The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - NBA Is Back, Craig Ackerman & Cayleigh Griffin, Non-Florida Stories

Episode Date: June 4, 2020

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 12-1 in H-town. What's happening in Lunchtimmers? Good afternoon to you. Welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Alongside Brendan.

I'm so thinking of a nickname. Go B, what a B, just regular B, I can call him Brendan, whatever. We'll figure that out. We know you as sports RV, Rossville, O'Reale. I'm Matt Thomas, and we are here to hopefully entertain you, make you laugh a little bit. How about Huggy Bear? I don't think a grown-ass man wants to be called Huggy Bear. Do I look like somebody you would hug? Yes.

And a bear. Do you sweat profusely? Oh, definitely. Okay, then I'm not going to touch you. Hashtag social distancing Want to play basketball with me? No, no. Are you the guy that's sopping wet and nobody wants to guard you?

I am and it goes very well for me. Wow, okay. So we have to get, well, Chris Gordy is that guy too. So if we have you, if I'm playing against you, I want Gordy on my team and we'll make you guys guard each other. No, no, no, no. You put us on the same team and we run other teams because no one will guard either of us. I'll put both you on my team then. Where's Joe George going to play?

Is he the sixth man? Yeah, he's going to have to be. I knew it would take you two seconds to come in here and argue about that. It's going to have to be our Earl Boykins. Oh, no, here it comes. It didn't tank long. It did not take long.

We did it somewhat intentionally. All right. Today is, we're down the home stretch of the week. I will say on behalf of you, me, America. Yes. We need a little deep breathing. Sort of like George would be on the basketball court. A lot of deep breathing.

that I would agree with How's that jump shot looking Joe? I tease because I care. It's a little wet. Oh, okay. Crispy? Nothing but I don't know. I'm supposed to say crispy

shot but it's between now and the end of the season? Man, not when you're 47, no, it's fine. I'll be 48 tomorrow, by the way. Okay. I expect plenty of gifts from both of them. I forgot. I already got you a gift. You did.

I got your dream journal. I got your Chinese food last week. Oh, so you're good. So Brendan, what are you going to give me tomorrow? I got you a new producer. There you go. Well, all right. Is it good?

Well, we're going to find. out. The key's going to be how quick you can get to the sound bites and music and stuff, because 713, 212. How was I'm not trying on the show? I know your mind's on the 8tham anyway. 713-212-5-7.9. You saw you reach our show today. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. The return of college athletics slowly but surely coming into play, the University of Houston's welcome their athletes back. And Governor Abbott yesterday said that 50% of college and pro venues can be opened up for fans.

So if you are cart before the horse or your glass half full, you're thinking now Minutemate Park could put 20,000 people in the stadium, and NRG could put 35,000 in. Now, these are open-air stadiums. I don't know if the arenas are, I think they are a different animal. So we'll talk to Chris Pezman about that, and then what it's like having college kids back on the campus working out, because it feels like to me, Rossi, that college and pro football are trying their damnedest to stay right on schedule.

To say, we, well, we're going to take all the proper precautions, but we want to play. We don't want to make massive adjustments to our schedule. And I think that's, they've been the most consistent. Baseball can't get a schedule out. The NBA is trying to, but college and pro football want to keep it as is. That's a good sign. I think, yeah, it is a good sign. and we still have, I mean, we held these fears about which schools are going to come back and which arm,

but I don't know, does it feel like things are trending in the direction of most everybody in the country is going to have the ability to come back or at least the option to come back? It does because especially the states that were the most volatile in our minds, California, Washington, and New York have all started to reopen things. Yes. Those, to me, were the ones that you had to really concern yourself with. So we'll talk to Chris about that at 1.30. Obviously, the main headline of not only sports.

but really life has been Drew Breeze, his comments yesterday, and the backlash that he has received from America, but most importantly, teammates. And, you know, when you do these shows, you just don't want to have the same regurgitated commentary that you may hear in previous shows or what you see on social media. So I'm going to speak from, and I'm honestly to the harp, but I'm just going to speak practically because this is a show.

And Ross, you and I've been together for 10 years now. You know we are as lighthearted as it gets. We tease because we care. We don't get really heavy-handed in this stuff except for when the absolute most important times are. And so this is not a comfortable zone for me to be in, frankly. I didn't get in the business to talk politics or talk about social aspects half the time, but sometimes you just got to do it. So I'll do it. And I will say this.

clearly whether you agree or not about what Drew has said. And think about this for a second, before we get into the apology, is that when he said what he said, do you realize Ross, you and I talk all the time about being 50-50, right? 50% of people are going to, you take a stand on something that's going to love what you say, and 50% are going to call you the worst person on Earth, no matter what your angle is. Agree, for the most part. So yesterday, for the most part, 50% of America, applauded what Drew Brie said.

The other 50% called him the worst human being alive, burned jerseys, teammates were calling him names, massive backlash. Did people burn his jersey? There was one person. And again, I don't like to use people. There was a person. And it wasn't even a real jersey.

It wasn't even a real jersey. It was one of those faux jersey. It was a gold black mesh, but the guy just put all sorts of gasoline on it. And it took him like third. I mean, it was just, it was an awful day. No, so instead, so today he apologizes, and now he's got 100% of America mad at him

because the 50% that didn't believe in to begin with, it's like you just did it because you think it was the right thing to do. The other 50% that was on his side said, why did you apologize for something you feel strongly about? So instead of having half America mad at him, all of America's mad at him. That goes to the territory. Well, he should have, when he says, he apologized and he says he completely missed the mark, he's absolutely right.

Because his thing was, I don't want people disrespecting the flag. And nobody's disrespecting the flag. When Colin Kaepernick is kneeling, if you think he's trying to disrespect the flag, you're missing the mark. Like Drew Brie said. It was about police brutality. It was about inequality in America, all which things are that happen. And so it got caught up in this whirlwind about how it's people are disrespecting the troops or something. Kaepernick never said anything about disrespecting the troops? And that was never the message

in the first place. So Drew Brees did miss them, but did miss the mark. So one of the things I have learned as I've gotten older, and I bear the responsibility of raising three children in the society of ours, is that just because I think, and I'm not even saying this is the case, I'm saying this is in this particular case, just because you think a philosophy is the right philosophy or the wrong philosophy or is a philosophy that should not be considered, well, you're being too sensitive. It doesn't mean that it isn't, that it is insensitive. It doesn't mean that it needs to be thought about. And what Drew Brees did yesterday is he took a stance on something he believed in that obviously his teammates, a lot of people in his NFL fraternity in his own locker

for that matter, Ross, thought it was inappropriate and insensitive and did not vibe with what should be what the kneeling was. And so sometimes you have to read your room. Sometimes you have to read your teammates. There may be things that I say to you that may not bother you, but it may bother another member of our 790 staff. And I'm not trying to use us as a radio station example,

but we're the close thing to a fraternity because we all work at the same place. And this could be for any of you that are in your workplace. So what Drew did yesterday is he said some things, that angered his teammates, that disappointed their teammates. Because when you're a quarterback, you are a leader, whether you want to or not. I don't know of an NFL team that doesn't use its quarterback as its number one leadership spot. So he misread the room.

He doesn't understand why the people, why the players put a knee on. on the ground and probably didn't take the opportunity to go find out why. And that was probably his biggest misstep. Because if he really knew the reasons why each of those players, especially in his own teammates, he doesn't have time to go ask every NFL player whether they put the knee down for. But he certainly had time to ask his New Orleans teammates and the people that he considered closer on the NFL. If he would have done that, Ross, then he never would have said what he said.

because most of them excuse me I'm going to interrupt you most of them not most of them I'd say all of them didn't do it as a slam towards the American flag or anything that represents American flag yeah and it's it ties back into the comments that we have from Bill O'Brien yesterday

Bill O'Brien said he's had these conversations he understands what Romeo Cornell has gone through he understands why Kenny Stills Niels because Kenny Stills you know why because he had a conversation with him so that just kind of tells me that Drew Brees isn't having these conversations with the players or doesn't want to have those conversations with the players

and never has. So I don't want to say, you know, Drew Brees wasn't coming from a place of hate. Drew Bleece was just coming from a place where he just did not understanding. And I think you have to be, if you're going to make statements and you're going to be outspoken by anything,

you've got to think about, you got to have a little foundation to it. And you got to understand that, are you sure what you're so, against is really for the right reasons. And that's one thing I've learned since Colin Kaepernick situation. My first blush thought four years ago when it happened was, why are you attacking the flag?

And I've come to learn by watching and hearing from athletes over the last four or five years that it was a lot more than it was not, it was more, it was way more than disrespecting the flag. So he took this stance without really, I don't want to say doing his homework, but just not checking. Yes. Not getting the sense of why are you doing this? It said, because Michael Thomas tweeted out, the Saints Michael Thomas, he don't know no better.

That's what he tweeted out. So the first thing he said. And that's kind of where I was like, well, he just doesn't know. So the thing that really disappointed me yesterday was what he said and the backlash. And then he had teammates that probably Ross, a lot of easier could have just picked up the phone and talked to him. They ran to their Instagram and social media accounts. And that's why I hate social media sometimes. Malcolm Jenkins, yeah, he put that video out.

He said he did talk to Drew Breeze even before putting the video out. But he wanted, I can't remember. And now he has since taken it down. I think when he first put it out, he said something like he wanted to show his raw emotion and how he felt, but he did speak with Drew Breeze and they had a productive conversation. Yeah. So I guess that's why he did eventually take it down. Yeah.

So all I would say is this, if anybody at this radio station or in this, company or people I work with, whether it be the Houston Rockets or this team or this 790 team, that anybody have a problem with anything I would say, I would like to talk to you about this man to man before I would run to a social media. Yeah, I got a lot of problem with your tweets, Matt. Well, yeah, I know you do. You tell me this all the time. See, we converse about it. We converses. We are, we're open. That's one of the things I do love about Ross, and I say this in all sincerity, is that if we've ever had a problem, which I don't think we've had maybe a half a problem in 11 years. I mean, it's got to be just because I've screamed or something

because I was out of control. But don't think about what I've said, right? You know, just my zero to 60 sometimes. But, Brandon, you're a new part of our family. If there's anything that you ever thought I was offended you by something. I would like for you to come to me. And this is, and I would deal with this with anything. I would rather you come to me and say, hey, Matt, I got a problem with this as compared to. And I'm not saying that Malcolm Jenkins is the only one's ever done this. A lot of people do this. LeBron does it a lot. Instead of calling the person, He runs the social media as soon as possible. So I would just say if we could, if you want to eliminate things in 2020,

we could take a big massive social media break and be okay with it, right? I would totally be okay with that. With another election coming up? Oh, God. I got so depressed yesterday by seeing the amount of hate because I can remember watching Good Morning America. I don't run a little bit late here. I'll get to a second here.

I watched Good Morning America. And Drew Brees about three months ago gave $5 million to, I believe. Was it food banks? I just, various COVID relief efforts. And he drew the woman on the Today Show, wasn't a Good Morning America, it was Hoda Koppi that does the Today Show. She was drawn to tears. She was just like, this is as genuine and as nice as the thing as anybody thinks. And I think Drew, and I don't know Drew, I don't follow the saints.

Chris Gordy, have a better answer this. Chris comes across and Gordy tells me that the guy is a hero. And he made a terrible mistake yesterday. He did not understand. how hurtful his comments were, especially to his teammates. And I would just hate for someone to have one slight error in judgment, not slight, as a major judgment, one error in judgment comments were, especially to his teammates. And I would just hate for someone to have one slight error in judgment, not slight, as a major

in judgment, one error in judgment to crucify him for the rest of his career. And I think already in the last 24 hours since he has apologized, I think some of his teammates have come back to embrace. And that's what I want. I want all of us as a society. And again, I don't want to get on my soapbox. I want all of us in society to say that, you know, sometimes we make dumb mistakes. And I will also say in his defense, it's not like he came out and made a statement.

He was asked a question in an interview. Yeah. And so you get put on the spot sometimes. Sure. Maybe you're not prepared. Yeah. And maybe you say something you shouldn't have said. Yeah.

So I just, he made a big mistake. And I hope that he, because he is a least. leader can fix that. And I think he's going to do everything he can to do so. And so, again, I don't think there's even a question of whether he should say it or not or who he supports or he doesn't support or who should support him. He hurt some people. And sometimes if you hurt your friends, you hurt your teammates, you've got to figure out a way to fix that. And I think Drew's going to have to spend some time doing that. 1215, the Matt Thomas show, 130 today, Chris Pezman on the return of athletics at the University of Houston. 239,

Florida Stories. And you guys are welcome to join us right now. 713, 21, 2,000, 5. 790. 713. 212.5.790 on Twitter at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Joe George Radio. With the message here for bronze roof, which you'd 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, BRAUNSroofing.com. Bronzeroofing.com.

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bronze-roofing.com. Lance McCullors. Back to Matt Thomas. Curve-ball swinging a mid-strike three. On Sports Talk 790. Your home for Houston Astros baseball. We allow you, folks, because we love you, and loves a relative term,

but I generally speaking love you, are willing to talk about anything you all want to get to. and I just, I wanted to get the Drew Bree's commentary started. We got a lot of other things to get to, but it's, and it's just not easy for me. Because I'm so torn, I'm so upset. And it's not because I'm upset because it's what he said or didn't say or the reaction was.

I'm just, it's, we have had such a lousy 2020, Ross. I, I need some intense, really good news. And, um, Mr. Floyd's death has affected me. It's affected my family. It's affected our country. Drew Brees's comments created a further divide. I hate seeing a jersey being burned. I hate seeing someone who, by all accounts, has been considered a local hero in New Orleans.

Get trashed by so many people so quickly. $5 million was to the state of Louisiana for coronavirus relief efforts. Anybody who gives $5 million of their own money for coronavirus is not a bad. I hate that his teammates were so hurt. Again, there's just so much hate right now. Michael Thomas has tweeted in the last few minutes about it as well. And he said, one of my brothers made a public statement yesterday that I disagreed with. He apologized and I accept it because that's what we were taught to do as Christians. Now back to the movement. Hashtag George Floyd.

Sounds good. Sounds good. All right. 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-2.790. 7-1-3-2. 2125790. If you'd like to reach out to us that way, you can certainly do so on Twitter at SportsM-T, at SportsR-V-R-V-E-R-Gorge Radio. Brendan, you've got a Twitter account, but I just barely got your name right, so there's no chance I could possibly get your Twitter, right? Oh, it's really easy. It's Brendan Riley underscore. Yeah, but Riley is spelled 10 different ways. It's spelled the right way. Okay. It's R-I-L-E-Y.

Okay. Brendan Riley on Twitter. All one word? All one word. Oh, there's no chance. R-E-I-L-L-E-Y? No, no, don't confuse the audience. Boom. Followed. Oh, he follows me already. Thanks, Brendan.

Wow, you're a little late to the game. I was prepared. I am late. So you followed us before you even got the job, or you just, as you knew, you were going to get the job? Tell the truth. Teddy truth. Yeah, no. I followed the station before I knew I was going to get the job.

I don't know if I followed you guys. Okay. Well, we're not going to disappoint you. Especially me. I have lost 40 followers in the last couple weeks. No, you know what it is? I did a little checking about why. why people are losing so many followers, a lot of people in the last two weeks have just

deactivated their accounts. In fact, one of my really close friends unfollow me, I'm like, what the hell that I do? And he goes, no, it's not you. I've just, social media has become such poison that they needed to take a time off. So I guess if you just deactivate. If you deactivate, you don't see any of it as compared to just saying, well, I'm not going to go look at it, but you wind up looking at it. So that's what's happened, I think.

I'm really going to be put to the test come about November. Yeah, let's take a look at what could be happening. We might not have a baseball season. Yes. We might have a delay in a college football and pro football seasons. There will be no basketball at that point. We're not going to have basketball. Well, we want to basketball until the end of July.

And we have a presidential election coming up. What could possibly go wrong? It's like, Ross, you know, we're always trying to think of, you know, what's that show, Shark Tank? Yes. there's got to be a nice Twitter that's what I want I want sports only Twitter well you can do that

even though you don't know you have to I mean the mute button has been huge I tweeted out a graph yesterday about how my enjoyment of Twitter goes up the more accounts a mute a proportional a proportional graph or whatever yeah what I'm thinking about is this Brendan you can jump on this because Joe George

doesn't care about us anymore How about we have a 24? Oh, hi, Joe. No, Joe, you know, Joe you can do this. You're part of the family, Joe. Who's doing the non-Floristory, by the way? Joe's doing. He's got two this week. What involves a death? He's going to go with that one. Oh, is it from Spain?

Yes, everybody's seen it. So you bet you check that off the list. I figured. How about with this? We hire another one. You do? That's fine. We'll give him the scraps. I don't want Joe's scraps. Well, I might.

How about this, guys? Why don't we build a service that has a lot of, Twitter filter person at all times. No. We pay a monthly fee. You're going to have to pay thousands of people. That's fine. But if the tweets aren't nice or funny, they don't get published.

It's a live tweet filter. Yeah. It's a live tweet filter. Yeah, that's not practical. But neither is Remoteforu.biz, and that hasn't stopped you. Let me tell you about Remote for You.biz. It's going so well that I'm considering putting on the New York Stock Exchange.

There's no sports right now. So RemoteForU.Biss is pointless. Well, here's the thing. You go to your favorite restaurant. Do you really want to watch the 2001 California versus Arizona College World Series of softball? Yeah, we might. No. Because let's say that you're in the-

If LSU's involved, Gordy does. Well, he's the only one. But if there's a really, like if Texas versus USC is on for the 9 millionth time on the Longhorn network. I've already seen it 20 times. But people don't know where the Longhorn Network is. Remoteforu.com. It's not a common channel. I thought most people had it tattooed on their bice.

What channel is the Longhorn Network on DirecTV? Do you have an answer? He's got nothing. I do not know. See? I do not know. No, do I. What channel is it Ross on DirecTV?

I don't have DirecTV, so I wouldn't know. What channel is it on the cable? It's not on Xfinity, so they don't carry it. That's why Remoteforu.biz will work. So if any of you would like to send up a GoFundMe account to expand what remotefrey can be, I'll give you a free t-shirt. Is that 10-year deal for the Longhorn Network almost? It's got to be close to being over, right?

What the, isn't it, is it the greatest college scam in the history of scams? What do you mean? Oh, August 2011. So one more year left. And then it will go away. And I'm sure it would be going to the way. There's no chance it survives, correct? Well, if Texas wins the national championship or is really good this year, they might have a shot at getting it redone at a smaller number.

Who would even advertise on that? Well, have you seen it? No. It's mostly promos for the network. Sure. And then it's like things around Austin, Stubbs Barbecue. or thread gills. No, threadgills is gone. Oh, that's gone. By the way, rest in peace to a variety of restaurants. Let's start with threadgills.

Rip. Let's go to Barry's pizza. Rip. Lubies is now being sold again. What? Yeah. Well, that's fine. I haven't been there in years. Rip. Don't you hate on Lubies? It's not great. It's fine. I mean, it's fine. I used to love going there when I was a kid. Fried fish, mac and cheese at Lubies? When's the last time he went to a Lubies? Within the last six months. What's the last time?

How many times you've been in the last five years? Five. So once a year. Yeah. Okay. Can I take you to Luby sometime next week? I'll go. I haven't been.

And probably the last time I was at Lubies, honestly, was probably once within the last 10 years. I see, the thing is, I don't know about Lubies is the fact that are they going to serve all those different items available? This goes to our conversation about how hometown cooking places haven't been surviving. Like the black eyed pee, gone, thread gills, gone. gone. Lubes issues. What else? What's the cafeteria on Bissanet? Cleveland, is that the Cleveland Capernteria?

I know. I do other things on Bissonet. Bernie's. Burney's. Borgie's. Well, that's true. Well, that's a humptape. That's because everything's so expensive. They can't keep up. Like, the price of meat and everything. Is it not good?

Why are you in Saturn dialing in for us? It sounds like you're on a, it sounds like you're in an aluminum can. Yeah. Are you calling from a phone booth? Yes. Okay. We're put in a trouble ticket. Yeah, it'll be service eventually.

Patronella's on Jackson Hill. Somebody, Joan, is tweeting on? Oh, no. I don't know what that is. I've only been once. We're losing the authentic Houston area iconic type restaurants. That's my 20-20 sex. And someone is telling me to ask you why you're blocking them.

They didn't do anything, but they don't follow me, so I'm not going to tell you who it is. Yeah. So why don't you fought? Why don't, yeah. Why don't you... Don't tweet me trying to say, Can Matt unblock me if you don't even follow me? Yeah.

Come on, man. Yeah, you show me during the break. We don't get me. No, I'm not going to say you. Okay, good. 1230, sports talk 790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. 7-1-3-1-2-5-7-90.

If you want to reach out through Twitter, it's at SportsM-T, at SportsM-T, at Spray-R-L-E-L-E-Y, right? Underscore. Where's the underscore? At the end. I was just adding it for you. you. Brendan Riley underscore? Yes. The regular

Brennan Riley was taken. And it has like 17 followers. Is there a famous Brendan Riley I don't know about? No. He said he's got 17 followers. You've only got 17? No, the other guy. The regular Brennan Riley was taken. And it has like 17 followers. Is there a famous Brendan Riley I don't know about? No. He said he's got 17 followers.

You've only got 17? No, the other guy. Oh. Okay. We're just trying to shape you for the future, my friend. I even followed him hoping he'd follow me back so I could try and get the at, but he wouldn't follow me back. You know who won't follow me on Twitter is Matt Thomas, the Toronto Raptor. What's he care about Houston Sports? Well, he cares that we often get confused for each other. That's not, nobody's ever confused you for him.

They said, Matt, I love your sharpshooting skills. Thank you. No, I don't think so. I think they do. All right, don't get confused about where you should save money on your home policy. Get with TGS insurance. Text the word money. M-O-N-E-Y to 23-23-23-23-23-23.

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M-O-N-E-Y to 23-23-23 and start saving Big with TGS Insurance. Hey, it's James Arden. What a pass. What a finish. Listen to your home of the rockets on your smart speaker, just as. Hey, Google, play sports talk 790 on IHR radio. That is something else, folks. Report out today.

Not that I don't know if a lot of people care about it, but it just shows you the sign of the times. Major League Baseball broadcasters have been told, not officially, but very unofficially, that no one's going to travel this year for broadcasters. That you'll do the home game. You're right. I'm talking about this baseball season. You think it's my baseball season?

I ask you this every day. I said yes. Yesterday? I'm going to say yes today, too. It's going to be a complete sham of a season. and it's going to be asterix filled. Anything less than 80 games makes it a complete asteris. The toughest part of this whole pandemic has been saying asterisk.

Yeah. You should probably, like for a while, I couldn't say Benardric McKinney. And you still can't. Okay. Benardrick. Could you imagine me having dinner with Benadryk McKinney at a restaurant off of Pinemont? Oh, yes. Yeah.

Look at you. Yes. Matt. Yes. You're so articulate, Matthew. No, I'm not. It's not a strong suit. But there's just a handful of words I just can't get down.

Don't say articulation is not your strong suit. You're on the radio every day. I speak of the truth. There's like 10 words I just don't like. Okay. When I was a kid. Moist? Well, I can say moist, but I just don't like saying it.

Like when I was a kid, I couldn't say certificate. Oh, really? Like, you know, what could you get in your stocking? Like, do you ever get McDonald's gift certificates in your stocking when you were a kid? No. Did you hand those out when you were a teenager because you worked there? We used to get... Not their gift cards, but now they used to be, they used to be like paper dollars.

Stocking every year would maybe be a couple of gift cards and then definitely socks and a toothbrush. Would it be okay if we did a fantasy five tomorrow of things in your stocking? Ooh. What do you think? I got a couple of good ones. Yeah, let's do it. Can we come to ten? Can we get ten?

Yeah, oh yeah. Ten different things. Absolutely. Tens that we like? Because, I mean, I would get a toothbrush every year, but I didn't want a toothbrush. No, 10 things. I would get socks every year. I don't want socks.

10 things you would want inside of your, five things you'd want inside of your stocking. And let's put a max price on it at $100. Okay. So you can't go like a gold ring or something. Right. And if you get a gift card of, I mean, I guess every company, you could do five gift cards, but that would be kind of a lame stocking, right? Can you say gift cards in general?

Yeah. I just take the category away. That's a powerful one. It's powerful. You might have to take the number one over all pick for that one. Okay, well, let's, we'll table that. It's kind of an odd one this time of year.

We'll let this one bake. Yeah. It's on the stove. It's just some simmer at this morning. So back to what I was saying. So in the stockings, we'd get McDonald's gift certificates. Mm-hmm. And they were paper, they were like dollars. Yeah.

And they have, the little perforation on it. You'd have to tear them off. Ronald bucks? Yeah, but I'd always ask my mom for gifts. gift certificates, can't say now, gift certificates, and I would never say it properly. Okay. And I moved on to other words like, um, Bednarric. No.

Benardric. Benarderick. Benarderick. Benard. Bernarderick. Yes. You always want to call him Chuck Bednaric. Yeah, I know.

And we're going to Pinemont at the Hooters over there. Or the Twin Peaks. Or the Twin Peaks. On Pinemont. Eats, drinks, scenic views. Very soon. Are those girls doing okay? Went to one in Beaumont a couple weeks back.

How was that? Eats, drinks, and scenic views. And shoddly done tattoos. Why? Why are you stereotyping Beaumont that way? I've been. Back to the story. We love you, Beaumont.

Okay. I think we're the station of Beaumont. 790 comes in clear as a bell in Beaumont. Is that right? Yeah. I've listened Astros. You know I've listened to Astros baseball. That's true, actually.

Like coming back from a Lake Charles trip. I do miss a good game. gambling trip, Matt. You want to go with me? I mean, you're not going, though. Well, I don't know. I just checked him with my host in Lake Charles. He says, they're expecting scattered showers. Why would I care what the weather's like outside? I'll be inside a casino. That's true. I just don't want to be stuck there with 50-degree, 50-mile-an-hour winds. Yeah, it might not be worth it. I can always just skip it a week and go a week later. All right, back to what I was saying. Go ahead. Let me tell you in the history of this show.

Brandon, you know something about Ross. He never allows me to stay on track. He's always, I'm like the hurricane. I'm going in 14 different directions here. I actually take pride in getting you off track. That's not good radio. That's not true. Are you sure? We get off on good tracks that are funny tracks and entertaining tracks. Okay, good. I'm sorry, if you want us to read box scores and talk boring ABC sports, listen to another show. I don't think you got to be on the right track. You just need to be on a track. See, he's admonishing you right in front of you. That's fine. The unseasoned veteran radio going against a season veteran. I feel like I'm somewhere in between you two. Okay. What does that mean? How old are you? 27. I didn't mean age. I meant I wasn't entirely

agreeing with you. Oh, okay. Okay. All right. So let me get to the baseball. So baseball, they're not allowing the broadcasts, not allowing. They're going to keep the broadcasters in. Does that make any difference to the, to how the game is called? I mean, you're not doing it, but I mean, when you're watching World Cup games, do you recognize that most of the guys are not at the World Cup or you're watching Olympics, you ever go, man, it sounds kind of weird because you're not there? I'll give you an example. A being sports would, I would watch when they were on Xfinity, now they got pulled or they're in some package that I can't afford. They would do games for the Spanish La Liga.

So if I wanted to watch Barcelona, I would watch be in sports. And the guys that call those games weren't even, they would only go overseas for like the big games, like the game against Real Madrid or something like that. So they would call the games from a booth with a TV screen, and you couldn't even notice. You didn't even know. It wasn't a big deal at all.

Now, my guess is the NBA will do the exact same thing, that they'll set us up with monitors. And so I could do a show with you 12 to 3. Yes. And then the Rockets play Orlando at, not Orlando, but San Antonio at 530. I will say, though, that there's always, I mean, the perspectives of a wide shot on a soccer field is probably a lot easier to do than maybe a basketball court. I think, and I'm not just saying this because I call basketball. I think basketball is the most difficult one because there is a school.

scrum for the basketball. It's only 94 feet. You've got 10 bodies, whether the officials, you make it 13, in a very small area. Baseball, you could put a big screen up, and you're seeing whether the ball is a strike or a ball right away. You see how the pitch is, the movement of the pitch. If the ball has slapped the left field, there's no guessing to it. The camera's going to go to left field. Yeah, and I guess maybe if you're doing, they're doing baseball, they have two screens, one wide shot and one pitcher batter perspective, and you're straight. You're fine. Yeah. Now, I've done it. it's strange.

I'm going to miss a few people's names because, again, unless it's high-deaf on the television screen is 90 inches big, I'm going to misidentify a couple people, which I hate doing. It's a pet pee of mine, is you always try to get better every time you do something. And I'm so, but it beats not doing it at all.

So, you know, hopefully this is just a temporary thing. But MLS, their broadcasters largely do not travel to the other cities. But I don't think the MLS is in the same category as the NBA. and majorly baseball. That hopefully this is just a temporary thing.

One of the reasons why some of the broadcasters in MLB don't want to go is because a lot of those players that or MLB are former players that are older and maybe a little bit more susceptible to getting the COVID. So maybe that's part of the reason why they don't want to travel. Yeah, that's a good point too. So just kind of just a little behind the scenes of our industry and what's going on there. But yeah, a report on New York says that majorly baseball broadcasters will stay in their cities either to work in a studio or work at the field,

regardless of if the team is there or not. I'm still waiting, by the way, we've got nothing on the NBA. This board of governor's call, what the hell's going on? It's supposed to happen at 1230 Eastern, so 1130, right? Yeah, I mean, it's an hour 15 in. Don't you? Don't people essentially get bored of phone calls after a while? Yeah, maybe everybody fell asleep.

Or somebody's like, there's an owner that's not paying attention. Like Michael Jordan nodded off? No, you know Michael Jordan, he handed it off to one of his lieutenants. Yeah. I can get time of this. One of his yes, man. Yeah, he's got to get one. he's got to get 18 holes in.

Yes, that's true. And then he's like, well, if they ask my vote, just change your voice. Or maybe he's late coming back. He's like on hole 16. Or he's like, what times a call start? 1230, which means I could probably get there by 145 and be just fine. Yeah, 8am. T time. He might rush through it.

He's got lunch in the drive-thru with a mod. Exactly. I'm very uncomfortable at the Monro. Does he still hang out with a mod? Of course he does. Okay. Have you seen a mod in the last 20 years? I don't know what he's, what is he is.

You know what he's his catty? Caddy. All right. 1244. It's about... Does the Mono? No, I mean, the game like that? Play in the NFL.

Because you played with... No, I mean, the golf. Oh, if you're a yes, man. Yeah, that's true. Give me my six iron out. I think it's only a seven. No, it's a six. Oh, you're right. It's a six. Sorry, Maude, but you are a yes, man. 7.13-212-790.

7-1-3-2-1-790. Ross will update us on whether there's an update on baseball. That's next on Sports Talk 790. When I listen to the Matt Thomas show, I don't even understand the eclectic nature of the show, the dichotomy, the ostentatiousness, the perfunctory that sounds about as smart as LeVar Ball. Back to the Matt Thomas Show. Whoever he is. Little tidbits and information are coming out. Ross, what is he?

What's a down? You know, you know what a Big Mac is? You know, the Little Mac and McDonald's? We know what a Woge Bomb is, right? What's a little Wojbogon? Woj Firecracker? We got a Woge Firecracker. A Woge Black Cat?

I hate fireworks, by the way. I don't like fireworks either because I was hit with one when I was a kid. So, I mean, I'll be around them, but it makes me a little anxious. Ever since Jason Peer, Paul, I'm just not interested. That makes sense. But I was even before that, too. I got hit in the face and had to go to the emergency room. Any scarring or anything?

I have a scar on my lip. Damn. I'm feel sorry for you. No, it's okay. Don't feel sorry for me. I mean, you recover. Yeah. This was 15, 16 years ago?

Did you cry? I don't think I did. You must have said some swear words. Well, I was like, I mean, I was like 18 or 19, so I don't think it was worth. So you're enjoying alcohol and drugs the first time. I was just scared. And then, well, yeah. No, I wasn't doing drugs.

I was with family in Fort Worth on July 4th. NBA has an August 25th draft lottery set. Mm-hmm. That's the date. Wonderful. The NBA's draft in which the Rockets, I do not believe you have a pick at all. Maybe they've got a second rounder? October 5th.

So the NBA season is supposed to end October the 12th, if that's a game 7, in which after that, I'm going to be receiving a state dinner from Joe George because he believes that Monday night football is going to have a higher rating than game 7, which is just not true. And then three days later, the draft. Hmm. So if Woe just putting out this two minutes ago as a little firecracker, the bombs are coming soon, right? I think so. He's got some info. he's like a prelude this is like the opening act

it's an appetizer yeah like you go to a concert man and you want to see I don't know Jay Cole okay you want to see Jay Cole you want to see

Paul McCartney he's not gonna open up with Let It Be no he's not he's gonna you know when he opened up with the last two concerts you're not a big Beatles guy

so it'd be hard for you to figure out it was a it was a uh beetle mania meaning early Beatles hit mm-hmm

One of the ones they ripped off from Chuck Barrett? No, no. An authentic song of there. Oh, okay. It was a hard day's night. Okay. That gets the people going. It got 40,000 people going at Minutemade Park.

Yeah. It got 15,000 people. Into the respirators. No. Not true. All shapes, sizes, age groups, ethnicities. Do they sell oxygen tanks at those concerts? Like you can get a T-shirt.

You can get like a vinyl album and then an oxygen tank. I'm surprised you said I would like two tapioca puddings, please. Yeah. Do you have like Beatles bedpans they give away at those two? It'd be easier, frankly, for me to just give you the material. Go ahead. Does the concert start at 4 in the afternoon? I mean, come on.

I mean, if you're really going to attack me and my fan and my all-timer, you might as well-throat. Is he after-party at Lubies? Is there a curfew, the concert that's ended by 715? Dint your glue, Beatles, dint your glue. I'm sorry, go ahead. What were we talking about? Whoa. and a woge firecracker.

Yeah, and it's always put out in the last few minutes. So there you have it on that. We're going to have an NBA season starting next year on Christmas. You and I have dreamed. I don't know if you dreamed about it, but I've dreamed about it. It probably won't be Christmas Day, would you think? Pretty close. I think it would be smart to do a couple of days before that.

So you get an opening day bump, which opening day bumps happen in, what, October usually? Yeah. And then nobody cares for two months. Right, two months. So you get an opening day bump, and then you get a Christmas. Day bump, you get both within the same month. I think that would really kickstart the season.

You start, like, let's say you open up training camp the weekend after Thanksgiving. You start playing exhibition games December the 5th. You play for two and a half weeks of like four or five games. Yeah. Hopefully with fans and stands. Hopefully. It's looking, well, Governor Abbott says 50% capacity, let's go. But that's in open-air stadiums, though.

Oh, is that right? Yeah. Dang. I don't know. How much does that matter? I think it matters a lot. I mean, if the roof is open or closed in Minutemade, that's true.

Is that a huge difference? I wouldn't think so. And the, what do they call it, the droplets? Yeah, one of the things that's so good about Minutemate Park is even when the roof is closed, you feel like you're an outdoor stadium. At least I've always felt that way. I agree. It's just cooler.

You know you're not in outdoors because you're not having the beaming sun on your face. Now, other domes names I've been to or the ones that are retractable don't have that field. Miller Park in Milwaukee. When it's closed, you definitely know it's closed. I've never been to Chase Field in Arizona, but they say the same thing about that. I don't think I've ever been in another retractable stadium, except for NRG. That's always closed. That's always closed.

So you're telling me that Governor Abbott can force the Texans to open up the stadium roof by offering the little caveat got a little carrot out there that they can actually have fans in the stadium? We'll figure out what's happening with that because remember there's a conspiracy theory that it was damaged by Hurricane Ike? Let me ask you why there would be a, why would you make it a conspiracy theory? It's either a broken or it's not. If Hurricane Ike or whatever it was damaged it, why would we be embarrassed by that? Because they don't want to spend millions to get it fixed? Because if you fixed it and you didn't use it, then it'd be more money on top of that.

Speaking of the Texans, did you see Cal McNair's little video thing that he brought out yesterday? You know, because remember Bill O'Brien said what he said yesterday? And then Cal did something late. I watched maybe 30 seconds of it. I watched all of it. What was your big takeaway, Matthew? That he just shouldn't speak. What he said was good.

What he said was, I think, heartfelt. There is a reason why we don't hear from him. cow he's either petrified of speaking in public or just doesn't do it very well say what you will about what bill o'brien said yesterday and whether he needed to say it or why needed to say it or but it came it came across very as the kids would say genuine right cow was about as anti-genuine and i'm not saying that he wasn't i think cow was and a guy i don't know cow he's not a great public speaker. But what it did to me yesterday shows you how awful a public speaker he is. Yeah, we understand why he doesn't say things. But he did a minute and it was about a minute 10, I think.

I thought it was like minute 55. Okay, whatever. Let me see. That he took this, the thing that he did on video and it was like it was a minute 32. Okay, it was written by somebody else and he was reading right out of the teleprompter. Mm-hmm. Where Bill O'Brien for 11 minutes didn't have, Now, again, Bill O'Brien has to speak in front of microphones eight million times more often than Cal does. And it looked like there was a weird smell in the room. Just his face. Like egg salad? Yeah, I don't know.

You mean like he was a little gassy? Just his expression, I mean. Oh, whoops. What was that? That was Cal. 1256. Yeah, so Cal, what he did yesterday was nice. but it further pushes the agenda of

there's a reason why the Texans don't put him out there because I just don't I don't think Ross you'll ever You know I remember when Kat when the order When the Texans win a game that Bob would always Answer questions to the media Only when they won Cow doesn't do that when they win or lose

Because I don't think he's in a spot Where he wants to be a part of an ad lib Les Alexander was the same way with a rocket Some people just are glib and some people just aren't And Cal clearly is not Just because you're a billionaire doesn't mean you're good in front of microphones. And just because I'm not a billionaire doesn't make you,

you know, I'm pretty damn good for a microphone. You're great, Matthew. The voice of Houston sports, Matthew Thomas. I'm the voice of nothing right now. Well, we're getting there. We're working on it. 1258, second hour of the Matt Thomas show. Chris Pezman from the University of Houston.

Athletic Director joins us in 30 minutes. His campus is open for business. Sort of. It's Sports Talk 790. Is the Matt Thomas show. We've got good. hit something. What is this?

I don't know, but it sounds good. You guys that recognize this? No. What is this? Backstreet's back. Oh, my. Matt, you just said you, hold on, you just said you loved it.

For like 10 seconds. Oh, look at you. Oh, hell no. Don't discriminate now, Matt. You were talking about how great you liked it. Now we have two songs. We got two songs at one time. That's okay.

Now we get zero. Oh, jeez. Turn this off. Just tell me what you want. Keep the backstreet boys up. I think this is great. See, I'm going to teach young Brendan. Making Matt Thomas, Matt is good radio.

That's so is. I was confident in my choice. It's just fine. Here you go, Matt. This gets the people going. I'll ask people on Instapol right now. Is this a good song to celebrate the return of the NBA? NBA sucks.

This song sucks. All right. I stand corrected. This is not a song I would use. give me Joe George Give me that song I was talking about before The song that people get crazy about

at the Detota Center Or at least it five years ago What? Rock and Roll Part 2? No! That's a very awkward song to play. All right, NBA 29 to 1 said yes, returning.

22 teams. Now we have, of course. Oh, I know. I'm going to give you four guesses. Don't look. Seriously, don't look. The team that said no. The team that said no,

they don't want 22. And the only hint I will give you is one of the players on that team was outspoken about the return of the NBA. Okay, so then the Blazers. Damn. You gave me the big hand. I would have never guessed it otherwise, so you just saved us 45 seconds of radio of me, just guessing teams.

So now we're going to play the song I want to hear. My initial guess was going to be maybe the Hornets, just because Michael Jordan. Because Michael Jordan hates everything. Exactly. Except his own documentary. Yeah, everybody hates Chris. It should be Michael hates everything. Yeah, and he hates you.

Yes. and if you cross him one way, I mean, he's going to hate you. I actually found a lot of similarity. We can talk about this later. I felt like Lance Armstrong and Michael Jordan kind of have some somewhat similar personalities. But don't all those alpha dogs do? Yes, you're true. That's true. All right, anyways, basketball's back.

Basketball is back! It's back! It's back! What is this? Oh, this is better. Well, what did you want? This is not bad. It's better than Backstreet, boys. This is not good.

I love Elton John. This song is not good. I think The Bitches Back is one of his more underrated tunes. Yeah, it's just properly rated. All right, ladies and gentlemen, what is up with Portland? Why they're going to do some of the next segment because we just, we just bungled that whole, we're supposed to be excited about NBA being back. Yeah, do you see my phone lines? They're not excited. Line 1, are you excited about the return of the NBA?

Oh, here. Here we go. Play some highlights, Matt. Play some Rockets highlights. Don't worry. I'm going to. Get the people going. Turnissa.

This is what you do. This song is 47 years old, Ross. Can you believe that? It's held up. I can't. It's a jam. Talk someone as we get ready for the highlights. Okay.

The Houston Rockets returning against the Los Angeles Lakers. July. The schedule's not set, is it? It's going to be, they said, right? according to Vince Goodwill. There's going to be a little bit of altering. I'll explain it a second. Oh, I didn't know that.

I'll explain it. Vince Goodwill lied to us? Vince Goodwill is a crap reporter who continues to lie and make things up. Maybe they're going to play the Los Angeles Lakers. Try to sweep the wolf again and beat him from 14th straight at home as Westbrook again drives. Into the lane, rises up and slams it home with a right hand. Into the lane, touch past Westbrook, four to three, Jeff Green. And the Rockets are within one.

49-48, Jeff Green. Russ looks to drive. Finds a wide open Tucker right in corner. He'll shoot the three, and it goes in. And just like that, it's a seven-point game as we've passed the five-minute mark. Exactly, we're exactly at five minutes to play. The first is the Clippers call for time.

Five straight for the Rockets. It's just a bully out there. Well, they're two centers. Both with double-doubles. House! Coast to coast. He does complete the dunk with a left-handed tomahawk and the foul. Fowled by Reggie Jackson in the complete of the play and threw it down really with a left hand.

Westbrook swings it to Green to three, got it off in time, and the whole. Jeff Green again. He's two for two, his first three, his great play. Since signing with Houston continues. I'm trying to find a highlight with me, Ross. I mean, fairly selfish. These are all Greg highlights. All right.

Let's see if we get this one here. We're all over the place on our mixes. There we go. What is going on? I couldn't hear myself. I don't hear the music just died all of a sudden. It's all right. I think, oh, hey, it's back.

It's back. That was weird. The Marconi folks are calling. They don't need the episode of the show. That's fine. We have to do this next day. Next, I couldn't hear my, was I talking, could you hear me? No.

Okay, I couldn't hear me either. I don't know what was wrong with my microphone. All right. My headphones are blasting my ears out. So what I'm going to do for the next 20 minutes, I'm just going to call our random NBA buddies. Okay. I'm going to call Craig Ackerman first. Yes.

Then I'm going to call Kaylee Griffin. Okay. I called Matt Boller, but he's not with the afternoon guys, right? Yeah, you don't want to steal it. You know, he and I share the same birthday. Is that right? Yeah, it's tomorrow. Who's older?

He is. by how long? How much? How many years? Probably five or six years? Okay. I think he's in his early 50s. Which doesn't it make you feel that Matt Bouldered is in his early 50s? Not really. Seems about right. He's 52. He'll be 53 tomorrow. Yeah.

From Des Moines, Iowa. Yeah, June 5th might be the greatest day in America. It's not even top 10. What's number one? July 1st? July 4th, number 1. July 4th is number 1. Easter 2.

Thanksgiving 3. Christmas 2. Oh, no, I go, you know what, Thanksgiving's two. Uh-oh, fantasy five time? No. I think we actually may have done holidays. Well, you know, the second most, the most part holiday in our house is Christmas. Halloween's number two. Not even close.

Because the kids want to dress up. Well, they did back in the day. I don't think they want to do now. What's the last thing you dressed up as? Soccer player. Eight years ago? Yeah. Okay.

I told you I've not been invited to a Halloween party in forever. Are there going to be Halloween parties in October? I don't think I party will because I have. been invited to a party in forever Halloween party. I'm sure you're great. We went to the Matt Thomas 20,000 Twitter follower party. That's fun. You kind of had to go, though. You're obligated. Yeah, but it was good. And I held my liquor for the most part. It was good. Matt got hammered, and he got iced, and he chugged that bad boy down. And you, you kind of left early.

Yes, I had a show the next day and so people were going to be by. I can't do those. I can't do a show hungover. And I was in when we have these little get-togethers, everybody starts buying me shot. and then I can't say no because I have no personal restraint. So I had to do an Irish goodbye. What is an Irish goodbye? An Irish goodbye is when you leave without saying goodbye. You just walk out. What?

I Uber'd, yeah. I Uber'd home. You didn't say farewell, good to see y'all. Did you even go on the mic at all the whole night to say, hey, I'm sports TV? No, yeah, I did a, well, we did karaoke. Okay. I mean, it was one of the songs. I mean, we had a morning host who did like 90% of the songs.

I was in one of those as well. Oh, were you? Okay. All right. So that is the most exciting news of the day. And we're going to start randomly calling people the next segment. So anybody knows Craig Ackerman, tell him we're calling him. We'll call our friend Kaley Griffin on AT&T.

Boy, we won't call or else in the golf course. So, you know, I think it takes care of it. Well, the Clyde? Clyde has usually returned calls. Oh. I'm not saying that he wouldn't, but it's not. Who does the studio? Ash?

I can call Ash. We'll start for the next segment. segment we're going to randomly call people I work with on the rocket side. I'd call Tim one, but he's probably still on the phone call. Yeah, he can get clutch on. Clutch is a man of very little words. What's Turbo? What's Turbo have to say about this?

Turbo's retired. Although if you watch some of those old NBA videos on an NBA TV, you do see some of Turbo's best work. The greatest mascot of all time. I put this on Twitter a few weeks ago. They had the Spurs Rockets Western Finals, I want to say it was on. Yeah, 95? No.

Because Western Finals was, hey, it was 95, you're right. There was a, they used to have on NBC, they had celebrity camera people. Mm-hmm. Or they would put people, singers, actors, politicians sometimes behind an NBC camera, and they would talk to them as they were shooting some of the camera. Okay. Game 6, Western Finals, 1995. Hmm.

Who was so Houston, Mickey Gilley? No, this is nothing to do with Houston. Oh. But that's not a terrible choice. Zizi Top, I'm sure he's done it. Do you know who the celebrity camera person was that day? He is the president of the United States of America right now as we speak. Really?

He did it. And I put it on Twitter. I said, present it without comment. Okay. You know what I think I saw that? And there were comments. That rings a bell for me now. Yeah.

All right. So let's appropriately celebrate the return of the NBA. If you would like to join us, you can do so. 713-212-5-790. 713-212-5-790. 22-team format for a restart has been approved. Medical protocols and salary reduction agreements are next. Wow.

That sounds like that shouldn't be a big issue. Wink, wink, get your act together, MLB. 113 on Sports Talk 790. This is Cougars head coach Dana Holgerson. Matt's kind of like Shasta without putting on a costume. He's a big old... The Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790. Oh, Ross.

I've never been so happy in my life to think about the return of the NBA. It's back, baby. Let's call somebody. Who are we going to call? Ghostbusters? Kaylee. Oh, good one. Hey, Kaylee, how's it going?

Your thoughts? Kaylee, let's mix in an answering service. It can't be Kaylee. Nobody hasn't busy tones anymore. right? Yeah. I think they doubted the wrong. That wasn't a busy tone.

I mean, yeah, I guess it was. No, that was Joe screwing up the line. Nobody has, nobody has busy signals anymore. Let's try this again see if we can find her. Kaylee Griffin, AT&T Sportsnet, a new member of our Rockets TV family. She does a great job. A super, super person.

And we're trying to get a hold of her to see how excited she is. We'll call Craig. Anybody else we need to call? I mean, I can call some players, but they'll probably go straight to voicemail. So anybody, all right, let's try this now. See if Kaylee is there. Kaylee.

Hello. Hey, Kaylee, it's Matt and Ross on the Matt Thomas show. How are you? I got some news for you. What's up? Providence College got NCAA suspension for five years. That's not even funny. That's mean.

Ross wanted me to say that. That's not at all true, Matthew. Kaylee, I'm just kidding. The Providence College is one of the most exemplary colleges in Division II today. Nothing to worry about. All right. I'm just saying. I'm not.

Okay. Hey, the NBA is back. Matt, I can't even tell you how excited they am. I've been waiting. Obviously, we knew yesterday that the Board of Governors was probably going to approve this. But now that it's officially out there, the vote is approved, I couldn't be more excited. I think we've been waiting on pins and needles for this day. So now we're only two months away from the start of the season.

I mean, I just saw the dates. I was looking at it because the last possible date for, the game seven of the championship series would be October 12. The draft is the 15th. And then they have training camps opening November 1st as of right now. So we are going to be very busy, very soon. Yeah. So all of Houston, who has grown so fond of you, want to know, what have you been doing the last three months? You know, staying inside a lot, which I think just trying to stay healthy. I have a little apartment, which has been, I've gotten quite used to, which has been good.

because when I first moved there, I didn't really have much time to get adjusted to it. So it was nice to spend some time. But I actually just two weeks ago flew home to Connecticut to see my family, which has been great. So I'm still up here in Connecticut, and I'm anxious to hear when I need to be back. Because hopefully it's in the next week or two. But for me, it was just, you know, hadn't seen my family since probably January. And now with obviously this schedule coming up, I probably won't see them again for a long time. So I got to spend a little time with them up here, which has been great.

Do we need to get Ross to get your mail for you? I mean, who's collecting your mail while you're gone? I don't really get that much mail, Matt. No one's really sending me stuff. Everything you can do online. Oh, now I feel bad, don't you feel like... You can send me a letter. I'm more of a...

I'm more of a... I can send you an audio file. Would that be a little easier for me? Okay, that's fine. All right, so how was the flight to Connecticut? Was it the plane full or empty? It was actually empty. Surprisingly, Houston was the airport. I feel at a hobby, and it was a little bit crowded.

in the airport, but I had the whole road to myself. No issues at all. Of course, I was mashed up. I had gloves with me, hands and ties, wiping down everything. Just want to be extra careful. But I had no issues at all. Once I got to Connecticut, the airport here was completely empty. They're still just starting to phase one open up up here in the Northeast, so it's a lot different. But really, I had no issues at all. And I've talked to a few people who have flown recently as well, and they've said the same. So that's obviously a really good sign. Well, you're missing the great weather here.

It's like 64 degrees every day, not a cloud in the sky, low humidity. You are missing the best part of Houston right now. Are you sure about that? No, I just wanted to sell it to you a little harder than I should have, but I just did. Last time I was there, which was not very long ago, it was high 90s. You really was peaking. Everyone was telling me to just prepare myself for what was coming. I was like, I'm already having a hard time breathing when I walk outside.

I can't imagine what it's like. into July and August. Yeah, well, it's going to be that way. Hey, I just, I'll let you get back to your family. I just, I started calling random people that would actually answer the phone and you were like on the top of the list. Well, I appreciate it. I'm so excited, obviously. I've been waiting. I got the woe bombs, shams bumps coming up on my phone. You're waiting for the, this alert to come through. So excited. I cannot wait. Can't wait to, obviously, a lot needs to still be figured out. But this is the first step and that's a great thing. And now we, we figure out how we move forward from this, but we got basketball coming back.

All right. Well, yeah, it's great to hear your voishing lady, and I look forward to seeing you very soon, okay? Take care. Yes, absolutely. Take care. You got to buy it on. Kaylee Griffin from AT&T Sportsnet. With her parents in Connecticut. Ross, that's the jam. Go live with your parents for like three or four weeks. Save on, you're not paying for a meal, right? Why don't you do that? Do what? Go live with your folks. They'll pay for meals. I still would have to pay my rent. I'm on a lease.

Oh. Well, so is Kaylee. But at least you're getting some free meals, getting Uber rides. I get a lot of free meals for my mom. It's okay. Okay. I don't know. The day comes when your parents, like, you should take us out to dinner. I mean, I'm not making that Matt Thomas money, but, you know, I'm scratching and surviving. We're trying. We're trying. All right, so that is the news. A couple of things, is this a, what's, if it's a Wojbomb? Is it a sham's bomb, too? Is that where we've decided it is?

Sure. He says, he's got some dates setting up here. Good. You have me? You want to read it? Yeah, please. The NBA has informed the border of governors of schedule dates. Training camp, June 30th, July 7th, travel to Orlando. July 31st is when the season begins.

Free agency begins October 18th. That's the same day the draft, right? November 10th, training camp, December 1st, opening night for the next year. December 1st is way earlier than we thought it was going to be. Well, was it way later than you were. It didn't surprise me that much that they wouldn't want to push it back further. Well, they're saying everything is fluid. They must be thinking what you were thinking of.

hey, let's get revved up properly before we really showcase who we are in December 1st. It must be one of those back time things. They don't want to. So let's put this in. If the NBA season normally starts October the 20th and you're starting a month and a half later, that means an NBA champion will be crowned early August of next year. Yeah, if they want to do everything normal. Yeah.

Still have days off, still have a long time off of the All-Star, still play 82 games. And then what is the 21-22 season start? Oh, I think this is permanent. Because tell me the advantage of wanting to play in October. I don't know. Unless the players association say, we love our summer vacations. See, I think you get...

Yeah, you're like Scotty. You don't want to mess up your summer. But you still get all of August, all of September. That's the best vacation time because all the kids are in school. Well, then you can't vacation because you can't take your summer. Kids, yeah, Chris Paul's like, no, we want to be done by, we want to be done by July 1st. Yeah, Sean Kemp is not down with that, Matt. Sean Kemp doesn't play anymore, wrong.

Oh. Not a bad try, though. Who's the resident NBA player with the most kids? It used to be Sean Kemp. Before that, it was Calvin Murphy. There's got to be somebody in between. I don't know. Yeah. Is Philip Rivers playing the NBA?

Well, but they're all, no, he's in the NFL. Does he move, like, all nine of his kids to Indianapolis, or did it's, like, five of them at home? Does he rotate the kids? have a draft. Like, if you only have a two-bedger apartment, you only can keep a couple of kids there. He's making 25 mil a year. He should be okay. So you're assuming he's going to get a big house. Yeah, I think he'll be fine. Fair enough. Indianapolis real estate, probably not the craziest. All right. So is this the best news we've had in a long time? Let me find out from the audience.

713-212-5-790. Are you genuinely, genuinely, genuinely, genuinely excited about the return to the NBA? it. They are coming back to start July 31st. The latest they capture a championship will be on October the 12th. 713-213-212-5-790. If you're not excited, then don't call. It's this point. It looks like no one's excited. No one's thrilled. No one's pumped. How does Slim Jims feel about this? Why would Slim Jims care? Oh, you mean James Harden? Yeah. I'm not going to call him that. Why not? Because I don't, I call them three things. James, Hardin, Beard, that's it. I can't imagine calling him Slim Jim during a broadcast.

You know, if they do PA announcers in Orlando, I don't know if they're going to or not, but could you imagine one of them going Basketby Slim Jim? He'll hear it. Yeah, what's wrong with that? He'll turn around. He'll either give you a wink of the eye, or he will put his teeth out like dogs and go, How about Slim Jim with the Slemma? Nope.

Sweet Sassim-O-Lessie. Nope. None of that stuff. We've got NBA basketball back. I am for me, I'm happy. I mean, this is Major League Baseball doing this today. And I don't have a dog in that, I'd be excited about that. Please, Major League Baseball, please, 8 pound, 6 ounce baseball baby Jesus.

I think they'll get something done. Promise? No. But I do think something will happen. They're going to have to. They can't, they can't, of all the years with so much turmoil, they can't let money erase a season. although again, if it's 50 games, we're going to treat it as, we're going to treat it as like as an afterthought.

But I'll take, at this point in our lives, I'll take afterthought over anything else. Let's go to Keith and Montrose before we say how to Chris Pezman. Hi, Keith. Yeah, hi. I just wondering if you guys know when the major league players vote on this deal, is it by majority or a vote of the representatives or how does that break down? You know, I've never heard. I do not.

Now, the NFL, what they did is they collectively bargained it, and then they took that vote to the representatives. But that was to do a new CBA. So this is a little bit different. This is kind of a, what would you call it, an amendment to what this is currently being collectively bargained. So I don't even know if they have to get player approval on that. It might just be they've got to. Again, I don't want to speak erroneously. They might just be able to have their union representatives negotiated for them.

And if they come to agreement, they do it. But the NFL had to go to a vote on that. So it's possible the MLMAB thing is not a formal vote. That is correct. If you give me, you know, we'll have somebody on in the next few days. Thank you for the phone call that can give you further clarification on that. My guess is they don't have to take it to a vote if I'm just purely guessing that the eight-member labor negotiating team, along with Tony Clark, who's their executive director, they probably speak on behalf of every player. and then a player can then choose at that point if they want to play this season.

Because that's what it sounds like they were saying is that if there's somebody that's in their family that they consider themselves a high risk for COVID, they cannot play and not get paid as long as they're a high risk or they cannot get paid and still collect service time. But I wouldn't think they have to get every major league player's vote. This is not a new CBA. I wouldn't think so. All right. Let's find out what it's like to have kids back on the campus, the university. Houston. Chris Pezman from U of H. joins us next. 129 on Sports Talk 790. Real Texans talk H-Town Sports all day. On Sports Talk 790.

No other radio station set on my preset. Home of your rockets, your Astros, and your talk. 133 on 790. The Matt Thomas show continues. We have a visitor with us now. Our good friend Chris Pezman, Vice President Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Houston for a few minutes. Pez, good to hear your voice. Is it good to have young men on the campus working out right now? I'm assuming the answer to that is yes. Yes, short answer is yes.

It's great to see our kids back football and men's and women's basketball and just seeing the smiles on their faces as they get back and getting to see each other again. We've been missing that for the last two and a half three months. And obviously, you along other campuses across the country are going through new protocols and how to keep things clean and organized and socially distance and on that. Is there a guy that you guys went to? I mean, is there a group of colleges that said, all right, we got our trainers together. We got with our local elected officials.

And what kind of protocol, what kind of rules of sets are you guys following right now? That's a, there's a short answer or long answer is yes. Yeah, we have a medical working group. group within the conference that's really focused on return to play in the fall. Because the conference is so spread out. And every, you know, the country in collegiate athletics, every area is dealing with a different set of inputs, you know, whether they're in a hot zone or not, infection rates are higher or lower, their access to PPE. Everybody's, you know, as you come back to bring your kids back for voluntary activities,

We've allowed it as a conference to allow each institution to make their own decisions. We're obviously sharing best practices because, you know, everybody's trying to figure this out together. And we're very, very fortunate, obviously, being here in Houston with the medical community here. That has been incredibly supportive of us with sharing, you know, best practices and the best way to combat this in bringing our kids back. So essentially it's the norm. Are you back to normal summer rules where I think sometimes coaches can be there, some can. I mean, is there anything different than, say, a year ago when kids were doing off-season workouts? Well, right now, so as of today, yes, we're in the voluntary window.

So it's voluntary activities. It's not mandatory. Coaches are not allowed to be out there and be present during workouts, football and basketball. This is, you know, this is kids coming in on their own to get better. Strength coaches are absolutely allowed to be there as well as our medical staff to support our student athletes. But the calendar is different, particularly with recruiting. Normally you'd have a lot of camps going on now and in July as you bring in prospect age kids and youth camps. But those have just, you know, camp, everybody's out of the camp business right now across the country.

So that's really the biggest difference is that young, the kids that want to go show how good they are to coaches can't do so. You're also not getting nine-year-olds on your campus to hit volleyball and that kind of thing. So that's the biggest difference from today than a year ago, right? Yes, yes. But how often you talk to them? I mean, are you able to get in there and have good conversations, or do you kind of let them be at least for the next couple weeks or so?

Well, I went over and watched football workout. And what's today? I don't know, Thursday, Monday, Tuesday. Just I wanted to see how our social distancing was working during our workouts. And, you know, the kids were in the middle of workouts. So I didn't get a chance to talk to them. Yeah. I really look forward to actually doing much more of that over the next week, week and a half, and being engaged with them on a personal basis.

You know, we've been doing Zoom meetings and you just, you know, you just lose that. connectivity when you're doing it through electronics as opposed to actually seeing somebody face to face, but I really look forward to seeing our kids. You know, you see them when they're coming in the building, but we're all trying to keep our space so we, when you were social distancing in the right way,

so we can keep doing what we just started. Well, I'm glad that you're always 20 miles of May for me. It makes me very comfortable to knowing this as far as you are for me. Go ahead. Do you want to take a shot? You might as well? I'm just going to say it goes both ways.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, we'll deal with that later. Chris Pezeman of Vice President and Intercollegiate Athletics with us here on the University of Houston from the Matt Thomas show. Chris, we didn't explain to the audience. You've got a tremendous logistical background as part of who you became and now the athletic director. So you have dealt with schedules, you have dealt with stadiums, you have dealt with all sorts of things. As Governor Abbott has expanded from 25 to 50 percent this year, and I know that you knew this was coming, what have you told your operations?

What have you told your ticket staff? I mean, are that still kind of still TBA at this point about what you're planning if you are going to start the season on time this year? Yeah, great question. First and foremost, we're planning on the season starting a schedule. It's, you know, you prepare for the worst and hope for the best. But in all sincerity, you know, we've got almost three months until we start football season. And the way things are changing so much, and, you know, literally hour by hour, day by day, and the improvements that are being made with medicine and science as we deal with the pandemic,

I expect we're going to be able to play. As it relates to, you know, hosting fans in the stadium and operating our games, really, it's the same attitude. You know, who thought 30 days ago we'd be in a spot where we could bring our kids back on campus and work out or even think that we would be at, you know, we were assuming, you know, zero fans. Then we went to 25%. Now we're looking at 50%. And that's all just changed in the last 30 days.

So I would expect, and what I've told our operations staff is, you know, look, we're going to, we're going to prepare on 25% and 50% capacities as far as building out, you know, our staffing plans and how we're going to social distance and be able to bring our fans into the stadium. And really, once you get over 50%, you're at 100% capacity because there's, what's the difference between 50 and 75 and 100? The social distancing aspects for us in the stadium, if it was at 25% or 40,000 seat stadium, we're going to have less than 5,000 people in the building. And at 50%, you know, it becomes a lot more just, it becomes a lot more regular. There are things that we're, you know, you have to focus on for us, our most,

densely populated areas, which are our premium sections, club and suites, our student seating section. The rest of the stadium, we can figure out the capacities as we work to spread people out. And you just really look at choke points, entry and egress points, restrooms and concessions, and everything else, you kind of will figure it out. What do you think to bigger schools in terms of like the Alabama's? I use the SEC because yesterday I was talking, telling the audience about the hellacious payouts that they're paying in the next five years. Like Kent State's going to get a million nine to play, Auburn, and Alabama pays a lot of money, A&M is going to pay it. How do you think those things are going to work out of?

Do you think that can schools, and if you don't want to speak out of turn, I totally understand it. But do you can, are there little rules that can say, hey, if we're not going to have 85,000 people in our stadium, we can't pay you what we want to pay? Or do you think those deals are like solid, they're locked in? or maybe we need to push the game back two or three years. Where do you think those big payout games are going to ultimately be affected by this? Yeah, we call those guaranteed games where you're basically being bought or there's such a large guarantee that is being exchanged. I think the guarantees are pretty much locked in.

It may affect people looking ahead, but shoot, Matt, football schedules are locked in so far in advance and the economics of them are so significant. If you're, let's say, a smaller G5 school, and you may subsist on playing two guaranteed games or one guaranteed game a year, and if you don't have the ability to do that, it's detrimental significantly to your budget. What's really going to be interesting as we talk about this is we get into the fall is as a league, we'll have a set of protocols for testing and for player safety as it relates to the virus and testing protocols. And so I know when I go to Temple or to South Florida or wherever we go this year within

our league, there'll be consistency in the way that we apply that. What we're talking about now as college football is when we go to Washington State or we go to BYU this next year, how those institutions know that we're doing what needs to be done when we go there or vice versa when we bring teams in here. That's the next hurdle that I think everybody's going to be focused on over the next 30, 60 days that we'll try to solve before we get into fall camp, which starts basically the first of August. How fluid are those conversations with your non-conference teams and then the ones in the league? Because as you said, the American is so spread out that certain parts of the conference are

being affected by COVID greater than others. Yeah, I've already talked to Pat Chung. Washington State, Tom Homo, BYU. They both, you know, they're both in a spot where they feel comfortable. Everybody's playing. We're playing on playing the game. Within the league, there's nobody that's raised a hand yet that said that they have concerns about playing the season. So we're expecting to play.

And we just concluded our league athletic directors annual meetings last week and with our medical task force. And to kind of expand on that. every institution has a medical representative that's part of this working group. And it's interesting because part of our group obviously is the Naval Academy, which falls under Department of Defense. And, you know, it's so there's standards that we're talking about that are really at the highest level as we try to tackle what our conference-wide testing protocols will be

when we get into the fall. Lastly, with the basketball returning and going into the fall for the first time in forever. Baseball, if it comes back, is going to be doing that. You've got a lot of television partners, but they're all going to be playing sports at the same time. Have you gotten any indication from ESPN, I'm not saying just University of Houston, but really all games around the country? Could there be some shifting of weeks and or days of the week for games, including U of H, depending on how busy and how networks are available for broadcasting of games? Yeah, specifically for us with football, our dates are locked. I'm not.

aware of any requests to move dates that have come up. Because what it creates, you know, we were very intentional with our football schedule this year. I think everybody remembers last year, we had a, you know, it was a lot of games in a very short amount of period. I don't want to exactly say what it was because I can't remember. Right. Three games and X number of days, four games and X number of days.

This year, we took the opposite approach. Like, we're playing Rice on Thursday night before Labor Day. The benefit of that is that allows us two extra days before we, play four games the next number of days. This year we took the opposite approach. Like we're playing Rice on Thursday night before Labor Day. The benefit of that is that allows us two

extra days before we play our next opponent. And the same thing, because then we go to Washington State, which is a long trip. And then the same thing when we go to BYU, that game's on a Friday before we go back and I want to say we play Memphis when we come back from that trip. We

worked with the league and with our ESPN to make sure that we had extra days. so we could have more time, given the time zones that we're flipping and the amount of travel that we're doing. The ESPN and all of college football that are partners with ESPN as far as those leaves, they announced last week that they're delaying the start times as far as that selection. But as far as flexing days and anything like that, I'm not aware of any of those conversations. Well, all I know is that I cannot wait for you to buy me the largest stake available in Pullman, Washington coming in September. so very much looking forward to that.

It will be at the stake, I don't even think they have a stake 48. It'll be, you know, it won't be a really big selection of places to go, but I look forward to being there with you. Good, and as long as you bring the credit card, we're all good. Pez, thanks to the time, as always, for him. We'll talk with you soon. Thanks for having me on, Matt. I appreciate you, and I hope you and your family are doing well, and thanks for everybody that's listening, and go go go. You got it. Couldn't have said it better myself.

Chris Pezman, Vice President, Intercollegiate Athletics, joining us here on the Matt Thomas show. 146 is our time. The big headline of the day. The NBA is returning more details on that when we resume after a message here for Cromberg's flags and flagpoles. I know the folks at Crombergs have a great selection of college and pro team flags. If you are looking for something to represent your favorite college or pro team, think about Cromberg flags and flagpoles. Really a great place to go for any flags. State flags, U.S. flags, all their flags, all their banners are heavyweight, they're durable, 100% nylon or polyester.

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Yo, this is Bun B and my wife is the biggest fan of the whitest man in America. Matt Thomas Metro. reckless, ratchet, and don't give a fuck. B, good friend of the show. Not to be confused with Bumby, who was somebody else we didn't even know. 151 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show.

713, 212, 5, 790. 713, 2125, 790. If you want to get in, we're going to call our buddy Craig Ackerman at the top of the hour. He is one of our voices at the Houston Rockets, and we'll be with us to probably just screaming yell at the top of his lungs. I wonder what Craig's been doing.

Do you think he's done some home makeover things, some spring cleaning, if you will? The honey-do list, as you call it. May I give you my list? Okay. Clean out the garage. Yes, congratulations. That's a tough one. That is a very, very tough one.

It's not at a 10, but previously was it a 2. It's now in a strong 7. Okay. To get it to a 10 would be to get rid of things that we just want to get rid of. But, you know, you'll know this Ross if you get married. Getting rid of old baby clothes. and momentos, very difficult for women. Extraordinarily difficult.

Baby clothes? Yeah. What's she going to do with them? Well, I'd like her to sell them. Why don't you give them away to a... Which we would also do, too. Yeah, donate them, Matt. Yeah.

But we also sell them, too. How much money are you going to get for bait for a bade for a onesie? You'd be surprised. I would be surprised. Surprise me. My daughter was dressed very well as a child. Oh, God. This doesn't surprise me, actually.

So, yeah. One day, I want to come back as a child as pampered. much as the Thomas children. Pampered. She's working her ass off. My daughter is three hours of volleyball practice every day right now. She's straight A's in school. If she does that, I'll continue to pamper her.

All right. So, what are you going with this? Talking about the garage. Oh, things have done. Garage, check. Media room, check. You used to be just a bunch of crap thrown in there. Now it's actually organized.

That's good. What do you mean media room? Well, we could put in some theater chairs and... Oh, wow. So you've got to explain this to people who don't are an impalachial team with estates. But I haven't done it yet. Okay. I've had the house for 10 years.

I haven't done it. So obviously I can't afford it. Yeah. Took care of the pantry. Huge, huge deal on the pantry. You had a big pantry? No, it's really small. That's the reason why it becomes so cluttered so fast.

So if the pantry was a perfect pantry was a 10, it's probably at a seven in there as well. Okay. We just have a lot of stuff in a small area, but on a very high. happy about that. And then we did the Tupperware drawer. You can never figure out what the hell's going on in the Tupperware. That is a 10 for 10. You know what the key was of that? Getting rid of 80% of the Tupperware. Yeah. You have stuff without tops. Anything without a top gone. Too many tops gone. So we've got down about 10 things. How does that happen though? Where do these tops go? It's my fault. Well, every time I use, well, I'm saying not you, Matt, like everybody, me.

Every time I use Tupperware, I use a top and a bottom, yet somehow I'm missing tops and I'm missing bottoms. You know what it is? I don't know what the hell's going on, where they go. You don't wash one of the other for some reason. Yeah, but they don't go. I mean, it's like they disappear. It's like socks. What disappears more?

Tupperware or socks? Sox for sure. Yeah. Okay. So I wonder if Craig's done any of the following. We're going to have to ask him coming up at the top of the hour. Getting this business a little bit. Like any of the cleaning out stuff or addicts or, okay.

What have you done? Anything? I mean, I live in a one-bedroom apartment. I don't think you can't get into too much trouble. That's true. I cleaned my bathroom over the weekend. I did some laundry last night. Nice.

All right. So let's run through Ross, a few of the NBA things. 29, the 30 said, we're ready to play basketball. Yes. Portland was the only one that said, no thanks. Why do you think that is? I don't. Do you think it's because of the COVID, or do you think it's just, we're not going to the playoffs?

Why bother? Did they give the vote to Dame? dames in the playoff or they're possibly in the playoffs. Remember, all I got to do is get to the nine spot now. If they get within four games of eight, which they can do, they can play. Now, there's not going to be multiple teams doing this, but one team, if they're within nine, within four games of the eight-stot can play in an eight-nine game. I mean, we've had multiple people tweet out that Sam Amick tweeted it out,

Shams tweeted it out, others tweeting out that it's the Trailblazers, but none of them have put a reason, right? No, no one's put a reason. Jody Allen That's that Paul son Running the uh Paul's brother Paul's brother okay I mean sister Paul is her brother

Okay Jody Allen running the uh run in the uh run the blazers what is her deal what's the problem jody Should we just like call various Portland restaurants Why did your team say no? Yeah Because I'll tell you about Portland

It's a strange place Ross Yes It's beautiful dirty hippies They're not dirty always But there's... 30 strip clubs? Wouldn't know. I've heard that.

Great donut places. I heard they, uh, I heard from a friend that I played poker with that they have, uh, they have like strip, they have like, uh, poker clubs with strippers. There is a strip club there in, in Portland that would not do well here in Houston. Like if Houston's known for having what nines and tens on the, on the poll. World famous strip clubs. I've heard Portland's got a few that are fives and six. Sixes.

Is that the one with the fat girls that did a strip? Well, I've never been there. Because I saw that on, there was that TV show with David Telle with David Tell and I think he went there. Yeah. It's very much. And they said this is where strippers go to die. You go because you're just not going to see your normal strippers.

The ones that they don't really care if you talk to them or not. They're not going to be very aggressive because they know they've got little issues. Like they've got cigarette burns in her shoulder blood or something like that like that. Maybe one or two are pregnant. Who knows? Okay. But it's just, but it's a really nice town, a lot of coffee places, very northwestern, but it's a huge blazer town.

You would think anything to put local sports back in that community would be number one. Yeah, it's not like they've got NFL football or baseball. They have a soccer team that does very well. Of the timbers? Yeah. And they're a big Seattle fans. I know you're a huge timber fan, man. Love the timbers.

All right, let's find out what Craig's thinking about on this, the return to the NBA. And we also want to tell you, the latest title odds are out, according to Caesar's Palace. Yes. On the NBA, we'll run through that as well. 158 final hour, Matt Thomas show right here on Sports Talk 790. Is the Matt Thomas show. Third hour of the Matt Thomas show here on Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas Ross, Villarreal, with you. And now we are pleased, especially considering the circumstances, Matthew, to have the main voice as far as radio and sometimes TV.

of the Houston Rockets? What are you looking at me like that for? You're leading the conversation. I told you. Well, you look like you were in disbelief. But the main voice of the Houston Rockets. Craig Ackerman here on the show. First of all, Craig, I hope you're doing well.

Second of all, when I say to you, the NBA is back, your first reaction was? Thank goodness. I mean, it's been a long two and a half, three months for everybody. And it's nice to have, you know, some clarity on some dates and so forth. Obviously, still waiting on details when it comes to the actual schedule. But, yeah, sort of a relief. I'm happy that we're moving along and can't wait to the end of July to get this thing going again. You know what I can't wait for is to figure out start times because I have a feeling, Craig.

We're going to have some one o'clock afternoon games during the middle of the week. Oh, you're going to love that. I love that. Not going to hate it. Spring training. You get, you know, no, Matt Thomas show, right?

Well, I would think not. I mean, um, not that, you know, that us doing a Rockets game wouldn't be amazing programming, but it's going to be really bizarre because the one thing I brought up with,

uh, Ross yesterday was, if you're playing every game in Orlando and you want to play prime time on the West Coast, Lakers and Clippers games might have to start at 1030 Orlando time. It's better than showing up at, um, you know,

when, did those games when the Rockets were in Japan at 4 o'clock in the morning. So I'm okay every 10.30 at night as opposed to 4 a.m. Trust me. I don't care if they play games at 4 o'clock in the morning. Just get the games back. All right. So let's end this debate here. What did you do productive, like in terms of your house while you were not calling games?

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

Yeah, Craig Ackerman, the EF Hutton of MBAA broadcasting with us here on the Mount Thomas show. You know what? It's interesting. I forgot to pay off on this. Ross was asking about we know who they're playing. I don't know if it's a complete guarantee the Rockets are going to play the eight teams. I think it's going to be pretty close to the next eight. But you've got to remember, there are some teams in the Eastern Conference that are really going to be having to move their schedule up a little bit because a lot of the teams they were supposed to play aren't going to be there. So even though I think the model says the next end of schedule, there's going to be a few fine tuning points.

Don't you agree? Yeah, I would think that it's not going to be completely black and white in that we're guard that there will be some fine-tuning with the schedule. But again, I don't really care. I will say that's not to totally change the subject, but I know they're only inviting 22 teams and very happy that the Rockets are one of those 22. And regardless, what happens in these upcoming eight games are going to make the playoff.

So that's another positive thing. But I cannot believe for the life of me that there were certain organizations in our league who didn't want to resume and play again. I just, I find that to be weak beyond belief. You're in a competition business, and yeah, you may not be playing for anything, but to flat out categorically to miss any desire to return whatsoever. I think it's absolutely weak. I applaud the Atlanta Hawks, for example.

There's a lot of comments that they're one team who are not going to be included, that they're out, but they absolutely wanted to be in. And I give them credit to wanting to go back out there and compete, even if it was for a handful of games or eight games. I just cannot believe there are organizations in our league who decided not to play. But I guess that's not our problem here in Houston. The Rockets are in, and we'll try to enjoy the ride for however long it is. Well, technically, the only team that said no was the Portland Trailblazers. And I was to explain this to Ross.

I'm in a little bit of Gold State did. I think Charlotte did. No, it was 29 to 1 is what I read most recently. Well, that was the vote, but there have been reports that there have been some organizations who were out of the mix, who had no chance to make the playoffs, it did not want to return. I just, you can't get better, you know, especially with younger players, if you don't play. Yeah, I mean, Atlanta could use some help. I would like to, you know, hell, for that matter, you know, does Kevin Durant play? I mean, there are a lot of things.

Obviously, Brooklyn's in the playoff mix, but do you expect anything firework-related in terms of guys that were out that are going to come back and all of a sudden play? Or do you think if you're the Nets, you just say, you know what? This season, rest up, my friend, we need you back December 100%.

I think in the case of Kevin Durant and his extreme injury on Brooklyn, I probably do take it easy on him, but in the case of the Blazers, I mean, look, I think John Collins is going to be back. You're super Nurchich. There's a heck of a player with about to come back for the league.

went on suspension. I mean, he should be back, too. And that will instantly make them a much better basketball. You know, I know that they had a down year this year, and it's on White's side, had his moments. But Nurkich is a heck of a player. And, you know, you pair him with Damien Lillard and C.C. McCollum, and that's a really, really good core.

So I think, you know, they could, I think they're going to be better once he comes back. But every team in the league is that some, you know, guys who have been in and out, And, you know, there's been a lot of talk here about Eric Gordon now being, you know, 100% healthy. And I know some guys of the clippers have kind of been banged up here and there. And so, you know, everybody's in the same boat. But in Durant, specific case, I probably would hold him out. But I think if I'm a player who's been hurt and hasn't played and have a chance to come back and play, I absolutely would. that's at least how I feel about it.

Yeah, and on that point, Craig, you have to think the Rockets have to be one of the teams benefiting most. Because like you said, Eric Gordon is more healthy. PJ Tucker was looking gas towards the end there. And James Harden, he's kind of had a funky up and down season, especially with his three-point shooting. So I've got to think those three guys being fresh, the Rockets are going to be maybe the best that they've been in the last 12 months. Yeah, the oldest team in the league having some time off, not going to hurt them. It's going to help them. And not to mention, it was a new group.

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

So I think the teams that come out with the best chemistry and the best rhythm, after the reset, will probably be in the best. position to succeed. And another thing that's going to be very interesting to watch is that there's not going to be home court advantage. There's not going to be any travel. And so that playing field is going to be extremely level. And so it will be really neat to see how that ultimately affects the competition on the

floor. But I'll take it anyway I can get it. I don't care. It's been a very long layoff. Again, it's been a very difficult couple, three months for this. country and people around the globe. And I just hope this, I know you hate the phrase, Matt, will help

us inch our way back towards normal thing. Yeah, uncertain future. Another one I hate. Sooner, rather than later, because unfortunately later, he's won over sooner, more times than not. How about this? Seven game first round series. They want to keep

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

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

I had a chat with Austin Rivers. And that's what he mentioned, that he thinks ultimately that this is going to be a very, very difficult championship to win under the. these scenarios. And so to have a full seven-game series and everything in terms of the teams that actually get to the playoffs, get to as close to usual and normal as possible, I think will ultimately, when the champion is crowned, that that champion will have earned it, just like all the other champions in NBA history. All right, you will be doing some games on television, the presumption is we've not all

figured on our schedule site yet. Do you want crowd noise? Joe Buck wants cry noise behind his games. If he doesn't do anything in person, what's your stance on that? You know, I did an interview about this about six weeks ago. My initial reaction to this was absolutely not, because I think it would seem fake and fabricated. But I was then informed that, particularly on the network level, that they have the technology, and I think we've seen it with the Bundesliga in Germany, that they can pipe in crowd noise where it doesn't seem too authentic. I don't know if the local RSNs can do that or not.

I would be against piping in crowd noise to the actual venue because I think that would be a distraction to the players, but again, that's something you'd have to ask them. They obviously have much more experience, and they would be able to make a determination whether or not they would find that distracting. But I think that would be distracting to have it piped into the actual facility. But I think if you can find a way to do it just over television

and add that sounds even for radio, if you can provide that mix, then I think, yeah, I probably would add to the experience based on what I have seen from the German soccer league. Well, how about this? I'll just scream at you on games I'm not working.

That sounds uncomfortable. I mean, I can do that, or I could be like your de facto PA announcer, even though I'm not there, you know? We could have an audience sitting behind us instead of some bleachers. That's right, virtual bleachers. You're a bum, Matt, Tom.

stuff like that. No, I wouldn't do that. No, it'd be complimentary things. They'd be like, Rockets win, and we'd have Dream on by Aerosmith in the background. We can really jazz this thing up. Nobody has anything negative to say about you, Matt. Everybody loves it. No, that's actually far from it.

Can I admit that I'm a little jealous of that? Have you seen my Twitter account dwindle in the last two weeks? Well, haven't they gotten rid of bots? Yeah. Inactive accounts. It is what it is. Yeah. All I know is I want to still have a 30,000 Twitter party,

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

Amen to that. Thank you. Craig Ackerman, one of the voices of the Houston Rockets on TV and radio. and we look forward to broadcasting. Again, our presumptions, we're going to be doing these things from a studio, which is fine. Just get me back in a regular arena come 2020

because, you know, I do want to travel the world, Ross. I want to see what's out there. I want to be able to relate to the people. The world being Lake Charles, Louisiana. I mean, if you're saying that I have to do games in Lake Charles, I guess I could do that, right? Amiance of a coin slot machine behind me?

I'd be all for that. 250. On Sports Talk 790, the return of the NBA. I have to do games in Lake Charles. I guess I could do that, right? Ambulance of a coin slot machine behind me? I'd be all for that. 250.

On Sports Talk, 790, the return of the NBA is the number one thing going on today, which is good news. And baseball remains silent Ross. Is that a good thing or bad thing? We'll discuss that next here on 790. This is Craig Vigio. Vigio. Back to Matt Thomas on Sports Talk, 790. Oh, we're having some fun.

You're home with the Stros. All right. Next segment of the show is non-Florida stories where we, is Joe George, has he totally checked out on the show? Is he around somewhere? He was in here like two seconds ago. I don't know where he went. We're basically paying him to do nothing. That's not true, Matthew. Where has he been? I got to tell you, I texted him because I had a question over here. And he had 45 minutes ago. And he just walked in and didn't even know I texted him.

Yeah. Well, we got non-flora stories coming up in 10 minutes. He's got his nose to the grindstone. He's working on the show prep for the 18. Yeah, he's been 18 100% the whole way through. We're just like an afterthought to him. Well, that's his regular show. Brandon, will you please treat this show like it's your part of it? Because you are a part of it now.

The respect that it dissolves. Okay. So the challenge of non-Florida stories is finding something outside of the state of Florida. Yes. But the best stories are from the state of Florida. Oh, wait. Our baseball update, go ahead and knock that out real fast. What?

There's nothing. Oh, the baseball update is there is no update. Okay. I still think something will happen. I think the NBA making something happen will actually help. I hope you're right. Okay, so here are stories we can't mention. Jar of tongues under a Gainesville home, a former UF professor forgot them, cops say.

Can't read that one. That's a Florida store. Jarr tongues. Next. What the hell's going on in Florida? Florida, continuing. A patient couldn't get his nurse's attention, so he set fire to his bed. That's going to get her attention.

Next. Miami Customs agent discovers $30,000 worth of cocaine inside a set of golf clubs. This is all from Florida? Yes. Next. He brought a gun to school. He ended up shooting the maintenance man in the eye, cops say. Next.

She was angry about getting flowers for Mother's Day. So she beat her husband, cops say. I'm naked. Arrest Me. Woman says while hitting Deputy in the Waste with Wendors. windshield squeegee. That's in Florida. Next. She cut herself on a window, then tried splashing her hepatitis

sea blood on a nurse, cops say. Florida. Ooh, I don't even if I could read this one. Florida man. Let's move on. Yeah. There's a lot of, there's like three defecating stories on here.

That's why we are going to separate ourselves some other shows because it would be easy to go, hey, wacky midday show. Let's do a Florida story. Oh, we have to find the other 49 States. And by the way, Brendan, you'll be responsible for a florist or next Thursday because I think at this point, Joe has completely checked out of our show. So when is he off the show? How long is Brendan, uh, training? I don't know. You know, I was told three weeks. Okay. But seeing as much time as

I've been in here alone, I'm really doubting three weeks. Yeah, I mean, they've, he's, he's like the driving instructor that's in the backseat on his phone talking to somebody. Oh, there he is. Hi, Joe. Joe, you've been getting crushed for about the last four minutes. Clearly, most of it's been up by Brendan. I didn't even say anything. We just asked where you were, and he couldn't find you for the last 45. He's coming in to defend his honor. All right.

That's how you try. Well, that's how I would train. You just let him work. But I would be in the room. Uh-oh. He's tired of your crap, Matt. Why don't you promote what's going on in the three-clock show? Because obviously you've been preparing for it heavily with the topics of conversation.

Let's see. Is Bullard on today? Bullard's got to be on today. Matt Bullard is on today from 5 to 5.30. And that's it? Only half hour? Yeah. only be doing a half hour. Basketball's finally back.

Yeah. But we will still, we push it back to 5 o'clock because we weren't confident Woz was going to break it by 3. So we were like, let's have them on later in the show. Yeah, I was preparing a show open for today. You are going to like major production value? Of course. Is there any one of my highlights in it? Yeah, three of the four.

Oh! That doesn't care. That's why you must listen to the show. Now Matt loves Joe. Joe, you are the best. Look, I'll say this. I don't need to train, Brendan. He's good to go. Yeah, he's got experience. He worked at an Iron Heart station before, so he knows next gen better than I do.

There you go. And I've been here for a year. Oh, so you're saying we're in better hands. I did teach him how to do something in the system yesterday. He did. He told me that would work. So you're training Joe is what's happening. I've never trained somebody on my third day of work, but I did do that yesterday.

Actually, yesterday was my second day of work. So I'm not worried. Yeah. I'm just down the hall. It's not like I left the building. Yeah, he's in better hands. We're in better hands, man. He went to get some lunch for the A team. No.

Give Clinton a back rub. Foot massage. Yeah. Definitely not of those things. All right. Are we playing baseball in 2020? Yeah. You sure?

Yeah. How many games? 60. 15 against everybody in your own division. Yeah. Okay. Pretty confident. That's where we're headed.

Is that because they're going to negotiate that or major league baseball is going to mandate? I think the owners are just going to mandate it. What do the players say, screw you? I don't think they all will I think enough will play enough important people will play all right I mean even if you have people opting out

you're going to have options I think the first two weeks of October first three weeks we're going to have the NBA finals we're going to have the World Series we're going to have weeks three four and five of the NFL season we're going to have college football

it's going to be the best October and we're going to have all time Sounds like crowds will be decent size, at least maybe in the state of Texas. And you know the state of Alabama and Georgia and Florida will be far behind on that. Yeah. Ross and I were talking about this yesterday. I still wonder if they will allow fans at Minutemate Maid, if they're not allowed anywhere else. But you would think you would take any revenue you could get at this point.

Have we got clarification on the retractable roof stadiums? No, we have not. Who do we ask? I guess we can call the Astros. Call Governor Rabbit. Call its office. I tried. Do you think I could if we call it?

You tried to call Governor Rabbit? I've called this PR department like five times. And they've said, uh... No, they said yes. They said yes to an interview And then well Everything that happened this weekend happened So it's been indefinitely

So at some point Governor Abbott will be on the on the 18 I'm hoping I'm hoping I'm like 60% confident Now I asked for the undertaker on this show Yeah They said They'll let me know I tried because he's like from Houston or Austin

And you gave me a number of a prominent Sportscaster who wanted to have on the show No luck That's funny you say No luck I'll try Andrew Luck No I said

Broadcaster You should go into Broadway And no he's not gonna be I'll try to get Joe What's the Undertaker's name John Callaway or whatever Close It's Mark Calloway

Okay John's his cousin Probably Yeah but again If we get the Undertaker on the show Do we talk to him as Mark Callow Or we talk to him in his character Is he gonna talk in character

And do a voice Well there's a WWW The WW Network is doing like a five-part And he's talking regular A documentary about his career. Yeah. So I'd say talk to him about that. What he has left?

He doesn't talk to him. Yeah, just talked to him as Mark. Like there is a wrestler. This is before each of your time. His name was, uh, his name was, um, Nikita Koloff. Real name is like John Miller. He's a Russian. But when he became a Russian, he stayed in character up until he retired.

So when he talked to him. So when fellow wrestlers would be like, be in the locker room getting showered up and getting dressed and everything to go out there, they would say, hey, John, what's going on? And he go, I'm very good. Nelson Scott Simpson. He was. So he's like Larry the cable guy.

Yes. But he never left character. Man, that guy just kind of fell off. Whatever happened to Larry? A guest in this show. Oh, yeah, that's right. You remember what he was talking about? Heartburn?

Heartburn medicine. And it makes me all over Radio Row. And I think I said something funny that he actually laughed at one of my jokes. And I'm not a great joke teller. I don't know if I believe that. No, no. I have quick wit, but I'm not a, like, let me give you some jokes. So you don't want to be a stand-up comedian.

Are you sure Larry wasn't laughing at you? Not with you? It's true. Did he say that's funny? I don't care who you are when you said it? Yeah. He says, you should go on the road with me and open for me. I'm like, no, I'm very busy.

Got a fledgling career going here in Houston. All right. Now, it is very important that this may be the last time that Joe ever does a non-flora story. Oh, I'm going to pick one. I'll be here next week, but I'll let Brendan. do it. Yeah, Brandon's in now. So I would say set an example for him. Can I help you out? What's the one thing?

What? Brandon. Whatever. I genuinely don't know how you're saying it wrong. I didn't, I didn't even notice. Brandon, Brandon, same thing. Is it basically? I grew up never being called the right name. So he's used to it. He's fun. I mean, look, I heard of say, I've been on the show for like two months now, and I've been

here for a year and you still call me George sometimes. I call him George. That's Ross. Three days ago. Yeah, Joseph, I call you the right name every single time. Mr. George. All right, my story is from here in the Lone Star State. Really? Yeah.

Is it about Guffin and Rabbit? No, it's not. Future guests of the 18th. John McLean? No. Okay. Mine is from South Africa. And, Ross, you are from?

Oh, I guess I'll do the Spain one. Yeah, do the Spain one. Because I've got nothing else. Anyways. Non-Florida stories coming up after I tell you about Shaw's jewelry at the corner of West Gray and Montrose. They have been in that same intersection. since 1966. Something must be doing right.

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Hey, listen, Lou Holtz, and listen to Sports Talk 790. I'm a sports speaker. Your smart sports speaker. You're my speaker. Just ask. Hey, Google. Play Sports Talk 790 on IHeartRadio. Time now for non-Florida stories.

Adam Clinton, you got a non-flora story? Yes, I do. Can you mention it right now? No. Okay. 3 o'clock. Joe, you're all right? On this segment.

Yeah, I'm great, guys. We just found some information about it. I'm going to miss you guys. I'm uncomfortable. You know why? Because we have a good time on the show. We really do. I know you do.

Not that you don't have a good time in the afternoon show. But we bust balls constantly. You don't have a good time on this show? No, I'm talking about the three shows. I was making a joke with a 36 show. We should start to call on the show the Bustin' Ball Show. Okay. That's all we do.

That's kind of weird. You're on like 7-1-3-21-2-5. I'm going to be busting anything or not anything. You're on busting balls, go. Bustin Balls Radio. You know, bar stool, busting balls. Yeah, we do need to have us. I mean, do you really have a sports show if you don't have some kind of weird, punny, funny name?

It's been the name. of the show since 2010. Overtime with Matt Thomas and Ross. Could we do a segment called Bustra innings? Can we have people calling just bust balls on somebody? I just... That means. It's not a sound effect. Busted. And then it's just...

Do you want to try it? No, I don't want to be busting any balls. You don't want to bust balls tomorrow. All right. Time now for the Florida story. Now in Florida stories. I will go first. Okay. I don't think it's a bad one.

Dateline, the state of Texas. Central Texas, in fact. A Texas Park Ranger was politely instructing a crowd on social distancing. Doesn't sound bad, right? He unexpectedly ended up in a lake

and the man accused of punishing him, or pushing him in the lake, has been arrested. This gentleman, Cassidy Stidwell, this is the officer, was patrolling Commons Ford Ranch Metropolitan Park in Austin. I'm sure, Ross, you've been there, right? Which park?

Cosma Commons Ford Ranch. No, I don't know that. All right. He came across the people who were illegally drinking and smoking. There's a stunner. As well as standing too close together in violation of the coronavirus guidelines. As seen in a video that eventually was circulated on Reddit, Stilwell stood on the edge of a dock and calmly told the crowd to, quote,

disperse and keep six feet of distance among them. themselves. A man suddenly reached out, shoved him in the shallow water. Stillwell could be seen grabbing onto the man and pulling him into the water as well. The two men quickly emerged from the lake and the man ran off. Brandon Hicks, 25 years old, not even a millennial, was later apprehended and identified by witnesses. The suspect's intentional and reckless action could have caused the ranger to strike his head on the dock and render himself unconscious in at least three feet of water. The person who shot the video says Stilwell was being, quote, sweet and understanding before he got pushed. As for Hicks, the guy that pushed the ranger into the lake, he faces

charges of attempted assault on a public servant. Quote, he is embarrassed about his actions and has the utmost respect for law enforcement, particularly these, during these, quote, unprecedented times. His lawyer tells CNN, he was released from the Travis County Jail on $7,500 bond, and his court date is coming up in two weeks. So please, if you go to a lake, social distance, and if a ranger comes after you, don't push him in a lake. And that is my non-Florida story. Wonderful.

Ross? Me? Yeah. Okay, Matt. Let me take you to a place called Spain. More specifically, Madrid. Matt, are you familiar with the work of one Nacho Vidal? Is he a wrestler?

No. What does he do for a living? He's a point. pornographic actor. Is he like in your top five? May I give a completely honest answer? Let's go, yes. If anyone's ever asked me about who my top five porn star friends are,

friends, not friends, porn star like you watch, which I don't watch any. I would usually, would probably give them the female names. There's not a male star that I would watch. That's not where I thought you were going with this. I thought you were going to be like, Yeah, he's great. See, that's why you're,

We shouldn't assume these things. Love is work. But when someone says, who's your favorite porn star? Joe, would you say a woman or a man first? A woman. And then if I said, who's your second favorite porn star? A woman. If I said your third favorite.

It's going to be all women. See, that's exactly what I was trying to say. Spanish police, that's a fantasy five that we're never going to have. Nacho Vidal. That's a great topic. I can look at this on my phone. Go ahead. Spanish police have arrested three people, including Nacho Vidal,

in connection with the death of photographer, who is thought to have died after inhaling toad venom, during a shamanic ceremony. There was apparently a mystical ritual involving the inhalation of vapors from the venom of the Bufel Alvrius toad. If you want to go through your top five toads, Matt. At the conclusion of an 11-month investigation,

they have established that the offense of involuntary manslaughter and a public health offense occurred committed by those who organized and presided over the ritual. So he gave the to a dude? There were people in a group, apparently. And they were doing a

shamanic ritual. Shaman's. I don't know. Some kind of crazy, I don't know what they're doing. It then involved in inhaling the venom and the photographer died. And now after a lengthy investigation, Porn star Nacho Vidal, who Matt will be Googling after the show, has been arrested among others. Have you ever inhaled Toadfume? I have not.

Apparently, according to nachos, representatives, he's very upset by the death of this person and considers himself to be innocent. Nacho maintains that the consumption of the venom was completely voluntary. Do you inhale it or swallow it? The buffalo ovrious, also known as the Sonoran Desert Toad or Colorado River Toad, is one of the largest such animals found in North America. The toad possesses a very powerful toxin that it uses to defend itself against predators. The secretion also contains a psychedelic substance, which medical research

have studied as a possible treatment for depression and anxiety. Oh. Would these affect my dreams? I think, yeah. Crazier dreams? You want to start huff and toad venom. You might have some crazy dreams. Not that you guys asked,

but yesterday for the first time I had a nun, a dream that will not be discussed on air. Oh, so it was erotic in nature. Is it in the journal, though? Was Nachiovedal there? I don't think I can put in the journal. Why not? Because what if somebody reads it?

Because what if somebody reads it? Well, we're not going to read your journal. It's your journal. It's your journal. Matt. You're supposed to be logging your I'm not going to read your dream journal. That's a path I don't want to go down. Yeah. And you've been trying

to teach me about what it's like to be married but shouldn't journals be secret? But how am I going to put a lock on a journal? Would your wife respect your privacy? Yeah, doesn't she just not read it? I would hope my wife is so, it's a liberal one of to understand that man, it's nice that Matt had a regular dream as compared to dreams about basketball.

So what was her name? Not too you. All right, on to you, Joe George. All right. So in America Our America or somebody else is America? Okay, good. Just to set up the story.

During quarantine, we were all the buy alcohol, right? We could get alcohol delivered. Correct. Well, in South Africa, that was not the case. During level five and level four, as they called it, of quarantine, the sale of liquor was banned. So in Johannesburg, or Johannesburg, I don't know, a group of men,

they wanted their alcohol so bad. they dug a tunnel underground into a liquor store, broke through the concrete, and stole $1,700 of American dollars worth of whiskey, brandy, gin, ciders. I almost said citters, ciders, vodka, and beer. It is citters, isn't it? So, I don't know. Ciders. I guess it's ciders.

So when they went back to level three quarantine, the shop owner went back to her store and she walked in, she found a tarp, and when she removed the tarp, there was a hole that people were burrowing in to her liquor store to loot the store. Did anybody get arrested over this? No, they have not found the people yet. So they're still out there. Interesting. So it was like an Ocean's 11 type deal. Yes, except for liquor instead of $11 million or $22 million or whatever it was.

Let me ask you this. We have 11 people on our staff here at 790. Okay. Could we do an Ocean's 11 of something? No way. Everybody has to have a certain set of skills. Let's discuss, quickly. What is your skill, Joe?

I don't know. I'm a great organizer. Joe can be like the little, what do you call it, contortionist? I'm too far for that. We can get you into shape. I think I'm the George Cooney because of my looks. Oh, boy. Yeah, you would say that.

But you know what? I'm the Brad Pitt, I guess. But the old guy who always questions everything, Wax. Oh, yeah. Yes. That's exactly right. Clanton's probably the overconfident Matt Damon character. Casey Affleck, you mean?

or no, Matt Damon? Okay. Oh, who were the two brothers that are fighting? Yes. Is that you and me? It's you and Brendan. You guys are fighting over. So who knows next gen? So people say we look alike.

Y'all too? People at our previous job. I was told almost as soon as I moved here that I looked like Joe George. And keep in mind, I just met Joe George two days ago. He worked at Gao like I used to. Can we call you Joe Jr? I'm going to say no on that one. The brow shape is there a little bit.

I think it's the gingerish beard when it grows out. I'll put a hat on tomorrow too because I usually wear a hat. All right. So let's do this. Ross and I are going to work on this. I'd say y'all could be cousins, maybe. I don't think you look like. We're going to do Oceans 11 of the 790 staff.

Oh, gosh. And we'll, we need to let this thing about it. Who's the Julia Roberts? Tess Ocean. Do we have a female here? Well, yeah, Teresa. Yeah, Teresa's in. But that means Clanton's Clooney.

Yeah, that's true because they get together. So on the Brad Pitt of the group. Yeah, they have a rocky relationship. Perfect. I'm just kidding. 244. It's a joke. Sports Talk 790.

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Talk 790. Left side to Westbrook on the baseline for the tie. He makes it. And he's fouled. This is Russell Westbrook. One thing is for sure. I did not get my amazing style from Matt Thomas. Oh, hammer job.

All right. Everybody's got homework tonight. Tomorrow's anything goes Friday. Get out your week. Get out your IMDB on Oceans 11. We got 11 male members. Now, is Julia Roberts one of the Oceans 11? Or is she the...

No. No, she's not. Okay. So Teresa would be the... Julia Roberts. And who is the Andy Garcia villain? Who are we stealing from? Hmm.

Eddie? I got to retweet that right now. We're stealing from Eddie Martini. Okay. He's the rich guy I told Michael he's Turk Maloy That's one of the brothers that gets in fights Okay, that's right

Who is Andy Garcia? Yeah, who is Andy Garcia's character My question is who's basher? Who's blowing stuff up? Sags Sags? I feel like I would trust him the most Okay

If they were like, you need to Explode something To steal something He would be the Oh, oh, I think Could Charles Adams play the role of Andy Garcia? Maybe they don't look alike, but... Well, who's most likely to own a casino?

God, does he want to be the... Does he want to be the... You know what? Does Andy Garcia have to have dark, slick, black hair? That's why I said Eddie. But there's a scene in Ocean's 11... Andy Martinez are general managers. There's a scene in the movie

where George Clooney gets fake beat up by a bodyguard. who's friends with him actually. That could be Charles. Yeah, I think Charles won't a role in this show badly. Because he went right to Twitter right immediately. Okay. Is somebody in the line there?

Oh, Michael Connor wants in on this. Michael Connor, I got terrible news for you. You cannot be George Clooney because Adam's going to be. Yes, I can. Have you seen the rest of you people at the station? You guys are no... What do you mean? You people.

as me. All of you people. Okay. I'm George Clooney or Brad Pitt. Live with me. No, you're Turk Maloy. I already tweeted you that. Nope.

I mean, George Clooney is the farthest thing from a ginger. Come on, Michael. But the problem is, if George Clooney, if Teresa's going to be Julia Roberts, Adam's going to win the George Clooney role by default. All right, well, then I'll be Brad Pitt. Look, it's not the worst thing in the world. I don't remember what his name is.

Brad Pitt's name is Rob. Robert Ryan, Robert Rusty Ryan. Ocean's 11 great. Look, as long as I don't have to be the little guy stuck in the vault. That's all that matters. But you're the skinniest one of all of us. It makes the most sense. That's true.

But you're... No, but I'm not... I'm like 5'22. Yeah, but you're the most flexible and you're in the best shape. So I think, yeah, you know what? Yeah, you're the amazing inn. No, I'm not. You don't get a vote.

Red pit. You're not the casting director. No, no, no, no. That's wax. That's wax. No, yeah, Matt. Oh, Matt is Saul Bloom, the older guy? Yeah, he saw.

Carl Reiner. Carl Reiner is a gangster. I have zero problem with that. There you go. You're a car riner. Well, but we're not talking about dead or not. No, Carl Riner's alive. Carl Riner's alive.

Oh. Wait, I didn't know that. He's 98. I thought he died recently. You're always wrong, though, Ross. Yeah, you bet like $2.50. Who was the old guy that died recently? A lot of dead people that have old people that have died recently.

Wasn't there a Reiner that died? Or Brooks? Nope. Mel Brooks still alive. Dang it. Hopefully they're staying indoors and avoiding the coronavirus. Oh, Doug. Do we have room for Doug Pike? Is there a fishing and hunting segment in Oceans 12 or 13?

Doug would be one of the brothers. He's done crazy stuff. All right. Adam Sager chiming in on who Sean Salsbury should be. This has got legs to it. By the way, Tom and downtown, Andy Garcia has to be Charlie Polillo as the short Italian guy that everyone has animosity towards? I don't have any animus towards.

What kind of word is animus? Animus means like, you know, victory all venom. If I have animus towards you, I don't like you. Do you have animus towards me? I do not, man. No animus. I thought he said animosity. But I guess it's a nomenclature off of that, correct?

That's proper nomenclature, yes. See you later, Michael. Animacy and animus. Animus, sir. Just drop them. This show is off the rails today. We got the return of the NBA. No baseball.

We got Drew apologizing. So, I mean, this, this feels like it makes sense. So everybody's got homework. Watch a little bit of it. Oh, Ben Stillers. You know who died? Jerry Stiller. Jerry Stiller.

One of those old guys died. I was right. Carl Reiner, Jerry Stiller, Mel Brooks. Same thing. Not really. Pretty much. It's not. It's not the same.

They're not even close. Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks, two goats of comedy. Jerry Stiller are funny, but I wouldn't be, I wouldn't put them in the upper five of all the time. They're all in their 90s. I don't know how old Jerry Stiller was. He probably had to be 90-ish. Yeah, okay. All right, so everybody's got homework to put the cast together for Oceans 11 involving 790 staff members.

And of course, Clinton's got the easy one because he's married to want our Julia Roberts. So he's George Clooney. Yeah. Can you handle that responsibility? You're the lead. George Clooney. Oh, now you're upset. You're being George Clooney.

Wait, yeah. Well, yeah, but everyone wants to be Brad Pitt. Right. Who's going to be Brad Pitt at the station? Adam Wexler. He's George Clooney. Oh, I thought you're George Clooney. He is George Clooney.

All right. On the show tomorrow, Fantasy 5. We have one kind of already, but that's more Christmassy. Yeah, you want to do stocking stuffers. Yeah, that's not good. We need a better fantasy five for tomorrow. Okay. We have Brian T.

Top 10 Drew Breeze quotes? Probably not. Okay. Are there 10 great one quotes? Sure. I think he's 0 for 10 at this point. So we'll get to that on the show tomorrow as well. And maybe, you know what?

I'm going to try to get somebody NBA related on. Oh, really? We now have a little bit of an afterthought of after what was happened today. We did have Kaylee and Craig on today. Kaylee and Craig were mystery guests that joined the show in very short notice. Appreciate them stopping by. Wax Clatner up next. They're going to entertain the hell out of you for the next three hours.

We call them the A team, and they're on the way here on Sports Talk 790. Nightcap tonight with Ross at 6.