The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show : Harden And Giannis Beef, Hit By Pitch Mania

Episode Date: February 28, 2020

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 2/28/20James Harden Fires Shots At Giannis (0:00)Astros Hit By Pitch Mania (41:11)Is the solution to Astros Hate just winning or will that even help? (1:05:43)Barry Sanders Jersey on Garth Brooks generates Bernie Sanders comments from morons (1:15:13)

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers. I'm on my way. Is the Matt Thomas show. 12-0-2 in H-town. Who's going to say it? Who's going to say it?

Nick do it. Gun and Stripper. It seems like Matt's always out on a Friday when somebody has to step up and do that. And normally, I mean, I just don't have the MT pipes. That's just a fact. And I also, I'm coming down with a little bit of a cold or I've been fighting off a cold for basically a week and change.

So I just wasn't in the position to do that. But thank you, Nick. What's with everybody, NDs out on travel today? Matt's traveling. Everybody's out today. But you're grinding out here. Chris Gordy for the first couple of hours of the show. Then we'll have Adam Wex.

It's the Matt Thomas show here on the Sports Talk 790 without Matt Thomas, alongside our producer, Nick Lowe. I am Ross Vier. and you are you and it is also and anything goes Friday. So anything you guys want to get in and talk about at 713, 2,1, 2,125, 790, you can do so. Also, send your

tweets to at SportsRV, at Chris Gordian, at Pro Nick Lowe. A lot of stuff going on in the sports world. You got the Combine. What is your interest level in the Combine? I'm a big draft guy, so I'm all, I love it. Like last night,

we did the cook-off. last night, so I didn't get to watch all the Combine. I had to watch most of the highlights when I got home, but the... What are Combine highlight? Aren't Combine highlights just like the Combine? Yeah, but no, like the... This guy ran for four-four nights. The guys who were the best and the guys who were the worst. Like Henry Ruggs running a 427, that stands out because that's really impressive.

Then you got the guy like the tight end, Jared Pinkney out of Vanderbilt who runs a 496 and slow as hell, that stands out as bad. So I like, you know, there's some guys that are just in the middle that aren't going to garner a lot of tension. But no, I'm always intrigued by the combat. It was interesting that we had this guy, Tony Pauline on last hour, who's been covering the NFL draft for decades. And Tony said he cannot stay in this prime time crap. He said, this is all about the NFL and making money. Because all the scouts are everybody there.

Like, you're used to, you get up at 6 a.m., you get out to the stadium. We watch guys run 40s at noon. Now they got to wait. It's 7 o'clock, 8 o'clock, 8 o'clock, to the day. night they're running them. That's fine. You just got to get your St. Elmo's shrimp cocktail in the afternoon instead of that night, I guess. But I'm just like in the NFL are the ratings that high? Like, oh man, prime time of that

event. We're going to go, I got to get off work at five. I got to go pick up Chinese takeout. I got to go drop off Samantha or ballerina class and then run home to watch the combine. Are people really thinking that? I would think so. I mean, what's higher rated than whatever else is on the NFL network? What else is on there on a random Thursday in a February, a replay of Super Bowl 44 or something like that, it's going to do better than whatever is going to be replacing. So I totally get why they are because there are people like you who get all into it and want to turn it on. Well, look, if you're a Texans fan, you have

vested interest in tonight because the running backs will be out there. Obviously, the Texans have a void at the running back spot outside of Duke Johnson. Carlos Hyde is a free agent. Lamar Miller is a free agent, so we don't really know what's going to happen with them. But you got to think they'll be looking in this draft that there's a guy that they like. They'll take a flyer on a later round. Now, the Texans historically, think of the running backs that they've taken not in an early round? And I really panned out. Who was the little guy that took a couple years ago?

Tyler Irvin? Tyler Irvin. He was kind of a dud. You know, they haven't taken a lot of running backs late, but the ones that they've taken haven't been great. Who was the Alfred Blue stuck around for a couple years? Alfred Blue is okay. LSU great. So I'm just curious, like pick 57, not having a first round pick.

If they take a guy at 57, who would that be? Well, tonight would be the night to watch and see how these running backs look. I would like to defense and offensive line. All three levels of the defense and offensive line is what I would like for the tech to address. I think the most underrated thing that nobody's talking about is one, yeah, JJ Watt didn't play a full season, but he only had four sacks last year. That was among the leaders on the team in sacks last year. Outside of Whitney Mercer. Pass rush was lacking.

They were, I think, ranked fourth to last. in the league in Sacks last year. So in my mind, man, they got to get some kind of elite pass rush out of either in free agents here in this draft. Definitely. So we got some draft stuff to talk about. And also now, apparently, this is what's taking over the Twitter world. The Houston Rockets superstar player James Hardin is taking shots at Yonisotentocumpo.

For the thousands in attendance and the millions watching around the world, Ladies and gentlemen, let's get ready to... Yes, that's right. I love it. For too long, James Hardin has been letting the entire world take shots at him. Yonas Satintacupo talking at the All-Star Draft, how James doesn't play defense, how James doesn't pass, and that's why he's going with Kimball Walker. Maybe they were harmless jokes.

But James Hardin fired back today in an interview that was released with Rachel Nichols on ESPN. First of all, him on Janus and his disrespect. Charles Barkley, when they had the All-Star draft, was saying, oh, no one wants to take James Hardin. He's a dribbler. Yannis and Tsukpo makes a joke on the air about, I want to take someone who can pass. I'm taking Kimball Walker instead of James Hardin. I have his more assist than him. You ranked 10th in assists going into the All-Star break, and Kembo ranked 36 in assists going into the All-Star break.

I don't see what the joke is. But I don't even, I didn't even see it. I don't pay attention to stuff like that. I just know none of them can mention me. And he's also talking about Janus and his skill set. He goes on. When it's all said and done, you know, they'll appreciate it more. But I wish I could just run, right, and with seven feet and run and just dump.

Like, that takes no skill at all. I got to actually know how to play basketball, how to have skill, you know? I take that any day. I love the laugh there. I have to learn how to play basketball and, you know, have skill. I can't just be seven feet and dunking. Now, there's a lot of seven foot people there in the NBA. Gordy, is that a direct shot at Janus at Tentico?

Absolutely. Now, look, I think part of this is Janus is very good. And, yeah, is it selling short Janus a little bit? Yes. But I'm sick of Janus selling Harden shorts saying, Oh, I'm going to take Kemba because he passes more. No, he doesn't. Hardin has more assistant than Kemble Walker.

And then Charles Barkley, you know, he's just a dribbler. Shut up, Charles. You're not going to take the dribbler? Yeah, okay. God, the most telling piece, and I think we have it in there, is Rachel Nichols brings up, now, James, they're in the MVP voting, there are five names on the MBA's website, and you're not among them. And James, like, I don't know, crazy, right?

like what else does James Harden need to do to be considered? And it's almost like that Zach Lowe tweet that he had a while back about, all right, hard, you got your one MVP, no, go away. And it's like, what is the disgust and the hate for James Harden where it's like he can't be considered among the league's best players anymore because it's like, oh, he just, he just gets falling and dribble, like this narrative that's been out there. And at one point, was it true? Sure, but the guy continues to revolutionize his game each year.

I think it's exactly in what he said and how, I mean, I'm going to play this again just because he does take shots at Janus and the part that he says about how he'll be appreciated more when he retires, I absolutely believe that. You know, when it's all said and done, you know, they'll appreciate it more, you know, but I wish I could just run, run and seven feet and run

and just dump. Like, that takes no skill at all. I got to actually learn how to play basketball and how to have skill, you know? I take that any day. I got to actually know how to play basketball. Ouch. I mean, most of Janice's greatest attributes are things that, I mean,

is because he's the Greek freak because of his athleticism. He plays great defense. He can cover basically from the three-point line to the paint because of his length. And he's great at getting to the basket and exploding by people. So I would say, yeah, James Hardin is a more skilled basketball player than Janice, Tendez-Dung-Po. But what James Hardin said there and what you're asking about Gordy is about all the hate that he gets. I think it's just because

we have never seen anything like James Harden. And if we've never seen anything like you in the NBA, I think it makes it harder for people to fall in love and to appreciate the skill level that he does have. He's not calling these fouls. He's not the one who is the referee. It's not a call your own game on the blacktop. He's getting to the line because guys are fouling him.

And honestly, if you want to look at it, yeah, he maybe gets a tiki-tack fall. foul call here and there. He also gets a lot where he gets hacked and nothing happens. So, I mean, I think if you look at it at the end of the day, he could be going to the free throw line even more than he already is. And the stepback three

has revolutionized the NBA. It's a move that's being copied by everybody all across the league. The stepback three, like five years ago, that was a bad shot. That was a shot that a lot of people weren't taking. That was something that you would do at the end of the shot clock when you just have to get something up. James Hardin has

turn that into a weapon and one of the best offensive weapons in the NBA. Well, a moment of truth will come less than a month from now, Wednesday, March 25th. It's the night before the Astros season opener, but the Rockets will be up in Milwaukee to play the Bucks. Their lone game against the Bucks this season, that is going to be a fun one.

It's going to be nationally televised. Of course, we'll have it for you here on sports talks of the night. But Wednesday, March 25th, circle that on your calendars, because that's going to be a night where Hardin versus, Janus. Now look, Janus has a hell of a team. I think they're what, 50 and 8? They're really good. I mean, Chris Middleton is good and Brooke Lopez, Eric Bled, so they've got a really good complete team. That's going to be one of these, you know, for the guys kind of taking shots at each other publicly now back and forth. That's going to be one where you need

Hardin to go off that night. Yeah, I hope he doesn't go like one of 17 from three that night. That would be brutal. But yeah, so I want to talk about that. That's taking over the Twitter world. A lot of people are arguing Janus over Hardin and skill level and skill set and all that type of stuff. So that's been fun. You guys want to get on that. We also have the combine stuff. Astros continue to get hit, and the national media continues to run with that. A lot of stuff to get to here to here on the Matt Thomas show at 7-13-1-2-5-79. 7-19. Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas continues after this short break. Tyler White here. Back to Matt Thomas.

And it is gone. And sports talk, 790. Home of Astros baseball. Ross, the number one trending topic on Twitter right now is the word Hardin. Oh, it's not Biden or Sanders? Well, those might be. I don't delve in those worlds. But in the sports world, James Hardin is trending today after he is clapping back, as the kids say, at Janus Antitacompo.

And Kendrick Perkins just tweeted. I like this. Kendrick says, the Janus and Hardin clapback is with the competitive gene of MVP. is all about. We ain't qualified to knock it. MVP's only. But then he follows it up and goes, they're both tripping though. Yonis is the best combo of size, power, and skills in Shaq. And James Hardin is an elite passer that has led the NBA in dimes. Stop it. Wait, that's what they did weigh in. Yeah. So, yeah, look, I like it. It's good because Janus has been taking little subtle shots at Hardin, and it was about Tom Hardin defended himself as one of the best

player. Play the part on Hardin where he says, he says like, I'm leading the league in scoring. He's the best player in the NBA? Well, no, it's the MVP. The MVP. Okay. On disrespect and the MVP voting at James Hardin with Rachel Nichols. The NBA's own website has an MVP ladder, their rankings for MVP. They list the top five players. You're not even in there, James. I know. It's crazy. What do you think of that? I still lead the league of scoring. Third straight year you've let the league in scoring. Yeah. What do you think of that?

That's something that I can't control. Like, I mean, if around the league, just getting double-teamed, like, if you name the top five players that get in double-teen around the league, there's going to be noticed. People are going to say, oh, he's getting double-team, where he sees a double-team, he sees a trap at half-quared every single night. Like, nobody's mentioning that, you know? I'm not the type to go out there and say it or broadcasts.

I'm just going to try to go out there and win games. and that's what we're trying to do. I love it. Top 10 in assists, leading the league in scoring. I mean, yeah, I don't know where he... Who are the five that are ahead of him in the MVP ESPN Index? Obviously, LeBron. Yeah, pull that up.

It's got to be Janus, and there's got to be LeBron. I mean, who else are you going to put ahead of James Harden? Kwai Leonard's been missing a lot of games. Luca Donchich? The Mavericks don't have the record that the Rockets do. I mean, there are a couple of games back, so I guess it's close enough. The cover story of NBA.com is a different animal. Everybody has something to say about Mavs All-Star Luca Donkich.

Okay. I mean, who are they putting in there? Jason Tatum? I mean, what is happening? He has been on a tear as of length. Yes, he has. He's been scoring like 30 and 40 points like it's nothing. You know, like James Hardin does every single night.

Right. I was looking that up. I was like, wow, Jason Tatum is really on this big scoring tear. Let me look at his last 10 games. He's averaging 29 a game. Oh, James Hardin's averaging six more than that per night the entire season. He's a clown. So I guess this interview with Rachel Nichols was done before they updated the top five this week and Hardin is in the top five on the MVP letter.

Thank you. So, but the other players they have in here, Luca Dachich is five, Kauai Leonard, four, James Hardin, three, LeBron, two, and Yonis one. It's going to be hard. Like, Janus is putting up great numbers. Just under, just to hair under 30 points a game, 13 and a half rebounds, almost six assists, a steal in a block per game, and they're 50 and 8. Like, so it's hard to say,

because what it's become has been best player and best team. Right. Unless you're averaging a triple double, that one year Russell Westbrook did. But the argument has basically been best player and best team. The year Hardin won, he was best player and best team. Yeah, they won 65 that year. Steph Curry, best player and best team.

So if the argument holds strong, it'll be honest again repeating, which is odd because it doesn't happen all that often that you repeat MVP's year to year. I really think there's an argument for LeBron James and what he's doing with, I mean, leading the league and assists, how can he just at this point in his career just say, you know what, I'm just going to go ahead and lead the, he's averaging over 10 assists a game. You put the lob dunker known as Anthony Davis next to him. I mean, that was a no brain.

I think he'd lead the league and assists, but you knew his assist numbers were going to go up playing with AD. Yeah, but I mean, he's like six, eight and a half. Was he dropping like 25 and nine or something like that? But then they added, they added Danny Green, you know what I mean? Like they added guys around him that could shoot and make shots. So he's still the best player on that team though. Yeah. And they have the second best record in the NBA.

So I think LeBron is definitely have, I think it's one too, Janice and LeBron. It'll probably end up being Janus because, I mean, he's just out of control. I mean, 29, 13 and like six assists again. No thought that Hardin is averaging 10 points. more per game than LeBron? 10 points more? That's pretty good. Yeah.

I mean, what are their shooting numbers, though? I don't know. I'm sure Hardens. LeBron's probably more efficient. Probably, but that's okay. I mean, and he's averaging more assists. I think there's definitely just, I mean, there's arguments for James Harden as well as for NBA MVP.

And I think, really, though, their best player to me over the last month has been Russell Westbrook. No, Westbrook's been unreal. And how about that yesterday where John Moran from Memphis comes out and says, look, I think Russell Westbrook's underrated. Like, that guy is so good right now. It's almost disrespectful. The most disrespectful player in the league.

And then Russell Westbrook comes out and goes, hey, that's nice in the say. I don't really give a damn what anybody says about me. Like, damn, Russ. He's so cool. I love it. I love it. I would like if he would get fewer technical fouls because that one that he got a couple of nights ago is not going to be rescinded. Like the dude just gave him a compliment.

And he goes, yeah, that's nice and all, but I don't really give a damn way. He's like a young star in the league. John Moran is like a young phenom and giving him props. He's like, yeah, I don't care. Don't give it damn what he has to say. Very cold-blooded. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-9. The phone number 7-1-3-2-1-2-7-9 here on the bad on the badcher on the badcher.

Fletcher in Baytown here on the phones. What's up, Fletcher? Hey, sorry, it changes the topic here a little bit. I'm all about James Hart being the NBC, but I've called about to take. because, you know, they're going to end up having a signed tonsill and Watson and the salary cap is not as big as it really looked. You know, the numbers are pretty big right now. But I've been wondering with, you know, Will Fuller always, you know,

miss him half the season or so. I know he's great when he's on the field, but that's like $10 million on the salary cap. And there might be some other guys that are half-teeat-sized salaries, and you might be able to replace them with somebody else and maybe get a draft-a-wide receiver that's got speed like Fuller and you haven't had a chief rate for a while. What do you got to think about that?

You bring up an interesting point from a standpoint of they're going to have a big decision to make after this season. You feel good about the wide receiver spot this year with DeAndre Hopkins, with Wolf Fuller, hopefully healthy, with Kenny Stills, with Kiki Kootie back in the fold. But they're going to have a big decision to make after this year because Fuller and Stills are both free agents. Now, obviously, Fuller has the higher upside. He's the younger player. But, you know, maybe. I think he's wanting Fuller cut now.

Maybe. I mean, you're not going to cut him. You'd save $10 million, but I mean, you'd take a huge hit to your wide receiver debt. Yeah, you can't go into the season without Will Fuller on your roster. The numbers speak for themselves last year. The Texans, what was their win-loss record in games they had Will Fuller versus without? If you look at the splits of Deshawn Watson's numbers, I think they were just night and day when Will Fuller was there. And when he was that stretching the field threat.

And he's actually, people don't really know. He's gotten much better as a route runner in his career. Like, he's good at breaking off a route at 15 yards because of that deep threat that he is. So he is becoming a more complete wide receiver, and obviously he can burn down the field with the best of him. So when he's on the field, it's a huge help to just the defense having to account for him and know where he is at all times. And then you have DeAndre Hopkins. I mean, yeah, Will Fuller is vitally important to the Texans' offensive success. The only thing you wonder is with the injury concerns, does that maybe lower his value on the open market?

Do you maybe get to keep Will Fuller back cheap because of all the injury concerns? Are other teams less inclined to go give him a big deal? Look at the market value right now, what they expect him to get. If Will Fuller were a free agent right now, the market value would say he'd be about anywhere from a $10 to $13 million year player. And he's making 10 this year. So it'll be interesting. It's a wait and see kind of thing. I almost put it in the category of kind of like Carlos Correa's got two years.

years left before he's a free agent. The next two years will be huge for him. The next year will be huge for Will Fuller. If he can play 14, 15 games or something like that and be productive and get close to 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns, he's going to get paid. Is he going to get paid by the Houston, Texans? Probably not. Here's the other problem, too.

DeAndre Hopkins is still locked up for a couple years. He's making a little over $14 million a year. You're going to pay Will Fuller 13 million a year? Right. And how's DeAnd how's DeAnd Hopkins going to feel about that? Yeah, the production between Hopkins is. Fuller is a pretty big drastic stretch there. So, no, I mean, look, look, you don't want to say you hope Fuller gets hurt again,

but if he does get hurt again this year, I've got to think that's going to scare off a lot of teams in free agency next year. Maybe you do get to keep him on the cheap. On the flip side, if you're the Texans, hey, do we want to re-sign this guy who's hurt every single year in his career? Yeah, that's something that they're going to have to think about. And we'll see, we'll have more information. We'll see how he does this year because they're not going to cut him this year,

Fletcher and I don't think they should either just because they're in wait and C mode and he's really important to the 2020 Texas. When we come back, Hardin is going off on Twitter right now. Is he really? Oh yeah. Oh, baby. We'll talk about that next here on the Matt Thomas show. This is Carlos Correa. Back to Matt Thomas. That's a sports off Saturday night. It's your home.

Fassos baseball. Tarden continues to be one of the biggest trending topics in the entire United States. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show. Shwag. Shwag. So, Gordy, going into the break there, you said James Hardin was tweeting out some stuff. Well, yeah, and I don't really know what this means, but he tweeted out. He's a cryptic at 11 a.m. this morning.

A house, a cycle symbol, and a house. Mm-hmm. And then it says, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. me casa sucasa now translated from Spanish that means my house your house yes my house is your house but um don't really know what he's alluding to there

is that something to do with the yannis beef is it something very cryptic or is it it's probably some kind of like adidas shoe house yeah now 30 minutes ago he tweeted pull up and he put out an address in new york and said see you here it's i think he's doing like a shoe sign of it 525 west 30th street new york It's got to be like a shoe store, right? Is that, but it's probably like Times Square or something like that? I don't know.

Have we looked up this address? I need to pull it up. Yeah. Well, he says say to pull up. West 30th, that's outside Times Square. That is, yeah, it's a shop. Oh, my gosh. Look at one of the mentions.

It says, Janice, Tuntagupa, if he was 6'5, and it's a guy working at McDonald's. Swat. Ouch. Sway. That's not nice. I mean, James Harden is 6'5. He is taller than like 99% of the population. But he is very skilled.

So good for him. So they're in New York. Or no, they're in Boston Saturday. And then they're in New York on Monday. They're in there in second day off. So is he in New York right now? Yeah, he probably went up to New York. I mean, this is a short train ride over to Boston.

This says that address is a cycling company. Cycling? Is he doing like a spin class? Yeah. Just pull up? See the new Lance Armstrong? James Hardin is in New York? Is he going to go on the Tour de France?

All right, here we go, everybody. Get on your bikes. He's going to start playing like a CNC music factory, getting the people going on his spin class. Swag. All right, guys, you're going to have to three more minutes now. Julie? Swat.

Don't give up on us now, Julie. Sweat. Says it's called Strickling Cycling Collective. Is that the address? You said you wanted to get rid of those thighs, Julie. Look at those. thighs. Swet. So if you're in New York,

James Hardin says pull up. See you here. Okay. Well, I don't think I am going to pull up, but I did want to play some of the other parts of the interview, some interesting stuff from him. He was also taught, not only did he just take shots at Janus in this interview with Rachel Nichols, but he talked hashtag small ball? Yes, he

did talk hashtag small ball, which seems to be working. The rockets are, what, six and two since the Clint Capella trade and those two losses are. Boyan Bogdanovich making an impossible 30-footer. And then the game against the Suns where you had no Westbrook. Well, there was no Westbrook, and then you had no Gordon after the second quarter. After like a couple of minutes into the second quarter.

So, I mean, somewhat understandable. You would like them to not have lost by like 34 or whatever in that game. But you understand those losses. So outside of that, they've been playing good and playing good against some contenders. So James Hardin talking about the Capella trade with Rachel Nichols. I mean, I let them choose that. I'm just out there to play basketball and try to win games. I feel like, you know, whatever decision they make,

they put all the work in, all the research and all the other stuff. So I just go out there and hoop. And they made a trade so far. It's been pretty good. You know, obviously it gives us more spacing, not to be able to get to the room and create opportunities for our teammates. You know, granted, Clint was great for us for his last few years. Like, I'm proud of him the way he grew as a player, as a person.

You know, now he has another opportunity in Atlanta. But, you know, it's more spacing. it's more opportunities for our guards to drive and be able to attack the rim, and then we get shooters. So that's pretty good. That's pretty good. The offense has been fantastic. I mean, it was really good with Clint Capella, but I mean, you just couldn't. It was difficult to have two non-shooters on the court at the same time in Russell Westbrook and Clint Capella.

It sounds weird, and it sounds like a slap of the face to Clint, but it really is like, dude, you're clogging up the lane as a waste. And no offense to Clint, but had he developed, and I know he, he worked on it a little bit with Dream, but it never really materialized. If Clay could have developed an outside shot, he'd still be on this team. The problem was

you couldn't let that guy drift out to the perimeter. All he could do is just stand under the rim. He'd just stand under the rim and what they call the dunker spot and hope for lobs when somebody was breaking down the defense. But a lot of times, I mean, it was just clogging up the lane certainly when Russell Westbrook was handling the ball because you don't have

to respect his three-point shooting. ability and you don't have to respect Capellas, so teams can just pack the pain against the rockets, and now you can't do that with Robert Covington replacing him on the floor. Somebody tweeted out a video. It said, I think this was the start of the Hardin Janus Beef. And it's a clip from a game on Root Sports, no less, from 2014, where Hardin was dribbling and Janus, I guess, his rookie year, like fell to the ground. And when they got up, they called a foul on Hardin.

And Janus went up and got in his face, and Hardin, like, kind of shoved him away. Really? And it's funny to see some of the people in this video. Just to let you know, some of the guys on the corner. There was a Costas Papua Nicolao. Oh, man. All-time Rocket Great. A Donatus Moda Eunice appearance.

Of course, Trevor Reza and Jason Terry. All on the court with James Hardin in this. Wow. It's still weird seeing Jason Terry. Like, somebody put it on Twitter the other day, Jason Terry in a rocket uniform. Still feels weird. And Coach Kevin McHale out there arguing for his guy. Speaking of that, he's a clown drop that Nick was playing.

That was in reference to Coach McHale, right? Oh, and J.B. Bickerstaff, getting everybody in order, too, out there. Oh, gosh. He's a clown. Your thoughts on Janus Antenzo Kumpo, James? He's a clown. Okay, thank you. Appreciate it.

Do you have the laugh? The hard laugh on there? I can't have it somewhere, yes. There's nothing better than them. Swat. Swag. Swag. Thank you, James.

Clap back. Yes, he's clapping back. It's great. I mean, this is great. It's like, if you ever see that meme, the NBA has gone zero days with being unnecessarily dramatic? This is just adding this is just always the beef as it's happening. I just love that we get a mat.

At this point in the season, we could have seen both Rockets and the Bucks played already. We still got one more game. Yeah. Well, they played the first game of the season. And that was with the Rockets lost, I think, by double digits. No, they lost by six. Okay, they lost by six. Okay. But yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I just hope that James doesn't have one of his nights where he's like two of 16 from three,

because then that's just going to be really, really bad. Well, but what if he has that bad night, but they still win, then it won't really matter. That's true. That's true. It'll be interesting. It'll be definitely a good litmus test because, I mean, I'm, I was. I predict right now if that scenario happens, ESPN's headline will be Yonness schools hardened in Bucks lost to Rockets. Probably. I'm looking forward to it, and I'm looking forward to the Rockets going.

up against tougher competition because we've been seeing them play pretty well in this small ball era with Robert Covington instead of Clint Capella. And I'm beginning to believe that they can inch up to being Tier 1 NBA contenders along with the likes of the Milwaukee Bucks and teams like the Lakers and the Clippers. So we'll see. We got a big one tomorrow night in Boston. It'll be a nationally televised game on ABC. Of course, we'll have it here if we're on 790. It's a 730 start, right? But Boston has been, I mean, they think. just two good wins lately over the jazz and the Blazers. They did lose a tough one to the Lakers last weekend

where they called a BS foul on Brad Stevens and all that. But they beat the Clippers before that. So Boston's been playing a good ball as of late, and that's a tough place to go play in the garden. But if the Rockets can find a way to win that one, we know they're going to win in New York on Monday against the lowly Knicks. Man, the stage sets up for next Thursday night. Clippers coming to Toyota Center.

That's a big one, too. TNT, nationally televised game. That's going to be a massive, massive game. And then after that, man, look at the... Charlotte, Orlando, Minnesota, Cleveland, Sacramento, Chicago. Rock has got a lot of easy... I mean, like, they won't win all of them,

but games they should win down the stretch. Down the stretch, they have one of the easier schedules in the NBA. So it is definitely within reach for them to go and try and grab that two-seat. But also, here are a couple of games from being like the six-seat. So that's just the way the Western Conference is right now. Okay. Time for a break here. on the Matt Thomas show. That's Chris Gordy. I'm Ross

Villarreal. Our producer is Nick Lowe. 713. 2125790 is your phone number 7-1-3-2-1-25-7-90. Matt Thomas Show continues after this short break. Don't go anywhere. Craig Ackerman here. When I'm not calling Rockets basketball, I'm following at SportsRV on Twitter. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. 1248 at the PM here on Sports Talk 790.

The Matt Thomas show continues. Matt Thomas is off. Doing fancy Matt things. Traveling with the Rockets. I believe he's in the air right now as they head to Boston for the big clash with the Celtics tomorrow. 630 launchpad with yours truly. And the Rockets will take on the Celtics national television ABC game. Rocket Celtics.

Can you call that a rivalry? You know, they met in the finals like twice in what, 80 and 86 or whatever it was. Yeah, I guess it's a real. rivalry. So we'll call it a rivalry. No, probably not. Well, they lost in six games both times, I think. I can't remember. But yeah, Jason Tatum, his, like, he's been talking about James Hardin and the step back. Jason Tatum, his signature move now is like the step, the side step three, where it's kind of like the steps back, except that he doesn't step back. He steps to the side. That's what Hardin tried working on that this offseason. Well, that was like the one-legged side-step thing.

He actually, he threw one of those up. I think was it last game or maybe the game before. He threw one up with the clock running down. I was like, oh, there we go. We've seen it. I think he did it a couple of of times in preseason. Four of their last five games. They've won for their last five, and for their last five games, Jason Tatum has been the leader in points. A couple times he's been the leader in rebounds. So yeah, he's playing very well. Forty-one, 36, and 33, his last three games out. Yeah, he's been scoring like crazy. I think they've won like 11 of their last 13, and the only losses are to the Rockets and to the Lakers. The interesting thing is that's who the Pelicans, when they were trying to trade Anthony Davis, that's who they wanted from the Celtics.

And the Celtics, I don't know, call them boneheaded or what? They were like, no. Imagine if that trade had went down. If Anthony Davis was playing with the Celtics right now, the Lakers wouldn't be as good. And Jason Tatum would be doing this in New Orleans. Would they be in the playoffs right now? It'd be an interesting, just what if? I mean, it's looking like a good decision right now to make him untouchable because he's on a rookie deal for the next several years.

They messed up, man. With all those draft picks that they had. They did not capitalize off of that window of all those first round picks. I mean, they're one of the better teams in the NBA right now. What are they third in the east or second? Great. You and I could be third in the east. And that's not true.

The Raptors are good. How about the Raptors, though? Nick Nurse is going to be coach of the year, right? The Raptor, they lose Kauai Leonard, and their record is just as good or probably, I think it's maybe even pacing better than what it was last year. But they weren't like without talent. Like, it wasn't like Kauai to a bunch of scrubs. That's true.

I mean, Pascal Siakum has been stepping it up. Yeah, that guy is taking, Seacom's taking his game to the next level. He's turned into an all. I mean, played the all-star. He was an all-star. He was an old-star. And probably, you know, probably going to be an all-star for years to come. So, no, I mean, good job by him.

But the fact-surge Baca is averaging 16 a night? The fact we're going into March, we're about to be in March, literally two days from March. And Milwaukee's still a single-digit losses. Like, that's just, that's stupid. Yeah, we're talking a lot about the Western Conference teams and the matchup there and all that type of stuff and the rockets and can they get out of the West and all this type of stuff. I think if they meet Milwaukee in the East, that's going to be, they're going to pose significant problems. I mean, they're a team with such great length and good defense. And, I mean, Janice and what he does in shutting down the paint, they're one of the better offensive teams in the league.

And I want to say they might even be number one as far as defensive rating. they might be the best defensive team. Somebody was trying to make the argument that, you know, the Janus versus Hardin beef, somebody was saying, yeah, what's Hardin doing in the playoffs? Okay, you want to do this? Oh, boy. Yonis last year was the first time he ever got past the first round in the playoffs.

Yeah, that's another. Everybody wants to bring up Hardin the playoffs. Hardin average like 35 a game against the Warriors last year in that series. He had one of his best playoffs that he's had ever. And unfortunately, they couldn't get past the Warriors because, I mean, they were more talented and they lost Kevin Durant, what, in the game five, in the middle of game five, and then they lost game six at home, unfortunately. But the Warriors were just a better team. And it wasn't James Hardin played really well in that series. And it was clear that Chris

Paul had hit a wall, at least within operating within the Rockets offense, which is based on isolation and getting past your man, Chris Paul just wasn't good at that anymore. And there needed to be a change. They got Russell Westbrook and they're going to run it back and go, go after it again. And it wasn't James Hardin's fault in those playoffs. If you look at what he did, I'm pretty sure he averaged like 34.8 or whatever it was in that series. He shot pretty well and he played pretty well in the series against the Warriors. It is crazy looking back, though.

I forgot. Milwaukee won the first two games of that series with Toronto and the Eastern Conference finals last year. And then game three went to double overtime. And that was, uh, wasn't it when who was it that came out? Was it Paul Pierce? They're like, this series is over. Yeah. And it was not.

unfortunately for the Milwaukee Bucks. But yeah, they're number one in defensive rating. They're number three in offensive rating. The Bucks really could. They are. But Rockets have won five straight? What's their last, what's their record like their last 12? It's got to be something.

I want to say they're like nine and three or something like that. I know they're six and two since the trade. And like I said, the two losses are. Nine and two in their last 11. Okay. And then even if you go their last loss, I think they didn't have Westbrook for that one. They might have not had Westbrook.

was it the Pelicans or whatever, one of those games? They didn't have Hardin or Westbrook, I think, in that game. So if a fully healthy Rockets team, it's been, I want to say unstoppable, but they've been pretty much impossible to be. And the new additions have been, at least Jeff Green, has been really nice. Robert Covington's been really nice. Demari Carroll, I think, is still kind of getting acclimated into the system.

But, dude, they got a lot of good players. Yeah, and the best part of all that, and Jeff Green being here, PJ Tucker hasn't been getting killed every night playing like 40 minutes. I mean, we've had Mike Dantone, joins the Matt Thomas show here every single week, and we've been bringing it up,

and he says it. He said it as himself, I don't want to play PJ this much. I don't want to play PJ this much, and then he'll go out and play him like 40 minutes. It's just because it's been kind of a necessity, and you just lose so much when he's off the floor, and Jeff Green can help in that way.

I mean, he's springy, he's defensive-minded, he knows where to be, he's smart, he's getting good blocks, all that type of stuff. So Jeff Green being here has really helped P.J. Tucker. I don't think he's played over 30 minutes in a game, like the last handful of games for the rocket. So his minutes have gone down. That's going to be huge come playoff time because they're going to lean on him so much defensively. And so Jeff Green being here, I guess it's the three of the last four games.

Yeah, the last four games for PJ Tucker, 24 minutes, 24 minutes, 34 against Utah, and then 30 minutes. So, I mean, he's been playing fewer minutes the last several games with Jeff Green on the Rockets roster, which is huge. But again, don't freak out if they lose tomorrow night. Boston's a tough place to play. And it's going to be prom time. It's going to be Saturday night, primetime, ABC, naturally televised games.

Oh, God. I want them to win so bad. And I want Bill Simmons crying. I want to see. Oh, yeah, get ready for that. I want Bill Simmons crying on the floor. There will be Bill Simmons tweets all tomorrow. Oh, this is tough to watch.

Oh, this is, who enjoys this? Yeah. On his podcast, though, he did say begrudgingly that it seemed like it was the right move to move Capella for Covington. So he did at least give that to Darrell Moray. I'm running through the- I'm sure he's going to be talking about how he doesn't want to watch it. I'm just looking at the rocket schedule down the stretch. Like you got basically a month and a half left of games.

You got the Clippers at home next week. Then you're at the Lakers on March 12th. At Portland won't be easy. You know, they're still fighting for a playoff spot. but then I see Cleveland, Sacramento, Chicago, at Dallas, not easy, at Milwaukee, but then you finish at Indiana, at Detroit, at Philly, home for Golden State, home for Toronto will be tough, at Dallas again, and then you get San Antonio, the Wizard, San Antonio, Phoenix, Memphis.

That is like, they should, they should absolutely, so they've been to Dallas once yet? Both trips to Dallas are coming in the last three weeks of the season. I think they've had them at home twice. right? Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, it's how it balances out. You've just got to win one of those, right? Two games behind the Denver Nuggets right now for the two-spot in the Western Conference, but also just two and a half games ahead of the Mavericks for the seventh spot. But I basically ran off like five tough games. The Rockets have down the stretch. The schedule is going to be. It's pretty cushy. It's pretty cushy. And they've been playing

well as long as they stay healthy. You get Eric Gordon back. Rockets are going to be dangerous and they're going to be moving up the standings. All right. You want to talk about that? You can at 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. 7-7-1-3. 2125790, your phone number tweets to at SportsRV at Chris Gordy. First hour in the books coming up. We got to talk about it. It's the Astros. It's the hit by pitch narrative.

And how stupid and wrong it is, we will address it next here on the Matt Thomas show. Is the Matt Thomas show. 101 of the PM here on Sports Talk 790. Hello, and welcome back to the Matt Thomas show. Without Matt Thomas. real. Chris Gordy, Nick Lowe with you folks. Gordy with me for the next hour.

Adam Wexler will join at 2 o'clock because Gordy's just been up here all day, grinding with Earl Bennett earlier today in the trenches. Well, when Indy Kuloo decides to take off and then Matt Thomas decides to take off. Which are lazy people. Hey, you know who's working hard today? Adam Clayton and Adam Wexler. How about a round of applause for those guys?

There we go. Yes, we're very proud of them. So one of the storylines that we're going to see, and it hasn't gone away, Gordy, is this Astros being hit by pitches and it's taking over Twitter. And at this point, it just seems like a lot of people are doing it for retweets. Like, I feel like if I put like, oh, Astros player hit and I put a video of it, if I were a Dodgers blogger or Yankees blogger or something like that, you're guaranteed about a thousand retweets because everybody is out for blood when it comes to the Houston Astros. Yeah, there's a Twitter account out there that basically is, I forget what it's called, but it's something about. The Astric Tour or whatever? Yeah.

It's muted. I've muted that one. And so, yeah, anything negative towards the Astros, they retweet a player getting hit, whatever. But, you know, in the morning I like to watch the Today Show. When I get up, I'll bring up Sean Salisbury on IHeart Radio. Who's on the Today Show? And watch the Today Show. You know, Hoda and whatever else.

I have no idea. That's why I'm asking. Hoda Cotby and Savannah, something or other. But anyway, copy. Yeah. Okay. So they go to their like, let's check in with NBC news, Carrie Sanders, who is down in Fort Lauderdale.

And he's like, oh, guys, I got to tell you. The Astros, now keep in mind, this is the same Carrie Sanders when I was in the clubhouse the day the Astros apologized. He was grilling Alex Bragman going, you're not sorry for this? Like a dad. Like literally I felt like it was Alex Brickman's dad going, I am so disappointed in you. You're not going to apologize. guys like, so take that

Kerry Sanders and now put them you know and tell him, hey, can you do another piece on the Astros getting hit? And he does this whole segment on, oh, the Astros are getting, they're just getting pounded by opposing pitchers in spring training. Keep in mind, half the guys who've gotten hit are guys who aren't even on the big league club.

Guys I've never even heard of. Or, you know, and the reality of it is some of these pitches are coming on pitches that just get away from low A players. Breggman got hit by a guy who's going to be in double A on a three two count with a splitter. And everybody on Twitter is running with this. Oh, they're getting smart. They're doing this on three, two counts. Oh, they're getting smart. They're doing this with

breaking balls. That's a good way to. Winking face emoji. Come on. Like the manager said, look, man, I know I know you're on the bubble right now to make the roster, but look, I want you to go out there and work a full count on Breggman and then hit him. What? Like, that's so stupid. People are so stupid. It's actually, it's making me angry. Well, in this piece on the Today Show, Carrie Sanders caught up with, we'll call her Karen, a disgruntled baseball fan who basically says if the commissioner is not going to punish them, well, we're going to punish them by booing them. Yeah, so we do have that lady. Here's, what are we calling this?

Karen. We're calling her Karen. It comes as the team was booed at their first spring training game of the year. It's a major league baseball and the players association won't take care of the cheating scandal. then the fans have to take care of it by booing. The fans will have to take care of it by booing. How about this guy... That'll show him.

How about this guy's local TV voice at the beginning? If the fans and the booing... That's Carrie Sanders. It comes as the team was booed at their first spring training game of the year. It comes as the team was booed at their first spring training game of the year. And then, in the third inning,

they ate a hot dog in the dugout. Yeah, it's like, come on. That's the... That's local news guy voice to a T right there. Well, he's the same one who was like, you're not sorry for this, Alex Breggman? God. Everybody's on their freaking high horse about this.

Go do a piece on coronavirus. It's so, leave the Astros alone. There's plenty of those floating around too. Brutal murders, the latest pandemics, and the Astros getting hit. That's what's dominating the local news.

We got, we have somebody, like, scandalous stories in baseball the last few years that haven't gotten much love. Like the Rangers and their weird sexual assault of their fellow players. You had the guy, of course, the

Angels pitcher who died of the drug overdose, who was apparently getting the pills from the team. None of those, I mean, those got a little bit of hype, but oh, an aster's player got hit today. Let's lead with that. Yeah, that's what we're rolling with. That's the biggest story in baseball.

And they've been hit seven times. So the over-up, the Vegas total, we were talking about this yesterday. They got hit 66 times last year, which is exactly the league average. And now the over-under is like, 80 something. And I was like, wow, that seems really high. I wouldn't look it up. Like five teams got hit more than 80 times last year. Yeah. So even if the Astros do get, I mean, I don't know, it's going to take a lot. I'm just going to have to go case by case basis. If I'm seeing a

three two count and somebody's getting hit with a breaking ball, I'm just not calling that intentional. But we'll see. We'll see. Because I think one of the factors that it's really going to mitigate this from happening too much in the season. Number one, Rob Manfred is going to come down on these people. Rob Manfred has talked about people are getting intentionally hit and he did this because who got in the beef last year was it was the pirates and the reds or whoever it was it was and they were they were like having problems the entire season so he said even before this astro stuff happened he was going to start cracking down on people who are intentionally hitting others so that's going to be a factor in this and also are you telling me that the astros players

are just going to go up there and get intentionally hit and Justin Verlander and Zach and Keith, who are both old school, and red-ass Lance McCullors, you're going to tell me they're not going to be firing back and retaliating and trying to nip this in the butt as well. Right. So, I mean, I just... Oh, come on, that's not fair. You can't hear our guys, you cheers. Yeah, so Lance McCullors are going to be dotting some folks.

If the Astros players are going to help the game... Look, what class is these guys are? They cheat. And then we hit them, and then they hit us back. You're going to tell me... That's not fair? Yeah, if, like, two Astros get hitters get hit in the first game of a... of the first inning of the first game or something like that,

that Verlander's not going to clap back. Of course that's going to happen. That's why I just don't know that it's going to happen as much as people think. But it's somebody who yelled at me for about four minutes yesterday, so I know he disagrees. Derek, in the Galleria. How are you, Derek? Yeah, I was mad yesterday, Ross, man.

I ain't many yards, bro. You were very hurtful and rude, Derek. I have to say. You know what, Ross? And if I was, and that's how you felt, bro. I thought about it after I hung up with the phone. That is how it came off. No, it's all good, Derek.

It's all fun of games. Hey, man, look, Ross. Have you ever seen Raiders of the Lost Dark? Yeah, when I was a kid. Okay, when you was a kid. I want you, when you got to time, go back. Is that the one where they ripped the guy's heart out? No, no.

That's last crusade. Oh, last crusade. I want to put, and this is in perspective of the Astro. This is what I want to say yesterday in my calm tone, why I said this is going to get worse. In the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, they find the Lost Ark. The dude opens it. When he opens up the Lost Ark, everything is all beautiful, and the angels come out, and it's all beautiful, and it's good.

But right during that, they turn, and they turn into demons. Rob Manfred, what I believe, this starts from the top, opened up that Pandora's box with the sign stealing. It's been happening for years. I've heard a lot of baseball players say, you know, these unwritten rules, the codes that they have. Sign stealing is one of them, okay? And when he opened that box, things started to turn around. And you look in Major League Baseball right now, there are so many not good things happening for the seasons to finish start now. Okay, there's not good.

And at the end of that scene, all the German dudes are laying down on a lot of, the ground because they've been hit by these demons. I'm not saying it's going to get out of control. You're right. Nobody just, you know, that three, two ball you was talking about or these different scenarios, no, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying, Ross, what happens when one of the pitchers do go out there and hit Al-Touway or Carrero in the jaw or in the face, you know, just to prove a point?

What's when that happens? and it has to start now. Rob Mafer needs to come back out like he came out when this happened and make it clear that if we catch you intentionally throwing at the any pitcher or anybody

in Major League Baseball, not just the Astros. If we catch you intentionally doing, we're going to have a severe, severe person. He's already, Derek, he's already issued the statement saying, look, we're going to send the message to teams that they're not to do this.

but the question will become, when does the ejection come, right? Like if he already says, hey, I've sent the message loud and clear, we don't want you retaliating against asterous hitters, and they do it, does the home plate umpire go, all right, warning this, warning both, both dugouts. The next time that happens, you're out of here, or is it directly right there? Hey, look, you're already warned by the commissioner?

You're done. You just hit this guy, you're out of here. It'll be interesting because, I mean, a lot of it's going to be judgment. and say, hey, one got away or is it intentional or what? It's going to be, it's going to be very subjective, and I'm interested to see how much it gets enforced and what are the penalties going to be. 66 times last year, Astros Battles were hit.

Over under, as of right now, 83 and a half. How about rushing the mound 1.5 over under? You like somebody like, like, like bench is clear. Yeah, I think it, I'll go over. I think it'll happen a couple times. You think it'll happen twice? I think like two or three times.

I really do. We'll see. McCullors is spicy, man. He's going to have words of people. He's going to be like, won't you go sit out? He's going to strike somebody out. I go, yeah, why don't you go sit down? I love it.

That's going to be great. I just love having Lance back, man. He's such a great young talent, especially. I mean, he's had health issues. Verlander, too. Verlander's old man. That's what I'm saying. Shut up.

And you think Grinky is going to hesitate to hit somebody? Absolutely not. It's going to be interesting, man. And Granky don't say anything. He'll just stare you. He'll just stare at you and he'll hit you. Remember he brushed back? Who was it?

Soto? doing all that shuffling and he brushed him back? I mean, we'll see. He just goes, sorry. Yeah. All right, we've got to take a quick break here. A couple of you guys on hold. We'll get to you at 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90.

7-1-3-2-1-2-7-90. Matt Thomas Show continues after this short break. Yo, this is Bunbyn. And my wife is the biggest fan of the whitest man in America. Matt Thomas, Matt Thomas. Reckless, ratchet, and don't give a fuck. Welcome back, Chris Gordy and Ross Villary Ellen for Matt Thomas today on the Matt Thomas Show, Sports Talk 790,

where we've been reading a lot on opposing teams still very angry. Opposing team fan base is still very angry with the Astros. They want blood, Ross. They want them to pay. I'm like, you know what's going to happen? Like that season opener, who's going to start for the Angels, whoever it is? So he comes out, bottom of the first, whoever, you know, Bregman, El Tuve, whoever you want to take is up, and they hit him.

How about Verlander preemptively hit somebody in the top? That would be great. But like they hit... Oh, no, actually, no. It'd be the... They at home for their opener? Yes. Yeah.

So they hit Al-Tuvei. The fans are going to boo. But like, if you're Al-Tuvai, do you look at the pitcher and go, okay, you feel good now about yourself? Yeah. Yeah. We paid you back, bro.

Okay. Thank you. And then Bregman hits a two-run home run. Or you hit him too then. And then Carlos Corre or Yordon Alvarez hits a three-run home run. You just put him on base. Had they been cheating last year, I get it. But this whole, like,

we got to pay you back for something that happened three years ago. It's just really silly. It really seems silly in my mind. And I know people are like, oh, can't prove they didn't cheat. No, we can. There was no findings of anything. They're literally, oh, gosh. That's the hardest part to me is, I mean, I have to defend the Astros on a number of fronts.

But that, like, you feel like people tweet me and you're like, oh, you Homer with your head in the sand and all you're just blindly following. No. They cheated in 17. It was terrible. It was bad. It was a bad look. It was embarrassing. It wasn't right.

And they got punished for it. But then there's so many other things that people are coming after the Astros for where they're uninformed and you just have to write those wrongs. And then they think that you're just defending the Astros at every turn. And that's just not the case, at least in my case. Check this out. James Simpson from KPRC down the hall. He put this out and I thought this is really clever. I agree with this.

He says, since baseball social media is full of people portrayed in the movie Idiocracy, See, here's what is coming this season for their logic. Here are the cliff notes. Number one, an Astros player strikes out. Well, it's because they didn't know what pitch was coming. Yes. Number two, an Astros player hits a home run. Yes.

Well, it's because he was cheating. Yes. Number three, Astros win? It was because they cheated. Number four, Astros lose. Well, it's because they can't cheat anymore. That's why they lost. Number five, and Astros' batter is hit by a pitch.

This is a retaliation. And he says also anything another team has done prior to the 2017 season, Well, that doesn't matter. It should not be talked about because it wasn't a rule then. People are so stupid. I mean, yeah. But it's so true. It's like anything good the asteros do?

Oh, they're probably still cheating. Anything bad? Yeah, it's because you're not cheating anymore. Well, how about this? Anytime they get hit, they got hit 66 times last year. Were any of them for any sort of cheating scandal that we know of? Right. Well, some of them might be.

Probably not. So they're going to get hit probably. They're going to get hit probably at least 66 times this year. And every one of those 66 times, It's going to end up on Twitter. There's going to be a video. It's going to be Dodgers and Yankees fans retweeting it and saying, oh, see, the Astros are getting their comeuppance.

Oh, they're getting retaliated against. Oh, they're doing this because of the cheating scandal every single time when they got hit that many times last year. I finally saw a tweet from an angry Astros fan, not about the cheating thing. We need to move Correa up in the lineup. And by the way, Flip Yoron and Brantley. We need more power in the three hole.

What? No, no, it's good. It's good to see people are getting into bad baseball takes instead of all this crap. I want more. You know what? I never thought I would welcome to the Astros Buntmore calls. But I am welcoming those. Move Yorda on up.

At 713, 2,1, 2, 5, 790. Put Yord on into two hole. Yeah, all of you that are happy that A.J. Hinch is no longer the manager because there were a lot of you on the postgame shows talking about how A.J. Hinch was holding the team back. I'm sure y'all are happy. I would rather hear from those people than hear some of these other times. takes that we're getting in this all season of the Astros. That's how bad it is.

Apparently earlier today, Zach Granky started that kemp off with a 48 mile per hour curve ball. 48 miles per hour. Who did it? Zach Grinke. Oh, wow. I love that. Zach Grinkey. The Ephis pitch, as they're calling it.

I love the out-of-nower slow curve from Zach Rinky is amazing. All right, 713, 2-1-25-790. Let's go to JR in a task of Cascar. What's up, JR? Hey, guys, great show. I'm going to tell you a little bit we did in college, and I won't tell which college it is. But we had a guy in center field with binoculars. The guy next to him, he had two big old maroon parkas.

Okay? So he looked down in there. So if you're hitting right above the pitcher's head is where he was positioned. So fastball, he put one parker over. Breaking pitch, he put two parkas over. How did he have time to put the parkers on in a couple of seconds? No, but when the catcher gives the sign, okay, to the pitcher, he would tell the guy next to him a fastball.

Boom. So you had plenty of time because the pitcher has to get the call. You see what I'm saying? Okay. You had plenty of time to know what was coming, a fastball and or a breaking pitch. All right. So now they just use the camera out there, I presume, and relate it to the to the

to the to the guy and he gives a signal to the hitter. But it was, our scheme was even better because we, you just look above the pitcher's head, you knew what was coming.

How elaborate was that? Now, another question I have to you guys is surely Friars is going to give his playoff money back and his World Series ring back because he has such strong conviction. and my question, the friarist, also, if you knew this was going on and you have such strong conviction,

why do you stop it? Yeah. And, too, you know, we have a problem here, too, with the commissioner, Manfred, you can bet you, but he's never been in a locker room, and I don't think he's ever played baseball. Anyone who's ever played higher-up college pro baseball, whatever, high school even, you know, knows how this game is played. I mean, that's part of the gamesmanship. I think, all right, I think the thing with Manor,

I thought the punishment was pretty, was pretty, like, pretty heavy-handed. Yeah, rewind to the day this got handed down. I think we all were kind of taking it back and went, whoa, whole season for both AJ and Luno? If I would have told you a year ago that in a year, A.J. Hinch will be fired. Jeff Luno will be fired. The Astros' name will be besmirch all through baseball.

They're going to lose two number one draft picks. They're going to lose two number two draft picks. and Jim Crane is going to get the maximum allowable fine by the owners and the commissioner, you would tell me how it was crazy, and you'd be like, what the hell did they do? That is a severe punishment. And Manfred talked about it in his interviews. He patently rejects the thought that the Astros were not punished. And I agree with him.

The Astros are going to be feeling this for years. Missing out on two number one picks and two number two number two picks is huge. Missing out on Jeff Luno is the architect of their winning ways. and a revolutionary in baseball. He's gone. How is that not punishment? That's what Andy even said that this week. He said like, when that came down, I was like, oh, boy.

And then when Crane took it a next step and said, I'm firing both of them, that right there is like, and then these idiots are going, oh, they weren't punished. They weren't punished. They weren't punished. And we've been through that again. It's like you have to keep going to these, you ignorant fools. How about the L.A. Times yesterday. at full heel. Yeah.

Put out this article that says, this won't be a popular conclusion in Dodger Town, but new analysis of the Astros 2017 season indicate the Astros did not gain anything from their cheating. In fact, it may have hurt them. That's a column from the LA Times who actually used, oh, I don't know,

facts and data to come to their conclusion instead of just, oh, cheating. I know every pitch is coming. I'm cheating and I'm winning every game. I don't even want to do this, but I'm going to try and check. the mentions of that. Bull, they still won while cheating. You're also going to get hit by a pitch.

Oh, boy. Again, everybody ignores what, remember the first Astros, former Astros player who came out to say anything? It was Dallas Keikle. Do you remember what he said in that speech of talking about this? They said, why did you guys stop doing it in, you know, in early 2018? He said, because we couldn't decipher whether it was helping us or hurting us. Or more guys were like, yeah, it's not really, it's not really giving us a competitive edge. And to that, I direct everybody to the YouTube video that somebody put together. It's on YouTube. It says 25 minutes of the Astros side stealing and cheating.

And when you watch the video and you hear the bang bangs and all that, there's a pop out, there's a ground out, there's a flyout, there's a base hit. But like, it's not, you would think, like, what people have come to on this conclusion is knowing every pitch that's coming will directly lead to hits or walk. or whatever. And what you see is you still got to make the right contact. You're still going to know where the pitch is going to be in the zone. Okay, I know it's an off speed coming.

I don't know if that's high and inside. I don't know if that's low and away. Like, you still got to know that. And it doesn't translate to success. And so that's the biggest thing I go back to is, you know, did they cheat that year? Yes. But how tainted is the World Series win?

Well, there was a lot of great pitching performances in that season that led to wins. The honest answer is we don't know and how much it helped and we don't know how much they were doing in the postseason. And Carl's Korea came out and said, we couldn't even do it in the playoffs because it was so loud. Right. And nobody else. Everyone ignores that. Oh, you cheated. Well, there's a difference.

They tried to cheat, but they couldn't. Like, I think there's an exception there. Like, hey, we won those games without cheating. And I think that stands for something. Like, we tried to, but we couldn't. Right. And we just don't know how much it helped. We don't know how much it was going on.

And then they quit the scheme because, teams were catching on to it. You talk about the Wall Street Journal talking about Codebreaker. Other teams were catching on to what the Astros were doing and they're mixing up their signals a lot. And the same thing was happening in the World Series. They were mixing up their signals a lot. So it just wasn't helping.

And so they were probably often as wrong as they were right when what pitch was coming. So they dumped the scheme. Here's the tough part, too, moving forward is that legal side stealing is still very much a part of the game and still very much within the rules of baseball. Kurt Suzuki came out and said, oh, we knew they were still in our signs last postseason. Well, if they were doing it without the use of technology, that's completely fine.

And within the rules of baseball. And so that's the thing that kind of sucks here and gets separated. What if the Astros in 2018 and 2019 were using the stealing sign methods within the rules of baseball, not using live technology? That's fine. But now we're going to berate them for that. Like, what happens this year? They catch some pitchers tendencies.

and they go, oh, look, every time he does this, it's going to be a fastball. Like, they're going to get berated for that? Sorry, this is part of the game. And, yeah, I mean, Udarvish got, that was on the road, right? When you Darvish in game seven of the 2017 World Series, and they said he was tipping his pitches. And apparently Carlos Beltran, aside from all this other stuff, was a savant at picking up guys tipping their pitches. And I think that's another thing that people are forgetting about.

And everybody's trying to put out this Verducci clip about Clayton Kershawton Kershaw. It was a little ponderance. I got to say, that did give me pause, that Clayton Kershers. Well, first off, let's forget the fact, Kershaw historically has sucked in the postseason anyway. So the fact that this couldn't just be an anomaly and that they just laid off. But also they saw him earlier in the postseason.

They saw him earlier in that series. You know, like maybe they kind of figure it out and said, you know, the other thing is to somebody point out, look at those video, the video of the sliders of curveballs Kurcha's throwing. The ones that are balls are so far out the zone. Of course the Astros aren't going to swing at those. They're like a foot off the plate.

Yeah, there's just so many layers to this and so many things to get into. You guys want to talk about it. 7.13-2125-790. The phone number, 7-1-3-21-5-7-90. No fear. No worries. And no hair. It's the Matt Thomas Way.

Houston Sports Talk continues with the Matt Thomas Show. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show. Without Matt Thomas. in Sports Talk 790. Chris Gordy, Ross, Veer Real, with you. Just talking about, I mean, it's just an ocean of stupid. And when it comes to this Astros thing. And my problem is, like, the ignorance.

Like, people aren't educating themselves on a lot of this stuff. And just jumping to conclusions. Right. And I guess I knew everybody on Twitter. Not everybody. Those of you follow at SportsRV or at Chris Gordy. I'll go ahead and give him a follow if you haven't already. Or at Pro Niccolo.

You guys are smart. You understand. It's just there's just so many people who don't even know what they're talking about and speaking out of their ass, it's just, it's just, there's nuance to things. Like, I deal in facts. Like, I want to know, give me the blunt, hard facts of what we know, what happened, how many times it happened.

It seems like people like, like, it's almost like this, like a guy, like you can even compare it to a relationship. Like, let's say a guy cheated on his girlfriend. For the rest of his life, he's now labeled a cheat. You know, so it's like, oh, he didn't call you back. Oh, he's a cheater. So it's like, well, what are the facts here? Like I need to know how many times this happened.

And so this is the deal with the Aster's, right? Like Tom Verdeci puts out this report and says in the middle of that game, Clayton Kershaw through 51 curveballs and sliders and the a astros didn't swing and miss an a name. Well, what we ignore is the fact that in the first inning, Jose Al Tuve struck out swinging on a clerk. Oh, really? Well, we're going to ignore that because in the middle of the game. I didn't even know that. I thought he meant the whole game. No, this is why facts are important, Ross.

you. This is why facts matter. I told you that I found it ponderous and I didn't, that's what I think. I want everything in context. Right. I didn't even know that because Tom Verduci say that and I was like, okay, it was the whole game. No. It was in the middle of it, like it. Verduci! If you take out those other strikeouts that Clayton Kershaw, the Astros didn't swing and miss on these pitches. Like, here's the other part too. Again, dealing in facts. All the games in the regular season that, that they did the trash can banging, we have that on film. the audio is there. You and I watched,

we were either at many of those World Series games or we rewatch them, I have the DVDs at home. You hear any banging? No. You hear anything? No. That's why I have to stand by when Carlos Correa,

who I think is being fully truthful now, like when people come back, oh, he's just a liar. Well, what reason does he have to lie now? Oh, because he got caught. Like, no one has any reason any answer to that. Like, why would, what reason would he have to lie now?

He was already given full immunity. Why lie? Why go, yeah, we cheated in 2017, but not those other years. Like, to me, I have to take him at his, so when he says they wanted to cheat in the postseason, they had the trash can't ready, but they couldn't because the opposing teams changed up their signs. I have to take his word on that. I have to believe that because there's no evidence of any banging in these games. That's the thing.

You're arguing against a tree stump when it comes to the 2019. There's no evidence. There's nothing to argue against. There's idle speculation. Give me the facts. If you think they cheated in Game 5 of the World Series, give me the facts. you know other than, well, there was a stretch of the game that didn't swing and miss some pictures.

Oh, Jose Altuve didn't take his, want to take his jersey off. That's the, that's it. That's all people have. That's no evidence. There's no buzzer. There's no anything. A guy didn't want to take his shirt off so the team cheated for the entire year. That's what you're rolling with.

And again, the crazy part to me that I keep going back to is we've got stretches of those games. You know, like one of the games, it was like a random game on like, it was August 1st of 2017. They're facing the raise. Chris Archer's on the match. in that game there are 21 bangs on a trash camp 12 of them happened in two different Carlos Beltrane at bats why are there only 21 bags why aren't there more why did

why did the other hitters do it why does Marwin take a bang and one at bat and the other bat there's nothing like maybe you got all fastballs it's still it's just mind boggling like I want to know the science behind when they decided to use this when they didn't I would love to hear it like the tell all book and come out in a couple of years or whatever Or maybe Mike Fires will write a tell-all book, and we can read that. Are you saying it might have come about just because Beltran couldn't stand up the plate and hit anymore?

Maybe. He was the entire reason it came about. Yeah, he did. Everybody do this for me. I'm going to get everybody punished for the rest of their lives because of this. By the postseason, he wasn't playing a whole lot anyway. Yeah, he wasn't. And they buried his glove and all that type of stuff, and he wasn't even playing.

But I think what the truth that will come out eventually, once we find out, all the full details is that they didn't do it as much as people think they did. And then again, when they did do the banging on the trash cans, it didn't lead to success on the field as many times

as people think it did. I mean, 2019, their best team was 2019, honestly. They won in 17, they won game 7 and 17, they lost game 7 and 19. The 19 team was better. It just was. Really something to the stat, though, that they were a better hitting team on the road than they were at home that year.

And there's another thing also. If you're also telling me that you didn't watch the World Series if you think that they were cheating in 2019, did you see some of those at bats? They didn't look like Yordon Alvarez knew what was coming during those playoff at bats. That dude was lost out there. Same thing for Carl's Correa had that walkoff home run in game two or whatever.

But for the most part, Carlos Correa looked absolutely bamboozled at the plate the entire time. There were some times where Jose Al-Tube looked lost at the plate too. Like they could not hit to save their lives. in that World Series for the most part. And throughout the playoffs. They had one of the best offenses of baseball, and it just died down.

So you're going to tell me they were cheating during all of that when it looks like, if you just look at the at-bats, you can tell that they didn't know it was coming? Wait, let me use... Just watch the abets. Let me use Twitter logic. That's why they kept striking out because they weren't cheating anymore.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah, okay. You just watch some of them, Yordon Alvarez bats against Tampa Bay, and tell me he knew what came was coming. How about Jen Yates on Twitter, executive director of Real Food for Kids? What is that?

She says, I just explained the Astros cheating scandal to my seven-year-old. And his level of moral outrage was pitch. Stop. Was pitch perfect. Quote, they should be disqualified from baseball forever, he said with gusto. It's really not that complicated, guys. It's really not that complicated. Well, your son should be disqualified.

Oh, please. Well, teach your son the nuances of collective bargaining agreement and how things work and how unions work and how immunity works. teach your dumbass son some basic facts of how things work and he'll figure it out. Okay, Jen? Is that what we're supposed to be proud of in our children these days? Their level of moral outrage?

My son was outraged about this. It's pretty simple, Rob Manfred. Yeah, let's get seven-year-olds running baseball, okay? Let's do that. So it can all be... Peppa Pig can be the commissioner of baseball. Cool. Thanks, Jen.

Thanks for bringing that up, Gloria. She did fall. She did follow it up with that. Her son said they will now be known as the cheater booty butts. Thanks. Now I'm upset. I don't even know what her name is. I'm mad at her.

I might just have to block out all social media through this Astro season. When I go to games, if I go as a fan, I think I'm just going to bring earplugs. I don't have to hear any other opposing fans. Just sit. If they're sitting in one section, go sit away from them. Like, it's going to be a long season. All right. Time for another break here.

By the way, Matt yesterday says, you know what the solution is to all this? Just win. That's not going to solve it. Oh, if they win games, people are still going to yell. It's going to be better. They're cheaters. That's why they're winning. You think it's not going to be better if they start out like 8 and, uh, or like 20? It's going to be bad either way.

It's going to be bad either way. It's not going to be better or worse. If they win, guess what? Then we get to the post season. Oh, these cheaters in the post season? I disagree. It's going to be, it'll be a Patriots type thing. We'll be talking about it.

but you're kind of, there's going to be no denying how great they are to continue to win. You underestimate people's pettiness. People will not let this die. I think it's the Patriot way is what you've got to do. You just got to keep winning and win and win and win and win and win. And that will help it go away for sure. Because if you lose, if they go 81 and 81 this year, my God. The difference is with the Astros with the Flaygate and Spygate, had that happened during a season where they won their lone Super Bowl, that would be different.

The Patriots won multiple Super Bowls over a long strike. After Spigate, they didn't win for like five, six years. So there was people talking about all that. Oh, well, see, how many Super Bowls have they won since Spigate? Zero. But they had still won multiple before that. The Astros won sucks because it's the cheating happen in the lone season when they won the World Series. Just win multiples after and you'll be fine.

All right, time for a break here. 713, 2, 1-2-5-790. The phone number, if you want to get in, 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-790. Ross, via, we out, Chris Gordy, with you up until 2 o'clock. Adam Wexler joins at 2 here on the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Hey, Slantz McCullors. Back to Matt Thomas.

Curve all swinging a miss strike three. On Sports Talk 790. Your home for Houston Astros baseball. Welcome back. Matt Thomas Show rolling on here. Sports Talk 790, Chris Gordy, Ross, Villarreal, in for Matt. And Ross, while we're on the topic of stupidity in America. What's the big... Garth Brooks?

Well, that was stupid, too. But what's the biggest thing in the news right now across America and the globe? A coronavirus and the subsequent stock market crash? That is correct. RAP to my 401K. The coronavirus, yeah, don't look at that. You'd be doing yourself a big disservice. But as the virus has caused concern and panic across the globe,

there is a Mexican brewery by the name of Corona. Uh-oh. They share a similar name to this virus. Well, the Dallas Morning News recently reported that a study of about a thousand U.S. beer drinkers show 38% of them said they would, quote, not buy Corona beer

under any circumstances now. Why not? Well, first of all, I wouldn't buy Corona because an ice cold refreshing dos Ekes is a far superior choice. Sure. But what? People are...

Let me remind you, there was no link between a virus which causes fever and everything else. is linked to a beer sharing the same name. I saw that too. Like, they'd lost like $132 million in sales or something like that over the outbreak of this virus. 16% of those studied were confused about whether Corona beer is related to the virus.

What are we doing? Can we get our education packed up in this country? Why do we have to be so stupid? What is going on? Is the beer the same as the virus? Can you just tell me what Europe has figured out that we don't when it comes to education? Like, you go to France? they all speak English.

Like you go to Germany, they all speak English. They all speak multiple languages. How many people in this country can speak more than one language? I bet you the average French person can name more of the 50 states than the average American kid. Like, what is going on with our system? Why is everything broken? Yeah, according to CNN, Constellation Stock Drop, or Constellation Brands who puts out Corona. Or stock dropped 8% on Thursday.

Their stock dropped 8% because of a virus that didn't have anything to do with them and they sell beer. It'd be like a beer named Flores. Or SARS. I'm not drinking that SARS beer. That does sound disgusting. Now, there was mad cow disease, which came from cows. There was that. Yeah, that's, I mean, beef sales were down there.

You're not going to have like a mad cow stout. Yeah, the beer does not. I try that. The beer is not linked to the coronavirus at all. And then, yeah, the Bernie Sanders thing. So apparently, so Garth Brooks did a concert in Detroit, and he wore a Barry Sanders jersey. Right. And a bunch of people got pissed off because they thought he was showing support for Bernie Sanders.

Because Barry Sanders is 20 and it's 20, and Bernie's running. Right. And now it has made a bunch of these hilarious memes of people putting Bernie's face on Barry and he's running. And the Detroit Lions have tweeted out, he's got our vote and it's Barry Sanders. instead of a donkey or an elephant, it's a goat? Now, in defense, how many years has Barry Sanders been retired from the league? 1999? No, I'm going to say before.

Was it that? I thought it was before that, but I don't know. 1998 was his last year in the league. July of 99, he announced he was officially retiring. So, yeah, anywhere from 21 to 22 years. So I guess if these are a bunch of 17, 18-year-olds who never knew Barry Sanders' name, honestly, if you're 25, you're probably, you were four at the time when he retired,

you probably don't, you're not that familiar with Barry Sanders. Perry Sanders, for my money is the greatest running back of all time, the greatest running back I've ever seen. You should know who Barry Sanders is. I don't care how old you are. He's a goat. Now, if you don't know who, like, Lorenzo White is,

I understand. But you need to know who Barry Sanders is. You need to know. I didn't, I mean, Jim Brown stopped playing before I was born. I know who Jim Brown is. Walter Payton, I didn't see play. I know who Walter Payton is. O.J. Simpson, well, everybody knows who he has for various reasons.

There's a lot of musical artists out there who would take a political stand for people. Do you ever picture Garth Brooks's one who's going to take a hard political stand on somebody? Garth Brooks wants Bernie to take all of his money away and redistribute it. Come on. I don't think Garth gives a damn who's president, who's running for politics. I mean, Garth has got to be worth a solid half a bill, right? What do you think Garth Brooks of net worth is? Oh, he's got to be worth a lot.

I'm going 500 mil He kept his I think his stuff still Isn't on iTunes right $350 million Yeah Woof Seven diamond albums

Damn It was a really good Documentary that came on Two-part documentary Came out a couple weeks back On one of those channels And really really good Tell us the whole story of his

Of his life And how he wrote his songs and all Okay Really good Go check that out I'll take your Where is it what platform is it on I don't know

It's one of those Oh you don't even know Just probably lifetime. Google two-part Garth Brooks documentary. But no, like his original wife taught, and here's the best part. His original wife was with him when he wrote a lot of these songs and was hit in the road and become a successful and all this. The original wife, when they're filming these parts of the documentary, it's in this really nice house, wearing really nice clothes. You've realized, ah, she owns half of all that from when they got divorced.

Yes, I bet Mrs. Garth Brooks who divorced him. is doing quite well for herself. Well, anyway, Garth Brooks making not a political stance, a sport stance on his support for Barry Sanders. They retired NFL legend, but people associated that with Bernie Sanders. If this is what happens when he wears a Barry Sanders jersey, we need to get Garth to go to his next show

wearing a Ha ha ha Clinton Dix jersey. Clinton? Okay. What other? Is there any famous Bidens in sports? Warren. There's got to be, well, Warren Moon is going to be

the last name is Moon. That's not going to help. I don't know. But people are just ridiculous. I can't believe that Corona stock is going down because of the coronavirus. But I guess I sure.

This is so stupid. What do you wear? I don't know. Is there a famous Watson? That could be mistaken if you wear a Sean Watson jersey? No, I don't think so. You're saying you support actress Emma Watson?

What is Emma Watson? Emma Watson's probably outspoken about something. I don't know. Okay. 713, 2,125. 790 is the phone number. 713, 1,2, 125, 790. Chris Gordy, Ross, Villarreal, with you. We've got Adam Wexler coming up here in a little bit.

And one of the things I want to talk about with him, definitely, if you haven't heard already. James Hardin, still, well, you know what? He's only trending number two now in America, Gordy. But he came out and he was talking about Janus, and we'll play the audio for you coming up. and that's the beef. And I just, I feel like I like these harmless beefs. James Hardin,

I think it's a little bit unfair to come out and say that Janice Tentacumpo is not skilled, although he didn't mention him by name, but to say that he's just seven foot and he just runs and dunks, it's a little bit more than that. Yes, he can't shoot, but he needed to do this after Yonis had been taking

subtle shot after subtle shot after him for so long. It was about time James clap back. So people are putting up video. Like apparently all this stuff comes back, like for a year. There is a video of 2014. A little young Janice. Like in 2014, he looks like he's 12.

Oh, yeah. Coming after. There was a little beef there. But here's the, Sean Jones, last time he was up here, talked about this. Like,

what is it with these NBA athletes nowadays? Like for basically the past five, six, seven, eight years, they're all hunky dory. They all play their butts out on the corpus. As soon as the game's over,

they're hugging each other. Hey, bro, come over to my house later. I'll see you at the party later and all this stuff. Like, what happened with the true rivalries that carried off the court, too, where I don't like you? You know, like the old Bulls teams and stuff? You think Dennis Rodman was going and hanging out with whoever after the game? Like, no.

There's nothing wrong with that. But those are real rivalries. Friendship is okay, Gordy. A lot of them grew up together on AAU teams. We need more of this Janus Hard and taking shots at one of them. They've all been at, like, when you're an excellent basketball player and you're a youth, you're going to see each other on the AAU circuit. You're going to see each other at Nike Hoops Summit. You're going to see each other at the YADDist thing.

McDonald's All-America. You're going to be friends from that. Has Steph Curry ever said anything negative about anybody? Yeah, I think so. He said stuff about Hardin before, hadn't he? I think Steph Curry has come out for a lot. Then he went up to him. Hey, man, I'm just joking.

Don't get that of me. But nobody's scared of Steph Curry, but I'm okay with most of the friendships. I'm also okay with this beef. I feel like Joel Embed is like starting beef with everybody. I want more Kobe yelling at Dwight Howard. Soft. Soft. Soft.

We need more of that. Yeah, okay. Where's that? That made me mad when that happened because he was on the rockets. But anyways, maybe Dwight Howard was being a little bit soft in that instance. Oh, he absolutely was. Time for a break here. That's Chris Gordy and Chris.

Appreciate you hanging out for a couple hours. I'm going to go get out of here. You're going to pass the baton to Adam Wexler, who is waiting in the wings here on Sports Talk 790. My name is Ross Villarreal. Nick Lowe is our producer. Adam Wexler about to carry me for the next hour. I'm appreciative of that. So the Matt Thomas Show final hour continues next here on Sports Talk 790.

This is the Matt Thomas show Final here on the anything goes Friday 713-212-5-790 is your phone number if you want to get in Look Howard Memorial is on hold If you want to get ahead him I will take you ahead of him At 713-212-5-790 Ross via Real Alongside you know how I know it's in anything goes Friday Adam Wexler is in the house

thanks to Chris Gordy for sitting in for the first two hours of the show. Nick Lowe producing the whole time, Ross V. We're out with you the whole time. But Wex, let me ask you this. Number one trending in America right now, according to United States trends on Twitter, is hashtag Free Code Friday Contest. I have no idea what that is. And number two is James Hardin. Yeah, you guys talked about it quite a bit, and rightfully so,

because James Hardin opened up more than usual when he was sitting down with Rachel Nichols to address that very subject because, and as you kind of laid out over the last couple of hours, there's little bits and pieces that seem to have been driving this Janice, not a fan of Hardin, storyline.

It looks like it's been building for years. All coming from Janus. It's not made out of thin air. He's had things said. He's done things on the court. Again, I still can't get over the fact that, I mean, Danny Aange v. Mario Ellie. I mean, that was pretty harsh.

He basically threw the ball right in his face from short distance. on purpose. And we all give Janice a pass for when he did it to Hardin. Yeah, he did. He absolutely beamed him under the guise of trying to make a cross-court pass. You think it was on purpose then? I mean, nobody throws passes like that and nobody misses the pass so badly it hits the guy in the face. Was it a breaking ball on a three-two count? Can we be sure it was intentional? Yeah, it's all part of the story. Whatever narrative you'd like to deliver, we can get that to you. But yeah, so James Harden basically just, he said what he thought. And I don't doubt that he thinks

that exactly what he said. I don't think he was skirting around it. He's had questions like this before. He's had other people talk about things before, and he usually doesn't say a whole lot. He brushes everything off for the most part. And I don't think he did much more than that, but he did. He clearly was talking about someone

who had specifically been talking about him. Yeah, so here's some of the interview, Rachel Nichols, ESPN, with James Hardin talking about Janus and the shots that he was taking at James. Charles Barkley, when they had the All-Star draft, was saying, oh, no one wants to take James Hardin. He's a dribbler. Yonis and Tukpo makes a joke on the air about,

I want to take someone who can pass. I'm taking Kembo Walker instead of James Harden. I have more assist to him, I think. You ranked 10th in assists going into the All-Star break, and Kembo ranked 36 in assists going into the All-Star break. I don't see what the joke is, but I don't even see it. I don't pay attention to stuff like that. I just know none of them can mess with me.

None of them can mess with me. I like that. It's very James Harden laugh of him. He had a better laugh in there somewhere, but I don't think they put it in the online version. Oh, really? In the over-the-air interview that they've been running over the course of the day, he had a much more significant, it's hardier, laugh at something. Okay. So then he also, so he addressed that stuff there, and then here's where it gets a little bit juicy, him talking about skill levels and wishing he were seven foot.

You know, when it's all said and done, you know, they'll appreciate it more, you know, but I wish I could just run. run, run and seven feet and run and just dunk. Like, that takes no skill at all. I got to actually learn how to play basketball, how to have skill, you know? I take that any day. I'll take that any day. Having skill and not being a seven-footer who can just run and just dunk. Fair or foul, taking shots at Giannis that way?

Well, who do you think leads the league and dunks? Probably Janus. It's in the Kumpo. I think it's Yonis. Claypelle's probably up there. Capella. Well, if you're playing. Again, he's falling back a bit. I have no doubt.

And you've got to take it for what it's worth. You know, does James Harden never pass the ball? Is the same thing of does Janus do nothing but dunk? Of course, Jonas does much more than that. And of course, James does much more than hang on to the ball, nonstop every game, dribble the shot clock down to four, and then either he'll pass to a guy with one and screw him, or he'll take the shot that he misses. He does do some of that.

But so much less of all of that this season, even less of it last season and on throughout the last. several years. We can recognize that Janus is a much better play than that. Some of us, I hope everybody, you can't just dunk your way to that in his position. Shack can. He can't. They're different players, even though one big

compared the two today in a tweet patting both Janus and James Harden on the back, Kendrick Perkins, talking about these two MVPs. I liked what you said to Chris not too long ago that this is good. Why is everybody all friends and this is going to be, you can have

either way. Most of these guys are friends. After every game they shake hands or go up to each other, bro, hug it out, and then go to their respective locker rooms. This is okay, too? Yes. It's fun when Clint Capella is banging on the door of the Clippers' locker room or whatever

and we get the tunnel gate happens and we get to learn about that or Joel M. B. going after people and Carl Anthony Towns and tossing him on the ground and Yonisandin and now him firing back. This is all great. This is all, I mean, And this is just a lot of times when you want to generate interest in your sport, beefs like this help.

And I think this is going to be, there's going to be the entire nation's eyes on that March, middle of March, it was it, March 25th or whatever it is, when it's Rockets versus Milwaukee Bucks on national television. It's going to be good stuff. The Bucks are doing something pretty special, whether or not you believe in it because the bottom of the east is so awful. They are packing up the winds. I do.

But 50 and 8 is still pretty salty. and if they're on their way to 65 to 70 wins this year pretty easily, I would think. The Rockets will probably win in the neighborhood of 52, 3, 4, 5, somewhere in that neighborhood, I would suspect, with 20 losses already on the season. That matchup will mean something because of who they are. I don't think either one of them is thinking that that's the game of the year or anything, and they haven't played in a while. They did play in game one at the beginning of the season.

Rockets had a double-figured lead that night. they also aren't the team today that they were then. That was a Clint Capella-era Rockets team. That was a first game in a Rockets uniform, Westbrook team. This game coming up on the 25th is basically right at the end of the season. The Rockets will have 10 games to go when those teams meet after that. They'll be looking at, well, what are we, what's our matchup look like? What do we need to be at our best?

But it will absolutely be a statement game. Also in the middle of a five-game road trip. A five-gamer? Yep. What is a rodeo coming into? Is it a, it's like a San Antonio Spurs rodeo trip? It only lasts eight days, but there'll be in Dallas, Milwaukee, Indiana,

Detroit, and Philadelphia on that trip. Okay, well, the rockets across America on that trip, but just the way the Rockets have been playing, just talking about that, and going up against the bucks, that'll be a good test, but as you know, Wax, six and two since making the Covington trade with a win over the Lakers,

a win over the Celtics, a win on the road at the Utah Jazz. I was, I won't say I was skeptical of small ball. I was more accepting of it. Certainly more than, like, say, the T&T crew. But the more I'm seeing of this, the more I'm buying in, this Rockets team might be a championship contender when I didn't feel that way a month ago.

Yeah, if they can make teams really have to figure it out, which they're doing, they're going to finish out great. I said this on yesterday's show. Their regular season is going to be, I think, very, very good the rest of the way. The real question is can they go out and beat Oklahoma City four times in seven nights,

Dallas, Utah, whichever team ends up, the matchup in the opening round when you have your coaching staff looking only at rockets tape for a week straight, not looking at every team's tape for a week when you only play the rockets once over a four or five. I think when teams start to look into it, what is best? Like Utah's a good example. They've seen the rockets twice, but over the course of two weeks. The first time they played the rockets, they had Gobert on Westbrook and it was a total embarrassment. He was awful on both ends, totally useless. And then they played him two weeks later. And what did they do? The exact same thing. They made zero adjustments. The game played out exactly the same way

for Gobert and for Westbrook. Obviously, the result ended up being different, but really didn't have anything to do with how they tried to match up with Houston. That's what changed in the playoffs. Teams will do things a little differently, but I agree. I think while you were skeptical, if I could guess, is you didn't think they would be capable defensively because it would require them to be on every night, care every night. Give the effort every night defensively. They have. Yes, it's been helpful.

I mean, and Robert Covington, he's a lot smoother than, than I remember, I guess, his first go around. I mean, he's really good at, at, I mean, he's big out there. I mean, he's their tallest player, there's tallest starter, so he looks bigger, but I mean, he's pretty big. He's strong and he's stout. Like Mike D'Antony said, hey, we're not tall, but we're stout,

and they're pretty strong, and who was it? Was it, who was the opposing coach who said they all have a bunch of linebackers out there? I can't remember who it was. It doesn't matter. But, I mean, that's pretty much what you have. Harden and PJ Tucker, their linebackers. They're linebackers out there.

And that's what, that's what it looks good. I'm liking it. And I don't know that they're going to win the championship, but I don't think they're going to win the championship with Clint Capel in the starting lineup anyways. Which is why it made sense. Just give it. I mean,

you're not like, oh, let's give it a shot. There were numbers backing up the idea that it could work. If this works, then we're going to need to go out and do this. They're going to be a bad rebounding team. They are. They're one of the worst in the NBA right now,

if not the worst, uh, over this stretch of time. But they're also. So first or second in the league both offensively in turnovers, they rarely turn the ball over, and their first or second in the league in turnovers forced. They're constantly forcing turnovers because teams don't know what to do with the Rockets defense sometimes. They're making terrible decisions, bad passes.

Like I said, I think that'll maybe even out a little the more teams see it. But you've got to like what you've seen from Robert Covington. He was averaging 0.9 blocks per game playing on the perimeter with the T-Wolves. and in eight games with the Rockets, he's averaging 2.6 blocks per game, and his minutes is only up two. He's just been unreal. He's been great. He's been awesome, and he's been making, not only he's been making his three,

he's been making some tough three, some contested at the end of the shot clock, above the break threes. He's been really good. I'm really liking the addition of Robert Covington. When it comes to getting ahead of ourselves, I think the team I fear the most when it comes to Rocket Smallball is the Clippers. I think they can go small ball with Rockets just about as good as they can. I mean, with Paul George and Lou Williams and Kauai Leonard and those guys and them going small,

that's the team that I think really scares me when it comes to. They say, oh, you're going to play small with you, and we can be better because we have more talent. It's very possible. I'm being you're right with the way that they stack their lineup. And then the Lakers, if they wanted to, could probably do the same thing if you kind of look at Paul George and Anthony Davis similarly as defensive players. because Anthony Davis is not like Rudy Gobert or some of these other centers who are incapable of defending. I mean, he's skilled. He has speed.

He has length and he's an athlete. And he can do that. And I think that's where they might equalize it. And I totally agree on the Clippers if they're all in. And if their team kind of gets it together, they're so talented. Their record is what it is. I still don't think they've really clicked and little worried that they'll click the last three, four games of the season and going to the playoffs thinking, Yep, we are exactly what we hope to be.

We haven't gotten too many technical fouls from the Morris Brother Wea added, and hopefully that won't hurt us down the stretch. All right, so the Rockets do face off against the clippers coming up on the schedule. It's pretty soft for the most part, but a couple of tough matchups. We'll talk about those. If you want to get in, 7-1-3-21-5-790, the phone number 7-1-3-2-125-7-90. Adam Wex at Ross Villarreal. It is The Matt Thomas Show without Matt Thomas back after this short break.

When I listen to the Matt Thomas Show, I don't even understand the eclectic nature of the show, the dichotomy, the ostentatiousness, the perfunctory that sounds about as smart as LeVar Ball. Back to the Matt Thomas Show. Whoever he is. Matt Thomas Show rolls along here on Sports Talk. 790. Ross Villar. Adam Wexler. With you.

There you go. at 713-1-2-125 at 790. 7-1-3-2-125-7-90. Let's go ahead and talk to Friend of the Show and one of Adam Wexer's closest, dearest friends, Howard and Memorial. A quick comment. If I were the Astros, I would put out the word,

we're not going to be people's target practice. If you throw at us, we're going to throw at you, and this thing will stop. I can tell you a quick story. years ago, the Cardinals were playing the Cubs. Muzil was the top player on the Cardinals. And the Cardinals...

How many years ago? Stan Musil? I guess it had to be maybe in the 60s. Or maybe the 70s. But at the end, the Cardinal pitches were throwing at the Cubs. The Cubs threw at Muzil. He said, what do you want for me? They said, because if we throw at you, you'll tell your players to stop it, and it stopped.

and if they've got to stop it and the only thing that really stop it is the threat that somebody will get hurt along the way there's no question about it but if you've been listening to Ross probably all week you'll know that they can't stop it if it hasn't started yet if you think what's happened in spring training

has started the Astros getting hit by pitches and beamed and thrown out intentionally that is just not what's happening I don't care what the number is and I know it's more than any other team so far It just, it's not relevant. That's not what's happening.

This is not, I'm here. I was on with Kansas City Radio earlier today and I was talking about. They asked me the same thing. Yeah. And I said, well, Max Scherzer's faced the Astros twice already. He's thrown four innings against him. He hasn't hit anybody. Right.

Because he cares and matters. You think they're head to hunting Alex Degotti? That's the thing. Alex Degotti gets hit by a pitch. Osvaldo Duarte gets hit by a pitch. Bregman pitch. You've talked about it plenty of times. Jake Myers.

Jake Myers getting head hunted? One of these goal hit by pitches was a jersey hit by pitch. You know, one of those where they have to kind of think, did it really touch his jersey? Do he send him down to Jose Altuva got hit? Hitting the foot. On the foot. I mean, I'm glad it hadn't happened, but that's the thing. Either pitchers would be super duper smart and do it on purpose here in spring training

because they know they're not going to get punished or they're not doing it spring training because it's stupid. When the regular season begins, the Astros will probably get hit. the beginning part of the season or by teams that care a little bit more than more often than not and then it's going to go away well it's going to be very interesting to see because the commissioner will not in the long run won't be the one to stop it the players will stop it themselves uh or or or somebody as I said will get hurt because for a season or a career yeah that's obviously how

we appreciate. That's the biggest concern of all. It's not about the number of times an Astro might get hit or how often they have to take their beating or if this is really the way to solve it. You shouldn't want to see anybody get hurt no matter what sign stealing issues you have with them. This is 85 plus mile an hour pitch. I don't know if they're going to throw fastballs or breaking ball. I assume fastballs. That's normally the way you intentionally hit a batter. Oh, no. Listen to the tinfoil hat people on Twitter.

They're waiting for a three to count at a breaking ball to hit All right. some random guy who's going to be in double A ball. Yeah, these guys are so ticked off. We were led to believe. They're not going to put that much thought into, I want to be in these guys, but I want to get away with it. They don't care about getting away with it. That's why they're saying it publicly that we're going to throw at them,

and they're going to get thrown at, and they better be ready, and everyone's coming after them, because those are their intentions. They're not trying to mask them. They want to throw at the asteros. So Manfred Set has talked about the heavier-handed punishments for intentional hit by pitches. Have we heard anything on that? Is there anything going to come down with what the extra suspension or fine or whatever it's going to be?

Yeah, no, we haven't because he won't say anything until he has to hand one out. And when you throw a guys intentionally, what would you expect the punishment to be? Because guys have gotten suspended before. It's generally like a five-game suspension. For a starting pitch or five-game suspension, make a miss a start. Yeah, it's a single-start suspension. Right. So to take Manfred at his word, that's not going to be the suspension moving forward.

It has to be more than that. It's 10 games then? So it's a two-sart suspension? Is that enough to deter a pitcher from throwing in an astro? I would think so inclined? I mean 10-1-16th of the season? What percentage is that? Like 7% or I don't know.

You start 32, 33 games, and he's taken two away from you. Right. Is that enough? I think that's huge. I wonder if I don't think it is. I don't think that pitcher is going to do it again. I don't think he'll try again to do it. but it's an interesting thought.

Like, what is, where do you draw the line? What has to be handed out? Well, you know what? That'll be a good way to keep an innings limit on Lance McCullors. He can retaliate on everybody because he's going to be on an inning's limit. He'll just hit everybody and miss a couple of starts. Yeah, you guys got into that a little bit. There's a new manager for the Astros, Dusty Baker.

I don't think the old manager was in favor of hitting guys because they hit your guys. Yes, he very much was not. Definitively against it. Right. Which I'm good with. I am too. That's their answer for your sign stealing shouldn't be throwing at you. And your answer for them throwing at you shouldn't be throwing at them.

I think you got some guys. But I think it's probably going to play out that way this year. I think so. I mean, I think Lance McCullors ain't going to take no guff from nobody. I think Justin Verlander and Zach Rinkie are going to be some guys. I mean, the others, I don't know if Jose Arcite is a red ass. I mean, I don't know if he's going to be tossing. Well, how about if Dusty wants to send a message to the other team?

So the rotation is Verlander, Granky McCullors for the opening series. Yes. And Josh James is the fifth starter. Okay. And the sixth inning of the opening game, because they don't want to crush Verlander yet, he's only going to throw five. He's going to throw 86 pitches through five. But Bregman's been hit and Correa's been hit. So he brings in Josh James out of the bullpen to throw 100 miles an hour at guys.

At their waist, of course. Of course, yeah, or back. Or hip. But all heaters. All heaters, shoulders and under, between the shoulders and knees. I'm with that. His teammates will love him. I think so.

His opponents will not. I just, I don't think. I mean, who is even, I mean, we were looking it up earlier. Who is the opening day starter for the Angels? I mean, I'm going to guess it's Heaney, but I don't know that for a fact. You know, they've got, they really don't know, to be quite honest, because they're all the same. There's no ace of the staff, really. There's not?

No, there's not. Anthony Rendon can't start. They're going to have a good offense. I think a very good offense. But unless Autani's obviously not that guy, he probably will pitch this year. They're going to do it. Aren't they come on and say they're doing six-man rotation

and with Otani being the sixth? Possibly so. And I don't think he's scheduled to regularly get the ball at the beginning of the season. Okay. Well, we'll see what's going on with that. 7-13-1-2-1-2-5-7-90. Steve and Huffman want to talk some strals.

What's up, Steve? Yeah, I don't know if you guys have looked at this and in such a small amount, I guess, over the course of 162 games, but then again, I don't know, it's hard to quantify. If Vegas has this at 83 hit by pitches, which would be half the season, roughly. My question is this, how many of those runs come around to score and what does that mean in terms of additional victories? Yeah.

And how does that play out at the end of the year as far as, you know, positioning and winning. All right, Steve, thanks a lot. Appreciate it. Yeah, I mean, look, that's another thing. You're just putting guys on base for one of the best offenses in baseball. This lineup is going to be nasty coming up next year. We do have questions about the starting rotation, which we did last year as well.

But, I mean, you're looking at, what are we talking, starting to Springer, then what, Altuve, Bregman, Yordon, Correa? I think so. Yulee. I think that's right. Garrett, Stubbs. Well, maybe. Martin de Machete, Maldonado, he's going to be in there.

And as far as this number, by the way, 83.5. Look at it the way he sent it out there. He said that's basically one guy gets hit every other game. Yeah, that's an extra base runner every other game. That's good. But it's really not an extra base runner every other game when you compare it to last year. Like you keep saying, it's only 17 more base runners over the course of a season. Yes.

Because they got hit 66 times last year, quote unquote, unintentionally. The league average was 66. That's exactly how many times they got hit last year. Four teams were 83 and above. This is just, I mean, I guess I could look at this. Let me look at like 2018 how much the Astros got hit. Let's take it through that first game. Andrew Heaney starts for the Angels.

He hits the third batter of the game. How many other Astros can get hit in that game? Truly, do you think the Angels will continue to intentionally hit batters? Let's assume that Heaney's been ejected. Let's assume that the umpires are on top of it. It's not going to continue that game. Are they going to come back the next? stay and start hitting Astros again?

And then the third game of the series, they're going to do the same thing. If they're idiots, that's why this is not going to spiral out of control the way as people think. Right. Or the way that people are hoping. And guys actually may get hit because guys throw inside. Guys throw fastballs over the inside of the plate. They're all going to be intentional.

All 66 of them that's going to, or 83 or whatever, they're all going to be intentional. Will 9 out of 9 Astros batters wear an elbow pad on their front arm? Everybody's been saying you need to get geared up like Craig Bizio, but that's not legal anymore, right? You can't put, it's like a Barry Bonds rule. Barry Bonds, you should just have basically armor plating on his entire arm and stick his el. He would have his elbow basically hanging over the plate. Right, that's the thing. Guys get hit all the time on pitches that are a fraction of an inch off the black because they're hanging over the plate. And the Astros do the same thing. Most good hitting players and teams do that. I'm looking at the last three years. The Astros got hit most in the last three years, 70 times in 17, 61 times and 18, 66 times and 19. I think it'll be slightly higher. I don't think taking the under is out of the question. I would slam the under. I don't even know how much they were.

They're probably not going to let you put too much on it because that's just how they roll. But I just think it's going to be a little bit over. It will happen. I think it will happen at some point. It's just not going to happen consistently. It's not going to happen for the entirety of the season. It's just not.

Do a bunch of teams want their get their licks in? Yeah, probably. Probably. But does every team want to? I mean, when the Astros play against their national... Are the Baltimore Orioles going to be coming after the Astros? That's a good question. Doesn't Baltimore think even last year? I mean, I know we're terrible and we're a 50-win team, but they had to be cheating when they put 20 on us and when Yordon

kept embarrassing us. Wow, yeah. They might want to beat him just for that. But they never did it during the games or the series last year. That's why they hit so well. That's why they dropped a 20 spot on them because they were cheating, of course. It's not because the Baltimore Orioles are terrible. Right. All right, 7-13-1-2-5. 790 is the phone number. 713-1-2-125-79. Matt Thomas Show continues with Adam Wax at Ross via real. After this short break. Load up on those napkins, straws, ketchup, hot sauce, mustard.

Oh, and don't forget duck sauce. It's the Matt Thomas Show for lunch on Sports Talk 790. The off-season of misinformation and overblown narratives continues for the Houston Astros. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas Show. You had a tweeter asking us, so how many times did the Astros get hit last year in spring training? Oh, did you find that? Yeah. Oh, nice.

Last year, 14 times, the year before that, 18 times. And this year, so far, seven times. None today so far. Oh, no. They're mopping the floor with the Marlins today. Spoiler alert. Come on. Sorry, guys.

Can't I tell them anything about today's game? I guess so. It will be airing at 6 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790 in lieu of the 9-cap. Looking forward to it. debut of Zach Rankie. Went well? Debutue of Josh James. Went well.

Wax. You're just dropping spoilers like crazy over here. So no Astros that aren't going to make the team we're hit by a pitch today. We're grazed on the foot. We're grazed in the jersey. I think Ross hit you with this earlier. Not all of the name, so we'll give them all to you here.

Jake Myers, Osvaldo Dwarte. Who? Alex DeGote. What? Are the three players who've been hit by a pitch this spring that will not be on the Astros. Dustin Garneau will probably be on the Astros. He's been hit once.

Altuve, Bregman, and Aledmus Diaz. And of course, Aledmiss, one of the keys to their 2017 world championship. They've been hit once each. Well, he was a key with, was he a Cardinal or Blue Jay at that point, 17? Who knows? It's just, it doesn't matter. He was not an Astro. The narratives are fun.

They're not, I'm going to try to not let them get to me because, like, Matt Thomas came over here yesterday and he was screaming. And I was getting mad to, and he was getting me all mad. I'm going to try to keep my cool with all these stupidity and the misinformation and these Yankees fans and these Aastricht Tour Twitter accounts that are getting like 9,000 retweets. Every time somebody gets hit and Astro gets hit, they're getting like 9,000 retweets. We were talking about the Orioles just a moment ago. Yes, your favorite team. They have not had a bad or hit by pitch this screen so far. Well, nobody cares about the Orioles.

Are the Astros still leaders? Yes. By how far? I'm looking around. I haven't seen a team with more than four besides those Astros. Well, the Astros are just getting targeted. I mean, I'm sure they're spending plenty of money in ice. Make sure their players somehow iced down after all these bruises they're getting.

Ice up, son, as Steve Smith would say. 713-212-5-7-90. Your Funner? Steve Smith from the NFL Network? Yes. Now, have you been watching any of the Combine? No, I have not watched one second of Combine. Okay. Is that wrong? Is that wrong with me? No, no, no. I think you'll have a chance to catch up. Should I be all in the combine? You'll catch up when you need to. Okay. I'll catch up when the Texans are on the clock in the second round. I saw something today. I didn't know if you had maybe seen anything regarding Mitchell Wilcox. He's a USF tight end. That could be a made-up name. I wouldn't know. It's accurate. It's his actual name. That's one of the things. Wilcox is pretty normal name. During combine time, a believe it or not staple would be us, believe it or not, this guy is in the.

combine. That's good. That sounds made up. That sounds like one I would make up. So you're familiar with the wide receiver, tight end drills, where you just kind of run down the field, turning each direction, getting a ball fired at you, you catch it, turning this way, back and forth. What seems like it should happen when that's going on? Because as soon as you turn around, the ball's coming at you. It seems like you should catch it. Or get hit in the face. He got hit in the face. Oh, man. He got drilled right in between the eyes, right across

his nose and it was pretty clear that it stunned him, but he continued. It was like the second ball, so we're like three more going back that way. He caught the first barely. He kind of fumbled through the next one. It was impressive that he continued, but it was pretty clear he was trying to, you know, recalibrate. That's just one of those worst times. You just got to fight through it.

You ever see somebody fall down and do something like that? Like, well, you're familiar with the University of Texas campus, Wes? Yeah. You know, in front of the tower, there's all those steps. There was a girl that I was dating in college, and I was walking with her up the steps. And she fell down, like 15 steps. You were walking down? We were walking down.

Okay. In front of everybody. And she, her knees were all scraped up, and she twisted her ankle. And she got up, and she just tries to, like, walk. But she can't walk. And everybody's just running over. Oh, my God, are you okay? Were you not holding hands?

Yeah, no, I picked her up. Yeah. I don't think initially were. Holding hands at the beginning, you just let her go? No, I don't think so. I don't remember what it happened or I was, maybe I was a step behind her. I can't remember. I just know that I just saw it on all unfold and it was grisly.

And she was fine, but she was just scraped up and, you know, embarrassed. Of course. And we bring, like, I, you bring that up like a decade later. It's so bad that when something like that happens, you just feel so bad. And there's nothing you can do. It's like if you just have to, like they say tweet through it, you just have to, you just have to keep walking. You just have to bear it. So she tried to do that.

Yeah. Yes, but then she needed to sit down for a minute. That's rough. It was bad. That's a big scene there, too. You're out in the open. Everybody can see you. That's what's called in front of the mall.

That's where, so there's what's called the six pack of six buildings there, and there's a huge lawn where people go and they study or they take an app or whatever. So she was in front of probably like 50 people. How audible was the tumble? I don't think it was that audible. I think she let out like a whimper. Like one of those. Here I go. Down she goes.

You must have been thinking. Oh, bleep. That was bad. Good times. But, I mean, it was one of those. So that's basically what this young fellow is situation. Oh, yeah. You just have to go through it.

And he probably can't even see, and he has to just keep going. Can't see. Probably not really going straight. Doesn't really know what's happening. And while he doesn't know what's going on, they're firing three more footballs right at his face. Maybe like James Hardin after getting hit in the head by a Janice Intenticompo pass. Probably so. Maybe in a previous postseason series when he seemed like he was in a days.

but he didn't have a concussion. Was that the 2016 Spurs series? He was playing like he was concussed. He was either concussed or completely out of gas in that series. I'm convinced. He just did not look good for whatever, one of those two reasons. What did he do in game six? Was he like one of 11 or whatever it was from the field?

It was a team-wide malaise. Who was it that guy that was playing? Simmons or whatever his name is? For the Spurs? Jonathan Simmons. Jonathan Simmons was playing like... He wanted a big, fat, convalies. But Michael Jordan reincarnate in that game, defensively and offensively, was incredible.

Yep. I remember being at the arena. That's probably, I don't know what's worse. That game, probably the 0 for 27 game. The 0 for 27, much more on the line and much more difficult to believe. You got a bad night of basketball the worst possible time against the Spurs. This night, you're like, can you not figure out a way to win this game? You can miss all the threes you want, but you've got to figure out a way to win this game.

Yeah. And two seats to my left. There was a national NBA writer who was shall have on. not be named who was just screaming, oh, this is the biggest choke job I've ever seen. And I wanted to punch him in the face. Am I supposed to guess? No, you're not supposed to guess. He's not going to be named because I've already muted him on Twitter.

Actually, I think I blocked him on Twitter. Is he that bad? Hey, he says, he's not good. He's a fan boy? I'm just, I'm not devoting any more details. All right. I'll see. His name rhymes with mim montemps.

All right, anyways, we're going to take a break here on the Matt Thomas show. There is one segment to go if you want to get in. 713-21-5-790. 7-1-2-5-7-90. First of all, anything goes Friday. So you can bring anything on the table here in the last segment. We also been talking about the Rockets. We've been talking about James Hardin and his beef with Janus Atentzacumpo.

It is escalated after his interview with Rachel Nichols and also talking a fair amount of Astros. So anything you guys want to get to on the phone lines. You can also tweet, oh, God, KPR Adam 2, KPRC to Adam W. At KPRC to Adam W. I got it right. Eventually, we made it. We made it at Sports RV at ProDicklow. I'm going to take a quick break here.

Final segment of the Matt Thomas Show next.