Halford & Brough in the Morning - Canada Basketball Falls Flat But At Least It's Hammer Time

Episode Date: August 7, 2024

In hour one, guest hosts Jamie Dodd & Israel Fehr look back at the previous day in sports (3:000, they talk a tough Canada Basketball Olympic loss to France (6:00), plus they chat the White Sox historic losing streak coming to an end with The Athletic Chicago's Jon Greenberg (27:44).  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na- And back to the point where it's in the field. It's hard to be the laughing stock of baseball. These long losing streaks, everyone talks about it, and the rest of the national news pick up on it. It's easy conversation, it's easy news. Out to left field, coming in, then attending, and the streak is over! You play to win the game. Good morning. Welcome to another edition of Halford & Brough here on Sportsnet 650. Still no Halford, still no Brough. It's Jamie Dodd and my guy Israel Fair filling in for the week.

Izzy, how's it going, man? Still just recovering from that Canada basketball loss. Yeah, we will get into it. I was so excited leaving the show, man. We'll get into it in full detail. And that's my nap window. Yeah. Missed a nap to watch that, and it was crushingly, crushingly disappointing.

All right. So last time or yesterday, I rattled the dogs by addressing them inappropriately or surprisingly. So I'm going to do it very carefully here. Hey, dog. Good morning. Good morning. All right. Nailed it.

Laddie, good morning. Hello, hello. How are you guys doing? We're excellent. Is that your catchphrase? Hello, hello? It's the best I could come up with. It is, yes.

You're trademarking hello, hello? Yes. No one else can use it. I look forward to that. 650, 650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line. Already lots of good what we learns coming in. So get those in now. We might hit some of them throughout the course of the show.

And of course, we'll do it at 830 as well. Halford & Brough is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. And of course we are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews.

Sore feet. What are you waiting for? We got a lot going on today. Of course, the Olympics still in full swing. We got some, I was going to say judo, taekwondo action on the TVs here, as well as some track cycling.

So, you know, we'll keep you updated on any of the big developments in those sports. Of course, on the guest list today, 630 John Greenberg from the Athletic in Chicago columnist is going to join us. As you heard in the intro, the White Sox snap a 21-game losing streak with a win against the A's last night. So we'll talk to John a little bit about the White Sox, everything they've been going through. But also, there's a lot going on in Chicago sports, right?

Caleb Williams, first overall pick starting for the Bears. They're on hard knocks as well. We might even get a little Conor Bedard talk in with John Greenberg. So that's at 6.30. At 7, Dan Shulman, who was on the call for that very, very disappointing performance by Canada basketball yesterday, he'll join us

to break down everything that went down in the quarterfinal against France and where the program goes from here. At 7.30, Ben Lewis, he's the host of the Matchpoint Canada podcast, also a writer for Sportsnet covering tennis. The National Bank Open got going last night, overshadowed a little bit more than it usually is, I would say,

by the Olympics, but still always a big tournament in Canada. So we'll talk to Ben Lewis about that. And then at 8 o'clock, Vanny Sartini, his squad's got a big match against Pumas tonight at BC Place. So we'll talk to Vanny about that. Also, I believe the transfer window ends tomorrow in MLS. So busy, busy time for the Whitecaps. Lots to get into with Vanny Sartini at 8 o'clock.

Working in reverse. 8 o'clock, Vanny Sartini, Whitecaps manager. 7.30, Ben Lewis, host of the Matchpoint Canada podcast and a tennis writer for Sportsnet. Martini, Whitecaps manager. 7.30, Ben Lewis, host of the Matchpoint Canada podcast, and a tennis writer for Sportsnet. 7 o'clock, Dan Schulman, who called the Canada game against France yesterday. And at 6.30, John Greenberg, a columnist for The Athletic in Chicago. Before we do any of that, let's do What Happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the Construction Safety Alliance.

Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit bccsa.ca. There's some good news coming out of the Olympics for Canada from yesterday that we will touch on, but of course, we got to start with the bad news, the game that we spent a big portion of the show hyping up yesterday. Izzy, we were excited for it. We both rushed home right after the show to watch it, but unfortunately, Canada loses to France, 82-3 in the men's basketball

quarterfinals in paris their quest to get on the podium is over and 8273 nine point loss doesn't really tell the whole story of this game right from the jump france all over canada canada look rattled early you and i both said i live a lot closer to the station than you, but even by the time I got home, turn the TV on was like 16 five. They're down double digits. I rushed home and turn the TV on. They're already down double digits. And it was one of those games where watching

it, I just had that that pit in my stomach, that sinking feeling in my stomach for pretty much the whole game. They made it close to points. We can talk about that, but right from the jump, more or less, this was a tough one to watch if you were rooting for Canada. Yeah, unfortunately, a familiar feeling when it comes to Canadian basketball at this level.

And that was a gut punch because it didn't play out the way that we anticipated. It wasn't Victor Wemenyama having an all-time game did he have some plays that only a guy like him could make yes a couple of blocks a couple of steals that were momentum shifting but he didn't dominate it was a bunch of french league euro league veterans that that crushed canada and that was that was hard to stomach for a team that had the expectations not just in this country but going in they were expected to be the second best team in the tournament after the americans and obviously going out in the

quarterfinals is not getting anywhere close to realizing that potential yeah and there's so many different frustrating elements to this game, and I should mention they were down by as many as 19. They got it to a five-point game with about four minutes left, so you do want to give some credit for sticking with it, for battling back, but then a lot of the problems

that had contributed to them digging that hole cropped up in the final minutes, turnovers, lack of shot-making, fouling on defense we can talk about the refs as well they just couldn't execute down the stretch so they get it to five points but it was never really in doubt france always seemed in control of this game and as you mentioned you know we spent a lot of time on the show yesterday talking about this game from the perspective of how are they going to deal with vict Wemba and Yama and Rudy Gobert,

right? The twin towers download, the height, the elite NBA defensive presence that both of them bring, the versatility on offense that Wemby has. What are they going to do with this, especially given the lack of size for Canada? And I don't think it was just us. I don't think that was like a media creation that that was the focus on this game because you know what reading the reports at a practice a lot of the questions were hey, what are you going to do against Wemby right? And it's like well Dylan Brooks is going to do it where you know, we're going to have to try some

different things. I think the Canadian coaching staff was really prepared to think about and solve the problem of how do we deal with those two guys and then go bear plays less than four minutes in the game. Like he was a total non-factor. France didn't even, he wasn't even a part of the game plan more or less for France.

Wemby goes two of 10 from the field, seven points. Now he did impact the game defensively, right? Blocks, deterring shots, steals, rebounds,

all of that. So he did. I don't want to say he didn't affect the game, but he wasn't a key part of their offense by any stretch. And as you said, it was the supporting players, right? Gershon Yabasili, Matthias Lesore, Isaiah Cordinier. Those are the guys doing the damage. Those were the guys killing Canada.

And it's very, very frustrating to finally have this team loaded with not just NBA talent, but good NBA talent, obviously starting with SGA, who was really good yesterday, but like contributing players on contending teams, right? Lou Dort's a starter on a really, really good team. RJ Barrett is a, you know, he hasn't been on contending teams, but he's a regular starter in the NBA. Dylan Brooks, regular starter in the NBA. And those guys all got outplayed by, as you said, EuroLeague guys, guys who had a cup of coffee in the NBA, but then went back to Europe. And that happens in FIBA, but it just felt like they didn't have an answer

and they were maybe caught a little bit off guard by the game plan from France. Well, France, to me, they flipped. They basically flipped the game plan on Canada's head because going into the game, my thought was those wing players, you know, the guys like Dort and Brooks, and we talked a lot about how Brooks is the one that sets the tone for this team

and he's the one that's going to take on Wemby and he has that attitude, he has the personality that they're not afraid, et cetera, et cetera. And that they needed to be aggressive early. Because our thought was, well, France is going to win. They're going to have to play this methodical game. They've got the two big guys take advantage of Canada's weakness. They didn't even give Canada that opportunity because they have these energy players, these guys that are very accomplished in the EuroLeague to do what I,

what I was hoping Canada would do to France. They flipped it on their head. Despite going small, France was the more physical, aggressive team. Like that is one of the most frustrating things, right? That you thought,

okay, maybe they'll have this advantage inside because of their height, but they had an advantage inside, not necessarily because of their height, just because guys like Yabasaley and Lasort were outmuscling Canada, were working harder, were being more aggressive. And they fed off the crowd. And yes, we haven't mentioned the refs yet. And the refs are, I think, a part of this conversation.

It might be a small part of the conversation. There were a few calls that went against Canada that were pretty shocking. But you still, you lose by nine. At one point, you're down by over 15. Like, you're not, it's not one call at the end of a game where you're getting screwed. No. And so, look, and, you know, I know Shea Gildress Alexander was asked about it after the game, and he basically said, you know, we didn't lose because of the refs.

And credit to SGA for taking that approach, for not having the kind of emotional reaction and blaming the refs. I get it. You look at the free throw discrepancy. It was a massive discrepancy, right? But at the same time, France was being way more physical and aggressive inside. And when you're on the front foot, when you're the aggressor,

what tends to happen is you get the calls. And I think there's a part of this where you can be frustrated by some of the calls that went against Canada, but also at a certain point, you got to defend without fouling. You have to stop fouling, and Canada just wasn't able to do that. And it felt like every time Canada made a big bucket offensively, France came back, and they were able to get to the line and they were able to get some easy points up

and kind of stop any momentum that Canada might have had. I almost wonder if the intensity of the crowd caught Canada by surprise a little bit, right? Which you wouldn't think would be possible. You know you're playing on the other team's home court in front of their home fans. But part of that is that the refs might be caught up in it a little bit. You have to be mentally prepared for that.

And it felt like Canada just kept getting more and more frustrated that they were sending France to the line over and over again. You have to have a plan in place to deal with that. And I will say, you know, we can talk like we haven't talked about Jamali Murray yet. OK, so let's do that actually first before we get into the coaching. Jamal Murray had an ugly, ugly game. Three of 13 from the field, seven points, turnovers, bad decisions. And this was a game, you know, there are some players and there are some games where, like even Wemby, right?

Two of 10 from the field. Wemby had a positive impact on the game for France. He was making plays defensively. He was getting rebounds. He was impacting the game for France. He was making plays defensively. He was getting rebounds. He was impacting the game. Jamal Murray, three of 13 from the field, not a defensive guy, wasn't creating offense for others, was making poor decisions, was kind of killing the flow of the offense at times. It wasn't just the bad shooting. He wasn't doing anything to help the team out there. And it was tough to watch. And we know what a great player he can be at his peak.

We never saw it in this tournament and certainly not yesterday. And this is a team loss, right? They win and lose as a team. I'm not pinning it all on Jamal Murray. But if you're just listing factors that contributed to it, his night is up there for sure. Yeah, it has to be. And it was a really, really disappointing tournament for him.

And I know that there are some lingering, why was he coming off the bench stuff coming from him, right? That's been expressed by him. That's a coach's decision. Look, I get it. You're a guy that at the highest level, at his best, changed NBA Finals games, was the second best player on a team that won the title.

He did not look anywhere close to being that guy they needed him to hit some big shots he had a couple of open threes that he didn't hit and that was at a point in the game where they kept closing the gap and they got to within five and it reminded me a little bit and this tends to happen a lot in international basketball it did remind me of the game against Spain, where Canada went up pretty big early, had a double-digit lead, and then throughout the second half, Spain gets to within five, and then Canada gets it back to ten. But what the difference was is that late in that game, when things kind of got a little bit tighter, and it's not so much back and forth,

it's very much a half-court game, the Spanish team eventually did get it down to two, right? And Canada just could not do that. Murray missed a number of layups. He missed a number of threes. He had a couple of bad passes that, as you said, Jamie basically took the team out of their offense so yeah a really a really tough one for a guy that was you know i think a lot of credit was given to him for wanting to continue to play for canada despite having you know he's been on a contending team he's been on a team that's made some deep playoff runs so he's had injury issues so he's had those injury issues and it's been you know i i might not

i might not be there at the training camp immediately, but I'm still committed to play for Canada. So for this to be the result is hugely, hugely disappointing. I'm sure disappointing on a personal level, too. But he's supposed to be the second guy on this team. And you saw the difference in this tournament, and especially yesterday, when he is not even close to that level, what it does to the team. And he had a play in the first quarter where, you know, pulls up for a long two, then it looks like it's going to be blocked. So as he's in the air, changes his mind and tries to pass.

And it's a turnover. And it's like, it's like basketball one-on-one. Don't leave your feet. If you're not sure what you're going to do, right? Once you leave your feet, you're shooting the ball. You can't change it up in midair. And it's just a player who was not in rhythm, who was not feeling comfortable pretty much from the start and was never able to get it going now. Because I don't want to put it all on Jamal Murray. My question that follows from this and what I was wondering watching this game is, why is he still on the floor?

He played 24 minutes of a 40-minute game coming off the bench, just under 24 minutes of a 40-minute game, and he probably plays Canada's deepest position, right? Andrew Nembhard, who played about 16 minutes, had an incredible game against Spain, was knocking down shots, was making plays for Canada. Nikhil Alexander-Walker is a good NBA player, played like three minutes yesterday. So at a certain point, you have to recognize and say okay this guy's supposed to be our second player but he's not getting it done right now we have to go to another option we have other options it's not like he's a big and you're like you know what this is our guy we have to ride with we don't have anyone else on the bench they had other legitimate options and i

don't know why jordy fernandez kept going with jamal murray i do feel like that's another part of the story here is that canada got outached a little bit, right? We talked about the surprise element of France going small. And I almost think that watching the game, it felt like Canada got punched in the face right out of the gate. And I think it threw them off their game plan. And Jordy Fernandez, maybe a little bit of panic because it felt like to me in the second half, he was leaving Jamal Murray and basically as a Hail Mary like hey maybe Jamal will get hot and he'll shoot some threes and that will get us back into the game and let them get off their game plan because there's no way he was one of the five players who should have been out there trying to cut down that lead for Canada he

just wasn't being effective and I don't know why despite having other options jordy fernandez kept running jamal murray out there it felt like the team and the coaching staff were all just very very rattled by the environment by getting going down early and they were never able to adjust they were never able to take that next step or the coach the the coach to make that adjustment to get the team back in the game yeah i think you nailed it that to me is the the reason that murray was in the game was hey they they they flipped the game plan on us they did what we should have been doing to them our hail mary our wild card is this guy who has done this at the highest level and and help win finals games by getting hot and hitting big shots but there were no indications

in the first three games that he was going he was bad that he wasn't the game against spain there was nothing to see that there were no like little hints that you could squint at and say like oh i see it coming for him he's gonna he's gonna get hot now it just wasn't there it wasn't their all tournament that's tough you can put it you can put it, but as a coach, you've got to adjust to that. You've got to recognize as difficult as this is, I'm not going to roll with the big name guy. I've got to go with the players like Andrew Nembhard who have been actually getting it done for me at this tournament. It was very frustrating sitting and watching it and not seeing Jordy Fernandez make those adjustments. 650-650, you can text in, what was the most frustrating thing for you watching that game?

What's your reaction to this? I mean, ultimately, as much as we can say this team has taken step forwards and they win their group and all of that, this is still a devastating, devastating loss for a team that clearly had the talent to contend for a medal. And now the question is, where does the program go from here? Right. You start to look ahead to the 2028 Olympics. They'll be in LA and look,

there's still lots of young talent on this team, especially Shea Gilgis, Alexander. He's going to be in his prime and he's one of the best players in the NBA. So you have that as a, as a building block, you're always going to be in a pretty good position, but there's some major questions as well.

Right. And, you know, for me, it starts, who can they add? Who can they add not just to the kind of the perimeters of the program, but to who can they add that's going to move the needle, right? And Zach Eadie is probably the name that comes up. We saw the lack of size.

He certainly addresses that. Yep. Can he establish himself as a winning player, first of all, at the NBA level, but then as a guy who can move the needle at the international level? I think that's going to be probably the biggest question for Team Canada going into 2028. Is this another guy who you can kind of lock in as a starter, lock in as someone you can really count on, not just to be there, but to play a big role for you going into these types of big games? Yeah, the size is a factor. Even if it wasn't what decided the game yesterday, you could imagine a scenario where even if France decides we're going to go and we're going to play a little bit smaller, we're going to play through the wings and with some of our energy guys, that just having a big presence at center would potentially help stabilize Canada. And then if you're going to look ahead to 2028,

the Americans are still going to have big men. Wemby's not going anywhere. If anything, he's going to be better four years from now. And you have to imagine that Jokic is still going to be around and he's still going to be a factor that you're going to have to deal with so yes certainly the size is going to be be part of that discussion and and then i guess look i i don't want to belabor this or make it a bigger deal than it is but if if jamal murray is a little bit unhappy about coming off the bench then you have to have a conversation about, you know, not to overuse a term that we use in sports talk a lot, but what's the culture like?

You know, this is a guy that I just gave him credit for wanting to show up for Canada and being there. But if he's not fully bought into the role that he's supposed to be playing, or at least, you know, using that as an excuse for his poor play, then you've got to evaluate that part of it. You can get all the players that you want. You can discuss, oh, Canada missed out on, would have Andrew Wiggins made a difference? I think we're past those conversations now. That was for four, five, six, seven, eight years ago. A couple of texters asking,

is he the Elias Pettersson of the Canada team? That's good sports radio content right right here the whole segment right there so yeah i mean they've got they've got questions jamie and um the thing with jamal murray also is he's 27 and look that's that's not old he's in his prime but you start to forecast to 2028 he'll be 31 and when injuries start like you know this international soccer right as a player gets close to 30 sometimes they decide to focus on their club career more than international play, right? Especially a guy who's had repeated injury concerns. So, look, would you love to have a really, you know, in form, at the peak of his powers, Jamal Murray healthy for 2028? Yeah, of course you would.

But I don't think you can count on that. I think you have to have another plan for how you're going to win as a team rather than just crossing your fingers and hoping Jamal Murray is 100% and good to go. I don't think that's something you can rely on at all at this point. I also wonder if Jordy Fernandez, how long he's going to be around here, right? He's got a job with the Brooklyn Nets now as the head coach. He's done a lot of good things, so I don't want to let one disappointing loss kind of change my opinion of him, want to let one disappointing loss kind of change

my opinion of him but it was a disappointing coaching job so lots of questions going forward for team canada basketball we'll talk to dan shulman about a lot of that coming up at seven i did want to mention as i said the good news and a bunch of people have texted in about it richmond's cameron rogers wins gold in the women's hammer throw, which means Canada and B.C. specifically is officially the hammer throw powerhouse of world athletics. The hammer throw capital of the world right here in British Columbia. As we go double gold behind Cameron Rogers and Ethan Katzenberg. A woman hasn't won an individual athletics gold for Canada

since Ethel Catherwood in 1928. It's been a long time since a Canadian woman has taken home individual athletics gold. So an incredible accomplishment for Cameron Rogers. And I gotta ask, what is it? Where did we get our gift

for Chuck and Hammers? A super long way? Like, what's in the water here? What makes us so talented at hammer throw? I was trying it all day yesterday, and it is quite hard, I got to say. It's not as easy as it looks. You just went down to Home Depot and grabbed a hammer? Yeah, I'm not allowed there anymore.

Started chucking it around? Apparently, it's frowned upon. I did want to read this, though, by harry from new west and early what we learned says there must be something in the water that makes british columbia the world leader in the hammer throw because he says not only do we have the olympic gold medals in hammer throw we have successful masters athletes as well myrtle acton is from sook she has the world record for women 90 years and above by throwing at 20.47 meters and olga catelco from north van has the world record for hammer throw for women 95 and above by throwing at a distance of 14.92 meters i had no idea that there were 90 and 95 year old age classes for hammer throw so shout out to the 90 year old to say that getting it done myrtle is like the

most it's incredible 90 year old yes it really is ever yeah they got to bring myrtle back there's also an ethyl yeah a second ago that was a great name that was the person who won the gold in uh in 1928 yeah she could have been a contemporary myrtle we gotta popularize ethyl and myrtle again gotta bring that back it's gotta be a thing. I just love it. I want to go to one of these like 90-year-old plus meets. This is incredible. Also like 20 meters?

Throwing a hammer? Throwing a hammer 20 meters at 90 years old? Yeah. That sounds really hard. With the technique too, right? With the spins. With the spin?

Absolutely. I think just doing the spins at 95 that those hammer throw spins would knock a lot of people down. Seriously, that's dangerous. All right, one other quick note. This morning, Mo Ahmed, Canadian distance runner, disqualified from the 5,000 meter after stepping on another runner.

This was in one of the early heats. His appeal is denied. He won't be in the final. That's tough. He would have had a chance at a medal. So disappointing result there for Mo Ahmed. I also want to mention quickly, coming up at 8 a.m., Canada in the women's beach volleyball semifinals.

So looking forward to that. All right, as I mentioned earlier, big news out of Major League Baseball yesterday. The White Sox win. They snap a 21-game losing streak with a win over the Oakland Athletics. So I'm sure there's parades in the street last night in Chicago. We'll talk to John Greenberg from the Athletic about that. A lot more going on in Chicago sports as well.

By the way, get ready for the ultimate sports fan trip to Michigan from September 27th to October 1st. Experience games at the Big House, Comerica Park, and Ford Field. Contact Neil Chark at neilc at uniglobecarefree.ca for details. More coming up next here on Halford & Brough Sportsnet 650. Jamie Dodd and Israel Thayer filling in. Alfred and Brough brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit. Experience the Dilawri difference today.

Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. 650-650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome details at DunbarLumber.com. I'm informed that it is Eurodance Wednesday on the show. Pretty good. Just stick to it more closely than you stuck to Big Band Tuesday yesterday.

I was really disappointed with that. We're running out of ideas. I want to hear clear-cut, no doubt about it, Eurodance. You're off to a good start. Okay. Bring in the energy. I appreciate it. All right.

As I mentioned, Halford and Brough here, Sportsnet 650. Now joining us, he's a columnist with The Athletic Chicago. Lots going on in Chicago sports these days. He is John Greenberg. John, thanks for doing this.

How are you today? I'm good. So we're not talking about the Winnipeg Blue Bombers win over the BC Lions last week, I guess is what you're saying. I mean, if you want to.

My guy Zach Caleros had a good game. My guy Zach, the Tom Brady of the CFL, had a good game. Yeah, you don't see a lot of shutouts in the CFL. So that was a tough one for the BC Lions to take. But they're going to get back on the right track. Don't worry.

Speaking of getting back on the right track, are they still popping champagne and celebrating after the White Sox win over the A's last night, John? Yeah, according to our Sam Blum, or Blum, I don't even know how you pronounce his last name. He was in Oakland from California base, and he went to Oakland for that, and he said they ran out of beer in the clubhouse. Like, it's not every day a team wins their 28th game in, you know, the first week of August. So it was a pretty big celebration.

Yeah, it was a banner day in Chicago. Cubs won, Sox broke a 21-game losing streak, and the Bears were on hard knocks. I mean, this was really as good as it gets in this city. On the White Sox, obviously the last month has been getting a lot of attention for the wrong reasons. One win doesn't change, I think, the general direction, the general vibe, but

where are fans at with this team? There's obviously not a lot to cheer for right now. Is there any reason for people to buy in and believe that it could get any better, even just slightly better anytime soon? White Sox fans in general are

extremely negative. And they've had reason to be because they go through really long droughts. They hadn't made the playoffs ever in back-to-back seasons until 2020 and 2021. They don't like the owner. They generally didn't like management. So it's been pretty bad. And it's somehow gotten

worse. I don't think... I mean, we knew they were going to be really bad this year. They lost 101 games last year. We knew it would be around the same this year, but no one expected them, no one expected us to be seriously talking about the 62 Mets in August. So no, fans hate this team.

They really do. They're very bitter and they don't trust anything. Now the Sox, under new GM Chris Goetz, and even the old GM very bitter and they don't trust anything. Now the Sox under new, under new GM, Chris gets, and even the old GM kind of made some good trades before he got fired last year. They build up the pitching again in the minor leagues and it's actually

pretty good. And they've got a couple of guys up with the major league team, like Jonathan Cannon, who started last night and has been very good. So that is a positive. They actually do have good pitching and that's something that the owner, Jerry Reinstorf generally doesn't like to pay for on the open market. So that's a positive. The negative is they have absolutely no hitting. They have one guy in the minors that can hit. No one in the majors that can hit, except maybe Luis Roberts sometimes, though he's been terrible this year. So it's really dire. It's a bad situation. They come home after Oakland day off Thursday,

and then they get the Cubs who aren't very good either, but the Cubs come into their place for two games that are pretty packed. And I don't anticipate that manager Pedro Grafal will be on the top step for those games. Everyone kind of thinks he's, he's gone after the series. So I guess fans will be excited about that because Patriots has been terrible. You know, you mentioned Jerry Reinsdorf, of course, the owner of the White Sox, also the owner of the Bulls. And, you know, fans, I think, from all around North America will be familiar with Reinsdorf, right, as the owner of the Bulls

during the championship years, the Jordan years in the 90s. But I also know, you know, one of the most frustrating things for a sports fan can be when there are some good things happening with your team, but you're also worried about what the owner's priorities are and what the owner is going to do ultimately to kind of run it off the rails. What is the reputation, the perception of Jerry Reinsdorf for Chicago sports fans at this point? Oh, it's bad.

Because, you know, he was just never, he's never been able to really say the right thing. And he always kind of turned fans off with some of the stuff. Like, remember, he threatened to move the White Sox to Florida, even though it was kind of an empty threat. Still did it. That's not going to do well. And yeah, they ended up building a new stadium,

but it wasn't a great stadium. You know, they actually kind of, they built it a year before Camden Yards, and it was kind of a blah stadium. And then, you know, the Bulls broke up, and he was blamed for a lot of that, even though I don't think it was really his fault. I think it was time after 98 for them to break up, but he's blamed for that, right? And the Bulls are horrible under Jerry Kraus for the next five, six years. That too.

The White Sox, you know, they had the best, they had their best team maybe ever before 05 at least in 94 when reinzorf was a labor hawk and he's one of the people blamed for the strike right blame for the cancellation of you know of the world series which had never happened before so he wears all this historical kind of baggage he's got to carry with him and you know they wanted no five but since oh five the white socks have been terrible um the bulls since jordan retired have a below 500 record if you can believe that you know they've been to one conference final the only time the white socks have ever won a series in the playoffs was that world series year he just doesn't put enough

money people's team is not putting enough money into the teams and it's even more it's even worse for the bulls because they lead the league in attendance every year just make a an absolute fortune the white socks you know are the second team in town and struggle a little bit so his options with the white socks are a little more limited due to finances but he's just not seen as a good owner and i don't think he's not the worst owner you know people here will call him the worst owner in sports but you know we know there's there's worse owners out there but he he's not the best he's like kind of below average and that's he's just not he's not not even he's not well like he's not well liked here he's not even liked he's actually kind of loathed so that's jerry at 88 is not uh is not looked at fondly. This White Sox season, certainly not helping with that,

but they do, as mentioned, end the losing streak last night. Now looking toward the rest of the season, a couple months left here, are they going to go down in infamy here? Are they going to be, you mentioned the Mets from the 60s, are they going to be record-wise among the worst teams that we've ever seen? I mean, certainly it looks like it. Now, you wonder if a cathartic win like yesterday does help the team, at least in the short term, right?

Like feel a little more confident in themselves. Maybe they can string out a few wins here. But, yeah, it's definitely not good. I mean, they've got 88 losses and it's august 7th you know the major league record is is 120 the modern day major league record's 120 so it doesn't look good you know september is kind of wonky though so because people play you know we play in young guys and they'll be sitting pitchers so they might be able to steal a few wins here and there but guess what the whitex are also going to probably sit Garrett Crochet,

their best starter soon, who they were going to trade. You know, he's, he's pitched the most innings of his career. So he's probably going to be shelved soon too. So again, September, you can never really tell, but let's just say this. I'm clearing out my schedule at the end of September, you know, just in case I have to go to those games, you know, I'll have to take a break from the Bears. I september you know just in case i have to go to those games you know to take a break from the bears i even you know we're we're friendly with the president of the tigers because he used

to be an assistant gm with the cubs and i text him that me and another reporter were going to stay at his house for the last series of the season in case they're going to break the record he did not he did not agree to that uh he didn't agree but i brought it up uh nothing like planning to cover the historic losses for a local team at the end of a season. We're talking to John Greenberg from The Athletic Chicago here, Halford & Brough Sportsnet 650. I want to talk a little Bears with you as well, John. And I know Hard Knocks, you know, one of the highlights, I think,

for a lot of NFL fans of the preseason this year, the HBO show focusing on the chicago bears debuted last night did anything stand out for you from the first episode of the bears hard knock series well it was pretty boring um obviously they focused on maddie reflux the coach and caleb williams the quarterback that's kind of the basic formula no matter what qb and coach and they both have interesting stories i mean uh eberfalus is kind of they they focused on his actual physical makeover which has been like kind of a funny story in Chicago the last year because he's really changed his look up and we we've joked that that's like helped him

with his coaching and stuff and his confidence he just he looks more confident a little more suave so there's a lot of that um I thought the Caleb stuff, I thought the actual interesting part was the access of, like, Caleb and him mic'd up at practice and listening to the coach. And Ibrahim is a defensive coach. But listening to him coach up Caleb in between plays and kind of point out stuff that he's doing, you know, with certain defenses.

And I thought that was nothing, like, super sexy, but, like like just interesting like to hear that kind of stuff and then the other big you know the big plot line besides caleb was jonathan owens and simone biles jonathan owens is a first year he's a new safety of the bears um and simone biles is his wife so they showed him like kind of getting ready to go to the olympics and then coming back from the olymp. And it was just kind of cute. Like they were FaceTiming and she was reminding him to bring his passport and like how, and like rules of travel in Europe, like how much stuff, you know,

like he's like, Oh man, I don't want them to take my bottle of cologne. Like he was checking in this bag or not. It was kind of cute. Like, so we knew that was coming, but, but I definitely liked it. I was, I'm more looking forward to the, It was kind of cute. We knew that was coming, but I definitely liked it. I'm more looking forward to the episodes coming later when they get a little deeper into it, because some of the Chicago stuff was pretty corny. Like, Liev Schreiber had this line that was like, where he's like, you know, everyone can take the L in Chicago,

but what fans want are more Ws. All right, buddy. Like, a little much. Like, you know, in the deep dish pizza line, of course. It's just that kind of corny. But you know what? I give them credit.

They have to put that stuff together pretty quick, the episode at least. So you give them a little leeway when you've got to put stuff together quickly. The Bears have had

a few high top first round picks at quarterback lately, but I don't think any of them have come in with the expectations around Caleb Williams. What's,

what's a good season for him look like? He obviously had one season in college where he was unbelievable. And then that really set the tone for what people think he can be in the NFL. But what, what, what are Bears fans expecting to see from him in year one? Well, okay.

So no rookie quarterbacks ever thrown for 3 000 yards for the bears so i'd say 3 000 is his is the kind of baseline for whether or not he had a good season you know the and actually the very sad bears rookie record for for uh passing yards went to mitch travisky in 2017 when he threw for 2 19193 in 12 games. So he's got to break Mitch's record, obviously. But I'd say 3,000 yards. I mean, that's just a statistical thing. Like, really, it obviously comes down to the eye test, right?

Like, how does he look? Does he look like this kind of one-of-one quarterback that's going to change everything and is going to to, you know, he's going to do so much for the team. That's what people really want to see. Like, what does he actually look like? So, you know, we'll see. I mean, I, I think it looks pretty good. I mean, I think they did a pretty good job of showing on, on the show how like it's been up and down, like his, his first training has been up and down and not in like a super bad way,

but you know, it's not like he, he looks perfect, but you can't expect him to, this is like the toughest job in the world for sports. I mean, being an NFL quarterback, I don't think there's a tougher gig in sports. So you expect someone to struggle when they come into the league. So we'll, we'll see. He's just, like you said, we've had a – the Bears, listen, when I started covering them, it was right when they traded for Jay Cutler.

And that, you know, he's probably the best quarterback in Bears history, you know, statistically. And he had amazing talent, but he went to the playoffs once. And then they had Mitch Trubisky, and he went to the playoffs, but he never improved and then he had justin fields who frankly just didn't get the time because of the situation he came into you know he really didn't get the time to really grow and he struggled a little bit and that was it for him so now we're on we're on to caleb we've seen it i think people in

chicago just want to see yeah they just want to see this great franchise quarterback. It would be nice to have a consistent winner and a guy who gets better every year, just like every other team seems to have. John, I can't let you go without asking about local product here from Vancouver now applying his trade in Chicago, Conor Bedard. I know we've got a couple of months before hockey season gets going here. And, you know, Bedard, he wins the Calder for Rookie of the Year, had some injury time off as well.

Like, how much has he caught fans' attention in Chicago and a crowded Chicago sports marketplace so far? Well, no, that's a great point about the crowded market and really the fact that the Blackhawks had such a kind of a free fall from their, you know, three cups in six years when the blackhawks became they went from oh my they went from a total afterthought in chicago to like the biggest story in town and so it's kind of tough to build that back up um he's dead listen he's definitely captured the hockey market here the hockey fans that the hockey fandom that grew so much in that time they love

him i mean he's he is a huge deal i think he's probably got it easier than a lot of guys because i feel like he can move through town a little easier because he's not you know because because the casuals aren't as focused on him as maybe they were when kane and taves were younger uh so i think he's got it pretty easy but he's absolutely captured like people's attention in Chicago. It's just the team's been bad. So the team's got to improve for him to really capture the casuals as far as like talking about them. But I'll say this, I guarantee,

I know the ratings went up and attendance went way up. So people are really excited about them. They've just got to maximize, you know, his early years and try to get some, try to get some talent here and win some games because Chicago sports fans are spoiled by that, especially black box fans. They want to,

you know, they want to see winning, but yeah, I mean, he listened, I don't watch a ton of hockey anymore. I just don't have time, but he,

yeah, I'll turn it on for him. Like, Holy cow, this guy's amazing so you know our guys are writing about him every other day so yeah it's it's pretty incredible that they got so lucky you know the rest of the the rest of the hockey world is not thrilled nope the blackhawks getting that pick um i thought it would have been really funny if they would have got so greeny too

just to really rub it into the rest of the hockey world but uh you know whatever the guy they got the michigan state guy second right or yes what's his name i can't even who did they test levshinov yeah right the big hockey insider that i that's right yeah well celebrini's we get scott powers and mark lazarus for that there you go yeah celebrini's uh he grew up in san j, but technically kind of from Vancouver as well. So that would have been tough to swallow for Canucks fans if both of them ended up going to Chicago. So we're

glad that didn't play out. Hey, John, really appreciate you taking the time. Thanks for doing this, man. Hey, anytime for you guys. Next time we'll talk more Blue Bombers. I was going to say, we'll get into the CFL next time, all right? Thanks, John. All right. Thanks, guys. That is John Greenberg. He's a columnist for Chicago for the Athletic in Chicago

weighing in on, as I said, busy scene in Chicago right now. And, you know, he's just talking about the Bears recent history at quarterback, but just some of the stats for Bears quarterbacks and Bears receivers in particular,

the lack of success, even as the league has moved so dramatically to passing and the air attack and big big numbers and you know you look at some of the quarterbacks over the last 15 years who've had like eye-popping statistical seasons it's not you don't have to be elite necessarily and yet the franchise records for the bears and all of those categories are very low paltry. Yeah. Incredibly, incredibly paltry.

I don't, I, I, I'll have to double check this quickly. Have they ever had a quarterback throw for 30 touchdowns? I don't think that they have. I don't believe so. That's atrocious. I assume Jay Cutler came close and he was there for seven years as the

starter. Yeah. But man, yeah, it's never been a strength. We make a big deal out of the Browns and their putrid quarterback history. That's a little bit more around the, you know, how many. Yes.

The Bears have had fewer in that kind of same period of time, but it's been more of a saga. Like he mentioned, like John mentioned Mitch Trubisky. There was, oh man, this guy might really be something. And then completely craters, and then they give him another chance, and super up and down. With Fields, it was only three years, right?

That was quick in moving on to Caleb Williams, who comes in with tons of hype as being a guy that people project to be potentially one of the best quarterbacks in the league when he hits his prime. So there was a reason, I guess, behind that, whereas Fields was a little bit more of a project, although he also was a really high pick. But, yeah, it's been tough in Chicago, even in those years,

in the mid-2000s, and they made a Super Bowl. They lost to the Colts. They lost to Peyton Manning and the Colts. Rex Grossman back there. Yeah. So if you go through their quarterbacks in that era, and they had a great defense. Yeah.

They had no consistent starter. Rex Grossman, Kyle Orton, Brian Greasy, all in a four-year span. I believe if I was looking at it yesterday, I believe it was 05 Orton, 06 Greasy, 07 Grossman, 08 back to Orton. So it's not a really, it's not a great quarterback carousel when you go through two guys and you end up back at Kyle Orton. You're like, fine, we'll go back to Kyle Orton. Yeah. Bears never had a guy throw for 30 touchdowns.

Eric Kramer holds the record with 29 in 1995. They've also never had someone throw for 4,000 yards. So, and those are, again, numbers where you don't have to be elite to get there in the NFL today. And yet they have just struggled so, so mightily. I do think the combination of the fact that Odun's is there as well with Caleb Williams, it's going to be really hard for bears fans not to put huge expectations right because they have been it's either they've had a decent wide receiver but no one to throw

to right or maybe you know cutler with who in the right situation could have put up better numbers but didn't have the talent around him but it feels like they've never had both at the same time and i think the x you know as much as john was saying like hey you know get to 3 000 yards and just have a decent season you draft a guy first overall quarterback and then you take a stud wide receiver also in the top 10 there are going to be massive expectations for them to come out and do something special i think right away in chicago especially because they're so starved for those for talent at those two positions historically yeah and they weren't terrible last year right they were seven and ten they got that number one pick because of a trade with carolina so they they yeah they end up in a position where they could make a bold move if you will move on from the recent first

round quarterback to go to a guy that's got very very high expectations and and yeah pair him with a receiver who at washington last year was really good really exciting i don't think they're expecting them to be a playoff team the way that john was framing it there very much patient and that they want to see the signs before they're going to set the bar as you've got to start winning games but look if if they're halfway through the season and that Rome Caleb Williams connection isn't looking good people are going to freak out oh yeah they're going to want to see some plays there they want to see a guy get the ball to a playmaker.

And that's just that's certainly the way that the NFL game is played today. So this text comes in. The Bears play in the worst weather. It's hard to pass the ball in that wet cold. They run the ball more than other teams. That's fair enough as far as it goes. Their division rival, the Green Bay Packers, who play in worse weather than the Bears. Two of the most successful quarterbacks in NFL history.

Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers back to back. And now Jordan Love is putting up numbers as well. So I get it. I get it. But teams in northern climates have been able to put together. Tom Brady didn't necessarily always play in good weather. The Buffalo Bills don't play in very good weather. It's a factor, but it's not necessarily an excuse.

The Roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions 70th season. Get your tickets now at bclions.com. Up next on the show, Dan Shulman. He was calling that game on CBC yesterday

at the Olympics Canada versus France in the quarterfinals. So we'll get his thoughts on it and what's next for Canada basketball here on Halford & Brough Sportsnet 650.