The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show 1-15-20

Episode Date: January 15, 2020

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 1/15/20OJ Simpson weighs in on Astros cheating (10:18)Will AJ Hinch ever manage a MLB team again? (21:49)The Mike D'Antoni Show (1:15:12)

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. What's happening in lunchtimers? Good afternoon to you and welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 7. Under the gang is all back in studio after a quick trip to Memphis. The gang's all here?

and John Morant nightmares, Jaron Jackson Jr. Nightmares, Dylan Brooks, nightmares. After you went walking in Memphis. I was walking 10 feet literally off of Biel. And things went poorly for the Rockets. Yeah. I can say very good, hot team who came in with a five-game league. Really hot basketball team.

We will talk about that with Mike Dan Tony coming up at 2 o'clock. Yes. It is one of our favorite times of the day. Mike doesn't like doing it, but that's okay. He's just a good sport. We appreciate that he does it. Yeah, so it's a half hour

with the head basketball coach, Mike Dan, Tony. He'll join us between 2 and 2.30 this afternoon. We've got a lot to get to today. I feel like Rossi, we're going to be doing a lot of that. We've got a lot to get to stuff because this new cycle that we have gone through, it's not going to significantly slow down until the season probably gets 30, 40, 60 games underway, right? Yeah, even then, I don't know, because in June we have, that's when the Oakland comes to town and possibility of Mike fires. Not starting.

Not starting. Not feeling well. Hashtag flu-like symptoms. You know, we argued about that and I thought about it like a little bit later in the day and I'm like, I still don't know. Oh, I do. Okay. He's not coming. I think it would be great if he did.

Now, for you and me, it will be a. amazing. It will be, because I've never been, I've only been to, like in basketball, they boo people all the time. A constant boo. Eric Gordon gets booed every time he touches the ball in New Orleans. But I've never been, I've only been to one baseball game where a person got booed the entire time, but he was at the bat. And that was Barry Bonds when I was in San Diego. I went to a Giants Padres game way back in the day before he had retired, obviously. And so he got booed every time. And there was the cheater and people throwing foul balls back and there were needles that were hitting the ground.

It was just a really weird time. In San Diego? In San Diego of all places. What were they doing throwing syringes on the ground? Well, you know, Southern California's going to have a little bit of that. I know that's true. But I have never been to a baseball game where a pitcher would be on the mound for several minutes at a time. And he would have to be religiously booed, right?

I mean, are they going to boom every pitch? That's what I'm saying? I don't know what if could 40,000 people in unison have that kind of lung power? Oakland in the middle of the week? Could 30,000? No, if they give away something. Yeah, they have to give away a bubblehead. Are they going to give away some, like a trash can bubblehead?

Too soon. Too soon. I'm sorry. By the way, the Staten Island Yankees are going to do that because Staten Island does. Of course. Yeah, you got to do. The minor league team's got to really make hay out of this, right? Everybody, let me tell you something.

If you are a sensitive astro fan, you don't want to look at. at Twitter. Any baseball promotions because it's just not going to go away. No, it's not. Everybody's weighing in on this, Matt. Even Oge. Oh, I was going to tease it, but yeah.

No, we'll hear from Oge in the next segment. We will. We're not going to mess around. We're not going to bury it to layer in the show. Oge spoke. So what was I going with this? Oh, so Mike fires, yeah, he's not coming here. It's just not going to happen. happen. He doesn't have that long of a left of a major league career if he doesn't.

Now, he'll pitch against the Astros in Oakland. Yeah, it's a Monday, I'm sorry, it's a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday series when Oakland comes into town. Yeah. So. Now, the Astros wouldn't be sneaking after go, hey, come see Mike Fires. Oh, no, wait, they come in before that in April. Let's see, what days of the week is that? How early in this season did they come here?

Oh, that's a weekend series. 24th, April 24th. Okay, I was going to say we can't. So a few weeks in. We can't project the starting rotation. I mean, we could try, but... Nah, we don't know where he is at this point. Who's their opening day starter?

I don't know anything about the A's right now. All I know is that Mike Fires isn't pitching here. And if he is, he probably needs to stay at a different hotel under an alias. Because there'll be fire alarms going off, people trying to prank call him. He'll be trying to leave. I mean, no, it's a mess. He's not coming here. But I want to get to a bigger point on this.

as yesterday did the show and then I relaxed the room a little bit before heading over the arena to call the Rockets game. You know, you produce Twitter, see what the world is talking about. And I went to the hashtag Astros. Just kind of get a perspective. Every fan base is crushing the Astros and deservedly so. It's just the reality of it. This is one of the greatest tarnished legacies in the history of Major League Baseball.

Yeah, and you have people, I mean, they're making it like the Dodgers fans that there's like one that's suing. I tweeted that. The MLB. Stupid. He, I want my money back for game seven. The one in Dodger Stadium where the Astros didn't have their signals.

First of all, first of all, he wore a rip-off replica Dodgers shirt. He did. He had a long, unkempt beard. And my guess is he lives, I don't know.

I say this is not being rude. He's poor? He's broke. Well, I don't know, man. Game seven tickets run you a little bit. He can't be that broke.

Well, I'm just going to say this. I don't think you're the most contemporary cosmopolitan person when you go on a local TV station saying, hey, if there's a lawyer out there, we'd like to talk to you. My guess is you probably already have a lawyer that you're ready to go find. Yeah, but he's just wanting to be on the news. So again, put that in perspective. Long-haired, unkept beard, replica. Well, there's nothing wrong with long hair?

It's the whole package. What's wrong with long hair, Matt? again, I don't think he's in a boardroom. Okay. He could be. But why would you wear a knockoff Dodgers shirt? If you're getting Game 7 World Series tickets, you got a little dough. Do we know he's, do we know that he was there?

Okay, so he's making the whole thing up? And by the way, if he was really there, he would not, he would know that he wouldn't be looking for game seven refunds because the Astros won that game on the road. Well, he's an idiot, but of course, the local news wants to talk to him. I feel like I'm pretty confident in my representation of who that person. is, whatever his name is. Back to my, the major point, there are a lot of fan bases. When I say lot, Ross, every other fan base, every other 29, okay, 29 other teams that are like, all I would say Ross is, and this is certainly reading between the lines on this, it feels like there's a lot of other teams going to be up for investigation. So I would just give a very warm

warning. Be careful ripping on the Astros, because Because guess what? MLB may be coming after you too. Oh, I'll give you a fan base. It's not ripping on the Astros. The Red Sox fan base. So Alex Cora decides mutually between the Red Sox and him that he's going to resign. Okay.

That sounds cool. They were going to fire him. Mutually agreed to part ways. Meaning, hey, we're going to fire you. Would you like to step down? Yeah, I guess we can mutually agree upon that. I don't think Alex Cora manages a Major League Baseball game again. Probably not.

I don't think. I don't even know if he ever is really intimately involved in baseball again. Does A.J. Hinch? Well, my first thought was, yes, he is. Because what AJ's mistake was, and he'd be the first to tell you this, is that he was against this, but did nothing to stop it. Yeah, I think if, I mean, he's young. You let it blow over for a year or two.

says in the report that he didn't approve of this and he had nothing to do with it. So I think you can sell that to a fan base. And you can say I've made a mistake. I feel like here's the thing. Over under, AJ Hinge is the subject

of a real sports with Brian Gumble piece. I'll put it at five years. Because here's how it's going to work. Like he gets interviewed? Yeah. You know, you were watching that show? I love that show. Real Sports of Brian Gumbull. It's on HBO. I mean sometimes. It's like a 60 minutes for

Yeah, I know what it is. But it's really, really well done. So it'll be all the highlights of his days playing as a backup catcher, grinding it out, learning the sport. He goes to Arizona. He's overmatch as a manager, makes mistakes there, goes in the front office of the Padres, comes back and wins the Astros, and then this shows up. And then you got Andrew Kramer chasing him around as the manager of said team.

And he's like, yeah, I made mistakes. I mean, you know, I'm going to be different. What's it like? I mean, I got A.J. Hinch as a subject of a real sports with Brian Gumbull showpiece. What are you in 2020? By 2025. Okay. But my point again is, other fan bases, if you're listening to me on the internet, at I Heart Radio, thank you for the listen. Just be careful ripping the Astros too badly because I feel very confident this.

The Houston Astros are not the only team. Doesn't mean I'm justifying what the Astros did under no circumstance, am I? but just be very careful Yankee, Red Sox, Cardinal, Red, Mariner, Ranger, I mean, I can go through all of them. Marlins probably didn't too much.

They're not spending a dime on televisions at all. 713-212-5-7-90 is how you reach a show today. 7-1-3-2-790. 5-4-3 at 2. Dave, Joe Green. The Matt Thomas show continues. Three- Corner, nothing but. on Sports Talk 7-9.

Melo! Alex Corr is out. The Mets have said nothing about Carlos Beltron. And a lot of people have asked me, Ross, on Twitter, about why the Astros players are not speaking, because I'm sure they were told, do not say a word about this. Astros fan fest this weekend on the SportsRV show. I haven't got a look at the guest list. Oh, I did. I mean, of our guest list.

I know which players are going to be there. I don't know which players we're getting on. Oh, I do. Let's just say, this year's a little bit leaner than most when it comes to big names. And I'll just put it that way. Uh-huh. Yeah. A lot of Quad City River Bandits talk, I think, on the show this weekend.

You better prep that, like I'm out. I know. I know you. I know how you roll. A lot of Greenville Astros talk, Matt. A lot of 40 men. But let me, let's peel the curtain back. If you're the Astros, why would you put any of that out there?

No, you wouldn't. Of course not. We're going to go to spring training. I'm not mad at the Astros. We're going to go to spring training next month. They're in the midst of one of the biggest scandals in the history of the sport. I can't imagine. Hey, you sit down with George.

George, you look great. How's life? Oh, by the way, what's it like not having a general manager or manager? It's going to be, look, if you're looking for awkward theater, tune in Saturday morning. Yeah. For the sports RV show from Astros Fan Fest. I don't believe you'll be getting Justin Verlainer in the show like he did last year. Man, he was so cool, though.

Was he? Yes. I was sitting there like, I'm talking of Justin Freakin' Verlander. This is amazing. I've done that myself. I've interviewed some people and I'm like, I'm interviewing this guy. He's so charming and gregarious. I could see why Kate Upton would get with him.

Excuse me? What? Kate Upkin could get up with anybody. That's true, but I mean, remember like, when it was first happening, you're like, Justin Verlander? Okay. Now I get it. He's a handsome man.

Where's a white belt better than anybody I've ever seen wearing a white belt? Pat Boone would be number one and then he'd be number two on the white belt. Okay. All right. Oge spoke. Wonderful. Tell us about it. You got the audio.

Okay. It's in there, right? So apparently, look, everybody's weighing in on this. Let's go through everybody. I told you yesterday. I was in Memphis. I had the television on. The talk.

which is the CBS version of the view. Five women who couldn't name an astro to save their lives. Chabin Osborne was speaking. Marie Osmond, the really hot judge on Dancing with the Stars, Karianana Nalba. Okay. I know that. Why do I know that? I don't even watch Dancing with the Stars.

I swear to God I don't. You watch the talk, apparently. Well, it's on sometimes. All right, so go ahead. Well, everybody's weighed in, and now the juice has weighed in on the end. Astro scandal. And the computer's not working. Oh, you on mute over there?

Let's take a look here. No, I'm not on mute. All right, he's a computer up? Yeah, we're working on it. Here we go. Let's try this again. Hey, Twitter world, yours, truly. Well, this morning, all the conversation is about baseball and car

and who cheated and who took advantage. Well, I got news for you guys. There's nothing new in baseball. I heard a guy today was talking about how noble all of these old players Look, none of this is new. One of the reasons why the manager didn't worry about players that were on his team getting traded and then maybe squilling on him, because a lot of this stuff is pretty prevalent. Over the years, back in the day, I had an opportunity to play a fair amount of tennis with Hank Greenberg,

a little golf with Mickey Mantle. And when him and his boys got together, you would hear the stories they would tell about all of these old players. you know, what do you think Ty Cobb was doing back in the day? You know, you don't think he was trying to take advantage of virtually everything. Before television, these guys was doing everything.

And the fact that a few guys got caught now, well, yeah, I agree. It's wrong. And they should be punished. But I don't want to hear nobody else talk about all the noble players and how disrespectful this is to baseball. Look, there's nothing new in baseball.

this has been going on forever. I'm just saying. O.J. says it's been going on forever. Nothing to worry about. A.J. Hinch didn't even stop it that much because he knows it happens everywhere. Do you all feel better now that O.J. is giving you his analysis of what happened? A man who's been really in tune with all this?

Yeah, a man who is always following the rules never breaks the law. And kill two people. I mean, people have been killing people for a long time, you know. It happens all over the place. Yeah. people die every day. Who films him? That's the great question.

Is somebody going, hey, Oge, I know you're not real busy right now, but why don't we knock out 75, 80 seconds on the Astro situation? Probably some assistant. Or, I mean, if you watch that OJ, Derek, there's always, yeah, there's always somebody who was, like, fascinated by OJ who would follow him around. Probably Adam Clanton has applied to be his personal assistant

and gotten denied. Adam would take that job in a heartbeat. In a heartbeat. Heartbeat. It's the A-minus. team because there's one less A. Where's the other A? Oh, he's in L.A. Can O.J. still pay, though? I don't think the pay would be that good. I bet he's got money somewhere.

Are you going to speak up to O.J. if you're pays a couple weeks late? Or you're just going to let's slide. Yeah, what do you do? Hey, O.J., the check-bound. You're not going to step to O.J. Oh, I got this. It's quite the conundrum. What a sicko. What a complete sicko. All right, let's say hi to some folks. Let's go to Scott in the Med Center at 1224 on Sports Talk 7.90. Hi, Scott. Hey guys, how's it going? I have a bunch of things to say, but I'm going to try and decadence and it's y'all show.

So if you take the report on face value, right, like AJ didn't have anything to do with it, but he didn't do anything to stop it. Well, he worked up the frustration to break the monitor and they didn't say anything. There was no, oh, Alex, what are you doing? George, what are you doing, Jose? Not to name those players, but that just doesn't seem believable to me. me. And the other thing I would say, the only way it would be believable, and I'd like to know y'all's opinion on this. I absolutely love, AJ, and I love listening to him on your show and interviews with, like, Julian Morales and everything else.

He's come to come to conversation as a people pleaser. That's the only way I could see where he wouldn't have the backstone to say something about this. Would that be a fair statement, in your opinion? People pleaser. That's interesting phrasing. Thank you for the phone call. He's not gruff. he's pretty matter of fact to his players. I've seen it firsthand. I definitely believe he's a players manager. Some of the great managers, like Jim Leland, you know, not a player's guy. Yeah, but I mean, in 2020, you're... But in 2020, this is in the NBA, this is in Major League Baseball.

Not so much in the NFL, but... I think more in the NFL than it was in years past. I'll give you that. But generally, managers, coaches have to be placate to the players because the players can walk to the general manager, the owner, and say, I want this guy out. So, yeah, he would not be in an exclusive club in the way he dealt with his players. The one thing, again, about baseball, too, especially in 2020, is that you are with these people for about, let's see, 160 games, 30 spring training, 190 workout.

You're with these people about 215 days a year with very little off time. There's the all-star breaking an occasional day off here and there. What is it? They play 162 games and was it like 175 days? You get a week off for spring for like four days off for All-Star Break. If you don't mesh and you don't give more than you, you know, then maybe they did 25, 30 years ago, you're out of work. 186 days. Yeah.

You're playing 162 games. That includes the All-Star Break. That's insane. So, I mean, look, let's be really honest, gang. We all can completely understand where AJ is spot in the spot he was in. Because if he throws his coaches under the bus, he's got nobody that will, his lieutenants won't listen to his leadership. If he throws the players under the bus, he loses the clubhouse and loses his job.

He was hoping. And again, I don't want to speak on behalf of AJ. He and I have texted a couple of times just to wish him well. But the fact is he is probably, he probably was thinking, please, please, please, let nobody catch us with this. As long as I don't openly endorse this and say, hey, guys, go look at the monitor or go listen to the trash can. As long as I've said what I've said,

that I'm going to probably stay away from any sort of serious penalty. And he guessed wrong. Not only did he get suspended by the sport, but he got released from his job. He took a risk to hoping he didn't get caught. And he did. He was in a tough spot. He was in between a rock and a hard place.

But I think a lot of us would have, I mean, let me ask you this. This is to anybody listening. How would you have handled it in all reality? How would you have handled it? Would you have gone to your general manager, who, by way, Jeff has said over and over again, and whether you believe him or not, I don't.

I think Jeff knew. I mean, I'll be brutally honest with you. How would you have gone to the owner and said, this is going on, this has to stop? Or would you have, what I would have probably have done if I was an AJ spot I was like guys knock this off we're going to get caught

there are too many loose lips in sports meaning ex players Ross Mike fires I think he handled it the way 99% of managers would have handled it or like 90% I would have told everyone we need to find a better way to cheat

because this isn't going to work forever no but I don't think AJ's pro cheating I don't believe it to be the case well you said he said how would I handle it because you're war Um, yeah. If you took, if you took the other 29, well, there's 28 managers right now that still have work. Yes. Let's not even count Carlos, 27.

The 27 managers that are still employed, not named Carlos Beltron, you go to those 27. I bet you 25 of them would have said, yeah, I understand where AJ was in. I probably would have done the same thing. Yeah, I mean, yeah, because these are all former players. These are guys who've been around the game and know the game and all that stuff. I mean, is there a major league manager in baseball right now that didn't play? at the major or some experience.

Right, or some like college experience? Yeah. Probably not. 713212-5-7-90. Doesn't mean he excuse it because that's the risk he took by saying nothing.

And instead of protecting his job and protecting his players or protecting his coaches, everybody, well, the players got saved, but the front office and the manager did not. The rockets are raining three. Hey, it's Coach Dan Tony.

This is Sports Talk 790. You're home? for Houston Rockets basketball. 713-212-5-790. It is the Matt Thomas show. We are very happy that you're with us today. And, Ross, I'll tell you this. I was thinking about this real quick and we'll go back to the phones.

There are a handful of topics that lasted for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks. I think since you and I have been together, the Portland lost of the Rockets hung for a long time on the Lillard shot. Just keep going through it. Let's go. What else? We do this every six months is like, what's the worst things that happen in sports? The all time.

The all the longest for me was the older is losing the 35 to 3 days. That for me, that lasts, I told you, it lasted almost a year. We talk about the Rockets lost in the Western Finals for a little while. You know what? Hung for a while? It was James' game six performance against the Spurs. Yes. That stuck for a long time.

I did that post-game show in Toyota Center with them sweeping and the lights. The lights literally got turned off on me. I was doing the post game show so late taking every call. So that sticks. There hasn't been a Texan's loss so bad that it stuck for months. Although this one hurts a little bit, but really frankly got covered up by the Astro stuff. Yeah, but if you think about it, though, it's still, I mean, I was, I think I was browsing my sports app on my phone. And I just came across NFL scores.

I was like, oh, God, 51 to 31. Yeah. And it's stung all over again. And Bill O'Brien, still the coach, and is probably going to have as much of not more power next year. Dictator for life. I need to call out Larry and Stafford, but maybe not today. And it's not saying because I don't like him.

I love Larry, but I'm talking to Larry as a person that continues to bemoan and bitch and complain about Bill O'Brien the way the organizations run. But I feel like, Larry, if you listen to, how are your friend, that you're going to be back ready to go for training camp in July. It's just a cyclical pattern, especially with that organization. But we've got other things to get to. Mike Dan Tony coming up at 2 o'clock today. Rockets last night fall to Memphis.

James did not shoot well. Fourth quarter, it was John Morant and Jaron Jackson, Jr. and Dylan Brooks, a bunch of people that you'd not heard of before you, but you might need to. They've won now six consecutive games. Back on it on the phones, let's go to Rudy and Alvin on the Matt Thomas show at 1236. Rudy, good afternoon. Hey, Matt.

How are you? Good, what's going on. Hey, it's good listening to you in your comments. I wanted to reply and at least make a comment about A.J. Hanch. I've heard this on MLB network as well, that they think, or they at least thought yesterday, there's a lot of comments as well as yours, that they think AJ Hinch has a chance of manage again. And I just don't. I mean, I don't see it.

I'm not in a position to make those decisions. I don't doubt that maybe a team might do it down the road. I can't see him serving at that same level or any other, if he was any other place of work, that he would go back and attain that same level of response. Because even though they say broke the bonders, yada, yada, he's in charge of that dugout. And the integrity of the game was broken, the trust to fans, the league. And I don't hate, I'm just, I was so disappointed. It was very disappointing the outcome.

I'm sorry for the fans. We put a lot of, you know, a lot of our lives in being entertained and the joyous, you know, going through the 300-year losses. I thought it could never, ever, again in my life, on 56, it could get any worse than this, these three years. And I went to a lot of those games and I thought it'll never get worse than this. But it is worse than that today because the Astros tarnished the reputation. I can only hope that Jim Crane will also address the players who were involved,

who are considered leaders or potential leaders of our team in the future. and trade those guys over the course of the next few years or whatever it takes. Because I think that's what's going to happen next. To avoid the Players Association is that's Jim Crane's in his power to trade off. But Rudy, the problem with that is, I think, is that I think every single player that Don the Houston Astor uniform during that time knew exactly what was going on. Yeah, I most of them, I believe. No, no, I don't believe it's most.

I believe it's every single player. How could you possibly have been oblivious? Yeah, there's no way. Yeah. It's a terrible situation, no matter if you put Jay Hinch or Jeff Loonow in a place of work like where you work or a place of work where I've worked before in my past. Certainly in the U.S. Army, I spent 20 years in. You could never retain or obtain another leadership position if you broke the trust and integrity of your service branch and the people that you serve. Thank you, Rudy, for the phone call. Very well put.

Thank you. Yeah, Rudy, I'm, I'm just, this is just conjecture of my part. There is no guarantee that AJ is going to get a job again as a major league baseball manager. He might find himself as a scout. He might find himself, you know, he does have a front office background with, when he got let go from Arizona. He did go to the San Diego Pondry. So there is, he very easily could go that direction. Do you, what do you think about him becoming, okay, let's let's put it this way.

you think it's more likely he starts on somebody's staff and then gets it elevated to manager somewhere or do you think somebody just flat out names a manager if there are three directions direction a is front office whatever that is four directions would be the other one's nothing at all nobody nobody wanting to do anything nothing at all be front office c straight to the field or d bench coach or front office person to manager my guess is he it becomes involved with some baseball team in a front office role, and then it's going to be determined after that, can he earn enough credibility back to get a managerial job?

I think he came out looking decent in the report. And I think if, you know, you let time heals all wounds, we forgive everybody. He comes out and says he's sorry. He wasn't, I mean, it wasn't something that he orchestrated or even approved of. Alex Cora is never, he's gone. He's never managing a baseball team again. Right, exactly.

that's a great that's a great point he is outscore is done i think a j hitch is not yeah but it's i but to to the callers point joey it'll be a while it's gonna yeah it'll be a little bit let's go to uh tony on seven on 70 hi tony great show matt thank you man let me express you how bad it feels okay i'm 67 years old native houstonian u.s army Okay. And to top it off, shake this out. This is what hurts most of all. I was so pumped up with sparky within the clubhouse.

It said, we want it. We want it. And just to think, you want it, all right? You want it by cheating. But most of all, just think about this, man. If you're six years old, seven years old, and you're looking up to one of these players, wow. they did it, Dad, they did it.

How are you going to explain that to your son? It's a great question, Jay. Thank you for the phone call. As a matter of fact, I might need a little bit of help on this because my children, my youngest is 12 and she doesn't really get into baseball. So she's, it's, but I don't have young children. And if you are a dad out there, you have an eight or nine year old, do they know what happened?

Have you had to explain much to it? And what has been their reaction? Ross, as we've said a lot of things in life, things that angered kids and adults in 1994, don't anger people in 2020. And then in other situations, a joke about something silly in 1994, which no one cared about, it's become now racially or insensitive in 2019, in 2020. So things flip based on generations. So does what does a kid, if you've got a nine or ten-year-old,

call me and let me know because I don't have that young my youngest sister well but she's a daughter she doesn't care about baseball she's all in the volleyball now there's a volleyball scandal she'd be ready to give me the one to play by play on really but if you've got younger children and I'm not talking like four or five years old I'm talking about nine 10 11 that play little league baseball that wear an astros cap that go to games that ask you to watch the games on television with them what do they think about the situation because that's the next generation that we're always the about this kind of stuff. We as adult, we've had two callers in there that are up in age that are just horrified by it. And I think all of us are. But what do the 9 and 10 year olds think?

If you have one of those, let me know. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Tyler White here. Back to Matt Thomas. And it is gone. And sports talk, 7-90. Home of Astros baseball.

Time is 1249. It is the Matt Thomas. for this program until 3 o'clock today. Mike Dan Tony for a half an hour in the two. And Rockets, tickets in the 1 o'clock hour. Nick, how many pair do we have for those Rockets, Oklahoma City game on Monday afternoon?

We've got quite a few. Let me count them up. Okay. It's an MLK Day, which I think is very, very cool. Again, having been in Memphis and kind of just getting a little glimpse of that, that was a good experience and 4 o'clock game. So do you want to do the show from TOTA Center, or are you want to do it from here? I can do it from T. Can you engineer?

Are we doing this show? Yes. I gotta leave early. That's a national holiday. We get a vacation day for this? Hashtag Com Day? I think my life is a Com Day. Although I'm really tired, but that's another here and over there.

That's fine. We got five pair. What? There we go. We'll give away three pair in the one o'clock hour. Let me see. Am I doing pregame that day? That's the 20th?

Yeah. I don't know how to look. All right. We'll figure out. That's semantic. You know what? I'll take. I'll probably, I'll just take over pregame and do it.

from there. Okay. I like it. Maybe. With you. Yeah, I'll be there. You want to host the launch pad with me? No. Why not? I'm very busy. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Let's go to NASA. Say how to Jay on the Matt Thomas show. Jay, good afternoon. How's going? Good. What's going on?

Man, you know, I mean, I don't like you. I mean, I grew up Astros, Oilers, rockets. And one thing we always felt that was like, you know, our team never got no national respect. Never, I mean, you know, I always felt like a dream played in New York. He'd be considered the greatest center of all time. But we always complain, hey, nobody ever respects us. And then here comes the Astros. They rebuild.

They become the model franchise, the new Eagle Empire. Everybody wants to be the Astros, and it's all gone now. You know, it's like, it's just we're back to what we were before. I don't think they ever be respected again. It's like it's all just gone, you know. I'll say this. That's not too soon. Yeah, thank you for the phone call.

Excuse me. The Patriots took a beating, Ross, with the spy gates stuff. People still respected him. I mean, they've been through, like, how many scandals have they been through now? Yeah. Bill Belichick is one of the biggest A-holes in sports. We respect him. You got, they felt like every gate.

Yeah. Spy gate. They create gates just to keep themselves in the headlines. Cheating on the bingles gate. Owner goes to massage parlor to get a gate. You know what I'm saying? They gate all over the place. There's literally an article,

top ten controversies of the Patriots dynasty ranked. I mean, I'm going to give you another classic example of this. And this isn't right because what happened at Baylor was God awful. But in terrible, terrible, blind eye, approach to the sexual assaults at Baylor University in their football program, you would have thought would have destroyed a football program. Rossi, they play in the Sugar Bowl. Good people get hired, mistakes get corrected, philosophies change, and things can change. If Jim Crane cleansed the department of people that were insensitive, rude, sexist, cheaters, and

replace them with solid citizens who know the sport, behave themselves, and follow the rules, the asterisk can continue this. There's no reason why they can't. This isn't going to affect recruiting, if you know what I'm saying? I think the general manager job seems like it would be a tough task without having the first and second round pick the next two years, but that's pretty much the only hurdle. You do have a great base of talent for the next couple of years. The heavy lifting of this season is done. Garrett Cole Yeah

Leaving I don't care if he brought in You know The next best general manager And you know Theo Epstein You know whatever Whatever you want to use

I'll take Theo Point being is that This year's kind of already set So you've got a year To go find that next guy that says Look all right So you're giving me some Some

obstacles here I'll fight through that Do we have Bregman locked up Long term? Yes Correa locked up Well that's down the road Al-Tube is locked up.

You're going to have to figure out what you're going to do with Michael Brantley and Josh Roddick. I know the answers to those questions. There's work to be done. But this is not the Miami-Marlins rebuild. Minor League system is good. It needs to be replenished. Guys need to come up here because you're going to have to ultimately figure out if Forrest Whitley is a frontline starter. And what you're going to do ultimately long-term with the outfield situation?

and where you're going to put Yardon Alvarez long term for his career. But these are okay problems. There's talent. You just have to cleanse everything here. You have to be very careful of who you hire. And these people that are hired better be choir boys. Because the eyes of baseball will be on the Astros, just like the eyes of the Patriots of football will be on the Patriots.

But you can still win. New England proves that. If you have the talent, you can win. I don't want to be here, though. I don't want to be, I mean, I was in Luno. We've been in Luno We Trust mode for how long now? Since the day you got out of. He said, I'm going to break this thing down.

I helped with the Cardinals, and I'm going to fix it here. And he did. I mean, great trade after great trade, great signing after great signing. Great traffic after great traffic. It also helped that you littered yourself with first round picks that worked. Yeah. And now we're in, whoever the general manager is, I don't know if I trust that guy. I trust Luno.

I trusted him to keep this team going for years. And now I don't know what's going to happen. And now we're like the pores. You know what you know what? When Jeff Lunoe made a trade, you felt like you were going to win it seven times out of 10. Right. You didn't question it, at least the last couple of years. When you went and got Charlie Morton, you're like, why are you going to end this guy who's been about a 500 pitcher who gets hurt occasionally?

Yeah. He came in and helped out. You went and got Wade Miley. Who's Wade Miley? He does what now? He throws his cutter a lot? Oh, okay, he's going to throw it a ton now, and then he's going to be effective for,

I mean, for $4.5 million, Jeff Luno won on that deal. Oh, by way, you're going to go get Wade. You're going to go get Garrett Cole from Pittsburgh and give up a bunch of top prospects. Owen is going to throw 300 strikeouts and finish second to Sai Young. Win.

It's hard to find good front office people. It is. It really is. And that might be Ross at the end of the day, the biggest hit of it all, is that while the, manager in baseball is important, the general manager crafts your team. Yes.

And that's not just the 25. It's the 40-man roster. It's moving guys up and down the minor league pie chart, the flow chart. It's hiring people that you trust to run your draft. Sending scouts to this area, sending scouts, being able to pull a deal on a trade, being able to say, yes, Detroit, I'll give you. this, this, this, and this for a guy that's going to come pitch for us for the final month of the season and convince him that it's going to work.

He did it. Is the Matt Thomas show. Principal Volva at the list out of odds for the next manager for the Houston Astros. Oh, really? I'm going to give you names that you'd all would recognize. Joe Espada, current bench coach, minus 120. Buck Showalter plus 400. Brad Osmus plus 950.

But Scho Walter. Yeah, veteran guy, veteran clubhouse. I get it. Bright Osmus plus 950. Dusty Baker plus 950. Dusty Baker. Yeah. If the Astros hired Dusty Baker,

I'm not doing anything, any stupid radio bit, bed or anything. It's just not going to happen. I'll just leave with that. No, first of all, there's no way I'm not going to go Philly Radio Guy on you

or anything like that. What would Philly Radio guy do? I think they said if the Eagles won the Super Bowl he's going to eat horse poop. I'm not going to do that. That's not good. No, no. John Gibbons plus 950.

Eduardo Perez, who was a bench coach, I believe in AJ's first year, I think. Or maybe it was under Porter plus 1,800. By the way, there's two jobs open. And there might be three. Yes. If you're the Mets, what do you do?

Mets are in a weird spot. Do you like Carlos Beltran? Because, let's be really honest. If there was a player that was leading the brigade of this, it's Carlos Beltrane. Just like savvy, ex-player, turned coach, now manager, well, now former manager. I mean, these are tricks done by players that played the game. I got another good question for you. What you got?

Does this affect Carlos Beltran's Hall of Fame chances? with voters. Yeah. Cheating does affect... Because he was, I mean, I don't know if he was lead pipe cinch first ballot, but probably close. Not me not first ballot.

It's... Nine-time All-Star, World Series champion, three-time Gold Glover. How many hits? How many home runs? I'm trying to find that. For a switch hitter, is he the all-time leader in Switch hit,

or he's close? Oh, I think Carlos gets in on the resume. But I think you bring up an intriguing question of what this does to his because it's the problem is with that is 411 homers so yeah Mickey Mantle of course number one. He's over 2,000 hits

correct? Pretty sure um not a member of the 3,000 hit club I don't believe no I don't know he was such a minor part of the 2017 team but such a major part allegedly of this whole

thing about the stealing of the signs in the trash can. 4-11. You mentioned the defensive work. Okay, I'm sorry, 435 home runs. I looked at a wrong list. Okay.

435 home runs, 1,500 RBI. How many hits? 2,700. Ooh, close to 3,000. Usually 3,000 get you in automatically. Career OPS 837. It's above average. Three-time Gold Glover, nine-time All-Star.

He's getting in. He would have been. But I will say this. It's going to, I've been back a couple of years. Does Carlos Beltron equal Barry Bonds? No. No.

I mean, as far as how it's affecting his chances of getting in. No, I don't think Barry ever gets in. I was looking at some of the early releases on ballots. Barry's close. But the guys who usually early release are younger and on digital platforms. It's usually the old fogies are the ones that are holding out on Barry Bond. So the numbers, Barry's numbers, always the early projection. are high and they come down because the old fogies who don't even have a computer

are putting in their votes and then they don't have him on. Yeah. Yeah. And my guess is those older fogies are the ones that covered Barry. The younger ones never saw Barry play again. Well, they saw him play obviously, but never spent a lot of time covering. I was shocked. I think his numbers were, he, Clemens was close and Barry's numbers were about 75% with

the early returns. But like I said, those always, they always go down. Yeah. All right. 713, 21, 2, 2, 5, 7.9. want to get in, 713-212-5-7-90. Two lines are open. And again, this hour, we'll give away some tickets for the Rockets against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Last night, Rockets fall to the Memphis Grizzlies. Mike Dan Tony will join us in about 50 minutes from now. Let's go to Keith and

Katie on the Matt Thomas show at 107. Keith, thanks for holding. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, gentlemen. How are y'all? Well, I would really love to go to the Russell the revenge you gain. Well, we've got to get a cue to call a little bit later on. But you'll still be eligible for that. Well, how about this? Me and my brother would definitely go. My brother's got cancer.

I'm one of the biggest Rockets fans. Can you give me a little break today? I can't. Oh, geez. I'm sorry. I just, I have rules I have to live by on our contest rules, and I just have to live by them. I'm sorry. Okay. I got a couple of rockets questions,

if you don't mind. Sure, go ahead. All right. Now, first, the back-to-back deal with Russell Westbrook, why is it that, how long is this going to go on and how many more back-to-backs do we have? There are, unfortunately, quite a few back-to-backs the rest of the year. The next one I want to say is

the Rockets play Denver on a Sunday afternoon and then play the Utah on a Monday night. So the, yeah. And it's not because it's in his contract. It's not because he came in here insisting it. He basically said, you know, they said, what's the best use of you?

So you're fresh and ready to go come playoff time. So you can be at your best. And they kind of agreed on as a group that back-to-backs just wouldn't be in Russell's resume. Wow. Okay. What about Gary Clark? What are he doing to replace him?

Who are they planning on picking up? Nobody at this point. They've got some guys in the G league that have come up. And thank you for the phone call. They've got some guys in the G league coming up at this point. But no, nobody. Gary Clark, by the way, did sign a contract, a 10-day deal with the Orlando Magic, I think, is who it was. Okay.

So, yeah. Gary, I mean, here's something about Gary. Gary is sometimes Ross, he would shoot the three. And you thought, man, this guy can play 15, 19 minutes for your night. and then sometimes he looked like they're like a lost soul. He's up and down there. I mean, that's consistency, I think, is the biggest thing that separates levels of basketball and levels of players and tiers of players.

And he just was too inconsistent. And they liked what Hartenstein was doing and how he was emerging. And they needed somebody to be a backup big because Tyson Chandler's not reliable. So I was not, I want to say, sad to see Gary Clark go. it was an unfortunate circumstance because they're up against luxury tax. If they weren't, they would just keep everybody, but that's how it works. Yeah. I feel like, and no one's told me this, I want to make sure I'm very clear.

I feel like something's going to happen. Like a move? Like a move of some sort. Like a move of some sort? Like a Robert Covington trade? Well, that's the name he keeps being brought up. Every time I go to any form of NBA social medias, Robert Covington's on the block.

Perfect fit seems like to be the Houston Rockets. Okay. Bring them back. Let's go. 3 and D, baby. Love Robert Covington. Because here's the thing, Ross, they're now in the five spot, which again, these things change almost daily. You win a game, somebody drops a game, everybody's beating each other up. You could be in the Tuesday before you know it.

It looks like the Lakers are going to hold out in the number one spot barring any sort of injury. Hell, they're still winning with the fact that Anthony Davis isn't playing for them right now. But 2 through 6 is a massive long jam, and I don't think the Rockets want to be anywhere on that 5-6 spot. They'd like to be in that upper echelon, and I think they're going to have to do it. And on top of the fact that, let's be really honest here, gang, the rocket struggle Ross when Russ doesn't play. It doesn't mean that Russ guarantees victory, but it's, I mean, they barely beat Atlanta when Russ took the last day off. They've had some other nights where he has missed games on a back-to-back, and they just, that second guy just hasn't been able to be consistent enough to come in and pick up the pieces where Russ has been in. Because Russ is 23 points a night.

He is. and I felt like he scored more 30-point games in the last two or three weeks and he did maybe in the first month of the season. He's been a lot more efficient. He's their second best player. You're missing him, especially against a fresh, good, young, talented Grizzlies team.

It's going to hurt. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-79. We'll tell you how you can win those rocket tickets coming up in the next segment. We'll do it sometime between now and 2 o'clock before Mike Dantony is with us at to 2 o'clock on Sports Talk 790. 7-1-3-3-2-1-2-1-2.

25790 is how you reach our show on Twitter at SportsMT at SportsRV and at Pro Nick Lowe. This is Carlos Correa. Back to Matt Thomas. Sportsoff, 790. It's your home. Fasters baseball. 117 of the Matt Thomas show.

713-212-5-790 is how you reach our show. 7-13-212-5-790. We'll have those rocket ticket give-away sometime in the next 40 minutes. Mike Dan Tony with us from 2 to 2.30. I'd have you ask questions under the hashtag MDA, but every time I try to do that, it's just an unmitigated disaster. So I'm going to bother with the hashtag.

You tweeted out something just a second ago. LSU coach at Ogeron will be getting $500,000 in bonus money for winning the national championship game. He ends the year with bonuses of $1.775 million. That's not the salary. That's not the endorsement money. That's not money that he gets from shoe manufacturers or any other thing from his contract. That's just bonuses.

$1.775 million. Do you know that's money very well spent for LSU? Do you know that that is that LSU won in the national championship is going to basically, I know, I know that Louisiana schools, generally speaking, are not. great financial condition. The entire state, I think. But it's cash flush in Baton Rouge. You know that, right? That's nothing to them.

Enrollment will go up. You'll have a better group of people that will apply to LSU. Locker rooms will be looking great. You will have shirts. Chris Gordy already has bought 29 shirts. Yes. Our assistant program director. And the players get a hearty pat on the back.

Well, allegedly. Well, and, maybe an Odell Beckham $100 a handshake. Why is he doing that? On the field, in the middle of everybody with cameras everywhere? I don't know.

Why is he doing that? He's probably inebriated. Or high. That's inebriated. Oh, is inebriated under alcohol and drugs at the same time? Okay. Not that we're saying that he is, but it could be. Might have been.

Possibly. Allegedly. Probably. Reportedly. Not reportedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly reportedly.

In your opinion. In my highly expert opinion. 713-212-5-790 I had dinner with some friends a few nights ago in Memphis And Gordy's responding to my tweet Even worse, Tom Herman got paid 6.7 million to lose to TCU, Iowa State and Beth Nobody's talking about Tom Herman Why are you jumping in there?

This is why I wanted Gordy to lose This is why I wanted Clemson to win Why is he so angry? Because he's going to pray like this I don't know He's just got such a, he's just so bitter How can you be bitter when your team won the national championship? That's just how he rolls

You know, Alabama has gone. I was making a general statement. It wasn't a shot at LSU. Every program does this. Dabo Sweeney got like $400,000 in bonus. Money players get nothing, which I just think is ludicrous. Yeah, they should get better gear during their swagpags. Oh, please.

There's no money to pay any of the players. Here's $9 million, Davo Sweeney. Okay. And that does include bonuses, right? No. I think nine million is like his, base. Yeah, Nick Saban, same thing in Alabama.

Yeah. You can pay him whatever he wants. They've rebuilt Bryant-Denning Stadium, loaded with new suites. Enrollment is up. They're charging higher tuition. It's a much more of a difficult short again in Alabama than it was 20 or 25 years ago because the name of the football program has put the school on a pedestal that maybe its academics didn't match.

For the for-profit football program. That's what it is. But there's only 15 of them. Okay. That's why I went to you of age. you're on segment suspension. Again? Yeah.

He's got a lot of suspensions. I feel like you're just not able to talk anymore. Matter of fact, Nick, you're not allowed to... They're stacking up. You're not allowed to talk until we do non-Florida stories tomorrow. He's like, AJ Hinch. He's suspended for a year. Yeah, at this point, I think I've got at least a year's worth of suspension.

713-213-2-5-7-90. Brian's in West Houston on the Matt Thomas show. Hi, Brian. Hey, how are you guys doing? Good. What's going on? Big fan of your show. Thank you. You know, the announcing all the...

But I can't agree with the cleanse with Crane and the Astros. Okay. You know, per the report, player-driven and Carlos Beltran, as y'all were talking about, I mean, is a shining example. Nothing. Nothing. It leaves the speculation that so many Astros were doing it, they couldn't suspend them. You know what I'm saying?

Because they didn't suspend anybody and didn't name any of the players. Correct. Though it was player-driven, it puts out speculation that so many were doing it to give them an 80-game minimum suspension would have killed the Stroes for the coming season. I don't see them doing it if one or two guys were benefiting, you know? And it just – the players skating on this thing, I don't think you can cleanse when they show up for training. Cleans is that he, when Major League Baseball goes to Jim Crane and says, we're not going to suspend players, that's out of Jim's hands. Right. What he can do is he can control people that have already been suspended and say, do I want these guys coming back?

And the decision was made by Jim to not let that be the case. He wanted a fresh start for the organization. He thought, you know what, these guys are already gone for a year. It's probably best they never return. And, you know, I agree with him. I'm not a big Jim Crane fan, just really not, but I do agree with what he did and their abilities or their inability to have done what they did. But I just, with Manfred, and it being player-driven in that report, and I read the report several times, that in Beltran, I just, it just sickens me, you know, to think, you know. And that's the 17 of the year Altubi won the MVP.

Well, here's the thing. It just makes me sick. The whole thing makes me sick. Yeah, I know. You're not the minority, my friend. Thank you, Brian, for the phone call. If you're Carlisseltron and you're about to become the manager in the number one media market in the country, he's going to get peppered with us every night, right?

Not every night. For a while? For a little bit, yeah. I mean, maybe that even for a while. When is he going to first, is there going to be an address? Is he going to keep his job? is Carl's... I'm asking a question.

If you're the Mets General Manager and owner, do you keep Carlos Bell trying as your manager, knowing that how much this has stung the sport of baseball today? Honestly, no. I don't know that he's going to be fired. But I'm asking, play the role. You know what? I'll say, yeah. I'll say he needs to be fired.

I think he's out, too. I think if I'm predicting, I will say he will be fired. Because I don't know if I want my organization with the most important man that leads my men on the field. Again, I'm not saying that if you're a manager of a baseball team, you're supposed to be a choir boy. But integrity is everything. And Carlos, there's no way no how he didn't.

He wasn't intimately involved in this. If not as much, he, I mean, again, I don't know if you were to take the 25 men on that roster, Ross, and go, all right, this guy knew a little bit, this guy knew a little bit, the guy above him knew more. that's not for us to decide because everybody's going to have a different what they knew and didn't know. But if you were to, under the thought of veteran baseball players using veteran baseball tricks to gain a veteran baseball advantage,

he's right at the top of the list. Yeah. I mean, the very man top of the list. For guy that Hardy played. He and Alex Cora are number one and two involved in this. That's what the report said. Yeah. Yeah, I found the Mets.

I think you just washed her hands. hands of it. He hadn't even, he hadn't been manager to a game, you could I don't know what kind of deal or, I mean, you, you probably can have show cause or whatever and get out of time. I'm sure, exactly. So, I mean, it's probably

not going to cost you a ton of money, if at all. You get right out of it. You don't even have to worry about him managing one game because I think, like you said, you're just going to get those questions all the entire time and it's always going to come up. You just wash your hands of it and you try to find somebody else. And even when the question

stop, there's going to be the, what is Carlos doing to gain a competitive advantage? It'll come up for years, yeah. Core is never managing again. Beltron probably shouldn't be the Mets manager. And we argue about the, not necessarily argue, we debated about how long AJ is going to be out. Again, it only takes one. But I don't think it's a straight path from suspension to being a manager the next year. I think there's going to have to be a detour of some sort, whether it be an especially.

Like, you know, like Jeff Bannister. By the way, do you notice that Jeff Bannister was not on that list? He wasn't. From Bovada. Phil Garner not on that list. Craig Bissio not on that list. That's a shame. I just don't think Craig wants that.

I think if Craig's going to be a managing manager, he's going to want it under his own terms. Yeah. Why would Craig want to be peppered with How's the Clubhouse today? Craig's just out there living his best life. He didn't need me the manager of a... He can go watch Kevin play for the Blue Jays, whatever he wants to. Exactly. Fly around town.

Millionaire, kissing babies. Not pay for a meal. Go to a trade show every now and then. Sign some autographs. Make a bunch of G. You make a, you know, a lot of Gs. Go to the batting cage when he wants to in jeans and say hi. Yeah.

You don't need that. You're not, whoever's taking this job is not doing it because it's this first time opportunity. Well, maybe it is, but it's not, you wouldn't dream of this. You would dream of becoming a manager of a team that won the American League pennant. I get that, but you wouldn't do it under this kind of a situation. situation. This is Cougars head coach Dana Holgerson. Matt's kind of like Shasta without putting on a costume.

He's a big old... The Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790. All right. I'm going to reward those of you that are good up-and-coming rocket fans. On the contest line, 713212-3399, don't call yet because it won't do you no good. I'm going to play a highlight. And the question comes after the highlights. Hardinstein screen.

Steps left, shoots for three. And there it is. From sixth man to the man. From sixth man to the man. That basket right there against Minnesota did what for James Hardin? If you know the answer to that question, first three people that can give Nick the answer to that question. So be patient.

on the contest line only. 713-212-3-39. That basket against Minnesota did what? 7-13-212-3-3-99. And you've got tickets for the Rockets. It's 4 o'clock. Remember, it's a game Monday at 4 o'clock against the Oklahoma City Thunder. And you and I would be there or you?

Yes. I am on the launch pad at 3 o'clock. So it's up to you. Just go down there. So Wax and Clinton are not going to even do a show that day? Lazy bastards. You know what? We should make one of them do it.

They should come into an hour of our show. I think you're absolutely correct. I can P.A. Prep like a mutter. Yes. But do you just practice pronunciations and go in front of a mirror and start screaming? Or what do you do? Chris Paul. Shea Gildes Alexander.

Stephen Adams. You know who there's one player that I would like to get to know? I bet Stephen Adams is a cool dude. Yeah. He's one cool Kiwi. But he looks funny. He doesn't like. Like when Chris Paul bought the entire team suits, apparently he never wears a suit.

So this was like one of his only suits ever. Guys making multi-maid dollars. Remember we played the sound bite a while ago of him and he was making those clutch free throws? And he said he bleeped his pants. Yes. Don't you think that'd be a great guy? I'd be a cool guy to hang out with. Throw one back.

I knew that Tyson Chandler when he came to the Rockets was going to be a cool dude. You got to. He absolutely is. Yeah. You got to feel like Stephen Adams can throw him back. Stephen Adams is not afraid to get into a bar fight. Yeah, but why would you want to fight him?

He's like seven foot hulking man. No, but he's like if somebody is disrespecting, like a bunch of you guys are the bar having a couple of pops and somebody comes over and calls you all the name. Seems like, and I don't do an Australian accent, or a New Zealand accent, but you don't go back. Let's go outside and finish this. He'd be one of those kind of dude.

Mate? Just throw a mate in the end there, Matt. That's true. I never thought of it that way. Wait a minute. He's only 26? You know where he played his college basketball? I don't know. Wasn't there short, long term, but. Well, I have his wiki up, so.

From New Zealand to Pittsburgh, you talk about a cultural flip. How is he only 26? Been the league six, seven years, right? I would guess he was like 30. It feels like he's been in the league forever. He runs around like he's 37. By the way, Justin, Eric, and Bill. All will be going to the Rockets games,

courtesy of your friends at the Houston Rockets for the MLK Day game against the. Oklahoma City Thunder. That highlight, by the way, was, a matter of fact, we should play it, right? Let me see if I can find it again. I wish I would have had it ready for me here. Oh, here we go.

Here's the highlight. Here's how Craig finished it. Horton-Rond of Hartstein screen. Steps left, shoots for three, and there it is. From sixth man to the man. Congratulations to James Hardin on becoming the 45th player,

an NBA history to score 20,000 points. seventh youngest player, by the way, to do it. How about that? Let's go back on the phones. We talk to Richard in League City on the Matt Thomas show at 136. Hi, Richard. Hi, guys. Good afternoon.

So when I heard the news on Monday, it was kind of funny. I'd just driven my son to high school, and he was asking me on the way to school if I believed karma was real. And I told him no, then the news comes down the line. I've changed my beliefs a little bit. So the reason why I'm sad, because AJ Hinch seemed like a genuinely good guy. He still is. He just made a very bad mistake.

Very bad mistake. Right, right. But you just hate to see one of the genuinely good ones kind of become what feels like the sacrificial lamb. And yeah, he made his mistakes for someone else's ethical lapse. But I have three specific reasons why I have some hope kind of coming out of this. And again, I hate to lose AJ. of all the sports, baseball is really the one, it seems to me, where the coach has the least impact on the outcome of the game.

I know game seven, we argue about AJ's choices, but between football, basketball, and baseball, we, you know. Well, yeah, put it this way. Yeah, managers earn their salaries by what they do in probably inning 7, 8, 9. Andy Reed or Bill O'Brien or any NFL coach can't have a bad. first, well, I don't know if I should use Bill O'Brien this case, but you have to call plays every single play, every single down you have as compared to, you roll the lineup out, you see what guys are doing, you figure out who needs days off, you figure out when to start warming

a pitcher, you figure out, you know, where to put guys, but yeah, I get it. I mean, I'm not saying that being a manager is irrelevant in Major League Baseball, but it compared to the other two, it probably is more on the players than anybody else. Which brings me to my second reason for some hope is that even though we lost Lounnow, my understanding is we still have his system and kind of all that intellectual property that he had built here and the crane funded and helped him build. And it seems to me that at least based on his assistant who got fired for the riguma role with the Sports Illustrated reporter, that maybe they weren't the best guys. Whereas AJ Hinch was a good guy, I don't know that he and or his team are the best people.

So maybe in the way that the baseball manager is not as important, the general manager is more important, it seems to me. And I hope we find someone who can really tap in to that system, but who has a better reputation, maybe among players or at least among the lead, doesn't have quite the reputation for the arrogance. And thirdly, I'll make it quick. If you look at Altuvae's stats during his 2017 run, he did much better on the road. The split was much better on the road than it was at home. And so there's a little part of me that wonders if this wasn't one of those cheats, those cheats that might have actually hurt our team more than it helped our team.

And I know that's probably a little absurd to say. No, I think what's the third point. And thank you for the call and the good points. Ross, from reading the report, I feel like the guys, some of them were annoyed by it. Some of them were like, this is getting into my head. She's distracting and not helpful, yeah. Well, it's like, I've told you about this before,

and it's a terrible example, but I'm going to go with it. When I play cards, I don't want to know, part of the fun of playing cards is beating the opponent. Well, yeah. Not knowing what is hands. Now, if I'm in Vegas trying to take your money from you, as compared to playing a little neighborhood game with the boys, I want to beat you because I want to beat you,

I want to beat a good car player in Ross. I don't want to know what your hand is. And maybe some of the guys were like, I don't want to know what pitch is coming, because maybe the psyche and the pressure of knowing that a curveball is on its way, I better smack that baseball. Well, some players will tell you that they don't want to know what's coming, and it's not because of, you know, they're gentlemanly or anything like that.

It's just because of, you know, kind of like the quote we played from Pete Rose. If you tell me, you know, something's, I'm getting a cord ball low and away, and it happens to be a fact. basketball up and in, I'm going to get hit in the ribs. Or I, you know, it can be off or, uh, it can just, they, they, they, everybody has the routine. Everybody has the way that they want to hit. And it can be distracting.

And it happens so quickly. Maybe it's, the players, some of them prefer to just process the information their own way. But if I'm Evangattis, and I'm batting 212. Well, Evan Gaddis is, I would put a candidate as somebody who wants as any help he can get. But that's my point is that there are some guys that are like, I'm bad at him. better than the game, or I'm as good as the game because I'm the best in my position at one of the best premier hitters. But if I'm 2.25 hitter, if I'm one of the astro backup catchers, Ross, do I want a little competitive advantage? Absolutely I do. Yeah. Because it

keeps me on the field and playing. He was the one in the video with Danny Farquhar during the game against the White Sox in 17. Evan Gaddis, I would put absolutely as top candidates for guys who would want a little bit of help. 713212.5.7.90. We'll get to more of you. We got Mike Dan Tony coming up for his weekly visit at 2 o'clock that is presented to you by the billiard factories and believe it or not today at 252. Craig Ackerman here. When I'm not calling Rockets basketball, I'm following at SportsRV on Twitter. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790.

Mike Dan Tony coming up in about 12 minutes from now. Tomorrow's show, we're going to try to have a little more fun. It has been a uber depressing week with the Texas. sucking the Astros Depression. We're going to do non-Florida stories tomorrow. We'll allow Nick to get off of his segment suspensions, which are piling up as we speak. What else you want to do tomorrow?

Is there a fantasy five we can knock out? We have not done a fantasy five in a long period of time, and we're always looking for the definitive topic. Sometimes if you do a show bit, just for the point of doing it, it just doesn't sound much fun. So I want to break it the thinking caps on. We have not done one in a while.

I'm sure the last one we do, dead you won because you win like 80% of the time. I'm probably bad at about 6.67. Because your buddies are always, always calling and winning. Matt, you know I don't have friends. That's true. 7.13, 2, 1, 2. I don't like people.

7.132. Well, I like you people. I like for you people to call and let me win. Hmm. What is something to do? I got one for you real fast. We do most painful Houston sports moments. No, no.

We got a laundry list there. You tell me, if this makes sense, I was thinking about this, you know, when we fly home, I always think of strange things. I love the fantasy vibe. We take a decade of music and we'll start with the 80s. We'll go to the 90s. We'll go to 2000s. We'll go to 2010.

We can do this over four different times, not four different weeks in a row, but just over the next few months. Every number one hit in the 80s, okay, would be eligible for this. we create the worst list of songs from that decade. Oh, wow. I kind of like that. So my list, in order to win the Fantasy Five, my list would have to super suck.

Right. You're looking, does that make sense to you, or am I making this up? The worst number one hits of the 80s. They have to be a number one hit. It has to be number one? Number one, because I don't want to, yeah. Yeah, it was the, that's the worst decade in the history of music.

80 to 89. That's 10 years of number one song. We can each create a list. Now, once you choose a song, you can't, it gets taken off the board. Los Lobos, La Bamba made number one. That's not one. No, it's not. You see what I'm saying? I didn't know it made number one. Are you up for that tomorrow?

You want to do that? Are you okay? Well, fantasy fives are on Friday. I know, but we need something to change the tough mood. Sometimes you've got to go to Fantasy five on special occasions. Okay. Hmm. Billy Idol, Moni, Mooney, number one in 87.

All right, tomorrow. Hmm. 2.30. We'll do non-Florida stories at 150 tomorrow. We'll do the Fantasy 5. Tomorrow's Fantasy 5, the return. Special Thursday edition because we've all been clinically depressed the line in a handful of days. Some of these aren't that bad, but yeah.

You have to take a song that was number one in the Billboard, you know, Billboard list. Yes. And you have to find the five songs that you just have. hate more than anything else. And whose list is suckier and songs that are crappier wins the Fantasy 5. Okay. That's tomorrow at 2.30.

Beatles are already broken up, huh? You should, okay, you're back on suspension. That was a good one, Nick. That's not really good. Not really good at all. Frankly awful. Lance and Magnolia on the Matt Thomas show. Hi, Lance.

Matt, how are you? everybody what's going on just wanted to talk about this uh cheat and scandal and the MLB as a whole obviously referenced it earlier about a handful of other teams possibly having some sanctions coming down on them with maybe doing some sort of sign stealing or something like that what are your beliefs about the MLB kind of sweeping it under the rug now if they kind of slap the hammer on the Astros. I don't think I would use the term swipping under the rug. I would think

they would say, we're going to come after some more teams, but until we do just know what we've already done to the Astros and you better stop whatever you're doing now. Well, obviously Carlos Veltron, you know, one of the big names on this deal, came

from the Yankees. Logan Morrison tweet out a bunch of names yesterday involving different teams that he knows for a fact we're doing some sort of signs dealing electronically. I don't know that they wanted to continue on for a long period of time. They're already facing all kind of backlash about the integrity of the game. You know, I just wouldn't be surprised that they'd rather be down with it sooner than later.

I don't think we're going to spend And thank you for the phone call Lance Good to hear from it I don't think we'll spend the next Two years hearing team after team after team But I also don't believe they're done right Does that make sense That I don't think it's going to

I don't think Rob Manfred's going to create a new division Of we're going to go find every science dealer Well they do have a division of investigation But my guess the Red Sox are going to get With especially with Cora running things in 2018 they may be the next team that gets the old look over once over, you know what I'm saying? That they're the ones that might be the next on the list.

It'll be interesting to see how involved everything was in 2018 when he was there. When he was a man, why wouldn't he bring that philosophy over to a team and managed? The Astros used it a little bit in 2018, none in 2019. Especially for a team in the Red Sox had already been gotten in trouble before with the whole watch thing to begin with. Would an organization take the chance on hiring a manager and then let that manager do that kind of thing already knowing the Major League Baseball slapped them on the wrist for the use of the Apple Watches? The answer is yes. There's no way Alex Corr didn't use intelligence to help his team.

How much I don't know. But there's no way that he all of a sudden said, well, you know, we did this in Houston, but I'm not bringing this philosophy to the Red Sox. There's no chance he didn't do that. There'll be an investigation. There'll be a whole report. And he's already gone. So it'll be interesting to read.

I want to read that report too. And never to manage again, I don't think. A straightaway three and is up. And it's good. The Rockets are rolling now. Do a better, harder, longer. We rejected. The beard is cooking.

And they play together. They play hard. He set. He fired and he had the three. Now, exclusive insight and the latest on your Houston Rockets. You've got to be a champion. It'll be the champion. Presented by Billiard Factory.

Rockets head coach Mike Dan Tony joins the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. home of the Rockets. And it's 201 here on the Matt Thomas show. We spend 30 quality minutes with our favorite NBA head coach, Mike Dan Tony. Coach, these 830 start times are past our bedtime. This is not good for us, is it? Well, hopefully it'll be good for us. We need a little goodness every once in a while.

All right. Hey, tonight you're going to go for a win number 200, my friend. That's not bad in four seasons, is it? Not even four seasons. Well, you know, when you get good players, that's when that stuff happens. Yeah, I've never met a coach that had a terrible roster that won 200 games in three and a half years. Hey, last night, sometimes you don't play well and you kick yourself and then sometimes you go, you know what? That team across the way was pretty darn good.

I was very impressed with how Memphis came out last night. They've been one of the hotter teams in the NBA these last couple weeks or so. Yeah, they played well. You know, it's funny. A lot of games, most games probably come down to about three or four plays. I think we're up one in the fourth, and the next three or four plays, we didn't make any big shots. They made, I thought, pretty contested shots, and so they beat us. They're on a roll, and I think they have a legitimate chance to come in eighth place this year or seventh in the West.

So, yeah, the young kid, John Rand is really good. And we didn't play well. We didn't do our job. It should have been, it was a good game, but in a sense, it's close. But, you know, we just are not sharp right now. We're not, it doesn't seem like we have the urgency that we need or, you know, for whatever reason. And the dog days of January, whatever reason it is, we've got to get back on track. You mentioned sharpness is that how do you fix such a thing?

Because I think, I think, right, you're winning games. You're still, you know, obviously playing at a, you know, seven out of ten clip. But there's a little bit of, you know, you don't want to have a down night or a back-to-back shouldn't be laborsome. So when you describe how this team needs to get sharper, what would you tell the guys, whether it be at a practice or before tonight's game? Well, I mean, obviously the professional, we know what they have to do. They've got to come out with an urgency and now let the game get aware and all that. And then we talk about that all the time.

But I do think it's kind of unique right now that, you know, we've got some guys trying to get back on track. Eric Gordon's trying to get back in form after missing six weeks. We got PJ who had the stinger the other night and has experienced some discomfort and he's got to get back on track and actually hasn't, you know, really it's been two or three weeks. Daniel House got to get back on track. You know, Clint has dealing with his foot and needs to get back on track totally. He still was pretty good last night. James has been, you know, up and down the last few games after the break.

And so we just have individual issues that we collectively will get over them if we understand the urgency and everybody just does, you know, a little bit, put a little bit more pep in their step and let's get it done. You and I would brag a lot last year about Daniel and you missed him when he was gone, came back and towards the end of the year. And then you gave him enough confidence to start him for much of the season. I know you've gone with Ben the last handful of games. And Daniel's point production has really fallen off a little bit. What's going on with him that you can tell? Well, you never know exactly because if you knew, you just go fix it, right? So it's just something that it's a process he has to go through,

and not really worried about it. I think he's thinking about a little bit too much and probably, you know, I also contribute to that. But it's just, you know, you have to understand that let me do the simple thing. Let me just play as hard as I can play. Let me just make the simple play until I get my confidence rolling again. and then get over the hop. And, you know, he's on this journey,

and he'll figure it out and work through it. And in the meantime, we need to win games. And he's playing hard. He's trying. But right now, it's not clicking for him totally. But he'll get over there. He'll find his way. Also, coach, you mentioned PJ coming back from the Stinger.

38 minutes last night. I only got one shot up. I mean, is he just battling through it? Or what was the deal with him? or what did you see out of him last night? Well, he's always battling through it. And, you know, I didn't want to play him 38 minutes last night, but because of Jared Jackson, Jr., at the five,

I was a tough matchup for our bigs. And so PJ had a log-in some five minutes that extended him a little bit more than I wanted him to. But he still feels the nerves and the tingling or whatever. And we'll see tonight. We'll see how he is. when he gets to the area, I expect him to play because he doesn't miss games. But at the same time, we've got to get him well and get him feeling good. Yeah, you mentioned the minutes there, Coach, and I find it interesting because, of course,

in theory, you don't want to be throwing guys out there for 40 minutes every night, but also, I mean, you've had guys dealing with injuries and matchups and all that stuff. So how are you going about balancing the minutes load in your rotation? Well, I mean, we're not too far off what we want to be. Like I said, PJ's played to me. Man, it's one of the reasons that I'm starting Ben and Daniel goes to the fours, try to get his minutes down. It's an easy swap out.

Now, I wasn't expecting to go smaller, but Jared Jackson created a problem that just seemed like we had to. So it was a little unexpected that PJ went up to 38 minutes. So we need to get him down about 28, 30 minutes. I think we can do that with Daniel at the four. And, you know, and again, we were shorthand a little bit with must not be in there. So it puts a little pressure on our rotation. And tonight we should be more or less full strength. And then we'll see what the rotation will look like normally and then go from there.

Mike Dan, Tony, with us here on the Matt Thomas Show presented to you by the Billiard Factory. Coach, you've been in this league 16 years. You've been around basketball all your life. To PJ in his toughness for a guy that has to play the four who's six, five, grabs rebound. dives all over the floor, playing with a hurt shoulder. Put him in some other company of guys you've coached so we know what we experience here with him playing for the Rockets. I mean, what are some other guys that you put him in that same kind of category of gritty,

going to lose the size matchup more times than not? But man, at the end of the day, he's going to come up with a big rebound or a big shot to help out your squad. Well, probably, I mean, what pops in the mouth real quick is Rajabelle from fame. We played a Phoenix where, you know, he wasn't the most gifted play. out there. But he, like PJ, went to Europe, made himself a player. They weren't, you know, either drafted late or they were considered for about a few years.

So we go through the European experiences. Came back and they just saw what job they had to get done. They get it done. And Roger was one of the best competitors that I've ever coached. And you knew he was going to bring it every night on the toughest level. PJ is the same way. And, you know, sometimes, you know, it makes out. doesn't make shots, and sometimes he'll throw a pass up in his stands,

but he will find a way to let the team win or get you in a position where you can win. And that's all you're going to ask for it. He gives everything he's got so when he's all for, I try to make sure that he's not hurted too much, but I always appreciate what he brings every day. You mentioned to me last week about, you know, we talked a little bit about how Clint had those 30-point games back-to-back and that PJ wasn't scoring a whole lot. Does it take a wildest sense who's going to get the shots, or is it a case that you kind of know going in

that it might be Clint's opportunity to do a little more offensively against a particular opponent? Because as you said, it's not because PJ doesn't want to shoot that maybe just the defense isn't presented. So how do you, how does it figure out? Is it kind of game flow, or do you have a pretty good feel before you even step on the court? What kind of night those guys can have for you offensively?

Well, we have a better feel because we do scout teams and they have certain defensive philosophies that they go from game to game. So, you know, for example, one-teens philosophy is a stick on the three-point shooters no matter what, let James and Clint be handled by the two guys inside and they'll stay on the three-point shooters. You know, then that's a night that if everything goes, well, we make good decisions that Clint is going to get a lot of dogs, and James going to get some floaters. points come that way. Then there are other teams that really crashed the middle and sag in. And so now James got to make that decision and read it.

We try to give him hints. And sometimes they change up during the game. Sometimes they don't follow what they did game before. So he has to read the right play, and our shooter is going to be ready. And it's not always easy, but that's the job. And that's how we play. And that's really their skill set. And so I don't really look about who scores.

I have no idea who averages what. But if the ball's moving the right way, and I know we do a lot of isolation, which, you know, fits what we have, but players got to be ready to score. And, you know, like McElmore yesterday, it doesn't make a three in the first half, comes out, makes four in a second. So you never know when it's going to happen.

You never know when you're going to be open when the ball finds you, but just always need to be ready. You started Austin. Yesterday, keeping Eric as a six-man, and you kind of told me before the game it was because you wanted Austin to chase John Moran around, which that was a tough chore for anybody having to guard him. But after one experiment of that, do you envision keeping Eric in that six-man role on nights that Ross doesn't play?

Yeah, I think so, because one of the reasons also we did, and I know that explanation is I wanted to keep Eric 30, 31 minutes. If I'm going to finish with him, and then he's a lot of him. and then he was going to play, he's going to play a lot of, you know, without Jake and all those minutes. And I want him also to play with the starter some. If you start him, then he's going to be up to 36, 37 minutes, and back to back, or just where he is right now, which is recovery, that just doesn't make sense. So he did play 31 and maybe a minute, too many last night.

But that keeps him in that box of 28 to 32 minutes, that we want to keep him out. Rockets. Let's go! What a pass! He hits it! To get Rockets insight, he need to go inside. Hey, look who's here. Rockets head coach, Mike Dan Tony on the Matt Thomas show.

Presented by Billiard Factory. Rockets and the Portland Trailblazers tonight, 830, will be the start time. We'll have the coverage for you here on the Sports Talk 790. And we got Coach Dan Tony for another segment here on the show. Coach, I want to get to Isaiah Hart. Stein for a minute. Guy that goes back and forth between the G League and the Rockets last year. He's been with the team most of this season and steadily has been getting more and more

playing time. So tell me where he was when you first saw him, what you've asked of him, and where he has in that process to gain the confidence in you to see some playing time on a fairly regular basis. Well, you know, I think right now depending on matchups, I think he's kind of earned the backup spot to Clint. and then he'll have nights that, you know, a little bit of a feel because he doesn't have a whole lot of rope. Let's put it that way.

Last night, you know, I was all intention to play, but, you know, Jared Jackson is a real tough match for any center. And then Valenciennes is alone and crafty and all that. Plus, we kind of want Clint to mirror probably the first string center. And then Isaiah will do the... second guy comes in there. So that's kind of the plan going into a game. But at the same time, Isaiah's played well.

I mean, he's last, you know, he's going to have ups and down. He's still going to work on his balance and being able to guard and not make silly fouls and all that. I think that's probably more than anything the last couple of years. He worked out, got better, he's got stronger.

He does have a sense of how to play offensive basketball, which really can't teach a lot. he's really good at what he does. And I expect as time goes on, you know, keep getting, you know, better and a little bit more confidence in himself and also in the team having with him. And I expect him to be with us. You know, the thing I can tell on him on what kind of night he might bring to you, frankly, is one of the things you brought up in initially is the foul trouble. If I can, if you can get him out of that quick one or two foul mode that he gets almost maybe three or four minutes, into a game. It's like, you know what, there's a chance for you to be out there 17, 18 minutes.

For him not to get any fouls is ridiculous because it's a grown man game of the NBA. But it feels like when he gets the early whistles, it's almost like wrong place, wrong time, or he's trying to guess. Because as you said from an offensive standpoint, he's got a little bit of offensive moves. And I think that a young Clint Capello was kind of in that same boat. You get in a foul trouble early. It takes you out of your best part of your game. Yeah, he's 22 years old. He's just turned for what you, I think, and maybe 21, 22. So, you know, Clinton at that age is still down in the Valley. So, you know, he is seven feet and he does a lot of really good things.

But, you know, one real important staff that people really don't look at is how quick you get into the bonus in any quarter, especially the fourth quarter. And that's when, Clint, a lot of times that start at the fourth quarter, Clay will be resting. And we just cannot. And we have a habit of doing that. We did last night. and Isaiah wasn't in there. It wasn't his fault, but we have a habit of getting in the bonus early, like two or three minutes going in a quarter.

And that just kills you coming down the stretch trying to win a game. And, you know, a lot of the guys have that problem. And, you know, you pick up a foul of reaching unnecessarily. I'm able to rebound that there's no way in the world he could get or just a silly sound somebody running through the lane and just grabbing. So he's working on that. And that'll come with experience. It's not a, that's just something that will go away as he learns.

But it's right now for us, every game is due to die. You know, we need to come in first or second place in the division. We haven't got to the halfway point yet. We've thrown some games away, and we've had the injuries to deal with, and everybody has that. So we have to, you know, we've got to get on the horse real quick, and he'll learn along the way and expect how to do you. It has some really good games going forward. You said the term throwing some games away,

and that's going to happen over any two games schedule. Yeah, everybody does. Everybody has bad loss. Yeah, they have bad loss. So let me ask you this. Let me ask you this, is it, do you labor more on those, or do you really savor the ones that are really good? Because, you know, you know, you've talked a lot about this run

where you've won some games. You've knocked off Denver. You've knocked off the clippers. You've knocked off the Clippers. I mean, they're talking about legitimate NBA title containers. What makes you, is the high, the high or the low, the lower, or does they all kind of seem to balance out, do you think? Well, I mean, I think we know as a group in that like-old,

we know that we can be the best team in the league. We know that. We have a lot of talent. We know other teams are real good. We don't fear them. We know they're really good. The two, you know, L.A. teams, Denver, Utah, whatever. and then there are a lot of teams in the West

can be on any night, but we know that. We just got to get it together. Now, the thing is you have to set yourself up and be able to withstand everything. And if you, you know, not give games away, it's not like you give them away, but if you're not having the

appropriate fear or understand the importance, what happens is you'll go down to like last year. One game we had to go down to OKC, which is hard to win, to get second place. And instead, we lost at the buzzer,

and we got fourth place or fifth place, whatever we got. And those are the things, those are the, you know, the signs that we put up on our guys. Come on our guys, you know, much easier, you know, not to disrespect anybody, but you can go to a sub-500 team on the road than having to go to Utah. One last games, you've got to win there.

So it's why you understand our goals and understand the gravity of the situation. And sure there's going to be some bad losses, but it should be less than anybody else in the league. If you want to come in first or second, then we have to, you know, with still time, but at the same time, we need to have that appropriate fear

where we don't want to get into, like, what happened last year. Russell Westbrook sits out the back-to-back, didn't play last night. How do you measure this right now, or is it one of those? You know what? When we're sitting here in April and the playoffs begin, and, you know, Russ's legs are fresher.

Do you go back and say that these were decisions that were in the right and the best interest? Right now, can you possibly gauge what kind of effect Russ sitting these back-to-backs out will ultimately have on this basketball team? No, you can't gauge it. There's no otherwise it would be easy, right? Okay, that guy doesn't play there because we know that three motions. You cannot gauge it at all. You don't know.

It's the best guess that you can have. And the reason that we don't know what Russell had is some surgeries this summer. And we're going to make sure that we avoid injury more than the day. Not that he will be resting. He's rested. It's not having to do with rest. It's having to preserve his physical ability to be able to compete every night and not risk injury.

And he's in that category where the medical staff thinks it's better that he doesn't play back to back. And you do it. You can't just see the proof. You just do the best you can at calculated guesses that has proven, hopefully it works. We've gone almost two weekly editions of the show without me asking you about the replay system. And we could probably spend an entire half hour on it,

but in the last two minutes of our segment here, you haven't used it a whole lot. I don't think it's compared to most teams. I don't even know if the average game even has a replay review or not. but and I think you and I if we visited about this four or five times between now and the end of the year, things would change either hopefully for the better but certainly not for the worst.

But right now, as you see it, what's the best thing about it and what are a couple of things you'd like to see ultimately change in this system down the road? Well, I mean, it's hard because in every play and I'm falling, you know,

victim to a few times that as a guy, like you see a play that happens in front of you know there wasn't in a normal, even a rest of the whistle if they saw that play coldly. You know, if you could just not at the time of reaction, they would not blow the whistle, and either it's not a foul or a two-point whatever. But if you look at the replay, yeah, they blew the whistle, said there was a foul. There is some contact there.

Not enough that normally you would call it, but if you're going by the low of the law, there was contact. they have to withhold the same. So you lose your challenge, and it drives coaches crazy because you know that's not a basketball foul, but at the same time, it's the letter of the law. So I get it. You have to be very careful about using your challenges on emotional basis, and that's hard sometimes.

And then the other thing we've learned from the analytic people is that you should probably use it any time you're 100-pitched insurer that either takes points off the board or adds points for you to be able to use it, whether it's in the first quarter of the fourth quarter. Preferably, I would like to have it down there in the fourth quarter of the last three or four minutes where you can take some points off the board for them and put it on. But as they say, you know, there's not any difference taking three points off in the second quarter as in the fourth quarter. That can be discussed and argued who knows, but I understand the reasoning.

So it's just, it's a little bit of an experiment going forward. and it is what it is. Probably next year they will make some changes because I know a lot of coaches don't like it because it's frustrating because you know it wasn't a pal in normal circumstances, but they will uphold it. But I can see why.

So we'll see how it shakes out this summer. Right now we'll just try to do the best we can and hopefully, you know, maybe it'll be good. Maybe it'll overturn a play at the last minute and you win a game on. Who knows? All right. Last question. One of our favorite players, Gary Clark, moving on to the Orlando Magic, and I know the decision was made to release him last week.

We had a lot of Gary Clark fans. Just give me a thought or two about his time with you and what you see from him and what you liked and what you hope that if you're a Gary Clark fan, you will see when he gets another opportunity. Yeah, I think Gary can play. And there was a lot of factors go into it, not just whether he can play or not. Gary was great and very special, a good guy and has talent. you know one of the main

forces because of what you know of the letting him go was that it opens up the possibility to make it easier for Daryl's team to impact the trade and I don't get into that I don't know

that's probably the thinking behind it whether it happens or not who knows and I'm not looking for that but Daryl and them have their way that it thinks best, and we hate to lose Gary. He was good for us, and who might get him back. He's on the 10-day at Orlando, if I'm not mistaken.

That's right. And we'll be open to getting him back here. So we'll see how it goes and wish him luck in the meantime. And, you know, he could be a very good basketball player. Thank you for the time, as always. Always informative, enjoyable. Best luck tonight against the Blazers and your hope for winning your 200th game as a rocket coach.

We'll see you in the arena tonight. Sounds good. All right. You got it, Mike Dan Tony with us here on the Matt. Thomas Show presented to you by the Billiard Factory. Yo, this is Bunby. And my wife is the biggest fan of the whitest man in America. Matt Thomas, Matt Thomas, Matt Troy.

Reckless, ratchet, and don't give a fuck. Shout out to Queenie. Hope she's doing well. Hope the whole Bunby family's doing well. They're going to have a sneaker fest, I think, at a Rockets game. I don't know when it is, but it's... Yeah, with PJ Tucker. Yeah.

The NBA's biggest sneaker head. In a league full of sneakerheads. Isn't it crazy that guys would be so... I mean, of all things to collect. There are some people that collect shot glasses. There are some people that collect coins. It's one of those things. It's almost...

It's like... It's such a good song, by the way. It's a great song. Yeah. It's like, um... Yeah, other things people collect, like baseball cards or albums or... Stamps. Stamps.

It's anything like that. The sneaker calls. culture and it's out of control. You can go on to websites and make bids and put up shoes and you can go and try and get in the... Nike has like lotteries where they have these

limited releases. If you win one of the lotteries you buy the shoes for $200, you sell them for $1,000. Do you ever wear these shoes that you collect? Some of them... Well, people will, what they'll do sometimes they'll buy two pair, they'll wear one and then they'll save the other one. It's crazy. It's crazy.

Yeah. What do you collect? Was it Nick Young that had a he had a house for his shoes. Do you collect anything? Go ahead. No. Why do you smile when you thought?

I thought you were going to be embarrassed by saying something? No, I'm not embarrassed. I don't have, um... I don't collect anything. Nick, you collect anything? No. No, really. I'm not a big memorabilia guy.

Now, I've saved some things. I mean, when I was a kid, I had baseball cards. Okay, who didn't? Yeah. Well, I mean, today's kids don't. Right. Maybe today's kids don't. But that was about it.

This music, what is the same the song. I don't do bobbleheads. I don't do memorabilit. No, no, do jerseys. I don't do... Gordy collects LSU championship shirts.

He's already got 49. What's the same in the song again? Breezen. God, I love this song. This is the George Benson version. This is so yacht rock. It is just perfect. This is just smooth.

You just want to put the top down in your Chrysler Sebring. And you want to get like a glass of a fraser or not fraser. Frosse. Frosay, yeah. And just listen to some... Yeah. This.

Perhaps a nice chardoner Maybe you're on the boat with a shirt off. Yeah, well, my shirt's going to be on. Short shorts. Ice down bucket full of Zimas. Yeah. It's the truth. All right.

These are questions that I will not ask, coach. Mike Dantone, know the hashtag, Ask MDA. At Serpico 123. Do you sock, sock, shoe, then shoe or sock, shoe, sock, then shoe. You know, sock, sock, shoe. This is an easy one. Left or right for me. Left or right.

Sock, sock, shoe. No, I'm left or right. Well, I'm left-handed. Maybe that's why I do right. Yeah. I don't know. I'm sock, sock, sock, shoe. What shoe do you put on first?

Nick, your right foot or your left foot? I guess I typically do my left foot first. I do my right foot first. Yeah, you miss because your left hand. But I'll be honest, I sometimes do sock shoe, sock shoe. Really? Well, yeah, I mean, right. What are you going to hop around somewhere?

Yeah, you'll sock sock sock sock. And I got the one leg up. Really? finish that leg and then switch legs. All right, next on the AskMDA. I'm Sock, Sok, Sok Guy. Oh, here you are. Look who's back on that.

What, me? Yeah. Oh, it must be a good one. Where is Derek King going to land? Hashtag AskMDA. Well, Matt. It sounds like he may be going to visit with Kendall Bryles, who's the new OC at Arkansas.

After getting fired at Florida, well, actually getting bumped out with Florida State. I don't care where you do one of you think Derek King's going, because I'm just going to be some snarky response. So goodbye. Next. Oh, it's you again. What is your preferred brand of massage gun?

Acme, of course. And then we got a response from like some massage gun company. No, we got from Elk. Surpico went back and said, and how many volts preferred? That's kind of a personal question, how powerful your massage gun is, right? All right. Next. Pick one.

Well, this is a tough one. Pick one. Red lobster biscuits or olive garden breadsticks. Nick, you go first. Cheddar baked biscuits, definitely. Yeah, that's easy for me. I'm going to be the fraud that I am and say that I have to sit on the fence on this one. I could eat a dozen of each comfortably and not think twice about it and not apologize for it.

No, get off the fence. No fence sitting. I'm putting two in front of you. You can only grab one. The biscuits by a smidge. Okay. Not by much, though. Do you know they sell the mix in grocery stores now?

I've tried to do the lobster biscuits at home. It's not the same. Not the same. And we've followed the recipe to a tea. It's just not the same. Next, Eric Carmoni 15. Would you rather go for it on fourth down on a fourth and one on the opponent's side of the field or fourth and three on your side of the field?

That was the fake pun. Or going for it on fourth and one. That's a tough question, I think coach MDA would probably say you go for on fourth and one on their end of the field. So that was a crossover

rockets to Texans. Next, ask MDA, does he like Peach Basket or T-Bone better for your nickname? What? Hmm. Are you more of a peach basket guy or a T-bone or fancy mat? I'm going seen out of the above.

So you're like the Babe Ruth of nicknames. Of course he's George Herman Ruth, but he's the babe. He's the Sultan of SWAT, et cetera, et cetera. The Colossus of Clout. I'm skipping this question. I never should have read to begin with. At Strow's Relegate. I think Peach Basket is because you call all the Rockets games.

With all, this is Strow's relegation. With all the recent sports are breaking Houston, the plan is to win the title to be the beacon of hope, right? Yeah. The Rockets can save us from this. I don't know if they are, but I would love for them to do so. Well, Dan Tony just told us. told us they can play with anybody in the league. I tend to agree with them if they're at their best.

Because Lakers depth issue, I think, is going to be a problem. AD is never 100% healthy all year long. The Clippers have a terrible mental mojo, I think. I don't know why they're the way they are. They should be winning a lot more. I'm never sold on Denver. Utah, all they're doing is beating teams that have a 355 winning percentage. So I ain't scared of that 10-game winning streak. Now, the Rockets have had similar competition, too, and they should. They'll lose. in the games they shouldn't be losing to. Give Utah credit for that. They're not losing games to, you know, second-tier opponents.

Like, you know, unfortunately, the Rockets have done. This song right here may be better than the show itself we're doing today. You hear this song and you think of spring and summer, an astro space ball. Yeah. This is a nice little springtime jam, isn't it? You think of George Springer hitting a home run? You don't think about banging of trash cans? or whistling or video cameras.

You think of a nice sunny day. Your girlfriend's wearing a hot tank top. What great draft picks the Texans are going to use in the first round? That's not what you think about in the summertime now. No, some stations do, but we don't think about that. Luckily, you don't have to. Well, the thing of is, the Texans are going to get their time in the sun. It just won't be right now.

Around draft time, we'll talk about it. But I'm not going to be. They have a second round pick this year, too? Or is that the following year? I think they do. I don't know. Or is it going to the Del. I think it goes to the Dolphins next year.

We'll let General Manager, the great duo of Easterby O'Brien, have figured out. Yikes. No general manager in the future. By the way, he's not being fired. He would have been fired today, right? If Cal McNair wanted Bill O'Brien fired, he'd have fired. No one is not.

Zero percent chance. Zero percent chance. I don't say zero percent chance. about anything, but zero percent chance he gets fired this off season. What percent chance do you think that Bill O'Brien gets another year extended to his contract? 25. If that happens? It'll be a Friday.

Which Friday are they going to dump that news? Friday, 4.59 p.m. And the question was, would somebody like Texans Karen finally say enough is enough? No. Would traveling Texans say, we're not traveling anymore? We're the stay at home Texans. We're going to keep our face paint on and do it at home. instead.

Traveling Texan. They're going off so easy with this Astros stuff. Going to City Hall of these other cities and putting up a bunch of flags and going, Texans go and then blanking the bed in that particular city. Well, teach his own. 243, believe it or not, is next. How well do you know tonight's opponent to Portland Trailblazers?

We will ask you. And the franchise in general. Oh, all together, all things Portland. When I listen to the Matt Thomas show, I don't even understand the eclectic nature of the show, the dichotomy, the ostentatiousness, the perfunctory that sounds about as smart as LeVar Ball. Back to the Matt Thomas show. All right, time is 248 on the Matt Thomas show. On the program tomorrow, we're going to try to change the tenor of the Houston sports landscape, at least one show at a time. We're going to try to have a little more fun.

It has been clinically depressing. doesn't mean we can't bring it up. I mean, the Astro story is not going to go away, especially because we don't know who the manager is going to be or the general manager. I feel like we didn't spend enough time, Ross, ripping the Texans as an organization for the god-awful performance in the playoff game.

Bill O'Brien ain't feeling sad about this Astro departure the way the news came down because it kind of got him off the hook. But we will get back on that, especially because of the fact that there was a story published today by CBS Sports that Bill O'Brien's happy with all the moves he made in order for the team to get where they were.

And that was to be a participant in the AFC divisional playoff. Winning it, and that's, you know, gravy. Getting there is, I guess, the role of grabbing all the different players. No, they did. They did help out. Tunsel helped out the cause. Certainly Kenny Stills did. Duke Johnson did, but I would have hoped that the end game would have been a lot loftier

than just making it to the AFC divisional playoffs. We'll do that. Also tomorrow on the program, we will do a special edition. of the Fantasy 5 on Thursday, because we just need a better fix of things, Ross and I will each be given a list of the number one songs at any point in the 1980s. If the song reached number one at any point in the 1980s,

we're going to create the worst list, meaning that, Nick, if you and I were going on island, and I handed you a CD, and I gave you these five songs to play, you could only play those five. You'd be so mad at the five songs that we chose that you'd want to throw the CD in the ocean. you'd rather go music list and listen to the list that we're going to create tomorrow.

I'd probably use the CD to make some sort of survival tool. You could probably break it up and make some knives or something. Because remember when you broke a CD, those things were sharp. Nick agrees. Okay. So we'll take the CD that we're going to create for each other. Fish hooks. Make fish hooks.

And we're going to try to stab it fish. Yes. Because these songs are so bad. Like, I have, there is a song that I hate more than any of, other song in the 1980s, and I hope it's a number one song, because if it's not a number one, it's not eligible for the list. Correct. So. I was looking at the list, though. A lot

of them are pretty good. They're going to be... I like to always hate on the 80s, but I was actually impressed. No, early 80s is not bad. When you get to 85, 86... Start to get a little questionable. It gets bad, so we'll have that. Plus, we've got non-flora store tomorrow on the one I collect our plus... Then the cocaine really sank its teeth in

to the music industry. The 60s and 70s, drugs and cocaine and alcohol. That's true, but that was like LSD. And so that's why you're getting all the creative juices flowing. So we're talking about early crack in the 80s. That's where you're getting Lucy in the sky with diamonds and you're all living in a yellow submarine. Yeah, those were to fly out of hallucinogens. If you, seriously, I, hey man, what if we wrote a song about how we all lived in a yellow submarine? That'd be cool. Well, how about the song in the 70s afternoon delight? Basically talking about having sex after lunch. Sounds like a great idea.

Yeah, but I mean, like 70% of songs are about either sex or relationships or drugs. At the end of the day. Yeah. Mostly about love. Little about drugs. When you say you got good loving, it's talking about intercourse, Matt. Population. Why did you just your two hands there?

One hole and one? Okay. Fornication. We have non-flora stories tomorrow, too. And plus two more pairs of Rockets tickets to give away for that Oklahoma City game on Monday. So busy Thursday. Five minutes left to go. going the show. What should we do?

We should play America's fastest growing sports game show. We simply called it. Believe it or not. And here's how it works. You'll call 713212-790. 7-1-3-21-5-790. Today's edition of Believe it or not, brought to you by Woodhouse Day Spouse. Printout your gift card for the gift of relaxation. Houston Woodhouse Spas.com. The category today is all things about the Portland Trail Blazers. I'll read your statement about the Blazers. Statements completely utterly accurate. You'll say this. Believe it.

I'm at the morning's full of bunk and midnight people say this. Two, believe it or not, to all things about the Portland Trailblazers win your prize. Ross, what's the prize? Matt have got a pair of tickets. Speaking of the 80s, two totally 80s, featuring the motels with bow wow, wow, and win in Rome. February 27th at the House of Blues, live nation.com for tickets and information. Do both of those make the Fantasy Five lists? You'll find out tomorrow.

AY on 790, ready to play, believe it or not. During its infancy, the Portland Trailblazers held the contest to name the team. The winner was. pioneers but management decided to stick with trailblazers believe it or not believe it believe it statement number two for the win the Portland Trailblazers selected two future NBA head coaches in the 1970 expansion draft Pat Riley and Rick Adelman believe it or not no oh AY I'm sorry my friend Y I don't know your 70s me why calls the trenches Charlotte when a Y calls

he calls our shows back I met him a couple times I'm a big fan of theirs Dre on 790, ready to play, believe it or not. Drey, the Trailblazers franchise has had an occasional relationship with the Oregonian. Adversarial. Oh, excuse me. And occasional. Adversarial relationship with the Oregonian, that's our newspaper. And there have been many controversies between the team and the newspaper.

Believe it or not. Say it again? We're going to let you go. I just couldn't understand you. Ryan, did you hear the question? Yes. Believe it or not. Not.

Believe it. Can you name one real quick? I don't even... There was a list of three of them. I didn't do too much. Fair now. Corey on 790. Corey, your favorite part of the radio show today?

Believe it or not, of course. Carmel Anthony was cut from his high school team as a freshman, and that caused him to move seriously, more seriously focus on basketball. Believe it or not? Not. Believe it. Yeah.

We mentioned every segment of the show today, right? Didn't we between noon and two? 50? Probably not. Corey on 790, ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. The Portland Trailblazers's all-time leader in rebounds is Clyde Drexler. Believe it or not? Not.

Yeah, that's Lamarcus Aldridge. Come on. Drexler's second. In rebounds? Yeah. I guess just longevity, right? Statement number two for the win. C.J. McCollum was only 5-2 at the start of his high school.

But following a growth spurt, he grew to 6-3 by his senior year. Believe it. or not. Believe it. Thank you. Go. Congratulations. Nice job. Matt on 790.

Matt, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Damien Lillard wears the number zero because it represents the letter zero, oh, which has been big in his life. He grew up in Oakland and playing the NBA in Oregon. Believe it or not. Believe it. May it. There you go.

Statement number two for the win. In addition to Damien Lillard, Rodney Hood has dabbled in rapping and was even featured on a song in Lillard's latest album. Believe it or not. Believe it? No, sorry. That's a good one. Give yourself a pat on the back on that one. It's no surprise. The deterioration of the Oregonian in the trailblazers

has started with Steve Patterson. There's zero surprise. Former Texas Athletic Director. It was called, quote, the most dysfunctional media team relationship. Huh. I got to read about that. Hey, again, reminder, what house day spas? Print out that gift card for the gift of relaxation over 70 different spa services available at

Houston Woodhouse Spas.com. Houston, woodhouse spas.com. Tomorrow, non-Florida stories, tomorrow a special Thursday edition of the Fantasy 5. When we get in the manager, by the way? Should we find out?

Next week or so? A team next. Talk to y'all at the arena tonight, 8.30 for Rockets and Blazers, and you'll catch the game right here on Sports Talk 790.