Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 8/6/24

Episode Date: August 6, 2024

Guest hosts Jamie Dodd & Israel Fehr look back at a busy weekend at sports, they talk a memorable last few days for Canada at the Olympics, the boys discuss how confident Canucks fans are with management after the season they just had, plus they get a Canada Baksetball update with Sportsnet's Arash Madani live from Paris. 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.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Summer McIntosh is a once-in-a-generation talent. She's going to be, in my opinion, the best Olympian this country has ever seen. And he does. Ball game over. Yankees win 4-3. What's your reaction to seeing Blue Jays walk Aaron three times intentionally? It sucks. They were the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked.

Good morning! It is Halford and Brough here on Sportsnet 650. But there is no Halford, there is no Brough. I'm Jamie Dodd, filling in and with me, my guy, the newly engaged Israel Fair Izzy. Congratulations. What's going on? Thanks, Jamie. Yeah, Izzy. Congratulations. What's going on? Thanks, Jamie. Yeah, good to be here. It's officially summer.

We are doing a week of Halford and Brough. Yes, that's right. We're back. Our regular August stint on the show gets going right now. Of course, also with us, keeping us in check, keeping us on track, are the dogs. Hey, dog. What's going on, man? Not much. Oh, you're throwing me off.

You're not saying good morning. Oh, my God. What do I do, laddie? Not much is going on, Jamie. I am here and having a good time. You've been out of the routine so long. I'm glad to hear that. You panic.

The look of panic in A-Dog's eyes there. Ah! How do I answer? What's going on? We fear change. Laddie. Hello. How are you guys doing? You're waiting very patiently waiting for me to address you.

He gets a normal one? Well, I was expecting him to jump in, and he's like staring at me, waiting for me to say his name. So there you go. I didn't want you to throw something weird at me like you threw at Ada. Something weird like, what's going on? Jay, you just have to understand, when Halford has been doing this for so long, he says the same goddamn thing every morning.

Yeah. It's just programmed into our brains it's like a pavlovian dog thing we don't hear it the little click doesn't happen and then all hell breaks loose so it's it's it's not you it's us i typically listen to the first like by podcast don't get up at six but i'll listen to the first segment of the show kind of as part of my prep just to see what you guys are talking about and stuff during the course of the season and you're right halvard has it like dialed to the word how he starts the show the first like four minutes of the show yeah no change no variation he knows exactly what he is saying so

i'm sorry i threw you guys a curveball that's fine wasn't the uh it wasn't the the classic halford uh experience to start the show now never do that again all right uh halfn and Brough is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. The first hour of the show. Do we have a first hour sponsor? Maybe not. Let's see.

I'm already off. I'm off my game here. No, we don't. Anyways, we are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec studio kintec canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star google reviews sore feet what are you waiting for and of course 650 650 is the dumb bar lumber text line big big show today lots to get into of course with the summer olympics still going on but also some news elsewhere in the

world of sports jp acosta from sport from from SB Nation will join us at 6.30. He covers the NFL. We'll talk a little training camp, preseason action, of course, developments in the Brandon Ayuk trade story as well. So we'll get into that with JP. At 7 o'clock, our pal Gemma Carsten-Smith from the Canadian Press. Normally she's covering the Canucks, the Lions, the Whitecaps. She's over in Paris covering the Olympics right now.

So we'll talk to Gemma about that experience. At 7.30 from Sportsnet, Arash Madani joins us. Arash also covering the Olympics in Paris. And I know today in particular, he's locked in on Canada versus France in men's basketball, the quarterfinals, which gets going just as our show goes off the air. So we'll preview that with a rash uh and at eight o'clock bola combo bc lions linebacker joins the show and the lions scuffling just a little bit tough results in their most recent game so we'll uh

we'll look ahead to what's next for the lions with bow at eight o'clock now here is a halford classic the guest list in reverse order. Thank you. Can't start the show until we've done it frontwards and backwards. Here on Halford and Brough. 8 o'clock, Bola Combo, BC Lions linebacker. 7.30, Arash Medani, Sportsnet. 7 o'clock, Gemma Karsten-Smith from the Canadian Press.

And 6.30, JP Acosta from SB Nation. Before we do any of that, let's get into 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 you missed that what happened what happened is brought to you by the bc construction safety alliance making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit bccsa.ca. And Izzy, we've done this show together at this time of year

for a bunch of years in a row now. Very nice change of pace to have, really, one of the biggest sporting events, if not the biggest sporting event in the world, going on right now because we got a lot to get into uh from the olympics long weekend so you know three days worth of stuff to talk about here in paris and we got to start with to me what has been and there look there's been a lot going on for canada at these games both good and bad in some respects but right now and I think pending what happens with the men's basketball team, the biggest story of these games for Canada is clearly Summer McIntosh, who wrapped up her Olympics over the weekend,

couldn't quite get a medal in the relay race with her team, but finishes with three gold medals and a bronze. First Canadian athlete ever to win three gold medals at one game, and she's only 17 years old and i think we're going to remember this performance from summer macintosh at paris 2024 for an awfully long time oh no doubt no doubt and the moment for me was on her third gold where she was a ways back. Yeah. And the ability to bridge that gap and win the race, it was incredible.

She clearly was getting a lot of attention, not just in Canada. I think we do, as a country, as a sports nation, a good job of recognizing accomplishments at the games but this

goes beyond that you know this is on the level of andre degrasse in 2016 and at the at the games in tokyo this or penny alexiak as well in the pool in rio she's elevated herself uh in the pool and in the first week of the games to being one of the major stories outside of this country as well. That's the thing. And right, this is not just a Canadian story that we're hyping up because we're in Canada and we're feeling the patriotism

and we're proud of a Canadian athlete. This is a big story beyond our borders as well. And I can attest to that. I was on vacation last week. I was in the United States, which meant I was watching a ton of Olympics, but forced to watch the American, the NBC coverage and force. They do a good job, obviously. But I think if you've ever watched American Olympics coverage, you know how dialed in on the American athletes it is.

Right. And of course, look, every country is going to focus a little more or a lot more on their own athletes. The CBC does it. There's nothing wrong with that. But I think in the U.S., they take it to another level. And they can. You know, they probably have athletes in nearly every event. They have the stock to do it, right?

We would run out maybe a little quicker than the U.S. does. But they do. They push it. Yeah. And to the extent where you, like in gymnastics, you rarely see somebody other than Simone Biles or her teammates in the performances, right? Because they are so focused on what they're doing. It really struck me because NBC gave Summer McIntosh the full star treatment, right? Like not just hyping her accomplishments and focusing in on her on the at the event,

but actually doing like a profile on her where they're interviewing her mom, who's a former Olympian, and really putting her in the spotlight in a way that is exceptionally rare for them to do with non-American athletes. And I think that speaks to what you're saying, right? This is not just an oppressive accomplishment for a Canadian or something like that. This is legitimately one of the big performances at these games. And you start to look ahead, and I don't want to, you know, I know Simone Biles said, like, stop asking people what's next when they just won Olympic gold.

I don't want to pretend like this isn't a big deal. She's already had an incredible, incredible career. And these are amazing accomplishments. But you start to think about it. And, you know, she's 17 years old. You mentioned some of the great Canadian Olymp uh olympians of recent years penny alexiak and andre degrasse i mean i think summer's got a chance to put herself into the category of some of the best olympians notwithstanding country of the of the last you know 25 years or so right

like if she keeps this type of performance up she's got at least two more games assuming she stays healthy you know she could be in there with the likes of katie ledecky you know simone biles like the true true greats of the olympic games uh over the last 25 years or so yeah i was thinking about that this weekend where i the hundred the men's hundred was on on sunday and it was still it was an amazing race and there were a lot of storylines but because for three olympic cycles it was usain bolt yeah and he elevated to an iconic olympic status michael phelps obviously the same those guys occupy rarefied air i think the biles and ledecky are probably right there too biles certainly i think ledecky is too Really but yeah those are those are kind of the Big four that I think of Gets I think maybe less

Excitement or attention Because her strength is the Long distance Races in the pool so it's just It's kind of the NASCAR of the Pool world it's just a Lot of back and forth the NASCAR Of the pool world it's true yeah

But Summer Mcintosh is there and yeah there have been to do it at multiple games is i think the the difference maker yes the deciding factor because i go back to when i was younger and you remember like i have very vivid vivid memories of simon whitfield winning the triathlon in Sydney. But it's not like he goes on and dominates that event for a number of them. Bolt's thing was, and now there's an asterisk, but it was nine finals, nine golds. He ends up losing one of the relay golds because one of his teammates tested positive for PEDs. But individually, he still has the six and six. And even like Andre de Grasse, he has the one golds because one of his teammates tested positive for peds but individually he

still has the six and six and even like andre degrasse he has the one gold but prior to not qualifying for the final the the men's 100 meter final on the weekend his record was six olympic finals six medals and those are the kinds of things over a larger body of work and with summer mcintosh i think yeah the the sky does appear to be the limit here. And that's, look, again, I don't want to take anything away from what she's already accomplished by kind of forecasting what she could do down the road because you win three golds at one game. That's absolutely phenomenal. As I said, first person in our country's history to do it.

But yeah, this is what the start of a kind of pantheon olympic career looks like now as you said the question is can you go repeat that dominance or even build on it at subsequent games but she's 17 and she's already putting up this performance she has a chance to be truly a legendary olympic athlete when all is said and done so uh incredible incredible already for summer mcintosh and man it's going to be exciting to see what she can do when the next Olympic Games roll around. Some other notes. Friend of the show, Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo, wins Canada's first gold in hammer throw. Dominant performance for Ethan Katzberg.

Friend of the show, Ethan Katzberg. I literally just said that. Come on, Laddie. Sorry. I just want to make it very clear, very clear, that he is a friend of the show. Jamie, if I could interject for a second, he is a friend of the show.

Friend of the station, really. You tuned out just long enough to miss me say friend of the show. I perked up when you said the name I heard the name Ethan Katzberg, and I was like, yes. Literally introduced him as friend of the show, Ethan Katzberg. Friend of the show. We're all clear on Literally introduced him as friend of the show, Ethan Katzman. Friend of the show. Friend of the show. We're all clear on that.

He's been on the show before. He actually hates all of us. Yeah, probably. He's not a friend at all. Anyways, he's an acquaintance. He knows you. Wouldn't call you a friend. Wins Canada's first golden hammer throw.

Dominant performance. Winning by more than four meters. He was also the youngest competitor in the field. Now, this might shock you to know I'm not a big hammer throw expert necessarily. I'm shocked. But it strikes me that there would maybe be an older peak for hammer throw. You've got to get that grown man strength. So the fact that he's dominating the field at 22,

is this the start of a hammer throw dynasty for Ethan Katzberg in Canada? I think the sky's the limit here. You tell me he can't do it again at 26, at 30? Well, that was the theme. I'm parroting the CBC broadcast, but the theme was that it was a changing of the guard. That's right. That there were no repeat medalists from the last games

and that this was a younger podium. And Ethan Katzberg, there was a lot of talk about him stylistically physically being different than the past champions and the past olympic medalists because a lot of those guys are built like offensive linemen yeah he is a little bit taller a little bit lankier but his first two throws and his first throw was the 84 meters one. And then his second throw was 82, which still would have been enough to win the gold by a nice distance. And he was, it was impressive.

And I mean, he just, I just love his look. Like he looks like a guy who would throw a hammer around. No, he looks like a guy who should just be sitting at the bar drinking Lucky Lager, man. Like he's just got that total bc look i saw that there was a there was a campaign on twitter aka x that uh australians want to claim him just based on his look the long hair and the mustache and the laid-back atmosphere he definitely he does have that aussie look but how different like i think of it as a canadian, though, or like a BC look. If I was to see the guy, not hear him speak, and not know where he was from the very first

time I saw him, I would assume he's Australian. Either way, he looks like somebody in Whistler, where it's like, well, he could be Australian or he could just be in Whistler. Yes, this is true. But I don't know. I think that's a pretty Canadian look. That's what I thought. When I was watching, I said, man, this guy looks very Canadian.

Don't try to claim that, Australia. The Aussies, they want to claim that look. I don what I thought when I was watching. Don't try to claim that. This guy looks very Canadian. Don't try to claim that, Australia. The Aussies, they want to claim that look. I don't know about that. But as you said, you know, the typical build for these types of events, right? I don't know if you saw the guys who won the shot put for the States, and they've won. They've been gold,

silver. I think this is their third consecutive Olympics now being gold, silver, and they are just like mountains, especially the guy who wins gold is as you said built like an offensive lineman a little different for ethan kathbert who knows maybe he'll put on maybe he'll put on some more weight and some more muscle and uh and stretch his dominance even in this field but pointing out that we could be at the start of a hammer throw dynasty for canada i should also mention uh ethan kathbert of course from nanaimo camimo. Cameron Rogers from Richmond going for gold on the women's side today. That goes around 11 Pacific time.

So it could be double gold, not just for Canada, but for BC in the hammer throw. Hopefully Cameron Rogers can take it home on the women's side. Some other news and notes from the weekend. It seems like this happened forever ago because we're coming off a long weekend but we should mention canada's women's soccer team loses in penalty kicks to germany in the quarterfinals so i don't know if i would call it a storybook run it's it's hard to kind of wrap your head around all the things that were happening but truly a really impressive feat to get out of the group stage given the six point deduction but they cannot take their chances they lose in penalty kicks to Germany.

Yeah, they were left for dead after the six-point deduction, but it was a disappointing way to go. The first half, they weren't great, and the second half, they did create a number of chances, and they had a number of goal-scoring opportunities,

and they never really came close to capitalizing. And then the penalties themselves were pretty poor, pretty disappointing. Whereas on the German side, the stereotype, the cliche on the men's side has always been that the Germans are great at penalties. The German women were absolutely nails on their penalties, except one that was skied but the all the ones that they scored were textbook whereas canada's pks were pretty poor and you can't you

can't sit there and say that that they deserved better so you i guess a pat on the back for yeah not completely shutting down after after that deduction and and all the the controversy around around the drone situation. But they did have an opportunity to go through, and they just didn't take their chances. It was impressive to rally like they did after all of the controversy surrounding them right from their first match. But then you also kind of feel weird giving them the pat on the back because it's like, well, it's not outside adversity.

I mean, it's not the players doing it. It's the federation. But it's just a strange situation. I was hoping for them to go on a run, not just because they're the Canadian team and you're always hoping for them to have success. But I did think it would have been kind of fun just to put on the black hat, embrace the villain role and be like, yeah, we cheated. What about it? We're going to go win gold again. But unfortunately, not able to get it done.

The Canadian women's soccer team. Some other quick ones. Noah Lyles wins the 100 meter sprint by the narrowest, narrowest of margins. So narrow. I believe the guy on the NBC call got it wrong and announced the other winner, which is a tough look in the 100 meters. The wild thing about that one is you saw the photo. The guy who finished fourth. So not remembered off the podium.

Nothing to show for it was like what ahead if that back from noah lyles it was one of the closest races not just for first and second but really one through four the we always talk about you know a tenth or a thousandth of a second a hundredth of a second separating these athletes but that was again wasn't just for the gold or the silver it was one two three four by basically nothing there was almost nothing to give between them in that race yeah 979 for for first and second and the difference of 0.005 and then 981 for for bronze when you watch even the semis but certainly the the heats like the qualification rounds there is huge separation between the first couple the people that get automatic qualification in the rest of the field so i'd been i watched the heats i watched the semi-finals where even in the 100 even in a 10 second race the guys up out front can slow down a little bit,

look around. They've got it because their starts are so good or they're able to build up the speed through the middle part of the race. But to have basically all eight guys in it, that photo will be, I think, among the iconic Olympic photos of recent memory because it just shows that that was

a really competitive field it was for Lyles right a lot of expectations for him you talk about the NBC hype machine he was certainly one of the Americans that was getting a lot of attention he's a bit of like a flamboyant performer he

backed it up and had his best race ever which is what you always hear about the Olympics trying to peak at the right time and he delivered on that and now he's going in the 200 which the final will be on Thursday they ran the heats yesterday and I believe the semis are tomorrow

so he's I think also the favorite in that but andre degrasse is the the defending olympic champion yeah and we should point out as you mentioned andre degrasse misses the 100 meter final but still alive in the 200 meters as you said semis tomorrow uh and then the finals on thursday for that so we'll see if andre degrasse can defend his gold there. One other note, Novak Djokovic really capturing the one title in tennis that had eluded him up to this point, winning gold for the first time in his career at the Olympics. Okay, but that's all what happened. We do want to look ahead a little bit here as well,

because of course, one of the, if not the biggest events so far of the Olympics from a Canadian perspective, gets going at 9 a.m. today. It is the Canadian men's basketball team versus the home country, France, in the quarterfinals. So Canada needs to win here to advance, to have a chance to medal at these games. And with so much hype going into it so far,

this team has lived up to all of it. They go 3-0 in the group of death, in the most difficult group at the tournament to win the group. Now they've got a really difficult matchup, right? You've got Victor Weminyama, 7'3", Rudy Gobert, 7'1". They're the home team. The crowd is going to be super, super into it. And it's tough because if they lose this game,

there's a part of me that's going to look at it and say, man, what are you going to do? You're the road team. You're playing against the home team. The crowd's all into it. They're a really tough matchup because of the height they have inside. Sometimes you just lose a game.

But there's another part of me that's going to be crushingly disappointed that this team with all of this talent that went 3-0 in their group, that beat Spain, that looked really, really good, that looks comfortable, well-coached, all of these things, it's going to be very, very disappointing if they lose in the quarterfinals, if they don't even have a chance to play for a medal at these games. And I think it just goes to show the depth of talent that

exists on the men's side now, where there's no real easy games. From this point on, you're going to have to beat a really, really good, really, really talented team to advance, and that's what Canada has to do against France today. And what you see, I think, maybe even more in international basketball than in the NBA is very, very distinct strengths and weaknesses. So France has the big guys, as you mentioned. They've got incredible size size that is not a strength

for canada no canada has got i think strong ball movement you like their guard play you like that they can be physical you guys like brooks and dort there's going to be i mean the reason the u.s is so good even at the international, they obviously have superstars in the NBA, but they have probably the most all-around talent and ability, whereas a lot of the other nations are big strengths, big weaknesses. this matchup is a matchup of Canada having their strength. I think their strength in terms of probably being a little bit more comfortable with the ball, more comfortable, I think probably shooting from distance as well is one that they are going to be able to use to their advantage. Whereas the French team and the french strength with those those two big

guys in particular is going to be something that they are they're not going to be able to like press like canada can kind of push the gas on their strength the french are going to the two towers they're going to be standing in their way right but they're not i don't think going to be able to like use that as as a as a way to kind of push canada off their game i think it's going to be we'll talk about this more with uh with jemma who was at the the team's practice yesterday in a rash as well but i think the key well there's a bunch of keys but i'm really curious to see what lou dort and dylan brooks who have been just terrors defensively for Canada on the perimeter, can do to France's backcourt.

Can they, because there's kind of big names or at least guys who have name recognition from playing in the NBA in France's backcourt, but they're not necessarily at the top of their game. It's not a strength of the team. So can they make it hard on them just to, you know, bring the ball up court,

get into their offense can they force those live ball turnovers and then you've got transition opportunities where you know wemby and gobert aren't lurking right at the basket to squat your shot away i think that's going to be really key using that defensive energy that defensive ability that they have to force those turnovers to put france off their. Because if you don't do that and you're just constantly, you know, half court, again, as I said, with Gobert and Wemby set up, ready to defend the hoop, it's going to be really tough for Canada to score. But man, I am absolutely hyped for this one.

Biggest Canadian men's basketball game since the last time they played France in an Olympic quarterfinals, which was way back in the year 2000. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Very interesting piece just dropped this morning from you guys at The Athletic, which is the front office confidence rankings in the NHL. So how fans feel, how confident fans are in their front office. And also just so ranking, you know, your own team, but also other teams around the league. How confident you are in the front office. And also just so ranking, you know, your own team,

but also other teams around the league, how confident you are in the front office. The Vancouver Canucks, fifth in terms of confidence, fifth in terms of confidence in the NHL. That's all the way up from 30th last year. And that's not just the fan base getting dramatically more excited about the team which of course is a big part of the story that's also people around the nhl taking a look at it and fans around the nhl and saying hold on this is very very different than what was happening here

in the past i think that's just look it's just one poll it's you know after coming off a a great season of course people are going to be more confident. But that turnaround to go from 30th in the rankings where you're one of the most kind of questioned people are skeptical of you in the league to top five up there with recent Stanley Cup winners with with Stanley Cup contenders in the Dallas Stars. That's a dramatic, dramatic turnaround for the Vancouver Canucks. It is. And the bulk of it is within the fan base there is a a disclaimer at the bottom of the graphic for the vancouver canucks who come in as an a minus front office that the change in confidence from last year within the fan base 97 percent that's what last season did for this management group.

And it's because of hitting on all the different aspects of it. The first full season with Rick Talkin. Philip Aronik's season. I know maybe toward the end that that wavered a little bit, but ultimately you have to be pretty happy about his production throughout the year. Getting Elias Patterson signed. Now, I don't mean to incite the text box so early in the morning, but that was a big...

Let's get into it. That was a big question mark. Would they be able to get this contract done? They end up getting the max term deal. And the team was really, really successful. The team had a really good season now how these expectations play into next year how this change plays into what people are hoping to see next year is going to be really interesting to me this this pretty much cements the idea that they have to build off of next year anything

anything less is going to be a pretty major disappointment but i mean that's that's what they're getting paid for that that's what they're striving for well yeah and you think you go back to this time last year right when they ranked 30th and so you've rick talk it's been hired but as good as the results were down the stretch we'd just come off a similar experience with bruce boudreaux right you had no idea how much it was going to carry over to the following season and of course the process of getting rick talking to the door was really, really messy, did not exactly inspire confidence. You had the Philip Peronic deal and he played, what, four games here.

So there were still a lot of questions about what he was going to do. And you'd had, you know, what looked like at least a low risk free agency, but you had no idea what that was going to translate to on the ice. So there was some good, there was some bad, but there were still just major, major questions about what was going to happen with the team, what they were actually going to look like. And then you look at it and basically everything they did going into last season worked out, right? I mean, Rick Talkett, obviously winning the Jack Adams, just having a transformational

effect on the way the team played, the character of the team, all of it. Worked out about as well as a coaching hire could have worked out. Filipronic, again, as you said, slowing down a little bit towards the end of the season, but phenomenal chemistry earlier in the year with Quinn Hughes. And I think a big part of why fans will have confidence in this management group does come back to the way they managed their money and made smart but low risk additions in free agency right which was just something that was so lacking for so long the

fact that they were able to get you know ian cole on a one-year deal teddy bluger on a one-year deal pew suitor on a cheap two-year deal and all of those guys became key contributors. All of them worked. All of them fit. We were so used to having the opposite happen, right? In Vancouver, where it's like, oh, we're overpaying for this guy, and then he's not even that good. He doesn't even really fit once he gets here. So I think just that impact is a huge, huge part of why there's so much more confidence in this front office. And I think that's, to me, one of the most interesting things is,

did they repeat that this year? Because I can look at all the signings, and obviously the Jake DeBrusque one's in a different category. That's a much bigger deal. But you go down the list of some of the other ones, right? Danton Heinen, Daniel Sprong, Derek Forbort, Vinny Desjardins. Very similar. Low cost, cheap, short-term bets on guys who could end up being

really good glue guys for your team if they hit at the same rate as they did the previous summer i think they're going to justify the confidence that people have in them and i think the team's going to be really really good again if they're if they're able to hit at that rate yeah it does appear that the that they're on that track and that was last year maybe those signings sort of flew under the radar because there was so much discussion about everything else around the team this year the focus was squarely on wow every single depth move here ticks all of the boxes and even the sprung one which happens later in the summer and was a guy that for a couple of weeks before the

signing that rumor was popping up of hey this guy might for a couple of weeks before the signing that rumor was popping up of hey this guy might be a fit and maneuver what what's get that gonna look like and ultimately you know that gets across the board and to hear him talk about the impact that a conversation with rick talkett you know it all comes full circle yeah it's okay here's the coach that they identified as being the right one for this group. That played out. And they had to, you know, Rick Tockett, for really no fault of his own, had a pretty uphill climb.

And that is the one area, I think, where that management group, they did not handle the Bruce Boudreaux situation all that well. Put Tockett in a difficult position. But the thing is, you start winning, you can erase a lot of those. You can erase a lot of those concerns really fast it's fascinating because the top though transition from boudreau to talk at probably the lowest moment of fan confidence in this front

office and it turned out ultimately to be their best decision not the way it went down but the decision to bring in rick talk it specifically because I think at a certain point the writing was on the wall for Bruce Boudreau. He wasn't going to be here long term. But the decision to hire Rick Talkett has been their best decision, their most impactful decision that they've made. And it is just fascinating, again, how it came from probably the low ebb of confidence and now the biggest driver of having this renewed confidence that fans do have in what this front office is going to do. By the way, I just scrolling through the list quickly. I noticed the LA Kings dropping all the way to 31st in terms of front office confidence from the fans after the Pierre Luc Dubois experience. Ouch. Now joining us live from Paris, where a big, big game is just about

90 minutes away from Sportsnet. He is Arash Madani. Arash, thank you for doing this today. How are you? I'm doing great, boys. I'm just on the other side of the bridge about to walk back into Bercy Arena. But I figured I'd step outside and do it in the sunshine with you guys. Well, we appreciate it very much.

And yeah, we're hyped here. This is the biggest Canadian men's basketball game in a long time. I'm sure you're hyped as well. 24 years. 24 years. Biggest one since Nash and those guys. Yeah, against France in the quarterfinals, actually. And, you know, very different looking lineup in terms of NBA talent for Canada at this one.

And, you know, they win their group 3-0. Now they go up against the home team in France, the Gobert and Wemby Yamaha front court what's your sense of how Canada is going to approach this quarterfinal matchup? Well, the featured attraction

is Wemby and right away they're going with Dylan Brooks on them they're not messing around and I wonder how much of this is an attitude, and I wonder how much of this is an attitude thing. I wonder how much of this is Dylan just try to get under his skin, try to get the crowd hostile, and the crowd's going to be nuts. I was in Lille when they played Japan,

and 30 minutes before the game, the crowd was doing their chants and the yale, le bleu, all that kind of stuff. But I spoke with Brooks yesterday. I said, so what's the deal? He said, I've just got to crawl up in his space. I've got to make him make shots. I've got to out-hustle him.

I've got to do all the little things, the details. And then I asked Shea Gildress Alexander, who, by the way, is the best player in the tournament, in case anyone was wondering. I asked Shea about Dylan, and he just said, look, man, this guy has the ability to defend anyone in the world. So how long Brooks is going to be on Wemby is going to be interesting. The different looks they're going to give Wemby Nyama is going to be interesting

because the issue with the Canadians is they don't have a lot of size. So if this can turn into a guard play kind of game, Advantage Canada with SGA, Jamal Murray and Andrew Nembhard. France is going to try and use Gobert and Wemby as their two seven footers. So game on. You mentioned Brooks Arash as being the guy who sets kind of that attitude and that aggressiveness for this team. I think so far in this tournament and going back to the World Cup last year, this group has shown that they're not afraid of the moment. You know, SGA, that guy is ice cold. He is so smooth.

How do you think that can translate to the hostile environment, a team that has a really defined strength in the two big guys? How can they translate that to tonight's game? So it's a good question. And I think what these players have that a lot of people watching don't is a supreme confidence in themselves. They don't have any of the wounds and scars of the last 24 years of the Canadian men's national basketball team.

Maybe R.J. Barrett from when they lost to the Czechs in Victoria in 21. That's it. That's it. Like, Shea knows he's the guy. Everybody on that team knows Shea's the guy. Jamal just won an NBA championship a couple of years ago. This Canadian team is a top two, if not top, well, top three, if not top two team in this tournament.

And the two teams that are the best, I don't know what ended up happening in Serbia, Australia. It's going to overtime. It's going to overtime. There you go. It's U.S., Serbia, Canada. And Australia is giving Serbia everything they can handle. Canada's really, really good with really, really good players, and they should smash

France by between 9 and 12, for those of you into this kind of thing, at plus 475. That's what I think. They're better than them. Last year in the World Cup, sure, different team, no Wemby, but also

no Jamal. Canada held France to eight third-quarter points. They smashed them by 30. Why can't they do it again today? Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, certainly they've got the talent, and so much of it starts with Shea Gilgis-Alexander. As you said, at this point, he's one of the best players in the world, right? You look at what he's done in the NBA the last couple of years, where he's finishing in MVP best players in the world right you look at what he's done in the nba the last couple of years where he's finishing an mvp voting all nba teams and now his performance

at this uh at this tournament i i am going to find it interesting because you know one of his superpowers is his ability to get into the paint right he is so good at attacking the basket obviously scoring once you're there becomes a little bit more difficult when you've got women yama and gobert a a couple of seven footers plus. And, you know, Gobert, of course, defensive player of the year. How do you expect SGA to kind of change his game or change how he's attacking? I have full confidence that he can do it. But I'm curious to see what it's going to be.

I disagree with that. I fully disagree with that. We see Gilgis Alexander do that. We also see him get buckets from mid-range. He also is probably the best three-point shooter on the Canadian team, he and R.J. Barrett. There is not a flaw in Shea Gilgis Alexander's game. We're talking about a top three player in the world.

If Shea Gilgis Alexander was playing's game. We're talking about a top three player in the world. If Shea Gilgis-Alexander was playing in New York or L.A., there would be larger-than-life billboards of him in Times Square and all over Hollywood. He's just in this outpost in Oklahoma right now, and he doesn't play for the U.S. team, so he doesn't get the attention that an Anthony Edwards in Minnesota would get. There is not a better finisher. There is not a more clutch player in the NBA than Gildas Alexander.

And nobody has in the history of the NBA has had more 30-plus point games in a season than SGA had this past year. He is him. He is it. He is the guy that's going to get Canada on the podium this year. And he is, it's not just a, okay, he's a really good penetrator and France can slow him down that way. The fact that he's got Andrew Nembhard and Jamal Murray alongside his running mates too, like he's got two Robins with him. So that's going to have to keep the defense honest, which is going to open up space for SGA.

And the other thing that struck me about, about Shea Gilgis Alexander watching this tournament, it's the scoring and big moments, but there's also, you know, I think about the closing moments against Spain when that game got close, right? And they can inbound the ball to him and they have full confidence that he's going to make the right decision. He's going to,

you know, withstand whatever pressure of a defense throws of him. And, you know, in late game situations in these tournaments, it's so important to have somebody who just is completely calm in full control at all times in those late game situations. You just know,

Hey, we get Shea the ball and it's going to be okay. We're not going to make a mistake. We're going to do what we need to do to win this game. And he did it over and over in the World Cup last summer, too, to get Canada here to begin with. They're strong

there. To me, the question becomes Canada's size. Rebounding was an issue against Spain. How is this kind of tail of the tape going to go on the glass when you don't have much of a presence with your bigs? Like, Kem Birch is getting quality minutes at 6'9", a guy who was basically at a basketball the last two years recovering from an injury. So, to me, the bigger question here is, with France's frontcourt, what are the second-chance opportunities going to be for France compared to the second-chance opportunities for Canada?

Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. But the strength for Canada, we saw in the last game against Spain where Andrew Nembhard had some unbelievable finishes at the rim and was a driver for this team in a way that lessened Jamal Murray's role. And we've seen him at his best be a guy that has changed games in the NBA finals. And he's got the championship pedigree. He's got the ability to hit big shots. But based on what you've seen from this Canadian team, what is the ideal role for Jamal Murray with this group right now? I think he's just starting to cook now.

Like here's a guy who didn't play last summer. He missed a bit of camp, showed up late to Europe when they were playing exhibition games. Only now is he really integrating himself into the mix. He's coming off the bench for now. I doubt that changes, to be honest. Look, if you have Jamal Murray as part of your second unit, advantage Canada. And here's the thing, which this is what makes this tournament great what have we seen already forget canada for a minute jason tatum did not play in one of the

team usa games dnpcd did not play coach's decision and the the guy who didn't make a big deal out of it was jason tatum like everybody is bought into we, not me, the collective. There's a trust. I asked Jamal the other day about the whole dynamic and Murray's answer was, look, we can say whatever we want to each other. Nobody takes it personally because we just want to win. Like they only have another week together. That's it.

And then it's back to reality. It's back to your day job etc so i think he's going to end up having a monster game tonight i think murray's going to be the lethal shooter that they need and i think this is going to springboard him into the semifinals against germany where the germans don't really have much of an answer from a matchup standpoint on him. To me, Jamal Murray, while a non-factor of the first three games of this tournament in the preliminary round, becomes the factor now that it's the knockout stage.

And that's where this is going to get really interesting. And it's going to be something for Jordy Fernandez to manage and his coaching staff as well, Arash. And what have you thought overall about the job that Fernandez has done navigating Canada, you know, leading into this tournament and then through the tournament so far? Well, here you have somebody who's with the Spanish national team who understands, who's also now an NBA head coach, but a longtime assistant who understands. And the players have bought in, again, in large part because they know it's a compressed time. Jordy can yell at them, he can call them out, and nobody seems to care. But they always seem to have an escape hatch. There's a plan B and a plan C.

And from the jump, it's all been about a defensive first mindset. And Fernandez, from the day he took over as the national team coach told the guys if we don't have a defensive first mindset we're doing a disservice to one another canada's not going to win games in this tournament 101 100 114 112 you have to limit your opponent that's how canada is going to win and the guys have bought in on the defense event again we'd be in a conversation talking about brooks brooks and lou dorr have been so instrumental in this entire run because they've bought into that defensive first mindset that fernandez has instilled moving on to another canadian team that did reach the quarterfinals in

their tournament but uh went no further the the Canadian women's soccer team, a pretty disappointing game in the quarterfinals for them against Germany, really unable to score and pretty deflating, I think, after there was a lot of attention and a lot of controversy around their play in the group stage. Obviously, a weird situation overall with the the entire drone uh scandal that that is probably going to still play out for a little bit but is is this even with the deduction and and the fact that they were able to overcome that and you add on the the controversy it has to be seen as a bit of a disappointment for for this group yeah i mean they they won bronze in 2012, they won bronze in 2016,

and they're the defending gold medalists, and they don't medal for the first time. And I think that once the preliminary round ended, the focus really flipped the page on the whole drone thing because they got through. But I do think that where the drone where the six point deduction really made an impact is that all three matches became must win right right and so your substitution patterns and the minutes that you had to give your stars in those three matches your strategy changes altogether and i didn't think they ran out of gas even with 30 more minutes of extra time against Germany, and they got to penalties, and it's 50-50 from there.

They were the better team, probably. They just didn't score the goal. Overall, yeah, disappointing that you don't meddle. But to me, this now only gets started on where Canada soccer is going to go. And I have no idea what this external review and investigation is going to lead to. Yeah, it's going to be fascinating to monitor where that one goes, Arash. On the positive side for Canada, really the story for Canada at these games so far, Summer McIntosh and what she did in the pool. And we've talked about it a lot on the show today.

Obviously, it's getting a ton of recognition, deservedly so, here in Canada. I mean, what's your takeaway from what we witnessed from Summer McIntosh at these games? Maybe witnessing one of the greatest Canadian athletes ever, already has established herself as the next Canadian superstar. Three gold medals and a silver at her first Olympics at age 17. Chased down some of the best swimmers in the world

to win that last gold medal. Outright dominance in the 400 individual medley, winning it by five seconds, um, checks every box you would think that a star athlete would have. And you'd be blown away that she's only 17 and only getting started and badly wants to win.

Um, competitive as all hell, you know, it's, it's all those things like when you talk about the great athletes in canadian history there's there is a real conversation possible eight years from now that summer mcintosh could be in that mix who's to say she can't be the next what katie ledecky and michael phelps are to u.s swimming why can't summer mackintosh be that for canada yeah and she i mean you mentioned some of those moments and you know dominant fashion and the comeback to win the final gold and those are

indelible moments that canadian fans canadian olympic fans will remember but also i think elevated to uh to a global stage. And then there's, you know, Andre de Grasse was a guy that he won the gold in the 200 in Tokyo. He had those moments with Usain Bolt at the Games in Rio, where he also got that global attention, that worldwide platform. He had a disappointing day in the 100 on Sunday not qualifying for the final and now does have in his sights his top event although it does seem that the 200 will still be a difficult one given the way that the other guys ran in the heats yesterday what where is DeGrasse at at this point in terms of contending for and trying to defend his Olympic gold?

I don't think physically he's 100%. This is somebody who has shown over the last two Olympics that he's the best finisher in the game in the 100. And everything he worked towards coming into Paris was the start. The start was great in the semifinal. At the midway point of the race, he was right there with the field. And just as you expected, he was going to turn on the afterburners. He didn't. So he doesn't qualify for the final for the first time at an Olympic.

Then yesterday in the opening round, when I talked to DeGrasse before the Olympics, he said just coming around that bend, coming around the turn, is going to be the most important thing. He took such a wide turn. And yeah, he qualified. He was just right behind Noah Lyles. But it was a very cautious, very conservative, don't push it. I just wonder if something isn't right

with him physically. And there are some people who kind of question what, you know, his lead up to these games, the training blocks, some around the track program are wondering how healthy DeGrasse is. I think they're valid in that wonder.

Arash, really appreciated. Thanks for doing this. I'm sure it's a pretty wild and busy in that wonder. Arash, really appreciate it. Thanks for doing this. You know, I'm sure it's a pretty wild and busy schedule for you over in Paris. So thanks for taking

some time to chat and enjoy Canada and France, man. Should be a good one in a bit here. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Arash. That is Sportsnet's

Arash Madani. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.