The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Please Win Rockets, Shade Or No Shade & Rodeo Babies

Episode Date: September 1, 2020

larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 1202 and H-Town. What's happening, lunchtimmers? Good afternoon to you and welcome to a Tuesday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports

9. I'm Matt with Ross and with Brendan. We appreciate you guys taking some time to find 790 in the old AM dial and hang out with us for the next. three hours. Now, typically we play some music to kind of, I don't know, give an example of the times. Set the tone? Yeah. Tone setter, if you will. Yes. I don't, I couldn't think of a song. And I usually try to get Brendan 15, 20 minutes a heads up. I try to do the same with you. What's a song that fits? I am. And I can't. What's a song that makes you so angry you can't sleep?

That's what we need. Anything by Edie Burkell and the new Bohemians. Okay. I'll take your word for it. Yeah, there was a song when I was in college. It was called, I don't know what it's called, but it goes, I'm not a fan of too many things. You know what I know.

You know what I mean. It's nails on the chalkboard type awful. It was never, number one hit, which means we didn't have to use it for our fantasy five. But it was just one of those songs that pissed me off. Maybe we can give the pet opizmo song Because the Rockets give me nausea, heartburn, indigestion

Diary Dyeria It's too catchy, though Like you want to sing that Yeah, you want to sing the last part Which again, diarrhea is an awful word But it just It just rolls off the tongue beautifully

Diarrhea All right Rossi Yes, Matt I called a really good game yesterday I'm sure you did great I heard maybe 45 seconds of it That's not uncommon for you.

Those 45 seconds were great. I didn't call a win in the postseason. You didn't. I don't want to blame you, but it's probably your fault. Well, I mean, I had nothing to do with it. As a matter of fact, I was 850, 900 miles away from everything. Oh, but if they were 3 and 0, what would you say? I would say that they won three games because they were better than the competition.

No chance. No chance. Well, guess what I'm going to have to do tomorrow? as part of the show. Game 7 starting lineups. That's true. Because it is a home game tomorrow. You know, a home, you know, they say a series hasn't started

until somebody wins on the other team's floor. Well, that doesn't happen, the whole series. I guess the series is zero, zero. I was on a phone with a lot of people yesterday, so I didn't get to listen to much of the Rockets Rap. You know, Rocket's rap was fairly tame. Was it? There wasn't a whole lot of, there were some people supporting the Rockets.

there wasn't a whole lot of, you know, Mike Dantone needs to work the mid-range. Daryl Morey is an idiot, needs to be fired. Why isn't Tyson-Channler playing? Yes. Why doesn't I say a Hardenstein start? Well, no, he's not on the team, number one. And number two, he was just never going to start. All right.

So in all seriousness, by the way, we'd love for you guys to join us today. We have one guest that's Aaron Reese, join us for Texans talk. He's you know, as every Tuesday. And he'll do it today at 2 o'clock as compared to 1.30. They've got a Zoom call with a bunch of coordinators. They're going to talk about how great their things are going. so we're not complaining that because it doesn't seem overly interesting. But Aaron Reese is interesting.

We'll join us at 2 o'clock this afternoon. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach our show today. 713-212-5-790. You can find us on Twitter at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Brendan Riley underscore. All right. Russell Westbrook, regardless of uniform, would you have to say is one of the zero,

zero to 60 guys fastest in the history of the NBA. When he goes from the top of the key to the lane when he finishes, that burst of speed for a guy that's been the league, what, over 10 years now comfortably, is still as good as it gets. He might be, and I heard this today on ESPN, he might be Ross of the most physically gifted point guard in the history of the NBA.

In terms of just sheer athleticism. Yes. I would say he, Derek Rose before his surgeries, John Wall. Good, good, good categories right there. Probably somewhere around there. There has been something that has plagued Russell Westbrook's entire magnificent basketball Hall of Fame career. His turnover count. I was going to say crazy Russ.

Well, that's how he got it. It was maddening yesterday. seven what seven turnovers last night yes two in the last couple minutes of the fourth quarter and crucial ones and why couldn't chris paul's hamstrings shred in oklahoma city during the playoffs like they did for the rockets i don't know he's been healthy all year and playing back to backs and playing a lot of minutes and uh you can tell he can serve his energy till the fourth quarter you can tell that he was amazing in the fourth quarter hitting mid range jumper hitting three point shots.

Contested ones over the length of Robert Covington. Yeah. So yesterday for me was maddening. Fair to say? I consider the entire game and I brought this up on Twitter yesterday. It was like you know how you've ever been on a flight where there's

turbulence? Like non-stop throughout the entire flight? Yes. That's what yesterday's game was. It was a weird game. Really bumpy to start out. The first quarter was a hot mess on both sides. There were fouls. Everybody were flying. Nobody could make a shot.

The very, yeah, the first quarter was disgusting. Then you were smoothing out things after a while, and then it got bumpy again. And then it smoothed out. And then it got bumpy. I mean,

yesterday was turbulence. And unfortunately, the one who stuck the landing was the flight of Oklahoma City Thunder. Rossi, I think for mental health for the history, for this organization, from coaches to general managers to owner,

to their friendly, team broadcast or your buddy, me, they've got to win this game tomorrow. I'm not even thinking about the Lakers series. I'm not even thinking about how some of the matchups would seem at times to be favorable, especially when the Rockets have held their own against the Lakers. I'm not worried about that.

I am really genuinely concerned about which Jekyll and Hyde basketball team shows up tomorrow in Rocket's gear. Because that's what this series has been. How do you win games by an average there 21, I think it was 21 points in the three victories. Now, granted, one of them was by 34, so that kind of is going to skewed a little bit. But Rossi, there were three double-digit wins. One of them was a complete blowout in just the game before.

Golanari held in check. He explodes in the game yesterday. Lou Dort, for some reason, Billy Donovan still gave him the get-go to shoot shots, and he made a couple of three-pointers. By the way, you hit the over on the Lou Dort overs on the three-point shot. Yes, he did. And then Chris Paul had a magnificent second half. Meanwhile, the Rockets, Rossi, could not hold on to the basketball.

This is a basketball team in the first five games of the series, average 11 turnovers per game. That's one in one. They had 22 yesterday. Was it because Goldman, was it because Oklahoma City was putting stifling defense on the Rockets? to me the game was plagued by numerous, unforced, getting cute, no look, not paying attention, non-chris passes. And that's got to drive everybody crazy. If Golden's, if, I say one, go and say it one more time.

If Oklahoma City one more, is intercepting passing lanes, that's one thing if they're deflecting. but I felt like there were numerous times throughout the course of the game yesterday that either the ball was being turned over with absolutely zero pressure or just the passes weren't particularly good. What happened to the crisp, clean, refra- I'm not talking about the Corr's life. I'm talking about the Rockets, the team that took good care of the basketball,

that forced as many steals like they did yesterday. Where did that team go in two days? It's been there in their losses. and it was there last night. And I'm with, now look, yeah, there were a couple of steals. There were a couple of, hey, Oklahoma City Thunder anticipated the play, and they played the passing lanes really well and stuff like that. But a lot of times, it was just PJ Tucker sitting in the corner

and somebody's sailing it over his head. Or at the very end there where Robert Covington, was he in the wrong spot? Or did Russell not even look at him and he should have? I don't know. That's for them to decide. The bottom line is that pass should not be sailing out of bounds. You should not be getting up six with four minutes and 19 seconds to go and just be just yacking up that game the way that they did. They threw that game away.

In every game that they've won, they've thrown away. You get up five with a minute to go. You lose that in game three. You get up 15 when the third quarter there in game number four, you'll lose that game. And then last night, you get up six. After the thunder are becoming unraveled. Chris Paul is getting called for a technical foul. This bad boy should be over.

Series over. And you toss it away with, and what's going on with Russell Westbrook and his, he's completely airballing a 20 footer. That was the top of the key job bar. When that shot didn't go, I naturally, because I've called hundreds and hundreds of NBA games, but it was a deflection. Then the replay shows it was an airball from the top of the key. Yes.

He must not be close to 100%. I don't think he is. Because before you have that, you have that, you have that. where he didn't get legs in. You have the, I meant to go look at last night, look into it more. But from what I saw in the fourth quarter, he had a free throw attempt,

and he didn't even bend his legs. He didn't even bend his legs on a free throw attempt. Now, unless, if that's how he shoot him, that's fine, but that's not how any shooting coach is ever going to tell you how to shoot a free throw. So I meant to completely be sure and check the tape on that. But I saw him not bend his legs on that free throw. And he had that layup where it's a normal, regular layup that he normally makes. And he couldn't even, he was like under the basket.

He was playing under the rim. and we know that Russell Westbrook isn't above the rim player. There is something wrong. So the question is, is it going to be fixed in two days? Does a day off in between games heal it, or does Mike Dantonia have to make the difficult decision to not play Russ in crucial moments? We'll go to the locker room next, sort of.

We'll go to the Zoom meeting. Here's from the coaches, the players, all that coming up next. 12.13 is a time. If you'd like to join us, 713, 212-790, 7-1-3-212-5-7. It is the Matt Thomas show with a message here for Shaw's Jewry. At the corner of West Gray and Montrose, where right now they are ready to offer you 0% financing for 12 months on most purchases. Some exclusions do apply.

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Matt Thomas returns on Sports Talk 790. 11 seconds left to go. Westbrook out right side throws it behind Robert Covington. Another turnover. Turnovers. I usually can hear the pain in your voice, Matt. I don't like listen to myself. I really don't listen to myself on that. When you're pained. You can hear another turnover. You can hear you wanting to say, are you kidding me? Play something positive.

Find something that's positive. Oh, geez. Why? I don't care. What's the point, Matt? I don't care if it's 14 to 10. They lost anyways. Just go to Rockets audio, play something.

I don't care. How about, well, better times. Bad come the Rockets. Westbrook against three defenders scores, the layup to give the Rockets a two-point lead as he beat Dennis Schrooter to the lane. How about play the Eric Gordon half-time heave? Oh, that was a nice one. Yeah. I got a terrible stat about Eric Gordon coming up after this.

This pains me because I love EG. You know how much I love EG. I'm not finding that anyway. Oh, here it is. Four and a half seconds left to go. Beards got it. throws it out right side of EG. Baseline three and in the half is good. EG for three. A desperation baseline shot to end it. I chuckled because he had been missing all the open ones. And then he has the fall away.

There's somebody up in his grill. He has no room and it's at the buzzer and that's the one he makes. I mean, it was pure. That was the only one he made all game. All right. 713, 2, 1, 2, 5, 790. We're going to go to the locker room here in just a second. But I want to give you a sobering number.

This is from our buddies over at clutch fans. Oh, great. And when I read this to you, you may, you may. Clutch fans are not big Eric Gordon fans right now. Florida Evans may have to chime in on this. Three point shooting in the series. Lou Dort.

7 of 38, 18%. 18.4%. Eric Gordon is 8 of 43. That's 18.6%. So he's better. Yeah. I mean, yeah. And here's where Clutch fans

puts the knife into the stomach and towards a twisted here. Interestingly, the Rockets are inviting both players to shoot as many open threes as they want. You can't win without Eric Gordon playing well. You can't win without him making three. So you have to trust that he's going to find it at some point. He's been a street guy his

entire career. We had Mike Dantonie on yesterday and we talked about it and he said it's one of those things. You got to just keep letting him fly. Unless Eric Gordon, who's been probably growing up in Indiana shooting since the womb and he's been a three-point shooter for a decade in the NBA, unless he just forgot how to shoot, which I don't think he did, you can't just tell him not to shoot? All right. If you are... Now, can he stop shooting crazy fallaways and with contested ones from 30 feet away? Yeah, I would like that. Yeah.

You do notice every one of the longer ones he takes hit the front room. Yes. He takes them way too long, deep sometimes. You know what it is? He's just trying to get a little bit of separation between himself and the defender. Yeah, I don't know if he's pressing or what.

But yeah. Let me tell you something. We're all pressing. He's had a good game here in the playoffs. What was a game? He was like three of eight. He was three for four and a quarter. Well, he went 0 for 3 in game 5,

but still had 12, I think 18 or 20 points, something like that. All right. I do not sense, and this is troubling, there's a lot of outrage, optimism, I mean, anything. Rossi, what's line one look like right now? Well, it looks like, well, from what I can tell and what I know about our phone system, it looks like it's not occupied. Okay, line two, is it busy? It does not, Matthew.

It looks open. Do you want me to check? Go ahead and check line two. Okay, maybe it's technical issues. Line three, you're on Rockets Recap. You're on Rockets recap of game six last night. It's okay. This troubles me considerably.

You want to break down Astros, Rangers? Can't. We haven't played a game. The Astros and Rangers haven't played yet. We can talk Padre's deadline. No, nobody cares about that. I mean, I guess people of San Diego care. Maybe the Dodger fans care.

But let's go to the locker and let you, I want to hear it from their voices. Russ, I will give him credit because he's a grown-ass man. He took a lot of responsibility for his mistake. Yeah, here's Russell Westbrook on the turnovers and the issues that the team has had with that. That's just my fault, honestly. That's easy. But last game I had zero, tonight I had seven.

Simple as that. See, that's the thing too, Matt. You end up with 22, and this is a 100 to 98 game with seconds to go, or 104 to 100 game final. If you could just have a couple of those possessions back. He gave up 21 points or whatever it was on those turnovers. If you can

make one more three, this is what happens in playoff games, though. You make one more You make a couple fewer mistakes, and you win these games. You've closed out the series, and it just piled up on the Rockets way. It's way to much last night, and that's what's frustrating because we know they can play better. These are correctable mistakes. Yeah, the Rockas last night shot 34% from three, hit 153s. That's kind of what they are.

I can do that. 45% from the floor. They got outrebounded by 10, but a lot of that was off of Stephen Adams' miss tapping. So, I mean, he was grabbing the board, grabbing the rebounds, but he wouldn't do much with it. Yeah, nine offensive boards for him. Yeah, it scored six points. And they're not running place for him. I mean, they're just not.

Schrooter was his worst in the series, by far. Shegildas Alexander has been M.I.A. for most of the series. Galanari killed it early on. And then, strangely, they didn't go to him until almost very late in the contest. I mean, there was a long stretch where Danilo Garinari was not on the floor. We even questioned whether or not he was hurt. But Chris Paul. was a stud in the fourth quarter.

He was a son of a B is what he was. And that's, yeah, that's just what hurt. But here's also James Harden on asking about Russell Westbrook and his turnovers. Is he rusty or what's going on with the team there? Russ had seven turnovers tonight. Do you feel like that's just being out of rhythm after all the time? It's a part of it. You know, I mean, I have five, so I can't.

You know, we both got to be better with the basketball. You know, that's 12 turners between the two. Twelve turnovers between the two. You know, if we cut the two. those down a half, we give ourselves a better chance to get shot opportunity. So, you know, we all got to be better.

Yeah. Yeah. Cutting him a half keeps you alive. Counting them in half wins to get the game for you. It's not a question of making shots. It's do not, you're giving up possessions that you would score on. And more importantly, you're giving Oklahoma City

a second and third chance opportunity to get extra possessions. You have seven turnovers, seven turnovers and 11 in wins. And then in the losses, 14, 16 and 22. You don't want to just oversimplify it, but of course, that's a factor. You got to kick care of the ball.

It's basketball 101. You take care of the ball. And honestly, I think Mike's got to be very careful about this. He cannot, you know, look, coaches are going to, what do you call it? Not play Kate. They're going to allow their veterans to take the game. Because the sport of professional basketball is a player.

league. I mean, you can draw plays all you want to to your blue in the face, but if Russ wants to dribble, drive, penetrate, or James wants to take a step back three, that's going to happen no matter what the play call is out during the timeout. Yeah, we also got conflicting reports about the last play. It doesn't matter to me. I'm not even going to let the last play, you know, people like, why didn't James touch the ball? Yes, there are a lot of people upset. Why didn't James touch the ball? He needs to demand the ball. He needs to be ripping it from Russell Westbrook's hands. Like, okay, if he does that, then you talk about how they hate each other. I mean, you're going from Playmaker 1 and Playmaker 1A.

I mean, if the ball goes to James and he takes a step back three with a contest, they're going to say, wait a minute, where was Ross in the floor? Why is he so selfish? Yeah, I'm not letting that. The game for me was about their inability to hold on to the basketball and the careless turnovers. The no-look passes. The ball, I mean, you mentioned this.

I was listening to you yesterday. the passes that were thrown to PJ Tucker at his shoe tops. Yes. Those matter. If you were to agree, you know how you grade offense, defense, specials, if you were to grade passing, they get an F. Yes. And those shoe top ones are important because you go from being wide open in the corner to where it's an inaccurate pass. It's not a turnover, but it's effectively a turnover because the defense has a chance to close and you can't get your shot up.

So those things are huge. Correctible, right? what the Rockets did yesterday is not who they are. I hope so. They haven't been a high turnover team this entire season. And they certainly haven't been a high turnover team in this series. Well, we have three examples of them being terrible at taking care of the ball and three examples of them being good. So I don't know who they are right now.

All right. There will be baseball play today, which is good. For sure? No, I mean, last time I checked about 9 o'clock this morning, they said they're playing baseball. We'll talk about that a little bit. And the Astros don't make any trade deadline moves. surprised, upset, indifferent to it. We'll talk about that next.

And again, if you want to get in on the rockets and what happened last night, you were more than welcome to do so. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach our show today. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. We'll check in on the Texans with Aaron Reese from the athletic coming up at 2 o'clock. Right now, I want to tell you about Big Rivers Waterpark. We have so much fun the last couple days giving away those passes on, believe it or not. and if you haven't been able to win, you want to go check out one of the new, exciting, fun places for water adventures in Houston.

It's eight miles north of Kingwood in the New Caney area up along 69, and that is big rivers water park. First of all, they have giant water slides. You can't go wrong with that. Then they have big waves. We're talking about a lazy river that is the biggest and longest in the Houston area. And they have fun things beyond the water. Ziplines and petting zoos. So much more.

They've got a giant maze. They've got cane fishing as well. You're going to have an opportunity to be a part of a 70-foot-high free fall tower, all with Big Rivers Waterpark. They're open 11 to 5 on the weekends. So this weekend with a long Labor Day weekend, get your kids out there and enjoy some of the great outdoor fun during these very hot times. And you can do that at Big Riverswaterpark.com. Day passes start as low as 2499. Big Riverswaterpark.com.

Big Riverswaterpark. com. Hey, it's James Arden. What a pass. What a finish. Listen to your home of the Rockets on your smart speaker, JetSass. Hey, Google, play Sports Talk 790 on IHR radio.

That is something else, folks. This is Alex Bregman of your Houston Astros. From Clutch City. Rockets, basketball to Crush City. The Houston Astros. Sports Talk 790 is home for your home teams. 1233, Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas Show.

713212. 5-7-90. We got a nice email this morning from the Astros. There will be baseball tonight. We weren't so sure yesterday. James Click, the general manager of the Astros, had a Zoom call. And basically said, we don't know at this point. That was as of about, that was 5 o'clock yesterday.

Since then, the A's tested negatively. Don't know what the Astros. I mean, obviously everything was fine with the Astros, but the Rangers didn't have any issues. either. So there will be baseball tonight. And by the way, not only is it good because the Astros are playing the Sucky Rangers, but it's a normal start time at 7 o'clock. I saw that of the calendar and I was blown away. A couple weeks ago whenever we saw it. I was like actual 710 games. And that's me on the deck show, which means I won't be talking to six people at 1155 at night

tonight. Unless the game goes like 14 games. If the Astros can play more games against the Rangers since they're both central and nobody's worried about what time they start, that'd be fantastic. Well, they're playing 10, so we're going to get a steady diet of Rangers Astros games. By the way, I did a little kicking of the tires. We remember we were kind of debating yesterday about whether or not that September 14th game should be in Houston or go to Oakland to play it. The lien is probably going to go to Oakland. They just want to, if they can save even one flight, they're probably going to do it. I don't like it.

I think they, you know, that the Astros shouldn't have been penalized for something that happened with the A's. but it's not one of those things. I'm just going to say this is the biggest outrage. I'm just afraid Astro's Twitter is going to do that. And again, I side with them if it does happen. But, yeah, there's... You have to just give the most popular answer recently. It's 2020.

Yeah, when in down, it's 2020. It's 2020. You got different stuff is going down, Matt. Yeah, like, for instance, I, with a late game yesterday, I stayed in a hotel to spend the night. I don't want to go back to him from Kingwood with, you know, and whatnot. Palestinian?

No. Scottish in? A little nicer. Passport in? Well, I got this really good rate, which I was very happy about. And this hotel normally gives breakfast credits based on what your status is with this hotel. And you are a very high status. Man, people don't know this.

Matt Thomas is America's travel whore. I call it America's Travel Aficionado. I wouldn't call my stuff. I said I have a whore. Okay, well. I do. So I go to check in and I said, do I get the $10 food and beverage credit? And they're like, sir, there's no restaurant.

It's closed down. So you couldn't eat at least get like a, you know they have the little snack kiosk? Nothing. They couldn't even give you like. So they're like, sorry. Roast beef and cheese? Yeah. So you're just going to say, sorry, Charlie, nothing?

Zero, nothing? Not even a warm cookie or something? So the answer was to the receptionist? it's 2020. That's what she said? No, I'm paraphrasing, but pretty much. Yeah, pretty much. She's like, what do you want me to tell you?

Yeah, it's 2020. It's 2020, brach. Man, bra, you got a good rate. I mean, I mean, for usually, you know, hotel rates in big cities midweek are very expensive. And so I got a very good rate. And she just, she didn't seem to be. And not that I was overly upset about it. As a matter of fact, I was zero upset about it, but it would have been nice to have a little, you know, little eggs over my hammy if available to me.

Ooh, that'd have been nice. Didn't get it. That's unfortunate. Send him to the jack-in-a-box. Thoughts and prayers out to you for not getting a free breakfast. Well, I mean, not free. I paid for the room. America stands united with Matt Thomas.

America understands that daddy-sill to put the credit card down. All right. And by the way, have you ever been to a hotel lately since all this? Yes. You know, room service is done. Not room service. Excuse me. Maid service is done until you leave. Well, it depends on the place.

Probably, you're right. I stayed at one place, and they said, we're going to come in there and clean the place. Even if you put Do Not Disturb. What? Yeah. Now, this was, of course, Palisand, but. Now, I was in Lake Charles, and the Nugget did not come to our room at all. And then I was in Galveston a couple of weeks ago, and they did what you said.

They said, we're not coming in at all until you leave. Yeah, the Hilton where I stayed last week because I was in for the hurricane, had a piece of paper seal across the door, meaning that no one's been in this room since we've actually cleaned it up. That's good. Which I felt was interesting. It's very calming. I think that's the future. You know that people always say, well, what's going to happen?

What's the new norm? I feel like the new norm is going to be face mask. I think for the rest of our lives. Maybe a little relaxing of it, maybe in like restaurants and whatnot. But I think generally speaking, when you go to grocery stores, maybe the foreseeable future. I mean, I could see ourselves five years from now still having used face mask, right? Don't you think? That sounds terrible.

It does sound terrible, especially in the hot-ass summer that we're going through. By the way, it's September. It's time to cool this biotcha. a little bit. Well, usually about... October 30th. I was going to say, I've been in some very muggy Halloween's in my day, so I'm not even sure if that's going to help. All right. So the...

That's another thing, though, Matt. Halloween is the skanky costume Super Bowl? Yeah. We're not going to be able to... Oh, no. Noddy nurse. Noddy teacher. Notty nun. Riding Hood.

Noddy radio host. Exactly. Well, they don't want to do that around here. Noddy radiologist. Noddy, everybody. Everything, Matt. Anything that you are in life, we can gnautify for Halloween. Noddy Nunn. Wait, did you see that?

Yeah, accountant. Yeah. You know, you know, she's... Noddy toll booth operator. I mean, we got all of it, Matt. Yeah, naughty trash can and, you know, trash compactor. Trash woman. Trash woman.

No, may that be a little more of a stretch. Noddy dental hygienist. All right. So we have Astros baseball tonight. Fromber Valdez is going to go. Yes. I'll have the on deck for you at six. Wonderful.

I can't wait. You can listen? Well, I'm going to be off at three for once, and that's quite frankly a blessing. Okay, fair enough. But you're supposed to play, and then they're going to play three with Texas, and then what are they doing after that?

They go on the road? Let me see. Oh, here's the schedule. Yeah, they go to Anaheim, Oakland, and the Dodgers. Well, those are, yeah. That's literally the Hotel California tour. Mm-hmm. and the Astros are probably going to play five games in Oakland during that time.

Again, I've not heard anything confirmation-wise on that, but you would imagine. My guess, the couple of people that I'd asked about it are leaning towards that game being played in Oakland. Ooh, those L.A. games are 7 o'clock, both of them, national television. Yeah, the September 13th game on Sunday is now on ESPN. Well, let's see what Joe Kelly's up to. It's funny, how baseball and media just despise the Houston Astros, but yet they're going to put the Astros and Dodgers on national television that day. Imagine that.

Yep. A little more interesting than the Atlanta Philadelphia game that was on this past Sunday. That's debatable, Matt. Do you even watch Nationally baseball anymore? Occasionally. Sometimes I'll be looking for MLB tonight and it's like the last three innings of a Cubs game.

Like for instance, the only National League Baseball I will watch, maybe a Cubs Cardinals, maybe a Cubs Brewers, and maybe like anything related to the Dodgers. But Atlanta, Philadelphia was on Sunday night baseball this past Sunday. and I couldn't turn it fast enough. No disrespect to Atlanta or Philadelphia. They're competitive, but they're out of sight out of mind.

It's hard. Our whole, our seasons are thrown off. Yeah, I would normally watch. No, no, no, you would. No, no, you would. No, no way. A year ago, you're not watching Atlanta, Philadelphia either. No way.

I'll catch way more of it than I am now. Instead of three innings, I might catch, you know, three innings in a week. I'll catch, you know, through six innings in a week. Oh, there he go. So I'm just stretching things out a little bit there. That's doubled, Matt. That's double the watching. Fair enough.

Because now you've got playoff basketball on every night. I'm kind of locked in on that. And by the way, speaking of that, when is the NBA season going to start next year? Because they were talking to early December, they're like, oh, hell's no. And will it be a bubbled environment? And for how long, if so, Matt?

NBA doesn't want to pay for a bubble for another year. First of all, the NBA doesn't want to pay for a bubble. Secondly, the players are losing their minds right now. Speaking of working up points, shouldn't the NBA have really high status? with whatever resorts are at the Disney World right now? They should be platinum status. That's true, but the problem is, can you get status at Walt Disney World?

I don't know. They're not a Marriott or a Hyatt or Hilton. They're just, that's Disney. Yeah. And by way, I'm sure. They don't have like the goofy club or something like that where you rack up points. You know, you're a mini mouse elite. Okay, very nice.

Pluto, platinum. Yeah. My guess is that because of the NBA's relationship with Disney and ESPN and ABC and all that, they probably got a really good room right. I would hope so. Because they're not only getting the rooms, but all their meals are being paid. And nobody else is going to be there anyways. Yeah, that's true.

713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-5-7-90. Sports RV, there is a new contract extension in the NFL that I think indirectly can affect the Texans. I'm intrigued. Well, I'm glad you are. I'm glad someone is 7-13-212-5-7-90 with a message here for Big City Wings. You know what Tuesdays are at Big City Wings? you buy one, you get one free.

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And if you like them with a little extra sauce to them, the garlic parm is spectacular. And the spicy garlic also is very, very satisfactory. Any of the eight, soon to be nine, Big City Wing and locations want you to stop by it today for dine-in, carry-out, curbside delivery, and also regular old-fashioned delivery. But today is the day you got to get out there because you're going to get one wing. For every 10 you get free, by 10, you get 10 free, and so on and so on.

Big on sports. Big to watch all the games tonight at any of those eight locations. Go to big citywings.com for the location near you. That's Big City Wings. The Matt Thomas Show continues on Sports Talk 790. 1249 on the Matt Thomas show Man are we in a sucky sports town right now I think it's a great sports town man

I'm not talking about us as a sport I'm just talking about right now are we are we feeling the blues Are we in the malaise? Are we in the malaise? I got a Rockets team that we're all disappointed that's gone to seven

They're going to win tomorrow Rossi Are they Matt This let me tell you something Does Brandon know where the Nostra Thomas music is You know what? It might be out of the system. Okay.

Then just make up something. Just, just, I'm about to give you a one, 175,000, I'm going to give you a 175,000 star prediction for tomorrow. Because somebody's got to do it. So as soon as we get some sort of music, I don't care what it is. I just need something to set the scene. You matter of thinking you can hum along if you'd like. On second thought, quiet. Okay.

It's not in here. Oh, yeah. I think, see, they deleted it. It was a coat of bed and they deleted it a lot of. Give me just some goofy Twilight Zone music or something. Yeah, just the Twilight Zone theme. Because it gets me in the mood for being Nosed for Thomas. By the way, that was a wonderful bit like five or six years ago, and it really should have kept going.

I just, you know, the one or two misses along the way really ruined the whole thing for me. Yeah, well, really the problem that messed it up was that I was remembering the misses and bringing them up every time. So you get really blamed me. Okay, this is a good temporary one. We're going to find out something a little more subdued. Okay. Hello, friends. It's your buddy, Noster Thomas.

Remember all the picks I've made right over the last decade? They're too numerous to decount. I remember the wrong picks too, Mr. Thomas. We don't need noble steed pontificating on this. I forgot that was my role. Shut your mic. I am making a 175,000-star prediction. The Rockets will beat the Oklahoma City Thunder.

175,000 stars. Goodbye. All right, there it is. I want you to be right. I mean, it's not like you're going out of a limb. They're four and a half point favorites. Oh, are you even worried about the line? I took up to five now.

Yeah, it was five and a half last game. Yeah, who cares about the line? Yeah, well, if you're into the gambling sort of thing. All right, I mentioned that there is a new contract in the NFL that I think could potentially. And I'm not trying to stretch this out because anytime any sports host or writers take anything that happens

with the NFL and make it a Texan's angle, it's stupid. Sometimes it's a stretch. More tough than not, it's a stretch. Did a kicker get a big deal and now Kami Fairbairn's going to demand more money? Carolina signs their fifth round pick. Well, well, the Texans sign their fifth round pick. Details next. I'm not doing that.

but in this particular case, I believe there is a little bit of intrigue on this. Andy Reid got a new contract extension that's going to keep him as the coach of the Kansas City Chiefs through the 2025 season. So any thought of him retiring anytime soon ain't happening. Their offensive coordinator, Eric Bienimi, has applied for,

I want to say a handful of jobs over the NFL in the last few years, right? but his stock is as high as has ever been because of the fact that he led Pat Mahomes in the KC offense to these prolific numbers and was on the offensive coordinator of a Super Bowl winning team that's very par for the course right you're a coordinator on a Super Bowl team you're automatically going to be considered as a can in other places like the Brian Billick was an offensive wizard with the Minnesota and then one on the backs of good defenses in Baltimore and then was out of work shortly after that. Like Bill O'Brien was an offensive wizard and just taught Tom Brady how to be a quarterback and then you came over here and said, had pedestrian offenses. And with below average

quarterbacks. So here we go. Eric B. Anamy is not going to be in Kansas City until Andy Reed retires. Of course not. All I'm saying is this. And trust me, I'm not trying to stretch this. Okay, Stretchy McStretterson. But who has been talking about I, well, I'll say me. I would like to see Eric Bianami is a head coach of the Houston Texans. Yes, you have. You've been saying that for a year plus. I said that for a couple of years now. Yes, that's true. So Bill O'Brien and Jack Easterby, the amazing one-two tandem, Eric Bianney is going to be available really soon? Like next year.

But is the Texans head coaching position going to be? That's the question. Realistically, whose jobs are up for grabs next year? Doug Marone probably isn't going to survive in Jackson. And you've already, we talked about yesterday, maybe Davos Sweeney and Trevor Lawrence come as a package deal to the Jaguars. Yes. Any other jobs that might open up right away? Adam Gase is probably on a hot seat.

Okay. Cincinnati's new, Tampa's new, Arizona's new, San Francisco. I mean, I'm trying, anything that would come to mind. Ron Rivera has been diagnosed with cancer, so it's possible. He said he's going to still coach through it, but maybe he, I mean, maybe something happens. He has a step down. too, sure. Not a lot of job openings, right?

Unless everything falls apart for a handful of football teams. Unless somebody that wins, you know, that's a new coach wins one football game and there's, you know, like Vincent, John, I don't think John Grunz are going on in Las Vegas, but Matt Patricia's probably on a hot seat in Detroit. Oh, for sure.

For sure. Matt Nagin, Chicago? Could be. He's had two, not, well, so put it this way. There feels like to be about four, five jobs, which is new one of the case in the NFL. Oh, Dan Quinn

probably on the hot seat. In Atlanta, he's got to get to the playoffs for sure. Okay, so there's your list. If I want Eric Bianami, I'm going to need to make the change next year if Bill O'Brien doesn't lead this team to what? If they go 9 and 7 again, win the AMC

South and get bouncing the first round of the playoffs, are we just repeating history here? He might get an extension. I'm not even joking. I don't think you are joking. So the dreams and hopes and desires of me seeing Eric B. Enemy as a Texan coach, you're basically telling me they're zero. It's close to zero. Now, I mean, projections have them about seven and nine. But they seem to always just find a way to outperform projections.

So credit to Bill O'Brien there. Oh, yeah, I don't use projections because, again, everybody's got a projection. It's like everybody has power rankings. We didn't remember worried about the power rankings ever before. Except for the rotten five. Which is back in a few weeks. Yes. Very excited about that.

All right. So I just wanted to throw that out there. I don't know what that means, except for the fact that Andy Reid, when you win a Super Bowl and someone wants to offer you a multi-deal contract with a lot of money to have that kind of coaching security, especially Ross when you had a guy, your first lieutenant, who looked like he was ready to become a head of coach or the first time in a couple of years.

Eric Benamy will be a head football coach. It just won't be in Kansas City. The question is going to be, could it be in Houston? 9 and 7 doesn't force a change. Is that the bar? Of course, the bar. It's been the bar for several years. All right, we start the second hour of the Matt Thomas show.

We check in on the Texans at 2 o'clock with Aaron Reese. We'll do that. We check in with you at 713-213-212-5-790. 7-1-2-2-790 with Ross and Brendan. I'm Matt 257. Hour 2. Matt Thomas show next on Sports Talk 790. Yes is the Matt Thomas show.

102 Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross and Brendan. I'm Matt. We appreciate you listening. Hi, Matt. If you'd like to call in, let us know what's on your mind. Outrage, disappointment, disgust. Nosa Thomas made a rare appearance in the show about, what, 20 minutes ago?

Yeah, we haven't seen that. That guy's been in hiding for a minute. He's like, Clio. Well, she died, I think. 175,000 star selection. 175. Well, let me get my... Write it down.

That's fine. I don't want you to be wrong on this one. Write it down. It would free up my weekend, but I would really be upset if you were right. Let me be honest with you. And we're going to get some Astro stuff here in just a second. Rossi, if they lose tomorrow, I could see, wow, I could. We might see a house cleaning.

Well, here's the problem. Even if they win the series, they might go in, I mean, they might go in a different direction with Mike Danton. I don't know that. I mean, he is on a lame duck contract. I don't mean just head coach when I say house cleaning. Well, I don't know. I mean, there's been no indication of that being a possibility. So I don't want to speak in reckless, you know, I don't know.

I'm speculating myself. That's true. That's true. I would lean towards that not being the case. I would love for that not to be the case. I want Darrell Mori, I think he's very smart and very good at his job. I want him to be the Rockets GM. Here's what concerns me about when you,

you say clean house. How long would it take for Darryorne to get a job in the NBA? About a middle of second. How long was it going to take for Mike Dan Tony to get a job? Wodge at 103 p.m. could tweet, sources Darryl Mori is out. One oh three 30 30 30 30. Somebody's on the phone with Darryorne. He would actually type it in the same tweet. Yeah. Yeah. Or follow it up is immediately with a reply. By the way, sources, Darryoramori is in talks with Team X. So when you hear that, you think it's not the front office's fault. At some point, the players have to, I mean, the players do have to bear the responsibility. Russell Westbrook bore the responsibility of seven turnovers last night.

Yeah, Darry and Mike D'Antoony didn't say go out there and turn the ball over 22 times and take poor shots there at the end of the game and just throw this one away. I will say this until I am extraordinarily blue in the face. Ross, it is a players league. Mike Dan Tony can go draw up the most incredible play in the sideline. And at the end of the day, they're going to do what they want to do. They may take the advice. They may say we try to do that.

But this is an isolation star-driven league where I don't know if Frank Vogel can draw up the most beautiful play on earth and LeBron's going to follow it. I don't know if Mike Boonehose or the coach of the Bucks draws up this incredible strategy. And if Janice wants to take the three-point shot because he just feels like he's open, he's going to take it. Stars in basketball drive this league and drive the crucial moments of the game.

These are what these guys got in the league to play for to make the big winning shot. I mean, think about this, Ross. Billy Donovan yesterday, what is he drawing up? Chris, dribble the basketball, out left arc, then go to the right side, And then when the shot clock hits six, go to your normal spot at the mid range of the free throw line and pop a 15-foot jumper. That didn't take Billy Donovan drawing that up.

That's Chris Paul evidence, years of experience, years of being successful at doing it. They got Robert Covington isolated on him three times late, and he scored every time. For my mental health, Ross, they have to win. I'm with you, Matt. Absolutely with you. Because I'm incredibly invested. First of all, that's my team since I was seven years old. second of all, I know these guys very well.

I have tremendous amount of respect for them. I call their games. I don't want this to end. No, I mean, I feel like that the Rockets' excitement level is considerably down for whatever reason it may be. But I guarantee you, there'll be nobody in Houston watching Miami, Milwaukee, and watching Lakers, Oklahoma City with even 20% of the passion that you would have if the Rockets were playing in it. And it almost feels like Ross. We're going to go to the asteros here after this. That the city won't get really fired up for Rockets

unless it is a series against the uber sexy Lakers. I think that's part of it. I mean, the Rockets have been out of the first round. This is, well, if they don't get out of the first round, I think there will be some anger. But they've been out of the first round the last several years. Show us something more. And that's what Darryl Morey is looking to do

and Mike Dantone and James Hardin and Russell Westbrook themselves. Russ is the one that's got to get the first round exit out of it. I mean, the Rockets have not had problems in the first round, at least since I've been here. They've won four years in a row. They have to keep advancing. Right. It's looking for the conference championship.

It's looking for beating the team that you're not supposed to beat. Russ has not gotten out of the first round in quite some time, right? It's been a minute. Since Durant was there, right? Probably. Was that the Western Conference Finals when they got up 3-1 on the Warriors? Yeah. And 17?

That's right. Okay. So 18, 19, first round exits. And then, yeah, Kevin Durant said, I'm out. And then it's been some struggles there in Oklahoma City. And frankly, if Ross has another game like he had yesterday, the legacy of his is going to be turned. I don't think he's healthy, though, either. But nobody cares at this point.

Nobody's going to care about that. I understand. And years from now, nobody's going to say, oh, he was hurt. Yeah. 713, 212-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. We had our trade deadline clock yesterday, and it didn't get abused. We didn't end the show at 259 yesterday.

And then all of a sudden at 3 o'clock, when the A team opened up, they didn't say, you wouldn't believe what James Click just did. No, they didn't. They probably opened up their show saying, here's what James Click did. And then you hear the cricket sound effect. James spoke to the media yesterday about the decisions behind not finding somebody at the trade deadline.

We do not have updates yet on the COVID tests. We do not have, and we not have updates on Corpus. So we are anticipating those soon. we will keep you guys posted as soon as we have those. But just, you know, if you have questions about the... Oh, that's him on coronavirus. Sorry. You want to know if the team was close on a deal, man?

Yeah, that's what I wanted. It's obviously always hard to say if you're close on a deal or not. There were definitely some guys that we had some traction on. We had a lot of conversations with a variety of teams around the league on a variety of different areas of the roster, pitching, hitting, et cetera. Ultimately, at the end of the day, we weren't able to line up on anything, but I think that speaks to the bar of entry, the level of talent that we have on the team right now. We weren't going to make a move just to make a move.

We were going to make a move if we thought it helped us put ourselves in a better position to win a World Series. And at the end of the day, just couldn't line up on something that we thought was reasonable both for the current team and the betterment of the franchise overall. Or he's got nothing to give up. That probably doesn't help. Look, baseball America is subjective. That's true. There's nobody that's not the law.

There's not a law. There's not a formula. It's not the Keith law. Who, by the way, auditioned for an Astros job a few years back. Oh, did he? Yeah. So they're 29th out of 30th, according to baseball America.

And frankly, Ross, think about this. Anybody that would be worthy of using as a prospect is already here. Yes. we looked for their top five prospects according to MLB pipeline are at the major league level right now. And they're doing okay, but they're probably here too early. It's like eating a pear before it's ripe. I mean, you can still eat it, but it's not nearly as tasty. How about that?

Okay. Is there another sportscaster? Christian Javier is an unright pair. So basically, is there another sportscaster in this town that will give you a pair references to Astro players? I say no, there isn't. That's why this show is different than others. Okay, so as is most the case with general managers that have players that are heard, when they get back, it's like adding new players to your roster.

It's like you made a trade. Obviously, there is value in adding to this team, but that's part of the benefit of having, you know, Erkidi, DeVinsky, Peacock, Bregman, Josh James, all these guys, Verlander, you know, all these guys out there that are working their way back. It can hopefully be additions at some point in the near future or before the end of the season. And so you don't want to count those guys as your trade deadline additions. But at the same time, we have to make sure that anybody that we added today would have a fit on this roster, even when we get all those reinforcements back.

Okay. I don't think Josh James is going to help the Astros to make a long playoff run. DaVinsky and Peacock have been very pedestrian in the last, what, year and a half, two years, right? Yes. So if you want to go into the been there, done that card, they can do that. that's improving over an Andre Scrub, so to speak. Don't hate on Andre Scrub.

Well, he did give a... Matt Thomas show veteran. No, he's not. Now, Blake Taylor, who we pinpointed many moons ago as the future star of the Astros bullpen. Once we figured out of who he was.

Oh, you were out when Andre Scrub was on. Yeah, was he good? Yeah, well, he was all right. You didn't sell the audience right there. He was okay. Speaking of Dusty Baker's going to be on the show tomorrow on 1230. He's fantastic. And an Astro play.

player at 230 as well. To be named later. And Dr. Roto's on making his season debut tomorrow. Man, we are jam-packed. Tomorrow show is going to be locked and loaded. Man, we're going to have Dr. Roto coaching you up. I hate that. I've already been through one draft.

We have our draft on Thursday. Tomorrow? No, today's Tuesday. I mean, wait, what? Today? Thursday? Yeah. We're not even ready.

I'm zero percent ready. I'm better send out of that email. All right, 112 is our time. So, Astro fans, are you happy, mad? sad and different. Again, you and I discussed this yesterday. On a scale of 1 to 10 disappointment level that the Astros didn't make a trade, three. Yeah.

Two and a half. I was going to say, I said two yesterday. I'll bump it up to a three. It didn't. It didn't. It's fine. Nothing moved the needle for me except the fact that which Mike Miner shows up for the A's. Well. The Texas Ranger pitcher who is ERA of 6. It's now in the Oakland

A's organization and the A's, you know, it's really if Mike Minor of 2002, 20 shows up, it obviously is not going to help the A's. The 1 of 19 shows up. It's going to be a great acquisition for them. Yeah. You made the statement, which I agree with, that they're not necessarily built for a deep playoff run. But if the 1, 2, 3 were Grinky McCullors Framber in a three-game series, Frambears been really good, Matt. And then in a pretty solid lineup, you get Bregman back, Kyle Tucker's been hitting.

You're going to have to win 10 to 9. who's the closer, by the way. Ryan Presley. Right, Presley. Okay, you just went to the one, two, three combination. Yeah. It's not bad. It's okay.

Okay. Now, can we make sure that Lance McCuller's pitches at home? I guess you could manipulate that in a three-game series. Well, if they go to a bubble, it doesn't really matter. Oh, yeah, there doesn't matter where he's pitching. Hopefully the bubbles at Minuteman made. I was going to say, please, so somehow allow the Astros to have a new Slight, Minutemade Park bubble.

Because the ERA is two, two runs more, it feels like, for Lance on the road. Now, again, most pictures are going to be higher ERA on the road than they're at home because it's just not in their home confines, but it's pretty pronounced. And we'll see. I mean, Lance, if the Astros are going to overtake the A's to

win the West, they're going to have to, Lance is going to have to go to Oakland and win a game. No other way around it. He pitched in Relief at Dodger Stadium and won a World Series. Okay. Yeah, that's true. Relief in 17 and starting in 20s, you know. Well, it's not apples to apples, but I'm just saying it's possible.

It's unripe hairs to grapefruit. Oh, no. 114 on Sports Talk 790. 713, 2,1, 2, 1-2-5-790. More Matt Thomas now on Sports Talk 790. Ross, Brendan, Matt, with you on the Matt Thomas show. 7-13-212-5-790, 7-1-3-212-5-7-9 if you want to get in. robust sports day as the Rockets try to rally

after being up 2-0 and find themselves in a 3-3 deadlock with Oklahoma City Chris Paul played some heads up a comment or two after the game yesterday. We'll play at the bottom of the hour, see what he's talking about. I think we know who he's talking about. Maybe. We'll judge.

There is an outrage I have in college football today. Uh-oh. Yeah, I'm mad about something. Oh, you found out the Cougars have been irrelevant for 40 years? The American Athletic Conference had their preces and rankings for the league this year, and they had the Cougars finishing 7th in the conference. That's what you're upset about? I'm furious.

I mean, I would love for us to get into a deep dive on the Rockets, but since we're not going to do that, at least in this segment, we're going to talk about how awful the voters are in the American Athletic Conference to say that the Cougars are going to finish 7th. Do they not realize how amazing Clayton Tune is? And how great the offense led by Dana Holgerson, offensive genius, is going to put up 48 points per game in every Cougar football game this year. Well, probably they're going to give up 53, though, Matt.

Okay, I don't need your commentary on this. This is a monologue and a dialogue. But in all seriousness, if you're a Big 10 coach, player, non-A-D, non-president, are you getting pissed by the hour that college football is moving on without you? Rossi, the Pac-12 is kind of wacky. you know what I'm saying? Terrible television deal.

They have, they have been really about the weakest power five school, right? Seriously, a league. So they're in a spot where they're so out of sight, out of mind that we don't really care about the PAC 12. Correct. But the big 10th. Well, we kind of didn't in the first place, but yes.

That's right. But the Big Ten's got Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State. Wisconsin's been relevant. Wisconsin. Listen, a bunch of relevant-ass schools. And they're just sitting around because Nancy Armour in the USA Today said, they're thinking of the kid's best interest on this. We're really proud of what they're doing in the Big Ten.

Is that how Nancy talks? Nancy sounds like this, and I have to go feed my cats. I guess if you are Nancy, you've got to have a minimum three cats. Oh, Nancy's, Debbie's, kids. Karen's any of that group, how embarrassing is the Big Ten? Or is it the opposite? That if this pandemic filters every college football team over the next month and a half, two months, then they're going to be like, pojall.

Well, this is what's going to happen. If the lawsuits have happened, if somebody gets sick and something bad happens or anything like that, then the lawsuits start happening. That's when the Big Ten is going to say, see? because that's what this really You brought this up this lawsuit a lot and you're not the only one that's done that Do you really think we're going to be

There's going to be heavy litigation with breakouts? You think so? 1,000%. So when I say heavy litigation, I'm talking about 10, 15 players a team. Well, I don't say 10, 15 players per team. We're talking about 1,000 people at that point. Well, that's my point is my,

why would one person sue and not six or seven others? Well, maybe there's a class action type of deal too. Who are they going to ask the money from? the president, the universities. I feel like that these colleges are putting together intensive protocols, way more so than they first thought about this when this first came out. Hell, Conference USA put a release out. They're going to be testing three times a week.

The Cougars, I mean, American schools are going to be multi-testing. The Big 12th, I mean, this thought of, well, one and done is no longer in play anymore. That's one of the things that's definitely helped is now they have a bunch of more They have more cheaper and readily available tests. Like they have the $5 test and $10 test now, right? Whatever the cost may. I don't think the students

should care nor should we because it's the school's money that they're... The schools do care. Well, they do, but we don't care that they worth their cost. Just make sure it's in their best interest to have zeros. You know, lots of zeros. So I'm saying that it's going to be hard to sue

when these universities and these top shelf attorneys that represent these schools say, we did everything in our power to make sure these kids were safe. None of us forced these kids to play. They had to have opt-outs on multiple occasions, and they did it with no risk of them losing their scholarship and or their place in the university. Now, do they lose potentially their spot on the roster of the football team or their spot on the depth chart?

Well, that comes with the territory of leaving a football team. But Rossi, I don't know. I'm not saying that somebody won't sue because we're a litigious society to begin with. Matter of fact, you try to sue me three times in the last month for no reason. Yeah, thanks for settling out of court on both of those. But I, unless the virus spikes like some people say it's going to do in the fall, and there's nothing that testing can do to prevent that, I don't know if it's going to be nearly as much litigation as you think. Well, let me give you a scenario.

All right. What if University of Houston? There is an outbreak. Yeah. And are they going, are they going fully digital? Are they having people in classes? Do you know? That I don't know.

Okay. Well, let's say college. Now, I'll give you Texas Tech, my son. Okay. He's in, he's taking 15 hours. Three of his classes are. Fifteen's a hall. Well, he's not working for me.

The least he can do. Oh, okay. Don't, he needs to get his ass out of there. Don't even try that. That sounds like the anger of a man who's paying a lot of tuition money. Yeah, for virtual. I'm not happy. I want him in class.

three of his classes are virtual. Okay. Two are in person. It used to be four in person, one virtual that has since changed since he got up to Lubbock about two weeks ago. Okay. What if there's an outbreak and they say we're shutting the campus down? Nobody can come up here for a couple weeks. Okay.

And then these football players, are they not going to practice? Are they not going to play? Are they going to come together? Are they still going to be able to do all that? Because the NCAA says we are students first. they are students first, athletes second. But the NCAA has also ridded themselves on your responsibility on this. Remember that three months ago?

Like the president of the NCAA said, well, let the individual conferences handle it. So to give you an answer to your question, if they shut the campuses down, there's no football. I don't think you can play football when a campus is closed. Completely closed. So then what happens if they shut it down for two weeks? You just don't play your next two games? Yeah.

Or you move around. I think there's someone. much wiggle room that I could see, first of all, there's no bulls, right? I mean, we're not playing bulls, are we? I don't know. You're not, certainly not playing. They don't even, didn't they say they needed like 80-something teams and they only had 70s. They only had like 77 teams playing. Yeah. So I'm going to have teams for the bowls. I think there's wiggle room in schedules that if a campus is shut down for two weeks, let's say Iowa State shuts down and they're supposed to play Texas this week. They'll push the game

back to the end of the season. Okay, well, then what does Texas say? Well, you're just not going to play this week and we have a buy? Yeah. Major League Baseball is doing that right now. And that's true. But no, you cannot play college football if the general student body is not there. That's my philosophy. And that's where you then get into the, well, are you forcing us here?

That's what I'm learning about. See, that's what I'm looking at. Yeah, that's why you can't do that. You can't force the kids on campus when the campus is closed because they don't deem it to be a safe environment. 128 sports talk 790 so was chris pauling yesterday we'll find out next after i tell you about improve my erection dot com dr orrick is a really really good guy his wife dote is one of my favorite people on earth lovely people that want to help you fix your intimacy issues and all i ask you to do to make that happen is give them a call to visit with them if you are having erectile dysfunction 281 496 3355

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Through post seasons. Straight shots. Pop a bottle. October happens here. Playing in October. Listen to the home of the Astros. Sports Talk 790. All right, time for us to play America's new favorite game show.

It's called Shade or No Shade. Oh, we've played this before in the show. Let's introduce your host, Ross for the Rial. Hello, Matt. Today's contestant is you, and you will tell us, is Chris Paul throwing shade against Russell Westbrook and or James Hardin and the Houston Rockets? Here he is after game number six of the Western Conference first round playoffs.

You know, when it gets to clutch time fourth quarter, some people build for it. Some people shy away from it. You know, you saw Dane, all that stuff. Like some people built for it, man. we're just going to keep, we're going to keep hooping. All right, you got less than 48 hours, a game seven against your former team. Ain't nothing like it.

Ain't nothing like it. No matter who is against. It's a game seven. You know what I mean? I just want my guys to know that, you know, we gave ourselves a chance. You know, you're saying we got a chance? We got a chance. So we're going to keep fighting.

Appreciate it, Jared. I'm out. All right, Chris. You're saying there's a chance. A team, man. Shade or no shade? I say no shade. Now, see, I was fully ready.

There was the cutoff one where it's... This is manipulated media. This is what's happening. There was the one where... The only one I saw on Twitter was where he says, there's some people built for, there's some people not. And then boom, it was cut right there. And I was like, oh, my goodness.

I think maybe he is taking a shot at James Harden. But then he went to talk about Dame and all that other stuff. So when you add in that in the full context, I would say no shake. Now, I will say that was he referring to James in some respects? Yeah. But he wasn't the only one in the list. he was saying I'm one of those guys

he didn't point blank say James ain't one of them but he probably was putting James in a basket full of other NBA players are in the same sort of category like Joelle Embed would you consider him a guy go-to-guy to win a game late for Philadelphia

nope I don't know I just threw an example okay I mean I don't think James Harden shies away he's taking it wow I mean we used to criticize him a bunch for hero ball right We would say hero ball, hero ball.

That's him not shying away from the moment. So if we're trying to back up our argument and saying that that was not men specifically for James, then who else shies away from the big moment? Who else could he have been referring to? I think he was just saying in general. Some people love it and some people don't. Oh, okay. And I love it.

Russell Westbrook tried to step up in the moment. That top of the key jumper, which, again, the game was tied at 100 and he took it. And when he took it, I was like, oh, okay, let's hope this goes in. I could just, I could just see it. It was like it went in slow motion. And I made a play-by-play a mistake because I assumed that it had to have been tipped by somebody because it did not reach the rim. And then they looked at it because they were looking at the instant replay because James,

to his credit, went to the baseline to say and threw it off of Danila Garanari. Delano La Gallinari. 26-year-old Danilo Garlanari would be a great fit on the Houston Rockets. I know he's 32 now. he makes $22 million. He'll be a free agent at the end of this year. I don't know what his value is in the open market, but that's the kind of big player that can shoot the three

that would really kind of fit with the Mike Dan Tony offense. A really good three-point shooter. Abbotts have a bunch of guys who are kind of average. Outside of maybe Ben McLemar, who shot like over 50%, by the way, he has got on the rotation. They have guys that are averaged to above. Yeah, he played four minutes last night. Does Austin Rivers make an impact in game seven?

Well, he hadn't made an impact on the entire playoffs just about. Yeah. He scored zero and five points just about. every single game. He had zero last night in 12 minutes. So I don't know. God, this is, because I, I don't know if he's going to see the course. Because James and Russ are going to be who they are. I don't, I don't know, unless James goes to one of those 40-point triple-double games where he's super efficient. If Russ just gives up any shot outside of five feet and just attacks the lane all day long, he can get to his 25 points. He looked like that early in the game.

Yeah. He was getting to the basket. And maybe, maybe, you know, the minute restriction he's on, which was, I guess, last night between 25 and 30 minutes, when minutes 29 and 30 kicked in, he was just out of gas. Well, he went to the locker room there somewhere in the third quarter, and he was hobbling. He was hobbling to the locker room, and then he came back and he was still hobbling a little bit, so he's not 100% healthy, and that's what I'm worried about.

So who's the third go-to guy? It's supposed to be Eric Gordon. It's supposed to be Eric Gordon. It's supposed to be Eric Gordon. Robert Covington's been the third best player on this team. Well, actually, they've been the second best player in this series. Probably, yes. because Jeff Green is falling off a little bit here.

Yeah. The first few games, Jeff Green, yeah. Look, he wasn't going to score 22 a game, dropped six, seven dimes like he was early on in the series. Yeah. So as far as I'm concerned, Russ has to play significantly better. There's no breaking news on any of this time.

Significantly better. James has to be, maybe James has to take the ball in the fourth. Which, again, and that's why I don't make a big deal on the last minute of the game yesterday, because if James took the ball, misses shots, then it becomes,

well, give Russ a chance. What are you doing, not giving your, your teammate opportunity? It comes down to the, the theory for me was sloppy,

turnovers, giving up possessions, giving Oklahoma City extra possessions, and then just watching Chris Paul step up when the need arose. And that's exactly what he did. And the Rockets need this. Or it is going to be,

now Thursday, We don't have a show Thursday because we've got an Astro's short day game. So we'll have a day of reprieve from that. But my guess is the rest of our shows on the station are going to be fired Antonio, fire Darry, trade James Harden, trade Russell Westbrook. And a lot of that just can't happen. Yeah, it's... They need this.

I'll continue to defend Darry. It's going to be hard to defend. I mean, making a change from Dan. I think Danone's a really good coach, and I don't think he's holding this team back. Nope. especially when I guarantee you, and I mean this with all sincerity, Mike's going to get three to four offers this offseason. Good offers.

As he should. And hopeful one's here. But I can pretty much assume that, you know, because Tellin hasn't made a major front office decision. He's kept basically everything in check. So it would seem to me that a game seven loss to a, subpar Oklahoma City team would give him just the right amount of, you know what, I've seen it for myself, I've got to do something to shake things up.

That's the thing is sometimes, I mean, you have, you let go a coach and maybe he's not a bad coach, but something needs to, you got to rattle the cage a little bit. Yeah. And maybe that's what the, Tomin might be thinking, if the Rockets were to lose this series. So are we going with no shade on Chris Paul? No shade. Okay. Final answer.

first when I first saw it like I said with a little bit of without the context I thought it was shade but then you get the whole thing and I don't think it is I got one for you what if the Thunder win the series the Rockets trade for Russ who in theory was the better player of the two younger healthier you have to give up a first round you have to flip flip first round picks or give one up some I can't remember but you had to give up draft collateral it was part of it as well whether it was a shifting in the draft picks or whatever and And they win the series. I mean, I respect Oklahoma City, but damn it, they're not better. They're not better, they're not. I mean, I think what, you know how they do, like in soccer, they do aggregate. What's the aggregate of this series? Rockets are probably up by 30 points. Well, yeah, because in the stat I had the three wins, they have won by an average of almost 22 points a game.

One of them was a 34 points. That's going to skew the numbers. But the other two games were what double-digit wins, right? Yes. they're the better team. I agree. They just got to act like it. I agree.

Forget about act like it. They got to perform like it. They got to play like it. You can't just be out there with these crappy passes and bad shot selection and bad rotations on defense and all these things. Yeah, they have to play better. Please do this. Because I'll tell you this, Ross, I will be very anxious. The Rockets have never played LeBron in a playoff series.

Because 90% of his career has been in the Eastern Conference. The one year at the Lakers last year, he gets hurt. doesn't make the playoffs. You want to give me AD and LeBron for seven games, hopefully against Russ and James? Arrested LeBron as well. When did they play on Saturday or Sunday? When was their last game? They have not practiced.

They didn't practice yesterday. They're not practicing today either. They haven't played since Saturday. So they're going to have about a week off. Sometimes that's not the best thing in the world. Well, I think with a 35-year-old LeBron, he needs the days off. Probably so. 713-212-5-7-90.

Aaron Reese on the Texans beat coming up in about 10. 18 minutes here on Sports Talk 790. You know, this may be one of the hottest months of the year. Maybe. Scorcher out there. But it absolutely is the coolest time for you to have LASIC at Berkeley Ice Center. Anytime it's a great time to have LASIC, especially when they want to offer you some amazing savings, like up to $1,200 in savings and free designer sunglasses thrown in. So right now just might be the coolest time to say goodbye to fogged up glasses, goodbye. Goodbye. to contacts and say hello to LASIC during their hot LASIC summer savings at Berkeley Eye Center. For more to tales, two ways to do it.

BerkeleyI.com. B-E-R-K-E-L-E-Y-I-D-com. Or you can text the word LASIC, L-A-S-I-K to 48-48-48-8-48. That's L-A-S-I-K to 48-48-48-48 and save $1,200 on LASIC from Berkeley Eye Center. Matt Thomas continues on Sports Talk 790. All right, 148. on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show.

Fox just sent out a note about OU, Texas, October 10th, 12 o'clock Eastern, which is 11 o'clock our time. And that's going to be at the Cotton Bowl, right? I think they're still going to play the game there. I heard there's still going to be Fletcher's corny dogs. Inside the stadium. One would hope.

Do you know I've never been to the State Fair of Texas? Oh, it's wonderful. Now, I will say this. Certainly after a Texas win, oh, it's beautiful. What about if the Texas loses? Then you just leave. Oh, okay. It's kind of an unwritten rule.

Whatever team wins, like, you have to go home. You're like, if you, you know, it's always split, oh, you and Texas fans. If your team wins, you probably should just go home. I mean, if your team loses. Now, Texas is 3 and 0 when I go, so. When I lived in Minnesota, they called the great American, they called the great Minnesota get together. That's wordy. The state fair is a.

as big of event as I've ever seen a state have. I mean, I feel like, do people in Houston go to the state fair? Is it largely a Dallas bit? And then it's an OU, Texas bit. Yeah, I think it's a Dallas bit for the most part. I know you, Texas, of course. People in Austin going up there. People all over the state of Minnesota come to St. Paul.

It's for about three or four weeks. We do radio shows out there every single day. What they do is that we would build a house and do our radio broadcast from the house. And then you get like fried turduckin. You'd have ride fried cookies, KSTP, the radio station I work with. And then you'd have another small roller coaster, a petting zoo, Grandma's cookies, and then you have another radio station. I mean, it was, and then you have every radio station was represented out there,

every TV station was represented out there. You had rides, you had concerts, you had the food. It's, and you had lots of jorts. I mean, more jorts. than I've ever seen. Now, Grant, it was also... You're in the 2000s. But I was...

It was there 8-9 and... No, Jorts in play in 2007. No, Jorts were done in like 97. More Jorts. Except in Minnesota, I guess. Not... Not... Not the hair issue.

John Sina still wears Jorts, I guess. Yeah, but he doesn't wrestle anymore, so I don't think he's wearing jorts at all. No. No mullets. But jort wearing was at a premium. and people loved it. I mean,

they were, matter of fact, it was so crazy that our, the company that I worked for in Minneapolis, St. Paul, we had a TV

and all of our radio stations where we used to have a private shuttle that would take us from our station to the state fair and ran back and forth for like hours

and hours and hours a day. I never had to park at the state fair. I went to the radio station, parked the car, and then took the shuttle over. It's incredible. I don't miss it though.

Because again, it's Jorts. And it's people, pushing their babies along and it's hundreds of thousands of people. It's crowded every single day. Matter of fact, it's probably going on right now. I don't think I don't know, but point is... Probably not.

I would think not. That's a shame. But it was incredible. And I've never been to the Texas State Fair. Is it anything different than what a normal state fair would be? Because you always talk about the fried food. Well, there's big techs. He's not at every state fair.

Okay, besides him, what do you do with State Fair? Big take, you just stare at them? Yeah, you take a picture with him. Do you really? And you hope he doesn't catch on fire. Yeah, he's... Like the Hindenberg. He's had some issues in the past, has he not?

Yeah, he's... His face melted off one year. But they have rides. Yes. Fried food. Yes. Petting zoos. Yes.

There's mullets at the Texas State Fair, yes. There's got to be. I didn't really remember seeing any mullets, but I'm usually pretty hammered by about 8.30 a.m. Because it's always an 11 a.m. kick. What's the cost of... For the most part. Of boozing up at the State Fair.

You buy, it's a stupid ticket system. Okay. So with the, you know what? The real trick is, Matt, is after the game, you catch somebody leaving and they just start handing you your tickets because they're going to leave. Then you get free beers. So those tickets are, so. The tickets buy you food and beer. So basically, if you hang out by the entrance, you're going to be in a good spot to get free food and drink.

Probably. You would do that? Excuse me? Are you leaving? Yeah, I've never asked anybody. Well, how do they know that you need tickets? You're in the beer line and you just start chatting them up and then you hope they say, hey, I'm leaving by the way.

You want these tickets? You act real cool and cordial, Matt. Strong. Yeah. Normally I'm reserved and quiet unless I want free booze. I don't know if I'm a good texting or not. Well, because you haven't been to the fair. Never been.

It's fun. This year's probably not the best year to go. They're not having it, remember? Oh, well, yeah. Well, I mean, they're having. They're having the game, but that's it. They're having the game and they're having some stuff there, I think. What are they going to have?

Well, like I said, Fletcher's corny dogs. That's what you have to go for. You got to get a... Wait a minute. Fletcher's corny dog. Mustard only. Well, duh. Nobody puts anything else but mustard.

That's not a fagg. There's people putting relish and ketchup all over. If you put ketchup on a hot dog, that's one atrocity. The super big atrocity is putting it on a corn dog. And Fletcher's is the goat, corny dog. So you're telling me, if I go out and got five corn dogs, fried them up with five different batters and got five different companies, you could tell me the difference between a Fletcher's Corn Dog than it's somebody else? You know what?

I actually think I could. Ladies and gentlemen, sports RV, hosts a show 6 o'clock to 7, co-host this show, does a Saturday show, and can taste the difference in... Rockets'clock. Astros 10th inning. You don't do very much of those. Done two.

Okay, there's been like 25 games, 35 games. You are a man that can decipher the taste of a corn dog. That's right. If I have one skill in this life of mine, Matt, it's sniffing out of Fletcher's corny dog. And begging families for their leftover tickets. Look, if they just, if they happen to have to hand them over to you, Matt, you didn't tell me you wouldn't take a free beer? No, I would.

Problem is, I would not eat. Like, we went one time, this is the first year I was in Minneapolis. And my boss, Todd was a general manager at the time, said, hey, don't eat dinner the night before or breakfast. Just come as hungry as humanly possible. and we went to about 10 different places and we ate and we ate and we ate. I've never had so much deep fried something in my life than I did at the Minnesota State Fair.

Fried grilled, the fried pork chop I've had. You ever had? How about the fried Oreos you ever had? Of course. That's a staple, man. That's over big city wings too. Okay. God, I'm hungry.

Why do we do this to ourselves? I don't know. I want to go to the State Fair now. What's the capacity going to be like? Nill. Oh, dang it. You know, remember years ago we used to talk about going the rodeo cookoff and how you'd meet that special someone. Yes, and somebody was getting busy in a porta potty that they called us.

And they also had relations in the Ferriswell, too, correct? Yes. And that was he met her that night and that was his future wife, he said. We were troubled. That's marrying material right there. The Ferriswell we can accept. The porta potty is disgusting. Matt, weird things happen at the rodeo.

You know what? Especially at the cookoff. all you can eat, all you can drink. So you're telling me. Blief happens. I'm at the rodeo cookoff and I've had seven or eight or 11 drinks. Yes. And you just see this really hot girl and you say, what's up, girl?

And you go, let's go. No, it's not usually like that, Matt. But you don't ever go. It's not a penthouse forum. It's probably somebody you know from work or a friend of a friend or an acquaintance. But then you go and say. You've been kind of flirting with her for a couple of days. But then you run over there and say, I'll meet you at the porta pot or it smells like urine?

You don't say, I'm. meet you there. It just happens to happen. You should get in line and then seconds later. One thing leads it to another. It's gross. But probably happens. I'm sure many... I bet you there's babies sprinkled

throughout Houston who have been conceived in those porta-potties. 157. Am I wrong? Am I wrong? I'm going to say, yeah, he's wrong on that one. No. You're going to tell me not one baby's been conceived. So you don't know what rodeo cookoff is, Brendan. You just don't

know. I won't say not one. I'm, I am challenging the baby sprinkled throughout Houston. Well, if it happens once a year, all right. The radio's every year. We got Aaron Reese coming up. After that, we're going to ask the city of Houston. Aaron Reese is a young Houstonian. He knows what goes down at the cookoff. Tens of listeners here. I'm tweeting it out right now. Have you, are you a byproduct of a chili cook of a barbecue cookoff? I don't believe it to be accurate. 157. We start with Aaron Reese in the final hour of the Massachusetts. Thomas Show, 713212-5-790. Is the Matt Thomas Show.

201 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show. We take you to 3 o'clock. Believe it or not, today at 250 is going to be about highly googled things about the state fair. By the way, Ross does have a question up on the poll on his Twitter poll, and the question is, have babies been conceived at the rodeo cookoff? And I believe the answer to that is clearly yes. The issue that I had with you and Brandon on this was, were they being conceived in the porta potty?

Agreed. That's what I was challenging. That's what I was going with. So, yeah, I think babies have been conceived. Well, look at the first comment in parking lots and port-a-johns. So, yeah. Okay. Just saying.

I'm going to ask Aaron Reese. Aaron, where did you grow up? Where did I grow up? I grew up in Houston. Did you ever, have you ever been in the state? Fair of Texas? I actually have not, which I feel like, yeah, I lose my native Texan badge or whatever, but not in an event.

No, see, I think I was telling this with Ross, this is more, it's more of a Dallas-Forth bit. And if you go to OU Texas game, then you obviously go. But sure of that, I don't think the average, like people in Abilene run the state fair, I don't think people in San Antonio go unless they're going for OU, Texas. Right. And every state fair, carnival, et cetera, I feel like, is. some version of the same thing.

So, no, I never felt super compelled to go. But unfortunately, I don't feel like I can give an informed take on where else a child could be conceived at this fair. You know what? I leave the Texan's expertise to you and not child conceiving. That's a good call. I figured you'd like that. Okay, so let's, I want to go ahead to Kansas City before we backtrack a little bit. They're going to have fans of the game at Arrowhead.

what kind of media, just from, I'm always curious about this, how's the media access going to be? I don't think they're going to let you in the locker room. So if you go, you're really just going to be around the ambiance of the place, right? Yeah, I'm actually planning on going. I booked my trip yesterday. We were kind of figuring out if it will be worth it or not. I think this is probably the only trip I go on. And it is, like you're saying, a lot of it is kind of going to get a sense of what it's like.

Texans, obviously, the first NFL team that are going to be. traveling under all the kind of unique nature of this season and I think it's worth going and seeing what it looks like. I think, you know, we've obviously seen what baseball looks like in front of empty stadiums or a lot of these games what they look like in empty stadiums.

But we haven't seen, you know, an NFL season opener, super defending Super Bowl champs celebrating, you know, their title and all that stuff in front of like a 22% capacity crowd. So I'll be very curious what that looks like, and that was why I wanted to go. Like, how do people come in? How are they

entering the stadium, what is the tailgating like at Arrowhead when it's normally so lively and all those sorts of things I think will just be kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing to witness, or I guess not once-in-a-lifetime that Chiefs play home games this year, but you get my point. Yeah, I have been to, obviously, every NBA arena, I've been to a lot of Major League ballparks.

I have not done enough NFL stadiums. I really want to go to Arrowhead, but I don't think I want to go to Arrowhead unless it's real Arrowhead, because it's the loudest stadium, at least outdoors, in the NFL, right? Yeah, definitely. And I think, and the other thing is, like, obviously, barbecue, like it at Sierra Houston.

I mean, I think grilling and all that stuff is the big part of kind of Kansas City and that part of the country. And there's something very unique about, you know, like, it being so crowded, you can't see, you know, very far in front of you and being cold outside and, you know, all the smoke wafting off the grills. And so I wonder how much of that we're going to get or not get this year. All right. When Zach Cunningham signed his deal yesterday, Ross and I were talking about it. And look, Zach's a very fine player, plays it run really well. His past defense is a little sketchy, but he's improved every single year. Yeah, yeah. He's improved every single year. I don't think Aaron we can possibly argue that. My argument was the moment that Zach Cunningham signed that 90% of Texans fans, not 100, but 90, when reading your story, about Zach Cunningham probably said the following.

Oh, Aaron, nice job writing about Zank Cunningham. When is Deshawing going to sign? With all their respect, this organization makes its biggest moves when it signs its receivers, it's J.J. Watt, it's quarterback. So you tell me what the landscape is now that Zach Cunningham is signed, now that Whitney Mursell's a sign, clearly the linebacking corps is taken care of, but there's still that one mega superstar who doesn't have his deal yet. Yeah, I mean, I think the one thing you could say in relation to Deshaun, obviously,

is that it gives them an even clearer picture of what the sort of finances they are. They have to work with. Not that I think necessarily how much Zach Ghanham was or wasn't going to get paid, how much of an impact on how much Deshauner left can we get paid, but they obviously have a very clear sense of what sort of cash space they have, next year and moving forward and kind of what their caps sheet looks like long term. You know, I did wonder when it came out, like, is this kind of getting something done before the season so that you didn't have to worry about if it looks a little better if Watson

doesn't get done during the season? I still am very much of the, I'm of the minds with that. Yeah, well, I understand that's what fans care about and they're waiting on. I don't think it's really a story of how long it takes or doesn't take unless it drags past this season or very late into the season. Because, like, you know, we've learned over and over again, latest example being Dak Prescott, you know, when you wait too long in a quarterback,

you end up just paying more and it doesn't make sense. But I think whether it happens right before the season or a few weeks into the season, ultimately doesn't make much difference. I can't imagine if Deshaun plays really hot for three weeks. That's going to dramatically change what the prices. You know, I think we're more talking about, like, if he puts together another season of evidence that adds to his resume,

whether that's winning an MVP or going on a deeper on, and they didn't agree to a contract in time. And now he has more, more, more, room to stand on or whatever about I deserve you more money. That's a different matter. But for now, I don't think whether it happens before the season or a little while into the season, it doesn't make much from material difference. But obviously, I get my fans are excited and focus on that and care about that.

They'll have another scrimmage tomorrow. What will be different about tomorrow's scrimmings that we didn't see or the routine of last week's scrimmage? You know, I don't know. I imagine it'll be the same, actually. But aside from being the one like Houston reporter who is going to be going to practices this month just to check who's there for stretching and

keep attendance. These practices are no longer open, so we can't really get to watch anything. I'm not actually sure at this moment if the scrimmage is going to be in NRG or not. I think it will be. But I don't think it'll be that much different. I mean, Bill Grean has been pretty adamant about managing veteran reps

and no life tackling, no tackling to the ground. So I can't imagine he would now have a more intense practice with the game even closer. I know that one of the storylines, with Aaron Reese and the athletic he's on the Texans beat. One of the storylines has been that some of the veteran players, and you will use JJ Watt as a prime example, have kind of been practicing on their own schedule. What do you read into that? And maybe the answer is nothing.

And are other teams doing similar things? Because look, JJ's been there and done that. JJ's been a league a long time. And JJ has also had his fair share a number of injuries over the last couple of years. So what do you think when you hear when Bill O'Brien and others have said, But this group of athletes is kind of practicing on their own time as compared to maybe the regimen of everybody else that's there. Yeah, you know, I mean, like I said, I don't like to watch the full practice anymore, but the last few days I was there, not today, but the previous three days in a row. He was stretching and part of the stretching for three days in a row, which wasn't really the case during camp. He'd tend to have more off days than not really work that many days in a row. I don't make much of it.

I don't know if other teams are doing this too. I mean, obviously better in off days or not a totally new concept. I'm not sure if they're really seeing an uptake across the league. Bill Bryan has said basically it was that for them, at least, it is obviously influenced by kind of the lack of a traditional off season. You don't want to get a bunch of soft tissue injuries early in the season by exerting yourself too much. I don't think it makes a big deal for JJ Watt.

You know, he knows how to play. He knows the scheme. I think they know he's going to be good if he's healthy because the question with him has never been whether he's a dominant player when he's available. He still is that. So, yeah, I don't make much of that. The one I do find kind of interesting is Brennan Cook.

Because his rest of him managed a lot, too. I would say even more than Will Fuller. And obviously, Bernie Cook is in a little bit different situation than JJ Watts. He is with a new team. He has to establish chemistry with his quarterback, all those sorts of things. And, you know, Deshaun Watson and him did get them working independent of the team during the offseason. And it's not like they didn't practice together during camp.

But Bernie Cook wasn't in a lot of the 11-11 stuff. They didn't participate in the last scrimmage. So I do wonder if he will maybe get off to a little bit of a close start as a result of that. Couple more minutes here with Aaron Reese from The Athletic on the Texans beat. What has been before you got the Kaibosh and watching things? Honestly, what's been the most intriguing position battle, not only for depth chart, but just to make the roster as it is? Where have you been most intrigued?

You know, I thought it was going to be backup slot with Kiki Kutti and Dandre Karta. But Kiki has not gone to practice a lot. He missed over a week of practice. And that kind of limited his ability to prove to them that he could necessarily. certainly be the return man, which you would need to be in order to replace Carter. So I'm not quite sure what they're going to do there, but I think with Isaiah Colter, the rookie being injured, maybe they could find a way to get Kiki and Carter on the team, Coulter on the IR or something. But the position of battle, I've really been intrigued by as

tight end. I thought it wasn't going to be that much of a competition. I truly didn't have a ton of stock, didn't put a ton of stock, and Jordan Thomas coming back and having a really good year and coming back in great shape, but he has. And additionally, Cahallie Waring has not played terribly, but I do think you continue to see coaches kind of having to pull them aside and give a little bit of extra pointers to him and stuff, kind of at least a one-to-one ratio of those to really impressive plays. And I think the gap between him and Thomas, at least what it wasn't my age before Cam versus what it is now, has really shrunk. And so I'm not sure what they're going to do at tight end. If they, you know, they cut their third string quarterback the other day,

and so that potentially means they could maybe keep four tight ends. I used to think they were going to keep three quarterbacks because of COVID and whatnot. But that's interesting to me. Do you keep four tight ends? And if not, which do you get rid of Thomas or wearing? Can you get that guy in the practice squad or if he too good? Well, the sort of guy that a team might actually just take away reclaim obviously. They haven't seen him in preseason games.

Last question, Ross Blacklock. What do we know what's a recount on him early on? And again, from the day the draft started or even before, Bill O'Brien kind of slow played the, hey, don't expect much out of your rookies because it's not a normal camp for them. have you heard about his performance so far? He's been good. You know, I mean, he has, he's gotten to play with kind of, you know, we're not allowed to say ones or two.

So I'll say he's played with like everyone on the team, I guess you could say. But I do expect him to play a lot as a rookie. And, you know, he, part of this guy in report coming out of him in college is that he could rush all over the line. He mostly, at least when I was watching, mostly did rush against centers and guards. You know, he's disruptive. But I think, I think probably right away. He'll be better as a run defender than a pass rusher.

The most impressive rookie, I think, has been John Reed, the slot corner out of Penn State. And, you know, kind of beyond Bradley Roeby, they don't have really great depth of the slot. Vernon Hargraves is the next guy, and he wasn't really that good one. They picked him up off Waivers from Tampa. I could see John Reed overtake Vernon at some point during the season. Great stuff, as always, Aaron. We'll visit again next Tuesday. Enjoy that scrimmage. We appreciate it.

Thanks. You got it. Aaron Reese. Great job on the athletic. Follow him on Twitter at Aaron J. Reese. He is no fluff, interesting storylines about all things Texans that you would actually care about. And the athletic is well worthy of you paying a couple of bucks to get their subscription. It does a really good job. And again, just get you away from the mundane stuff that you see

with normal beat reporters. 214 is our time. It is the Matt Thomas show. The Rockets are speaking or have spoken about the importance of Game 7. We'll hear from them coming up. Plus, we'll give an update on Ross's Twitter poll question about have, do you know of how much, well, actually, what is your question? I don't even know how you phrased it. Well, I think the answer is yes. Well, then you put the portapotty one up then. But the question now, here's-

Somebody just said, from what I'm told, these family port-a-potties have a lot of room. Oh, who said that? Do we want to name names? Somebody who tweeted me. Okay. Adam and Gien, 24. Now, I got one for you.

Our buddy Storres relegation says, where do you think? think more Houstonians have been conceived in. Three options. Rodeo porta potty. Oh, no. Strip Club VIP or Palace in Suites.

That's a tough one. That's a lot of out of wedlock action in Palace in Suites. That's a lot. That's a really good question. 213 of the Matt Thomas show. 713. 212.5.790. 713.

212.5.790. Lunchtime Houston Sports Talk. The Matt Thomas show. on 790. 220 on Sports Talk 790. Believe it or not, coming up in a half an hour from now. Thanks to Aaron Reese for joining us. So y'all go to Strow's relegation and fill out the survey.

The question is, where have most Houstonians been conceived in of these three options? Rodeo porticand, strip club BIP, and palace in suites. I don't know if you want to brag about that, right? Thank God the poll questions on Twitter are anonymous because you wouldn't want to be telling all your buddies, hey, where were you conceived? Why was it to conceive at a holiday and sweets? Well, you don't tell your kid that. That's true.

It's like you don't tell your kid when they're an accident. I had no accidents. Okay. No, I'm serious. Why are you winking so hard right now? Something wrong with your eye, Matt? Because I'm sleeping. I didn't sleep all last night.

Well, it was because of the rockets. Yes. I know. Me too. I was up all night. I am usually game over, usually asleep within 45 minutes after my broadcast is done. But I didn't go to bed of like 1.30. I was just, and then T&T put on the Miami-Mawauke game.

I just don't like Eastern Conference basketball. It's just not my jam. Like nationally baseball now. I'm over. Done. I love the West. Way better sexier storylines, better players. Not that Miami's not bad.

Sure. Shock the hell out of Milwaukee yesterday. All right. So PJ Tucker. did he get hit in the throat twice yesterday? Definitely once. I think the other time, was it PJ the second time?

I thought it was somebody else. I can't remember. But yeah, the rocket's been taking a lot of nut shots and throat shots in this game. And by the way, I think it's a byproduct of playing somebody

six times in 15 days. Get a little chippy. Early in that game, bodies were just flying. Like, for instance, if you and I worked together once a month, it'd be great. We'd be complimentary.

towards each other would be nice. I see you every day. Yeah, we're at each other's throats. Exactly. Constantly. P.J. Tucker talking about the disappointment of the series and what is ahead for his squad in Game 7, which will be tomorrow night right here on, it'll be over on KTRH tomorrow. Here's PJ.

I wish we'll play right now. I wish we can play right now today. There's no excuse for some of the losses we have in the series. and there's no excuse for us to still be sure talking about things that we should be doing anyways and that should be fixated in our minds completely. We shouldn't have to meet. We shouldn't have film sessions. We shouldn't have any of that stuff.

Let's talk about the things that are costing us to games. I'm just ready to play. That is not PJ's voice. He has a raspy voice to begin with boys and girls. But that's something different right there. is taking a shot of the throat. He sounds, yeah, it sounds a little raspy.

Now, granted, that the video feed off of Zoom doesn't help the cause. But that sounds like somebody has been hit. And, but they, Ross, they got to go kick their ass tomorrow.

They have to. Or Rocket Hater 101 is going to be, first of all, we're going to, the audience, there's a segment of the population is checked out of the NBA. I think,

I think this, for multiple reasons has checked out. But those that remain diehard are going to absolutely say, I'm not doing this anymore. I'm not going to watch superstars wearing the Houston Rocket uniform come up short. And I'm not saying they're going to feeling differently if they lose the Lakers the next round. But never in a million years would I have thought they were going to lose Oklahoma City. Was I respectful of Oklahoma City?

Did I think it was going to go six games? But I thought ultimately, the rockets were going to win it. And the rockets have shown that the ability that they couldn't put them away in the three losses. There wasn't one night

in the three losses where the rockets were like just didn't show up today. There wasn't, right? They've had leads and laid them all three of the games. Yes, correct. Second half leads.

Game four was a 15-point lead in the third quarter. Yeah. I need it for mental health. It'll be nice. They're the better team. They're going to win. Promise?

Well, Nostar Thomas did. I did. Nostr Thomas said he 175,000 star, 175,000 stars. That's a lot of stars. I'm put in my mouth where my stars are. Okay. Excuse me.

Yeah. And remember, again, if they lose, who's doing the Rockets Rock, you? Draw Michael five minutes. It is an annual tradition, and I will keep this tradition. And on the last game of the season,

I take calls until they stop coming. been through a lot of pain. Probably the worst was 2016 when James Harden showed up for seven points and went one of 11. Don't remind me. And they lost in game six at home to the Spurs. No recollection.

That was probably the worst. This might get close. Not going to be a problem. They're winning tomorrow. In fact, tomorrow we're going to have a lot of fun tomorrow. We're going to celebrate. We're going to play high energy music. I'll do the introductions of the game seven.

starting lineups, and they're going to win. And then we're going to have a hilariously entertaining Lakers-B Rockets conference semifference because we weren't afraid of the Lakers, remember? We kept saying who we were afraid of them. Not afraid of them. Not afraid of the Lakers. Not saying their favorites, but not afraid of them. Now, afraid of Golden State, sure. Yes.

Not even super afraid of the clippers. I think last year, though, I picked them to beat the Warriors. They lost insane. Don't make predictions. That's what we do, Matt. I'm done with you and your predictions. Except mine. 175,000 stars.

Okay, we'll get a final score out of you tomorrow. I think the winning team's got to score 110 points. That's been about right. Well, they scored 104 last night, but for the most part, it's been about right. The Rockets can play good defense. The Rockets can play good basketball. They're better than them. They're more talented them.

They need to win the season. They've shot better. Yes. Free throws, three point field goal. They just don't have the grit and determination of a Chris Paul, I guess. You know, we got to, you know, I'm not endorsing hitting him in the nads, but, you know, if it happens accidentally, you know, actions do happen. Yeah, why didn't Bruno Caboclo come in and give somebody a nut shot? No.

Maybe Michael Frazier. If Bruno Cabocle plays tomorrow, then you're going to be like, calls coming in. Why isn't Caboclo part of the rotation? No, I have tremendous respect for Chris Ball. I'm looking forward to it. He's played well. Rockets are going to win. I'm only going to get like two calls tomorrow.

It's fine. I can't wait. I'll accept that. I would love it. Two calls out in 30 minutes after the show? Sure. No, I don't mean that. I just mean I don't want to go with all night

Rockets disappointment because I've done it. Maybe it's me. Do you know the lowest point? I've done it every single year, the last five years. The two lowest post-game show moments were, did you and I work game seven in World Series, or was that, Michael and Gordy? I don't think I was on that one.

I don't think I was either. I think I've done some I think I did a season ending Astros game sometime in the last three years I don't remember where it was and then I did the post game show when Lillard hit the shot in 14 We took calls for hours

I was on Astros duty that night Brad Peacock got the start Hours That was a bad one I kicked there was a chair in here that I kicked over I was so mad I mean, if Rockets lose tomorrow, I'm kicking chairs. If they win, I'm going to dance on these chairs.

Actually, I'm going to dance in a cage if they win tomorrow. I nearly cried on the elevator. Like, I was ready to cry. I'm not even kidding. Crawford Jones, the backup U.H. quarterback was our intern. And he was like, are you? He was like, deathly concerned for me.

He's like, are you okay, man? I'm going to be all right. Damien Lillard. Great. Now we're just talking about Rockets' playoff failures. They're going to win tomorrow. They're winning tomorrow. They're winning tomorrow.

done, finito. I'm going to bump the star count. 180,000 stars. Ooh. 180,000 stars. We're getting on a double-crush bus for the rockets. Double-clutch bus? We've done it before. I'm a little nervous about how busy

is going to be on the bus. Yeah, that's true. But we'll do it. We can. We got Dusty at 1230 tomorrow. We'll get dusty on the double-clutch bus. We got Roto at 130. Astros player at 230, lineups, and if we gotta get the double...

How about lineups into the double clutch bus? So I would do the lineups, and then after that, you would be the bus driver. Oh, great. Inviting people on the bus. I get to wear gloves and a mask.

You know what? Yeah, let's do it. Social distancing practices certainly in play. We go to the phones next. 713, 2,1, 2,1, 2, 5, 790, 713, 2, 5, Evan 90 with a message for Coors Light.

Tomorrow night, have a couple of cold ones. Make sure you're home. Or if you're out, make sure someone's driving you home. But if you're going to watch the Rockets or watch any sports, watch the Astros, you might as well do it with a delicious, cold, refreshing, Coors Light made to chill. The folks at Coors Light want you to celebrate responsibly, whether it be during a sporting event,

whether it be during a Labor Day holiday, which is coming up, whether it be during the Matt Thomas show. Sometimes people like to have a couple of pops during the show. Hashtag day drinking, but do it responsibly. If you're going to do it, you got to do it with something that's going to tell you that when the mountains are blue on the cans and bottles, that's at peak refreshment. And that's what I frankly call Coors Light, peak refreshment. Try it today at your local liquor store, grocery store, wherever you buy your fine of beverages. They're made to chill.

It's Coors Light. Houston Sports Talk for lunch. Matt Thomas returns. on Sports Talk 790. All right, we have the show tomorrow. Oh, my God. Dusty Baker Ross, 1230. That's greater in itself.

Wonderful. We're going to ask him about 70s leisure suits. We could. You see those pictures of him? He looks great. So great. So great. They win 19 to 4 with the Rangers tonight,

which is a distinct possibility. We will ask him about the leader suits. If the Astros score 10 or more runs. Brendan, let me forget this tomorrow. If the Astros score 10, we ask him a leisure suit question in some time in our 1230 visit. Hopefully he's in a good mood. They are healthy favorites at a minus 280, man. Then we got the double clutch dust.

Have we ever done the double clutch before? Yes. It's been a while. And it's been largely unsuccessful as well. It's been a hot minute, as the kids would say. That's at 120. Season debut, Dr. Roto 130. And by the way, take notes because a lot of you are having fantasy drafts in the next handful of days.

When is ours again? Thursday? Thursday. What time? Seven o'clock we're going online. I got a nightcap, don't are. You sit here and get yourself a couple of cold beverages and knock it out. I'll bring you some Corey's light. And then we got it at 2.30, an Astros player to be determined.

Okay. That's a show right there. Wonderful. If you don't listen to my show tomorrow, I will be personally offended. Should we get a Zoom going for the draft too? So we can trash talk? Yeah. Okay.

Can we do it at 730 then? 7.30. I'll send her the tips. I love you. I mean, I'm, I can record my last segment or something. Who we have on Thursday? No, no, no. We don't ever record segments here. Well, sometimes I have to replay relevant, interesting conversation.

Can I tell you a very funny, tabooish sports animal story? 790 the sports animal? 790 the sports animal. Oh, so you see, Brendan doesn't know. This used to be 7.9. First, it was ESPN 790. Then it was 790, the sports animal. And we had this, this rickety blazer with like a mouth. fun, like it was an animal. They destroyed

that at a monster jam, right? And they're like, the animal is dead. And then they rebranded it as Sports Talk 790. Brennan, you're going to hate this. So in this, I don't think the audience knows this. In December of 2009, I had two offers to come back to Houston. I might have mentioned it. Maybe once,

but I don't mention a lot. Real fast. I'll get to believe it or not. It was us and you were going to be the Rush Limbaugh replacement. That's not true. And so I was listening to 790 and they're like, here's what we're going to do. And they would take segment. of their show and literally replay them. I would be recording those.

And they would take a chunk of a show and they would put it in the exact, several hours later, the exact same thing. Just like Ross and I just talking. They'd replay it. Also, though, it would be uncertain times because they were on 6 to 8 and 11 to 2 at that time. Yeah.

The Monsters of the Midday. So you just replaced one of them? They were both gone. They were both gone. Five minutes. let's let's go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports game show. We simply called it. Believe it or not

and here's how it works. You call 713-212-5-7-90. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Today's edition of Believe-N-O-Nodd is brought to you by Woodhouse spaspernit for the gift of re-fluxation and Houston Woodhouse Spas.com. Category today is all things about the state fair. Our region's statement about the state fair the statement is completely utterly accurate. You'll say this. Believe it. If the statement's the erroneous photo bucket made up, you'll say this. Two believe it or not in a row. When you a prize, the first person wins, gets a big water park, big rivers water park prize package, big riverswaterpark.com. And then after that,

is it, uh, pick a CD, pick a DVD winner? All right. That's perfect. Let's go. Line number one, Dwayne. Oh, crum. Hey, man. I haven't been, I haven't been winning that bills. I'm on by Duane today. Let's go, bro. The very first corn dog, then known as the Krusty Corn Dog, debuted at the state fair back in 1931. Believe it or not. That's a good one. Believe it.

Nope. Bye. Yes. By Dwayne. Bill Dennis. What I'm going to call yourself? Corey on 790. Corey, you ready to play, believe it or not? Let's do it. The Texas State Fair is the longest running fair in the United States. Believe it

or not. No, Hussein, nah. I say, believe it, bye. Thank you. Miguel on 790, Miguel, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Yes. The Texas State Ferris wheel is currently the largest ferris wheel in North America. Believe it or not.

Largest in the North America. Believe it. No, it's passed by Vegas and by Orlando. That's three incorrect answers so far, Rossi. Nice work. Let's go to Nathan on 790. you ready to play, believe it or not? Do it.

President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered an address at the Texas State Fair back in 1966. Believe it or not? Not. Not is correct. Statement number two for the win. In 1923, the state fair held a Ku Klux Klan Day, which saw 165,000 clan members from across the state attend and even attracted 25,000 new members. Believe it or not. Believe it.

Sadly, yes. Congratulations. He's got Big Rivers Water Park tickets. Now we're playing a pick-a-d-d-d-d-D-D-D game. We've only the best, hottest movies available, that and that blockbuster. Cody on 790, ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. The big text firing in 2012 was caused by a short circuit in Texas' boot.

Texas boot, believe it or not? Nah. Yeah. I've said it once at a thousand times. You've got to know when short circuit takes place and where they actually took place. Let's go to Jason on 790. Jason, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it.

In 1918, the state fair was canceled due to World War I and was even used as an army encampment. Believe it or not. Believe it. Statement number two for the win before being converted into a cowboy, Big Tech was actually a giant Santa Claus. Believe it or not? Not.

Believe it. Oh, sorry. And that's. You've got to know the history of big text, Matt. Well, I didn't realize you're going to do so much big texting. Loaded show tomorrow. If you don't listen, we're no longer friends. Speaking of friends, well, I wish we had some around here.

Instead, you got Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler. They are known as the A team, and they'll entertain you between now and six o'clock. Astros baseball with me on deck at six on seven-night.