Halford & Brough in the Morning - Softy On The Big Dumper

Episode Date: July 21, 2025

In hour three, Mike Halford & guest host Jamie Dodd discuss the latest around Seattle sports with KJR Radio's Dave "Softy" Mahler (1:48), plus the boys tell us what they learned (27:00). 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.

Music 803 on a Monday. Happy Monday everybody. Halpern Bruff Sportsnet 650. Oh wait it's Jamie Dodd. Not Jason Bruff. Been from the vacationing Jason Bruff. It's been a show Jamie. It's been a Monday. Boy. It's been a Monday.

Boy has it. We are now in hour three of the program. Dave Softy-Muller from KGR Sports Radio in Seattle is gonna join us in just a moment here to kick off hour three. Couple things we need to do before we get to soft. You need to tell you that this show is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt

by up to 80%. With no more interest, visit them online at sans-trustee.com. I also mentioned we're in hour three of the program. Hour three is brought to you by Campbell and Pound real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-pound.com today. We are broadcasting 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? And guests on Sportsnet

650 call in on the hotline powered by Power West Industries. Don't get caught in the dark when it matters most. Visit them at powerwest.ca today. They keep the lights on. Let's go to the Power West Industries hotline right now. One of our favorites here, Dave Softie Muller from KJGR Sports Radio in Seattle here on the Haliford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Softy. How are you? He said Jason's not there. Is that right? Yeah, he's gone. Alright, thank god. Not alone in that assessment. Not alone in that reception. The adults can finally have an

adult conversation. Yeah. And we're gonna. Look forward to this for a long time. We're going to start that conversation. I want to know how your summer, not just any summer, but the summer of Cal Rally is going for you down in Seattle. Yeah, no man, it's been fun. You know, we were talking on the air on Friday that if this guy can get to 50 home runs or more, you know, with a month or so left to go in the season, you know, is this going to turn into kind of a, you know, kind of frenzy type thing with, you know, outfield seats going for a quadruple what they normally go for and things like that. And I mean, look, I, I don't know if the average Mariner fan knows what the American

league home run record is, or if they even really care. You know, at 62, by the way, Aaron Judd, three years ago, broke the record from Roger Maris. And I don't know if people think of American and national league records anymore, to be honest with you. I mean, interleague play has kind of ruined all that. There really is no novelty. There's no distinction anymore in baseball

between the AL and the NL. So I don't know if that's going to get people fired up, but you know, if he would go after Barry Bonds, if he would go after the all time home run record, that would be something obviously totally different, but he would, guys, he would need to average a home run like every game and a half the rest of the way to even come close to getting the Barry Bonds and did not have one this weekend obviously against the Astros. So obviously it's something fun to follow, but they, they way, to even come close to getting the Barry Bonds and did not have one this weekend, obviously against the Astros. So obviously it's something fun to follow, but they need a lot more than

him just to wrap this thing up and make a playoff berth and even challenge the Astros for the division. So yeah, it's been, it's been great to watch, but the big prize obviously is the team actually doing something that people can sink their teeth into in October. Yeah. I remember at the time when Aaron judge was chasing the AL home run record thinking that I think we're only making a big deal of this because it's the Yankees. I feel like that was like, who has ever talked about the AL home run record until Aaron judge was on the cusp of breaking it.

Yeah, that's part of it. I also think there's just so much anti-Barry bonds chatter out there that people are just desperate for the home run leader to be somebody else besides Barry bonds, right? You know, I mean, the fact that he's got 73 home runs that you can walk down the street, I think really of any, of any major city and ask 10 people, Hey, what's the, what's the, what's the home run record? What's the number?

Growing up, everybody knew, 714, 715, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron. I don't think a lot of people know that number anymore. And they've ruined it. They've ruined it with steroids, and they've ruined it with the way that they obviously just destroyed the record and blew right past it in the early 2000s.

So I think a lot of people are just really desperate guys to have somebody else besides Barry Bonds hold that record because there's some debate in this country about what the actual record is. Is it Aaron Judge? Is it Barry Bonds? Is it Hank Aaron? Is it Barry Bonds? And it's Barry Bonds whether you like it or not. I mean, I think it's kind of silly to have the conversation. It might be a record that's tainted, but it's still a record. So I think that really is the key is just having somebody else besides that guy

be at the top of the mountain. Well, it's interesting that it's a guy like Kal Raleigh and like everything that he represents with the nickname and the physique and the fact that he's a catcher and he's doing this. And it's an amazing season. And you know, the ability for him to go to the All-Star game and blow up on a national stage like that is great.

Where's he right now in that pantheon of current Seattle athletes? Because I imagine that he's got to be right near the top, not just in terms of popularity, but also the impact that he's having, not just on the team, but league wide. I mean, this is one of the premier players in baseball right now.

Yeah, he's number one in Seattle. He's been number one for a while. I actually said that about a month and a half ago. I think he's the face of Seattle sports and partly because there's not a lot out there right now. Right? I mean, the Kraken really don't have anybody that people can sink their teeth into. The Sonics aren't here.

The Seahawks are going through a reset. and I mean, DK Metcalf is gone. Locket's gone. Obviously, uh, Gino Smith is gone. A lot of new names, a lot of names that we think might be good players, but guys that really have not had a chance to either pop or really kind of, you know, sink their teeth into Seattle yet, like Cooper Komp, who just got here. So I think Cal is number one. If you were going to do like a Mount Rushmore of the most popular Seattle athletes going today, uh, Mount Rushmore would have two Cal Raleigh faces. I mean, that's

how, that's how popular he is, man. So yeah, he's a, he's number one, but you know, here's the thing with Cal, man. I mean, he's got to just, he's got a home run strike out right now to be totally honest with you. You know, I mean, for example, I went, I went on vacation on, I think it was the 25th of June I took off for a couple of weeks. He's got 11 hits since then and six of them are homers in his last 92 plate appearances. So they need more than Cal Raleigh. This story with Cal is great, but they need Julio, they need JP Crawford, they need Randy Arrozarena and they got to make a move at the deadline which is next Thursday already. Do they need Eugenio Suarez?

They absolutely need Eugenio Suarez. I'm worried about how much it's gonna cost to get him you know I mean he's got 35 home runs already which leads the National League and there's never been a player with that kind of power traded at the deadline ever. I mean, the Diamondbacks are kind of out of it, but not really, you know, they're only four and a half out of the wild card. So they're technically kind of still in the race, but I think Arizona would be foolish to not trade him knowing what they could get for him, you know, the saving grace for people that are trying to acquire him is that his contracts up when the year's over. So the price might not be

too high, but whatever it was a month ago or two months ago, it's certainly steeper than it is now. And I think the Mariners just need to be able to swallow whatever price they got to pay, uh, you know, give up prospects for this guy. I mean, they've got plenty of prospects. They can always find more. Jerry DiPoto has proven that he can restock the farm system with the best of them and major league baseball. Uh, these guys, you know, nine out of 10 of them are going to turn out to be bums for trying out loud and go out and look at what the Mariners gave up for

Luis Castillo four years ago. Uh, and, and none of them have really panned out, you know, Noel V. Marte was a top 15 prospect in baseball and he hasn't done a damn thing. Matter of fact, he got suspended 80 games for PEDs when he went to the Reds. So I got no problem giving these guys up, man, because their trade value likely will never ever be higher

than it is right now before they step foot into the major leagues and prove that they can't hit that level. So I say, get rid of them all, uh, make this team as good as possible today. And let's make a run to the world series. Now let's not worry about next year or the payroll, you know, budget 2030, or, you know, what you have allocated to your infield in 2035. Forget that crap and let's go win a championship right now. That's the attitude this organization's gotta have.

Softy, you mentioned obviously the Sonics not back yet and we all know that, but that's also been in the spotlight based on some of the commentary from Adam Silver at the Summer League down in Vegas. And it sounded like it was maybe we were getting close to an announcement of the expansion process beginning, getting more official, but the Sonics are coming back to Seattle. Now it seems like they're slow playing it a little bit here and maybe there's a little bit more uncertainty. What's been the reaction in Seattle to those comments

and those latest developments? What's your reaction to what he had to say? Well, the reaction has been mostly negative to Silver's comments. I don't really share that same take to be honest with you. I was not surprised by what he said whatsoever. You know I think a lot of people for whatever reason were thinking and hoping that Adam Silver would say, okay here's the deal, we're going to get together, we're going to look at this, we have lots of reasons to expand. We just need to dot the i's and cross the t's and then by this date, we'll do this and blah, blah, blah. And

that was never gonna happen. I mean, I don't know why people had that expectation, to be honest with you. I think a lot of us thought that he would say exactly what he said, which is, hey, we're going to explore it, right? You know, we're going to get people together and we're going to look at this. And that's what Adam Silver said. I mean, there are folks that have pointed out and they're exactly right that he gave more reasons not to expand than to expand.

But I just think this is part of that process. This is the first time that the league has had formal expansion discussions and God knows how long. And if you look at the NBA expansion history, this is the longest guys they've gone 21 years now since the last expansion team in 2004. It's the longest they've gone since the league was formed in the 1940s. So they are, they're way overdue for a team. You know, the Portland thing is interesting that he threw that out there, you know, the other day

that a lot of folks think that he may be using Seattle as a pawn to get a new arena in Portland, and that maybe the Blazers, if they don't get their act together, would potentially be a team that would move up here. I would take them if there was no other option, but a hundred times out of a hundred, I'd prefer an expansion team. So if you had to guess what is the delay, because I mean, I hate using a basketball pump, but it felt like a layup for the longest time that this thing was going to happen and get back to Seattle and that the announcement was a formality. And I remember we had you on the show, I think it was last year, you thought it might even be done as soon as December. It just feels like everyone's waiting. Everyone feels like everyone's waiting for the inevitability and the inevitability just

isn't arriving as quickly as everybody wants. Yeah, it's going to happen at some point. The league is going to expand at some point. They're not done expanding forever. I just can't imagine. The NBA is like the universe. It's always expanding. It's just a matter of how long and at what kind of rate. So I have no doubt that eventually

it will happen. But the frustration for me, honestly, and it kind of is a little personal, like, you know, Lenny Wilkins is going to be 88 years old in October. I mean, you know, we'd love to have a team back. So he can be there to celebrate that, you know, my partner's dad is 91 years old, and he wants a team back so he can be there to celebrate that. You know, my partner's dad is 91 years old and he wants a team back so he can go to a game with his father. I mean, there's people out there that are aging and they can't wait forever. Right.

And so you want to get this done as soon as possible. So the most people can enjoy it. That's the holdup or that's the frustration for me. But I think, I think the holdup was, and you mentioned it the last time we talked about it, I thought that this would be wrapped up by the end of last year. And then the Celtics went up for sale.

And then the Lakers went up for sale. And the thing with Boston is that, the guy that was gonna own the Sonics or be the majority owner, David Bonderman, he's since passed away, by the way. He's the owner of the Kraken, his daughter Samantha Holloway, has now taken over his interest.

He had to get rid of the Celtics before they could start moving ahead and talking about a new franchise in Seattle. So once that was done, that was a big domino to fall. But now you got the blazer thing hanging in the air. I think there's probably a chance that maybe this is delayed, but I can't see it delayed by maybe more than a year or so,

to be honest with you. We're speaking to Dave Softy-Moller from KJR Sports Radio in Seattle here on the Haliford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. Let's turn our attention to the Seahawks. Training camp begins this week, so there'll be all the stories and narratives written about going into a brand new campaign.

You brought up a good point earlier, actually, is that a lot of the familiar faces of this team, if you want to run through it, like Pete Carroll gone, obviously that's been a couple of years now, Geno gone, DK Metcalf gone, Tyler Lockett gone. There is a real new energy and new excitement around the team. How much optimism is there for year two under Mike McDonald with year one Sam Darnold behind center.

I think it's kind of a wait and a see type thing. I was just thinking about that today, that there really is not a lot of chatter about Seahawk training camp and it starts on Wednesday. I mean, it's two days away for God's sake. So we're gonna be out there roasting our butts off on the Lake Washington sun at three o'clock

on Wednesday afternoon under a tent that doesn't block the sun, which I don't know why we have that, but whatever. There's just not a lot of chatter about it. There's not a lot of real debate or controversy. I mean, the position battles, there really is no obvious one where someone needs to work their butt off

or find themselves on the street come September. The quarterback September, uh, the quarterback battle is, uh, is obviously set with Sam Darnold being the guy. There's some intrigue about Jalen Millrow, you know, the kid from Alabama who the Seahawks got in the, uh, in the second round or late second round. Uh, there's some intrigue with him. There's some intrigue with the offensive line. Have they done enough to fix the offensive line? But I think the defense ended so strong a year ago under Mike McDonald that we just

expect that to continue. I mean, guys, I got to be honest with you. I think there's a chance the Seahawks are a good team, but I also think there's a chance they're kind of boring to be totally honest with you. You know, they could be a, you know, a team winning game 17 to 10, 13 to seven, like the Ravens did way back in 2000. Uh, this is going to be a defense for now dominated football team that's going to rely on pounding the run with Kenny Walker, uh, and guys like Zach

Charbonneau, uh, the wide receiver room, I think there's a little weaker on paper than it was a year ago, right? You've gone from Jackson, Smith and Jigba, DK Metcalf and Lockett to Jackson, Smith and Jigba and aging Cooper Chop, who when he's healthy can still play. And then Marquez Valdez Scanlon, who was cut last year in the middle of the year. So I just think there's a lot of reasons for optimism,

but there's also reasons to think this team is not gonna be really a entertaining football team, but maybe a winning football team playing great defense and running the ball, which is ironic considering that's exactly what Pete Carroll wanted and he got fired. Yeah. And you mentioned, you know, kind of the wait and see approach from fans of the Seahawks. And I even think from the team perspective, they signed Darnold to the three year deal,

but we also know they can get out of that pretty easily after one year. If it's not a fit, it almost feels like a bit of a not necessarily a wait and see approach from the team, but like let's see what we've got here from Sam Darnold and then we can decide on the route going forward. And I wonder if that makes it a little bit harder for the fans to get hyped before the season as well. Yeah, I mean, I don't think that his contract situation is really something that's at people's top of their mind, you know, but you're right. You know, if he, if he struggles, there's going to be a, you know, a call for Milro

or a call for Drew Locke, who's the number two guy who was here a couple of years ago and then took off to the giants when the Seahawks traded for Sam Howell. So there's not a lot of intrigue for me and Drulock. I think Drulock is what he is. I think he's a career backup and there's nothing wrong with that. You can make a lot of money being a career backup in the National Football League,

but the intrigue is really about the kid from Alabama. So if Darnold struggles and Milro puts on a show in the preseason, running the ball, which is really his specialty right now, there's going to be people calling from Mill Road to play. And there's already kind of a fracture in some ways in the Seahawks fan base regarding the Gino Smith camp and the Sam Darnold camp, right? There's a lot of fans out there here that think the Seahawks made a mistake in letting Gino walk.

And there's a lot of folks that think that Sam Darnold is a, is a one-hit wonder from last year. This is a guy who, I think if you were to tell people the year ago, right before Sam had that, had that season he had in, uh, with the Vikings, if you were to tell people a year ago that Sam Darnold is your starting quarterback, they would have thrown up. I mean, he was, he was terrible. I mean, he was just a career backup who had bounced around the NFL and never lived up to expectations as a, a top 10 pick out of USC. So all of a sudden the guy

has the one great year in Minneapolis kind of fell apart at the end there in the last couple of games, including the playoff game, by the way. But I think a lot of people are still very skeptical of whether or not Darlo can be the guy and whether or not the Seahawks made the right decision and letting Gino Smith walk. So if there's any intrigue, that's where it's at, right? I mean, that's where it's at to see if they did make the right move. And I'm actually very curious to see if Darnold struggles in the first couple of weeks of the year, how long will people give this guy before they start calling for his job? That to me is almost the number one curiosity. How much attention, if any, are you paying to the Raiders

now that Pete and Geno are both there? Not much. I mean, we kind of talked about it a lot during the off season. And when I say a lot, I mean, more than we normally would. We carried Carroll's press conference when he got hired down there,

and then talked about Geno when he went down there. But not a lot. I mean, there's gonna be you know, talked about Gino when he went down there, but not a lot. I mean, there's going to be a little, you know, a few eyeballs on him, but this is, I don't think this is like when Griffey took off to go play for the Reds, right? When that happened in 99, you know, we were kind of almost following his every move.

And, you know, there's never been a player that I've rooted for harder after he left than Griffey. And I don't know, I mean, being a head coach and versus a player, it doesn't do a lot for me. But, you know, ask me when the season starts. I'll tell you what though, if the Hawks are struggling and the Raiders are kicking ass in Vegas and Gino Smith is slinging the rock down there in Vegas,

you bet your butt it's gonna be a story up here for sure. Are the Kraken becoming a bit of a forgotten entity and what's a very crowded sports market? A little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they, uh, they got to get their act together, you know, because what's going to happen is if the Sonics return when they return, there's a lot of people that are holding onto their money to spend it on the NBA versus the NHL, you know, when they return, they went out and they made a couple of moves over

the off season. But I mean, nothing that's going to really move the meter. I mean, Mason Marsh meant okay, right? I mean, does that really do a lot for you? Doesn't do a lot for me. Frederick Gendro. I mean, there's just not a lot out there right now. As far as moves that they made that really intrigued people, they got to get their goalie situation figured out and they gotta stop hiring and firing head coaches, right? I mean, it's just been a revolving door at head coach

ever since they hired Dave Haxdall. And it's gotta stop. And the personalities of the head coaches have not been great either. And I don't know, maybe you guys can tell me, is that a hockey thing where these head coaches, they just have the personality of a brick and there's just nothing there with these guys.

I know there's a few guys in the NHL, Torch is one of them, obviously. There's a few guys in the NHL that are really kind of great with the media and great with the fans, but my God, it just kind of seems like all the coaches, the Kraken have hired, they're just zeros in the personality department. I mean, okay, you had like in large, the NHL head coach is not the most verbose or exciting. There are some for sure. We've had a couple in Baker. We had Tortorelli

here. We have Bruce Boudreau here. Very entertaining guys. I'm trying to think of two less interesting head coaches back to back. This Dave Hacks on Dan Bowles. Yeah, those are right. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if you remember when HBO did the 24-7 back when Biles was coaching Pittsburgh, but they he came out of central casting is like this sort of bookish smart guy partly because he wore glasses and that was I honestly it was like part of his whole thing was like he was more of a button-down And that was honestly, it was like part of his whole thing was like he was more of a button down, very mellow, not really interesting kind of character. Pick it up. Yeah.

And it's not just coaches, right? I mean, we talk about it all the time up here, like hockey culture as a whole tends towards the button down. Don't say anything that's going to get you noticed, right? Just keep it as, as kind of flat and bland as possible. Coaches, players with some exceptions, but generally that's what you're getting in the NHL. Yeah. And I mean, look, Lane Lambert looks like the kind of guy

that you don't want to cross, you know, but I don't know. I mean, I, I, I heard some interviews with him and we have not had him on our show to be fair yet, but it just kind of feels like more of the same, but really in the end, I mean, it's, it's, it's the roster, right? And the roster just isn't there. And, you know, Ron Francis is kind of there as a figurehead, but he's no longer in charge. You know, Jason Botterill is by the way, so we'll see what this guy can do. But yeah, I mean, just going back to your original question, the Kraken are kind of, they're kind of, you know, the,

the novelty is kind of starting to wear off a little bit it's not totally gone but man it's nowhere near what it was when they first showed up here four years ago and nowhere near what it was when they had the dalas stars in the playoffs and nowhere near what it was when that punk kyler meyers took out maddie beneers and knocked him out of the all-star game and we were kind of really forming a a real hatred for the canucks and a hatred for that guy. And that was good, that was good stuff.

That was great for business and great for enthusiasm and all that's kind of Wayne, man. So if the Sonics return, yeah, I mean, they're gonna be in trouble. Cause I mean, tickets are expensive and you're, I mean, there's very few people that can afford both hockey and NBA season tickets at the same time. Right. And so if they don't get their act together, they're going to be number four, if not number five on the list in this town.

Softy, always great getting caught up in the bud. Thanks for taking the time to do this morning. We really appreciate it. I'm really, really glad that Jason wasn't here. This was actually enjoyable for the first time ever. So, yeah, I'm kidding. You know that. I know that Jason wasn't here. This was actually enjoyable for the first time ever. So yeah, I'm kidding. You know that. I know that. Thanks buddy. Dave, Softy Mahler from KJS Sports Radio in Seattle here on the Haliford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650.

Before we go to break, I need to tell you about the BC Lions. July 27th, bring the family to celebrate generations of Lions fans at the Family Traditions game. As your Lions take on the Tiger Cats, get your tickets at bclions.com. What we learned coming up next, get yours in. It's your chance to be on the radio. Tell us what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports, last 72 hours in sports.

It's a Monday. Everything that happened over the weekend, get them in. It's your chance to be on the radio. Hashtag it WWL. The Dunbar Lumbertex line is 650 650. You're listening to the Halford and Breff show on Sportsnet 650. It's what we learn time It's what we learn time It's what we learn time On the show 8.33 and 8.00 Monday, happy Monday everybody,ford Brough with Jamie Dodd, Sportsnet 650.

Alford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt free in just two weeks. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are in hour three of the program. It is what we learn in time. Hour three is brought to you by Campbell & Pound real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell dash pound dot com today. We have to what we learned. I have one. Jamie has one. Yeah.

We're going to start with Jimmy Dodd. All right. Go ahead. Tell us what you learned. What I learned sports. Little mountain little league. Once again, the provincial little league champions, they beat Lynn Valley nine nothing again the provincial Little League champions. They beat Lynn Valley nine nothing in the provincial championship games yesterday. Shout out to pitcher Tyson Grimsred Rons. I hope I'm getting your name right Tyson. He threw a complete game shut out for Little Mountain in that provincial final. They're off to the Canadian National Championships which start next week in Victoria And I'm calling it. We have this debate. What constitutes a dynasty? Right. Three of the last four years now for little mountain BC provincial

championships. I'm calling it. It's a dynasty for little mountain in the little league all star level. Little mountain is a wagon. They are at absolute Tyson Grimswood Ron's throwing heat there on the mound. Man. Jamie's wearing his little mountain cap. I got, I bring it up every year when they win. I'm so love Tyson Grimsley drawn throwing heat there on the mound man. Jamie's wearing his little mountain cap I got I bring it up every year when they win I'm a big little mountain booster now big fan of the program It is while the amount of like high and high quality little league baseball that comes out of that organization Year after year after year and like as like repeat trips to the little league champion world series

Sorry, little like the Canadian Little League World Series. And I know, I want to say the 2022 or 2023 version. They went to the Little League World Series. We had them on live from Williamsport. Oh yeah. Yeah. And again, they've been coached Little League and followed. A little bit back when we were, you know.

Anytime in the summer when it's slow, the Little League World Series always gets vaulted onto a plane where you're covering it a lot closer. You should probably cover Little League Baseball, but it is an obvious and amazing opportunity for the kids. I don't think everyone really understands the financial and time commitments it takes from everybody involved to pull that off. It is a massive, massive undertaking. Well, I was gonna say like congratulations to the team and also

congratulations slash condolences to the families because you talk to anyone involved. Their kid is super into baseball and they're doing the pose, the tournament thing, right? The summer tournament thing. The time commitment is off the charts and I've talked to people and it's always like I want my kid to make the team. I want them to do really well. I also don't want to book hotels in Leftbridge for the Nationals. Now this year it's in Victoria, so that's fine. But there's also that looming sense of,

oh boy, where are we going? When they ask you the question, when your kid makes a post-season team, did you have, and you're like, why are you saying past tense? Did you have summer plans? Because those are gone now. Those are out. Throw them out.

Your vacation is over. As you mentioned, you may get to go to Lefthbridge for regionals and that's gonna be your summer vacation. But yeah, shout out to Little Mountain. By the way, I believe the weekend is now in the books and the minor provincials are going on at Hastings Little League. So go check that out as well. If you want to check out some Little League baseball throughout the province and Moocow at all. Some interesting news as it pertains to the National Basketball Association and Vancouver came out last night, courtesy long time NBA insider, Mark Stein on his sub stack.

Mark reports that the Dallas Mavericks are expected to announce in short order that they are going to be holding their training camp and preseason in Vancouver. Now the report was light on a lot of details specifically what the location would be and when exactly the Mavericks would be touching down. I believe a couple of outlets have reached out to the Mavericks for confirmation, nothing yet. If you're to go down the road of past behaviors dictating what might happen in the future, I will remind you that the Toronto Raptors held a training camp in Vancouver six times, most recently in 2023. And they would do it at the former Forteus, now Christine Sinclair Center in Burnaby. They also, the last time they came through, the Raptors also did, I believe it was

two open practices at Simon Fraser University in the relatively new West Gym up there. So if you want to kind of start to guess on where the Mavericks might go, there's a fairly decent roadmap right there. It is kind of, I saw this come across my timeline last night as well, and Stein made the point that last year they were in Vegas. So I guess Dallas is maybe just starting to trying to start a new thing where they just kind of tour North America because I was trying to scratch my head like there's no obvious connection. Look, why are you coming to

Vancouver? It's not particularly close. It's not like, oh, we're trying to plant our flag in the Vancouver market. We're their team. I don't really get. I'm not complaining. It's cool that an NBA team is coming for training camp, but it was just what? Why did you you choose here? We wanted the why. And a lot of people were like, what's going on here? Why would you do such a thing? Are the Mavericks moving to Vancouver? I'll throw it out there.

I don't care. Probably. But the interesting thing with this, obviously, is that this is going to be the first NBA training camp for the first overall pick in the National Basketball Association draft, Cooper flag. It's also a Dallas team that, I'm not sure if you're aware of this or not, but was kind of in the news last year. Oh yeah.

Having orchestrated one of the most shocking trades in sports history, nevermind NBA history. And I will say this, I do know, I spoke with a couple of people that worked like Raptors adjacent when they get, they loved having training camp here. The Christine Sinclair facility is kind of tailor-made for having a camp like that where they've got, it's essentially a hotel in the top. It's got terrific facilities underneath. So it's sort of a one-stop shop, also complete with all the medical staff

that you'd need to pull this off. So I'm not saying it's going there. I'm just saying that the Raptors came and did it. There's a reason they were here six times. Like it's a great opportunity to go. And you know, if you want to try and expand the footprint that could be part of it with the Mavs as well. Right? You want to, I mean, look.

They're like, people remember Steve Nash played for us. Right? Let's go there. There's a connection. There's the connection. And we did look in there. Yeah. Dwight Powell, Canadian was on the roster last year. So when we have more details, we will let you know. But right now, according to Mark Stein,

it does sound as though the Dallas Mavericks training camp is on its way to Vancouver this fall. Moo Cal that. Let's fire up that dot matrix. Humanoid submissions for what we learned brought to you as always by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Go visit them in store, or you can order online at ajs.pizza. A reminder, there is not one but now two AJ's

at 325 and 327 East Broadway. More seats, more pizza, more beer, more pies. Go get them, go get them. We'll go into the inbox here. Woodrow, the eligible bachelor with what we learned. By the way, shout out to Woodrow because I saw he posted on Twitter yesterday that he was really struggling to come up with anything.

But he made it happen. He came through for us. He says, asking softy every summer about the NBA returning to Seattle reminds me of Vancouver media members asking Jim Rutherford for updates on the Canucks practice facility, which by the way, I think we are due for another update or at least like a grainy photo of Rutherford checking out another community center around the lower mainland. Every time now anything about a professional sports team practice facility either comes up in passing on the station on social media immediately. Canucks fans are all over it and today it was Rob Longley raving about all of the facilities that the Blue Jays have put in at the Rogers Center and how much that's helped the team and maybe explains part of their great home performance this year as they have access to all these tools. I saw the Seahawks posted videos of some of the Reynolds they've done on their facilities, which

hadn't gotten great marks in the player survey the year before. And no matter what it is now, everyone is instantly like, and the Canucks still don't have a practice facility. It's starting to become not just a comparison between them and the rest of the NHL, but like them and the rest of the world of sports. That's what it's morphed into. I would say over the last twelve years and it's as much as we can roll our eyes and a lot of the conversation is tongue in cheek because it's come. It's become kind of a running joke. Now it's not going away because it's come it's become kind of a running joke now

It's not going away until it's fixed one way or another it's going to remain a talking point It's going to just keep gaining momentum as kind of a running joke about the team especially in salary capped leagues Yeah, everyone's looking for that extra percentage to sway free agents to join coaches percentage to sway free agents to join coaches, anything. We've seen it oftentimes like in a salary cap league, spend a billion dollars on coaches. There's no salary cap on what you can add to your coaching staff. And then that mentality has a trickle down effect

where it's like, well, if we're gonna give our employees and this organization the best chance of succeeding, we're gonna have to spend in the areas where you can have, even if it's only an incremental percentage advantage over another, it does matter because there's a reason that players unions have these player pools with regularity and gauging things like food and nutrition, how the players' families are treated,

what the amenities are like. Is oftentimes when a guy is sitting there with two $14 million a year contracts in front of him, they might look the same. There's oftentimes the trajectory of the organization in terms of are they gonna compete for a championship? But then after that, you start looking at all the fine

details and the things like, again, a practice facility gets overblown a lot. But at the same time, the one thing that sticks out like a sore thumb with the Canucks is that they are one of one with Galgreen outbuilding one. When you're one of one that doesn't have one, it gets to kind of be alarming in that, again, in a very small conversation as part of a

larger conversation. The other thing too, I think all of these organizations understand that in an era where team building becomes more difficult, we're not in the 70s and 80s where it's like, let's go get wasted together. There's more guys that are individualistic and like doing things on their own and it's harder to build camaraderie and chemistry. Rob Longley brought it up when he was talking about the Jays. There is a sense of gathering community at the facility where guys will maybe have an extra meal together once a week or spend more time with one another away from the pressures of playing.

And they've built that in. Yeah. Right. And you do need that sometimes. These are all tiny incremental growth points to try and become a better organization. But they're important for the players, and it matters. The other thing with those player polls that the different PAs do, right, is I think a huge part of it is, what's a great motivating force?

Shame. Yeah. Right? Like, we're going to get these results out there, and the teams at the bottom or the teams that didn't great receive great marks are going to be motivated publicly to try to fix those things. And I think that's part of the story with the Canucks is the fact that they are now one of one without it. We've seen the urgency. It's always been there. Like

Jim Rutherford since he got here has been talking about it. I think it's fair to see you say we've seen the urgency significantly ramp up over the last year or so. And I think that's a big part of it is it's become more of a conversation piece. You're now the only team without one. You want to avoid that shame factor. You want to get out of that position as quickly as possible when the can actually a training facility. Do you think it'll go in the ring of honor? I heard I missed some R.O.H. talk on Friday Why did you? I think it deserves a spot Will Jim Rutherford go to the Ring of Honor forgetting the practice facility? Oh, he'll get his he'll get a jersey and then it'll be retired. The practice facility ring of honor?

The builders category, what did he build? An actual facility. He literally built it. Yeah, himself, yeah. Colin and Tawason hashtag WW WWL, what we learned. It's also an ask us anything. The WNBA All-Star Game included a four point shot and it actually didn't seem too gimmicky. Can we see a four point shot added to regular basketball sometime soon?

I know the conversation has happened. Yeah. In a very introductory, elementary way because I think everyone realizes now where basketball has gone is between the metrics that suggest the three-point shot is inherently more valuable. Wait, wait, hold on.

Three is greater than two. And all, yeah, and they're like, mm, that checks, that tracks. And then also, the ability of marksmanship from beyond the arc getting to the point where it's at, logic would suggest, well, should we not toy around with this idea? Ben is shaking his head at the mere concept.

You've heard the concept obviously bandied about. Of course, it's not gonna happen. It shouldn't happen, I should say that. I would be surprised. And I will also point out that a lot of times when the four point shot things gets thrown out there, it's an additional arc. Right. A second. This was spots.

So it wasn't just go a certain distance from the hoop. It was there. I think there was two spots on either side of of half court that you could hit a four point shot. Yeah. If you were to do it logically, it would have to be a second arc You can't have spots on the floor that fundamentally. Yeah something. I was gonna say F's up the game I didn't say it though. It would yeah, it certainly would A tiny dot on the floor But I don't think it's going to happen because I think the NBA is open to taking some big swings on gameplay, but they want to go the other way, right?

They want to figure out how to generate more action closer to the hoop and in the mid range rather than pushing guys farther and farther away from the basket, which is what a four point shot would do. So I, I like people tend to react against it cause it's so outlandish and that's fair. I think they're open to outlandish ideas. I just think it's going to be trying to move the needle in the other direction. I think the priority for them right now is

figuring out how to stop the last two minutes from becoming a foul shooting contest and stopping and starting and make it more like when you watch March Madness, it has that flow to it because you can't advance the ball and it's just way more free flowing. There's less timeouts. It's better gameplay that way. And I think the NBA has run into an area where they know they need to make some changes.

Yeah. And that's where we'll get maybe a bit weird. It is like the distance from which, because there's always been good three-point shooters, right, throughout, as soon as the advent of the arc came in, it's the distance from which that, and I guess it was probably Steph was the driving force behind it, but it's like one of the biggest singular changes in how a game is played, because the marksmanship from distance got better. Where you're talking about as soon as someone steps across center with the ball in their hands,

when you become a legitimate threat to shoot, and that for the longest time was a foreign concept. You know what?, changes everything. No one shoots from that. No, well with accuracy. Exactly. Yeah. Talking about teams that have come to Vancouver for basketball, like the Phoenix Suns used

to come all the time when Steve Nash was playing for them. That seven seconds or less offense that they had instilled was kind of the beginning of the three point revolution in my estimation. Just like they were like, this is valuable. We're going to get a ton of shots up. Mike D'Antoni's offense. That was really good. And then Greg Popovich and the Spurs took it to this new level.

And then when Steph and Clay came along, they were like, well, we're just better shooters than anybody's ever seen. And literally you watch warriors games over the last 10, 15 years. And guys are so concerned with Steph Curry 35 feet from the hoop that it leads to wide open two-on-ones and breakaways for people because they just don't want to let Steph shoot a three. If Nash never had the ultimate point first mentality like the point guard first mentality the pass first mentality and like being the quarterback of the offense and and he shot with the

frequency I know this isn't like a super hot take like people have said this throughout time But because they were so focused on getting the shot up within the first seven seconds if he had been more of a shoot first Guy that offense would have been in the neighborhood of scoring 130 points a game 140 points back then Yeah, and if not shot well, he's not Steve Nash is one of the greatest shooters Yeah, yeah, cuz there was a camera the name of the author of the book But I've got the seven seconds or less book and the idea was like the idea is to get the shot up quickly But they are always looking for efficiency within yes, which was

Nash can drive and then like he'll lay it off to him or start a my My yeah, and that was the idea cuz like Fundamentally the closer you get to the basket, the higher percentage it has to go in. And Stoudemire was a good finisher at the rim. And Nash had no problem facilitating that. If he had just been like, I'm going to run down in seven seconds, I'm going to spot up and shoot a three,

that offense would have been so much more dynamic. And it already was at that time. But yeah, it's a good point to bring up. Yeah. I mean, there was a lot of players like that. And Nash is probably the best example where if they had played in today's environment where they were encouraged just to shoot for more ever, what could they have done? I always think like this is going way back and before my time. But like, if you talk about, you know, greatest three point shooters of all time, like Larry Bird comes up, he had seasons where he shot like 53 pointers in a whole season. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's's just like, yeah, I'm a power forward. I'm not going to shoot a three. It's like, no, but you're incredible. You're an amazing shooter.

Go out there and shoot some threes. It's like, if he played now, he'd be, he'd be shooting 10 a game, right? And it's just completely different. And on that point of how to change the rules, somebody texted in, should they just move the three point line back? That's the logical thing.

But then you hear people like at a really high level talk about it and what they'll say is what you're going to do then is people aren't going to guard all the way out there. And it's going to actually cramp the spacing in the key and in the mid range more. So there's no easy fix, but I don't think the four pointer is what's going to do it. Okay. A couple more of what we learned. So we had one and I don't have it in front of me, but announcing that Matt Cook is now the head coach of the BCHL's Vernon Vipers. We tried to get the chase out, we were scooped because it's the middle of the summer

and that's where we're at. Where you get scooped twice. The producers chat is a vicious place. If there's some news that comes across social media and you are not right on it, you are absolutely screwed. Yeah, like the Vashik Pospisil chase. We were all like, Andy, Andy, Vashik Pospisil, chase him. Hey, I'm talking to him now, we won that one.

That's great, so that's too, by the way, Iashik Pospisil, chase him. I'm talking to him now, we won that one. That's great. So that's two, by the way, I'm gonna pivot right off the Matt Cook thing. That's two big Canadian tennis retirements. Yes. That are gonna be happening at the National Bank Open. For those that missed it, BC's very own Vashik Pospisil is gonna call it a career, I believe 35 years old.

He is gonna call it a career at the NBA, along with Jeannie Bouchard, who's announcing, who's announcing her, who's announced her retirement. She'll be playing her own frontal term as well. So nice little bookend for both two of the Canadian tennis players that we have covered quite extensively over the last decade. We'll be calling it a career in Montreal at the NBO, but the Matt Cook thing previously

with the ECHL's team from Newfoundland, God, I didn't realize this, but he kind of went back into player development and skills coaching under the Adam Oates umbrella and worked with him and then decided he wanted to get straight back into coaching. Coaching general manager of the Vernon Vipers on a staff that already includes another NHLer

and former Ottawa Senator Dean McCammon. So there's the news out of Vernon that Matt Cook, who we will maybe try and get on the show. I don't know. Yeah, we. Drance and I spoke to Cook not that long ago. I forget what the tournament was. I think it was the Canucks Alumni Golf Tournament.

He was there. He had recently been voted into the Canucks alumni, which I didn't realize you had to be voted in, but he had made it and he was excited to be out in BC and wanted to spending more time here. And there you go. Now he's coaching in the BCHL. Greg on Granville sent this one into 501 this morning. Hashtag WW what we learned the Seattle Seahawks released Ted and Noah Fant former first round pick a free agent immediately before training camp opens. Yeah. This was actually what spurred us on to get Brady Henderson who are going to get midweek for the start of Seahawks training camp. And it's a very

interesting time for that organization because as Softie put it the biggest show in town not a ton of excitement around the Seahawks going in those training camps I should mention sorry didn't rub Matt cooks on the station today on people show there. You know that what times that it You don't know people shows between two and four so sometimes I'll be on some time between two and four you'll have to listen and find out. You will. I'm going to guess 230. OK, sure. That's just a guess, though. I was going to say that too.

I'm guessing 359. I like that. 359, he'll be on for one minute. All right, that's it for us today. Thank you very much for joining us. As always, it's been a lot of fun. We're out of here for today, but we will be back tomorrow. Signing off for now, I have been Mike Helford,

he's been Jamie Dodd, he's been Adog, and he's been basketball Ben. This has been the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650.