The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Anything Goes Friday! Rockets vs Jazz, Astros vs A's, Jalen Rose & Ime Udoka Join

Episode Date: April 3, 2026

Anything Goes Friday! Rockets vs Jazz, Astros vs A's, Jalen Rose & Ime Udoka Join

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross Whiztown Goodcom to a Friday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. He's got a button stuck

and he can't unstick. Well, unsink your button, please. Hey, here, you're trying, Matt. I'm mad at him. I'm mad at the equipment. Always mad at the equipment. Never mad at the fan. Hey, I can hear now.

Oh, that's much better. Now we're getting a little echo now. I'm just going to work from home from now on. It's just easier. No, I know it's easier, Matt. But people commute. Well, people in Houston commute, okay? But I don't have to because I come here and I get frustrated.

Well, I would like you to. Not with you, but not with Jonathan. I would like you to. I know, I'm here. 40 minute commute. That's nothing in Houston. Oh, today it was a great day to commute. Yeah.

Okay, now it sounds great. And by the way, let's go to, uh, let's go to Raw Rise and get us a fish sandwich out of me. No, no, stop. All right? I'm not getting a fish sandwich with you. I know you're going to continue to do it, and that's fine. You start spending money with us. You'll get the full name.

10.05. Good morning. Hi. It's anything goes Friday, clearly. As is the case each and every Friday for the last 16 years. Yeah. So what we were saying is, so Jonathan has a button where he talks to only us. It's like a secret messages. It's called Interruptible Feedback, IFB.

And it's, you know, it's helpful. Hey, guys, this is happening. Hey, that's happening, whatever. And the button got stuck so we could only hear Jonathan. Thankfully for he Yeah, we can see it now And now the camera's working This is good

Oh look at the button stuck off This is the button You took the button off the board No, it had to I had to make a word The button got broken off Because all we heard for like 30 seconds Hey girl

I miss you Yeah What's up girl Can't wait to get Can we get back to the house At 1001 It's gonna be a good Friday Tonight too

Yeah I don't know why John had talks like this I know you've been waiting for this to for Lent to end But it's going to come early Oh, yeah. I've been waiting 40 days and 40 nights.

We've been giving Jonathan's business out there, aren't we? That's what we do here. Anything goes Friday. Anything good Friday? Look, nobody's, look, we had no game to speak of last night. That's okay. No Astros, no rockets. A lot.

NBA action. All right. We do have a significant injury in the NBA. We kind of need to discuss. Okay. We can get to that. And then, look, most of you are off today. So if you've ever said, hey, I listen to

Matt and Ross, but I don't get to call because either I'm teaching in class or I'm in a middle of a high profile case or I'm a delivery driver and don't have time. Now, today is the greatest opportunity for you to call this show between now and two o'clock this afternoon. Okay. We'll have some interesting things coming up on the program today. We will have, now we're supposed to zoom this call. I'm not overly confident this is going to happen because Gordy's not here. So I don't know if he's going to help us with this or not. Okay.

Well, we'll see what happens. But Jaylon Rose is supposed to join us today from Indianapolis. All right. A little Final Four, little NBA chatter. I believe in Gordy. Now, the question is, is Gordy even listening to us to know that we're a little nervous about this segment? I would say, yes. He listens to the station all the time.

That's what a good programmer does. He's listening to the station. So, Gordy, I just want to let you know we are a little nervous. Not that we don't trust you. I'm not nervous, Gordon. I am extraordinarily nervous. Hi, my name is Ross Gordy, and, you know, I most of the time, have your back. not 100% of the time.

No, but nobody's got anybody's back. I don't have your back. I don't know. 30% of the time. You're going to regret that someday. It's fine. It is what it is. I got your back, Gordy. I believe.

So he'll join us at 12 noon, which means they're pushing the strippers back to 1220. Okay. Thinks I don't normally send the radio. They can sleep in a little more. It used to be 2 p.m. for the strippers. It did, it did. They're not.

No, they worked heavy last night because people are off today. No, that's any Thursday. They're not getting up in there. They're out there to like four. So 1220? If I want to think I'd have to take their kids to school? They probably sleep through that.

Oh, that's not good. All right, so the strippers at 1220. We've emailed at 1 o'clock today. Rockets and jazz tonight, a game that absolutely no one's going to probably overly care about. I mean, the jazz have... I care. I'm coming to the arena.

I'll be there. I'll be there. Calling you professional broadcasts per usual. Going through the minefield of players from the jazz I've never heard of before, getting major minutes. Oscar Shibway is going to get some major time. We'll be in the starting lineup tonight. Okay.

How do you feel about an Oscar Shibway? I don't know who that is. Okay, he plays for the jazz. He'll be one of the starting five. Shibway. It doesn't look the way it's spelled, but it is what it is. Okay. So we'll get you a deep dive on that.

Yeah, and then we've gotten on Florida stories at 130 and Helier or not at 150. So that's the program today. Can't wait. All right, well, good. We want you to be on Anything Goes Friday. Explain Ross, the essence of Anything Goes Friday, please. Well, let's see.

technical snafus and sports and anything you want to get to on the phone lines. If you want to talk about your favorite fish sandwich, we can do that. Are you going to do your fish sandwich power rankings during Lent? That's going to happen today. That's what you need to do. I can give it to you. 713-212-5-7-90 is the phone number. Are we talking fast food or just period places?

7-1-3-2-5-7-90. I would say fast food. Yeah, I can give you five fast food. Now, I can't put nut-nights in there because I haven't been there yet. I mean, isn't most 80% of fish sandwiches come from fast food anyways? Is there a fish sandwich on the Dorton's menu? Well, you can get like a pole boy, which would be a... Yeah, that's different.

But nobody gets a fish poleboy typically. It's either a shrimp or a crop. I mean, I like catfish, po' boy. A catfish not bad. Oh, I know. Surf and turf with some road be debris now, baby on a pole boy, man. Mr. Louisiana just popped on in. Oh, you know you got to need some debris now.

I like debris. Love it. I love going to mothers, except when I have to go with people that want to chat and cut, and then that person blocks me on Facebook. I call him out on it. Is that what happened? I think so. Shout out Michael Garfield.

I love Michael Garfield. I just don't want to chat and cut. Well, he blocked me too. You got me tangled up in your web. Gilled by association, I guess. That's fine. It's been happening to me for a long time. Yeah.

But I digress. I've taken you places. Where? Places you didn't want to go. Yeah, I was going to say. Anyways. Anything you want to get to, look, we literally have day drunks calling in and day drunks who get called out and become sober on this show.

Yeah, we had a call yesterday. You just talked about that. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number if you want to get in. Okay, so, look at it, on the local scene, Astro started series with the A's tonight, and we'll have it for you over on KTRH because we have the Rockets over here on 790. So, a little late-night tilt for you. So listen to me, and then when you get in a car after you celebrate the Rockets win over the Jazz, you listen to Robert and Steve on the Astros call.

We did have a major injury in the NBA, we'll get two, but I do want to start with, so I got this morning and watched the today show, which I normally do. There is the video is out about Tiger Woods and his arrest. Yes.

Have you seen it? Yes, some of all of it? Yeah, I said that I saw it on the news at noon yesterday. Well, how do I know how you could? There was like four or five minutes of it. Do you saw the whole thing? Okay, well, I guess I didn't pay attention.

It's all right. Thanks for listening. Okay, well, that's the case. Who was he talking to when he got arrested? The officer? Oh, you're on the phone? Oh, I don't know. That was part of the video. How did you now see it?

Okay. I watched it. Then he talked about the video. Okay. Who was he talking to? Oh, the president. Yeah, there you go. That's right. Yeah, President Trump.

Well, I just was, just checking. Why is he talking to the president? I don't know. Why is the president talking to him? I mean, I know that you can't always be on the clock the whole 24 hours. We've got a war on Iran. We got my 401k's dropping. We got gas prices rising.

Talk to us, but Tiger, you can make a time for Tiger. I don't know. Maybe he thought that was going to get him out of it. I wonder if, now, does somebody have backing that he definitely did talk? Did President Trump back that up and say, yes, I was talking to Tiger? No, I don't think so. I think they're busy. Very busy.

I don't even do a President Trump, so I can't even do it. I think an only person that doesn't do a President Trump impersonation. I do a horrible, horrible one. McTaggart does one. I was talking to Tiger Woods. What is that, a one out of ten, maybe? You sound like Stephen Colbert doing President Trump. Oh, really?

Yeah. Okay, one out of ten. 10. You know what? You attempted it. I didn't try it. So get credit for you. But the other video was interesting. He's trying to do the whole point nose thing. They show him getting arrested. He's, you know, he's flushed. He's burping. He's hiccuping. It's a hot mess. And again, he asked for, he said, look, I will go to in-in-treatment rehab, but I don't want to do it in the United States, as you mentioned yesterday, because he wants the privacy. Yeah.

They very eloquent have said, you know, Betty Ford's close. You can stay here, but they let him go overseas. So obviously I'm thinking he's a flight risk. Yeah, flight risk. Because, again, if you're Tiger Woods, you can't be a flight risk. People will find you. So, again, let's see. Oh, Trump was asked about Woods and told reporters, quote,

I feel so badly he's got some difficulty, very close friend of mine. He's an amazing person, amazing man, but some difficulty. Someone just asked, isn't Tiger Woods dating his daughter, Trump's daughter? Yeah, there's a Trump relationship. Oh, yeah, it was, um, Vanessa. Shout out to Matt. Yeah, I forgot about that. Former daughter-in-law, Vanessa, so they're not blood-related.

Okay, former daughter-in-law. Can I do a quick Google search? And these memes are coming out. Vanessa Trump, see how she looks. I'm just curious. Yeah, the memes are here. where they're putting him in this blanket or whatever he's wearing

with E.T. Oh yeah, she was married to Donald Jr. from 2005 to 2018. Yeah, that's right. He announced it on Twitter and then asked for privacy. Which is fine. I don't care who he's dating. I don't care. How do you put

Tiger's Tree up against Derek Jeter's? It's much lower. The fruit is closer to the ground. I mean, we're talking Perkins and the waitresses here. I mean, come on. Okay, so let's go. Lindsay Vaughn. I mean, no, that's good. Elon Norgren.

Vanessa Trump is cute. Ellen Norgren, that's three, but, you know, it's, yeah, Trump, I mean, Cheater's got it one. He's a volume accumulator. He's like the, he's like the Gilbert Arenas. He believes in quality and quantity. Yeah. And he gives him baseball, assigned baseballs after you know.

There's Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods is Gilbert Arrinas. The volume, volume shooter. You went for an NBA cross reference. I think I appreciate that very much. You got to respect the volume and efficiency. You know, at the end of the day, he might be LeBron James. Don't get mad at me, Michael Jordan fans. Because the efficiency or Kareem.

Ooh, Shaq? Either way, we're talking high volume, high efficiency. So we'll go Michael Jordan. Speaking of Kareem, I learned about something about one of Kareem's greatest theatrical moments. That might not have been his. I'll explain that coming back. Is that a good tease or just average?

That was incredible. I don't think it was great. I'm on the edge of my seat. I don't like it. You didn't like it either? I didn't think I like it. No, he said he did. No, he said he loved it.

No, I did. I heard of him say. Oh, my headphones are so messed up. Well, that's because Jonathan's whispering sweet nothing to his girl. Like, Matt's got a terrible tease coming up. 1015, it's anything goes Friday on Sports Talk 790. Anything goes Friday.

Sports Talk 790. 713. 125-790 if you want to get in. 7-13-1-2-1-2-5-7-90. We've got again, I'm sorry, he's at 1130 today. News at noon. Alex, you know, the news will be at 12-20 when we wake the strippers up. We'll have a Jalen Rose at 12 o'clock.

He's not going to be on the Zoom, maybe on the phone, so it'll be nice and good. Now, we have to figure out, before we go to the phones. We'll talk to Jane just a second here. Where did the ding come from, the Jalen Rose ding? Does he know what it was? He was on the Bill Simmons podcast with, and they were running through a list of something, and he was saying, ding. and we flat out stole it from that.

They stole a bit of audio's audio. Yeah, I mean, we clipped it. Yeah. Let's say that way. And do we play it during Jail and Rose? If you want to tell him, I mean, we always use it. Yeah. I will tell him.

We use it all the time. So Jailen and Rose will join us. Good to get him back on television. I like him. I like him as an analyst on TV. And so final four coverage. And again, congratulations to all four schools that are really far from us.

Yeah. Wishing them the best. Not going to be paying attention much. Normal is the city of Houston. We don't do particularly well when it comes to non-Huston sports events. That's just in general, yeah. That's how we roll. We've got the other stuff to do, man.

We've got to hit Buffalo Bayou Park. Is that the park to roll the... It's fine. You know what? I posted a picture over there because I was like walking there and there's like thousands of people around. And I got so many messages for people. Ross, are you okay? I saw you were at Buffalo by your park.

Yeah, there's thousands of people out there. Stop watching the news. Leave your house. It's okay. Be with another person. Keep your eyes out on stuff. And you don't have to panic about everything. And we live in a panic.

All right? Nobody's out there like they just standing with a knife, Michael Myers style and just stabbing people. I hope not. If you're out there in the middle of night, by yourself, bring your mace. First of all, don't do that at all. You shouldn't be out there.

But it was like, I was out there for sunset. Like it was daylight pictures. And everybody's getting all worried about Buffalo Bayou Park. Like, relax people. Go outside. It's okay. Okay.

Thank you. Sorry, my rant on that. That's all right. Anything goes Friday. I don't care. 713-212-5-790. Let's talk to Jay on 7-90. Jay, good morning.

Morning. So, in regards to Tiger Woods, you know, Ross the other day was talking about how, you know, he thinks he's a grace all time and everything else. And it's interesting that when team sports, it's subjective, right?

You say LeBron's the greatest Michael Jordan. But the narrative has been since day one in regards to, say, tennis and golf, that who has the most majors is the greatest of all time. And so everybody assumed Tiger was going to break Jack's record. Oh, he's the greatest. And all of a sudden he didn't do it. So how can't, I mean, to me, Jack, you know, if majors is all you can't change in there. Majors has always been the barometer of who's the greatest of all time would come to individual sports, especially tennis and golf, right? Yeah, but they didn't play in the same.

If they played in the same era, then the argument stands up more. And also, Jay, you as an individual get to decide it. No one says the number of majors is the barometer. Now, I'm just still saying I do think. No, it's not me to say that. It's been the sports media saying that. Well, but yeah, I have my own opinions on my own, my own person. I mean, I think Tiger was dominant for a longer period of time,

for it was dominant in his time, but I also do believe longevity is a part of it, and the major is a huge part of it. So, um, I mean, Tiger Woods has 82 overall wins. Jack Nicholas has 73. Tiger Woods won 22.8% of the,

uh, events he entered in. 23% of the events he entered and he won. Jack Nicholas is 11 and a half. I get that and, and I understand that. But, but with all that said,

you know, I can, you know, I do change my opinions and everything else. Sure. And 15 and 18 is close enough. It was like 18 to 9. Yeah, go ahead. I think what puts Tiger over the top now is that when you get an erect and instead of calling your lawyer and you can call the president, you're not saying the answer.

He name dropped big time. That is the ultimate. What name drop could you ever match than that? I mean, and yes, I'm talking to the president right now. Yeah. I mean, so, but just goes to show you. you still don't get you off the hook. It's funny, he didn't say, do you know who I am?

Because I was like, we all know who you are. He was saying, do you know who I am when he did that? Yeah, that's right. It was saying, do you know who I am? That was a low-key way to do it. Jay, thanks for the phone call. I appreciate it. Look, I didn't see all of Jack. I've seen All of Tiger.

So you would think I would lean towards the tiger. I do go historical on that. So I would probably still go Jack, but, man, it's super, super close. It's like LeBron and Michael close. That's how it is. Yeah, and I have my biases. is because I didn't watch. I've watched Jack Nicholas, like the old videos

and stuff like that, and dude was incredible. And coming back and winning a masters at age 46, all that type of stuff, and that's another thing. Like, when we talk about who's better, it's like, I'm not like, Jack Nicholas, trash, horrible, what a loser. Well, obviously you don't work for ESPA, that's what they want you to do.

Exactly, like, Jack Nicholas, I mean, we're talking about razor, you know, razor thin, but yeah, 15 majors for Woods, 18 for Jack Nicholas. He certainly got him there. As I said, like win percentage and stuff. But you want to argue longevity because Tiger Woods did have a lot of injuries and all that type of stuff. I get that too.

You know, and this is the thing that we'll never know the true answer to because that's only going to be answered by Tiger and his body. How much was this self-induced? How much of this was, did he not follow doctor's orders? He's a psychopath. I'm sure. You know what I'm saying? Could a lot of stuff been avoided if he would have taken care of better care of himself? He was restless and he was chasing Jack.

So he wanted to rush and everything. I mean, the dude won the freaking U.S. Open with a torn ACL. What, an 08 or whatever it was? I'll say this. It's insane. This is what Tiger did that Jack couldn't do. Because maybe, again, you're talking about generational difference. Millions of people never watched golf on a regular basis until Tiger started doing what Tiger did.

And since Tiger has left, and I'll put myself in the mix. And I see you're raising your right hand as well. I don't watch the golf anymore. That's, I'll watch maybe a Sunday of a major. Yeah. But like, for instance, I didn't watch one bit of the Houston open this weekend. Not one ounce.

Me either. And I will watch the Texas Open in San Antonio this weekend. I'm interested. I will say he... I would say Tiger brought me to at least casual fandom. Because I'm a Jordan Spee fan too, because he went to UT. But, yeah, I wouldn't say I've completely tuned out since Tiger Woods. So I'm down, I was...

Extremely casual fandom. At the height I was watching, let's say, During the Tiger era, I was watching 30 days of golf. If he was in the hunt on Sunday, I'm... Or for that matter, Saturday when he's approaching. I'm glued to my couch. I'm down to two or three days a year. Yeah.

And that's because I'm a sportsman, but as I've told you all before, I can't watch everything, so you have to pull up, you have to collectively decide what is important to you. And again, if there's a three-way tie after 17, you're going to find the television to watch it, because you're going to want to watch the drama. But Tiger didn't need drama. Tiger's excellence in destroy.

destroying the field was much-watched television. Think about that, Ross, real quick, before we get the break. Is there anything else in sports when someone dominated something as much as Tiger did that made us don't want to watch? Like if, like last night, I'll give you a small example. The Lakers played the Oklahoma City Thunder. Oklahoma City was out to a 20-point lead or 25-point lead in the first. I wrote 30. It was a blowout from the jump.

I turned it off. I'm assuming most of America turned it off. Tiger's up six holes, six shots going into the front nine under our masters, we're still watching it because we want to see how he continues to do his thing. Yeah, I think that's also too. I mean, just the shot making and watching him keeping up. It's just a little bit different golf consuming golf and consuming basketball. When he's pushing for records, he's pushing for like a low total, an all-time low total. He's pushing for those types of records.

And I'll be honest with you when trying to compare where if you were to say Jack or to say Tiger, that Tiger was on the pace not only to break Jack's record, but to destroy it. And I think it hurt, in my mind, it hurts him a little bit with his resume because he had, he was on pace to way surpass it. And then it just grinded to a halt. It was funny. The cops said, are you playing? I'm playing the Masters? And he goes, I certainly hope so.

You know, as long as you all let me or something like that, I'm paraphrasing. Scott and Doug will get to you guys in a couple minutes. It's anything goes Friday. 713, 212, 5, 790. 713-212-5-7-90. Jalen Rose at 12 o'clock. I'm sorry, it's before that 1130. And coming up today at 1 o'clock Rockets Coach Emadoka, Rockets Tank on the hated Utah Jazz tonight inside Tota Center. Thank you for spending party a good Friday with this at 1034 on the matth-tom the show of Ross. 7-13-212-5-7-90 is in anything goes Friday.

713, 212, 5790. Quick check of the headlines again, Tiger Woods is headed off to international rehab. He dropped a, I'm just talking to the president when asked by the deputy who he was talking to on the phone. Luca Donchich got hurt in the first quarter of the game against the Lakers, a little bit of a hamstring tenderness. You got checked out by medical officials on his own sideline. re-heard it in the game left hamstring ruled out he'll have an MRI today to determine the extent of the injury

early thoughts not particularly good about how long he could be out apparently 739 in the third quarter they were down 90 to 58 because I look I went to sleep I was not going to watch it 739 and then the third quarter LA was down at that point 90 to 58

the question would then be asked I know the trainer's cleared him, but it's 9 to 58 wise Luca Dodgich out there. That's what you have to wonder. And apparently he was cleared, so we'll see what happens. And that is going to be a huge storyline. I mean, dude's a MVP candidate. I don't think he's going to win. Well, everybody's dropping like flies, so I don't know.

Anthony Edwards is decued now. Yep. Cunningham is decued. No, apparently actually. Oh, I saw that. You're right. There was an addendum that Anthony Edwards is not decued yet. If your injury happens after March 31st.

And also have extended you out for the rest of the year, I think, too, consecutively. There are some caveats. Yeah, for sure. All right. So really quick, the playoff seedings. How are we feeling? Okay. So the Lakers get blown out last night.

They're at 1527. The Nuggets are a game back. But the Lakers hold the tiebreaker. Okay. if it was three, if it was the Lakers in Denver tied at three. Okay. The rockets are two and a half behind the Lakers, a game and a half behind

Denver, and then with Minnesota losing last night in Detroit to the Pistons, the Rockets are a full game better than Minnesota and have a chance to go to a game and a half in front if they beat the jazz tonight, which they should. Let's go. Okay, so

how do you wiggle around the fact that you would love to play the Los Angeles Lakers, especially Luke Godinche is missing any period of time. You play your games. Yeah. You can't. You'd like to. 84% three seed for the Lakers. Now this is of course, I imagine, does not factor in. Yeah, Lakers schedule I looked at it last night is significantly easier than everybody else's. Rockets, 52% to the five seed right now. Yeah, the number one thought, at least if you're doing the math stuff, is that the Rockets would be on the road to start a series at Denver. So your road to the finals would be on the road at Denver.

Yes. On the road in Oklahoma City. Correct. And on the road probably in San Antonio. Yes. That sling of some serious dragons there, my friend. Can you do me a favor? No.

Okay. Okay, go ahead. Next Tuesday, because I'm off on Monday. All right. Can you give me three weaknesses of Denver? I have to look it up. Can I give you just the one that comes off the top of my head? Okay.

I'll give you two. Okay. Number one, they have not played together together a lot this year. They have been beset by injuries. Gordon. Yokic just missed some time. Murray. I mean, they're not the most...

They're all healthy. Stay with me, please. Sorry. They haven't done it enough. Can I say that? Okay. And number two, Yokic just turns, the ball over quite a bit.

Now he does everything else to an exemplary level. Yeah, when he's dropping 20-2020s. It's almost like Kevin Durant turns the ball over too much. Okay, you know, you're right. I can't be selective. I want to go to L.A. for multiple reasons. One, I love warm weather. Two, it's the, well, now you're scowling over there.

I hate when you scowlough. Yokech 2.7 turnover is a game. Kevin Durant, 3.2. That's just me watching from a distance. His turnovers just me for. From a distance. Okay. Matt is watching us from a distance. They've lost games. I mean, tell me, they're not perfect.

Benches Jonas Valenciunis. Fowl Trouble guy. He's in his career. Tim Hardaway Jr. Rocket's killer. Oh, he's a rocket killer. Bruce Brown. Just a guy. Cam Johnson and Cam Johnson, sometimes awesome, sometimes mid. Help me out here. Christian Brown. Christian Brown is not great.

Wait, is he shooting? Oh, well, he's 52% from the field. He's only 30% from three. All right, so you're saying there's a chance from distance to zone him to death. Christian Brown's been having a bad year shooting at 3. Have you ever seen, by the way, you see the Milwaukee? Obviously, you did. Did Milwaukee ever play man to man the entire night against the rockets?

I don't think they played much of any defense. Yeah, but they attempted zone. Yeah. I asked Alper and Shangoon about the zone defense. Did you hear that post-game conversation? I did. What did you think? He's mouthy.

He didn't like it. He's driving. We had to use the dump button three times. Three times. We love him, but it's live radio. It's fine. It's fine. Well, it wasn't like he intentionally said,

I'm going to go on the Rockets Network and swear for you. But he didn't like it. I think he called it that blanks irritating. Yeah. Three times. Yes. Bro. And he said, I think he dropped a bro on me too.

Rockets favored by 16 and a half. You say, how we're feeling? How we're feeling? As an NBA employee, it's a stayaway. Just win. Oh yeah, one by one, I don't care. Just win, baby. Let's talk to Doug on 790 at 1040.

Doug, good morning to you. Hi, how you doing? Good, what's going on? So this is for Matt. I just wanted to have to stand corrected. A couple of years ago, I called you and told you that we'd never see Lance McCullough pitch again in an Astros uniform. You said that?

You know what? I did say that, and I was wrong. And you know what? Good for Lance. he looked fantastic the other night and whatever's good for Lance is good for the Astros and I'm all on board with that

yeah again one start does not make a season one start does not resurrect a career Doug thank you for calling in he was like a little early I'm sorry on that look if Lance McCullors can give you and I'm not asking for seven every time no nobody in the organization is

he's not going to give you seven of one run ball every time but that's okay quality starts baby Yeah, quality starts is all that you're asking for. And just every fifth or sixth day with the thought of not having more about an injury. Think about how relaxed Lance can be when he's just the guy that used to throw the curb balls on a semi-regular basis, getting people out. There's the reason why Lance McCullors was a first-round draft pick. The reason why he was a highly-tied pitcher.

It's the reason why he was used in high-levered situations during the heyday of the Houston Astros. Now, that's also nine years ago. He's got talent. Well, yeah. The talent's the arm I don't think I don't think I can play the piano or not

But it's it's the arm And when the arm's been down I mean yeah Actually I heard he's a kazoo World Class Kizu player Yeah He also does professional tab dancing lessons too Yeah it's pretty good

That's really good Wear silk shirts Uh But yeah I I I He the caller isn't the first person

Will they will call in Sam Sorry about that Nor will be the last Well Books not written Yeah Let's let's hold off And let's get to that

that double-digit starts number and then we can start saying, hey, I'm sorry for what I said or sorry what it did this. But, you know, I think we're all here for it. And ultimately, again, it's amazing to me that not only did it go out there, he won the number five starting job. Yeah. And that he was so, he was the best starter among the first five of the Astros throughout there. Awesome. Keep it up. That's all I can say. Hopefully it keeps it up. I mean, if he doesn't, it is what it is. And I got news for you. The pitching staff that was pretty filthy the last few days, the area is going to jump a little. bit.

Because Ross and I actually went to Sacramento this summer and hit some baseballs and we all hit tank jobs out to far left field. Didn't we stupidly? We were in Charles and Lake Charles and I convinced you on an under. Was it in Tampa or was it in Oakland?

I think it was Tampa. Yeah. I was like Matt, 100 Brown's in the mound. It was like 12 and a half or something. That bad boy was over by like the fifth inning. Yeah. That's why I decided I'm going to start picking

Randall first five innings of games that I don't even know about. Hey now. No. My overunders were pretty good. I think I would two and one. But that was. a bad one. I was like Hunter Browns on the mound. It was like 11 and a half or whatever it was.

No, no. It made sound judgment. Yeah. But it just didn't last very long. He gave up like three home runs like at the edge of the wall. It was bad. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. It's an anything goes Friday. Guess what's going up? Gas prices?

We'll tell you next. 1043 on 7-90. Matt and Ross with you 1048 on Sports Talk 790. It isn't anything goes-for-a-off. Friday, 713, 212, 579. 713, 212, 579. I was listening to the morning drive this morning. They were talking about, remember we were talking about Brett Yormark having the pissing match with Cody Campbell,

the Texas Tech alum? Yes. And that, I think it was, who was it, Cole that said, oh, you know what? Cody will just say, all right, he'll call the SEC or the big tenancy if you want Texas Tech. If you really want to go to a pissing match.

I got, look, I love Texas Tech. I love Lubbock I know that very few people say that but I'm in that category Yes With that being said No way, no how, no chance Never ever going to happen

Texas Tech ain't going on the SEC Texas Tech ain't going on the Big Ten They offer nothing At the very best Texas Tech It's the third most recognizable school in the state What would be the value? Well, they have the other two SEC What would be the value?

Unless you think there's something that I'm missing out. No, the only thing would be they're just expanding and they need bodies. Basically, we're going to 20. What is the SEC at now, right? 16? And Big Ten's at 18, I think? Mm-hmm. Yeah, if they say we're

going to 20 or something and they need a body, that's it. It wouldn't be it wouldn't be like there they need you know, like when the SEC added Mizzou. Well, here's what, if the SEC and the Big Ten were really going to expand, they were going to go get North Carolina Florida State of Clemson. I

I don't think Texas Tech would be on the top of the radar. They're not going to be on the top of the radar. No, saying they're like they're ripe to be poached or something would be wrong. I didn't listen to, so I don't know how it's phrased or I don't know how the... They were just talking about it just in general. It was just an opinion. If the SEC needs to get to 20, then maybe that would make sense. Yeah, there are 16 members.

If they need to get to 20, you said what? Florida State, Clemson. I'm just saying that. if there was a list of schools that we're going to jettison one comment or another, they're not on that list to me. I don't care of me. I mean, they're like eighth. And Cody puts them in the top ten.

I mean, when you have one man who just said, I will give you every dollar you humanly need to help you build our program. Without Cody, they're like 20th. Yeah. So good for him. All right. I mentioned the T's a moment ago. Yes.

Something's going up. Gas prices. Well, that's unfortunate. If you would like to get season tickets for the Houston Texans in 20206, it's going to cost you more money. Texans President Mike Tolman earlier this week said the franchise will raise their season ticket prices by quote-unquote just under 10% for the 2020s season. No change to single game tickets have been announced as of earlier this week as well. Quoting Mr. Tolman, we spent a lot of time on trying to make sure we're as thoughtful as we can be to our fan base to the business of the market. Now, if you're thoughtful as you can be that you don't raise their prices.

that right? If you're thoughtful well maybe they wanted to raise them more. Yeah they rained it in. For this year the overall increase is just under 10%. We are below the average ticket price in NFL, even though we have one of the largest markets and we've been in the playoffs of the last three years. Cut the joke, maybe.

Don't do that. Don't tell Houston Texans fans you've been in the playoffs the last three years. Don't do that. They know. Which you haven't been in the AFC championship game. I gotta say this, Ross. Okay. And I, look, I do not, but I do not look at the books of an NFL franchise. But in the big scheme of how you make your money,

isn't it the television contract? Isn't it the apparel? Where does ticket sales go in the big picture of this? TV contract is king. I don't know where tickets are. for so if you're going to charge let's say that you're going to charge an average of 10 let's just say 10% make it nice so that $80 ticket now is worth $88 right. Uh-oh, here, you want me to get the calculator out?

No, I think I'm right. Okay. 10% of $80 is eight. No, I know that's right. I'm saying you want eight times 65? Go ahead. So what I'm just thinking is do you really want to screw those people that have been with you that buy those tickets every single time?

I mean, do you really need the $8 times $65,000? What is that? $4 million? What is how much is that more? Eight times... If I got $8 more per ticket times $65,000... It's $520,000. Times nine games.

Times eight? Oh, I put eight. You got a preseason game. Those are regular prices. Plus, if you play a ninth game, I think they're... It's about, yeah. Hold on. I did $8, which is $4.1 million.

So that's another... So that's another five million dollars. That's a lot of money. So essentially they're going to put $5 million more into their coffers. And they could say, well, they could say, well, a league salaries rise. Well, no, it's because the revenue of the league has risen. The NFL doesn't go to their owners and say, we're adding more money to the player's salaries just because we need to pay them more.

It's because of what the collective bargaining says. You have to spend so much of your proceeds off on the player's salaries. My grandiose point is I'd be really careful about, raising tickets if I'm the NFL. Now, baseball, you need ticket sales. Because you're talking about 80 games. You are talking about 40,000 seats. I mean, ticket revenue is much bigger part of how majorly baseball makes its money as compared to the NFL.

I'm just trying to find average ticket price. This says $250, but that's from stub hub. So that's what the secondary market. So I don't know. I just, I don't know. it's a hard thing for a team to go out and announce, hey, we're raising our ticket prices. And I don't know if the tech, if they did it last year,

I don't know the history of their ticket price raising me. It's been a while. But it's funny. Anytime you have a reporter ask, why are you doing it? They always want to go, well, it's sort of cheaper than, you know, other markets. Yeah. The team's been successful.

They're raising the ticket prices. I mean, it makes sense to me. I just I could see maybe the individual pricing going up because those people don't have any invest because those season ticket holders have been around along I mean I'm going to assume the average season ticket holder has been around more than, you know, three years.

I just, I, sometimes I always go to the ticket to the main card it makes me kind of irritable. Money, baby. It is, and everybody does it too. It's all the sports teams. Yep. Dave, I mean, no.

This is quietly happening in April. It's a good idea. do it now. Oh, for sure. Before the draft and all those other stuff. Everybody's in a good mood, trying to budget their dollars. Hey, we're raising the prices, so I should put out one around England and we'll move on. Oh, we're still less than anybody else.

Yeah. Oh, thank goodness. Thank you. Thank you for keeping us below the average. Oh, they should. I mean, they've been, in terms of team success, they've been a top 10 team in the NFL recently. It's not a top six. Divisional round is the elite eight, right? Yeah, yeah. So you made three straight Elite 8s.

I'm going to raise ticket prices. Makes sense. If you want to come see an Elite 8 team, come check us out. You want a Final 4 team? Go to Kansas City. Even though they didn't make the playoffs last year. Hey, more recently, better than the Chiefs. Hang a banner, baby.

Hey, better than that team, better than Mahomes. Yes. Better than Travis Kelsey. Our tight ends better than your time. Those are t-shirts going on in touring Toro Town. I don't think that's true. Although maybe at this stage in their careers, it's close. That's a good question.

Who would you rather have? Schultz or Kelsey? Yeah. Are we talking fantasy football or real football? Real football? Dang it. I wanted you to say fantasy. It's Kelsey and it's easy.

Real football. You can't even say it, can you? Please. Oh, Kelsey. I don't know. It makes you think, though, doesn't it? I don't want to think about that. Well, Dalton Schultz got a new contract in the offseason.

You know what? Texans prices go up because they've got to pay a Dalton Shultz's contract. That's what he said in the press release, I think. Somebody's got to pay Dolan Shultz. You want quality and tight ends, you go pay for it. Yeah. You know, those Texans' children don't get made on their own. They probably make them pay for them.

I know. I think you'd be surprised how little those girls make. No, they make, well, they would, they had, they tried, didn't they unionize? Was that successful? What happened with that? I don't, that's a great question. There was like a class auction lawsuit where they were getting paid nothing. And they have to practice all during the week and that kind of thing.

It used to be they didn't get paid at all. Let me tell you, Texas cheerleaders. We got your back. Don't worry. In front. We have all of them. Okay. We believe in their talents.

Many of them earn about 22,500 a year. I think it also includes like private events stuff. Hourly wages for practices, flat fees for games and public appearances. And we get some Texan Chiliter to come in here with us. 1250 and average. hour. That doesn't cover gas now. You mean the time of the Texas cheerleaders make $12.50 an hour?

Well, this is Cowboys cheerleaders, 1250, so I don't know if that's worse. Yeah, but let me tell you something. You become a Dallas Cowboy Chilter. You've got modeling deals out of the gazoo. Modeling deals out the gazoo. Okay. I mean, I'm doing a public radio show. I can't really say what I was going to say.

Got to keep it. Publicly correct. Nice. Yeah. Maybe I won't say gazoo anymore. How's your gazoo been feeling? Hey, did you get that gazoo thing checked out? It's strong.

I may have the strong as a gazoo out there. Man, I heard you were having a little... Guzoo issues? Issue with your gazoo. The gazoo gazumped. 1059. Is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 1102 on Sports Talk 790.

Let's get the second hour started. Anything goes Friday. It's 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Anything goes Friday means literally anything. And look, today is a holiday. Hopefully all of you are enjoying a nice day off. And we're here for you on these days off.

Again, those of you that don't get to normally call the show because your work schedule does not allow that. Come on and be a part of the program. 713-212-5-790. I have a stupid question. I'm here for it. Good Friday is not just Catholic, right? It's everyone? It's everything right.

Okay. I grew up Catholic, so it's only religion I've known, so that's why I ask. Okay, thank you. But I believe that. I know everybody does Easter. But I think everybody does, I don't think, I think, again, I'm not a religious Fisian. Not everybody does at the Lent, because only Catholics do Lent.

But they, so they do, there is Fat Tuesday, and there is Good Friday, but not everybody participates in Lent. Correct. Okay. That's what I've been told them. Remember, I got to take, I don't know if y'all told you all this. I think I mentioned once or twice. I fast-tracked Catholicism when I moved to Utah.

What does that mean? You know, the class you take to convert? Yeah. It's like you took night classes? I literally did. I took the speedy route. Really? Yeah, it normally takes several months.

I think I got it done in six weeks. Okay. It's like when you do defensive driving and you just turn the VCR on? Or how does this go? That's a great question. Why don't I get away with it? I mean, I'm not getting away with that because I mean, obviously, the priest is like, yeah, well, this is what you'll do. And like, yeah, tied this much and you're in.

And the reason we did that for, and it was because we thought we were moving to a stain in Utah that obviously is a highly high LDS population. Yeah, how's the Catholic Church is doing over there? It's the second biggest religion of state. Oh, it's number two. That's good. But the drop is significant. Oh, okay. I want to say, this is going back to 2005.

So this has been 20 years. But I want to say when we were there, 80% of the state was LDS. That considered themselves religious. I think it's a lot different now. I mean, Utah, Salt Lake City is a lot different today than it was when I was living there. You've ever been to Salt Lake City, by the way? Never. It's one of the most beautiful cities in America.

I've been to Utah. I've been to Zion Canyon. Zion Canyon was gorgeous. The whole state is amazing. Gorgeous. I want to go to the Big Five they have there. Archers, Bryce. The Salt Lake City is a beautiful downtown.

Very nice people. there's actually a little bit of a night vibe. And I wouldn't say great, but a little bit. But lots of the foods is not actually too bad there. And it's very safe. What do they have? Rocky Mountain oysters? No.

What's the go-to, like, dish? I would probably say a little bit. I think there's Italian. One of the best places to eat Italian food in the NBA is in Salt Lake City. You got the Pisans in Salt Lake City? I didn't know about it. You got the Mormon pizzoon? The Mexican restaurants, so there are God awful.

Oh, okay. I mean, God awful. Well, you said Catholic, so Italian, I guess maybe. There's good steakhouses. There's a couple of good fish places. Now, there's a lot of family-friendly places that will, you know, there's, I would say there's probably more molded morale there than the average state would have. Because you're trying to feed large amounts of kids. Utah's most iconic dishes, funeral potatoes.

That's an LDS dish. That's like basically a hash brown casserole. They call it funeral potatoes. That would be served typically at funerals. and pastrami burgers? Yes. When I, yeah, they take a hamburger and they add pastrami to it. Oh, I thought it was made of pastrano.

They're big in adding double meats to your burgers. Yeah, okay. It's like, you can't go get a burger in Utah and just say, I like a hamburger. You want bacon on it? What do you want on it? Let's pile on more cholesterol, cholesterol, like a pizza. Why have pepperoni when you have meat lovers? But let's fast track that.

That is exactly what it is. Yeah, yeah. Let's get those arteries clogged a little faster. Yeah, let's get this. This coronary rolling downhill, baby. One of the best pizza place I've ever met my life was a neighborhood place not far from my house called the pie pizzeria. And it was unbelievably delicious. Okay.

So, yeah. It's all like different, but it's still different. So my wife's like, hey, since we are, I was raised Presbyterian, but never really went to church on a regular basis. You're saying, do you mind? We were always going to convert anyway with our children. Yes. So I just said, I might as well do it. So I did.

That's cool. My, the priest and our priest in Salt Lake smoke and drank like a chimney and was, uh, really? Yeah, he was super, super funny guy. Loved him. Catholic priests? I thought. Okay. Oh, he definitely smoked, definitely drank.

There's no issue about that, at least as far as the, the Salt Lake Catholicism chapters were working that way. So. And there's your religion. Hopefully you didn't do other stuff. God, I hope not. All right. Astro started a weekend series tonight in, they call it West. Sacramento. So I was like doing a little due diligence.

In West Sacramento, born and raised. When they say West Sacramento, it's really like three miles from downtown. When you say West Houston, you think like town and country, you think like almost Katie. West Sacramento is like the other side of the bridge. It's like downtown Beaumont. It's the whole city. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Historic downtown Beaumont. Excuse me. I'm team Beaumont. Okay. I didn't say a bad word about them. You know, Mr. Texas likes to move around all different parts of the state. For sure. retiring in Florida. And that's not my choice. I'll stay right here in H-Town.

You're such a fraud. Get my big high-rise in downtown Houston. You're throwing your wife under the bus like this? I don't care. She's not listening. I know you don't care. She was listening, I would change my two for sure. Yeah, I would call her right now.

No, you're not. I'm getting back to sports. I don't care what you make me do. All right, let's go. Jeffrey Springs is going to throw today for the Oakland. Who? Jeffrey Springs. Jeffra Springs, okay? I guess you can't call him Jeff.

Are we doing Oakland A or not today in the show? That's actually funny. Jeff Springs? No, Jeffrey. No, I'm going Jeff. You tell him that. El Hefe Springs. Christian Javier throws for the Astros.

Yes, he's looking to move up in the Christian rankings. How often are you going to Christian rank? I don't know. Weekly? Monday's and Fridays? Buy weekly. Because Javier's got to get in at least two starts. I didn't realize how insanely popular that tweet was a year.

Good job by you. Because I kept getting retweets off of it. Yeah, thank you, Matt. That means your retweet amplified my tweet. So thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. It didn't go that popular, right? Well, look, how many years did you get?

14,000. That's not bad. It's good. What do you normally get on a tweet of yours? 400. Okay, well, then you're winning. I would say this, and, you know, yesterday was a day that you peruse the 4U tab for Astros' content to see what knuckleheads are out there. Okay.

I don't necessarily disagree with Astro's Twitter not being overly excited about Christian Javier this season. There are some, and I don't have an opinion on which I guess I should, but I don't have one. It's a little nervous about the future of Christian Javier. The comeback from last year was not good. He didn't have a good opening start, four and two thirds in his debut, that if you were to say a guy that can't come back from injury long term, maybe they're thinking Christian Javier would be one of those kind of guys. It wouldn't be the, I mean,

it wouldn't be the craziest thing because he's just kind of a fastball sweeper guy and they're trying to mix in his change-up and other stuff, but those have been two great pitches, but the location was an issue. If he puts everything together, he can still get outs. But I think that the sentiment is, and look, tonight he may throw BBs for six innings

and be just fine, but the sentiment is maybe the Christian Hoverier that we saw, pre-injury is never coming back. Doesn't mean he can't be used. I mean, yeah, but there are reinforcements. AJ Bluebell's like, I'm here for you. Spencer Rodriguez, like, I'm here for you too. Yeah.

Which then I think exemplifies why the encouragement of Lance McCullors should definitely be discussed if he can really legitimately be a mainstay in the starting rotation this year. I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful. Javier is going to be fine. And if he's not, you do have backup plans like you said. But they're paying him good money. That was exactly I was going to say.

They have taken guys that they have bought ahead of time and said, we're going to make sure we're going to buy arbitration out of you and make sure your financial dreams are coming true. So there is a financial stake into Christian Javier's success, much like there was Lance McAllard's when he signed his deal. I would say first start biggest problem was the control. So hopefully. He's same situation too.

He could not get out of his own way either. Yeah, and it's early. I mean, Hunter Brown's very first start is control issues. It's early on. And that's when guys are fine-tuning and there's mechanical tweaks and those types. things. Yeah. Control can go.

So I'm hopeful. Now here's the thing. You're not going to be able to judge much because you're going to a place that at least if you're going off of the history of last year, everybody that went to the A's ballpark out there in Sacramento was hitting the long ball left and right.

And he's a fly ball pitcher. You had to add that, didn't you? I was just saying. It's even on the money line. Just looking at the lines. Over under 10. That's a three-hour game, too. It feels like 10.

Do you feel like these games are going longer because of ABS? Yes, they are. They already know that. I don't know what the average is yet, but I can try to look it up. But, I mean, have we had a 220 game yet so far? I don't think of something.

We used to have, oh, yeah, we used to have 220s on a semi-regular last year. I mean, when CB Buckner's back there and getting challenged 40 times, it's going to take a little longer. You see got hit by a ball every day. Yes, not having a good week. We did like Fridays,

who's had a good week Friday or something? Right, right, right. Bad week Friday would be. He's having a bad Friday. the worst week. Do you think ABS is going to ultimately send some guys to retirement? Because C.B. Buckner... He's getting embarrassed.

He's... The job in which he is being paid for, and very well because he's obviously a veteran umpire, he's being made fun of. And now, granted, C.B. Buckner and his age can't find another job at the level that he's making as a Major League umpire. But if you're Major League Baseball,

you can't have C.B. Buckner being the daily punching bag. And that's what he has been the last week or so because he was horrific at his job. Not bad, horrific. I'm watching a replay right now. I don't know if it's CB Buckner, but it's somebody. Ooh, this ABS is making some folks look bad. My goodness. Let's go, baby. Every single time, huh? Bring it to light. When I'm 73 years old. Hell, why not? I mean, you know, if, ooh, I don't know. You've got a lot of human beings involved in this here.

And they're still going to be out there. They just won't call balls and strikes. They make less money that day? Is it like an off day for them? Like a half day? No, I mean, you still got to be back there. Okay, so if you are the leader of the ABS is going to take over all the time, are we going to ultimately see four umpires gonzo period, let every call being made by a computer?

No, why? Why can't we have a safe fur? Somebody's got to give the ball to the pitcher. You got to get a foul ball goes out of play. Every play at first base. Do we, if it's close, just put down. I don't know if they could get censors. No, what if they can get censors?

That they're reliably to do it, maybe. But, you know, you still need guys out there. Man, I'm very... Force the rules, stuff like that. As you say these things. Sucker? There's like one... They have a ref and then they have a linesman on each side,

and then they do video assistant review, which is like a video assistant referee, which is a guy watching the video. But it's not for every call. It's not for every foul or everything like that. The referee still does a bunch of work. So you would still have guys out there. You still have a union.

And if these guys have got beef, well, we'll get new guys. We can get you out there, Matt. That's a sensitive subject. Let's get you scab and MT. I'm not going to scab. Why not? Well, I am later in my life.

Gotta get in where you fit in, Matthew. That's true. Money would be good, too. All right. I'm sorry. He's in 15 minutes here on Sports Talk 790. We have a M. Sorry's coming up in about 10 minutes from now.

I saw a tweet yesterday that I thought was intriguing and I'm not brought this up to Ross. I got to peel the curtain back. A lot of the things that I throw at Ross and Ross those at me, we do it not because we intentionally don't need to see it, but I like organic first blush reactions as compared to the thought. Now, we can always change our mind about things. It's the nature of the show. We're just chatting talking about sports. Yeah, I'm not, I like that we have a chance to go, hmm, immediate reaction.

So Tom Habistro is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Formerly ESPN does a lot of analytic stuff. Yes. And again, we may be barking up a wrong tree on this. Ross and I are diehard NBA fans. I am a voice of a Rockets team. Even if I wasn't a voice of the Rocket team, I'm still a diehard NBA fan.

I love the NBA. I love basketball. I don't think most of our audience does, but there's certainly a segment of the population does. So I can take care of that, folks. but one of the things that gets criticized about the NBA is the fact that the stars don't play. Thus, the reason why the 65 game implementation was put in

for all NBA and MVP consideration. So Tom Habistraw, did you see this poll, by the way? Did you see this survey? I did not. Okay. He put together a metric of how often do the NBA stars on nationally TV actually play? Interesting.

Okay. Now, there are five networks that broadcast national games, ABC, ESPN, NBC, Peacock, and Prime. Okay. So they're all about, I mean, they're all carried the same about the same cachet. ABC has had 23 national games. Those are usually on Saturday nights or Sunday afternoons. Those are like the big dogs, right? Those are the biggest of the big dogs.

Number of games with full stars of those 23. As in both teams? Both teams. 10. I was going to guess 50%. 43%. I got news for it's going to get worse. Oh, great.

I don't want to hear that news. Prime 56 games. Okay. 19 of them with full stars, 34%. Next, NBC, 80 games. Of the 80 games at NBC, brand new television partner, only 27 of them have games with full stars. Star players are defined by the NBA's player participation policy

who have been named to an all-star or all-star team in its current season or any of the previous three seasons. So the stars are the stars. NBC says 80 games, 27 of them have full stars at 34%. ESPN, 52 games, 15 of them full stars. 29% participation of full stars. And then last, Peacock, with the nine games of full stars, one, 11%. Wow. So, 220 nationally televised games this year in the NBA.

How often do the NBA stars on national TV actually play of the 220 that meet the criteria of being an NBA All-Star team or All-Star? 72 of those games have full stars. So you have a one-and-three chance, just under 33% of watching a nationally televised NBA game and having the full stars. Interesting. I don't like that number. It will never be above 50%. I can tell you that teams don't want to intentionally not play their players,

but at the end of the day, the NBA individual teams, Ross, and I can speak to this, not from just the Rockets, but from other teams, don't particularly care what networks or games are on. Now, sometimes it's a little cachet of being the lone game on Saturday. When the Rockets put an opening night, that was a big deal. Christmas Day is a big deal. But a normal Tuesday or Friday, in the NBA, oh, the games in the ESPN, I guess I got to play.

That never crosses the minds of NBA coaches, general managers, players, and trainers. It just doesn't. That's why the low number's there. Yeah, I'm, I would be curious at some point. I mean, we're not going to know, but this is a jarring number. This is a lot lower than I would have expected. My first guess was just going to be it was about 50-50. So 50-50 down to 33%. 32.7, yeah.

Nobody's going to be happy about that. ABC, ESPN, NBC, Peacock Prime. Nobody's going to be happy about that. They're going to bring this stat into play in the broadcast meetings. They're going to do it. They're going to say, what are we going to do here? Now, my counterpart in Dallas, Chuck Cooperstein, who I follow on Twitter, he's the voice of the Mavericks, says the easiest way to fix this

is to extend the season two weeks before, like, you know, we start in October. Start in late October. Start the season early October and the season later in April. So literally add four weeks of the season Stretch it out Now I'm not saying that would solve it But if somebody has an ankle sprain It doesn't have to play a game on

It hurts an ankle on Monday It doesn't have to play again until Friday There's obviously a better chance that person Have a chance to rehabilitate that as compared to playing a game on Wednesday And only missing one game Yeah So I don't have an answer for you on that I don't

I can just tell you that the haters of the NBA are going, yeah, I know I wasn't making this up. And think about this, if you think the television fans are happy, what if the Memphis Grizzlies make one trip to the East Coast

to play the Milwaukee Bucks and you have a fan base of Milwaukee Buck fans that have John Morant, they want to go see play? You get one shot in it. You disappoint them greatly. And there's no resolution for that either because that's how the schedule deemed out. but I'm just telling you if I had a chance to put a bug into Adam Sover's ear,

to me, player participation is very, very important to me. It's important to the league. It's important to the people to buy the tickets. It's important to the television partners who are paying $11 billion for this television deal. They don't want to put Gary Trent Jr. on the front of their Milwaukee Bucks preview when it could be Yonitsa Dentegupo. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

Uh, it, something has to be done because these are jarring numbers, but I will also say, I mean, is, is this a bad luck year? Because every top guy has been hurt. Anthony Edwards,

Kade Cunningham, Luca Donchich, Giannis Santacumpo, Nicolio- Why can't this happen again next year? Yeah, I don't know. Yeah.

Because, because samples change. It's not going to be the exact same number next year, whatever is this year. So you don't want to overreact from one, but you also, the alarm bells do need to be sounding.

And I would be curious data from last year, previous years before that, and even 20 years ago. But if I see this tweet and I'm a NBC executive or Peacock or Prime or I'm alarmed by this. Because it feels like just it's been more than normal, but it's almost like even if we're related to the Astros and their injuries, is it the new normal? Is it more than normal or is it the new normal? We don't know. We need sample sizes on this. We need information. We need, and even then we're probably not going to know everything.

We need input from trainers, from players, from everyone. Yeah. About it, they're extending the season. They, I mean, shortening it feels like a non-starter because you're cutting revenues. Going from 48 to 40 minutes, it seems crazy too, because you're getting fewer commercial breaks. Unless you're extending commercial breaks, I don't know. And then you're messing with records and points per game stuff and all that. Scoring is going to look lower because it's going to, your games.

are going to be like 82 to 79 because it's 40 minutes. And people will put their, well say, I don't want to watch a low-scoring game. People like scoring. I don't know if the solution is. But yeah, the athletes are pushing their bodies harder. This pace and space now,

the floor is the space as it's ever been. You're going out to like, Reed Shepard's out there shooting 30 footers. It wasn't happening in 1986. So guys are having to run around and screens and ball movement and they have the tracking stuff. guys have been running more miles per game than they ever have. So to wrap up this conversation really quickly,

my initial thought would be, let's get the calendar opened up a couple of weeks. Yeah. And give it a look. That's the easiest solution that doesn't cut games or time, which doesn't cut revenue. You're not cutting revenue. Steve Kerr, I'm sorry.

You're not very wise by saying reduction in games, because you're not taking, guess what Steve Coe, you're not taking, you're not taking a reduction dump and nor are your players. Let's add a week to both sides. Let's never, you know what, Ross,

the Rockets, they have 13 back-to-backs, something like that at the end of the year, total? Yeah. That's about nine too many. You need breaks. You, that may not solve it,

but it's at least a nice, quick, simple fix. Now, I know they don't want to go too deep, into June because the ratings for television sporting for sports and for that matter television is always bad in the summertime because people are always out vacationing and don't have regular habits.

So you know what? If you are, if you don't want to go deeper into June, which you're going to late June as it is with the NBA finals, then maybe you, you know what I'll tell you what you also do if you really wanted to get, you could probably also reduce the playoff series and best seven to best of five in the first round, but they're never

going to do that. Never doing that either. This article from Tom Havishrow does say that star availability went from 80% last season to 60% this season. So that makes sense when you do 60% and then on two teams, it's 30% that half the time you're getting both mathematically. So 80% last season, 60% this year. So maybe there's a bit of an outlier of a bad year, hopefully. And maybe that's what Adam's Silver tells the TV partners. Yeah.

But if I haven't seen next year. The next year's going to be better, guys. It's fine. All right. Let's tell some people we're sorry. Ross, you get your list? For what? For what?

I think you were writing down here. I'm sorry. What did I say? All right, we're going to start with Jonathan because he's ruining the equipment in our studio there. He is not ruining the equipment. You don't know that. You didn't hear the first minute of the show? Yeah, the button got stuck. Let's say you're sorry. Pressing things too hard back there. And it's not his fault. Jalen Rose in one half hour. We need for you to say you're sorry right now. 713-212-570. 7-1-3-212-5-790. All right, come on now.

Time for you to do what you've been waiting to do all week, and it's called the show and say this. I'm sorry. I've met all I thought of one. Just a joke, guys, I'm just joking. It's never that serious. No, I want to apologize to the person on 610 at the Woodwood Memorial Exit, who cut me off, and I extended my middle fingers, both of them straight up in the air. Both hands on the wheel, Maddie.

Sorry. You put both hands up. Both of them. And Jonathan, you know when you do the middle fingers, you like you bend the knuckle a little bit? Yeah, yeah. I went straight up in the air. What do you, now you do thumb out or thumb in? Thumb in.

We've talked about this recently, I think. What do you bend? What knuckle are you bending? Like here. Like you do the half staff? The half staff. You did full staff. I'm full, full erect middle fingers.

Excuse me? Yeah, straight up. Okay. So the reason why I do is straight up is long. like this is so they can absolutely see what I'm talking about. Yeah. Because if you do that, if you bend the knuckle, then maybe can't see it. Oh, you know what? You made me think of something.

So that person who cut me off, who never apologized or anything, you got the double rods and you got the long rod. And I felt sorry momentarily for it. Okay. Well, you know what? You made you remind me one. This is from last week. What you got? I'm going off right here, Memorial and the feeder. There's construction and

I'm in the middle lane. Left lane's going faster. There's a big gap between me and a red RAV 4. I'm calling you out. If you drive a red RAV 4, it might have been you. Okay. Huge gap. I put my blinker on. It's like, okay, I'm going to get over in the space. The RAV 4 starts speeding up. When did it start meaning I need to be let over?

I am signaling to you. I am being a good Samaritan and driver and letting you know I'm getting over. And that signals to you to speed up. So I still have plenty of room. I'm like, no, no, sir, I'm getting over. They speed up more and they run up on me. Maybe I don't need to apologize for this. I don't feel like you want to.

I didn't give them double rods? Yeah, I don't, maybe. I put my window down and I gave him a thank you for letting me in wave. Give them a sarcastic. Hey, thanks. Oh, I'm sorry. Appreciate you. No, actually, I put my sunroof up, actually.

I put my hand out of my sunroof. Thanks. Did you wish him to have a nice day? No, yeah. I was like, thanks. By the way, I told my guests. They're laying on their horn. That's ridiculous.

You should only need to apologize to them. You're the right on that. Thank you. By way, I told my story about the gas station, the family of this week. Uh-huh. They're like, Dad, you told somebody not to have a nice day? Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Thomas family.

Oh, God. They were, hey, Jonathan, they were all over me for that. They're incredulous. That's great. I didn't realize that just telling someone not to have a nice day was such a Blast for me. I want him to be having a nice day. Yeah, I want him not to have a nice day.

I didn't tell him to F-all or go SSD either. It's the same thing. I don't think so. Oh, that's a nice F-off. Just like Tiger Woods saying, I'm talking to the president, it's a low-key, do you know who I am?

It's a passive-aggressive. Yeah. I hope you're in a grave next week. Uh-huh, yeah. Eat, bleep, and die. That's what you said. You said in a nicer way. Oh, sorry.

And that's why I should get credit for being nicer about what I really meant to say. Has anybody backed you up on this? Not a salt. Maybe it's time for some introspection than that's you. Okay, I got another one. I thought frankly it was just clever, my part, but go on. I got another one. Earlier this week, we were talking about Cher.

Yes. And her work as an artist. Oh, I think you went her, like, facelifts and stuff. Oh, well, she's 80% plastic. sorry for that. It's just a fact. I mean, wish her the best. Whatever. She's doing great. And I said, yeah, I loved her work

that she did with Sunny before the tree. Oh, I'm sorry. And you know what? You bringing up Sunny Bono on a tree is an automatic, I'm sorry. So I would like to apologize to the Bono estate

and family for being so cold, crass, and uncaring about his gruesome death smashing into a tree while skiing. Sorry.

If I'm the Bono family, I don't accept it. And he's laughing at the way. I was laughing at something else. I saw a cartoon. Calvin and Hobbs. It's a good one. Jonathan. Time for you to apologize. You know, I don't know.

I think you need to apologize to golfers. Your take yesterday was so bad about apparel. I just didn't get it. Wasn't a take? He just said he didn't. get it. You know, I just didn't understand. It's tradition. That's just tradition. I don't know. It was a, it's like you dress up to go, like, if you want to show up to the symphony in, in flip-flops, in a Tommy Bahama shirt, in swim trunks, no, you want to dress up. You're going

to the symphony. It's just, and it's, you're just going to play golf. It's an event, so you dress up a little bit. That's all. I didn't have anything until Ross said something, and then now I think I need to apologize. Let's go. So you know how that guy He sped up before not letting the end? Oh, you do that. Jonathan! You, do you drive a Red Rap 4?

Was that you? So I'm 59. Oh, my God. And, you know, it gets congested over there with the convention center. And, you know, this guy, give me some, give me a break. He had his blinker on for like a good five minutes. And I was like coming behind him, maybe like five miles behind.

And I'm just going fast, going, going, going, going. And then he starts to creep in the lane. And at that point, you know what? I'm not going to explain it. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I got to get you over and we almost collided. And I really didn't care.

I got to work on my anger when I'm driving. So I wanted to say sorry. I'm going to join you in that. I need to be better at not yelling at you and wanting you to crash and die down the road. geez. Oh yeah. I feel like Houston seems like a little much. Yeah, but I'm on the road a lot.

No, Houston's gotten worse, right? Man, man. Yeah. Were we on the same? Like, it's worse. It's worse. Especially with all these people, all these out of towners from California and wherever. I don't know what's going on. It's almost like 500,000.

The traffic is worse. Not enough from you. And even, even this blinker thing, because I remember I have a good friend who moved to LA in like 2014 or somewhere around there. And he's like, man, out here, when you put your blinker on, that means like they cut you off. And I was like, oh, man, that sounds horrible. It's here now.

Yeah, you guys are. It's everywhere. It's every man for himself. And I really tried not to drive like a maniac, but sometimes you've got to make some moves out there. You got to survive. Because it's a survival of the fittest. And you people are nuts.

Everybody out there is a horrible driver, except me. So maybe I'm helping him out. Maybe I was helping that Nissan Ford out. Look, you're going to learn the way of the Easton. He needs to learn. So you're educating, folks, on the bad driving. drivers of Houston. Good job.

And can we stop with the student driver stickers, by the way? They're everywhere. Matt, I know you've seen that. I saw one on a tow truck. That was a joke. That was a joke. That was a joke. Okay, I'm going to say. All right.

If you need to apologize, we've just bared our souls for 10 minutes. You guys have the next 10. 713-212-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Say you're sorry next here on 790. Rose is going to join us in a back. 12 minutes from now here on Sports Talk 790. He is in Newcastle.

Let's get back to the phone. [phone]. Easy. What are you apologizing for? I'm apologizing with my friend. He said right next to me that he said that Jack Nicholson had more championships than Tiger Woods. I'm so sorry.

He's got more Oscars. Jack Nicholson has more Oscars, not more golfing. Drace. I'm sorry. The second one was, I'm sorry for the people that stay in the fast lane and do not move over

if I honk at you, I'm sorry. And that's all I got. Gentlemen, y'all have a good day. Thank you very much. I have another one to add to my list. Oh, you do? I'm glad you're firing all cylinders this Friday.

This is the most cathartic half hour of my week for sure. Okay. So I have a friend of a friend. I brought this up, I think, earlier than week, that every time I go to a certain city, he asked for tickets. Okay. And he sent me another message about two weeks ago and he said, hey, Matt, I know the rockets are coming to this particular town. Do you have any tickets?

And I don't know this guy. I met him one time. I got him tickets one time. Very, very rare occasion I can help him out with this. Okay. But every time the rockets go to the city, he asked for tickets. And I'm like, so he sends me, hey, no worries if you can't help me. So I responded back to him, don't worry, I'm not worrying about it.

That, come on, man. Don't you shake your head, Jonathan. You know what happened? You've been watching too much curbiour enthusiasm. You know, that's not reality, Matt. People don't really act like that. But don't ask for something and then say, oh, no worries if you can't do it. Oh, guess what?

We ain't worried about it. Yeah, you're saying, hey, it's not a bother, don't, you know, don't worry about it. But he asked every time, every single time. I can't have that. I'm telling us to stop asking. Say, I'm never going to have any for me. But I'm trying to be polite. It didn't seem like it.

You just told him you're not worrying. Well, if you're going to be blunt, be blunt. Let's go. No, no, no, half stepping. I just half stepped. Maybe I had three-quarter stepped. Brian on 7ani. Brian, what are you apologizing for? I want to apologize. First of all to you, Matt.

But last week, I probably took your fandom of the great shahadi a little too far, thinking you would do everything you could to get courtside to meet her into the picture and backstage. So I want to apologize to you. I know you're a happily married man. Thank you very much. Hello? I think we're having phone issues look Jonathan's holding his head in his hand oh there you are hi Brian I'm I'm here sorry guys uh I also want to apologize to Lance McCullors Jr I thought his start would be a disaster and he proved me wrong

so to Mr. McCullors I apologize and finally to all the Protestants out there I want to apologize I'm probably grumpy as hell because, boy, you're all digging into your chicken wings or steak or ham. If I get a little testy with you, I apologize. But, you know, it's good Friday and we can't eat meat. So I'm doing the best I can to get through the day. Thank you very much, Brian. Are you sure you don't want to go with me to Rob Rice? We had a least try to.

I mean, seriously, don't we have to give credit for a place? It has a sandwich that the patty is bigger than the bun? Is it going away after this? I don't know. I'll get you next week. How about that? Sometime next week. Rockets are...

No, no, no, they're not. You're going to be on the road. Yeah, Monday's the week after that, rockets are going to have a whole week off because they're not going to be in the plane. That's right. We're guaranteed out of the plane, which is good. We're going to lunch.

At Ron Rice. We need to go... Are they still going to have the fish sandwich, though? You know, the Jutterburger gets rid of their waterfish. Yeah, that's why I'm asking. I don't know. I think, honestly, I think

Tatai sounds like it'd be a good place to get a fish sandwich. With the brarding, maybe a little spice to it? Apparently, it's only available while house inventory lasts. All right, we're going to miss out. We have to go. No. I mean, we can go. No, we'll go soon. Yeah, you need a nap.

It's a later start, right? Nope, 7 o'clock. You think Utah Houston's on national TV? Oh, okay. Well, I didn't think so either, but I thought our pre-game thing said. No, I'm wrong. Okay.

It's the A's and Astros game is the later. Over on KTRR. So I saw it on a list. Real quick before we get to Jalen Rose. Brent on 790s. Brent, what are you apologizing for? Matt, I'm sorry for calling in earlier this week and saying that nobody had time to listen to Mr. Texas that didn't like brisket.

There's a lot of people that live in Texas now that comes from other states. And a Mr. Texas could represent some of those people that are. to know that we all and I just wanted to apologize for you. You all have a good day. I don't believe him. It was kind of a backhanded,

I'm sorry. Not backhanded. That was a full B slap. That was what that was. Hey, you do the backhanded, I'm sorry too. That's fair.

It's part of the segment. It is fair. You mean this? I do sorry as and I really don't mean it? Hmm. That feels. Cassidy, from Pass a get down, Dina.

Cassidy, what are you apologizing for? Well, your last caller, well, not last caller, but two callers ago, who wanted to apologize to the Protestants for eating fish today and not being able to eat meat, shout out to everybody who had sex before marriage, but can't eat meat on Fridays because it's a sin. So I'm sorry to that Protestant because he's not eating meat today. Sorry, please forgive. You kind of meat. Thank you, Cassidy. Is it his name Cassidy? Maybe that's his last name.

It said Cassidy. He had a last name on there. Because usually girls' names are Cassidy. What about Butch Cassidy? That's his first name is Butch. What about the Sundance Kid? I don't know they called him Mr. Kid. Okay.

I don't know if there's... I mean, it's fine. He didn't name himself. No. He always get hung up on people's names. Who is not me? Matthew. Yeah, you're talking about Brodies and Jaxes.

I'm so sorry. I got put in my place. Yeah, Cody came and called you out. You literally yesterday. Yeah, Cody, but Cody understands. He understands Cody Bellinger's a douche. He understands a coach. I apologize to directly to Cody.

He's fine. He's still the MVP, man. Wait, what did you just do? You just sounded like a Brody. No, that's what Cody Bellin. You sound like Cody. No, that's what Cody Bellinger sounds like. Oh, okay.

He's baked out of his mind. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm not here to judge. No, we don't judge in this show. You're often. Only for four hours a day. Just noon. Just 10 to 2.

Let's talk to Jalen Rose next. We're going to wake the Sherpers up at 1220 here on sports talks. You should know with Jalen? He'd be confused by it. Back with Jalen next. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 12 o'clock at H-town. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

And we are super, super excited. Normally we wake the strippers up anew. We're going to wait until 1220 to do that because we've got a special guest with us. I'll explain later. Joining us from the Final Four in Indianapolis, Michigan Great, NBA Great, excellent television broadcaster and courtesy of Lilly joins us here on the show. It's Jalen Rose. Jalen, it's Matt and Ross.

Thank you for the time. First of all, it is so good to have you back on television. How are you, friend? Thanks for the love. I appreciate being on the show. Hey, first of all, how are you and Lily getting involved this weekend during the final four? 150 years, Lily keeping all of us healthy. I just did an incredible panel with Darren Peterson of the University of Kansas,

who's probably going to be a top five pick, and Caitlin Clark, who's been a revolutionary basketball player, not only in collegiate sports, but also in the WNBA, and just admiring their maturity and their skill. And so I'm very grateful that Lily brought us all together and giving us an opportunity. And I heard you when you gave me the introduction, you were talking about the stripper. So I did my all-time list like 10 years ago

of my greatest cities of strip clubs. before another day. I'll give you the cliff notes. We wake the strippers up at noon on my show. I yell for 20 straight seconds, but since you're on major television star and NBA player, now, I'm going to tell you something right now. You were on the Bill Simmons podcast many years ago, I think,

and you did a sound effect that we play to this day. We've done it for like five or six years. I want you to hear how Jalen Rose is always a part of the Matt Thomas show at Ross here on Sports Talk 790. ding. Do you remember that? Ding. I don't remember what context it was in,

but I'm just fortunate to be the first, I guess, athlete and or entertainer, the startup podcast. And I would love for you guys to tell me, use that in a sentence. How did that happen? We're naming things that happen or listing things off. We just go ding. Ding.

Like things you would find at a, cafeteria. I'll start with mac and cheese. Or like we're doing, D'Meiko Ryan's does coach speak and we're playing his audio. LeBron James complaining about Memphis. That's hilarious. And you know what? I saw Anthony Edwards do that as well. Memphis is getting a hard time.

Memphis doesn't deserve that. Janlon, I'm the voice of the Houston Rockets, okay? I don't know if you know that, but I travel to these NBA streets. I'm one of my great friends lives in Memphis. the hotel's crappy. I'm sorry. It just is. I got it. I mean, I'm sorry. It's a tough city. But let's move on. It might be haunted. It might be haunted. I heard the rumors. Well, you know, I stayed there. I stayed there at least 15 times in my life. I know you did. I know, but it just needs like a carpet cleaning. It's all I'm asking for.

That's not me when I'm asking for much. Places are better when the carpet is clean and they smell good. I can I can ride with that. All right. Hey, have we lost the Cinderella story in college basketball March Madness? Or do you think it's just a couple of years where all these heavy favorites have started come into play? Not at all because of NIL, if you get a school, a mid-major, that's going to invest in the team and are able to recruit a couple of top-flight players, they'll be in a position to make a

3-16, make an elite, 8, make a final 4. I just feel like teams that are here now, for example, if you look at a school like Arizona, so it's a basketball school, but they haven't been to the final four in over 20 years. The University of Michigan, we won a single championship, and that was 1989. Illinois, they've outplayed expectation, and Yukon has more championships. probably than all of the people combined. And so there is room for Cinderella, but newsflash, as we've talked about that over decades,

about the tournament and March madness and Cinderella or whatever, Cinderella has never cut down the nets. So just take the chalk the rest of the way. Because, I mean, look, my Houston Cougars were a two-seed and didn't get there. And I honestly, I mean, the NIA money, I think, is going to ultimately hurt the Florida Gulf Coast of the world and the George Masons of the world. That was my point more, Jaylen, as I think that we're going to see maybe as many upsets in years past.

But if you're not caring, I mean, look at what Mick Cronin said, Jaylin just last week. What does he need? He needs $5 million. That's UCLA's coach talking. He didn't mess around. He went right to the, I need cash homey cars when he went to. I, you brought up Mick Cronin. He coaches at UCLA. UCLA is probably one of the, if not the most prestigious collegiate basketball schools ever. I think they have more championships than any team ever.

He's in Los Angeles. I was working at a McDonald's High School All-American game three nights ago, and they had three or four players from L.A. So that's on you. USC, the same thing. They're in position. They just got to recruit, lock down the players, and build a team.

Not when a player gets a flagrant file at Michigan State, send them to the locker room. Jalen Rose, T&T Sports Analyst, NBA, Michigan Legend, from Indianapolis here with us on Sports Talk 790, courtesy of lily.com. Jalen, you're with Lily to talk about prioritizing health. So that brings me to talk about the hot topic. the NBA, what do you think about all these injuries that are happening to the star players and the 65

games played limit? And what do you think is kind of a solution to solving these issues with these injuries that have been popping up in the season? So as a Midwest kid, I grew up playing whatever sport happened that season. So if you saw me on my podcast, I was killed. your bat because I thought I was Barry Bonds or Rock or Ruth as a left handed hitter. Then football season came. I'm

a Lions fan, and I joke that that's an abusive relationship, but I'm still loyal. And so what I feel about injuries in the game, and I just talked about this recently,

and crunk boxing also Emmanuel Stewart, the legend, rest in peace, Tommy Hurst, I've gone to crunk, I've stood in the ring,

I've got my nose busted and everything. The thing about being a fighter, and I'm going to relate it to basketball, is once you're in the ring and you get hit a few times, you get used to it, and it becomes

a part of your DNA that you can take more punches. I feel like one of the things, that is missing with the current athlete is they don't play outside on concrete anymore. That helps your ligaments, your joints, you're cutting, you're moving, you're falling on cement.

You want to test your love for basketball? Be in Detroit in December in the middle of winter and trying to shovel the court with a cold, hard basketball, where you put it in somebody's living room and you're flopping out the basketball, every other game, because it's freezing outside. And so for me, the current players don't play outdoors.

They don't play 5-on-5 in rec ball. They don't play in celebrity games. So therefore, when we were playing Summer League during the off-season, they're giving you summer league type play during the season. And that's what you see.

I'm not mad at the 65 game mandate because, like anything else, in pro football, they used to tackle during the game and during the pro bowl, now they're playing flag football.

So for Adam Silver, I got to create something to at least make these guys want to compete every night. You can't get more money and play less games. And so Kay Cunningham is a perfect example. As a Pistons fan, he plays 61 games. He was going to be all NBA. He was in the conversation for MVP. But now since he won't make that mandate, he won't be a part of the awards.

I think that's an anomaly. and I hate that for him. But overall, I'm not mad at the rule of trying to make sure that you get players to compete on a nightly basis because people are paying to go to the games. People are rearranging their schedules and falling in love with the sport. It's just unfortunate that you don't know sometimes

who's going to be on the court. And that's what helps the popularity of football because it's almost like a shotgun season, 17, 18 weeks. It's the shield, not the player. You know what you're going to get. If I'm betting, I know Matthew Stafford is going to get 150 yards in one TD. I know Jared Golf's going to get 150 yards in one TD.

But if I'm putting together a parlay, all of a sudden that makes it a more attractive product than the NBA, where if it's a Wednesday night, just like last night, Well, I was watching my business play and I turned on the TV. Anthony Edwards wasn't even playing. That's right. And so that's one of the problems that the NBA has to try to figure out. All right, we've got to save some time for Lily real quick to give them some love.

But real quick, preach to the city, Houston. Now, you may not believe it, but give me a scenario where the Rockets can get past this filthy Western Conference and make a deep playoff run. First of, you guys got E. I love it. I love very much. And he's a no-nonsense coach that also has the X's and O's. And, you know, like Joe Missoula in a lot of ways for the Boston Celtics, I think you guys have a coach that you could have for a long time coming.

Kevin Durant, he's an all-time great player. If you guys get in the close game, you know, he can dribble one or twice either direction and pull up on anybody and make a play. Sangoon, he's going to flirt with a 2010 on a nightly basis. Not a rim protector, but he's a score. I think the key to the team is going to be which version of Jalen Green you're going to get. I remember when he and Kay Cunningham were coming out in the draft and the Pistons had to decide which player they were going to take.

Jaylen Green on paper was more athletic. He was more mercurial and had the opportunity to, like, give you the ooze and hops. But the Pistons took Cade because he was steady. He was going to continue to improve, and he was mature at this young age. So to me, the difference for the Rockets, if you guys are going to be able to advance, you're going to you guys going to need jalen green to be you may mean jabari smith i'm assuming or uh tariese you're talking about oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah um i i like jbarri a lot too

jabari um i i i would like to see jabari like for real because they're you right jaylin is down in phoenix yeah i was like y'all off of that y'all was like y'all off of that um You silly. Jabari, I want to see him attack the basket more. Yeah, I'm a big Jabari guy. Hey, I want to get you out of because I know you got other folks to get to. Lily.com is where you can find out more about how you and Lily are working together to improve lives, correct? Yes, 150 years for Lily.

And even though Jaylon Green is in Phoenix and Jabari's in Houston, I would think that they also, support Lily, just like I do. Just like you do. Hey, I'm so happy that you came on our show today. Thank you for providing us great soundbites. I'm glad you're back on television. Keep Charles and rest of that crew and check on the T&T Final Four coverage. And we look forward to seeing you throughout the rest of the NBA in college season.

Thank you, gentlemen, for the time. We really appreciate it. I appreciate the love and the no-state Texas in Texas. And I've got to wake the strippers up. I got to let you roll on that, my man. Thank you, Jalen. and congratulations. Well, I got a secret for you.

You ready for this? Ready for this? How big of a secret is? Can I put this on social media, whatever you're about to say? Yeah. All right. So if you really want to see the strippers, right? Mm-hmm.

You got to go to the bank the next day around noon when they're deposited in their ones and their five. Hmm. That's what you see you see. So when you were traveling, I know you're late. Who cares at this point? Houston top three in strip clubs, correct? I'm assuming? Yes

Atlanta, Miami, and Houston. Have a good day. I dropped it right there. And he said, bring the ones, go to the bank for the ones and the fives. Okay. So the bank teller.

Bank teller it is. Thank you, Jell and Rose. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Head to lily.com, Matt. Those strippers.

Are they going to wake them up? We're going to wake them up next. 1214 on Sports Talk 790. All right, John. We need to get to 12 o'clock hour off to the right start let's go with the regular 12 o'clock open of the show hour open is the strippers or like did you let us sleep a little bit later this is the matt thomas show with ross

21 in h town it's hour and three of the mad thomas show with ross this is sports talk 790 It's like 25 degrees in here. It seriously got so cold. My nipples are ridiculously hard right now. Yeah. They're cutting through your shirt. Let me tell you all something.

There's a lot of noise in the background. If you're in bed with the woman and you're more focused on me, that's an issue. I mean, I appreciate the honesty. You know, on the easiest, I'm a good way to go to bed with me. You know, you put my, you get my voice and put it against your ear at night. Oh, there's going to be nothing but sweet nothing. So if I tell you to shut your bum ass up, you won't hurt our audience, correct? No, of course not.

Okay, then shut your bum ass up. Wow. God, it felt good. There's some extra venom in there. I don't know if I don't know if I'll comment. There's 18s in the league, and he should be lucky enough to get one of them. We're not lucky enough. Nobody cares.

The football, the product sucks. Nobody's going and nobody's watching. It's absolutely horrible. It's, it's, nobody's going to the game. Sunday. You can, but you're wasting your time. Get a steak. You're going to the Rortons of Chicken.

Popeye. I'm just saying it. I'm not dumb with this rhyming stuff. It's stupid. The rhyming is stupid? I'm going to Popeyes, okay? You don't spend any money. It's the guy I don't care.

It's like they're never going to spend money ever. I'm not giving them free plugs. Yeah, you can do that. I'm getting too confused. I'm at Dortons. I'm at Rappies. One of our listeners, Hans, listening to us in Denver, is at Rot Rise right now. He's about to consume the fish sandwich.

Maybe he'll call him for the 9-minute's report. Ross lost his hair tie. Now his mane is flowing everywhere. Jonathan, how do you look at that? What do you think about that Rossville, Real Main? No. Ten toes down. What do you think?

He can't cut that off. He's like getting no girls no more, man. I know. That's a chick magnet. Seriously, I don't get it. He now he's walking around. We're supposed to do the news at noon. It's already 12-24. We're 24 minutes late to the news.

Where does my hair tie is everywhere. You know, you guys shouldn't wear it now? This room has been vacuumed in months. Can I get you one? Why she has one of the ladies in the office? I can get you a head to do. No, it's a holiday. Nobody's in the...

You got a daughter? You got a hair tie? Oh, by the way, it's official workday. This is not a holiday for the company. Are you serious? I found that out this morning. Nobody's here. Thank them. Let them live their lives, Ross.

I don't let them with their lives. I just thought it was a holiday. Nobody's in the garage. Nobody's in the office. All right. We're just going. All right. You do the news and I'll look for your hair, tie. Go ahead. Hit it. Thank you. All right, Matthew, yes. We have the news at noon here on Sports Talk 790. Astros and Rockets. Did have the day off yesterday, but they will both be in action. as you'll have a late game against the Sacramento Athletics 840 start on Sister Station News Radio 740 K-T-R-H.

Christian Javier versus Jeffrey Springs as the over-under by the whistle. This is even by the odds makers. Also the over-under. See, it's completely gone. Where the hell did you go? I was tying my hair and then it's hair tie snapped and it's, I don't know where it flew to. Got to be over here somewhere. Anyways, Astros and A's on Sister Station,

News Radio 740K, T.R.H, Rockets and Jazz, right here on Sports Talk 790. I'll bring you the Rockets Launchpad coming up at 6 o'clock. EMAIDOCA going to join the show coming up at 1 p.m. Yeah, 35 minutes from now. EMA DOCA is going to join the show. Looking forward to that. All right, elsewhere in the news, Matt. Did you see who was named College Basketball's Associated Press Coach of the Year? not Dan Hurley

No not Kelvin Samson not Sean Miller Fred Hoyberg At Iowa State Oh Nebraska He used to be in Iowa State Yeah go ahead I'm sorry

Fred Hoyberg At Nebraska 28 win season That included the Cornhuskers First NCAA Tournament win 17 first First Place votes From a 61 person media panel

Just beating out Duke's John Shire Become the Big Ten's first natural coach of the year since Michigan's Juan Howard in 2021. Things can change quickly in college basketball. Yeah, I mean, John Howard was running to Michigan, and they're like, we can't fire one of our own.

You're fired, and then they got a new coach in there, and they're in the final four. Yes. Works out that way. Yeah, I think, unfortunately, that staying true to your school and insisting on alums, always coach your school, doesn't always work out.

Huber Davis just got fired at North Carolina. We saw that Cliff Kingsbury was the coach of Texas Tech for a while and didn't work out. You have to sometimes think outside the box and outside your alumni base. And get some cash. Straight cash home, like Nick Cronin said. Elsewhere, let's go to the NBA.

We mentioned this earlier. Luca Donchich exited Thursdays 139 to 96 loss of the Oklahoma City Thunder early because I have a strained left hamstring. He was ruled out in the game, even though he did come back. He's going to undergo an MRI today to determine the extent of the injury, says, Coach J.J. Reddick. LeBron Schames saying it's the last thing you want to see. So pray for the best for sure. And a speedy recovery.

Look at Donchich and the Los Angeles Lakers all but wrapping up the number three seed. Of course, they are nine games behind the Lakers, so they are not getting there. Actually, only one game ahead of the Denver Nuggets, but still the odds to have them at 83% the three seed in the West. What do you want the Rockets to be? I would like the, if the Luca's out, I would like the Rockets to play the Los Angeles Lakers, but you're not going to take games for it. Sorry, guys. You're right.

Because I think what NBA coaches think, and you'll never be able to walk in their room and sell them otherwise, is that, hey, if we're going to win a championship, we've got to beat several quality teams. There's no easy path, especially, unless you are a team like Oklahoma City or Denver that, or San Antonio that are going to be fighting for number one and two, both north of 60 wins. Yeah, but it doesn't. The Junch Lakers team does seem like an easy mark. Lakers only one game ahead of the Nuggets, but they do have the tiebreaker. And of course they have the tiebreaker against the Rockets as well,

who are two and a half games back of the Los Angeles Lakers. And that's your news at noon, unless you want more on Tiger Woods talking to the president. That was a humble brag, was it not? Was he talking to the president, though? We have no confirmation of this, correct? Trump did talk about his friend Tiger Woods, but I don't know if he directly answered the question who was he on the phone with him?

Okay. Honestly, who'd make that phone call? Does Tiger called President Trump say, hey, what are you doing? Or does Trump say, hey, are you busy? I mean, how does that work? I mean, they're Florida bros, right? But I mean, how many hours is a president working today?

He doesn't work an eight-hour day. He's got to be working, you know, he sleeps eight. I feel like in wartime, it's more. Yeah. But I don't know. I just don't know if you should be just, I don't know. works. I don't know. Do you have 10 minutes

to talk to Tiger? I guess so. Yeah. Check in. You're going to check in with Tyg, with Eldrick? Woodsie. Was he calm? I don't know. Oh, one more thing. Investigation underway over Dallas Stars fans putting up a Nazi salute. Am that your thoughts on that? What? I did not hear of that.

Yeah. Yikes. All right. Let's get a time out. That was that was the latest ever Stryker Stryper Wakeup call he ever had The latest news ever Yeah All for Jalen Rose

All for Jalen Rose All for Jalen Rose We've done the news at noon-ish At 1220 or 1230 Something something crazy has happened before All right 713-212-579 If you want to get in

713 2125790 Ross really quickly explain The essence of anything Goes Friday please Anything Anything 713

213 790 is the phone number. If you want to get in, 713, 212, 5, 790. We still need your fish sandwich rankings. Yeah, Hans, you're listening in Denver. Give us a shout. Let us call in with that. Also, if you want to talk about the Astros upcoming series against Sacramento A's,

how we feeling, Christian Javier? Are we a little nervous? I think so. Flyball pitcher? Is it a must good performance? Oh, my God. It was a must-win game, according to some people for the Red Sox on Wednesday and they lost. Yeah, Barstool Sports dude. Who is that guy's name? What's it? Dave Portnoy, he is the founder. And he's worth

gazillions, right? Millions and millions. Okay. Yeah, he's doing quite well. But it's obviously not real up to speed on the must win rule. Well, it's not, I mean, that's why I made the rule. Is it, is a game in March, or I'm sorry, April 1st or whatever? Is it really a must win game? Let me ask you this.

The basketball season. We're 0 and 7 going to Sacramento. Would that tonight would be a must win game? No. No. You're right. I think, I think as a non, I think, is somebody that likes to use the most win term, you have to still be responsible when you use it. It's overuse. That's what I'm saying. Like an ABS, a challenge system. You should only use it a couple

of times. And be willing to use it again. And high leverage? This is a low leverage situation. And it then goes, come on and join us. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. 1235 on Sports Talk 790. The Yankees home opener is coming up in a matter of moments. We'll give you updates on that. Hopefully the Marlins will beat them.

I'm not holding out of hope. Hey, I'm watching standings. Get those wallet cards in play. Although the Astros are going to go five and two every seven days, they're going to win a lot of games in the Astros with the American League West by 12 to 14 games. Are you baseball standings watching already? Well, part of our on-deck show requires it.

That's true. It is a sponsored element. I'll give you that. But I will be honest and say I do not, thankfully. Okay. Cody Bellinger, batting third, playing the field. Cody. Oh, you know, coming up in a couple of weeks, we get a Chicago Friday day game.

Shout out to the Cubs. We need more day games. Yeah, they're nice. Yeah, Friday, May 22nd. That's not a couple weeks. That's like a month and a half. Six weeks. Yeah.

Sorry, six. A few weeks. Several weeks. Well, I'll be busy calling Western Conference finals, maybe? you'll be fine. Why? Oh, you know what May 22nd is? What?

That's my Carly's graduation day. Oh, yeah, you'll be fine. Hey, you're off early that day. I'm off completely late at the day. What? Her graduation is 9.30 in the morning. Oh. Oh, you can come and do it on deck at noon.

Not doing it. You'll be fine. No. Yeah. You can take her to lunch. You can do it at the brunch table. Do it? Do you think I should do it?

You know, get a bite of French toast and bring us our home run leaders. She's, uh, she's, uh, she's, graduating at Diken Park. Yeah. It gets some ex-Bedededict and a roof report. But we, I don't know if you, I talked about this.

We had the option. We could either do it at the Fertita Center and have maximum of six guests or unlimited guest at Dikin Park. Now, the Dike and Park graduations at 9.30 in the morning, the Fertita Center would have been at lunchtime. Would have been like 12 or 1 o'clock.

Yeah. Okay. So we went with Dikin Park. Who chose this? The students did. It was like a voter. The families did. Yeah.

You had to vote, we had a vote, yeah. How was it tabulated? Surrey monkey. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, I'm just curious. Yeah, I don't, you have to. If you have grandmas and grandpas and friends, you have to, you cannot, like, oh, I'm sorry, you cannot come.

Six. Yeah, I'll be good. Now. All they do is just stand there. Somebody gives some inspiring speech. Make sure you chase your dreams, because everything in front of you, you can do it. If you believe you can achieve, and then you got to wait there for like six hours while they just run through names. I'm good. I've done enough graduations. Now, I'll tell you this. And we've

had this talk. Okay. I might miss the graduation. Yes. The rockets are playing that night on the road. You know what? Let's, we'll zoom you in. It's fine. And she's like, Dad, you'd miss it. I said, yes, I would. Graduations are overrated. Then I explained to her why I would miss it. Overrated. What I'd be getting is part of the missing. And she's like, Dad, I'll miss you. Yeah. It was a very, very short conversation. Yeah. It's good You know what, Ross, can we have it?

Can I get the second round? Can you will with all the positive All right in your life? I think my gut feeling like a week ago or whatever was first round exit But then they started playing better So my gut feelings improved The recent started playing better

Even though he was one for seven from three in the last game With a lot of wide open looks from the corner Well, he'll be better tonight My gut feeling at this point is second round exit the reality is this and we'll talk obviously a lot more if we get closer you know the regular season is a week from sunday the reality is they have no bench scoring and if you you are asking six human beings to do an incredible amount of heavy lifting here between now and the end of june if you go that far all right well i don't want to really put you on the spot

go ahead quick fire answer no thinking okay is it going to make me an uncomfortable situation i don't think so go there's a prediction here it is whatever it is go ahead uh rockets on the road of the Six-three. Prediction. Quick fire. Rockets in five, Lakers and six, whatever. Oh, Rockets v. Lakers?

Yes, Rockets Lakers. Go. Rockets in six. Rockets at the Nuggets. Rockets at the Nuggets. Rockets? I said no pausing. Rockets in six.

I'm, no, I can't. I mean, Rockets host nuggets. That is unfair to me because I'm, I have a completely vested interest in it. Okay. Rockets host Nuggets.

Rockets and seven. Oh, really? Yeah. Denver's good. I don't, I mean, if you, here's what I can't answer without any, I'd rather play the Lakers.

The Lakers dropped to four and the Rockets are five. I can live with that too. I think they lose so the Nuggets. As of right now, on the road. Does one home game really make that big of a difference

are you think in your mind? Absolutely. Okay, I guess you're right. Ask any team in the history of the league, do you want home court advantage? What are they going to say? But let me ask you this. And I'm guilty of this, too.

Do you think we make too much of that? We're talking about one game. Out of seven, it matters. Yes, the home court advantage. The Astros have had games, Rockets had game seven against Goldstein. I was literally going to say, that's not that it doesn't matter.

Would you rather have it at home or would you rather have it on the road? I mean, there's a lot of things. But I mean, does it at the end of the day really make that big of a difference? Astros have had World Series home field advantages before. Yeah, baseball's different. Okay. Rockets had the home court against... Game 7 win percentage.

Rockets had Game 7 and Golden State against the playoffs and was it 18 or 19, whatever that awesome season was. In NBA history, the home team has won 74.2% of all game 7 matchups. In everything. In the NBA. 155 game 7 since 1947. They're 115 and 40. This is in every playoff series.

Yeah. Wow. I would have thought the never would have been much lower. You want game seven at home. Okay, maybe you're right. All right. Time now for a chop eyes. Fish sandwich update.

It's Popeyes. It's fine. Hans, Denver, Colorado. I may be seeing you in the next two weeks. Hans, how was it? I'm pretty good. Hi, guys. Everybody doing okay today?

Amazing. Now, first of all, you should explain that the filet is bigger than the bun, correct? Correct. Correct. And so quickly, Like I said, by no means, I'm not a chicken fish, a fishing sandwich connoisseur. But all this fish sandwich talk kind of got me going, so I went to try it. And so I will agree with Ross that a place known for chicken probably isn't the number one choice.

But it's a solid seven. You know, the spicy fish is pretty good. But I will kind of preface that the guy taking my order was a bit surprised. I was ordering fish. He was like, do you mean the fish sandwich? I'm like, yep. But pretty good. I wouldn't be afraid to try it.

So there is a spice of the fish, or can you get it non-spicy? I just asked for fish, and it came out spicy. Really? Ross, it would it appeal to you? A little spicy fish? They have different flavors? Things you learn. So anyway, there it is.

I don't know what that means. I guess this is a Friday, so another great show. Enjoy the weekend, fellas. Thank you very much. Have a great weekend. We'll talk to you guys soon. All right. Hans. Hans calling us live from the Denver

Bureau of the Matt Thomas Show at Ross. Thank you. Appreciate it, Hans. If you go on to the Roppies website, can you get it, spicy and Reagan? I don't know. I'm not ordering fish at the Cadillac of Chicken restaurants. Promote your Instagram account. Yeah, why don't you guys follow me on Instagram at Sports RV? I really would appreciate it.

You know what? Until 1 o'clock, I'll follow you back. I would love to have you follow. I'm trying to build followership, quite frankly. It's a company and if it is. Oh, there is. brand building, et cetera. Hey, I'm still talking. Oh, sorry.

At Sports RV on Instagram. It would really, you know, if you just want to do me a solid, help me out. I would appreciate it. You can mute me right after. I'm just trying to get my numbers up. Thanks. All right. Follow me on Instagram at SportsMT.

You will not be disappointed. The Astros will win tonight if you follow me on Instagram. The Rockets will win on it if you follow me on Instagram at SportsMT. And I cannot guarantee a follow back. You're a liar. Matt's not going to follow you back because he thinks he's better than you. I want to follow you back at SportsRV. And you said they would beat the Timberwolves if I followed you on Instagram and you lied.

I don't remember that. All right. It is made of hand-bredded Alaskan flounder filet. Alaskan flounder? Yeah. Marinated in Louisiana herbs and spices and then fried to golden perfection as compared to somewhat golden perfection. Okay. Not golden brown, just golden.

It's golden perfection. Okay. It is served on a soft buttery brioche bun. They got nice buns. With barrel curled pickles, cured pickles, your choice. Now you're overselling it. Now your choice of a classic tartar spread or a saucy spread.

I like a saucy spread. They're going like full LinkedIn on this. Overselling it. The sandwich delivers a satisfying crunch and a balance of tangy, savory, and slightly spicy flavors, making it a standout seafood option at Ropyes. 4.49 for the sandwich alone,

combo with a drink would cost you around $7.99. Not a bad value. Wait a minute You said drinking fries $7.99? All that. Drink fries and a sandwich, $8. Now, locations do vary on the prices. Okay. You missed her no free plugs.

You just gave a whole damn spiel. The top eyes. You didn't charge him a talent fee. I got to try it. You doing it after the show? No, no. Maybe this weekend. That you're going to nap.

I need a nap. I got a big game tonight. I got to get my brights. I get my bright sense about prepping. Well, are you like me? peel behind the curtain. When there's a game, just between you and me, Matt, and everybody listening, when there's a game that's going to be a blowout, I have to pay attention to the game more. Like, I have to take more, I have to be more invested.

I did tell the audience today, I said, I really have got to, look, when I call an NBA game with players I know, I don't have to look down at all. Right. I got to look down. That's what, well, I'm saying, like, for the post game, because I know it's the jazz and it's a Friday, it's a holiday. Like, I know I'm going to have to monologue about 12 minutes tonight. You want me to call you tonight? If you want, there may be a chance I call you.

If Girada does not call you, I'll call you. If nobody calls, so I have to take more detailed game notes because, like, yeah, I can, you know, I do my soliloquy about, you know, when it's a big game, and then we would just go straight to the calls. But when I'm like,

uh, tonight, Utah Jazz, that the bad boy might be a blowout and not a lot of calls. So I'm going to really have to lock in and pay attention to this Rockets game. Yeah, I will call you if I don't hear of drive within the first 10 minutes. Okay.

We got a short segment here before we go to our friend E. May Adelka, Rockets, and the Utah Jazz tonight. Ross, what is today's edition of Hell, yeah, or not at 150? What? Yeah, it's one hour from now. Less than a hour from now. Facts about Easter. Oh, Easter. Okay.

The traditional Easter Bunny. Do you hear what happened to a member of the Kansas City Royals yesterday? Carter Jensen. Yeah, he got in a fist fight, I believe. That would be incorrect. With a clown. There was a day game between the Royals and the twins yesterday. I did see this.

He overslept. You know, this might be a little personal for you. Hey, you want to take a step back on this one. Early Rossfield in a round days would oversleep occasionally. I did it literally like, not true. Way under, way under. Two max. I think once.

I've had a bad rap ever since. Jensen says, quote, I didn't wait. wake up to my alarm, slept through it. Don't really have any excuse, nor should I. It sucks. It happens. I feel like I let my teammates down,

coaches down, just learn from it, and just know it won't happen again. He did arrive, but not early enough to prepare adequately to start the game. He did end up coming in as to catch in the ninth inning of a 5-1 Minnesota win over Kansas City.

Sabado Perez, who was supposed to be the D.H., wound up catching yesterday, said first and foremost, I'm glad he's okay. I mean, that's the kind of, this is Vinnie Pasquintent. said this, excuse me, not Saferra-R-Perez. Vinny said, I mean, that's the kind of initial thought

when you're trying to get a hold of his parents, everything like that, to make sure he's okay. There are some things that cannot happen, and that's one of them. So he's going to have to wear it on the chin. Some way anybody could have had to do, same way anybody would have to do so. It can't happen, hopefully it doesn't happen again. But it's one of those things that you just can't afford

mistakes like that to happen in this game. Just got to move forward the best he can. I know he feels really bad. So this is like a day game after a night game situation? Yeah. we had on the in the uh yeah in tv yesterday so you know i'll say this and i've covered NFL baseball and basketball players for the most part they do get there on time they when you hit when you start getting professional money mm-hmm you party hard when you can but if you have an eight

o'clock wake-up call it this does not happen very often and that's why i think they're making a big deal out of it. Yeah, 22 years old. If you got a 110 night game after a 710 day game a day game before, you gotta go, you cannot go out. You cannot go get you some barbecue up. You gotta go right to the house and go asleep. Yeah, I'm gonna imagine, I mean, some level of inebriation was involved. If he was hours late. When I was working morning drive on KTRH, I slept through many

alarms. That's the worst phone call. Rang-ring. Matt, it's 513. I'm like, oh, I'm supposed to do my first sports update in two minutes. Do you remember what you did that to me? Not too long ago. Mm-hmm. Do we judge you too much? No.

A little bit. You're actually very understanding. I was surprised. It happens. It's going to happen to all of us. Happens to me. It happened to me on New Year's Day. I was supposed to be there at 5 a.m. for the board shift.

My apologies to Bobby Craig. It is a Friday. I'm sorry. Who's not here anymore and hasn't been here. Like in our life? I mean, I think he's alive. He just hasn't worked here in like 15 years. Oh, I got you.

Yeah, I had a 5 a.m. on New Year's Day. I'm like, oh, yeah, you know what? I can go out to midnight and have a couple beers. I'll set an alarm for four. I'll be there by five. Aaron judges went deep. That was stupid. It was very dumb by me.

I didn't get there to like six. Oh. Our boss, Brian Erickson called me. And how did that go? He's like, hey, Ross, are you all right? That's the first thing you think of is. They were just worried about whether or not he's okay. And yeah, you guys are cutting off our headphones, but that's okay.

It's fine. They're working on. They're working on. Tom Klan, employee of the day. Yes, he is. He's here. Tom, we usually back talk to you, so it'd be nice. That is not true.

Well, more Ross. Not me. Oh, what? E-Madoka. Rockets chatter next. Non-flora story's coming up at 130. Ross, where's your non-flora story from? Uzbekistan.

All right. And you got hell, yeah, or not all things about Easter. Oh, it's locked and loaded. We can say, hell yeah, or not. not on Easter Day? Heaven's yeah? Heavens? Yeah? Jonathan, it's Heaven's yeah or not?

Resurrection? Risen, yeah, or not? Resurrection now or not? No, heaven's yes, fine. Okay. And we cannot play hell yeah. You cannot play hell today. 12.57.

You may next on 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Rockets and jazz tonight. We'll have it for you here on Sports Talk, 790. Let's spend 10 40 minutes with the head coach of the Houston Rockets, EMA Doka here on the program. EMA, things are going well. Congratulations on the nice winning streak.

I'll say this. Reed Shepard, you bounce in and out of the starting lineup and it's been matchup driven, but I'll tell you what, it's hard to take them out after getting a career high nine threes for you a couple nights against Milwaukee. Yeah, Reed's been playing great in either role and really

taking a big jump this year. And we love to see the development, the growth, confidence, aggressiveness, and the challenges he's taking on. And so a lot of times happens a lot in their second year. You're getting more opportunity this year, obviously, with Fred being out, and I love to see the progress that he's making. What did you ask him to do in the off season?

I know that the sample size was so small last year, and you obviously had a different roster. With Fred being out there, even with Fred being in, you were going to give him a better run of things. What did you ask him specifically to do that maybe has finally paid off here in this second season for him? you know the main thing is learn to learn to

handle the physicality on both sides of the ball and that's something that comes with time and strength and experience and you know he has to be able to handle pressure when they're picking him up full court and handle them coming downhill when he's when he's guarding and so he's really done a great job of embracing that

but other than that it was be who you are be who you were in college high school and why we drafted you and you know be confident and aggressive obviously one of the best shooters we have and in the league in general and so want him to play towards his strengths and improve on the areas he had weaknesses in. And so he's taking on that challenge. Did a lot of defensive work in the offseason, which a lot of guys don't put in that work on the defensive side of the ball.

And so it's paying dividends. He's blocking shots. I mentioned this to you a couple of days ago. You got four or five guys that are trying to have the team lead and block shots. That's something you obviously don't practice. And it also takes a little bit of guesswork, but also being in the right place, right time that you don't find yourself when guys in foul trouble. has that been a sneaky part of your team's defense, your ability to rim protect the way that you

have? Yeah, definitely, especially when you don't look at a, you know, a guy that's playing major minutes that is a typical rim protector. Obviously Clint is still really good at it. His minutes aren't at Alperin level or even Stephen when he was playing, but it's great to, for our guys, utilize

their length and some of their just natural ability, obviously when you have a point guard, you know, quote-un-po, point guard as I'm in on the ball, you're going to get quite a few blocks, and then Tari, Jabari, I'm sorry Kevin using their length as well and all those guys are contributing to us being a really good shot blocking team although it's not coming from just one guy.

Tarry Easton of course had the resurgent for a couple games. Shooting didn't go the way he or anybody would have wanted in the last game just one for seven from three. But overall, just what you've been seeing from him and this resurgent and why it's so important to the team as a whole. Yeah, because nobody can do the things he does naturally for our team. I mean, I mean, he's a great defender, and they go about it a little bit differently, but the ability to disrupt their offenses caused havoc there and just uses natural instincts as his high level.

And so for him, it was getting back to being who he is and not just relying on jump shots to get out of the slump, but, you know, starting defense, turn defense to offense, obviously crashing the glass, getting out for some easy baskets, getting to a free to line, all those things that will make the jump shots fall eventually. and he did all those. His activity level was great. And then obviously his jumper is going to come back. You don't shoot that high level as he did for three-fourths of the season and just disappear. Just going through a minor slump, doing the other things to get himself back into it. And now the threes are falling again.

Rocket Tech coach, IMA Adoka, with us here on Sports Talk 790. I don't see Alperin Shungoon listed on the injury report. So he should be good to go. Yeah, he's good. He just took a bump to the back area that he obviously had some discomfort in. it in a few weeks ago. And so got treatment, got some time to rest, and it's good to go. E-Man, he was not afraid to tell me how much he doesn't like watching zone defense.

Have you ever seen a game where the Bucks went so much zone? I mean, I don't know if there was even a possession. They didn't do it. Yeah, I mean, they run the second most in the league. And even with their main guys there, they run quite a bit. And so we figured they would be doing that with some of the players they had out there. And, you know, it can make you stagnant and a little bit less aggressive. And, you know, you still want to take the threes that are there.

but not only that, you want to move the ball and get some penetration against it, and then you'll lead to wide open things. And so at times that's what it's there for. To have people second-guess and get a little stagnant, like I said. And I think, you know, we missed some open shots that definitely would have had a wider margin in the score column. But, yeah, Al-Pie obviously wants his opportunities, as do other guys, but the zone is there to stifle some of those. So this Al-B jump shot, the three-pointers come into play, two of the last three games, as you see them, is it good time for him to shoot them?

Is it the ball leaving his hand better, a combination of both? Because let's face it, he was good for about the first month, two months from three, and then kind of went down on a downward trim, and now it's picked up the last couple of games. Yeah, I mean, it all comes down to confidence. All of our guys put a ton of work on these shots, and so it's not like they're taking them for the first time in the game. I think with him, you know, we love him rolling and picking rolls,

and, you know, spacing out, and just him rolling, collapses the part. pocket whether he has the ball or not and it leads to open shots for everybody else so you know we love them to do that but when you're playing on the perimeter some and initiating some offense and then all the attention that kevin and some of our guys get them and attacking the basket leads to some of those kickouts and the main thing is take the shot you want and be confident taking it if you're not going to take it you go into a second secondary action or attack downhill but if you're going to you know pump fake nobody at times we want you to let the thing go you put in all the work and now it's uh paying dividends as well

You got a Utah team very similar to Milwaukee that's got a beset a number of injuries. They're obviously thinking about next season. Do you use the, hey, Milwaukee came in and here and hit 10 threes against us in one quarter. You cannot have the same sort of, not necessarily the same sort of, but hey, don't think these guys lightly because they could come and make a ballgame of it as well if they need to. Yeah, I mean, that's the message and it's happened too often to us this year, you know, playing up and down to the level of competition. And, you know, you look at the Chicago game, they hit a bunch of threes early. Washington Wizards, they hit a bunch of threes early. so we want to come out and be aggressive regardless on defense and not just go through the motions,

follow guys around and hope they miss shots. This NBA, guys are putting in a ton of work getting there in the NBA for a reason, and they'll make shots if you don't deter that. And so we want to come out aggressive and do better than we did in that game. Obviously, New Orleans is a good blueprint of respecting the opponents because Zion Williamson and DeJante Murray and certain guys are out there. Same thing with the Knicks, and we want our guys to have the same mindset regardless of who's playing. Seatings can fluctuate a lot down the stretch here in the,

West, how much does that influence your philosophy or try to not pay attention to it at this point in terms of wanting wins or balancing rest and also even potentially playing for matchups? You know, for us, it's just to play great basketball at this time. We're playing better right now and still can sharpen some things up, no doubt. Our assist numbers off the chain, I think that taking the care of the ball has been great. So two areas we really want to improve and be consistent with. I think that's good. But at the same time, obviously look at the standings, some things you can't control, so you really just want to play good basketball and be healthy.

And so for us, that's the goal. You know, you'll get some rest with the playing tournament now. You get some more extra time off after the season. So we need to continue to win. And, you know, we'll see, let the chips fall where they made as far as seating. If I would have told you that Kevin would have played as many games as he has, as logged as many minutes. I mean, 73 games, top three in minutes played this year.

About I told you that in October. I don't know if you would have loved it, but I don't know if you'd have been totally surprised because, again, when healthy, he has been a guy that has given you north of 35 minutes, no, what uniform he's played on. Yeah, well, I know Kevin well and played against, coached him. And, you know, he's a guy just similar to Fred where he doesn't want to come off the court ever, and he also doesn't want to miss games. And so for him, yes, you understand he's going to play a good amount of games.

You know, we'd love to shave the minutes down for sure, and any chance we get to, and him sit out of fourth quarter is great. But, you know, with some of the other guys being in a lineup this year and the, you know, season-ending injuries, we've had to rely on them a little more than we would like as far as the minutes. But like I said, it takes great care of himself, works extremely hard in the off-season to be able to play in these games. And obviously, you see his efficiency at the all-time high as well. I'm trying to think about this. How many guys are still in the league playing that you played against?

Kevin. I got two on this team. Kevin and Jeff. Kevin Love? Yes or no? Yes, of course Okay For sure

There's still a few Al Horford and guys like that Just anybody up there in age a little bit But yeah Most of those guys were rookies When I was on my way out So you will not feel old When that answer is zero correct

Of course I feel old now When I look at our guys' birthdays And the majority of guys are born in 0304 And I was in the league already Well I feel old because I've called games in the NBA in college I've got like Kenyon Martin I've called KJ Martin's games

I mean, I've called Tim Hardaway Senior and Junior. That's how you feel old when you're talking. When you start coaching Jabari Smith's kids that you may, you're going to definitely feel old. I can tell you that for sure. Yeah, exactly. Hey, thanks for the time. We'll see you tonight.

Thanks for and good luck against the jazz. Appreciate it. All right, we'll see you. That's a, you mayadoka joining us on the show. So, yeah, there's a, he said he's got a few. I mean, trying to think who else would be in that mix. Kevin Love brought him up. John James.

The Bron James. I can pull up the list of the oldest current players. Yeah. Horford. Who else is super? Oh, Mike Conley? He had to play against Connolly.

He mentioned Horford. Yeah. Nicholas Batum? Eudas Haslam just retired. He'd been in the league forever. Yeah. He was playing. Brooke Lopez started in 2009.

Coach played till 11. Yeah, I'm sure he's gone against him. Yeah. You got a list. There's some guys out there. Emay's so young at heart Hopefully he will He'll have Kevin for a few more years

To have active players so go He's still young enough to be a pickleball pro So that's good I don't think I want to do anything against EMA you doka Because I think he's just going to MF me the whole time Yeah He's going to trash talk you Yeah

He got a technical foul What was it in I can't remember where it was But he said it was the first time he got a technical foul For not swearing Really? It was our last road game it was new orleans i think okay he got tea to new orleans and he i don't know if he's

going to rescind or not he was thinking about asking for a rescind on it because he did not usually when you swear that's that's the bone that's the golden rule to get to get a tea he said there's certain swear words like verbs yeah do something to yourself yeah that's funny all right we got now florist stories the bottom of the hour you ready yes and uh uh heavens Yeah. Heavens yes. I got to write this time because I'm going to put your. I love it. I'll get one of my no pads in the hotel. Hang on. It would be heaven's yes or hell no.

By the way, shout out to all of you that have now followed me on Instagram at SportsMT. Thank you very much for that. Again, I might follow you back. Now, if you have your account private, that's probably not going to help your cause. What are you trying to hide? Okay. But yeah, follow me on Instagram at SportsMT, and there is a possibility. I might follow you back.

I don't want to guarantee you something. unless you've got bikini photos or something. I followed you all back. Thank you. All for following me. I appreciate it. Shout out to Tyler, Coach Mike,

Jackson, Kimbelly. Kimbelly? Kathy? You know, Kimberly. What says Kim? I don't know.

That's her name. I don't know. Heaven's yeah or not. Do we need like a... You're always... No, if you don't want to find it. It's fine. We can't say...

I used to have... Oh, my God! Jonathan! Jonathan! Nice. You know what? Jonathan? this is the only time

I'll ever say. You ready? I'm here. There might have been 500,000 people in Houston. That's a Friday. I'm sorry. I said might. There was. It had to be. There was a lot of people here, but I don't know this 500,000. Instagram.

At SportsMT. Twitter, too, for that matter. Don't forget about Twitter. Oh, you're all a little meaner on the old Twitter streets. Yeah, they are. but I'm mute farming that, so it's fine. 121 on Sports Talk 7.9. We've got non-forat stories coming up, and I need a ruling on our non-floor story. I have two women that were arrested as part of my non-flora story.

Where are they from, and where were they arrested? Two important questions, Matt. You're going to say one of those is Florida. No, no, no. I can't do Florida stories. That's a problem. Okay. Let me tell you where they were from.

Okay, well, what's the, okay. In May's Landing, New Jersey. Okay. That sounds fine. Okay. Two women were arrested, and I need a ruling as to whether or not they were justly arrested or not. Oh, okay. I don't think you needed a ruling on whether or not it's a non-Florida story or not.

No, no, no, no, no. This is definitely a, this happened in New Jersey involving two women getting arrested. And I want to say sometimes honesty is the best policy except when it comes to what they got arrested for. Hmm, that's a great tease right there. Wow, I'm intrigued. You should be. 713-212-5-7-90. If you want to chime in, we've got Heaven J-R-N.

I wrote it down. Where's my not? Heaven J-R-N-A or not. Okay. Got that down. All things about, it's about Easter and Good Friday, correct? Yes. Okay, got that.

Rockets and jazz tonight. I think E-M. was in an upbeat mood. It's always good. Yeah. It's funny. We had, Joe was in a really good mood after winning those series against the Angels or split in the series and winning the game against the Red Sox. Yeah, it feels like you're pulling tea. It's just not enjoyable.

Hey, how about this guy that's sucking? Hey, when's this guy going to turn? It was the infirmary report every week last year. Guys, I don't know. Hey, how's this MRI? He's like, became an MRI expert. Like, Joe, you had to look at the MRI. What did you see?

That is actually true. I felt, we did feel bad for him for sure. Yeah. All right. What else we got going on? Oh, we even, you know, we haven't talked about one bit and again it's for a reason what's that

who's one in the final four I had Arizona if not for Houston from the jump I I don't want to be that old care person but I don't care my brackets are trash I lost a lot of Diet Coke's You're drinking Diet Coke Cokes now Coke Zero I think is a much better beverage in Coke Zero

than no Diet Coke okay I wonder what the sales differences are I'm sure it's submarine It's like they still make tab, which is terrible. They make what? Tab. No. Gross.

Who's buying that? You can go get tab. There's not a single person out here with a tab. There's somebody. Every time I go to any grocery store, there's always one six-pack of tab sit there. What's the average number of cats owned by a person who drinks Tab? 6.5? Tab is gross.

Like, I can pretty much drink any diet drink. It's nasty. But it's really the worst of the worst. No, it's bad. Okay. Back to it. Does Jonathan even know what Tab is? Jonathan's working on something else. He's busy.

Do you know what tab is? Soda. No, what is that? It was the first version of Diet Coke. Don't do it. It's awful. It's nasty. Yeah, I've never heard that.

Do you know mellow yellow? Yeah, yeah. Okay. I drank too much Malo yellow as a kid, and I've not had it consumed a mellow yellow since 1979. Yeah. I believe you had the world record, world's record kidney stone. I used to go, you ready for this?

And we were talking about final four, again, nobody cares, but I just want to say, it's the final four. We had to mention it. Yeah. I used to go to Jack in a box. They used to get frings, which was the fries and onion rings combination with a large metal yellow. Yeah? No wonder it was a fat slob.

It's okay, man. You're doing better. You're doing great, Matt. Mm-hmm. So on the final four. Okay. People complaining about the seats. Dumb stadiums.

If I was to give you the greatest form of trying to squeeze every dollar out of the emergency. American sports fan. Is the Final Four in a dome stadium the greatest example of it? Squeezing every dime. I mean, literally even the lowered level seats. Like you can, when the

Final Four is an NRG, if you had lower level, that didn't guarantee you great sidelines. Boxing matches in the stadium. Way worse, but a smaller scale. When's the last stadium we've had for a boxing match? I don't know. Manny Pacquiao had some fights in a stadium. Canelo has some fights

and Canelo fought in Diken. It was a minute made of the time. Oh, didn't you go to an AT&T fight one time? Yeah, it was terrible. Joshua Cloddy stood there with his high guard for 12 rounds, took his paycheck, and walked out of there. I wasted $250 on that, and I watched it on the big screen the whole time.

That was stupid. Joshua Clotty. I remember the first time I went to... Benny Packie, I was going to whip his ass, so he just took his paycheck. I remember the first time I went to a dome stadium. It was a Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, and I was covering the Astros in Orlando at spring training, and Kim met me in Tampa because Duke was playing.

So I got tickets for us to go to St. Petersburg. We were in the upper, upper, upper deck for Kentucky Duke game. It was so bad that we just threw the tickets. We didn't go to the championship final because it was really. Yeah, I mean, watching it in your television, seeing everything, or being, I don't know, 500 feet away. At least you could say you're there, I guess. I don't know.

I wasn't making big money back then. gas money got me there. The point being is this, I feel bad because you have thousands and thousands and thousands of fans that are going to chance to see their squad play, and they're in the upper deck. 400 level at Lucas Oil. I mean, that's got to be, I mean, that's way, way,

way for it. They kind of know, don't they? They should do it in arenas and just charge triple the price? Well, the problem is then they would probably Yeah, let me tell you what they would do. They would lemonade bands. Can't give it those seats. Right. Well, you know what? Maybe the stadiums are good because you got to get a lot of comps.

I'm sure. And every school gets tickets. Every school in the NCAA Division I gets tickets. Yeah. They don't get a lot, but they get some. So that's another, that's a thousand tickets right there. This stadium's going to stay. It is what it is.

It's not going away. You know, if you went to half stadiums, it would not be nearly as bad. It would be $35,000. You could still get a pretty decent view, but not at Lucas Hall. That's going to be the full throttle big thing. I mean, I was lucky. I had a lower level seat at the Alamo Dome. And it's a smaller venue.

A little smaller. It was okay, but it, there was pocket. I mean, I wasn't watching, you know, when you watch basketball, you typically watch it down. I was watching a little bit up. Because again, the floor was raised a little bit. Yeah, it's interesting. I still think it's the greediest thing the NCAA does.

They do a lot of greedy stuff. But I mean, the greediest of them all. All right. Non-flora stories are up next. Then we've got Heaven Jail or not. That's in the final segment of the show. 713-213-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

It's Matt and Ross. Now, Florida, stories next here on 790. We find interesting stories that occur outside the state of Florida and share them with the people of Houston. It's time for non-old. Gentlemen, I need a ruling. I know Oz is going to go, but you never what? I like to ask for ruling sometimes here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross,

especially when it involves a non-flora story. The waterfall therapy massage spa is found in Mays Landing, New Jersey. Oh, no. Has Robert Kraft been there? Is he on the Wall of Fame? It was searched on March the 11th. Two women, Cui Chen, 50, Wang Jin Zoo 60, were charged with prostitution and conspiracy to commit prostitution. Okay.

The township of Hamilton Police said they had conducted a lengthy and detailed investigation. My guess is they probably could have saved themselves the time and effort of the lengthy and detailed investigation if they had gone to the website of said spa, where a line on the business's website notes that it offers massages with, quote, a happy ending. Oh, my God. Okay. The women were released on summons. The question I have is, should they have been arrested? if they already told you what you're going to get when you go to said spa?

The answer is yes, because it's illegal. That's a good question, Matt. I'm not the line. Waterfall therapy massage. Relaxing massage? Happy ending. Yeah. I mean, whatever two consenting, non-trafficked, non-being-held prisoner in the country adults want to do. There is a Yelp review that says, do not patronize this establishment unless you are a man. You will not feel wanted. They kicked a woman out.

Never mind. Don't make a face, Jonathan. Our space exudes an atmosphere of refined masculinity, offering a sanctuary where you can unwind, recharge, and escape the hustle of everyday life. Revel in the extra touches crafted for the modern man, including the comfort of complimentary hot towels and envelop your skin in warmth,

enhance the overall experience, luxuriate, luxuriate in the invigoring embrace of our table showers, a rejuvenating addition designed to leave you feeling refreshed and energized. Wow. Who sent you this? This is way too good of story. One resident on the Elper View had the business peg just quote one of those spots back in December of 2023. So, yeah, you cannot.

You cannot gear your massages exclusively. towards men, especially if you're offering the happy endings. And that, my friends, is my non-Florida story. Wow. So the ruling you're saying is if you and, even if you tell them you're getting, you have an opportunity to get one, you should not be allowed to give

such one and thus they should have been arrested. Okay, I get it. That's fair. It is prostitution. It's illegal. Yeah, what it is. Thank you, Matt. Thank you. Well, let me take you, folks, to

the tallest mountain on the planet. I like when you go hiking. Mount Everest went hiking this weekend in a big thicket. Had a great time. Go check it out if you have it. It's quite tranquil and fun. Bromah Hammock had a great time. Mount Everest guides have been accused of secretly drugging foreign climbers

to trigger expensive aerial evacuations as part as a $20 million insurance fraud scheme according to an investigation by the Nepali police. Nothing gets by the Nepalese policeman, as you know. So mountain rescue companies in Nepal were drugging climbers, making them think that they were dizzy and disoriented and having issues,

as they also reported nausea and body aches, as they were advised to descend and agree to costly emergency helicopter evacuation. So they drug them, got them evacuated by helicopters. And then said, hey, you want to get down? Of course I do. I don't feel good. Yeah.

And they forged medical and flight documents to claim costs from international travel insurers. The operators inflated the cost by billing each passenger if they'd taken a separate helicopter flight, even when multiple people were flown together. 11 people arrested. That is an unbelievable. scam. Get them sick and then offer them a service to get down and charge them. So first you're trying to hurt them and then you're going to try to collect on the money on the helicopter ride. People die going up this mountain anyways. 32 people charge 11 arrests made. The scam appears to be vast affecting 4,782 international climbers. 5,000 climbers between 22 and 2025. More than 300 cases of 117.5. More than 300 cases of 118.

alleged fake rescues have been uncovered. This is crazy. And it took them this long to finally figure this out? Yeah, what does Sir Edmund Hillary have to say about all this? I find out of who that was. I have a comment for you. Sir Edmund Hillary, does that make multiple choice for me? That's, he's, I'm going to, the multiple choice is going to be the first guy to climb Everest.

Did you know that Jonathan as of 30 seconds ago? Was it ring a bell? What's the name? Sir Edmund Hillary. Sir Edmund Hillary. I don't know. This is in the recesses of my brain. I'm sorry. You got a lot more in there than I do. Just saying.

I did not know who that was. There you go. Thank you for that uplifting story about getting people sick and then paying for their... I think is a crazy story. It is. It is for sure. All right, Jonathan, beat those, my man. You know what I'm going to try? Because applications are now open for the first ever sperm racing World Cup. Slow down. Slow down. Nice and slow on this.

Hold on. Slow, slow. Slow. Say that one more time. Applications. Antonio Cromarty, step on down. Are now open for the first ever sperm racing World Cup. LAD Bible reported on March 13th while a day has never been set for the competition

organizers expect specimens from 128 countries around the world to race around a tiny track. All in the hopes of winning a hundred thousand prize pool. Antonio Cromarty had a

after a vasectomy. He's got my vote. He's got to get the gold. Sperm racing isn't just a joke. Yes, it is. Meral fertility is declining. Nobody really talks about it. In sperm mobility and how fast sperm moves turns out to be a massive factor in fertility. Have you watched sperm move like that before in your life, Jonathan?

Never in my life. Nor have I. You got to be 18 and older. Free of XTD. I would hope so. And be able to participate in qualifying rounds and tournaments. Good luck. Is there an audience for this? No.

A prize of 100 bands? I don't know. You people are sick. Mats face. Sperm racing? All right. You know what? You know you should all apologize.

Jonathan, you need to apologize to us. What? He had the waterfall in the size. Yeah, but at least they were open and honest, but what they were offering. They are open and honest. They're given $100,000. Oh, my God. That's true.

It's a lot of money. Can I ask you a question? What? Would you do it for 100 G's? I get no shot. Why? Literally. I know I think about joining it.

It's $100,000. Look, you win. Okay, wait a hundred thousand dollars. Now, oh, God. Oh, my God. You know what? My aunt is in town. And usually when family comes in town, my mom, my mom, my mom,

Aunt Anna. Please don't be in. Please don't. Because usually people come to town, my mom's like, oh, listen to my son. He's on radio. So, yeah, your family and you're visiting. Please, I hope they're not listening.

This is Jonathan. Sorry, not yours. You're okay. It's Jonathan did it. Mom and Anna, I'm so sorry. It wasn't me. Love you all. See you this Easter weekend. I need to ask one more question. I swore moving off of it.

Oh, God. So when do you put the competition? Where do you do it? How do you do it? I don't want to know. I am not curious about this at all. Does the track have turns and stuff? Or is it like a straight?

Do you put it on like a plate? Don't they need an egg or some kind of pheromones to be attracted to? It's a lot of questions. Is it like you put on a little mini boat you go and you go to like the amusement park? You put it on the amusement and watch the boat go, you know, like those remote control boats you have? Okay, I know you're talking. You know, around the little area. Is it like a lazy river type of action?

Yeah, is it a lazy river? Or is it like an up and down really quick? All right. That's enough. That's enough. All right. We're going to play Heaven J or not. People make me sick.

Yeah. You people should be ashamed of yourself on Good Friday. You tell Anna, we're going to have a nice showy segment here. Yeah, okay. And Anna, we're going to take care of you here in the final segment. Don't hold your breath. Heaven's yeah or not. What do we have for the prize vault?

A little bit or a lot left? What we got? We got enough. We got three. Okay, so you have to get two correct answers then for Heaven J or not. Heavens yeah or not is up next. One 44. she's not, Anna's Lelson, she's fine.

She has zero issues with it. She knows it's just an entertaining part of the show, or at least we try to. 713-212-5-790. If you want to play Heaven Jair or not, 7-1-3-21-5-7-90. If you're an Alpey-Sengoon fan, I've got a couple of stats that will tickle your fancy sports RV.

Last 20 games, shooting 59% from the floor. And in his last nine games, he has 10 for 18 on three-point shots. Beautiful. Yeah, 20.6 points per game, 8.9 rebound, 6.2 assists, shooting at 52% I think from the floor. I don't write that down. I got to write that down for the show.

But yeah, the numbers are really, he's very, very efficient. 59% in his last 20 games. You should. You know what it is? It also goes and coincides with the fact that he's able to, he's been attacking the basketball. Those little, what do they call it? What's that name of that bird again? Not the ostrich.

It's the flamingo that puts the leg up in the air and floats. Those little float away. It doesn't do that very often. It does a little bit. Flamingo. Yeah. But it works that well. Yeah, Alpe's got 25 or more points in five of the last nine games.

And so the Rockets put the Utah Jazz. The Jazz, I don't think you recognize them, but you certainly will not recognize them tonight. Cody Williams, Ross, your favorite Cody Williams moment as a Utah Jazz so far. That time he got that layup. How do you feel like Kennedy Chandler going against the Rockies tonight? up now. I should do is this guy really a Utah Jazz player? I said that earlier. I know.

Yes or not. All right. 7 o'clock for the game here on 790. If you want to listen to the Rock, the Astros versus the A's, that's going to be over on KTRH tonight. Is that an 841st on that one from the West Coast? 841 pitch. You know, a lot of teams are going to 640 local star times.

What are you looking at me that for? You think it's a bad idea for Houston? It's a bad idea for Houston. Yes, usually it's in cities that have weather issues They want to get people in the same walls 7-10's a good start I like it 7-10 get you If you work till 535-45-45

So get you a puncher's chance To be at the ballpark by 7. Yeah, Frombers on the Hill, it's more 713 Oh, Monday, by the way You'll be doing while I'm gone missing years Oh, let's text some people You do the show All right.

Five minutes That was an indirect way to remind you I'm going Monday and wins it next week. I literally made a reminder on my phone. Yeah, I know. But I'm here for you. Life is hard. It's fine.

Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play. America's fastest growing sports radio game show. We simply call it Monday through Thursday. Believe it or not. Normally on Friday and Friday, we call it a hell year or not, but we're calling it today heaven's yet or not in honor of Good Friday and of Easter.

I'll read your statement about Eastern and Good Friday. if statement is completely not only accurate, you'll say this. Oh, you'll say, heaven, Jan, and you'll hear this. That's so good. Statements, erroneous, full of bunk and made up, you'll say this. No, there it is. Two hell yeronauts, or excuse me, two heaven geronauts are going to win your prize. You will get either a pair of tickets to see the Outlaw Musical Festival.

That'll be July 5th at Woodlands Pavilion, or a tickets to see the Dave Matthews Band. A pretty baby! May the 8th at the Woodlands Pavilion. And tickets available for both those events can be found at Ticketmaster.com. That's Dave Matthews Band or Outlaw Music Festival. But at first you must play Heaven's Yeah or not. Let's go to Jerry on 790. Jerry, ready to play Heaven's Yeah or not?

Yep. Good luck to you, my friend. Here we go. The date of Good Friday is determined by the ecclesial. Ooh, that's a big word, Ross. Elis-esical? Elis. Say it.

Ecclesiastical? Ecclesiastical. That's right. Ecclesiastical approximation of the March Equinox and the Pascal Fu Moon. Heavens, yeah or not? Heavens, yeah. Statement number two for the wind. The world's largest Easter egg is located in Brazil. It's approximately 55 feet tall and 35 feet wide.

Heavens, yeah, or not? Not. It is, I'm sorry. Thank you for playing now. You should get bonus points for saying that large word. Ecclesiastical. Ecclesiastical. Jonathan, spell it real quick.

You can't. I can't. Jeremiah on 790. What was your favorite part of today's radio show? Oh, the little talk of the Rock is game tonight. The world's in Germany. It is illegal to dance on Good Friday. Heaven Jiao or not?

Heaven Jail. Yeah, heaven Jail. Statement number two for the win. In Jamaica, they crack eggs on Good Friday. that are said to be predicting the future. Heaven Jaya or not? Heaven Jets. There you go.

Nicely done. We got a little bonus sound effect that. That's very good. Let's talk to Gil on 790. Gil, you're ready to play Heaven Jail or not? Heaven Jail. The Pope's colors on Good Friday are white and gold to represent heaven and rebirth. Heaven Jail or not?

Not. No, it's for purple and black for mourning and penance. Statement number two for the win. Good Friday was declared a U.S. national holiday in 1841 at the urging of William Henry Harrison. Who was the first Catholic president? Heaven Jiao or not? Not. That's right. It's not even a federal holiday. Thank you. Congratulations. Trent on 790, your favorite part of today's radio show.

The interview with the Rocketsead coat. Jelly beans became associated with Easter around the 1930s because of their egg-like shape. Heaven Jiao or not? Not. They are. Thanks for playing. Paul on 790. Paul, you're ready to play Heaven's, yeah or not? Heaven's yeah.

Good Friday alcohol sales were banned for years in Ireland, but the band was lifted in 2018. Heavens yeah or not? Not. It is. You now can drink there. We had two winners today. Congratulations to Gil and to Jeremiah on Heaven's Yeah or Not. Have a great, good Friday.

A better Saturday. amazing Easter Sunday. I'll talk to you for Rockets Basketball at 7 from the Toyota Center, or Toyota Center, some would say. Utah Jazz and play, and then I'll be with you. You can say it's not that big of the deal. Oh, you're booing the jazz. You don't even recognize the jazz. Up next, John Seifton's bestie, Adam Clant with Adam Lexer, the A team on Sports Talk 790.