, I'll find out.
It's very important.

Speaker 5 (01:59:28):
We usually don't reference what we hear, but we don't
often get to hear that because we're on television. Nonetheless,
got a few other items that he didn't get to
before that. I wanted to share one on the Texans
that'll be next mentioned earlier that there were still more
changes that we were not certain of with the Portland
Trail Blazers and their new ownership and what they wanted

(01:59:49):
to change and who was not going to be back.
We know a little bit about the basketball side of things.
But over on the Instagram platform midday today, someone posted,
thank you Rip City, It's been an absolute pleasure, and
she mentioned all the great things that happened there and
thank the Allen family the former ownership group, and closed

(02:00:09):
it with the beautiful thing about doors, it's that they
open and close and then open again. Person who posted
that we just saw and spoke with a few days
ago when the Comets were reintroduced to Houston. Tina Thompson
has been working as a scout for the Blazers for years.
We see at Toyota Center all the time courtside in

(02:00:30):
that role and obviously saying hello to everybody because she
knows everybody very nice. No longer working with the Blazers.
One of the many many layoffs.

Speaker 4 (02:00:39):
Gee, I wonder if she might be able to find
her way back to her old franchise. Well, she wants to.

Speaker 5 (02:00:45):
Go that route, I would imagine after the time she's
now spent as an NBA scout, there would probably be
another NBA scouting job available for her to hopefully land,
if that is what she still wants to do, which
I imagine she does. Heard a bunch of the other
names the organization, some of the pr people that we
know that have worked there for years, some of the
people that have been internally covering the team. Some teams

(02:01:08):
still have that, other teams do not, but that job
I don't know if it's been eliminated, but the person
who had been there for eighteen years doing it is
no longer there. So there will be significant changes with
that team beyond the obvious. They'll attempt to be more
than just play and fodder moving forward. I imagine that
is exactly where they'll stay. What san Antonio did is difficult.

(02:01:30):
They went from being a non playoff team to passing
eight teams in the standings in one off season.

Speaker 4 (02:01:37):
That's extremely rare.

Speaker 5 (02:01:39):
Phoenix, Portland, Golden State, the teams that are in that seven, eight, nine, eleven,
twelve ten range, they're probably going to be in that
same range again next year. I think I don't know
which of these also rans in the West are ready
to bump up much, if at all, And there's probably
some of those teams, Memphis maybe being one of them
that could still see a signal turn in that wrong

(02:02:01):
direction they've already headed into. We brought up the Texans
earlier and did not follow through on this. The award
winning Houston Texans, they won a shorty. I reached out
to Omar and Lindsay today to say, hey, congrats again. Yeah,
Omar and Lindsey two of the members of their PR team,
three others as well, David Angelique and are all great

(02:02:25):
people over there. It goes beyond those five, and honestly,
it all starts with It takes a village. Wex Well
in this particular instance, their award winning because they want
a shorty