The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Craig Ackerman On Return Of The NBA

Episode Date: June 4, 2020

Craig Ackerman on Return Of The NBA

is the Matt Thomas show. Third hour of the Matt Thomas show here on Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas Ross, Villarreal, with you. And now we are pleased, especially considering the circumstances, Matthew, to have the main voice as far as radio and sometimes TV of the Houston Rockets. What are you looking at me like that for? You're leading the conversation. Well, you look like you were in disbelief.

But the main voice, the Houston Rockets. Craig Ackerman here on the show. First of all, Craig, I hope you're doing well. Second of all, when I say to you, the NBA is back, your first reaction was? Thank goodness. I mean, it's been a long two and a half,

three months for everybody. And it's nice to have, you know, some clarity on some dates. and so forth, obviously still waiting on details when it comes to the actual schedule. But, yeah, sort of a relief. Happy that we're moving along and can't wait to the end of July to get this thing going again. You know what I can't wait for is to figure out start times because I have a feeling, Craig. We're going to have some one o'clock afternoon games during the middle of the week. Oh, you're going to love that.

You love that. Not going to hate it. It's spring training, you know. No, Matt Thomas show, right? Well, I would think not. I mean, not that, you know, that us doing a Rockets game wouldn't be amazing programming, but it's going to be really bizarre because the one thing I brought up with Ross yesterday was, if you're playing every game in Orlando and you want to play prime time on the West Coast,

Lakers and Clippers games might have to start at 1030 Orlando time. It's better than showing up at, you know, like when we did those games when the Rockets were in Japan at 4 o'clock in the morning. So I'm okay with 10.30 at night as opposed to 4 a.m. Trust me. I don't care if they play games at 4 o'clock in the morning. Just get the games back. All right. So let's end this debate here. What did you do productive, like in terms of your house while you were not calling games?

We've had some landscaping done. You know, done a bunch of work around the house. I've got to put in two new ceiling fans. You know, dabbling and day trading, you know, things like that. penny stocks or what? We got a Bitcoin or what? You know, I actually did get my toes in the cryptocurrency market, but there's very little liquidity, much less than I was expecting going in, so I'm now out and now just focusing

on the stock market. Yeah, Craig Ackerman, the EF Hutton of NBA broadcasting with us here on the Mount Thomas show. You know what? It's interesting. I forgot to pay off on this. Ross was asking about we know who they're playing. I don't know if it's a complete guarantee the Rockets are going to play the eight teams. I think it's going to be pretty close to the next eight.

But you've got to remember, there are some teams in the Eastern Conference that are really going to be having to move their schedule up a little bit because a lot of the teams they were supposed to play aren't going to be there. So even though I think the model says the next end of your schedule, there's going to be a few fine-tuning points, don't you agree? Yeah, I would think that it's not going to be completely black and white in that regard, that there will be some fine-tuning with the schedule. But again, I don't really care. I will say this, not to totally change the subject, but I know they're only inviting 22 teams

and very happy that the Rockets are one of those 22. And regardless, what happens in these upcoming eight games are going to make the playoffs. So that's another positive thing. But I cannot believe, for the life of me, that there were certain organizations in our league who didn't want to resume and play again. I just, I find that to be weak beyond belief.

You're in a competition business, and yeah, you may not be playing for anything, but to flat out categorically to miss any desire to return whatsoever. I think it's absolutely weak. I applaud the Atlanta Hawks, for example. There's a lot of comments that they're one team who are not going to be included, that they're out, but they absolutely wanted to be in. And I give them credit to wanting to go back out there. and compete, even if it was for a handful of games or eight games.

I just cannot believe there are organizations in our league who decided not to play. But I guess that's not our problem here in Houston. The Rockets are in, and we'll try to enjoy the ride for however long it is. Well, technically, the only team that said no was the Portland Trailblazers, and I was to explain this to Ross. I think Charlotte did. I think Charlotte did. No, it was 29 to 1 is what I read most recently.

Well, that was the vote. But there have been reports that there have been some more. organizations who were out of the mix, who had no chance to make the playoffs, who did not want to return. You can't get better, you know, especially with younger players if you don't play. Yeah, I mean, Atlanta could use some help. I would like to, you know, hell, for that matter, you know, does Kevin Durant play? I mean, there are a lot of things.

And obviously, Brooklyn's in the playoff mix. But do you expect anything firework related in terms of guys that, or out that are going to come back and all of a sudden play? I mean, or do you think if you're the Nets, you just say, you know what? This season, rest up, my friend, we need you back December 100%. I think in the case of Kevin Durant and his extreme injury on Brooklyn, I probably do take it easy on him. But in the case of the Blazers, I think John Collins is going to be back.

He's a heck of a player with about to come back for the league when on suspension. I mean, he should be back too. and that will instantly make them a much better basketball. I know that they had a down year this year, and Hassan Whiteside had his moments, but Nurkich is a heck of a player. And, you know, you pair him with Damian Lillard and C.K. McCollum, and that's a really, really good core.

So I think, you know, they could, I think they're going to be better once he comes back. But every team in the league has had some, you know, guys who have been in and out. And, you know, there's been a lot of talk here. with about Eric Gordon now being, you know, 100% healthy. And I know some guys, the clippers have kind of been banged up here and there. And so, you know, everybody's in the same boat. But in Durant specific case, I probably would hold him out.

But I think if I'm a player who's been hurt and hasn't played and have a chance to come back and play, I absolutely would. That's at least how I feel about it. Yeah, and on that point, Craig, you have to think the Rockets have to be one of the teams benefiting most. Because like you said, Eric Gordon is more healthy. PJ Tucker was looking gas towards the end there. And James Harden, he's kind of had a funky up and down season,

especially with his three-point shooting. So I've got to think those three guys being fresh, the Rockets are going to be maybe the best that they've been in the last 12 months. Yeah, the oldest team in the league having some time off, not going to hurt them. It's going to help them. And not to mention, it was a new group. a bunch of new rotation players that were brought in at the trade deadline.

And, you know, they went on that hot street and then lost, what, four or five in a row before they beat Minnesota before the shutdown. So I think an opportunity for this group, which is a new group, to get together and have a couple three weeks of a new training camp will only help them familiarize themselves with each other. and their commitment to their small ball, which they were trying to adjust to on the fly. So, yeah, I think in theory, it should help them out. But, again, they're in the same boat that everybody else is and everyone else is going to get sort of a new training camp to work on something. So I think the teams that come out with the best chemistry and the best rhythm,

after the reset will probably be in the best position to succeed. And another thing that's going to be very interesting to watch is that there's not going to be home court advantage. There's not going to be any travel. And so that playing field is going to be extremely level. And so it will be really neat to see how that ultimately affects the competition on the floor. I'll take it anyway I can get it. I don't care. It's been a very long layoff.

Again, it's been a very difficult couple, three months for this country and people around the globe. and I just hope this, I know you hate the phrase, Matt, will help us inch our way back towards normal thing. Yeah, uncertain future. Another one I hate sooner rather than later, because unfortunately later he's won over sooner more times than not. How about this? Seven game first round series.

They want to keep this as authentic as possible because we had talked about maybe shaving that first round series down to five games. That to me comes across as let's give as much, and as much television opportunities as possible because we mentioned us yesterday in this kind of situation with a bubble and with teams being different than they were before they left, we may be ripe, Craig, for more seven beats two, six beats threes in playoff series than maybe years before.

Yeah, yeah, I think that it's going to throw quite a bit of variance into play. And I think if you resume the playoff schedule as it's been, and you can debate whether or not the first round should be seven games for five games, as it's kind of gone back and forth over the years. But with a normal playoff rotation of seven games in each round, you know, I didn't think there was going to be an afterist on this season and whoever wins a championship. In fact, there have been quite a few players who have come out and have stated

that they think this actually might be harder to pull off under these circumstances. I had a chavid off of Austin Rivers, and that's what he mentioned, that he thinks ultimately that this is going to be a very, very difficult championship to win under these scenarios. So to have a full seven-game series and everything in terms of the teams that actually get to the playoffs, get to as close to usual and normal as possible, I think will ultimately, when the champion is crowned, that that champion will have earned it, just like all the other champions in NBA history. All right, you will be doing some games on television, the presumption is we have not all figured on our schedule site yet. Do you want crowd noise?

Joe Buck wants cry noise behind his games. If he doesn't do anything in person, what's your stance on that? You know, I did an interview about this about six weeks ago. My initial reaction to this was absolutely not, because I think it would seem fake and fabricated. But I was then informed that, particularly on the network level, that they have the technology, and I think we've seen it with the Bundesliga in Germany,

that they can pipe in crowd noise where it doesn't seem too authentic. I don't know if the local RSNs can do that or not. I would be against piping in crowd noise to the actual venue, because I think that would be a distraction to the players. But again, that's something you'd have to ask them. They obviously have much more experience, and they would be able to make a determination whether or not they would find that distracting. But I think that would be distracting to have it piped into the actual facility. But I think if you can find a way to do it just over television and add that sounds even for radio, if you can provide that mix,

then I think, yeah, I probably would add an experience based on what I have seen from the German soccer league. Well, how about this? I'll just scream at you on games I'm not working. Stuff like that. That sounds uncomfortable. I mean, I can do that,

or I could be like your de facto PA announcer, even though I'm not there, you know. We could have an audience sitting behind us instead of some bleachers. That's right, virtual bleachers. You're a bum mess on it. stuff like that. No, I wouldn't do that.

No, no, it'd be complimentary things. They'd be like, Rockets win, and we'd have Dream on by Aerosmith in the background. We can really jazz this thing up. Nobody has anything negative to say about you, Matt. Everybody loves it. No, that's actually far from it. Can I admit that I'm a little jealous of that?

Have you seen my Twitter account dwindle in the last two weeks? Well, haven't they gotten rid of bots? Yeah. Inactive accounts. It is what it is. Yeah. All no is I want to still have a 30,000 Twitter party, but I just don't know anybody will be in Vegas to go by that time.

But, you know, we're looking at 2024 on that. Craig, I can't wait to talk to you about logistics of our broadcasts coming up in the next couple weeks, and it'll be nice to do so. Yeah, it'll be awesome. It'll be good to see you again. I appreciate the time and so happy that we're working our way back towards the restart of the NBA season. Thank goodness. Amen to that.

Thank you. Craig Ackerman, one of the voices of the Houston Rockets on TV and radio. And we look forward to broadcasting. Again, our presumptions, we're going to be doing these things from a studio, which is fine. Just get me back in a regular arena come 2020 because, you know, I do want to travel the world, Ross. I want to see what's out there. I want to be able to relate to the people. The world being Lake Charles, Louisiana.

I mean, if you're saying that I have to do games in Lake Charles, I mean, I guess I could do that, right? Amiance of a coin slot machine behind me? I'd be all for that. 250. I'd sports talk 790. The return of the NBA. I have to do games in Lake Charles. I guess I could do that, right?

Ambulance of a coin slot machine behind me? I'd be all for that. 250. Sports Talk, 790. The return of the NBA is the number one thing going on today, which is good news. And baseball remains silent Ross. Is that a good thing or bad thing? We'll discuss that next here on 790.