The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian T. Smith On MLB Negotiations & NBA Return To Play Scenarios

Episode Date: May 29, 2020

is the Matt Thomas show. All right, final hour of the Matt Thomas show. Ross put a poll question up, and we're going to open this with BTS too because he loves music. Ross, explain your tweet about the Eagles from earlier today and what the latest standings are on such an event. That would be, I just put the Eagles, good band, or not a good band. Which somebody made a good point in the comments.

His name is Kurt. He says, you can't really say they're not a good band. I mean, they're good at playing instruments. they wrote music, whatever. I guess it's just a question of, I would say more than anything, I think they're overrated. But anyways,

we're at 77.9% good band, 22% not a good band. BTS loves him some Pearl Jam. Are you an Eagles fan? Yes or no? The Eagles are complicated, Matt. Oh, I like the same. Now, Brian knows music.

I'd much more trust his opinion over yours, Matt. Sorry. Why? I'm right here. Part of me, well, for the rest of my life, life, it has been for about the last 25 years, is basically, in a lot of ways, but specifically with it, Jeff Bridges, the dude and the Big Lobowski, where it's like,

the Eagles suck, dude. You know, I think he's in a taxi, and he gets kicked out of the taxi because the guy's playing the Eagles. I think it's take it easy. And it's like the Eagles suck. Part of me is like that. If you think about it, I mean, the Eagles were sort of cheeseball. They were a bit of a concoction at the same time.

and I don't want to send any long-time Eagles fans at the same time. I think you are also 100,000% wrong if you say the Eagles suck. They wrote some of the greatest songs of the 70s. They wrote some of the greatest ballads, you know, mid-tempo rockers, California, 1970s classics, and they were incredibly diverse. You look at the guitar playing, the harmonizing, on and on. So half of me thinks the Eagles too suck. half of me is like they have some of the greatest written songs in American rock history and

they were more diverse than just about any band out there. So I'm very, very iffy, but, you know, praiseful of the Eagles. Okay. Right on the fence, my friend. That's exactly. No, I think that's a lot of that what he said is absolutely spot on. But see, I think if you say the, if you say, the problem with the Eagles is they've been playing for way too long and there's no one left anymore. And so they're, They're like on the eighth incarnation of themselves. And people want to go see them because they want to go see here at Hotel California after their eighth beer. But you haven't been seeing the Eagles for like the last 30 years. See, to me though, Brian, it's like saying like when I say or somebody would say the Eagles suck,

that's kind of like saying, you know, Ryan Anderson sucks. Ryan Anderson shot 40% from three. He's one of the greatest basketball players walking on the planet. But if I think he's overrated or overpaid, I'm going to say Ryan Anderson. sucks. He doesn't suck, but you get what I'm saying. That's what I would say if you say that about the Eagles. I have to argue, Ryan Anderson and the Eagles are two different. That's not a great comparison. Sorry, I like Ryan Anderson, but that is shaming the Eagles. Every Friday is at the clock for the last two years.

Okay, well, how about, I don't know, Damien Lillard. If somebody wants to say Damian Lillard sucks, he doesn't suck, but he's just not one of the best players in basketball. The Eagles don't suck. They're just not one of the greatest bands of all time. The Eagles don't suck, but they've been doing it for too long, and they're not led to up. No, you know what? I think James Worthing in the Eagles is a better comparison. You're on the all-time greats. He's not the great. That Eagles are way better and more important than James Worth.

All right, let's go higher then. I liked it. I like where you're going with this. Let's come up with the name. Isaiah Thomas. Clyde Drexler. Oh, Clyde Drexler is the Eagles. Yes or no.

That's not bad. All right, let's get to some baseball. BTS, we were really pissed off the last couple of days. And again, not that one verbal round of tweets and quotes is going to necessarily end conversation. But Max Scherzer's tweet about how they found just ultimately an insult, and they want to add 100 games, and they don't want to take any salary reduction. They'll take the reduction because the games are reduced, but they're not taking any true reduction. I'm very discouraged.

Can you walk me off the plank on this? or am I going to stay on it for a while longer? I think you're going to be on it for a little bit. I keep spreading this. Ultimately, Matt, I believe, and maybe I'm just doing it so I have hope, right? So I can go through each day and be like, well, baseball is going to be back. I believe that ultimately they're going to do all this, say all this, and by the time September rolls around, no one's going to remember, no one's going to care

because they can't be this stupid. I mean, they can't be dumber than they were in 1994, because in 1994, they were, major league baseball was still huge. But you didn't have a pandemic. You didn't have 40 million unemployed. You didn't have, you know, restaurants and small businesses across the country, Matt, just struggling and people just dealing with unthinkable things. They're not that stupid.

So it ultimately has always, to me, felt like it's grandstanding, it's public, compromising. You know, there are a lot of people on Twitter that thought Max Scherzer was awesome by saying that. I will never understand that. I like Scherzer. He seems like a smart guy. He won a World Series last year. He'll have probably on the Hall of Fame. Just by saying we're not going to negotiate when everyone else, you know, everyday people are struggling. It just sounds so stupid. And in a bubble to me, just like Blake Snell did. But, you know, some people think he's awesome for going against the billionaires. Then again, it's always easier to hate billionaires than it is millionaires. All right, and I'm going to ask you just to put your crystal ball in front of you. Both sides we have to assume are going to have to come closer to the other side. Let me ask you this. In order for this to happen, what is your gut? Do you think the owners have to give in more or the players do?

I'm not pass on this one. I believe it's the truth. I think it's 50-50, but if I had to lean toward one side, it's obviously the players. I'm not pro-owner and I'm not pro-player I'm pro-complice. I am saying all this and have written it multiple times in the Chronicle,

and I will keep hammering it, and I'm glad you're doing it on your show. I feel like it's not being talked about enough locally, especially with the Astros and their return being so important to the city of Houston. The owners are going to have to give, the players are going to have to give, but if the players had taken the owner's original deal,

I'm not saying they should have, but if they would have, baseball would be back right now. You know, I mean, you'd be in early June next week, and they might have been having tryouts. I mean, sorry, workouts, and you would have spring training, and then you would have a few exhibition games, and then maybe July 4th, they're playing baseball again. They are up against the wire right now, and nobody's talking big from the owner's side. I mean, the players would say the owners are putting it all out there.

They're giving us this horrendous deal, but at least they are proposing deals and counter-proposals. And, you know, Major League Baseball, they're the ones that came up with the safety plan, not the players. So, again, I love baseball players in general as a whole, but you go back to 94 and even predating that. And every time this comes around, no one looks worse in pro sports than baseball players. We had Harold Reynolds on yesterday. He didn't mind the thought of it being as little as 70 games, especially the labor negotiations go on. I think 82 is the bare minimum before the word fluke comes into play. Do you have a number in your mind or do you don't particularly care?

I think that's a really good question. I've been thinking about this a lot late. Look, if 82 is the best they can do and we keep saying anything is better than nothing right now because of all the circumstances. But 80, 82, man, it's half of a season. And baseball, the beauty of baseball, even in 2020, is that you play every day. and it's the long 162. And so there's, you know, it waters out of the flukes. You know, I mean, you can hit 800 for one week,

and then you turn into Tyler White the next month. So if that's the best they can do, it's the best they can do. If they start getting down that to 70, 60, I mean, gosh, if you go lower than that, you don't need a season. Baseball, Major League Baseball is way too serious and complex to have it become some fluky, 50-game regular season, and you throw everyone else in a season. the postseason, if they end up doing that, they're better off just going on into 2021. Yeah.

And what Harold's point was is that you won't care about the 60-game regular season if you have 14 teams playing in the playoffs, a good long playoff. I'm thinking, I don't want my postseason as long as my regular season. It just seems kind of weird that way. I don't want the San Diego Padres and, you know, the Milwaukee Brewers, you know, playing for the World Series just because they got hot for one month. That's not, baseball has a long, long history. and it's never had a situation like that.

All right. Shams just reported literally five minutes ago. The NBA's Board of Governors has four options for the return of the NBA. Oh. 16 teams directly to playoffs. 20 teams with a group stage play. 22 teams, games to determine seeding play in tournament for final seeds. Or all 30 teams playing a 72 game regular season with a play in tournament.

I know I'm putting you on the spot because it literally just came a couple of down minutes ago, but I'm sure you had something in your mind about what you'd like to see the NBA return to. The 30 doesn't make sense to me. Now, granted, you would do the 30, right, and then have a play in tournament, but there's no reason, and I said this last, there's no reason that Cleveland or Atlanta or something, you know, the New York Knicks should have any shot to make the playoffs. That completely waste the entire regular season. I prefer the 16s rough.

you just go straight into the playoffs. I understand the sentiment if you're New Orleans, if you're Portland and Damian Lillard, if you're the 17 best team in the league, you're like, man, we just need to five more games. We would have made the playoffs. Maybe you make some crazy run again, that waste of regular season. I lean toward the 20. I lean toward the 20 with some type of, or even if you're going to do the 16 and the 16th or whatever, I'm making this up on the spot, 20, 22 have a play in, you know, for those final two to four spots. something like that. And really quickly, the rockets deserve a shot to improve their seeding.

And I'm not being pro rockets here. That's just the fact. If you're going to say Portland, Zion and New Orleans, they deserve a shot to get the 8 seed. Well, the Houston Rockets, Russell Westbrook, James Hardin, who's apparently lost 180 pounds, they should have a shot to move up to four, to move up to three. And it's only going to take five games. So I lean toward that, Matt. 16, pool play, 20, and a play-in,

sometimes a combination like that, they don't need the full 30. Yeah, Shams also reporting just a couple minutes ago that July 31st would be the target date for the return of the season. That's still two months, but you know what, at least it gives something for hope. The one owner that thought the idea of playing 30, all 30 teams, seems kind of silly. Hornets owner Michael Jordan. So Jordan knows that his team's just done in 2020. One of the most competitive human beings in the world of sports history is like, you know what, my team sucks. I don't want to risk injury of my star players, which I don't really have many.

So why should I have to put them on a plane, send them to Orlando for five or six games that mean nothing to my team and my chances of at least even making the playoffs? That's Michael Jordan for you. That's the same thing with the Knicks. That's the same thing with the Hawks. There needs to be a real 30 for 30 done on Michael Jordan, the owner of the Charlotte Hornets Bobcats. is the best basketball player of all time, one of the worst owners of all times. But it's funny, though, you could do that about a variety of different people.

Isaiah and Thomas, a failed executive. Yeah, horrible. Bill Russell, not a great NBA head coach. I'm trying to think of some other. Larry Bird was good, didn't do it very long, but wasn't very good. Some of the best coaches, I mean, in the history of the NBA, I mean, could you even name the best player that turned out to be a coach later on in his life? That's something we can think about for another time,

but it doesn't come right to mind, does it? No, you mean, you're absolutely putting it on the spot. In a good way, I enjoy it. I would have to do a little research before I suddenly. Doc Rivers. Bill Russell? No, I would just say Bill Russell? Lenny Wilkins?

No, I was going to say Doc Rivers is a good example, right? Doc, but, yeah, and Doc's been a, I don't want to say Doc's been a great coach, even though he won a title, but Doc, you know, he was a good player. He wasn't a great player. That's hard. it's hard to find that combination of a great player who became a great coach or a great Jerry West, you know, but he wasn't really a coach. He's more of a, you know, if you're going to attach him to something, he's front office.

Oh, yeah, he's as good. He's as good of a player as he's a general manager. Magic Johnson failed as a coach, too. BTS, I want you to think about that all weekend long. Come up with an example next week. And maybe we'll throw out an insipole question about if Pearl Jam is a good band. I know that all your friends will call in and say absolutely yes to that, correct? Best band of all time.

So whatever, Matt. There it is. BTS. Talk to you next week, friend. Thank you. Take care, man. All right, buddy. That's Brian T. Smith.

I have two really good friends. He's one of them and my other buddy, Ed, who just lives and breathes Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam. I have two of their songs on my, on my list. Yeah. Okay. So. I'm more a fan of Space Jam.

Or Space Jam, too? Yeah. Coming out next. Or Strawberry Jam. All right, so let's run through Sham's tweets. We come back. Some, M. A.

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