Rockets Back in Action Tonight, Astros Closer to ST Game, Bears on the Move

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome into the show Rockets basketball tonight. About time they're
playing again. It will be an early start as well.
As the team is out on the East coast, Charlotte
Hornets will be welcoming them to town. I hope that
LaMelo Ball can make it to the game tonight in
one piece. I don't know if his vehicle will be
so that was something interesting to happen over the last

(00:22):
seme hours.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
It will be, it's definitely in two pieces, well one
of them. Yes, that's just fascinating to me. I actually
just in the last five minutes saw a different angle
of the accident. If you didn't already know, this is
the A team X and AC here with X Josh
as well. LaMelo Ball got in an car accident yesterday,
which based on the video I just saw. I mean,

(00:45):
I've seen the accident already, but this video there doesn't
there's no doubt left. I don't know the reason for it,
but he's definitely at fault. He just veered into the
other lane and smashed into another car. His car is
so ostentatious, huge, ugly looking and has massive tires. The
only part of his car that got hit was the tire.
He hit another car with his massive tire and came off,

(01:07):
So that's how I know it's in two pieces. He
seemed fine, the other driver seemed fine. He left in
a different vehicle not long after the accident, and he
is not listed on the injury report. And he's not suspended. Well,
people don't get suspended for getting car.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Didn't say they did. But two of his teammates aren't
playing tonight because they're suspended.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Let me know, when LaMelo Ball gets in a fight,
that's a good point. But he's still not suspended. Yeah,
any of his teammates could have gotten suspended. I'm not
at all surprised he didn't get involved in the way
that they did. I mean, first of all, mobs Bridges,
it's not about being a protector. Just try not being
a lunatic. He's a terrible person. I mean, I'm not
going to filter anything about that guy. He's a piece
of crap. So I'm not gonna miss his playing tonight.

(01:48):
Mus not playing tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah, they won't be going against the Rockets lineup, and
that's probably a good.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Also, not favored at home.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Well, I mean, they did finally lose a game after
they played the Rockets, and then they won again. They've
been good, They've been really good, and all that winning
they've done, there's still three games under five hundred, which
tells you how bad they were to begin with. Kind
of very Clippers East coast of them, let's put it
that way. The Clippers will be in our show today,
but yeah, the Rockets. Kevin Durant, by the way, going

(02:20):
back and finally just kind of watching him answer those
questions like you got to yesterday when I was going
over stuff for tonight's game last night, he really he
I don't know if slicks the word, but if you
want to defuse a situation that you just frankly don't

(02:41):
want to address for whatever reason, and I'm talking about
any athlete, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who
does it as well as Kevin Durant, Like he's such
and again this comes with time, but he's such a
pros pro at this very aspect of beat of what
is now heart of day to day life as a
professional athlete. Not saying all of them are on social media,

(03:05):
and especially not to the extent that he is, but
just from the standpoint of being a public figure and
being someone who is very much in demand from a
media standpoint. Pian don't want to say something. He's just
not going to and he doesn't have to.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Was impressed a number of questions over and over and
over because it obviously was apparent an answer wasn't gonna come.
He was asked two direct questions and did not answer
either one. Yeah, and he I ticked up, And you know,
if you've spoken to your teammates. He did answer that
one directly, Yeah, they know what's up.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, And he gave I thought a good answer as
far as that goes, and quickly transitioned into talking about
the remaining twenty nine games and the playoffs and what
they need to do now that they're kind of coming
back together and there's a lot more familiarity than maybe
the first half proverbial half of the season.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
They need to show it. Well, Yeah, definly is more familiarity,
but they're not playing like there's more familiarity, and that's
what has to change if they want to be a
more legitimate threat in the Western Conference. Whatever the record
ends up being, I don't think is a huge concern.
Where they finish in the standings obviously goes a long
way to where they might finish in the postseason, but
it's still all about how they're playing basketball and the

(04:19):
kind of basketball they've played for the majority of this season. Remember,
they got the ten games over five hundred immediately they
were fifteen to five. They're only a couple of games
over five hundred since they're thirty three and twenty. That's
a long stretch of average basketball. Honestly, most of the
West has also done the same thing. Oklahoma City is
really not far off from that either. They were twenty
three games over five hundred just twenty five games into

(04:41):
the season, and they are only a couple games over
five hundred cents, So it's not only Houston, but I
do think there is a lot for them to get
better at. I wish there was a way to get
back to what they were as a rebounding team. There's
still one of the leagu's better rebounding teams, and I'm
sure it'll be on display for most of their remaining
twenty nine games, but they're just not a dominant one.
They're one of them, and before they were the one,

(05:04):
there wasn't anybody that did it better. It went a
long way towards who they were as a team, teams
knowing how they had to do certain things differently, committing
more players to the glass because of who the Rockets were.
And while it does fall on a number of players
who are capable, men's gonna rebound out, He's gonna rebound
Shagoon or a Durant and on and down the they're
gonna they're gonna be fine. They're just gonna be different.

(05:24):
And that's part of what, unfortunately now kind of reopens
the door for saying, well, yeah, there are some things
they need to figure out.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
And the main issue.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
From the jump was who's really gonna run this team,
Who's really gonna set up this offense? How are they
gonna who are they gonna play through? They really don't
have a good answer to that as they get into Charlotte,
New York, Utah, And once you see Utah, you'll start
to realize over the final twenty seven games, there's gonna
be quite a few games pretty much every single night

(05:53):
in the NBA. If it's not your team that's playing
for a playoff seed, well somebody else that's playing for
a playoff seed against another team that's trying to lose
their game.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Yeah, scoreboard watching season is officially here.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
I added the standings for the first time this year
to the graphics we'll start seeing at three o'clock. Yeah,
I mean it is.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
It's gonna be a daily I don't know if it's
gonna be a daily up and down situation. I hope not.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
It probably is. But they are a half game better
than the Lakers. They're a half game better.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Than the Wolves.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
They're one game behind the Denver Nuggets.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
I would say, by the way, on that point, because
the Rockets are three right now, correct, they're four? I
mean sorry, four. Being a game behind the Nuggets after
everything that's happened is actually, well, I guess it's good
and bad. It's good for the Rockets in that they've
had some really bad losses that they just shouldn't have had.

(06:49):
But it sucks from the standpoint of you would have
liked to have still overtaken the Nuggets with the extended
absence of Joker, and you just couldn't because of that
very thing.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
Yeah, they were a remarkable resilient with all the players
that they missed, so got an opportunity to get into
that second part of the season. The Rockets, like most teams,
are well into the second half of their season. Tonight
they're thirty three and twenty. Tonight's game fifty four, they
play eighty two. Game forty two was the halfway point
of the Rockets season. We got launch pad for you
at five o'clock. A Rockets countdown begins at five thirty

(07:21):
and tip off just a bit after that. Another day
for the Astros to push a little bit closer to
the start of their spring training schedule. Major League Baseball
spring training exhibition games will be tomorrow. The Astros just
don't have one on the first day of that. They
will play on Saturday, with Colton Gordon getting the ball.
I'm sure we'll learn a little bit more about the
others that will join him and similarly on down the

(07:42):
line every day. These are the five pitchers expected to
take the mound. I've seen a little live BP from
Christian Javier and a host of others now over the
last handful of days, which you might actually see some
of the expected starting rotation continue with because quite frankly,
while Colton Gordon did the team a nice service last year,

(08:02):
even though he was one of the least successful starting
pitchers out there in terms of how easy he was
to hit. He helped him by taking the ball every
time they gave it to him, and he's in that
similar situation here in spring training. He was probably on
the outside looking in before they added a single pitcher
to their starting pitching rotation puzzle, and now he's just
behind even more people. He's targeted for the minor leagues,

(08:25):
but he will get the quote unquote Spring training opening
day start on Saturday right here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
You're on for the Astros.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yeah, there's a lot of games that are going to
just bite into the beginning of our show. I was
looking over the calendar, the schedule that's been released. By
the way, if you follow, and you should, any of
these Sports Talk seven ninety socials, it is now up
the schedule of games you'll be able to hear right
here on Sports Talk seven ninety and the times and
such that they'll be getting underway. But yeah, it's that

(08:57):
time of year. I don't know, I feel like this
is the most I don't know if excited is the word,
but whatever the word is that I've been going into
an Astro spring training in quite some time.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
I think it has to do with a couple of things.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
One, even though we've talked plenty about Josh Hater here
in February, the amount of injuries that happened last year
versus the amount of health relatively speaking, that the Astros
are enjoying for the first time in a long time.
I e. There's not I mean, there's still some guys

(09:33):
that are on the shelf. Hater situation is its own thing,
But we're not talking about big chunks of whatever, especially
from pitching rotation.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Standpoint where it's spring training. Yeah, but they didn't play
games yet.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
No, no, no, no, no, But that's that doesn't that hasn't
mattered the last few years. There's still been a major
name or two that's been on the shelf. Just like now,
those names you just rattled off, I don't look at
the with the same Well, how'd they start the year
last year? Well, Renelle Blanco was part of your rotation
because other names weren't ready. You know, mccullor's being one

(10:09):
of them. And I know people are gonna roll their
eyes because mccullar seems like he was never rated ready.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Yeah, he didn't have to climb the ladder when Lance
went down. Lance wasn't in the mix, But I know
I'm thinking much and I do want me to to,
you know, say anything outside of that. They're in a
good spot because they've had a chance to recover. They
didn't have, you know, players, really you had one player
or two if you count Anniel de los Santos, who's

(10:33):
not yet thrown a pitch yet and probably was targeted
for their bullpen. He and Hayter are the only ones
not ready to kind of go through everything as as
you just.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
Feels like you're healthier in general, absolutely at this time
last year. And the other thing is, I just feel
like the Astros have some unfinished business because I don't think.
I think them not being Division champions last year was
just as much about things that were out of their
control as it was anything Seattle did. And that's not

(11:01):
to take anything away from the Mariners season. It was awesome,
especially when their best player was juicing on something to
hit all those home runs. And if you don't believe me,
I'm sorry. Look at the numbers. It's insane.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
I mean, just because the numbers go up doesn't mean
one year. I mean, he's a home run here. He's
been a home runer hitter for three years.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
To that extent, obviously, not to that extent, like I'm
not he's not. He's like this shy of what's his
face that was for it played for Arizona, that used
to be an astro Luis Gonzales. I mean it very
it's smacked of Luis Gonzales, Like, you've never done this.
Yes you've hit home runs, yes you've been that guy,
but you've never jumped this much.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
What's the number he's got to hit this year to
say so, to keep you from saying it again? At
least thirty five. Oh, he'll hit thirty five, no problem
if he's healthy.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
Well, how many thirty five home run seasons did he
have before? Last year?

Speaker 2 (11:52):
One The Cal Rawley Show, and we'll continue after break,
Ac and I will dig deeper into the big dumper
and what the expectation for the not quite MVP of
the American League this past season. There are a lot
of other things to get to obviously today, including some
very interesting, brand new news regarding your Houston Texans. I'm

(12:14):
hopeful it's a good thing. You guys might think it's
a big thing. We'll talk to you about it when
we come back.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
I think the angle that I just viewed during the
commercial break is the one that you're referring to when
it comes to the LaMelo ball. I don't even want
to call her an accident why because he didn't accidentally
do that. He drove into them.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
That's what accidents are, unless you're behind the wheel of
the car and you've really got it in for your
partner and you intentionally run them over. Many vehicular contact,
they're accidents. Like to me, he wanted to hit the
other person hurt his own vehicle was an accident to me.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
To me, an accent would be ah. He was just
sort of kind of in their lane, and it happened.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
He looked down at his phone and he forgot that
he was driving his car, and so he hit the guy.
That's a reasonable explanation for what you just watched, right.
Maybe he was fiddling with the radio station, he was
doing his nails, he was looking at his new non
tattoo on his foot, any number of things. I guess
he was distracted.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
I guess if it wasn't such an egregious demolition. And
that has more to do with the vehicle he was
driving versus the two lane. There's one lane of traffic
going one way. He was in the one lane of
traffic going the other way. They're right next to each other,
and he drove into the lane that's opposite. Is once
you see it from that angle, because the first angle
that we all saw yesterday was the side view.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yeah, it looked like they scraped each other's vehicles. They
did a lot. His tire smashed into the other vehicle.
Like I said, it appears that both parties were able
to get up and get out. That doesn't mean a
lawsuit isn't forthcoming, especially in this case with a a
rich driver involved. You never know.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
But that other driver's neck is starting to hurt as
we speak.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
It could easily hurt on scene. He still might have
been able to get out of his vehicle.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
Huh know who I would qualify with them Mo carm
injury lawyers. That would be a smart playing two. Two
I mentioned there was some news regarding the Texans. I'm
not sure about the magnitude of it, but the NFL
decided that the Texans should have more pull than they
used to going into year four of Dmiico Ryans. He
will join the rest of the NFL Competition Committee for

(14:31):
the first time. He is one of the new members
of the NFL's Competition Committee. He and Kevin O'Connell the
new head coaches that join Mike Rabel, Sean Payton, Sean
McVeigh and Todd Bowles. Among coaches, there's also executives and
a general manager.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
John Lynch is part of the group. The not associated
with Epstein part of Giants ownership is part of the group.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
That's John Marra. That's how will refer to them from
now on.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
Uh, Epstein, I mean, we don't know it. We know
about Uh, we know about the other guy, Kenny Blackburn,
who's part of the Bengals front office. Jerry Jones, co
chairman's son is on the committee Rich McKay and he
and Stephen Jones are the co chairs and that's who
makes up the forthcoming, upcoming off season's worth of discussions

(15:24):
and moving forward competition.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
Copenny. By the way, Kevin O'Connell, Demico, Ryans, and Todd
Bowles probably three of my favorite NFL coaches.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Is one of the other three coaches on the panel,
also one of your favorites. Because it's not Mike Rabel,
it's not Sean Payton. Why has Sean mcvay's got to
be among your favorites, right, I'm ambivalent towards him. I
don't have any fan now I will. I think I'll
hate him if they play in the super Bowl forecasting
a loss. I see, no, why would you hate him

(15:54):
if the Texans beat him?

Speaker 1 (15:55):
Because he's gonna be in the He's going to be
the guy that was the last thing in the way.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Get out of the way. We win your team, this
Houston City's team wins.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
But he's not like if you were to just tell me, Okay,
I'm gonna I'm gonna put every coach in the NFL up.
We're gonna line them up like in a lineup, and
I just want you to tell me which ones have
the least punishable face. He's not gonna make that list.
He's gonna be skewing towards the other end of it.
Very punishable face. Yet I'm ambivalent.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
Yeah, we've we've talked about it before, and I don't
think I'll ever get an answer. It's more of you
know it when you see it. Yeah, but O'Connell very
non punishable face. Think Sean McVay fits very likeable. You
don't think he has a punishable face. He's got a beard,
he's got blonde hair, he's yoked up, he short, he's
got a kid.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
Sounds punishable to me.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
Coach is a team in on the West Coast.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
Checking off all the boxes. He's just he's.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
Especially the kid, car Mill. I'm kidding about that. Just
a dude coaching a football team.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
But I do like and I hate the fact that
they have put Kevin O'Connell in this position. And this
is to me, this is going to test your theory
that you've said a million time. I SNEI and your theory.
It's just you're the one that always says it on
our show, So I'll give you credit. That quarterback play
gets coaches fired. Well, oh you think that's what's gonna
get O'Connell alone on the competition committee for how much longer.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
What's getting him fired is that they already decided to
make the first move. It's one of the two of you.
We got to make a change, either it's you or
the GM. Well, the GM got fired, so they're not
going to hire and fire another. GM leashes shorter now
than O'Connell is the head coach most likely, And they're
already talking about how oh yeah, we're seeing some issues
with JJ McCarthy's throwing motion. Really, you didn't see that

(17:33):
before you drafted him. I mean, I don't know what's
wrong with the throwing motion. I know what's wrong with
the ball. After it leaves his hand, it goes to
their team. Well, it doesn't go where it's supposed to
very often, right, that's one.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
That's one.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
It's a mechanics thing. I think it's just there where
he puts the football.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
Like.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
You don't look at CJ. Stroud and say, oh, his
mechanics are awful. You say, maybe not. I wouldn't say
they're ideal. And his footwork usually stinks okay, but again
very much more so coalvageable going into twenty twenty six
than anything JJ McCarthy.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
I don't. I would never compare those two, right. JJ
McCarthy is an athlete who's playing quarterback not very well
and CJ. Stroud is a passer of the football who
had an average season and at below average postseason.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
I feel like Justin Jefferson is to the Vikings what
the Texans defense is to the Texans. Why are we
wasting this awesome generational talent right now? Because the other
side of the football or one aspect of the team
is so woefully not getting the job done.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
I wish wide receivers meant more to winning at all.
Now this year you could say that they did, even
though in the particular game we're talking about, the Super Bowl,
it mattered a little bit less.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
Just being on the field matters.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
Doesn't matter if Jackson Smith and Jigba had an eight catch,
one hundred and ninety yard game. It matters that he's
on the field and the defense has to care and
it opens things up for everybody else and obviously alters
the way you're going to put the number of players
are going to have in the box, and things like that.
So it does matter. But you know, Jamar Chase has
spent the better part of the last four years as
the best receiver in the AFC. It doesn't matter. It

(19:03):
doesn't matter at all.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
Well, you could ask the question very realistically and very
it would be a very fair question. Would he have
been the best receiver in the NFL if he still
had Sam Donald throwing to him this year as opposed
to Sam Donald throwing to the other guy you just mentioned.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
Oh, his numbers would have been different. But he's that
the talent is the talent. He wouldn't be regarded as
the best receiver in the NFL after a ninety six
yard twelve hundred yard season. I mean, obviously it's a factor.
It is just it s works both ways. Sam Donald's
best two years have have come playing with Justin Jefferson
and Jackson Smith and Jigba their hold hands. They coexist

(19:41):
and help each other and make each other better. One
can't be the player that they are without the other.
Justin Jefferson is the example of that. Justin Jefferson looked like,
oh my god, this is the best receiver in the NFL.
And he didn't forget how to play football this year,
right did not have as good of an offense, He
wasn't as healthy, and his quarterback was very bad.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
And this again is why I think DeAndre Hopkins was
as impressive as anybody over the course of his time
here in Houston, because he had how many crappy quarterbacks
and just kept putting up those numbers every year.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
It was pretty impressive.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
Like Justin Jefferson can say, well, I've got JJ McCarthy here,
and DeAndre Hopkins will walk in the room and be like,
why don't you shut up and play with brock Oswatherer
once in a while. Why don't you shut up and
play with fill in the brank Brian Hoyer once in
a while. Why don't you shut up and play with
Case keenup? And I'm just kidding. I love you Case,
you know, like, but the list wasn't exactly a murderer's

(20:33):
row of quarterback.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
The quarterback play here, and he constantly produced the USA
women's hockey team.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
Are they up now?

Speaker 2 (20:40):
They can't score two goals? And you know you got
to score the first one first.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
Well I knew they were down, so I was just
asking if they were up.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
It's one to one with one hundred and twenty four
seconds remaining.

Speaker 1 (20:51):
Is that called a tie? Or do they have a
special name for it in hockey too? Like stupid soccer rules.
They're not gonna tie. Someone's gonna win the gold medal
in a few minutes or more. I'm just saying, is
it tied right now? Or is there another word? I
don't know another word for tie in sports. I know
less about hockey than Skip Bayless. You don't need to
know anything about this hockey. You just know if the
score is the same for both teams.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
It's a time.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
Yeah. But if I were to say, look at their
nice jerseys right now, everybody would immediately yell at me
they're wearing sweaters.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
I wouldn't, but most people would. I wouldn't yell at you.
Cold did one time. I would tell you, I wouldn't
yell at.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
Cole yelled at me. He's a big hockey fan. He's like, no,
they're called sweaters. I'll never forget that day. It was
a bad day, all right.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
So I guess there's more reasons to hate LA sports.
It's coming in Best of X.

Speaker 4 (21:37):
The a team on sports Talk posting every single day.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
You're the Best of X, breaking.

Speaker 5 (21:45):
The entire to.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
Have to play some different imaging involving you singing again,
because now I've gotten all popped.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
Up again on what happened early today, not show related.
Halfway through the first hour of the show, it is
time for the Best of X.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
Maybe I'll have the heart attack on the air so
you guys can all witness it.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
Don't need to do that.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
Well, if my blood pressure keeps going through the roof
over stupid stuff, it's gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
Don't let it.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
What am I supposed to do breathing exercises yoga here
in the studio now? Anyway? You know I love to
hate LA sports, right, Yes, I do. It's one of
my favorite pastimes. Now, this it's kind of I'll be honest,
It's not the most cantankerous thing.

Speaker 2 (22:41):
It's just something that's gonna if you hate. They saw
the news that you're talking about, and I thought, well,
this can't possibly be it, but I guess it is.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
Well, the Lakers have named Lawn Rosen president of Business Operations.
Why is that interesting to any of you? Good question?
I will read aloud from the caption that one Dave

(23:09):
mcmenemon Andrews wrote. He's the Lakers beat writer for the
ESPN dot com. Basically, he writes about all things LA.
This hire makes a direct pathway between the Lakers and
Dodgers organizations. Rosen has been an executive vice president and
chief marketing officer with the Dodgers for more than a decade.

(23:33):
The reason this should irritate you is because it's just
going to remind you of how the Dodgers have ruined
baseball and currently the highest paid player on the Lakers
has ruined basketball. Whether you believe me or not, he
absolutely has because in my opinion.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
Man, I don't know if even Lon could believe that
this would take you down this line.

Speaker 1 (23:55):
That's just an innocent bystander in this. He's just going
to catch strays because of who he works for, and
that's fine.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
And again, the caption attached to a press release, so
all the informations right there in the press release if
you want it, which also would allow you to learn
that he started his career with the Los Angeles Lakers.
This is a former Lakers coming home executive who went
to the Dodgers and worked there for years and with

(24:20):
the current business ops pres stepping away, and they knew
that already they needed a new one. And Jeanie Buss
is fired up that it's Lawn Rosen.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
Funny. You should mention that because since this is best
of X, I just went directly to the comments because
I knew they would deliver. Bring it Lakers, finally replacing
Genie's boyfriends with competent people.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
Huh, Jay Moore used to be the president of Basketball
Operation for the Lakers.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
Well, that's the first thing I thought, But we don't wait.
That person's referring to Yeah, Philip, which he never I mean,
to the best of my knowledge, he just coached them.
I'm sure he has some saying personnel at the draft
and things like that, but.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
I well, the president of basketball operations for most organizations
that have one, is like the biggest executive there is,
and then the president of business operations runs the company.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Phil was neither. Well he did other things or as
you make me say, people, I didn't make you say that. Well,
you can't send the line out there and just let
it sit. Just because I put it on a tea
doesn't mean you have to hit it out of the park.
I did so. Is Lon Rosen leaving the Dodgers. I
don't think that's how this works in all honesty. The

(25:38):
reason this is just rubs me the wrong way is
because I'm already mad at the Dodgers for ruinning baseball.
It is the Dodger's fault and to a larger extent,
the owner's fault that we won't have baseball next season.
In fact, at the end of the day, you know
what probably n end up doing, which really sucks. We're
gonna be thanking the Dodgers for violently pushing us off

(25:58):
the cliff and finally getting us to a part where
we have a salary cap in Major League Baseball. That's
the ugly, honest truth about that situation, don't you think, Yeah, Lawn, Well,
Lon sucks because of who he works for. I already
covered this. But why why.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
Isn't all of this Magic's fault? What Magic's running the
team on the other coast now?

Speaker 1 (26:21):
Right?

Speaker 2 (26:22):
A former Laker part of the Dodgers, he is Lon Rosen?
What's the difference?

Speaker 1 (26:28):
No, Lon Rosan's Twitter account can't compete with irvs.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
He is he even he's not a part of the
Lakers anymore?

Speaker 6 (26:38):
Is he?

Speaker 2 (26:39):
Oh, the Dodgers, but not the Lakers. Permanent member of
the Lakers organization?

Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, but what I mean is he's not even a
minority owner anymore with the Lakers, is he?

Speaker 2 (26:49):
I think he is, But I don't know that for sure.
But we do know he is with the Dodgers, yeah
for sure. And then other team commanders.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
There you go. That's what I was waiting on. I
knowe there's somebody out on the East Coast that he
was patronizing with. From a business standpoint.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
Yeah, we had a rough year in Washington, but I
think Jayden Daniels is going to come back even stronger.
Tough day at the office for us. We scored less
than the Cowboys did, so we lost. We will be
back and so will I. On X these are real
tweets like this, I mean I can made them up well.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
Basically made also worked with Lakers and Magic prior to Dodgers.
Since Magic hates Rob, he could be next to go
Rob Polinka, not Rob Low, even though we've never seen
them in the same rule.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
Yeah, every time you have a management change, this is
what everyone thinks is next.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
Did you read that whole article though that on you
know the I mean, I know we talked about it
a little bit.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
How Genie started firing all our brothers. Well, they were
problems the boyfriend. Somebody thinks that Genie's decisions regarding her
family were wrong or bad. They were correct and good
right by the way. The other person that said this
good news. Now it's time to get rid of Planka.
Why do you think Rob Plink is the GM of

(28:04):
the of the Lakers. I'm honestly asking you because Nico
Harrison had his phone number, but he's not. The GM
of the Lakers. Is Lebron James even though he had
nothing to do with Luca becoming a Laker?

Speaker 1 (28:19):
Do you believe that he didn't know about that deal?
Like he tried to tell us with a straight face,
well know about it? You think Rob got this? Oh
my god, I'm a phone call from Nico Harrison and
then said hang on and then he didn't say why
and he ran it by Lebron and then said, Okay,
do I think he ran it by Lebron? I think

(28:40):
after it was.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
Gonna happen, he told Lebron, here's what's happening. Isn't this awesome?
And Lebron was probably like, it's all right.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
That that sounds plausible, And yet I don't believe it.
I just can't.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
But that's like saying if Lebron didn't want him there,
he wouldn't be there.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
Lebron did.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
I totally disagree with that, because the Lakers are smarter
than that. As much as he has run the team,
this is for their post Lebron existence. That's the whole
reason this deal gets made. Lebron is cannot lead us anywhere,
and even with whatever teammates we put him with, he's
not gonna lead us anywhere. So you're giving us this
lifeline of finding somebody we think can and they could

(29:18):
be wrong. Luca's defense might torpedo all of it, and
his constant complaining and lack of physical fitness might get
in the way. But again, but they have a superstar
on their team.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
You just said the Lakers are smarter than that. I
don't agree with that. And here's why. Even though it
was in the bubble, they were the best of a
bad season and won a fake championship when no one
else did. And then what did they do with all
of the parts besides Lebron and Anthony Davis that won
that championship? They shipped them off.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
Yeah, the crappy parts.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
No, the parts that were role players that helped win
that championship. Don't do it.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
Were all shipped off.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
Don't do it.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
I know what you're about to say. What, don't say it.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
I'm gonna say it.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
Don't do it. Traded them all? Who did they trade
all the parts? Okay, you're not gonna see Kuzma. No, No,
he's awful, he's bad at basketball, and somehow he's in
the NBA.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
He traded him away for somebody who was worse.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
You realize that, right, Oh man? I just can't. I
can't have it. I can't have Kyle Kuzma helped me
win a championship on anybody's T shirt, anybody's parade. Go
look at the number for the Lakers uniform during the
season that they won the championship and played in a
lot of games and had a lot of minutes on
the court.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
And the Rockets couldn't beat him, nor could anybody else
there he go, He helped.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
He was a championship caliber player. Jack Haley also has
a Lakers championship.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
Not the same. I know it's not the same. I
know what their minutes are.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
He played twenty nine minutes a year in twenty twenty one,
and twenty five minutes a year the year before. He
plays a lot of minutes. He scores points. He's bad
at basketball. He's just flat out he's not a good player.
He's never been a good player. He fills up the
stat sheet because they don't have anybody else and all
the other stops he's been on.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
Okay, just an awful player.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
Okay, but again, after they made.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
Those dem away, after they made those deals plural, not
just Kyle Kuzma, they never they have steadily gotten worse
they've because they had to play a regularly scheduled NBA season,
which doesn't work with Anthony Davis's regularly scheduled in the
say it, say it, Say what I want you to

(31:24):
say about that championship. It's fake.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
While he was probably going to get hurt, the NBA
was on hiatus due to COVID. Talk about the championship
and address it properly.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
If I have to say, Kyle Kuzma, are the Are
there Disney related diamonds in their championship rings or Mickey
Mouse's ears in their championship rings?

Speaker 2 (31:43):
I don't know, so you can call it a Mickey
Mouse title. That's what it is that I agree with.
It's fake, but it was tougher. All right, We're gonna
screw you. And by the way, that is amazing. All
It's never happened in Ln's life. No way, he's ever
caught strays. Next time I see him, I might tell
him to his face. I hope he comes, he travels.

(32:04):
I hope he does well. The Lakers and the Rockets
are getting together in mid Marchlawn come to Houston.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
I'll tell you to screw go, screw to your face
and then I'll ask him, while he was away with
the Dodgers.

Speaker 2 (32:16):
Why I'm not working the game that now, what did
he think of the Kyle Kuzma trade. I'll ask him
that as a dodge mp ship piece out the door,
that's what he'll say.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
All right.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
I gave you the actual Olympic update since the game
has gone to overtime, But our latest a team Olympic update,
and it has nothing to do with the games themselves
or Lon Rosen. It's it's a it's worth listening to,
and it's next overtime for the gold medal between USA

(32:51):
and Canada. Well, if they're currently playing and overtime, then
you know the answer to the question just underway. Well,
we'll probably see that. I would imagine we'll see that
finish here in overtime number one, especially with the way
that Hillary Knights squad is handling business. She got the
tipping late in the third period to force this game

(33:11):
to overtime. Same two teams met in the prelimbs Team
USA five, Canada. Nothing today. It was almost a miracle
that they tied the game Team USA just to get
it to overtime, which is where they are now. But
I told you this Olympic update from the A team,
and we try to sprinkle a nonsense update from the
Olympics at least once a day. No mention of the

(33:33):
dog that finished third place and the race down the
slopes the other day, but most of you have probably
seen that. No, it's just a random dog that wandered
onto the course and as the two skiers were getting
close to the finish line, the dog was right behind him. Okay,
there's been a few animals take part in some of

(33:53):
the activities here on the outdoor portions of the Milan
Courtina twenty twenty six Winter Olympics. But it's also a
very newsy event. Obviously NBC Peacock and then worldwide there's
lots of newsies that make the trip or it's their
home country and they traveled a few minutes to go

(34:14):
to the events, and they file their reports, They have
a couple of live hits, They tell you stories about
the village, They go to crazy pizza restaurants, you know,
all the good stuff you do when you're at covering
a major sporting event. We've done the same thing. I've
covered Super Bowls. I've asked if it was okay, it's
a very professional member of the sports media on a
work trip. If is okay, could I just what do

(34:36):
they call the fan fest when it's at the Super Bowl?
Say here at GRB, you know, NFL Live, NFL Experience. Yeah,
something wrong. Yeah, So when it opens at eleven am
to the public on Friday and you get there on Thursday,
I mean hypothetically and you say, hey, I know you're
not open yet, but you know, in the very very
very very very very early days of social media, yeah,

(34:57):
can me and my co host just come on in
here and check out what you'll have to offer so
we can shoot some videos? Oh yeah, sure, And we
did and it was total nonsense. We were able to
take They had a nice Texans set up there, so
I was able to take a picture as Will Fuller
that was the cutout textan they had for us to

(35:18):
play with, and all sorts of other nonsense. So it's
a big event for the media, and you might get
asked to file a report and you might be doing
all these other things that we mentioned, and you might
be Danica Mason, a sports broadcaster, as she calls herself
on her Instagram page. She is from Australia, and she
was delivering a report and these guys in the studio

(35:39):
throw it out to her and she goes through whatever
it is. She has to tell all the listeners about
what's going on where she is reporting from at the Olympics.
This a couple of days ago, and it sounded like.

Speaker 5 (35:49):
This pries and claiming England's fans, but Richard in the
UK literally like the prize of coffee over here is
actually fine. It's more the price of coffee in the
US that we are going to have to get used to.

Speaker 2 (36:05):
I'm not sure that the Iguanas, where are we going
with that one?

Speaker 5 (36:09):
But anyway, let's get into today sport because there is
plendy happening back home. We're going to start off with
some actual Bristol Rocos gearing from the actually their trip
to the US and the UK, rather because Bryce Walsh
has stolen the show of course that in the last
years Ash series crowning for four tries and claiming England's fans,

(36:35):
but rich out of the UK. Just three months following
that UK Club Challenge.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
One of that report was delivered in English, uh huh,
and it sounded like ninety nine percent of that report
was with slurred speech, and many people picked up on that,
including those that were in the studio.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
They didn't say anything.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
Sometimes when this happens, you're thinking A that or maybe
be that and a is something wrong? Like it's something
actually physically and from a health standpoint, yeah, blood alcohol content,
Well at that's point, that's not that's not a I'm
sick or I'm having a stroke or I'm having some
sort of episode. That's you did something to yourself. That's

(37:17):
what most people thought, and most people were right. She
joined the broadcast a day later, and she sounded like this,
I just want to.

Speaker 7 (37:23):
Take a moment, if that's okay, just to apologize. Look,
I totally misjudged a situation. I shouldn't have had a drink,
and especially in these conditions it's cold, we've got altitude,
and not having had dinner probably didn't help as well.
But I want to take full responsibility. It's not the
standard that I set myself.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
Okay, I straight up apology and straight up admission I
was drunk and has led in women.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
That's not what she said. She said a drink, and
I want to know what was it? Lighter fluid like
come on a drink?

Speaker 2 (38:03):
Well, She didn't say I was drunk, because she didn't
I had enough of a drink or enough drinks to
come across like. I couldn't speak, But that has so
many words. That's why I just said to.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
Come across like she would absolutely catastrophic. And you know, honestly,
both of us, I don't know if you think the
same when when I heard it and saw it. She's
not alone. This is not a one man band situation.
She has a photographer.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
Was he so wasted he thought this was a good
idea not to you know, toss and assist her way
and say, maybe we don't do this, And maybe he
didn't know. Maybe she hit it before she got on air.
We will see if there are any further things. Hopefully
everything is just fine. That's all we're concerned about. I
did sneak in there during this very important Olympic upsdate
to TSA did in fact win in overtime, another gold

(38:57):
for AC's home country.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
Not sure where we're.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
Gonna end up when we get to the closing ceremonies
of the twenty twenty six Winter Olympics, because we have
several things that we will get you with via a
poll question. Both on the show and at Sports Talk
seven to ninety social channels. What was your favorite moment
of the twenty twenty six Winter Olympics. The slurred speech
Australian reporter the Norwegian skiers admission of cheating during his

(39:31):
live post race bronze medal winning interview. Her reaction, that's
all part of the same story. And we have a
couple of other spots open. I mean, I guess we
could say Hillary Knight becoming the all time grading goal
scorer in US hockey history and winning a gold medal.
Mikayla Schiffrin winning a gold medal, which she did yesterday.

(39:52):
I mean, I don't know where we put Lindsay Vaughn
in this, but there's a few things we'll get to
when it all ends.

Speaker 5 (40:00):
Soon.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
She's she's I believe she's been flown out and is
now going in for surgery number three right now.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
My favorite moment was Team USA hockeying better than the
Canadians at their own game. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
These two teams, I'm sure you guys, being hockey and
Olympic enthusiasts like you are, know that they basically meet
in the gold medal game every year. There's only once
since US women's hockey became an Olympic sport, have the
two not met in the gold medal game? And now
the US has three titles, three gold medals. Canada has five,

(40:35):
but they lost on them. They are gaining on them.
And this is probably my all time absolute stone cold
lock of the Olympics that the US women's hockey team
would win gold and they had to put overtime.

Speaker 5 (40:48):
To do it.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
Imagine leading one nil? Is it nil in hockey or
is it just nothing?

Speaker 1 (40:52):
Nil?

Speaker 2 (40:53):
Is acceptable?

Speaker 5 (40:53):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (40:53):
Okay, it's more of a soccer lack of itally, Yeah,
imagine leading one nothing the entire match. I'm just doing
it on purpose now at this point, I.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
Mean it's a hockey game.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
No, it's a match.

Speaker 2 (41:08):
It's a soccer match. It's soccer on ice.

Speaker 1 (41:11):
Thus it is Yeah, why isn't it football on ice
because it's two goals?

Speaker 2 (41:17):
Okay, you can't use your hands. What's at the back
of the end zone on the your hands in football?
I mean in soccer. You can use your hands in hockey, Oh,
use a stick, control bland and your hands for second
like in soccer. No, if you use your hands in soccer,
it is illegal unless you're the goalie. If you use
your hands in hockey, just drop the puck quickly. I

(41:38):
mean someone's trying to clear the puck and they fly
it up in the air. You catch it, you drop it,
you move with it.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
It's fine. It's totally legal ice soccer there. It is,
all right.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
So yeah, tam USA rules suck at Canada. That's uh
the first We already knew the first part before this
hockey match.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
Well, now we know the second part. It's my favorite part. Okay,
let's get into some astros spring training. I'm not gonna
call it news day nine. Are you really doing this?

Speaker 2 (42:08):
Yeah, I mean it's factual. What are you gonna once
they start playing games?

Speaker 1 (42:11):
Do you start over because it's the first game, or
do you say day eleven because it's Saturday.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
Spring training is over once the games start.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
Oh okay, then what do you call it? Exhibition?

Speaker 5 (42:21):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (42:22):
But it's still spring training. They're not doing the same
things anymore. Guys aren't out there working on this and
doing that. You may see a handful of live vps
for those that aren't participating, but they have games to work.
You know, if you need work, you play in the
game or you play on a backfield or are you
playing a minor league game? What if you know what? Well,
let me start by asking this question.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
What have we heard from Dana Brown all off season
and into today on February nineteenth, that the Astros need.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
Well, what we've heard from is we're not done yet, right,
and they're gonna add what what kind of bat?

Speaker 1 (42:57):
I thing?

Speaker 2 (42:57):
The bat's gonna say the same, but the person holding
it will swim it in a manner that you'd refer
to them as a left handed batter.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
Yeah, we need to get a left handed bat. Just
keep saying that, like they just grow on trees. You
could just go a, well, that's not the same.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
Added Calvin Bigio. Both are left handed batters. You know,
it took le sending a left handed bat out to
get one of them.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
But then yesterday and this is something Brian McTaggart wrote,
and we just didn't. It's it's out there. Doesn't mean
it's gotta happen, but it is interesting from the standpoint
of it's a familiar face and it does qualify for
sure as a left handed bat that is not those
other two names you mentioned, Joey lit Braffito, Calvin Bigio

(43:36):
Brian mag Ready Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
Brian McTaggart wrote, ready, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
Okay, I'm telling you get ready for what? Keep reading?
I don't want to now, I want to hear it.
I've changed my mind. No, let's go with their chances
of trade. The first part is really the most interesting
part of this, being honest with their chances of trading.
Third basement Esoch perettis diminishing. This is yesterday at one o'clock.
The Astros have expressed it interest in free agent outfielder

(44:02):
Michael CONFORDO. Sweet, Where did he land? Where did he land?

Speaker 2 (44:07):
He signed? That's how you're acting. Well, I hope he
doesn't land in Houston because he's not very good at baseball.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
Why you don't like that? He slashed one ninety nine
to three zero five three thirty three last year with
twelve homers and thirty six runs batted in one hundred
and twenty eight games for the defending undisputed world champion
LA Dodgers.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
Hit me with his postseason numbers. When they went on
their run, he slashed zero, zero, and zero. Well, that's
what I was gonna say. You didn't let me finish?
Oh man, these games are important. We don't need him
then for millions of the games we want to win. Okay, well,
he's not going to be a part of that. The
Astros had guys like that their World Series. So the

(44:45):
next off season, Oh man, I sure hope they signed
that guy.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
It's the same thing. It's depth. They don't need him,
he's not good. Well, then why do they need a
left handed back. It'd be nice to make it a
little bit more difficult to manage. It would satisfy you
if they got him that swings at left hand.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
Oh nobody, that's just sitting out there on the street.
Like Michael Conforto, thirty two year old.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
Don't forget.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
I'm not gonna say he hasn't played well.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
Not even old. He's just not young.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
But he hasn't played well enough to act like he's
He could be absolutely be signed and then not even
be a part of the team, not break camp with
the team having to be he signs up. If he
signs a major league contract, which would be even crazier.
Uh yeah, he'd obviously I'd have to figure something out.
But this is more like a minor league talent, a

(45:35):
minor league deal and with an opportunity an invitation to camp.
I mean, I'm probably being a little dramatic and going
overkill a a little bit.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
Comments back it up. One of them says, astros feel
like there just isn't enough strikeouts in the current batting order.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
Don't worry, there's more, Oh, just what we need. Mendoza
line hitter and going off of batting average is a
little old school, not with the toime, so I can
appreciate even dogging on it that way.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
That would be a horrible addition to the roster. There's more.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
Well, so, he's a left handed bat which means you
presume he helps balance out your lineup by crushing right
handed pitching, by forcing guy managers who want to bring
a right handed reliever to face all of your right
handers in a row in your order, and you're gonna
make it harder for them because now you've got a
left handed bat option off the bench or as part
of your outfielder out part of your outfield. Just so

(46:30):
you guys know, at least last year he hit, he
had a seven to fifty six OPS against left handed pitching.
His OPS against right handed pitching was your unplayable six fifteen.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
This is scraping the bottom of the barrel. We're not
done making minor league free agency pickups. Yeah, so go
about you should go about the conversation this way. You know,
I think the Astros are you interested in adding a
left handed bat? You know, they obviously they've got a
you know, surplus of infielder and a bunch of young
outfielders vying for a bunch of positions.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
So how do you think Dan is gonna go about it?
Do you think he might go out and make a trade. Yeah,
I think that's something he would be interested. Is there
a player that you think he has in mind? And
you say, yeah, it's Michael Conforto, And then you would say, oh,
who does he play for? What do you think it
would take to get him from that team? And then
you would say Wall doesn't play for anybody because nobody
wanted him, and then the conversation would be over. He

(47:24):
was a champion last year. It's just like Kyle Kuzma
and baseball. No Mickey Mouse regular championship for the Dodgers
without the incredible, incredible, helpful production and fantastic contributions of
Michael Conforto.

Speaker 1 (47:42):
By the way, if you were listening in the first hour,
that little Kyle Kuzma joke I just made as funny
or almost as funny as Rodney, who weighs in and says,
I thought the idea was to improve the team, not
make it worse.

Speaker 2 (47:55):
I am down with people's opinion being the same as mine.
And you know, Cantos, like I said, he has had
some very good season YEA, obviously he was a super
big time, you know player, being a former first round pick.
He had some verly nice seasons with the Mets. He
had two seasons with the Mets with an ops a
better than nine hundred an ops plus a better.

Speaker 1 (48:12):
Than one forty eight. That's elite, that's phenomenal. The last
of those seasons was the COVID year in twenty twenty.
Since then, he's been basically a seven hundred ops guy
or miss an entire year with injury or his most
recent season where he was not good. There's got to
be a better name out there than Conforto, says Jake.

(48:34):
There's another one that says, yeh, just stick Jordon in
left field and let paritis or al two a DH
and hope he doesn't get hurt at least at home.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
You know what, you play Jordon. You hope he doesn't
get hurt. Well, what happens if he does well? You
can sign Michael Conforto Andrew he sucks, and this would
not solve the infield problem. Just put Jordon in left,
imperetis and everyone else can rotate at DH. Everybody's saying
some semblance of that. By the way, yeah, I mean
again when they signed Couldford. Oh, I won't change my opinion,

(49:06):
but I do at least I have a mirror in here,
and when I look into it this segment, I know
I'm laying it on pretty thick. He's not a total
lost cause you obviously could catch lightning in a bottle.
He has plenty of major league experience. He's been a
major leaguer and a reasonably decent one for his whole
career sans last year. As he continues to get older

(49:27):
and continues to look for work and is jumping from
team to team, that's usually why he will play a
major league game somewhere this year. I just don't think
it's a great idea for it to be in Houston.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
Neither does Jonathan, who says, thank god, I've been saying,
Crane just needs to pony up and shell out some
big bucks for someone who can hit under two hundred
with no power. Let's all imagine Jordon. This is my
favorite one. This guy's so mad about this. He wants
to trade Jordan. Let's all imagine Jordon being injured this
year and playing less than a hundred games. What do

(49:59):
you do next? Count on him again? Just trade him
now and get something while he has some value, because
if he does go down again, his value will be
much lower.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
Thanks Trey.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
On top of them signing Michael Conforto, possibly we have
to listen to you try to trade the best hitter
on the team.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
Let me take you back to February first for an
MLB dot Com articles we close out this Michael Conforto segment,
a piece on who is still available in free agency
in Major League Baseball. It's a February first. Then they
listed the outfielders he plays outfield, Miguel Andujar, Markkanna, Randall,
Gritchick Starling, Marte, Tommy fam Mike Talkman, Jesse Winker, and

(50:35):
nobody else.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
Of the scrap heap.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
He didn't even make the list of the scrap heap,
but go ahead, maybe he could be an Astro sometime
very very very soon. I know, free agency in NFL yet,
no draft yet either. Well, of course that means it's
time for NFL win totals, and you won't believe the
Texans total. That's next.

Speaker 4 (50:58):
The a team Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
February nineteenth. It's the eighteen. It means it's time to
start talking about NFL win totals.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
Schedule's not out, free agency has not begun, the draft
has not taken place. The Super Bowl is still fresh
in our minds. But how are things gonna play out
next year? Is it too early to just go ahead
and throw something down on a number?

Speaker 1 (51:23):
You see?

Speaker 2 (51:23):
Well, the win totals at least from one entity released
in advance of all of those things.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
Not a lot of love for the South, either of
the South's well neither NFL. One of them should not
have love. Well, the one that should not have love
does not have love. There's not a team in the
NFC South. It delivers a projected win total not just
of not double figures, no, but about not even nine

(51:51):
and a half, yeah, eight and a half. The highest
win total. DraftKings, one of the entities that we're talking about.
They put those out, everybody else will do the same.
Is Baker Mayfield that bad? Well, eight and a half is.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
Going to get you a division title and a playoff
berth and unless the rules change, a home game in
the playoffs, seven and a half will make you the
New Orleans Saints, two of the three teams in the
division that did not make the playoffs last year or
win the division last year, and one of those two

(52:25):
didn't even tie for the division last year. Atlanta did
their win total dips from what was eight in twenty
twenty six or twenty twenty five, it's six and a
half for next year. And the division champion Carolina Panthers,
who won eight games almost half their games last year,
went to the postseason, didn't even play badly but lost.

(52:47):
There's a six and a half next year. The division champion.
Reigning titleists in that division are projected, while returning their
head coach, while returning their starting quarterback, projected to be
a six and a half win team. Which would you like?
You want to play the under you think they're gonna
be even worse than that. Probably, that's pretty embarrassing. The

(53:10):
AFC South, where you really actually care. The Texans did
not win the division last year, they did go to
the playoffs, and they did advance further than the team
that did. I'm sure it plays into all this what's
coming back, who's there coaching changes, Not in Houston, not
in Jacksonville, not in Indianapolis, but in Tennessee's case. Absolutely,

(53:32):
we stink we're one of the worst teams in the NFL.
We're drafting Eye again. Their win total is the same
as the Panthers six and a half Colts, who probably
will have Daniel Jones back next year at some point
at some level of health.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
And will probably lose their best receiver. Possibly there are
some people that think they might put enough money in
front of him that he remains there. Talking about Alec Pierce,
they're at eight and a half. Last year, the Texans
won twelve regular season games. Last year, Jacksonville won thirteen
regular season games. Neither of them got an over under

(54:07):
of double figures nine and a half for both for
the upcoming season. As a wager, the Texans are slight
favorites to be there over Jacksonville, but the number remains
the same. The win total for the Houston Texans, coming
off a twelve win season preceded by a ten win season.

(54:28):
Preceded by a ten win season. All of the CJ.

Speaker 2 (54:30):
Stroud seasons have been double figures. All would have hit
the over on nine and a half. Is are people
out there wanting to play the under? I don't think so.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
And my question is, by the way, if you're just wondering,
ten and a half is the highest for any team
on this list.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
It's not like because we don't have the Tom Brady
Patriots or the Peyton Manning Colts.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
And yet or the Patriholmes Chiefs, and yet the Patriots
are of course one of the teams it's gonna magically
win over ten games next year.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
I mean they're over under down. They won fourteen games
in the regular season. There is only nine and a half.
But again we don't This is very very early, which
is still crazy if you want to This is why
they're out there. This is a wagering establishment. This before
the draft at least, you're trying to generate interest in
generat giving them your money.

Speaker 1 (55:23):
This is what sites do you're to generate.

Speaker 2 (55:25):
Now, it's good that you can kind of look into
this a little bit, especially when you're trying to figure
out who's really going to come out on top. There's
only so many games that are different. You always talk
about the first place last place schedule all that. The
difference is, these are the three teams the Texans will
play that Jacksonville doesn't, Buffalo, Green Bay, and the LA
Chargers the second place teams that their division matches up with. Well,

(55:47):
Jaguars won this division, so they match up with each
of those divisions first place teams. The teams they play
that the Texans don't are New England, Chicago, and Denver.
Do you think there's much of a difference between the
three New England and Chicago, Denver and these three for Houston, Buffalo,
Green Bay and the Chargers. Yeah, the teams that the

(56:09):
Texans are going to play are better. I really believe that.
That's why I said I don't think there's much difference.
I mean, but what the real difference is. They're playing
first place teams. Yeah, but they're playing a team that
isn't the perennial first place team in the East in
the AFC. It's not Buffalo, Houston gets them. They're playing

(56:31):
the team that's not the perennial champion of the AFC West.
Because that's Kansas City. Kansas City is not even the
second place teams because Houston doesn't even have to face
them this year. That's who Indy gets. Yeah, what's crazy
is if you look at all three groups, obviously the
Titans finish in the last place, so they get the
Jets in Vegas.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
How are they getting six and a half for the Titans?
They suck because they get the Jets in Vegas. That's
maybe that's the two wins, but they also get last
place to that's right, yeah, it Titans are gonna win
more than six games next year. I mean, this is
pretty easy play out.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
Actually bet the over on both the Texans and the
Jaguars in this instance, but I don't think after the
draft and after free agency there will be It's not
gonna be much higher, but I'd be pretty surprised of
nobody in the AFC South when the season is afoot
is not drawing.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
An over under of double figures. To get ready though,
because much like last season's theme of anger for me
was the whole justin Herbert ranked higher than C. J.
Strout on quarterback lists in the preseason, Jags are gonna
get all the love for the division this year. It's happening.
Don't worry.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
I'm not sure that people really love the team they
respect that they won all these games, well, I'm not
gonna say they shouldn't. I don't think it was a
fluke that they won thirteen games. It's not like the
Patriots schedule, and they did have obviously more impressive winster.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
Right now, they do not win thirteen games this year. Well,
I don't want to bet you because I don't think
they will either. Said it wasn't a fluke, Well, I
don't think they're going to repeat it. I just don't
think it was a fluke. I think there's some wiggle
room in between. Well, Whereas I think the Texans are
going to get a better performance out of CJ. Shroud
over the course of the season, both from an injury
and just a bare bones minimum performance standpoint, I don't

(58:18):
think the Texans defense is changing at all. It would take,
you know, it's gonna take injuries for them not to
be as dominant, if not more, this upcoming year. Whereas
with the Jags, where are you hanging your hat on?
You think Trevor Lawrence is gonna have another season like
last year where he just a lot of things just
went right, and even when they didn't, he still got
he still got bailed out.

Speaker 2 (58:39):
Yes, here's why when they started winning every single game
it did. It's not a coincidence. It's after they acquired
Jacoby Myers.

Speaker 1 (58:50):
Yeah, I'll give you that.

Speaker 2 (58:51):
They added a wide receiver one at the deadline and
then locked him up. So much good vibes there in
that position, with what Arker Washington did, with the expected
positive return of Travis Hunter, that they really have options.
Ed TN and Touton were a very good backfield duo.
I think their offensive line is not real good, and

(59:12):
I think they know that too. It's also it's absolutely
not set in stone. The Etten's coming back to them,
by the way, it's not set in stone. We talked
about that a little bit together.

Speaker 1 (59:20):
Really want to do something, I'd go get him.

Speaker 2 (59:23):
I think again, they don't have to. And running backs
are fickle with NFL franchises. They always think they don't
need them, and then when they let them go, they
realized that was a mistake. You have all It's like
Seattle with Kenneth Walker. I think the same thing is
true in Jacksonville. I think Touton's a really good player.
I think Sharbona is a really good player. But I

(59:44):
don't want to hope I have a good running back
situation with the quality of football team I already have.
Why don't you just ensure that I have a good
running game by bringing them in each of their situations,
bringing both those players back, and they maybe that's exactly
what they do.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
I think the AFC South, and I'm not talking about
the whole division, I'm just talking about who wins. It
might be one of the more interesting subplots of the
entire NFL season that nobody's gonna talk about because it's
the AFC South.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
Worst team in the AFC based on their win total. Jets, Nope,
they got five and a half. Titans got six and
a half. So did the Browns. Raiders got five and
a half. It's the cost cutting, coach changing, general manager changing, blowing.

Speaker 1 (01:00:32):
It up all Miami Dolphin.

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
Miami Dolphins, right, they are the twenty twenty sixth version
of the first year Nick Cassario Texans.

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
We were winns.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
We had a bunch of good players, and we were
winning football games, and now we're not. So all the
players that make money have got to go this. You
will see with what they do with their cap situation
from last year to this year, and of the dead
money that they're going to eat because of it, their
general manager's gonna get Casario like credit for doing something
I've been saying for five years. Every general manager would

(01:01:02):
do what Nick Cassio did in his first year. That's
what's gonna happen in Miami this offseason. There's no reason
to keep any of these players to lose with you.
And this is when you want your dead cap when
you're already losing and you don't need to go find players.
You don't need to have cap space to take an
eight win team to a ten win team, or a
ten win team to a twelve win team. Dolphins are
going to be bad and we don't even know the

(01:01:23):
decision yet. Onto a Tagobailova.

Speaker 1 (01:01:25):
That's true. Hey, there's a new home for Bears football
and it ain't Chicago and it ain't even Illinois.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
We'll explain when we come back.

Speaker 4 (01:01:37):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
Thursday edition of the program.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
Welcome in, thanks for listening to us, and if you're
watching over on Space City Home Network, we've turned the
lights on now so he'll be able to see us now,
all right, the Indiana Bears.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
Rolls off the tongue, right, it doesn't roll off the tongue.
I've read nothing about it, and it's never going to happen.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
The Chicago Bears endeavor for a new stadium took a
quote meaningful step forward today, opening the door for the
storied franchise to leave Illinois to potentially build a new
domed stadium in northwest Indiana. That's because Indiana lawmakers in
the State House Ways and Means Committee unanimously approved an

(01:02:26):
amendment to Indiana State Build twenty seven by a vote
of twenty four nil. Like Kurt Signette's over there, it
would clear a path for the Bears to build said
stadium in Hammond, Indiana, which I hear is lovely this
time of year.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
Why didn't you call them the Hammond Bears. Well, because
it's closest to.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
Indiana the state, and I'll call them the Well, Chicago's
a city, hammona city. But unless you're talking about Indieianapolis,
and let's face it, people are too lazy to call
them the Indianapolis Pacers. It's easier to say Indiana Pacers.

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
Why don't we call them the Indiana Colts.

Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
I don't know that's the Colts problem.

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
Oh what I said before, I definitely believe. And I
also feel like been there, done that, Hey Houston, remember us?
Is this not Virginia with Drayton McClain. Yeah, No, I mean,
look like we want you. We're going to give you
this unbelievable windfall of money, and we know you're going
to take it because it's impossible to pass up. That

(01:03:31):
was what happened with Bud Adams. Drayton used that leverage,
just like I think the Bears will ultimately use this leverage,
which they probably didn't even need anyway. But that's what
they'll do, and they'll stay where they'll stay in as
the Chicago Bears. I'm not going to sit here and
say they're going to stay right where they are because
that's almost a given that that's not going to happen.

(01:03:52):
Arlington Heights and any number of outskirts cities and areas
of Chicago or Illinois in general, yes, going to be
the new home of the Bears, it looks like. But
the Bears are not leaving the they're not leaving the area,
and they're not crossing state lines if you want to
kind of semantics me out of that. You are so.

Speaker 1 (01:04:12):
Optimistic when considering who we're dealing with here. Yeah, one
of the hallmark franchises of NFL. Maybe the hallmark franchise
of NFL. That's who we're dealing with. No, who we're
dealing with is guy who's in the running for worst
mayor in America if anybody threw this up. Now he's
in the top two. Okay, there's like who's won, probably

(01:04:36):
Karen bass in La Gavin saved, he's the governor. What's
the difference A big one federal versus local for starters.
Oh okay, let's hear from Brandon Johnson, one of the
smartest people I've heard from ever.

Speaker 3 (01:04:53):
It is my face straight Okay, all right, keep a
straight face here, shut up and just talk. The Bears
belong in the city of Chicago. The Chicago Bears belong
in the city of Chicago. And I've said repeatedly that
the door is always open for conversations, you know, and
you know what, you know, Kevin Warren did call me yesterday.

(01:05:17):
We didn't get a chance to connect, you know, And
I still firmly believe that their best position is in Chicago,
and it's evidence.

Speaker 1 (01:05:26):
The evidence is clearly speaking for itself. Yes, you're right,
the evidence is speaking for itself. They're trying to move
to another state.

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
No, the Bears aren't trying to move to another state.
Another state is trying to give them an outlet to move.
This isn't a Bears move, This is an Indiana move.
The Bears move has been Can we get a plan
in place that everybody can approve for this area of town?
Can we go to our Lincoln Heights? Can we go here?

Speaker 1 (01:05:50):
Can we move this along? Can we do this?

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
We obviously need to do something, even though they still
have a lease for a little more than half a
decade where they currently are. They're all to build a stadium.
They're going to move, They're going to do something of
significance with a stadium. I still don't think there's any
scenario where they don't literally move from their current site.
But they're not moving to Indiana. Indiana just wants to

(01:06:13):
be heard and say, hey man, you're already having problems.
You're it's already not working. We can everybody can see that.
And Brandon is just loudly and as oddly as he
just did. Told us it's not working. So if there's
a chance, we want to be a part of it.
If there's any chance you're leaving, and we know there
probably isn't, but even a small, tiny, tiny percentage chance,

(01:06:35):
look what you could do.

Speaker 1 (01:06:36):
You can come right here. Not only did we approve it,
it was unanimous. It's twenty four to nothing.

Speaker 3 (01:06:42):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:06:43):
My favorite part of Brandon was, hey, man, door is
always open. I mean he called yesterday. I didn't pick
it up, but I said, we didn't connect, right. He
put him on he voicemail in a meeting, sent him
straight to voicemail. He was trying to pay attention. He
was driving somewhere, and unlike LaMelo Ball, he tried to
not be distracted. That could be one scenario.

Speaker 2 (01:07:04):
Uh, it's this is interesting to hear it. We're ripping
on the government side of it, the politics side of it.
Can you let this be involved so right? Well, we
usually are on the others. Oh my god, I can't
believe they're doing this. How much money is this going
to cost the taxpayers? Well, if he lets them leave

(01:07:25):
it for Indiana, it doesn't cost the task pakers taxpayers anything.

Speaker 1 (01:07:29):
And we're saying. I'm saying, there's no way that's going
to happen. Why couldn't they they move there and just
keep their name. Well, they can, but they're not going to.

Speaker 3 (01:07:39):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:07:40):
You say that, and you're probably right, but you're not
as close to being rights as you're here. Put it
this way, don't underestimate Brandon's ability to screw this up.

Speaker 2 (01:07:50):
As long has Brandon even been in charge? Well, the
crazy thing is twenty twenty three. I think actually is.

Speaker 1 (01:07:56):
Worse than the person that preceded him, And I didn't
think Chicago can.

Speaker 2 (01:08:00):
Get worse than Lori Lightfoot.

Speaker 1 (01:08:01):
He's just doing what he was.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
I'm sorry, beetlejuice, that's awesome. What I don't think it's
it's on him that they are where they are, These
going nowhere, negotiations, going nowhere, accomplishments of the Chicago versus
the Bears. Not his fault square they are.

Speaker 1 (01:08:21):
But doesn't it feel like this has been the story
with this team for I mean, in all honesty, we
make fun of Bud Adams and how it all went
down here in a vacuum, aren like looking at that
moment in time, it wasn't a very long one. He
got mad about the stadium. I want some renovations. He

(01:08:42):
got them right around nineteen eighty nine. I believe I
won't ask you because it's a year. And then he
immediately turned around and said, yeah, just kidding, I still
want a new stadium. And Bob Lanaire said, kick rocks man,
And so he did all the way to Nashville. That
took like a decade tops for the whole thing to unfold.
He got his renovations in a nine. They were gone
by ninety six. This feels like it's been happening for

(01:09:03):
twenty years.

Speaker 2 (01:09:04):
In Chicago, they made renovations, obviously to Soldier Field. They
have at least that runs through twenty thirty three. It's
very much like the Astros. I mean, well, the Oilers
it could be, except I think the main difference is
what I brought up at the onset of this entire second.
You don't think they'll actually move. The Oilers were here
for a while. I mean, they had history here, not

(01:09:25):
like Chicago. This is the NFL, This is the whole league,
leather helmets. It matters to the people in Chicago. No
offense to the people here, so it doesn't matter a lot,
but it is different. Yeah, that I'd be interesting to
see how this thing unfolds. But again, like I said,
don't forget, we're going to get to see the Oilers
very very soon with.

Speaker 1 (01:09:44):
Their new kit. What a stupid franchise. That's the most
eloquent as I could put it. What an idiot owner
and a stupid franchise. And I don't use that term often,
but I am I am now.

Speaker 2 (01:09:55):
Yesterday we talked about one former NBA owner's viewpoints on
on tanking in the NBA. How about a current owner
making it very clear about how he feels about tanking.

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
That's next.

Speaker 4 (01:10:08):
The age on sports talking.

Speaker 1 (01:10:10):
He's gonna get played. I'm feeling it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:12):
Usually when we say Ish, we're actually trying to not
say something we're obviously not supposed to hear on the
walks off seven.

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
Ninety Smith or one of our favorite bosses. Oh yeah,
Ish exactly? Does anybody call him by his full name here?

Speaker 2 (01:10:31):
I don't think so, And I don't think there was
anybody that ever played for the Rockets named Ish Myles Smith.
Do you there was a rocket Ish Mile that played
up the road in Dallas. Nobody called him Ish because
there was no h in his last name, and they
called him Rocket. So in this case we just mean
NBA owner Matt ish Be a Mark Cuban man. That

(01:10:52):
is some unbelievably lengthy posts he made about tanking the
other day on his social media accounts on his unblocked
everybody else you could see it because so many other
people screencapped it or grabbed it and everything else. And
he was very He brought it up on the show
that he just flat out said, we did it a

(01:11:12):
couple of times, tanking, and it helped us get Luca.
And again they actually had to still make a trade
to get Luca, but landing in the spot that they
did with the other assets that they had did assist
them a little bit. And most of their last I
think it was about twenty games. I think they finished
four and eighteen in a season that obviously was not
going well to begin with, and it's probably close to
how the Mavericks will finish it this year. I don't

(01:11:35):
know what Cooper flag situation will be moving forward health wise.
I know he's in a boot during the All Star break,
but they might just consider we don't we don't really
want him back.

Speaker 1 (01:11:44):
We know who he is, we know what he can do.

Speaker 2 (01:11:46):
He's not going to gain a whole lot by playing,
and we certainly don't want to run the risk of winning.

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
But he's already better at selling jerseys for more money
in his debut than Wimby. Oh good for him. Did
you see that? No, over a million bucks for a
jersey He made his debut in surpassing Wimby from some
auction I think so. I didn't really read the story.
I just saw the headline, right, So some crazed Duke
Mavericks Cooper Flag crazy decided to spend that much money.

Speaker 2 (01:12:12):
So that's good to know, I mean to some people
have that kind of disposable income.

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
Yes they do.

Speaker 2 (01:12:17):
But today hearing similar or at least thoughts on it
from a current NBA owner. He owns the Phoenix Suns
and their offspeed off season as he really tried to
reshape the franchise in a number of different ways and
obviously pulled the trigger on the Kevin Durant and six
other teams deal. Most people thought they were going to stink,

(01:12:39):
and most people thought the value of their picks would
be great and they would be in the lottery for
many years to come and would ultimately have to decide
when is it time to move on from franchise talent
Devin Booker, because what's the point of paying him? We
stink we're not going to win. They're going to be
in the playoffs this year. Not only are they going
to be in the playing tournament, they're gonna win. What's

(01:13:01):
necessary if they're in the eighth spot or the seventh spot,
or the ninth spot, wherever it is, but I think
it's probably seven. They're gonna be in the playoffs this year.
What did Matt Ishbia have to say about NBA tanking, Well,
what he had to say is that it's obviously not
It's not a good thing.

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
And as the NBA continues, what I some people are
saying is one of their worst stretches of pr in
quite some time. His exact quote was, this is ridiculous.
Tanking is losing behavior done. I have to start over
because it's such a funny quote. And this is from

(01:13:41):
this is not quoted in an art on his Twitter account,
is from his own post Yeah at m Ishbia fifteen,
this is ridiculous exclamation point. Tanking is losing behavior done
by losers. These are losing behaviors done by losers. Purposely
losing is something nobody should want to be associated with.

(01:14:01):
Embarrassing for the league and for the organizations, and the
talk about this as a quote strategy is ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (01:14:10):
If you are a bad team, give you get a
good pick that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (01:14:16):
But purposely and this is all one post, by the way,
but purposely shutting down players and purposely losing games is
a disgrace and impacts the integrity of the whole league.
By the way, nothing he has said so far is incorrect.
It's all one hundred percent right. This is much worse
than any prop bet scandal. This is throwing games strategically. Again,

(01:14:37):
I'll stop him when he's saying something inaccurate. Horrible for
fans that pay to watch and cheer on their team,
and horrible for all the real teams that are competing
for playoff spots. Awful behavior that Adam Silver and the
NBA will need to stop with massive changes. Comma and
I have complete confidence that with his life leadership, he

(01:15:01):
will fix it good save those of us in a
position of influence need to speak out. The only quote
strategy is doing right by fans, players and the NBA community.

Speaker 2 (01:15:14):
The longer you read this, I wonder if people listening
were having the same thoughts that I was. The more
you read, the more he talked about it involvement in
the NBA, calling out the NBA and its leadership, and
then obviously, like you said, making the save, and obviously
know who this person is already. But the more you
read it, the more I thought, one thing is as

(01:15:34):
strongly as anything else that could be brought out of
this conversation. This really sounds like a brand new NBA owner. Yeah,
he hasn't been through all the other stuff that all
the other owners have been through. He hasn't been through
losing and losing and losing and not being able to
do this. And you know, we won thirty five games.
We're stuck in purgatory of Nowheresville. We're drafting in the

(01:15:54):
lottery every year at eleven and thirteen and nine, and
we're getting nowhere and we're stuck. We're not getting anywhere.
That's why owners don't want to be there. That's why
owners don't stand in the way or flat out tell
their basketball people, hey, I'm down. If you are to
be down in every single game with the buzzer, that

(01:16:14):
would be awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:16:16):
Well, you know what's interesting is what team is he on.
He owns the Phoenix Suns. They're good this year exactly,
and a lot of people I don't thought they would be.

Speaker 2 (01:16:25):
That's the point. He just bought the team. He's a
new owner. What's the experience he was supposed to experience
losing on paper? And he's been calling out people left
and right for saying, where were you?

Speaker 5 (01:16:38):
Then?

Speaker 1 (01:16:38):
All right, know where you were? You were telling us
how awful we would be, and they're not.

Speaker 2 (01:16:42):
So he's not going through it. He's not going year
after year or having a small couple, a little tiny
window of a little bit of success and bloom, they're
right back into lottery hell where they's the land in
the lottery, but you don't get a pick that's worthwhile,
or you miss or you're relying on your GM over
and over and man, he did this right, and he
added this player, and our cap situation is great. But

(01:17:05):
then he drafted him and two picks later, this guy went,
I guess I gotta get a new GM, or I
guess I need to lose more, or I get You
don't know what to do at that point, other than
the obvious, I gotta make it as hard as possible
to screw this up, and I can only do that
in advance, and this year, I hope people are paying
attention to college basketball just a little bit. This is

(01:17:28):
and maybe it doesn't play out when they get to
the NBA. We haven't had a draft class like this,
probably seven deep now. I think do think the first
two or three players will be outrageously good, but I
think most of the lottery is going to produce exceptional,
franchise changing caliber talent. Is this the best draft since
two thousand and three?

Speaker 1 (01:17:48):
It could be again those that's a full Hall of
Famer nineteen eighty four, two thousand and three, that's the standard.

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

Speaker 1 (01:17:55):
I don't know that that will be the.

Speaker 2 (01:17:56):
Case, because obviously that's an enormous leap to take. But
I can't help watching what these players are. And it's
not just for one year. We knew who these guys,
who these players were when they were fifteen and sixteen. Yeah,
now they're seventeen and eighteen. But I do think watching
the way that many of them played, even Darren Peterson,
even Darren Peterson, no matter are Patterson, no matter how

(01:18:16):
much he is being maligned for his lack of desire
to be on the court for Kansas sload managing. You
think he got to recognize the situation he's in a
little bit. I think I could be wrong. We shall see.
Wait till Ishbia sees the other side. It would be
my thought on.

Speaker 1 (01:18:33):
A lot of people are saying that in the comments
four o'clock hour coming up next. Could the Clippers actually
be punished after all for the whole Kawhi scandal? We
will discuss pretty easy to read it.

Speaker 2 (01:18:46):
I am thinking that you made me think I made
a mistake, which of course I did not. It does
happen once a year. Oh my god, it happens all
the time. I mean, just last segment, I said Darren Peterson,
I'm sorry, Patterson, it's Peterson.

Speaker 1 (01:19:00):
It right.

Speaker 2 (01:19:00):
The first time.

Speaker 1 (01:19:01):
I didn't correct you. So I made that mistake.

Speaker 2 (01:19:04):
It was brought to our attention. Appreciate it, Sean, even
though we had just seen it. We were talking about
tanking and the National Basketball Association and.

Speaker 1 (01:19:14):
Then Kroc Ausweiler, that's what he would call it, the
NBA Emotional football League.

Speaker 2 (01:19:20):
I said about Sham's who posted this minutes ago, I
don't think you really told us anything we didn't already know,
because there's pretty much no way the league could send
out fines and recognize this topic as often as they
have this year and have it be asked of Adam
Silver at their availability during All Star Week and then
just think, no, I'm going to watch these next two

(01:19:43):
months of Utah, Dallas, Washington and on and on and
on and on and on, probably ten teams just intentionally
trying not to have games, thirty games basically of not trying,
and I'm just not going to have any pressure on
me from outside sources like gambling and an inside sources
like the other owners, and we'll just kind of move

(01:20:04):
on its status quo. But Sham's posts. Commissioner Adam Silver
informed the league's thirty general managers on Thursday, that's today,
that the NBA plans to make anti tanking rule changes
for next season because stakeholders have intensified dialogue about combating tanking.
So for all the reasons we just said, there was

(01:20:24):
no way they were going to do nothing, And that's
why they have to figure out something they think will work,
and as soon as they do and they vote on
it and it gets passed, and then they publish it
and then we talk about it. We will immediately say
this isn't going to work. Well, I'm glad that you
brought this up because he has added to it. Ooh,
multiple sources with knowledge of Thursday's GM meeting, which.

Speaker 1 (01:20:46):
GM all of them.

Speaker 2 (01:20:48):
Well, I'm saying, who is his source? As well as
a lawy.

Speaker 1 (01:20:51):
He doesn't reveal those as well as a late January
Competition Committee meeting told ESPN that the following concepts have
been discussed to curb tank. First round picks can be
protected only top four or top fourteen plus, which is
it lottery odds freeze at the trade deadline or a

(01:21:13):
later date. No longer allowing a team to pick top
four in consecutive years and or after consecutive bottom three finishes.

Speaker 2 (01:21:25):
Now that one gets my attention. Now nobody's paid any
attention to this the last two years in Major League Baseball.
But without getting into the specifics of what you just
said and giving you the specifics of what Major League
Baseball does, that is an element of their lottery. They're
recently instituted lottery. The last couple of drafts. There are
stipulations that are right along those lines. You can't pick

(01:21:46):
in the top four again, or you can't have the
number one pick or three. Whatever the stipulations are, I
could don't know them off the top of my head,
but there are stipulations in there that has teams like Colorado,
who's clearly been there for many years, they don't have
the opportunity to be in that spot again and again
and again.

Speaker 1 (01:22:03):
And that's what this suggests. That's not even the most
interesting one. That's this one.

Speaker 2 (01:22:08):
And it's very pertinent when you consider what just happened
in the NBA.

Speaker 1 (01:22:12):
In addition to the news coming out of Pablo Tori's camp,
teams can't pick top four the year after making the
conference finals. Looking at you, rigged ass, Dallas, Mavericks getting
Cooper flag after you traded away Luca, like the idiots
you are, you all of you. Nico gets the blame

(01:22:33):
because he was a GM. Your ownership signed off on it.
So you suck all up and down, Dallas. It's not
just one guy.

Speaker 2 (01:22:39):
If that's the only change specific to that rule, what
would you do with them? Would you run the lottery
exactly as it is? But when they come up in
that spot, the highest they can get is well, when
they come up in that spot. It's treated as a
non draw. You just throw that combination out and you
move on to the next draw, which is what they

(01:22:59):
do for the top spot or the top four. I
guess I should say so every draw they make five
or lower or else gets put. Dallas keeps all their
combinations right. But if they come up, if these are
the four balls that cope, the four combination sequence that
comes up for the number one pick, they just treat
it as a dead dead spot for combo pick.

Speaker 1 (01:23:18):
I bring that up because Pablo Tory says, before we
go in, because there's three more points. Pablo Tory says
today multiple NBA owners believed last year's NBA draft was
quote obviously fixed. I mean seriously, if you're Adam Silver,
you're rolling out of bed every day this week like,
oh crap again, Like he has not gotten good news
in like a month.

Speaker 2 (01:23:39):
So if the lottery wasn't rigged in any possible way,
it was totally legit. And Dallas came up with the
number one pick, what was he supposed to do? So,
oh man, they're gonna think it is rigged. Maybe I
shouldn't let this.

Speaker 1 (01:23:51):
Happen, Like you just made the worst trade in NBA history,
and then you got the number one pick. Come on, dude, I.

Speaker 2 (01:23:56):
Can't wait for the next eight years or so, maybe six,
I don't know how long Lucas got the last when
this worst trade in NBA history, which I won't disagree
with even then, when the Lakers don't accomplish much of
anything with Luca, they won't, but it won't.

Speaker 1 (01:24:09):
Be because of Luca so much as it'll be because
they're just dumb. They don't make good decisions. I think
what we'll ultimately seeing. I'm glad there's all these options,
and there's all these discussions. There are bits and pieces
of a bunch of these that makes sense that actually
I do think would curtail it a little bit. One
of the ones you said, I think is sounded nuts.

Speaker 2 (01:24:27):
Which one, because there's three more that I haven't read.
Setting the lottery before the season's over, like a game
fifty you said the All Star break, Right, games, You're
gonna tell me your record after fifty three games determines
that's your lottery position.

Speaker 1 (01:24:43):
Yeah, what if a team actually loses its franchise player
and goes into the toilet so much or just misses
the playoffs?

Speaker 2 (01:24:50):
So they're gonna have a lottery pick. Now, what if
Kyrie Irving's timeline had him returning right after the All
Star break and the MAVs, instead of being on a
long losing streak, were twenty three and twenty eight, and
then he comes back and they finish twenty and ten.
All of a sudden, they're in the playing tournament and
they land the number seven seed and they keep advancing.

(01:25:11):
I mean, they can have a really good season and
still land that pick a number ten to nine to eight.

Speaker 1 (01:25:18):
Because it was based on everything that happened prior to
that one. I mean what they the league probably would
be like great. We encourage players to return when they can,
We encourage the product to be better. We encourage better
basketball to be played. Lottery odds allocated based on two
year records. Oh, we love that.

Speaker 2 (01:25:37):
That's like in the All Star Game this past weekend,
when the World team didn't just need to win their
second game, they needed to win by a certain margin.
So now you're talking about aggregate. Like in soccer, you
play this year and you went twenty and sixty two,
and when you're sitting there, you go, well, we have
thirty nine wins over our last two seasons.

Speaker 1 (01:25:55):
That's the lowest number in the NBA.

Speaker 2 (01:25:56):
But we got to make sure that this team that
won twenty three games a year year ago and they're
sitting with seventeen wins this year, we're right there with them,
like we're gonna be talking about this during a broadcast.

Speaker 1 (01:26:05):
How much stoppage time is factored in lottery extended to
include all playing teams. You already have the dumb ass
playing rule. Now you're going to put them in the lottery,
which further dilutes the real bad teams from getting a
better pick because now you're including these people that shouldn't even.

Speaker 2 (01:26:24):
Be in the playoffs because you have too many playoffs
teams anyway.

Speaker 1 (01:26:27):
So just notice what that number hard is this?

Speaker 2 (01:26:29):
So if you include the playing teams, that means you're
adding eight teams yea to the lottery. That means they're
the lottery that already includes fourteen teams. There's twelve teams
in the top six twelve right, top six of each conference.
So that leaves the other eighteen. I said you're adding twelve,
you're actually adding half that You're you're putting a lottery
system in place with eighteen teams which means.

Speaker 1 (01:26:51):
Each of the eighth leagues in the lottery now have
more than more more than half the league, right, just
like half the teams in the postseason, the eighteenth, the
worst team in the NBA probably went forty four and
thirty eight or thereabouts, and you're giving them more than
a zero point zero percent chance of winning the lottery.

Speaker 2 (01:27:10):
And you would, you clearly would. All you have to change,
like the top three or the top four whatever. You
can't just change. The odds should be zero, the weighted odds.
I mean, well, no, I mean you should have zero
percent chance. And if you're in the lottery, that obviously
doesn't work.

Speaker 1 (01:27:25):
You can't be in the lottery and have a zero
point zero percent chance fly parts of these lottery teams?
Is the last one?

Speaker 2 (01:27:33):
Here's the deal that's bad you.

Speaker 1 (01:27:34):
No one has been able to answer this question that's
been asked, yet maybe you can be the one. Why
doesn't this happen in the NFL? Why doesn't tanking happen
in the NFL?

Speaker 2 (01:27:43):
Because teams do tank, but the players don't, and the
players are good enough to still win football games.

Speaker 1 (01:27:50):
But again, it feels like the NBA is constantly trying
to fix its product versus fix the problem, or I
guess I should say the NBA should concentrate more on
fixing its product versus paying attention to this byproduct of
what is a larger issue. Your players don't want to

(01:28:12):
play all the time, they don't take the regular season seriously,
and your lottery is a mess because of it and
dictates further years in advance. Which, oh, by the way,
you also haven't figured out why players are always gambling
all the time. Understand this well, because you're in bed
with all these gambling situations, were doing it before. But yes,
it's probably even a bigger deal allowed to the NFL

(01:28:33):
part of it just quickly, we watch NBA players and
we're like, I can't believe they're not playing tonight. I
can't believe this is a rest day or they're not
playing it a back to back, or this minor injury
is something that they don't want them to push through.
Or by the way, that's going to be Greg Popovich's legacy,
whether he likes it or not. He's the one that
started this crap. He is.

Speaker 2 (01:28:51):
Well, that's the rest part of it, the load management
part of it. But the difference between that and the
NFL to me is look at what these guys are
going through to play. They're practicing hurt, they're getting shot
up to play on Sundays and Mondays and Thursdays and
Saturdays because they have seventeen opportunities to play good football,

(01:29:12):
win football games, get their next contract. That's what they're
to And I do think there's an element of I
love playing football more than a lot of players over
an eighty two game grind of an NBA season. They
love playing in the games that are fun. They love
playing in the playoff games. And again, you're going to
the playoffs. In the NBA, you're guaranteed to play three times.

(01:29:33):
You might play five, you might play twelve, you might
play fifteen playoff games.

Speaker 1 (01:29:37):
You go to the playoffs. In the NFL, you're guaranteed
that day. That's it. Like all of your NBA season,
I sat out these five it so I can get
these five games. You don't sit out in the NFL
games so you can get that game except the last
game of the season, when players regularly sit. It's just wild.
I think that you have you have like not just

(01:30:01):
one or two, you have like ten really bad pressing
issues that need to be addressed before you can like
survive as a league long term. I'm not even kidding
when I say.

Speaker 2 (01:30:10):
You can survive as a league long term as long
as the television partners keep They're not going to do
that next time around at the product we saw. We
say that every time, and they keep going higher and
high and getting new partners.

Speaker 1 (01:30:19):
I'll bet your money. I'll bet you a TV deals
worth money. As you can hear me say this loudly
and clearly. I'm not betting on this NBA scenario.

Speaker 4 (01:30:30):
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Speaker 8 (01:31:46):
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Speaker 4 (01:32:01):
Ninety And.

Speaker 2 (01:32:05):
Here's the problem. Even if.

Speaker 1 (01:32:08):
The NBA's current commissioner stays put, like say, the owners
are just thrilled with him.

Speaker 2 (01:32:15):
He's not going anywhere.

Speaker 3 (01:32:16):
I know.

Speaker 1 (01:32:17):
That's that's problem number one in my opinion. That's basically
the life of a commissioner. But like when you say,
put it this way, when you say Roger Goodell's doing
doing a good job at doing the number one job
for owners, making them money, it's very different from saying
the exact same thing about Adam Silver and you know it.

Speaker 2 (01:32:36):
In some ways yes, and in some ways known to
clarify my comment, what I was saying is not that
they're working for the owners, so they're obviously doing their job.
My comment was more about when do they get fired,
Like Gary Bettman's been kind of a disaster, everything's okay.

Speaker 1 (01:32:52):
They're like a Supreme Court justice going anywhere, die before
you get rid.

Speaker 2 (01:32:55):
Of It's pretty rare where a commissioner is so incapable
of doing what the people he works for want them
to do. Basically have to go away, to be asked
to leave, to not you know, and Goodell every time.
Oh Goodell's not only coming back for another five year term,
he's now going to make this much money.

Speaker 1 (01:33:14):
But again, of all the names you can think of,
both past and or present, and past commissioners and in
whatever sport, has there ever been someone who as who
is in as tenuous position as Adam Silver when you consider, yeah,
he just got a boatload of money for TV deals.

Speaker 4 (01:33:35):
But it's a.

Speaker 2 (01:33:36):
Question that it can only be answered by I think
thirty people, and I'm not sure what they as a
group think. I know what the fans think. We talk
about it all the time. We can hear from like
Ishbia doesn't sound like he wants the commissioner out at all,
and he absolutely abhors tanking.

Speaker 1 (01:33:53):
But as he did, or he's just giving him lip
service because he's saying what he doesn't necessarily believe, which
is that Adam Silver's definitely the guy to fix this mess.
Well this I mean Adam we he's not all It's
not all on him. No, it's on him to make
the announcement. It's the funny thing about you saying that
is it's actually more on the teams. They're the ones tanking,

(01:34:13):
They're the ones doing this.

Speaker 2 (01:34:14):
They're the ones that are both tanking and attending and
contributing to their anti tanking meetings. It's crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:34:22):
I just I don't know, Like it's because the NBA
go inside the meeting, go inside an anti taking section
of their committee, meeting with the owners, go to factions. Well,
like Utah's talking about this, Like I agree, we really
we probably should limit protections.

Speaker 2 (01:34:38):
Maybe you can't protect after four?

Speaker 3 (01:34:41):
What do you do?

Speaker 1 (01:34:41):
You guys have a game tonight. Are you sure you
have time for this?

Speaker 2 (01:34:44):
Aren't you busy talking to Will Hardy about telling him
not to play anybody?

Speaker 3 (01:34:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:34:49):
But again, like the the the baked in the cake, attendance, eyeballs,
all that kind of of stuff that comes with the NFL,
you don't have that with the NBA. And every time
you turn around, it feels like they're doing something to
further push any eyeballs they do have away. And again,

(01:35:12):
I don't take any particular pleasure in any of this,
because at the end of the day, I'm still a
diehard NBA fan. But I'm lying if I'm gonna sit
here and act like I'm as enthusiastic about today's product
as I was the nineties. And this started a long
time ago, and it started ironically with the best of intentions. Hey,
we'd like scoring to go up. Okay, NFL has done

(01:35:35):
the same thing major League Baseball has done. The same thing.
What can we do. We're gonna take away handschecking. Well
that seems like a small thing in nineteen ninety four
or nineteen ninety five, but look where the league has
gone now because of Steph Curry. You have a bunch
of guys coming out of college their one year or
whatever thinking that they can shoot the ball like that.
So it's just nothing but three's all night long, and

(01:35:56):
most guys don't hit them. Well, it's more about everybody
on the court. They're six foot eleven absolute center, Brook Lopez, Nikolavusovich,
Nikoli Jokich, Right, they're doing it too. Yeah, but they're
also not being stopped because you can't stop them because
if you touch them, breathe on them, look at them
the wrong way, it's a foul. Which is another aspect

(01:36:17):
of the league right now. People that are saying the
NBA is soft compared to the nineties, I know, it
sounds like a bunch of cliched old heads. They're right,
it's different. It's different, but it's not good different. It's
obviously like the Rockets last year, or even the Rockets
when they won sixty five games and were averaging like
one hundred and thirty a night. You know what they

(01:36:38):
also did. They played defense, and they played defense on
a team that featured James Harden. I know that the
revisionists don't want to say that or acknowledge that, because
they all hated James Harden the way he played, and
everybody that was anybody in the NBA, including MVP voters,
went out of their way to make everybody known that
they feel that way about him.

Speaker 2 (01:36:56):
But he was on a team that played good defense.
The Rockets almost beat.

Speaker 1 (01:37:00):
The Warriors because they could defend them as well as
they could maybe also match their firepower. You don't see
that anymore. Nobody plays defense, and I get it most
people like I don't care. I just wanna see some scoring,
even just as recently as last year. Do you think
that's fair simply just just Rockets. They were a good
defensive team. They pided themselves on defrity. They were a unicorn,

(01:37:20):
and they weren't even the best defensive team. They're just
one of the better defensive teams. You could count on
one hand how many good defensive teams there were probably
maybe yeah, but what I'm saying is they're not more
than five. Hey, that team's really good. Defensively, that team's
really good defensively, and who else.

Speaker 2 (01:37:36):
Right, well, we're also we could sit here and say, okay,
not that many good defensive teams. Everybody's shooting threes. Games
totally different, and we liked it. When we were leaving
the arena with our team scoring eighty one and losing
by two eighty three, eighty one, we're seeing finals games
in the seventies, eighties and nineties.

Speaker 1 (01:37:57):
Nobody cracked nobody cracked one hundred in the ninety four finals.
Jordan was playing baseball, and so David Stern was like, ah, crap,
we gotta stop this, and like now you look back
on it and you're like, oh, this was ugly ball.
Nobody gave a crap then, though, Like I don't think
people were tuned out from the NBA because it was
too boring, and a big reason for that was because

(01:38:18):
they didn't know what they were missing.

Speaker 7 (01:38:19):
I guess.

Speaker 2 (01:38:19):
Yeah, lower scoring games indicate fewer baskets obviously, because they
made it hard for you to get them, because they
played in a way that said we're keeping score here.
So if I stop you from scoring, that's good. And
it definitely doesn't look like that nearly as much now Now,
it's just I don't really have to stop you. If
you can't ever stop me, I'm just gonna keep scoring

(01:38:40):
and keep scoring and keep scoring.

Speaker 1 (01:38:42):
Here's the thing. What's the most watched NBA game ever
to this day. Nineteen ninety eight Utah Jazz Michael Jordan
hits the game winning shot in a game in which,
guess what, nobody scored one hundred points. Nobody gave a
crap about that. It was the iconic moment. It was
the shot, it was the holding, the pose, it was
unfortunately Bob Costas on the call, like it was all

(01:39:03):
these things that you think about, and it's still deified
to this day, unless you're a lebron Head who just
can't deal with the fact that, so a guy's not
the guy.

Speaker 2 (01:39:11):
Dwayne Wade or kd or Lebron or Steph hits a
game winner in a one twenty one to one to
nineteen finals game in the this year or the last
five years, Why is it not the same?

Speaker 1 (01:39:21):
Well, what I'm saying is people didn't care that those
teams back then. You're talking about the Utah Jazz like
the least likable team in the last thirty years, But
nobody cared and they all tuned in to watch it
because you had greatness, you had a good product on
the floor, because you had marketable star. You had people
that gave a crap about it, like you don't have

(01:39:41):
any of the marketable stars on one of the two teams. Yeah,
but that's what I'm guess you could say you marketed.

Speaker 4 (01:39:46):
It's just a.

Speaker 1 (01:39:46):
Foregone conclusion that MJ's gonna win number six. Then nobody
would have watched.

Speaker 2 (01:39:52):
How come it wasn't.

Speaker 1 (01:39:54):
I don't know, Well, how did Utah day was in
doubt until the last second game? What six? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:40:00):
Game six? Uh, go back and look at the whole finals.
It was highly rated. No, no, no, I'm saying there's
no of course the Bulls were gonna win the series.
Well they didn't even get to Game seven.

Speaker 1 (01:40:10):
Yeah, but that wasn't I mean that season they were
pushed to the brink in the prior round by the Pacers.

Speaker 2 (01:40:16):
They went to game seven because that are the two teams,
the Pacers.

Speaker 1 (01:40:19):
I mean, my favorite is when Reggie hits that shot
and Larry Bird has zero expression on his face as
the coach, like most of the time it was even
as a player, he was just like, crap, MJ has
too much time and then he almost hit this ridiculous
in and out three. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:40:35):
That that's when you describe all these things. It makes
me feel like it it's the same stuff we see now,
just with different players at different scoring levels. Do you
think people care as much about the NBA now as
they did in the nineties. Nope, But that's more about
where we are and everything in society, because every sport
is facing that exact same thing except for one. Yeah,

(01:40:56):
I mean the same way. It's not a basketball problem.
It's all sports problems, except for this way.

Speaker 1 (01:41:02):
They have the secret tonic. People just like that game
more than any other game, including soccer in this country.

Speaker 2 (01:41:08):
Yeah, NFL football and college football are experiencing something that
the other sports, which are different by design unfortunately. I mean,
what if the NBA's idea on attacking anti tanking was
we're gonna jack up ticket prices and get more money
of our partners, and we're gonna cut down the season

(01:41:30):
to twenty games like they do in the football eighteen games,
which is where they're probably headed me. Can you imagine
obviously it's untenable for them to make there's no way
to get their revenues to equal what they are. But
you get the point. It's they got to figure out
how to do it for eighty two games. MLB is
trying to figure out how to do it for one
sixty two. And once you get there and you have

(01:41:50):
all the revenues that come with it, you're not going
to go backwards to cut games off the schedule unless
you know you are making as much, if not more
money doing it the other way. You know, gets hit
by that the fans who are already getting priced out.

Speaker 1 (01:42:02):
The crazy part is the NFL is trying to do
things to sabotage all the success they really are. They
just don't see any end in sight. You think we
can get seventeen, I bet you we can get eighteen. Well,
what are they gonna say once they get eighteen? Let's
make it virtually impossible for our defenders to do just that. Okay,
let's see what happens. Let's just throw flags Willy Nelly

(01:42:23):
all the time. Your services are no longer needed. Have
you heard that before around the NBA, like right here
in Houston or more recently in Los Angeles. Let's get
those two players together to talk about it.

Speaker 4 (01:42:36):
Next the eighteen on Sports.

Speaker 1 (01:42:43):
Signature segment time here on the A team. It is
a Thursday, which means it is time for what's up
with that? And this is something that Wex and I
both saw earlier today and could not wait to discuss. Unfortunately,
Wex is out. He is doing TV duties for the
Rockets game tonight, so he will not be here to

(01:43:06):
pontificate on what happened. But nevertheless, the show goes on
and it is Rockets related specifically, as Wex it gets
ready to go do the TV side of things, I've
got the radio side tonight, Rockets Charlotte Hornets getting it
on here on both Sports Talk seven ninety and Space
City Home Network. But once upon a time the Rockets

(01:43:28):
had Carmelo Anthony on their roster, and I mean this
was I don't want to say that he was considered
the missing piece for example, but it was. I mean
it was very very much like, Okay, if the Rockets
can get this low risk, high reward situation to pay off,

(01:43:52):
maybe he would kind of be a missing piece for
a championship puzzle. We all know how that went down, though,
and it's been something that whenever it has been brought
up in NBA circles. I feel like it's been skewed,
it's been slanted one way or the other by the way,

(01:44:16):
and it just I don't think we've ever gotten down
to the nitty gritty on what actually went down when
Carmelo Anthony, the Houston Rocket was basically told, according to him,
for example, that his services were no longer needed. And

(01:44:37):
I'm just going to read you something because again, before
you hear this audio, it is important to know that
there is there are people out there that will take
stories like this and completely skew the story based on
a caption when it may not really be as accurate

(01:44:57):
as it should be.

Speaker 2 (01:44:58):
Let's put it that way. The fact that.

Speaker 1 (01:45:03):
Carmelo Anthony was on a podcast where the caption reads
that he basically the plane the team plane left him
after the Rockets informed him that his services were no
longer needed, it's a little misleading versus what the audio
actually says. So let's just start with the source himself.

(01:45:27):
We'll start with Carmelo Anthony saying that he was told
his services were not needed.

Speaker 6 (01:45:33):
Darryl came into room and told me, your services is
no longer needed. I've never heard nose like that before.
I'm gonna just be honest. That's why you really getting
fired from your job.

Speaker 2 (01:45:43):
Yeah, I mean, that's what it sounds like.

Speaker 1 (01:45:44):
He's talking about, obviously former Rockets general manager Darryl Morey.
That is Carmelo Anthony saying he was told his services
were not needed. It's not you, It's not us, it's you. Basically.

Speaker 2 (01:46:00):
Mellow would go on to describe the call.

Speaker 1 (01:46:03):
I go to Mellow rooms for two hours. Here's all that.

Speaker 2 (01:46:06):
We're playing San Antonio.

Speaker 6 (01:46:07):
The next day, I'm at dinner, me and James day
taught James Hawden, and I get the call, get back
to the room, tell me my services is no longer needed.
They tell me, Look, you can either come to the
game but in your street clothes, or you could fly
back to Houston and wait until we tell you what
you could do next. We don't need you, but you

(01:46:27):
can fly back with the team. And that plane was
gone without me on it.

Speaker 2 (01:46:32):
I mean, it's just it's it's crazy if this is
the way it went down.

Speaker 1 (01:46:40):
And again this is in light of Chris Paul being
told essentially the same thing, give or take by the
La Clippers, and by the way, this is seven pm
in Brooklyn podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:46:52):
I should have said that. At the beginning.

Speaker 1 (01:46:55):
Anthony's podcast, Chris Paul comes on and they're reflecting on
their very brief stint by the way as teammates during
the Rockets twenty eighteen twenty nineteen season, and again to
kind of put this into context, this is the year
after the Rockets have lost in heartbreaking fashion in that
Game seven to the Warriors, when Chris Paul's hamstring was

(01:47:17):
basically the reason, along with Scott Foster and company, that
the Rockets could not close out that series twenty seven
miss street three pointers. Yeah, but you're just not looking
into how that whole thing went down. There was two
four point plays, for example, in the midst of that
streak of missed three pointers that if they were called properly,
we're never talking about that many in a row miss

(01:47:37):
But people want to sleep on that and ignore the
facts of the case, if you will. So anyways, Carmelo
Anthony comes on or has Chris Paul on his podcast,
and those are the first two sound bites that kind
of talk to you or tell you about what he's
thinking of about how this all went down. We basically
were told we don't need your services anymore. So then
well you got to talk to James Harden. Right, Well,

(01:47:59):
this is mel On his conversation with James.

Speaker 6 (01:48:03):
I thing at that moment was, Yo, this is just
like you've been here. We talked about this like we
can win a championship with this team. So if you
knew about this and you got me into this situation, men,
you got to have a real conversation to see where
we actually stand at as brothers. First for the basketball,
and that was the conversation. He looked me in my
eyes and said, bro, I knew nothing about it. And

(01:48:25):
that was it right there.

Speaker 1 (01:48:27):
Now, the first question you have to ask yourself, you
being the audience, is do you believe James Harden if
that's indeed what was said and what James said to
Carmelo Anthony, this is James Harden, and it not only
is it James Harden, it's.

Speaker 2 (01:48:45):
Late twenty eighteen. James Harden.

Speaker 6 (01:48:48):
I e.

Speaker 1 (01:48:50):
He's been the facto GM for a while now. If
he says jump Darryl Moury for better or worse, kind
of says how hot. In other words, he's had coaches fired,
He's had Dwight Howard fired essentially, you know what I'm saying,

(01:49:11):
Chris Paul and him, he's about to have him fired,
and Russell Westbrook brought it like it's James Harden. I
knew nothing. I mean, if I were to tell you
that the same scenario went down with Lebron James and
the Lakers in recent seasons and we were expected to
believe that he didn't know anything about that, It's like

(01:49:31):
the whole Luca thing.

Speaker 2 (01:49:32):
I just can't believe it. I cannot believe it with
as much influence.

Speaker 1 (01:49:36):
So again to kind of put a bow on this
well kind of choppy podcast here, this was Mellow and
CP after the news that hey, you're out of here,
beat it.

Speaker 6 (01:49:51):
After that game that night, I got a plane, me,
Mellow and my wife flew back that is a fact,
from San Antonio to Houston because I wasn't gonna let
them try to embarrass my dog.

Speaker 1 (01:50:00):
And get on the plane.

Speaker 6 (01:50:01):
The saddest playing route of all time. For him to
bring his family and get the plane and we get
on that plane together, it was confusing. Nobody knew what
was going on, so for us to have that moment,
it's just odd. Do I think this is how it
went down exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:50:19):
No. Do I think Darryl moriy will weigh in on this, No,
But what I like for him too, just to hear
his side of the story. Yeah, I mean, how many
times can Carmelo whine about this particular situation is what
I want to know. Like, it's easy for me to
say this because he didn't mean anything to the Rockets.

(01:50:40):
It was a super short stint. Here's what I think happened.
Carmelo Anthony was brought in. They asked him to come
off the bench. He didn't want to do that. He
also didn't particularly want to change the way he plays
the game, and so they were like, all right, this
isn't working out. Let's cut bait before it gets any
more messy. That's it. And Carmelo Anthony's ego has not
allowed him to this day to be able to stomach that,

(01:51:04):
so he's going around talking about it still on his
podcast years later. It's kind of pathetic, but whatever, it's
Carmelo Anthony. It's no sweat off my back. He didn't
do anything for the Rockets. The Rockets didn't do anything
for him, clearly, and it's much ado about nothing. That's
where it stands. All right. We will leave it at
that when we come back final segment of the show
as well. Tyreek Hill, he got let go in Miami

(01:51:28):
and one person was very happy about it and had
no problems letting you know. We'll we will hear from
him now

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