The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Major Arrests Take Place Around the NBA, Wemby Is Looking Scary.

Episode Date: October 23, 2025

Major Arrests Take Place Around the NBA, Wemby Is Looking Scary.

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Good morning. And welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790 with Ross, with Ross, with Jonathan Allen, our producer. My name is Matt Thomas. Good morning to all of you. I will peel the curtain back a little bit here. I was supposed to go on NBA TV this morning and NBA radio to do kind of some fun talk about Oklahoma City and the Rockets game. me on the night. Apparently they played my oh no call like 20 times during the course of their show. Oh really? Yeah, it was funny because again, I didn't know what to say

except oh my God, Kevin Durant called the timeout when there was time off on the clock or he didn't have one. Oh no! So they sent me a text and said, we got a bump you today. I'm like, well, I kind of figured out why. If you woke up this morning around 8 o'clock you found out that Terry Rozier Charlotte, Miami

NBA player, current NBA player, has been arrested. You then also found out that current NBA head coach and, I believe, NBA Hall of Famer, or a basketball Hall of Famer, Chonsie Billups. I think he, I, somebody said Hall of Famer. Okay. So I heard it from one person.

I mean, it doesn't mean. He's in? That's a fringe case. Well, but the basketball Hall of Fame puts anybody out. I know. Chauncey Billups, current coach of the Portland Trailblazers, has been arrested. He is in the Basketball Hall of Fame?

Oh, that's weak. Yeah, I mean, I'm not putting chance on my all-time list, but that's not here or no. All right. So they have been arrested in two separate cases, both involving gambling. Terry Rozier basically, is it point shaving or is it? Yeah, point shaving is fine. Match fixing. What do you want to call it?

Yeah, there's a lot of things you could call. Basically, he had a system going where people were putting money on how he did on his individual or performances and or teams. We don't know how deep that is, but Terry was well aware of it. Terry was receiving money because of it, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So that's, that's one issue. Then you've got Chauncey Billups.

And you have someone that I've known for 30 years involved in it too. Damon Jones. My first year of calling college basketball for the University of Houston was 19, 96-97. That was the last year Damon Jones played for the University of Houston before he went on to the NBA. I've known Damon Jones since that time since he's in college. He and I have done games together on University of Houston broadcast. He and I have done shows before. Remember when CSN used to have that sports talk live show back in the day when he said CNN? He and I would do shows. When I would see him as an assistant coach with Cleveland, I would hug it out, say hello, catch up on things. I mean, we were not daily tech. monthly texters, but I would say

Damon Jones and I for a large part of the last, it's probably been a couple of years, but I would say we probably text once a month for a stretch of years. Now you're saying, well, what were you texting about? Well, it was, hi, how are you? How are things going? That's as far as it goes.

If you have not heard Chauncey Billups, Damon Jones, and three crime family, I'm reading four Yes, four. Okay.

We're now adding to the mix. Yes. In total 36 people, I believe, or 37, were arrested. So, let's tell you what they're doing. Chonzie Billups, Damon Jones, and Terry Rozier are all in custody. Basically, what Chonzie and Damon did, and I listened to the press conference coming in this morning. It was on one of the, it was on the serious XMN. channel the channel office is beyond today.

They fixed poker games. Yes. They lured people in that were significantly into the illegal poker game scheme. They entice these people to come play in these poker games because they said, you get a chance to play with a Hall of Famer in Chauncey Billups. You get a chance to play with a former NBA player, Damon Jones, who was, by the way, Damon Jones and LeBron James have a deep, deep friendship. I don't know what it's like right now.

But LeBron's... But anywhere LeBron has gone over his career, at least early in his NBA career, Damon Jones has followed him. They were teammates in Cleveland when they won the Eastern Conference Champions. They did not win the NBA title when Damon was playing, but early on...

I don't know. That may not be true. I know Damon was with LeBron as a player, and then it was like his personal shooting coach for a while. So, Damon, Alleges, this is all allegedly. I guess we should say allegedly a lot. But I mean, I just listen to the press conference.

They would course people to play these high-end poker games with these mob families that help facilitate them and bring people in. And Rossi, they rigged everything. They rigged the cards. They rigged the shuffler.

There were glasses that could help detect cards. There were video cameras. There were data ports. There were phone. it literally sounded like I was listening to a plot of a mafioso movie. And we don't, look, it's 2025. We don't use the word mafia very much.

No. But we need to, I guess so. A lot of the modern day technology and whatnot. And of course, the RICO charges and busting up of families has, of course, made mob activity, not what it once was. and, you know, 50s and 60s. If we're talking about mafioso and sports, maybe if sports radio was in 1964, maybe we would have more of a conversation about it.

And also guys at that point were not making any kind of money. So if they were influenced and a chance to make a quick buck through illegal tactics, they were going to do that. So we have to treat them as two separate cases. The only problem with Damon is he's the only one attached to both of them. He knew about the point fixing or the game fixing mode with Terry Rojee. and he was also involved in this poker situation. I would ask you all today, not between now and 2 o'clock,

hopefully, you know, whatever, 233 o'clock, maybe tonight when you're at home. At 201, go get some clips off of YouTube of this FBI press conference. It was, Rossi, it was mind-blowing. The, first of all, the years and years of investigation on this, the clarity in which they had, the amount of evidence they had, the amount of intelligence, the amount of the worker, they just didn't flippantly put this together. They didn't get a phone call on the crime stopper's tip line and go, okay, we'll go find out what's going on.

Somebody tip them off to these two particular cases, and it is 100%. And through, I don't know how much fault the NBA gets should receive, but it's a dark day for the NBA. when you have an active coach, a Hall of Famer, and an active player. Now, Terry Rozier is, I don't believe they've ever been an all-star game, but Terry Rozier is a rotational player in the NBA, and has been a very good player. Now, Grant, you didn't know much about him in Charlotte because the Hornets were terrible,

but he got to Miami in a trade a couple of years ago and was an impactful player. I've called many games with Terry Rozier on the floor. Career earnings $135 million in the NBA. So it's pretty good. I mean, it's a guy that's been able to create a shelf life for himself in the NBA and make good money. We're talking about people that are owing money on debt. We are talking about pilfering money from unsuspecting people. We are talking about Terry Rozier doing this intentionally to help other people with money.

We are talking about money laundering. We are talking about attempts at stealing these machines that can help them circumvent the system and playing these illegal car games. we're talking about four mafia families. This is insane. And again, it's hard to comprehend right now because it literally is fresh on our mind. As a matter of fact, I think they just finished if not.

They're still having the press conference. No, I think it just finished. Yeah. I was like, I actually took an extra stroll around the 610 loop because I didn't want to miss anything because they had it down. They had everything. Again, remember you have to,

there's innocent until proven guilty. But if you were listening to this and happened to watch any of them, it today. I use the word chilling because it reminded me of a time that you and I don't know about, but there was a time this country was led in large parts by the mafia and these crime families. And I would have thought in 2025 they would be such a non-factor, but in this particular case, and we're only talking about three individuals, there could be some more people that we don't

know about in terms of athletes. But at this point, it's been Billups, it has been Terry Rozier and it's been Damon Jones. Yeah, overall 34 people arrested. Overall, six defendants with the sports gambling and 31 defendants with the rigged poker games. Yeah, apparently they've gone deep into each of those families to arrest those people. You're going to be able to write a book about this.

Only three people are involved in both cases. Damon Jones is one of them. So needless to say, I have a lot of... Yeah, there's going to be a book on this. Well, I mean, you've already got a movie, you're ready to go, right? Yeah. I mean, you will have a movie, right? Jonathan, you will have the Terror Rozier story.

Definitely, no, 100%. So, the initial thought from people that are trying to be yucksters on Twitter, and we all are trying to crack a joke now and then is that you have, this is an awful thing, and this NBA tweet is brought to you by Stead gambling sites. Yeah. If I'm the NBA, and I'm talking about it's 30 owners and it's commissioner, this is a, you could treat this as a variety of ways. We've got to be more responsible for our people.

that are members of our association, we can say, I'm not going to let a former player, a current player, and a coach, well, coach wasn't, he's not involved at point shaving. He's involved in the program. But he,

you could also, if you're the NBA, you can say, well, I got, we've got 15 players on 30 teams. We have 450 players. And one player is not following the rules. That is the outlier. That is not the story. Or you could have them go into the room,

the next league owner's meetings, shut the door and say, we got a problem, guys. We are taking all this money from all these different gambling websites, which we do as well. But it doesn't affect our job. We don't have a direct connection to athletes that way in terms of doing that. But they could seriously say, we've got to fix this.

We've got to either take the money away, which is going to be hard for anybody to do. Nobody wants to take money away. But this day to day, how the NBA handles it, perhaps it's going to be more of a story than an, any name Terry Rozier did. This is going to be, yeah, the fallout, where this goes from here

and how, I mean, this is a massive, massive scandal. 37 people, six on the gambling side, NBA players and a coach in a Hall of Famer. Do how many years? They've been investigating since 2023, I think.

So this was done. And I'm not trying to use crime. Yeah, I'm sure they dotted on their eye and crosses on their T's on. They didn't go ahead and execute this if they're not ready to convict. You can't take down a current player and a current coach in two widespread different cases without having. And by the way, you're going after mob families too.

Yeah. I mean, let's be very careful on this. You're going after a mob family. And by way, they all have the typical mob family names. I didn't see any names. Oh, yeah. You'll take you about, matter of fact, Google the mob family names and see if you can find them. Because it was like a Gambonino.

Yeah, there's the Gambino family. family, the Colombo family, the, yeah, you know, John Gotti was head of one of those families, the five families. Yeah. But it's one of those things that says. So it's one of those five families? They were all. Bono, Colombo, Gambino, Genevice, and Lucchese. They weren't Alan, Smith, and Jones.

You know what I mean? They were, they were. So it's funny, you don't want a stereotype in life, but you do stereotype. Because the names you just brought up. I'm a Gambino family guy. You know what, Ross? I am none of the above. They want to live their life.

They can do it the way they want to. 1014 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. So as we discuss this, and again, more will be coming out of this, obviously, in the days and months ahead. But as a sports fan, and forget about whether you're an NBA fan or not. Does this heighten the concern that you have about the games you watch? because apparently there were four particular games

that Terry Rozier was being busted for against one of them was against the Toronto Raptors one was against the Los Angeles Clippers the other two I can't remember but there were specific games that heavy amounts of money were placed I don't think they were on individual bets or the team itself it was like Terry Rozier unders

Yeah one game I did hear while listening to press conference he pulled himself out of the game after nine minutes Yeah claiming some sort of injury. Again, this is so dumb. These sports books, when they see Terry Rozier on normal activity under is like $1,000

and then all of a sudden it's $50,000, alarm bells go off. They pull it off the board. He was getting money delivered to his door the next day after such acquisitions or such accomplishments were made. Like I said, this will take probably a day for us to kind of read and, you know,

Shams doing it. And look, it was on Fox News. I mean, you had people, you had news networks carrying the press conference. So it's going to transcend sports for sure. We have a busy program today. We have that. We have Frank Gore, future Hall of Famer, right? I would say.

Going to be on the show coming up 11 o'clock. Is he in already? He needs to be in. He's going to be retired five years, I don't think. So he needs to be in. Yeah, he's going to be in. We'll talk to him about things going on in his life. And he is a former 49er.

He's also had some good games against the Texans, no matter what uniform he's worn. So we'll talk to him about the NFL and how he sees things. We have, I just don't get it at 1130. We have Ross's Rotten 5 at 1250, believe it or not. And Willie Fritz will be with us today at 1.30 getting ready for the Cougars game against Arizona State. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-7-90. When you hear, forgetting about Terry Rozier as a person,

when you hear professional athletes involved in this to the level this could be in and then you have the athlete I mean to me Chauncey Billups was just a celebrity this Ross this could have been an actor this could be an actor that have involved in this hey come play in this game

we'll rig the cards and for your time and effort we're going to give you some money we're going to cut you in on this it's astonishing really is yeah it's mind-blowing 1017 the Matt Toma show with Ross 713 212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-7-90 is how you reach the show today. It is the Matt Thomas show at Ross. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Okay, so let's go into the mind of the commissioner of the NBA. Do you have a conference call today with every player to go, do you understand what's going on here? This is as bad as it humanly can get. Now, again, one player should not represent a fraternity of four or not.

50. No one's suggesting that. It hasn't just been one though. It was Jonte Porter. Malik Beasley, who has not been apparently been arrested for anything there, although he has been investigated. I mean, I guess the question is this. The NBA and other sports organizations, and for that matter, television networks, this radio station, we have opened ourselves up to allowing the advertising of it. Yes. Now, we're not dealing, the people that are listening to the show are not dealing.

with the immense amount of money and pressure or for that matter, team association that these players are being talked about. But does the commissioner say this is a one-off? That I'm not going to indict the entire league off of one person or two people

of a opportunity of 450? Or does he say, he's scratching his head this morning. How are we going to get past this? He's doing that. He certainly is going to be doing damage control. He has. to do, I mean, and protecting the sanctity of your game is probably job number one.

It always is for any commissioner, I think. No, you should correct yourself. Appeasing the owners is number one. Right. But I mean, but you have no product if people don't believe that your product is genuine. So, yes, you can appease the owners. You can do all this other stuff. But if people don't think your games are legitimate and they think they're rigged, nobody's going to watch.

You're going to lose everyone. Or for that matter, bet. Yes. So first of all, you're not giving away all this money that you're already getting from all these sports books. The ESPN bets and the Fandals and the Draft Kings and the MGMs and all this is everywhere. It's on every broadcast. It ain't going away. They're giving them a lot of money. I would say they're not going to do away with any of that. I was watching Get Up this morning, much to my ignorance.

But when the National Story hits, they're going to have stuff that the local shows are not going to have. And Mike Greenberg was hosting a show with a bunch of people on this day. And he's like all of us that are on this dais, on this studio set, we have some sort of attachment to a gambling. That includes the network that says, hey, you're going to talk about the Niners Texans game on Sunday. You can talk about whether Brock Purdy is going to play, whether or not Nico Collins is going to play.

And not necessarily how does that impact what's happening on the field. How's that going to affect what you do with Nico Collins' receiving yards, CJ Straub passing attempts? It feels like today in sports, and we don't do too much of that here on the show, but so much of what people do is for analysis is what Las Vegas tells us should be analysis. You never, I mean, when Jimmy the Greek used to be on the NFL today, he never could talk about point spreads. It was forbidden and taboo.

NFL shows up until about what, would you say, 15 years ago? Never even uttered Texans plus minus one and a half against. The Tony Romo, remember, he was doing a fantasy football conference in Vegas. Yeah. And the NFL shot that down. I want to say that was within the last as an active player, right? Yeah, yeah.

I'll go look it up. That wasn't that long ago. Yeah, 2015. Okay, so it was 10 years ago. Yeah, so it's been 10, yeah. Literally he was like, they were like, no, no, no, you can't do it. It was fantasy football. Like, you can't do fantasy football. It's too close to gambling. We've got to stay from gambling. We've got to protect the safety of the game. Correct.

And now every game brought. You look has same game parlay, live look-ins at the lines, and this is the live line, and this is the live props and all this other stuff. But, yeah, so they're not going to give away that money. They're just not. So it's going to be damage control. And what they have to do is continue to impress it into their players that as soon as you are tying in with somebody, there's going to be red flags up at their guardrails in place. These sports books ain't losing money. These sports books, this is not their first rodeo.

is not the first time that they've thought of or, no, they're not getting surprised by somebody manipulating bets. They take stuff off the board all the time when there's any semblance of suspicious activity. So they need to tell the players this somehow that it hasn't been properly communicated. Yeah, if you have some friend you're telling a bet you're under and he bets this one gambler only bet $13,000 and then everything was pulled off the board. I don't know how much across the country, but apparently in this story that I'm reading about this Terry Rosier thing, one guy bet $13,000 and then they pulled it off the board. They're ready. They're hot and ready to take you off the board, and then you're going to

get investigated. Let's see on the realities. If you're betting money on LeBron James, if you're betting money on Kevin Duran, if you're betting money on Victor Wembeyan, it might pass a few I test. When you're taking a nice player, but by no means a star, it would be like if there was an over-under on points tonight on Friday night for Aaron Holiday. a big bet on that. There was massive bets. The flags would go up. In multiple states, with multiple IP dresses.

Yeah. Red flags are up. And you're getting shut down and investigated. It was stupid. It was stupid. And I don't know, what kind of, what, I'm curious what Terry Rozier got mixed up in. As I said, $135 million he's made in his career. He's not hurting for money.

You think. Exactly. You would think. You would think. So exactly. Did he get mixed up with some mob people? He got in a, I don't know, a bad,

he was in one of their rigged poker games. Does he have somebody with family or friends that's tied up into money? That's true. That's true. Say it again? Yeah, like, someone's like a hostage.

Yeah, like, his cousin was playing one of the rigged poker games and lost the 100 Gs. There's blackmail involved. Absolutely. Absolutely. There's more to this. Terry Rozier,

to me, didn't just up and say, hey, guys, I'm broke. I'm going to need a little extra spinning cash. I'm going to go ahead and, I'm going to rig games. Something.

There's way more to this. Even though Terry Rozier probably thinks he's a star in the big picture Terry was yours on a star. No. But yeah, he should have more than enough money to take care of whatever he's got going on unless there is, yeah, like we said, some kind of

blackmail situation, or he ran into debt, or what, I don't know. Let me take a $135 million player, people get into debt. They just do. Yeah, they do. So to me, again, I think more of this is a macro philosophy on this, is that what are these sports leagues going to do? I think the NFL should be thinking about

this. I think Major League Baseball should be thinking about this. I think anybody that's, I think collegiate players should, that's where really gets probably the waters can get murky Ross because you guys, you know, there are some college players are making good money, but there's somebody who's making $9, $10 million a year. Why can't

you as a middling college basketball player that plays on Notre Dame and say you average nine points a game and you do the exact same thing Terry Rozier did? Yeah. Well, it's been happening. There was a college, actually college basketball's been

had quite a bit of it. Yeah, and that I can wrap my head around. Because yeah, you got a bunch of college kids and you think you're more indestructible and under the radar. Yeah, under the radar. And you're stupid. Okay? I mean, when you're 18, 19 years old,

you just don't know anything about the world and you think you know everything. I'm talking about myself included. So that I can wrap my head around, but this is the NBA with a guy like Terry Rozier making all the money that he was making? That's crazy. The only thing this was a comment from Adam Sover

before this went down. Adam Sover, the commissioner of the NBA. He was on Today's show on Tuesday because it was the debut of the NBA and NBC. And Craig Melvin, the host of Today's show, asked commissioner, he says, are you concerned about the gambling stuff? The only thing he said was,

I think we're going to talk to our partners, I'm assuming it's been MGM and Draft Kings and Vandals and all that, about maybe limiting the amount of, individual propets. That those are perhaps a little more easier to detect than all of a sudden saying, let's watch how, why the Charlotte Hornets went from a minus plus nine to a plus 13. Mm-hmm.

So. And honestly, it's going to be very curious how these television partners handle this. Because if you watched games on, I don't know, I didn't see the ESPN games last night except for a little bit of the highlights, but when the NBA on TNT, they'd have commercial breaks, so that have Kenny and Charles come in the middle of a commercial break saying, hey, it's time now for our picks of the night, brought to you by said gambling company. I like, let's see, get a random example.

I like Steph Curry over 31 points tonight. You know what I mean? Yeah, I was looking for a college thing. And yeah, this was six days ago. Norfolk State, a bunch of bets were made. And, yeah, there's an investigation. 13 former players, Eastern Michigan, Temple, New Orleans, North Carolina, A&T,

and Mississippi Valley State. All low-level D-1 schools. They thought they could get underneath the radar. And maybe Tara Rozier thought he could get under the radar. I don't know if I'm more troubled by the gambling stuff on the bets or I'm more troubled by the fact that Terry Rozier, a human being, would try to sucker a bunch of people to come play cards with him. Yeah.

And all this illegal stuff and getting ties to the mob. I mean, was Rozier? in the cards because I know Damon Jones was. Damon Jones apparently was in with the cards. I don't know everybody else. It's one syndicate but there was two schemes that we know of. Gambling, gambling manipulation and then the rigged poker games.

1038. We'll get to more on this gambling stuff throughout the course of show because I'm intrigued by it. I'm troubled by it, but I'm intrigued. Again, it feels like a movie that's already should be written or at least put together on a pen to paper on this. Chonzie freaking pillops.

Yeah, very least at 30 for 30. Oh, ESPN not going to produce that. Apparently, they're not even talking about this at all. ESPN's gone to the Cowboys game coming up this week. Okay. It's a major scandal. FBI press conference, rocking the world of sports.

And yeah, they're talking about commander's chiefs. Or they're recapping the Sixers game. Yeah. Speaking of recapping, we have a dear friend of ours. His name is Adam Klein, and we love him.

Uh-huh. We don't always agree with him, but we love him. Yes, I would agree with both of those statements. Well, so when the Rockets didn't get, we were all praying for Wemby. Pride for Victor. Pray for Victor, that's what Tillman said, and you have to take the lead off of your owner. Oh, sorry, Tomlin. This first got him.

And we were pissed. Yes. Mm-hmm. And you ended up with the men in Thompson? Yeah. Not bad. Not bad. Not bad. Not Wimby.

we don't know well honestly who's had a more all right wait wait wait wait wait wait wait no no no no no I think I can argue this side go ahead Wemby's been hurt parts of two seasons was he hurt the first season man Thompson was all defensive

NBA first team last year Wemby's one defensive player of the year yeah but he didn't win it last year guy played you know umbil defensive player of the year in rookie was he rookie of the year too

I believe so Now, and they were in the same rookie class. Is the forward progress, is one deemed superstardom? Oh, I'm sorry, he was second in defensive player of the year. Well, then, me, he'll be in apology. He's been an all-star. He's been rookie of the year, and he was second in defensive player of the year, and all-team first defense.

What's his three-point percentage? It's better than amends. I love it. Let me just say, I love a men. You are such, I get it. I do. But, yes. Wimby's a bigger impact player.

But he played 71 games. He played 71 games his first year and then 46 last year. Yeah. Attendance is part of the grade. Okay. And also a man's miss game too. So I should even go this direction. But my point is six is that I think they're both on a upward trajectory. But Adam just doesn't want to buy into any of the wimby hype.

And as much as I'm a hawk for the rockets and as much as I want them to win, and I love them in and I love all the players. Most of them. Actually, I love all them. you'd be a fool to not realize that Wemby, if he says healthy, is a generational player. That's why the whole world was salivating to get him as the number one pick.

And he had 40 points last 90, 15 rebounds. As San Antonio went to Dallas in Cooper Flagg's opening debut and beat the crap out of the Mavericks in Dallas. It wasn't even close. I have a statement, and I don't know how bold it is. And of course this is all barring health. Okay.

See, whatever you're going to say, I'm going to fight you back with, but can he say healthy? Go ahead and say what you want to say. I don't know. You don't know. He's the most talented player to ever play in the NBA. Seven foot,

whatever it is. Listed at seven, five. Maybe bigger. Bobon says he's seven, seven, eight foot wingspan. did you see he's pulling he was working with Akeem this off see he's pulling off Hakeem moves

and by the way this is not just anybody he's ragdalling he was making Anthony Davis look like his little brother in the driveway Anthony Davis is like seven foot with like a 7 577 6 wingspan grown ass body too defensive players Anthony Davis is one

a defensive player of the year right I mean he's at least been in the conversation before I'll look at up like Anthony Davis has been first team all defense multiple times, been in the running for defensive player of the year. Like, this is not a nobody. Okay, he has one one, but he's been first team all

defense several times. Finished second and defensive player of the year, third, fourth, fourth. This is one of the best defenders on the planet, Anthony Davis. And he made him look like his little cousin, or my, let him score one. Let him score one, Victor. Okay? Come on. Be fair.

Be fair to your little cousin. That's what it looked like. I will stand by this statement. I want the spurs to lose every single game. Okay. What do you think about my statement? Most talented player. The way that he can move.

Let me ask you this. If I went and looked at the, listen to the air checks of the old Matt Thomas show with Ross, would you have said the same thing about Janus? Is this just the pick of the day? He's got a better shooting touch. And a lot of that is inborn. You can work on your three-point shooting until you're blue in the face. You're just not going to be Steph Curry.

So I would say Janus is up there. LeBron James is up there. Who else? Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant's up there? I'm going to not agree with you today. But please allow me to jump aboard your bandwagon. He's the most talent, talent, pure talent.

Now, with his body and his bone structure and all that stuff, I don't know. I'm not a northeast. It is hard for me to get into somebody that says, 7, 3, 7, 4, 5, with as frail as he looks. And again, I have Rossi, what I have on my side is history. NBA history. There's nobody who's built like him who's played 15 years of 70 games. Correct.

He's played 118 games. I've been Thompson's played 132. Yeah. So 14 game difference right now in three years. I can't agree with you right now. Okay. Because part of it is because I don't want the Spurs to win. Because if you're saying what he is, the Rock is, the Rock is,

are going to be having to face the spurs for many, many years. How about Yao Ming on that list, too, by the way? Just, but he, his body broke down, but as far as just seven foot five, shooting touch. I was never as big on Yao Ming as everybody else was. Oh, come on now. He averaged one of his prime years. He was like 25 and 10. But I knew, and you can go ask our buddy, Alan Readers, or listen to the show,

used to work on Channel 2, and he and I argued about this for years. I was afraid of his height and weight. I was afraid of the competition. And I was more afraid, frankly, early in his curve, if you remember this, Ross, he still owed the Chinese Basketball Association a boatload of games. He was putting a lot of wear on terror on his body that I think hurt him down the road. Sports science is much improved, and he was drafted in 2002. In 23 years, there has been miles of improvement in sports science. But sports science does not tell a coach you can't play today.

Yeah. Well, yeah, that's a little advantage. They have Chinese Basketball Association had no interest in the management. No, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about Wimby today. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Can you help prevent him from breaking down? We'll find out.

I need, honestly, to climb aboard your bandwagon on this, I probably need two seasons of this. I'm not using one game. I'm not either using one game. I mean, he's had a nice NBA career, but he has the ability to be, let me put it this way. I was, as much as I love him in, Victor would have been awesome here. I'm not going to complain about loving Victor Weipanama. I'm going to complain. It's the San Antonio Spur, and I want them.

to lose a bunch of games. Nothing would say has for me more to see a guy like that, score 35 points a game, and lose 50 to 55 times a year. Yeah, he's not going to score 35 a game. No. Well, I don't know. No, he's not going to. God, I hope not.

He made it look, I was watching that game. Frank Gore in 15 minutes here on Sports Talk 790. 10.52 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Frank Gore. Future Hall of Famer will be with us on the show in about 10 minutes, talk some Niners, Texans and all things about football. He'll be in town as a matter of fact this Saturday. We'll tell you more about that coming up.

James calling us from, are you calling from New York City, James? Yeah, man. What's up, fellas? Good morning. Good morning to Texas. Yeah, calling from New York City. I'm just walking to work. I got a moment.

Do you guys hear me okay? Yes, sir. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead and say what you want to say. So I want to say thank you to Frank Gore for the few years that I played fantasy football. He was always my running back. So thank you very much, Mr. Gore.

great job sir and and then i wanted to say like i feel like we always get stabbed in the heart with these commentators for the world series like why not take the emmy award winning uh broadcasters which i think is our astros in this case let them have a shot at it you know i mean like we just always seems like we always end up with such mucks that are like i don't know like like discontent or like it's just weird you know it's like it's a horrible way to end the season I think we should have some some more skin in the game you know that's tell us everybody have a have a great rest of the week all right thank you james all right appreciate it uh what he's asking for is the local broad broadcasters on the big events to do the national games or just on the

side well I think he's saying on national games that's not going to happen uh you know these fox broadcasters CBS NBC ABC ABC they have their own announcing crews that do national games they're not going to and do a great job. Yeah, they're considered, they're supposed to be as impartial as it is. Now, it is interesting that Joe Davis will be the announcer for the World Series on Fox. Last year, he did the Dodgers Yankees.

Joe Davis does 90 Dodger games. That's not atypical for guys the National Network to do other teams and stuff. For instance, Vince Scully, people don't mean, Vince Scully, one of the greatest voices in the history of sports did those NBC games forever and ever and ever. He's just as recognized the Dodgers'

voice as he is a national voice. So what I would like to see, and I think we're seeing a little bit of it with alternate cast and secondary audio feeds. I know on the Apple TV games with baseball, you could put on, if the Astros were playing the Mets, you could listen to the national feed, or you could go to a sub-channel and listen to Robert and Steve called the game. That's what I would do. I would like to see more of that. Frankly, if the Rockets were ever in a position to win an NBA championship and you weren't the biggest Mike Breen fan, which is hard, because he's a great guy, great announcer. But if you wanted to hear my call,

it'd be cool that you could go listen to me, call the game from the, obviously, the Houston perspective. I would think technology, that would be an easy, I mean, we already know Apple does it, so why can't everybody do it? You know what I mean? But a lot of people are like, you know what? So the problem is, is if you start offering that,

you skew away from your main channel where your ratings are. Yeah. Yeah. Because if you go to Fox 2.1 or 2.2, and you get me. How does that work with the Nielsen? That's right. Plus, I'm also not reading the commercials that are on the screen that they pay for.

Or watch The Simpsons tonight on Fox. You know what I'm saying? Same game parlay. Need those to pop up. This is going to happen quite a bit, isn't it? I think for every sportscaster. Speaking of that, Terry Rozier's attorney has released a statement. Okay.

If you would like to have an attorney, the name Jim Trustee is probably a pretty good one. Jim Trustee? That's pretty good. It's better than Craig, I'm not so sure about it. Trusty. The billboards write themselves. You know, Mark, I don't know about this. You know, that wouldn't be a good one, right?

Here is what he said. This is to Pablo Torre, who's become a lead investigative reporter. Terry Rozier's attorney. We have represented Terry Rozier for over a year. A long time ago, we reached out to these prosecutors to tell them we would have an open line of communication. They characterized Terry as a subject, not a target, but at 6 a.m. this morning, they called to tell me that FBI agents were trying to arrest him in a hotel. It is unfortunate that instead of allowing him to surrender, they opted for a photo op. They wanted the misplaced glory of embarrassing and professional athlete with a perp walk.

That tells you a lot about the motivations in this case. They appear to be taking the word of spectacularly incredible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing. Terry was clear by the NBA and these prosecutors revived that non-case. Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of the fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight. Okay. So if the attorney... He's going to roll the dice and take it to trial. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. How about this? Who are you betting on? Is that what you want me to say next? You got your money on. I'm going to go to the FBI, probably. That's what the attorneys are paid for is to say that? Yes.

So let's be brutally honest. Somebody's lying. either the FBI completely goofed this up after years of investigation or Terry Rozier's attorney, Jim Trustee, can't be trusted. It's, hmm, there's going to be so much more to this. Yeah, by the way, people blaming Trump for this is ridiculous. This investigation began in 2022 and 23 when President Biden was running things. So this is nothing politically motivated.

I don't think it does, but I don't think so either. But this is about, this is crime families. Yeah, I'm not worried about that. You shouldn't need a political motivation for crime families. You're saying people are politicizing something? I know. I just don't get it. I actually do get it.

I get it. All right. Frank Gore is going to join us the next hour of this show. Let's go. Coming up now. Oh, my God. What now? Clinton just sent us a tweet.

This can't be true. Did Chonsie Billups say, let the chips fall where they may in the press conference last night? Oh, no. That's pretty funny. That can't be true. Come on, Adam, stop sending us stuff like that. Did he say you play the hand you're dope? Oh, right. We play like we had a 2-7 offsuit.

We're going against a full house, although we didn't, although, I forget it. Yes, enough. These poker puns are terrible. 1058, it is the Matt Topbush show at Ross. Where are we going here? We've got three hours left to go. We got to just don't get at 1130 today. We've got the news at noon and rotten five. Ross, who's making the rotten five?

Ross, who's making the rotten five this week? Could be. good for a friend. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 103 on Sports Talk 790. It's Matt and Ross with you on Sports Talk 7.9. We'll be joined shortly by all of him running back Frank Gore. He's going to be in town with an autograph signing.

And he's the third leading rusher in the history of the NBA or NFL. My guess is it would be a bad idea to go go to football and haven't signed it. Yeah. He's going to be the, it was in the all. all 2010's team as well. By the way, five-time Pro Bowler. Yeah, he's a part of what they call the 49ers Houston Invasion takeover. Oh, okay.

So there could be a lot of Niners fans at NRG on Sunday afternoon and 12 noon. The Niners fans do travel well. They actually do. You know, why? It's cheaper to live life outside of San Francisco. That's true. They're saving money when they, even with the, you had the plane ticket, they're still saving money. Yeah.

I'm telling you, Rossi, and I travel to all 30 NBA, 20 and other NBA cities. I think pound for pound, San Francisco is more expensive to do my thing, like eat and hang out and do my, you know. Than anywhere. Than New York City. I really do. You can find little bargains here and there in New York City. You can't find bargains in San Francisco. You just can't.

Hmm. So, yeah. I mean, if you were going on a vacation to San Francisco, it's cost you $85, $90 to park. Oh, my. It's nuts. The food is expensive. They charge a insurance service. surcharge on that, which is not terrible, but it still just adds more to the cost.

It all piles up. It all piles up. Airfare is not cheap. It's just a hard, hard place to really justify, unless you're going there for a specific reason. Yeah, I went there once 10 years ago. It was a friend's 30th, and we went to wine country, and we hung out in San Francisco. It was beautiful. I like it. Okay, I always hear it's dirty, but I had a great time. I don't know. It gets the reputation of a place where people saw themselves on the ground and stuff. I've only ran into that once and it was something I'll never forget. But it doesn't happen a lot.

I mean, it happens. I can't speak to it. Like I said, I've been there once in 10 years or once 10 years ago, but go downtown Houston. Oh, yeah, it's happening everywhere. But it's downtown Austin's bad. Unfortunately, we don't have a place for sulling ourselves like a reputation. You know, like I went to Seattle.

had a great time and people were like, hey, somebody literally was reaching out to me like, hey, I saw you went to Seattle. Like, how was it with the homeless people? I'm like, yeah, there's homeless people, but, you know, everybody was just keeping themselves. Yeah. You see homeless people in big cities. Yeah, the only city in America, and I hate to say this, because I do like the city that it's troubling. It's Portland. Portland. I've heard of that. It's really, it's tough. I don't do a lot of walking around Portland. It's just, it's, it's dangerous, frankly. So yeah, Frank Gore and the Houston takeover.

Niners takeover will be talking to him coming up in a little bit. And he's going to make an appearance as soon as he gets on the line here in a few minutes. We'll be happy to promote that event. Big news story of the day. FBI making arrests and NBA gambling investigation involving Terry Rozier at the current Miami Heat. 34 arrests. Then you have a separate illegal poker. fixing

mafioso four family tied and got Chonsie Billups involved and here's a strange thing

and I brought this up very brief in the first hour Damon Jones who went to the University

of Houston played I want to say 10 years in the NBA gave her take something like

that maybe more played with LeBron in Cleveland that I want to say maybe even

play with him in Miami I don't have his bio in front of me here yeah

he played with Cleveland he didn't play in Miami with Lebron but he was on

the 05 championship team with Miami Oh, Damon Jones was? Mm-hmm. So he didn't win a championship with LeBron.

Oh, no, they went in 06. Sorry, they lost the Eastern Finals that year. They won in 06 then with Wade and check? Yeah, and Damon was part of that team? He was part of the team, no, the year before. Let me tell you about Damon Jones. I'm trying to phrase this properly, I'm not trying to hide anything because I don't know him super well,

but I would say one to 10, I know him five. Okay. Better than most people I know in my life. I mean, most people were zero. Summer 10? What am I? Three? Well, I like Damon as a person.

He and I've gotten along great. We've had great talks about the NBA and the life. It's been a guest on this show? He's been a guest on the show before. He had a cup of coffee with ESPN. He did some stuff with me when we were on CSN together back in the day when the Comcast Sportsnet was around. 11 years in the NBA. No, as a fringe player.

Yeah. But was able to, you know, acquire 11 years of NBA. Service time. And, you know, and 21.7 million career earnings. Yeah, it feels about right for a guy during playing his time.

It was never a guy that was a heavy rotation guy. Mm-hmm. And, you know, he and LeBron were very close. I don't know if they still are to this day. LeBron will tell you they're not. Yeah, LeBron will say, Damon, who? But there were times that when LeBron was still playing in the NBA,

that Damon Jones was his personal shooting coach. And wherever LeBron went, Damon Jones. If I needed to find Damon Jones, it was usually where I could find with the Lakers or the Cavaliers were playing, primarily the Cavaliers. So from a personal perspective of this for me, friends, this kind of hurts because I know Damon has had some past transgressions. I don't know what they are in particular. I was told through a friend of a friend of a couple of years ago that Damon reached out to me about some work. And I did some back channeling and they said you probably don't want to push that.

too far. Whether this has to do with this or character issues or whatever the case may be, you know, Damon was a good communicator, but never got a television job. He was around LeBron James and was a coach, but never got a chance to be a, I think maybe he might have been in a full-time assistant one year or so in his MBA career, maybe two, but never a long term. So there were some troubled spots in his life. I don't know what they are.

But even with that being said, Rossi. I'm stunned. I know somebody that I've had a relationship with in the past that was part of a mafioso illegal poker operation that took people, I want to say innocent people, but took people for millions of dollars in a poker game when everything about the poker game was rigged from the cards to the data intelligence to video cameras. Apparently they had special contact lenses in their eyes. Those meta glasses on the cards.

Yeah. Which, Jonathan, that comes to no surprise. I mean, there's technology that's amazing for everybody right now at this point. Well, so we really don't think from earlier this year when Gilbert Arenas got arrested, he didn't say anything about this scheme for them to, like, clarify. You don't think that's like a little tinfoil. Yeah, July 30. Yeah, maybe.

Hosting Elia might be the same people. This might have stem from that when Gilbert Arinas was arrested in July. So apparently, and again, I'm going to introduce some more reading on this, because this literally came down within like an hour before our show started. They were trying to coerce people to play in these games that they rigged. And they said, hey, so the question is, how do the mafia families or the people that were organizing get to Chauncey Billups? Why Chauncey Billups of all people? I mean, Choncy Billups is a great NBA basketball player.

Maybe he loves poker. And a mid-level coach. But, I mean, why didn't they go after bigger fish? Why didn't they call Michael Jordan? Why didn't they call, let's just go with Patrick Ewing as an all-time NBA gray? Why didn't they call anybody? They wouldn't got Chauncey Billups. And people said, you're going to give me a chance to play poker with Chauncey Billups?

I'm in. And that's exactly what happened. And Chauncey Billups was in on this. They have code names, and this is the press conference was talking about, they have code names for people that organized it. They have code names for people who were intimately involved in it. And apparently at the poker games, everybody. This again, allegedly, everybody, including Damon Jones and Chauncey Billups, were aware of what was going on. They're going to deny it, I would imagine.

This is crazy. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe they knew Chonsie Billups as an avid poker player like to play. Maybe they said, hey, you come to this game, we'll give you a half off on your buy-ins or something like that. Who knows? Any number of million things could have happened. But the problem is, but Rossi, they weren't real games. They weren't needed to buy-ins.

You didn't buy anything in. You were setting. They were taking money. The real money they were stealing from people. You were bringing people in just to fleece them. You've got to sit down with money, though. He's going to sit down on the table with something.

Hey, why doesn't Chauncey have any money? He's fine. Chauncey Billups, who's got a Portland team that's not going to be a contender, but the Trailblazers as an organization gave him his first hand coaching job and gave him a new contract, especially even after all the years of utility they've had up there. He's already going to say, we already know. He's going to say he didn't know, right?

I mean, that's what's going to happen. I had no idea. I thought I was just playing poker with my buddies. Isn't that what you have to say? Yeah, I think so. Unless they got text, like, how much do they have? Do they have text messages? I mean, we read the statement from Terry Rozier's.

Again, we need to make sure we're very clear on this. There are two separate cases going on. There is point shaving. There is game fixing on Terry Rozier's side. The Chauncey Billups, Damon Jones side, has a legal, in a legal card game led by mafia families. Six, yeah, six. So there's 34 arrests.

There are 37 defendants, which means I guess three people they weren't able to arrest for whatever reason. Okay. Six defendants accused him involved in sports betting and 31 defendants involved in the rigged poker games.

Oh, 31. So that means like dealers, chip runners. It's chefs or something like... From what I'm reading on this, it's the people that set up the cameras, it's members of each of the crime families. Yeah. It's everybody at the table.

It's the, I believe it couldn't even go as far as there are people that created these false card decks. That created these things going to be involved. The dealer is involved. From what I heard, again, I was listening as I was driving into work, everybody at the table except the people that were the, what would you call them? That's the, the marks? The marks. Yeah. Everybody except the marks knew how this was going to end.

And by the marks losing all the money. They got to make a movie about the undercover agent that got all. of this. Like, that's what I really want to know. That's actually a good side of you. You could make two different movies out of this. It's an anthology. It sounds like a mini-series. I want to see the documentary. I want to see the real story. Yeah, it's true. 713-212.

Jim trusty. That makes me laugh. Jim trusty. It's better than having an attorney, Craig, I'll get you out. Larry Shifty. All right, that's enough. I think we've, we've buried this one enough. 7-13. Frank Gore. we think Frank we're waiting for you you're on the third leading rush in the NFL he's like man I'm the third leading Russian NFL hit you I'll call you on damn well please that's true he can't

as what I expect this is getting juicier and juicier we have I just don't get it come up at 1130 today Frank Gore apparently let's see Frank Gore doesn't call and he's going to get down my list where is he on your list now that don't do that I mean don't do that we've been promoting the hell he's been on the show He's busy with the Niners Nation. Yeah. FBI alleges that Terry Rozier told gamblers he would leave a Hornets game early and to take the under and all of his fan of player stats.

$200,000 in wagers were placed and he left the game after nine minutes. FBI says they later counted the cash one on the bets at his home. At his home? NBA Central. This is, they're legit, correct? Oh, boy. Make sure you're getting the right one, Matt. Don't be going on to Centell.

I blocked the other one. LeBron James reportedly the player Damon Jones used inside info about before a February 23rd Bucks Lakers game This is per the athletic Jones allegedly told others to bet on Milwaukee After learning LeBron would sit out with ankle sorenness Before it was on the injury report

That does tie in both Because Damon's involved with both of the Point shaving So Damon Jones heard that LeBron was going to sit out And then let the gamblers know Yes Yes By the way, the NBA moments ago indefinitely suspending Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups.

Let me read the statement from the NBA. It says we are in the process of reviewing the federal indictments announced today. Terry Rozier and Chonsie Billups are being placed on immediate leave from their teams. We will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities. We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness and the long integrity of our game remains our top priority. There's no gambling tab to it. Go visit this and none of that. I don't know what you're thinking, sports RV.

I didn't say a word. Well, you know, if you, if you were in the category of we don't need sports betting around this country, not that it's going to, Texan can't do this, but this is one feather in your cap. I certainly was and am an advocate for allowing sports gambling. It's our own money. We can do what we want. If you want to get 10, 20 bucks down, you want to get a couple of dollars. the five dollar parlayes.

Of course, some people can't control themselves. Like anything. Where I run into issues where these sports books, first of all, I didn't know it was going to be plastered all over every single little thing and every little piece of every broadcasting. Middle of games, middle of that bats where you're having it pop up. Like, that's a little bit over exposure, especially when you consider a lot of these sports books cut players off who are actually

sharp winning players. they either, A, throttle your bets, as in make you, you can only make a maximum of a $10 or $20 bet, or they just could, they stop taking your action completely. When you hear ads on this radio station in particular, or any radio station that you listen to, draft kings pick six. Yeah. They're not, the sports profession isn't worried about you. Because you're generally speaking, like I have a friend of mine who always tells me about all of his bets. And I'm like, oh, so you're really cashed in and he always sends me back. only bet $5.

You know what I'm saying? I know who you're talking about, I think. Yeah. Have I gambled with him before? You might have. And he's screaming at his top of his lungs of the book. I'm like, dude, you got a $5 part. Relax.

Yeah, yeah. Hey, don't, I like my $5 when I do it. Hey, yeah. That's true. That's fine, but don't act like you. You put 10 Gs on the game. You're like, come on, Ralph. Yeah, yeah.

I'm like, oh, man, this guy's really hurting. And I am that person, Ross, because when you and I go to Lake Charles, I'll put $25 on a half in a game. Yeah. Where I'm going to bet $25 a hand on blackjacket. I can make that back in five seconds or lose more of it in five seconds. But that's the casual sports gambling that I feel, yeah, we should all be allowed to do. It makes it more fun.

It makes it more interesting. It gives you something to root for, a little bit more, for otherwise non-iscript games. So my point is, when you hear commercials, they're not trying to get to your weaknesses in your life. They're getting to the people that want to spend $100 a month, or maybe $500 a year. Or maybe they're just seasonal better. and a bunch of basically. Yeah, disposable income. That's not who

those gambling websites are going after. Vegas, Atlantic City, the books that are heavily promoted in person, they're the ones that are looking to grab

10, 15, 20, $25,000 bets. And that's the ones they keep a much bigger eye on than you and I betting $15 on whether or not let's see, um,

Zach Flowers gets six receptions. Zay Flowers gets six receptions in a game. You know what I mean? Yeah. There's too many fish to fry. They're not worrying about us little small little guppies out there. But now I think you're going to have to... The NBA is no little guppies.

Everybody in the NBA, I don't know what the average... The lowest salary is for an NBA player, but I would think the... League minimum these days is pretty hefty. Yeah. I mean, I would think what does the average NBA player make running that you've also got guys making 40, 50 million dollars a year with guys making two or three.

But, you know, you're talking about a group of 450 millionaires. You're talking about in the NFL. You're talking about, well, there's 32 teams, about 15, 600 players of millionaires. If you have no NBA experience, league minimum is 1.1 million, then it goes up to 1.8 if you have one year of experience. Okay. So everybody that wears an NBA uniform is a millionaire. Yes. They would have much more disposable income.

They would have an opportunity. They would also be people that would people would want to pray on. And apparently on this Terry Rozier game, it was $200,000 that was bet. And again, I'll go back. He made $135 million in his career. And $200,000 was bet on this game. Like, what is he getting mixed up in? That's why I'm.

Is it his money or is somebody else? $200,000 across all the betting sites or sports books that they found were bet on his under. But let me ask you this. If you've got a lifelong friend, who was there for you when your mother died, or was there when you were shoplifting, or you got your first weed arrest that covered your rear end on it, or, hey, when you were down and out and you had no money,

that it gave you a money to get a plane ticket home to see your grandmother before she passed. There's going to be some debts in life that no money amount can cover. So if that friend of yours comes to you and says, hey, I'm in a tough financial spot, can you do me a solid here and not feel so good at the nine minute mark of a game when you're supposed to with the overrunner and your number is 13 points.

I'm not saying you should do it. I'm not saying, I'm not saying, if I'm going to make sure you're not saying. I'm just saying that there are there are vulnerabilities out there in life that make you do irrational things. Well, you need to be smart enough to know that that's going to set off red flags. That somebody, but that's that Ross. Well, they're not smart enough to realize. Clearly.

And so it was $200,000 is spread over multiple accounts. Apparently they had like all these dummy accounts. some of them betting like as little as $300. Mm-hmm. It all adds up. And it all adds up. And yeah. Once they find a hundred people betting $300,000 or $300, then yeah.

When a normal Terry Rosier, they have numbers. What a normal Terry Rosier under gets in a game-to-game basis. And when then the alarm bells go off when more bets than normal go off on that. It's just, this is ridiculous. This is crazy. At minimum now, Ross. the alarms are going off a lot sooner. Yeah, they monitor stuff.

And they'll pull stuff off the board when they do that anyways with stuff. And I don't even know if the line of communication between Las Vegas and these leagues are there. But if I see those numbers coming in on Terry Rozier, wouldn't you lob a phone call the NBA immediately? I would imagine. Yeah, there's just more to this. There's going to be more to this. Oh, there's no question. Because you've got three men.

We got 30 people all together that are going to be facing prison time. Yes. So they're all going to have their own individual case, I'm assuming. Six with gambling, 31 with the rigged poker games, which we haven't really touched much on. But, I mean, I don't know how much there is to get into that. Yeah. 713-212-5-7-9.

Our thanks to Frank Gore for joining us here in this half. Our thanks for Frank... Frank Gore? He's busy. What he can be doing? He's retired. He's third-leading rush on the NFL. He's got a bad signal.

He's stuck in Houston traffic. We're not asking him to come here. We're asking to join us on the phone. That's what I'm saying. He's at a bad spot and stuck in traffic. It's a bad combo. Maybe he's on the Gulf of Mexico. Maybe he's placing some bets.

Don't put that shame on him. I'm just kidding. You race that. Please don't beat me up, Frank Gore. Frank Gore crush you right now. You know those Miami guys are. 713-212-5-790. It's time for us to ask you a very simple question.

Ross, what don't you get? I don't get Terry Rosier. I don't get Terry Rosier. I don't get getting, I don't get why there's Mafioso still in 2025. What don't you get? 713-212-579. We're here to help you. 7-1-3-212-5-790. It's the Matt Thomas show Ross. I just don't get it next on Sports Talk 790. Do you have something in your life that you just don't get? No need to worry. No need to fret. We will discuss the topics to see if we comprehend the things that may confuse our friends, it's time to say I just don't get it.

All right, gang, what don't you get? We give advice. I don't always know if it's good advice, but we at least do it for half hour per week on the Matt Thomas Show Ross. Things in your life you just don't get, we can either say, yeah, we don't get it either, or we say, yeah, I get it. Let me give you one. This is a rolling minor one. people have told me for, I don't know, 20 years, how they don't watch Saturday Night Live. I just had this conversation two days ago in, I don't watch it.

Huh? I don't watch it. But I believe you. Okay. I believe that 80% of the people that tell me they don't watch Saturday Night Live, watch Saturday Night Live. Interesting. Explain.

They know more about it. Like, oh, I haven't watched SNL in forever. That last week I saw, I was looking at some. of the highlight. I'm like, wait a minute, did you watch it or did you not watch it? Now, I guess the question would be is if you watch the clip. Yes. Does that count as watching the show? Kind of not. But yeah, I don't watch it, but when there's a really funny one, it's generally it'll come across my timeline. Right. Like I watch SNL's clips on the SNL Twitter account. Yes. Some of them are in my, especially old ones will be like in my YouTube algorithm.

Right. Like the old classic, you know, I need more cowbell, stuff like that. Toons is a driving Cat. Not that. Maybe not that's a classic. Let me tell you something. I used to watch those. When I was 19 years old and experimenting with beer for the very first, well, the very third time.

Okay. We would go out and drink at North Texas and come back to the room and put on tunes to the driving cat. We thought it was the funniest thing we ever saw my entire life. Yeah, that was good. They used to be on the E-network. Yeah. They would do the one hour.

The condensed version, yeah. Condensed. So they would cut out all the terrible ones. Yeah. You still got the two musical acts. It would be like three episodes in a row and I would sit down and I would love them. So you eat those up. With like the Dana Car,

Massive Headwound Harry. The two dumbest ones that I loved, especially when I had a few beverages in me, was massive head wound hairy and tunes of the driving cat. Yeah. It's Pat, all that crazy stuff. It's Pat. Okay, so I don't get why people tell me they don't watch it,

but yet they can recite everything and see even happen during the lean years. Okay. Like when Sherry O'Terry was doing things. You know what I mean? Hey, come on now. I mean, the cheerleader thing was okay. She had some good ones. She did a good Barbara Walters.

She did a fantastic Barbara Walters. So I will say, I don't get why you guys don't tell me you don't watch it when you really do. Okay. And I can still watch Debbie Downer at Disneyland with her family every week and better laugh like I'd seen it for the very first time. It is an all-timer. So that's a minor one this week. Okay. What you got this week, anything?

Man, can we just go with this gambling stuff? This Terry, like, I can't. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I totally get it. Money. Greed. But the greatest people I know in this world want more of it. I understand that.

But how has the league not properly communicated to everyone where it's this guy, it's Jante Porter. You have, as we said, league minimum, if you've never set foot on an NBA court, league minimum, you're 1.1 million. If you've played for a year, it's 1.8. All the way up to 3.3 million league minimum. And only $200,000 was bet on this Terry Rosier bet. How do these mafioso types not know that this is going to set off alarm bells everywhere? I mean, 37 people, six involved in the gambling, and however many people they told to bet,

had to all be in on this and not realize that this was going to set off alarm bells and all these sports books? Let me ask you this, because you're a poker player. if I'm a man of incredible wealth, let's say I'm a millionaire. Yeah. Which I'm presuming the people, the marks they got for this illegal poker match,

we're all guys probably millionaires or then some. Could I go to Lake Charles and go find a really expensive game? No. That's part of the problem. That's part of the problem. So if you want to go to Vegas, I think it still have Bobby's room and the Bellagio. Usually it's like one table, though.

So, I mean, private poker rooms have been a part of the underground, gambling culture since basically forever. And it sounds like to me, they'll never go away. Because if I have, if I'm a man of million, if I'm a guy that makes three million dollars a a year running an oil and gas company, and I want to play poker, I'm not playing for a $25,000 buy-in. Yes. I want to play for a $250,000 buy in.

And those games are frankly hard to come by. And I don't want to have to travel around the world. I don't want to go to Rio de Janeiro to play poker. Yeah, exactly. They usually run in Vegas. And if you're not in Vegas or literally like Macau, China. and that's Monaco

like it's like a handful of places if you want to get down a bunch of action you've got to find a private poker room and generally it's going to be underground it's going to be seedy and you're going to have it get rigged so I mean that's another kind of I don't get it

but I get it I guess is that you should have a gambling addiction you have a terrible trust factor because you're trusting way too many people you have a gambling addiction as well so basically the rule the rule should be this

if you love poker and you're a multi-millionaire to be perfectly safe just understand if you're going to go play poker, just know that you're not playing for a lot of money. If you want to go bet $50,000 a hand on blackjack, Lake Charles will take that bet in a million seconds. Yeah, they'll do it.

There's a guy recently. He's like a businessman. He had been challenging guys to like heads up $3 million matches. Like I come to the table with $3 million. You come to the table with $3 million. Only one of us is leaving with money. Like freeze out matches and stuff like that. They've been getting on stream and stuff.

I've been watching some of those. I bet you could find that. legally. I bet a book pick that up, right? Because you're not all you're doing is you're paying for the ante. Yeah, but a lot of these guys don't want to be on TV. Of course, you know, you don't want your family or whoever else seeing that you're gambling all this money.

You want to keep it private. And also if you're losing your ass, you don't want people knowing about that either. So they like private games. All right. Anything from you, Johnson, for the phones? What don't you get this week? I just don't get, um, when it comes to like music or movies when people say,

oh, I don't want to watch it because it's too sad. Or I don't want to listen to it because it's going to make me sad. Because, like, I don't know. It doesn't make sense to me. Like, so let's say, like, Matt, for example, he wasn't the one to watch Oppenheimer because he's, it's too much for him. I just don't get that because it's a work of art. And you're supposed to be in a different place.

It's not real. Hmm. Do you get what I'm saying? No, I do not get what you're saying. I kind of understand you, but I'm just going to tell you, I like, I don't like watching sad stuff. Honestly, John, then you can't like everything. There's nobody in this war that likes everything. Yes, but like, okay, but it's, I understand that point, but it's more of like, why, like, what's the, sometimes it's just a reason.

Like for instance, I don't want to be, I don't be bad. Chariates of Fire is one of the greatest movies ever made. Multiple Kami Award winner, right? Okay. Right. It's about a bunch of running and involves classical music. Doesn't interest me. I'm never going to watch it. Just not my cup of tea. What's the one where the, uh, that dog dies moot at the end? Not the old yeller, but the recent one, Lassie? No.

I know, I don't know. I know. I know. I can. think of it. I can't give a name. Under 1 Dalmatians? If I don't like Carrella DeVille, I'm not going to watch it. Sorry. Or say like, what's the one with Wilson, the volleyball, and he's stuck on the island? Castaway, that was not that sad. That wasn't sad. I've met people that say, oh, I just can't watch it.

It's too sad for me. I can't do it. I'm just like, but. But, Jonathan, you don't, you don't. It's like food choices. I might think that Alaskan cod is the best fish ever. If you don't like it, I mean, I'm not going to get mad at you for not. liking it. There's other things you can like in life. I mean, you can't, I just, I'll use a simple phrase, you can't like everything. Oh, Marley and me. That's what I was trying to think of. Yeah, I don't want to get invested in some dog and then it dies at the end. I, yeah, I don't like, I can go to a sad movie. I'm in for that. Yeah. I don't like horror pictures. I don't

like violence in my shows. Now I'm on the fence because I get, because I get the horror like satanic, like, dynodic, or you don't want to watch that. Like, I understand that. You know, so I guess, I'm just on the, I'm just on that fence there. No need to be on the fence. Let people enjoy what they want to enjoy, Jonathan. Yeah, but if they... Yeah, I try to watch movies that are considered, like, you know, the best movies of all time, even if they're going to be sad.

Like, Schindler's List, like, that's depressing as hell. See? But it was a great piece of art. Like, for the all-time great movies. People love saving Private Ryan. Okay. It's about war. It's about guts.

It's about tragedy and sorrow. Great acting performances. Not interested. I know it's amazing. Everyone that says it's gone and said it was amazing. Yeah. Well, you're a special case. You don't want.

watch any good movies. You just watch airplanes for the 40s. I mean, I'm sorry. You haven't watched Goodfellas. It took a global pandemic for you to watch The Godfather. It was good though. You're like, man, I got nothing to do. I guess I'll kill three hours with the Godfather. And Godfather too is good. And you liked you, didn't you? I did. See? Yeah, it's fine. Yeah, saving private, I'm incredible.

You said you haven't watched Platoon? Nope. Thin red line? Nope. Full metal jacket? Nope. Apocalypse now? Nope. Oh, I got it. I'm going to leave. All right, Cameron will start with you. What else don't you get besides my movie selections? You know why? Because I'm traveling around the state.

I'm Mr. Texas. 7-1-3-2-1-1-1. You got time on these planes. You're not doing Jack. Yeah, but I'm not going to cry on the plane and be scared. I have to hold on. I don't think I can go sit next to Jeff Green and say, please hold me because that movie scared me.

You could. I could, but I'd get my ass beat by Stephen Adams. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. All right, on the phones we go, just I just don't get it. This is the half hour of the program where we can help you with your life's issues. Agree or disagree. Jonathan is criticizing you if you don't like every movie, regardless of it's good or not. I said, I just don't get it. I just don't get it. We're here to fix you. Weekdays 10 to 2 on Sports Talk 790. Let's talk to Cameron patiently waiting on 790. Cameron, thank you for holding and good morning to you.

Hey, good morning, guys. So you kind of struck a nerve in a good way, Matt. I don't get why Matt TV. is off the air when Saturday Night Live in its current form is still on the air. I have never seen an episode of Mad TV. What makes it funny? I know. Isn't that crazy? Wow. I know. Don't be mad of me. I don't know. No, no, no. It's all good.

Man, at its prime, Mad TV was just, you guaranteed laughs for most of the episode every week. Okay. And so when's the last time you watch SNL? I think last season when Honestly

SNL's at a point where I feel like the guests Are the only reason people tune in Like oh this guy or this girl's on it Like okay I'll check it out But it used to be the cast of S&L back in the day Would carry the show and the The guest was like the cherry on top Yeah yeah that's exactly right now

So I will say this My advice to you is I do believe there is some funny things on SNL I'm telling you the best thing you can do Is go follow them on Twitter and just read the clips that way. Or, you know, there's Facebook pages with SNL clips on them, too. It gives you a chance of see the funniest stuff. And if you don't like something one second into it, you just click off the thing.

It makes it nice and easy. Fair enough. Well, hey, guys, appreciate it. Have a great week. Thank you, friend, for calling the show. We appreciate it. I used to watch a lot of mad TV back in the day. I did watch.

I watched it, like, a teenager. I watched In Living Color. Yeah, that was good, but also it was all right. I mean, it was good. But he just wasn't as a little. good as Saturday Night Live. Man TV also was kind of like there were some hits

on there. Let me tell you. I'm going to take it. Some good recurring characters. I'm going to be brutally honest with you. I can still, there's enough Saturday Night Live in my life that I could watch hours and hours

and hours of my favorite clips. There are some scenes from every season and every star. Like I can watch some of the old 70 stuff and love it. I can love the Dana Carvey Wayne's World. world. I can go to Will Ferrell

and Celebrity Jeopardy. Even Keenan Thompson, one of the greatest S&O characters of all time. You know, actors. We've been in the Fantasy 5. No, he's not that great. I could watch Celebrity Jeopardy Jeopardy. I could watch Black Jeopardy to them blue in the face. There is some funny, funny stuff of there. But

just like anything in life, you don't bat a thousand. I like to think this show bats a thousand. Some days we bet 7.50? We're working on it. Let's go to Vince at Midtown. Vince, what don't you get? Hello Vince? What don't you get? You are on.

I'm not sure if that's us. I don't know. I hope it's not us. We can just have Cameron. He was on fine. I don't know. Vince call back. Oh, there you are. Are you there? Start speaking. Yeah, it's not going well. Thank you though, Vince. Time to write it down. Hey, news on this, though, Tom said getting these numbers down has like for corporate, it has been helping him find a solution. Okay, thank good. Goodness. So sometimes people calling their number. It's their fault.

They're finding what carrier they're on or something? Yeah, I don't know exactly. They're trying to find an IP address. Do you want to try Vince one more time? Sure, please. Let's try this. This is Vince again. Let's try this again.

I'll put them on the ear. Vince, what don't you get? Okay, I don't get fast food joints like Rick Relay and Roderwerger, having eight to ten designated parking spots for pickup. And so when I go, it's like I'm looking for parking spots because I normally don't do the drive-through. And there's no parking spots, but they got all these empty spots, you know, designated for that. I usually end up parking there, but it doesn't make any sense to me. I just don't get it, sir.

Yeah, you know what, Vince, I would say in the COVID world, I get it. But in 2025, that we're past that, I think the number of people that are calling ahead and waiting in the car for their food is dramatic. I mean, I wouldn't say it's gone, but I think it's dropped, right? Fair to say? Curbside pickup? I don't. I would say I don't get it here. To answer this.

Yeah, I don't know. I'm sorry. Fortunately, I eat a lot of fast food, which is, I mean, a detriment to my life overall. You are kind of the fast food king. I am. By the way, I was thinking about doing a, to tell the truth on fast food that I like. Only fast food? Like I was going to do it?

Like four fast food takes? You know what we can do? We'll do this. We'll do it, believe it or not today. do I like this fast food Okay What do you think? I love it

Because then I don't have to write it So that's a great idea We were gonna do Frank Gore but since he's no show He didn't show up So Guys they're hurt We gotta come cheer him up

Who? Frank Gore? He did send an email He said something's going on with his family So hopefully everything's okay I thought we were still going to get him on though Maybe Oh well he's supposed to call us Yes

Yeah it's out of our hands That's okay Whatever So today's edition, believe or not, do I like this fast food item? Okay. And I'll mention the restaurant, and I will give them a sponsor plug. Okay. I don't like to do that normally, but we'll do it.

Sure, why not? All right, 713, 212, 579. 7.1, 3,212, 5, 790. Gio is with us. Geo, what don't you get? All right, man, so I saw this. I want to say last weekend, maybe even more and more behind than that. But I watched, I was watching Channel 2 one night, and I saw the segment with you and your daughter for the volleyball for school high school.

And great, man. It was great, man. Great stuff. You have a lovely family. That was beautiful. But what I don't get is, it was my first time actually seeing you. I've always heard your voice, but I never saw you. And I don't get, man, that your head is huge, man.

They need to start calling you, like, juggerna on the Thomas, dude. Like, that's your conference on that thing. it's just like enormous dude but I mean you know I just don't get that man Geo it's my pleasure to do that for you uh Geo I need you just for your firm reference to send me a picture of yourself because dog I'll go at you 10 times harder love you is my head too big I don't think so I thought you was I'm used to it I think it's normal I honestly I mean we're talking about ego or we're talking about physical physical

physically ego yes too big physical physical No. He said you look at a juggernaut. Yeah, that's kind of rude. Don't look that up, Matt. I'm not going to. Don't look up Juggernaut, X-Men. Jonathan, is my head

physically too big? I think you have a good size head. It fits for a ball guy. It's regular. Yeah, it fits your body. It's not like Megamining out there. It's space move. That's how Gio was saying it.

Oh, man. I thought you have a good size head. I think you're, I think I have yeah. You had a normal size head, Matt. I think Ross had that might be big of the years. That's true. Gio, again, send me a photo of yourself at MT at Sports790.com so I can give you the once over.

I can promise you it will not be good for you. Appreciate you, Gio. Thank you for always listening. Thanks, Gio. Again, there's things in my life that are bigger than the average person. I don't think my head is one of those things. Happy birthday to my wife, by the way. Happy birthday.

Mrs. Thomas? You in Texas? Do you want me to? I don't care if you do. You remember the family. Yeah. I am? Yeah.

All right. That was the way to officially buzzkill a segment. 713-212-5-790. The news at noon is next in Ross. You got some juicy news to get to. That is for sure. It is the Matt Thomas show Ross with a regular size head here on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

He's 12.3 in H-town. Welcome to the third hour, the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790, where we have got some juicy news to get to today as we present to you the news at noon. Rossi, this stuff came down this morning. There was a mega press conference involving two different gambling allegations involving current and former NBA players and current coaches. Yes, Matthew, Chauncey Billups, Terry Rosier, and Danes. James, the most prominent figures of 34 total people arrested, the result of a year's long investigation covering 11 states involving tens of millions of dollars. FBI director Cash Patel saying other law enforcement also saying the multiple chargers involve four mafia families, organized and organized crime networks, and mind-boggling amounts of fraud.

Rose here and other defendants had access to private information known by NBA players or NBA coaches likely to affect the outcome of games or players' performances provided that information to co-conspirators in exchange for either a flat fee or a share of betting profits. U.S. attorney for the Eastern District, Joseph Nokella Jr., calling it one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting

became widely legalized in the United States. Billups is in a separate indictment involving a wide-ranging scheme to rig underground poker games that were backed by mafia families. And everything about the games were corrupt.

Yes. From the cards to the dealer, to the shuffler, to the glasses they were wearing. Apparently, they had a contact lenses where they could read, you know, they could read the cards. basically. So there are six defendants

accused of involved at the sports betting case, 31 defendants involved in rigging the poker games. Jones is one of three people allegedly involved in both cases. There were suspicious betting activity on Rosier's statistics

ahead of the Charlotte Hornets, New Orleans Pelicans game on March 23, 2003. An unexpected surge of bets came in on the under on Rosier's points, rebounds and assists, which calls the sports books to halt the betting, and then he left

the game after just 10 minutes with a foot injury. Allegedly. Alleged. Rozier's lawyer, Jim Trustee. When you need an attorney, you call Jim Trustee, said in a statement that his client is not a gambler and looks forward to winning this fight. Look, we are not the court. We are the court of public opinion. You're telling me the FBI spent three years on this on both these things. And they had this massive press conference and they went arrested three prominent sports athlete. Well, man, too. I mean, Damon's not been in the line line in a while.

But my point is that you went to arrest a current NBA player and a current coach. You don't think the eyes are not dot and the T's aren't crossed on this? Oh, your eyes are blazing. Well, this story has been updated that I'm reading right now. So, yeah, the poker games were rigged through using technology, as you mentioned. The shuffling machines, hidden poke cameras and poker chip trays, sunglasses and x-ray equipment built to the table to read the cards. The scheme targeted fish, which is just a term for a bad poker player, and they rigged the games for them to play alongside former athletes known as face cards. one fish

said the mafia used extortion and violence to make sure they paid their gambling debts investigators found the scheme involved members and associates of the Bonano Gambino, Lucez, and Genevieve's crime families Not to go along with the lines of the generic Italian name Mafioso. Which of the five families was left out there?

The Rigatones. Matt. They're not the Ricearoni family. You know, I've been to a mafia wedding before. I've told you it before. Oh, you have? Yeah. my uncle, my great uncle.

No, let me see. No, my great, my, it's my mom's first cousin. So that would be what, my second cousin? Sure, why not? Married into a Michigan mafia family. And we went to the wedding. Allegedly. Allegedly.

I looked it up on Google. Okay. By a good time, I think I was 11. Had a good time. I danced. Food was good. That's good. A lot of security.

Go ahead. Thanks, Matt, for that anecdote. The Colombo family, one of the four of the, You think the Colombo family's like, hey, what about us? We like to rig poker games. What do we do wrong? Come on, guys. We're just playing cards.

That's how we're doing. One victim alone losing $1.8 million. Woo! Now, do you think that person went to the FBI and something's a muck? Probably. Or just embarrassed he lost. Well, they were getting extorted and violence threatened, apparently. Hmm.

Hmm. Okay. I like this tweet from Dan Wetzel. Word to the wise. that illegal underground high-stakes poker game you're playing in might be rigged. That's crazy. Oh, wow. All right.

Well, elsewhere, do we even want to get to this news, Matt? About Wimby? The San Antonio Spurs. Uh-oh, here we go. Hold on a second. Do it in droopy dog face. Victor Wimby Niamer scored 40 points against the Dallas Maverick. Hmm.

And the Mavericks beat the Spurs? Spades beat the Mavericks 1.25 to 92. Okay. I stated earlier in the first hour of this show, and I honestly can't think of a reason to back off of it yet. We're talking about the most talented player to ever walk foot on an NBA court.

He made, it's not that he scored 40 points on 15 of 21 shooting with 15 rebounds and 3.5. blocks an assistant a steal, it's that he was going up against Anthony Davis and making him look like his like a dad playing

in the driveway with his teenage son, not even teenage son, pre-teen son. And Dunkin all over him for one last hurrah before he grows up. He little broed Anthony Davis for 40 minutes.

and hit threes too I'm sorry and get up threes 30 minutes he scored 40 points and 30 minutes on 21 shots as the spurs dominate the Mavericks

to a 125-992 victory Cooper flagg by the way was what four for 13 in his debut I think something like that 4 for 13 10 points and 32 minutes 10 rebounds so put this way if you're a Maverick fan and you get the chance

to see the first game of the season the number one overall pick number one overall pick this is going to be a guy that makes you want to say Luca Who. And Victor goes in your building and beats the crap out of you. It wasn't even close.

I mean, at these highlights of what he's doing, he's jab stepping, pump faking, windmilling, dunking around the goal. I mean, these highlights are insane. He's pulling off four or five pump fakes using his pivot foot against Anthony Davis. He's making, who is that? Derek White? He's making that guy look like he's a child blow. locking him, and then he's hitting step back

three's. He takes one step back, and he goes back. Hey, look at it. How many feet back does he go on one step back? About six? Traveling. That's not a travel. It wasn't a travel. He's teleporting around the floor. This is a problem, folks.

Anthony Davis was, what, six and 19 during the course thing? It was seven to 22 overall. Oh, Lordy. Adam Clayton, I mean, I hope that you're right that attendance hurts him for a long time. And Jay Bill has said during the game, it looks like he's playing on a Nerf goal at your house. And that's what it looks like.

It's not good. We get a problem. We get a problem. You know what? We don't have a problem. We just have an irritant. Who might be? We should have prayed for Victor.

A 1-1. Of course there is not really, there is no precedent for somebody as big and wiry as he is to have a story long-term career. The odds are he's going to break down. because you know what? It's actually Ross, it's the favorite. Because guys that are seven foot, would you say, the reason?

The odds are. Yeah. He's going to break down. Yeah. I mean, it's been happening to Chet Holmgren, but guess what? If he's available for the playoffs, it don't matter. Right. But I put it this way.

We're not looking 10 or 15 years down the road, but we are going to look at players that have finished their NBA careers. How many 7 foot 3 and above have long-lasting 12, 13-year careers? Maybe Mark Eaton, but he was never considered an offensive threat. Yeah. The shooting touch that he has, the way that he moves around

for as big as he is, the dribbling skills, it's unprecedented. Sorry, Matt. Anything else? Is anything positive to talk about today? Texans and Niners is going to play on Sunday.

Leo Messi has extended his contract with Inter-Miami through 2008. That was what I was not looking for. Oh. No one was looking for that. I mean, I'm glad he got his contract. He's obviously happy.

We don't know what games are coming to Houston by the way for the World Cup. We know who's playing whom and whatnot. You won't know. Could be like, I don't know, Qatar versus Morocco. Ooh, building this will be full, right? I think so. Qatar's not too bad. I don't think they're good at. Who's your favorite guitar player? I would say George Harrison. Oh, I was going to say Van Halen. Eddie Van Halen. Actually, Stevie Rayvon, of course. Is the goat?

Jimmy Hendricks or Stevie Rayvon, to me. I'm not going to what Rolling Stone has to say, because Rolling Stone always changes up their answers every other year. They've had Jimmy number one for a while Okay I'm just I just think they feel like they've changed it a bunch The last over

They do some some shuffling around Here's my quick thought Greatest guitar player Paul McCartney Greatest drummer Ringo Starr Oh my God Another great guitar player

Of course George Harrison Greatest drummer of all time John Bonham Neil Peart up there Ringo Starr Up there Ginger, what was his name? Baker

Ginger Baker yes I believe Bad Bad Ladyway Brown also on that list as well. No, he's not. And that, my friends, is the news at noon. All right, so today's edition, I believe it or not, I'm already working on, are fast foods that I may or may not like. So I would say if you've listened to the show for any length of time, you probably have a pretty good guess on some of these, but not automatically. Okay. 713-212-5.

We've got the Rotten 5 coming up in 35 minutes. Willie Fritz for his weekly appearance at 130 today. Oh, Adam Clinton's tweeting texting in. I'm sorry. What is he saying? Enjoy that French bum while he lasts. Does Ross need to change his pants? Why do you change your pants?

I'm sorry. Are you selling yourself right now? Literally go and like anybody that follows the NBA and knows what they're talking about. The dude is an insane generational talent. I'm sorry, Adam, you're wrong. It just is what it is. I don't want it to be the way that it is, but it is what it is. He's not a bum.

Not a bum. But I'm not putting him in your category until there is great attendance. Well, he's on the short list. He certainly minutes. While he's on the floor. Why isn't it a floor? But as a wise man once, Tommy Ross, you know,

attendance is part of the grade. Well, he's on the floor right now. That's all we have to go on. 12-16, it's a Matt Thomas show, Ross. Come on and join us. 713-212-5-7-90. Warrior from the Rockets just a few minutes ago. The Rockets starting five tomorrow against Detroit

will be the same starting five that you saw an opening night against Oklahoma City. It would be Thompson, Durant, Smith, Schengoon, and Adams. You surprised about that? A little bit. With the Thunder having Hardenstein and Holmgren

Star or Hardinstein. Hardinstein. I figured they would go with the big... They call it the sky lineup. Well, we call it the skyline up. Apparently the rockets use that in a graphic sky lineup.

So I don't know if they got it from our guy, Darren. Darren, if you got bet stolen, First of all, sorry. Second of all, it happens to all of us. Hashtag, Welcome to the Club. Yeah, hashtag, welcome to the club. Hashtag, welcome to the club.

Hashtag, I'm going to sell it to Reratari, and they're going to make money off of it. I'm going to get nothing. But I'm not bitter. 1222 on 790, 7.1.3, 2,1, 2, 5, 790. What did you say? Seems like you're a little...

Oh, I'm a lot better. How long have been talking about this for 10 years? I think so. Don't you let things go after a while, and then you don't sense it's bitterness? You're supposed to. Well, I'm saying if there's a girl that left you And you don't talk about her 10 years after you've gone on you've gone on

But if you bring up the whore's name, then you definitely are in a situation where you get mad You need to live and let go Matt The past of the past, the future is now Typically you would, right? But if she's a whore and married somebody else, then you're in a problem No, you're not in a problem. You need to let go. Okay.

I'm not letting go. I'm not letting go to crush city. I should have at least gotten a season full of tickets or something. Okay. Or maybe a check saying we're sorry? All right, back to the rocket starting lineup. Against the Pistons. I'm in it about me. I apologize.

We're very surprised. Houston Rockets minus five and a half tomorrow. Yeah, the Pistons last night lost in Chicago to the Bulls. So, Osser, who is the twin of a men, last night, 33 minutes, five of eight from the floor. He had 11.7 assists, nine rebounds, and a block shot. He's just like his brother. He just is. They're very, very similar.

Now, I've not seen enough of Oster to tell me what he does better or worse than a man does, but I'll see it tomorrow night. You go to see those two guys on the floor at the same time. Also last night in the NBA, not that we're a huge, I mean, we're working our way to becoming a decent NBA city with the Rockets. But in the NBA last night, besides the San Antonio Dallas game, which was a blowout, Dylan Brooks scored 20, I'm going to say 22 for the Phoenix Suns in his first game. As a member of the Suns, I believe Jalen Green.

did not play because of injury. Oh, what's wrong with him? I don't know the exact injury, but I don't think he's playing an opening night. Yeah, he didn't play. Yeah, they beat the Kings 120 to 116 and the L.A. Clippers, who a lot of people thought would be a... Isn't that guy John Hollinger, who's nuts? Dark Horse?

They got beat by the jazz in Salt Lake City by 21 points, 129 to 108. The old guy's got to loosen up. You know, they got to get ready into the seat. season. James Harden, 29 minutes, 5 of 12 from the floor, 15 points, 11 assist. Bradley Beale played 20 minutes and scored 5. Coile 100, 29 minutes and scored 10. Chris Paul off the bench played 15 minutes and scored 4. They are damn old. They're just period old. Even Zabat's old too for them. So there you go. So that's kind of the rundown of what's happening in the NBA. We've not talked much about the Texans today. They are back on the practice field. Rossi,

Did you see the injury report yesterday? Christian Kirk is out with a hammy still. Nico Collins and concussion protocol. Great. Battle Red, how are they going to beat the Niners this week? Well, they're favored with running game and defense. Is Brock Purdy going to play for them? You know what?

Let me check the injury report. Cal's Roughriders are one in six. They got Brock Purdy. Poor Cal's Roughriders. We've had a lot of injuries. We had a bad draft. You know what you are? I'm the cult in our fantasy league and you're the Texans.

You were supposed to be heavily favored and you're five back. Well, we had a bad draft and a lot of injuries. Other than that, things are going great. San Francisco Injury Port. Quarterback. Limited. Limited. Brock Purdy.

By the way, also, full participant, Mack Jones, who has a knee and oblique injury. So they got two quarterbacks that may not be completely 100% for that game. Jeez. Do you think we'll ever, ever hear the in-depth stuff about the Texans anymore. Do you think that D'emico is so over-coach speak that nothing's going to ever change? I don't really understand kind of what you're saying.

I'm just saying that he is so, he's so, we got to play better, we got to coach better, that that verbiage may be so ingrained into his pores that he's going to say nothing else. Yeah, it's probably, I mean, yeah, we have basically three years of sample now. just coach sweet guy. He did call out the offense a little bit, the offensive line,

right? Well, and CJ, a little bit too. Yes. And my belief is... So, yeah, maybe it's not all coach speak. It's 90% coached. You can read between the lines on some of the things that he said. Yeah. I think it was... Was it this one from yesterday? I think the most frustrating thing for me is things we've covered, things we've worked and practiced, and we get in the game,

and it's not getting done. We're doing something different. We're doing things that we're not coached to do. That's the most frustrating thing. My team is stupid. That's on the offensive line. That's pretty direct for Domingo Ryan's. Saying we're coaching these things and they're not getting it done. I don't think it's a deficiency in talent.

I don't think what they're doing in the practice field is not translating into the field. There's nobody on that offensive line right now, maybe with exception to Titus Howard, that you go, that guy's been there and done that and played at a high level. That is true, but you're going to have five guys on the offensive line. and if they're not communicating who's picking up who, then you're going to have free runners. It's even worse. So, yeah, it's both.

They don't have talent. They're not playing together. If you're not going to have that much talent, you've got to at least play together. You've got to give your quarterback a shot. Now, there have been some clean pockets. It's been a few more clean pockets the last couple of weeks than it was, and I think it'll be better at home than it has been on the road

in loud environments and stuff like that. I won't be loud on Sunday. No. It'll be allowed for a little while. Like mid-second quarter. You mean the Niners fans are going to be a lot? Hey, apparently Giants, apparently Niners fans run to the building quite a bit. Yeah, they do.

There's going to be a lot of Niners fans there. I don't know why or how, but Niners fans travel. I'll say this. My guess is it's not San Francisco fan coming here. I guess that there's going to be some kids that grew up with Joe Montana and Jerry Rice. Yeah. Makes sense. I mean, let's face it, I don't think, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know,

stealer fan base. But Steeler fan base to me is generational. But you didn't great, you didn't, when Ben Rafflesberger was leading the Steelers, you didn't, he didn't create a generation of Steeler fans. You know what I mean? He didn't maybe to an extent in that era.

No, I feel pretty confident in my itself. I think that the, again, I'm hearing a paint with a broad brush, unfortunately, that you were born, like you were born a Packer fan. You didn't, you and all this. Now, Brett Farb could have gotten you in that category. I would say so. And Rodgers, too.

So, I mean, yeah, just crazy that these teams that win have bigger fan bases. Yeah. But I bet you, if you did, you know, we had to win us on the man on the street like he used to do it back in the day. You're going to pay me? I mean, you could probably use a a little bit of chump change. Yeah, I'm saying. If you went and talked to San Francisco,

if any of you all going to the game on Sunday, go talk to a guy wearing a niner or a lady talking to a, wearing a nine or jersey. How many of them have some sort of Bay Area ties, meaning like I grew up in Santa Clara or I was born in San Jose, I'm from San Francisco. And how many of them are just, man, I grew up watching Jerry Rice and Joe Montana. Look, I'm not a Niners fan,

but watching Jerry Rice was one of the pure drawers of my life. I still, for the longest time until Tom Brady came around, thought that Joe Montana was a greatest quarterback ever to play in the NFL. Because any time I watched Joe Montana, he succeeded in my mind. They do have a pretty big national fan base. They do. It's actually, frankly, larger than I thought. Remember, think about it.

They've been to some Super Bowls lately, but there was about a 10-year stretch where they were four and 12 in the right. They were a joke. Yeah. And kind of living off of the... It was like Mike Singletary was their coach, and then that guy who was the interim coach. Mike Nolan, remember him?

Yeah, it was bad. They just always wear the suits and stuff. Like, dude, you can't coach. I don't care what you wear. You being a thong and a tank top, I wouldn't care. It is 1230 on Sports Talk 7-9. 713-212-5-790 if you want to jump out of the conversation. 7-13-212-5-7-90.

We are just 20 minutes away from finding out who the five worst teams are in the National Football League. That's the rotten five. It's coming up 20 minutes. And I already got believe it or not for you. We're doing 12 today. And you have to get three right in a row to win. Three in a row. We're believe or not today.

Matt Thomas Show with Ross continues. Here on Sports Talk 790. Rosbya Rie. I'm Matt Thomas with you. Phone lines open at 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. The big news of the day has been the gambling ring that was busted up by the FBI, Chauncey Billups, Terry Rosier, Damon Jones, among those that were arrested today.

34 arrests. It says 37 defendants. I don't know if that means three people are on the lamb or what's going on with that. And it's funny, Jonathan, you were talking about the Gilbert Arena's tie earlier. He was arrested on July 30th as part of an FBI investigation and they're released on Bond. There is a video somebody found of Gilbert Arenas talking about how he would always gamble with LeBron James and Damon Jones. See? And the FBI had been investigated for a while too.

Apparently they would play cards. Gilbert Arenas is calling Damon Jones a horrible card player, and he's talking about how he would talk trash to Damon Jones when they were on the floor. He'd be like, the landlord's coming here to collect. The landlord's coming here to collect because Damon Jones owed him money. So it's not like Damon Jones liked to gamble. There's also a report that he tipped off gamblers knowing that LeBron James was going to sit out a game. He wasn't an official member of the Lakers coaching staff during the season,

but he did work with James during his pregame workouts, kind of like as his shooting coach. Apparently he tipped off. He knew that LeBron was going to sit out with an ankle injury. And before it was announced public, he had tipped off some gamblers and then they made some bets. So this is a whole mess. This is crazy.

What's going on here? I'm hearing this. I'm like, dude. LeBron James is going to have to lawyer up on this. I don't know how culpable he is in all. this and we don't have any facts and his name hasn't been mentioned in any of these reports as far as being

a suspect or anything like that. But that's supposed to be his boy, right? So like it's like you. Yeah, guilty by association. That's just, it's like And that leaves room for speculation. Did LeBron James tip them off on purpose so he could be involved in this? Now, I don't think that that would happen. You know, we're talking about Terry

Roseier making $130 million and Damon James Jones making what he did. Bronon James is a billionaire. So I would guess that he's not going to Damon Jones and saying, hey, I'm going to sit out this game. Go ahead and tell your boys and then we'll go ahead and clean up on this bet. But his name is being mentioned, along with this whole gambling scheme. My guess is, get away from me.

LeBron's not stupid. No. But, and I was saying this, Matt, I saw on Twitter, there's an old video of Gilbert Arenas talking about gambling with Damon Jones. And of course, Gilbert Arinas was arrested a couple of months ago. Yeah. And also, there's this poker forum that he used to. to go on to a lot back in the day called

2 plus 2, so I went on here. They have a video of a professional poker player talking about Chanty Billups and running these games since 2019. And how this guy who's on this podcast, he's a professional poker player is like, yeah, I

stayed away from that game. People were trying to convince me to play the game, but he didn't want to play in it because he had suspicions that it was rigged. So apparently in poker circles, this has been circulating for a while that Choncy Billups is part of a rigged game. And yes, he is the draw. Like, hey, you can come play with Chauncey Billis, man.

We got high stakes. We've got, you know, food, blah, blah, anything you want. We'll take care of you. Come playing our games. But obviously, he, Chauncey and his poker games didn't hide the fact he was Chauncey Billups. My guess is if you want to play in high-end games,

you're going to play with some fellow high-end game guys. And you're not going to let the public know that you do these type of things. When he's out of playing these games and his name is being brought up, because people want to brag about it. You wouldn't get. That was part of the charm of this, was that he got to brag. People, these guys were playing these games.

We're bragging about Chauncey Bill was being at my game. Yeah. So the victims thought they were playing in straight illegal games. Straight illegal games. Yeah, exactly. Illegal games on the appended. Not rigged. Right, right, right.

These were rigged. The defendants and their co-conspirators, they played together and worked together in teams, apparently. They sat at the table and were all reading the cards and then using, Advanced wireless technologies to read the cards dealt in each hand and pass that information to each other.

It's a bad. IBSS near. Maybe. No, you don't know. You don't know if you got like, I don't know what you have come, some kind of signal or.

But Jonathan, they probably had definitely in conversations. They were like, hey, hand movements. You scratch your nose if he's strong or something. I don't know. This is wild. This is,

yeah, like we said, this is like out of a movie. Oh, apparently this, they have pictures of a... Yeah, so the FBI had players sitting in these games. This sounds like they're cod red-handed. That's what it sounds like. And the FBI guys were like, oh, golly G, shucks. I got to...

I lost $1.8 million, but I got to play with the Hall of Famer. They have pictures of the games, pictures of the X-ray table. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, you can see pictures of the X-rayed cards. Holy smokes. Yeah, they're dead. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You're supposed to They're caught right-handed. But like I said, this sounds like a three-year investigation.

When you're going after mafia families, you're going after rich athletes in one of the most powerful organizations. Forgetting that sports. The NBA is a multi-billion dollar operation. And you're going against two members of their fraternity. You better have your act together. You can't slip up on this, in my mind. Wild. Okay, the New York Post has a list of the 31 people.

You already their names? It's a bunch of guys we wouldn't necessarily. Any of the last names that would be, let's just say, specific to the families? Julius Zilliani. Zilliani. Interesting. I'm trying to see if I recognize. Damon Jones, of course.

Johnsey Billups mentioned. Some professional poker players. Sal Becher, I don't know him. Lee Fama, I don't know him. So they got pros in there too, huh? They have poker players. And tell me if I'm wrong on this before we go to the phones. Everybody at the table except the ones that were being fleeced knew about this, correct?

There were several players at the table that knew what was going on. There were several. Right. There's a teams of players. They would all sit at the table, work with each other, and then extract money from the fish. That's what they called them. Let's go to Charles in Missouri City. Hi, Charles.

What's happening, guys? Hi. First of all, I feel bad for Chauncey. I know that sounds crazy, but his, my college roommate, Chauncey is married to my college roommate's sister. So I feel bad for his family, sad for his family. That's not a good thing. But I called about Stroud.

I feel like you guys are a kind of apologist, and I want him to be good. But he's had two different incarnations of a line. and he looks like he doesn't know what he's doing out there. I think after the first year we had film or teams had film on him and they knew his tendency. The dude you see is a dude you see. He's not going to magically turn into somebody else.

A, they know he's scared to run. He runs some, but that means all you got to do is stay with Nico Collins and then he loses it. He doesn't know. And man, I hate to be this way, but dude cried, man. come on. Well, that's funny. Charles, I don't mind him crying.

I'm okay with that. I can live with that. I can, I'm going to try to continue. I understand. I'm going to try to continue giving the benefit of the doubt as long as I can. But here's what I brought up on the show yesterday. He asked for Bobby Sloke to lose his job. I'm firmly convinced of that.

So if you're going to tell me that C.J. Stroud has to go through another offensive. or coordinator that he doesn't jive with, that's unacceptable to me. That means you've got to start bearing some more of the responsibility. So trust me when I tell you this, if you're not a big C.J. Strail guy, you're not going to have to wait much longer to have people jump on your bandwagon

if the struggles continue. All right, I see Justin Fields. I wouldn't say that. What? I would not say that. I could see more Gino. Oh, right. That's enough, Charles.

Charles. Charles. Come on. I see more Gino Smith. How about that? Would Gino Smith be fair? You're wrong. Yes, you're wrong. No, Gino Smith made it a while.

Let's see if he makes it as long as Gino Smith. Gino Smith did make it a while. He also failed for several years in different places. He's also terrible in Las Vegas right now, but that's a different story. I mean, this is just different stories here. C.J. Stroud can still, he can still make some wow throws. Even in that game against Seattle, there's a couple throws where he's falling, he's under duress, and he's having perfect ball placement.

He can still do that. But it certainly hasn't been consistent. enough. I mean, Nico Collins left that game. It was basically the Dalton Schultz play action past game. He had like 15 catches, it felt like it was like nine catches. And what troubles me is that Dalton Schultz will now be

the focus of the Giants' defense this week. If they don't pay more attention to him that Seattle, frankly, did not, then shame on the Niners. And I don't want to sit here and say that CJ's not part of the problem. He is certainly part of the problem. Because I think it

can be too easy as a fan base, this happened with David Carr. I mean, this happened with, I don't even know, any other number of quarterbacks where you're like, well, he's got no protection and he's got no weapons. And that's true. But there are other quarterbacks who can make it work with no protection and or no weapons.

So he's got to be better. He's got the 29th offensive line in football. Unfortunately, Nico Collins is out. Who's his number one target this weekend? Dalton Schultz, who last year we were all saying is washed. Right. And then it's some guys who, I mean, Jalen Knoll's been making a couple plays here and there. You're seeing some things from, I mean, Xavier Hutchinson's just a guy.

Let me tell you who makes it happen. Now, injuries have hurt him. But Joe Burrell makes it happen when he's on the field. Yes, well, he's also got Jamar Chase T. Higgins and whatever else is as far as weapons. Yeah. I think you think things would be going better if Jamar Chase and T. Higgins were here as well. So it's, it can be done to an extent, but he's not getting any help from a lot. his friends. All right, quick timeout. We'll go to the

Rotten 5. Scott, Michael, Steve Willow. Those of you four on the line, if you don't go anywhere, you're going to get your airtime on the Matt Thomas show, Ross. Unlike Frankor. 713-212-5-7-9. They've gone back. Hey, they draw flies.

Ooh, it's Ross's Rotten 5. This don't smell quite right. It takes absolutely no ability. over to give you the five best teams, the National Football League. It takes somebody of I mean, I wouldn't say a simpleton mind, but because it's not, because you're complex. You give a great analysis.

You're thoughtful. Good, nice save, Matt. I present to your sports reviews, Rotten 5. All right, let's start it with a team who has been in the Rotten 5 quite a bit, but not much this year. They are back into number 5 after a 31

to nothing lost to hands of the Kansas City Chiefs. I mean, Andy Reid pulling full mercy rule on Pete Carroll and the Raiders, kneeling down the ball with over at before the two minute warning. I don't know if I've ever seen that in NFL history. They have the 28th offensive line in football. Ashen Gentie hasn't been great since his breakout season, or excuse me, since his breakout game.

Gino Smith overall seven touchdowns, 10 interceptions, 30th in the NFL in total QBR. The Raiders are an. absolute mess. They are the fifth worst team in the NFL. Thank you, riders. All right, moving on to the New Orleans States, they continue to lose after this 26 to 14 loss to the

Chicago Bears. They are just 1 and 6 on the season. They've also got some tough games coming up against the Buccaneers and Rams in the next couple of weeks. They just have not been able to get anything going offensively. Speaking of bad quarterbacks, Spencer Rattler actually hasn't been as far as touchdown interception ratio as bad as Gino Smith and others,

but just hasn't been able to get it to done. Alvin Camara averaging just 3.6 yards per carry. Saints are bad. They're the fourth worst team in the NFL. Believe it, yeah. Got a sec the head up the crawfish there. Thank you, Chris Gordy, for that all time sound bite. All right, moving along.

You know, it feels like in any other year, we would be putting the Miami Dolphins as the absolute worst team in the NFL. But there are some stinkers this year in the league. The Miami Dolphins, how about going to the Cleveland Browns and losing 31 to 6 to a tongue of Aloha, no touchdowns, three interceptions, getting called out by his coach, getting replaced for Quinn freaking Ewers in that game, and getting out played by Dylan Gabriel. Duffin's defense was also supposed to be good in the offseason. that hasn't come to fruition.

It had a lot of close losses, so it was easy to kind of just shuffle them under the rug. But 31 to 6 at the Browns, that is awful. The Browns were on the route in five last week. They stink, but so do the Dolphins. They're the third worst team in the NFL. All right, moving along, as I mentioned, it's just going to keep getting worse and worse.

I mean, the Tennessee Titans, honestly, they got that gift victory against the Cardinals. They had no business winning that game. They continue to lose. The latest loss coming against it. New England Patriots, they actually got up 10 to 3 in the first quarter of this game. Ended up losing 31 to 13.

You're seeing some signs of life from Cam Ward as he goes along, but it hasn't been consistent enough. Nothing going on the run game. Titans worse in the NFL in terms of yards for play. My music was lost. We can get it back at some point. That's okay. Jonathan, I don't know if he's paying attention, but that's all right.

Music is cool. When are you get a second? Anyways, the Titans, the second worst team in the NFL. There it goes. We're keeping a bulk right now. We ask. Yes, you are, Cam Ward. You guys are terrible.

And, well, there's only one 0-1-7 team in the NFL. So there's got to be this team at the bottom of the barrel. The New York Jets. I mean, they have scored 17 points in the last two weeks. Okay, against the Broncos. They got a pretty good defense. But that's at home. And only six points against the Panthers.

I mean, come on, guys. What's going on? Justin Fields has been an abject failure. He's getting called out for his play. by the owner Woody Johnson. Aaron Glenn keeping it close to the vest. Oh, guys, who am I going to start this week? Is it going to be Justin Fields or Terrad Taylor?

I don't think that the Bengals are that concerned who the starting quarterback is going to be because you're not going to be very good. The best player for the Jets all season long has been their punter. It's a disaster. They're 0.7. They are the worst team in the NFL. They can't stop a nose bleed.

And that's your right in five. excellent work as always Thank you Matt I don't want the Saints to ever lay the rotten five Because I mean we would never have We would never hear from Chris Cordia ever again Yeah you know what? Just play this one more time

Believe it shall God suck the head up the crawfish there We need to have him come in one day And just do a bunch of phrases That we can just rotate Yeah Yeah Okay

Like when I'm in New Orleans He needs to do a custom introduction for the show It's a bad time in show Hey baby I'm from a friend quarter now baby I still want to do the show from a blackjack table. They won't let me, but I'm still aspiring for that thing. All right, Chauncey.

I'm not letting, I'm not letting Chauncy ruin my love for black check. Perhaps maybe, but not black check. Before the top of the hour, Michael on 790, Michael, thank you for holding in good afternoon. Hey, I think it's us. Hey, going. All right, Michael, I'm going to have, write the number down, Jonathan, because it looks like he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, hopefully not Steve. Hi, Steve. How are you doing? Amazing. Amazing. All right. So, here's my three things. Number one, leave strad alone, get a line, get a line backer that can back up the, the defensive line, because the defensive line isn't very good. And start throwing, green passes to tight ends, running backs, short passes, give him a short option on every play. Things will get better.

Trade Alvarez before he goes through another 80 game season. Oh, my God. Wait, man, hold on, hold on. Steve, Steve, who is the number one? Point guard. Who is the number one threat on the Monday night game against Seattle? Did you watch the game? Who was it?

Don't Shultz. Yes, I did. Don't Shultz. Short passing game. Tide end. Just what you're speaking of. Who caught the touchdown pass in the fourth quarter? What he marks?

okay but hang on the colts in Indiana been down here for 17 years okay Colts ran two tight ends they got to start mixing the thing up and and they're not

they're two ink they're two pigeonhole they have very narrow vision that's my thoughts okay and trade yord on he said uh no you're not training yordawn

sorry no no i'm not saying go out and trade him right now, but if he goes through another 80 game plus injury, you've got to start thinking about that. Okay, so let's say that happens, Steve. Why would any

team want to trade for a guy that only plays a half a season? Using your thoughts. Get a couple draft choices. You can't trade for, okay, this is not working out well for you. I mean, come on. Come on, you can trade. International player. Yeah, for the

I think the compensatory ones you can trade now. No, no, no, no, no. Come on, gang. But yeah. And remember, if he's not good for you anymore, why are you going to get a haul and back for him? If he's healthy, he's on the best contract in baseball, basically. He's making $26 million for the next three years, age 29, 30, 31. By the way, 19 hours ago, Nicole Arbock, who is the NBC sports football and basketball insider, She's a reporter.

I'm not looking at the 4U tab. She just put this out at 554 yesterday. Now official, college athletes and school staff can bet on pro sports beginning on November the 1st. All three divisions have voted to approve the change for the NCAA. Hmm. Good for them. If y'all won't bet, just don't be involved in sports. I can't, I mean, I cannot as an NBA employee bet on the NBA.

And frankly, I'm no interest in it because I first fall to get in trouble. Number two, I'm too close to it. I'd be maybe making bets on teams that I don't want to win because it would affect the stand I ain't touching it I bet on football once in a while I don't bet on any sort of online anything

but I bet you know when we're with a book when we're like Charles when it's fully legal and I'm not betting on football I'm welcome to anything else I want but you're not betting on Terry Rosier player props are you?

That I'm not okay short of one o'clock here on Sports Talk 790 come on in and join us 713-212-5-790 Willie Fritz to join us coming up and a half an hour from now. Believe it or not, do I like these fast foods at restaurants? 713-212-5-790. That's 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Hey, gang, it's 105 on Sports Talk 790. Good morning. Good afternoon to you. MBA releasing a statement

about an hour ago saying, quote, we're in the process of reviewing the federal indictments announced today. Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups are being placed on immediately from their teams. We will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities. We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority. Okay. If I'm the NBA, I mean, I'll answer the questions, but I'm not doing anymore. I mean, they've already investigated Malik Beasley and found nothing.

Now, the attorney for Terry Rozier says the NBA did their investigation with Terry Rozier and found nothing. Now, how deep do these investigations go? Is it what the NBA wants to see or wants to hear? Do they turn a blind eye? I don't think they turn blind eyes. What I do also believe, they're not going to be narrow as thorough as a three-year FBI investigation, don't you think? Probably not. They're not setting up stings.

You know you copy off somebody's paper? Just change it a little bit. Get the FBI investigation and change a few words. It's like going. and getting the silver package, the gold package or the premium package, and you're like, I'll take the silver. Just do some investigating a little bit, but don't go deep into it. You can work in collaboration.

Yeah. But let me tell you something. The FBI calls you, NBA? Yes, whatever you want to know. Because you don't want Terry Rozier or Chauncey Billups to destroy this league's credibility. No. This is crazy. This will be as crazy of a story

that is just being talked about really for the first time. Now, there were some thoughts of Malik Beasley, who's kind of a journeyman guard on the NBA, but he doesn't necessarily move the needle. I don't think Terry Rozier moves the needle so much, but an active head coach involved in an illegal poker scam basically to try to swindle money from people. Yeah.

Illegally with mafia families, you throw the four mafia families in a mix. That's an even a deeper dive into what exactly is going on and how much point shaving is there and how much price in game fixing is there. Now, Chauncey is not accused of that, but wouldn't you want to ask some questions? How deep do these mafia families go

in attracting people that have NBA connections to their illegal poker action? Yeah, I wonder if we somehow ever get a list of names. Because why wouldn't Chonsie call Buddy his saying come join this? Unless he wanted to be so secretive

about this scheme that he was running. Yeah, this New York Post article has the shuffling machines and the tables. This is crazy. I want to know what the contact lenses are. Those have got to be some magical things. Yeah, so obviously they were doing different games

and cheating in different ways. I don't think they had all three of these set up at one game. I guess to make sure we really cheat them, guys. Yeah, when there are, when there are lights going on everywhere and buzzers and everything. Not trying to attach buzzers and cheating, but you know what I said. Oh, Matt, come on now. Oh, you know what I meant.

I think you did. Who's wearing a buzzer? Nobody. 713-212-790. If you want to chime in, 7-1-3-212-5-790. We have Woolley Fritz coming up at the bottom of the hour. We've got, believe it or not, today, do I like this fast food from particular restaurant? 7-1-3-212-750. Scott is with us at 109 on 790.

Scott, good afternoon to you. What's going on, guys? I wasn't planning on calling in today because I didn't think there'd be too much sports topics to go over, but I actually, other than Houston sports, I'm a pretty big poker, or poker is a huge hobby of mine.

I play all the time. So when I first was on the way to work this morning and saw that Chanty got arrested for this, I mean, my initial reaction was that he just, you know, the FBI was trying to make a big deal of an underground game and used him as an example, but then when I watched the press conference and saw that he was rigging games with the mafia, but I got really, it kind of pissed me off, to be honest with you, because

I mean, I understand if this is a high-stakes thing that I think was happening in New York and all over the places, but poker is a game that I feel like has done a really good job and worked really hard to kind of break some of the bad, you know, stereotypes that it's had, really, you know, Ross, I don't, I feel like I've heard you say, you play poker, every once in a while. I played a bunch... I played a bunch online back in the poker boom and played poker stars and full tilt

and then my poker rooms and stuff like that. I don't play much these days. Yeah. Have you ever been... I mean, Houston specifically, I mean, not that there's anything going on here, but there's a lot of really great establishments in Houston. Yeah, I don't like how much they charge for the... I don't like how much they charge to get in the seats and all that

for somebody who doesn't play all the time. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's true. I mean, but I go there quite a bit. I mean, these games are small potatoes compared to what they were doing there. But, you know, it's really, this is just a disappointing story for the poker community because as someone who plays a lot, I have to convince people who don't know much about the game that it's really, you know, a great way to keep the competitive spirits about you as you get older.

It's a great way to socialize with people who play with your friends, obviously, if you're doing it responsibly. But the other thing I wanted to comment, I've been listening to the show for a little bit while I'm driving around on my lunch break, so I haven't, I've seen you comment on, like, the actual equipment that you've seen that they're using. I haven't seen that yet, but, gosh, and I'm not blaming the victims here, but I just, I have, I'm curious how good of acting and signaling was going on at these tables for these people who have to have some level of wits and intelligence about them to have that kind of money, to have no idea what's going on.

I mean, Chauncey Billis isn't a professional poker player. I can tell you that. So for him to be a mastermind signaler at the table with people who presumably know how to play, obviously it happens. But, I mean, I would be fascinated to see how exactly that went down. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some, you know, people who consider themselves professional poker players involved in running the logistics and the mechanics behind this as well, too, because that seems like a lot. Or maybe they would, you know, just keep the requiring new people to come to the games. Once you got ripped off once, you kind of maybe figure.

out what was going on and you didn't want to mess with the freaking mafia afterwards. So you kept your mouth shut. I don't know. But, yeah, a very disappointing story. That was frustrating for me to hear. Coker's a great game. Yeah, what it does is, and again, I can't speak to that world. Let me, you know what?

Let me get Scott back in the line real quick. So, Scott, you love playing poker. You love the challenge of it. You don't live and die by it. I'm assuming you don't manage your main living, correct? It is not, no. Okay. So I would think if someone gave you,

the opportunity to be involved in a game that you could fix, that you can collect, if you had any sort of backbone, any sort of cooth, if you had any morals at all, you would say, you know what, I love playing poker, I'm not getting in it to do to try to steal from people. I'm not, I don't

want to commit crimes. Get me far away from this. If Chauncey likes to play high-end poker, I don't have a problem with that. Choncy was involved in something that was allegedly criminal behavior. That's the problem. Exactly right

That's why I said when I originally heard the story this morning I originally just thought they were getting on them For having a game that wasn't You know Right And that was going to be That was what they were getting after them about And I was like God that's very petty

I mean they're even calling these In the indictment I was reading a little bit They're saying These guys these poor victims thought they were going to regular Normal illegal games Not games that were being fixed Kind of like with a wink wink That's right

These games happen And they're not that big of a deal Yeah But to go to the extra mile to rig them like this is just, that's just gross, just sickening. Because let's face it, look, if any of you play poker, I don't even know there's a threshold, but generally speaking, doesn't anything, any poker in your house considered illegal? I mean, or is it a certain number of money? It's only if it's rig.

So, yeah, if you, you and I play a game at our house and nobody, the house isn't taking any money, it's legal. As long as everything, it's kind of like Super Bowl squares. Yeah, at the office. As long as you're not putting it towards a... As long as all the money that is being played is distributed back to everyone, it is legal. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. That makes some sense then. But yeah, if Chonzie wants to play high-end games, look, I don't have a problem with that. You do you, but when you are trying to swindle money from people, and you've got it... And you know who's in the room and you know who's organizing it?

That's dangerous. Yeah. I imagine he's going to pull. I'm complete ignorance on this, but there's just no way that he's, I mean, where were these games that he was playing him? Are they in Portland, L.A., New York, did they say? I can tell you, a matter of fact, where they're from, yeah, I can say. So every game across the country that was like a private high-sex games,

hi, Chauncey Billups is here. Chosie, what are you here in L.A.? Oh, you're here in Portland? You're here in New York? Why is Chonsie always here in these games where I'm losing my ass? This is crazy. The games took place in the Hamptons, Miami. Las Vegas and Manhattan.

And Chauncey was in like all those places? The poker scheme targeted victims who were alerted or participate in rigged poker games by the chance to play alongside professional athletes. These athletes included Chauncey Billups and Damon Jones. The FBI says that the defendants used altered shuffling machines to read the cards in the deck and then relay that information to an off-site operator. He's known as the quarterback that sent the information to someone at the table. The FBI also says the defendants robbed a victim at gunpoint to acquire such rigged shuffling machine. What? The FBI has been working on this investigation for four years, with victims losing at least $7 million.

Again, all this is accusations has been proven in a court of law. But again, we're talking about an FBI team. And if you saw the press conference, and I'm sure you'll see it somewhere on your television screen today, We're talking about an FBI investigation that has gone back. Let me see if I got the exact date on this. It has reviewed thousands of hours of video evidence and executed more than two dozen search warrants. And the FBI, the betting thing on Terry Rozier goes back to a game in March of 2023. And it doesn't give me a date of when they started the poker thing.

but what I want to know is I want to know how the commissioners of the various sports are going to handle this. Do they come up with some generic blanket statement or do they really show action to say, we got to do a better job of making sure. What's the action? The action would be toning down all this gambling stuff. And I just know I would be hard pressure them to say that they're going to maybe for like a week. No, here's your problem. You go tell your television partners who you just,

they just gave me these hilarious big checks to not take money from your biggest advertising. Exactly. Let's see how that goes. Rossi, I just got an email about an hour ago that I wanted to spring on you. And it's not atypical of colleges to do this, especially for money that you've sent to that college before in the past, and they're always looking for more. I got a nice email from the athletic director at Texas A&M University, Treve Alberts.

Okay. Was it personalized? No. Okay. I don't even know if Trevor Edwards wrote this or not. It's not from him. It's from A&M Athletics. Contact at Athletics.tmU.

It's a nice letter from its, it's, it says dear Aggies. What a fantastic year we have. Fighting Texas Aggies are 7 and 0, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Coach Mike Elko. And it's going on and on and on and on. And it talks about the $20.5 million of the athletes are given by the institution to pay its athletes. That's 20.5, it'll go up every year. That's money that A&M must earmark.

for paying of athletes. How they spend it, whether it's be football, basketball, baseball, that's their choosing. Okay? Well, they've created a new group

called Aggie NIL. And they want me to help them with that. Good. Yeah. Get in there. So they've given me a variety of ways I can help.

I can partner with Playfly Max, which is the new marketing group. That basically means they can be the middle man between the athlete, my company, and Playfly,

who will broker the deal. They'll serve as agents to pay these athletes' NIL deals. Okay, number two, I can go to various NIL events and pay for that. Want to meet some players? Yes.

You want to get some autographs, get some pictures, come have a $1,000 barbecue plate. How much? I mean, whatever. I'm starting up there. Number three, I can become a member of Texags.

The website? Yeah. They're partnered with the university? Join now to enjoy. exclusive student athlete content. Oh, wow. Like interviews or what? I guess.

If I need to know more about Aggies, I can go to text Agis and get paid. Now, as Billy Lucci can have checked? Cousin' Cuthers check. Yeah, I'm wondering. How does that work? Poor Lucci can lose some money on this. I can purchase NIL merchandise

and product. I can purchase it through the Fanatics NIL shop. I can purchase it through an athlete's thread. Or I can do it on trading cards. You ever bought it? You ever bought a trading card of a college athlete? Well, you can now. I think I got a Sam Cassell, Florida State somewhere.

That's nice. And then lastly, they want you to follow their student athletes on social media. The larger following they have, the more valuable many of the third party NIA deals will be. That seems like the free way to do it. So Marcel Reed, if you got an NILA, if you have a social media account, I'm going to go follow you. Get you some more money. Great. You've got to help, Matt.

So just to show you how things have changed, obviously, in sports, and I don't want to get with this to Willie, because we're going to talk about the sports itself, but you used to get these emails saying, hey, we're looking for a college of business to help. Hey, we're looking to build a better football facility, or we're looking to improve our weight room, or we're looking to add seats to our stadium, or we want to have build, build, build, build, you know, always be on the imp-proof. Today's athletic director has to write the, we need to directly get these guys paid. Yes, to keep up with everyone else. And again, nothing giving you earth-shattering. I'm sure every athletic director in a major school in this country is doing. I'm sure Eddie Nunez has to write this letter eventually to the Cougar fans as well. But it's just, it's kind of struck me funny that we're like, let's be very clear.

The way we're going to maintain being 7 and 0, the way we're going to maintain having a top 40 basketball program and a top 10-15 baseball program is we're going to need to make sure we get them paid. And they're giving you the ways to do it. Yeah. He says, thank you for your continued loyalty. generosity and belief in Texas name athletics. Gigum, Trev. He said Treve-Overs. He didn't call him Trev.

Oh, he didn't say Treve-Trev? No, he didn't. How do you think Nebraska fan feels about this? That's where he was 80 before, and he went to out. He played his college football at Nebraska. This is just, I think we just, we, in years ago, needed to start thinking this more about as professional sports, and now it's even more. Yeah.

I just thought, it kind of struck me funny. That's the kind of emails we're getting now from these generic A&M fan bases and schools. S of A, we call on, hey, we like to have electricity in our stadium. It's important for us. They're off the band now. They have money. Okay, we had a president that was...

We believe that air conditioning in our basketball arena is important. Oh. He was taking money away from the school, okay? They're doing well. You've each cut him a check. We did get you check for that asking. See? See?

See? Exactly. It's a win-win. All right. Speaking of asking, our friend Willie Fritz's team kicks some over the week. We'll talk with him next. 713-212-5-7-90. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. 133 on the Matt Thomas show at Ross.

Houston Cougars knocking off Arizona to secure a 6-1 start of the season. A bowl eligibility, that's awesome news for the head coach of the Houston Cougars. Willie Fritz joining us, and he's courtesy of our friends of the joint chiropractic, the official chiropractor of the Houston Cougars. First of all, Willie, I love the shirt you wore at the post-game get-to-go. bowlbound is cool but it felt like the kids to a man after the game said they've got more to accomplishes it since you got from the guys after the win on Saturday? You bet you that's you know that's always one of your goals you know that playing a bowl game I've played in a bunch of them I've been lucky fortunate to do that and they're all good ones every single one of them but yeah there's a lot of a lot of other things to accomplish this season and I just wanted to make sure we we put it out there and let the kids know about it obviously other people

we're going to talk to him about and tell them that we are bowl eligible. And there are very many teams in the country that are bowl eligible right now. So we're proud of that, but we sure do want to accomplish a lot more than that. You know, Willie, there's so many folks that will criticize final two minutes, use of timeouts, even the best coaches in the country. I thought what your squad did in the execution in the final two against Arizona was perfection. How much do you work on that? And even if you do a lot during the course of the week, is there just something that that?

something different about having to try to run a two-minute in a game and a tight game as compared to doing it on a rando practice day? Well, you know, we just did it practice this morning. We did a little bit of a game situation. I agree with 37 seconds. We had the ball in the minus 48. One time out on each side. We do a lot of it sometimes with seven-on-seven where we just use the linebackers, the defensive backs, the wide receivers, tight-ins, running backs, quarterbacks. you know, we have guys

that play the part of officials, and you know, we have it up on the stadium scoreboard. So you work on it a ton. But, you know, that one was a little different because you went, you know, kind of from a four-minute situation where you're trying to run the clock into a two-minute situation. And that's why it's so valuable to

be able to save your timeouts. We had to blow one earlier that half, you know, and you always want to have three if it if possible. But we had two of, them. We had plenty of time on the drive. I thought Coach Nagel did a good job of tempo going slow and then had to go a little bit faster at times there at the end. We had some timeouts in our back

pocket to be able to kind of get the clock down to where we wanted it. It was either going to be a make and we win or, you know, they don't have an opportunity to answer less overtime. So kids did a good job. They kept their composure and, you know, they're Everybody did a very nice job with it. Do you talk to kickers in your life when plays like that come up where they got to go win it or do you try to leave them alone? I really pretty much leave them alone. We do a whole bunch of it during practice. We do what we call a clock field goal.

You know, we did that on Tuesday where we get done with stretch. We all get together and boom, we just go tack the ball. We'll do it tomorrow during our script. We'll do what we call a whistle field goal. or if officials are looking at a replay, we can actually snap the ball on the whistle and kick the ball. And then we've got some other times. I'll have guys standing around the kicker and kind of egg them all a little bit,

put a little pressure on him and stuff. And, you know, our guy really, you know, does a super job of not worrying about any of that stuff. Ethan Sanchez, and, you know, he's done a good job. He's had two-game winners for so far this season. I've asked you this before in the past, but it's worthy again because Ethan has been such a big part of his team Are you, I don't know, what scholarship situations are, and you've obviously got some money that now schools can pay.

But the kicker role to me, with so many kickers making such a big difference, not only making kicks, Willie, but kicking them of 50, 55 yards that maybe 10 or 15 years ago when you weren't trying. Are we seeing collectively coaches putting more of a priority in recruiting in that particular position? Well, we always have. I've always had, you know, a kicker, snapper, and a putter on. scholarship. One time I was one of the few guys who did that. They'd always try to get people trying to get walk-ons to come in and do that. But we want to have a quality person because they can help you win games. You know, the snapper, Jacob Garza is our snapper.

It is an excellent job. You know, on that particular play, you have to have an accurate snap. You got to have great protection with the guards, the tackles, the tight ends, the wings. And then Jake Sock is our holder. and he does a super job holding. And, you know, if you've got a good snap, you got a good hold, you know, now the kicker's got an opportunity to have a great kick. So it's the whole operation, but obviously everything is kind of like I talk about with

quarterbacks, right? You know, when things are going good, quarterback gets too much credit. When things aren't going so good, they get too much play. Same thing with the kicker in those situations. There's an operation that's got to be smooth, and all those guys do a fabulous job. I know Boogie Johnson's injury status is not what you want to report or have talked about this week, but collectively as a group, how is that room depth-wise? And how do you feel right now at the midway point of this season in terms of your overall depth on both offense and defense?

Well, Stefan Johnson's had a great career here. Hopefully we'll be able to get him to keep playing here at the University of Houston, Bogey Johnson, obviously. You know, Boe, we've got a little bit of depth there, and we need it. You know, Harvey Bursar has come on over the last couple weeks. from Arie Thomas is playing extremely well. Kobe Young, doing a good job, McCaimews. You know, Jakee Martin, true freshman,

that's playing a bunch for us. You know, we've had the ability to throw the ball in the backs. Coming out of the back field, we've got some good tight ends. You know, Tanner's played extremely well for us and Treville Frederick. And, you know, so we've,

you know, it's one of the things. This is a tough, you know, sport. I was excited about it, is that we had more depth than certainly what we had last season. Lastly, Willie, it was nice to get the game over with at a good amount of time. We got to go home and watch the Arizona State game. Let's talk a little bit about Sam Levitt. First of all, great quarterback.

He's been there a couple of years. Some fourth down throws he made late in that game, helping them pull off the win last week. You're going from one great quarterback in Fafita, another one here, this time on the road in Tempe. Yeah, he's a really, really good quarterback. He's a little similar to the kid last week. You know, he's a bigger guy, obviously, but really strong. I can make all the throws.

And, you know, he is going to run downhill. He's got to go up with the intention of tackling him because sometimes he'll try to lower the shoulder, run you over, and he's great in the pocket extending place. So, you know, he's one of the top quarterbacks in America. So we've got to do a good job of trying to limit his effectiveness. Thanks for the time, as always. congratulations. It's so fun to see the big victory the way things turned out. And we'll surprise some folks in Tempe this weekend. What do you say?

Sounds great. Go cooops. Thank you. Well, I appreciate it. Willie Fritz joining us here on Sports Talk 790. Back to play, believe it or not in a minute. Ross, I'm not going to let you help because you and I have had a lot of meals together over the years. I agree. I have to recuse myself. You have to recuse yourself. The category today is, do I like this fast food item? And nobody knows the answer except me. And you to a certain extent. Another interesting nugget from this indictment. We got time. Let's do it real quick. Is it breaking news or just adding a nugget to it?

There is an unnamed co-conspirator that has to be Chauncey Billups talking about involving with point shaving. It says an NBA player from 97 and 2014 and a coach since 2021, that's Chauncey Billups, talking about pulling players, telling inside information that the team was tanking and they weren't going to try to win. And then from this box score, some of Chaunty Billups, checked out some of his best players in that game. So it looks like Chauncey Billis is throwing games too. He's named in the indictment as co-conspirator 8,

so that's why we haven't named him in the match-fixing stuff yet. But somebody's digging, you know, everybody's digging through all these documents now, and it looks like Chauncey Billups is throwing games as a coach. During, like, Damien Lillard's time over there, too? No, no, no, no, it doesn't really matter when it was. I'm just curious. No, he wasn't, he, uh, it was Terry Stod's. It was when they were basically when they were tanking.

Uh-oh. Tomorrow, we have just found out that Frank Gore is going to reschedule for tomorrow. Fingers crossed, 11 o'clock. Central time? Maybe he's got a time zone mix up. You feeling better now I'm out? You didn't flag on you? I mean, I want to love on the guy because he's one of my favorite running backs of all time.

Not my favorite, but he's one of my favorites. Yeah. He's great. What was I going to tell you? Oh, we're also going to have, going to check in in San Francisco tomorrow. Looking forward to that. Okay. with doing her me to read you more of this co-conspirator 8.

Yeah, please. With Chauncey Billups, apparently prior to their game against the Chicago Bulls, which people, gamblers have actually looked at. This is actually not new news. There are people who were sports gamblers who thought this game was suspicious years ago when it happened. That prior to the game against the Bulls,

there were 10 games remaining in the season. They were out of playoff contention. The co-conspirator 8, who I mentioned, they say as a coach and a former player, it's basically Chansy Billups, that the Trailblazers were going to be tanking to increase their odds of getting a better draft pick. Co-conspirator 8, that being Chonsie Billups,

told Ernest, that's one of the defendants, that several of their best players would not be playing in the game. The information of the Trailblazers would be tanking and not playing Player 1, that's they don't name the player, not available to the public. Then this person, Ernest, provided this information

to a gambler. Gambler paid, Chonzie Billups's friend or whoever, $5,000 for this information. Like, this is bad. This is real bad. This is every bit as bad as Tim Donahy. Yeah, this is from the, this is from Terry Rosier indictment, which doesn't mean charges are filed.

Does it necessarily mean that it's confirmed findings or anything like that? But it's in the documents. 5,000 is kind of low, no? I think he ended up. said they found wires of up to 20,000, so I don't know. But yeah. Crazy. And I found, I have audio. We don't have to, we don't have time to play it. But there is a, there is a professional poker player. His name is Matt Berkey talking about in

2003. You know this guy before today? Yes. Okay. He's a multi-millionaire. He's been involved in these big, remember I was telling you about the big heads-up matches? He's been involved involved in some of these big heads-up matches. He's been on a podcast, 2003, talking about Rig Chonzi Billups games. where everybody, everybody was suspicious that they were getting cheated. So this has been happening since in

at least 2019. The game was in L.A., he said, then it moved to Vegas for a few days. He got invited to the game. He turned down the invitation because he was suspicious. And his friend had told him basically, oh, games, that's all good.

It's on the up and up. And some people that he knew got basically got robbed out of that game, but what are you going to do? You're going to go after a bunch of mobsters? So they just... Oh, God, no. I'm just happy to be here.

They got cheated. They knew they got cheated and they just don't have any recourse. What are you going to go to the FBI and say, hey, I was playing in this million-dollar illegal game. And then you're stuck in cement, literally. Exactly. So some friends that he knew got beaten out of the game. Flaid was the word he used. They got flayed out of the game.

Because they were fish. Hey, oh. Hey, I wonder if that's one of the questions on today's edition of Belief it or not. Yeah. Time for us to play America's fastest growing sports radio game show. we simply call it B, believe it or not, and here's how it works. You will call 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790.

Today's edition of Believe or not is, do I like these fast food items? If I do, you'll say this. Believe it. If I don't, you'll say this. You have to get three in a row correct. And if you do, you're going to see either Judas Priest in concert with Alice Cooper, or you're going to see the double-header exhibition game of the Fort Bend County EpiCenter this weekend. We've been talking about FBepicenter.com for information on that.

Ticketmaster.com for the chance to see Alice Cooper and company with Judas Priest at the Cynthia Woods this weekend. This weekend of events. If you want to play, come on in and be a part of the game. Do I like this fast food or not? 713-212-5-790. Let's go to Laurel on 790. Laurel, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Yes, sir, believe it. All right, Laurel, good luck to you. Do I like the tacos? at Jack in a Box. Believe it or not. No. Believe it.

I do. I love the tacos at Jack in a box. I'm one for one. I'm keeping count of my head. You and my girl the same. Those are gross. I love them. Okay.

After 2 a.m. allowed? Before 2 a.m. not allowed. I had it wanted 205 yesterday. A.m.? P.m. No. There was no line. I'd put it that way.

Well, you were getting in line. I haven't been going to line. and that's the show here. 713. 212.1.7.90. Corey on 790. Ready to play, believe it or not. That's Corey.

Corey, do you like the onion rings at Burger King? Believe it or not? Heck yeah, those are fancy match style. Believe it. Yes, they are. Statement number two for the win. Do I like the biscuits at Popeyes? Believe it or not.

No, you hate them. I remember you talking about it. They're hockey puck. That's exactly right. Hey, come on. If you go to a good location, and they make them right. Last one. One more you get to win here. Good luck to you.

Do I like the mac and cheese at Chick-fil-A? Believe it or not. Nope. Terrible. That's right. You win. I got one wrong now. I would have got one wrong now. I would have guessed yes on that. I'm not a big mac and cheese fan, period. So I'm not going to go eat mac and cheese at Chick-fil-A. You don't like mac and cheese? I like the mac and cheese that you get out of the box at the grocery store. That's it. What about like homemade mac and cheese?

Nope. Oh, my God. No comment. Let's move on. Matt, on 7.9. Ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Do I like the cream cheese rangoons at Panda Express?

Believe it or not? That's correct. Statement number one, two for the win. Do I like the Barbacoa burritos at Chipotle? Believe it or not. Believe it. No, I don't like Barbercoa. Come on.

You can't listen to the show. You cannot be Mr. Texas and not like barbacoa. Gary on 790. Gary, what was your fair part of today's? radio show. All of it. All right. Do I like the spicy potato tacos at Taco Bell?

Believe it or not? Yeah. I do. Believe it. I like everything at Taco Bell. I've gotten too wrong so far. Statement number two for the way, not for the win. Statement number two.

Do I like the coleslaw at Cains? Believe it or not? Believe it. That's right. Believe it. Wow. Statement I like the wrong stuff. Sorry.

Statement number three for the win. I like the first. fish sandwiches at Arby's, believe it or not? Not. I do. You like a fish sandwich? I like any fish sandwich. It's so weird.

We've got to get this fixed out, man. What do you mean? Why do you anti-Fixen? You are so weird. Arbys, though? I love Arbys. They have the meats. Ray on 7.

Ray, you ready to play, believe it or not? Absolutely. Go Coogs. Ray, do I like the cheese enchiladas at Taco Cabana? Believe it or not? Believe it. No. He hates enchiladas. Come on, folks.

The worst candidate for Mr. Texas ever. Come on, is that everything? We need one more contest. I got two more here. Okay. I've missed three. That's too many. We've been eating too many meals together. How do you miss three? Coastlaw from Keynes? Love the Coleslaw and Keyes.

I forgot you didn't like mac and cheese. Yeah. 7-13-21, 5, 70. We need one more person. We got like literally one minute. Let me tell you about Sethi's Fine Jewelry before we get to those last contestants. Sethi's Fine Jewry has the best custom engagement rings in the Houston market. place. They have the finest custom jewelry. They have the best selection of diamonds,

whether you're talking about natural, lab grown diamonds, princess cut diamonds, emerald cut diamonds, round cup diamond rings, all an amazing price is all from Sethi's fine jewelry. S-E-T-H-I-S-Fine Jewelry.com. That's set these fine jewelry.com on VosRow between San Felipe and West Hamer. That's Sethi's Fine Jewelry. Really quick. Taylor on 7-90, ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Do I like the chili dogs at James Coding Island? Believe it or not? Believe it.

I do. Statement number two for the wind. I like the tortilla soup at Chick-fil-A. Believe it or not? Not. I love it, sadly. All right. Mr. Texas is saying goodbye.

Wex and the 80s. Mr. Texas is not here. Next on 7-90. Now.