The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - MLB Care Level, Has Morey Failed Harden & The Great Jameis Winston

Episode Date: June 9, 2020

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 12 o'clock straight up at H-town. What's happening at Lunch Timers? It is the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. Ross, Villarreal, Joe George,

Brendan Riley, with. you until 3 o'clock. The phone number, 713, 2125, 790, 1 3, 2, 125, 790 tweets to at SportsRV, at Joe George Radio and at Brendan Riley as we continue to troll along. Oh, I'm sorry, Brennan Riley underscore. Dang, you said somebody with like 17 followers stole your name. And I tried, I tried to get it.

I followed him back. I'm not kidding. I'm willing to buy it. Followed him back, as in he followed you too. I'm sorry. I followed him hoping he would follow back so I could DM him. Yeah. What was it going to be your offer to get your Twitter account back?

50 bucks? I'd pay 50 bucks. I might pay $100. Really? It's a one-time purchase. Man, I would definitely give up my Twitter account name for $100. It's a one-time purchase. I think I would do it.

Yeah, I think that's worth it. All right, that's where you can find him. Brendan Riley underscore as we continue to talk about, well, when sports are coming back in the case of Major League Baseball. NBA, of course, is already going to come back. you have NFL, they're on course. But we've been focusing, obviously, with the right reasons, a lot on Major League Baseball, and then these latest back and forth on them.

We'll hear from Brian Bogusevic, former Astro and a broadcaster for AT&T Sportsnet Southwest. He'll be with us at 1.30 to address the baseball stuff. But, I mean, as we kind of just sit back and we haven't heard a counter proposal from the counterproposal, right? No, they have until tomorrow. So the MLB owners said that they set a deadline by Wednesday. so the players have about 24 hours to respond. What does that mean? What is their response going to be, Joseph?

I feel like they're just going to say we're not negotiating again. And then they're going to send another proposal like two days later. Yeah, isn't that what basically, how many times during these negotiations have we heard I'm not responding or I'm, there will be no counterproposal? And then like 12 hours later, there's another counterproposal. I think we've heard it at least three times. I feel like as well. So you had the tweet from about an hour.

ago from Ken Rosenthal. The expanded 16 team postseason that was part of MLB's proposal yesterday did not specify a best of three opening round, though that might be the league's idea. Sources tell me in Evendrelic, the proposal asked for eight teams in each league specifics to be discussed. So this is the question I had, because we were talking about this when the NBA was discussing one and done type of playoff scenarios when they were discussing playing games and all that type stuff. I want to say that in a three-game playoff series, obviously, especially in baseball, anything can happen.

So it would kind of be cheap and a sham of a championship. But I guess we're already there anyways, right? If it's 76 games, if it's 48 games, if it's anything under 100 to me, or Matt would say anything under 80, then it's already kind of a shame of a season. So does it matter if that is almost like a carnival element to the playoffs with a three-game series?

I would say no, because I feel like once you even expand the playoffs, it just changes the whole dynamic. Like, we're used to, what, five teams making the playoffs, and now we're talking eight? Like, it's such a huge increase in teams for one season. Like, the thing with the, that the NBA is doing, they're just allowing one team to compete for the eight seed if they're within four games,

and that's based on the fact that, they're going to be canceling a certain amount of games in the regular season. So they're not really changing their playoffs. They're going to have the same seven-game series. The only difference there is there's going to be no travel and they're going to play every other day. Baseball is fundamentally changing their playoffs, just dramatically, just like hockey's doing. But baseball, it's almost more weird because they're going to play a regular season and then change it. So I think at this point, like it is what it is.

I think a three-game series will be really exciting. but yeah, someone's going to get upset. I mean, someone, a one or two seed is going to lose in the first round. Yeah, that's the thing, though. I feel like it's almost less of a big deal. Like, if it's a bigger deal if you go to three-game series for the Milwaukee Bucks, who have earned their spot of the number one seed over like 60 games. 48 games.

I mean, they're talking about how, what is it, 50 games in last year, the Washington Nationals were like 19 and 31. Yeah, so I went through it yesterday. So Tim Kirkagin, I think it was, tweeted out over the weekend, the records of the teams, 48 to 50 games into the season. If you look at the standings at that point, the eight teams that would have made the playoffs at 50 games would have made the playoffs at 162 games in the American League. In the National League, it is a totally different story.

It's very few of those teams. They had the Cubs in the playoffs. They had the Phillies in the playoffs. I think it was the pirates were in the playoffs. If they were done the eight game format, 50 games into the season, none of those teams made it. And the Nationals had 19 wins. That is where it's like you have the good and the bad.

Are we going to get, can you get a realistic view of the season in 50 games? Maybe. But is it going to be accurate towards the end? Definitely not. Yeah. The accuracy in the kind of, like I said, carnival feel of it, in the circus feel of it is definitely a big.

issue. And then what really, what I'm trying to get at, the important part about this is how seriously are fans going to take this? How much interest are you going to have if there's only a 48 game season? If there are three game series in the first round of the playoffs, I mean, it's difficult to take the season seriously. It's difficult to take the fact that there is going to be a champion seriously and going to be a World Series. It's just going to seem like, it's like fake news, basically. Can I tell you guys, we already have sports where we don't accurately pick the best team. That's true.

That's the NFL and that would be the college basketball. Yeah. Well, a college football I feel like is at least a little bit better now. But yeah, it's a one and done scenario. So. In college basketball, I mean, college basketball, you win your league and then you lose in the tournament and you don't make the tournament sometimes. That's true.

Like, if you play in the American, sorry, U of H. And like you don't have a great regular season, but you win your league and then you lose in the tournament, you have a risk. of not making the March Madness tournament. Okay, so to that point, then are we going to take it seriously? Are we going to say this is the best team and we're not going to throw a slap an asterisk on the championship or anything like that? And like I said, most importantly, is there going to be the interest level? That's what I really want to know.

I don't think there will because when you look at, okay, so let's say you play the 48 game season, then you have this 18 playoff and the first round is three game series. At the same time, you're going to have the NFL, college football, you're going to be deep. into the NBA playoffs. I don't see how you can take something serious that is less than a half of the actual season. It's like a third.

Maybe less. I don't know. It's less than a third. I don't know. And then your playoffs are all changed. It's going to be weird. And of all the sports happening at one time, I think I don't think there will be the interest.

If your team's good, maybe. Like if the Astros are good, we will care. Astros fans will care. What if they start out? I mean, I guess 24 and 24 are probably good enough to make the playoffs. But I mean, if any team can start off in a slump, any team can slump for 48 games. And I guess to the point of we already have teams that aren't the best champion, I mean, that's definitely true. But the NFL playoffs have been won and done basically since their existence.

The NCAA tournament has been won and done basically since its existence. So we're kind of used to that. So logically, definitely, it's like, okay, well, we already do this otherwise. but it's just one of these things where we get set in our ways, and so it's going to feel different because we're not used to three-game series in playoffs. We're not used to 40-8 games seasons. It's going to be, it'll be almost like a culture shock. Yeah, because even on the lockout years, they don't play 48 games.

Like, I feel like they would just cancel the season. No, yeah. If in two years they're in a lockout and they're like, oh, we can get 48 games, and I feel like they would just cancel. You're like, you idiots? What's going on? You nobody wants to do that. Yeah, so obviously it's very different circumstances, but I don't, yeah, I don't think people are going to view this, the baseball season the same, even if they play 80 games at this point.

I think the negotiations have really turned people away from the sport. They're just, they're exhausted. I'm sure people are exhausted hearing us talk about it because, like, I just want these guys to play. And all it is is counter proposals. And I'm not negotiated. And I want this much money. And I want this deal. And blowing past soft deadlines.

How many soft deadlines are we going to go by now? You said the next one's on Wednesday? Well, yeah, that's a hard deadline. How hard it went... Excuse me. Is it a... Wait, there's just no way to phrase this question. You know what I'm saying.

Just answer the question. The owners... I'm not going to let you clip that, Brendan. The owners said Wednesday. To negotiate off this deal that they proposed. And what if they don't? What if the players say no? We're not negotiating off that deal.

And they're going to trigger a 48 game season? I think so. I'm thinking that's where we're going to go. I feel like that's the baseline. At the very least, we're going to have a four. Like, I feel like resolution within the next seven days, I think it's totally possible. I think it is fully on the table that maybe even by Monday show next week, we will know how long the baseball season is going to be. I think, and okay, and how long is it going to be?

If that's the case, 48 games. I think 48 games. It just seems like, they just keep getting in these spats and then they're negotiating to the public and the ugly letters that we ran through yesterday that are getting sent from both sides and talking about how everybody is ruining America and ruining baseball and the finger pointing, I think, is what makes it so difficult to get over. So it doesn't look like it's getting better anytime soon, but baseball, the owner's side does have the Trump card. They can invoke a 48 game season. The players would have to show up. Otherwise, it would be an illegal strike.

So that's what they're going to have to do. And honestly, that's what it looks like it might have to come to at this point. So we'll have to go ahead and see. All right, that's the first segment of the Matt Thomas show. If you want to get in, what is your interest level? How interested would you be? Could you gear up for a baseball season? If the Astros were going to play for 48 games and you knew when the playoffs started, it was only going to be a three game series in the first round of the playoffs. 7-13-2125-790. The Matt Thomas show with you until three. We've got Brian Bogusevic coming up. We've got baseball news. We've got football news. We've got basketball stuff to get to. A lot of things going on until 3 o'clock. So keep it right here. There's a short break. Don't go anywhere. At least now we know that losing sucks. And if anybody knows how much losing sucks, it's Matt Thomas.

I'm outstanding. This is Whitney Merciless. Back to the Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790. 1216 of the PM here on Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas Joe rolls on without Matt Thomas. Talking a lot of baseball and other things. Ross Villarreal, Joe George, Brandon Riley with you. At 7-13-212-5-7-90. So we were talking during the break, Joe. You brought up a point about the 48 game season.

Yeah. Is that, I mean, is that the most or the least? Why is that number just right for baseball? How come that's all we keep hearing from the Rob Manfred side? So this is back to June 5th from John Heyman. If Manfred does mandate short season, 48 games is the lowest number heard. Players would have to play,

provided conditions are safe, players recourse, blah, blah, blah, blah, doesn't matter. So my question is, can he implement a season that's bigger than 48 games? And I feel like he can. I think the original numbers we heard were 48 to 60 games. So if Rob Manfred can implement a season, why are we talking 48 games?

Like, what's the highest number he can go? Could Rob Manfred just say two bad owners? I know I work for you, and that's probably the problem, as they would fire him potentially if he really pissed him off? Yeah, come on, man. He's on a gravy train right now. Yeah. But like, in theory, could he just go, oh, no, we're playing 81 games.

Deal with it. Like, pay your players. But I think, I guess he could, but yeah, that would not. He's on the owner's side. And they've said the more games that they play, the more money that they're going to be losing. and maybe is 48 the fewest games they can play, I guess, and that's what they're going with?

I don't know. We have to get our hands on this March agreement and figure out why. Why could they just say like eight games? All right, boom. We're playing eight games. How do you like that? No, I mean, because no number. 48 games is you play each team in your division 12 times.

That's your season. That's what they're trying to go with, I guess. And then that's, and now I still feel like, when we're talking about, like, does it destroy the season or discredit the season, I do feel like if the Astros play every team in the ALS 12 times, you still do get a pretty clear winner at that point of who the best team is in the division. I know it's not ideal. I don't like it.

I would prefer it be 15 games versus each team, each team, and it goes to a 60 game season. Minimum, that really, to me, gives you, like, a clear, concise, best team in the division over those games. But at least, like, you're just still playing your division. You're just, that's all you're competing for. Yeah, that makes sense. And the travel is lesson for most teams, not necessarily for the Astros. All right, 713, 2,125, 790. The phone number, 713, 2, 125, 790.

How seriously would you take a 48 game season with three-game playoff series? What would your interest level be, Jim, in Missouri City on the Matt Tom show? What's up, Jim? Yeah, hey, let me preface this by saying, I'm a lifelong Astros fan, and baseball is my favorite sport. and pretty knowledgeable about the games. So bring it on. I mean, you guys are overthinking this.

Whether it's a 48, 58, 68, it doesn't matter. Bring the season on. If you've watched or tried to channel surf recently, I mean, how many reruns of Caddyshack and Top Gun and Baguoy's and Hannity and Tucker Carlson can you get? How many riots and protests clips on TV? I mean, there's nothing on TV and putting baseball in front of people is not. needed. Whatever the parameters are, they're not ideal, but we need to get baseball back for sports

fans. And if the Astros do well, I promise you the T-shirt and bandwagon fans in this city will hop on board. And then, God willing, let's say whatever, you know, whatever postseason looks like, if they were the ones to win the quote World Series this year and hoist that trophy, how butt hurt the rest of the country will be in light of all the, you know, the scandals that we've gone under. So it's another way to kind of shoot to collect the finger at the rest of the baseball fans if we were to, you know, to win a World Series with the, this shortened season.

So I say bring it on because there's just TV's terrible right now without sports. All right. Thanks a lot. Jim, appreciate you giving your perspective. And I mean, I definitely get what you're saying. And I guess that's what I'm asking for a lot of people because, I mean, us, I have to, I'm going to be watching the games. And I'm excited. And honestly, and the one thing he's right about the Astros, the 48 game season, it's huge for them. You've got two old dudes and Granky and Verlander.

You've got McCullors who was on and wasn't on. He said he was never going to be on a pitch count or an innings limit. Well, he's automatically on one now. Jose Orkitti, same thing. Like the Astros, their pitching staff benefits this so much. This is a huge positive for their rotation, a shorter season. That's true.

And I like that one, two, three, four. Verlander Grinky McCullors And if Erkidi can, I mean, obviously he was Great in the World Series. He's not going to be like that every single time, but I mean, it's going to be a benefit. Now here's, and the other thing too about what he said about, that Jim said about getting them back on TV that I think

is really interesting, you know, it's still totally feasible that the Astros and baseball will be back before the rockets. And if that's like, the NBA is not coming back until the 31st of July. Baseball could easily be back before them. If they had made, if they

make a decision on Monday next week the following Monday you're at your home ballpark for spring training two three weeks spring training you're back before basketball and that means you're the first game back in town and people will be watching your sport even if it's a shorter season so it could go the other way too if they get on television first they could still get the eyes of the beholders and we'll see I think a lot of people are going to be like Jim but Jim says a long-time baseball that's yeah I don't know I guess that's just what look, if you're listening to this station, there are chances are you're a huge sports fan.

Certainly on June 9th, when there hasn't been sports, we're almost hitting the three-month mark since there's been live sports in America. So you're listening right now. Number one, I appreciate you very much. You're amazing. Number two, you're probably a diehard sports fan. So, yeah, maybe there is a little bit of a selection bias

of what we're getting here. And we're looking for maybe what a more casual fan would get into. I think it might be a little bit more difficult because definitely what Jim is saying is similar to what I feel probably what you guys feel, right? I mean, I'm sick of watching random things on television. I'm sick. I've had enough of Jeffrey Epstein documentary is just giving me the willies. There's all these other things. Tiger King was cool for a little bit, and that was fun. But if Tiger King came out like right now, I don't even know if I'd get into it because I just want

sports back. We know that the NBA is coming back. And I work on these stations. I want to be on these pre and post game shows. I want to be involved. I want to be involved. I want to want baseball back as soon as possible. Can I tell you guys as a little bit of an outsider? I can't understand not being... The Astros window is relatively short at this point, right? Like, I can't imagine being like, ah, the season doesn't count. Like, no, like, you need every season you can get.

Like, I watched my baseball team not win in its window. You guys already got one, but, like, the time to get another is relatively short. Who is your baseball team, brother? I'm the Tigers. I'm from Detroit. And I watched them be good for a really long time and not capitalize. Have an all-time great rotation. Yeah, and not capitalized.

I just, I can't imagine saying 48 games doesn't do it for me. Like, no, give me every chance that you can give me to win a championship. Yeah, I think that's, I think a lot of Astros fans are going to be very supportive of this team and be really excited about them coming back. I wonder what the, I mean, can you get 50? Have we ever gotten to the bottom of line? Can you get 50% of the people in the Minutemate Park? I think you can. I think you're going to sell out whatever you can do for 40, for 24 home games.

I mean, all you need is one. You need one out of the maximum you can get. Yeah. Is what you're going to be able to, is what you're going to be able to get in there in Minutemate. Yeah. To me, it's, I think if people can go to games, they will go. I mean, I, at first was like, I'm probably not going to go.

I'm probably going to wait it out. I've changed my mind. And I do absolutely love what Jim was talking about and we've been talking about basically for months now. I absolutely love the idea of the huge. Houston Astros winning another championship and then people trying to slap an asterisk on it. It's so Houston. It's going to be great.

It's so Houston. The Rockets and the Astros are going to win the champion. Their respective championships this year. So people can just slap asterisk on it. Bring it. I'm okay with that. I really feel like the Rockets are going to win it this year. They're just going to...

If the Rockets win it, nobody will respect it. Nobody's going to buy it they could have won it before this. I will not care because, I mean, that was my biggest concern. and I think who was I was reading somebody's NBA article talking about how the Rockets were running out of gas. There was a story on the NBA that was like breaking down.

It was like an NBA reset. And it was a recap of every single team. And the Rockets one, I think, was probably actually the only one I read. But it talked about how they were losing that. They were running out of gas. They were. I mean, PJ Tucker wasn't able to make a three-pointer towards the stretch there because he's playing 40 minutes running all over the court. James Hardin was having

he just looked hobbled and not himself Eric Gordon was dealing with knee issues if you have them all fresh and ready and get them into shape within eight games they can play with anybody the Rockets can play with anybody and we know that and if they get hot from three look out they're absolutely

I think 15 to 1 is actually not a bad bet for the Rockets to win the NBA championship no I think so too you look at the to me it's it's the tiredness and the health of just this team like it's all those issues are the oldest team in the league All those issues are solved. I mean, they get a 20, they get a training camp.

They blew up their roster. And they get a new training camp. Like, that's a huge advantage for this Rockets team over everyone else. What are the Clipper is going to learn from their training camp? Nothing. Well, Kauai Leonard has been managing his load. No, but he's, but he was there for training camp. Like, he was there for training camps last year.

It's like, what are they going to like? He hadn't been playing with Paul George a lot. True. But anyone else. I'm still definitely afraid of the Clippers. I'm very scared of the Clippers. That's the team, as I said, I'm more scared of the Clippers and probably any other team in the entire NBA. But you know what?

Rocket's going to go ahead and win the championship. Slap an asterisk on there if you want. Same thing for the Houston Astros. We don't care. Just bring it at this point. All right. 713-2125. 790 is the phone number 7-1-3-2125.

790. Are you all in on a baseball season of any length? We'll talk about that. some audio from Darrell Maury about the way he's constructed the Rockets. He has some interesting things to say. We also got Brian Bogus-Evick coming up at 1.30. It is the Matt Thomas show till 3 o'clock. Short break here. Don't go anywhere. Hey, it's Craig Ackerman. Listen to the home of the Rockets on your smart speaker. Just ask. Hey, Google, play Sports Talk 790 on Iheart radio.

It does feel good to be a gangster. Welcome back. Do you know where this, uh, do you know where this song is from, Joe? What movie? No. Oh, he's young kids today. What about you, Brendan? Not a clue. Have you all seen office space? Oh, yeah. I don't recognize it, though. Okay. Well, this is a huge part of that movie. Come on now. It's probably because it's a it's a, it's an instrumental. It's like when you live in Austin, you have to have watch office space because it was filmed there. Mike Judge is from the area. Oh, I didn't realize it was in there. Yes, yes, indeed. Did I love Austin? Austin, it has its good things and it's, it was a lot better back when I was there. You know, once I left, it kind of

all went to hell. I'm pretty sure that's why I want to go there now because you're not there. Oh, is that right? Yeah. Yeah, it's probably a little bit safer now. Crime rate's probably a little bit lower. All right, anyways. Wait, were you a criminal in Austin? No, I was not a criminal. Unless you count underage drinking. Well, that's everywhere. Which I don't. I don't condone that. Kids, wait until you're

21. There's a reason we have laws in place or something like that. All right, anyways, Ross v. Royale, Joe, George, with you. Talking to the last segment, some about the Rockets and and their roster and how they're old. And if they come back will they win the NBA championship? Hopefully, of course, they will.

July 31st, the NBA season returns in kind. So Darrell Mori was speaking on, it was a podcast, I think, yesterday, right? And he was talking about, well, hear from him about the building of the Rockets teams, and has he done enough to help James Hardin win a championship? I don't think the media is super fair with him,

but, you know, people say that all the time, so you can take that for what it is. but I really don't. But I think part of it is he has a tight circle of people that he trusts. And with those people who he knows have his best interests at heart, and he's had a history with, you know, he's very gregarious, very open, very smart, like just this great guy. And with everyone else, he's not the opposite.

He's just reserved. He's not, you know, someone who is going to be a big media guy or things like that. So I think that hurts him a little bit, but I can tell you privately, he's like a basketball genius. He's a great quality human being. And, you know,

we've worked together for eight or nine years now, and I couldn't have a better partner to try and win a title with. And in fact, most days I wake up saying, I've let him down because I haven't gotten, and got him the right players

to win a title. So has Daryl let James Harden down? He hasn't got him. them the right players to win a title. It's complicated because I want to say yes. But

Chris Paul doesn't get hurt. They win a championship. There's no, I will go to my grave. I might even put that on my grave stone. The Rockets would have won in 2018 if Chris Paul were healthy. And in all honesty, is it Daryl's fault

that players haven't come here? Like, can we pin that on Daryl Moore? I mean, Chris Paul did want to come here. Dwight Howard did want to come here. And that's what I'm in. And that's the thing is he tried. There are so many teams and so many GMs that they don't even try. They just, they suck all the time.

And they never go after the big name. Dwight was a big name. Dwight played well here at times. Chris Paul played great here at times. Russell Westbrook has been incredible at times this first year. That's one of the complicated things about, like you said, it's complicated, about Darrell Mori's history here is you always know

there's never been a doubt in your mind that Darry was trying his best to win a championship at all times. But you could say maybe he was a little bit too aggressive, maybe he tried a little bit too hard, maybe sometimes he didn't let there be some continuity because you look over it.

Like year by year, the roster, I feel like they turn over. It's crazy. More than just about any other NBA team. It feels like every time the Rockets are playing somebody they're like, hey, there's like two or three former rockets on the other team. Because he's always shuffling around. He's always trying to change things up.

He's always trying to improve the team. He's always trying to help the team. He's trying to help James Harden. But sometimes maybe it could be helped by some continuity. But the counter argument to that would be at 2015 when they made the Western Conference finals against the Warriors. And at that point, they were missing Pat Beverly and they're missing somebody else. Maybe DeNontes Modi Unis didn't play in that series too. they're like, okay, we're going to finally have some continuity.

Kevin McHale, you're extended. Let's add Ty Lossin to this core. Everybody's going to be great. And they went 41 and 41. So it's a little bit of both, I think. I wouldn't say that Daryl Morey has failed them because, like you said, in 2018, I felt like that was, I mean, you look at that team. You had PJ Tucker and Trevor Riza and Chris Paul.

Clint Capella was a rising star at that point, or rising to the level that he would was going to rise to. And then James Harden, I mean, that was a really good team. I look at that roster and they won, what, 60, how many games are they went?

65 games or something like that? And they were number one in offense. They were top, number six in defense. Sometimes I just go to the Wikipedia page of the 2018 Rockets and I weep. And if your definition of failure is not winning a championship,

then of course you failed. I don't think that is a, a realistic standard to live by as someone in sports, whether you're a fan, player, owner, GM, it can't be championship or bust forever.

But if that's how Darrell views it as I fail because I never want a title with him, then sure. Like, he hasn't want a title yet, but he's made the moves. They haven't got it done. But,

and he's never going to publicly blame James. But part of it does fall on James Hardin, too, because he is the best basketball player on the team. Yeah, part of it's on. There's always a bland to be shared. Part of it's on coaching.

Part of it's on players. Part of it's on the general manager. Part of it's on luck. Because another thing, I mean, what if the Golden State Warriors didn't have literally one of the best dynasties in the history of sports going on while the Rockets were reaching their peak? Yeah. The Rockets have played the Warriors in these over this time, three times in the playoffs, I think. Twice in the conference finals.

Oh, four times. Twice in the conference finals, once in the first round when they were 41 and 41, and they didn't have a shot anyways. and then in the semifinals a couple of years ago when they went to six games and that's when everybody got hurt was that last year, that was last year, right? In the semis. So,

you also have just run up against a flat-out juggernaut. Yeah, exactly. You're playing one of the best teams of all time. And this is what we, it's kind of like what I was talking about when we were talking about the 2002 Sacramento Kings a couple of years ago. Like those teams were, that team was good.

That team was great. That team was deep. That team had all the right ingredients for a championship when it comes to coaching and players and all that type of stuff. They just ran into some bad luck and they ran into a really good Lakers team that had Shaq and Kobe. We've seen it for, if you look at like the history of the NBA, Ross, it's, that's what we have always.

It's Michael. And then it's the Spurs and the Lakers. And then it's LeBron. It's just one dominant team over and over again. And Darry and the Rock is just having been able to become that. team yet. Yeah, you wish they could be that team that like at least got one. Like the 2008 Celtics, they at least got one. The 2011 Mavericks with Dirk, they at least got one. Will Chamberlain going up against Bill Russell every year. He got two championships, I think, eventually, one of them

where they finally got over the hump and beat that dominant, dominant Celtics dynasty. Yeah, but if you look at like since like, you look at since like 1999, I think there's been three NBA champion teams that have not included Kobe Bryant Duane Way LeBron James or Steph Curry and that would be the Pistons

the Celtics and the Mavs like all those teams and the Raptors last year oh and then the Raptors which they I mean honestly they wouldn't have won if everybody won all those spurs teams

oh and then I meant Duncan too I forgot to include Duncan but if you include Kauai then like even even Kauai was on championship teams. Like, very few teams in the NBA win championships without certain players. It's just, it's kind of, it's the reality of a sport that dynasties happen in certain players win a lot of championships.

And right now, James Hart's not on that list. It takes a lot of factors. I mean, we talk about going through that last dance. I mean, they got pushed by the Pacers. They got pushed by the Knicks. And certain, I mean, Charles Smith got blocked four times in a row. What if he makes a basket there? I'm sorry to every, the handful of.

of Knicks fans that are listening to bring up those memories. They are these razor-thin types of edges where you either win a championship or you lose a championship. The second championship that the Heat won against the San Antonio Spurs. What if that ball doesn't get back to Ray Allen and he doesn't make that three from the corner to send it to Game 7? Remember Kauai last year? Yeah.

Kauai in the first round, game seven against the 76ers. That ball bounces in. It bounces like two times on the room and it goes in. It's incredible. We're just in this culture of where it's rings, rings, rings, rings, rings, rings. And I think that's a little bit unfair. I get it that because that's the easiest thing to judge people on. Michael Jordan's got six rings.

Yeah, but so is Scotty Pippen. And so did Phil Jackson win those with them. And then for the Forrest Grant for the first run. And then Dennis Rodman, a Hall of Famer for the second run. I mean, there are a lot of different factors to go into this. So has Darrell Mori failed James Harden? I would say no. I think for the most part he's done a really good job.

He's built contending teams. They've been, I mean, if you want to just go by win-loss record, they've been one of the best teams in basketball over the last decade. So the championship has still eluded the Houston Rockets, but hopefully that gets taken care of the ship. I'm going to say not yet. He has not yet failed James Harden. But I feel like I see it.

What if they play three more years and James Harder doesn't get a championship? Because now I do think with the contract situation, that they're in. They're in Cap Hell, actually. Exactly. And now I feel like with Eric Gordon's contract and with Russ and Hardin, the way the team is constructed now,

they don't really have the flexibility to keep making moves. Like, what are you going to do now? Trade Russell Westbrook for John Wall? That's all you can do is trade these guys for huge contracts. Yeah, well, the Chris Paul contract was supposed to be untradable.

The Ryan Anderson contract was supposed to be untradable. He gets himself into holes and he can get himself out of him as well. So I feel like to me the answer is not yet. Yeah. But maybe soon. All right.

Has Daryl Morey failed James Harded? 7132-1-2-5-7-90. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. Ross v. Joe George, Brendan Riley, with you. It is the Matt Thomas show. Without Matt Thomas, as he continues to be in Lake Charles, but we're with you until three, and we'll be right back after this short break.

This is Ricky Williams. I may have worn a wedding dress on a magazine cover, but it still looks better than any outfit Matt can put together. Let your wife dress you, man. Texas fun. Texas fight. Back to Matt Thomas on Sports Talk, 790. Matt Thomas singing Texas fight,

it really just warms my heart. So much. So you said he lost the bet. What did he, what was the waiter? So there's two UT related bets that he lost, or not UT related. There was one bet he lost when, do you remember when Roger Clemens was playing for the Sugar Land Skeeters?

Or you might have been not even, no, I do remember that. Matt was like, he's coming back to the Astros. I was like, there's no. no way in hell. They're going to sign a 50-year-old man to Kobe. I understand that's like too gimmicky. So he lost that bet and he had to paint a longhorn helmet onto his head. And then... Is there a picture of that somewhere that I can see? Yes, there is. It's on my phone somewhere. I could try to find it. It didn't look that great,

but that's okay. Did you realize... Speaking of bets, I'm so screwed. And the bet I made with Matt. Oh, I know. I put my foot in my mouth. So I made a wager with Matt. I told... I was trying to say something when you were right there. I was like, I don't know. that was a good idea. That game seven of the NBA finals will be lower rate of the Monday night football. There's just no way. So game seven of the NBA finals in 2016 to 31.2 million viewers.

Yes. Monday night football last year, week five, 13.1. Yeah. Well, I mean, this is your hope. That there's no game seven? Well, number one, there's no game seven. Number two is that it's like the Raptors and the Nuggets or something that, nobody is going to care about.

And hopefully it's like the lowest rated game seven in the history of the NBA. If it's game seven bucks Lakers, my friend, you are in trouble. Shout out ATX Hobo girl. She just tagged me in the tweet of the Longhorn album. Yes. There it is. So somebody, yes. That was at Lucky's pub.

Yeah, 2016. Is that like shaving cream on Matt's head? No, that's white paint. I had to go, do you know what? This bet, this bet ended up costing me. like 50, 60 bucks. I had to go to the university co-op, which is like the, it's like the campus thing,

but they had one over here, the campus store, but they had one in Uptown. I had to go buy all the burn-orch paint. I had to buy a burn-orange stencil, and we had to put that on his head. There was actually, I remember a hot chick put that on his head, but anyways. So he lost that fight.

And then he lost, should I just play some of this? And then so it was U of H versus Texas in the baseball regional three-game series, which I think U of H was rated higher, but they had it in Austin for whatever reason because they thought they were going to make more revenue. Okay. Because Texas baseball is, I mean,

it's one of the more storied baseball programs. And so we made a bet on that. One of us was, I was going to have to either get in the Shasta outfit. The what? The Cougar, the Cougar mascot. They were like, he was like going to procure the Shasta outfit

and I was going to have to wear it to work or something like that. And then his, I think, and then if he lost, he had to do this. Texas fight, Texas fight, and it's goodbye to A&M. Texas fight, Texas fight, and we'll put over one more win. Texas fight, Texas fight for us, Texas that we love best. Hail, hail, the gang's all here, and it's goodbye to all the rest. Orange.

Yay, white. Yeah, longhorns Fight, fight, fight, fight Texas fight I don't know this part Yeah, Texas fight Texas fight, Texas fight Yeah, Texas fight

The eyes of Texas are upon you All the live long day Good for math I appreciate that he follows through You cannot get away Texas fight Texas fight For it's Texas that we love best

Hail, hail, the gang's all here, and it's goodbye to all the rest. I can confirm to you there are alternative lyrics to much of that. The 19 and 20-year-olds in the stands that are drunk don't say, hail, hail the gang's all here, but we'll just leave that. I don't know about you guys. I didn't learn a lot about how to do radio in college, but lesson one was don't let people who can't sing. What are you talking about? Matt Thomas is a multi-time letterman in choir. He sings all the time.

Well, he didn't try. My question is how many times did he practice that before he did it all? I think zero. No, no, no, no, no, no. I know Matt Thomas better than that. You think he did in the mirror? You think he did in the mirror at home? I'm saying, if I'm going to be forced to sing the song, I'm going to know the lyrics.

So what did you guys bet on this steak dinner? State dinner. I lost a steak dinner to him, too, and it took me like a year to pay off, but I can't remember. So I'm two and one on on-air bets with Matt Thomas. But yeah. Yeah, you're my. have to take him, I mean, if you're doing steak dinner, you might have to do state country buffet or steak night at Golden Corral.

I think that'll count? If it looks like we're going to get to game seven, I'm probably going to try to find a way to double down. To hedge, double down? What do you mean? You mean double or nothing? Double or nothing. Well, you're a bet on something else.

Yeah. Because you're going to lose that bet. I know. So, I mean, even if it's, even if it's like heat, uh, heat jazz, I think even the worst possible final. Ooh, a great question. The worst possible final. Like realistic?

There's a few games left. The most possible, the worst possible realistic one is... Grizzly's Magic. Okay, yeah. But a realistically possible one. If it's realistically possible, I would say...

Raptors Nuggets. Oh, that would be rough. Because I would say the Jazz isn't really realistic with their injury. Yeah, and their team discord. They're having issues. Victor Oladipa back?

Did he come back before on this? I don't know. That's a great question. I don't even remember so long ago. The Pacers are kind of, I mean, look, the East is actually pretty deep. I mean, the heat are pretty good. The Pacers could be salty if Oladipo's back. I kind of like heat rockets.

76ers have talent. Heat Rockets would be fun. Rockets anybody. I don't care. I would really like. Rockets bucks would scare me. I mean, Lakers Celtics would be awesome just because of the history. Lakers' bucks would be fun.

I really don't want an angry, Yonis, drop, 30 a night on the Rockets in the finals. That would really not make me happy. So for lowest realistic ratings, I'm going Raptors Nugs. I don't know how realistic that is, though. Yeah, the Raptors Nuggets is. I feel like there's only three teams coming out of the West,

and maybe I'm being biased here. Okay. I think it's Lakers Clippers Rockets. Let's do it this way. The top teams you can bet on, the teams are the best odds. Yes. So go to the NBA Finals.

Okay. The Lakers, the Rockets, the Bucks and the Celtics. Okay. So out of those matchups What is the worst? What is the least sexy? Starts with the Rockets. Probably starts with the Rockets. Definitely starts with the Rockets. Rockets, Raptors?

No. I mean, uh, Celtics? Hey, that's a classic matchup. They met the 81 and the 86 finals. Yeah, because it's a rivalry, folks. There's enough beef now between Janus and James. That's going to catch some ratings. So I'd say worst ratings matchup would be Rockets.

Please, if that happens, James, don't go two for 18 from three in any of those games. Please. just for my sanity, for our sanity, for Adam Clanton's on Twitter sanity. Would you rather the Rockets get to the finals and James be awful? No. And lose? No, I'd rather them losing the first round. I'd rather them lose in the first round, then make the finals and have James Hardin just

shoot like two for 40 from three of the whole series or something. But what if Russell Westbrook is the best player and they win? And James is awful. Oh, if they win? I don't care. I don't care if PJ Tucker is dropping. 30 a night if they win. That doesn't bother me. If they lose and James Hardin is terrible, man, that would be a little bit too much to stomach. All right. Time for a break here on the Matt

Thomas show. The first hour is in the books. Two hours to go if you want to get in. 713-1-2-5-790 is the phone number 7-1-3-1-2-5-790. Some baseball perspectives. The players perspective from former Astros player and AT&T Sports Net Southwest. Broad The broadcaster Brian Bogus Havik that's coming up at 1.30 on the Matt Thomas show. We're going to take a short break here. The second hour is next. Don't go anywhere. With a message here for bronze roof.

Would you like to get your roof checked on? I know you don't want to, but sometimes you may need to. And that's why you've got to get a hold of the folks at bronze roofing. They'll do a terrific job for you, whether you have a tile roof, whether you have an asphalt, whether it's shingle, you know, whatever the kind of roof you have, the folks at bronze roofing want to help you out. Their website is bronze roofing. B-R-A-U-N-Sroofing.com. roofing.com. They've been in business for over 30 years. They are here today, here tomorrow,

and they don't sit around. They're not a flyby-9 operation because that's going to be sometimes very, very scary if you're in a position with your company that you can't trust. Their estimates are free. The inspection is for free. And if there's any problems with your roof, they'll actually give you a fair and honest assessment right on the spot. But you've got to call them first. 281-480-990 or online, bronze roofing.com. B-R-A-U-N-S Roofing, Bronze Roofing.com This is the Matt Thomas Show. 101 here on a sports talk 790, the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas.

Matt Thomas continues to be in Lake Charles. He is probably at the craps table right now. Oh, yeah. I don't know, unless he's taking it on the chin. Sometimes three days can be a little much in a gambling area. If you really take it on the chin the first day, the next two days become miserable. Is this day three of gambling for him? I think he got there Sunday.

Yeah. So I think he's supposed to be back tomorrow. But in the meantime, you have myself, Ros via Real. You also have Joe George and Brendan Riley. 713-1-2-5-790 is the phone number. 7-1-3-1-25-7-90. Talking a number of things, a little bit of a baseball. And when are they going to come back?

how much would you have interest in a 48 game season, also talking about the Rockets and basketball coming back. So, I mean, I'm getting a little sick of talking about baseball because I just want something to happen. It just becomes frustrating. It becomes a conversation. You can't really do anything about it. No, it's just the latest we have.

And the NBA always felt like there was this, the light of the tunnel was there, right? there was this like optimism that they were gonna once they could get the health stuff figured out and the the curve had been flat enough that we were going to get basketball back. I used to feel that way about baseball and now it's just I feel like I'm 100% confident baseball would be played this year. It's just we're waiting to find out when and is it going to be more than the 48 games. It's just a very different negotiation that is kind of tiresome. Yeah. And so so on the

the NBA, you had mentioned there was a tweet from Tim Bondtamps that he talked about, and this is a conversation, actually, that I've been having for the last couple of weeks, because we are all making this assumption that the next year will start in December, and then it'll be that wave for basically the foreseeable future, but apparently that might not be the case. Yeah, it looks like that's not going to be the case. So Hawks'

General Manager, this is from Tim Bontimes. Travis Schlank said on a conference call with reporters this morning that the NBA has indicated to the league's GMs that next year's schedule could be condensed in order to try to keep the league as close to its usual timeline as possible. Shlank said that could mean more back-to-backs and sets of four games and five nights for teams next season things the NBA has actively tried to move away from in recent years. So that to me indicates that, yes, this coming season will start in December,

if that can be negotiated through the PA. but the season after that they might return their normal and see that's what I was saying I've been thinking that for a long time and everybody talks about because it's always been this thought right well the NBA should start

nobody cares about the NBA until December nobody cares about them until Christmas why don't they just move it there and that makes sense but I mean I feel like these league calendars aren't on an accident it's not an accident the baseball plays during the summer it's not an accident that the NBA plays when it does

it's not an accident the NFL plays when they do. These leagues have been doing this for years and years and years. So I think it wouldn't surprise me at all if the NBA went back to their late October start or mid-October start, which is what they're doing these days. Yeah, and honestly, I think it's part of it too is, I think the TV stuff is more complicated than we realize. Yes. Like, you have to, if the Rockets moved back their season and the NBA did to December, December, 20, first you know how complicated our lives would be and AT&T sports like life would be as tv and radio partners of both the rockets and the astros and that is something that is a common occurrence

everywhere so i think that's another reason why like do you really want these sports going to head to head when so many markets their tv and radio partners are the same i would say no and i know that sounds like a weird like to the average person they're like well why does that matter it matters because you want the most eyes on your product at all time. And if you're having to share TV networks and share radio partners in the thick of your sport, that's not helpful to anyone. Where if you spread it out like this, there's not much crossover. Like it benefits there to be less crossover between those two sports, specifically because

they're competing, like I don't know if it benefits baseball or the NBA to competing against each other for viewership and majority of the season. Yeah, and like Scotty Pippen said, I'm not. going to mess up my summer. No, but like you said, the TV networks, I feel like for the most part, the TV networks say jump and then the leagues have to say how high. That's true. They control so much of this money, so much of the revenue.

I mean, we've talked about it all this time, when the league negotiations and what percentage of the revenues come from fans in the stands. The NBA and the MLB, they haven't said that more over than 50% of the revenue comes from that. So where does it come from? It comes from the TV networks. So the TV networks have their schedules. they know which way they want to go with the direction.

They set the finals dates that get set. The NBA doesn't set the finals dates. The NBA doesn't say, hey, we're doing finals from June whenever to June whatever. ABC says that. ABC determines what they have going on when you have their prime time programming in reruns and stuff like that. That's why they have it set the way they have it. Yeah. And I just, look, I would prefer, I'm in the camp that I would prefer the basketball to start, though.

in December. I like football season as it is, and that's all I want to focus on is football and the MLB playoffs. And I would rather the NBA start later than that. If they want to go back to like the October 23rd start date, that's fine. I don't blame them. Like you said, Ross, like they've been doing this the same way forever. Why change it? They believe it works. You know, they have third, like we just said in the last, like last segment, they had 31 million viewers for game seven of the NBA finals in 2016. Well, what if you are competing against the MLB playoffs and you are competing against the NFL, depending on how late you start your season?

I don't know. It doesn't make sense. Like, why are you going to go against that stuff? Yeah. When you know in the summer, when your playoffs start, and that's probably their most important time of the year, you are the king. Baseball is not. You are.

Like, you are the top dog at that moment. I think the argument is they can be the top dog for long. That's fair. That's totally fair that like if they start in December, they could be the top dog for longer. And I agree with that. I just for some reason, it seems like they're kind of against it. I think the local network certainly wouldn't like it for the reasons you put, because I mean, AT&T SportsNet Southwest carries both the Astros and the Rockets.

We have issues when we carry both the Astros and the Rockets. If we're going to put them on there, when are we going to put them on? Where are they going to be on and what station and all that type of stuff? So, I mean, we run into those issues. I'm sure all the local television. and radio affiliates would run into those issues as well. And the way that the NBA has been going, their revenues have been going up every single year

in a huge way as well. And I think it could change to a December start. I don't know if that's something Adam Silver would want to implement without like real player negotiation and like in the CBA and stuff. You know, like if he just implements that, that might not go over well. And so maybe we have to wait

until their next CBA comes up for the NBA whenever that is and probably the next three or four years. And once that comes out, then there can be the next conversation of do we move to December? You know, what are we going to do at that time? Yeah, I wonder what the issues are with that. But the way it is now, so you have the NBA starting back up in December. You're going to have, I mean, what's October going to be like? There's going to be NFL.

There's going to be the NBA finals. you're possibly going to have the major league baseball play. Are we going to be sleeping in October at all? No. So in October, if you look at week five, week four and week five, that's going to be the conference finals and the NBA finals. So you're going to have week four and five of the NFL season, weeks five and six of the college football season.

You're going to have the NBA finals. The MLB playoffs will either be, if they're looking to be done by the NFL season, end of October, you'll be at least in the second or third round of the MLB playoffs. Damn. You will have the Masters is like November 12th this year. So you have a major golf tournament. You'll have a couple major golf tournaments during that time, getting you ready for

the Masters this year. You're going to have crazy amounts of sports. And then college basketball will be quickly on the horizon. What does that start in October November? Is college basketball going to... There's 300 Division I College basketball programs. How many of them are going to be running?

How many of them are going to feel safe enough? How many of them are going to have students back on campus? You think everybody's going to be good? I think everyone's going to come back. I hope so. This is my gut tells me that they're going to come back. You are the official epidemiologist of 790s. So, I mean, your opinion carries away here.

I think October is going to just be... We're going to go for nothing to an overload. Yes. Of sports. It's going to be so much. It's going to be hard to prioritize what's important. So you're going to have to blow through those episodes of Grey's Anatomy. Whatever show, anybody's watching, they're going to have to watch a lot of.

My prediction is by the time basketball comes back, I will have completely Grey's Anatomy. Yeah, I mean, 363 episodes or whatever it is? Season 10 right now. How many are there? 16? Yep. Woo! Congratulations to you. I think we are.

Are you going to put up your, like a Rocky, put your fists up when you finally hit the last episode? But then the next season's going to come. right they're not done right they're not oh that's true they can't film it right now right now like everything's like tv is stopped that honestly of the all the things that have like happened in the pandemic that haven't hit us yet is tv has tv and like like like i'm for some reason i watch the walking dead still their season finale never aired and because they couldn't finish production there's tons of tv shows like that so like normally the fall tv schedule that's the one benefit of all these sports is you're not also going to have tv shows you're going to want to

watch because like TV is not going to go back to their normal schedules to like January. Like we're not going to have new television shows. We're only have new sports. All right. Time for a break here on the Matt Thomas show. Sportsmania going to happen coming up in October. We're talking about that. We also will have Brian Bogus Sevik, his view on a player's perspective of the MLB's negotiations.

That's coming up at 1.30. It is the Matt Thomas show. There's a short break here. Don't go anywhere. Yo, what's up? This you boy, Bunbyter Trillo G with the whitest man in America. Matt Thomas. You are now tuned in to Sports Talk 790, man. Former Astro player, AT&T Sports Net Southwest broadcaster, Brian Bogussevich, going to join the show coming up in about a little over 10 minutes.

Definitely want to hear his perspective and the player's perspective on baseball. The negotiations continue and they continue to get ugly. they continue to get negotiated in the public sphere. So we mentioned earlier, Joe. The player's counter proposal to do by tomorrow. It's like a homework assignment. Are they going to say my dog in it? According to John Heyman,

there's little reason to believe they will come off the pro-rated pay for half a season plus. And growing belief on owner's side, the commissioner may feel little choice but to implement a severely truncated season of about 48 to 50 games. Well, if I really believe anything, John Heyman would ever tweets, I would feel concerned about that, but I think he's not... You think he didn't know anything? He's not hearing anything that's of...

No, because he doesn't report anything. So John Heyman constantly says he hears things, so that way when he's very wrong, he can say, I didn't report that. I just heard that. I just heard it. Yeah, that's a good idea. So, oh my God, it's genius. I think maybe I need to start doing that. What do you hear it? What are you hearing it? What are you hearing, Ross? I'm hearing that I'm hearing Matt Thomas lost how much money I'm hearing Matt Thomas lost over seven figures at the at the golden nugget over the weekend I'm hearing Matt Thomas made so much money that last time when he came back he bought us house of pies

Oh that's right this time he's buying us a steak dinner That's how much money I'm hearing Matt Thomas has been on a roll on his craps playing that's for sure John Heyman goes on to say before implementing a 48 or 50 game season no one would be especially happy about my suggestion continues to find the middle ground. 60 to 65 game season prorated with greatly expanded playoffs.

I just feel like if the players aren't going to budge on full proration, which it just they haven't moved off of that ever once, really. They have never, they won't change their stance. So, I mean, so then if they're never going to budge off a full proration, which the owners came back and said 75%,

can they meet at 90? Can they meet at 90? I mean, would they even say 95%? or would the owners take that as a slap in the face? Honestly, I think at this point, you know, the owners have said 50% sliding scale. The players have stayed strong. They haven't moved. And the owners are moving the needle. Like, I have to say, like, they're moving the bar.

Like, the owners are the ones changing their negotiation. It feels like the players are winning. Like the players are saying, we're not changing. So the owners are countering. The players say we want 114 games, full proration, just like we were promised. Have we ever seen the owners be the ones to give in a negotiation in any sport? It doesn't feel like it. I think maybe in the 94 strike situation because they wanted a salary cap.

That's what the strike was over, and there's no salary cap. Yeah, I'm sure there's some big stuff, but. I don't know. Because I mean, Joe and I were like babies, so not in a long time. I mean, that's what I'm saying. It's, I mean, the players, but the baseball union has been famously one of the most powerful in sports. I mean, we had Harold Reynolds on a couple of weeks ago. He talked about how there were like multiple lockouts and a strike while he was playing.

And he had like eight, nine year career. I mean, it got ugly in the 80s between the baseball players and the owners. So, I mean, for the most part, yes, you have had the, I would say the NBA owners have done pretty well. would say the NFL owners certainly probably have done the best in getting all types of concessions for over the years. But the baseball players union, they've been strong. They've been holding it together for whatever reason. They seem to do better than the other unions. So there is definitely that. And I just, I don't know, man. I just, I keep thinking we're going to have a 48 game season because what's the difference? What is the material difference between a 48 game season and a 60

game season? They can just legitimize. Is one more really literal? more legit than the other? That's what I'm saying. I think the owners have to see it. And you have to ask yourself. It's like you go to like 70 is like when you get like the next level of legitimacy. It goes like 48 and 60 you're like the same playing field.

Yeah. And like 70 goes to like the next level of getting it because it just gets you closer. Who has more to lose? I feel like it's, I want to say it's the owners, but. I think there will be owners who are forced to sell their team if there's no baseball season this year. That's why I think the players have the,

the leverage have the leverage yeah who is more leverage right now the players are the owners you know i would say the players because the players already got service time it's not like they're holding that over their head it's not like jim crane is calling george springer and being like hey you signed a deal that says if you don't play this season you're not a free agent like you're supposed to be that's not the case george springer is a free agent mookie betts is a free agent these guys yes they would Like, they're going to all hit free agency still at the same time. Like, I think that that helps give the players leverage here. Like, you don't have a bunch of guys being like, well, now I've got to wait another year.

You know, the Chris Bryan's of the world. We're like, they have to wait another year to hit free agency. Well, no, they don't. There's no extra service time being planted for them. Like, in all honesty, if you're Lance McCullors, I know it sucks. He won't, if they don't play this year, it'll be two years since he's pitched. But could that be a good thing? and could that be beneficial to his arm in all honesty?

And don't you feel like if you're a player and you're saying, okay, I've already given up. If they trigger 48 games, I've already given up two-thirds of my salary. So I'm over two-thirds of my salary. So what's a little bit more? What's the difference between a 48 game and a 60-game season? Why would we budge off of that? It's not really that huge of a difference. So, I mean, meeting us in the middle of a meeting in the middle of 80 and 48 doesn't do a whole lot for them.

So they need them to come up to somewhere around 80 to where they can get half their money because that would make them a much more significant difference in their pay. So I feel like the owners have more to lose. The owners have, I mean, the public perception maybe will be on the owner's side. But they have more to lose short term. They have more to lose long term as far as interest in the sport. If nobody cares about baseball, yeah, these players are going to have to find other things to do. A lot of them are already millionaires and should be set for life anyways.

But they're also going to play baseball. They're just playing somewhere, yeah. Their contracts just won't be as big as they were before. It's not like baseball's ever going to... I don't think baseball will ever completely die. Of course not. Yeah, I agree with that. There will always be baseball to be had.

Mike Trout's going to get $200 million instead of $400 million. The next time it's a free agent. Dang. Like, bummer. Oh, well. That sounds horrible. Like, that sounds horrible life. Like, they're going to be fine.

The players be fine. It's the owners, I think, that long term are in the most severe danger. Because I think they got to sell their team if it doesn't go well. because someone will pay they're the ones borrowing money they're the ones having hemorrhaging money or you have teams like the A's

who can't make their payments and defaulting on their rent payments for their stadiums and now they said they're going to play their minor league players but they said they weren't going to do that and all I mean yeah it does feel like it's the owners

that are taking it on the chin more than the players right now yeah and that's what and that's what the owner's negotiation is is that like we are going to take it on the channel we need your help and the players are saying too bad because when it's good, you don't give us more money.

You can look at the, we've looked on over the numbers before. The revenue and baseball has gone up and the amount of money the players have received has been way less. In all honesty, this is where I think the players have made a mistake on revenue sharing. Revenue sharing. I think they should, if I was a player, I would look at this scenario, I'd be like, this is why we need a salary cap. This is why we should negotiate one.

Yeah, they definitely don't want a cap. I don't know what the, I mean, because they want Garrett Cole getting, or the, the Garrett Coles of the world getting hundreds of million dollars or guys getting overpaid. I mean, they were getting overpaid for a long time and it was working well in their favor, but then people got smart. I mean, the Albert Pool Holds' contracts, those don't get handed out anymore. And that's why the Aaron Rodriguez's 10-year contracts, those don't get handed out anymore. And I don't think they'll ever come back.

Yeah. And I think that's why, to me, at some point, a salary cap is going to make more sense for baseball than anything. and they can leverage, they can negotiate with more than any other sport. Yeah. Because I look at service time as you could change the face of baseball. Instead of waiting for someone to be, to get on the Astros and then have six years before they hit free agency, you could change it to its typical more structure of the NFL or baseball or basketball.

We're like, it doesn't matter if I spend three years in the minors after three years. I'm a restrictive free agent. Yeah. I mean, yeah, even four or five years because, I mean, rookie deals in the NFL, usually four years or the five-year, fifth-year option in the first-round pick anyways. So they could change. If they ever wanted a salary cap, the players can make it worth their while.

They would have to take a huge percentage of the pie. I mean, the NFL players are under 50%. The, I believe NBA is around 50%. So they would say, hey, you know what? Give us 55 and you got a deal. So I don't think baseball will ever get to that point, but at some point it might become the more logical decision, especially after all this thing.

All right. We're going to get more baseball talk in the next segment. Brian Bogusik of AT&T Sports NetSouthwest, former Astro. He's going to give us the players' perspective, talk about the baseball negotiations and the latest there next on the Matt Thomas show. At home say, Alexa, play Sports Talk 790 on I-Hard Radio. Welcome back, Sports Talk 790. Joe George Ross Viriel with you, and right now we are pleased to be joined by Major League Baseball Veteran

and AT&T Sports Net Southwest broadcaster. Brian, Bogus Sevik. Brian, we appreciate the time. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you guys? Pretty good, man.

All right. So let's get right into it. So the negotiations, obviously ongoing. Just from where you sit, let's start with a public perception and we can get more into it. Where do you think people feel more of the blame is right now?

Do you think it's more players, more owners, I honestly think that it's pretty split. I think traditionally blame falls on the players just because from a fans' perspective, that's who they sort of relate to more. But I think in this case, it's sort of just baseball in general that's taking the hit on it. And I think, you know, as difficult as it is to watch, you know, billionaires and millionaires, you know, have discussions about how they're going to divide up money isn't fun to see.

See, baseball has been the victim of circumstance here in terms of them versus other sports just on the timing of it. You know, it was right at the start of the season. They have all, you know, 162 games lost that they're trying to make up for. So there's just so much more for the sport of baseball to have to wade through versus what basketball and hockey are doing or what football is sort of sitting in the weeds hoping they don't have to deal with. That it's just, I mean, baseball is in a tough spot and I think they're all taking the hit. All right. And let's talk about, like, from a personal standpoint of the players. Like, have you really thought about putting yourself in this position? What do you think, I mean, what would your mindset be right now?

If you're kind of just sitting there, I know you obviously love baseball and you want to play and you want to get out there, but you just can't right now. What do you think is going through the mind of a typical player right now? Yeah, I think first and foremost, you hit it on the head that everybody wants to play. Nobody's sitting there saying, oh, hey, it's pretty nice to be home in June. I really don't want to go back out there and do what I've been doing my entire life and love to do. Like, nobody should be mistaken in thinking that guys don't want to get out there and play. But, I mean, this is part of the deal.

It's a business as, you know, more than it's a game. And when you get down to it, you've got to do things the right way. And you've got to do things that not only benefit the players now, but the players in the future, you can't set precedents that are going to be taken advantage of in the future. taking advantage of in the future. So, you know, these guys are doing some things that they don't necessarily want to be doing because I think that the initial agreement that the players made, it was pretty obvious that they were saying, hey, we'll make some concessions off the bat.

Let's just do what needs to be done to get the games going again. And it's pretty obvious that that's what the players want. They're just not in a position that they're allowed to do that right now. What's the long-term ramification of this with the collective bargaining agreement coming up just here in like a year and a half. What's the long-term picture and problems baseball could have from this? Well, I think, first of all, there's going to be a lasting bitterness on the players' side. The relationship between ownership and players' association has been strained for a while.

That isn't news to anybody. But I think that the players kind of went into the whole negotiation right now with the mindset of this is a one-off, right? This whole pandemic was unforeseen. We've got to just do what we can do to keep everything afloat for a while. And the fact that they've now been met with business as usual from the owner's side and the owner's trying to, you know, more or less win the negotiation as opposed to just help everybody survive. I think it's going to strain it even more. And even if we can get through this and work through this, I think it's going, when it comes time to, to To renegotiate the collective bargaining agreement, there's going to be a lasting, bitter taste in the player's mouth from the way this whole thing shakes out.

Talk with Brian Bogasevik here on the Matt Thomas show. And Brian, just, I mean, put yourself in the spot of negotiating on the player's side. So the owners have said, hey, 50-50 split, players say we're not coming off proration. Sliding scale, we're not coming off proration. Okay, 75% proration, we're not coming off proration. I mean, so they have all these deals on the table. What is the next move for the players? Are they just not going to move off of that stance at any point?

Yeah, I think they're going to hold the line. First of all, the three different options that have been presented to them, even though they're different pay structures, they also come with different amounts of games, which amounts to about the same amount of money being paid out. So it's really, it's six, it's half a dozen, and then it's three and three for the players. And just sort of the way it's been presented to them where there's not a whole lot of progress being made. I think they're just at a point where they're going to dig in.

And they said, you know, they made their concession. They're not the owners of the team. It's not their risk to be absorbed. That's kind of the deal that goes along with being an owner of any business. When business is great, you reap the rewards, when business is. bad, that's kind of, you know, part of the deal. You absorb that. And the players, you know, they didn't have to agree to that initial pro-rated salary. They could have tried to play hardball and say, the season is what the season is and we need to get paid. They didn't do that.

They came to the table with a pretty moderate view and say, hey, we're willing to work with you here. And now the owners are turning around and trying to change that on them. So I think where they're at right now, they want, you know, around half of seasons, worth these games and a full pro-rated pay scale. And I can't see them coming off of that. And honestly, I think it's a pretty reasonable ask on their part. They don't get to come back when business is good and say, hey, we want to bump in everybody's salary. We want bonuses because, you know, the TV deals went up and attendance was up. So why should they be the one to also absorb the risk? That's what ownership does. If Rob Manfred implements the 48 game season,

How do you just, do you view it? If they play 48 to 60 games, is this a legitimate season? Or is it kind of too gimmicky for you? I think anything less than half a season is at great risk of being seen as an entertaining exhibition that's better than nothing, but nobody's going to remember who the 2020 World Series champion is. I think if you're playing a 48 game season or a 50-something game season, with a short in spring training, so the first 10 or 15 games are going to, you know, more or less be warm-up games, you're going to have teams that aren't very good fluking their way into the playoffs. It's going to turn out to be akin to, you know, who won the last couple world baseball classics or who's the last gold medal baseball team?

Who knows? I don't know. I don't really care. I think that's the risk. they're running of crowning a champion that won't be seen as a legitimate champion. And just a quick, I guess, procedural question, Brian. What is the procedure for if baseball, the players union wanted to get something done? Do the reps just vote on it? Is it the committee that just votes on it? How does something like that get passed through? Well, they have the executive committee who's at the negotiating table. And I believe the way it's been in the past is that it then comes down to the team

reps. So there's 30 reps and 30 alternates who vote on it. And I think they bring it to the players and then sort of get a consensus on how they should vote for the team. That's my understanding of how it's work in the past. Okay. So let's just put you on the spot then. The owners are keep trying to dig in and say 48 games. The players obviously digging in. What is going to happen? Obviously seems like we'll at least have some semblance of a season, but how many games going to get played and when's something going to get done? So I think from a player's perspective, they're going to hold their position. They're going to say we want 81, 82 games and we want the full pro-rate.

I don't think they're going to come off of that. So they're going to basically put it on the owners to say, we want full pro-rated salaries and then the owners are going to, you know, Rob Manfred has the power in that first agreement. He has the power to dictate how long the season is. I think they're going to put it on him to make that call. don't think he's going to do 48 games. I think it'll be, I think they'll end up settling pretty close to 80 games at a full pro-rated salary. The players can probably offer the option to defer money on certain salaries or if a postseason gets held up because of a second wave of outbreak or

something. So there will be some option for financial relief, but I don't think anything happens without full pro-rated. And I don't think the owners will unilaterally decide to go with 48. It's just, it's too short. Everybody knows it's too short. And at that point, it's almost, you know, why are you even doing this? Brian Bogasevick here on the Matt Thomas show. And one more before we get you out, Brian.

Just on the safety side, would you think of the opt-out clauses, the full opt-out or the high-risk opt-out? Do you think there's going to be some kind of language there? and on the player's side, as you as a former player, how much would you want the owners more concession from the owners because you are the one putting yourself at risk? Yeah, I think there's going to have to be some sort of opt-down. I mean, you have guys like Carlos Carrasco up in Cleveland

who was being treated for leukemia less than 12 months ago. He's obviously at a high risk, and you can't force a guy like that into a situation that he's not comfortable. And so the question isn't, if there will be, it's how is it going to be structured? Who can opt out and still get paid? Who can opt out and maybe not get paid, but still accrue service time? Those are the questions that have to be answered. I would imagine that guys who are deemed high risk by the medical staffs will have the ability to opt out and still be paid their salary and still be able to accrued service time.

The real question that's sort of out there now is what about players who have maybe close family, members who are high risk and what options do they have in terms of can they opt out so they don't put their family members at risk and do they get paid? I don't know how far down the line it'll go, but there certainly will be some sort of ability for players who are high risk to get out. And for the other guys, the guys who are healthy guys who have plead those of health, I think everybody's ready to go. As long as proper precautions are taking, these guys want to get out there. All right, Brian Bogus Sevik here on The Matt Thomas Show.

Brian, great stuff as always. Thanks for the time, and we'll talk to you down the road. All right, guys. Hope to see you guys soon. All right, I appreciate it. Yes, I hope. Let's get some games back here, Brian. Yeah, yeah. All right, Brian Bogusevick on the Matt Thomas show. Going to take a quick break here, good stuff from him if you want to react to any of that.

7132125-790. The phone number 7-1-3-1-2-5-790. I like what he said. He thinks 82 games. Half of a season, let's get it going. Hopefully baseball comes back, as we always say, sooner rather than later. All right, time for a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show. Short break here, don't go anywhere.

Right, half the workday is done. Celebrate with Matt. Hey, Matt, love your show. Look, what was it talking about? And by the sound of it, some of you started the party at breakfast. Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas Show Continues

Sports Talks have a good stuff From Brian Bogusevick there You'll find that on the podcast page I'm sure shortly on the What's On Matt's Mind show page Which people are flocking to these days Joseph, go ahead and meet Miss Katie Bell I did meet I met Katie today

She's got a great personality Huge fan Just yeah She's got Yeah, let's just move on from that. All right, anyways. So what? You know what?

I mean, I want to say he sounds like Brian Bogusevic, we just put him on the spot. Obviously, we don't have to hold anybody to any of this because we don't know. We don't know what's going to happen. We've heard started, it was literally last Sunday. You started with a 114 game season. And then that was after an 80. So the owner said 82. Yeah.

Players said, okay, 114. Yep. Then the owner said, okay, 48. Like what? Yeah. You don't negotiate. backwards like that? And then we're at 76. Now we're at 76 with 75% of a pay. So if I said over under, man, what's like over under 60 games? 60 and a half. You're thinking. He's over.

You didn't look convinced there, Joseph. I think best case scenario for the for the baseball right now is a 75 game series in which you play each team in your division 15 times and then every team from your cross division so like it would be like the NL West this year for the Astros with that 10 game bubble 10 team bubble play each of those teams three times just three road or home would be random I guess yeah just rotate or you could play yeah I don't know I feel like you wouldn't do four and like do two and two, it would be too much travel. So I think they're just going to have to make some concessions. I mean, these are all the things that the owners are going to have to be considering right now.

Is how many games against what opponents? What are they going to be the safety protocols? How much travel is they going to be? Or are things opening up? Like, we could find out in two weeks after all these protests that there's not a second wave that maybe it's not coming. Maybe everything, maybe the first breaking off is really done a great job to quell this pandemic. Yeah. And they ought to be prepared for the cold.

you know, just like a flu to come back and bring it back like and force. And they got to be prepared for that. You know, like that's where like the players, I don't think they understand some of that stuff and they don't care. When they, when the players propose 114 game season that starts on June 30th and game goes until October 31st and then the playoffs start, the players are not asking the question.

I don't think of where are these games being played? Where are we playing baseball in November? Are we playing neutral? site games. Are we just, are we just playing in New York and in Chicago and in Boston? That's a bad idea. In the snow? Like, in Cleveland and Minnesota, like, you just, you can't do that. Yeah. And that's where I feel like the players, when they sent that proposal, they don't factor those things in. And that's why it's hard to negotiate. The players are not, should not be responsible for negotiating the schedule. Like, they don't think about that stuff. They're thinking about

how can I get mine? How can I get my money? They're not thinking about some of the logistics. and that's where I said this yesterday. I think it's just, it's time for Rob Manfred to step in to say, we're playing X amount of games. This is what we got to deal with. I think, I think that might happen. I just, I just get the player's side, because the player's contract is supposed to be fully guaranteed.

For sure. It's not the NFL. It's not the NBA. It's one of those things. They don't have a, where the NBA has a max contract. You don't have max contracts. You don't have where you can get cut and there's dead money against the cap and all. The MLB players have fought for years over all that labor strife that we've talked about to say,

hey, I have a guaranteed contract. And you guarantee this contract to me. You are supposed to pay it. I'm sorry that there's a global pandemic because when revenues were up, you didn't mess with my contract. This is what we've agreed to, and you should not be backing off of it. So, I mean, I really, I know that the public perception, maybe it's split, maybe it's more on the owners. It's probably not. I don't think most people are going to be sympathetic with the players, but I just get where they're coming from.

Yeah, well, I do too. And I think the players are in the right for everything they're saying. We're taking, you know, we're the ones taking the risk. Like, we're the ones that are out there. We're the owners going to be this whole time. Yeah. They're going to be at home. Well, you kids are young.

Have you seen Goodfellas? Of course. Well, I don't know. I'm not Matt Thomas. You hadn't seen. You know, Alia that Matt Thomas hasn't seen Goodfellas. Brendan? It's been on Netflix.

I told Matt this. I am a very un- cultured person. Oh boy. If you listed like the top five movies that everyone has had to watch. You can say yes or no. You don't have to do not to defend yourself. I probably haven't watched any of them.

Any of the top? What do you mean? The movie that you have to watch. So Godfather. No. Godfather two. No. Godfather three.

I mean, no. None of them. The dark night? I've seen the dark night. That's like my favorite movie. I would say how about me? Okay. Citizen Kane.

No. The good, bad, and the ugly. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Dr. Strange Love or how I love to learn to stop something and marry the bomb. That's a long movie title. Yeah, I know. It's pretty funny. Are those classics?

The Doctor Strange Love, I think, is iconic. Yeah. The Shining. No. Full metal jacket. Gladiator. No. What?

That's the first one that I'm going to say you should watch. Gladiator specifically, I've gotten picked on for years by friends for not watching. So you're spitefully not watching. Titanic? I'm asking Titanic. Great Anatomy? No, I was kidding. is anatomy.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Yeah, I've seen that. Back to the future. Yeah. Back to the future, too. Yeah, I've seen all the back to the future three. Okay, good. Thank you, Ross.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The original early 90s. Probably not. They're on Netflix, highly encouraged. Really? I thought they didn't help. Honestly, I love them. Now, I loved them when I was a kid.

I used to love the Ninja Turtle so much. I used to have a Ninja Turtle shirt that I would make my mom wash that I could wear it to school every day. And I had all the, that was me. All right? and I had your fingers and all that. Your voice really changed after puberty, Ross.

Thank you. Thank you, Joe. So, I mean, I love the Ninja Turtles, but I saw those movies. They were on, like, USA or something. They don't really hold up. I was like, I literally texted. My dad, I was like, Dad, I am so sorry for making you drag us to, dragging you to the movie theater and make you watch these movies with me and my brother and my sister.

Okay, so you brought good fellas. Okay. What was I going to see? I have no idea. Oh, so there's a point where he says, bleep you, pay me, right? They're talking about when they, when they takes over the restaurant. Oh, business is bad, bleep you, pay me. Oh, there's a global pandemic.

Bleep you, pay me. That's what the players are saying. Oh, okay, I'm sorry. Things aren't going your way. Wait, you pay me. I have a fully guaranteed contract. Are you saying, Ross, that Hose Altoube, they're going to burn down a mini-made park? They might.

If they don't pay them? For insurance money. Who knows? All right. Anyways, on that note, we'll take a break here. On the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. Look, we got a lot of different things to get to still on the show. Michael Jordan is catching 400-pound Marlin.

We've got to get to that. Fight Island with the UFC. We have an update with that we have to get to. We got a lot of great stuff coming up here in the next hour of the Matt Thomas show. You do not want to miss it. There is a very short break here. Don't go anywhere. Is the Matt Thomas Show.

The Matt Thomas show here on Sports Talk, 790 Ross, via. Joe George, Brendan Riley with you. There is no Matt Thomas. Well, he exists. he's just in Lake Charles right now, gambling his life away. No, I mean, winning all the money so he can come back and buy some food. So he is out today. I believe he is making his triumphant return tomorrow.

Do we have confirmation on that? We kind of throw our hands up there. Maybe Matt is like, it's like a hinge day. You ever like, oh, you know if it's going really well at the casino, maybe I'm going to stay one more day and just call out and then I'll have to come back tomorrow or something like that. No, I think he should be back tomorrow. I don't live in Vegas once, so I really don't. Okay.

What about, have you been to Lake Charles? Nope. Have you been to? any other gambling city? There's like New Orleans. Have you gambled there? I've gambled in Illinois

and in Wisconsin because you can gamble on the Indian reservations but and Vegas I went for work so I only gambled a little bit I went out there for like a Chris Paul

we were helping out my old job we were helping out with Chris Paul's charity ping pong tournament and so I was out there for work and didn't really gamble much One of my very first gambling experiences I was 18 years old

and you only have to be 18 in the Indian casinos. We went up to Oklahoma because I had some family that was living up there. We stopped at the Choctaw Casino. First of all, the entire place was one giant cigarette smoke cloud. Yep. You have, in Oklahoma, you have to ante when you make a bet. So, like, let's say I want to bet. For anything?

Yeah, for 10% up to like five bucks. For blackjack. So if I want to bet $10 on blackjack, I got to put up an extra dollar. It costs me 11 to try to win $10. or if I were, you know, 20 to 2 and all the way, I think maybe 5 was the cap or 20. That sounds like an awesome way to lose money. First of all, you're already winning money on this.

And guess what? Every table was full. I didn't know any better. I was 18. This is my first time gambling. I'm like, they kept, like, they were like not yelling at me, but they're like, extra money. What are you doing? I don't know what I'm doing. I guess I got to put any. I got to ante up. This doesn't make any sense. So anyways, I ended up winning like 120 bucks.

And at 120 bucks when I was 18, That's a lot of money. I might as well have won like $500 now. I thought, and you know what? I was in my mind. I was like, do I just need to become a professional blackjack player? I just thought I was like a genius blackjack player and I could never lose because there was a lady that was sitting next to me and she was like, oh my gosh, beginners luck, you're doing so great.

And she was just encouraging me and I was winning a bunch of money and it was great. You know, it's funny. I've never played Annie with a blackjack. No, you have to do that in the whole state of Oklahoma, I believe. That's bizarre. It's always at the Indian Casinas. I only ever Annie I'm sorry, the native casinos.

I only ever Annie when I'm playing like poker with my friends and we're out of poker night. We get down to like the final two or three people and to try to move along

the speed of the game at that point we just do we do annies go straight to big blind everyone puts in and goes straight to the flop. That's another thing too at the poker table's there they screw you.

They take your big blind before the cards are even dealt. They are, it's going to go to them. It's going to go to the rake. So if if everybody folds to you you know like in a regular poker room If you folds to the small blind, you're like, hey, guy, you want to chop?

We'll just go to the next hand. We don't have to play each other and go crazy for our blinds. You can't do that because they've already taken up your an hour and you've got to play for that two bucks and try to get it back. I will never. We can't get it back, but I'm never going to go gambling. Oklahoma Casinos, thumbs down. Nothing good there. If you're in Dallas, it's about an hour away, so it's not that bad.

Hook him. Hook them horns. That's right. Go to the WinStar Casino because I think they sponsor Texas Longhorn Sports. I think I'm a U.T. Are you? I think I'm officially decided. that's the right path.

Yeah. Was Matt Thomas singing the fight song? Is that what convinced you? No, I'm probably going back to school within the next year and a half. Oh, really? And I'm probably going to do UT. Online or what? Online or the Austin?

No, or one of the downtown campuses. Okay. So online or downtown? UT downtown? I think there's UT Houston. Is there? I thought so. I know there's Arlington, El Paso.

Probably online. That's my attention. I don't know if I have the grades, but. Okay. Well, you know what? You got it. I wish you luck. Hey, I actually,

I was actually a promising young student many, many moons ago. And then when you got to college it. Let's just say I lacked maturity, as I still do. To this day, anyway, 713, 2125-790 is the phone number.

Let's get to what we were really going to get to. Hell yeah. An update on Fight Island. Have you seen the Mortal Kombat movie, Brendan? I don't even know there was a Mortal Kombat movie. Oh, it's not great. It's like early 90s. It's pretty bad.

It's not great, but I love it. But this is where the song is from. So you have an update for us on UFC. This has been my favorite story of the pandemic. We've been talking about, oh, pro-ration and 50-50 and sliding scales and protocols. I don't care about any of that. I want to talk about Fight Island. That's been my favorite pandemic story, Joseph.

Fight Island, official, July 11th, UFC 251. For real? They're having a pay-per-view card. Paper-view. On Fight Island. They're having four. fights, July 11th, July 13th, July 13th, 15th, and I think the 18th.

Wow, so like a midweek one? Yep. So it was like a Thursday. Yeah, UFC fight nights usually are. Oh, wait, no, July, hold on. Saturday is the 18th, 15th is a Wednesday. Yeah, so 11th would be the first fight. Where is this island? We've been wondering where it's going to be. It is in Abu Dhabi, YAS Island.

YAS, yes. Are there just no rules in Abu Dhabi? Can they just do whatever they want? I don't know, but all I know is Dana White is saying, we're going to do this and we're going to do it big. And UFC 251 is going to have not one, not two, but three championship fights on their car. They're getting six championship fighters to Abu Dhabi? Yep. How are they going to get them flying over there?

The welterweight title fight will be fought for the featherweight and the Walterweight is who are the champions on that one so we're gonna have Kamaru Usman yes first Gilbert Burns for the welterweight title fight the co-main event will be for the featherweight championship Alexander oh I hate Russian man Volcanozky will face Max Holloway I'm excited about Max Holloway is my dude okay and then the third title fight will be to crown a new bansomweight champion, Peter Yan. I believe it's how you pronounce it, and he will face Joseo, I guess. Boo. Boy, you don't like Jose. I'm kind of

out on Aldo. He's kind of older now, right? Ever since McGregor punked him and knocked him out. 15 seconds. Yeah, it's just kind of boring. And they'll be also two women's fights on the card. I think it's, it's Rose Namibunis versus Jessica Andrade. That's a good one. And then Amanda, I think it's Rebus or Ribis. is fighting the biggest scam artist of all time. She only fights because she's smoke show. Paige Van Zandt. Yeah.

That's fine. She wants to go get knocked out and beat up. It's cool. She was naked on her Instagram recently. Of course she was. I got us a lot of web hits. Anyways. So, I mean, what are the parameters of this fight?

It's just normal. They're going to have them on a beach. I thought they were going to have a beach octagon or what's happening with that? I can't find that. I saw Beach Octagon somewhere. I want Beach Octagon. Beach Octagon. Let's see

This computer sucks I'm sorry I thought I saw that on Twitter The Octagon is going to be on the beach Now there has to be Tiki Torches Definitely There has to be

I mean this should be a new thing Like Fight Island They should not be calling this UFC 251 If I'm Dana White Yes Fight Island 1 Fight Island 1 You market this as a new venture You do it once a year

You have three fourth title fights Every year It's this massive buildup Massive card you could do to different islands but Five Island won I think Dana White's a pretty good marketing guy

But he missed an opportunity Like that is so definitively better Yeah Fight Island I mean like you're calling it Fight Island So it has to be the Fight Island Car Here's what he said

We have an arena We built it a little arena that's very cool The fighters have their own private places to train And there will be an Octagon on the beach Two So as like as long as the weather's good The Octagon is it's gonna be on the beach That makes sense

I mean it's gonna be like 110 degrees in Abu Dhabi. What is the regular weather and an Abu Dhabi? Does rain really stop a MMA fight? I say we play through the weather.

Yes, because my first... That's true. I like that. I like that a lot, actually. I moved to Houston five years ago. And one of the first events I ever got to cover as someone in radio was the

Canelo Alvarez fight at Minutemate Park. James Kirkland, I was there. And before, you remember what happened before? They opened the roof. during a fight. That's right. And it was raining. I don't know whose idea this was.

I remember that actually. But they were like, I've forgotten that. They opened the roof and it started raining on these guys while they were fighting. And that roof moves so slow. So they had to stop it and close it again. That's good time. So how do I go to Dubai?

You want to go to Abu Dhabi? Well, it's not Dubai. It's Abu Dhabi. Yeah. Go to Dubai first. I think Abu Dhabi. Abu, you have family in Dubai? Well, I do now.

Okay. My wife's, my wife's, my wife's. my wife's family is from... Okay, so you want to go to Fight Island? Why don't you ask Brian if you can get credentialed and head over to Fight Island? Think they'll cover the fights? We can put you on the budget. Zero percent chance of that happening, but you can ask.

So it's 102 degrees, 103 degrees coming up here in Abu Dhabi. And what is the... It's 11 p.m. there now. So this would have to be, if they're going to do like a typical 8 p.m., what is that, six hours from now? They're going to do these fights at five in the morning, local time? That sucks. When are they going to time this out? Or is it going to be, will they make it like it's early afternoon now?

And they'll do it like at 8 p.m. there and that'll be 11 a.m. here. That's 9 p.m. there will be like noon time here. That's what they do when like the fights are like Brazil. Yeah. That's what they have when will the thrill in Manila in the Philippines. They fought like six in the morning or something like that. Damn, I didn't think about that. So what's going to happen with five?

That kind of bums me out. I know. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that to you. So they're really little there is going to be, look, an octagon. Oh, it's a training octagon. on the beach. Oh, man. I wanted them to fight on the beach with Tiki torches.

That would have been awesome. So there you go. I mean, this is a once in a lifetime event. Why can't I go? Go. Come on, Brian. Don't sell me. Connecting flights are $800. For a connecting flights? Or no. Well, flights with the connect. Oh, wait, here we go. Fly out July 9th, 18 and 18 hours.

Fly back July 12th. That's a lot of flights. How many? How many hours? That'd be, so in like four days, it would be 36 hours of flying. Oh. $786 bucks. All right.

Well, just put in a, what do you call it? All I know is if a stimulus, if a second stimulus check gets passed by then. Put an expense report. See what happens. All right. All right. Time for a break here. On the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas, 713, 112, 125, 790.

You found number 7132, 12, 1,000, 790. we've still got some basketball stuff to get to. We still have Michael Jordan wrangling 400-pound Marlin. We got a lot of interesting thing to get to. The Matt Thomas Show continues till 3 o'clock, but there's a short break here, but don't touch that now. Rockets'Bassbasket. Rockets' PA announcer and sports talk show host. One might get the impression Matt Thomas loves to hear Matt Thomas' voice.

Go ahead, Matt, talk for us. Matt Thomas Show continues. On Zisopo-Tock 790. Are we in Russia? I don't know. Ross v. Rial. Horrible accent artist. And Joe George, Brendan Riley, with you folks.

So you said you have a game for me? Yeah, we're going to play a game. Are we going to play? Do we need game show music? If we have it, yes. I mean, I have some. I guess we can go ahead. What is this game called?

All right, so this is going to be called just guess the quarterback. Guess that quarterback. So I'm going to redo a quote This is a show we This is the music we use for Will Joe No That was a rough game Brendan he basically quizzed me on like Cities

Basic geography and history And I think I got every question wrong You got like one or two right And just embarrassed myself on radio It was rough So we're gonna play guest to quarterback So I'm gonna review a quote Yeah see now you can embarrass me

And you're gonna just take a guess at which quarterback said this quote. Via Bleacher Report. Joe Cap. I know what I'm worth, and I know day in and day out without publicly coming in and saying it, that historically,

I'm one of the best quarterbacks to play the game. Guess that quarterback? Okay, so is a current NFL quarterback. Yes. I'm one of the... Say that again? You want the whole thing?

Yes, please. It's like a... It's like the spelling bee. I'm sorry, can you use that in a sentence? Okay. I know what I'm worth, and I know day in and day out, without publicly coming in and saying it, that historically, I'm one of the best quarterbacks to play the game.

Okay, well, it wouldn't be somebody that's actually, it's not Tom Brady. Definitely not. Philip Rivers. No. They're on a new team. There's your first hint. Ooh, on a new team. Well, Philip Rivers.

But not Philip Rivers. Not Tom Brady. Ted Teddy Bridgewater No Um Geez Recently had surgery

This off season Cam Newton's not on any Oh I know who it is I think James Winston Yes James Winston says He knows it historically

He is according to what According to what? According to what In what world Is James Winston one of the great In his world greatest to ever play the game. Doesn't he hold an NFL record?

Yes, he does hold an NFL record, and it's a dubious one. It's not a good record. A record is a record. That's true. I mean, but come on, man. James Winston says he's one of the best to ever do it. Now, I've been James Winston defender number one, mostly because he was on my fantasy team and I won the championship,

because he was throwing, we had six point touchdowns, and he threw a lot of those. Good call. And only minus two for interception, so we were good there. The league here? Yes, it was. Am I going to get invited into that now? Well, you know, there's a long list, all right? This is like trying to get

Green Bay Packer season tickets, pal. And besides, they already bumped me over you. Oh, that's true. You got to pay, if you want to pay a little extra, we can get you up. Look, he's looking upset he is. No, so, I mean, look. I'm like Matt Thomas right now.

I'm actually mad. I mean, the guy couldn't see and he had a broken thumb and he threw for 30 touchdowns. He can't be that bad. Did you see him squinting out on the field? Did he get Lakesick or something in the offseason? Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Look, the man... I'll tell you what, I'm trying to convince myself. Those pictures of him, like, squinting at the scoreboard. And during the season, they're so priceless. I really don't think he needed LASIC. You think he made it up? I think it was a spin zone by his agent. Really?

And just being like... Okay, well, he did play with a broken thumb. Let me ask you this. If he needed LASIC, does that mean he just didn't work contacts? Maybe. Did he choose not to wear contact? Maybe he was in denial. Clearly he's in denial about a lot of things that are going on in his life.

Maybe he was in denial about the quality of his vision. I mean, I think he got drafted in that ESPN thing that Brendan brought up yesterday. About like redrafting or whatever. Well, Cam Newton was like a third round pig in that one. And the guy doesn't even have a team. Was he a second round pick? I think so. I think James might get drafted.

I mean, I think he's one of the best 32 quarterbacks in the NFL. Who are all the, can we? have a well you know what we were talking about this yesterday on the a team i the one thing this redraft like taught me the NFL quarterback position is way weaker than i thought yeah once you get off the the first couple of handfuls of good quarterbacks it's really it really gets kind of bad because and some of it also taught me that ESPN riders don't know much about the teams except for the ones they cover hence why like drew lock went in the top 15 to the broncos i thought you were mr Lock.

I am, but there's no like you can... Yeah. You're putting your backpack on. I don't think he's... He's not the goat, but I just love him.

I'm a huge fan. Huge. Why are you a huge Drew Locke fan? Honestly, I don't know. It's you and like his family. That's the list. I think it's the rapping on the sideline just makes me love the guy.

The wrapping on the sideline is why you love him. He's got the swag. He's got the swag. He's the swag. You know what? He did come in here and kick the Texans ass up and down the field. He's a swag daddy. Swag Daddy.

Drew Locke. Okay. Way more. swag and way more talent than Baker Mayfield. Is that a good take or a bad take? You never know with Joe George take, honestly. You can spend it both ways. That's why, like today at 415 on the 18, we have the irresponsible hot take of the week.

Oh, can I get a preview of that? Can you tell us what's going to be the irresponsible hot take of the week? Literally cannot. Why not? Because I don't know yet. Oh, how about that one? Drew Locke is going to be better, more successful than Baker Mayfield. I don't think that's a hot take.

I think Baker Mayfield is going to be fighting for a job after the season. I mean, what was the big slide of Baker Mayfield was good in his first season? He's really inaccurate. I'm not a Baker guy. I thought that was an overdraft from the beginning. Like, like, now I love Kyler. I think Kyler Murray.

I'm probably way too high on Kyler Murray. Oh, I know, because you, you know what? I was listening to, uh, I think they can make the playoffs this year. Well, do you remember the declaration you made about Kyler Murray a couple of weeks ago in the sports RV show? No. You said he's going to be, he is your, he is the next Lamar Jackson. No, no.

As in that he is going to be a league winner for people in fantasy. No, I think if you draft Kyler Murray at the right time, he'll be a league winner. Because I think that's how much like rushing and passing yards will have this. He's got DeAndre Hopkins. Yeah. He's got a decent running game. Their offensive line is going to, I guess they're probably not great, but like Christian Kirk and Larry Fitzgerald.

They just took the, what's the U of H tackle? They took him in like the third round or whatever it was. Yeah, no, I just, I think if you draft Kyle Murray at the right time and fantasy and you so you're prioritizing other positions yeah I always draft a quarterback late that's how you end up with james winston yeah like it's all about getting the right quarterback and like lamar jackson was that guy so i think yeah Lamar jackson has definitely been a lead winner i'm not backing off that take okay i didn't ask you to back off that take i was just reminding you that you made that take so jamis winston thinks he's one of the best to ever do it james

winston was drafted in the nfl redraft that was put out yesterday by espn he was drafted 95th by the San Francisco 49. Ahead of what quarterbacks? Ahead of Tyrod Taylor, who was drafted in 97th. Okay. Ahead of Philip Rivers. And then undrafted guys. I'm trying to think who went undrafted.

I know. I think Duan Haskins went undrafted. Nick Foles. That's fine. How do you feel about Nick Foles and Mitcher Trubiskew going undrafted, Joe? I mean, if I was redrafting, I wouldn't draft. Foles. I also wouldn't draft Tyrod Taylor.

No, I don't think I would. And didn't you say there was like one team that ended up with like two running backs? That was the Chiefs. The Chiefs guy. The Chiefs guy drafted, the Chiefs guy drafted Stefan Gilmore, Dalvin Cook, Nick Chubb and Tyrod Taylor. That team's going to suck.

Imagine watching Patrick Mahomes in deciding you could wait till Tyrod Taylor on quarterback. I know. Tyrod Taylor. I know. I mean, maybe that's like the strategy of like, the redraft thing is fascinating. Like if you look at like how they redrafted these, the priority that some of these riders put on like the quarterback position, I do see the benefit of waiting. That's, uh, because like what's the value of drafting if you're going to redraft.

After a certain tier that you can wait. Okay, let's get. After basically tier one running back quarterback. Once you get to Teddy Bridgewater and Jimmy. Garapolo, I think there's an argument of you could wait at quarterback. Yeah, that's true. I also wouldn't have drafted either of those guys over Matthew Stafford. Matthew Stafford is a significantly better quarterback than Jimmy Garoppolo and Teddy Bridgewater.

I think that's fair. Whoa, and your boy Drew Locke, now you're getting serious. Matt Stafford is so underrated. Is he thrown for 5,000 yards once or twice? He's got back problem. Only once. Okay, only once for Matthew Starr. Oh, I know.

We got our Lions expert here. Okay, great. For the record, I'm very on Joe's side. He's been saddled with a terrible team his entire career, and so no one thinks about him as a great quarterback. It's just like that's what happens when you're on the lines. Barry Sanders, Matt Stafford, Calvin Johnson, great talent, never win. Megatron.

Poor guy. Sorry. This is just the way it goes. I'm not going to fight it. Yeah, well, there's really not a whole lot of argument to a lot of... I'm a Texans fan now, thank you. Oh, there you go. Well, good luck.

You'll transition quite fine from rooting for the, Lions to the Houston, Texas. Oh, the Texans have been okay. They just, disappointment has been happening. Yes, Thanksgiving. Oh, who are you going to root for? Are you going to wear a Lions beanie and a Texans jersey? It's going to depend on how the Lions are doing at that point.

Oh, come on. You've got to make a decision before the season. Yep. I mean, look, I'm never actually going to be a Texas fan over a Lions fan. But, I mean, I went to the Texans' Bill's playoff game, and that was like, unlike anything else I had gotten to do as a Lions fan. That has to be fun, yeah. It was really cool.

It was awesome. It was awesome. I was going to a game. ever? I've been to like two. One time, I went to like a Chargers game way back of the day, and then I went to the first playoff game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Right now I can get into the Ravens game for $46. Well, are you going to be able to get in?

That's such a hard question, because I know you can get your money back, but even if they're doing 50% capacity, because that's, I guess, what we're at now, right? Mm-hmm. So, but if I buy tickets, do I know? They're going to prioritize season ticket holders. If I buy two tickets. If I buy two tickets, are they just going to take one to me? They're going to be next to each other? Yeah, that's what is very confusing.

I don't know how they're going to do that. Like, if I tell my wife, like, hey, I bought tickets for us to go see the Ravens, beat down the Texans week too. I don't know. They're just taking the money and making interest of it right now. That's what they're doing. All right, they'll figure something out later. All right, time for a break here on the Matt Thomas Show. When we come back, what is the pressing news of the day?

We'll find out with some headlines next. Hey, Alexa, why don't you be sexy and put on some Houston's sports talk. Matthew, just say, Alexa. Hey, Alexa. Hey, Alexa. Play Sports Talk 790 on IHeart Radio. All right, all right. Now pass that.

Over here. Matt Thomas Show continues without Matthew Thomas. He continues to be out at Lake Charles. I believe he'll be back tomorrow. If not, you'll still have me. It's okay. You can hang out. Have some fun with us.

Talk, I don't know. When baseball's coming back? Some interesting stuff like that. So we do have a lot of sports news to get to. so that's why I wanted to bring in some headlines with Joe George. I love this first story. No, I am.

I just was trying to figure out of how long. Are you going to go? Are you going to go with the racy one right off the bed? No, I'm not. We're going with a different one. Oh, okay. Man breaks into Miller Park, where the Milwaukee Bruce play, stole a tractor,

tried to write his name on the field, causing $40,000 in damage. He destroyed the pitcher's mound. So he was, he stole into Miller Park, grabbed one of their tractors, and then he realized he didn't know what he was doing with the tractor. So he was like raising the bucket up and down trying to do his name in there. Okay. And then I guess, and then this is with a quote in here. Lambert told police he saw workers recording him with their phones.

So he decided to show off, the complaint said. He also shouted various things at grounds crew workers, so they would stay away from him. What? How drunk was he? You know, it doesn't say anything about him being toxic. Well, he's, okay, there is no stone sober man in America who is going to break into a baseball stadium. Here's the thing. And then try to carve their name into the field with a tractor.

It's also Milwaukee? What the hell else is there to do besides drink in Morocco? You can Shlameel and Shalazel. You can eat, you can drink Miller Light and you can eat cheese curds. Okay. I mean, look. It's a good life. I'm not going to try to sell you on a bunch of great things to do in Milwaukee.

But I will also tell you that they are one of the drunkest cities in America. A sneaky good ballpark also. Oh, is that right? I've never been to Miller Park. I love Miller Park. Did you go down the Bernie slide? No. Oh, why not?

That's stupid. That'd be cool. I think you could pay to do that after the games or something. You know, kids run the bases. It's like people go down to Bernie. I'm not going to pay that. You know you want to go down the Bernie slide. You're going to tell me your eight beers in, you wouldn't want to go down the

Burney Slide? Thank you. That's what I thought. So apparently this man's... Sober Joe and drunk job. This man breaks into the thing and he can't figure out how to operate the tractor? Yeah. Man.

Now, here's the thing. Where was the tractor? He found an unlocked door. Where did he get it from? Like, they left the stadium unlocked. They left the stadium unlocked? Yeah, and he just strolled in there. He just strolled in there and there was a tractor sitting somewhere on the field and he just tried to drive it.

I guess. Yeah. Probably spilled his beer. All right. some great sports news. Joseph, what else do you have on the headlines today? Currently, Michael Jordan is in a $3 million fishing tournament with his boat that is called Catch 23. And today... Catch 23. His team caught a 442 pound Marlin. Is that big? I don't know. Wait, how much?

442 pounds. I'm assuming that's like very... good. That sounds huge. What if like 700 pounds is like what you're supposed to catch? Here we go. The strikingly beautiful Blue Marlin is the largest of the Atlantic Marlins and one of the biggest fish in the world. Females are significantly larger than males can reach 14 feet in length

and weigh more than 1,885 pounds. This is a baby Marlin. This is such a great show for random facts. This average, thank you. That's what we'd like to bring you here on the, on the Matama show. Especially when it's Ross and I. Average sizes tend to be the range of 11 feet and 200 to 400 pounds. Okay.

So average is 200 to 400 pound Marlin. This one is 440-something pounds. And where is this tournament? Where does one catch a blue Marlin? I know you can do it off the coast of Mexico, right? This is in an Ocean City, Maryland. Maryland? Yeah.

Great tourist area also. Is that right? Yeah, my cousin got married out there. It's very fun. Okay. Let's take your word for it. It's like the Kima Boardwalk a little bit, but a little bit bigger. Not as hot.

Not as hot. Not as human. More beachy. Okay. I've pet a stingray out of the chemo boardwalk, good times. At the aquarium? Yeah. That doesn't count.

Why not? You pet the stingray. It's not a quorum. I was still in danger. I was still kind of scared. No. Yeah, I was. Stop.

You're not dangerous. I was scared. Well, okay. Well, tell the crocodile hunter that he's not in danger from a stingway. Well, you know I was going to go there? Well, you know how I was going to go there? Because one killed him. And he's supposed to be an expert.

Right? I'm not trying to take a stingray sting to the heart. Different size. Well, maybe. You're not swimming with it. What if I fell in? It's not deep water. It's still weird and scary.

All right, anyways, top 10 places to catch Monster Marlin. There is not anywhere, Maryland on this list. Are you a fisher? I used to fish a lot when I was a kid. I went deep sea fishing with my mom last year to catch some red snapper. That was good. I'm not fishing a long time. It was like a 12-hour trip.

You go four hours out of the water. You're out there for four hours, and then it's four hours back. On the way out, I got a little seasick. I didn't throw up. There were people throwing up. And I'm one of those people where if you smell throw up, it makes you throw up. So I'm actually very proud of myself that I was feeling a little nauseous, and I smelled vomit and I didn't throw up. So you're part of like the chain reaction.

Yes. That's basically, I don't do well with vomit smell. I just never have. Do you know anyone that does? No, but I mean, I feel like I have a more adverse reaction to the regular, than most people. That's fair. Dalvin Cook says he wants a reasonable contract, and if he does not get it, he will no longer participate in team activities and will be holding out.

Third in the NFL last year in Russia, I believe. But, man, he's got a lot of injury problems. I saw somewhere he wants $16 million a year. He's running backs are idiots. That's what Christian McCaffrey is making. I mean, I guess Dalvin-Curray. Cook fancies himself in that category. He's not.

He's not, but he thinks he is. I mean, if he's healthy, he is. Didn't he tear his ACL earlier? I mean, they have a good backup. Don't they have Alexander Madison or something like that? Yeah, they just got, I think they had Madison, yeah. Mama don't let your babies grow up to rerunning backs. There's just...

Are we writing a country song? Yeah. I mean, Christian McCaffrey got his big deal. He's 24. I think that's fine. I think you wouldn't want to pay a running back, a huge multi-year contract pass around that age.

Honestly, I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever draft a running back before the second round. I would go third round or later. And as soon as that contract is coming to an end, you trade them for whatever you can get and draft more. Yeah, and then pick them up. It is a waste of a position. Yeah, I agree.

Look at Carlos Hyde. Like Carlos Hyde Hide rushed for a thousand yards, and then no one wanted them. Nobody. No one wanted them. That's true. He was affected. He was a $1 million. He's not much of a pass catcher, not much of versatile running back, so you understand why his market's got to be limited. But the Texans running game was solid last year. And like you said, he went over 1,000 yards.

Yeah, being a running back, I mean, I'm sorry, these are the sign of the times. It used to be like the premier running position that is like Earl Campbell's and no doubter, number one, number one. You had Ricky Williams and what's his name, Mike Dickett, trading his entire draft for Ricky Williams and stuff like that. It's just, it's just not like that anymore. Yeah, great move, coach. They didn't have any draft picks for the entire year. These guys, once they get in position, like, no matter, it seems like if you're a really good coach or player, you're just guaranteed to be awful as a general manager.

Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan, Mike Dicca, maybe it's a Chicago thing. But, like, name like the last great... It's a different skill set. That was a player or... Like, the last great player who was a good coach and the last great coach who was a good GM. Danny Angel wasn't a great player I guess he's been pretty

I mean Larry Byrd had some pretty good success as the coach of the Pacers he pushed Michael with Reggie Miller in that time I think it's certainly in a day like today where you need to you need analytics departments you need those types of evaluations

where it's becoming less and less important and people are realizing that gut feel isn't going to get you as far as it used to and you need to be doing all this type of different types of advanced scouting yeah I think it's going to become even more increasingly difficult for a star player to be a general manager or any former player. But anyways, thank you for the headlines there, Joseph.

We've got to take a quick break here on the Matt Thomas Show. 713-2125790 is the phone number if you'd like to get in. 713-212579. Final segment of the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas is next. The morning sports show for those who partied in Midtown way too hard last night. The Matt Thomas Show. on Sports Talk 790. 247 in the PM.

Sports Talk 790. Ross Villarreal, no Matt Thomas on the Matt Thomas show. Joe, George, Brendan Riley with you folks. Matt should be back tomorrow. It's a little time to get on the phones if you'd like. 713, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 5. 790, 7, 7, 1, 3, 2, 5, 790. So a report coming out from

sham shiraniah recently. The Lakers reportedly have interest in Bradley Biel. And they would like to add him, or they've had interest in him at different points. So Bradley Biel so far has been connected to the heat. Yes. The Nets. Okay.

The Lakers. I saw someone, I think it might have been like SB Nation, so not credible, but suggested if the Rockets don't do all in the playoffs, trading Westbrook for Beale. Beal's definitely getting traded at some point. Is it kind of weird that I, look, I was Russell, I want to say Russell Westbrook hater, but when that trade was made,

I've talked about this on air, I was heading up into the mountains and I was going to lose service for a couple of days. Yeah. And literally the moment, the moment before it happened, somebody texted me, Russ question mark. And I didn't know, I was like,

would Russell Westbrook do something? as Byron Russell and then Brian Russell in the news? What is happening? So I went immediately to Woge, saw that the rockets had traded for him, and I was floored. And my additional reaction was lukewarm. I didn't know. I mean, I liked Chris Paul. I know he had lost a step.

He wasn't himself in the 2019 playoffs, all of those things. But I just was so scared of Crazy Russ. Yeah. And towards the last part of him being a Houston Rocket, Crazy Russ hadn't been anywhere. Crazy Russ has been not shooting threes. He had been not doing a bunch of crazy turnovers. He'd been getting straight to the basket. The small ball thing helps him out with the floor spread.

Not a soul in the NBA can stop him from getting to the basket or creating off of getting to the basket. Remember the Utah Jazz, we haven't even talked actual basketball, so this is like not even somewhere in the recesses of my brain. The Utah Jazz using Rudy Gobert as a primary defender for Russell Westbrook. because they know he's not going to shoot threes. I mean, he was great. Yeah, I would hate, I know if it, like, it doesn't work, especially like hearing Daryl's comments that we played earlier in the show today, that he feels like he has failed James Harden.

I would hate to see this experiment be destroyed after a year. Like, I want a full, another season of small ball, but maybe some severe roster tweaks, but with Russ and James at the helm, like I don't think there's any way you change it. But Bradley Beals definitely going to move. I just don't know to who for what I just he's his time with the wizards is he's being connected to way too many people it's he's constantly being it's like at some point there's enough smokers fire. So I think he definitely what's his contract situation?

It's big. It's big and there's a reason why Russell Westberg makes sense of a trade partner for him if you're going to look at just contract wise because that's the kind of it's a Bradley Beal Chris Paul Russell. Westbrook, like, it's going to take a certain level of money. Like, I don't see how the Lakers could afford him. Exactly. Like, I don't see how the Lakers could pull it off. You'd have to probably ship Danny Green. I mean, they have to trade most of the roster. I don't know what kind of contract,

um, like Rondo. Yeah, Dwight Howard or Rondo. They're not on big money contracts. Nobody's really on a big money contract outside of LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Yeah, I don't, I don't think, like, same with the net. I don't understand how they could pay it off. Yeah, and these days in the NBA, it's very difficult to have a big three. It's more of a big two of the duos is what you have. You know, the Quay Leonard's and the Paul Georges, the Russell Westbrook's and the James Harden, the Anthony Davis and LeBron James.

And one of the big reasons for that is because of the max contracts and the salary count. Yeah. And Anthony Davis is going to be fascinating too because I don't think he's going to, I don't think he's going to opt out. And I don't think he's actually going to hit for agency. No, I don't think there is any way that he's going to be fascinating. could or should. Like, at one point, I thought he was going to opt out and just get that max contract now. But after everything that's going on, I'm not sure it makes sense financially.

I think they would just extend him without him hitting. I don't think he's going to hit free agency. They're just going to throw him a fat extension. I would say. I think Anthony Davis is going to hit free agency. You think so? Yeah, I think he wants to be pampered a little bit. You think he wants to be taken care of?

He wants shrimp dinners? Yeah. I think Anthony Davis wants, like, the LeBron treatment. That's what I would do if I was a free agent. I would get so many free steak dinners. I'd be like, yeah, I'll go like, yeah, Chicago, I'm thinking about coming home. There was one of the times when Carmelo Anthony was like a free agent

and the Rockets took him out to some fancy dinner and he even called him back. Was that before he signed with the Knicks? I think before he went back to the Knicks or something like that. Okay. I think so. I don't know. I was trying to he was traded to the Knicks.

So it had been before he signed back there. Is that right? I can't remember. I think so. I'm very confused about the career arc of Carmelo Anthony. That's going to be one of those all-timers But the... He's like the Charles Barkley of this era

Explain Really, really, really talented player Never won anything Seemed to have problems Pretty much everywhere He went with teammates of some kind Or coaching Olympic success

Is this crazy In like four playoff series? Yeah, I think is it crazy to say Charles Barkley better than Carmelo Anthony? No, definitely I just think like he's the He's the Barclay of this era

Okay or is that Chris Paul No because Barclay won playoff series Chris Paul's one two play three playoff series I don't think Carmello's won very many more than Chris Paul Yeah I guess we could probably

I mean we could find figure that out No he went to the Western Conference Finals with Alan Iverson Right Once in the Denver Nuggets Yeah I think that's right And I think he had at least one Relating on those teams as well Dude I used to love those nuggets

Seams Did you really? AI I was a big nuggett's yeah I was a big Gets fan growing up for some reason. I think I just like the uniforms. And then I really... The powder blues? I loved Carmilla.

Those uniforms were pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. I forgot he spent his first several years. It's not when they... I think he re-s... He ended up resigning with the Knicks or something. I'm trying to figure out when...

And that's when he met with the Rockets. And then Carmelo Anthony met with the Rockets and didn't end up coming over here or something like that. But, uh, there you go. Bradley... Is Chris Paul or... That's a good question. Who's had a better career?

Chris Paul or Carmelo Anthony. Chris Paul. I agree with that. Who's had a better career? Chris Paul or Charles Barkley. I'm going Barclay. The MVP, to me, that's the biggest thing that you can put on your resume. It's the MVP.

Now, obviously, you should have gone to Michael Jordan as it should every single year. When did he win at? 93, I think Barclay won it. So, I don't know, man. Those sun seems pretty good. Barkley was really good in multiple places. But I think it's close. I think so, too. Well, Draymond Green, of course, we'll put himself ahead of all of them.

Draymond Greens. He's an idiot. it. He's so overrated. He's a nobody. I'm not going to call him a nobody. If he's on any team besides the Warriors, he's a nobody. He's a good, I will say he's like a

he's a great three. Like the Knicks will pay him a max contract when he's a free agent. And ruin their franchise. I think he's just great. It's Nix 101, right? Pay Draymond Green and Max contract? No, I would hope they wouldn't want that.

They can't be that foolish. But he's a perfect three. Dennis Robynne was a great three on championship teams Horace Grant a great three on championship teams

I think that's basically where Dremong Green if you have two players that are really really good ahead of him your team

and he's your third best player your team's going to be successful he's a defensive player of the year multiple time first team

all defense good passer play small ball five playmaker now a German guy shoots with a backpack on his back

I really don't I don't think Dremon green I think he's a problem productive of this environment. And Dennis Rodman is an all-time

great rebounder. That's true. He's just a great defense player. What do he average? Six points a game or something like that outside? He's like an all-time defensive player and all-time

rebounding. Draymond, well, Rodman was like two or three-time defensive player of the year, but Draymond was a defensive player of the year. He's been in the argument

a couple of times. So, and all of that has been dictated by my Siri on my watch for some reason. All right, that's going to do it for the Matt Thomas show. I want to say thanks. First of all,

Joe George, sitting in the last couple of days. Thank you very much, Joseph. Thank you. Great job, as always. Brennan, thank you for producing. My name is Rosvia Reale. I want to thank you for listening, calling, tweeting,

being involved in the show in any way. Coming up next, you have Adam Wexer. Adam Clanton. It is the A-Team. Coming up next, 3 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790.