Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - State Rep. Kam Buckner broke down what has changed in Bears' stadium talks (Hour 1)

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

Leila Rahimi, Marshall Harris and Mark Grote opened their show by discussing how the Bears have made progress with Illinois lawmakers in their quest to build a new stadium in Arlington Heights. After that, they opened up the phone lines for Score listeners to share their thoughts on the Bears’ stadium saga.

This hour brought to you by vasectomy clinics of Chicago. The views and opinions of Lela 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 Harrison Grody may change at any time. It's just sports. Okay, thanks.

Bye. Bye. Well, if it isn't our plucky friend, Kayla Kaler, falling down, what happened? I start approaching the scrum. I can't hear anything. So I go around to one side of him where it's, like, closest to his locker. And there was a folding chair. So I kneel on the folding chair, and the folding chair collapsed underneath me.

Oh, man. Yeah, because you should never trust the folding chair, honestly. Good thing I brought my collapsible thick chair. It collapsed right away, and I went, like, hand. first into his locker. I went straight into his locker and he had a beer sitting there and I knocked his little beer.

Oh, no! Oh, you spilled the beer! It gets worse. He was on his way to the pub to have a drink and walked in the door and someone had spilled a beer and he slipped and broke his neck. There's a lot of hazards. There's a lot of hazards post-game in the NFL locker room. There really are. You have to really watch yourself

because if it's not falling into a locker, it's tripping over shoulder pads. No doubt. The amount of times I've been in the path of somebody throwing dirty laundry into the hamper is like every time. Asha Cohen catches Michael's jockstrap. Between Bad Bunny, poor reporting, and then finishing with spilling Sam Darnold's beer, you had quite an experience.

I was like, I need a beer now leaving this locker. I need a beer and a tequila chaser. And maybe if I black out, I can forget that game. Leila Rahini, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, Midday's 10 a.m. to 2. on Chicago Sports Radio 1043, the score. Poor Kaling, Kailer. Just tumbling into Sam Darnold's locker and knocking over his beer. Sam, you won the Super Bowl.

You don't get your beer. Kailen took it out. This is Rahimi Harrison-Rody on 104-3, the score. And for the second day in a row, we have more follow-up when it comes to discussion surrounding the Bears Stadium. If you missed us yesterday, and I know there were a lot of people who called. We will take your calls again in this hour.

312, 64, 64, 67, is our number. You do have a vote. You do have a say with us. Even if you don't get to vote on it yourselves, in an actual ballot, we at least will listen to you. So just know that.

And in the meantime, we got some answers on our afternoon show yesterday, Spiegel and Holmes, who had Cam Buckner on, who is part of the state legislature. He's one of our representatives. And Cam is important in this, because he provides answers, and that's what you want from your public servants.

And Cam is sports savvy as we know. And he understands the discussion, I think, a little bit better from people like us who, you know, know about the bears but don't necessarily know what the other money would go to in a budget. So Cam, I think, provided some valuable answers. You know, before we get to what he said, what were you two's opinions of just Cam kind of clarifying Marshall Harris and Mark Grody? I loved Cam's appearance because it kind of took us behind the curtain as much as he could because obviously it's an active negotiation.

There's only so much that he can say. But when you bring up the reference to having been through something similar, when you talk about the Cubs, you know, deciding they were going to remake their ballpark and do all the things that they were doing. And in comparison of this, kind of a not an apples to apples comparison, but just laying it out, hey, this is where we are with the NFL and their process compared to what happened. with the Cubs, I thought that illustrated more clearly what this whole process is going to look like and the fact that, hey, we're making progress in this process. That's probably the most important thing.

Yeah, I mean, that was the first thing that I jotted down in this, that again, the evidence is mounting from all the different sides of this that the meetings are positive, specifically using words like the most regularity and clarity there has ever been in the meetings. with the bears. So I think it's important to point that out. I thought it was interesting to hear the optimism. Yet, yet, Cam Buckner sharing with everybody, and we'll hear some of it coming up, on what the concerns are still that are left, which include, obviously, what the state is stuck with and the windfall and the backfill of the coffers. That's really important to the state of Illinois. And the other part, too, was that I thought was interesting, is

hey, if they move to the suburbs, if they moved to Ireland and Heights, what's left for Chicago in all of this? Where are the benefits then? What are they stuck with or left with or not have the benefit of? Yeah, I like to say it was something that we were taught, like in journalism school, and I was made to minor in political science as part of a journalism major at North Texas, and I don't normally tout that, but you do end up learning a lot, like when I had to take two semesters of urban politics and what that meant in sports arenas and their effects on local governments was one of the parts of the study and a term paper for me. So one of the questions that I always ask in these things, and it's valuable to you is

who pays, who loses, who benefits. And so that's what we're trying to figure out. You know who benefits because we're a sports station and you're listening to us. The Bears benefits. So that is clear. Everything else is where it gets a little more, not blurry, but just you can't always see. So Kam Buckner talked to Spiegel and Holmes and discussed what that phrasey even means property tax certainty and how it plays out.

When you look at a mega project that size, what the bears are asking for is to be able to know upfront what they're going to pay every year in property tax. What I've said from the beginning is that while that is not, you know, immediate money or a check from the government to the bears, there has to be conversations about what that looks like. How much is the property tax break? What are they going to negotiate? And the reason that the state has some skin in the game on that is because if for some reason the property tax relief is so big that the village of Arlington Heights ends up coming back to the state of Illinois to help them back fill the coffers for things like schools and police and fire, then we missed an opportunity to have a robust conversation.

So for me, I understand property tax certainty. I understand why you would desire that in a stadium conversation. And I respect what the bears are asking for that. I think they also, at this point, I respect that we have to be prudent when it comes to all of these things to work out for the broader economic picture. You know what? I bet you would like property tax certainty, the listener. I bet anybody who's in our studio right now would like property tax certainty. And you know what else?

You probably use your house more than a guarantee of, eight or nine games a year. You know, that's the part of this that makes this hard is, yeah, okay, it might create jobs and X, Y, and Z. But, you know, what's the payoff for the state here? And then how does that happen where, yeah, guess what? If the local doesn't have enough money, then the state, as we've seen in prior instances, will have to backfill the gaps.

I think the cost certainty from the taxes is something that both sides should be concerned with, just as Cam laid it out, because you need to know what you're able to do with that tax money. And the only way you can know that is how much tax money are you bringing in. So that's where the negotiation to me lies, like that's the stake right there. Where is that needle moving? Is it moving to somewhere where both the state, aka us, because the citizens are who's left with those kind of, if not a debt, as we saw at Soldier Field, just the understanding that

it's got to make sense for both sides. And so for the Bears, we know their playbook. It's, listen, the Kansas City Chiefs. thing is still like fresh on my mind when I look at all of this. It's pretty amazing. Yeah. So it's got to make sense though for both sides. And I think the Indiana introduction, the multiple spots in Indiana that would like to have

a Bears stadium, it's causing everyone to focus a little more, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? Yeah. Clearly they've been for weeks now planning what they are going to try to do. Right. And you kind of asked me off the year, I think it was yesterday in Marshall, like where I stand with all of this. of course I'd prefer the bears to stay in Illinois, but I would like to hopefully, if the bears do get the opportunity to, if to negotiate the rate with the local municipalities, that's what I want to know more.

I want to know more because we joked around about it yesterday, about the steak dinner and that just avoid one steak dinner a month and you'll be covered. I really want to know what is going to be charged of Illinois citizens, people in Chicago, people who don't, are not interested. So I am very curious to see what that is. I also saw something that really made sense that Cam Buckner said yesterday that is good for all of this, that he kind of understands what the bears have been doing because it's what the NFL requires, but he shot back saying they need to understand

what we are trying to do representing the citizens of the state of Illinois. Well, that's it. And it's not just one steak dinner. You said a month. Tony and Jolietz said a year. it's more than that. And we talked about it. There's a lot of published articles about how the money does change up. And we'll get into a little bit more of that in our next segment because Cam Buckner did talk about that part of it. You know, it's the concept of that money goes in other places then. You know, money that was designated for your CTA. Money that was designated for your roads. Money that was designated for other things. Police. Yeah, exactly. Fire, school. And let's be honest, the budget has been a mess in this state for a minute. Yeah, and by minutes we mean years. Decades.

So because of that, you know, this is where that comes into play. Now, Marshall, it's your station, ABC7, that had this report saying Illinois leaders say they're working hard to keep the bears from crossing the state line. Sources close to the negotiations told ABC7 that a group of legislative leaders and bears representatives have met several times a week since early December. And that was before the bears released the possibility of. moving to Indiana. That is important context in all of this. You know, we call that, we call that a ramp up in negotiations and discussions. Well, also, it could be, okay, did the Bears decide to bring in Indiana after some of the results of these meetings that had reportedly happened before that took place? Yeah, again, I just think when you talk about expediting factors, the Indiana thing can only

be seen as that when they come to the table, whether it's Indiana, whether it's Iowa, whether any other states want to get involved in this with their ideas of what they could do to draw the bears to across state line i mean you know what i said if you're really serious about leaving you play the nuclear option as we like to say no but wisconsin that is right in wisconsin then suddenly the bears can be in you know everybody's saying take them out of there the force will have awakened if that occurs well the 75 mile radius comes into play right is connocia is connocia south of 75 miles of green Bay. Like, that's what I would have to measure. Yeah, I don't know. I think it is. I think it is.

Not Milwaukee, obviously, by Green Bay. I think so. But no, I think all those options mean that the bears are exhausting. Remember, the bears are behind schedule. Let's not forget that. Are they? I don't know about you, but I love buying land and having to stay vacant for three years. I think it's tremendous.

The shovel on the ground is the phrase that will live forever. I love paying taxes on things that I don't use. Listen, they're not just behind schedule like, hey, we thought this would be going somewhere. by now. They're behind schedule in that they made a declarative statement of shovels in the ground, 2025.

I don't know if y'all know. It's not only 2026. We're in the second month of 20206. Did I tell you? We're to the three-year anniversary of them buying Arlington Heights. I think I told either of you guys. We changed the name of the podcast from Take the North to Shovels in the Ground. Since they

took the North, it's now the Shovels in the Ground podcast with Mark Grote and Dan Wheater-Leyer-Lays until the shovels are in the ground. And then we've got to change the name. and then we've got to change the name again. So, yes. I still like it when everybody just starts naming sites that they want to put the stadium on. That's still my favorite.

My ex's house. You know, I'm like, what about this abandoned mall? I feel like my ex's house most people can relate to because they've got that one X that they're like, yeah, they made my life absolutely. My ex does not deserve to have the Bears stadium built on her site.

Yeah. I don't know why you guys think this is a place. You don't even deserve the Bears. In theory, their house is now gone. Their place of residence does no longer exist. They had to move. Never forget that.

Eminent domain for the whole organization. Bingo. Never forget that our meatball of the year and I'm aware it's February of 2026. I'm aware it's early. But our meatball of the year is the guy who wanted to eminent domain the team. You, sir, you're the winner right now. You're the winner of meatball of the year.

He didn't say eminent domain for a site for the stadium. He said eminent domain the entire organization. We always say like we laugh with Rome because, you know, he said for the career. I'm like, the team? For the team? Eminent domain.

Eminent domain, the team. That's going to be my answer for everything from now on. Imminent domain. That's how we're going to do. But say it like in an intellectual way. Do you ever think about eminent domain? That's something you've got to think about. Do you know what it reminds me of is Dwight from the office trying to citizens arrest everybody?

This is a citizen's arrest. I'm eminent donating anything. With what authority? My own. You thought that that was your intellectual property? Have you ever heard of eminent domain? right now. The table is cleared. All you have to say is eminent domain and you win your argument, kids. And then you just back it up with the necessary and proper clause.

Okay, let's get back to the real stuff here and people who will actually be in a room for a decision. Ken Buckner also explained what has changed for the Bears in finding a new stadium location. This is a process, right? And each part of the process has a different cadence. I think early on they were trying to see what they could get. I think it was very difficult to figure out where they were going. As you guys remember, they were initially said they were leaving Chicago. Then they came out with a big announcement that they were going to stay in Chicago. Then they came out with another announcement that they were going to leave Chicago. And they came out with another announcement that they were going to possibly look at Indiana. Right. And so it was kind of hard to keep tabs

on where they were. But I think where we are now is a real honest, transparent conversation in order to maintain the integrity of those conversations. I'll just, you know, I'll say kind of some surface level things about it. But we have spoken to them. I think with the most regularity and the most clarity that we've been able to get within the last three years. The last three weeks has been clearer than any point of the last three years. I still maintain that everything we're seeing, whether it's this conversation Cam Buckner is having on the afternoon show yesterday, Spiegel and Holmes, or it's us having the entire conversation, or it's Portage Park, for example, having a press conference, or it's somebody. in Iowa trying to pitch for the bears. All of these things are normal.

They just were supposed to have happened before you buy the land. Like we're reverse engineering all of this. And it's going to work out eventually somehow some way. Don't know exactly the details of what it's going to look like, but the reality is should be setting in for everyone. The bears are getting a new stadium and it's just a matter of how much is that stadium going to cost. And more importantly, at least from my vantage point, How much is it going to cost you?

Yeah, and we took some really good calls on it yesterday. The plot changes on the daily. So let's invite our listeners here to give their opinions as well. 312-644-67-67. What did you think about what you heard from Cam Buckner, the representative that was not with Spiegel and Holmes yesterday? And where would you like the bears to land? What is your logical answer to that?

3-1-2-6-47-67. That's right. That's Mark Grody. Marshall Harris is here too. I'm Lailah Rahimi. And yes, we are both on 670 and 1043 The Score. We broadcast live from our Scores Hyundai Studios, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. Our producers are Ray Diaz, Tyler Bueberbaugh, and Brandon Friar. You can join us on Twitch. Don't do what I did. I went to the old Twitch address. It's the Score Chicago on Twitch. That's where you can find us. Our Twitch mob is chatting on the Twitch chat over there. You can also. So find us at YouTube. YouTube TV and 670. The score Chicago is our address there as well. So coming up next, more from Cam Buckner, because he's going to be in the room when this happens, so to speak. You know, he's part of these discussions that the state is having

and that the bears are asking money from the state. He's part of the one in the group who knows what that actually entails. So as far as who pays, who loses, who benefits. More on that. And then also what he thought of the, most recent stadium discussion that happened close-ish to us when it comes to the NFL. So all that is next. And yes, you can call us 312, 64-64-67.

You've got Rahimi Harrison Grody on the score. Rahimi Harrison Grody. Midday's tidal-2 on Chicago Sports Radio. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104-3, the score. And we thought we were going to talk to Modis Buzzellis at 11, but it turns out that that's going to be a little earlier. So we'll get into more of what Cam Buckner had to say and how it relates to not just the Bears, but other deals we've seen so far on the NFL. We'll do that at 11.

And in the meantime, we wanted to get to your calls. 312, 6444, 67, 67 is the number. Let's start with Pat on the South Side. Pat, you're on Rahimi Harrison Grotie. Hey, what's going on? How are you? So I'm good. My dream scenario would be the Bears buying the old Belmore race course and moving.

it out south, but I know that's not going to happen. Right now, I would like to see them just moved to Indiana. I would like to see them. The Republican-Illinois politicians, the big middle finger. That's what I would like to see. Pat, we appreciate the call. You broke up there a little bit, but the sentiment is understood as far as moving to Indiana. He wanted them with Colin Sexton.

Basically, the Illinois politicians is what he said. said, right? Make sure I heard that right. Yeah, Colin Sexton flipped off the rim the other day for the Bulls. He was at the free throw line. I guess the Bears put up a semi-middle finger by sending out the note they did in December that they were going to move to Indiana. So everybody is on the same page now, sort of, kind of.

Joe in Salem, Wisconsin. You're on Rahimi Harrison Grody. Good morning. Thanks for taking a call. I just want to make this clear that I, Emma Bears fan, lifelong bear fan. And I think Arlington Heights is the best place, given the fact that they've bought the land,

they've screwed around for three years. They probably could have had the stadium well underway by now if they would have had all their ducks in a roll. But I think in the long run, it's the best place for the bears. Thank you. Yeah, it makes sense. They bought the land there. They intended on moving there.

Then things changed. And you have to start asking yourself, kind of in retrospect, how much have things changed based on the fact that they bought the land there? Like that was where they wanted and they didn't have things sorted out. And it's taken, what, three years to sort out the details? Is that basically where we're at? Well, right. It was like we were talking about yesterday.

Along comes Kevin Warren who says, in his mind, I wish you hadn't have bought the land yet. Okay. You bought the land. This is not going to be ideal, but I got some ideas. and that's where the wild goose chase for the stadium started with the downtown plan, which I attended, quite the show, quite the show, by the way. And then to Arlington Heights and then to Indiana, to wherever we are now. So unfortunately, Kevin Warren came, when he started the gig, he came in from, he was behind.

He was behind three, four, five runs already. So it was awkward. It was awkward. Let's go with the phone some more. 312-644-67- How about Mike and Aurora? Mike, you're on Rahimi Harrison-Grody. Mike? Yeah, my thought is the Bears should take the deal from Indiana

and then take their $200 million and become real estate developers in Arlington Heights. Then the family would have another business. Okay, that's not a bad idea. It's really not, actually. Get some branding on that stuff. Yeah. Pre-approved by the Bears?

Maybe they could even lock in a deal on taxes, before they take Indiana's deal. Well, that's the whole thing, right? Like, you just mentioned the, I don't know, what do you want to call it, the multi-billion dollar question, Mike? That's it. You just identified the whole reason that the bears are even in this situation right now. That's what the crux is.

So I think that that's something that we need to keep in mind here. It's that concept of property tax certainty. 312-644-67 to Indiana and Mark. Hey, Mark. How are you doing? How you doing, Lela and Marshall and Mark? It's great to chime in with you. Good to talk to you, Mark.

Yeah, I've got an idea to keep the Bears in Arleason Heights. I think currently there's an NFL exemption that a team can only take on a partnership of 10% or more. I know, like, Mr. the Aon group and Dan Ryan has 20%. But I wonder if the McCaskey family could recruit another partner to take on 20%, such as Mr. Mark Walters of the Guggenheim group, and they'll have raised about $3 billion in revenue and get the Arlington Heights project done. I think that might have a ruling by the NFL, but if we could check on that, that's one way to keep them in Arlington Heights. Mark, you're not too far off. Yeah, the NFL is they're allowing private capital to buy in and buy shares of teams.

Yeah, you can only go up to 10% with private equity specifically, but selling off a piece of the team is a whole different ordeal. They had the chance to do that, and that's why we know the team is valued at $9 billion. $9 billion. When a member of the shareholders passed away, we found that out because then we had to figure out what were those worth. So I don't think you're too far off in your idea process. We continue on the phones, 312, 644, 67, 67 to Dave and Skokie. Dave, you're on. Hey, I'm totally opposed to giving large tax breaks to billionaires.

I think that they, that there's, you know, that I don't have tax certainty on my real estate. I don't know why they deserve it, except that it's power. It's about power. And they're billionaires. So I'm just, I'm just sickened. And if they moved to Indiana, I'm not a bear fan. and I've been a bear's fan my whole life. And that's the way I feel.

Wait, you said... So you're not going to be happy anyway, either way. Yeah. So you're going to be angry at the tax breaks that the bears maybe will have gotten, and you're not going to watch when they go to Indiana. Well, I don't, you know, I'm... The negotiations is fine, but I don't, you know, there's no studies that have been done that show that there is a net economic policy.

positive to building a new stadium as well as it's a deficit to Chicago when they leave. So what does, as a Chicago taxpayer, Illinois taxpayer, how does it benefit me? Right. And that's the question. And that's a fair question. I want to know more about that. And we are the three of us sitting in here are all taxpayers of Illinois and Chicago residents. Who pays, who loses, who benefits. That's always what you have to know. Good question. The difficult part in this is we know who benefits. So like that's why you're listening to a sports station. That's what makes us tough.

And I think the problem is we all understand the default. The default is we're going to lose. It's almost a matter of just how much are we going to lose to be able to say the bears are, you know, still. Is it a loss? It's what they call a lost leader. Well, yeah, and that's it. And it's how much do you want that? And the understanding is, traditionally, is that you look at the guaranteed amount of dates.

You start with that as to its viability to a possibility. to a public. So, for example, the Cubs who paid all of their own money did not get any public money to help in the infrastructure improvement of Wrigley Field and to help with the surrounding area, they have the most days. They have the most days at a guaranteed 81.

So when you consider that, you have 81 guaranteed days a year that the good in the public is giving back to the public. Then the Cubs supplement that with concerts. They have like the Gallagher Way you know, installations that they do, for example, like the Chris Kendall market that we never got to go to guys. What about that sick DJ that played in Gallagher?

John Summit, yeah, and he was before a Cubs game in the playoffs. So, you know, there's another set of dates. It's kind of an ad on. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there wasn't Anna, but that was a nice little surprise that day. And the Cubs are considered exemplary because of the fact they didn't use any public money and that they get the most use in a neighborhood out of their ballpark. So that's kind of the ideal. And then you kind of go from there as to how much it gives back to the entity that the public money usually goes toward.

I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that you say exemplary exam. That's the model, right? If you're a public citizen and a private billion dollar company is operating and they're saying, we want help, you say no, and they just continue to go about their business and make money. That is something that we're not seeing from the bears and we can't even imagine from the bears. That's the problem. And if you need to understand how much value teams have, look no further than the salary cap, which has gone up $100 million in the last four years.

That's wild. We're looking at an over $300 million salary cap for each team. Business has picked up. Let's continue on our phones. 312-644-67-Hosei and Berwyn. Jose, you're on Rahimi Harrison Grody. Hey, good morning, people. How are y'all doing?

Good. How are you, Jose? Doing well, thank you. I just wanted to highlight a couple things that I think not enough people are talking about. The first is, I mean, number one, right, I think from a nostalgic point of view, I would love for them to stay at Soldier Field. But if they do have to leave Arlington Heights makes the most sense for a number of reasons. I think the first one is geography, right? It is actually more central in terms of the Chicago metropolitan area.

Although Indiana is closer in terms of downtown, right, you think about where O'Hare is located, where Hollis Hall located, and more importantly, where actual the population of Chicago areas is more concentrated, right? Cook County, King County, DuPage County, these are the most populous counties in the region. So it makes sense from a geographic point of view. The other one is not enough people are talking about how much it's going to cost to remediate that land in Indiana. We're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up that land. land, and not to mention the fact that it will still be surrounded by a heavy industry, a very polluting industry. So I think people have this idea that it's like, oh, yeah, the lakefront is

open. Let's go develop that. And it's really not the case. So I think, yeah, Arlington Heights makes sense for a number of reasons from the short term and the long term because then they will, of course, open or would own their own facility. Jose, that's a great call. Yeah, thank you. That's a really good point about the remediation of the land. And that was an issue with the Michael Reesite was when that was suggested trying to figure out whether or not, you know, that was a viable piece of land once you had to consider what went into developing it from an environmental standpoint or an access standpoint. Those are all things that really do indicate a cost. It comes down to do we really believe that Indiana,

after hearing from Camp Buckner yesterday and just understanding how this process is going, how much longer is Indiana a viable option? And we know the deadline, February 27th, for the end of state legislation down below Illinois, but also as they move further and further, it seems like they're going to get to a point rather quickly where it's Illinois or bust. Well, you know, there's also the phrase follow the money. Where's the most money located toward this topic?

Arlington Heights. You start there. Then you start following wherever else they needed to go. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 104.3, the score we thank you for all of your calls. we are a little bit kept to the Bulls practice schedule this morning because we get to talk to Modis Bezellis ahead of his third straight rising stars event.

So we are excited to do that. So once practice wraps up, we get to talk to Modis. And we are waiting for him now. So we might have to do a little pregame show, a little Modis Bezellis interview pregame show. We'll get back into more about the stadium at 11 o'clock. And next up is Modus Talk on the score. Layla Rahimi, Marshall Harris,

Mark Grody, Rahimi Harrison Grody on 1043, the score. Here's Yveseli at the foul line. The DeFoeuvre under the paint. Right side, Mazzeles, 4-3, right down the pipe. Modis Mazzalus with his third triple. He's born in 15. 104, 102 Nets. And it's a 5-0 run by the Nets.

Well, about that 5-0 run, yes, the Nets ended up winning the game. Chuck and Bill, but the good news is, We got to talk about it regardless, and we get to talk about it with one of the guys who played in it coming up. This is the modest Boozealous interview pregame show here on 104 through the score. And our 630 text or asked a good question. What's the over under on the guest actually showing up? Listen, I thought it was a pack that we were never going to bring up the Joachim Noah and Devin Hester. Devin Hester show again.

But I'm pretty sure we're good because it's modest. We're just depending on the results of Bulls practice, the shoot around today, ahead of their game tonight. against the Boston Celtics, which you can hear right here on 104, 3, the score, by the way. Modus had 21 points in his last outing, and we're talking to him because he's made his third straight Rising Stars game.

That's a big honor when you consider how the NBA looks at the potential of those players and who's played in the game. Yeah, he had actually 21 points against the Nuggets on Saturday, only 18 points on 5 of 15 shooting the last time out. But the good news is 3 of 7 from 3. Yeah. And he's hit 37%

of his threes as his playing time and his shots have gone up. Consider this. Last year he averaged 6.9 shots a game. This year, that number is up to 11.4. So he's taking almost twice as many shots this year. The three point percentage is up to 37% from 36.1%. He has some things to work on. He's averaging a block and a half per game, which leads all Bulls.

But the four blocks he had in that game against Brooklyn just shows you, what he could become. I want to make sure people understand this. This man is 21 years old. He is still young, very, very young, although he's playing his third year of professional basketball, because remember, before these two years with the Bulls,

he played on a G-League team, the G-League Ignite. So he's played professional basketball for quite a while, but this has got to be the most, almost shocking time of his career. Because the last time he was out, he was playing with a bunch of guys

he hadn't played with before last week. Six new teammates is last time out. It is crazy. Like you go back to the, I think the Toronto game last Thursday was the first game where they were just out of everybody. Mac McClung, Yuki. Here comes MacMachlan, and I'll ask Modis about this if we have time. I just remember thinking, oh, man, so there's two slam dunk kings.

Because, you know, Modis was in the slam dunk competition last year. He loves a good dunk for sure. and we know that Mack McClung has won multiple, right? Three slam dunk contest. He's the three-time reigning champion. But in that game, Modis had a badass, one-hand jam. And I couldn't help the thinking, Modis is like, see what I got? I got a little something for you there, Mac McClung.

See what I did? There's my dunk. And I don't necessarily know that in this modern era of the dunk contest, your first outing is going to go well. It's okay. So, yeah, I think it's kind of a mulligan. It is. I'd love to see him in there again.

He's got the hops. He's got it. Well, at least he can peer pressure MacKlawn. Right. Isn't that the whole point of being on a team together is to bother somebody else? Or compete in a friendly way, get the most out of each other. That's what I thought Bozellis was doing. It's like, why not? None of us knows each other on this court right now. I'm going to show Mack McClung how to dunk right now.

And frankly, for all of the Bulls transition and what's gone on with the team, It is important that they are represented at All-Star weekend with a rising star and at least somebody who we, there are a few people who you can guarantee or at least count on or view as a guarantee when it comes to who's available on a team. And in the NBA, that change is faster than almost anywhere else. But at least I know that Modis is one of the players that Arturis Karas Chávez and Mark Eversley seem to have at least set, maybe not a cornerstone, but you know that's somebody who they have priorities on keeping for a while. Just because of what you said, too, he's young. Like, they can withstand, it's a rebuild.

They can withstand the rebuild. Are you saying the quiet part out loud? I am. Okay. Like, you guys don't want to say it. That's fine. You know, I don't want to talk about certain things either with me. So it's cool.

But, like, it's a rebuild. Inner Billy would agree with that, by the way. So, yeah. Oh, wait. Is your realized character? Oh, you don't think this is a rebuild? Do you see what's a rebuild? on this court right now?

Well, but see, see all the second round picks? Here's what I'm going to push back against the rebuild. But no, I'm saying like his modest can withstand a timeline though. Yeah, he can't. Of having that. His modest's timeline is so long. He's got time.

That he has time to develop with this team and will still be a part of something even after they adjust this roster. I would like it to be a rebuild, but unfortunately it's looking more and more like a retool because they have competent basketball players who are already years into their NBA career. They just lost to the nets. What does it take for you to think that it's a rebuild?

Can they not hold on to the basketball physically? Like what? They got to turn over every possession? If you allow me to finish, I'll explain what the difference between a rebuild and a re-tel is. I saw a rebuild. I worked in Philadelphia where they won 10 games all season. That's what a rebuild looks like.

It looks like a bunch of G-League players who could not find a spot on an NBA team. They have competent basketball players who just haven't had a chance to play together. So when I say it's a re-rebleble. tool instead of rebuild. If you want to rebuild, you go get players who are not good. You bring up the Windy City Bulls and Lockland-Ollberg plays 25 plus minutes a night. That's what

a rebuild looks like. This team is clearly trying to, yes, evaluate some of these players they got who are on expiring contracts and some who are not. We talk about restrictive free agents and everything with Jaden Ivy and the like. But at the same time, if you want to rebuild, you go get worse players.

They didn't go get worse players at the deadline. They are positioned lacking when you talk about their bigs, but it's not like they went out and got terrible players to play basketball. Are you going to be emotional watching Nikola Vouchovitchvich tonight? No. You'd be excited for Anthony Simons get in front of the Boston crowd? No.

No to both those things. You're not feeling any of that? I will watch out of duty to understand what's going on. I am looking forward to seeing Roach in a Celtics universe. Probably the same old Vouch. You know, we know Vouch what he's all about. Food's not being asked to do too much because Vooch is coming off the bench, which is what I said he should have been doing before he was traded coming off the bench.

No, I feel like all of that is fair. It's just, I think it's, I just feel like it's more of a rebuild. And everybody's allowed to have their own opinion. Well, define what rebuild is to you. That's, maybe I'm, maybe I'm misunderstanding your words. Why? I think it's just that they traded away a ton of players. They decided to pick up other, other expiring deals.

They're trying to figure out who fits on this. team. And so when you do that, when you take down most of your roster, especially the stars that built the first part of the regime when you consider Zach's max contract, DeMarsan, who they traded for, Nicola Vucovitchvich, who they traded for, other key pieces of that. Yeah, I would say that when you decide to rebuild your entire roster practically outside of like Gideon Modis, that's a rebuild. Would you have called it the rebuild when they traded away DeMartar Rosen and Zach? And is that not the same thing then? I didn't think, So because they still had Vouch.

So just Vouch being gone makes it a rebuilding your mind because of that original iteration of the four players that he brought in. Well, and Kobe and I.O. You know, that's the majority of the players, especially your starters, you know, you had on that team. So as long as the guys who were not here when he started, Archerish, I'm saying, after the Vooch trade, we'll say. Is that a pretty clear line of demarcation? Okay. So as long as those guys, one of those guys was here, it was not a rebuild. But as soon as those guys are gone, that's what makes it a rebuild to you? Like I said, majority. Okay. So when the majority of the guys who were there for, say, like the 20-21 season were part of the team, you know, Vooch, Damar, Zach, even though Zach was previous to them. Kobe, I would assume it was somebody they drafted and developed. You know, that, that's, for me, it was a numbers game to get to why I call it that.

Yeah. And I think the reason I call it a retool and not a rebuild is because when, When I think Rebuild, I think you are going for lottery guys because you're playing guys who are not good enough to win in the NBA. I think they got way too many guys on the roster who are good enough to win in the NBA. When I say win, I don't mean win the championship or anything like that. I'm just saying win, let's say, two-fifths of your games, 40% of your games. That's still too many wins. If you're winning two out of every five games, you're winning way more than the teams who are winning one out of seven games or one out of eight games. Those are the teams at the bottom.

I don't think that once Billy Donovan's had some practice time with these guys, they're going to be playing. Unless they make the conscious decision to sit guys. Well, like we were talking about like exemplary for the Cubs when it came to amount of guaranteed events and what that means for the public. The exemplary, the exemplary rebuild is the process sixers. That was so dedicated that the NBA had to stop it mid-process. I think that is, you are correct in that. Sam Hinkie lost his job. Is it possible that?

Because this is what I think it is. I think their plan going into this was to break it up. I don't know if they know exactly what they think. I think it's possible they can be heading into a rebuild, but they do have all of these assets still, even if they are second round assets and real players on the roster. I don't know if they know what it is. I don't think they have a clear-cut plan.

I think that's why people are so frustrated with what just happened. The plan was to break up what they saw. And then let's take it from there. Then let's see in the next 13. games, what they have on the floor. Do you trust their eyes? That would see what we want to do. That's the question. Do we trust our tourists and Mark Eversley to be the ones to guide

the assets the Bulls have? We are waiting for Modis Buzellis. We thought we would get him at 1045. That's why we delved away from Bear's Stadium talk. We now understand he will be with us at the top of the hour here. Practice is practice, guys. I can't predict when it ends. So Modis Buzellis next right here on 1043, the score.