The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - CBS & Amazon Prime Broadcasting Legend Kevin Harlan Joins The Show

Episode Date: January 8, 2026

CBS & Amazon Prime Broadcasting Legend Kevin Harlan Joins The Show

Hey, Maddie Hi, Ross. How you doing, Matthew? I've been better. Technical difficulties at the station. We're back on air, though, baby. All right. Do we have Kevin or no?

No. Do we want to call Kevin? Do we want to just do nothing? Yeah, we'll try to call him. Let's call Kevin. Or you want to try to break real quick? I mean, we just went on a very lengthy. long-ass break. Let's stay here

for a minute. Technical difficulties up at the station, but we're all good now. And I sound a little bit different, but, you know, whatever. That's fine. All right, I'm going to send why don't you talk for 30 seconds while I send Jonathan and Chris Kevin Harland's number. So stay with me. You talk for a few seconds. Okay, we're going to talk.

Yeah, we're supposed to have Kevin Harlan here on the station here on Sports Talk 790, but we had some technical difficulties. We had to get the engineers in here, all that type of stuff. So everything going to be all right. Soon enough, we will get Kevin Harlan on here. That should be well, a real fun conversation

coming up with him. We had Rockins head coach, email Adoka, on the show early. You can catch that on the SportsTalk790.com podcast page. I think some of it will be posted up on our social media as well. Looking forward to talk to Kevin Harlan. We've had some NCAA news we've been talking

about Rockets losing last night, a heartbreaker in Portland as the tip-in from Tari-Eason went in, but just with about, I mean, milliseconds, literal milliseconds after the buzzer. Back in the olden days, as it was called a win, it would have been fine. But justice was served. Rockets didn't get the shot off in time.

So they lost the game to the Portland Trailblazers as they stay in Portland and they'll be taking them on tomorrow at 9 p.m. here on Sports Talk 790 with yours truly on the Rockets launch pad coming at 8 o'clock. And I'm guessing you're going to hear from Rocket's head coach E. Medoca there too, man. Imagine that. taking a nice conversation with the Rockets head coach and replaying it for the Rockets launch pad tomorrow. Well, I mean, people want to hear from the coach.

That's a good programming right. Yeah, what do you mean? I shouldn't have had that second cup of coffee this morning because now my mom are you really wired? Hello? How many? Hi. I am, yes.

Do I hear Kevin Harlan? Thank God. You know what? Kevin does these radio interviews all across the country. Nothing is more as fluid than right now. Kevin, it's Matt. Can you hear me okay? I can't, yeah.

Our Zoom connection didn't work, huh? It didn't work. I'm going to peel the curtain back. All right. Our board just fried seven minutes ago. Oh, I'm so sorry. I am so sorry. When you were doing football Sunday when I was a kid board hopping 35 years ago,

you're bored fried too, so I don't want you to judge me at all. I'm not going to. I won't judge. Nothing worse than a fried board. I've said that for the whole life, and I really mean it right now. Give me credit. When I was a young board operator, 20 years old, Football Sunday was on my radio on 700 in KSV in Houston, Texas.

So I remember young Kevin Harlow. Those are wonderful memories. I always tell young broadcasters that sometimes if you dream and you're lucky enough, in the business to achieve those dreams, you don't look around and say, is there more? You say, I'm so thankful for every step that got me to that position. And whether you're a board off when you're 20, whether you're just trying to climb the ladder step by step from job to job and team to team and assignment to assignment, you appreciate the journey.

And I think anybody in the business would tell you that same thing, that the journey truly is such the reward, and you enjoy being at the end of it, and where your dreams, you know, all kind of come together, but it's approaching that, which is really fun. And I've enjoyed the journey much like you, I'm sure. I have, and it is an honor to have you on. I tell this to Jim when he's on with me because we're a fellow U of H guys. I mean, I had eye on a couple of times. You, the three of you can't retire. You just can't. I don't care if you reduce your schedule.

You've cut back in your Amazon Prime, which I'm not happy about, but that is what it is. You just can't quit on me because I need you guys in my business. I need people to go, I wanted Kevin Harleman. I almost had one yesterday. Tari Easton's tip in almost gave me a chance to be on SportsCenter, except it was one-tenth of a second, too late. So I wasn't able to get the national explain. Yeah.

Oh, that's too bad. That's too bad. You would have enjoyed it, and the call I know would have been phenomenal. Hey, what is your favorite? There's more. As good as that team is. Oh, yeah. There's more in store.

There's no doubt. What's your favorite buzzer-beater? Whether it be football, you've called field goals, you've called buzzer-beaters in your career. Give me your top one or two if you can think of it. Two, in big moments, playoff games. Toronto, Game 7, Philadelphia, Toronto Raptors fade away, falling out of bounds, heavily defended, Kauai, three in the corner for the Raptors to, and the ball bounced about three or four times on the rim and went down and won the series. And the Raptors went on to win the championship,

but Kauai hit that shot in the final seconds to win the series, got into the final. and the rest is history. And then we had a game in the Eastern Conference Finals a couple years ago in Miami, Boston, Derek White, beating at the buzzer, the heat to force. I think it was a three-nothing series lead by the heat. And Boston came back and won the series. They won four games to three.

but that game six in Miami forced the game seven and White got through the inbound pass drove to the basket, retrieved the pass, took it in, and they didn't count it at first, looked back and it was good. So those are two kind of recent times.

And, you know, I've always been told you call it as if it's good because if they rule it no good, then it'll just disappear. If it's real good, you say, oh, I don't know that he got it in time, then it lives in that world, and you don't have the oomph on the call. You assume it's good until you're told otherwise. So you make the call as if it's good in a game winner,

scoring, and whatever sport, and I've kind of stuck with that motto. It's good words. Great advice. The great Kevin Harlan with us here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross here from Portland. Kevin, you've seen the Texans a few times this year, and everybody that calls a game, whether national or local or regional, brags about the defense. You have called NFL football for 30-plus years.

Size up this Texans defense. And, again, you don't need to necessarily placate to a Houston audience, but the facts are, especially at the ends, Daniel Hunter and Will Anderson have made life miserable for about 17 or 18 different quarterbacks this year. And they're about ready to make life miserable, I think, for Rogers Monday night. I think he's going to be pinched all night long. And these kids are excited about the platform on a Monday night,

stand-alone game, not in a busy weekend, but stand-alone game. The weather's not going to be like it is in Houston. They're not going to be indoors. It's going to have a frigid feel to it. But I think that when you get to this stage and you've got the momentum that the Texans have right now, I don't think anything's going to stop them. I think Rogers is a historically special player, and I think getting D.K. Metcalf is going to help them.

And I think the third component is the Texan stopping the run game, which showed life against Baltimore in Week 18, and that big win on Sunday night. Those two kids are special, Warren and Gainwell, and the quarterback has a very good – he's playing exceptional football. right now, Rogers is. So that's the matchup. Nothing against CJ and what that offense does

and not a shot at Watt and what he means to the Pittsburgh defense. But to me, the game centers around how effective can Rogers be is though momentum strong enough, is the confidence great enough that they can contend with those two ends that will just cause, I think, havoc all night long

from the Texans defense. And, of course, We know about the glitter and the secondary and what they mean, how they can change a game. I love this game. I love it for many reasons. Being outdoors, Hall of Fame quarterback, rising young quarterback and CJ, this defense, which has just been terrific. It checks every box in what you want in an early playoff game like this one. Ross, with you here as well, Kevin Harlan with us here on Sports Talk 790.

And keeping with that matchup, Kevin, you mentioned C.J. Stroud. I'm just curious your perspective of somebody who's called a lot of his games and watched him, of course, on fire in his rookie season. Since then, has gone down and shown flashes of that franchise quarterback elite level play, but just not consistently enough. Yeah, you know, hard to figure out whether it's always a combination of a lot of things, right? It's probably he's reacting to these defensive coordinators who have watched a lot of tape on him, have a good feel for what he did as a rookie, and they counted it the last couple years and maybe not the eye-opening numbers, but to me, he is incredibly effective still. Best years are ahead of him.

They've surrounded him with some talent. at wide receiver clearly. And listen, we did a game with him often last year, one in New England and other places along the way. So I'm a fan of his personally and professionally. He has sat next to me at a Rockets game and loves basketball, and we talk during commercial breaks. So I've got a real affinity for him,

And he's become one of my favorite players. But, but, you know, listen, this is, this is a big stage and a playoff game on the road in Pittsburgh. That place will be bananas on Monday. But I think we're going to see the best version of him. And I'm still a huge fan. Upside is gigantic. And I'm clearly on his side on that conversation. Listen, these coordinators spend so much.

much time figuring out what's what they've got to deal with and and uh their regression is probably not the right word but just make maybe that the rocket was a too heavy off that off that launch pad and and he had to you know probably just feel um you know what now was going to be a more complex a more studied version of what he was going to face on sundays and um but i like what he's done this here clearly. They're winning. They're in the playoffs. And I think, like I said, I think we're to see his best version on Monday night. Kevin Harlan with us here on a sports talk 7. I have you on the show, Kevin. And one of the great things about you is covering the NFL and doing college basketball, NBA, all these different sports. So I did want to switch gears

to NBA real quick because we were talking about this earlier in the show. And I'm just curious your perspective of somebody who's followed the league for a while. The state of the league, how do you feel right now. I feel like the talent level is very high. There obviously are some negatives. And one of the things we've been talking about is all the foul calls. Shea Gildjus Alexander has been someone who's coming to the limelight

as far as foul hunting. And what was the word Victor Wimbunyama did? It was, I can't remember the exact phrase, but just a ball, like a reputable ball or whatever it was that he used about not using the foul hunting. And you're your thought of like the state

of the NBA where it is right now. You know, more so than the fouls, because that changes crew to crew, game to game, and sequence to sequence. Just the other night, I did a game for Prime in San Francisco with the Warriors coming off a road trip day in between, and they arrested Curry and Butler and Green. And my first thought is, all right, we got a crummy game now tonight because they're playing Oklahoma City, and they're completely healthy except for Hartenstein, and they're ready to go, and they're on a path to trying to defend a title. So every game for them is huge, and they're taking on a Golden State team,

that with those three big ones are going to be a formidable team, but they're going to come in and they're going to play hard, and they won by 37 points. There are too many games in the league. And quite frankly, for the league to schedule on a national game, With the age of that team, Butler, Curry, and Green, and to schedule him in the first game back against the world champs, and they're already on the West Coast playing,

and I get it. You're dealing with arena schedules and the NHL and college ball in some cases and concerts, and we all understand that. There are too many games in this league. The players are different than they were 20, 30, 14, years ago. The speed of the game is not even close. The pace of the game is not even close.

And you would think that with the insertion of the playing, the NBA Cup thing, and you know, adding the play in a playoff tournament just to get into

the playoffs at the end of the season, like that the money, and now the gigantic TV contracts they've signed, that the owners could look at the quality of the game and say, you know, we've got too many games. And you can go back and look at what

Elijah on and Jordan and Berkeley and and Kareem and like all these guys, they were playing 77, 78. But the game was a different game then. And, and,

but in the, I'm just, there are too many games. They can't practice. They can't get healthy. They can't catch their breath. and it's too much, but the owners will never relent on having those, and losing 7, 8, 9 home games. They just won't do it. So I don't know. I don't know what the answer is, but it's a shame that when you've got Hall of Famers like Green and Curry and a terrific player like Butler,

and all three are out, not only on a nationally televised game, but just what about the family that's taken their kid or their family to go watch, you know, maybe at Christmas time, hey, we got four tickets to watch the Warriors and the Thunder, the defending NBA champions, and then those guys don't play. I mean, I mean, I'm sorry. It's not good. It's not healthy for the game.

The players are exhausted, the soft tissue issues, these injuries continue to compound it's too much and every coach agrees I just talked with Steve Kerr about this the other night and every coach agrees so more than the fouls and more than we can

that's going to be a constant conversation but the number of games it's just it's it's it's hurting the product and I and I feel for fans in this case because those tickets are expensive and the park is expensive and the food is

expensive and it's a big deal and we've got grandkids and when and they went to a game at Oklahoma City the other night a couple of those guys didn't play they're heartbroken I mean that's that's what that's what drives the needle that's what moves the needle is is is the big name players the Kevin Durrance and on and on and if they don't play because they're taking rest, or maybe they're a little nicked up and they can't go, you know, it's, it's heartbreaking. It really is for these kids. And that's, I think about the fan, you lose the fan, the game's going to suffer. And that becomes, I think, I think issue number one right now, we're playing too many games

and maybe too compact a schedule, and it's got, they've got to relent and they've got to cut back. One final question here for the legendary Kevin Harlan with us here on the match. Thomas show with Ross, and Kevin, I'll be honest with you. I tried to watch some of the game. It was 131 to 91 to 94, and as big of a Kevin Harlan as I am, I had to turn it off. I was like, good God. I mean, my wife's like,

you call games, you don't need to watch blowouts, and I'm like, but it's Kevin. She goes, I don't care, turn it off, so sorry. Mrs. Thomas loves you, but let's be honest. You're too good. Hey, you're a good friend. Hey, uh, okay, so I don't know if you make predictions, but you're going to be calling another Super Bowl.

This will put you in with 13, 14, 15 range somewhere in those Super Bowls on radio. Is that correct? This will be my 16th. Wow. Okay, so who's going to be there? I think the NOSC championship is a Seattle Philadelphia, one of the other.

I think it's hard to knock out a defending champion. Thank you, Rudy, for that comment from years ago. The heart of a champion could never be extinguished. It can't be second guest, and the Eagles have it. But the Rams appear to be, you know, like, but

Seattle's number one, and they're going to sit watch this weekend, but I like the Eagles for Seattle out of the NFC, and I guess in my heart, I'd love to see a Josh Allen Super Bowl for the Bills. Their fans deserve it. This guy's had an, he's a reigning MVP. I'd love to see him in there. I don't know if there's a team in the AFC right now that you'd have to say is the frontrunner. I think they're all going to be in their fighting, and I think it's going to be terrific

to watch. And then, you know, there's a part of me about Aaron Rogers. I don't know that Pittsburgh's got enough, but we could be watching his final snaps as a Hall of Fame quarterback. It'd be fun to see what he can do, but I don't want to be at the expense of the Texans because I love the team in that quarterback. So, and D'Amico is just as good as they come. So I don't know. I'll go Philly and the NFC, and in the AFC, I'll go Buffalo. And, or, Chicago's got a tough one against Green Bay coming out.

I'll go Philadelphia, and I'll go, and I'll go Buffalo. But we're just beginning, and I think it's going to be a roller coaster. I think it's going to be a wild ride, man. You've got to harness yourself in on this one, because it's going to be, there's no Mahomes, there's no Lamar. We have some new teams in there, Jacksonville's in. Houston's going to make some waves. It's going to be a thrill.

cannot wait to get it started on Saturday.