The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show 2-5-20

Episode Date: February 5, 2020

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 2/5/20Robert Covington comes to Houston (0:00)Vegas Win Total Predictions Come In...guess where the Texans are (39:00)Rockets in talks to get a Big Man (50:52)Pete Rose wants off the Ineligible List (58:25)

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers. I'm in my way. Is the Matt Thomas show. Having in lunch timers. Good afternoon to you and welcome. The edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790 alongside Rossville

Real. Nick Lowe, I'm Matt Thomas. It's really an honor for us to be with you every single day. on a day we have got I mean this is we're supposed to be heading into the dog days of say sports radio

in terms of you know post Super Bowl post Super Bowl no first round picks of the Texans or the Rockets or the Astros or now the Rockets

when's the next first round pick in this town man we are the worst draft party city in America that's the truth there's nothing left no drag to the dynamo of a draft

the super draft super's a relative term let's not what they call it I thought it was the mega draft I think it's the super draft okay whatever yeah when's the draft dynamo party

one of the saber cats have a draft party when are the roughnakes having it well the roughnakes just started their season yeah they already had their draft right yeah that'll conclude roughneck conversation for the day 1204 on sports talk 790

hey Clint Capella is now an Atlanta Hawk And Robert Covington, the most much sought after by actually several teams, is now wearing Houston Rocket Gear. And you know who? Oh, he's one before. That's true. But as he said earlier this morning, he is a different player. Clearly, I mean, you're much of a different player in year 8 than you are in year 1.

There are three things in life that are guarantees. There are death. There is death. There are taxes. And there's Mark Berman at the airport. That's a fact. that man is is is is grinding as i said this morning do you think in his off time he's like a baggage he like he throws the bags into the baggage claim well i've told you how he gets this

there's one of two ways one he calls the agent and says agent please tell me when your client is coming to the airport and the agent will i mean if the agent's doing his due diligence he will say okay he's on xyz flight what that the da da arriving at this time now the question is do you wait for him, you know, because way back in the day pre-9-11, you could go to the gate and wait for your friends. Like if you had family and friends coming in or business associate, you could just, as they walked off the plane, bada-boom, bada-bbing. Now, you have to go more times than not to baggage claim. But sometimes people carry their stuff on and skip the old baggage claim. I got to ask Berman about this next time I ask him. Because every time he gets

somebody, it's at baggage claim. I wonder if he walks with him, you know how the entrance to terminal is the earliest spot you can get somewhere. Yeah, you can just go down the, if you go in the terminal, you don't have to go inside. You can just go down the elevator or whatever, and then you're in baggage claim. The audio sounds like he's writing the baggage claim. He's not writing it, Nick. No, Nick, he's not 11. Are you really going to play it?

Do you want me to play it? Later. But point is, is that you can circumvent baggage claim for the most part, right? If you're carrying on your stuff, you can skip it. but whatever he didn't skip it obviously robert checked a bag and you know what well actually in all reality a good agent will say this guy from this station or this newspaper is going to meet you at the airport he's going to be meeting you you know he's going to take the time to go over there and talk to him don't be freaked out don't be freaked out by it and uh where should you meet him and take your

earbuds out well robert did not do that apparently oh he didn't no he did not that's funny Or he's got somebody at United or American or Delta on the download that says, hey, look up this guy's name, which would be illegal. I don't think Mark's, I mean, Mark's going to chase stories, but Mark doesn't need to do it legally. No, I mean, it's a good get for him, but nobody, he doesn't, life would go on in our sports world if we didn't get Robert Covington's 15 seconds of sound bite at the airport. It's a good get, but it's by no means, is it a mandatory, you need to be there kind of thing.

And I wouldn't risk getting involved in a trouble spot with an airline with a buddy if they, giving out information they shouldn't be giving out. Like I'm flying today, the person should not know what flights I'm on. Do you want me to show up and try to interview you? That'd be actually funny. You say, I can't have no time to talk. No, no time to talk. Rossville or Real Sports Talk 790 News team.

Matt, can you spare a minute? But whatever it is, Berman's got the one-bedroom apartment in baggage claim. I think it's between Carousel 6 and 7. Oh, really? It's a studio apartment, maybe. Okay. He's got a hot plate? I don't know what he does, but he's...

How does he eat? He's always in it. Now, he lives in, Mark lives in Huffman, so it's actually a pretty easy commute for him. Okay. But damn. I put his business out there, Matt. It's okay. You live in central Houston?

Thank you. There's several. Huffman's a hall, though. It's out there. Who's going to drive to Huffman to go find out where Mark Berman lives? Nobody. I mean, I guess some freakies, but that would be really beside the point. All right, to the point.

Exactly. Let's get to it. So, typical, I'm assuming Rockets' Twitter is losing their mind this morning. Right. Well, it was last night. Yeah. People were tweeting. Yeah.

It was a late night Rockets' Twitter. Uh, Woj brings out the bomb. Let me give you, there's so many layers to it. It's like an onion. Let's, uh, let's dumb it down.

Rockets give up. Clint Capella and a first round pick. In return, get Robert Covington from the Timberwolves and Jordan Bell from Minnesota and an Atlanta 24 second round pick via the Cone State Warriors. Okay. Um, Covington is the 3-and-D guy.

Yes. Covington can play multiple spots on the floor. Covington's not going to add any length. Clearly, when you're losing a legit 6-10 center, and replacing him with a Ford. He's 6-9, didn't he? Covington?

I don't think he was that tall. But he's not going to play the 5, I wouldn't think. Oh, 6-7, sorry. Yeah. But the fact of the matter is this, they need to get, they're going to have to do a little bit more.

I just can't imagine that Darry is now laying in his bed going, mission accomplished. I think there's got to be something else going on. Here's the reality. Yeah, I mean, it's been reported that they're still working on trying to get a center. Yeah. Here's the reality of it.

I shouldn't say everybody. There are some out there that are like, Timmy doesn't want to win. He just want to go over the luxury tax. First of all, luxury, going over the luxury tax doesn't guarantee a championship. Ask the New York Knicks for the better part of a decade. Secondly, if you are running a business and someone comes to you and says, hey, I've got this can't miss opportunity to go get said player or set acquisition, but it's going to go over what our budget is for payroll, you know what?

Companies will go, okay, it's worth it. But tell me something out that was out there, Ross, that was so over the top that was going to, that players were available via trade that were going to put. the Rockets over the luxury tax and guarantee them a much better spot to win the championship. There just wasn't that player, was there? No, and if you're calling Tillman for Tita cheap or something like that, you're out of your mind.

The coming in, I don't know when this has been updated, but I just checked it again. The Rockets have the highest payroll in the NBA. The Rockets have $240 million players. Tillman's not just going full Donald Sterling. We're just trying to make a buck. This isn't the Chicago Bulls

Price Michael Jordan is what this is. So, and here's the reality of it. The NBA likes to punish you when you go over that luxury tax. Yes. They just, or over that salary cap threshold. They want to punish you. And they want to take lots of your money. And to be really honest, it's, it's a tough year for the NBA because of the situation involving China.

Yeah, the salary cap next year is going to go down. So there are a lot of different elements in play. Now, if you want to call and say, I miss Clincapella, I will fully accept that because I'm going to miss Clinkapel. fella. Me too. He is, you know what? You know what he does? He's double double machine. He is top five in block shots almost every year in the last three or four years. He is a rim protector.

He's always been in the top five or six in field goal percentage. Granted, a lot of that is either layups or dunks. But this offense is not asking for him to be a stretch five or a guy that hits even a baseline jump. It's because a lot of it is because he can't do it. But some of it is because Mike Dantonie's offense doesn't ask of him to do. do that. Yeah, I think there is a lot of people, Matt, who are downgrading the loss of

Clint Capella, like, oh, all he does is rebound and get and get Allie Ups. Anybody can do that. No. No. No. Can Isaiah Hardinstein do that? No. No. Can Nene, by the way, is a member of the Atlanta Hawks now. There's been people who have been, like, he has skills. Like, the rejumpability

is a skill. Setting good screens is a skill. And he got better. Rebounding is a skill. And, he got better. Rebounding is a skill. And I mean, he is a skilled player, and his skill set is honed and sharpened to exactly what the rockets need. So obviously, it's not like you're losing an all-star player, but Clint Capella has some skills. Clint Capella is a plus-plus NBA player. And now he's gone, unfortunately. But it's one of the things that had to be done.

And now you're getting Robert Covington, who's a plus NBA player as well. Yes, you wanted more perimeter help. You got to give to get. So. And again, it served many. many, many purposes. You got under the cap. So you don't have to worry about luxury tax, and that's just a reality. I mean, whether you like it or not, that's who, that's what this ownership group does not want to pay luxury tax.

No ownership group wants to pay luxury tax. Unless you have, for instance, if all of a sudden, give me an example of somebody. Who's got a, who's got a, who's an average team at best with a superstar player? Portland Trailblazers with Dame and CJ. Okay. If Bradley Beale. or John Wall. The wizard said, hey, they want to come play for the Rockets. Do you take that step and go get those guys?

Yeah. But there wasn't those type of players out there. It would have to be via trade, but yeah. Right. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. We have got a lot on the Rockets. We have a huge baseball trade.

We have Pete Rose trying to use the Astros to get back into baseball. And we also, Rossi, have, do the Jaguars really ever want to play games in Jacksonville again? really, really peculiar decision yesterday by them. We'll tell you about what they're doing. And we've got a lot to get to between now and three o'clock today. 713-212-5-790. This is Ricky Williams. I may have worn a wedding dress on a magazine cover,

but it still looks better than any outfit Matt can put together. Let your wife dress you, man. Texas fight! Texas five. Back to Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790. Thank you, Rick. Ricky? Good friend of the show. Uh, okay.

I'll be with, I can get with that. He'd been on a number of times. He actually showed up, unlike other Texas players. Not naming names. Rhymes with Nince Rung. Vincent Paul Young Jr. Had some issues showing up sometimes. Sometimes.

Well, you only know-showed like once or twice. Oh, I can count at least twice. I think he'd no-show twice the late the other time. I mean, he's batting like on time was, you know, he's like batting like spirits on time performance. That's not good. I remember we used to go to Vegas and I would fly a regular airline and you would fly spirit and you'd be like, I flew spirit once in my life. Five hours late.

I've only flown spirit once and never again. Never again. No, I mean, I'm sure you're lovely people there, but no. The seat in front of my knee had a metal rod poking into my knee the entire flight. There was nothing I could do or move. Did you lose circulation at any point? It was the smallest leg room I've ever experienced. The flight was delayed.

and since I saw the flight was delayed I was gonna care I was gonna you know they charge you more to to check a to carry on a bag than check one we're going for like three nights so I didn't need to check a bag but I was like okay it's cheaper I'll check it then they wouldn't let me put it on because they're like oh you're a lot hour away less than an hour away from flight time I'm like it's been delayed three hours

so they wouldn't let me put the bag on the plane so you had to check it and then still I had to have my mom go home because she lived by nearby and get a carry on size bag and bring it to me and I transferred everything and then pay the thing the extra. Very quick spirit story for me. So Spirit, I hate you. Spirit story. My wife, on the last second, wanted to go to see the Cougars play. San Diego State in the Las Vegas Bowl a couple years ago. Okay. And I wasn't able to go because of the rockets or something. She's like, and there's a bunch of

us going. Can I go? I say, well, the airfares on United, Southwest Delta were all 750. Well, Spirit on the last second was like 275. I'm like, I said, honey, look, spirit ain't great, but it's going to get you there. They don't crash. You know, they're going to good, I thought. performance. So she got there and she flew there and was just fine. On the way back, she noticed that her flight was three hours delayed. Well, she had another set of friends that were flying southwest, so she went to the other terminal, Las Vegas, and went and talked with them for a few minutes. She comes back to the spirit gate and she sees the flight going back to Houston pulling away. So, wait a minute, you said it was going to be a three and a half hour delay.

Oh, we changed it. I guess either air craft change or whatever. So I said, I told Kim, I said in honesty, you can't, even when you're in your flight still, you can't be very far away from the gate because things like that can happen. But they wanted to charge her $1,500. What? To fly home the next day. And she says, I was here at the airport. It wasn't like I forgot about the plane and didn't go. So after a little bit of talking her off the ledge, she's like, well, I'll drive back.

I'm like, it'll take you three days and $1,000 just to drive back. So after a little bit, they changed and got her back home. But it was like, she's like, you're never, I'm never, I'm never flying. line spirit again. You're probably right. Yeah, I'm never doing it again. I'm sure they're lovely people, but just a couple of sad stories there. I did put a question up on Twitter today, gentlemen. We certainly will take your inputs at SportsMT and the Twitter.

I want to have a draft party because the Rockets just don't have them anymore because they don't have any draft picks. The Texans don't have any first round picks this year and next. And the Astros have lost their draft picks for the next two years, first and second round. We need to have a draft party. I just don't know what kind of draft we need to have. What would, what kind of draft would invite people to have a party? Think about it. You don't think I'm an answer right now. But if we're going to have a draft, we're going to have draft something. Does Sabercats have a draft? No, I don't care about, but I don't care about rugby or XFL.

We should have a draft about something. I mean, I can drink some beers on draft and we get you drinking about your draft. Should we just have like a hot girl draft or our favorite TV show draft? Oh, like a fantasy five? Like an ultimate fantasy five. draft where we announced people coming up high. It's a 790 draft party? Okay. Like a real set. You know, maybe we just draft draft beers.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That sound effect showing up twice in a day. Am I missing something here? Is that just a general party sounder? Yeah, very good. Noise maker or whatever. What do you call that? Blower.

Excuse me? Party blower. Those are fun. 1001, 1002, 1003. Okay. So if we, let's have some. sort of draft party. And if we, because we always want to have a party for some reason.

What are we drafting? Uniforms, music, girls, favorite athletes. All the above. We can have like five drafts. We can, you know, we ought to do is we have, we have, we should have a draft beer party and just choose it. Yeah, it could be sponsored. Yeah, I like it.

Yeah, that's what Chris Losei. I would suggest an ice cold refreshing dos Eckis. I would like to endorse something. So I'm a beer free agent. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay. 713-212-5-790.

Sam on the East End first up on 7-90. Hi, Sam. How's it going, Matt? Good. I asked a couple questions about the rocket. So it looks like we're completely doubling down, at the moment, doubling down on the small ball, which the only thing is, I mean, I'm kind of fine with the trade because Robert Covington and then having, what's the same, Bell, kind of fills a hole.

But the only thing I'm concerned is that we are really going down with the small ball on Dan Tony's last season. I don't see any, you know, Faith and Tillman after what happened last season about them actually keeping him. So, you know, if we get rid of Dan Tony and we have, at the moment, with just Bell and Covington, do you see this lineup working post-Dan Tony? and other than Kvon Luni, who else do you see kind of filling that center spot? And I'll hang up to the list. All right, thank you. I can't possibly comment on a life without a head coach.

You know, first of all, you're presuming that Mike does not come back. And that's fair to say because there's a lot of people that believe that. And I understand that. But even if I was to say that Mike isn't coming back after the season, who's the next coach? I don't know who the next coach is. So, no, the small ball, I don't think, works long term. the question is going to be do you can you live with a small ball if you can and literally three and d your way to a deep run in the playoffs if you can if you think you can beat

rudy gobert and you can beat nikola yokelick anthony davis now davis and whatever the other center combinations are for the lakers could be a mess javel slash dwight but that would be a formidable pair trio really frankly ross even even if Clint Capello is on the Rockets team. But what you noticed, and I don't because I'm literally having to watch 10 things at one time, the Isaiah Hartnstein got a huge pop from the crowd yesterday when I said his name. He did, and he missed a couple of defensive assignments and played three minutes. Man, that's got to be tougher.

He's a good kid, but man, he just, he's done literally, he, you know where else? He's like that AAA baseball player that hits, 35 home runs, drives in 110, and he gets the cup of coffee to the show, and he bats 156 with no home runs and a bunch of stri-grupils. It's a quadruple-A player. As Howard and Memorial, I would call him a 4A player. Hmm. Like a Jason Lane. Oh, there have been a lot.

Mike Lamb. Well, like, um... Oh, uh, what's that guy that was A.J. Reed? Yeah. Tyler White. Yes. guys that just do everything. Hopefully not Kyle Tucker. Hopefully they've done, you know what? The jury's out, frankly, on Kyle.

But it feels like, at least as a Houston rocket, Isaiah Hartensstein just isn't going to get that run because of, and you know, the number one thing I've always been concerned about with him has been his foul per 48 minutes. He's got to be out of control. Now, I'm not watching the screens and all that kind of stuff as much as you are. Yeah, he was, I was actually making it a point. to watch him yesterday, because I was in the arena, and there's so much been talked about him and him playing. So as soon as he got in, of course, like you said, I heard the roar of the crowd.

So you know what? I'm going to focus on Isaiah Hardenstein. Let's see what he does. Missed a couple of defensive assignments, one where he was late getting back and had to foul and all that stuff. So it was pretty quick, and some of it was a matchups, and Mike Dantone talked about it before the game. It's going to dictate what Charlotte Horns are doing.

They played some zone, and they don't want to play Isaiah Hardinstein in zone. They want to stretch out that zone with shooters. And I think that's what they're going to do going along. They're trying to get a center, but even if they do, this is according to Tim McMahon, who's been pretty clued in with the rockets, he writes for ESPN. Right. To be clear, the rockets aren't searching for a starting center.

They're playing small ball and rolling with PJ Tucker at the five, but they need a big to throw at Nicola Jokic, Anthony Davis, etc. in the playoffs. And at this point, unless something changes philosophically within the organization, and they don't believe as Isaiah Hartensstein or Tyson Chandler. Right. Five, four, three, at two. Hey, Joe Green. The Matt Thomas show continues.

Three-order, nothing but. On Sports Talk 790. Nylon! On with your Rockies. Matt Thomas show continues. Here on Sports Talk 790. Ross Vee, I'm Matt Thomas with you. A lot of stuff going on in the sports world.

headlined, of course, by the big moving and shaking in the NBA last night. Trade coming down about, I want to say about 1115, I think Adrian Wojnarowski put out the tweet. And it didn't come as much of a surprise because we were talking about it. And I think I was even mentioning it during the Rockets Wrap last night, how Sham Shorania had put out that there was a three-team deal possibly in place. And that kind of threw out the possibility of Kavanaughan Looney coming in being a Houston Rocket, at least in the immediate term.

So then the trade comes down. And it's one of the things they've been talked about. So it wasn't necessarily surprised. Robert Covington, a Houston Rocket, Clint Capella out. And, man, I guess they're just going to roll with this. I mean, they like what the small ball did against the Utah Jazz. They've been rolling it out for a couple of these games here against the Pelicans. And then last night, I don't want to, the word I was using was gimmick because I couldn't

really come up with something better. But what are the words? I don't want to call it up, right? Well, the tuck wagon? Well, the Warriors called it the death line. The Warriors. Oh, I'm sorry. You said you said the word.

Okay. The Warriors called it the death lineup or the Hamptons 5. I'm telling you, gang, they ain't done yet. But even if they get some of that. I don't even know. Yeah, that's right. If they go get somebody, I'm not saying they're penciling that person the starting five.

I get that. It's matchups. Yeah. That's what you want. You want versatility. Here's what Wode said while we were all sleeping, or maybe you weren't. I wasn't.

The trade leaves the rockets with a brief window until Thursday's trade deadline to expand this four-team trade trade to include up to $12 million in salary and another player. They could add a player who helps now, take on a player for assets and use those to further upgrade the team, et cetera, et cetera. Kavanaughan Luni's name continue to be brought up as a potential. Yes. Part of this thing. So again, and by the way, we're going to normally have Mike Dantonie with us tomorrow,

but because of the trade deadline situation and not knowing what his roster is, We're probably going to save him for Friday for a couple of minutes, just to let the dust set a little bit on that. Good. Because here's the thing, you ask him, Coach, what are you hearing? Well, he's basically going to be just sitting at his phone staring at what Darryoramore says, hey, you're getting this player. Hey, you're not.

So instead of guessing, we'll know for sure what his roster is going to look like, say, Friday. And by the way, there'll be a veteran buyouts of some sort. The Rockets do that every single year. Yeah, the Rockets will be looking in the buy. They have some room now under the luxury tax to threshold to, I think it's about $7 million in savings when you put the two together. I think it was. It's a pretty considerable amount.

So there'll be players in the buyout market. We'll see what happens there. And they're also exploring trades. Let's go to James and Alvin at 1237 on Sports Talk 790. James, what do you have today? Oh, thank you, Matt, for accepting my call. Listen, don't put me on a crybaby list. But listen, I just, I had a, this is a foresight of a 2020 vision.

what if? What if the Astros had had a GM that could have negotiated with the Boston Red Sox to get the Mokey Bits and have the David Price throwed in, but they didn't have a GM? With that being said, what if Jeff Luno hadn't made the drastic deal with Arizona to get Zach Grinky and give up? quality prospects to get Grinky and take on this big, enormous salary of Zach Grinky, $54 million, $30,000, I mean, $30 million a year, I think for the next two years. How did that handcuff the Astros for being a player with the Boston Red Sox? Because Muky Best and even the David Price, if he's healthy,

look good in a Houston Astros uniform. I hang up and live. I can't do this with you, James. I just can't. First of all, the Dodgers had way more prospects than the Astros could have given up. Secondly, just because a team

makes a deal doesn't mean the Astros had were screwed because it didn't make the deal. I mean, I just can't go to the, well, every team makes a deal. Why did the Astros make it? And doesn't know how it works. And by the way, Zach Granky, Ross, last time I checked, Game 7 World Series, had you in position to win the whole damn thing.

And Mookie Betts is an arbitration. Well, he was, it was arbitration and he made, he's making 27 million. He got that deal done with the Red Sox before he got the trade. So I'm saying. So I mean, even the, the Astros couldn't afford. I think if they had $27 million to the payroll, they'd be into competitive balance tax. That's what they call it in baseball instead of luxury tax. It's luxury tax.

Please, please, ladies and gentlemen, and look, James is a nice man. Yes. You know what, Matt? I'm also wondering, why didn't they make a move from Mike Trout? Yeah, why haven't they kicked the tires and going to get Stephen Strasbourg? Or Max, what's his? Scherzer. I mean, please, folks, when a deal is made involving great players,

it doesn't mean the Astros didn't, weren't interested, but there's just going to be limitations, just like every other team. Now, my head hurts. Sorry, Matt. We got to put a little asterisk next to James' call, so I know what I'm prepared. Like, when there are some of you that call that we love you, but your takes are bad. And so I feel like I need to have like a little bit of an alcohol drip in my, an IV before I take your call. Because then I don't get all bent out of shape for no reason. I mean, I understand, you know, look.

No, I don't understand. I don't understand why you're calling him. Anyone in their right mind would call and say, well, if the Astros had a general manager, your mooky bets would be an astro right now. That's ridiculous. Yeah, the Red Sox got rid of them because they couldn't afford them. And he's got friends in you next year. He's looking for $40 million a year.

And the Astros are tied up in $40 million guys. Yeah. And it's going to get worse. And when George Springer says hello. Carlos Correa says hello. The Astros have the third highest payroll in baseball right now. Good gracious. 713-212-5-7-9.

That's kind of crazy, though. I mentioned that the Rockets have the number one payroll in the NBA. This is according to Hoops hype or whatever. And SpotTrack has the Astros at number three behind just the Yankees and the Dodgers. Yeah, I got news for you, gang. They're spending some dough. And the Texans, you would think, would spend some dough this off season. They're going to.

They didn't spend much last year. They're going to be capped out when they pay Tunsell and Watson and sign a couple of free agents. Yeah, I don't know if Watson's getting his deal this. It's the only one with a hard salary cap, though, which I believe. Also, I don't think not coincidentally, the most competitive and the most parity of any of the leagues. I think it's a great thing. I think when you have this luxury tax, it lets you do some extra wiggling. But it puts pressures on owners, frankly, if you're going to go, like, for instance, Tillman gets crushed right now because there's 20% of the fan base.

It's like, why don't you going over the luxury tax? Right. Well, nobody's going over the luxury tax. That's why. Because it kills you. Yeah. You can kind of dip your toe in it, but if you, especially when you get into the repeater tax, it's just, it's not fiscally responsible. Yeah.

I, I under every circumstance love a hard tax, a hard salary cap. You can't go to a dollar over or you don't get to come in. NFL teams cannot be. Bird rights and except mid-level exception, tax exception, this and that. And sometimes it's because I'm a simpleton. I mean, it is. Yeah. But I also like, you know, when you have a budget that when that budget number is hit, you're done.

Yeah, the NBA CBA is just out of control. Well, it takes a PhD to have it down. Right. All right, more phone calls coming up in a minute. 713, 2-1-2-5-790. If you've not heard the big trade in baseball, Mookie Betts and David Price are going to the Dodgers. It doesn't necessarily open up the American League.

What it frankly does for me, Ross, is it says there's one less team contending for the American League pennant this year. I'm okay with that. And it makes the Dodgers probably even a heavier favorite to win the whole damn thing. 7-13-212-5-7-7-1-2-2-5. 790. I'm Clint Capella of your Houston Rockets. Clint Capella who catches the alley-U from James Hardin.

On Sports Talk 790. Too soon. Too soon. By the way, everything will be official. My guess is sometime tomorrow. I don't even know if Covington can be on the plane with a team. I don't know. The team has already left for L.A.

I'm going to meet them later on tonight. Yeah. Is he going to make his rocket debut on Thursday? Is the trade finalized? Because like Woj said, there's wiggle room to add something to it. Right. Good question. So I'm going to guess they're going to be, we're going to have a shell of the rocket some on Thursday.

We're going to have what you have yesterday. Except we don't know about Russell's thumb. Hopefully his thumb's okay. You know who played better? Who's been playing better? What, McLemore can pop a three? Can he? Yes, he can.

My man EG scores 50 against Utah. and then last night. E. 0 for 12 and 3. Yeah, that wasn't ideal. Tucker's hitting two shots. He just kept shooting him too. I think part of the Covington trade actually is to try to relieve some pressure off of PJ. I feel like the way the world is on PJ's shoulders and it's just not fair.

He's like Atlas with the entire world on his back and they're playing, asking him to do he's got to do small ball five. He's got to get up a bunch of threes. He's got to score. He's got to get every loose ball. He's the quarterback of the defense. he's playing 40 minutes a night and he's almost 35 years old. Give the man a breather. Is he still suffering nerve damage in his shoulders?

Yeah, he's like, you can't. Like, can we just give PJ a break? I mean, can PJ even put his uniform on anymore? He goes out there and plays, though. Just that longhorn pedigree. Yeah, let's get the former Big 12 player of the year, PJ Tucker. All right, I had a question on Twitter. I said, let's have a draft party.

What should we draft? Here are some of the suggestions, gentlemen. At M. Crow says beer. Of course. We've never done a Beer Fantasy 5, have we? No, we probably shouldn't. No, I would lose badly. No, I just think we shouldn't.

Oh, I see. Very appropriate. CEO Folk Show says Mickey's. We should just draft Mickey's? Malt liquor? Hmm. He follows up with strippers. I'll take the first round.

I'll go Sunshine. I'll go with Destiny. I will go with Desiree. A Fantasia. I will go with, uh, Delilah? I'll go with Diamond. Okay, who wins a Fantasy 5?

No one picked candy, so you both lose. She's in rehab. Cannon fodder O.O2 says sports franchises. Rock 1195 says new head coach and staff of the Houston Texans. At Vet Frustrose says Shiner Bach. Draft beer, beer, and XFL fantasy lineup week number one. I like that one. I can't name one XFL player.

I got Tyler Heineckee. It's my first round of picks. Who's the roughneck's quarterback? I don't know who it is. I don't know. Hmm. All right. So keep sending us your thoughts of what we should actually have a fantasy draft party for.

7-1-3. Here's one. Best Pro-Niclo's sound bites from 2019, 2020. PJ Walker from Temple? Or Connor Cook? Is Connor Cook the rough-necks QB? He hasn't had much success in Houston. I can tell you that for sure.

Let's go to Aisha on West Houston. Aisha, did you call us earlier this week about the big booties? Yes, and I also have to apologize to Ross because I called on Saturday and y'all had to bleak me out, so I apologize. Oh, that's right. Why are you cursing on our family radio station? I'm so sorry. It's okay. I'm so sorry.

But, you know, now that the Astros have replaced the GM, I kind of, feel that sadness again about them and I'm real sad that AJ Hinch is gone and I just you know I started watching him and Julian Morales on TV and I just really liked how he worked in his worth ethic I mean I liked everything about him and I'm so sad that he's gone and I hope the rumors are true that he comes back in a year that's all right thank you by the way those aren't rumors that's just like three or four people thinking that would be funny that dusty only said of one-year contract I miss A. I mean, I can say the truth. I'm going to miss AJ. AJ and I had a good working relationship. We didn't break bread. We didn't drink wine together.

But I got to tease him. He got to tease me. And that was good. He did push for the Matt Thomas Bobblehead promotion. I mean, I'm extremely lucky. And I'll peel the curtain back. It's what we do on the show here. You're a curtain peeler. I peel quite a better curtain. Yeah, too much. Okay. Great relationship. with AJ, great relationship with Mike Dan Tony. Those

just don't happen all the time. And so when you get them, you like them and you root for them to be successful personally and professionally. Maybe Dusty Baker will have you over. I'm looking at, let me, Dusty and I'll go out and have a couple of pops.

I feel like making some vegetable stew and listen to jazz records. Now you actually the chances of you and Dusty become, because you're much more of a jazz official than I am. That's true. 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-21-5-790 my buddy Harris was saying that Mark Berman doesn't get a one-bedroom apartment at the baggage-com. You know where he sleeps.

Oh, on the carousel restaurant? In the United Club. United Club. Do you ever go to United Club before? No, I don't think so. Maybe won't... When I was traveling a lot... I was in some kind of club.

I'm not sure if it was United or Delta. They're all the same. Okay, I've been in a Delta one, I think. Okay, so let's do this really quick. When you travel a lot, those things are very, very helpful. Now, I don't travel commercially as much as I used to because of the Rockets. But when I was traveling commercially with the Cougars, it was my best friend. You go in there and get your free beverages, little snacks.

You could read the paper. You could watch TV. It's really beneficial when you have on a flight delay. It's better just sitting out in the terminal. You can actually, and they'll actually help you with your ticket and something. It's a really, it's for something that travels a lot, it's a really good value. Okay. Can you sleep in there?

You're not supposed to. but I have in the past Not it off Not it off Not a deep REM sleep Uh huh A little doze But if you're power nap

But if you're a Berman Get in that United Club About 930 Where most of the flights are gone For the day You could probably get a couple hours of shut eye And then be fresh and awake

For when said a Houston athlete Comes to the town You gotta go talk to him In the airport So maybe that's where Berman's been sleeping At the United Club They got nice bathrooms

They've got like conference rooms You can get to conduct business Like I've always said What was the name of the movie with Tom Hanks Where he slept in the airport for a few days? I never saw it. I could do it for 24 hours Does that intrigue at all?

We should do some kind of bet Is that can you live in an airport For 24 hours? What's the earliest? Let's say I have a well I guess you can't print your boarding pass What's the early 24 hours? Because most of the first of the airport. places the airport opens for business in theory about 5 a.m.

Let's say you have 7 p.m. flight. Can you get your pouring pass? What's the earliest you can get your boarding pass? 7 p.m. the day before? Yeah. So if you print your boarding pass for 24 hours and then you go like we should do some kind of challenge or something. I would like the challenge of spend the night at the airport. That sounds horrible. You get your steps in. Well, I guess. Okay. First of all. Second, you have transportation all over the place. You have these shuttles from one terminal to the next. Okay. What do you need to shuttle from terminal to terminal? Well, you want to change things up a little bit.

You know, meet somebody? The question is, where are you going to get shut-eye? The United Club, or it's on the floor. But they're not going to let you sleep at the United States. And you don't want to sleep at the airport because people will kick you and you'll hear the, you need three or four hours of REM. That's the only issue. Or you can stay up for 24 hours.

Done it in Vegas. That's true. 1257 is the time. It is the Matt Thomas show. That's it. That's what it is. Go to the Vegas airport and just play the slots all for 24 hours. The food would be incredible. You get all the food charts. You can go cheap or you can go expensive. Now, can you, now you cannot go to the airport

hotel and sleep. That does not count. You must stay within the terminal. Just thinking about these things out loud. Can I at least go eat at the Carousel restaurant? Oh, you mean with the revolving? Yeah, absolutely, but you cannot sleep there. Is the Matt Thomas show.

Oh, two on the Matt Thomas show second hour of three Clint Capella on the talk we got some Pete Rose to get to but Nicholas I just received an email that's going to make me sad so I need you to play some not like someone's

dying or someone lost their dog but just some just generally to speak speaking depressing type of music once more time if you don't mind just give me something that's just going to make everybody just go oh no not again oh if you want to join us seven 1312.

7190. 713. 212. 570. Ross, the NFL win totals are out already for next year. Okay.

Kansas City, 11.5. Green Bay, 9.5. Dallas 9. Buffalo, 8.5. Atlanta 8. Baltimore 11.

L.A. Chargers, 7.5. Las Vegas. 8 is 7. Patriots. 10. a half, Saints 10, giant, six. Okay.

Do not look at either one of your emails, Nick or Ross. I won't. Within a half. That's all you get. Within a half. What is the over-under-win total for the Houston Texans in 2020? It's eight every year, so I'm going to go eight and a half. Just try to cover my base.

Six and a half. It's eight and a half. Okay. I just wanted it to be low. I mean, Vegas total is pencilled in and eight every single year, or eight and a half.

AFC South, by the way, for those of you playing at home, Tennessee is eight and a half, Texans eight and a half, Jaguars, six and a half, Indianapolis,

seven and a half. So right now, they've got the Titans and the Texans, the leaders in the AFC South, win total department at eight and a half games. Hmm. Another AFC South championship, Brian. What would be five of them in seven years?

Is that what we figured out? Three years in a row. AFC South division champs. AFC Waldcard participant, maybe winners. AFC divisional opponent participant in a win total of eight and a half. Now, let's do it this way. Let's be, now turn the music off now. We're done being depressed.

If we were to fly to Vegas, which actually I'm not flying to Vegas, I wish I was changing planes of Vegas, but I'm not. If I was, would I want to run to a casino and bet the over on that? Because the Texans have won the over in each of the last two years. That's true. Why wouldn't I go do that again? All right, let's go. I mean, the schedule is basically set, right?

We just don't know the dates. All the AFC South games. Okay, so that's going to be six. games. Let's put them at 4 and 2. The NFC North. That's Minnesota. Where are the games? Minnesota. Minnesota and Green Bay are home. Okay. Detroit and Chicago are on the road. Those are the easier of the two. Then you're playing the which AFC do it. Looks like they're playing the AFC North.

Ravens, Bingles, Steelers. There's too many. And Browns. You play an entire division too? Yeah, you play an AFC division and NFC division. and NFC division, and then you play your six, that's 14, and then two first place games. Okay, who are the two first place games again? The first place games are the Patriots and the Chiefs

on the road at Arrowhead. Oh, no! Why pour salt on our Texan fan wounds? You get the Patriots at home for a second year in a row. With what quarterback? We'll see. I still got Tom Brady staying with the Patriots. This looks about like 90s.

and seven, just looking at the schedule. Bill O'Brien, let me ask you if I told you that your team's going to go nine and seven this season. How would you feel a couple of sportscasters in the early February dictating that the thought out there is nine and seven would be probably about the right where it should be? What do you think? Rightfully so. Okay. Yeah, eight and eight, nine and seven feels about right. Not good.

No, it is good. It wins the AFC South. Yeah. I mean, preseason last year, I did say nine and seven AFC South champions and they were. were 10 and 6, AFC South Champions. Kansas City South champions, two years in a row. Well, four years out of five as well. Kansas City is 11 and a half.

That's the lead dog on the AFC and the NFC side. Let me see where San Francisco is. They are at 10 and a half. But there's a lot of Mambi-Pambi resolve. They got Philadelphia at 10, Ross. Hmm. Really? Yeah.

Next high as in the AFC, what I'm assuming would have to be the Patriots. Oh, they got Baltimore at 11, too. Yeah. It has this feel that... Over on Baltimore for me. Did they go 14 and 2 this year, or was it 13 and 3? 13 and 3. And their division that means Cincinnati.

And they've got cab space. Yeah. And Lamar Jackson on a rookie deal. And they're going to be, you know, they might be this year's Kansas, you know, like how Kansas City got there and closed. Yeah. Then kick the door down, as Bunk Phillips would say. We don't use that phrase around these bars.

Oh, why not? We never kicked the door down. We tried. We tried with a steel, It was a tough door. That was good. That worked out good. Gerard at 109 on the Matt Thomas show.

Geron, what do you think about this trade? Oh, man. I think it's good, man. I think what they're doing is, you know, they're implementing their Tony system. It's the system that he ran here in Phoenix with a small ball. And, you know, with him being in the last year of his contract, they're giving them an opportunity to succeed or fail, you know,

give him the players that he needs, the players that best succeed the system that he want to run. and that's what they're doing, man. This is basically a Phoenix Sun South, and we'll see what happens the rest of the year in the playoffs. Now, as far as Capella goes, man, I like Capella, man. He's a good player. He plays hard. They block shots.

He rebounds. But what I noticed really, man, the last maybe two years, especially playing Golden State, man, they put him in the pick and roll. And early on, he was effective in the pick and roll. But to me, he got progressively worse than the pick and roll, especially when he switched him and he was out there on the guard. they were able to get by him and get to the rim and score at a high rate.

I think the Rockers kind of solved that. And, you know, with the Rockets, another thing, the Rockets ranked number 24 in total defense. Now, that's with Capella. So it's not like that defense has been great with Capella. So I think they've taken all that into account, you know, there's only to see the failure in the system that's true to what he ran in Phoenix. And, you know, in Capella, you know, like I said, And Capella, like you said, I thought he got, you know, really bad in the pick and roll.

You know, he really got exposed a lot in pick and a roll, especially in this Golden State and those two playoffs. So I think that played a part in them going into another direction, man. So we'll see what happens, man. I like Covington, man. He's a three-and-de type of player. He's going to add nymph on the perimeter. He's more of a younger version of Trevor Areza. And they're going to do it.

They're going to live and die by the three, man. They're going to shoot a lot of threes, and they think they can offset with teams. can do that can try to pound them inside. You know, like I think Ross said, I think it probably being in another sentence to probably back up, you know, when they match up with the Lakers and Denver and teams like that, Utah and teams like that, man.

But let's just see what it does, man. I'm glad they're giving them their tone the chance to see the field with a player that can really run his system that he really want to run, man. You know, Capella really wasn't that prototypical center. You know, I know they had Stottomier in Phoenix,

but Stottomire actually had a good mid-range jumper. People don't remember. They look at all the Dunk Stottomier. had, but Dautomar might to shoot that mid-range jumper too. So that's one thing Capella really couldn't do. He kind of clogged the pain up,

made it tough for, especially a Westbrook to get to the hole, man. He always had a big man and he had to finish once he got by his initial defender. So it's going to open up the lane for them and they're going to play the system

that's true to Dan Tony. We'll see what happens the rest of the year. All right, thank you, my friend, for calling the show. Appreciate your insights. Love. He's got the great passion for the Houston Rockets.

Thank you. He said Rockets' defense is 24th. Maybe he's talking about points per game. Which are 23rd, but maybe that change. But as far as defensive rating, which is because the Rockets play at a higher pace, they're like number two in pace and the entire NBA, they're 15th.

So they're middle of the pack. I want that to improve. Let me give you this real fast. We've got 30 seconds. Everyone's like, we watch the rebounding number. We have a stat monitor right in front of us. And, you know, like the other night. First quarter was ugly.

They're, Charlotte's pound of the boards, getting a lot of offensive chances. Are we making too much of this? the rebound numbers? I say no. Because here's the thing. If you make your shots, you're going to have less rebounds. That's true.

Less offensive rebounds, I should say. If the other team is making more of their shots, you're going to have less chances for defensive rebounds. I just... What's about rebounding percentage? It's about... Rebounding percentage is important. The rockets are 22nd in the NBA and defensive rebounding percentage.

Mine, and again, you know, I'm not a super over-metrical person. I mean, I can barely get to 11th grade math. Ross, to me, it's second chance opportunities and points. That's the stat that I look at and go, oh, that's great. The Rockets crash the boards or, oh, my God, you're giving the other team too many opportunities for second chances. Rebounding can be up and down because of, I mean, some of those contests. Like some of those ones, like the Charlotte Horn's got seven offensive rebounds in the first quarter. And it's like, wow, the Rockets are the worst rebounding team ever.

And then the last three quarters, they only got five. So it's our, I mean, did the rockets learn how to rebound in the last quarter? I think some of it was bad bouncing, about bad bounces, and you can't control that. Like, that's one of the things that happens to rockets. One of the reasons, I mean, you shoot a lot of threes. You get longer rebounds and they're easier to get. And Mike D'Antony was making the point. Nobody, as far as height, nobody is jumping above the rim to get rebounds for the most part,

unless, you know, the stray put back dunk here and there. For the most part, you need to contest, you need to box out, and you need to have the ball bounce your way. Because honestly, Clint's been battling this planter fasciitis thing for a while. His finish rate has not been nearly as good in the last 15 games, but his offensive rebounds have been going up. Reason being is because

he's catching his own misses. Right. So it's kind of... Rebound and counting numbers can be a little strange. I look more to the percentages, which the rocket's percentages aren't very good there. All right, 713, 212-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Our time is 1-14.

Pete Rose, ladies and gentlemen, thinks he's got a legitimate case to get into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Thanks to your beloved America League champions. Right. Half the workday is done. Celebrate with Matt.

Hey, Matt. Love your show. Look, what was he talking about? By the sound of it, some of you started the party at breakfast. Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790. All right. It's not big time breaking news, but Kelly Iko, who covers the Rockets for the Athletics,

says that the Rockets are in talks with at least two different Eastern Conference teams about getting a big man. And that's the thing Ross I was talking about all throughout the day, at least in the first hour and 20 of the show, is I don't think the Rockets are done. I get a feel, even from Woj's tweet early this morning, the Rockets are going to try to make at least a one more move

because you just can't go with Jordan Bell, Isaiah Hartnstein and Tyson channel the rest of the way. There's no minutes there. And you're not going to be able to play 48 minutes of guys that are 6, 7 and smaller. Yeah, they're going to get somebody. But I think they're going to roll with this, Matt. This is what they're going to do. It's not conventional wisdom.

But since when has Darry and the Rockets operations, under conventional wisdom. I wonder how much of the game against Utah made them say, you know what, we do this right, we draw this upright, we can cause some problems. Because let's face it, let's look at the teams they potentially could be taking on in the chase of the West. Utah and Denver, the rockets have seemed to have their number

the last couple of years. And that's with having Nikola Yolkich on the floor. That's with having Rudy Gopier on the floor. The Clippers, you don't know, is a brand new clipper team. Paul George is on that floor. You have, obviously, Kauai Leonard, but their center positions are Ivitsa Zubats and Montrez Harrell. Yeah, they're not, they're not thrown it down the low, but even all three of these guys that we mentioned, they're not thrown down the low, it's not like Shaquille O'Neal or Patrick Ewing or Hakeem Elijah one. They're not

throwing it down the low block 40 times a game and just letting them go to work. It's just not how the NBA works. So I guess is what the Rockets Brass are doing when the doors are shut, is saying there's one team that we're going to potentially be in a world to hurt against. and that's the size of the Los Angeles Lakers. Big guard in LeBron, big forward in Anthony Davis, big centers in Javelle McGee slash Dwight Howard. They could be a major pain in our ass,

but they might have been a major pain in the ass anyway, even if Clint Capello was on the team. That if they're going to beat them, they might as well beat them at a strength. Maybe I'm talking myself into this. This is just us, you and I'm just talking here. Yeah. Well, the way I've described it over the years is you want as many

tools in your toolbox. You want to be able to have different matchups for different series because one seven game series, you might need a big man. Another seven game series as you go through the playoffs, you might not need them. For example, in the last couple of years, you needed Clint Capella against the likes of Carl Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert. And then you start playing the Warriors and they're playing a lot of small ball and they're switching everything.

And since because of the Warriors switching defense, Clint Capella is not going to get any points diving down on pick and roll. So it's like, what's Clint Capella doing here? And people are saying, what's wrong with Clint? He's not scoring in these games. He's not scoring in these games because that's the way the Warriors play defense. They're not going to allow him to score. So you just need that option.

You need somebody like a Clint Capella if the occasion arises. You know, as you're talking about this, the thing that bothered me about Clint, and let me tell you, I'm just a huge Clint guy. I just think he's really good. I mean, double doubles, block shots, rim protection. He is what good, great, and good. B-A teams could use in a center. Yes.

You're not going to create an offense around him. Yeah. You're not going to, he's not a building block, but he's a good piece. He doesn't get in the way. He knows his role and he knows his limitations. To me, Ross, I thought he looked way more out of sorts on the defensive side against Golden State in those two years as compared to what they're doing the offensive side. Yeah.

With the rocket switching everything there, I felt like I don't know what it is, but he felt like earlier in his career, he was more of a better switching a defender. He could go out there and Steph Curry and Clay Thompson and be on those guys and keep them in front of them. Yeah. It just seemed like for whatever reason the last year or two, he just hadn't been as good at it. Or maybe it's, I don't know, other teams adjusting and getting better.

He hasn't been as good as a switchable defender as of late. Yeah. So, you know, I would say this. Anybody that's humming around town today upset about the situation, Which again, upset is really a strong term. You're like, there's got to be more. And my answer to that is, I think there's more coming. I mean, opinions have varied just from what I've been reading on Twitter. I stayed, like I said, I stayed up late last night, just reading everything on Twitter because I was just fascinated by the whole thing.

So I think most people like the deal, and there are some people who think Darry got, quote, fleeced and this is a horrible trade or whatever. I don't think that's the case. But I think there is room for interpretation on this. and also because we're dealing with incomplete information, the trade deadline hasn't passed. If this is the only deal the Rockets made, I will definitely have questions, but if they end up getting a center,

I think I'll feel a little bit better. It just feels like there's too much still to be done before we sit there and evaluate this trade 100%. Pete Rose asked Commissioner Rob Manfred today. In fact, this morning, I guess. To remove his name from Major League Baseball as an eligible list, it was a petition sent to the commissioner's office. It was obtained by ESPN.

Rose and his lawyers argue that Manfred has recently opted not to punish guilty players of major game-changing rules infractions. And as a result, he should end Rose's 30-and-a-half-year ban for gambling on baseball while he was a manager of the Reds. The lawyers say that Rose's lifetime ban is, quote, vastly disproportionate. when compared to MLB's punishment of players who took performance enhancing drugs and players that were involved in the signs stealing schemes by the 2017 Astros. His agent says, or his attorney says, quote, there cannot be one set of rules for Mr. Rose and another for everyone else. No objective standard or categorization.

Let me try this again. Caterization. There we go. Of the rules violations committed by Mr. Rose can distinguish his violations from those who have incurred substantially less secure penalties from Major League Baseball. Pete Rose also asking for a meeting with Rob Manfred. I want you all to chew on that for a second. Okay. If in a great debate, Ross, you can take both sides of this. I will try to present both sides of that.

And then y'all can chime in, too. 713, 212, 5, 790. Pete Rose wants back in baseball, and he's using the example of our beloved Houston Astros as an example in which to get him back in there. 713-212-5-790. Does he have a valid point? Or is it like, you know, you bet on sports when Major League Baseball has a sign in the room. Do not bet on sports. Hey, it's Craig Ackerman. Listen to the home of the rocket. on your smart speaker. Just ask.

Hey, Google, play Sports Talk 790 on Iheart Radio. Matt Thomas, we'd like to thank his parents for only giving him two first names. Because who would listen to Billy Ray Thomas talk about Houston sports? The Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790. Tomorrow, I'll be in Los Angeles. Getting ready for the Rockets and the Lakers with or without Robert Covington, soon to be determined. Also with the return of non-flora stories, Nick had a little bit of a withdrawal last week because we were at the Super Bowl, or at least Ross was, and I was on road.

So you've been able to, you know, bank some stories, I'm assuming. Oh, I've been stockpiling them. You hear that, Ross? We're never going to win a non-flora story event here because this is what Nick lives for. I don't believe that. We'll have some weird depraved story that the people can't get behind. I've decided from here on out. Yeah, I've decided from here on out I'm going to have audio with mice because I think the audio does help.

Okay. Okay. So Pete Rose says he wants reinstatement. 713, 21, 2, 1, 5, 790. So let me give you the negative on that. He doesn't know what players did what. Correct? Correct.

So how does he know what players did or did not do? He's trying to make himself the story again. Okay. So that to me is the end all of why Rob Manfred's like, yeah, I know what you want, but just because you want it doesn't make. mean you're going to get it. Now, I'll flip it and say, listen, commish, we're not stupid.

You didn't get the goods on the Astros unless the players chirped and said a lot of things and fessed up because you promised them amnesty. So once I find out, me being Team Rose, what these players did and what you told them they would get away with for what they did, then I win and you should. reinstate me. And I know it's a lot deeper than that. There's a lot more layers to that. But that's my first thought is, Pete Rose

has no way of knowing unless XYZ players from the Astros called Pete and said, hey Pete, I got to tell you what my deal was. The deal I cut with the commissioner's office. They're not going to do that. They don't care about 75-year-old or however old Pete Rose is. They don't care. Let me tell you something. Carlos Gray doesn't care if Pete Rose gets reinstalled.

reinstated. Not reinstated. They don't care of George Springer or Jose out. They just don't care. They're like, are you the old guy that had that strange haircut back in the early 80s and you dove around, and you hustle to first base and you ran as hard as you could? And yeah, you got a few hits, but they were all a bunch of sloppy singles. Ouch. What was your OPS back in the day, Pete? It wasn't great. What was your slugging percentage? My thought is, it's easy to defend on the row side. Yeah, you all are hypocrites baseball. But until Pete Rose finds out what those players said and what the agreement was between the players and the commissioner's office, he can't win, right?

What am I missing on this? Am I missing anything? Or do you, I mean, maybe I'm in the wrong. Maybe there is hypocrisy in Major League Baseball and that he should because the Astros supposedly got off on them. Everybody thinks the players got off on this. Find somebody that plays Major League Baseball that doesn't think the Astro should have been, the players themselves should have been penalized. You hear about it every day. somebody from some team is saying one thing or the other about it.

But nobody's got proof because it's locked, supposedly. There's no proof. It's too difficult to punish the players. And as it relates to Pete Rose, I mean, I don't know why, I mean, I guess I do know why he's injected himself into this because he desperately wants to get into the Hall of Fame. And anytime anything something like this happens or whatever, anytime anything happens in baseball, for whatever reason, it usually turns back to Pete Rose. didn't Rob Manfred already deny him once just based solely on the fact that he's still gambling, which has nothing to do with his baseball career, but didn't that happen a few years back? I don't know about that.

I do know. I mean, he initially denied it. He even sued the MLB. Here's the latest quote from him in 2018. Yes, I reconfigure in my life. I do no more illegal gambling. That's what I got in trouble for. illegal gambling. I live in Las Vegas.

If I want to make a bet on a football game or a basketball game, I'm 78 years old. That's my enjoyment. That's my pleasure. And I've reconfigured my life. Here's the reality of it. He's 78 years old. He can tell you until he's blue in the face, he doesn't want to get into baseball's Hall of Fame. But he doesn't want to do it six feet under. He doesn't want to be shoeless Joe Jackson.

He wants to be able to say, he wants to be able to go up in front of his peers, his friends, of which many of those teams in the big red machine and around baseball during those generation were up there, he wants in the hall. And by resume speaking, he does belong in the Hall of Fame. He'd be a first ballot. He'd be a 99.9% or except for the douche that decided not to bring in Derek Jeter. That guy's actually my hero. That's hilarious.

But by the way, he will not announce who he is. Oh, that's good. Yeah. It's anonymous voting. He didn't have to. So not only is he not, he's the dude that didn't vote him in. He's not willing to put his stick his neck out and say, yeah, I'm here. And here's a reason why.

You don't have to come out and say it. No, no. You did it because you want to be a garroni, and you are. You don't know that. Maybe he wanted somebody else that was, you know, because if they don't get a certain certain percentage, players come off the ballot, right? Maybe he's like, Jeter's getting in. Let me get to put this guy in. Let me vote for this guy.

Don't buy that for a second. Okay, why not? Because everybody else didn't believe that. Not one person is going to have that kind of thought of, well, I certainly need to preserve Brad Osmiss's candidate in the Hall of Fame, so I'm going to give him the vote over Derek Jeter. Brad Osses got my vote. He knew whoever he is.

He knew what he was doing. Is Tony Yusebio back on the ballot? I can't even talk to you. Oh, sorry. Look, who cares? Derek Jeter wasn't unanimous. Let's cry about it. Mariano Rivera was.

Babe Ruth wasn't unanimous. Oh, I don't go up and down the list. I mean... I'm just saying that... I was reading it. So when this Kobe Bryant thing happened. I was reading about Roberto Clemente because it made me think of that. Roberto Clemente was a 15-time All-Star, 12-time Gold Glover, two-time world champion, an MVP,

and he died helping out the people of Nicaragua after a devastating earthquake, and he only got like 92% of the vote. Like what? That's what I'm telling you. Baseball's been screwing it up for years. writers are the biggest screw-ups. Not all of them, but 7.1% of them are. Who leaves Roberto Clemente

off of there after all that? Or Babe Ruth. To my point, though, you don't leave Derek Jeter off the ballot. You just don't. I don't care how you try to justify it. He's got to be on it. There's been players a lot greater than him that weren't unanimous, so I'm not going to shed a tear for Derek Jeter.

But if you have the... If you have the vote... I'd vote them in. You vote him in. You don't make him wait. There's nothing on his resume that makes him wait. Yeah, I'm not going to cry for him. But going back to the big point, Pete Rose wants in badly. He does.

Ross, he's been telling us for 35 years he doesn't want in, but he wants in very badly. I think you can make the point that him not getting in has probably made him more money in his life, made him more famous. This allows him to be in the store in the news. He's in the news like every six months. Like, does a baseball card's value, how, the answer is obviously yes, but how much more does it increase if it was Craig Bigio number seven and then the words, letters HOF are put in the word? I mean, does it make the card worth more? Does it make the baseball? Probably for somebody like him, but Pete Rose is a special case.

Yeah. His bit has been, I've got to be reinstated. I'm in the Hall of Fame. He's been doing this thing for what, since when did he get banned in the late 80s? But even if, but let's say he got input in this year. He's still going to do the same. thing. He's still going to bet on sports. He's still going to sign his autographs. He's still going to come to Houston two or three times a year. I think he would go away to some extent.

No, because... That's his bit. Because his bit has been gambling in baseball. It would be like Tom finally catching Jerry, which I think he actually did like once. More importantly, did... It'd be like the roadrunner finally catching the coyote finally catching the roadrunner. I was going to ask you, did the coyote ever catch the roadrunner? I don't think so. Elmer Fudd ever get bugs? Do we have a cartoon historian on the show?

So we book one. I'm okay with that. Jim and Spring Branch wants to get in on Pete Rose. What do you all think? Does he, again, and this hurts because it's local. I mean, this is just so it is what we try to localize things here on the old Matt Thomas show. Does Pete have any sort of argument? Because clearly the Astros, whomever they may be, one, two, five, nine players told Commissioner what they wanted to hear.

and they were cheating. And Pete cheated. Pete's saying if you're going to let them get away with it, why do I have to still set out after all these years? 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. It's the Matt Thomas show, Sports Harvey. Pro Nick Lowe with us as well.

Rockets PA announcer and sports talk show host. One might get the impression Matt Thomas loves to hear Matt Thomas's voice. Go ahead, Matt, talk for us. It is 147 and is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-790. Does Pete Rose have a decent argument? Or is this just one more? Like, if he's had 15 minutes of fame post-baseball, he's like into the two-hour mode, right?

He has been chirping about this. Remember for the longest time it was, I didn't care. And I didn't do anything. Yeah, I didn't do it. And then he wrote a book. All right, I did it. fessed it up and then he said, I still don't want to be in. And now he spent in the last decade saying, can you please let me in?

And I'm going to be real honest with you. I've had probably in my life four or five conversations with Pete Rose. On my radio show, I talk with him after my father-in-law was a still as big Pete Rose fan. I got him an autograph picture of him. He was, you know, in Las Vegas, if you guys go, there's these strip centers in between these hotels. and there was one with the memorabilia store, and he was just sitting out there by himself with this woman that was taking the money

and said, if you buy $95 or more Pete Rose items, you get one item free, signed. Okay. And I did it. Would you get a helmet? No, I got a picture of him sliding into a base. You know, he's always a head first guy. You get a betting slip?

Too soon. Okay. A paper bag full that he used to stash cash in? Again, too soon. One of his envelopes? Okay. You're ruining the legacy here. And he and I talk.

I used to go on his radio show once in a while. Really? Yeah, he had a radio show that he did. Where in Vegas? Yeah, he did it in Vegas. Okay. And he would have different, you know, he'd have like a little sidekick. When are we getting the midday show in Vegas?

I would love to do that. If Brian Erickson's listening, can Ross and I move to Vegas and do the show from there? Oh, yeah. We just do the show in Houston from Vegas. Yeah, it would be on the air 10 to 1. 10 to 1. We're off at 1? That's why tomorrow I'm in L.A.

10 o'clock is not terrible to do it. ready to like 10 to 1 would be perfect. Shout out Indy Kalu. No, Indy's great in the trenches. Keep him right where he is. I'm just saying that going to Pacific time zone isn't terrible. You get a little late breakfast in, and then you go have lunch. Like, you know a 115 lunch.

So Pete Rose, Ross, sports empty, live from Vegas. I like it. We call ourselves the triple of something. The triple play. The three kings. First to third. Vegas. I like it.

Let's go to a Jack and two kings. Jack and two king or I'd be a Jack King and a Queen. Hi, Jim, you're on 790. Good afternoon. Yeah, hi. I was listening to watching Rich Eisen this morning and his take on the Pete Rose thing was that since Pete Rose signed an agreement

with the commissioner as a manager, that he has no leg to stand on saying that the players should be out of or he should be in the hall because of the players. That was Rich Eisen's take. Okay. That's cool. Appreciate you. Let me know what Rich thought about that.

I think it's a good point. He signed an agreement. He signed to be on the ineligible list for his entire rest of his life. Well, I mean, just because you sign something doesn't mean you can't ask for it to be taken back. It's true. I mean, he signed it probably because he felt like he had to sign it. There was no one in Major League Baseball's office putting a gun to his head to say, don't sign this. Well, I think if they didn't see it, was there going to be criminal charges if he didn't sign it, I'm guessing? Who knows? I mean, we're talking decades ago. Okay. But I have the feeling that when Pete signed it, he probably did it because he was asked to do it, and maybe for that purpose.

But also Pete probably thought in the back of his mind, look, time heals all wounds. That's the thing that probably is hitting Pete more than else. That's helping him. Is that time hasn't helped, though. He's not any closer to being ring-stated than when he first got barred. I think so. I think he's seen in a better light than he was 20 years ago. It's about whether or not he is on the first.

on the verge of being reinstated back into baseball. The answer to that is no. It does because that's how he would get reinstated. It would be public perception turning and saying this wasn't that big of a deal and please reinstate him. But has that feeling what you just said, which is accurate, it hasn't changed in 10 years. There are just as many, there are a lot of people out there like, you know what, Pete, get your ass in all the fame. We get it. You bet.

Betting is now such a part of America and sports America that it isn't a big deal anymore. more. It's going to get even bigger. But it hasn't changed, though. There is, the last time we thought of Pete Rose being reinstated was when. I don't know, because it hasn't been brought up at all. I don't think that's the one thing that has helped every major sports problem. The Patriots Ross were found guilty of stealing, a videotape in the New York Jets.

I mean, stealing 101. In a decade later, we hardly ever talk about it. The Astros, we will get past this. In 2027, when the Matt and Ross show, when I finally get to 30,000 followers on Twitter, it'll be a chuckle. It'll be a little of that wasn't a cool thing to do, but it'll be an afterthought. Pete has been waiting for decades and there's been no significant movement towards it. I think his offense is worse than those others, honestly.

And maybe that's a reason why. I think what he did, and I mean, there's some dispute. I mean, I was just reading about it during the break about clarity on whether or not everybody says he just only bet on his own team. But John Dowd, who did the Dowd report and investigated, said in 2002 that he believed Rose probably bet against the Reds while managing them. And that, to me, it's the ultimate sin. Here's my thought, and I've had this thought for 30 years. We've been talking about it for 30 years. Betting on your own team to win is one thing.

betting on them to lose is the you don't get a chance to get back into baseball. But almost as severe, Ross, is the days you didn't bet on them at all. That's true. Because you gave the impression that you didn't think your team was good enough to win that game. Betting on them to lose, are we completely sure that happened? No, I said John Dow did the investigation, and he said in an interview in 2002 with the New York Post that he believed Rose probably bet on the Reds while managing them. Okay. I mean, against the Reds, against the Reds.

If we ever find 100% evidence of that, he'll never get in. Matter of fact, I don't think he's ever going to get it. Unless, because we're talking about how many commissioners have we had since Fay Vincent. We've had a bunch. Right. This is, well, we've had a bunch. Bud Sealing

and Rob Manford. Am I forgetting about anybody after Fay Vincent? I don't think so. I don't think so either. Can I saw Mountain Landis? No, it was way before that. Oh, okay. But thank you for referring to references of of that. He's not getting in. And he's not, and if he's going to get in, it's not because of the Astro situation. He's going to get in because a commissioner, whether it's Rob Manfred, or immense public opinion

or immense pressure from owners are going to say, all right, it's been 30 years, 35 years. Let's get him back in. And that just hasn't happened. I bet it happens after he dies. Because at that point, he's no longer on the ineligible list. Are you sure? I think so. I think that's how it works. Shulish Joe Jackson's probably still on the ineligible list. Doesn't the ineligible list go from one generation the next?

Doesn't Pete Rose Jr. now inherit that spot? Does he? I don't know. He incurs all his debt. But once he's off the ineligible list. He's not, you can't be, I don't, I think Shulis Joe Jackson's still on the list. I think you're just off. No, I don't think you'd have to, you would have to.

To my knowledge, he's long dead. No, they're not going to walk up and say, hey, Shoeless Joe, Ms. Shulish Joe family, you're now, he's in a Hall of Family. Why? Well, because he died. No. They would have to reinstate his name to the sport of baseball. No, so I would have to disagree with you and say that when Pete dies, it's not going to necessarily mean he's got a faster track to it. And Pete clearly didn't make any friends in baseball. He just didn't. And here's the problem, guys. He didn't show enough remorse at any point. As we talked about it five minutes ago, he spent 10 years flat out denying it. He wasted 10 years of his life telling us something that we all knew that he did.

And then when he decided he wanted to come correct, he wrote a book about it to make money off of the fact that he made money. Yeah, he's made more money and fame and all this from not being on the list, I think, than being on. I mean, from not being in the hall of fame than being in it. He should have, the moment he got caught, apologized profusely, said, I'm sorry. What can I do to fix this? I want to be a change man. instead he moves to Vegas he bets on more sporting events and he spends the better part of 20 years denying that he ever did any of this stuff and then when it's time for him to deny it he's like all right you caught me now I'm gonna make this book so come sell me some stuff yeah I'm okay with him being in I honestly I mean I like him I want in the business of strong opinions I don't have a I mean if he's in it's not gonna I'm not gonna act like it's it's the greatest offense ever he should get in because major league baseball said that this is enough he shouldn't get in because of the astro situation he's a Hall of Fame fame caliber player.

What he did as a manager. You know what, fine, then I do have an opinion. He should be in. What he did as a player, put him in. He bet on games as a manager. But that's a different offense. He served some time. I know they don't separate it that way.

He's the all-time hit king. Put the man in the Hall of Fame. That's a, that's a bacon he take right there. Thank you, Matt. You guys were right, whether living or dead, they're still on the inel of the list. They would have to make. There you go, Nick. Yeah, Nick.

I want to bring death into it. You want people to die, so do they get to the Hall of Fame? I'm just trying to help the guy out. No. He doesn't help him out. He'll be dead. I think no heartbeat doesn't help the guy out at all. He can't have a speech in Cooper's Town when he's in the grave.

Or cremated. The only way I saw one in as well. All right. Is the Matt Thomas show. Here we go. The final hour of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790, where we are still thinking about what kind of draft party we should have because our local sports teams Ross are not going to give us any.

Well, they're going to, but they're going to call them something else. Like maybe we'll trade up draft party. Comes to, you know, peek inside the curtain. Well, I thought you like to peel the curtain. I peel it. The teams don't like to peel it. Maybe that's another nickname for you, curtain peeler. I guess.

I like Matt. You do? How about Maddie? Maddie's fine. How about when I call you Mateo? That's fine. Okay. Those are the ones I find acceptable.

Clint Capella is now Atlanta Hawk. Now the team did not officially release the, we've done this, so it's just a matter of semantics. I think it's a waiting game right now. They're trying to possibly engage more teams, and there's so much in the CBA and this trade exception and that trade exception

and making all this happen and work and throwing in salaries and all this stuff. So they're probably working out the kinks. Yeah. Rockets at this point have Robert Covington 3&D guy that's been on their radar basically the entire season to be truthful

Switchable defender with length He's only 6-7 but he's a 7 foot two wingspan Yeah Wingspans matter He'll add athletic Athleticism the team's missing right now a little bit It will strengthen the wing Overall depth chart so to speak

It won't make the back-to-backs Neely feel so impossible to win when Russ sits out I would hope so. And it doesn't put as much pressure on Ben McLemore to score 20 points every night if he can. He's all they was good yesterday. You got depth at the 2-slash-3, if you want to call it that, between Eric Gordon, Ben McClure, Eric Gordon, now you got Robert Covington.

Austin Rivers. Rockets looking apparently for Big Man still, so says a couple of published reports out there. Trade deadline is, boy, it's 23-hour. and 56 minutes away. Huge trade deadline special tomorrow. You know what that means on the show tomorrow. We play that clock a lot. Oh, boy.

You love trade deadline days. We like to add, production value of the show. And it's really usually never, although the big, remember last year, and last time we did a drafts, we did a trade deadline special?

It was three o'clock. Mm-hmm. July 31st of last year. Yes. Me, you, Adam, we're in here. We're like, man, Astros didn't do anything.

We turn to our right where our television is at 305, and there is MLB Network saying that the Astros had acquired Zach Granky at the deadline. I mean, literally with like seconds a spare. So maybe that happens tomorrow at 2 o'clock here on Sports Talks. Well, luckily we're on until 3. I know. And Rockets and Lakers tomorrow night.

Wow. It's a lot going on. It's going to be fun. I wish I could take you to L.A. with me once. Because it's, staple center is just sexy. It just is. What do you mean?

It's just beautiful people. You're talking about the Oscar D. La Jolla statue? Everything. By the way, do you see what the Lakers had to scoop up all the stuff for the Kobe tribute stuff? Yes. And they're cataloging it and sending it to Vanessa, right? That's the right thing to do. You just can't have that stuff there forever.

So it was nice that Vanessa wanted cataloged. They're taking the flowers and they're grounding it up into mulch and putting it around the arena. Everything was done right. They say they had like 1,300 basketballs. What, like all regulation size or just a little mini- Yeah, like people either signed or whatever. How many, probably thousands of jerseys as well. Yeah, they should take those basketballs, give them to like a little notes.

A kids group or something, you know? Well, I think some of them are signed and stuff like that. I don't know. But I'd be curious to get out there to see what that's like, because that'll be what's about the third or fourth game since Kobe's passing? I saw about hundreds of Mexican, candles as well. People lighting up candles.

It is, it's interesting when someone in sports and or celebrity passes, they run to monuments. Candlelight vigil. Like when somebody in Hollywood dies. You go to their star. Their star, if they have one. Yeah, like if Bugs Bunny goes down, you go to a star. I wasn't thinking that, no. Okay.

Like, who has died that was a major celebrity non-sports in the last year? I know it would take us long to figure it out, but there's somebody like, like when Prince passed away a few years back, everybody went to First Avenue Bar, where he began his career right across in the Target Center. And it became like a museum for him for a short period of time. Yeah. So when you go, we'll go to like Maid Creek Stadium because that's where you got your mascot start. No, I think you'd come here to 2000 West Loop South. No, well, then security's not going to let them up here. Well, my special situation.

Surround the studio of Sports Talk 790. I like it. For me, they'll go to treasures. Yeah. I don't know. I think I want to be cremated. And I want half my ashes over Las Vegas. This guy, this took a dark turn.

That's not dark. It is where it is. Okay. All right. So Clint Capelles, Trell. I'll speak well of you at your funeral, Matt. I don't think you will. All the secrets will die with me.

You've got a few, too. We all do. All right. So Clint's gone. Jordan Bell is here. A rocket's first round pick is gone. I was teasing somebody that I said, man, I don't remember the last time I went to a Rockets draft party, but we're actually sat and watched the draft.

Because last year, we had a little draft get together for the season ticket holders, but it really was more about the uniforms. Right. I was there. That's what we have to do. Just bring out cool different uniforms every year the Rockets come out, and we won't care about the draft. Like if the Rockets, if... You know the Rockets last first round pick?

It was in 2015. I mean, literally the pick. Yes. and that was Sam Decker. That's correct. Before that, 2014, Click Capella. Before that, I couldn't tell you. By the way, Chandler Parsons got his...

2012. 2012 was the triple threat of Jeremy Lamb, Royce White, and Terrence Jones. See, that's why first... You know what that is? That's why you trade them all the way. That's what you do. That's why you don't keep them. Let me ask you this, in an overly simplistic view of this.

if you don't have a top five pick in the NBA like you are a lottery like a sucky lottery team not like 42 and 40 sucky lottery like five like your your team just wins 1864 that's too many that's right

wouldn't you have that mentality of getting rid of them as long as it's outside the top five there are exceptions quai Leonard was a mid round pick Janiceitha Cumpo was a was a mid round pick could probably go through the list and find a number of guys who have been

I think what was it Tony Parker was he he was like a mid to late first round pick, I think. So there are exceptions to the rule. And I would say Clint Capella, getting Clint Capella at 14 or whatever it was, is I don't want to call it a steal, but that's way above value for most first round picks. So, I mean, that was a good one.

Yeah. The 28th overall for Tony Parker. There are diamonds and rough. Right. It's rare. It's very rare. We just think of three in the last 20 years. But to put into perspective,

is there a first round pick? You have the Rocket's first round picks in front of them. I did. Hold on. I'll pull it back up. Is there any of them that we legitimately miss that went to somewhere else, became something else that were like, oh, they could have been our guy. So I went to the list of Decker, Capella, Terrence Jones, no. Royce White, no, Jeremy Lamb, no. Nicola Mirittich was the first round pick of the Rockets.

Marcus Morris. Yeah. I mean, serviceable. Patrick Patterson? Servicable. Oh, Patrick Patterson. not from Ireland No, he's not

Nick Batum Aaron Brooks Servicable Rudy Gay in 06 but he was flipped for Battye Yeah Rudy's still having a productive NBA career Not nearly

Oh, Boki Nakbar Luther Head That's enough Yow Ming's That was the number one Number one though Yeah He was good

Hall of Famer So outside of the number one Pick There hasn't been one that you went Oh my God I wish he was still here Cedric and Humbolded at 2-11 on 7-0. Cedric, good afternoon.

Cedric. Hi, man. I'm a long time first time. Nice to hear from you. What's going on? Yeah, I'm a long time first time. I just wanted to give a two of take about the rocket. I try to look it up, and I was going to ask you guys,

because it's the first time that two teammates scored 20,000 points in the same season with Russ to score his a few days games probably. That would be a tribute question we'd have to look up. But it puts them in a verified air for sure. I would guess no. I mean, here's, here's, here's. On the top of my head, Durant and, Durant and Steph probably did something like that.

Together in the same year? I mean, you'd have to think, and I said we're going to let you go get a lot of steak. Okay, I'm sorry, I'm thinking two, why was I thinking 2000? Why was I thinking 2000? It's not 20,000. You'd have to think about guys on teams that were built together that were about the same age.

My guess would be because Pippin and Jordan were not scoring the same amount. Bird and McHale were not scoring at the same amount. You'd have to find guys that were on separate teams that joined each other. Yeah, probably not.

What did it matters? Wade and Bosch, maybe? Probably not. Did Bosch ever get the 20,000 points? I don't think so. So, it's sudden to give you a long-winded answer to your short question is that you'd have to find guys

that were the alpha dogs with different teams that eventually got together. Or just were dominant and stayed together forever. Yeah, but if you're scoring 20,000 points in 12 years or less than, that means you'd have to, if they were together for that long a time, they'd have to score at least 30 points a game with each other. And no team's going to go a decade with two players scoring 30 points a game on the same team. So, yeah, I would have to probably, and again, It would take a little bit of time to figure it out.

713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. If you want to email this... Maybe Stockton and Malone. Well, no, Stockton never got $20,000. No, because Malone was much more... Yeah, that's what I'm saying. You'd have to go with two guys that met each other mid-career.

Duran and Curry is a good example, but I don't think Curry's reached $20,000, hasn't it? No. No. So, Cedric, I'm going to give you a big old fat note of your question. Now, 10,000... It doesn't... Okay. We'd make a little bit.

Probably. It doesn't matter. We just don't have time for that. Nick's got plenty of time. Nick, matter of fact, when you get home today, why don't you research that out for the audience? I've already found several duos that had over 20,000 in the same season, but I don't know if they hit that mark in the same season.

Yeah, there's a lot of guys that have played with... That's tough. Yeah, yeah. And we just, we'd like to talk to our friends. Thanks, Cedric for the phone call. 713-212-5-790. 713-212-5-790. What do you think about the Jaguars playing two games in London in one year?

That's what they're going to do, sports RV. They're going to get some money, right? They're going to get a lot of money. And my guess is, in 10 years from now, will they be the London Jaguars? It's a serious question. Let's get to that next. 213-212-5-79. If you want to get in on the trade,

if you want to get on what the rocket's don't need to accomplish and certainly if you want to get in on the mooky bets major trade between the Red Sox and Dodgers, we can do that as well. Plus, Pete Rose, using the Astros as an example to try to get back in the reinstatement. Is it a flawed or somewhat

logical argument? The morning sports show for those who partied in Midtown way too hard last night. The Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Young money Yeah

Me and Mike will Pull the AOD Back to Back AmG 663s I tell all my Rake it up Break it down

Bag it up Rag it up Rag it up Bag it up I know you're asking Why this song Is it on this radio show? Is this on your phone Matt

You download this one? All right Nick is this song On my phone Yes or no I'm gonna go with no Nick is correct. Ross now you can ask

why Matt are we playing this song? Why are we playing this song Matt? There's a story on our website at Sports790.com something called Crystal Roses. Do we work with her or is she from the national people? Crystal Roses? I don't know who that is. Story

Dateline Miami. This is a Florida story unfortunately it wouldn't be applicable for non-Florida stories tomorrow. Some strippers are... Wait, she hosts a show called the nightcap. What? What the heck?

Is it for the age? No. It's in the Bay Area. Wild 94-9. Okay. We're stealing her story, so she can steal all your name of your show. Son of a. Some strippers are leaving, or I should say now have left, Super Bowl weekend in Miami,

very disappointed. After they didn't make as much cash as they anticipated. And others can't even leave because it didn't make enough money for a ticket home. So here's what happened, Ross. These strippers come from out of town, hoping to cash in on parties. Yes. Clubs. Yes.

Buses. Right? Mm-hmm. Private dances. Sure. Probably a little light prostitution. Light, very light, soft. Caress.

Okay. So apparently the clubs in Miami and Ross, you did that you should have verified this why you were down there. I did. Are charging women, or charging women $350. Oh, wow. Just to enter the club to make their money.

Mm-hmm. Well, many of them are complaining they made less than $1,000. And the problem is these girls did not book their flights 14 days in advance. Oh. It's a little price. So they're stuck in Miami because the airfare is too expensive. And didn't they make enough money on the strip clubs to get their flights back home. shouldn't you book a round trip

mm-hmm so there are there are IG photos of women sitting at bus stations and airports trying to get home because it's cost them too much money to get to normal modes of transportation

there is a guy named QC M-E-O underscore P he owns a strip club in that area Ross wow and it says the following to all the day

answers that was at the party last night, please understand that we don't own clubs or venues. We don't control or make the rules of how many girls dance. Wow. Who split or pay out? How much money gets stolen? I personally know a lot of money was thrown between our camp and you all know this. We don't do contract with dancers. Sorry for any confusion. That went on, but that's out of our control.

We will get better control of this next time we do this. This is horrible, Matt. I think we need to do something to help these people. What do you want to do? Hi folks. Oh no. Ross v. Real here, and we have to talk about something very, very disturbing. These strippers in Miami are now stranded from their homes in Portland or Atlanta, or maybe even Houston, Texas.

Phoenix. They need to get home. They need your help. For just a few dollars a day, you can send crystal and diamond and destiny. And Desiree. And Desiree. To their homes.

They need your help. These outfits don't pay for themselves. Do you know how much it costs to repair six-inch heels? It's costly. How much is glitter? Feeding four kids and driving a new BMW 5 series could really take a toll. on these young strippers.

Don't forget medical school costs. Medical school costs are through the roof. Uber rates. They need your help. They need it now. Go to strippersgethome.org to see how you can help. The following announcement made by

Strippers wanting to leave Miami.org. Send Angel home to Belair, Texas. Is she in Belair? Oh, Fibisinette. Let me ask you this. Not that I know these things. Okay. But if you're flying to Miami,

you don't book one way. No. Why then why are they stuck in Miami when they should have bought a round trip? Nobody's taking it one way. Yeah, I'm calling BS in this whole story. Just telling you, it's out there. These poor ladies with their glitter, low-cut outfits,

no jeans. They're not wearing them. a pair of jeans in their name. Is there like a herd of strippers hijacking out of Miami right now? Opportunity, fellas. Is this like a caravan? Like a paddy wagon, if you will?

I don't know. I'm just, I want you all think about this. There are ladies down there that are still stuck. And they need your help. What was the name of the website again? Get these hose home. No, no, no. Get these medical students home.

I'm sorry. Get these medical students home. Get these. I'm still in school. I want to get these. I'm working my way through school.org students home. Get these. I'm in a transition period.

Yeah. Future dental assistants. Get this. I'm just doing this on the temporary.org. Girls home. Just till I get back up on my feet.org. Get the. Do you want to have breakfast after this?

Dot org? A amount of money you've spent Ross in your life. on strippers at breakfast restaurants. Breakfast buffet? Less or over than $100 in your life. Less. I'm going to be less, but I'm not going to say it's zero. Okay.

Back in the younger days. Okay. Pre-married sports MT? I might have gone and had an eye out. Let's go to the breakfast buffet. Chicken fried steak, eggs and pancakes. Uh-huh. I might have made it chachos run once.

Yeah, that's going to happen. All right. I'm going to leave you with Derek and the gallery standing by. Oh, boy. Let me guess. going to be, you know, the subject line says strippers to it. Oh, yes. And Derek wrote, Derek is an expert on these matters. Does Mrs. Derek know about this? Yeah. She's okay with that.

He works at one of the most famous strip clubs in the city. Okay, I'm going to get in the car because I'm going to leave for the airport right now. Okay. You want to tell you, like wait until you, text me that you're in the car before I take Derek? I'll be in the car in the car. Okay. So I want to talk about Cronberg flags. Okay, great. After that, I want you to get him to get me a job. They're working part-time doing announcing. Now, I will not partake in any of their, you know, I just want to, I don't introduce them to the stage and then take them back and then when they're done. But I will not be the ones, you know, handling hours or their complaints or what's going on. So, yeah.

All right. So we're going to try to make some extra money and he's going to give you an update on what. Maybe Derek's got an update on some of these trippers. Maybe some of his friends are stuck in my name. We're going to get them back. Lunch timers. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show.

32, Hero, Sports Stock, 790. Matt Thomas show continues, this time without Matt Thomas. He had to duck out. He's traveling with the Rockets as they go to take on the Los Angeles Lakers tomorrow at the Staples Center. Got a lot of stuff going on with the Rockets. We'll talk about that in a minute. 713, 2, 1, 2, 5, 790, your phone number. But in the last segment, we were talking about a very serious matter.

As apparently these young ladies, these strippers in Miami, are stranded at the Miami airport, because they were given false promises of making thousands of dollars at these Miami strip clubs and apparently don't have enough money to get home. Sounds like a golden opportunity. It's a very unfortunate situation. Golden opportunity to what? Get like some kind of party bus and with like strip poles on it

and have them come back? Sounds fun. Hmm. I don't know. Maybe somebody can finance something like that. And you know what? When we have these types of matters come up, when it's,

when we have any questions about what's going on with a strip club, we make sure that we turn to. Derek in the gallery. First of all, Derek, can you get Matt Thomas a shift as a nightclub as a strip club DJ? I could, but I don't know. Disbreak, Mr. Thomas. He, sometimes

I already do his bit in the club. I'll be trying it sometimes. Hey, and it'd be working, but in this strip club, they don't do that. It's just get up on the stage. Just get up on the state. Is this like the Stalinist strip club?

You'll get on the stage. now. And that's, yes. Shake your booty. You know, you give them a proper introduction, but you know, you don't go out like Mr. Thomas, do. Now, check this out. And five foot three from Madison High School.

140 pounds. Right. For it's fake boobs and fake butt. Now, listen to me, Ross. Listen to me. I know exactly what happened because it was already planned out. Okay. I'll give you an example. your name is Ross, you're a, you're a famous rapper, okay? The games are flipped over.

Now these famous rappers or artists, they are buying the club. So let's just say, I bought, I bought the club, okay? Hold on, explain this to me. The club has to pay me. So, hold on, as in they own the club or they rent it, like, for a weekend or something? They rent it for the weekend. Okay. Okay.

I'm said property owner. Let's just take your guy. That's it. Your Gotti comes to me and says, yeah, I want to post up here for the Super Bowl, but you got to pay me to post up here and bring my whole click up in there. They say, fine, how much you won't, Gotti. I want $25,000, and then I'm going to throw some. Okay.

Now, Goddy owns the club, okay? Now, anything that comes to, they might get him 50. No, that's what I'm saying. They might give him 15,000 up front. Okay. And then at the end of the night, they got to come back and give him another $10,000. That's already $25,000. This is Miami.

It's already another $25,000. So the rest of the girls that's trying to make the money, the club got to make that money back. So you don't send $300 on your tip out or whatever. Yeah, you might make only $400, but that money won't for you. Number two, and this is the most important thing. This is the most important thing of all right here. These girls have to realize that Instagram has messed up the game. So while you think you've got the butt shots and the boom of it plants, there are a million girls that got them now.

And you're not the only one. The Miami girls got together and said, we're not letting nobody else out of town make no money but us. And that's exactly what they did. And who books a flight to Miami one way? You know, that's just stupid. You know what? The competition is getting very bigger now. So when they got in the club, now they paid their $300.

They didn't pay their $300 and realized while they're sweeping the flow, they're not getting their bag. Just where the bag going to this said artist, that's it, artist. dude, that kid do. Yeah, you're only making, what, $100? You could have stayed in Houston, Alabama, New York, Chicago. You could have stayed home for that money. But no, you went to Miami and thought that all these Miami dealers and people, they was going to throw a bag on you. Guess what? It don't work like that, baby. And to the three and four girls that still gone from my club, man, y'all can stay gone. Somebody that took y'all's place already.

Wait, what? You know some girls that are gone that went to Miami and they haven't come back yet? man, Ross, Ross, my phone is blowing up on people telling me they can't get back. They can't get back. Why you can't get back? Because you thought your $2,000 butt plants and your $2,000 chest implants, you thought that was when this girl's in Miami, Dr. Miami has got $10,000 surgeries. These girls are weight. You're not the only fine girl on Instagram.

You're not the, oh, oh, oh, this is before I get off, Ross. The artist's down there, the artist. They just say, yo, got it again. he's already called 10 girls to come for him. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? He already called 10 girls so he don't need no more. Are these his girls?

Where do they come from? Instagram. Okay, so he's in their DMs. He's telling them to come to Miami. And does he pay for them to get in, or do they come in with him as, like, guests? They come in with him. This is who he wants to see. So he cashed at them their little old flight money.

He cashed at them their little old hotel money. And he wants to see them for three or four. day. So I already got 10 girls. The club can't fit no more to 25, 26 girls. So if I already got 10 girls, what do I think 10-0 girls from? Well, I need that for. No, y'all didn't make no money because you wanted to jump on a plane and go to Miami.

When they was in Houston and when they was doing that date, the Houston girls did the same thing to the Miami girls. They just flipped it over and they remembered that. They remembered that. They got long memories, bro. And guess what? All the Houston girls, all the Alabama girls, all the Chicago girls, even the California girls,

are broke. Miami sold the scene of the Latino girls with the Jennifer Lopez in Chicago thing. Oh, man, they stole the show. So no black, white, or anything else besides Mexican Latino girls made money on a Super Bowl. I hope y'all happy, try to run behind some dudes with some money, and y'all didn't make none. And guess what? I want my tip-by Friday night when you get to the dump. This seems extremely inefficient.

So really, the only guys that are making money are the Dorman and the Bus Boys? That's it. That's it. Wow. And the bartender. And the bartenders. That's the only people make money. Although Yogadi, instead of cash-apping them dollars,

I think he should book the flights himself so he can get his points and his Marriott points and his miles. Hey, he probably got a private plate. He just put them all on a private plane. Bring 10 of them down with him. What do you need other girls for? He had his 10 girls. And I'm not using Yogi, I'm just saying, this third or whatever, he brought his 10 Instagram girls. His friends bought, they two Instagram girls.

you got 15 girls all for you. And other girls that just walk up and just pay to get in the dance, girl, you're not making no money. You know that. Dollars, money's going to go back to that whole team. I'm going to let you later, Ross. And remember, the club is over for you for whenever you want to come.

I got you. Thank you very much, Derek. That was very educational for me. So you think Derek should start up a class, maybe over at U of H, business administration of strip. He was like a professor. You're exactly right. What's on the...

strip club bouncer syllabus. You got to learn proper door etiquette. You got to learn, I mean, obviously all these ends and out of the girls having to pay in there before they go. And apparently in Miami, it went up to $350. What does a girl normally pay when she goes into a strip club? Because I know they have to pay and then they make their own money so they get it back. Which just seems ridiculous in itself. But I don't know.

I find this all very confusing and all very fascinating about the self-sustaining. about the self-sustaining economy or lack thereof when it comes to strict clubs. Matt Thomas, did you have anything to weigh in on there with anything that Derek said there? No, but I just appreciate all the insight he brought. I was thinking about this because I'm going to the airport right now. Yes. How about this? If there are still girls laying out by the terminal,

what about if they started a little side business to get them enough for the airfare home by like giving dances before the businessman get on their plane? Yeah, see, I don't think that's illegal. I think if they'd be stopped by security. I don't know what TSA has to say about the safety of giving lap dances to random businessmen in Terminal in Terminal A. Because here's a bit. You know how I've talked about how much I love those massage chairs at the airport? Of course.

Yes. Did you imagine getting one of those massages while someone is sitting on your lap? I'm just saying. I think you're going somewhere with this, Matt. I think this is a lot more viable of a business and say remote for you. This is genius. I think that's a great way for them. I mean, look, obviously you have people who are beggars and they just sit around or whatever

or they, you know, some guys playing the guitar on the street, you drop them a couple of bucks. Why don't they just start twerking and put a bucket in? I just came up with a new website. Oh, no. Girls at your gate.biz. Oh, gate girls. Okay, whatever. Same difference.

Gategirls. That sounds We break the whippers to you. Wow. Yeah. Got an hour to kill? Yeah. What if your flight gets delayed

for like three hours? You want to blow off a little steam. Well, and metaphorically. No. What? What did you say? Not in a literal sense.

We got to go to a break, Matt. Bye. Thank you. Couldn't they just sneak in with the pilot, say their family or something, and hit you ride in the cockpit? No, they would,

stop. All right. On that note, we're going to try to pull ourselves together for the final segment of the Matt Thomas show. If you have any more details on any of the ins and outs of strip clubs and you want to call the Matt Thomas show. You can do so right now. 713, 21, 2, 1, 2, 5, 790. 7. 7.1, 2, 1, 2, 5, 790.

We'll continue after the short break. Good news. It's the Matt Thomas show for lunch. Let that boring brown bag lunch rot in the employee refrigerator. Oh, what's that smell? The Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. All right. You're in love with a stripper.

I get it. I like how Matt Thomas dropped this bomb on the entire show and then just walked out. Now I'm set here to deal with the aftermath. But if you have not heard, apparently things have been going very poorly for some strippers who went to Miami. And don't have return. flight home. They are currently stranded.

I don't know if they're in the Fort Lauderdale airport or what airport they're in the area. But we wish them all the best. All right. Anyways, let's talk some sports here on the Mad Tomas show. 713, 1-2-1-2-5-7-90. The phone number 7-1-3-1-2-790. A lot of stuff going on with the rockets right now with the trade deadline tomorrow at 2 p.m.,

which, of course, we will have you covered for here on a sports talk 790. and also on Friday, we will have Mike Dantone on the show here. So when the dust settles, after all the moves are made, everything's official and all that. We'll hear from Mike Dantone. So it'll be the first chance to hear from him Friday here on the Matt Thomas show. But last night, the win over the Charlotte Hornets look. We don't have to pretend that the Charlotte Hornets are some great shakes and there's some amazing team or anything like that. But the Rockets took care of business.

They came in as like 13, 13 and a half point favorites. one by 15. And one of the things, the great things, the encouraging things to see is James Hardin performing well yet again. This is now three straight games since James Hardin has been struggling, that he's played well, that he shot well, that he scored well, and the efficiency is going up. He's starting to look like himself. And I think that's really what I've been wanting to see. And it's unfortunate, right, the way that it's been coinciding and almost a a roller coaster of sorts with Russell Westbrook and James Harden. Early in the season, James Hardin is on fire.

He's dropping 50 points on people, dropping 60 points on people. He's amazing. And Russell Westbrook is struggling. And just because there's an adjustment period. He's not a bad basketball player. He was taking too many threes. He's figuring out how to adjust in this rocket's offense. And then once he kind of starts settling in and playing efficiently, that has coincided.

with James Hardin just the struggles that he had, the shooting, the one for 17, three-point shooting night is one that definitely sticks out of like a sore thumb. And he just looked like he had not been himself. He had been dealing with a toe injury where he missed a game earlier on. I think was that late December or was that earlier this month? I can't remember. But James Harden had missed a game with the toe problem. Then he took that big knee, what, two Fridays ago,

from Carl Anthony Towns, and he had been struggling, and he just didn't look like himself. It looked sluggish. He looked like he couldn't get to the basket. He wasn't having the explosiveness, which I don't necessarily think of James Harden as some kind of super explosive athlete, but he is a guy who can get to the basket

and get to the basket generally with ease, especially with that crossover dribble and any type of movement out of place that any defender makes, he's going to go blow right by you. But we hadn't seen that from him as of late. But now you look at the last three games. 35 points, 40 points, 40 points. The three-point shooting has been much better.

He is now 17 of 40, which is a little less than 50% in the last few games there from three. So that has been improving. And so he scored 40 last night. So now I feel like it can all come together. And now with the Rockets making this move, Clint Capella out, Jordan Bell and Robert Covington Inn. And also Gerald Green gone and Neney gone for the Houston Rockets. I'm really interested to see.

And right now we're in a middle period. The deadline hasn't happened. So what are they going to do with the backup center? I don't know. But even failing that, or even if they don't get anybody and they look in the buyout market, apparently, according to Tim McMahon of ESPN, PJ Tucker is going to be the starting five for the Houston Rockets. This is what he tweeted last night. To be clear, the Rockets aren't searching for a starting center.

They're playing small ball and rolling with PJ Tucker at the five. But they do need a big to throw at Nicola Yokic, Anthony David, etc. in the playoffs. So what they're going to do is they're basically taking their poor man's version of the Hampton's five lineup, which was what, Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, Draymond Green, Kevin Durant, and who is the fifth one? the one of the who am I missing? I don't know. It doesn't even matter.

Andre Agu Dada. So that was the Hampton's 5 lineup where you have a lot of plus defenders, three of the greatest shooters, arguably the three greatest shooters ever walked the planet. Three of the greatest shooters ever. And the playmaking of Dremont Green, far outshines that of P.J. Tucker. But as far as defensively, not talking about offensively, defensively, it was an effective lineup.

It was a good lineup. PJ Tucker can try to be, you know, he's not as good to me, not as good as Draymond Green was defensively. Draymond Green, a defensive player of the year. But you have him as your center. He's switching everything. And then for certain matchups, you bring in a big, whether it be a Tyson Chandler or Isaiah Hardinstein

or somebody who you bought out or you get in a trade market, that's going to be your guy just specifically for matchups. And I talked about this earlier when Matt was here. And I've been saying this for years when it comes to the playoffs and you go through first round series, second round series. you go to conference finals, finals, whatever. It's like you're going to,

you're going up against different teams with different matchups every time. So you want to have every tool in the toolbox. Right? Some series, I can play a more small ball. Well, some series, they've got a dominant big man, and we're going to have to throw a center at him for some big minutes. Throw somebody like a Tyson Chandler or somebody of his size and ability.

But I think this is, the way the NBA is in 2020, you're just not necessarily running up, but you're not running up against Shaq. Like if the Rockets were playing, if you just put this roster in in 2001, and the Rockets are in the Western Conference playoffs, and you've got to go up against Tim Duncan, and you've got to go up against Shaq, and you've got to go up against Chris Weber of the Sacramento Kings at that time. I'm like, wow, the Rockets are screwed.

The Rockets aren't going to be able to defend any of these guys. They're going to be able to get worked in the post. It's not going to happen. happen here in 2020. It's just different. It's a different game. And maybe you can point to Anthony Davis and the Lakers and what they have. They're not tossing the ball down to Javale McGee for 10-15 post-ups a game. Anthony Davis likes to work outside in. Anthony Davis is just about as apt to put up a three-pointer as anything else. Now, he's going to be good getting to the basket, but he's not going to have some kind of back-to-the-basket post-up game, or at least he doesn't

as much. Now, it's going to be scary a little bit because the guys who, will be posting up like a LeBron James, that's going to be dangerous. That's the one to look at. I mean, as far as post players in the NBA, it's really not big men anymore. Guys like Kauai Leonard are going to be working the Rockets in the Post. Guys like LeBron James are going to be working the Rockets in the Post. Those are the ones you're going to have to be wondering about and worrying about. So the question is going to be, can the likes of Robert Covington and James Harden and PJ Tucker

and Eric Gordon, et cetera, keep those guys off the post and keep them from scoring on the post. And that's the big question, and that's what the rockets are going to have to answer. And that's what Darrymori's trying to do. It also, of course, didn't hurt that they're now under the luxury tax,

but what's going to happen? How good is this team going to be? They've got a little bit of time to come together and try to make this playoff run. That remains to be seen. But if you have James Hardin playing the way he is, you have Russell Westbrook being efficient as he has been as of late and now you're missing the pick and roll element of Clint Capella

but now you've got shooters all over the place and we know one thing the Rockets love to do that is shoot the basketball so Robert Covington is a good three-point shooter and so now you're going to spread the floor with all the shooters you're going to let James Harden work Russell Westbrook is going to have more space because he's been having more space in these small ball lineets without Clint Capella

it's going to be something to keep an eye on. I'm intrigued to see how it plays out. I overall, I like the trades. I like the deals, especially if they end up getting a center out of the deal or eventually getting somebody in the buyout market. The rest of it remains to be seen. We'll know more tomorrow, 2 o'clock, central time, the trade deadline for the NBA.

Okay, that's going to do it for the Matt Thomas. Actually, let me say something quick before we get out. Ross here, of course. course, and it's a new year. And if you're like the rest of us, you probably have a goal to make this year. Finally, the year, you lose some weight. Let's face it, though. You tell yourself that all the time. I've done it myself, right? I've yo-yoed. I always tell people, I'm a fluctuator. And one of the problems is with losing weight, is keeping it off because a lot of times hormone imbalance is the root of the problem, especially low testosterone. It can cause weight gain. It can cause disruption

of sleep. Loss of sex drive. I hope you all know that that's not cool, not any of that. So that's why I encourage you to call my friends at Cinergenics. It's Houston's leader and men's weight loss and hormone replacement therapy. Cinergenics will create a custom plan specifically for you. It's proven to help men and women lose weight, not only lose it, but keep it off. Don't let another year go by feeling sluggish, overweight, failing to ring the door and ring the bell in the bedroom. Make 2020 one of the best years of your life by calling Cinergenics now at 833 Fix Low T. Or you can go to Cinergenicshealth.com slash weight loss.

Cinergenicshealth.com slash weight loss. Use the promo code Ross and get a free body composition analysis and B12 injection only at Cinergenics, Houston's leader, in men's weight loss, and hormone therapy.

Okay, that's going to do it for the show here on a sports talk 7.90. My name is Rosby Ariel. Thanks to all of you for listening, calling, tweeting, being involved in this show. Thanks to Matt Thomas, of course, being the host for the first two and a half hours of the show.

Now coming up, you will have the A team with Adam Clanton and Adam Wexert. I'll be back with you guys at 6 o'clock here for another edition of the nightcap. So a team right now, nightcap later on, right here on Sports Talk 790. Your home for the 2017 they could never take it away, World Series champion Houston Astros.