Houston legendary reporter Brian T. Smith RETURNS!!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We got him from across the pond. It's late night
in London Town and that's where Brian T. Smith joins
us BTS. A lot of people know you from your
time here at the Houston Chronicle. Now you are overseas
but still doing the sports thing. Talk sport is where
this article that you wrote was. But just before we

(00:21):
do any of that, let's just catch up. How you been, man.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Good. I'm gonna be honest. I miss you guys. It's good.
It's good to hear your voice, Adam. It's good to
hear the other Adam. I see you on Twitter all
the time. I haven't seen you like two and a
half years. I miss I miss everybody. I'm loving it
over here. But it's good to hear your voice. Man.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
No, so it goes both ways, and I see that
you're still You're still cranking out good material. Before we
get to you, ranking the best teams in NBA history,
what do you see from Afar with this Rockets team
adding Kevin Durant and then at the exact same time,
the seemingly the ascension of the Spurs here in the state.

(01:04):
We can get to the MAVs as a mess in
a moment, But there's a lot to take in if
you're off you're a basketball fan in the state of
Texas right.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Now, there really is look number one. Uh completely applaud
the Rockets for what they are trying to do. Well,
well it work out. We're gonna find out in a
few months, right, I mean, Kevin Durant is getting older,
and you know, losing your your your point guard before
the start, it doesn't help everything, but they can you know,

(01:34):
they can figure that out over time. I applaud that
they have gone big. You're dealing with Okay, see you're
dealing with a still loaded West and the Nuggets and
you know Luca in La and it actually, you know,
when they made the Durant trade, I thought back to
you know, pre dating till went for Tita and and
you know we're fell stone. Darryl Moury I remember writing

(01:56):
about this the Chronicle. I mean, Darryl Moury and the Rockets,
you know, had their eyes on Durant. So the Rockets
fascination with Durant goes back a long long time. And
there's no way you're going to win the West. You're
gonna win the NBA Finals by doing it softly or
by doing it safely. So is it gonna work? Who knows,

(02:19):
but they had to try something. Kevin Durant is one
of the greatest basketball players at all time. He needs
another ring, he needs a real ring. So I hope
it works out for the Rockets. Look, I'm at talkSPORT
now talkSPORT dot com. You can follow me on Twitter
at bt Smith UK. And yeah, I write a ton.
I actually write more in London than they even did

(02:40):
it the Houston Chronicle. A lot of that is NBA stuff.
Wimby is huge over here and the you know the
fact that the Spurs in many ways lucked into that pick.
I mean, he is obviously it's he's their next Tim Duncan,
He's their David Robinson. He is the face of the NBA,
you know, Area fifty one and a unicorn, all these things.

(03:04):
But they've built a nice team around him, and I
like that they've been able to do it through the draft.
A lot of it is luck, you know, I mean,
they have been fortunate. They have been lucky, but they're
still doing it. The Spurs wave and without Papovich, So
it's a fascinating time to follow the NBA, right now,
and I love it that all this is happening and
it's a it's a really cool time for the league

(03:25):
and Lebron's not even playing. It shows that the NBA
doesn't need Lebron and they're going to be just fine
moving on without him. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
No, it's a it's been an interesting start to the
NBA season from that standpoint. And then of course you
mentioned Lebron. You can't say Lebron these days without saying Luca,
mainly because Luca is the one of those two that's
actually playing and he's not in Dallas anymore. Obviously, haven't
been able to talk to you about that, but you
know what happened. And then Nico Harrison getting fired this week.

(03:57):
The drama is is just all across the Loans Star
State and it's not necessarily good when you go up north.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah. No, I love that you asked that, actually because
ironically I spoke to Mark Stein, you know a long
time and be a reporter knows the MAVs as well
as anybody. Spoke to Mark Stein today for Talk Sport.
We'll have stories up at our site, talkSPORT dot com.
It's on my Twitter right now. At BT Smith's UK
the video spoke to Mark for twenty minutes. He went
in depth into the to the MAVs situation. Look Mark

(04:26):
was saying and telling talkSPORT Adam, I mean, it's ri
to the point that they're seriously considering having to tear
their team down, potentially trade Anthony Davis Hunt on twenty
twenty five, twenty six, and just fast forward everything to
next year's draft. That's how bad it is in Dallas,
and how bad that is for the Mavericks that they

(04:49):
allowed this to happen, Whether Nico Harrison went rogue, whether
the owner signed off, whatever. I love that Mark Cuban
doesn't even have the power there anymore when his team
and his franchise are falling up. Part. I'm sure you
get a kick out of that too, But it should
have never ever gotten to this point. I mean, we've
talked about dumpster fires and just horribly run organizations a

(05:11):
lot on Sports Talk seven ninety, right, But what the
MAVs are doing right now that they put themselves in
this spot, zero sympathy for them, and nobody's talking about
Cooper Flagg. That's the craziest thing. Like Cooper Flag was
supposed to be the new face of the NBA. He's
been average, His team isn't good enough, the culture's bad,

(05:32):
the front office is bad. And the only answer they
had was the answer they should have had when Luka
Doncis was traded, which was this, fire Nico Harrison. They
waited too late to fire Nico Harrison, and now they've
already torched another season. So I would much much rather
be I'd start maybe the Texans and the Cowboys, and
I'd much rather be the Rockets than the MAVs right now.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
You mentioned Kevin Durant in the early stages of our
conversation talking about him being one of the best players
in the NBA. I believe, according to you, he's the
eleventh best player in the NBA, as you just wrote
an article ranking the best NBA players here in twenty
twenty five. My only question is if he is eleventh,

(06:13):
and you know this is what happens with Liz Obviously,
people will inevitably pick them apart. It's good conversation piece.
If he's eleven, Brian, how is Donovan Mitchell number seven?

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Oh Wex, I miss you because you're a smart guy
and you you read look put him head to head.
I mean who is better. Yeah, I would lean Kevin Durant,
but Donovan Mitchell is a He's a top ten player
in the league. Donovan Mitchell is the core of the Cavaliers.

(06:47):
The Cavaliers had a really good season last year. The
Cavaliers are good again. I think you know with full
transparency that that one through ten and every rank them
every week at talkSPORT dot com. But that one through ten,
you know, you can move a lot of those pieces.
It's almost impossible to find any separation. I do think
Donovan mich I mean, you know, all star, good player.

(07:09):
It's not like Durant is the most dominant player in
the NBA. Drant's on of my top five. You know,
he's a top ten player. He's top ten, eleven, somewhere
in there at st adam ten the previous week. So
I totally get what you're saying. It's very, very close.
It's hard to actually separate those guys.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
Let me ask you one thing before we get to
football over there, but just particular to this list, and
like you said, it could change every week, but any
given week, the best five players on this list in
the NBA are not American players. They are players who
would be facing American players in the new format for
the All Star Game, they would be a part of

(07:45):
Team World. Is this something no matter where the international
players are from that plays into the audience you're writing for.
Is there a what is it that they like in
the NBA? Who are the players that they like in
the NBA? Beyond the obvious? You already mentioned it, Victor
Webbin Yama, you know, I.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
Mean, no, it's I love that you asked that as well.
It's it's interesting over here, right because I would still
say Lebron is the name, you know, I mean, even
though he's not playing right now. I mean, he is
Lebron James, but he's at the end of his career.
It's not going to last. It was really cool. So
the summer the twenty twenty four, so last summer I

(08:29):
went to the Olympics, but before that, Team USA was
qualifying and they played at the O two in London.
They did, you know, a warm up game and a
practice and it was incredible seeing you know, Durance and
Curry and Lebron together, but just seeing the fans, you know,
completely sold out arena, very similar Toda Center, just seeing

(08:51):
the fans freak out you know, being around those names,
the classic old school names and the modern NBA Durant, Curry, Lebron,
they still drive it. But you're one hundred thousand percent right,
and it's just an interesting time for the NBA to
where there's no way around it at them. I mean,
the best players in the world are and truly international players.

(09:15):
I actually would argue the NBA has done a poor
job of promoting its international players. You know, it feels
like they should be bigger because we do still talk
so much about Curry and Lebron, even though there Warriors.
You know what, they're seven and six. They're not world
beaters anymore. There should be a way to get Jokic
elevated in the conversation, to even have Giannis and not

(09:36):
just talk about is Gianni is gonna get traded to
the Knicks. You know, we should actually be talking about
him as a basketball player more. But that's just that's
the way it's gone. That's been the impact since ninety
two in the Dream Team. It is such an international game,
but I personally feel like the NFL is far far
ahead the NBA when it comes to actual international exposure.

(09:57):
But we're not sitting around talking about the best quarterback
in the NFL all is from Spain or from Germany.
But that is the case in the NBA. It's it's
very very interesting.

Speaker 3 (10:07):
Have you in person covered three NFL games this year?

Speaker 2 (10:10):
In October? Uh? So I I covered the first NFL
game ever in Dublin between the Steelers and Vikings, and
I did actually did radio from Wimbley Stadium and covered
two games at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. So I covered four.
I covered four international games this year wex and for

(10:33):
Talk Sport, and thoroughly enjoyed it all. If you have,
if you ever get a chance to do it, if
you haven't done it, watching an NFL game international is
a super super cool experience. I'd still take Premier League
over but it is. It is a really cool sporting
experience and the fans really really show out.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
Well, that's what I was going to ask you. It's
such a soccer hungry rest of the world. Basically, what
what what term is that?

Speaker 2 (10:59):
Clinton?

Speaker 1 (11:00):
Soccer? We call that soccer over here in the eighty Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
I don't know what soccer is anymore, Adam, do you
walk around saying football? If you say soccer over here,
they're gonna think you're you're worst than Ted Lasso. You will,
you will get kicked out of the pub. You'll get
punted out of the pub. I have not used soccer
in like twenty six months. I have, I have. I'm

(11:23):
fully immersed over here, man, I will.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
I will be the ugly American and I will lean
into that role. I know that surprises you, like zero percent.
But what is the reaction though, because I mean, obviously
the fans show up, but it's not the world's sport
over there like it is here.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah. Yeah, you know. When I'll go on the radio
out here and for talk sport, I always you know,
I often draw the comparison, and it's it's the only
way to explain it that the Premier League is. It's
just it's the NFL over here. I mean it's it's
on every channel, you know, every night in some fashion,

(12:03):
it's all that people talk about. The NFL over here
has one percent of the market, you know, point oh
five percent of the market. I mean, the just like
in just like in America, right, I mean for me,
when I left the US two and a half years
ago and went over here, I mean I would have
said the NFL was that eighty percent college football was

(12:26):
in there, and then the NBA and then Major League Baseball,
you know some combination of that. Uh it is it
is so soccer, it is so English football dominant, and
then you would you would actually have you know, rugby
and cricket and you know, on down the list, and
then you get to the NFL and then then maybe
the NBA. The NFL is big over here. It is

(12:49):
cool that on Sunday nights at six pm, which would
be you know, new in your time, you can watch
pretty much every game. You'll get red zone, you you know,
that's how we stay up on it. The flip side
is you're often staying up till midnight three am to
watch Sunday night football. So a lot of it you're
just living off of social media and YouTube videos. But

(13:11):
it's big over here. I mean, you know, you'll see
it at pubs, you'll see it around, but it really
only has about one percent of the UK sports market,
a very passionate one percent, but that's probably where it's at.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
Well, Brian would say, it was great to catch up
with you. Hopefully we'll do it again soon. I don't
know if that will be after yet another Bill O'Brien moment,
because what's up. Trevor became famous earlier in November, just
as it doesn't matter. Brian became famous several years ago.
But always out there, always in the news. Love hearing
from you. Still follow you there, and we'll continue to
look at your latest on the sports over here in

(13:44):
the United States of America, right there at Talk Sport.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
Brian T.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
Smith BTS joining us here on the A team. Great
catching up with you, Brian.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
Thanks so much, guys, and tell Matt Thomas to get
to work

Speaker 1 (13:57):
The ad on Sports Talk seven ninety