The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Rockets Fall Short 124-125 2OT vs OKC, Demeco’s Presser Was Interesting.

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

Rockets Fall Short 124-125 2OT vs OKC, Demeco’s Presser Was Interesting.

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 1002 and H-Town. Good morning. And welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show and Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. Not cranky. Double overtime coming in from Oklahoma City. It's a short ride, though.

That's the only saving grace. But man, we got started at a half hour earlier because the game was at, well, 642 by the time it started. And then double overtime and you're working the game. I had done the show before. So it was a lot of talking yesterday, and I wanted a nice victory to kind of wrap up the day, and unfortunately, it did not happen.

We're going to try this again at noon. That's okay. With a song. Yeah, we're all getting back in the swing of things. Certainly I am. How the hell are you? I'm good, Matt. What's in your mind today?

I have to say a few words. Please, I'll step aside. Yes, Matt, last Thursday, during our interview with Coach Fritz, some off-air audio of me talking with our producer, was accidentally recorded and posted online. it was me doing my impression of Coach Fritz and saying when he gets fired, I'll call in as Willie on a mobile. I would like to stress again because there is some misinformation out there.

This was off air and not directed at the coach. Nonetheless, I was trying to be funny, off air. I realized my actions were hurtful and misguided. I should not have implied that Willie Fritz should or could get fired anytime either. That was not my intention. I would like to publicly apologize to Coach Fritz, the University of Houston, and its administration for my words, which I should. not have said.

Served a suspension up here. I've learned from this. Look forward to moving on with a great partnership with IHeartMedia Houston and the University of Houston. And me and Matt Thomas. Most importantly.

You can't get rid of me. You try, but you can't. I'm trying. All right. Thank you, Ross. Good morning, everybody. It is 1004. And, uh, what's thought?

You gave him a song. You gave him brandy, right? Almost doesn't count. Brandy, but he probably didn't get the text. He's very busy. He's a busy man. He's working up there. It's all right.

All right. So we'll do this again in dude. Yeah. Yes, unfortunate evening for the Houston Rockets. They cover the 7 and a half map, but that doesn't really matter. No, I don't care. I don't care. I don't care if they covered.

They should have won the game. It was too high. That's too high of a spread, don't you think? I thought it was apparently all the sharp money was on your Houston Rockets, and that came through. But unfortunately, double overtime. By the way, I keep saying this. Can we go to the, you know, the Elam ending, what they call it? Like 11 points in overtime.

First to 11. And then we're out of here. Because that bad boy almost went to triple overtime. And it's like, nobody needs that game one out of 80. triple overtime. Poor Matthew Thomas not getting any sleep. The announcers don't want to be there. The players are all fowling out. Everybody wants to get home. We don't need triple overtime in regular season NBA. How they did something in baseball with the ghost runner, just make it like, or even first to 15 or something like that for overtime. And that's it. And then when you go to playoffs, then you can do the full overtime. Do you have to 1 by 2 or just 1st to 15? First to 15, no matter what. Yeah. What do you think?

I'm all for it. Because here's the thing, with our game going as long as it did yesterday, that put the Lakers Warriors game not on the NBC until after we were done. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So I honestly, again, I did not, I didn't obviously see the television production of the game. It sounded like to me, everybody feel like if it was really good?

It was good. Mike Torrico still got it for basketball. basketball. He was very good. They opened up with a, they did the, I was wondering if they're going to do the laser, oh, into roundbow. The laser. The laser peacock into roundball rock. They did an updated version of that. They had at the very beginning, NBA on NBC. And first they did some young players. It was like Victor Wimbabwean like, hey, what's your NBA on NBC memories? He has none. No. He was born in 2002 or 2003. I don't even know Kevin Durant's got any memories of the NBA. Kevin Durant had some, LeBron, like Steph Curry. So at first they brought the

young players on. They're like, I have no memories of NBA on NBC. That's funny. And it was funny. Yeah, it was funny. And then they bought the veteran players on and they talked about, you know, watching MJ and the rivalries and all that other stuff. And then they went into the full and then the laser. Oh, it was great. It was great. And then into round ball rock.

It was great. And then Mike Tariko was on the call with Jamal Crawford. Jamal Crawford needs a little polishing. Reggie Miller was good. But overall, it was pretty good. It's funny because they, you know, they're going to mix crews up, but I think that's the number one crew. Okay. Well, Crawford has to get better. But he's, you know, this is his first time

on playbook, on color, right? For a big, I mean, he's maybe done some side stuff, but nothing like at this level, for sure. He needs some polish. It kind of felt like he didn't know when to jump in, you know, nuance of the game. Well, I'll say this, I don't, I've never worked in a three-man booth before.

Certainly at that level, three-man and two-men. And basketball when it's up and down. That's tough. Yeah. Reggie Miller also is never afraid to say anything, so he's not looking for to fill space. Reggie was Reggie. He's, you know, he's all right. Not as bad as he used to be.

I think he used to be kind of misinformed, and I think maybe he saw a lot of that backlash, and now he's up on its teams. Yeah, if you're going to make millions of dollars being the number one analyst on one of the networks, you've got to make sure you're up to speed on everything. Yeah. And adapt to the times. So needless to say, a really entertaining game,

and I was kind of teasing during the broadcast last night, if we get 82 of these, I'm going to, I can't do it. need two of those. I need some Charlotte blowax. Yeah, that'd be nice. The Rockets need it too. Yeah. And Amin Thompson needs it. What's the latest on him? We'll find out with him Ameadook. He's going to join us at 11 o'clock today. So we got that coming up at about 50 minutes.

So we'll talk to him. It sounded like to me, and I did not see him after the game, cramps, I guess, is what they were signaling? He just looked like he was limping. There was also a little bit of blood on his left knee. So, I mean, but that's just, I mean, that's a man Thompson. Yeah. It's getting blood on him.

the game. It's like, did he even play if he doesn't? So we'll get to what was wonderful and what was not so wonderful. The game in itself. And I want to make sure I'm very clear when I tell you this. There were some struggles last night. Obviously, Amman Thompson did not shoot well from three. And there were some other things that happened during the course of the game.

And there were some people were kind of not overly throw over the ball handling from both Reed and from Amen. Oklahoma City, the defending champions, they have nine returning players. back. They're just hounds defensively. Kaysen Wallace, Aaron Wiggins,

Lou Dord. Lou Dork can't shoot anymore, but Lou Dork can defend the hell out of people. That's an excellent basketball team. I was talking to, and I don't mean the name drop here, I was talking to PJ Carlisimo, the former Seton Hall coach and Gold State Warrior coach. And he's like, because I was telling I was going to do, I'm doing the show back in Houston. He's like, man, he says, y'all are a really excellent basketball team. You just went against the defending champions who made their life doing what they did last night 65 times during the regular season last year and winning an NBA

championship. They are just a super insanely talented basketball team. Should have won that basketball game. Yeah, I mean, Katie kind of wore it. He's like, A, I should have made my free throw, which is clear. Because the Rockets made their free throws, generally speaking. They just missed them down the stretch that were tough.

And the foul. Yeah. He filed With, was it SGA? He filed SGA with like two point something seconds to go. We heard that at the beginning of this show. But yeah, I'm in Thompson. Went 0 for 7 from 3.

Kevin Durant's not going to. That might happen every now and then, but he was making them in preseason. Right. And he looked like he was in good rhythm. They just weren't going in. Yeah. Kevin Durant, 0 for 3.

And, excuse me, 04 from 3. It just, any number of things could have gone the Rockets away. And I'm going to say they should have won that basketball game. It would have a really nice start to the Kevin Durant era. And I will say this, and I think I brought it up during the course of the broadcast when it happened. The Rockets also got lucky in one huge aspect. Do you know what that is? Oh, yes, I do.

The Chris Weber moment? Okay. They should have lost the game. That would have been the most awful way to lose an opening night game to start the season with two title contenders. I will also say. So Matt's talking about Kevin Durant at the very end of the first overtime. Yes. started to call time out.

And he wasn't the only one. No, he wasn't. That's what I wanted to point out. I'm glad you said that. It was also Jabari Smith Jr. I want to say it was a men Thompson too. I thought I saw Alpy too. No, Alpi was doing this.

Okay, okay, okay. I know there was hand signs. I know this is radio. So he's putting his hands like close to himself. Like, don't touch me. I didn't do it. I'm not doing anything. Alpi was like putting his hands and making sure he didn't call a timeout.

But Jabari Smith Jr., and Men Thompson and Kevin Durant, I believe there's three of them were calling a timeout. and it did not get awarded, therefore there was no offense committed. So there were three players. They didn't have a timeout. You don't have a timeout for those who don't know. You are granted the timeout, but it's a technical foul.

Right. But you have to be granted it, which I didn't know until last night. Yeah, just because you asked for it, it doesn't mean you get it. You have to get granted it and then it's a foul. I mean, a technical foul. Well, I thought the problem was was that maybe they called the timeout after the buzzer, and they did not do that. There was definitely time left on the clock.

Mark Dengnalt is the coach of Oklahoma City. He was very diplomatic. After the game, he said, I told those officials what I thought of their call. He says, but you have excellent officials. I mean, Zach Zarba is one of the best officials in the NBA. He was the crew chief last night. He's the one who was on microphone and felt like five or six times last night. My guess is when they are reviewing their tape, they missed it.

And luckily, for the rockets, they missed it. missed it. Yeah. Do you think that they're so aware that they, rockets, have no timeouts, that they'd even look for it to get called, and maybe that was part of it? That is correct. That those referees will talk during crucial moments, who's got timeouts left. With the timeout is called, where do we place the ball? They go through a hundred scenarios in their mind. They didn't have the scenario in their mind. One of these guys is going to call a time. Right. So that's the reason why I look for it. Honestly, I don't know if they covered their ass on that by saying we didn't see it. it because what they have was a pool reporter that will go,

one reporter from the game can go talk to the lead referee. Question was asked, did you see it? Zach Zarba said, I did not see it. And that was the end of the conversation. There was no, what do you mean you didn't see it or where were you? It was just, did you see the timeout call it? No, I did not. I can't call a timeout for a team that I didn't see.

So, needless to say, Oklahoma City fan lost their damn minds last night when that happened. But didn't end up mattering. No. So they won the game. So if you're going, if you're in the karma card, you're going, all right, well, Oklahoma City was supposed to win the game because they probably could have won the game on the technical foul. A lot to get to get to today on the radio program. If you watched the game last night or listen to it, hopefully here on 7.9, let us know what you think about what you saw of the first regular season edition. There was one amazing surprise from last night's game. We'll talk about that. E. Mae Doca is going to join us at 11 o'clock this morning. We'll get to his thoughts on the game from last night. We'll get to shut your bum ass up at 1130. We get the news at noon. and believe it or not,

as we take this program today until 2 o'clock this afternoon here on Sports Talk 790. If you'd like to join our conversation, give us your two cents. 713-212-5-7-90. Let me give you the number again. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Also, some very interesting

D'emiko Ryan's comments from his media availability yesterday. He met it with the media via Zoom at 2.30 because, you know, they got back in the middle of the night from Seattle. The shine on Demico's, starting to come off a little bit there, Battle Red. Getting a little tarnished. A little tarnished.

And fighting Texas Aggies, what are y'all doing, jakin injuries? Mm, getting fines. And the reprimand. The reprimand is tough. You get reprimand, you feel it. 50K. That's nothing for them. Dropping a bucket.

By the way, I mentioned this the other day, yesterday, you can't throw tortillas anymore. I'm going to get you 100K fines. That's true. Texas Tech fan. Part of it is. They're still crying about it. Part of it is, well, we've done it forever. Part of it is, well, you weren't fine this when we were six and six every year.

We can't throw food on the playing field. 713, 212, 790. 1020 on the Matt Thomas show at Ross. Ross, he's back with us today. Great to be back, Matthew. Nice to have you back. great to see Jonathan's shining face. Yeah, by the way, I got some twist.

His youthful exuberance gives me life. Did Western Kentucky football win last night? They did? I don't know if they were. They were up, I think. I don't know what the final was. I've asked you this before. I forgot the answer, Jonathan.

If SFA and Western Kentucky played each other, you would go Western Kentucky, you said, right? Yeah, I'll go. I'm going to be a top, yeah. Originally my first school. Well, that's because you're going FBS over FCS. Who doesn't like tops? Well, that was my first school I got recruited by, you know. Yeah, I got you.

I got some love. love for them. So you, did you ever go to what city is West? Is it in Bowling Green? Bowling Green, yes. Did you go, did you take the offer sight unseen or did you go there first? No, I went there first, then I went to OU and then I decided from there. Oh, okay. You went to Norman, Oklahoma? You could have gone there? Yeah, yeah. That's was the two schools that wanted me at a high school. Those only two offers I got was OU and Wisconsin. Oh, you could have gone two worst places, that's for sure. What was normal? You didn't like Norman?

And the culture was weird. Boling Green's is a very nice homing city. Like if you ever go there, It's very beautiful, very comforting. It felt like a family atmosphere. I have bowling green. I've never done a game at Western Kentucky, so I can't speak to it. But, you know, Hilltoppers is a good name. It is a great name. Nice logo, yeah.

All right, it is Matt and Ross. We are with you. So if you watch the game last night, 713, 2, 1,000, 5. Let's go. Let's go. Rockets basketball. Let me tell you all some.

Maybe everybody's asleep. It wasn't that late, though. It was a 630 start. It felt late, though. You know, the game went like three hours and 15 minutes. Yes, it did. I was telling my engineering good, Brits, like, you're doing all okay. I said, yeah, I said, I've only been on the year seven hours today.

It's like I was doing hurricane coverage or something. Yeah. But, yeah. The nooners were helping, coming through. Okay. Ten o'clockers, wake up, let's go. We're here four hours every day. I've been that way for about a year now.

You can say hello to me. Hi. Say how to Ross. Take a shot at him. Yeah. Others have. Let's go. Because I've been catching those strays too.

I'm more teflon than other ever now. I got buried by Cougar fans. Jesus. I don't know what you're talking about. I do. 7.13, 2.12, 5, 7.9. All right. So the biggest surprise for me.

I missed you, Matt. I really did. I didn't miss you at all. To an extent. Alperin Shangoon. The three-point assassin. Okay, yeah. How much do...

Okay, one game does not a season make. No, nothing about last night is indicative of 82 games. Remember, last of the Rockets. Remember who the Rockets played last year to open up the year? Golden State? Charlotte. And lost at home. Oh, yeah, Charlotte. And it was like, oh, more of the same.

I'm like, relax. Yeah, as, like, I want to be encouraged by Alpern-Shangoon above the break in rhythm. Like, just letting it fly. He was all over the place. But then I'm like, okay, I'm in Thompson went 0 for 7. So we got to take everything with a grand assault. And as you mentioned, Lou Dord went 0 for 8. In the last two seasons, he's been really good from 3.

So just one game. You don't want to make too much of it. But overall, I mean, Kevin Durant is still a walking bucket, even though he went over for four from three. And frankly, probably should have taken more shots. And I don't think it's because Kevin was being conservative. I think, let me tell you something. Oklahoma City locks people down. Lou Dort was all over him.

He was all over him. And Lou Dort is one of the, I want to say, I'm going to go look it up. I think he was first team all in all defense last year. You had that. You had Jalen Williams. It was a great defender who didn't play last night, obviously. Shea Gildes-Alexander gives you a professional approach And the Rockets

The thing is aggravated You kept SGA in check for the first half And then he had 30 points in the second half in overtime I mean he was just making That's the thing That's the beauty of the NBA And sometimes the curse if you're on the other side of it Is like you can have perfect defense

And a lot of times they did And Shee Gilgis Alexander is just that good He was just making tough buckets It was perfect defense better offense from him, especially there in that second half. And he's, he, you feel like he kept him quiet and he still got 35. I mean, it was just

ridiculous. You did keep him quiet for the first half. I was looking like, and first of all, and the Rockets got an opportunity to kind of take advantage something that doesn't normally happen. He missing free throws. I think he went 7 of 11 for the free throw line. Oh, yeah. He finished 10 of 14. So yeah, he did miss four. He made him at the end, right.

But he got to the line, and that's what he does. He's one of the all-time greats. One of the all-time fow hunters. And he, that slide step move to the left is still mid-range, 16-foot shot, still goes through. He's deadly. He's deadly. I mean, there's a reason the dude is reigning MVP, and yeah, Lou Dort was

first team all defense last year, finished fourth in defensive player of the year. He was doing a great job, muscling up, and one of the things that can't give Kevin Durant problems is physicality, and Lou Dort was being very physical, and especially if the referees are kind of letting him play, which they did last night, two very

physical teams. It was difficult for him to get into his spots consistently. Yeah, I thought, again, for a first game, and look, we got 81 of these, and we're not going to get 81 more of those. There's going to be some dogs in this group, for everything. If you were like a, hey, I'm going to check on NBC, see how they do this NBA bit. And, oh, by the way, the world champions are having their ceremony, yada, yada, yada. How could you not have been highly entertained with that game? I mean, that was exactly what NBC was looking for in terms of a really good game with two outstanding teams.

Do you know what the biggest margin was? that whole, it felt like it was within double, within single digits, basically the entire game. Yeah, Rockets had a 10-point lead, what, one or two times, I think, during the course of the game. But for the most part, it was just, I mean, it was nip and tuck. It felt like, and the atmosphere was great. The Oklahoma City Thunder, of course, their fans are one of the best in the business. It felt like a playoff game. It just did. It was awesome. You know, the crazy part was, so the game was at 6.30 last night. They had the ceremony started at 6 o'clock. They opened the arena at 4.30. I want to say by like 515, 5.30, 90% of the building was full.

Now, granted, what are you going to do in Oklahoma City? I understand. It'd be nice to have that, at least close to that here in Houston. I don't know if that's going to happen. It's not. We've got 50 years of history. We've been talking about, and it's not even, it's just, I mean, we've talked about that with Dyken Park crowds, especially during playoffs.

We've talked about it with NRG. Basically, since the Texans have been around, except for like maybe the first couple years, we've talked about late arriving crowds and stuff like that. It's just how we roll in H-Town. We're on our own. time but and you know it's an argument that that the rock is an organization have do you put the games at 730 do you put them at 730 do you because they used to right because you know if you stay at 730 and you're staying too late does that get people out of there there's really no right answer we got to get

the kids home and all that stuff yeah yeah yeah let's talk to uh stephen in the heights it to 1027 of the matt thomas show at ross stephen good morning to you hey matt hey ross i watched the game last night. I enjoyed it. My friend's a Thunder fan, so I was texting him the whole night. And I, you know, he told me he goes, at the beginning, he said Thunder by 10. I said, no way. I was like, you know, I told him, I said, I think it's going to be at best for y'all at Tipping at the buzzer. And at worst, for you all, Rockets win by 20. Now, obviously that 20 was way too much.

The other thing I wanted to say is that I thought the announcers, I had a problem with them because apparently they don't read the pronunciation guide that y'all are given because he kept saying Shane Goon. And Matt, I know you get the pronunciation guide. I do. Can you go to the NBC guys and go talk to them? Because that's just like, it was annoying me the entire night. Was it Tyrico saying it? It's not like he was saying Shingoon to me, but maybe he kind of. kind of just throw a little accent on there.

I didn't really notice it. Also, also, since I'm also your resident ASU guy, ASU by two touchdowns. I got news for you, Sam Lovett, three picks, Cougars pull off the upset, boom. Okay. Hey, Ross, why don't you take a bet with Matt on this? I'm staying away.

That's a stay away for me. Dorn it. Arizona State wins. Mine is seven and a half. Yeah. The only sad part about me this weekend is because I'm going to the game, but I'm going to Phoenix just for the day. Wow.

Because the Cougars, the Rockets play on Friday night, so we're leaving Saturday morning, getting into the game, and then flying right back with the team. So I love Tempe. I love your school. You've got... Tempe is awesome.

It is such a great part of the country. It's... The thing about, in all seriousness, is that major metropolitan cities don't typically have great college atmospheres. Tempe, I don't know if you know this, Ross, it's a little bit of a little community within a big city. It's like Bel Air or something?

West U would be, you know, like if Rice was a relevant athletic school. Hey. I mean, I'm sorry. It is what it is. But I apologize to the university now. To be fair, it got better. You know, because I was there through 2014 and we would go to ASU football games. I mean, they were fine.

But when Kenny Dillingham came in to the program, like as head coach, he said, hey guys, come to the stadium and now they're starting to like sell out. You know, everyone's showing up. Yeah, so it should be fun. I'm looking forward to it. Stephen, thanks to the phone call and keep smack talking.

It's fine. I can handle it. That's great because I'm representing my team. Should be a great one. Huge big 12 implications, I assume. Yeah, here's the thing and we've got to give to a break here. When you had these mega conferences,

there's going to be like six-way ties. You don't understand this? Yeah. You have like six-way tiebreakers? Well, like, look, if you look at the big, If you look at the big 12 standings right now. And BYU and Cincinnati are undefeated. And then there's three one-lost teams, Cougars, Sun Devils, and Red Raiders.

Would you be up for splitting the league in half and just taking one each side? I mean, you tell me how we do this. I have no clue what they're doing. In the SEC, they don't split them up like they used to. I mean, you have the top two teams, correct? Yes. Didn't they once have an SEC? Yeah, they used to have an SEC East and SEC West.

I don't do that anymore. Yes, I don't know. This is a question for Chris Gordy. But I mean, look at the big 10. You've got eight teams with one conference loss. I guess they go to the seating, I don't think, as ultimate tiebreakers, I think, something like that. I think, yeah. So, yeah, I don't know.

I don't know how you figure that out. But these main conferences will figure out a way to send the two best teams of their respective championship games. 1030 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 713-212-5-790 if you want to chime in on the conversation. 713-212-5-790. Battle Red, you've not been able to at least publicly discuss your beloved Texans against Seattle. We will discuss that on the show today. We will also get into D'Amico's Zoom?

It's 2025. We're Zooming these days. And I think he's seeing a different football team than the rest of us are, especially when you're 2 and 4. They're close, Matt. Yeah, D'emiko said that over and over and over again. They're close. 713, 212, 5, 7.90.

Apple, you were a six-some-b last night. Yeah, I don't know if that's going to be a regular thing, but if he wants to hit five-threes in a game, I mean, I'm all for it. Because, again, if you're going to win the double-big lineup, you're going to have to get that four is going to have to shoot the three. Kevin Duran is the longest two-guard in the NBA history, right, at 6-10. I know he didn't play some two-guards in previous spots.

I mean, no, we saw that dude at mid-old. Media Day, he's like seven foot. He was taller than Jabari Smith Jr. He was taller in Ryan Hollins. Ryan respects a hell out of it. He gets to look eye to somebody. I mean, he's frigging huge. But yeah, if Alpi's going to, okay, not obviously

if he's going to be like a 35 to 38% three-point shooter, which I don't think is going to happen, but then he's going to be literally one of the best scores on the planet, one of the best players on the planet. He was already an All-Star. So he already is one of the best players on the planet. best players I'm planning in that respect. But he's going to even make a bigger leap. Rockets, if that happens, and a men Thompson, I like the way that he was scoring and he was

aggressive. And if he could knock down the occasional three, the rockets are going to win like 55 plus games. Yeah, I just, what I think, what I thought about last night was, oh, is he settling? Is he, is he? Because sometimes when you're a shooter that doesn't have a lot of threes in your game, you make one or two and you're like, I can use this as a part of my arsenal. I'm like, okay, be careful.

He was he checking out there. But he made it. He was making them. I can't argue with the, you can't argue with results, right? I hate heat checks unless they go in. They're amazing. Yeah. What did you think of the ceremony last time before we go about phones? So they didn't, they kind of just showed highlights of it. They showed them all standing in front of the banner. And those, okay, can we stop with these rings now?

Do you see those? First of all, they were hurting their hands. Yeah. They were weighing them down. Those things are like 15 pounds now. It got out of control. Like, it's funny. You go look at like the, you know.

Yankees 1927 rings and their regular rings and then to now, they're getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. Right. But like it's, it's too gouty. It's too much. It's like it covers like three fingers. Well, I think part of the charm, now most players don't wear their rings. Right. They put them, they wear them once a year and they put them in a box and they...

Well, if it's like a ball, like a gala or something like that. Yeah, yeah. But I would want to wear, I mean, I'm the day, you wear a ring because you are proud of that ring. Right. Yeah, you can't. You don't wear the ring is you don't want to lose the circulation in your second finger there. Yeah. So, you know, they, like the owner of the team was, you know, he got the very first one.

I mean, it was like he was weighing him down. He couldn't move. Yeah, those things are ridiculous now. They literally cover two, if not three fingers. That's how big those things are. Let's, uh, go. It's comical. But I mean, yeah, you know what?

If you get a budget, you get a budget, don't you? That's true, I guess. I want one of those. I mean, I don't think when I get my end for the. rockets that'll be that big but um i mean i'll take medium you take whatever you can get i'll i got cubics when i was doing the pa back in the 90s yeah okay matt can i get one diamond in this one i can't wait championship ring would be fantastic i can't wait bill's calling you you should bill in port arthur on the matt tomah show ross bill good morning matt how you doing good friend how

you i have a question and it kind of deviates from today's major subject topics being the rockets in texion anything you want i have I have a question that's been bugging the hell out of me for several years, and it's concerned in Major League Baseball. Sure. And it is why the crowd booze an opposing pitcher when he throws the first bases. Have you got an educated answer for that? The reality is five years ago, you could throw over there as much as you want. So you are talking about a fan base that has been acclimated to seeing that done over and over again.

Bill, in 2025, and it's been this way, what, for two or three years now, you're allowed to throw over there twice and that's it. So why anybody tries to throw over there and get booed, you're wasting your time, you're wasting your breath. There's other things Bill to boo about. That's not one of them because you can only do it twice. If you do it a third time, either you tag the guy out or he gets to go to second base. So you're absolutely right. It makes zero sense. Well, to me, if my memory serves me correct,

they've been doing this long before that rule change. It seems like every time I've ever been to a game or watched it on television, they boo the opposing pitcher when he throws to first base, and I'm going, what the hell's going on here? Why are they booing? I think Matt's saying, yeah, because previously it could be like a stall tactic or stuff like that.

Bill, you've been watching, it sounds like you've been watching baseball a long time. you've seen games before they throw over their five, six times, and it drags the game down. That warrants a boo. Yeah, that I would get mad about that. The other stuff, now you can't. Throwing over to first base and booing makes, that's a tactical part of the game. That makes no sense why anybody would boo at this point.

I know. I've been watching the Houston team since the cold 45 days. I watched the dome get up. Oh, yeah. All right. Well, thanks for the answer. You got it nice to hear from you. Yeah.

Yeah, I'll say this. when they said, because when they first changed the rule, I thought, well, man, you are really putting it a huge advantage towards the runner, because if he throws over twice, then it gives you a little more of an opportunity to get that base. And then I thought to myself, that's good. I like stolen bases. I like when teams take the chance. And the fact of the matter is it forces catchers to be better.

It also forces pitchers to alter their stance and delivery and get to home plate faster. and not these long windups and not paying attention. It's a facet of the game that I frankly now enjoy. Yeah, it's made the game better. A lot of these rules that they put in, it has made the game a lot better, a lot more fast and more exciting. Yeah. The only thing I'm worried about, and I know we're not in baseball season,

but the reality is I am worried that the speeding of the game when it comes to pitch clock has negatively affected the amount of injuries we're seeing in baseball. and there's no proof of this or if there is they certainly haven't told us. Hey, you will. There's actually, I think, disagreements between, I think the players association is trying to argue that it is. And then Major League Baseball, of course, is trying to argue that it's not. All right. Let's get your thought on the Texans when we come back because you've not had a chance to at least...

Did you stay over the whole game? Yes. Of course. A lot of people didn't. Well, come on, people. Well, I'm a natural night owl. This is my wheelhouse. You know what I did?

I told the audience yesterday. You took a nap? I went to a little bit of a cat nap. And then I went to dinner. And then I had two large cups of coffee at 9 o'clock. And I was 12, 25, I was wired. Really? Yeah.

Okay. So I watched every single bit of that thing. Good for you. We'll get your thoughts on the game. We'll get D'Amico Ryans. There's a chance we're going to play some sound bites and aren't going to necessarily endear himself to the Houston fan base. It's pretty upset.

They're two and four. And three and a half games out of first place. Three and a half games. at a first place in the AFC South. Well, I'll save it. Save it for the next segment of the Matt Thomas show at Ross. 1050 Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross, Battle Red.

Take us through your Monday night. You just mean watching the game? Everything you thought about it. Okay. For me not being a fan of the team and being an observer, I don't even know how the hell they were within eight points at half-time. Seattle tried their best to make it a ball game for no reason. Yeah, this is certainly one of those games where the final score doesn't reflect how badly they got beaten.

You lost by eight and you won the turnover battle four to one. I mean, you just couldn't get anything going offensively, you know, until the end of the game. And C.J. Stroud was really, I mean, he was under a lot of duress. was also missing throws. Why does he take these horrible, horrible sacks where he loses 15 to 20 yards and is damn near getting safeties every time? I really thought it was. It seemed like a safety too, but I understand like when the contact started, they're giving

them the benefit of the doubt. It doesn't really end up mattering. It was a break caught by the Houston Texans with the whole safety business both times. But why is he running back? Those are bad sacks to take. if you are in eighth grade or high school or any level of football. And he just sometimes with how good he can look and how well he can throw and look under control. And when he does scramble, it's like, all right, he looks great.

And then sometimes he just looks like he's totally lost and uncoordinated. It's very bizarre. And I understand, of course, a lot of it is he's under a lot of duress with this offensive line, especially when they go on the road. They have communication issues. It seems like every snap. They're too soft in the interior of the line. Jake Andrews is getting pushed around.

They had... Rotating left tackle situation, left guard situation. Yeah, rotating, that's not good. But, I mean, you just have nobody that's good. Lake and Tomlinson hasn't been that good. And Juke Scruggs is not good either. Yeah. It's just a mess.

And yet, late in the game, if you are up at 1210, 12.15 in the morning. Yes. All kami fairbber hand to do is kick the ball out of bounds and be able to preserve the two-minute warning. And what was that? And that's another thing, too. Another point is that it's far too often

There are these little things That the Texans get wrong And that's where I do think There is fair criticism for D'Amico Ryan's Well, I mentioned this on the show multiple times yesterday I said Rossi, when is he going to win the coaching battle? Right. When is D'Amico going to outcoach the other side of the ball?

I think too often there are times Now he's obviously a great leader of men a great defensive mind helping build players love him he He checks a lot of the boxes A box he does not check is the little things As far as attention to detail When it's coaching when it's clock management

When it's do we need a timeout here Do we need to kick here Do we going forward on fourth downs I think he is far too conservative Which I understand He's defensive-minded ball coach This is he's going to be his DNA We're going to run the ball

We're going to establish the run We're going to win with our defense We're going to punt We're going to be conservative because we're going to trust our defense and that's going to be the backbone. That is old school defensive-minded coach. And that's who D'Amico Ryan's is. I get it.

But sometimes it's far too often. In the NFL, we're just about every game is a one-score game. You keep shaving off win probability with bad fourth-down decisions, with what you talked about, with not kicking the ball out of bounds. The third and one, fourth-and-one, run over left side that got zero and negative yards? You're running to the left side where you have a rookie who's getting blown up every play and you have whatever swinging left guard that's letting everybody in. The best part of your run blocking is the right side with Titus Howard and Ingram.

And you run to the left side both times? I don't get it. So yes, it's all these little things. And by the way, the head coach, even though it may be Nick Kaylee calling the plays and it may be Frank Ross on special teams, those are guys on your staff. You have to ultimately answer to the responsibility of what things didn't go right coaching was. And when Demico Ryan says we're close, he's kind of. of he's right and wrong at the same time because everybody's close in the NFL.

Everybody is. Everybody has 53 of the most talented football players on the planet. So the way that you win is you win in the margins. You win going for those fourth downs, making the right timeouts, saving those precious few seconds, every little thing. Yeah, you're close, but when you keep on missing those, that's where you're far away. And that's where it feels like the Texans are not close

because it's happening every week where all these little things, these attention to details, they just don't add up to victories for the Texans and that's where you are right to say they're far. They're far away from being a contender. I really don't ever want to hear it was a one position game ever again

because let's say 90% of the NFL games are one position games. Yes. So that's where you can convince yourself, especially when you're a little bit biased and you're like, hey, we didn't get this break, we didn't get that break, we didn't get this. We're close, we're close, we're close. but like if you're if you're like standing back and watching every single week yeah we're saying that every week

if every week you're piling up missing all these these these plays four or five plays then that piles up and then you're not close because like yeah every every week is a one-score game and the coaches and the best well-coached teams that are making the right decisions within the thin margins those are the teams that are winning every week How many times have we said the Kansas City Chiefs, how did they get away with this one? Because all these little things that they do. And that's not even saying because Annie Reid's not even really a great two-minute manager either. I think he has, he's become one.

I think early in his career, especially, even early in his chief's career, we're like, what the heck is he doing? But I think lately, I don't know if they've hired some kind of assistant or whatever. It just feels like they do the attention to detail things correctly. I would say the same thing about Bill Belichick and some of the other great coaches where you never say, what the heck are they doing with this time? Why is this time ticking off the clock? Why aren't they ready?

Why aren't they kicking it out of balance? It seems like four or five times a week. I'm saying why isn't D'Amico doing this? And then they lose the game. And that's an indictment about him as a head coach. Excellent defensive coordinator, widely regarded as such, and was a hot commodity. And the Texans won the battle. Denver wanted him too.

He's like, I'm good there. I'm coming to Houston. But I'm ready for D'Amico to start winning some coaching battles. intangibles, the little things that help you overcome these one-de-d-d-score games. Let's talk to Eme Adoka, speaking of head coaches. He'll join us next here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Great attention to detail with Emeadocca. You'll call a timeout and insult you and tell you what little little person you are, or how great you are.

713-212-5-7901. This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. 1101, I'm Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross for hour number two. Rockets last night fall in Oklahoma City to start this season. A very exciting basketball game in double overtime. And Ema Doka's going to join us. He does every week here on the show between now and hopefully a late run in June for an NBA championship.

Coach, good morning. Thanks for joining us again this season. A couple of thoughts as you were on the plane to try to close your eyes and reflect on an exciting game that just came up a little bit short last night. Well, the opportunities that we had to win it And some of the things that we did well Early on that kind of got away from us in the second half and overtimes So plenty of positives to take away from it Opportunities to do it but we did some things to lose it as well

You know, a lot of folks will look at the stat sheet And there's nothing more crazier for me as a sports broadcaster and a fan Than to over-discuss something of one game Because it's a body of work But you realize, and you know this And I think hopefully good NBA fans know you were going against one of the supreme defenses in the NBA. Kason Wallace and Aaron Wiggins and Lou Dort were not going to make it easy for you guys. And you were able to still get some things done accomplished offensively, especially with the way Alpi was playing last night.

Yeah, yeah, the top defense as far as forcing turnovers last year and making you play in the crowd. And we handled that really well early. I think, you know, in the first half, we were really good. And then second half, over time, got away from us. and you have 24 turnovers and give up 26 points off those and, you know, barely lose and have a chance to win, that's obviously going to stand out. And so some things we need to do better with spacing, playing with pace, and then just handling the pressure a little bit better. You'll do a deeper dive on those turnovers, and that was obviously a huge part of the game. In your mind, as you watch it, was some things you were doing offensively that getting in rhythm in the offense that was troubling you?

Was it more of what Oklahoma City was doing in terms of intercepting passing lanes and the like? A little bit of both. I think the pressure bothered some guys bringing up court for sure. I know that was there, but then, you know, we have different outlets and different guys that can initiate. But from there, we have to, you know, set a good screen, set our guy man up to take those denials away and get ourselves open. And they did a really good job of kind of choking away those passing lanes and taking us out of some sets. From there, you know, you want to keep it simple. We talked about hitting singles all night and make the simple pass and not playing the crowd.

And sometimes he over-dribbled a little bit. And when we did play in the crowd, we have to know where our outlets are at. So I get to get to our spacing a little bit quicker. How is the men Thompson doing? He's fine. It was just cramping and the calf came on in late in the fourth quarter. He tried to play through it a little bit until they really caught up to him and had to hold him out. Obviously, he would love to have him in the later stages of the game. But just cramping, I think the first game, obviously.

And then the two overtimes, extra minutes for him caught up with him. Rocket Tech coach Ime Adoka was here on Sports Talk 790. How would you assess overall his game, obviously very aggressive, getting to the basket and did not go the way that he wanted from the three-point line, but did you like the takes that he was shooting? Yeah, I mean, for the most part, you know, they're sagging off him, so he gets to get downhill and attack and try to find guys and did a good job of that. You know, he just like everybody else had high turnover numbers, you know,

A few guys had four and a few Stephen and a few others had three. But, you know, we want him to get to the corners and he's shot it extremely well on preseason and has been better since last year. And so I wanted to be confident with those at times of summer late shot clocks as well. But we want him to shift and invert on the wings

and kind of give guys space to operate there. And a few times we're a little slow with our spacing, like I mentioned. EMA, you ran some zone, they ran some zone. You and I talked a little bit last year about it. It felt like 10 years ago, even see the zone defense. Why are we seeing it more today, especially as many prolific three-point shooters the league has right now? There's a change of pace. It takes teams out of some of the things they're trying to do. They have really good one-on-one players. You can

kind of load up and send them certain places on the court. But at the same time, we're playing big lineups with some really small lineups. And so may not be as many favorable matchups for us. And it's a game of cat and mouse and who's going to make who adjust to what. And the zone helps just kind of guard some of those actions better. Was Alpe in Rhythm 3 the most he's ever been as you've seen him in person? I mean, look, no disrespect to the Euroleague and whatnot, and you've seen him in practice. But in terms of an NBA game, it looked like he had a confidence that ball left his hand beyond the arc that maybe I haven't even seen in his entire NBA career.

Yeah, absolutely. I think he's going to be in some different situations this year. He's putting a ton of work on his jump shot on the offseason. and you saw that in Eurobasket. But like you said, the line is a little bit different, a little closer there. And I think he's had great carryover from his summer playing basketball there. And so with him playing with Stephen and some other bigs, he's going to have to space the times and be in some positions to make him pay from three.

And teams are going to make him prove it. He obviously was confident and did a great job last night. But a lot more catch and shoot opportunities versus picking pops. Now that he's kind of playing at the four at times, and I think he was extra aggressive, ready for those. And if you're going to be in those spots, you have to make him pay, and he did that. Overall, what would you see from Reed Shepard, 28 minutes from him, and just how he played on the floor, both sides?

Some ups and downs. It's going to be some learning curves for guys, especially, you know, Fred out in there having to handle and initiate and not just play off ball as much as they did last year. I'm in as well. And so just understanding the physicality of the game, which he's improved at, since last year and how teams are going to guard him and respect him, you know, being the third pig, being a shooter. And

you know, freeing up himself, guys have to free up and set screens as well. Like I said, they were kind of blowing everything up on and off ball. And so, for him it's just more of the learning that he's going to have to go through this year. Was aggressive looking for a shot, I think it wasn't just on men that didn't shoot it well. A few other guys

as well, you look at the numbers, only going 11 for 39 from 3 and having some really good looks. And so game one, some things take away positive or negative. I think that's with the team overall and read or learning and grow from this. Some people talking during the game, I guess,

about Kevin Durant in his looks. How did you feel overall just working within the offense where that's a guy that can go down the floor and basically get up a shot anytime he wants to, but you also want him to kind of play with the team around him. What is it like for you as a coach finding the right

moment to get him going, but also wanting to play with everyone else? Well, yeah, you want him to be who he is, which is a great score, but we understand just like we're trying to take Shay out. They're trying to take Kevin out for the most part. They want Ludo pretty much face guarding the whole time. So that's what I mentioned. Our setups have to be better.

Guys have to try to make their stuff get open, and we need to set better screens. So playing with a little more force and pace and not to let him dictate where we want to go on the court, that's going to be a big thing. But at times he was somewhat of a decoy because they had the way they were guarding him. and they got guys open looks. And at times when they're trapping him, or they're really face guarding him, we're basically playing four on four at times. It's almost like a box in one.

And so we have to do a better job getting him open, getting him into spots to score, but he has to be aggressive as well and get open. And so it's a little bit of both, and we understand what OKC does, but he's seen that throughout his career and then adjusts well, and we'll handle that as the season goes.

I don't think you guys did anything differently to Shane in the second half. was there something that you saw from him and the burner being turned up a little bit because obviously in the first half he wasn't a real huge part of the offense but got himself involved in the second half in overtime? No, I think our traps weren't as aggressive, for sure.

I think we got caught a few times looking at other actions and then he got the pick and roll where he had more room freedom to operate. You know, he's going to come out aggressive when he's had the poor first half. We saw that last year in season tournament. Some of the games we guard him really well. and then when we were in the zone,

we did allow him to get to the spots where we didn't want him to. We wanted to send him to the crowd, send him to the middle. He either wants to attack the seams and get away from the double teams and repeatedly late in the fourth quarter in overtime.

He got to those spots and that's where he saw some of those jumpers where we did a great job of funneling him to the help in the zone specifically. And so we didn't do as good a job for those reasons and kind of allow him to get going

and then obviously you got to the free throw line a little bit too much as well. Before we wrap things up, I asked you this before the game yesterday, it's worth for this audience as well. You went with the double bigs last night or the jumble, whatever you want to call the lineup. For this audience, dictate Ema, what you think you will do,

how much it will be against who you're going with. Now, home green, obviously, being out there with Hardinstein that dictated it last night. How much were you tried to push the envelope to put that big lineup out there against guys that maybe not be as tall and as physical as Oklahoma City would be? Yeah, there are a lot of things that play into it, And it's not just other teams with big lineups.

We do like to put Alperin on some lesser scoring threat wings. And you saw him on Dort and certain guys last night. And there's plenty of guys in the league. And from game to game, we could do that with. But it's also dictated by how they want to guard. And, you know, they've been a team that puts home grin on them in a lot. And we wanted to free up them in as well. And so if we don't play our double big, they'll switch that matchup.

And so it's not just based on their personnel, how they want to defend. We take all those things into account and, you know, freaking up my man with a guard on him. You saw how he got downhill versus the length of home grin and some of those guys. And so it's a night-by-night thing to start. We'll be fluid with it until we get healthy, fully healthy, and have some options with Dorian and Jay Sean and those guys we can look at. But we love the versatility that we have.

And obviously the lineup that we've had a ton of successes, playing with those two bigs and something will continue to go with. You look, once the game got started last night, Once the ceremony was over with and the rings and all that, it was just an NBA game. But you were going to get that opportunity coming up here on Friday night. I'm assuming that Katie is very excited about being wearing the rocket home gear for the very first time. Yeah, I think everybody is.

And, you know, to me, I think our whole team enjoyed that game. You know, we want to be tested right from the start. And so Detroit is another, you know, up-and-coming team that plays extremely physical as well. And so it'll be another challenge for us and ready to get this first win out of the way. I had an opportunity, like I said last night, and, you know, fouled late a few times with some free throws and things of those nature, but had the opportunity there, and we'll take a look at that and try to improve on game, too. Great visit, friend. Thank you for the time.

We'll see you Friday night and good luck against the Pistons. Appreciate the time as always. Thank you, thank you, guys. We got it. That's E. Mae Adoka joining us here for a weekly visit. Be with us once week. Probably going to be Wednesdays and Thursdays, depending on our schedule, but it should be fun. Great stuff as always.

Let me tell you, there's no sure-coating. There's a very little cliche. No. Tells it like it is. He's a player's coach. Yes. But he 100% will tell you how he's feeling and will not mince words, especially when things are going right or going wrong.

And, you know, look, SGA just, SGA does SGA things. That is an excellent title contending team. There's a lot of buzz about the Rockets. There's a lot of buzz about Denver. But why anybody is not giving OKC. see the respect they deserve after having their nine rotation guys back and again. Last time

they didn't even have Jalen Williams, the good Jailin Williams. Not that the bad one was bad. Hey. You know. I know. There's 8 and 6 and 8 significantly better than 6. That's true. I just don't want any one more of those. I need... You're not going to get Mets. Are you sure? Yes. I personally guarantee that. They won't go to

double overtime and lose by one. Can I get a 19 point blowout Friday night against the Pissons? I can't guarantee you that. All right. Pissons are pretty good. They're really good. Aster is. The twin battles are, it's going to be great. And thankfully, it sounds like everything is okay with the men, so that's good to know. 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-212-5-79. Yeah, that Dodger podcast, I'm sure, is highly entertaining. Jesus. I'm actually going to move to that one when I finish my anthology podcast on the 2019 Washington Nationals. Yeah, I'm going to go with. My next podcast I'm going to listen to is the greatness of the 83 North Carolina State Wolfpack and the 2024 Florida Gator basketball team. Yes. And then we're going to move on to the Dynasty Warriors recapping all of their playoffs series against the rockets.

And the podcast going to is just how cool were the Buffalo Bills in 93? Yes. Can't wait. This is actually a funny bet. Let's continue. Jonathan, he's going to the greatness of SFA football. Oh, that's a short one. That's a short one.

Wow. Dame Lillard, underrated three-point shooter in clutch moments. The podcast, I heard. I'll be doing the 2009 Alabama Crimson Tide podcast. I'll be checking that one out. Yeah. That'll really make me feel good. Yeah.

The Charlie Strong was misunderstood podcast. Hey. I think he still deserved a fair shot. I'm kidding. Oh, here's one. The day Texas got back. Sorry. You say have somewhere to get back from.

All right. I'm sorry. You know what? I'd like to apologize. We can tease each other. You say your apologies for Friday. Okay. Yeah, look, we have a wonderful company, but promoting the Dodgers is just not a great idea.

But everything else we do is great. I'm very pleased. All right, 713, 212, 5790. texting in. I would even take dudes on dudes over this. Seriously, let me give you the run of what we've got promoted. The development of the MLS team in San Diego, I've heard that one. Wasn't there Polynesian? No, Philippine basketball league.

Maybe Pacquiao is dropping 20 a game. It can't be that good of a leak. Dudes on dudes. That was something else. These are from IHeart National folks. It's not our call. Not our call. Sorry. Trust me. Our local management's like, what are we doing?

National management, you'll play these things that like it. Yes. The Dodger. Last thing about this and I swear we're moving out. Why would, I mean, our company,

the Dodgers don't carry a national fan base. The Yankees do. No, I'm saying it. I'm, nope, nope, you are not going to,

no, they're not as big as the Yankees. I mean, I'm with you there. Let me tell you, Let me tell you the national brands are. You could do a Yankee podcast and do quite well. You could do a Dallas Cowboy podcast and do quite well.

I don't think people are just generally speaking looking. Now, if you want to do Shohei. See, that's where I'm going. Maybe that's it. Show Hey, Otani. I mean, they have a lot of Japanese players. I think there's a, there is a global appeal. Yeah, but we don't, I heard doesn't globally promote these.

things. They're trying to, Matt. Trying to grow, baby. Man, we've had, we've had some doozies. Hmm. Yeah, this one's the worst. Let me take something. Wasn't there another one that was like, was it a Warriors podcast or something like that? It was something recently. Yeah, we've had a, we've had a, we've had a, like, a Steph Curry pie.

They're just like poking the bears is what they're doing. Which is it called Poking the Bear podcast. What podcast can our parent company do that can anger people? Well, I think they're playing the hits right now with the Dodger Blue. Seriously. the Mariners lost. If my schedule wasn't so hectic, I would go,

I would do power bomb, Plingo and Powerbombs. You would? Because I think I could do pretty well with that. Hmm. You know what? You're right. It's a little too,

you're picking two niches. Yes, I am. But that's what podcast should be. Yeah, but you shouldn't, yes, one niche.

But that's so separates me, Ross. The Venn diagram of people who really love game shows and really love 80s wrestling is about you and maybe three other people. me and three other people. Yes.

But I, you know what? Yes, niche podcast, good idea. Two niches in one, maybe not the best idea. Yeah. I'm just trying to be helpful. You're probably right. Got a nice message for one of our listeners. And he says, David's listening.

He sent me on Instagram. By way, I'm getting very close to 3,000. Oh, my God. You know what? Somehow on my unpaid vacation, I got a lot of support on Instagram. I didn't even promote my Instagram at SportsMTon. I got a lot of followers for whatever reason. I appreciate the support.

And many of you who reached out, I appreciate you as well. All right. This is from David. Matt, I'm primarily a baseball fan. I'm not a big fan of the modern NBA primarily due to style, but I do follow and listen to you on the air and win the car and catch a few games. Thank you very much for that. But since they moved back, the NBA moved back to NBC.

I thought I would sit down and dedicate an entire night to watch the game. He says, my only criticism about the coverage is NBC could not wait to break away and get to the LA game. It kind of ruined the overtime excitement experience because they made an obvious. They were ready to break away to the LA game. David, I thank you for that. that, if I'm NBC, I do the exact same thing. Post-game commentary, getting Shea Gildes Alexander on the microphone for a minute, two minutes. Not going to be greater than watching Steph Curry and Luca Donchich in a live basketball game.

I would do the exact same thing. And again, I don't know how they did it or how long they went. I didn't notice that, but I kind of also, once the game was over, I wasn't really, I had it on, but I wasn't paying attention. People want to see games. Post-game stuff's cool. Pre-game stuff's cool. By the way, seeing Vince Carter and Carmelo, Anthony. in the same building last night? That was interesting.

They did the NBA pregame show. Oh, that's either on the floor. On the floor. I don't forget who else was a part of that. But, yeah, you know, when in doubt, people want to see the games. Because what you don't want to do, even though Peacock is the alternative, you're paying these billions of dollars to get these superstar marquee games on the NBC channels. Correct.

Yeah. So that's what, you know. But thank you, David, for the message on that. And my guess is, if you wanted post-game celebration, my guess is you probably could have gone to Peacock for like the post game stuff? I don't even know. I don't know. We're going to have to learn a lot about how these television networks are operating.

Yeah, I just had it on Peacock. The picture is great. Graphics are good. It's not started. I didn't hear a word. Torrigo's bug was good. There's like when a three gets made, a little three splashes up. Really?

Yeah. And when somebody dunks a little, a little, it pumps up the score two points and it says slam. Somebody's out there working, pressing buttons. Yeah, I didn't record. game, because I will do it. You can go back you have Peacock, right? You can go back and watch replay, I'm sure. That is true. Well, you can do it with all the primary league games. I'll put it that way. But I don't know, I imagine you can do it with the basketball.

Yeah. All right, uh, 713-212-790 is how you reach the show if you want to get in today. That's 7-1 3212-5-7-90. You know what we're going to do right now? We're going to tell some people to shut their bum-asses up. Okay. I told some people to shut their brown ass up in Seattle. Yeah. Okay. There were two people like, you know, one guy called me a tampon and a C and a P and what else he called me an F oh when you

when you mention the Mariners yeah because I put the video up of the manager of the Blue J saying how disrespectful was it that people were booing when George Springer got his knee bumped some were cheering apparently some were cheering apparently

some were cheering but it was non-classy and thus by way you didn't so proud of me I didn't I was on a phony to softie on Monday I didn't wish him good luck good you guys yell

no I didn't care I empathize with him because we've been in a softy spot. I mean, he'd been a minute her fan since he was a kid, 50 years. And he was also like, what, down half of what whiskey? Oh, yeah, he had a thing of whiskey. He was drinking whiskey early. That's over to believe that.

I don't know. Yeah. Do you go to the whiskey at 8 o'clock in the morning? Probably not. I mean, unless you're a problem drinker slash functioning alcoholic. So we were talking about shower beers and we talked about morning beers. Huh. And the overriding thought was people do morning beers, but you'd usually do it when you're

tailgating for an 11 o'clock kick. You are a morning beering at 8.30. Yes. If you're tailgating or on vacation, it's acceptable just about any other instance, yeah. Well, actually, maybe any instance. I woke up at 8.005 this morning. That's as late as I can really sleep

when you get here in reasonable time. I didn't wake up and have a beer. You should have. Probably the show would be better. Yeah, 10 o'clock would have been faster. 713.212.5.7. If you want to tell people to some shut their bumasses up, get in here. You want to tell somebody ain't ain't money got time for that.

It's our favorite half hour of the week, just to let it go. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. It's 1128. It's a Matt Thomas-O. Ross here on Sports Talk 7-90. Ain't nobody getting time? Ain't nobody getting time for it.

Ain't nobody getting time for it. Ain't nobody getting time for it. Don't-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-old. Those cathartic, 30 minutes of your week, starts right now. now. You want to tell somebody to shut their bum asses up? Ain't nobody got time for that?

You know where to find us. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Ross? I'm going to probably not have you do this. I think I might have to pass this week. I'm going to watch out for you. Can I just say something in general?

Please. I'm going to keep it general. People who go online, and this is for anybody. I'll jump onto this as well. And want to just go and like take, go out of your way to somebody you don't know anything about and just go personal shots and try to tear them down like out of nowhere. Get a life. Okay. And this is happening everywhere.

And this is also recently, I'm guaranteed you didn't talk about this, Matt. but there's a young grandmaster's name is 29-year-old. His name is Daniel Naraditsky. Unfortunately died at the age of 29. The assumption is that he killed himself because of he was getting online bullied. And this is happening

all over the place. And it's just, it's too much. Those of you people who go online for no reason and attack people you don't even know without knowing context about anything that's going on, ain't nobody got time for that.

Like, it's just ridiculous. Ain't nobody got time for that? I think I'm just going to leave it at that because I don't want to get angry and I don't want to get too much into anything else. Okay. Yeah, keyboard warriors, shut your bum asses up. Shut your bum ass up, man.

You are miserable human beings, and I hope that you get in car crashes. Yes. What? You know what? I'm allowing that this week. I got nothing to say. Oh, that's a great question.

Some of you should deserve fender bender. Some of you should be in a fiery car wreck. It depends. To case by case basis. Yeah. Terrible. Let's see. I mean, look, I'm a little fatigued because I don't have the piss and vinegar that I normally do.

Yeah. So I'm going to let you all sit back. How about the NBA allowing unlimited overtime? Ain't nobody got time for that. That's true. Go to the Elam ending. First of 15. Let's go.

By the way, I'm missing. Create drama, too. Missy the Ultimate Spurs fan texted us and said it was Reggie Miller that was misprouncing Shane Goon's name. And like I said, I didn't notice that. Maybe it's just Reggie Miller or just Reggie Miller.

Yeah, when he said it, I remember him, yeah. Okay. They were kind of butchering her a little bit. I guess I'm used to it. I mean, Reggie's done 15 or 20 opera in Shingoon games over his life. Yeah. Well, at least they don't call him Shingweeney

like the guys on NBA TV. What? Yeah, I think we had that somewhere. Now, they do it as a joke. Like, I guess that he's Italian? I don't know. I don't like it. But, yeah, they call him Alperin Shingweeney or something.

That's ridiculous. All right, so come on in here, Houston. This is your half hour. Let it all out. I got one while we wait. Oh, please do. 713. Mark will put you on hold.

We'll get you a second. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. All right, Jonathan, what's the matter with you? and I'm going straight for Titus Howard, the offensive tackle of you coming out after you losing a horrible game, defense did everything they could once again. Quarterbacks getting messed up behind you and you want to come out and say and try to generalize the entire offensive line room saying we were complacent. I cannot stress how much as an athlete that irritates the soul out of me.

We are so passionate as athletes, even at the Jukau level, you go to your teammate and he's like, yeah, you know, I was complacent, yeah, you know, I was doing whatever last night. Ain't nobody got time for that, man. That alone, that statement should have got him, should get him to trade talks. And that is, I'm being serious. Well, for those of you that don't know, he was asked after the game on Monday night about the offensive line and the performance and he said we were kind of complacent. And to my response yesterday was Rossi, how is a team that's two and three? going in complacent about anything. Yeah, and maybe it's just kind of like

something you just say in front of a microphone. It's kind of a cliche. He said that a couple times before, so it was like a crutch phrase. Well, first of all, you should eliminate the word complacent from his vocabulary. As an NFL professional? Yes. Oh, my God.

Well, it's either we were complacent or they're incompetent. You don't want to say the latter. Kami Fairbairn, who should get his name in the ring of honor. Anybody got time for you kicking the ball in the end zone to make it returnable. I want to hear his side of the story. He'd be like, nobody told me anything.

What are you all talking about? If you're the head coach of this team. If you're Domeco O'Ryan's, even if you don't know that, D'Amico, you walk over there and say, kick the ball to the second deck of the stadium in Seattle, Lumen Field. You make sure nobody wearing a Seattle Seahawk uniform can touch that football.

That is elementary, late game special teams execution. that failed miserable. Now, even if it would have gone out of bounds and the two-minute warning, you probably would have only had about 35 or 40 seconds. You'd had to go the length of the field. The chances were at 5%.

Well, guess what? They were at zero when Tim Settle jumped on a bunch of guys who got the 15-year penalty. That, by the way, was a bad call. I agree with you on that. Because how often have we seen the piles get pushed and somebody goes and gets a first down? Tim Settle needed to do that.

That was a horrible call. Yeah, I didn't think it was a good call, but it just came. You were battling the clock. And the whistle hadn't blown, by the way. Yeah, yeah. I agree with you. I think it was a bad call, but the worst part of it was kicking the ball and bounce.

And running the left side, Nick Cayley, shut your bum ass up. What are you doing? Shit your bum ass up, man. Tomlinson sucks. He doesn't suck. He's not very good. Scruggs, doesn't, is that very good.

Yeah. I should, I'm trying to back off on the term sucks. Good job, Matt. Saddle fans, you suck, by the way. Shut your bum. Suck it. Yes. You know what? Yeah. I'm going to Seattle fan. Toronto said, shut you. Nobody got time for you going to the World Series. When I made my tweet, I made sure I put a, I put like the restriction on that. The only people that follow me could reply because I didn't want to hear from Seattle fan. Oh, I got it from Seattle fan. Because I got it in the, I said the hate watch continues. I made like a simple joke. Me too. I was like 15 Mariners fans come out of nowhere, clearly searching the word mariners. Get out there and come out there and take a bunch of personal shots and say like, shut Joe bum ass up.

You miserable Shit so bum ass, You got close I like it I almost said something That starts with a T I'll leave it Yeah I got called a T

A P A C An A B And an F Yeah If there was a nasty word Seattle fan called it to me The worst

Go go home and put a shoe on your head Dumbasses Like what size They just look like you look like idiots Oh but my Tinkgo Scars some runs if I push you on my head. Shut up. Shut your bum ass up.

How did Baytown get in the mix of this? I don't know. Whoa. Shit your bum ass up, man. Matt, we're hearing from Baytown. We're hearing from Baytown folks. You know, I'm just teasing Baytown. They say, shut your bum ass up, man. Shut your bum ass up, man. J.T. on 7.90 and 1140.

J.T. What's the matter with you? D'emico Ryan. Shut your bum ass up. The only thing you're close to is 0 and 6. Shit your bum ass up, man. We got to play some. Miko come in the news and do. We've just got to do something.

This is just going to piss you all off, which we're here for. Weekdays and the two. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Mark is with her son, 70. Mark, what's the matter with you? Oh, I guess if the Maverg stay healthy all year that won the championship, hey, Stephen A. Smith, shut your bum-ass up.

Shut your bum-ass up, man. Did he say that? he's yeah he's his takes are oh I don't know what he what is team ain't trying to do is he trying to run for office he's he's spending as much time

on political shows he's on sports shows I didn't know that what channel what's he doing what shows he was on a town hall on news nation which I don't know what that channel is but they had three different people on

from three different philosophies and then he's like kissing Kyrie Irving's ass he's now then he's getting into politics See, I mean, how about just turn the microphone off and go up dinner, listening to some music? His actions aren't matching up with his words that he doesn't want to get into politics. 100%. And for me, I want him to run for any office he can.

Because I'm not to go out there. I promise you, I will vote for the other person. Well, I'm never going to a voting booth again in my life, but that's a different discussion for a different time. and your own podcast. I'll be on my podcast. The world is burning with Ross Villarreal. Hey, nobody got time for that. Dodger podcast.

Anybody got time for that? Hey, nobody got time for that. If you do have time. The system is broken with Ross v. Real. Your system is broken. That's true. 713-213-2-1-790.

7-1-2-1-2-5-7-90. We had three good calls right there. Let's get three more, sure, why not? We got people that got something to say. We give you a little more freedom on this. You got something wrong with you? Tell the world.

We won't judge you too badly. 713-212-5-790. That's 713-212-5-7-191. Hey-N-1-1-7-19-1. All right, I've got to preface something. You know, they call me the preface her. My middle son's a fine texting name graduate. Uh-oh.

and I have a strong affinity for it's Texas A&M. Great school. My son wishes he can get a job in college station. If you own a business in college station, my son wants to move back desperately and get out of my house, which I'm okay with. Because I want him to go. He loves college station.

Interesting. He loves the Aggie lifestyle. He went to the basketball coaches show. That's how much he loves Aggie athletics. Wow. I'm so proud of him. I'm doing that. Those radio shows can sometimes they don't draw great,

but if you got Peyton Thomas going, he's ready to go. Okay. So with all that being said, Aggie fans, ain't anybody got time for your football program being fined $50,000 for faking an injury to save some time. Hey nobody got time for that. I mean, come on. It's 20, 25.

We're going to catch you doing that. You cannot slow momentum. You know how you slow momentum? You make a stop. Well, they weren't doing much of that. You don't fake an injury. They're very, they're frankly, very. very lucky it's only $50,000 and Mike Elko got a reprimand.

Because if I had tangible proof, which clearly A&M did, I'd be fined him five times that amount. Yes. So, yeah, the SEC statement said they saw a staff member telling the player to go down to the ground. That's as blatant and obvious as... They got to come up with a buzzword that you can just say. Yeah. Donut. Apple turnover.

First squeeze juice. Anything. Anything but pointing down to the ground and going down. Down, down. If you're going to fake an injury, just be smarter about it. We all fake things in life. Annexation of Puerto Rico. Yeah.

God bless America. All right. Number two on this. Mike Elko. His name has been discussed in dealings with Penn State. Hmm. I don't know if he answered it the right way. when he was asked about it during his little weekly get-together.

Here it is. For the Penn State job, I'm just curious, your thoughts on that, how you handle your name being linked to that kind of job, and if that's something you even discuss with your players? I don't discuss it with my players. I think it's absolutely hilarious how you guys cover coaches. I think three weeks ago I was getting fired. Now I'm getting hired.

Now you don't want me to stay, but it's just, it's absolutely hilarious. as it is a waste of brain space to spend any time talking or thinking about any of that stupidity. Mike Alco, I think you're a good football coach, and you've got A&M football being as relevant as possible. No one was calling for your firing three weeks ago. Mike Elko, shut your bum ass up, man. Shit your bum ass up, man. Well, maybe not three weeks ago.

No, no, no, no. No, no. When they collapsed, there were people not liking Malik Elko last year. He's been there a year and a half. If you are calling for Mike Alco's job after a year and a half, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Have you seen the internet? What are you speaking of, sports RV?

Have you been on this place? I don't know. The Cougar fans love me, so I don't know what you're speaking of. I bet you I can find a fire Elko tweet somewhere. I bet you're last year. It's the keyboard warrior mentality. You know what? Here's how you, this is a little public relations 101.

If questions like that are being asked to you, which I think are very fair questions, it's a very difficult question to ask from the member of the media, but sometimes it's got to be asked. If you're really not interested in Penn State, you know what you do? You say, I am not interested in Penn State. I love being the head coach at Texas A&M,

and you leave it. Beginning to this, while you were asking me to be fired three weeks ago, and it's absurd. It's not absurd. The world of college football sees tangible change all the time. What would you have said if you were a Duke of the weekly press conference? I heard your name being attached at Texas A&M. are you interested?

You know what? Especially for a campus that saw that douchebag Jim, whatever, Schlossnagle or whatever the hell's name is. You heard me, and you are a douchebag, Jim, and I hope you lose every game in Texas.

I love your school, but you hope you lose. They won't. They won't lose. They're going to be really good. But coaches lie. He didn't deny it, by the way. He didn't say, I'm not going to Penn State

and I'm committed to Texas A&M. I said, I think A&M's a better job. I really do. Now, Penn State is an easy, I think the Big Ten's easier to win in, frankly, a little bit. But Ohio State's not going to... You haven't been in Ohio State and God knows how long.

They're not going anywhere. USC's going to be relevant. Indiana apparently is going to be a powerhouse for the foreseeable future. Penn State's a bigger national brand. It has more deep, rich history. It was in a playoff last year. I get it. But when you were with me when we were talking about this,

it's not about what jobs used to be like where bigger jobs it's where the money is it's NIL. It's who's got a better NIL. Apparently Penn State's got some money. They paid up James Franklin. Franklin 49 million to go away.

They went to Roritas to get that they didn't care of. Of course, yeah. Aggies are like, so what, we're paying off Jimbo 75 mil. Yeah. That's light work. Today's edition of we cannot pay your fire coach. That'd be funny. You're talking about IHeart Radio podcast.

We do a podcast of coaches that have been paid greater than $40 million. You get them on every week. This week? Did you buy a yacht this week? Jimbo Fisher. Last week. Next week, next week,

after that, it'll be Billy Napier. Oh, yeah, I forgot about Billy Napier getting fired. And then Mike Norvell, you'll be coming up here shortly. Did you see a stat? It's like Mike Norvel has three, four-game losing streaks, and the Florida State hadn't had one since like 1972 or something. He's got three in like three years. Coming up next on Florida Sports.

today. Last call, by the way, for some shut your bum asses up. Get in here right now. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Do you know what Albert Pooholz told the Angels? What did he tell? Anybody got time for your job? Oh, did they offer him the manager's job? That was supposed to be the foregone conclusion, but Kurt Suzuki's going to get the job. I don't want the Angels job. Oh, Kurt Suzuki. That's cool, I guess. It's fine, but he's going to lose a hundred games here. You're going to lose. Yeah, exactly. That's why. Why? Why would Albert Poole's want that job?

Nobody wants... He's made like half a billion dollars in his career. Why would you want that job that you're going to be told that we're going to pretend that we spell like a big league team, but we don't. Yeah. Congratulations to Kurt Suzuki. I'm sure he'll be, uh, enjoy his two years there and enjoy it. I was going to say three, but yet two sounds might be right. No runners, two and a half.

There's got to be a parlay on that somewhere. All right. Anything else for you boys before we wrap things up? I think I'm, um, um, I'm good. I feel good. I'm, uh, I'm a relief. Well, you were, man, you were mad at all on Titus Tyler. That actually really upsets me.

Because you don't even know that college athletes as people that do that same thing. And it just makes you think. Like, why are you even doing what you? All right. So let me ask you this. And we got one minute here. What would you, if you had Titus next to you,

and he was asked that question, what advice would you give him? What would be the proper answer? Just make something up? Or just do the classic PR. We failed to do our execution. We've got to go back and get it work. We had a little break and we'll come back to it.

Why would you go out and say that your team is complacent? I don't understand that. Well, how about this? Can you appreciate honesty? Yeah, to some point, but complacent only comes a negative. You know what I mean? No, but I mean, he was asked a question

and he gave you a thoughtful, honest response. Now, I guess, you know what you could do, also do, guys? You could also say we were flat. We shouldn't have been flat. We had a week off. We had some downtime, and we were flat. Maybe if he says flat,

you can probably stomach that a little more of the complacent. We can honestly say a thousand different words. You know what it's? It's the word complacent. It just got you. All right. We're going to hear a little bit from Domingo. We'll see how complacent he is with his team.

It's three and a half out of first place in the EFC South. Battle Red, how are you feeling? They're not making the playoffs. I might not even get the seven and a half. I made a lunch bet with you woof with. How big of the lunch was that, by the way? I thought I reeled you in so big, too. Did the both you guys say 10-7-2?

Well, he got me very early. Yes. And then I was just trying to be as much of a homer as I could because I'm thinking it's an AFC South. They suck. Who the hell would have thought that Daniel Jones would have a team that's a 6 and 1? Annie Jones, baby. They're carrying one of my fantasy squads.

They went to L.A., and they kicked the crap out of the Chargers. They're legit. They're absolutely legit. 713-1-2-1-2-7-9-E. Is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Do you ever play Brandy on the show? Maybe your first-timer. almost doesn't count.

I think it may be the exact song. I lose track of things. I swore we did a George Springer, believe it or not. That's why I texted you yesterday. I was going to just reuse it. But I came up my own. I know. I'm on the beach, on vacation.

Just trying to relax. Get blown up with these texts. I sent you one text. Yeah, I know. It was when you needed something. That's all right. Come on, Matt. You are off.

I am. Awful. That is one of the five worst things you've ever done. No, that's not true. I've done much worse. That's true. 1206 on the bat-tabashio with Ross. Almost doesn't count, Maddie. It does. Let's get to the news that do. You want to?

Yes. All right, let's do it. Rockets almost get the win, but they fall short. 125 to 124. A double overtime thriller. By the way, Matt Thomas in mid-season form, calls there, Matthew. I was pretty happy with my work. Again, you not being with me yesterday. You were missed. So it was four hours. I had a couple of guests, but it was long.

And then the double overtime, I said my go-to line is I need a cigarette. I don't smoke. But I definitely need a cigarette after the last night's game. That's for sure. Well, double overtime for Matt Thomas, double overtime for the players on the floor. Amen Thompson not finishing the game, Coach Ema Adoka saying on this show earlier today that it is just cramps. Overall, I thought he played pretty well, Matt. He was aggressive, but did not make a 3-0-4-7. But the story of the game, also, Alprin-Shingun, 39 points. Okay, we mentioned 5 of 8 from 3.

How about 10 of 11 from the free throw line for Al-Shingun, who struggled from both lines in his NBA career? Yeah. One game does not a season make, but encouraging as far as the shooting prowess of Al-Pi, looking to be bigger and better this season. He shot very well in the preseason from the free-threat. line. He did actually the first two months of last season

shot at about 75% and his percentages slowly decline as a season progressed. He finished short of 70% for the line. He's got to be, for as many times I think he's going to go to the free thawing, if for it to be a pivotal part of the Rockets offense, he's got to get to the 73, 74% range. And I think he'll do it. Hopefully. I mean, yeah, he was 75 at the beginning of last year and then he kind of fell off of a map. Fell off the map there. Rockets back in action. Home opener coming up this Friday

against the hated Detroit Pistons. The hated. Detroit Pistons. It's not like I'm trying to sell a little bit. I mean, there used to be a Jalen Green, Kate Cunningham kind of rivalry thing, but Jaylen Green is a Phoenix Sun now. By the way, if you miss the conversation with E. May Doca, we'll replay it for you coming

up at 1.30 today. So she's here to catch it. Yep. Coming up later there. All right, elsewhere in the news, did you see Roger Goodell's statements on the NFL's halftime show, Matthew? I did not. I'm, this is This is why we had the news at noon for things just like this. We know that there's been a lot of blowback.

People very upset that Bad Bunny, who is a Spanish-speaking entertainer and does Spanish-speaking music. Some people are not happy with that. You should put Lee Greenwood down there at halftime. Well, Roger Goodell says that ain't happening. Quote, he's one of the leading and most popular entertainers in the world. That's what we try to achieve. It's an important stage for us. It's an important element to the entertainment value.

It's carefully thought through. also said the league is accustomed to getting blowback for its entertainment choices, giving the size and breadth of its fan base. So no change to be made. Bad Bunny is your Super Bowl halftime show come February. So here's my general thought is that, again, no matter who you put out there, if 50% of the country is going to love it, if 50% of the country is going to hate it.

Generally, but generally, 99% of the country will watch it. So I don't know Bad Bunny. From what I've heard, it's not my cup of tea. but it is what it is. I'm not offended by it. If I don't want to watch it because I don't like him or I don't like the first two or three minutes, I've got something to do. I'm going to go get some food. Okay.

Get a drink. Maybe I'll call somebody. Maybe I'll call my mom see how I was you doing. You're probably not going to do that. Half time of Super Bowl. I mean, it's thought. I guess you could count. All right, keeping with the NFL, the Pro Bowl festivities. Of course, there is no more Pro Bowl game. Is moving to Super Bowl week

beginning this February as now the flag football game that it was changed to a couple of years ago and all the other stuff. Roger Ginell announcing that change Wednesday in the league's annual fall owners meeting, talking about how they spent a lot of time evolving the Pro Bowl and how to make it better.

So it is moving to the week of the Super Bowl. It'll be on Tuesday night February 3rd in San Francisco. Don't care, won't watch. And remember, there's been one person out there that has been asking you for basically a decade, just say no to the Pro Bowl. Well, that's not a real Pro Bowl anyways.

And by the way, every time I say that every year, the ratings are good. The ratings are good. I don't know. The NFL is king, no matter what they do. It just ends up, whatever they touch turns to gold. A couple of other NFL notes, Matthew. You have Jaden Daniels out versus the Chiefs on Monday night

for the Washington commanders, Marcus Marriota, getting another start for them. Unfortunately, I think the bigger issue right now is the injury on the Houston Texan side of things. The injury report today will have an update on one Nico Collins. That will be an interesting one because yes, he did leave the game Monday. I'll see Jay Stroud feeling as well. He was getting banged up in that game. He's like I got a piss-bore offensive line in front of me.

It wasn't working so long. Taking 18-yard sacks. One and a half-point favorites at home against San Francisco 49ers. I always want to say Giants, even when it's football. I know. And by the way, the New York Football Giants, they've always been the New York football giants. Yes.

The baseball team has been the New York baseball giants in 60 years. I don't know if you've noticed. Also on the Rotten 5, I like to say New York Football Jets. Just because I don't know. Well, I call them the Jetrapolitans. There's no such thing as that. And elsewhere in quarterback news, Nimitz legend, Aaron Glenn, saying he knows

who the quarterback one will be, but he's keeping it close to the vest, Matt, for the Jets. The Bengals are quaking in their boots. Is it going to be Justin Fields or is it going to be Tarad Taylor? It doesn't. It doesn't matter who the quarterback is. To find out.

Apparently, Tarad Taylor day to day with a knee injury and Justin Fields has just been terrible. It's been pretty decent on fantasy for a couple of games. Had a few 30-point games. But as a practical matter on the field, the Jets have been awful.

And I would expect them to be number one in the Rotten 5 this week. As they are still the win-less team, in the National Football League. And that, my friends, the news at noon. All right, we're going to finally play some Domingo cuts here. Yes, for real this time. Organic, we're going to get organic reactions of what we hear.

We'll play two or three things here. By the way, no World Series till Friday? Not a little much? Don't you think if you're the Dodgers, they're like, hey, man, the Blue Jays get all, they went to Game 7 and they get all these days off? So Game 7, they get to set their rotation, too. So Game 7 was Monday. What would have Game 7 been in the Brewer Series, Dodgers?

have been Tuesday. Maybe Tuesday? I don't know. I'm going to have to disagree with you and say that you not necessarily need the time off. I think logistically, you've got a lot of moving parts. I think that's the reason why they waited until then. It's baseball. Play every day.

But it is funny. And they do go do a good job in the postseason where it's wild card, day off right in the division series, day off, right in the championship. It's supposed to be the fall classic. And by the way, the Rockets game. next Wednesday, which is one week from today in Toronto, is being moved up an hour. Not because the Blue Jays Dodgers game is in Toronto. It's actually going to be in Los Angeles,

but they want everybody at home for their viewing pleasure. To be at the sports bars and whatnot. Also, by the way, did you talk much about the Shohei Otani performance? Oh, you mean the three for three and the complete game and all that good stuff? Yeah. Yeah. Well, he didn't complete game. Six innings.

Yeah. Six innings is a shutout ball, 10 strikeouts and three bomb. Greatest single performance ever in a postage game by one human being in two different spots, both offensively and defensively? It's got to be. Got to be? I mean, they're not a huge, a lot of people fighting for that. Is he the greatest athlete we've seen in our lifetimes?

May I'm all that over? Yes. Got a little bit of breaking news. I don't even think it's worthy of a sounder because we're just not a Giants baseball town. Yeah, you might as well. You know, hit the sounder one time. But I thought this was already done deep. Well, now it is.

Tony Vitello. You're like, Hey, Tony, but no, this is terrible. We cannot do it. You know what you're right. I'd like to apologize to everyone, sincerely. God, but don't, if you have a name of Tony Vitello, aren't you supposed to say Tony Vettaro's Italian eatery, right?

Right? Right? Yeah. I'm sorry. Here it comes, 30 seconds. A Tony Vettello. They get a greatest garlic breaded with the parmesan cheese on the top. Well, now he's going to the San Francisco Giants.

He's the Giants. manager. You're like, who the hell is Tony Vitello? Tennessee volunteers head coach. He goes from a coach to a manager. He's kind of a dude, bro, isn't he? I don't know much about, I mean, probably Gordy on sports knows. He's locked on SEC. He is locked on SEC.

That is as seismic of a jump as you possibly can make in sports. Not saying the college baseball coaches don't know what they're doing. Doesn't mean they can't manage. But it's a completely different sport. It's a completely different sport. You're talking

about different bats 60 games oh by the way different bats you're talking about using pitchers for 148 pitches per game yeah he's he's gonna throw his verlander back with the giants yeah well no yeah he's got one of your okay uh he's gonna throw him out there for about 158 pitches old school

style just you're going seven in 15 whatever's first I'm trying to look at his yeah he has no major league experience as a coach he was saying no gordy was saying he's the first coach like ever to have no major league experience as an assistant anywhere

and to make the leap. I mean, let me give you some comps. MLB manager. Going from coaching a women's college basketball team and an NBA team. Maybe. Going from coaching an FCS football team to an NFL team. I'm trying to see where his playing career was. He played at Missouri.

and yeah, he didn't play in the minors or majors at all. Now, hmm, wow, he's 47 years old too. He looks young. Looks pretty solid. It looks good for a 47-year-old. SEC coach of the year in 22, World Series, college World Series in 24. And he's going to be the manager of the San Francisco Giants. Tell me the Milwaukee manager has got to.

an interesting path too. Am I right about that? Oh, what's his name? Milwaukee Brewer's Manager. Give me a second. I'll think about it. Pat Murphy. What is his background? Wasn't his background in college coaching too? Okay. He's 66 years old. I'm looking at his Wikipedia.

Pat Murphy. No. He was the well, before that he was a Padres. Oh, he does a guy, I guess. Yeah, he was the ASU head coach in 1995. Okay. He left in 2009 at Arizona State. But he did play four years in the minors. And he was on the Padres staff.

He was a special assistant to the baseball operations between 2010 and 2015. And he was the interim manager as well when Bud Black got fired. And then the bench coach for Craig Counsel when Craig Counsel left to go for. So at least he had had a little bit of work in the major league systems. But yeah, he was a longtime college coach too, very successful. He was the interim manager for 96 games in Padres for the Padres. in 2015. Man, they said Bud Black, you're out pretty quick.

96 games as the interim? Is Bud Black still the manager of the Rockies? He didn't like that. Poor Bud Black. Major League record, 60 wins and 44 losses. Yeah, he was the manager of the Padres, Bud Black, and then the manager of the Rockies for

almost eight, nine years. Expectations are low. You're going to go get beat up. Make a million dollars. Living in Denver. And he's been the manager in San Diego in Denver. It's not bad. Yeah. Summers in San Diego and Denver. Yeah. Could be worse.

But black, you live in a good life. Making a lot of money. Your team sucks. You're not longer going to be a manager anywhere else. Maybe working in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Millions and millions and millions to just watch the Padres and the Rockies lose. Yeah. But you spend your summers in some good towns. You do. All right. So Tony Novello is that we're pronouncing it? Vitello. Vitello.

Vitello? Are we going to do him, believe it or not today? No. All right. What is believe it or not today? Is my back on that? It's good having you back, by the way. You know what? I'm going to take a week off.

No, you already get your time off. I've suspended myself. Believe it or not. I'm going to get you some more suspension time. 7-13-212-5-7-90. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-70. Oh, by the way, we know this real quick. And we were supposed to get the...

I swear to God we're going to play some Dimeco sound bites because it's going to really irritate. Oh, for real this time. But we're going to, we only have a minute left. I want to do it to tell the truth for the day. Oh, okay. I was pretty proud of this. Okay. When you say, John, that we did, I did a pretty good job, although, how many do you believe?

We did have a bunch of winners. Did we know? I think we did. Yeah, we're actually out of Judas Priest tickets because of that. Oops. Breaking the law. Dude, they're coming here every three months. Is it a Judas Priest on a loop?

It's like we give it away Judas Priest every five minutes. Yeah, it's bad. I got to find it. We did it on Monday, right? Yes. All right. promote your, I hate to do this. Yeah.

Go ahead, promote it. Give me a follow on Instagram. Now, I've been putting a lot of content. I'm kind of staying, kind of staying the low profile on the internet due to, due to certain events. Yes. But yeah, you know what I would appreciate. A lot of you all followed me on my time off and I got a lot of encouraging messages. I really appreciate y'all.

You can do so at Sports RV on Instagram. You can follow me on Twitter there as well. Yeah, I'm going to try to slap some more content on there. Actually today. You're going to make it with one of those really weird background? screens and stuff? Why is it really weird to you? Because your head is so basic. No, it is not. It's less than a third of the picture.

I don't understand how you. No, I understand. Never mind. You know, I'm going to be nice to you. You know, a lot of people. You know, right? Here we go. Real quick, to tell the truth. But you know what? Get that to tell the truth. I'm ready to go here. John, I get that to tell the truth. Oh, my gosh. Hurry up. It's such a nice, nice, 1968 jam.

You didn't hear this, right? No, I was. You should have been listening. I didn't listen to a second of the show. I apologize to me multiple times. I'm sure it was great. I saw a lot of tweets about how great the show was. What?

I did. You did not. No, I didn't see any tweets. I'm not being me. Well, there were some complaints. Okay, here we go. There are too many good jobs. This is three truce, one lie.

There are too many good jobs out there for Nick Saban to stay in television. He needs to get back into coaching. Okay. There's Florida. Probably going to be Florida State. There's one lie? One lie, three truths. Okay.

Monday night doubleheaders. stagger games are dumb, single games on Monday night are plenty. Okay, that's number two. Hold on. Sabin. I'm writing this down. Yep. Monday night double-h headers and stagger games are dumb. Single games are plenty on Monday night. Number three, I think LeBron will not let Kevin Durant be the all-time NBA sour leader. LeBron's going to keep playing until he pulls away from Kevin Durant to be the all-time earner in NBA history.

And number four, the Texans need to trade for a running back before the trade deadline. Okay, you don't believe one of these? I don't believe one of those. Which one of the form I lying to you? Number one. You win. Oh, bad you called it too. Sorry.

Just look at disappointment on your face. It was disappointed. Because I thought they were pretty good, but then people caught on like, yeah, Nick Simon is staying television. Nick Simon doesn't want to get an NIL game. It's too dastardly. It just is. Yeah. I mean, I think LeBron's going to stay, but I mean, perhaps passing Durant will be somewhat of a motivating factor,

but he's going to get destroyed by Devin Booker. Devin Booker came at the right time of the Supermax. Do you see Devin Booker's like fourth all time? He's like 28. That's nuts. Yeah. He's got no shot. I mean, I like Devin Booker is going to make like a billion.

I'm not even joking. A billion dollars. Yeah, he is. Yeah. All right. 713, 212, 579. If you want to jump into the conversation, 713-212-579. And yes, Ross, we have, believe it or not today coming up at 150.

If you missed our conversation with EMA Addoca, we're going to replay it for you coming up at about. at about 1.30 this afternoon, right now. All right, as promised, we'll get to some rocky conversation coming up below because we had a great game last night. But we've got to play a couple of sound bites, and you and I are going to organically respond to some of the things that I think some Texans fans are quite upset with. This is yesterday late because the Texans didn't not get into Houston to like 6 o'clock in the morning because they had to play the West Coast game, long flight from Seattle. Yeah, it is a long flight. That's Seattle, Houston fly. That kicks your ass.

A Portland Houston flight kicks my ass. That's true. The Great Northwest. It's beautiful up there, though. Once you finally get there. It's too far. It's gorgeous. Imagine if you were a Portland Trailblazer fan.

I mean, all the extra miles you have to fly. We fly a lot, but thankfully, we're in the central part of the country, so we get to, nothing's too far either direction. That's true. Fair. How to shut up? Fairly centrally located. back into the swing of things

hitting my knee on stuff in here. Sorry to see you. Sorry for that. Go ahead. Get to this because we've got to get to this. Okay, yes. Let's listen to some stuff here. DeMiko, Ryan's. What's going on with the offensive slow starts? Yeah, for us, as collectively as a team,

like we have to do our jobs. If we expect to win, we have to do our job, not offensive, it was just on the offense, but it's all three phases. Guys have to do their job, and we have to do it at a high level. So that's the main. reason. We didn't play up to the standard. We didn't execute how we needed to execute to win a game.

There you go. We got to do our jobs. We got to execute. You know what it's happening? Nicky C. is getting into the word salad world with Domeco. I mean, Domingo's been a coach-speak guy, though, since he really has. I like him. He's been very vanilla coach-speak, do our job, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Mm-hmm. I mean, I mean, I understand.

you don't want to sensationalize. You don't want to make headlines and all that type of stuff. He's certainly, he's a player's coach, so he's not going to call anybody out for the most part. Just say we all got to do our jobs. Okay, well, right now the job's not being done. By the offensive line,

D'Amico Ryan's on those folks. I think the most frustrating thing for me is things we've covered, things we've worked and practiced and we get into the game, and it's not getting done. We're doing something different. We're doing things that we're not coached to do.

That's the most frustrating. thing. You know what? That's actually, that's not so vanilla. That's not doing things we're being coached to do. That's, hey, Kami, kick the ball out of the stadium. Yeah. Well, yeah, that question was specifically on the offensive line. That sounds like complacency if you ask me. Oh, don't get that, get that word out of your mouth. Stop thinking about that word. By the way, do you want the weekly offensive line rankings, Matt. You know I do. From our folks at pro football focus. We get any more on from Nemeco first? Yeah, we can do a little more. How about C.J. Stroud? Are you seeing some improvement from him.

CJ has to do a better job of running the offense, right? Getting the ball out when it's supposed to be out. Everybody around them has to play better. He has to play better. Just all around. It's not about just one person that's collectively play better, and he falls in that same category as well. Yeah, there you go.

I got one for you. Oh, go ahead. This is a fairly hot-taking moment for me here. I love it. Bring it. I think CJ was largely responsible for the firing of Bobby Sloick. I think he, I could just about, yeah, guarantee he gave part of the his blessing. So CJ goes to Domingo and says, I need a new OC.

And he goes like, okay, you know, Bobby's my guy, but I'll do it because you're my franchise. guys. And his development hasn't been any better that he's going like, you know what? I protected you once. You're not playing well. I'm going to tell the world about it.

Now, is that a hot takey? Or is that a reasonable deduction? I don't know that D'Amico's doing that necessarily, but it hasn't been good from anybody. And just going and getting your John Carroll buddy slash Patriots buddy,

Nick Casario, getting Nick Cayley. By the way, my gut feeling yesterday, I don't have Nick Assyria losing his job at any point, even if they don't make the playoffs, that I think the Texans, you ready for this? This is my gut. This is gut feelings. Nicky C keeps his job for one more year.

The Texans let Kaylee go, and they go get a guy like Mike McDaniel once he gets fired from Miami. Damn, one year for Mr. John Carroll, Nick Cayley. Of course, I could see all of that. it depends on how the rest of the season goes.

I mean, if they start really falling apart, honestly, you've got three home games coming up with the Niners, Broncos, and Jags, you could lose all three of those games. You really could. If you're sitting there, everybody's job is on the line in the NFL, basically at any time.

Well, I said this a week ago. I think you had to go three and one to get back in the race for the division. I don't know. I lost the one. I think the vision is done. The vision is done. You're home for the night.

You could beat the cults twice. You can do that. You could, but are you going to? You've won Indianapolis before. They have, but the cults are miles better than you right now. I understand. I understand. This, bringing up this offensive line rankings,

29 for the Texans, the culture number one on this list. Oh, did you just, did you just slip that in? Yeah. They were 29th last week. They were 29th this week. They didn't get worse? Well, the teams behind them are the Bengals and the Dolphins of Brigh. See, Dostrad does not agree with this PFF grade.

Well, Bingles Dolphs of Browns are. pretty terrible too. Those are the teeth behind them. Lordy, Lordy, Lordy. That's who you're lumped in with right now. Not good. And they're just behind the Raiders. So, poor Ashton Genty. Got like 30 yards last week.

Did he really? I don't even know. He's, well, he's got the 28th offensive line. Things haven't been going well for him. From a yard for Kerry's standpoint. But anyways, yeah, I'll just get one more because this was a question we were talking about rotating the guards for the Houston Texans. Yeah, for us rotating both of those guys

is a matter of just felt like when those guys rotated and we had a better situation than left guard. That's the reason behind him. What? Huh? What? They're trying to find somebody. You know what they say when you have two left guards, you don't really have one?

That is correct. It's just, it kind of doesn't matter who goes out there. Lakin Tomlinson was just a kind of a guy and Juice Scruggs continues to not develop. Massive failings by your general manager. Yes. So I'm going to miss.

Talent assessment. It could be his scouts. It could be somebody pulling on his ear and saying, hey, this is the can't miss guy. But roster construction, at the end of the day, the general manager has to answer for it. Just like Danny Brown has to answer, just like Raffleson has to answer for it.

I mean, general managers create the roster. Your second round picks, if you take second round picks on the offensive line, at minimum, they're supposed to be solid starters. Almost from day one. And Arionte, Ersore has been a starter from day one, not because they necessarily he deserved it, but because they've needed him to do it.

And he's going through typical rookie growing pants, right? He's been, yeah, he's been struggling. It's not been great for him. And he's had some tough assignments, and on the road it's getting worse, but, and it doesn't help. You're supposed to build chemistry with your left guard. That's another thing. You want to stabilize and make things easier with your left tackle,

and one way you do that is you give him the guy next. to him every snap that they can build chemistry and be on the same page with as well. Passing off stunts and knowing who's picking up who and all that type of stuff. If you got to look to your right and figure out who's your left guard at every other series, that's not conducive for success. It's not a good situation for him. All right. And he's not looking like, I mean,

tackles can struggle or in their career and figure things out. So you're not saying this is his career is over or anything like that, but it's obviously not been a good start. All right. So there you go. There's Domeco. One possession games most weeks. Got to get better.

CJ's got to get better. I've got to get better. The team's got to get better. But really, I mean, they got a gift. Not a gift. Will Anderson earned the pressure and the touchdown and stuff like that. Not a gift, but I mean, that's a good balance. The football could have gone anywhere.

It could have been a safety. Like, you got lucky in a way to get that touchdown that you got. Yeah, because if Sam Darnel would have held on the ball like a responsible human being and just taking it to your point. Right. All right, 1243 on Sports Talk 790. There are so many heroes of mine as a kid that have weird Twitter accounts. And somebody just put out one of my childhood heroes put out a weird tweet. And I'll tell you who it is and I'll read it for you verbatim next.

1243, Matt Thomas Show at Ross. We've got, believe it or not today at 150. Before that, if you miss our conversation with EMA Adoka, we'll have it for you at 130. It's Sports Talk 790 at 713-212-5-790. 1047 this morning on the Twitterverse that is known as X at Magic Johnson. I don't follow him. It's on the 4-U tab a lot. And remember, I was never a Laker fan growing up, but I loved Magic Johnson.

I mean, was one of my all-time favorite players. I was a kid that grew up during the Lakers, Celtics, back and forth, NBA finals. I mean, a guy plays four positions. Actually, five of you count. He played center in 80 finals, but could play five different positions. One of the greatest point guards of all time, six foot nine. Great personality. You know, overcame, you know, his illness, I guess, and been living in a very productive life,

multi-billionaire because of all the things he's done. But he's just odd on Twitter. A lot of times, Captain Obvious on Twitter. case and point 1047 this morning I went to the Lakers game last night and watched my Lakers get beat by the Warriors 119 to 109

Thank you Wait that's it That's it What Did he accidentally You know sometimes you accidentally hit post In the middle of typing Do you do that?

It's his account It's well verified It doesn't necessarily mean anything But Did you see his follow up? I did not The Golden State Superstars put on a performance. Jimmy Butler had 31 points and Curry added 23.

But Laker superstar Luca Donchitz stole the show with 43 points, 12 rebounds, and nine assists in a losing effort. Is somebody writing it? Is he writing a recap for the AP? What was that? Two days ago, to my Dodgers, it's time to get back to work, lock out the noise, remember no distractions and focus on having a good week of practice and preparation for Game War of the World Series. Yeah. It's just odd. He's just odd on Twitter.

Crazy. You don't know this. You know, he had a late night talk show for a while. I do know that. Failed. Well, that's not that long of a while. I mean, it didn't last very long. Fox, right?

I think it was called the Magic Show, right? Or the Magic Hour or something? He's, you know, he's really gregarious. If Magic walked in here right now and sat down, I would be a, I'd be a silly putty. Yeah, the magic hour. June to September, 1998. That was quick.

It was on Fox, right? Yeah, Fox. Fox tried a lot of different stuff. Yes, they did. Early Fox, like early 90s Fox? They would do anything. They had put anything on TV. You had 21 Jump Street.

You had Maryville Children, the Simpsons, and you had the Joan Rivers show. Yeah. But then they would do, like, like the glutton bowl and all this other stuff. Fox celebrity boxing. Fox really never became the Fox we know today until they got the NFL.

When they got the NFL in the early 90s, I don't think you were paying attention. Legitimized them. It rocked the sports world. Not the world. It rocked the broadcasting world. You're this Fox TV channels. You know, because you think about this.

ABC, CBS and NBC are on your 2, 9, 11, you know, 13. Like the numbers. Fox 49. It's not, you're not supposed to be carrying games. You're supposed to be carrying like repeats of old mama's families. You know what I mean? And they were doing that.

They were doing that. And all of a sudden, Fox 49 became your home of the NFL, NFC football. And that's when you started to see news departments. I mean, everything, this just shows you how impactful sports television is. And we're talking about 30 plus years ago. You go from that, from carrying mama's family and I Dream a Jeannie to Carrying Sunday NFL double-hhhhhers. And not only did they do that, they went and got Pat Summerall and John Mandeby their number one team. They went and got this young broadcaster named Joe Buck to work

their lower tier games. They had Kenny, I mean, all the, had all the sons. They had Tom Brennman doing games. Kenny Albert was doing games. A young guy named Kevin Harlan was doing, was doing his first national games. The power of the NFL, but it's just, Irvin, you just and I'd call him magic. Like I said, I would, I would bow down to him. I just love him. But just really bizarre. He's Captain obvious on Twitter.

I hate to, he's got 8,500 likes, which is nice. Michael J. Babcock says, opening night, but magic in midseason tweeting form. That's pretty good. Mo Eager says, I remain on this app almost solely for these tweets. Great stuff.

LMO, perfect tweets, no notes. A lot of folks were asleep, so I give him a pass on this one. Rividing stuff. Great tweet. Wow, what amazing insight. You're rude. You might have to suit up. That's funny. That is true. That is true.

Let's talk to our buddy Stunna on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. If you want to join the conversation, you may do so at 713-212-5-790. 713-212-5-7-90. My screen is frozen, so I would like you to hit line number one and say hi to our buddy Stena. Hi, Stena. What's going on? What's going on, Matt? Hey, man, it was a pretty crazy gang last night.

Pretty crazy. Yeah, man, but when did Shigoon turn into Dirknerveski shooting three? Because I was like, don't know what a did he made a couple. I felt a little at ease, but you know I am about Shogun already. And, and then Kevin Durrett looked like he was 40, not 37. He looked like he was 40. And then at point guard situation, oh, man, when they brought a shepherd in, man, OKC started licking their chops like, oh, we know what we go with this ball.

Because, I mean, I thought Sheper was a lot taller. no man they they they they took it to him real fast man we gotta find us a point guard man we don't have one not at all well thank you stona thank you stona they're gonna give reed every opportunity remember this is a team that was supposed to have fred running point and then having reed shepherd play some backup minutes or perhaps having them in thompson shift over i think men's got work to do as a point guard I think there was a lot of times the offense got into their rhythm way too late. I mean, there were how many times Rossi last night were there less than five on the shot clock before the rocket took their first shot? Yeah, and a lot of times, I mean, thankfully you have the guy that you can just can bail you out of bad possessions in Kevin Durant.

And he did that a number of times last night. But yes, everybody's ball handling needs to be better. And we talk with the coach you doco. We'll hear this coming up in the next hour. And he talked about how, yes, yes, Oklahoma City is very physical. they get up into your space and they make it difficult, especially when you have guys. I mean, look, it's natural.

It's physics. When you have somebody who is like Kevin Durant and it's tall as they are, when you have a seven-footer, you're not going to be the same kind of ball handler as somebody who's 6-2. You're just not. That's just natural.

That's, it's physics. Now, it is nice that Shengu can bring it up. It's nice that Durant can and amend Thompson. But yes, look, gang, you're going to miss Fred Van Bland. And I know the people don't want to admit that, but you're going to miss him. And it's going to take some time to transition.

And frankly, from a roster construction, if things don't work out with read and or men, split in time of the point, they can do something after the, I think, at the turn of the calendar. But for the first two months of the season, this is what we're going to see. So hopefully it works out.

And again, you're playing one of the best defensive teams in baseball, basketball. Yes. Aaron Wiggins and Kays and Wallace were up in their, and Lou Doors can't shoot for the world. but man, he can defend. Well, he's last night, but yeah.

Yeah, he finished fourth and defensive player of the year. Lou Door. He was first team all NBA defense. So yes, you did play a team that is great

at forcing turnovers, but also you just have the simple dribbling it off of your foot and dribbling into guys when you're just going a little bit out of control. So they need to play a little bit

more in control. It is going to get easier when you're not on the road playing against a defense that is great as the Oklahoma City. We even mentioned Chad Holgren. I mean, that guy in his wings train. Strange last night.

He hits the first, what, seven baskets. Then he goes like two and a half quarters not making one. And then he steps up in the fourth quarter makes a bunch of shots. Yeah, but he's got wings. Wingspan and length is what he has as well. So everybody's going to get into passing lanes when it comes to the Oklahoma City Thunder. So 22 turnovers again or did it end up being 24 or whatever it was, team turnovers. Way too many.

It's not going to be like that. I don't think every single night. But we saw this last year. There were games that Fred Van Vleet missed, and you're searching for a ball handler. You're searching for a guy who can get you in offense and a guy who has a great assist to turnover ratio. You're going to miss him. We understand that. We saw it in the first night.

713-212-5-7-90. Those of you on hold do not go anywhere. We're going to get to you the top of the hour. We've got the conversation with EMA Adoka. We're going to play for you at 130. Ross, what is today's edition of Believe it or not at 150? Tony, what's his name? Tony Sakamano

Tony Vitello Tony Vitello We'll do preliminary research You know sometimes when we're choosing a topic We're like Can I find enough about this guy We'll do

We'll get the research team on it All right What do they call it exploratory We're going to do We're going to do I see how I saw you See how you would do on that too I thought I was pretty proud of myself

Oh you did it Oh you did Yeah We'll see how you do Playing the game Okay I already won I know

That didn't take long There was like five seconds You didn't even think about it. Yeah, I should have slow-playing it. Make you feel a little better. I feel terrible. I'm so disappointed. Somebody on Twitter just sent me a note

that Irvin and Magic Johnson doesn't run his account all the time. It says, this is from at drop the top pod. Magic doesn't run his account all the time, L of L. He said it before in a pod. I got news for you. If I've got

SportsMT, which is my account, and I got somebody running it, I'm going to make sure that we're on the same page 100% of the time. I'm never allowing something on my Twitter account that wouldn't be something I wouldn't personally say. I mean, that one has to be for magic. Who else is putting that out there? I went to the Laker.

What social media manager in 2025 is saying, yeah, I went to the Lakers game last night and watched my Lakers get beat by the Warriors, 119 to 109. If you are basically a billionaire, which magic is, right? That's true, yes.

So you can hire really smart social media people. You're not hiring a freshman at Cal State Fullerton to do it. You know what I mean? Unless it's like a family member who's just running his account and just putting the most obvious... No. No. No.

No, no, no, no, no. You're Irvin Magic Johnson. You have 5.1 million... You're not letting your kids run the account. Apparently, according to Forbes, worth $1.5 billion. Yeah. Are his movie theater still around? I've not seen them. No. No. What's he making his money on? He's a part owner of the Dodgers and the commanders.

That's enough right there. First of all. I don't know what else he's got, but yeah. So Shaq is doing very well in the endorsement category. He's making more money. Oh, Shaq's going to be a billionaire if he's not already. For anything he's done on the court. He's in everything. next sports owner of a team that is a athlete? Gotta be LeBron, right? LeBron's already a billionaire.

I'm talking about LeBron trying to get into sports ownership. Yeah, he's part owner of Liverpool. And part owner of something else, I think. I think he's going to be the one that's going to lead an expansion franchise. Maybe. And if he's smart, he'd put it in Las Vegas. Okay, he owns a, he owns,

part of the Finway Sports Group, which has bought the Red Sox and Liverpool. Okay. LeBron. Let me tell you, if you all have some extra money sitting around, sports ownership is where it's at. He's an owner in the electric boat racing series? How's that do?

I don't know. Oh, Rausch Finway racing? That's, uh, yeah. That's F1, right? I'd buy, you know what I would do? I'd buy sports teams and I'd buy horses. Because the rate of return on a Kentucky winter, derby winter horse?

And horses are a tax write-off too, right? For sure. Horses are tax write-offs? I don't know cows are. Cow has horses. Who's cow? Cal are bringing near? Cows.

Cows. I know cows. Oh, cows are right-offs? Yeah. Wait, wait, what? It's like cattle, though, right? Yeah, yeah. I don't think he's got an early.

He might be a cattle rancher. Like, no one ran. No natural beef. Cows, horses. Yeah. Or cows, cows, cows. I like that. Put a shirt on that.

Yeah. Do you think cows walking up from the, long trip from Seattle yet? I think he's still in his jammies? I got no comment. Okay. I'm telling you, I've made enough apologies.

Somebody did not like that flight home, and it wasn't cow. He was sleeping like a baby. Hannah was pissed off. She's run up and down the aisles. Where's the Kami Fairbairn? Kick the ball out of bounds. D'Amico, what the hell are you doing running third and one and fourth? Who is this Nick Cayley?

I want to meet him. Now, he's in the cargo section. Dave on 790 at 107. Dave, good afternoon. Thank you for holding. Hey, I appreciate the time, M.T. I'd tell you last night's game, I thought NBC did a fantastic job, knocked it out of the park. And I was thrilled with the way they brought the entire show along.

And I was thoroughly exhausted when it was all said and done after two overtimes. I don't know how you pulled it off. You did a great job yourself, too. Thank you. Yep. I was going to say we were talking about the point. point guard situation earlier, and forgive me for being a complete and total homer and supporting everything Houston, but, well, I just figured, why don't they make a call up to Toronto and call

and try to bust a move and a trade here and get Jamal shed down here? I mean, I think he would fit in the system so well with how hardcore coach is about defense and everything else, and we know he's a heck of a point guard. And I know you said it could be a couple months before they make any move, but I just think he'd be a great fit. And I know that's the homer in me, but you got any thoughts on that? I've not seen Jamal play enough to say that he would automatically be a significant improvement. Played 75 games last year,

shot 40% from the floor that's not great for a guard, 32% from 3, good assist numbers, turnover is better than 2 to 1, 2.5 to 1, so that's good. You know what, I'll see him next week because the Rockets are playing in Toronto. A little undersized Ross hit 6-1. I don't know.

I don't have, I can't give you. I love them as a college player, clearly, Dave, but I don't know if he's done enough at the NBA level. That's all. I mean, I just have it incomplete. I've been breaking down a whole bunch of Raptors tape, unfortunately. Yeah, and I don't think Toronto has either. Thank you for the phone call, Dave.

I appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah, the rockets are kind of not necessarily stuck. They created this roster for a reason. Their hands are tied behind their back for a couple months. They are. I mean, you can say basically. They're hard-capped.

They're hard-capped. So there's got to be some, you've got to send money back the direction. And what are you going to... What if you're... Again, I don't know. Is Jamal Shet considered to be a starting guard for them this year? They're going to get some...

Some improvement from the guys they have. They're going to have to look for internal growth. So what they're going to have to do. I didn't think Reed Shepard looked terrible. He was all right. He was aggressive. I'm not a huge fan of his fate away. jumpers, I think he's got to lean into the shots

to compare to more of the fadeaway trying to separate him. Maybe that's because of the again, Oklahoma City Thunder they're they're interruptors. They're putting hands in their face. They're not going to make it easy for you. You're going to get very few open looks.

I think all at all, I mean, they looked every bit as they didn't look like they didn't belong in the court. Obviously, they went to double overtime. But I'm saying like it looked like This is a back and forth battle. It looked like two evenly matched teams.

If you play that game 10 times, the Rockets can win five of those. I would hope. Yeah. Sent loose with Jaylon Williams out. With Jaylon Williams out, it'll be different, obviously. Well, that's true. That's another option. That is true.

Yeah. But let's be brutally honest, they were playing on championship night in a hostile building that is sold out in full and screaming and yelling. They handled their own. They handled their business. They should have won. They had a couple of opportunities to win. You know what is interesting.

Are we going to hear much about, this Kevin Durant timeout thing? I don't think so. Because, you know, Mark Daynoss, maybe. Who's the coach of the Thunder said, I let the officials know how I felt about it. And he was very, very polite after he says, they know how I feel.

Those are good officials. He didn't say they admitted a mistake or whatever. He just said, I told him how I felt, meaning he probably MF them. And then he said, we're done with it. We're going to go finish the game. and they did and they won. But I think the point we were talking about earlier is that officials go through a variety of scenarios

about time on the clock, where to put the ball if a team calls a timeout, and since he knew, I'm presuming the three officials knew that they didn't have any timeouts that no one would call a timeout. Because let's face it, we had the Chris Weber, Michigan problem. Everybody should know, yeah.

That was 30 plus years ago. That was the first thing, that was the first thing that was the first thing I thought and it was the first thing Reggie Miller said. Miller said too. So you're telling me something like that happens once every 30 years? The officials are probably going to think about it. But I do believe there was a huge part of me. And I remember calling and going, uh-oh, I think I said, oh, no, 10 times. I don't know. Do we have the audio of me saying? I don't know if I have it. I don't think so, but I was really, really scared.

Which play? When Durant got the rebound and they called for a timeout. I don't think we have it. I don't think we have it. I think we do, but hold on. Oh, you can look for it. Let me find it. We've got to take a break. Point being is this, I was really afraid that it was going to end the game that way. And that would have not been the way to open up a season with a technical foul.

I was sitting there watching and saying, this is a technical foul. It should have been. The call of me talking about that last play. Now, I tried, you can't be silent because you're the one calling the game. But I did like five a-ohs. Because I was waiting to see you exactly if the team was going to be called or what. because the bench for Oklahoma City was losing their mind. The 18,000 people in the building were losing their mind.

The rockets are like, nothing to see here. So here is how the game ended. It was at the end of first overtime, right? Yes. This is where I was deathly afraid I was going to call off a rocket loss via the technical foul. Caruso on the inbound. Shangoon guards him to SGA, Base. line right with three a long shot is an airball Durant doesn't have a timeout oh oh oh oh oh oh

oh Mark dangold says Kevin Durant single for a timeout everybody off the bench oh Kevin's got his hands together calling for the timeout I told you that Rockets didn't have one. Zach Zarba is now having to explain it to Mark Dagnol. Uh-oh. Caught a break. Yeah, you should clip one of those uh-ohs. Uh-oh. Maybe a couple.

I didn't mean to do five, but I was shell-shocked. I thought they were going to call. I never called a game where a timeout was called when they didn't have one. I thought that they, dude, it was everybody. It was Kevin Durant, but it was Jabari Smith Jr. and I'm in Thompson, too. I thought they were going to lose on a technical foul. And they're like, ah, I'm nothing to see here.

It's first night on NBC. Let's go ahead and play this thing out. Could you imagine if we're doing OKC Raider today and the rockets would have beaten the thunder? How pissed all people would have been. That'd been nice. But unfortunately, they lost. See, as I'm saying.

All's where that ends well, I guess. And I'm going to go find Adam Klan. These things even out. I tell him this all the time. Go find him. I'm going to go find him. It'd be on at 2 o'clock. The A team.

Right? Yeah. They're still on okay. Yeah, yeah. Just making sure. You do that check. Let's go to Scott on 7.98-1-21. Hi, Scott.

Matt, Ross, what's going on, guys? I just wanted to, what's up? What's up? I just wanted to call and say, so last night's game, I know we lost, but what a basketball game. And from my perspective, after watching, you know, not only the Texans on Monday, but really, I feel like we have not seen a Houston team. play at a high level since the Dodger series back on July 4th.

And it was just so refreshing to watch what even though we lost, to watch us go play OKC, you know, pound for pound. I leave that game saying, with our defensive talent and alone, we are a top three team in the NBA, it was just refreshing to watch that we were play. It felt like we were playing a very high level game. And God, I did not leave.

that game feeling bad about the Rockets. It almost felt like we won. I know moral victories aren't a thing, but it just left me very excited about the season and just how much fun they're going to be to watch. I don't know what what y'all's take is.

I hope you're right. Here's the crazy part, Scott, is that the type of game that we got last night is what excellent semifinal and finals basketball is like in the conference at the NBA level. Those are those types of games I want to see in a regular basis

like in six months. It was fun and interesting that it was game one. And maybe the Rockets win some of those games that they don't get like that. Other times that the game was in Houston, maybe things would have changed. But we should all get accustomed to it. For those that have left the game of the NBA,

for whatever reason, whether it's a futility, whether it's the 3&D, whether it's just, you've got other time to spend. Last night, but the way the NBC folks presented the broadcast from what most people were saying, and the excellence in basketball on both sides is a reason why people should go back to the NBA, and especially the Houston Rockets, because we're going to get a lot of nights like that, and hopefully more on the winning side than losing side.

I agree, and I was born in the 90s, so I didn't get to watch the NBA on NBC or I didn't get to remember it. That theme song is, you know, it gave me chills a little bit, kind of like when they were going into the game. I wish they did that one part of the highlight that they used to do where they had like little highlights of the play. players while the NBC logo pulled up. That would have been cool, cool too. But, yeah, I guess if we are going to nitpick, you know, how we can improve, obviously we didn't win the game. And I noticed this in the preseason as well, too.

In the half court without, you know, Van Fleet, we have got to find a way to get Durant the ball in an easier way. It felt like trying to solve the DaVinci Code sometimes. You got to give some credit to Lou Dort and OKC with that. But I did feel like I noticed that in the preseason as well where, I mean, he is just, there's not a very fluid way to get him the basketball yet. And when you do get him the ball, you know, he's so good at scoring in the mid-range. But I'm sure that'll come. A man in Reed are only going to get better offensively as the season goes on.

And the defense and the hustle and the energy was just an absolute blast to watch. But make sure Mike McCall. Thanks, God. I appreciate it. Yeah, I got great news for you. There are a lot of good teams in the NBA. There aren't 20 Oklahoma cities out there. Don't worry.

And also, Lou Dord just did a great job of being physical with Kevin Durant and try to keep him off of his spots and being physical and basically pushing him out towards the three-point line where they didn't want to get him. And even when he did get the ball, I mean, just basically in his kitchen and making it difficult for him to move and operate at all. He's an elite defender. Yes. Elite.

scoring wise take as many three as you want. No, last two years he's been four around 40%. The ball left his hand horribly last night. He was 0 for 8 last night. Last two years he's been around 40% though. He's improved. Oh, he's an undersized forward who can shoot? Yeah.

Last night, not so much. Three and day, baby. Dave on 790. Hi, Dave. Hey, good afternoon, guys. Hey, Matt, I called in a couple weeks ago. It was a gut feeling and I told you that I thought Jabari Smith was going to kind of break out this year. And you agree

to me. Yeah. And watching last night, I just feel it even more so. I mean, every year he comes back, he's so young, he's a little less willowy every year. He does a lot of good things out there, you know, with the rebound and the shot blocks, he's got a good shot. I just, you know, there's only

so many, you know, he can only give the ball to so many guys. You got KD out there, you got Alpi out there, you got Ahmet out there, but I wish they ran a little offense for Jabari, because I mean, I just think he I don't know. I'm a big Jabari guy.

I think, again, he's going to have a good year. And I'm really glad they didn't trade him in that Phoenix deal because I think Phoenix wanted him real bad. Absolutely did. Yeah, Phoenix was looking for, Amman, Thompson looking for Jabari Smith. They were looking for him on. Yeah.

And then, Rafael said, shut your boss up. You can't have him. Yeah. By the way, I want to make sure very clear about this. The Rockets are going to miss Dylan Brooks. Dylan Brooks would have been perfect last night for this team. Yeah.

and for eight jalen green had value for an 82 game 20 point per game store scorer yeah yeah but yeah jabari he he looked pretty good scoring made a couple of threes upper body looks stronger yeah he's gonna he the knock on him last year was he's basically turn around jump shot or catch and shoot three and that's it got to add some add a little diversity to his lineup he's been showing that in the preseason and a little bit it was a funny observation from mike terrico he mentioned at one point of the game's like everybody's wanting to show what they worked on in the offseason. And that's what kind of game one was like. Everybody's like, look, I can do this guys.

I can drive and Jabari Smith was doing that a little bit. So if he can be consistent and score a little bit more off the dribble, making some moves. And I mean, Thompson was doing the same thing, being aggressive in getting into the basket. Then that's going to be great. We just need to see a little bit more from him before I say that, you know, I mean Emoe Adokin needs to be running things through Jabarism Jr. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790. talking a lot of things in sports, including the Rockets' heartbreaking double overtime loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder last night.

Earlier in the show, we had Rockets Head Coach IMA Adoka, as we will every week. So I wanted to bring you guys some of that great conversation. So here is the coach starting off talking about the win that wasn't and how close they were, some things that went wrong and went right last night in Oklahoma City. Well, the opportunities that we had to win it and some of the things that we did well. early on that kind of got away from us in the second half and overtimes. So plenty of positives to take away from it. Opportunities to do it, but we did some things to lose it as well.

You know, a lot of folks will look at the stat sheet, and there's nothing more crazier for me as a sports broadcaster and a fan than to over-discuss something of one game because it's a body of work. But you're going to realize, and you know this, and I think hopefully good NBA fans know, you are going against one of the supreme defenses in the NBA, Casein Wallace and Aaron Wiggins and Lou Dort were not going to make it easy for you guys and you were able to still get some things that accomplished offensively, especially with the way Alpey was playing last night.

Yeah, yeah, they were top defense as far as forcing turnovers last year and making you play in the crowd. And we handled that really well early. I think, you know, in the first half we were really good. And then second half, overtime got away from us. And you have 24 turnovers and give up 26 points off those and, you know, barely lose. and have a chance to win, that's obviously going to stand out. And so some things we need to do better with spacing, playing with pace, and then just handling the pressure a little bit better.

You'll do a deeper dive on those turnovers, and that was obviously a huge part of the game. In your mind, as you watch it, it was some things you were doing offensively, that getting in rhythm in the offense that was troubling you, was it more of what Oklahoma City was doing in terms of intercepting passing lanes and the like? A little bit of both.

I think the pressure bothered some guys bringing up court, for sure. I know that was there, but then, you know, we have different outlets and different guys that can initiate. But from there, we have to, you know, set a good screen, set our guy up to take those denials away and get ourselves open. And they did a really good job of kind of choking away those passing lanes and taking us out of some sets. From there, you know, you want to keep it simple. We talk about hitting singles all night and make the simple pass and not playing the crowd. And sometimes he over-jurbled a little bit. And when we did play in the crowd, we have to know where our outlets are at.

So I get to our space and a little bit quicker. How is the men Thompson doing? He's fine. It was just cramping and the calf came on. Late in the fourth quarter, he tried to play through it a little bit until it really caught up to him and had to hold him out.

Obviously, he would love to have him in the later stages of the game. But just cramping, I think, the first game, obviously, and then the two overtimes, extra minutes for him caught up with them. Rocket Tech coach, Emaidoka, was here on Sports Talk 790. How would you assess overall? his game, obviously very aggressive, getting to the basket and did not go the way that he wanted from the three-point line, but did you like the takes that he was shooting?

Yeah, I mean, for the most part, you know, they're sagging off him, so he gets to get downhill and attack and try to find guys and did a good job of that. You know, he just like everybody else had high turnover numbers, you know, a few guys had four and a few, Stephen and a few others had three. But, you know, we want him to get to the corners, and he's shot it extremely well on preseason and has been better since last year. And so I wanted to be confident with those. And at times, some relate shot clocks as well. But we want him to shift and invert on the wings and kind of give guys space to operate there. And a few times we're a little slow with our spacing, like I mentioned. EMA, you ran some zone, they ran some zone.

You and I talked a little bit last year about it. It felt like 10 years ago you didn't even see the zone defense. Why are we seeing it more today, especially with as many prolific? three-point shooters the league has right now. There's a change of pace. It takes teams out of some of the things they're trying to do. They have really good one-on-one players. You can kind of load up and send them certain places on the court. But at the same time, we're playing big lineups with some really small lineups. And so may not be as many favorable matchups for us.

And, you know, it's a game of cat and mouse and who's going to make who adjust to what. And that zone helps us kind of guard some of those actions better. Was Alpe in Rhythm 3 the most he's ever been as you've seen him in person? I mean, look, no disrespect to the Euroleague and whatnot, and you've seen him in practice. But in terms of an NBA game, it looked like he had a confidence that ball left his hand beyond the arc that maybe I haven't even seen in his entire NBA career. Yeah, absolutely. I think he's going to be in some different situations this year. He's putting a ton of work on his jump shot on the offseason.

You saw that in Eurobasket. And so, but like you said, the. line is a little bit different, a little closer there. And I think he's had great carryover from his summer playing basketball there. And so with him playing with Stephen and some other bigs, he's going to have to space at times and be in some positions to make him pay from three. And teams are going to make him prove it. He obviously was confident and did a great job last night.

But a lot more catch and shoot opportunities versus picking pops now that he's kind of playing at the four at times. And I think he was extra aggressive, ready for those. And if you're going to be in those slots, you have to make him pay. did that. Overall, what did you see from Reed Shepard, 28 minutes from him, and just how he played on the floor, both sides? It was some ups and downs. It's going to be some learning curves for guys, especially, you know, Fred out in there having to handle and initiate and not just play off ball as much as they did last year. I'm in as well. And so just understanding the physicality of

game, which he's improved at since last year and how teams are going to guard him and respect him, you know, being a third pig, being a shooter. And, you know, freeing up himself, guys have to free up and set screens as well. Like I said, they were kind of blowing everything up on and offball. And so for him, it's just more of the learning that he's going to have to go through this year.

Was aggressive looking for a shot, I think. It wasn't just on men that didn't shoot it well. A few other guys as well. And you look at the numbers, only going 11 for 39 from three and having some really good looks. And so game one, some things to take away, positive and negative. I think that's with the team overall.

and Reid will learn to go from this. Some people talking during the game, I guess, about Kevin Duran and his looks. How did you feel overall just working within the offense where, you know, that's a guy that can go down the floor and basically get up a shot anytime he wants to, but you also want him to kind of play with the team around him. What is it like for you as a coach finding the right moment to get him going but also wanting to play with everyone else? Well, yeah, you want him to be who he is, which is a great score. but we understand just like we're trying to take Shay out. They're trying to take Kevin out for the most part.

They want Ludo, pretty much, face guarding the whole time. So, like, that's what I mentioned. Our setups have to be better. Guys have to try to make their stuff get open, and we need to set better screens. And so playing with a little more force and pace and not to let them dictate where we want to go on the court, that's going to be a big thing.

But at times, he was somewhat of a decoy because they're how the way they were guarding him, and they got guys open looks. And at times when they're trapping him or, or they're really faceguarding him. We're basically playing four on four at times. It's almost like a box in one. And so we have to do a better job getting him open,

getting him into spots to score, but he has to be aggressive as well and get open. And so it's a little bit of both. And we understand what OKC does, but he's seen that throughout his career, and it'll just swell, and we'll handle that as the season goes. I don't think you guys did anything differently

to Shea in the second half. Was there something that you saw from him in the burner being turned up little bit because obviously in the first half he wasn't a real huge part of the offense but got himself involved in the second half in overtime no i think our traps weren't as aggressive for sure i think we got caught a few times looking at other actions and then he got the pick and roll where he had more room freedom to operate um you know he's going to come out aggressive um when he says the poor first half we saw that last year in in season tournament some of the games we guard him

really well and then uh when we were in the zone we did allow him to get to the spots where we didn't want him to. We wanted to send him to the crowd, send him to the middle. He either wants to attack the seams and get away from the double teams and repeatedly late in the fourth quarter and overtime. He got to those spots and that's where he saw some of those jumpers where we did a great job of funneling him to the help in the zone specifically. And so we didn't do as good a job for those reasons and kind of allow him to get going. And then obviously you got to a freak the line a little bit too much as well. Before I wrap things up, I asked you this before the game yesterday. It's worth for this audience as well. You went with the double bigs last

night or the jumble, whatever you want to call the lineup. Tell, for this audience, dictate Eme, what you think you will do, how much it will be against who you're going with? Now, Holmgren, obviously, being out there with Hartnstein that dictated it last night. How much will you try to push the envelope to put that big lineup out there against guys that maybe not be as tall and as physical as Oklahoma City would be? Yeah, there are a lot of things that play into it, and it's not just other teams with big lineups. We do like to put Alper on some lesser scoring threats. at Wings and you saw him on Dord and certain guys last night and there's plenty of guys in the

league and from game to game we could do that with. But it's also dictated by how they want to guard and, you know, they've been a team that puts home grin on them in a lot and we wanted to free up them in as well. And so if we don't play our double big, they'll switch that matchup. And so it's not just based on their personnel is how they want to defend. We take all those things into account and, you know, freeing up our men with a guard on them, you saw how he got downhill versus the length of home grin. And so it's not just that. and some of those guys. And so it's a night-by-night thing to start.

We'll be fluid with it until we get healthy, fully healthy, and have some options with Dorian and Jayshan and those guys we can look at. But we love the versatility that we have. And obviously the lineup that we've had a ton of successes of playing with those two bigs and something will continue to go with. You look, once the game got started last night, once the ceremony was over with and the rings and all that, it was just an NBA game.

But you were going to get that opportunity coming up here on Friday night. I'm assuming that Katie's very excited about being. wearing the rock at home gear for the very first time. Yeah, I think everybody is. And, you know, to me, I think our whole team enjoyed that game. You know, we want to be tested right from the start. And so Detroit is another, you know, up-and-coming team that plays extremely physical as well. And so it'll be another challenge for us and ready to get this first win out of the way.

I had an opportunity, like I said last night, you know, fouled late a few times, missed some free throws and things of those nature. But had the opportunity there and we'll take a look at that and try to improve on game too. That again the thoughts of E. May Adoka and again Rockets in action Friday night against the Detroit Pistons. Monday they'll be taking on Brooklyn and then

off to a two-game road trip to take on the Toronto Raptors and the Boston Celtics. Believe it or not is up next. Tony, we go with Vitello is that we're going with? Vitello. Vitello, the new manager of the San Francisco Giants who's fresh off a successful

career as the coach of the University of Tennessee. Tony Vitello. Believe it or not, it's up next here on the Matt Thomas show at Ross. 713212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. If you want to play, we are playing. Are you playing for those U of H Arizona tickets that we're going with? Yes, the expedition, yes.

All right, so all the Judas Priest is gone, huh? Ain't that a blip? Yeah, we've got to blame that in that one, but... Who are you blaming? We blame you on that one, but it's all right. You can blame me. I'll take the blame on the program we have, I just don't get it. We'll have Ross's rotten five, and we're going to have one of the greatest running backs ever to play in the National Football League.

Frank Gore is going to be on the show. Number three on the all-time rushing list. Former 49er Frank Gore, who we will be talking about football and life, and he's got an appearance coming up in Houston and the Texans' brother honors this Sunday. Miami Hurricanes? So they're back in prominent form again. so Frank Gore will be on the show tomorrow. Nice to have him on the program. I'm going to do something that's going to be rather douchey, I think. I'm going to thank him for his contributions to my fantasy football league over the years.

Oh, my God. I think kissing ass via fantasy football is a good way to endure yourself for the guest. We'll see how it goes. All right, we'll see. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest-growing sports radio game show. we simply call it B, believe it or not, and here's how it works.

You will call 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Today's edition of Believe it or not is all about the brand-new skipper of the San Francisco Giants, Tony Vitello. I'll read your statement about Tony. If statement is completely utterly accurate, you'll say this. Believe it. In this name as the erroneous, full of bunk and made up, you will say this. Not.

All right. If you get two in a row right, Jonathan just told me we have one pair of tickets to see. Alice Cooper and Judas Priest, October the 26th at this weekend at Woodlands Pavilion. Tickets are on sale now if you can't win today at Ticketmaster.com. And also this Sunday, the preview college basketball exhibition will feature A&M against Arizona and Houston versus Mississippi State. That's at the Fort Bend Epicenter. If you want to go to that, FBepicenter.com. And you can win tickets if you play, believe it or not. 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-212-5-7-90 do you think our audience is really up to speed on Tony Vitello?

We'll see. It's going to be just a flat-out guessing game, I guess. Let's talk to Jeremiah. Jeremiah, you're on 790. Ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Tony Vitello's playing career was cut short his junior year at Missouri after a bad knee injury during an off-season workout. Believe it or not?

Not. That is a not. That's correct. Statement number two for the win. Tony Vitello also played soccer in high school, even winning the Missouri State Championship back in 1997. Believe it or not? Not.

That's a believe it. I'm sorry. Chris and Kingwood on 7-90. Chris, your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show. The whole absolute thing. God bless you. Tony Vitello has two degrees from Missouri at Bachelor's degree in management and a master's degree in management and a master's degree in.

business. Believe it or not. Believe it. Yeah, of course you should. Statement number two for the win. Tony Vitello has zero professional baseball experience as a player, assistant, or a coach. Believe it or not. Believe it. That's correct. That's the story.

He's got none of that. Now he's a manager of the Giants. Congratulations. Chris, you're going to either a concert or basketball this weekend. Cody on 790, Cody, you ready to play Believe it or not? Believe it. Tony Vitello is friends with Tennessee alum and Giants President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey with Posey instructing at VAL's off-season baseball clinics. Believe it or not?

Believe it? No, Ross. Nicely done. Posey has no ties at all to Tennessee, correct? I don't believe so. All right. Let's continue on and talk to Thomas on 790. Thomas, you ready to play, believe it or not?

Yes, sir. Thomas, Tony Vitello immediately became a... graduate assistant at Missouri following his playing career there, despite coach Tim Jameson not wanting him to coach his former teammates. Believe it or not? Believe it. Believe it. That seems rude. Statement number two for the way in Tony Vitello's salary, Walt Tennessee was three million dollars per year with a three million dollar buyout. Believe it or not? Oh, we just talked about that too. Rossi had pays to listen to the Matt Thomas show at Ross. Is it not? It does. All right. Last one. George on 790. George, you're ready to play, believe it or not?

I'm ready. Tony, you can get it in great word last night. Mr. Matt, great words. I don't deserve you, George. Tony Vitel said in a 2020 interview with baseball America that Tennessee was his dream job and then he never sees himself leaving Knoxville. Believe it or not. Duh. Just like Schwarzenegger. Believe it. No, he never said it. Oh, it's a duh. It's a duh. Well, the game is called Believe it or not. Oh, believe it.

It's a knot. He made it up. Sorry. Yeah, don't reinvent the rules of the game. You don't go on Jeopardy and say, I like to buy a vow. You just don't. And George, oh, I know who George. George is really not George. George is an alias for something else. Okay.

So, George, I know what you're doing. You lose. You lose. Good sir. Rossi, great to have you back. Great to be back, Matthew. Don't go anywhere. We'll see. You got vacation time coming up.

Actually, I do. For real vacation? Next week is strange for me. I'm working at college week. You're on the MWF. I'm working Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Tuesday, we're traveling to Toronto early, so I got to get through all the customs and all that crap.

And then Thursday, my daughter is going to play in a playoff volleyball game. Then I'm coming back to Houston just to see her do it. Wow, okay. And I'll be with you in studio on Friday before I go to Boston. Wonderful. That's all talking about. I'm team sports. Yeah, you're across the country. Yeah, Team Rossi.

This is worldwide. Team Instagram at SportsCat. Oh my God. I only need like 15 more to get to 3,000. Let's go. Let's go. 713-212-5-790. That's the number you will use to join Mr. Wexler and Mr. Clinton, two entertaining lads that comprise

the A team. Talk to you tomorrow. at 10 with Frank Gordon-leven here on 7-90.