It's Gonna Be A-MAY-Zing Watching The Rockets Comeback!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Two lifelong Houston Sports guys named Adam raised, my girl Nolan,
Molted by the magnificent roller coaster ride.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
That is Houston Sports, chill lates down for the only
homegrown afternoon team is Talking Your Teams?

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Teams eighty.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
What's up, Houston, Texas? It is a Thursday edition of
the A Team Sports Talks seven to ninety. Adam Clinton
with you. Adam Wexler will be here along the way shortly.
He's got some uh well, you know how this time
of year is, you got family moving back from from college.
And so about the midway point of the show or
so somewhereabouts in there, we'll have wex back in here

(01:04):
and make the show complete. Cole Thompson obviously along for
the ride as per usual. And you know what, maybe
wex picked the worst possible How about this, The Warriors
picked the worst possible game to be losing to the
night before a show where I have no filter for
the first couple of hours, There's not gonna be There's
not gonna be any governor on this bad Boy, Because

(01:26):
when you have the utter disdain for a franchise like
the Golden State Warriors. That I do, and then what
happened last night for most of the night goes down.
I'm gonna be a little insufferable now again, the Rockets
staying alive versus you know, what they should have done, which,
in my opinion, was clinched that series last night. If

(01:47):
you've been watching this series at all, you know that
the the Rockets probably should have gone into Game five
last night with a three to one series lead, not
trailing that thing to this, you know, shell of Warriors,
great teams past. I understand they went and got Jimmy Butler.
Why did they go and get Jimmy Butler because they

(02:08):
were a middling five hundred team that wasn't even gonna
sniff the play in unless they blew something up, you know,
with Steph Curry as their best players. Still, so forgive
me if I'm not, you know, still praising this run
by the Golden State Warriors that has asterisks all over it.
But in the meantime, enough about them, how about your Rockets? Now? Again,

(02:31):
they should have probably been leading three games to one
and not trailing three games to one. But such as
life when you have a bunch of kids who don't
know what they don't know. And I was talking about
this a lot last night. I've been talking about it
all series, both here on the show and off the air,
with a number of people, and that's kind of how
it feels, right. They're so young, they're so inexperienced, they

(02:55):
so don't know what they don't know, and I'm gonna
say it right now, and it's not an insult to them.
They're dumb enough to win this series. I know that
the next game is gonna be the toughest one. I
know that going to the Bay Area with the swine
that is the Warriors entitled fan base and everything else
that's going coming that's gonna come into play here, I

(03:17):
should say. And we'll get into the absolute lunacy of
fake Warriors media sending a narrative to somewhat actual Warriors
media to the point where people from both organizations last

(03:37):
night are having to answer the dumbest, most ridiculous questions about,
to take a line from Jeff passon a nothing burger
in this series that I've ever seen. You will definitely
get into that, but let's just talk about the game itself.
Was not on the call for that one last night
that was a WEX game. But I stayed in the
building after our live broadcast from Toyota Center and and

(04:00):
I told, you know, Ross and I were talking about this.
He did the final segment before we stepped aside for
Rockets pregame because WEX had had gone to get ready
for the network broadcast, and you know, we were kind
of exchanging. Like you know, you wake up sometimes the
day of a big sporting event that your team's involved in,
and you're like, ah, I had a bad feeling this morning. Man,

(04:22):
rolled out of bed. Maybe you didn't sleep all that
great because you're a diehard. And I just rolled out
of bed and I did not feel good about this
game today. I it's not gonna surprise me. If they
either get blown out or they lose a heartbreak or
either way, I'm not gonna like it. It's gonna suck.
It's gonna be one of those bad sports nights for me.
There's other days where you roll out of bed and

(04:43):
the birds are chirping and the weather's well, the weather's okay,
it's not oppressive humidity yet, and you just feel like, hey,
vibes are immaculate. This is good. I feel good. That
was yesterday. Now, I don't know if all of you
guys felt like that's a.

Speaker 5 (04:58):
Lot of people felt that way.

Speaker 4 (04:59):
Yeah, I feel like we all did. And I didn't
see you yesterday, Cole, so we didn't make, you know,
awkward eye contact or anything.

Speaker 5 (05:08):
But down the line you sounded positive. Oh, I was
extremely positive. And then I'll just tell a quick story.
I had a wedding to go to in Birmingham this
upcoming weekend, but naturally, because we have Josh that does
the Rockets, I do Astros, so I'm not gonna be
able to go to the wedding. When they were up
by thirty one, I texted her and I said, hey, hey,
do the seeum not gonna be there. And when that

(05:29):
run started to come back, she'd already told me I'm
rooting for the Rockets because I took your name off everything,
you're even welcome here anymore. And I didn't even feel
that bad because of I knew that they were gonna
hold on. I didn't think it was going to go
to that level of domination in the first quarter, but
the fact that you saw that ac think about this, dude,
they are dumb enough. Literally, they are dumb enough to

(05:51):
win this series and probably single handily put belt to
butt pretty quickly.

Speaker 4 (05:56):
No, well, here's the thing. I wound up because last night,
you know, it's a playoff game, and it's packed, and
media is packed, and I was kind of floating around.
That's what I like to call it. I don't like
to do that in a game where I really want
to pay attention. There's certain games you can, especially with baseball,
you can keep an eye on it and you don't
have to. Really. You gotta be locked in and focused

(06:17):
on a Rockets Warriors playoff game, Okay, especially any game
that's involving Draymond Green and Dylan Brooks. You've got to
keep your eye on the floor because you never know
when rec League Patricia is gonna start headbutting your starting
center and get ejected. Okay, so you've got to keep
your eye on things or you'll miss it. But we'll
get to that later too. But I'm really locked in

(06:39):
on the first half, especially when the Rockets were basically
played the most perfect game of the season they save
for Game five of the playoffs. Gotta love that, right.
Fred van Vliet, for the second consecutive game is hitting
clutch threes, Jalen has well a pulse. A men Thompson
welcomed himself to the series, that freaking demon on both

(07:01):
ends of the floor. What an absolute? I mean, I'm
just gonna that guy is a bitch to play against. Okay,
you've got to hate playing it. If you know that
you're gonna be in a straight jacket against a men
Thompson for a playoff game, that's got a weigh on
your mind, you better be right with God going into
that game.

Speaker 5 (07:16):
He's only going to get better.

Speaker 4 (07:17):
I know he doesn't even shoot well yet this kid
gets a jump shot, it is over and he's like,
I mean he's one of how many? So point of
all is I wound up sitting next to somebody who's
close to one of the young members of the corps.
That's all I'm gonna say. I don't want to give
this guy away. I don't want to, you know, make
any drama for anybody. But you get to talking to

(07:40):
people and you kind of find out some things and
we start talking about and this isn't really even the
direction I'm going You start talking about the Rockets team,
this team, this core that doesn't even know what it
doesn't know that's just dumb enough to figure out, Hey,
we don't know we're not supposed to win this series
because we're down three games to one, and like something
like eighty some odd percent of teams always as a series,

(08:00):
they don't think about it that way. It's for a
few reasons. The biggest one is obviously their age and
lack of experience. They most of these guys just finished
playing their fifth ever playoff game. Right with the exception
of the Fred van Vlietz of the world and the
you know, the the Dylan Brooks's and the Jeff Greens
and the Jack Landel's, these guys don't know anything. They're
they're learning on the fly. But what's the theme of

(08:25):
the twenty twenty four to twenty five Houston Rockets team?
Way ahead of schedule, right, Like we're all sitting here
in the preseason saying, all right, best case scenario, top
sixteens seed, so you're not having to participate in the
playoff or the play in Shenanigans. Top six best case scenario,
maybe if you're lucky, it's maybe the fifth or fourth seed. No,

(08:48):
they're just gonna get the second seed in admittedly a
tightly packed Western Conference. But they just they're just gonna
they're they're gonna do what they do because they don't
know any better. And they lost that second seed for
a long time there. February was horrible here, right February
was not a fun time to be a Rockets fan
or a member of the organization. And they weathered that storm.

(09:10):
Fred came back. I never felt like he was right
from the time he came back. I feel like that
time they got off really did him some good. You
can point to games where he hasn't shot well in
this series and say no, but you can also point
to the most important games, you know, the last two,
especially this last one, and he shot lights out. So

(09:31):
I just I'm very, very cautiously optimistic. I understand what's
ahead of them. This is by far the toughest game
in this series to win. It's not Game seven. It's
not because here's why all the pressure right now is
still on the Golden State Warriors. It's their home court.
They've had a three to one series lead. They're the

(09:51):
ones that think that they're gonna go on some miraculous
run and win another title. Lebron James says, party of
one over here, you can join me. That's not happening
Oklahoma to me, smashing everybody in its way, at least
to the NBA Finals. I firmly believe that. So again,
like I said yesterday, this is not me. Oh, the
Rockets are gonna win the title this year. But if
the Rockets knock off the Golden State Warriors coming back

(10:14):
from three to one, you don't think they're not gonna.
I can believe that they can beat the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Speaker 5 (10:18):
I mean, you're telling me right now that we don't
have to hear for the next month anything about Golden
State or Los Angeles. And that's not a win for
minor smaller it's a win for America. It's a win
for America. And by the way, you also brought this up.
You're really gonna convince a young team that has a
good core in place they can't take down the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
Nah, you really believe that? And me, I'm Anthony Davis's
president of his fan club. I would I would move
heaven and Earth.

Speaker 5 (10:48):
Do you mean Anthony Edwards?

Speaker 4 (10:49):
Yeah, Anthony, what I say, Anthony Davis, I'm not I'm
not a president of the Anthony Davis fan you want
to be.

Speaker 5 (10:54):
That's totally cool. You're on the path time. Let's see it.

Speaker 4 (10:58):
Aman Thompson's the I'm the charge, remember of that one.
But yeah, Anthony Edwards, I would move heaven and earth
to get him in a Rockets uniform. I'd move everything
but a men Thompson, I firmly say that I'd sell
my firstborn son. That's a little much.

Speaker 5 (11:11):
Listen, and is one of my favorite players all time.
Just watching the way that he plays the game, that's
that's special, and I don't never want a kid. Then hey,
I walk away with him.

Speaker 4 (11:20):
He's like Vernon Maxwell on steroids, which, by the way,
shout out to Vernon Maxwell and Steve Frantis caught up
with him before the game last night. We've got a
lot to get to. It's gonna be a fantastic show.
And don't worry. WEX will be here probably in the
four o'clock hour. At some point in the meantime, Gordy's
gonna stop by this hour. We're moving him up a
little bit this week for his weekly visit. We will

(11:40):
hear from Brian McTaggart on the astros. He joined the
station earlier today for his weekly visit, gonna talk a
lot about the rotation and some other things. Astros taking
two out of three, obviously taking one on the chin
in that Mattine finale yesterday. They've got the day off
and they're back out on the road. And then as

(12:00):
Man the gift that keeps on giving. And if you're
a front running Lakers, Yankees, Cowboys fan, I hope you're
having a miserable Thursday. Signed Adam Clanton. A lot to
get to on a Thursday edition of the show. It's May.
Everyone feels good.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (12:21):
I just go back.

Speaker 4 (12:31):
Oh that's the theme song for the Golden State Warriors.
It is the A team. Sports Talk seven ninety, First
day of May. Can't think of a better way to
start it off than by making fun of the most
entitled fan base on the entire planet in all of sports. Really,
I mean, if you think about it, even Yankees fans
don't act this entitled because they really can't point anything

(12:52):
since most of them weren't born the last time the
Yankees actually did anything of consequence. I know they went
to the World Series last year, but they gagged that
one good and proper. But the Warriors. I mean, this whole,
this whole thing, this whole run started frankly here in Houston.
You know, the Rockets, when Steph Curry was still playing

(13:15):
for Mark Jackson and Draymond Green was a rookie and
he was doing Draymond Green things even then, Like I've
I was. You talk about being the charter member of
a fan club, I was the charter member of the
Hate Draymond Green fan club as well. I remember vividly
where I was watching that game the first time Draymond

(13:37):
did something unsavory to a member of the Rockets. He
was in the corner at Toyota Center at the three
point line, and I remember vividly Mark Jackson's comments after
the game, basically dismissing anybody who had a problem with
it because they were soft. Oh how the turntables? Right?
Is that what Michael Scott would say in this situation. Yes,

(13:59):
I mean, and we'll get to that. We're gonna do
it here. I'm not glorifying them to that degree. In
the second segment of.

Speaker 5 (14:06):
The show, build up the anticipation of how big of
whiny cry babies you are, specially with Steve Carr at
the Helm.

Speaker 4 (14:12):
Yeah, no, I want you guys to stay tuned because
I'll make it worth your while. But I'm gonna give
the flowers that are due to our guys first, and
number one on that list is the man that well.
I mean, we're not on TV yet, so I can
kind of get away with this. I think we'll put

(14:32):
it this way. Cale, I'll pose it to you in
the form of a question. Sure, believe it or not?
You might be familiar with that concept on this station.
I said something to a high ranking Rockets official earlier
this season to the effect of I would like to
have him in Thompson's Babies, believe it or not. And

(14:55):
I got a good laugh out of that person. I
didn't care. I mean it, man, this kid he's not
even It's like Cole said in the first segment, he's
not even scratching the surface. He is a a babe
in the womb. When it comes to the monster, he
will become this guy this you know, he reminds me
of like a baby tiger or a bit you know,

(15:17):
one of those animals that when they're a full grown adult,
you don't want to be anywhere near them without like
hardcore weaponry or you're not going to make it out alive.
That's a men Thompson. He's a baby tiger, or he's
a baby mamba. How about that? Huh is that ruffle
some feathers? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (15:34):
Okay, out of respect, out of respect for who he was,
he's a baby viper. I'd rather something like that because
of at least you sto.

Speaker 4 (15:42):
What's Randy Orton got to do with this?

Speaker 5 (15:44):
Oh God, here we go. See. That's the problem is
that at this point everyone has that.

Speaker 4 (15:49):
I don't have an animal nickname. Where's mine? All right?

Speaker 5 (15:51):
Panda bear?

Speaker 4 (15:52):
That's mean? Now I want Panda Express anyway. So there's
my add I just I'm like, I'm fascinated at because
we always say this about guys. The problem is we've
been saying it about Jalen Green for too long. Well,
he's still young. Imagine what he will be he's four
years in a men Thompson like, that's a guy who

(16:14):
when you hear that the Rockets are making him quote
untouchable in any sort of trade talks. Yes, absolutely, I
buy into that. I support that stance. That is my policy.
I like that campaign note right there.

Speaker 5 (16:28):
I mean, seriously, if Nico Harrison can trade away Luca,
I hope that rafel Stone.

Speaker 4 (16:32):
No, Well, the difference is call we don't have a
full fledged idiot running the Houston Rockets and the Dallas
Mavericks do, oh exactly.

Speaker 5 (16:40):
But also we also agree you and I that they
are just trying to do everything possible to move themselves
to Vegas. So naturally, I mean, it's a pawn in
the scheme of.

Speaker 4 (16:48):
Everything that is from the higher Ye, twenty twenty five
is the year of the conspiracy is coming true. I mean,
I can't really call that a conspiracy because I could
see it having legs. You don't think Adam Silver wants
to fast track a team to Vegas. You think he
cares that one of three Texas teams will no longer
be in a state.

Speaker 5 (17:05):
No, no, not at all. Come on, here's the even
crazier part. You think he really cares that that team
is going to be competitive in its first few seasons
because people will just fly out to go visit Vegas
and they'll get their revenue in terms of ticket sales
to see the opposing team come in. So it doesn't
matter at that point. They just want a team out
there because they're seeing the success of every other sporting event.

Speaker 4 (17:26):
Yeah, look it is. I don't know how that's all gonna,
you know, meet itself out, it's gonna happen. But back
to a men Thompson, But a men Thompson, I do,
I do know how this is gonna go. This guy's
going to be a rocket for life. This guy is
going to I keep saying Scottie Pippen like if he

(17:46):
ever were to develop a jump shot of any kind.
You know, Scotty was real raw when he came in.
I don't like the athleticism was what gets me, Like
you could tell like Cannas Parker hadn't seen him in
person until last night. She obviously watches game. I don't look.
You can say a lot of things about a lot
of talking heads, and even on TNT, I don't think
Cannas Parker doesn't do her homework. Canna's Parker was blown

(18:07):
away last night, and she kind of had an idea
what she was in for before she saw it, But
then she sees it in person and you could hear
it in the broadcast because yeah, I went back and
watched it after I got home last night. But yeah,
like a men Thompson, it's incredible to think that he's
scratching the surface. If you look at it and that lens,
if you look at it from that prism, you're really

(18:29):
really like starting to salivate thinking about what this team
could become. And it goes back to my original point
in the first first segment. This team doesn't know what
it doesn't know. They're just dumb enough to win this series.
And if Steph Curry doesn't have another monster performance in
game six, I got news for you, guys. If the
Rockets play even remotely like they did, like a fraction

(18:51):
of what they did defensively in the first half of
Game five, and they hold Curry to that and they
bottle him up, and those of those idiot role players
aren't hitting insane shots that they never make against anybody
but the Rockets.

Speaker 5 (19:04):
Where they're going to twenty one to seven run or
something like that.

Speaker 4 (19:06):
Yeah, Like you saw what a men Thompson called Gary
Payton the second last night. You're all thinking it. He
he just verbalized it. Brandon Pudjimski, Are we really gonna
keep letting this guy score twenty or more when he
averages eleven? Like, Rockets have the team to get this done.
They just put themselves in a bad spot. They absolutely

(19:26):
choked away Game four, in my opinion with the free
throw shooting. He saw that win last night. They've just
got to play their game and it's all good. And
part of that is a Men Thompson. And so that
brings us to well, what was everybody saying about him
last night? I mean, these are people that live and
work with him all day every day. These guys spend

(19:47):
more times with each other during the season than they
do with their families, if they even have any. And
so these guys know him Men Thompson better than anyone
and at the top of that list. Ime Udoka on
how big a Men Thompson was in the Rockets Game
five win over the world.

Speaker 7 (20:01):
Yeah, he's of course, he's ahead of the snake as
far as that. When it comes to Curry specifically the
ball pressure without fouling, you know, obviously picked him a
few times there, but just wearing on him and then
everybody else doing their job as well, missed him a
few times on some offensive rebounds where we dontlocate him,
but other than his flurry in the second quarter we

(20:22):
had eleven of thirteen.

Speaker 4 (20:24):
We did a great job. Yeah, he did a great
job and he's under selling it because of his delivery.
See that's im a Udoka. He's kind of like Jeff
van Gundy in that way. He could have won or
lost by twenty last night, you wouldn't know, Like I'll
never forget Jeff Van Gundy being up there at the podium.
Rockets just kicked one of the best teams in the
league by thirty. You know, our rebounding was you know,

(20:46):
substandard last night, and I thought we could have gotten
out in transition a lot better than we did. But
there's always tomorrow. Won by twenty five, Jeff like smile.
I love Jeff if he knows I love him all right.
The other guy that I think people would be very
interested to see what he had to say about a
Men Thompson. That would be the other prime defender on

(21:09):
the Rockets. There are many, but Dylan Brooks was brought
here as much for his defense as anything. He's just
happened to be a very good offensive player this year.
His extended thoughts on a Men Thompson's Game five.

Speaker 8 (21:19):
He was you know, he took it personal and that's
what we need from every single night. You know, as
a defender, you have to take the matchup personal, you know,
you know, and he took it personal on the night
he was reading, you know, Steph, you know, reading a
lot of the guys staying in front, being disciplined on
the defensive end, without reaching, without getting fouls. And we

(21:42):
need that amend, you know, every single game because we're
gonna go against guys, We're gonna go against Steph again.
You know, we need that same type of mentality, that
tenacity that he was playing with, and it gives us
a lot of energy and gives us a lot of
you know, possessions, and it makes their best player to

(22:03):
mit and think, and you know that's what we need,
you know, the best players to try to think, think,
think the game instead of playing in the flow.

Speaker 4 (22:13):
Look, you can say that that hyperbole, you can say
that's a little over the top to say about a
guy like Steph Curry, Steph Curry, whether it's Fred van
Vliet or in this case a men Thompson who ripped
him not once but twice in that game last night.
He had five steals in his rookie or his his

(22:35):
playoff rookie debut. Steph Curry's thinking about him and Thompson
he might not admit it. Warriors fans don't want to
hear it. He's absolutely thinking about him Men Thompson, because
in order to close this series out, he's going to
have to work for it. And the only way the
Warriors are going to close this series out, in my opinion,
is if he goes off. I mean, Jimmy Butler, he's

(22:58):
not He's not one hundred percent, So I'm gonna I'm
not giving him a pass, but they're only gonna go
as far as Steph Curry can take them, even with
Jimmy on the floor right under this point, under the
current circumstances. Right, all right, we'll take a time out
from all this discussion. We'll still talk about the Rockets
with him, but we have a number of topics to
get to. When Chris Gordy joins us in studio, he's

(23:19):
in the on deck circle. I'm looking at him right now,
and he's next.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 9 (23:35):
Now.

Speaker 4 (23:35):
I can't decide if Paul is playing this because of
a reason or because he knows that Gordy loves eighties music.
Not a big not a big aha fam.

Speaker 5 (23:46):
How muted for the rest of the segment. It's gordy segment.
I don't care mute. It the greatest song of all
time in my opinion right here.

Speaker 4 (23:53):
Seriously, we have Oh my gosh.

Speaker 5 (23:56):
When I got married, I had one request on the soundtrack.

Speaker 4 (24:00):
That's that's the song?

Speaker 5 (24:01):
Why my favorite song of all time?

Speaker 4 (24:04):
But like why, I don't know what's sort of the
vocal track?

Speaker 5 (24:08):
I mean, come on, it's it's the sweets. They know
how to make good music.

Speaker 4 (24:12):
Is it wrong that I know this song more for
the video than the actual song because it was the
first real animated cutting edge MTV. Gosh, we sound old.

Speaker 10 (24:21):
Yeah, it's a different era of watching music videos on TV.

Speaker 4 (24:25):
I mean that's that's dead and gone. Yeah, hey, you
know what else is dead and gone? Lebron James. Sorry,
we can talk about we can go in any direction.

Speaker 10 (24:34):
Let me ask you this because Ross Rosscott mad when
I brought this up. Conspiracy theorists live with Lebron eliminated. Well,
the Warriors get every call Friday night because the league
wants Steph Curry to advance.

Speaker 4 (24:47):
Here's the deal.

Speaker 10 (24:48):
They can't have Calves thunder t Wolves.

Speaker 4 (24:53):
I mean, they gotta have the Edwards. But like so,
you don't want to be the NFL. Is that what
you're saying, Adam Silver, You're lagging in ratings. Everybody's talk
about all these ratings are great. Well they haven't been,
though they've been declining steadily. More people watch like what
was I saw the other day that more people watch
like some random something to consume on television that wasn't
even sports before they're watch an NBA game. I I

(25:18):
have not listened to a single second of our station today.
I know that's not very good plug, but there's a
method to my madness here. I didn't want to be
swayed one way or the other or anything like that
before I came in here, so I did not hear
what he said. But I was sitting behind the broadcast
position last night, behind Matt and Adam. As the game

(25:40):
was winding down, I shot the video of the rocket
lifting off on the big screen, and I thought to
myself self, if that's what ends up happening, and the
Rockets are the only game in primetime on Friday night,
the only game really which they will be now because
the Lakers did go ahead and complete the choke job.
It wasn't even choke job. They just were outclassed. Would
the NBA want to step in, so to speak, and

(26:04):
by step in step okay, but just just follow me
on this.

Speaker 10 (26:08):
Teams get calls regardless, So the Warriors will probably get
the benefit of doubt.

Speaker 4 (26:12):
But at eight o'clock tomorrow morning, nine Eastern, they will
drop the referee assignments. If Tony Brothers is walking into
the Bay Area, you cannot tell me that I'm a
conspiracy theorist. Scott Fostering walking through that door. He's sick.
They're just not saying it. He's been at the Review
Center all all season long.

Speaker 10 (26:32):
The bottom line is the Rockets have to go find
a way to win. The thing that we pointed out though,
was Ross point this out earlier was stuff. And those
guys kind of look tired, like they look they look
gassed after they're starting to look old. And so here's
here's where the interesting part comes.

Speaker 4 (26:48):
In.

Speaker 10 (26:48):
Last week we would play a game and then we
take like three days off. We're now in that stretch
of play a game off, day, play a game, travel,
play a game, and so maybe this suits the Rockets.
The young energetic Rockets can go into Okay, see tomorrow night,
and if Jimmy Butler is still kind of ailing and
Steph is a little tired. You know, maybe this is

(27:10):
advantage Rockets, but that the point is, if anyone can
can run off three in a row, I think this
team has the again, the youthful exuberance to.

Speaker 4 (27:21):
Go do it, the defense to do it. Yeah.

Speaker 10 (27:24):
But look, if if this thing ends up close and
it's you know, down one the final seconds again tomorrow night,
I'm not.

Speaker 4 (27:29):
Going to feel good about it. But if you can
do what you.

Speaker 10 (27:32):
You know, I'm not saying she lights out like you
did last night, but that kind of offensive performance. I
don't feel like every game they've jumped out to a lead.

Speaker 4 (27:39):
They've led them by double digits every game?

Speaker 5 (27:41):
Is it?

Speaker 4 (27:41):
Every game three one going into last night saying So.

Speaker 10 (27:44):
That's what I'm saying. It's like, you're that close. It's
not gonna be easy. But find a way to win.
Ross said earlier. If they win tomorrow night, they're winning
on Sunday.

Speaker 4 (27:53):
It feels like the Clippers series in that way. Yeah,
And the difference is like.

Speaker 10 (27:58):
The Warrior series twenty eighteen where you lost Game seven
at home.

Speaker 4 (28:02):
Yeah, well you were up three to two in that one.
You won Game five on your floor. But in the
waning seconds, oh look, Chris Paul's writhing in pain. This
series is over. That's how everybody thought. And I was
thinking the same thing that you just mentioned that Ross
said last night. I'm like, is the NBA if they're
king their Lord and savior Lebron is out and they

(28:24):
need ratings quote unquote, and this is what's wrong with
the current structure of the NBA. You've got the hottest
team in the NBA is playing in Middle America. That
shouldn't matter, right, I mean the created new fans. I
mean it's like it's like the NFL does not need
Patrick Mahomes every year. Like you had Joe Burrow and

(28:45):
Cincinnati broke their one year, You've had Josh Allen, like
you've had these other players. Let new superstars be made.
You know what I don't see Anthony Edwards. I mean
he is, he is becoming a house householder. He's gonna
make Minnesota something that's never been even with KGA Alexander's.

Speaker 10 (29:02):
Yes, maybe starting to do that with the Thunder, but yeah,
I mean, I just I'm with you, like, stop resting
on the We need Yankees, Red Sox, and we need
Yeah about the Dodgers and all this like create new
Stars Hozel two for the Astros played in how many
World Series?

Speaker 11 (29:16):
Right?

Speaker 4 (29:16):
And the clearest example of this is the NFL. You
know why, not only has Kansas City in Middle America
just up the way from Oklahoma City by the way,
not only have they played in like ad nauseum amounts
of Super Bowl from a small market with not a gleaming,
state of the art stadium, none of that stuff. But
look at the NFL landscape. What is the NBA's reputation. Well,

(29:38):
we got to have a good competitive team in the
big markets New York and LA. The Knicks haven't mattered
since nineteen ninety nine. And the Lakers, although they've won
a ton of championships, like look at the NFL New
York in LA, they could not matter less. Yeah, the
Giants had a couple of Super Bowls with Eli Manning
beating the Patriots, but other than that, they've been a

(29:58):
disaster lately. The That's are a perennial disaster. And LA
can't and stay in their market in the NFL. That's
what's wild.

Speaker 10 (30:06):
Was you had I mean, you had Luca with Lebron
and that team couldn't even get in the first round.
Are you surprised, Well, just a year ago Luca with
Kyrie got to the finals.

Speaker 4 (30:17):
Yeah, but Kyrie plays defense, and the rest of that
Dallas team played defense around a guy who doesn't. Lebron
hasn't played defense in five years. And I'm sorry, but
I don't think JJ Reddick, especially after last night Shananigans
is the latest leader they need. They're going through coaches
like socks there because of Lebron. Watch Lebron Bolt. That's

(30:39):
gonna be my favorite, and just leave Luca there in
utter despair.

Speaker 10 (30:43):
I just think, look, Rockets have to bring that defensive
intensity tomorrow night. The Warriors are like the villain in
a horror movie. Though It's like you keep going, oh,
he's dead, and then he's not. They keep like very
much like should have been a thirty point win, you know,
instead it was what a fifteen point win? So again,

(31:04):
just just play the hard nos defense you do. Get
get a lead, and just keep the foot on the
gas pedal when they make a run, get some stops,
use your timeouts. When you eat them, you go on
a run. I mean, it's they can do this tomorrow night.
But I think we're gonna know early on, if we
see a focused Warriors team come out, Steph's dale in
threes and Draymond's getting you know, steals and all that,

(31:27):
it's gonna be.

Speaker 4 (31:28):
You know, you're gonna be in for a long night.

Speaker 12 (31:30):
You know.

Speaker 4 (31:30):
It's interesting the first two possessions of last night's game,
I thought maybe that was the way it was going
to go. It's hard to remember now, but the Warriors
got two quick baskets, a cheap well, they got a
three from Draymond, and then they got a cheap basket
inside and I was like, here we go.

Speaker 10 (31:44):
Here's the thing. They don't want to run like the
old Warriors one of the run. This Warriors team doesn't
want to run, can't. The Rockets team wants to run.
They want to go up and down the court with you.

Speaker 4 (31:53):
That's why the transition is so immaculate that that game
for the Rockets. They don't want to get into a
half court set where the Warriors can play their zone.
And how about the Rockets playing zone last night? Yeah?
What an absolute just it's almost like a cheat code
has been unlocked again. That's what's fascinating about a series
like this. I wish it was tied going into that
game five as opposed to three to one, because it

(32:15):
feel a lot better.

Speaker 6 (32:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
Well, the adjustments though, I'm saying, like both coaches are
gonna make yea. I do like the fact that Steve
Kurr is talking about nonsense that doesn't matter instead of
game six. I do love that the.

Speaker 10 (32:26):
Crap about well, when a guy shoots a three, once
the ball leaves his hand, you could slap his arm,
and we're seeing just guys, you know, just really exaggerate
the contact and we're just going to be addressed this offseason.

Speaker 4 (32:40):
He's trying to be his mentor, well one of his mentors.
He's trying to do not what Papovich used to do.
Papovich is the innovator of the load management scheme. His
other mentor, Phil Jackson, is the one that would do this,
Phil Jackson, but he's not good at it. Like Phil
Jackson was sly about it. Phil Jackson was a psychological
Steve Kerr is just a butt hurt little showed. Phil

(33:04):
Jackson would sit up there and put the narrative out
there slyly so that he would get those calls. He
did it in La He did it in Chicago. That
was his mo o. Steve Kurr just comes off as
petulant and whiney. He's not he's not delivering the line
the right way.

Speaker 10 (33:20):
Well, Kurr's not Jackson and Draymond's not Dennis Rodman, although
he thinks he is, you.

Speaker 4 (33:25):
Know, like me and Weix got into it the other
day because he's like, you just hate Steve Kerr. I'm like, well, yeah,
I do. But that's beside the point. I can't respect
a guy as one of the all time great coaches
because of all this winning that he's done. When their
best season from a winning standpoint, a large chunk of
that year they won seventy three games, was coached by
Luke Walton. What's he doing now? He's just smarty? I can't.

(33:48):
I don't like smarty. I'm show up in a Harvard
T shirt. Nobody is on your side on that. Who
likes arrogant? You want in sports? We want the unpeople
in California and San Francisco. I guess so the dumbest
people on the planet.

Speaker 5 (34:01):
How you really feel, icy, Well.

Speaker 4 (34:03):
I could go down a really, really dark road, but
we're out of time. Sorry, we didn't talk about the Astros, Gordy,
but I got a break on time. Otherwise my program
director is gonna get mad at me. Yeah, no problem.
It's hey, look get out.

Speaker 10 (34:14):
We're gonna be watching the Astros on TV, listening on
the radio this weekend and we'll be enjoying us called
Crawford Back.

Speaker 4 (34:19):
Will we do it?

Speaker 10 (34:20):
So plenty of actually going on this weekend. Of course,
you got the rockets, you got, you know, watching the Astros,
listening to the Astros' seven ninety and make sure you're
stocked up a plenty at Crawford Back. It's a it's
a home run every time when you have a Crawford bock,
it's always in season. Stock up your fridge with plenty
of Crawford box.

Speaker 4 (34:35):
Sounds good. Thanks for the time. We will do it
again next week, and yeah, we'll check in a little
bit on the Astros when we come.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
Back the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (34:53):
Shout out Steve Kurve. It is the eighteen Sports Talk
seven ninety. Thanks again to Chris Gordy for stopping by
for his weekly visit. Again, ac with you until WEX
gets in and I'm guessing I don't have an exact time. People,
I can't forecast the weather here, but I'm thinking somewhere
in the middle of that four o'clock hour, wex will

(35:14):
join the fun. Some people were like, well, just take
the whole day off. I know what you're thinking. Do
you know who you're dealing with. This is Adam Wexler.
He's not going to miss at least a portion of
this show. The day after a Game five Rockets playoff victory.
E would have miss even if it was just Round
one playoff victory. Yeah, no, I listen, I want him
in here. We So here's a little peak behind the curtain.

(35:35):
Last night, you know, we shot a video after game
two on the court, and to far be it from
me to judge because I don't have the type of
equipment he does. He usually carries around a tripod for
whatever reason, that exact night he didn't have it, so
it was one of those arm things. Well, we're both
pretty long winded. So by the time i'm you know,
we're getting to the end of that video, it's been

(35:55):
like three plus minutes, my arm stirring to hurt from
holding the phone out in front of us. So I'm like,
all right, last night we wound up waiting around for
a number of things, and we wound up in the
parking garage and he's like, hey, you want to shoot
a video. This is a pretty good win. I'm like, yeah,
but we're in the parking garage. Well shot it in

(36:16):
my truck. Only problem was if you run your phone
through a bluetooth and you don't check that, then you
can do a three minute synopsis of the game. It's
very good, very entertaining, very funny, and you can have
it on the timeline ready to go with all the
graphics so you can post it on all your social platforms.
And that's about the time you've discovered that you don't

(36:36):
have the audio, so real, good job on my part.
Sorry you couldn't have our wisdom imparted to you following it,
but that's what this show is for, right anyway. Yeah,
Rockets get the win last night. You know how good
that was. I haven't even thought about what the final
score was. I mean, it's one thirty one, one sixteen,
but it was just like, just it didn't matter if

(36:56):
it was ninety nine to ninety eight. Just give me
that win, baby, and then get me another one and
then put it to Sunday in a game seven, do
or die on your home floor. And that's really all
you can ask for at this point. Once you fall
behind in the series three to one, you can't really beggars,
can't be choosers. Okay, So Rockets fans, you already know,
and we'll discuss this throughout and when Wex gets in,

(37:17):
I'm sure because I want his opinion on it as well.
You know, you need you got to get this one
because this one's the toughest one. It's not just because
it's on the road. It's not just all the pressure
is still in my opinion on Golden State, and if
you go into that game with that mentality, I think
you're good. Last night. Pressure's on the Rockets, it just is.

(37:39):
I know you can say it's on the Warriors because
they want to close it out. And I'm sure the Warriors,
if if you ask them and you had truth SERVEM injected,
they would say, yeah, we would have preferred to in
this season or in this series last night and get
a little bit more rest. But as it stands, they
knew they were coming back home either way, right, So
that's how they're looking at it, I guess. But they're

(38:01):
also like, Okay, well, if we don't close it out
on our home floor, we got to get on an
airplane and go back to Houston, where that crowd is
definitely not going to be there for a six thirty tip.
It's eight o'clock, by the way, in case you were
wondering eight o'clock Friday night in Houston at Toyota Center,
those butts are going to be in the seats. None
of this six thirty rush hour crap. And I'm not

(38:22):
shilling for the organization. I feel for him. That's just
a terrible start time. You know, we gotta get We
gotta get that Lakers game in prime time out on
the West Coast so Lebron can roll over and die again.
I hate six thirty tips. I've seen what this building
looks like when it's an eight eight o'clock, eight thirty
tip and you the rockets, they're going to get the

(38:44):
juice going. If that's indeed what we see on on
Sunday night, not Friday, I'm apologizing Friday nights in Golden State.

Speaker 5 (38:50):
Do you like it better than a nine thirty tip
or a nine to fifteen tip? Like you still? Because
that's the thing is that you're asking yourself it's almost
too late. That's the point, is that in those first games,
when you thought that was gonna be around nine to fifteen,
nine twenty, and it was scheduled for nine, is that
too late of a tip?

Speaker 4 (39:05):
Well, okay, I was in Vegas for Game one, So
even if I had wanted to be in the building,
even though I wasn't calling the game, I wouldn't have
been right. I was there for Game two on the call,
and that was a nine o'clock start. I think it
was eight fifty. That was. That was one of them
that reminded me of twenty eighteen. It's the closest. I mean, look,

(39:25):
it's the first time they've been back to the playoffs
since twenty twenty. But because it was the Warriors and
because it was a later start time and I was
there for those games, Believe me, I remember it vividly.
And unfortunately that was That was tough. That was tough.
But those crowds were awesome at the start of those games.

(39:46):
Because all those games started late, they just there was
I don't ever remember there being a six o'clock or
six thirty tip in any of those games against the
Warriors in twenty eighteen or twenty nineteen. I could be wrong,
but I doubt it. So anyway, So that that was
U there's a lot of fun last night. We're going
to continue to talk about it real quick before we break. Obviously,
we talked a little bit about this yesterday because we

(40:07):
came on right after the show. Astros dropping a disappointing
finale to the Tigers yesterday seven to four. They try
to make that rally, but it just came up short.
And this season or this series, I should say, this weekend,
they got the night off tonight because you know, and
for the foreseeable future Thursday as they are off. I
think it's the middle of this month before they'll play
on a Thursday again. But you got from ber Valdez

(40:29):
going in game one, you got Hunter Brown going in
Game two against this terrible, no good, very bad seven
and twenty three White Sox team who's four and ten
at home. That's about the best one to two punch
you could ask for. As far as pitching, I would
like to think the Astros' hitters would show up, and
if they do and take care of business in these
first two games, I hate that it's on the road,

(40:51):
but I love that it's going to be in this
manner if it has to be on the road. Lance
mccullors making his return to the rotation to the game
itself for the first time since the twenty twenty two
World Series, and I would love to see that momentum
if that is indeed what we see in the finale
a Sunday matinee edition up there in Chicago against the

(41:15):
White Sox. We've got a lot to get to here
on a Thursday edition of the program, We're just getting started,
simulcast on Space City Home Network. Coming up next, Can
the Rockets get the toughest win of the series. Tomorrow night,
we will discuss.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong
Houston sports guys named Adam Talking your Team, Adam Clinton
and Adam Wexler, Paul the A Team.

Speaker 4 (41:58):
Welcome in to eighth Thursday edition of The A Team.
It's Sports Talk seven ninety It is now on Space
City Home Network. Hope you were watching that broadcast last night.
No offense to the T and T guys, but come
on our guys, Craig Ackerman and Ryan Hollins on the
TV side or where it's at if you're going to
go that route. If you're listening to it here on
Sports Talk seven ninety, you already know that Matt Thomas

(42:21):
and Adam Wexler had an amazing call on the game
last night. It was an amazing game. It was awesome,
and I don't want it to end, and I don't
happen to think it, will you guys listening yesterday, we
weren't on very long Astro's Day game, bumping up against
an early tip for a Rockets Game five playoff game.

(42:42):
We had about an hour and ten on the air
of like Our just Our show, and really we only
talked Rockets for about thirty minutes of that prior to
the pregame festivities because we were hosting the Astros tenth
Inning Show, so we just didn't get into it a lot.

(43:02):
But what I did say, and this is not me
patting myself on the back, just kidding, I called for
a blowout last night. Cole, you're my witness, Ross was
my witness. I said, not only do I think they're win,
I think they could blow them out tonight. Now that's
how I said it. So if you want to say
that was not fully committed. Oh that's fine. I don't care.
It's like I said last segment, if it was ninety

(43:24):
eight ninety nine, I would have taken it. Didn't even
really pay attention to the final score. And the only
reason the score was of note last night after halftime,
when they put up seventy six, by the way, was
because the second and third stringers, including rec league Patricia
who got himself ejected for headbutting Alpa and Shingoon like,

(43:46):
messed around and got it to like a thirteen point game.
Then they couldn't make like fifty point blank layups in
a row. The Rockets smothered them, and yeah, they had
to bring their starters back in big deal. They're young.
You're not thirty seven year old. Stay Curry thirty five
year old. I've got a bad butt. Jimmy Butler and
Draymond Green's shell do not intimidate me in the Bay Area.

(44:09):
This team hasn't intimidated me all season long, even when
the Rockets were finding ways to lose to them, and
they certainly haven't intimidated me in this playoff series. Klay
Thompson in his primes not walking through that door. Andrew
Boget's not there to set all those illegal screens, and
even though they're still getting away with some of them,
this is not the death lineup Warriors of the mid

(44:29):
teens decade. This is an old dog trying to get
one last runout and it's not going anywhere. And even
if they somehow managed to win this series in the
next two games, they're gonna get smashed by either Minnesota
or Oklahoma City if they even get that far. Not impressed,
and the Rockets should have been up three to one
going into this game last night. If you want to

(44:50):
call me a Houston homer because I sit here in
a Rockets you know shirt, that's fine. I've been called
much worse before, especially by the swine that are the
fan base of the Golden State Warriors, and now we
can continue to call them swine because I'm tired of
hearing about non stories being a narrative. This is the
problem with fake media. And I'm not even talking about

(45:11):
what Trump says when he talks about fake news. This
is not fake news. It's not a commentary. This is
like legit fake media. I'm talking about fanboys and blog
boys that get credentials go into these press conferences are
awarded access by the teams that they cover, and go
in there and start talking about the most monotonous, insane

(45:34):
things I've ever heard in my life, which is bad enough.
But then on a night where the Rockets absolutely busted
the Warriors, you know what I mean, they earn that
this was not about I saw somewhere last night where Warriors,
you know, Steve Kerr pulling his starters. Ah, they weren't
even trying last night. What okay, follow me on this.

(45:57):
You're trying to convince me that Steve Kerr, who who
you know, fancies himself and certainly the Warriors fan base
fancies him one of the greatest coaches ever because he
had the all time greatest shooter on his team and
they had really good parts around him that Bob Myers
put in place, that he didn't want to close out
the series last night in Houston. Again, like your arch nemesis,

(46:18):
that's by far given this Warriors run the most grief.
You didn't want to put them out of their misery
on their home floor, that they didn't care. That's what
you're telling me, right with a straight face. I'm not
buying it. So, but I'm seeing this narrative where Dylan

(46:39):
Brooks is trying to hurt Steph Curry's thumb on purpose,
but by defending a jump shot. Okay, we'll get to that.
Don't worry, We'll get to that next segment, so stay
tuned for that. In the meantime, Before we go any
further in this show, you may have noticed that you're
not hearing Adam Wexler's voice and Cole Thompson's here our producer.

(47:01):
As per usual, we have a bit of a well,
let's just say, I'll call it what it is. It's
breaking news, full disclosure. My co host Adam Wexler not
here to start the show today. That was planned originally,
we thought, all right, somewhere in the midpoint of the show,

(47:22):
on a day after the Rockets got their biggest playoff
win in probably five plus years, wex will come along.
He'll make it in from Austin where he's helping to
move his daughter back from her second year at UT
and we'll be off and running. The A team will react.
I get a text or in the break he's gonna
go ahead and take the day off. Cole Not only

(47:42):
am I shocked and stunned, I'm proud. Yeah, Yeah, I'm
absolutely proud.

Speaker 5 (47:50):
Yeah, these guys, come on, We're huge.

Speaker 4 (47:56):
I mean, we joked about this last night. We were
talking to a mutual friend of ours at Toyota Center
after the game and we were talking about I don't
know how the subject came up. Well I do, but
I just don't want to get too much into it.
The joke was Wex never takes any vacations. He never
takes vacation days for anything. His family has to like
drag him kicking and screaming to go on vacation. So

(48:19):
and you know, it's all this is all in love.
We're just busting a little bit. But yeah, he'll be
back tomorrow. We will dissect everything on a Friday edition
of The A Team. As it stands, we've got more
than enough to get to and here's where it starts.
The Rockets right now still trail this series three to two,
obviously going back to the Bay Area. As you heard

(48:42):
if you were listening in the first hour, Chris Gordy
stopped Buy for his weekly visit. This hour, we will
hear from Brian McTaggart from earlier today on The Matt
Thomas Show. He'll share his thoughts on the Astros. They
dropped the finale of that three game set with the Tigers,
but one two out of three. And there in Chicago
this weekend where Lance mccullors is gonna make his return

(49:03):
to the rotation against the White Sox. But in the meantime,
all Rockets basketball because of the GIA the playoff win
last night, and you're in the point of the series
now where it's every other day and that start last night.
Steve Kirk can say what he wants. Warriors media fake

(49:26):
real and otherwise can say what it wants. The fan
base certainly is saying some of the dumbest things that
you just go on Warriors Twitter. It is a cesspool
of dumb a lot, a lot of ignorance there about
a lot of things. The Rockets took that game last night.
This was not all the Warriors are laying down. They
didn't really care anyways. First of all, these guys are playing,

(49:49):
as Bill Walton would say, these guys are playing for
the ultimate Prize and NBA Championship. Come on, they didn't
not care about Game five. If they win Game five.
Those old legs were talking about get more rest before
the start of the second round, So I don't I
don't want to hear that. You can miss me with
that theory. Secondly, the Rockets took that game. The Warriors

(50:14):
got too cheap baskets early on, and then it was
all huge. It was thirty one thirteen before you could blink,
like if you were in line at the concessions and
the game tipped off and you got to your seat,
it game was over by the time you got there.
I love that. I'm not asking for that again. I mean,
I'll take it. But it was all about that start
and the Rockets looked locked in on both ends of

(50:35):
the floor from the jump, and that's really all you
can ask for, regardless of the outcome of a game.
This so happened to be a hot shooting, blowout win
for the Rockets. But as you're gonna hear emy Udokas
say right here, that hot start that set the tone
for the entirety of the night for Game five.

Speaker 7 (50:53):
All the above, physicality, attention to detail, focus, effort, communication,
all the above, the things we talked about where we
have to be consistent in those areas. We were from
the start on both ends. Great defense. I had some
guys that made some threes, we don't mind taking them.
And other than that, we locked in on everybody and
then turned our defense.

Speaker 4 (51:14):
Offense got out and rare again. The offense is what
it is on any given night. I think that when
you look at a game like last night, for example,
and you get I mean, I don't want to say
it's unexpected. I just think he finally had his most
comfortable game of the series. Going into that game, you're

(51:34):
gonna get twenty five points, six rebounds, three assists, five steals,
three block shots, only two personal fouls and a plus
minus of plus thirty two from a men Thompson. He
better win that game, let's put it that way.

Speaker 5 (51:50):
That can't help from other people around here.

Speaker 4 (51:52):
Well yeah, I mean I was going to get to
the others, but I just you know, the leading scorer
last night was Fred van Vliet. You're gonna get two
games in a row, Fred van Vliet. This is why
I think the series should be over already. Rockets should
have won Game four, just because it's terrible to think
about them wasting that kind of performance from Fred van Vliet.
But he was pretty hot again last night, and he
was hitting like thirty five footers but yeah, up and

(52:14):
down the lineup, Dylan Brooks had twenty four. He had
fifteen and nine from from alpream hingun with nine assists
as well, So fifteen points and nine rebounds, nine assists.

Speaker 5 (52:26):
And not bad defense either.

Speaker 4 (52:28):
No, I honestly I'm glad you brought that up, Cole.
I'm looking at what he did last night, and I'm
thinking he probably would have scored more if he wasn't
exerting so much on the other end. Plus he was
dealing with being headbutted by like lacrosse players who never
get playing time unless it's a blowout. So a lot
to like about this and a lot to not like
about an aspect of last night. When we return, I'm

(52:51):
gonna show you how the most insufferable fan base in
all of sports was up to their old tricks and
it percolated. And this is the media his fault into
actual coverage of last night's game and the win the
Rockets got in Game five. That's straight ahead here on
the A Team.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
The Aight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (53:17):
All right, let's dive into this. The most insufferable fan
base and all of sports was at it again last night.
Ac with you on a Thursday edition of the A
Team Sports Talks seven ninety Cold Thompson as well. Wex
is out. He'll be back tomorrow and we will obviously
be able to go back and forth with some of
the things we're talking about today when he returns. But

(53:40):
you know, as it pertains to this just nauseating non narrative,
it's a nothing burger, as Jeff Passing might point to it.
Of course he looks at actual stories and says that
it's nothing burger. But I digress. Rockets and Warriors. Last
night Game five, Rockets get to blow out win and
you were you were seeing this earlier in the series.

(54:02):
This is how dumb the Warriors fan base. And as
it pertains to this, some of the fake media around them,
And I'm gonna I'm gonna point to like I saw
a video on Facebook of a Warriors fan side and
again you laugh. These people have like an inordinate amount
of followers. In other words, there are people that watch
this stuff and believe it. You know, sounds like real life. Huh.

(54:25):
Sports is just kind of make believe. I mean, they're
real games. It's not pro wrestling. But in the end
of the day, these are games. That whether they win
or they lose, it doesn't really matter in the grand
scheme of thing. The world's gonna keep spinning. It's not
like life or death. It's not war, it's not any
of that kind of stuff. It was not the economy.
It's it's sports. It's what we escape from all that
other stuff, you know, That's what we use to escape

(54:47):
from all that other real stuff, the real life stuff.
So that's why it's so funny when you know, fake
fanboy blog boy types get credentials in worm their way
into these press conferences where actual journalists or at least
real credentialed media members are trying to do their jobs

(55:09):
and they have to put up with this nonsense that
is taking up the time of real, actual questions. But
the only thing worse than that scenario happening is the
then sort of real media picking up on this non
narrative and turning it into something when it should never
even I'll show you how two coaches with very different mindsets,

(55:34):
and one I'd like to have in my foxhall with me,
and another I could not be further away from. If
you know what actually hit the fan, I would not
want Steve Kerr anywhere near me. He's proven time and
time again the kind of guy he is. He and
ema Udoka could not be more different in their approach
to life. So listen as Steve Kerr is asked about

(55:59):
Dylan Brooks supposedly going after Steph Kerr's thumb intentionally. And yeah,
we'll get to Dylan's response. And I know it kind
of clashes with what I'm arguing here, but let's remember
who we're talking about, a guy who absolutely leans into
the heel role. Here's Steve Kerr being asked about that

(56:19):
very so called scenario.

Speaker 13 (56:22):
So players all over the league are just taking shots
at guys shooting hands after release because they know it's
not gonna be a foul. And I'm very confident the
next year the league will fix it, because it's only
a matter of time before somebody breaks a thumb or
breaks a hand or whatever.

Speaker 4 (56:39):
But this, these these are the rules. I do believe.

Speaker 13 (56:41):
They're allowed to call a flagrant if they want the rescue,
call flagrant if if a guy winds up and takes
a takes a shot. But no, it's been happening across
the league all year long. It's the dumbest thing I've
ever heard. But you know, we have to we have
to take it through the league process to get that changed,
and that'll probably happen this summer.

Speaker 5 (56:59):
I would get just word vomit.

Speaker 4 (57:01):
Well, this country's used to that. I uh, he did.
He did have one accurate point in there. It's dumb,
it's you know, it's I don't think this is this
is what this is what he's actually saying without saying
you wanted to translate for you guys. My best shooter
didn't have a good game again. He was bottled up

(57:24):
by a variety of Rockets defenders. And so instead of
just tipping your cap and trying to eliminate them in
Game six at home on Friday night, I'm going to
lean into this question again. The question was not heard there,
but it was brought to the table by I think
the broadcast actually started this. But I'll tell you who
I saw really uh perpetuating this last night. It's this

(57:47):
ridiculous UH Bay Areas UH Comcast channel. Basically that started
this narrative, at least from my Yeah, it's NBCs Warriors.
If you want to go far, all them on. Well,
I wouldn't suggest following them, but it could be. It's
it's comedy. It's very entertaining. I'm looking right now live

(58:08):
on television here, you can see me scrolling. I'm looking
at every post they have. The first one. Jimmy Butler
isn't worried despite the Warriors blowout loss to the Rockets
in Game five. Fine, that's innocuous. That seems normal enough
for a three to two series. Going back to the
venue of the team that has the series lead. Next tweet,

(58:28):
Steven A defended Dylan Brooks and the Rockets for targeting
Steph Curry's injured thumb. It's not even as if it's
like a question, it's just fact. The way they're presenting this,
like this is some nineteen year old intern writing these headlines.
This for this Twitter account, this x account. Next post.
Dylan Brooks had a simple explanation for the late game

(58:50):
scuffle with Pat Spencer last night. Again, something of note
in the game you should actually pay attention to because
of what happened. But then right back to it. Steph
Curry had a humorous reply when asked about the state
of his injured thumb. It's just idiotic that we allow this.
That's a quote. Rockets are making plenty of contact with
Steph's tender right thumb, and Steve Kurr is more annoyed

(59:13):
by it than Curry. The couple down. Steph sees everything,
and apparently the internet sees everything about Curry, much to
his amusement, like they're trying to and then later on
they're showing sound bites from last night, which we're gonna
play more of. They're trying to legitimize something that's not there.

(59:35):
And again I realize.

Speaker 5 (59:36):
They're talking themselves into a fake truth, is what they're doing.

Speaker 4 (59:39):
Yeah, again, this is so parallel to what we see
in politics on both sides all the time. Just lie
enough and people will believe it. That's what's happening here,
if you just lie that something is. That's why it's
so funny how Dylan Brooks responds, because these idiots are
actually gonna say, see, see, he's omitting it. He's just
giving you what you want because he thinks it's as

(59:59):
as nine as I do and everybody else who has eyeballs.
Steph Curry's not having his thumb hunted the way they're
acting like he's getting contested, and because he's not getting
every call like he always did they think there. It's
gotta be something, you know, not on the up and
up by the Rockets, this team that employs Draymond Green,
I might add, that's the ultimate irony of this whole thing.

(01:00:20):
Draymond Green has kicked guys in the growing multiple guys.
Draymond Green has stepped on chest. Draymond Green has clawed eyes.
Draymond Green has done this, that and the other. He
got suspended this year for hitting a guy with a
wild roundup punch to the side of his head. That
guy's on the Warriors.

Speaker 5 (01:00:37):
But that's a podcast.

Speaker 4 (01:00:38):
Well, but the Rockets are hunting Steph Curry, Poor unfortunate
Steph Curry, who's been the benefit of more illegal screens
to get free for three pointers in his life more
than I'll forget. I've forgotten more of them than I'll
ever know. Like, it's insane that this is a thing,
but that's what happens when you don't watch who's coming

(01:00:59):
in and out of the building to ask questions during
a playoff post game. You want to this is how
you handle this, instead of what Steve Kerr did where
he's like, well, we've got to look at this. This
summer I'm sure the Lee's gonna step right in. You're
not Phil Jackson. You're not you don't have that kind
of juice. They're not going to change something. What are
they gonna do step in and say you can't contest

(01:01:20):
jump shots, because that's what you're asking for. Here's how
you actually handle a stupid question about a non narrative
you're trying to force emay udoka.

Speaker 14 (01:01:29):
Emay are here.

Speaker 15 (01:01:30):
One of the Warriors broadcasters tonight on the broadcast accused
Dylan Brooks of intentionally swiping it. Stuff's at curries right thumb.
How would you respond to that?

Speaker 4 (01:01:40):
I wouldn't boom done. Move on. Get somebody who's actual
media in here to actually ask me a real question.
Don't come to me with this stuff after game five.
It's nauseating. Oh gosh. I never ever complain about the
Rockets being dirty or any of that kind of stuff.

(01:02:01):
When not only do we have to watch Draymond Green
basically have referees jumping through loopholes to not eject him
from a game, but then we have to hear that
the Rockets are hunting steph k. You know what if
you don't want his thumb getting hit at all, then
don't play him. Otherwise, shut up and try to close
out the series tomorrow night.

Speaker 5 (01:02:21):
Well, how about just listen to what Dylan Brooks had
to say, because that makes it a lot.

Speaker 4 (01:02:24):
Of I love this. Listen to Dylan just absolutely lean
into the villain role.

Speaker 15 (01:02:28):
Dylan, one of the Warriors broadcasters tonight, said he thought
you were intentionally trying to swipe down at Curry's thumb,
and Kerr was asked about it and said, it happens
around the league, that it's allowed by the rules. So
player throughout the league do that. What do you think
about that? No, I've been playing the game. If you're
gonna come play the game injured or whenever you guys
about the game, you know if I had an injured ankle,

(01:02:50):
I would attack that ankle every single time.

Speaker 4 (01:02:53):
The response of that is so brilliant.

Speaker 5 (01:02:55):
Jeff's kiss, It's so brilliant because of anybody else attacked
ackets player, they would get away with it.

Speaker 4 (01:03:02):
Let's be crickets. We've got we've got first take going
overboard to react to this. How long is that one?
I know we've got we were up against it.

Speaker 5 (01:03:12):
We can, we can, we can play mister one and
only Steven a.

Speaker 16 (01:03:17):
This goodie two shoes, sanctimonious approach to he. It really
rakes my nerves, all right, like he's so above the freak.
This man is a champion, champion, the Chicago Championship in
San Antoio, champion, is a coach in Golden State.

Speaker 4 (01:03:32):
He knows what comes with it.

Speaker 17 (01:03:34):
If you gotta hurt dumb, hurt ankle, whatever whatever debilitating
issue you have, it's going to be attacked. The man's
dumbest compromise on his shooting hand, the greatest shooter that
ever lived, might be compromise, and somebody's not gonna try
to exploit that.

Speaker 4 (01:03:52):
Stop. That's how I feel right there. Steven ain't nailed it,
and you know what, that's That's why what Steve Kurs
said is ridiculous, because he's saying it's this, it's this
epidemic that's going on throughout the NBA. Yeah, it's called
contesting a jump shot. I stop, you look ridiculous speaking
of that. Another head coach looked ridiculous. We'll get to

(01:04:15):
that with what's up with that? When we come back.

Speaker 6 (01:04:20):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:04:25):
Square.

Speaker 6 (01:04:25):
Now a new signature seven called What's up with that?
What's up with that?

Speaker 5 (01:04:36):
What's up? I say, what's up?

Speaker 18 (01:04:43):
Who's that?

Speaker 4 (01:04:45):
You know? I was thinking if the Astros had only
won yesterday, it might just mean that we would have
had the perfect Houston sports day. Astros win a day
game to sweep the Tigers, Rockets, blow out the Warriors
to keep their seats alive and force a game six,
and then we all got to sit back, relax, kick
up our feet, and watch Lebron roll over and die.

(01:05:09):
Just an absolute gag job by the Lakers in the postseason, unless,
of course, you didn't think they were really that good
to begin with, and then you're me and me, Yeah,
I don't look. Luca's very talented. Luca is basically the
white James Harden. He's an incredible offensive specimen, but from

(01:05:33):
a physical standpoint, not a lot of conditioning, and he's
not going to play defense.

Speaker 5 (01:05:37):
Do you guys remember, like last week we were talking
about the six teams that were probably you could rank
in any order after Oklahoma City for being the toughest. Yeah,
Crickets when it came to Los Angeles Crickets, when it
came to Luca, Lebron, everyone else on that team, Yeah,
I wonder why.

Speaker 4 (01:05:52):
And I think that you know, Wex was talking about
both the Lakers and the Warriors marks after they made
their respective raids, and I mean, yeah, there's a lot
to like there. But if you're going to here's the
problem I have with looking at things that way, if
you're anybody, and I'm not talking about Wex, it's just like,
here's what the Warriors record was post Jimmy Butler, and

(01:06:14):
here's what it was before Jimmy Butler. They were like
a middling five hundred team. So they went out and
got Jimmy Butler. You know, they were so good with
Steph Curry that they had a trade for Jimmy Butler.
And then here's what the Lakers were doing. And then
after they got Luca Here's but we're going to take
those numbers against that competition, some of which is just
not good because it's in it's any given NBA season.

(01:06:38):
But in that same breath, we're gonna look at the
Rockets and say, well, they're not a real two seed.
You can't have it both ways. So either the Rockets
were legitimately the second best team in the Western Conference,
or if you're going to slight them based on you know,
who they played or how the West was. Well, then
you can't just completely lean into those numbers that the
Warriors and the Lakers had when they were backing up

(01:07:00):
wins down the stretch, because the Lakers are sitting at
home and the Warriors very well could be still so I,
you know, now in that vein before the game even
started last night. In other words, Lakers season is still
alive when this happens. JJ Reddick just serving up an
absolute delicious platter of irony and sensitivity and honestly making

(01:07:24):
himself look like the moment was too big for him. Cole,
I just felt like they're.

Speaker 15 (01:07:32):
Just saying that because I'm inexperienced, and that was an
inexperienced decision that I made. Do you think I don't
talk to my assistance about substitutions every single time out?

Speaker 5 (01:07:41):
No, I just think there's a lot of coaches lean
on their assistance in those situations.

Speaker 4 (01:07:45):
As do every single time. That's a weird assumption. Okay,
First of all, the question wasn't on there, but the
question was obviously about, you know, does he go to
his assistance when substitution patterns come up? Does he you know, well,
of course every coach does. But the problem here is
that like he didn't say what he meant, he was

(01:08:08):
basically trying to insinuate, Hey, JJ Reddick's not the most
experienced head coach. Maybe that's played into the fact that
he's down three to one tonight. And instead of backing
off or back pedaling, or just even kind of sounding
unsure of himself like the reporter did, he should have
doubled down. I mean, just say what you mean first

(01:08:29):
of all. But if you don't and he gets all
cantankerous about it, I mean, don't shy away from it.
What are they gonna do? Kick you out of the building.
I guess they could, but that's gonna make JJ Reddick
look even worse than he already did.

Speaker 5 (01:08:41):
Yeah, that's the problem there is that there's no win
for JJ Reddick at this point, so you might as
well just move on with the conversation.

Speaker 4 (01:08:47):
Mm hm. And we weren't the only ones that thought that.
Who we got first? We got Charles Barkley.

Speaker 5 (01:08:52):
Oh yeah, we got Charles. Let's see what what mister
Burke had to say about the conversation, because it's it's
pretty funny, in my opinion.

Speaker 4 (01:09:01):
Dude, he just a little sensitive. No, listen.

Speaker 19 (01:09:04):
One of the things that people say they never watched television.
We all lie, all jocks watched television.

Speaker 4 (01:09:10):
And he's been getting.

Speaker 19 (01:09:11):
Criticized the last for eight dollars for playing those guys,
and he just sensitive, just say, hey, you know what,
if I had no funny, everybody's afraid to say I
was wrong. All he had to do was say, hey,
you know what, I shouldn't have played those guys the
whole second half, and that's it.

Speaker 4 (01:09:27):
Then it would have been over. Listen, Charles Barkley, you
can there's a lot of low hanging fruit when it
comes to Charles. But what he said right there about
this particular subject, in this particular situation, and how JJ
Reddick was handling the still one hundred percent right. And
I was watching that segment live when it happened, and

(01:09:50):
Kenny Smith came back with, well, I thought JJ was right,
No he wasn't.

Speaker 5 (01:09:55):
You thought JJ Reddick was right.

Speaker 4 (01:09:57):
Now nobody Kenny Smith did, because.

Speaker 5 (01:09:59):
You're you're lying. Yeah, you're lying to yourself because if
you know it's going to do numbers for the ratings,
if you have a little bit of dialogue and conversation
and a little bit of pushback. That's all it was.
Come on, Kenny, you're better.

Speaker 4 (01:10:10):
If anything you could say this would still make him
look bad, you could find a way. But if JJ
Reddick had handled that the way emay Udoka handled the
question about Dylan Brooks, honestly, he probably would have been
the best. It would be the most perfect way to
handle it. Just don't give it any more attention than
a few words. I don't have a response to that.

Speaker 5 (01:10:30):
What's so funny to me is that JJ Reddick, and
this segment is called What's Up with That, is not
afraid when he was on ESPN, whenever he was on
first Take to call out coaches, to put them in
their place, to say, why are you backpedaling, Why are
you not actually trying to give a solidified answer, and
why are you trying to make everything an excuse? And

(01:10:51):
just because it is called What's up with That? Hey, JJ,
remember when you said this about a year ago when
it came to Doc Rivers coming in midst season for Milwaukee.

Speaker 6 (01:11:01):
I've seen the trend for years.

Speaker 4 (01:11:03):
With the trend, the trend is.

Speaker 5 (01:11:04):
Always making excuses, getting duck.

Speaker 4 (01:11:06):
We get it, taking over a team in the middle
of the season is hard. It's hard.

Speaker 10 (01:11:10):
We get it, just like getting traded in the middle
season is hard for a player.

Speaker 4 (01:11:13):
We get it.

Speaker 6 (01:11:14):
But it's always an excuse.

Speaker 4 (01:11:15):
It's always throwing your team under the bus. There's just
no there's never accountability with that guy.

Speaker 5 (01:11:21):
Never accountability was the accountability last night? JJ, who's making excuses?

Speaker 4 (01:11:25):
No, huh, we're both sitting at home, Doc Rivers probably.
I'd love to hear Doc Rivers response. I would love
to just get him.

Speaker 5 (01:11:33):
Well, because you heard you heard Austin Rivers when I
went after JJ last year about this.

Speaker 4 (01:11:38):
Those two are teammates in uh in Clipperland, were they not?

Speaker 20 (01:11:41):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:11:41):
They were for like a hot minute.

Speaker 4 (01:11:42):
I can't imagine they liked each other.

Speaker 5 (01:11:44):
Oh they hated each other.

Speaker 4 (01:11:45):
Yeah. Well, here's the JJ's pretty hatable.

Speaker 5 (01:11:47):
Here's the thing that we this all comes down to
with JJ. In my opinion, JJ at Duke was one
of the most vile villains world of college basketball. Everybody
besides a blue double.

Speaker 4 (01:12:00):
He was everything that was wrong with Duke from a
stereotype standpoint.

Speaker 5 (01:12:03):
Then when you took his game and you put it
at the NBA level, if he was on a good
competitive team. He was the problem. He was the guy
that you just couldn't stomach because if you knew that
he wasn't that good. But yet somehow he got a
quick shot off, he made a highlight play, and so
he didn't like him. But both of those guys are
so much more likable than the version that we saw.

(01:12:25):
Had a game for it.

Speaker 4 (01:12:26):
And by the way, you don't see it because it's
radio and that's a compliment. Get yeah. He gets up
and storms out after that answer.

Speaker 5 (01:12:34):
Oh. Also, such a weak mic drop like leter, Just
a little toss like that if you're gonna get all
pissy and in a high functioning mood, throw the mic
down like an adult.

Speaker 4 (01:12:45):
I enjoyed it. I enjoyed every aspect of that. I
also enjoyed the excuse making and the lack of accountability
that his superstar Lebron James displayed last night. That's the
Lakers in a nutshell. They'll never win anything of note
unless theybiously retool around Luca, and I don't know that's
happening anytime soon. When we come back, we will revisit

(01:13:06):
Brian McTaggart's visit with The Matt Thomas Show.

Speaker 1 (01:13:08):
That's next the A T on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (01:13:20):
It is the A Team.

Speaker 4 (01:13:21):
It's Sports Talk seven ninety at Space City Home Network.
Appreciate you guys listening and watching your little voyeurs out
there on Space City Home Network. Again, cannot express this
enough because I was talking to him last night. I'm biased.
I love Matt Thomas. I love when he and Wex
are doing the broadcast. Obviously, I love doing the broadcast

(01:13:41):
as WEX and I split the games, but obviously love
our guys, Craig Ackman and Ryan Hollins over on the
Space and Vanessa Richardson obviously on the Space City Home
Network side of things. So if you were watching, watch
the local feed if it's available. And they were the
cookies and milk last night on the MN Thompson rip
on Steph Curry, well one of them because he had

(01:14:03):
multiple ones five steals last night from men Thompson. Nice
guy's just an absolute demon. And I'm really glad that.
I'm glad that the Spurs picked Victor woman Yama for
the Rockets got to men Thompson in that same draft,
But good stuff there from the Rockets. It's one of
the first that.

Speaker 10 (01:14:22):
You know what.

Speaker 5 (01:14:22):
It's a lot like remember when everyone in this city
was freaking out about missing out on Bryce Young and
then you got a quarter back to c J. Stroud.

Speaker 4 (01:14:29):
Well, I wasn't, so you weren't here then, and you
would have hated it because he's an Alabama guy. Yeah,
I probably called him a midget approximately twenty five times
a show.

Speaker 5 (01:14:39):
I will say, of all the Alandomer quarterbacks that have
come through, he is one of the very few that
I thought was a good college player, was not going
to transition to the NFL. So I was very much like,
if he ends up going number one, I think a
franchise is really going to regret it. I was hired
on Anthony Richardson than I wasn't Bryce youung coming up?

Speaker 4 (01:14:55):
I was too. I was too and I am willing
one hundred percent to admit that I played into, bought
into whatever the Ohio State quarterback moniker that is attached
to everybody before c J. Stroud came out.

Speaker 5 (01:15:12):
I'm muting you. You need not deserve to be able
to speak on it right now.

Speaker 4 (01:15:16):
I get it. I hate myself more than you ever will.
I have had.

Speaker 5 (01:15:21):
It's like the Joe Burrow thing back in twenty twenty,
not going to transition because name the last LSU great quarterback. Yeah,
if you're great, you're going to be great. That's That's
as simple as I can put it. Dreams for quarterbacks.
If you are great, they will find you, no matter
what logos on the side of your helmet.

Speaker 4 (01:15:37):
And no matter what Melkiper says, we been screwing this
out for fifty years. Okay, Well, Jimmy Clauson says, hello,
anyway back to what we were going to get back
to the task at hand. Brian mctagger stop buy for
his weekly visit. We have a little Astros conversation here.
Mix it up a little bit because it's been very
heavy Rockets, as you might imagine the day after a

(01:15:58):
Game five victory. But you're Astros despite that loss to
the Tigers in the finale yesterday afternoon, took the series
two out of three and have a very winnable series
coming up against the awful, no good, very bad seven
wins Chicago White Sox. That and more discussed, especially when
you consider that it's the top of the rotation getting
underway for this series fromber Hunter Brown and Lance mccullors. Yeah,

(01:16:23):
that was the first question out of the gate that
was asked of Brian McTaggart about this Astros rotation.

Speaker 18 (01:16:30):
Yeah, I think there's probably more depth than I expected.
I mean, they're you know, they're pitching really well. But
you're right, you know, Blue Balls an option. You know,
one guy that I thought would be you know, an
option coming in and I think we'll still see him
at some point, as Colton Gordon, a left hand or
another one of their top prospects. So they have enough
starting pitching depth if they don't have any more injuries,
if mccullors comes in and is effective. You know, I'm

(01:16:52):
not sure Garcia's coming back this year. I'm not sure
Javier is coming back this year. So I'm really not
you know, counting on them at this point. But to me,
the biggest concern coming into the season if you were
the Astros was, you know, starting pitching depth, which you
know they've answered that bell and and and the bullpen
and if you know, they they've had some guys step
up in the bullpen and pitch really well. And now
I mean, look, look, you know, I think the Astros

(01:17:13):
are fifth in the league or in major leagues and
e RA and third and bullpen era.

Speaker 11 (01:17:17):
So, uh, the pitching staff has been one of their strengths.

Speaker 21 (01:17:21):
Yeah, and mccullor is being part of that starting on Sunday.
I mean, I just find this fascinating, Brian. I mean,
you know, you've been covering sports for a long time,
and one of the things to me is kind of
seeing things and talking about them and then watching them
play out. I'm so fascinating to see how this Alans
mccolors junior thing plays out. I mean I could guess,
ask you a guess. I guess your guess as good

(01:17:43):
as anybody's. I mean, the setback word is always going
to be hanging over his head. And then the real
question is is he going to be able to still
get out at the major league level.

Speaker 11 (01:17:52):
Yeah, I think that's a fair analysis.

Speaker 4 (01:17:54):
Ross.

Speaker 18 (01:17:55):
I have no idea what to expect Sunday. I mean,
you kind of know what Fromber's going to do.

Speaker 6 (01:17:59):
On Friday.

Speaker 11 (01:18:00):
You definitely know what Hunter Brown's gonna do.

Speaker 18 (01:18:02):
And then uh, just I mean he's been out so long,
and yeah, he's made some rehab starts at double A,
Triple A. Can't put a lot of stock into those things. Uh,
you can't put a lot of stock into spring training results.

Speaker 11 (01:18:14):
I have no idea.

Speaker 18 (01:18:16):
I think we're gonna see a little bit of a
different picture than he was last time we saw him
on the mound. He's not gonna be ninety seven ninety
eight anymore. His mechanics are a little more compact. I
think his pitch mix has probably changed a little bit.
So I think we're gonna, you know, see a guy
who still competes like he always has. I mean, Lance
mc collors has always been a competitor, but it's just

(01:18:37):
gonna be a little bit different look than we've seen.

Speaker 11 (01:18:39):
And uh uh yeah, I mean, I you know, he's
put in a lot of work.

Speaker 18 (01:18:43):
I know he's frustrated a lot of people by constantly
getting injured and all the surgeries that he's had, But
you know, talking to him and talking to people on
the team, I mean, this is a guy who has
put in a lot of work and a guy who
thought a couple of times that you know, it might
not happen, I might be done, and uh, you know,
credit to him for pushing through.

Speaker 11 (01:18:59):
And and now he's here.

Speaker 18 (01:19:01):
There's a light at the end of the tunnel, and
that's going to come out on Sunday afternoon, and you know,
hope he does well. I mean, you know, I don't
root either way usually, but just seeing the work that
he's put in, you know, facing the White Sox is
a good, soft lahanding spot for him, so I think
he's set up to succeed on Sunday.

Speaker 21 (01:19:18):
Brian McTaggart with us here on Sports Talk seven to ninety.
Let's flip to the lineup side. Jeremy Pania been in
the leadoff spot the last few games, paying big dividends.
We've kind of been talking ever really since his rookie
season and the ALCS and World Series MVP about a
breakout coming, and I guess we have to wonder if
it's finally here.

Speaker 4 (01:19:39):
He's got eight hits in his last four games.

Speaker 18 (01:19:42):
Yeah, I mean, he had a really really good spring,
and again, like I just said, you can't put a
lot of stock in the spring, but he looked like
a guy who had made some adjustments and was poised
for a big season.

Speaker 11 (01:19:52):
Came out of the gate.

Speaker 18 (01:19:52):
Didn't happen right away, but slowly but surely he's coming around.
And I think there's just a different error and a
different confidence about Jeremy that we haven't seen.

Speaker 11 (01:20:01):
He looks like he belongs more.

Speaker 18 (01:20:02):
The word leadership is getting thrown around a little bit
more about him, and uh, I mean that's a great
thing for the Astros because you know, he's a guy
that's a go glove caliber shortstop and I like to
look at the top of the order. I mean, he's
walking a little bit more. They fed him, maybe, you know,
not to strike out as much. I think he's trying
to cut down on strikeouts as well. But I thought

(01:20:23):
the whole thing without two by going to the number
two spot in the order and pretty much asking to
be put in the number two spot was fascinating as well.
And uh, just from the fact that he did more
time to come in from from the outfield to get
ready for his bat to begin the game and talking
with alt two Vay later, just you know, after the
interview was over, he said that, Hey, they asked me

(01:20:45):
to go to the outfield and I did it. And
I think it's only right that you know, they work
with me if I want a bat second, so and
that's fair. And Jeremy's been the guy who stepped into
that number one spot and so far, so good. We'll
see there's a long way to go, but it looks like, yeah,
this could be best season yet of Jeremy Penya.

Speaker 4 (01:21:01):
You may not have the metrics on this.

Speaker 21 (01:21:03):
Is he hitting sliders better this year than in previous years?
I don't get some sample size is really small, but
there's been anything that has been his achilles heel that
has been that teams will just bury him with that slider.

Speaker 18 (01:21:13):
Yeah, I'd have to look I'd have to look it up, Matt.
I mean, it appears to me that he is. You know,
I remember back when he was, you know, winning the
MVP of the ALCS. You know, he had a couple
of big hits on sliders and in the World Series,
and then it still ended up being a pitch that's
given him fits.

Speaker 11 (01:21:28):
But yeah, that'd be an interesting thing to look at.

Speaker 18 (01:21:30):
But he just seems overall that, uh, he just become
a more complete hitter. You know, a couple of it
was spring training last year he came trying to hit
the ball in the air a little bit more after
you know, he went the second half of the twenty
three season without a homer and and.

Speaker 11 (01:21:44):
That worked out pretty well.

Speaker 18 (01:21:45):
So he's constantly adjusting and trying to get to where
he needs to be, but you know, he's growing, he's maturity.
This is what is fourth year now, so he's sort
of putting all that information together and it looks like
it's working.

Speaker 4 (01:21:57):
Good stuff there. Earlier from Brian McTaggart MLB dot com,
we are going to jump back into the hypocrisy of
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr to start the
four o'clock hour next.

Speaker 1 (01:22:09):
The A teen on Sports Talk seven ninety two. Lifelong
Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Team. Adam Clinton
and Adam Wexler are the eighteen eighty eight.

Speaker 4 (01:22:32):
Straight out four o'clock here on Sports Talks seven ninety
and Space City Home Network. It is a Thursday edition
of the A Team. Hard to believe that May is
here and April is already in the rearview mirror, and
maybe not as hard to believe that the Rockets will
continue playing into May. Game six of their best of

(01:22:52):
seven Western Conference matchup in that first round against the
Golden State Warriors continues tomorrow night from the Bay Area,
and we've been talking about it all day long. Cold
Thompson obviously along for the ride. As per usual, wex
is out today he'll be back at it again tomorrow
here in studio and we will discuss all the things
together that we've been discussing solo with me here today.

(01:23:15):
I understand there is a collar on hold with a
very interesting trade proposal. Since that's been talked about. We'll
get to that in just a second, but stay patient, Dave.
I'm gonna come to you real quick. I want to
revisit the hypocrisy of Steve Kerr, because you know, we
heard what he said last night, and in case you

(01:23:35):
weren't listening earlier, the subject of the rockets and specifically
Dylan Brooks quote hunting or going after the injured thumb
of Steph Curry was brought up by fake media. I mean,
I'm just gonna call it what it is. It's not there.

(01:23:57):
These are people that bring up questions like this BM. Yes,
fanboy medium, Yes, that's exactly what they're They're fake news.
It's not real news. Journalism is dead. I mean, that's
how it feels though, when you get questions like what
was asked if Steve Kerr, are you know is is
Steph Curry's thumb being hunted? As a matter of fact,

(01:24:17):
we'll play Steve Kerr right here, and then we're gonna
play Dylan Brooks's response one more time, and then I'm
gonna show you why Steve Kerr is a big fat hypocrite.
But here's Steve Kerr last night.

Speaker 13 (01:24:26):
So players all over the league are just taking shots
at guys shooting hands after release because they know it's
not gonna be a foul. And I'm very confident the
next year the league will fix it because it's only
a matter of time before somebody breaks a thumb or
breaks a hand or whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:24:43):
But this these these are the rules. I do believe.

Speaker 13 (01:24:45):
They're allowed to call a flagrant if they want the
rescue call flagrant if if a guy winds up and
takes a takes a shot. But no, it's been happening
across the league all year long. It's a dumbest thing
I've ever heard. But you know, we have to we
have to take it through the league process to get
that changed, and that'll probably happen this summer.

Speaker 4 (01:25:03):
I would guess it is the dumbest thing I've ever
heard because you're actually trying to give credence to something
that's not there. Like if I love the fact that
he said, well, if the officials wanted to call the flagrant,
they could, they would have Steve. The only player on
the court in the series that doesn't have the proper
fouls being called against him is your player who actually

(01:25:26):
has hunted opposing players' body parts plural over the years.
You might remember, you might remember Draymond Green from such
an epic final series as twenty sixteen, you know, the
one where he got suspended and your Warriors blew a
three to one lead in the NBA Finals to Lebron James.
That was pretty sweet. So, in case you were wondering

(01:25:49):
how Dylan Brooks reacted at all, this this is his response,
complete with the stupid question that was asked preceding his response.

Speaker 15 (01:25:56):
Dylan, one of the Warriors broadcasters tonight, said he thought
you were in intentionally trying to swipe down at Curry's thumb,
and Kerr was asked about it and said it happens
around the league, that it's allowed by the rules. So
player throughout the league do that? What do you think
about that? No, I've been playing the game. If you're
gonna come play the game injured or whenever, you guys
about the game, you know, if I had an injured ankle.

(01:26:19):
I would attack that ankle every single time.

Speaker 4 (01:26:22):
Rob, you're asking the wrong guy if you're hoping that
somebody is going to placate you or go the way
you want him to. With his response, Dylan's not that dude.
So all of this is to bring up the insane
and in this case, immaculate hypocrisy, because if there's one
thing that Steve Kerr knows best, it's hypocrisy. Loves loves

(01:26:46):
to run his mouth about social issues outside of the
world of basketball, and then when he gets called on
his hypocrisy in that realm, just go with the typical, Well,
I'm not educated on China enough to talk about that. Really,
it's the first subject or have ever heard you not
be educated enough to run your mouth on something just
happens to be the one that would make you look bad.

(01:27:06):
But I digress. Let's get back to basketball. Does anybody
remember any of the other times the Rockets have played
the Warriors in the postseason? Well, I'm glad you asked,
because I do. Back in twenty eighteen, you know, the
time where the Rockets had a three to two series lead,
but Chris Paul's hamstring got torn and effectively ended the
series because even if the Rockets were be able to

(01:27:26):
play well enough to win it, well, we know what
happened in Game seven on the floor at Toyota Center
with some of the officials that the league deems their best.
But I won't even get to that. I just want
to get to the fact that during that series there
was an injury that James Harden had suffered to his wrist,
and there was a there was an incident in that game.

(01:27:48):
Tell me if you've heard this before, Draymond Green did
something non basketball related to try and injured someone. Yeah, glad,
glad you brought that up. Our old buddy, Calvin Watkins,
good buddy of mine, who who has since departed and
gone up to the Dallas area. I believe he covers
the Cowboys primarily for ESPN. Now he was here at
the Times. Okay, okay, yeah, he was at ESPN. Now

(01:28:10):
he's with Dallas Warning News. That's right. He wrote an
article and he got this quote from Draymond Green. He
pinched me, so I punched his wrist. That's pretty much it.
He does it often, actually, which is kind of adolescent,
but whatever. That's Draymond Green admitting to going after an

(01:28:34):
injured player on the Rockets whilst playing for Steve Kerr.
I don't know what else I can say to make
you guys understand that this team, this organization, and the
players that play for it, for this era of winning
Warriors basketball are some of the most hypocritical, obnoxious, and dirty,

(01:28:57):
frankly players we've ever seen on an The only difference
is Draymond gets away with it. We've talked about this
ever since Game four and what happened in that thing
never should have been on the floor to be defending
Alpera in Shingoon on that final possession in which if
Shingoon had hit the shot, Rockets would have led by
one with less than twenty seconds to go. Draymond gets

(01:29:20):
the biggest leash, the longest leash in the league. We
talked about this yesterday. Draymond can not only get that
first technical because he admittedly his own words asks for them.
He knows that once he gets it, he's not going
to get the second one. And in fact, the officials
on the floor in Game four went above and beyond

(01:29:41):
to make sure he did not get tossed out of
that game with a second technical, going so far as
to giving giving him a flagrant. So you had a
guy that at the end of the night when he
was defending alperin Shingoon had a technical, a flagrant, and
five personal fouls and was still on the floor at
that point. I don't ever want to hear from Steve
Kerr about some sort of unfairness or head hunting or

(01:30:05):
injurious search if you want to get really uh, multiple
multiple syllabic about it. I don't ever want to hear
Steve Kerr or anybody associated with the Warriors of their
fan base complain about this kind of thing ever again,
because all it takes is a simple Google search. That's it.
It's amazing how many people don't know that. Uh, real quick,

(01:30:26):
I want to go out to the phone line seven
one three two two five seven ninety seven one three
two one two five seven ninety He must be the
first caller we've taken that wasn't a guest in months.
But you know what, Dave, and spring is it and
he has a very I'm gonna say, I know what
your question is, Dave, So I'm gonna preface it by
saying this is very difficult, but I'm gonna let you
ask it, all right, thanks.

Speaker 12 (01:30:49):
I see here's the thing. I'm just responding to something
that you said right before you went to uh Brian McTaggart,
and you were talking about ah Man and he's great,
he's amazing.

Speaker 11 (01:30:58):
We love Amen.

Speaker 12 (01:30:59):
But you said that you're so glad that the Spurs
didn't take him, that they took wem Ben Yama. And
I thought to myself, come on, a see, you know
that right now, if the if the GM of the
Spurs picked up the phone and called Rafael Stone and said,
I'll give you a wem ban Yama for Amen Thompson,
he would you know they would We would take that

(01:31:19):
in a second. In fact, I'll go even further and
I'll say that if the if the Rafael Stone would
give you Amen Thompson, he'd throw in Tarr Easton in
a first round draft pick to get wem Ben Yama.
He's a generational talent, he's going to transform the league
over the next five years. And the idea that we
would not give up Amen Thompson, great as he is

(01:31:39):
for wem beIN Yama, it's it's laughable.

Speaker 4 (01:31:42):
Are you a Spurs fan or a Rockets fan? Rockets
fan Man you could have, you could have.

Speaker 12 (01:31:49):
You think you think, you don't think wen ban Yama
is something special.

Speaker 4 (01:31:53):
I think he. I think he has some special Yeah, yeah,
he's special. I just don't think he's gonna last. I
really don't, and I have I have a track record
to base that upon. And you know better than anybody
if you're a longtime Rockets fan, that the best comparison
to that was right here in Houston with Ralph Sampson.
That that's what I think he's going to be. I
think he's going to be awesome when he's on the floor.
I think he's going to as his career continues. I

(01:32:16):
think he's going to have lower leg injuries. I'm not
saying he will for sure. I'm just looking at the
history of the league. Guys his size, his build, It's
happened time and time again. He might be the outlier.
And if he is, that'll be great for the Spurs
and it'll suck for the Rockets. But I just don't
think he's going to be the exception.

Speaker 12 (01:32:34):
Hey see, what about my question? If the phone call
at the phone rang today and Rafael Stone picked it
up and it was the GM of the Spurs saying
let's do this deal. Amen for Wemby, because you said
you're really happy that we got Amen instead of Wemby.
What do you think Rafael would do?

Speaker 4 (01:32:49):
I think I don't know what Rafel would say. I could,
I don't, I don't know. I'm telling you the answer
to the question. I don't know what he would say.
I'm telling you I wouldn't do it. I'm absolutely one
hundred percent serious.

Speaker 12 (01:33:00):
You're an outlier, a huge outlier on this.

Speaker 6 (01:33:03):
I'll tell you.

Speaker 11 (01:33:04):
I mean, I'll.

Speaker 12 (01:33:04):
Respect you, but I just think you're you got the
you got the red glasses on, and you ain't seeing
things right. Because that's a no brainer. He would give
you Amen Thompson for wen Beyama some extra stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:33:16):
Let me actually, let me ask you a question. Since
you're you seem very convicted. What's Victor winbin Yama doing
right now?

Speaker 12 (01:33:24):
He is just I know he was injured, but so
you know, Michael Jordan missed his entire second season.

Speaker 4 (01:33:30):
With a broken injury.

Speaker 12 (01:33:31):
He came back, he came back, he came back, was
pretty good.

Speaker 4 (01:33:33):
Yeah, he was all right. So now we're now go
ahead and cut him out. We're comparing Victor winbin Yama
to Michael Jordan. Now that's where we're at. I mean, look,
if you want to say that my take is laughable,
that's fine, but yours is worse. I'm just saying I'll
take him In Thompson ten out of ten times twice
on Sunday. All the cliches, A man Thompson right here

(01:33:55):
in Houston, greater than Victor Winmbin Yama. And you can
say I'm an outlier, I'm the minority. I'm fine.

Speaker 1 (01:34:01):
You know where to find me, the Aight on Sports
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:34:16):
I really do enjoy my job, sometimes a little too much. Listen.
I don't know if I and I'm about to tweet
this as well. I in case I didn't make myself
clear in that last segment, and again, thank you for
the phone call, Dave. He says he's a Rockets fan.

(01:34:38):
I don't know if I'm wearing red colored glasses. I
think he might have had some silver and black ones on.
In no way, shape or form would I ever trade
a Men Thompson to San Antonio for Victor freaking Wimben Yama.
No chance at all. And you can all go argue

(01:34:59):
with the wall of you disagree with me, that's just
for my opinion. That's how strongly I feel about this kid.
And when asked what Victor winmbin Yama was doing right
now as the Rockets are preparing for Game six of
their first round playoff matchup, he went to the Michael

(01:35:20):
Jordan got hurt in year two card.

Speaker 5 (01:35:25):
It's automatic disqualification.

Speaker 4 (01:35:27):
Well, I mean, like, if you're gonna say that what
I'm saying is laughable, you can't immediately after that come
back and say that.

Speaker 5 (01:35:35):
Come on for me personally, Lebron and MJ off the table.
If you compare them to anybody, I automatically mute you,
I automatically block you. I don't want to deal with
you because of you're taking the biggest and I would
say probably the most unethical way of trying to get
comparisons out there. To go ahead and make your point, Oh, well,

(01:35:55):
he could be a better player in the long term.
I'm looking at what I'm seeing right now. What am
I seeing right now? Aman Thompson is getting better as
a shooter week by week, game by game, and he's
one of the better defensive players currently in the NBA.
And Victor Robinyama is gonna deal with injuries because when
you're seven foot tall, guess what your knees go on
you pretty quick.

Speaker 4 (01:36:16):
Well, look, I don't what he said about Victor woman
Yama right now is true. He is special. He does
do things that are insane, you know, having all the
block shots and all that kind of stuff. But like,
who do I want on my basketball team for not
just now, but the foreseeable future. It's not it's not

(01:36:40):
even a question, especially this basketball team. You know what's
funny about that? And I think we've opened up a
can of worms because now we have other callers that
want to weigh in on that caller. But what's funny
about that is, I mean, look no further than what
Victor wimbin Yama had done to him by the Rockets

(01:37:01):
current center. I mean you kind of forget, like for
the most part, Alphera and Shingoon has been the only
in the Rockets, by the way, have kind of relegated
him to nothing at times. I mean they've they've played
him and had success against him as well as anybody.

(01:37:23):
So I just I don't know, man, everybody, Look, everybody's
gonna have an opinion. I know. That's like I guarantee
you right now. If Ross was listening, he's he's not laughing,
he's shaking his head because he knows me. But you know,
I really I feel I'm not saying this for effect.
Like there are guys that would you trade him in

(01:37:43):
Thompson for? Yeah, probably, but I'm just saying he's not
one of them.

Speaker 5 (01:37:49):
Let me ask you would you trade for like saying
Anthony Edwards? Could we talk about that? Would you you
would trade Anthony Edwards.

Speaker 4 (01:37:55):
For all On Thompson?

Speaker 5 (01:37:56):
Okay?

Speaker 4 (01:37:56):
But that's there's like a list of like three right
because of the offensive because to see right well, and
Anthony Edwards is not a terrible defender either, right. But
you know, if it's if you're getting Anthony Edwards in
a trade like this is very made up, especially with
what's going on with both of these teams. Now, it's
gonna cost you a pretty penny and I guarantee you
that probably. Honestly, That's what tells you what you need

(01:38:19):
to know about what a men Thompson's value is around
the league. The first name they're gonna say when they
pick up the phone, the Minnesota Timberwolves, in this imaginary
never is going to happen. Trade is a Men Thompson.
It's not Alpura and Shingoon, it's not Jalen Green, It's
a Men Thompson.

Speaker 5 (01:38:33):
But I think the other part that's really important is
that if he improves as a shooter, how many six
foot seven guards that play that elite of defense actually
exists in the NBA.

Speaker 4 (01:38:43):
Here's this is interesting because ball Club tweeted this in
and it's it's very pertinent to this conversation. It's just
the other end of the spectrum. The same thing applies
that I said to a to uh Victor Weibyama, same
thing applies to Zion. I had a conversation. I'll leave
that one alone, but let's just say this. Executives around

(01:39:09):
the NBA right now are absolutely tempted to try and
prove Zion away from the New Orleans Pelicans. But the
same reason I think Victor Winbinyama is a risk goes
for Zion and he's at the other end of the spectrum.
His weight is going to deter and get in the

(01:39:31):
way of any sort of potential he has. Just like
I feel like the body type the Victor winbin Yama
plays with will inevitably not allow him to play a
long career. Now, maybe he's the next Kareem. You know,
Kareem is kind of similar here Eve seven to two
and what Victor is seven to four. I think Victor
seven seven three. You know, it could happen. This whole

(01:39:54):
blood clot thing, by the way, is completely separate from
what I'm talking about with you know, the body type
and all that kind of stuff not holding up. So
that's that's an additional factor, right that you have to
at least look at. I mean, that sort of thing
was threatening Damian Lillard's end of his career. It ended
Chris Bosh's career prematurely. Like, that's not something that you

(01:40:17):
can kind of just dismiss when you're flying around the
country all the time.

Speaker 5 (01:40:21):
Well, the other thing that you can also throw in
is that if Aman Thompson misses several games, is it
because of rest. When it's Victor webin Yama, it's because
of doctors and medical staffs are saying you cannot play
him if you want him ready for April and May. Yeah,
that's the difference. In my opinion.

Speaker 4 (01:40:39):
All I see is a freak last night who's not
even scratching the surface of his potential ripping Steph Curry
multiple times and helping lead a Rockets team to a
playoff win while Victor wimen Yama sits on the couch
with the rest of his spurs. And by the way,
if you're gonna if you're gonna say, oh, he's so transcendent, well,
if he was that transcendent, he would have dragged him
to the playoffs. Yeah, I'm sorry, Okay, and flip it

(01:41:00):
this way. If you want to have this serious conversation,
I'm in Thompson. The way that he is continuously progressing.
Let's just say the Rockets.

Speaker 5 (01:41:07):
Have a down year. He could take you to at
least that seven seed conversation, because if you know he's
gonna be ready to go in April, you have to
have a spot in the playoffs to let Victor webin
Yama rest into April, so that way he's ready for
the postseason. If you're sitting there on the edge, who
are you trusted more the guy that currently is dealing

(01:41:28):
with blood clots and may or may not play in
every single playoff game, or the guy that last night
showed you why he is one of the best up
and coming defensive players in the NBA. And is improving
as a shooter every single time we see him take
the court.

Speaker 4 (01:41:41):
Yeah, I'm just I feel very strongly about this. I
don't know if that's apparent, like and I am. Look,
I'm the biggest Amen Thompson fan on the planet. I
just am. You can get in line behind me. That's
how I feel about it. And so if you want
to say that plays into it, that's fine. But I
don't think I'm alone. I think Anthony might agree with me.
Seven one three five seven NINEY. Let's get Anthony in

(01:42:03):
here on the phone lines. Anthony, what's going on? Man?

Speaker 12 (01:42:06):
Hey, hey, Adam, h Hey.

Speaker 22 (01:42:07):
So I'm actually on the opposite end of the spectrum
from the last caller. If the Spurs are calling me
Amen Thompson is off limits me, that's feel And if
you watch like typically, I really despise watching like ESPN
and the national guys because they're they disrespect Houston for

(01:42:29):
whatever reason. And that's just not the Rockets, that's every
sports team. But like even those guys are saying, like
in their trade proposals, Amen Thompson's name is nowhere to
be found. I mean, Wemby is seven to three, he's
got a forty five percent fiel goal percentage. And to me,
if you're that big, why are you shooting forty five percent?

(01:42:52):
And Amen Thompson, we're talking about Amen Thompson hasn't reached
his full potential as as a shooter. He's shooting fifty
six percent. That's thirteenth in the league. And not to mention,
Amn Thompson's name was thrown around for Defensive Player of
the Year this year. I mean, what are we even
talking about. There's no shot. I'm sending Amn Thompson to

(01:43:12):
San Antonio for winby straight up no shot.

Speaker 4 (01:43:15):
Yeah, well it would it probably wouldn't be straight up.
You'd actually, if you're the Spurs, you'd probably ask for more,
which is just I mean, you get into another layer.
They appreciate the phone call, Anthony. Yeah, I'm not doing
I'm just not. I'm just not. And you're right about
the shooting percentage. But like, okay, let's just say for
the sake of argument, that he becomes a prolific three
point shooter. Right, Okay, now you've got your center out.

(01:43:40):
Now he's basically a glorified Sam Perkins. Okay, that's it.
That's that's a modern reference. Let me tell you, But
I like, if I got a seven foot four guy,
I want him like, buy the basket so I can
get easy buckets. I get threes are bigger than twos.
I don't know very well. Could no, I could end

(01:44:00):
up being wrong, But I just if he's that transcendent,
I think he would have dragged him to the playoffs
by now.

Speaker 5 (01:44:06):
At the same time, you have to realize that we're
talking in I would say a world of hypotheticals where
you have to say, also, at the same moment, this
is a legit thing that is going to be a
part of Victor webin Yama's life moving forward. With the blood.

Speaker 4 (01:44:23):
Clots, Yeah, until it's not it's there. It's it's not
if I'm the Spurs' it's not of just mild concern.
That's your franchise player. Right now. You went out and
got the Aaron Fox. He's led the Sacramento Kings to
a whole bunch of nothing. So it's Victor or bust
for them, and right now there are at least some
question marks. All right, we will get to our signature

(01:44:44):
segment next. It's the best of X. We've got some
good stuff coming your way.

Speaker 1 (01:44:49):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:44:55):
Did you all see this should be putting out?

Speaker 6 (01:44:57):
Between five and fifteen posts.

Speaker 19 (01:45:00):
A hundred people were arrested for things that they said
on social media.

Speaker 5 (01:45:03):
History repeats itself type bang.

Speaker 4 (01:45:06):
You'll succeed.

Speaker 6 (01:45:08):
Never doubt that you're the one to puss for no
one building lead.

Speaker 5 (01:45:12):
You're the best X. Nothing's gonna ever top You know
you're the best X post an every single day. You
know you're the best of X, breaking the entire Internet.

Speaker 4 (01:45:31):
Even when he's not here. WEX is here, hashtag imaging.
It is the best of X. It's a signature segment
that we normally do at two thirty every day, but
we had to move things around because Gordy was in
studio at that time. WEX is out today, he'll be
back tomorrow. It's myself, It's called Thompson. It's the day

(01:45:52):
after a thrilling Rockets playoff victory. Real quick, though, I
just have one more thing on this dumb never will
have And if the Spurs called up and offered you
victor women Yama for a men Thompson, you would be
stupid to say no. Caller that called in now two
segments ago, who again his words transcendent player, and actually

(01:46:15):
compared him at one point to MJ from the standpoint
of what he could do for a team. If he's
so good, why are the Spurs calling you and trying
to trade him? Can't believe I missed on that. That's
my fault. Okay, that's me not paying attention enough to
ask the most obvious question before we get into the

(01:46:36):
other retorts to something like that. This is an amen
Thompson's stand account this show right here, all right.

Speaker 5 (01:46:44):
Hang on, hang on. So you're saying that they would
not pick up the phone, right, that's.

Speaker 4 (01:46:50):
Well, if he's so great, why would they?

Speaker 5 (01:46:51):
Okay, well, so you're basically saying this, how did you
guys meet not talking about this?

Speaker 4 (01:46:59):
Okay, that's growing some legs, No pun intended. I was
having a conversation about that. Don't worry, we can we
can deviate. I was having a conversation about Bill Belichick
and Jordaan is twenty four year old.

Speaker 5 (01:47:15):
Again also another name that just how you say.

Speaker 4 (01:47:19):
It is, just stop spelling your name wrong. People with
common names. You know what? What's gotten in him? Why
is he acting like this? Why is she? Why is
she basically wrote why do you think had someone very
wise in this business once say to me, and I'm
gonna seriously clean this up.

Speaker 5 (01:47:40):
I say, we are a family show.

Speaker 4 (01:47:43):
It's undefeated all time. It's undefeated all time. Okay, y'all
know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 6 (01:47:51):
Not talking about this exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:47:53):
That's that's what we're doing with that, all right, best
of X couple of different directions we can go with this. Now.
I don't know how we have actually had this conversation.
WEX and I differ on this. He prefers water Burger.
I can say that because they sponsor the station to
the other place that everybody in California likes. It's digusting,

(01:48:14):
it's awful. Okay, good, we're gonna really be friends now.

Speaker 12 (01:48:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:48:18):
First of all, the fries are like cardboard. So I
so here's here's my rule. I'm a big sauce guy.
I love sauce, I do. But I'm okay eating something
dry if you have to douse it in thousand island
crap that's mixed in with pickles and onions just to
be able to make sure the taste goes through. It's

(01:48:38):
not a good French fry, correct, it isn't. So I
don't understand. Oh I'm gonna get an animal style. No,
you're gonna get it the only way that it will
go down your gullets where you won't want to go
cry and do yourself to sleep.

Speaker 4 (01:48:48):
Later on animal style just so dumb. Everything about it's dumb.

Speaker 5 (01:48:52):
Well is an animal style? Well, because if you look
like a slob eating it big, you look like.

Speaker 4 (01:48:58):
You rolled around in it before you can assumed it.

Speaker 5 (01:49:00):
You went to the trough to go ahead to eat
your French fries. That's good job.

Speaker 4 (01:49:03):
Oh man, Colin and I are like twins separated at birth.
All right, So a parody account of that restaurant's x
account tweeted the following the Lakers were in and out
of the playoffs? Hell not talking about this? Oh good

(01:49:24):
stuff right there?

Speaker 5 (01:49:25):
Okay for starters. Also, I get it's a parody account,
but you're base in California. Yeah, why are you even
rev Why are you even remotely having this to be
a conversation. Shouldn't you have said that they're out of
the playoffs at this point?

Speaker 4 (01:49:39):
Well, I love the fact that this is a parody account,
and in the bio it says quality you can taste
your typical Level five employee not affiliated with that restaurant.
This is a fan account. It's good stuff taking a
cheap shot at the Lakers expense, and I'm fine with that.

Speaker 5 (01:49:56):
I mean, at least somebody was willing to take a
cheap shot and admit that the Lakers were off.

Speaker 4 (01:50:00):
The only thing better is a guy who I've actually
sparred with on this show before and online a lot.
One of the dumbest people in sports. And I'm not
even like this isn't for effect. Jason McIntyre is a
bona fide idiot. Hot take after terrible take after hot
take after terrible take, all day long. It's just terrible.

Speaker 5 (01:50:23):
Yeah, so cold terrible takes, freezing cold takes should just
have him pinned at nine the time.

Speaker 4 (01:50:31):
That's actually true, Which what are they, by the way,
I haven't seen them in a while. Freezing takes? Yeah,
I don't know, maybe on vacation. You know that I
got fired over something I retweeted of theirs.

Speaker 5 (01:50:39):
Of course you did.

Speaker 4 (01:50:41):
I was just of course you did unbelievable, unbelievable. But anyways,
So there's a LA Lakers fan account that tweeted the
video response of Anthony Edwards being asked about do you
have the audio by the way Cole, They were being
if you don't, it's fine. Of which one the the
Anthony Edwards response where he's talking about Lebron.

Speaker 5 (01:51:03):
They were asked about it was it.

Speaker 4 (01:51:05):
Was Anthony Edwards. Who is that with him? I can't
is that? That's not Nasriid?

Speaker 5 (01:51:11):
Is it?

Speaker 4 (01:51:11):
Anyway?

Speaker 5 (01:51:12):
Anthony Edwards is a defensive player. Uh big, Rudy Gobert.

Speaker 4 (01:51:18):
No, no, no, this is not Rudy Gobert sitting next
to him. Anyway, It doesn't matter. Anthony Edwards was asked
what this series win meant to him, and he gave
this answer. We beat the best player in the world,
the best player ever. He's talking about Lebron. Now again,
this is a subjective thing. This is like a ridiculous

(01:51:39):
trade proposal that we just got. It's all. It's just
stuff that sports fans talk about. Jason McIntyre, of course,
though it's way more important to him. He quotes tweets
this exchange and he says the following, not that you
need confirmation, but another current star calls Lebron the goat
facts since the bubble title ant, I mean.

Speaker 5 (01:52:05):
First and foremost?

Speaker 4 (01:52:07):
Yeah, what am I I mean would be the best
player in the world, the best player. So what there
you go. You could probably barely hear that. But that's
Anthony Edwards saying we beat the best player in the world,
the best player ever. The problem with that is that

(01:52:29):
Jason McIntyre is trying to argue that, well, it's another
current star. Well, of course a current star is going
to say that they didn't play against mj But nobody
with a brain in their head is going to look
at the fact that Michael Jordan went twenty five and
one on his last twenty six playoff series of his
career and Lebron's gone two and four in the past
five years and also missed the playoffs once and said,
oh yeah, definitely Lebron's the goat. Lebron losing in the

(01:52:52):
first round again after the Luca trade is one of
the most spectacular things I've seen in the NBA in
quite some time, and yet another for Adam Silver and
everybody in the league office to wake up and say,
you know what, it's okay to promote the Houston's, the okcs,
the smaller market teams of the world because market size
doesn't matter. In twenty twenty five, the.

Speaker 6 (01:53:13):
A team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 4 (01:53:15):
Ninety EIGHTEAM Sports Talk seven ninety Thursday edition of the
program Welcome to May. And that goes for the Rockets
as well, after they busted the Warriors last night one
thirty one one sixteen game five victory, in part because

(01:53:37):
they kept the two stars in check. I don't think
when the Warriors were middling through the season at a
five hundred ish type record and they were looking around
at the trade deadline and trying to get in on things.
You remember they tried to trade for Kevin Durant again,
and when they got win to the fact that Kevin

(01:53:58):
Durant was not interested in reuniting with Draymond Green, they pivoted.
And if it weren't for Golden State, and probably to
a larger degree, if it weren't for Bradley Beal being
the bait, if you will, Jimmy Butler might be a
Phoenix Sun. Just to kind of think about that and

(01:54:21):
how things might have been different. I don't think the
Warriors make the playoffs, or if they do, it's probably
a play in in which they lose. The Warriors weren't
a good team before they got Jimmy Butler. Then they
got Jimmy Butler, and their record says they were better,
but they just to me, looking through this series so far,
it's so obvious if you're not basically a biased Golden

(01:54:46):
State fan clinging to the past thinking that they're actually
going to win anything this year, it's so obvious to
me that the Rockets should have probably had a three
to one series lead going into last night's game if
you realistically like they got beaten soundly in Game one
after that, and actually including that because in the first
quarter of the Rockets led by double digits. Rockets have

(01:55:06):
led by double digits every single game of the series,
every single one of them, and they were only able
to win one of those games for a variety of
reason up until last night, when they completely outclassed the
Warriors and blew them off the floor. And if you
want to, you know, have a moral victory over the
backups coming in and making it a thirteen point game
and then e May putting his starters back in because

(01:55:26):
it makes you feel better about getting blown out. Fine
by me, Warriors fan, that's that's your deal. But looking
at last night's game, in which I mean Steve Kerr
pulled his starters so egregiously early because of the score.
It was so out of control. Matter of fact, I

(01:55:47):
know we're gonna hear from ima Udoka here, Cole, if
you have it, I know I'm doing this on the
fly and putting you on the spot. There was a
SoundBite from Steve Kerr, and I don't think it's cut up,
so we might not be able to get to it,
but Steve Kerr and I know Clutch Fans has this
on its account because that's where I saw it last night.

(01:56:08):
Clutch Fans has a clip of Steve Kerr talking about
the shooting of the Rockets, the true shooting percentage or
the I can't I think it was. The true shooting
percentage was like something ridiculous like ninety five percent. And
he's like, he's like, I don't think I've ever seen
that before. And this is Steve Kerr, like the coach
of the Warriors, the Splash Brothers.

Speaker 5 (01:56:28):
What you mean this carried over to our offense.

Speaker 13 (01:56:30):
It's hard to play offense when you're taking the ball
out of the net every single play. At one point,
I think at halftime, their effective field goal percentage was
ninety five percent.

Speaker 11 (01:56:40):
I've never seen that in my life.

Speaker 12 (01:56:41):
So you're not winning that game.

Speaker 4 (01:56:44):
Well, effective field goal percentage, that's what it was, ninety
five percent. You're not winning that game. Of course, Andy
like look the Warrior. That's the funniest part about Warriors fans.
You had to bring your starters back in. Well, yeah,
most of our starters here in Houston aren't thirty five,
thirty six, thirty seven years old looking like they're gassed

(01:57:06):
walking off the court. Last night at halftime, Listen.

Speaker 5 (01:57:09):
Gordy brought up a really good point is that they
did feel like they were gassed by the time you got.

Speaker 4 (01:57:13):
To the start of third quarter. Good. I hope a
flight to San Francisco and one less day off makes
them gassed again. That time change, I hope the Warriors
or I hope the Yeah, the time change, I mean,
it's everything the Rockets are gonna have to adjust to.

Speaker 5 (01:57:24):
Well, think about this. You were talking about the time
change when you went to Vegas and how completely different
it was for you and it changed your equilibrium. Yeah,
when you're young, it doesn't affect you that no at all.
And what do we know about this Rockets team? Half
of their stars are just barely legal to drink. You
think it's going to really change or alter their path. No,
they'll be fine.

Speaker 4 (01:57:43):
If they come out with their hair on fire for
game six the way they did in Game five. I
think the Warriors are very ripe for what's coming their way.
If the Rockets allow the environment and the Warriors shooters
to do their thing and all that kind of stuff,
the Rockets just need to play their game and they'll

(01:58:05):
be fine. They haven't done that for a full forty
eight in enough games in this series. That's the problem.
Jalen Green did not have a particularly great game last night.
By the way, let's not act like he was back.
He was a plus twenty, and he picked and he
had a pick and choose his spots, and he was
two to four from long range, but eleven points, eight rebounds.

(01:58:28):
It was a solid role player type game. It was
not a star performance, but collectively the Rockets were good. Conversely,
Jimmy Butler eight points minus twenty three. He was two
for ten from the field, zero for three from long range,
and four of those eight points came at the foul line.
Steph Curry a minus nineteen thirteen points on four of

(01:58:50):
twelve shooting. He did hit three three pointers, none of
them ever felt like they were consequential, and two of
his thirteen points came at the foul line. He did
have seven assists. Other than that, those two were absolutely negated.
And that's basically the formula for success defensively for the Rockets,
along with not letting the role players like the Pajemskis

(01:59:10):
of the world and the Buddy Heels of the world
go off on you. I mean, their leading scorer last
night was Moses Moody, so you know Pat Spencer came
off the bench.

Speaker 6 (01:59:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:59:23):
Look, this is why I say if the Rockets play
their best game on both ends, they're gonna be fine.
Listen to Emi Dooka talk about containing both Steph Curry
and Jimmy Butler, and let's think about it. This is
possible to do for two more games.

Speaker 7 (01:59:39):
Yeah, I mean it starts with with them in and
Dylan with you know, those matchups. But it's like like
you said, especially on Curry, full team effort, and you
know he got loose and transition at times and in
a few games, but I think our recognition there was
better still lost him on the offensive rebounds.

Speaker 11 (01:59:55):
I have to locate them there.

Speaker 7 (01:59:56):
But to your point, I've always said, their whole team
is gear toward getting them shots, and we have to
be locked in and communicate on the defensive end. It's
not just one guy guarding them, it's everybody to being
on a point with their recognition communication, and Fred's a
big piece of that, you know, with greedon Garden, Greeden.

Speaker 15 (02:00:11):
Knowing the actions are going to run them.

Speaker 7 (02:00:13):
So no hell of a job by everybody, Like I said,
he had that little spurt in the second quarter, but
other than that hell of a job tonight.

Speaker 4 (02:00:21):
Yeah, I mean, look, what he's talking about is basically
the equivalent of Tamiko Ryans calling his defense swarm, because
that's what it feels like when the Rockets are clicking
on all cylinders on the defensive end, especially against a
club like Golden State that has a shooter like Steph Curry.
And you know, he showed, he showed what he has

(02:00:45):
still in that game three victory, and the Rockets are
going to have to respect that. But watching them, like
I said, hair on fire, watching them fly around last night,
the way they were doing on defense, and just knowing
that that's what they're capable of when they're playing their
defensive game and knowing that that's kind of what went

(02:01:05):
away from the Rockets when they lost in Game three
and allowed him to go off like that, Steph Curry.
It's just, you know, you don't want to look back
on the opportunities loss. But unfortunately there's already a lot
of that in this series, with that defensive adjustment or
lack thereof, with the miss free throws in on and
on and on. I'm not saying the Rocket's going to

(02:01:25):
be able to hold Jimmy Butler and Steph Curry to
eight and thirteen points respectively. Again, but just contain them
and play your game and send this thing back to
Sunday nights, Game seven, and let's see what happens.

Speaker 1 (02:01:39):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety Adam Clinton
and Adam Weckler are the A team.

Speaker 4 (02:01:49):
All right, Fourth and final hour is underway, and as
we saw often do, it's time for football at five. Now.
I have been told by a very good source that
Cole Thompson will be responsible for the content that we
talk about in this segment. And that source is Cole.

Speaker 5 (02:02:11):
Yeah, it's me, It's me. We're gonna We're gonna let
me take in charge and hopefully things will not go
off the rails entirely.

Speaker 22 (02:02:18):
Sorry.

Speaker 5 (02:02:19):
You know, the NFL every single year likes to go
ahead and prepare fans for what is inevitably going to
be Kansas City and insert team from the NFC playing
in the Super Bowl. So they give the power rankings,
and they get power rankings after every single week, and
they get power rankings after the free agency period, and
they get power rankings after the NFL Draft. Well, NFL

(02:02:41):
dot Com did not stop today. They gave their top
thirty two power rankings, with last place being the New
Orleans Saints in first place being the defending Super Bowl
champion Philadelphia Eagles. Now, ec after what we know about
this offseason with the Texans weird, do you think they
showed up on the list.

Speaker 4 (02:03:02):
Well, okay, real quick before I answer that, yes, what
is the criteria? Is this strictly based on.

Speaker 5 (02:03:10):
It's after everything, it's everything following the confetti falling in
favor of Philadelphia free agency trade draft, It's where the
team currently resides going into the summer months.

Speaker 4 (02:03:25):
I'm going to say twelfth, fourteenth. It's even worse than
I thought fourteen.

Speaker 5 (02:03:33):
Now here's the question who do you think ranked above them?
And tell me do you believe in this order?

Speaker 4 (02:03:40):
So?

Speaker 5 (02:03:40):
Number thirteen was the Denver Broncos better or worse than
Denver Broncos.

Speaker 4 (02:03:46):
Now they're better than the Broncos.

Speaker 5 (02:03:48):
Number twelve the Los Angeles Chargers better or worse than
the Los.

Speaker 4 (02:03:52):
Angeles Chargers going into twenty twenty five? Yes, I think
the Texans are better.

Speaker 5 (02:04:01):
Okay, number let me see. Yeah, Number thirteen, I mean
number eleven Washington Commanders.

Speaker 4 (02:04:12):
It's hard to argue since they went deeper into the postseason.

Speaker 5 (02:04:15):
Uh number hang on?

Speaker 4 (02:04:18):
Uh ten?

Speaker 5 (02:04:20):
Yeah, that's where I'm at. Number ten since at Bengals.

Speaker 4 (02:04:24):
Ah man, that's like a push.

Speaker 5 (02:04:28):
Number Number nine Minnesota Vikings.

Speaker 4 (02:04:30):
I mean straight up, they beat them like a drum
last year. So I'll give the Vikings theirs.

Speaker 5 (02:04:34):
Number eight Green Bay Packers.

Speaker 4 (02:04:37):
Again, that's like this. They beat the Texans on a
field goal in Green Bay. I think the Texans are
better than the Packers.

Speaker 5 (02:04:46):
Number seven Tampay Buccaneers.

Speaker 4 (02:04:48):
I think the Texans are better than the Bucks. Number
six Los Angeles Rams. You said the Chargers before, right, Yeah,
but the Rams. I think the Texts are better than
the Rams.

Speaker 5 (02:05:01):
Okay, Number four, Number five Detroit Lions Lions, number four,
Buffalo Bills.

Speaker 4 (02:05:08):
Bills, number three, Reilly beat them last year.

Speaker 5 (02:05:11):
Number three can't say Chiefs.

Speaker 4 (02:05:19):
I mean it's hard to look at the scoreboard and
say anything otherwise.

Speaker 5 (02:05:24):
Number two Baltimore Ravens.

Speaker 4 (02:05:25):
Baltimore has their number.

Speaker 5 (02:05:26):
Number one Philadelphia. So yeah, when you rank it all together,
I still think they're a top ten team.

Speaker 4 (02:05:32):
I can understand it, but they might be like ten.
So that's the thing.

Speaker 5 (02:05:35):
Let me ask you if you still had Laramie Tunzel
in the eyes of the NFL, because we do this
all the time where it's new players being implemented, where
it's a it was reset of a franchise cornerstone, do
you think that they would be number ten guarantee on
the list? No questions asked to I think they would be.
They would be number ten because they come in at
number fourteen. Do you believe that they would be number

(02:05:56):
ten if Larry Tunzell was still on this team?

Speaker 4 (02:05:57):
On their list, I mean you're talking about one left tackle,
meaning four spots.

Speaker 5 (02:06:04):
Yeah, four spots.

Speaker 4 (02:06:06):
I know, who's the entity again?

Speaker 5 (02:06:10):
What do you mean who's making this list? Com jeez,
I'll tell you what. They would be ahead of Cincinnati.
They would easily be ahead of Los Angeles, they would
be ahead of the of the Broncos.

Speaker 4 (02:06:22):
Well, that's my thing, Like just two spots alone that
you just mentioned. The Bengals didn't make the playoffs and
they beat the other team in the playoffs hit up.

Speaker 5 (02:06:30):
And the Broncos also had a checkdown Merchant and BOONICKX,
who we may see regress next year. That's my opinion.
And then you throw away in again. Here's where I
really have a problem with it. If you're gonna say
the Texans are going to lose so much just because
of Laromy Tunsel is gone, how are you not going
to say the exact same thing about a quarterback that
has unproven of Minneapolis next year.

Speaker 4 (02:06:48):
Well, that's the thing you're not JJ McCarthy being the
starting quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings and no backup playing
changes everything. Now. He might come out like Gangbusters. He
might be the latest edition of his first it's not
his rookie year, but it's his rookie you know voyage
as far as being the starter, and he may very
well light the world on fire. But nothing I saw

(02:07:09):
in Michigan tells me he's going to do that.

Speaker 5 (02:07:11):
It's not even about that. Yes you have the weaponry,
Yes you have a good run game, Yes your offensive
line is better. But still the problem is is that
when you look at JJ McCarthy, who, when you look
at the role that he played at Michigan, it was
a perfect one hand the ball, hand the ball off
to better players, right, Like everyone talks about that Penn
State game, and it drives me nuts that people say, well, well,
this is why JJ McCarthy doesn't deserve a lot of recognition.

(02:07:34):
How about Penn State get a stop on third down
to force JJ McCarthy to throw the football. Oh wait,
you can't do that. Okay, Well we're gonna keep doing
this until you find us to give us a reason
to stop it.

Speaker 4 (02:07:44):
Say, look, this is why I asked the I thought
very pertinent question. Would they bring Sam Donald back? Yeah?
I realize that, especially as the season wound down and
things kind of went rogue for him individually and then
as a team, that you might say to yourself, all right,
he caught lightning in a bottle for a year. But

(02:08:06):
when you juxtaposed that with his career in New York,
with the Jets his career, where.

Speaker 5 (02:08:14):
He also had to go to Carolina and that was
a hop, skipping and chop of yeah, and that San Francisco,
which was a nope, yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:08:21):
I just I mean, I'm not ready to sit here
and say that was going to be a one year thing.
Now was a perfect storm because of how good the
roster was around him.

Speaker 12 (02:08:29):
Sure.

Speaker 4 (02:08:29):
Yeah, in fact, that's what I thought Brett Farr was
gonna do when he went to the Jets, because that
roster looked like it was good around the Jets.

Speaker 5 (02:08:36):
I keep telling everybody else it's the Jets, like they're
just going to be the definition of mediocrity.

Speaker 4 (02:08:41):
The Brown the same way.

Speaker 5 (02:08:42):
It's the same thing.

Speaker 4 (02:08:43):
It's an organizational thing.

Speaker 5 (02:08:44):
It's an organizational thing entirely. And again I'm not saying
that Jajon McCarthy can't end up leading expectations, but it
goes back to the whole conversation when we over hype
a quarterback to begin with, I thought CJ. Stroud going
into last year should have been considered a top ten passer,
but he should have been closer to that or nine
range than the five or six range. That's the same
thing with Jayden Daniels right now. So you can throw

(02:09:06):
people out there and say yes, JJ McCarthy with everything
that he has in weaponry with the play caller and
Kevin O'Connell, he still has to prove it. And he
had a step back with the meniscus injury. That makes
you wonder is he gonna be ready week one? And
if he's not well, you're trotting out Sam Howell. Look
how good that thing happened out in DC. I'm so
happy that they set off to Seattle, who politely shipped

(02:09:27):
him off to Minnesota.

Speaker 4 (02:09:28):
Would you have signed Sam Donald long term?

Speaker 5 (02:09:31):
I would have franchise tagg him and kept them on
what Sea and do a two year deal.

Speaker 4 (02:09:35):
That's who do they use their franchise tag on? They didn't,
so they didn't use it. No, and you had Sam
Donald sitting there. And that's the thing is that if
you had to start him, guess what. You can start
him for two games, figure it out, and then if
McCarthy's good, you play him, and if he's not ready
to go, you have no fault of yourself. But Minnesota
being at ten and Houston being at fourteen when both

(02:09:56):
have a major question mark on.

Speaker 5 (02:09:58):
The offensive side. It It makes no sense. And you
can make the same argument, in my opinion, when it
comes to Los Angeles. You can make the same argument
when it comes to Cincinnati. Cincinnati maybe training its best
defensive player because if he doesn't want to sign a
long term deal to the agreement that you have. Because
if you just paid a bucket load of money for
your two wide receivers, so how does that justifiably make

(02:10:20):
them better than Houston Because Joe Burrow threw for four
thousand plus yards last year.

Speaker 4 (02:10:25):
Yeah, I'm still all I did just now just to
see what people were saying about it. Sure, Albert Breer
wrote an article on this. He says, I've talked to
enough people who feel like Sam Darnold's market and this
is beforehand will land around where Baker Mayfields did last year.

(02:10:49):
When Mayfield signed a three year, one hundred million dollar
deal to stay in Tampa. You can round that up
to thirty five million per year if you want. So,
if that's his value, the Vikings may want to go
under that. And the tag is it forty point twenty
four million, So then franchising him would have done two
things to Minnesota. It would make it more difficult, not
less to do a deal at the team's desired numbers,

(02:11:12):
because he would know he could just collect forty million
and the second tag would cost them forty eight point
two zero four million a year from now.

Speaker 5 (02:11:22):
But if you were franchise tagging him twice, doesn't that
give you your answer on where you are with Jji exactly?
So there's no point of it at that moment.

Speaker 4 (02:11:28):
It also gives you your idea of where you are
with Sam Darnold. You know it's not just about JJ
McCarthy here, But he didn't know to be fair fair
because I do think Albert Breer is one of the
good ones. He does go on to write there's risk
involved with not tagging him. Vikings lose control of the situation.
They can ask him to come back. And this is
all before what happened happened. He said he imagined the

(02:11:52):
sides would work together and he would give the Vikings
that courtesy. But if it doesn't work out, they still
want some core back insurance. They love and believe in
JJ McCarthy. But then he got hurt and all that
stuff you were talking about with the meniscus, Well.

Speaker 5 (02:12:08):
You know, what's you know, what's really really funny in
all of this. I'm sap so Gino Smith leaves sick
of the Las Vegas gets a brand new deal, right,
Seattle goes and gets Sam Donald on a brand new contract.
Right in the rankings. Because of the Sam Donald deal,
they move Seattle down two spots. So they were initially
at seventeen now.

Speaker 4 (02:12:26):
So they think they think Geno Smith is a better
quarterback than Sam Donald at this point.

Speaker 5 (02:12:31):
I don't disagree with them. There's more proven production, that's true,
there's more for Okay, if you're telling me two years
from now we're talking about what Gino Smith was in
his last couple of years in Seattle versus what we're
seeing currently with Sam Donald, then that's a whole different conversation.

Speaker 4 (02:12:46):
But you know what, to me, they're both still somehow,
some way, And I know this is way worse for
Geno Smith because of his age. Sure, they're both going
into prove it years yet again, of.

Speaker 5 (02:12:58):
Course they are. And you know the sad thing is
they're gonna be going into prove it years forever. And
I want to talk just ninety quick seconds. It's not
really God, he's good like ten seconds every single time
that Ryan Tannehill started to prove himself when he was
in Tennessee. It had to be a prove it year.
You want to why, because you lost the trust of
another organization to believe that you were the franchise guy.
So you had to hit reset. It's gonna be that
way for Gino Smith, It's gonna be that way for

(02:13:19):
Sam Darnold. Texas coming in at number fourteen, in my opinion,
was a joke.

Speaker 1 (02:13:24):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (02:13:42):
It is the A team. It's Sports Talk seven ninety
on a day where Wex has the day off. He
will be back at it again tomorrow. You know, we've
talked a ton and I found that clip. I knew
this was gonna happen. I was gonna find that clip
while I was already back on the air, but I'm
sending it to you right now. I you know, last night,

(02:14:03):
as I mentioned, you could basically perceive that as a
fantastic Houston sports night because you've got the Rockets obviously
doing what they're doing, You've got the Lakers falling by
the wayside, and again, look, that could be that could
be the Rockets on Friday night. That could be the

(02:14:23):
Rockets in twenty four hours from now, a little over
twenty four hours from now, but with the exception of
the Astros loss, and the file has been sent to you, Cole,
it's a situation where you can't feel much better about it.
You've kept your season alive, You've shown the blueprint on
how to do it. Everybody who is basically trying to
say that the Lakers were better than you in some way,

(02:14:45):
shape or form, well, they got embarrassed. And as is
usually the case, and let me know, when you got
it up, you could probably play it straight off the file,
straight off the site when it came down to not
only you know, assessing what went wrong and everything else. Again,

(02:15:05):
it's it's uncanny how many times Lebron consistently finds a
way to make himself look so bad when it comes
to accountability or in this case, lack thereof. Listen to
Lebron James last night talking about playing with a lack
of a center on him.

Speaker 14 (02:15:25):
Basically from mid January on right when Ady got injured,
you guys started playing a lot of centerless basketball and
not required a lot from you and Doe and Ruiye
and then Vando once he got back just from a
physical like taxing standpoint. How how tough was that for
the last three and a half months to play that style?

Speaker 4 (02:15:46):
And do you feel like that caught up at all
in this series?

Speaker 9 (02:15:50):
No comment. I'll never say that because my guy Ady
said what he needed and he was gone to follow,
So I got no comment. I put that uniform oil
every night. I gave everything I had, and.

Speaker 4 (02:16:09):
The auto matters. Yeah. So when asked about playing without
a center since January, he then references Anthony Davis, who
remember some of you guys might have forgotten. He had
to sit down with I think ESPN right before the
trade deadline, like a week before, the day before. Yeah,
it was days before and talking about what the team

(02:16:31):
needed to win, and then the Luca trade happens. And
so after all of that, you have Lebron James at
the podium after his team has been eliminated with Luka Doncic,
who ad was traded for. He not only brings up
a d and the fact that he asked for fill
in the blank for help at the trade deadline. He said, yeah,

(02:16:55):
that's what got him shipped out of town. As if
he's not the GM of the team, like come on, man, again,
we're led to believe that this was some you know,
Cloak and Dagger's secret operation that nobody knew about, least
of all Lebron James. I'm sorry, but the Los Angeles

(02:17:17):
Lakers were not not informing Lebron James about something as
big as trading his starting center for Luka Doncic. I
just won't believe that.

Speaker 5 (02:17:27):
It's every single move that was basically done in New
York that is being done in LA. Hey, who do
you want your head coach about this? J? J Reddick guy.
I'm friends with them. Great, we're gonna hire him. Hey,
you want to go ahead and bring in your son
so you can have that special moment that you've been
dreaming of for the last twenty years. Eh, he's probably
not ready to go pro and we're gonna draft him anyways. Hey,

(02:17:47):
you want to go get another superstar in here that
is going to make your team more viable in the
postseason to actually win multiple games. E.

Speaker 4 (02:17:54):
You know what, I think that this Luca Ki might
be really interesting.

Speaker 5 (02:17:57):
Yeah, you had no idea about any of that, right, nothing,
no clue whatsoever on any of these moves. Because if
you are the GM you are the partial owner. You
have literally everyone a becking call because if you're the king,
but let's just call us betas bade. Also, the king's
reign is starting to get done and people don't want
to listen to you anymore. This is what happens when
you allow more veteran and I would say probably past

(02:18:21):
their prime athletes have a final say. You regress. You
barely were a playoff team the last several years, and
you weren't in the playoffs for most those years. Just
like we talked about with Green, I mean with the
Aaron Rodgers in New York. Yeah, you have final say
on everything. It ends up leading to only negative press
and you looking back and saying I don't know what
went wrong.

Speaker 4 (02:18:41):
Well, look no further right here in Houston, when James
Harden was calling all the shots, that's how you wind
up with Russell Westbrook for one year before putting on
your fat suit and demanding you be traded out of town. Which,
by the way, the Rockets, now, let's let's go ahead
and revisit that since we're on the subject. They made

(02:19:04):
absolutely the correct decision on the James Harden trade, and
they were roundly criticized by a bunch of morons who
thought that Ben Simmons was a better option to trade
for in Philadelphia at the time than the Brooklyn picks,
which by the way turned into I believe Tarry Easton

(02:19:25):
and Reached Shepherd, while meanwhile, you have flipped those for
Phoenix's picks. And who knows what's going to happen this offseason.

Speaker 5 (02:19:36):
But I'll tell you what can happen this offseason. Endless possibilities. Yes,
you couldn't have when you had James hardensibility.

Speaker 4 (02:19:43):
Well, you had one possibility. He's running the show and
he's coming to camp out of shape.

Speaker 5 (02:19:47):
Oh and also, if at best you're an eight seedson
gonna have to play against the number one seed that
would have been Oklahoma City this year.

Speaker 4 (02:19:53):
I hated it at the time, he was sabotaging the
franchise for his own self needs. But that's the name
of the game in the NBA, for most superstars, it's
very rare. I'm telling you right now, the betting odds
are that it's about to happen again. In Milwaukee. Yannis
is sitting there at aged thirty. He's got a lot

(02:20:15):
left in the tank, and he sees that the guy
that they basically blew up a championship caliber roster for,
and Damian Lillard has not only got blood clots, but
now he's ripped his achilles in the playoffs. That means
he's not good to go, probably until like, I don't know,

(02:20:36):
the middle of next season.

Speaker 5 (02:20:37):
I would say probably if you really want to go
further full speed twenty twenty six October, which makes him
how old now, that'd make him almost thirty seven at
that point.

Speaker 4 (02:20:47):
I mean, Jannis, I'd be shocked if he doesn't demand
a trade this summer, which honestly only works to the
rockets favor.

Speaker 5 (02:20:57):
Yet again, well think about this for a second. It
saturates the market when you remember a guy like Damian
Lillard how much loyalty was such a big factor into
his role with Portland. Yep, that's a teammate that now
is probably gonna tell him, dude, I'm not gonna be
fully healthy at least until April. That means that I'll
be ready to go if you make the playoffs. Don't

(02:21:17):
be loyal because they're gonna forget about you the second
that you walk out that door. They'll say all these
nice things and you'll get eventually your jersey hung up
in the rafters. But they're all about what is the
next course of action? And that's just the morality thing
in life at this point. Yeah, everybody is replaceable. So
why are you sitting and waiting around for things to
be built around you when you can just go ahead

(02:21:39):
and be that last piece that get you to that
next stage.

Speaker 4 (02:21:41):
You know what, I badly want to have happened because
I just I want to enjoy utter chaos outside of
the Rockets organization. I want Giannis to demand that trade.
I want Kadi and Devin Booker to both be put
on the table. And I want Lebron to blow it
up and leave LA, I really do. I want him
to opt out and leave La, but go where. I
don't know. That's not the point. The point is he's

(02:22:05):
doing Lebron things again.

Speaker 5 (02:22:07):
Of course he is.

Speaker 4 (02:22:07):
He knows he's not gonna win there, so he starts
looking around telling you Lebron opting out and going, well,
he can't do that. Now I was gonna say he
could flirt with the Warriors.

Speaker 5 (02:22:20):
Now stop it.

Speaker 4 (02:22:22):
Well, would you put it past him? Would I put
it past him?

Speaker 7 (02:22:24):
No?

Speaker 5 (02:22:25):
But at this point we literally it would be circa
twenty eleven dream Team Philadelphia Eagles, where hey, we have
a bunch young It's like, oh yeah, we have drinked it,
and then you end up going what seven and nine,
missing the playoffs altogether. Like you like, I get it.
You have one veteran that's school, you have two veterans
that are really well embraced.

Speaker 4 (02:22:42):
In the culture. That's another thing I think.

Speaker 5 (02:22:44):
I throw Lebron into the mix where everybody is going
to want the ball, everyone is going to be a hotthead.
You're also going to have that Swan Song moment for
Steph and you have to bring in Lebron, Like at
this point, there's too many cooks in the kitchen to
where it's going to be a bad recipe and ultimately
a terrible which leads to what I would say probably
the end of an era of Warriors basketball that's already

(02:23:04):
well pass its prime well and just.

Speaker 4 (02:23:07):
To top it off, what would really be fantastic is
if he did that, it would immediately render something else
he said last night as complete and utter bs, which
is that of all of the things he's accomplished, the championships,
the All Stars, the All NBA the MVP, and on
and on and on, and the all time leading scorer

(02:23:29):
in NBA history. But at the top of that list
of accomplishments was playing with Bronni. I mean, I get it,
he's your son. I don't believe that for two seconds.
There's no way that's at the top of your list
if you're a Lebron James. There's no way anyway. Lebron
James and the Lakers already a mess. We'll see what

(02:23:50):
they try to do to tool around them this offseason.
And the meantime, the Rocket's trying to stave off their
offseason at beginning, and they'll have their next chance to
do that tomorrow night in games in the Bay Area
against the Warriors. We will have some of the things
we have not talked about when we come back for
in Case you missed It.

Speaker 1 (02:24:07):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (02:24:13):
All right, that music means it's time for in case
you missed it. Cole take it away.

Speaker 5 (02:24:20):
So we haven't gotten to this yet, but I won't
to talk.

Speaker 10 (02:24:22):
About you have audio.

Speaker 5 (02:24:24):
Yesterday we had good old mister Nick Assario on The
k Adams Show, and naturally he was talking about what
most people want to know why did you go with
the offensive lineman, Why did you maybe target a guy
at pick number twenty five?

Speaker 4 (02:24:40):
Why'd you trade out?

Speaker 5 (02:24:41):
What was the reason that you decided to go completely
different than what every single mock drap was saying. And
he may have unveiled that they were actually gonna target
one certain player went on the clock, and unfortunately it
just went on pick too soon.

Speaker 23 (02:24:57):
We had actually three different trade scenarios that we're on
aboard at one time, so we could have picked a player.
Always have to be prepared to pick a player, and
then when we were on the clock and they'd say
either a pick before maybe when picked I think when
Minnesota picked picked twenty four, and then after they picked,
and then we were able to consummate the trade with
a giant, so scoot it back there into the second round,
and then had the second pick there to start Friday,

(02:25:18):
and we're ready to go.

Speaker 5 (02:25:20):
So they were gonna take John and Jackson is what
I got with.

Speaker 4 (02:25:25):
Okay.

Speaker 12 (02:25:26):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (02:25:26):
We were talking about this a little bit yesterday because
we were we were thrown around this audio. I just
thought it was funny that the way Nick Cassio was
answering any of the questions from Kay Adams was not snarky.
It was not what does that even mean to draft?
The position of need or the best play? You know,

(02:25:47):
it was none of that stuff, because you know it's
Kay Adams. How we would all react if we were
having a conversation with k Adams. I'm not even mad
at him, man.

Speaker 5 (02:25:57):
It's not even that. It's like, it's how you would react.
I have a different sense on that one.

Speaker 4 (02:26:01):
Well, you are you not a k Adams fan?

Speaker 5 (02:26:03):
I respect King I think she does a great job.
What I also will say is, can somebody please tell
me where I can actually watch the show live and
not just on clips on mutahh?

Speaker 4 (02:26:14):
Well, yeah, I.

Speaker 5 (02:26:15):
Know it's like, hey, no disrespect, but you're on Fandel TV.
You're not on NFL network right now?

Speaker 4 (02:26:23):
Yeah, that is today's media landscape in a nutshell? Where
can I find? I mean, isn't that a microcosm of
like some of the problems we're having with both Major
League Baseball and the NBA. Where can I find these games?

Speaker 5 (02:26:38):
It's like that's gonna be the future with ESPN get
rid of its seal. With MLB, it's like, hey, where
can I find these games?

Speaker 20 (02:26:44):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (02:26:44):
You know Apple TV shown it on a Wednesday night.
Gat don't have Apple TV. Ooh.

Speaker 4 (02:26:51):
I feel like the cord cutting era, which is where
we're at right now, has actually somehow gotten more expensive
because you have to have all of these streaming services
just to have the one or few, you know, handful
of nights that you need to use them for the
sports or whatever else.

Speaker 5 (02:27:06):
So think about it for a second. You probably watch
about seven channels religiously and then one being of course
the local news. Well, well, now you gotta have Paramount
Plus to watch your favorite TV show on this one,
or you have to have Spike TV to have it
for this one, or you have that Dizzy Plus to
watch it for this one, or you have to have
not Paramount, you have to have Apple TV because you
want to watch this one. And then of course you
have to have Netflix and Hulu. So basically you're just

(02:27:28):
paying the same price for cable.

Speaker 4 (02:27:30):
My favorite is when like the affiliated companies try to
bundle it to make it sound like it's better for you.

Speaker 5 (02:27:35):
So great, Yeah, we're gonna take all the channels and
make it one cost affordable price all the apps that
you get, So I'm basically just paying for cable.

Speaker 4 (02:27:43):
It's wild, it's and you know, I we have a
unique situation in our house when it comes to that,
so I think, you know, we get it. We get
a little bit of a better break on that kind
of thing. Sure, but it's not it's not ideal. If
I'm a typical just wanting to watch sports person in

(02:28:03):
any city in America, it's not. It's not great.

Speaker 5 (02:28:06):
It's what's so funny. Me back to the clip, is that,
oh you basically said that Domin Jackson was your pick.
He was off the board. Okay, well, now we're gonna
make this trade, so you were going after offensive line.
But yet then when it comes to the rest of
the draft, but arianta Erstrie is worth the selection, but everybody.

Speaker 4 (02:28:23):
Else, yeah, a lower selection though.

Speaker 5 (02:28:26):
Yeah, still, but then why not trade up? Like why
not go after and it's no shot at Jalen Nole,
who I think is gonna be a phenomenal wide receiver here,
and the same thing with Jayden Higgins. Why not then
trade up for another offensive lineman into round two? Because
then you're stuck with seven I mean you're stuck with
six picks on Day three, and half of them.

Speaker 4 (02:28:44):
You don't even want to use to begin with, are
you like I read this how where it was one
of the bigger sites and wex always I can never
remember because I've slept since then, I can probably answer, well,
they were. They were more excited for the Texans, or
if you were the Texans, they were almost more intrigued

(02:29:04):
or excited about Noel versus Higgins because he would kind
of spell the absence of Tank Dell, so.

Speaker 5 (02:29:14):
Yes and no like. Personally, if you ask me on
my big board, which one would I have taken first,
it would have been Noel over Higgins. But that's just
because the style of play that he has. I think
more so it's that you have inconsistency in the slot.
You don't know what you got long term, a Christian
Kirk because if he's in a contract year, you basically
reset that market with a guy who has the same height,
nearly the same weight, is a little bit younger, jess

(02:29:35):
as good as a route runner, doesn't drop many balls.
You throw him into the mix and now you have
him for three years. I think that's the one in itself.

Speaker 4 (02:29:42):
You're talking about Noel Noel over Jim.

Speaker 5 (02:29:44):
Higgins, were Higgins Again, that's a guy that you look
at and say, well, he's a good player, but he
also is a guy that fits the same mold as
Nko Collins.

Speaker 4 (02:29:54):
What what I'm saying?

Speaker 5 (02:29:55):
It works?

Speaker 4 (02:29:55):
It works. It's both like you're talking about Noel for
Christian Kirk. Christian Kirk and the the Tale of the Tape,
if you will, is almost identical between Higgins and uh Collins.

Speaker 5 (02:30:09):
So, speaking of which, what do you think about this
whole Tyreese Haliburton staff? Then have you heard have you
seen any of this?

Speaker 7 (02:30:14):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (02:30:15):
I tell you what I think about it? Uh? Well,
for those who are not initiated. Uh, for the third
straight year, Jannis, who many people want the Rockets to
go trade for, has been unceremoniously escorted out of the
first round of the playoffs three straight years. You're the
best player on that team. That means all the blame

(02:30:35):
goes to you. Oh he is. But still and after
incident after incident that I was screaming about when James
Harden was still a Rocket and the NBA had Google
eyes for for Giannis to give him the MVP award
almost before the season began, and the incident where he
threw the hit the ball at James Harden and acted

(02:30:56):
like it wasn't on per I mean, come on, Gianni's
got in the face of Tyrese Halliburton's dad like like
like last night Pat Spencer in Alprin Shingoon, like in
his face, like I thought one of them was gonna headbutt.
He's just gotten more and more instant. So I don't

(02:31:16):
really particularly care for Giannis's personality. I respect what he
can do on the floor, but it's it's somewhat limited.
Like I think there's a lot of truth to what
James Harden said in that interview where it doesn't take
a lot of skill to just run into guys and
try and dunk on them. I mean, he's he's not
a terrible shooter, but he's not a great shooter.

Speaker 5 (02:31:38):
No, Well, anyways, Tyre's Halliburton's dad has a different side
of the story. Let's go ahead.

Speaker 20 (02:31:44):
It might have themed like I was looking at him,
but I really was. I was looking through him. That's
how I was in the moment. I know it looked
like we were looking like I would stay at him down,
you know, but it wasn't like that. It was in
the moment, if I were looking right through it and yes,
I had Badler in my hand.

Speaker 4 (02:32:02):
Going and I was yelling yay yay, yay.

Speaker 20 (02:32:08):
Yanni never sid anything to me. I never sid anything.

Speaker 5 (02:32:11):
The young Well, that's cool and all, but just to
be safe, tyresalbern has said, hey, Dad, and I go
on to the next playoff game. In fact, you know what,
at this point, I'll put you on the bench further notice,
because I can't be embarrassed by your Snandra.

Speaker 4 (02:32:23):
Well, and let's talk about the fact that what he
just said is a total lie. They were absolutely both
saying things to each other, because we can look at
the video and it shows they're both talking. So I
don't know what he's trying to get past us there.
But anyway, all right, one final segment here on a
Thursday edition of the program, One more aspect of this
whole false narrative about the Rockets hunting Steph Curry's injured thumb.

(02:32:47):
You will hear from another talking head.

Speaker 1 (02:32:49):
On that next the eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (02:32:56):
Yep. Apologies, Todd kallis you tomorrow night. I was about to.

Speaker 5 (02:33:02):
Ask you, can you actually do his impression?

Speaker 4 (02:33:04):
There's a base hit Astroth take the lead to to one.
He's good. I love Todd Kallis AND's see, it's the
sincerest form of flattery. My favorite is when they they
win and they what's the postgame show called on Space
City Home Network. I should know this, seeing as how
I'm on their network right now, but he's Astro postgame

(02:33:26):
comes your way next. I love Todd Kallis and of
course Blummer. We'll have to catch up with them when
they get back to town, but they're out on the
road obviously. They start of a three game set with
the White Sox on the South Side of Chicago. Coming
up tomorrow night. You've got fromber Valdez going in the opener,
Hunter Brown, the baddest man on the planet, That's what

(02:33:47):
Vince McMahon would have called him back in the day.
He'll be going in game two, and then the return
of Lance mccullors Junior for the matinee finale on Sunday.
I'll be I'm gonna be watching all of them, but
I'm gonna be glued to that that one on Sunday,
you know, right before I go down to Toyota Center
to call Game seven between the Rockets and the Warriors.
You know, it's really interesting, Buddy, was that.

Speaker 5 (02:34:06):
We've been screaming all day the seven winch Chicago White
Sox can't say that anymore?

Speaker 6 (02:34:11):
Did they win today?

Speaker 8 (02:34:12):
Eight?

Speaker 5 (02:34:12):
Nothing over the Milwaukee Brewers.

Speaker 4 (02:34:14):
How bad do you feel about life if you're in
Milwaukee right now? Your your Brewers team just got blanked
by the one of the worst teams in baseball, and
Giannis is about to make a trade demand.

Speaker 5 (02:34:23):
I mean, yeah, that's pretty bad. I think Atlanta feels
pretty bad too, because you know what, you lost the Rockies.

Speaker 4 (02:34:28):
And I don't I don't say this lightly Cole, and
I don't want you to take offense to this, and
I really don't want anybody else to. But when it
comes to Milwaukee, you know, when you gave the world,
Jeffrey Dahmer, you get what you deserve. Was that that was?
That was cheap one?

Speaker 5 (02:34:43):
I mean it's it's factual, But still.

Speaker 4 (02:34:45):
Did you watch the the was it Netflix?

Speaker 5 (02:34:48):
Peters? Yeah, it's fantastic, It's fantastic.

Speaker 4 (02:34:52):
What does he say, I want to watch a movie
with you. It's very Christian Bale and American psycho the
way he delivered that line.

Speaker 5 (02:35:01):
By the way, that's an underrated movie that I don't
think it's.

Speaker 4 (02:35:03):
An American psycho. Yes, it's fantastic. Fantastic? Are you talking about.

Speaker 5 (02:35:07):
Most Okay, you gotta understand most people my age don't
talk about that movie.

Speaker 4 (02:35:09):
Enough because it came out when you were born.

Speaker 5 (02:35:11):
It came out when I was born.

Speaker 4 (02:35:13):
Were you born in two thousand?

Speaker 5 (02:35:15):
Thank you for making me feel better about myself. No,
I was ninety three.

Speaker 4 (02:35:18):
I hate you.

Speaker 5 (02:35:19):
Yeah, I know we've talked about this before. Oh man,
you were selling that one house before you had moved
at that time, was what you told me. I remember
that well.

Speaker 4 (02:35:27):
I was the year I moved into our home that
I was in for my middle school in high school
years when the Rockets were winning titles like we moved
into that house in August of ninety three, and by
the following June I was parading downtown Houston. It was great,
all right. One more aspect to this, not listen for

(02:35:48):
something that's a non story. Sure does have a lot
of legs. And this is why I got so irritated
with the fake news involved in the what did you
call them earlier? The blog boys? What'd you call them?

Speaker 5 (02:35:59):
Fanboy?

Speaker 4 (02:36:00):
Fanboy Media? Yes, the Warriors edition of Fanboy Media, which,
by the way is all Ethan Sherwood Strauss was back
in the day. He just happened to write for ESPN.
I wonder what that guy's up to these days. But
this whole thing started from famboy media. Ask and again
you really do need to seek out this video. It's

(02:36:22):
something warriors. It was a I saw it on Facebook,
but it was a video that was floating around Dylan
Brooks very normally contesting a three point shot by Steph Curry.
These morons didn't even have the wherewithal to use real quality,

(02:36:43):
high quality video. They actually just took it off the TV,
which is the worst. That's the worst thing ever. I hate.
I'm sorry if you do that. I cannot stand it.
It just looks bad. And then they're slowing it down
like frame by frame. See here is where he is
clearly taking an intentional swipe. It was almost like an

(02:37:04):
Animal Kingdom type thing. Here is Steph Curry in the
wild and as you can see, the Dylan Brooks species
approaches him at the three point line and he comes
down hard on his thumb.

Speaker 5 (02:37:13):
So basically we need David Attenborough to describe that play.

Speaker 4 (02:37:16):
Well, it's so stupid because nothing that he's saying in
the video is accurate. Sure, he's not doing anything, not
on the up and up. He's he's contesting a three
point shot of the greatest shooter ever. What would you
like him to do? Stand there politely and whistle with
his hands tied behind his back as Steph drains three
after three? No, thank you?

Speaker 5 (02:37:36):
I mean the NBA would probably, of course they would.

Speaker 4 (02:37:38):
They want the Warriors to advance. Let's stop acting like
it's anything that it's not.

Speaker 5 (02:37:41):
Well, it's just like every single year that people complain
about the World Series being boring when it's not New
York versus LA, And then last year you get that
World Series and in my opinion, yeah, the ratings were up,
but it was the most boring one we've seen a
hot minute.

Speaker 4 (02:37:53):
Well, it was the most boring one weight scene since
the year prior when it was Arlington versus Arizona.

Speaker 5 (02:37:58):
Sure, but I actually like Arion, so I don't like
New York and I like LA.

Speaker 4 (02:38:02):
You enjoy Christian Walker in that World Series?

Speaker 5 (02:38:03):
Did you?

Speaker 4 (02:38:05):
Okay? We get the Astros current first basement, you don't
have enough time to.

Speaker 5 (02:38:08):
Talking about my infatuation with Christian Walker and how.

Speaker 4 (02:38:10):
Disappointed I am I know, well it's getting better, all right.
So all of that is to say that when this
kind of thing happens and then the real, somewhat real
media picks up on it and tries to, well they
don't try to. They're turning it into something that you know,
actually does have legs simply by talking about it instead

(02:38:30):
of what ema Udoka did, which is ignore it. Do
you have that sound by handy still? I know I'm
putting you on the spot. Somebody asked em Udoka about
this and he basically told them to go bleep themselves
without saying it. It was like four second clip em here.

Speaker 15 (02:38:45):
One of the Warriors broadcasters tonight on the broadcast accused
Dylan Brooks of intentionally swiping it stuff's it curries right thumb.

Speaker 4 (02:38:53):
How would you respond to that?

Speaker 9 (02:38:55):
I wouldn't.

Speaker 5 (02:38:57):
It just might drop end of conversation.

Speaker 4 (02:39:00):
I wouldn't. That's just that's so good.

Speaker 5 (02:39:03):
Also, the smirk that he had with it was this
was another sign of.

Speaker 4 (02:39:06):
Like you're a clown. Move on. Yes, Ema u Douka
could run for president and I would vote for him.

Speaker 11 (02:39:13):
All right.

Speaker 4 (02:39:14):
So there was one other talking head we played you,
Steven A. Smith, reacting to this earlier, and I thought
Steven A. Smith actually made very salient points and well
reasoned thoughts about which he doesn't always do about everything,
But in this case, I thought he was right. Like
this goes on, This is the playoffs, This is tough basketball,
and Steve Kerr, of all people should know that, seeing
as how he played with Dennis Rodman and how he

(02:39:36):
coaches Draymond Green. So stop making it into something that
it's not. Jay Williams also had an interesting slant on this.
I love it. I mean it's basketball.

Speaker 24 (02:39:46):
When you whenever you hear about weaknesses that people have,
you go out that and with Steph Curry like we
KP excuse me if I'm wrong on this, but it's
always been in the game of basketball. I don't know
how you played, but I would assume where you're from
we played similarly. If your hand is hurt, I'm breaking
down on the ball. I'm sorry, hand is part of

(02:40:06):
the ball.

Speaker 4 (02:40:08):
I mean again, that is where's the lie? Where is
the lie? It's just he's not saying anything controversial.

Speaker 5 (02:40:16):
By the way, in any other sport with all oh
my god, so weakness, you target the weakness. Hey, he
can't hit the curve ball to save his life. Guess
what I'm showing you until you make contact.

Speaker 4 (02:40:28):
Listen, I'm old enough to remember when you were two
years old and EMMITTT. Smith had a separated shoulder in
the NFC Championship game against the forty nine ers and
played with He looked like RoboCop out there, and they
were absolutely putting a hat on it any chance they got,
because you suit it up. If you don't want that
to happen, Steph, don't suit up. I would love for
you to not play.

Speaker 5 (02:40:49):
Ronnie Lott had part of his finger removed and came
back in and made a tackle. And now we're talking
about little fouls that are hand usage. Give me a break.

Speaker 4 (02:40:59):
That got dark quick man.

Speaker 5 (02:41:01):
That's the way to end the show.

Speaker 4 (02:41:03):
I do like that, all right. So we will have
Wex returning to his chair tomorrow. We'll have a full
four hours I believe. No, we're going out at five thirty,
are we not. I can't remember it tomorrow. Yeah, I
thought so because of the Chicago start. So we'll have
astros on deck kind of preempt the very tail end
of the show. But in the meantime we'll have a
lot of Game six conversation to get to previewing that,

(02:41:25):
and of course we'll talk about what we thought about
Game five, all of that and a whole lot more
tomorrow on a Friday edition of The eighteen.

Speaker 6 (02:41:33):
The eighteen on Sports