The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Kenny Smith, Wall Of Shame, Ian Desmond Calls Out MLB

Episode Date: June 30, 2020

Much larger than life. Yeah. You, sir! Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 12 o'clock at H-town. What's happening, lunchtimers? Good afternoon to you, and welcome to a Tuesday edition of a Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790,

alongside Joe George in for Sports RV. Brendan Riley, I'm Matt Thomas. It's nice to have you guys with us. We have Kenny the Jet Smith joining us at 1230. He's got a brand new virtual academy to learn the fundamentals of basketball. We'll talk to him about that. Sam Khan at 1.30 on the future of college football. But first things first.

Indy Klu is a good friend. Really, really good friend. I've learned a lot about football. I've learned a lot about life as a businessman, as a businessman, man, as a father, as a husband, as a man that tells at least three lies a day like I do, and I always appreciate his openness to lie. But what I heard in the last 10 minutes of his radio show will destroy pop music forever. Inde thought, and I don't know, I hear him in the background, I know he's there.

For Andy Kalu to believe that he is spotlighting seldom used, seldom heard acts like Peter Frampton. and Steely Dan? I just checked before the show started. Steely Dan sold 40 million albums. Steely Dan for a decade had multiple top 10 hits. I'm not even the biggest Steely Dan fan,

but I can appreciate what they've done. So in honor of is Andy there? I think I heard him in the background. Is he there? Yeah, and that's the problem with today when you have people, and that's Chris opening food in the background that you're hearing, when you have people trying to help a guy like myself, you know, I'm having a segment where I put the spotlight on obscure bands that many people have not heard of. Not obscure.

Today we did Peter Frampton. Frampton. Yes. He has a song called Lines on My Face where a bunch of hookers are snorting cocaine lines directly from his face. And I thought that was pretty creative. It was original. I saw him on Madam Secretary yesterday, and I said, you know what? More people need to know about this talented person.

So we did the first ever in the trenches spotlight on Peter Frampton. And because of me, I think his popularity is going to shoot through the roof. Yeah, he hasn't had a hit in 40 years. Has he been around that long? Oh, yeah. Or is he? No, no, very popular in the 70s, as was Steely Dam. So what I thought I would do is I would do the same thing for some of the music that you listen to in a spotlight on this year.

So we're going to over the next month on this radio program. We're going to highlight some, I think some people that just don't get a lot of run. Belbib DeVoe. I'm thinking. Belbiv DeVoe. Belbiv DeVoe. I'm thinking, I don't know, new edition. I mean, acts that just.

Mr. Telephone Man? Candy Girl. That just don't have much recognition out there. There's a group called the Beastie Boys. I don't know if people have heard of before. I'm wearing a T-shirt with the Beastie Boys on it as we speak. UGK. UG.K., we're going to highlight on the show.

Underground Kings, the greatest group ever. Everyone in their mother knows UGK. Willie D. Ball-headed hoes. What you see, Dee? What do you see, Dee? I do see some ball-headed hoes. I just, I feel like I'm going to bit steal.

I'm going to take groups that you think nobody's ever heard of, and I'll do the same with my audience, and we'll see how it works out. But this isn't thing. I'm actually doing a service. And I wanted to keep it light. So, again, with my platform and millions of millions of listeners,

I want to introduce them to these, what are they called, struggling artists. They're not struggling, as Joe Namath would say. The guy that I introduced today to everybody, Peter Frampton. Frampton, yeah. He was on Madam Secretaries, and that was probably his biggest break

until I put him on my show. Lions on my face. Let's go to next week. He's pretty good. He's not bad. I'm not a huge Peter Frampton fan either. You should be. So you're telling me you've never heard of Reelan in the years.

What group is that? That's Steely Dan. That's S-T-E-E-L-Y. Oh, that's their song. One of their songs. No, so see, here's the thing, because you've somehow twisted this negative because people were so appreciative what I did for the group Peter Frimpton. Frampton.

Frampton. They were so appreciative. People actually called in my show and said, here's another group that a lot of people have not heard about that could benefit from your spotlight and that's how I heard about steely dance. Also another group that I'm going to highlight on the show, Houdini. Friends, how many of us have?

You're naming groups that everyone's heard of. No, I don't believe so. I'm naming groups that I've never even heard of. I could not name you one Houdini song. But you knew of Houdini. We'll find out later. Because that's what this show is about. It's spotlighting great sports takes, amazing interviews and interesting people,

and spotlining groups that just don't get enough recognition on mainstream radio. Exactly. That's what I'm doing. I'm helping. Houdini's retired. The people I'm, they're still trying to make it. Houdini's, they've already made it. They're retired.

They're kicking their boots up. All right. So is there any other groups that you think I should highlight during my show over the next month or so as we continue to open up the music vault of your life. Street military. I love their songs. I have at least three of them on my iPhone. Black monks.

Not so much of a fan. X-Clan. I downloaded one album. I haven't listened to it yet. I think that's all they have. Is that right? Just one album? Yes, I think that may be all they have.

Onyx, that's a good one. Isn't that a strip club? Yes, but not the club. that just onyx the group. Have you been to onyx since they've reopened? Hello? Hmm. Yep.

Just say no. You're breaking. It's easier. Yeah, no. Of course not. I haven't been there for decades. When was the last time you went to a strip club? Ooh.

I'm trying to think when somebody was married. That's right. Bachelor parties, I think, are fully allowed. Yeah. Yeah. Not wedding ceremony, but bachelorette party. Bachelor party. We went before the wedding and after the wedding.

Oh, no, you did not. Not with the new groom, though. Oh, I was going to say. Yeah, that would be bad. The wings are good there. Oh, they serve good food, huh? We go for the food, and it's a buffet. It's like you read Playboy for the articles.

You mean Hustler? Hustler doesn't have commentary. It's got words in it, but it doesn't necessarily put together a full article. Yeah. Well, you read it for, yeah, Playboy, no. They're trying to mainstream. By the way, last thing before I let you go, is I know you're a busy man in the world of real estate.

You're not the one that started the guys need booty calls in the NBA bubble. You all thought this. I absolutely, I absolutely, I was the first to say it. No. I was the first to say it. What are they supposed to do, realistically? You're telling me, NBA players are going to be celibate for over a month. What?

Get in the book, get in the good word. And for three months, just live a straight and narrow lifestyle. You just think how fresh and clean they're going to feel after that. Put it this way. If you're a Disney World employee serving these guys food and stuff and delivering stuff, if you've always thought about what was like being with an NBA player, you might get your chance. I know. There's this thing.

I never was a part of this because I hold women at such a high regard. Well, of course. But in the NFL, when we would go off to camp and we'll be in our own little bubble, they would have something called camp eyes. You've been around a lot of athletes, so I don't know if you're doing it's during training camp. So let's just say, let's just pretend you play football. Hold on. Stop laughing. That's not nice.

Let's just pretend you play. Anything. Okay, go ahead. Just get it all of your sister. And we were in training camp and we're stuck there literally for five weeks. And I'm like, Matt, man, I saw this. Did you see the attractive lady serving the food? and you'll be like, what is she, one to ten?

I say eight. And you'll be like, Campi is eight or regular eight? So Campi is eight means because we've been secluded for so long, looking at a bunch of men that in real life, she may be a five or six, but in that scenario, she's an eight. That's horrible that we used to do that. I will say this. We do, when we travel in my life, whether it's with the cougars or with the rockets,

we have grades of women, either a road or home. Because, you know, Texas girls always get, they're really, really, good. I mean, it's a straight up competition against the rest of the country. So if a Texas girl is a 7, you go on the road and she's probably a higher grade, like a 9. You know, because you're not

nearly looking as definitively as the, as you would as what you'd find at home. Why are men such pigs? I know. I think it's disgusting. I think it's a terrible habit. I don't partake in it at all. You know, you and I should start ranking women on their conversation. Duh. On their tweets.

Intellect. intellect modesty humility affinity for the Matt Thomas show hours that they spend watching football NBA radio listening

how good they clean nope that's not on there no if they can use DoorDash effectively by the way I ordered DoorDash yesterday or actually a friend of ours did for us and I don't even realize it was it was DoorDash I want to blow in the guy kisses

It was purely by accident. I thought it was a friend of mine that delivered food, but it was the Dorash guy. Yeah, and Eddie Murphy didn't know she had a penis. All right, Andy, last question for I let you go. You mentioned about being in your NFL training camp bubble. So how did you take care of your needs for five weeks when you couldn't see Mrs. Clue or that special someone in your life?

They used to sneak what they called Peter Soft into our Gatorade, so it keeps your mind off it. What is it called? Peter Soft. Spell it. P-E-T-R-soft, S-O-F-T. Peter Soft. Right.

So during that time, you know how typically, and this is just biology, men wake up on hard. Excuse me? Because of the Peter Soft that they put into our Gatorade, you didn't think about it as much, and you didn't wake up a certain way. And it was to keep us from thinking about it since there weren't any of the softer gender. So it's basically the anti-Gatorade. It's the reverse. but they put it in our Gatorade

because obviously we're drinking a bunch of Gatorade during training camp That's a true story Some people call it a conspiracy It is not a true line Ask any NFL player that Peter Soft Matter of fact Next show

I'm going to call one of my teammates And ask them about Peter Soft Without giving them the heads up And they'll say there's definitely something to that That's unbelievable All right I decided another band Another guy that deserves a little run I don't think he got much attention

when he was a performer. A little MC Hammer will go a long way on this radio show. It feels like that I could give him some run, too. MC Hammer sold more records than any of your favorite groups out there. Not more than the Beatles. The most overrated group in the history of groups. Hate to have you leave on that note. 12, 12 is a time.

Andy Kalu, Mr. Petersburg here on. You know what, that's your new alias on the road. When you go on the road, my name is Andy Peterson. Now that might be. might be fitting. Well, there's always medication I can fix that. You know that. And I don't need any of the Peter soft powder they put in the gatorade.

I think that's illegal. Shouldn't you sue the NFL if that really was put in there? You know, let me give myself credit. I should be more Peter Semi. Isn't it hard to be Peter Semi? It's harder to be Peter hard. Especially in your 40s. Yes.

That is Indie Kalu. Kenny Smith joins us to the bottom of the. hour. You may join us if you possibly want to after that conversation as we highlight some of the great bands that people just didn't give enough recognition to back in the day. 713212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Kenny the Jet Smith in 15 minutes here on Sports Talk 790. You may join us right now. 7-13-212-5-7-90 and on Twitter at SportsMT and at Joe George Radio. Back in a minute. Load up on those napkins, straws, ketchup, hot sauce, mustard. Oh, and don't forget duck sauce.

It's the Matt Thomas Show for lunch on Sports Talk 790. Thanks for Andy Kalu, and it is a pop culture open to the radio program. It is the Matt Thomas Show. Time is 1217. 713-212-579 if you want to get in today. We've got open space for you. I wish there was something hot buttonish type conversation piece to get to. There really isn't.

But we move forward. We do this show every day because we need a little escape from the wretched life that is 2020. And so we will have guests, including today, Kenny Smith. We're excited about that. And then Sam Conn on college football's future at 1.30. Honestly, first of all, Joe George, how's the church's chicken? You enjoying yourself so far? I haven't gotten any yet.

I'm about to during the next break. Because I brought food. I didn't know. So I'm coming to the next break. I'm going to go get some. Yeah, it's going to work out beautifully with me having Kenny Smith on the show. Exactly. So I don't know a whole lot about Ian Desmond.

I did a little research. He is an infielder for the Colorado Rockies, a two-time All-Star, Silver Slunger winner. I would say a very, how would you describe him? A good baseball player, not amazing, but good, solid, long MLB career, right? Yeah, he's a guy that plays well and can share. tributes to a team, but he's not really an All-Star or some like Hall of Fan player, but he's just kind of a guy. Just a guy. Has never been an All-Star career?

No, he made two times an All-Star, 2012 and 2016. But maybe some of that was because the Rockies just weren't very good during this time. He announced yesterday that he's not going to play in the 2020 Major League Baseball season. And Major League Baseball had to know there was going to be a handful of people that were basically going to not play because of COVID or any other variety of reasons and Major League Baseball was going to give the out for these players. Apparently he went to his Instagram account and wrote this basically an essay about everything and all reasons why he doesn't want to play this year.

And I'm not going to read it to you. You certainly have the option to do that yourself. But basically, he says the following. Not only is COVID-19 a factor in his. not coming back to play in 2020. But he also says that MLB has rampant racism, sexism, homophobia, cheating scandals, and labor wars. And he runs through all of those in his essay. And it's worthy of a read.

If you're looking for an intelligent baseball conversation from a player who's obviously very thoughtful and not flippant with his opinion. I mean, this isn't a Blake Snell. This is probably just the opposite of it. But I got to say this, Joseph. If any sport, or for that matter, any life, any job, any career said that in that particular industry, there was rampant racism, sexism, homophobia, cheating scandals, and labor wars, how in the hell does that company survive?

it's a good question, but baseball pulls it off. I mean, even the Yuley incident that happened, what, two years ago now? Well, during the World Series. Yeah. So three years ago, I guess then. Even that, I feel like, just was kind of brushed over by baseball. And I don't think it necessarily would have been in other sports. Like, it's, I understand, like, I'm not surprised Ian Desmond's saying this.

Like, if you look at baseball, there's so few black players. Now, they have a large majority of minority players, but not black players. We should say that Ian Desmond is mixed relations. Yeah. I just, it doesn't surprise me, like, in all honesty. Like, it's an old boys club for the most part. So if this is what he's saying, like, I'm probably going to totally buy it, to be honest. Well, here's the question.

how does Major League Baseball respond to that? I mean, Ian Desmond is a recognizable major league player who has played in the big leagues for basically a decade. I mean, in this decade of the 2010s, he's been out there. It to me, now granted, if he runs into one case of any of the following, then it's maybe just an isolated problem. It's on an island. But here's what we can't argue with.

Labor Wars. It was awful this summer, right? It's been terrible. No cohesiveness between the players and the owners. And the likelihood it's going to get better is probably 0%. It's probably going to get a lot worse before it gets a lot better. Cheating scandals. The Astros, the Red Sox, twice, the Yankees, at least once. Okay, I get that. It's tough. And probably, think about this, there's probably a lot of different teams. that are saying a small prayer that they don't get caught. My guess is that cheating is rampant in Major League Baseball and that everybody that watch the Astros go through what they went through are making sure that, A, it never happens again

and making sure that everything is tight-lipped and sealed around the rest of Major League Baseball teams. To the other things, homophobia. So apparently, I mean, again, the presumption would be it would be it's not in the best interest for a homosexual baseball player to come out. Sexism, basically probably just treating female employees without the same amount of respect that they would do male employees. Racism, unfortunately, and this is a sad state of affairs that we still have in 2020, racism may have. always be a part of our society in one form of the other. It does not, however, paint Major League Baseball as a unified good group of guys. And the thing I'm looking forward is seeing one way

or the other, Joe, is this a guy that is saying this because all these things happen to him, or his teammates, or he sees it around Major League Baseball? Is this an isolated once or twice thing or if I went to a baseball player on every other of the 29 baseball teams in major league baseball would all of it would at least one player from every other team say the exact same thing that Ian Desmond is saying right now and if that is the case major league baseball has done a woeful job of leading its fans and its players because yeah Money is amazing. Fame and fortune is awesome.

But when you are a major league baseball player and you make crazy money, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to be as part of the job. You have to have racism in your locker room in your clubhouse, sexism, homophobia, and the fact that cheating scandals in labor wars. I mean, Labor Wars, part of it is just the byproduct of the sport. It just is. You've got billionaires versus millionaires fighting over money. That's just going to happen.

and labor wars have always been a problem with Major League Baseball. So it just really, and again, I invite you guys to look at it. And again, I would hope that this is not the majority of players that feel this way. But man, he unearthed a lot of things that, frankly, we as fans of Major League Baseball never even thought of. And it comes across to me as a sport that is in desperate need of leadership. leadership from its union and from its commissioner. Don't you feel like some of this stuff probably happens or a lot of the stuff also happens in other sports too?

That's not just a baseball issue. It's probably a larger scale sports issue. The racism, the sexism, a lot of that stuff. The homophobia. I mean, could it not happen in every place of business? Oh, definitely. And I'm sure it does. And that's a larger problem.

that everyone has to address. I will be curious what baseball says. I mean, I think honestly they're best, I would acknowledge it and say we are aware of the problems we have in our baseball community and we have to work on being better at them. Because that's probably the biggest truth. If I'm Ron Manfred, I see what Ian Desmond wrote on his IG. And the very first question, what you have to do again

is you have to go to Ian and you say, Ian, did you tell anybody on your baseball team in your union leadership or at the commissioners level of things that are going along with your sport or did you take this opportunity to gain notoriety through Instagram by going to it? I feel like, Joe, I'm going to be a broken record on this. There needs to be a lot of change in our society for multiple reasons, but I certainly wish that before we run to social, social media asking for these changes that we've done everything in our power to first ask that person or persons or group of people directly for the change as compared to waiting for us to go on Instagram to explain our thoughts before making such a decision because I mean honestly this is this is going to gain a lot of traction around baseball when you've done that all right

I know a much more pleasant conversation piece we talked to Kenny Smith the former rocket the jet joins us he's got a brand new virtual basketball academy we'll talk to him about that and all things NBA. It's a Matt Thomas show, 1227, Sports Talk 790. Play Sports Talk 790 on IHartRadio. Well, you just heard it. The Jet has a brand new virtual camp, and we're going to talk to him about that right now here on Sports Talk 790.

It is the Matt Thomas show. Happy late anniversary to the Jet and the rest of the Houston Rockets. Kenny joins us here on the Matt Thomas show. Kenny, a long time to. talk, how are things, friend? Man, everything's going okay, man, you know, in the pandemic and the social unrest, but we're doing well. We're doing well during these times. You know, it could be different. Oh, no question about that. I've got to ask you a stupid question. You ready? Before we get to

the academy. Yeah. When I was the arena announcer for the team back when you were winning the championships, I never called you the jet. And I went to look it up yesterday about you got it, you got the name the nickname the Jet from your, I guess, a high school coach or somebody that watched you. Why didn't I ever call you that when you play in the NBA? It actually went away. I was a jet in all, like my senior year of high school, I was a jet. Everywhere, everyone say in New York City, yo, jet, yo jet. Right.

And I returned. I went to North Carolina. I didn't take the monica with me. So people didn't know me. So the college students, they just called you kidding. So I didn't take it with me. Went into the NBA. Didn't take it with me into the NBA.

NBA. Kevin Harland is, you know, one of the TNT host. He's listening to Paul Richardson and Chris Mullin talk to me.

And they're like, and Chris Mullins from New York City, he's like, Jet, blah, blah, blah, hey Jet. And so he goes, what is that Jet? I was like, well,

that was my nickname in high school. Okay. Ask forward. Now we're, I'm on T&T. And he goes, Ernie Johnson and pass it back to Ernie Johnson and Kenny Johnson

and then Kenny the Jet Smith, and it stuck again. He said it on TV, and then Ernie goes, what is the jet? I was like, that's my nickname. And so Ernie was like, okay, getting the jet here, and then it stuck. So it went, it all through high school, and then it went away for like 13 years, and it came back when I started at T&T. Okay, because I don't feel nearly as bad now because when I do the PA right now for the Rockets, I change up names and kind of move things around a little bit.

I'm like, damn, I call. called Kenny's games for three years inside the summit. I never called him a jet once, and I feel terrible. And so thank you for clearly that. No question. It's like that whole nickname. I got you. And the Jet Academy, you've been working with this for a very long period of time,

and now you've gotten some of your NBA and WNBA buddies to get together for a little virtual camp. Tell the folks about a little bit. Well, you know, the social distancing, the quarantine, I have a 12-year-old son. I'm like, I can't send them to camp. And so all the camps are canceled. I have a campus cancel. I was like, what am I going to do with my son and my daughter who love the sport?

What can they do? So I just created a streaming service. And I'm like, I just can't do it myself. Let me go get some of the top NBA and WNBA players. So I got Campbell Walker, Trey Young, Victor deLy Depot, Brianna Stewart, Brittany Griner, Sue Byrd, and said, you know, that's the start of it. you be everyone's personal trainer for two hours a day. And they were like, oh, that's a great idea.

So these, everyone here, but the difference is we're doing it live. So we're live, just like you can ask questions live. You can get in the Q&A chat room. You can talk. You could see it live. You go side by side live with your favorite players. And all you have to do is go to Jetacademycamp.com and register. And that, to me, was a difference maker.

during this time. My kids are like they're consuming and producing information through these devices. And now you can do it on any device anywhere, your laptop, your phone, your pad, all you have to do is have a basketball. And you could be part of this community on Jet Academy Camp.com. I mean, you didn't mess around. Campbell Walker, Victor Oladipo, and Treong. I mean, three. I'm working on some rockets.

That's all I'm going to say. I'm working on getting a couple of rockets, too, because I'm the rocket. I'm hosting it every day. But yeah, I couldn't mess around. It had to be, you know, guys who are all-stars and perennial all-stars right now. And WNBA, MVP, Brianna Stewart, champion, and the NBA champion.

And it was funny because I'm talking to Kimba, and he's so famous right now for that pullback move. And he, you know, between the legs, pullback. I said, Kimba, you got to show that move. He's like, oh, I'll do it. I said, no, no, no. You got to show it and tell us why and when you use it. He's like, you want to go.

give all the secrets? I was like, yeah, you've got to give the secrets to our community so they know what they're doing. Like, we have to expose it, expose that. He started laughing. He's like, all right. So it's a real side-by-side instructional live instead of a video. You're live, and you're doing it, like I said, on Jet Academy Camp.com. All right, Kenny, let's be real here just for a second. How are these grown-ass men who have a great lifestyle, lots of money, going to behave themselves in the bubble? Well, I think that the reason you're one of the best 327 players, regardless of some of your things that go on in your life,

is that you do have a degree of discipline that's different from everyone else. You know, you always hear the story about the guy who plays the guitar, the rock guy or the hip-hop person, and they spent hours DJing in their basement. That's the discipline of ex-executive. that these people have. So I'm not expecting anything different in that. I know it's going to be harder because it's, you know, your families,

but you're not around. And a lot of them, the older players, you know, in the league, their kids, you know, not being able to see them. But that's the discipline. That's going back in the back cage like I used to do. I used to play in a gym called a lost Italian Hall in Queens. And I'd be in that gym nine hours. Like, this is that.

This is what that is. And so it's actually easier for certain guys more easier than you think. Well, I hope you're right, because I had Eric Gordon on the show a few weeks ago. He's like, are you telling me all I got to do is play basketball, eat and rest to go win a championship? I'm all for that. So let me ask you this. Kenny Smith, whether some TNT, former Rocket, among many things, the Jet. Is there any team that you think gains a small advantage?

Or is it just because there's so many good teams, heavy teams, especially at the top. of the West that they're all veteran-laden, they're all chasing a title, that there isn't a particular advantage for one team over the other? Yes, I think the younger teams have a little bit of an advantage. Because if you're young and experienced, you have an advantage. I think teams like Boston, teams like Dembler, teams like Milwaukee. Because when you're a 12-year vet, you have a ritual to get in shape and not to overdo it in the summer. So you get into a habit. And you get in shape a little bit during training camp.

That's why LeBron teams, if you look at them over the years, they get better as the season goes on. And where the younger teams, they come out the gate fast. So teams, there's only one gate now. It's a race to the finish in a month. So those teams who've been off for three months, those younger players only know one way to get ready right now. They don't have the wear and tear on their body. So I think they have an extreme advantage coming back after three months. They're not coming back after two weeks. This is three months. It's crazy. I had Ernie Johnson on a few weeks ago, Jet, and I asked him about what the group techs are like between you and the inside the NBA crew. You want to give us a little detail of what y'all are talking about?

But it's funny because the group text is more like a Jack is never, and he's a group texter. He's the one who leaves a lot of it. But he's a friend. FaceTime. He's going to, every, you know, it's going to be 1.30 in the morning and you're going to see a FaceTime that sound come on your phone and it's him. He loves to look like FaceTime people all the time. He never just ran like calls you on a regular moment. So he's more FaceTime. Charles is, he's like oddly, he's middle of the day caller.

I'm more of a consistent, like, every Thursday you're going to get something from you. Every Thursday, you're going to get something from you. And Ernie is just, he just kind of keeps there, he stitches it all together. He's always answering everybody's text and email. But a call is typically led by Shaq, and it's some hilarious video that he's found on the Internet. Well, I'm surprised he hasn't talked about his pizza yet. I watched wrestling last night because I was really bored, and that damn Shackaroni pizza's out. He's publicizing it like 15 times in one show.

A funny thing you think about Shaq, you know, when I was telling him, about, it's interesting. Now, I think I'll announce it here is when we're talking about the Jet Academy Camp.com, right? So he's like, yo, Kenny, that's a great idea. I love that idea. It's like, oh, okay, man, appreciate it. He's like, you know what? You know what's COVID?

The first 10,000 kids, I'm going to take $35 off. I was like, what? He's like, yeah, just announce it. First 10,000 kids, $35,000. And all they have to do is put into code big shack. So I created a big shack code if you put it in a big shack when you're signing out. So you get $35 off courtesy of Shaquille O'Neill in the Jet Academy Camp.com. Oh, very, very nice.

All right. So everybody keeps an eye on that. I was like, it's unbelievable, man. He's unbelievable. He really is. He's one of the athletes. And I want to talk about you. But he's done actually probably as much off the court.

He and Magic to me have come across as guys that have done as much off the court than they were it on the court. They were both obviously Hall of Fame basketball players. Well, he's Shacka Claus. He really is. Like I said, I'm like, that's Shack of Clause. You're giving away $35 to 10,000 kids to sign up for Jetacaddy.com and you put

in the Big Shack Code. And he came up with the whole promotion. He's like, they call it the Big Shack Code. Big Shack. Just let him put in Big Shack and they get it. And like, that's you, it just spills out of them. It doesn't, you don't even have to like, you know what I mean? Like, convince him to do things

like that. Matt, it's unbelievable. That's great to hear. And again, I've always been a fan of his from a distance. And I certainly didn't mind watching highlights of the 1995 championship when you guys beat him in four straight games. And does that ever come up in conversation? I mean, I think I've asked you that every time you've been with me over the years, but does 95 ever get brought up in conversation just to needle him a little bit? All the time. And you know his line is, I just respected Akeen too much. That was my problem. I disrespected him too much. So I would give him much respect. I didn't like David Robinson. I didn't like, you know, Patrick Ewing. I had it where I could not like them, you know, meaning like he could play against them and like build

himself up to say I don't like him. He said, I could never do that with Akeem. I try to build myself up and I look at him. I go, man, I want to be like. Well, here's the thing. I see D. Scott all the time when I'm traveling with the Rockets doing radio and I have to like him. I mean, A, because we beat him, so that made me happy. But he's a likable fellow. So it's just very hard to really, you know, be mad over a guy that you beat four straight times for a second championship. Yeah, it's interesting how much he did respect to King. You know, because we talk about, I'd say if we're together 10 times, we talk about Akeem at least four.

You know, we're going to talk about stories. He asked me questions about what was he like in the locker room, what would he like? personally he just adored Akeem Elijah one. Right. I mean, we all did, but I think we understand why now, but he said he could not get the same

energy that he could say the way he faced Patrick. He said he used to make up stories and then start believing him. He's like the whole David Robinson not signing his autograph when he was in high school. I don't know if you heard that story. He said, that's why he went out of so hard.

He said to me, like, two years ago, he's like, that never happened. I'm like, what do you mean? Never happened. He's like, I just made it up to get mad at him. So I had to play getting mad at him. Well, guess what? Hey, Kenny, Michael Jordan makes up stories, too.

So all you superstar players like to make up stories in the NBA. You know what I'm saying? Oh, my gosh, no question. All right, before I let you run, real quick. Give me some update on the TNT aspect of the broadcast in these games. You got what kind of bells and whistles you guys going to have? I'll show, you don't, there's so many differences that's going to be on throughout the, you know, years. our show is going to probably look the most familiar.

You know, our studio is big enough to have, you know, to make our desk a little bit different, but I'll still be running to the big board. We'll still be together. We'll have the studio will be set up a little bit more social distance. But it will look familiar, I think, for a lot of viewers. And I think that's important more than anything in this time is, I just want to feel a little bit like home.

You know what I mean? Right. It's like, it's with it. like going into that the cheers bar, you know, and you want to know where everyone knows your game. I think that is big to happen during this time as well. Jet Academycamp.com is the website. If you mention Big Shack, $35 off. So when does the camp start officially? July 20th, it starts, sign up start now. We do have some limited space in certain areas in camps because they're filling up fast.

We just want to make sure everybody got a great experience. So, yes, Jet Academy Camp.com. Sign up, start now. All right, when the Rockets go to Atlanta next year, I want you to get me into the TNT Studios. So I want to run to the big board once and say, that's one of my bucket list things. Can you make that happen for me?

No more. I got you, brother. Kenny, good hear from you, friend. Congratulations on the Jet Academy stuff and to continue your excellence on television, my friend. Thanks for the time. Appreciate it. You got it.

Kenny Smith, whether it's here on the Matt Thomas show. That didn't suck. Let me tell you that right now. Appreciate Kenny joining us for a few minutes. Time is 1244. Anything you want to get into on the NBA? And will NBA players be able to behave themselves? It's ironic.

He thinks the younger players will have an advantage over the older players. I would tend to slightly disagree because we talk about this before. We'll get more to that coming up in a minute. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. With a message here for Cronberg's flags and flagpoles, I'm very proud to speak for a Houston-based company that takes care of Houstonian's needs when it comes to banners and flags and flagpoles. They're so good that they ship all across the country.

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Back to the magic. Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. For the corner and that's go! Home of your Astros. Time is 1249. It is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Thanks again to the Jet for joining us. Thank God Joe.

I didn't feel bad because I didn't call him the Jet one time in my three years to do with the PA. I was like, man, did I miss on on something? You know, it's funny. I always just, I thought he was always the Jet too. So when you started asking that question, I was like, oh, he's going to school Matt here and tell Matt that he's like terrible his job. Well, yeah, because I

have, you know, look, I have yet to call Russell Westbrook Brody on either Rockets Radio or in the PA. I just, I don't know if that's what he likes or doesn't like. We know that Robert Covington is okay with Roco.

He was on the show with us to tell us that. And the rest of them are easy. Beard, you know, they're not a whole lot of nicknames all over the place. But point being is that, you know, I feel like did somebody just create this out of nowhere and then before i did the show today i was like i gotta look this up to see where he really got it from yeah thankfully he got in my back joe i was a little worried for a little

bit because i was afraid i was to open up a pandora's box of yeah i was called the jet where the hell were you during those years i'm like uh well i was sitting right in front of you yeah it's like why i just went away though like what why i still don't he just say you just got rid of it i was like okay i guess that makes sense but so if i was to go through the history of joe george's abbreviated life which you're not 30 yet uh no not yet i'll be 29 in january Okay, you're 29 years of your life. How many nicknames have you had? Just one.

And that was? J.G. Oh, that's nothing. No, I know. But, like, that's what I was on a soccer team when I was very, very young, and there was, like, four Joe's on the team. So it was like Joe, Joey, Joseph, and then I was J.G. And then my coach was my best friend's dad and ended up being, like, my teacher the next year in, like, fourth grade. and he started calling me that and it just stuck and I went by JG until I moved to Houston

and the only reason why I changed it was because my first boss tried to claim it was unprofessional so I started going by Joe who said that was unprofessional my first boss here in town yeah the network over in town like he got to be kidding me so like I went by so I started going by Joe and like now everyone like my wife calls me Joe she doesn't call me J-G. She still gets confused. When we go home to visit family and friends, everyone's calling me J-G and she doesn't catch on right away. But, like, it's what

everyone calls me. My parents don't call me Joe. My mom hates the name Joe. She either calls me Joseph or J-G. That's all she'll call me. Huh. What's your nickname, Matt? The bald one? Well, I've had SportsM-T-T-E ever since Twitter started.

People, sometimes they call me Maddie. M-A-T-T-Y. M-T-Y is easy. Because, I mean, The initial card is so easy to get to, you know what I mean? But the one nickname I had that stuck for a while in my youth, or it was my early college years, I went to the University of North Texas my freshman year. And, you know, when you're in a dorm and you have kind of that dorm introduced to each other to introduce yourself to everybody, they say, what do you want to do in your life?

I said, well, I'd like to be in sports. I'd like to be in broadcasting, but if I had my choice, I'd like to host a game show. And it's funny. That was 30 years ago, and I still believe that to this day. So the guys in my dorm called me Flip because that was, you know, one of those cliche game show names. So my entire freshman year at the University of North Texas in Denton, I wasn't mad or MT. I was Flip. Interesting.

But just your freshman year? And then it went away? Well, because I left to come to where I came back to Houston and got in radio. So if I would have, if I would have stayed at North Texas, I probably. would have kept the nickname for a longer period of time. So you started in radio as a sophomore in college? Yes, 19. Wow.

I thought I got in early. Yeah, the thing was, is I could either go to school away at University of North Texas and have no real-life experience in radio, or I could go to school part-time and work part-time and get real-life experience in radio. And I did. So I worked for KSCV when I was 19 years old and had my own show. at 23, did the PA for the Rockets at 22. So, yeah, it was the right decision to make.

I missed, I missed the life of being just a college guy. I miss the dorms in the apartment and all that kind of stuff. I didn't get to live much of a college life because I was commuting between, you know, my house at the time at the University of Houston. But it all worked out well, my friend. And now we have fancy mat. That one's actually sticking a little bit more because I think Ross is going to make sure that one sticks permanently.

I was at dinner about. two or three weeks ago and my wife took us to a jewelry store in the woodlands where they give you discounts on jewelry for any member of your family that celebrates a birthday in that month.

So my son and I are both June birthdays. So we're sitting outside this jewelry store. We have zero interest in going in because it's not our jam. And some guy walks up and says are you fancy Matt? And I'm like, oh my gosh. That's awesome. Yeah. And here's the

problem, Joe, I can't shake that lifestyle. I mean, part of the disappointment about the return of the NBA, the only disappointment is that we're not going to Orlando to broadcast the games. I mean, we're going to be doing them here from Houston. So there will be no fancy. I mean, it'll be my regular house. It won't be my fancy, you know. We got two peach baskets, by the way?

Is that a Matt Thomas nickname? Nah, but that doesn't stick in this. I don't know. I've got a couple of tweets already coming in. Nah, I don't listen to those people. They're probably high. they're probably I'm just kidding

1255 the mat top yeah why don't we get you a nickname let's turn this around a little bit how about we call you scooter I thought you were trying for Chicago Joe for a while but I don't think that one stuck

no because I do like to call your show Windy City Saturday that does my favorite thing to call your show because it is you and Adam that are both Chicago guys yeah did y'all know each other in Chicago no no because he's a couple years older than

me. What does it matter? I mean, you still to know him. Well, yeah, we're both from, like, small towns that aren't too far apart. Even though, like, they're, like, oddly connected because both our high schools were the Redskins and there was a huge big deal about it. My high school change his didn't. Oh, okay.

So how far were you from downtown Chicago? Like two hours. Oh, then you're not even really Chicago. No, but, like, I lived in Chicago for, like, three and a half, four years in college. Okay. So you're like a line. What is it? If you live in Illinois, are you live in Illinois, are you live?

going to Linae? Is that what it is, technically? No, because that's a school Illinoisian. No. You're not an Illinoisan or Illinoisor? That doesn't make any sense. Illinoisian? Illinois, that makes better sense. I guess. I'm still going to call your show Windy City Saturday. That's fine.

Because I know if I need to get any sort of Chicago Bears information, White Sox, Chicago Fire, Chicago Blackhawks, Red Stars. Paul, UIC, I know where to go. Saturday's noon to two. Clutch City Saturday? Space City Saturday? Yeah. We should have some uniformity. We should just all...

How about we just called the Joe and Adam show? That was on the table. That wasn't the name that was chosen. Oh, well, all right. Sam Kahn's going to join us in a half an hour to give us an update on the future of college football. It feels like to me, there are still way, way too many questions about

how each individual campus and each individual conference is handling the return of college football. We'll discuss that. I mentioned Ian Desmond's long IG post about all the things that's wrong with baseball, and it sparked quite a bit of, I shouldn't say quite a bit, a little bit of outrage on Twitter. Is this Ian Desmond speaking on behalf of himself, his team, or Major League Baseball in general, or is this just one isolated case?

I'd like to know that answer. I guess the only way we'll ever really find out is if other players say, Ian, thanks for speaking out, it's happening on my team too. And I don't think at least at this point that has happened. It doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but it's maybe not nearly as widespread as Ian is perhaps portraying it to be. Let's get the final hour or the first hour of the way with a message here for Big City Wings. Delicious Wings, always available to you in any of the eight Big City Wing locations. Today is Tuesday, which is a great day for you to be a big city wings fan.

You buy one wing, you get one free. So it's 10 to get 10, 15 to get 15, 20 to get 20. Sauce and toss the way that you want to. Delicious wings, amazing appetizers, fantastic desserts. Dine in, certainly a possibility. You've got the takeout, you know, you've also got delivery options, too, curbside pickup, anything you want in terms of making sure Big City Wings makes it easy for you to enjoy their delicious food. do yourself a favor and take advantage of buy one get one free wings today at any of the eight big city wing locations

if I'm the one near you it's big city wings dot com don't forget it's an easy one today you buy 10 you get 10 20 you get 20 very very simple buy one get one free wings today at big city wings and big city wings dot com is the matt thomas show here we go second hour of the matt thomas show on sports Sports Talk 790 with Joe George. I'm Matt Thomas. Ross still off today. And we look forward to having you guys and ladies join our radio program today at 713212-5-790. Lines are open.

There usually are. We had Kenny Smith in the first half hour of the show. If you missed it, it was a good visit. We'll talk to you and let you play that interview again for your 230. In 25 minutes, we'll say how to Sam Cohn of ESPN. He is the best dressed sports reporter. quarter in the country and also does a fantastic job of covering all things college football of a university of Houston grad so he's basically the perfect guy we'll talk to him about that

coming up um deandre jordan joe george wilson chanler uh apparently three members of the denver nuggets organization have tested positive for the virus they're shutting things down would it be a bigger deal to you if we saw really, really awesome players on really legitimate NBA title teams calling it quits this year? Because it feels like everybody that's saying thanks but no thanks to this are either playing for teams that are out of the playoff chase or barely in it and have no realistic chance to win the NBA title. Yeah, I think the only player on a top seed is Avery Bradley. everyone else is it seems like it's like a seven-seater worse. Willie Colley Stein and

Bertans and Kelly Ubre is out and now we've got a couple guys from the Nets. Spencer Dinwiddie who tested positive is unsure if he's going to play. I mean yeah I think it might change my perspective just because the Nets I don't know how they're

even set. There's basically sending a G-League team at this point. They already weren't that good and now they're losing all of their good players. Right. And at this point, if I'm on the nets and I'm seeing these guys drop out, I'm just like, well, why am I playing? Like, what am I playing for? If everyone else isn't going to go, then why should I?

So at this point, like, it's just, okay, like, that's, it's fine. It probably would be different if Jason Tatum or Hardin or Westbrook or Anthony Davis or any of these guys. Even if it was like Bradley Beale, who's not, like, the Wizards aren't good, but he's the best player on that team by far. and if he was sitting out, I think it would catch my eye more. Well, it just goes to further show you that the reason why they added these teams to get to 22 is because they wanted to get as much local television revenue as possible. And that putting eight Brooklyn Nets games on the Yes Network, which is who broadcast the games, is going to give the Nets a lot of money as compared to, you know,

there will not be eight Golden State games put on the cable channel that carries the Warriors. So that to me is a massive cash grab. So let's pretend for a second we are a player on one of these fringe teams. You're in theory going to play eight games. And then you're going to play a first round playoff series against the upper echelon teams, the Milwaukee's of the world, the Boston's, whatever the case may be. Are you really going to take that chance and play 12 more games to get A slaughtered, be hurt or C, A, and B, to potentially hurt your return.

I think it's really easy to figure out if you're a fringe team, a really good argument as to, yeah, screw it, unless you are just the super competitor that you are that said, look, I'm not backing out on my team, we are here through thick and thin, which I have a tremendous amount of appreciation for. I'm not saying that I would endorse anybody that say a 7, 8, 9 C, say thanks but no thanks.

I certainly understand the justification why you're saying, hey, it may not work, but it feels like to me we're starting to see more and more players in that category of the fringe teams. And I'm just hoping that there isn't a team that is a top three in either the West or the East that decides it's not worth it. Because if you're a top three or fourth team,

you've got to feel pretty good about your chances, especially because it feels like those first round games are going to be almost a, walk in the park, you're going to be able to slide through the second round fairly easily. Yeah, I agree. But we are seeing teams where look at the Sacramento Kings. They're not totally out

of it, but they're not really close to even being the 9 seed to play in that playing game right now. They have three players test positive. Buddy Heel, Jabari Parker, right? And then Alex Len, all tested positive. And all three of those guys,

they said, we're looking forward to getting healthy and joining our team in Orlando for the playoff push. Because they have competitive juices. Because they, and they want to play. So, like, it's, it's going to be each guy's different. And, you know, I, I know Spencer Dinwiddie is a free agent. I think Wilson Chandler's a free agent.

Right. I think DeAndre Jordan might be a free agent. So I could be wrong, but, I mean, Spencer Dinwiddie is the same guy who just, like, less than a month ago, tried to go on GoFund me and tell fans that he was going to play for the veteran minimum if they set up the go fund me to get to a certain point and told him to go wherever they said. He was like, if you get me

to $14 million a year, I'll play with a real team you guys want me to play for. Right. I mean, are they really sitting out because of COVID? Are they sitting out because of COVID and they're going to be free agents? Well, you tell me, how many of these

players are legitimately not playing because of COVID? concerns. I mean, the list is growing. Now, just because you have COVID, for instance, then what he says, he has the virus now. That would in theory, if he is able to shake it in the next two weeks, be just fine for going down to Orlando and just fine to play. If we're under the belief that once you get it, you don't get it again.

So if I'm a player that really does want to play, and this sounds, again, very creepy, but I'm almost like, okay, we got it now, we got out of the way. Don't you think players will be a little bit more nervous if they jump on a plane and go to Orlando and play in this bubble and they haven't had it as compared to getting it already out of their system, so to speak, in their respective towns? I mean, again, I wouldn't wish the virus on anybody. Well, that's not true. There's a couple of billion, like, too, but that's not here or there. But if you're getting it now, don't you feel like the rest of your summer is going to be, I wouldn't say, free and clear, but the chances of you getting it a second time are at this point from what the experts say, minuscule. Yeah, it's probably like 50-50 for how guys view the situation.

Some guys are going to view it like how we're talking about it and they're like, well, I get it now and that's okay. We'll get back. We'll be healthy. We'll be good to go. And half the guys are like, no, I'm just, I'm not going to. risk it for a team that's not good and just not a talented basketball team. And I think it all, it really does come down to it.

Because until we see an upper echelon player on a really good team make this decision, it's hard to not look a little negatively at some of the guys deciding not to play. And that's probably not fair. But like, I feel like if I'm a team and I'm looking at two free agents or a trade option and my choices are DeAndre Jordan or Buddy Healed, even though they're very different level of players, I like

the guy that's coming back to Orlando. That's going to play. That's saying, I'll get better, I'll join my team in Orlando, and I'm making the playoff push. I don't know if that's fair, but that's how I view it. That's the guy I'd want on the Rockets versus the guy sitting out.

And it's an unfair situation to be in because they shouldn't be forced to make this choice. but that's how I personally would feel if I was running the basketball team is I want the guy that wants to play no matter what he wants to be here he wants to win a title no matter how bad we are no matter how far we are to the playoffs I want the guys that are trying to make it to the playoffs that are trying to take that next step in their career and it's not a personal game what happened to the Andre Jordan remember he was the most feared man on earth like three years ago yeah he's just become like last year uh who was

he playing for it? Was he with the Clippers? How long has he been with? He was with the Knicks? Right? He was with somebody where he didn't even play. It says in 2019, it shows the Mavericks, the Nicks, and the Nets. I mean, what happened to this beast? I mean, he to me is one of the scariest players I've ever seen face-to-face on an NBA court. He's 6-11. He is made of granite. and again his offensive skills are limited but he's not the only one that's it that way

but he blocked shots he's an intimidator he's a rim protector and he just comes off the bench in Brooklyn I was looking at his stats either day he's far from remarkable and I want to know is it because he just gets disinterested or they're like you're old

because he's 31 now he's played a long time but it's not like one of those situations where you would think he's got so much wear and Terry doesn't have a long injury history I didn't think he is signed by the way uh through 2023 yeah for he signed a four year 40 million dollar deal with the nets this off season I do remember that because it's like he was like the third big name to join the team with durant and karee so he's you know what he's got to be thinking no kairi no durant maybe no dinwinnie see y'all in 2020 2020 and I don't blame them for thinking that either. I wouldn't have a problem with the Nets

as an organization said it's best for us to miss the playoffs and try to get the wizards in here and try to at least get in the lottery. Like, I wouldn't I just, I don't fundamentally agree with that. I don't believe in tanking. I think tanking's the worst thing in the history of sports.

But tanking basically is not going in. It's the easy way of and here's the problem is I don't want guys and we're going to wind up seeing this obviously, especially with those lower teams to your teams, we're going to see guys that are going to use the virus as an excuse not to compete. When in reality, if they already have it or had it in the past, they're probably in remarkably good condition to go playing basketball and not have to worry about it getting it again.

Okay. I mean, to each his own, look, it's a very personal decision. I get that. But to kind of summarize what we're talking about here, I'm just waiting for the moment in how weird sports fans are going to react when a top two or three player on a legitimate Eastern or Western Conference team decides that it's time for them to step back and not play. That hasn't happened yet. Sam Khan in 15 minutes here on the Matt Thomas show right now a word for TGS Insurance.

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Drives this deep to left center field. This is Sports Talk 790, home of Astros baseball. All right, 120 on the Matt Thomas show. Our buddy Michael Connor from the Sean Salisbury show has an interesting blog post up. It's on the Houston Wall of Shame. Basically piggybacking off of Sylvester Turner's Wall of Shame of restaurants and are behaving themselves. Joe, I got to be honest with you. I don't like snitches.

I just don't. At all? Most times. Okay. Are you okay with the Wall of Shame? I think it's kind of funny, but at the same time, I'm not a huge fan. So I'm somewhere, like, awkwardly in the middle of it. Yeah, we don't like to be awkwardly in the middle of the show.

I know. But I just, I get what he's doing, and I appreciate it because I'm not going to go there, but I'm also not going anywhere, probably for the foreseeable future. I'm done with the whole, like, going out thing for a while, because it's some places you go it's been great some places you go it's it's not socially socially distance it's just it's not

the what I was hoping it's going to be like my wife and I went to dinner on Sunday night went to a place it was incredible like everything the tables was spread out like everyone was like I felt very safe very comfortable there yeah didn't have to worry but like he put like Slovester Turner put Prospect Park on blast

like I've been drunk that was the first place that went viral right as things reopened so I knew they were going to be on that list like no shocker and I drive by prospect fork all the time and it's always busy so like of course they're on that list but like so they're closed down now right because they're technically a bar correct I think they are I think they are technically supposed to be closed now yeah I just my thought is if you drive somewhere to go eat or to go hang out and you're uncomfortable with the situation just you know you get back in the car and turn around and go somewhere else I I I'm just not a fan I'm not

huge fan of snitching. But that's really beside the point. That's really beside the point. But it's just, I don't know. I just don't like seeing that out there. It is weird. I would say this. They were doing something illegal. Like, really illegal.

Like, I don't mind snitching of, you know, slime in the ice machine, cockroaches in the kitchen, food temperature, food things not properly under, you know, temperature and that kind of. I mean, general filth or there's been three arrests there or there's been a drug,

I mean, that kind of stuff I get with. But we're in a tough spot here. We've got a lot of local businesses really suffering during this time. And so I would rather leave it up to the individual to decide whether they want to go somewhere or not. But to piggyback off of Mayor Turner's Hall of Shame, Michael Connor on our website at Sports790.com has the Houston Wall. Walt of Shane put together.

And he's put up some very, very interesting candidates. I don't think we can argue any of them. I just think it's our responsibility on the Midday Show here to come up with another name for the list, unless we just can't think of anybody right off the top. His top five, number one, is Mike Fires. I don't think it has to even be discussed. Number two on the list is Brock Oswater. I think Brock, I've been if we called Brock Oswater right now,

Joe and said, hey, Brock, how would you characterize your time in Houston? He said, you know, just a few overthrows, a few misconnects, but we're working really hard, we're really looking forward to getting on the practice field and correcting our mistakes. Yep. He said that almost every damn time that it was like it was a broken record is how bad it was. So, and, oh, by the way, he cost the team a lot of money and draft picks, and they were just, it was a bad deal, and the Texans had a chance. chase another bad deal just to get rid of his bad deal.

Next on the list, Scotty Pippin. Scotty Pippin the Rocket, nothing close to Scottie Pippin, the Chicago Bowl. Or even the Blazer. He was actually better as a Blazer than he wasn't Rocking. Yeah. He just probably didn't get along with anybody, right? Which is surprising because he played next to the all-time alpha dog in Michael Jordan. Ed Reed is number four in the list.

I don't necessarily blame Ed Reed, right? Yeah, I don't know if I blame Maddie to either. That was Bob McNair just getting starstruck. That was Bob McNair, not getting a physical. That was Bob McNair, not doing his due diligence. That was Bob McNair going, ooh, here's this future Hall of Fame safety who can bring that uber tough toughness to our Texans defense that we haven't had. We got this young guy in JJ Watt who he might be pretty good.

He might win a couple of three defensive players in the year, but man, if we're really going to take the next step, we need a hard-hitting safety. Ed Reed probably could barely walk as a Houston Texan. So if you're going to get a contract, you might as well get it from a team but doesn't want to do its due diligence. Bud Adams at number five.

I frankly move probably Bud Adams up to number three. If not even a little higher. Mike fires to me is the all-time snitch. And look at the, look at the, the, the insurmountable damage that they have done to the Astros. You know what? I'd probably move Bud to number two over Brock Oswater because Bud took our team. Bud said, Bud the Houstonian,

Bud, who had all of his businesses, primarily here in Houston, Texas, said, I'm not getting the deal that other NFL owners are getting, so I'm going to find another place that will get me that deal. And he did. And they left. Not only did he leave, but he took the orders, name with him and the lightness and the records and the uniform and the derrick and the columbia blue so i probably if i was to move things around a little bit on the pie chart i

would probably move i'd probably have mike fires one because it's still very fresh in our minds and probably butt adams two then probably brock three um oswater four where's bill doesn't bill o'brien belong on this list not yet i mean can i put general manager bill O'Brien? I think it's too early to tell. How about this? If DeAndre Hopkins catches 80 passes for 50-100 yards and 14 touchdowns next year for Arizona, I'd say, sure, why not? Okay.

If David Johnson carries the ball 112 times for 614 yards and two touchdowns, I say, sure, why not? If Randall Cobb catches 40 passes for 419 yards and one score, I say sure, why not? So I would have to, unfortunately, in your case here, probably put him in the category of to be determined. But Bill might go down as one of the most hated coaches in the history of Houston sports, especially this team continues to crescendo as a 9-and-7, 10-and-6 team that's just lucky enough to make the playoffs. 7-13-212-5-790 is how you reach us. If there's somebody on the list, we're forgetting about. 713-212-5-790.

That's 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. The future of college football. I continue to get people on the show that I think will bring expertise to it. And one of the best in the business is Sam Con from ESPN. We'll talk with him next. 128, Sports Talk 790. At home, say, Alexa, play Sports Talk 790 on I-Hard Radio. Halfway home on the Matt Thomas show, 131 on Sports Talk 790.

7-1-3-21-2-5-790. We're going to add some more names to our Walk of Shame or Wall of Shame in the next time. A lot of you are giving me some good ideas. We'll run through them. If you've got to send me some ideas, Twitter account is at SportsMT. At SportsM-T on Twitter if you'd like to do that. Right now, we are joined by a good friend of the show,

fellow Cougar, and a man who, I believe, for a better part of a decade, has been named the Best Dressed Sportscaster in America. Sam Con Jr. ESPN. Your wardrobe is amazing. I'm just afraid we're not going to see much of it in 2020. Yeah, you know, it's been an inordinate amount of time since I've put on a suit, a tie, even a fedora. You know, I thought about using a fedora on Zoom calls, but it just hasn't felt right. And so it's been a lot of T-shirts and jogging shorts these last few months,

and I'm hopeful that I'm able to dress up for a game later this year. But like you said, it's hard to tell right now. Yeah, I'm in a t-shirt and thong right now, for those of you playing at home that one envision what I'm doing looking like at this point. TMI, Matt, TMI. Yeah, I figured. Samuel, I've had a lot of great experts on. I'm so pleased you took some time for my show.

I'm legitimately concerned about a college football season. A, because of the spike, and even there wasn't a spike. we're talking about 125 programs, give or take, with hundreds of kids and staff, and more importantly, no guidelines from anywhere, no commissioner, no czar to kind of regulate this bad boy. You spend all of your time writing stories looking at different things across the country. What's the trend you're seeing right now, generally speaking in college football? I think people are still hopeful, but they're starting to get nervous. If you had asked me a month ago if we're going to start the season on time, I would tell you that I felt confident that we'd start the season on time.

I don't know how confident I was that we would finish the season, and I'm still not confident necessarily that we may finish the season. But now I think that starting on time part is starting to become a question mark. The more teams that you see pausing workout because of positive tests on their roster, or you have an instance like Arizona who paused it, not because they have. had positive tests in their roster, but because of the amount of positives they have going up in their area. This is something that you can't, it's really hard to work around in a contact sport. And when you talk about the wild card of students being on campus in whatever capacity and players having to be together in meeting rooms, whether it's position meetings, team meetings, and hitting each other on the field, it's almost impossible to keep this thing

from spreading of one person catch. Is each individual team leaning on their conference commissioners, university presidents? I mean, let me, my point is, is Auburn treating this the same way as, say, USC? It depends really. I think you're right. They are leaning on conference leadership, and that's where you kind of alluded to it earlier. I think the absence of leadership at the top really strikes a chord here because we don't there is no commissioner there is no czar there is no one person or one solid group that can

say here's what we need to do here's here's how everybody needs to handle this and i think the nature of the differences in the case counts across the country also plays into that so uh they are going to lead on on conference commissioners and athletic directors and presidents and obviously university president and conference commissioners are going to have the calls on all these things but yeah there's going to be a difference in how to be a difference in how to do you know, how we're dealing in with Texas right now as opposed to how they're dealing in with the Northeast where the numbers aren't as high right now.

But there needs to be some uniformity. I think that uniformity is only going to be within the conference at this point. Are you seeing more conferences being proactive in other ones? For instance, if I was to survey what's happening, the ACC, would I see things dramatically different than I would see, saying the Pact 12 for that manner, or even like a Mountain Western American Conference right now? No, I don't think so because one thing,

Those conference commissioners are talking every week amongst themselves. I mean, because one thing that there has been made clear in talking to officials across the sport, even as far as a couple months back, is I don't think it's likely that you're going to see one conference step out and do something that the other conferences don't do. That's going to be rare and unlikely because they're having conference calls weekly and staying in communication. Because they understand that it doesn't. doesn't help the sport if one or two conferences are playing and the rest of them are not. So they're trying to keep some uniformity across the country, but it's hard to do it because ultimately you have to serve your team in that area and what may affect you in that area

may not affect the other conference across the country. We're visiting with Sam Khan of ESPN with us here on the Matt Thomas show. Sam, what do you think if we don't get a season? I think it's a two-parter. big delay maybe push to December January as compared to not playing a season at all what kind of impact could you see I mean look I think Auburn will survive LSU will survive Georgia will survive Alabama the super heavy weights but let's go middle of the road power five to upper end group of six we'll throw Houston in that mix BYU

Cincinnati and then we'll go to the middle of the road power fives Kansas States Wake Forest at Al What will potentially happen to some of those programs that we know are not the $85,000 guaranteed in their house on a Saturday afternoon? I think as long as you have a season at some point, whether it's in the spring, whether it's in late winter, I think as long as you have a season, they can manage. But if you don't have a season, if at some point they have to scrap it and say we cannot have a 2020 season period, whether it's in the fall of spring, whatever, that we just can't have one. I think that's where you see everybody get impacted.

I don't think it's just those schools that you mentioned. I think even with the exception of Texas, Texas, Texas A&M, Alabama, Ohio State, the ones at the top of the top, don't forget there's less than a couple of dozen schools that run a profit in their athletic department nationally in Division I. Because a lot of these schools, even the big boys, runs so close to the margins on cost. because they make all this money, but then they put it in facilities. And for those schools that have big time debt service on, you know, huge stadium renovations, you know, that's tough. If you're losing a whole season of fans and the fans and games, that is a huge, huge hit to those schools. So I don't think it's just those schools you mentioned.

I think even some of the big ones will get hit. I think the ones that will be okay are those ones at the very, very top. When will we start, Sam, hearing about perhaps larger cuts in head coaching salaries and assistant coaching salaries? I mean, even there are some schools in group of six. We use University of Houston as example. Dana Holgerson is making a lot of money, and I'm not looking to take money out of his pocket. But just generally speaking, we've already seen a lot of schools already take small cuts. If there is no season or a massive delay, imagine the kind of money each individual institution could save if they paired off some of that coaching salary.

between the assistants and the head coach? I think you could see it a little bit if you start seeing games be affected again. But I also think one thing you'll see, and we've already seen some conferences discuss it and look toward plans of it, is reducing travel. And you'll see schedule changes. You know, you won't see teams flying from the East Coast to Hawaii, things like that. You'll see a lot more drivable games. And honestly, I think you'll see a little bit of a rebate.

revert to what we used to have, which was more regional schedule. You know, the conference used to be regional before all this realignment happened. And I think you could see a lot more of that because that factors into cost. And then you have to rethink some certain things like, do we need to have the team stay in a hotel for a home game the night before the game? Things like that, I think you'll start to see being considered whether or not that needs to happen. Because most college football teams do that. And I don't know at this point if that's feasible when you're, trying to cut costs.

But I do think, yeah, if games start to get impacted, I think you start to see a lot more of these measures. Right now, the conference directors, conference commissioners are holding off their life and hoping that there's a season so they don't have to go down some of these roads. A couple more minutes here with Sam Kahn, Jr. v. SPN. Sam, you keep in touch. I know at least during the season with A&M and Texas, a lot of your stories are based on those two schools.

What's going on with those particular institutions right now? Well, so far they're still, you know, moving along, you know, as far as, you know, there hasn't been any, I mean, Texas had a little bit of an outbreak. But, you know, they're doing their best to manage it as they can. Texas A&M seems like they've had it under control to a reasonable degree, at least as far as we know. And one of the difficult parts is not everybody reports this the same way. Some are more forthcoming than others. Texas has been a little bit more forthcoming. And some of those numbers they've reported to raise some eyebrows, certainly.

But there's still, I think I still sense some cautious optimism on both sides there. The question is, one of the interesting things is I think both of those programs, too, is you have athletes that both of those programs also using their voices for social change, and that's been interesting to see in the last few weeks and a month or so. But I think both of them are cautiously optimistic. But, again, I mentioned we talked back to the beginning, those are two schools that financially are at the top in the country in terms of revenue. So certainly any kind of impact in the season will hurt them,

but I don't think it will hurt them to the degree that will hurt everybody else. Last question, Sammy. When's the come to Jesus calendar going to be put together in terms of we're going to play this on time, we're going to scrap it, or we're going to push everything back? What is the sense you get? And the problem again is I feel like there's going to be just a different answer depending on what part of the country and what conference you're in. If there's going to be an on-time kickoff for a Labor Day weekend for the season,

then guys have to be back on campus and without interruptions by a couple, two or three weeks. Like they need to have five or six weeks of workouts, practice, and be able to have a couple of weeks of acclamation period before training camp, start training camp in early August. If you cannot do that, then I don't think you can start the season on time. What does your gut tell you? I right now, right now I think I'm a lot less optimistic about the season starting on time than I was a month ago. I think right now if you ask me, I think we probably get delayed a little bit at least.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the delay. Keeping people safe, figuring out proper protocols. You're talking about 100 young men, 125 when you're clowning staff and coaches. They need to go in and get ready for a season and not have to worry about more than any other time they would about getting, involved in a group of gentlemen that may be spreading into each other. And football is just the harder one, Sam. It just is. I mean, you can't mobilize college football players.

You just can't. It's too many players. No doubt. And the other thing is, I haven't heard this much. I know Pete Amel, Yahoo, wrote about it last week, but there was a lot of talk a couple months ago about a spring season, and I felt like that died down because people were so optimistic about the season starting on time. I wonder if this is something that's going to start being talked about again

because I think it's a real possibility. because ultimately what helps them get through this is time, is the more time we have to learn about this virus, and the more time there is to develop treatments, then the better shot you have of making this happen. I think a spring season, while it would delay the 21 season, I don't think it's a bad idea. And I think it's something that leadership needs to really start seriously looking at.

And they may have to start looking at as long as the numbers continue to be where they are in some parts of the country. Take care of the young family of yours. And I look forward to seeing you at some point. It may not be, it'll probably be later than sooner, but thank you for the inside as always. And we want everybody to check out your articles at ESPN.com. Thank you very much for the time, friend. No problem.

Thanks for having me and stay safe. Thank you, buddy. That's Sam Con Jr., ESPN, on the college football beat. All right, let's add to the Houston Wall to shame. That's a lot of great ideas coming from you guys out there on Twitter. You can send me your results at SportsMT or download in at 713-212-5-790. 713, 212, 5, 790. 1.44 on Sports Talk 790.

The Matt Thomas Show. Back to do it. On Sports Talk 790. Escalated. Home of the Stroes. This makes me think of the monsters. A great 60s before I was born, black and white show about a family of Frankenstines. and they had one one niece who was not a Frankenstein.

This is all over your head, right, Joe George? I know a little bit about it. Okay. I like how you had to clarify that it was before you were born, though. It was? I know, but you're not that old, but... No, but you guys make me feel like I'm way older than I am. Why?

I don't know. I'm young A.F., cool A.F.? Modest A.F.? Handsome A.F. That's not helping your cause. Okay, probably have. 713, 212, 579. 713-212-5-790.

We're looking for Wall of Shame participants. People we can put on the pedestal up there. Michael Connor has a good list at sports790.com. You want to check out his. Let's add some more to it. Mo's in Rosenberg on the Matt Thomas show. Mo, what do you got today?

Mo, this Mo, Matt, check it out, man. This guy is a Hall of Famer, and you're a rocket guy. So who do you think I'm talking about? Wait a minute. How can a Hall of Famer be on the Wall of Shame? Well, let me, well, the NBA Hall of Fame. Let me put it that way. NBA Hall of Famer, who is on the Houston Wall of Shame.

And I'm not telling you, this is why I'm picking him because everybody on the list came in, and they were already past their prime, I think. Oh, you're thinking Charles Barkner, aren't you? No. Number one pick. Number one pick. Out of Virginia.

Ralph Samson, why was he a Wall of Fame? Four years. He was supposed to bring us more than that. Oh, I would not describe Ralph Samson's tenure as a rocket as a wall of shame kind of career. Okay, well, what do he do, Matt? Like, after he got hurt, remember when he got hurt in that year? I think he played three good years, and then that last fourth year, I think he played like 17 games. Well, I mean, he and the Twin Towers were pretty good for several years,

one of the 86 West, ran into maybe the greatest team of all time. And then ultimately the Rockets used, you know, him as a trade chip to make a move with Golden State. So they got rid of them when they felt like the injuries were too big of an issue. But when I think of wall of shame, I think of a guy that didn't, that never brought any, any excitement, any hope for Houston sports fans. I mean, you're going to put Ralph Sampson the same category as Brock Iswater? Well, I'll put him, the reason I say that is because he came in as a number one pick. I mean, he should have done more, I think.

Yeah, you know. Because everybody else on the list, they were past their prime, I think. Ed Reed, come on. Yeah, Ed Reed, that's not, I would disagree with Ed Reed, because Ed Reed, he just took the money that was given to him. He wasn't like he necessarily hoodwinked organization. And Brock Oswald, he wasn't even proven, hadn't proven nothing. Yeah, but he was so damn goofy when he was here. Every time he talked to him after a game, he'd be like, I just missed that throw by a little bit.

I mean, give me a break. Exactly, exactly. But I was just through it out there just to see. I mean, yeah, I knew you were going to argue the point, but I just wanted to see. Think about that one. You know what? Hey, I'll appreciate that response. We'll see if anybody has any back you up on that.

Thanks, Moe, for the phone call. Good to hear from you. 713-212-5-7-90. If you want to add him to the list, I don't know. Let me run through some people. Bo Porter, says B-Co's L-80. I like Bo, though. I liked Bo. He was a nice guy.

He was overmatched. Probably never should have been a manager. But I liked him. I like Bo because I can probably get him on the radio show whenever I want. He's a nice guy. Oh, look at you, being the radio producer whore that you are. I know. Jimmy Williams

Just a bad guy I mean the Astros won when he was there Didn't take him to the playoffs I don't think No matter of fact it didn't it was Phil Garner that picked up the pieces He was just an a-hole But man I guess the question Joe is when you put up people on the wall of shame They had to have done something so dastardly So awful that they regressed

the position in which they were handed, right? Just thinking about that. Drayton McLean, according to MGTTX, belongs on a wall of shame. Cheap Skate who gave up later in his tenure and gave us Junction Jack in those terrible jerseys. Hmm. When Drayton was an owner who gave a damn, he was a good owner. He signed off on Andy Pettit. He signed off on Roger Clemens.

He signed off on getting Randy Johnson for two months. his first big move as an Astros owner was bringing in Doug Drabeck and Greg Swindell. Both of them unfortunately were bust, or just didn't live up to expectations of where they were elsewhere. The biggest problem with Drayton was when he tried to give the franchise to his kids, and they're like, no, Dad, I'm good. He had to bottom out the franchise to make it as affable and as easy for someone to buy it. And when he did, he really bottomed out the franchise. I can't believe how embarrassing the Astros organization was between basically what, Cecil Cooper all the way to Bo Porter, basically.

I mean, three straight 100 lost seasons. No chance, no hope, no dream of a playoff spot. People that you had no business watching play Major League Baseball and get major playing time. So, I don't know. I'm going to say some of the parts I don't put Drayton on there. And again, I'm trying to poo-poo everyone here all ideas. I don't mean to. I'm just trying to openly think about this.

I would say the last half of Drayton McLean's tenure as an Astros owner, clearly, wall of shame. First half, up until probably through 2005. I mean, he made sure Craig Bizzio always did an Astro. He always made sure Jeff Bagwell stayed an Astro. so there was some good. So I would say the good probably outweighs the awful bad towards the end. I need an education lesson on Kelvin Cato and why he is highly recommended. Because that's before my time in Houston.

Honestly, I saw the names. I didn't even know who he was. So I need an education lesson from Matt Thomas on Kelvin Cato. comes to the Rockets, and I don't remember who the opponent was, but he basically gets a triple double in a preseason game, give or take. I mean, it was one of those mind-blowing games.

They're like, how did Kelvin Cato get this? How is Kelvin Cato doing this? Did the Rockets uncover a gem in Kelvin Cato? So what did Carol Dawson do, Joe George, the general manager of the Rock at the time? Give him this hellaciously big contract. And he couldn't play. I wish I could swear on this show, but we're an FCC family radio station. He couldn't play for blank from the moment he got his money.

And the worst part of it was, Joe, is he had no reservations about telling you how much he hoodwinked the Rockets on that deal. Really? He sucked. Wall of shame, absolutely Kelvin Cato. I got one for you. Here's a cusp are you ready for this? Chandler Parsons as a wall of shame. That's good.

That's good. He was so good as a rocket. Should have stayed around. Got the big money from Dallas. And basically it was a cripple the rest of his NBA career, relatively speaking. But still made a lot of money. And wore tight jeans. and became full metrosexual.

I want to date a Jenner at some point, right? I think so. I think he's regretting his life. I think Rocket fans probably are. Chandler and I did radio shows together for a couple of years. Such an affable guy. But once that big money came in, he became a different person.

That's why Joe, you must appreciate our friendship. Even though I make extraordinarily high amount of money, I'm still the same guy that you are on the day I met you. That's good. That's good. Final hour of the Matt Thomas show. add some more to the wall to shame. Plus, if you miss the Kenny Smith conversation, it's coming up at the bottom of the hour. 157. It is the Matt Thomas show. This is Sports Talk 790, 719, with a message here for Shaw's Jewelry. Hi, I want to tell you that you can get 0% financing on most

jewelry purchases at the corner West Grand Montrose, the home of Shaw's jewelry. They'll do a great job of finding you the diamond pendant that she wants, the diamond ring, anniversary set, earrings, pre-owned Rolexes, all sorts of fine quality jewelry at really, really competitive prices. You do not want to go online to try to find jewelry that fits your needs. Take the bride with you under social distancing circumstances to the corner of West Graham Montrose where Shaw's Drew is going to take you through the entire process and make it as painless of a process as possible because she wants that diamond jewelry that you've been promising her for years. Do me a favor and go take her there first.

I promise you once you walk in, you'll find something that she likes and something you can afford. Monday through Saturday, 10 to 7. Saturdays they go 10 to 6. At the corner of West Grey and Montrose, it's Shaw's jewelry. Yeah. Is the Matt Thomas Show. All right, here we go. 201 Sports Talk 790.

Matt Thomas Show final hour on this Tuesday. Back with you for three full hours. hours tomorrow and Thursday. And Friday, we're going to take a day off for the 4th of July weekend. Y'all be safe. Be careful. Please wear a mask. And don't out restaurants that aren't behaving themselves.

Just turn around and go somewhere else. That's just me. My own personal opinion. 713-212-5-7-90. If you missed our visit with Kenny Smith, we had a great conversation at 1230. We'll replay that for you at 2.30. We're trying to add some more names to the Wall of Shame. And interesting dynamic.

Calvin Cato absolutely gets on there. I would say the back half of Drayton McLean absolutely gets on there. Anybody else, I'm looking on Twitter to see if anybody else had any ideas of people that should be in the wall of shame. Chandler Parsons, great start, lousy NBA finish for sure. Let's see here. Mark Apell. Joe, before we go the phones, Mark Appel's interesting. I don't think Marka Pell really wanted it that bad.

I think Marka Pell, it's hard for guy, because there's a lot of first-round picks that never make it. I know, and baseball is so tough because guys just get drafted and they just never make it. And I know he was so hyped. So hyped. But, like, it's different than if Clowny was a total bust or Mario Williams not living up to the hype fully. Like, it's just, it's just not the same. Right. So, I feel like baseball guys, it's really

challenging to put them up there. Now, like, if you would have got to the majors and had immediate success like Chandler Parsons did, and then become a bust, I think it's different. But, I don't know if I'm going to put that on Markapel. I got one for you. John Singleton.

John Singleton loved weed more than they loved baseball. Remember in the Roy Oswald, trade. The Astros got John Singleton as part of it. It was the number one hitting prospect in the Phillies organization at the time. And he had, I mean, literally a cup of coffee of success. He was the future first basement for this team until he wasn't. He was more concerned about making sure three buttons were undone on his jersey than him being very good. John Singleton. Not bad.

Ryan Mallant. Now, Ryan Mallet, you only had to give up, what, a seventh round pick for him? He was a knucklehead where in New England, so why would we think he'd be anything special here? And there are a lot of good candidates. We could add to this list. There's quite a bit of this going on. You guys have done a nice job. Thank you to Yon Easy on Twitter at Yon Easy for that.

Not bad at all. So yeah, and Yon Easy goes, Kelvin Cato, John Singleton, Ryan Mallet, Houston Hall of Shame. Solid, solid choices. H-Town wiki says Ed Reed. As I said, H-Town, that's not Ed Reed's fault. They took the money. That's the Texans' fault were even offering that contract to begin with. Yeah, that's a GM problem, not an Ed Reed problem.

That is a, yeah. Let's see, who else? Anybody else? Okay, I have one that's not going to be well-liked. Uh-oh. Is AJ on the list for not stopping the trash can stuff? I can't answer that question. I'm going to say no, because he tried.

He tried. He destroyed two TVs. But I want anybody that wants to be Mr. Heavy Handed Manager's sex guy, because there's a lot of people out there like that. Okay? If you're that guy, tell me what you would have done differently. Unless you come to me and say, I would have had the balls to tell them, don't do it. You're not doing this on my watch. You hear what I'm saying?

Yeah. If you're telling me that you could go to 25 grown men, especially with a couple of guys that were big-time veteran leaders, and say, yeah, Carlos Beltron, I know you're a veteran, I know the guys look up to you, what you're telling our guys to do are awful. No, thank you. Out of here.

He should have. He kept his job. Can I put Beltron on the list then? They buried the dude's glove. They did bury it. For what? He wasn't even a good player here. He's an okay guy.

He was the old man in the locker room in the clubhouse. And he didn't do much, right? Not on the field? Yeah. Just basically DH once in a while. He had a big hit in the game four winning against the Boston Red Sox. For as much grief as Carlos Beltron brought out the organization, sure. Hall of shame.

Let's see what you guys think. 713-212-5-790. 713212-1-2-5-790. Jim's and Spring Branch on the Matt Thomas show. Jim, what do you got today? Yeah, you missed an Astros owner. John McNeum.

There you go. For not signing Nolan Ryan. Yeah. I was just generally, you know, wasn't a pleasant guy. I'd agree. I'd agree. Yeah.

I think he did save the team. I think he bought it. I can't remember what happened back now. They never having financial problems. But he did he tried to move to D.C. also. Yeah, he was the first owner of a Houston sports team to threaten moving him somewhere else because he was not getting the improvements of the astronaut

that he wanted. And matter of fact, I think he whispered something like Larry King about getting baseball in D.C. And the Astros were certainly being considered. Also, St. Petersburg, Florida, was being considered at the time. So, yeah, McMullen did that. McMullen was doing that, too, because McMullen moved another team that he owned, the Colorado Rockies

NHL team to the New York, New Jersey area, and they called him, he'd call him the Devils. So, yeah, he wasn't afraid to move a franchise if he had to. Correct. Anyway, love you. Good call. Yeah, thanks, Jim.

Appreciate it. Yeah. No problem. Who can I blame for the Astros not being on TV and put them on the whole issue? Oh, good question. I just don't know who the blame goes to. Well, I bet you can probably,

you can probably split it up between all three sides, right? Between the Rockets, the Astros and Comcast? Because here's the problem. It was a marriage that never should have started to begin with, because each of them had different agendas. Because if you think about it, the Astros, because Major League Baseball rules

allow wider distribution of their games, want to get on as many systems as they could all across the Southwest. The Rockets, conversely, can only broadcast in their broadcast area. And if you think about it, if you have a team in San Antonio, anything west of here is going to be Spurs territory.

If you're thinking about anything north of Houston, Dallas is Mavericks territory, and then if you go too much east, you're running into Pelicans territory. So it's basically a little bit of Louisiana and basically southeast Texas that can carry Rockets games. So their distribution, they need to get on as many television sets as possible and not worry about whether or not Lubbock or Amarillo or San Francisco. Antonio or McAllen could catch the games because all those other cities I just mentioned, NBA rights go to the other teams. It was just a bad business model. It just was.

Most of these teams that own their own networks really struggle out of the get-go for distribution. Some do quite well, but a lot of them, like the Dodgers finally are able to be seen on DirecTV after years of not having a deal. DISH network has no interest in covering sports networks. I don't know why anybody would buy DISH Network. Dish Network despises sports. They just do. And so, yeah, if you're going to put blame, I think it was a bad business decision by multiple teams trying to figure out how they can own their own network and, you know, make the money and be able to reap the benefits of kind of controlling the programming. And it just didn't work out.

I don't mean to give you a mealy-mouth answer, but that's just the truth. That's fair. Let me get another calling before we get to the timeout. Let's say hi to Greg in West Chase. Greg, it's 211 on Sports Talk 790. Good afternoon. Hey, how y'all doing? Hi.

Real quick, I got two guys. I got Ryan Anderson from the Rockets because he kept him from signing big free agents because his contract was so big and he was useless. And then also I got Brian Cushing because after he got popped from the steroids, he never came back as the same player. I thought he never came back, never regained who he was, and we were all looking for it, and we were all waiting on it. Yeah, Greg, great phone call.

Thank you. I will not, under any circumstance, blame Ryan Anderson because that was the Rockets giving him the contract. He didn't hold the Rockets hostage over a contract. He just didn't. Now, did he play up to it? Oh, hell no. Did he start out as a starter?

and then a reserve, and then never played at all? Yeah, I mean, the downside of Ryan Anderson's career was very noticeable, very quickly. And ultimately, they had to move him to get another bad contract. So, yeah, they were chasing bad contracts to get rid of the dollars. But I don't blame him for that. Again, it's up to who makes the offer. The player's not going to say, no, that's why I don't put Ed Reed on there, because Ed Reed, all he did was, hey, I don't feel good, but I look good,

and I talk real well, and I'm a veteran leader, and you should sign me. Now, I have an arthritic hip, but you didn't ask about it, so I'm not going to tell you. Sign me. Who was the other guy you said? Joe, I forgot.

There was a second guy. Ryan Anderson and... I'll have to think about it during the break. Whoever the second person was, I'll figure it out. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790 on Twitter at Sports at Joe George Radio.

We're back with you and Kenny Smith in 15 minutes on Sports Talk 7.9. The Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790, where Rockets and Astros play. And real Texans talk. Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790. Look forward to visiting with you here at 713, 2,1, 2, 5. 790, 713, 2, 1, 2, 5, 790. 7, 7, 1, 2, 2, 5, 790. Let's go to Mac in Pearland on the Matt Thomas show.

Mac, what do you have today? Hi. Hollisheam material. Who's the general manager that traded Joe Morgan to Cincinnati? Was that Speck Richards? I'd have to look. I don't know. That's way before my time.

That was a disturbing trade. Yeah, but I mean, if you're going to put together a wall of shame, I mean, general managers make bad moves. And again, I wasn't alive or was able to really get it. give you any sort of analysis on it, but I may have been a lie, but I just didn't know. I mean, when you're thinking of Wall of Game, unfortunately, sometimes GMs make bad moves. How about this one then? Back when J.R. Richards was having – was not pitching so well, and it turned out that he was going to have a stroke

that Dan Patrick accused him of being a malingerer. Man, you are going old school, my friend. Okay. I was like seven, so I don't know. But yeah, that's a legendary story. Thank you, Mack, for the phone call. Look at Joe, look at our fans going 40 years back to put people in the Hall of Shame. The Hall of Shame is not something that is just the last since Mike fires.

I know, but damn. You got to go back to the beginning. By the way, there is a Hall of Shame for somebody we got to put up at the top of the board. That's our boy Royce White. Royce White hoodwinked the Rockets and taking him in the first round of the NBA draft. Royce White, I mean, Darryl Morey did everything in his power to make his life as comfortable as possible

and he had zero interest in competing. All he wanted to do is run to social media and talk about how horrible his life is. Hashtag be well. That I could smell that fraud from a mile away. And he was a fraud. Because the one time that I thought I would have a little bit of empathy for Royce White,

He did a story on real sports with Brian Gumbull, and the reporter went to Royce White's house. Did you see this episode, by any way, Joe? No, I don't think I've seen this. Oh, my God. He had a closet of nothing but shoes. Nothing but shoes. So clearly, he was able to spend the money the Rockets gave him

towards in his brief, basically non-existent NBA career. So that's an easy one for me. absolutely Royce White's making him a hall of shame. Because obviously, whether Royce gave him some bad information, Royce's college coach, Freddie Hoyberg at Iowa State, gave Daryl some bad information. Kevin McHale was given bad information. I don't know whose fault it was. But that was a guy that had a first round talent,

but a fifth round out of NBA, bad mentality. And then he goes and tries to play in that Canadian League and gets kicked out of the league for assault in the commissioner. Oh, Royce White, got to be on that Hall of Shame. That's Hall of Shameworthy. Brian and Eto, 221 on 790. Hello, Brian. You took one of mine, M.T. Royce White.

I'm surprised he wasn't on Conner's list. I also had, I don't know if there was something they had to take him, but Tony Besselli, I think part of it, we were cursed. ever had a decent left tackle really until, I guess Eric Winston was okay, but he was more right tackle, but, you know, until a tonsill, you never had that free, that big franchise left tackle you were missing. And I think just because what we gave up to get him, I think it's the late Eddie Griffin. I hate to pile on the guy. Oh.

To give up three first round picks, including Richard Jefferson for Eddie Griffin. Yeah, I don't want to pile on the dead. It's hard. Yeah, that's... Yeah, I hate to do it, but what you gave up to get him, I mean, you gave up, you know, you gave up Brandon Armstrong and Richard Jefferson, and I forget who the other guy was,

I think all serviceable NBA guys, and then you had Jefferson for what you gave up to get Eddie Griffin a three for one, and yeek. Yeah. But, yeah, Royce, definitely has to be on there. I agree with Tony Bisselli. And even Dave Rone.

Wait a minute. What did Dave Rone ever do to you? Well, he was a third-round pick. He should at least materialize him to stop. Nah, let me tell you. Dave Ruggone was never going to be a starting quarterback for this for the Texans. It was David Carr and everybody else was going to be a distant second. Let me tell you, Brian, you know this.

There are plenty of third-round picks that are bust in the NFL. For sure. I guess he was more hyped in college. and had better seasons than where he was drafted. But now I would definitely say Tony Bisselli and Eddie Griffin were my two outside of Royce White. Yeah, the problem I have is should Tony Bisselley ever had been ever drafted to begin with or picked out of there? Because there was a lot of question marks about his health of his shoulder before he was even selected by the team. I think part of the whole deal, like I said, it really wasn't his fault.

I think in order to take him, that was part of the deal we had with Jacksonville to get Gary Walker and Seth Payne, I think. We had to take Besselli. And, you know, that's at least the rumor I heard is that, you know, in order to get those two guys and leave them unprotected, that we had to take Bessle. But, you know, as a Texan, he goes down as a Texan, and he was a bus. He was a bust, but I don't think it's entirely his fault. My guess is if you're going to really put some blame on it, thank you. Jim Brian for the phone call.

It's more on castorily not doing the due diligence of seeing if Bisselli could actually play in the NFL any further. He remember, he didn't play again. I mean, and I do believe there's a part of me that believes that there was an entire package of, you take Tony

off of our hands and we're going to give you Gary Walker and Seth Payne. There may have been somebody else in a mix, too, that was a part of that too. Memory doesn't, I don't know that fresh in my mind right now. But a lot of it had to have been take this chance in this guy and we're going to leave some other guys available to you. Lee's in the Galleria 224 on 7.90. Lee, what do you got today? I want to put Drayton back up on the wall of shame because, A, he chased off Hunsicker

after, what, 0-4-03, something like that. And plus he was, it's so, oh, God, he just made the Carlos Lee thing happen and so overspent for a guy that should have been in the American League. I mean, if we had a designated hitter back then, maybe, yes, that makes sense, but he's so overspent. And that was really the declination of the Astros spiraling fall after that. Yeah, how about this? I'm going to give you a little bit more ammunition. How about the fact that Billy Wagner criticized the direction of the franchise, and Dr. McLean told Hunsaker to trade Billy Wagner? I remember that.

I mean, that was, it was like the whole world was in. I mean, we were like one game away from the World Series. Now, granted, they did have the next year they had Dothel and Lidge available to him. They eventually spun Dothel, too, and Lidge was amazing during this run. So, except for the opposite of the pool, some run. Well, for sure. And Wagner, you know, he had that playoff bug where he just, she remember. the worst thing that ever happened to him

was when he got that slider because every now and then he would hang that and I swear to God, Shipper Jones hit it out of the park every time he saw it. Yeah, well, I have horrific I have horrific memories of anything related to the Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros for a better part of a decade.

Me too. But remember that threesome? I mean, once you got to the seventh inning, we were unbeatable if we had the lead. Oh, you had do tell the seventh. You had Lidgeny. Nathan and Wagner the 9th. That might have been the best trio of astro relievers in the history of the franchise. I agree. Anyway, thanks guys.

You got it, Cody. Have a good weekend. Appreciate you listening. Weekend. I just gave it. I have a good weekend. You have a good week. Have every good day. Just be healthy. Be safe. Having as much good days as possible. Let me go to before we say how to Kenny Smith. Cody and Kingwood, 226 on 7-90. Hi, Cody. Hi, what's up? I kind of got in late. I don't know if anyone's mentioned Ken Giles yet. 100 miles giles let me tell you something if you f you your manager after you suck you definitely should be on that wall of fame for sure yeah now the only thing i'll give him cody i'll give him some respect on that is at least from what we understand he did not throw anybody under the bus during the cheating scandal of 2017 yeah i got that But he's such a knucklehead.

Thank you for the phone call. He was such a knucklehead, such mentally unstable person that you just didn't trust him in key moments. You just couldn't. But, yeah, 100 miles jowls. So many guys in Major League Baseball with a 100 mile an hour plus arm but just never could put it all together. And then some guys, you know, after tumultuous times in Toronto, come here and be choir boys. And that's hopefully it continues to be the case for one. Roberto Osuna. If you miss my visit with Kenny Smith, it's a good conversation.

We talk about how I thought I goofed up by never calling him the jet as a rocket. He helps me come to grips with that. We'll talk about the NBA, his academy. He's going to be teaching kids with some other fellow NBA stars, how to play basketball virtually. And we'll talk about the bubble. So a lot of interesting things to get to as we visit with Kenny Smith after a visit with my friends over at Big City Wings. Today is buy one get one free wings at big city wings delicious wings I like to get the all drums well done half garlic palm half spicy ranch they've got so many flavors that you use from you can try something different every single time do yourself a favor and go to big city wings.com to find the location near you you can order and today whether it's

curbside whether it's delivery whether it is you go in and dine in with social distancing you can buy one wing and get 10 free buy one get one free minimum of 10 at any of the eight Big City Wing locations. To find a location near you, we're talking about a Tasca Cicida. We're talking about Bear Creek, Spring, Kingwood, a Tasca Cicida, all points in between. Delicious Wings, great burgers, and crawfish still at five pounds for $25. BigCityWings.com. That's bigcitywings.com.

Hey, Alexa, why don't you be sexy and put on some Houston Sports Talk? Matthew, just say, Alexa. Play Sports Talk 790 on Iheart Radio. All right, all right, all right. Now pass that over here. The jet has a brand new virtual camp, and we're going to talk to about that right now here on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show. Happy late anniversary to the jet and the rest of the Houston Rockets.

Kenny joins us here on the Matt Thomas show. Kenny, a long time, no talk. How are things, friend? Man, everything's going okay, man, you know, in the pandemic and the social unrest. But we're doing well. doing well during these times. You know, it could be different. Oh, no question about that.

I got to ask you a stupid question. You ready? Before we get to the academy. Yeah. When I was the arena announcer for the team back when you were running the championships, I never called you the Jet. And I went to look it up yesterday about you got the name the nickname the Jet from your, I guess, a high school coach or somebody that watched you.

Why didn't I ever call you that when you play in the NBA? It actually went away. I was the Jetting all, like my senior. year high school, I was a jet. Everywhere, everyone say in New York City, yo, Jack, yo Jack. And I returned. I went to North Carolina.

I didn't take the Monica with me. So people didn't know me. So the college students, they just call you kidding. So I didn't take it with me. Went into the NBA. Didn't take it with me into the NBA. Kevin Hallin is, you know, one of the T&T

host. He's listening to who Richard and Chris Mullen talked to me. And they're like, and Chris Mullen's from New York City, he's like, Jet, blah, blah, blah, hey Jet. And so he goes, what is that Jet?

I was like, well, that was my nickname in high school. Okay. As forward. Now where I'm on T&T. And he goes, Ernie Johnson, I'm passing back to Ernie Johnson and Kenny the Jet Smith. And it's stuck again.

He said it on TV. And then Ernie goes, what is the Jet? I was like, that's my nickname. And so Ernie was like, Okay, getting a jet here, and then it stuck. So it went, it all through high school, and then it went away for like 13 years, and it came back when I started at T&T. Okay, because I don't feel nearly as bad now because I, when I do the PA right now for the rockets,

I change up names and kind of move things around a little bit. I'm like, damn, I called Kenny's games for three years inside the summit. I never called him a jet once, and I feel terrible. And so thank you for clearing that up for me. No question. It's like that whole name. I got you. And the Jet Academy, you've been working with this for a very long period of time, and now you've gotten some of your NBA and WNBA buddies to get together for a little virtual camp.

Tell the folks about a little bit. Well, you know, the social distancing, the quarantine, I have a 12-year-old son. I'm like, I can't send them to camp. And so all the camps will cancel. I have a camp that's canceled. I was like, what am I going to do with my son and my daughter who loved the sport? what can they do. So I just created a streaming service. And I'm like, I just can't do it myself.

Let me go get some of the top NBA and WNBA players. So I got Campbell Walker, Trey Young, Victor de facto, Brianna, Breonna Stewart, Brittany Griner, Sue Bird, and said, you know, that's the start of it. You be everyone's personal trainer for two hours a day. And they were like, oh, that's a great idea. So everyone here, but the difference is we're doing it live. So we're live, just like you can ask questions live. You can get in the Q&A chat rooms.

You can talk. You can see it live. You go side by side live with your favorite players. And all you have to do is go to Jetacademycamp.com and register. And that, to me, was a difference maker during this time. My kids are like they're consuming and producing information through these devices. And now you can do it on any device anywhere, your laptop, your phone, your pads.

All you have to do is have a basketball, and you could be part of this community on Jet Academycamp.com. I mean, you didn't mess around. Kenball Walker, Victor Oladipo, and Trey Young. I mean, three. I'm working on some rockets. That's all I'm going to say. I'm working on getting a couple of rockets, too,

because I'm the rocket. I'm hosting it every day. But, yeah, I couldn't mess around. It had to be, you know, guys who are all-stars and perennial all-stars right now. Yeah. And WMBA, MVP, Brianna Stewart. it champion and NBA champion.

And it was funny because I'm talking to Kimba and he's so famous right now for that pullback move and he, you know, between the legs pullback. I said Kimba, you got to show that move. He's like, oh, I'll do it. I said, no, no, no. You got to show it and tell us why and when you use it.

He's like, you want to give all the secrets? I was like, yeah, you've got to give the secrets to our community so they know what they're doing. Like, we have to expose it, expose that. He started He's like, all right. So it's a real side-by-side instructional live instead of a video.

You're live, and you're doing it, like I said, on Jet Academy Camp.com. All right, Kenny, let's be real here just for a second. How are these grown-ass men who have a great lifestyle, lots of money, going to behave themselves in the bubble? Well, I think that the reason you're one of the best 327 players, regardless of like some of your things that go on in your life is that you do have a degree of discipline that's different from everyone else. You know, to be, you know, you always hear the story about the guy who plays the guitar, the rock guy or the hip-hop person, and they spent hours DJing in their basement.

That's the discipline of excellence that these people have. So I'm not expecting anything different than that. I know it's going to be harder because it's, you know, your family. least, but you're not around. And a lot of them, the older players, you know, in the league, their kids, you know, not able to see them. But that's the discipline. That's going back in the back cave like I used to do.

I used to play in a gym called Los Italian Hall in Queens. And I'd be in that gym nine hours. Like, this is that. This is what that is. And so it's actually easier for certain guys more easier than you think. Well, I hope you're right because I had Eric Gorn on the show a few weeks ago. Are you telling me all I got to do is play basketball, eat and rest to go win a championship? I'm all for that.

So let me ask you this. Kenny Smith, with us from TNT, former Rocket, among many things, the jet. Is there any team that you think gains a small advantage? Or is it just because there's so many good teams, heavy teams, especially at the top of the West, that they're all veteran-laden, they're all chasing a title, that there isn't a particular advantage for one team over the other? Yes, I think the younger teams have a lot. a little bit of an advantage.

Because if you're young and experienced, you have an advantage. I think teams like Boston, teams like Dembler, teams like Milwaukee. Because when you're a 12-year vet, you have a ritual to get in shape and not to overdo it in the summer. So you get into a habit. And you get in shape a little bit during training camp. That's why LeBron teams, if you look at them over the years, they get better as the season goes on.

and where the younger teams, they come out the gate fast. So teams, there's only one gate now. It's a race to the finish in a month. So those teams who've been all for three months, those younger players only know one way to get ready right now. They don't have the wear and tear on their body. So I think they have an extreme advantage coming back after three months. They're not coming back after two weeks.

This is three months. It's crazy. I had Ernie Johnson a few weeks ago, Jet, and I asked him about what the group texts are like between you and the inside the NBA crew. You want to give us a little detail of what y'all are talking about? But it's funny because the group text is more like a...

Jack is never... He's a group texter. He's the one who leaves a lot of it, but he's a FaceTime. He's going to, every... You know, it's going to be 1.30 in the morning, and you're going to see a FaceTime that sound come on your phone and it's him.

He loves to look like FaceTime. people all the time. He never just like calls you on a regular moment. So he's more face time. Charles is he's like oddly he's middle of the day caller.

I'm more of a consistent like every Thursday you're going to get something from you. Every Thursday you're going to get something from you. And Ernie is just he just kind of keeps everything, he stitches it all together. He's always answering everybody's text and email. But a call

is typically led by Shaq, and it's some hilarious video that he's found on the Internet. Well, I'm surprised he hasn't talked about his pizza yet. I watched wrestling last night because I was really bored, and that damn Shakaroni pizzas out. He's publicizing it like 15 times in one show. A funny thing you think about Shaq. You know, when I was telling him about, it's interesting. I think I'll announce it here is when we're talking about the Jet Academy camp.com, right? So he's like, you know, can he, you? that's a great idea. I love that idea.

It's like, oh, okay, man, appreciate it. He's like, you know what? You know, it's COVID. The first 10,000 kids, I'm going to take $35 off. I was like, what? He's like, yeah, just denounce it. First 10,000 kids, $35,000. And all they have to do is put in the code Big Shack.

So I created a big shack code if you put in a big shack when you're signing out. So you get $35 off, courtesy of Shaquille O'Neill in the Jet Academy. camp.com. Oh, very, very nice. All right. So everybody keep an eye. I was like, unbelievable, man.

He's unbelievable. He really is. He's one of the athletes, and I want to talk about you, but I, but he's done actually probably as much off the court. He and Magic to me have come across as guys that have done as much off the court than they were done it on the court. They were both, obviously, Hall of Fame basketball players. Well, he's Chaka Claus.

He really is. Like I said, this is, I'm like, that's Chaka Claus. You've given away $35 to $10.000. thousand kids to sign up for jet academy.com and you put in the big shot code. And he came up with the whole promotion. He's like, and call it the big shack code. Big shack. Just let them put in big shack and they get it.

I like, that's you. He, it just spills out of them. It doesn't, you don't even have to like, you know what I mean? Like, convince him to do things like that. Yeah. Matt, it's unbelievable. That's great to hear. And again, I've always been a fan of him from a distance.

And I certainly didn't mind watching highlights of the 1995 championship when you guys beat him in four straight games. And does that ever come up in conversation all? I mean, I think I've asked you that every time you've been with me over the years, but does 95 ever get brought up in conversation just to needle him a little bit? All the time. You know, his line is, I just respected Akeem too much. That was my problem.

Oh, my gosh. I just respected him too much. So I would give him too much respect. I didn't like David Robinson. I didn't like, you know, Patrick Ewing. I had it where I could not like them. you know, meaning like he could play against him and, like, build himself up to say, I don't like him. He said, I can never do that with Akeem.

I try to build myself up. And I look at him, I go, man, I want to be like. Well, here's the thing. I see D. Scott all the time when I'm traveling with the Rockets doing radio, and I have to like him. I mean, A, because we beat him, so that made me happy. But he's a likable fella. So it's just very hard to really, you know, be mad of him for a guy that you beat four straight times for a second championship. Yeah, it's interesting how much he did respect to King.

You know, because we talk about, I'd say if we're together 10 times, we talk about Akeem at least four. You know, we're going to talk, we're going to, you know, talk about stories. He asked me questions about what was he like in the locker room, what would he like personally. He just adored Akeem Elijah one. Right. I mean, we all did, but I think we understand why now. but he said he could not get the same energy that he could face the way he faced Patrick.

He said he used to make up stories and then start believing him. He's like the whole David Robinson not signing his autograph when he was in high school. I don't know if you heard that story. He said, that's why he went out of so hard. He said to me, he said to me two years ago, he's like, that never happened. I'm like, what do you mean never happened? He said, I just made it up to get mad at him. So I had to play get mad at him.

Well, guess what? Hey, Kenny, Michael Jordan makes up. stories too. So all you superstar players like to make up stories in the NBA. You know what I'm saying? Oh my gosh. No question. All right. Before I let you run, real quick, give me some update on the TNT aspect of the broadcast in these games. You got what kind of bells and whistles you guys are going to have? Well, I'll show, you don't, there's so many differences that's going to be on throughout the, you know, years. Our show is going to probably look the most familiar. You know, we, our studio is big enough to

have, you know, to make out desk a little bit different, but I'll still be running to the big board, we'll still be together, we'll have, the studio will be set up a little bit more social distance, but it will look familiar, I think, for a lot of viewers, and I think that's important more than anything in this time is, I just want to feel a little bit like home, you know what I mean? Right. It's like, it's like going into that, the cheers bar, you know, and you want to know where everyone knows your name. I think that is big to happen during this time as well.

Jet Academycamp.com is the website. If you mention Big Shack, $35 off. So when does the camp start officially? July 20th, it starts. Sign up start now. We do have some limited space in certain areas and camps because they're filling up fast. We just want to make sure everybody has a great experience. So, yes, Jetacadamcamp.com.

sign up start now. All right, when the Rockets go to Atlanta next year, I want you to get me into the TNT studio, so I want to run to the big board once to say, that's one of my bucket list things, and you make that happen for me. Say no more, I got you, brother. Kenny, good hear from me, friend.

Congratulations on the Jet Academy stuff and continue your excellence on television, my friend. Thanks for the time. Appreciate it. You got it. Kenny Smith with us here on the Matt Thomas show. Matt Thomas returns on Sports Talk 790.

Baseball, football, basketball, and Houston. Home for your home teams. Not wrong with getting a second fill of Kenny Smith, especially if you missed it earlier in the day. It's why you should listen to the show all day long, 12 to 3 here on Sports Talk 790. Tomorrow at 9.30, James Click makes his season debut on the Sean Salisbury show,

the new Astros General Manager. And then shortly after that, still working on time and date for us. Dusty Baker will be with us on a weekly basis here on the Matt Thomas show. So very much looking forward to that as we get close. and closer. And once we get down to Florida, we, the Rockets get down to Florida, I'll be getting Mike D'Antony back on.

So we'll hopefully have two really good coaches on at the same time, battling around the same time of the season. So Mike Dantone and Dusty Baker, both to return to the Matt Thomas show in just a matter of weeks. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-5-7-90. Let's say hi to a Gary and Dick and Dick. Senate, 251 on the 790.

Hi, Gary. Hello, Matt. Hi. I have got a wall of Super Shame. All right. Josh Ennis. I have zero comment. I think it would, but I'm putting it out there.

All right. Thank you for the moment. You have a great day. Enjoy your program. Appreciate it, Gary. Have a nice day. Yeah, I'm not commenting on that. All right.

Any other ones that popped up in the last few minutes? I'm trying to think of anybody we have not talked about on the wall of shame. It's been a good conversation piece. And I don't like to do typically a lot of list radio, but I kind of have to, this short time of sport. I got two Julio Lugos. Oh, yeah. Yeah, when you hit your wife, yeah, sure. Um, Omar Oshik, but that, come on.

Nah, no. Good, dude. Love Amir. I would put it this way. All right. Can we talk a couple of TV shows real quickly? Sure. Kirby enthusiasm is back for another season this fall.

So 2020 has some good news to it. What do you put Kirby enthusiasm? Are you a watcher? I'm not. I'm going to, though. It's on my to-do list. I got tremendous news for you. It's a show that you won't feel like you're watching something really, really old.

The only thing that you'll see that will be different is the cell phone just aren't the most up to date. But go back to 2000 when the show first started, and you will not be disappointed under any circumstance. Okay, good to know. It is for me in its prime, when it's at its very best, the funniest show on television. Because it reminds me part of, it reminds me part Seinfeld,

it reminds me of my buddy Ken Hoffman, and it reminds me a little bit of me. just all the little nuances of my life. So, and the wife, his buddies, Leon, his roommate, but he lives in the house with him. I mean, it's, it's just one of the funniest shows I've ever seen in my life. If I had a goat Mount Rushmore, that show is right on that. And I love Seinfeld, but I love Kirby enthusiasm more. On the other side of things, Ozark is coming.

back for a fourth season. The good news is they're going to, I think, have 14 episodes. I think they normally do 12. The negative is it's the last season. Ozark is a show that I would not

normally watch. Ozark is a show that is usually way too dark for me in terms of a show that I would want to binge watch. But it is just so, so good. And last season was so good.

I watched the entire season in one weekend. And it was like losing a member of the family because you got to see them. It was like going to a family reunion. And you haven't seen this cousin or your brother-in-law or your sister in a long period of time. And you just want to spend so much quality time with each other. And then they'll go back to their regular lives. It's just that good. So I'm sad to say that Ozark's going to have its final season.

Hopefully they'll change their mind. but as somebody pointed out on Twitter sometimes you want to leave on top as compared to trying to stretch something that just isn't there. I don't know how much they can go to it because the angle for next year and I don't want to give me anything away is going to make it a three-family kind of thing

which is perfect. But yeah, I am beyond pumped for watching Ozark. I'm just really, really sad that's going away at the end of the year. So one shows back, actually two shows are back. One's going to go away for good and hopefully curb will never go away.

I think David wouldn't mind if it did, but it's just so funny. Was he just ready to retire? What's that? Is he ready to retire or something? No, but he's got to be in his early 70s, maybe mid-70s. Definitely. You know, he can't do that character anymore, Bernie Sanders anymore on SNL because he's not running for president at all.

So what else is he going to do? He might as well just do great comedy-line Kirby enthusiasm. All right, up next. You're going to enjoy the next three hours. It'll be Adam Wexler and our favorite Astro, Jeff Blum. The two of them together will be the A team. And they're up next. Talk to you guys tomorrow at 12 noon.

For a Wednesday edition of The Matt Thomas Show right here on Sports Talks, 7.