The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show : Curb Mentions Deshaun, Mike D'Antoni Show

Episode Date: March 2, 2020

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 3/2/20Everything Went Right This Weekend For Houston Sports (0:00)Curb Your Enthusiasm Mentioned Deshaun Watson (20:19)The Mike D'Antoni Show (41:08)Tony Romo's Agent is The GOAT (1:02:48)

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch Timers is the Matt Thomas Show. H-Town. What's happening at lunchtimmers? Good afternoon to you. It's the Matt Thomas show today from New York City, getting ready for the Rockets and the Knicks tonight right here on Sports Talk 790.

Hardin now has it, working top of the key. Covington's got the high hand he wanted it, Hardin didn't throw it to him. Now he'll drive a whip in the corner to Tucker. PJ for three, no good, rebound! Oh my goodness! Slammed home with authority by Russell Westbrook! Flew through the air and punched it down with the right hand with authority. James Hardin is only 6-2-9-4, 17 for 3.

Russ got found, a big shot! Threw it up and in, fading away from the rim as he was moving right to left to the lane. He hit it in God, foul the game is tied, and Russ can break the tie. Here at the foul line, he's got 40. Hands it back to Brown. Brown works top, and a key turn back by Covington. Nowhere to go.

Steps back, shoot to two. Missed off the front rim, rebound, tip, deflected, ball is loose. Time expires and the Rockets win! No, it's over! The Rockets win! It is over! Shock, clock, off, Rockets win!

11, 110! If you feel like happy and happy Ross, very few times in sports radio in Houston, do we actually have a Monday where everything went right, right? Explain all the fronts. All right. I'll be happy to. Rockets with a huge win in Boston on Saturday. Okay.

The University of Houston Cougars disposed of Cincinnati to improve up four spots. They're the 21st right team of the country. The city is a buzz. It is. No, no. Okay. The roughnecks remain under. defeated with a victory against the Dallas

Renegades. Wow, this list keeps getting sadder and sadder. It does help that the Texans are in the offseason. Yeah, Texans haven't screwed up a draft pick, so that's good. Yeah. And there have been how many games since the report of teams are throwing at

the Astros and how many hit by pitches in the last handful of games? I don't know, like four games or something like that? Is it zero? Yeah, with zero. Oh, wow. So no content for crappy conspiracy theory. Twitter accounts that are making their hay on things that don't even really put two and two together?

I'm telling you, I watch a today show, which first of all is a huge mistake on my part. Why'd you do that? Because it was on and we were getting the kids ready for school. I'm a good morning America kind of guy. I am none of the above. Just kidding. I'm neither. Well, I'm just, and bring on this guy who has zero idea

who any of the Astros are. He's doing this report. Astros are getting booed religiously, and they're getting heckled. And, oh, by the way, teams are throwing at them. Since that report came out, I think, which was Thursday on the Today Show, nobody's been hit since. So, you know what, Today Show? I don't know you're listening because we're here in New York City.

Why don't you stick to going outside Doche and Gabana and having your summer concert acts and telling us who's celebrating their 115th birthday today? Short of that, stay away from sports. Is that what Good Morning? I mean, is that what the Today Show is? Basically, right? I mean, every day they tell you who's celebrating 100 years, which is awesome because I'd like to get to that point. I would say in my life, I've maybe seen six minutes of the Today Show.

And I would normally, you know how I always tell you, Ross, you should be watching this show or you tell me you to watch. In this particular case, I'm going to offer you that that's about six minutes too much. Okay. It is a useless program. And what it makes me feel bad is that if I know they're not talking, if they're talking out of their ass about sports, what else they're talk out of their ass of. Everything, Matt. It's morning television. All right. So the reason we played Farrell this morning, or this afternoon, was because we are a happy sports scene. There's really nothing to bitch about, Ross, which makes it very

difficult to do a three-hour radio show because talk radio was meant for bitching and complaining about things. I think there's plenty to bitch about. Well, I would like to find out what that is, because I, when things are going well, like when the Texans went like seven or eight in a row, nobody calls, nobody cares. The Rockets got a huge win Saturday night in Boston. I mean, it was big. I don't know if it's huge. You're overselling it a bit, in my opinion. Do you think I am?

Okay. It was a delightful matter-of-fact victory. It was a good win. I mean, the way the game played out, especially after the who was a Jalen Brown with a desperation three-pointer descended to overtime. Yeah, I mean, but the Celtics didn't have Kimball Walker, one of their all-star players. But they've still won games without him. I mean, they won at Utah tonight without him. That's true.

And they were on the home floor. I mean, you think the Guard would be worth something. Frankly, I think the Rockets would be in a better, even a better spot to win if Kimball Walker wasn't out there. Because they beat Kemper Walker just a couple weeks ago when he was in the inactive, inactive. So, all right, I say an active player. All right. So needless to say, we have a pull.

of issues to get to on the radio program today. We will talk to our beloved head coach, Mike Dan Tony, coming up in 50 minutes from now. He'll be with us from 1 to 130. Rossi, I decided against my better judgment. I guess, I know I decided against my better judgment to not put the hashtag AskMDA out there. Oh, why not?

Because it usually means about does he put butter and what kind of jam he puts on his toast and what's his thoughts on the coronavirus, yada, yada, yada. I just feel like that was just going to be wasted my timeline. I'm a strawberry jelly over grape jelly guy. Speaking of coronavirus, and clearly it's the number one story next to hating Trump or hating Democrats. I mean, it's really those three kind of just rotate, right? They have run out of masks here in the New York metropolitan area. Most stores are running out.

And the surgeon general and all the physicians around the area are going on all these different TV stations and saying, don't worry about you not having a mask. The mask is not going to save you from the coronavirus. Yes. All that's doing is just creating a shortage for people that actually need them in health care professionals. That is correct. And the reason why... If you're walking out of the street on Times Square, the mask isn't going to help you. That's right. That's exactly right.

So the reason why to bring this up is because one person here in New York City has been quarantined. She came from, I believe, Iran, I think. She was a nurse and she was over there. Yeah, she was in Iran. I don't hold me to it. but somebody from an, she was out of the country, and she contracted it, and she has quarantined here in New York City. So one person, and look, this is obviously a serious thing,

but everybody is now running to local mini-marts and grocery stores, and they're going to the walk-up food stand asking for these masks, and they're all like, we've got no more masks. We don't sell masks, we don't have them, and so it's creating a little bit of a stir here in the NYC. Plus the Rangers lost last night to the Philadelphia Flyers 5 to 3. Those are two main things that are crushing the city of New York today. Are you devastated, Matt, or are you a Rangers guy or Flyers guy?

I am indifferent. I actually went to the game yesterday. Craig Ackerman, as you guys here on 790, is a huge hockey fan. My name is Craig Ackerman. Yeah, that guy? That's the guy. He loves him some hockey. And he's like, Matt, will you please go with me?

I'm like, okay, fine. So we went. And it was really good. New York, Madison Square Garden. I mean, I kind of tease it to being the world's most overrated arena. It's been refurbished, so it's a lot better. And the banners are amazing.

The Billy Joel plays here once a month, and the Nixon championships, and there's so many great events. It is the most famous arena in sports and has been for a long period of time. It was fun to go. I still believe Ross, after watching it, that it's going to be very hard for the city of Houston

to pay NHL prices to see NHL hockey long term. And I know it's going to irritate people that are die-hard NHL fans. It's just ridiculously expensive to come to a hockey game. And I don't know if the economy, and maybe more importantly, Ross, the corporate dollars of Houston is willing to support a team that it's a very, very fine line as to whether or not it would be supported here long term. So I had a fun time.

I think it would be fun if they brought a couple of preseason games to Houston next year, kind of give it a little sample size. I don't know if Tillman's particularly interested in it. I would tell you that my guess is if Timman would like to, if another team would like to move to Houston and he could be the, you know, the landlord for a team, he probably would make that a lot easier. But, you know, again, this is New York. This is one of the original six teams, great arena, great fan base.

But there's a lot of other cities, especially in the South, that really do struggle with hockey. But I was glad I was able to go. Flyers got out to a 3-0 lead and kind of just kind of sullied the building and he went on to win the game by a final score, I think of 5 to 3. A lot to get to today. Mike Dantonies with us at 1 o'clock this afternoon. Ross, what is my favorite television show of all time? That would be The Young and the Restless.

No, that's actually not true, but thank you for trying. The Bold and the Beautiful? Nope. You get one more guess only and one more only. Okay, I have two serious answers. I'm actually not sure. It's either the price is right or it's, you know, that one with the old guy, Red Fox, whatever it's called. Sanford and Son. No. My favorite all-time show is Curb Your Enthusiasm. Oh, is it?

I thought it was Sanford and Son. Or Price is right. At 12.30 today, we're going to play a very, very funny clip that is super sports related and has a Houston tie to it. Hmm. And look, you're saying, well, I didn't see it yet because it was on at 9.30 last night. Well, either, well, I don't want you to turn the radio off, okay? But it's so funny the whole episode, and I'll give you a small glimpse of it. but basically it is an ode to the Houston Texans of all people.

And we'll discuss that coming up at bottom of the hour. And we'll get to a grander point of, has a team been so bad for so long that you thought that life wasn't worth it? And I'm only saying this in a very jovial joking way because that was the essence of yesterday's Kirby enthusiasm. It is the Matt Thomas show here from New York. We take you to 3 o'clock this afternoon. If you'd like to join us, we invite you at 713-212.

5-790 7-13-212-5-790 Yo, this is Bunby and my wife is the biggest fan of the whitest man in America Matt Thomas Matt Troy Reckless, ratchet, and don't give a fuck It is a happy Monday on the Matt Thomas show where nothing has gone wrong.

And Ross, I failed to mention that your Texas Longhorns, knocked off the Texas Tech Red Raiders over the weekend. Yes, they did. On the road, Matthew. Much to the chagrin of my sophomore at Texas Tech University. Yeah, that's a shame. Yeah, it is what it is.

All he knows is that, you know, from Cameron Thomas's in-depth analysis, that Chaka Smart is going to take your team to the tournament as at last four-in and get a new contract at the end of the year. He's not going to get a new contract. What did he say? Well, you never know. Yes, I do. That's ridiculous.

Cameron. It's almost like you don't want to begin a new contract. And tell us next how Lonzo Ball is the next goat, Cameron. Hey, he's actually playing okay in New Orleans. Better than he was as a Laker. But is he a goat? No, because Cameron thinks every player is a goat. That's what I'm saying.

I'm surprised. Did he still have his big baller brand gear? Yeah, I'm stunned that my son has not asked me for a Zion Williamson jersey just yet. Because that's the new thing. Well, he's in college. He's got to pay for his own things. Is he working out there? He's refereeing in the...

wreck leagues and that kind of thing? Oh my gosh. He is his father's son. Well, he was waiting tables in Lubbock and it kind of affected his grade, so I kind of told him to stop doing it. Oh, okay. Why? Because he was partying out.

Hmm, yeah. You can have some good times wearing some tables. Just saying. It's hard to parent from 500 miles away, my friend. Those service industry folks like to party. Yeah, clearly. All right, 713-212-750. 7-1-2-5-790.

Mike Dan Tony to join his in 40 minutes here from New York. We'll visit within for half an hour. And we're going to play a clip for my favorite TV show about just how hard it is to be of a fan of a team that consistently loses. I'll explain more of that coming up at the bottom of the hour.

Right now, let's say hi to some folks. 713-212-5-790. And we'll start with Nancy and Cyprus on 790. Nancy, good afternoon. Hi, Matt. This is Nancy. I have a question or a lack of your opinion. Sure.

Garrett Cole has said at least twice that I've read, and I think once was an interview in the Yankee locker room, that the Astros were clean when he was here. So I do the last of 2018 and 2019, that he saw nothing wrong or illegal. He says, they don't want to hear it, and I can't change their minds, which is true. But my question or opinion I want to know is, if the Yankees are still saying that Al-Tubei, beat them illegally by wearing a buzzer, are they calling Garrett Cole a liar? Not directly, but I would say indirectly they are. If Garrett Cole, let me ask you this, Nancy, if Garrett Cole opened up the clubhouse in spring training, shut the door and locked it and said, hey guys, I'm Gary, I'm your new teammate,

I'm going to win 20 games for you, I'm going to probably win a Cy Young, I'm going to strike a bunch of people out. And oh, by the way, my old team behaved themselves in 2018, 2019. Let me ask you, if you're one of those other players, do you believe what your new teammate says? Or is it just an easier narrative to say he's just defending his old team and I don't believe a word he says? That's the easier narrative. Yeah, it is. But I would like to see the ESPN bottom line ticker that goes 100 times a day say or ask the question,

are the Yankees indirectly calling Garrett Cole a liar? Would you like to see that go across the ticker line? No, I don't pay attention to ESPN's ticker. I like the scores. I don't care about their opinions. But, you know, to each his own. Nancy, thank you for the phone call. I appreciate you listening.

I don't know if Garrett's demeanor would be that way. I don't think Ross, he would walk in that room, shut the door, and say, y'all stop it. I think he probably was question asked, question answered, and my guess is 90% of those players in that clubhouse paid him no attention. I don't think Garrett would stand up and say, hey, here's the real truth. I think it's kind of one of those unspoken conversation pieces

because it would ruin a narrative of the Yankees are still mad that Jose Al-Tubei hit a home run off of A roll as Chapman to win the American League. I think it was a way to send the message to a team without sending a message to the team. Kind of like, hey, this is what happened and I'm going to tell this reporter. And I don't want to say it's like a back channeling or anything like that. It's just more of I don't have to come to you directly and say knock it off. I'm going to say this and this is the way I feel about it. And he even said in those comments, hey, they can have their opinion.

Everyone's open to their opinion. But this is what happened. And I feel like it kind of was a message to the team. Well, it might have been a message. I just don't think it would have changed a lot of minds, is my point. Well, I mean, are they, so then they think he's a liar? That was the question Nancy was bringing up. It's one way or the other.

Either he's telling the truth or he's lying. There's no gray area there. That's right. That's right. So if we were to pull. If you're a judge or whoever, yeah. If we pull the. guys on the clubhouse and said hey do you all hear what garret call said their response would be

yeah garret's our teammate he wouldn't lie to us there's nothing that he would tell us that would be the truth it'd be a bad message to send uh your new teammates that you're covering up your old ones so yeah we should in theory to nancy's call ross we should never hear that word out of the yankees again because garret cole told them they did everything did anything wrong 18 and 19 right but i feel like we're not gonna we're going to we're going to hear more from the yankees by the way, I'm in the media room at Madison Scoregarden in between periods of the game between the Flyers and Rangers yesterday. A guy that's working some concessions or whatever is in the media room and he goes, he sees me wearing a Houston Rocket shirt. And he goes, oh man, those Astros are going to get it when they come here.

Those Yankee fans are going to be ruthless. And I'm like, okay, I accept that. But does anybody know here in New York when the Astros and Yankees play each other here in New York? Ross, it's the last week of the regular season. Yeah. Do you really think that these grumpy-ass Yankee fans are going to hold this vendetta for 155 games? Probably, actually. Actually, you know, I stand Greg, they're going to, for sure.

But it's going to, if the Astros are up by 12 games in American League West or the Yankees are in fourth place, the American League East, which probably isn't going to happen. I mean, they're the big dog favorite to win the American League East. Then it probably isn't going to have as much steam if the series per se was. not, you know, maybe in the month of May or June where you could really sink your teeth into it. But it's the final week of the regular season. Yeah, I think, I mean, obviously the fervor in the, it's just going to be a little bit different than it would be if it were obviously the first week of the season. So it will definitely have calmed down a little bit.

There's still going to be people getting mad and booing and all that type of stuff. It'll be interesting, especially if Garrett Cole pitches in that series. And he will. I mean, you know, he may be fighting for our Cy Young Award. I mean, my guess is he's got serious I need a Siong Award. I deserved it. I just ran into a guy that was on my own team that was just maybe a wee bit better, although maybe my month of September was better than his. He's also got a hellacious contract.

He's got to be playing four-two. I don't know Garrett Cole at all, but I don't, he doesn't come across to me as a pitcher that's now going to mail in the rest of his career because he's got this ridiculous of a contract. I don't think so either. He's a competitor. And yes, he will be going for his Siam Award over Jose Orkidie. It'll be interesting.

It'll be interesting last weekend battle. Excuse me? What did you say? He'll be battling it out for the Siong. Him and Jose Yerkeetie? Yeah, why not? I mean, I like your statement. Why not?

But if you were to put the favorite, if you were to put the starting rotation out there in terms of Sion favorites, what do you got? Justin Verlander at maybe two to one, Ross, right? Okay. Lance McCuller's off the board. He's never going to pitch more

in about five innings a game, so that doesn't even count. Who else would be? Oh, Zach Granky probably at about a 15 to 1, maybe 17 to 1, 20 to 1 somewhere in that range. Okay. I'd put Jose Orkidi at probably, I don't know, 55,000 to 1? 55,000? I'll put a dollar on that.

Will you really? Yeah, I'll put a buck. I'll put down a shekel on that one. That's what they say here in New York, shekels. All right, when this program returns, when a sports team is so bad, it becomes a Genesis of an episode of my all-time favorite television show. From first pitch, getting set for the first pitch, to final out. And that is the ball game.

Your Astros play exclusively on Sports Talk 790. Flagship station of your Houston Astros. Time is 1231 and is a Matt Thomas show by Dan Tony with us in one half hour here from New York. Rockets and Knicks tonight. We'll have it for you. Sports Talk 790. The Rockets launch pad begins at 5. Network pregame at 5.30.

And I'll have a call from Madison Square Garden at 6 o'clock. Ross, curb is my all-time funny favorite TV show. If you like Seinfeld, which I mean, a lot of people do, but that's even a little bit dating some folks, although the repeats are still going on, just like friends. Curb is funnier, raunchier,

and just my cup of tea when it comes to humor. And so yesterday at 9.30, Central Time, 1030 in the east, I made sure I was in front of my television to watch the latest episode. And Larry David, who is the star and creator of this show, in this episode, Ross, has a foursome of golf buddies where they go play golf and they go have something to eat after. and one of the people in the foursome finds out through his phone that Levyon Bell is a New York jet or gets hurt or something.

I forgot exactly what it was, but he was very upset about what the Jets did with Levyon Bell. And apparently his hatred for the Jets, and here comes the spoiler part. So if you have not seen the show from last night, I'm going to give you about three seconds to turn the radio off just for a second. 1,000, 1002, 1003. So Ross, this fan, this buddy of Larry's, who's a diehard Jets fan, is just devastated that Jets have made another mistake.

Well, turns out he winds up killing himself in the episode. It's obviously not real. He commits suicide, and a large part of the reason why is the New York Jets have given him so much grief in his life. So here is the little bit of the scene where Larry David goes to the funeral and goes to The widower of the guy in Larry's forcing who killed him. There'd be a widow, not widower. Widow, excuse me, I'm sorry. The widow of the guy of Larry's buddy, who's a golf buddy,

and here's a clip that does have a Houston Texan connection to it. Hi, Mary. Hi. Thank you so much for coming. Of course, of course. I'm so sorry. Carl will be so happy to see somebody else friends, especially his golf friends here. Yeah, yeah.

I'm so thrown by this. I really am. I just... You were all playing golf together, right? Yeah. Did he seem different to you? Yeah. Was he agitated about anything?

Yeah, I was very upset about the Jets. You're being Jets. Yeah, I know. He loved them so much, and all they did was disappoint. No, no, we all do. We all do, and that's what happens. But to take it to this level, I mean, it's just... Jets ruined our marriage. I couldn't stand to be around him.

Everything was about the Jets. We had to paint a room green. One night he just woke up and yelled Watson. What is that? Is it a Sherlock Holmes reference? No, I think that's a reference to Deshawn Watson, who the Jets passed on drafting in 2017. That's what I think that is.

So Carl is just another loss on their record. I don't think it's the first person they've done that to. No. Imagine my surprise, Ross, when I heard Deshawn Watson's name brought up in the middle of a Kirby enthusiasm episode. That's pretty funny. There's so many leather layers of the show that are just as funny. I just don't want to give away everything.

By the way, I just saw your poll question. Okay. Explain what your poll question is. You can find it at SportsRV on Twitter, where I am 445 away from 10,000. Why did you raise your voice when you said that? I was doing the math on the fly. Is that right? That's, yeah.

Okay. I'll do the same thing with me. I'm at 24-936, which puts me at 64, $25,000? Something like that, yeah. Anyways, yeah, so I put a poll. It just says, curb your enthusiasm. And there are four options. Love it.

Like it. Don't like it. Never watched. Clearly, our friends at HBO are not going to be happy to know the people that follow you on Twitter do not pay for such service. Well, maybe they pay for it. They just don't watch Curb. Okay.

How long do you let this poll question go for? It's going for a day. I usually, that's my default. Is it? Okay. So right now, 61% have never watched it. Yeah, it's a very small sample of 31 people. Well, you should be, I mean, most people who have watched it either like it or love it.

So you got that going for you. That's true. That's true. I'm in the very small. I mean, like I said, I've watched it. It's hard for me to get into. It's just too over the top. It's sloppy.

I don't know. Oh, that's my life, Ross. Over the top and sloppy. Because I respect that they, like, they don't write a script, right? They improv most of it, which is cool. Well, they do is what they do is, and they call it an arc where they say, we want to get to the end. They know point A and point B, but they don't know what's going to exactly happen or what's going to happen in between, which is cool. And I like shows like that, but I feel like they just kind of let it go a little too much.

And it's a little over the top. Oh, it's just profoundly funny. Very few times have I ever disappointed with that show. So while I played the clip and you have to watch the whole episode because there's a lot of other layers to it besides just that part. And I don't want to give it away. but it made me think how do I put this delicately because it is just a situation comedy

are there people in this world that have Houston teams like that where they just not saying suicide obviously this is just a joke but I mean that is so passionate that it interrupts their workday that it interrupts their family life I don't have anybody in my life that's like that

where everything I mean the closest thing Ross to someone and you're going to get mad at me for saying this but you are as diehard of Texas football fan as I know and I don't know a lot of Texas football fans so my sample size is very small but you live and breathe

everything Texas football you put yourself in a position we have to be somewhere going to be on appearance You want to make sure the game is DVR, and I have tremendous appreciation for that. I wonder if traveling Texan fan is like that. But see, Ross, I think it's just the opposite. I think traveling Texan fan, while if the Texans win, it's a wonderful thing.

But they're not going to interrupt their trip to Kansas City or Jacksonville if they lose. Yeah, Texas losing to like Iowa State or something will probably ruin my weekend. I mean, we had you ruined furniture in a Las Vegas hotel. That's not true. That's such an overblown story. No, let me stay with it. Oh, my gosh. Ross destroyed furniture in a Las Vegas hotel and then went downstairs and was propositioned by a hooker. None of that is true. All I did was I firmly slammed my hand onto a nightstand after they gave up either, was it an onside kick or it was something stupid.

It was like a third in 15 or something. And I just gave a little, just one of those. See, one time. If you've never slammed your hand on a table watching your sports, I just don't think you're a sports fan. And that's why you're a part of the brotherhood, my friend. I want that kind of passion. I just, it was just so crazy that the episode yesterday was talking about this guy. Yeah, that's a little over the top.

A little much, as he says when he's talking to his wife. Well, it seems a little excessive. Okay. She also had something, too. And I'm just going to say what she had. and then it'll make you really, really want to watch the show. Rossi,

this character's wife had a magical V. What? Yes. All right. This show just took a turn. Well, it's what the episode was. That's it.

It was also about ugly sections and restaurants. That's another... Should I give this away, too? Just talk about the whole episode, guys. No, I... Break the whole thing down. No. Even though like 60% of people have never watched a show.

That's what I'm going to say. I've done. I just thought the funniest part was Deshaun Watson getting mentioned during the show. We're screaming Watsonville night. Let's say how to some folks. Let's go to Kevin in Pearland at 1240 on the Matt Thomas show. Hi, Kevin. Hi, Matt.

Curb is also my favorite show, and we're both U.H. Cougar. So, way to go, Maddie. I thought you were going to bring up the Black Swan episode, but it realized it was a new season, so I had to turn you off for a second because I understand it. But hey, what do you think Larry would say? I know this is not anything goes Monday, but what would Larry say about these NBA players

wearing different colored sneakers, oftentimes the color of the opponent? I'm just, I might just get off my yard guy or what. And I know this is more of a Salisbury steak kind of a thing, but favorite. movie is full metal jacket followed by a close second catty shack thank you

love you Kevin thank you we're not doing favorite movies on the show today Ross we're just not um are you I don't pay attention to sneakers at all do you not really I noticed that uh did the PJ Tucker

I think it was for the Celtics game he had some weird snake skin looking uh Jordan 11s and I did I actually was actively trying to figure out what was going on with those there was some kind of limited Drake release or something like that. But as you know, Matt, P.J. Tucker is the NBA sneaker king. He is. Can I just tell you, do you all look at social media and with the Rockets Wear when they come in the arena?

Well, yeah, I do see that. Russell Westbrook looked like he was shopping at the, at the, at the Goodwill downtown. Damari Carroll, we got to the hotel yesterday, early morning. This is 2 o'clock in the morning. We're waiting for our bags. He was wearing leopard tights. I wanted to take a picture of them, but we don't know each other that well yet.

I don't want to me like, what the hell you do and take a picture of my tights? You see, hey, what's up, D.C.? Why don't you get to know him, Matt? You know what? I will try to because if he's a fashion needs to two, like the rest of the rockets are, I'm just going to tell you this, in all honesty,

and it really doesn't need to be repeated. I'm a 47-suited to be 48-year-old white man. I can't pull off any of the clothes of the rocket. it's where. Not a single thing. Well, the problem is they're not pulling off most of it either. Well, I'm not going to tell them that. But you've seen, I mean, you all see the videos

when they come in the arena. They wear that. They really do wear that stuff. And I'm like, who makes that? What's the color combination? And the most important thing I think about is, could I pull it off? And every single time I see somebody, PJ, Russ,

James, now Damari Carroll, I think to myself, Could I pull that off? And Ross, every single time the answer is no. I'm usually in blue jeans and a striped shirt. That's what I can pull on. It's a go-to. It is the go-to.

Mike Dan Tony, classy dresser. He doesn't wear that kind of stuff. He's collared shirt slags. Oh, wow. I went to the Rockets. I found it. The Navarie Carroll? Yes.

Put it up on Twitter. I'm retweeting it at Sports RV right now. What do you think about those pants right? What do you think? I think I wouldn't purchase them or wear. And he's got a, like, a lot of, leopard man bag to match. Yep.

Hold on. Hold on. Okay. He's got the leopard tights, the leopard man bag, some kind of fur coat, and some hazmat looking shoes, and adult inkabana

t-shirt. I'm going to retweet your tweet and say, could I pull this off? And we'll see what people have to say. Our time is 1243. It is a Matt Thomas show. I wish I was a fascinista. I'm just not.

I can tell you that Mike Dantone, not a fashion, but a heck of a good basketball coach. We'll join us in 15 minutes here on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. This is Craig Vigio. Vigio. Back to Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790.

Oh, we're having some fun. You're home with the Stroes. Astros have a day off in spring, and back at it tomorrow. Rockets busy tonight here in New York City against the Knicks. You know the Rockets, Ross, have beaten the New York Knickabockers. Let's take a look here. Six straight times or something like that? No, it's eight-game winning streak going into tonight.

Oh, maybe it's six at MSG or something like that? Nine straight in MSG. Okay, whatever. Turn it upside down. Yeah, that's what it is. They're looking for their 13th sweep. That's two games per year in the last 15 seasons. Wow.

That's a great stat, Matt. you know, what a grudge match this series has been because the Knicks have just been such a great uprational on franchise for the last decade or so. Are you a believer that the NBA needs a handful of teams to be always at least competitive? Clearly, the NBA thrives with the Knicks

sucky. I mean, they've been that way. There's your answer then. But I mean, it's more fun than the Lakers are good again, right? Not for us, but I'm sure for the NRARAC. No, I've got Laker fan friends. I want the Lakers to suck. Okay. But I wonder, and it's just me thinking aloud,

that, you know, the NBA is really getting crushed on television ratings this year. Way, way, way down. Part of that is because this city in which I'm staying in right now is largely tuning out. I mean, Brooklyn doesn't carry the city. It's the Knicks. This is a New York City. It's Madden.

It's Madison Square Garden. It's Midtown Manhattan, yada, yada, yada. I mean, if the Knicks were a lot better with that peak, this is the biggest meaty market. I don't know what the ratings are for their Knicks and Net. Nets games are, but I can't imagine they're very good. So they're down 14% from last year? Yeah.

I'm just looking. We were talking about this at dinner last night. Let's go over part of the reasons. Well, they're up on NBA TV. And they're up on the Rockets, but down overall 14%. Okay. Where are they relative to two years ago or three years ago or four years ago? I just know the thing.

It's because, yeah, I mean, these ratings things, I mean, I heard about how the NBA was dying a couple of, I mean, the NFL was dying with the ratings. I mean, these things fluctuate. Yeah. But I wonder if it's court cutting. But if you're still an NBA fan, you're buying the league pass off of the internet and whatnot. I know the YouTube TV has pulled off all the regional net channels, so there's a lot harder for the YouTubers to go find the games. You obviously can't count illegal streams because they're not counted legally.

I don't know. Here's the thing. Ultimately, the people that should be worried, Ross, that the ratings are down on the NBA is not you and me, but it's the NBA and it's players. Because guess what? When they renegotiate television contracts, they're going to take these ratings and these numbers in front of them and say,

we're not going to give you this crazy amount of money to broadcast your games if our ratings continue to decline like I had the last couple of years. It's because of James Harden. He's ruining the NBA. Oh, I don't think so. I think Russell Westbrook's helping the NBA, right? I'm just kidding, man. All right.

A little trivia time for you. Uh-oh. and you're never going to get this. So at least I'm going to just throw it out. Oh, I'm never going to get it? That sucks. They have had 30 consecutive games, Hardin and Westbrook have, where they have scored at least 20 points together in the same game.

That is the longest streak since what other duo? Oh, man, that's a great question. Oscar Robertson and Lou Alcender. Actually, that's not the correct answer, but you're in the right frame of mind. Okay. Will Chamberlain, Jerry West. You got a half of it. Elgin Baylor and Jerry West in 1961 and 62.

Oh, cool. So it should really show you how prolific this tandem is right now. 30 straight games of 20 or more points. And today, because you know when you're in the hotel, you don't have as many options to watch television and you're doing, you don't have the honey-dos like you do when you're taking the kids of school and whatnot. I don't have honey-dews. Well, consider yourself blessed.

I do. So I'm watching. a lot of the different morning shows in ESPN, flip it around a little bit. There is this narrative going out there that this is becoming more of Russ's team than it is a James' team. I don't necessarily agree with that.

But I will tell you that Russell Westbrook got a lot of kudos for his performance Saturday against the Celtics when James in the second half could not hit the broadside of a bar. What does that even mean? This is James' team. This is Russ's team.

They're teammates. Yeah. Why does it always have? to be like that? It's not, it's, it's, it's, everybody does that. Everybody does that. I know they do that, but what, I mean, do you think they're doing that in locker room? Do you think, do you think they're sitting around in PJ and James and Russ are talking about,

hey, whose team is this right now? You think they're talking about that? They're not talking about that specifically. But what they are talking about, maybe in the locker room or maybe when they're having dinner with, you know, if a team breaks up, you know, you don't have to go dinner with 15 people, you have dinner with one or two your teammates. they might be thinking fourth quarter

game is on the line who do I want to take the shot and the way Russ has played really since about what mid December he's been the clutch guy more so than James not saying that James has been clutch

but Russ is finishing in the month of February Ross he shot 55% from the floor averaging 33 points a game that's a lot of shots and a lot of fluidity and a lot of, you know what, not taking three-point shots

and a lot of getting to the rim. And the follow-up donkey had yesterday on Saturday's game was amazing. The ability to finish at the rim with these layups and this burst of speed he's got going. It's probably what Oklahoma City fan ran into

when he won the MVP. Now, he's not going to win the MVP this year. I think Yannis and LeBron are kind of fighting for it, one, two. But he's playing exceptionally well. And yeah, his three-point percentage sucks right now at 25%. But it's been that way because he's just not taking three-point shots anymore. He took two in the Boston game, in one of them.

That percentage is never going to improve between now and the end of the year. And frankly, he probably doesn't care about it because he's only taken about one or two three-point shots per game anyway. So you're not going to rapidly become all of a sudden a better three-point shooter than what that number says. But he's shooting 47% from the floor, which means he's attacking the basket, and he's doing exactly what he has been able to do to a little. opponents for a better part of 10 years, and that is take the basketball at midcourt and just sprint down and beat guys off the dribble and make life miserable. And I thought he was fantastic on the Saturday, with the exception of those free throws that he missed towards the end that wound up

giving Boston a second life. Yeah, he's amazing, and he's on an amazing run. He's been their best player the last couple of months. And I mean, he's probably going to be, well, we'll see. He might be Western Conference player of the month for February. He's been that good. Yeah, I don't know. I, I mean, the rookie the month's going to go to Zion. But Russ has been the best player in February. He really has. Again, he won't win the MVP, but he might be top five when the dust settles because of what he's been able to do really after about the first quarter pole of the season.

Let's get Mike Dantone's thoughts on the win against Boston and all things on the Houston Rockets. He will join us next here on the Matt Thomas Show. 713212-7579. If you want to join our conversation, if you want to send me a tweet with a question for Coach Dan Tony, you can do that as well. SportsMT. The latest on your Rockets. Can you assess the general culture in that locker room right now?

Coming from the mouth of Coach Dan Tony. We can get it done. If we have a chance to win the championship, this will be here. Brought to you by Billiard Factory and Wingstop. Mike Dan Tony with us on Sports Talk 790. Home of your Rockets. Here in New York City tonight where the Rockets will take on the New York Knicks. We'll have it for you right here on Sports Talk 790, beginning at 6 o'clock.

Our coverage begins officially. at 5. Tip just past 6 o'clock. Mike Dan Tony looking to get his squad to pick up at their seventh win in a row. First of all, coach, good afternoon. Congratulations on the win against Boston. Had to go extra five minutes, but it was certainly worth it. As your squad held the Celtic scoreless for almost three minutes in the end of overtime?

Yeah, we're playing pretty well right now. And we, you know, had a bad little bit of bad luck, a little bit of a miss a summit. But not bad. I think, like, you know, Coach, you've gotten some really nice wins on the road this year. Boston, Toronto, the Lakers, the Clippers. This is a team, and obviously there's going to be a few bad losses that makes, too. But this is a squad that hasn't necessarily been afraid to go in some of the noisier venues across the NBA. And I'll tell you what, when that three-point shot went down from Brown, it's in an overtime.

He kind of felt like the air was let out of the balloon. And your guys rallying were able to get the victory. Yeah, we, you know, it just kept working at it. and it had been awful if we lost them, just because we know we played well enough to win. We didn't play great. First quarter was bad, but after that, defense second half really picked up. And a lot of good stuff is going to keep getting better at it. And we're not afraid to go into different venues and play.

I thought we have veterans that aren't affected by that. So, you know, pretty good. So first we're good. Yeah, down 17 to the contest. And I don't know if there are stats to back this up, but maybe 20 years ago, 17-point leads were almost impossible to overcome. It feels like today, coach, that 17 points, while, again, it's not fun to fall behind that much, can be picked up and taken care of, and one good quarter can fix all that.

Do you feel that same sense that, especially with the way the teams are shooting three-ball, like your squad is, that no lead rally in the NBA is safe anymore? Yeah, I mean, that's the case. You know, it's a, I think there is a stat out there, that people with over 10 points or 15 points lead, fit to the chance you win, even if you have a leader, if you're a high of 15 points or so.

So it's not a determining factor. And, you know, obviously the three-point shot, teams have played a little faster now than they were in the last 10 years. And bet together, better offensive players, easier to get on runs, you know, 15 points, not what it used to be. I'm assuming that you don't have to because these are a grown man that whether you're up 15 or down 15 early in the contest, you're not spending a whole lot of time saying,

all right, guys, don't give up this lead. I mean, it's just the natural flow of the basketball game where there's going to be a certain set of runs. So it's not a big deal even the second quarter to be up or down by that margin. Would that be fair to say? Well, it would be up. Sure. It's a big deal when you're down 17-year-old, perhaps.

You know, but it's what it is. You know, you don't want to quit. And you have a good team, and culture's good. their energy is good, then they won't quit. You know, but a lot of things go into it. You could be tired. You could be back-to-back. It could be missing a guy or two.

You know, then you get beat. But you just keep playing the game. You just keep playing and try to do what's well. Usually if they're hot and they go up 17, then they're going to cool off to the other end of it. If you keep plugging away, you'll get it back to, get them in the striking range anyway. I brought this note to the audience earlier. that Westbrook and Hardin are on a streak of 20 plus point games and 30 consecutive games together.

The last combo to do it for that long is Elgin Banner and Jerry West back in the early 1960s. When you hear those guys in that same conversation, are you amazed even as you see every single night that these guys have been able to be as prolific offensively as two have been this way for a better part of a half season now? Well, I mean, it doesn't amaze me. They're both individually incredible offensive players. And, you know, it's a great stat.

I mean, obviously, Baylor and West were unbelievable players. And kind of strange it hadn't happened before or after. But these two guys are highly, we just try to do everything we can to maximize what they do offensively. And give it to them to that they bring it every night. So it's great to have them on our team, that's for sure. visiting with Coach Mike Dantone here on Sports Talk 790, presented to you by the billiard factory and by Wingstop. Russ's follow-up dunks, alley-oops.

I also mentioned this to the audience a little while ago, coach, when he was winning his MVP year, we didn't see him every night because obviously we're worrying about our squad. But I feel like if we were to take what we're seeing in the last two months, these are the types of games he was having when he was winning his MVP award. He is in a different stratosphere right now for himself. Yeah, I'm sure it was, and a lot of similar areas. I mean, the guy isn't going to be a big guy.

But the thing that I'm most happy with or the thing that gives us a real shot of going deep in the playoffs is that he's very efficient. You know, he's doing on a really good field goal to say. That was the whole idea behind everything we're trying to do. And he's finishing off with some great performance. That he has. In fact, he's got 20 plus points and a Kerr-high 30 straight.

games. This month he's averaging 33 points a game. He's shooting 55%. Let me ask you about, and look, his three point percentage hasn't been good this year, but he's just taking a lot fewer of them this time of the year than he was maybe earlier in the year. Do you even sense at

times, even when he's open, he's thinking twice about whether or not to take that shot that he's trying to find him, maybe something in the lane, maybe a little more of a higher percentage shot? And do you sometimes ask him to go ahead and don't be afraid to knock that three down or at least try it if there is somebody, if there's nobody around him.

No, we don't have that. We don't have that conversation. He's smart. You know, if he can get to the rim, he's going to get to the room. That's his best shot. You know, me, my brother's just having a mid-range shot. I'd rather take a three-point shot, but he's better as a two-point shot.

If that's what he feels, that's what he should do. We just let him be Russell Westmore. That's good enough. It's good enough to be an MVP. If we can get his numbers like he was that year and get him to keep being efficient, and we got the best version of him, and it's a pretty good version. All right, some other guys I want to talk about.

Tucker and Covington combined for six block shots. Everyone in America that watches one minute of NBA basketballs, like how are the Rockets going to defend the interior? How are they going to rim protect? Covington is right place, right time. James will get his fair share of blocks. PJ got him. I mean, you have to be beyond satisfied with what has happened

with the number of block shots and just altered shots for a team that doesn't have, you know, a rotation guy taller than 6'9? Yeah, I mean, for sure. I mean, what company has given us, you know, this small version of what we'd be doing and wouldn't work without him. He's really the guys that have made him work just because of his able to block shots, able to guard the rim, able to switch out on the little guys. and he brings a lot in him big shots and spread the floors.

There's a lot of stuff. But probably the better question, everybody should be asking, how is the other team going to defend the rail when they have nobody there? So, I mean, yeah, we can ask about how we're going to do it. I don't hear anybody else asking how the other teams are going to do it. So it's, you know, a little bit of a cat and mouth. I mean, whoever can impose the will, who gets to the rim the best.

We've got two the best of the business. And as soon as there it gets back 100 percent, we'll have three, right, and awesome members maybe four, that do it the best. And they got problems. Now, if we can, you know, with Robert, we've been defending the rim pretty good. So, you know, it's definitely a win-win situation. No question about that. And I think the national folks did a pretty good job on Saturday showing some spacing of your team.

Explain it to the audience if you can about what, if you're on the other side of this, Mike. How do you defend a rocket team? not that you're going to give away a lot of company secrets here, but it is quite a challenge because if you bring the centers out, that means you've got an open protection. And I guess that's what you're asking for. Case in point, Rudy Gobert trying to guard Russell Westbrook. Russ is going to win that battle, what, 95 times out of 100?

Well, that's how you win. That's how you've defended. You just hope that we don't play very well, because if we play well, you're not defending it. And you're going to say for other people that are almost impossible to stand front of. you have to help on James, but not leave the shooters. I mean, just questions go on and on and on. Like I said, if we, you know, we don't fall into just too much 101 or too much,

not quick enough, not pushing the pace, then we'll have a good chance to get beaten. They'll catch us and pound us. But if we do what we're supposed to do and play pretty well, then we've got to make shots and you've got to move the ball and all that. But we do that, then I think we're good or better than anybody. You have held your own in rebounding. There have been some nights where the numbers aren't great, but I think it's one of those overblown stats.

But I thought PJ's fourth quarter offensive rebounds against the Celtics was a huge part of the victory. In describing his play, first of all, his tenacity is amazing. He doesn't show any quit. What else about it makes him such a good offensive rebounder? Just goes after it. He's strong. He's got a pretty good nose for the ball.

He just puts that extra effort in to go get it. And then it helps that. There's nobody really around the realm to beat him to it. He's in the corner. The big is probably on the perimeter somewhere. So with his determination, he goes against him. And definitely the game on Saturday night, we won because PJ got those extra rebounds, but also Russell Westberg had a putback.

Daniel House had a big putback. Other guys are also chiming. end. So, you know, there's no reason once we should put them out. It's a foot race. It's a heart race. And why can't we have it better than that? It's not a fork or bigger or taller because ball's going to be below the rim and everybody's going to have a chance to go get us and see if we can. We should be able to do that. With this new group, it feels like to me, and you and I talked about this a little bit on Saturday, that PJ's minutes are being reduced ever so slightly. Are you seeing a tangible benefit of that?

Yeah, I mean, he'll be down probably, you know, low 30s. That's where we like to keep him. He's incredibly durable. But, yeah, we want to get him down to there. I think it's better for him. And, you know, that's where Jeff Green comes in. He's another piece that we've added that makes all this work. He's extremely rangy and can hit threes.

And I think he'll just keep getting better. All right, another segment with Coach Dantone, coming up in a matter of moments here from New York. as the Rockets take out the New York. Nickabockers. Rockets. It's good! Rockets head coach, Mike Dantone,

is heard weekly on the Matt Thomas show. Coach, how goes it? Let's do it. Exclusive insight. That's the biggest takeaway from last night's game. The latest on your Rockets. Can you assess the general culture in that locker room right now? Coming from the mouth of Coach Dan Tony.

We can get it done. If we have a chance to win the championship, this will be here. Brought to you by Billiard Factory and Wingstop. Mike Dan Tony with us on Sports Talk 790. Home of your Rockets. Time is 116. Coach is with us here from New York City, as am I. We'll have the Rockets and the Knicks for you here on 790. Mike, you were able to get back Eric Gordon after missing some time against Boston.

You could clearly tell him there was some rust on him. What is his prognosis? Do you have to watch a game-to-game to see how the knee and leg are feeling? Or where is he right now? No, I mean, he should be 100%. He's not, you know, games. ready yet but I thought second half is a lot of the first half and we'll just keep playing and hopefully you know round into shape your free zone. You've got yourself a very intriguing rotation.

You've got McLemore. Jeff Green is getting some playing time for you. Austin's doing some things for you off the bench. Right now it looks like a solid of nine. That's kind of where most teams are. Are you comfortable with that number right at this point? Yeah, I think so. I think nine is a good number. You know, James and Russell are going to play big men. And so you can't really fit. It's hard to fit 10 in there. But now everybody seems to, you know, be able to get minutes. And he's going to take up some more minutes as he gets into better shape.

So, yeah, I don't think we'll go past nine very much. You know, obviously, Russ resting on back-to-backs. Is there anything that your medical staff has told you and said, yeah, this is definitely making a difference? Or is this more about, you know what, he'll have more gas in the tank come playoff time? and that these nights off on back-to-back. There's only going to be, I think, two left the rest of the way. We'll obviously pay some dividends later in the season, or at least hopefully will. Well, I guess that's the hope.

There's no medical evidence one way or the other. But, you know, it's better for them. That's what they decided to do at the first year, and I'm sure we'll stick with it. Jeff Green. I know Demari hasn't played a whole lot, but you've been able to give Jeff some time here and there. Well-traveled around the NBA, well-respected. Clearly, I got some applause from his time in Boston during the their championship, Brian.

What does it like to have him on your squad right now? He's good. And I think he fits what we need perfectly. And, you know, for his career, probably came in as a three, he played some four. But for us, yeah, I think in probably his best position, he's a five. But he just, you know, you couldn't order a better player for what we need.

If he's characteristic of wise, and that's long. And two, three, smart, better. So, yeah, he fits perfectly. You know, there was some talk on TV this morning about, will other teams eventually go to this? And I think they were bringing up the example of Zion Williamson. What will Zion be at the end of the day? And, you know, you and I have talked about maybe this is a team that doesn't have positions per se.

And look, everyone's going to watch us based on what this team does come postseason-wise. But in your rocking chair, when your career is all said done as a head coach, do you think you'll see more and more teams adapt this style, or it just happens to be a case where, If you had a dominant seven-foot center, you're going to use it to your ability. Do you think the trend will be more of what you're trying to put together right now here in 2020? You know, I think it just depends on the makeup of the team. I'm the general managers might try to get players to have that makeup.

If they do, then they can. But, you know, like I said before, we're a strange team. We have guards that can guard the posts really well. That's it, Eric and James and Russell come from him with his athleticism. so you have that going on. Then we have, you know, all our ranging guys in the guard, point guard. So there's really, you know, if you got a small guard, can't do it. If you've got a big center that's good, but can't guard guards, you can't do it.

So it depends on the personnel, and it's always been there. But most intermarriages will get a team fit in a traditional mold. We don't have a traditional mold. So I'm glad we went to it. And, you know, and you're right, I mean, people will say, I said, I told you it wouldn't work. But it might not, but this is our best way to make it work. And for sure, the other way wouldn't go to work.

You know, you can't, you know, if somebody's got a more dominating center or more dominating the way they play and you try to play the way they play, well, most of them you're not going to beat them. And probably the model is going to be more like Milwaukee, where the center is going to shoot threes and he plays on the perimeter, but he guards this, you know, he stays inside as a center. And that's probably the model that most people will go to. I would think also, too, you've got to get the type of post player or bigger man

that's, you know, the normal three or maybe four and now he's now five to buy into it. It feels like, and not that I don't think Robert, I mean, obviously Robert Covington's going from a team in Minnesota to a team that's in a contention like the Rockets, you probably have to take a lot of time to convince him. But do you have to spend some time with some guys? guys like that, Jeff Green in particular, Covington, to say, you know what, normally you've done this in your career, we're asking you to do this, and how much of a transition was it then in their mindset to go? You know what? I can do this because with me and playing this particular position or this spot on the floor, we're doing pretty well for ourselves.

I mean, you hope so. I don't have to convince them. I thought twice a week when they go pick up a paycheck, that kind of convinces them. That's a good reinforcement. But, you know, in Phoenix, we moved everybody down a spot, and you'd hear the rumblings, you know, because, you know, you know, you always hear some, you know, I can't do that I can. Yeah, you can. And it's easier.

And they find that, then you start winning. Yeah, they want to do it. They know and they'll have better stats. Yeah, they want to do it. So it doesn't really take any convention. They're smarted out. They know that this is the best way to play for us. Yeah.

So it's safe to say you've never put a player on one of your teams in a position not to succeed. You didn't throw somebody out. out there knowing they couldn't do the job because you wanted to approve a point. You always want them to succeed. You can't do that. They're going to prove a point. You'll put it to work if you do that or not.

You know, we'll try things. And then you can see pretty quick what it's going to work or not. And then you hope. You never know for sure. You just try to maximize what you got and see what, you know, play the best we can play. We talked earlier about some impressive roadwinds. Coach, the two victories at Utah this year, not only got you to the fourth spot in the West, and obviously there's more the ladder to climb,

but you got the tiebreaker in that. How big was that victory in particular, especially one of the more difficult road venues in the NBA? Oh, that's going to be huge, maybe, and obviously we time at the end of the year, but getting the wind is huge. You know, we're in a pretty good shape. We've got the game coming up on Thursday.

That's going to be very monumental in one home coin, you know, at the tiebreaker and also another game. But there's still, what we got, 23 more last, something like that. So there's a lot of basketball we play, a lot of ups and downs. But, you know, we definitely get second place.

And not a way as many games we can, but that's our goal. We'll see if we can do it. I thought about the Clippers. I watched some of that game against Philadelphia yesterday. Is it hard to scout them because of the fact that some nights

you got pats out there, some nights you have Kawhi's going, and then you got Paul George missing. Is it a tough scout or do you know that you beat these guys around long enough that when they're on the floor, you know what to fully expect from them? Yeah, I think you know. I mean, you're just watching one game and you know what they're trying to do and run. Whether it's there or not, doesn't really matter.

When they're all out, they're really good. And that'll be a big test for us. The West that we have to contend with. And then, like I said, it's coming up Thursday. So make sure we win and win tonight and then take care of business. What do you take away from this Knicks basketball team? We just saw a couple weeks ago in Houston, you know, really had a great second quarter to kind of pull away. Didn't shoot particularly well from three in that contest.

They're just a young team trying to find identity. And when you move Morris in the trade, it kind of was maybe a situation where they're just, I don't know if they're trying to improve on their draft spot or whatever the case may be. but they've got some scores, but it's just not meshing very well as a team. Well, I mean, they've got a lot of role players, and they don't have that one name that, you know, you actually need to, you know, get to some buckets whatever really counts.

But they hit the offensive boards, and the number one on the offensive boards. I don't have to be a big challenge for us to keep them off the boards. We play hard. We got to play hard. We've got to come out in the mindset. Can't mess with them. And we have to play pretty well.

They're an NBA team that has good potential. and players that are individually players that are good. And, you know, if we let up, don't play well. We can get beat, but we got to do our job. We'll leave it at that tonight. Rockets and Knicks going for another victory. It would be nine consecutive in the series between Houston and New York. Coach, thank you for the time.

Get some rest. And we'll see you later in the arena this afternoon. And thanks for the visit here on the show of this today. Bye, Matt. You got it. That's Mike Dan Tony, head basketball coach of your Houston Rockets with us here on Sports Talk 790. And how about Lance McCullors? Hey, it's Lance McCullors.

Back to Matt Thomas. Curbball swinging a mid-strike three. On Sports Talk 790. Your home for Houston Astros baseball. Lance did make his spring debut yesterday, two-thirds of an inning. So it was good to get him back on the mound. Rossi, it's going to be very slow watching him progress from now to the start of the season. Over under a number of games, he gets into the sixth inning.

I mean, he did that barely when he was healthy. Yeah. I would just say if you're a Lance McCuller's fan, into the sixth inning or through the six, like a three, like six point O IP. 6.0 on the IP. I didn't drew prone. Right.

How many times is that going to happen this year? Honestly, I don't even know. I'll set the over under two and a half. I was going to about to, I literally was about to say two and a half. Yeah, what do you think? Under. over? Regular season.

Yeah. Well, I mean, I guess we can count post season too, but. No, postseason, Matt, he's going a full nine. You know that. Yeah, that's true. Probably not. Because here's the thing. The only way he gets into that six-inning mark and finishes is if his pitch count is low.

I think they're going to watch him like a hawk. Yeah, and he always, I mean, even when he was healthy and at his best, he was a guy who would run up the pitch count because, I mean, he would walk some guys and then he would strike out a lot of guys. Yeah. All right, so we'll do this. The unofficial, very unofficial pitch count or innings over under for Lance McCuller's going six innings or more.

6.0 IP is 2.5. What do you take it? Under? And it's no end up a diamond against him. It's a year removed from Tommy John. Yeah, and they're going to be keeping an eye on him, as they should be. Yeah.

All right. So I never watch Syracuse basketball because that school is just full of obnoxious, no-at-all broadcasters who get a lot of breaks because of their school. It's a good network, Matt, is what you mean? No, it's a, an ESPN executive works at Syracuse or went to Syracuse and he has a pipeline of those people there. So a straight shot. Nothing wrong with that. I mean, you got to respect it. And all the people that are Syracuse that work for the networks are really pretty good at their job.

But it's just. And they all sound the same. same though. They have a decide, well, it's that's at Northeastern Air and that. Exactly. Over-enunciating everything. Good evening here from Fenway Park. I went to Syracuse Broadcasting

School. Damn, that was good. Can you impersonate a University of Houston sports broadcasting graduate? Got any spare change? I'm going to call Nancy right now. Is he going to pick up? He'll pick up. Okay.

It's like, Matt, is there an emergency? Speaking of that, did we talk about Tony Romo yet? Oh, boy. Yeah, what broadcasting school did he go to? Eastern Illinois. He is going to make $17 million a year. Broadcasting, I figured out over the weekend, 22 games. 17 regular season, wild card 18, divisional 19,

AFC Championship 20, two preseason games, or he'll do one preseason game and one in the Super Bowl, depending on CBS has it. 22 games a year, give or take, for $17 million. We'll go to the Syracuse thing in a minute,

but I want to get out of this for a second. Rossi, he is the most most must-go-to guy in sports broadcasting analysts-wise since John Gruden. Yes. Okay. I will watch, I've told you just before, I will watch snippets of a Pact 12 game because Bill Walton's on it because Bill Walton is nuts, but he's are nuts.

He's basketball nuts. He is certifiably insane, but it's great. Yes, and we love very part of that. But as I say that, I will not look at my DVR or look at my sports calendar and go, uh-oh, you say. CLI is playing Arizona State, I got to get home as fast as possible to catch it. If it's on, I'll watch. But he is not an appointment setting. Does CBS realize while Tony Romo is ridiculously good,

we're still watching for the games and not the analyst? Because what they've just spent to keep him, they must obviously think that there is a culture of fans that will watch a Tony Romo broadcast regardless of what game he's doing. and I believe that's just simply not true. No, I'm totally with you. I mean, I guess you can get whatever you're getting paid. Like, I'm not begrudging him or anything, but I'm with you.

I don't know. I mean, if he went to ESPN and Monday Night Football, like, we've been complaining, right? Matt, we've been talking about it. Burger McFarland and people don't like him and Jason Whitten and he was terrible. Does that mean we weren't watching the game as long as the matchup was good? Was it affecting ratings because of whoever is on the number one CBS or ESPN or any? Any of them, Fox? I mean, have you ever just sat down and said, man, I cannot wait to hear the analysis of Troy Aikman during this game?

Right. Absolutely not. The reason why we don't watch Monday night football, it's not because of booger, it's because the game sucks. Yeah, and you know what? The games were better this year, and the ratings went up. Fancy that. Pittsburgh, Cleveland does nothing for me. I don't care if you got Paul McCarney to do the color analyst.

Oh, you'd watch that. Yeah, you would. Okay. Point is this. Would he say, say, say some very important things about the analysis? And he would not be doing any silly love songs. All right. More importantly, it's not about being mad at Tony Romo.

It's about appreciating his agent. His agent is the go? I don't know who it is. Whoever that is. I would like for them to represent me. I'm currently under no representation. I've negotiated every one of my contracts and my entire life on my own. and I'm clearly doing something wrong because Tony Romo is going to make about $950,000 per broadcast of a game

that if you just put people singing in tongue, I would watch if it was a good matchup. Like for instance, Ross, if the Texans and let's say the Chiefs were 9-0 on Monday night football, playing for one team goes in 10 and no, you could put Pam Ward on there and I would watch it. Oh, wow. That's how I know you're serious, Matt. You know what I'm saying? Or there's something called volume control

that you can turn down and you can listen to the radio broadcast of it, if you so choose. I mean, I get it. It does make the game experience. Watching the game is more fun if Tony Romo is on the call. But it's about, you know what it's like, Matt? You think of a wins above replacement.

Like, watch viewers above replacement. Is Tony Romo bringing in a bunch of viewers over a replacement level analysts? See, I'm cynical. I say no. I don't think so either. No, I'm with you. But I don't know. You know what?

We are in that hardcore core, though, right? Right. Where we're watching no matter what. And maybe that's not all of America. Because what you try to do in these things, you're going to get your hardcore audience no matter what. What you're trying to do is get the fringe people, I guess. and maybe I don't know Maybe Eagles Karen is more likely to watch

if Tony Romo's on, I don't know. But they don't need women. I mean, while they would take any audience, they want men between 18 and 54 to watch football games. And does a man who doesn't like football per se or casual, yeah.

Or is super casual at it. Does he go, you're telling me that Tony Romo was doing the color on the Eagles versus the Dolphins game? I'm watching that. And that's Tony freaking Romo. And that's a thing, right? When you see the promo for the game, it'll say if it were Eagles dolphins, it would be, you know, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Carson Wentz on the promo. Nobody's putting Tony Rob.

Like, I don't even know. I mean, I know you pay attention, Matt, because you're a broadcasting aficionado. You're into that thing, which is fine. And I usually, generally, I don't even know who's going to be on the call. on a random CBS game. What I'm just going to say, and we'll wrap it up with this. What was CBS thinking? Because here's the bit.

If ESPN was going to come after him, okay, CBS, I mean, ESPN was going to pay him crazy money, and that would have been bad money spent. I just don't know how they, I mean, and by the way, if you hire the number one guy at $17 million a year, what's Dan Fouts want? What does Trent Green want? They're not going to ask for $10 or $13 million a year, but if you're in a contract here with those guys, you're going to be like, if y'all are spending money,

look who's been in this network for this many years doing this many games. That's why, man, sometimes it's good that you don't know what people make in life because you're going to create... How do you think Jim Nance feels about this? If I had my good friend Jim Nance on the show, Ross, and I said Tony Ramos was making $17 a year to sit next to you, where you do I mean, does a play-by-play guy do as much work

or more work than the color analyst? I would say as much, if not even a tinge more. That probably depends on analysts, analysts. I would say Tony Romo is probably a guy who's breaking down a lot of film just because he loves doing that type of thing. But is somebody, as opposed to some other analysts who's breaking down more film and spending more time looking at the chart and all that type of depth chart and stuff?

I don't know. Probably just as much, I would say. I'm just telling you, and Jim would never say this publicly, but he's like, hey man, I'm on the number one team. Where's my $17 million a year? I just think good for him. He obviously's got terrific name recognition. He's obviously really good at what he does.

But that might be the most whack-ass broadcast contract I've ever seen in my entire life. $17 million a year for 22 games. Now, if he's hosting Good Morning CBS, if he's doing CSI, Dallas, if he's doing, I mean, anything, if he's hosting the price is right,

you can then say, okay, the guy's working all year long. Rossi, he's working about 75 days a year. We count prep in games, maybe 95, 100 days a year. That's it. It's the whack-ass contract of all time in broadcasting.

Except yours, Ross. You're very, very much underpaid. We're still in negotiations my contract. All right. 713212-5-790. Is Tony Romo worth it? Because maybe I'm missing it. Is Tony Romo worth $17 million a year? Is CBS going to get a tangible bump off of paying that guy that much money to do a game

where if you don't care about the Seahawks and the Patriots, you're not going to watch it anyway? On the trail, it's hard. Then it drops it down with a left hand. This is Coach Dan Toning. Matt Thomas is a great guy. And I always listen to the radio show. On mute. What a shot.

Ross, I got no respect from him at all. I mean, you can't listen to a radio show on mute. No, it would really be just sound down, right, all the way? Yeah. I'll take it as an insult, and that's fine. It is the Matt Thomas show. Rossi, there's a narrative in the NBA that would like to see the two losses. Angeles teams compete for the Western Conference Championship in late May.

And some believe the local basketball team is ruining that. We'll discuss that at the top of the hours. We'll be ready for that. All right. So back to Syracuse for a second. Syracuse is playing, I don't know, some ACC team we don't care about. Okay. Front road at the Carrier Dome.

It's Jimmy Fallon. Is he a Syracuse guy? I mean, he's northeast. I don't believe so. Next to him is Julian Edelman. He went to Kent State or something like that, right? Next to him is Tom Brady. Who went to Michigan.

How would you... Is there a word you could describe to put those three guys in the same category? Beyond Uber-rich? They're Boston-ish. I mean, Jimmy Fallon's a Red Sox guy, right? Yeah, I'm assuming he's a Patriot guy, too. but it's odd that they would be there. Okay, so it's odd that they're there one.

But you know what? Maybe there's just a big fan of ACCC college basketball. Who knows? That's their issues. Did you see what they were doing during the game? Edelman and Tom Brady were FaceTiming. By the way, before we're going further than this, FaceTiming is only allowed in my world,

in the privacy of your own home or in your hotel room or whatever. FaceTiming on a bus, FaceTiming in a hospital waiting room, a dentist office, facetimbing on a bus, unacceptable on a train. You wind up screaming at the people because they can't hear you. You can't hear them. The video quality is not great. And you know what?

You know what each other look like. Talk on the phone ear to ear. That's Matt's wisdom of the day. I am very anti-face-timing, period, especially when you're in a public place. So, Ross, they're facetiming each other. Okay. I have no problem with FaceTime, by the way. Oh, I have a major problem with it.

That's not here or no there. What if you, like, if you just want to talk to your kid or something, Matt, you're on the road. Yeah, I got a hotel room. I'll be happy to do it. I face-time my kids all the time. I face-time my wife all the time. Zero problem with it. Oh, then what's the issue?

Doing it in public. I don't see what that's a big deal. Oh, it is a big deal. Well, as long as everybody's keeping their clothes on, I don't see what the big deal is. No, because if you're in an elevator, you're talking to them and your screaming event because you lose a video reception, I don't want to go into this right now. You struck a nerve. I see that. So they're FaceTiming Mike Vrabel, Ross, a next teammate of theirs.

Okay. Which in theory is no problem, right? Right. But there is a problem. He's a head coach of Tennessee Titans. Why is that a problem? not supposed to be talking like that. Frangy Superior doesn't open up yet.

Okay. I guess. What if they're just, you know, shooting the breeze? They probably are. And Mike Vrebel may be saying, come on down here to Nashville. This Tannahill guy, he's all right,

but you'd be better. Now, in all seriousness, though, I do think that it was just buddies hanging out and talking to other on the phone from, you know, in a stadium. See, Mike Vable is Ohio State. Why is this all happening at a Syracuse game?

I don't know. Maybe they want to be around a bunch of, you know, what did you call Syracuse grads? Smarmy A-Holes. Smarmy A-Holes. Maybe they want to be around Smarming A-Holes. Boyping is this. It is interesting that you would have a phone call,

a video voice message or video FaceTime, and people could see you who you're talking to, when you were a free agent trying to figure out where you're going to play football in 2020. So you think that just like the Houston Texans got slapped with tampering charges, now the Titans should. Well, the shoe fits. Do you think that Bill O'Brien and Nick Casario

were FaceTiming each other last year at this time? That would be weird. Yeah, grown-ass mention I'd be FaceTiming each other. Yeah, I'm with you on that one, I guess. FaceTiming is for your wife or your girlfriend or your kids. not grown man to grown man Ross you and I have known to you for 10 years

you and I have never FaceTime once That is correct and we probably We'll never go into it either We're never going to face it Let me just FaceTime me right now No don't do it Don't do not FaceTime me right now I'm trying to do a major market radio show

This is absolutely awful But Matt you're in New York And I'm here in Houston You know what I look like You know what I'm kind of dressed in at this point Well now you're facetaming me This is not accepting No I'm not answering the phone call

Oh, man, Matt's declining my FaceTime. Yeah, I'm not doing it. I'm not allowing another grown male to ever FaceTime me. I don't care what it is. Fine, I canceled it. Now my feelings are hurt. Well, I mean, next time you try to FaceTime me, I'll just show you a picture you'll never forget.

Well, no thanks. Oh. See? See? That makes a lot easier, by the way. One more thing before we get to the national narrative being ruined about the Clippers and Lakers playing for the Western Championship. What was I going to tell you?

Oh, remember we were talking about the leopard pants, the tights that Damari Carroll's wearing? Yes. Somebody did Photoshop it. Oh, who did? My face on it. I will use it as my profile pick if I get to 25,000 followers. Oh, do we know who Photoshopped it? Yes, I do.

It was me. Was it you? Yes. So, Rossi, I need 64 people to get me to 25,000. Wow, 64 people. So follow Ad SportsMT, and you will make this your. For one week to the following Monday. Right, we're going to retweet that bad boy.

Now, once I get, if I fall under 25,000 because you're all a bunch of follow me and then follow me, then I'm the old picture's going back up. Yeah, remember when you used to have a co-host who did the unfollow MT movement? Yeah. And then I had you who at my Twitter party had a bunch of shirts made up that said, I unfollow sports empty. Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. That's funny.

A lot of viciousness out there in these streets. They're all just jealous of your greatness, Matt. I mean, I couldn't have said it better myself. Final hour, the Matt Thomas show, starts up in a matter of moments. 7132-1-2-5-790. And by the way, you will not get my cell number. I'm not going to FaceTime with you. I don't care who you are.

FaceTiming is meant for hotel rooms and your own private home. Not doing it on the L train going from one location in the next. Not doing it an elevator where I've got to hear every word that other person is saying. We don't care about your conversation. We just don't. Two things I want you to say no to in 2020, Ross. FaceTiming in public and the wave. We're halfway there.

Is the Matt Thomas Show. No, 2-1, Sports Talk 7. I'm in the final hour of the Matt Thomas show. Ross, we are 50 minutes away from today's edition of Believe it or not. What is the category? I was just about to start working on James Lipton, if you want to sign off on that, Matt. May he rest in peace, correct?

Yeah, he's dead. Thus, the rest and peace reference. All right, so James Lipton will be today's subject, I believe it or not. I mean, yeah, there's nothing else going on, really, in life or sports unless you want, you know, well, you know what? We could do educate folks on the coronavirus. How scared are you one to ten? One to ten? Two?

Three? Man, you have gone up today. Every one of the questions I've asked you, your voice is gone straight up. I mean, okay, two is probably a little. How about this? Three. I'll put myself down at point to two. Okay.

Because it feels like cruise ships are being heavily worried about. Yeah, but you're flying a lot, Matt, or you're in airports. But I'm in domestic, domestically. I'm not getting to commercial airport. I mean, you know, that is what it is. Still, those things are a little germ incubators. Airplanes. I got a little bit of a scratchy throat, in fact.

Uh-oh. Well, I've been fighting a cold for almost. It's almost two weeks, it feels like. Well, because you and I have been together almost every single minute. Maybe you don't want to give me this cold. Possibly. All right, where are we going with this? Oh, so coronavirus to me is about a two.

I don't travel internationally. I don't go on cruise ships. Yeah, that's about me. How many cases do we have in Houston? Do we have any at all? Last I heard it was zero. Okay. New York is flipping out here.

That's where I am. Yeah, you can't even. get a surgical mask even though it doesn't help you. So that's a crazy thing, is that they're telling, every news station, and there's like 19 news stations here, they're going, they're running to every doctor that's willing to get in front of a microphone. They're saying, what about the lack of mask? And they're like, it's not going to help you. But yet people are running around looking for it like it's the last middle they'll ever have in their entire life. New York is a brilliant cross-section of the

world. It's Uber liberal, Uber conservative, Uber, Uber. eco-friendly Uber the other direction where, you know, big gasy, big cars with big engines and lots of gas. There's vegan food. There's rich food. I mean, it's just, there's 12 million people here in this metropolitan area. I mean, you're going to have a little bit of everything. But that is the one storyline is that people are running the stores, going to get masks, and they're being rejected, and they're all flipping out. And every doctor has been on every local New York station has been saying, do not worry about it.

You cannot get the coronavirus when you're walking. the streets with a lot of mascot. People buy that? Clearly they don't. They don't. All right. 713212. 5.790. We'll start taking some phone calls in a minute. 7132-1-2-5-790. Ross, if you were to name the Western Conference final matchup that people want

to see more than any other, what would it be? Probably L.A. versus L.A. That is exactly right. Stephen A. Smith agrees with you. Here's what he had to say about what our local team is doing to potentially interrupt that. If the Houston Rockets are able to continue this pace, forcing people to go small in an attempt to try to guard them, okay, and they're able to keep up this play.

They can go to the finals. You used to the Rockets could go to the finals, okay? Russell Westbrook is going to be the one to determine that because even if James Hardin is dropping 50, if he's dribbling and dancing and holding on to the ball and doing what he does, That's something that we've seen before and we could predict the Russell Westbrook element, the way he forces you to open up your defense because he forces you, because again, you're really, you on your heels going up against this brother. And just the hard this dude, Russell Westbrook is the most evil basketball player in the game.

He's a killer. He don't care about anything that ain't wearing that uniform. He don't care about anything. I don't give it there as a math guy. I don't think if a little kid is courtside wearing up on this uniform, Russell Westwood don't like him. You don't see what I'm saying. He don't like anybody that ain't on his team until the game is over.

He means it. He is the most evil, volatile competitor in the game today. And I'm saying that as a compliment. Ain't it so it's a compliment. Does he need a cup of water there? Yeah. He's a compliment. Yeah, he was getting not tongue-tie, but it was.

just getting just one syllable after the other just coming out with fire and brimstone. But you know what? He's right. Rust does not like you. Non-rocket fan, non-Rocket NBA player. He has nothing to do with you. He wants nothing to do with you. Yeah, he even got, what was it last week when they were playing the Grizzlies and they're like,

oh, John Morant just talked about how you're underrated and you're one of the best players ever and he really respects your games. He's like, oh, cool. I don't care what anybody has to say? about me. It's like, what, Russ? Come on. He was in, last Saturday, a week ago Saturday, we were in Utah for the, for the Jazz win.

And he's interviewing people, or he's being interviewed by people, and he's eating popcorn drinks. I mean, like, I got a meal to eat. I got a snack. Do not interrupt my snack time. Which made me think,

and my friend Tracy with the Rock has got mad at me, if you beat the Celtics, You eat a lobster roll during the Q&A from the media, correct? Yeah, that'd be good. Did you have one when you're up there, Matt? No, I did not, but I had great Italian food. Is that what they're known for in Boston? It's known for everything.

I had dinner, by the way, with PJ Carlissimo. You know, the former Seton Hall coach, former coach. Yeah, okay. Yeah, the guy that got choked out by Latrell Spreewell. Didn't bring that up. Oh, you didn't? No. Hey, what was it like having Latrell Spreewell's cold steely hands around your throat?

You didn't ask him that? No. No. Just talk basketball. Oh, that's unfortunate. Okay, so if the Rockets... You should have bought some, like, spree candy and then offered him some. Hey, would you want some spree?

You know what? That's why I can't take you on in public. You would... I mean, there's a nice conversation with a great basketball coach, a brilliant basketball mind, and you want to give him spree candies. Just to see how he react. And ask about the chokes on it when he got choked. That's how... That's how I break bread with an ex-NBA and ex-college coach?

No chance. No chance whatsoever. All right. Where are we going with this? Oh, okay, so Russ hate you. If you're not a rocket, he doesn't like you. And I'm glad that Stephen A picked up on it because it's the absolute truth. You know, there are people in life that you give compliments to.

They don't take them well. I don't think Russ is a good compliment taker. And you know what? That's the kind of attitude that's going to surprise everybody and hopefully avoid this. predicted Laker-Clipper NBA Western Conference final. Let's go to the phones and say hello to Mark and Willowbrook. Mark at 210 on the Matt Thomas show. Mark, good afternoon to you.

Good afternoon. I'd say about a 1.5 on the coronavirus? Yeah. Okay. It's ruining the markets because everybody's crazy, but if you're healthy, you'll be okay. Yeah, just don't jump on a boat and go overseas to China. I mean, that's pretty simple. Or Japan.

Yeah, don't panic. Or Korea. Panic to anywhere. I think Gordy's trip to, uh, it ain't going somewhere this week. I canceled because of this. Italy? Italy? Poor kid. How is he not get his LSU baseball updates properly?

Go ahead, Mark. Continue on. Anyway, you're exactly right about the FaceTiming and the people talking on phones and elevators and public restaurants you know it's annoying and uh you know that's why they made phone booths but uh people these days they don't have any manners or as my brother used to say any cooze thank you mark for the phone call i appreciate it look i don't mind you talk on the phone okay what's the difference it's two-way conference it's all i only have to hear one one half of the conversation okay do seriously do this today i want you to call somebody all right okay

And I want you to have a five-minute conversation with them. And you'll be able to hear what they say, and they'll be able to hear what you have to say. Then I want you to hang up the phone, and I want you to call that same person. I want you to have a five-minute FaceTime visit with them. All right. Let me try to FaceTime you again. It's not happening. You're not, I'm telling you, you FaceTime me.

You're going to see things you don't want to see. Oh, geez. You don't have, oh. See? Where are you? I'm in my hotel room. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

No. Back to my point. So the five-minute phone conversation, you get to hear what they say, vice versa. Five minutes on the FaceTime, you only hear about 60% of what they say. They make you yell and scream it because they can't hear you as well. Plus, your two-way conversation involving whatever y'all want to talk about, I don't care. But I got to hear both ends of it. At least on a phone call visit on a bus or an or an elevator, I only have to hear half of it.

So be considered sports, Harvey. Say no to FaceTime in public. Private, do it all damn day long. Public, no. Private, yes. I rarely FaceTime. That's what I'm saying. It's good. That's really good. FaceTime, you FaceTime your nieces and nephews, yes?

Sure. What's wrong with that? It's a wonderful thing. They're so cute. But you don't do it a Burger King. You do it at your house. I'm going to make sure next time I around you to start FaceTiming a bunch of people just to piss you off. You'll forget. Yeah, you're right.

right. You know I'm right too. You know I'm really, really right. The Houston lunchtime sports conversation most respected by head coach Bill O'Brien. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Matt Thomas. In his career here in Houston. Of sorts. The Matt Thomas Show. All right. Matt Thomas Show continues here from New York City, where the Rockets and the Knicks will be playing tonight. We'll have a free beginning at 6 o'clock. Rossi, I am, let's see, 57 away from 25,000. When I get to 25,000, I'll change my avatar to the picture of me being photoshopped into Mari Carol's leopard pants.

Wonderful. Now, I want you to give the update on your curb your enthusiasm, poll question from earlier on the show today. This after we discussed the fact that one of the characters died, killed himself because he was a Jets fan. 47.6% have never watched. Only 2.4%. Don't like it.

20.8% like it. 29.2%. Love it. Okay. Kind of what you thought. That's really with any show, don't you think? No, I think a lot of people would be a lot higher for don't like it for other shows. Yeah, man. There's a lot of crap out there. A lot of bad shows. All right. Now, you're Mr. Negative, Nick. Do you watch Kurb?

I've seen several episodes. I have not religiously watched it. But that's funny. I'm religiously watching. Yeah, just go watch from yesterday. It involves the Jets in an illegal putter and Rossi, a magical V. Okay. And I said magical. 713-212-5-790.

Ross, go back to your Saturday tweets. You mentioned something about hit-by pitch. That was your tweet of the weekend. Oh, thank you. If I could have triple favorite that I would. have. Would you please run down exactly what you said Saturday, mid-afternoon, while

listening to Astros baseball here on Sports Talk 7-9? Let's see. I'd have to find that one. I pretty much said it was a been a rough couple of days for quote, content creators because there hadn't been any Astros hit by pitch for a few days.

Has John Heyman mentioned how sad the Astros are today? Oh, God. You see McTaggart's tweet about how Carl's Gray was smiling? That was great. Yeah. By the way, and you saw this firsthand, I don't know if you saw it directly. John Hammond was a scaredy cat going on the Astros Club.

Yeah, I did see that. But I said, rough few days for content creators with no Astros players being hit by a pitch for three days. Yeah, how was that Astros Astrid Twitter account doing? Which one is that? I don't know. It was the one that was tweeting Alex Breggman getting hit by a breaking ball and it had like 8,000 retweets. And Peter King was retweeting it.

And then it got a bunch of followers. Are you serious? Yes. A lot of stupidity out there. And look, we're a sensitive bunch in Houston. I fully understand that. But grow up. And know some sports.

No when a pitcher from one team with a number of 78 throws an 83 mile per hour curveball at somebody, it's not because he's trying to hit them. Oh, no. What now? I check that Twitter account. I mean, I shouldn't. I haven't muted for a reason. I need to stop doing it.

All it's doing is retweeting a bunch of people putting, I had a funny sign, but the Astro stole it. And then people in the stands at baseball games, I had a better sign, but the Astros stole it. People at high schools, I had a funny sign, but the Astro stole it. They're like 30 people they're retweeting that have the same stupid joke. Are we going to grow to hate America? Is it time?

I mean, is it funny, the 57th time you retweet it in original? Maybe it's time for Texas to secede from the Union. One of these is from the Dallas Department of Transportation. Oh, forget it. We don't want Dallas anyway. Matter of fact, our XFL team beat their XFL team. When are we going to stop owning Dallas teams? I'm getting tired of beating Dallas teams.

Texas beat the Cowboys, what, two years ago, right? Rockets beat the Mavericks on a regular basis, and the Astros have owned the Rangers for a better part of, like, a half decade. Let me ask you, Houston, Texas. After the roughnecks beat the renegades, are you tired of beating Dallas in sports teams? 713-212-5-7-90. When will enough be enough?

When will Dallas throw up the flag and say, no mas, no more? We can't handle the continued H-town beatdown. Kyle in Pearland, 223 on 790. Kyle, good afternoon. Matt, how you doing, my friend? I'm excellent. Thank you for dialing in. What's going on?

I got a comment for you before my question. Do you get a chance to see the coups yesterday? Looking good against Cincinnati. You know what? Can I tell the honest truth? You did. We had the, we set in a press box at Madison Square Garden yesterday for the game between the Rangers and the flyers. Each press box seat had a...

Oh, you got a good excuse. No, no, I got... There's a story to it. Each individual press box seat has a mini-television and underneath it where you'd put your computer on it. So I flipped it on to ESPN, and I watched the game while I was watching the hockey game at the same time. So the answer is, yes, I did watch the game. Sweet, yeah, they look good.

They look good. I got a question for you. You know, they rest Russell on back-to-backs. Correct me if I'm wrong. Did I see the Timberwills got fin for some excessive resting? Did you clear that up for me? You know what? I may need Ross to help on it.

I saw that. It was DeAngelo Russell was the player that was resting. And I don't know exactly what they said. I don't think, you know what? Let me give me a second to give you the answer on that. I don't want to give you erroneous information. I have the story. Go ahead.

They got fined $25,000, correct? The NBA fined the Minnesota Timberwolves, $25,000 Thursday for violating the league's player resting policy, marking the first time the league is fined a team under the rules put in place in 2017 and clarified in November. DeAngelo Russell, a healthy player under the policy, caused the violation when he was sat during Sunday's road game against the Nuggets in Denver the league set. But doesn't explain why, does it? The policy limits players, this is what it says, from sitting healthy players in, quote, high profile nationally televised games. Sunday's a never was not how a profile?

It was on NBA TV. Huh. Well, every game is nationally televised. What's the difference between him and Russ? It requires that teams rest players only when they are home unless they're unusual circumstances. Huh. You got me on that one, Matt? Yeah, I didn't know that either.

Thank you for the phone call. All right, buddy. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay, so let's get this right. It was Minnesota, Denver on NBA TV. Huge matchup, Matt. Nation's eyes turning its lonely eyes to the NBA TV for that one.

Now, I do like me some NBA TV, but I might be a minority on that. No, I turn their games on a couple times. a week. I'm going to assume that Minnesota did not play the night before. I do not know that. Yeah. Because at least Russ, when he sits out, it's consistent. It's load management.

Boy, there must have been something really odd about that. That the NBA would like, we know what you're doing and you can't make up something. We're going to find you $25,000. Damn, that seems harsh. And why would they arrest him?

Minnesota needs some positivity. The wolf suck. Carlythony Towns isn't even playing for them right now. Tanking. Are you okay back there? Oh, sorry. I had a cough. Okay, so I want to make sure you're all right. 227. It is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. James Lipton is today's topic on believe it or not. We might also have to throw some things in about Lipton tea. You mean the temperature's on eight interesting things about James Lipton? I'll make up a bunch. A lot of knots on today. It's a heads up. I'm sure the Lipton fans. was like, I can come in with some things.

Hey, it's James Arden. What a pass. What a finish. Listen to your home of the rockets on your smart speaker. Just as. Hey, Google. Play Sports Talk 790 on IHard Radio. That is something else, folks.

Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson here. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Of course, of course. I'm so sorry. Carl would be so happy to see so many of his friends, especially his golf friends. Yeah, yeah. I'm so thrown by this.

I really am. I just... You were all playing golf together, right? Yeah. Did he seem different to you, or... Yeah. Was he agitated about anything? Yeah, I was very upset about the Jets.

You're being Jets. Yeah, I know. He loved them so much, and all they did was disappoint. No, no, we all do. We all do, and that's what happens. But to take it to this... To take it to this level, I mean, it's just... Jets ruined our marriage.

I couldn't stand to be around him. Everything was about the Jets. We had to paint a room green. One night, he just woke up and yelled Watson. What is that? Is it a Sherlock Cohn's reference or something? No, I think that's a reference to Deshawn Watson, who the Jets passed on drafting in 2017.

That's what I think that is. So, Carl, is just another loss on their record. I don't think it's the first person they've done that to. No. The best. Do you hear what she said? The girl with a magical V. Ross, is that the Jets cost her and her husband, Carl, their marriage. There you go.

Ross, if you ever get married, you're going to have to make sure you are with someone that you can at least... You're not maybe as big of a fanboy of a particular team. Like, for instance, I'm married. a girl who loves her some Duke basketball. I'm not the biggest Duke fan, but I can't be a hater. It wouldn't last. I couldn't walk around and dance on the bed at night after Duke lost a North Carolina state or North Carolina

or Wake Forest or whomever. You have to semi-pretend you feel sorry for her when her beloved Duke Blue Devils are down. Same for you. You might find the most special girl in the world, Ross. But if she's an A&M fan or Oklahoma fan, those are your two most hated rivals, A&M being one, Oklahoma, too. You'll never be able to be, you'll never be with her.

She better have some thick skin. She's going to have to endorse some trolling. I don't envision that being a part of your relationship. Hey, I love you, honey. I think you're beautiful. You're a good person. You got a great soul. You treat me well.

Do you mind if I troll you about your favorite sports team? Oh, man. I'd be sent her like gifts of Sam Ellinger touchdowns or something. I bet you it wouldn't take long for us to do a Google search. Now, we don't have time for that today. But could, I've heard of people fighting overseas and tickets in divorce hearings. But could you imagine you are getting divorced because you fight about your particular sports teams? Irreconcilable differences.

She doesn't think Shaka needs to be fired. Your Honor Your Honor? What is your name? My name is Greg. What is your wife's name, Greg? Karen. Why are you and Karen breaking up? Well, you see, Karen is such a popular, such a big Texans fan.

She calls herself Texans Karen. And she runs around the country, acting like a complete idiot, going to city halls in these various different cities and waving Texans flags everywhere. the Texans could do no wrong. Judge says, case dismissed, ruling in favor of the husband, Greg. Yeah, I'm telling you, Ross,

the key to a good marriage, good relationship, is at least having some cohesiveness with your sports teams. I could never see you ever dating an Aggie. I could never see you dating an Oklahoma sooner. It could happen. She would just, like I said, she'd have to take a little bit of trash talk, which I could take as well.

And really hot, too, right? I mean, you're like to go up like two points. Yeah, nine and a half. Wow. I don't know if that's happening, Matt. Well, I just said it. So, yeah, y'all take a look at Kirby enthusiasm if you didn't watch it. It's very funny, and it was awesome yesterday, and it did have a Houston Texans reference.

The first reference to Deshaun. You know, it's funny, they didn't say Deshawn Watson to Houston, Texas. They just said, Gisandin. Now, granted, that show is some of that is extemporaneous, so maybe that was a part of it. They didn't get it in, but to hear Deshawn's name on an HBO show at comedy, this shows you how much the Jets fans truly hate their team. Imagine Ross being here in New York. The Knicks suck.

The Jets suck. The Giants suck. The Mets. The Yankees. A Rollis Chapman threw a ball right over the heart of the plate. Jose Al-Tube had no idea it was coming and what kind of pitch it was. and he slammed it over the left field wall to give the American League Championship Series of the Astros.

That's New York for you right there. That they've run out of mask for people to use because they're afraid they're going to get the coronavirus. Are you not leaving your hotel? Are you going to go see the sights? I'm leaving here in 15 minutes. Oh. I've been here since 2 a.m. Sunday.

I have not worn a mask once. I'm fighting a little bit of a sore throat, but that's about it. So the, so the Rockets got there Sunday. Yes. They had all Sunday night in New York City. Yes. And they're playing the crappy Knicks today.

James had an appearance with Adidas on something. And he had an appearance with it. Oh, man. But, what's a spread on today's game? I did see James walk into a store today to grab some, like a smoothie. So he's, he's in a right mental. Okay, he looks good. It looks refreshed.

No. I'm just, you know, spreads 10, Matt. That's a big, that's a healthy. number on the road. I got news for you, Ross. There's alcohol in every NBA city. Even Utah. What about Utah? Yeah. Isn't it near beer or something? Well, it doesn't have nearly the potency that

other beer has, yeah. Nearby. I haven't heard the near beer phrase in 15 years. Thanks for bringing back Utah members. Sorry. All right. So the Rockets and Nix will be playing tonight. I'll be back in studio tomorrow. Speaking of a hungover, probably that'll be mean. We get home about 4 o'clock in the

morning. So, Ross, you'll need to carry the three-hour get-together that we have tomorrow between noon I'm used to it. Yeah, I figured you would be. Cougars, by the way, for those of you the U of H fans, this Cougar update is presented to you by the Joint Chiropractor, the official chiropractor of the Houston Cougars. Cougars moving up from 25 to 21 in the latest Associated Press poll.

Ross, I got to ask you, there are some voters out there that didn't even put the Cougars in the top 25. There's somebody that voted them as high as 10. What's going on with these voters? Are they like on medicinal marijuana, I don't know what's going on with the AP voters. I do know that the Longhorns are in the others receiving votes in the coaches poll. Now, are you guys still fours for last four in? I haven't checked the latest Joe Lannardi, but last I saw was for the last four out.

But then they won. What is Joe Lernardi do, by the way, for a living besides this progetology bit? I don't know. He's on TV. He's on TV like every day for five weeks in a row. And then we don't hear from him the rest of the year. it's really peculiar he's got Texas

not the first four out but the next four out you know what that smells of NIT the people's tournament the national invitation tournament with the championship held at the mecca of basketball in Madison Square Garden

yeah put it this way there are very few teams in this decade much less this century that can claim back-to-back NIT championships. Going back-to-back, baby. Well, that affects season ticket sales at UT. When's that new arena open up?

I know. You need a small arena like tomorrow. Yeah, the new smaller one opens up in a couple of years, I think. I love it when there's the signs of, hey, everybody in the upper deck, come down to lower deck. You're sitting anywhere you want.

It's disgusting. Well, imagine if you're a season ticket holder in that lower section, how pissed you are. I paid all those tickets and paid all that money. Yeah. That's why teams can't give away tickets when, you know, there are stadiums that are empty because you're going to really irritate the people that actually spent the money to begin with.

Oh, it's supposed to open up in 2021. Be the little drum or the big or just a smaller drum. I don't know if it has a name yet. It will probably have some kind of sponsored name, right? I mean, that's what you do in 2021. Right. And the capacity of the new arena is going to be what? I'm trying to find it.

It's going to be like 7,000, I think. That's perfect for UT. Back to back. Oh, it'll be 10,000. Expandable to 15. Oh, way too much. No, that's fine. Well, that's true.

Back to back, the people show up. Yeah, you'll definitely have a season ticket waiting list for that. Are you going to jump on the Cougar bandwagon like you should have last year? No, why? We went to Sweet 16 last year. Yeah, screw the Cougars. Don't screw the Cougars. You love the Cougars.

They're Houston's team. They're the team that people want to see in the Final Four. Nobody know. Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, Baylor. No, but nobody wants to see Baylor. They're really good. They are, but they lost their last game. They're going to lose tonight to Texas Tech.

Based on what? My son's preference, I don't know. Okay. Don't leave Matt Thomas in your car. Take him with you. Download the free Iheart radio app for your phone at sports 790.com. Just remember you'll have to feed him. All right, time is 247.

It is the Matt Thomas show, Sports Talk 790. We're here in New York City back home tomorrow in studio. Ross and Nick and I will get together. Our week will be limited a little bit. We'll be on the air for a full three tomorrow. And then Wednesday and Thursday, the Astros have some spring training day games. We'll play for you. And then we are back on Friday.

I am looking forward to, maybe I'm just an NBA honk, Ross, but I'm looking forward to the Clippers Rockets game on Thursday night because that is a super, super big swing game for potentially the third spot in the Western Conference. Right now, the Lakers are a game in front of the Lakers. The Clippers are a game in front of the Rockets for that three-seat. If the Rockets win that game, not only will they be tied, but they'll have the 3-1 tiebreaker against the Clippers. I also want to see what the Clippers are really like when they have a full, healthy lineup.

Because I feel like every time the Rockets have played him, one of those two guys either has been limited or not played at all. Yeah, it's a big game, swing game, Clippers, Rockets. Live it, love it. NBA fever, catch it. Can we get people in the arena at 7 o'clock tip time? it's not to be crazy yeah

that was one thing about being at the rangers game yesterday and again granted it was Sunday at noon there wasn't a seat empty what are they drawing they dropped the puck for the first time is that what they called it I guess drop the puck chanting and then the flyer scored like two minutes into the game

and then it was like being in a museum the rest of the time probably fun though right yeah was it your first NHL game No, I'd have been to games in Minnesota and in Dallas before, but the first time I was ever at Madison Square Garden. You know, the hockey fan doesn't have to have things lead on.

Like, you know, in the NBA arena, as you hear defense and you get a chant, hockey fans just chant crap just to do it. Like when a certain player from a certain team, they'll just scream his name and say, he sucks. There's no chorusing. There's no billboard. There's no big jumbotron screen and says that they just start yelling. Flyers suck.

Granted, this is also a massive rock. rival between these two teams have gone for decades. So it's kind of hard to explain. But it's definitely a different culture. I would also have to tell you, Ross, I think there are more, and this is just very unscientific on my part. And I used to live in Minneapolis, St. Paul, so I know I used to where a hockey team was.

I think there are more full uniform wearers in the crowd in the NHO games than there are any other sports. You saw guys with like pads and sticks and stuff? stuff? No. Can you bring a hockey stick to the game? You can, well, it seems dangerous. Yeah, maybe in the subway it wouldn't be great.

But I'm talking about like sweaters, the hockey sweaters. Like how many NBA jerseys do you see in a rocket team? Full jerseys. Probably what, 2%? 5% maybe? So maybe somewhere like that. I would say the percentage is way lower in football and way lower in baseball. Okay.

Full, full $250 sweaters. Well, how about the guy that shows it to the baseball game with like, jersey pants, stirrups, and a glove. Well, he needs a touch on a woman. That's what he needs. That's attention-seeking, right? Of course. And he'll take a picture because he wants to.

It's like Marlins' man. He ran to Houston last year. He couldn't jump on a plane fast enough. He gave up a season ticket to the Marlins, and now he's running out of material. So what is he going to do? He's going to try to come to Houston and sit in a section where people will see him.

The problem is Marlins' man bit was pretty cool in 2017. 2019, not so much. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports game show. We simply called it, believe it or not, and here's how it works. You'll call 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-79.

Today's edition of Believe or Not, brought to you by Woodhouse Day Spas. Print out your gift card for the gift of relaxation at Houston Woodhouse Spas. com. Category today is all things about the late James Lipton, the noted act, a host of what is it called inside the actor's studio? So is that they called Ross? That's right, Matt. I've ever watched one episode.

Oh, see? Nick might have helped you out there. I'll read you a statement about James Lipton. This statement is completely utterly accurate. You'll say this. Maybe it. If it's a warning us full of bunk and made up, you will say this. Not.

Two, believe it or not, sent her all, things about James Lipton won, won't win your prize. Ross, what's the prize? Matt, I've got a pair of tickets to see. Santana and Earthwind and Fire July 5th at the Woodlands Billion information and tickets at LiveNation.com. How many original members of Earthwind and Fire are still around? I mean, they had like a whole band and like a bunch of dudes, guys, so I don't know. I think there's still a couple of men, you know.

That's fine. I would never say those dudes and Earthwind and Fire, though. This sounds weird. Me, those cats. Yeah, there you go. Cats is a much better term. There's some real cool cats there in the Earth Winning Fire. That's a guy.

I'm actually why I want to go to that concert. Well, let's go. July 5th, we'll be one, we'll be busy. July. Matt on 7.90. Ooh, a little warm, a little toasty. Matt on 790, ready to play, believe it or not. Believe it.

Early in his life, James Lipton was a character actor and had many small roles on television shows in the 1950s. Believe it or not. Believe it. Yeah, I think my favorite role of James Lipton was he was a character actor on Mr. Ed, right, Ross? No. I don't know.

Sure. James Lipton was also a television writer for many years, and once was the head writer for the television soap opera guiding light. Believe it or not? Not. Oh, if I've said it once a thousand times, you've got to know what James Lippon wrote and what he did not. He definitely wrote for Guiding Light. Let's go to line number four.

Roger on 790. Roger, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. From 1997 to 2006, James Lippton was an associate professor at the team. Hish School of the Arts at New York University. Believe it or not. I have to believe it. Not.

No, you don't check his resume and it wasn't there, but thank you for playing. Yeah, sorry. Let's go next to line number two. Joe on 790. Joe, you ready to play Believe it or not? All the time, Matt. In 2011, James Lipton was honored in an exhibit at the National Jewish Entertainment Museum in Lower Manhattan in New York City.

Believe it or not. Not. Not. statement number two for the win. In 2007, James Lipton was given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Emmys. Believe it or not. I mean, you're thinking bad. Believe it.

Believe it. There you go. Yes. Go to Sierra the Wind Fire. And Santana. Both probably in their upper 70s. That's on here and over there. Let's go to line number five.

Corey on 790. Corey, your favorite part of the radio show today? Every part of them, Matt. A wax figure of James Lipton currently resides at the Madam Tussau's Wax Museum in Las Vegas. Believe it or not. Believe it. Not. No, maybe.

We talked about that. 12, 12, 131, 130, right? Ross, we talked about it last four times. Do you skip number four, by the way? I do. I'll go back to four right now. Oscar on 790. Oscar, ready to play, believe it or not?

Believe it. In 2009, James Lipton released his memoir titled The Everlasting Audition. My Life on the Small Screen. Believe it or not. Not. Statement number two for the win. James Lipton was an airplane enthusiast and even logged over a thousand hours as a pilot. Believe it or not. Nah.

Believe it. Believe it. I'm sorry. Ross, we gave away nothing today. Is that right? No, you had one winner. We thought we had one. We did?

Okay, so Nick's a Joe. Remember he was all excited. Oh, that's right. He had a guest, too. It was all right. He loved every part of the show. Okay, thanks to Mike Danton. If you missed our conversation, I'm assuming Mike D' Antonio will be a part of the Rockets launch pad at 5 o'clock Sports RV. You have to ask one of the Adams about that. Oh, my goodness.

We're putting them into extra hours today. Hopefully they can make it. Yeah. Actually, it's part of their show, so they really should be very enthusiastic about doing the show this afternoon. Adam and Adam are coming up. apparently did Ryan Rusidl say something strange today, Ross, because Adam Clinton just asked him what is up with him. I don't know.

He's starting to start another Twitter beef. That's no surprise. Adam Clinton starts a Twitter beef? No chance of that whatsoever. I'm shocking, Matt. No, shocking. All right, thanks to Mike Dan, Tony. Thanks for Ross.

Thanks to Nick. And most importantly, thanks to all of you for making my show a part of your day. I very much appreciate that. Rockets and Nicks at 6. I will talk to you here on 7.9 8. That time, and then back in studio tomorrow at 12 noon for a Tuesday edition of the Matt Thomas show. Clanton Wexler, they are the A team, and they are next here on Sports Talk 7-9.