The Kevin Sheehan Show - A 6-Star Show!

Episode Date: April 21, 2022

Kevin and Thom today with a menu of excellence. Health insurance claim issues, Mike Tyson's beatdown on JetBlue, mushrooms, Jay Wright, Bradley Beal, Chris Paul vs Bob Cousy, and other things that seemed to entertain both of them.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. From Steve, nothing better than when Kevin and Tom bicker. But we do know that they actually enjoy each other's company, using one of my phrases.

Thank you, Steve. Steve listens to us on Apple Podcasts. And he gave us five stars, which was very kind, and a nice review. You can do the same Apple or Spotify, rate us and review us. It really helps. I don't think we were really bickering the other day. I didn't. I had somebody text me that it sounded like an old married couple,

and they thought it was funny. Okay. They enjoyed it tremendously. Don't we get that a lot? Sounds like an old married couple. I mean, that's not the first time. We get that a lot. I got a question for you.

What? They don't have a six-star capability where we could get six stars. I think we should. I'm going to check on that. I just had to up your volume, by the way, because you seem a little bit low. You have issues on your end all the time. A sixth star.

I'm going to petition. I'm going to get like a 50-person petition signed and sent to Apple podcast. You think they'll pay attention? I think they will. And once they see it's coming from the sports fix in the Kevin Shee's show. Yeah, absolutely. We may need the D.C. Podcast Association to maybe send it because if it comes from us,

it looks too self-serving. But we do deserve, I think, a sixth star. Not on every show. I think we do. I think some shows might be four-star shows. The average is a five-star show. So let's go with that. I am...

Did you get my... Go ahead. Go ahead. Did I get your what? Did you get my... text last night. Did I get your text last night? I probably did, but I may have been... Of course you did, but you just ignored it. Well, no, you sent me... You're probably drunk. No, you sent me a text with Bradley Beale's, the Bradley Beale column, which I said I want to talk about on the show.

What did I say before that? Um, in the text. Well, you know what? You sent them both at the same time, so doing that can be a little bit confusing. Hey, buddy, I'm, I did not see this text. So I'm reading it for the first time. Hey, buddy, I'm sitting outside at Charlestown, racetrack, just watching the first race, smoking a cigar and having a beer. It's a beautiful night. I filmed a TV show up here this afternoon, so I'm hanging around for the races. If you get a chance, could you please retweet my column for me? Thanks. What TV show were you recording? I don't even... It's something to do with Charlestown. I don't really know, to be honest with you. I think it has something to do with Penn National. And

They're doing some kind of video featuring guests on it, and they asked me to be a guest. And so, I mean, Charlestown is very close to me. Yeah. And it was a chance to get to the track, and it was a beautiful night. I mean, I played three races and lost all three, but I had a great time. How many people were at the races? Well, it's a Wednesday night, not many. I know.

But are there many? Are there many any more even on a Saturday night? Well, I've been to Charlestown many a time on a Saturday night. It's pretty crowded for the race. All right, good. I'm surprised at how popular and crowded it is. You've been in the sports book there, right? Yes.

And we did the show from the sports book. I mean, I was at the sports book when it opened. Yeah. The day it opened, because I wrote a calm about it. But it's a lot different now. really impressive Did you meet my friend Eric, Eric Zimney, who is the sports book director there?

Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Very nice guy. He's a great guy. Did you tell him that you and I are longtime friends and co-hosts of shows or not? Didn't even occur to you that I would know him. Look, unlike you, my first move is not to drop your name.

I always drop your name. It's the only way I can get anywhere. You should. Yeah. You should. You know, I should. But I didn't think to drop your name in that situation. I should have dropped your name late yesterday afternoon between the hours of 4.30 and 6.30 p.m. Eastern.

I'm going to tell you that story in a moment. And this is a story that maybe some won't care about, but it will hit home for others. But before we do that, I do want to mention. a really great opportunity. And this auction is going to end tomorrow. So golf fans in particular and golfers, we have a tournament back in town here. The Wells Fargo is going to be played at Avenel,

May 2nd to May 8th. And there's a really cool opportunity available to play in the proam on Wednesday, May 4th with two PGA tour pros. Just go to memberforaday.com to bid on this. pro am foursome. Your group will play with one PGA Tour Pro on the front nine, another PGA tour pro on the back nine. The package also includes a Tuesday night pairings party,

VIP swag tickets all weekend long for the Wells Fargo. The best part of it, though, it's an auction that benefits a really meaningful nonprofit. The Salute Military Golf Association, the SMGA, which our good friend CJ, is on the board of, and has been very instrumental and growing this nonprofit. It provides rehab golf programs, experiences, and family golf opportunities for post-9-11 wounded war veterans in an effort to improve the quality of life for these American heroes. So go to memberfor-a-day.com. The auction is live until tomorrow to see if you can be a part of a person.

pro-am. I've actually never played in a pro-am, and I'm not going to be here for those days because my son's graduating from Penn State. And I'm going to be up there for a few days. Yeah, I'm looking forward to not having any more college tuition unless, of course, he decides to go back to school for something, which I've told him, you get your employer to pay for that. Let's get you employed, and then you can have your employer pay for that. But of course... Well, you should be proud of yourself getting three kids through college. That's very impressive. Well, yeah, for the most part.

Now, you have... And they probably all did a better job than you at Maryland. I was not an academic powerhouse at the University of Maryland. I, and, you know, it's not that I was a bad student. I was never a bad student. I was a good student in high school, student, you know, growing up. But Tommy, I'm telling you, um, a lot of other things developed during college, which became diversions for me. Um, but you have your cigars and

curveball, uh, curveballs, uh, event coming up on May 9th. I'm going to be there for it. And that, uh, benefits a great cause as well. Yes. And, uh, you can buy tickets for it. You go to DCgraves.com. And you go to DCgraves.com. And you You can click on the website. There's a place to buy tickets for it. It's tax deductible because it's a 501C3. You know, you get three cigars for $100 here, three cigars. We have free appetizers, and we have this great auction of sports memorabilia,

and you'll appreciate this. One of the items for auction will be an autographed jersey from our good friend, Joe Jacoby. Oh, awesome. Jake's always willing to help out, isn't he? I mean, honestly. Well, the reason I mention that is because Jake is in town, he's going to be honored tonight by the D.C. touchdown club at their dinner at the congressional country club. He's receiving the founder award.

That's awesome. That's Steve Beck in company. God, that would be a great event to go to. Jake deserves any. You know what he deserves? given his career, which of course was Hall of Fame worthy, he deserves to be one of the highest paid players in the history of this town. But that's going to go to Bradley Beal when he signs this next deal.

We'll get to that. May 9th, by the way, surprise guests too. I'm talking about real guests, big name guests, will be at Tommy's event. They always are. So can I just tell you this real quick story where maybe you could have helped out if I dropped your name? I didn't think about dropping your name on this. do you or does Liz handle health insurance stuff, you know, claims, submission of claims, doctors, bills, all of that stuff?

Usually it's one of the two spouses in the family that has that responsibility. Is that a you or a Liz responsibility? Well, here's the thing. I'd say it's probably more her than me, but you've got to remember that Liz worked for years for the Velvet Coffin. otherwise known as the federal government. Yes. Okay. So she, I mean,

we have very good still, even though she's retired, very good federal employee health insurance. And it's very simple and not, we don't get many bills for anything or claims for anything. We just sit back and let them take care of it. We're very fortunate that way.

Well, that's good. And, you know, I would say, that the plan that I currently have is a really good plan. And most of the time, there isn't a claim that I need to file. Most of the time it's all handled. You know, I might pay some sort of, you know, a fee at the doctor's office, but then they handle everything else. But the last plan that I had, I'm still dealing with. And let me just tell you this story.

There is a particular claim, a dental claim for my. wife actually. The date of service, which is always very important when you're following up on claims to see if you were reimbursed the appropriate amount for the claim that you submitted. The date of service was September 4th, 2020. So September 4th, 2020 is a year and a half ago, by my math, roughly. And I have submitted those dental that dental claim, not once, not twice, but thrice I have submitted that claim. Well, I kind of stopped paying attention to it because it's under my old plan and I, you know, was just hoping that maybe somehow a check came and I didn't see it and she deposited it.

But yesterday I was getting organized and I was trying to get some new claims for one of the kids into the new health insurance provider. And I was looking through what I have, I have a file of claims that are still outstanding, that have been submitted, but I haven't, you know, received payment for. Because when I receive payment for them, I just tear everything up and throw it away.

You know, I don't keep it. Or, or I'll just, I'll try to get rid of the emails. I don't want to be confused because there's a lot of, I'm getting to the, I'm getting to, to the end here. I promise you. But there's just a lot of work done to get paid a little bit of money. And it's not worth it. But let me continue here. So I called the insurance company. It's my last insurance company. And I got somebody on the phone after being on hold for about 15 minutes. Let me just tell you, by the way, at the end of the day, I'm probably trying to retrieve $80.

It's really not worth it. But at this point, I'm hoping for whatever reason that, you know, they can prove to me that they sent me a check and it was deposited. Or, you know, for the third time, they claim that they didn't receive the claim. It was submitted every which way to Sunday. It was submitted by mail. It was submitted by email. And it was submitted online. Okay.

I tried everything that they told me to do. So I get this woman on the phone She couldn't have been nicer And she said, sir, I do not have I do not have record of this claim being submitted And then it became an issue for me I said, are you serious? I said, do you know how many times this claim

has been submitted in every which way That you guys have recommended To get it taken care of? I don't know what to tell you And by the way, we are now beyond the year Because you only have a year to submit the claim and I said, well, that's really irrelevant in this conversation because the claims were submitted within a year.

But for whatever reason, you don't have the claims. The last note that I wrote to myself was to email to somebody, it was I forget the name of the person at the, it was SAG after, by the way, which was the, you know, when we were union members, we had SAG after health benefits. And I have to tell you, for the most part, the experiences were usually pretty good. So she said, well, yeah, but it's still beyond a year and we don't have proof that you tried

to send it in. And then she decided she was going to try to help me. So she said, can I put you on hold? And she did so for roughly 10 minutes. I was on hold. And then she came back and she said, okay, here's what I want you to do. I want you right now to email this claim to Carol such and such at this address. scan it, send the claim, Carol will take care of it.

I said, awesome. She said, Carol will send you, and then came the punchline. Carol will send you back a note once you email her this claim to tell you that the claim was denied because it's been longer than a year, and then you can file a grievance. And I just said, you're kidding. Like, you're going to make me, hold on. I thought that you would just provide. me with Carol, who was going to take this email, which, by the way, I sent last February,

okay, for the second time. And I am going to just send that to her, and I thought Carol was just going to magically take care of it, and you guys were going to send me a check. But know what you're saying is she's then going to send me an email back denying the claim and then giving me instructions to file a grievance. Like, that's going to go well. and I just said, you have got to be kidding me. And she said, well, sir, that's the only possible way.

And I just said, look, you've been helpful, and I appreciate it. And I wasn't angry with this woman at all because she really was trying to help. But this is what I am convinced of when it comes to the health insurance companies. It's a waiting game. They're trying to wear you out. They make you jump through so many hoops to get a claim. submitted, then, you know, many times the submission process, in this case, that was the process, many times it's not the submission of it. It is, oh, guess what, your doctor didn't include,

you know, the diagnostic code, or you didn't fill out the claim form properly. And it just keeps going on and on and on. And I am 100% convinced, Tommy, that a lot of health insurance claims don't ever get paid out because they just wear the customer out in the process. I am 100% with you on this. I think this is part of their strategy because I think, look, you're a pretty smart guy, okay? And I mean, a portion, a portion of the population may be a little bit more limited than you. okay imagine like somebody who really isn't equipped to deal with this you'll have to figure out

how to do this so yeah i think they do make it intentionally difficult for you to get what you're due in the hopes that you'll just surrender and i i bet it's part of the whole profit margin calculus look we've been we've been debating you know health care um and the logistics and the paperwork and this stuff for years in this country. It's not easy. It's not Canada where you just go in and you're seeing and that's it and you're taking care of.

And I don't even know if that's how it really works there. It's just I said to her, I said, this is just the game, isn't it? I'm like you probably deal with at least a half dozen of these a week, don't you? And she said,

well, I know it can be frustrating sometimes. And I said, look, I'm not sending Carol an email just to get an email back saying I'm denied. And then I'm going to have to go through the process of filing a grievance for maybe like 80 bucks. It's just not worth it. Today hasn't been worth it. And I said, but I do appreciate you efforting to try to help me. And that was it.

But it's, I think it creates some profit margin. You know, it's just the, you know what it is, Tommy? it's the refund it's the refunding of security deposits people just forget they get worn out from trying and this happens in a lot of different facets of life it just it's part of yeah I think there's people

who actually make a living doing this stuff for you yes they do yes they do I mean there are look there there's lots of these kinds of businesses out there. I mean, there are nonprofits, not really nonprofits, that will help you, you know, lower your debt, you know, lower your credit card debt. I mean, I think I've said this before, you know, anybody that's paying significant credit card, you know, APRs, you're, you're a dummy.

I mean, all you got to do is call up and ask for a lower rate and just threaten to pay your whole balance, anybody that's carrying a balance where you're paying monthly on a credit card balance and you've got a significantly high interest rate, you're a fool. You just call them up and say, you're going to pay the whole balance off and you're going to cancel the credit card and they'll give you a much better rate. It's not that hard. And there are lots of businesses that do that for people who don't know that in many cases, all you have to do is put in a little bit of work and ask. But anyway, that was a frustrating experience that literally was, you know, longer than an hour when you added up all of my hold time. I don't know. I mean, I just had the phone on speaker

as they were playing some of that horrible hold music, and I was watching TV, but I just, I can't, it's just frustrating to have people to have, I'm convinced. That this is part of their profit margin. And basically, you know what they chalk it up to? You know, kind of dead accounts, accounts where, you know, the, well, no, they don't even have it because they're not accounts that exist. Or if there are files that were opened up where people started down the process, it's like, yeah, well, we ask them for, you know, the doctor's code and the correct address of the provider. and the correct member number and group number and this and that, and they never got back to us.

So now it's a debt account, and, you know, we chalk it up to revenue. I don't know how it works from an accounting standpoint. You know what? Maybe we can get old Jason Friedman to explain it to us. That would be good. That would be good. Listen, what was worse? The dental visit or paying for the dental visit?

Yeah, well, it wasn't my dental visit. It was Caras. Oh, okay. Okay. You know, speaking of Jason Friedman, at the end of the podcast yesterday, I pointed something out that I'm very surprised that you didn't point out. And I didn't point out either, but I'm more surprised, given your disposition the other day, that this didn't occur to you either. Remember towards the end of the conversation when we were focused in on the letter from Jordan Seave, where they just absolutely tear apart. Jason Friedman in an attempt to totally discredit him and his testimony.

And I read from that one part where they really got after his character. You know, the section titled, hold on, let me pull it up here because I'm going to forget what it was. It was something about how he abused his staff and he had a sexual relationship. Yeah, Friedman verbally abused his staff and had a hidden sexual relationship with his subordinate. And, you know, he braided his staff. His staff stated he was dismissive, heavy-handed, yelled, cursed, used terms to describe minority women. The part that we didn't talk about that it just kind of occurred to me that night, and I'm like, I'm going to talk about this on the podcast, and I did it yesterday, is that that whole section is a section that just essentially confront. what the environment was in their building for 20-something years,

because he was an employee there for 24 years, 21 of it under Snyder. Like, everything that started this, this bullying, intimidation, culture of sexual harassment and toxic towards everybody, most notably women, is all spelled out in that paragraph and their letter to the FTC. That's a good point. I can't believe I didn't figure that out. I know. I can't.

You're right. Absolutely. And that is, that's, that's in detail what it was like at that facility. They just laid it out for you. They laid it out for you. If this guy was so awful and yet it took Jason Wright to come into the organization to finally fire him. Yeah. You know, it reminded me of what we've talked about a lot, which was, you know, it's almost like there's,

such a lack of self-awareness, you know, with them. And it's been that way forever. It's like when back in July of 2020, they sent out a letter from, you know, a guy that we know, Lewis Shrek, who was the head of, you know, corporate sales. And they sent out the letter to all of their big time corporate sponsors attaching the post article and saying, don't believe all of this bad stuff. This is this stuff that's actually true. And they just don't, like, they could have probably, eviscerated him without also admitting that they kept someone like this employed for 24 years? In a letter. Yes.

But, you know, they're always more vindictive than smart. There's no doubt about that. That's been the case. Yeah. How about the news that just broke before we started recording this podcast? Mike Tyson beat some dude up on a plane. TMZ, look, this is TMZ, which is like right 100% of the time pretty much. It sure seems to be that they patrol that gutter better than anybody.

So the story is that they're, and they've got video of it. Somebody was taking, you know, video of it. And of course, TMZ got copies of the video. But I'll just read to you basically what happens. The witness, who also videotaped this, on the plane says he and his friend were boarding a flight. It happened to be a flight that Mike Tyson was on. Tyson was cool with them and other passengers. The witness said that Mike took a selfie with him and then was patient with his overly excited friend

who kept trying to talk to the 55-year-old fighter as he said. sat behind him. Eventually, though, we're told Tyson had had enough of the guy behind him talking in his ear, and he told him to chill. When the guy didn't, that's when witnesses say Tyson started to throw several punches at the man's face. The video we obtained shows Tyson's throwing a flurry of blows at the man, which you can see bloodied the passenger's forehead. The witness says Mike walked off the plane just seconds later, were told the man who was punched received medical attention, and then went to the police over the incident. We've reached out TMZ has to the cops for comment,

but so far no word back yet. We've also reached out to JetBlue, so it was a JetBlue flight, apparently from San Francisco to Florida, and Tyson's camp for comment on the incident as well, but no word back on that either. You and I both made the same comment about the punches and the guy that took the punches. He didn't look that bad.

he didn't look that bad from taking a couple of blows from Mike Tyson. That's for sure. I know some people who are crazy enough that they would, if that was the outcome, they would have taken it just to say they got beat up by Mike Tyson. You know, if that's the outcome, look, Mike could be in big trouble here. I know.

I mean, he's got a criminal past, a criminal history, and this is, no matter how justified you may emotionally think it is, it's a fault. There's an assault with a guy. who has a track record of this. Remember this is Mike, I mean, I know, you know, this is the kinder, gentler, older Mike Tyson. He's kind of, we thought for the most part, aged out of the anger that he had over the years. But this is a guy who, who remember beat up an old man at a traffic stop in Montgomery County once. Spent a year in Montgomery County's jail right out there off of

270. Yeah. So Mike is in trouble. and there's a major lawsuit coming. My question is, what the hell is Mike Tyson doing flying jet blue? I know. Across the country. I know. Now, I guess the Tyson bank roll isn't as big as everyone thinks it is.

Did you, when I asked you to watch the video, did you also listen to the video, the audio in the video? Not really. No, because I did it with the sound down because I was talking to you at the same time. So what's not detailed in the TMZ written report is that the guy that's taking the video starts saying something about the selling of shrooms, as in mushrooms, I think. The guy that ended up getting his ass kicked also starts talking about peasants. And you can see him, by the way, kind of bothering Mike. By the way, this is an update from TMZ. Sources close to Mike claim the man was extremely intoxicated

and wouldn't stop provoking the boxer in his seat. You know, the video, and it's not long, does show this guy a little bit overzealous with Tyson. He's sitting behind him in the seats behind him, and he's standing up and he's talking to him. Who knows? Bottom line is, it doesn't justify an assault. and given his history, like you said, he could be in trouble. I hope he's not, though. I don't, I mean, I don't want Mike to be able to go around beating people up just because they're annoying.

But I kind of have hoped that the Mike, the kinder, gentler Mike that we've seen in recent years was, you know, who he had become. I guess he didn't have his full supply of gummies before he got on that plane to calm him down. He needed shrooms. I don't know what the shrooms part was. was about. I really don't. So I don't know. I mean, Mike is in the marijuana business reportedly. Oh, I didn't realize that that was what you were referencing. I mean, I got the gummy reference. I didn't reference. So he's in, he's in the weed business? Who isn't these days? Jesus. I understand it. Well, you and I aren't. No, we're not, but it's more lucrative than what we're doing.

I think it's reportedly it does very well in the weed business. But apparently not that well if he's flying coach on JetBlue. Yeah. At least he wasn't on your airline. Spirit, he would have had to, he would have, he would have had to take a drive from San Francisco to Marin County and gotten on a plane. Little North. My son was just there.

That's why I just remember. I just referred to that beautiful area of the country, of course. Okay. Yeah. Yes. The thing is, though, I mean, the guy being drunk, I mean, I get that. Look, after what I went through and I was very careful to make sure that I didn't drink too much. But people who were delayed for hours on flights, what are they going to do?

They're going to go to the bar at the airport. I mean, that's why this happens more and more. As more and more planes are delayed, and you're going to have a lot. more and more drunk people getting on planes. Of course. Of course. And, you know, you've got a lot of other issues going on on planes these days. Dropping mask mandates.

Whoa, CDC says otherwise. Just do what you feel like doing people. If you want to wear a mask, have at it. And if you don't, the rules are that you don't have to wear one, don't wear one. I'm fine with that. I'm fine with that. I don't care. if you're fine with it or not.

I do want to talk about Jay Wright, and I want to talk about your column about Bradley Beale. I know we touched on it the other day, but I think there's more to it as well. And we'll get, yeah, we'll get to some Washington commanders discussion. By the way, Douglas pointed out to me on Twitter, you've gotten much more comfortable saying commanders. It's because what else am I going to say?

If I just keep saying Washington over and over again, And everybody else is saying commanders, it's just people are going to start to get confused the other way now. I don't like it. I don't like it at all. It's a dumb name. It's a dumb name. And I don't even like the hashtag take command. That's dumb too.

Which apparently, by the way, they stole that from the San Antonio commanders as well from the AAFL or whatever spring league that we're following these days. That was a great conversation the other day. We won't circle back to that one. I have a question. Yes. I have a question for it. you about commanders and Redskins. I'm curious to what your opinion is.

Like when we talk about Joe Jacoby, and when you refer to him in print. Redskin. You have to be, doesn't it? Of course. It's not even... It's not a debate on this. Anything before commanders,

you still have to use the name Redskins. If a guy played for the Redskins, that's what you've got to say. Of course you do. That's who he played for. Okay. Now, how about the... How about this one, though? What about the player, Chase Young, as an example?

Well, see, the problem is you'll be able to refer to him as a commander. I don't know. Is there a list of players that just played for the Washington football team? There are. There's probably some players that were just here for a year or two and now are gone. Yeah. Yeah, they probably are. So, yeah.

Okay, I just was wondering what you're trying to figure. what your thoughts would be. You know, one of the, do you remember what one of the early concerns were for people like me, especially, that they were going to scrub every single Redskins reference, including, you know, NFL films was going to go in and somehow try to scrub out kairons or end zones that were painted with it? And people were actually concerned about that. And I remember saying, that's ridiculous.

First of all, it would be way too much work. And they're not going to do that. That's part of the history. That's what it is. That's what their name was. And none of that has happened. None of that has happened. And let's just say Jacoby gets in through the next, what is that, the senior committee?

Whatever you call that. Whatever it's called. He's going to go in as a Washington Redskin. He was never a commander. Look, all of those players, I've hardly talked to all of them. But anybody that's been outspoken since the name changed. I mean, I think one of them were shocking, not shocking, but Rigo, who, you know, doesn't care about a lot of stuff in the past, you know.

Rigo was the one on his YouTube show with Todd, with Todd Castleberry, said that like, and I forget what the quote was, I'm paraphrasing here, but he felt like something inside him had died, that he didn't expect to feel the way he felt when commander, was announced, but he was really, really taken aback. Cooley said the same thing to me. Cooley said, I'm not going to feel any different when the commander's thing comes out or when the new name comes out.

I'm going to feel the way I felt since the name was lost. I was a redskin and whatever happens next. But he called, and he was on the podcast talking about how he was completely stunned at how, you know, he felt when there was an actual new name there. And that's why, like, during that process, I said, this is an interim phase because there isn't a new name. And when the new name comes out, it's going to really feel different. It's going to feel more permanent.

And I think most of the former players, I think Darrell Green is weighed in on this as well. I'm pretty sure Darrell Green said, I played for the Redskins, you know. Look, I think most of the players who aren't getting, paid by the team still, most of the former players, because they still, they did employ some of the former players to help promote the new name. Obviously, those players are not going to come out and say they're for the redskins. Well, like something's missing.

You're like Joe who was up there on the stage that day and that uncomfortable unveiling. I guarantee you, Joe will still say, he'll say, I'll say, I'm sorry. support the new name, but I played for the Redskins. I don't think he'll ever say I played for the commanders. No, no. Absolutely. Okay. There was one other thing real quickly.

I've got a question for you. My question for you is, did you see what Wimbledon is doing? Have you read this story yet? Yes, I have. They're banning the Russian players. Wimbledon is banning Russian and Belarusan players over. the invasion of Ukraine. They've barred all Russian and players from Belarus from this year's championship due to the invasion.

That means world number two, Danil Medvedev, is out of Wimbledon. Do you agree with that or not? Look, President Biden just announced that they're sending $800 million in new military aid to Ukraine. we're in a war. We may not be fighting it directly with truths and stuff, but we're in a war. And in that case, you're on one side or the other side. I certainly understand what Wimbledon did, and I think it's the shape of things to come. I don't think this is going to lighten up anytime soon.

And I think there's a real question facing the NHL immediately. Okay, that's what I was going to ask you. Yes. as to whether or not they're going to continue to allow Russian players to play in the league. Now, that would be a very complicated, onerous action to ban Russian players from the NHL that would certainly hurt more teams, a.A.A. the, aka the Washington Capitals, than others. But this is a war, you know, for all intents and purposes. I just read where, you know, American representatives at the G20 conference got up and walked out when the Russians showed up on the Zoom conference.

I mean, there's sides being taken right now, and you're on one side or the other. You know, there's none of it's Ovechkin, oh, I don't like war, you know, I just want peace kind of thing. while you still have Putin's picture on your Instagram account. Does he still have, he hasn't taken down that? Okay. I'm not taking it down yet. Do you consider? I tell you what, I don't see, I don't see how cast fans can ignore that.

I don't get that. You really need to look inside your soul if you're watching the news and paying attention to what's going on. And your hero hockey player has a guy up there. who the president has called a butcher and a war criminal. First of all, I think you have to consider Alex Ovechkin's family, friends, people that he has back in Russia that could be in danger if he just started to go anti-Pooten and start scrubbing Putin from his social media. So I think that should be taken into consideration as it relates to Alex Ovechkin.

As far as Wimbledon goes, and I'll circle back to the NHL, I don't really get it. I'm not sure. Now apparently Denil Medvedev, the number two player in the world is a Putin supporter or has been in the past. I just don't understand where the benefit

is. By barring him from playing in Wimbledon, is somehow now Putin going to pull his troops out of Ukraine and say I'm sorry? If Alex Ovechkin and every Russian player

is told to go home that they're not allowed to play. I mean, is that going to impact Putin at all? Maybe it will. I don't know. Maybe somebody would say, oh, my God, he's such a big Ovechkin fan and such a big NHL fan and such a big Medvedev and tennis fan. And that actually impacted him more than anything else that these guys are getting barred from playing.

But I don't see it leading to anything substantial. To me, it just doesn't make a lot of sense. I mean, you know, just like putting Japanese in, you know, in internment camps in World War II. Not quite the same. I understand. It's not quite the same. I understand it's not quite the same. But the point is, and actually there was probably more justification given what we didn't know at the time back then.

But I don't see the, I don't see that this really impacts much. Okay. I think it does. I think symbolism is important in this. I think symbolism is how you reach your population as to let them know what is going on here other than what they're seeing on the 6 o'clock news. We've participated in events with Iraq, with Iran over the years,

in soccer events, and in other sporting events, and those things have never been an issue. Go ahead, finish your thought. This is clearly on a different level. than that. Look, I've been working on something on this. I've spoke to

some experts on Russian relations and history, and the idea that Ovechkin and his family would be in danger is way overblown. Okay. Way, way overblown.

You know, I talked to a professor of Russian history and international sport, a guy named Gene Levesque, who's a Russian expert at the University of Quebec in Montreal. He said, I don't think he and his family are risking anything. He's one of the few athletes who are closest to the regime.

He comes from a family of elite athletes who are integrated into the political sporting structure. And I've read quotes and other stories from other experts who say the idea that they would be in danger is overbeats. blown. And even if you think he is, there are Russians who have put themselves at risk criticizing Putin for this. Far more risk than Alex Oveskin would be. And I'm not saying he needs to come out and criticize him. What are you saying? What are you saying? I'm saying that he, I'm saying that he needs to get that photo of him and Putin off his Instagram logo. Oh, my gosh. Social media. He needs to get it off.

Okay. and that'll do it for you if he just scrubs Putin off of his Instagram photo, social media. That would help. Okay. I don't expect him to come out and criticize the war, although he should. I don't expect him to do that. But right now, and here's the other thing. For too long, and this is on me and a lot of other people, including Taps fans,

we just ignored his relationship with Putin over the years. while this guy was doing all kinds of stuff, poisoning, you know, rivals, putting reporters in jail, the previous invasion of Crimea in 2014. And like Putin, creating this team Putin social media thing to support. We just ignored all that, and we shouldn't have. We should have called him into questions on that. Are there any... Because, you know, either on the...

you're on the side of the president of the United States, who's called this guy a war criminal and a butcher, or you're on the side of Alex Ovechkin, who says he's my president. Well, you're definitely not on the side of Alex Ovechkin and his pro-Pooten stance. I don't know anybody that would be on that side. You may be pro-Alex Ovechkin, but you may disagree completely with his politics. And in your case, you think we're in a war right now, so pick sides.

I think we're past the idea of compartmentalizing your feelings about Alex Lavechkin. Are you writing a column on this? It sounds like you are. There may be. It may be at some point. Who knows? Well, this is why you've been talking to Russian scholars and historians, it sounds like. I talk to lots of people, Kevin.

Usually it's... I converse with the masses. There have been Syrian NBA players before. So we didn't seem to have much of a problem with perhaps them and being from a country where Assad was gassing his own people. But, you know, this is closer to home with Ovechkin. It would be wild, right, if all of a sudden the NHL looked at Wimbledon strategy or a stance and said, maybe we should take the same stance.

It certainly would impact the playoff odds. That's for sure. Yes. By the way, he has. Yes, it would. Congratulations to Alex Ovechkin, goals 49 and 50 last night. That's great. Phenomenal performance against Vegas where he held this Stanley Cup up just a few years ago.

Ovi made history becoming the oldest player to ever score 50 goals. He is a tremendous, tremendous hockey player. All right. I think pressure will grow on the NHL because, I mean, do you? think this war at any indication that it's going to ratchet down? I don't think so. Now, these things always end up being much longer than you think they're going to, just like, just like the initial push from the Russians didn't go exactly their way like they thought it would. They never do typically. With that said, with that said, more importantly, Ovechkin now is just 21 shy of Gordy Hals,

801 for second most all time. And, you know, stop it. And if you pull him and you ban him from the NHL, I think Gordy Hound Gretzky may be okay with that because he's chasing both of them down. Do you think in all seriousness, do you think that Ovechkin, as long as he continues to play, you think he's going to catch Gretzky, don't you? Yeah. Yeah, because he probably would. Because 50 goal seasons basically puts him, you know, roughly two years away at 38 years. old. Now, I don't know if he's going to have more 50, 50 goal seasons, but he's three or four years away. He's going to do it. I think most people that are really involved in the Caps media

group, because I've talked to some of those. I've reached out to some of those people in recent weeks. They all believe that they are part and parcel to Ovechkin becoming the all-time goal score. And you know what? There's probably a book or two in that. If he continues to play. Right. If he continues to play in this country. Here's another stat. Ukrainian officials say about 15,000 people have been killed by the war, by the invasion of Ovechkin's president. Wait, say that again. This is another stat. Ukrainian officials say about 15,000 Ukrainians have been killed. in the invasion by Ovechkin's president. Okay.

I thought you were actually being serious that somebody put out the stat and called him Ovechkin's president. Ovechkin said he's my president. I know that. But when you were reading that, I thought that was something that somebody had written that referred to him to Putin. You can refer that to me. You can credit me with that. Well, I can't wait for the column. Look, you know, you got Deshaeser Everett, you know, cut.

But let's see if we can change the caps odds of winning a Stanley Cup playoff series with one of your next columns. I do want to talk about Jay Wright. I want to talk about your column. I want to talk some commanders football. We'll get to all of that when we come back right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Jay Wright retired yesterday as Villanova's coach. 60 years old. Villanova has had an unbelievable run under Jay Wright, 21 years at Villanova,

520 wins, 197 losses, multiple Big East titles, two national championships, four final fours. It's been an incredible run for Jay Wright. This was shocking news when it came across last night. And I have several friends, several friends, including long, longtime friends, who I went to high school with that went to Villanova. There's just a lot of Villanova people, you know, in all of the big cities of the Northeast. And this floored all of them as well. Now, I will tell you, there's some audio that Brendan, my producer, played for me this morning on the show.

You know Dick Hoops Weiss, the longtime college basketball writer, right? Absolutely. So on his last presser following the loss to Kansas in the final four, he said, Hoops Weiss asks him a question, and Jay Wright, under his breath, said, you know, something like getting to answer a question from Hoops Weiss one more time. You know, so, but it was very much kind of under his breath, but you could hear it on the mic. Well, nobody thought anything of it. Well, clearly he kind of knew that this is where it was going. Anyway, I was very surprised by it.

He's a young man, like relatively speaking, and he looks much younger than he has. actually is. He's really an outstanding coach, and he's built, you know, I get in these arguments with my Villanova friends all the time about whether or not Villanova's become a blue blood. They're convinced of it. And then during the run-up to the final four, there was a lot of discussion about whether Villanova's entered the conversation of being a blue-blood college basketball, you know, a program. They've won more than anybody else in the last 10 years in the sport. They won two national championships. They've been to three final fours in the last, you know, six tournaments. And remember we had one of them canceled. And I don't know, for me,

it's still Kansas, Kentucky, Carolina, Duke. And in terms of the Mount Rushmore currently of programs, kind of a combination of current and historically, I don't think UCLA's in that conversation or Indiana's in that conversation anymore. Villanova, if they're not, you know, a blue blood, they're the first team in the next category, the next tier. Clearly they are. And he's been a great coach who's been a phenomenal recruiter, a great ambassador for the game, an incredible ambassador for the Big East

as they've gone through this transformation over the last several years. I'm really surprised, but I think Tommy more than anything else, what it speaks to is what a lot of coaches now, you know, are saying either privately or publicly, and that is NIL and portal is just too much to deal with and they hate it. And, you know, if NIL didn't exist and the transfer portal didn't exist, I wonder if Jay Wright would still be coaching. I think the answer is probably yes. I think you're right on all counts, particularly about what a great coach, Jay Wright.

is. And if you remember, before the Wizard-Tye West Unsell Jr., I wrote a column saying that they should try to figure out a way to get Jay Wright to come coach the Wizards, because him and Tommy Shepard are pretty close friends. They go back to their days when they worked on the staff at UNLV together in the early 90s. But, I mean, I think you're right. I think that coaches like control, and even good coaches, bad coaches, good coaches, great coaches. They all like control.

And these are two aspects that they can't control of the game now, big aspects. And when you think about it, I mean, I think both aspects, that players should be allowed to do both. I think players should be allowed to be able to transfer. I think players should be allowed to profit off their, you know, their name in college sports, but it's definitely changing the way coaches

are going to do business. You're not going to have the iconic coaches that you've had in the past. Coaches are not going to be larger than life figures anymore. The NIL, the name image and likeness thing, I think,

look, I've never been a pro-pay-the-player's salaries. I just don't think most people that understand or in favor of that actually understand the economics of college athletics. You know, 90% of these programs barely either lose money or break even. And there's just no logistical, real way to pay college players. But I'm not against and haven't been against them making money off their name, image, and likeness.

What's really surprising to me is just how much money is out there. And the problem with this still being sort of the early stages, almost wild, wild west of NIL, is that states have different laws and schools now are either at a competitive advantage in a massive way because either they've been really good at creating these opportunities for their players or the state laws make it easier for them to do this or they haven't done it very well. And big time programs aren't doing it very well. And they're seeing really good players that these college coaches recruited are saying, I'll stay, but for a million bucks. You've got to figure out a way to get me a million bucks. Like we're not talking in college football and college basketball about these players asking for like 25,000 bucks or some sort of stipend. They're now out there using the transfer portal as a way to not have to sit out a year to now basically bid out their services.

to the schools that can pay them the most money through the businesses that they've got, you know, relationships with as far as NIL go. If you're not, if you're not doing NIL well right now, you are at a massive disadvantage because the transfer portal is allowing players. There are 1,400 basketball players right now since the season ended in the transfer portal. And most of them won't get paid a lot of money, but a lot of them are just, looking for the deal in which they can make the most money. I'm not in favor of being able to transfer whenever you want unless your head coach leaves.

The person that recruited you to that school leaves, then I think you should be able to enter the portal and not have to sit out a year. Otherwise, I think you should take that commitment more seriously when you go into a school. And if you don't like it, it's fine, but you've got to sit out a year. I think there should be a deterrent for kids transferring, you know, year after year after year, essentially becoming free agents once the season ends. And right now, they've got to figure out NIL, so it's not so imbalanced because SEC schools and Big 12 schools are killing it. And Big 10 ACC schools, some Big East schools are not.

And so we're going to see the balance of power shift in sports like college basketball to the schools that are doing it well like the SEC and the Big 12 schools in particular. And some of the more traditional schools may start to fall from the, from where they were, the perch that they were on. I'm not just, I'm not against NIL. I'm against it being so imbalanced. There's got to be some sort of raining it in and. making it competitively fair, even though obviously that works against sort of a, you know, a capitalist market economy of you go where you can make the most money.

But it's just, it's for coaches to have to basically rework your roster every single year because you've got players leaving to go get more money elsewhere. And let me just say this because somebody, I said this this morning and somebody, tweeted that that wasn't entirely true, and that's fair. Not everybody's leaving a program because they're not getting paid enough at the program they're in currently. Some just really do, you know, don't love the school or don't love the coach or don't love the program because not everybody's getting big time money, obviously. But it's changing the sport dramatically, college football and college basketball. And for coaches, it becomes a whole other thing that is just really hard to manage.

You know, you bring recruits in, you start planning about what your roster is going to be like this year, next year. No, there's no more of that. Every year is a new year now. Every year you're reconfiguring your roster because several of your players, good players that like you and like the school are entering the transfer portal, because maybe you don't have enough to offer them. That's what's going on right now. It's a lot of what's going on.

So, you know, for longtime coaches that have had a certain way of doing things and have enough money and have enough success like Jay Wright, wouldn't surprise me if a year from now he comes back and coaches in the NBA where it would be easier than in college hoops right now. Now, one benefit, Tommy, real quickly, and then I'll let you answer, is that college athletes that were leaving early because they wanted to get paid are now able to stay in college and make more money than they would have made in the G league or made as a second round pick, you know, without guarantees.

So some of the players that, I mean, the player of the year in college basketball, I don't know if you saw this story or not. Shibway from Kentucky was the player of the year, the wooden award winner. He is coming back to school. First player, first wooden award winner to do that since Tyler Hansbro in 2008, not to go to the pros. You know why? He's going to make close to $2 million next year in NIL money. So it's just a completely different ball game now.

So I bet this had a lot to do with Jay Wright leaving. I think you're probably right. Do you really think from everything I've read? I mean, Jay Wright has been in demand by NBA. Whenever NBA teams have looked for a coach from the college ranks, Jay Wright has always been number one on the list. And he's turned them down all the time. And from all the reports I've read,

he's not interested in coaching, period, anymore. You think that could change? I mean, I had this guy, John Fanta, who covers the Big East in Villanova. He's really good, and I had him on radio this morning. He says he agrees. with you and others that he's not going to coach in the NBA. I just think that a guy like him who is young enough and has another, you know, run in him as a competitor may want a year from now to take on a new challenge.

Things change. I mean, these people feel that way now and maybe even he feels that way now. I think actually coaching in the NBA now might be easier than coaching and coaching and college because of all this, you know, this crazy, the craziness going on and the inability to sort of keep your players together. But I don't know. I don't know, Phil Coach. You're right, though. I mean, he's certainly been one of those people that, like, he looks, he's got the look of being an NBA coach, of being a guy that would be able to totally relate to NBA players. I mean, you know, you don't have to man, you don't have to recruit anybody. I mean, I know, I know

there's free agency, but recruiting's always been a pain in the ass for these coaches anyway. Now it's, you know, completely nuts. I wanted to mention one other quick thing, though, about Jay Wright. I know I've mentioned this before when it comes to Villanova. And usually in the past, it's always been in the context of the Maryland job in Turgeon, Mark Turgeon in particular. But there was a time. You go back 10 years, all right, 10 years ago.

Jay Wright's Villanova team went 13 and 19. They were 5 and 13 in the Big East. They tied for 13th in the Big East and they did not make the NCAA tournament. And that followed back-to-back years of not getting out of the first weekend. And what followed was three more years of making the tournament, but not getting out of the first weekend of the tournament. So there was a six-year period where Villanova in the minds of their die-hard fans, they were underachieving

and it was time for Jay to go because there was a whole hell of a lot of Villanova people saying yep, no, we got to that one final four and we got blown out by Carolina I think it was Carolina and that's it. You know, he's just, you know,

they're not very good, they're not very good defensively. He's just an okay coach. We can do better. It's a good thing they didn't bail on him at Nova. It's a good thing that those priests that run the school decided to hang in there with them because what followed was a championship, a championship, another final four over the next six tournaments that they were in.

I mean, you know, this is true. I believe it to be true because many people who have much better connections and sources than I said that Jay Wright was very interested in the Maryland job when Gary retired. You know, Gary's retirement was a stunning retirement in the moment. But there was a lot of discussion about, you know, the different coaches. Mike Bray, I think absolutely would have taken the job back then. Sean Miller was offered the job and was on the verge of taking it, but, you know, wanted academic exceptions, which Kevin Anderson told him wasn't done at Maryland.

So Miller backed out. But many people discussed back then that Jay Wright, because he was, you know, a little bit on the hot seat at the time at Villanova that Jay Wright was interested in the Maryland job. So Villanova people wouldn't have been disappointed at that point in time. Most of them wouldn't have been. Hall of Fame coach. This guy John this morning said he's on the Mount Rushmore of Big East coaches,

of all-time Big East coaches. And I gave the other three on the Mount Rushmore, which he agreed with. Can you name them right now? You should be able to. John Thompson, Lou Carnaceca, and Raleigh Massimino. No. No, you got one of them right.

You got Thompson correct. John is the, you know, is the face on the Big East Mount Rushmore. We're talking about coaches, so we're not talking about, you know, Dave Gabbitt. Okay. Okay. You missed one easy one. Jim Beheim. Yeah, Beheim's obvious, obvious.

And then the other one, you know, you know, Just because, and I, by the way, Carnaceca and Roli are all are good guesses, and I brought them up. But the other guys got three NCAA titles. Jim Calhoun. I won't let you. Jim Calhoun is the fourth on the Mount Rushmore. Okay.

Even if he didn't, even if he didn't do it always on the up and up. But Calhoun was a great coach. And, again, three NCAA titles. So he's got to be on there. Yes. All right. Tell everybody about your Bradley Beal column that they can go read and that I am retweeting as we speak. Thank you, boss.

Yeah. That's really kind of you. Well, I just reminded myself of it. It was on my list of things to do. Okay. Tell everybody about what you're up. Well, I wrote something that we discussed a little bit in previous podcast that Bradley Bill isn't going anywhere that Tommy Shepard last week had spoken very confidently that Bradley

Beale was going to stay, and he probably because he knew they've got a verbal deal in place for him, you know, that the team will offer him that long-term supermax extension contract when they could do that. I think start in July 1st. I think they can do that. that that was part of the deal for him having the surgery, the wrist surgery now, to get it over with, as opposed to him playing the rest of the season and testing the free agent orders. Now, Tommy really likes Bradley Biel. It didn't take much to convince him to keep him. So that deal is done moving forward, which would make him,

if the contract is seen through to its totality, the highest paid play. the most amount of money paid to any player in the history of Washington sports. That's amazing. $392 million. It's more than that, I thought. This franchise would have paid him. I thought it's more than that. I don't think so.

The new deal is close to $250, right? And he... Right, and he's made $150 so far. I thought he had made $170 something so far. I don't think so. Okay. I thought it was... I thought it was over $400 million.

Whatever. the most money that any Washington athlete has ever earned. Well, he's in the right sport for it, that sport or baseball. He's at the right, the timing is perfect for it. But he's not, like, Bradley Beale, all due respect, because I like him as a player. I mean, I always feel badly about this because it's like he loves Washington. He wants to stay here. Like, we should embrace that.

But Bradley Beal is like on the list of all-time great Washington, you know, professional sports team players is not in the top 20. Like, I don't think he's in the top 20. I bet right now we could rip off, you know, baseball, other bad. I mean, just in his own franchise. Like, is he on the Mount Rushmore of his own franchise? No. No.

It's not even, no. Well, don't say no. I'm not talking about Baltimore. We exclude Baltimore from this. Right. So that only excludes Earl. Well, and Gus Johnson. Okay.

But West on South, Elvin Hayes. Yes. Okay. This is where it gets interesting because, you know, Gilbert Arenas, you sent me that thing last week. We never talked about it, about that list that had the greatest players for each NBA franchise and they had Gilbert Arinas on there. It was a joke. Yeah. You sent me that.

about it. There were... I posted it on Twitter, and the question was from... I forget who did it. I think it was a Bleacher reporter, somebody like that. And they said that the headline, it wasn't, what would you change about this? What would you change on this list? And I said, I would have you fired.

That's what you wrote. That's the change I would make. Yeah, there was... Because it was a ridiculous list. Well, didn't they also have, there was another horrible one. But Arenas is, I mean, that's a joke. I mean, that's just not even, that's not even fair. Like, for me, but by the way, Arrinus might be in the discussion of like the top four.

But in order for me, I know you put West 1 in Elvin 2, and that's fine. I put Elvin 1 in West 2. And then, you know, there's a distance then to 3 and 4 if we're talking about. of Mount Rushmore. But the candidates for it would be Bobby Dandrich, Phil Schenier, Gilbert Arenas, John Wall, and Bradley Beale. Because I'm not going to count Bernard King, even though he had a couple of years here. You know, I just don't consider Bernard King to have been a bullet, you know, even though he

was briefly. I don't really consider Moses Malone to have been a bullet. you know, or Rod Strickland to have been a bullet. Certainly not Michael Jordan to have been a bullet. And it doesn't matter anyway because I don't think those guys would be in the conversation anyway. But so he's not even really in the top four or five franchise all time. By the way, it's possible that he could be when he's done. I'm not dismissing that as a possibility.

He's going to sign this deal. He's going to play five more years. Hopefully he plays the majority of games over the next five years. years, and he's not hurt as much. But, you know, three years from now, we could be having the discussion of him easily being on the Mount Rushmore of all-time bullets slash wizards. But Bobby D. is number three for me. And then I'll... Same for me. But then I'll... And by the way, Bobby D's, you know, a lot of his career, obviously, was in Milwaukee. I understand that. But Bobby D. was the missing link to the only championship this

franchise has ever won. in Washington. And he was a great player on those teams. And he was the go-to clutch player on those teams. Not only was he among the leading scores, he was their best defender on those teams. He played, he was a small forward, but played guard so he could guard Gervin.

He guarded Dr. Jain in some of those series. Bobby D's number three for me on that list. I think Phil Schneer, even though he was not a significant part of the championship team or the team that got to the championship year because of his back injuries. Phil Sheeneer was one of the all-time scores of that era. He was, you know, he was an NBA All-Star three or four times. And really, if he didn't have the back injury,

we wouldn't be having this debate. He'd be on the list, you know? And in many ways, Tommy, I think John Wall deserves a, more consideration for like the fourth spot than Beal does? I agree. I agree. I would put Gilbert ahead of Beal, too. I think I would put Gilbert ahead of Beal as well.

But again, Beal could get there. Yes, he could. He could get there. But the point is they're investing this tremendous amount of money in a player who really doesn't get them any closer. out of bullets, wizard's limbo than they've been for the past 40 years. That's the point.

Yeah. That's the point. I mean, it's not the path to where they should be looking to get. And I just think that's a mistake. Now, the other part of the call was that the guy in charge of this investment shouldn't make anybody feel warm and fuzzy either,

and that's Wes on Sel Jr. who I think has a lot of question marks after his first year as coach of this organization. And I don't particularly feel good about him moving forward if I was a fan of this team. I mean, you know, he seemed to early in the season after they have their early season success, lose control of the locker room somehow, resulting in the shipping out of two very popular and talented players. and Spencer Dinwiddie and Montrez, Harold, were both gone. We're both outspoken early on in the chemistry of this organization, and then they were gone. And as far as him being this defensive genius of a coach, that may be, but it didn't translate to the court.

Yeah, I'm going to give Wes Jr. more time. I wasn't impressed with much this year, but they had a lot of issues this year. They obviously had a lot of injuries. They had a lot of COVID, you know, games lost. There was a lot going on this year. It wasn't a good team. Back to sort of the most important point. And that is that Bradley Beale is not a best player on a championship contender.

I've said this many times. God, it's so funny because in watching Boston and Brooklyn last night, What a great game. I actually want to talk briefly about that in our final segment. But somebody, I remember I got into an argument and I ended up doing calls on this on the air one day on the radio show that people thought Bradley Beale was better than Jason Tatum. And I'm like, you guys are on crack. Jason Tatum is going to be one of the best five players in the game, which he might be right now. Bradley Beale is like, you know, he's in that range of 15 to 20.

If you want to put him at 15, go ahead. But, you know, when you do that, you're going to have players like Tray Young and Chris Paul and others, you know, Donovan Mitchell that are behind him. I can't do that, really. You can't. It's been proven now, okay? And it's probably going to get proven again this year because Joe, well, somebody, one of the best five players in the game, whether it's Curry or I don't know if Devin Booker's healthy.

we'll see what happens with Phoenix, but Janice, Embed, Tatum, you could put in that category, Jimmy Butler, a top five player or a debatable top five player in the game is going to be on a championship winning team again. And that means that the last team that didn't have an obvious top five player in the league at that point on their team, the 2004 Pistons, which by the way did have some, you know, players that are future Hall of Famers, Ben Wallace. I think personally, I think Rashid Wallace. Personally, I think Rashid Wallace should be in the Hall of Fame. But that's another conversation altogether. Bradley Beal isn't...

Bradley Beal is a really strong number two on a championship contender, but he's nowhere near good enough to be your number one and have you be a championship contending team. So they're going to pay him all this money and for what? Is your point? And it's totally relevant. The problem is, of course, is that if you didn't spend the money on him and you let him go and you know,

you burned everything down and you traded it for lots of assets and trade assets, you're then just trying to, you know, hit the lottery. You know, and I'm not saying literally the NBA lottery, but hit the lottery figuratively in terms of ending up with a top five player with a draft choice because you're not getting them through acquisition more likely than not or free agent signing. Now this team real quickly, fully healthy next year with Porzingis and Beal and Kuzma and KCP and, you know, Hachamura and, you know, maybe a high lottery draft choice has a chance to be a good team if they're healthy, but not a championship contending team. And so if your goal is to contend for a championship, you know, if you're right and they signed Beal to the $248 million deal, whatever it is over five years extension, it's not going to move them any closer.

of that. Okay. I think I also said that he's not one of the top 20 professional. I just said that, I mean, we couldn't even get him into the top five. I think he said top 15. In the NBA, I'm talking about top 20 of all time DC athletes, and he's going to be the highest paid. No, he's not in the top 15 of all DC. Okay, well, he's not in the top 15.

We just named four or five wizards bullets that are better. You don't think we can come up with a lot more caps, Nats, and Red So skins. He's not. And he's a nice player, really good player. I mean, really good score, elite scorer, actually. And let us remember, I mean, before we forget this, that if we're talking about all-time great state DC athletes, we need to go back before both of us were born to the fact that one of the greatest players in the history of the NFL played quarterback for the Redskins, Sammy Ball, and one of the greatest pitchers in the history of baseball, pitch for the Washington senators, Walter Johnson.

Any, any, Mount Rushmore starts with those two. Yes, that's true. God, you just reminded me something about something I said this morning, but we've already done it, but I'll remind you of it when we come back right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Has Paul ever been first team all the day? Did Bob Cousie ever shoot over 40% from the field in his career? Did he overshoot over 40%?

Probably 39, 40%. Different kind of games. Not once. Not once. That's fair. You also had 29 assists in an NBA game. Oh, well, you know, he was being guarded by plumbers and firemen. Oh, come on.

That is true. That is true. Doggy. Duggy. Derry West is a plumber or fire. If you. Hello. Hello.

Point guard ever. There is no doubt, doggie. He changed the game. Stop it. It was not played the way he did. change the game. Coosie Dick. Stop it.

Chris Paul is one of the top five point guards. Chris Paul is one of the top five point guards in the history of basketball. I got to think about that for a minute. That seems a little strong for me. What? Yes. That yesterday was Stephen A. Smith, Chris Mad Dog Russo, and JJ Reddick on first take on ESPN. And I talked about this this morning.

And Neil and Rockville sent me a text. He said, you have to talk about this with Tommy. And I said, well, we did this a while back. And I'll remind you of it because, of course, you've probably forgotten about it. But for those of you wondering what you were just listening to, it was a conversation about whether or not Chris Paul is an all-time top five point guard in the history of the NBA. And Mad Dog Rousseau went off and started talking about Coozy. And that's when you heard J.J. Reddick come in and say, Cousie was guarded by plumbers and fire. which was a good line.

But I'm going to remind you of something because part of the conversation that you didn't hear was Russo talking about the 1962 NBA finals. And I told you this and we did this, I don't know, two years ago maybe. I came in here one day and I said to you on NBA TV last night, they were showing the seventh in deciding game as it was broadcast. by ABC of the 1962 NBA finals between the Celtics and the Lakers, a game

the Celtics won in the seventh and deciding game. And I told you that in a game with Jerry West, Elgin, Baylor, Bill Russell, Sam Jones, Casey Jones, Bob Coosie, I told you that DeMatha's varsity

would have won the game by 20 points and would have won the series in like five games, to which you went ballistic and we ended up having one of those conversations that we've had before. And in listening to that conversation yesterday, I do think Chris Paul's an all-time great. He's not a top five all-time point guard, not even in the conversation of top five all-time point guards. But do you remember when I came in here and told you what I had watched and you went

nuts? Yeah. Yeah, you watched a fuzzy film of the 62 NBA championship, and you buried great hall fame players in the process. I remember it distinctly. You know who I really buried was Jerry West because I swear to you, what was so apparent is that Jerry West could not go left. He could not dribble the ball with his left hand, but it really didn't matter because the the defenders were like five feet, no, no, five yards away from the guy they were guarding. It was just, I am a believer that a lot of the guys in the 70s and 80s and 90s would translate. But I also, you know, I think you and I've had this disagreement, I think evolution, especially diet, training, etc. These guys are just at a different level athletically and physically than the players in the

previous errors. This is always a difficult conversation to have to compare errors because of evolution, et cetera. Like, there are players that I think if they had today's diet and training would be all-time greats in today's game. But if you put LeBron James back in the 1962 NBA finals, he would have scored 100 points and then had to sit the fourth quarter because they would have been up to me. Not against Bill Russell. Yeah, against Bill Russell. Okay, then we can stop having this childish conversation right now. And you can go play in your sandbox with JJ Reddick. Do you think, let me just say,

do you think that Kuzi would have a chance trying to check Chris Paul? No, I don't. Okay. You're not going to catch me in the Bob Cruz. Bob Kuzi could play in any era conversation. Okay. But Bill Russell could. I'm not going to disagree with you that Bill Russell could play in a lot of errors.

And I definitely think Wilts certainly could. And, you know, when we've had these conversations before, I've always pointed to, like, physical specimens that, you know, if you go back and check height, weight, like Carl Malone, Elvin Hayes, like if you took those two guys athletically, they would actually measure up in this era. But anyway, the top. Chris Paul, there is this yearning, Tommy, from basketball people to see Chris Paul finally win a title. I think Chris Paul is an all-time great.

He's a first ballot hall of famer. He's a great player. And I love the way he plays. I'm a fan of the way Chris Paul plays. I really am. But, you know, people trying to put him into the top five point guards of all time, I would ask you to go leave this conversation and go jump into your sandbox and play with your toys. Because Magic Johnson, Oscar Robertson, Steph Curry, Isaiah Thomas, and John Stockton are your top five.

And then we can talk about Nash and we can talk about kid. And by the way, this will be laughed at by many of you. We can talk about Russell Westbrook. You'll, of course, want to mention Clyde Frazier and Pete Marevich and Nate Archibald. What about Alan Iverson? Alan Iverson. Yeah. AI.

Thank you. Yeah. I mean, he's a really, by the way, in a few years, Kyrie Irving. Kyrie Irving, Tommy, may be, other than Steph Curry, the most skilled position, a skilled guard I think I've ever seen. And I'm not, there's so much about Kyrie Irving that I can't stand. But the skill level is outrageous. Outrageous. But Chris Paul, you know, I think you can legitimately put him in the top 10 conversation

of all time great point guards. And I'm not rooting against him to get the title at all. But I don't believe that a lot of longtime NBA fans versus the current NBA fans are like yearning for Chris Paul to win a title. Like I think there have been I think there have been players like Patrick and Barclay and Malone in Stockton that deserved one in many ways more than Chris Paul who's bounced from team to team.

And by the way, bounced at his own, you know, at his own urging from team to team. I don't think Pete, I mean, if he had played with one or two teams his whole career, maybe that's it. I think there'd be more of an identity of support for. for him, you know, reaching that goal. You didn't watch any of the NBA playoffs last night, did you? Why would I do that?

Okay. So the Celtics Nets game, and I think I tweeted this out, I don't think watching an NBA game, even a college game on television in recent years, have I ever heard a crowd that loud and that raucous through the television set? When the Celtics went on that unbelievable run where they were down seven or eight, nine, whatever it was, and they ended up being up 10 or 11. It was incredible. God, the Boston garden crowd can be great. That game and that series through two games has been phenomenal. I'm just going to say this.

I don't know what's wrong with Durant, but part of it is the defense from Boston. They have him completely rattled. He had 27 last night because he was 18 of 20. from the free throw line in the game. But he was four for 17 from the floor. And in the first two games, one of the greatest players of all time is 13 of 41 from the field. Last night, Kyrie couldn't get it done either. And they lost and they're down two nothing.

Would not surprise me if Durant goes for like 50 in the next game. But Steve Nash is being absolutely outfoxed at every. return in this series by Boston coach E-May U-Doka. Udoca is an excellent basketball coach. This is a connected, well-coached team defensively and otherwise. And Nash does what a lot of teams do, which you hate, which is just, you know, spread the floor and have the guys try to make shots with no semblance of true organization. It's what the game is.

To watch James Harden on the floor last night for Philadelphia, when he's on the floor, it's like four guys stand around and watch. Now, Joel Embed is spectacular. And the three that he made in overtime last night to beat Toronto was great. But I don't know. I think the Boston Brooklyn series is a series you might actually enjoy. It is really physical and defensive by Boston in particular. But you're not going to do that, are you?

No. I'm not going to do that. Why? Because there's better stuff to watch. What did you watch last night? Well, I was out. I was at the track last night. I watched horses lose my money.

Right. What will you be watching tonight? Tonight, I don't know. Actually, tonight I'm going to the touchdown club dinner. Oh, you're going. Yes. Oh, okay. We'll have fun.

So I'll be busy. You see, I don't sit home at night and watch TV like some old man. I'm actually, you know what I'm doing tonight? I'm going out and hanging out with our good friend Mark Stern. Oh, cool. We're going to get, we're going to get beers at happy hour, and then we'll see where that takes us. It won't take me anywhere super late because I've got to work tomorrow early in the morning. But I will be seeing Mark.

you'll be seeing Jake. Please say hello to Jake, and I'll say hello to Stern for you. Okay, sounds good. Sounds good. Are we done for the day? I think we are. Do you know that I think for the first time in the history of this podcast, we really didn't talk football at all?

I know. I'll have a lot of draft talk tomorrow with hopefully somebody you will all want to hear from with some draft analysis. enjoy your night. I will do the same and we will be back together. You and I will be on Tuesday. So long, boss.