The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Rockets & NBA Trade Deadline, Kelvin Sampson Fires Back on NIL

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

Rockets & NBA Trade Deadline, Kelvin Sampson Fires Back on NIL

Hi there. So much larger than life. Yeah. You said. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 10-1 in H-town. Welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. To my right is Ross.

To my left, it's our computer screens. And me, I'm here. Great to have you with us. Thank you, Ross, for filling in. for me tomorrow or yesterday, not having me off. We can turn the music down. There we go. Jonathan is off today.

So we have a brand new young man working it. So there could be a few bells and whistles that are issues during the course of show. We'll be fine. We'll be fine. I ain't worried about it. It's more about the content. Yeah. Content is king, Matthew.

And you're welcome. I had Chris Gordy hung out for a little while. Did he? Adam Clas. He probably was distracted. Well, I'm not going to say that. but he yeah well i asked him on monday and he forgot so he was one segment late but that's fine you know i can handle it i'm professional i've been in business a long time you have been a long time you have

been a long time did a great job of being someone uh you know as a producer especially when you're solo mad as you know it's a little more difficult i would say i would put both of us in the same category in that we can do it but it's better to have somebody to bounce off of it's a bounce sports radio's a bounce and so uh just checking little 10 o'clockers how y'all doing doing great and jonathan was great He was getting involved in the conversation and he did a great job as somebody to bounce off of with conversation

and the time's when I was solo. And then Adam Clanton came in and trashed LeBron and somebody our friend LJ from New Zealand called in and got angry of him. Yeah, it's going to happen. And then Adam called the self-expunged Jumokes last night. And we had a guy, Eric in Providence. So you kept mixing your accents as they're listening. That's not true. I mean, it was a little New York

in there at the end. I think if we listened to it, I did pretty good. We haven't. Yeah. Oh, I know. We don't want to play it because Ross is going to get compliments. So it's fine. No, no, no.

No, it's all right. You should do it live. Because the guy, because I was listening to it, the guy was not buying any of your stick. He was. Are you kidding? Well, he was just responding. He was like, I was like, that's unbelievable.

He's like, I know. That's unbelievable. I said, he doesn't know who Bayla Shiamen is. And the guy said, he's like, I know. It's unbelievable or something. Evidently he doesn't. Baylor? Me and my guy, Eric, were on the same page.

Okay, well, you know, we'll play it then. We should play. We'll play the next segment. 10, 20. 1020. 1020, it is. 1020 next segment. Yeah, the rocket sucked last night.

There ain't no other way to say it. That was not fun. That was a painful, painful way to spend two hours of my life. I mean, as great as early the day was with my daughter officially signing at the University of Rhode Island and speaking of Providence. Oh, yeah, by the way, yes. Congratulations to you. Thank you. You guys were in the news at noon.

Oh, great. It took as long for the ceremony. Unble ISD, I love you all, but damn, getting every humble ISD kid, it took for hours and hours. I was going to say, how many kids was it? Do you have a list? 80 from 80 for anybody that was an humble ISD for the spring semester. And I include some football, some track and field, a lot of baseball and volleyball and softball. But, yeah.

So it was, and I felt bad for Carly because they told everybody, it said, hey, can you all please stay in here and clap for everybody. So the Thomas family. ABCD. Well, ABC, yeah, we were in there because it wasn't our turn. So, you know, they went alphabetical. Like, you know, not by sport, they went alphabetical.

Not by sport. They went alphabetical. And not by school leader. It was fairly alphabetical. So ABCD, EFG got a lot of claps. By the time we got the T, there was like 16 people out there. Yeah, well, they were all in the middle of the congregating church. They're not in their church. They couldn't be getting drunk. Man, I guess it could possibly happen.

You get into the sacrament wine. Yeah, but they have a good time, and it's good. And a lot of her old coaches and a lot of her teammates were there, and my parents were there, and my, and Carlis and Kim's parents were there. So it's beautiful. Good time was that by office. You brought your checkbook so they could get a view, too. Who's they?

The church? The checkbook. Oh. The checkbook contributed a lot, too. The checkbook did a lot of heavy lifting. That's what I'm saying. Checkbook's going to still do some heavy lifting. Checkbook probably had tears in its eyes.

Checkbook's like, Kim's like, we should do an Airbnb. I'm like, do you realize how this is much this is going to cost? He's like, we're splitting it. I said, do you realize that much this is going to cost? You buy the property and then you can rent it. That's the wave. I cannot afford Rhode Island real estate. I don't know if you know it.

I don't know. Okay, I don't know. I wasn't trying to pocket check. I'm just trying to help. I'm trying to give you ideas. I'm an idea man. Yeah. The Airbnb for three for four months is going to be insane.

That's what I'm saying. You buy the property, then you make the rent. Okay. Just put your house up for collateral. Yeah, I's going to say. And whatever nice luxury SUV your wife's driving at the moment. God, it's close to home. It really does.

I try to make you money. I'm trying to make you money. All right, well, good. Well, maybe our sales force can help with that. Hey! If you'd like to be a part of the Sports Talk 790 family, where Ross and I can properly endorse your product. Robert Reese is always a good one to go to.

He likes soccer, which is a detriment to him. But otherwise, he's really a sweller. That's my Manchester City dog. We both have been big Manchester City fans. We've been very disappointed lately. Yeah, you did a 2-2 tie with my son's team, right? Big 3-1 win over Newcastle to make the finals of the Carabo Cup, though, Matt. Congratulations to all involved.

Thank you. All right. And again, how did you get Man City? You just happened to be the first one you saw him on TV? No, my friend was a big Manchester United fan, and we used to play FIFA. And you know what I found out this weekend? Your son's the exact same way. He was in college playing the FIFA, the VIII.

video game with his good friend who is an Arsenal fan. Their big rivals, Tottenham. So he started using Tottenham and he started like in the team. My friend was a big United fan. They're in their intra-city rivals. It's like, you know, you know, Yankees and Mets. And, uh, and I started to pick Manchester City. I like the players. I started following them. And then I picked them as my team. I wanted to make sure I picked a team that wasn't going to be terrible. Some people go and pick like our friend Alex Middleton from the Buzz. He picked West Ham United. Like they're fighting regulation,

a relegation every year. It's not fun. Pitiful. I was like, if I get to pick, I got Houston sports teams. If I'm picking a team, it's going to be somebody who has a chance to win. It's like my situation here, I have been a lifelong Astros fan. I have been a lifelong Rockets fan. I've been a lifelong, well, not lifelong, but Cougars fans since I went

to school there. I actually liked him before. They went to school. It's been a lot of losing in Houston. So, that's why I cannot draw myself to an NFL team. You know, when the orders left, it was like, hey, but what are we going to do? And they're like,

Well, you know, the Cowboys, a lot of people did gravitate towards the Cowboys because that was the only team in the state. And according to they were on TV every, you didn't miss the Cowboys game here. Every single Cowboys game on while the elders were gone were always on television. Yeah. Now, right now it's about 80%. So you get most of them. Plus, if you have DirecTV or you have the Sunday ticket, you get to get everything as it is.

But I just like, maybe you shouldn't try being like a 49ers fan. I'm like, that seems kind of artificial. Maybe that would make sense geographically. It's not that bad. Yeah, but they weren't great back then. So I have lived... You know what? Let's get you on the Saints band, Wigan, right now. I don't think so.

Why not? You're a quarterback. Because then you can talk in your New Orleans accent, baby. Yeah, but yours is better than mine. We'll work on it. We'll go play more Blackjack at the Caesars. What is it now? It was the Sears.

Yeah. It was Harris. The New Orleans themed casino changed to the Italian-themed casino. And it's bigger and better than ever. They could have refurbish and kept it Harris. That's huge. Now, the sports book's huge. Pokerum's huge, too.

I told you that. even get a spot in the sports book unless you're laying down like a thousand dollars. Yeah, like all these casinos in Louisiana, like come, come watch the game with us. We're going to charge you $250 an hour on booze and food. Yeah, I'll be at home for fine. Yeah, we're good. Give me some big city wings, brick, pick it up and go home. There you go. All right. So, Rocket sucked last night. There'd be the first tell you. And it was painful. It was awful. Namias Keita was a, was the Stephen Adams of the Boston Celtics yesterday with

enormous amount of rebounds, both offensively and defensively. I didn't know that there was a Portuguese. I didn't know he was Portuguese. Nemeascheta. He was locking down a men, Tompson, the user five on a men Thompson. Defense came again. Second time it's happening in a week. And it was very effective.

I'm just saying, people were telling me it wouldn't work without Wimby. It worked without Wimby. I can live with Wembe. Nemeas Keta I cannot live with. I mean, look, Kate is an NBA player, so it's not like he's... What is his wingspan? He was poking everything away. He was making plays.

I got to be honest. And then he blocked it. The one worst part of it was, and the Rockets did score a basket off of this, but there was a, I'm trying to remember what happened. It was in the fourth quarter when I was basically tuning myself out.

There was a turnover. Cato runs back, I think attempts the block, winds up going about four rows deep into the arena, into the lower level, comes back and winds up blocking the next shot the Rockets take.

then it was scooped up by somebody in the Rockets, when I'm scoring a basket. It was, yeah, it was a really, really difficult night. Boston played it back to back the night before. The Rockets did not have to worry about facing Jalen Brown.

Of course, Jason Tatum not there. Or who else was not playing tonight that was of somewhat value? Chris Bouchet, but he's going to be traded. O'Anfrey Simon's is being moved to Chicago for a Nicola Vusovic. So it was, It was, I wouldn't say it was a bunch of Jemokes.

Somebody would. Well, you can catch him two to six, but the issue was it was not the prime time team that built the Celtics where they are, which is a huge surprise in the Eastern Conference. All of your big three were bad. You had four of 11 from Kevin Durant and then five of 12 each from Alper and Shingoon. I'm sorry, Jabari's McJun was also five of 12 and it was a men, Thompson, it was three of eight. Nobody was efficient. None of your big three were efficient. I had people calling, like, complaining about Jabari Smith Jr. and Reed Sheppard. It's like, I'm in Thompson and Alpert Shingoon and Kevin Duran need to carry this offense.

I'm not worried about Reed Shepard going three of 12. I mean, I'm a little worried about it, but he's had a run. It's not been great. He's not the reason why they lost this game. They looked, I think the word used by E.Mand Doca in the post game, like they were in the mud, like stuck in the mud. They just looked. And you know what? I was going to ask you this, Matt, because I brought it up on the post game.

I heard what you said. Okay. Yeah, the first game, you're in the traveling party, so you have a good perspective on this. It feels like even the first game of a homestand when they've been running up and down around the country like they have been yowing back and forth, one game on the road. It feels like it's almost like a road game, just the energy of the team or lack thereof. Well, let's pull the schedule up, and I don't want to do a super big dive on this, but let's go through some of that. We've had a lot of road games time.

We've had a lot of home games as of late. The first game out of the long December trip, they won at Home versus Cleveland. They went to two Brooklyn Dallas for the first year, came back to beat Phoenix in there. So unfortunately, I know what you think, but the numbers don't bear that out. Yeah.

Well, how do they look in the game, so are they blowing these guys out? Well, just wins and losses doesn't mean they played well sometimes. No, but I don't, what is the average NBA game, about a seven or eight point differential, give or take, sometimes ten, sometimes three. Yeah, they came home from that long trip in January, and then they beat Chicago,

but if I remember, they looked like they didn't look good in that game either. But either way, okay. Well, whatever it is, there's no excuse for as bad as they looked. We're catching the injury bug hurt because of the fact that Adams has gone for the year. That's one last spot of using your rotation. Clint Capello is playing those minutes, and Clint's nice player.

but he's not as good as a rebounder as Stephen Adams is. Now, Clint's a little more of an offensive player, but not on significant more. You're still giving, you're having to use Kevin Durant way too much, although he didn't play in the fourth quarter yesterday, which was for the wrong reasons because you'd like to have played him because you were running the game. And the Rockets had a nice, easy schedule the first two months of the year. We're playing back-to-backs on a weekly basis.

We have a back-to-back tonight against the Charlotte Hornets, two of one six straight, and then a back-to-back next week. I don't know all the way we got Oklahoma City coming up on Saturday. So it's just a tough schedule SGA though at least Yeah They lost to the Spurs last night Right

You know what I went to bed I didn't know Yeah I know I'm with you The last I saw Spurs were up 11 So I want to Yeah All right So things we're gonna get to on the show today

Yeah they won Yeah They I think the Oklahoma City Thunder Played four players you'd recognize And I think Shaggildos Alexander's out with an abdominal injury Until after the All Star break Hate to hear that

I mean that's what we need Take advantage Let's go Do what you got to do 713-212-5-790 if you want to join the show today 7-13-212-5-7-90 it is the matt-thomas show with ross on the show today we're going to have i just don't get it at 1130 our buddy soft he's going to join us from san francisco at 1230 today you know i'm kind of just going to let him have the floor i don't need it we don't get into a deep dive just give us the experiences hanging on a radio row yeah media row excuse me meteor row come on mad media

So we're going to get to him, talk to him. He's, of course, from our friends at KJR in Seattle. His Seahawks are playing for the Super Bowl championship, the Vince Lombardi Trophy. University of Houston Cougars destroyed Central Florida last night. Take that golden nights. And then Calvin Samson had a little bit of a monologue about the state of economic affairs at the University of Houston, which is to no surprise. But in age, it just isn't you of age. It's 95% of colleges

have played Division I athletics, Ross, would you say? 95? Coach Samson is, I mean, he's a true gym. He is awesome. He does not give any Fs about speaking publicly about stuff. Correct. NBA trade deadline is coming up today at 2 o'clock. Will the Rockets make a move?

Veteran buyout maybe after the deadline? Maybe will Janus get moved today? Will John Moran get moved today? I would like to adjust my gut feeling from Tuesday. Well, we can discuss. Okay, we'll do that. Fromber is now a Detroit Tiger. God, big, big cash. Big A-A-V. Short-term deal. Short years. Big A-A-A-V.

Tarak Scoob was like, hmm, do I want to play for the Dodgers or don't want to play for the Dodgers? Do you want to play for L.A. or don't want to play for the team at Southern California? Yankees could get involved. And who needs a new haircut? I've been thinking about it. Is it going to change who you are? No, it's not going to change who I am. But you're thinking about it. I've been going with the long pony for like seven years now. So how are you just going to trim or are you going to go for a little? I still want to have curls. I want to show off the curls.

What about getting rid of the beard all together? What do you think about the beard? No, well, maybe if I lose a little more weight. The beard does a good job covered up a little... That's hysterical. The double chin looks like 1.5 with a beard. All right? 1016, it's a Matt Thomas show at Ross. 713, 212-5-790.

All right, 1022, 2-1-790. Sports Talk 790. 713, 212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Yeah, that was ugly last night, sports RV. That was, I mean, that was, what is the old cliche we always roll out? That one's not going to be, they're not going to ask for that at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. They better not.

It was not a night to remember. It was ugly offense from the get, and then it got uglier as the game went along. Derek White was knocking down threes. I don't even want to say that out loud. Peyton Pritchard. Derek White got hot. Peyton Pritchard thought he was Caitlin Clark for a minute. Peyton Pratton Pritchard was balling, I guess.

It was, uh, and nobody could get anything going. It was just, um, in, I'll go back to Emeadokas phrase. Stuck in the mud offense from the rockets last night. They were getting crushed in the boards. Namish Keita with the seven rebounds, offensive rebounds, I think it was. Or was it more than that? No, seven offensive rebounds. They got 20 offensive rebounds.

They beat you on the boards. And then the second chance points, 27 to 15. They got 27 second chance points last night, Matt. Not ideal. Got up as much as 29. It was just not fun, Rockets basketball. But just like in baseball, if you get shut out 9-0, you can come back and bounce back and play the Charlotte Hornets tonight.

Okay. I got you. We'll go Ernie Banks. Let's play two. I mean, I got to go that direction, right? Sure. Let's do it. Only I can do that.

The Charlotte Hornis, though, they didn't play last night, right? No, they were in the hotel arrested. I think they've won seven in a row. I thought I had six, but maybe I'm wrong. I think it got up to seven now. Yeah, it was six, now it's seven. One, two, three, four, five. Damn, it's seven.

There's a win over Spurs, a winner over the Sixers, a win over the Magic in that span. Now, wait a minute. They did beat Washington, Memphis, New Orleans, and a mix. Okay, but also San Antonio, Philadelphia, Orlando's not terrible. That's true. Just saying. And it's not like the rockets are being world beaters right now.

They're playing good. They won 8 of 11. You know what? They won 5 out of 6 before last night. I know it sucks, but, you know. A lot of calls on the postgame show. Funny how that happens when they're terrible. It's funny, only when you win,

there is no calls, and when you lose, it's... Charade gives us the recap. Yeah. But that's how it goes. I mean, hey, I take any post-game call I can get. Just be consistent. It's all we ask. But, you know, we've been asking that for a long time.

In sports, I didn't get a glass of water. I'm going to, you want me to go get you some water? I'll literally go do it. I'm worried about you. Just to say it. You shouldn't have done it. I told you not to do it. There's a place that brought some chicken sandwiches to us.

Hot chicken. It's just not going to work for me. I'm going to go get you some water. All right. I'm going to talk. Because I want you to make it through this segment. No, I'm good. I'm good.

Are you sure? Yes. Louis on 790. You're absolutely right. Hi, Lewis. Good morning to you. MT and RV. How we doing?

Outstanding. Thank you for asking. Hey, Matt, my little tough on your daughter going to Rhode Island. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. That's very excited. She's going to play volleyball, obviously? I would hope so.

I spent a lot of money on playing club volleyball the last seven years of her life. Anyway, you know, last night is like a bad hangover. You know, it's just, it's something that happens, and I hope it likes, this is just being a GM on the radio, me. I just hope this lights a fuse under them to do something just to shake this team up a little bit. And I want to ask you a question. I want to bounce some names off you and see what you think. Andre Drummond, I think, is very attainable from Philly. and if you had a choice, either Chris Paul or Lanzo ball,

would you pick up either one of those guys? I really don't think those guys will come via trade. If those guys get bought out, there may be a situation that would come into play because you'd be able to get him on the cheap. I just don't anticipate the Rockets doing anything trade-wise. I know there's a lot of rumors out there, and a lot of that is because agents are putting that out there. Other teams are trying to put that out there as well.

So it's hard for me to say, wow, this guy would make a difference. The only question is, is this guy really worth it depending on the money that you're spending? Like the Cavaliers traded Lonzo to the Utah Jazz. Is Utah going to keep him? I don't know. He got cut. They cut him. Oh, they already did?

Okay, I didn't even know that. Yeah. So they cut him. He's not going to cost you much. Right, that's what I'm saying. Do you think it's what? I don't shoot very well. I'm sorry.

It's funny to say I'm a little more interested in Lanzo ball as far as like a mystery box ad than Chris Paul. Chris Paul I know is done, done. Lanzo ball. 30% from the floor. Guys, that's atrocious. 27% from three. What do you want? Last year was better.

And it's all like he hasn't been playing. That's 35 games. games at 20 minutes per. Like, that's not nothing. It's, he's having an awful season shooting. Yeah, you're not going to, well, you're not going to get an all-star in the buyout market. No, you're not.

So I'll say this, Lewis, and I don't mean to give you a man-be-pami answer. I think there'll be a roster add-on. Yeah. I would, and I mention this on to tell the truth today. I think it's going to be more of an extra big than it would be an extra guard. Yep. My gut feeling is that you're going to see a small trade for a little bit of salary room. Whether it's like Jeff Green for a second round and you send picks or something like that.

And maybe they help facilitate another team's trades. Or Jayshan Tate or what exactly. You get involved in three team deals to help somebody out. That way you can get yourself a little bit of room to the salary cap and then make a buyout. My gut feeling Tuesday was there was going to be no moves. I've changed my mind. I think it's going to be a small move. And I think then you go to go buyout hunt.

I think Dorian Finney Smith has been talked about. And thank you, Lewis, for the phone call. I appreciate it. He's been talked about his trade. possibilities as well. I don't know if that necessarily is something that would be DFS, I like him a lot, good guy, but spent most of the season injured

and then he just hasn't shot very well. I don't know what kind of value anything. He's got a huge contract. Yeah, I mean, he's got a long NBA track record of being a decent player. So it's like, oh, I liked it when the signing was made, but that's what I'm saying. Like, how much time do you give him to get back in a rhythm? Yeah. You can't, it's, see, he's only

played 17 games. You're going to say, oh, but he's terrible. This is a what this is a sunk cost. That's what, that's what Raffles has to figure out. Or can he get better? Can he get healthier and, you know, get more in a rhythm? Because let me, I'm going to completely Rossi, allow me here for one second to peel a curtain. I talked

to E. May, publicly and behind the scenes. And if I, if I got a vibe from you, from him, that said, hey, he's a, he wants to go find that missing piece, I'd kind of, I'd tell you guys, I'd say, hey, I think, I've never gotten that vibe from this team at any point, even when Fred got hurt,

even as Reed's struggle as of late, and even when Steve and Adam's gone on, I just don't have it. Now, there could be some blockbuster. Maybe they're being coy. Maybe they're just trying to paint a blank face on things. But EMA has been very consistent in saying this and he sent us a lot publicly. There are more teams coming after our players than we're going after theirs. And I think the two players that are being talked about is Jabari Smith and Taris.

Now, Tari makes a little more sense because he is a restricted free agent. But the Rockins love a player. If you love someone, you're not giving them up. Yeah. But. And frankly, Tari's their best three-point shooter. I mean, this late in the season, he's their best three-point shooter.

He's shooting about 49% from three. Yeah. He's going like for historic numbers. Yeah. Now, he's not shooting volume-wise a lot because he's missing a lot games. And I don't know if he's going to play tonight or not. He doesn't play back-to-backs. during Finney Smith did not play last night.

And I'm expecting he would play, provided it seems like they wanted to stagger them, one available tonight and one the next night. All right, 1031. It is Matt and Ross with you here on 790. 713-213-2-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. If you want to follow us on Twitter, you may do that as well. At SportsMT, at SportsRV.

Our station account is at Sports Talk 790. And if you want to follow us on Instagram, the IG numbers are going up nicely. Maybe that's where people are going because my Twitter numbers have been fairly stagnant because I get rid of all the bots. Yeah, I'm 16 away from 1400. At Sports RV on Instagram. That's not bad. We're trying to build.

Trying to build a brand. I need to post more. I know. We've talked about this quite a bit. I keep saying it. New Year, new me, Matt. It's taking time. You've said that since 2013.

I can't do everything all at once. Trying to sleep better, trying to lose weight, trying to eat better. And how are those things coming along? Most of them pretty good, but now I've been sick, so I didn't sleep so well. Okay. 713-212-5-790 1032 here on 790 What the hell is this song? This is my jam, Maddie?

Who is it? Five-finger death punch? Oh, is that song on my iPhone? Yes or no? Yes, you celebrate their entire catalog. I'm sure we're giving way tickets to them eventually. All right, it is the Matt Thomas show with Raw. 212 5790

713 212 5790 we got somebody on line 1 we want to screen that just momentarily if you don't mind We get some great folks that want to come say hello We do love our 10 o'clockers do we not Yes we do People are getting in I love it let's go Let's go 10 o'clockers

Give us the faith that we come in earlier for a reason Love you guys All right 713 212 5790 we do want to play some of the And we don't have a chance I guess maybe we couldn't edit it down but Kelvin yesterday after the Cougars annihilated UCF's like, man, we're broke. He said that?

Well, I want you to hear it. And he's asking for donations afterwards? Well, not necessarily donations. He said cut the check, MT, let's go. You know the thing it is, and I will save this for a little bit later, but it's not about you and me writing a $100 check. He needs multi-millions of dollars. Yeah.

So he was talking about this, basically asking anybody that runs a big company. Oh, okay. I mean, if every Cougar dropped $50 towards him, it wouldn't take, it wouldn't do much. You need Cody Campbell. Every school needs those super, super big alums. And Telman's already put a lot of money. And Tim was like, man, I'm busy. He's at a palace in Italy.

Yeah, I'm trying to build my other empires. I mean, I've given you enough. Yeah. I mean, it's basically been, and I'm sure there's been others that are Cougar fans. And if you all know all the people that have given super money, give me some run. I'll let them have their shine, but Mattress Maccas and I yelled them to death. Tillman's done it. And I don't really know many people other than that.

I'm sure there's others, but. I mean, Calvin made it a point to say, man, I like having Kingston here. I like having Kristen Eck here. I can't afford this. We're going to start losing players because we don't have money. And if it's not, it's not only just the University of Houston saying this, I'm sure there's a lot of campuses across this country that are saying these things. Let's talk to Roger on 790 at 1030.

Roger, good morning. Good morning, Matt, and Ross. Yeah, you don't sleep on five-figure death punch. It's a good jam going through Dart into Houston traffic. I am now. So, Rafael Stone, I'm going to take your answer on the phone. I'm going to give him for his whole tenure here. I'm going to give him maybe a C-plus just because of Durandale.

Now, I just think this guy could be doing more. I think he's gotten way too comfortable with his job. I just think the Darrymore for all his flaws. You know, the guy was always fleecing people, other jams and deals. And, you know, he knew how to move and shake, you know, through all these trade deadlines. And I just think we're Phil Jones's the absolute opposite of that. And I just think it's time to move on if he doesn't, you know, at least try to get something done here at the end of the deadline. We know what we are.

We're going, we're an okay team. We're a good team. We're just not a great team. and I just think, you know, with a little help, but yeah, you don't want to get fleeced. You don't want to show your cards, but, you know, they're not handing out GM jobs to everybody. It was easy. So I'll just take your answer to the phone. What kind of grade are you giving this guy if the trade doesn't get done.

So it's still uncomplicated. Yeah, I'm asking for a general manager to be fired if a trade is not made. You did trade for one of the greatest players in the history of the NBA. You did sign Dylan Brooks and Fred Van Bleet to contracts, who helped you. get from 500 to a playoff team and 52 wins a year ago. You didn't miss on him in Thompson.

Alperin Shungoon was picked in the teens and has been an all-star. And he's 21, 9 and 6 a game. And I know he's got his flaws to everybody does. Yeah, 16th. He got picked at 16 and has been an all-star. Reid's up and down. Jury's still out on that.

There have been players behind him that have had more success. There's really no other way to say that. Jabari's been good. Not an all-star. Not an all-star and good. But a definite starting guy? No. When you fire people is when you make bad trades

and you trade Luca to the Dalit to the Los Angeles Lakers and you... Folks, they're fourth in the west. Yeah, I mean, come on. They're like two games behind the Spurs for a second. Come on now. You're going to let a non-draft day trade deadline

go pass and go, well, Oh, he's got to let me let go. I mean, and Fred Van Vleet ripped his knee in half, and Stephen Adams ripped his knee in half, or ankle in half. Yeah. I mean, injuries happened. The team was well built. You've just had some major injuries, and then, yeah,

Dorian Finney Smith hasn't exactly worked out, but who's getting fired? Everybody liked that signing when it happened. Everyone. The entire world did. Sneaky good pickup. I'll tell you what. You didn't think much about Josh Chokkeg, and he's turned out to be pretty good. Acquisition for this team.

That's a good point. So look, all I'll say is that I, when this team plays well and it has played well way more than it's played badly, it's fun, exciting. It's got clutch scoring. It's had some really big wins. It's, you know, again, the schedule's tough right now. And they're just kind of holding on for dear life for the All Star break, it feels like to me. And that's up to E-May to keep those guys motivated to do that. But the schedule just is cruel.

The schedule is what it is. Three days and three games and four nights. Then you come home for a day and you get back to backs before they all start breaking. Then you can kind of decompress a little bit. Oh, Tar Easton's been a good pick too. Tar Easton, yeah. Pick 17th. Yeah.

Tar, yeah. The only thing you could say is, okay. Now, Reed Shepherd was obviously the Rocket's choice and we're very happy about that. Stefan Castles played better and he was the rookie of the year behind that, but they can't control their draft selection. They would have loved to have Victor Wenb in Yemeniama, but it didn't turn out that way. Mm-hmm. You mean the ping-pong balls or whatever they used to determine these things didn't go the rocket's way. Ping-pong balls really screwed them. Both Palo Bancaro and Chad Hongren have been all-stars ahead of Jabbarismet Jr.

You mentioned Wimby. Yeah, but those are guys before. The rockets couldn't get to him. I know. That's what I'm saying. Everybody cheered about Ched Hongren not being a rocket. Oh, my God. That was the biggest ovation downtown Houston, Texas. take him Oklahoma City Jake Chet Holmgren He gets hurt all the time

He still gets hurt all the time But he's still very good And he's an all-star this year Can block Hit threes Yeah 18 points a game This is not a bad basketball team

You guys know that I mean come on You give him a C I get him a C plus I think Okay I'm sorry C plus I had worse you're giving him a B Yes I'm going B plus It doesn't matter

It's all about what you do you and come playoff time. And you know what? I got one of the best scores in the history of the NBA on my side. I'm okay. All right. 1044 Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross.

713-212-5-790. I'm going to try to find that audio of Kelvin talking about the money because I want to get your thoughts on what he said. He is spitting facts, but there's a little bit of a, how do I put this, a little risk reward with saying these things. I'll explain that coming back in a minute. 1044 on 790 I believe the theme of this show today is play songs, Matt, I don't know I know what they are, but that's fine.

It's a good theme. You've got a lot of options. Nicholas Pola, is that how we pronounce this name? Nick is that how you pronounce your name? All right, Nicholas Pola. He's some mixing the songs for us? Yes. We're going to call him some sort of mix of Nick.

Watch your language, Matt. He's got his USA hockey jersey on. Yes, sir. You know, curling's already underway at the Olympics. Oh, really? Wait a minute. Winter Olympics are on for real? No, I just know the curling started.

Whether they're on or not, I don't know. But just tell them. Let's go. Where is there in Italy? Yeah, couldn't care less. Come on, Matt. USA. USA will be great.

It's 2 and 0 right now. In curling? In curling? All right. Yep. Let's go. How do you learn how to curl, by the way? I mean, you get a brush out and you get a big stone.

That works? Yeah, into the rink. And just push it really fast? Yeah, you and the fellas head out. Was it kinetic energy? Yeah, sure, why not? This guy. Man, mass time.

I just told the acceleration. Sure, why not? All right. We're going to play our audio here. Let's make sure it's a certain. No, I can't. So we're working on it. All right.

We're going to, 11 o'clock, we're going to play the audio. We can get it done soon. We'll get it done. 11 o'clock. We're going to hear what Calvin Samson? Calvin is real. So, so, so, I'll save that for it. Okay. Framber Valdives got traded yesterday. Or not traded. He signed with the Detroit Tigers. Big fat A-A-V. Yes, he, excuse me. Hey, he language, man. What? I didn't say average annual value. Okay, good. What do you think I said?

Man, look at him. He's got a fat A-A-A-V. It is so cute how everybody tries to, could Frambert come back in a one-year deal? No, hell no. Stop. Didn't think it was going to happen. Why do we do that as sports radio host? Cole Thompson was doing that yesterday. Well, call him talking to you.

Can they? I mean, seriously. No, it's not going to happen. No. Oh, we've got the women's hockey's on right now. Oh, really? Why did you say that like that? No, I'm just saying because I don't like any of it, but I'll be not watching a little.

Okay. They're playing Czech Republic. Okay. Yeah, see. Get in the Olympics. Maddie, come on. That's fine. I'll put first take on.

No, don't do that. But hockey's much better. Okay, thank you. I'll take Winter Olympics over that. So Framber gets the three-year deal. He's obviously one of the best pitchers the Astros have had in the last 20 years. There's no disputing that. When Frumper is excellent, he is ground ball inducing,

innings eater, strikeout throwing, 12-6 curveball, it's fun. but when it implodes you can bring Carl's career to the mound you can bring any of his childhood best friend of the mound the guy cracks like a bad egg

and he has not been able to shake that his entire career well last year was worse than he had been in three or four years the meltdowns were far too frequent

and then the worst of course what is the word you always use the fait accompli that's a little French Oh, the coup de grace, whatever we were, whatever French we want to break out. The pier sixer.

Yeah, the baguette. Whatever we want to call it was when he got crossed up with Cesar Salazar and threw it his stomach. That was the death now for him getting any sort of big long-term deal in the offseason. And that's what I really thought the dollar value would have been bad. But what is it, 3.15, is that what I saw? Yes. That's excellent. Is that a good 38-milly?

There's opt-out after the second year. Yes, which is the same thing for Kyle Tucker. Everybody's kind of like, we're going to see what happens after this labor stoppage. We have to pray. Just to make it today? Well, that too. But we don't want to go through a whole year of work stoppage, do we? Because there are some owners that will privately say, Ross, if it takes us a year away from the business to reconvene,

to refigure the business model, will do it. I'd be curious what those in the know, the Chandler-Romes, Brian McTaggarts, etc., have to say about a potential labor stoppage. Because just from us sitting here in our seats, it feels like not only are it's going to be the owners versus the players, it's going to be owners versus the owner. So it could be, it feels like an extended layoff with games missed.

A season missed, I don't know. That would be hugely detrimental. I mean, it took a while for people to come back in the 90s. Now, when everybody's got Netflix and Apple TV and every other thing going on, it would seem like it would be even worse to try to get people to come back. People in the 90s were angered because it was in the middle of the season and it was fun and interesting. If you go away for a while, you're right. I got a new show on Apple TV I want to watch.

You forget. We forget about stuff that I didn't, I forgot the Pro Bowl games were. wrong. You didn't watch it? I forget, I forget what in, I forget what game NBA is on, it's on prime video tonight or is it on NBC or is it on whatever. I forget. It's hard. You said no to the Pro Bowl. I didn't intentionally say no. I forgot about the Pro Bowl. But it's still a no and I'm proud of you. Thank you. Apparently it was a real barn burner. It was like 66 to 58 or whatever. Thank you to C.J. Stroud for foregoing. Why did they say barn burner? Isn't that really bad? Your barn is burning down. Is that exciting?

That sounds like an urban dictionary reference on that one. Or, I mean, it feels like back in the 1860s. So that's the bonds, but we're going to have a party and you'd burn the barn down? No, Barn Burner. It would be a connotation for being a really hot game, maybe. Okay. But who sells a barn burner in 2026? It originated from the 1840s.

The Barn Burners. Farmer burned his barn to smoke out rats. The things you learn on the Matt Thomas Show at Ross. We're educational, Matt. We're informative and entertaining. Well. And hilarious. One of us is.

713. 212.5.7. That actually. 713. 212.1.2. 57.9. It was a lack of a barn burner. It was an icy chili a burn barn at the TOTUS Saturday last night.

It was a slow burn. All right. So the Cougars take care of business over UCF to start them out. Oh, by the way, USA leading Czech Republic 3 to 1. They must be starting early because the tournament is so long, right? Suck it. Checks. So you got curling going and you've got hockey going.

Yes. This is live, by the way. What's the time difference? Six, seven hours? Yeah, yeah. You've been Italy? I would love to go. I have not.

They get mad at me when I want two weeks straight off and who's going to spend like a three-day weekend in Italy with jet lag? And do a post-game show for you leave. Yeah, exactly. We love it. 7-1-3-212, 5-7-a. By the way, work Labor Day. Well, that's just me. 713, 212.

It's tradition, Matt. It is kind of tradition. I worked the holidays. All right, so Calvin, on, we broke. And there's positives and negatives that come out of that. We'll talk about that after I'll tell you about Big City Wings. Listen, I had Sam, who runs the operations of Big City Wings, was at the Rockets game last night. And he's like, Matt, please tell your audience, you want to get your wings for Super Bowl Sunday.

You've got to get them early. Please call ahead to any of the 14 Big City Wing Lollings. locations. They will not let you down. Big party packs with wings, sides, dressings, salary, carrots, whatever you want to add to your mix. You're going to get it today at big city wings. Huge salads. Amazing hamburgers. Let's say that you're at a party and we'll just call her Darla. Does not want to have chicken wings, but she wants a nice chicken salad, grilled chicken salad. Their salads are huge. Maybe Tommy, little Tommy, eight years old wants a burger. They'll do all that for you. But the most important thing is, do not wait until the weekend. Get what you're thinking

you're going about doing on Sunday and go to Big City Wings and get those wings taken care of for Super Sunday. Big on wings, big on sports, big on lunch specials, which begin in 45 seconds. 11 to 3, 10 bucks, entree choice to sign a soft drink for $10 today until 3 at Big City Wings and big Citywings.com. Hi there. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 1103, Sports Talk, 790.

Our friends are the joint chiropractors. They are the official chiropractors of the University of Houston Cougars. Athletic program. And our cougars, I mean, bludgeoned the UCF nights last night. Knights any good?

They beat Texas Tech in Orlando, but they came to Houston, Texas, and got their ass whips. 79 55. Nice. Ooh. Good for them. Kingston Fleming's 18.6 assist. If you're a Kingston Fleming's fan, huge. Wish him well in the NBA,

because he's probably going to be, I would say, I don't want to guarantee it, because obviously, Andrews could play a role in this, but if he stays healthy and he stays as productive as he has been this year, he will be a top five pick of the NBA draft coming up. Christineek, 14 points, 10 rebounds.

Cougars 79.55 over UCF. Cougars will play at BYU on Saturday night, a late game. All right. Now, after the game, and look, is waxing poetic? Is that we want to go with Kelvin Samson being an all-time goad at doing that? Yes. Not pulling punches. He's very philosophic, very real. Now, sometimes there is a underlying message that he's trying to get out there. And I think clearly he did that yesterday. I don't know what the context was, but it was an interesting comment that I did see on the social media streets. And this is the comments

directly about, you know, how the world of NIL and revenue is impacting teams like the Houston Cougars, who are number eight in the country. Ken Palm, I saw him at 6, right on my breath? Yes. I'm a Ken Palm guy. I know what that's my Bible. Bracketology, according to Gerald Launerty, puts them

on the two line in the South region, which ultimately means they could be coming to Houston, which would be really good to play the Toyota Center. But here is Kelvin talking about how to maintain what has turned out to be basically a decade of excellence at the University of Houston. I came back in the NIL, just like everybody else, we know what our kids market value is. Trust me, they're not starving here. We're getting exactly what the market is for them.

But, you know, we have a very poor athletic department. We're poor. You know, we're poor when I got here, we're still poor. We probably have the lowest budget of anybody in Power 4. You know, and, you know, the way our recruiting is going, we have to stop at some point because we don't have enough money to keep bringing in a league good players. And that's not easy for us to do. You know, people ask about recruiting. Teams that have the best recruiting classes usually have the most money.

That's the way it is today. You know, like we know, we signed A-Kenna and Arafan early. You know, a lot of these kids we have will come back. But who knows what else will sign? There's how much money we have. It's not about who do we want to sign, is who can we afford to sign. And even, even though we've been doing this NIL thing,

that it still feels funny for me to even say that. It's like a culture shock that's coming out of my mouth Because for so many years it's illegal to do that But it's legal now That's what they call it NIO Now it's legal Now it's legal I would hope at some point

And obviously the chances of all of you doing this Will be 0% But you get a chance to just to just sit and Talk to Kelvin He's so philosophical about a variety of things And he's got such great questions and he's got such great quips. Excellent basketball coach.

One-liners. He is as OG as OG gets, right? We're doing it for a very long period of time. Yes. So the reality is on the negative side, which he's speaking the truth is, if you want to compete, this is in football and in basketball primary.

I mean, yeah, the end of the day, you have to have NIL money. And he's not the only one saying it. There are other coaches around this country that are saying the exact same thing. A few coaches don't say this because, you know, Lane Kippen and not to worry about that at LSU. Alabama, Alabama sort of does. But I mean, most schools, A&M's got a treasure chest.

Texas Tech's got Cody Campbell. A&M's got the variety of different folks. They're about, what do you say, I don't know, 15 schools in this country, maybe. Maybe that's a tinge high that really don't have to worry about it. There's our alums that will just say, I have disposable income. I will give it to you and give it to you a large amount. And when he says we're broke, what he's essentially saying is, look, they're paying, the players are being paid right now. But you can't write a check to University of Houston basketball or University Houston Athletics, give him $250 and say, this is going to help.

I mean, a little bit helps along the way. But when he's talking about is he needs oil and gas money. He needs energy. He needs big time businesses to cut seven figure deals. because that's what it takes to keep these kids. And that's not just the University of Houston. That's at 99% of the schools in the country. North Texas, probably feeling that way,

you're saying, Calvin, you got some kids, leave us alone. I'm guessing that people at Ball State are like, man, that's a tough problem to have. And then some people will say, and I saw this on Twitter, Kelvin, you make $6 million a year. You know, if you made $5 million a year, or you made $4.2 million a year,

giving that money back to the school to help them pay, could help your program. And so there's a lot of different ways to go to it. It's a very delicate conversation to get into, I don't have enough money. Because people in front of you are going to have more money, people behind you are going to be resentful that you're complaining about money that you have that they don't have. And you're like, well, I mean, you'd be happy with what you got. Yeah.

I mean, this is good from Calvin for him to bang this drum, especially as you mentioned, a folkloric figure in the University of Houston Athletic Department to where maybe this could be a wake-up call or whether it be big donors or even medium-sized donors are all getting together because there are a lot of University of Houston Cougars fans who are like, yeah, we're the big time and all this stuff and they get all mad at me on their message boards and stuff like that, but yeah, get your funds together.

And I love that Kelvin Samson's calling them out and saying, hey, something needs to be done here. The argument I have on this is you can't take, for me, I mean, I could give some money. I can't give a lot, but I could give. some. If everybody gave a little bit, it would raise a lot, but you would need a big collective

to do it. You need a big collective. What you have to do is you have to go find the millionaires. And if the millionaires don't have a tie to the University of Houston, and everybody's poking at these millionaires for money, why am I choosing a program in a school that I have no affinity for or no relationship with over, say, my... alma mater that I went to or my kids went to or my company was founded by you know a bunch of scientists that worked for a particular school that was a that was like not a cat call but it was definitely

a direct message to if you got money and you like seeing us compete as much as I appreciate the $50 checks and the $75 checks I need you big heavy lifters that want to be at the tournament and will hang out with me in the final four yeah to cut me a six figure check bare minimum yeah I mean and I can't do that. I can't, I really can't even cut a five figure check. I've got, I've got a family. I just, it's hard. Yeah, my outsider perspective is, I mean, obviously you're closer and you know Kelvin better. It just seems like he's calling everyone out from the millionaires to everyone. Yeah. And because he's already asked, because Central Campus already pays for a lot. I mean, they've, they've rolled over deals to take money from the kids' school, you know,

the student fees and put it towards athletics. The TV money at the big, level is really, really good. It was better certainly was as members of the American or the conference USA, but it's still not at the level of the SEC and it's still not the level of the Big Ten. And that's who Kevin wants to compete with. Those are the two other power conferences in sports that the Big 12 wants to be. So I don't know how it's resolved. In fact, I don't even think it was necessarily a message to get it out there.

I think he's just saying, we're going to do our best. But if I don't have more money to give these kids, I can't get these kids because I'm telling you, gang, you go to the University of Houston, you're going to get a great coach who's going to treat your sons like father figures, and you're going to get a great education, and you're going to be in the city of Houston, Texas, and you get to stay home. But the kids in 2026 do not care about that under any circumstance. 99% of college players that play college one division one basketball do not make it to the NBA. If this is the money they're going to make in their life, they're going to go for the biggest deal.

And if Baylor's offering 1.6 per year as compared to the University of Houston is offering 1.1, the kid at one is going to take the 16 deal. He just is. As he should. Not everybody's going to do it, but... If you get the numbers close. situation and coaching a matter, but...

But that's not close. It's like free agency in regular space. There's no... There's no hometown discount. Very rare anyways. But here's the thing, and if I'm... I mean, how many true University of Houston fans are there

that don't have a dog in the fight? I don't think there's a lot. We always tease you about the T-shirt fans at Texas and the T-shirt fans at A&M because it doesn't take you you long to connect yourself to somebody that went to those schools because there's such big institutions and they're statewide properties. And even though University Houston's a state school, it's fragmented or wrong among Texas Tech and TCU and Baylor and SMU. I mean,

there's so many schools in the state. If I'm a business owner and I have, my kids didn't go there, I didn't go there, why am I putting money towards something I don't care about? So I don't necessarily blame all the Fortune 500s in this city for not donating because there's no civic responsibility to go give money to athletes. If you're going to be civic-minded and you own a large company, you want to help create another museum or you want to build a piece of architecture or you want to build something. You know what I'm saying? You're not doing it because you want to make a basketball team.

You're not paying for 19-year-old kids to enjoy themselves. Does that make sense to you? Yeah. So I think it was basically a plea. If you want to call it a plea for anybody that has money at the University of Houston, which I don't know. I don't get involved in that game. I guarantee you I can go.

find on who has the money. Yeah, but don't you feel like they know? Like if you're... Oh, absolutely they know. They know. Absolutely no. And these people, I'm sure, have been contacted over and over again. And over and over again. So, yeah, I don't know. Man, I just hate hearing that. We got a big victory

against UCF and Calvin's on the day. It seems like, man, we broke. You like these kids? Guess what? Do you want to keep bringing these kids in there? Because they ain't, they're coming here for cash. They're not coming here because the cuisine is still, and the city culture is fun. Kings and Flammings came here because Where's he from? I don't even know where he was from. Sounds like he'd be from Jamaica, wouldn't he?

Kingston Fleming's, man. Kingston Fleming's was born in Newport News, Virginia. But went to high school in San Antonio. Oh, okay. Well, that makes sense. Texas Mr. Basketball. Damn. And I'm glad he's here.

Fiba, three on three under 18 World Cup, Gold medalist. Yes. Keep going. Damn. Keep bragging about him. Let's go. Keep bragging about him.

All right. Double-double machine. 42 against Texas Tech couple weeks back. Major general studies. Wow. Well, I'm just kidding. It's not going to matter. Undecided.

He can general study his contract. He's going to sign as an NBA player. It sounds like a classic undecided. Yeah. I should have gone general studies myself. You're good. You're doing great. All right.

1115. It's a Matt Thomas show with Ross. 713-212-5-7-9. I just don't get it coming up at the bottom of the hour, Ross. What do you think about that? Sounds great. I just don't get it. 7-13-212-5-7-90.

7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. Oh, my God. That's over the air. Oh, my God. Poor Ross. Major sniffles. Nicholas, Sir Mix and Nick, playing all your hits on KJGN.

Watch your language, Matthew. Nick. What do you think I'm saying? I just, I don't watch your language. All right. Ross, we have breaking news. We do? We do.

We do? We do. That's one. Oh, whoops, I didn't let it play. That's on me. Just one? No, you know what? It's two.

You think so? It's a major shift. Two for, for funzies. It is for funzies. Tom Pelisero and Ian Rappaport have broken a story that I've been not wanting to tell you guys for a while. You want me to tell you guys for a while. You want me to read it? Go ahead.

By the way, you should ask me questions after this. I will. We'll have your presser in a second here. The Vikings are hiring Matt Thomas as football administration consultant. Per me and Tom Palisero, says Ian Rappaport, and he will assist with the team throughout the 2026 NFL draft. Thomas Sports Enterprises has made it to the big time. So let me tell you what I'm doing.

Hold on to give you more. Okay. One of the most respected salary cap executives, Thomas spent 11 seasons as Seahawks VP of Football Operations. He'll allow interim GM Rob Brzezinski to focus on the big picture. Wow. So you're going to roll your sleeves up and help the Vikings with their draft. Matt Thomas? All right.

Here's what I'm going to do. I'm just going to put a tweet out. Okay. It's going to say, hey Minnesota, hashtag school. Who are the top guys you're looking at the draft? I cannot discuss that with you. Oh, okay. You know, we're going to look for some lot of quality and we're going to look for some good guys.

and some guys are performing, some are not. All right, Matt. Also, how are you feeling about J.J. McCarthy? I mean, are you going to be looking for a quarterback, or are you looking for a backup? Do you feel like J.J. McCarthy can ascend as the guy. Some days he's got good days. Some days got bad days. Why are you doing that voice?

I don't know. It's just you. Oh, it's me. Okay. Honestly, I haven't had a chance to do a deep dive on him yet. But when I do, I will be able not to tell you anything because I want to keep everything close to the best. I got you. Okay. So what I just did is I just, I just put Skull,

Skull Vikings. I should get some Minnesota followers out of it, right? Yeah, you will. Right? When Matt Thomas, the NBA player, where's he now? Oh, long out of the league. I think he's playing in Europe somewhere. I'm Poland or something. Three-point specialist.

So I'm doing a 10-2 radio show on The Voice of the Rockets, and I'm a Thomas Sports, and I've now created Thomas Sports Enterprises of the Northern Branch. Okay. I mean, Thomas Sports Enterprises had some hits. hits. Joe Alt. The greatest of them all.

Dad Prescott. I got my guy a lot of money. You got him $60 million a year. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, Cole says he didn't realize you had time to do this. I know. So, ladies and gentlemen, it's the Ross show now.

Oh, I've been waiting for this for decades. It's however you want to do it. That's good. Well, I need a co-host. You know, I need somebody to bounce off, Wolf. We have no money for that. keeping my back pocket for 15 years. Try to keep them down.

It'd be fun. How long with this, Bicco, do you think anybody will confuse this? I mean, not anybody with an IQ above 110. Have you met people? Or 100, I should say. Is 110 considered average? I believe 100 is average. Have you read an IQ test before?

I took like unofficial ones when I was on the high school. I have never taken an IQ test. I don't think in the low one-thirds. I don't think I want to. Okay. When I was 18, I thought. You know what I'm going to do, too? I'm really going to do this.

I'm going to put a Vikings avatar on my photo. Okay. You should. No, what? Are you really going to do that for one day? Do you have one? No, I'll get a picture. I'll get a photo.

You have a picture of your son in a Brett Farr Viking's jersey. Do you have anything Vikings with you? That's what I'm saying. Do you have any kind of Vikings picture? No. No. No. I don't.

I wasn't wearing the Minnesota Vikings. You guys were the radio home of the twins, not the Vikings. Correct. Okay. Yeah, I'm going to go, this is going to have some steam to it. Oh, gosh. This is what I'm doing. How can I mean? When the Rock is that they're asking about the Celtics, let me have my fun, please. Can I, how can I milk this for followers?

And I must have confused the people, right? Yes. It's so funny. All right, I'm going to try this. I'm going to put an avatar of the Vikings helmet on my photo. Why do I crack myself up? I don't even know. I mean, it's pretty funny. A dude named Matt Thomas is getting hired after a guy named Matt Thomas was in the NBA. Yes.

Well, I didn't realize there were so many of us out there. I don't know. I don't even know any other. Matthew and Thomas. But, I mean, I don't know how many Rossville Royals are out there. There's that. My name's fairly common. Okay.

Maybe not in Minneapolis. But you're still popular here. There's many Villarreals. We had Oscar Villarreal, the pitcher. Yes. Astros? And? He wasn't very good. So can you do a, believe it or not today? That's how he had to tell Milo to say my name. Oh, like Oscar. Because he would write down my name. I've told this story before.

What's your last name there, Pally? V-I-L-L-L-A-R-R-E-A-L. I'm going to call you Alphabet. All right, thanks, Milo. May he rest? May he rest. Okay, I'm saving it to photos. This is going to be brilliant. Brilliant! All right, Matt, can you not do this in the middle of a segment? I don't know.

I'll wait. By the way, USA's up on check 4-1. Let's go, baby. In the early third period. They scored another one? Why are we doing Cajun yelling at Team USA? Why can't they? Because there's no...

There is not a... I guarantee you. What do you mean? There's not a single Cajon... There is not a single Cajon player. Defensewoman Cassie Boodro. is right there. Come on now. When I went to go see

the club hockey finals in Sugar Land, there was a team from Lafayette versus the team from Nashville. And what were their last names? I told you. Boudreau. Rubber show. Dibbado. Boucher. Smith. And, yeah. And drinkwits.

Dreekwits. Yeah. All right. That's not bad. Robitai. Robitio. Oh. Yeah, but speaking of which, Chris Boucher just got traded from the Celtics. The trades are happening in fact of him play last night. By the way, our clocks are two and a half hours.

Watch this happen. Watch our rockets do something at 158. You know what's going to happen. And the damn gibronies from the afternoon show are going to get all the run by. Why do they have to be gibronies? It's not like they're Jamokes. Jibonis, Jibokes. What's the difference?

All right, ladies and gentlemen, we ask you one. Oh, I love the clock. Yeah, you use our trade deadline clock. we ask you once a week to call in with something in your life you don't get and we'll do that next here on the Matt Thomas show Ross if you've got something in your life you just don't get Ross and aren't going to try to help you 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-2-1-2

7-19 all right well we'll get the bed going eventually the computers are freezing it's fine I mean it's happening to me too so we send a trouble ticket in but it'll just go in one ear and out the other but that's fine that's true let's get fixed eventually Let me tell you, in Minnesota, I'll get this stuff fixed.

There it is. Here we go. Oh, when you're... What is it? What is your title? The director of football operations, I believe? Director of Football. Assistant.

No, I think you're like the consultant. Yeah. I have 11 years of experience. I built the Seattle Seahawks. That's my team. It sounds like you're going to be the GM's bitch. You don't know that. Why would I leave Seattle from Minnesota?

That's true. I guess that's true. By the way, It sounds like, again, this is from Shams. A lot of things are coming in fast and furious. Ooh, the New Orleans Pelicans are trading Jose O'Rondon to the New York Knicks. Dang it. I kind of wanted Jose here.

That'd be nice. Chris Boucher is going to Utah, yeah. And a baby. The Bucks have been focused on incoming calls for Janus, but apparently they're going to, I guess, hold on to him. They are keeping him through the deadline. Stunning. It's a gut feeling else. for me. It got feeling L for me as well.

Gabe Vincent and the 2032 second round pick to Atlanta for Luke Kinnard. I'm sorry. A second round pick from when? 2032. I believe that's when 2001 of Space Odyssey was set. Yeah, remember when Prince back?

You don't remember this, but remember when he was 19? What is he saying? Can't believe it's like it's 1999 or something. Dance like it was 1989? About Prince? Yeah. Yeah. Harding like it's 1980. And 1999 came and went. And we were fine. We did fine. And all the bombs in the world didn't explode.

All right. By the way, you see John the Comingas going to Atlanta for Chris Stapstorzengis? Yes. Somebody wanted us yesterday called in wanting Chris Stops forzingis here in Houston. He's always hurt. He's always hurt. He's always hurt. He's good when he's on the court.

Yeah. Rim protector shoots threes. Celtics champion, but hurt. All right. Here's my just don't get it. Okay. 713-212-5-790 so I was off yesterday and my timeline was being flooded by some barber

who took a bunch of pictures of him cutting C.J. Stroud's hair. So the rolls are gone, right? The rows or rolls, rows? Rolls? Rose. Loads, they're gone. He's now, he's tightened up his lettuce, so to speak. Okay. And you know what?

Everybody's got to change your hairstyle. Sure. You'll be changing yours. I'm not going to make it a new story. You know what? Actually, I've been contacting people. I've been trying to make it a new story. All I'm saying is, I just don't get it. Why the hell do we care about what our quarterback could have had six crappy quarters do with his hair during the offseason? Is that supposed to change him into a better person and get him focused for the year? It's ridiculous.

Bad story by gravy training. barber looking for some free publicity. That's a good way to get some publicity. Hey, it's hard out there for the barbers, Maddie. I go to barbers. I go to three different barbers in Kingwood. I take care of them. Three different ones? Absolutely, I do.

How often are you going? About every 10 days. Maybe sometimes shorter. You rotate? Depends on, because some people are off on certain days. You're cheating on your barber? No, they know. They know I'm in an open relationship.

Okay. I just don't get it. Why don't we care about his hair? Is it that slow of a news day? I guess I don't know either while it became I look I guess news they got to fill the day somehow But I think I'm mostly with you I don't get why it became such a national sensation Maybe it's gonna help him not in that cut his hair was Houston was bored No there was like there was NFL accounts posting about it ridiculous and no he didn't turn the locks over

Okay, they didn't get intercepted oh no they weren't they were not they were not Maybe I just said that It's fine. I just say I just don't get it. By the way, USA up 5 to 1 now. Seriously, is there a mercy rule in women's hockey? I hope not.

It's like a 13-9 minutes. This is the Olympics. There you go. I got one. Please. It's sports. You know what? I'm going to let Sir Mix up.

Nick. Just call him Nicholas. Nicholas. Nicholas, you understand what we do here and I just don't get it? Things in your life you just don't get? Well, you got to give them time to come something. Are you kidding? I'm not doing it right now.

I think I got something. How old are you, by the way? I don't understand why you don't like you. Hold on, hold on. Hold on. He's not wearing headphones. Oh, you're going to wear headphones. You're going to be on this segment?

Put some headphones on. We'll come back to you. You have headphones, Nick? No, his name is Nicholas. Nicholas, I'm sorry, you're right. You're right, you're right. I asked him if you prefer Nick or Nicholas, and he said Nicholas. I'm going to make sure.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. All right, now, you. Well, don't you get? I prefer Ross to you call me putts. So I prefer Ross. I've called you many of worse things. Why did the Cavaliers trade for James Hardin and give up Darius Garland? You want the honest answer?

I have people in Cleveland. Okay, good. I know Darius Garland wasn't super happy. He wants to do his own thing. He made public comments like he wants to be the big dog and all that stuff. He wants to get out of the shadow of Donovan Mitchell and his other business. But the big problem with that is that he's always hurt. And you cannot be the big dog if you got part of your paw is always in trouble.

I don't really. You got thorns in your paw. Yeah. Yeah, I guess, yeah, sure. If you're always going to the vet. All right, let's move on. Let's move on from this analogy. So that's, you get it.

But James Harden? James Hardin is the solution? I mean, he's good. He's scoring 25 a game. Eight assists a game. But he's not going to get that volume of shooting on Cleveland. Good distributor. but then, you know, the beauty of basketball is it's a two-way game.

And sometimes it's the curse of basketball. And while I will say James Hardin was an underrated defender in his prime, he is well past his prime. Well past his prime and he's got a familiar storyline. Goes to a team, put some decent regular numbers. And this year for the Clippers is really good. But then he winds up faltering the playoffs with epically bad performances. I mean, two for 11, three for 13, five turnovers. historically bad.

Yeah, really, really bad. All right, what you got next? All right, now. Nicholas is ready. Don't call him Nick. Sir, mix a Nicholas. Nicholas, what don't you get, my friend? I don't get why you don't like the Olympics, Matt.

Oh. Yeah. Man, you cut him on fire. Let's go. That's right. Nicholas, where you? Stand up for yourself. Nicholas, where are you from?

I'm from Katie. You women, you're a Katie. Through and through. You guys are Katie Brethren. Where did you go to high school? I went to Katie High School. Oh, geez. I was all paid athletes for like 30 years.

You know what you did. Don't tell me you didn't. You hear me, Katie? I know what you did. Oh, wow. Sorry. That sounds like Maid Creek jealousy is what that sounds like. You know that Maid Creek's never beaten Katie in football ever?

How long have they been playing? Well, 88. Got to be at least 30 years. Yeah. Well, I was the class of 90 and we didn't meet them. Oh, wow. You were the first class. The third class.

You know? Oh, the third class. Okay. So I would say probably 80, they were playing varsity in 89. Yeah. Okay. So there you go. That means they're due, Matt.

No, they're not due. That's never going to happen because Katie high school pays their players. There's always next year. They created NIL. They called it cornbread and chicken fried steak at the country cafe in Katie. It's where we beat every district opponent by like 50 every week. Okay, that's enough from you. All right.

Yeah, Nicholas. Why don't you like the Winter Olympics, Matt? USA's kicking ass right now. It's just started. How do you mean, it can be terrible. I know you want to watch that woman's bobsled team. I mean, there's a chance of that for sure, but it's fine. You're sick, freak.

I mean, figure skating, I watch you when Nancy Kerrigan was beating people up. Yeah, figure skating's good. What else? You don't want to watch. You don't want to watch Lindsey Vaughn with a torn ACL go down downhill skiing? I like to interview with Lindsay Vaughn. I didn't ask you that. Oh.

It's fine. Okay, Shiffran's been killing it in slalom. Michaela Shiffran. How old are you, by the way? I'm 23. 23, and you're 23, and you're like, winter sports and you live in Katie.

Yep. Okay. I actually have a YouTube channel about all of the Olympic sports. How many subscribers do you have? Are your parents from Saskatchewan or something? No, we're Houston through and through. Wow. How many subscribers do you have?

Three. I just started it. Good one of you. Nice. Three subscribers? Yeah. Nice. As far as you don't get a credential from the Texans.

All right. What you're shaking your head for? Terrible. You mean terrible. It's the truth. All right. What are your top three winter sports? Nicholas.

Nicholas, what's your top three? I'd say hockey, definitely number one. I love cross-country skiing. Cross-country skiing is definitely an underrated sport. Where are your folks from, by the way? He said Houston. Yeah, my mom's, she's from Katie. And my dad, he grew up in A-Leaf.

Wait, wait, there's got to be some... Are you his dad? I did grow up in A-Leaf, too, so for a while. That's what I'm saying. A-Leaf and Kate, wait a minute. 23? What's your mom's name? Melody.

Melody. That's a nice name. I like that name. That's a great name. Like, I love, there's a handful names. Melody's a great name. Samantha's a great name. Is that my phone?

Nope. Not new. Whose phone's talking there? I think it's, is it Nicholas? Nicholas? Nicholas? Yeah, he's watching the Olympics. Do I know Melody?

Where does she go to high school? She went to Taylor High School. Oh, she went to the rival? Mm-hmm. That's your rival? Katie Taylor? Katie Taylor is our rival. Really? Yes.

You couldn't be Katie? We could beat Taylor, though. Okay. Taylor got the money. We can beat them. All right. Nichols, thank you very much. You know what, Nicholas, because you have come through so strong in this segment,

it attacked me right away, I will watch at least one hour over the winter You're watching it right now. Yeah, so this counts. What else is on? Open Cerewell. Like I said, we can put first things first with Chris Carter and Nick Wright

if you want. Maybe they're talking about my hiring. You don't know. You're not got hired, Matt. Any live sports has got to be better than those studio shows. You got that right. I love live sports. Our Nicholas Quiet, that doesn't. I love live sports.

Don't tell him to be quiet. Well, we'll see. You brought him into the segment. Yeah, I did. He got a headstone phones on at least that's nice. I like him already. He's taking shots at you. Yeah, he's learning. You've been producing this for an hour.

You know, our training manual, that's the number one rule. Jonathan, I love for the best. Jonathan get back quickly as possible. Let's take a timeout. Brian and Parenthood, as I just don't get it, if you got it, I just don't get it, let us know. 713-212-5-7-90. Welcome to the show. Welcome to Matt Thomas Show at Ross.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Actually, you know what? If the USA team does well in Olympics, I'll watch that. I like watching hockey. It's not anti-hockey. Seems like you hate hockey. You just said you hate the Winter Olympics. It's the worst thing ever.

Figure skating is boring. Wraintzoned. Figure skating is boring. Bob sled and what's the other one they do? It's like similar to that. Skeleton? Skeleton. It's fine.

You're only watching downhill skiing for the accidents. I heard the Italian bobsled team is very strong this year. What made you say that? That's what the streets are saying. There are no streets in Houston talking about Italian bobsled. Unless you're hanging out with Nicholas and just three fans on YouTube. Yeah. I am.

All right. 713212-5-790. What don't you get? 7-1-3-2-1-2. What's your channel, Nicholas? I'm going to go subscribe. It is Olympic Sports Talk. Oh, see.

So why aren't you? You should be going national, right? You shouldn't be just keeping it to the local stuff. How are we going to promote this? I don't know. I actually just created a podcast that's going to be uploaded on all the I-heart Houston. Oh, look at you. Let's go, baby.

Let me tell you, if I listen to yours where you listen to my new game show podcast after the rocket season's over with? Yeah, I'll do that. What's your favorite game show? My favorite game show? Gotta be either a deal or no deal or family feud. Okay. Family feud is a classic.

It's a goat. Let's go to Jimmy and Tom, we'll get to you in a second. We'll get him screen. Let's talk to Brian and Pearline. Brian, what don't you get, my friend? Hey, M.D., first of all, congratulations yesterday, a big day for the Thomas and for Carly. So that's a love to her, and that's awesome.

Thank you. Congrats on that. Second of all, first of all, what I don't get, I've got two of them. I don't get how you have time to run a successful business like remote for you. Dot biz. Thomas Sports Enterprises host a major market midday radio program. Look for property when you move to Minnesota and do the Rockets play-by-play all the same time. I just don't get how you do it.

And then finally, what I don't get, it's really, what I'm really starting to get is why all these. guys want to keep coming back for a sixth or seventh year of college eligibility 10 years ago this would have been unheard of or very very rare now you got guys like trinidad chambliss coming back for or you know trying to sue to get a sixth year or a seventh year like dude you you had a great run just go out and enjoy life and see what's next instead of trying to hang on to all these glory days like him and Diego Pavia and petitioning for seventh and eighth and ninth years of eligibility. Like, I just don't get it. Like at some point, move on. Nobody wants to see a 27-year-old quarterback, you know, playing against 18-year-olds anymore. After a while, it gets ridiculous.

So that's what I don't get. Thank you, Brian. I totally get it. Brian, sadly to say, because most of the kids are talking about are not going to the NBA. And if they're getting any NIL money. or any money from the school, that's more money than they would get by not competing. So even if they're not making $600,000 a year playing football or basketball or baseball, they may be getting $50,000. And that's money that they can put in their piggy bank for when they're done with school. Any money you can get, might as well get it while you can.

Yeah, I totally get it. And remember, Carson Beck kept coming back and back and back again because he's not an NFL prospect, but he's a good college quarterback. And got great money to leave Georgia to go to Miami. I mean, yeah, I totally get it. Totally get it. Straight cash, homie. Yeah.

It feels like a lot of the times, I just don't get it, can be answered with, I think that's the most popular answer. Money. I don't get it. Why are they doing this? Money. Why are they doing that? Money.

What's this happening for? Money. We can always kind of come back to that and I just don't get it. Yeah. Money makes a war go around. Let's talk to Jimmy and Tom Bono. Jimmy always brings us more life lessons. So Jimmy, what don't you get this week,

man. Matt, you know, not to be rude or anything, but I'm going to ask Ross a question. I just don't, I just don't get why this is called the Matt Thomas show. When Ross, Ross is the one who carries the show. Matt's gone 90% of the time. I just wondered if Ross could explain

that one to me and I'll hang up and listen. Well, it is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Yeah. Even though a lot of our liners don't say that and it's not my fault. It's starting to bother me a little bit, but that's okay. I mean, hey, you know, whatever. Just a little old me in the corner. It's fine. But it is the Matt Thomas show with Ross, which I had to ask for that to be added.

But we got it now. So it's good. You asked and what did I say? You said absolutely. Absolutely. I did. Thank you, Matt. Yeah. There are a lot of shows in this country that don't do that. I know. And look, here's the reality of it. We both get four weeks vacation. I actually get five, but you get four. Oh, that's nice. I miss time. Yeah. No. I will not say that Matt misses too much time.

And first of all, I don't take the whole five weeks. Yes. Because I feel like, and I do work holidays and I work weekends. So it all evens out. But I do. My schedule is disjointed because of the rocket schedule. So sometimes tough travel. And then yesterday, I love y'all.

But I'm not missing my daughter's National Signing Day. I'm just not. No. I wouldn't either. And Ross is always saying this, and I'm not trying to peel the curtain back too much, but he's always saying you need a real vacation. Absolutely. had a real vacation where I've done nothing

in 15 to 20 years. I need you to do that. It's too late. It's not too late. I can't. I need you to. Like we're going to go to Ross and I'm going to Vegas. You said you're going to go to Hawaii in June.

Yeah, change our mind. This Airbnb is Rhode Island's guy. That's a big of the budget. It's a budget crunch. It is a budget crunch. So Ross and I are going to go to Vegas in July. We decided we're going to go. Yes.

And I'm going to work while I'm there. Oh. I'm going to relax. You are going to relax. I'm going to work. Yes, you are. Can you put a t-shirt on? Why?

We don't need that fly walking around there. There's too many fit people at Circa. Oh, okay. You know what? They asked you not to get in the pool because you're going to clog all the drains with your back hair. That's fair. All right.

I don't do it. I'll be at the casino anyway. You didn't have a shirt out either. Also, your translucent legs are blinding everyone. I know. If there's anybody that needs to be out there about the pool, it should be me. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So I can get a little base tan going.

Look away. There's plenty of place. to look at Circus Swim. I got news for you. You're the last person I'm looking at. So yeah. And I'm down 33 pounds from last year. Shut your bum ass up.

But you're not losing as much to Dan. Dan's like down 7580. You're down 50. Why are you rolling your eyes? Congratulations to Danny's doing great. Dan, congratulations. I'm happy for him. Congratulations of being down 10 to 15.

Uh-oh. A friend of mine has called me from Minnesota. She thinks it's legit. There's no chance. There's a 100% chance. Why? Because I put it on my Facebook. You put on your Facebook that you're...

What is wrong with you? What is wrong with me? What's wrong with my friend? Jennifer, if you're listening, you know I'm not going to Minnesota. That is pretty funny. I didn't work for the Seahawks for 11 years. Well, we can't do this on radio. She has to know she's being recorded and she's on air.

I would love for you to pick it up and just try to convince her that you've been hired by the Vikings. I'm going to call her during the break. Take a break. We had the news that knew. You were going to play some sound during the news at New, weren't you? No. Oh, I know what you're going to play. I know what you're going to play.

I'm going to play in anything. Big Minnesota hiring. You're milking this too much as it is. I probably am. 1157. 713-212-2-5-7. We've got to talk to Softie in a half an hour here on Sports Talk 790. Hi there. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

1202 in H-Town. This is our number three of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Nice to have you with us here on the show. We're going to check in with Softie in one-half-a. hour from now. Again, do we just let him free form? You gotta have, you gotta give him

something to bounce off of. Those of you don't know, Safi is our Seattle correspondent from our sister station, KJR in Seattle. Yes. We blink talk each other a lot during Mariners' Astros season.

And we bow down to him and give him his love and props and flowers when the Seahawks go to playoffs. I'm rooting for the Seahawks. Are you really? Yes, I am. Seahawks in the Under, I'm rooting for.

Why are you shaking? your head at me. What's your problem? Can't you just sit back and enjoy the game for what it is? Oh, shush. You're the one like, I don't have a rooting interest. A game is a very easy way to get a rooting interest. But what if I don't want to bet the game?

Then don't. How you been? Are you got any, Brookie? That's not your business. All right. I am not betting, by the way. I am not betting on the game. That would be illegal in the state of Texas.

Thank you. You are having a... I got a friend in Vegas. Yes. Putting down some money for me. Yes. what do they call we have to put

We put some bed to stand for you A proxy We have a proxy Mm-hmm His name is Dave Dave Our friend Dave in Vegas Is our proxy

Dave in Vegas You're listening Shout out to you I need to use Dave As a proxy More Dave Dave's our proxy guy For sure

He's always wanting to bet Preseason football He's a Maybe the best known CFL Porness Odds maker I know Mm-hmm I think he's got

Norway In the curling championships You can bet I'm going to say Of course You can bet Olympics. I'm sure you can't. But you can't find lines readily? I mean, you'd have to do some deep diving on you.

You'd have to go on the dark web for that, I think, Matt. Is it 5-1 still USA women? I don't know. I think the game might be over. It's a switch. What else is on? Is there downhill skiing? I'll take anything at this point. Over first day. Are you a cross-country guy or a downhill guy? Which one has more abilities for greater accidents? Probably downhill.

Downhill. Downhill. Downhill, they go at speeds of like 100 miles an hour. Oh, yeah. Plus, I like Lindsey Vaughn. Isn't that what Lindsay Vaughn's doing on a torn ACL? Yep. She's down to one leg and she's still going to compete.

She's 41. What is she going to do after this? She's that psycho, though. She said the doctors told her it was okay. She's going to rip her knee in half. On NBC. I'm worried about her. Maybe they'll put that on like on CNBC or something.

Yeah. I mean, that's why they had that guy free climbing Taipei 101. why are people tuning in? Now I have to watch him do it. They're to see if he falls. If he ever does something ever again, that dude, I'm not watching it. I didn't watch the first one. No, that was, he's done like the thing that's called El Capiton in Yosemite.

Like, that's stuff that he actually does is way harder than climbing up a building like that. Actually, unless there was like a massive gust of wind or an earthquake. Ladies gentlemen, at 1205 here on the program, we give you the top news headlines today. We got a lot of NBA moves to be discussing. Oh, gosh. and the rockets from last night and a former Astro is now playing somewhere else. Yes. All part of the news at noon.

Yeah, we can get the bed down a little bit. Thank you, Nicholas. We've got a lot of stuff to get to here on the news at noon. Rockets get crushed by the Boston Celtics 114 to 93. The big difference was that third period. Matthew Derek White making four threes in the third. 36 points for the Celtics, only 21 for the Rockets. offense sputtered all evening long.

Your big three combined to go 12 for 31. Not going to get it done. 93 points. Not going to get it done. Not one for the history books for the Rockets. It's 11.93. They lose to the Boston Celtics back in action today against the Hornets. I'm staring at the box score.

The Celtics out rebounded the Rockets. 57 to 38. There cannot be a bigger discrepancy in a case. game this season we had last night. Well, you are going to also be a discrepancy when you're missing all of your shots. So you don't make shots there is going to certainly be a rebounding discrepancy. The Celtics were led by, 20 from Derek White, 19 from Luca Garza, 27 off the bench. Peyton Pritchard, the Caitlin Clark of the NBA, 27 off the bench.

He also had seven rebounds. And Nemeas Keita, 10 points, 19 rebounds, and five block shots. And they used him as the five, all. on one men Thompson defense, and it was pretty effective for the Boston Celtics, something to keep an eye on as we go along on the season. Okay, also the big news of the day, at least I guess it's kind of Houston-related.

From Burr-Valdez, La Grasse. He's getting paid. Now it's a short-term deal. Three years, Matt, I lost the bet, even though we made that bet before he melted down and then hit his catcher in the stomach. But I did lose the bet, even though we didn't put anything on it.

Tigers get a three-year, 115. million dollar deal for Framber Valdez. He gets reunited with A.J. Hinch. And it feels so good. Terik Scoubel, Framber Valdez, pitching staff overall. Looking pretty good over there in Detroit. Tarc Scouble, by the way, going to Instagram and putting up a photo of Framber Valdez's new contract. Why do you do that, Matt?

Because he's saying, with all the contract language? You're putting out the money for him and you can't pay me? Tarc Scouble. Maybe one's leading to the other. LA Dodger. Before you know it. One in doubt, anybody that's good goes to the Dodgers. La Graza is a tiger.

But okay, going back to the NBA news, of course, it is deadline day. All quiet on the rocket's front. The biggest news of the day is a trade that is not going to happen. The Milwaukee Bucks saying they're going to keep Ian Settento Cumpo through the trade deadline and will make other moves. This news coming from ESPN's Shams Sharania. And after several days of fielding offers from the Golden State Warriors, the Miami Heat, and the Minnesota Timberwolves who were among the teams interesting in acquiring Janus.

Asantecupa has been ready for a new home for months, either at Thursday's deadline or in the off season. I'm stunned by this. Because I felt like there was five or six teams that were ready to just throw the kitchen sink at them. Yeah, maybe they feel like they feel like. they'll have a better market come the offseason following the lottery where they can have more of a concrete idea of what their

draft picks will be if they're wanting future draft picks which of course they're going to want. So I don't know. All right. Elsewhere a big deal in the NBA. We mentioned this earlier on the show. The Warriors are trading Jonathan Caminga. Buddy healed both of those players to the Hawks for

Christop's Porzingis. So Porzingis is going to be a Golden State warrior, Jonathan Kaminga out, buddy healed out as well for the Golden State Warriors. Hawks are just, I mean, I think they can get rid of healed and Kaminga pretty easily in this offseason. Yeah. They're going to go full rebuild mode. Traded away, Tray Young.

They're doing their stockpalling draft picks. Yes. They are praying for a top five selection in this draft coming up. All right. And elsewhere in the NBA, I mean, there have been trades. flying all over the place. Unfortunately, Rockets target Jose Alvarado of the New Orleans Pelicans has been traded to the New York Knicks

in exchange for Daly and Terry, two second round picks and cash. So a couple second round's picks in Dailen Terry, who's, you know, not some great New York Nick. He's not going to get a statue at MISG. And two first round picks? I guess

Rockets just didn't have much wiggle room, but Jose Alvarado would have liked to see him in a Houston Rocket uniform, but he's going to be a New York Nick. And that will do it for the sports headlines of the day. Okay. Thank you very much for that, Ross. Oh, one more. Yeah, please.

The Vikings have made a hire. Yes, they did. The Vikings have hired Matt Thomas. As, hold on, I'm trying to get the official. He has spent 11 seasons as the vice president of football operations. He's going to be a football administration consultant for the Minnesota Vikings.

Congratulations to Matt Thomas. How many people have sent you that already? Too many. I'm going to be like 15. That's great. You okay over there? Yeah, I'm just running through all these congratulations.

Are you really leaving? That kind of thing. All right. That's the news at noon. Thank you very much for that. We got Softens going to join us at the bottom of the hour from San Francisco, Media Row.

Or they're calling it Yeah, they're calling it. Good job. You got it right. Yeah. Proud of you. Apparently, the leader, the nicest person at Meteorow has been Pat McAfee.

Oh, really? Yeah. Now, he's got a hellacious set, but apparently for a couple hours he talked to a bunch of people and just let people come with talking to him in court. Yeah, I mean, chilling, hanging out. My guess is, he's got to be nice.

He's a punter. Nothing to do with it. He's reinvented sports entertainment. Some of it to the detriment. It's not my cup of tea, but not everybody, I'm not everybody's cup of tea either. So that's fine. I get it.

Okay. 713, 212.1.7.90. Let's get a quick time out. We'll come back and get. We've got James coming in with a late. I just don't get it. We'll figure that out what's going on. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

It's 12-12 here on 790. All right. I feel like we're a jude-box here trying to be a radio show. It's all right. It is Matt and Ross with you here on 790. 7-1-3-2-5-790. 7-1-3-2-5-7-70. Softty.

sent me a text and it's him on a beach okay with a taco bell cup huh where is he i thought you said he was at meteoro he is well not like literally his shows not until later on today what do you think that is we're going to have to ask there's a i mean they have the taco bell canteen is everywhere right yes they had won told you there was one in downtown indianapolis last week yeah it was really weird It's the most happening spot in Indianapolis. I don't believe it to be the case. Mark Sanchez wasn't there. Oh, you prefer the slippery noodle inn.

That's true. All right, 713-212. Yeah, Mark Sanchez was in there. Chasing the fight. Yeah. Like the Astros. The Boston media is like, what does Chase the fight mean? When were you listening?

Oh, oh, the Celtics were talking to Celtics. Yeah. They're like, what does Chase the fight? I'm like, I don't know. I think they, you know, once a year, people get in a room, shut the door, and I go, we need to come up with some term for the year, and that was what they came up with. We'll get used to it.

Those to me don't do much for me either way. Oh, curling is on. Yes. Now, you know, this is like their home sport, right? Canada's got to be the goats. Now, you know, a friend of mine is doing the play by play for curling. Really? Should we get him on the show next week?

If you want, you can talk about the nuances of curling. again to describe it what is that what is that puck made of it's a I don't know

stone and they can bump people out it's like it's like shuffleboard a little bit yeah it's shuffleboard on ice

curling stone is made of rare exceptionally dense water resistant granite curling believe it or not

today oh no no no we don't nicholas is it's going to get a day off he doesn't know that's okay

we don't want that to happen I like that I figured you appreciate that. Oh, it's Italy versus Canada right now. Oh, this is like the heavyweight matchup. This is like Hagler-Herns. Stop it.

It's not. You're right. You're right. It's more Ali Frazier. We'll go heavyweights. Oh, she's cute. So it's mixed. It's a guy and a girl? I don't know how this works. Oh, man, this is drama right here. I'm sorry, we should not have dead air, but it's, you know what? It's more fasting than I frankly thought it was going to be.

All right. So the thing about is shuffleboard on ice. Yeah. And you get to literally go. Walk it down. Curling Thomas. You're not going to call me anything. James and Klein. They called you the curler in high school.

That's enough for you. James, what don't you get? Yeah, last week I went to Lake trolls to go gambling. Yes. And me and my son and I decided we go over to Cheshada. Okay. And on the way back from Cheshada, there's this black, it's like a Dodge Charger or whatever with blue lights on.

So I said, well, I'll let it pull over. So I pull over. And it was a police officer. I thought they should have red and blue lights. He only had blue lights, but that's not the point. The point is, he said I was going 62 and a 50. So he writes me out a ticket. I'm thinking, do you want people to come back to a shot or not?

It's not like I was going 80 miles an hour. I just don't get it. Well, you were going 12 miles over. I totally get it. You were 12 over. Usually you get the, your buffer zone is about five, right? Sometimes people are 21 over. Who would that be?

Oh, I know who the 21 over was. Huh. And they still complain. Yeah. Oh, somebody else's fault. If I didn't have to go there, it wouldn't have been an issue. I'm the worst. I'm not far behind.

This curling is thrilling. It's good stuff. Okay, we have to turn it off. We have to focus on the radio. I'm focused. People want to hear football talk. Yeah, okay, let's talk football. Okay, CJ Stroud.

Should they extend them? Are they going to activate the fifth-year extension or fifth-year option? Does his haircut mean a sign of a times and a more mature quarterback. Yes. It's going to... You know what? It's a new hair. It's a new do.

It's a new him. Don't do it. That's somebody chasing a story. New do. New you. Let's go. No, not good. 2026, the year of the Stroud. I'm ready, baby. I'm ready for the back. I told you. Oh, by the way, you know, I did a poll question. His stock has never been lower as an NFL head quarterback.

I forgot to mention this. I did a couple of poll questions. Oh, you did? On Twitter a couple days ago. At SportsMT. was at sports team, by the way. If you're going to take shots, at least hashtag me so I can see him. No, I don't care. All right.

Here's the poll. It was, should you give C.J. Stroud a clean slate for 2026. Most everybody said yes, right? They did. In fact, let me pull the numbers up. 639 votes. Did you show you how football is popular?

639. 65% said, sure, why not? 35% said, nope. done. The same question was posed at just about the exact same time. Only 278 votes came in on this one. Didn't end up in the for you tab as much. Are you willing to give Christian Walker a clean slate? Sure, why not? 70%. Nope, I'm done 30%. The reality is you have to give both those guys clean slates. Yeah. I mean, it's going to happen. Whether you vote for it or not. So he can cut his hair, he can dye his hair, he can do all the

charitable things he wants to. There's nothing from a PR image standpoint he's going to necessarily do that's going to make anybody feel better. Yeah, he can go play. He can just go play and wins games. He's got to go play. You don't care what you do as long as you perform well. The question you are the thing you must pray for

if you are a Texans fan is that your defense plays every bit as good as it did a year ago. Chances of that are very slim. Like I guess the question would be, and it would take a little bit of research it is, how was the 2001 Baltimore Ravens defense.

How were the 86 Bears defense? Now a little bit different because we're talking about salary caps and what then. They didn't have it back then. 86 Bears defense is almost as good as 85 if not better depending on what metrics you look at. But what about 2001 Baltimore Raven? It's also we're in a different era of the salary

cap and all this stuff. Yeah. And as we keep pointing out the Texas defense was healthy. I'm not worried about the finances. I'm more worried about the health. What a missed opportunity. We can be talking about the Texans getting their ass kicked in the Super Bowl now.

What do you think the line would be? Probably about the same, maybe five and a half. Yeah. Because Texans were two and a half dogs to the Patriots. Well, the question would be, could the Texans win two more playoff games with an average to below average offense? If CJ doesn't throw the interceptions, could he have at least put up more points than the Patriots had to beat them in Foxborough? They could have. They could have.

All right, let's take a quick time out. We're going to go check in in San Francisco. All right. Jonathan's on here today. My name's Ross. We need to give him a definitive. We got to have a San Francisco song, right? Are we going to play something San Francisco?

Which one you want? With the flowers in your hair won? I like that, but that's old. It's old. I mean, there's no new happen in San Francisco songs. Well, there's Tony Bennett. I left my heart in San Francisco. That's, yeah, old.

Yeah, it's old too. And it's also slower. Yes. What's the most upbeat song we can go with? Rice-erone, the San Francisco treat? That's not a song that's a commercial. Well, it's a jingle. Which is a song. The full-house theme.

Done. Full-house theme. You hear me now, Nicholas? I think we might have it in the system. Full-house theme next for Softie from KJR. He's joining us in the Bay Area next on 790. Top 10 theme of all time? No, not even close. Oh, oh. Oh, no way. No way.

Oh, this is a class. It is not a top 10. It's a catchy tune, but it's on a top 10. No way. Sitcoms only? I'm putting it up there. No chance. Absolutely.

Now you're narrowing it down to sitcoms? What's just saying? You got no chance? No chance. Let's see. Rolex stone put together a list. Let's see what they have. Number one's Jefferson.

So we're on the same page there. Yes. Good times on their list. Mm-hmm. Oh, we got to keep the song up for some. Softy, Nicholas? Softie's coming on, Nick. Let him get in the vibe of San Francisco. Yeah, Jefferson's won.

Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island. That can be a tie. You know what? Get off the fence, Rolling Stone. Ruling Stone sucks. Okay. Sanford's Son 3. They said Octopus's Garden was one of the Beatles' best songs. That sucks. Octopuses Golden.

All right. It's enough. All right. Was it the remix? Huh. This is the album version. All right. That's enough. Let's focus. We're a sports show. Come on now.

We wouldn't want to inject any humor on this program. Lord knows. Well, I know who's going to inject some humor? All right. Let me tell you something. Softie's our guy. He was with us a couple weeks ago. And he's like, he was passionate.

He brought the fire and people loved him. They don't like him during baseball season because he likes to make fun of our beloved Astros. We're not going to tell Softie what the theme of the 2026 Astros, are we? We can tell him. We'll tell him towards the end. He'll tell how bad it is. He's going to make fun of us, as he should. Yeah, as he probably should.

Joining us now, KJR Seattle, the sports leader, spending thousands and thousands of dollars to send all the radio host from KJR to the Bay Area. Softie, how the hell are you? What are we talking about here? 70s TV shows? No, we're talking about why you're drinking Taco Bell can'tina drinks in San Francisco. Please explain yourself.

I'm not in San Francisco. First of all, I'm in Pacific, California. All right. Saying in San Francisco would have been way too much for the I-Hard family to afford, so they stuck us in an Airbnb in Daly City, which is about 10 miles south of San Francisco. We are now in Pacific City, which is a beautiful beach area down here, by the way, right in the Pacific Ocean.

And I have absolutely found Nirvana. I have found the only Taco Bell in the country with a full bar. And I am sitting here enjoying a breakfast. burrito with a bloody Mary and a cup of coffee on the beach and Taco Bell. No matter what you accomplish the rest of the day. Correct. That's fair. The rest of the week, you will never top what I'm doing right now.

No chance. You are, by default, a loser. By the way, why didn't you tell me there was a Matt Thomas that was an administrator for the Seattle Seahawks? I'm getting some serious run today because of this. Well, I mean, I don't know. I think, you know, being in your business is certain things that you should just know. Oh, come on.

I thought you were a professional. Oh, come on. All right. What's wrong with you? Name two members of the Texans front office. Go. Sam Stoverman and Shlomo Goldstein. Yeah, see, you're such a fraud.

All right, hey, so are all of you KJR host in the same Airbnb? Are you all separated by different rooms and stuff? No, so we got seven of us here. Six of us are in a house, and one of us is at the media hotel up in San Francisco. on radio row. You probably can guess which one of the seven is at the media hotel, and it's the one member of our staff without a

penis, all right? Because they're not going to stick Jessamine McIntyre in a hotel with a bunch of dudes for six freaking days. So all of us are down there at the Airbnb, and producer extraordinaire Jessamine McIntyre is up north at the media hotel. Wow. All right.

Yeah. So I'm just very... I think that's kind of like an I heart mandate. You can't have six dudes and one girl in a room together or an Airbnb together. We all have our own room and our own bed, by the way, which is shocking. Matt Thomas is actually the reason for that company mandate. Yeah, I don't doubt it, man, at all. Well, wait, right, which Matt Thomas? That's enough.

Or the one for the Seahawks. All right, hey, you guys are going to win this game by 10 points on Sunday. You know this, correct? No, shut up. God. Shut your mouth, man. Nobody wants to hear that. Nobody asks you.

Nobody cares what you fake about your stupid predictions. We talk nothing but Patriots and Seahawks here in Houston, Texas. That's all we want to talk about is breaking down the game, breaking down the linebackers. Why don't you, why don't you just sit there and cry over Framber Valdez, these guard of the tigers and be done with it for crying out loud? Let me take some. I mean, the theme for 26 is going to be sucked for scubal. That's what it's going to be.

Just lose as many games as you can. Oh, my God. Get rid of as many contracts as you can. can make room for scoobo and then maybe one day in your lifetime you guys are back in the playoffs we'll see see see that's a softy we're loved during the springtime he's he said of join the experience of being at the super bowl staying in a fancy uh Airbnb having Taco Bell with all fancy it's not it is not fancy whatsoever there's a reason why I'm enjoying Taco Bell by the way right now instead of some fancy fancy fancy breakfast restaurants the five layer burrito

diet. It's not good. Yeah, yeah. It was actually the Gordita. Yeah, that's true. All right. What worries you about your squad against the Patriots? Just tell me the truth. Well, right now it's Nicky Monoury's ankle. Are you kidding me? You see that yesterday?

Yeah, not good. Nicky Menwary, who might be one of the best, well, he is one of our best defensive players. That's for sure. He's been playing mostly Sam linebacker. Everybody calls him a safety, but he's not a safety. That's just lazy. You take like five snaps at safety. Almost every

snap he's made this year has been at the strong side linebacker spot. So he's a same linebacker. Where's number three? Looks nothing like Russell Wilson, but where's number three like Russell Wilson did? And he limped off the field yesterday with a right ankle injury. So there's a video circulating

around the web right now of him limping into the team hotel. I've watched that about 500 times since last night. This is exactly the problem that we had with Cam Chancellor 11 years ago against the same you know, God darn Patriot team, sorry, when Cam rolled his ankle in practice that week, and he just was not the same in that game against the Patriots in 49.

So we'll see. But right now, that's what concerns me is the help in the game and worry for sure. Does Gonzalez absolutely blanket Jackson Smith and Jigma for the whole three and a half hours? I don't think so, but even if he does, so what? Who cares? I mean, Matt, Jackson Smith and Jigma is ungris. guardable. Even in games where he was under 100 yards, which happened eight times this year, you know, the Theonx record is in those eight games when Jackson Smith and Jigba went under 100 yards.

Seven and one? No. They did not lose a game with Jackson and Jigba going under 100 yards. So it was pretty good guess. You know, not correct, but still pretty good. I just think that, you know, there's nobody that can stop this guy down in and down out. And, look, Gonzalez is a good player, despite the fact that he's a freaking duck. But if that's the best that New England has against this Seahawk offense, then they're going to be in trouble because they're going to need to cause some havoc with those two big guys in the middle.

They're two big defensive tackles as a much bigger concern for me than Christian Gonzalez, shadowing Jackson Smith and Jigba. Rossian, legit questions for him? Did you want to get mad at Matt for talking about... Yeah, somebody on the air who actually had some good questions. Come on, let's go. No, I wanted to talk about playoff Sam Darnel, like Matt was saying last time. I told you, playoff Sam Darnel was undefeated, baby.

All he does is win. That's all I do. How about, how about slinging Sammy in the last two games against San Francisco and L.A.? Remember we talked about that, right? When I was on with you guys, this lazy, stupid narrative about Sam Darnold, and he can't deliver in the playoffs based on one game. Like, we're going to go bananas. We're going to lose our mind.

We're going to create this narrative. over one game, really? I mean, look, you want to have a narrative about Lamar Jackson? Great. You want to have a narrative about Josh Allen or Sean McDermott, for example? That's fine. There's a buttload of data with those guys, right? But there was one, stay with me now, guys, one game on Sam Darnold,

was the game that led to everybody losing their mind. And Darnold has been unbelievable come playoff times. That ram game, I don't think we've talked since the NFC championship, guys. Third and seven, we're going to half minutes to go from inside their own 30. I look at my wife and I said, babe, you're about to see the biggest play of Sam Donald's career. And it converts on third and seven on a seam route to Cooper Cup. And they continue and they march and they eventually win the game.

So I don't have any concerns about Sam Donald. You know, if he ends up throwing a pick, okay, you know what? Give the Patriots credit. He ends up fumbling a ball. Okay, whatever. Give the Patriots credit. But the Seahks are not losing this game because Sam Darnold, cannot handle the pressure of playoff football.

That's ridiculous. All right. Now, you were looking for tickets. How are you doing on that? Got them. Good to go. Good to go. Got tickets.

Ticket prices are actually dropping dramatically. You can get in the door for $4,500 right now. It's closer to $7,000 when this thing launched after the NFC championship game. But I think they'll drop even more. I just think the market was way too high. It was way too crazy. And way too many people decided to pass on airline tickets and hotels. So a lot of people are going to have to scramble.

And that's hard to get a lot of people at the last second, obviously, to decide to make a trip to San Francisco, especially from Boston. So I would not be surprised if they're under $4,000 by game day. But, yeah, I was able to get in at face. How about that? Lucky me, at face value. Wait a minute.

Wait a minute. How did you get face? Who do you know? What do your connections? Matt Thomas from the Seahawks. No doubt about that. All right. Last thing for a let you run.

I actually, hey, you know, Matt, I actually texted you. And I said, you know anybody from the texting? Yeah, I know. Who can hook me up. Yeah. And I got nothing. I got nothing.

I said, I said on it. And then I said on it and then I forgot. All right, listen. You never texted me back this guy. This is what Matt's all about everybody. He makes promises that he can't keep. Uh-huh. True, true and true.

I got you a sports bar for the national championship game. And what did that good to do you? Nothing. You did. No, no, no. By the way, that was Tom's, right? Yes. that place was freaking packed.

I told you. We had that place jammed. No, Husky fans, dude. Matt, I'm not kidding you. There were 2,000 Husky fans at that bar. Those people were losing their mind. They weren't even prepared. They ran out of wings by 9 o'clock at night.

There was no beer by 8.30. We're sitting around drinking water and eating bread just to pass the time at that place. That was awesome. What a night that was. But the game stuck, but that night was great. That's fine. Before I let you run, you're on Radio Row. So give me your best guest you've had so far, the best one.

Well, the best guest we are going to have, I will tell you that. I'm 52 years old. Who do you think the greatest athlete I ever saw was? I'm 52. Yeah, but you're fun? Is it Pacific Northwest or is this national? No, it doesn't, national. Bill Jackson.

52. Bingo, Bo Jackson on the show today with us from Radio Row. Wow. All right. Who is the one guest? I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep it together, man. No, I'm feel the sense. I might start drooling when he comes over.

I had Barry Sanders on when I was in Phoenix years ago, and that was a kid in the candy store for me. All right. Worst guests, tell me some of the crap that your producer's given you, because I know that our producers here gave us crap for many years. You know, we haven't had crap yet so far this week, mostly because I just don't put them on the air. I've gotten to a point with this whole thing, Matt,

and you've been doing this a long time like I have. My first Super Bowl was Packers Patriots in 96, 97 from New Orleans. And back in the day, we would just put any Tom, Dick, and Harry on the air. Anybody who wanted to go on the air is getting on the air. And now we're being selected, right? Now we're not doing that. If I can get two or three decent guests a day from Radio Row, I'm happy. Dick and I drove down to San Jose yesterday, banged out about 20 interviews with Seahawks players from their media availability.

And I think fans back in Seattle would rather hear that. that. I think they'd rather hear from Seahawk fans than, you know, some guy pushing a freaking ventilator for God's sakes or a vacation rental property somewhere in Mexico. So we're not doing that crap anymore. Well, I want you to get Carl Mecklenburg on the show. That'll be a huge gift for your program between now and the end of the week. Carl, the former Denver Bronco, Carl Mecklenburg. Remember the three amigos? A lot of Denver Seattle connections there. Remember the three amigos back in the day? No, I don't care about the Broncos. They They beat the older several times.

I don't care about them. By the way, you won't be getting Markslerathon because you won't have returned your text either, by the way. Well, he doesn't do I-Heart stations. He's a Bonneville guy. Clearly. Ricky to Teal, Mark Jackson, Van Gogest, Joseph, the three amigos back in the day. Steve Largent. Dick.

Dick. Which, which, uh, oh, Hardin. Was it Hardin? Largent, knocked the piss out of the guy in Denver. Mike Hardin. Cornerback. Go look up Steve Largent. Mike Harden knockout on YouTube.

You want to get your blood going for a Seac-Bronco rivalry. Sorry, I'm rambling now. Sorry, I'm going to go look at my Harold Reynolds highlights of Mariners games of 30 years ago. Hey, you should go look up your highlights of the Texans or the Oilers and the Super Bowl. You bastard. You bastards. Yeah. Yeah, suck on that, Houston.

Yeah, we'll do that while you look up the Mariners and the World Series highlights. Hey, guess what? When's my next road trip to play the Sonics? Bha! You're breaking up. You're breaking up. I can't hear you. What was that?

Love you, softy. See you later. Good luck. We're wishing the very best. See you. That's enough. That's enough. Texans on me.

Terrible. And oilers. I do want them to get an NBA team against Green NBA. It's wide open for a counterpunch on the Mariners, though. Yeah. They were close. But then Toronto got it. And then they choked.

That's a shame. And then he got all mad because Toronto fan was rude to see that. Imagine putting a shoe on your head and your team chokes? That's terrible. That little pitchwork there around with? You don't really feel like a jackass with a shoe on your head and tears in your eyes. Yeah. We're Scott's service when you need them.

All right. Fired. 1246. Putting in Robbie Ray. Yish. All right. Terry and David Hank time will get to you in a matter of moment. It's 1246 is the time.

It is the Matt Thomas Show. with Ross, we take it till 2 o'clock, here on Sports Talk 790. 1251 on Sports Talk. We've got to turn it down. We can't want to fight. We don't want to fight the song. There we go. 1251 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas Show at Ross.

713, 212, 570. Nicholas back there mixing the tunes up. I'm curious about line one. Let's find out. Terry calling us from somewhere in Ohio. First of all, Terry, thank you for waiting. Where are you calling us from Ohio? Pashtibula. What? Where is it again?

Ashtabula. It's about 60 miles west of Cleveland. Oh, nice. What's going on today in Pashtabula? Anything interesting? No, I got a couple of things about Cole Thompson. Oh, sure. He's such a homer. That's why the Texan did to win in the playoffs. I want to make two predictions. The Patriots beat the Seahawks. And the Cavaliers in the NBA finals.

Wow, because of the James Hardin trade? Absolutely. What did you say about Cole Thompson? He's the reason why the Texans did not win the playoff game? He kept saying every morning, oh, they can't lose. They got C.J. Straub. They got Woody Marks. You got Derek Stingley, Jr.

So it's, you know what, Terry, you bring up a fair point. It probably is on Cole a little bit, don't you think? Not a lot. They got overconfident. Yeah, because frankly, Terry, Cole's kind of overconfident on a lot of his Houston Texan sports takes. I don't disagree with you on this, by the way. Thank you for the phone call.

Appreciate it. Hey. Yes. I can't believe you don't like the Winter Olympics, Matt. It's not great. I like the Summer Olympics. Is that okay? I'd rather, I like the Winter Olympics better.

Okay. You don't teach his own. Terry, what show are you watching? I'm not watching anything. I thought we heard a TV in the background there. TV or radio? It's the radio. Hopefully it's on IHeart Radio app. Thank you very much, Terry.

All right. Thank you. See you. Thank you, Terry. I thought he was watching Bananza or something. Yeah, why was Cole so arrogant about the Texans running the table? I don't know. I'm not up then, so I don't normally catch the show.

It's called Third and Long, weekday morning. No, Matt. It's called the Morning Drive. Put some respect. on our morning show's name. Dan Matthews and Cole Thompson, the morning drive. Six to 10 a.m. here on Sports Talk 790. We want you all to listen.

And Dan gets top billing on that show too. I guess, does he? I guess, does he? I don't know. I mean, I would go personally, let's see, Matthews and Thompson. Yeah, that's alphabetical. The wake-up call with Cole and Dan? No, that's not C&D.

All right. Or D and C. All right. Yeah, I mean, it's not like I despise the Winter Olympics, but I can promise you, because my life is ridiculously hectic right now. I'm not going to be sitting down and going, I need to sit down and watch two or three hours. Snowboard tricks are going pretty good.

I wonder if there is active in the Olympic Village as the summer Olympians are. It's colder, yeah, probably more active. I've got to get that body heat. Do a Google search on that. Oh, my gosh. Let's talk to our friend David in Vegas. David, by the way, is our proxy for when we win major amounts of money in Las Vegas. David, how are you?

fine, John. Yes, I heard my name taken in vain in this context earlier, so I thought I'd check in. I have no idea what the laws are about running bets for you guys across state lines. Oh, we're kidding. I'm always here in trouble. You know I'm always here for you. Thank you. Anything I can do.

Thank you. Just let me know. But just you got me thinking a little bit on the whole subject at betting these winter sports, and you probably wonder what I'm up to. Yeah, first of all, Super Bowl, I kind of agree with you guys. I think I've got it that 24-16 Seahawks, so kind of a cover and under, which is, I think, where you guys are kind of leaning. So we'll see if that works out.

The obviously involved in that, I am, I will probably watch some Olympics. I certainly will bet and watch some ice hockey, men's hockey anyway, some curling, which has its appeal for a number of things. This is a fun betting sport, but also, did you check out the Swedish women's team last year? What a smoke show. There's a bit of just to watch it curling. The Swedish team in anything is always very strong. Yeah.

Soccer, curling, beach volleyball. And I may try a little bit of like downhill skiing and stuff like that. The thing is there's a game changer out there a little bit in sports. You know, in sports, you know, every morning. And I've been doing this for a couple of weeks now. I get up and I ask my AI program, two questions. I say, what,

survey all the hockey handicappers and tell me what the bett bet is in the hotel today. And it gives me an idea, and I just bet that one game. Whether I know anything or not. Do the same thing with college basketball. So pick me a college basketball bet.

It surveys all these handicappers that comes up with an answer or multiple answers. Since I've been doing that, I mean, it's been like 9 and 5 or something, which isn't really bad, you know. It's a whole new way to handicap. And I think that may come into play in the Olympics.

I mean, we don't know anything about men's downhill slalom skiers, but you could ask your AI program, and it may find you a better, too. There you go. Thank you very much, David. Chat GPT, Maddie. You know, we're running into some trouble. I got people, I got friends of mine fighting with chat GPT. I got kids in today's high schools and colleges using ChatGPT for their papers,

and they're trying to answer questions. I got radio host using Chat GPT, me. it's a crutch, it's terrible, and it's oftentimes wrong. Managers are using it for their evaluations of their employees. Explain. Like for a year-in reviews and stuff like that. You can just tell when stuff's written by AI. It just sounds a little, for lack of a better term, robotic.

Yeah. There's no heart, there's no emotion to it. Impersonal heartless. Yeah, yeah. I get you. I get you on that. Thank you. the phone call again to David and good luck. I mean, it's an aggregator. Clearly it does.

He said, give me the best college pick out of day. If you say, hey, of all these, of all the handicappers, and that's actually not the worst idea ever. If most handicappers, and a lot of look, talents aren't giving out their picks for free. Guys who are moving lines aren't giving out their picks for free. If you see some guy and he's got his best bets and he tells you that, you know, pay me 20 bucks and I'll give you my picks, that guy's not a long-term winner in all likelihood. No. No, they want you to spend thousands of dollars, commit to them monthly, because they got inside information on a recorded line. Inside information on a recorded line.

We are one hour away from the conclusion of the trade deadline. There are five teams that have yet to make a move by this trade deadline. 25 of the 30 NBA teams. Is that true? Yeah, have made some sort of moves of the deadline. The rockets are not one of them. Will they go do something? We will discuss.

We will discuss the Rocket Celtics loss. We will also discuss Framber Valdez not wearing astro gear anymore. How sad are we? 1 to 10. We'll discuss that next. Final hour, Matt Thomas show with Ross

here on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 104 on Sports Talk 790. Final hour of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. It's nice to have you folks with us. Rockets fall last night to the Boston's Healthics by a final score. of 114 to 93.

They were out rebinded by 19. Rockets were down one after 1, 18, 17. You're like, okay, 1987's like, this is fine. Celtics outscore the rockets, 3125, and I thought, okay, E. Mae Doca's going to go in there and give him a good bold, fashion pep talk, and then the Cs came out and outscore the rockets

in the third quarter, 36 to 21. League got as high as 29. E. May got tossed. Alperin Changoon got tossed. And my guess is Alperin's going to get suspended. not spending it probably could find. There is a little bit of a slippery slope when it comes to female officials. I don't, I think they try to treat them the same.

So would Alperin Shingon said what he said about General Reneau that he would have said to a male official? Probably yes. But it feels a little more blunt when it's another phrasing of a term for how he was not appreciative of her efforts. Okay. I don't know what you're talking about. Well, he just, he said a couple of words. Probably would have gotten him slopped. Okay.

By his girl. Okay. I don't want to get too much into it, but if you can read lips, you can know exactly what he said. So my guess he'll be deducted for saying what he said. He got tossed, EMA got tossed, and the Rockets have the Hornets coming into town the night who have won seven consecutive games. They are 12 and 6 of the Hornets since the turn of the calendar year. They've been very good. Seven in a row they've won.

Yeah, five teams have not made a trade for the deadline, which is now down to 54 minutes. One of those five teams would be your beloved Houston Rockets. I would be stunned. Here's the thing that bothers me. Oh, Eric Gordon just got traded. What? Eric Gordon? Yes.

From where, Olympiacos? No, the 76ers are trading Eric Gordon in a 232 drafts could be something else. That would be a major one. I got to tease him about this. He's going to text him? Oh, yeah. Eric Gordon is he even playing? No, he hardly plays.

I wonder if he'll even play for the Memphis Grizzlies. So he's going there to Memphis for this is the 76th or not flexibilities to complete a conversion of a two-way Dominic Barlow contract. Grizzlies legend. I don't know. That's crazy. Clippers.

Hornets, Pelicans, Rockets. I mean, there's lots of maneuvering going around, but the big... The big... James was the big deal going from L.A. to Cleveland. So far, that's the headliner of the trade deadline. Yonis is staying in Milwaukee, apparently.

John Morant, they're still trying to make a move maybe to get him out of Memphis, but they've got 53 minutes to do that. And the rockets at this point have not done anything. Do you think team... It just seems like maybe teams do like to try to wait for the offseason, especially like when the lottery shakes out, rather than saying, oh, I'm getting a lottery pick,

oh, I'm getting the number one pick or the number two pick. Well, I think it's a lot of it is because you're not under a time crunch like you are today. Maybe that's a reason why. You get more time and you get more of a handle on who's picking where and you're dealing with more complete information to where you don't have to rush it at the deadline. Yeah, I got to get off this for you tab on this because there's a lot of things that, I mean, somebody with crazy rumors. Crazy rumors.

Some of us 1,600 Twitter followers says the Rockets kick the tires on John Morant. That could be just putting it out there. There needs to be a massive, massive Twitter penalty for putting on erroneance information. Well, it used to be you had a checkmark and you could trust the information. Then Elon took over and they're like, ah, seven bucks, you can get a checkmark. And then now we're going to have crypto, five billion crypto bots with check marks responding with one word to every single tweet. Yeah. That's real great for the Twitter ecosystem.

It's been fantastic. And we're going to roar and we're going to pay them out a $1.34 for all their impressions. The millions of impressions are getting. So we're just having people running bot farms. Terrible. I really wish something else would take over. Well, that's what I said. Blue Sky didn't work.

Threads is doing a little bit better, but it's still got a lot of salacious material. It's tied to Instagram. Yeah, I got 100 likes on my Jay Leno picture on threads. Yeah, I don't even post on threads, but I think when I put photos up, it goes from iTunes. Which is fine. That's good. It's all meta. It's all Zuckerberg.

It's highly confusing. So, all right, rockets, 51 minutes until the trade deadline. And I would expect them to, I think the roster today is different than it is a week from today. But it's not because of what that does happen to the next 51 minutes. Just a gut feeling on that one. We'll see what gets bought out and what's going to go from there. All right. Other things going on in the world of sports, Farmer Valdon assigns his new contract to go play for the Detroit Tigers.

Tarak Scouble did put a photo of the numbers that Frymer was getting on his Instagram page. Tarcic Scubble, I think the arbitration hearing is today, if I'm not mistaken. Was that right? Yeah. They've had one of the biggest discrepancies in Major League Baseball history. I can't even remember how much it was. What was like $13 million or something? I was going to say $13 million.

Okay. We're both saying that it's probably right. Yeah. It's not going to end well. Paul Skeens is not going to be a pirate long term. No. Tarq Scubel is not going to be. to try Tiger long term?

No. This is what all the owners who are the have nuts are lamenting. They do have to trade away their players or get rid of them. Because a cap, even if you're a small market team,

a cap means the Dodgers can't keep stockpiling people. Yeah, it's not only halves, haves, hats in baseball, it's the super halves. Really, the Dodgers are kind of in a club by themselves. It's the Super Havs Dodgers.

That's a halve Dodgers. Then it's the have like Yankees, Mets, Blue Jays, a couple teams. Then it's the middle pack and then it's the bottom feeders. Right. Well, I guarantee you this whole deferred payment bit, which is the Dodgers are using now. Oh, yeah. Is a thing in the past. I'm with you.

That's got to go. It's ridiculous. Because also it does. At the very least, it should still count, the AAV should count towards the tax threshold. Because they're circumventing the tax. Because here's a thing. Yeah. You cannot.

There are no. there are ways around things, but there are no crazy loopholes in the NFL salary cap. There are no crazy loopholes in the basketball salary cap. There are aprons or penalties and whatnot. But what the Dodgers are doing

is, well, they're mortgaging that they're going to be as vibrant as an economic entity 30 years from now than they are right now. And if you're the Dodgers, you probably can do that. Hopefully they are. Hopefully they don't have to default on show his payments.

here's the thing that I don't even know if the players understand because I don't think the players care and they need to 20, 25, 30 years of these regional TV networks paying rights fees. These rights fees are now going away completely. These networks, these regional TV channels are folding up. And whether you, and I don't, the players don't care who broadcast the games, how they have, fans get them. They just don't. They just want to be. No. But they're going to care about the fact that that $21 million from Fox Sports Cardinals is no longer there. And the Cardinals are now being run by Major League Baseball broadcasting, where the Cardinals would be on their own to get the advertising.

But they're not getting the rights fees like they used to. They're just not. Yeah. I have a dumb question. Why? Why are we watching regional sports networks not as much as we did? Because it's a terrible economic model. you're what's there over the networks are paying too much for the rights fees they can't sell advertising anymore it feels like ratings I thought ratings are going up for baseball

basketball and stuff like that is that just national ratings and not local they can't get the advertising and they cannot get the subscriber fees like they used to be able to get from the cable companies yeah it's a combination of things that makes sense but again the problem was Ross to begin with they were already

they were paying too much yeah and there's about five teams in baseball that can justify having their own TV channel. The Cubs do well in Chicago, the Dodgers, the Mets. Are guys, S-H-N-H-C-H-S-C-H-N doing good? They're all right. Well, it was easy for them. The folks that owned Space City Home Network said,

they got lucky you. We gave you a space on your direct TV. That's a lock done deal. We're not going to pay you anymore, but you can have everything. The network is your. yours. So that's why the Rockets and the Astros own the network because they were given to them.

But they were like, the people that used to own it said, we just don't worry on paying anymore. It was AT&T. Sportsdale, right? Yeah, as AT&T, DirecTV owned it for a while? I mean, it had been moving around left and right for four or five years. But yeah, the channel space was everything. At least have to worry about finding a spot on direct TV to go get it. 674, let's go.

It's there. It's there. So, you know, that to me, you know, the NFL doesn't worry about. local TV rights. They have one big national television package. Basketball has a local TV package, but it doesn't carry the run that the national

folks do. You've got a $10 billion deal coming from the NBA for all their TV channels around. That's what I'm saying. Baseball doesn't have that. The macro keeps going up and up and up and they keep getting money and money, money, but just the micro, individual teams is not. Yeah. So I find that interesting. Yeah, there's going to be like, I want to say this year

and then maybe 15 teams at Major League Base operate their TV dollars. Yikes. Now, again, they can make money, too. I mean, they can go sell. Yeah. The twins can sell to local Minneapolis, St. Paul people, and whatnot. It's not like it's a... It's a Suncois. Matt's Bar, yeah. Matt's good. Matt's really good.

Delicious. Juffy Luthey. Yeah. All right. 114 on Sports Talk 790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-9. If you want to chime on anything we've been discussing so far. The Rock is certainly on issue after a very disappointed performance last night against the Celtics. baseball. We're going to be in spring training in less than two weeks.

Oh, really? It's been fun. With so many question marks, by the way, the trucks have left for West Palm Beach today, as a matter of fact, with all the equipment. The equipment trucks. Yeah. Okay. That's got to be a terrible drive. Why? Just go straight down 9-10.

Yeah, but then you're going to go south for like another 12 hours. Yeah. It's fine. That was always the great part about driving. You thought about when you were a kid going to driving to Sea World, oh, we'll be there any time now. And you get to Florida like, man, it took us hardly no time. And then you're stuck in Florida from 90% of the trip.

Be all right. Just don't pick up any lot lizards. By the way, did you tell some people about your lot lizard story? I did. And what was their response back to you? I got a lot of throwing up emojis. Yeah. And I got a lot of OMGs.

And then I got one guy who was like, oh, yeah, I heard that from another trucker friend. And by way, it was probably best in our best interest not to mention that end of the story on the program itself. I'm glad we didn't. Yeah. 115 on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-7-90. Please join us. 122 on Sports Talk 7-90.

Matt Ross with you here on this Thursday. E-May Dog is going to join us on the show tomorrow. We'll have a chance to ask him how deep in the weeds the rockets got on draft stuff, or not draft, but on the train conversation. Still about 37 minutes before the deadline comes and goes. Tom Brady is getting worn out by some old teammates. You catch you some of this? I did.

We do have a. ruling in the Terrick Scubble case, if you'd like that. Please do. So, breaking news? Sure, why not? I guess it's like one. Yeah, I think one. What would you call that? I've won. It's fine. Yeah, sure, why not? Breaking news.

Two-time reigning American League Cy Young winner, Terik Scouble has won his arbitration case. He will make $32 million this year. This from Jeff Passim. Sources tell ESPN. Scubel's bet to go for the largest

salary ever and the arbitration system paid off. He'll make $13 million more than the Tigers argued. I don't know the situation nearly as intimately as we know about the Kyle Tucker situation. You take Tarek's scubal the best pitcher in the game to arbitration and you go in front of a group of people that are arbiters and you talk about how you don't like him and not worth the money. Yeah.

I would not be worrying about a retirement of the. the jersey ceremony for the Detroit Tigers and Taras Cueble. In back-to-back, Si, Young winner. What is your argument against the back-to-back Cy Young winner? Well, it's not a question then wanting to pay. It just was, what do you think the fair market values? And the fair market values, Tarc Skuble sets the market for fair market value.

And we do have some audio from Terrick Scruble after the event. Shit your bum-ass up, man. That was what he had to say to the Tigers. Kiss the ring is what he also said. Sorry, you were going to Tom Brady. Okay, so he was on his podcast called, it's really interesting, it's called Let's Go.

Where are we going? Was you going somewhere with Tom Brady? He was asked about who he likes in the game. Okay. And Tom Brady's response to that was, quote, he doesn't have a dog in the fight. Hmm. Well, Vince Wolfork, former Texan Great, and Rob Grancowski, both calling out Tom Brady for his comments. Okay.

So Brady again said, I don't have a dog in the fight in this one. May the best team win. Will Fork said, he basically said that Brady's stance was for political reasons and mentions Brady's role as a minority owner with the Las Vegas Raiders. Yeah. I mean, if you're part owner of the Raiders. Going on with Vince. That's bull crap, Tom.

All that's political. This ain't political. It ain't political. What it is. Raiders ain't in it. Say what it is. what you see. Okay, so what if you said I like the Seahawks to win?

Would I give a football reason? Would that have, would he ask, who was he talking about who he's rooting for or who he thinks is going to win? You know, it's a great question. It's definitely a difference. Let me see what the exact question was. Is he rooting for the Patriots? I mean, Mike Rable is his guy? I would assume, reading the context of this, he was asked who he's rooting for, yeah.

Is he going to go, you know what, if you're talking about cold-hearted, calculated killers, I mean, Tom Brady is on the short list. So Will Fork then was asked by a radio host of WEEEI in Boston. He says Brady should be rooting for New England if he wants to be, quote, a patriot for life. Vince, let me be perfectly clear. Tom Brady, whether you want him or not, is a patriot for life. you don't have any rings Vince Wolfork. He does.

If not for Tom Brady. Oh, Vince Wilfork doesn't. Vince, you're a run stopper. Yes. You were big and nasty in the middle. Yes. But if it ain't for Tom Brady, you're just a great nose tackle. You may have had one ring, but it wouldn't have been multiple.

So this is a little heavy hand that I think from Vince Wolfork. Vince Wolfork does not get to decide who a patriot for life is. The Patriots get to do it and the fans do. I guess I think just Tom Brady, I mean, because he won a Super Bowl with the Buccaneers, and he's part over to the Raiders. Yeah, Patriots will always have his heart, but he doesn't have to root for them blindly, I guess.

And by the way, he's supposed to be an objective observer as a Fox broadcaster. Well, yes, that's right. But Vince, you don't get to decide how I mean his opinion. What do you want? Do you want Tom to change his mind and go, okay, on second thought, I'm rooting for the Patriots. I mean, question asked, question answered, but really you have to understand something here.

That Tom Brady, ladies and gentlemen, is loving his life as a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. He was obviously huge into Clint Kubiak's hiring. Yeah, saying I don't have a dog in the fight, though, I guess, is an interesting way to phrase it. But that's very Brady. That's very milk toast Brady. Although he's a much better analyst this year than he was last year,

as we would expect him to be, but he's still going to walk a very nice tightrope to make sure he doesn't anger anybody. Meanwhile, Rob Grankowski, what did he have to say? He says he's not spoken with Brady

about this year's Super Bowl between the Patriots in Seattle, but pondered whether Brady's stance is fueled by ulterior motives. Oh, yeah, it's Brady's podcast with Jim Gray. Yeah. Quoting Grankowski, he probably won't,

wants to be the quarterback. He's that competitive. He probably wants to be the guy in the Super Bowl right now. Then you have Asante Samuel jumped in on the mix of this. Uh-oh. The former quarterback says he was, quote, highly disappointed in Brady for, quote, not rooting for your ex-teamate Mike Vrable. He also accuses Brady of being jealous of current Patriots quarterback Drake May. Oh, this is getting interesting.

Asante Samuel. Yeah, I'm pulling it up too. Brady, you can't be the only one winning Super Bowls. Let me find out you hating on Drake, May, and Rabel. I don't have a dog in this fight, not what I wanted to hear. Brady knows how I get down. This ain't nothing new to him. Santa Sam, you're going to throw hands with Tom Brady?

No, he's not. I'd like to see it. Do I believe that Tom Brady, in his mind, could put a uniform on and go back out and play today? Yes. He did it in 45, right? he did it when no one said he could do it. If Philly Rivers can do it, Tom Brady can maybe do it.

But do I think that Tom is jealous of Drake May about ruining the potential legacy of the Patriots quarterback situation? That's a little bit of a stretch to me. I don't know. Unless Tom is just that worried. I will be brutally honest with you, and I love Minal to death. Minal had a Hall of Fame Broadcasting career.

He was always looking over his shoulder for the partners of the people around him because he was always afraid they were going to get more shine than he was. Uh-huh. Is Tom that way? I mean, you and I don't know him into it. I mean, yeah, I would say that's,

it's typical of a narcissistic personality is to want all the shine and then when somebody else there are, but it seems a little extreme to take it that far. Like if he's mad that Peyton Manning is getting shine or something or if he's mad that one of his contemporaries is getting shine. That makes more sense. Not Drake May.

If he's mad about Drake May getting shine, I mean, that's an intense, that's an intense level of narcissism from Tom Brady. Because Tom has done, Tom has never, I'll say this right now, he'll never beat a throne. I don't,

unless Mahomes wins four or five more Super Bowls. Mahomes is at three. And he's only, he's only, what, 29? Or how old is Mahomes? Are he 30 yet? but I feel like the chiefs are more heading south than they are upwards. Yeah, but we felt like that too after Spigate.

They won those three and they didn't win for a long time, the Patriots. Yeah, he's 30. Pat Mahomes has three Super Bowls and he's 30. Tom won seven? Yes. With two different teams. One in his early 40s. Oh.

There's no one touching Tom Brady. They're just not in terms of Super Bowl success. Or are, I think, ultimately, longevity, success. Yeah, he's a freak of nature. He left on top, kind of. You can call it avocado ice cream and TB12 method. I mean, genetics, too. I mean, whatever it is.

Yeah. I don't know. Does it really, if he says he has a dog in a fight, I think he really, he's being politically correct. He's a politician. Tom's a politician. I would say, I'm saying completely, I don't have a dog in a fight. What was an eyebrow raising comment?

Like you don't have any dog in the fight The team who won six Super Bowls with is not your dog You're like I you know My heart is with the Patriots obviously But as far as the game and the way I analyze it I'm not going to be rooting for anyone as an owner of the Raiders Like I guess he could have phrased it differently To me

This was him trying to protect his brain As a minority owner of the Raiders more than anything else That's size of it 132 Sports Talk 790 It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross 713 212 5790 713

712 5790 The Rockets is unfortunately took some L's one yesterday Tonight Charlotte Horns are in town La Mello ball 19 points a game

7 a half assist How's he shooting Balls at Very well I thought 36% from 341 from the floor That's just mid That's fine Better than his brother

Hey But hey I'll tell you what, Lonzo gets released by the Jazz. Do you go get him? Doesn't shoot very well at all. He did last year or better last year. Yeah. And he was good before he had.

I mean, how many major injuries has he had? It's not like Lonzo ball hadn't been playing. 35 games for the Cavs, 21 minutes a game. I've always been... 4.6 points. I've been proud of the fact that I kind of know who's with whom. I am so lost over the last handful of days. Evita Zubats, for those of you that are NBA fans,

got moved from the Clippers to the Indiana Pacers just a few months ago. Rockets struggle against him, so I'm glad he's moving to the East. So the Rockets will have two games with the Clippers next week, and they'll have no James Hardin and no Evita. Back to Bats, yeah. Yeah, no Evita Zubats. That's a shame.

Kawai's Leonard's going to average about 35 a game in those two games. Provided he plays in both of them. If he plays. Or maybe he's got to go hang out with his arborist friends. Yeah. Have we not heard word one about that? I don't know. All that extra side money.

Have you met the United States legal system? Yeah, kind of taking their time. That's for sure. Not known for their swift action, man. No, they're not. No, they're not. And I'm frankly surprised it doesn't happen more. For those who don't know, again,

there is a dummy company that is being funded by Steve Balmer was, that it's accusing money being given to Kauai Lentor on the side to circumvent the Saturday cap. Yeah, for sponsorships, Well overpaying him for sponsorships to get it, yes, to circumvent the salary cap. Yeah. Rock has a tough go of things. We got Charlotte tonight and we leave tomorrow for Oklahoma City for a day game against the Thunder.

No shake yield just Alexander. And then two games with the Clippers Tuesday, Wednesday, next week before the All-Star break. So we'll, you know. Must win games, baby. Remember, I said they were going to go two and one during these three games. So they got their work cut out for him now. What did I say? I think you said three and no.

I believe I said one and two, but also I didn't know that. SGA was going to be out, so I'm hopeful. I didn't know that half the Celtics were going to be out. I thought it was a guaranteed win. It wasn't. All the Jamokes on the Celtics were able, a lot of them get to win. That's fine. I just like the fact that we had Providence listeners listening to us.

Why, he was listening to you guys on Series 6th. Yeah. Two and a half games behind the Spurs. One game ahead of the six-seated Lakers and the seventh-seated sons. So your one game from being seventh And your two and a half games from being second Well I'm looking at some of the ESPN sports headlines Calvin Samson's comments are the fourth headline

Oh really? Yeah No they're probably tailoring that to you maybe No because ex-patriot star bull crap is first Bucks to keep you honest is two Fort Anners or Rams opponent for first Australian game That's not going towards me It's the 7th

headline for me. Okay. I know that they tailor stuff on ESPN. You know how I know? Because they all the front pages, they always get me. They're like, what's Texas Longhorn Basketball disappointment up to? I'm like, oh, God. Funny, I never say that headline. You never see that, do you? I never see that headline ever.

Sean Miller's latest comments calling out his team for fouling too much. Well, as a note, no, Calvin Sampson basically said that the University of Houston has the lowest budget of any power for school. And he said we're a poor athletic program. We have a very poor athletic department. We're poor. We were poor when I got here and we're

still poor. He doesn't mean poorly run either. According to a USA Today database, this is where the story comes and makes. Houston was ranked 56th in Division I Athletics with a revenue of $78 million. Revenue of $78 million. That's television, that's stadium seats, that's advertising, that's everything that could possibly go towards the bottom line of an athletic department. Texas's athletic budget triple that triple of that so meanwhile ESPN called Eddie Nunez

and said hey you want to comment on what your coach had to say and athletic director Eddie Nunez who's been on the show several times issued a call to action looking ahead of the 2025-26 year we are embracing the new era of college athletics with a positive mindset of bold ambition strategic investment and relentless pursuit of excellence

I like that. Strong words. We are not just keeping pace with change. We are setting the standard. Whether it's pushing boundaries and performance, academic success, or community engagement, our standard is simple, excellence in everything we do.

While revenue sharing with student athletes is now officially upon us, it is critical that we also maintain NIL opportunities for our student athletes. Now, the Cougars for the 2026 class have already signed a pair of top 25 recruits. Oh, nice. Sam's would say during this post-game get-together last night,

that his current roster is, quote, getting exactly what the market is for them and not starving. But he warned that future roster building could become more challenging unless his athletic department boost revenue. You know who's also saying that? Probably Indiana University football. You know who should be saying that just about everybody. Yeah?

You have to, if you want to get up there with the heavyweights, the big boys, the UTs, the Ohio states, the Michigan's, the LSUs, it just can't be a quick fix. It has to be a steady stream. And that's why it's going to frankly take major corporations. And I'm going to assume Ross,

again, with some sort of tie to the University of Houston to cut the check. How's Remote4U.Biz doing? Remote for U.D.Biz is publicly being on the stock exchange. Okay, really? It's trading at, I think,

two cents a dollar on the dollar. It's bullish, as it normally things are. Okay, sure. Yeah. So even if I was to cut a check for $5,000, guess what U of H would tell me? Matt, thank you. We need to be $7,500 next year and $10,000 a year after that. But really at the end of the day?

It's probably Tillman calling his buddies. Honestly, right? The other mega-millionaires in this town? I guess. Who are those people? I mean, I guess we just don't know. Some oil and gas gas? I hadn't heard of code.

Campbell until he started... We didn't know. Five years ago, we had no idea who Cody Campbell was. No. No, Texas Tech fans did because they were a player there, and he knew that he was contributing. But Cody Campbell's direct cash infusion changed a dormant Texas Tech football to a team that went to the college football playoff. And my guess will be a serious contender for a national championship next year. But again, it comes down to a group of people, or in tech's case, one or two, that just says whatever it takes. Now, that doesn't guarantee success.

How many years is what's his name up? In Oregon, an Oregon been writing checks. Phil Knight. Been writing checks for decades at Oregon. Decades. Only to watch his team fumble like 50 times in the beginning of that game and then they'll get their ass kicked. Yeah. But what Calvin is basically saying is, I can continue to bring these guys in.

But as sweet as our facilities are and as nice as the people are and the girls are cute here and the food's delicious, they're coming for the money. Got to get some cash going. That's a big alumni base. Huge. Enrollments going up and up. Yeah. But you need, I mean, you need millionaires. Billionaires.

Well, I mean, I don't know how many billionaires do you have got. Got to get some more. I mean, you know what I need to do? I probably need to figure out who the group, who are the tech, the ten richest alums are right now. Yeah, don't you start calling them. I'm busy. I got a job of the Vikings today.

That's true. I don't time for all that. You do a lot of scouting, breaking down a lot of tape. I got to get a nap and, before that flight to Minneapolis. 146. Back to wrap things up in just a moment. It's Sports Talk 790. I should have walked you two drinks with all the club music

who play today on the show. The two drink minimum mat, bottle service in the back? Yeah. We did not play, believe it or not today because we got a brand new producer, so that's not fair. But next time you produce a show, we are going to make you do it. You throw them in the fire. Oh, let's go.

Awful, too. Hey, come on. Oh, come on. Everybody gets a terrible job on the first edition of Believe it or not. It's like a ride of passage. Nicholas, I don't think we had, did we have those sounders from the beginning, beginning of the first, believe it or not? I think I had changed midway through. Yeah.

I don't guess I don't want to go to inside radio, but do you know who's saying, believe it, who's saying not? And those sounders? I don't. Oh, not as Daryl Kunda, one of our own production. No? Believe it is Daryl Kunda. Yes, that's our old. production guy. Okay. And the knot is from the Borat movie. Or it might be from the Borat when he did a show.

Yeah. Not. This suit is not black. It's from, it's from a bit. But there you go. By the way, Adam Clinton has given me a movie assignment. Really? That I want, and he sold it to me as I will laugh repeatedly for two hours. Ooh, I would never sell that to anyone. Certainly not you. Here it comes. You ready? Okay. For Christmas. Really? Yes. With Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Anderson. Okay.

He sent me the trailer. Really? He's like, this is your kind of lowbrow humor. And I'm like, I'm offended by this. Not really. Okay. I want to think a smart, funny comedy, I think of three weddings and a funeral.

Really? Yeah, don't you think? Smart comedy. A little more highbrow. I mean, a big Lobowski was kind of smart and subtle. Yeah, I'll give you that too. But when I think of dumb comedy, it's the greatest, the funniest movie of all-time

airplane. Yeah. That's why I've been telling you to walk hard. Walk hard is dumb. It's so good. Okay. So, for Christmas, yes or no? I've never seen it. Okay, well, I'm not the only one, though. I don't feel nearly as a man. Oh, smart comedies would be, yes, the Wes Anderson films, Royal Tannenbaum's, Grand Budapest Hotel.

That's a good one. Office Space. Do you watch Office Space? I thought we bullied you into watching them. No. Oh, Big Lobowski AI says. Oh, Rick and Morty. All Rested Development. Never saw it.

I don't. I don't recommend it too. Is that because you want to keep it to yourself? I'm gatekeeping? Well, you went like now. You don't need to see it. Yeah, you're fine. It's a smart comedy and you like dumb comedies.

I'm not saying you're dumb. No, it's fine. It's your taste. Yes. Yeah. I want a mindless entertainment when I go to the movie theater. Okay. By the way, my son says, my middle son, Peyton, is a huge movie enthusiast. He's like, are we going to go see Michael Jackson movie? And I'm like, I don't think I'm going to see it.

Why not? Because it's told from the family perspective. So what? He's not going to, they're going to bring up everything. Apparently it ends, the movie ends at the trial. Oh, really? Get into the trial. I don't know that for sure. Well, I'm going to tell you why I'm going to go, because I'm going to see it in IMAX, which I love going to IMX. Okay. A shadow, half-price Tuesdays. Right. And you'll get the music of the big booming movie theater speakers.

There's the Led Zeppelin documentary that came out last year. That was worth the price of admission just to get the big music loud. It's an experience, Matt. All right. I just don't like movies that give me so one-sided viewpoint. Slanting. Okay. Especially on my biopics.

Because, I mean, let me tell you one of my favorite biopics of all time was walk the line. It didn't make Johnny Cash look good down the stretch. Yeah. So they don't talk about, well, the unpleasantness. Correct. All right. Tomorrow on the radio program, it's an anything goes Friday.

Yes. We will have, I'm sorry, he's at 1130. Before that, we'll have EMA DOC at 11. Okay. Hopefully he's not sorry about back-to-back rocket losses. Hope he sticks around for this one. Four and a half point favorites, rockets. What was the line in the U of H central Florida game yesterday?

I think there was 72, I believe. If they had to play an extra eight minutes, they probably would have covered that. Somebody told me it was 15, something like that? Was that something like that crazy? It was a half last night. Well, you know, Vegas isn't all over everything. No, they don't. And there's a lot of stuff, but it doesn't know everything.

They're not right every time. Not every time. Here, I'm trying to find that line for you here. Okay. Because, man, that was a... Cougars minus 15 and a half. 15 and a half. And they won't win by, what, 24, something like that? My Cougars!

I was talking to the rocket people the other day. I said, I'm flying in for the championship game, flying right back out. They're like, can't wait. If they make it. Hopefully they will. We need to because we're running out of money. We pull. You what?

We pull. Pull. Pull. Pole. Po. Po. Po. Yeah, po.

Oh, I was legitimately confused. I was like, yeah, you're six in the polls or eighth of the polls. Well, we're in the poll, but we poll. Okay. All right, that's it for the show. Let's say goodbye. Yes. Play the ending music and get on out of here.

There it is. Woo-hoo. That's Ross. I'm Matt. We'll play, believe we're not tomorrow. Or maybe not, who knows. Up next, Wexler, Clinton. Uh-oh.

The A team is...