The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian T. Smith On The Latest Of Return Of Sports

Episode Date: May 8, 2020

is the Matt Thomas show. I just made an executive decision. I think Ross, when Vegas opens up again, we need to go. And I'll call the Golden Nugget people to see if they get us like a special 790 rate. I mean, they'll take us, right? You should text and tell them personally. Yeah, but he's busy. Say, hey, you know me.

I'm Matt. M.F. and Thomas. I'm your PA announcer. you're on the radio club I play. You've been to my show a couple of times. Let's do that. Like we'll get a special seven and we should just go for two. I thought that's what we're doing when you hit 30,000 followers.

Yeah, but that's never going to happen. We're trying out here. But I mean, I just want to, we need to get up there and get the Vegas economy going again. As long as to save, I'll wear a mask on the table. That's fine. We'll be stimulating the Vegas economy with our money. Because I would giving it to them. Trust me.

Such a money grab. It is. We need sports betting in Louisiana. If you give me sports. spending Louisiana, we're done going to like to Las Vegas. Because I, there's no fun of betting it on a phone online. I want to be, I'm going to be in a book watching it, cashing that ticket. I mean, didn't Tillman buy up a bunch of stuff in Galveston?

We need to have him. We need to do that. Yeah, but maybe he doesn't want to do that. Maybe he wants to keep Louisiana alive. We'll talk more about this. I'd rather be Galveston. Brian T. Smith, what's the good word today? You know, Austin, Matt, when you have me on, I mean, semi-often, you'll

refer to Lake Charles and Vegas in the same commerce. I've never understood that from anyone. Vegas, and you know this because you love Vegas. Vegas is Vegas as Vegas. Yeah. I mean, man, Lake Charles, like, Lake Charles suck.

No, no, no, no. I know. I know what you're saying. Galveston, Alexi. I know what you're desperate, but it's just funny to me. Like, Lake Charles is not cool. Let me tell you out of this. If I blindfolded you. got you in the car and drove you to the golden nugget in Lake Charles. And I mean this, and Ross, you can back me up on this. And I put you right in the middle of the casino and the restaurants and the swimming pool.

You wouldn't know any difference. You just wouldn't. The problem is that you have to get there. Yeah, that's two hours in a car. Great conversation. There's nowhere else to eat. I'll never, you'll never sell me on it. no offense to Tillman, and I'm messing with him. He'll never sell me on it.

I'm not going to do some sweetheart deal and get bribed or whatever like other people. I just, nope, I just can't feel it. It doesn't make sense to me. Okay, well, I will take the sweetheart deal. I'll be totally bribed because I'm going to want I'm paying for more for it anyway because I lose all my gambling money there. Hey, let me ask you this. Speaking of the NBA, and you can say, Matt, they're doing the right thing, or you can say, Matt, you're right, or I'm in a matter. It feels like, if they want to play a season, they've got to get their engine started here pretty quick. Didn't they not?

I mean, it feels like they are awfully slow in this. We're going to get back to playing. That's our goal because if it isn't their goal, then they should just stop. But major league baseball feels like us moving along a little bit. It's just for basketball, a lot of hesitation about opening up these individual facilities, a lot of hesitation about having the number of players in there. And they're the one fighting the clock more than any other sport at this point. agree or disagree?

Yeah, I'm... No, I'm really glad you asked me that. I actually have considered writing about it for the sun... You know, always try to do something different, maybe a big picture, a little more aggressive, whatever, you know, in critical, analytical, whatever it is, in the Sunday Chronicle, because that's our most important paper. I thought about that, and honestly, you know, like, I remember last week, Matt, you and I were talking, and we were saying that it felt like of everything that needed to get going that would be the... the first domino that had to get going. It was the NBA, and we were saying that in a positive sense. You know, baseball would follow the NBA. The NFL would follow baseball, the NBA, and the NHL, and on and on, right? I've been, now, these are all national reports. They're all sourced.

They're all pretty much coming from ESPN, which has a partnership with the NBA, you know, with the NBA. But I've, I've been amazed to see some of these reports. And I feel like in some ways, Mark Cuban has been all over the place with his reaction, his response to Corona, some of which has been absolutely fantastic, and he founded more presidential than the president, some of which, you know, he's been at the forefront of making predictions. We're going to be back by this state. We're going to be back by this date. And I'm reminded that 50% of me can't stand 95%, 99% of Mark Cuban sometimes. But ultimately, it's the NBA. And I 100,000% agree with it. with you. I saw reports this week discussing, you know, with sources or whatever, about a

reluctance to come back. You either are coming back or you're not, and there's no in between. You know, you can't do a partial 25% reopening of the NBA. Once you are back, Matt, you are back. And so the league obviously has to have confidence, but the players have to have confidence. The coaches have to have confidence. I think there's a confidence. conference call today, I believe, with Adam Silver and the players, that will be interesting and how, you know, what type of fallout there is from that, what type of response, maybe it's all positive. But I've been very surprised to see the reported responses that are hesitant, that are

waffling. It almost sounds, how should I say it? It sounds like a lot of these guys make a lot of money, whether it's coaches, players, executives, It's millions, 30 million, 5 million, 2 million, and they know they don't really have to work. That's honestly, if I read between the lines, it's honestly what it says to me. Their livelihoods aren't at stake. If they lose their job, they're going to get their job back in six months. It's not like they're working at a restaurant, you know, making $12, $15 an hour with tips.

So I don't get that. And I think from an athletic perspective, compare the NFL to the NBA. Major League Baseball has been slow but steady. The NBA was the first to cancel, and right now it does feel like they're really dragging their heels, and they look really wishy-washy at this moment. Yeah, again, how bad do they want to play? Here's what I don't hear from enough athletes, period. And maybe it's because, frankly, BTS, they just don't want to go out there

because they don't want to face social ridicule. Look, we're a society. We're all very, very careful what we say. If we say something, the wrong thing, we're going to get people that are going to crush us. And it could be for athletes, it could be for columnists, it can be for us, as radio hosts, can be just general people in society. But I feel like generally speaking, there haven't been enough athletes. And I'm not trying to point the NBA, I'm talking about in Sports General, that are fighting hard for this,

that are saying, let's get together, let's get in the room, let's shut the door, let's lock it, let's go over all the different possibilities. We want to play because, A, we want to get paid, and B, we know that people will love it, and people will gravitate towards us. And maybe of anything in the last two weeks, we haven't heard enough from athletes in general to say, yeah, let's get on this court, let's make it safe everybody, and let's play. Maybe there's just too much hesitancy, or maybe BTS or isn't that first athletes who are going to step outside, getting that in that world and go, all right, I'm put my name on it. I want to play sports this year. Yeah, that's exactly it.

And, Matt, no one's going to discuss this because so many national reporters, depend on agents and depend on players and it's about relationships and you scratch my back, I scratch your back. Here's my, I hate the word, take this is not a take. It's my honest opinion on this. It comes down to the fact that a lot of these guys, the guys that should be speaking out, the guys that should say, yes, as long as it's medically safe, of course, but, you know, it has to be safe, but once it's safe, we're going to do our damnedest to come

back. We want to play basketball again. Matt, most of these guys make $20, $15, $30, $50 million a year. $60 million a year with endorsements. They live in mega mansions. They have five houses, whatever, you know, they're catered to. They're, they're as protected and safe as anybody in the world in this situation in a lot of ways. There's not a lot of incentive for them to come back. I mean, unless, you know, you feel like your legacy's on the line, unless you absolutely want to, you know, win a championship and it's a burning Michael Jordan type of desire with you, maybe that is with LeBron James.

but I think that's been really missing the last couple weeks and in this whole discussion, I mean, yeah, there's a whole safety factor that's obvious. But you're 100% right on this. We haven't heard enough players. Say the obvious thing. We want to get back so damn badly to get our sport going again, to help the country get going again, because I think they're so safe and so protected financially,

it's not a huge concern from them because they know that when it is officially 100% safe next season, you know, Christmas or whatever it is, they'll be playing basketball again and getting paid $15, $20 million and their jobs aren't going away on like 99% of the country. And that's again, I want to make sure we're fair on this. This is also baseball, too. I mean, baseball is not, the calendar's not nearly as tight for them, but they're still at least 30 days away from even putting together a season because I've got to go through

spring training, get guys ready to go. So it's, you know, you keep hearing these, let's get them in there by June to start them in July. and maybe they're just being Uber quiet, but man, I've heard, you know, Chris, Chris Paul will give you an opinion about anything. Justin Verlander certainly isn't shy from giving an opinion. Maybe their unions, Brian, have told them to back off until we all collectively speak as a group. I just, I don't understand it because they play the game and ultimately they play the game for fans, right? I mean, ultimately, while it's TV and all these things, at the heart of it, they're playing games. for fans and the fans pay their salaries.

If you were making, and you should, Matt, I mean, let's be honest, you should make $12 million a year. Agreed. I should make $13. If you were making $12 million a year and you had everything paid for and you had, let's just make up a fun number, $50 million in savings, you would probably be like, you know what, I'm good. You know, let's make sure until it's all safe.

We can all do crazy testing. And then let's go ahead and play. There wouldn't be that push. But if you're a fan, you want them back as soon as possible, as long as it's safe, because you want sports back in your life. I think it's a contradiction that hasn't really been discussed at all yet. And I think you've hit on a really strong point. All right.

Lastly, what did the Texans do to the NFL office to give them the first quarter from Schedule Health? Well, the Houston Texans, I think, are some. level paying the price for having DeShon Watson and being back-to-back ASC champs and always, you know, getting close enough in the sense that they're able to be in the discussion, they're in the playoffs, but they're not good enough to get over the top. And when you do that, you're going to become fodder for a national, you know, broadcast. You're going to become the team that the defending Super Bowl champions are playing at home. I mean, that's, that is not the Texans game.

Thursday night football national opener. And it's Deshawn Watson, but if it was really Deshawn Watson and the Texans, then it would be a situation where they're playing Monday night, they're playing Thursday night, they're playing Sunday night. They don't have that. They're playing the worst Thanksgiving game against a very bad Detroit team, and they are playing at Kansas City, and that's it.

And so I think that shows you. They're in the conversation, but, you know, you go past that, and they're basically the team that the Chiefs are playing. And that first four, then hosting Baltimore, then going to Pittsburgh and Minnesota, I mean, frankly, it'd be a lot easier to say they're going to go 0 and 4 than they would go 4 and 0 or even a winning record at this point. So I don't think it makes much heat on Bill because I think Bill has got Teflon around him, but it certainly isn't a great slight to early start things up, at least from my potential of winning-wise.

Brian T, have a great job, have a great weekend, and any final thoughts you want to pass along to the audience? I wish everybody well, and I've been rescuing, sheltering two, I mean, rescuing two foster dogs over the last couple weeks, and I got another one getting adopted, both have been adopted, so that feels like the most productive thing I've ever done

in my life. It is. It's a nice pregame show for a bigger things later in life. Thank you, BTS. Talk to you next week. Take care of a good weekend. All right, see you later. Brian T. with us here on the program. Take care of the foster dogs. He's a fine American.