Speaker 1: All right, let's get a dry time. Monday afternoon.
Speaker 2: We are looking at about twelve minutes past the hour
Speaker 2: of two o'clock.
Speaker 1: It is hot, man. I just landed.
Speaker 2: From the great Pacific Northwest, stepped off the plane and
Speaker 2: realized that it's very much summer, the dog days of
Speaker 2: summer here in Salt Lake City, Utah. We are looking
Speaker 2: at about ninety six degrees in sunny on this Monday afternoon,
Speaker 2: and as it is every single day, it's going to
Speaker 2: have you along for the riots.
Speaker 1: Bence check.
Speaker 2: It's back behind the mic during a little time off
Speaker 2: to Friday off.
Speaker 1: But good to be back.
Speaker 2: Shout out to porter for holding it down and everybody
Speaker 2: else for holding it down while I was gone.
Speaker 1: And my goodness, did I miss a lot.
Speaker 2: I was kind of in the middle of nowhere Pacific
Speaker 2: Northwest without a lot of cell service. And when I
Speaker 2: kind of got back into reality saw all the news
Speaker 2: about the transactions in pro basketball. The Utah Jazz have
Speaker 2: been busy. They're making another transaction.
Speaker 1: As we speak. We'll tell you what that is and
Speaker 1: what could be next.
Speaker 2: So a lot of NBA today, a lot of NBA
Speaker 2: free agent fallout as a free.
Speaker 1: Agency has begun.
Speaker 2: Free agency is here, and Austin Ainge is putting his
Speaker 2: fingerprints on this team, as.
Speaker 1: We expected him to do.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 2: The rookies did report No, ayst Bailey did.
Speaker 1: Not refuse to come to the Salt Lake. He is
Speaker 1: here and summer League is upon us.
Speaker 2: So we'll get to know these young men and see
Speaker 2: what the plan is for Austin and his staff as
Speaker 2: they move forward with their roster construction. So we'll do
Speaker 2: some NBA, we'll do some jazz, we'll do some offseason
Speaker 2: free agency, some drafts, and then the news came down
Speaker 2: the Jake rerhetz Laugh has been telling his coaches and
Speaker 2: teammates that he is transferring and the civil lawsuit that
Speaker 2: was filed against him has been drafted.
Speaker 1: That came down earlier today.
Speaker 2: Kyle Bond of Gura, friend of the show, Pete Damil,
Speaker 2: and of course our friend's over at the Salt Lake Tribune,
Speaker 2: Kevin Reynolds, making sure they're taking care of that story.
Speaker 2: Doing a great job, and it's really too bad in
Speaker 2: a lot of different ways. I will reiterate what Shaun
Speaker 2: had to say during our crossdock portion. This is not
Speaker 2: a situation where I find it appropriate to dunk on anybody.
Speaker 2: I think it's a bad look. I just think it sucks.
Speaker 2: I think it sucks where everybody involves. There just isn't
Speaker 2: any winners here at the end of the day. So
Speaker 2: we'll talk about it on the program. It's one of
Speaker 2: my most un favorite things to cover as a media
Speaker 2: member in state honor code violations at BYU, Like what
Speaker 2: do you do with that?
Speaker 1: Everybody knows the deal man, everybody knows the.
Speaker 2: Deal and if you know you're not willing to kind
Speaker 2: of tow the line down there, you probably should look
Speaker 2: to find a different place to go to school, as
Speaker 2: I've always said. But busy show RSL. We'll get to
Speaker 2: a little RSL on the program today. They're going to
Speaker 2: be back in action with actually kind of a busy,
Speaker 2: busy schedule moving forward because the June slate was so light.
Speaker 2: They only had two games of Jim and they're starting
Speaker 2: to get healthier. See what happens when they get diego
Speaker 2: back and hopefully Mecha Nelly gets.
Speaker 1: Back soon as well.
Speaker 2: So we'll do a little soccer on the program and
Speaker 2: do a little RSL on the program. Of course, one
Speaker 2: I always on the off season the NFL and pro football,
Speaker 2: but it's kind of a quiet time for that right now.
Speaker 2: RSL was able to get a draw at Children's Mercy
Speaker 2: Park over the weekend one to one, and.
Speaker 1: Now they're going to take on Saint Louis.
Speaker 2: They've got actually five of the next six games at home.
Speaker 2: Wait a second, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
Speaker 2: eight of the next nine games at home. Oh all right,
Speaker 2: So a lot of RSL here in the market is
Speaker 2: they're going to be home for most of their matches
Speaker 2: over the next.
Speaker 1: Couple of months.
Speaker 2: All right, good guest list today on a Monday, Happy
Speaker 2: Monday to you. Hope you had a great weekend off
Speaker 2: to a great start to that work week. We'll bring
Speaker 2: in Tim Bontemps right off the top. Timmy covers the
Speaker 2: NBA for ESPN. He's on the Hoop Collective podcast. We'll
Speaker 2: get his thoughts on the Colin Sexton transaction. Yusuf Nurkic
Speaker 2: and you had to attach a second to Colin to
Speaker 2: make the trade kind of caught me off guard a
Speaker 2: little bit. The Jazz are working on a buyout that
Speaker 2: actually just became official, so Jordan Clarkson is now a
Speaker 2: free agent. The rumors are out there that he will
Speaker 2: sign with the New York Knicks, who, by the way,
Speaker 2: do not have a coach. So Jazz making moves, Austin
Speaker 2: Ainge making moves. The NBA Finals and the NBA Draft
Speaker 2: is behind us. So we'll do a little primer today
Speaker 2: with Timmy bon Tabs. Tom Haverstrow, consistent Monday guest of ours.
Speaker 2: Tom wrote a really cool piece, well, I should say,
Speaker 2: really insightful piece on this weird Malik Beasley situation where
Speaker 2: he's the subject of a federal gambling investigation. Malik played
Speaker 2: a little ball here just for a little bit before
Speaker 2: he was moved off of and had a really good
Speaker 2: year actually in Detroit. But another weird story based off
Speaker 2: of players being caught maybe doing some inappropriate things as
Speaker 2: far as fixing lines and such to make a little money.
Speaker 2: So we'll see what Tom has to say about that.
Speaker 2: We'll bringing Amy Donaldson. It's been a while since we've
Speaker 2: been able to catch out with Amy, our friend from KSL.
Speaker 2: We'll bounce around a little bit with Amy, do a
Speaker 2: bunch of different things. Kurt Schmidt, RSL roster constructor technical director.
Speaker 2: I've lose track of the names over there, but Kurt
Speaker 2: is the guy in charge making the decisions.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about the.
Speaker 2: Draw against ask C, and then we'll look out to
Speaker 2: Saint Louis and we'll see how healthy.
Speaker 1: The group is getting.
Speaker 2: As RSL badly in need of points, they do have
Speaker 2: four points over the past two games, which is a
Speaker 2: good sign in the right direction.
Speaker 1: So we'll bring Kurt in today.
Speaker 2: As well, so Tim Bond, Temps, Tom Haberstrow, Amy Donaldson,
Speaker 2: Kurt Schmidt, Mee Spence, Jackets back by the Mike.
Speaker 1: Great to be back.
Speaker 2: Thanks for giving Porter your attention and speaking to Porter.
Speaker 1: I was Friday. I heard you have a little adventure.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, we were just a tad bit out of
Speaker 4: the neighborhood down in Spanish Fork. But it was a
Speaker 4: good time and as you mentioned, we had plenty to
Speaker 4: get to all of the Jazz draft stuff, all of
Speaker 4: the trade talk gathering on Friday, and of course at
Speaker 4: that point the Ace Bailey stuff was I thought the
Speaker 4: entire time much of a non story, but that was
Speaker 4: kind of the part of the show, was trying to
Speaker 4: explain that to a lot of the listeners who were concerned.
Speaker 4: As you know, during the show Friday, all that kind
Speaker 4: of got cleared up and that was the basis of it.
Speaker 4: But a good time down in Spanish Fork with our
Speaker 4: friends at Tim Dally.
Speaker 2: Very nice, very nice. So our first guest today will
Speaker 2: be Tim Bontems. But before Tim stops by courtesy of
Speaker 2: our good friends and your good friends too at Prize Picks,
Speaker 2: it's Tom now for your opening tip.
Speaker 5: Welcome to the Drive with Spence check its on Utah's
Speaker 5: number one sports talk now into the studios of ESPN
Speaker 5: seven hundred to set the scene for the show. The
Speaker 5: opening tip of the Drive is brought to you by
Speaker 5: Prize Picks. Use the code ESPN seven hundred and run
Speaker 5: your game with Prize Picks.
Speaker 2: So, as I referenced, I left town and a lot
Speaker 2: happened over the weekend. Busy busy weekend of local sports storylines.
Speaker 2: We'll get to the Jake Rretz off Yu stuff a
Speaker 2: little bit later on. Have some thoughts on that what's
Speaker 2: next for BYU? What's next for Jake as this whole
Speaker 2: situation probably is something that everybody involved is ready to
Speaker 2: move on from. But the Utah Jazz led by Austin Ainge,
Speaker 2: are making some moves. So it's pretty clear. As we
Speaker 2: discussed last week prior to the NBA Draft. Austin Ainge
Speaker 2: has not had a hand in this roster construction up
Speaker 2: until he took the job, obviously, so he is not
Speaker 2: married to any of these players. There's probably just no loyalty.
Speaker 2: I don't mean that to sound harsh. It's just like
Speaker 2: all of these players are going to be on the table,
Speaker 2: and if we're honest, most of them have been on
Speaker 2: the table. Colin Sexton certainly a name that a lot
Speaker 2: of people have been watching for potentially to get moved. Well,
Speaker 2: he's on his way to Charlotte in exchange for use
Speaker 2: of Nurkic, and then the Jazz actually had to attach
Speaker 2: a second round pick to Colin to make that move,
Speaker 2: which caught me off guard. I mean, Colin Sexton is
Speaker 2: a good basketball player.
Speaker 1: There's a lot to like about Colin. He played pretty
Speaker 1: well here.
Speaker 2: I mean he was a nineteen point night guy, ended
Speaker 2: up shooting over forty percent from three last year, which
Speaker 2: was a career high.
Speaker 1: The usage stuff.
Speaker 2: Isn't great, and he's one of these guards on this
Speaker 2: roster that isn't a great defensive player and doesn't have
Speaker 2: great size. So I wasn't too surprised to see Colin
Speaker 2: and hear the news that Colin had been moved on
Speaker 2: from I just completely thought they'd be able to get
Speaker 2: more than use of Nurkic. He was a shell of
Speaker 2: his former self and he was never really that good anyway.
Speaker 2: But he is a backup big and maybe you know
Speaker 2: he and Walker Kessler practicing together, you know, a veteran
Speaker 2: center that can help walk her out. But also Nurkic
Speaker 2: is more expensive than Colin as far as his salary goes,
Speaker 2: not by a lot, but the Jazz actually took back
Speaker 2: more money than they sent out with Colin Sexton and
Speaker 2: they had to attach his second round pick. Now, the
Speaker 2: main motivation here is actually really simple. We don't really
Speaker 2: have to overthink it. It is pretty clear, at least
Speaker 2: from my understanding some things that I've read and some
Speaker 2: discussions I've had, the Jazz really like. And by the way,
Speaker 2: it's Walt Clayton Junior, not Walter. He told us at
Speaker 2: his introductory press conference. He prefers Walt. I think this
Speaker 2: kid's gonna play, and I think one of the reasons
Speaker 2: they made this deal. In fact, I would say the
Speaker 2: main empetus for the decision making process was to open
Speaker 2: up minutes for Walt, and they're going to play Isaiah.
Speaker 2: I mean Isaiah started a number of games last year,
Speaker 2: Keyonte got a lot of minutes off the bench, even
Speaker 2: with Colin Sexton and Jordan Clarkson, who, by the way,
Speaker 2: is also no longer a member of the Jazz. The
Speaker 2: Jazz have reached a buyout agreement with Jordan, so today
Speaker 2: no Colin Sexton, no Jordan Clarkson. And essentially as far
Speaker 2: as the value in return, yeah, I think they probably.
Speaker 1: Could have done better for Colin. But if they could have,
Speaker 1: they would have. It's not like they were looking for
Speaker 1: a bad deal.
Speaker 2: Ultimately, this just opens up minutes for the young guards,
Speaker 2: more minutes for Isaiah, more minutes for Kiante, and more
Speaker 2: minutes for Walt probably and just opening up opportunities for
Speaker 2: these young players to play. Because remember, if we take
Speaker 2: Austin at his word during his introductory press conference when
Speaker 2: his response to Sean's question about manipulate eight minutes and
Speaker 2: losing on purpose, you will not see that this year.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So really what they're doing is they are going to
Speaker 2: play these young players almost exclusively.
Speaker 1: In a way.
Speaker 2: It's what Washington did for a while last year. They
Speaker 2: brought in some vets. They've got Chris Middleton, They've got
Speaker 2: Marcus Smart. Now they have CJ. McCollum. But last year,
Speaker 2: you know, it was a lot of Palel Coolibali. It
Speaker 2: was a lot of really young Washington players because they
Speaker 2: were playing for Draft Capital, just like the Jazz, but
Speaker 2: unlike the Jazz, Washington didn't go about it in a
Speaker 2: way where they were manipulating minutes and making up injuries
Speaker 2: and sitting players that are healthy. Then Jazz did that.
Speaker 2: You can ask in the league find them. So I
Speaker 2: just think when you look at how this is going
Speaker 2: to go, you are going to see a lot of
Speaker 2: Walt Clayton junior. You're going to see a lot of
Speaker 2: Isaiah Collier and Chiante George and Bryce s and Sibon,
Speaker 2: Cody Williams and hopefully Taylor's healthy and obviously Ace will
Speaker 2: get TOAs in a minute. So those are the two
Speaker 2: transactions that the Jazz have made that are official. Colin
Speaker 2: Sexton is a Charlotte Hornet. Jordan Clarkson has been bought out.
Speaker 2: They draft Ace Bailey, they draft Wall Clayton junior, and
Speaker 2: I just think you're going to see a lot of
Speaker 2: young kids play man. I just think that's the deal.
Speaker 2: It's going to be a lot of youth. It's going
Speaker 2: to where on will hardy. Coaches don't like playing rookies.
Speaker 2: They don't like playing you young players because you cannot
Speaker 2: trust them, and it will look really rough next year
Speaker 2: in a lot of different ways.
Speaker 1: And that's probably by design.
Speaker 2: And I'm certain they're looking at next year's draft and
Speaker 2: hoping that maybe they can get a little luck next
Speaker 2: year that they didn't get this year. And then potentially
Speaker 2: if that goes down, if you can get one overall
Speaker 2: and say it's the debansa kid is going to play
Speaker 2: at BYU, then we got something right. Then we've got
Speaker 2: something as far as how this thing is going to
Speaker 2: go all right before we catch a break. The Ace
Speaker 2: Bailey stuff was interesting because I gotta be careful here
Speaker 2: because I'm sure I was part of the problem. I mean,
Speaker 2: I wasn't reporting anything. I was just reading and listening
Speaker 2: to reactions across the board. And I've heard a lot
Speaker 2: of people just crack on ESPN for this specifically.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just ESPN. There was an athletic report.
Speaker 2: There were several people on social media that surmised that
Speaker 2: Ace very much did not want to come and play
Speaker 2: basketball and solid for the Utah Jazz personally can't cooperate
Speaker 2: any of it. We did talk about it on Thursday
Speaker 2: before I left town, but you do about nothing. I'm
Speaker 2: not sure that I would go that far, because remember,
Speaker 2: we don't know really what goes on behind the scenes.
Speaker 2: And the most recent example I can use is the
Speaker 2: Donovan Mitchell situation where our guy just blew up that roster.
Speaker 2: He blew up that iteration of jazz basketball because of
Speaker 2: the way he conducted himself behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: And him deciding whether it was whatever.
Speaker 2: The senator Adams I don't can't remember if he was
Speaker 2: a senator, but the you know, one of our state
Speaker 2: legislators with some very tone deaf, unfortunate comments that when
Speaker 2: I heard him, may usa, Oh dude, you just don't
Speaker 2: say that out loud. You know, you can keep your
Speaker 2: opinions to yourself if you want to. But that iteration
Speaker 2: of jazz basketball was blown up by one person. This
Speaker 2: was not Danny Ainge rolling in here and deciding to
Speaker 2: break it down. This was not justin Zanik deciding that
Speaker 2: that team was done.
Speaker 1: This was Donovan Mitchell, essentially.
Speaker 2: Telling him, telling people, I am out of here as
Speaker 2: soon as I have the ability to make the decision,
Speaker 2: Quinn Snyder himself saying no pathway forward.
Speaker 1: So like, it's what I've heard a lot of mostly team.
Speaker 2: Employed people talk about, Oh, you know, the trade thing,
Speaker 2: there's nothing. There might be something there, But what's this
Speaker 2: kid gonna do not show up and report. I mean,
Speaker 2: obviously he's going to show up and report and sign
Speaker 2: his contract and be a part of summer League.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he wants to be here. If
Speaker 1: he doesn't want to be here.
Speaker 2: I think the story was reported maybe in some circles
Speaker 2: a little inappropriately, But the fact of the matter is,
Speaker 2: in this league, as Richard Smith talked about and Gordy
Speaker 2: talked about during Draft night when we did our draft coverage,
Speaker 2: if you want to work for the business of the
Speaker 2: National Basketball Association, they assign you to an office for
Speaker 2: the first seven years of your career. And we can debate,
Speaker 2: and I have debated in the past, whether.
Speaker 1: Or not that's right, whether or not that's just.
Speaker 2: I've always said, if you're among the best at what
Speaker 2: you do in the world, you should have a say
Speaker 2: and where you do that thing. But in the ecosystem
Speaker 2: of pro basketball. It takes you seven years during that
Speaker 2: right and honestly, it's not all that different. I mean,
Speaker 2: how many people right out of school or whatever for
Speaker 2: the first job land exactly where they want to be
Speaker 2: doing exactly you know, what they want to do for
Speaker 2: the people they want to do.
Speaker 1: It for it. That's not how life works, So say
Speaker 1: what you want.
Speaker 2: I mean, the Jazz are gonna have a seven year
Speaker 2: runway unless something goes bizarrely sideways to convince Ace that
Speaker 2: he can accomplish whatever he wants to accomplish here in
Speaker 2: Saut Lake, so he reports all the noise seems to
Speaker 2: have kind of gone away, and now we get summer
Speaker 2: league and we'll see how he looks. The Jazz have
Speaker 2: released their summer league roster. Will tell you who that is,
Speaker 2: or I should say we will tell you who is
Speaker 2: on that list. They also released Johnny Juzing today. That's
Speaker 2: not that big of a surprise. So the Austin ange
Speaker 2: era as the primary voice and decision maker for the
Speaker 2: roster construction the Utah Jazz has begun.
Speaker 1: So it did just become official. The Jazz have reached
Speaker 1: a biot.
Speaker 2: Agreement with Jordan Clarkson, who will now become a free agent.
Speaker 2: According to our very own Sarah Todd from the show,
Speaker 2: she's hearing that the New York Knicks might be the
Speaker 2: landing spot for Jordans.
Speaker 1: So we'll get back to that.
Speaker 2: Of course, a lot to do with our first guests
Speaker 2: right out of the gates. One of our favorites, Tim
Speaker 2: bond Temps from ESPN. Tim, Happy Monday man, how are
Speaker 2: you doing?
Speaker 3: Are you well?
Speaker 1: Appreciate the time, So let's just start with that.
Speaker 2: Jordan Clarkson, who by all accounts has been great here
Speaker 2: as a vet that this organization is really embraced and
Speaker 2: really really enjoyed having here, probably had his best year
Speaker 2: under Quinn Snyder when he won six Man of the
Speaker 2: Year a number of years ago. And you know, Tim,
Speaker 2: you and I have talked about this, if we're honest,
Speaker 2: He's been available for probably three years, but no market
Speaker 2: for him as he hit the buyout market. And like
Speaker 2: I said, Sarah Todd is reporting the New York Knicks
Speaker 2: might be the landing spot.
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on that? Tim?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think if you go back to
Speaker 3: Austin Age's intro presser and he talked about you know,
Speaker 3: we're not gonna intentionally manipulate lineups. Well, you know, and
Speaker 3: after intentionally the manipulate lineups a few remove the veteran
Speaker 3: players and allow the young players to play through mistakes.
Speaker 3: And I think that is what the Jazz are pretty
Speaker 3: clearly doing. I mean, they moved down to Collins sexon
Speaker 3: the other day, they moved now from Clarkson. I assume
Speaker 3: at some point somewhere think it easily happen with John
Speaker 3: Collins and you know there, I think we're going to
Speaker 3: see a lot of these young fellows playing this season
Speaker 3: for Utah, And I think it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 3: You know, let Walter Clayton play through mistakes, Let you know,
Speaker 3: let Anthony George go out there and do stuff, and
Speaker 3: you know, let these guys they say, Klier, et cetera.
Speaker 3: You know, let them all grow and develop and play
Speaker 3: and and get better. And you know, at the same time,
Speaker 3: it's probably going to accomplish the other goal team is
Speaker 3: likely going to have, which is to not have a
Speaker 3: very good win loss record and have one more crack
Speaker 3: at a high pick. So you know, makes sense, makes
Speaker 3: sense for Jordan now a chance go be on a
Speaker 3: contending team we'll see if it's the next or somebody else.
Speaker 3: And I think I think it sort of makes sense
Speaker 3: across the board for everybody.
Speaker 1: I agree and move let's move over to the section
Speaker 1: and stuff.
Speaker 2: You know, another player Tim that certainly could have been
Speaker 2: traded at any point over the past, probably, I don't know,
Speaker 2: the three years. I was a little surprised they had
Speaker 2: to attach a set is a good player. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, this is not an All Star, but he
Speaker 2: played well here about nineteen points a night shout over
Speaker 2: forty PC from three. The decision making at times can
Speaker 2: get suspect. He's not a great defensive player, but they
Speaker 2: have to attach a second rounder to him to send
Speaker 2: him to Charlotte in order to bring in use of
Speaker 2: Nurkic that I think that's just an expiring deal.
Speaker 1: I don't know what else as far.
Speaker 2: As the motivation goes, But give me your thoughts on
Speaker 2: that transaction.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it was the exact same thing. I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, the Jazz have a bunch of guards and
Speaker 3: they want to play him, and you know moving on
Speaker 3: from Clarkston and Sexton allows them to do that easily,
Speaker 3: not any issues. And yeah, look, I really wasn't too overly,
Speaker 3: too concerned about the one second, I think if you
Speaker 3: look at, you know, where the Jazz sit, it was
Speaker 3: obvious why they'd be looking to move on from Sexton.
Speaker 3: And I'm sure the Horits saw that and said, you know, hey,
Speaker 3: if we're going to do it when he give us
Speaker 3: a second. But I don't, you know, I can understand
Speaker 3: why people go by and answing home and pick. I
Speaker 3: get that, but you know, I'm sure I'm sure Charlotte
Speaker 3: looked at the situation and saw what was going on too.
Speaker 3: And you know, the truth is, there's not that many
Speaker 3: places you can necessarily send Colin Sexton. I think if
Speaker 3: they there was value in the market forum, they certainly
Speaker 3: would have gotten it. So I think, you know, again, overall,
Speaker 3: you move him out of the way, you move Clarkson
Speaker 3: out of the way, You play Kyer and George and
Speaker 3: obviously especially Walter Clayton junior, and you roll forward, and
Speaker 3: I think I think it accomplished the goal that the
Speaker 3: Jazz had for what they were trying to do. And
Speaker 3: I think you saw more of the same today.
Speaker 1: So Ace Bailey is the pick.
Speaker 2: Tim The Jazz made that pick at five, and I
Speaker 2: think a lot of people around here really excited for
Speaker 2: the potential. You know, Jonathan Cavoni and the Sam Vassini,
Speaker 2: a lot of these, a lot of the mock draft
Speaker 2: guys about five six months ago actually had As in
Speaker 2: the mix for like number two outside of Cooper Flag
Speaker 2: and it's like, where's he gonna go? Of course, his
Speaker 2: teammate Dylan Harper separates himself. He's the second overall pick.
Speaker 2: But I want to know what your understanding is about
Speaker 2: the story that was surrounding Ace after the Jazz drafted him,
Speaker 2: where it was reported that his agent refused.
Speaker 1: To give a comment.
Speaker 2: I think it was to you guys over at ESPN
Speaker 2: about whether or not they're excited to have As in
Speaker 2: saw Lake City, and Tim, you've been coming on the
Speaker 2: show for six years, you know the deal. We want
Speaker 2: you to like us so badly. Sometimes it's a little ridiculous.
Speaker 2: But you know, there was even some people that surmised
Speaker 2: he might not even report.
Speaker 1: Well, that wasn't the case.
Speaker 2: He flew in on time, He gave his pressure and
Speaker 2: seems like a really sweet kid. He's excited to be here.
Speaker 2: Do I know exactly what's happening behind the scenes. No,
Speaker 2: I have no frame of reference for that, but I
Speaker 2: wonder what your understanding is of that entire dynamic.
Speaker 3: Yeah, here's what I would say. I would say that,
Speaker 3: you know, what ultimately matters is the last part, right
Speaker 3: and my you know, as Jonathan and I were reporting
Speaker 3: on that story last week, my belief the entire time
Speaker 3: was that if we got to the point where Race
Speaker 3: Bailey got to Salt Lake City and was was around
Speaker 3: well already in Austin Age and Ryan Smith and you know,
Speaker 3: with the with the rest of the jazz organization, and
Speaker 3: with Walter Croyton also, who I thought was a very
Speaker 3: good pick up on the jazz in the draft, I
Speaker 3: thought all this stuff would eventually sort of ad away,
Speaker 3: and I think it will in time. You know, obviously,
Speaker 3: during the draft process, it was quite clear that Ace's
Speaker 3: camp had a pretty clear idea of what they were
Speaker 3: trying to do, which I think the general consensus was
Speaker 3: to get to Washington, and they did not get to Washington.
Speaker 3: And you know, like I said, I think that led
Speaker 3: to a little a little bit of uh interesting circumstance
Speaker 3: for a couple of days. But but your read on
Speaker 3: Ace is what I think anyone's read on him that's
Speaker 3: been around him is that he's just sort of a
Speaker 3: you know, pretty gregarious and friendly guy. And I think
Speaker 3: he'll he's the kind of personality that I think fans
Speaker 3: will really like as a player. And look, he's obviously
Speaker 3: a guy who's a big swing and a toolbox for
Speaker 3: the player. And I would argue that he probably landed
Speaker 3: in the single best spot he could land in where
Speaker 3: there'll be no real pressure on him. It's sort of
Speaker 3: obviously Salt Lake City is not, you know, playing for
Speaker 3: the Knicks, and he'll be out of the way, and
Speaker 3: he's playing for a great coach and Will Hardy who
Speaker 3: will put him in the best positions he can to succeed.
Speaker 3: And you know, I think ultimately the long term situation
Speaker 3: for him is going to be a really positive one.
Speaker 3: And whatever his potential is as a player, I feel
Speaker 3: pretty confident that, you know, whatever he's going to be
Speaker 3: in the NBA, he'll come as close as he's going
Speaker 3: to be the hitting it playing for Will and playing
Speaker 3: for the Jets.
Speaker 2: That last part I wanted to follow up on you
Speaker 2: you kind of answer the question, but let's unpack it
Speaker 2: a little bit away from the drama and just honed
Speaker 2: it on the player as you've learned more about him.
Speaker 2: I don't love comps, but if you have some comps
Speaker 2: out there, like what should the fan base know about
Speaker 2: his potential and should he develop and stay healthy and
Speaker 2: all the things fall into place, what.
Speaker 1: Do you think that looks like in the NBA?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I'm going to stay a little bit
Speaker 3: away from comps just because I mean I've seen him
Speaker 3: play a couple of times in person. But I'm not
Speaker 3: Jonathan your bony from a draft standpoint. But what I
Speaker 3: will say is like you don't need comps to look
Speaker 3: at him and see what the potential is, right, which
Speaker 3: is to be a big rangey wing. You know, the
Speaker 3: guy he measures closest to is Jason Tatum. Like, obviously,
Speaker 3: if he turns into Jason Tatum, the Jazz will be
Speaker 3: very happy, right, whether it's Tim or Paul George, like
Speaker 3: the name the big scoring wing that can you know,
Speaker 3: handle the ball and shoot it and make tough shots.
Speaker 3: Like you know that that's obviously a hugely valuable and
Speaker 3: highly coveted player, and you know there's obviously a lot
Speaker 3: of swing and miss potential on that. Like we've seen
Speaker 3: a lot of guys like him get drafted that are
Speaker 3: a project and the project doesn't work out right. But
Speaker 3: like I said, I think when you look, when you
Speaker 3: look where the Jazz are sitting, but sitting with the
Speaker 3: fifth pick, they fall down in the draft, they fall
Speaker 3: out of the top three or four like they'd hoped
Speaker 3: to be all season, and as you said, correctly, all
Speaker 3: year long, Ace was a consensus top three guy. For
Speaker 3: him to fall from three to five, and for the
Speaker 3: Jazz to get a guy that when the lottery happened,
Speaker 3: if they'd picked, if they'd gotten the third pick in
Speaker 3: the draft, it would have been widely assumed they'd take
Speaker 3: Ase Bailey. I think that's a win for the Jazz,
Speaker 3: and I think it was the Other thing I'll say
Speaker 3: is I think Austin Ainge deserves a lot of credit,
Speaker 3: and the Jazz front office and scouting group deserves a
Speaker 3: lot of credit because nobody had any idea of what
Speaker 3: the Jazz we're going to do going into the first
Speaker 3: round last week. And I think that they deserve a
Speaker 3: lot of credit for, you know, keeping their stuff quiet
Speaker 3: and not anybody know what's going on, And they deserve
Speaker 3: credit for taking a swing on a guy that didn't
Speaker 3: work out, and you know, wasn't exactly clear how it
Speaker 3: was going to play out, and they bet on their
Speaker 3: process and bet on the talent, and now we'll see
Speaker 3: if the talent works out.
Speaker 6: In the end.
Speaker 2: Just ask you one more follow up jazz question before
Speaker 2: we move on, because as you have articulated, and I
Speaker 2: am on board with and I agree with it, just
Speaker 2: it does appear they are clear in the deck and
Speaker 2: this is going to be a team that leans into
Speaker 2: their youth and there's going to be a lot of
Speaker 2: young players playing a lot of big minutes, and I'm
Speaker 2: sure Will Hardy is going to be a little frustrated
Speaker 2: from time to time. Coaches don't love rookies and young players.
Speaker 2: But they still have a John Collins on the roster.
Speaker 2: They still have a lowry marketing on the roster. I
Speaker 2: don't know that I've ever been in the who like
Speaker 2: they should trade marketing camp and just reset the clock,
Speaker 2: because he really is very good when he's right, and
Speaker 2: he actually has, you know, teammates that know how.
Speaker 1: To play pro basketball.
Speaker 2: But they're they're they're do you know, I'm not doing
Speaker 2: the windhorse what's going on in Utah thing, Tim, But
Speaker 2: I'm doing something like it. Do you think there are
Speaker 2: other moves on the horizon for this team?
Speaker 3: I mean, certainly I think that John Collins, I would
Speaker 3: I don't know this to be sure, this is just
Speaker 3: me looking at it, but I would say John Collins
Speaker 3: following following Jordan Clarkson and Colin Sexton out the door
Speaker 3: as another vet, you know, to get out of the
Speaker 3: way of some younger guys playing. Could make sense. Now
Speaker 3: the Jets have a lot more guards and perimeter players
Speaker 3: than they do big so that category at this point.
Speaker 3: So maybe John John Collins sticks around. And I certainly
Speaker 3: don't think they're going to be in a rush to
Speaker 3: you know, get rid of lowry market and just to
Speaker 3: do so. So I think if there is a loarry
Speaker 3: market and trade out of match, it's going to be
Speaker 3: for him getting quite a bit of value back. And yeah,
Speaker 3: in general, like you said, I think the division for
Speaker 3: this is very clear. And I mean I had a
Speaker 3: lot of people ask me the same sort of the
Speaker 3: same question you had about the secretary. Why you know,
Speaker 3: surprised they gave up a second rounder, but the you
Speaker 3: know again, I think that's sort of a negligible cost
Speaker 3: and the overall direction here is very clear, and frankly,
Speaker 3: I think it's been very clear from the moment Austin
Speaker 3: got asked about, you know, tanking and what the plan
Speaker 3: was going forward. Right the second he said that, a
Speaker 3: lot of people latched onto we're not going to do
Speaker 3: that as we're not going to tank, which I don't
Speaker 3: think the Jazz are going to tank, but what they
Speaker 3: are going to do is what you said, which is
Speaker 3: leaning to their young players and allow them to play
Speaker 3: and play through mistakes. And that's probably going to lead
Speaker 3: to the healthy amount of losses, but it's also going
Speaker 3: to I think, create a you know, a more fun
Speaker 3: I would say, atmosphere for fans to be watching the games,
Speaker 3: because instead of you know, sort of what has gone
Speaker 3: on last year or two down the stretch a couple
Speaker 3: of years before and then most of last season, you know,
Speaker 3: it's just going to be the young guy's plane and
Speaker 3: then you'll let the chips fall what they may is
Speaker 3: the season plays out.
Speaker 1: Actually, one more Jazz thing I want to get your
Speaker 1: thoughts on this.
Speaker 2: They did end up trading three second round picks and
Speaker 2: essentially swapping their first round pick just to move up
Speaker 2: three spots to take well and by the way.
Speaker 1: It's Walt.
Speaker 2: He told us all during his press conference. He wants
Speaker 2: to be called Walt, so we will call him what
Speaker 2: he prefers. And look, that's probably a little too much
Speaker 2: to move up just three spots. But the other thing
Speaker 2: is like if he's the guy, right, Like, if you've
Speaker 2: identified that that's your guy, go get them, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. So your thoughts on attaching three second
Speaker 2: round picks and that first, just to move up three
Speaker 2: spots to take walk Clayton Junior.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's they moved. They used the three
Speaker 3: seconds to get up and get Clayton. And look, we'll
Speaker 3: see if seconds become more valuable as talent comes back
Speaker 3: in the draft in the coming years, but seconds probably
Speaker 3: matter as little as they ever have with the way
Speaker 3: the second round has been turned into a two way factory.
Speaker 3: So I don't mind the cost of that. Again, if
Speaker 3: Clayton has becomes their long term starting point guard, which
Speaker 3: I think he very well could. I'm a very big
Speaker 3: Clayton fan. Sure, then I you know, the cost of
Speaker 3: that is negligible. Now, moving up is always a risk,
Speaker 3: and paying that cost is always a risk because if
Speaker 3: it blows up in your face, it's double wamby because
Speaker 3: you don't like you end up. You don't like to
Speaker 3: miss on a pick, and you don't like to pay
Speaker 3: the cost of having to move up to do that.
Speaker 3: For somebody, it doesn't work out. But I like the fit.
Speaker 3: I think, especially for a young team, having a guy
Speaker 3: who has played as much as he has and has
Speaker 3: the leadership qualities that he does, I think will be
Speaker 3: a great thing for the Jazz. Would not shock me
Speaker 3: if he quickly becomes the long term starting point guard
Speaker 3: for Utah, and I suspect he's going to be a
Speaker 3: guy Jazz fans are happy to watch for a long time.
Speaker 1: All right, Tim.
Speaker 2: So typically when everybody has the same take, I'm a
Speaker 2: little bit skeptical is if that's the right tick to have.
Speaker 2: But it's been a few days now since the draft,
Speaker 2: and look, maybe Derek Queen is Jokic junior. Maybe he's awesome,
Speaker 2: Maybe he turns into a great player for the Pelicans.
Speaker 2: I just don't understand how you can't even attach like
Speaker 2: a top four or a top five protection to what
Speaker 2: they sent to Atlanta to move up ten spots. And
Speaker 2: maybe I'm missing something, but you know, this is one
Speaker 2: of these things where it just feels like everybody has
Speaker 2: the same opinion and that opinion might be right. Like,
Speaker 2: what do you think the mindsight is for Joe Dumars
Speaker 2: and the Pelicans with a deal they made on draft night.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean everyone's opinion is correct. I mean there's
Speaker 3: not a lot of there's not It's pretty hard to
Speaker 3: justify that trade. The value proposition just is not there
Speaker 3: for to war. So it's a remarkable deal for you
Speaker 3: for Atlanta, which has had a remarkable week. I mean,
Speaker 3: Chris has Persingis was a very good pickup for them.
Speaker 3: Love the work they did in the draft. It seems
Speaker 3: like they got decent chance to get to kill Alexander
Speaker 3: Walker from the Wolves. If they could do that and
Speaker 3: sign him this week, that would be a pretty massive pickup.
Speaker 3: And yeah, I mean, look, Derek Queen could become a
Speaker 3: great player. He's obviously very talented guy. You could do
Speaker 3: a lot of different stuff at the ball. But the
Speaker 3: value proposition there of moving up ten spots and giving
Speaker 3: up an unprotected first and one that if you ask
Speaker 3: people in the league, is projected to be the top
Speaker 3: half of the lottery pick. I mean that pick's got
Speaker 3: a good chance of being a ping punk ball pick
Speaker 3: next year, meaning one that's in the top four. That's
Speaker 3: that's just way too steep a price to give up.
Speaker 3: And I mean, like you said, you just sort of
Speaker 3: asked about the Jazz giving up three seconds to move
Speaker 3: up three spots, right, not completely unprotected first round pick
Speaker 3: and a very good draft next year with you know,
Speaker 3: in a situation where the Hawks even stayed in the
Speaker 3: first round. I mean, it's just it's hard to fathom
Speaker 3: on every level.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I'm with you there, all right, So a
Speaker 2: lot has been making and maybe we just need to
Speaker 2: always lean into any story that has attached to Lebron
Speaker 2: Lebron James. He opts in and then there are conversations
Speaker 2: about you know, Rich Paul makes some comments that he
Speaker 2: wants to compete for a championship.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe they do move up off of him.
Speaker 2: I have no idea, But what's your take on just
Speaker 2: the entire Lebron dynamic opting in then the noise that's
Speaker 2: kind of surrounded out over the past few hours.
Speaker 3: I suspect Lebron James be playing with Luka Doncic with
Speaker 3: the Lakers in the fall. I don't really see another
Speaker 3: way this is going to go. If Lebron had really
Speaker 3: wanted to explore the studio space, he could have easily
Speaker 3: opted out of his deal. He did not. It's very
Speaker 3: hard to trade anybody making fifty three million dollars, even
Speaker 3: if you're motivated to. There's really reason for the Lakers
Speaker 3: to be motivated to. Because Lebron has no trade clause.
Speaker 3: They couldn't trade them really if they want to without
Speaker 3: his consent on both the location and the trade coming back.
Speaker 3: That makes it extremely difficult to trade them again. If
Speaker 3: there's a role where the Lakers wanted to trade them,
Speaker 3: I'm sure there is not, and so I suspect the
Speaker 3: Lakers are thrilled to opted in or thrilled to have
Speaker 3: one of the best fifteen or so players on the
Speaker 3: planet still on their team, and we'll be excited to
Speaker 3: have him and Luca play together in the fall.
Speaker 1: I would agree with that. It feels like the noise
Speaker 1: around Giannis is quieted. Is that fair? Do you think
Speaker 1: there's still something there?
Speaker 3: I think it's in the same place it's been, which is,
Speaker 3: let's see where the Bucks are at after free agency
Speaker 3: and then we can maybe assess what the overall situation is.
Speaker 3: But Giannis hasn't asked out. There has been no change
Speaker 3: in that situation, and you know they got Bobby before
Speaker 3: his sign We'll see what else they do, and I
Speaker 3: think when the dust settles, we'll see where the bucks
Speaker 3: are at and then we'll see if Giannis decides to
Speaker 3: change his tune at all. But for now, yeah, I
Speaker 3: mean he's expected to be there and they got Porous done.
Speaker 3: We'll see what else they could do in the coming
Speaker 3: hours and days to fill out the roster around him
Speaker 3: and see how competitive they could be in the East.
Speaker 2: Why do you think there's been this increase in player movements.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's the first day of free agency and
Speaker 2: I think there have been over twenty transactions. Is that
Speaker 2: a CBA deals out a second Apron deal? What gives
Speaker 2: with all this? It seems like tim there's just a
Speaker 2: lot more movement earlier than typically there is.
Speaker 3: Well, there's basically no movement that's happened so far. What's
Speaker 3: happened is I mean, I guess there's a couple of
Speaker 3: trades that have happened, but I mean predominantly what's happened
Speaker 3: is now the second that the finals are over, you
Speaker 3: can officially begin negotiating with your players who you have
Speaker 3: under contracts. So for the last week, what we've seen
Speaker 3: is a whole flood of deals for guys that are
Speaker 3: staying with the current teams.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 3: And so it used to be this stuff would happen
Speaker 3: and then you'd get to six o'clock tonight and free
Speaker 3: agency would start and then the floodgates would opening and
Speaker 3: just would announce all these deals right that we're done. Well,
Speaker 3: now like when you get James Harden's seign, you could
Speaker 3: just say, hey, we got James Harden done, and you know,
Speaker 3: you can sort of go down the list that way
Speaker 3: and just like get all this business done. So that's
Speaker 3: why it felt like there's more public stuff because there's
Speaker 3: not a like flood that's coming out at six o'clock tonight,
Speaker 3: and a lot of this stuff that was already sort
Speaker 3: of done in this period in the past is now
Speaker 3: being done and taken care of before we get to
Speaker 3: six o'clock on June thirtieth, and that's when you know,
Speaker 3: we'll start to see the guys that were changing teams.
Speaker 3: We'll start to see what happens with them starting tonight
Speaker 3: in terms of where they go and what their situations
Speaker 3: look like.
Speaker 2: Any anything else coming out of Boston or do you
Speaker 2: think mission accomplished with Holiday and poor zingis off the books.
Speaker 3: I think they got their mission accomplished in terms of
Speaker 3: getting out of the second apron. It wouldn't shock me
Speaker 3: if the Celtics get out of the tacks. If they can't,
Speaker 3: they're like fifteen million in. You know, we'll see what
Speaker 3: happened with Holiday and what are with Jalen Brown and
Speaker 3: Derek White. I don't think they're trading either or those
Speaker 3: guys unless they get a ton for them. You know,
Speaker 3: they would have to be a crazy deal to do it.
Speaker 3: And you know, we'll see what happens with Louke Cornett
Speaker 3: now Horford, two of the most popular players in the
Speaker 3: free agent market this summer and two guys and I
Speaker 3: would not be surprised if they're playing elsewhere next season.
Speaker 3: Is things have shifted pretty dramatically in Boston's as Jason
Speaker 3: Tatum got.
Speaker 1: Hurt last thing.
Speaker 2: Tim, I'll say you lose because I do like in
Speaker 2: a sneaky way like this for the Calves, if Lonzo
Speaker 2: can stay healthy, as I'm knocking on wood because we
Speaker 2: know that for the past few years that's been difficult.
Speaker 2: But he got back last year thirty five to forty games,
Speaker 2: and you know, it looked pretty good. I think Isaacacorro's
Speaker 2: a decent player as well. But what do you make
Speaker 2: of the Cavs Bulls trade.
Speaker 3: I loved it for the Calves. I mean another trade
Speaker 3: where the Bulls give up a better player for a
Speaker 3: worse one and okay, draft picks. They've done it several
Speaker 3: times now the last couple of years. It's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 3: But for the Calves to get Lonzo, obviously it's worth
Speaker 3: the swing for them. I said, Carl cannot play in
Speaker 3: the playoffs. We have learned that very definitively. Uh, Lonzo
Speaker 3: can if he's able to stay healthy and h and
Speaker 3: as far as the the you know the other part
Speaker 3: of it too. It essentially became ty Jerome and Isaac
Speaker 3: Carrol swapped out for Sam Merrill who stayed there and
Speaker 3: and Lonzo, and I think that's trade is a good
Speaker 3: one for the Caves. Those two guys are are both
Speaker 3: solid defenders, they both can shoot the ball, they both
Speaker 3: can play on and off the ball. You know, I
Speaker 3: like to fit going forward, So I think that worked
Speaker 3: out for Cleveland and it's right as of right now
Speaker 3: you're looking at the Calves and the Knicks and then
Speaker 3: a whole lot of questions in the east.
Speaker 1: Jim, you're the man. Appreciate the time and the knowledge.
Speaker 2: On a Monday, excuse me, have a great week, but
Speaker 2: we'll get you back on soon.
Speaker 3: Sounds good, spence, Thanks man.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: Timmy Bond Tams covers the NBA for ESPN does a
Speaker 2: really good job.
Speaker 1: Always enjoy when he can stop by.
Speaker 2: We will keep you up to date because the news
Speaker 2: is coming in fast and furious. If you're just hopping
Speaker 2: in your car and driving around town on this Monday afternoon,
Speaker 2: First of all, hello, how are you?
Speaker 1: Thank you for making this a part of your day.
Speaker 2: The Jazz have completed a buyout with Jordan Clarkson, and
Speaker 2: our very own Sarah Todd, who's a friend of the show,
Speaker 2: is reporting that the New York Knicks are the potential
Speaker 2: option there. There's a report that the Knicks are looking
Speaker 2: to sign Russell Westbrook. If a Nick signed Russell Westbrook
Speaker 2: and Jordan Clarkson, that would just be hilarious. The Jazz
Speaker 2: also traded Colin Section in a Charlotte for use if Nurkic.
Speaker 2: They had to attach a second round pick to Colin
Speaker 2: talked about it earlier. It just feels like they're clearing
Speaker 2: the deck for the young kids to play. I'm not
Speaker 2: sure that there's anything other than now Baiott.
Speaker 1: Has become official.
Speaker 2: Jordan Clarkson is a free agent. Sarah Todd front of
Speaker 2: the Shows, reporting she's here in the New York Knicks
Speaker 2: could be the landing spot for Jordan Clarkson first day
Speaker 2: of free agency.
Speaker 1: Man, and the news is coming fast and furious.
Speaker 2: Our next guest will help break it down for us,
Speaker 2: the great Tom Haberstrow on a Monday.
Speaker 1: Hey Tom, Happy Monday, buddy. How are we doing doing
Speaker 1: great man? How are you Well?
Speaker 2: We'll start with the jazz stuff and then we'll kind
Speaker 2: of move on from there. And let's just start with
Speaker 2: what I just referenced, Jordan Clarkson buyout. He is now
Speaker 2: free agent. And look, man, you and I have been
Speaker 2: talking about this for years. This was a candidate to
Speaker 2: be traded quite frankly every trade deadline over the past
Speaker 2: three years. But obviously no market for him. He's coming
Speaker 2: off two straight years whereas production is dipped. He's not
Speaker 2: as young as he once was and neither are any
Speaker 2: of us. But what do you make if the Jazz
Speaker 2: buying out Jordan Clarkson? And do you think the Knicks
Speaker 2: are a logical destination?
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's really interesting because I think the market, you know,
Speaker 7: a guy like DeAndre eight and a former number one
Speaker 7: overall pick just worked out a buyout with the Portland
Speaker 7: Trailblazers in similar fashion where it seems like by the
Speaker 7: box score, this player on a trade market would have value.
Speaker 7: And Jordan Clarkson, you know, has been a serviceable spark
Speaker 7: plug for the Utah j As but as Seams Trownia
Speaker 7: pointed out on social media, and the report is he
Speaker 7: wants to join a contender. Obviously, the Knicks are a
Speaker 7: contender in the Eastern Conference, especially with the decimation of
Speaker 7: the top of the East with Tyree Halliburton, Damian Lillard
Speaker 7: of course, and Jason Tatum all having Achilles tears, that
Speaker 7: a team like the Knicks could have a hold a
Speaker 7: lot of appeal, especially because a lot of their half
Speaker 7: court offense really needed an injection last year when it
Speaker 7: got bobbed down or Jalen Brunson was in some sort
Speaker 7: of foul trouble and needed to be taken out of
Speaker 7: the game. They were relying Onduce McBride who signed, but
Speaker 7: he's not the kind of dynamic score that Jordan Clarson
Speaker 7: can be on and off the ball, So they get
Speaker 7: another guy in that if that ever were to partner up.
Speaker 7: But you know, the Utah Jazz are in a real
Speaker 7: state of transition here. As John Collins, Jordan Clarkson, Colin Sexton.
Speaker 7: Last year, we had been talking like if the Jazz
Speaker 7: could find some sort of draft capital and move off
Speaker 7: of those expiring contracts, I think they would entice those deals.
Speaker 7: But as you're seeing what the Colin Sexton move, not
Speaker 7: only did they not have a market for him in
Speaker 7: a trade straight up, but they had to put in
Speaker 7: a second round pick a twenty thirty in order to
Speaker 7: get off of Colin Sexton and bring in useif Nerkip
Speaker 7: So Jordan Clarkson is feeling the same kind of crunch
Speaker 7: that DeAndre Ayton had, is that a lot of these
Speaker 7: veteran deals, it's hard to move off of those and
Speaker 7: take on, you know, long term money. I think the
Speaker 7: Utah Jazz are trying to keep their books pretty clean
Speaker 7: going forward, and you're seeing this deal that they'd rather
Speaker 7: waive Jordan Clarkson rather than say, taking on another contract
Speaker 7: beyond this season. And so this plus the Jewsang waiver
Speaker 7: and then the Collin Sexton trade, it's clear that, you know,
Speaker 7: they were trying to figure out deals and ultimately they
Speaker 7: landed on Yusuf Nurkic with the Charlotte Hornet's a guy
Speaker 7: who is playing for the Blazers and then the Suns
Speaker 7: and then the Hornets, and they're trying to just kind
Speaker 7: of re rearrange this this this depth chart and figure
Speaker 7: out if they can, you know, basically clear out some
Speaker 7: room for mister Ace Bailey coming in next season.
Speaker 2: All right, you referenced the section and stuff, and let's
Speaker 2: move over to as in a moment and to your point.
Speaker 2: And I was a little surprised, Tom, because look, Colin
Speaker 2: Sexton isn't Alan Iverson, but he's not a bad player.
Speaker 1: He played pretty well here.
Speaker 2: This is a guy that's averaged twenty plus in the
Speaker 2: NBA at a prior stop, and in Cleveland he shot
Speaker 2: over forty from three about nineteen points a night, plays
Speaker 2: his tail off. I mean, that's kind of his mo
Speaker 2: Now doesn't guard, Neither do many of the guards.
Speaker 1: It's on Jazz, the Jazz roster.
Speaker 2: They're not great defensive players, not great size, but to
Speaker 2: have to attach a second and receive use of nurkicchen
Speaker 2: Return who just doesn't have the value that he once did,
Speaker 2: and it doesn't make a lot of sense here. Your
Speaker 2: point about the expiring money is definitely on point, for sure,
Speaker 2: and that's probably the motivation. And then ultimately we land
Speaker 2: in a spot where they're clearing more minutes for their
Speaker 2: young guards. But what did what did you make of
Speaker 2: that transaction between the Jazz and the Hornets.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's just clearing out the lane for Ace Bailey.
Speaker 7: I think it's you get two guys, three guys, and
Speaker 7: you're saying, especially Sexon and Clarkson, is they need the
Speaker 7: ball in their hands to succeed. And I think when
Speaker 7: you look at the the addition of Ace Bailey and
Speaker 7: Clayton Junior, you're going to be wanting those guys to
Speaker 7: have the ball without any sort of confusion about their role.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 7: And I think Clarkson and Colin Sexton, we're both probably
Speaker 7: looking at this like, Hey, I'm not here for the
Speaker 7: rebuild another year of this and you got these young
Speaker 7: kids coming in, can you find us a home? And
Speaker 7: I think Jordan Clarkson the market was pretty tepid for
Speaker 7: his services in the trade market, but I think you'll
Speaker 7: have a much better time in a winning environment in
Speaker 7: New York on the timetable that he wants at his age.
Speaker 7: And you know, Yusuf Nurkic has really had a drop
Speaker 7: off considering you know, a few years ago he was
Speaker 7: part of that team that went to the Western Conference Finals.
Speaker 7: He was injured, but this team was you know, just
Speaker 7: a few years ago, he was averaging almost twenty points
Speaker 7: a game, twenty to ten for the Blazers. Now he's
Speaker 7: not the same player. He's now thirty years old. When
Speaker 7: you're looking at projecting a seven footer with his skill set,
Speaker 7: you're not going to be expecting much of a starter here.
Speaker 7: This is a backup role and it's essentially just balancing
Speaker 7: that depth chart again to make sure they get a
Speaker 7: little bit more depth at the center position and clear
Speaker 7: out the way for Walter Clinton Junior and of course
Speaker 7: Ace Bailey up in the at the guard position.
Speaker 2: We'll stick with the Jazz and you just referenced the
Speaker 2: two players, and they also drafted the Tanji kid in
Speaker 2: the second round, who actually can score it a little bit.
Speaker 1: We'll see if he sticks around.
Speaker 2: But you know, this is a tough one because I
Speaker 2: have experience living elsewhere, growing up elsewhere, and so I
Speaker 2: understand when.
Speaker 1: People say, well, Salt Lake is not this or that
Speaker 1: or whatever.
Speaker 2: But I've lived here for twenty five years, and just
Speaker 2: this whole shtick, this whole bit that this is like
Speaker 2: the worst place you could possibly exist as a young
Speaker 2: athlete gets so tiresome to me, and I look, to
Speaker 2: be honest, I don't know what's real. You know, I've
Speaker 2: been doing this long enough, been around this league long
Speaker 2: enough that I always know there's the messaging from a
Speaker 2: player or an agent, or a coach or a front office,
Speaker 2: and then there's actually what's really going on behind the scenes.
Speaker 2: I get all that, But there were some people, Tommy
Speaker 2: that were going as far as to say they didn't
Speaker 2: think Ace was even going to report, and you know,
Speaker 2: he didn't want to be here, and there was a
Speaker 2: report that his agent was asked to give a statement
Speaker 2: to ESPN and he refused. Again, I can't cooperate any
Speaker 2: of these things. But I'm reading preparing for the show,
Speaker 2: and all this, well, he reported on time.
Speaker 1: He could not have handled the presser better.
Speaker 2: It seems like a really sweet kid who, by all
Speaker 2: accounts is excited for this. Am I saying that's real, No,
Speaker 2: because I don't know, But what's your understanding of this
Speaker 2: narrative surrounding Ace and his camp, like they just did
Speaker 2: not want for him to be here in Utah playing
Speaker 2: for the Jazz Yeah.
Speaker 7: I think it's really about the camp and not necessarily
Speaker 7: about Ace Bailey. I look at the fact that he
Speaker 7: had a lack of a certified agent for much of
Speaker 7: this process in Omar Cooper that was guiding him in
Speaker 7: this process, and I think this is what you you know,
Speaker 7: you get what you pay for in the sense that
Speaker 7: there's a lot of confusion and misinformation and misreporting and
Speaker 7: someone says this, and someone says that, and you can't
Speaker 7: get your head on straight. And this is why you
Speaker 7: hire an agent that has credibility with the teams, that
Speaker 7: has rapport with the teams, and then you have one
Speaker 7: voice that is talking to not just the organization but
Speaker 7: also to the media to get the story straight. And
Speaker 7: so I think this is what was a real misstep
Speaker 7: by Ace Bailey. And he's nineteen years old. So he's
Speaker 7: a kid. If we all had to make decisions about
Speaker 7: this at nineteen years old, I'm not so sure we'd
Speaker 7: be as confident as we are and saying as adults
Speaker 7: looking back at him and being like, oh, I would
Speaker 7: have done things so much better and so much more
Speaker 7: mature than Ace Bailey. He's nineteen, And I think this
Speaker 7: is why you hire an agent with a lot of
Speaker 7: a lot of credibility and a lot of tenure with
Speaker 7: NBA front offices, so that you don't have to just
Speaker 7: have to deal with this fog of information and dealing
Speaker 7: with this report says this, that he's not reported, he
Speaker 7: doesn't want to report to Utah, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 7: I think he didn't handle the pre draft process as
Speaker 7: nimbly or as smartly as he should have. But I
Speaker 7: do think that once he gets to Utah and he's
Speaker 7: not this you know, kind of free agent, so to speak,
Speaker 7: I think a lot of that will go away, and
Speaker 7: that you have this organization with you know.
Speaker 3: Real.
Speaker 7: Reputable, successful front office and coaching staff that I think
Speaker 7: a lot of this will go away and wash away.
Speaker 7: Ace Bailey is a big swing if things move right,
Speaker 7: If things go in the direction where he reaches his
Speaker 7: ceiling and he fulfills his potential. This is an absolute
Speaker 7: home run swing. A number five pick that people think
Speaker 7: could be Tracy McGrady. I think he's more DeMar DeRozan
Speaker 7: where athlete loves the mid range and is a super
Speaker 7: young kid that has a lot of upside that is
Speaker 7: a hall of famer, a future Hall of Famer type.
Speaker 7: He's got to clean up a lot of the off
Speaker 7: court stuff. They followed him in this draft, But ultimately,
Speaker 7: when you see the press conference and you see the
Speaker 7: skill set, you can understand why the Utah Jazz are
Speaker 7: really excited about him. And I think he's in really
Speaker 7: good hands in Utah.
Speaker 2: The other decision they made in the first round, and
Speaker 2: you know we were talking about this a little bit earlier.
Speaker 2: I don't really have an issue like if you have identified,
Speaker 2: oh it's Walt. By the way, it's Walt Clayton Junior.
Speaker 2: He told us in his introductory press conference.
Speaker 1: He wants to be called Walt, so I will call
Speaker 1: him Walt, like if if you're Austin.
Speaker 2: And by the way, Brad Stevens had a funny line
Speaker 2: he said, I could have told you two years ago,
Speaker 2: Austin was going to trade up to draft wal Clayton Junior.
Speaker 2: So Austin has always liked this kid for sure. And look,
Speaker 2: if you've identified a player as someone that you think
Speaker 2: can be your starting lead guard for maybe a decade
Speaker 2: or more, go get them, right.
Speaker 1: I have no issue with that.
Speaker 2: They did have to attach three second round picks and
Speaker 2: give twenty one to Washington just to move up three
Speaker 2: spots to gain Walton Clayton Junior, but there was some
Speaker 2: intel that was leaked that Miami wanted him at twenty.
Speaker 2: They went with the Yakachana's kid from Illinois. But what
Speaker 2: did you make of the decision making process by the
Speaker 2: Jazz to go up and get their guy, wal Clayton Junior.
Speaker 7: Yeah. What's interesting is players that win championship the NCAA Championship,
Speaker 7: win the tournament are actually slightly undervalued in the draft.
Speaker 7: For a while there, you know, the Shabbaz Napiers of
Speaker 7: the world. We kind of thought that those guys on
Speaker 7: a big run in the tournament were actually overvalued. But
Speaker 7: recently we've seen a lot of these players actually exceed
Speaker 7: expectations at the next level. And so a guy like
Speaker 7: wal Clayton.
Speaker 6: He is really.
Speaker 7: Talented and also as a winner and an All American
Speaker 7: last year at Florida. I got a chance to watch
Speaker 7: him when the Jordan Classic came to Charlotte, and he
Speaker 7: was great. You could see that he had an NBA
Speaker 7: future and certainly played himself into a first round pick
Speaker 7: this season with the Utah Jazz, who a team that
Speaker 7: is really searching for their point guard of the future,
Speaker 7: and he's going to be in the running with Isaiah
Speaker 7: Collier and Kant George. I thought there was some potential
Speaker 7: that maybe you could see the Utah Jazz trade up
Speaker 7: to get Dylan Harper as their lead guard of the future.
Speaker 7: But I mean Walt Clayton. He's he's legit. He's really good.
Speaker 7: And if you watch Florida this postseason, this this this
Speaker 7: kid could play. He's a flat out baller and he
Speaker 7: draws a lot of comparisons to Jalen Brunson for good reason.
Speaker 7: He's got great footwork and he wants the ball in
Speaker 7: crunch time. And so I can't hate on this pick,
Speaker 7: especially considering a lot of the players that you would
Speaker 7: think would be late first rounders actually moved out of
Speaker 7: the draft and stayed in college. And so if you
Speaker 7: like a guy like Walter Clayton and you want to
Speaker 7: pay you know, three second round picks to go get him,
Speaker 7: I'm cool with that, especially when you show what Joe
Speaker 7: Dumars did in the draft to trade basically, excuse me,
Speaker 7: basically two first round picks. They had the swap ability
Speaker 7: of THEIRS and Milwaukee, and they traded Atlanta the future
Speaker 7: first round pick next year from New Orleans or Milwaukee
Speaker 7: to move up ten spots. I'm fine with what Utah.
Speaker 1: Did, all right.
Speaker 2: So you know, I often say if everybody has the
Speaker 2: same opinion of something, I tend to be a little skeptical.
Speaker 2: I just think I've always been cynical that way, and
Speaker 2: I like to zig when people zag. But what what?
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe Derek Queen's awesome. I don't know, maybe he's
Speaker 2: All the Famer, maybe he's an All Star? What what
Speaker 2: are they thinking? Tom like man like to help me understand.
Speaker 2: Is there any zigging to this zag? Is there any
Speaker 2: justification for the move they made?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 1: I can't.
Speaker 7: I mean, unless Derek Queen is the second coming of
Speaker 7: you know, Karl Malone or Kevin Garnett, I can't understan
Speaker 7: here's the problem with that logic. If you think he
Speaker 7: is that guy, then you take him at seven, right, Like,
Speaker 7: if you think Derek Queen is that guy, you make
Speaker 7: sure I'm gonna take him at seven for sure, bird
Speaker 7: in the hand. If I really think he's that good,
Speaker 7: I don't even have to give up the next year
Speaker 7: first round pick to go get that guy. So it's
Speaker 7: just it's just baffling, especially in sequence of the fact
Speaker 7: that they traded for Jordan Poole and that dude has
Speaker 7: not been a winner in his own situation as a
Speaker 7: lead guy. And so I mean, what is New Orleans thinking?
Speaker 7: Is the right question? I don't know when you look
Speaker 7: at Kyrie Irving how he became a Cleveland Cavalier. It's
Speaker 7: because the Clippers and Neil O'Shea did not have the
Speaker 7: foresight to think, oh man, we should put some protections
Speaker 7: on this first round pick. We'll give up an unprotected
Speaker 7: first round pick to acquire Mote Williams from Cleveland and
Speaker 7: you can have this salary dump and Baron Davis, it's fine,
Speaker 7: how bad could this get? And it turns out that
Speaker 7: Cleveland jumped up with that Clippers pick and it landed
Speaker 7: at number one, and that's how the Cleveland Cavaliers ended
Speaker 7: up with Kyrie Irving, who hit one of the biggest
Speaker 7: shots in franchise history, if not the biggest shot in
Speaker 7: franchise history, to win them a championship. You look at
Speaker 7: Jason Tatum and how the Boston Celtics drafted Jason Tatum, Well,
Speaker 7: it was because of a pick swap. They were able
Speaker 7: to get the number one overall picks through Brooklyn in
Speaker 7: that KG Paul Pierceteele. They got a pick swap and
Speaker 7: they didn't get it protected from Brooklyn didn't protect that pick.
Speaker 7: It ended up going number one and they traded down
Speaker 7: to number three with the Philadelphia seventy six ers, who
Speaker 7: also were drafting at number three because of an unprotected
Speaker 7: pick swap, they moved from five to three as a
Speaker 7: result of the trade where Nick Stauskis was being traded
Speaker 7: by Vonde Divots. He just got the job with the
Speaker 7: Vekrono Dbey with the Sacramento Kings and they got off
Speaker 7: of some money and they're like, oh yeah, we're desperate
Speaker 7: to get off of this money. We'll give you a
Speaker 7: twenty twenty seventeen pick swap unprotected. How bad could it be,
Speaker 7: And it turns out it ended up being the number
Speaker 7: three pick, and that ended up being Jason Tatum. So
Speaker 7: these pick swaps, these have huge value, especially when you
Speaker 7: look at Gianni Senda Decompo and his trade limbo. He
Speaker 7: could not be on the Milwaukee Bucks next year, and
Speaker 7: when you see the injuries that happened in today's NBA,
Speaker 7: these unprotected picks are super valuable. And Joe Dumars and
Speaker 7: that front office, they decided to give up a super
Speaker 7: first one that could be swapped out. If the New
Speaker 7: Orleans pick is later than the Milwaukee pick, they can
Speaker 7: swap and make sure that they get the Milwaukee pick
Speaker 7: in the case that Milwaukee bottoms out next season. It's
Speaker 7: it's it's baffling to me. If you wanted Derek Queen,
Speaker 7: are in love with Derek Queen, then take him at
Speaker 7: number seven. You know, trading next year's first round pick
Speaker 7: unprotected swap is baffling to me. And the other thing
Speaker 7: I want to say here is, you know Troy Weaver,
Speaker 7: the former Detroit Pistons GM that got fired and then
Speaker 7: spent last year with the Wizards. It seems like he
Speaker 7: has a thing for the DC area. Guys. Of course,
Speaker 7: he trades for Jordan Poole, who was on the Wizards
Speaker 7: last year. And secondly, his son, Troy Weaver's son was
Speaker 7: the Maryland Terrapins grad assistant for Derek Queen. Derreck Queen
Speaker 7: was a star for the Maryland Terrapins last year. And
Speaker 7: the word is is that Troy Weaver was in on
Speaker 7: every practice with the Maryland Terrapins and was at most
Speaker 7: of their games last year in the DC area and
Speaker 7: now trades up to go get his guy. It seems
Speaker 7: like this is getting a little ridiculous, the fascination with
Speaker 7: Wizards or Wizards adjacent players, especially when they won eighteen
Speaker 7: games last season. I'm not sure what they're doing in
Speaker 7: New Orleans, but it's certainly something that other teams are
Speaker 7: gonna be calling New Orleans to try to pilfer all
Speaker 7: of their assets that they have going forward.
Speaker 1: All Right, what's next, Tom, what's the domino?
Speaker 2: What's the next transaction that we're all waiting to hear
Speaker 2: that you think is actually real? Is there some Yanna
Speaker 2: stuff out there still? What he thinks next?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 7: The Yannest thing is interesting because the Kevin Durant sweepstakes
Speaker 7: ended up with the Houston Rockets retaining all of their
Speaker 7: high assets like they still have They still have on
Speaker 7: Men Thompson, they still have Reed Shepherd, they have Jabbari
Speaker 7: Smith locked in long term, they have their Phoenix first
Speaker 7: round picks, and so I suspect that we're going to
Speaker 7: hear a lot more about the Yana situation in the
Speaker 7: next week or so, because he hasn't come out either. Okay,
Speaker 7: Jannis hasn't said I'm sticking here for the long term.
Speaker 3: I like what I'm.
Speaker 7: Seeing from the Milwaukee Bucks this offseason. I'm here for
Speaker 7: the long haul. I want to retire a Milwaukee Bucks.
Speaker 1: He has not said that.
Speaker 7: He also has an asked for a tray and San
Speaker 7: Antonio picks Dylan Harper, and you don't see them moving
Speaker 7: out of that pick because I think they want to
Speaker 7: keep it in case Janna Fandi Docobo hops onto the
Speaker 7: market and they can move Dylan Harper potentially in a
Speaker 7: trade for Giannis. I don't think it's likely that Jannis
Speaker 7: becomes available this offseason, but I do think that the
Speaker 7: biggest headline is that DeAndre Ayton Jake Fisher is reporting
Speaker 7: at the sideline that he just gave up ten million
Speaker 7: dollars in a baya with the Blazers, which sets him
Speaker 7: up to make about ten million dollars and not losing
Speaker 7: a penny off his next deal. So let's say the Lakers,
Speaker 7: with their mid level exception that is up to fourteen
Speaker 7: million dollars, they go, hey, DeAndre Ayden, we would like
Speaker 7: to have you as a lost Sangelis Laker, and we'll
Speaker 7: give you ten million of our our taxpayer mid level,
Speaker 7: our non taxpayer mid level. Deadre Aden could become a Laker.
Speaker 7: Maybe Brook Lopez wants the full fourteen million dollars and
Speaker 7: DeAndre Aiden, former number one overall pick, can become a Laker.
Speaker 7: That's the next thing that I'm looking forward to is
Speaker 7: what happens with the Lakers and that vacancy at the
Speaker 7: center position, because of course Jackson Hayes lost so much
Speaker 7: clout with JJ Reddick that they went basically small for
Speaker 7: the entire series against the Minnesota Timberwolves. I'm interested to
Speaker 7: see what they do there, especially now that Lebron James
Speaker 7: is opted in and kind of delayed this Lebron, this
Speaker 7: Luka doncic Era one more season. Very interesting stuff coming
Speaker 7: out of the Lakerland, all.
Speaker 1: Right, Tom last thing, I'll set you loose.
Speaker 2: I know you wrote on this, so Malik Beasley was
Speaker 2: a jazz man for a minute.
Speaker 1: Didn't you last that long?
Speaker 2: And you know what, we talked about this when the
Speaker 2: Johntay Porter stuff came out. And I know that you
Speaker 2: have done some digging and these two investigations aren't necessarily
Speaker 2: the same.
Speaker 1: So we'll unpack it a little bit.
Speaker 2: I'm honestly surprised this isn't happening more with how easy
Speaker 2: this is and accessible it is to gamble on sports.
Speaker 2: But Malik Beasley is being investigated allegations of gambling related
Speaker 2: to NBA games and prop bets. Okay, so that's kind
Speaker 2: of out there. You've done some digging. Now unpacked this
Speaker 2: for us before I set you loose.
Speaker 7: Yeah, Tom Thefinder dot com if you want to read more,
Speaker 7: but I'll give you what I've found so far and
Speaker 7: kind of tease, you know, as the story progresses. But
Speaker 7: Malik Beasley is being investigated, and according to ESPN dot
Speaker 7: COM's David Purdham, is there's one game in particular that
Speaker 7: has drawn the attention of the sports betting community is
Speaker 7: January thirty first, in the Damian Lillard return game. This
Speaker 7: was in twenty twenty four when he was with the
Speaker 7: Milwaukee Bucks. There was a lot of unusual betting activity
Speaker 7: around his rebounding unders the player props meaning he was
Speaker 7: supposed to be you know, the line was at two
Speaker 7: and a half rebounds, and there's a lot of betting
Speaker 7: actions and on the under, meaning that he wouldn't reach
Speaker 7: two and a half rebounds, you'd have zero, one or two.
Speaker 7: And what's interesting about that game is that he had
Speaker 7: six rebounds, and so it's a real like wrench in
Speaker 7: this whole story is that there's suspicious betting activity or
Speaker 7: unusual betting activity around a game where the bet would
Speaker 7: actually lose. The other thing that's really interesting here. And
Speaker 7: I watched the film and there wasn't really anything suspicious
Speaker 7: about that game from what I could tell. But what's
Speaker 7: interesting is I think this is a big story. And
Speaker 7: you said, I'm not. I'm surprised it's not happening more often,
Speaker 7: And I'm with you. Like Malik Beasley, you might say, hey,
Speaker 7: this guy makes six million dollars a year. Why would
Speaker 7: be you know, potentially throwing his career away over a
Speaker 7: couple vets. Well, you know, when these are allegations they
Speaker 7: are not pressing charges to Malik Beasley was taking a
Speaker 7: ninety percent pay cut in that season. He went from
Speaker 7: a sixteen million dollar contract to a two million dollar contract.
Speaker 7: I don't care who you are, A ninety percent pay cut,
Speaker 7: no matter any walk of life or standard of living
Speaker 7: is going to be really hard to stomach. And I
Speaker 7: think that is a big story here is that Johontay
Speaker 7: Porter was a fringe NBA player and this guy was
Speaker 7: making multimillions in the NBA. And still I think there's
Speaker 7: a potential for financial vulnerability if you have guys losing
Speaker 7: ninety percent of their income in one year. And so
Speaker 7: Malik Beasley was making sixteen million dollars the previous season
Speaker 7: and in this season that's being under scrutiny. He only
Speaker 7: was making two million dollars and that was one of
Speaker 7: the biggest pay cuts league wide. And I think the
Speaker 7: NBA needs to keep a close eye on these financially
Speaker 7: potentially financially vulnerable players that would have an incentive to
Speaker 7: make ends meet if they are maintaining their standard of
Speaker 7: living and the budget and the houses and the cars
Speaker 7: and all the other expenses that come with the sixteen
Speaker 7: million dollars annual salary. It's a really interesting story and
Speaker 7: because of free agency, it's getting buried here. But make
Speaker 7: no mistake about it. This is a huge, huge story,
Speaker 7: and we'll see what happens with the investigation. No presses
Speaker 7: have been charged, No charges have been pressed yet, but
Speaker 7: we'll see in the coming weeks here on the Elik Beasley.
Speaker 2: Story, Tomthefinder dot Com. Tom, thanks for the time, buddy,
Speaker 2: Keep up the great work and we'll chat too. You
Speaker 2: got a spence, all right, the great Tom Harberstrow weekly
Speaker 2: guest of ours to talk all things NBA. Yeah, Malik
Speaker 2: Beasley's in a little hot water here, so it's a
Speaker 2: it's a federal investigation. As Tom referenced, this was when
Speaker 2: he was with the Bucks, so not when he was
Speaker 2: here with the Jazz. But uh yeah, this could do.
Speaker 2: John Tay Porter, I believe he was banned for life
Speaker 2: from the NBA. So if anything comes down, we will
Speaker 2: bring that to you. Adam Sandler is coming to the
Speaker 2: Delta Center on October twenty sixth, twenty twenty five. That's
Speaker 2: his share ticket turn on sale now. Text Farley the
Speaker 2: three three nine eighty six for your chance to win.
Speaker 2: Porter would you mind efforting the Sandman.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'll get in.
Speaker 1: Thank you Baby. In studio, We'll try.
Speaker 2: Okay, not just for h Adam Sandler is not in studio,
Speaker 2: but an old friend is in studio.
Speaker 1: We haven't seen her for a while. Amy Donaldson from Kassel,
Speaker 1: How are you, Amy.
Speaker 8: I'm good. I've probably seen every Adam Sandler movie, not
Speaker 8: because I'm a fan, because I had Stepson's Sure.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, Indeed, there's like a generational gap between Sandler.
Speaker 2: Like people my age think he's funny, and I feel
Speaker 2: like the younger people just are kind of out on
Speaker 2: him because he's made so many bad movies.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think that's right. I think it's I think
Speaker 8: there might be a little bit also of a gender
Speaker 8: gap for mister Sandler, although his recent affection for Taylor
Speaker 8: Swift because he has daughters, has brought him I think
Speaker 8: into the into the fold a bit. So there are
Speaker 8: some women now who are given given some movies.
Speaker 2: A chance O that didn't age very well, I guess
Speaker 2: back from back in the day type of stuff.
Speaker 8: Well, I don't think they've seen water Boy water one
Speaker 8: of his was the one what was the one where
Speaker 8: he was in the where he wasn't he had to
Speaker 8: go back to like elementary school or something.
Speaker 1: Billy Madison. Billy Madison was great.
Speaker 8: That was the one that my step sons loved.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so what do you bet u? Let's get an update.
Speaker 2: We were just talking off air. You've been traveling. I
Speaker 2: follow your Instagram. You're all over the place these days.
Speaker 8: I have and haven't been very dedicated. I retweeted and
Speaker 8: re share what so other people are doing. But I
Speaker 8: went to Australia for a month and uh hung out
Speaker 8: with my My kid moved there last year and so
Speaker 8: I went there and the first two weeks ed was
Speaker 8: with me, so we had to go one of the
Speaker 8: we wanted. He's a huge snorkeler, beach guy. Yeah, he
Speaker 8: loves I mean he I he considered like actually diving.
Speaker 8: But we didn't have a ton of time, so which
Speaker 8: sounds funny because we're there a month or I was
Speaker 8: there a month, he was only there two weeks. But
Speaker 8: so we did snorkel in the Great Barrier reef and
Speaker 8: go out to some islands. And I just love learning,
Speaker 8: I mean just especially like the mangroves, Like the nature
Speaker 8: is just so fascinating to me. And a beach entirely
Speaker 8: made of fish poop. It's and it's the most amazing,
Speaker 8: beautiful place you've ever been.
Speaker 1: Interesting.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's super cool. So but yes, we did that.
Speaker 8: And then he's a huge Mad Max fan. This one
Speaker 8: oh cool?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 8: So Mad Max two was filmed in a place called
Speaker 8: Brooken Hill, Australia, and everybody knows who knows Mad Max
Speaker 8: knows that is an Australian film in origin. So uh.
Speaker 8: We went out to the museum out there, and everyone
Speaker 8: thought we were crazy because it's in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 8: But it looked I'll tell you this, it was so
Speaker 8: it was like going to Delta, Utah. Really, it looked
Speaker 8: so familiar. I loved it so much. It's super cool town.
Speaker 8: A lot of Aboriginal people live out there, a lot
Speaker 8: of old miners. I mean I miners are my family,
Speaker 8: Park City roots. So yeah, it was super fun and
Speaker 8: the museum was amazing. And then we went back to
Speaker 8: that I had, uh, I had a pretty vicious case
Speaker 8: of food poisoning just as we arrived in Broken Hill.
Speaker 8: So we went back to our hotel room and watched
Speaker 8: Mad Max two.
Speaker 1: Do you know what you ate? Yes?
Speaker 8: I do. It was a spice chicken wrap from the airport.
Speaker 1: Oh, that shouldn't do it. Spicy chicken should be safe.
Speaker 8: Well, I guess we just say that I have not
Speaker 8: eaten chicken since, and I'm not so sure I can
Speaker 8: eat a wrap.
Speaker 1: And take a little bit of a break.
Speaker 2: And then you were assisting your sister, who is a
Speaker 2: ultra marathon runner, try to get through a race in Alaska.
Speaker 8: Yeah, she was running d Nali one thirty five, and
Speaker 8: I agreed to be a pacer. I said I could
Speaker 8: maybe give you fifty miles, but she got pretty sick
Speaker 8: about oh fifty miles in made it about fifteen more miles,
Speaker 8: and then after about the halfway point we called it.
Speaker 8: We so we more so called it. I would say.
Speaker 8: My mom and my dad and I collaborated to convince
Speaker 8: her because I don't know if you know an ultrarunner,
Speaker 8: but they're not. They don't want to quit.
Speaker 1: They'll die.
Speaker 2: I've got a couple of buddies I've not like whenever
Speaker 2: they're telling me what, I'm.
Speaker 1: Like, what are you doing it?
Speaker 8: I mean, I'm not a good ultra runner because I
Speaker 8: will quit. Yeah, I'm not. I want to hike another day.
Speaker 8: You want to live, I mean, and I like, I
Speaker 8: guess for me, the experience like walking through into your
Speaker 8: Alaska with my sister in the you know, the middle
Speaker 8: and it's not dark, like it never gets black in
Speaker 8: the summer, right, so it's like eleven twelve at night
Speaker 8: and it looks kind of like dusk and it's just
Speaker 8: the most beautiful place. I just for me, that was
Speaker 8: so odd inspiring. I was like, this is the thing.
Speaker 8: It's not the finish. I mean, she was trying to
Speaker 8: go for that would have been her second finish and
Speaker 8: made her the first woman to ever finish it twice.
Speaker 8: So she was pretty bummed. And I find o my
Speaker 8: sister she'll be signing up for that race again because
Speaker 8: she's not really good about quit. But congratulations to my sister.
Speaker 8: I have to give her congratulations. Say she was just
Speaker 8: promoted to lieutenant. Cool teaches at the public Safety in
Speaker 8: South Carolina the state.
Speaker 1: Good for her for the state, all right, Amy.
Speaker 2: I was excited to see you on the rundown because
Speaker 2: a couple of things going on that I want to
Speaker 2: get your perspective on.
Speaker 1: And you know we were talking.
Speaker 2: I had Tim bond Tom's Tim Bontem's excuse me on
Speaker 2: earlier from ESPN, and this the way the Ace Bailey
Speaker 2: story was covered. And I want to be clear, I
Speaker 2: don't know what's true and I don't know what's not.
Speaker 2: I mean, you and I have done this long enough
Speaker 2: where you know that you get messaging from players, you
Speaker 2: get messaging from agents, you get messaging from coaches in
Speaker 2: front off, and then there's what's really going on behind
Speaker 2: the scenes that they don't want to say out loud.
Speaker 2: So there could be several levels here. And I'm one
Speaker 2: like you that grew up elsewhere, but it's made saw
Speaker 2: Lake and adopted home and it's basically been my home
Speaker 2: for twenty five years. I don't think that's changing anytime soon,
Speaker 2: but I guess.
Speaker 3: You never know.
Speaker 2: And I can get a little defensive when I hear
Speaker 2: people talk about our market, certainly juxtaposed with places like
Speaker 2: Cleveland or Oklahoma City or San Antonio, Like I just
Speaker 2: prefer saw Lake over a lot.
Speaker 1: Of the NBA markets that I've been to over the
Speaker 1: course of my life.
Speaker 2: And maybe I'm biased here, so the whole thing comes
Speaker 2: out like, oh wait, it's not as preferred destination. And
Speaker 2: there were even people who said out loud, he's not
Speaker 2: going to report. He doesn't want to be there. He
Speaker 2: refused to work out for any team. There was a
Speaker 2: report that he actually told not a So I want
Speaker 2: to be clear, this is his reps. Told one team
Speaker 2: in the top five do not draft him. He's not
Speaker 2: reporting and obviously wasn't the Jazz because he showed up
Speaker 2: on time, he did a great job with his press conference,
Speaker 2: had his introductory dinner, and he seems like a sweet.
Speaker 1: Kid, is excited and durable, right yeah, So what's your
Speaker 1: take on this entire dynamic.
Speaker 8: Well, I think it's a collision of everybody wants to
Speaker 8: have a scoop and everybody hates us. It's our insecurities
Speaker 8: coupled with this twenty four hour news cycle where everybody
Speaker 8: wants to know something special. Everybody wants to give you
Speaker 8: something that you can't get anywhere else. I had the scoop.
Speaker 8: I mean I see it a little bit. Well, we
Speaker 8: see it on all these bigger stories, right, a little
Speaker 8: bit on the rets left thing in the last we'll
Speaker 8: get there the last twenty four hours. But yeah, so
Speaker 8: I think there. I mean, we're competitive people report I'm
Speaker 8: talking about journalists, and we want the inside story. You
Speaker 8: want something when you're going to these press conferences and
Speaker 8: everybody's getting the same you know, pablum. We want something different,
Speaker 8: so you're trying to talk different people get different things.
Speaker 8: And I will say this, nowhere in my journalism career
Speaker 8: has there been more irresponsible speculation than in sports journalism.
Speaker 1: Interesting.
Speaker 8: There are people I once traced there was some rumors
Speaker 8: going around on a story, and I started to call
Speaker 8: the people who were reporting them and say, you know,
Speaker 8: and I know everybody, I said, I'm not reporting, I
Speaker 8: want to know. I'm trying to figure out the roots
Speaker 8: of this thing, where this idea, where this information came
Speaker 8: from right? And what ended up happening was it was
Speaker 8: a circle. So somebody was quoting somebody else, but if
Speaker 8: you traced it around, they were quoting each other. It's
Speaker 8: like if you and I told each other the rumor
Speaker 8: that we heard and were confirmed it for each other,
Speaker 8: and then we both go out and say it's been
Speaker 8: confirmed by a source for we are each other's source.
Speaker 8: We don't know anything. So that's what happened. So once
Speaker 8: that and that happened, I think it was around twenty
Speaker 8: twelve did that happened? So very early in my sports career,
Speaker 8: especially once I started getting out of high school sport
Speaker 8: when you're talking about Olympic sports or college sports. Definitely
Speaker 8: in the pro people want I mean, that's your bread
Speaker 8: and butter. Being being the guy or the girl with
Speaker 8: information is how you make your name. And some people
Speaker 8: are reliable about that, and they're very careful about that,
Speaker 8: and they check and second check, and some people say
Speaker 8: things out of turn, you know, but yeah, I my experience,
Speaker 8: because I come from a news background, is if you
Speaker 8: don't know, I'm not going to quote you, even if
Speaker 8: you tell me something really solid. I know some really
Speaker 8: solid things I've never reported because I don't have a
Speaker 8: source on them. And I believe the people, but I
Speaker 8: just don't I don't have a firsthand source on it.
Speaker 8: So I think it was And then I think there's
Speaker 8: this natural and I think it's somewhat become a narrative
Speaker 8: in professional sports, especially the NBA a little bit in college.
Speaker 8: I mean, it happened with AJ when he committed to Uya, right,
Speaker 8: Why would anyone want to go there? It's Utah, right,
Speaker 8: you know, what have they done? Who are they? Why
Speaker 8: do you want to be there? They're and also ran
Speaker 8: they they exist but they exist for us to beat
Speaker 8: them on the way to something else.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 8: It's like they call flyover states the center of the country.
Speaker 8: We are a flyover place in sports, and so there
Speaker 8: is this narrative and we are all super defensive about it,
Speaker 8: including our reporters here, and then these things all collide.
Speaker 8: Everybody's looking for information. Somebody repeats a rumor, somebody says it.
Speaker 8: Everybody's scrambling. I heard this, You got a boss, I've
Speaker 8: had this happen to me. You get a call from
Speaker 8: your boss at ten o'clock on a Friday. Somebody else
Speaker 8: is reporting this. What do you know? I don't know anything,
Speaker 8: And then it saying I don't know as a reporter
Speaker 8: is like the worst thing ever, But it's the truth
Speaker 8: sometimes because sometimes there's not anything to know. And I
Speaker 8: don't know if an agent or somebody was trying to
Speaker 8: stir up some interest or like again, how these things happen,
Speaker 8: We don't know. I didn't I wasn't doing initial reporting.
Speaker 8: I heard these rumors coming out, and I saw journalists saying,
Speaker 8: another person who doesn't want to come to Utah. This
Speaker 8: guy will be gone in four years, you know, all
Speaker 8: these things, and I assume they don't know anything because
Speaker 8: they're not in these rooms having these conversations. I thought,
Speaker 8: I'm just gonna wait, I've learned and see what happens
Speaker 8: with the kid, and couldn't have been nicer. Showed up,
Speaker 8: did his thing, you know, I mean, it happens every time,
Speaker 8: but I think it's just the collision of two really
Speaker 8: bad you know, sort of the insecurity coupled with this
Speaker 8: idea that like everybody's got to have that scoop, you know, Yeah,
Speaker 8: I know something you don't know, you know, right.
Speaker 2: I wonder what because again, without knowing exactly what's real
Speaker 2: and what's not, I will say that I like that
Speaker 2: Austin just took him like, all right, maybe you don't
Speaker 2: want to be here, but we think you're the guy,
Speaker 2: and we're this is the best player available at five
Speaker 2: because I do feel like there's been this undercurrent of
Speaker 2: fear tied into certain decision making. And I actually wondered,
Speaker 2: and again, if we operate off the assumption, which is never.
Speaker 1: A smart thing to do.
Speaker 2: But there was so much noise around Utah not being
Speaker 2: aces preferred destination and so much reporting over the twenty
Speaker 2: four hour news cycle that I'm inclined to believe there's
Speaker 2: something there.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's with Ace.
Speaker 2: I do think it's with this agent of his who
Speaker 2: isn't even like he doesn't have his right Well, he
Speaker 2: didn't have the paperwork file to be like an actual
Speaker 2: agent when Ace first hired him, So he's new with
Speaker 2: this and he's probably trying to figure it out. So
Speaker 2: if there's even a sliver of truth to it, you know,
Speaker 2: the Jazz had that intel. But I like that Austin
Speaker 2: just said we're drafting him. We think he's the best player.
Speaker 8: But I also think Austin is savvy enough and everybody
Speaker 8: else at the Jazz that if it were true, if
Speaker 8: it felt true to them, I don't they're going to
Speaker 8: have conversations about that before they draft him. They're not.
Speaker 8: I've this has happened before, where there's been a trade
Speaker 8: rumored or there's been an acquisition floated, right, and there's
Speaker 8: been open resistance to coming here. Those are conversations you
Speaker 8: have to have because the last thing you want to
Speaker 8: do is trade for it, is use your pick on
Speaker 8: somebody who's going to then blow up your whatever your planet. Right,
Speaker 8: that didn't happen, So that lead if you say it
Speaker 8: was like some sliver of truth, some rumor got blown
Speaker 8: up into something else, or somebody said something offhand and
Speaker 8: it got somebody ran with it. Whatever happened, whatever the
Speaker 8: rumor mill was doing, and whoever was doing it, I
Speaker 8: firmly believe, or at least I have this much faith
Speaker 8: in Austin Age, and that is that he had some
Speaker 8: conversations with people about whether or not or how much
Speaker 8: of that was true, or it may it may have
Speaker 8: been as simple as this that someone said, you're probably
Speaker 8: going to go to Utah, or it looks like you
Speaker 8: might be going to Utah, and he's like, Utah, I
Speaker 8: don't know where the heck that place is. I wanted
Speaker 8: to go to X who he's eighteen, right, I could
Speaker 8: totally see that happening. Sure, and then that begets all
Speaker 8: these other things he's not going to do. He didn't
Speaker 8: work out for anybody they're looking for. And this is
Speaker 8: where brains work, you know, we look for evidence that
Speaker 8: were right. This is why we have the politics we have.
Speaker 8: You don't hear all the information, You hear your whatever
Speaker 8: bias you have, that whatever confirms that for you.
Speaker 1: Echo Chambers.
Speaker 8: Yes, and so I think that's somewhat, but I mean
Speaker 8: it's happened so often. I believe, I mean, and I
Speaker 8: watched the press conferences, one hundred percent believe that we're
Speaker 8: there if there was a whiff of this before, there
Speaker 8: were conversations that were had, so that even if there
Speaker 8: was reluctance, it was understood what that reluctance was about,
Speaker 8: and so whatever whatever was going on, if it was nothing,
Speaker 8: I mean I heard some music, it was nothing or whatever.
Speaker 8: How many times have we been the purveyors of an
Speaker 8: offense comment. I mean, I've been there when something like
Speaker 8: that's been said and people run with it, and I
Speaker 8: think you got to be kidding me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a joke.
Speaker 8: Or you know, or that was just the reaction. Yeah,
Speaker 8: and again the way things are now, this kid is eighteen, right,
Speaker 8: like you have kid. I have a kid. I hope
Speaker 8: nobody's holding my kid to what she says.
Speaker 1: You know for sure.
Speaker 8: Sometimes me, sometimes I have a reaction like what I mean,
Speaker 8: there are so many things in a meeting or wherever
Speaker 8: where you're like, your initial reaction is that's stupid, I
Speaker 8: don't want that whatever, But like give people room to
Speaker 8: get educated and to get information into maybe evolved, but
Speaker 8: I was super impressed with the press commerence. I liked
Speaker 8: all the picks. I thought it was really fun. I
Speaker 8: have tickets to the Summer League with my grandson and nephews,
Speaker 8: so we're going to go. And my nephew, who's an
Speaker 8: airmanette Hill Air Force Base, has been in a depressive
Speaker 8: state since the lottery. Oh sure, texted me immediately, all
Speaker 8: caps and is beside himself with joy.
Speaker 1: So yeah, good good.
Speaker 8: However it works out, we're going to enjoy it well.
Speaker 1: And the only time will tell. I.
Speaker 2: You know, when it comes to what I feel is
Speaker 2: really unfair messaging about the jazz and Utah and Salt Lake,
Speaker 2: it just makes it hard for those guys to do
Speaker 2: their jobs when they've got to answer all these questions
Speaker 2: misconceptions like no, it's not that weird here, and again,
Speaker 2: you and I both grew up elsewhere. I'm aware of
Speaker 2: the oddities that exists here. I've never ran from them.
Speaker 1: They are real. Okay, it doesn't make it a horrible
Speaker 1: place to live.
Speaker 2: You just have to find out how you traverse the space,
Speaker 2: and you know, respect the culture that essentially is intertwined
Speaker 2: in everything that we do here, Whether you like it
Speaker 2: or not, but it just it makes their job so
Speaker 2: hard when they've got to do this all the time.
Speaker 2: Like another kid doesn't want to come here, another player
Speaker 2: doesn't want.
Speaker 1: Us to trade for him.
Speaker 2: Dennis Lindsay went on a podcast last year and said
Speaker 2: that he had a trade done for a star forward
Speaker 2: I know who is Kevin Love. He had a trade
Speaker 2: done for Kevin Love, and Kevin Love's agent called him
Speaker 2: and said, don't do this. He will not come live
Speaker 2: in Salt Lake, he will not report.
Speaker 1: And so if.
Speaker 2: Austin kind of has this attitude, and again to your point,
Speaker 2: conversation certainly took place that were not privy to. But
Speaker 2: if he's just going to go all in and be like, look,
Speaker 2: we're drafting you, we're trading for you. And then you
Speaker 2: know with Ace, they have seven years, okay, your rookie
Speaker 2: contract four years, then you'll pick up the option for
Speaker 2: the final three unless he wants to be traded. We
Speaker 2: saw with Donovan Gordon left. You know, we do have
Speaker 2: the PTSD of players that we really latched onto leaving here.
Speaker 2: But no, if you're Austin Age, if you're Danny, if
Speaker 2: you're Justin Zanik, if you're Ryan and Ashley said, no,
Speaker 2: we think you're the best player, and we have seven
Speaker 2: years to show you that you can accomplish anything you
Speaker 2: want here in Salt Lake.
Speaker 1: Just go about it unafraid.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and I think they knew they know something about
Speaker 8: these players that we don't. They know more about their background,
Speaker 8: their histories, what their other interests are, because these are
Speaker 8: human beings. They're not like, they're not commodities, right right,
Speaker 8: And it's not so simple as to say, look at
Speaker 8: the stat sheet, you know, and look at what we
Speaker 8: need and let's go for this. I'm sure there was
Speaker 8: a lot of other input about how his personality, how
Speaker 8: you know, what kind of I mean, he's by all
Speaker 8: accounts everything I could read, he's a super gym rat
Speaker 8: I mean, are honest to god. He reminded me a
Speaker 8: lot of Karl Malone. You know, this idea that like,
Speaker 8: I got something to prove and what makes what makes
Speaker 8: it more, what will feed that more, is being in
Speaker 8: a place that has something to prove.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, good point.
Speaker 8: I think they're I mean Carl Kyle would which, by
Speaker 8: the way, there's another guy who's had rumors floated every
Speaker 8: single year that he's retiring, right but Kyle Whittingham is
Speaker 8: bread and butter, is getting people to believe that no
Speaker 8: matter what, no matter who's on the rust or no
Speaker 8: matter what they're ranked, no one respects them, right and
Speaker 8: in sports, that can be a huge, huge, huge bonus.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, for sure. So we'll see, we'll see, we'll
Speaker 1: see how it works out. All right.
Speaker 2: You referenced the Jake rehetzl Jake Rehetzlaf story. We'll get
Speaker 2: to a catch or break and then we'll do that
Speaker 2: coming up on the other side. The civil lawsuit has
Speaker 2: been dismissed and Jake, according to Pete Thamil, has plans
Speaker 2: to transfer because he believes he's going to face the
Speaker 2: seven game suspension for violating the school's honor code. So
Speaker 2: we'll get to that with more local storylines as well.
Speaker 2: Amy Donaldson live in studio for another big segment coming
Speaker 2: up on the other side. Right here on ESPN seven hundred,
Speaker 2: Amy Donaldson is.
Speaker 1: Live in studio.
Speaker 2: I always appreciate Amy's time world traveler back on the
Speaker 2: ground watching any RSL soccer.
Speaker 1: I know you've been traveling, You've been watching any ANRSL.
Speaker 8: I did. We didn't watch the most recent game, but
Speaker 8: the game before and yeah, I'm when I got back,
Speaker 8: Like I said, I feel like I was living in
Speaker 8: another world, especially because rugby is so huge in Australia. Well,
Speaker 8: you were there for a month and they have this thing,
Speaker 8: this origins game where it's super cool. Actually, so all
Speaker 8: these professional players go back to their club teams, kind
Speaker 8: of like if all these NFL players went back to
Speaker 8: their colleges and they had a little tournament, oh like
Speaker 8: in East West East versus West, or like, they go
Speaker 8: back to these rivalries and it's a huge deal. I
Speaker 8: had to kind of get an education about like who
Speaker 8: the rug like because my daughter in law's family is
Speaker 8: so like, you can't cheer for the wrong team.
Speaker 1: Oh okay.
Speaker 8: And then of course, so my daughter and I were
Speaker 8: in this place called Cans. She was there for some training.
Speaker 8: That's when one of the origin games was. The women's
Speaker 8: was the day before we saw part of it, but
Speaker 8: we went with a bunch of people from the training,
Speaker 8: a bunch of social workers. We go to this pub
Speaker 8: and watch rugby and it was a blast. And yeah,
Speaker 8: I just I love for me the cultural aspect. Like
Speaker 8: I watched the gold medal game in the twenty sixteen
Speaker 8: Olympics in Brazil.
Speaker 1: Rugby, Brazil, no soccer.
Speaker 8: They So Brazil was playing in the gold medal game
Speaker 8: in the twenty sixteen Olympics in Rio Macarini Stadium, and
Speaker 8: I'd been to one of the semi round games and
Speaker 8: then in a pool game at Macarena with our buddy
Speaker 8: Chris Cameroni.
Speaker 1: Very nice.
Speaker 8: That was when I was live using periscope and showing
Speaker 8: video of my ride and somebody flashed me. So that
Speaker 8: was cool. Yeah, that was super cool. Learned my lesson
Speaker 8: about live video and so but I decided on the
Speaker 8: gold medal night, listen, I want to go. And these
Speaker 8: people Brazil had not won a gold medal in the
Speaker 8: Olympics in their sport, I mean soccer. There the number
Speaker 8: of leagues, the number of teams, it's just ridiculous. And
Speaker 8: so I went down. They had this pier. They had
Speaker 8: these amazing TVs on the edge. I don't know how
Speaker 8: they were massive. They were like a drive in movie theater,
Speaker 8: size four of them in different locations. And I just
Speaker 8: ate Brazilian food and hung out and talked to people
Speaker 8: and just soaked up the atmosphere and to me, like
Speaker 8: the cultural aspect of sports is as interesting as what's
Speaker 8: happening in the game. Why did they win? Because I
Speaker 8: know that's what everyone expects from a sports writer, and
Speaker 8: so I was tempted to do that. It's so hard
Speaker 8: to not, you know, to not be there for the
Speaker 8: gold medal game. But I am so glad I did it.
Speaker 8: It was really incredible, and especially because these are people
Speaker 8: who they couldn't afford a ticket, so they're not in
Speaker 8: the stadium, right and maybe they've never been inside Macarina Stadium,
Speaker 8: but they've been to the parties outside and yeah, and
Speaker 8: so I think it was a little bit of that.
Speaker 8: I love when I go somewhere to just even if
Speaker 8: I don't know the teams, I don't know what's happening.
Speaker 8: And of course you get into it, right, Like I
Speaker 8: got into an argument with a guy about whether or
Speaker 8: not there was there should have been a foul. I'm like,
Speaker 8: oh my god, you're such a home or it wasn't
Speaker 8: a foul, you know, So and again I keep saying,
Speaker 8: I'm like, I'm not biased, so my opinion is right.
Speaker 8: But but you know, I covered rugby seven's in at
Speaker 8: the Olympics and a little bit of rugby here with
Speaker 8: the Utael Warriors. So I know the game and know
Speaker 8: the rules, I should say, but so much fun and
Speaker 8: everybody plays. I mean, little girls are getting their stuff
Speaker 8: to go to their footy practices. My little grand adopted
Speaker 8: grandson over there, my daughter in law's nephew. He's my
Speaker 8: little grand baby too. Now he's playing or soccer on
Speaker 8: one field with his buddies. And adjacent is these little
Speaker 8: kids playing rugby. Everybody plays. It's so huge, it's so
Speaker 8: I mean, my daughter has signed up for Who's this
Speaker 8: is a kid I could not get to play sports?
Speaker 8: Like she did cross country running and I coached her
Speaker 8: in soft for two years and she's like, this is
Speaker 8: not my game. She played little kids soccer, but yeah
Speaker 8: I did not. But she's playing in a rugby tournament,
Speaker 8: you know A yeah, so it's just a huge, huge
Speaker 8: I did do a CrossFit competition while I was there
Speaker 8: in Australia. Yeah, so my kid, don't listen. Your kids
Speaker 8: will rope you into stuff.
Speaker 1: Well do you just.
Speaker 8: You're so desperate to be with your children when you're
Speaker 8: an adult, right, Like, so they say, do you want
Speaker 8: to take me to lunch? You'll buy lunch for them
Speaker 8: because you want to be with them, right. So my
Speaker 8: kid was like, I want to do this CrossFit thing.
Speaker 8: We need a third Do you think you could do it?
Speaker 8: And I was like sure, I've been lifting weights and
Speaker 8: I do waits twice twice a week. You know our
Speaker 8: old people waits. So she sends me the workout and
Speaker 8: I was like, this is going to be hard. So
Speaker 8: I really I put my mind to it for a
Speaker 8: solid month. I worked really hard. We get there, and
Speaker 8: what I learned is that's one of the workouts. It's
Speaker 8: across the competition. There is a series of workouts, and
Speaker 8: that was one. I thought that was the whole thing.
Speaker 8: In fact, when they said you have to climb a
Speaker 8: rope and touch the ceiling, I just looked at my
Speaker 8: husband and was like, what is happening? Where are we?
Speaker 1: It's a big ass.
Speaker 8: And then I started assessing I was the oldest by
Speaker 8: fifteen years, and I was like, this is not happening.
Speaker 8: But I'm telling you there is something about your competitiveness
Speaker 8: never goes away. Because they told me what we had
Speaker 8: as a team, we would have to do these burpies.
Speaker 8: If I didn't do the rope climb, oh, my whole
Speaker 8: team has to do it. And I was like, I'm
Speaker 8: not penalizing my team. I did the rope climb, I broke,
Speaker 8: I did it. Yeah. So but yeah, it was super
Speaker 8: fun and now I'm super I want to watch more rugby.
Speaker 8: It was really fun.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And your point about the cultural significance of things that
Speaker 2: are away from the competition, I find to be very
Speaker 2: applicable for sports like rugby or soccer that I just
Speaker 2: wasn't raised with. Right, Like when we first brought oursell
Speaker 2: here on two thousand and four, I've told you very
Speaker 2: lukewarm to the whole endeavor. I'm like, what are you doing?
Speaker 2: Soccer doesn't work? And like I told my father, I'm like,
Speaker 2: this is a bad idea. You know that Now obviously
Speaker 2: he was right.
Speaker 1: I was wrong.
Speaker 2: And my friends who were soccer fans still soccer fans,
Speaker 2: you know, they all said the same thing. You've got
Speaker 2: to go overseas. You've got to see something in the Premiership.
Speaker 2: You got to go to Germany. You got to see
Speaker 2: what it's like over there. And my first eye opening,
Speaker 2: oh wow, okay soccer means everything to these people was
Speaker 2: seeing a Tottenham game in London, you know, seeing a
Speaker 2: Premiership game, Because I think we have some parallels here.
Speaker 2: You and I have talked about like football is our soccer,
Speaker 2: football is America's soccer. But like, I don't even know
Speaker 2: that that doesn't baseball.
Speaker 8: I mean, I think I grew up more with baseball,
Speaker 8: but you know, and when I was a kid boxing,
Speaker 8: my dad was super big into boxing. I mean, I
Speaker 8: think it's probably whatever you grow up around, right, like whatever,
Speaker 8: but baseball was the thing, and I do think there's
Speaker 8: a big cal I mean, and then when I went
Speaker 8: to high school in Alaska, hockey is bigger than football.
Speaker 8: I mean, like I can't it's hard to imagine, but
Speaker 8: all the cute girls wanted to be hockey cheerleaders, right,
Speaker 8: And I was like, why would you want to wear
Speaker 8: skirt and a hockey arena?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 8: Yeah, but you know, we took hockey for pe Like
Speaker 8: there was just this culture of toughness and like eighty blow,
Speaker 8: Well let's play hockey, you know outside we need to
Speaker 8: have you know, I don't need gloves, you know. It
Speaker 8: It was and there is this whole cultural you know.
Speaker 8: Watching the gold medal game between the USA and Canada
Speaker 8: here in Salt Lake in two thousand and two, yeah,
Speaker 8: one of the greatest. That was one of the greatest
Speaker 8: sports experience in my life totally because I had done
Speaker 8: a previews, I had done the story about the scalpers outside,
Speaker 8: so I just was My assignment was sit and enjoy
Speaker 8: the game. So I just watched the game. I did
Speaker 8: end up writing a feature about Wayne Gretzky Canada one,
Speaker 8: but that was the last minute call from the boss.
Speaker 8: I was just sitting at center eyes, eating my cinnamon
Speaker 8: covered nuts, thinking, like, I've guided gun in heaven because
Speaker 8: you grow up with this culture of like we would
Speaker 8: play hockey on any surface, like we would fall down
Speaker 8: one thousand times because the ice was so crappy, but
Speaker 8: there's this toughness that comes with it that and that
Speaker 8: was in the women's game too. It was just so
Speaker 8: much fun. So yeah, I love watching sports in other
Speaker 8: countries and other cultures. And again the difficulty is understanding
Speaker 8: what was happening, but being with people. If you understand
Speaker 8: the game a little bit or even.
Speaker 1: Though the rules, there's nothing like it, no, for sure.
Speaker 2: And I was actually talking about this with Pablo last
Speaker 2: week because Diego Diego Luna, who has been the lone
Speaker 2: bride spot for this soccer club, that just can't figure
Speaker 2: it out.
Speaker 8: Not lone bright Spot, I mean Johnny Russell. When I
Speaker 8: came back and found out that Johnny Russell had come
Speaker 8: to RSL, I was like, wait, what, Yeah, but that's
Speaker 8: one of those things that could be cultural, right sure.
Speaker 8: And then the two games I think I've seen him
Speaker 8: score is two goals goals. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So so the reason I'm bringing up the Diego I
Speaker 2: was announced last week, right before Pablo jumped on the show,
Speaker 2: that Diego was named it All Star. Yeah, for the
Speaker 2: second straight year. And then you pull up the list
Speaker 2: Diego will be playing in that game next to Lino Messi,
Speaker 2: and I fully admit that I don't think I have
Speaker 2: frame of reference for what that means in the ecosystem
Speaker 2: of who Messi is in the game of soccer, world football.
Speaker 8: But imagine being Diego.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying, Like it's Michael Jordan, it's Tiger Woods,
Speaker 2: But that might not even do a justice with how
Speaker 2: big the sport of soccer is worldwide, and most people
Speaker 2: believe he is the greatest that's ever done it.
Speaker 1: It's a really cool thing.
Speaker 8: Well, and I just saw someone made a TikTok about
Speaker 8: Diego when he broke his nose. Yeah, and I don't
Speaker 8: know if you saw this, but he said, like, if
Speaker 8: this is the mentality of our US men's team, this
Speaker 8: is he said, this is American and you know, and
Speaker 8: I thought, it is that like we love that sort
Speaker 8: of you know, as much as we love the like wolf,
Speaker 8: you know, individual is rugged individualism type of thing. When
Speaker 8: it meets that, I'm not I won't quit. I can
Speaker 8: have a broken nose, put a put a rag up
Speaker 8: my nose, and send me back in the coach game,
Speaker 8: you know that that idea. I saw people going nuts
Speaker 8: and he's like all these floppers and you know, fakers
Speaker 8: and whatever, and then we got this guy. It's like,
Speaker 8: that's actually like that is a thing. That's a crossover
Speaker 8: because that's one of the reasons people love football so much.
Speaker 8: My dad loved about boxing. Is you get, as I
Speaker 8: used to say, losing in football is so painful because
Speaker 8: it's so painful. You know, you don't just lose. You
Speaker 8: don't just walk off and say that was humiliated. You
Speaker 8: also then feel it in every bone and ligament in
Speaker 8: your body for the next week. But but that that
Speaker 8: was I thought that was an ines. I thought, oh,
Speaker 8: this is this is that moment. I'm looking for that,
Speaker 8: like where Americans see themselves in an international game, or
Speaker 8: they see themselves in players who are steeped in this
Speaker 8: international games culture before we.
Speaker 1: Move off of RSL.
Speaker 2: I'm just realizing, because you've been away for so long
Speaker 2: that I don't think I've talked to you about the
Speaker 2: ownership transition.
Speaker 1: The Millers are now the majority. You know, we may have,
Speaker 1: we may.
Speaker 8: Have discussed a little bit because I went out to
Speaker 8: the press conference.
Speaker 1: That's right, That's right, we did a little bit.
Speaker 8: I think it's super exciting. I think I told the
Speaker 8: Larry Miller stories.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2: It also appears to be a bit of a paradigm shift.
Speaker 2: Now I've had three different RSL guests with three different messaging,
Speaker 2: and you know, three different messages about this.
Speaker 1: It was kind of funny because.
Speaker 2: Pablo joined the show, and I always complain when RSL
Speaker 2: sells great players that they've developed, like why can't they
Speaker 2: play for us? I understand the economic value Andres Gomez
Speaker 2: proof of concept twelve thirteen million, you know, goes over
Speaker 2: to I get it, But like Diego is the guy
Speaker 2: that I do not want to see go anywhere he's
Speaker 2: so bright and he's so young. So Pablo hops on
Speaker 2: the show and he's like, hey, we're not looking to
Speaker 2: sell our young players anymore. Jason hopped on the show
Speaker 2: and he's like, Wow, that's not entirely true, and then
Speaker 2: Kurt kind of eco Jason sediment.
Speaker 1: But it does appear.
Speaker 2: With Steve Stark's and the Miller family now running things,
Speaker 2: there might be a bit of a paradigm shift where
Speaker 2: if we develop some of these young players through the
Speaker 2: academy and they turn out to be good players for
Speaker 2: the senior team, maybe they'll be around here for the
Speaker 2: long at least that's my hope.
Speaker 8: Yeah. I think that paradigm shift you're talking about has
Speaker 8: something to do with what we talked about at the
Speaker 8: beginning of this whole thing, and that is they understand
Speaker 8: how hard it is to convince people this is a
Speaker 8: great place to be right and so internationally it's a
Speaker 8: little bit less of an issue because coming to America
Speaker 8: such a culture shock there's playing in the MLS is
Speaker 8: so different. But I think there is still when you're
Speaker 8: trying to trade for players and when you're trying to
Speaker 8: get respect, there is still this underdog, you know, nobody
Speaker 8: wants to play here thing, and so if you can
Speaker 8: grow them yourself and they have loyalty and they have
Speaker 8: roots here, that is I think the thing that the
Speaker 8: Millers understand maybe better than anybody else.
Speaker 1: Well, and talk about proof of concept.
Speaker 2: I know the Jazz never want a champion ship under
Speaker 2: the Miller regime, but they were more often than not
Speaker 2: really good and really competitive.
Speaker 1: We got spoiled, we did, we did.
Speaker 8: Were we going to talk about Jake?
Speaker 1: Oh, we're getting there. Yeah, we're getting there. I'm keeping
Speaker 1: about ten minutes. I figured we end with that, so
Speaker 1: let's move over. Now.
Speaker 2: We were talking about, you know, football tribalism and when
Speaker 2: a story like this surfaces. And let me just say
Speaker 2: this right off the bat, I've never loved covering honor
Speaker 2: code violations at BYU. I don't really love discussing it
Speaker 2: like I just think it's weird societally where people are
Speaker 2: obsessed with who other people are sleeping with.
Speaker 1: It's never been like a thing for me.
Speaker 8: I look at the honor code as team rules. So
Speaker 8: like when a coach talks about somebody being it happens
Speaker 8: in every program they broke team rules or whatever. So
Speaker 8: the honor code is just a probably more strict than
Speaker 8: most team rules and more personal, right, it feels more personal?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 8: Those are the things that were that make us uncomfortable.
Speaker 2: So for our listener's frame of reference, Jake Rhetz Laugh
Speaker 2: had the civil suit filed a few months ago, and
Speaker 2: our friends of the Tribune have done a good job
Speaker 2: with this, uh, and the civil lawsuit was dropped.
Speaker 1: It has been dismissed.
Speaker 2: Excuse me, probably a settlement, you know, I think it's
Speaker 2: okay to say.
Speaker 1: That out loud.
Speaker 2: I have no idea, but that would be my guess.
Speaker 2: And then Jake has elected according to the Tribune. According
Speaker 2: to Kyle Bonneger and Pete Thamil from ESPN, Jake has
Speaker 2: elected to transfer because he's facing a seven game suspension.
Speaker 8: And all of these things are reports there. Nothing is
Speaker 8: direct from that it is correct, and nothing is direct
Speaker 8: from school because under Tom Holmo, they used to announce
Speaker 8: when an honor code violation had occurred and what the
Speaker 8: punishment was. Yes, they wouldn't always tell you what happened,
Speaker 8: but he would know his honor code. So we would
Speaker 8: all be like, something has to do with sex or drinking, right, right,
Speaker 8: and then and that's a bad assumption because we don't
Speaker 8: know sure, but whatever. So Tom Holmo, and I think
Speaker 8: very wisely said, look, this is not this is not necessary.
Speaker 8: We're going to let you know that you know, there's
Speaker 8: been a violation of team rules or whatever, and the
Speaker 8: discipline will stay private. Yes, And I think that was
Speaker 8: a good call. I don't know what I heard. What
Speaker 8: I heard and read, and I was reading Ja Drew's
Speaker 8: stuff from Desert News as well, and that is that
Speaker 8: he was telling friends and family a couple days ago
Speaker 8: that I think Saturday nights when I read it that
Speaker 8: he was going to be transferring because he'd had a
Speaker 8: meeting with coaches and administrators and they had said, hey,
Speaker 8: you're probably gonna have to have a seven game suspension.
Speaker 8: And I mean, I think everyone's question was and I
Speaker 8: think one things that's important to note is that his
Speaker 8: attorneys responded to the suit, and that response was incredibly detailed,
Speaker 8: and I people were having many feelings about the response
Speaker 8: and the detail of it and what was alleged and
Speaker 8: what his defense was. And I think that it is
Speaker 8: not surprising to me that after that response, which was
Speaker 8: really brutal, two things happened. He gets told you're going
Speaker 8: to get an Honor Code violation and decides to go
Speaker 8: and the suit is settled or dropped.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's where we're at. That's what's happened.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I can remember when these things would kind of either
Speaker 2: publicly manifest themselves or there'd be rumors of what's happening
Speaker 2: behind the scenes. A lot of people that do the
Speaker 2: jobs that we do in media would cry that this
Speaker 2: thing needs to be changed. B YU needs to change
Speaker 2: the Honor Code. It is too punitive.
Speaker 1: They're not going to do that, Okay.
Speaker 8: I don't I don't ever think people shouldn't change their
Speaker 8: own you know, whatever their rules are exactly. I just
Speaker 8: want you to apply your rules fairly and consistently. Yes,
Speaker 8: that's always been my issue. I had one of the
Speaker 8: my only interest ever in the Honor Code was when
Speaker 8: it was applied more strictly or more punitively to women
Speaker 8: than to men. And that was a problem. But outside
Speaker 8: of that, like, you know what you're signing up for,
Speaker 8: I mean one hundred percent, I mean think about like
Speaker 8: BYU is Jake's third school, right, right. So the fact
Speaker 8: that I mean, and that is the way it is
Speaker 8: now was it was it? Walt had been to three
Speaker 8: schools also, I mean like two Florida and then who's
Speaker 8: the second round pick the Yeah, he's a four or three.
Speaker 8: He's a three school So I mean like that's sort
Speaker 8: of the way we're going now. So I don't I
Speaker 8: don't know who's going to take him. I think it's
Speaker 8: the timing that's the problem for Jake. But I think
Speaker 8: that response was as they say, it was no holds barred,
Speaker 8: that he was defending himself with every everything he could
Speaker 8: throw at this woman.
Speaker 2: Do you think the weight of his response motivated her
Speaker 2: to try to come together and just get this thing
Speaker 2: figured out?
Speaker 3: So?
Speaker 8: Absolutely absolutely, Because here's the thing. Sexual assault victims don't
Speaker 8: report crimes because there is, as you said, there's this
Speaker 8: uncomfortability with reporting on on our code violations that have
Speaker 8: something to do with pre mariital sex. Imagine trying to
Speaker 8: report a crime that has something it's it's a crime,
Speaker 8: but it's also a personal violation that people still see
Speaker 8: as a purity or you know, a moral failing that
Speaker 8: this happened to you, right, And so there's so much
Speaker 8: tied up in it. There's so much psychologically and emotionally
Speaker 8: and and and I'm sure physically that I think it's
Speaker 8: difficult to deal with a system that wants to deal
Speaker 8: with facts and evidence. Your body is a crime scene.
Speaker 8: Think about that, right, That is a difficult thing to
Speaker 8: even for me to even fathom. And so that reality
Speaker 8: was a struggle for her, and that she admitted that
Speaker 8: in her suit when the response came and it was
Speaker 8: allegations about there were he wasn't the one who did it. It
Speaker 8: was a different player, and the other player wasn't famous,
Speaker 8: and you know, it wasn't first you know, it wasn't
Speaker 8: an nil money. The brutality of the of what you
Speaker 8: can do to defend yourself in civil court, I think
Speaker 8: that was probably I think it was a painful thing
Speaker 8: to realize it. Now. I'm not saying that she didn't
Speaker 8: say I want to go and you know whatever, I
Speaker 8: don't know any of those details. I can imagine that
Speaker 8: reading that was incredibly whether it's true or not, whether
Speaker 8: however you see it, right and listen, I don't fault
Speaker 8: Jake's attorneys for doing what they did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, I.
Speaker 8: Everybody there were people who were critical and talking about
Speaker 8: how brutal it was and unfair. Look, Jake would make
Speaker 8: you the same argument. We don't know what he did.
Speaker 8: We don't know if we don't know who's telling the truth.
Speaker 8: So that's what the courts are for. But hashing out
Speaker 8: something like that is so emotionally painful, and it's going
Speaker 8: to go on for years. Yeah, and so I imagine
Speaker 8: that if there was a settlement, that was an incredibly
Speaker 8: persuasive thing because that I can't imagine reading that stuff
Speaker 8: about myself, my loved one and thinking I can sustain
Speaker 8: this kind of fight for years.
Speaker 1: No, it's good perspective, you know.
Speaker 2: It was one of the reasons I always don't really
Speaker 2: enjoy cover ding honor code violations like this is it's
Speaker 2: a sports soccer radio show, so there is a sports
Speaker 2: angle to it, but it feels like it's so much
Speaker 2: more heavy, there's so much weight to it as opposed
Speaker 2: to like, all right, let's debate who the backup quarterback
Speaker 2: is and who's going to start. Like, No, there are
Speaker 2: very serious allegations that were alleged, and to your point,
Speaker 2: we don't know what's true and what isn't. That's not
Speaker 2: for me to litigate on air. I just try to
Speaker 2: look at the information and then just try to go
Speaker 2: from there. But as far as the optics of how
Speaker 2: this looks for the school, what are your thoughts on
Speaker 2: that there? Because I can remember when Brandon Davies had
Speaker 2: his suspension in twenty eleven. I mean that was a
Speaker 2: basketball team.
Speaker 8: That's the one that I remember them changing the policy.
Speaker 2: And it's hard to say like they would have won
Speaker 2: the national championship because the NCAA tournament.
Speaker 8: Is redifficult that way.
Speaker 1: You just felt like, well, they were good.
Speaker 2: He was so good, and Jimmer was full Jimmer at
Speaker 2: the time, and Brandon was a perfect compliment to him.
Speaker 2: And I can remember when that came down when Brandon
Speaker 2: was suspended for the nc Double Tournament. We had two factions.
Speaker 2: One faction was what are we doing here? We have
Speaker 2: a really good team, and the other faction was, no,
Speaker 2: this is who we are. And so I don't really
Speaker 2: know where to land with that. I wonder what you
Speaker 2: how you feel about the way a story like this
Speaker 2: with Jake looks for BYU in.
Speaker 1: The athletic department.
Speaker 2: Well, I think like, does it dissuade kids from wanting
Speaker 2: to go play football there?
Speaker 8: Well, I mean it might disswade some kids for sure,
Speaker 8: And it might dissuade some kids from going there and
Speaker 8: thinking they can get away with it, right, And it
Speaker 8: might dissuade you from, you know, as a coach, it
Speaker 8: might dissuade you from recruiting certain types of people or
Speaker 8: you know, or how But I think Kloni Sataki is
Speaker 8: cut from that same cloth. This is who they are.
Speaker 8: They're not changing the honor code, and they're going to
Speaker 8: embrace the fact that everybody abides by the same rules.
Speaker 8: It doesn't matter if you're the superstar. It doesn't matter
Speaker 8: if it costs us the NCAA championship or an NCAA
Speaker 8: Championship run. It's brutal, it's sad, but it's not It's
Speaker 8: not any different than a star player pulling up injured,
Speaker 8: you know, right there and costing a team or you know.
Speaker 8: And I would say this that if you embrace the
Speaker 8: idea that you hold yourself to these standards and you
Speaker 8: really do it, then I think that that becomes more
Speaker 8: meaningful thing. That's all I think. I feel like people
Speaker 8: who say have been saying a long time, be why
Speaker 8: you can't keep competing if they don't plan on Sunday,
Speaker 8: be why you can't keep competing if they have the
Speaker 8: honor code. They're not getting rid of either one. And
Speaker 8: they're doing pretty well.
Speaker 1: Yeah they are.
Speaker 8: Yeah, And now you see teams accommodating their Sunday play.
Speaker 8: You see people respecting the fact that they if you follow,
Speaker 8: all I'm saying is whatever your code of ethics is,
Speaker 8: just follow it, because I know programs who have a
Speaker 8: code of ethics, but they are quick to violate it
Speaker 8: if it's their star player. And nothing will teach you
Speaker 8: entitlement quicker than having a coach cut you some slack
Speaker 8: when they really should sit you on the bench.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I think it's good perspective.
Speaker 2: So ultimately, when you look at to your point, the
Speaker 2: spot BYU is in as an athletic department, they're in
Speaker 2: a very healthy spot. Because and I said this, my
Speaker 2: old producer Brady sent out a tweet because I'd forgotten
Speaker 2: that i'd said this when I said it. But about
Speaker 2: five years ago when Nil kind of started to become like, wait,
Speaker 2: this is going to be real, and then it became
Speaker 2: real about four years ago. Now, I said, if you're
Speaker 2: a BYU fan, this is excellent news. This is a
Speaker 2: way that you can And this was before the Big twelve,
Speaker 2: they were still independent. Now they got the Big twelve invite,
Speaker 2: which is also even the playing field. But when Utah
Speaker 2: had their PAC twelve invite and BYU in a reactionary
Speaker 2: move because it was they don't level when I say
Speaker 2: that went independent, it allowed Utah to evolve past Bergham
Speaker 2: Young and football in the way that quite frankly, it
Speaker 2: never had.
Speaker 1: I mean, I grew up in the Lovell years.
Speaker 2: It was nineteen and two, I think over twenty one years,
Speaker 2: and then coach mac comes in and kind of evens
Speaker 2: it up a little bit. But two things, when Kyle
Speaker 2: said no to his alma mater and yes to Utah
Speaker 2: and Utah gets the PAC twelve invite, that sent Utah
Speaker 2: football kind of on this path where it was a
Speaker 2: generation of dominance in a way that I never thought
Speaker 2: it was possible. So now we have house VNT DOAA,
Speaker 2: we have nil And with those two things combined, it
Speaker 2: feels like there are a lot of very rich people
Speaker 2: writing a lot of checks for byu' to have talent.
Speaker 1: Right now.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think there were a few other things. And
Speaker 8: I'm going to give Tom Homo massive credit, as you should,
Speaker 8: because job I was completely opposed to independence. This is
Speaker 8: a kiss of death because I feel like you need
Speaker 8: something to play for, especially in football, Like you know,
Speaker 8: the minute you're not in the running for a conference title,
Speaker 8: or you're not in the running for now we have
Speaker 8: the playoffs, right, there's just less incentive to play that
Speaker 8: sport for sure, especially in combat sports, there's just this
Speaker 8: idea that what are you playing for? Why are you suffering?
Speaker 8: Why is this happening?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 8: What are you sacrificing for? And so I felt like
Speaker 8: taking away not just the chance to win those conference titles,
Speaker 8: but get conference awards, you know, have those rivalries, like
Speaker 8: all the stuff that goes with it, the culture being
Speaker 8: creating this culture, right, I was like, I don't think
Speaker 8: they have notre Dame level culture.
Speaker 1: And they don't, No one does.
Speaker 8: But yeah, but I would say they have their own
Speaker 8: version of it. Whether it's less or not, it's still theirs.
Speaker 8: But the one thing that independence allowed Tom Holmo to
Speaker 8: do that I think was it led to this situation
Speaker 8: where in now, including the Big twelve invitation, was he
Speaker 8: could play during COVID yes, everybody else was subject to
Speaker 8: was subject to conference rules, and the PAC twelve shut down.
Speaker 8: They were all those West Coast schools were like, we're
Speaker 8: not playing. You can't come here. Everything's remote, and Utah suck.
Speaker 8: And Utah is in a state that politically was very
Speaker 8: different than the West Coast, right, and so you have
Speaker 8: your because Rye will b Yu, they're independent, they can
Speaker 8: leave over there. And that game against Coastal Carolina in
Speaker 8: the postseason was I think, such a light, such a moment.
Speaker 8: I remember just feeling so much joy and thinking because
Speaker 8: we're so much should we be doing this? Should we
Speaker 8: be playing? And now people are like we shouldn't. And
Speaker 8: I remember thinking, like there's so much grief and loss
Speaker 8: everybody's because in sports, especially combat sports, you get a
Speaker 8: limited amount of time. The average career length of a
Speaker 8: running backs four years, so every minute does count. And
Speaker 8: somebody said to me, the reason football so special is
Speaker 8: it's you know, in high school, it's ten ten Friday nights.
Speaker 8: You know, that's it, that's what you get. You might
Speaker 8: get eighty two games in a basketball season, but football
Speaker 8: is like fifteen, sixteen games now or eight I think
Speaker 8: it's up to eighteen now. But like it was, it's
Speaker 8: just so limited. It's so it's so delicious because it's
Speaker 8: so rare. And then and Tom gave us that he
Speaker 8: could play because they were independent, and they played good opponents,
Speaker 8: and they played and they played well. And I think
Speaker 8: it was I remember thinking I talked to him. I
Speaker 8: did an interview with him in a story for the
Speaker 8: Desert News. But I remember, you know, talking with him
Speaker 8: throughout that and it was a terrifying, stressful. I can't
Speaker 8: imagine being an ad during COVID, right, but he said,
Speaker 8: we have to make money. They laid people off dream
Speaker 8: as everyone did, right, But he was like, we have
Speaker 8: to figure this out. We have to navigate it. Because
Speaker 8: they didn't have anybody to rely on. They had this
Speaker 8: like creative innovative ability and opportunity that other teams didn't
Speaker 8: because they were in a conference. The conference dictated what happened. Yeah,
Speaker 8: and I think that led to them being seen in
Speaker 8: a way that maybe they hadn't been seen.
Speaker 2: It also helps that they're writing very big checks to
Speaker 2: attract talent.
Speaker 8: No no, I think, no, listen, But I think that
Speaker 8: was it was like, look at this invest Look how
Speaker 8: well they look at these uptas. Right, So then you
Speaker 8: have these people who want to get on board with us.
Speaker 8: The nil thing comes out that next year. The settlement
Speaker 8: takes beers, but you know this is going to be
Speaker 8: an opportunity. The collective started forming, I think at twenty
Speaker 8: twenty two, right, yeah, so I just think that that
Speaker 8: there were just again a few alignments, but like I
Speaker 8: went from like this is a worst mistake anyone's ever
Speaker 8: made to being like genius. Yeah, you know, and also
Speaker 8: you know Domino's fall in your favor too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that happens. That's our time. This is not a podcast. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: we do have to break to keep the lights on. Amy,
Speaker 2: It's always great to see you. We'll see you soon, okay, Yeah,
Speaker 2: for sure, our friend Amy Donaldson from case we've missed her,
Speaker 2: it's been too long.
Speaker 1: ESPN seven hundred.
Speaker 2: Welcome is Maroon five to the Delta Center coming up
Speaker 2: on October the twenty fifth Tickets go on sale on
Speaker 2: June twenty seventh. Well, anybody who thought the Memphis Grizzlies
Speaker 2: we're breaking it all.
Speaker 1: Down is not correct.
Speaker 2: Jaron Jackson Junior five years, two hundred and forty million dollars,
Speaker 2: an extension to stay with Memphis. Free agency and pro
Speaker 2: basketball began today. The Jazz made a couple of minor
Speaker 2: transactions will tell you about.
Speaker 1: Let's do a little RSL.
Speaker 2: The team's been playing better, man, turn around a little bit.
Speaker 1: We got four points in the past two games.
Speaker 2: We've got a really busy July, both on and off
Speaker 2: the field, and always fun to catch up with our
Speaker 2: guy Kurt Schmidt on a Monday afternoon. Kurt, Happy Monday, man.
Speaker 3: How are we doing doing well?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 6: How are you?
Speaker 1: I'm well, I'm well.
Speaker 2: So do you feel like the past couple of matches
Speaker 2: you guys have played better or things just kind of
Speaker 2: evening evening out. You just kind of continue to do
Speaker 2: what you do and you're actually getting some uh some
Speaker 2: some better luck.
Speaker 1: I guess is how I'll put that.
Speaker 3: No, I do.
Speaker 6: I do think we're playing a bit better. The guys
Speaker 6: are playing with a little more confidence. Yeah, I think
Speaker 6: it's I think it is getting better now.
Speaker 1: Johnny Russell Kurt, uh.
Speaker 2: You know, we've talked a lot about his pedigree in
Speaker 2: Major League Soccer and then the story where he just
Speaker 2: didn't have a club for a minute and you guys
Speaker 2: were able to grab him. And every week I check
Speaker 2: in with Pablo when he joined the show.
Speaker 1: How's it going. Is he getting fit?
Speaker 2: Is he getting acclimated and now we've got.
Speaker 1: A couple of straight games where he's been able to
Speaker 1: tally a goal.
Speaker 2: What do you what are you seeing from your your
Speaker 2: one of the acquisitions you made from.
Speaker 1: Sporting k C.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think he just adds a bit of quality
Speaker 6: and experience to the front line that that we didn't
Speaker 6: really have. You know, we were pretty young in the
Speaker 6: attack right now, and he's obviously a guy who's been
Speaker 6: around the block, who knows the league well. He has
Speaker 6: a bit of calm employees and in those critical moments,
Speaker 6: you know, and yeah, like his fitness is still coming
Speaker 6: along as match fitness. You know, he played a half
Speaker 6: the one game he played. I think he got to
Speaker 6: sixty the second game, so you know he's coming along.
Speaker 6: But obviously he's shown what he has in those critical
Speaker 6: moments in the attacking third.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine what that must feel like.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm sure he has a lot of different
Speaker 2: emotions about Sporting k C because it was home for
Speaker 2: so long, and also from what I understand, the end
Speaker 2: wasn't what he was preferring.
Speaker 1: But what what do you what do you think that was?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: Man going up there and scoring in front of those
Speaker 2: those fans where he used to play at such a
Speaker 2: high level.
Speaker 6: I mean, I don't think guys, guys who play at
Speaker 6: this level ever feel bad about scoring a goal, no
Speaker 6: matter who they're playing for or who they're playing again.
Speaker 6: So it was respectful. I think how he you know,
Speaker 6: how he celebrated after the fact, and you know, didn't
Speaker 6: want to, didn't want to insult the fans there. But yeah,
Speaker 6: I never never seen a professional at that level be
Speaker 6: sorry about scoring a goal against anybody, So I'm sure
Speaker 6: he enjoyed it just fine.
Speaker 1: I thought it was a really cool moment.
Speaker 2: So if we panned back just away from Johnny and
Speaker 2: I'll just give you the space, how do you feel
Speaker 2: like you guys have been able to keep the ship
Speaker 2: aflow with Diego, with the with the national team in
Speaker 2: the attack, who do you feel like you stepped up?
Speaker 6: I think the last couple of games, I think Jogo
Speaker 6: stepped into the void and added some quality minutes. Obviously, Johnny,
Speaker 6: with the production the last two games, has has shipped
Speaker 6: in and helped us. You know, obviously Gozo's continued to
Speaker 6: grow into the role more and more as a young player,
Speaker 6: and you know he still needs that that common poison
Speaker 6: in the final third. But I mean, the guy works
Speaker 6: so hard that that's not a question of if that comes,
Speaker 6: but just when you know. So, I think those guys
Speaker 6: have stepped up a lot, and you know, Willie and
Speaker 6: Ari come in up top and give him some hard work.
Speaker 6: But yeah, I think all those all four of those
Speaker 6: guys or anyone who's played those four positions, have actually
Speaker 6: stepped up and tried to pick up the.
Speaker 2: Slack since we brought up Diego. Of course, he is
Speaker 2: with the national team for the Gold Cup experience and
Speaker 2: continues to be a real bridespot.
Speaker 1: Kurt.
Speaker 2: I wonder what your impressions have been as you've watched
Speaker 2: him play throughout this tournament.
Speaker 6: I think he's been fantastic for them, you know. And again,
Speaker 6: I think we talked about this in the past, but
Speaker 6: he's got something just a little bit different, I think
Speaker 6: than the normal cast of characters in the national team has,
Speaker 6: which is the responsibility to carry the team, to know,
Speaker 6: you know, to produce and perform for the team. Where
Speaker 6: he knows that everyone's counting on him and there's a
Speaker 6: little bit more pressure on him where some guys playing
Speaker 6: at you know, some of the club's top clubs in
Speaker 6: Europe don't have that as much in their club environment,
Speaker 6: in their day to day environment. And so when you
Speaker 6: when you see Diego play for the national thing, you
Speaker 6: see obviously a really good player that has qualities on
Speaker 6: the ball that will track back and defend, but you
Speaker 6: see his his passion and his energy and his I
Speaker 6: guess his will to win is something that makes him
Speaker 6: stand out. I think head and shoulders above anyone he's
Speaker 6: you know, he's playing with now, but even you know,
Speaker 6: when he was in the last camp with some of
Speaker 6: the bigger names, you know, I think he stands out
Speaker 6: in that group as well.
Speaker 2: I honestly do not even know the answer to this question,
Speaker 2: hence why I'm asking you. But I've never even it's
Speaker 2: never really dawned on me. How How connected are you
Speaker 2: guys to Diego when he's with the national team?
Speaker 1: Are you calling?
Speaker 2: Are you checking in his Pablo calling? What's that dynamic
Speaker 2: like when he's away?
Speaker 6: Yeah, a little a little bit of everything. Obviously, you
Speaker 6: know he's with them, and he's busy, and they you know,
Speaker 6: they're they're playing, you know, in tournament soccer, they're playing
Speaker 6: games every few days, so there's not a ton of
Speaker 6: downtime to just chat with them. You know, I don't
Speaker 6: know how much Pombo spoken with them. I've checked in
Speaker 6: with him a few times, and you know, seems like
Speaker 6: he's enjoying the experience.
Speaker 2: I do wonder what the hope is as far as
Speaker 2: and maybe a lot of this is intangible, because I
Speaker 2: would imagine just playing on the stage with the national team,
Speaker 2: getting starts, getting minutes, being able to provide services and
Speaker 2: provide dangerous chances and scoring chances. I would imagine the intangibles,
Speaker 2: you know, things like confidence. But Diego doesn't lack confidence
Speaker 2: at all. I just wonder what sort of you know,
Speaker 2: from the club perspective when you're players with the country.
Speaker 2: What's the hope when he comes back as far as
Speaker 2: what he's ascertained from the experience.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean confidence is a big part of it.
Speaker 6: Anytime you're playing well, no matter what team you're playing for,
Speaker 6: no matter what competition it's in, it gives you confidence
Speaker 6: to carry into the next game, wherever that may be.
Speaker 6: I think part of it is also as you step
Speaker 6: up in levels you know in the game, whether it's
Speaker 6: obviously from youth to professional to you know, college, however,
Speaker 6: you want to graduate those levels. You know, speed of play,
Speaker 6: speed of thought, all that stuff. The space you have shrinks,
Speaker 6: the speed of place increases, and so you know when
Speaker 6: you're playing with the NAS team and you're thinking that
Speaker 6: much faster, and you become accustomed to that, and then
Speaker 6: you come to this level where maybe things aren't quite
Speaker 6: happening just as fast as they were with the national team.
Speaker 6: The game slows down for him for a little bit
Speaker 6: at least, and you know, he can see things a
Speaker 6: little quicker, and he'll seem like he's playing at a
Speaker 6: different different speed to everyone else maybe sometimes, And it
Speaker 6: feels that way even as a player, when you step
Speaker 6: down levels and you have a little more time and
Speaker 6: space to make your decisions.
Speaker 1: I certainly have not done the research on this.
Speaker 2: I'm sure our guy Gerald knows, but I don't recall
Speaker 2: a mid season month in my history being around this
Speaker 2: club where you on the we had two matches. I
Speaker 2: understand their scheduling stuff with some of the other cups,
Speaker 2: a lot of cups got to keep track of all
Speaker 2: the cups. What's it like from a front office perspective
Speaker 2: when you have an entire month with only two games?
Speaker 2: How does that change? The way that you go about
Speaker 2: your business, and did you did you, guys use the
Speaker 2: space at all to maybe accomplish something you wouldn't have
Speaker 2: been able to if you were as busy as you're
Speaker 2: about to be in July.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the I mean the players had a mandatory break
Speaker 6: in there as well, so they hopefully got to refresh
Speaker 6: themselves a bit and get the refocus now on the
Speaker 6: second half of the season. You know, from our standpoint,
Speaker 6: I think it's it was. It was maybe good for
Speaker 6: us and where we were at now. I I whenever
Speaker 6: we don't get the result we want, you know, I
Speaker 6: always want the next game to be as soon as possible,
Speaker 6: right You want to get that taste out of your
Speaker 6: mouth right away. So coming off of the game in
Speaker 6: LA wasn't ideal maybe to have two weeks off, but
Speaker 6: you know, slowing the pace down a little bit of
Speaker 6: the season I think helped Sot's get our legs under
Speaker 6: us a bit and obviously put together two pretty good
Speaker 6: performances so far in June, and I hope that we
Speaker 6: can keep it going this weekend and get another three points,
Speaker 6: have you guys?
Speaker 2: And Pablo dropped some math on us last week as
Speaker 2: far as you know, points per game at home what
Speaker 2: you need to get over the line that he believes
Speaker 2: you need to get over to make the postseason. But
Speaker 2: if I'm looking at this right, it looks like you've
Speaker 2: got seven of the next eight games at home, with
Speaker 2: only a trip to Portland up to Providence Park in
Speaker 2: between a bunch of home matches. I mean, obviously, Kurt,
Speaker 2: I know you want to win every game. I'm not
Speaker 2: going to ask you if you would like to win
Speaker 2: all of these games, but have you done loose calculations
Speaker 2: as far as what you need to do home and
Speaker 2: away to get you close to that point line where
Speaker 2: you're going to need to be if you want to
Speaker 2: make the playoffs.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Look, I think we've got to do what we
Speaker 6: did in June, right and maximize our points at home
Speaker 6: and collect some points on the road when we go
Speaker 6: there and make sure that we're tough to beat. We're
Speaker 6: still you know, we're still at a stage where we
Speaker 6: can we can do that and get there, and I
Speaker 6: think the confidence of the group and the optimism within
Speaker 6: the group is appropriate to that.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 6: You know, again, we've got a chunk of games at home,
Speaker 6: like you said, and it's always there's something psychological about that, right,
Speaker 6: that's a little bit different on the road, whether it's
Speaker 6: confidence or comfort or whatever it might be. But the
Speaker 6: boys know what they need to do here in our
Speaker 6: home stadium, all right.
Speaker 2: So the secondary summer transfer window opens July the twenty fourth, Kurt,
Speaker 2: Just in case you didn't know that, I'm letting you know,
Speaker 2: so July the twenty fourth. I've never asked you this
Speaker 2: question before, and maybe there's nothing here. What's the main
Speaker 2: difference between the primary transfer window and the secondary transfer window?
Speaker 2: Are there different mechanisms dad to the group or is
Speaker 2: it just like all right, these are just the two
Speaker 2: windows and essentially it's the same thing.
Speaker 6: I mean, there's there's no like rules, regulations. I guess
Speaker 6: that really differ greatly between them. I think the big
Speaker 6: difference for us is the given the timing of our
Speaker 6: season being offset to the European calendar, is the summer
Speaker 6: window is sometimes the bigger window. There's a larger pool
Speaker 6: of potential free agents available. There's more teams looking to
Speaker 6: make broader changes within their squad, so you know, even
Speaker 6: for for transfer fees, there's more players available and on
Speaker 6: the market, teams are a little more able and willing
Speaker 6: to let guys go at maybe more favorable prices than
Speaker 6: they are for us in our off season, which is
Speaker 6: the January window in Europe, and it's the middle of
Speaker 6: their season where sometimes a little bit harder to pry
Speaker 6: a guy loose in the middle of a European season.
Speaker 6: So as it relates to Europe, there's a lot of
Speaker 6: differences in terms of availability and you know, and that's
Speaker 6: buying as well as selling. You know, that's the summer
Speaker 6: windows just a bigger market in Europe and South America,
Speaker 6: there's a little bit of that, but it's it's a
Speaker 6: lot less impactful as it is in the players coming
Speaker 6: out of Europe. So that's sort of the big, big difference.
Speaker 2: Are you allowed again, I honestly just don't know, because
Speaker 2: I'm juxtaposing this to other sports where you're not supposed
Speaker 2: to talk to players or it's tampering if they're under contract,
Speaker 2: or you know, you can't make contract offers unless it's
Speaker 2: in a certain time, or else you could get doc
Speaker 2: draft picks during the moments on the calendar, during the
Speaker 2: stretches on the calendar where neither the primary or secondary
Speaker 2: window are open. Are you allowed to contact players and
Speaker 2: agents and negotiate.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you're you're allowed to make those approaches and obviously
Speaker 6: negotiate those deals, and you'll see teams and now and steals,
Speaker 6: you know, before the window opens. And you know, technically
Speaker 6: that's what we do in the winter window as well,
Speaker 6: because our window actually, even though we call it the
Speaker 6: January windows, sometimes it doesn't actually open till February, you know,
Speaker 6: So that's all the signings we make in the off
Speaker 6: season are our signings announced before the window opens typically,
Speaker 6: So yeah, you're allowed to have those conversations and do
Speaker 6: those things, and largely because the windows are different everywhere,
Speaker 6: so you know, the relevant window is the window of
Speaker 6: the league where the player is going. So for us
Speaker 6: to sign a player, the relevant window is ours. But
Speaker 6: if we're selling a player, then the relevant window is
Speaker 6: wherever he's going. So everyone's on different windows and different timelines.
Speaker 6: So yeah, it's always sort of free moving.
Speaker 1: Gotcha, all right?
Speaker 2: So safe to say you currently are in contact and
Speaker 2: negotiating with potential additions for the secondary window this summer.
Speaker 6: Safe to say, safe to say correct.
Speaker 1: Okay, what are the priorities?
Speaker 2: What are we prioritizing and do you have a loose
Speaker 2: idea of when we could actually hear announcements of additions
Speaker 2: on the way.
Speaker 6: I do not have a loose idea for you. I'll
Speaker 6: leave that to Gerald as far as the Mounts sense.
Speaker 6: But no, look, I think we're looking for some help
Speaker 6: in the attack, but we're also looking to add a
Speaker 6: little bit of experience to the team. We're a young team,
Speaker 6: so adding you know, obviously we did that with Johnny,
Speaker 6: but adding another veteran piece I think could help us,
Speaker 6: help solidify us a little bit. So we're looking and
Speaker 6: we're looking to add a little more team speed. So
Speaker 6: those are sort of three of the things that we're
Speaker 6: looking to add in the summer window.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like you are close to deals?
Speaker 2: Do you feel like you have targets you have identified
Speaker 2: and the conversations are progressing where you feel confident that
Speaker 2: you're going to get a couple across the line.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean maybe I'm cynical or pessimistic, so I
Speaker 6: won't ever say I feel good until the deal is
Speaker 6: actually done. But no, we're we're progressing on a few
Speaker 6: different fronts, and you know, nothing's nothing signed yet, obviously,
Speaker 6: but I think we're we're getting closer and closer.
Speaker 1: You do have a new ownership group.
Speaker 2: I wonder what sort of messaging comes from them to
Speaker 2: you about how you'll approach this window. That's different maybe
Speaker 2: than past owners that you've.
Speaker 6: Worked with, I mean against. I don't know if it's different,
Speaker 6: but obviously they've been very supportive, and honestly, the messaging
Speaker 6: from them is just you know, it sounds obvious, right,
Speaker 6: but be good when you know, improve the team, and
Speaker 6: you know there's not I know there's been a lot
Speaker 6: of stuff in the in the marketplace about you know,
Speaker 6: selling players and this and that and whatnot. But I
Speaker 6: think the primary objective, whether it's young players, old players,
Speaker 6: buying players, selling players, the primary objective is how to
Speaker 6: to serve the team, you know, to be successful in MLS.
Speaker 6: And as long as we're serving that objective, than those
Speaker 6: are the right news to make. And that's the support
Speaker 6: that ownership has given us.
Speaker 2: It's it's interesting, Kurt, to consider just the background of
Speaker 2: the Miller family and their longtime stewardship over the Utah
Speaker 2: Jazz and the fact that they do come from the
Speaker 2: world of pro basketball. And I will admit, I mean
Speaker 2: I when I started learning about soccer and MLS and
Speaker 2: roster construction and different mechanisms. It's almost like learning a
Speaker 2: different language. It there aren't a ton I mean, look,
Speaker 2: talent identification, negotiation, there are evergreen trades to building teams.
Speaker 1: And other sports.
Speaker 2: But soccer is just a lot different than basketball. I
Speaker 2: wonder what sort of dynamic that's brought as far as
Speaker 2: the Millers needing to learn what MLS is, what soccer is,
Speaker 2: you know, as opposed to you know how they have
Speaker 2: made a name for themselves, and that is owning a
Speaker 2: pro basketball team and doing it at a very high level.
Speaker 1: For a long time.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, look, the numbers are certainly different, you know,
Speaker 6: smaller often with MLS relative to you know, some of
Speaker 6: the other big sports in the in in this country,
Speaker 6: NBA obviously, you know, NFL, whatever might be MLB. But
Speaker 6: but apart from that, I think one of the biggest,
Speaker 6: the biggest thing for someone new to the game draft
Speaker 6: Their head around is often just the source of players,
Speaker 6: where you know, in those other sports, your your source
Speaker 6: of players is so domestic. The draft is so important.
Speaker 6: You know, you can make or bake your franchise in
Speaker 6: one or two draft years. You know, all the best
Speaker 6: players in the world are sort of known and in
Speaker 6: this place and in MLS, And part of it is
Speaker 6: because of the way where our league sits in sort
Speaker 6: of the global hierarchy, but also the popularity and how
Speaker 6: pervasive the sport is throughout the world. You know, our
Speaker 6: pool of players is nearly endless, and the pool of
Speaker 6: players that can improve our team is vast, and you know,
Speaker 6: it's there's no one source, there's no one place to
Speaker 6: go to get the guy that can solve your problems.
Speaker 6: You can go here, and if that doesn't work, you
Speaker 6: can go there, and if that doesn't work, you can
Speaker 6: go somewhere else. And I think that's something that's a
Speaker 6: little bit tougher to wrap your head around is you know,
Speaker 6: you've got lists of players and one guy might be
Speaker 6: from Europe, all night from South America, one guy might
Speaker 6: be from Africa, and you're deciding between those three. And
Speaker 6: you know, obviously it presents some challenges from a scouting standpoint,
Speaker 6: as you're comparing all these different leagues next to each
Speaker 6: other and how they might translate what that looks like
Speaker 6: in MLS, But it also has some advantages because again,
Speaker 6: the talent pool that you have to recruit from is
Speaker 6: pretty best.
Speaker 2: Tell me about Saint Louis. I just had the standings
Speaker 2: pulled up. They're beneath you, and the standings fifteen points,
Speaker 2: three eleven and six minus twelve goal differential. I know
Speaker 2: we're supposed to say all these teams are dangerous, Kurt,
Speaker 2: but it's getting to the point of the season where
Speaker 2: a team but below you on the table rolls into
Speaker 2: your building.
Speaker 1: You need to get go, get all three. So what
Speaker 1: do they do well? How do you? How do you
Speaker 1: get it done? Coming up this weekend?
Speaker 6: Yeah, all these teams are dangerous since but not to
Speaker 6: rehash the cliches, but you know, any team that we
Speaker 6: play below us, above us, you know, other conference doesn't matter.
Speaker 6: You know, we need to get the three points at home.
Speaker 6: They're below is, but they started out rough and they've
Speaker 6: made a coaching change that's given a few guys a
Speaker 6: new lease on life. Who are who are playing at
Speaker 6: a different level lately. So it's it's just you know, yeah,
Speaker 6: plays right into your cliche. All these teams are dangerous,
Speaker 6: and in MLS, you know, the gap from team to
Speaker 6: team is not as big from just a pure talent standpoint,
Speaker 6: so a lot comes down to the execution on the day.
Speaker 2: Last thing before I said you lose, we had Tony
Speaker 2: hop on last week. It was really fun to learn
Speaker 2: about these U sixteen kids who have set history.
Speaker 1: They've made history.
Speaker 2: They became the first club to win Generation Adidas and
Speaker 2: MLS Next Cup. And look, most of the attention, of
Speaker 2: course is on the senior team. That's who people pay
Speaker 2: to go see, That's who people know. But if you
Speaker 2: can continue to develop these young players at this level,
Speaker 2: it will only pay dividends for you down the road.
Speaker 2: So last thing BEFOREY said you lose, provide a little
Speaker 2: color and context to what this accomplishment means and your
Speaker 2: thoughts on this academy squad.
Speaker 6: I think it's just a testament to the boys and
Speaker 6: the work they put in, and obviously the work that
Speaker 6: the staff has put in, you know, from obviously Tony,
Speaker 6: you know Jordan, those guys have done a great job
Speaker 6: with those teams. The recruitment side, you know, John Spencer,
Speaker 6: Matt Hayes, those guys have done a great job of
Speaker 6: bringing the talent in and just the dedication that all
Speaker 6: those guys and people that I'm you know, I'm not
Speaker 6: naming right now. I don't want to go through the
Speaker 6: whole thing, but that they've put into it, and so
Speaker 6: I think that they take that very seriously, which is
Speaker 6: which is great, and getting talent into the club is
Speaker 6: really really important to do what we want to do,
Speaker 6: which is to be that that have that focus on
Speaker 6: development and bringing players through and making sure that we've
Speaker 6: got a steady pipeline of young talent coming through. I
Speaker 6: think when you know, that's what this club has been
Speaker 6: before I got here, justin Glads and Aaron Herreras and
Speaker 6: Brooks Lenin's and all these guys, richardly Desmas and the
Speaker 6: Booth Brothers, those guys that some guys aren't even here.
Speaker 6: But there was a gap in the pipeline when I
Speaker 6: got here. There wasn't you know, it hadn't been I
Speaker 6: guess stocked appropriately. The recruitment wasn't there when I got here,
Speaker 6: But I think it was something we focused on a
Speaker 6: lot right after I got here. Wanted to that felt
Speaker 6: like the lowest hanging fruit is to get the right
Speaker 6: kids into that pipeline early. And now that group is
Speaker 6: mature ring and actually a lot of that group is
Speaker 6: now in the in the eighteens and not part of
Speaker 6: the sixteens group. But you see guys like you know,
Speaker 6: Gozo and Aidan hether Kanyi that are in that age
Speaker 6: group that are starting to matriculate to the first team.
Speaker 6: And with these guys the U sixteen group, you know,
Speaker 6: that's what we expected them over the next one two
Speaker 6: three years is to see which of these guys are
Speaker 6: going to be the next you know, the next goes
Speaker 6: to the next aid and the next Gavin Beavers or
Speaker 6: whatever have you.
Speaker 1: All right, my man, well, I appreciate the time.
Speaker 2: Congrats on a couple of good results, and go get
Speaker 2: it done this weekend.
Speaker 6: All right, all right, thanks kurch Schmidt.
Speaker 1: Kurch Schmid. RSL will be back in action.
Speaker 2: A light schedule for them in June that only included
Speaker 2: two matches.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: They beat DC United to nil and then went up
Speaker 2: to Case and got a draw one one.
Speaker 1: Saint Louis is in town coming up this weekend.
Speaker 2: Then it will be Houston, a quick roady to Portland
Speaker 2: and then home games against Cincinnati San Jose.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: In addition, oh then there it's the uh the Week's Cup.
Speaker 2: A lot of cups, a lot of cups in the
Speaker 2: Sport League's cut, A bunch of games at home. Though
Speaker 2: for ourself, if you didn't get a chance to get
Speaker 2: out and to see him in June, you'll have a
Speaker 2: lot of opportunities. Now that July is here, we're about
Speaker 2: to turn our calendar to July tomorrow. Look, Karen Carpenter
Speaker 2: is a boys straight from God. I'm not knocking on her,
Speaker 2: but what this is such a depressing, sad way to
Speaker 2: end an otherwise energetic, fun radio show.
Speaker 1: What are we doing here?
Speaker 4: I think my take on sad songs like this, uh huh,
Speaker 4: it's a Monday song. It's the main thing. My take
Speaker 4: on sad songs like this as they you know, they
Speaker 4: actually make you feel better, right because you're singing about
Speaker 4: rainy days and mondays.
Speaker 1: Okay, but you're you know, you're creating some art.
Speaker 4: So it's yeah, there's a lot of sad songs, but
Speaker 4: they're not necessarily sad on their face, So I don't think.
Speaker 1: It's like a healthy, energetic artistic expression.
Speaker 4: You're getting the sad out by using words and melodies,
Speaker 4: all right?
Speaker 1: Is that fair? Yeah?
Speaker 2: No, I see the logic. It just really is such
Speaker 2: a sad, depressing song. But maybe we're exercising some demons.
Speaker 2: I am ready to go home.
Speaker 1: And go to bed.
Speaker 2: Your boy had a little bit of a aggressively exciting weekend.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, listen, I had a buddy's wedding this weekend.
Speaker 1: Nice, I get it. I get it. I also had
Speaker 1: a long weekend, a lot of golf, a lot of sun,
Speaker 1: and now it's time for some sleep.
Speaker 8: I mean.
Speaker 1: And we've been working together long enough.
Speaker 2: You know, when I do the Portland thing, the flight
Speaker 2: lands like twenty minutes.
Speaker 1: Before the show starts. I'll just say you miss cross talk.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 2: I got here for the very end, but we only
Speaker 2: did like thirty seconds of it because I wasn't sure
Speaker 2: if I was going to get here by two. We
Speaker 2: sat on the tarmac. I was very patient and kind
Speaker 2: and respectful, as you would expect from somebody like me.
Speaker 1: I had to wait for the I love sitting on
Speaker 1: the tarmac. By the way, There's.
Speaker 2: Nothing worse, dude, There's nothing worse when you're looking around
Speaker 2: like what are we doing here? So I had to
Speaker 2: land scramble get to the show. Luckily, free agency the
Speaker 2: story with Ret's laugh and BYU there's a lot of
Speaker 2: stuff to get to. What's your take on this stuff?
Speaker 2: Down in provo with Jake and how this kind of
Speaker 2: has all gone down. I haven't got your thoughts on
Speaker 2: this today.
Speaker 4: I mean, obviously not a fun situation to cover. Like you,
Speaker 4: it's the last thing in sports that I care to
Speaker 4: cover in that way. Right on our code stuff, it
Speaker 4: takes on a new and different tone right when there's
Speaker 4: assault allegations and the like. So that is obviously first
Speaker 4: and foremost the focus of the situation is getting the
Speaker 4: facts out, getting the.
Speaker 1: The specifics out.
Speaker 4: Now, the funny thing there is we may never know
Speaker 4: because what was figured out today Spence, is that not
Speaker 4: only has the suit been dropped or dismissed, it was
Speaker 4: a joint dismissal. Right, so Jake and the accuser together
Speaker 4: filed a dismissal, a joint dismissal, meaning yeah, as you
Speaker 4: alluded to, there's probably some sort of settlement behind the
Speaker 4: scenes in some form. We won't know whatever happened there.
Speaker 4: So now we move on to the rest of the story,
Speaker 4: which is an honor code violation, something that doesn't really
Speaker 4: happen at many other schools anywhere else. They all have
Speaker 4: team rules, they all have their you know, different coaches
Speaker 4: who set curfews or the like it's a little unique
Speaker 4: there in Provo, And you know, you don't really blame
Speaker 4: the kid for wanting to find a different situation when
Speaker 4: you're gonna miss half or more of the season ahead
Speaker 4: of you. I think that you probably got some words
Speaker 4: of encouragement to maybe look elsewhere as well. And I
Speaker 4: can also back up some reporting over the weekend that
Speaker 4: Jake was shopping around and shopping around to schools that
Speaker 4: you very much are familiar with. So it's a really
Speaker 4: you know, it's an interesting story that's kind of got
Speaker 4: all of it as far as the Utah sports scene.
Speaker 4: But at the end of it all this dial into
Speaker 4: the football. He's gonna have to find a new place
Speaker 4: to play. B Yu is gonna have to find someone
Speaker 4: to play quarterback and do so quickly. And you know,
Speaker 4: hopefully the rest of the people involved in that situation
Speaker 4: can find some closure and move on with it in
Speaker 4: hopefully some privacy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's well said.
Speaker 2: All right, before we say good night, The Denver Nuggets
Speaker 2: are making some moves.
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior, an.
Speaker 2: Unprotected twenty thirty two first round pick that's always risky,
Speaker 2: goes to the Brooklyn Nets. Cam Johnson who I really
Speaker 2: like a lot is now at Denver. Nugget and Denver
Speaker 2: just brought back Bruce Brown, who played really well for
Speaker 2: them when they won the championship in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2: Great off ball cutter, he's great with Jokic. I like
Speaker 2: what Denver's done. There's a lot going on. Jazz trade
Speaker 2: Colin Sexton a Charlotte. They buy out Jordan Clarkson, guarantee
Speaker 2: speed mkay Luke's contract this year. It'll be a long
Speaker 2: year for the Jazz, But NBA free agency is always fun,
Speaker 2: all right, Porta, before we get out of here, what
Speaker 2: comes away?
Speaker 1: On a Tuesday edition of the show.
Speaker 4: On a Tuesday edition of The Drive, we'll discuss what
Speaker 4: we just did a little bit more in depth with
Speaker 4: our friend Kyle Bonnagura. Of course, offseason football and the
Speaker 4: latest on the drama in Provo. Tim McMahon stops by
Speaker 4: for your NBA Daily Assist, and it's going to be
Speaker 4: a heavy hoops show from there on out. Smitty in
Speaker 4: studio for an entire hour, and then the afore mentioned
Speaker 4: Sarah Todd, whose reporting has been on point over the
Speaker 4: last several days and the last week in Jazz and
Speaker 4: Draft stuff. She joins the show to finish us off
Speaker 4: on a Tuesday.
Speaker 2: Very nice, that'll be a fun Tuesday show. Join us
Speaker 2: for that special Thank you today to Tim Bontems, Tom Haberstrow,
Speaker 2: Amy Donaldson and Kurt Schmid for to the sound you
Speaker 2: may have missed from the show. Website is ESPN seven
Speaker 2: hundred sports dot com. Make sure to download our mobile
Speaker 2: app and take us on the go. The ESPN seven
Speaker 2: hundred up is available in the App Store in the
Speaker 2: Google play Store. And then, finally, for what we do
Speaker 2: in our space every afternoon for four hours, check out
Speaker 2: our podcast page.
Speaker 1: It's called The Drive with Spence. Check its. It's available
Speaker 1: wherever you get your shows.
Speaker 2: Subscribe, rate, review sand Ie Things in the comments, give
Speaker 2: us all the stars of helps for porter. I'm Spence
Speaker 2: saying I have a great Monday evening. We'll talk to
Speaker 2: you on a Tuesday Drive as always. You can catch
Speaker 2: it right here on ESPN seven hundred ninety twe FFM.
Speaker 2: We are proud to be part of Utah's ESPN Radio network.