Speaker 1: All right, let's get it drives on Monday afternoon, about
Speaker 1: fourteen minutes past the hour, two o'clock, another cloudy and
Speaker 1: chili may day outside, but temperatures improving throughout the week.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have a really nice weekend. Memorial Did weekend
Speaker 1: coming up. But as it is every single day, it's
Speaker 1: going to have you along for the ride. Spence check,
Speaker 1: it's Beyond the Mike, Porter Larsen, Beyond the Glass today,
Speaker 1: producing the show, booking the show. We got a lot
Speaker 1: of really good guests on the program to get that
Speaker 1: weekend started out the right way. The week started out
Speaker 1: the right way. Hope you had a great weekend. Happy
Speaker 1: Monday to you, and it's good to have you with
Speaker 1: us on a jam packed edition of the radio show.
Speaker 1: We have conference final set in Pro basketball and Pro hockey.
Speaker 1: The Timberwolves and the Thunder will tip off tomorrow. After
Speaker 1: OKC was able to dispatch of the Denver Nuggets with
Speaker 1: relative relative ease in Game seven, we'll get to some
Speaker 1: Game seven takeaways. We'll talk about the future of Nicola
Speaker 1: Jokicic and the Denver Nuggets. Michael Malone is gonna be
Speaker 1: on the coverage for ESPN on the Western Conference Finals
Speaker 1: side of things. The coach that was jettisoned, doubt and
Speaker 1: sent packing. The New York Knicks actually did it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right, the New York Knicks actually did it. And
Speaker 1: it was a lot easier than I thought it was
Speaker 1: going to be since we last spoke on Friday night,
Speaker 1: it was a massacre in midtown Manhattan, New York one
Speaker 1: nineteen Boston eighty one. And the Knicks advance onto the
Speaker 1: Conference finals for the first time in twenty five years.
Speaker 1: And when last they were there, they faced Reggie Miller
Speaker 1: and the Indiana Pacers, and coincidentally enough, this time around
Speaker 1: they will face the Indiana Pacers once again, this time
Speaker 1: led by a really good, really good league guard and
Speaker 1: Tyree Saliburton a bunch of perimeter players that want to
Speaker 1: fight everybody. So we'll preview the Conference finals and then
Speaker 1: we'll look back on the actual that took place over
Speaker 1: the weekend in the world of pro basketball. We'll also
Speaker 1: talk a little NBA draft a little combine. The Utah
Speaker 1: Jazz sit at number five, as we of course talked
Speaker 1: about at nauseum last week. Reports are that Philadelphia is
Speaker 1: interested in moving on from number three. According to Jeremy
Speaker 1: Wu from ESPN. The names that are out there attached
Speaker 1: to this rumor, that's all it is, Kevin Durant and
Speaker 1: one Lowry marketed. What would you do if you were
Speaker 1: the Utah Jazz. So we'll talk about some of the
Speaker 1: potential that the Jazz have to add talent to this roster.
Speaker 1: We have entered an era of intense parody in the
Speaker 1: world of pro basketball, which should be good news for
Speaker 1: a team that plays it's basketball in Salt Lake City,
Speaker 1: But the Jazz are unprepared to capitalize on it, at
Speaker 1: least as of now. How can they change that? We'll
Speaker 1: get into it on the show today the latest mock
Speaker 1: draft from Jonathan Gavoni. We'll tell you who he has
Speaker 1: the Jazz draft in at five and go over some rumors,
Speaker 1: some offseason rumors. As we talked about with with Shawn
Speaker 1: with Oseda and Crosstalk. Brock Perty got paid. He didn't
Speaker 1: have chance to really react to that. He is going
Speaker 1: to make about fifty three mil annually. That I pays
Speaker 1: him more than Jared Goff, Matthew Stafford, Justin Herbert, names
Speaker 1: like that, even Lamar. So we'll get to the latest
Speaker 1: in the world of the NFL offseason. Of course, the
Speaker 1: conversation about the Tush push continues to make its way
Speaker 1: throughout the course of NFL rule makers. Nick Siriati gets
Speaker 1: a multi year contract extension and rookie mini camps going
Speaker 1: on around the world of the NFL, so we'll get
Speaker 1: to some of that on the show. RSL has gone
Speaker 1: with a sneaky strategy of building a soccer team that
Speaker 1: does not try to score goals. Pretty risky. See if
Speaker 1: it works out, Cotton, It's not working out. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: RSL has gone almost two hundred and fifty minutes without
Speaker 1: a goal. They are winless in their last four. They
Speaker 1: welcome in the best team in MLS Vancouver will be
Speaker 1: in town coming up on Saturday. So not Great Bob,
Speaker 1: Not Great Bob. In the world of Real Salt Lake.
Speaker 1: We'll get some of that on the show today. Scotti
Speaker 1: Scheffler wins his third major championship over the weekend at
Speaker 1: Quail Hollow. The want to Make Your Trophy is his.
Speaker 1: He did try to break it in half during his celebration.
Speaker 1: But Tony Fenow finishes tied for nineteenth after the Green
Speaker 1: Mile got to Tony, but he ends up walking away
Speaker 1: with a cool two hundred k at a top twenty
Speaker 1: finish in majors. Do a little golf on the show
Speaker 1: today as well, So a lot to do on a
Speaker 1: Monday edition of the program. Happy Monday to you. Our
Speaker 1: first guest will be Bobby Marks. Bobby's going to be
Speaker 1: good today to go to walk us through where we're
Speaker 1: at right now in the world of pro basketball, the
Speaker 1: parody that has presented itself, and whether or not the
Speaker 1: Jazz can get involved with other small market teams like
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City and Minnesota and Indiana and Milwaukee and Denver, etc.
Speaker 1: And the like. So good day to have Bobby on
Speaker 1: the show. More Basketball, Tom Haberstrow, our friend Tony Parks
Speaker 1: will be live in studio. We'll do a bunch of
Speaker 1: local stuff with Tony, and then Easton Folster, who's the
Speaker 1: executive director of the UGA. Easton only wants to talk
Speaker 1: nixt today, but we are going to talk a little
Speaker 1: PGA champion ship and OLDPGA golf. But our guy, Easton,
Speaker 1: Utah Local, is a Nick fan, so of course we're
Speaker 1: gonna do a little of that with our guy today
Speaker 1: on the program. So Bobby Marks, Tom Haberstrow, Tony Parks,
Speaker 1: Easton Fallster and me Spence check its all of you,
Speaker 1: the great listeners and that guy Porter Larson. We were
Speaker 1: texting during the game on Friday. No part of me
Speaker 1: thought we were going to see what we actually saw
Speaker 1: that game was over, I was skeptical. I would say
Speaker 1: and tell about four minutes left, and then I just
Speaker 1: started screaming to the TV take the starters out, Tom, please,
Speaker 1: how'd you digest Friday night?
Speaker 2: Much like that? I mean, I thought the Knicks played
Speaker 2: really well. I was really confident going into halftime, and
Speaker 2: I thought that they had the series in hand. But
Speaker 2: like you, the last ten minutes of the game, I
Speaker 2: was just like, dude, what we're up by? Like forty points?
Speaker 2: What are we doing here? And listen. Tom Thibodeau is
Speaker 2: the coach that has them in the Eastern Conference finals.
Speaker 2: So the credit is given where it is due. But
Speaker 2: if you are a Knicks fan, you've also seen teams
Speaker 2: that have had the wheels fall off because you run
Speaker 2: the wheels off of them, right, because you don't have
Speaker 2: the depth. And with Tom Thibodau specifically, that's always kind
Speaker 2: of been a narrative. So I think people are a
Speaker 2: little up in arms about it. I'm cognizant of it
Speaker 2: as well and kind of reacted the same way. But
Speaker 2: results a result, We've got the Final four NBA edition
Speaker 2: and I think it should be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: It should be a lot of fun. So Conference Finals
Speaker 1: time in the world of pro basketball. We are high
Speaker 1: speed ahead to the NBA Draft, a lot to do.
Speaker 1: Our first guest today will be Bobby Marx, the Great
Speaker 1: Bobby Marks from ESPN. But before we get to Bobby,
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Speaker 3: Welcome to the Drive with Spence. Check its on Utah's
Speaker 3: number one sports talk. Now into the studios of ESPN
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Speaker 1: So in the world of pro basketball, we have the
Speaker 1: conference final set. It will be OKC and Minnesota coming
Speaker 1: up tomorrow night six point thirty Mountain time on ESPN,
Speaker 1: and then on Wednesday night it is New York and
Speaker 1: Indianapolis from Madison Square Garden at six o'clock Mountain time
Speaker 1: on TNT. So ESPN has you covered with the West,
Speaker 1: TNT as you covered with the East. And now we're
Speaker 1: in a scenario where for the seventh straight year we
Speaker 1: will have the seventh different NBA champ so where we
Speaker 1: moved into and I think coming up this offseason will
Speaker 1: be another example of exactly what pro basketball has done
Speaker 1: with the new collective bargaining agreement that went into effect
Speaker 1: a few years ago and will be the reality for
Speaker 1: another three, four five years, depending on how they decide
Speaker 1: to traverse the space of intense, extreme parody in the
Speaker 1: world of basketball in the NBA. Okay, and that was
Speaker 1: intentional from Adam Silver, who got sick of hearing from
Speaker 1: owners like if Miami can just add Lebron and Bosh
Speaker 1: and Golden State can just add Durant to Steph and
Speaker 1: Clay and Dreymond, we have no prayer, We have no chance.
Speaker 1: If that's the deal. Okay, there will always be space
Speaker 1: for the bigger markets and the destination cities to attract
Speaker 1: players that simply want to live in LA or they
Speaker 1: want to live in Miami, or they want to live
Speaker 1: in I'll say New York, although the Knicks and the
Speaker 1: Nets have been unable to capitalize on really any of that.
Speaker 1: It's mostly the warm weather, you know, climate friendly cities,
Speaker 1: namely Los Angeles and Miami's been a benefactor as well.
Speaker 1: Of course, Phoenix built up a team that was supposed
Speaker 1: to be good on paper but hasn't been, so that
Speaker 1: will never change. The Lakers snapped their fingers this year
Speaker 1: and turned a thirty two year old injury pron Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis into a twenty five year old Luka Doncic, and
Speaker 1: stuff like that will never go away. You know, the
Speaker 1: Lakers are the biggest example of the Celtics two, because
Speaker 1: the Celtics are the most successful pro basketball team in
Speaker 1: the history the NBA followed closely behind by the LA Lakers,
Speaker 1: and there's certainly a debate between those two. You know,
Speaker 1: you'll always be able to figure it out. The Lakers
Speaker 1: bridged even George Miken into Kareem into even Wilt, then Kareem,
Speaker 1: and then of course you go from Kareem then later
Speaker 1: on to Magic Magic bridges it, you know, later on
Speaker 1: at Chak and Kobe, and then of course Lebron decides
Speaker 1: he wants to spend the final few years of his
Speaker 1: NBA career in Los Angeles and then boom, They've got Luca.
Speaker 1: So Luca makes them relevant again for another decade, depending
Speaker 1: on how long he wants to play. So that will
Speaker 1: never change. But what has changed is the Second Apron
Speaker 1: has actually legitimately scared billionaires. If you ever wanted to
Speaker 1: know the answer to the trivia question what scares billionaires
Speaker 1: that own NBA teams, we have it. It's the Second Apron. Okay,
Speaker 1: We've already seen the Clippers make a tough decision, Paul
Speaker 1: George Walks. We've seen the Denver Nuggets allow a lot
Speaker 1: of the rotational pieces around to Kola Jokicic leave after
Speaker 1: very successful seasons and try to plug them with that
Speaker 1: minimum contract. Guys like Russell Westbrook, who looked like he
Speaker 1: was point shaving during the playoffs this year. It was
Speaker 1: a atrocious idea the start, as I always say about him,
Speaker 1: you can have him for free or you know, young
Speaker 1: players like Julian Strather or Zeke Nasey and trying to
Speaker 1: surround Jokic with good players to take advantage of his prime.
Speaker 1: We've already seen teams forced to make very difficult decisions
Speaker 1: due to financial and economic restraints, and coming up this offseason,
Speaker 1: we're going to see it again. We're going to see
Speaker 1: it from the Phoenix Suns, who probably will move on
Speaker 1: from Kevin Durant. We're probably going to see it from
Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics. Even if Jason Tatum did not get hurt,
Speaker 1: we probably would have seen it anyway because a new
Speaker 1: ownership group, after signing the documents, got an email that said, oh,
Speaker 1: by the way, if you keep the team next year,
Speaker 1: the luxury tax bill is half a billion dollars just
Speaker 1: for the right to have this team who out in
Speaker 1: the second round. So no ownership is going to agree
Speaker 1: to that. I wouldn't be stunned if they move on
Speaker 1: from Balen Brown, because I think they have to. I
Speaker 1: don't think you have any other chance. Point of me
Speaker 1: bringing it up is we have entered and have been
Speaker 1: in now for about three or four years, this new
Speaker 1: era of NBA basketball. That will continue for another four
Speaker 1: years or so, and it might not continue after that
Speaker 1: because there are enough people that don't really love and look,
Speaker 1: let's call it what it is. It's a hard cap.
Speaker 1: And I can remember when the new CBA became a reality.
Speaker 1: I was kind of reviewing some of the numbers and
Speaker 1: some of the information. I thought to myself, this is
Speaker 1: a hard cap. They're just not saying it out loud.
Speaker 1: And ultimately, if you talk to guys around the league, yes,
Speaker 1: that's what it is. It is a hard cap. At
Speaker 1: a certain number, you are hard capped, period and then
Speaker 1: you have to make tough decisions. So we've been in
Speaker 1: this reality for a while and teams like the Denver
Speaker 1: Nuggets and the Milwaukee Bucks, and what we have now
Speaker 1: is the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Indiana Pacers, and Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: who has positioned it not just now but for the future,
Speaker 1: will throw San Antonio in there as a as a
Speaker 1: result of their lottery luck. Let's call it what it is.
Speaker 1: There will be a bunch of teams in markets even
Speaker 1: smaller than ours, not necessarily analogous stars, but smaller than ours,
Speaker 1: that our position to have a chance to win the
Speaker 1: thing every year for the next four or five years.
Speaker 1: Here's the bad news. The Jazz are simply not prepared
Speaker 1: to take advantage of what the league has created for
Speaker 1: teams that play in cities like Salt Lake. They have
Speaker 1: failed to put themselves in a situation where they can
Speaker 1: capitalize on the new reality of NBA basketball. Does it
Speaker 1: mean that they'll fail forever? No, it doesn't. Does it
Speaker 1: mean that they have a ton of work to do
Speaker 1: to even be relevant? Yeah, it does. And that starts
Speaker 1: with a draft, which leads me to this. The reports
Speaker 1: over the weekend or that San Antonio and look, these
Speaker 1: are only reports. Okay, we're just talking about rumors. It's
Speaker 1: a great thing about sports soccer radio. You can just
Speaker 1: kind of dig into some of this stuff. No idea
Speaker 1: if any of this will come to fruition. But the
Speaker 1: reports over the weekend out of San Antonio is that
Speaker 1: they are to take Dylan Harper. They're prepared to take Dylan,
Speaker 1: let him grow next to Sefan Castle, learn from Daron Fox.
Speaker 1: Kind of like a backup quarterback situation, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of like Jackson Dark in New York sitting behind Russell Wilson,
Speaker 1: mister unlimited, our guy before he is given the starting job,
Speaker 1: maybe in a couple of years. So if san Antonio
Speaker 1: is no longer entertaining, Moving off of two, what happens
Speaker 1: with Philliot three and Jeremy Wu from ESPN Reporter this
Speaker 1: morning and I retweeted it if they still call it
Speaker 1: that the Philadelphia seventy six ers are willing to move
Speaker 1: on from three And the names that he threw out
Speaker 1: there were Kevin Durant and Lowry Markenden. Now, when you
Speaker 1: look at the books of the Philadelphia seventy six Ers,
Speaker 1: there isn't anything that makes this trade possible outside of
Speaker 1: a Tyrese Maxi Paul George throw in. I don't think
Speaker 1: they're gonna trade him beat. I think they've done the
Speaker 1: calculation that when he's healthy, he's still very special. But
Speaker 1: just hypothetically speaking, if you're the Jazz, do you entertain
Speaker 1: that to even entertain trading Lowry for three straight up?
Speaker 1: Which is a really tough thing to do. Larry's about
Speaker 1: to turn twenty eight. I think he actually has a
Speaker 1: birthday coming up or close to this day. He'll be
Speaker 1: twenty eight throughout the course of this year, and that
Speaker 1: is kind of smack dab in the middle of your prime,
Speaker 1: with maybe a couple of years left of your prime.
Speaker 1: And if for honest, he doesn't fit the timeline as
Speaker 1: far as when this team could even be relevant again
Speaker 1: because they're not close. So do you pull the ripcord
Speaker 1: with clearly your best player to grab another high pick
Speaker 1: and then send the message to the fan base like, yes,
Speaker 1: it's going to be rough for a while, but at
Speaker 1: least we have a couple of building blocks we feel
Speaker 1: good about. Because I don't see a pathway forward. Not
Speaker 1: to quote Quinn Sider when he decided he didn't want
Speaker 1: to work for this new ownership group, I just don't
Speaker 1: see another pathway forward for the Utah Jazz based off
Speaker 1: the roster they have right now. And there is urgency
Speaker 1: because there are enough people that don't love this CBA
Speaker 1: and what it's done to balance out the parody and
Speaker 1: pro basketball that it might change in four years. I
Speaker 1: don't know that that's another time for the Jazz to
Speaker 1: put something together to capitalize on the ability to roster
Speaker 1: construct in a smaller market that's not a destination. Conference
Speaker 1: finals are sets in both the NBA and the NHL.
Speaker 1: We'll do some hockey a little bit later. The Utah
Speaker 1: Mammoth set to draft fourth overall is the NHL draft
Speaker 1: will take place after the NBA draft. The Jazz did
Speaker 1: not get the same luck as the hockey club, and
Speaker 1: our next guest will walk us through the potential offseason
Speaker 1: for the Jazz. As we talked some basketball with one
Speaker 1: of our favorites on a Monday afternoon, Bobby Mark's Happy Monday, sir,
Speaker 1: How are you?
Speaker 4: I'm good? How are you?
Speaker 1: We're all right? I mean, let's just start here. The
Speaker 1: lottery's rigged and everybody hates the Jazz and we can't
Speaker 1: catch a break, so let's just start with the scripted
Speaker 1: world of the NBA. Bobby, Well, you.
Speaker 4: Can probably add Washington and Detroit last year and the
Speaker 4: list of teams. Listen, you have a better chance. How
Speaker 4: the the reformed lottery odds are you have a better
Speaker 4: chance of not picking in the top three than picking
Speaker 4: in the top three. I think they had like a
Speaker 4: fifty chance of picking at five. So yeah, it is,
Speaker 4: it is. I would say it's probably not designed to
Speaker 4: reward some of the top teams. And just like the
Speaker 4: lead in general right now, there is a lot of
Speaker 4: parody when it comes to the process of the.
Speaker 1: Lottery for sure. And Xenik was great with the media
Speaker 1: afterwards because everybody keeps saying they fell to five, and
Speaker 1: Justin's like, well, we actually had a better chance of
Speaker 1: drafting five than we had. It won, right, but you
Speaker 1: know the deal out here, when you're asked as a
Speaker 1: fan base to suffer through literally the worst season the
Speaker 1: Jazz have ever had, you're just kind of hoping for
Speaker 1: more of a reward. So kind of your thoughts on
Speaker 1: where we find ourselves with the Jazz as they enter
Speaker 1: the off season with two first round picks and a
Speaker 1: number of decisions Bobby the need to be made.
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, you're right, I mean I do think Listen,
Speaker 4: I think there's a ton of options, certainly with with
Speaker 4: with the draft as far as the picks that you
Speaker 4: have have, not just in June, but certainly all the
Speaker 4: you know, the draft assets that you have in the future,
Speaker 4: and you have a little bit of everything, as far
Speaker 4: as you know some expiring contracts, uh, you know your
Speaker 4: younger players that you're still trying to trying to figure out.
Speaker 4: As far as you know who are your foundational players.
Speaker 4: You've got the Kessler extension to figure out. We'll see
Speaker 4: who becomes available this offseason. As far as what big
Speaker 4: named player or players, and I think there'll probably be
Speaker 4: a few. Doesn't make sense kind of dipping your toe
Speaker 4: in that water or that deep end there as far
Speaker 4: as for that, because you do have you do have
Speaker 4: the assets here? You know, it's I think the biggest
Speaker 4: thing I think is I said this to Joe Cronin,
Speaker 4: who's there a Trailblazer's jam. I saw them in the
Speaker 4: uh the elevator in Chicago for the Combine and they
Speaker 4: had a nice season, you know, they they won thirty
Speaker 4: six games, And I said, the biggest thing that you
Speaker 4: can give to a fan base is hope. I think
Speaker 4: if that's the biggest thing as far as hope and
Speaker 4: a clear direction as far as where the roster is going.
Speaker 4: And I think I think and you're if you're in Utah,
Speaker 4: that's that, you know, that's the sense of direction here
Speaker 4: because as you know, going in the you know, you know,
Speaker 4: lottery or you know, bottoming out and trying to get
Speaker 4: a top three picks. Certainly, if that's the goal for
Speaker 4: next year, we already went through it. It's you know,
Speaker 4: it's it's trying to put a needle in a haystack
Speaker 4: as far as you know, as far as getting one
Speaker 4: of those A level players that will be available again
Speaker 4: next year, right, I mean, they're going to get a
Speaker 4: good player at where they are is a keeper flag
Speaker 4: Probably not, but they're They're still going to be in
Speaker 4: a there's still going to be in a position to
Speaker 4: get a good player with their lottery pick. And they're
Speaker 4: and a good player where they are in the in
Speaker 4: the early twenties.
Speaker 1: I can tell you. And look, I don't pretend to
Speaker 1: speak for every jazz fan, but I don't feel like
Speaker 1: there is a lot to hope, Bobby right now for
Speaker 1: the organization, at least on the outside looking in. And
Speaker 1: I still have friends over there, and I know how
Speaker 1: disappointed they were that they didn't get better luck. And and
Speaker 1: ultimately I wonder what you make of the possibility of
Speaker 1: them being a little bit bold this offseason and utilizing
Speaker 1: the bevy of assets and clean books to maybe add
Speaker 1: a couple veterans tex But either growth of the young players,
Speaker 1: or do you think this is going to be an arduous,
Speaker 1: painful process that will last for another three four years.
Speaker 5: Listen, if if you honest became available, just hypothetically talking
Speaker 5: it would it would be negligant, negligent not to put
Speaker 5: a phone call in to see what the price would be,
Speaker 5: not just with Utah but the other the other twenty
Speaker 5: nine players.
Speaker 4: If Trey Young became available, or you know, you know,
Speaker 4: there's I think I think it has a lot of
Speaker 4: it has to do with what's left of the roster.
Speaker 4: Do we still have options to add or whatever. If
Speaker 4: we go out and get two players, we basically we
Speaker 4: wiped cleaned as far as what we have left and
Speaker 4: what happens if one of those players leaves when they
Speaker 4: can become a free agent two years or three years
Speaker 4: from now, and well, we basically starting from from ground
Speaker 4: zero again here. So I think they'll, you know, I
Speaker 4: think they'll be aggressive. I think you always have to
Speaker 4: be aggressive here. But being aggressive and being able to
Speaker 4: go out and do a deal and being comfortable doing
Speaker 4: it is two different things that you know, listen to
Speaker 4: the Western Conference as a bear, I mean it is
Speaker 4: not even like you know, you would love to be
Speaker 4: in a position where Detroit was a year ago, and
Speaker 4: certainly where you know, listen, they the worst record and
Speaker 4: they still picked fifth in the lottery or in the draft,
Speaker 4: and they but they were able to triple their wins
Speaker 4: because they had a foundation player in Kate Cunningham. That's
Speaker 4: the problem where where Utai is right now is it's
Speaker 4: different than having Shay in Oklahoma City and having three
Speaker 4: lean years and basically go out and draft, jail and
Speaker 4: check and add other players with the roster. And then
Speaker 4: with Detroit you get a healthy cad and you had
Speaker 4: shooting and you got Thompson, Dorian and Ivy and Holland
Speaker 4: and you know you got you know, the both Beasley
Speaker 4: and Harris. Like that's that is the biggest achilles I
Speaker 4: look at when it's with when it's in Utah, it's
Speaker 4: not you know, roster management and all that stuff. It's like,
Speaker 4: who is the blue chip guy that you can plan
Speaker 4: a flag on the hill and say this is our
Speaker 4: franchise player. There is none. I mean, that's the reality
Speaker 4: of it right now. And when you have that, that
Speaker 4: gives the fans hope that you can build around that player.
Speaker 1: For sure. There was one piece of actually official business, Bobby,
Speaker 1: that happened out here since you and I last spoke,
Speaker 1: and Will Hardy had already had his fourth and fifth
Speaker 1: year options picked up, so it's not like he was
Speaker 1: a lame duck. However, they decided to extend him through
Speaker 1: twenty thirty one and if he coaches throughout his entire contract,
Speaker 1: he'll have a nine year runway, which never happens. So
Speaker 1: I was I was a bit surprised. I'm not gonna lie,
Speaker 1: although I've been very impressed with Will. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know what's not to like, but your thoughts on
Speaker 1: what the Jazz decided to do extend you Will Hardy
Speaker 1: through twenty thirty one.
Speaker 4: I just think it's the market. You know, it's almost
Speaker 4: like a player that you kind of know what the
Speaker 4: market's going to be if you ever that coach was
Speaker 4: ever out there, and especially if he was going in
Speaker 4: with two years or on an expiring I just think
Speaker 4: that he is extremely valuable, not just in Utah, but
Speaker 4: I think he's extremely valuable how teams look at him, certainly,
Speaker 4: whether it be and I know he's under contract, whether
Speaker 4: it been a team like Phoenix or some of these
Speaker 4: other potential openings, I think it's rewarding him for basically
Speaker 4: going through this rebuild that there they were, you know
Speaker 4: that they're going through and we'll probably could potentially be
Speaker 4: going through again next year here. So I do think
Speaker 4: I think that kind of comes hand in hand as
Speaker 4: far as why, you know, you just didn't exercise the options,
Speaker 4: but you probably go out and send him all.
Speaker 1: Right, Moving back to where the league finds itself as
Speaker 1: it pertains to the way they determine draft order. As
Speaker 1: a result of the data we have since twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: where the worst team in the league does not it
Speaker 1: has not been rewarded with the number one overall pick,
Speaker 1: and so many teams have fallen while other teams have risen.
Speaker 1: Do you think that will change the approach of teams
Speaker 1: like the Jazz this year that were just unserious about winning?
Speaker 1: And look, we even Bobby, we even got a little
Speaker 1: bit of a mission from Xenik after the season. Jay
Speaker 1: Z was addressing the media and he said something like,
Speaker 1: we did everything we could to position ourselves with the
Speaker 1: best chance possible. Right, it was the closest we got
Speaker 1: to a front office guy actually admitting what they did.
Speaker 1: And look, I get it, as you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: I get the deal. I know what you can and
Speaker 1: can't say. But now that we know that that guarantees nothing,
Speaker 1: do you think we'll see a team out here that actually,
Speaker 1: I don't know, for lack of a better phrase, puts
Speaker 1: their best foot forward.
Speaker 4: I think in a perfect world, you would like to
Speaker 4: be where san Antonio was this year as far as
Speaker 4: in a position to contend for playing and then you
Speaker 4: find yourself in that eat range and listen they go
Speaker 4: to two. I mean, there's no guarantee you're going to
Speaker 4: go to two. I mean Dallas wins a playing game
Speaker 4: and loses in the plant playing final and gets to
Speaker 4: the more pick, and they were eleven. So there there
Speaker 4: has to be substantial growth. And I'm not saying substantial
Speaker 4: growth where you're basically trading five first round picks for
Speaker 4: a player that maybe wins you five or six more games.
Speaker 4: But I don't think there is I don't think there
Speaker 4: is anything wrong with putting yourself in a position where
Speaker 4: even if you're in the eleventh or twelfth position and
Speaker 4: you're contending for one of the final plays, because the
Speaker 4: history has shown that you can still move up in
Speaker 4: the lottery, and you probably have a better chance of
Speaker 4: moving up in the lottery than what then where you
Speaker 4: are as far as four and five, I've lived through it.
Speaker 4: I mean I lived through it in twothy ten in
Speaker 4: New Jersey and the lottery odds were different. I mean
Speaker 4: we were twelve and seventy and woind up getting the
Speaker 4: third pick in the draft. So I under I totally
Speaker 4: understand it as far as why they went about doing
Speaker 4: it and why teams go about doing it here, But
Speaker 4: it is getting to a point where you do have
Speaker 4: to kind of you know, you're man shoot when they
Speaker 4: trade down it in twenty twenty two every four years
Speaker 4: coming up. Yeah, and this was actually like the first
Speaker 4: real true rebuild because you overachieved the first two years
Speaker 4: and stuff. So, but I do think you can put
Speaker 4: something on the court where you can win games and
Speaker 4: still be in a position to draft pretty high.
Speaker 1: Okay, I know you're not a hot take guy, which
Speaker 1: I appreciate about you. You know, what you do is
Speaker 1: a great job of educating us about what's actually happening
Speaker 1: as opposed to what you think should happen. But since
Speaker 1: we're in this weird space in Salt Lake, moving into
Speaker 1: the fourth year of a rebuild or a two years tear,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, it's four years since they were good.
Speaker 1: Do you like the way the league goes about the
Speaker 1: draft process. Do you like the fact that they are
Speaker 1: trying to dissuade teams from being unseerious about the endeavor
Speaker 1: and encouraging front offices to have integrity about their approach.
Speaker 1: There's the NFL model where they simply reward and inverse
Speaker 1: orders there's a ton of think you know, pieces out
Speaker 1: there about what they should or should not do. What
Speaker 1: do you think about the way the league approaches the
Speaker 1: whole thing.
Speaker 4: I could, I could, I would be on board with
Speaker 4: rewarding a team. You know, basically the NFL model as
Speaker 4: far as going by you know, the standings, as far
Speaker 4: as you know, we ever finished worse. We let's eliminate
Speaker 4: the lottery and say, but if you finish with the
Speaker 4: first pick, then you are basically there's a void as
Speaker 4: far as you finishing first the following year, right, like
Speaker 4: you're you don't have the option to get number one
Speaker 4: consistently here, or there's a there's a there's a kind
Speaker 4: of a penalty system there. I don't think the league
Speaker 4: will ever do that, But listen, if we're going to
Speaker 4: do based it off just standings wise, then we could
Speaker 4: see the same teams in the top three all the time. Right,
Speaker 4: it just keeps on spitting out the same scenarios and
Speaker 4: everything like that, because there's because there is no incentive
Speaker 4: to win to win games there. I understand why the
Speaker 4: league did it. I get it and everything like that,
Speaker 4: but we still saw teams this year, you know, and
Speaker 4: I saw ted Leones is the owner of the Wizard
Speaker 4: to be like, oh, we weren't tanking stuff, we were
Speaker 4: developing guys, and great, that's another way of using that.
Speaker 4: But there's also like when you're not playing guys who
Speaker 4: are healthy and or you're playing guys, or you're treating
Speaker 4: games like like preseason games and guys play twenty minutes
Speaker 4: and you don't play them when you're leading in the
Speaker 4: fourth quarter. There is that is Yeah, that's probably you
Speaker 4: screw around the integrity of the game a little bit here.
Speaker 4: So I don't know what to fick the rule. You
Speaker 4: know the right way to go about doing it. Here.
Speaker 4: You're trying to find a fine balance here, but you
Speaker 4: would like to see teams because it eventually like you're
Speaker 4: just basically running in mud forever. As far as if
Speaker 4: you're not if you don't land one of these top
Speaker 4: like a top pick here, but you still have the position.
Speaker 4: As I said, you can still get a good player
Speaker 4: at five if you do your work and you develop
Speaker 4: him right and it fits in there. I mean that
Speaker 4: it just puts a little more pressure on the organization.
Speaker 1: One more thing here. Then we'll move on to teams
Speaker 1: that are actually still playing you know, San Antonio two
Speaker 1: is interesting only because if it is the Dylan Harper kid,
Speaker 1: there might be some redundancy on that roster with Stefan
Speaker 1: Castle and Daron Fox. But the reports are that they're
Speaker 1: going to hang on to two and draft him and
Speaker 1: let him develop, which is probably the right thing to do.
Speaker 1: A lot of people out here wondering if there's a
Speaker 1: way the Jazz could utilize the assets in their back
Speaker 1: pocket to move up. I don't know if Phillya three
Speaker 1: is an option. Do you think anybody in front of
Speaker 1: the Jazz would be open to moving their pick?
Speaker 4: Oh? I would think so. I mean certainly, I think
Speaker 4: outside of Dallas at one, I think if it if
Speaker 4: it makes sense. You know, Dylan Harper's is a really
Speaker 4: nice player. But if you're will to move some of that,
Speaker 4: excuse me, that Cleveland or Minnesota draft equity or that
Speaker 4: Phoenix one that's kind of the golden ticket in thirty one,
Speaker 4: I think there's a way for you to get up there.
Speaker 4: I think it's just a matter of how much separation
Speaker 4: do you feel Dylan Harper is compared to what you
Speaker 4: can get at number five. I think that's that's the
Speaker 4: big that's the big question is and is it worth
Speaker 4: in that type of deal compared to something that maybe
Speaker 4: could become available down the road. So when you have
Speaker 4: the equity like Utah does and some of these other teams, yeah,
Speaker 4: I think there's options to do that as far as
Speaker 4: you know getting up there and you know, but it's
Speaker 4: it will it will cost you. I mean, that's the
Speaker 4: big thing. It will cost you to move up, you know,
Speaker 4: whether it be three spots or two spots.
Speaker 1: All right, Bobby. Last Thursday, I went to bed and uh,
Speaker 1: I was tossing and turning, picturing Charles Smith missing four layups,
Speaker 1: picturing Anthony Mason throwing a ball to Reggie Miller, picturing
Speaker 1: Patrick Ewing having a finger roll. Go off is go
Speaker 1: off the back of the rim pick and John starts
Speaker 1: shooting three of eighteen. And no part of me thought
Speaker 1: the New York Knicks were winning on Friday night, even
Speaker 1: without Jason Tatum. That's just the deal with this organization
Speaker 1: that I've been a part of since I was ten
Speaker 1: years old, and I'm thrilled to have a Nick team
Speaker 1: Tocher four. I wonder what you make of the way
Speaker 1: they've got about this roster construction and who jalen Is
Speaker 1: and the way Tom has been able to traverse this
Speaker 1: space in New York back in the Conference finals for
Speaker 1: twenty five years, facing that same Indiana Pacer team.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's amazing. I was a senior in Cow. I
Speaker 4: think I just graduated when that infamous Game seven happened,
Speaker 4: when the Ewing Kinger roll rolled off the rim there.
Speaker 4: So I do remember that series, the multiple series during
Speaker 4: the nineties. Well, New York is different than three other
Speaker 4: three teams that are left Oklahoma City, Indiana and Minnesota
Speaker 4: eight deep, right in, eight really good players. As far
Speaker 4: as how they're maybe okay, she's a little deeper. New
Speaker 4: York is really reliant on their five. You know they're
Speaker 4: starting five. Uh, they play a ton of minutes. We
Speaker 4: know that you've seen a little bit of Robinson, I
Speaker 4: mean a lot of Robinson certainly in that Boston series
Speaker 4: and then you sprinkle and induce McBride here. They're heavily
Speaker 4: reliant on on Brunson, as we know. I think they
Speaker 4: get they run into trouble when the ball sticks and
Speaker 4: is not there's you know, the others basically are standing around.
Speaker 4: I do think that series is going to be reliant
Speaker 4: on how involved Hounds is. You saw in game six
Speaker 4: when he is involved and he's aggressive in the beginning,
Speaker 4: and he's not just standing on the perimeter. They're pretty
Speaker 4: dangerous here. I do find it funny that people in
Speaker 4: New York and I am from Northern Jersey have basically
Speaker 4: kind of penciled them and everything finals, because Man Indiana
Speaker 4: is a good team. I mean, they are real, they're fun,
Speaker 4: they have there, They can play any way you want.
Speaker 4: They can go up and down, they can they can
Speaker 4: try to get physical with you. I thought they were
Speaker 4: more physical than clear One, but New York is, yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean New York is kind of a different way.
Speaker 4: As far as how they constructed their roster. They went,
Speaker 4: they went all in with bridges and they flipped you know,
Speaker 4: certainly Dante and Julius four towns and as I said,
Speaker 4: they're really heavy. You know, they're a team that really
Speaker 4: can't sustain. If they have an injury to one of
Speaker 4: your core guys, they're going to be in trouble where
Speaker 4: maybe you can say if lou Dord or you know,
Speaker 4: or Alex Crusoe get hurt in Oakland City, that they
Speaker 4: can still get by Minnesota. Hear so it's an interesting
Speaker 4: way that Leona has been able to put that roster together.
Speaker 4: You're right, I didn't. I did think, even without Tatum,
Speaker 4: that that game was going to go back to game
Speaker 4: Boston for Game seven, just because I thought Boston was
Speaker 4: the better team throughout the series, even when even when
Speaker 4: Tatum went down, I thought they still had enough to
Speaker 4: But you know, give them credit for getting to a
Speaker 4: conference finals.
Speaker 1: Tell me this, Bobby. I mean, look, I've known Tom
Speaker 1: Thibodeau for years. He was an assistant under Jeff and
Speaker 1: I respect the man immensely, and of course I would
Speaker 1: never second guess anything but your reference how reliant they
Speaker 1: are on their five. Yeah, when it's one hundred and
Speaker 1: ten to seventy four, like with six minutes left, can
Speaker 1: we just go ahead and set aside the ethos and
Speaker 1: maybe take the guy like, are you watching thinking the
Speaker 1: same thing I am? When it's like a forty point
Speaker 1: game with six minutes left.
Speaker 4: You know, it's funny. It's it's one of those where
Speaker 4: like when you're sitting in a stand, I'm sure and
Speaker 4: I think Beyonce, it's like four rowers behind them. It's
Speaker 4: almost like one of those games where you'd like give
Speaker 4: a little a note to like, you know, one of
Speaker 4: the court side attendants to just give it to one
Speaker 4: of the assistants to like pull these guys please, right,
Speaker 4: like they're lucky. Listen, they're lucky that nobody because if
Speaker 4: you got someone got hurt. I mean, can you imagine
Speaker 4: if it's a og pulled a hamstring or somebody got hurt,
Speaker 4: now it would have been he would have been and
Speaker 4: you know certainly that would have been widely scrutinized over
Speaker 4: the next week.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I do think that is especially when the other teams
Speaker 4: kind of pulls their own guys, right, I mean when
Speaker 4: the other white waves or white flag, it's like, okay,
Speaker 4: we're done right, Like put our guys in. There's no
Speaker 4: way a team has come back from not thirty five
Speaker 4: to forty points.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't need to see Jalen fighting over a
Speaker 1: Xavier Tillman pick. Please, Like, what are we doing here?
Speaker 1: But let's move out. Let's move out this way, Bobby,
Speaker 1: I wonder what you make of the way Minnesota has
Speaker 1: been able to go about their business. And look, I
Speaker 1: mean it's interesting out this way because I'm watching Donovan
Speaker 1: with a great I mean, obviously it didn't end well
Speaker 1: with Cleveland, but Rudy's been great, Conley's been great, Like
Speaker 1: all the ex Jazz guys I have gone on to
Speaker 1: really play well for teams. And I'm thrilled for Rudy,
Speaker 1: and I cheer for Mike who doesn't. But what do
Speaker 1: you make and luck? Obviously it's different with Stephan Curry,
Speaker 1: but kind of the same question the way Minnesota has
Speaker 1: gone about this roster construction and what do you think
Speaker 1: their chances are against Okase in the conference final?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, it's interesting. You get to a conference
Speaker 4: finals a year ago and usually you would roll back,
Speaker 4: and you know, Atlanta did it a few way back
Speaker 4: when and it kind of hurt them a little bit.
Speaker 4: Minnesota was different because they from a financial angle, they
Speaker 4: were extremely extremely expensive, and to basically break up towns
Speaker 4: into two players with Randall and Devincenzo, I think it
Speaker 4: was important to them because from a flexibility standpoint. Listen,
Speaker 4: we did not know that this Minnesota team could get
Speaker 4: to a conference finals because we didn't think that the fit.
Speaker 4: Maybe the fit wasn't working with Randall when you had
Speaker 4: of him with Gobar. Randall has been you know, certainly
Speaker 4: Edwards is their best player, but he's been at least
Speaker 4: their second best player and it hasn't been close down
Speaker 4: the stretch and in the playoffs, and he has played extremely,
Speaker 4: extremely well. It's a deep team. You know, when you
Speaker 4: have Devincenzo, Alexander Walker and Nasri coming off your bench,
Speaker 4: it gives you a lot of interchangeable parts as far
Speaker 4: as what they're able to do. We saw it in
Speaker 4: the Golden State series. We saw it in the Lakers series.
Speaker 4: They become a little too heavy reliant shooting three. I
Speaker 4: would love to see him just you know, when ants
Speaker 4: going downhill and attacking the basket, he is like he's
Speaker 4: dangerous because he can do so many different things. You
Speaker 4: can get to the basket or maybe become a facilitator.
Speaker 4: I do think they do get themselves in a little
Speaker 4: bit of trouble when when you when they are so
Speaker 4: reliant on shooting from deep, it's going to be a
Speaker 4: great series. It really is like okay, I mean you okay,
Speaker 4: see comes at you in waves right like they basically
Speaker 4: you know, it was twelve to twenty four to ten
Speaker 4: yesterday down and normally you'd be like, oh boy, this
Speaker 4: team is going to be in trouble at Game seven
Speaker 4: at home. They're tight, but they basically come and I
Speaker 4: know Denver was certainly nicked up. They come at you
Speaker 4: with waves, you know, Wallace for dort Right, they can
Speaker 4: go double bigs, Caruso. They can put on basically any
Speaker 4: of the five players here. So it is going to be,
Speaker 4: you know, both years are going to be really, I think,
Speaker 4: really really competitive, a couple of different, you know, contrast styles.
Speaker 4: I think it's great for the league where we are
Speaker 4: parody wise, that some one of these teams will win
Speaker 4: a championship, some for the first time, another for the
Speaker 4: first time in fifty plus years.
Speaker 1: Bobby, last thing that will set you loose. I started
Speaker 1: out the show with this, and I want you to
Speaker 1: kind of expand on it and help us understand where
Speaker 1: we're at in pro basketball from a macro viewpoint of
Speaker 1: an era of great parody, where markets such as ours
Speaker 1: have been able to roster construct elsewhere to win championships
Speaker 1: in the CBA, I believe expires in twenty thirty, which
Speaker 1: gives another five year window with this landscape for teams
Speaker 1: that operate in cities like ours that have been able
Speaker 1: to do really great things. How does the current landscape
Speaker 1: benefit a team that plays in Salt Lake, and you
Speaker 1: think the Jazz can capitalize on it before the NBA
Speaker 1: decides to maybe pivot in twenty thirty.
Speaker 4: I think how it helps Utah and other cities is
Speaker 4: that there's three elements as far as roster building. There's
Speaker 4: the draft, there is the trade market, and then there's
Speaker 4: free agency. And the under the CBA, free agency is
Speaker 4: a distant third. Uh, it's it's probably we wouldn't maybe
Speaker 4: even put it in there because it's it's really nonexistent.
Speaker 4: And I think that helps. I think that helps some
Speaker 4: of these these markets that aren't Los Angeles or New
Speaker 4: York or Miami or you know other other you know,
Speaker 4: San Francisco with Golden State here that if you draft,
Speaker 4: you developed, and you retain, you're gonna have a chance
Speaker 4: the herd. The hard part is you got to draft, well,
Speaker 4: right like you got to draft, You got to hit
Speaker 4: on your picks and stuff like that and draft players
Speaker 4: and then because then it gives you the functionality to
Speaker 4: go out and add a play or to like Indiana
Speaker 4: was able to do right. Indiana's you know, I know
Speaker 4: they made they swapped Halburn for or sabonas for Halburn.
Speaker 4: But then they were able to go out and and
Speaker 4: you know, in draft Mathron and they got trade the
Speaker 4: Nie Smith and they traded for Siakam and they're still
Speaker 4: in a really good position here. So the drafting and
Speaker 4: developing sets up for when that player becomes available, and
Speaker 4: it's just a matter of you going out and doing it.
Speaker 4: But I do think it eliminates, you know, for most part,
Speaker 4: free agency and all these teams gobbling up these superstars
Speaker 4: and stuff, and it gives you the ability to extend
Speaker 4: with your own team and stay with your own team
Speaker 4: for the long haul and stuff like that. So I
Speaker 4: do think there's some advantages. I think there's a lot
Speaker 4: of advantages there too, but it's more of that you
Speaker 4: now you have to capitalize on that.
Speaker 1: Well, Bobby, I appreciate the time has been such a
Speaker 1: fun playoff. Excited for the conference finals and let's get
Speaker 1: you back on soon. Thank you, sir.
Speaker 4: Sounds good. Good talk with you, all right.
Speaker 1: The great Bobby Marks, the ESPN front office insider, spend
Speaker 1: a number of years with the new Jersey nets. That's right, kids,
Speaker 1: look it up. Does a great job of kind of
Speaker 1: helping us understand the landscape of the league. Got Bobby
Speaker 1: Marks forty two is where you find them on social
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Speaker 1: No NBA basketball tonight. I don't even know what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do. Conference final start tomorrow and they continue on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Happy Monday to our guy Tom Haberstrow, who joins now
Speaker 1: to talk some ball. Tommy, what's going on? Man? Tom Aberstrow?
Speaker 4: All right here?
Speaker 7: I had myself on mute. I was it was a
Speaker 7: rookie move. I had myself on mute and I was talking,
Speaker 7: and you were like, hey, can I hear you? When
Speaker 7: I was like, is my take that the last of
Speaker 7: Us episode that I watched that I can't watch tonight?
Speaker 7: Do you have any last of Us takes? Are you
Speaker 7: watching that show?
Speaker 1: I am not.
Speaker 4: Have you?
Speaker 1: Have you made your way through righteous Gemstones?
Speaker 4: So that's on my to do list this offseason.
Speaker 7: I know, I know, just don't, just don't. I know it, everybody,
Speaker 7: all my buddies are I can't believe because, like, if
Speaker 7: you did an algorithm of like things that I like,
Speaker 7: comedies shows, HBO shows, whatever, it would all point to
Speaker 7: the Righteous said Stones. And I haven't started it yet.
Speaker 7: And I'm sorry, I apologize. That is number one on
Speaker 7: my big board.
Speaker 1: You do not have to apologize to me, but you
Speaker 1: can count me among the people. We're not best buds,
Speaker 1: but it does seem like Rascius Gemstones would be right
Speaker 1: down your alley. I mean, I'm a like anything McBride does,
Speaker 1: I'll give it a chance, you know, vice principles, whatever
Speaker 1: it is, I'm gonna watch Danny McBride.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 7: I think I think right now the NBA it's a
Speaker 7: great time to be an NBA fan because we've got
Speaker 7: some new fresh blood. We've got the whole Cooper Flag dynamic.
Speaker 7: There's a lot of storylines with the Luka Doncic stuff.
Speaker 7: We've got some new blood.
Speaker 4: But I got to say, at this point in the postseason,
Speaker 4: I think everyone deserves a little bit of a beat,
Speaker 4: a little bit of a break.
Speaker 7: And so last night having no game and then tonight
Speaker 7: not having a game.
Speaker 4: I think it's good for all. I'm not saying it's
Speaker 4: Aaron Gordon. Where Aaron Gordon is now after losing, saying
Speaker 4: we need more rest than the postseason. I'm not saying
Speaker 4: I'm taking a page out of Aaron Gordon's book. I'm
Speaker 4: just saying, Look, I think for everyone's health and their
Speaker 4: families and their loved ones, it'll be good to get
Speaker 4: some FaceTime with them this evening. I'm just saying that.
Speaker 1: What if you're single and your only child is twenty three,
Speaker 1: living in New Canaan, Connecticut, and not in Salt Lake.
Speaker 1: What if you have literally nothing to do and no
Speaker 1: family to interface with.
Speaker 4: You're asking for a friend.
Speaker 1: Yeah no, not me, not me, Tom, I'm just a
Speaker 1: buddy of mine.
Speaker 4: Well, you know what, you can pull up some old clips.
Speaker 4: You know, you can pull up whatever you want. And
Speaker 4: that's a great thing about the NBA is there's a
Speaker 4: plenty of libraries there on NBA dot Com or if
Speaker 4: you want, on all the streaming platforms, there's lots of
Speaker 4: content you can watch on the NBA if you need
Speaker 4: to fill that void.
Speaker 1: In your life or could you do me a favor
Speaker 1: and go to the archive of the Staples Wreckers and
Speaker 1: see if you can give me nineteen ninety four New
Speaker 1: Canaan at Staples Spence check its versus p Van Sicklin.
Speaker 1: Can you can you do that?
Speaker 4: What is a website error message for h or not? Now,
Speaker 4: that's what that is. I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: Fair enough? All right, Tom, I've got kind of a
Speaker 1: loaded question, but you'll be good with this. I started
Speaker 1: the show off today with you know, we're about to
Speaker 1: have our seventh NBA champion seven years. When you look
Speaker 1: at some of the teams that have won championships, it's Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: it is Denver, and ultimately this year we have Minnesota,
Speaker 1: we have Oklahoma City, we have Indianapolis, all in the
Speaker 1: final four, which means this era of parody should benefit
Speaker 1: teams at play in cities such as ours. Now. The
Speaker 1: problem is the Jazz are not ready to capitalize on
Speaker 1: what other teams have been able to position themselves to
Speaker 1: capitalize on. The new CBA expires in five years. We
Speaker 1: have Bobby Marks on last segment, we kind of walked
Speaker 1: through this, So explain to us why we have seen
Speaker 1: this parody manifest itself in basketball, and how the Jazz
Speaker 1: can position themselves to capitalize on this era the way
Speaker 1: that other small, small market teams have.
Speaker 4: Here's how you do it.
Speaker 7: You build up your medical staff. There's no cap on
Speaker 7: your medical staff. And this parody era is lipstick on
Speaker 7: a pig. The parody label is a nice, warm propaganda
Speaker 7: term to say, all our stars are injured these days,
Speaker 7: and that's what's dictating these non repeats and new champions
Speaker 7: every year. Because guys like Jason Tatum, or if it's Jiannis,
Speaker 7: or if it's Kevin Durant in the twenty nineteen NBA Finals,
Speaker 7: or it's Klay Thompson in the twenty nineteen NBA Finals,
Speaker 7: if it's Chris Middleton with the Milwaukee Bucks, if it's
Speaker 7: Drew Holliday this year in Jason Tatum, these repeat quests
Speaker 7: are more a result of stars getting injured.
Speaker 4: Then I think what's being led on and we can
Speaker 4: say this.
Speaker 7: Is the era of you know, the CBA, that the
Speaker 7: second Apron and the Big Three era is done. I
Speaker 7: would argue that this is more of a function of
Speaker 7: NBA stars are getting hurt and not on our TV
Speaker 7: screens than it is more of this, like good competitive
Speaker 7: balance measures, and I think that's not a fun story
Speaker 7: to tell. It's an important story to tell. It's an accurate,
Speaker 7: accurate story to tell that the repeat champions or the
Speaker 7: reigning champions, I should say in that seven years are
Speaker 7: more injury riddled than not. So when we look at
Speaker 7: the Boston Celtics and why they they've felt in that series,
Speaker 7: there's two reasons. One they got really cold shooting, and
Speaker 7: two they had no Jason Tatum, a banged up Drew
Speaker 7: Holiday who was missing playoff games earlier in the series.
Speaker 7: In the playoffs, he had also Christaps Porzingis, who was
Speaker 7: a shell of himself. Right, the Knicks were healthy, they
Speaker 7: played great, but the Boston Celtics are not repeat champions
Speaker 7: mostly because of the fact that they didn't shoot well
Speaker 7: and that they weren't healthy. And that really is the
Speaker 7: big story here is when you're talking about parody in
Speaker 7: the NBA, it's not a thing of competitive balance, no
Speaker 7: matter what they sell you. It's more about three point
Speaker 7: shooting has taken over the league, and because of that,
Speaker 7: there's more variance in who wins in a series. And
Speaker 7: if you look at every series, this postseason.
Speaker 4: Almost all of them have been.
Speaker 7: Won by the team that shot better from downtown, almost
Speaker 7: every single one. And so when you have the three
Speaker 7: ball mattering this much and injuries mattering this much in
Speaker 7: the postseason, I just wrote a column for Yahoo Sports
Speaker 7: that injuries in the postseason have increased sevenfolds since the
Speaker 7: late nineteen nineties.
Speaker 4: Injuries to star players, all star players.
Speaker 7: Have increased sevenfold since the late nineteen nineties and fivefold
Speaker 7: since as recently as two thousand and eight. So that
Speaker 7: is why we're not having these repeat champions.
Speaker 4: As much as we want to say it's about, oh,
Speaker 4: everyone's got a chance, Well everyone's got a chance because
Speaker 4: stars that matter more in basketball than any other sport,
Speaker 4: star players are not being available because of injuries and
Speaker 4: three point shooting, and so I think that's more of
Speaker 4: a reason. And if you're a.
Speaker 7: Utah Jazz, sayan, I would say, make sure your training
Speaker 7: staff is as good as the New York Knicks is one,
Speaker 7: because they just got the Traders Award this year. The
Speaker 7: Traders Association Athletic Trainers Association give out the Athletic Training
Speaker 7: Association Award and going to the healthiest or the best
Speaker 7: training staff in the league, and it just got awarded
Speaker 7: to the Knicks today and they got Casey Smith from
Speaker 7: the Dallas Mavericks, which is one of the reasons why
Speaker 7: a legend Luka Doncic was moved at the deadline, was
Speaker 7: because Casey Smith, who was one of the best and
Speaker 7: most well regarded training staff head athletic trainers in the
Speaker 7: NBA that was as close to Dirknovsky as anybody who
Speaker 7: was a part of the staff when they won the
Speaker 7: twenty eleven NBA Finals against the Miami Heat. That guy
Speaker 7: just got the award for the New York Knicks. And
Speaker 7: I think that this is an important storyline for the
Speaker 7: franchises that are in Charlotte, where I'm based, and in
Speaker 7: Utah and in Memphis and New Orleans. You gotta ramp
Speaker 7: up your medical staffs because that is the most important
Speaker 7: ingredient when it comes to winning championships. Is not just
Speaker 7: having stars, yes we all know that, but making sure
Speaker 7: those stars are healthy and well supported by your performance
Speaker 7: of medical staff. That's going to dictate as much as
Speaker 7: getting the star is making sure that they're able to
Speaker 7: play in June, in May, and in April. And that
Speaker 7: is a big storyline that no one's talking about.
Speaker 1: Well, Tom, I didn't invite you on to completely sabotage
Speaker 1: my rundown of the show today. Okay, so you're not
Speaker 1: necessarily wrong. The problem with talking about that through the
Speaker 1: prism of where the Jazz file themselves is all due
Speaker 1: respect to the current roster, none of them really have
Speaker 1: to stay healthy for them to do anything special. So
Speaker 1: I guess I'll try to change maybe the angle in
Speaker 1: the direction. But I do want to get back to
Speaker 1: what you just said, because I'm wondering what your thoughts
Speaker 1: are and why we're seeing this. But when it comes
Speaker 1: to the jazz perspective, is there anything that we can't
Speaker 1: ascertain from the current landscape of the NBA that is
Speaker 1: positive for this fan base to look at through the
Speaker 1: prism of what Okac has built, and Minnesota has built,
Speaker 1: and Indianapolis is built, and Milwaukee winning a title and
Speaker 1: Denver winning a title. Is there anything about all of
Speaker 1: that that this fan base should look at as a
Speaker 1: positive piece of news for the future of this organization
Speaker 1: as they continue to try to roster construct Well.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean it's good news that we have injuries
Speaker 7: to star players, because if you don't have a great team,
Speaker 7: or if you're trying to rebuild and you know, strike
Speaker 7: hit the lottery, not ands sarily the trap lottery. We
Speaker 7: don't have to revisit that from last week.
Speaker 4: But the point is, if you are a.
Speaker 7: Mid tier title contender like the Indiana Pacers or the
Speaker 7: Minnesota Timberwolves that were not in my top tier all
Speaker 7: season long at Tomdefiner dot com, you have a better
Speaker 7: shot in today's era when Jason Tatum and Jamian Lillard
Speaker 7: tear their achilles in the postseason, like you have a
Speaker 7: better chance at making a run and having things break
Speaker 7: your way if star players are getting into your more so,
Speaker 7: if the Utah Jazz want to look at this era
Speaker 7: and say, hey, it's a shorter path because of this,
Speaker 7: I would agree with you. I would also say that
Speaker 7: when you have a guy like Will Hardy who believes
Speaker 7: in three pointers and has a shot pro file of
Speaker 7: you know, having smart taking your shots from smart places
Speaker 7: on the floor, rim get to the free throw line,
Speaker 7: and three pointers. This is the modern way to play.
Speaker 7: And you're seeing that games are being dictated by three
Speaker 7: pointers a lot more. And he believes that, like Will Hardy.
Speaker 4: Is is wise to the importance of the three point shot.
Speaker 7: That doesn't mean that he he is okay with Walker
Speaker 7: Kessler taking toad threes a game that we saw a
Speaker 7: little cameo of that at the end of the season,
Speaker 7: and we might know why.
Speaker 4: That was happening.
Speaker 7: But I think when you look at the Utah Jazz
Speaker 7: and this more open playing open season for the championship,
Speaker 7: it might not be as long of a runway as
Speaker 7: it was in previous generations and the thunder or evidence
Speaker 7: of that. And I also think that the Indiana Pacers,
Speaker 7: you remember they were in the Webby sweepstakes like they
Speaker 7: were gonna be a team that was the tank and
Speaker 7: they kind of were too good for that. It wasn't
Speaker 7: long ago that the Indiana Pacers were considered Vegas's the
Speaker 7: lowest number in the over unders by by Vegas. There
Speaker 7: was only a couple of years ago. And so now
Speaker 7: they are one of the last four teams remaining for
Speaker 7: a second straight year. And I think there's a good
Speaker 7: lesson there for Utah Jazz that this can turn around quickly.
Speaker 1: So we talked to you, I think our first NBA
Speaker 1: guest after the bad news that the Jazz did not
Speaker 1: get a little luck last week and they a cheap,
Speaker 1: hesitating to say they fell to five because the percentages
Speaker 1: said that was the best possible out or not. The
Speaker 1: most likely possible outcome was four or five, So that
Speaker 1: was their floor. So they didn't get the luck, but
Speaker 1: they actually landed where the numbers said they probably would land.
Speaker 1: Here's my question, Tom, because we've already seen a couple
Speaker 1: of reports, one from our local b rider here the
Speaker 1: Deseret News, Sarah Todd. The Jazz are going to do
Speaker 1: whatever they can to try to move up, and they're
Speaker 1: gonna try to be bold. They've got all the assets.
Speaker 1: You will see how that looks or what it looks like.
Speaker 1: But who in the top five we can remove Dallas?
Speaker 1: Because Patrick Dumont was like, we're keeping one. We're drafting
Speaker 1: Cooper flag No, Nico, you can't trade it. So that's
Speaker 1: already kind of done. So if we move Dallas, who
Speaker 1: in front of the Jazz is most likely to move up?
Speaker 1: And you think the Jazz can get something like that done.
Speaker 4: I'm looking at San Antonio. San Antonio at number two.
Speaker 4: They already have Dared Fox and Stefan Castle and Dylan
Speaker 4: Harper is considered the favorite to go number two before
Speaker 4: the draft lottery and we'll see what happens. And if
Speaker 4: the San Antonio Spurs move down, right, would they want
Speaker 4: someone on the Utah Jazz roster right now in to
Speaker 4: trade down from two to five And would they be
Speaker 4: willing to part with let's say Lowry Marketing or John
Speaker 4: Collins or another veteran that would be appealing to a
Speaker 4: team that's trying to win, as we saw with dearon
Speaker 4: Fox acquisition. They're trying to win now. And if if
Speaker 4: it's gonna be Lowry Marketing on the table for Dylan Harper,
Speaker 4: I don't know. I think the Utah.
Speaker 7: Jazz would be very wise to try to go get
Speaker 7: a Dylan Harper, but if it comes to the cost
Speaker 7: of marketing, I can understand why he would be very
Speaker 7: appealing to the Spurs and why Dylan Harper would be
Speaker 7: very appealing to the Utah Jazz to get like their
Speaker 7: point guard, whether you want to say hybrid guard of
Speaker 7: the future, that would make sense from a personnel standpoint.
Speaker 7: I just don't know if the Utah Jazz would move
Speaker 7: marketing for Dylan Harper. I don't know if he's that
Speaker 7: much of the knockdown or a home run draft prospect.
Speaker 7: But in terms of the needs of this San Antonio
Speaker 7: Spurs as getting a knockdown three point shooter, A big
Speaker 7: like Harrison Barnes is like a poor man's version of
Speaker 7: Larry Markinen. Larry Markin is a star version of Harrison Barnes,
Speaker 7: a big guard who can shoot the rock and play
Speaker 7: multiple positions. When you got like Larry Markinen and Victor
Speaker 7: Webbin Yama next to each other, that's really impressive. That's
Speaker 7: a really tough to guard front line. They're big and
Speaker 7: you don't need as much shot blocking if you're Larry
Speaker 7: Marketing when you got Wemby right there behind you. He's
Speaker 7: like a soup up version of Walker Kessler back there.
Speaker 7: So that's I would ask for more if I'm the
Speaker 7: San Antonio, if I'm the Utah Jazz, if I'm gonna
Speaker 7: move Larry Markinen. But that seems like two teams that
Speaker 7: are on different trajectories, and you could imagine them trying
Speaker 7: to move up, But I can't imagine the San Antonio
Speaker 7: Spurs are gonna move down for John Collins or something
Speaker 7: like that. So it would be tough for me to
Speaker 7: see the San Antonio Spurs unless Larry Markin is on
Speaker 7: the table, all.
Speaker 1: Right, moving over now to teams that are still playing,
Speaker 1: and I wonder, and I talked to Bobby about this,
Speaker 1: and you'll get it, you know. Visions of Charles Smith
Speaker 1: missing four layups in a row. No, he was not fouled.
Speaker 1: Visions of Anthony Mason literally throwing an in bounce past
Speaker 1: to Reggie Miller, who stepped back and hit a three
Speaker 1: when Greg Anthony fell down. Visions of Patrick Ewing's finger
Speaker 1: roll bouncing off the back of the rim against the Pacers,
Speaker 1: John Starts going three of eighteen, and pat Riley refusing
Speaker 1: to just take Rolando Blackman off ice for a minute.
Speaker 1: All of those things dancing through my Nick fan head.
Speaker 1: So no part of me thought we were going to
Speaker 1: see a blowout on Friday night, Yet we did. What
Speaker 1: stands out most, Tom, outside of the Tatum stuff, which
Speaker 1: we know has to be brought into the equation, but
Speaker 1: the way the Knicks have been able to do this
Speaker 1: and build this roster that brings them back to the
Speaker 1: Conference finals, what stands out most to you.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's Jalen Brunson. This guy is unreal, the way.
Speaker 7: That he has dominated in fourth quarters this postseason and
Speaker 7: in clutch time.
Speaker 4: It's remarkable.
Speaker 7: It's it's a testament to Leon Rose and Tom Thibodeau
Speaker 7: and Worldwide West and the fact that they believe so
Speaker 7: much in Jalen Brunton to tamper whatever you want to
Speaker 7: call it, hire his father to the coaching staff under
Speaker 7: Tom Thibodeau, and send a whole fleet of people to
Speaker 7: go watch that game that they thought it was about
Speaker 7: Donovan Mitchell when it's more about Jalen Brunson. To go
Speaker 7: and acquire that guy and then say, not only is
Speaker 7: he going to be an All Star for us, but
Speaker 7: he's going to be one of the best, if not
Speaker 7: the best playoff performer in a couple of years. Because
Speaker 7: that's the level that Jalen Brunton has been playing this postseason,
Speaker 7: averaging twenty nine points per game and in the fourth quarters.
Speaker 7: In fourth quarters this postseason, Jalen Brunson has over one
Speaker 7: hundred points.
Speaker 4: He has one hundred and.
Speaker 7: Fourteen points this postseason and the next highest guy has
Speaker 7: seventy six. So Jalen Brunson in the fourth quarter shooting
Speaker 7: fifty one percent from the floor, forty eight percent from
Speaker 7: downtown and has more points than anybody by forty by
Speaker 7: by by about forty points. That's insane.
Speaker 4: And he's not a big.
Speaker 7: Dude, and so I can understand why people looked at
Speaker 7: Jalen Brunson and said he's undersize, he's not athletic enough.
Speaker 7: But the dude's a winner and he's proven time and
Speaker 7: time again that he's been able to step up in
Speaker 7: last postseason against the Indiana Pacers getting hurt and just
Speaker 7: not being able to finish the season. I can't wait
Speaker 7: for this series. I can't wait to see how Karl
Speaker 7: Anthony Towns is leveraged in this In this series, we
Speaker 7: got two five out teams with Miles Turner and Karl
Speaker 7: Anthony Towns being two of the best three points shooting
Speaker 7: bigs in the league.
Speaker 4: League. We've got a lot of bad blood between these
Speaker 4: two teams. Historically.
Speaker 7: We're gonna see Reggie Miller on the mic for TNT
Speaker 7: in their last postseason on the broadcast. There's a lot
Speaker 7: of dynamics here that are really exciting. But my favorite
Speaker 7: thing is that we have the potential for Tyree Taliburton
Speaker 7: to do the choke sign against the New York Knicks
Speaker 7: allave Reggie Miller with Reggie Miller in the building in Indiana, Like,
Speaker 7: if that happens, WWE ain't got nothing on this series.
Speaker 7: We even saw Tyree Taliburton and Jalen Brunson in WWE,
Speaker 7: and it wouldn't top the theatrics. If the Indiana Pacers
Speaker 7: win a clutch game in Indiana against the New York
Speaker 7: Knicks and with Reggie Miller on on the broadcast, Tyrese
Speaker 7: Haliburton busts that out, like, I am, I am, I
Speaker 7: am here for this series.
Speaker 1: You know what PTSD is, Tom, you know the definition
Speaker 1: of that.
Speaker 4: There.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, okay, So, like, of all the interviews you're
Speaker 1: gonna do this week, this is the only one you
Speaker 1: didn't need to do that. You realize that, right.
Speaker 4: I am sorry to do that to you.
Speaker 1: All good?
Speaker 7: At first, I start off by having the mute button on,
Speaker 7: and then I do that to you.
Speaker 4: Come on, man, if you hung up on me, I
Speaker 4: would not blame you.
Speaker 1: I would never do that to you, especially at my age.
Speaker 1: When my son is visibly embarrassed watching me text. He's like, Dad,
Speaker 1: why does that take you so long? I'm like, just
Speaker 1: leave me alone. I'll get it done just real quick.
Speaker 1: Who do you give the advantage to Nick Pacers just
Speaker 1: early on.
Speaker 7: I think it's the Pacers and the way that they
Speaker 7: get up and down the floor, the shot making that
Speaker 7: they have. They are the best shooting team in the
Speaker 7: postseason so far. They've got about eight guys in that
Speaker 7: series shooting fifty percent or higher against Cleveland.
Speaker 4: They are a team that I think could give the
Speaker 4: next real problems when it comes to that up tempo.
Speaker 4: They move the ball crazy way more than the Boston Celtics.
Speaker 7: The Indiana Pacers are having more passes per game this
Speaker 7: postseason than any team since twenty fifteen. It's been a
Speaker 7: decade plus since we've seen a team move the ball
Speaker 7: this much per game than the Indiana Pacers. And as
Speaker 7: we say against the Boston Celtics, the switching that they
Speaker 7: do sometimes.
Speaker 4: They can get vulnerable. You're going to try to limit
Speaker 4: the passing by switching a lot, but they're not a
Speaker 4: good switching team, and so are you going to see
Speaker 4: Tom Thibodeau in that very overload strong side defense, and
Speaker 4: the Pacers are going to try to pick that apart
Speaker 4: by getting them in rotation and getting open baskets. This
Speaker 4: is a really good Pacers offense and a team that
Speaker 4: has the best win percentage in the Eastern Conference since
Speaker 4: January one. They're legit. It's not gonna be an easy series.
Speaker 4: I picked the Boston Celtics over.
Speaker 7: The Knicks in five games, so I'm obviously over underrating
Speaker 7: the New York Knicks historically, but I just think the
Speaker 7: Indiana Pacers play a brand of basketball that can be.
Speaker 4: Really tough for the Knicks.
Speaker 7: So I got the Pacers in that series.
Speaker 1: Out this way okay see dispatches of Denver in Game seven,
Speaker 1: and man, when they turn it on, it just look,
Speaker 1: there might be a little press sure on OKAC with
Speaker 1: Boston out, with Cleveland out, with Lebron out, with Stephen
Speaker 1: Curry out, and I could keep going. They are the
Speaker 1: Vegas favorite to win, not just against the Tea Wolves,
Speaker 1: but the NBA Championship. Now Minnesota, I think they deserve
Speaker 1: a lot more credit than most people are giving them,
Speaker 1: and maybe we should have paid more attention to them
Speaker 1: because they did finish the season well. But before I
Speaker 1: say you lose, who do you like out this way
Speaker 1: in the west, okay See or Minnesota? And why?
Speaker 4: I think it's okay See. And their defense is so
Speaker 4: smothering and so physical and so intense that I could
Speaker 4: see it giving you know, Rudy Gobert a lot of problems.
Speaker 4: I see Julius Randall has been as good as I've
Speaker 4: ever seen Julius Randall play in this postseason. But the
Speaker 4: way that they kind of bait you into trying to
Speaker 4: go one on one and then they have like three
Speaker 4: guys swarming you and swiping at the ball, I could
Speaker 4: see that going very sideways for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Look,
Speaker 4: this Golden State Warriors team was cooked without Stephan Curry,
Speaker 4: Jimmy Butler was injured, could not muster up enough to
Speaker 4: lead that team with any sort of fight against the
Speaker 4: Minnesota Timberwolves. And I think.
Speaker 7: This thunder team is way different. They're way younger, youngest
Speaker 7: title contending team ever. Alex Caruso. The fact that they
Speaker 7: were able to get him in the trade which for
Speaker 7: Josh Giddy and then turn him into a Yokich stopper,
Speaker 7: that was insane, And I got okay see, I've had
Speaker 7: to okay see all season long. I've been on this
Speaker 7: program saying that I think they're going to run through
Speaker 7: the postseason. Denver did a great job giving giving them
Speaker 7: a real battle in that semi Finals. I think it's
Speaker 7: over in six games against the Minnesota Timberwolves. I understand
Speaker 7: why Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves on rest would seem
Speaker 7: to be a popular pick. But I got OKAYC in
Speaker 7: that series. But I want to hand it to Julius Rando.
Speaker 7: He's proven me wrong this postseason. I did not think
Speaker 7: he was going to be a good postseason perform and
Speaker 7: you know, watching the Knicks as much as you do,
Speaker 7: that he can be very frustrating and the way that he,
Speaker 7: you know, plays isoball and just puts the blinders on
Speaker 7: in a taxi. But in some of those series man against
Speaker 7: the Lakers and the way that they were trying to
Speaker 7: go small against the Timberwolves, like sometimes you need that bullyball.
Speaker 7: Sometimes you need that against the Golden State Warriors that
Speaker 7: are basically playing five guards out there. Julius Randam has
Speaker 7: been excellent this postseason, but I think against a huge, intense,
Speaker 7: physical thunder team, I think I think it's just going
Speaker 7: to be too much of a test for the Minnesota Timberwlves.
Speaker 7: And I got Okac and six.
Speaker 1: One more thing, actually, I want to kick the tires
Speaker 1: real quick because you reference the next trainer, you know,
Speaker 1: being awarded the the you know, the training staff of
Speaker 1: the Year. I would just wonder if you're watching the
Speaker 1: same way I am, Like, I get Tom's I get
Speaker 1: Tom Thibodeau's ethos, like known him forever, he was Jeff's assistant.
Speaker 1: But when it's one hundred and ten to seventy four
Speaker 1: with five minutes left and Jalen Brunton is fighting over
Speaker 1: Xavier Tillman picks, don't like, at what point do you
Speaker 1: put aside who you are and sit your guys to
Speaker 1: make sure they're ready for the next round?
Speaker 4: Man, this a tiger trait changes straight. I know, I mean,
Speaker 4: it's we've seen it, unfortunately, we've seen this horror show,
Speaker 4: the Boogeyman. What happens at the end of these runs.
Speaker 4: It happened last year. They've I don't want to ran
Speaker 4: on their parade like absolutely they should celebrate since two
Speaker 4: thousands haven't made the conference finals. An incredible and incredible
Speaker 4: performance against the Boston Celtics. But that stuff makes me nervous, man,
Speaker 4: it does. And uh, you know with gayleb Brunton being
Speaker 4: banged up this postseason and or at the end of
Speaker 4: the regular season, that ankle.
Speaker 7: It just takes one. It just takes one weird freak
Speaker 7: play for that ankle to be rolled, and then it's
Speaker 7: it's you know, the Tom Thibade story all over again.
Speaker 7: But man, they're playing so well. Mitchell Robinson coming back
Speaker 7: from injury, the way that he's performed, it's a seven
Speaker 7: man rotation. And let's see what happens against the Indiana
Speaker 7: Pacers that are going to try to run them out
Speaker 7: of the gym. It's gonna be a really really fun series.
Speaker 7: I can't wait.
Speaker 1: Where can people go get the work?
Speaker 4: Tommy Oh, Tomdefinder dot com, Yahoo Sports, the Big Number
Speaker 4: that I do with Dan Devine, as well as the.
Speaker 7: KOC show that I appear every week. We're gonna do
Speaker 7: a postgame show Thursday night after Minnesota, OKC. On Thursday night,
Speaker 7: We're gonna do a live show over at Yahoo Sports.
Speaker 7: So go check me out there and of course, pack
Speaker 7: your knives. Top Chef Recap show in full season right now.
Speaker 7: If you're a Top Chef fan, thanks so much.
Speaker 1: Bench All right, buddy, talk to you soon. There's the
Speaker 1: great Tom Haberstrow brought to you today by IFA Country Stores,
Speaker 1: Summer Vacation and warmer weather are just beyond the horizon.
Speaker 1: As the days grow longer, excuse me, and brightly colored
Speaker 1: flowers being making their appearance. It's time to start planning
Speaker 1: and applying step two of IA Phase four plus annual
Speaker 1: long Care Program design with a blend of vital macro
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Speaker 1: strong roots and vibrant colors in your yard. At IFA
Speaker 1: and IFA dot co Op shout out Weezer in town
Speaker 1: over the weekend, attended Kilby Court with a bunch of
Speaker 1: children that were my son's age and younger, but showed
Speaker 1: up early. Didn't make the Friday night till which apparently
Speaker 1: was the best night, but Saturday show up at about
Speaker 1: four thirty five hanging out with the youngs, and then
Speaker 1: Weezer plays and the other old showed up, so that
Speaker 1: was nice. You typically will attend to Kilby Block party
Speaker 1: from time to time. Were you present at all?
Speaker 2: I was lucky enough this this this year. I heard
Speaker 2: from home.
Speaker 1: Oh, you live close enough that you didn't have to.
Speaker 2: I heard that concert while I was doing my garden
Speaker 2: last night, so it was actually kind of nice.
Speaker 1: And also Travis Tritt wasn't there. Yeah, Travis Tritt is
Speaker 1: he alive?
Speaker 2: I think so.
Speaker 1: Shout out Travis Trick on a Monday afternoon, Tony Parks,
Speaker 1: what's up, man, I'll tell you what I I finished
Speaker 1: my Sunday nights the same way all the time. I
Speaker 1: usually prefer to spend it with Scott van Feldt. Not literally,
Speaker 1: that'd be weird, but hopefully it's van Felt Sports Center
Speaker 1: and last night hang it out. I'd fall asleep and
Speaker 1: they say top ten plays. I'm like, hey, I'll check
Speaker 1: out the top ten plays. Who doesn't love the top
Speaker 1: ten plays? And then prior to number one, they said,
Speaker 1: let's go to minor league baseball. And I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: I wonder if the Bees are involved. Sure enough, I
Speaker 1: hear your voice in the background, and the number one
Speaker 1: play on se top ten was a Bees player making
Speaker 1: a great catch in the outfield.
Speaker 6: Yes's awesome. Nico Cavadas, rob's a home run. Nico gets
Speaker 6: traded to this team last year. Middle of the year,
Speaker 6: Red Sox trade him him Matthew Lugo, who's now at
Speaker 6: the Angels. Nico comes and he's a part of the team.
Speaker 6: South Bend, Indiana kid grew up dreaming of going to
Speaker 6: Notre Dame, went to games, baseball, football, watched Jeff Samarja.
Speaker 6: The whole thing has stories school, Yeah, good call. He
Speaker 6: dated a girl who lived in the Central time zone.
Speaker 6: He lived in the Eastern, which was ten minutes apart
Speaker 6: because they're right by the Yeah. So he has stories
Speaker 6: that are just endless and are funny. And the cool
Speaker 6: thing with him is I joke with him, well, your
Speaker 6: timing is so great because you were always on time
Speaker 6: on accident because you would gain an hour and he
Speaker 6: would be like, no, I'd show up an hour early
Speaker 6: for stuff.
Speaker 1: It was annoying.
Speaker 6: Right, So when he's at Notre Dame, a coach named
Speaker 6: Link Jarrett comes along. They're one of the worst defensive teams,
Speaker 6: flips him around to being one of the best defensive teams,
Speaker 6: and he becomes very underrated, in my opinion, defensive player first.
Speaker 1: Base, mostly here and there.
Speaker 6: But then they put him in the outfield, and I'm like,
Speaker 6: you know what, this guy could play some outfield. This
Speaker 6: guy and you're watching it in workouts and all of that,
Speaker 6: You're going, this dude's I don't think he's I don't
Speaker 6: think people would look at him and think, oh, this
Speaker 6: is going to be a dynamic outfield player, a player
Speaker 6: in the outfield, and sure enough, yesterday he's out and right,
Speaker 6: I think that's his first game, and right, this year's
Speaker 6: play mostly left most of that.
Speaker 1: I have to go back and look at it. Some
Speaker 1: of the games kind of blur together.
Speaker 6: But as it's going back, I'm like, Okay, yeah, I
Speaker 6: think that's gonna get out. And then as I'm watching
Speaker 6: him time the leap, I'm going, oh my gosh. And
Speaker 6: then you see his athleticism, his ability to reach over.
Speaker 6: He couldn't have been more perfect with the timing. It
Speaker 6: was awesome.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: It was a great way they lost yesterday.
Speaker 6: They didn't have a lost like seven to one, but
Speaker 6: that was like a stellar highlight, one of many great
Speaker 6: defensive highlights for the team. But that was so cool
Speaker 6: to call to watch and then to know his background
Speaker 6: which led up to that moment.
Speaker 1: How you know, if at all, How does that work? Like,
Speaker 1: do you guys get a call from ESPN like hey,
Speaker 1: we want to use this clip. I mean, are you
Speaker 1: aware that you're about to be calling the top play
Speaker 1: on Sports Center that night? Or you weren't it in
Speaker 1: real time like the rest of us. I didn't know
Speaker 1: it would be number one. I thought, oh, that's got
Speaker 1: to be a candidate for sure.
Speaker 6: And what you do is in your tweets and all
Speaker 6: of the communication you hashtag sc top ten and Sports
Speaker 6: Center and all that and so yeah, and I immediately
Speaker 6: because the feed, here's what would happen this year. I
Speaker 6: started saying, Hey, look, when we get a really dynamic call,
Speaker 6: let's have a communications situation where we can get our
Speaker 6: call over the MiLB call because they always take home
Speaker 6: a home feed, because that would just normally be on
Speaker 6: the home feed and that's it short. I was like, no, like,
Speaker 6: let's get our call for big home runs and big
Speaker 6: things like that.
Speaker 1: And so that was a gimme.
Speaker 6: We had a good system and it got processed right
Speaker 6: away and then communicated to Sports Center right away, and
Speaker 6: it just increases your chances.
Speaker 1: For something like that.
Speaker 6: To give love to Cavadis, to the Bees and you know,
Speaker 6: a whole organization.
Speaker 1: So it was cool. John Ollinger, John Oliver, excuse me
Speaker 1: not John Hollinger. He writes for The Athletic. John Oliver
Speaker 1: hosts this show called Last Week Tonight on HBO. It
Speaker 1: airs every Sunday, and John's a really funny you know,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of satire, it's a lot of political satire.
Speaker 1: But he did last night. He did an entire segment
Speaker 1: on minor league baseball. And he had prior to a
Speaker 1: couple of shows ago because he went to who's this
Speaker 1: super popular minor league baseball team that everybody Rocket City
Speaker 1: and there are okay, okay, He went to a game
Speaker 1: or something, he was like, this is awesome. More people
Speaker 1: should go to minor league baseball games. So he offered
Speaker 1: on his show to rebrand an entire minor league baseball team.
Speaker 1: He's going to rename it, he's going to give it
Speaker 1: a theme night, and they're going to create a mascot.
Speaker 1: And so last night I think they landed on the Erie,
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania baseball team. They're going to rebrand entirely. But he
Speaker 1: did this and it was actually kind of cool. I
Speaker 1: didn't realize he was going to do this. He kind
Speaker 1: of made this plea like, if you live in a
Speaker 1: city with minor league baseball, go support these teams. Because
Speaker 1: they've done all of this research. And as a result
Speaker 1: of the research, they were going to games, they were
Speaker 1: talking to front offices, they were talking to fans, and
Speaker 1: it was kind of like this last bastion of sport
Speaker 1: that isn't overly tainted with economic confusion and capitalists undertop.
Speaker 1: It's just like a pure way to go enjoy baseball.
Speaker 1: I thought it was kind of cool, no like, and
Speaker 1: obviously that reverberates with you. Yeah, it really really does.
Speaker 6: That's why I think so many people who work in
Speaker 6: the Pacific Coast League. Steve and I were obviously close,
Speaker 6: Steve Cloukey and I, so many of us that work there.
Speaker 6: That's why it's a clubhouse feel because it doesn't have
Speaker 6: some of those undertones you're talking about. You deal with
Speaker 6: far less of the unnecessary bs. There's always weird stuff
Speaker 6: you gotta deal, but like, you get to really connect
Speaker 6: with people in a great way, and the fans too,
Speaker 6: and the whole thing. And the fans love the players
Speaker 6: because we know, with the way it works, the chances
Speaker 6: of them being there next year are next to not
Speaker 6: because they're going to go to a different team, or
Speaker 6: go to the major leagues or go somewhere. Like it's
Speaker 6: just you shuffle the deck every year and the roster
Speaker 6: changes so much year to year, so they when they
Speaker 6: get a moment with the player, they love it. And
Speaker 6: then on top of that, the ballpark becomes important. The mascot,
Speaker 6: the trends, the traditions, that the things like that make
Speaker 6: it great. Baseball's already great like that, but when you
Speaker 6: mix it in with something beautiful like what we had
Speaker 6: at thirteen hundred South and West Temple and now what
Speaker 6: we have in Daybreak like, it's you can't beat it
Speaker 6: because it's so special to be around. So I've worked
Speaker 6: in the NBA, TV radio, you know, mc PA, I've
Speaker 6: done all the different arts and worked in different leagues.
Speaker 6: There's nothing like the field of minor league.
Speaker 1: Base tell me, and I don't have any data at
Speaker 1: my disposal with this. You know, my sincere hope is
Speaker 1: that the Millers endeavor to bring Major League baseball here.
Speaker 1: It comes to fruition. I just think it would be
Speaker 1: so great, and obviously through my prism last night, after
Speaker 1: getting through you know, the NBA stuff, I watched Game
Speaker 1: seven on the NHL side, and then some of the
Speaker 1: Scheffler highlights I throw on met Yankees Subway series. My
Speaker 1: guy Bellinger goes deep, yeah, ultimate Yankee stadium, walls scrapers,
Speaker 1: and I just, yeah, just give me the lefty that
Speaker 1: can hit it, you know, just right out there. Just
Speaker 1: give me the lefty that you know can hit it
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty feet. We're good. And I love
Speaker 1: that the Mets are good right now because Porter is
Speaker 1: gonna be like, hey, we have a chance, and then
Speaker 1: they don't because they're the Mets. But you know, I
Speaker 1: haven't watched a lot of baseball yet this year. I've
Speaker 1: been NBA playoff centric or whatever. But every time I
Speaker 1: tune into a game and really give it my attention,
Speaker 1: because it isn't a sport that's designed for the twenty
Speaker 1: four to seven house of highlights like you have. If
Speaker 1: you're gonna watch a baseball game, it requires some focus
Speaker 1: and some attention. So it is a different Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a different time in our society because we all
Speaker 1: have computers in our hand, and our intention spans are
Speaker 1: like this. And I notice it with myself, like even
Speaker 1: if I'm watching a movie, like, wait, this is two
Speaker 1: hours long, I'm just gonna go watch the show that's
Speaker 1: thirty minutes. Like, our attention spans are shorter. And I
Speaker 1: don't know what that's done for the bottom line of
Speaker 1: interest from Major League Baseball. But do you have any
Speaker 1: insight as to the health of the sport right now,
Speaker 1: not just the game that's a great game, but it's
Speaker 1: at the health of Major League Baseball.
Speaker 6: I mean, I think you look at how you would
Speaker 6: compare it to other stuff like the NFL.
Speaker 1: Clearly it's going to take a back seat.
Speaker 6: I mean, just you it has so many games, and
Speaker 6: when you talk about being there in person, it's a
Speaker 6: great experience. TV and radio is obviously different. It's one
Speaker 6: of those that you have on the background for radio
Speaker 6: if you want. You know, I've always loved one. I'll
Speaker 6: prep for a game if there's day games on. I
Speaker 6: love my Wednesday Thursday games. I'll have it on in
Speaker 6: the background, like listening to different broadcasters, just hearing the
Speaker 6: sounds of it.
Speaker 1: It's just nice. It's nice to have.
Speaker 6: When it comes to something that you are going to
Speaker 6: attach yourself to. You're not attaching yourself to it going Okay,
Speaker 6: they can get out of the sixth inning, we get
Speaker 6: to the bullpen.
Speaker 1: And that No, that's for the playoffs.
Speaker 6: It's just because there's so many games that the attention
Speaker 6: span is not going to be there all the time.
Speaker 6: So it's something to have on, something to have on
Speaker 6: like on a Sunday night, like you're talking about, right,
Speaker 6: and so the the eat, sleep, breathe every live moment.
Speaker 6: In terms of TV radio, I think that would be
Speaker 6: tough to ever compare it to stuff like it has
Speaker 6: with the NFL and things like that, but it is healthy.
Speaker 6: There is attraction to the stars of the game right now.
Speaker 6: There is attraction to the fact that they improve the
Speaker 6: timing of the game with the clock rules now and
Speaker 6: you can't throw over a first one hundred and fifty times,
Speaker 6: and like now the game moves a lot better and
Speaker 6: it's actually more enjoyable as a broadcaster. There's some tempo
Speaker 6: now to the game and some feel, which is great.
Speaker 6: You've noticed that, Oh yes, it's glaring and I love it.
Speaker 6: I love it a lot. So there's good to that.
Speaker 6: But I do think it's healthy overall. And I think
Speaker 6: obviously the revenues look terrific in terms of the engagement
Speaker 6: and the attention to the game, But you just know
Speaker 6: that it's not to the level of something like the
Speaker 6: National Football League and some other major sports, and it's.
Speaker 1: Just not and it doesn't it doesn't have to be.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to, you know, And on the landscape,
Speaker 1: of the hierarchy. It's probably still three, right, it's probably football, basketball,
Speaker 1: then baseball, maybe hockey's gained some in roads, and soccer
Speaker 1: will probably all beyond the outside looking in in this country.
Speaker 1: That's kind of where I've landed on it. Let me
Speaker 1: ask you this, even though I've asked you this before,
Speaker 1: as somebody who calls all these these games, says work
Speaker 1: for the Millers and understands the sport and understands our market.
Speaker 1: Are you confident that we'll support a Major League baseball
Speaker 1: team should we get it?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I am no, very confident because the same reason
Speaker 6: why they supported the NHL, and the same exact reason
Speaker 6: because I had a good friend of mine who's one
Speaker 6: in Chicago and then another one lives in Long Island,
Speaker 6: and he was like, it's not I've been out there.
Speaker 6: It doesn't really feel like a hockey city.
Speaker 1: I said, it's not. I'm not gonna lie to you
Speaker 1: and be like, this is a hockey town. No, it's not.
Speaker 1: It's not.
Speaker 6: People were learning the game as the season went along,
Speaker 6: by the way. It doesn't make them less of a fan,
Speaker 6: doesn't make them not intelligence. Yeah, it's just this is
Speaker 6: not a place where kids played a lot of hockey.
Speaker 1: We can just call it like it is. But they
Speaker 1: supported it because it was their team.
Speaker 6: They love events and they they are totally engaged with
Speaker 6: this community. So I knew the moment the NHL came in,
Speaker 6: I was like, oh, yeah, they they'll totally get behind
Speaker 6: that team. And then as it turned out, they did,
Speaker 6: And I thought it was great with the way that
Speaker 6: people were able to just say like, oh, okay, I'm
Speaker 6: learning about this part of the game. And you know what,
Speaker 6: Nat was never a hockey fan, toughter offsides icy in
Speaker 6: just like that. Loved it big Blackhawks fand went to
Speaker 6: more Blackhawks games than any other team in the city.
Speaker 1: It was awesome.
Speaker 6: But for a lot of people here that can be
Speaker 6: the same thing, and it's another great enjoyable experience. There's
Speaker 6: the other thing. It would own the summer. It would
Speaker 6: absolutely own the summer. So would it sell out every
Speaker 6: game like you would say the NHL, Well, no, you
Speaker 6: have eighty one.
Speaker 1: Nobody sells out everybody Baseball Like that's I.
Speaker 6: Love it when people are like, I could see them
Speaker 6: having a tough time selling out every game.
Speaker 1: Nobody does.
Speaker 6: Well, yes, and nobody does, and so you get two
Speaker 6: months of dicey weather.
Speaker 1: You've got a lot of games.
Speaker 6: But I do think you would see a ton of
Speaker 6: great energy and passion towards it, like you were seeing
Speaker 6: energy and passion towards now the the Utah Mammoth so.
Speaker 1: And summer night's here rule I mean amazing, you know, Like,
Speaker 1: that's one of the things I love about the soccer experience.
Speaker 1: And I tease those guys over there because they're always like, hey,
Speaker 1: you coming to the game I'm like, is it seventy
Speaker 1: five degrees yet, because I'm not coming until it's warm,
Speaker 1: because I'm not sitting outside in cold weather. But a
Speaker 1: warm Utah summer night out at America First Field, even
Speaker 1: if you're not a soccer fan, you will enjoy the experience.
Speaker 1: And you don't have to be a baseball fan to
Speaker 1: go sit outside. You talked about the sunsets at the
Speaker 1: new ballpark last time. Grab a hot dog and a
Speaker 1: pop whatever your thing is, and just enjoy the experience.
Speaker 1: One more thing here and then we'll talk about what
Speaker 1: you guys have coming up. So Rob Manfred has said
Speaker 1: we are not expanding until the new CBA expires. The
Speaker 1: good news is that's next year. Yes, So December first,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, the new CBA and Major League Baseball expires,
Speaker 1: and then we'll see what they do as far as
Speaker 1: expansion on the rise, and we know the cities, Nashville, Portland,
Speaker 1: the usual suspects. There's always the possibility of the Arizona
Speaker 1: Coyotes being owned by an idiot and needing a new
Speaker 1: home and suddenly saw as hockey. There's the Tampa Bay
Speaker 1: stuff that's out there. The A's look like they're going
Speaker 1: to Vegas, although that's not done. What's your understanding about
Speaker 1: where we're at in the process of getting baseball here
Speaker 1: to our market.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm not being a homer with this leader in
Speaker 6: the clubhouse. Leader in the clubhouse. And by the way,
Speaker 6: you know, there's a ton of variables that come with
Speaker 6: stuff like this over time, so things can always change.
Speaker 6: But I think they're the leader in the clubhouse because
Speaker 6: all the circus, all the nonsense is out of the way.
Speaker 6: If you're going to expand, it is the place because
Speaker 6: you have the ownership, you have alignment with where they're
Speaker 6: going to have the stadium, all of the details on
Speaker 6: how they're going to fund it, all the nonsense, all
Speaker 6: the headaches, all the forty seven chain emails and the
Speaker 6: hour and a half long meetings bureaucracy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh my gosh, the last minute.
Speaker 6: Oh crap, Hey, by the ways, all that stuff gone,
Speaker 6: and there is something too, having already put so many
Speaker 6: other plans in place to then let this be a
Speaker 6: smooth landing, as smooth as you can have.
Speaker 1: Sure. Sure.
Speaker 6: Now the other thing I try to tell people too,
Speaker 6: because they well, how long do you think it would take?
Speaker 6: And I'm like, well, you got to remember when Tampa
Speaker 6: and Arizona had their expansion teams, it was four years later.
Speaker 6: They had opening day, four years when it was like
Speaker 6: if I remember it was announced, it was like four
Speaker 6: years later.
Speaker 1: That's so that's a gap.
Speaker 6: So it would have to be hey, we're expanding, Hey,
Speaker 6: this is where we're doing it. I don't know if
Speaker 6: it would be four years, but that's what it was
Speaker 6: back then, So that takes some time. The other thing
Speaker 6: is if you expand, so people look at what happened
Speaker 6: with Ryan Smith and the Utah Mammoth. Now, great work
Speaker 6: to quickly turn it around, I mean, amazing, like they
Speaker 6: deserve it's on a credit for that. It was also
Speaker 6: easier that it was a purchased team right, because now
Speaker 6: everything expans. It's not straight turnkey, but a lot of
Speaker 6: things are done in this situation. Where are your minor
Speaker 6: league affiliates? Where's your spring training facility? Where I mean
Speaker 6: there's I mean the stadium. Obviously there's a ton of
Speaker 6: things that all come into play with an expansion team,
Speaker 6: So all.
Speaker 1: Right to them before you catch a break. The Solid
Speaker 1: B's and Miller Sports and Entertainment invite all to celebrate
Speaker 1: the grand opening of the Salt Lake Bees team Store
Speaker 1: the ballpark at America First Square. This is tomorrow, May
Speaker 1: the twentieth, one one one South Ballpark Drive.
Speaker 6: First of all, great address, easy to fide. It's my
Speaker 6: mom's pass code for her phone, so she can't forget.
Speaker 1: You know, I probably should not say my father's cell
Speaker 1: phone on air, but it is amazingly easy. New merch,
Speaker 1: great deals and more. Beesteam store dot com. Tell me
Speaker 1: what do you want our listeners to know?
Speaker 6: Oh man, I'll tell you what. Like I love with
Speaker 6: what they're gonna have with this new team store. Obviously
Speaker 6: the new gear and all of that, but the varieties
Speaker 6: of the new gear, you know, a ton of different
Speaker 6: stuff from a great women's apparel, you're gonna love it.
Speaker 1: For Like, I'm wearing this polo and this is what
Speaker 1: the old gear.
Speaker 6: I haven't looked on a new one as well, But
Speaker 6: then all the different hats that's what I like too.
Speaker 6: So I don't know about you. I was never a
Speaker 6: flat bild guy. I just didn't look good in a
Speaker 6: flat bill hat. I looked like a train conductor. I
Speaker 6: didn't look like a cool train conductor. I looked like
Speaker 6: a weirdo train conduct So I think there's a natural
Speaker 6: expiration date.
Speaker 1: Like I was a flat brim guy when I was younger,
Speaker 1: But whenever I see any dude that's over thirty five,
Speaker 1: like wearing a flat brim hat, I'm like, bro, give
Speaker 1: it up, Like it's not a good look. I don't
Speaker 1: have a problem with it. It's just that I don't
Speaker 1: have a problem. I don't look good in it. I
Speaker 1: just don't look like. You have a smaller face. Yes,
Speaker 1: you need a big jawline to look good in a
Speaker 1: flat priam.
Speaker 6: Yeah, apparently you gotta have a big fat face or something, and.
Speaker 1: You need to be younger than thirty five.
Speaker 6: All I know is every time I put one on,
Speaker 6: I was like this just does not look good. So
Speaker 6: nice curve bill hat. I like the forty seven series,
Speaker 6: all that stuff they have it. It looks great. So
Speaker 6: I always say it. If you need it, they've got it.
Speaker 6: If you don't need it, they've got it.
Speaker 1: So go get it. There you go, the best Team
Speaker 1: Store come out out tomorrow, grand opening the Be's Team
Speaker 1: Store at a new ballpark at America First Square. All right,
Speaker 1: Tony stops about it. Courtesy of our friends at Cortland Roofing.
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Speaker 6: Last night they put together that terrific performance with four
Speaker 6: total strikeouts.
Speaker 1: This is launched high in deep to Ripe by Daniel.
Speaker 6: Johnson, going back as gavanas at the Wall Lapside and
Speaker 6: he brought it back Hey rocking.
Speaker 1: On the short sidewall over by the right Bill pull Man,
Speaker 1: Candy tucking Away. Tonty Parks is live in studio, good
Speaker 1: enough to join us two weeks in a row. Easton Folster,
Speaker 1: who's the executive director of the UGA, will join us
Speaker 1: in a little bit. Scottie Scheffler was with his third major.
Speaker 1: Easton has requested space to talk about the Knicks because
Speaker 1: even though he's a local guy, he's a fan of
Speaker 1: the New York Knicks. But we will talk little golf.
Speaker 1: Tony fi And now finishes nineteen, tied for the nineteen
Speaker 1: over the weekend and takes on him an extra two
Speaker 1: hundred k. Must be nice to finish nineteenth and something
Speaker 1: and make two hundred thousand dollars. Let's get Tony's mic on, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's all you got to do. Top I want to
Speaker 1: do top twenty two.
Speaker 6: Hundred k and be like, you know, I'm not the best,
Speaker 6: but I'm not the worst.
Speaker 1: I made two hundred thousand dollars. That's a good weekend,
Speaker 1: a great week top twenty at a major. So have you
Speaker 1: had a chance to meet Tony just the nicest kid.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I've crossed passed it a little bit. He and
Speaker 6: I know a lot of the same people. Huh right, crazy, Yeah,
Speaker 6: but no, I've never really gotten to know him, but
Speaker 6: I know of him, and we've been around each other before.
Speaker 1: We know who each other are. If you will, Although
Speaker 1: he who Tony Parks, is that the voice of the Bees?
Speaker 1: I'm sure tell the guy who did the produce race
Speaker 1: all those years, Tony probably came out to a game
Speaker 1: or two of the ballpark, I would imagine, Oh ye,
Speaker 1: but obviously he had that great connection with Ron McBride. Yeah.
Speaker 6: So it just good people that know good people and
Speaker 6: and yeah so I but I've always been a huge
Speaker 6: fan of them, always rooted them on.
Speaker 1: Do you play golf? I don't know this about you.
Speaker 1: Do you ever play any golf?
Speaker 6: Do you watch at it? Don't watch it so much.
Speaker 6: I've got so much going on, but like I track it.
Speaker 6: I keep an eye on it. Yeah, yeah, I like
Speaker 6: to follow it. And then to me, it's always about
Speaker 6: the who you know. You and I always had such
Speaker 6: odd schedules, so we never golf together, and even when
Speaker 6: we were at the tournaments or whatever like, we would
Speaker 6: be offset on the timing that we're in the air.
Speaker 6: So but yeah, you'd be the kind of guy. I'm
Speaker 6: not just being nice. You'd be fun of golf. Would
Speaker 6: just hang out, talk with for eighteen holes and joke
Speaker 6: about Britton Johnson for at least three of.
Speaker 1: Oh, we can do that even if we're not playing golf.
Speaker 1: I will tell you thank you. First of all, I
Speaker 1: think I'm a good time on the golf course.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. If I'm not playing well, I tend to be
Speaker 1: a little ground. I have changed my view. First of all,
Speaker 1: there's an economic factor that comes into play if you're
Speaker 1: breaking golf clubs left and right. So my goal this
Speaker 1: year and I've told my buddies, so I played golf
Speaker 1: with the over under for broken clubs is one point five,
Speaker 1: so I'm going to give myself grace to maybe break
Speaker 1: a club. My goal is to just not break more
Speaker 1: than one. And so far it's only May. I have
Speaker 1: not broken a golf club yet. But as I started, look,
Speaker 1: I am an aging competitor trying to understand my real
Speaker 1: lot in life. There's no reason to get competitive when
Speaker 1: you're play Monopoly with your eight year old nephew. You
Speaker 1: don't need to throw the board. Okay, that's dumb, and
Speaker 1: you're out there to have fun. So I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to enjoy the journey instead of getting frustrated if I
Speaker 1: don't play well. But once I started really hounding in
Speaker 1: on golf and like, this is fun. I love the challenge,
Speaker 1: and I started getting better. I bought new clubs, took
Speaker 1: some lessons. When that endeavor wouldn't pay off, and I
Speaker 1: would have one those rounds where I'm like, have you
Speaker 1: ever done this before? Clubs would fly and I've definitely
Speaker 1: not a good time when that happens. But I am learning, Tony.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to evolve and be better and kind of
Speaker 1: keep the tantrums to a minimum. I uh, yeah for me.
Speaker 6: So here's where it happens. You know you're not good.
Speaker 6: You go out there, Hey, you're having a good time.
Speaker 6: You know it's all good. Then you actually start to improve.
Speaker 6: Then you actually see like wait, I'm stratten that out,
Speaker 6: like I've I've kind of got that down. Then you
Speaker 6: sit there and waste thirty five minutes in a conversation
Speaker 6: with the buddy talking about how you dropped one perfectly
Speaker 6: on the pool table on six at Nibley or whatever,
Speaker 6: you know, whatever your story is. And then I'm going
Speaker 6: and that was thirty five minutes. I'm not getting back,
Speaker 6: and I really obsessed about that more than I should have.
Speaker 6: And then I go out there and start perceivingly regressing.
Speaker 6: And then I started feeling myself get frustrated. I was like, don't, yep,
Speaker 6: don't not worth it. You don't have the money to
Speaker 6: keep up with this game anyway, Like don't, just don't
Speaker 6: because I don't want to spend the money to get
Speaker 6: the let I just don't.
Speaker 1: Yeah no. And it's a big time crunch, I mean,
Speaker 1: excuse me. It's very time consuming. So it asks a
Speaker 1: lot of your time, it asks a lot of your paycheck.
Speaker 1: It's not a cheap thing to do. But yeah, as
Speaker 1: you start to get a little bit better. The other
Speaker 1: weird thing is there'll be a round where something clicks
Speaker 1: in your head where you're like, I've got to pull
Speaker 1: down with my left I've got to get my left
Speaker 1: hip out of the way. And then you're like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm doing that and it's working. And then the next
Speaker 1: round you show up and you're like, okay, pull down
Speaker 1: with your left, get your left hip out of the way,
Speaker 1: get the shoulder or turn, and none of that works,
Speaker 1: and you're like, Okay, I've got to recalibrate and figure
Speaker 1: out what I have to do today, even though what
Speaker 1: I had to do last week does, it's not working anymore.
Speaker 1: Because and that, honestly is what is addicted me to
Speaker 1: the sport, right, the mental challenge. And I didn't have
Speaker 1: really a competitive outlet because I last played competitive basketball
Speaker 1: in my twenties. I broke my leg. I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: not doing this anymore. So I was like looking for
Speaker 1: a competitive outlet, and that's what golf is kind of okay,
Speaker 1: has been for me. So here's what I love about
Speaker 1: play by play.
Speaker 6: Every day is that's what it is for me, Like
Speaker 6: I compete with myself like I have a vision and
Speaker 6: I have preparation.
Speaker 1: I have everything that you know, fundamentals.
Speaker 6: I love the art of constantly an effortless or with
Speaker 6: an unquenchable thirst to improve and to just minimize the
Speaker 6: distance between where I am and where I want to
Speaker 6: be more and more every day. To me, there is
Speaker 6: nothing like that. You wake up with that fire, you
Speaker 6: feel that fire, and then you you know, let's say,
Speaker 6: let's say you had a good day with it like
Speaker 6: you would on the golf course.
Speaker 1: You have a good day. Cool thing is you got
Speaker 1: another game tomorrow.
Speaker 6: Let's say you know, didn't go quite as well as
Speaker 6: you thought and for whatever reason, just didn't feel right,
Speaker 6: didn't deliver it right. I don't know whatever. You know what,
Speaker 6: got another game tomorrow? And I love that about play
Speaker 6: by play.
Speaker 1: But if you mispronounce your name, you're not breaking your microphone. No,
Speaker 1: I'm not taking off the headside. Do you miss a call?
Speaker 1: And you're not breaking your equipment? What's the you know what?
Speaker 1: This is a dangerous question. Whatever I would say. It's
Speaker 1: a Monday. Let's just get asked, like, have you ever
Speaker 1: witnessed a local broadcaster melt down? Yes? You feel like
Speaker 1: you can share it. No, I didn't think so that's
Speaker 1: why it was a dangerous question. Ask no, it is
Speaker 1: trying to see.
Speaker 6: The toughest one was where somebody would be upset and
Speaker 6: you could actually understand why they're upset, And then other
Speaker 6: times it was like, no, you're you're taking it out
Speaker 6: on this person and you're justifying your behavior. The hardest
Speaker 6: part I think in this industry was me saying, you've
Speaker 6: explained your behavior.
Speaker 1: Are you excusing your behavior?
Speaker 8: Well no, but.
Speaker 6: Yeah, okay, so you are excusing your behavior, right, yeah,
Speaker 6: because if anybody ever treated you like that, you would
Speaker 6: cry in a corner for three months. And okay, right,
Speaker 6: so you chose to treat them like that because they're
Speaker 6: them and you're you, and you knew these people over
Speaker 6: here don't have the courage to in any way rectify that.
Speaker 1: Have a slight inklean that I know who you're talking about.
Speaker 6: And just watching the defensiveness, watching the and then watching
Speaker 6: the fear based proposition, it's like, don't, don't, don't, don't
Speaker 6: like but you know what you did. It's just because
Speaker 6: I care so much. No, No, that's.
Speaker 1: Not it passion's behavior.
Speaker 6: You're telling a truth to mask the truth. So let's
Speaker 6: talk about the truth. And that was always like yeah,
Speaker 6: that was always a tough one. But no, but there
Speaker 6: were times where people would be frustrated or mad and
Speaker 6: they're just mad about the situation and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 6: I'm like no, no, hey, you know, like you care,
Speaker 6: you're into it. It matters to you. And in those situations,
Speaker 6: I was always like, great, you know what I mean?
Speaker 6: Like that to me, like if a golfer's upset is
Speaker 6: mad about the situation, fine, But if somebody's competing and
Speaker 6: they're you know, completely a detriment to the to other
Speaker 6: people and things like that and then justifying it and
Speaker 6: then couching it is but we're still a team, and
Speaker 6: no you're not. And you're successful in spite of that behavior,
Speaker 6: not because of the like.
Speaker 1: I always get a kick, what I hear? Like, No,
Speaker 1: it's just he's just overly passionate. Oh so he's an ass,
Speaker 1: that's what you're saying, Like you'll like Draymond Green's overly passionate.
Speaker 1: Like I love Draymond as a player, but when he
Speaker 1: when he when he crosses that line. Passion is not
Speaker 1: an excuse for poor behavior. Well, it's it's like Okay, uh,
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan slaps Steve Kerr. Right, guess what Michael Jordan
Speaker 1: did owned it? Yeah, he owned it. And Phil Jackson
Speaker 1: also there was like accountability to it. Right.
Speaker 6: So to me, you're going to have emotions, boiler, you're
Speaker 6: going to the big thing is do you take responsibility
Speaker 6: when it happens? And do you and then you you
Speaker 6: have a commitment to improved successful behavior going forward?
Speaker 1: Right, Right.
Speaker 6: So everybody's always like whenever the well, they'll they'll show
Speaker 6: a coach meltdown on a player and they'll be like.
Speaker 1: Hey, is this good coaching or is this abuse? I'm like,
Speaker 1: is there trust between the two?
Speaker 6: Because if there's trust between the two, now it's coaching
Speaker 6: because the players you care about them, and that's why
Speaker 6: you're also upset because you care about them.
Speaker 1: Now there's belief here. Yeah, But if they.
Speaker 6: Don't think you care about them, then they think you're
Speaker 6: just putting on a show. Then they know that you're
Speaker 6: just acting out of line. Now what you're doing is
Speaker 6: actually a detriment to the team rather than a benefit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so there you go. No, I got you all right, Tony.
Speaker 1: When you last joined us, it was last Monday when
Speaker 1: hope was prevalent in the market. That last Monday night,
Speaker 1: we were all going to be gathered around our televisions
Speaker 1: or our radios because we had a live on ESPN
Speaker 1: seven hundred to listen to Mark Tatum revealed that the
Speaker 1: Utah Jazz were going to draft number one overall, therefore
Speaker 1: draft Cooper flag and therefore bring hope to a market
Speaker 1: in a fan base that right now, if Ronest does
Speaker 1: not have a lot of hope. Where were you and
Speaker 1: what was your reaction when you heard that the Utah
Speaker 1: Jazz were not drafting one or two or three or four,
Speaker 1: but they had I hesitate to say they had fallen
Speaker 1: to five right now, it was their floor. They couldn't
Speaker 1: fall any further. But if you look at the numbers,
Speaker 1: they were most likely to draft four or five. That's
Speaker 1: what the percentage just said. Of course, the hope was won.
Speaker 1: Where were you when you heard the news and what
Speaker 1: was your reaction? Was in my wife's salon.
Speaker 6: We still have a salon in our place here, and
Speaker 6: I was getting a beard trim, and I was sitting
Speaker 6: there and my phone on the yes on the ESPN
Speaker 6: seven hundred app, I had it sitting there and as
Speaker 6: I was sitting there watching the TV was on, but
Speaker 6: it's on delay and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: Anyway, as I'm sitting.
Speaker 6: There and I hear on the the app the Utah Jazz,
Speaker 6: and I just went WHOA. And I didn't say well,
Speaker 6: because I was like, it was more that I knew
Speaker 6: the reaction of the fan base knew I was.
Speaker 1: Coming would be overwhelming, and local media members.
Speaker 6: I knew it would be a massive blow up because
Speaker 6: the Jazz in years passed let's say, like the Darren
Speaker 6: Williams thing, or when they fell to six and then
Speaker 6: they traded. Yeah, but when they fell to six, they
Speaker 6: weren't trying to get the one. I mean they were
Speaker 6: you know, they just weren't dealing with a great team.
Speaker 6: So I was like, all right, this is the one time,
Speaker 6: oh you fell, that's unfortunate. But they moved up to three,
Speaker 6: they traded whatever. In this situation, they were going all
Speaker 6: out for the whole thing. I mean that this was
Speaker 6: the objective here. And so when they went to fifth,
Speaker 6: I knew there would be a reaction of disappointment, a
Speaker 6: reaction to people being upset. Where I just always shake
Speaker 6: my head and roll my eyes is the this is rigged,
Speaker 6: this is fixed.
Speaker 1: This whole thing is this and that.
Speaker 6: And I thought, man, way too many years agoing by
Speaker 6: with the Knicks not being the number one pick, way
Speaker 6: too many things have happened where teams who have no
Speaker 6: benefit to the league to have the number one pick.
Speaker 1: I've had the number one pick.
Speaker 6: I can make far more of an argument that if
Speaker 6: the league's rigging this, they're doing a really bad job.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Now that's not to say that there haven't been
Speaker 1: some things where you kind of go, all right, Lebron
Speaker 1: leaves Cleveland, they get one, Chris Paul leaves New Orleans,
Speaker 1: they get one, And honestly, look, I think it's intellectually
Speaker 1: embarrassing to discuss the potential of what is literally called
Speaker 1: a lottery to be rigged. Like if you've ever been
Speaker 1: in any sort of drawing, you know the deal, You
Speaker 1: get your a little ticket, you hang out, you're like,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll win this, and then the drawing takes place
Speaker 1: and your ticket number isn't called it's just bad luck.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean it's fixed. So I have no space
Speaker 1: for any of that. I think the one thing that
Speaker 1: led to this outcry wasn't necessarily the Jazz falling to five.
Speaker 1: I think it was Dallas getting one after they moved
Speaker 1: on from Luca, and so I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people were drawn the line like, hey, keep the Lakers relevant,
Speaker 1: trade Luke at LA and we'll take care of you. Now,
Speaker 1: that's also dumb. But I do think one of the
Speaker 1: things that stings if you're a Jazz fan, it's not
Speaker 1: that you weren't able to get Luck to move up
Speaker 1: and you're at five. I think it's your two of
Speaker 1: your Western Conference peers. You're already far behind Oklahoma City.
Speaker 1: You're already far behind Denver, Minnesota. I could keep going,
Speaker 1: You're already far behind some many teams that have good
Speaker 1: players now and mechanisms to add good players later. That
Speaker 1: the fact that the Spurs are able to add the
Speaker 1: Dylan Harper kid and the MAVs are able to add
Speaker 1: Cooper Flag. It's two more Western Conference teams that now
Speaker 1: you look at that and you say, we are light
Speaker 1: years behind them as well. I think that that probably
Speaker 1: adds to the sting. Well, I think it definitely does.
Speaker 6: Like part of this has to be that you have
Speaker 6: to look at yourselves and saying, you know, what, whatever
Speaker 6: this process had been, it hasn't gone as well as
Speaker 6: we want.
Speaker 1: Even if you want.
Speaker 6: To say, well the process, you know, the plan wasn't
Speaker 6: to win yet and it's like I got it. But
Speaker 6: while this process is put together, what has been the
Speaker 6: most positive part of this process to me?
Speaker 1: It's Will Hardy six year extension because I think he's
Speaker 1: the right guy.
Speaker 6: What what is it? There's no identity, there's no culture. Okay, okay,
Speaker 6: you were planning on losing out, that's fine, but you haven't.
Speaker 1: I haven't.
Speaker 6: And somebody else can come on and be like I've
Speaker 6: seen this from this guy and that from that guy.
Speaker 1: I still well, I haven't seen enough yet.
Speaker 6: It makes me go, you know what, that right there,
Speaker 6: that here is going to move them this direction. I
Speaker 6: remember in the Quinn years, in the early Quin years,
Speaker 6: going okay, they got something here. They're big here, and
Speaker 6: they're defensive oriented, and they've lost nine in a row,
Speaker 6: but they have an identity and there's something moving this
Speaker 6: direction now, okay, And in this current situation.
Speaker 1: I'm not just trying to be critical.
Speaker 6: I know they're doing it differently than Dennis and Quinn
Speaker 6: and Kevin O'Connor back in the day. I'm not saying
Speaker 6: do it the way they did it. I'm just saying
Speaker 6: throughout all of this, hey, you've garnered a lot of assets.
Speaker 6: I'll give you that, and you I think have the
Speaker 6: right coach right mind. But now it's it's making everything
Speaker 6: else come together. So when you did this to bet
Speaker 6: on yourself that you were going to get it right now,
Speaker 6: you got to put it to work and that might
Speaker 6: mean moving up, and that might mean spending more than
Speaker 6: you probably wanted to. If it's the guy that you
Speaker 6: believe is going to turn this around. But you miss
Speaker 6: on this pick, and you I mean, if you do,
Speaker 6: if you Dante this thing, and I'm not saying they will,
Speaker 6: but if you Dante ExHAM this thing, you prolong this process.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the number one thing you have to do is draft. Well,
Speaker 1: Bobby Mark is on earlier and he outlined it perfectly.
Speaker 1: And here's the deal. And I hate to use this
Speaker 1: team as an example because right now they are the
Speaker 1: best example of roster construction under the new CBA, which
Speaker 1: has allowed teams that play in cities pretty similar to
Speaker 1: ours build up. Some really good teams are going to
Speaker 1: be good now and be good for a long time. Now.
Speaker 1: The one outlier can and This is why this exercise
Speaker 1: is a little bit difficult, because you could look at Detroit,
Speaker 1: you can look at Orlando, you can look at Oklahoma City,
Speaker 1: you can look at some of the teams that are
Speaker 1: in cities like ours, and we're in places like this
Speaker 1: not too long ago, and try to draw parallels. But
Speaker 1: the one failure with this exercise is Okaycshay. Detroit has
Speaker 1: Kaid and Orlando as Pollo, and the Jazz don't have
Speaker 1: that guy. I like Lowry. I like Lowry a lot.
Speaker 1: He's not one of those guys. He is not a
Speaker 1: franchise you know. He's not a franchise building block. He
Speaker 1: can play really well for a really good team, and
Speaker 1: the Jazz could trade him and he would start for
Speaker 1: probably any team in the league, maybe not a fully
Speaker 1: healthy Boston Celtic team. But you get my drift. So
Speaker 1: where the Jazz have failed so far and where these
Speaker 1: other teams have succeeded. Like Sam Presty turned Paul George
Speaker 1: into Shame and other pieces and a bunch of draft capital,
Speaker 1: the Jazz so far have not turned Donovan or Rudy
Speaker 1: into a cornerstone. They turned Donovan into Lowry and some
Speaker 1: other pieces. And some draft picks. Of course, they got
Speaker 1: Walker and the Rudy deal, which is a nice piece.
Speaker 1: But if you're going to move off of Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 1: at twenty five, who's probably about to be named First
Speaker 1: team All NBA, or Go Bar at twenty eight, who
Speaker 1: loves Salt Lake and didn't want to leave, if you're
Speaker 1: going to move off those franchise changing pieces, yes, among
Speaker 1: the things you receive in return, whether it's a tangible
Speaker 1: piece like Shay right away or a draft pick later on,
Speaker 1: you have to find the guy that you can build around,
Speaker 1: and they have not found that yet. So if you
Speaker 1: can turn Paul George into Shea and then you have
Speaker 1: some lean years with him as the cornerstone and you
Speaker 1: can see that he is one of those dudes, then
Speaker 1: all you have to do is draft right around him,
Speaker 1: and then it gives you the ability, with some deals,
Speaker 1: you know, to be able to bring in and as
Speaker 1: Isaiah Hartenstein or an Alex Caruso who guarded Yokichen Game seven.
Speaker 1: But they draft Chet, they draft Isaiah Joe, you know,
Speaker 1: they bring in Casin Wallace, Aaron Wiggins, Kayalen Williams. They
Speaker 1: knocked that one out of the park. So yes, Sam
Speaker 1: Presty turned Paul George into shea, but he also has
Speaker 1: this crazy hit rate on his draft picks. So the
Speaker 1: problem with the Jazz isn't only that they haven't turned
Speaker 1: Donovan Rudy into a star. It's there are legitimate questions
Speaker 1: about Isaiah Collier and Keyante George. We need to see
Speaker 1: Taylor Hendrick Selty and Cody Williams by all the analytics
Speaker 1: just had a historically bad rookie year. So it's twofold, okay.
Speaker 1: So if we look at all the teams that have
Speaker 1: rebuilt and now we're in a position where they're playing
Speaker 1: high level basketball in cities like ours, you've got to
Speaker 1: start with ant. You have to start with she you
Speaker 1: have to start with Cade, you have to start with
Speaker 1: Polo and then build from the ground up. The Jazz
Speaker 1: haven't been able to do that. Attendant to it, if
Speaker 1: we're honest, they have not hit on their picks, Tony, No,
Speaker 1: since Danny, you know, Danny kind of took over the reins,
Speaker 1: they just haven't.
Speaker 6: I had a Jazz fan asked me how's it the
Speaker 6: Sacramento airport yesterday and ran into a couple different Salt
Speaker 6: Lake residents but one of them was a Jazz fan
Speaker 6: as well and was talking about the five pick and
Speaker 6: this and that. What do you think And I just said, well,
Speaker 6: they can catch up in terms of gaining ground from
Speaker 6: where they have been up to this point. But when
Speaker 6: they made the wholesale change three years ago, I thought, okay, no,
Speaker 6: you're turning the page.
Speaker 1: And I'm totally fine with that.
Speaker 6: I would not have predicted that they've made what I
Speaker 6: would consider very little to know forward progress.
Speaker 1: So so for you to lose, that's one thing. But
Speaker 1: I do not see a ton of forward progress.
Speaker 6: And I know that we're supposed to be positive about
Speaker 6: the Jazz and there are NBA team and no, I'm
Speaker 6: just I'm going to be very honest.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at it going.
Speaker 6: I get that the plan wasn't to win, but I
Speaker 6: don't see other things that tell me this is a
Speaker 6: surging direction forward here, here and here. And when I
Speaker 6: see that, I say, okay, you can gain ground on
Speaker 6: that with hitting draft picks and all of that and
Speaker 6: catch up from the distance that I thought you would
Speaker 6: be at. But I am curious as to why. I'm
Speaker 6: curious as to why three years I mean, there's there's
Speaker 6: really nothing to show for this. We've got a ton
Speaker 6: of assets. Yeah, I know, you've had them for a while.
Speaker 6: You know, we've got great draftics. Yeah, I know this
Speaker 6: isn't your you know, I know this is a really
Speaker 6: good one. But you've had some nice picks here and
Speaker 6: some selections to make up to that point. So you
Speaker 6: have room, you have weapons, you have opportunity. And I
Speaker 6: still think, and some people disagree with me on the
Speaker 6: Will Hardy thing, I'm like, no, I think this guy's magnificent.
Speaker 4: I do.
Speaker 1: I think all of his principles.
Speaker 6: I think the fact that he wildly overperformed with that
Speaker 6: that team he had what three years ago and then
Speaker 6: two years ago, I mean, that was amazing Spence. And
Speaker 6: then they flushed out and said, Okay, we're gonna bottom out,
Speaker 6: We're gonna do it this way. Okay, But now I
Speaker 6: got to see something in that process that tells me,
Speaker 6: here is the light, Here is the direction, Here is
Speaker 6: the momentum.
Speaker 1: You know, It's like anybody who's.
Speaker 6: Gonna go to the gym or make a whole major
Speaker 6: change in their life. People may not see it right away,
Speaker 6: but you can feel and see the momentum that's around
Speaker 6: you based on different decisions, you know, different opportunities, different habits.
Speaker 6: They may see them under the surface. I'm just telling
Speaker 6: them I don't see them. And I've watched as much
Speaker 6: as I can. I don't see it. So I'm hoping
Speaker 6: for them. Then in the near future this can be
Speaker 6: turned around. You nail the five pick or you move
Speaker 6: up and you nail the pick and then you start
Speaker 6: really seeing some surge go in the right direction.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And as far as just simply being positive and
Speaker 1: believing the messages that are propably, you know, it's just
Speaker 1: propaganda coming out of the organization, and you know, like
Speaker 1: I can't roll that way. I can't just call something
Speaker 1: other than what I see. And yes, the organization wants
Speaker 1: you to believe that the rebuild is on track. And yes,
Speaker 1: at times they plan a story where it's like, oh, hey,
Speaker 1: just so you know, we haven't been rebuilding. We've been
Speaker 1: tearing down for three years and now we're rebuilding. That's
Speaker 1: so insulting, Like, no, you started the rebuild when you
Speaker 1: traded away two stars in their prime and a really
Speaker 1: good coach left and a really good roster constructor left.
Speaker 1: That's when the rebuild started. The clock started three years ago,
Speaker 1: not now. Okay, So you can't just prop the gate
Speaker 1: messaging through you know, team owned media, or try to
Speaker 1: plan a story in the d News of the trib
Speaker 1: and then expect me to not see what I'm seeing.
Speaker 1: And look, nobody. I want the Jazz to win as
Speaker 1: bad as anybody. I mean, look, I have a dashboard.
Speaker 1: I keep track of how many people listening to which
Speaker 1: segments and how many people listen to which interviews, and
Speaker 1: when Donovan and Rudy and that team was kind of
Speaker 1: making their way through and having a little bit of
Speaker 1: playoff success early on, and then you know, the interest
Speaker 1: in the Jazz was through the roof. A lot of
Speaker 1: people were listening to the NBA segments in a way
Speaker 1: that they just aren't right now. It's better for my
Speaker 1: business if the Jazz win. I'm as frustrated as anybody,
Speaker 1: for everybody, and I can't just be positive about something
Speaker 1: that I'm looking at right now without a lot of hope.
Speaker 1: Because when you look at teams with draft capital future
Speaker 1: ability to add pieces via the draft, Oklahoma City is
Speaker 1: at the top. And Oklahoma City isn't just in a
Speaker 1: position where they're going to be able to pieces in
Speaker 1: the future they're awesome right now. They should win the championship.
Speaker 1: Then you have teams like Brooklyn. They're in the same
Speaker 1: spot as the Jazz. The Houston Rockets have ten draft
Speaker 1: picks coming their way. They just made the playoffs with
Speaker 1: a really, really good team. The San Antonio Spurs have
Speaker 1: nine future picks at their disposal. The Detroit Pistons are
Speaker 1: on this list, the Sacramento Kings, the Orlando Magic. So
Speaker 1: teams that are already good are in the same area.
Speaker 1: The Jazz are with draft assets. So it's one thing
Speaker 1: to say we have draft assets. Okay, that's great. There
Speaker 1: is a tremendous amount of pressure on them to get
Speaker 1: this thing right this offseason. Yeh. Now next year is
Speaker 1: going to look the same as this year. There's no scenario.
Speaker 1: I mean, there are rumors about San Antonio two or
Speaker 1: Affiliate three. Maybe they can move up, maybe they can
Speaker 1: grab another lottery pick. But we need to see Taylor healthy.
Speaker 1: For fair Cody, I mean, he's got years to go.
Speaker 1: Based off what we saw last year, I don't know
Speaker 1: if Keante George is a rotational piece for a good team.
Speaker 1: Isaiah Callier, you can't have your lead guard shooting twenty
Speaker 1: six percent from three. I like Lowry, I like Walker,
Speaker 1: and that might be it. I think Philipowski showed some
Speaker 1: things down the stretch. Yeah, But if the best pick
Speaker 1: you've made is the one you've grabbed thirty two and
Speaker 1: the chances that you had in the lottery in the
Speaker 1: mid first round you've struck out on, it indicates they're
Speaker 1: still miles and miles to go.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and the comparisons you make to the other teams,
Speaker 6: I think it jumps out because the first thing I
Speaker 6: saw with the reaction was they will never help us
Speaker 6: small market tape. Well, I tell you, the Tember Nuggets
Speaker 6: are recent champions, right, and I know they're not like
Speaker 6: small smallmerker right. But the Milwaukee Bucks are resa champions.
Speaker 6: The Spurs won five of them. They put together a
Speaker 6: good run of winning, consistently winning. The Jazz, by the way,
Speaker 6: in the nineties won a ton more teams. Jordan beating
Speaker 6: the finals came from small markets than big markets. I
Speaker 6: still don't call Phoenix a small market, but I know
Speaker 6: that it's not considerate that in the NBA landscape is
Speaker 6: not But anyway, not the point. It wasn't a major
Speaker 6: destination if you will for NBA free agents and all
Speaker 6: that at the time. So when I look at it,
Speaker 6: I say, no, I think all across the board.
Speaker 1: If you want to say it's all even, it's not okay.
Speaker 1: I get it.
Speaker 6: Some places are probably more wished upon by a free
Speaker 6: agent than say, Salt Lake. But when I look at
Speaker 6: the way teams have been able to build championships build
Speaker 6: championship teams, I look at the way that they were
Speaker 6: able to do it with culture. I look at the
Speaker 6: way Mike Malone was able to do and I know
Speaker 6: it just got let oh, it's just stunning, by the way,
Speaker 6: but how he did it with Denver and I watched
Speaker 6: him in the years where they refused to be consistent
Speaker 6: with defensive habits, then at least weren't terrible in that area.
Speaker 6: Boom put a ring on their finger, Like I watched
Speaker 6: it all come together for others. And there's no reason
Speaker 6: this place couldn't fan support everything you could want in
Speaker 6: that way.
Speaker 1: And it's a competitive league.
Speaker 6: I got that, And I'm not saying this team should
Speaker 6: be in that position now, But I did think they
Speaker 6: would be more along than they have been. I did
Speaker 6: think that they would be at a at a bigger
Speaker 6: step in this process, it has surprised me.
Speaker 1: If san Antonio is willing to move too, or Philly
Speaker 1: is moving to move, is willing to move? Three? Do
Speaker 1: you put marketing on the table? You put Lowry on
Speaker 1: the table? Yeah?
Speaker 6: I mean if you're gonna bet on that being this
Speaker 6: cornerstone piece to the ultimate future, then yes, yes I do.
Speaker 6: But but with that said, you better be ready because
Speaker 6: if I'm them, I want Lowry, I want to swap,
Speaker 6: and I want a future at basement.
Speaker 1: That's the basement, all right, ton, Before I say you loose,
Speaker 1: reminder of the Salleid Bees and the Miller Sports and
Speaker 1: Entertainment invite all to celebrate the grand opening of the
Speaker 1: Salleid Bees Team Store at the Ballpark at America First Square,
Speaker 1: coming up tomorrow, five o'clock PM, one one one one
Speaker 1: South Ballpark Drive new merch, great deals and more. Go
Speaker 1: to Bees teamstore dot com. What do you want our
Speaker 1: listeners to know? Man, get in there.
Speaker 6: Check out all the latest and the best gear. You're
Speaker 6: gonna love all the different types of hats that they have,
Speaker 6: tons of hats las of a house, which of course
Speaker 6: is great. Those are a copa hats, copa jerseys, all
Speaker 6: the different. I'm sure they'll have a ton of different
Speaker 6: looks on the variety of the rebrand. With the new
Speaker 6: gear that you're going to see out there, they did
Speaker 6: a wonderful, wonderful job with that. I like all the
Speaker 6: new hats, but whether it's hats, jerseys, t shirts and more,
Speaker 6: I've always said it, Yeah, if you need it, they
Speaker 6: got it.
Speaker 1: If you don't need it, they still got it. Go
Speaker 1: get it. Father's days around the corner. Get it done right.
Speaker 1: That's right. Great to see my friend, Okay, Tony Park
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Speaker 1: All right, we'll get to the five o'clock out of
Speaker 1: the program. Coming up in just a little bit. We're
Speaker 1: about to send somebody to play golf at Stonebridge. It
Speaker 1: is our Festival of Teas, brought to you by the UGA,
Speaker 1: so stay tuned for that. Speaking of the UGA, our
Speaker 1: next guest is the executive director of the UGA, and
Speaker 1: we're only going to talk golf for the next twenty minutes.
Speaker 1: Easton Folster, Happy Monday, buddy. How are we doing right?
Speaker 8: I'm doing fantastic And you guys, couldn't it fixed a
Speaker 8: better song? And suck us hoping you would? That's just
Speaker 8: that made my heart happy.
Speaker 1: There you go. And we're not only going to talk
Speaker 1: golf because your text offering your presence on this radio
Speaker 1: show came with a mandate. And Easton, even though you're
Speaker 1: a local boy, you happen to be a lifelong fan
Speaker 1: of the New York Knickerbockers. Let me start with the
Speaker 1: origin story. When did you and why did you become
Speaker 1: a Knicks fan?
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's a good question, you know, Obviously, being a
Speaker 8: nineties kid, the Knicks were a little more relevant, you know,
Speaker 8: back then than they are, you know, in the previous
Speaker 8: two decades. And obviously I had the Jazz Troop for
Speaker 8: but for some reason I hooked on with the Knicks.
Speaker 8: Was a big Patrick Ewing fan, and I will say
Speaker 8: that I've remained loyal through some dark years, and now
Speaker 8: there seems to be somewhat of a light at the
Speaker 8: end of the tunnel. So things are looking a little brighter,
Speaker 8: that's for sure.
Speaker 1: So I wonder what you find most likable about this
Speaker 1: iteration of the Knicks, Because Porter, my producer, is a
Speaker 1: younger Nick fan, and so he has this idea in
Speaker 1: his head that the Mellow years were awesome and they
Speaker 1: just weren't. They won a couple of playoff series and look,
Speaker 1: I'm a mellow guy, love mellow I just it's all
Speaker 1: bottom line this to me, this is the most likable
Speaker 1: Nick team, literally since nineteen ninety nine. What what do
Speaker 1: you like most about this team?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 8: I agree, they're fun to watch, you know. I think
Speaker 8: the compelling component is the fact that I feel like
Speaker 8: they're never out of a game. You know, I've told
Speaker 8: some friends and you know solo basketball fans that I
Speaker 8: feel like, if the Knicks can get to the fourth
Speaker 8: quarter within ten points and Jalen Brunson is in the game,
Speaker 8: we have a shot. And I think being able to
Speaker 8: watch a player like him with as clutch as he's been,
Speaker 8: it's amazing. I mean, it's it almost feels like this
Speaker 8: this confidence when he has the ball that something magical
Speaker 8: is going to happen. So even if we're down, which
Speaker 8: we've obviously seen in the Celtics series the Piston series
Speaker 8: as well, you have a chance with Jalen Brunson and
Speaker 8: he's a closer, and it's been a lot of fun
Speaker 8: to watch. But it's a greaty team. They hustle, they
Speaker 8: play hard. I wish they wouldn't dig these holes. I'm
Speaker 8: sure I speak for all Knicks fans, but they find
Speaker 8: a way to claw out and it's been heart stopping sometimes,
Speaker 8: but it's been a lot of fun up to this point.
Speaker 1: Did you anticipate Friday Night happen in the way it
Speaker 1: did at all? I mean, I finished the show and
Speaker 1: drove home, and you know what, man, it was kind
Speaker 1: of fun because I will say in this space, when
Speaker 1: you do this for a living, and as long as
Speaker 1: I've done, and now, you know, approaching twenty years full time,
Speaker 1: you do have to be agnostic a little bit, you know,
Speaker 1: you do have to kind of put the biases and
Speaker 1: fandom aside in order to do the job the right way.
Speaker 1: Like I would love for the Jazz to be good again,
Speaker 1: but I cannot be dishonest about where they're at. Whenever
Speaker 1: anybody asks me, who do you cheer locally for? I
Speaker 1: said all of them. I want everybody to win, because
Speaker 1: when everybody's winning, more people listening to sports soccer radio,
Speaker 1: and it's better for my bottom line. It's better for
Speaker 1: my business. But the PTSD of being a Nick fan
Speaker 1: for really since I was ten eleven years old, really
Speaker 1: settled in. And I approached that game on Friday night
Speaker 1: with tremendous trepidation and even when they were up like forty,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I still don't feel like this was real.
Speaker 1: So what stood out most to you about the way
Speaker 1: they just blew out the same Celtics on Friday?
Speaker 8: Well, I'm with you. I was terrified, you know, when
Speaker 8: we lost Game five the way that we did, even
Speaker 8: without Tatum, I was I was really nervous, and it
Speaker 8: just has felt like Nicks never really blow teams out,
Speaker 8: you know. If anything, they've been getting blown out in
Speaker 8: games and have caught back, which has been a lot
Speaker 8: of fun. But I had I wish I could say
Speaker 8: I saw the Knicks blown them out. I didn't have
Speaker 8: that level of confidence. I thought it'd be a great game,
Speaker 8: but it seemed like, you know, they had their foot
Speaker 8: on the gas and they didn't let it go. And
Speaker 8: I'm with you, even when we got up twenty thirty
Speaker 8: and I think we even touched forty plus points, you know,
Speaker 8: there was still some trepidation, like you said that the
Speaker 8: bottom was going to fall out, and you know, as
Speaker 8: we know with coach Tibbs of course kept his starters
Speaker 8: in the whole entire game, so I'm not even sure
Speaker 8: that he.
Speaker 4: Was confident that we're going to hold on.
Speaker 8: But exciting way to win the game and a lot
Speaker 8: of momentum going into the Eastern Conference finals, so it's exciting.
Speaker 1: What is your confidence against this pacer team that just
Speaker 1: has a grip of physical pitbull wings that just want
Speaker 1: to fight everybody all the time.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think it's going to be a great series.
Speaker 8: I think we'll match up well. I really I think
Speaker 8: that Knicks fans might be making a mistake and kind
Speaker 8: of overlooking the Pacers and looking onto the finals.
Speaker 4: That would be a mistake.
Speaker 8: I mean, Pacers man handled a really good Cavs team,
Speaker 8: and so I could see this going six. I could
Speaker 8: go see it going seven. But of course, as a
Speaker 8: true Knicks fan, I think I think we'll get it done.
Speaker 8: You know, I'd have to say maybe Nix and Nixon
Speaker 8: six would be my prediction. In fact, I think that's
Speaker 8: what we've done. The last two series is one in
Speaker 8: game six, so hopefully we get that done again.
Speaker 1: Does it make it sweeter that it's been so long?
Speaker 1: I mean I've kind of gone back and forth on
Speaker 1: this because certainly, as a fan, every year, you want
Speaker 1: your team to have a shot, and if for honest,
Speaker 1: you know, the Knicks have not had a shot it
Speaker 1: doing anything since nineteen nine. I mean, it literally has
Speaker 1: been twenty five years, and if we're honest, the Jazz
Speaker 1: haven't had a chance to win a championship. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: probably in that same timeframe. But during that time, the
Speaker 1: Jazz had d Will and Booze and Memo, and then
Speaker 1: they had Hayward and Favors in that group, then they
Speaker 1: had Mitchell and Gobert and good teams. So I know,
Speaker 1: the Jazz right now are nowhere close to competing, and
Speaker 1: we have a fan base that's a little bit disenfranchised
Speaker 1: with the product. And my hope is, you know, when
Speaker 1: the Jazz are able to get this thing figured out
Speaker 1: and they're back to respectability and competition, our community here
Speaker 1: and our basketball fan base here will be reminded of
Speaker 1: how fun spring basketball is. So I know, as a
Speaker 1: long suffering Nick fan, you probably preferred to have better
Speaker 1: teams over the past twenty five years, But does it
Speaker 1: make it any sweeter that it's been so long?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think so, And I think most Knicks fans
Speaker 8: would say that. I mean, if anyone saw the social
Speaker 8: media buzz around the Knicks fans going absolutely crazy in
Speaker 8: New York City, I mean, on one, it's a little embarrassing.
Speaker 8: I mean, all we did was win two series, but
Speaker 8: they celebrated, you know, like we won the championship. So
Speaker 8: I think you see that that somewhat of a relief,
Speaker 8: you know, from fans that it's been so long that
Speaker 8: we've made it to this point, and it certainly is sweet.
Speaker 8: You know, I've I've had to stop myself from you know,
Speaker 8: day dreaming to what might be and in a few
Speaker 8: weeks we still have a really, really long way to
Speaker 8: go for that. But no, it's it's it's been what
Speaker 8: you know, two decades or twenty five years since you know,
Speaker 8: we got to this point, and so I think, you know,
Speaker 8: for all Knicks fans, there's this certain release that you know,
Speaker 8: it's been satisfying to see the team perform. I listened
Speaker 8: to your previous segment about the Jazz playing the lottery
Speaker 8: offs and some of their struggles and you know, and
Speaker 8: tearing it down and can't help but be reminded that
Speaker 8: that's what the Knicks were doing for the better part
Speaker 8: of the last two decades.
Speaker 4: And so it feels it feels.
Speaker 8: Good, you know, to be this point, and hopefully we
Speaker 8: can keep it rolling.
Speaker 1: All right, Before we will, we do need to talk
Speaker 1: a little golf. But before we get there, I have
Speaker 1: your Instagram pulled up and number one, congrats, that's number one.
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you if you're raising your
Speaker 1: young your young fella as a fan of this team,
Speaker 1: because one of the things, like my poor son has
Speaker 1: grown up Jazz, Nicks, Jets, luckily we have the Yankees.
Speaker 1: But I feel bad that I ever encouraged him to
Speaker 1: cheer for the Knicks or the Jets. But he was
Speaker 1: at one of the games and he posted a picture
Speaker 1: in his John Starch jersey that I bought him when
Speaker 1: he was about the same age as your boy. And
Speaker 1: I see, you've got your boy in a Jalen Brunson jersey.
Speaker 4: Yeah that's right.
Speaker 8: Yeah, no, And he's a you know, for only being
Speaker 8: four years old, he's a real fan.
Speaker 4: I mean he can.
Speaker 8: Name I would say at least six or seven players
Speaker 8: on the team, So for being four years old, i'd
Speaker 8: call him a real fan. I mean, he's watching the
Speaker 8: games with me, and he's and he's excited, and you know,
Speaker 8: as you mentioned, wife expecting and I've told her, if
Speaker 8: we're lucky enough to win it all, Jalen, the name
Speaker 8: Jalen is certainly in play. You know, she's not necessarily
Speaker 8: a fan, but I've just warned her that Jalen is
Speaker 8: in play. So you might see that here in a
Speaker 8: few months. But yeah, I mean we're excited, and I
Speaker 8: know my son is too. He of course didn't have
Speaker 8: to suffer through the long decades of ineptitude. But yeah,
Speaker 8: we're pretty pumped at our residents.
Speaker 1: Thinking, Jalen Spencer fulster, how's that land?
Speaker 4: I like it.
Speaker 8: I'm all in.
Speaker 1: You put a basketball in his hand? Can he shoot it?
Speaker 1: Did he dribble it?
Speaker 4: All?
Speaker 8: He can play? Yeah, he's an athlete, you know. Right
Speaker 8: now he's just kind of trying to figure it all out. Soccer,
Speaker 8: t ball, you know, basketball, But he can play. And
Speaker 8: you know, like I said, he's he watches, he observes,
Speaker 8: and you know, he's a big fan. So Jalen's his
Speaker 8: favorite player. We went to the Knicks Jazz game when
Speaker 8: they were here in town, and he caught Jalen's attention.
Speaker 8: He waved at him, and of course that just made
Speaker 8: his day. I think it made my day more than his.
Speaker 8: But yeah, he's a big fan.
Speaker 1: Have you put a golf club in this young fella's
Speaker 1: hand yet.
Speaker 8: Yeah, a little bit, just a little you know, a
Speaker 8: little plastic sets it. Golf's tricky, as you know, I mean,
Speaker 8: we're we're adults. I still haven't figured it out. And
Speaker 8: I've been playing, you know, for the better part of
Speaker 8: a decade. So I feel like that's a long road
Speaker 8: and maybe I can get him some more quicker than golf.
Speaker 8: But eventually, yeah, we'll put a golf club in his
Speaker 8: hand and see what he can do. But got a
Speaker 8: long ways.
Speaker 1: To go for that, hopefully, Because when I was younger,
Speaker 1: I thought it was boring. I did not want to
Speaker 1: play golf. My grandfather may he rest in peace, loved
Speaker 1: it and he always said, like your natural athlete, you
Speaker 1: could be good at this if you wanted to. And
Speaker 1: then I would just get frustrated and quit, and I'd
Speaker 1: want to go shoot buckets. I want to go play
Speaker 1: basketball or football. So are you planning on fighting through
Speaker 1: the boardom to encourage him to keep playing the game,
Speaker 1: or you just kind of going to kind of let
Speaker 1: him find out what he loves on his own.
Speaker 8: Yeah, probably more of the latter, you know, figure out
Speaker 8: what he likes, you know, I think exposure is important,
Speaker 8: especially for kids, you know, expose him to everything and
Speaker 8: let them kind of pick what they excel at and
Speaker 8: what they enjoy. And if it's golf, great, you know,
Speaker 8: that would make me certainly a happy father, you know.
Speaker 8: But not going to push him, you know, in that
Speaker 8: in that direction. But you know, hopefully, you know, like
Speaker 8: I did, and it sounds like maybe you did as
Speaker 8: a youth. He'll pick it up recreationally and you know,
Speaker 8: from from there, we'll see what happens. But yeah, no,
Speaker 8: you're right. I mean eighteen holes as a kid back
Speaker 8: and that's long and it takes a little bit of
Speaker 8: time to learn to enjoy that. But we'll see what
Speaker 8: happens with him.
Speaker 1: What do you think it is about this game, the
Speaker 1: game of golf that seems to draw people in on
Speaker 1: a level where it truly turns into an addiction. And
Speaker 1: I'm not even kidding. What do you think it is
Speaker 1: about how people just get addicted to the game.
Speaker 8: I think it's I think it's those little moments of success,
Speaker 8: which of course are relative to the golfer. You know,
Speaker 8: if you're incredible and you're really talented, obviously you know
Speaker 8: your your success, and that little addiction might be shooting
Speaker 8: a sixty four, sixty three, going for the course record,
Speaker 8: winning championships, you know, But for the rest of us,
Speaker 8: it might be flushing a fore iron and that feel of,
Speaker 8: you know, hitting a grain in regulation and hitting a
Speaker 8: drive that's straight and far. And it's those I've always
Speaker 8: found you can get a golfer to hit, you know,
Speaker 8: just one, two or three of those moments in around
Speaker 8: where they think that was a lot of fun. I
Speaker 8: think I can do that again. I think that's where
Speaker 8: the addiction comes in, as Wow, I just flushed a
Speaker 8: fore iron. That's how it feels. I'm going to go
Speaker 8: back next week and I'm going to give it another shot,
Speaker 8: And if you can turn that into a few times
Speaker 8: each round, that's where the development comes. And that's where
Speaker 8: you know, those moments of you know, like you've kind
Speaker 8: of said that, that addiction which I think we've all
Speaker 8: had with golf, those that you know love the game,
Speaker 8: it's those small moments of success that give you.
Speaker 4: A taste.
Speaker 8: And you know what, you know, the really good player,
Speaker 8: you know, experiences on you on every shot basis. We
Speaker 8: don't get those very often, but with golf on any
Speaker 8: given day, you know, there's a lot of players that
Speaker 8: can hit a shot like a professional. They do it consistently.
Speaker 8: We do it maybe once around. But it's that one
Speaker 8: shot that I think gives people that hitch.
Speaker 1: You know what's interesting you reference how the pros are
Speaker 1: so consistent with it. I don't know that I fully
Speaker 1: understood their ability to figure out problems and get out
Speaker 1: of trouble until I went down to Bay Hill as
Speaker 1: an honorary observer and followed Sam Stevens' Nick Taylor around
Speaker 1: the course. And then when you look at some of
Speaker 1: the stats like fairways hitting regulation or greens hitting regulation,
Speaker 1: these guys aren't hitting every fairway, they're not hitting every green,
Speaker 1: and watching their ability to problem solve has become like
Speaker 1: a fascination of mine. Have you noticed the same as
Speaker 1: you've watched some of these pros, Like yes, to your point,
Speaker 1: they're going to hit most of their shots pretty flush,
Speaker 1: but they're not hitting every fairway, they're not hitting every green.
Speaker 1: They've got to figure out how to solve and get
Speaker 1: out of trouble. That that to me is like the
Speaker 1: line of delineation.
Speaker 8: Sure, and you know, and I think it's you know,
Speaker 8: it's avoiding the big mistakes that I think. You know,
Speaker 8: amateur players, you know, tend to make the big numbers.
Speaker 8: You just don't see as often from the pros. All
Speaker 8: go out and make a number of double bogies and
Speaker 8: triple bogeys and around, and that's what kind of adds
Speaker 8: to that score. And those guys, you know, bogie for
Speaker 8: them is bad because, like you said, They're able to calculate,
Speaker 8: they're able to see risk, probably unlike you know us,
Speaker 8: you know, every day amateur player, and so you know,
Speaker 8: I think they avoid the big numbers more often than
Speaker 8: probably you know, the the double digit handicapped player is.
Speaker 8: And then just the talent, you know, to be able
Speaker 8: to pull off some of the shots. I'll say that
Speaker 8: maybe I can see the shot that's required, but I
Speaker 8: don't have the talent to pull the shot off. So
Speaker 8: I think that combination of, you know, if talent and
Speaker 8: risk management is really what makes you know, professional golfers
Speaker 8: the elite.
Speaker 1: You have a favorite golfer watch right now or historically?
Speaker 1: Is there one that comes to mind?
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know, I hate to be right on the bandwagon,
Speaker 8: but I just there's I can't find anything not to
Speaker 8: like about Scottie Scheffler, both from a playing standpoint and
Speaker 8: just from a you know, who he is as a person.
Speaker 8: Of course, I don't know him personally, but from everything
Speaker 8: I see, just seems like a very likable guy. Like
Speaker 8: the way he plays his swing a little unorthodox, you
Speaker 8: don't see that every day, and it's consistent and just wins.
Speaker 8: And so, like I said, I hate to jump on
Speaker 8: the bandwagon of probably where everybody else is at. But
Speaker 8: I when he's in contention, I certainly like to jump
Speaker 8: in front of the TV and watch. He's probably one
Speaker 8: of my favorites right now.
Speaker 1: When he's dialed in. And I've talked about this on
Speaker 1: the show with a lot of my golf guests quite
Speaker 1: a bit. One of my big regrets is that I
Speaker 1: was not dialed into the game of golf when Tiger
Speaker 1: was Tiger. I wasn't watching. I had an opportunity. In
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven. I was living with my grandparents, and
Speaker 1: as I referenced, my grandfather was a big golfer, and
Speaker 1: for whatever reason Easton, it is known on the show
Speaker 1: that my grandfather named me nickname me Spencer Doobie when
Speaker 1: I was two years old. I don't know why. There's
Speaker 1: no way he knew what that was. I can promise
Speaker 1: you that. And so nineteen ninety seven, I'm a senior
Speaker 1: in high school and I'm downstairs and my grandfather yells down,
Speaker 1: do be come upstairs. This young man is about to
Speaker 1: make history. So we watched the final round of Tiger
Speaker 1: at Augusta, but I did not see Tiger at peak
Speaker 1: Tiger very much. I've watched some documentaries, I read the book,
Speaker 1: and I find him to be very fascinating, and I
Speaker 1: know that it is it is very, very dangerous to compare.
Speaker 1: Like golf gatekeepers in a way remind me a little
Speaker 1: bit of NBA gatekeepers when the Jordan stuff comes up,
Speaker 1: Like there are so many people and by the way,
Speaker 1: I'm one of them. There are so many people that
Speaker 1: will say Mike is the greatest and he'll always be
Speaker 1: the greatest. Do not come to me with Kobe or
Speaker 1: Lebron or I don't want to talk about it, Okay,
Speaker 1: And whenever I draw comparison to Tiger, it's like sacrilegious
Speaker 1: for golf gatekeepers. But at what point do we start
Speaker 1: talking about Scotty as potentially in the midst of the
Speaker 1: beginning of a run that kind of feels like it
Speaker 1: did when Tiger was being Tiger if that makes sense.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it does.
Speaker 8: And I think we're there. I think the run has
Speaker 8: at least started. You know, like you said, now, what
Speaker 8: made Tiger so great is you know, the how long
Speaker 8: the run really was and the dominant really was. I
Speaker 8: mean we saw with Rory he came out too, you know,
Speaker 8: when he was a younger golfer and he started that journey,
Speaker 8: and I think he had if I'm not mistaken, he
Speaker 8: had four majors right off the bat and then had
Speaker 8: to wait eleven years until he just recently won the Masters,
Speaker 8: And so you know, there's some cautionary tell there as
Speaker 8: well as yes, I think he's on that path. I
Speaker 8: think there's been other golfers like Rory, like Jordan Spief
Speaker 8: that have come out hot and then they've fizzled. So
Speaker 8: to be able to be that dominant, that consistent, I
Speaker 8: think that's what made Tiger, and that's what made Jack great.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 8: I think Scotty is certainly right there on the path.
Speaker 8: Only twenty eight he's got, you know, I would say
Speaker 8: fifteen twenty years of competitive golf lift and we'll see
Speaker 8: what he can do. You know, Tiger with fifteen majors,
Speaker 8: Scotty now has three, so he's got a little ways
Speaker 8: to go. But I mean, I'd be shocked if you
Speaker 8: if you asked me to predict, I'd be shocked if
Speaker 8: he's not at least at double digit majors by the
Speaker 8: end of his career. So he's a lot of fun
Speaker 8: to watch, and I think we're watching something special and
Speaker 8: we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: Does the Live thing move the needle for you at all?
Speaker 1: I mean I was going to ask you, like, I
Speaker 1: don't know how it would affect your job, but in
Speaker 1: you know, in and around the game of golf, it
Speaker 1: still seems to dominate the conversation. Part of me feels
Speaker 1: like we've settled into acceptance, if that makes sense, where like,
Speaker 1: all right, Live is just going to be around, and
Speaker 1: it's just going to be another tour. It's going to
Speaker 1: be like the USFL or Minor League Baseball or whatever
Speaker 1: it is. It's just, you know, for a while, it
Speaker 1: was okay, the merger's happening, and then there were negotiations
Speaker 1: and Jay Monahan and the the the leader of the
Speaker 1: PIF Fund, we're kind of like, all right, we're making
Speaker 1: progress and there's no progress. Then the President gets involved,
Speaker 1: like okay, maybe this is going to move the needle,
Speaker 1: and it hasn't, and we're just kind of in the
Speaker 1: place where we've come to this acceptance that Live is
Speaker 1: going to be lived, and the tour is going to
Speaker 1: be the tour, and the best players on Live that
Speaker 1: have earned the right to playing majors are going to
Speaker 1: have the right to do that. It feels like that's
Speaker 1: where we've landed. You think that's where we're always going
Speaker 1: to be. And does this stuff kind of move the
Speaker 1: needle with what you have to deal with day to day.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know, it's really tough to predict. I do
Speaker 8: agree that I think that we've kind of landed in
Speaker 8: this acceptance. I think that there was some turmoil there
Speaker 8: when Live was picking off some of the you know,
Speaker 8: the best tour players, and I think that made everyone uneasy.
Speaker 8: That's settled, and now kind of the rumors are Bryson
Speaker 8: could come back, John rom could come back. You know,
Speaker 8: there's some regrets that they took them money and don't
Speaker 8: get to play on the on the tour, you know,
Speaker 8: as Live loses those players. If that does happen and
Speaker 8: they lose a Jen Rahm and they lose you know,
Speaker 8: a Bryson de Shamba, I don't know. I mean, there's
Speaker 8: not a lot of interest in Live Golf right now,
Speaker 8: and if there was any, you know, without those golfers,
Speaker 8: I really don't know, like you said, outside of being
Speaker 8: a minor league, I just don't know how they survive now.
Speaker 8: Could they continue to pump money and and try and
Speaker 8: you know, I'll say, steal more players or take away
Speaker 8: more players from the tour maybe, but that hasn't happened.
Speaker 8: I feel like in you know, at least a year
Speaker 8: or two. So I don't know, you know, if I
Speaker 8: had to predict, I don't know that Live will be
Speaker 8: here long in the way that we know it, but
Speaker 8: I do, you know, I do agree that I think
Speaker 8: we've kind of landed in a place of acceptance and
Speaker 8: it seems like it's kind of settled a little bit,
Speaker 8: and you know, maybe they can come to grips or
Speaker 8: come to terms on an agreement where we can get
Speaker 8: some of these players on tour. Because how fun has
Speaker 8: it been to watch Into Shamba. I know he's not
Speaker 8: for everybody, but he's been incredibly relevant at the last
Speaker 8: three majors, I think top five in the last three,
Speaker 8: and a great personality and it's been a lot of
Speaker 8: fun to have him. I mean, golf is missing having
Speaker 8: Bryce into Shambles and having John Rahm's play, you know,
Speaker 8: in on a consistent basis on on weekends that we
Speaker 8: all get to watch. So hopefully we get those players
Speaker 8: all playing on one tour again. I you know, I'm
Speaker 8: strictly on the amateur side, you know, far more on
Speaker 8: the local side than ever having to deal with live.
Speaker 8: So you know, I just cheer for what's best for
Speaker 8: golf and let's get people excited to play. I don't
Speaker 8: know that that's live. I think it's more like Scotty,
Speaker 8: you know, on this tear that he's on, or Rory
Speaker 8: winning the Masters. I think that's what gets people excited.
Speaker 8: So that's what I tend to root for.
Speaker 1: We don't really need to get more people excited to play, Euston,
Speaker 1: We just we just don't. Okay, I've already presented my
Speaker 1: endeavor of hashtag shrink the game, which you summarily dismissed,
Speaker 1: and of course I'm being phasis just but before I
Speaker 1: set you loose, I know you've got tournaments, you've got
Speaker 1: mid ams, you've got state ams, qualifying senior and all
Speaker 1: that women, all that stuff. So what what do you
Speaker 1: want our listeners to know about what you have going
Speaker 1: on with the UGA?
Speaker 8: Yeah, appreciate it, and you know very much we're we're
Speaker 8: in the camp of expanding the game, and you know,
Speaker 8: we want everyone to come out and play as much
Speaker 8: golf as humanly possible and stack up the t sheets
Speaker 8: and and hopefully there's still some tea times that you
Speaker 8: can book as well. But you know, my challenge for
Speaker 8: any golfer that's listening, or even non golfer, is to
Speaker 8: push themselves to the to the next level, whatever that
Speaker 8: may be. You know, golf is on a boom right now.
Speaker 8: It seems like everyone's you know, trying to get in
Speaker 8: the game one way or another, whether it's at top golf,
Speaker 8: whether it's going to the driving range. I would encourage
Speaker 8: everyone to go get top golf a try go to
Speaker 8: the driving ranges if you're new to the game, and
Speaker 8: as you become more familiar, we'd love to have you
Speaker 8: as members.
Speaker 4: Of the UGA.
Speaker 8: You know, get a handicap index and start tracking your progress.
Speaker 8: That's that's our goal. We think it's you know, we
Speaker 8: helped develop those players that can go from just beginning
Speaker 8: to maybe one day playing you know, championship level golf
Speaker 8: here in the state. So I encourage everyone to go
Speaker 8: out and try something new, whatever that may be. And
Speaker 8: if you'll visit you JA dot org. That's how you
Speaker 8: can become a member, get a handicap index and play
Speaker 8: as much golf as possible.
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you before I set you loose after
Speaker 1: you're on last time. I showed up the next morning
Speaker 1: to play around a bottleville and as I checked in
Speaker 1: paid the fee. As I was walking out, one of
Speaker 1: one of my guys up there said, hey, go easy
Speaker 1: on Easton, will you So? I don't know if you
Speaker 1: got any feedback last time, but people were listening, and
Speaker 1: I apologize if I went too hard on you.
Speaker 8: No, of course not. I know where you're coming from.
Speaker 8: Everyone wants to tea time, and everyone wants to get
Speaker 8: out there and play. You know, like I said, from
Speaker 8: our standpoint, love seeing t sheets full, and our golf
Speaker 8: professionals are working really hard to make it a good experience.
Speaker 8: But no, we want you to be able to get
Speaker 8: out there and play, you know, a quick round too.
Speaker 8: You know you're busy, So hope you'll keep playing.
Speaker 1: Oh you know, I will? You know, I will, buddy.
Speaker 1: I appreciate the time today, and if the Knicks keep advancing,
Speaker 1: we're gonna keep having you on because now the good
Speaker 1: luck charm apparently he's in play, all right.
Speaker 4: I love it.
Speaker 8: Thanks for your time, Spence, Go.
Speaker 1: Nick Easton Folster, executive director of the Utah Golf Association.
Speaker 1: Go to UGA dot org or maybe don't, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe you play pickleball, maybe go for a walk, maybe
Speaker 1: bride your bike, maybe walk the dog. You're crazy. I
Speaker 1: feel like too many people are way into it now.
Speaker 2: Listen. I get it as a guy who you know
Speaker 2: is often looking for a tennis quarter around Salt Lake
Speaker 2: and it's full, I understand, all right, I do, okay,
Speaker 2: full as pickleballers too.
Speaker 1: So oh yeah, and most of the tennis courts are
Speaker 1: now open for pickleball players as well. Get me started.
Speaker 1: Just go up to the corner of let's see first
Speaker 1: South and University Park. That park there, the tennis courts,
Speaker 1: frat bros, no shirts, pickle ball all day.
Speaker 2: You know they're always there too.
Speaker 1: Yeah they are, all right, So go to UJA dot
Speaker 1: or Okay, just do that for our guy Easton. But
Speaker 1: you know it, honestly, golf is it's hard, it's boring,
Speaker 1: it's expensive, it's time consuming. Like why do you guys
Speaker 1: even want to play? Go do something else with your time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's here's the thing.
Speaker 2: If you go and you know you haven't played golf
Speaker 2: yet and you're you're wanting to get into it, You're
Speaker 2: not going to be good for years and years and years.
Speaker 1: Just know that, yep, just know that.
Speaker 2: You know it takes ten thousand hours plus probably of practice.
Speaker 2: Those are reps that you can't shortcut.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you guys don't want to put yourself through that grind.
Speaker 1: You really don't. Maybe you do, Maybe you do. It's
Speaker 1: wildly addicting. Anyway, Time now to send somebody golfing for free.
Speaker 1: Stone Bridge, Oh nice love stone Bridge. Eighteen holes of
Speaker 1: stone Bridge on the line. It is the Festival at Teas,
Speaker 1: brought to you by our friends at the UGA. ESPN.
Speaker 1: Festival of Tea is powered by the Utah Golf Association.
Speaker 1: Each day of spring, ESPN seven Hunters is given away
Speaker 1: rounds of golf to the best courses in the state.
Speaker 1: Listening to The Down and Dirty with Scott Mitchell, The
Speaker 1: Shot O'Connell Show, and The Drive with Spence. Checkets for
Speaker 1: your chance to win each day from ESPN and the
Speaker 1: Utah Golf Association. Details can be found at ESPN seven
Speaker 1: hundred sports dot com. All Right. Final segment of the
Speaker 1: program on this Monday afternoon, the sun is trying to shine.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's been been a minute, little rainy,
Speaker 1: little cloudy, little chili for May. If April showers bring
Speaker 1: May flowers, what do May showers bring?
Speaker 2: Hopefully some more flowers.
Speaker 1: That's all. That's the best you could do.
Speaker 2: We need more flowers.
Speaker 1: I guess why do we need more flower? We need
Speaker 1: consistent sunshine. We need warmth, that's what we need. May
Speaker 1: has been chilly, We've had a cold spring.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, we can have like a nice warm June then.
Speaker 1: Okay for you? Okay, fair enough, fair enough. No NBA
Speaker 1: playoff basketball tonight, Tom Haberstrow is going to binge the
Speaker 1: last of us. What do you what do you have
Speaker 1: plans on the docket on a Monday night when the
Speaker 1: conference finals don't get going until tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm getting to the point I probably need to
Speaker 2: make a list on on stuff I need to catch
Speaker 2: up on. When you're you're talking all the series and whatnot.
Speaker 2: I am not up to date on Gemstones, which is
Speaker 2: when I do enjoy. Uh maybe some of that. I'm
Speaker 2: building a garden this week, so I'm finishing that.
Speaker 1: Look at you, mister green thumb, But not much, Bob
Speaker 1: Vila over here.
Speaker 2: Who's that? Oh my gosh, is that the Toolhouse Guy?
Speaker 1: This Old House with Bobby? You know what? That actually
Speaker 1: ages me a lot, because I think I was young
Speaker 1: when Bob. You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna do a
Speaker 1: Google Google shows you've never heard of Bob Vila.
Speaker 2: I think I know who you're talking about. But deep,
Speaker 2: deep memories.
Speaker 1: There was an old TV show.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I told yeah, yeah, the Toolhouse Guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah there was. It was an old TV show called
Speaker 1: This Old House with Bob Vila, and my parents loved
Speaker 1: it and when I was a kid, we used to
Speaker 1: watch it. I don't even know when it was on.
Speaker 1: I was probably on, like back in the eighties. That
Speaker 1: may have been. Honestly, that may have been the oldest
Speaker 1: reference that I've ever made on the show. Vila was
Speaker 1: hired as the host of This Old House in nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy nine.
Speaker 2: And then, wasn't he the guy like across the fence
Speaker 2: on tim the No? Was it not the same guy?
Speaker 1: It's not the same guy.
Speaker 2: I thought it was the same guy.
Speaker 1: Let's see. This Old House was on from nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: nine to nineteen eighty nine. That officially is the oldest
Speaker 1: reference I've ever made on the show. I think I
Speaker 1: told you. I shocked somebody recently who asked me when
Speaker 1: I was born when I revealed that I was actually
Speaker 1: born in the seventies. That's the oldest reference I've ever
Speaker 1: made on the show, for sure. I dig it. I
Speaker 1: dig it. I like that.
Speaker 2: I like the seventies reference.
Speaker 1: So you're building a garden in your house or excuse me,
Speaker 1: in your yard outside of the house. Any are these flowers?
Speaker 1: Are they vegetables that you'll be able to like actually eat?
Speaker 2: I like to. I usually if I have the space,
Speaker 2: I like to grow like everything that I've got, all
Speaker 2: my vegetables and stuff. I like to grow at myself.
Speaker 2: So that's that's the hope. Maybe a few flowers if
Speaker 2: I got extra room. But uh yeah, berries, peppers, tomatoes,
Speaker 2: stuff I can eat.
Speaker 1: I am very impressed. I do not have the natural
Speaker 1: the natural green thumb. Is it something that you have
Speaker 1: naturally or as a result of being raised in God's
Speaker 1: country to just kind of learn the skill a little
Speaker 1: bit of.
Speaker 2: Both, I would say I definitely, you know, tended to
Speaker 2: enough crops growing up a little bit that I I've
Speaker 2: got a a bit of a head start, but yeah,
Speaker 2: it was. It was always something I've I've done. I'm
Speaker 2: a green thumb, whether it comes to the garden or
Speaker 2: like my house plants. Like I don't have pets, so
Speaker 2: those are those are my things until I have room
Speaker 2: for pets.
Speaker 1: Grown any weed not at the moment. Okay, don't, don't, don't.
Speaker 1: Don't incriminate yourself.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, can I can I tell you
Speaker 2: on the radio if I was Oh, yeah, no, okay, sorry, okay,
Speaker 2: shout out to Fred Warner.
Speaker 1: Three years, sixty three million dollar extension. So some good
Speaker 1: stuff there. Well, oh, I know what I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you. Do you think the Mets are good? I
Speaker 1: can't wait for this, you think. Do you think the
Speaker 1: Mets are good? Don't you?
Speaker 2: They have a good roster.
Speaker 1: They do have a good roster.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing. They weren't good ten years ago,
Speaker 2: twelve years ago, thirteen years ago. We never had good
Speaker 2: Mets teams. And then we started to have this thing
Speaker 2: where we did have good rosters. You go back to
Speaker 2: the year we did make the World Series, that pitching
Speaker 2: staff was the best in the league and it wasn't close.
Speaker 2: You go back to like the Matt Harvey, Cinderguard de
Speaker 2: Graham like, the fact that those Mets didn't make genuine
Speaker 2: runs outside of the one they lost to the Royals
Speaker 2: is a bit absurd. So we're now going on this,
Speaker 2: I want to say, almost a decade now, Spence, where
Speaker 2: the Mets have had good rosters and still haven't been good.
Speaker 2: So I just I throw my hands up at this point.
Speaker 2: At least the Knicks, now that they have good rosters,
Speaker 2: they're actually good. The Mets seem to be able to
Speaker 2: still be bad or embarrassing when they have good players.
Speaker 2: But I'll hold off hope because they started all right.
Speaker 1: Conference finals in pro basketball begins tomorrow with the Western
Speaker 1: side of things. Then on Wednesday it's the Eastern side
Speaker 1: of things. So of course stay two. We have you
Speaker 1: covered there porter what comes our way on a Tuesday
Speaker 1: edition of the show.
Speaker 2: On a Tuesday edition the program you mentioned. Of course,
Speaker 2: NBA Conference finals start tomorrow, so we'll double up on
Speaker 2: the NBA daily assists from ESPN. It's Tim McMahon joining
Speaker 2: us as he does each and every Tuesday. We're gonna
Speaker 2: catch up with our friend Lee Ellis, of course a
Speaker 2: guy from down Under, but he covered the entirety of
Speaker 2: the Eastern Conference semi finals. So we'll check in with
Speaker 2: Lee Richard Smitty Smith in studio for an entire hour,
Speaker 2: and then we'll cap off the show catching up with
Speaker 2: someone from Real Salt Lake. Of course, a tough outing
Speaker 2: for them over the weekend of one nil loss.
Speaker 1: Did you try to lob a shot on target text
Speaker 1: to somebody that was rejected by RSL? Or how were
Speaker 1: you able to book someone from the club. Well, that
Speaker 1: was rude.
Speaker 2: That was a little rude.
Speaker 1: Now score a goal, man, I.
Speaker 2: Know, listen, what did you say? Two hundred and fifty minutes?
Speaker 1: Almost two fifty and Pablo said to the Apple TV
Speaker 1: broadcasters he would be surprised if Diego Luna is around
Speaker 1: after the summer transfer window.
Speaker 2: That's the other part. If you if you need an
Speaker 2: attack and you've got guys that uh, you know, maybe
Speaker 2: on the way out, where are you going to be
Speaker 2: after that? It's a it's a it's an interesting spot.
Speaker 2: RSL is in. Yeah, we'll we'll see who they they
Speaker 2: wrangle up to join us tomorrow.
Speaker 1: All right, there you go, We'll say good night, special
Speaker 1: thank you, Bobby Marks, Tom Haber Show, Tony Parks and
Speaker 1: Easton Fulster. For any of the sound, go to the
Speaker 1: website ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. Download our app,
Speaker 1: Take us on the Goats, How I'll had sow I
Speaker 1: listen to the station. The seven app is available in
Speaker 1: the App Store the Google play Store. Then for what
Speaker 1: we do in our space podcast page, it is called
Speaker 1: The Drive with Spence. Check it, subscribe, rate, review, say
Speaker 1: nice things in the comments, give us all the stars.
Speaker 1: Wherever you get your shows, We're there, reporter. I'm Spence
Speaker 1: saying I have a great Monday evening. We'll talk to
Speaker 1: you on a Tuesday edition of the Drive right here
Speaker 1: on ESPN seven hundred ninety two ONEFM. We are proud
Speaker 1: to be part of utah z ESPN Radio Network