Speaker 1: It's time for coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's on
Speaker 1: Sports Talk seven nine day, Now here's Nick Coffee.
Speaker 2: Rarely will we start the hour, really any hour of
Speaker 2: the show talking NBA. In fact, the NBA rarely gets
Speaker 2: discussed much at all around here, and more often than not,
Speaker 2: I do think that the NBA just no longer really is.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a me thing. I'm just not interested
Speaker 2: in the NBA as much as I used to be.
Speaker 2: But I can't be wrong in viewing the current I
Speaker 2: guess climate with I mean, anytime there's a story about
Speaker 2: the NBA, it seems to be a negative one. I mean,
Speaker 2: the NBA All Star Game was a joke. It's been
Speaker 2: a joke for a long time. Yeah. But like any
Speaker 2: big story about the NBA, I feel like, more often
Speaker 2: than not, is not a good story. And the latest
Speaker 2: is that Victor Wimbnyama his season is now over with
Speaker 2: some kind of a rare injury.
Speaker 3: Oh I didn't see that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So Wemby is now out for the rest of
Speaker 2: the season because he has a blood clot on his
Speaker 2: right shoulder. I think there was some different different I
Speaker 2: think shams who broke the story had a little bit
Speaker 2: more information about the injury, but you know, as somebody
Speaker 2: who doesn't know much about injuries as far as diagnosing,
Speaker 2: and really there was a better description of what he has,
Speaker 2: but I'd say calling it a blood clot is probably
Speaker 2: the best way to describe it for people like myself
Speaker 2: who don't really know what the actual injury was. It
Speaker 2: was something that I probably wouldn't have been able to pronounce.
Speaker 2: But it sounds like this is the same injury that
Speaker 2: led to Chris bog having to retire pretty early, which
Speaker 2: is scary.
Speaker 3: It's like a blood disease or something that Chris bod.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a deep vein thrombosis in the right shoulder
Speaker 2: that he's been dealing with, and it sounds like they're
Speaker 2: just gonna sit him the rest of the season because
Speaker 2: they're that concerned about it. So, I mean, this is
Speaker 2: somebody that entered the NBA. This is now his second season,
Speaker 2: and again he's been phenomenal. So because I just don't
Speaker 2: really feel like I hear a lot about him, I
Speaker 2: was assuming, well, he must not be as good as advertised,
Speaker 2: but no, like I just am not key, Like I
Speaker 2: didn't even notice the NBA All Star weekend was going
Speaker 2: on till Saturday night. And again that's not because the
Speaker 2: NBA is doing something wrong as far as me, it's
Speaker 2: just I'm no longer interested in the NBA like I
Speaker 2: used to be, and a part of it is just
Speaker 2: that it doesn't appeal to me. But also like I
Speaker 2: don't think the NBA appeals to a whole lot of
Speaker 2: people in my position, because the NBA is super popular
Speaker 2: with really, really young people. And that's a good thing
Speaker 2: because those young people, if they end up staying interested
Speaker 2: and they love it, they're gonna get older and they're
Speaker 2: gonna be grown ups with jobs and they can spend
Speaker 2: money on tickets and merchandise and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: But I feel like the people who are really into
Speaker 2: the NBA, rather it be young kids or even young adults.
Speaker 2: They can tell you about stat lines, they can tell
Speaker 2: you about who's good who's not, but they don't watch
Speaker 2: the product. They just keep up with it. The NBA
Speaker 2: is in a rare era right now where I feel
Speaker 2: like the majority of the people who really are talking
Speaker 2: about it and consuming NBA content that are active on
Speaker 2: social media talking about it, They listen to the podcasts,
Speaker 2: they keep up with what's going on, but they don't
Speaker 2: watch the product like consistently, and part of that I
Speaker 2: think is because of how the teams are now put together.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just not to sound like that old guy,
Speaker 2: but I mean the competition of the NBA is just gone.
Speaker 2: And what I mean by that is, again, it hard
Speaker 2: to put this out there without it sounding like, you know,
Speaker 2: back in my day, they were real men, and they competed.
Speaker 2: They didn't want to join teams together, they wanted to
Speaker 2: beat each other up. Well, but that's kind of what's happened. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and if you really you know, because it made me
Speaker 2: sad for a while, but I realized I don't like
Speaker 2: the NBA like it doesn't. I mean, I'm not anti NBA.
Speaker 2: I'm not angry about the NBA, but I don't I'm
Speaker 2: not I'm not a consumer at all. The playoffs when
Speaker 2: they come around, if my pacers are alive, I'll probably
Speaker 2: get involved and watch. But like, I don't really care
Speaker 2: about the NBA in any way, And it's not like
Speaker 2: something I miss. It's just like that's where I'm at
Speaker 2: in life. And it kind of made me sad because
Speaker 2: I used to love the NBA. I loved the NBA before.
Speaker 2: I love anything as far as sports, and I just
Speaker 2: don't know if I'm ever going to get back there.
Speaker 2: Maybe I will when my son is older. You know,
Speaker 2: he's already he's got some friends and some a lot
Speaker 2: of my friends kids are older than my son, so
Speaker 2: they're they're they're, in my opinion, the perfect age for
Speaker 2: the NBA right now. Kids that are in like sixth grade,
Speaker 2: fifth sixth grade, like right, they are obsessed with the NBA.
Speaker 2: I mean there's kids who don't even play basketball, but
Speaker 2: they can tell you who's on every team, they know
Speaker 2: who's good. They talk, I mean they play two K
Speaker 2: like yeah.
Speaker 3: A lot of that's through video games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and a lot of that's you know, I think
Speaker 2: it's both things. One, that's just kind of how society.
Speaker 2: Nobody has time to do much of anything anymay I
Speaker 2: shouldn't say, don't they don't have time. But we're so
Speaker 2: distracted by everything that we consume a lot of content
Speaker 2: in very brief moments, to where sitting down to consume
Speaker 2: a full NBA game when they play eighty two of
Speaker 2: them is just not realistic. So again, some of that
Speaker 2: is just society and how we do things. But also
Speaker 2: I think it's just because it's just not super competitive anymore.
Speaker 2: But you know, NBA, for me, what really kind of
Speaker 2: hit me when I was kind of down on the dumps, Like, man,
Speaker 2: I don't what happened to the old Mark Jackson meme?
Speaker 2: What happened to the game I love? I mean, and
Speaker 2: it's that whenever you whenever it's just a known thing
Speaker 2: that players can play but they're not going to because
Speaker 2: of load management and rest. That is you telling the
Speaker 2: consumer of your product that there's not real, it's not competitive,
Speaker 2: they just don't play because they don't want to. And again,
Speaker 2: I'm not even making this about a certain guy that
Speaker 2: has you know, has to rest because of injury. I'm
Speaker 2: not even making it about Lebron who decided, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to go in the All Star Game
Speaker 2: the other night. It's the face of the league or
Speaker 2: a guy who's been the face of the league for
Speaker 2: the majority of his career. Yeah, Like so, I mean, whenever,
Speaker 2: it's whenever I know that these guys are It's not
Speaker 2: like and I don't. It'd be such a stretch and
Speaker 2: it would be so out out it would be so
Speaker 2: unfair for me to say that they don't care about winning,
Speaker 2: because I don't think it's that. But the overall culture
Speaker 2: of the NBA is it's just not competitive. I mean, imagine,
Speaker 2: and I know I hate even making the comparisons to
Speaker 2: the NFL because it's different. They play seventeen games, the
Speaker 2: NBA plays eighty two every week. Yes, imagine if an
Speaker 2: NFL player they just rested him because because you know
Speaker 2: they could. I mean, you see that at the end
Speaker 2: of the season when a team has already accomplished so
Speaker 2: much that they have nothing to gain with the win
Speaker 2: because of the playoff scenarios. Right, that's a different situation. Right,
Speaker 2: that's quite literally, like we don't like this is just
Speaker 2: a waste of time. But really sitting them, you know
Speaker 2: why you're doing it is because you're that competitive and
Speaker 2: you know it would be terrible to lose them to
Speaker 2: an injury when you've got your first playoff game coming
Speaker 2: up the next week. So like the NBA slowly, I
Speaker 2: think really told a lot of its consumers, a lot
Speaker 2: of its fans like myself, that are really in that competitive.
Speaker 2: Like the culture of the NBA, it lacks competitiveness in
Speaker 2: every way, from guys just deciding not to play there
Speaker 2: being eighty two games in a season, them putting way
Speaker 2: too many teams in the postseason, and having every series
Speaker 2: now be a best of seven. It's just And again
Speaker 2: a product of that is when you get to a
Speaker 2: seven game series and a team is down thirteen in
Speaker 2: the third quarter, they know they can just put in
Speaker 2: all the scrubs because they can live to play another day.
Speaker 2: They're already gonna concede, and you know what that ends up.
Speaker 2: That's why you got You can have back to back
Speaker 2: playoff games where maybe the series has been competitive. We're man,
Speaker 2: we look like we might get a game seven, but
Speaker 2: the average margin of victory is thirty seven points. It's
Speaker 2: because it's not competitive, and that's what people tune in.
Speaker 2: If I tune into a basketball game and I don't
Speaker 2: really feel like these guys that are out there playing
Speaker 2: are really really leaving it all on the line because
Speaker 2: they want to win so bad, why would I care
Speaker 2: to watch? I mean, why would I give a damn
Speaker 2: like I you know, I know, I sound like such
Speaker 2: an old man and get off my lawn. But the NBA,
Speaker 2: slowly but surely, over time, it's just not competitive. And again,
Speaker 2: I used to be somewhat maybe not like I wouldn't
Speaker 2: say that I embraced it, but I was not somebody
Speaker 2: that initially thought, like the super teams, we were an issue,
Speaker 2: but really over time, especially when Kevin Durant, I mean
Speaker 2: he did it, I'm not gonna I mean, he's not
Speaker 2: the only one, and I don't want to pick on him,
Speaker 2: but him leaving the Thunder, a small market team that
Speaker 2: drafted him and really had a I mean they were
Speaker 2: in the finals, guys, I mean or I guess was
Speaker 2: at the Western Conference finals Thunder in the West, right.
Speaker 4: Yes, okay, now, they they made it to the They
Speaker 4: made it to the finals against the Heats.
Speaker 3: The year. That's it, right, that was the lockout year
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 2: And then they ended up making it to the Western
Speaker 2: Conference finals and loss to the Warriors, and then KD
Speaker 2: joined the Warriors. That's what happened. So like him doing that,
Speaker 2: I mean that he's not the only one that's actually
Speaker 2: he is he's the only one that's done something like that.
Speaker 2: Because because Lebron doing his super team thing, like when
Speaker 2: people would make that comparison, it would drive me insane.
Speaker 2: It's not the same thing at all, Lebron. You know,
Speaker 2: leaving Miami after going there and giving them two championships
Speaker 2: or was it three? He got two two titles and
Speaker 2: then going back to a team that was awful once
Speaker 2: he left to then kind of start his own thing. Yeah,
Speaker 2: technically it's him bouncing around doing his own thing. It's
Speaker 2: not like it used to be where guys would just
Speaker 2: stay in, you know, in the same market, the same
Speaker 2: the same with the same franchise forever. But what KD
Speaker 2: did is he went and joined a team that beat
Speaker 2: him because he didn't feel like he could beat them
Speaker 2: with with the team he had. And look, maybe maybe
Speaker 2: he would have never beaten them, but that's just that
Speaker 2: the way you're wired as an athlete to go do that.
Speaker 2: I still think, many years later that that's just a
Speaker 2: wild move that most guys wouldn't make. And it's just
Speaker 2: a guy, you know. I used to say all the time.
Speaker 2: I know, we don't talk a lot about the NBA
Speaker 2: on this show because a lot of you know, because
Speaker 2: be fun, to be honest with you, the NBA in
Speaker 2: this market, we're college basketball market, like, we don't keep
Speaker 2: up with them that much at all around here. So
Speaker 2: even when I was somebody that did consume it more
Speaker 2: than the average person in Louisville and in Kentucky. And
Speaker 2: I still knew it wasn't something I should spend a
Speaker 2: ton of time talking about. Well now here I am.
Speaker 2: I don't talk about it much and I don't even
Speaker 2: keep up with it. And I went through like a
Speaker 2: stretch of maybe a year and a half, two years
Speaker 2: where I was like, all right, you got to get
Speaker 2: back in, you got to get back in, You've got
Speaker 2: to get to catch up c NBA. Since I've been
Speaker 2: a fan of sports, the NBA for forever until I
Speaker 2: guess the last few years has been something that I
Speaker 2: at least was knowledgeable of and kept up with and
Speaker 2: you know, was entertained by it. And now I just,
Speaker 2: I mean, it doesn't appeal to me. So again, I'm
Speaker 2: willing to acknowledge some of it is me, but also like,
Speaker 2: let's be real, like the league is not in great
Speaker 2: shape by any means.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's also all over the internet too. They
Speaker 4: agree with they agree with that same sentiment. I mean,
Speaker 4: look at this last weekend at the All Star Game,
Speaker 4: and look how they've changed that format so much. I know,
Speaker 4: the NFL kind of does their thing. It's turned into
Speaker 4: like a flag football get team Jerry Rice against a
Speaker 4: team Shannon Sharp. I don't know whoever the hell it was.
Speaker 4: But now now you got three teams. You got Chuck's team,
Speaker 4: Shax team, I don't know who the other team is,
Speaker 4: yor taking timeouts halfway through so Kevin Hart can just
Speaker 4: get off stupid jokes. And then you got there's no
Speaker 4: All Stars barely participating in anything. I mean, look at
Speaker 4: these dunk contest participants, Matas Bizellous from the Bulls, Stefan Castle,
Speaker 4: I mean, the winner in the NBA exactly, and Mac McClung.
Speaker 4: He's the last two years he's done it. Hadn't he
Speaker 4: been on like a different G League teams. It's just ridiculous.
Speaker 4: And you mentioned it with the star chasing thing like
Speaker 4: don't mean to sound old men off, old man, get
Speaker 4: off my lawn type of thing. But back in the day,
Speaker 4: there wasn't a lot of super teams for them. Guys
Speaker 4: are actual rivalries and guys like hated each other. There
Speaker 4: wasn't other people wearing other people's shoes or you know,
Speaker 4: just dapping each other up after the game.
Speaker 3: Sure that they're.
Speaker 2: Personal because of competitiveness, and yes, all.
Speaker 4: These guys are best friends. They were on the same
Speaker 4: AAU team, went to the same prep school. They're all
Speaker 4: best friends.
Speaker 2: Man, you hit it right on the head, man, because
Speaker 2: when I watched the last dance, and it's not just that,
Speaker 2: it's also just really and again, there's no way to
Speaker 2: say it without sounding like, well back in my day,
Speaker 2: but but it's just true. When I hear and this
Speaker 2: is this one hits me just because I love the
Speaker 2: Pacers and Reggie Miller was the first athlete that I
Speaker 2: ever became like a super fan of. But when I
Speaker 2: would hear Michael Jordan talk about how much he respected
Speaker 2: Reggie as a competitor, like they were. They were enemies
Speaker 2: on the court, but they respected each other as competitors
Speaker 2: like that, That's what's that mean? Again, this is corny.
Speaker 2: That's what sports is all about. Like that, the camaraderie
Speaker 2: that you have within where you're competing with somebody. You
Speaker 2: may hate them, you may you may not even think
Speaker 2: that they're a good person, but like on the court,
Speaker 2: between the lines, like you, you respect them as competitors
Speaker 2: and you know they're gonna give you They're gonna give
Speaker 2: you their best, and it's gonna be a tough fight,
Speaker 2: like they just there's just none of that in the
Speaker 2: NBA at all anymore, and it just, you know, it
Speaker 2: kind of makes me said, I didn't hear the full clip,
Speaker 2: but Draymond Green did a lot of NBA All Star
Speaker 2: coverage because he certainly isn't an All Star at this
Speaker 2: point in his career. But him and Chuck were going
Speaker 2: back and forth and it was really good dialogue. And
Speaker 2: Charles Barkley said it best. He said, look, you guys,
Speaker 2: you know, you guys ruined the NBA. Your era ruined
Speaker 2: the NBA. And he's kind of set it tongue in cheek,
Speaker 2: but like he was being serious. It was very much
Speaker 2: in Barkley delivery. And it's not I'm not saying it's
Speaker 2: specifically Draymond's fault, but yeah, I mean these guys just,
Speaker 2: I mean, they they they're they're they're all buddies now
Speaker 2: and and you can still be like buddies and friends.
Speaker 2: But again, the competitive element is just is it's non existent.
Speaker 2: And the NBA. Here's what's funny. Every professional sport out there,
Speaker 2: every professional sports league out there, I feel like, has
Speaker 2: an issue with trying to make the All Star event
Speaker 2: worth of damn right, people still tune in enough to
Speaker 2: where it's still something you should have because you make
Speaker 2: a lot of money on it. But like every like
Speaker 2: the Pro bowls lame. I don't even know what baseball does,
Speaker 2: but it's I mean, it's it's not something the game
Speaker 2: itself like, it just you know, at.
Speaker 4: Least the game in baseball decides like which at National
Speaker 4: League or American League wins they.
Speaker 3: Get home vantaged.
Speaker 2: I think they took that away, didn't they what?
Speaker 3: I don't know, that's a good question.
Speaker 2: I think they took it away and then maybe they
Speaker 2: brought it back. I could be wrong, but yeah, at
Speaker 2: least there was something on the line, something you could
Speaker 2: do that would in fact right. But but all that aside.
Speaker 2: What I was getting ready to say is that what
Speaker 2: happened this weekend with the NBA All Star stuff is
Speaker 2: that I think a lot of people, myself included, realized,
Speaker 2: you know, these things that we're talking about, like what
Speaker 2: are we doing? They don't even really care. They're not
Speaker 2: even really trying, Like there's no, it's not competitive. They
Speaker 2: don't take it serious. To me, a light bulb went off,
Speaker 2: Wait a second, that's not just the All Star. That's
Speaker 2: the NBA overall, Like that's what this is. Now.
Speaker 4: You got Chris Paul and Wemby trying to cheat their
Speaker 4: way out of the skills competition thinking that they're going
Speaker 4: to win it and that they found a loophole because
Speaker 4: they don't have to make a shot.
Speaker 2: And that was a terrible look because of what we've
Speaker 2: just talked about, Like you just don't like it's I mean,
Speaker 2: some would say maybe that they were maybe that shows
Speaker 2: that they are competitive, but like you could tell like
Speaker 2: Chris Paul probably knew that was going to happen and
Speaker 2: didn't care. And what really I think probably was a
Speaker 2: sign of this, this this becoming a thing to where
Speaker 2: we are now that I remember, but I don't remember
Speaker 2: thinking of it being like, Okay, this is dangerous. But
Speaker 2: the last time we had legitimate rivalry within the NBA
Speaker 2: to where like you knew, okay, this is this is
Speaker 2: there's some real raw tension here was Warriors Calves and
Speaker 2: you know you had Lebron getting off the plane in
Speaker 2: an Ultimate Warrior T shirt. Yeah, Stephen Curry for the
Speaker 2: first time, he's a very professional, very composed, professional athlete.
Speaker 2: Good dude. Seemingly he loses his cool, throws his mouthpiece,
Speaker 2: hits a technical, hits a fan. Yeah, I remember that,
Speaker 2: and he will, you know, he has a pro He
Speaker 2: walked over apologized. But like there was that was personal.
Speaker 2: That wasn't just hey, are we going to get another title?
Speaker 2: It was built up. And what really pissed me off
Speaker 2: at the time that I kind of just you know, whatever,
Speaker 2: But I think it was a sign of this becoming
Speaker 2: what's happening now. Both sides were blatantly too cool to
Speaker 2: acknowledge that their rivals. You were doing all the rivalry
Speaker 2: stuff and that's what makes sports great, but Lebron was
Speaker 2: too cool to acknowledge that it was a rivalry between
Speaker 2: the Warriors. The Warriors did the same thing when it
Speaker 2: was quite literally playing out right in front of us,
Speaker 2: and I, you know, I just remember thinking, like, why
Speaker 2: would you not embrace that? That's awesome? Like that mean,
Speaker 2: I mean, that's that's that's rivalry, and there's all kinds
Speaker 2: of layers to it, but like, that's that's that to me.
Speaker 2: That's mean, imagine how much different like our us as
Speaker 2: fans around here, would be if we didn't have a
Speaker 2: heated rival to kind of you know, go back and
Speaker 2: forth with and to to know that, yeah, that's one
Speaker 2: of the twelve games you play in football, one of
Speaker 2: the thirty something you play in basketball. But man, that
Speaker 2: one's just different. Like that's that's that's an element that
Speaker 2: makes this makes us crazy. And I mean that in
Speaker 2: a good way.
Speaker 4: What do you think about I know a lot of
Speaker 4: people talk about and let's just say from back in
Speaker 4: like the Kobe Mellow days, when you go back and
Speaker 4: watch them of that games are like eighty to seventy.
Speaker 4: Now they're like one hundred and twenty one hundred. The
Speaker 4: over under his own games are like sit at like
Speaker 4: the two point fifty mark, and like you log onto Facebook,
Speaker 4: you see like a historic performance from Jylen Bronson or something,
Speaker 4: or if somebody has fifty points and it's like Jordan
Speaker 4: Poole right, or Cam Johnson has like forty five points.
Speaker 4: Like fifty point games used to mean something. Oh yeah,
Speaker 4: now you always see it because everyone's chucking up three
Speaker 4: point shots and everyone's going to the foul line all
Speaker 4: the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, I promise we'll we'll move on from
Speaker 2: this here soon. But I just I don't know. I
Speaker 2: I think for those who say, well, you know, you're
Speaker 2: just an old boomer now, and not that we're getting
Speaker 2: called that, but I can. I can. As I'm just
Speaker 2: sharing raw and real thoughts on the NBA stuff. I
Speaker 2: can hear myself sounding like, well, back in my day,
Speaker 2: it was better, and everybody thinks their era and their
Speaker 2: generation did it better than the others. That's a normal
Speaker 2: thing that that's been around. That's people think about. I
Speaker 2: think people think of that regardless if we're talking about
Speaker 2: sports or something else. But for me, every era, in
Speaker 2: my opinion, in other professional sports, and look, the NFL,
Speaker 2: you can't compare yourself to the NFL. The NFL is
Speaker 2: never going to be in my opinion, however, it's never
Speaker 2: gonna have real competition because it's just different. But there
Speaker 2: are different eras of the NFL that others think we're
Speaker 2: better than what we have now. Right Like back in
Speaker 2: the seventies, eighties, nineties, I'm sure there's different versions, different
Speaker 2: eras of the NFL that people preferred over different ones,
Speaker 2: But you know what, they all had a level of
Speaker 2: real competitiveness. This era of the NBA does not have that.
Speaker 2: It's not about style, it's not about you know, really
Speaker 2: anything other than that like, that's what doesn't in my
Speaker 2: when people talk about the NBA struggling and not being
Speaker 2: what it wants was, and it's just, you know, it's
Speaker 2: in a bad way right now. I rarely hear people
Speaker 2: just bring up the overall element of it's just not
Speaker 2: a it's not a competitive league. They don't internally take
Speaker 2: I mean, how many tournaments they're gonna have, they have
Speaker 2: a Christmas tournament, a play in tournament. I mean, it's
Speaker 2: just it's nonsense. All right, quick break, we'll come back,
Speaker 2: keep this thing rolling along. Rippertino said something that I
Speaker 2: want to talk about on the other side because I
Speaker 2: think it's a real I mean, it's something that's pretty
Speaker 2: obvious if you give it some thought. But I'm not
Speaker 2: hearing many other people say it. We'll get to that
Speaker 2: next right here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 1: Now back to Coffee and Company fueled by Thornton's on
Speaker 1: Sports Talk seven nine day.
Speaker 2: It's coffee and Company fueled by Thornton's here on Sports
Speaker 2: Talk seven ninety. Thanks for hanging out with us, Nick Coffee,
Speaker 2: Austin Montgomery, the Travel Chief taking you up until six o'clock.
Speaker 2: The Travel Chief's a new name that we're going to
Speaker 2: be running with Austin and for me, I'm I'm, I'm
Speaker 2: this is me. I don't sound the same, but you know,
Speaker 2: it's getting better. Today was a big day for me
Speaker 2: because I was really discouraged last night because and this
Speaker 2: is gonna sound so bad, and I know people will
Speaker 2: not take it, at least I hope they won't take
Speaker 2: it the wrong way, because I'm really lucky to be
Speaker 2: able to like do what I do. I don't have
Speaker 2: to do. I mean, I work hard at what I do,
Speaker 2: and I love what I do. It is a job.
Speaker 2: But like you know, for me to act like man
Speaker 2: the show really took a lot out of me yesterday,
Speaker 2: Like there's gonna be no sympathy for me, because clearly,
Speaker 2: like me sitting here and talking for three hours, most
Speaker 2: people wouldn't call that hard work at all. And I
Speaker 2: get it, but I do think that's exactly what happened,
Speaker 2: is that I've been sick and I just been kind
Speaker 2: of laying low, not really doing much, and then I
Speaker 2: you know, I gave you all yesterday, guys. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: it took a lot out of me. So I was thinking,
Speaker 2: maybe I need to go back to the doctor and
Speaker 2: figure out if I've got something that they didn't diagnose.
Speaker 2: But today I woke up well rested and I feel
Speaker 2: much better. It's just some water yep. Hydration's key, so
Speaker 2: I feel better. It's it's just the voice. It's you know,
Speaker 2: it's still not at one hundred percent. But I think
Speaker 2: we'll get We'll get the show finished today tomorrow, and
Speaker 2: then over the weekend, I'll have a couple of days
Speaker 2: to really to more and so recover.
Speaker 4: So your coughing spell is done, right. I haven't seen
Speaker 4: you cough just yet. You haven't hit that cough button.
Speaker 2: In fact, I'm glad you said that. I'm not sure
Speaker 2: I've coughed much at all today, So that's a sign
Speaker 2: that the medicine is in fact working all right. Five
Speaker 2: two six five three zero seven nineties. The L and
Speaker 2: N Federal Credit Union text line members get more at
Speaker 2: ellen N Federal Credit Union Union. You can learn more
Speaker 2: and open your account today at LNFCU dot com. So
Speaker 2: we were talking about the NBA just how to me
Speaker 2: it doesn't have any real element of competitiveness, and that
Speaker 2: is the biggest turnoff for me as to why I've
Speaker 2: slowly just no longer gave a damn about the league,
Speaker 2: and it's I mean, look, they're going to do fine
Speaker 2: without me, but it just doesn't do it for me anymore.
Speaker 2: That makes me kind of sad. But somebody in the
Speaker 2: text line wrote it, wrote a lengthy link, sent a
Speaker 2: lengthy text in. I'm not going to read the entire thing,
Speaker 2: but basically, what they're saying is that they're worried about
Speaker 2: maybe the same thing happening in college basketball because the players.
Speaker 2: Their point was that the players have all the power
Speaker 2: in the NBA, which is true, Like you can get
Speaker 2: out of anywhere in the NBA. I mean, we see
Speaker 2: it happen all the time, Like the players have way
Speaker 2: more power than they've ever had in the NBA, and
Speaker 2: that's not really a new thing. But like Jimmy Butler
Speaker 2: being able to get his way, you know, be a
Speaker 2: terrible teammate in Miami and get suspended three times and
Speaker 2: by the way, the only GM, like if pat Riley
Speaker 2: is going to concede and honor your trade request because
Speaker 2: you're acting like such a little baby, I think that
Speaker 2: tells you that the players are gonna get whatever they want,
Speaker 2: Like they're gonna get out of wherever they're playing. If
Speaker 2: they want out, and they'll get what they want. And
Speaker 2: I don't think that necessarily, like, you know, these players
Speaker 2: should be like held as prisoners. But at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, when you get drafted, what they're doing
Speaker 2: is they're owning your rights, like they own the rights
Speaker 2: for you to play basketball in the National Basketball Association,
Speaker 2: and they're paying you a lot of money. So you know,
Speaker 2: you really shouldn't have just the freedom and technically you
Speaker 2: have contracts, but man, what are these contracts worth? Because again,
Speaker 2: guys can get what they want. But the text essentially
Speaker 2: said that in college basketball it may lose its competitiveness
Speaker 2: because it's the same thing super teams forming up a
Speaker 2: guy with a different team every year, just bouncing around
Speaker 2: to make money and not really caring a whole lot
Speaker 2: about winning, but caring about getting more money each and
Speaker 2: every year. I don't think you're wrong in you know,
Speaker 2: and I guess it's not about being right or wrong.
Speaker 2: I don't think that's a crazy thing to kind of
Speaker 2: be worried about. But what I would say, maybe this
Speaker 2: is just me wishful thinking on my end when it
Speaker 2: comes to that, I think these guys their ultimate goal
Speaker 2: is to compete and get to the NBA, and some
Speaker 2: of these guys know that, Like like, for example, with
Speaker 2: the maturity that you have with this Louisville basketball roster,
Speaker 2: I'm sure these guys are still deep down thinking that
Speaker 2: maybe they could find their way to the NBA, but
Speaker 2: they also know they'd like like for example, Terrence Edwards,
Speaker 2: Javon Hadley, Chucky even like I don't think those guys
Speaker 2: are going to be drafted, they probably know they're not
Speaker 2: going to be drafted. They probably think that if they
Speaker 2: had the right opportunity and they went to compete in
Speaker 2: a workout, they could make an impression. Like I'm sure
Speaker 2: they're still they still believe in themselves enough to where
Speaker 2: they could find themselves on an NBA roster at some point,
Speaker 2: but they probably know they're not going to get drafted.
Speaker 2: So when you already have that in mind and you
Speaker 2: kind of are mature enough and you are more realistic
Speaker 2: with yourself, you know, for you to lead, you know,
Speaker 2: for your legacy as a player, for your career, your story,
Speaker 2: You're really going to make your mark in college, not
Speaker 2: the NBA. So I think there's still going to be
Speaker 2: a level of competitiveness to where these guys really want
Speaker 2: to leave a lasting impression as college players before they
Speaker 2: end up maybe kicking around the league for a year
Speaker 2: or two, maybe the G League, but then spending the
Speaker 2: majority of their time as pros if they choose overseas
Speaker 2: making a living playing the game, which is nothing wrong
Speaker 2: with that. So I still think that there's going to
Speaker 2: be a level of competitiveness. And again this just sounds
Speaker 2: like I'm such a I'm such a homer for college
Speaker 2: hoops and I'm anti MBA, But I don't think this
Speaker 2: is a crazy thing to say. And Austin you mentioned
Speaker 2: earlier the AAU teams these guys play on and they're
Speaker 2: all with the same shoe company Nike, euy b L, Adidas, whatever.
Speaker 2: It is, Like, I almost feel like the college is
Speaker 2: the is the is the area the level of your story,
Speaker 2: of your journey to where you really kind of got to,
Speaker 2: you know, either live up to the potential that people
Speaker 2: have been talking about that you have or you really
Speaker 2: got to show out to get to the NBA. But
Speaker 2: once you get at the NBA, you're back on cook
Speaker 2: You're back on cruise control, just like it's AAU again,
Speaker 2: you know, instead of you know, play eighty two games
Speaker 2: in a season of AAU. I mean you probably do,
Speaker 2: but you know, the too many games in the NBA.
Speaker 2: It's the same thing in AAU to where they play
Speaker 2: three in a day, to where none of them really matter.
Speaker 2: It's just again, it doesn't have the overall competitiveness. And
Speaker 2: I don't want to when I say that. It's not
Speaker 2: like I think these guys don't care. It's not that
Speaker 2: I think that they don't want to win. It's just
Speaker 2: the culture of basketball is just different. And I think
Speaker 2: college still has that that element to where if you
Speaker 2: do want to at least make it to the NBA,
Speaker 2: you got to have you know, you don't have to
Speaker 2: have a good college experience. But like, for example, dudes
Speaker 2: like Dewan Wagner or not Dewan Wagner, DJ Wagner and
Speaker 2: Aaron Bradshaw, like those guys went to college and now
Speaker 2: they've shown they're not NBA players like so and I
Speaker 2: think they're they're Like I watched DJ Wagner last night.
Speaker 2: He played pretty well against Auburn, at least in the
Speaker 2: in the action that I saw, so like he's he
Speaker 2: probably knows, like he's real with himself. I was I
Speaker 2: was a phenom. Here I am year two of college.
Speaker 2: I'm nowhere near as good as people thought I was
Speaker 2: going to be, or probably as good as I thought
Speaker 2: I was going to be. So I'm going to work
Speaker 2: like hell to try to you know. And look, he's
Speaker 2: not going to like DJ Wagner, in my opinion, will
Speaker 2: never be able to in the next however many years
Speaker 2: he decides to stay in college, change his situation to
Speaker 2: where he's going to be a lottery pick like people
Speaker 2: thought he was going to be whenever he was sixteen
Speaker 2: and seventeen years old. But because it's all he's ever known,
Speaker 2: I think he's going to compete and die trying to
Speaker 2: get there. So, you know, I hear what you're saying.
Speaker 2: As far as just worried about maybe college turns into
Speaker 2: the NBA to or instead of these super teams, it's
Speaker 2: just guys bouncing. Look, guys are going to bounce around.
Speaker 2: But I think when you when you do join a
Speaker 2: when you join a new team and it's your third
Speaker 2: team in three years, like over time, that's gonna be
Speaker 2: a red flag for certain program, Like that's going to
Speaker 2: if you're if you're not a an elite player, that
Speaker 2: really is just such a difference maker for a team,
Speaker 2: and you're bouncing around and yet you're producing, but yet
Speaker 2: your teams are kind of whatever. Like for example, I
Speaker 2: don't want to pick on the guy, but Hunter Dickinson.
Speaker 2: Hunter Dickinson has been phenomenal as a college basketball player
Speaker 2: statistically every year he's been in the game all thirty
Speaker 2: seven years, seemingly, but like what what I mean is
Speaker 2: he the guy you feel like you have to get
Speaker 2: He's good, You can be a good he can help
Speaker 2: you be a good team. He's done that.
Speaker 3: But like.
Speaker 2: Kansas has actually had two really bad years for their
Speaker 2: standard with Hunter Dickinson. Is this his second or third
Speaker 2: year at Kansas?
Speaker 4: I think this is his third second now I think
Speaker 4: he got their last year or is his twelfth? It's true,
Speaker 4: I mean fear in college. So look where did he
Speaker 4: start out?
Speaker 2: Michigan?
Speaker 3: Okay, want you want to hear his story about Hunter Dickinson.
Speaker 2: So he was a he was a really really big recruit,
Speaker 2: no pun intended. I mean he was. He's seven foot tall,
Speaker 2: but he was. He's by the way, he's seven in
Speaker 2: two and I'm gonna look it up here. He committed
Speaker 2: to Michigan and let's see, he was in the twenty
Speaker 2: twenty class and he was considering Louisville, Michigan, Duke, Florida State,
Speaker 2: and Purdue, and he really really loved Mike Pageze. Mike
Speaker 2: Mageze was of course an assistant for Mac before he
Speaker 2: took over as the interim coach. And I do feel
Speaker 2: like had Louisville, had Louisville had a little bit more
Speaker 2: momentum with Mac early, which they did. I mean Mac
Speaker 2: took over, took him to the tournament the first year,
Speaker 2: but had Louisville, I don't know. Maybe maybe if if
Speaker 2: Hunter Dickinson is a year later instead of twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: I think he probably would have committed Louisville because he
Speaker 2: was like, he loved Mike Mageese, and you know, he
Speaker 2: ended up at Michigan with Juwan Howard and they made
Speaker 2: the They were one seed one year with him there
Speaker 2: and then really since then, he's been productive, but like
Speaker 2: his team just haven't been great. And that's not his fault.
Speaker 2: It's just a sign. And I've talked about this before.
Speaker 2: You can have a dominant big that produces at a
Speaker 2: really really high rate and you watch them play and
Speaker 2: you think, man this guy's special, but you can have
Speaker 2: that and still lose to anybody. I mean, I don't
Speaker 2: want to act like big men aren't valuable, but like
Speaker 2: Hunter Dickinson is statistically one of the best bigs we've
Speaker 2: had in college basketball in a while, and if you
Speaker 2: watch him play, you can tell he's really good. But
Speaker 2: like he can have twenty and eighteen and still lose.
Speaker 2: I mean, Zach Edy, one of the most dominant college
Speaker 2: basketball players I've ever watched. He lost to a sixteen
Speaker 2: seed and he you know, so like you could.
Speaker 3: Tell credit is actually doing well in the NBA.
Speaker 2: Well, I know, and I thought he would be a
Speaker 2: weapon in the NBA, and but you know, in college
Speaker 2: he can be that guy. But you can find ways
Speaker 2: to still win with the big dude going off like that.
Speaker 2: I mean Oscar she Way of Kentucky, they lost to
Speaker 2: a fifteen seed and also even in that season, Oscar's
Speaker 2: both the two years Oscar played there, he would have
Speaker 2: twenty and fifteen any night, and yet they could lose
Speaker 2: to anybody. Yeah, I mean that, so, you know, just
Speaker 2: one just one of those things that like coaches should
Speaker 2: always prioritize talented bigs. You need good front court play.
Speaker 2: But it's I think we've had some really really good
Speaker 2: post players front court guys in college basketball in recent
Speaker 2: years that nobody would say are overrated or that they're
Speaker 2: not good. Man Like, they can be really good, but
Speaker 2: their team just doesn't like you. I feel like, in
Speaker 2: a different world, if you had a guy that was
Speaker 2: first team All American and he was playing in one
Speaker 2: of the best leagues in the country with one of
Speaker 2: the best programs in the country, and he was getting
Speaker 2: you know, twenty and ten on a nightly basis, that
Speaker 2: would mean teams are gonna have a really, really tough
Speaker 2: time beating you. But that just really hadn't been the
Speaker 2: case recently when it comes to frontcourt play. All right,
Speaker 2: let's get to our last break here in the four
Speaker 2: o'clock hour. We'll keep this thing rolling along. I didn't
Speaker 2: get to that Rick Patino quote, and I'll save at
Speaker 2: five o'clock because it's really just a reminder as far
Speaker 2: as how coaches are going to be building their rosters
Speaker 2: every year, and I think over time we're going to
Speaker 2: see that to kind of cut your teeth right and
Speaker 2: get into college basketball out of the high school ranks,
Speaker 2: you may be better off going to a mid major.
Speaker 2: I mean, that sounds crazy, but I think that's going
Speaker 2: to be a thing within the next five six years.
Speaker 2: All right, quick break, we'll come back on the other side.
Speaker 2: Wrap at the four o'clock hour right here on Sports
Speaker 2: Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 1: Now back to coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on
Speaker 1: Sports Talk seven nine day.
Speaker 2: I don't want to overreact here, but I love I
Speaker 2: love that song.
Speaker 3: Got some Eddy Money.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Eddie Money, the money Man Baby this again.
Speaker 2: This song is great. Eddie Money's great. Yeah, but this
Speaker 2: song reminds me of actually a movie we talked about yesterday,
Speaker 2: Joe Dirt. Yeah, it does because whenever he finally like
Speaker 2: whenever his story is blowing up nationally, he ends up
Speaker 2: on TRL with Carson Daley, and that's where, of course
Speaker 2: Joe Dirt's parents end up realizing that's their son that
Speaker 2: they just abandoned. But like when he's doing like his
Speaker 2: his his fame tour, and they're showing all these clips
Speaker 2: of him, like on these late night talk shows, they're
Speaker 2: playing that song.
Speaker 3: They play the song in that Oh yeah, I must
Speaker 3: have been sleeping and I.
Speaker 2: Gotta feel like that might have been the first time.
Speaker 2: I really hurt. Like there's a lot of songs that
Speaker 2: were really big in an era that I wasn't around for,
Speaker 2: but I know them from movies and I'm pretty sure
Speaker 2: now I gotta look it up. It's totally not relevant
Speaker 2: at all. Yeah, Eddie Money, Yeah, he's Yeah, they're show
Speaker 2: I'm looking at it right here. I'm not watching it,
Speaker 2: but they're showing him again like becoming. There's like a
Speaker 2: newspaper of the National Inquirer showing him and they're playing
Speaker 2: that song.
Speaker 3: It's it's Eddie Money. Had a good run, man, Oh dude.
Speaker 4: Me and me and my dad Kirk, we got to
Speaker 4: go watch him up in probably I think twenty seventeen.
Speaker 4: It was one of his last shows before he passed,
Speaker 4: and it was an awesome experience. He was only doing
Speaker 4: like casino tours at that time. He was probably getting
Speaker 4: good comps and stuff like that. But he's performing up
Speaker 4: there with his son and his daughter, and he walked
Speaker 4: away for an intermission, and I'm not scared to talk
Speaker 4: to these people, so I asked, hey, EDDI, can I
Speaker 4: get a picture?
Speaker 3: Well, do you know?
Speaker 4: He peeked his head out, took a picture of me
Speaker 4: and my step mom. And then later on in the show,
Speaker 4: as he's about to sing his biggest song, shake and
Speaker 4: you know you're shaking with the money man, right, His
Speaker 4: son stops the show says, hold on, dad, and he
Speaker 4: comes down there and he gives his actual guitar stick
Speaker 4: to my dad because my dad was talking to him
Speaker 4: about like, dude, you're torn with your dad. Eddy is
Speaker 4: a legend. Please don't ever take this for granted. And
Speaker 4: I think that's stuck with him, and he stopped the
Speaker 4: show to go hand my dad. The drumstick is pretty awesome.
Speaker 4: My father will always cherish at mon.
Speaker 2: What a moment. And he did pass away. He was older,
Speaker 2: but it wasn't wasn't he kind of unexpected?
Speaker 3: I think so.
Speaker 4: But I guess if you're kind of like watching some
Speaker 4: of his shows around, then you knew that he wasn't
Speaker 4: probably in the best shape. Yeah, but I mean, I
Speaker 4: mean it was. It's still a tragic passing. I'll always
Speaker 4: remember the Eddy Money show.
Speaker 2: And that's cool though, because like you wouldn't know anything
Speaker 2: about Eddy Money or appreciate any money if it wasn't
Speaker 2: for your dad, right, Yeah, and that and not only
Speaker 2: is that a cool thing for you, and your dad
Speaker 2: to share. But like, shout out to your dad, because anybody, anybody,
Speaker 2: anybody that's not able to, you know, vibe with Eddy Money,
Speaker 2: They're they're missing out.
Speaker 3: Dude, what a bunch of good songs.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to make sure
Speaker 2: Moose is familiar with Eddie any Money's catalog because it's
Speaker 2: it's good stuff.
Speaker 4: Two tickets to Paradise, Man, it was just good vibe songs.
Speaker 2: Had a great run there. Shout out Eddie Money.
Speaker 3: That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2: Sorry, all right, So, uh this story, this is from
Speaker 2: w o K. Why this is I cannot imagine being
Speaker 2: the people in Elizabethtown who had this happen to them,
Speaker 2: So apparently I'm curious as to how it could even happen.
Speaker 2: But there was a semi that of course, because of
Speaker 2: the snow. It slid off of I sixty five in
Speaker 2: Elizabethtown yesterday and it crashed into someone's home and you
Speaker 2: can see and I don't know where in Etown you
Speaker 2: can be that close to the end, and I'm not
Speaker 2: super familiar with with with Elizabethtown, but I mean quite literally,
Speaker 2: I'm sending the I'm gonna send you the tweet here
Speaker 2: Austin so you can reference it. If you guys go
Speaker 2: to wk whi's Twitter account, you'll see it. It was
Speaker 2: posted earlier, but it shows somebody's front yard where a
Speaker 2: tractor trailer semi quite literally just crashed into it. And
Speaker 2: it shows it shows a bedroom where where somebody, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, where they're probably I don't know what time
Speaker 2: of the day it was, but maybe you're just laying
Speaker 2: down having a And by the way, it was, I
Speaker 2: should have mentioned this ahead of time. Everybody was safe.
Speaker 2: Nobody got hurt, which is great. But just imagine like
Speaker 2: in your bed, calling it a day winding down. Oh
Speaker 2: my god, and all of a sudden, oh my god,
Speaker 2: that's a semi that is crashed into my home, like
Speaker 2: right into my bedroom.
Speaker 3: What an oddly placed?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that's my biggest thing is like, how like,
Speaker 2: how did that happen? I mean to me, it seems
Speaker 2: impossible and it isn't. Yeah, you said it best. An
Speaker 2: oddly it's an odd place for a.
Speaker 4: Home that's insane break or breaker won two I seem
Speaker 4: to have crashed into a civilian home.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It says here that the homeowner, Jeff Collier said
Speaker 2: he and his fiance were asleep in bed when the
Speaker 2: semi came through their bedroom wall. It says quote this
Speaker 2: is from him. He says, she thought it was a
Speaker 2: train because the train tracks run right down through this,
Speaker 2: right behind the house, and she thought a train was
Speaker 2: coming through the house. And sure enough, I looking at
Speaker 2: the pictures, I can see why she may think that,
Speaker 2: considering that there is train tracks near. But no, it
Speaker 2: says that there were driver. There was two semi trucks
Speaker 2: by the way, and again they were taking to the
Speaker 2: hospital with minor injuries and everybody was okay. But yeah,
Speaker 2: if you think you had a rough day because of
Speaker 2: the snow, imagine being woken up at night because a
Speaker 2: semi drove through your bedroom. So clearly some damage there.
Speaker 2: I'm sure the insurance companies will get it sorted out
Speaker 2: for these folks. But man, that's just just the visual
Speaker 2: of that is crazy.
Speaker 4: What they're like an old Stephen King movie Maximum Overdrive.
Speaker 4: You ever watch that movie about the demented eighteen wheelers.
Speaker 4: Good lord, that's nuts.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm trying to think of what I would
Speaker 2: do in that moment. I would just assume, well, this
Speaker 2: can't be real, right, there's not a semi in my bedroom.
Speaker 4: I would tell them that. I would signal them to
Speaker 4: do the honking thing where you tell them.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm just thinking, like, because my kids go
Speaker 2: to bed sometimes in bed with the wife, just to
Speaker 2: get them. I mean, in fact, sometimes they still sleep
Speaker 2: in our bed, which is not something that you know
Speaker 2: you want. But I'm sure if you have kids, you've
Speaker 2: probably had a stretch where you realize your kids are
Speaker 2: probably old enough to sleep in their bed, but they
Speaker 2: just have kind of made your bed their bed. But
Speaker 2: I can just see Moose running to me. I'm in
Speaker 2: the recliner, Dad, Dad, A truck just crashed into our bed. Son, No,
Speaker 2: And then I walk in there, sure enough, you're right, son,
Speaker 2: that's a semi. That's an eighteen wheeler. That's you know,
Speaker 2: a couple of inches away from the bed where you sleep.
Speaker 2: Sometimes that's insane, crazy stuff. All right, it's five o'clock hour.
Speaker 2: We're gonna get crazy. I don't know if we will,
Speaker 2: but we're gonna try. We're gonna have some fun. We'll
Speaker 2: finish strong on a Thursday. Keep it locked right here.
Speaker 2: It's coffee and Company Fieldbeth Thornton's on sports Talk seven
Speaker 2: ninety