Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Full Show — May 6, 2026

Episode Date: May 6, 2026

This hour is brought to you by Menards. Say big money at Menards. The views and opinions of Laila Rahimi, Marshall Harris, and Mark Grody should not be taken too seriously. Especially when they give advice. Do not take Marshall's analogies, literally. Especially when it comes to Russell Dorsey. The sports thoughts of Rahimi Harris and Grotie may change at any time. It's just sports.

Gay, thanks. Bye. Two on 1043, the score. And of all the things I did not expect to hear, now that the Bulls have their executive, vice president of basketball operations, was the words Tom Thibidot and Bulls together. Is it a dream come true for me?

So this article came out, Tom Thibbino and the Bulls are connected in this article. He has this sentence. League sources say Tom Thibodeau is also very interested in a comeback. No, not really. I want to dismiss it, Leila, because you said you didn't know what to say when you read the news. I knew what to say.

It was a one word thing. No. No. No. No. No. Jerry Rinesdorf. The guy who fired Tom Thibodeau.

Like Jerry and Michael. Okay. Mostly Jerry. Okay. Okay. Has he ever fired someone and regretted it? Oh, God. There's a guy that feels like, you know, jump off a bridge.

Tom Thibito, to come back to Chicago would have to make some concessions. So who says you can't teach it? an old dog some new tricks. Tats each a old dog new tricks. You sure can't eat the young will and pluffy. It's about anything. Tips doesn't care about time. Like, time is undefeated.

And Tips is like, I don't care how many minutes are in this basketball game. You're playing all of it. This is not how the world works anymore. This is four years now. I'm not changing. If you really want a clean slate, is somebody who you know exactly who they are as a coach, is that the answer?

No. No, the answer is no. No, by the way, is a clean slate. complete sentence. N. O. Period. No. Or better than N.O. period. You know what's better than that? N.O. exclamation point. How about new? Look pretty good to me. Pretty handsome

guy. Strong tough. Lela Rahimi, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, Midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 104.3. The score. This is Rahimi Harrison Grody

on a very fun Wednesday. As we mentioned, we will introduce Bryce and Graham to you live at 12 o'clock. In the meantime, we're going to talk about the Cubs, the White Sox, and so much more. But before we get into the Cubs and a question, I want to ask all of our listeners, Marshall, and you, yourself, and our producers, Ray and Tyler. This is the case where, like, I'm listening to Tyler Bueterbaugh's Open. Happy birthday, Tyler. Happy birthday, big fella. We're doing it. We're old. And because we're, we're, we're also believe in time is not something that you have to acknowledge, except when you want to, just like Tibbs. Is this a case where two rights make a wrong?

Bryson Graham and Tom Thibito? No. Again, no. You're pushing hard. I love it. I love your passion for it. Because you think Tibbs is a wrong in this scenario, but I'm saying they're both a right that make a wrong. So ultimately it's still a wrong. I don't understand why you think Tibbs is a right. That's my problem. He's consistent. I know exactly who I'm getting at all times. About everything. Yes.

I also know that volatility is a thing. And the last time he separated ways with the Chicago Bulls. It was about a volatility and toxicity issue, correct? Did he change or did they? Wouldn't they both have to change to fix the problem? I'm not asking grown men to change. I'm just saying... You just asked if they did, though, and I'm just telling you.

But I'm asking. I can't ask somebody too. change. But we can ask if they did. If they did change. I don't believe both parties have changed. I believe stubbornness is the thing, unless you go with the TLR method, which is a thing that exists. See there? See there? Tony Larissa didn't change either. No, he didn't. Existential crisis. Tony LaRosa went elsewhere and won multiple world championships. And went to the whole thing. Tom has not done that. Tips has not done that, Lela. I can't, you know, the older I get, the more I just realize that there are two types of people in this world.

People who love Tom Thibodeau and people who don't. I love Tom Thimito. I love what he's done. I love... But the loyal, he inspires weird loyalty out of some people, like me and D. Rose. Does he inspire that weird loyalty out of someone with the last name, Rheinsdorf? That is the question. Mm-hmm.

So more basketball discussion will be had on the show. But in the meantime, here I am. am last night watching a game. We're again, I know what I'm probably getting out of the individuals involved, Marshall, Cubs and Reds. And we love James and Tio and we understand who he is. We know that the home run ball is something that will happen. And you're not asking him to change, correct? No, you know why? Also, because I know that James and Tion will change himself when he wants to because he likes to adjust. Okay. He does. I know who he is. And he's not afraid to tell you how the sausage is made. He's not afraid to tell you what pitches he's working on in a season. And then I'm like, oh, there's a home

run ball. There's another home run ball. And then I'm like, I'm not even stressed out about it that much because I'm asking myself at this point, how many runs do the Cubs have to be down right now in order for you to say this team isn't out? Because guess what happened yet again? For the fifth time during the stretch that the Cubs have had, five different players, five different walk-offs. They win three to two in ten innings. Lela, when you look at the Cubs and you understand how they are built, built to have an offense that should be one of the best in baseball all season if they stay healthy. And maybe even if they don't stay healthy because of the depth that they have put together here

and the ability to put together different lineups for different purposes for different types of weather because it is Wrigley Field and we're still in May and it's still a little breezy outside and it's still a little chillier than I would like it to be as we head towards Memorial Day weekend.

But in that same vein, understanding that they've had the pitching setbacks that they've had both in their starting rotation and in their bullpen, the ability to just believe you're going to win in my mind carries a lot of weight. And I think if you ask the Cubs themselves, players, and at this point, coaching staff,

the belief is doing a fair share of the lifting of, hey, we're down, let's lift ourselves up by the bootstraps, proverbially speaking. And they've been able to do that more times than not. I mean, 17 and 3 stretch is like you've won 85% of your games for what amounts to an eighth of the season. That's it. I mean, the stretch that,

they're on, not only do we celebrate it for what it is during the time, but then you also, it does remind you of going back to other seasons. I know Grody brought this up last year when we were talking about the Cubs and them getting to the playoffs and there were shades of the 2016 team reminding you. You know, you've had that same feeling or you had that same confidence. One of the biggest pieces of the 2016 team to me, and I'm not saying this is the team that wins the World Series, but it's the feelings that it invokes. And how good was the two out hitting during that time? You know, up and down the lineup, you saw guys producing, especially 7, 8, 9.

You know, you saw it like once again with two outs, they were able to do it. And then you see last night on Markey Sports Network that the Cubs, over 36 games, are off to their second best start over that span. Second to 2016, they were 17 and 9. in 2026, they are 24 and 12 that ties the 1969 team. There are all these comparisons. And then I think there's just another concept of this, which is, dare I say, in the words of we are good,

they know that they are good right now. They know they're good because they can just look at their record and know 24 and 12 is something that not many other teams have been able to do. There's a lot of teams that are within shouting distance of 500, whether on the positive side or the small side. The reality is, after being under 500 for a time, you can go back to the last time they were under 500. And that was when they lost in a three-game set to the Philadelphia Phillies on April 13th.

They were 7 and 9. They were two games under 500. That's it. And then they went 17 and 3. So we'll get into that, that flashpoint looking back at that now a little bit later in our show. want to do that next. But just having that mentality and then seeing what we're seeing on the field where even watching, you know for yourself, two home runs doesn't bother me. Solo home runs especially, let those guys get theirs. Being down doesn't bother you using Jamison Taya on

Javier aside and then three more pitchers to get to Ryan Rawlison, who ends up earning that win because it's in extras. When you see all of the pinch hitters that were used, you know, for Matt Shaw as well, Moises by Astero is brought in. You know, you see Michael Conforto get brought in. All these different decisions that are being made. None of that bothers you because you have confidence in this team the way you do. And the confidence is well earned because it's one thing to come up with a walkoff win like they did two nights ago.

It's another thing to do it back-to-back days on a team. that's hot on your trail and you know is a good team because they're above 500. Your whole division's above 500. And you have to remember, when you ask the question, Lela, like how many runs is too big of a deficit for them to be able to come back from? Right. I was going back and like trying to put my number down. Is it four?

Is it five? Is it six? Not one. Not two. Maybe it's not the LeBron Heath. No, I think the LeBron is app because he kept going, right? He did. Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five.

that puts you at six, correct? Yeah, you knew what number he was chasing at the time. Six is my number. Here's why six is my number. Because the last time they were down by five in a game, they came back and won the game. They were down six one. And the last home game that they, or excuse me,

the first home game that they won on this now headed towards history winning streak. You know, they won 14 a row back in 2008. They're on the verge of time. tying that. They're at 13. Yes. On the, like, they could do it tonight. And they could do it tomorrow and, and surpass that streak, right?

They were down six to one. James and Tyone was on the hill. And despite him giving up three home runs, because he gives up a couple of tie-ons and something that was not a tie-own, a Grand Slam. They come back and win. On April 12th, yeah. Since that point, I've been like, all right, they've turned it on. They've proven what they can do.

Well, and again, there are so many. times where, like for example, we are used to seeing a team underperform like the expected Wobah, you know, that's a step that's out there a lot. And I think you're used to seeing guys play under the line of the baseball card, as we like to say, under the back of the baseball card when it comes to the numbers, because we're usually talking about it in that way. And when people overperform, you're just thrilled and they're on a heater. But when you see a lineup perform where something that is seemingly unlikely to happen, where consistency and that elusive this whole lineup one through nine is good for a hit or good for clutch base running

or good for something that will help you win. That's the rarity. And so when you're seeing it happen day in and day out on this basis like this, it deserves to be celebrated. And I think it's also reflected Marshall in how we're hearing the Cubs talk about themselves. This is a question the Craig Council has been asked a lot over this home win streak over the last 17 out of 20, as we've mentioned. But I feel like his best answer was the one he gave last night. You just make yourself hard to beat. That's what the kind of the, you develop this resilience and this hard to beat mentality. That's what it creates, I think. And I think a belief system, like we're down in the eighth. We've got to show.

dot. And it's not always like that. And comebacks and late inning stuff creates that. Sometimes you just need to see it to believe it. And I think this team is doing that. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, the score. And that was Craig Counsel after the game yesterday. And I think he's right. You do need to see it to believe it. You need to identify it with it. Feel it. All the things. this point, Craig Counsel's gone from his wow from two nights ago to, I guess this is what we're doing. That's what it feels like.

Do you know who he sounds like? Ben Johnson accepting his team's fate last season. T-Dog, 847 says the Cubs are the Caleb comeback bears. 309 says this Cubs team is giving me the same feeling I had watching the bears down late, no big deal. I would be lying if I said I didn't feel that a little bit when I was thinking about the discussion going into the office today. You can text and call us 312, 64, 64, 67, 67 is our number.

And the way that Craig Counsel described it is the way I've been looking at it, because when you ask, okay, well, how big of the number is it to come back? The reason six is such a big number here, and that's the number that I landed on. It is a touchdown, so you're still in the vibe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the reason why I believe when you say, what is the number of runs that the Cubs would have to be down where you're actually thinking, okay, they may not come back and win the game, it's six because this.

If it's three or four or five, that's just a couple of innings of different guys doing work. And what I love about this specific Cubs lineup, which reminds people probably, if you're looking at it from an overall baseball standpoint, of what the Dodgers have put together, honestly, is that all different thirds, three thirds, whether it's one through three or four through six or seven through nine, can beat you at any given point in a ball game. Any of those guys is capable of going yard, any of the. those guys is capable of just getting on base and keeping a rally going or starting a rally for

that matter. I also like the challenge issued by 815. Sox will be ready for overrated cubbies on May 15th. Next week, the hype for Crosstown is going to be real. Wait, is it next week? Next week, Marshall. Are you ready? I mean, if I wasn't ready, I guess I am ready. Guys, I just have one question. What's the question? Just can we not? Can we just and trash talk all you want, but please don't be fighting in the stands. The last thing I want to see is a fight in the stands and then people are like, oh, that's what happens when the game goes on on the cell. Stop it, no.

These are South Side games, I'm assuming. Well, there's just more room to fight. If you don't want them to fight, maybe you don't play Nuck if you buck. That's just my personal suggestion. I mean, fair, I do love Nuck if you buck. But you know what happens when you play Nuck if you buck. In the vein of our generation's hip-hop, don't start no stuff, won't be no. stuff. Keep that in mind too.

But don't start stuff they! Yeah, 815. Overrated. Cubsies. Overrated. No, that's the right amount of starting stuff. That's the right amount. Dump them. Dump them. The Cubs are not overrated. The Cubs have earned their wins. The Cubs are an impressive baseball team all the way around.

I just like it when everybody has swag. I know. I hear you. I like it when everybody has something to puff your chest about. I like it when the games are exciting. And I think for both of these teams, no matter which side of town you root for, the games have been exciting.

Whether it's the, you know, frankly, the White Sox losing last night, if you're going to beat them now, it's going to be tight, one run loss, or the Cubs winning the last two nights in walk-off fashion against, again, a good team. A very good reds team, especially on the road. There's still four games over 500. And understand this, coming into the series, Leila. Yeah. They were 12 and 1 in games decided by two runs or less.

the Reds were. They were 12 and 1, and now they're 12 and 3 because the Cubs are like, oh, so you're due for a close loss is what you're saying. Well, and I know I joced about the Jamison Tyone home run ball. He only gave up two earned runs. Two earned runs over five and two thirds, five strikeouts, one walk. I take it because I know what I'm getting. And that's the beauty here.

I feel like Jamison Tyone is the best of the ERA and the low fours got. He's got a 4.24 ERA. But you still feel pretty good about when he's on the mound. You know how I know that? The Cubs have won his last five starts. You know? Yeah. He has a point one war on the season, James and Tyone.

But I don't, how many times, Marshall, and we'll get into this a little bit in our next segment, but how many times are you like, oh, no, here's like the bottom half of the lineup or, oh, no, you know, can they overcome, not just the Cubs, any team you're watching, where, you know, that version of the team may not be able to overcome two solo shots. You don't feel as confident in the league. lineup. This is not those teams. I like the idea of a PCA and a Dansby Swanson and

Miguel and I, whoever you got the bottom third. Think about how we felt about facing Andrew Abbott last year. Well, he does throw from the left side. Lefty was dominant last year? Is that a problem for you? No. No, it was not.

I mean, he still did his thing. He still went five and two thirds and he still didn't give up an earned run. But he walked four batters and he only struck out for. And then you just start chipping away. That's exactly what the Cubs did. Lila, the Cubs by the way. Highest OPS in baseball against left-handed pitching this season. I just wanted to point that out. 818.

It would appear they addressed a concern of theirs. Highest on-base percentage at 373 against left-handed pitching. Sacking against lefties as far as average at 276. They saw their weakness last year and said, okay, we'll fix that right quick. 6-3 says, I played knuck a few bucket of bar once. And that was the end of the night for the bar. Yeah, it's a dangerous song. And then again, I'm like, because we know some of the DJs at Sox, like Jorge Mad Jazz, I'm like, or do you play it? Just to see what happens. And see, that's the, I've worked with Ozzy Geh in too long. That's what that is.

More Cubs talk and then socks at 1045. 312, 644, 67, 67 is our number. We appreciate all the discussion and the vibes is we have this checkpoint here on this May 6th during the Cubs. and White Sox seasons. You can also join us on Twitch and YouTube. We are The Score, Chicago on both entities. Our Twitch mob is up and chatting. We say hello to them. Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, Max Curtis, and Cody Westerlin.

Man, our Twitch chat, our YouTube, and our social media. Our producers are Ray Diaz and Tyler Buehberbaugh, the birthday boy. The birthday ball? Oh, I like that. Birthday ball. It's not as good as Moises by Aslamos. I'm working on it. you're your work shopping some very good hybrid names of late.

Okay, I'll keep working at the workshop. Braden Friar helps us out as well. So let's do that next as we broadcast life from our scores, Hyundai Studios, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. And when we have breaking news on the score, it is sponsored by IDOT. Speeding in a work zone is a no win. Mind the signs, avoid the fines. We will examine how you felt back during that Phillies game

and take a look at the stretch that's happened since then. And there were signs. And it all goes back to that game on April 12th, I think, when we saw James and Tyone on the Mounted Home at Wrigley. We'll do that next. Laila Rahimi, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, Rahimi, Harrison Grody on 1043, the score. One-0 pitch from Mall to Bush.

Bushy would have chop her up the middle. It goes through into center field. Danzby's going to score. The Cuts are going to walk left. Reds two nights in a row. Delacruz plays this ball off to the side that got by him. That was amazing. I thought he would try to block the ball.

He did not. It gets by him and Danby scores easily and the Cubs walk him off two days in a row. And the Cubs dugout empties at first base. Michael Bush ties the game and then wins the game here in the 10th inning. Wow. You know what? Dare I say, Ron Coomer, thanks to our Northwestern Medicine Cubs Radio Network, that Michael Bush, after getting four RBIs the other day

and getting the game important too, we hear in this scenario going three for four with a run scored and a walk, that he was knuck in and bucking and ready to fight? I think this is impossible. I think I asked for an impossible favor of fans, and I'm sorry that I said no fights for crosstown. I don't think it's happening based on a very small sample. size in our text chat and our text line. I regret that. So in the meantime, I feel like,

I feel like the Cubs are doing us a solid with the energy and the socks are doing us a solid with the energy. And we're getting suggestions on our text line. And here's what happened is somebody has mentioned walk around the club, 847, and now I'm really worried. I don't, I've already worried about the energy for next weekend in the best way possible. So you're either a believer of one of these two theories, right? When it comes to, when it comes to cross. And the idea of fighting, right? Yes. You're a believer that one fan base would want to fight because your team is terrible.

They need something to do in the game. The games will blowout, whatever, right? And the other theory is, if both teams are good, that raises the chances of a fight because there's more talking of feces and whatnot. You know what I'm saying? You're synonyms for how are they worse than the actual swear word? I can't say what type of talking you would normally say because FCC. bleep, bleep.

Bleep. But you don't have to bleep feces. That's the thing. It's a natural thing. This and the other thing, he says, sounds so much worse. What, defecation? Is that the thing you're talking about? I didn't think on the Wednesday, 10 days before the first cross-town game,

that I would be here mentally. But then, Nuck, if you buck plays, then we got texters, bringing up songs. So which way are you, are you on the belief that if both teams are good, that elevates the chances of a fight, or are you of the belief that if one team is bad, that elevated to the chances of a fight. I don't know, but you know what? I'm going to go and find out. We need to examine this.

312, 644, 67, 67, a topic we will examine for 10 days. And I'm not even kidding. And that is the beauty of it is that both teams have a lot of, they have a lot to play for. Yes. And that's where we're at in this. Before we get to the sock side of it, where they also were ready to fight. and tried to come back against the Angels yet again.

And they have a chance to win yet another series. He knows on the mound, right? Noah Schultz. There it is. And we've seen him put together some real progress already in a very short amount of time. Let's go back to just some of the fun with the numbers of the Cubs and the 13th straight at Wrigley. You brought it up earlier. We have to go back to April 12th.

That is when this began. And that is the Sunday that we were in Vegas, by the way. So after yelling at the TV for two games on a lovely weekend at Circa, watching the Cubs lose at home to the pirates, then we see the turns start to begin. That was the comeback where James and Tyone, as you mentioned, gave up three home runs, including a grand slam. Layla, they were down six to one showing no signs of life on offense.

I was like, oh, this is going to be a fun Monday show we do where we talk about the Cubs getting swept in their first division series. Right. 773 wants a knuck if you buck explanation It's just it's fight music Like you play and you're hyped up And then if you gotta like It's just you play it and people are inspired to fight

And the lyrics also will indicate that There are some songs that when it plays People just get amped up in their energy levels And if there are other people around They literally start bouncing on it's like the hip hop version of a I want you to say a Mosh Pit Because Mosh Pit is more like a friendly like ah But same idea

But same kind of vibe And then next thing you know, somebody you don't know comes into you a little bit too hard and knuck if you buck. All right. Well, apparently the entire text line agrees that there will be fights. Okay, so I'm sorry. I'm sorry for asking that. That was really silly of me. But getting back to the game at home at Wrigley, that was the turning point.

That was the beginning of this 13 game win streak. Now, additionally, when you look back at the schedule for the Cubs, it wasn't just the brief win or at least what it's, seemed like at the time during that stretch. It was what happened next, where I remember talking to you, Marshall, about this. That Monday, we're wondering how the series is going to go against the Phillies and then the Mets, who at the time were not playing in the same tail spins, Philly a little bit. But we didn't know what was ahead of us when it came to two teams with very established rosters, spent a lot of money in the off seasons as we have talked about.

and then we see another loss that happened that next day. That was the one where Philly scored 13 runs. Here's the issue with the Philly game, right? In that game in which obviously Javier's side was not good, right? And I was thinking, okay, this is really bad. Kyle Schwerver is doing whatever he wants. It's just bad. It's a bad baseball game.

Kyle Schwerver was rubbing it in. At that point, you're extra lamenting that he wasn't. a part of this team. That was the 13th of April where we saw them lose 13 to 7 to begin that road trip against the Phillies. But here's the thing. They were up 13 to 2 in that game and then towards the end in the eighth inning they score five runs. And in my head, I'm thinking, okay, even though they lost this game 13 to 7, I can just put that on a very bad start by a pitcher. Like the fact that they lost the game. A clunker. Yeah, it was a clunker. And you're going to have clunkers from guys who operate out of the four and five hole in your starting rotation from

time to time, especially if the guy is a guy who got called up who wasn't even on the big league club when the season started. But I was like, but this offense, this offense is showing me some fight. They showed the fight on Sunday. They showed more fight on Monday. And at that point, that's the Nuckafew Buck element, guys. That's it when you're showing the fight. At that point, when they scored the seven runs, I was like, okay, they've got better pitching going tomorrow. they'll be fine in this series, and they were. They used an opener the next day, and they won the game. They've won 17 of 20 cents.

But I go back to the Sunday game, and here's why I think that was the turning point of what we've seen, because that was their first walk-off win of the year. In this stretch of 20 games, they've added now four more walk-off wins. And the energy that that brings, when you have more walk-off wins over a 20-game stretch than you even have losses, Right. That tells you what type of team this is and what type of belief they have that even though James and Tilein leaves the game and is down two to one.

He said it to people when he came off the mound last night. Oh, we're going to win this game. That's it. And you know what? We have him talking after the game about that level of confidence. You heard what Craig Counsel had to say. Well, here's what Jameson Tyone said. I'm falling behind way too much.

I hate it. It's not me. I need to get better at that. But that being said, like you can't change anything when you're out there. to make the next pitch. And tonight it was like finding ways to be creative. And the backdoor cutter to lefties was pretty good. Righties, for whatever reason, I feel like I'm not having as hard of a time.

Lefties, there's some big misses early with like the fastball and curball. So just I'll work at that. But yeah, I think it's, you know, kudos to like Tommy, Casey and then Miggie catching me just to find a way to get me back and counts and, you know, just to kind of fight those command things that are going on. And then he had another comment after the game where he talked about the confidence. of being able to win. And he can say all of that.

He can tell you why he's lost a game. But he echoed the same kind of confidence in his team about knowing how they were going to win a ball game. When you can talk like that, I think, Marshall, and you can be that down. It's good to be able to come back and be able to say, we know that we've got this enough to make sure it's going to happen. Again, one of the best offenses in baseball,

and they've played like it through this stretch, understanding that, hey, our pitching may be great one day, it may be average. And certainly, when you talk about a pitcher who's had the seven starts that Tyone has and has a point one war, that means he's been just a tick above average, wins above replacement. His presence in the rotation has been just a tick above average. But that's okay when your offense is doing what it's doing, and you're not a tick below replacement or a negative war. You've done well enough.

You've given your team chances. outings where he's given up three or four runs. But guess what? If a starting pitcher in 26 gives up three or four runs, that means your offense is right there in the game. They're within striking distance. I just, I did not have that same feeling. After watching the Cubs have to come back and just overcome 7 to 6 against Pittsburgh, and then they lose 13 to 7. The 10 to 4 win on Tuesday that next day was a surprise. The 11 to 2 was even more of a surprise to take the series. Then I'm reading reports about how the Phillies have had their worst homestand in 17 years. Then we see them go 12 and 4 against the Mets for the first one,

four to two in the second game, two to one and the other one. And again, there are different ways of winning ball games. And it's just like you said, walk-offs, five different people involved in the walk-off. There's a confidence in understanding that even when you make a mistake, even when the game isn't as ideal as you want, when you want to perform, this starts to add up. And you know what, Marshall, I'm going to go even further. You remember what happened in that 7 to 6 win over the pirates?

The discussion that day started with Michael Bush being in an 0 for 30 stretch, and then he gets called upon to pinch hit in that game. I remember, and it's not like he hit this bomb to end the game either, right? So he did well enough. And you go back to what happened last night and understand Bush's role in that, going three for four, homering. It feels like everyone in this lineup is doing, if not showing out every night, they're doing enough over the course of, let's say, a series, right? Everyone's contributing every series to making sure that they win series outside of what happened in L.A.

It's so true. Keep listening for your chance to win and qualify first for the score's sweet stakes when you hear this cue to call. I love Riggily. I loved it as a kid. I loved it as a player. I love it as a broadcaster. So when you hear that cue to call later in the show, be caller number six to the score contest line at 312 540-0-670. And you can qualify to win the score sweet stakes where you can win a suite for you and nine friends, 10 people total, to the score. Cubs against Sacramento on Wednesday, June 3rd. Qualifiers, which is what happens when you call, must be present at our station for a live drawing during the Rahimi Harrison Grady show on Thursday, May 14th. That's our show, where the Grand Prize winner will be determined. For official contest rules and complete details, visit the scorechicago.com.

It is all brought to you by James Hardy building products, siding with the Cubs. Let's talk about the White Sox next, because they try their hardest. to sweep the angels, and they got really close. So now they've got themselves in a position to try to win the series today. We'll examine the 4-3 loss last night and why you should still pay attention. Rahimi Harris and Grody. Bears tight end. Cole Kamet. Cole, welcome to the party, pal.

Well, thanks for having me. I heard it was a big day. So naturally, I dropped everything I had going on today. You've complained a lot through the years about not being able to hear the score on the 670 a.m. dial when you're inevitably cruising around downtown and now that we have an FM signal Cole you can now hear the score all day all the time all you want you can hear all the bear's hot takes you want well that's perfect i'll make sure i blast that in the locker room beautiful black rahimi harris and grody midday's tindle two on 104 three the score

there's the breaking ball turns it over the right side christen the first and that'll do it White Sox leave the bases loaded in the ninth and we'll lose a tough one to the Angels four to three. That is the voice of John Triffon on the call on CHSN and the White Sox and Angels round out their series. Today we saw some of the usual suspects contribute for the halos in that four to three win. Sox are still just two games under 500 at 17 and 19. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, the score. And Zach Nito broke quite the. the slump. He was 0 for 23 prior to getting a hit in this game and then ultimately getting a

home run that helped decide the ball game. Mike Trout also hit a home run. Are you surprised? No. He was going to have a game in the series, right? You just hope he doesn't have multiple games in the series. Two for two with two walks and I mean, he's Mike Trout. He got a base four times and one of them he circled them all. So yeah, that's that's it. He's Mike Trout. You don't want the Zach Nitos to beat you. But once again, it was still a close game. This one nodded it too after an inning and then the White Sox are able to try to chip away.

You know, they go to the seventh inning. We see Chase Midroth get his first home run since opening day. And it's kind of the same idea, Marshall, where guys who you don't always expect to be the ones trying to contribute or are out there trying to make this one close for the socks.

I think the biggest thing, Leland, watching the White Sox lately is just understanding that people are, as you said, multiple people are contributing and you're trying to see who settles into what roles, because it is still early in the season. This is a very different lens to watch this team than say the team on the north side,

because a lot of them don't have a ton of major league experience, so they're still finding their way. So to see, like, a guy like Chase Midroth get put into the leadoff spot against a left-handed pitcher, and to come up with the results, that's great. Colson Montgomery out there playing both short and eventually moving over to third base, or excuse me, third and short.

and I think the biggest thing for me was as much as I wanted Munataki, Munitaki, excuse me, Murakami to be in the lineup. I understood why he wasn't until he comes into the game and is in the lineup, not just like in a pitch hitting situation, but he's actually out there playing first base. And I was like, huh, it just made me question, like, what was the plan here? Because if you want to give him the day off, that's one thing.

But if you give him the day off, give him the day off. give him the day off. Yeah, I think it's, it's, you want to give him the day off, but then you realize he gives you your biggest chance to win, and you have to understand that even in a winnable game, you might have to lose the battle and win the war, so to speak, if you really wanted to give him that off day. Eric Fetty didn't have his best day.

I feel like the angels were seeing his sinker really well, and they were able to turn on it. And then there was the, uh, the story as to why Nito credits, uh, his resurgence in this game. Did you know about this? No. So the headline from our friends at MLB.com

Nito breaks out of slump with Homer thanks just Pokemon cards. Oh, the breaking up, yeah, I did see that actually, the Pokemon. I didn't know that was a thing. So Mike Trout had texted him prior to the game that he had just received a large box of Pokemon cards

and he wanted some help opening the pregame. Trout with a little veteran teammateship there. And Nito said he pulled a rear and forgive me if I'm not saying this correctly because I don't play Charzard card? Charzard? I think it's Charzard. It is Charzard? Yeah. Yeah, it is. So that was his omen

that things were changing for him. And it worked. The angels have been struggling. They needed this one badly. Like, I'm not, I wasn't expecting the White Sox to go to Anaheim and sweep, right? I still think that the angels, if they're smart, probably end up trading a guy like Jorge Salare. There's a big push from a lot of people like Keith Law, namely,

on if you can move Mike Trout somehow, you try to do it just to get the bevy of talent that would come with it. I don't disagree with that statement. It's a matter of just, does Trout want to go anywhere? I mean, he's a guy who has no trade clause, he's a 10 and 5 guy. I mean, does he want to go somewhere? He didn't seem to want to go anywhere the last time. he had a chance to go somewhere as a free agent.

So he just re-up. Now, the angel's offered a, you know, insane amount of money. Which now doesn't look that insane, does it? No, no. I mean, it wasn't insane. Let me back up. It wasn't insane in terms of it's too much money to give Mike Trout. It's just like, oh, owners be out here giving people $100 million contracts.

Yeah, yeah. And 400, which is what Mike Trouts was over. And so, when. I'm saying is a 14 and 23 Angels team that couldn't figure out how to win with Mike Trout in his prime and Shohei Otani. Maybe you get all the prospects you can and hit the reset button. And in the same vein as to what we were talking about with the Cubs, we're talking about a one-run game for the White Sox.

Now, they were no stranger to those and being on the losing side of those last season. It was bad. That's part of the indication of, number one, you know, your bullpen is not exactly playoff. off-level caliber. And then number two, just whether or not you have enough offense to be able to withstand it. But even in discussing Munitaka Murakami's availability, Marshall, that gives you an indication. This is a different kind of management of the roster. You know, if you put that guy in the lineup, there's a good chance.

Better than not with 14 home runs to his name and knowing how to walk and finally getting a double, that he's going to help you get over that one-run threshold. Yeah, that's why it was difficult to see him come in the game. game the way that he did go one for two strike out that's pretty like get get on base half the time or close to half the time whether it's a walk or a hit this time it just happened to be a hit for him and to wonder how he plays in a different part of the order because here he's between you know Derek Hill and then Peters and then Sam Antanachi who even though he's in the nine hole I hate him in the nine do you understand what I'm saying here when I say I hate him in the nine hole I know as a

lefty it might be over engineering like giving some more at bats. He hits. Yeah. He got a single off the lefty. And he steals bases too. And he steal base because he stole a base. And so understanding that and when you talk about Murakki,

like Munataka Murakami, when you talk about him and the impact that he has, he has the greatest impact when he's hitting around guys like Miguel Vargas and Kosa Montgomery. He was a little too spaced away from those guys to be in there for multiple bats to my liking. I get it. I understand it. But I'm saying that's the principle

of, hey, you got an off day in a couple of days. Let's see if we can finish this road trip strong. Is that too much to ask? No, but I think it goes back to a bigger question, which is how do you give that guy the day off? And not that they shouldn't, but how do you do it? Not the rhetorical, how do you give him the day off? The actual, how do you give him the day off?

How do you do this? How do you do this and be okay with it? They were right in that a left-handed pitcher was on the mound. probably when he gets his day off, it's going to be with a left-handed pitcher on the mound. And I'm probably overly analyzing this because, one, it's early in the season. You do want to keep him fresh, right? And I just understand the impact that he has, not only when he's hitting 14 home runs, but in other ways he just helps the lineup flow and gets the guys behind him more pitches to look at it.

However you want to look at it from a baseball overall perspective, Miguel Vargas has been playing well. We know what Colson Montgomery is capable of. I just want to see that continue and I don't want to do anything that would put a hitch in their giddy up, you know? Well, I think this is a good, I think this is as good a test as any Marshall to see what happens today. Like, examine the lineup today because you're looking at a day game after at least for us a late night game. So, you have the chance to win a series. So how are you going to be able to put that together in a way that makes it make sense? It should be fun. and with Noah Schultz on the mound,

you have a certain level of confidence because even though this guy hasn't had supreme swing and miss stuff that he's had on display in the minors, he's gotten out and he stayed in games. And that's the thing. Go five plus, go six plus if you can. Well, and just put together a body of work. This is about him making the donuts, getting the reps,

trying to figure out who he is. But I think what's great for him, unlike a lot of really Ballyhooed, prospects who are pitchers, nobody's expecting you to save the team by yourself. This wasn't, this was a call-up that I don't know if it was birthed out of

I don't think desperation, but we've seen those in the past with other players. You don't have to do that. You're going to go out there and work on your game and know that the team is going to do enough, especially in this stretch that we've talked about, to be able to have confidence to back you up. But what is this lineup going to look like?

And I think that that's a better question when you consider the turnaround, travel day after this. What happens? It feels like they brought him up because, quite frankly, he was ready. He was ready to take the next step in his pitching career. I love that. I love the way, like I said, Antonachi's playing, the other three guys that we've been talking about,

but also Chase Midroth now got a sixth game hitting streak after a couple of hits. It feels like if we could just get Kyle Till out here, healthy and good, they can make some type of push. I guess they can just let him rest as long as they want to right now. clearly they don't have a choice right now because he's just not ready. Yeah. And that's obviously something. Maybe, I don't know, do you reassess ahead of the homestand when you've got the Mariners coming? That's something I'm sure we will examine tomorrow and Friday as well. Coming up next year on Rahimi Harrison Brody, it is time for Mike Florio, our weekly chat with

their creator and editor-in-chief of pro football talk next. This hour is brought to you by The Great Escape. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is a man who's a man who's a man who's got a massive brain. Mike Florio. He used to be a lawyer, then he decided to take his talents to the internet. NBC Sports. I'm sorry, I'm late. I was talking to Robert Kraft.

That is at the time for an airing of grievances. Pro football talk. I got a lot of problems with you, people. No, you're going to hear about it. On Chicago Sports Radio, 1043, the score. I want to keep talking Legos. As we know, the NFL never sleeps. And that is why Mike Florio,

is a weekly guest on our show, and we like him. He's the creator and editor-in-chief of Pro Football Talk. He is at Pro Football Talk on X. He joins us on our hotline and on Twitch. Twitch.tv slash Chicago, the score, Chicago. I was about to say Chicago's 670, The Score. Because old habits. Sometimes they go back.

We're still on 670 The Score for all our people who are a little further away. We are. But our address is The Score, Chicago. Mike knows. Mike thinks we're coming on. Thanks for having me. I'm curious now, if you didn't like me, would I still be on because the NFL never sleeps? Would that be enough to overcome your disdain for me if that were the case?

I'm curious. You know what, Mike? I once read a quote that I use way too often as an edict in my life, which is power is the ability to have the uncomfortable conversation. So yes. Okay, good. Now I know. You're good at what you do. Like, and you're, I feel like you kind of also subscribe to that theory.

Yeah, I think so. I think so. Even though the NFL would prefer that the uncomfortable topics never be discussed and they go about avoiding it by buying up all the media properties and expecting the people who work there to act accordingly. See, and this is why we have you on because we need you on that wall. So that said, I know you've talked a lot about just the trends. Marshall and I were just talking about some of the business trends that we've seen over the past couple of years. When you mentioned the NFL, buying up media properties. We see the news about like Peter Schrager, for example, and perhaps replacing the show like around the horn. What do you think about just some of the consolidation that you've seen and why that was top of mind for you and you brought it up with us? Well, because I constantly deal with the push and pull that comes from speaking my mind and the feedback that I often get directly or indirectly to my supervisors and the people. people who cut my checks at NBC when someone at 345 Park Avenue may not like something that I've

said. Instead of worrying about what I said or the fact that they disagree with it, how about addressing the merits of it? How about focusing on what I'm actually talking about and engaging me instead of complaining? If I'm wrong about something, I'll listen. It's amazing how many people in the NFL ecosystem think that I can't be talked to, that I can't have things explained to me in a way that maybe I haven't thought of them before. They just prefer to dismiss the opinion instead of trying to better inform it if they think it's misinformed. But that's kind of

the world we're in now. Anytime someone says something you don't like, the current mood set by the person at the very top of our government is just attack them. Just attack them. Any way you can. Dismiss what they're saying, attack them, and never engage

in a real discussion that could be beneficial to everyone, about the merits of the reason that the person may be saying something that someone else doesn't like. Mike, from a legal standpoint, but more importantly, a societal standpoint, are we ever going back to that not being acceptable? I don't know. I don't know. I'm not giving up. They're not going to break me. I'm not going to stop. And hopefully one of these days will emerge from our fever dream with a renewed commitment to truth and honesty and morality and all of the things that have become lost over the last 10 years.

I can hope, we can all hope. And if there's anybody out there that hears me saying those very basic things and gets triggered by it, you don't like truth, you don't like honesty, you don't like morality, you don't like integrity. If you don't like those things, then that's your problem, not mine. Amen. In the words of Empire Records, the revered movie of our lifetime, damn the man saved the empire, so to speak.

In the meantime, speaking of the justice system and concepts and public perception, Stefan Diggs's jury found him not guilty. What's next for him after this? Well, the fact that he was acquitted likely means there will be no impediments whatsoever to his career continuing. If he had been convicted, he undoubtedly would have faced a suspension under the NFL's personal conduct policy because sufficient proof to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that he did something he allegedly did. should be enough for the NFL to come to the same conclusion. I watched the whole trial. I think that this chapter is now closed for him.

I'm surprised the prosecutors in Massachusetts even decided to go forward. They have such broad discretion. You don't have to pursue criminal charges and take to trial any complaint that comes to you. Prosecutors have incredible power. They're the most powerful people in each American jurisdiction, more powerful than the judges. The judges are constrained to what's on their docket. The prosecutor decides what does and doesn't land on the docket. I'm stunned this case was brought now that I've had a chance, unfortunately, to watch all of it

because it was a very boring couple of days with just bits and pieces of things that were truly interesting and intriguing. But at the end of the day, this was a witness who was not equipped to perform, to defend her story. there were not enough facts to corroborate her claims, and I don't know whether the prosecutors failed to vet it or whether they just made a bad decision. But Diggs now should be in no different standing than any other free agent. There shouldn't even be a hesitation.

He should be free and clear and regarded as free and clear with no baggage, with no issues, with no mark on his resume that should cause anyone to do anything other than evaluate. where he is as a football player and sign him if they're interested. Well, and Mike, I think the way you speak of this, you're right about it going to trial. And I think all of us taking it more seriously than what it ultimately ended up being

because we've seen time and time again allegations of this nature not go to trial among involving other professional athletes and other leagues. And it doesn't get that far. So that's why I think this was taken so seriously by so many people. Yeah, the idea of anyone standing trial on criminal charges. That implies that someone has come to the conclusion that there's enough there to justify the effort. And frankly, no prosecutor should ever lose a case that goes to trial because you only take to trial the cases you know you can win.

The cases where you have the defendant dead to rights, there's no chance. of conjuring any sort of reasonable doubt. In other words, the glove always fits. You have the full control over that. Now, you also have to present your case in a compelling way, but I got the impression after watching this thing and given the benefit of the former life that I lived practicing law, I just think the prosecutor did a very bad job of screening the case and taking a step back and pressure testing all the different things, anticipating the argument. that would be made by the defense, ferreting out the facts that would confirm or debunk the idea, for example, and I thought this was extremely compelling, the behaviors of the alleged victim

in the hours and days after the alleged incident didn't seem to mesh with the way that someone would act if they had just gone through this type of trauma. And it all came through during that two-day trial. The allegations, of course, that his live-in chef, he assaults. halted her and choked her and she got on the stand and refused to answer questions about whether or not financial demands were made. And that's when I checked out, Mike, honestly, on that. But to continue a conversation about things happening that will affect the NFL going forward, I understand the referees have gotten together and they have a chance to ratify what would

be a new CBA. And that means we would not need replacement officials. Where do you think we are on this? Well, I know one thing. It's not done until it's done. Right. If they schedule a vote on ratification, though, that is very encouraging. Now, there's a chance that the rank and file won't cast sufficient ballots in favor of the new CBA to pass it, but it's a sign that they are taking it seriously on both sides. They're making progress on both sides.

And for me, the tipping point was when owners got involved in the negotiations, after there had been a bargaining session that failed, and the NFL Referees Association said, they sent people with no authority to bargain. It's hard to get a deal done if the people there don't have the ability to advance the conversation toward a middle ground. And then I think the other key,

the propaganda that was prevalent, and this gets back to what we were talking about earlier, the control the NFL has over certain media outlets, NFL network and ESPN, the NFL now owns 10% of ESPN, There was so much one-sided stuff that was being just snap your fingers and pushed by reporters at NFL network in ESPN without the other side being considered, painting this picture that the referees association was in the wrong. Look, everybody's in the wrong if we end up with another debacle like we saw in 2012. And there's a shared obligation by both sides to the good of the game because the people who are currently working those jobs are merely stewards of the game.

And at some point, everyone has to take a step back and say, what's more important to us? Scoring some little win here to make a little extra money there, or is it about preserving the integrity of the game we all love? And I'm hoping that that momentum continues, that people set aside their own individual desires and wants and focus on what we all want, which is a game that has the highest level integrity, not undermined by a bunch of glorified amateurs who don't know what the hell they're doing. shots fired. We are talking to Mike Florio, the creator and editor-in-chief of pro football talk on Rahimi Harrison Brody. And I always like just learning thought processes

of GMs as well. And I was really interested to see the story that came down by Josh Alper saying that Jason Licked, the Bucks GM, said that the Max Crosby trade falling apart helped them. And as we know, they were able to get what a lot of people think was a steal at 15 in the draft,

getting Ruben Bain out of Miami. This is interesting. It's interesting to see how people can make rights out of wrongs and wrongs out of rights and things like that. Well, I think the Buccaneers were involved in the conversations, at least at some level. Now, the Raiders wanted what they wanted, and they wanted two first round picks and a player for Max Crosby.

They settled for two first round picks, and then it all fell apart. But it is amazing. All the different things that have to line up just right for players to be drafted by, certain teams. One little change here, one little change there. It can affect everything. It can completely reshuffle the deck. And rewrite history. The history that's going to be told moving forward is all based upon everything lining up exactly the way it did in this year's draft. And now we'll

see whether Rubin Bain and the rest of the guys who are coming to the NFL for 2026 can play at a sufficiently high level. We know what will happen. There will be stars. There'll be a Hall of Famer or two, maybe more. And there'll be guys who just, for which, whatever reason at that level, whether it's their fault, whether it's the team's fault, whether it's a combination of factors that come together, they just don't get it done. But we know that. You know, during the draft, a lot of the coverage is how everything's awesome and everyone's great and everybody's made a great pick and everybody gets an A on their draft grades for

every pick and every round. We know that it plays out very differently. And now we get to go forward and see how it all happens. Mike, I'm always amazed at some of the simple things that I just don't understand. Help me walk me through this. The NFL schedule release has become a thing, right? And yet here we are, allegedly about a week away from the schedule release. And I don't know when the schedule is going to be released.

Is that not ridiculous? No, it's not because it happens every year. And it's usually just a few days before they announced the schedule that they announced when the schedule is going to be announced. And we've been looking at next Wednesday, May 13, because that tracks with the same day last year that the schedule came out, but Mike North, the VP of Broadcast Planning, said in a podcast appearance that happened before the draft, there's a chance it'll be the following week. I can't imagine it being the week after that

because that's when we're getting up against Memorial Day weekend. After that, it just loses some of its sizzle. You want to find the right day. When people are paying attention, when people are engaged, you want to pick the right day to unveil the full season schedule. And it's critical. It's important. We were talking today about the Cincinnati Bengals, for example. The Cincinnati Bankals, have a favorable schedule this year. They play all the teams of the NFC South, all the teams of the AFC South. They have three teams in their own division with new coaches. How their schedule is configured is going to be critical because they're slow starters. Wouldn't it be great if you're a Bengals fan? If you get the Brown Steelers and Ravens right out of the gates while they have

new coaches who are still getting their sea legs with their new teams. So how those games are put together, where those games, well, you know where, but when, what night, what day, what time. was on the morning show yesterday, and we were talking about how the bears are probably going to get pulled all over the place this year. It's one of the consequences of being a good team. You're going to have short weeks. You're going to have night games. You're going to have anything but noon central games this year for the Chicago Bears. One of the greatest things about the schedule release is how the individual teams go about releasing their individual schedules. I got to ask you, Mike, this one could be extra hot if you got maybe, I don't know, the Patriots on the schedule. Do you think there

will be any Mike Vrabel, Diana, Rucini references, or is that below the belt from an NFL is watching standpoint? And why would it most likely be the Chargers? And the Chargers play the Patriots this year. Oh, let's go. That's what I'm saying. And a couple of weeks ago,

I did some poking around to see whether or not we can expect a Mike Vrabel, Diana, Rossini, reference in the Chargers Schedule release video at the time. The indication I got was no. I think that thing from Sunday night on inside the NBA on ESPN, where they included Vrablin-Versini in the Titanic

Pose. Yeah, gone fishing. At the front of the Celtics boat in their gone fishing segment, that may, the fact that that slipped through and didn't cause the world to stop spinning, you never know. You never know. Hey, we've seen the Chargers throw shade at issues that weren't necessarily related to them. So or any team they're playing. Right. So you never know. And one of the things we saw last year, and this dealt more with copyright infringement, not necessarily, you know, any jokes that may or may not have been in good taste. The NFL really does need to look at these before they're released. There was an issue with the Colts video getting taken down very quickly because it infringed on the Microsoft logos from Minecraft. And the charges at the

same thing, but the charges checked all the boxes and they got the permissions. The Colts just kind of threw it out there. So there needs to be greater control when it comes to copyrights. We'll see if anyone has any control or if anyone decides to get a little cheeky when it comes to the story that is still four weeks later, one of the top stories that everybody wants to talk about in the NFL. I do not want the NFL proofreading anything. I just, that incenses me that they would be like, oh, no, that's too low. You can't do that. Well, I mean, but he's, Mike is right, though. That was, ESPN has a relationship with the league. And for that to be on inside the NBA, that was a, I don't know if it was a test balloon, but that was bold. That choice was not made lightly, Mike. And the one thing we don't know is what happened behind the scenes afterward. Was there a phone call from 345 Park Avenue to ESPN saying, what the hell are you people doing, never do that again? Where the Patriots upset? What was the blowback? And we won't know the answer to that unless in the until somebody reports on it.

But if it really didn't go as badly on the back end as maybe ESPN or whoever put that graphic together feared, we may get some interesting content. But I guarantee you, every team on the Patriot schedule, their videos, people are going to be scouring those for any evidence of any shot being taken directly or indirectly at the story of the month. Might as well be an Easter egg hunt because that's what we're doing.

That is the Chargers video in a nutshell. Mike, thanks, as always for the time. Thank you. Have a great week. Thanks, Mike. That is Mike Florio. He's great. The creator and editor-in-chief of pro-football talk.

We're going to stay on the smoke here for a second. There was a hot debate at our pre-show meeting today on Rahimi Harrison Grady about how we were going to bring this to you. And we thought that the feud that is bubbling between Austin Rivers and Draymond Green deserves your time. So we will all listen and laugh next. Rahimi Harris and Grody, middays 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. This is just the theme.

It's going to be the theme for the next 10 days. It's just going to be really intense, have no chill whatsoever club bangers leading up to socks and cubs. Do we have any references of Draymond Green or Austin Rivers being affiliated with a White Sox or the Cubs, like wearing a hat, whatever, because that would help here. Draymond Green plays for the Warriors, and he played with Clay Thompson, whose brother Trace spent way too much time on the White Sox. At one point, I had a question plan for Clay when he was still with the Warriors, and it was

going to be, who is your brother's favorite baseball team and why is it the White Sox? It didn't make it to Clay. It made it to the Warriors PR staff, and they thought it was funny. If you don't give a damn, we don't. Anyway, the reason we bring this on. is because of a quote from Draymond Green that is borderline delusional. He said in a previous episode of the Draymond Green show, as much as he has done for me in basketball, Steve Kerr, that is,

a part of me thinks he has hindered me in my career and what I could have become. Draymond Green thinks Steve Kerr may have hindered him. But what he's also helped me is become, Green said, like you've got to take the good with the bad. that is a little more reasonable. Maybe he was just thinking out loud and had to come to that conclusion, but it's out there. And then it got reacted to. Like when Dan Patrick asked Austin Rivers about it, and Austin Rivers said, it's ridiculous. Dramon has such a high IQ. That's a big part of his game is how smart of a basketball player he is. So it bewilders me that he even thinks like this,

which I don't think was wrong. You and I talked about this Marshall, like in a side conversation that wasn't on the air. Draymond believes that he could be this different type of offensive player if he had not been held back by Steve Kerr, which is somewhat ridiculous, but also I understand almost where he's coming from. Because the concept of to be an athlete who's always exceeded expectation, who always exceeded reputation,

to the point where you're a Hall of Famer, is that you have to have a bit of irrational confidence. Do you not? Yeah, and I think the confidence is off. I think what he's saying is if I didn't focus so much on defense and being a guy who facilitated for the greatest shooter of all time, then I would have worked maybe on my offense, have been showcased a little bit more. But to a man who observes the NBA,

we think here's somebody who flourished, thanks in part, large part, if not most of the part, like 80, 90, 95% of the part to Steve Kerr. He brought out the best in him. I think Steve Kerr put him and those Warriors teams in possibly the best position to succeed, and they'd have another championship. It is my belief. If, I don't know, Dremont isn't out here getting suspended for NBA's finals games. Such is the balance of life.

So, Austin Rivers said what he said about being bewildered, and then Dremont did, well, Dremont things. I don't like to get in these back and force because, quite honestly, The guys that you usually get into the back and forth with, they become back and forth because it's like one of them like severely tip something this way and the other just like kind of so far down that it kind of pulls you back a little bit. And so speaking to Austin Rivers, you know, I saw he said he's bewildered and it's ridiculous of what I said. And I just find it interesting that a guy who was the 10th pick in my draft, I was 35, who's on his second act, still on act. He goes, Draymine, never been a score. Austin, you and I average the same amount points in high school. I say high school because that's when you were at your best.

And then in college, you know, he was still good. He was very featured at Duke because NBA careers, should he really talk about my NBA career? I'm still with my first team. He was gone from his first team in two years. The guy received the biggest bailout in U.S. history prior to President Trump bailing out the airlines when his dad gave him $42 million. And I tip my hat to die.

I pray that I can get it. give DJ $200 million or give deuce $250 million. I pray that I can do that one day. I love how people just go take the 15 seconds that they want to take and make it a headline, but I really enjoy watching Austin Rivers be bewildered. What airline bailout? First of all, didn't the airline bailout happen to like 2008 or nine? I don't remember when the airline bailout was.

I might have been Trump's first term now that I'm thinking about it. The airline industry bailout happened. Oh, yeah. Oh, he met the 2021. I was thinking of the recession one. Oh, no, no, no. There's been a few. Corporations get bailed out and whatnots.

There's been a few. But no, no, that was not the biggest bailout, although he had a point about the first act thing. But you know what he did? He played defense. Yes. He played better defense than Austin Rivers. I think Austin Rivers would tell you that.

In fact, Austin Rivers had a lot to say in response to Draymond, correct? Come on, Draymond. This is ridiculous. Seriously. Ridiculous. But you know what? I'm going to address it because you cross the line and you are mad disrespectful for whatever reason. You've been around too long. We both were drafted in the same class. The fact that you don't have the wear a thought to do your due diligence and actually understand I was being highly complimentary of you on the Dan Patrick show. But it's you and I shouldn't be surprised. You always act irrationally, emotionally, emotionally immature. And your anger always puts you in hot water. I'm having to address a video of you belittling my career.

First off, Dremont, we weren't the same players in high school. I don't care about our numbers being similar. I did it at the national level, the top level. Hence why I got the Naysmith Award, and I got pretty much every award you could think of in high school. I was ranked number one. You were ranked, I don't know. So cut it out.

Next. College, you actually were a solid, you actually a really good college basketball player, but it's hard to compare because I was only there for six months, something you could never do. Talk about I was, you know, one of the featured guys. I was the guy. I led my team in scoring.

first team all-ACC, freshman player of the year, lottery pick. Stop. Next. NBA, hey, man, you got it, Dre. I mean, listen, I played the NBA for more than 10 years, more than a decade, but 11 years, but I'm not a Hall of Famer like you. So I'll give you that credit. All right, you got it.

But let's peel back that onion and understand why. Easy, Tiger. Okay? Listen, you have the delusion, the non-warthal, the irony of you saying I'm part of the biggest bailout in NBA history. Draymond, you were the luckiest basketball player I think I've ever seen, especially in modern day history. Let's talk about that. You were drafted to a franchise with the Hall of Fame front office, Bob Myers, Hall of Fame coach Steve Kerr, the greatest shooter of all time, Steve Kerr, the greatest shooter of all time, another Hall of Fame, Steve Kerr, the greatest shooter of all time, another Hall of Fame, Clay Thompson, the Swiss Army Knife himself, the guy who could do a little bit of everything.

everything on the floor, Andre Goddala, another Hall of Famer, I know, keep up, it's a lot of talent. Not to mention one of the most

legal scores of all time and arguably a top 10 player of all time, Kevin Durant, the same guy you chased off because of this, your mouth, you talk too much.

And that's not even counting the plethora of talent around those guys. The Sean Livingston's, the Barboses, the Andrew Wiggins, the Jordan Pools, who you also chased off.

Cut it out. Drayman, you're the backpack jump shooter. You're the guy that everyone leaves open. No one guards you. There are hours. and hours and hours of film of just you being left wide open.

In fact, anybody can just YouTube or Google or watch any Jremont game ever, and he's open all game. There are clips of you getting a rebound and just driving in a straight line and just getting a wide open layup because everyone's fanning out to guard the actual talent on the team. Talking about Steve Kerr ended your career. Bro, Steve Kerr made your career. How dare you? Coming at me?

Are you kidding me? I wish I could give my son $200 million if I was a coach. Yeah, the NBA doesn't give coaching jobs of guys who may or may not sucker punch one of the players and staff. You can fall back, Dre. Let's just be frenemies. Let's just be frenemies. You know, backpack jumper is what really just, whoof. Because, because imitate yourself trying to shoot a jumper with a backpack. And that's what Drey Mon Green looks like.

Look, this is coming from a lifelong run TMC forever. Serunis, Marshalonis, Golden State Warriors fan. Shout out Don Nelson. Tim Hart. Chris, like Chris Mullen, Mitch Rich, Baron Davis, go get up and put Andre Carolinko on a poster, put whoever on a poster. At the same time, Leila,

Austin Rivers told no lies. He left no room for notes. I was ranked number one. You were ranked, I don't know. The pointing to the Naismith trophy. Yeah, it's in the background. So when he's talking about his high school career being different, he literally has the Naismith trophy for

top high school player in the country directly behind him and references it. And Draymond, listen, we can all, if we want to as a show, get together when Draymond Green is inducted into the Hall of Fame because he will be. He will be. But he was out of pocket for the way he came at Rivers because Rivers really was being complimentary. And when he went on Dan Patrick and said, he just disagreed with the sentiment of his statement and said, you're great, your Hall of Famer,

and your basketball IQ is second to none. But what are you talking about? Clearly. Draymond played defense. That's exactly what happened. I love B. A lot of talent. And I am entertained by Draymond Green,

just as somebody who speaks. I understand, yeah, we all do to watch the NBA's to partially understand him and his role in the Warriors. And yes, There are decisions he has made that have not been good, to say the least. Is he also the person, though, if he's in the tunnel during some suspension and you see him when the Warriors play the Bulls, you say, hey, Draymond, and he greets you with a smile and says, hello back, despite not knowing you?

He seems like a great, nice guy off of the court. On the court, it's different. And the nepotism thing would bother a lot of people. He's not wrong for that either. After I heard him and then I heard Austin, I was like, both of you were right. But this doesn't feel good. Easy tiger. Yo, when he hit you with the easy tiger,

I was like, you know what? That man is his father's son because what age group would you expect Easy Tiger to come out of? Someone at least over the age of 50, right? Easy Tiger? What's the last time you heard someone would say Easy Tiger in real life? The bailout lied about the 42 million. I want NBA athletes to all.

Always speak freely. Always be able to speak. because this was ridiculous. And why do I feel like it's not done? No, it's not done. This is going to be beef. And you know what? I am confident they will make up at some point.

But I think the beef is what get, this was what to me makes the NBA the most entertaining of the professional sports leagues because we get stuff like this, whether on the court with LeBron the other day, anybody else can say it, not you, not you talking about Aper and Shagoon talking about like. So there's more. There's just always more with the NBA. To all of this, there is a self-awareness that is just brilliant. Out of everyone.

Out of Austin Rivers, out of Dremont to an extent, like out of everybody. To the point where I think Steve Kerr doesn't even need to have to address it because he probably knows that his player, one of the best he has is thinking out loud. Yeah. When you're the backpack jump shooter. Backpack jump shooter is wild. I can't tell you how many times after I heard that. This makes me want to go to a court with my backpack on and just take jumpers.

I tried to jump pretending I had a backpack on and I kept laughing. It was too good to not play for you. That's it. When the audio is so compelling and why do I feel like everything I heard with the ether beat? Hey, speaking of airline bailouts, there was one that did not happen in that I think might affect assault. before you go dissing on the little yellow plane that could, you might want to figure out how it's going to affect your vacation plans. Halftime is next.

What time is it? It's half time. It is halftime here in Rahimi Harrison Brody, a reminder that we will carry the Bryson Graham introductory press conference to you live at noon. That is brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. In the meantime, we talked about the Cubs. What lead is too large for them to overcome?

Marshall set the line at six. that's a touchdown. If it reminds you with the Bears, well, it's because it should. Everybody's coming back. And the White Sox tried. They got close against the Angels, but they still have the chance to win yet another series. And in the meantime, I made the stupid request to ask people to not fight across town. But now I realize that's impossible.

The request itself wasn't stupid? No, it was stupid. It's just the answers that we've received since you made the request that tell you that's probably not going to happen. If you do fight, just fight response. What does that even mean? I don't know. I don't know. We also heard from Draymond Green and Austin Rivers in a beef that will likely be ongoing,

and we talk to Mike Florio. We have an event to celebrate here at halftime at Rahimi Harrison Grotie. Before we get to a discussion that will likely affect you if you fly at all, happy birthday at Tyler Beaterbaugh. Happy birthday. Oh, thanks. Guys? We've got some cupcakes up in here.

Marshall is the MVP of the show for many reasons, but because somehow he pulled off creating birthday cake where there wasn't previously. There was no birthday cake. I found out that today was Todd was birthday right before we came on the air, right after transition. I was like, well, we got to do something because, you know, birthday. And I got some cupcakes. It's his birthday. You're the real MVP.

You know, I try. We try to put you in first place every day. But in the meantime, Marshall came through with cupcakes via a bike delivery. The cupcakes on a bike did not spill. Ray, is that what we just showed on the Twitch chat and YouTube? The score of Chicago? Cupcakes are in good shape, right? They're in good shape.

And now we get to celebrate them with you. There's three kinds. There's vanilla. There's chocolate and there's red velvet for all of you luxurious cupcake eaters out there. Yeah, but, you know, I just ask. Consider red velvet with cream cheese frosting and not butter cream, I say. that's the original way. You can remix it, but I just need you to know the original.

You know what else is getting remixed, Lela? Yeah. These flight prices. These flight prices are getting remixed. The nature of an oligopoly business, you don't necessarily have to take the cheapest option, but you need it there. Just like we were talking to Mike Florio, Marshall.

You want Spirit Airlines on that wall. You needed Spirit Airlines on that wall. And so to understand, Leila, understand this, even before Spirit Airlines shut down, they were trying to get a bailout. We were just talking about airplane bailouts. And I had forgotten about the one that had happened in 2020. It was thinking about the one that happened in 2008. So it's not like it hasn't happened before.

And it's not like it hasn't happened recently. I feel like at some point, if you're always having to get bailouts, multiple bailouts per decade, then maybe something's wrong with the industry. There's been talk about it becoming sort of public utility because travel is travel. You need to travel. And it's vacation season. So if you're going to book a flight, I might want to do that now

because we don't know what the future of jet fuel prices looks like. I can just tell you it has gone up dramatically just in the last couple of months. Frontier Airlines looking for about $2.5 billion in relief. And here's an article. Well, and Spirit Airlines cited the rising fuel prices as to why this became so dire so quickly. The collapse of Spirit Airlines

set to reverberate across the entire airline industry after failed bailouts talks with the Trump administration led the prominent budget carrier to abruptly shut down over the weekend. Now, the administration had floated a last ditch bailout, which would have given the federal government a controlling stake in the airline. But the proposal stalled amid resistance from key creditors whose approval would have been required for the deal to go through. Now, the airline's closing up shop. Some analysts warn even non-spirit flyers could feel the impact as reduced market competition. again, you need that airline on that wall. You want the airline on that wall.

I take Spirit and Frontier. I'm not too good for it. It's likely to put upward pressure on ticket prices, which have already been rising, as, of course, the major airlines contend with higher jet fuel costs. Others predict the Fallout will be more contained since the airline accounted for just 3.4% of the market, and it had already been shrinking.

But here's a note. When Spirit Airlines stopped flying to Minneapolis in December, Delta Airlines increased prices almost immediately in some cases by as much as 50%. And that's a good example. That is one of the best examples we can give of how it affects your market. And some people say spirit was already shrinking. It wasn't a huge player in the American airline industry. But think about all the people who save up so much money just to be able to take a flight.

And now, and you've seen it with a lot of these other major airlines and how it has been, effectively, hey, your points don't count unless you buy this tier of flight. Now you're, yeah, basic economy no longer counts. Another Delta practice that everybody decided to follow. One airline decides to charge for check bags. They ultimately all do. You don't need us to point these things out to you. And so I would encourage you if you are planning on taking a necessary trip,

whether it's an event, like a wedding or a vacation or anything, you might want to get on that quickly here before things go even further through the roof. I just, I feel it makes me sad, Lila, to know that air travel is going to be harder to come by for a large segment of the population because of what has happened now. And I, I just want us to have better options. That's all.

Well, and additionally, it's not even about, this isn't capitalism, not when other groups collude in order to raise price. When you're working together, that's not what that is. This is different. So for everybody who always makes that argument, The idea is that businesses don't work together to then all charge more. The market will bear a certain price, sure, but that's not what this originally is.

It is what it is now. And there's still intervention, as we talked about. That's why there was an actual discussion for a bailout and a buyback. So either way, before you go mocking spirit, you needed spirit. I just want to point that out there. And you might miss them when they're gone. And the other thing is, I don't know if you heard about this, Lela, but there was a proposed merger between American Airlines and United.

United Airlines CEO, Scott Kirby, proposing a merger not too long ago. But American said we're not interested in that immediately. And the reason that they gave is because they felt like it would be anti-competitive and that customers would be punished if that happened, which how could you argue with that knowing how airlines work? First thing you do is, right, when you're booking a flight, let me check all the airlines and see what the prices are. Yes, and now we're getting triggered people who have magically forgotten that every day at 1140 for the last several years we do a non-sports story.

Oh, they are triggered. You poor things. I hope you feel better that two people you don't know are talking about a story that you don't like for five minutes of your day. However will you survive. 708. Simple supply and demand. fewer flights means prices increase. Yes. There it is. Exactly. There it is.

So hopefully this isn't the end of spirit, but it sure feels that way. People have been showing videos of them, you know, driving by all the empty fleets just sitting there of the yellow planes. It's not great. No, no. But don't worry. We'll talk about sports next because we're going to bring you the Bryson Graham Press Conference. And guess what happens tomorrow at 1145? Another non-sports story.

Are you going to be okay? This hour is brought to you by Menards. Save big money at Menards. It's amazing to be in here, just the weight that you feel of the excellence and the greatness that this organization represents. We are looking forward to hearing Bryson Graham be introduced to the media. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3 The Score. We're going to bring you the press conference live when it happens thanks to our partners, CHSN. That is when the press conference happens.

We broadcast live from the Scores Hyundai Studios brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. They also will bring you the press conference. thanks to Hyundai and thanks to CHSN. I think we all just want to hear him speak. I know people

people have already texted in wondering what he's going to say. I think we got a guess about how many times he'd say the word culture. Well, they wanted us to set the over under. I'm going to set the over under for culture at seven and a half.

Do you want to take the over or under the word culture coming out of his mouth? It depends on for how long he speaks. That's fair. That's fair. I mean, if you want to I put it at seven and a half. I'm good to it.

So, seven and a half, Ray, would you like to take the over or under? I am going to take the under on this only because for like an odd reason. He seems like a bright young guy. I think he's going to have this thing well written out. And yeah, total guess in the dark. Okay. Tyler, you got a guess on that? I'm also going to hit the under on this. Just sort of how I've heard him talk before. Okay. I like this. I think that would be good. The more he can stay away from cliche, the better off that this thing will go. Yeah, I'm not even worried about that. I think the more, the bigger concern is, what is he going to say about the stuff that we asked Michael Reinsdorf about as a press court?

You know, it wasn't you and I. We weren't on the Zoom. We listened to here on the score. Things talking about, like, for example, tankie, how are you going to talk about assets? How do you value assets? How do you evaluate players? We're not going to get the whole answer, but when everybody's talked to him about all these different ways that he has gone about bringing talent, whether it's a two-way contract, whether it's undrafted players, whether it's the draft, how he scouted them, that's what makes this compelling to me. I'm really curious about the idea of if there is a common thread when he goes out and finds these players that have been looked at his draft successes that weren't necessarily the top lottery pick players.

If you could tell me how you can do that and give a better understanding of how you've gone about doing that, I feel like we'll have some answers on his perspective. And that's really what I wanted out of the press conference is a better understanding of his perspective doing this job. Well, that's it. It can't just be the rebound from what Arturis Karnasovas didn't say. It can't just be the response of, oh, this guy's completely different. You just want to know what he values, what makes him tick, and then how he's. tries to want to put a team together in a way where you don't have superstars

to trade away like the Oklahoma City did with Paul George. You know, you don't have the thunder pathway to getting a ton of first-round picks, for example. You don't have that option. So what's it going to be? What do you think about guys like Modis Buzellis and Josh Kitty? What do you think about taking on expiring contracts? And it looks like we're about ready to go, Leila.

Well, let's bring it to you. thanks to your local Hyundai dealers in CHSN. All right. Thank you, everyone, for being here. First of all, I want to start with our fans. I want to, actually, I need to say I'm sorry because the results obviously just haven't been there. It's not something I'm proud of,

and it's something that I want to get right. Ultimately, it flows up to me, and I take responsibility. So I do feel that today is a step in the right direction. And it's an important step. When we started this process about a month ago, we said we wanted to be really deliberate. And we started with a, what I would say is a giant list of names,

names that we had already accumulated, names of people that reached out to me, names that our search firm added. And we took that giant list of names and we made it into a long list of names. And we did our homework. We interviewed a number of people.

And the thing that was really clear to me from this process was that there were a lot of good people that are capable of running an NBA franchise. We met with some incredible candidates.

But at the end of the day, Bryson clearly just stood out. So why Bryson? I think it starts with, he's not about shortcuts. And I know a lot of people have talked about Bryson's age. And so while he's young and age, he's not even 40 yet. He's old and experienced. He's worked his way up from the ground level. He started at the New Orleans, was the Hornets at the time, yeah, it was the Hornets at the time, now Pelicans.

He started there, whatever, 15 years ago, and he started as an intern. And one of his jobs as an intern was at night, they didn't even have their own practice facility. They rented space, but it was his job to clean up the practice area every night. But of course, from there he grew. He ended up being involved in player development, video coordinating. Scouting director. Then he oversawed. Then he became director of scouting. He became assistant GM. He became a general manager Those no shortcuts. That experience He understands what it's going to take to build a winning organization.

During the time that I met Bryson over the last few weeks Some of the traits that I would say about Bryson are that he's thoughtful He's disciplined. He's measured He's intentional, and he communicates with clarity and conviction. And throughout this process, those qualities consistently stood out. But at the end of the day, it still comes down to talent evaluation. It doesn't matter what we do up there. If the players can't play, we're not going to be successful.

And one thing that came out clearly is that he is an elite talent evaluator. And we did our homework. We talked to people that have worked with them. We talked to people in the NBA who just know of Bryson, and everything was absolutely clear. The guy gets it. He is a unbelievable judge of talent. I think he understands today's players.

I think he's disciplined in his approach to talent evaluation. And I think that's incredibly important because we're in a moment in time now where we're headed in this offseason, and we have two first round picks, two second round picks, a boatload of money to spend, and we have a great opportunity, but we've got to get it right. I think when it comes to talent, though, I think Bryson understands it's not just whether a player is good or bad.

I think he looks at it holistically. He understands that it's got to be the right fit. So how does that player fit into the system? What is he going to be like from a culture standpoint? What's he like in the locker room? Does he belong in this building? Those things matter. Then when it comes to leadership and communication, he just connects with people.

Whether there's players, scouts, staff, players' families, which by the way is really important, Bryson gets it. And I think part of his success is that people trust him. They know that he's genuine. They know that he's prepared. And they know that he's a thoughtful person. And I think that's part of his leadership style. He's a listen first.

person, someone who wants to understand first what he's hearing, and then he wants to respond with clarity and purpose. And that's something that's really important for me, from a culture standpoint. He's going to get the best out of the people because they know that he has their best interests at heart, and I think that's really important. But at the end of the day, we still got to build the right team. And when I was spending time with Bryson, the one thing was clear, he knows he's not a one-man operation, nor does he want it to be a one-man operation. He wants incredibly strong and smart people around him, whether scouting, strategy, health and wellness, player development.

It's really important that he has the brightest and smartest people, people that are really capable, people that have a seat at the table whose voices are heard, and that's going to be really important. I think that self-awareness is critical in a leader. So I go back to like a month ago when I talked about what we wanted. I said I wanted someone who's process-oriented, conviction, someone who's a good communicator, someone who understands trends, talent, team-building, a great evaluator, a collaborator, and someone who can lead a complex organization.

Bryson checks all the boxes. So now, as we go forward, we need to build this thing into a sustainable contender. We need the bulls to be relevant again. But we need to be realistic about where we are, but we're committed to doing this right. So whether it's the resources, whether it's the time and the effort, we're going to build a foundation, we're going to elevate this organization, we're going to make our fans proud again. Eventually we want to compete at a high level year and year out, and we do want to have a real chance at competing for championships. So that is going to be the Bulls standard.

So with that, welcome to the Chicago. of all's family. Thank you, Michael. Bryce and Graham. I appreciate that. I think that's my cue to take it from here. First of all, thank you, Michael. This is

unbelievable. I mean, I'm always going to be transparent and just be myself. That's all I know how to be. And this is unreal. When Michael called and told me, I got the job. I'm not afraid to say this. I started crying. I was, I broke down, man. I was, I was like,

because this organization means so much to me. And, um, but first, let me, let me give all glory and thanks to God, um, who's the head of my life. And he's just giving me an incredibly amount of favor and grace. And so I want to make sure I, I give him, um, give him honor. I want to thank Jerry. I want to thank Michael and Nancy for believing in me and giving me this opportunity. I want to thank my family who are here. My dad couldn't make it. He's probably too nervous. So he stayed home. But my mom, my dad, my sister, my brother, they just gave me such a great foundation. And they were always super, super supportive. That is so important if you have kids.

to make them believe that they can do anything. And they did that for me. My wife, she is big time. This job is hard. You're gone a lot. And she has made a ton of sacrifices for me. Over the years, we've been married for, shoot, 12 years. It's crazy.

Yeah, we've been married for 12 years. We got three kids. My oldest is Kinsley. My middle is Harper. And then my youngest is brave. These games is grace and we call him Braves. Y'all see him running around the gym. He's over there.

So I love you all and I thank you all so much for just being my rock, you know, and supporting me. So, yeah, after all the crying and everything was over, start thinking about, all right, how we want to, you know, build this. And we had such great conversations. such great conversations. The interview process with Turnkey and the search firm, it was awesome. This wasn't something that was just done. Like, you know, there were multiple conversations, very thorough. We covered everything you can think of. And at the bottom line is, yeah, we want to win championships. And we want to build a culture that can sustain a high level of competitiveness in this league that becomes harder and harder.

every year. It's so competitive. And we're going to do that with the right people. They're going to help create the right culture. And we're going to put the right team on the floor. And we're just going to compete every single night. When I look around and, like I said, it's amazing for me because I grew up, obviously, a Bulls fan. If you played basketball in the 90s, 80s, 85% of the kids, 90% of the kids, I don't care where you're from. I grew up in San Antonio. Yeah, I got some love for the Spurs. I grew up, you know, I ain't going to lie.

But it did not supplant what the bulls meant to me. And when I think about it, and I think about the greatness that's in this building and what's in these rafters and the championships that have been won here, it's amazing. It impacted my life more than I thought I knew because I was always chasing what this organization represented. So you see MJ, and obviously I wanted to be him, right? Just like everybody wanted to be, you know, I wanted that. But it carried over into other aspects of my life.

So like my work ethic, my determination, my grit, I'm watching the bulls and what they display. And I'm like, that's what I want. And so tore my ACL multiple times when I was playing at Texas A&M, gig them. But that grit started from watching this. And I want to bring that back. And there's a kid out there that's just like me that can be inspired by this organization. And keep climbing, you know, and that's what we're going to do.

That's what we're going to do. We're going to pull our sleeves up. We're going to get to work, and we're going to get out the mud. And I'm not afraid of the work, and we're going to get started here pretty soon. So I'll open up with questions. You're listening to the Bryson Graham introductory press conference, courtesy of CHSN on the score, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. Nice to meet you, man.

Nice to meet you. I've talked some people about you this week, and I've heard a lot of great things, and one thing was that you're not afraid to disagree with people, and that you were, when you're running the draft room in New Orleans or whatever, that you would give your input but do it in a nice way. How do you mix your personal style, I guess, with, you know, getting the job done? Yeah. So one of the things philosophically I believe in, there's no, there's no bad idea. And I want to hear from everyone that's in the room. And I've always been someone that, for better or for worse, is going to share my opinion. And I think that added to the process in New Orleans. I think it added to the process in Atlanta. And that's what I want here. I want to open, collaborative, and very communicative organization.

Because who knows, it doesn't matter about the position. Everyone in this room could have something that could add to the ultimate decision of making the right decision. And so, yeah, I want to take in what everyone says. I'm going to process that. And then, you know, I'm going to end up making that decision. But I want an open and collaborative group. Sure. Bryce and Julia Coach, Heather Friedan,

you mentioned that getting the people right is going to be a huge part of this. These hires coming up are going to be kind of a crucial first test for you. So how do you want to approach filling out the rest of your staff and that decision? What are kind of your priorities? Yeah. So, look, we've got a lot, you know, obviously it has. of us, there are very, very good people and talented people in the building already. So as I hit the ground, you know, we're not, we're not starting from obviously ground zero.

I want to, you know, obviously bolster, you know, our staff. I want to add to, you know, our strategy space. I want to add to our personnel space. I think that's necessary. But, but look, like, you know, we're, we've got a long way, obviously. you know, to go and there's a lot of, you know, decisions that are going to be made. But I think right now where we're at, I think we're in a good place, and I'll get started on that here pretty soon.

Bryce and Casey Johnson with the Chicago Sports Network. Michael touched on your eye for talent evaluation. You hear that basically in every conversation around the league about you. How do you think you develop that skill and how do you continue honing that skill as the game evolves? Yeah, I think this experience, you know, from playing and then working in the video room, that really, really was helpful, like extremely helpful. So my second year in the league, Monty Williams, who's someone who I, you know, really look up to and he was a mentor of mine early on, I was his video coordinator, and I also worked in player development on the court. And so

watching a ton of film and understanding how the NBA game is played, that really, really helped me develop it. And then also, I'm not going to lie to you, so much of it is also like your intuition, you know, like so much of like the experience of watching games, watching players, remembering certain things about certain players, and you've been around long enough, you can draw inference from, you know, one player to the next. So you could say, oh man, he's just like ex-player that didn't make it, or he's just like this player that did make it. And so I think the combination of just being around it for a long time, watching a lot of film, and also working in on the, on the floor, it really helped me.

Hi, Bryson, Will Galley with CHGO. I'm curious about your just evaluation of the roster as it stands right now. I know there's a lot that's going to change with the draft and lottery and cap space and all of that, but just kind of curious of your opinion of the roster and maybe the vision that you have for whatever it is that you're trying to build as far as a longer term, more methodical approach, or maybe something that you feel like you can get this flipped more quickly. Like what's kind of your opinion and vision for that? Yeah, I mean, I think it's going to take time. It's going to take time.

I think the roster, we're in a developmental stage right now. I think everyone in here knows that we're not where we want to be. But we've got four picks in this year's draft. We own all of our picks going forward. We've got a ton of second round picks. And we got a ton of flexibility this summer. And so we just want to be smart. And we want to be also creative and opportunistic, right?

But we're going to obviously take our time. You know, this is not going to be something that's going to be rushed. But this is the beginning stages, all right? You know, we've got some pretty good young players, but we know that this draft is going to be the first real layer to this foundation going forward. You're listening to the Bryson Graham introductory press conference on Wahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043 The Score. My question is for Michael. However, you talked about sort of building a sustainable winner in that just what has to be

different on your end as far as, you know, commitment to resources that you're giving your front office. As far as luxury tax, how willing are you willing to pay that, building out a front office? Just kind of from your perspective, do you feel like there has to be a shift or maybe more of a financial commitment to empower your executive? Actually, I look back at the history of the Chicago Bulls and, you know, I'm looking around this practice facility. This is our second practice facility. The first practice facility was the first privately owned practice facility in the NBA. So we've always been about spending the resources.

For some reason, there's been a narrative that wasn't the case. Each administration has been given the responsibility to spend them, you know, tell us where you want to spend the money. So I don't mean to push this on you, but it's going to be Bryson. Brison's going to tell us, here's what I need. we need to add in this area. Or, hey, we're good here, but maybe we need to add someone below that. As far as the luxury tax,

obviously there's specific penalties for being in the luxury tax in the second apron and all that, and now you've got to manage that. No team wants to be in there. But if we're competing for championships, we expect that we'll probably be in the luxury tax and totally okay with that. I don't want to be in luxury tax for a team

that's not in the playoffs, but if he did, then he wouldn't be the right guy. Sam. Sam Smith with the Bulls.com. I went to two. Michael has mentioned many times, several times, about the autonomy that you'll have. And I wanted to follow up on the roster point that was brought up.

These are none of your players. You're inheriting everything. Sure. So if you have total autonomy, presumably you can do whatever you want. Is there anyone in your view on this roster that's untouchable? That's funny you ask that. Look, I really don't want to, in respect to the guys, right, answer something like that. I mean, that's tough, right?

I mean, there's only a few probably players in the NBA, let's be honest, that are untouchable. And even them, you can get them. Right. So that's just the nature of the of the beast. You're going to listen on every player. And that has nothing to, I'm not taking anything away or I'm trying to strike fear in the guys on our roster. But that's just the nature of this business. And so, no, I'm not going to sit here and say that, you know, no one on this roster is untouchable, you know.

But that doesn't mean that we're trading guys. I think we're going to come in. We're going to look at this holistically. And then we're going to proceed. I have one more. One of the, maybe one of the bigger questions, you have plenty, but is the cap room this summer? So supposedly bulls have the most or as much as anybody. And what's your philosophy as far as you touched on a little bit, but use the cap room to add a player so that the team could, you know, have a veteran, be better, or use the cap room for purposes to add things to help you in the future?

What's your philosophy on using the salary cap space? Yeah, I think that's a great question. It really, it all depends. It depends on what's best for us in that moment. It might be signing a player. It might be throwing an offer sheet on a restricted agent, a free agent. It might be, you know, taking in and being an off-rant for a team and taking in picks. You have to be open to every avenue because that's where we're at right now.

We're not in a place that we're going to be adding players in competing for a championship in the 26-27 season. This is a time for us to grow and build and layer it the right way, and we'll make the right decision. I'm confident in that. Gavin. Hi, Bryson, Gavin Dorsey, Roundtable Sports. How you doing? I appreciate it. The previous regime was often criticized for failing to commit to a rebuild, spending a lot of years in the play-in.

How do you define what a real rebuild looks like? and how will fans know that this time is different? Well, I mean, a real rebuild, you can look at the record, right? I mean, you know, just being honest, you know. And also, right, like most rebuild, you know, situations is when you don't have star-caliber, you know, players, right? So right now, not to say that we don't have anyone on this roster that can get there, but until we, you know, continue to obviously draft well, add to this, add to this mix, and add more, this overall talent and team identity, yeah, you are, we are in the rebuilding phase.

And we're extremely young too. So that's how I'll define, you know, what the rebuilding phase, what a rebuilding team looks like. And I think that's where we are right now. I'm not going to be up here in mince words and say like we're further along. you know, if we just add a couple of pieces because that's not the case. And then I hope that, you know, as fans, you know, we kind of understand where we're at. And we're going to get there, but like I said, I want to keep on saying this is that it's going to take time. Drew Stevens, the Biggs.

Bryson, you are. You obviously had to sell yourself throughout this entire process, but interviews go both ways. What does you need to hear from Michael and Company to make you feel like this was the right partnership for you? Really? Look, there are 30 of these opportunities, and this is the Chicago Bulls. I mean, Michael really didn't have to sell me on much of anything. I'm just being honest with you. This is, you know, a lot of people from here, they've been here for a very long time. Me walking into this gym, like, I feel the weight, you know, and I want that pressure. It motivates me. It gets me going. there was nothing that Michael needed or Jerry needed to sell to me for this job.

I'm humble enough to know that I was chosen. I didn't choose them, you know, so to answer your question, this is an unbelievable opportunity that I'm ready to take full advantage of. And there were no questions that you had from Michael that you needed to hear answers to? Yeah, I mean, of course. I'm asking questions, but what am I going to, I'm, am I trying to be combative? You know what I mean?

I mean, I think what he's saying is, did you talk to me about resources and all that? Absolutely. That all came out naturally in our conversation. It was never an issue. Yeah. But I will tell you, when we interviewed other people, you know, they asked some questions like that. But I think it was clear in this process that Bryson was going to have the resources and the runway to, you know, to make this right. Yeah.

And I'm trying to answer your question. I'm sorry. If that's more what you were looking for, yeah, that we had obviously questions and answers about the resources and things like that. And yeah, we're fully aligned. Matt Zahn, CBS Chicago over here. I was gonna ask what Drew was asking,

but along those lines of, you know, asking questions of the organization, Michael opened by saying the results haven't been there. What gives you the confidence that you can do what others haven't been able to do here? That's a good question. I mean, it's not not going to be just me. It's going to be the people that I put around me and work with me.

We're going to do this together. And that's from the performance room. That's from the communications department to the coaching staff, cap strategy, evaluation, every aspect of this. I don't ever want to put this on. I have the answer because I don't. If I'm the smartest person in the room, we're going to fail. And so I'm going to make sure that we add the right group of people and we're going to pull in the right direction, and we're going to win games. So it's not about me. It's about the Chicago Bulls as a whole. You're listening to the Bryson Graham introductory press conference,

brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers on 104 through the score, courtesy of CHSN. The teams you've worked for had a lot of different job titles, a lot of different people on the directory. What would you say were your main duties with the Hawks and the later years of the Pelicans and any areas of expertise? any authorities that you had? Yeah, overseeing personnel. You know, when David Griffin came to New Orleans,

I oversaw the draft process. And that was like my real first responsibility, like really strong responsibility of taking ownership of something of that magnitude, of who are we going to draft. And obviously I touched every, other aspect of it, performance, player development, and things of that nature. I was involved in everything, but personnel was where I lived. Andy? Andy. I'm Andy Selt.

Where do things stand in the coaching search? How far along are you in that process? And what are some of the traits you're looking for in a candidate? Yeah. So, to be honest, when me just obviously getting to Chicago, have not started a search, have not put a list together of candidates or anything of that nature. Probably don't plan on doing that for, you know, another week or so. But in terms of, you know, what I would say we're looking for, we're looking for someone that's obviously smart. We're looking for someone that can lead in some of a really, really high character. And we also want somebody that's, when I say smart, they're good on both sides of the ball. I think a lot of times now you have coaches that lean towards offense and they lean towards defense.

And that's fine. But we're going to try to find a coach that can coach both sides of the ball and care about both sides of the ball and then develop these guys as they're obviously young in their careers. So to answer your question, those are some of the things we'll be looking for. We're going to take a few more. Paul, go ahead. Hi, Paul Solve in Chicago Tribune. Congratulations. Thank you.

And this could be from Michael, too. The Great Bulls teams have always stressed defense, and they've kind of gotten away from that the last couple of years with some higher scoring teams. Would that be something you would emphasize when you build this roster, or is a matter to you? Absolutely. And me and Michael talked about the importance of defense

and establishing an identity on that side of the floor, especially when you're a younger team and you have younger players. When you compete on the defensive end, your team typically plays harder. And you're starting to see a lot in the playoffs. Teams that are having success are very, very good on that side of the ball. So we want obviously two-way players. I'm not going to take away from the offensive side. But I refer to it as guys that have slapped, size, length, athleticism, and physicality.

And that physicality is going to be felt on the defense. against without the ball. David. David Hoff from the score in CHSN. Congratulations, Bryson. Thank you. I was told this week and talking to somebody from New Orleans that at one point in time you had in your phone

a photo of you on your first day as an intern, unloading boxes. Yeah. I was just curious if you have that photo still in your phone and if you do what that represents to you. Yeah, I do. It represents a lot because you know, you're starting from the bottom.

I'm obviously I was the lowest on the, totem pole, you know, coming in, which is expected, which I think a lot of people think that, you know, when you get into the NBA, you're just like giving everything. And that's not the case. You know, you really have to put, you know, put the time in. And so that photo to me just means like, that's who I am, you know. I don't mind doing the little things that are necessary, you know, whatever it looks like. You know, obviously this position is, it's a lot, right? But it's just a title.

You know, like the work is what matters. And I got to be ready to pull up my sleeves because we're at the ground floor. And that picture represents that to me. Like, this is where you started and this is back where you're at again. A different title, but this is where you're at. Dionne Miller from ABC7. Welcome. We're excited that you're here.

In light of that, this whole moment. has to feel incredibly surreal. So how excited and prepared, I guess, do you feel for a challenge like this? How did you know you were ready to take on something like this? Yeah. I don't think you, I believe I'm ready, but you know, you probably never know you're really ready. It sounds like having a kid, right? It's like, I think I'm ready to have children.

And it's like, until you get it, you're like, oh, my God. You know, I feel this, I feel the same way. And it's because of my experiences that Michael alluded to. I started out, you know, as an intern and went from an intern to the video to being the head video coordinator and player development coach, player development coach, the scouting coordinator, scouting coordinator, the director of college scouting, director of college scouting to assistant GM to general manager. So you're like, you're checking all these boxes and you're doing so much within the organization that it gives you the confidence that, okay, I've checked the boxes. I didn't. didn't skip any steps, I can step into this role, you know, and there's like a certain confidence that just kind of comes with it. It's almost like, if modest, like, I'm sure the first 30-point game he had, he starts saying to himself, like, yo, I can go get 30 now. Like, I'm nice. You know what I mean? So it's, it's kind of like that, you know, and it's the same

thing for me. Last one. Go ahead, Sam. Yeah, last one. Still trying to nail you down on some of these things. Okay. But we don't know exactly you know, you were involved with the draft, but we didn't know exactly if it was your guys or somebody else. But that said, it looked like the profile of the players that you were

picking, Nikkel Alexander, Dyson Daniels, sort of long, athletic, defensive oriented wing players, switchable kind of thing. Is that sort of your philosophy that you want to bring here? Those kind of players, is 6-8 across the board?

two-way defensive, offensive, that you have to be those kind of players? You don't have to be those kinds of players, but yes, but we would love to have size, length, athleticism, and physicality all across the board. And the more versatile you can be, the better you are. If whoever's guarding at the point of attack can also guard in the wing and then switch onto a big,

you've got something serious. Like you're really, really dangerous now. And I think the really good teams, OKC, Boston, they have that. You know, like, who's Boston's point guard? You know, I see, like, JT bring it up. I see J.B. bring it up. I see Derek White bring it up. It's like they have so much versatility.

They got so much size. They got so much physicality. And that's where this league is going. And that's where the really good teams are doing. And that's kind of how we're going to look at our evaluation, and that's going to be our approach. You know, we want to be tough, and we want to be long and athletic at every position. Don't be mad at me, but one little one. Oh, yeah, go ahead.

We're not surprised. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But go back to just the coach thing. Would you like to have a coach who's won a championship, experience, veteran kind of guy? A lot of the guys who are successful now are Oklahoma City, San Antonio, first-time guys, young, kind of grow with the team. Sure. You know, how do you see that kind of thing?

Yeah. No, I think we, me and Michael, and it's going to be done collaboratively, we want the right guy. And if I said, you're picking him. Oh, yeah, I'm picking him. I'm picking him. I picked you. You get to pick the first. Absolutely.

But it's a really good, it's a good question. And I don't, there's really no. real like prerequisite in terms of hey you held a position or you want a championship if that were it i wouldn't be in this seat you know and i think about that because you just want the most talented person you know you believe in you think about the draft right um i'm not saying that the kid from b yu is the first picking the draft but he didn't win a championship this year. Doesn't mean that he's not talented enough to be the franchise player going forward or whatever the case may be. And I feel the same way about staff and at every point in the position. Let's find

the most competent and most talented people. And that could be a coach that you may not even heard of. And I might get killed for it. But if I believe in him, I'm a hire him. One more, Sam? You go? Thanks, guys. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. That was Bryson Graham and Michael Rhinstor. That was courtesy of our friends at CHSN, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. We are getting a lot of feedback on our Twitch chat, on our tax line. 312, 6444, 67, 67.

If you want to call, what do you think? Marshall and I will go over some of what we thought. We'll take your calls, and we've got to get to some commercials next because it's free for you, not for us. Slap. Yeah, and we have an acronym. Are you ready? Are you healed enough for an acronym? And I'm with it.

I'm with this acronym. All right, we'll do it all next. Rahimi Harrison Grody. I don't want to break time. I want to yell a marshal. Can we handle more Anthony Herron? Middays 10 to 2 on 1043, the score. We want obviously two-way players.

I'm not going to take away from the offensive side. But, I mean, I refer to it as guys that have slapped, size, length, athleticism, and physicality. And that physicality is going to be felt on the defenses out of the ball. When you heard the acronym, did you scream to yourself like I did, the Homer Simpson scream? No, not at all. I was like, that actually makes sense. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3, the score.

Yeah, don't get triggered by the acronym. For goodness sake, Liam Cohen has Fasasmat and the Jaguars are doing great. That one didn't make as much sense as far as when you had to actually spell it out and figure out what the words were because, like, acronyms are supposed to make up something, a word. Fundamentally sound and then a bunch of other things. things and he knows and I remember Fasasat. By the way, Layla, 630 wants to know, what did the five starters say to the face?

Slapp! I'm glad it's catching on. But ultimately, he's telling you, Bryson Graham, how he evaluates players initially. And if you think about who's on the current Bulls roster, or I don't know,

any of the players take your pick on last season, seasons bull's roster. Some of them don't fit into this. Let's start with size. I'm sorry. I think hype matters somewhat in the NBA. Can't teach it I heard.

I hate to be that person. But you can tell just based on what we heard, and we're taking your calls to 312, 644, 67, gotten a lot of feedback on the text line. And I feel like it's a little all over the place when it comes to the collective. Some people think that this press conference was stumbling. Some people really liked it.

Like, we've gotten quite the evaluations all over the board. Did someone really say stumbling? Because that that person's just wrong. Yes. And I didn't get that. Like, for example, there was a texter that said they seemed that Michael Rinesdorf and Bryson Grams seemed misaligned on who hired the coach. Oh, that's not what that was, 708.

I'm pretty sure Michael making a joke about Billy Donovan being the head coach of the team when they didn't have a GM. That's exactly what that was. And I'm glad that he took a moment to correct himself. That's course correction because that got a lot of feedback. And now, even though, and I understand why Bryson Graham is talking about, as he has in all things, a collaborative approach. He's like, yeah, you know, I'm going to have my owner sign off on the coach. He's like, oh, no, you pick the coach. Yes, I get it.

And when he said we, I assumed he was speaking on behalf of the team. But yeah, I didn't get that impression. I think what you wanted to hear was, first of all, I thought Michael Reinsdorf once again was really informative, started by apologizing to fans that they weren't good enough. And then when he says, this isn't his dad making the joke about Cho Hay Otani, not going to the White Sox. He made it sound like the second apron and the luxury.

tax, as we used to commonly refer to it in the NBA, was an eventuality if this team is competitive and wanting to be in the playoffs and try to compete for championships. That did not indicate to me that that was an owner who was satisfied with a play-in appearance. What he basically said was, yeah, luxury tax is all good. Don't bring me no non-playoff team in the freaking second acre. That's not happening. But yeah, if we're trying to win a championship, sure. An expensive loser. That's what you don't want. You don't want an expensive loser. Seeing that before. Never ends well. No, no. And frankly, we could all describe somebody as being an expensive loser. You know one or two in your life.

But I didn't, I'm not the type of person. I don't necessarily need you to tell me you're humble. If you're super confident and you're proud of the work you've put in because you took all the steps, then I'm happy for you too. You know, I don't, that doesn't matter to me necessarily as much. Then again, I just. try to explain away Draymond Green's irrational confidence, so maybe I'm not the best person to ask on this. But that seems to a matter to a lot of people, Marshall. No, no. First of all, your explanation about Draymond Green being irrationally confident was spot on

because I think to have a certain level of excellence, you have to be willing to do things that other people probably aren't willing to do and believe things that other people aren't willing to believe. But looking at these comments, I got to say, I think people are on board because nothing bad has happened yet, what really bad could happen at an introductory press conference? Well, I think there are times where I'm not a big believer in like, I always said this when Maddie Rufluza was the coach.

Like it's not the national talking league. It's the national football league. But when the press conference tends to match, then the player discussion about not having command of a room or not communicating, then it's an issue. So Michael Reinsdrove said that he wanted to emphasize communication. He wanted to make sure that that was part of what wins. into bringing Bryson Graham into the building.

Bryce and Graham passed the communication test with the media in the press conference today. Also, as a leader, I appreciate a couple of things here. He did come across as both transparent and genuine in everything that he said. So much to the point where in answering a question that a lot of people would have deflected, he said, no, I have no coaching list. That process won't even start until probably about a week from now. where he begins to compile and begin that process. And if you're wondering why it's a week,

just keep in mind the NBA draft lottery is Sunday and the Combine is all next week. So that makes sense. He wants to scout players and probably see who's the best fit for the Bulls. The other thing I'll say about the things that he said is that in looking for a coach, he doesn't need someone who has all this championship experience.

He just needs someone who he can believe in. I think that is the approach that successful franchises, Sorry, successful organizations, sports or not, take with hires. We'll get into a little bit more from what we heard from Bryce and Graham in our next segment. 312, 644, 67 is our number. I see we've got a couple people on hold. We have to take a quick break, but we'll be right back with more reaction to this on the score. There's a kid out there that's just like me that can be inspired by this organization and keep climbing.

you know, and that's what we're going to do. That's what we're going to do. We're going to pull our sleeves up. We're going to get to work and we're going to get out the mud. And I'm not afraid of the work. And, you know, we're going to get started here pretty soon. That is the voice of Bryson Graham, your new Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104 through the score.

And we've given some of our thoughts. There's been a lot of feedback on our text line on our Twitch chat. 312, 64, 64, 67, 67 is our phone number. Before we get to the calls, Marshall, what did you want to say? I felt like you had more on your mind about it all. Well, no, the coach thing is like the most interesting thing because that's the next step in this process as far as when we get past the draft combine and the draft lottery. I thought it was very interesting that he said they will not be competing for a championship next year and that they are squarely, honestly, in a rebuilding phase and that there is no untouchable play. player on the roster. Tank, tank, tank. No, tank, because you don't know what the tanking

rules are going to be, Layla. We can't get behind a tank just yet because we don't know the rules of tanking yet. When we know the rules of tanking, then we can make a declaration. You know what else? I noticed that he, his attitude toward the point guard position was interesting too. When he brought up Boston, he's like, who's bringing up the point in a tank? Me! You, the tank in your heart. Better yet. Ray. Slap. Slap. All that. Who's the current point guard for the Chicago Bulls. Well, I mean, we had Yuki do it for a bit.

Oh, no, but the starting point guard. Well, oh, Trey Jones. No, Josh Giddy. Oh, yeah, Giddy. See how you see? See? Here's my issue about, I was just thinking of movable guards. I'm sorry.

Oh, he's movable. But he got paid about $5 million more than the market thought he was going to get paid. I don't even know. When he didn't have another team to go to, does that matter? Do you try to move him? It may matter a little bit, but what I'm saying is on a championship team. I definitely was thinking about tank point guard and not real point guard. The way he talked about defensive intensity and the way Josh Giddy's game works,

I don't know that those two things are compatible. He said it in a way, Bryson Graham, and again, we'll take your calls. 312, 644, 67, is our number. We got a couple guys on hold. We do want to get to your calls. But he said it in a way where I think he was. was asked, is anybody safe or you play?

It was the way it was asked to discuss possible moving people. And he did want to reiterate, he wasn't trying to strike fear into the hearts of any players on the roster, but that he was going to listen on every player, which is what you should do. And he's right. The guys who you don't think are movable, and the

NBA are always movable. See Kevin Durant. Yes. Yeah, Luca, obviously. That one didn't actually pass the trade machine, though. You know that. They did the trade simulation with the trade machine

multiple times, and it didn't... That surprises me, though, because Anthony Davis is a Hall of Fame. The asset didn't balance. Probably because there weren't enough first round picks. Are we doing this again? No, we're not doing this. He said they have a ton of second round picks. He didn't mention that as a positive. He did. Let's go to Pat and Cedar Lake.

Pat, you're on Rahimi-Miharison Grody. Pat? Did Pat drop off? Poor Pat. We hardly knew ye. Maybe he'll call back. Let's go to Willie on the north side. Willi you're on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. Thank you. I appreciated that press conference. I really liked it. It reminded me a little bit of Ben Johnson's press conference for one simple reason.

I think this guy chose Chicago. He had a job. He wasn't somebody who was out of work. He wasn't looking for work. He doesn't just want to be somebody run somebody's team. Sounds like to me he wanted to run the Chicago basketball team. team because of his admiration for this team. That's what we need. Ben Johnson wanted to be in Chicago.

He could have had any team he wanted. I think this guy could have gone through a lot of different teams. There's all this discussions about there where better guys with more experience, sounds like to me, Mike Reinsdorf picked somebody who wanted to be in Chicago. That's what we're looking for. That's what we need it. That's what I liked. Thanks for your call, Willie.

I think he also said, himself, Bryce and Graham. There's only so many jobs in the league, and it's the Bulls. 30 jobs. It is the Bulls. He talked about being a Michael Jordan fan. He said, look, I grew up in San Antonio, and yeah, Spurs love for them,

but the Bulls. In the 90s, the Bulls. I tried to explain this to people. They didn't believe me. Who didn't believe you? Our listeners. You know, for me, you don't know. No, Chicago is the center of the sports world.

You knew about Chicago Sports for many years. or not you lived here. Yeah. It's the Bulls. It's hard to explain. Rock stars. The Bulls. Yeah.

Like Mike, the Michael's. Our Taurus was in Lithuania, knew about the Bulls. When you said Michael as a child, it was which Michael you were referring to, Jordan or Jackson? Because that's what it was.

Yes. Those are the first two that came to mine. If we're already talking about sports, you obviously know it's Jordan. If you're just talking about Michael just in general, oh, which Mike? Jackson. Let's go back to our phone.

312, 64, 64, 64, 67, 67, Pad and Cedar. Lake, do we have you now? Are you here? Yes, I'm here. Sorry. I had a diaper situation with one of my twins. I hear it. I'm hung up on you guys. So, they don't sound very happy about the higher. Yeah. Yeah, I think he's just more upset that he had an explosive diaper. But

really quick, I just wanted to chime in and say I was happy with what Reinsorf had said. Just because it sounds like he finally gets it. Like he, I mean, you guys said he's making joke about Donovan making the calls. But when he cut him off and was just like, no, I hired you. I want this is your decision. Like you don't need to run this by me. It was just like, thank God.

Like that it just seems like, yeah, we don't need the answer from you. This is why you're hiring a 39-year-old young guy that you want to make the shots and make the calls. So just to me, it was what he had said. It just seems like he finally gets it. And when he said he was sorry in the beginning, it seemed kind of corny at first on the surface. But now, like, after him cutting him off and saying, hey, this is your call to do this. Like, it just seems like he, I think he finally gets this. Sorry about the babies in the background.

But I love the score. And I call the score no matter what. We appreciate it. We've got to get those baby bulls ready for their run. Yeah, you know what else? You know all those people out there? You know you and me and Ray and Tyler? Everybody you know.

You know what we once were? Babies. Babies. Yep. Babies cry. Babies have explosive diapers. Babies defecate. This is how that works. All these things happen. But good on you for teaching your kids about the score young. Unfortunately, we did not help them ease their pain at all. But I think he's got a point, Pat does, about Michael Reinsdorf. I didn't think he was awkward. I didn't think he rambled. And I thought he made some jokes. And to his credit, he tried to clarify Drew Stevens's question because he said, he goes, no, we were

asked about these things in the initial press conference. So that was nice that he gave Drew the benefit of the doubt on explaining it further. No, no. I think Michael Rinesdorf, to the caller's point, he does get it. He does understand. He does, I'm sure he's talked to people since that press conference he held and like, hey, this is what you said. It's interesting because he wasn't asked directly about tanking. And I think that's because we don't know what the tanking rules were. But I would have loved to hear Michael Rinesdorf on, you said OKC, but you know, OKC had the two years, what are both of your thoughts on the rebuilding process? Because they both have admitted they are rebuilding. Oh, they said it without saying it. Like when they said take our time

and maybe not immediately. I think there was, I think there were a couple of possible tank references. And that's why I'll be shocked if it is a veteran experienced coach who comes because this is a draft and develop situation. Although he did leave the door open, Leila, for the options. And I love optionality of, hey, we could spend money on a player to help us right now. We could take on other people's contracts to get more draft picks in the future. That's the route I would like them to take. Or we could, you know, trade some stuff and get some stuff right now.

They have different options. But it sounds like they're leaning towards the future and not trying to do something right now this season. They also have $58 million in NBA cap space, which is a league high. Let's go to Rick and Knoxville. Rick, you're on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. Hey, first time caller. Really, really love listening to you guys. You do a phenomenal job, Leila.

You're missed in sports media. So I'm grateful that you have this time. Hey, I wanted to call. I listened to the press conference, most of it. But one thing that I want to be very clear on, if we get Monty Williams in here as the coach, great guy, okay, I will literally lose it. Monty Williams is not what we need.

And I just hope and pray, even though he's a good guy, I just hope and pray that we get a coach that can demand accountability and actually run this team. I hope that he surrounds himself too with wise people and tries to bring in a savvy veteran, somebody that's been around the league as well, to kind of be his assistant. Well, Rick, thank you for your call. And thanks for the kind words.

We appreciate it. What is your, and Rick just dropped off, but I was going to ask, I don't have the same passionate vitriol about Monty Williams necessarily. And I think there were a couple of people after that press conference when we heard Bryson Graham speak so highly of him. He was a mentor to him. I wonder if possibly he's part of this picture. I think his opinion might be based on the last time we saw Monty Williams. Do you remember him as a head coach where he coached last? The Detroit Pistons, a 14-win team, getting paid a whole lot of money.

and they did a whole lot of nothing. That was with Kate Cunningham and the gang. And that was just back in the 23-24 season. And that's probably what people are looking at. They're not necessarily looking at the 20-21 team that went to the finals and lost to Janus. So I understand the trepidation surrounding Monty Williams specifically, but would Monty even want, well, I guess it depends on what kind of paycheck you're looking at, but to come to a situation where it is clearly in a rebuild situation where they're probably at minimum two years.

years away. Well, and I think that's why it was asked, and I forget which reporter posed the question. Might have been Jamal Collier talking about head coaching candidates and whether or not those candidates would grow with the team like we had seen in San Antonio and in Oklahoma City. But coaches who are willing to be part of that. And, you know, Monty Williams, I remember thinking to myself, when that losing streak was going on, didn't you think also that Detroit had too much talent to make sense of why that was happening? Yes, myself and everyone else observing basketball at the time. It's like, why is this team this bad?

The year the Cade Cunningham got drafted, the Pistons made a ton of very savvy moves, both in trades and free agency. And I remember having that impression and trying to figure out what had gone wrong. But you know, similarly, J.B. Biggerstaff was really, really highly touted as an assistant coach, ends up getting a head coaching job, then ends up getting another one. now, as we've seen, and then gets an extension. Sometimes it's a fit issue. Sometimes it's a fit with your players.

Sometimes it's a fit with your ownership. I'm not trying to say, this is me caping for Monty Williams necessarily. But these are examples of how something can be right, and then it's not necessarily right. And then it's right with another team or another setup. I think the fit thing is very important for him specifically because he has described the type of player they he likes. we know from talking to people who have observed him

that he has a certain style he wants to play. It is defense at first. He wants two-way players, but he talks about the intensity that being defense first brings in the game, period. And he referenced, recency bias, these current playoffs taking place right now about how important defense is. I know he's right about that. And then I laughed because you laughed when he talked about developing players on both

size of the ball, you immediately started laughing and thought that Tibbs is not coming through the door. I mean, look, you can have a defensive-minded coach, but he can't just, and I don't say ignore offense, but it can't be that secondary. And I think a hallmark, because you just told me that Tom Thibodeau, you know who he is, right? You know that it's defense first and then we'll figure it out on offense. Additionally, one of the things that I felt was important to make note of was Michael Reinsdorf reiterating how this process is going to work. And him saying that essentially Bryson Graham is in charge of the money. And that I believe the quote was, tell us where you want to spend the money.

Say, here's what I need. And then he asked, do we need somebody below that as far as helping out with the front office and the infrastructure? There was heavy pushback there, Leila, on this idea that they're cheap or they don't want to spend money when he talked about having the first private practice facility and that you just have to tell them how to do things, which also calls into question some of the decisions that the previous regime was making. Well, yeah, because whenever you don't hear what you think is the whole story, then you're going,

okay, well, you have a boss. How much is ownership a part of this? When you've got your search for the nine or ten good players and we hear guys like Bryce and Graham say you need a star, that. I thought that may be, okay, well, is that a monetary issue? Is that ownership? Like, how much did ownership factor into these things? And I think what we're hearing now, full transparency from both the owner and the new lead

executive, is that they're not going to spare expenses when it comes to making this team viable as a championship contender in the future. 6-30 says you both calling out how big the bulls were makes it even more egregious that this organization slipped to complete irrelevance. I feel like they had a bounce back, though, in the Derek Rose years. They absolutely did. So I don't think it's been like... And there wasn't a person who observed ball in the NBA

who at the time didn't understand what happened to that team. I remember where I was when I heard the news about Derek Rose tearing his ACL. Yeah. I was in Austin and I was working in the sports office. And the news came down and we were all sad. Because that was a loss for the league. That was a loss if you love watching basketball. Can I pose a question to you?

Yes. Slap, now that we know what that is. Guys that have slap. Size, length, athleticism, physicality. Several people on these text lines have indicated there's a player that exists that will be a free agent that you may be familiar with that fits that description. Is it Dior de Dengbo? It is a... The combination...

I owe the bangbo. Who are you talking about there, sir? I owe the bangbo. It is a... is Io, a motivated Iowa, who's playing very motivated, by the way. The guy with a one-nothing series lead on Victor Wimbunyama and the Spurs. Dosumu. So, Ayahu. I was in my head and I couldn't stop. Do you think, do you think,

one, it's a possibility, two, that it would be a wise decision to get him back in house in a different type of role? You know how I talked to the people earlier and was like, guys, if you fight it across town, just be responsible about it. Okay. I have a chance to win a title right now. I don't know if it's happening here at home. Why can't it happen here? Immediately.

Not immediately, but... He's got a chance to win one right now. Yes. Bring him home. Rad-da-da-da. He's taken on a lot of responsibility. Whether it was being part of the first local class and local players and the set again, you know, in the new regime of Illinois basketball to go and be in a line eye.

And then he ends up getting drafted by the Bulls and he represented. And now I feel like he finally gets to appreciate the fruits of his labor with an actual championship possibility. I just don't know. Okay. Okay. I don't know. He's taken on a lot of responsibility in his young years.

If you fight at Crosstown, just fight. responsibly. I don't even know what that means. This segment is brought to you by almost free teeth.com, save on dental implant today. Julia Poe was part of the regime who was asking questions in the press corps of Bryson Graham and Michael Reinsdorf. Is Julia still on time, we think? I know there's a lot of side sessions and stuff like that that happened. All right, awesome. Julia Poe of the Chicago Tribune was there and we'll talk to her about more of it next. Harris and Grody. That sounds so crazy.

104.3 to the score. Wow. I like that. Midday's 10 to 2 on 104 3, the score. We've got a lot, you know, obviously ahead of us. There are very, very good people and talented people in the building already. So as I hit the ground, you know, we're not starting from, obviously, ground zero. I want to, you know, obviously bolster, you know, our staff.

I want to add to, you know, our strategy space. I want to add to our personnel space. I think that's necessary. But look, like, you know, we've got a long way, obviously, you know, to go. And there's a lot of, you know, decisions that are going to be made. But I think right now where we're at, I think we're in a good place. And I'll get started on that here pretty soon. That is the voice of Bryson Graham.

The question was asked by our guest. She joins us on the hotline. She was at the press conference, Julia Poe, the Bulls and Sky Beat writer for the Chicago Tribune. you, thanks for joining us. Yeah, thanks for having me on. What were your big takeaways from just hearing Bryson Graham and Michael Reinsdorf address the media? Yeah, I mean, I think the first kind of impression that I had was just this feels like a very fresh start, and it feels that way for a lot of reasons.

Bryson is young. He is someone who is still really looking to prove himself in the NBA as a front office executive. and I think all of those factors kind of brought this very fresh energy, this very different feel, just kind of compared to what we felt around the team and around the front office in past years. Julia, I know that there's no timetable that has been declared. I think a lot of things depend on what kind of reform we do when it comes to the draft and the draft lottery. But it was very clear that everyone knows they're in a rebuild and it's going to take time because he was very much emphasizing that it's going to be a while.

while before this team is, I guess, competitive. I mean, how did you feel about the way he laid things out from that standpoint? Yeah, I appreciated a few different aspects of how he approached that. First, something that I think is very frustrating for any of us in the media space and for fans as well is when executives refused to say the word rebuild. And that was a word that he was happy to say today. And I think that that is really helpful because it lets us get the semantic debate out of the way and just actually talk,

planning nuts and bolts what the future is going to look like. Bryson was very clear that he does not expect the team to be in a place where a few good draft picks, a few good acquisitions mean that this team will be competing for, you know, playoffs championship in 26, 27. And I think that all of that very realistic, very pragmatic, and it's helpful because it allows fans to adjust their expectations and to just understand what is happening in this initial year. you don't want someone to come in and set one standard and then not be able to meet it. And I think the Bulls are kind of setting just a very realistic idea of the layering approach they're going to have to take here.

Julia, I'm glad you brought that up to because I think that the first time Michael Reinsdorf addressed the media after he fired Arturis Karas Chavez and Mark Eversley was that we didn't necessarily know how much of the direction of this team or possible lack thereof during the AKME period was. from Michael Rinesdorf in the owner's chair or if it was from the front office. Did you, over time, either with that availability he had or anything future that was said today, get clear direction for yourself or just understanding upon that as well? Well, there's always kind of this dichotomy between what people say at a press conference and what they actually do when, you know, the going gets tough and you get into it. So I think there's always that dynamic. I will say there was a point in the press conference today where Bryson kind of said, you know, what Michael and I want in a head coach.

He starts a sentence that way. And Michael Reinsdorf puts his hand on his shoulder, cuts him off and goes, no, I hired you. You're going and hiring the head coach. This is, you know, this is your team now. This is your decision making from here on out. And I thought that was really telling at least in the signaling and kind of the front-facing facade at least that the Bulls want to put on. only time will tell if that is actually accurate to how the team is being run. But I really do feel that what Michael Reinsworth was trying to say today is that he feels very confident in the hire that he made here.

And from there, he wants Bryson Graham to go out and make this team his own. There was a lot of emphasis on the resourcing that he is willing to provide, that the Bulls are willing to provide to this new front office. But I do think that ownership is at least trying to signal early that they want their decision maker to feel like he is, kind of operating with a lot of agency in that way. Julia, I got to ask a follow up on that. Did you feel like I felt that that was a direct response to the reaction that he got when he basically said Billy Donovan can coach here as long as he wants? And if an executive has a problem with that, then he's probably not the right executive for us.

Because I felt like he was trying to quell that before it could even get started. Like, yo, this is my guy. I won't be having the influence in the way that I was describing if Billy Donovan wants to stay here. Absolutely. And I think it's a hard needle to thread. The thing that I will always say to anyone in a front office or ownership position is that the more that you talk to the media, the easier it is to kind of thread this needle, because we can ask follow-up questions. We can turn this into more of a dialogue rather than just having to have, you know, a press conference once a year where you try to explain many, many diverse decisions that you've made over time. I definitely think that in that press conference that you're referencing right after the firing, Michael Reinsdorf, hit really heavy and hard on a couple of concepts, the idea that he was going to be a little bit more hands-on, kind of how hard he went on backing Billy Donovan when they were trying to get him to stay. I think that there was a certain amount of maybe overshooting in either the way that those concepts were articulated or just how fans interpreted them. Sometimes you say what you think is

the perfect thing and then people read it and they go, I'm going to interpret it this way or, oh, that sounds bad to me. You know, it's a difficult thing to kind of accomplish, and I do understand that. But yes, I, to answer, that's a long answer to a short question. Yes, I do feel like that was reactionary to kind of what you're describing. Well, and I feel like it, that's what we're doing is trying to answer questions the best way we know how and trying to have as much background as we can to know what other questions to ask next. Is there anything still on your mind question-wise that maybe wasn't addressed, you know, in the past two press conferences that we've just mentioned? Well, I think there's so many questions that we have at this point in time.

It was hard, you know, in this press conference, you could even see both men kind of struggling with trying to answer questions because we're asking, okay, how are you hiring a coach? What is your timeline going to look like? How are XYZ things going to go? And they simply don't know. He's still figuring out, you know, how to get from one office to another, very new to Chicago has a lot of work ahead of him. So I think I have a lot of kind of those more minutia questions, a lot of those more detail-oriented

questions that hopefully will get answered in the coming weeks. I think my big picture thing that I kind of worry about with the Bulls is that what we saw with the last kind of regime was that hire was strong at the start. Arturis came in with a really good resume. People felt very highly about him throughout the NBA. and his first moves were bold. He took some big swings. He tried some interesting things.

I really think that those first six months, that first year, were very interesting from that perspective. And then it just kind of died on the vine. And I think the big question for the Bulls is how do you pivot? How do you become a team that is adaptable? How do you fail and then learn from that failure and get better? Because there's going to be a lot of failing in the next year and the next five years. And the only way that this team gets better is that you don't,

hit on a draft pick and you figure out how to learn from it and move on. You don't hit on a trade and you figure out how to learn from it and move on. And I just don't think that it has been proven in a very, very long time that this team and this franchise can do that. So that's kind of my biggest picture question. It is that part of it. She is Julia Poe. She covers both the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago Sky for the Chicago Tribune and she is with us here on Rahimi Harris and Grotie. I love what you just said because my whole thing, whether it's the AK era or not is can you have the optionality? Can you pivot and be nimble and be ready to adjust? What I liked about his answer was the fact that he talked about they had different paths.

They could take this off season because of the cap space, because of the availability of all their future first round picks. And I know they're going to take a slower road to competing, but it seems like he's a guy who would be able to pivot quickly. Did you get that sense from the way he was talking about having different options from a front office standpoint? point? I definitely did. I think that's always my biggest. I always wonder if a young executive versus an older executive with more experience, I always wonder which is better at pivoting, because someone with more experience will maybe just have more of a sense of, okay, here's how we do, XYZ, here's how, you know, I've messed up before, here's how I handled this in the past, here's how I'm going to handle it again in the future. But it can also be difficult for a more

veteran executive to pivot. Like, that's just something that gets harder, the longer that you've been in a role or been doing something. So I think that the exciting thing with having, you know, a 39-year-old executive come in, who's really at the start of everything, is he's going to have a lot of ideas and not be, you would expect, not be as set in his ways. And so I think that a lot of what he was articulating today was that willingness to try things, you know, to maybe do something that you look back on and you go, man, that

looks stupid. But I stand by it because I felt good about the decision. I think the big test for him is still going to be, okay, all of that is great in theory. How do you handle things when something actually goes wrong? How do you handle a really devastating injury or a draft pick that just does not pan out? How do you react from those things? And so I think, again, this is not the most helpful answer, but I think time will tell. He's definitely saying all the right things.

It's just really difficult to kind of analyze how that's going to look on basically his first day on the job. Julia, I think you and Marshall are both spot on here. I mean, if we look back at what happened, Arturis Karas Chavez was most aggressive in the beginning of his tenure, as you mentioned. And then we saw him just, I think at times get frozen when it came to transactions. The NBA saw three years where the Bulls didn't make a trade at the deadline. They were the only team, as you know, over that span to do so. Then I saw, I think, a retreat to similar scouting processes or,

scouting banks, you know, or markets that he knows when it came to the draft. Then doubling down on players like Patrick Williams in the contracts, I even wonder about how the extra money given to Josh Giddy affects this new office moving forward. And if that makes him not as movable, you know, these are things that I think about because that lack of action is going to lead to a slower process now that he's not here. Definitely, definitely. And I think that's something that actually really important. impressed me over the course of this press conference is Modus DeZellis was sitting in the

back of the press conference for the entire thing. He actually made everyone clap when Bryson Graham walked in, which was very on brand for that young man. And I thought it was really interesting. In that setting, you've got your young star in eyesight while you're being asked this question. Bryson was asked if any players on this roster are untouchable. And he did a really good job articulating the answer, which is no. Like, there really aren't untouchable players anywhere in the NBA. And he talked through his mindset of why and how you hear out offers and you have conversations about and you remain flexible on players so that you can always be making a team better, also realizing that that never means that you don't value or care about a player as an individual and as a person. And I just thought that that specific answer was really deaf.

That is an awkward thing, quite frankly, to be asked when you. you have, you know, one of those star players in the room with you. It's a great question, but it's, you know, it puts an executive in an uncomfortable spot. And I just think that having that mentality of knowing clearly no one on this team is talented enough to be untouchable or this team would be competing in the playoffs. You know what I mean? And so he gets that and he seems to understand the level of flexibility that's going to be required to, as he described it, get the team out of the mud.

and I think that all of that is a really positive sign, at least at the beginning of something. Last one for you here. He said he was trying not to strike fear on the players in the roster. I am curious, though, the size-linked athleticism, physicality moniker that he used, the acronym, excuse me, slap. Does that fit Josh Giddy? Because I don't think it does, but I could be wrong as far as defense-first guys that he was

describing. Right. He really, really emphasized the importance of two-way players. and I think that there is a version of a team where you surround Josh Giddy with two-way players, which includes maybe a modest Vizelis, maybe a Noah Sengay, those types of guys who do fit the majority of that slap acronym. I think that there is a version of that that could make sense. This has always been the question, though, for kind of Josh's future, not just with the Bulls, but in the league is how he fits his version of kind of that one-way.

all offense play into a team that actually wins basketball games. So no, I don't necessarily know how that fits with it. I also don't know what the Bulls do in terms of whether they feel that they can or should anchor themselves to Josh when they're going through a rebuild like this. There are other plays on the roster who absolutely fit that mold. I just don't know if Josh Giddy is really going to be able. He's certainly not going to be able to change his game to fit into it. So he would need to become the type of player who can make all of those flat

players as they're kind of calling them can make them look good. If it makes you feel any better, Julia, when Marshall asked me this question about point guard, I immediately thought of Yuki and Trey Jones, who were 5-8 and 6-1, respectively. So I thought he was trying to point out the shorter point guards. No offense to them. Absolutely. Absolutely. Hey, Yuki's got size, you know, in terms of the way that he passes the ball.

He's got a lot of, you know, he makes himself bigger, right? That's what they kept telling themselves last season. Julia, this has been great. Also, I'm really looking forward to talking to you about the very new look Chicago Sky Team soon. Keep up the great work on the courts, plural in town. Thanks, Julia. Definitely. Thank you guys.

Appreciate it. That is Julia Poe, who asked a lot of questions in the press conference today. And, yeah, always offers really good insight whenever she is on. She's great. She is. We love Julie. Highly valued. Highly valued.

Yes. Yeah. I don't know that we have a non-value. I just think we need to. tell people they're valued more. I'll work on that. We all need to work on that. LeBron James is also

struggling with value, but it's not in the same way. I think he's reached peak dad. You'll know it when you hear it next. I'm not a fan of any team. I'm just a fan of being right. Midday's 10 to 2 on 104 3, the score.

Lauren James. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3 the score and somewhere around Taco Tuesday I realized LeBron James is

he makes a lot of dad jokes. He leans in to being a dad and making the dad jokes. He is a father. Yes. But he's a cool dad. At least I thought.

That's the thing about dad jokes. That doesn't make you a cool dad. That just makes you a dad. Like dad jokes are by by interpretation viewed as corny, correct? Yes.

And I think I overestimated LeBron's cool dad side and needed to understand his obvious dad's side. Okay. So, because I, I think LeBron is cool as far as dads go, right? Yeah. But I didn't realize how many dad jokes he's out here making until Taco Tuesday.

And then... It's like a waterfall? Just... Yeah, it just kept going after that. Yeah. And then I realized. he has reached peak dad because who among us hasn't heard

a father say that's another dollar you owe me or just put it on your tab or something along those lines. After you present this, I'm going to tell you why he's not as dad as you think. Go ahead. Well, this is hilarious. So LeBron is out here saying

he's not a billionaire, which, you know, we can get into the semantics. But then he lays it on real thick to an interview on the complex. A quick Google search says that your net worth is 1.2 billion. Now, y'all want me to start lying? Be you! Google search is a lie.

That is a lie. That is a lie. That's wrong. Yeah, it's wrong. More is it less? Oh, it's way less. Oh. Yeah, it's way less.

It's way less. It's a couple of, like, thousand in my bank. That's it. I got a couple thousand. That's my room key. I am free for me. Everything. Everything I got on free.

everything. I heard you with the young king, Chris is his name. How much for the shirt? Free. Free. How much for the pants? Yo, I'm telling you. The rich or wasn't free? No way. This is free. This is LeBron edition, Richard Meal. Is this actually a LeBron edition? Yes.

It probably was free. Listen, you see my wedding band? Let's say my queen. Free. Hat, wave cap, Dewey, free. Listen, Forever King. It's free. Forever King Me. I ain't got no money. money, man. I'm broke, baby. My kids

got all the money now. N-I-L's they got all the money. They take care of dad now. I ain't got nothing. I'm broke. See? The most dad-sounding. No, no, here's why it's not dad-sounding. They take care of me, I'm broke, is the most dad-sounding thing I've heard in a while.

Because what real dads do is, they'll let you know how much money you don't have living in their house. That's my money, not your money. You've got to go out there and get some money on your own. No, actually... Google search is a lie. Well, I do believe that. There's a lot. there's some website that says I'm worth several million dollars and I'm six one.

AI is a lie. I'm like, who wrote this? They have not figured out AI guys. They have not figured out AI. That's what I know. Half the time when you rule something that's top explanation is an AI explanation. I was like, but that's not correct. At all.

And like I said, there's no bigger tell than when the White Sox play the Cubs and you read the AI generated preview. Chicago versus Chicago. And then none of the stats line up, but it's hilarious. In the meantime, I did laugh at the everything is free. There's a difference between the wealth you have accumulated and the money you earn. And then the billion versus million, the best illustration is always like the grains of sand versus the seconds versus everything else.

There is a difference, a significant difference. A millionaire is closer to us than they are a billionaire. If you don't understand the difference between millionaires and billionaires, just look up billionaire rice. And as Layla mentioned, they will show you the grains of rice. and how many for a million versus 100 million, 10 million, a billion. And you'll be like, oh. But here's the thing. I don't know that LeBron is too far away.

I think LeBron James may not have a million liquid, but he's worth over a billion dollars. I think he has enough assets and stakes and, look, investments in sports teams, things that own sports teams that he has a billion dollars in value. I ain't got no money, man. We don't believe you, LeBron. As far as the free for me or whatever he said, look. I am free for me. My favorite price is free $9.

Oh, yeah, I wear free stuff all the time. Like, if it's free... But the difference is my free stuff is like a shirt. It's not a Richard Mill watch. I mean, to be fair, it's a LeBron. If they had a Leila Rahimi edition, anything, you'd have a free version of it. Ridiculous, though. Like, everything he does, like, yeah, of course, you're at the point where you're so wealthy

that you do get this stuff for free. The irony is you always get it for free when you no longer need it to be free. Charles Barkley has a whole monologue on this. And it's good. And it's fair. And people want you, when you are famous or you have money, they want you to...

Met Gala is a perfect example, right? Companies buy the tables of Meggala and the people who go didn't buy their own ticket. They're given a ticket by whoever owns the table. Did you guys see Justin Jefferson? and Joe Burrow took a picture together at the Mech Allen. I'm like, I know you two want to play football together. Who was it that?

I know you know how I feel about this. Save Justin Jefferson. Was it JJ who said, named his top five NFL receivers and didn't include Justin Jefferson? Is that what it was? Oh, no. I think that's... While you look at that, let me remind you of this programming note. I know you want another Cubs game.

Tonight, the Cubs continue their series at home against the Reds. Pre-game coverage begins at 605 with first pitch at 640 in crystal clear FM quality on 1043 the score and the Northwestern Medicine Cubs Radio Network. Yeah, I believe it was number one was Amon Ross St. Brown. Number two was Jamar Chase. Number three was D.K. Metcalfe. Number four was Paca Nukua. And number five was Zay Flowers. Who put this together? This was J.J. McCarthy.

J.J. McCarthy put this list together and didn't. And that's why Kyler Murray is a starting quarterback. Save Justin Jefferson. I'm looking for the video of it. And I'm not saying save him in this division again. But like save him to a team that doesn't play the Bears this year. This man deserves to play football. Or maybe it's somebody else.

It might not be JJ McCarthy. I want to get this right when I say it. Yeah, I was going to say, let's give benefit of doubt here. Jason Jefferson and Joe Burrow together is a scary combination, given the receivers already on the Bengals. that would be insane. You mean like LSU when they won a national title insane? Oh yeah, that's the exact same team, wouldn't it be?

Yeah. Yeah, they were awesome. Break out the cigars, Joe Burrow. Go Tigers. Go Tigers. I do love the Ed Orgeron accent. Maybe don't do all the things he did. A lesson for us all.

We have a show for you. Next is Mark Grady and Russ Dorsey on the score.