The Kevin Sheehan Show - Thom's Travel Tiff

Episode Date: June 13, 2023

Thom was back and annoyed per usual. His trip to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the NFL Hall of Fame, and the Andy Warhol Museum went well but a run-in at the Cleveland Hilton Garden Inn was a topic during the opening segment of the show. The boys discussed Denver's NBA Championship and plenty on Sam Howell, Jacoby Brissett, Ron Rivera and more Commanders.   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 Chean Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy is back. I am here. This Apple podcast review from G.C. Falcon Hoya must listen for any D.C. sports fan,

but especially for displaced Washingtonians. It's a slice of home listening to this on my evening commute. Kevin is consistently great day in and day out. Well, thank you. And Tom is truly a five-tool podcast host slash guest. He's a host when he's on this show, a co-host. And he is five-tool. And he's a bit of a tool sometimes, too.

Yes, but he is back from his trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the NFL Hall of Fame, a Pittsburgh Pirates game. What else am I missing? Tell us all about your trip and everything that you want to talk about today. This is your show today. Okay, we started out, look, these are two friends of mine who I've known for more than 50 years. What are their names again? Harry and Pete.

Harry and Pete, all right. Yeah. And Harry lost his wife a couple years ago. And last year we did a little road trip with him up to Cooperstown to the baseball hall fame and to the boxing hall fame in Catastota. So we expanded one this year to go to Cleveland, mainly to see the Rock and Roll Hall fame, but we went to see a Guardians game the night before. And then the next day we went to the Rock and Roll Hall fame,

and a day after that we went to the Pro Football Hall fame in Canton nearby. And then a day after that, we drove a couple hours of Pittsburgh, where we went to see a Pirates game. Now, in Pittsburgh, we had hoped to see the Clemente Museum, but I didn't make the reservations in time for the tour. So instead, we went to the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. Oh, that's good. A little bit of culture mixed in with all the sports. But you went to a Pirates game as well?

Yes, on Friday night. We saw the Pirates pummel the Mets. It was 14 to 2 at one point, wound up 14 to 7, and there were about five Mets fans. who had made the trip from New York in front of us, and they were not happy with the outcome, and they let their feelings be known, New York style, for everyone to hear. Yeah, they traveled all the games on the East Coast and into the, you know, beginnings of the Midwest.

Would we, do we consider Pittsburgh to be the Midwest or the East? I think it's kind of the beginning of the Midwest. Western PA is not Eastern PA. It's a totally different. personality as well. Right? Yes. Just like Western Maryland and eastern shore.

So in Maryland. Right. But Western PA has a big city in Pittsburgh like Eastern PA does in Philadelphia. We don't necessarily have that in Maryland on the eastern shore or in Western Maryland. But so tell me... PNC. Park. PN.C. Park.

I've heard it's great. It's arguably. I mean, you're sitting there with a view of the... great skyline of Pittsburgh. So it was a great trip. There were a couple of early hiccups that has required me to go to war with somebody. Harry, Harry, or Pete? Harry or Pete?

No, no, no, no. With the Hilton hotels specifically. Oh, boy. What happened with Hilton hotels? I have had a massive war with Hilton right now. You are? Hold on. So, well, that is more interesting, actually, to me, than your trip.

But I want to ask you about your trip real quickly. Tell me about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That's on my bucket list, as is, believe it or not, I've never been to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Well, you should make the trip for both. I mean, Canton's only 50 minutes away from Cleveland. You probably know this because you probably went to grocery stores in all these places. I did. Yeah.

First National Supermarkets, Finest, was a client of ours in Cleveland for many years. And, you know, so that was out of Cleveland. Kroger was a client of ours in Columbus and in Cincinnati. So, yeah, I spent a lot of time in Ohio. Yeah. So the Rock and Roll Hall fame, it's definitely a trip that you need to make. You would really love it. And you might want to spend more than one day there.

There's a lot of audio to listen to, a lot of film clips of great legendary artists. They have great exhibits, you know, roots of rock. They have an exhibit called, you know, that focuses on the different sounds that came from different cities, from Detroit to Philadelphia to Memphis. And they had this great exhibit where you could play instruments. They had guitars everywhere that you could pick up and play, and they had a couple of drum sets, which I got on and played some drums. Do you play drums? You've never told me that before.

No, I've never played drums in my life. Okay. You know, but I don't play guitar either. It just seemed like the easier of the two to sit down and play. But my friend Pete plays guitar, and it was a great exhibit. And as part of that exhibit, they have. have a live karaoke band. Oh, God, you sent me the video.

Tommy got up there and sung Otis Redding's sitting on the dock of the bay. And it was... They had a band. It was a beauty. With a book of about 60 or 70 songs that they could play, anyone you picked. And I made a quick decision on sitting on the dock in a bay

because there was a line of people waiting to do this. And I did it. Yeah, you did. I've performed in the rock and roll hall fame. Yeah, I mean, look, it's very possible after that performance, you might get some consideration for the class of maybe 2024 or 2025. I'm going to, at the very end of the show, you can fast forward if you'd like, but I'm going to go ahead and roll Tommy's sitting on the dock of the Bay Otis Redding karaoke version at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's actually better video and better audio than some of the. Florida karaoke

attempts. So you'll be able to really hear, you'll be able to really hear Tommy's voice, which, you know, you certainly don't want to miss. This was indoors as opposed to my outdoor. This was your indoor voice.

Yeah, this was your indoor voice. Right. Yeah, so, I mean, that was really fun. The pro football hall fame was great. You know, did you see what I tweeted? link you to? No. You don't see anything. I don't.

You know? I don't spend time on Twitter. I don't know. Except Tuesdays and Thursdays. Yeah, but on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I pull up your Twitter account and I start reading. What did you tweet out from the Pro Football Hall of Fame? Well, you know what? There's a display in a pro football hall fame of your favorite player, Kirk Cousins. No, there isn't. You know, and the comeback that he had.

Oh, right. Right. Of course. They had his jersey there. I think they had his cleats, and they had a big write-up. It's like a separate, you know, standalone exhibit, you know, in the middle of the hall for Kirk Cousin. Wow. Well, that was. I posted on Facebook, and I posted on Twitter, among other things I posted there in a week.

33 to nothing they were down in that game. 33 to nothing at half time. Yes, and they wound up when at 39-36. Yeah. Right? Yeah. I see it. Hey, Kevin, she in D.C.

guess who's in the Pro Football Hall of Fame? You know, he set the NFL record last year with the most fourth quarter comeback wins in NFL history for any quarterback, and that obviously topped them all. Tell me what the... Tell me about the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the things that were truly memorable for you. Well, again, they have the hall where they have all the bus

of all the members, and you can have a touchscreen where you can see a little write-up and see a little video of each of the members. Right. And the first bust you walk into in the hall, Sammy Ball.

You know, that's the first one you see. And, you know, it was great to see, you see Sonny Jurgensen's bus, Art Monks, George Allen, Chris Hamburger, they're all there. throughout that that hall. And that was pretty inspiring to see. You know, and I counted up all the members of the hall that either I've met or interviewed,

and it came to 33 guys, which I thought was pretty impressive. Wow. Yeah. Now that includes guys like Deacon Jones, who you and I interviewed at the Super Bowl. Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah, there were a bunch of those. or see young, guys like that. Right.

And they had, I'll tell you what, you know, it's, it was hard for me not to compare. It's great, you know, if you're a football fan, you love it. And I am a football fan, but it's not as nice as the baseball hall thing. It's just not. You know, it's just, I mean, it's a sport that didn't value, history for years as much as baseball has. So it's just not as good. It's great, and it's worth a trip.

And they're turning it into some kind of big development. They're building a Hall of Fame village, a retirement community around it. I don't quite understand all the dynamics of that. But it was a good trip. You know. It was good. Go ahead. No, I was just going to say, you saying,

that it didn't value its history as much as baseball did. I looked this up when you mentioned that the first bust that you saw was Sammy Boz. He was in the very first class of entranies for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and that was in 1963. I mean, the league had already been around for, you know, well, no, it had been around for 25 years. No, no, probably like 35 years at that point, something like that. The league started in 1921. 1921. Okay, sorry. So, 42 years it was around. And that was the first class of Hall of Fame inductees. And it was quite the class.

Red Grange, Don Hudson, Bronco Nogersky part of it, Sammy Baugh, Jim Thorpe, Ernie Nevers, Hallis. Yeah. All in that inaugural class. You know, they had different theaters where they showed different films and stuff. Right. And they had this one theater that consisted of Joe Nameda. in a hologram talking to you about football, which for me was great. And so it was fun.

We went to the Andy Warhol Museum. Yeah, tell me about that. Well, that was a little bit different. You know, my buddy, Harry, is not quite exposed to culture as maybe I am. Not that I'm any kind of culture freak, but Harry, Harry's all. The only words leaving the museum was I had no idea how weird this guy would. Well, that's probably a pretty accurate observation. Yes.

Yes, it was, and it was the films. He made like 300 films in the 60s that nobody ever saw, except, you know, the avant-garde, guard people saw them. And they're pretty bizarre, like a guy standing with a cigar blowing smoke into a woman's face for like 30 minutes. Yeah. Bizarre films like that. Yeah. Well, did you enjoy it?

Yeah, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. I had no idea that he was such a successful commercial artist before he became a popular artist. I mean, he was, I think, on Madison Avenue, major league in demand for his commercial artwork because he would give the client what they wanted, and he would do it in a very timely manner.

Apparently, he was very easy to work with. Clients loved him. So he really made his bones in advertising. Interesting. On Madison Avenue. I didn't know how successful he had been at that. So that was a little bit interesting. Were these museums that are one-dayers or half-dayers,

like, you know, did you get all you needed out of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and a half day or did you need a full day? Now, the Pro Football Hall fame was a three or four hours event. And the Andy Roll Hall Museum wasn't quite as long. But the Rock and Roll Hall fame, again, you could do a day and go back the next day. Right. Yeah. And then we went to a Guardian game on Tuesday night.

Right. So the Guardians play the Red Sox. You know, I've covered dozens of things. games in that stadium. And when the Indians in their glory years of the 90s, when they went to two World Series, and that stadium for eight years sold out every single game, 455 games, well, they took out. In 2014, they took out 7,000 seats because they're not, they'll get the same attendance. And they're about to take more out.

So, it's, you know, it seems better days. The stadium itself holds up great. And I don't get it because, I mean, for a town like Cleveland that hasn't seen a lot of winning, there's been a lot of great moments in that stadium. There's been tremendous moments that have taken place there. I don't understand why the Indians have kind of, guardians have kind of fallen out of favor a little bit. So they don't get the crowds they used to.

I've been to that stadium. I went to it. It was in the mid-90s. It was right after it opened. Tommy, I went to an Indians game at the old stadium. I probably told this to you before, but when I was on the road a lot for, you know, like a 12-year, 13-year period, I sometimes would just, if I was in a city where there was a baseball game that night, I would go.

even if it was by myself. And I remember going to a Cleveland game at old Cleveland Municipal Stadium. And I'm telling you, there probably weren't 5,000 people at the game. And that was a shitty stadium, by the way, for baseball. And they've obviously... The capacity for that stadium was 80,000. Exactly. It was the Brown Stadium, too.

But the new stadium, I remember when it opened and I remember going to a game clients of ours in Cleveland. I don't know, 1998, would it have been, 97 somewhere around there? Does that seem right? Yeah. Yeah. It opened in 94. 94?

And the sellout streak started in 95. Got it. And it lasted until, I think, in 2001 or something like that. Yeah. And the Pirates, you know, PNC ballpark is, you know, if you told me that you think it's the best ballpark in baseball, I'm not going to all. argue with you. It's not my favorite, but it's in top three. Well, everybody says, and I've never been to it, that it's the views of the city, which, you know, Pittsburgh has, Pittsburgh actually

is a pretty city, and it has more bridges. Here's a fun fact to know and tell. More bridges than any city in the country. But I've not been to it, but, God, I think my son was in Pittsburgh last summer and went to a game, and he thought it was the best park he's ever been to. And he loves Camden Yards. Yeah, I could see, I certainly, I'm not going to argue with that. And one of the things we did, this is a big deal for me. You know, all these stadiums have statues now in or around the stadiums. Yeah.

So I got my picture taken in Cleveland with Frank Robinson has a statue outside, you know, progressive field there in Cleveland. Right. Frank Robinson has a statue at three different Major League ballpark. Nats Park. No, he doesn't have one at Nats Park. He has one in Baltimore. He has one in Cincinnati, and he has one in Cleveland, too.

So who are the statues? Who are the statues? Just Frank Howard? No, no. And Walter Johnson? What? Oh, the statues outside. Josh Gibson?

Frank Howard, Walter Johnson, and Josh Gibson. And Josh Gibson, right. Okay, I was trying to think of it, so not Frank Robinson, who you loved. You've always loved Frank Robinson. Yeah, he's one of my favorite guys. I considered it a privilege to cover him because he was baseball royalty. Yeah. And so I got my picture taken with his statue, Larry Dobie, who played for the Indians,

has a statue out there. I got my picture taken with him in Cleveland. they have a great huge Roberto Clemente statue. We got a picture taken with that. They have Willie Starchel. So, I mean, I like doing that. It's just my little thing. It makes me feel like for a moment I'm actually sharing that moment with these guys,

even though it's a statue right out loud. Which of the two ballparks had the best food? Cleveland. Cleveland. Cleveland had better food. Okay. There's some pictures. with Harry and Pete. Which one's Harry and which one's Pete? Who's the taller?

Pete's the taller thin. Got it. Okay. And Harry's the other guy. And Pete's the guy that didn't like the Andy Warhol Museum. No, Harry's the one. Oh, Harry. Okay. And Harry's the one that hosts Bumstock every year. Ah, gotcha. All right. All right. Well, it sounds like that was one hell of a trip. It was. We covered 1,200 miles in five days. And, you know, the only thing that went wrong was my little hiccup with Hilton. Oh, yeah. So tell me about the, so tell me about the hiccup with Hilton. You said, Hilton. Yeah. Okay, what happened? I planned the whole trip. Here we go. You know, the baseball games, the museums, and the hotels. And so we get into the club. Cleveland, and I made reservations at the Hilton Garden in downtown Cleveland right across

from the ballpark. Would have been perfect. Mm-hmm. I have the reservation on my phone. Now, I make these reservations through Hotels.com. Uh, and so, uh, and the day before we got there, I got an email from the hotel, you know, welcoming me when, when we get there. Right.

So we get to the hotel. we go to check in, I show him my reservation on my phone, he goes to look it up, he says, no, you don't have a reservation here. And there were four millennials behind the counter who were more interested in amusing themselves and helping me. So, you know, I kept arguing with them. What does that mean? Right here, here's a number.

The four millennials standing behind you in line or behind the desk? No, behind the counter. Oh, behind the counter. Working for the Hilton Guard. and in. Yes. Okay. Yeah. And, you know, he said,

and he did some research, and he said, it looks like hotels.com canceled your reservation within seconds of making it. And I said, well, my other reservation, I checked the reservation

in Canton and Pittsburgh. I made them at the same time. They're still intact. I called both those hotels. He said, yeah, but we didn't have anything to do it. I said, well,

why are you sending me? emails the day before, you know, welcoming me to Cleveland. Right. I mean, it was a hotel email. Right. And he said, well, those are computer generated. We all have anything to do with that. But I said, you know, I've argued with them, but they're your emails.

And so, so now we're arguing with them about the reservation, but I was more upset with their indifference to our plight and their reluctance to try to help us find another accommodation. Wait, was the hotel booked? Well, the hotel was booked. Okay. But, I mean, I look, I've stayed in hundreds, maybe thousands of hotels. Okay, I've traveled in this business like you have. Yeah.

There was a room. There was a room somewhere if they really wanted it for you. Right. Either that, or they could call around. They have relationships with other hotels when this thing kind of happened. they couldn't lift a finger you know weren't particularly interested you know and i'm on my phone five feet from them trying to call different hotels and at one point i had to step away because they were so busy laughing and yucking it up about something they were they were amusing themselves

that that would have really irritated me it did it just really pissed me off yeah uh we wound up because every hotel we called in Cleveland wanted $700 that night for a room. Why? What was going on? Well, I think there were a lot of Boston fans in town for the game. So what we did was we just did pretty quick. Canton's only 50 minutes away. So I called the hotel in Canton and asked if we could check in two days earlier.

Instead of Thursday night, if we could come check in Tuesday night for three nights. which they said we could. Sure. Canton's got rooms. So, you know, we hung around Cleveland for a couple hours. We went to the Guardians game. That was fun. And then after the game, we drove the Canton where we spent the next three nights. You know, the next day we got up and we drove back to Cleveland to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Wait. Whoa, whoa, hold on for a second. You went to the Guardians game. You drove 50 minutes to Canton. And then you drove back to Cleveland the next day to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? We didn't drive hours. It's a 50 minute drive. 50 or 15 or 5-0?

5-0. You drove 50 minutes back to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This pisses me off now. All right. So first of all, what's the explanation? Why? You had a confirmation number. You had a reservation number, and they didn't have it in their system?

They blamed it on Hotels.com. Okay. Well, that's not... Hotels.com sort of admitted it to some extent, but they gave me like, they sent me like a, like this is going to, I mean, I'm going to, you know, they're second on the list. They kept me a $50 credit. Uh-oh. Uh-oh, we got list additions here.

We got, hold on, we got Hotels.com and we've got the Hilton, the Hilton Garden in. I mean, let's keep it to the Hilton Garden. Unless you want to go, you know, all in on every Hilton chain. Oh, I'm all in on every Hilton. Okay. You know, me, I've been back and forth with Hilton Corporate. Uh-huh. And they might as well have been those millennials behind the counter laughing at me.

That's much help as Hilton corporate. That's the part that would have just set me. It's one thing for there to be a mistake, and Hotels.com made it. But you are the customer, and even if you're not their customer, you may have been their customer, and you might be a customer in the future. And in the service industry, this is where you, you know, you bend over backwards to help the person that doesn't have a hotel room for that night and is in your city. Yes. And I'm a health and honors member.

So, I'm a member at her club. So I hope you gave that number. Did you tell them who you were? No, I didn't. I didn't tell them who I was. How did you handle it when you were there? Did you lose it at any point? Did you MF them or not?

No, I didn't do that. I didn't do that because at that point I was pissed off because these guys were relying on me to do this. Right. So you're a little bit, yeah, I mean, but it wasn't your fault. I know that. still felt obligated. Right. So I was looking to solve our immediate situation.

Yeah. At that point, as opposed to exacting revenge, because I knew afterwards I would work to exact revenge for the rest of my life. Yeah. If I have to. All right. And I sent an email to the general manager of the hotel. Right.

Two or three of them, never got a response, not one. So are you sure you sent it to the right general manager of that hotel? Yes, I did. I got his card. I have his email address. And you haven't heard back from him. I have not heard back from him. Hilton corporate has responded with, well, it's a Hotels.com problem.

I said, well, that's only half the problem. What about the terrible customer service that I received? Right. They said, well, we're sorry about that. Yeah, that's not good. That's not good. I am starting my letter writing campaign to the Cleveland Tourism Association. The Ohio hotel.

Don't get on his list, people. Do not get on his list. If you're on the list, you're never getting off the list, first of all. They're going to have a file with my name on it at that hotel. Just stick that into the levv. Here it is. Here's another one. Put it into his file and stick it in that box underneath the desk.

It's the Jim complaint file. from Dwight. Oh, boy, God. Oh, that is so, so irritating. You know, it's... But the rest of the trip went smooth as silk. We had great weather. We didn't have any of the smoke that you guys had to deal with.

Oh, that's right. You missed the smoke, which, God, I haven't even talked about that. I want to talk about that here in a moment. But go ahead. Wrap up your trip. And we didn't hit any traffic. Traffic was smooth. You know, it was just a really great trip.

And these are guys that you've known forever. You know, these are guys who have seen me at my best and worst, you know, over the years. And they mean a lot to me. So it was fun to spend five days with these guys. And if you've got some friends out there that you've talked about doing this, go ahead and do it. Go ahead and plan a trip. like this. Yeah.

Because it'll be worth it. 100%. Just don't stay in Hilton. Just don't stay at the Hilton Garden Inn in Cleveland. Yeah. Or any Hilton. Yeah. Have you tried to call that, GM?

No, I have not tried to call him. I would try to call him. I'd let him have it. But whatever. So at this point, it might make you feel good, but I don't know that you're... Hotels.com, what did you get back from them? How did it get resolved? Well, they gave me a $50 credit towards my next hotel.

A $50 credit. That's not going to cut it. No. What did the hotel, what did you have, what was the price of the hotel room or rooms that you booked that night? Slightly over $200 a night. No, no, that's $50 credit isn't going to do it. No. Yeah, no, that's not going to cut it.

But I'm concentrating on Hilton right now before I go after Hotels.com. Okay. Yeah, this... I don't like to fight a war on two fronts. I like to fight the war in front of me. Well, you can't fight a war on two fronts by yourself. You need some help. You've got to bring the Russians in to help out on the Eastern Front.

So, yeah, we had this smoke last week. But I'm going to tell you what I... I, honestly, I swear to you, I'm not trying to be Mr. Tough guy at all. I barely even noticed it. I mean, I understand that things were closing and schools were closing and they canceled the Nats game. And I know that, you know, it was, you know, there was a hidden misnature to it, depending on where you were. But on Thursday, when Thursday was supposed to be the really bad day, it was hazy. It was definitely hazy out.

But I didn't smell any smoke. Now, I might have issues with my smeller, but I didn't really smell smoke. I noticed the haze. Now, my son, who lives in New York, he was sending back pictures of like this yellowish haze and sky. It was very eerie. And he said it was really something else to walk around Manhattan, that he actually got, was able to stay home for work one of those days because they didn't want anybody coming into the office.

But, you know, he went around and walked around. and took some video and sent it back to us. But I don't know, to me, it was the equivalent of, you know, the forecasted 6 to 12-inch snowstorm where you get a little bit of rain and flurries and they still cancel schools. Because I just, I guess I missed it. I talked to various people. Like I played golf Friday.

I played golf Saturday. and I talked to some people and they said, no, no, it was pretty bad where I was. And so maybe it was just where I was on Thursday. Friday was beautiful. Saturday, gorgeous. Weekend was great. Today's going to be beautiful as well. But was not, you know, was not a big deal I didn't think for us.

Much worse, apparently for New York. Much worse. And apparently Detroit, I think Detroit really had a. bad because there were multiple. Really, because Cleveland and Pittsburgh didn't see anything really speak of. Okay. I want you to catch up on some of the things that you missed. I mean, you missed the big Wizards press conference. You missed mini camp. Lots of things going on while you were away. And of course, the NBA finals concluded last night with Denver winning in five. Damn it. I had two wagers on the series.

I had Denver and six, Denver and seven, and I lose both of them. All right, we'll get to all of that and more. Right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Finds true back to Lowry. There it is three-pointer. We'll go. It sells NBA champions. Denver takes game five and the NBA finals for their first ever NBA championship in the history of that city.

It really looked exciting for that fan base there last night. I think it's been exciting for the last two months, but the fact that they finally won a title, they've had good fans, Tommy, over the years. They've had loyal fans. They've had good players, you know, and they've had some good teams, but they've never been in the NBA finals

and they've never won it. And now the Nuggets are an NBA championship team, and they did it with Nicola Yokic once again, being great. I'll just tell you what I thought of the game. I loved it. And I don't want to hear you say that I'm overcompensating because it's just I can, I sat there and didn't miss one minute of it.

That was as intense, a defensive, desperate game as you'll see. And I love that in sports. I love in sports when you're truly, you know, backed into a corner and you're desperate and both teams are just, you know, cliche leaving it all out there. That's what was going on last night. And it wasn't pretty. You know, you didn't have some of the incredible shot making that you've had during the playoffs or some of the incredible shooting percentages that we've had during the postseason.

But I don't know that you'll find a game, you know, in the NBA in recent years that had more effort, energy and competitiveness as that game had last night. I loved watching it. It was that way from the jump. It was Miami and Denver just throwing haymakers back and forth, and it was all with effort and defense. I mean, the defense by both teams last night was sensational. I mean, nobody got, you know, open looks consistently last night.

Yokic was great. Look, I mean, he's all-time great in terms of a postseason, Tommy. I don't care, you know, what era we're talking about or what you think of basketball, nobody's ever had a postseason like Nicola Yokic just had. Statistically, anyway, and I think, you know, your own eyes watching it would tell you how great he was in leading Denver to a title. 28 and 16 last night, four assists, not a triple double. So he ends this postseason with 10 triple doubles, but averaged a triple double during the postseason.

hit every big shot for them down the stretch. Miami, they just, in their last, you know, since winning game two, games three, four, and five, you know, the effort, the intensity, the defense, it was there. I mean, there were certain things I didn't love about games three and four specifically with them on defense. they just couldn't make enough shots. And I think, you know, Jeff Van Gundy, who I've made fun of in the past, because I just can't stand the constant, you know, moaning about, you know, new rules. Like he comes up with a new rule idea every broadcast, and, you know,

each new rule idea is dumber than the one that preceded it. But he's a good analyst. He's a really good analyst. And he said something at one point during the second half. he said, Miami can't win this series, let alone this game, relying on role players. And he was specifically calling out Jimmy Butler really more than Bam, because Bam had a good first half, even though he completely disappeared in the second half and in the fourth quarter in particular.

And as much as I love Denver throughout this postseason, and I think it was one of the best team titles that I've seen in a long time. they've got a superstar, an all-time great. And they also have a superstar in Jamal Murray. And you see what was missed with Murray missing two of the last three post seasons. It's possible they would have had a title already, maybe the one in the bubble. And I think there could be more to come. There's certainly a contender for the next several years in a loaded Western conference. But it was such a beautiful brand of basketball to watch. And I'll, you know, acknowledge, you know, in this day and age, where there is, unfortunately, and it's the kind of

basketball I don't like. There's a lot of, you know, one man and two-man sets and, you know, the James Hardens of the world dribbling the life out of the basketball, and that's hard to watch. And Denver and Miami were the opposite of that, and they were just incredible teams and well-coached teams and selfless teams. But I've got to point out that for me, Jimmy Butler carried them to the NBA finals. But the truth is, he cost them a chance, I think, in the NBA finals to have a longer series. I thought he was outstanding defensively throughout the finals. But man, whatever, what happened to him from essentially games.

Game 3 or game 4 in the Boston series through the end of this series was really interesting. And I don't know that we got an explanation because I was expecting something to come out after the game. Maybe Spos saying something like, we got to give Jimmy Butler a hell of a lot of credit because he was playing through, you know, a strained Achilles or something like that. Because he really did at times look so reluctant offensively. Going back to game six of the Boston series, that was really the beginning of this, you know, seven-game run. Look, I mean, it's hard to criticize, you know, he averaged 21.6 points per game in the finals, you know. But he was a reluctant offensive player as a scorer. And they needed him to be a score in these NBA finals.

and they needed him to be an early scorer. Kyle Lowry, and I read this last night, but I remember him saying it maybe in, it could have been the Knicks series. He said, when Jimmy starts fast, we feed off of that, and we are off and running. And he had zero points at the end of the first quarter. He had eight at halftime.

He had eight at the end of the third quarter. He had eight points going into the final four and a half minutes of the game. and then he scored 13 in a row. I mean, out of nowhere. I blame his passiveness as a score in these NBA finals for Miami not playing a longer series against Denver. They were not the better team, and I don't think they were going to win this series.

But I do think that they had a chance to win more than a game in this series had he been more aggressive as a score. I personally think something must have been wrong. I think the size and length in the Boston series affected him a little bit, and it looked like he didn't have much lift. And you saw a lot of this against Denver, too, but it was odd. It was odd to watch. And, man, he got shredded.

I was reading it this morning on Twitter during the game last night. by NBA people and NBA players who love him. And it's like, what are you doing? Your team has a chance to take this series back to a game six, and you've got eight points on two of 13 shooting. I mean, like I've said this before, but you go back to the early portion of the playoffs, and he had a game in which he had 33 shot attempts,

28 shot attempts, 27 shot attempts, where he was shooting 50%, 67%, 68%. In Boston, in games one and two, he was 12 of 25 from the floor in the first two games, 35 points, 27 points, 48% shooting from the field. Now, in the closeout game against Boston, he got aggressive, and I thought he played well, played very well defensively. But there was something not right about Butler. and the reliance on their role players, which was the Jeff Van Gundy line that I just, I wrote down, I'm like,

God, that's so spot on. You can't in that situation, you can't rely on the Max Streuces and the Gabe Vincense and the Duncan Robinsons and the Caleb Martins of the world. That's the time your superstars, your stars, your best players have to lead you. And I know Butler scored 13 in a row at the end. And it was amazing to watch. including the foul where he went to the line for probably three free throws he shouldn't have gotten. Although I'm going to tell you that that was a bit of a stepback three. And anybody that has ever shot a basketball in an actual game,

those stepback threes with length and it was Gordon in front of them, you will occasionally kick that leg out a little bit as part of the shooting motion to get a little more strength into the shot. But anyway, that was to me head scratching. It was head scratching the last several games, and last night was really strange. Eight points entering the last four and a half minutes of the game. And by the way, they had a 10-point lead at one point in this game.

And then he brought him back. They were down seven, and he brought him back to the lead. And then he turned it over with a terrible turnover, down one with 26 seconds to go. I mean, he didn't get any help. Struce had a backdoor cut. He was being overplayed. You've got to feel that and cut back door. And it would have been a real chance at the rim.

But still, I mean, they had timeouts left. There were a lot of things they could have done there. But, you know, the Nuggets deserved it, Tommy. That's a really good NBA championship team. And for me, and I would think for people like you, a really enjoyable team to watch because they play basketball the way some people think it should be played. But man, the intensity of that game, the defense by both teams, I mean, the shooting percentages were horrible, but it was all defense.

It was all just, I mean, every loose ball, there were three bodies on the floor. It was intense. and it was desperate from Miami, which I loved. And that's what you, you know, that's that heat culture they talk about. I mean, they are, they are overachievers, that's for sure. But anyway, I hope Yokic gets on a run here. You know, he's got two MVPs and now he's got a finals MVP, Tommy. He's another championship and another, you know, regular season MVP away from being considered, like, you know,

legitimately in the conversation. of the all-time greatest to ever play the game. We're a couple of years away from that. Skill-wise, we can already say it. But in that sport, you need the rings to go with it. He's got one. He probably needs another one or two. Let me speak about Yokish for a minute.

First of all, I did love watching Denver play and Miami to some extent. Jimmy Butler is my second favorite player behind Yokit. So I enjoyed the final games for the most. part. I mean, look, I think the intensity speak about, I think he could say that for most NBA finals games that we've seen over the years. I don't think this was some kind of new development about intensity. I think if you're not going to be intense in the NBA finals, what's the point of being there? And I love that Yokic after the game went and congratulated every heat player he could find before he's

started celebrating. Yeah. You know, that was the first thing he did was went and, you know, just offered, shook hands, you know, hugged every key player he could find before he started celebrating with his team. So I like that a lot. Let me take you on a little experiment. This is what we'd like to do with players. When we compare errors, you know, people will say, well, somebody like a Willis Reed or a Dave Cowan's

or Will Chamberlain, you know, maybe they couldn't play in this era, okay, because of the, quote, evolution. Let's reverse it, okay, Kevin? Okay. Could Yokic play in the era when there were great big men? Would he be as successful as he is now? And I would have to say no. I would say yes, 100%. No.

I'd say, you know what? He won the Bill Russell Trophy last night. Right. If Bill Russell in his prime was guarding Yokic in his prime, Yokish is not nearly the score that he was in today's NBA. Dave Callant's all over him. Willits Reed all over him. He benefits from the lack of big men.

Now, he has a great three-point shot, but a lot of these guys then would go out on him on the three-point shot, knowing that there's no way he could get past them because he's so slow. This guy, he's great to watch, and everyone calls him a unicorn. Why do they call him a unicorn? Because there's nobody like him in the NBA anymore. The NBA used to be filled with guys like him. Well, there's no doubt that the NBA used to be filled with guys big men who were very defined as post-players.

both on defense and on offense. The games evolved. The big man doesn't play on the post exclusively anymore. And so, you know, look, Bill Russell, I think, probably could guard anybody anywhere. But what the first thing they would do with Yokic is, you know, Bill Russell would be away from the rim guarding Nikola Yokic, you know, 25 feet from the floor, which means he's not going to end up with all those blocked shots. again and all the rebounds that he ended up with. You'd pull him out. You'd pull wilt out.

But Yolkish is not going to wind up with the triple double that he's happened. But Yokich is going to shred him with his passing because the lane's going to be wide open. There's going to be no rim protector. So there's lots of different, you know, I don't know what the answer. These arguments to me, here's what I feel strongly about, that the physical, you development and evolution over the years. It's just a different game athletically. I don't necessarily think like the skill difference is significant, although I do think it's different. You know, and by the way, when I say different, it's definitely different from like the 60s NBA. I think when you start to get into the 70s in the NBA and the 80s, the skill levels are very

comparable to today. I mean, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Isaiah Thomas isn't, or Pete Marovich isn't one of the all-time greatest skill players of all time. But I told you this last year, when I sat there, NBA TV was running the 1962 NBA finals between the Lakers and the Celtics, and I'm like watching the ball handling, and it's just dreadful. I mean, you've got guys that literally are moving left, dribbling with their right hand. The ball completely exposed. There wasn't defense back then where you're you're really trying to, you know, where you're really being, you know, pushed as a ball handler. It was a more, like, it was free flowing and then the game stopped becoming free flowing because of the hand check, and then it became free flowing again.

But the only thing that I feel strongly about is that there's just a completely different level of athleticism. And that's just, you know, you see it in all sports. I mean, there weren't many, you know, six foot, eight inch, 270 pound,

you know, forwards who could post you, could hit you in the mid range, or could shoot long jump shots that now count for three. And that's LeBron. I mean, I can't imagine quite honestly, and I'm not You know I'm not the biggest LeBron fan.

I can't imagine anybody from that day of age guarding LeBron when he gets ahead of steam. But that's the only thing I feel strongly about. I think the game, you know, it's certainly the way the game was played and it was much more of a team game versus an ISO game. You know, that stuff I enjoy more. But no, the level of play in these NBA playoffs was the highest I've ever seen as a basketball. fan for 50 years. I've never seen better basketball, better shot making, better passing. I just thought the entire postseason was great. It's interesting. I did not think the NBA finals were great. There wasn't a great game. Last night's game, being called by virtually everybody, one of the most

intense games they've ever watched, including the announcers on the call. So whatever, it was different last night than most NBA finals games. But I'm not going to sit here and quibble with you. you only watched the last few minutes of the game. But I didn't think it was a great NBA finals. There wasn't a great game. Game two was a really good game, but it's been a while since we've had, you know, a game come down to the very end. Game two, they had the three.

You know, Jamal Murray had a three to tie it. But we had basically, you know, four out of the five games. I mean, last night's game was a one-point game with a minute and a half to go. but, you know, we had three basically double-digit wins for the Nuggets. So I didn't think the NBA finals were great. I also thought both teams looked a little bit worn out, to be honest with you. And last night, man, you know, with the way they got after it on defense, it just shot making was the most difficult you've seen in any game, I think,

throughout the postseason. What did they shoot? I don't even look at the final numbers. Denver shot 49.4%. Well, I didn't realize they shot that well from the field. Miami shot 8 of 25. Miami finished the four games that they lost. They shot 40 for 125 from the three-point line.

Is that good? That's not good. That is not good at all. And they weren't making up for it by being outstanding from two or outstanding from the free throw line necessarily. But I'll tell you, the biggest mystery for me when this thing was all over is what happened to Jimmy Butler on offense? I mean, he made plays for others,

but it was like he thought he was a pass-first point guard in like six out of the last seven games he played in the postseason. That was odd. It was weird to watch. And last night, just like game six of the Boston series, it's like, what are you doing? They need you to score 30 tonight. And he had no intention of scoring 30 for some odd reason.

All right, let's finish up the show talking a little football right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelley's. Well, one of the things I missed on my road trip was stopping into Shelly's and having a smoke. I didn't have any cigars pretty much. on the trip, say, from one night outside the hotel. And I'm looking forward tonight.

I'm going to an awards dinner at the National Press Club, and after that I'll walk right across the street, the Shelley's back room, and have a nice celebratory cigar and a beer from one of the many cigars they have on their cigar menu. Shelly's has the top 25 cigars that are listed by cigar. official auto magazine on their cigar menu list. And they have a great staff that will help you find the cigar that you want if you're not particularly used to picking out a cigar.

Shelley's backroom, 1331, F Street, Northwest in the district. Shelly's is the best, and it's good to have Tommy back talking about Shelly's. All right. So what did you miss that you wanted to talk about from when you were away? We had three days of minicamp. By the way, yesterday they canceled the day today, which we were supposed to have as the final OTA day. It's my opinion, and if I didn't talk about this yesterday, Galdi was on the podcast with me yesterday. We talked about a lot of things.

Galdi was great yesterday. But I think it's just that they got win that a lot of players weren't going to post for it, more likely than not. That seems to make sense to me, why they ended up, you know, essentially canceling this last day. But anyway, what did you want to talk about? Ron Rivera's comments about the idea that this, that there's possibly a real quarterback competition now, that, you know, that Sam House not being handed the job,

that Jacoby percent will have a chance to win the job. Somebody finally asked him, I think, about, you know, snap counts, you know, who's going to get the most work with the first team. Right. And I forget what his answer was on that. But I thought that was, you know, I thought that was pretty interesting. And I think as, as I think it speaks more towards my scenario, long-shot scenario of Jacoby Percept being the starter week one

than the other guy being the starter. I mean, I talked a lot about. those comments. I just think that that they want, this is what they want. They want Sam Howell to be the starter. So it's very clear and not that this is news that Sam Hal has a head start here.

Sam Hal has to really soil himself in training camp to the point where they feel like they can't really operate with him and that everybody in the building's looking around saying, you're not actually going to do this, are you? I kind of think that's where we are. Now, I think it's stupid to completely dismiss the idea that that could happen. I don't know why people are so convinced that, well, that's not going to happen. Did you see him against the Cowboys?

Of course it could happen. You know, he's never been a starting quarterback in the NFL. You know, what we heard and what we heard all last week, consistently. And by the way, I'm okay with this because I don't want them building them up publicly. I don't want to hear how great he is and, you know, about, you know, the unbelievable throws. Like we were hearing earlier in the offseason, like the defensive players are turning around saying, how did the ball get there so quickly? You know, offensive players are like, oh my God, the ball was there right when I turned around. Enough of that. I don't want to hear that. But what we heard was, you know,

he's making progress. That, you know, he's, you know, he auto-corrects himself. He's got to, he's very coachable. I'm paraphrasing here, but these are the things that essentially, you know, were said about him last week. And, you know, I like that they're not building them up too much. But I'm not, I'm not totally. On the other hand, Kevin. Yeah.

On the other hand, when your offensive coordinator is asked about, you know, his starting quarterback, and his go-to words are he's very competitive, he's very smart, he understands he makes mistakes, and the only thing he wants to know is what he can do to get better. Like former Eagles GM, Joe Banner said on Twitter, when your offensive coordinator has a chance to talk about his starting quarterback, and he focuses on his demeanor, that's an odd choice. Was Joe Banner talking about Eric B. Enemy?

I think so. Oh, I mean, at this point, I don't know. I actually think I'd rather hear Eric B. Enemy just completely downplayed. Just say he's coming along, you know, long way to go, but there are things about him that we like, and, you know, we're making progress. I want Sam Howell to sneak up on the NFL and on the Arizona Cardinals. But this team, this team, even with this administration, has never done that. I know. Ron Rivera talked about the arms strength the other day.

He was like, you know, he's, I mean, it was the last thing as he was talking about, you know, making progress and, you know, things he's improving on and other things he's got to work on. But, you know, at the same time, I mean, he can really throw the football. He's got a big arm, you know. And I think that's one of the things that they actually really do love about him. I don't know what else they truly love about him other than apparently. he is a really coachable, easygoing, you know, eager beaver as a young quarterback. I just want to get back to my point, though. My point is that they want him to be the starter.

So last week I asked the question, and we did this on radio, and I think we talked about it on the podcast as well. Sam 48 was on with me, and we talked about this. And I just, I asked callers and I asked Sam when he was on with me, give me the percent chance right now that Jacoby Brissette is the starter on opening day. I'll tell you what my answer was first and then I want to hear yours. I'm at 20 percent. And Sam's like, I'm at like 5 percent.

And then I said, why? Like, you don't think there's a chance? You think there's only a 5 percent chance that Sam Howell is going to really soil himself or really cave or really, you know, in three weeks, in 19 practices or whatever it is, you know, you think there's just only a 5% chance that he's going to, you know, that he's going to basically s the bed. And he's like, well, I guess there's more of a chance than that. Well, then you've got to, you've got to elevate the percent odds.

I've got it one out of five. I had a lot of callers that were telling me it's 50%. 50%. But other people are like it's zero percent because I watched Sam Hal in that Dallas game and I saw he's ready to play. I don't get that part of it. I wouldn't put it much different than where you put it, because it's a long-shot prediction.

Okay. Well, you've predicted it. I would put it maybe 25 to 30%. Okay. I mean, you're right. He's going to have to perform to the point where the difference is going to have to be. Teammates are going to have to think that they have a better chance to win with percent. and the offensive coordinator who's auditioning for a head coaching job this year is going to have to believe,

I have a better chance to win with Jacoby percent. Yeah, he's actually, you know, this season's about him becoming a head coach, not an offensive coordinator. Yes, that's why I said. Oh, okay. He's auditioning to be a head coach this year. Yeah, I still think that that's, I asked Galdi yesterday, I said, you know, what's the thing that you're most excited about? He said, Sam Hal.

I said, what's the thing you're most concerned about? And I think you talked about the offensive line. And what's the thing you're most curious about? And for me, the curiosity is Eric B. Enemy. This is, to me, the biggest concern is, do they have a quarterback? I mean, I think that that's obvious, but it's obvious to me. I think I don't know if they have a quarterback or not. And if they don't have a quarterback again, then they can't win enough games.

to go to the postseason. They might be great defensively, and I'm most confident in their defense. I think this could be an outstanding defensive football team. But outstanding defensive football teams without quarterbacks don't win Super Bowls and don't compete for Super Bowls unless they're coached by Kyle Shanahan,

and he's not here. So I'm most curious about the Eric B. Enemy's situation. To me, you know, he's got total say on everything that goes on. He scheduled everything for OTA days in minicamp, and everybody is basically following his lead. This practice that they were supposed to have today was apparently all Eric B. Enemy.

Nope, we're coming back. We're practicing. Okay, Eric, if that's what you want. Now, they canceled it because Tommy, interestingly, and I said this on Friday, it'll be interesting to see how many offensive players show up for this last voluntary stand-alone OTA day when their new offensive coordinator desperately wants them to show up.

Well, they ended up canceling it. So I think they got win that a lot of players weren't going to show up for it. I mean, we know the players that were definitely not going to show up for it. But I think the BNami situation is the most interesting situation. Like, he's got total call on this. Is he going to go with, to go with Sam Howe, he's got to feel like Sam Howe has a chance to be a legitimate NFL starting quarterback top half of the league. and whether it may take a while, but we're going to invest in this right now, starting now.

Because if he doesn't feel that way, then there's a chance he won't get to the end of this season with a quarterback that's making progress and looks like an NFL starter. And in that case, he's got to go with Jacoby Brissette because this is his chance, as you said. And he needs either a young quarterback that grows into a quarterback that everybody looks at, and says, wow, what progress he made, even if it's not a playoff team, and it probably won't be if Sam Hal starts 17 games. But if they say at the end of the year, wow, look at that kid, great job by Eric Bienemy. Or, wow, that offense took a big jump with Eric Bianami and Jacoby Brissette as the coordinator and the quarterback and their 10-win team and they're playing in a

wild card game. One of those two things needs to happen for Eric Bianney. I would agree. That's all I got today, boss. What about, do you have anything on Ted's press conference last week? I sent you. I didn't watch it. I sent you the note where he called his organization a kind of an it organization. I did hear that. Yeah.

People are, you know, around the league looked at his organization as a model. As a model for media, media in particular, you know, the monumental. group has become a behemist. All right, we had to do this short today because we're recording it before my radio show this morning. So we're

going to both run, but we'll both be back together on Thursday. Welcome back. I'm glad your trip went so well. Sorry about Hilton Garden Inn. It's good to be back, boss.