Rockets Fall to Blazers, Texans Start Prep For Steelers, Ime Udoka & Kevin Harlan Join the Show

Rockets Fall to Blazers, Texans Start Prep For Steelers, Ime Udoka & Kevin Harlan Join the Show

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is The mac Thomas Show with Ross ten nh Down.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Good morning, Welcome to a Thursday edition of The mac
Thomas Show with Ross from Portland. This is Sports Talk
seven ninety got on the world. So take the points
off the board? Look late? What over? Oh? Sports RV?

(00:33):
So close? Yeah, so far away? Basically this song works
any ta any song about running out of time. Yes,
I means a song called so close. It's how many milliseconds?

(00:55):
Was that late? It was late? It was a correct call, but.

Speaker 3 (00:59):
It hurt.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
A couple of things. There's a so close in the
new what's the new series of movie? The Disney movie
that's got Ariana Grande in it. Uh, it's Aladdin a lot? Yeah,
whatever that There's a song called the Close. I've never
heard of it, so I didn't really care what you're
talking about. Wicked people, Wicked, that's right. It's not a

(01:22):
Disney movie, is it. I mean it's from it's from
the musical.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
I'm a big very on a Grande fan by the
Cordy can tell us it's big Wicked. Forty loves that
kind of stuff, you know. Okay, so a few thinks.
I thought the first one was good. I didn't haven't
checked the second one out yet. I'll run it on DVD.
Really HDDVD. I could have read box again it uh.

(01:48):
I didn't call a game winner because I was nervous,
and I looked at it multiple times. It was so
strange ross because literally the court is ninety four feet,
half of it is forty seven at the mid court
strip the left of me, the forty seven feet was like,
that's late, it's over. Portland's over there, celebrating the right

(02:10):
side of the forty seven feet that I was looking
at the rockets. You had Joshua Kogie and during Finney
Smith and everybody hugging on Tari's and saying, man, you
did it, you did it. Congratulates we win. And then
I looked at the JumboTron and I looked at the
timer and the ball was still it hit zero, and

(02:30):
I could see the I think I could see the
palm of Tari's hand still in the basketball. Yeah, it was.
It was as close as it gets as it gets.
And a loss to a team with a losing record, again,
not a bad team, not a bad team. They're putting
in with a losing record, and about half the roster hurt.

(02:53):
That's accurate. And Denny Abdia, who most people in Houston,
Texas have no orthly I do. They don't. But he's
balling and he should be an All Star. He's going
to be an All Star. He is unbelievable. He's a
twenty five seven and seven guy. There are three guys
in the NBA that are twenty five, seven and seven.
He's one of the three. And he gets the line.

(03:15):
How many and ones did he have last night? I
believe he is. I believe it was twenty seven. I
don't right now. He has thirty one and ones this year.
I'm not kidding. They were all last night. Yeah, they
felt like a lot of them. SGA was jealous of
the number times of Denny abdig out of the free
throw line thirteen of fifteen. Some of those were quite frankly,

(03:41):
we touch fouls, but that's the NBA. Tarry Eastan was
asked about the difference in the game last night in
the postgame locker room, and he said, the Zebras, ooh,
that will be getting a fined by the National Basketball
So why do we use that by the NBA? They
don't wear stripes, no, But that's just the that's every
believe it'd be more like a in melb Blue. What's

(04:01):
that on blue? Now, the difference between what he said
and getting fined and what he didn't say and getting
not fine would have been I have no comment on that. Well, right,
I guess, so, well, can you criticize them all? They say, well,
I didn't think we got a fair whistle? What if
you say that? Is that wrong? That's it feels like

(04:24):
it should be above port. I mean, look, sometimes the
calls don't go your way. That's a fact of the NBA, right,
So I don't know, but yeah, going with the Zebras
is probably not great. He's wrong, though. The difference is
you they made their more three. They didn't. They didn't
shoot great from three, but they made you went eight
of thirty six. Yep, you know the Rockets are dead
last in the NBA and three point shooting in the

(04:45):
month of January now that it's only eight days, that
feels right. And also another difference would be the twenty
one points given up off your fourteen turnovers to just
fifteen from their fourteen turnovers.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Look, Kevin was amazing again last night, nearly the hero again.
Tari was one tenth of a second away from being
the hero last night. So all the things we're talking about,
they haven't worked out well, could have easily turned just
like the kicker in the Baltimore Pittsburgh game on Sunday night. Yeah,
that was just you miss out launch offensively, you miss out,
but we miss Alpi And I mean they're just missing

(05:19):
so many wide open looks. And it was like the
Dallas game where they get second, third, fourth, fifth chances
and can't score. Have you seen the box score on
the rebounding totals. I mean I didn't even want to look.
They had a million offensive rebounds, it felt like, and
they just couldn't capitalize on the second chance points. Yeah
to me, and we'll talk to Ima Doka coming up
at twelve thirty today. The three point shot has just

(05:41):
failed them, and it's not a team that relied a
lot on them, but it is a facet to the NBA.
And when you were shooting at a forty percent clip
up until the last eight days or so, it was
a part of your offense. And it wasn't like necessarily
was Albi doing because Albie's regressed in three point shot.

Speaker 4 (05:56):
It was just.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
I think to me in this will get the thought
on from a belt and you helped me on this roster,
is it? I mean, first of all, albron creates better spacing,
so it's going to give some guys some better looks
than perhaps. And there wasn't like a whole lot of
contested threes to begin with yesterday. Uh, and they had
plenty of looks. Their baselines were there, the right angles,
the left angles were there, the straight on threes. He

(06:21):
just sometimes he's gonna knock him down. And I don't
really know any other way to describe it. It's beyond that. Yeah,
I mean how many times you heard the phrase it's
a make or miss league, and they just missed. They
missed a bunch of wide open looks. Even Kevin Durant
missed some wide open looks. Yeah, Alprin Shangoon, Yeah, he
just he creates the spacing with his playmaking and and
his his ability and his craft. He doesn't necessarily stretch

(06:44):
the floor because they even though he's shooting better from
three this year. Actually, no, I didn't realize the numbers
A tanked as hard as they had. Yeah, they would
not have been good since Ski last month. But okay,
but even so, it just gives you a scoring option
and there's no back to the basket score. He's a playmaker.
He's a playmaker Steven Adams who can't pass here and there.
He's just not outbrunching doom. Right, Yeah, I mean it

(07:07):
was a great game. It was a slog fest for
about two and a half three quarters. It was ugly.
I mean this this game was quarter. Thankfully you got
the game winner from Kevinder. It's been three ugly games
in a row, but thankfully you got the game winner
on Monday, so you kind of forget about it, right, right, so, uh,

(07:28):
needless to say not, you know, little Wrestle's night here
in Portland. And yeah, the god Danny Abdia, I mean
I have nightmares of Danny. I mean foul foul and
I don't know. And again you were talking about being
touch fouls and there's certainly a great amount of that.
But the balls in his hands so much because Franklin,
there's nobody else with the Blazers is legitimate score. I mean,

(07:48):
Shandon Sharp can score, and he's done a nice job
over twenty points a game. But Shandon Sharp is not
gonna put the fear of God in you like does
no And it's funny to say to a guy that
scored forty one points. But I think the rock Is
did a fairly decent job of guarding him. He just
made some tough buckets and he's just really good. He's
really good, and he'll be a guy that you don't
know about. And frankly, because Scoot Henderson, they're very talented

(08:10):
point guard has been hurt all year. You didn't know
about him. He's having a run point and he's had
a point guard. They were a point guardless team. Yesterday.
This guy named Caleb Bluff came up the bench. Is
pretty good, but he's the close thing they had to
a point guard right now. I mean Lillard's out for
the year. Scoot Henderson hasn't played yet. I mean, I
don't know how Portland's as competitive as they are, frankly,
because they can't shoot. They turn the ball over as

(08:31):
much as the Rockets do. They do get to the
free throw line, and Idy used that to his advantage
and they use it last night. Rockets didn't make their
free throws either. That was another thing that hurt the
a man who was an eighty plus percent free throw
shooter miss four three throws last night, Little Things sports?
Are you the little thing?

Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (08:46):
Free throws? The free throw I didn't mention that. That's
a good good point. They added up. You miss nine
of them. You lost by one. Mm hmm. Maybe he
should go on a hike today. Maybe clear my head,
you should. I mean, it's Oregon is gorgeous. You know
what I'm gonna you know what, I'm gonna let you
finish the show off today. I gave you a couple
of good guests. Okay, I'm gonna go take a go
take a hike. Yeah, go ahead, actually literally go take

(09:08):
a literally, go take out take a hike. Do you
ever use that phrase of people, go take a hike?

Speaker 3 (09:12):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
That feels like an for that, Yeah, I don't. I
don't think the kids are saying take a hike yourself?
What's that with my team? That's my phrases?

Speaker 3 (09:23):
What is it?

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Go after yourself? G F y yeah, GTFO yep, that's
the kids are using. Uh this radio show today, let
me tell you something. We may not have a lot
of listeners, but the few listeners we have, you're gonna
be entertained today. Between now and two o'clock we have
our season debut if I just don't get it at

(09:45):
eleven thirty, and it's about the mine's gonna be about
the service interest industry at a hotel. Hmm okay, yeah,
that's a that's a good tease right there. For eleven thirty,
we'll have the news at noon. At twelve thirty, em
A Dook is going to drop by and say hello
to us for a half an hour or for a segment.
And then at one o'clock one of my all time

(10:06):
favorite broadcasters, he would you say, literally a Hall of
fame broadcaster, Kevin the show first ballot, first ballot we've
had in the last calendar year, Jim nantz Iron Eagle,
Kevin Harlan. We get all the big ones are going
to be on this show. We don't put on some
mamby pamby guest on. We put on the big hitters.
So Kevin Harlan's going to join us today at one

(10:27):
o'clock here on the radio pro and the occasional reliever
from the astros. Well, that's I mean occasionally, you mean,
like the weekly if there's any show in the marketplace,
it's going to give you middal levers. It's going to
be this one. You'll get more metal reliever talk on
this radio show than any of the marketplace, Yes, sir,
and heavy hitters like Kevin Harlan. And heavy hitters like

(10:49):
Kevin Harlan. We got a national semifinal game tonight, which
I believe has zero buzz nationally. If I could be wrong,
I didn't even realize. I forgot it was tonight.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
Yeah, I know. No.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
And then we've got a firing in the NFL. We'll
get to and come back, and we have the Texans
on the practice field for the first time this week,
getting ready for Monday night's game in Pittsburgh. Ten thirteen.
It is the Matt Thomas Show at Ross. If you'd
like to join us, you may do so at seven
one three two one two five seven ninety seven one three, two,
one two five, seven eighty. Please call in we ten o'clockers. Hello, Hello,

(11:25):
are you out there? Come on ten o'clockers, let's hear
your voice about Texans Astros offseason, rock is lost. Last
night here in Portland, it's Sports Talk seven ninety ten nineteen,
The Matt Thomas Show with Ross. I'm here in Portland, Oregon.
Besides out today's sports Harvey gets in Vitamin D. Goat,

(11:46):
go out there, get your vitamins. Matty, where's your wear
your sunscreen? I'm gonna going for a walk after the show.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
Good.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
Portland really is a beautiful city. It's just a little
off what happened. There's just it's it's a tough downtown.
It's frankly, a lot tougher than Houston's downtown. M houston
Downtown's a ghost town. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's
it's much more populated, all right. Denny avdya had three

(12:20):
has now three hundred and seventy eight free throws this year.
Ross Wow, I think the Rockets have only shot thre
hundred free throws total this year. I'm just kidding, but
you get my point on this right, I do so.
Tarry Easton was asked last night on what makes Denny
Abdia difficult to guard. Here is the response from Tarring
the locker room last night nights the defects. It seemed

(12:42):
like he was able to get like it was a
traditional three point play. Every time you guys got we've
had one or two had to defend. See Brazebra, Zebras,
braze bra Ziebras. Is that ten thousand dollars every time
he says zebras? I I don't know. Maybe he's talking

(13:04):
about the African equines. Maybe he would have the Portland
Zoo before the game. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I
don't know that it's got a great zoo here, do they?
That's what he's gotta say. If Tari I'm assuming Tarry
is sleeping right now because it's eight twenty in the
morning here in Pacific. If you want to come on
the show and say, hey, Matt, I just want to
let you know that I was talking about Danny Avdia's

(13:26):
affinity for the Portland Zoo and how those Zebras help
him out. They are beautiful creatures, man, they are beautiful.
But yeah, I don't think he was talking about the
Zebras at the zoo. I don't think so either. It
is funny, though I have not heard the term zebras
for basketball. You were to your point, you were right,
they're not college basketball guys were stress. But the NBA

(13:49):
hasn't worn stripes in my I think in my entire life,
he's harkening back to his LSU days. Yeah, he is
the pride of LSU. All right seven one three two
five seven ninety seven on three two one two five seven,
Honty is that Honey?

Speaker 5 (14:04):
Is that who it is?

Speaker 2 (14:06):
I have a feeling that's Donny the person? Honey? Yeah,
you know what's wrong with Anny? I've never had a
honey before. Honey. On the Matt Thomas Show, Ross, Honey,
good morning.

Speaker 6 (14:17):
You're more Madden. Ross, I all doing good?

Speaker 2 (14:19):
What is your where's your name from? I'm curious.

Speaker 4 (14:22):
It's from It's Arabase, from where my parents arigally from Jordan.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
Oh, excellent, Well, thank you for being the first honey
I've ever talked to my entire life.

Speaker 7 (14:30):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (14:31):
I think I called you back years ago, but it's
been a while.

Speaker 6 (14:33):
But a quick question for y'all.

Speaker 8 (14:35):
I'll hang up, and I'm sure y'all saw that Trey
Young trade last night.

Speaker 7 (14:39):
I was thinking the.

Speaker 6 (14:40):
Hawks, the Hawks buy out CJ.

Speaker 7 (14:43):
You think that'll be a great fit.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
And if not, if they don't buy them out and
maybe give up max two second round picks, they're not
training for CJ. McCollum. I just I get the sense
now again, everybody can change your tune. But and it's
only a vibe, and I can only speak to a vibe.
But the vibe ross to me is I don't I

(15:06):
think they're going to stand pat. I don't think they
can't afford We have to remember they can't afford anybody. Yeah,
McCollum's making big money. What's he making I'm gonna imagine
at least well, he was saying if the Hawks buy
them out, oh, they go to the I don't know
why they get rid of them. I mean, he's a vet.
It's even hard to get vetative to vet minimum. That's

(15:29):
where the rockets are. Yeah, he's a ten plus year vet,
right or close? Oh? Absolutely, yeah, yeah, thirteen years he's got. Yeah,
I don't And if you're Atlanta, you still think you
got a shot in the in the East is wide open.

Speaker 3 (15:41):
It just is.

Speaker 7 (15:42):
Now.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
If they move from Porzingis and they move some other players,
I kind of get it. But uh, and look, I
think I'm going down a rabbit hole. I don't want
to go through. But we'll check the NBA Eastern Conference
standings where the Atlanta Hawks are in the the ninth seed.
They got a shot to get to the top they're
only three and a half out. I wouldn't do it.
I found them, I wouldn't do it. Here's the reality, Rotts,

(16:08):
and I understand. There are the Rockets fans, and this
is people that have gone on Twitter and people that
have called the show on occasion they want an extra
point guard. And whether they're just not sold on a
men doing it for thirty eight minutes, whether they're not
sold on reed Shepherd. Reid frankly doesn't do a tremendous

(16:28):
amount of ball handling when when I mean he does
some obviously in his play making. Yeah, it's okay, he's
just you know, he's he's not a floor general, nou.
It would have to take again, a pretty seismic trade,
trading salary for salary, and I just don't see. And

(16:50):
again I think if you were to make a move,
and again i'm just superor conjecture, you'd have to probably
move a Capella, which you could, I mean, there's a replace,
but that's not going to take care of a lot
of money. You'd have to probably move Fred van Leen
and that would be to somebody that would want Fred.
And I believe Fred's got to no trade his part
of his two. He also makes a good chunk of change. Yeah,

(17:12):
he makes a lot of money, and ACL is torn
and he's got, as you said, another a year in
un deal as a player, a player option twenty five million. Yeah,
which isn't crazy for an NBA starting point guard. But
I guess they could trade him. He can opt out
and sign back. Yeah, that's true. Figure something out. That
is true. But yeah, I again, I'm not look. I

(17:34):
would love for Raffelt to text me daily about what
he's thinking. He just doesn't do that. And if you
if you ever watch the TV shows or read things,
you don't hear the Rockets, I mean, you tell me
Ross if you see something else. I every time I
hear about a particular player that may or may not
be like the Tree Young conversation yesterday, there's report three
or four days ago Rockets uninterested. Jannis may be on

(17:57):
the tree block in Milwaukee. Rockets aren't. I I just
don't think the Rockets are in an overly frisky move
to make a dramatic trade at the deadline. They're just not. Yeah,
if Fred van Vliet is not their best player. But
as far as positions, you could ill afford to lose
somebody at that point guard was. I mean, it was
important and they just got they get a bad luck,

(18:20):
went to the Bahamas to work out and hang out
with the team and towards ACL Yeah.

Speaker 4 (18:25):
But.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
I mean Jokic just out to the end of probably
to the All Star break. Maybe this Portland team has
got eighty percent of the team.

Speaker 7 (18:34):
Is that the.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
Scores are hurt? I mean, unfortunately, injuries are part of
the NBA, and just because you have an injured player
in your perspective, team doesn't mean you can easily replace
it overnight. There are long term ramifications of it, and
sometimes you just have to absorb injuries. And you're in
the sixth seed right now. Yeah, but that could change
them tomorrow. I mean it could, but it doesn't feel good. Look,

(18:58):
we're feeling a lot better since Balls tapped in one
tenth of a second leg. We are, but now we're
looking at losses to the Blazers, Pelicans, Kings, Clippers very
easily could have lost his sons, lost the Masks. I mean,
it hasn't been a great January. It just hasn't. Or December.
The home games coming, big home game stand coming. That's

(19:19):
what I'm saying. Let's get home, Ross those legs. Let's
have you and I spent some quality time ago. We
haven't seen each other much in the last month. I'm
okay with that. That's fine. I'm happy too, all right.
Seven one three two one two five Cibinnati seven one
three two one two five Sevenini Ross, I've got one
syp a question for you that you may not answer
until we come back. Okay, Should Nick Canley put a

(19:40):
four sales sign up in front of his house? Ten
twenty seven of The Bad Topless Show with Ross here
on Sports Talk Sevnati at Ross with you at ten
thirty two on The Matt Thomas Show with Ross seven
to one three two one two five Sibinnati seven one
three two one two five Sabanati, you were walking to
the joint. It's look the Texans. In three straight years,

(20:05):
ROSSI had three head coaches the Texans last year got
rid of an offensive coordinator, hired a new another one,
and the question would be will they go three for
three on offensive coordinators from Slowick to Kayley to maybe

(20:25):
Mike McDaniel today fired as a coach of the Miami Dolphins.
I think Mike McDaniel's days as an NFL head coach
or toast. I didn't think about that, Harbaugh. There's some
other folks that have get we'll given second opportunities as well.
McDaniel to me just look like a little overmatch running
an entire team, but running an offense. It's got a
great history of doing that. I would absolutely when the

(20:47):
season is done for the Texans, and in many cases
hopefully it's in February, Lava phone called to Mike McDaniel
and say, Hey, I want to come run this offense.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
C J.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
Stroud needs a veteran signal caller who's been there and
done that, and he has not had that here in
Houston in twenty twenty five. Dang, I had you saying
miss kick the tires at a minus one seventy five.
I lost, but alaba phone call works. Yeah. Absolutely, you
have to explore all options. I don't know in house,
outlook outwardly everybody criticizing Nick Kaylee, nobody thinks he's a

(21:16):
good not someone I'm gonna say nobody, But for the
most part it's he's he's not highly thought of as
a play caller. I don't think he's necessarily striking fear
and defensive coordinators around the league. What matters is what
they feel internally after a year of evaluation and if
they think, if there's even a hint of thinking that
Nick Kayley is not a guy they need to pursue

(21:37):
Mike McDaniel or Brian Daboll or I think Kevin Stefanski's
gonna end up in a head coaching position, just a
gut feeling there. But there are some Cliff Kingsbury is
now available. I don't know what the latest, if there's
been any rumors about him being linked to anywhere, but
there are some bright offensive minds. And what I talked
about when they hired a defensive coach and whoever you're
gonna hire for example, I mean you go you go

(21:59):
for rather than have an offensive minded coach because it's
an offensive league. But if you're gonna have a guy
who's the defensive guru, then you need something that you
need stabilization at offensive coordinator, this first time play caller
stuff they should not be doing. You should get exactly
what Mike McDaniel is and what you described a guy
who is a well highly thought of offensive mind who

(22:19):
is probably not going to be a head coach anywhere
else anytime soon. Who you can get in the building
who's gonna stay here for several years to help build
the system and create an offensive culture like what Andy
Reid has had with Steve Spagnola on the other end.
And I don't know, we can go through other guys
who have been a good offensive mind with a some

(22:42):
kind of fired defensive coordinator who's gonna stay there for
several years. Because when you hire a first time play caller,
two things are gonna happen. Either A they're gonna get
fired like Bobby Slok, or B they're gonna be so
good they're gonna get hired off. Get somebody who's a
really good offensive mind who's gonna stay here for a while.
You know what, I don't remember how we felt about

(23:03):
Nick Keley being hired. First of all, we didn't even
know who Nick Keley was a year ago, because we
don't spend a lot of time looking at offensive assistants
run other NFL teams. The only time we ever get
to hear about a name is when it's floated nationally.
But if we went back to our airchecks, what do
you think we said? Do you remember what we said
about Nick Hill? We said who, and oh he went

(23:23):
he went to John Carroll, Nick Tree. Yeah right, because
let me ask you this, and look, you could always
go back and reflect on things that you should have
said in a particular time. I want to say, Ross
we said, and again, if we're wrong, we're wrong. We said,

(23:43):
why are you getting rid of a guy who has
been established for a couple of years? For a first
time play caller. Doesn't Demiko Ryans need some relief from
his offensive coaching staff. Doesn't c J. Stroud need somebody
he trust? Now, maybe the interview with process with Nick
Keley was awesome and see I was like, that's my guy.
I mean, that could certainly have happened. But that kind
of stuff changes on a day to day based depending

(24:04):
on how a team does. I really really wish. I
don't think we were excited. I don't know if we
were pessimistic enough. But this Casario pipeline are bringing in
people who used to work with or go to school with.
It's a little alarming, is it not.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (24:25):
The only thing I can say is this, let me ask,
let me let me add this one thing. Sean McVay,
brilliant play caller. I mean, if you're gonna learn from
somebody that knows how to run an offense in the NFL.
It's Sean McVay in the Los Angeles Ram and those.
I would put those two one two, whatever order you want, whatever. Yeah,
So if you're grabbing somebody from that pipeline, then you go, Okay,

(24:47):
Kayley's been around, uh McVeigh. They have a potent offense.
They reinvigorated. Matthew Stafford's career makes a lot of sense.
Causario knows him a little bit. Okay, That's how I
kind of feel that we would probably when we an
instant instantly have talked about it was like who and
then oh, okay, I'm connecting some dots here. Yes, but

(25:14):
I would say it's been underwhelming, And I think I
said that on him to tell the truth, or were
gut feelings whatever it was a few months ago. If
Mike McDaniel gets fired, they should absolutely go after him.
Mike McDaniel as quirky as a dude as he is,
and frankly probably is not a leader of a fifty
three man roster of fifty five whatever the number is
these days. He could probably die diagram a pretty effective

(25:34):
offense and could take a fourth year signal caller, which
will be as we'll be c JB next year and
probably do some pretty incredible things. Will the Texans? And
I didn't want to say kick the tires because that's
on the moneyboard there, so I won't. How could they investigate?
How about they love a phone call? How about they
send a DM hey not saying what up? Girling, what's up?

Speaker 5 (25:57):
Bro?

Speaker 2 (25:57):
And see how it goes. Yeah, sense Kyle Shanahan Tree,
you're either gonna come out and you have a guy
in the McVeigh tree. You'd had a guy with the
Shanahan Tree, So I don't know if that maybe they
don't want to go to that well before and also
since we think this is a Nick Cassario, higher general
managers jin generally do support you know, you call it
choice choice supportive bias. If if you feel like he

(26:20):
made this choice, he's probably gonna stick with it. So
we'll see, but you also don't if they're not one
hundred percent happy and you can improve Demiico Ryans was
in the same building as Mike McDaniel in San Francisco.
Mike McDaniel has been here in Houston as an offensive
assistant before Now, I don't know who was around back

(26:40):
in those days. It was over ten years ago, but
there is some familiar has to be some level of familiarity.
So Mike McDaniel would make sense. I mean, I don't
know Brian Dable would make sense. There's a as I
said Cliff Kingsbury, there are some guys that you could
maybe get here who stay for a while. No matter

(27:01):
what we do in terms of dissecting and analyzing and
trying to evaluate a role of an offensive coordinator, which
you need one of us are qualified to do, it's
gonna come down to the players, and the Texans need
to do a significantly better job of improving their offensive line.
I mean, it's been a better offensive line second half
of the year. That is really indisputable. The play calling
has been better the second half of the year. Play calling. Frankly,

(27:23):
when you have a long winning streak ross, everything tends
to be better. But there are still one to nine
games in a row. You're not doing too bad, right right,
There are still warts, first and foremost, that doesn't mean
you can't improve. And secondly, you do need an offensive
line and you do need a running back because I mean,
if Joe Mixon's foot can move anymore. I'd like to know,
you know, and you would like somebody. I mean, wouldn't

(27:44):
it be awesome if Demiko could just say, Mike McDaniel,
this is your offense. I'll see you later. That's another
thing though, if who and maybe and maybe, honestly, maybe
Demiko is less conservative if he trusts the play calls
on fourth down. No, man, it just doesn't. It's gonna
be a punt and kick fest. By the way, this
is coming up this Monday with Mike Tomlin and Demico

(28:06):
Ryans are two of the most conservative coaches in the
in the league because they're defense. It's defensive coaches one
on one, and they're both defensive minded coaches, and the
results have been good, so it's hard to argue with
I Like, I just always have this gut feeling. I
still haven't seen it reporter anywhere, but it just I
just get this feeling that Demico Ryans, no matter who
his offensive coordinator is, doesn't want them airing the ball

(28:29):
out and throwing it sixty times a game. But Mike,
you tell me about this. If you're him, you've won three,
you go in to the playoffs. Three straight years, You've
won the most games in a long time in this franchise,
and you've created maybe the best defense in the NFL. Yeah,
and probably saying leave me alone.

Speaker 6 (28:49):
You know what.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
And maybe it's a good fit because Mike McDaniel was
the run game coordinator with San Francisco and he did
like to He liked to run the ball a lot.
With Devon a Chany, he likes to run. So maybe
the fit, maybe the fit is there. Maybe Devon Chan
won't want to come play for the Texans. That'd be nice.
That would package deal h Chan and McDaniel. That sound

(29:12):
that's sexy. Okay, Yeah, I think Joe Maxson's played his
last game. As a text, I would I would definitely
agree when you put him in hiding for a year,
just give you a confidence. Something. I'm just gonna say it.
Something bad had to have happened with this injury. Something
he did, something that's out there. Okay, I haven't seen

(29:33):
that from any I saw that from one random Twitter account.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
I know.

Speaker 2 (29:39):
Sounds good, No sounds plausible, It sounds made up. It
sounds like a ball Sax Sports story. He shot himself
in the foot. But okay, come on, man. So put
it this way. If you never buying go buris so okay.
So so this answers question. We'll never bring up the

(30:00):
pose a gunshot story. If it is a legit injury,
then just saying no, we would have heard about it.
We would heard about we would have heard about it.
There's no doubt something quirky, hat something strange happened. We
have to go ABC here. We have to keep it simple, stupid.
If it was a regular injury and he was working
out with whatever footwork guru or something in the off

(30:21):
season and he twisted his ankle or took me like
Fred van Vleet, Hey, we're working out with the team
Tori and acl bing bang boom. No, he was doing
I don't know, who knows, motorcycle jet ski hiking in
Portland with Matt Thomas. Who knows. Whatever happened, it had
to be something off the board of a regular football entry.

(30:43):
Turn one thousand dollars. Okay, Now, since I'm not in town,
I'll be harping to give you a thousand dollars. I
want you to go to Texans media availability today and
I want you to find it. Me almost spit out
my coffee that to media Tomko, any chance Joe Mixon
plays this week, that'd be great, that would have That

(31:07):
would be a jaw dropping moment in Texans media availability history. Well,
you know, I want to hear from Joe Mixon. Joe
Mixon was the first one to come out and talk
about Adam Schefter.

Speaker 3 (31:20):
How do you know?

Speaker 2 (31:20):
How are you gonna tell me what's inside my body?
Adam Schefter when out for the year. Well, guess what
where you Where's Joe Mixon? He still got a Twitter account?
He los his password. Let's hear from Joe on this.
Maybe that account that took over my account to took
over Joe Mixon. Oh yeah, did he get he got
hacked by some dude in Turkey? Isn't it funny?

Speaker 1 (31:42):
Though?

Speaker 2 (31:42):
A Turkish guy took over my account. I don't know
if it was Alpi. Did think Alpi took over my account?
I don't think it was Alpi, but probably was an
Alpi fan and he's just I mean, playing the odds.
But yeah, you're the first one to come out and say, ah, no,
you don't know anything about my injury and then nothing,
Well then let us know. Yeah, silence is golden in sports.

(32:05):
When you don't want to tell us what happened. Something
bad happened. Yeah, here it is November twentieth. I get
everyone's looking for splash news and clickbait, but I'm just curious.
Ian it was to Rappaport, not Shifter. I had it wrong. Ian,
how do you know more about me than me? Peter J.
Shaffer get your man's bro All right, I'll give you five,
but I got the mans and you didn't show up.
Take that tweet, retweet it dollars? Now are you playing?

(32:30):
This is messing with Joe Mixon. Come on, now, that's true.
He will beat you up on a sub shot. That's true.
I'm good, dang, I like my jaw intact. You know
what I'll do. Look at some of those Pittsburgh Steeler
fans off you. By the way, how's that going on
the conversation. I have no idea. That's too bad. Close
to a thousand likes, I think, so that's good. Well,

(32:50):
then there's a thousand people that actually liked your opinion.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
I know.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
That's like I said, I mean, I focus too many
on the five idiots who have no life. In one
of the call people out on social media. It's actually,
it's probably. It's probably at least up to twenty twenty
five at this point. I got you ten forty four,
it's Matt Ross nine, you're fifty eight likes.

Speaker 6 (33:08):
Go like it for me?

Speaker 2 (33:09):
I need thirty one.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
Ye.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
Probably, I'm sure you haven't ken the You know what
I'm at least I'm gonna do for you. I'm gonna
retweet it fifty fifty fifty seven book marks, they're gonna
come out. They're gonna come out. Three bro, have you
ever been bookmarked that much in your life? I don't
think so, because I'm not an OnlyFans model. That's a
lot of book marks. All right, I'm just retweeting it
right now. Oh God, repost you had seventy five retweets.

(33:35):
Oh we getna say, we're gonna get seventy five book marks.
You got twenty four thousand views on It's good for you?
Guess seven one three two one two five seven ninety
seven one three two one two five seven einty. I
just don't get it coming up at eleven thirty, The
News at noon, Emay Ok at twelve thirty, and Kevin
Harland from CBS at one o'clock. Here on Sports Talk
seven ninety ten to fifty Mat Thomas show was wrong.

(33:58):
Sports Talk sevenintm here in Portland with the Rockets lost
last night. Oh hey, Ross, I just got an email
from the University of Houston. It was one of those Hey,
here's a portal update from us. So the portal started
what just after the turn of the counter year, right,
and it goes to the fifteenth. I know it ends
on the fifteenth. It's like a two week thing. Sure,
why not? Longhorns just landed the Big twelve's best running back.

(34:20):
By the way, congratulations, so you lost one got one back?

Speaker 6 (34:23):
Good?

Speaker 2 (34:24):
Yeah. People people were panicking over Trey Wisner. Gordy was out.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
No it.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
Did you hear the rumor? The I think there. There
was an article out that the Longhorns are spending more
in the portal than any school in the country. And
that's no surprise.

Speaker 5 (34:40):
No.

Speaker 2 (34:40):
I mean, you're trying to build around Arch. Arch Arts
is gonna be there for one more You have to
you have to push all every single chip you have
in no question on Arch's last year. By the way,
if you thought that Arch was the Heisman favorite going
into this year, he is going to be way more
of an option for the Heisman favorite of this year
coming up than he was last year. Yeah, funny, that's

(35:01):
how we were because I mean, he struggled so much
early in the season, but he really closed some strong,
pretty strong. So the reason why I brought this up,
and this is with every school so I get my
U of H list, We've signed eleven players from the portal.
Uh huh eleven. That's good. Well, yeah, it's good, but
it also goes to show you that you're just not
gonna be able to connect with teams. You're gonna connect

(35:22):
with the jersey, connect with the school logo and the
in the in the in the name. You can't connect
with eleven new players. Now, granted, these college football rosters
are sixty five that travel, so you weren't going to
be connecting. What are we doing that even in the
nineteen sixties and seventies, Well, now I did it when

(35:42):
I was like on campus at ut I was. I
was like all in and recruiting right right, all that stuff.
But even after that, it's it just kind of fades. Yeah,
I would say that it's definitely happened. It happened in
college basketball first because so many guys were one and done.
Now we're seeing football school guys going from one to
the next. So I don't think about how many hours
I waste on recruiting message boards in my liay. But

(36:04):
it is crazy for not not that anybody else I play,
but as a broadcaster, you know, you try to get
to know some of these kids and try to familiarize
yourself with where they are on the field. I mean,
that's eleven new players, and I'm going to presume of
the eleven players at the University of Houston signed. This
is going to be for any school that you would
assume you know, seven or eight of them are gonna
be guys that are gonna be on the football field.

(36:24):
So you are legitimately transforming your roster and your depth
chart on a year to your basis. That's why I
think roster is forget about the finances to go with it.
There's probably just roster fatigue for these coaches when it
comes to coaching a football team. I don't know how
they do it. I don't know how they do it.
It's it's crazy. Oh, you know what they're doing. They're

(36:46):
hiring general managers. Yeah, that's true, they're hiring general man
You have to hire more staff. I mean, that's just
the bottom line. So I don't know, so maybe you know,
we talk about it being a much fewer headaches in
the NFL now, but it's still even even if you're
no matter how many assistance to hire, you still have
to spend time and you still have to be the
buck stops at the head coach because ultimately you have

(37:06):
to hire a general manager that you trust. Say you
go tell the general manager, hey, I need a running back. Well,
I mean, so Willie's even said up before with us,
I put I turned the tape on and I watched
him for half an hour. I mean, he's Willie Fritz.
Cannot these eleven kids that come in He's gonna be
looked at him for a handful of minutes, right, I mean,
I wouldn't expect him to, because he's obviously spending time
between talking to kids. The eleven kids that he did sign,

(37:29):
they're probably fifteen others that he didn't sign, you know
what I mean. I mean there's just so many hours
in the day. Yeah, you just you have to have
people around you that you just have to trust their word,
and I mean that's hard to do in this college
world where there's assistants are changing. It's not even just
the players, it's a it's assistance and you know the
strength and conditioning coaches from here here. The running backs

(37:51):
coach has been like four places in five years. I
mean it's crazy. You better if you're going to be
a successful football program, you're gonna spend all lot of
money in your head coach, and you better Dan will
spent a lot of money on your assistant coaches. And
you better bring a general manager in who can not
only have a talent evaluation, but he's also got to
massage the twenty and a half million dollars or whatever

(38:13):
amount of money that your program was given. Like if
university Useon has twenty and a half million dollars, textaing
and him as twenty and a half million dollars. This
is money that is strictly given by the school to
the program. If that school gives you eighteen million, got
to massage that salary cap and then you got to
figure out how to connect whatever is left. Because you
need more than eighteen million dollars, you gotta go get
your nil money. You got to take care of that.

(38:34):
And so that general managers got to work on with
the nil collective. People big business, maybe big big business.
But I was like, I was looking scrolling through some
of the players and I'm like, this guy played here,
this guy played here, this guy in colzial the tight
end for the tech for the Cougar's pasture. He's probably
going to the NFL draft. Played ninety percent of his
college career. I think as a ball State comes to

(38:55):
the Cougars one year, has a great season, and his
guy rockets his draft value. I mean, there is there
is value in the transfer. They're just the yeah. There's
also a lot of risk that uner taken you. Sometimes
you go in that portal, you don't come out and
the yeah. The the running back that's Relik Brown is
the running back who's signed with Texas. He started a USC,
he's gone from USC. He's from Stockton, California, committed to USC,

(39:16):
went to Arizona State. Now he's at Texas. Just well,
I hope he graduates soon. He's got a lot of hours. Yeah,
he went from a really good school to well Arizona State.
Now he's back at a good school. So I wonder
in life, forget to get by athletics if you've gone
to three schools in your life. What percentage of the
average American student goes to a third school and winds

(39:40):
up graduating. Hmmm. I would imagine high being if you're
going to the third one, now second school, it would
probably be slow lower right the other way, like I
went from North Texas to Houston. That's high graduated. That's
a that's a high percentage.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
True.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
But I feel like if you're if you're going at
it a third time, you're going to graduate, right unless
you're an athlete. Yeah, I thought we were talking about
Jim Pop Gimpop.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
So you're saying the third time means you really do
want to go? That means you actually you're actually because
the second time you're like, yeah, you know why this
isn't for me? That's right, all right? I just I
just find it curious. Okay, So the Rockets lost last night.
We'll get to some of the reasons on that. We
have something on the Peacock Channel Ross that I think
you're going to appreciate really, maybe not just you, but

(40:31):
a lot of sportsmans will tell you about that. And
we've got I just don't get it coming up at
the bottom of the next hour. Eleven thirty plus again
em at twelve thirty, and the great Kevin Harley from
CBS and now from Prime. He does some of the
Amazon NBA games. We'll talk to him about the Monday
night game. He's gonna call the Texan Steelers game on
national Radio on Monday Night seven one three two one

(40:53):
two five seven NINI seven one three two one two
five SEVENINTI. It is ten fifty seven. Matt here important
Ross back and Hues, and we thank you for joining
us here on Sports Talk seven ninety's the Matt Thomas
Show with Ross eleven o'clock.

Speaker 7 (41:12):
H Town.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
It's Matt, it's Ross. I'm here in Portland where last
night the Rockets fell to the Portland Trailblazers. I'm taking
these losses very personally because you don't what I hope why,
because these expectations I have are so incredibly high. It's
a long seasons, all right, I know, but and I'm
the king of though it's a long season, I know

(41:36):
it's getting there.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
Well.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
A two or three seed would be nice, although I
mean even well, depending on how how much the Spurs
round into form or the Nuggets, I mean, gosh, the West.
I know, That's what I'm saying. I still don't want
to before. He still don't want to before. I don't care.
I know they they've had a little swoon and all
that stuff, but I don't want any anything to do

(41:59):
with the thunder in the second round. Gotta make the
second round first, though, because I was saying that last
year was like, oh yeah, two seed, baby got a cruise.
By the way, did did Oklahoma City struggle with the
Jazz last night? And I gotta look at the scoreboard?
What they do yesterday against youtob What is going on
with them? They won? They wanted to beat the Jazz
in overtime by four points in overtime? What the hell?

(42:22):
She gildostra? Oh nevermind, I was looking at minutes, not point.
Oh hey, at forty six. By the way, Victor woman
Yamna played at twenty six minutes last night, had sixteen points,
fourteen rebounds. Okay, they're winning games by They beat the
Lakers by sixteen and winby's. I've been playing thirty minutes.

(42:45):
It's quite frankly, it's scary. Quite frankly, I'm pissed off,
probably for Victor. Can I just say, quite frankly, A
lot over the next three hours. Quite frankly, you should.
You never ever notice when somebody says something a bunch
the wind up saying it yourself. Yes, we have done

(43:06):
that to each other to where the point where I
don't even know who started these the phrases, I'm gonna
give you bad two new ones. Okay, all right. Number
one comes from my middle son Peyton. Uh huh. He'll
tell me all the time, here's the thing, and they'll
start to explain it. So I catch myself saying, here's
the thing. It's like it was just funny like that.

(43:30):
I love Number two. Emada now swearing No, I've been
doing that before me. Have you said anybody as with starstruck?
He says, and now I'm saying it. To your point, yes,
he does say that a lot. And then anytime you're asking, well,

(43:53):
you know what we should do this? Actually, all right,
I'm later on I'm gonna asking me a doka. Was
it bad shot selection or shots that weren't falling in
a little bit about he's a little bit of both. Guy. Yeah,
but to your point is a yeah, he does it
a lot. That is, first of all, it's very respectful
because it means Jackson is true with the question, Yeah,

(44:14):
that is true. So when he says it to me,
it makes you feel good. Thanks, he may for listening
to me. Wow, Yeah, I did make a great point.
And when the on the rare occasion you make a
good point, we say ross to your point. Uh huh no,
you have you know what now that you mention it.
You have been saying that a lot. I make a
lot of great points. So I mean it's frankly again,

(44:37):
I'm bitstealing a phrase from Imadka. It's life, Matt. But yeah,
the two new phrases I have said is my middle
son says, here's the thing. Yeah, it's a preface and
then to your point, it's more an extension of yes,
I heard what you said, and now I'm going to
justify what you said. Right, But it's neither here nor there.

(44:58):
It's fine seven to one three two one two five
ninety if you did not stay up late last I
went on the game end about I don't know. I
actually watched it after the fact because I was uh,
I went and watched a new Avatar movie actually, and
how was that? It was good? Now, this is the thing,
is it? It basically was like number two, but it

(45:20):
was it was exactly the exactly. You know how Home
Alone won and Home Alone two are basically the same thing,
but in a different place. It's like that Avatar two
and Average of Tar three are the same thing. However,
when you go on the Imax screen in three D,
it's like the cutting edge of technology. As a visual spectacle,
it's worth the money. Is it gonna? Is it an
all time great script and acting performances? Hell no, But

(45:42):
just for the the spectacle of it, it's worth the money.
I want to ask you, did you look at your
phone at any point during the game last night? I didn't.
During the movie? Yeah, no, I turned my phone off
these days. That is incredible discipline on your part, is it. Yeah,
Because it's I'm at the Labe's and I'm not loving

(46:02):
the movie. I'm gonna check my phone and see how
what's going on? Okay, Well that's because you're addicted to
your phone. I think most people don't check their phones.
I don't think no, no, no, If the movie's good,
all turn the phone off. I'm saying you. You did
not sell the movie like it was this masterpiece. You
were like, yeah, and it's like three hours and fifteen minutes.
But uh, by the way, though, you just reminded me

(46:23):
while I was I told you. For my birthday, I
went to Dallas to see the seventy millimeters imax of
One Battle after Another End Sinners. During Sinners, somebody like
the first ten minutes of the movie yelled at someone
they go, get off your phone. We everybody's looking around, like.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
The phone up.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
It'll submit belt to get rowdy in the Sinners. I
will never flat out turn my phone off almost ever,
because I just in case the kid's wife needs to
be somebody of emergency needs me. So I will never
be fully turned off the phone guy. But I can
if I'm going in a movie where I'm paying fourteen
dollars or fifteen to get in, and I'm really looking
forward to the movie, I've got zero issue not looking

(47:04):
at it more than okay, three d imax twenty eight dollars.
Mady o, Lord, let's talk to Robert and Cyprus at
eleven six on the Matt Thomas Show at Ross. Robert,
good morning to.

Speaker 7 (47:14):
You, Hey, good morning man. How are you doing.

Speaker 9 (47:16):
Buddy Color from cyr I'm just calling about the improvement
of the line the last few games. Man, they're really
past blocking. This man is unbelievable, just doing doing great.
I'm just I want to question you guys on as
far as the running backs probably going to keep uh
that that practice squad guy Jordan and then uh mars

(47:41):
that a good combo for the next game against Pittsburgh.

Speaker 7 (47:44):
That's my question.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Uh well, I mean Marx will get the heavy lifting.
Juwan Jordan got hurt in the last game. I don't
know what his injury said it is. We'll get an
update coming up in a little bit.

Speaker 8 (47:54):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (47:55):
But you're talking about for this game, it's gonna be
mark for the future. There isn't a single guy Robert
on this team that I think should be thinking about
long term real estate. Oh no, Pittsburgh Pittsburgh game, Yeah, yeah,
I would think it'd probably be steadied item marks. I
mean is what what what does Nick Chubb I have
left in the tank at this point.

Speaker 4 (48:18):
I think he's gone for the season, man, I think so.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
Yeah, I don't even know what thet looks like. Honestly,
with that running back situation, I mean, it's it's to me.
It's thanks to Robert for the phone call. I've never
been so uninterested in the running back spot for the
Texans because it's ross. They've been battle all year long
and it hasn't really affected them. Well, I think I
think it has. It just I think it's part been

(48:44):
part of the problem with the offense and not being
happy with where they are is that you have you
have just the guys at the running back spot. Yeah,
because because Joe Mixon, I mean he he could work.
And Joe and having a good running game, first of all,
you have a coach that wants to establish a run,
having it so you're gonna run. Having a good running
game makes things easier on CG. Stroud, makes favorite things
on easier on everyone. Is there any regret and maybe

(49:09):
the answer is maybe, certainly the answer could be no.
Is there any regret the Texans did not go trade
for some rate the deadline? I don't know, because nobody
traded for Breeze Hall. Nobody traded on a Chan. I mean,
those are the two I would say marquee names. A
Chan would have caught you an arm in a leg
was going to cost you too much. They said that

(49:30):
third I believe the report I read was like a
third round pick, and he's a rental. So and that's
just too much for rental. But you know what's funny,
as you say rental, And I'm not saying that I'm
I'm a Breesehall fan. I'm just I'm just using it
as an example. Raw Sometimes rentals can help you win
at Super Bowl, which is right in front of you.
They can. I mean the biggest example I can think

(49:51):
of is didn't Who was it Odell Beckham who did
the Rams trade? Yeah, it was Odell Beckham, Right, The
Rams made a big trade for it to push all
in and win a Super Bowl and it worked. You
see in the NBA all the time, Kawhi Leonard was
a rental Toronto won a Championshi.

Speaker 6 (50:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
But draft picks are more valuable in the NFL than
in this day of the cap where you're having this
and you're gonna have to spend sixty million dollars on
C J. Stroud.

Speaker 8 (50:16):
I know.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
Draft picks are I mean a third round pick.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
To where in the basketball, if you're a good team
and you're trading around a first round pick and it's
gonna be in the twenties, Yeah, it's a it's a
completely different ball game.

Speaker 6 (50:33):
I know.

Speaker 5 (50:36):
It is.

Speaker 2 (50:36):
Fair though that we can say what could have happened
if you if you would have gone all in on
somebody that would have helped out this I mean, is
this running back qut doesn't get your four yards to carry? No,
I've been close, frankly, And this is the thing you
have to remember is everybody who is an NFL running
back can make some shifty moves. They can make a

(50:57):
guy miss, they can break a tackle. So nobody's terrible
like what he marks, can make some moves here and there.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
He does.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
You know, he should have got two yards. He gets eight.
But when you add it all up, it's just not enough.
He's not dynamic enough. Long run all season twenty three
yards three point six yards of carry. Eh. No, Woody
Marx is going to be on this football team. Woody
Marx is going to be a backup quarterback, backup running,

(51:27):
good pass catcher, good passbalker. You know what that means
That that streams third round, third down back. That's what
it screams to me. Yeah. All it screams to me
is you need a number one running back. Yeah he can.
He can be a good change of pace, third slash,
third down back if what he marks is your second
running back behind a guy who is like a Joe Mixon.
That sounds that's great, that's amazing. Yeah yeah, all right,

(51:51):
let's go to time out and we'll talk to Roger
about the rockets and avatar. Huh all right, Oh I
love it. Yeah, let's talk some avatar. Baby, I'm gonna
say out of that. Let's let you all listen. I'm
gonna listen to that and enjoy every minute of it.
I just don't get it. Coming up. At the bottom
of the hour eleven twelve of the Matt Thomas showed
raw seven one three two one two five Sevenani seven

(52:11):
one three two one two five seven.

Speaker 8 (52:13):
Nannie.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
If you missed my call the couboy didn't. If you
missed my call from last night, here's how the final
play went down here in Portland. Here we go Smith
on the inbound looks bounce, passing durand top of the keys,
right elbow for the limbs. It is up front, rim
Tapo is there. That's to Reason, Hey put it in.

(52:40):
They're gonna check the seve. It's good. Tor Reason's right
hand got there.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
That ball is.

Speaker 3 (52:51):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
One side says it's good. One does and says it's
no good. One does not beat the gable table. Take
the points off the board. The Placers won it one
O three, one O two. I literally, Ross saw them
take the points off the board like punch the button.

(53:17):
M No, oh, like minus one minus one. Usually put
plus one plus one. They went minus one one. It's
one final score. I'm sorry, Matt. That's fine.

Speaker 7 (53:29):
No, it's not.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
It's okay to not be fine, Matt. You said the
Rockets three sixty. Yeah, I know, second season, long season.
Maybe we're not even with the All Star break yet,
ROSSI and one win could shoot them up the ladder.
Of course, when need. The Spurs are going to five
game losing streak, and hopefully several players get hurt, not
like Cashrovik injury, but you know, maybe a couple of

(53:54):
broken legs somewhere in that range. Hmmm, well you need
al bernschun gun back. Yes, hopefully by the middle of
the month sometime. Let's talk to Roger. Want to talk
about Avatar, which means I'm gonna take a breaking Maybe
go get a cup of coffee. Rockets for the Rockets too.
You can talk some rockets, Matt.

Speaker 8 (54:12):
All right, all right, relax Mane Rogers almost almost Lem
Matt Well and Jonathan Uh so, yeah, I went to
bed last week because I wasn't gonna stay up for
all that. I was just hoping with Bran and I
saw the phone, just just the screen and said one
O four, one O three. I was like, yes, we won.

(54:34):
So when you know, took care of my business bathroom
and then I get to recalibrate it. I was like,
what what happened? So yeah, I mean I'm doing grown
concerns over the Rocket Street points shooting. It's like three
games in a row now, was like eight for thirty
six and nine for thirty seven and ten for forty

(54:54):
one and stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (54:56):
Not good.

Speaker 8 (54:57):
Uh yeah, we what happened to the team to see
was supposed to have some good three point shooting Now
I know, uh uh Phinney Smith is getting his legs
back from under it, and and uh I know that,
uh you know sometimes uh Javarr Smith goes in and
I got faded in and out. I was thinking he
was a little further wrong and his development because it's
just not consistent and uh ree Edward just can't go

(55:20):
into a ballgame and then automatically just just start, you know,
promoting the actnic brick company.

Speaker 3 (55:25):
Man.

Speaker 8 (55:26):
This guy had open looks. So yeah, I'm a little
concerned over that rocket three point shooting was supposed to
be one of our strengths. And I just hope that
that can you know, fix it soil and uh and
and for as Avatar and to your point Ross, oh

(55:46):
uh so and to your boy ros, yes it looks
better in IMAX three d uh. Yet but not all,
not all movies are are suited for that. So ye,
even when they're just sitting by them, don't give any
movies but they need any uh details. But you're just
sitting down by the water, it looks cool.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
I like.

Speaker 8 (56:05):
Like I'm in the pool like that, and you know
a little bit of a you know, just quit a
little bit of advice if you want to go to
the movie and enjoy yourself thoroughly and have the whole
theater yourself Saturday around eleven am prime time and you
got the whole place to ourselves.

Speaker 1 (56:22):
It was amazing.

Speaker 2 (56:23):
Yeah. I like to go for for matinees and then
Tuesdays in theater. I go to Tuesdays or half price
and usually pretty low.

Speaker 8 (56:29):
And those are man that is just a hidden jem.
That's don't be giving away too many.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
Yeah, you're right, Roger, I got I got one more
secret for you. If you want to be by yourself
in a movie theater, don't take a shower for four days.
The seats are pre you buy the seats beforehand.

Speaker 8 (56:48):
Matt, Yes, you do. Man, you just don't walk in there.

Speaker 2 (56:51):
It's not you know.

Speaker 8 (56:52):
You don't carry the newspaper, the sports page in your
back pocket anymore. Come on, I have all Let me.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
Tell you something, Roger, you prize or you're not going
for another thirty days. I'm gonna make sure he gives
you the most impossible questions. I believe or not, you're
not gonna be able to win.

Speaker 5 (57:08):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
But to his point, Matt, no, I disagree with the
Jabaris Smith Junior hasn't been consistent. He'd been scoring fifteen
plus points a game like all season long. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I was pulling it up. Eleven of the last fourteen
games he's been over fifteen points. His three point shooting
is higher than it's been all season. He's guarding one
through five, I mean he was. He was tasked with

(57:31):
guarding Devin Booker on Monday, I mean he he's I
like Jabari Smith Junior Swiss army knife was a word
used by Men Thompson in the post game on Monday
as we played it. As you heard, of course Matt
on the Rockets launch pad last night. Yeah yeah, I
don't know. He's not gonna win Defensive Player of the
Year or First Team All Defense or anything, but he
is absolutely a key cog in the wheel for the

(57:52):
Houston Rockets. ROSSI yeah, go ahead, Yeah, I'm staring at
this box score from last night. I mean, I mean,
I love this team. I love these guys are good dudes.
Don't look at the mar No, you know what, burn
set that one on your Are you you is sitting
in your hand? No, it's in the computer. Okay, Yeah,
I was gonna say, burn that. Don't set your computer

(58:12):
on fire. But close the tab. Just close the tab.
Don't look at that one anymore. Is nasty. That was
an ugly game. That makes it even more impressive that
I'm gonna say it again. Avdya Ovdia, Yeah, Avdia. It
makes it even more impressive that Ovidya scored is forty
one points in such a low scoring game. There's the

(58:33):
number one free throw a tempter in the NBA, and
it's not sat Guilds Alexander, it's Denny Avdiya. That's crazy
in a league with him with as you mentioned SGA,
I mean James Harden, Jannis Jokic thirteen of twenty four
for Denny Avdya. If I went, if you and I

(58:54):
went to a sports bar last night in Houston at
seven o'clock before a nine o'clock game and said, name
one Portland Trailblazer, how long would it take before someone said,
Danny Abdia, who bo always going the All Star Game
this year? I guarantee it. Direction Buddy Terry Porter, Marcus

(59:23):
Aldridge are Vita s Bonus is the Marcus the all
time Portland Trailblazers points leader. That used to be a
trivia quest. I think that was the answer, is this
believe it or not? Today? I believe that what at
one point was the correct answer, because I think I
did use it for a because you would be the
first thing you would think would be Clyde or from

(59:45):
the first one I would write clad who's your all
time Blazer team? Let's go? Oh, here we go. I'm
going to Vita s bonus at center. Center guards are
Drexler and Lillard. Okay, Ford's could be Jerome Cursy, maybe
Kevin Duckworth, although he's not Brandon Roy doesn't make the

(01:00:07):
team r at p his knees, Greg Marcus Aldridge is
because the bonus is your center. Yes, so you have
the bonus Aldridge, Drexler, Lillard. You need one more person?
Uh uh Rashid Wallace he can't play. He's too We

(01:00:30):
got two bigs already, we're too big. Excuse me? What
what you got two bigs already? What do you mean?
I said we were two years too big? You said that, Yeah,
like two coke cancer. We're like Matt Khalil or all
three of us horrible. Well, we all three should be

(01:00:52):
in time out. I texted it to my wife asterday.
That's right now? Is is Lillard is the all time
leading score. Sorry, I don't know why if that was.
Maybe I'm thinking rebounder or something. All right, I'm gonna
have this conversation with the voice of the Blazers tomorrow.
Cliff Robinson. No, Robinson, I could go McCallum over Robins.
Michael Thompson, big, where's Bill Walton to mix helped them

(01:01:13):
win a championship in seventy seven. Yeah, but he was
in the front court. Yeah but he was like it
was short lived for him, right yeah, Well, foot problems
all over his career. So all right, that'll include Blazer
conversation for the day. Uh, don have been clinging? I'm
putting in there. No you're not. Does block a lot
of shots, he's the best. He's the best offensive rebound

(01:01:35):
in the NBA. He also runs in molasses in his shoes,
which I think is an odd choice. So if it
was me and clinging ninety four feet from one to
the wait a minute, you don't even know the question.
If he ran, if he ran backwards, I ran forward
to wins clinging, clinging, come on, clinging on two. He's

(01:01:59):
a long strider. Now if you want to go like,
I don't know, Uh, what do they call it, Jonathan
when it's like the first ten meters or whatever, the
short split or whatever? Oh you talking about? Like if
you're just doing a very very short split like even then, No, no,
it's not gonna work. Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. What do
you put Yan Hanson on the list? Who see he's

(01:02:23):
but it's not it's jan Hans on Yes, in five
fourteen minutes last night, let's getting your money's worth. Well,
they loved him. He had a three pointer against the Rockets.
All right here online two Yankees. Keith says three new predictions.
He says he's already got two. Right, Well, he also

(01:02:44):
said the Yankees were going to the World Series. So
really quick here before we get the gut feelings Yankees Keith,
what are you braging about?

Speaker 7 (01:02:51):
Well, uh, you just remember Monday, I called and told
you that Harwall would be fired by Tuesday.

Speaker 2 (01:02:59):
No, that was this show.

Speaker 7 (01:03:02):
Yeah, I called you one day and told you that
Parbo will be fired by Tuesday.

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
Okay, I'll give you. I think that was the Avis
Agent you were on with.

Speaker 7 (01:03:12):
Oh my goodness. And I also told you about c J.
Stroud what's gonna be hurting on the Dinsic Games. That's
two in a row.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
You also, you also said the Yankees were going to
the World Series.

Speaker 7 (01:03:25):
Well, you can't win them all. So how about this one?
I got three new predictions? And I want to while
we're at it, how's your How's no Thomas? No, Sir
Thomas doing on his predictions?

Speaker 2 (01:03:38):
Uh? Well he actually he's the only one with two
Super Bowl teams alive from preseason, right, Matt Yeah, so
shut your ball mass up. Jonathan and I are both
completely eliminated.

Speaker 9 (01:03:48):
What did I have?

Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
Ravens and I got Philly Commanders or something at the NBA.
You know, Ravens and Commanders. I think they may be.
They'll play an exhibition game I can get I can
get it right. You're playing in Hallolulu.

Speaker 7 (01:04:00):
Yeah, so, Ross, I actually believe I'm gonna cheer for
the Texans to go all the way up the least?

Speaker 2 (01:04:07):
Can can you come back to Texans?

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
Keith?

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
You let me high and drive? Not not quite?

Speaker 7 (01:04:14):
I was, I was a raven, so my feelings got hurt.
I got my three predictions.

Speaker 3 (01:04:19):
Let me you know what.

Speaker 7 (01:04:20):
I remember when they used to say, when E F
Hunt and talks, people listen, mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (01:04:27):
Okay, you don't know that commercial I do go on quickly.

Speaker 7 (01:04:31):
All right. So I'm gonna, if I get these three
predictions right, all.

Speaker 2 (01:04:36):
Right, write them down and brag. I'm writing these down.
I'm putting in the I'm gtting the gun feelings file out.

Speaker 7 (01:04:40):
Matthew, Okay, I will I want to be called the
wise old black man if I get these three right?

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
Okay?

Speaker 10 (01:04:54):
Wrong?

Speaker 2 (01:04:55):
Can wrong?

Speaker 7 (01:05:00):
Listen to me, I said, one of the wise old
black man talks sports people.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
Listen, m wow.

Speaker 7 (01:05:08):
So I got three Drew predictions.

Speaker 2 (01:05:11):
Go ahead, go.

Speaker 3 (01:05:13):
Number number one.

Speaker 7 (01:05:15):
Unfortunately, I hate for this to come true, but it's
gonna come true. Kadi is being overworked by the Rockets
and if if he keeps going at the same pace,
he's gonna go on. I R and we're not gonna
make the playoffs.

Speaker 6 (01:05:31):
That's number one.

Speaker 7 (01:05:32):
Number two the starting Uh, well, there's two Rockets that's
gonna make the All Star team. It's gonna be kd
and Amen Thompson. Number three, the Baltimore Ravens will select
Jesse Mentor as their new head coach.

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
You got them all three, It's in the archives. Got
it now? If you're wrong, I will be No.

Speaker 7 (01:06:01):
I want to call me here.

Speaker 3 (01:06:02):
I want to say.

Speaker 7 (01:06:03):
I want you all to say, you're the wise old
black man, all.

Speaker 2 (01:06:07):
Right, and if you're wrong, you're the dumb ass old
black man. But is one of the other ross What
don't you get in life? Yankees? Keith? No, I get
Yankees Keith. He's a good man, ill informed on times,
but it's still a good man. Bad sports affiliations definitely,

(01:06:27):
but still a good man. If you don't get something
in life, let us know right now seven one three
two one two five SEVENATIS seven one three two one
two five SEVENINTI. It's eleven thirty. It's a Matt Thomas
Show at Ross coming up in one hour. Emadka at
one o'clock. Kevin Harlan from CBS and from Amazon, busy
show between now and two. And we don't believe it

(01:06:47):
or not. All things Portland trouble is or history Ross
feels like they could be in the arch. I'm just saying,
could be out there, okay. Eleven thirty one Sports Talk
seven NINTI eleven thirty five Thomas Show at Ross. And
there's something in your life you just don't get, whether
it's sports lighted life related. This next half hour is
for you at seven one three two one two five

(01:07:09):
seven ninety seven one three two five seven aunty. We
do this every Thursday year on the show. It is
simply called I just don't get it. Mine is rather
brief and minus for the service industry sports RB there uh.
This morning, I woke up at six point thirty, which
Pacific time for the show which began at eight o'clock.
And I go to get a cup of coffee and

(01:07:30):
a croissandt down the street at a bakery and not
too far from my hotel. Mm hmm. And the guy
behind the counter at the hotel in which we're staying
at was standing up and there wasn't a soul in
the lobby. It was late. I mean, this is it
wasn't a hustling, bustling day. All the players and staff
of the Rockets are sleep because of the late night game.
People probably went out after I did not because I
had to come back to the show with you. And

(01:07:53):
I said, uh, are you allowed to sit during your shift?
And he says no. I said, what time did your
ship start? Nine o'clock last night? The guy's pulling a
ten hour shift and he can't sit down.

Speaker 5 (01:08:10):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:08:10):
I understand if you hear the if you hear the
elevator bells ring, and if somebody's coming out, and you
want to show a professional approach, but I think you
have to let the overnight guy sit standing up for
nine and a half ten hours is cruel. I'm sure
the money's good, the shift sucks, but probably you're you
want to get into the hotel industry, you got to

(01:08:32):
start from the bottom work your way up. Having the
poor guy at the front desk have a stand up
for ten hours when no one's here and everybody's sleeping,
I say, ROSSI, I just don't get it. Let the
man sit. This was there was a Seinfel episode about this, right,
I'm sure there was very It seems George got the

(01:08:52):
guy a chair and then he fell asleep while the
joint got robbed. That's right. I forgot about it. Unless
people get too comfortables.

Speaker 3 (01:08:58):
It's security.

Speaker 2 (01:08:58):
He supposed to be alert. But this guy in security,
he's just the front office dude. He could do his job.
There could be a computer in front of the desk,
which is right next to the standing where he's standing.
I just felt bad for the guy. It's good for you.
I don't know, but yeah, chair would be nice. I'm
not saying sit there for hours on end. I'm not
saying get on YouTube or start out looking at dating apps.

(01:09:20):
I'm saying the guy was dressed nicely, works at a
very Obviously, we're at a five star hotel here in Portland.
I just like at one fifty in the morning, even
if stracklers are coming in from going out to the clubs.
Does he need to be standing up during on that
entire nine hour ten hour shift. I felt bad for
the cat. Hmm. Did you know why why? I'm a

(01:09:40):
man that thinks about the people. Dude, you just don't
get it. Yeah, I do, thought I felt bad. I
also got him a cup of coffee. Then there was
coffee next to us, so I was like, he's taking
care of Oh, it's good. I guess another thing I
just don't get. All these five stars were in cappuccino
machines everywhere. First of all, I don't know how to

(01:10:01):
operate them. Well, cappuccino is very easy. Yeah, oh my god,
they got it. Gotta be very user friendly. I imagine
so user friendly that nobody except Craig Ackuman on our
entire traveling roster knows how to use it. Can figure
it out. Anybody can are like one and a half
ounces of beverage, going through all that work to get

(01:10:22):
one sip. Not worth it. Give me a regular old
Kurrigan here or a mister coffee machine. I can get
me at the ramped and rins. Let's go. I'm dow
with Cappuccino's machines. I just don't get it. Cappuccino's delicious
or is it espresso? Or what do you got? You're
talking about little shots, You're talking about espresso. I'm telling you,
this machine in my room here has these super small

(01:10:44):
tea cups that, yeah, they're probably espresso. Okay, who just
says I'm waking up at six thirty in the morning,
get already to do a four hour radio show in Houston, Texas.
I go for espresso right now?

Speaker 3 (01:10:54):
Yeah? Why not?

Speaker 2 (01:10:55):
Espresso is delicious? But you go out for expresso. You
don't go for a homemade expression in your room? Get
why not? You want cup of Joe? You want regular Josephine.
Oh my god, I mean that's a record guy. I understand,
But I mean, if it's in the room, just use it.
I don't I don't know how to use it. Man,
There's no way. It's that difficult. There's no way I'm

(01:11:17):
gonna have you going with me on a road shop.
Just you can work on machine terrible, because all I
do is clog it up. You you tried and you've
broken Well, I guess I've seen you work a waffle
maker before, so I'm not surprised. That's fair. That's fair.

(01:11:38):
I'm moving on, you know what. That sorry me to
call you out like that.

Speaker 3 (01:11:43):
You did.

Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
It started too late. I don't get what the hell
is going on with this NBA schedule, Rockets. What is
it going to be? Twenty three home road games and
thirteen home? Did you say it after this weekend which
is tonight, tomorrow and Portland Sunday at second? Right now?
Twenty six road thirteen home. I wanted to quote you

(01:12:05):
on the pregame, but I didn't because I wanted to
double check. Did you say biggest discrepancy in NBA history
through thirty nine games? Tied for okay, tied for Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:12:17):
What the hell?

Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
Which is crazy because I told my this is my wife,
because I haven't seen my family in months. We have
fifteen road games left, that's it after this. That's insaccredible.
I don't get it. Yeah, how could this happen? I
don't know, But I'm looking forward to the second half
of the year. Man. I like the road, but damn,
how about a little bit of a home cooking here

(01:12:39):
for a while. And I'm with you on the I
don't get the playoff. I forgot the games are tonight.
I don't get to this. Why they're shuffling everything around
as much? I know, No, I get there, trying to
avoid the NFL playoffs like the plague. Correct, but it's
still dragging out way too much. Well, here's the question
I have for you. Is is the reason why we're

(01:13:01):
not interested because of the matchup it's just part of
an old miss? Or is it because there there's just
too much time in between these games. If it's Georgia
Ohio State tonight, I think we'd be more on people's
radar rather than Miami Ole. Miss you know what I think,
I Misseddig, I didn't tell you there's enough road games here.
Let me see two, four, five, seven, ten, twelve. The

(01:13:24):
fifteen feels a little high team maybe low road games left? Okay,
eighteen road games left? Okay, that makes more sense. But
that we're gonna be at game thirty nine by Sacramento
on Sunday. So that's do a quick math on it.
I forget about it. Not My head hurts way more
home game. There's a pair of five game homestands coming
up in the counter year. Hmmm, I'm starting to get

(01:13:53):
fixated on something. Matt I can't focus during the show.
What's her name, Sidney Sweeney? Her name is Mike McDaniel.
This has to this has to happen. The more I
think about it, right, it kind of does. He's not
getting a head coaching job. There's has put it a
zero percent chance he's getting a head coaching job now
unless the Texans like make the a of fran I'll

(01:14:13):
put my name on it.

Speaker 4 (01:14:14):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:14:14):
I kind of want them, I can now. I kind
of want them to lose and score nine points this
weekend so they can getting Mike me Daniel. They're not
winning the Super Bowl anyways. Wait, whoa whoa whoa whoa
whoa who I know, I know, I don't I'm just
talking out loud. I'm just thinking out loud. You just
made the whole tweet saying I know you are a fraud.
I'm just hey, I can waffle. I'm just talking out

(01:14:36):
This is open dialogue. I'm not putting my name on it.
I'm not feeling it. I'm just thinking out loud. I
cannot believe that you just said this is just between
you and me. Shush. We do have no listeners. That's true,
that's fine. I'm just kind of thinking out loud now,
I want them to win. Oh, I want him to win.
They're gonna win. I would do that's you, That's something
I would do. That's great. I'm just saying, because what

(01:15:02):
if they make the AFC Championship Game. If I tweet,
if I kid what you just said, you'd have Well.
See that's why you don't do that, because tweets are
setting sun do it. My opinions are fluid. I reserve
the right to change my mind. I'm just telling you
how I'm starting to feel right now. Oh God, I
am so disappointed in you. I'm disappointed that you're just
jumping all over me. I'm just thinking out loud here, Jonathan.

(01:15:25):
You disappointed in the Ross.

Speaker 11 (01:15:27):
You know, I'm utterly SA's prize no Jo, I'm surprised
Ross is right here doing that.

Speaker 2 (01:15:32):
I don't know. No, I want them to win. I
want them to win. But you don't think they're going
to But no, they're gonna win. They're they're steamrolling the Steelers.

Speaker 4 (01:15:40):
Up.

Speaker 2 (01:15:40):
Hey, I'm saying they're steam rolling the Steelers. Come at me,
Bookmark Steeler fan from Bethlehem, PA. Come at me, Bro,
They're steamrolling your sorry ass, team twenty six the yards
like the offense and defense, and they're they're steam rolling them.

Speaker 5 (01:15:59):
What's that?

Speaker 2 (01:16:02):
Please don't please don't click this. Oh, I see all
the gears are turning. It's terrible baiting on the You
know what, I'm not talking anymore. You have someone's clips off.
I don't know if you had a worse thirty minutes
in your life right here, don't talk about your work
in the bedroom talking about on the radio? Oh would

(01:16:23):
thirty super human over here from yeah that co twenty
eight minutes a cuddle of time. What don't you get
except for Ross's just last take right there. It wasn't
a take.

Speaker 3 (01:16:36):
It was a.

Speaker 2 (01:16:38):
Terrible take, all right, real quick.

Speaker 7 (01:16:42):
Uh.

Speaker 11 (01:16:43):
I was sitting at a red light yesterday and it
was with a lot of Peka cars. They'd be ten
cars on each lane and and I get it, I
get it. It's about you know, wanting to be somewhere.
But there was a car three cars behind me. Mind you,
I'm not the fourth car before for the red light
as soon as the light turns green and honking until

(01:17:08):
because the person didn't go fast enough off the green light,
you're not gonna make the light anyway. So I just
don't get these people because it happens often, especially in Houston.

Speaker 2 (01:17:17):
I don't understand that. I don't get it.

Speaker 11 (01:17:19):
And I made sure to make sure I slowed down
and slowly cross the green line to make sure that
she got that Yello light and it didn't, Copass.

Speaker 2 (01:17:26):
I just don't get that. I just I don't know.
I gotta be real, Jonathan, what your take was probably
wonderful when Rossity was fixated on Mike McDaniel. I have
not felt I don't you. I hardly even just think
about what I was thinking about. It kind of has
to happen, right, Look, I want the Texas to win.

(01:17:50):
Want if they want to score, if they want to
score forty points, and Nick Kyley becomes in the offensive
wonder kin, we are hoping he is. That's great. But
I'm I'm starting to really buy in more and more
this idea, Mike McDaniel, I would not disagree with you.
On the same staff with Dimko right said worked here man,
let's get the quart on this. Oh here we go. No, no, no,

(01:18:12):
matter of fact, Jonathan, let's replay this in the twelve thirty.
Oh you're the worst, because I was just I reserved
the right to change my opinion. Mister Texans, are you
never going to the Super Bowl? Let me make five caveats,
all right. I was just thinking out loud in the moment.
I don't want the Texans to lose. I want them
to score as many points as possible and make the

(01:18:34):
AFC Championship Game, which I declared that they're going to make. Okay, Ross,
turn your earphones down. No second, No, I'm not no,
because you're on the road and I'm here, so guess
what my MIC's open? Clip that what he said earlier.
I want to make sure I don't erroneously. Oh god,
you're so terrible. All right, what was that?

Speaker 11 (01:18:55):
I'm looking for a D D scrat you know when
it stops the whole music for the record records record
scratchy deja has gone to a screeching halt.

Speaker 2 (01:19:05):
Oh my god. I think what you said is did
you say I hope they scored nine points? Somebody McDaniel.
I want to make sure you said.

Speaker 3 (01:19:13):
You know what I like.

Speaker 2 (01:19:14):
I said, I would like to uh rephrase that. Let
me tell you it wouldn't be the worst thing in
the world. And I scored. I wanted to retract something
in a segment. Absolutely, so you don't want in honor
of what I think with something that I would have done,
we will not replay it. It feels like you're winking,
feels like you're texting that accidentally hits the number and
bad keys here. I want to rephrase if, if, if

(01:19:37):
they don't score a lot of points and it leads
directly to the Mike McDaniel hiring, it wouldn't be the
worst thing ever. Do you all believe about that? Seven
three two one two five seven ninty seven one three
two one two five Sevenintif there's something in life you
just don't get accept with that last segment was with
Ross seven one three two one two five sevenint. Eight
This is the Matt Thomas Show from Portland with the

(01:19:59):
word here for so or pro painters.

Speaker 8 (01:20:00):
See.

Speaker 2 (01:20:06):
Yeah, just remember folks. Even though Ross created a little
bit of a stir there with his an amazing take
on the nine points that ortecting in their score, I've
done that plenty of my life, so I will not
ask Rathan to repeat that on the show any point now.
But actually it's played that. It's what it is. That's fine.
I said it. I mean, you know, the last time

(01:20:26):
I said something stupid like that, But when I said
that Mike Trott wasn't a first ballot Hall of Famer,
Oh no, that was worse. Oh yeah, that's what I'm saying.
I mean, moments can be retracted, So I retracted that.
I think out loud. I'm really kind of building momentum
for this McDaniel idea.

Speaker 3 (01:20:41):
In my head.

Speaker 2 (01:20:41):
I want them to win. I don't think they're going
I don't think they're going to make the super Bowl
or anything like that. Yeah, and I don't know. Now
I'm thinking, by the way, we have one of your
least favorite Texans least no excuse me, least favorite Texas
long Horn with his thoughts about the Texans, my least

(01:21:06):
favorite Texas Longhoe. I think he's one of your least
fair I'm not doing You're wrong. If you're thinking, is
it Chris Simms, Maybe it is. I don't hate Chris
Sims like everybody else did I do. He wasn't that bad.

Speaker 4 (01:21:17):
He just wasn't.

Speaker 2 (01:21:20):
I was Team Major too. All right, Well, coming up
right after we did the news at noon, we're gonna
play the audio of him because he's got some very
high praise with his local football team. Is that good
or not good? Well, that's what I'm saying. I want
you to decide for your son, like Jason McIntyre loves
the Texans. It's like this is not good.

Speaker 3 (01:21:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:21:40):
Oh, by the way, congratulations to Baylor. DJ Lagway is
going to go from Florida to Baylor to play football. Wow.
I would consider him a top five transportporter quarterback. Right
Is that fair? I think?

Speaker 1 (01:21:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:21:55):
So he's Uh, he was in a trade. I believe
it was a trade with DK Kalou. Correct. Oh, DK Kalou,
that's right. Shout out to uh Renery Rue's son, Indy Kalou.
Say his name, Texans legend, former seven ninety employee love
Indy Kaloo still loves our show. Yes he does, Texans
to congratulate him. He's doing well, DK Kalou. He's a

(01:22:18):
proud papa. Uh yeah, he said, I mean just in general,
I mean not talking out of school or anything. He
just said it was it was a crazy process, obviously,
because the portal stuff is just it's it's insane. Is
it rude to ask how much money you got? I
didn't ask that.

Speaker 3 (01:22:34):
You can.

Speaker 2 (01:22:36):
Imagine it was. Imagine it was an upgrade going from
Baylor to Florida. I mean just probably was. Well, I'm
wondering if d DK has been at Baylor two years
he he didn't get money, I'm sure to start, you know,
and I was in its infancy. Yeah, I would say probably.
But remember you can also get money directly from the school. Now,
these athletic departments have budgets they can give mm hmm.

(01:22:58):
So when Sam Kamm was with this athletic couple days ago,
he said, look, between each school right now has twenty
and a half million dollars you can give to your
athletic department that comes directly from the school. Football is
getting between seventeen and eighteen million. That means basketball and
every other sport baseball, women's basketball, golf, track and field

(01:23:20):
of volleyball is splitting two and a half million dollars.
I have it on pretty good authority. The University of
Houston's budget is not as football and intensive as maybe
some other schools are got In basketball, Yeah, you gotta
pay basketball players either that or you gotta have holatious
nil deals going on. Yeah, I don't think these five

(01:23:43):
stars one and duns run through u of H good.
Oh wow. By the way, I've made the ultimate executive decision.
If the Cougars play for the national championship, I'm not
going to go.

Speaker 3 (01:23:55):
You have to go.

Speaker 7 (01:23:56):
No, you have to go.

Speaker 2 (01:23:58):
Here's the reason. You are going to be kicking yourself. Fine,
if they win the national championship. I know, after seven
final fours and eighty three against n C State and
last year against Florida and they finally reached the mountaintop
in all glory, the peak of college basketball in Indianapolis,

(01:24:23):
I had the reason, why where is it Indianapolis? In Indianapolis,
one of the meccas of college basketball? Yes, I get it.
Here's what I'm scared of. Flight delays. Oh here, fight
delays and weather weather in April in Indianapolis. It be fine,

(01:24:45):
It'll be fine.

Speaker 5 (01:24:47):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:24:48):
No, this is defeatst I'm not allowing this, Matt. Let
me tell you the reason difference. Last year, I had
a day off in between the championship game and the
Rockets playing the Clippers, so I had a buffer zone.

(01:25:08):
The Rockets play the Suns the very next day in Phoenix,
ROSSI I don't think I have to explain to you
if I miss the game. That's not good on old
Matt Thomas's resume. Matt, No, first of all, I'm calling
you a fraud and a liar on this. I'm gonna
write this down and got felix. If they're going to
the championship game, you're going is the fantasy football. I'm
out of the league, but it's gonna be that situation going.

(01:25:32):
I'm not going. No, I'm not going. They're gonna win
a Final four If if they win a Final four game,
you're gonna be all excited. They're gonna be one game
away from the championship and you're you're going, I'm calling
you a frauds right now on the air. January eighth,
eleven fifty nine am. You're a fraud. Here's what I
will do. And you're saying, Matt, that's the booshiest thing

(01:25:53):
you've ever asked. Mm hmm. I will ask the Fritiitas
that they can, if they can fly me back to Phoenix.
I cannot You're gonna do it, You're gonna do it.
I cannot take the chance. You know what I'm putt
I'm putting my name weather problems Indianapolis. I can't take
the chance, you're gonna know the weather by the time
the championship game comes along. You have the forecast. Okay,

(01:26:19):
there's a there's the asterisk. Get your you're you're going.
You're already cracking. If it's fifty four degrees, you're already cracking.
You're right, I'm cracking. Put my name on it. Where's
my dose? Where's my dose? To rragus file, I'm putting
put it on for me. All right, I'm gonna you
know what, as a matter of fact, while we play

(01:26:39):
Hall notes here at the top of the hour, I'm
going to book my flight. Damn it, you fra I
didn't even I didn't even last the entire second you
love five minutes, but I reserved the right to cancel,
of course. All right, God, what's wrong with me? Why

(01:27:00):
am I taking chances on my co is the Matt
Thomas Show with ross the world? I really wish Colin
Old step back together. I don't know why I'm just
talking at this now, but they hate each other? Why?

(01:27:24):
Because I meant I love I want to go see
them a concert one more time. She's goes in Daryl Hall.
Didn't he do all the singing? Or Oates was it
old and who did all Daryl Hall John Oates was
just he was just chilling people. He was tapping his
toe in rhythm in the background. He was tapping other
things too. Got it the amount of sexy got back

(01:27:44):
in the day? All right, twelve o seven? All right,
I just booked the trip. I just booked Indianapolis to
fat through Chicago. Do I even bother putting it on
my my?

Speaker 1 (01:27:58):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:27:59):
I put my names on it in this this file
that is so funny. It only cost me fifteen thousand points,
which is not terri. Do you want to hear all
that you put my names on it I've had on
this file.

Speaker 3 (01:28:08):
Please?

Speaker 2 (01:28:08):
Trevor Bauer will never be Houston Astro ding C J.
Shroud will always be better than Anthony Richardson. That was
twenty four when Anthony richard was getting all this hype.
Remember ding you said it or I said that ID
twenty twenty four? Ooh, Jalen Green best offensive season of
his career in twenty five. I think he did. He
had his highest true shooting percentage, had his highest offensive

(01:28:29):
wind shares. I'm going with a ding on that. It's arguable.
And then now I put the Cougars are in the
championship game. Empty is going. I literally put it on there.
Let's go, all right. I got Economy plus on boat
all the seats too. This is nice. Cost me five
dollars and twenty cents. And if they don't make it,
I get the flight, I get the miles back of
Oh I have a Dana Brown put his name on it.

(01:28:50):
Jose Abray, move will be very good. Yeah, I had
erase that good delete that bad boy.

Speaker 3 (01:28:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:29:04):
Man, just pains me hereing that call again, because that
would have been I'd have been on There're so excited
Center and I'm follow here we go. Instead, I was
just on NBA radio. That's all I got. I didn't
even get the main channel. Radio is great, Matt, it
is great. I love those guys. I'm sure it is great.

(01:29:24):
All right, Tuesday, April seventh, I leave Indianapolis in the
early morning. I gotta go through Chicago. I get there
in the Phoenix by eleven o'clock. That's perfect. I'm taking
that day off. I will call you probably at O'Hare Airport. No,
I'll I can't even call you out to text you
on the air, I mean the in the air. The
tay congratulations in a national championship. Pay for the Wi Fi,

(01:29:44):
get on zoom, let's go. I can't zoom on a
commercial aircraft. You should be able to. Well, they're not
gonna charge you. They charge you however much money. I'm
calling them out by name, American airlines. I feel like, oh,
you went right after me. I paid for like twenty
five bucks for the for the Wi Fi back from
Korea and it didn't work. I couldn't watch the Texans

(01:30:05):
game remote. Have you ever flowing an airline that doesn't
is an American?

Speaker 4 (01:30:11):
I have.

Speaker 2 (01:30:14):
You get free bags? This is a deal. This, I
actually caught a break here. It's only I mean, seriously,
I'm very happy with my work here. And guess what.
The airlines that aren't American, they treat you a lot better.
I went on Eva Air in Taiwan. You get, you
get like it was like an hour. It was from
from Taiwan to Korea. It was a very short flight.
You get a whole meal, you get more room. It's oh,
it's nice. I would be losing my airline virginity on

(01:30:36):
a new airline in February when come back from Florida.
Oh really, yep, you go on budget jet. I don't
want to give away too many details. We'll save it
for Emirates. I'm going from Fort Laardo to Charlotte. You
think I Emirates flying to those two Alaska airways, then
it's gotta be definitely a last day. Let's get to
the news at noon at twelve ten, Well, Matt, you

(01:31:00):
just mentioned the Houston Rockets losing at the last second
to the Portland Trailblazers. They'll be taking them on again
tomorrow night in Portland at the Modus Center. But let's
move on to what I've been fixated on all day.
The Miami Dolphins have fired head coach Mike McDaniel after
a seven and ten season. The move comes after McDaniel

(01:31:24):
met with reporters Monday said he would be part of
the team's interviews to hire a new general manager. Owner
Stephen Ross said not so fast. My friend met with
him on Tuesday apparently didn't like the meeting. After some reflections,
Steven Ross deciding to move on. According to Adam Schefter,
after careful evaluation and extensive discussion since the season ended,

(01:31:44):
I have made the decision that an organization is need
of comprehensive change. Ross said in a statement, a quick question, Matt,
do this doesn't mean John Harball is coming, right, because
that was the That was the rumor yesterday with John
Harbaugh being fired. Josina Anderson reporting that he was that
the at least the Dolphins were reaching out about John Harball,

(01:32:07):
who seems to be the favorite of the chalk favorite
for the New York Giants. But could it mean a
move is coming with the Miami Dolphins. What's a better job?
We talked about this yesterday. You thought the Giants was
a better job over the Dolphins. I would say, just
because I believe in dart Over Tua, I should have
weather an apathy of fans. I take Miami for the win. Okay,

(01:32:31):
you want to spend three hundred days a year in
South Florida or three hundred days in grumpy ass New York.

Speaker 6 (01:32:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:32:35):
But Stephen Well, neither owner is it has a great
represent Who is it? John Morra? Yes? John Morra has
been a bad owner of the Giants. Stephen Ross has
been I read that Stephen Ross has not had a
coach last more than four years. Since he's been owner
more than three and a half years. I think has

(01:32:56):
not finished their fourth season, or maybe since two thousand
and three. I think it was. Anyway, I don't think
Jackson Dart looks like the next concussion is gonna be
two weeks away. He'll get a concussioner in the option. Yeah,
I get it, We'll say, and then to a tongue
of alo, what's the case. There's odds are dead. They're

(01:33:17):
in a dead heat. Man, who's gonna get the next concussion?
How about? Is there any other job available better than that?
Can we can? We give a guaranteed fifty four million
dollars next year if they cut him now would be
a ninety nine million dollar cap hit. Oh my god?
Got all? I mean, when did when did he ever

(01:33:39):
deserve that to begin with? That's what I ask you, man,
Do you know what? Give me the Raiders job? Let
me build from scratch. You got the number one are
you're a Fernando Mendoza guy. They've got the number one pick?

Speaker 6 (01:34:02):
Right?

Speaker 7 (01:34:04):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:34:04):
Yeah, number one pick? But do you do you want
it's Mendoza number one picker? Is he just the best quarterback?
He's your best quarterback? I mean, Cam Word wasn't the
best player on the board, but he went on. I mean,
all right, you want anything else in it's kind of
time for a break. Yeah, let's go to break. We
get we got a lot, we got a lot of
portal news going on. Yeah, we got portal news and

(01:34:26):
one of Ross's favorite Longhorns of all time. I didn't
say that, I'd say gets a worst rap than he deserves.
He comes across as a douche, does he? I haven't
interacted with him or I don't know. Well, I mean
tell me if you go get some Texas die hard fans.
Major Apple white, sweet fella, beloved by all former Houston

(01:34:48):
Coogan football coach grade. But he was everybody loves the backup. Yes,
Chris Simms was the five stars, so he was good.
But it's not like Major is the guy coming off
Major Apple. I was not throwing forty touchdowns with no picks. Okay,
there was a reason why Christims was starting as well.
Chris Sims, what isn't as bad as you remember? And

(01:35:08):
Major Apploy wasn't as good as you remember?

Speaker 1 (01:35:11):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:35:11):
Well, it hurts my narrative. I know I would like
again team Major Apploy. It's the you know, the frumpy haired,
floppy haired dude from Baton Rouge, Louisiana who was like
a two star recruit versus the five star son of
a quarterback. Everybody loves the backup. That was part of
the narrative Major Apple. Why did have the PopCap arm?
Chris Sims had the big arm, but he was inaccurate

(01:35:32):
and quite frankly, had no touch. We'll hear from Chris next. Okay,
all right, here it is Christims, a legend to a
friend of all. Best left handed quarterback in Texas history?
Were ofss fair to say best what left handed quarterback?

(01:36:00):
Matt Liner? No at Texas? Oh at Texas?

Speaker 5 (01:36:04):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:36:04):
I thought you said the whole NFL. I thought you
said Texan. Sorry, No, I'm sorry in the University of
Texas history. I can't think. I can't think of another one,
No can I? All right, he deduced every and analyzed
every potential matchup. So we're going to join this in
mid conversation because it's three minutes and I don't want
to him blabber for three But he gets down to

(01:36:27):
super Sunday. Here is Chris Simms, right right.

Speaker 5 (01:36:32):
The only thing you worry about, I think in this
one is just CJ. Stroud don't hold the ball too
long and don't get trips sacked. Right, But I do
think they'll be able to throw the football. I think
they'll have They're getting better at throwing the football. Their
offense has been somewhat good and really close here lately
it's gotten better, and I think a little bit like
what you talk about the defense.

Speaker 2 (01:36:51):
That's three and a half minutes. We can't do that.
I thought i'd give you a stop and start point. No,
here we go, Oh no, you did, okay, here is here.
We're fast forwarding a little bit.

Speaker 5 (01:36:59):
Now, look at history and go, well, the last time
the game was in San Francisco for the Super Bowl,
the best defense in football was there, the Denver Broncos, right,
and this time around us the Houston Texans.

Speaker 2 (01:37:11):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:37:11):
Maybe history repeats itself and it's Denver there again. I
don't know, but I'm gonna play it's the best defense
gets there once again, and that is the Houston Texans.

Speaker 2 (01:37:19):
For my money, what it.

Speaker 5 (01:37:19):
Feels Houston doesn't totally fit that mold on both sides
of the ball, only one side of the ball. But
yet they're going into the playoffs with what a ten
game win streak, right, is that right?

Speaker 2 (01:37:28):
Or nine or ten? I mean something like that.

Speaker 5 (01:37:30):
So I'm gonna have the Texans pulling off the upset
over the Rams. Wow, I am Demico. Ryans goes back
to San Francisco and hoisted trophy. I'm gonna go with
it like this, in that when defenses like this get
to the super Bowl, they have two weeks, they get
to be extra fresh, they get to really study the
other offense. And more times than not, when we see

(01:37:53):
these special defenses get to the super Bowl, right, and
we'll see if they can get there, because your team
might be there instead the Broncos or the Seahawks of
twenty thirteen, right, like the two thousand and seven Giants
that had a special front four. When you just hear
all week, like Will Anderson and Dial, if you don't
get to Stafford, we can't win the game.

Speaker 2 (01:38:13):
If you two weeks.

Speaker 5 (01:38:14):
For two weeks, they got to hear, if you don't
get to Stafford, we can't win the game if you don't,
and they're gonna be as fresh as can be and
the biggest game of their lives, ready to go freaking crazy.
That's where I always feel like the great defensive teams
have a little more of an advantage in the Super Bowl, right,
almost like the Philadelphia Eagles last year. At the front
four can't get there to Mahomes, we can't win at
the We have to start blitzing and doing that, and

(01:38:35):
the Chiefs are gonna beat us. So that front four
was like, don't blitzvic, We're going to kick their ass.
And they never blitzed the whole freaking game and kick
their ass, right, So that's the way I feel a
little bit here. So I got Texans, you got Rams.

Speaker 3 (01:38:48):
I like it.

Speaker 2 (01:38:52):
Rosh you heard it. Chris, I've always said he's so smart, Yeah,
so great, big rocket arm just didn't have a good
team around him with those Texas teams. Yep, thank god
you didn't. You didn't hear what you said twenty minutes ago.
I mean he would fire, He would fire five yard
passes like seven hundred miles at people. That was my

(01:39:13):
biggest complain about Chris Sims back in the day. Then
he ruptured his spleen when he was at the Titans.
That was crazy. By the way, everybody sent me the
best left headed quarterbacks in NFL history, NFL history, Young,
Steve Young, Yeah, it's Steve Young, not Boomera sizin Uh
Steve Young and it was Texas HISTORYPSK NFL number three.
Michael Pennix, No, it's not Michael Pinnicks. I'm sorry, Michael Vick.

Speaker 3 (01:39:37):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:39:37):
Uh, how about Jim Zorn? Want to go Jim Zorn?
Mark Brunell to a tongue of aloa, noop emy a
dok is gonna join us in just a couple of
minutes really quick before we get to email, Let's go
to biscuit on somebody, biscuit. What's a good word?

Speaker 3 (01:39:55):
Man?

Speaker 7 (01:39:56):
Did I just hear you say you look so tickers
in leftail?

Speaker 6 (01:40:00):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:40:00):
I did.

Speaker 7 (01:40:02):
Okay, I'm glad you.

Speaker 2 (01:40:03):
Listened to a brother.

Speaker 7 (01:40:04):
Finally, I think Rose and I call that out months ago.

Speaker 2 (01:40:08):
I think you did a lot of basketball left.

Speaker 7 (01:40:11):
But there you got anybody that that new Flemming man
is the real deal man? That dude.

Speaker 3 (01:40:20):
You know what? He kind of reminds me of.

Speaker 2 (01:40:23):
What's the little guard for New York h Jalen Brunson.

Speaker 10 (01:40:28):
Yeah, he kind of remind me in Brunson just a
little more athletic and a little taller.

Speaker 2 (01:40:34):
But I mean it's demeanor and the way you know.

Speaker 10 (01:40:37):
Man, I'm telling you, if seeing that continued to improved
barn injuries, you can book it.

Speaker 9 (01:40:46):
Matt.

Speaker 7 (01:40:46):
I'm gonna see you in that town.

Speaker 2 (01:40:47):
Man booked it. Thank you very much, Besk. I appreciate you.

Speaker 8 (01:40:51):
I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (01:40:52):
I'm saying I been him at a bar somewhere.

Speaker 2 (01:40:54):
Well, can you pick me up at the airport?

Speaker 7 (01:40:58):
Can you?

Speaker 3 (01:40:59):
Can? You?

Speaker 7 (01:40:59):
You got you got a idiot connections on game day tickets?

Speaker 2 (01:41:03):
That is accurate.

Speaker 4 (01:41:04):
I got.

Speaker 7 (01:41:04):
I'm in nap, but I need to get some tickets
to the game.

Speaker 2 (01:41:07):
I'll take here if you don't worry. I mean, you
got paid for them, but I'll find you some tickets.
Don't worry. Thank you, biscuit. I think I paid two
fifty for my ticket last year. Really, yeah, didn't you
get it? Last minute? Yeah? Last minute? I mean first
of all, Dome stadiums to watch games suck because the
sight lines are terrible. But it was worth the money.
I mean I had to sit in a good spot

(01:41:30):
and I paid for it. Maybe it wasn't even two fifty,
maybe it was two hundred. Remember God, that games sucked.
You've got me looking up left handed quarterbacks. There's only
two in the history of the NFL who were left
handed and made the I made the Pro Football Hall
of Fame, Steve Young? Would I know the other one?

(01:41:51):
You would if you're checking your tweet mentions. No, Mike
Vick's not in. No, who's the too many electrocuted and
drowned dogs? That's not nice? Who's what he did? I
didn't do it. You're gonna try not to look at
Twitter because I want to figure out where I'm TEFC
or AFC well AFC okay, formerly an oiler mostly known

(01:42:19):
for another playing for another team, but was an oiler
and left handed. Oh, Kenny Stabler, I tried it, okay, Yes,
all right, there we go the snake. He may up next.
It's twelve twenty seven on Sports Talk. Seven eighty was
twelve thirty. It is a Matt Thomas show with blossoon
here Portland Rockets ball last night to the Blazers. Usually

(01:42:41):
we get to visit with emy On on a happy
note after a big victory. Unfortunately, a tough, tough, little
last tenth second of a moment lost to the Blazers,
and he may have joining us here now. Coach, good morning,
thank you for the time. Walk us through. If you
don't mind, what was going through your mind drawing up
the play itself, and then obviously Tari's tipping it was

(01:43:02):
just a bit bit too late.

Speaker 3 (01:43:06):
Yeah, obviously wanted to get in Kevin's hands. You know,
he was he was on a hot streak with thirty
seven points, and I knew he would get a good look,
and you know, we had confidence to him. And then
as always, we wanted to send everybody to the glass
and you know, probably made a great effort, you know,
point point one second too late.

Speaker 2 (01:43:26):
Basically, did you think it went in or was in
the back of your mind going I got to look
at replay.

Speaker 3 (01:43:32):
I definitely had to look at replay because when you
when you look live and you have some doubt and
it's it's you know, he's going to be close for sure.
And my initial looking live was didn't look great, didn't
look good. But from the d video guys behind the bench,
I thought he got rid of it, and obviously the
other anglish but was still on the singer.

Speaker 2 (01:43:51):
I don't know if you saw it like I did
from up where I was calling it, but literally half
the court was with elation on one side and half
of the other court was we got it I mean
I have never seen we've seen buzzer beaters, and you've
been obviously been a few of them. It felt like
both sides thought they had won the game on the
final play.

Speaker 3 (01:44:07):
Literally, yeah, that's how close it was, and even the
replay showed that. And so you know, he made a
good effort. Like I said, you know, Kevin got a
quality lookoff. You know, heavily contested, but he's gonna shootover guys.
And yeah, but overall, you know, regardless of that last play,
I said to the group that we probably didn't deserve
to win that game. You know, we didn't really show

(01:44:29):
up and played our standard for three and a half quarters,
and the last half of the fourth quarter we really
buckled down.

Speaker 2 (01:44:36):
Yeah, it was literally a tale of two games when
it came to that. Something that has happened. Look, obviously,
you're right there in front of it. You're still crashing
the offensive boards with great regularity. That's no surprise. Even
without me being gone. You got Adams out there and
even Clint helping you on the three point shot has
gone away the last three games. So what do you
chalk that up to? I mean, this is a team
that has been forty ninety percent of the year, but

(01:45:00):
January has not been kind. From beyond the arc, what
do you think is going on.

Speaker 3 (01:45:05):
Just a normal slump that teams go through during the season.
At times you hate that. You know, everybody other than
Kevin really is is kind of going through it at
the same time. But to your point that starting with
the Dallas game, in Phoenix last game and then yesterday,
if we shoot anywhere close to one knowing them, it's
a comfortable fifteen point win. And so but at times

(01:45:26):
you know that's gonna happen during the season. Guys gonna
miss over shots, and yesterday it really stood out obviously
the amount of wide open looks we had, But you
still have to do the other things, and you know,
nobody's trying to miss shots on purpose. You get great
looks and you live with the result. But you know
what we can control is, you know, following the game plan,
guarding specifically the way we want to and taking care

(01:45:48):
of the ball, and so those things can always happen.
You're gonna misshots at the times, but you can still
lock in onto onto the game plan specifics and specifically
on the Vida, we didn't guard them anywhere close to the.

Speaker 2 (01:45:59):
Way we wanted to Kevin Durant taking the last shot
and the last two games went in on Monday, unfortunately
did not last night. But he was brought here to
be a closer. What is it like for you just
as a coach as opposed to last year? Does it
make your life that much more easy? But also you
know the other team knows that Kevin Durant is probably
gonna get the ball as well.

Speaker 3 (01:46:19):
Yeah, I mean regardless if he gets swist spot, it
doesn't matter you know who's guardening him or how they're
guarding him. You know he's going to get a quality
look and the maker misses has nothing to do with
the defense, honestly. And so you know, he made a
pull up the other night and got a great look
here that kind of rolled off the rim. And you know,
you bring guys in for their efficiency, for their consistent scoring,

(01:46:40):
and then obviously their closing, which we had struggled with
their times last year, and so it's good there, But
at the same time, you don't want guys to fully
rely on him. You want other guys to continue to
play throughout the game. And last night it was more
so of him doing what he did and we would
have liked to see other guys who joined the party offensively.

Speaker 2 (01:46:56):
Rockets head coach imma Adoka was us here on Sports
Talk seven nine. How is Alprea and Shoon feeling and
do you have any idea as far as a possible
timeline for him coming back?

Speaker 3 (01:47:07):
Doing much better, much better than we thought. Uh, you know,
he has the swelling is kind of getting gun pushed out.
Had a really good workout yesterday post shoot around and
just get to moving around and getting up and down
and you know, jumping around, jump rope, doing some things
on the ankle just to see the flexibility. And we're
happy with the progress. I'm not sure when he'll be back,

(01:47:28):
but you know, it looked a little more bleak initially
and now he's moving well. Pain tolerance is pretty good,
and so hoping to have him back definitely in the
next few games.

Speaker 2 (01:47:38):
He may is a guy who scores nearly twenty points
a game most night's over gives you seven or eight assists,
seven or eight rebounds. It's an obvious question, but tell
me from a strategy standpoint, the things you have to
adjust the team, the team things your team has to
adjust withoutp being out of that line up, not only
not on the floor, but you know, missing as much

(01:47:58):
time as he's Miss Alaska full of games or so, yeah, he.

Speaker 3 (01:48:10):
Just takes away one one leg of your offense. And
then this is really the post up threat, the isolation
thread around the elbows and the things he's really good at.
And so you kind of you kind of go to
other actions, other players, other personnel, and it's a little
bit more limited because of the post up thread. You know,
Kevin and Jabari can get some posts, but not to
the extent of alprind And just like Kevin draws those attention,

(01:48:32):
Alfi does the same thing, and I think overall guys
get more clean looks with those two on the court.

Speaker 2 (01:48:38):
All right, semiloaded questions if you want to just not
answer it all the way I get it. Denny Avdia
shoots a lot of free throws. In fact, he shoots
more than anybody else in the NBA. When you talk
to officials in the offseason, there are some guys that
will chase after fouls and get the free throw line
like he does. Do officials catch on to that or
do they come to you and say contact his contact.

(01:49:00):
I don't care if the guy goes a free throw
line twelve or thirteen times, it's because of ball in
his hand as much, and your guys can't seem to
not foul him. I'm talking about you in general, but
just in general about whether or not a player like
him or sga In. James was certainly like that when
he was here in Houston live at the free throw
line at least ten times per game.

Speaker 3 (01:49:20):
Yeah, I mean, it's a discussion that's always had at
the head coaches and meetings of the referee us freedom
of movement and who's initiating contact. It's definitely the hardest
thing to officiate in the game. But at the same time,
you know, you hate to see foul batters be rewarded
to that extent, But at the same time, you have
to be disciplined as well. And so yeah, they're gonna

(01:49:40):
miss them, definitely, They're gonna stow their body around, and
for us, it's being more disciplined, not reaching their hands
in there and then having a nice point of contact
instead of meeting them that low by the rim. And
so we'ren't as disciplined as we need to be on
him game plan wise, reached in too many times and
you know, bailed them out there, but the things we
wanted to do with them from the start we didn't.

(01:50:01):
And let him get going, let him get downhill, and
let him draw some of those fouls.

Speaker 1 (01:50:06):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:50:07):
You.

Speaker 2 (01:50:07):
The schedule has given us a lot of off days
over the first couple of months. I looked at January,
it's a hot mess of games. I'm going to assuming
that the number one thing you can probably do is
eliminate the number of hardcore practices guys getting their shots
and to do what they need to do. Is that
is that the main thing you have to do here,
beyond thinking about how many back to backs are a
head over this for this team in the next handful

(01:50:28):
of weeks.

Speaker 3 (01:50:30):
Yeah, definitely. I mean it's games every the day and
then a bunch of back to backs coming up, and
so your time is definitely limited. You're very conscious of
resting guys' bodies and you know, saving one trip to
the gym here and there they have their energy and
juice for the game, and so it's always a balance there.
You know, you up the film sessions, up the individual
film sessions and team film sessions to you know, make

(01:50:51):
sure we're checking boxes on everything. That we need to,
but you do want guys. You know, we're professionals, and
I trust our guys. They are grinders that they get
their right amount of work and they get the rest
they need or the stots they need, and so we
have a lot of optional days and guys are always
in the gym getting up work even if it's not
a mandatory.

Speaker 2 (01:51:07):
Shit around and keeping with that workload conversation, I'm in
Thompson number two in minutes per game, Kevin Durant number four.
I guess obviously two different conversations with both of those
guys because of their age. But can you kind of
take us through both of those as far as talking
with the player, talking with the trainer, and kind of
figuring out how to try to at least help lighten
the load a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:51:29):
Yeah, there's definitely something we wanted to be, you know,
shaved down to be, and we are consciously aware of.
But at the same time, you know, Aman, there's you know,
Swiss Army Knight for us, you know, with with the
Fred and point guards out, he's handling that duty initially,
and then we bring and read or different guys, you know,
with Dorian being out and Tari being out at times
and the Jay Shaan, the guys that were injured earlier.

(01:51:51):
He was doing so much for us as far as
defensively and playing the two, three, four at times, and
so you know he's a young guy, but we still
want to be kind just aware of that with Kevin
obviously in age factor you are as well. You know,
the guys that are missing, we've got to stay afloat,
and he's doing such a great job. And Kevin's like Fred,
he'd never once come up the court anyway, but you know,

(01:52:12):
sometimes you have to save guys from themselves and at
some point we want to shave those minutes down while
we're fully whole and have nobody else on many restrictions.

Speaker 2 (01:52:21):
Will Kevin try to pass up Wilt in the first
quarter at tomorrow night's game.

Speaker 3 (01:52:26):
We want him to get here last night, but you know,
you know he's he's been on the high street lately
and like like I said, without outpuring there the balls
in his hands even more. But you know, he'll do
what he does and he's going to continue to pass
up people on the list. And more so than that,
we encourage our guys to not sit and watch, but
like I said, join the party like last night and

(01:52:48):
anybody had a normal shooting night. We're in good shape.
So we don't want to fully rely on a thirty
seven year old. Everybody else has to do their part.
And while he does what he does on and as
efficient as he is, scoring as like he is and
closing like is.

Speaker 2 (01:53:00):
All right, You've got a lot of guys on your
bench behind you that will have notepads, iPads looking at
officials calls. Will one of them be on the Indiana
Oregon game tomorrow night during the game.

Speaker 3 (01:53:15):
As much as I love too, we got we got
a game to win here, and so you know, this
is a good chance for us to get back at
what we missed on last night. Yeah, like I said,
if we play offensively better, you know we'll be in
good shape. But shots are going to follow it or not.
And even with you know, the fifteenth freet throws for
have you and us being undisciplined early and for the

(01:53:37):
first half at least, they still only scored one oh three,
And so we could do some things to definitely be better.
And we've been at number one in offense or defense
for the last month or so, and we need to
have another big night defensively while making shots.

Speaker 2 (01:53:50):
All right, assuming Oregon wins tomorrow, what do you want
them playing Ole miss or Miami?

Speaker 3 (01:53:55):
It doesn't matter to me. I love the ceiling, the championship.

Speaker 2 (01:53:58):
We'll leave it at that. Thank you. He may for
the time, enjoy the rest of day. We'll see you
tomorrow at the arena.

Speaker 3 (01:54:03):
Thank you, guys.

Speaker 2 (01:54:04):
I we'll see a Doka with us year A huge
Oregon fan, Portland State grad but Oregon fan through and through.
And Denny Abdia too many free throws ross? How is
he getting superstar calls? I don't know. He's so nice.
You coach is so nice. We talked to the officials.

(01:54:24):
We're trying honest and coach, he's emation. He's Denny Abdia
going to be getting that. Sg's an MVP. I get that, yeah,
and get those calls. It's crazy. All right, good stuff
there from imay A Dooka twelve forty three on Sports
Talk seven ninety. Kevin Harlan's going to join us in
fifteen minutes.

Speaker 3 (01:54:44):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:54:44):
I'm a little nervous. It's our first time we've ever
done zoom audio, so I hope it works. I just
will say it. I have full trust. Now you don't.
You don't know that anybody with ears can hear your voice?
Have food trust? What do I sound like a grandmother? Nine?

(01:55:08):
We're gonna basic with Kevin Harlow is the CBS Sports
keeping up at about Tibet's also of the Amazon Prime
and he'll do more of those NBA games coming up
in the second half of the season. Has a little
bit of a reduced schedule because you know what, he's
busy calling NFL games, national radio and of course on CBS.
All right, ROSSI you a fan of the Peacock channel. Well,

(01:55:30):
the streaming service, yes, Premier League. Not every game, but
a lot of the games I watch I watch on
the on the Peacock channel. Well, I think the picture
is crystal clear for Sunday night football.

Speaker 3 (01:55:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:55:42):
Well, apparently Peacock is doing some things to help with
people that may not like everything they want to hear.
There is an option that Peacock is working on, and
I don't know the great details of it. I just
happened to see it on the for you tab that
is allowing you ready for this enhancements to allow fans

(01:56:04):
to mute announcers and control the crowd noise on their
game broadcast. I think that's cool. I think that's very niche.
I don't know how many people are gonna want to
take advantage of that. I mean, is regular Joe fan
saying I need to pump, but I need to pump

(01:56:24):
in more crowd noise? Probably not. The interesting part will
be how much the mute button is used on broadcasters. Now,
can you do individuals? Can I keep Tarico and get
rid of Collinsworth? I don't think you could probably do that.
It'd be pretty funny technology, incredible feat accomplishment there. You
know what, I've had enough of Melissa Stark mute or Mike.

(01:56:49):
I'm just kidding. I'm just gonna say there's a handful
of broadcasters I would mute. I'm not. I don't have
the stones to tell you who they are, because they're
all national and are all got higher profile jobs, And
I really why don't want you say it? I can't
think of who would I actually mute Collinsworth? I was kidding,

(01:57:10):
Akin No, Tundmo, probably not. No, it would be more
for me on the play by play side oohoo, because
I am a student of play by play. Yes you
are Matt and when I don't like it, I don't
want to hear it. Gus Johnson, Mmm, I like Gus.

(01:57:38):
Does he make the first and ten sound like it's
a fourth down catch in the Super Bowl in the
fourth quarter? Occasionally too much? Yes? I can't, honestly can't
think of anyone I would. I would out and out mute,
I would say this. It would be very few people
in sports that I would mute. Okay, I do like
the crowd noise. I might pump that up, especially if

(01:57:58):
you have a theater room in your house. I would
really feel like you were there. I got to Adobe
surround matting. I'm getting that going. It's Adobe atmos. Mean
you got Do you got Adobe surrounding your apartment? Are
you kidding me?

Speaker 6 (01:58:08):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:58:08):
You know why does it really sound like you're in
a theater when you're in your apartment watching sports?

Speaker 3 (01:58:12):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:58:13):
Yeah, I crank I got a Yeah, I got a
nice soundbar. I gotta come over. I cranked that bad
boy up.

Speaker 7 (01:58:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:58:18):
Really, I got yes, I got o lead screen and
in uh in a nice soundbar. I gotta I gotta
used for it. I have a sound bar in my house.
We don't really use it though, well, okay, because it's
in the living room and most of our TV watching
is done upstairs or on our own individual bedrooms. I
got that Adobe atmos. Brother, let's go, come on over,
bring your popcorn. Can I just be purely selfish for

(01:58:38):
a second. I think what an Apple TV did this
last year and hasn't the last few years with their baseball.
If you want to watch it on Apple to see
the video of it, that's cool. But to be able
to put your hometown broadcasters in the mix of it
is I think it's a huge I don't know why.
More Oh, it's great service. It's the only way I
watch Apple And well, if I had the capability, Matt

(01:59:00):
would be the only way I would watch the Rockets
and be listening. Thank you for the euphonious tones of
Matt Thomas. Bank you. That's where I think you should
get more benefit, more bank for your buckets putting your
hometown announcers on, because in reality, if you're watching it,
you're gonna see the ads. You're not You're not losing it.
You're not losing an audience because of that. You're just

(01:59:20):
keeping people on because you canvent attach now a get
it there's a delay between the broadcasting and the which
I don't they would they would obviously figure that out.
That to me would be the big benefit. Now on
this semi final game tonight, all the ESPN channels are
being used and one of them is the radio feed
of the school that you like. Ooh, that's cool. So

(01:59:45):
note to Peacock to what else is there? Amazon Prime.
Not that we don't love Iron Eagle, and we don't
love Kevin Harlan, we don't love the other guys, but
maybe you just want to hear the local flare because
I got news for y'all. Come playoff time. Craig and
Vanessa and Ryan are going bye bye. Not because they
want to, it's because the NBA said you're getting rid
of local product. I will say this because Craig got
mad at me on Twitter last year when I was like,

(02:00:07):
I was listening to Kevin Harland or the game. When
it's a big playoff game though, Matt and no disrespect
to the local people, it does sound. It sounds bigger
when it is Mike Tarico or Kevin Harland or Ein Eagle.
It's like, yeah, this is this is premiere. Top of
the top, the game sounds bigger when it's when it's
those guys. The short list of guys, right, and it's

(02:00:30):
a very short list. But if it's just like Dave
pash me, yeah, absolutely, Yeah, let's go to before we
get to Kevin, let's talk to Vince on seven ninety
and twelve fifty four Hive Vince.

Speaker 4 (02:00:41):
Yeah, he kind of stole my thunder with the question
to email about the valveating. I've been thinking about that
this morning. You have to watching last night's game and
just being in general, and I just wish that I
just think to me that they can fix that pretty easily.
It's a lot of times it's so obvious, but the
rest I guess or maybe dictated to call, to call

(02:01:02):
it a certain way. You know, they just need to
change that. It's really bad for the sport.

Speaker 2 (02:01:08):
Well Portland Trail. As a fan disagrees with you, Evince.
And I can tell you Oklahoma City Thunder fan has
zero problem with the amount of contact with Shay Gilders
Alexander and for years. To be fair, and I said
the same thing when I was calling James games. If
James got to the free throw line eleven to twelve times,
guess what gang that was nine to ten points per
game that you got for the free throw line. So

(02:01:30):
I don't know if it hit the critical or it's
just the guys that are affecting they we're going against that.
It feels like it just hurts more.

Speaker 4 (02:01:37):
Honestly, I'm I'm the biggest Rocket fan you'll see, but
even when James.

Speaker 2 (02:01:40):
Was doing it, I didn't like it.

Speaker 3 (02:01:41):
I just I know.

Speaker 2 (02:01:42):
And you're not the only one that says that too.
I understand. Thanks Vince with the phone call you got
it nice to hear from me.

Speaker 6 (02:01:50):
Ross.

Speaker 2 (02:01:50):
He's not on the ordinary.

Speaker 7 (02:01:52):
He and I.

Speaker 2 (02:01:53):
That's why I brought up to email. I mean, I
guarantee you it's every year when the coaches and the
officials meet in the summertime, look at that and then
and I'm sure they don't they say what happens in
this room stays in this room, except for my Mark
Dagnold with the Oklahoma State thunderd pliny like, well, are
you picking up my guy? But there are I mean,
Danny Avdya shoots like twelve free throws a game. You're

(02:02:16):
telling me he's wouldn't you think if he had if
he was foul? As often as he was to be
black and Blue and concustan at least twice a week.
I do think it's far too often. And I noticed
that this was Devin Bookers, this is happening on Monday,
and Denny Avdia. I mean it happens all the time.
And Kevin Durant gets these calls too, So it's it's everywhere.

(02:02:38):
I think that marginal contact is called way too often
in the NBA, just as a whole way too often.
So let me argue back at this as I'm not
trying to defend the officials, but if you say to
the Hello official, you're calling Marshall contact, I came back

(02:02:59):
to you and say, well, if I don't call that,
it's gonna be the Detroit Pistons of nineteen eighty nine
all over that. I know that's the counter argument, and
I think the NBA doesn't necessarily mine that means points
are going up, That means guys are free flowing to
the basket. That means you know you're you're ending up
with guys in foul trouble more often, right, so they're
not gonna be uh. For example, what was the game

(02:03:20):
Kevin Durant had like four fouls in the first couple
quarters or whatever it was it was in Dallas. Yeah,
so yeah, So Kevin Durant, guess what, he ain't fouling
nobody the rest of the game. So guess what that means.
That means more free lanes of the basket, That means
higher scoring. That's better for the overall health of the league.
One twenty two to one seventeen looks better than ninety

(02:03:40):
six to ninety two. So I yeah, I don't know
that a change is gonna happen, but I will say
it's a complaint. And this is every nobody's perfect. We
have complaints about the NFL, we have complains about Major
League Baseball, have complaints about every sport. But it is
one of my complaints. I think too much marginal contact
is called in as are as fouls. I think Denny

(02:04:02):
avia Odia last night was it was three or four
times he was barely touched and they were calling fouls
Shay Gills, Alexander all the time. And as I said,
it happens to Kevin Durant, it happens to Houston Rockets
players as well. I just think overall, as we've gone along,
soft fowls are called way too much. Twelve fifty eight,
we talked to Kevin Harlan. Next, It's the Matt Thomas

(02:04:23):
Show with Ross. I'm here in Portland here on Sports
Talk seven eighty. Hey Maddie, hi Ross. How you doing, Matthew,
I've been better. Technical difficulties at the station. We're back
on air though, maybe all right Kevin or no?

Speaker 1 (02:04:44):
No?

Speaker 2 (02:04:46):
Do we want to call Kevin? Do we want to
just do nothing? Let's yeah, we'll try call him. Let's
call Kevin, or you want to try to break real quick?
I mean we just went on a very linked, a
wrong ass break. Let's let's stay here for a minute.
Technical difficulties but the station. But we're all good now,
and I sound a little bit different, but you know whatever,
it's fine. All right, I'm gonna send Why don't you

(02:05:08):
talk for thirty seconds while I sent Jonathan and Chris
Kevin Harland's numbers, So stay with me, you talk for
a few seconds. Okay, we're gonna talk it. Yeah, we're
supposed to have Kevin Harland here on the station, are
on Sports Talk seven ninety. But we had some technical difficulties.
We had to get the engineers in here all that
type of stuff, So everything's gonna be all right soon enough.
We will get Kevin Harlan on here. That should be well,

(02:05:30):
a real fun conversation coming up with him. We had
Rockets head coach Ima Adoka on the show early. You
can catch it on the Sports Talk seven ninety dot
com podcast page. I think some of them will be
posted up on our social media as well. Looking forward
to talk to Kevin Harland. We've had some NCAA news.
We've been talking about Rockets losing last night, a heartbreaker
in Portland as the tip in from Tarry Eason went in,

(02:05:54):
but just with about I mean milliseconds, literal milliseconds after
a buzzer back in the olden days as it was
called a win, it would have been fine, but justice
was served. Rockets didn't get the shot off in time,
so they lost the game to the Portland Trailblazers. As
they stay in Portland and they'll be taking them on
tomorrow at nine pm here on Sports Talk seven ninety

(02:06:15):
with yours truly on the Rockets launchpad coming at at
eight o'clock, and I'm guessing you're gonna hear from Rockets
head coaching Mindoka there too. Man, imagine that taking a
nice conversation with the Rockets head coach and replaying it
for the Rockets launch pad tomorrow. I mean, people want
to hear from the coach. What do you mean I
should have had that second cup of coffee this morning?

(02:06:36):
Because now are you really wired? How many hi.

Speaker 3 (02:06:41):
Do I hear?

Speaker 2 (02:06:41):
Kevin Harlan? Thank god? You know what Kevin does these
radio interviews all across the country. Nothing is more as
fluid than right now, Kevin, It's Mack. Can you hear me? Okay?

Speaker 4 (02:06:51):
I can't.

Speaker 6 (02:06:51):
Yeah, let me assume connection didn't work. Huh, didn't want to.

Speaker 2 (02:06:57):
I'm gonna peel the curtain back, all right, our borgeous
frids altes ago, all right.

Speaker 6 (02:07:01):
When you were oh, I'm so sorry.

Speaker 2 (02:07:03):
I'm sorry, when you were doing football Sunday, when I
was a kid board opping thirty five years ago, your
bored friede too. So I don't want to. I don't
want you to judge me at all.

Speaker 7 (02:07:13):
I'm not gonna.

Speaker 3 (02:07:16):
I don't judge.

Speaker 6 (02:07:22):
Nothing worse than a fried board. I've said that whole life,
and I really mean it.

Speaker 2 (02:07:26):
I really mean it right now, give me, give me credit.
I listened when I was a young board operator twenty
years old, football Sunday was on my radio on seven
hundred and KSV in Houston, Texas. So I remember young
Kevin Harlowe.

Speaker 6 (02:07:40):
Those are those are wonderful memories. I always tell young
broadcasters that sometimes if you dream and you're lucky enough
in the business to achieve those dreams, you don't look
around and say is there more? You say, I'm so
thankful for every step that got me to that position.

(02:08:05):
And whether you're a board up when you're twenty, whether
you're just trying to climb the ladder step by step
from job to job and team to team and assignment
to assignment, you appreciate the journey. And I think anybody
in the business would tell you that same thing, that
the journey truly is such the reward and you enjoy

(02:08:27):
being at the end of it and where your dreams,
you know, all kind of come together. But it's approaching,
it's approaching that which is really fun. And I've enjoyed
the journey much like you.

Speaker 2 (02:08:40):
I'm sure I have, and it is an honor to
have you on. I tell this to Jim when he's
on with me, because we're a fellow. You of h guys,
I mean I on a couple of times. The three
of you can't retire. You just can't. I don't care
if you reduce your schedule. You've cut back in your
Amazon Prime, which I'm not happy about, but that is
what it is. You just can't quit on me because

(02:09:02):
I need you guys in my business. I need people
to go. I wanted Kevin Harle moment. I almost had
one yesterday. Tari Easan's tip in almost gave me a
chance to be on Sports Center, except it was one
tenth of a second too late, so I was I
wasn't able to get the Nationals. Too bad.

Speaker 6 (02:09:17):
Yeah, oh that's too bad.

Speaker 3 (02:09:18):
That's too bad.

Speaker 6 (02:09:19):
You would have enjoyed it and the call, I know
would have been phenomenal. Hey, what is your favorite There's
more as as good as that team is. Oh yeah,
there's more in store.

Speaker 8 (02:09:28):
There's no doubt.

Speaker 2 (02:09:29):
What's your favorite buzzer beater? Whether it be football, you've
called field goals, you've called buzzer beaters in your career.
Give me give me your top one or two if
you can think of it.

Speaker 6 (02:09:39):
Two In big moments, Playoff Game Toronto, Game seven, Philadelphia
Toronto Raptors fade away, falling out of bounds. Heavily defended
Kawhi three in the corner for the Raptors to and
the ball bounced about three or four times on the
rim and went down and won the series, and the

(02:10:02):
Raptors went on to win the championship, but Kawhi hit
that shot in the final seconds to win the series,
got into the finals and the rest is history. And
then we had a game in the Eastern Conference Finals
a couple of years ago in Miami, Boston Derek White

(02:10:23):
beating at the buzzer the Heat to force I think
it was a three to nothing series lead by the Heat,
and Boston came back and won the series. They won,
they won four games to three. But that game six

(02:10:44):
in Miami forced the game seven and White got through
the inbound pass, drove to the basket, retrieved the pass,
took it in and they didn't count it at first,
looked back and it was good. So those, yeah, those
are two kind of recent times. And you know, you

(02:11:04):
got I've always been told you call it as if
it's good, because if they rule it no good, then
it'll it'll just disappear. If it's really good, you say, oh,
I don't know that he got it in time. Then
it lives in that world and you don't have the
oomph on the call. You assume it's good until you're
told otherwise. So you make the call as if it's

(02:11:26):
good in a game winner scoring and whatever sport. And
I've kind of stuck with that motto.

Speaker 2 (02:11:32):
It's good words, great advice. The great Kevin Harlan with
us here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross here
from Portland. Kevin, you've seen the Texans a few times
this year, and everybody that calls a game, whether national
or local or regional, Bragg is about the defense. You
have called the NFL football for thirty plus years. Size
up this Texans defense. And again you don't even necessarily

(02:11:52):
play he to a Houston audience, but the facts are
especially at the ends, daneil Hunter and Will Anderson have
made life miserable for about seventeen or eighteen different quarterbacks
this year.

Speaker 6 (02:12:04):
And they're about ready to make life miserable. I think
for Rogers Monday night, I think he's going to be
pinched all night long. And these kids are excited about
the platform on a Monday night, standalone game, not on
a busy weekend, but standalone game. The weather's not going
to be like it is in Houston. They're not going

(02:12:24):
to be indoors. It's going to have a frigid feel
to it. But I think that when you get to
this stage and you've got the momentum that the Texans
have right now, I don't think anything's going to stop them.
I think Rogers is a historically special player, and I
think getting DK Metcalf is going to help them. And

(02:12:46):
I think the third component is the Texan stopping the
run game, which showed life against Baltimore in Week eighteen
and that big win on Sunday night. Those two kids
are special Warren and and gain Well, and the quarterback
has a very good He's playing exceptional football right now.

(02:13:08):
Rogers is. So that's the matchup. Nothing against CJ and
what that offense does, and not a shot at Watt
and what he means to the Pittsburgh defense. But to me,
the game centers around how effective can Rogers be? Is
though momentum strong enough, is the confidence great enough that

(02:13:29):
they can contend with those two ends? That will just
cause I think havoc all night long. From the Texans defense,
and of course we know about the glitter and the
secondary and what they mean, how they can change a game.
I love this game. I love it for many reasons,
being outdoors, hall of fame quarterback, rising young quarterback in CJ.

(02:13:53):
This defense, which has just been a terrific It checks
every box and what you want in an early playoff
game like this one.

Speaker 2 (02:14:02):
Ross with you here as well, Kevin Harland with us
here on Sports Talk seven ninety and keeping with that matchup, Kevin,
you mentioned CJ. Stroud. I'm just curious your perspective of
somebody who's called a lot of his games and watched him,
of course on fire in his rookie season. Since then
has gone down and shown flashes of that franchise quarterback
elite level play, but just not consistently enough.

Speaker 6 (02:14:26):
Yeah, you know, hard to figure out whether it's it's
always a combination of a lot of things, right, It's
probably he's he's reacting to these defensive coordinators who have
watched a lot of tape on him, have a good
feel for what he did as a rookie, and they
counted it, you know, the last couple of years, and

(02:14:47):
and and maybe not the the eye opening numbers, but
to me, he is incredibly effective. Still best years are
ahead of him. They've surrounded him with some talent, a
wide receiver clearly, and listen, I I we did. We

(02:15:07):
did a game with him uh uh often last year,
one in New England and another places along the way.
So I'm I'm a fan of his personally and and professionally.
He has sat next to me at a rocket scheme
uh and loves basketball and we talked during commercial breaks.

(02:15:28):
So I've got a real affinity for him, and he's
he's become one of my favorite players. But but you know, listen,
this is this is a big stage and a playoff
game on the road in Pitts for that place will
be bananas on Monday. But I think we're gonna see
the best version of him. And I I'm still a

(02:15:48):
huge fan. Upside is gigantic, and I'm I'm clearly on
his side on that conversation. I listen, these these coordinators
spend so much time figuring out what's what they've got
to deal with and and uh, the regression is probably

(02:16:08):
not the right word, but just make maybe that the
rocket was too heavy off that off that launch pad
and and he had to, you know, probably just feel
you know what now is going to be a more complex,
a more studied version of what he was going to
face on Sundays. And but I like what he's done

(02:16:28):
this year. Clearly they're winning, they're in the playoffs, and
I think I think, like I said, I think we're
going to see his best version on Monday night.

Speaker 2 (02:16:37):
Kevin Harland with us here on a Sports Talk seven ninety.
Your privilege to have you on the show, Kevin, And
one of the great things about you is covering the
NFL and doing college basketball, NBA, I mean, all these
different sports. So I did want to switch gears the
NBA real quick because we were talking about this earlier
in the show. And I'm just curious your perspective as
somebody who's followed the league for a while, Uh, the
state of the league, how do you feel right now?

(02:16:58):
I feel like the talent level is very high. There
obviously are some negatives, and one of the things we've
been talking about is all the foul calls. Shay Gilgess
Alexander has been someone who's coming to the limelight as
far as foul hunting and what was the word Victor
Winmbinyama did. It was I can't remember the exact phrase,
but just ball like a reputable ball or whatever it

(02:17:22):
was that he used about not using the foul hunting.
Here's your son, like the state of the NBA where
it is right.

Speaker 6 (02:17:27):
Now, you know, more so than the fouls because that
changes crew to crew, game to game, and sequence to sequence.
Like just the other night, I did a game for
Prime in San Francisco with the Warriors coming off a
road trip day in between, and they arrested Curry and

(02:17:48):
Butler and Green, and my first thought is, all right,
we got a crummy game. Now it because they're playing
Oklahoma City and they're completely oltic except for Hartenstein, and
they're ready to go and and they're on they're on
a path to trying to defend a title, so every
game for them is huge. And they're taking on a
Golden State team that with those three big ones, are

(02:18:09):
going to be, you know, a formidable team. But they're
gonna come in and they're gonna play hard. And they
won by thirty seven points. There are too many games
in the league, and and and and quite frankly for
the league to schedule on a national game with with
the age of that team, Butler, Curry and Green and

(02:18:30):
and and to schedule him in the first game back
against the World champs. Then they're already on the West
Coast playing like I. And I get it. You're you're
dealing with arena schedules and the NHL and college ball
in some cases, and concerts and I we all understand
that there are too many games in this league. The

(02:18:53):
players are different than they were twenty thirty, forty years ago.
The speed of the game is not even close. The
pace the game is not even close. And you would
think that with the insertion of the playing the NBA
Cup thing, and and and you know, adding the play

(02:19:14):
in a playoff tournament just to get into the playoffs
at the end of the season like that the money
and now that the Gigantic TV contracts they've signed, that
the owners could look at the quality of the game
and say, you know, we've got too many games. And
and you can go back and look at what Elijah
On and Jordan and Berkley and and and and Kareem

(02:19:38):
and like all these guys they were playing seventy seven,
seventy eight, but but the game was a different game
then and and and but and the I'm just there
are too many games. They can't practice, they can't get healthy,
they can't catch their breath, and it's it's it's too much.
But the owners will never relent on having those and

(02:20:01):
losing seven eight nine home games. They just won't do it.
So I don't know, I don't know what the answer is.
But it's a shame that when you've got Hall of
famers like Green and Curry and and a terrific player
like Butler, and all three are out, not only in

(02:20:23):
a nationally televised game, but just what about the family
that's taking their kid or their family to go watch,
you know, maybe at Christmas time, Hey, we got four
tickets to watch the Warriors and the Thunder. They're defending
NBA champions, and then those guys don't play. I mean,
I mean, I'm sorry. It's just it's not good. It's
not it's not healthy for the game. The players are exhausted,

(02:20:45):
the soft tissue issuer issues, Uh, these injuries continue to compound.
They they it's it's it's too much. And every coach agrees.
I just talked with Steve Kerry about this the other night,
and and every co chagrees, so more than the fouls
and more than we can That's that's going to be
a constant conversation.

Speaker 10 (02:21:08):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (02:21:08):
But but the number of games is it's it's just
it's it's it's it's hurting the product. And I and
I I feel for fans in this case because those
tickets are expensive and the park is expensive, and the
food is expensive, and it's a big deal and we've
got grandkids and when and and they went to a

(02:21:29):
game at Oklahoma City the other night. A couple of
those guys didn't play. They're heartbroken. I mean, that's that's
what That's what drives the needle. That's what moves the needle.
Is is is the these big name players, the Kevin
Durant and on and on, and if they don't play
because they're taking rest, or maybe that they're a little
nicked up and they can't go, you know, it's it's

(02:21:52):
it's heartbreaking, it really is for these kids. And and
that's I think about the fan. You lose the fan,
that the game is gonna suffer, and that becomes I think,
I think issue number one right now. We're playing too
many games and maybe too compact to schedule, and it's
it's got They've got to relend and they got to
cut back.

Speaker 2 (02:22:13):
One final question here for the legendary Kevin Harlan with
us here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross and Kevin.
I'll be honest with you. I tried to watch some
of the game. It was one thirty one to ninety four,
and it's big of a Kevin Harley fantasy and I
had to turn it off. I was like, good god.
I mean, my wife's like, you call games, you don't
need to watch blow outs, and I'm like, but it's Kevin,
because I don't care to turn it off. So sorry,
this is Thomas loves you. But let's be honest.

Speaker 6 (02:22:35):
You're too good.

Speaker 3 (02:22:35):
You're a good friend. Hey.

Speaker 2 (02:22:38):
Okay, So I don't know if you make predictions, but
you're gonna be calling another Super Bowl. This will put
you in with thirteen, fourteen, fifteen range somewhere in those
super Bowls on radio? Is that correct?

Speaker 6 (02:22:47):
This will be my sixteenth?

Speaker 3 (02:22:49):
Wow?

Speaker 2 (02:22:49):
Okay, so who's going to be there.

Speaker 6 (02:22:54):
I think the NFC Championship is a Seattle Philadelphia one
or the other. I think it's hard to knock out.
It A sending champion. Thank you Rudy for that comment
from years ago. The heart of a champion could never
be extinguished. It can't be, it can't be second guest,
and the Eagles have it, but the Rams appear to
be you know, like like like, But Seattle's number one

(02:23:15):
and they're gonna sit and watch this weekend. And but
but I I like the Eagles or Seattle out of
the NFC. And I guess in my heart, I'd love
to see a Josh Allen Super Bowl for the Bills.
Their fans deserve it. This guy's had an hease, a
reigning MVP. I'd love to see him in there. I

(02:23:35):
don't know if there's a team in the AFC right
now that you'd have to say is the front runner.
I think they're all going to be in there fighting,
and I think it's going to be terrific to watch.

Speaker 4 (02:23:47):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (02:23:47):
And then you know, there's a part of me about
about Aaron Rodgers. I don't know that Pittsburgh's got enough,
but uh, we could be watching his final snaps as
a Hall of Fame quarterback. Be fun to see what
he can do. But I don't want to be at
the expense of the Texans because they love the team
in that quarterback so and and Dimiico is just as

(02:24:08):
good as they come. So I don't know. I'll go
Philly in.

Speaker 8 (02:24:12):
The n C and the a f C.

Speaker 6 (02:24:14):
I'll go Buffalo and and and and or Chicago's got
a tough one against green Bay coming out. I'll go Philadelphia,
and I'll go and I'll go Buffalo. But we're just beginning,
and I think it's gonna be a roller coast. I
think it's gonna be a wild ride.

Speaker 5 (02:24:31):
Man.

Speaker 6 (02:24:31):
You gotta gotta harness yourself in on this one, because
it's gonna be There's no Ma Homes, there's no Lamar.
We have some new new teams in there. Jacksonville's in,
Houston's gonna make some waves. It's gonna be a thrill
and I cannot wait to get it started on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (02:24:48):
Ross tell Kevin, who has Philadelphia and Buffalo super Bowl
and made that prediction back in August. I believe that
was you, Matthew was commanders.

Speaker 6 (02:24:58):
Now I feel good, Yeah, feel good about it now?

Speaker 2 (02:25:01):
All right, the next thing I'm going to have for
you do is we're going to try to name Kansasity International.
Kevin Harlan International, because you spent more time at that
airport than perhaps any human being has been been in
an airport in his life.

Speaker 6 (02:25:10):
So have you been up there? By the way, it's
a brand new airport.

Speaker 3 (02:25:12):
Have you been out?

Speaker 7 (02:25:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (02:25:13):
Yeah, I know, I know, I know Intercontinental is in
the process of and boy that those terminals are gorgeous
at that airport. I go through Houston a lot connecting,
but Kansas City has got a brand new airport now.

Speaker 2 (02:25:25):
And yes, yeah, I was going through for my daughter's volleyball.
They have a big terament every year in February in
Kansas City and that you know. It's not an NBA
stop obviously, but going through there it's nice. But I
always think about, am I ever going to run into
Kevin Harland at Kansas City Kevin Harlan International Airport because
the amount of elite status you have on probably fifteen
airlines is is legendary. So thank you for the time,

(02:25:48):
and again I hate to bother you but once a year,
but it always is a great visit to have you on.
I look forward to seeing you on the prime circuit
for the NBA once the football is over with, and
we thank you so much for it's spending some time
with us today.

Speaker 6 (02:25:58):
Listen, I'm gonna be down there next we get the
thunder in the rockets, so I will I will see
you then.

Speaker 2 (02:26:04):
Well, guess what you're gonna be saying? A lot sg
at the line for two.

Speaker 7 (02:26:11):
Or is it just so?

Speaker 6 (02:26:12):
Is it just so skilled?

Speaker 1 (02:26:14):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (02:26:14):
Stop, that's ridiculous. Now, Hey, I called Danny. I'd be
a fifteen free throws yesterday, Kevin. So trust me, I'm
already warmed up for it.

Speaker 6 (02:26:26):
I hear you.

Speaker 2 (02:26:27):
Tell me how you feel. Thanks, say travels to Pittsburgh
for the Monday Night gave.

Speaker 6 (02:26:32):
Thank you for the time as always, Thanks you guys,
take care, have a great weekend.

Speaker 2 (02:26:35):
Thanks, You'll see you later, all right. Kevin Harland, the
legendary Kevin Harland on National Radio for Monday Night Football.
You can catch it on Westwood one Sports dot Com
Serious XM. We'll have it for you as well in
their NFL channel U. And of course you'll be hearing
him throughout the year on Prime and on the Westwood
One broadcast of the Super Bowl. Technical issues be gone
a sports are we? That was well worth it? My friend? Absolutely,

(02:27:00):
He's just awesome. He's just so poetic and eloquent, nice
just and you hear American treasure, Yeah and you And
he's right, We're not going to see reduction of games.
It's not happening. Reduction in games is reduction and revenue. Yeah,
I mean say that in sports. I mean it's he
said everything, and he's right. Oklahoma City comes to what

(02:27:20):
Golden State wance a year in Golden State. Fans don't
care where they're play. But that's SGA versus the Legends,
and the Legends don't play and Oklahma City goes and
it wins it by forty forty points. Oh, the issues
of the NFL, the NBA has to face. Still a
great league. But yeah, I don't have I think eighty
two games is as a thing of the past or

(02:27:42):
the thing of the future. Actually, all right, we are
I don't know where we are on our clock. It
doesn't matter. We had Kevin Harvey. Fine, we ran a
lot of spots. Yeah we did. I figured we were okay,
joy that nine minute spot break at the beginning of
the hour. All right, one Ross, We'll just today's edition,
I believe or not.

Speaker 7 (02:27:55):
Uh what.

Speaker 2 (02:27:58):
Wait a minute, it's been at SUSA. Yeah, he did
sign he's got a couple of Astro sonnings to get to.
We'll get to that next year on Sports Talk seven ninety.
All right, I think we're back on the clocker. Who cares?
It's a great interview. I fanboy, I'm be honest with
I just do. There's a handful of fan boys I do.
And that's in my industry. That's my game. Those are

(02:28:18):
my guys that I grew up listening to and watching
and appreciating. I try to emulate my game after them.
The work ethic, the talent, the ability to be wardsmens.
I mean, I love to get Mike Trico on it
I and hopefully we will before the end of the
year because he's doing a lot of NBA games. And
I mean, we talked about this the other day when
Trika was calling that the field goal to win the game.
He's talking about mister Luke being the America's gift to

(02:28:39):
kickers and Butcher's it. Yeah, it's the top the top
guys like yeah, like Kevin Harlan, Mike Trinca. There's there's
a reason why they're top guys, you know. So, oh okay,
So let's get to the astros real quick. We not
you know, we really haven't done a whole lot of

(02:28:59):
astrois talk except for when we had em I signed
his deal. And by the way, is he is he
gonna be in Pittsburgh for the Game of Monday? I
mean he's everywhere else? Yeah, I think so. I love
that he's embracing everything. He's with the traveling Texans now,
is that right? He's in the middle of Times Square
with the Texas flag. Yes, that would be hysterical. What

(02:29:21):
even the Texans traveling Texans fans know who he is?
I think so. If you have to bring his translator
with him, that's two flights. He's got a book. Okay,
here we go. Let's go through the arbitration numbers. Hunter
Brown this year five point seven one million dollars. The
Astros and the UH and Hunter agree to that. Wonderful.

(02:29:43):
He's like, you better quad? What will be quadruple? No,
what will be sevenfold? That sextuple? Are you making up
a order? Is that really true?

Speaker 5 (02:29:51):
Uh?

Speaker 6 (02:29:53):
It was.

Speaker 2 (02:29:53):
It was sextupul six, septuple, sept sept the tuple, septuple, tucktuple.

Speaker 6 (02:30:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:30:03):
He's like, this is fine, we can negotiate this, but
if you really want to negotiate with me. We need
to talk about buying up some arbitration. Google says a
scept tuple is correct. Acceptuple. Okay? So Hunter is going
to make a poultry five point seventy one million dollars
to be the ace of this Astros rotation. Beautiful, and
that feels like a very Marlon statement. I mean, it's arbitration.

(02:30:24):
It's fine, He's in arbitration. That's how it goes, all right.
Number two, Jake Myers, let's go he avoids arbitration as well.
Three point five to five million dollars. Good for him
by the land in Nebraska. Hey, Sue Sanchez non tendered

(02:30:45):
six point eight million do okay? We gotta have a
serious talk here. I want you to think about this,
Astros fans, he Sue Sanchez is making more money than
Hunter Brown. Well, he's further along, I imagine, But does
it doesn't matter how many? Yes it does, Yes, yes
it does. But yikes. So he's s Sanchez? Just again,

(02:31:09):
think about that, is gonna make more than a guy
that you hope that can win you twenty games this
year and could be and hopefully a top three signing
young guy. All right, there, you go five point eight
million dollars excuse me, six point eight million dollars for
he's sancha. Now does three point five to five make

(02:31:30):
even Jake Myers even more tradable?

Speaker 5 (02:31:32):
Now?

Speaker 2 (02:31:34):
See, I don't think when you got rid of Jacob Melton,
doesn't that mean that maybe that maybe Jake Myers can
get some real estate in here? So it's Jake Mark. Oh, well,
I don't know make getting read. No, No, you're right.
I'm sorry I was saying Jake Myers, but I miss
I miss spoke. Yeah, Jake Myers. I don't know if
he's gonna be here long term. The fan club hopes
he is. Oh the thing? Yeah, does the fan clubs

(02:31:57):
you lose some of There were rumors about him being
I'm stunny still here. Honestly, I'm surprised as well. I
mean there, but I don't want to. I don't swirling.
Am I the only one worried about the outfield out
depth right now? For the Stros?

Speaker 3 (02:32:08):
No, you're not.

Speaker 2 (02:32:10):
Okay if I say you're opening day outfield right now
is Hayesus Sanchez and well right right, Jake Myers in
center and jord On Alvarez and left designated hitter Jose
Al two va esuk praise at the second What your
opening day left fielder is not gonna be ord on it?

(02:32:33):
It could be it's not Where are they They're at home?

Speaker 11 (02:32:38):
Er there?

Speaker 2 (02:32:39):
When did they go to Colorado early on? I can't remember? No,
their home? Uh open up against the Halo. Yeah, I
thought we're gonna get I thought we're gonna get Yorda.
I'm playing one hundred and forty games in left field.
You can want Yeah, okay, well they said that the
last year and how that go well? Actually they had
a lot of games for him out But we don't
even know what to believe it. This can say what
you want, but you there's just somebody's gonna have to

(02:33:01):
play more left and Jordan's a better option than Jose
al Tuve, which nobody thought they would ever say out loud.
Can I tell you a little bit of a gut
feeling I have. I think I think Jose could put
that left fielder glove away for good, for good, yes,
not thinking I was thrilled about it, But I'm just
telling you I'm not gonna say for good. All right,
But the comments from a spot it sounds like they

(02:33:21):
want to get him back more at second base. I
don't know. I mean, it was impressive that he was
one of the worst left fielders and second basement just inspit.
That's not impressive limited, I mean he got half the
time in both and was still one of the worst. Metrically,
it was incredible, very impressive. Okay, all right, So if

(02:33:45):
his name was Doug Williams, he'd be off the team
or traded. Okay, what could Sanchez play left field? You know,
maybe that's unfair. But Jacob and center, I mean, uh,
Jake and center, and then look jac cover Jake and
cover up for Jose al Tuova some camps then, right.
You know, Jake likes to call for everything. Jake lects

(02:34:07):
to go sideline to sideline. Jake would like to would
like to actually take up two salaries and play multiple
positions in the outfield.

Speaker 3 (02:34:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:34:17):
Every time you see Jake call somebody off a flyball,
drink just kidding, don't die. When Jake Myers goes to
the to the foul poll and left field for a GRAMB,
you know he wants more territory. He's starting to get
his get his metrics up. He knows well, he's got
to like if they don't want to keep a year
I got at least maybe he knows. Yeah, he knows
his zone rating. He knows. So funny because we were

(02:34:39):
joking about that with him in the in the locker
room last year. You know, if we get to if
Jake still with the team, will go down there, we're
gonna have to teach him about that, right we did.
He his eyes lit up.

Speaker 4 (02:34:49):
Here.

Speaker 2 (02:34:49):
I was like, you know, without two va and left
your zone ratings, we're about to go. His eyes lit up.
He was so excited. I swear to God, I would
ask him, I do. I would ask him, are you
willing to play all three positions once? Oh?

Speaker 3 (02:35:02):
Man? No?

Speaker 2 (02:35:02):
And I just now I'm just trying to be a
good teammager and to help it, you know, like, no,
I got everything. They want to call me mister foul pole.
The foul pole. He can do it as long as
his CAF is. Okay, you can put some extra infielders in.
Nothing can get through. But anywhere between second and short,
how about that? Oh okay, if you got all two
like that, two outfielders, like when it's like at the
end of the game and the guys on third, yes,

(02:35:25):
put six in the infield. Seven. Yes, maybe have a
backup to a backup catcher. Put one guy behind the
backstop the whole time. Yeah, you know what, Jake's gonna
cover eighty percent of the outfit by himself. Why not?
All right? ROSSI uh, who do we have between all
Miss and the Canes tonight?

Speaker 8 (02:35:43):
Mmmm?

Speaker 7 (02:35:44):
Pardon me?

Speaker 2 (02:35:45):
Wants All Miss to win because this dynamic of coaches
back and forth is so Yes, yes, you know what
for the narrative, I'm with you, go Ole Miss, let's
go ReBs. But the thing that is the biggest travesty
and if you bring us up to Gordy he gets
so mad at you? Is it forever? Old Miss win.
LSU's gotta pay Lane Kiffen money. Well, you should also
bring up the LSU lineman go into Old Miss if

(02:36:07):
you want to really make them mad. LSU's getting poached
in the portal. I don't even I don't think LSU's
doing so hot before. La Texas is losing a lot
of portal players too, So I can't. But aren't you
guys get in a gain? But you got the they're
losing a lot of depth they have, like almost I
think it's twenty some odd players hit the portal from Texas.
They're prioritizing starters and going to be lacking in depth,

(02:36:27):
which is gonna be fine unless they run into a
rash of injuries. But if you go to Texas for
one year and you don't play like you think you
should play, you could go to US a second tier,
maybe a low power four or an upper echelon group
of five, make a decent amount of money and play.
I mean, at some point you go to balance between
money collecting and playing and kids want to play, right,

(02:36:48):
they still do. I think they still need even the
money being out thrown out there. Nobody wants to sit
and make in two hundred and fifty thousand dollars just
to sit there, because they know the longer they sit,
the last chance they have a chance to grow that
two fifty and even unless your chance, they have to
actually try to maybe make a professional creative playing pro football.
M would you rather make five hundred to be a

(02:37:10):
backup at ut or make three seventy five in play
at say Memphis five hundred or twenty five thousand dollars? Yeah,
but you're probably not going pro. The guys at Memphis

(02:37:30):
going pro all the time, not to the level of ut.
But there's still guys that are non power file going, well,
we're not all high fluting like you. Matt Us Poorest
think one hundred twenty five thousand dollars a lot of money. Yeah,
but you can get ribs discount ribs in Memphis, you
get there's great Austin. This is arguably the best barbecue
city in the planet. Bb Kings disagrees. Bb Kings Yeah,

(02:37:54):
bb oh have you heard of Franklin Interstellary barbecue briskets?
Cork get me started. Oh, now you're just making up places. No,
I don't. Corky's is a mouse. Porky's is a movie
man from the eighties. That's Porky's, not Quirkys the special
kid on that sitcom. That's something else. Okay, First of all,

(02:38:18):
that is an outstanding pull on your part. Secondly, nobody
knows what you're talking about. You think, so there's a
lot of people we'll find out right now. No, go
to your Twitter account. No, I'd rather not.

Speaker 3 (02:38:31):
You get me.

Speaker 2 (02:38:31):
I'm getting in too much trouble on Twitter and send
Ross what you think he meant by saying Corky You
will not get another tweet in the next time. Better
barbecue and Austin than Memphis. Don't even don't at me,
bro No, Texas barbecue is amazing. I get it well,
even though you kind of cannot wait to get home
and get me some Holopeno sausage and some ribes and

(02:38:52):
some brisket great size, and maybe a bite of brisket. Uh,
believe it or not? Is up next the category of
ross is you have no idea what we We had
the whole thing with Kevin Harlan. I was trying to
help them run the board. I was literally putting spots in.
I need reprieve or we can reuse something. Do we

(02:39:13):
not have an old one from about Portland. I've been
coming to Portland once a year. There's no old Portland
when we can throw in there. Kevin Harlan, But he's
not that interesting. Do you tell him that? I mean,
as far as it's not like he's like, you know,
hang gliding off of Mount Everest. You know he's called
Burger King as a high schooler. Believe it or not,
All right, I'll write that one down. No, do not.

(02:39:36):
Let's see, I don't think I've done the City of Portland.
By the way, he got another word, Jeremy Pana settling
for arbitration at nine point four to seven straight cash, homie.
Everybody's getting along on arbitration. That's good. We hate to
go to arbitration. It makes us look bad when we're here.
I'm gonna use this. I'm gonna reconfigure this Portland Trailblazers.

Speaker 6 (02:39:55):
One.

Speaker 2 (02:39:55):
All right, very good, that's up next, one forty five
Here on sports Talk seven hundred ross up and void
with one thing really quickly. I have not done it
in several days, and I feel like it's a public service.
You guys need to follow me on Instagram. At sports Empt, Yes,
they do. At sports t for great video clips. Uh,
from where I'm traveling around the country, some different foods

(02:40:17):
I'm eating from time to time. Yes, it's great content
all Yes, Sports Empt. If if you want me put
it this way, If you want the Texans to win
on Sunday on Monday, it's at Sports Empt. If you
don't follow me, they may not win. Uh at sports Empt. Yes,

(02:40:40):
at Sports Empty. Five minutes left to go in the show,
what should we do? We should playing America's fastest growing
sports radio game show, we simply called it be leave
it out and here's how it works. You'll call seven
one three two one two five seven at seven one
three two one two five seven Hontie. Today's edition is

(02:41:01):
the best of all things about the Portland Trailblazers. I'll
read your statement about the Blazer statements completely utterly acry.
You'll say this, believe it, have a statements you weren't
as full of ball command up. You will say this
not two believer or nots in a row when you
either a seven ninety t shirt, a pair of tickets
to see the Monster Energy AMA Supercross January the thirty
first and Energy Stadium, or a pair of tickets to

(02:41:21):
see Everclear Live January the fifteenth, that's one week from
today at the House of Blues. Tickets on sale for
the Monster Energy Supercross and Everclear are available for you
at ticketmaster dot com. Seven one three two one two
five seven ninety Nick on seven ninety, Nick, You're ready
to play Believe it or not Sure. The Portland Trailblazers

(02:41:45):
were originally going to be called the Pioneers until nearby
Lewis and Clark College threatened legal action. Believe it or Not.

Speaker 3 (02:41:54):
Wow, I believe it?

Speaker 5 (02:41:56):
Nah?

Speaker 2 (02:41:56):
Should I like that?

Speaker 3 (02:42:00):
One?

Speaker 2 (02:42:01):
Poor kid? Neil on seven hunting Neil, what was your
favorite part of today's ten to two radio show?

Speaker 6 (02:42:07):
I had a good time with I just don't get
it earlier?

Speaker 2 (02:42:10):
Rick Adelman, Thank you. Rick Adelman has the most coaching
wins in Blazer's history. He's got two hundred and ninety one.
Believe it or not?

Speaker 6 (02:42:18):
Believe it no?

Speaker 2 (02:42:19):
Doctor Jack Ramsey four?

Speaker 3 (02:42:22):
Three?

Speaker 6 (02:42:25):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (02:42:26):
Bill?

Speaker 3 (02:42:28):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (02:42:28):
Hi Bill Yo. The Portland Trailblazers all time lading scorer
is Clyde Drexler. Believe it or not?

Speaker 5 (02:42:38):
Not?

Speaker 2 (02:42:39):
No, it's Damian Lillard. Of course, we talked about it earlier.
I know you were listening statement number two for the win.
In two thousand and three, then Blazer's owner Paul Allen
trademarked the phrase jail Blazers in order to shut down
products and apparel marketing the negative phrase Believe it or not?

Speaker 6 (02:42:58):
Man, that's almost a gimney, not five.

Speaker 2 (02:43:07):
It's a gimme.

Speaker 6 (02:43:07):
Huh?

Speaker 2 (02:43:09):
John on seven? Are you ready to play? Believe it
or not? The Trailblazer's pinwheel logo contains ten lines representing
a five on five basketball contest. Believe it or not?
Not it is instead of times you gotta most the
information about pinwheel Geo on seventy to play Believe it

(02:43:32):
or Not. In the late nineteen eighties, the Trailblazers mascot
was Bigfoot, which was former Blazer Center Dale shooter in
a nine foot tall Sasquatch costume. Believe it or not
that someone believe it? Good statement number two for the win.
The Portland Trailblazers all time leading rebounder is LaMarcus Aldridge.

(02:43:56):
Believe it or not?

Speaker 7 (02:43:59):
No, no, don't believe it?

Speaker 2 (02:44:01):
Good Last one Steaven on seven. Are you ready to
play Believe it or not? Believe it? The trail Blazers
current television analyst is former Blazers power forward Antonio Harvey.
Believe it or not? Believe it? No, it's not. I
don't even know who it is.

Speaker 4 (02:44:25):
For us.

Speaker 2 (02:44:25):
Thanks for your hard work on that. You're welcome up
next two guys that will work hard for you for
the next four hours. Sports Insight, Entertainment and Hilarity. Well,
well that was the show we were just on. I
don't know what they're gonna do.

Speaker 7 (02:44:42):
Now.

Speaker 2 (02:44:42):
It's Adam and Adam with Deity on Sports Talk, seventh
n