NBA 1st Round Draft, Rodgers Retirement, Winners and Losers

Andrew Zimmel fills in and talks NBA Draft, Aaron Rodgers, and winners and losers.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh good, Gisa Texas.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Let you a Hall of Fame broadcaster, the voice of
the Texas Loghords, and your host of the Craigway Show.
Here he is now, Craig Way.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
What is going on Austin, Texas? Andrew Zima hanging out
with you this beautiful Thursday afternoon. Craig Way out today,
Andrew zim will sitting in Cameron Parker. We'll be back
tomorrow for you and we have a lot of sports
to get into. It's been a while since we've hung out.
I appreciate you guys for hanging out with us today.

(00:56):
Let's get into Aaron Rodgers saying that he is gonna
retire after this season, and that makes me kind of
mixed emotions. Part of me as a longtime Vikings fan,
I'm glad to see him go. Good luck. Don't let
the door hit you on the way out. Part of
me though, as an NFL fan and historian, though, I
say to myself, well, that's a bridge guy leaving, and

(01:17):
that makes me a little sad. So we'll talk about
that later in the show. Inconceivable and hour number one
as well, and in hour two, our friend Mike Craven
from Dave Campbell's a football magazine. That magazine getting ready
to come out. They have their cover, of course with
Steve Starkesian. But I want to talk to him about
realignment because it looks like we're getting closer and closer

(01:38):
to the eleventh hour of a group of five team
jumping conferences. Huh, Texas State, what's going on in San Marcos.
So we'll talk to him about that and what that
means for college football in the state of Texas as
a whole. But we got to start with the NBA
Draft that occurred last night, and of course it was
obvious it was the consensus number one overall pick. Cooper

(02:00):
Flag goes number one to the Dallas Mavericks. And I
was joking about this last night when we were talking
on OURAI Draft party. We were doing it from the
Spurs practice facility last night in San Antonio, and I
was joking that, you know a team like Dallas who
did everything incorrectly. You know, they got rid of Luka Doncic,

(02:21):
their franchise's face, they got rid of a guy who
universally loved and luckily they fell backwards into a position
to get Cooper Flag, who is the most touted, highly
touted rookie since the last highly touted rookie. You want
to put him in the same conversations as guys like
Zion and Lebron. I don't know how I feel about that.

(02:43):
You want to put him in the same conversations with
guys like Paulo Boncarro, his former duke, a duchie like him. Okay,
I'll take that. But this was a really good example
last night. And this is Cooper Flagg. He's doing his
post draft interviews with NBA TV, and his teammate kN
Ka Nipple got drafted just a couple of spots behind him.
This is what sounded like.

Speaker 4 (03:05):
A lot a lot went through it.

Speaker 5 (03:12):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
Which is so much so I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
I love that live reaction. How are you feeling watching
your teammate it drafted, Dane?

Speaker 3 (03:22):
I mean, it's.

Speaker 6 (03:24):
Surreal, you know, con that was my roommate last year,
So just to see him had that moment.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
His family, it's just insane that it really just.

Speaker 6 (03:31):
Gave me chose that was crazy.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
No, I'm excited for Cooper Flag, and I think a
lot of people should be excited for Cooper Flag. Guy
comes from Maine goes to Duke. He is the great
White Hope. A lot of people are kind of putting him.
He's the best American basketball player that we've had in
a long time. Okay, but at eighteen years old, and
I'm going to make some of you feel a little
older here, born in two thousand and six. At eighteen

(03:55):
years old, I look at a guy who is obviously excitable,
obviously talented, but maybe a little immature. And I don't
expect him to be mature. I don't expect a guy
who's eighteen years old coming out of one year, or
let's call it six months of college. I don't expect
that guy to be the most polished, well put together
individual in the league. But when you talk about the

(04:18):
Dallas Mavericks and you see what they have set themselves
up to potentially be going forward, which is a hopeful
championship contender. The reason that they got rid of Luke
Docik was, Hey, our window is right now. We don't
have a time to waste. We don't have time for
a guy to get in shape or deal with injuries.
We're trying to win championships today. That's why you make

(04:40):
a trade for Anthony Davis, and that's why you build
a team that is now a bunch of guys over
thirty and oh yeah, by the way, Cooper flag the
scrutiny on this kid, it's gonna be second to none.
I went through the draft history and again, I'm gonna
make somebod you feel a little bit old here. Nineteen
seventy nine was the last time I felt there was

(05:00):
a situation like this, and that was when Magic Johnson
got drafted number one to the La Lakers. Now the
Lakers had Cream Abdul Jabbar, they had a very good core.
Magic was going to be that piece that takes them
over the top. Is Cooper flag that piece for the
Dallas Mavericks, Like, ask yourself that when Cooper Flagg walked
across the stage last night put on the draft cap

(05:20):
for the Dallas Mavericks, who's now in the face of
the franchise. He's now the guy that's going to make
sure that Nico Harrison does not get any more mean emails.
Nobody's gonna burnie effigies of Nico Harrison anymore. Because they
ended up with the number one overall pick one point
eight percent chance, by the way, end up with that
pick they get him. Is he going to be the
guy that you are banking on being the best player

(05:43):
on your team? Are you banking on him being the
guy that come Western Conference Finals time and you're looking
down the barrel of the Oklahoma City Thunder or you're
looking down the barrel of the Denver Nuggets. Teams that
have MVPs, have champions on him that this is gonna
be the guy that's the difference maker. And that's what
I'm talking of, the scrutiny on him. It's unfair to
compare him to a guy like Lebron. Obviously, Lebron came

(06:05):
in in two thousand and three, eighteen years old. It
was a rookie immediately, Rookie of the Year immediately. I
had a twenty three year career. So to compare Lebron
and Cooper Flag would be immature and it'd be acidine.
But to compare the hype around them, I think is fair.
And to put the expectations on Cooper Flag the way

(06:25):
that we put the expectations on Lebron, I think it's fair.
Because if you're the Dallas Maveris, give the number one
overall pick. Honestly, you shouldn't have been in this position
in the first place if the trade went down the
way it was supposed to with Nico Harrison. This was
a team that was supposed to be in the Western
Conference Finals or the NBA Finals, but instead they were
the ten seed, a playing team who ended up in

(06:47):
the lottery luckily, and then get the number one overall pick.
So Cooper goes number one. It's obviously exciting. Obviously everybody
in Dallas is very excited to have this guy for
potentially the next fifteen to twenty years. You hope that
he has a career like Derk Davinsky and unlike Luca,
plays his entire career in one jersey. That's your hope, right,
But I look at it and I go the pressure

(07:09):
on this kid is going to be second to none
in the league. You're going to be in a position
where if Dallas struggles, let's say everybody comes back healthy.
Let's say Kyrie comes healthy, Anthony Davis comes healthy, and
Cooper Flagg now is a starting small forward on a
team that's contending for a title, and he's in the
Western Conference, in the same conference that just got Kevin
Durant on the Rockets. In the same conference that has

(07:30):
Luca and Lebron in LA, that has Kawhi Leonard and
James Harden in LA as well with the Clippers. This
is the guy who you're banking on in Game seven's
to win you games, to be a guy who can
contribute immediately, And for that reason, I'm a little hesitant.
I'm excited for him. I'm excited for Mavericks fans, but

(07:51):
I'm more excited for what the Spurs did. I'm more
excited because it's honestly a difference in team building in philosophy.
Went out, got lucky, ended up with the number an
overall pick. Spurs don't luck out. They get the number
two pick. They weren't a very good team last year,
but they went and they made the pick. And this
is Adam Silver making that call. Now that you've been drafted.

Speaker 7 (08:20):
What are you feeling, man, I'm feeling everything, man, old emotions,
mixing one bucket, from crying to laughing, to be happy, everything.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
Man, just feel everything, man. I'm excited to get ready.
I'm excited, Maria.

Speaker 5 (08:33):
He talks often about how important you have been in
the entire family to.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
His basketball journey. What has gotten him here his flat
out look for the game.

Speaker 8 (08:44):
His determination is humility and just does hard work day.

Speaker 9 (08:50):
In day out.

Speaker 5 (08:51):
You're headed to San Antonio an organization of that boat
the last two rookies of the year, Victor Webber Yamina
is an especimen onto.

Speaker 3 (08:59):
Himself as a point guard.

Speaker 5 (09:01):
What makes you most excited to join that organization?

Speaker 3 (09:03):
Man?

Speaker 7 (09:04):
I mean not getting I think when you play with
a bunch of great players, it brings the best out
of you. So, I mean, they got a great group
of young core over there. I'm just ready to get
in there and just make an impact.

Speaker 4 (09:12):
Thing.

Speaker 9 (09:13):
Well, I came with them, guys ran while we got
you here. What do you say to younger brothersnight, Just
savor a moment, man, Just live in a moment, enjoy it.
You know, he worked so hard for this and we
all been there for him every step of the journey.

Speaker 7 (09:24):
We're so proud of him. And now you know, I
gotta be a secondary Spurs fan.

Speaker 8 (09:27):
Now.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
So that was Ron Harper, Ron Harper Junior. I should
say Ron Harper Senior's son, oldest son, and Dylan Harper
goes to or the Antonio Spurs, and I felt like
it was a difference in team building in philosophy. The
Spurs have done it the slow and steady way. They
decided to do a complete rebuild. This is the first
time in franchise history that they've really stripped down the

(09:48):
team for parts, went after picks, drafted well, scouted well,
and there's a lot of pressure with that. There's a
lot of pressure when you're deciding to do a rebuild
the way the Spurs did. You have to hit on
your picks. And let's be honest, they didn't hit on
some of them. Guys like Josh Primo came through the
program right. But they also got lucky with the number
one overall pick in twenty twenty three with Victor wemen Yama,

(10:09):
and then last year they end up with a national
champion in Steph Castle. Oh by the way, both those
guys Rookie of the years and now you get Dylan Harper.
And this is where I find it very interesting on
what the Spurs are doing. They saw what the Thunder did.
It's a copycat league, obviously, they saw the Thunder had
one or two big men, but a ton of guards
that you could throw at you. Well, Victor plays like

(10:31):
a Kevin Durant type he's seven foot five at this point,
he's almost the same height as Yao Ming, but he
moves like Kevin Durant. He's a guy who can shoot
on the perimeter. He's a guy that can get down
there and if you need him to block shots and
rebody can do it for you. Game seven situation, I
won Victor wemen Yama on the block. But they said, Okay,
we have Deer and Fox, and we have Steph Castle,

(10:51):
and we could go out and get a guy like
Aates Bailey, or we could go trade for trade down
and get a guy like Malawak out of Duke, a
seven foot two center to put behind Wimby. We could
do all that, or we could go get the best
available player. We get a guy like Dylan Harper, who's
a big guard who's getting comparisons to Darren Williams, Jalen Bronson,
I heard. I heard Jason Kidd from his head coach,

(11:15):
Ed Rutgers, Steve Pichael, I've seen Dwayne Wade cops. So
this is a six but six guard who can kind
of do a little bit of everything. He can play
my three, he can play my two, he can play
the one if we need him to and that's what
I like. Dallas gets the number one overall pick. Obviously,
that is the talk of the town. Everybody's looking at that.
But I look at it and I say, the pressure

(11:36):
on Cooper flag is so immense that the odds of
him failing I think rise. Whereas Dylan Harper goes into
a situation where it's already a pretty guard heavy team
and he's never gonna be the face of the franchise
of the Victor wimby Yama. There he can come in,
learn grow. I like the style, like the way the
Spurs are doing it when you compare it to the

(11:57):
Dallas Mavericks. And if you told me tomorrow, hey, the
Spurs are in a must win playoff scenario, I would say,
what is in the semifinals? Because that's where I think
the Spurs are going. Where If you said to me,
where do you think the Dallas Mavericks are it's a
must win? I say it's the second game the plan.
All right, we come back Aaron Rodgers, the bridge quarterback
from this generation's quarterbacks to the last one. He's saying

(12:21):
that it might be time to hang up the Spurs.
We'll talk to him about it next Craig Way Show
rolls on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred Zone.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
Wake Up with Harge and Henry and the Morning Kickoff.

Speaker 10 (12:36):
I cannot believe that you and I are seeing things
exactly the same.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
It's a miracle. Oh my God, write it down.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
Say miracles.

Speaker 4 (12:47):
If we are having this discussion and we are a
great are high fives?

Speaker 2 (12:54):
The Morning Kickoff week days at seven thirteen hundred.

Speaker 3 (13:02):
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone Andrew zim will
hanging out with you. Craig Way's show rolls on in
hour number one. Make sure you have Sports Radio AM
thirteen hundred. Zone is your number one pre set on
your free iHeartRadio app. You also use a talkback feature
to hear your voice give your takes on the show.
All right, So Aaron Rodgers was on Pat McAfee yesterday

(13:25):
and I want to do a little bit of journalism.
Here can I do a little bit? Here's a little
bit of journalism. If you're asking a question that's longer
than the answer, you need to ask a better question.
And I like the Pat McAfee show, but those guys
sometimes the questions end up winding a little bit longer
than they need to so I cut out the question
of this because it's about six minute long question for

(13:45):
about a forty five second answer. Here here's Aaron Rodgers
when you got asked a question if this season would
be his last.

Speaker 10 (13:52):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is it. You know, that's
why we just did a one year deal. Steelers didn't
need to, you know, put in the extra years on
that or anything. So you know, this was really about
finishing with love and fun and the piece for the.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
Career that I've had.

Speaker 10 (14:09):
I've played twenty freaking year like it's been a long run,
and I've enjoyed it.

Speaker 3 (14:15):
So Aaron Rodgers goes on to talk about how he's
enjoyed it, but you know, the time has come for
him to hang up the old football, the old cleats,
And here's my immediate reaction, Good riddance. Aaron Rodgers has
been the thorn in my side since he came into
the league, since he took the mantle from Brett Favre.
He has consistently been the guy come playoff time, come

(14:37):
big game, come Monday Night football. He's the guy that
beats my team, whether it be the Minnesota Vikings of
the team I grew up loving or whether it be
a team that I'm rooting for in the playoffs. Let's say,
you know, maybe the Dallas Cowboys a couple of years ago.
The deal is is that he is always on the
wrong side of things. And then he won a bunch
of MVP awards and cemented himself as one of the
greatest quarterbacks of all time. And I remember when he

(15:00):
was on that run host Super Bowl in twenty eleven
and going to the NFC championship games and playing in
deep playoff runs and winning thirteen games a year in
Green Bay. That the conversation started with Tom Brady already
being a multi time Super Bowl champion, but the odds
were that Aaron Rodgers was going to get back there
and win more championships with Green Bay, and the conversation began,

(15:21):
all Right, he already has more rings than Dan Marino,
He's one fewer than John Elway. He's the most physically
gifted quarterback we've ever seen. Can we start throwing around
the gat word? Can we start throwing around the word
goat when talking about Aaron Rodgers? And I always said
he might be the most physically gifted quarterback I've ever seen,
But he's not the best. I'm always going to be

(15:42):
a tom guy. I'm always a Tommy Boy guy before
an a Rod guy. I love Tom Brady, loved the
way he played the game, loved the way he led
those teams. And while he gathered a couple times he
blew up on the sideline. I thought for the most party,
constant professional Compare that to Rogers. Rogers is not that
he's the guy who's gonna go in the media. He's
gonna give you weird, double sided dancers. He's gonna make

(16:06):
ownership pull their hair out. He's gonna make fans decide
and pick camps. And just like his mentor, and this
is where I think it's so important to have veterans
in locker rooms. Just like his mentor, Bret Farvre, he's
kind of done this. I'm in, I'm out song and
dance for a couple of franchises. If you remember the
New York Jets when he went over there, okay, you know,

(16:28):
and then the recovery from the ACL Is he gonna
play this season? Is he not gonna play the season?
Is the Dolphin songs that he's been playing and the
weird sonogram he's working massaging his leg is not gonna
be the thing. That shit, he's been a weirdo. He's
been a weird guy. But then I think to myself
as I'm excited to hear, Okay, this is the last
season of Aaron Rodgers and we're gonna be done with this,

(16:50):
and he wants to go out and be a private citizen.
He said he does not want the spotlight. I'll believe
it when I see it, but he doesn't want the spotlight. Okay,
I'm excited for to be out of the Aaron Rodgers business.
But then there's a part of me that goes back
to fifteen, sixteen year old Andrew who's watching Rogers play,
who's talking in these historical conversations about him. He's a

(17:13):
guy who's throwing forty touchdowns and single digit interceptions. This
is one of the most accurate quarterbacks of all time.
This is a guy who can win you games even
when the defense and really not up to stuff. And
he can win you with wide receivers who are on
the last leg of the last leg. And yeah, he
might be the most talented thrower of the football that
we had seen. And that's why I think that with

(17:34):
him exiting we need to do a more of a
conceptional look on what Rogers is and at the end
of the day, the one super Bowl, ring, the MVP Awards,
everything else. He is the bridge quarterback between Tom Brady
and what was the standard of greatness in the NFL
and the Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson's of what

(17:55):
greatness is today. Because let's be honest, you cannot talk
about any of the other quarter outside of Mahomes and
compare them to the all time greats because none of
them have won anything. Or Yeah, sure, Jalen Hurts won
a Super Bowl this past year, but he's not even
in the same conversations as Lamar and Josh Allen and
Justin Herbert. We like Jalen Hurts, but he's not that
type of quarterback. He's gonna be a very good one.

(18:17):
He'll be in the same convos as Russell Wilson for sure,
but he's not that type of guy. Okay, Whereas Allen
and Burrow and Lamar Jackson are all considered some of
the best quarterbacks in the NFL, but we can't compare
them to Montana or Brady because Mahomes has took all

(18:38):
the jewelry. He owns all the rings, he has all
of them collected. Okay, he doesn't want to share. I
don't blame him. I like jewelry too, I like rings too.
He wants to continue to win, and that's why Rogers
is such an interest in case study because he only
won one championship, and outside of something crazy happening this year,
he's gonna end one one championship, but he won a

(18:58):
bunch of individual accolades. He has more MVPs than Tom Brady.
He has a similar amount of MVPs to Peyton Manning,
and that's kind of where I think the comparisons fall apart,
because Rogers, unlike Manning and Brady, is the Internet's quarterback.
He's a guy who's the majority of his career has

(19:20):
been played out in front of us, not only in
front of our screens on Sundays, but in front of
our screens on our phones. He has been the social
media quarterback. Everything Aaron Rodgers said was tweeted, everything he
did was showed and on Instagram and YouTube. We have
seen him more, I think than any other quarterback that
is in these all time great conversations. And that's where

(19:42):
Burrow and Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson kind of fall
into that camp because nothing those guys do doesn't go unnoticed.
Josh Allen got married a couple weeks ago to a
pretty attractive actress, and I have seen those wedding photos
shared more time on sports accounts that I think on
Vogue or People magazine or anything else. I know more

(20:06):
about Josh Allen's love life this offseason than I could
care about. I do not care what the MVP is
doing his offseason. What I care about is if he's
going to find a way to get the Bills over
the Hub and win a Super Bowl. That's what I
care about. But I'm seeing all this other stuff on
social media, and that's where this bridge with Rogers and

(20:27):
the old school quarterback, the guy who could kind of
go into the offseason, work with his receivers, give a
couple quotes to the local media, and come back and
continue to sling the football. Peyton Manning didn't have to
deal with that. Plays his football Indneapolis, they respect him.
He does his own thing. When he goes to Denver,
it's a little bit different. It's a legend going to
a different team, but still had his privacy Brady in Boston.

(20:52):
Yeah he did his radio hits, and yes, dating a
supermodel will get you a couple of headlines and a
couple of covers. But for the most part, what we
cared about with Brady was this guy works in the offseason.
He's working with Josh McDaniels, he's working with his quarterback coach,
he's working at his craft. And yeah, there'll be a
couple of pictures of him with his shirt off at

(21:13):
the beach throwing the receivers, and will care about it
for a little bit. But for the most part, I
didn't know that much about Brady during his playing career.
I know way too much about Patrick Mahomes. I know
way too much about Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. And
that's where I think we give Rogers a lot of
grief with the way that he's dealt with his career.

(21:34):
And I agree he didn't do a lot of stuff, right.
I don't care about his ayahuasca retreats. But you got
to give him credit here because he was the first
quarterback that really dealt with that. He was the first
quarterback love it or hated that was fully into the Internet,
and unlike his contemporary, I would say Matthew Stafford might
be the very tail end of that old school quarterback.

(21:57):
Stafford was never good enough for us to care. Yeah,
he's putting up good stats in Detroit and he won
a super Bowl in LA, but he was never the
face of the league. He was never a guy that
you could honestly say, oh, that's the MVP. He's got
good numbers, his team didn't win, and it's a quarterback
driven sport. Rogers was winning the games, he was getting
the stats, he was doing everything that you won out

(22:19):
of your superstar quarterback. And on top of that, he
has to deal with Twitter, he's got to deal with
social media. Did he do everything the right way? Obviously not.
Obviously there's things I imagine he would probably want to
go back and change. But he was the NFL's John Lennon.
He was the NFL's kind of free spirit, and that
opened up the door for all of these next quarterbacks,

(22:41):
both on the field and again off of them.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
All.

Speaker 3 (22:43):
Right, when we come back Inconceivable, it's been a minute
since we've done this, so we got some wild stories
for it all. Coming up next on The Craigway Show,
Andrew zim Will filling in for Craig Sports Radio AM
thirteen hundred The Zone after.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
A trip to the twenty twenty five Winns Final four,
an SEC championship in their first season and sold out home.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
In conceivable, inconceivable us in the fourth.

Speaker 11 (23:05):
I don't think I miss what you think of?

Speaker 9 (23:06):
Miss?

Speaker 3 (23:09):
Is it inconceivable for Andrew's amble to be sitting in
the chair. Probably not. Craig White Show rolls on inconceivable
all Thursday edition. Let's get into it all right. So
I have heard of Yogi bear stealing a picnic basket
or two. In fact, my family and I used to
always do hey booboo, let's eat. We would try to
do the Yogi bear impression. Uh, this is not a

(23:32):
picnic basket. This is a family's cupboard, a cabin in
California raided by bears. Yes, and not the Goldielots site.
A mother bear and her cup were caught on security
camera breaking in to a California cabron and rating the fridge. Now,
the security camera footage recorded of the cabin in Tahoe,

(23:53):
Keys shows a bear entering the front door making a
b line to the kitchen. I think Yogi knew what
he was doing. The mother bear and cub opened the
refrigerator and spent several minutes rummaging through the content, working
to pry open containers. This is why it's childproof containers
also bearproof. The cabin was unoccupied at the time the
bear berg three. The bears in the area have been

(24:15):
known to pull off similar heights in the past. This
is not the first time that a bear has broken
into a cabin. In fact, there was one just a
little bit south of this occurrence where a bear broke
into a cabin stole a bunch of jelly. So I
wonder if jellystone has a problem with bears, right, no,

(24:37):
something like that. I will say this. If I was
somebody in this area that had a cabin, it is
the middle of summer, you have to make sure that
you were locking your doors. Who is unlocking and leaving
their cabin doors open? Right, you would think padlocked at
the least a key And I understand, Oh, we're gonna
do a quick canoe trip. Well, listen, you leave that

(24:59):
nice ham meat in the refrigerator and next thing you know, honey,
we let the bears in. All right, Now, this is
a good one. For you, because I know a few
of you have lost rings while swimming, and a professional diver,
we plunged into a Texas leg able to recover a
diamond ring lost by a woman who went out into
the water. This is a perfect story, Jacqueline Paige. By

(25:22):
the way, Jacqueline spelled with of course an apostros fee
in there and her said her son's basketball team is
visiting Sandy Beach area in Possum Kingdom when she realized
her diamond wedding ring, which dated back to nineteen ten,
had fallen into Possum Kingdom Lake. Now the baseball team
searched the area with their parents and grandparents, but couldn't

(25:43):
find the missing jewelry. Talk about a good team building
activity finding mom's wedding ring. Paige enlisted the help of
Ryan Prigmore of Blue Diver Search and Rescue. He said
high winds caught rough water, making the search difficult. He
called off the hunt for a few hours, but we
turn the next day to search undercommer conditions. You gotta

(26:03):
love that. Talk about service with a smile. I've comparing
myself in the last few days that had been lost
and I wouldn't ever see it again my bringing so specially,
I had no idea how I was gonna get over this.
I'm over the moon knowing it's coming home to me,
the woman wrote on social media. And it is a
very nice wedding ring. I have to admit to say.

(26:23):
It goes back to nineteen ten, though, really surprised me
in the craftsmanship of the turn of the century. Diamond makers.
Good for them, great job all hand crowd applause there.
But to find the wedding ring, talk about good eyesight.
I can tell you now, if it's a clear day
and I'm in a nice pool with the pool goggles on,
I barely can see the bottom, let alone. To find

(26:46):
a diamond wedding ring, there's gotta be some sort of
sonar option here. I'm curious to see. Is there a
way that you, like, you know, like a bat do
do do do do do do do do do do
do do and find it. I don't know, but congratulations
to this woman, and it is. Honestly, I need to
find this group that found this wedding ring because there's
been a couple times I've lost sunglasses, you know, other

(27:08):
things in the bottom of lakes. You know, let's find
Andrew Zimmo's Oakley Glasses from twenty thirteen. What's going on
there all right?

Speaker 2 (27:15):
Now?

Speaker 3 (27:16):
I went on a little bit of a family vacation
relatively recently. I don't know if we talked about it
or not. Went to the Czech Republic, Cheka, went to Austria, Prague,
had a great time, and I didn't see any of
these groups of people. I gotta admit, in fact, most
of the places that I went, yeah, there are some
people who had some rough teeth, but for the most part,
pretty good style teeth. Well, the story came across my

(27:38):
desk to day as we were preparing for the show.
You know, we're going deep into the NBA draft, We're
looking at Aaron Rodgers' stats, and I get this story
across the wire. This Czech family of three they've been
running a fake dental clinic. Yeah, a fake dental clinic. Now,
if you've seen somebody from Europe, you know sometimes those
dental work over there a little shit. But Checklis say

(28:01):
they've detained three suspects who allegedly treated patients in a
fake dental clinic without proper license or professional training. I
OH Police, in a statement Wednesday, said dozen of people
visited a clinic after a family of three opened in
their home. It's about one hundred or about sixty miles

(28:21):
southeast of Prague. About two years ago. The trio has
made over one hundred and eighty five thousand dollars before
they were detained this month. Is that with or without insurance.
The three of it pled guilty to charges including running
an illegal business, attempted bodily harm, stealing an illegal production,
and handling narcotics. They face up to eight years in prison.

(28:45):
Now police say a twenty two year old son consult
to the internet to do procedures to get this. Not
only are they taking your harder in cash, but they're
going to YouTube university, including extractions. While his fifty year
old mother are nursed by profess. Well, if she's a nurse, okay,
she worked as an assistant providing materials. The forty four

(29:06):
year old father, well, he made prosthetic devices. Okay, so
he's making the fake teeth that they're putting in your mouth.
This makes sense. When I was going to some of
these pubs over there, I'm looking at the bar maids,
I'm like, hmm, that tooth just doesn't look right. I
wonder if some of these people went there.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
Now.

Speaker 3 (29:26):
The regional newspaper said that the klage was reported by
a dentist who was approached by a patient who suffered
complications after the fake treatment. How would you like to
be that guy? That dentist, you know you're doing your
daily realms guy comes in and goes, yeah, I went
to the dentist down the road. You're like, actually, pretty sure,
I'm the only dentist in town. What's going on here?

Speaker 1 (29:48):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (29:48):
Gladly that they I'm very glad that they've got pointed
out and we're shamed for doing this because it is
now fun. Not only should you not pretend to be
a doctor, but you know, to be a dentist. Come
on all right now, finally we've seen people follow in groups, right,

(30:09):
and we call them sheeple, Right when somebody just follows
the trend. Well, California Highway Patrol they dealt with a
lot because one sheep decided to cross the road and
then two hundred and ninety nine followed. Yet three hundred
sheep wandered from a field in Santa Barbara absolutely stopped traffic.
Now on social media, obviously people want to be joking jokes.

(30:33):
The local police were quickly hooked at the scene, helped
the owner roundup the wooly wanderers, guided them to safety
back to their pen. I will say this, anytime I
see a social media account run by somebody who's maybe
a little bit too witty to be running it, I
go another failed stand up comedian, Right, we got plenty
of those in Austin. That's gonna do it for inconceivable.

(30:57):
This Thursday, when we come, I gotta tell you about
last night NBA draft party in San Antonio went absolutely wild.
You will not believe some of these stories. Coming up next,
Craigway Show rolls on our number one wraps up on
thirteen hundred The Zone.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
Thirteen hundred, so your home for the Hordes.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone. Andrews and will
hang it out with you as we wrap a bow
on our number one of The Craigway Show. If you
missed any of it, can go back and listen on
the free iHeartRadio app the podcast page. Our eight producers
do a very good job of putting together the podcast
for all the shows. The morning kickoff as well as
The Craigway Show News coming out of the NBA. The

(31:55):
Nets are trading the number thirty six pick to the
Phoenix for two future second round picks. According to Sham
Sharani from ESPN, the Nets yesterday made a little bit
of history. Five first round picks yesterday, four of them
being guards, and they said, the NBA is moving to guards.
We're going to adapt, will be one of the first

(32:16):
teams that overloads on guards. In fact, it was the
first time in league history for a team to make
five selections in the first rounds. A lot of people
were shocked that they kept all those picks too. Eight nineteen,
twenty two, twenty six, twenty seven. It sounds like a
sounds like a mother who has her hands full, right,

(32:38):
A lot going on in Brooklyn. A lot of people surprised.
This is a move that general manager Sean Marks made
that you have to assume they're essentially going to build
and develop through the draft. They said, even though teams
like Milwaukee might be trading Giannis, Cleveland Cavaliers struggled with
injuries in the playoffs, Boston's about Jason tantem X, and

(33:00):
Indiana's without Tyra Saliburton, they said, you know what, that's fine,
we will continue to build slowly but surely. And if
you think about the Nets history ever since twenty thirteen,
they've done this. They build slowly and then they blow
it up for a superteam. They build slowly, then blow
it up for a superteam. So I understand what they're doing.
I get it. I wouldn't have personally decided to make

(33:21):
five picks in the first round. I probably would have
tryed to package some of those move up, get somebody
that you really really liked, but hey, that's just me.
Last night was the NBA Draft, which meant we had
a little bit of a draft party down in San Antonio,
which was a ton of fun at the Rocket Lock
and Tara, if you were out there, thanks for hanging
out with us. If not, like you missed a really
good one. And I want to talk about that a

(33:43):
little bit because it was the first time that we
did a draft party like that and it felt very
special because I have been saying pretty much this entire
draft process that while guys like Giannis were out there,
KD were out there for trade rumors, man Byo is
out there for some trade rumors. I said, the Spurs
are the type of team then unless they can absolutely

(34:07):
finaggle and get a two for one deal, meaning that
for one good player, or I would say for two
good players, Spurs are giving up one average player. That's
usually how these trades end up going for San Antonio,
they want to find a way to fleece their opponent,
a la the Darn Fox trade. If you think back
to the Sacramento Kings, those fans still live it with

(34:28):
their front office for giving up on their all star.
The Spurs are not the type of team that makes trades.
They're not the type of team that will try to
microwave the process. They are slow and steady. They are
Thanksgiving meal. They do not want your leftover nachos. They
want a full meal. And that's why the Still and
Harper pick made so much sense to me. It feels
like the accumulation of all the picks in all the years.

(34:48):
And this is a team that won fifty games for
nineteen straight seasons. They were the standard bearer of success
in not only the NBA but professional sports in this country,
let alone this world. Honestly, they were the standard bearer.
So now you go through a couple of bad years,
missed the playoffs, a couple years in a row. You're

(35:09):
not gonna be the type of team that makes a
quick move. You're not the type of team that's going
to try to throw away all of that slow, gradual
building and make a quick move. Right Houston case in
point is kind of doing that with Kevin Durant trade,
I think, and yeah, they were able to get a
lot for a little They only give up five second
round picks. They gave up Jalen Green, a guy who
a lot of fans had already turned their backs on

(35:30):
the front office. He wasn't producing at the level that
they needed him to consistently for them to put any
more eggs in that basket. So they go and get
a guy like Kevin Durant. But they're rushing the process.
What was going to be a slow build with Emyodoka
in a young corps. They said, you know what, forget
the young core. We got Kevin Durant. We got Kevin Durant.

(35:52):
We're gonna try to go win some games.

Speaker 8 (35:54):
Now.

Speaker 3 (35:55):
Spurs are the opposite of that, And I thought was
cool last night. This is a from the spur of
social media. This is uh Victor Webman Yama facetiming Dylan
Harper after the pick.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
Yo, what was good? Hey?

Speaker 3 (36:09):
I think, sir, I know, I know you is my name, Dylan.
I just got drafted to the Spurs.

Speaker 7 (36:16):
I think I'm thinking. I think I'm your teammate. Now, man,
we live, man, this gonna be fun. Yeah, for show,
for show. Appreciate it fore you later, I got you, man,
ye get it out.

Speaker 3 (36:37):
And then we're gonna get back to work. Man, show man.
I'm gonna catch you later.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
Appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
Appreciate it by dog.

Speaker 10 (36:46):
Yes, sir, it is.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
Oh, now that's great. You gotta love that. And that's uh.
Victor Webbiyama talking to Dylan Harper, the Spurs number two
overall pick, first round pick. One of two that the
Spurs made in the first round, along with Carter Brian
out of Arizona. We'll talk about him a little bit later,
but you gotta love Wimby. Who's up? I think it
was like four am when the Spurs made that pick.

(37:09):
He was way past his bedtime. He's a guy that
likes to curl up with a good sci fi novel
and lights out by like nine pm. He is truly
a unique specimen of a character. He's one of one,
but he stayed up and he wanted to congratulate his guys.
And last night at the NBA Draft party, we had
the rock with our flagship station WAI and take it

(37:32):
to a sixty down San Antonio. It was so much
fun to see the Spurs fans who haven't had a
ton to cheer for. Yeah, getting number one overall pick
with Victor wemen Yama was great. The first rookie year
was an incredible Rookie of the Year season for Wimby.
You saw all of the signs pointing to hey, this
is a generational guy. It's a cornerstone guy. This guy
that we're building the franchise around the same mantra of

(37:55):
David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Victor weben Yama. It's synonymous now
with success. Last year, Okay, Wimby goes out with a
deep blood thrombrosis in the shoulder. It's a scary injury.
It's not something that's easily done. We heard our guy
Mark Henry on the Morning Kickoff talk about knowing guys
in WWE who dealt with those type of injuries. It's

(38:16):
not something that you turn your nose up at.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
It.

Speaker 3 (38:18):
It's not an easy injury to overcome, but okay, we're good.
You're two of the Wimbin Yama era in the books.
And it leads to getting a guy like Dylan Harper
who immediately in his post game eras post draft interviews
talking about how he's very excited to not only play
with Wimbin Yama, but he's excited to play with those

(38:38):
other guards. He's excited to play with the Aaron Fox
and Steph Castle, which I thought was very interesting because
I wonder if the Aaron Fox and Steph Castle are
as excited to play with Dylan Harper as he is
with them. Because we've all been in the workplace before.
You have a nice job, you get your you know,
come up, and you figure out where you rank in
the company, middle management, whatever, right, and then all of

(38:58):
a sudden, the new crop of interns comes in, and
then the new crop of young people come in, and
you save yourself. Okay, what is this doing to a
my productivity? Is this making my life easier or harder?

Speaker 2 (39:10):
Right?

Speaker 3 (39:10):
Sometimes? Teaching the new guy how to work the coffee
machine not the easiest thing in the world. Trust me,
I know. We still don't have coffee in the mornings.
Over here, but sometimes you're wondering, is this guy gonna
take my job? And for Dylan Harper, a guy who
was the primary ball handler at Rutgers for a team
that won fifteen games last year. We're gonna circle back
because I have an interesting staff for you on that

(39:32):
fifteen games last year struggled right. Is he gonna be
the guy that takes Darren Fox's job? He's taking step
cass stop or we're all three gonna play together. We're
gonna have to find out. Our one of the Craigway
Show in the books, Hour two Jam Packed as well,
our friend Mike Craven joining from Dave Campbell's Football magazine
talking to us, Well Pack twelve Texas state, what's going

(39:54):
on in San Marcus? All coming up next? Craigway Show
rolls on at Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred of the Zone.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
Hall of Fame broadcaster, the voice of the Texas Longhords
and your host of the Craig Wait Show.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
Here he is now Craig.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
Wey Nour number two in the Cragway Show rolls on.
Andrew Zimmle hanging out of you This Thursday, A rich
Man's Friday is what they call it a lessus Longhords
and your host.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
Of the Craig Wait Show here he is. Now, Craig what.

Speaker 3 (40:41):
Our number two in the Cragway Show rolls on? Andrews
Diimle hanging out of you This Thursday, A rich Man's Friday,
is what they call it. I love a good Thursday
and hopefully you do. Two lot's get into this hour.
Mike Craven from Dave Campbell's Football magazine joins us. They
have their cover coach is Steve Sarksian, but I'm more

(41:04):
curious about what is happening in sunny Sam marvelous. What's
going on in San Marcus? The PAC twelve is a calling.
Will Texas State pick up the phone or have they already?
We're gonna talk to a Craven about that and of
course what that means for the rest of Texas football.
Spurs made a big splash with Dylan Harper last night
as well, number two overall pick. But we're gonna hear

(41:24):
from a Spurs legend. I talked to a Sean Elliott
for our draft preview on WAI and he was talking
about Carter Bryant, his fellow Wildcats. We'll get into that
later this hour as well, But I want to start
here because I teased it the end of the last hour,
the stat of the day, and here it is. The
Rutgers men's basketball team this past season, fifteen and seventeen overall,

(41:48):
eleventh in the Big Ten. Duke's men men's basketball team
thirty five and four, nineteen and one in the ACC. Now, Zimble,
why do those matter? Why do you care about last season?
The two teams that didn't win the national championship but
were separated by almost twenty games. Well, here's why. The

(42:08):
top five picks in last night's NBA draft, Cooper Flag,
Dylan Harper, kN Kandeupple, and Ace Bailey all went to
either Duke or Rutgers. So if your top five picks,
only one of them didn't, it was DJ Edgecomb or
VJ Edgecomb out of Baylor. Of those five picks, two
of them go to Duke, two of them go to Rutgers,

(42:29):
and it goes to show people who judge college basketball
teams on their success and judge the players on that
team's success are missing the point. Cooper Flag and Conkan
Dupple go one and four in this year's draft, not
because Duke was a national champion contender, not because they

(42:49):
went to the Final four, but it's because those two
guys are outstanding prospects. Cooper Flag compared to guys like
Rodre Kirolinko, Jason Tatum and at the very peak Tippity Top,
Scottie Pippen, Okay Kan Kan Nupple. It's compared to guys
like Cam Johnson or On Bordognovich, guys who were good shooters.

(43:10):
He compared himself to Klay Thompson in an interview I
saw with Bill Simmons prior to the draft. I personally
don't put him in that same conversation. I thought Clay
out of Washington State was a lot better of a defender.
Thought that was a good two way player. I think
conn kind of struggles in the defensive side of the ball.
But the reason those two guys go where they go
is because of the individual talent. Dylan Harper for Rutgers,

(43:32):
it's the individual talent Aast Bailey for Rutgers individual talent.
It's not because the team won fifteen games that all
of a sudden, now we're talking about Dylan Harper as
being a turn player, a guy who, hey, you could
go in the lottery, or you could go to a
team fifteen or lower aast Bailey a great scorer. You know,
every NBA team needs a guy like that, but maybe

(43:56):
he goes later in the draft because of how successful
or i should say unsuccessful Rutgers was last season. Now,
I talked to their head coach, Steve Pichel, who is
head coach of Rutgers Scarlette Knights. Great guy, spoke very
highly of his players, obviously, but the reason he said
that the team struggled as much as they did last

(44:16):
year was it because of Ace Bailey's inability to be
a playmaker. He has shades of Michael Porter junior, and
you know we call him Michael Porter. Don't swing the rock.
He refuses to get assists, right, And it wasn't because
Dylan Harper's inability to shoot the three. He was an
average below average three point shooter in the Big Ten
last year. Wasn't because of those two guys inabilities. It

(44:37):
was because in college basketball now you're facing teams that
have twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven year old players
because of COVID and NIL and everything else. The odds
of a guy leaving of college early to go play overseas,
play in the G League, the Developmental League, or even
be a late NBA draft pick. Well, it's not as

(44:58):
lucrative now because because I can stay in college and
play longer, I can stay in college and make more
money thanks to name, image and likeness. So it wasn't
so much on Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper. Now I
didn't tell coach Pikeel this, but I'll tell you that
tells me. And that's kind of a coaching issue, right,
Not so much a player issue, more of a coaching issue.
You have two top five picks and you win fifteen games.

(45:19):
I like Steve Piicel, so I'm not going to say
that to him, but I'll tell you that I think
that it wasn't so much on the player as it
was more on the coaching a little bit. The other
thing I have to say, because I saw a lot
of Texas fans struggling with this, was the Trey Johnson
pick at number six to Washington. And we talked to
hardball hards yesterday on the broadcast, and he wasn't super

(45:42):
thrilled with the SEC Freshman the Year, a guy who
scored nineteen points per game last season for the University
of Texas in a team that was first four out
in the NCAA Tournament. He wasn't super thrilled with Washington
being the team that selected him. And I'm on the
complete other side of the spectrum there. I love the pick.
I think this is a great place for Trey Johnson.

(46:05):
And you think about all those things that Trey Johnson
does well well, the number one thing is scoring the basketball.
He's the number one thing for him is his ability
to put the ball in the hole. He got compared
to guys pre draft Tyler Hero, Ray Allen. I don't
think either one of those matches him perfectly. I thought
that he was a better slasher, gets to the hoop

(46:25):
type of guy, get up and down the court type
of guy. And yeah, Ray Allen early in his career
was that. But when you think Ray Allen, you don't
necessarily think of that super athletic two guard because I
was twenty five years ago. Now you think more of
the guy who was shooting big threes, hitting giant shots
in the playoffs, catch and shoot type of player. Trey

(46:45):
Johnson probably will not be that in Washington because of
the guys around him. And this is why I am
so happy with where he went. Because he goes to
Washington with an NBA champion, Christmas who's coming off an injury,
picked up his player option. He will be there. He's
got a guy like Marcus Smart, who you can say

(47:06):
a lot about Marcus Smart. You can see the quit
on the Memphis Grizzlies. You could say that he isn't
the greatest three point shooter. What you can't tell me
is that he's not tough. Dude's toughest nails all the
way back in Oklahoma State. This is a guy who
will go on into the stands and ruffle some feathers,
all right. He's not afraid of confrontation. He's not afraid
of you, he's not afraid of me, He's not afraid

(47:27):
of anybody. Okay, And he also got c Jim McCollum,
the Players Association president. So let's go through that. Chris Middleton,
NBA champion, Marcus Smart, tough at nails, and CEE Jim McCollum,
the leader of the Players Association. Why would you not
want Trey Johnson to be with those vets? Why would
you not want Trey Johnson to learn with those guys?

(47:48):
Because to me, it's obvious. I'm learning how to be
an NBA player from Chris Middleton, a guy who's played
on the Detroit Pistons and on a championship Bucks team
who played with Giannis. Out to Takubo is number two.
Maybe Trey Johnson isn't the number one guy. Maybe he
goes to Washington and he learns that his role as
more of a score first guy off the bench. He

(48:08):
turns into a lou Will type. He never reaches the
peaks of the Ray Allens and he kind of falls
to the floor of a Tyler Hero another NBA comp
form well, not a bad person to learn from from
Chris Milton, a guy who learned his role next to
one of the greatest players of all time in Giannis. Okay,
he goes to Washington, he learns from Marcus Smart, a
guy that played under Brad Stevens, who's a smart guy

(48:31):
who knows defensive intensity. Trey Johnson's big knock on him
coming out of the draft or coming into the draft
was his inability to play defense. He didn't seem like
a willing defender. Now, he said in his pre draft conversations,
I underrated defender underrated ball distributor. Okay, fair, but I'll

(48:52):
tell you, playing with Mark Smart, you're gonna learn a lot.
And then finally see to McCollum. Now, I think it's
ironic the CJ got moved to Washington from the Pelicans
because of the CBA that he agreed to as the
Players Association president, that we are stuck in this apron
first apron, second apron hell because of CJ McCollum. But

(49:13):
he's a leader, He's a guy that's able to lead
the fellow players. Now I would argue led them down
the wrong path with the CBA, but still learning from
that leadership and being in that locker room with him
is not a bad place to be. So I don't understand. Yes,
Washington hasn't won a lot of games. Yes Washington has struggled. Yes,
this is an organization that is led by some guys

(49:35):
who make some moronic calls. I understand that. But you
have to turn the page at some point getting rid
of Jordan Poole. I feel like that's a page turn.
I feel like that's a move in the right direction.
And with Trey Johnson coming in a young score first guy,
I don't need him to go to it with a
bunch of other score first guys. I need him to

(49:55):
be the score first guy. I need him to be
the guy in an NBA game there's one hundred and
twenty point it's on average score. Somebody's got to score
those points. I know Trade Johnson's gonna get me a
BIL twenty five in the NBA. We're gonna be talking
about him at the midway point of the season. Yeah,
the Wizards stink, but he's leading the league in rookie scoring.
Would that shock you? I don't think it would shock me.

(50:17):
I would be in the same camp. I would say, Yeah,
he came in the league as a score What would
shock me is if he's averaging four and a half
five assists. What would shock me? If he's getting about
half a Steelers steal a game. And if he does
those things and is a constant professional that we know
him to be, he's gonna have a long NBA career
and for long worn fans, I think that's what you
want the most, the guys who have come through the

(50:40):
forty acres, who have had successful careers. I look at
Miles Turner every single season since he was drafted to
the Pacers. He's been on the trade block. Fans have
had him in more jerseys than I can count. Okay,
every trade deadline, I'm seeing him in a Lakers jersey,
a Celtics jersey, a Magic jersey, a Bulls jersey. But
the entire time him consummate professional. The entire time, I'm

(51:04):
gonna grind and do what I need to do. And
then all of a sudden, he's playing in the NBA
Finals and he's a game away of being a champion.
And if Tyre's Halliburton doesn't get injured, doesn't go down,
he's probably talked about as an NBA champion. So for
everybody who's upset about the Johnson pick to the Wizards,
I have to just tell you, relax, Relax, it's going
to be fine. The situation that he went in, I

(51:26):
don't love the front office, I don't love the coaching staff,
but I like that locker room more now than I
did forty eight hours ago. All Right, when we come back,
Mike Craven from Dave Campbell's Football Magazine joins US Texas
State and the PAC twelve. The Conference of Champions is
Texas State going. We're gonna ask him next Craig Waite
Show rolls on Andrews and We'll sitting in for Craig
on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred Zone.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
Wake Up with Harch and Henry in the morning, kickoff
the story of Alice Cooper, Long.

Speaker 3 (51:56):
Horns, and Hall of Fame broadcaster Craig Way Sports Radio
AM thirteen hundred The Zone. Andrews im will hanging out
with you this afternoon. If you missed any of the program,
go back and listen on the free iHeartRadio apps podcast page.
On the phone line with us right now is a
friend of mine, Dave Campbell's football Texas football writer Mike Craven,

(52:19):
and we have something to talk about that it's very
near and dear to my heart, and it's conference realignment.
Every time I talk to Craven it seems like there's
another development here. So, Mike, how you doing today? Being good?

Speaker 12 (52:31):
Are you?

Speaker 3 (52:32):
I'm doing great? All right, let's talk Texas State to
the PAC twelve. This has been a rumor that's been
circulating for a couple months now, but it feels like
we're finally getting close to the finish line. What can
you tell me?

Speaker 12 (52:44):
Yeah, it seems like the big day obviously is July first.
You know, that's when the buy out to leave the
Sunbelt goes from five million to ten million.

Speaker 1 (52:52):
In a move that is mostly.

Speaker 12 (52:54):
About money like that obviously is going to matter. The
word I got yesterday was imminent. I think the sun
Belt Conference and Texas State believe that a invitation from
the PAC twelve is coming. And if one does, and
it's you know, the offer of the bobcasts think that
it is with the value that they think that it is,
I'm pretty sure Texas State is going to accept that

(53:15):
offer and go to the PAC twelve.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
Now, when Texas State jumped from FCS to FBS like
a little over ten years ago, now, did you ever
imagine that it would be a PAC twelve invite that
they would take?

Speaker 12 (53:27):
Well, no, I mean I would have had to imagine
that the PAC twelve fell apart, right, and the PAC
twelve Texas State is getting invited to. You know, isn't
the PAC twelve that existed when Texas State moved up.
But you know, it's still a really good move. In
the revenue share world of college athletics, media rights deal
become more valuable, more important than ever, And if you

(53:49):
can triple or quadruple the money you're bringing in on
a yearly basis, even with the extra travel, I think
that matters. And then also I think who you play
again in the helmets matter as well. And even though
the PAC twelve, you know, doesn't have the u C
a USC or an Oregon or u C l A,
you know, being in the same conference as Boise State,

(54:10):
being in the same conference as Oregon State and Washington State,
I think those are those are really good things for
Texas State athletics and good for the university.

Speaker 3 (54:18):
Yeah, Pack State sounds a little bit better than the
PAC twelve at this point, and I have to say,
conference of champions Can I call it that if it's
a Utah State Texas State Conference championship?

Speaker 12 (54:29):
Mike, probably not, But that's okay, right, Like, you don't
need to be at what the PAC twelve used to be.
I think they're just trying to position to be the
fifth best conference and with a guaranteed G five spot
or you know, if they can finagle their way into
to still be kind of considered, you know, alongside the
Big twelve or the ACC. I mean, I would say
it's closer to an American than it is to the

(54:52):
ACC But I think the battle between the American between
the PAC twelve will be fun. That'll that'll increase some
debates and and the more eyes, the more attention on
quote unquote, I guess now G six football.

Speaker 3 (55:05):
I think the better. So that's where I was going
to go with this, because Texas State goes. The whole
reason that the Sun Belt I guess the marriage had
some issues was that they didn't have a regional rival.
Now they go the PAC twelve and guess what, they
still have a regional rival.

Speaker 12 (55:19):
Right, Yeah, no regional rival. And you know, maybe that changes,
you know, somewhere along down the road. I would doubt
that that realignment has ever done. I mean, I would
think musical chairs goes on forever. But you know, like
you said, you're not leaving a regional You're not leaving
leaving a regional rival to go somewhere else. You're in
the same position. But now you're in the same position

(55:41):
with an extra six seven million dollars. And I do
think this all comes down to money. Like, look, if
the money was equal, if the PAC twelve revenue deal
was going to be the same as the Sun Belts,
I don't think Texas State leaves.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
Maybe not.

Speaker 12 (55:53):
I mean it would be definitely a harder decision with
the extra travel and just the distance that they're going
to have to cover. But with the it with revenue
sharing coming, you know, money is more important than ever
in Texas State. It's no different than most colleges and
where they're trying to squeeze it for as much as
they can get it.

Speaker 3 (56:09):
So we're talking to Mike Craven from DCTF and Craven,
let me ask you this, does this change the group
of five in the state of Texas at all? With
Sam Houston State UTSA UNT Does this make any move
any ripples to those teams? I don't think so.

Speaker 12 (56:26):
The buyout to get out of the American is high
enough to where I don't think any extra money you
would make in the PAC twelve plus the travel would
offset that. Like you would have to be in the
conference for five to ten years for you to finally
get into the green. And I believe most most of
the administrators, most of the coaches, the power brokers behind

(56:48):
the scenes feel like we're going to a big change
in twenty thirty twenty thirty one when some rights deals
are done with the playoffs, the ACC buyout comes lower,
maybe the Super League comes or whatever. The next iteration
of conference realignment looks like.

Speaker 3 (57:02):
So, I you know, you never know.

Speaker 12 (57:04):
You know, obviously money could come into the pot and
sweeten the deal and and one of those teams, you know,
burst into a better opportunity. But as it stands right now,
I just don't know if it's enticing enough to leave
where you're already at.

Speaker 3 (57:18):
And we talked a year ago in a restaurant in
San Marcus about the gap between the Group of five
and the Power five, and you were saying that this
is a chasm. Now that we are splitting further and
further a year later, do you feel any better about it?
Or do you feel like this is two different sports?

Speaker 1 (57:35):
Almost?

Speaker 12 (57:36):
Yeah, I feel like it's two different sports. Look like,
you know, with revenue sharing coming in, I think most
of the Power force schooler, I can say, all the
power power poor schools in the state are going to
at least spend you know, twelve thirteen million dollars on
their football roster. I don't think a G five team
in the state's going to spend more than four And

(57:57):
then you compound that over years and just the ability
to build a roster is going to be such a chasm.
I mean, Arch Manning could be making more than the
whole UTEP football operation when those two teams play, you know,
same when Texas plays Sam Houston State. There's just a
bigger and bigger gap. I think the perfect illustration of
it is are all Texas college football teams were releasing

(58:18):
those on Monday. Of the fifty four players, only seven
are from the G five ranks. When I took over
in twenty twenty two, there was almost fifty to fifty
because you could go find some G five players that
have stuck around, that have experience, that have production. I
don't think there's a single All conference player that was

(58:39):
in the G five last year in the state that's
back at their school. They either ran out of eligibility,
left early for the NFL.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
Or transferred.

Speaker 12 (58:46):
So the talent gap is getting wider and wider, and
I'm not sure there's a way to offset that.

Speaker 3 (58:50):
Yeah, that doesn't make me feel very good about the
sport that I very much love. I love college football
mic and it seems like we're getting further and further
away from what I think a lot of us grew
up loving.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 12 (59:04):
I've argued that for years. I think the expansion of
the playoffs kind of only solidified that. As you see
like they're gonna want more and more spots for the SEC,
more and more spots for the Big Ten. Those two
conferences are definitely in control of the sport and looking
out for themselves. And this is what happens when nobody's
in charge, you know.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
I don't know.

Speaker 12 (59:23):
I go back and forth on if it would be
better for the G five just to pool the string
and go do their own thing, have their own playoffs.
But I do know that coaches are worried about feeling like,
you know, SCS or Division two football. So I don't
think there's a great answer. I don't think there's an
ideal solution out there. Unfortunately, I feel like a lot
of those programs, a lot of these conferences are just

(59:45):
at the mercy of the SEC and the Big Ten
doing the right thing, and I don't know, that's not
a spot I'd like to be in.

Speaker 3 (59:51):
So speaking of the SEC, let's talk about your cover
coach for this year's Football Man, because it's going to
the print pretty soon, right, Well, it's.

Speaker 12 (01:00:01):
Already kind of trickling out. We got about three or
four hundred into the office. So we're you know, seven
on seven State, seven on seven huge right now, this
weekend car station. So if you end up out there,
you can you can probably find a couple of magazines,
and subscribers probably start getting them in the mail the
next couple of weeks. So we went to press. We've
moved moved it back a couple of weeks because of

(01:00:22):
the transfer portal, just so it's more accurate in there.
We don't have players listed who aren't there anymore, or
don't have some players listed who are going to be
key members of the football team. But yeah, I think
in the next couple of weeks, subscribers should start getting
them to the mail and then we'll we'll probably see
them in stores, you know, early July, mid July.

Speaker 3 (01:00:41):
Can you get me any behind the scenes here, any
secret stories you haven't told yet about the making the NAG?
I don't think so.

Speaker 12 (01:00:48):
I mean it was it was pretty easy.

Speaker 3 (01:00:51):
You know.

Speaker 12 (01:00:51):
That's what's great about Dave Campbell's is you know, everybody
works with you pretty pretty well.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
You know.

Speaker 12 (01:00:55):
Steve Sarkisian was great, sat down with them. It took
about thirty minutes to the photo shoots down with them
for about an hour and kind of you know, talked
about his journey, the ups and the downs. It's pretty unique,
interesting story obviously that that most folks in Austin know.

Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
So that was fun.

Speaker 12 (01:01:11):
It's kind of getting a peek behind the curtain. And
you know, the magazine with the transfer portal, the magazine
gets harder and harder to kind of make every year.
You know, you're trying to create a snapshot in April
and may that still kind of.

Speaker 1 (01:01:23):
Exists in July. And you know, as we talk about.

Speaker 12 (01:01:26):
Between the time that we sent to press and right now,
Texas State could be joining a different conference and it
won't want to affect twenty twenty five obviously, but I
think it's just an illustration of how hard it is
to kind of grapple with with how quickly this sport
changes these days.

Speaker 3 (01:01:40):
Well, when Texaan joins the PAC twelve, I look forward
to seeing GJ. Kenny on the cover. Mike Mike, We'll
see Mike Graven from Dave Campbell's Football Texas Football. Thanks
so much for joining me, Man, appreciate you toogular talk
to you later, buddy. All right, when we come back,
Spurs made a giant move and it's not just Dylan.
Harper will tell you all of out their draft up

(01:02:01):
next to Craig Wait show rolls on on sports Radio
AM thirteen hundred The Zone thirteen.

Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
Hundred The Zone.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
Welcome back to the Craig Way Show and the Voice
of the Longhorns. Craig Way. Follow Craig on social media
at Horn Voice.

Speaker 3 (01:02:25):
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone and Drew Zimmo
was sitting in for Craig today. You follow me on
socials at Andrew Underscore Zimmel on Twitter. You can also
find me on Instagram. So got some posts up from
last night.

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
We had the.

Speaker 3 (01:02:39):
WAI Draft party our sister station in San Antonio. They
had a nice event out by the Spurs practice facility
where we were able to see the NBA Draft and
the Spurs did the right thing. At number two. It
was obvious, it was consensus. The draft really began at three.
That is when VJ. Edgecombe, the forward guard i should

(01:03:02):
say from Baylor, was drafted to the seventy six yeers.
But we all knew who one and two were going
to beat. Cooper Flag was the consensus number one. Dylan
Harper was the consensus numer two. But the draft starts
at three, and you kind of find yourself in a
position if you're the Spurs at pick number fourteen, where
you have some needs to fill, yes, but you want

(01:03:24):
to know what you are going to do, and they decided.

Speaker 11 (01:03:28):
To do this.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
At the fourteenth pick.

Speaker 11 (01:03:31):
In the twenty twenty five NBA Draft, the San Antonio
Spurs select Carter Bryant from the University of Arizona.

Speaker 3 (01:03:39):
Now Carter Bryant. I liked Carter Brant in the pre draft.
I liked him even though he was kind of like
a six man for the Wildcats last season. He was
an athletic Ford versatile defender, good ball handling, hyper aware
was what draft analysts were saying, Jeff Green, Trevor Ariza type.
But what's interesting is he spoke in his post draft

(01:04:01):
interview and they asked him who would he compare himself to.
I think immediately the first guy. I think it was Kauhi.

Speaker 8 (01:04:09):
This is defensive versatility, being in the guard multiple positions
early on his career, and just as you saw his progression,
he became one of the best players in the world,
arguably a top three player to be playing basketball at
a time where I mean Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, and
Lebron were pretty much solidify to be the top three.
But he was really making a statement that he was
one of the best players in the world as well.

Speaker 3 (01:04:30):
Now, if you're not your number one fan, then you're
doing something wrong. You have to root for yourself. But
to compare yourself to Kawhi Leonard, look, Carter, I understand, buddy,
Like this is one of those deals where you say
something before you think about it. But that's like comparing
yourself to your spouse's X. It's like, what do you

(01:04:51):
do really well? Well, just like Stephanie's ex husband Jeff.
You know, I really do a good job on the ground.
Don't compare yourself to the Ax. Don't compare his up
the Kawhi lettered even if it is maybe true, but
you can't do that. You cannot compare yourself to Kawhi
if you're joining the Santaia Spurs. Look, it's an early sin.
It can be forgiven. I spoke to Sean Elliott, former

(01:05:13):
number three overall pick in nineteen eighty nine. Spurs legend
obviously hit a bunch of big shots help win a
championship in ninety nine. I was talking to him before
the draft for our Draft day interviews and used during
the broadcast, and he was breaking down a couple of players.
He broke down Arizona Wildcat Carter Bryant. I like what

(01:05:33):
he had to say.

Speaker 11 (01:05:34):
When I look at guys, I you know, I just recently,
I mean as early as today, I was watching Carter
Bryant from Arizona and watching how he played and just
you know, seeing a few clips here and there, and
reminded me a lot of myself as a freshman, but
better defensively, probably even more athletic, and probably you know,

(01:05:57):
shot the three ball better, which you know, everybody's choose
the three ball now, so there's something that we weren't
doing way back in the day. So he kind of
stood out to me. You know, I know that he
could go anywhere from nine to sixteen. You know, That's
what I've been hearing. And I've even seen him on
some mock drafts coming to San Antonio. So he's one
guy that looked at.

Speaker 3 (01:06:16):
Yeah, so split the difference there. Sean said between nine
and sixteen he ends up going fourteen to the Santai Spurs,
and you like that if you're a Spurs fan. I
feel like that's kind of a home run type of hit.
Six point eight wing out of Arizona. His ability to
score the basketball could be a little bit desired, but
still I liked the pick where it was, especially considering

(01:06:38):
that Derek Queen went just ahead of him. Spurs needed
a big man. Well, there's not a ton of big
men available. We'll get to one here in a second.
Yang Hanson, who got drafted to the Memphis Grizzlies. It's
kind of a head scratching move. He thought it was
a head scratching move as well. He was in the stands.
They brought him out of the stands to walk across
the stage and shake Adam Silver's hand. But Carter Brian

(01:07:00):
also went on to speak about who he's excited to
play with. He spoke at length in that post draft
about where or who he's looking forward to playing with.

Speaker 8 (01:07:11):
I think the first thing I immediately noticed is just
top to bottom, they just run different. I think that's
something you notice immediately with that organization. They're very clean,
they get things done very quickly. They are very precise,
and they have intention behind everything they do. And I
think the clear message I got behind everything is they
trying to get back to the top, so being able
to win games at a very high level.

Speaker 7 (01:07:31):
Of being able to compete for a championship. So that's
the first thing that I really got from the whole staff.

Speaker 3 (01:07:39):
He's looking forward to playing with the staff in San Antonio.
He's looking forward to being around those guys. And it
is a top rank organization. You talk to anybody in
the NBA, you talk to anybody around basketball, and they're
all about what san Antonio has been able to do.
And like I said, this is an organization that is
doing the long rebuild you've ever heard about the you know,

(01:08:02):
short rebuilds. We're trying to microwave a championship. We're trying
to get as many champions chips as possible in a
short amount of time. I would rather have a longer
window off. I'm san Antonio, and that's what they did.
But I want to talk a little bit about the
guys who didn't make a ton of sense last night,
because obviously the Spurs were a giant winner with Harper

(01:08:22):
at two and Carter Bryant at fourteen. But there's some
guys who came off not so great last night, one
of those being Joe Dumars. So if you didn't know,
you know now. Joe Dumars is the executive vice president
of operations for the New Orleans Pelicans. He also ran

(01:08:43):
the Detroit Pistons for a little bit. GM Troy Weaver.
These are guys who you know their names, but the
reason you know their names isn't for the right reasons.
Like Joe Jumars is an NBA player, incredible, great Finals MVP,
He's a general manager, not that great. He traded CJ.

(01:09:04):
McCollum to Washington for Jordan Poole, which was a little
bit of a head scratching moment. Then they traded up
to try to make a pick, sent a lot to
go up for somebody like that. He selected two rookies,
Jeremiah Fears and Derek Queen. Actually those where went to
the Atlanta Hawks in those picks. Or it just is

(01:09:27):
a strange predicament that the Pelicans kind of put themselves
in last night. They trade for a guy like Jordan
Poole and then also draft Sooners guard Jeremiah Fears, Now,
Fears was a good player and I liked him at Oklahoma,
but it didn't make a ton of sense for what

(01:09:47):
the Pelicans needed. A guy who has an NBA cop
to Jordan Poole is not going to be playing alongside him.
You can't call NBA draft players bust on draft night.
I'm not saying that Fears is going to have an
awful career and not make a second contract, because most
of the time, guys that drafted the lottery will get
a second contract no matter what. But it didn't make

(01:10:10):
a ton of sense at the time, and it doesn't
make a ton of sense now what they are trying
to do in New Orleans. And you think back to
last season when they make a mid season trade and
send Brandon Ingram to Toronto. The Pelicans feel rudderless. They
feel directionless. They don't have an identity, and I don't
know if last night they come out of it and

(01:10:31):
they have any other identity than being directionless. Another loser
last night was any local or casual fan of the
Houston Rockets or Phoenix Suns. Malawak was the seven to
two center out of Duke Okay. Head over heels for
this guy, huge ginormous. If you're looking for a rebounder,

(01:10:54):
you want somebody like that. And for him to go
to the Rockets, I like that move. I was like, oh,
this is a good pick. And for casual fans, that
was the move that they thought. If you just watched
the Rockets in the postseason, you said, they go and
draft a rookie center. Okay, that makes sense. They need
to have somebody to back up Steven Adams or replace
him in the future. But he's not going to play
for the Houston Rockets. In fact, last night it might

(01:11:16):
be the only time in his career he puts on
any sort of Rockets gear because he's going to play
for the Phoenix Suns. In that Kevin Durant trade. If
you remember, Durant got traded from the Suns to the
Rockets a week ago. The number ten pick was in
that trade along with jeff Jalen Green. He will never
play in the Houston Rockets jersey. But last night, on

(01:11:38):
the most important night of his young life, he's wearing
a Houston Rockets hat. Losers, casual fans, I know people
who are pretty locked in and you know, Kevin Durant
got traded, but you don't really know what he got
traded for. You just know he's gonna be on a
Rockets jersey because of the picture on social media. I
would be confused. I would not know, And when the
open night opens around, I'd say, what happened to that

(01:12:00):
giant that we drafted on drafted? Well, actually he never
was going to play for us. So another loser is
the NBA, because you gotta find a way to figure
this out. We're acting like it's two thousand and five.
It's twenty twenty five. Give the kid the right cap.
I understand that you can't make the trade official with
the players because of these salary implications and the fiscal year,

(01:12:21):
but you gotta find a way to make it where
it's easy and understandable. And then there's a photo of
the guy wearing the right hat. It's not too much
to ask for, all right. When we come back, we'll
wrap ap hour number too of the Craigways Show. Put
a bow on it. Next coming up on Sports Radio
AM thirteen hundred of the Zone.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
Do you ever feel like when you're talking nobody is listening.
Sports Radio AM.

Speaker 3 (01:13:06):
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred zones and we'll hanging out
with you as we wrap up our number two of
the Craigway Show. Well, some some disturbing news this NFL
offseason was the allegations against former Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker.
The official suspension was announced earlier today, suspended the first

(01:13:27):
ten games of the season twenty twenty five season in
violation of personal personal conduct policies of the league anuist Today,
Tucker can serve the suspension as a free agent is
now free to sign with an NFL team. If he
weren't a sign with the team, he could attend training
camp and play in preseason games before the suspension begins
on August twenty six. That doesn't make a ton of sense.

(01:13:50):
He's eligible for reinstatement November eleventh. The NFL set now
Tucker thirty five, is accused of sexual misconduct by sixteen
massage therapists from eight high ends, bos and wellness centers
in Baltimore area. Accorded to the Baltimore Banner, all of
the illegitimist conduct reportedly occurred between twenty twelve and twenty sixteen,
during Tucker's first five seasons in the NFL. That he

(01:14:13):
was released May fifth from the Ravens. The other part
of this story is that he struggled last year. Uh
he was a seven time Pro Bowler. He come off
his worst season of his thirteen year career. He missed
ten total kicks, three more than any previous season. His
seventy three percent conversion rate on field goals last season
ranked thirty first in the NFL. And then, of all

(01:14:36):
of the positions in football, I feel like kicker is
the easiest to cut. I feel like throughout my time
watching it. Maybe it's because I'm a Vikings fan, but
throughout my time, it seems like, Okay, if we lose
an offensive lineman, there's a contingency of the fan base
that will shed it t here. If we lose a
quarterback or a wide receiver or running back, there's a
lot of people who are upset. You know, I bought

(01:14:57):
my kid a jersey. What do you mean you're cutting
him kickers? Yeah, Dimond doesn't. It feels like there's NFL
teams that go through those very quickly, very rapidly, and
Justin Tucker is a future Hall of Famer. Like, I'm
not going to try to sugarcoat it. Even with the
misconduct he's getting into the Hall of Fame. He is
one of the best kickers of all time. But I
don't know if there's a team in the NFL at

(01:15:19):
thirty five years old, coming off his worst season that
will say, hey, let's sign this guy. Because you got
to remember, he can get signed and do all the
preseason and do but Week one of the NFL season starts.
That is when the suspension begins. So I wonder if
there's a way for him to get around that. Maybe
he doesn't sign with a team and then does at

(01:15:41):
the end of the season after that November eleventh mark,
or will it be a ten week ban. No matter what,
I'm curious to see how this ends up being litigated.
I imagine that there's a world where he does play
football in twenty twenty six. But if I'm an NFL team, though,
I don't know if if I want a thirty five
year old kicker with this much baggage, this many headaches

(01:16:04):
going on behind the scenes. Other NFL news, Cody Benjamin
for CBS dot Com did a very interesting thing. It's
the dog days of summer. College baseball is done. College
football is sixty something days away. Now fifty something days
away now, so we're in the dog days. All you
have is professional baseball and then the NBA trades. Those

(01:16:26):
are what is going to power you through this offseason.
But Cody Benjamin at CBS Sports, he figured it out.
He said, you know what, I'm gonna come up with
summer trade proposals. I got five big name trades to
send guys to different teams. Now, I like most of
these because most of them are offensive players. Because you
can't write a article like this five big name trades

(01:16:49):
and have oh, I'm going to send this backup running
back to a different team and make you excited unless
you're a dynasty football fan and you're locked in on
every single depth chart. That doesn't really move the needle
for him. But the one that caught my attention the
New Orleans Sans, which are in cap purgatory. I always
said that they were the only team in the NFL

(01:17:09):
who did not need to pay attention to the cap.
For some reason, they had cap of voodoo. I don't
know what they were doing down there, but they never
seemed to be against the cap, even with all of
the big contracts they were signing. Well, the Pied Piper
finally came to be paid up and they had to
pay these contracts and now they are actually in salary

(01:17:29):
cap purgatory. They hired a new coach, they're trying to
figure out the quarterback situation. They are a long way away,
and they're already come conversations that are already talk about
potential tank for Arch Manning in New Orleans. Whereas Pappy played,
where his granddad ar Chief Manning played, Arch Manning potentially
could be the next Manning in New Orleans. That's already

(01:17:51):
the conversation, which you know, it's June, there's a long
NFL season ahead of you, and you're already talking about tanking.
Not great. So Alvin Kamara getting traded to his former
head coach, Sean Payton, that excites me, That makes me interested,
and it would be a position where Okay, the Ravens
or I'm sorry, the Broncos have signed JK. Dobbins and

(01:18:13):
they drafted R. J. Harvey. There's depth chart positions there.
I like JK. Dobbins, I don't love JK. Dobbins. I
like what R. J. Harvey's done in his college career.
I don't love what he's done. And Alvin Kamara has
a little bit of juice left in the tank. It
seems like a lot of these running backs. The Bill
Belichick system is finally crept through the rest of the league.

(01:18:33):
I'm gonna cut a guy a little early, I'm gonna
trade a guy a little early. I'm gonna cut bait
on a guy a little early. Versus watching my old
running back continue to age in front of me in
real time. I'd rather have him go be a Derrick Henry,
go to Baltimore, be an MVP candidate. But I know
that when he starts regressing, I'm not the one paying
for it. So if the SATs decided to move off

(01:18:53):
of Alvin Kamara, I'm really interested in that train. I'm
really interested in sending him to Denver. It gives you
a little bit of more room if you're the Saints
cap wise, and it gives Denver another legitimate target. Kamara
had a pretty good season last year, not his best,
not his worst, solid season, and then the AFC West

(01:19:14):
that is chock full of talent. We always talk about
the quarterback position, where now you have guys like Justin
Herbert bo Knicks, oh and by the way, three time
champion Patrick Mahomes. You have all this talent there. You
need to give your young quarterback bon Knicks a little
bit more weapons to work with. Give him a little
bit more to work with now. The only hold up
is that the contract extension that he signed in October,

(01:19:38):
it's eighteen and a half million two in twenty twenty six.
That's a little bit steep for a team like the Broncos,
even though they're owned by the Walmart family. That's a
lot of money. Eighteen and a half for a running back.
I don't know. I'm excited for it.

Speaker 2 (01:19:52):
Though.

Speaker 3 (01:19:52):
NFL season continues to create closer and closer, all right.
When we come back, Our three of The Craig Way
Show rolls on, Will talk NBA Draft, Aaron Rodgers, the
Bridge quarterback between generations, and more all coming up next.
Craig Wait Show rolls on Andrew Zimmill sitting in for
Crag on Sports Radio, and thirteen hundred of the Zone.

(01:20:22):
Craig Way Here, and no matter who you listen to
on the air, and no matter which team you It's.

Speaker 2 (01:20:28):
The Craig Way Show with the voice of the Texas
long Horns and Hall of Fame broadcaster Craig Way.

Speaker 4 (01:20:45):
Our number three of the greig Way Show rolls on
Andrews Zimmel Hanging out with You.

Speaker 2 (01:20:51):
It's the craig Way Show with the voice of the
Texas long Horns and Hall of Fame broadcaster craig Way.

Speaker 4 (01:21:04):
Our number three of the greig Way Show rolls on
Andrews Zimmel Hanging out with you on a rich Bands Friday.

Speaker 3 (01:21:15):
It's a Thursday edition of the Craigway Program. A lot
to get into in this final hour. Gotta talk Aaron Rodgers.
He says this could be his final year. He's saying, Sayonara,
what are you doing with that? Are you excited? Are
you sad? We'll talk about it, and then winners and
losers from last night's NBA draft. Derek Queen goes to

(01:21:37):
the New Orleans Pelicans. I like Derek Queen. I don't
like that pick. Carter Bryant goes to San Antonio. I'm
not a big fan of Carter Bryant's college career, but
I kind of love the pick. We'll talk about it
all coming up later in this hour. And I think
it's good to start in the NBA draft because last

(01:21:59):
night I Cooper Flag went number one overall. It was
an obvious answer to the question who was going to
be the number one overall pick. It was consensus. I
did a lot of NBA draft research this year. This
is one of those seasons where I was way, way,
way in the weeds. The last time I was listing
the weeds was in twenty eighteen when Luca was coming over.

(01:22:22):
The other reason I was that much in the weeks
because it was still in college and I had that
free time. Okay, this year, I was watching college tape.
I was watching YouTube videos. I was watching breakdowns from
college coaches online because we were going to do a
draft show, obviously, but also because I was more interested
in the prospects and the picks and Cooper Flag has

(01:22:43):
everything that you want the kids. Six foot nine, he
played at Duke, He's got that pedigree. He's a white
American basketball player, which are harder and harder to come
by these days. This is one of those guys that
everybody is putting all of their marbles on. They're putting
all of the xs and the hype around this guy,
and is it worthy. Maybe this is a zim zag,

(01:23:06):
is what we're gonna call it. Maybe this has me
zagging on everybody else's opinion on the pick. But if
you ask me today who's gonna have the best career
of the guys drafted last night in the first round,
Cooper Flag wouldn't be my first pick because he's going
into a situation in Dallas. And yeah, Nico Harrison's the
general manager. Yeah, you can be upset about the way

(01:23:27):
that he handled Luka Dochic Tray and everything else, But
I just don't think that Dallas is the p the
right spot for him, not because of his talent, but
because of the expectations around him. Like we talk about
Cooper Flag, is this obvious number one pick, and he's
the last obvious number one pick since the last obvious
number one pick seems like every single year we do this.
Victor Wemanyama, Well, he's a generational talent. Paalo Bancaro, Well,

(01:23:51):
he reminds us a lot of Jason Tatum. Jason Tatum,
by the way, not the number one overall pick, But
the hype around Cooper is comparable in a situation like
the hype around Lebron. And I'm not saying that Cooper
Flag is gonna have Lebron's expectations Lebron has been the
most scrutinized athlete over the last two decades. That's not
what I'm saying. What I'm saying is he's going to

(01:24:13):
an organization in Dallas that is obviously in win Nama
sham Gerani earlier down the ESPN was talking about how
he thinks that the Dallas Mavericks have the best front
line in basketball. Not the Oklahoma See Thunder that just
won the title, not the Minnesota Timberwolves who have played
multiple Western Conference finals, but the Dallas Mavericks, the team

(01:24:34):
that was the tenth seed this season, who won thirty
nine games, Who's gonna have a older Kyrie Irving coming
off knee injury, who has an aging Anthony Davis, who's
coming off of injuries, and now has a nineteen year
old in the premier spot. And this was Cooper flag
last night when his teammate kan Kain Nipple got drafted
at number four for the Charlotte Hornets. Charlotte a lot

(01:24:58):
went through, Oh my gosh, which is so much.

Speaker 10 (01:25:08):
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (01:25:10):
I love that live reaction.

Speaker 9 (01:25:12):
How you feeling watching your teammate it drafted, Dame, I mean,
it's a real.

Speaker 6 (01:25:17):
You know, con that was my roommate last year. So
just to see him had that mon with his family,
it's just insane. That really just gave me chose That.

Speaker 3 (01:25:24):
Was crazy now, And I like Cooper Flank. I like
that reaction. Hey, my college roommate, not only my teammate,
but my roommate is getting drafted in the top four picks.
I like that honest reaction. But the kid's eighteen years old,
and we're gonna put the expectations in the pressure on
him to be an NBA champion, not maybe this year,
but the next two or three. Before this guy can

(01:25:46):
legally drink, we're expecting him to raise the Larry O'Brien trophy.
That doesn't seem fair, does it to you? Does that
seem fair to you? I don't think it is. And
that's why I do the Lebron James hype comparison. The
Zion Willilliamson was a outstanding social media star and Victor
Wiman Yama was seven foot three coming in from France

(01:26:06):
and was an alien. But there hasn't been a guy
with this much pressure on him since Lebron took over
the Cavaliers. The Cavaliers were a couple of years away.
If they kept doing the way the things that we're
doing from folding the franchise and moving somewhere else. Let's
be honest. That team was awful. That team was on
the verge of bankruptcy. Lebron comes in and in the

(01:26:28):
year fours in the NBA Finals at twenty two years old,
leading to a team to the finals. The hype around
it was real. As a kid from acre and taking
over the Cleveland Cavaliers being the face of the franchise,
Cooper Flagg is in a similar spot.

Speaker 8 (01:26:41):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:26:42):
He's supposed to be the face of the Dallas Mavericks
after they traded Luka Doncic, arguably the franchise's favorite son. Okay,
bye bye, goodbye, good luck in La. And by the way,
if there was any other team to send it to,
you send Luca to New York, Send Luca to Miami.
This hurts you send Luk at La in the Western Conference.
We're gonna have to face this guy in the playoffs.

(01:27:03):
Just adds to the injury, the insult of the injury.
So Cooper has all of this pressure and stress on him,
unlike any other prospects. The last time we had a
situation like this seventy nine when Magic got drafted the Lakers,
that this is a guy who's expected to come in
immediately and be a championship contending player. But if you

(01:27:24):
said to me tomorrow, would I'd rather have Cooper Flag
or number two pick Dylan Harper in a Game seven?
I tend to lean towards Dylan Harper. And it's not
because I think Dylan's a better player than Cooper Flag.
I don't. I think Cooper Flagg should have been the
number one overall pick. He's the most well rounded prospect.
He's getting comparisons to Jason Tatum and Andre Kurrolinko. Okay,

(01:27:46):
like this is a very good prospect. But Dylan Harper,
I just have this feeling in the positions that he
is going to be in that down the line in
his career, he's gonna be put in better spot. Like
imagine this, We're at game sixty, Dallas Mavericks are thirty

(01:28:06):
and thirty. Kyrie Irving is coming off a knee injury.
Anthony Davis has missed fifteen games, and the season is
on the brink. We're at the sixty win mark or
the sixty game mark. You have twenty games left to
figure out what type of team you're gonna be going
in the playoffs, and Cooper Flag is struggling, what are
those conversations going to be? They're not gonna be pretty.

(01:28:28):
If Dylan Harper is in that spot at the sixty
game mark and the Spurs are thirty and thirty, there's
gonna be a lot of conversations around Aaron Fox. There's
gonna be a lot of conversations about den Visel, Steph Castle,
Victor Webber Yaba. But Dylan Harper is not gonna have
any of that type of pressure. He's gonna be able
to age into the role that he's going to play.

Speaker 2 (01:28:50):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:28:50):
He's getting comparisons to guys like Darren Williams and Jalen Brunson,
two guys who were ball dominant players. But if you
ask me, I think Santai Spurs are gonna move him
into a more of a off ball type of role,
which he was able to do at Rutgers East. Bailey
was the scoring guy. He was a guy that they said,
throw the ball to him, make him make a play
one on one scoring He could do it. He could

(01:29:11):
put the ball in the hole, for you, Dylan Harper
did everything else. Hey you need a good defensive stop.
He's there. Hey I need to rebound, he's there. Hey
I need a good pass. He's there and he playmaking there?
Can he get to the ram? Sure? Can you shoot
the three? Not really? But they can work on it.
He's a young guy. I would rather be in the
deal in Harper position in San Antonio than the Cooper

(01:29:32):
Flag position in Dallas. I would rather be able to
grow and learn on grow and learn slowly with a
good organization, then go into Dallas where it's immediately we
are a championship contending team. We need not only are
we a contending team, but we need to be a
contending team because people's jobs are on the line. I
don't know about you. I've been in those positions where

(01:29:54):
if my performance isn't up to task, people are getting fired.
There's gonna be conversations above me about how people are
performing if on my performance. That is the spot that
Cooper Flag is in. If Cooper doesn't succeed, isn't successful
on day number one and the Maverick still look like

(01:30:15):
a championship contending team, equal Harrison, You're gonna get fired
Jason Kidd, you're gonna get fired. Andthony Davis, Kyrie Irving,
I don't know what we're gonna do with you, but
it's probably not gonna be in Dallas, so tough spots
to be in. Another guy in this year's draft that
I thought was really interesting was Ace Bailey. Obviously plays
with Dylan Harper at Rutgers. He did this thing where

(01:30:36):
he didn't talk to any of the NBA teams around
where he was gonna get picked. It sounds like he
was told that he was going to go between picks
three and eight, and he said, well, I don't really
want to go to the seventy six ers or the Hornets,
or the Jazz or the Wizards or the Pelicans. I
want to stay home in Brooklyn. I want to drop

(01:30:58):
my trades or my draft stock as low as it
can go. And I said, at number three, I would
have picked him. You're debating against a guy like Daryl Morey.
You're essentially in a chess match against a grand master.
Because Darryl Moray is the type of GM it doesn't
matter what the player wants, He's gonna do what he's
gonna do. Hey, James Harden come to the seventy six ers.

(01:31:19):
We love you in Houston. We'll give you a big contract.
Once he gets there and sees what James Harden is, nah,
we're not gonna pay him. Ruin the relationship. They had
a ten year relationship. Ruined the relationship with James Harden.
He doesn't care trying to win championships. So if Ace
Bailey was the type of player that Darryl Mory thought
could win him a title, he was gonna draft him.
But instead of the headache and getting a guy he
doesn't want to be there, he decides to go for VJ. Edgecomb.

(01:31:43):
They're very similar in size. Edgecomb six foot five, Bailey
six foot nine. One's a wing, one's a guard. Victor
Oladibo comps to Michael Porter Junior comps, I already have
Tyrese Maxi and Paul George. I don't really need another wing.
All right, we'll dig a guard. Fine, we'll figure it
out later. But if Daryl Morey is a grand Master,
then Danny Ainge is a level above that. Because Danny

(01:32:07):
Ainge saw Ace Bailey falling and said, I don't care
if you like Salt Lake City or not, You're coming
to the Utah Jazz. And if you don't like it
here and you want to get traded, well, somebody will
pay for you to leave. Somebody will ask for you
to get out of there. And I imagine now the
Nets used all five of the first round picks. Imagine
there were calls going on behind the scenes trying to see, hey,

(01:32:28):
can we package some of those picks and send them
to Utah and you guys can draft Ace Bailey. What's
interesting is the Nets said he's not worth all that
Ace Bailey goes to Utah. I think it's a good
spot to be in. Will Hart is a good head coach.
Danny Ainge is a great general manager. I think that
they figured it out. But it's interesting then the player
empowerment era, where now that we have the you know,

(01:32:50):
I think barriers up with a double aprim that guys
aren't going to be able to move as freely as
they want to any more in the NBA that Ace
Bailey try to use a little bit of that player empowerment.
Lexus bustles a little bit. I'm gonna go where I
want to go. The NBA said you're gonna go to Utah,
all right? When we come back Aaron Rodgers singing farewell
to the NFL. Well maybe maybe not. We'll talk about

(01:33:11):
it next. Andrew zim will hanging out with you this
Thursday on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred of the Zone.

Speaker 1 (01:33:16):
Text to Texas.

Speaker 2 (01:33:17):
Followed by your message to eight one five three zero
to chat along with your favorite sports radio a I'm
thirteen hundred.

Speaker 1 (01:33:24):
The Zone hosts.

Speaker 2 (01:33:25):
That's Texas, followed by your message to eight one five
three zero. Standard data and message rates Maya Horns and
Hall of Fame broadcaster Craig Way.

Speaker 3 (01:33:38):
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone. Andrew Zimmle in
the big chair with you today. Craig and Cameron both
will be back. I think Cameron will be back tomorrow
for you, sitting in the chair making things run the
right way. And then of course next week, Fourth of
July week, counting down the days to Friday. Did you
already buy your fireworks? You already buy your your fireworks,

(01:34:01):
your barbecue pit, everything else like that. I'm excited. I
saw a lot of the Fourth of July fireworks out
and about as I'm driving around. I always wait till
last second on those. I don't know what the deal
is it's it never fails that I am at a
fireworks stand on July fourth morning buying fireworks, and I
think they up charged on July fourth. I don't know
for sure, but I always am kind of skeptical. I'm

(01:34:24):
paying how much for these for sixty seconds of fun?
I think there's better ways to spend my money, all right.
The NFL. Aaron Rodgers earlier this week on Pat McAfee's show,
broke some news and he was asked the question, is
this the final year of Aaron Rodgers?

Speaker 10 (01:34:45):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is it?

Speaker 11 (01:34:46):
You know.

Speaker 10 (01:34:46):
That's why we just did a one year deal. Steelers
didn't need to, you know, put any extra years on
that or anything. So you know, this was really about
finishing with love of love and fun and peace for
the career that I've had. I've played twenty freaking year.

Speaker 1 (01:35:03):
Yeah, like it's been a long run. I've enjoyed it.

Speaker 3 (01:35:07):
Yeah, finishing with love and peace and fun. Brother, there's
better places to go if you want to do that.
Don't do it in the AFC North, because I can
tell you going to Cleveland, going to Baltimore, playing outdoor
games in Pittsburgh at the end of your career. You
don't want to do that. But brother, think about Tom Brady.

(01:35:28):
Tom Brady did what almost twenty years in New England
dealing with those harsh winters playing outdoors, and that's what
made him one of the greatest of all time, if
not the greatest of all time, was those snowball games. Hey,
it's the weather's disgusting in New England, and he's gonna
go out there and do what he needs to do.
You played your career already in Green Bay. Green Bay

(01:35:49):
is cold, Pittsburgh off the river. Oh brother, good luck.
Have fun with that. I don't know if you really
are living or leaving with, you know, love in your heart.
You're gonna leave with something and it might be a rib.
But it made me think about Aaron Rodgers. And as
you can tell, I'm not obviously the biggest a rod

(01:36:09):
fan in the world. Because of the sport. It's almost
sports height. I'll call it that sports height for Aaron
Rodgers that I don't hate him as a person. I
don't really know him as a person, but as a
NFL player, he's on so many ends of bad losses
for teams that I was rooting for. It's insane. I'm
a Vikings fan, through and through. I've to talk to

(01:36:30):
you guys about that a billion times. But think about
back if you're a Cowboys fan, think about back to
the De's catch. You know the team that are playing
in that game, Green Bay Packers. He is on the
wrong end of so many big games it's not even funny.
But I thought about Rogers as he's saying this on
mcafe's saying okay, this is his final season to syan Ora, goodbye.

(01:36:50):
And by the way, fun fact, he is one of
two quarterbacks all time to play with the team that
he beat in the Super Bowl. The other guy Russell Wilson.
Russell Wilson Seahawk beat the Broncos, Packers beat the Steelers.
So a little fun facts for your trivia knights. But
I was thinking about Rogers as he's leaving, and now

(01:37:11):
how he's a real bridge quarterback to the last generator,
the last generation of quarterbacks, and now this generation of
quarterbacks that you cannot have the Mahomes, the Josh Allen,
the Lamar Jackson, the Joe Burrow, the Justin Herbert, the
list goes on and on and on. You can't have
those quarterbacks without Aaron Rodgers. And when Aaron Rodgers was
playing in the generation of Manning and Brady and Breeze

(01:37:34):
and Rivers, he felt like an anomaly. I remember when
Brady was winning Super Bowls and Rogers wasn't. But the
conversation was always, yeah, Tom's a winner, obviously an incredible player.
But Rogers in the regular season is throwing forty touchdowns
and has a completion percentage unlike anybody else in league history.

(01:37:55):
And Rogers is the physically most physically gifted quarterback at
the time that we'd ever seen. And we saw John Elway,
and we've seen Dan Marino, and we've seen Jim Kelly,
and we've seen these very gifted quarterbacks. But Rogers was
the next iteration of that. And now we see the
Mahomes and the Allens and the Lamars and the Boroughs,
and we see those guys are more physically gifted than Rogers.

(01:38:19):
Now I wouldn't say they're a better quarterback. I'd say
a lot of those guys are better athletes. But Rogers
was throwing forty touchdowns this season and single digit interceptions,
and I can't guarantee that Josh Allen will throw two
interceptions in a playoff game, let alone throughout an eighteen
game regular or seventeen game regular season. So I look
at this bridge and I also think to myself, the

(01:38:40):
play style is very similar, the celebrations are very similar.
But Rogers was the first full time online quarterback. He
was the first quarterback that I was seeing his dating
rumors go constantly, and the Ad Brady had a little
bit of that dating a supermodel, but it wasn't like Rogers.
Rogers was dating Anaka Patrick. Remember Rogers was dating movie stars.

(01:39:04):
And I'm seeing him on the beach and I'm seeing
him after a playoff loss going to Hawaii, and it
was just a constant thing. People Magazine's talking about him.
And he also is the full time quarterback that was
online that was buying into you know, dare I say
some conspiracy theories? The guy was thinking about running for
vice president the last election cycle. He's the full time

(01:39:26):
online quarterback. And love him or hate him, uh, you
know which side of the defense I stand on, But
you gotta give him some respect for that that there
wasn't a blueprint, there wasn't a role model, there wasn't
somebody else that was doing what he was doing He
was a one of one. He was the NFL's wild child.
He was a completely different type of guy. Yeah, Manning

(01:39:48):
and Brady are going off and having a post or
a off season, going to the beach, working out with
wide receivers. Rogers never really did that. And the reason
we know is because he was online, because we saw
photos of him, and he was always a relatively sheltered
and guarded guy, you know, even being online and doing everything.

(01:40:08):
But over the last couple of years, he's completely gone
a different direction. He's gone the way that some of
our grandparents have gone when it comes to online conspiracy,
theorist and talk. And you look at the quarterbacks you
have currently in the league, and you've got to imagine
that there's some agents, and there's some ownership groups and

(01:40:29):
some general managers who look at Aaron Rodgers and say
to themselves, man, that guy was talented, man, he had everything.
Our guy is very similar. How do we direct him
and steer him in those other directions? Because ironically, everything
that you wanted Brett Favre to do and help with Rogers,
Rogers did not do those same things. Hey, I want

(01:40:51):
a mentor for Aaron Rodgers. Well, it's not my job
to mentor him. Okay, Well, now Rogers has a mentee quarterback,
whether it be Jordan Love and Green Bay or Zach
Wills in New York. Didn't see a lot of mentorship there,
did We didn't see a lot of mentorship a lot
of leadership out of Rogers there. And then you think
to yourself, if I have a quarterback like Mahomes, we

(01:41:12):
still have ten years of Patrick Mahomes at his prime,
imaginably right inconceivably, you think, But when Mahomes is in
the same position that Rogers was in and the far
was in before him, to mentor the next generation, you
got to imagine that the ownership group already is in
Mahomes this year saying hey, how can we help you

(01:41:33):
develop and grow in those ways as well? Because we
can't have what we saw in the last ten years
of Rogers, a guy who was supremely talented, one of
the best quarterbacks in the league, MVP after MVP, but
not winning the Super Bowls, not winning the championships. Now,
Mahomes already has more than Rogers, and the conversation about

(01:41:53):
Rogers being the greatest physically like physical athletes in the
NFL most physically gifted quarter. Ever, those conversations have kind
of withered away because of the Mahomes and the Allens
of the world the way I think that those doors
are closed for him all time in those talks. But
I do want to say, as Rogers is essentially giving

(01:42:15):
us the rose pedals of a farewell tour, Hey, this
is my last season in the NFL, I do want
to reflect back because there's gonna be more bad than
good this year. The Steelers are gonna struggle. They don't
have the weapons around him and Mike Tomlin. For every
good thing that he's done, he has failed in tanking,

(01:42:35):
which you might like that as an NFL fan, but
if you're consistently nine to eight every single season, you're
kind of stuck in mediocrity. There's gonna be a lot
of bad this year. In air with Aaron Rodgers, there's
gonna be a lot of headaches off the field and
on the field and in between. But I think that
as he says, this is my final season, I'm not
asking for a whole farewell tour. No NFL player ever

(01:42:58):
gets that, and very few deserve it. But I do
think it's good to reflect on that this is a
guy who was the bridge quarterback from the past generation
of guys to the current generation of guys, and for
that he has to be thanked. All right. When we
come back more of the Craigway Show. As we roll
on NBA draft was last night, we'll talk some winners

(01:43:19):
and losers from last night's draft the NBA. The biggest loser,
I'll explain. Andrews almost sitting in for Craig Way on
sports Radio AM thirteen hundred of the Zone from the
ABA Heating and Cooling Weather Center. This is fellow Craig
on social media at Horn Boys Sports Radio AM thirteen
hundred The Zone. Andrews them will hang it out with

(01:43:41):
you this Thursday. A lot of winners in last night's
NBA drafts Antio Spurs being the first and foremost of them.
Feeling very good about my Spurs this Thursday. They also
traded their second round pick. So on paper, now, barring
anything crazy happening, the Spurs draft is done. So you

(01:44:01):
can give them a grade if you wanted to.

Speaker 2 (01:44:03):
Day one.

Speaker 3 (01:44:04):
I gave them an A plus. Other people gave them
eight minuses. I feel like at that point it's just
we're working with a four point zero average. Anyway, It's
we're fine. Dylan Harper was the big get. Carter Bryant
was the player that a lot of people weren't paying
a ton of attention to when that pick got made.
And it's interesting because I talked to Sean Elliott before

(01:44:27):
the draft and we were talking about what the Spurs
need to do, what young players the Spurs needed to
do to fill out this roster, which I thought was
very interesting.

Speaker 11 (01:44:46):
Yeah, I look how he fit with us, how he
moves off the ball, basketball IQ obviously, even though again
these guys are so young that they make a lot
of mistakes. And you know, I do watch clips with
a different I feel like then a lot of regular
people would, because I look, you know, I kind of

(01:45:07):
look to see and look for the deficiencies first as
opposed to all the positives and see what are the
weaknesses and what things that really stand out, things that
are glaring that a young guy needs to work on.

Speaker 3 (01:45:20):
Now, what's interesting is that I think both Bryant and Harper,
the spurs two draft picks last night, both those guys
do need to work on their three point shooting. Both
average three point shooters in the league now where you
have to be able to shoot the three. It's not
even a debate anymore. You have to be able to
shoot the three. That's one of those things that you

(01:45:40):
want to work on, obviously. But they're both very good defenders.
They're both good rebounders. We also talked to Sean about
vets in the locker room because the Spurs had a
couple of vets last season and they have one now
in Harrison Barnes on the roster currently. And I asked
Sean in our pre draft interview about what vets he
had and he came to the Spurs in nineteen eighty nine.

Speaker 11 (01:46:02):
I had a lot. I had a lot of vets
on the team. I mean, you know, I had Caldwell Jones,
I had Mo Cheeks, Terry Cummings, David Greenwood, and then
I think a year later, Paul Pressey came in, and
so there were a lot of guys that were there that, yeah,
I could really rely on it and gave me a

(01:46:24):
lot of tips on how to play the NBA game
as opposed to the college game. So I was really fortunate,
I got to tell you, because I didn't have a
bad vet. You know, the vets that I had when
I came in, all were super helpful, super helpful. They
were there for me if I had a question, and
they offered advice all the time. And I was the

(01:46:45):
type of player that you know, I soaked it up.
I love I love to hear it. I mean, I
grew up watching the Philadelphia seventy six ers in high
school and they were my team, the Spurs for my
second team. And to come in and to have you know,
a guy like Mo Cheeks and later on Johnny Moore
and Callswell Jones, and then you know, I grew up
watching Terry Cummings at De Paul and playing for the Bucks,

(01:47:08):
and so I was just a sponge around those guys,
and I think that really paid off for me in
the long run.

Speaker 3 (01:47:15):
No Sean Elliott talking about the vets he had in
San Antonio and throughout his career and how important those were.
So I would say the Spurs got an A for
last night's draft. Another big winner was the big Man Now.
A couple of years ago, thanks to Steph Curry, Clayton Thompson,
Damian Lillard, c J McCollum, we started moving away from
the center and it felt like a dying breed. Remember

(01:47:38):
Roy Hibbert, he feels like he went the same way
as dinosaurs. Now, but a massive win last night was
the centers and centered death. Now think Oklahoma City had
two centers both played off the court sometimes and Shetton
Asaiah Harkenstein. In a copycat league, the league is deciding,
you know what, let's make sure that those guys get
playing time and get the money they deserve. Because the

(01:47:59):
Phoenix Sun they traded for the Hornet center, Mark Williams,
And I remember Mark Williams was originally supposed to end
up in LA. He failed the physical, so we got
stuck being a member of the Charlotte Hornets for a
couple months longer. Now going to Phoenix nine foot nine
standing reach, Okay, that's a pretty good size man. That's
a big boy. And then the Suns with the number

(01:48:21):
ten pick. Now, remember drafted by the Houston Rockets. We'll
get to that in a second. Drafted by the Rockets
sent to the Phoenix Suns. Callen Malalic the gi enormous
center from duke nine foot eight standing reach. So yeah,
Brian Gregory, the general manager for the Suns, he does

(01:48:41):
tend to be looking at a certain type of player.
I imagine, right, Portland Trailblazers, Well, they traded down to
draft Gang Hanson at sixteen. Yang Hanson a large man.
He also he joins the rotation with DeAndre Aiden, last
year's number seven pick, and Killian and Robert Williams the third.

(01:49:02):
So they now have three seven foot centers on their roster. Yeah,
the big man is back. The big man is back.
We are now moving away from Yeah, Victor Wimennaumas might
be seven to three, also more rumored seven to five,
and he's playing more like Kevin Durant. But these teams
are drafting guys like Zach E. Last year for the

(01:49:24):
Memphis Grizzlies, they went and got a guy who's seven
foot one and slow, slow, slow, And that's what some
of these guys are like. Aiden is a very athletic center,
Robert Williams is an athletics center, but they're not necessarily speedsters.
We're moving away from the little man. We're coming back
to the Giants, and I'm excited for that, and I'm

(01:49:45):
also excited for Shaquille O'Neal to finally have something to
talk about on these game days because he's only been
talking about centers and how bad they are, and now
we're gonna have a new crop of Let's be honest,
I'm not exactly impressed with DeAndre agents or Mark Williams's
career at this point. However, you know they are centers,

(01:50:06):
so now Shack has something to talk about. A loser
from last night draft, ironically, was a guy I thought
or a team I thought was gonna be a winner.
The Brooklyn Nets had five first round picks in last
night's NBA draft, and going into it, I said to myself, Okay,
well the Nets with these five picks, they're gonna package
them or they're gonna do something. Giannis was on the
table at one point, Damn Man a bio tyler hero.

(01:50:30):
Both were talked about in Miami, if they're gonna blow
things up. There was a lot of conversation, a lot
of talk around what the Nets were gonna do with
these five picks. Nobody thought they were gonna keep them all,
and nobody thought they were gonna draft four guards. And again,
copycat League, some of these teams are drafting centers To
answer the hard and sign and chet question that the
thunder have posed. Some other teams look at the depth

(01:50:53):
that Oklahoma City has at the guards and the wings
and says, we want some of that. We will take
some of that. So kind of confusing to me. In
an East that has the Milwaukee Bucks without Damian Lillard
for most of the season, Jason Tatum for the Celtics
is out, Tyres Halliburn's gonna be out for most of
the year. For the Pacers, the East is wide open.
Why not try to package some of those picks and

(01:51:13):
go make a move for a superstar and try to
go get somebody to help you win now, because if
the Pacers proved anything to us these playoffs, you don't
necessarily need to be the best team in the regular season.
You just need to be the best team in the
playoffs and win some games on some lucky bounces, and
that's how they end up in the finals. And they
got all the way to a Game seven and a
coin flip. If Hayler Burton doesn't get hurt, we're probably

(01:51:35):
talking about them as a champion, to be honest.

Speaker 8 (01:51:37):
So it was a.

Speaker 3 (01:51:38):
Confusing move from the Nets. I like some of the
players they took. I was in love with some of
the players that they took. They are doing the slowest
rebuild imaginable, but I think they deserve it because they
are the Clippers of the East Coast. They have no
real fan base. They're a organization without a home. They're
in Brooklyn, but I mean, unleis us. You're trendy and

(01:52:00):
cool and you have gelatos and unicycles. I don't know
if you're going to bring any of those Brooklyn hipsters
to the arena. So we'll be seeing what that team
does and finally have another winner. LaMelo Ball got compared
to Steph Curry when he came in the league. I
thought it was super unoriginal. Okay, he's a guy who
shoots threes pretty well, let's compare him to the greatest
three point shooter.

Speaker 1 (01:52:21):
Of all time.

Speaker 3 (01:52:22):
And kN K Nipple spoke on the Bill Simmons podcast
about his NBA comp and while everybody else is comparing
him to spot up shooters, he compared himself to maybe
the greatest spot up shooter of all time, Klay Thompson.
I thought it was fitting for Conk Nipple to end
up in Charlotte to play alongside gen Z's Steph Curry
in LaMelo Ball. I'm happy about those two. I'm excited

(01:52:43):
to see what they look like over under win total
for the Hornets. If he's told me like thirty three games,
I would think that you're being generous. I don't know
how long that team is together with the picks that
they made last night. We'll see as time will tell.
NBA Draft Round two continues tonight, and there's a couple

(01:53:06):
of guys that we're gonna bet excited for. We'll talk
about him in the next segment. We'll talk about a
guy who I think is gonna go and who Sean
Elliott was talking about as well. Oh give a little teas.
There more coming up, and we'll put a bow on
things on the Craigway Show as our three rolls on
on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred, The Zone.

Speaker 1 (01:53:25):
Wake Up with Harj and Henry and the Morning.

Speaker 3 (01:53:27):
Kickoff Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone, putting a
bow on things on this Thursday.

Speaker 8 (01:53:42):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:53:42):
The NBA Draft continues to roll on tonight, Round number two.
The NBA did this cool thing where they said the
NFL owns multiple days going all the way into the
weekend with their seven round draft. We have a two
round draft. Why don't we split things up. So I
think part of it is obviously that they want to
own two days. They want to own two days of
real estate on television in conversation. And I think the

(01:54:04):
other part is Nikolai Jokic got drafted during a Taco
Bell commercial and they said, no more of that. We
have to have all of these draft picks on television.
So he's doing it. We're doing a day two draft.
And most of the time these guys end up going
two way contracts, or they end up in the G League,
or they'll play a couple of seasons in the NBA

(01:54:26):
and then move on. Sometimes you get a monogenobl or
Nikola jokicch but for the most part, it's guys who
they fulfill their dream of being an NBA player. They
get their name called, and then their careers kind of
go somewhere else. But Rashier Fleming is a guy who
I'm excited for tonight. Is a junior out of Saint Joe's.
He's a hustler, he drained spot up jumpers, energy defense,

(01:54:47):
swatting shots. I thought he was going to be a
guy at six foot eight that was going to get
drafted last night. I thought it was gonna be around
one pick his NBA comps Larry Nang Junior and Brandon Bass.
Interestingly enough, talking to Sean Elliott, Spurs legend number three
pick in the nineteen eighty nine draft out of Arizona
for the Spurs, he was talking about what he saw

(01:55:07):
in Fleming as well, and I was really impressed with
was this kid? Was sheher Fleming?

Speaker 11 (01:55:12):
And he just he's you know, really long and tall
and long arms, pretty athletic, and he shoots the ball
really well for his size. And you know, there have
been rumors that he could fall, you know, as far
as fourteen and so or maybe climb up as far
as fourteen because I think he's gotten to mid to
a low first rounder, and so that's the kind of

(01:55:33):
guy I think would probably fit our system pretty well.

Speaker 3 (01:55:36):
So that's what's interesting now obviously Sean Ellie talking about
how it fits the Spurs system there. But he is
the best best available player tonight as the round two
draft begins, and I find it, you know, kind of
interesting in some of these guys who are available, and
there are some guys that you might have heard of
before the other Duke players. Tyree's Proctor signed Jones, both

(01:56:01):
guys who played in the NCAA Final Four. You also
have guys like Cam Jones who played for Marquette this season,
all still available. Mike PV from Georgetown is available as
well tonight. So there's gonna be some names that you
recognize if you watched college hoops this season. The names
you're not going to recognize, though, is like a guy

(01:56:22):
like Alex Tony Right Tony's out of Australia, which I
always find kind of interesting, unless it's a guy like
a Luka Dacik. When we talk about the overseas prospects,
I have a very tough time paying attention, doing the research,

(01:56:43):
following up knowing who is who and what is what.
When it comes to some of these prospects overseas, I
always find that kind of a fascinating too. I'll whin
those guys go like last night in round number one,
a lot of French guys, a lot of guys over
and I always said to myself, is this because of
Tony Parker? Maybe? Is this because of guys like Victor Wamanyama.

(01:57:09):
More probable, I think because how impactful Wimby has been
in the NBA. Those you're gonna see more French players
get more looks over some of those other European players. Again,
something just to keep your eye on as it continues
to roll down. Now, I also want to hear a
little bit from Dylan Harper because Dylan or yeah, it's

(01:57:30):
Dylan Harper. Dylan Harper spoke yesterday in his post draft
interviews about the San Antonio Spurs and being in this
position and who he's looking to play with.

Speaker 7 (01:57:44):
Uh, definitely, no, I mean really all the guys, but
I think Stefan Castle big one, he said, obviously, besides
Wimby so Stephan Castle with dearon Fox. I think when
you play with such good players, it just elevate your game,
you know. And when you got that name Balhamle's on
the court, you could release basic quarter out. It makes
a game so much easier for end one else. So
I mean, just having an opportunity to be in the

(01:58:05):
floors as all of them is great.

Speaker 3 (01:58:07):
Yeah, Dylan Harper is excited to get back into the
gym and start playing with these Spurs guys. And the
question all off season since the Spurs got the number
two overall pick, it's ironic the ping pong balls bounced
one more way and the Spurs are a number one.
There's no debate. Cooper Flagg is the number one guy.
He plays a position that the Spurs have need for

(01:58:28):
the forward position to play next to Winbiyama, and it
made too much sense. So this basketball guys, they put
the thumb on the scale a little bit. They said,
you get number two, good luck, and the Spurs then
draft the second best available player. Dylan Harper was curious
to me is that he says, I want to play
with Deer and Fox and Steph Castle. He does not
mention Devin the Cell in that conversation, and I wonder

(01:58:50):
what that means behind the scenes, what that means. Not
only I'm not saying that he's throwing shade at him
in his post draft interview, but I'm saying is that
the Spurs right now are jam packed at that guard position,
and that there's only so many positions, almost so many
starting spots in that lineup. And it seems that Kellen Johnson,

(01:59:11):
who is a gold medalist at one point for Team USA,
has taken a role of Okay, I'll be the energy
off the bench. And it helps when you have one
of the greatest six men of all times number in
the rafters, that if you're a Spurs player who's relegated
or ops two, being a bench player, be coming a
guy being a guy coming off the bench, that you
have a role model to look up at as you're

(01:59:32):
playing in the Frost Bank Center and say like, hey,
if he got his number retired as a six man,
I feel like I can kind of take a backseat,
take a different role. But what does that mean when
you were a guy like him? A cell and Dylan
Harper gets drafted, Because are you okay making about twenty
seven to thirty million a year coming off the bench

(01:59:53):
or the Spurs okay with that? I wonder what that
means going forward for San Antonio. Dylan Harper though the
number two obvious pick. I said before the draft, this
draft starts at number two. Now tonight's draft, I'll be
watching just to see where Fleming ends up and if
the Spurs decided to make another move. But they traded

(02:00:14):
that thirty eighth pick, so really they're out of the
running in round number two. They don't have a number
two or a second round pick, so we'll see what happens.
Cam Parker in the chair tomorrow for Craig Way. I'll
be back next Tuesday and Thursday for you. I want
to thank our incredible producer Isa or Teez making a
sound pretty. Don't forget Morning Kickoff tomorrow Morning seven and nine, Hardball,

(02:00:37):
hard Mark Henry. Don't want to miss it, and until
next time. Not always right or not always not always right,
I guess I'm just not always wrong. I'm just early.
There you go, That's what it is. I'll see you
guys later. Peace,