July 21, 2025 • 44 mins
In the final hour of the show, the guys discuss what we learned in the Summer League and which vets they are watching in Panthers camp, react to some of the best audio in sports on the Live Wire and walk it off with by honoring Malcolm-Jamal Warner after his passing.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You were listening to the Wes and Walker show. He's
off to the side, he's drawn, he's like floating to
the media.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Did you guys know about this point guard?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Did you guys know that we don't need to invest
in wide receivers. He's off to the side, not at
the podium because he wants to let you know what
he found out so badly. It's Wes. Yeah, And I mean.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Just in retrospect now with the way that this team
is looking, the offense is looking, it definitely has not
aged well.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
And Walker, what's up, dity? I was not prepared for
the was that point guard?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
We don't have to spend.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Money only on sports Radio ninety two point seven FM WFNC.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
But now you do, now you do?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
All right?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
We are caught in this transition of celebrating a Hornet
Summer League championship they won last night, in that victory
over the King. We're in the transition from celebrating that
to then previewing Carolina Panthers training camp. Rookies report today,
the Vets report tomorrow, and the Panthers will take the
practice field for the first time in training camp on Wednesday,
(01:13):
July twenty third, So we are celebrating the transition here, folks, wesn. Walker.
We have one more hour to go Sports Radio ninety
two seven WFNZ. Let's celebrate a little bit more before then,
we shift gears and talk a whole lot of football
really for the rest of the week, whether it's the
Carolina Panthers side of things or whether it is the
(01:34):
ACC kickoff side of things. That's happening this week starts tomorrow.
Officially looks like Wes and Walker we're going to be
out there Wednesday and Thursday. But again little confusion because
while the show Wes and Walker is going to be
out there together on Wednesday and Thursday, Wes is going
to be taking care of the ACC digital network obligations,
(01:54):
so you have that to take care of. You're going
to be popping in via phone call, via hanging out,
co hosting maybe an hour or so, maybe a couple segments.
We're gonna be loosey goosey about it all. Yes, So
we'll see how the schedule plays out next week. But
we got a lot of football to talk about, especially
here in the channel vaults of studios. CV Injury Law
dot Com, CV Injury Law dot Com one call. That's
(02:16):
all the Carolina's personal injury lawyers wes. If we continue
to celebrate the Summer League championship, what would you say
was the biggest thing you learned from watching the Hornets
over the six game span cons five game span? What
would you say is the biggest thing that you learned?
That this new group does have a winning pedigree. Obviously
they haven't done it at the highest level. I get it,
(02:38):
but you're talking about guys who came from programs that
won at a high level and they've performed as such
in the Summer League. That's what I would say.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
I think that some of the things, the character traits,
the locker room traits that they were looking for, I
think you did see those on full display with these
young guys and what they were able to do in
the Summer League.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Well, I talked about it in the opening segment. Two things.
I think what the championship highlights. It's the fact that
they are practicing what they preach and every day matters.
Everything matters, Because if you didn't really think that the
Summer League mattered all that much, then you might treat
it like some of these other squads that don't play
ACE Bailey con down, shut Con down. You know, even
(03:18):
if he could go. He put on his tightly wrapped
headband that he hated, by the way, which I thought
was hilarious when he was doing the endgame interview and
he had the stitches and could have been very easy
to shut him down. And honestly, after four games, I
would have hated it. As a fan. I would have
understood it if I was a part of that franchise.
(03:38):
But I'm glad he played and played well enough to
win Summer League MVP, so they didn't shut him down.
Everything matters. They stayed true to that. You can see
the shift just a little bit. It needs to play
out in the Big Boy League, no doubt about it,
but we're starting to see the shift. The second thing
is just speaking of Con devisive pick was con And
I get it. If you liked Ace Bailey a lot
of things to like, if you like Trade Johnson, I
(04:01):
liked Trey a lot. I would have taken him over Con.
A lot of things to like about Trey and the
limited sample that we got. But I do think Con,
at the very least in this small sample, showed you
some things that you could get on board with I
thought the passing was phenomenal. And I'll say this, I
think over the top, if you look at all the
top five picks, right kN K Nipple, VJ. Edgecomb, Trey
(04:25):
Johnson or Trey Johnson wasn't even in there. But of
all the guys, I guess that could have been in
consideration for the Hornets to legitimately select, and maybe even
the guys that went before him, Con might be the
best passer out of all of them. Dylan Harper's maybe
you could put him up there, but I would pick Con.
Cooper Flagg is a good passer, but I think Con
showed you more of the passing chops in the summer
league session. And if you're just looking for someone to
(04:47):
play complimentary basketball in your first year and then we'll
see where you can get your second and third year,
he's going to go in and he's going to provide
an impact. Maybe he gets blown by defensively, athletes are
going to attack him. That's going to happen the NBA,
and he's going to lose a lot of those battles,
and that's a concern, no doubt. But can you play
complimentary basketball well enough to stay on the floor I
(05:08):
think to me, the answer will be yes, and we
have a big jump from Summer League to the NBA. Huge,
But I think I was comforted in a lot of
what I saw from Con, especially with his reps on ball,
creativity playing off ball. I really liked what I saw
from him.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yeah, I think for Con, for sure, it's going to
come down to health of the team and just if
he's not going to be serviceable on defense, how bad
is it is it to the point where coach Lee
just feels like, man, I can't put this guy on
the court at all.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
He's going to give up a bucket.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
And other than that too when you talk about the offense,
because that role is certainly going to change. We know
that now with him being the fourth overall pick, though
having that beside his name, maybe that we'll have this
coaching staff having to put him in more situations where
he can show his strength. So maybe while he's in
he will be not necessarily legit on the ball like that,
but put him in a couple of scenarios where he
(06:00):
can flash some of those skills that we saw, you know,
in summer league, almost called it summer school. And so
when you talk about what he was able to do.
And if this is a healthy roster, we know LaMelo
is going to control the ball a lot, and even
if he runs with that second unit, according to depth
charts that you see, Colin Sexton is going to be
the guy that's going to be controlling the rock most
(06:20):
of the time. So then it's going to come down
to how can he get open. I don't know that
we'll get a chance to see a lot of situations
where there is bailout offense. So I think he has
a lot of questions to answer because I think his
role is going to be so much different once the
rest of the guys come into the loop. But I
think that he showed you at least some flashes of
the potential of things that he can do if called upon.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I will say, I just think there's not a whole
lot that you have to change for Con to be
an important part of your offense. Yes, you're you're not
changing anything. Hey, Con hit some open threes. If you
see a close out, you feel like you can attack,
be aggressive, get downhill and then kick out or throw
a lob to one of the big guys, or give
an excellent lead pass to Musa diabate, who's just doing
(07:03):
a whole bunch of rim running as an undersized center,
but as athletic as hell like. There's so many ways
that Con can help you win by making others better
around him. And then here we are using the force
multiplier word that I use for LaMelo and got made
fun of. Shout out to AJ. I still like the joke.
I do think Con showed you a lot of that
in this Summer League session. I think he helped PJ.
Hall get buckets. I think he helped Calkbrinner and get
(07:25):
a lot of buckets. I love Con in transition, stopping
at the three point line and the first thing he
does is look at the area closest to the basket.
Does cal Prinner have position kinda I'm comfortable enough throwing
an accurate pass till his lead hand to where all
Calkbrinner has to do is just throw it over his shoulder.
Had a bunch of athletic I shouldn't say athletic Calprender
(07:46):
had a bunch of like kind of dipsy do finishes
above his shoulder over his head like backwards. Had a
couple of things like that that were set up with
Con so second unit stuff. Playing alongside Colin Sexton, who
can provide that rim pressure and then you kick outside
the I just see it working in a lot of ways, man,
and that's what's exciting. Didn't see that first game had
(08:06):
some issues turned it over. It wasn't careful enough with
the basketball. When he got to his spot, he would
lose it. You'd have those you know mouses in the houses. Yeah,
they would swat at the basketball, and then there'd be
a turnover. Like, you can't do that. You got to
your spot, you almost did it. Hold on to the
damn ball. He did so for the most part. So
I even think at the beginning of the summer league
(08:26):
session to the end of it, he improved.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Quas do you think that you see him as now
a guy that could start day one or do you
think he'll be an eventual starter?
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Great minds think alike.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
That was the question. I was going to ask you,
okay to the punch, Well, no, you're good. We can
I think if you just take like a natural incline.
With still a lot of offseason left before we get
to the regular season, I think there's a path for
him to start. And I felt pretty confident in Josh
Green being your opening starter, and I think I would
(08:55):
still put money on him as long as he's not traded.
But I can see the path to him start a
little bit more so now than I did two weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I could see him as an eventual starter depending on
how the season is going. And again I said, I'm
day by day, step by step with him. So that's
not to say that he can't be a starter from
day one, but right now, I see him as a
rotational guy that can come in with that second unit
and have some opportunities to really show what he can do.
I think if you put him in with the second
unit with the salon and then you have Colin Sexton
(09:24):
and stuff, and we know that Sexton part of his
mo is getting his teammates good shots, and I think
that if you get con some good shots, I think
he's going to knock him down because that's his strength.
That's his superpower immediately coming into the NBA is his
ability to shoot the ball.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
So I think that he would be that.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
And then I think depending on how the season goes,
if things don't necessarily go according to playing, I think
you may see him get inserted into the starting lineup.
Maybe they make a move get rid of a Josh
Green or something along those lines to open up the
minutes for him so that he can really start to
find his way in this league. But for now, we'll
say I think he will be a ROTA national player,
(10:01):
you know that has a potential to be started down
on line.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
All right, we're celebrating what kon K Nipple did. We're
celebrating the Hornets Summer League championship on Wes and Walker. Now,
I'm just hoping that we're celebrating anything with the Panthers
in twenty twenty five. You talked about some of the
updates you're seeing already on Twitter. Training camp is officially here.
You just saw your first training camp highlight with George
(10:24):
Pickens down in Dallas. Yes, that had to be the favorite,
right If you were to discuss all of the players
in the NFL, who would get the first training camp highlight,
it would probably be the guy good point makes one
handed catches playing on a new team. And not only
is it a new team, it's that team, it's America's team.
I think that should have opened up as the favorite.
Who is the player you'll be paying attention to most
(10:47):
that plays for Carolina in terms of refreshing your Twitter
timeline to see, hey, is there you scratching your neck?
You got that new teamac highlight, you got that new
Excel highlight. Who are the players that Cokay?
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Yeah, when you talk about especially when the padded practices come,
I would say, Nick Scordon, I'll go to the defensive side. Offensively,
I would go with, yeah, for sure, it's going to
be t Mac to see what he's going to do
when he gets out there, because the Panthers have a
couple of good physical corners that will be good tests
(11:18):
for him, and so I think t Mac against some
of the starters will be interesting.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
I think xavierly get is my answer. I just I
want to see xavierly get involved quite a bit. And
I think we got some good stuff from him in
mini camp, got some highlights, beat reporters talking about him
a decent amount. I just I think t Mac is
at base level, gonna be fine in training camp. You
might have some questions about separation from some of the
(11:44):
top notch corners. I feel good enough about his ability
to catch fifty to fifty balls to where maybe he
can compensate for the lack of separation that he might
not gain again. Working back to the football was among
his better attributes, and so I think he'll make up
for that in some other ways.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Maybe he does and have the breakaway speed, and you know,
we are limited highlights there. I think t MA is
going to be fine.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Xcel.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
I'm not so sure, because you got to catch the football.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
And I'm not worried about Cocer. That's why I didn't
mention him as the same one.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
No, and very much in the same way, where at
least in training camp. I just think Coker is going
to go out there and do his thing. Maybe none
of it's too flashy, but I think Coker's going to
be just fine, Excel. I kind of want him to
be flashy. I kind of want to see him streak
the field and catch some of these fifty yard passes downfield.
I kind of want to see him, you know, catch
a football five yards from the line of scrimmage and
(12:34):
then really take off. Isn't he your gadget guy? Kinda yeah,
isn't he your most explosive wide receiver that you have
on the roster, if that's outside of Jimmy Horn but
in terms of first round uh, you know, first round investment,
type of body that he possesses, the speed that he possesses.
He's the guy that should be a flashy player for you.
Let's see some flashy plays. Yeah, I'd like to see
(12:56):
that the receiver corps as a whole.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
You know, I'm going to be looking at a out
of those guys too, because you know, Jacobe George is
another guy when you talk about out of that undrafted bunch,
the underdog bunch, if you will, He's a guy that
I can't wait to see what he does too, because
I think he's gonna have something to say before it's
all said done. But the Panthers have a ton of receivers.
Now that's not something we could say the last couple
of seasons. I mean, each of these receivers that they
(13:19):
have are talented in their own right Hunter Renfro. We
know that we've heard the pros Derwin James and those
guys talk about the routes that he does. So you
know he's gonna be good for a couple of highlights,
giving people, making people put that freakom dress on because
he's gonna be dancing on him. You talk about Jimmy
Horn Jr. And his speed and Jacobe George and his
speed and excel can he show consistent hands in tetor Roa.
(13:41):
So this receiving room is going to be a lot
of fun to watch, especially once the joint practice has
come because you talk about going up against the Stingleys
and the Denzel Awards and some of those guys that
they're gonna have to see out there gonna be a
ton of fun.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Okay, last one, any of the vets that you want
to keep your eye on the most, I'll go with
Trayvon Merrig. I think part of this is because I
got an appetizer with Merrig in Mini Camp where he's
jawn all over the place, highly communicative. Saw a little
bit of a feature on him in the second episode
of Blueprint, where there's a lot of happiness with him.
There's a lot of joy surrounding his game. And I
(14:16):
think in terms of who the Panthers invested in pretty
heavily this offseason, it was gonna be Milton Williams. They
eventually get priced out on him. Milton goes to New
England because you're just not messing with that type of money.
They had all the cap space. Cool, we move on.
Trayvon Merrig was their big off season acquisition alongside Wharton too,
but Marek was the guy. We don't have any other safeties.
(14:37):
So I think Marrig is my vet that I'm looking
at the first and foremost.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
I think the vet that I would be looking at
the most is probably Derek Brown, because again, this is
a guy that they're kind of treating with.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
The kid goes because of the injury.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
I want to see how that progresses, because I do
feel confident that he'll be.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Ready for week one.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Man, But those vets, when you know they start talking
about how they have to limit them and all these
different things. Man, that can get into some chick territory.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Oh bagel guy writing in JC versus T Mac is
going to be a hot topic that will be a
fun battle. If we're looking at specific battles that are
going to be most intriguing, I do agree with that.
JC Horn T Max got a.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Jaylen Mill Road to JSN one handed cats and double
coverage done.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
All right, We're here, baby, I love it. We're Sam Darnold.
Your day's are numbered, sir. I'm ready for all of
the overreactions. We'll have plenty of time for overreactions the
rest of the week as we break down the start
of Panthers training camp. Coming up next, we comb through
the best sound and sports. It's the Live Wire with
flound Dogs Sports Radio ninety two to seven WFZ. A
(15:44):
couple more segments to go on West and Walker Sports
Radio ninety two to seven WFNZ. If you want to
text us, you can. Bandual text line still open, operating
at a high level because of you the listener. Seven
oh four five, seven oh ninety six, ten again seven
oh four ninety six to ten. That is the fan
duel text line. Let's kick it over now to mister
(16:06):
Floundog with the latest edition of the Live Wire. Hit
it Floundy.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
They the west of North London down southwise.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
He all right, and let's start with Chris Jent. There
was a question on the text line earlier who was
the head coach of the Charlotte Hornets in Summer League. Well,
there's your man right there now. This person wanted them
to take you know, wanting Chris jen to take over
as the permanent head coach. He did say it's a
little aggressive, but he was talking after the Summer League
(16:42):
Championship and he was asked how this group was able
to win the Summer League title.
Speaker 6 (16:47):
I think they just played together. They competed their tails off.
You know, we are way over undersize of the game,
but we kept scrapping, making the right plays and a
little bit of attention detail at the end, were they
really executed and did a nice shot?
Speaker 2 (17:02):
All right?
Speaker 5 (17:03):
Well, I can't believe that we haven't gotten to this
just yet, but you knew that at some point we
would have to ask this question. Do you guys think
that the Hornet should put up a banner in the
Spectrum Center for winning the Summer League title?
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Man, that is a that's a tough one. And again
I think it goes back to what I said at
the top of the show saying it depends what it
means to your organization. If everything means something, if they're
going to go by the mantra that they are going
by now, then I would say, yes, go ahead and
put it up. Like I said, it doesn't matter what
everybody else thinks, it matters what you think. And if
you feel like that, that's a great foundational brick to
(17:39):
what you want to be able to build in your
second season going forward, then yeah, I have no problem
with it.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Go ahead and put the banner up.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Okay, So I want to embrace all of this, and
I do think it's great that everything matters. Everything matters.
It can mean something. I don't know if it should
mean everything. I don't know if everything should mean everything.
And so if it means everything, then you can hang
the banner. It does seem a little like a target
on my back to make fun of me. If we
(18:06):
celebrate with a twenty twenty five Summer League Championship banner
that we hang in the Spectrum Center, it feels a
little different than the n Season tournament because it's different.
It's against big league competition. It's the first of its kind.
When everybody was saying, you're the Lakers, you're not supposed
to celebrate with a banner for an n season attorney. Yeah,
but there was some kind of novelty to it because
it was the first iteration of the n season attorney.
(18:28):
And again, it's an actual NBA regular season game. I
know it at least is until you get to said
championship game.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
I can get a banner up there, man, not a banner.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
I think it.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Also depends on how it's done. I mean, if you
want to be I wouldn't say go over the top
with the ceremony to be able to do it. But
if you just want to put it in there, you know,
before the season starts and just have it there once
people come into the arena, I'm okay with that. But again,
like I said, it doesn't matter. I mean it's like,
should the college football team that goes to bowl game,
(19:00):
you know, not put that, you know in there wherever
they want to hang something to show because every school
does that.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Should they not put the trophies in their trophy cation.
Speaker 5 (19:09):
They want to not put in like Elite eight appearance
or something like that. They have the small banners that
are up in the in the spectrums in the Smith Center.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
That's a good point that you bring up with teams
doing stuff like that because Wake Forest has banners as
well showing every time they've gone to the NCAA tournament.
A lot of teams do that and they didn't win
the championship, So I say, why not?
Speaker 1 (19:30):
But Elite eight basketball matters a lot more than Summer League.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Well, and that's just an example.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, I know, I'm just and I think Bowl games
matter a lot more than Summer League. I think I
can't get on board. Man, I want to.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
I want to.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Jump in here and celebrate. Maybe I need to embrace
my feelings a little bit more. Maybe we just have
a therapy session and say I need to embrace my
feelings rather than try to think a little too much
because I'm worried about being made fun of. Because I
am worried about being made fun of, because I mean.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
If the Hornets are bad, they gonna make fun of
you in so you might as well go ahead and
try to, you know, celebrate your wins when you can
and try to build upon that.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Let's go to the text lote and see what people
are saying there. Fandle text line seven oh four five
seven oh ninety six ten. Jack says, I'll take the
gear over a banner. Natural Born nine says, No, you
can put it up in Greensboro where the G League
team plays.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
That's what I was going to suggest.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
So you can't put it up in the Spectrum Center
Minors QC. Hell no to the summer league banner. It
was a nice trophy. Most of the people that I'm
reading right now are saying no to it.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
You know what, I'm proud of, Charlotte.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
I'm proud because I thought this would be a moment
where a lot of people would say, yes, we should
put it up, and it's like, but guys, it's completely
different from a championship. Even I'm the guy that said
you shouldn't put up the n season tournament banner. I
think that's stupid if you hang that so.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Banners. Man, we're desperate for one. I will say this
real quickly with Chris Gent being the guy speaking there.
Chris jin actually really interesting figure with being an assistant
coach with this Hornets team. He was with Cleveland when
Lebron James was there, he was with the Lakers when
Lebron James was there. Has a working relationship with Lebron
and maybe I shouldn't be so assuming in that regard now,
(21:14):
but really worked with Lebron in a lot of ways.
I thought there were some really interesting sets in order
to get con Kin nipple open, especially as Summer League
went on. So shout out to Chris Gent, who I
thought really did a nice job being the lead dog
being that head coach of the Summer League team and
a really interesting guy. If you want to go look
at some of his interviews as basketball cards. A Chris
Gent basketball card. Really that's impressive. You remember that?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
To be honest with Yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Know exactly who he was when I heard, I said,
that's yeah, really cool and interesting guy. If you want
to go read some of his past interviews that he's
had over the like the last fifteen years. I'm looking
at one interesting one when he was with Cleveland in
twenty ten, like forever and ever ago, So some cool
stuff there. If you want to get to know the
summer league champion head coach of your Charlott Hornets basketball squad.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
Well maybe you want to get to know a little
bit more about the MVP of your summer league squad.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
How about Conkin Nipple.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
He was asked about his adjustment that he made after
a slow start to summer league.
Speaker 7 (22:09):
The first game was rough, didn't play well, but I
think you know it's it's the NBA now, like you
have so many games and I think, just the right
next game, forget about what happened last game, like even tonight,
I didn't play very well. I didn't shoot a grade
at all, really had some bad turnovers, bad defensive plays.
Just next play, next play?
Speaker 4 (22:31):
All right.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
I don't know who that was in the background that
was yelling. But my question for you guys is, before
we went into this summer league, I think the thought
was that Con might start the season for the Hornets
as a part of their starting five, but that it
wasn't a guarantee. Did the summer league show you that
Con deserves to be a part of the starting five
(22:53):
when the season opens.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Yeah, I don't think it proved he deserve to be
a part of the starting five, because again, it's like,
which way do we want to go with it. We
want to take summer league and use that as a
benchmarkt now put it on a different pedestal than what
we did, because I think if he didn't play great,
we would probably brush it off and just say, well,
it's summer league. Once the season comes, you know, he
could turn it around. And so I think that we
(23:16):
saw some flashes and we saw what he can bring
to the table at times. But until we see him
do that against high level competition, then I think that
those questions are going to still need to be answered.
And I don't think for a guy that had some
of the limitations that people had on him coming.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Out of college.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
I think that that certainly you can't go by to
some league that just say well, all of those things
are going to go away because he played well against
some league competition.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Plus, you have a lot of options to start if
you want. I don't think they would start trade Man
because they didn't last year. But you could, and it
might make some sense. You could start Collin Sexton. We
had that conversation when they traded for him. You had
Josh Green. If he is back in time off of
this shoulder surgery and they just want to lean into
something defensively on the outside, Josh Green, who started and
(24:05):
played a lot of minutes for you last year, maybe
you just go to the default answer of putting him
at the two. So there's a lot of spots that
you're going to have to address or get through before
you eventually start, especially game one. I will say, even
if there are a lot of people that you have
to beat out in training camp, that is the position
that you have the best chance of starting at right
(24:25):
maybe outside of center. It's the two guard. LaMelo is
locked in at one, Brandon Miller is locked in somewhere
at two, or three. Miles Bridges is locked in somewhere
at three or four, So the door isn't locked shut.
That's not true, but it's going to be hard for him,
and I'm with you. Prove is a strong word. I
don't think there was anything proven here in terms of
him being a starter, But if you wanted to see
(24:48):
some signs that, you know what. I was worried about
some of this stuff translating, and I saw him actually
negate some of that, and I saw him dodge some
of those concerns and play quite well, especially after that
first game where he wasn't good. He's that he didn't
think he played well in the championship game. I'll say this,
I like this bad game a lot more than your
first bad game that you had at the beginning of
the Summer League session. If your bad games look more
(25:10):
so like this, Yeah, baby, we're offen running big jump
from Summer League to the NBA Monster Monster Jump. We'll
see how much progress he continues to make throughout the offseason.
What you got for all right?
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Speaking of monster jumps, Dave Portnoy is about to take
a monster jump as a part of the Fox pregame
show for College football.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
That's going to be interesting.
Speaker 5 (25:32):
But he's a man that comments on just about everything,
and one of the things that he was commenting on
was the stand that WNBA players made the other night
during the All Star Game. Here's his thoughts on what
we saw on what was that Friday night, I believe
or Saturday night, one of the two.
Speaker 8 (25:48):
I don't care about the past. I don't care what
they've done for the past ten years. I'm talking about
right now. I'm talking about all the sponsors who want
to be part of this league, the TV deals they're
going to be able to sign in the He's a
getting seventy five grand.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
It's insane. They're not saying.
Speaker 8 (26:03):
They want to be paid like NBA players, but they
deserve more of the revenue.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
And why would they ever.
Speaker 8 (26:09):
In a million years sign any deal that's remotely similar
to the past, when they, for the first time in
the history of the league have all the power.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Again, is the commissioner dumb? Is the marketing people dumb?
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Are they dumb for.
Speaker 8 (26:22):
Like trying to push people like me who runs a
huge sports media company, like we don't want fans like you?
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Are all those people idiots?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Yes?
Speaker 8 (26:30):
But despite themselves they have a product that people are watching.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
It may not be for you, but this isn't a handout.
Speaker 8 (26:37):
This isn't like, oh, we feel bad for women's so
let's pay them. This is marketing and the ability to
make money on this league, and right now, it's endless.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
If you don't get that, you're a moron. All right,
very strong there from David Boy.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
But do you agree with with his premise that WNBA
players should certainly be earning more money because of just
how much revenue they're starting to bring into the league.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Yeah, And I've seen a lot about this because I
saw how they talked about the league how much money
they had lost just this year loan and saying that
some people said that really technically they would have to
pay money back, but no, these women are professional athletes
and they are at the top of.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Their sport and they do.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
You know, we see it as far as the deals
with the shoe deals and all the different ways that
they are marketed. So they're certainly valuable. You know, women's
basketball sneakers are right up there with a lot of
the men that are out there. When you watch a
lot of games, you see a lot of players wearing
female WNBA players sneakers. I mean, I know I have
a pair of Sabrina in that schools. I got a
(27:43):
pair for my son as well. You see a lot
of players wearing those, So I think they proved that
they're marketable, that they can bring in revenue. So I
definitely think they should be getting paid more than what
they are. That's not to say like, oh, they should
be making thirty forty million dollars a season like some
of their male counterparts, but I think I saw I
think it was this morning or yesterday, the salary cap
(28:03):
is set at like one point five million or one
point seven million. I mean, that looks absolutely crazy.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
The expansion is crazy if they were if they're expanding
at this rapid of a pace, then why If they're
expanding at that kind of rapid pace, then why would
you want to point to that league and say, oh,
there's nobody interested. Why is the WNBA deciding to expand
not only in Golden State, like what we're seeing from
the Valkyries this year. We're seeing Toronto get a team,
(28:33):
We're seeing Portland they're get to get a team. I'm
not done. Cleveland is going to get a team, Detroit
is going to get another team, and so is Villa
Philadelphia and Searlotte eventually. Baby, this is all by twenty thirty.
We're in twenty twenty five right now, and we're going
to see one, two, three, four, five, six teams get
six cities get a new WNBA team, all the way
(28:53):
until you get to twenty thirty. And the reason that's
happening is because there is a lot more interest in
the sport right now. We are seeing, yes, Caitlin Clark
being the head of the snake on all of this,
but also in Asia Wilson who has this new sneaker,
who has the sneaker deal, the Sabrina I and escues
getting this brand new new sneaker deal when she enters
the league as well. We are seeing some of these
names become borderline household as the league gains a lot
(29:16):
more popularity. And this is the reason as to why
they're deciding to bring on all of these different franchises,
because this is a long term play and so we're
seeing all of this. We're seeing this league try to
get out in front and capitalize on it and expand
their market and infiltrate all these other cities to gain
more fans, and so this is a business venture. And
so if you're talking about these players that are making
(29:37):
seventy five thousand, like Caitlin Clark salaried at what is it,
seventy eight thousand, I believe it's what she's making. Well, okay,
you want to argue that she's not worth it, but
yet everybody else is starting to invest by getting a team.
Then why if you're not. If nobody's interested, nobody's interested
in the league, then why are they deciding to expand
at this type of rate? And why are each of
(29:59):
these cities deciding to try to get into the w
as much as possible because it's long term play. Yeah,
I agree with Portnoy in saying that seventy five thousand,
it's hen it's low, it's doubt, it's a surprise athlete,
it's a surprising stayle.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
I mean Caitlyn Clark when you talk about her packing
out in NBA Arena, just in revenue alone, they're taking
in more than what she makes as a salary.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
It's crazy, it is. It's shockingly low, especially when you
start to compare and you can't compare it again, Dave
was even saying it there nobody's asking them to get
paid nearly as much as NBA players. This is not
gonna happen. Right We're seeing Sga get the Supermax contract
where he makes as much as small countries. Now, it's
just it's it's ridiculous. But maybe a little bit more
than seventy five K. What else you got?
Speaker 4 (30:44):
All right? Now, it's time to go to Charlotte FC.
Speaker 5 (30:47):
The hottest team in the city right now, maybe behind
the Hornets, I don't know. Both teams on a winning
streak right now. Here's pep Biel the other day with
the game winning goal the game. It wasn't at the time,
but ended up being the game winning goal for Charlotte
in the seventy seventh minute.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Here comes Aha from a pass from Dubia shop at
Peppy out. This dolls double digit goals for Peppil. It's
tenth off.
Speaker 9 (31:13):
The season and Charlotte is off and running in.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
Atlanta three one, all right, so they've won three in
a row now and YCFC DC United and Atlanta. So
three consecutive wins for the Crown, four straight without a loss.
Does this have you sort of feeling a little bit
better about where Charlotte FC is at from that stretch
that they were in during the middle of the season.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Uh, yeah, because I think it always says a lot
about any team who can bounce back from adversity and
start to get themselves together, and so maybe this is
the run that they need as they embark upon the
postseason at currently seventh in the Eastern Conference. And so yes,
I definitely take my hat off to them, because it's
not always you know, a season is going to be
(32:00):
a lot of ups and downs. Even for the best teams,
they're gonna suffer through some losing streaks.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
And for Charlotte to go.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Through what they have, they have certainly had what you
would call a roller coaster season, starting off looking great
like they're going to be a real contender, then things
sinking to the point where we think the season is
pretty much done for and now here they go again
finding life and so yeah, I definitely think there's a
lot to that and could help them if they're able
to get into the postseason to be able to make
(32:26):
some noise.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yeah, it was really rough for a while.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
I just remember every time we had Willie on, we
were asking what the hell is going on compared to
what was happening at the beginning of the season. And
how about despite all of the Patrick Ojamon noise, they're
able to get a third straight victory over New York City,
over DC United, and over Atlanta flounder. As you just mentioned.
In fact, July has been pretty damn kind to them,
with a draw that they had against Orlando, But other
(32:51):
than that, they've been able to win these games. And
especially when you compare it to that stretch that they
were going on in the middle of the season, seem
things seem to be turning owner here for Charlotte FC
at a time where maybe you wouldn't expect it, losing
what had been their best player. All right, that'll do
it for the Live Wire. We got one more segment
to go. It's the walk Off coming up next Sports
Radio nine at two seven w f Z. Are you
(33:24):
challenge me to a walk off?
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Oh yeah, that's a walk off challenge, my friend.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
It's a walk off, the walk off. Wrapping up a championship. Monday,
we just had Smoke walk into the Chandler Volta Studios
playing the SpongeBob slash Jellyfish jam song. If you know
you know, Oh okay, it's whatever it's what all the
jellyfish were doing, having a dance party, what in SpongeBob's
(33:55):
Pineapple house, celebrating nothing at all? Really, I kind of
like it on a couple of different levels as to
why he was playing that song, because I don't want
to call it nothing, but perhaps it's nothing to everybody else.
It didn't lead that it wasn't the a block on
First Take today despite a championship being won last night.
A little surprised to see that Steven A. Smith he
(34:15):
came back for a brief moment coming back from his vacation,
but they didn't ask him about Summer League.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Tew and if it was the Lakers with Bronnie and
Tiny Tawm, it certainly would have led off a block material.
Does this mean that Bronnie James is the future of
the Lakers along with Luka Dantic.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Getting off of the bus type of material for us?
Maybe not so much First Take, not so much all
of these other sports debate shows. But Smoke is celebrating.
He'll be celebrating again from three to six. Willie pe
filling in, I believe one more day before Kyle is
back tomorrow. So that's the schedule. And yeah, and then
Wes is gone tomorrow because you're going to be doing
(34:53):
able to see kickoff and then Wednesday Thursday, he'll be
back with me Friday to host the shows. Okay, so
that's the schedule, Lucy Goosey schedule around here real quickly,
as PTI would announce it, melancholy news surrounding us, and
we saw some people tweeting about this, texting us on
the fandul text line. Malcolm Jamal Warner an actor and
(35:16):
artist who rose to fame as child actor Theodore Huxtable.
You may know from The Cosby Show. He has passed away,
according to a source close to the actor. CNN reporting this,
TMZ of course had it first. He was fifty four
years old. Warner died in a drowning accident in Costa Rica,
where he was on vacation with his family. Warner was
swimming apply a Grande day Chokeles and lamone excuse me
(35:39):
if I mispronounced that and that province on the Caribbean
coast of Costa Rica round two thirty Local Times Sunday,
when a current pulled him deeper into the ocean. According
to the AP, so some real melancholy news there one
of the giant child actors of our time, one of
the first big big child actor figures with theo Hucks
(36:00):
the ball, playing a beloved character on what was a
beloved show at the time, The Cosby Show. So rest
in peace, Malcolm Jamal warned out about it, and just again,
I don't think saying giant at all is far fetched
to say the type of impact that he had on
television when The Cosby Show was at a type oh.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
No doubt about it.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
And that's one of those where you look down and
you see it and you're like, what in the world, man,
because you know, you just don't expect that fifty four
years old, relatively young man, and so for that to
happen while on vacation with the family, you just hate
that for it. But yeah, man, he definitely did a
lot of different projects and he was one of those
actors that was just synonymous with one Row and no
matter what you saw him in, because he did play
(36:39):
he had an extensive, you know, acting catalog, but no
matter what you saw him in, you said, oh that's
the al right there, okay, So rest in peace to
him for sure, and just sad man, no days promise.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
The Cosby Show ran from nineteen eighty four to nineteen
ninety two, and I think because of how popular it was,
I look at that span and think, my God, is
that it it fit because it feels like it should
be longer than I guess the eight slash nine years
that it ran, and it was done airing by the
time I was born. Okay, I'm thirty two years old.
(37:12):
I was born in nineteen ninety two, at the very
end of ninety two. It was done airing by that time,
and thirty two years have passed since then, and it
doesn't feel like that. I grew up watching The Cosby
Show myself, despite it not having a new episode of television,
because it was aired on Nike at night and still
kept some popularity all throughout. God the two thousands for
(37:34):
us to go be able to watch it, and THEO
was one of my favorite childhood actual, Yeah, tell him flound.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
According to the NBA Rookies, O Walk is an unk
when he just dropped his age.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
He's incredibly, incredibly unkstatus.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
We dropped them sound by where the NBA Rookies went
through and they decided what was unkstatus, what years you
had to be born and they definite. At least we
had some definite nineties your unk status. We had some
early two thousands saying that your unk status. Like there
was one guy what he said, he was twenty six
and the rookies on this team were calling him unks.
So I just wanted to let you know that I'm
(38:08):
not the only one in that boat, buddy.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
No, no, you're not. When it comes to comparing my
age with NBA player slash NFL players, I've called Adam
Thielen unk in indirect ways a few times. I'm three
years away from them, and here I am calling him
an older wide receiver and I'm only.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
A few years by some hopes. You get the OG.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Oh YEAHLG. I feel you know what, I don't just
look young, though I do look young. Part of that
is my inability to grow a beard. And when I
do grow it, it's a little messy, a lot of it.
I was going to say, I feel like an OG
on the court. OG has some kind of positive connotation
to it, and I went into erase that when describing
my ability. Now I used to be a g. Okay,
(38:47):
now I just got the O. Now I'm just old.
What's the last how you played pickup. It's been a while.
I mean, I guess the media event at Spectrum Center.
I got a few like tall man buckets, had a
nice block. I had some nice passes. Okay, there wasn't
anything that you saw from me and said, damn, he's good.
None of that, but just like some good Oh he's tall,
he's got to do something, and I could. I wasn't what.
(39:09):
I wasn't what Robert described himself on Everybody Loves Raymond
as the useless Giraffe.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
I don't more than a year probably, Okay, yeah, I
mean it's been a long time. Man.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
We used to tour.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
We used to tour all the different playgrounds around Charlotte,
going from apartment complex to apartment complex, to different court,
half court, whatever. Used to be the thing. Used to
love doing it. And then you have to pay bills
and you get a real job and you can't dedicate
that kind of time to a.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Chance.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Please please don't let me tear my acl Don't let
me tear my achilles, please, cause you know I'm not
making what the WNBA players are making. They look at
my salary and they think, oh buddy, it's not so good.
All right, let's tell you what's on tap. On Tap
is present up by Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks has locations
in Concord and Fort Mill. Twin Peaks at your local
(40:05):
sports lodge. Come in from a from scratch food signature,
twenty nine degree draft beers plus all the scenic views
Monday Night Raw.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
No doubt about it.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
The Tribal Chief has returned.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Okay, it's lit.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
I saw some of the rumors that we may be
starting to get a little bit of Cody Roman too
going after Summer Slamming, which Cody and John Cena will
get it in, and I think that Cody's gonna get
the belt back.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
I'll be interested to hit smoke starts after the show.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
But yeah, man, with Rome and Rains coming back, or
if he wants to chime in, But with Rome and
Rains coming back, I'm very excited because I think the
wwe needed it, because we're starting to lean a little
bit heavier towards a W right now.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Those death matches can't get enough of that. Okay.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
I show my mom the clip of John Moxley getting
stabbed with the Forgan.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
She's like, oh God, I can't take it. Same miss Fonda,
very very same. That wasn't That wasn't even like that
was eighth on the about Yeah. Was he done because
he got a fork stuck in it?
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Oh god, no, that was four minutes into the match
stick of fork in him.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
He's done? Oh yeah, yeah, nicely come on and nails
and Paul, No, you're not done.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
He was just getting started. Fair enough.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
I guess it doesn't mean the same thing in ae W.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Fair enough.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
It feels weird that I'm not celebrating a Summer League
championship with you. Smoke is the first thing I ask you.
It is quite the upset that the first thing I
ask you is what did you think of Wes's assessment
on Monday Night Raw? And how do you feel about
tonight's festivities?
Speaker 9 (41:35):
They definitely need something because they have been in a
malaise for the yes time.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
You know, the.
Speaker 9 (41:41):
Bloom has come off the rows of no longer having
Vince and it's just e Ko in general has not
been managing well and the honeymoon period's over, so they
need to get something going quick.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Facts.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
How about you're gonna celebrate the championship today?
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (41:53):
I'm going to celebrate.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
Should we hang a ban of smoke. They might not
want to, but I want to.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
I'm leaving here with some we'll get some T shirts.
So we'll get some T shirts and uh, maybe we
can get some Summer League rings as well. All right,
final thing I did want to tell you about Atlanta.
They're playing a baseball game tonight. They'll play the San
Francisco Giants seven point fifteen. First pitch, the pitching matchup
between the two, it'll be Bryce Elder on the mound
for Atlanta, who is three and six on the year
(42:20):
of five six five era. It's always not a pretty
number when I read the era for Bryce Elder. It's
not been very good this year. Hayden bird Song a
hell of a name, pitching for San Francisco four and
three on the year a four eleven era. And I
did want to bring this up, just as the cherry
on top of the show here today flounder Wilmer Flores
plays for San Francisco. He leads the Giants in RBIs
(42:43):
and yet all I'm going to remember from Wilmer Flores
is crying in the middle of a game, realizing that
he had just been traded. Except then the trade didn't
go through helped me Carlos Gomez.
Speaker 5 (42:56):
I remember this, of course, I remember this. The tried
to reacquire Carlos Gomez. They were going to trade away
Wilmer Flores to do it. Wilmer ends up becoming a
hero because he is so distraught that he's going to
be traded. Can't believe that the team that he has
spent his entire career with is letting him go. And
he is still a fan favorite to this day. So
(43:18):
good to hear that he's having a successful year out
there in San Francisco, but not too successful.
Speaker 4 (43:22):
Okay, we still want to make the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
It also reminds me just a little bit of when
I was watching the Hornets game and I think it
was Harrison Barnes had just gotten traded and they were
breaking it to while he was sitting on the bench,
and I guess didn't enter the game after that. It
was The league can be wild sometimes, just sports in general,
any league can be wild. Sometimes you getting traded during
a game, that man is out there between first and
(43:45):
second or second and third base crying because he's got traded.
It's like, nah, man, I need you to bet this run.
In Buddy Sports, as a business. Baby, crazy crazy crazy stuff.
All right, that'll do it for today's edition of Wes
and Walker. We will be back with you tomorrow from
twelve to three. Wes is gonna be out at ACC kickoffs, right, Baby,
he's gonna condom lead. He's gonna be on in some
(44:08):
capacity throughout the rest of the week until he's in
his normal capacity twelve to three, sitting in that chair
that he usually sits in at the Chandler Voulta Studios
Friday from twelve to three. But we'll let you know
what's going on the rest of the way. It is
the Kyle Bailey Show, Willie p filling in one more
day coming up next from three to six. You're listening
to Sports Radio ninety two to seven WFNZ. Listen to
(44:31):
the Wes and Walker Show weweek. He's from noon to
three only on Sports Radio ninety two point seven FM.
Com UFNZ, the
Speaker 9 (44:39):
Official home of the Charlotte Sports Fan
You were listening to the Wes and Walker show. He's
off to the side, he's drawn, he's like floating to
the media.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Did you guys know about this point guard?
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Did you guys know that we don't need to invest
in wide receivers. He's off to the side, not at
the podium because he wants to let you know what
he found out so badly. It's Wes. Yeah, And I mean.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Just in retrospect now with the way that this team
is looking, the offense is looking, it definitely has not
aged well.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
And Walker, what's up, dity? I was not prepared for
the was that point guard?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
We don't have to spend.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Money only on sports Radio ninety two point seven FM WFNC.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
But now you do, now you do?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
All right?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
We are caught in this transition of celebrating a Hornet
Summer League championship they won last night, in that victory
over the King. We're in the transition from celebrating that
to then previewing Carolina Panthers training camp. Rookies report today,
the Vets report tomorrow, and the Panthers will take the
practice field for the first time in training camp on Wednesday,
(01:13):
July twenty third, So we are celebrating the transition here, folks, wesn. Walker.
We have one more hour to go Sports Radio ninety
two seven WFNZ. Let's celebrate a little bit more before then,
we shift gears and talk a whole lot of football
really for the rest of the week, whether it's the
Carolina Panthers side of things or whether it is the
(01:34):
ACC kickoff side of things. That's happening this week starts tomorrow.
Officially looks like Wes and Walker we're going to be
out there Wednesday and Thursday. But again little confusion because
while the show Wes and Walker is going to be
out there together on Wednesday and Thursday, Wes is going
to be taking care of the ACC digital network obligations,
(01:54):
so you have that to take care of. You're going
to be popping in via phone call, via hanging out,
co hosting maybe an hour or so, maybe a couple segments.
We're gonna be loosey goosey about it all. Yes, So
we'll see how the schedule plays out next week. But
we got a lot of football to talk about, especially
here in the channel vaults of studios. CV Injury Law
dot Com, CV Injury Law dot Com one call. That's
(02:16):
all the Carolina's personal injury lawyers wes. If we continue
to celebrate the Summer League championship, what would you say
was the biggest thing you learned from watching the Hornets
over the six game span cons five game span? What
would you say is the biggest thing that you learned?
That this new group does have a winning pedigree. Obviously
they haven't done it at the highest level. I get it,
(02:38):
but you're talking about guys who came from programs that
won at a high level and they've performed as such
in the Summer League. That's what I would say.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
I think that some of the things, the character traits,
the locker room traits that they were looking for, I
think you did see those on full display with these
young guys and what they were able to do in
the Summer League.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Well, I talked about it in the opening segment. Two things.
I think what the championship highlights. It's the fact that
they are practicing what they preach and every day matters.
Everything matters, Because if you didn't really think that the
Summer League mattered all that much, then you might treat
it like some of these other squads that don't play
ACE Bailey con down, shut Con down. You know, even
(03:18):
if he could go. He put on his tightly wrapped
headband that he hated, by the way, which I thought
was hilarious when he was doing the endgame interview and
he had the stitches and could have been very easy
to shut him down. And honestly, after four games, I
would have hated it. As a fan. I would have
understood it if I was a part of that franchise.
(03:38):
But I'm glad he played and played well enough to
win Summer League MVP, so they didn't shut him down.
Everything matters. They stayed true to that. You can see
the shift just a little bit. It needs to play
out in the Big Boy League, no doubt about it,
but we're starting to see the shift. The second thing
is just speaking of Con devisive pick was con And
I get it. If you liked Ace Bailey a lot
of things to like, if you like Trade Johnson, I
(04:01):
liked Trey a lot. I would have taken him over Con.
A lot of things to like about Trey and the
limited sample that we got. But I do think Con,
at the very least in this small sample, showed you
some things that you could get on board with I
thought the passing was phenomenal. And I'll say this, I
think over the top, if you look at all the
top five picks, right kN K Nipple, VJ. Edgecomb, Trey
(04:25):
Johnson or Trey Johnson wasn't even in there. But of
all the guys, I guess that could have been in
consideration for the Hornets to legitimately select, and maybe even
the guys that went before him, Con might be the
best passer out of all of them. Dylan Harper's maybe
you could put him up there, but I would pick Con.
Cooper Flagg is a good passer, but I think Con
showed you more of the passing chops in the summer
league session. And if you're just looking for someone to
(04:47):
play complimentary basketball in your first year and then we'll
see where you can get your second and third year,
he's going to go in and he's going to provide
an impact. Maybe he gets blown by defensively, athletes are
going to attack him. That's going to happen the NBA,
and he's going to lose a lot of those battles,
and that's a concern, no doubt. But can you play
complimentary basketball well enough to stay on the floor I
(05:08):
think to me, the answer will be yes, and we
have a big jump from Summer League to the NBA. Huge,
But I think I was comforted in a lot of
what I saw from Con, especially with his reps on ball,
creativity playing off ball. I really liked what I saw
from him.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yeah, I think for Con, for sure, it's going to
come down to health of the team and just if
he's not going to be serviceable on defense, how bad
is it is it to the point where coach Lee
just feels like, man, I can't put this guy on
the court at all.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
He's going to give up a bucket.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
And other than that too when you talk about the offense,
because that role is certainly going to change. We know
that now with him being the fourth overall pick, though
having that beside his name, maybe that we'll have this
coaching staff having to put him in more situations where
he can show his strength. So maybe while he's in
he will be not necessarily legit on the ball like that,
but put him in a couple of scenarios where he
(06:00):
can flash some of those skills that we saw, you know,
in summer league, almost called it summer school. And so
when you talk about what he was able to do.
And if this is a healthy roster, we know LaMelo
is going to control the ball a lot, and even
if he runs with that second unit, according to depth
charts that you see, Colin Sexton is going to be
the guy that's going to be controlling the rock most
(06:20):
of the time. So then it's going to come down
to how can he get open. I don't know that
we'll get a chance to see a lot of situations
where there is bailout offense. So I think he has
a lot of questions to answer because I think his
role is going to be so much different once the
rest of the guys come into the loop. But I
think that he showed you at least some flashes of
the potential of things that he can do if called upon.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I will say, I just think there's not a whole
lot that you have to change for Con to be
an important part of your offense. Yes, you're you're not
changing anything. Hey, Con hit some open threes. If you
see a close out, you feel like you can attack,
be aggressive, get downhill and then kick out or throw
a lob to one of the big guys, or give
an excellent lead pass to Musa diabate, who's just doing
(07:03):
a whole bunch of rim running as an undersized center,
but as athletic as hell like. There's so many ways
that Con can help you win by making others better
around him. And then here we are using the force
multiplier word that I use for LaMelo and got made
fun of. Shout out to AJ. I still like the joke.
I do think Con showed you a lot of that
in this Summer League session. I think he helped PJ.
Hall get buckets. I think he helped Calkbrinner and get
(07:25):
a lot of buckets. I love Con in transition, stopping
at the three point line and the first thing he
does is look at the area closest to the basket.
Does cal Prinner have position kinda I'm comfortable enough throwing
an accurate pass till his lead hand to where all
Calkbrinner has to do is just throw it over his shoulder.
Had a bunch of athletic I shouldn't say athletic Calprender
(07:46):
had a bunch of like kind of dipsy do finishes
above his shoulder over his head like backwards. Had a
couple of things like that that were set up with
Con so second unit stuff. Playing alongside Colin Sexton, who
can provide that rim pressure and then you kick outside
the I just see it working in a lot of ways, man,
and that's what's exciting. Didn't see that first game had
(08:06):
some issues turned it over. It wasn't careful enough with
the basketball. When he got to his spot, he would
lose it. You'd have those you know mouses in the houses. Yeah,
they would swat at the basketball, and then there'd be
a turnover. Like, you can't do that. You got to
your spot, you almost did it. Hold on to the
damn ball. He did so for the most part. So
I even think at the beginning of the summer league
(08:26):
session to the end of it, he improved.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Quas do you think that you see him as now
a guy that could start day one or do you
think he'll be an eventual starter?
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Great minds think alike.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
That was the question. I was going to ask you,
okay to the punch, Well, no, you're good. We can
I think if you just take like a natural incline.
With still a lot of offseason left before we get
to the regular season, I think there's a path for
him to start. And I felt pretty confident in Josh
Green being your opening starter, and I think I would
(08:55):
still put money on him as long as he's not traded.
But I can see the path to him start a
little bit more so now than I did two weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I could see him as an eventual starter depending on
how the season is going. And again I said, I'm
day by day, step by step with him. So that's
not to say that he can't be a starter from
day one, but right now, I see him as a
rotational guy that can come in with that second unit
and have some opportunities to really show what he can do.
I think if you put him in with the second
unit with the salon and then you have Colin Sexton
(09:24):
and stuff, and we know that Sexton part of his
mo is getting his teammates good shots, and I think
that if you get con some good shots, I think
he's going to knock him down because that's his strength.
That's his superpower immediately coming into the NBA is his
ability to shoot the ball.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
So I think that he would be that.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
And then I think depending on how the season goes,
if things don't necessarily go according to playing, I think
you may see him get inserted into the starting lineup.
Maybe they make a move get rid of a Josh
Green or something along those lines to open up the
minutes for him so that he can really start to
find his way in this league. But for now, we'll
say I think he will be a ROTA national player,
(10:01):
you know that has a potential to be started down
on line.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
All right, we're celebrating what kon K Nipple did. We're
celebrating the Hornets Summer League championship on Wes and Walker. Now,
I'm just hoping that we're celebrating anything with the Panthers
in twenty twenty five. You talked about some of the
updates you're seeing already on Twitter. Training camp is officially here.
You just saw your first training camp highlight with George
(10:24):
Pickens down in Dallas. Yes, that had to be the favorite,
right If you were to discuss all of the players
in the NFL, who would get the first training camp highlight,
it would probably be the guy good point makes one
handed catches playing on a new team. And not only
is it a new team, it's that team, it's America's team.
I think that should have opened up as the favorite.
Who is the player you'll be paying attention to most
(10:47):
that plays for Carolina in terms of refreshing your Twitter
timeline to see, hey, is there you scratching your neck?
You got that new teamac highlight, you got that new
Excel highlight. Who are the players that Cokay?
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Yeah, when you talk about especially when the padded practices come,
I would say, Nick Scordon, I'll go to the defensive side. Offensively,
I would go with, yeah, for sure, it's going to
be t Mac to see what he's going to do
when he gets out there, because the Panthers have a
couple of good physical corners that will be good tests
(11:18):
for him, and so I think t Mac against some
of the starters will be interesting.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
I think xavierly get is my answer. I just I
want to see xavierly get involved quite a bit. And
I think we got some good stuff from him in
mini camp, got some highlights, beat reporters talking about him
a decent amount. I just I think t Mac is
at base level, gonna be fine in training camp. You
might have some questions about separation from some of the
(11:44):
top notch corners. I feel good enough about his ability
to catch fifty to fifty balls to where maybe he
can compensate for the lack of separation that he might
not gain again. Working back to the football was among
his better attributes, and so I think he'll make up
for that in some other ways.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Maybe he does and have the breakaway speed, and you know,
we are limited highlights there. I think t MA is
going to be fine.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Xcel.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
I'm not so sure, because you got to catch the football.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
And I'm not worried about Cocer. That's why I didn't
mention him as the same one.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
No, and very much in the same way, where at
least in training camp. I just think Coker is going
to go out there and do his thing. Maybe none
of it's too flashy, but I think Coker's going to
be just fine, Excel. I kind of want him to
be flashy. I kind of want to see him streak
the field and catch some of these fifty yard passes downfield.
I kind of want to see him, you know, catch
a football five yards from the line of scrimmage and
(12:34):
then really take off. Isn't he your gadget guy? Kinda yeah,
isn't he your most explosive wide receiver that you have
on the roster, if that's outside of Jimmy Horn but
in terms of first round uh, you know, first round investment,
type of body that he possesses, the speed that he possesses.
He's the guy that should be a flashy player for you.
Let's see some flashy plays. Yeah, I'd like to see
(12:56):
that the receiver corps as a whole.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
You know, I'm going to be looking at a out
of those guys too, because you know, Jacobe George is
another guy when you talk about out of that undrafted bunch,
the underdog bunch, if you will, He's a guy that
I can't wait to see what he does too, because
I think he's gonna have something to say before it's
all said done. But the Panthers have a ton of receivers.
Now that's not something we could say the last couple
of seasons. I mean, each of these receivers that they
(13:19):
have are talented in their own right Hunter Renfro. We
know that we've heard the pros Derwin James and those
guys talk about the routes that he does. So you
know he's gonna be good for a couple of highlights,
giving people, making people put that freakom dress on because
he's gonna be dancing on him. You talk about Jimmy
Horn Jr. And his speed and Jacobe George and his
speed and excel can he show consistent hands in tetor Roa.
(13:41):
So this receiving room is going to be a lot
of fun to watch, especially once the joint practice has
come because you talk about going up against the Stingleys
and the Denzel Awards and some of those guys that
they're gonna have to see out there gonna be a
ton of fun.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Okay, last one, any of the vets that you want
to keep your eye on the most, I'll go with
Trayvon Merrig. I think part of this is because I
got an appetizer with Merrig in Mini Camp where he's
jawn all over the place, highly communicative. Saw a little
bit of a feature on him in the second episode
of Blueprint, where there's a lot of happiness with him.
There's a lot of joy surrounding his game. And I
(14:16):
think in terms of who the Panthers invested in pretty
heavily this offseason, it was gonna be Milton Williams. They
eventually get priced out on him. Milton goes to New
England because you're just not messing with that type of money.
They had all the cap space. Cool, we move on.
Trayvon Merrig was their big off season acquisition alongside Wharton too,
but Marek was the guy. We don't have any other safeties.
(14:37):
So I think Marrig is my vet that I'm looking
at the first and foremost.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
I think the vet that I would be looking at
the most is probably Derek Brown, because again, this is
a guy that they're kind of treating with.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
The kid goes because of the injury.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
I want to see how that progresses, because I do
feel confident that he'll be.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Ready for week one.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Man, But those vets, when you know they start talking
about how they have to limit them and all these
different things. Man, that can get into some chick territory.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Oh bagel guy writing in JC versus T Mac is
going to be a hot topic that will be a
fun battle. If we're looking at specific battles that are
going to be most intriguing, I do agree with that.
JC Horn T Max got a.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Jaylen Mill Road to JSN one handed cats and double
coverage done.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
All right, We're here, baby, I love it. We're Sam Darnold.
Your day's are numbered, sir. I'm ready for all of
the overreactions. We'll have plenty of time for overreactions the
rest of the week as we break down the start
of Panthers training camp. Coming up next, we comb through
the best sound and sports. It's the Live Wire with
flound Dogs Sports Radio ninety two to seven WFZ. A
(15:44):
couple more segments to go on West and Walker Sports
Radio ninety two to seven WFNZ. If you want to
text us, you can. Bandual text line still open, operating
at a high level because of you the listener. Seven
oh four five, seven oh ninety six, ten again seven
oh four ninety six to ten. That is the fan
duel text line. Let's kick it over now to mister
(16:06):
Floundog with the latest edition of the Live Wire. Hit
it Floundy.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
They the west of North London down southwise.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
He all right, and let's start with Chris Jent. There
was a question on the text line earlier who was
the head coach of the Charlotte Hornets in Summer League. Well,
there's your man right there now. This person wanted them
to take you know, wanting Chris jen to take over
as the permanent head coach. He did say it's a
little aggressive, but he was talking after the Summer League
(16:42):
Championship and he was asked how this group was able
to win the Summer League title.
Speaker 6 (16:47):
I think they just played together. They competed their tails off.
You know, we are way over undersize of the game,
but we kept scrapping, making the right plays and a
little bit of attention detail at the end, were they
really executed and did a nice shot?
Speaker 2 (17:02):
All right?
Speaker 5 (17:03):
Well, I can't believe that we haven't gotten to this
just yet, but you knew that at some point we
would have to ask this question. Do you guys think
that the Hornet should put up a banner in the
Spectrum Center for winning the Summer League title?
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Man, that is a that's a tough one. And again
I think it goes back to what I said at
the top of the show saying it depends what it
means to your organization. If everything means something, if they're
going to go by the mantra that they are going
by now, then I would say, yes, go ahead and
put it up. Like I said, it doesn't matter what
everybody else thinks, it matters what you think. And if
you feel like that, that's a great foundational brick to
(17:39):
what you want to be able to build in your
second season going forward, then yeah, I have no problem
with it.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Go ahead and put the banner up.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Okay, So I want to embrace all of this, and
I do think it's great that everything matters. Everything matters.
It can mean something. I don't know if it should
mean everything. I don't know if everything should mean everything.
And so if it means everything, then you can hang
the banner. It does seem a little like a target
on my back to make fun of me. If we
(18:06):
celebrate with a twenty twenty five Summer League Championship banner
that we hang in the Spectrum Center, it feels a
little different than the n Season tournament because it's different.
It's against big league competition. It's the first of its kind.
When everybody was saying, you're the Lakers, you're not supposed
to celebrate with a banner for an n season attorney. Yeah,
but there was some kind of novelty to it because
it was the first iteration of the n season attorney.
(18:28):
And again, it's an actual NBA regular season game. I
know it at least is until you get to said
championship game.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
I can get a banner up there, man, not a banner.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
I think it.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Also depends on how it's done. I mean, if you
want to be I wouldn't say go over the top
with the ceremony to be able to do it. But
if you just want to put it in there, you know,
before the season starts and just have it there once
people come into the arena, I'm okay with that. But again,
like I said, it doesn't matter. I mean it's like,
should the college football team that goes to bowl game,
(19:00):
you know, not put that, you know in there wherever
they want to hang something to show because every school
does that.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Should they not put the trophies in their trophy cation.
Speaker 5 (19:09):
They want to not put in like Elite eight appearance
or something like that. They have the small banners that
are up in the in the spectrums in the Smith Center.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
That's a good point that you bring up with teams
doing stuff like that because Wake Forest has banners as
well showing every time they've gone to the NCAA tournament.
A lot of teams do that and they didn't win
the championship, So I say, why not?
Speaker 1 (19:30):
But Elite eight basketball matters a lot more than Summer League.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Well, and that's just an example.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, I know, I'm just and I think Bowl games
matter a lot more than Summer League. I think I
can't get on board. Man, I want to.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
I want to.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Jump in here and celebrate. Maybe I need to embrace
my feelings a little bit more. Maybe we just have
a therapy session and say I need to embrace my
feelings rather than try to think a little too much
because I'm worried about being made fun of. Because I
am worried about being made fun of, because I mean.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
If the Hornets are bad, they gonna make fun of
you in so you might as well go ahead and
try to, you know, celebrate your wins when you can
and try to build upon that.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Let's go to the text lote and see what people
are saying there. Fandle text line seven oh four five
seven oh ninety six ten. Jack says, I'll take the
gear over a banner. Natural Born nine says, No, you
can put it up in Greensboro where the G League
team plays.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
That's what I was going to suggest.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
So you can't put it up in the Spectrum Center
Minors QC. Hell no to the summer league banner. It
was a nice trophy. Most of the people that I'm
reading right now are saying no to it.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
You know what, I'm proud of, Charlotte.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
I'm proud because I thought this would be a moment
where a lot of people would say, yes, we should
put it up, and it's like, but guys, it's completely
different from a championship. Even I'm the guy that said
you shouldn't put up the n season tournament banner. I
think that's stupid if you hang that so.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Banners. Man, we're desperate for one. I will say this
real quickly with Chris Gent being the guy speaking there.
Chris jin actually really interesting figure with being an assistant
coach with this Hornets team. He was with Cleveland when
Lebron James was there, he was with the Lakers when
Lebron James was there. Has a working relationship with Lebron
and maybe I shouldn't be so assuming in that regard now,
(21:14):
but really worked with Lebron in a lot of ways.
I thought there were some really interesting sets in order
to get con Kin nipple open, especially as Summer League
went on. So shout out to Chris Gent, who I
thought really did a nice job being the lead dog
being that head coach of the Summer League team and
a really interesting guy. If you want to go look
at some of his interviews as basketball cards. A Chris
Gent basketball card. Really that's impressive. You remember that?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
To be honest with Yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Know exactly who he was when I heard, I said,
that's yeah, really cool and interesting guy. If you want
to go read some of his past interviews that he's
had over the like the last fifteen years. I'm looking
at one interesting one when he was with Cleveland in
twenty ten, like forever and ever ago, So some cool
stuff there. If you want to get to know the
summer league champion head coach of your Charlott Hornets basketball squad.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
Well maybe you want to get to know a little
bit more about the MVP of your summer league squad.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
How about Conkin Nipple.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
He was asked about his adjustment that he made after
a slow start to summer league.
Speaker 7 (22:09):
The first game was rough, didn't play well, but I
think you know it's it's the NBA now, like you
have so many games and I think, just the right
next game, forget about what happened last game, like even tonight,
I didn't play very well. I didn't shoot a grade
at all, really had some bad turnovers, bad defensive plays.
Just next play, next play?
Speaker 4 (22:31):
All right.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
I don't know who that was in the background that
was yelling. But my question for you guys is, before
we went into this summer league, I think the thought
was that Con might start the season for the Hornets
as a part of their starting five, but that it
wasn't a guarantee. Did the summer league show you that
Con deserves to be a part of the starting five
(22:53):
when the season opens.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Yeah, I don't think it proved he deserve to be
a part of the starting five, because again, it's like,
which way do we want to go with it. We
want to take summer league and use that as a
benchmarkt now put it on a different pedestal than what
we did, because I think if he didn't play great,
we would probably brush it off and just say, well,
it's summer league. Once the season comes, you know, he
could turn it around. And so I think that we
(23:16):
saw some flashes and we saw what he can bring
to the table at times. But until we see him
do that against high level competition, then I think that
those questions are going to still need to be answered.
And I don't think for a guy that had some
of the limitations that people had on him coming.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Out of college.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
I think that that certainly you can't go by to
some league that just say well, all of those things
are going to go away because he played well against
some league competition.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Plus, you have a lot of options to start if
you want. I don't think they would start trade Man
because they didn't last year. But you could, and it
might make some sense. You could start Collin Sexton. We
had that conversation when they traded for him. You had
Josh Green. If he is back in time off of
this shoulder surgery and they just want to lean into
something defensively on the outside, Josh Green, who started and
(24:05):
played a lot of minutes for you last year, maybe
you just go to the default answer of putting him
at the two. So there's a lot of spots that
you're going to have to address or get through before
you eventually start, especially game one. I will say, even
if there are a lot of people that you have
to beat out in training camp, that is the position
that you have the best chance of starting at right
(24:25):
maybe outside of center. It's the two guard. LaMelo is
locked in at one, Brandon Miller is locked in somewhere
at two, or three. Miles Bridges is locked in somewhere
at three or four, So the door isn't locked shut.
That's not true, but it's going to be hard for him,
and I'm with you. Prove is a strong word. I
don't think there was anything proven here in terms of
him being a starter, But if you wanted to see
(24:48):
some signs that, you know what. I was worried about
some of this stuff translating, and I saw him actually
negate some of that, and I saw him dodge some
of those concerns and play quite well, especially after that
first game where he wasn't good. He's that he didn't
think he played well in the championship game. I'll say this,
I like this bad game a lot more than your
first bad game that you had at the beginning of
the Summer League session. If your bad games look more
(25:10):
so like this, Yeah, baby, we're offen running big jump
from Summer League to the NBA Monster Monster Jump. We'll
see how much progress he continues to make throughout the offseason.
What you got for all right?
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Speaking of monster jumps, Dave Portnoy is about to take
a monster jump as a part of the Fox pregame
show for College football.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
That's going to be interesting.
Speaker 5 (25:32):
But he's a man that comments on just about everything,
and one of the things that he was commenting on
was the stand that WNBA players made the other night
during the All Star Game. Here's his thoughts on what
we saw on what was that Friday night, I believe
or Saturday night, one of the two.
Speaker 8 (25:48):
I don't care about the past. I don't care what
they've done for the past ten years. I'm talking about
right now. I'm talking about all the sponsors who want
to be part of this league, the TV deals they're
going to be able to sign in the He's a
getting seventy five grand.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
It's insane. They're not saying.
Speaker 8 (26:03):
They want to be paid like NBA players, but they
deserve more of the revenue.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
And why would they ever.
Speaker 8 (26:09):
In a million years sign any deal that's remotely similar
to the past, when they, for the first time in
the history of the league have all the power.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Again, is the commissioner dumb? Is the marketing people dumb?
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Are they dumb for.
Speaker 8 (26:22):
Like trying to push people like me who runs a
huge sports media company, like we don't want fans like you?
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Are all those people idiots?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Yes?
Speaker 8 (26:30):
But despite themselves they have a product that people are watching.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
It may not be for you, but this isn't a handout.
Speaker 8 (26:37):
This isn't like, oh, we feel bad for women's so
let's pay them. This is marketing and the ability to
make money on this league, and right now, it's endless.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
If you don't get that, you're a moron. All right,
very strong there from David Boy.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
But do you agree with with his premise that WNBA
players should certainly be earning more money because of just
how much revenue they're starting to bring into the league.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Yeah, And I've seen a lot about this because I
saw how they talked about the league how much money
they had lost just this year loan and saying that
some people said that really technically they would have to
pay money back, but no, these women are professional athletes
and they are at the top of.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Their sport and they do.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
You know, we see it as far as the deals
with the shoe deals and all the different ways that
they are marketed. So they're certainly valuable. You know, women's
basketball sneakers are right up there with a lot of
the men that are out there. When you watch a
lot of games, you see a lot of players wearing
female WNBA players sneakers. I mean, I know I have
a pair of Sabrina in that schools. I got a
(27:43):
pair for my son as well. You see a lot
of players wearing those, So I think they proved that
they're marketable, that they can bring in revenue. So I
definitely think they should be getting paid more than what
they are. That's not to say like, oh, they should
be making thirty forty million dollars a season like some
of their male counterparts, but I think I saw I
think it was this morning or yesterday, the salary cap
(28:03):
is set at like one point five million or one
point seven million. I mean, that looks absolutely crazy.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
The expansion is crazy if they were if they're expanding
at this rapid of a pace, then why If they're
expanding at that kind of rapid pace, then why would
you want to point to that league and say, oh,
there's nobody interested. Why is the WNBA deciding to expand
not only in Golden State, like what we're seeing from
the Valkyries this year. We're seeing Toronto get a team,
(28:33):
We're seeing Portland they're get to get a team. I'm
not done. Cleveland is going to get a team, Detroit
is going to get another team, and so is Villa
Philadelphia and Searlotte eventually. Baby, this is all by twenty thirty.
We're in twenty twenty five right now, and we're going
to see one, two, three, four, five, six teams get
six cities get a new WNBA team, all the way
(28:53):
until you get to twenty thirty. And the reason that's
happening is because there is a lot more interest in
the sport right now. We are seeing, yes, Caitlin Clark
being the head of the snake on all of this,
but also in Asia Wilson who has this new sneaker,
who has the sneaker deal, the Sabrina I and escues
getting this brand new new sneaker deal when she enters
the league as well. We are seeing some of these
names become borderline household as the league gains a lot
(29:16):
more popularity. And this is the reason as to why
they're deciding to bring on all of these different franchises,
because this is a long term play and so we're
seeing all of this. We're seeing this league try to
get out in front and capitalize on it and expand
their market and infiltrate all these other cities to gain
more fans, and so this is a business venture. And
so if you're talking about these players that are making
(29:37):
seventy five thousand, like Caitlin Clark salaried at what is it,
seventy eight thousand, I believe it's what she's making. Well, okay,
you want to argue that she's not worth it, but
yet everybody else is starting to invest by getting a team.
Then why if you're not. If nobody's interested, nobody's interested
in the league, then why are they deciding to expand
at this type of rate? And why are each of
(29:59):
these cities deciding to try to get into the w
as much as possible because it's long term play. Yeah,
I agree with Portnoy in saying that seventy five thousand,
it's hen it's low, it's doubt, it's a surprise athlete,
it's a surprising stayle.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
I mean Caitlyn Clark when you talk about her packing
out in NBA Arena, just in revenue alone, they're taking
in more than what she makes as a salary.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
It's crazy, it is. It's shockingly low, especially when you
start to compare and you can't compare it again, Dave
was even saying it there nobody's asking them to get
paid nearly as much as NBA players. This is not
gonna happen. Right We're seeing Sga get the Supermax contract
where he makes as much as small countries. Now, it's
just it's it's ridiculous. But maybe a little bit more
than seventy five K. What else you got?
Speaker 4 (30:44):
All right? Now, it's time to go to Charlotte FC.
Speaker 5 (30:47):
The hottest team in the city right now, maybe behind
the Hornets, I don't know. Both teams on a winning
streak right now. Here's pep Biel the other day with
the game winning goal the game. It wasn't at the time,
but ended up being the game winning goal for Charlotte
in the seventy seventh minute.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Here comes Aha from a pass from Dubia shop at
Peppy out. This dolls double digit goals for Peppil. It's
tenth off.
Speaker 9 (31:13):
The season and Charlotte is off and running in.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
Atlanta three one, all right, so they've won three in
a row now and YCFC DC United and Atlanta. So
three consecutive wins for the Crown, four straight without a loss.
Does this have you sort of feeling a little bit
better about where Charlotte FC is at from that stretch
that they were in during the middle of the season.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Uh, yeah, because I think it always says a lot
about any team who can bounce back from adversity and
start to get themselves together, and so maybe this is
the run that they need as they embark upon the
postseason at currently seventh in the Eastern Conference. And so yes,
I definitely take my hat off to them, because it's
not always you know, a season is going to be
(32:00):
a lot of ups and downs. Even for the best teams,
they're gonna suffer through some losing streaks.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
And for Charlotte to go.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Through what they have, they have certainly had what you
would call a roller coaster season, starting off looking great
like they're going to be a real contender, then things
sinking to the point where we think the season is
pretty much done for and now here they go again
finding life and so yeah, I definitely think there's a
lot to that and could help them if they're able
to get into the postseason to be able to make
(32:26):
some noise.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yeah, it was really rough for a while.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
I just remember every time we had Willie on, we
were asking what the hell is going on compared to
what was happening at the beginning of the season. And
how about despite all of the Patrick Ojamon noise, they're
able to get a third straight victory over New York City,
over DC United, and over Atlanta flounder. As you just mentioned.
In fact, July has been pretty damn kind to them,
with a draw that they had against Orlando, But other
(32:51):
than that, they've been able to win these games. And
especially when you compare it to that stretch that they
were going on in the middle of the season, seem
things seem to be turning owner here for Charlotte FC
at a time where maybe you wouldn't expect it, losing
what had been their best player. All right, that'll do
it for the Live Wire. We got one more segment
to go. It's the walk Off coming up next Sports
Radio nine at two seven w f Z. Are you
(33:24):
challenge me to a walk off?
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Oh yeah, that's a walk off challenge, my friend.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
It's a walk off, the walk off. Wrapping up a championship. Monday,
we just had Smoke walk into the Chandler Volta Studios
playing the SpongeBob slash Jellyfish jam song. If you know
you know, Oh okay, it's whatever it's what all the
jellyfish were doing, having a dance party, what in SpongeBob's
(33:55):
Pineapple house, celebrating nothing at all? Really, I kind of
like it on a couple of different levels as to
why he was playing that song, because I don't want
to call it nothing, but perhaps it's nothing to everybody else.
It didn't lead that it wasn't the a block on
First Take today despite a championship being won last night.
A little surprised to see that Steven A. Smith he
(34:15):
came back for a brief moment coming back from his vacation,
but they didn't ask him about Summer League.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Tew and if it was the Lakers with Bronnie and
Tiny Tawm, it certainly would have led off a block material.
Does this mean that Bronnie James is the future of
the Lakers along with Luka Dantic.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Getting off of the bus type of material for us?
Maybe not so much First Take, not so much all
of these other sports debate shows. But Smoke is celebrating.
He'll be celebrating again from three to six. Willie pe
filling in, I believe one more day before Kyle is
back tomorrow. So that's the schedule. And yeah, and then
Wes is gone tomorrow because you're going to be doing
(34:53):
able to see kickoff and then Wednesday Thursday, he'll be
back with me Friday to host the shows. Okay, so
that's the schedule, Lucy Goosey schedule around here real quickly,
as PTI would announce it, melancholy news surrounding us, and
we saw some people tweeting about this, texting us on
the fandul text line. Malcolm Jamal Warner an actor and
(35:16):
artist who rose to fame as child actor Theodore Huxtable.
You may know from The Cosby Show. He has passed away,
according to a source close to the actor. CNN reporting this,
TMZ of course had it first. He was fifty four
years old. Warner died in a drowning accident in Costa Rica,
where he was on vacation with his family. Warner was
swimming apply a Grande day Chokeles and lamone excuse me
(35:39):
if I mispronounced that and that province on the Caribbean
coast of Costa Rica round two thirty Local Times Sunday,
when a current pulled him deeper into the ocean. According
to the AP, so some real melancholy news there one
of the giant child actors of our time, one of
the first big big child actor figures with theo Hucks
(36:00):
the ball, playing a beloved character on what was a
beloved show at the time, The Cosby Show. So rest
in peace, Malcolm Jamal warned out about it, and just again,
I don't think saying giant at all is far fetched
to say the type of impact that he had on
television when The Cosby Show was at a type oh.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
No doubt about it.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
And that's one of those where you look down and
you see it and you're like, what in the world, man,
because you know, you just don't expect that fifty four
years old, relatively young man, and so for that to
happen while on vacation with the family, you just hate
that for it. But yeah, man, he definitely did a
lot of different projects and he was one of those
actors that was just synonymous with one Row and no
matter what you saw him in, because he did play
(36:39):
he had an extensive, you know, acting catalog, but no
matter what you saw him in, you said, oh that's
the al right there, okay, So rest in peace to
him for sure, and just sad man, no days promise.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
The Cosby Show ran from nineteen eighty four to nineteen
ninety two, and I think because of how popular it was,
I look at that span and think, my God, is
that it it fit because it feels like it should
be longer than I guess the eight slash nine years
that it ran, and it was done airing by the
time I was born. Okay, I'm thirty two years old.
(37:12):
I was born in nineteen ninety two, at the very
end of ninety two. It was done airing by that time,
and thirty two years have passed since then, and it
doesn't feel like that. I grew up watching The Cosby
Show myself, despite it not having a new episode of television,
because it was aired on Nike at night and still
kept some popularity all throughout. God the two thousands for
(37:34):
us to go be able to watch it, and THEO
was one of my favorite childhood actual, Yeah, tell him flound.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
According to the NBA Rookies, O Walk is an unk
when he just dropped his age.
Speaker 4 (37:43):
He's incredibly, incredibly unkstatus.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
We dropped them sound by where the NBA Rookies went
through and they decided what was unkstatus, what years you
had to be born and they definite. At least we
had some definite nineties your unk status. We had some
early two thousands saying that your unk status. Like there
was one guy what he said, he was twenty six
and the rookies on this team were calling him unks.
So I just wanted to let you know that I'm
(38:08):
not the only one in that boat, buddy.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
No, no, you're not. When it comes to comparing my
age with NBA player slash NFL players, I've called Adam
Thielen unk in indirect ways a few times. I'm three
years away from them, and here I am calling him
an older wide receiver and I'm only.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
A few years by some hopes. You get the OG.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Oh YEAHLG. I feel you know what, I don't just
look young, though I do look young. Part of that
is my inability to grow a beard. And when I
do grow it, it's a little messy, a lot of it.
I was going to say, I feel like an OG
on the court. OG has some kind of positive connotation
to it, and I went into erase that when describing
my ability. Now I used to be a g. Okay,
(38:47):
now I just got the O. Now I'm just old.
What's the last how you played pickup. It's been a while.
I mean, I guess the media event at Spectrum Center.
I got a few like tall man buckets, had a
nice block. I had some nice passes. Okay, there wasn't
anything that you saw from me and said, damn, he's good.
None of that, but just like some good Oh he's tall,
he's got to do something, and I could. I wasn't what.
(39:09):
I wasn't what Robert described himself on Everybody Loves Raymond
as the useless Giraffe.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
I don't more than a year probably, Okay, yeah, I
mean it's been a long time. Man.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
We used to tour.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
We used to tour all the different playgrounds around Charlotte,
going from apartment complex to apartment complex, to different court,
half court, whatever. Used to be the thing. Used to
love doing it. And then you have to pay bills
and you get a real job and you can't dedicate
that kind of time to a.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Chance.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Please please don't let me tear my acl Don't let
me tear my achilles, please, cause you know I'm not
making what the WNBA players are making. They look at
my salary and they think, oh buddy, it's not so good.
All right, let's tell you what's on tap. On Tap
is present up by Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks has locations
in Concord and Fort Mill. Twin Peaks at your local
(40:05):
sports lodge. Come in from a from scratch food signature,
twenty nine degree draft beers plus all the scenic views
Monday Night Raw.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
No doubt about it.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
The Tribal Chief has returned.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Okay, it's lit.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
I saw some of the rumors that we may be
starting to get a little bit of Cody Roman too
going after Summer Slamming, which Cody and John Cena will
get it in, and I think that Cody's gonna get
the belt back.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
I'll be interested to hit smoke starts after the show.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
But yeah, man, with Rome and Rains coming back, or
if he wants to chime in, But with Rome and
Rains coming back, I'm very excited because I think the
wwe needed it, because we're starting to lean a little
bit heavier towards a W right now.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Those death matches can't get enough of that. Okay.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
I show my mom the clip of John Moxley getting
stabbed with the Forgan.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
She's like, oh God, I can't take it. Same miss Fonda,
very very same. That wasn't That wasn't even like that
was eighth on the about Yeah. Was he done because
he got a fork stuck in it?
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Oh god, no, that was four minutes into the match
stick of fork in him.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
He's done? Oh yeah, yeah, nicely come on and nails
and Paul, No, you're not done.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
He was just getting started. Fair enough.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
I guess it doesn't mean the same thing in ae W.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Fair enough.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
It feels weird that I'm not celebrating a Summer League
championship with you. Smoke is the first thing I ask you.
It is quite the upset that the first thing I
ask you is what did you think of Wes's assessment
on Monday Night Raw? And how do you feel about
tonight's festivities?
Speaker 9 (41:35):
They definitely need something because they have been in a
malaise for the yes time.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
You know, the.
Speaker 9 (41:41):
Bloom has come off the rows of no longer having
Vince and it's just e Ko in general has not
been managing well and the honeymoon period's over, so they
need to get something going quick.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Facts.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
How about you're gonna celebrate the championship today?
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (41:53):
I'm going to celebrate.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
Should we hang a ban of smoke. They might not
want to, but I want to.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
I'm leaving here with some we'll get some T shirts.
So we'll get some T shirts and uh, maybe we
can get some Summer League rings as well. All right,
final thing I did want to tell you about Atlanta.
They're playing a baseball game tonight. They'll play the San
Francisco Giants seven point fifteen. First pitch, the pitching matchup
between the two, it'll be Bryce Elder on the mound
for Atlanta, who is three and six on the year
(42:20):
of five six five era. It's always not a pretty
number when I read the era for Bryce Elder. It's
not been very good this year. Hayden bird Song a
hell of a name, pitching for San Francisco four and
three on the year a four eleven era. And I
did want to bring this up, just as the cherry
on top of the show here today flounder Wilmer Flores
plays for San Francisco. He leads the Giants in RBIs
(42:43):
and yet all I'm going to remember from Wilmer Flores
is crying in the middle of a game, realizing that
he had just been traded. Except then the trade didn't
go through helped me Carlos Gomez.
Speaker 5 (42:56):
I remember this, of course, I remember this. The tried
to reacquire Carlos Gomez. They were going to trade away
Wilmer Flores to do it. Wilmer ends up becoming a
hero because he is so distraught that he's going to
be traded. Can't believe that the team that he has
spent his entire career with is letting him go. And
he is still a fan favorite to this day. So
(43:18):
good to hear that he's having a successful year out
there in San Francisco, but not too successful.
Speaker 4 (43:22):
Okay, we still want to make the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
It also reminds me just a little bit of when
I was watching the Hornets game and I think it
was Harrison Barnes had just gotten traded and they were
breaking it to while he was sitting on the bench,
and I guess didn't enter the game after that. It
was The league can be wild sometimes, just sports in general,
any league can be wild. Sometimes you getting traded during
a game, that man is out there between first and
(43:45):
second or second and third base crying because he's got traded.
It's like, nah, man, I need you to bet this run.
In Buddy Sports, as a business. Baby, crazy crazy crazy stuff.
All right, that'll do it for today's edition of Wes
and Walker. We will be back with you tomorrow from
twelve to three. Wes is gonna be out at ACC kickoffs, right, Baby,
he's gonna condom lead. He's gonna be on in some
(44:08):
capacity throughout the rest of the week until he's in
his normal capacity twelve to three, sitting in that chair
that he usually sits in at the Chandler Voulta Studios
Friday from twelve to three. But we'll let you know
what's going on the rest of the way. It is
the Kyle Bailey Show, Willie p filling in one more
day coming up next from three to six. You're listening
to Sports Radio ninety two to seven WFNZ. Listen to
(44:31):
the Wes and Walker Show weweek. He's from noon to
three only on Sports Radio ninety two point seven FM.
Com UFNZ, the
Speaker 9 (44:39):
Official home of the Charlotte Sports Fan
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