Speaker 1: Big Week Man Big Week Utah BYU football. Of course,
Speaker 1: it's funny to hear the different time frames of what
Speaker 1: both universities considered to be the start of the rivalry.
Speaker 1: EYU does not count the first number of years because
Speaker 1: they lost all of those games. BYU's the presidential candidate
Speaker 1: that calls voter fraud when they lose and celebrates when
Speaker 1: they win.
Speaker 2: Utah is a different timeline.
Speaker 1: It's just it's a different thing altogether, which is pretty interesting.
Speaker 2: The Jazz are in action tonight as well.
Speaker 1: Our next guest covers the Jazz, the Nuggets, the NBA,
Speaker 1: the draft, a bunch of stuff for the athletic But
Speaker 1: once upon a time was a humble beat reporter for
Speaker 1: Utah football, so we have some good perspective on everything.
Speaker 2: Tony Jones on a Thursday, what's up to yo, yo?
Speaker 1: I'm good man, all right, So let's get a little
Speaker 1: Utah BYU stuff from you, as a resident of our state,
Speaker 1: as somebody who's covered both these teams. What's this week
Speaker 1: bring for you? Like memory of covering these robbery games?
Speaker 1: What does b YU Utah football mean for Tony Jones?
Speaker 3: I mean it's one of the apexes in college football
Speaker 3: one of the best traditional ribbraries in college football. It's
Speaker 3: it's certainly, you know, a week that everybody looks to
Speaker 3: around here and locally, and you know, it's it's one
Speaker 3: of the it was a shame when the rivalry went away,
Speaker 3: and I'm glad it's back, and you know, these are
Speaker 3: these are are the weeks that that everybody This is
Speaker 3: the week that kind of everybody in the state looks
Speaker 3: looks towards the jobs. The Utah Jazz they galvanized the state.
Speaker 3: But I mean other than the Utah Jazz, I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, the state is pretty much you know, factioned
Speaker 3: in the too, like are you you know with the
Speaker 3: team down south or you with the team up north?
Speaker 3: And you know, it's it's it's definitely one of the
Speaker 3: crown jewels of every college football season for me.
Speaker 1: So as I've been talking about, based off the data
Speaker 1: that we have, if both of these teams on Saturday
Speaker 1: do what they've done so far this year, it could
Speaker 1: get bad for Utah. Now the rivalry game brings an
Speaker 1: interesting wrinkle. The line is three by us, a three
Speaker 1: point favorite. What's your guy tell you? What do you
Speaker 1: think we're gonna see you.
Speaker 3: Know, you know, I think my head tells me that
Speaker 3: you know, this is a two touchdown game. I just
Speaker 3: you know, I mean, Utah can't score. They haven't been
Speaker 3: able to score all year. BYU scores and not only
Speaker 3: does BYU score BYU stop.
Speaker 2: Shoot.
Speaker 3: You know, that's one of the that's legitimately one of
Speaker 3: the best defenses in college football. And you know, if
Speaker 3: Jay Hill's not up for some awards at the end
Speaker 3: of the season, something is wrong. And at Jay Hill
Speaker 3: isn't up for for some for some head coaching gigs
Speaker 3: at the end of the season, something is wrong. He
Speaker 3: is completely turned around that defense and he has made
Speaker 3: that defense of one season one of the best defenses
Speaker 3: in college football. They fly around, they get after you
Speaker 3: up front, they have a great, great, great linebacking corps,
Speaker 3: and they have one of the better secondaries, uh in
Speaker 3: the Big twelve. Certainly it's not college football. So you
Speaker 3: know they it's it's a bad matchup if you're Utah.
Speaker 3: You know, if we're looking at the tape that that
Speaker 3: Isaac Wilson is is put on tape uh for for
Speaker 3: this season. Uh, because you know that defenses is rough
Speaker 3: on quarterbacks anyway, and you know what I've seen of
Speaker 3: Isaac Wilson is that you know, he hasn't read the field,
Speaker 3: he doesn't make reads as well, he doesn't see the
Speaker 3: field as well. Those are some of those are typical freshmen,
Speaker 3: uh freshman issues. But at the same time, you know
Speaker 3: that that seems like a bad matchup. But on the
Speaker 3: other hand, you know, the rivalry teends that to do
Speaker 3: things that you know, even when the matchups the last
Speaker 3: lot is on paper, you know, these games tend to
Speaker 3: end up close. So I'm hoping for, you know, a
Speaker 3: close game either way down the stretch. But you know,
Speaker 3: obviously this is this is a game that not only
Speaker 3: has huge implications locally, but it has huge implications in
Speaker 3: terms of the Big Twelve, and it has huge big
Speaker 3: implications nationally as well.
Speaker 1: Last thing, then we'll get to some jazz, because I'm
Speaker 1: really curious and I do think this rivalry has gained
Speaker 1: a lot of attention that it didn't have prior to
Speaker 1: But I think it's about to even get more attention
Speaker 1: because we've never had BYU and.
Speaker 2: Utah in the same P four conferences.
Speaker 1: It's different than the whack of the Mountain West Conference,
Speaker 1: and you're an East Coast guy like I am. I
Speaker 1: mean I can remember since of course South born here
Speaker 1: have ties here living back East, when I wanted to
Speaker 1: watch Utah BYU basketball and like Big Monday, Big Whack
Speaker 1: Monday on ESPN, it started at midnight Eastern time because
Speaker 1: their TV slot was ten o'clock Mountain time. So you know,
Speaker 1: the exposure hasn't been there in a way that it's
Speaker 1: about to be. So I do think it's about to
Speaker 1: receive more of the credit that it deserves for being
Speaker 1: an elite rivalry. But one of the interesting dynamics TEA
Speaker 1: is that only nine of Utah's one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: five players have played in this game, and only I
Speaker 1: don't know what the number is for BYU, but it's
Speaker 1: about the same. It's not very many players. And if
Speaker 1: you pull up these rosters, it's California and Texas and
Speaker 1: Virginia and Canada. I mean, these these these these recruiting
Speaker 1: footprints are different than they were back in the day.
Speaker 1: You're an out of state or what what would you
Speaker 1: say to you know, mute players, b YU players that
Speaker 1: didn't grow up here about when you realized exactly what
Speaker 1: this game is about?
Speaker 2: And you know what they're in for coming up on
Speaker 2: Saturday night.
Speaker 3: Well, I think you know, that's the unfortunate byproduct of
Speaker 3: obviously the game going away for a few years, right,
Speaker 3: Like you know, and you know, there's so much to
Speaker 3: unpack with your question. Like you know, when I first
Speaker 3: got to the state, it was like it was it
Speaker 3: was a cute little ribbalry, right, but it wasn't anything
Speaker 3: like you know, Army Navy, Notre Dame Miami, like some
Speaker 3: of the old school traditional rivalries that you know, gained
Speaker 3: attention on a national scale. And I think a lot
Speaker 3: of that was because you know, back in I came
Speaker 3: to the state in two thousand and eight, you know,
Speaker 3: both of those teams were in the Way Conference then,
Speaker 3: and you know, and then you know Utah went to
Speaker 3: the Pact twelve and you know b Yu went independent
Speaker 3: for a while. So you know, it was it was
Speaker 3: one of those things where you know, as Utah kind
Speaker 3: of gained a footing on the national stage a little bit,
Speaker 3: the rivalry you know, got more and more attention because
Speaker 3: of that. But you know, it's it's one of those
Speaker 3: things where I think right now that it's every bit
Speaker 3: respected as you know, some of the some of the
Speaker 3: old school traditional robberies that we celebrate every season, uh
Speaker 3: as as you know, as a whole in college football.
Speaker 3: You know, I will say this, I would be really
Speaker 3: really shocked if you know, it doesn't matter, if you
Speaker 3: know these kids have never played against each other. I'd
Speaker 3: be really shocked if they haven't been conditioned to, you know,
Speaker 3: not like each other from the time that they stepped
Speaker 3: on campus. I mean, one of the staples of you know,
Speaker 3: being recruited uh to to b YU or being recruited
Speaker 3: to Utah is the fact that you know you don't
Speaker 3: like the other and you know, are you If you're
Speaker 3: a b YU kid, then you're not a Utah kid.
Speaker 3: If you're a Utah kid, then you're not a b
Speaker 3: YU kid. Uh shout out to Francis Bernard obviously, who
Speaker 3: played both who played in both spots. But you know,
Speaker 3: I think you know, it's it's one of those things
Speaker 3: where you know, I don't I don't think that you
Speaker 3: know that's going to have a real on you know
Speaker 3: the intensity of what we're gonna see on Saturday night.
Speaker 3: I think that Utah knows that this is their super Bowl.
Speaker 3: Considering everything that's going on in the first eight games
Speaker 3: of the season, and BYU knows that, you know, if
Speaker 3: they get over this game, they're gonna be They're going
Speaker 3: to be significant favorites and for the rest of the
Speaker 3: season and the rest of their games, and they're going
Speaker 3: to have a real shot to go on defeed it.
Speaker 3: So there's a lot of stake on Saturday night.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move over to the Jazz and I
Speaker 1: usually do the whole let's start from thirty thousand feet
Speaker 1: and then get into the vacuum.
Speaker 2: But I'm gonna do the opposite because I.
Speaker 1: Want to start out our interview by giving Keyante a
Speaker 1: little credit for what he did in Chicago, because it's
Speaker 1: been rough for him. It's been rough for him for
Speaker 1: a while. This is not a shooting slump. This is
Speaker 1: a player that hasn't shown that he can make shots.
Speaker 1: And he was only eight of eighteen, but he was aggressive.
Speaker 1: He got to line. He had six to twelve from
Speaker 1: three at nine assists and only two turnovers, thirty three
Speaker 1: points in thirty nine minutes.
Speaker 2: He was so good.
Speaker 1: So what stands the way I'll frames it today, Tony,
Speaker 1: When Keyante is good like that, what what's different?
Speaker 2: What stands out to you?
Speaker 1: When he has a game where he looks like he's
Speaker 1: legitimate pro prospect.
Speaker 3: You know, I think it stands out. What stod out
Speaker 3: to me in Chicago is that he was making the
Speaker 3: right reads. And you know, for so much of this year,
Speaker 3: you know it wasn't. I mean, obviously, but let's let's
Speaker 3: keep it one hundred. You know, the shot has been
Speaker 3: bad and the percentages have been awful, and you know
Speaker 3: there's a lot, there's been a lot to be concerned about,
Speaker 3: right but you know, for me, it was more than
Speaker 3: the percentages. It was more than the shot the shot quality.
Speaker 3: It was you know, he wasn't shooting when he was
Speaker 3: supposed to shoot, and he wasn't passing when he was
Speaker 3: supposed to pass. And I'll go back a little further
Speaker 3: than Chicago and Denver. You know, he started to kind
Speaker 3: of break through. He had sixteen, you know, he made
Speaker 3: he made some really good reads off the dribble. And
Speaker 3: I talked to him in Denver and I said, hey,
Speaker 3: you know this is you know, maybe this is something
Speaker 3: you know, a little bigger for you. And he said, yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, it's about time. You know that I got
Speaker 3: something to fall, and you know, I'm going to put
Speaker 3: together a good game. And you know, Long Behold on Monday,
Speaker 3: on Monday night, he put together, you know, the game
Speaker 3: of his career. He had thirty three points, he had
Speaker 3: not assists, he was in complete control. You know, the
Speaker 3: shot diet still needs to get better, right Like I
Speaker 3: think he's got to get cleaner looks from above the yard.
Speaker 3: I think he really needs to find a way to
Speaker 3: to get to the basket a little bit more consistently
Speaker 3: and to finish once he gets there. And I think
Speaker 3: he really needs to develop a floater that he can
Speaker 3: rely on, that he can rely on consistently. And you
Speaker 3: know a lot of that's going to in time. But
Speaker 3: you know, when you see a game like that, when
Speaker 3: you see a thirty three and nine, you know, those
Speaker 3: those aren't numbers that are easy to easily accumulated if
Speaker 3: you're not a really good player and or if you
Speaker 3: don't have a lot of talent. So we don't know
Speaker 3: whether Kiante George is ever going to develop into a
Speaker 3: really good player or not. And you know that's the
Speaker 3: jury is still very much out on that. But you know,
Speaker 3: if you're a jazz man, a game like that thirty
Speaker 3: three and nine tells you that at least he has
Speaker 3: a really he has a lot of talent. He has
Speaker 3: a significant amount of talent, because you just don't fall
Speaker 3: into those numbers. Those aren't flup numbers, even it's just
Speaker 3: for one game. So you know, I think if more
Speaker 3: than anything, it gives you a little bit of hope
Speaker 3: that you know, he can find some consistency, you know,
Speaker 3: and you then kind of snaps you back into reality
Speaker 3: and says, hey, this is still a second year, and
Speaker 3: this is still very early in the second year. And
Speaker 3: then he snapped back into a little bit more of
Speaker 3: reality and realize that he's never played point guard until
Speaker 3: he's gotten to the pro level. So you know, there's
Speaker 3: all kinds of context into what the roller coaster of
Speaker 3: Keante George has been through the first part of the
Speaker 3: second season.
Speaker 1: We'll stick with the young players because well, I think
Speaker 1: John Collins deserves some credit, and he was so good
Speaker 1: against Chicago.
Speaker 2: We know the deal here.
Speaker 1: John's like the perfect player for this roster because he
Speaker 1: makes a ton of money and more often than not,
Speaker 1: he's not overall a great player, but he has so
Speaker 1: many snapshot moments and there's a reason why he played
Speaker 1: himself into that contract and you see games like Chicago
Speaker 1: and you're like, man, he was physical. Yeah, he was
Speaker 1: really good on both ends, and certainly twenty eight, thirteen
Speaker 1: and five. But we'll put that aside because I want
Speaker 1: to ask you about Cody. I thought that was like
Speaker 1: the first grown up game that we've seen from Cody Williams,
Speaker 1: and he's going to be. It looks like, according to
Speaker 1: the decisions we've seen from will so far, the main
Speaker 1: benefactor of the thirty minutes that have been left on
Speaker 1: the table as a result of Taylor's injury. He went
Speaker 1: for thirty minutes against Chicago, eleven points, five boards for sist,
Speaker 1: no turnovers in thirty minutes.
Speaker 2: So to me, that was probably from my prison.
Speaker 1: So if it's only seven games, but that was the
Speaker 1: first kind of grown up game step in the right
Speaker 1: direction I've seen from Cody Williams.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean in more than that. I mean they
Speaker 3: were you know they he was running the offense for
Speaker 3: a couple of possessions. If you put Cody's basketball IQ
Speaker 3: and I don't want to say I kind of don't
Speaker 3: want to say this because I don't want to insinuate
Speaker 3: the Kyante doesn't have a basketball iqu because I think
Speaker 3: he does. But if you put Cody's basketball iqu into
Speaker 3: Keyante into kyante physical abilities, I think you have a
Speaker 3: hell of a basketball player. And you know, I've been
Speaker 3: high on Cody, you know, since you know, watching him
Speaker 3: last year at Colorado. I mean, he's a guy that
Speaker 3: you know, for me, I don't think he has a
Speaker 3: real weeks in terms of skill. He can dribble the ball,
Speaker 3: he can pass the ball, he can shoot the ball,
Speaker 3: he can defend uh, he can defend multiple positions, he
Speaker 3: can play multiple positions offensively. And you know, to me,
Speaker 3: his weaknesses are I don't know that he knows how
Speaker 3: good that he is or how talented that he is.
Speaker 3: And he's got to get a lot of physical strength,
Speaker 3: Like he has to gain twenty pounds, he has to
Speaker 3: gain a lot of muscle and there's you know, room
Speaker 3: on his body to get you know, to to put
Speaker 3: on you know that kind of that kind of weight
Speaker 3: and still maintain the athleticism, the bounce and and the
Speaker 3: first step that he has. But you know, he can
Speaker 3: do a lot of things on the floor, and you know,
Speaker 3: he's you know, I want to I want to see
Speaker 3: him stop being so much of a floater in terms
Speaker 3: of you know, he can go real chunks of the
Speaker 3: game without putting his imprint on the game. Because I
Speaker 3: think that he can put his imprint on the game
Speaker 3: from possession to possession when he really puts his mind
Speaker 3: to it. And you know, and I want to see him.
Speaker 3: I want to see him be more aggressive off the
Speaker 3: dribble with the basketball because when he gets downhill, he's
Speaker 3: really capable of bending the defense. And when he bends
Speaker 3: the defense, he's really capable of making the right the
Speaker 3: right decisions from there in terms of whether they're shooting
Speaker 3: and passing. Now, some of that has to do with
Speaker 3: the lack of the strength. You know, he can still
Speaker 3: get bumped off of his drives pretty easily at the
Speaker 3: pro level. But you know, I just want to see him.
Speaker 3: He's talented enough to I just want to see him
Speaker 3: try stuff this year, Like, you know, I want to
Speaker 3: see him come down. I want to see him, you know,
Speaker 3: try to mix people off the dribble. I want to
Speaker 3: see him try to go to the basket, and I
Speaker 3: want to see him trying to dunk on people. I
Speaker 3: want to see him be aggressive, take you know, do
Speaker 3: stuff that he know only doesn't do it like this
Speaker 3: is the perfect team and the perfect season for him
Speaker 3: to just try to expand his game with game reps
Speaker 3: as much as possible, because I think he's talented to
Speaker 3: do most stuff on the floor that a wing does.
Speaker 3: I don't know that he's going to be a star
Speaker 3: because I don't know that he's ever I don't know
Speaker 3: that he's ever going to get the aggression that's necessary
Speaker 3: to go out and average twenty five and seven assists
Speaker 3: and five remoules a game. But I'm pretty sure that
Speaker 3: he's going to be a valuable player, valuable rotation player
Speaker 3: for a long time at the NBA level.
Speaker 1: So the other player that looks like he's going to
Speaker 1: benefit from Taylor's injury will be Kyle Philipowski. And I'm
Speaker 1: a little bit curious to see how Will handles this
Speaker 1: because right now, defensively, he doesn't have the lateral quickness.
Speaker 1: Now he's got good C six eleven, so, you know,
Speaker 1: but oftentimes he's cotton switches. It looks like they're identifying
Speaker 1: him intentionally to try to get the right switch on him.
Speaker 1: So defensively it hasn't looked good for Kyle. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if it ever Will, But we know his skill
Speaker 1: set at Duke and how complete it was, So the
Speaker 1: question is does that translate since Taylor's injury. Twenty five
Speaker 1: minutes against Sacramento, he had twelve points, eight boards, went
Speaker 1: two to five, from three to five to ten from
Speaker 1: the floor, twelve points, five boards against San Antonio. He
Speaker 1: bat against Denver and Will saw it pretty quick, so
Speaker 1: he played eighteen minutes, two points. But again the defense,
Speaker 1: the defensive side of the floor is an issue with
Speaker 1: him against Chicago seventeen minutes, seven points, five boards, a
Speaker 1: couple of assists. There have been a lot of bright
Speaker 1: moments for Kyle. Looks like we're going to see a
Speaker 1: lot more of him. What has stood out most to
Speaker 1: you so far?
Speaker 3: I just think a versatility stands out, you know, the
Speaker 3: fact that he can do things at least from two levels,
Speaker 3: Like he can do things at the rim, and he
Speaker 3: can do things from above the arc. You know. I
Speaker 3: like that he can get to the basket off the bounce,
Speaker 3: even from the four spot, which you know typically means
Speaker 3: he's trying to take you know, quicker players, there's smaller
Speaker 3: players off the bounce, and he's certainly been able to
Speaker 3: do it. From the five spot in a few mini
Speaker 3: states that he's played at the center spot. I think
Speaker 3: because because of what you said, because of what you
Speaker 3: said in terms of his defense, which is an issue,
Speaker 3: I think that I think that his best outcome is
Speaker 3: that he becomes one of these centers that you know
Speaker 3: obviously can't defend, but it's so good offensively that it
Speaker 3: kind of makes up for it. Right, And you know that,
Speaker 3: you know, he becomes such a mismatch of offensive because
Speaker 3: that's that this is an extreme example because we're talking
Speaker 3: about an all time in here. But you look at
Speaker 3: Nako is a bad defender. I know that, you know,
Speaker 3: analytics people will try to point to his analys to
Speaker 3: his analytics and and and try to argue otherwise. Look,
Speaker 3: you know, I watch him play a lot of nights.
Speaker 3: He's a bad defender, and but he's so good offensively,
Speaker 3: and he's so good on the boards that it really
Speaker 3: just doesn't matter how how good or bad bad that
Speaker 3: he defends. So Kleslpowski and this is not a comparison
Speaker 3: to Jokics. In his own way, he has to figure
Speaker 3: out a way to get good enough offensively that you know,
Speaker 3: on some levels, you know his his defense didn't matter.
Speaker 3: Let's so let's on a let's go on a real
Speaker 3: smaller scale. Like you know, Kelly Olynik in most regular
Speaker 3: season instances, you know he's a bad defender, but he's
Speaker 3: so valuable offensively in terms of being able to to
Speaker 3: uh be a hub offensively and you know, score and
Speaker 3: play make for others that you know he makes him
Speaker 3: makes his bad defense matter less. So that's the thing
Speaker 3: with Kyle Silopowski. How good can he become offensively to
Speaker 3: where you know, we say, yay, he's a bad defender,
Speaker 3: but you know, it kind of doesn't matter. And you know,
Speaker 3: if the jaz can can build around that and build
Speaker 3: you know, enough defenders around I don't know if you
Speaker 3: want to build around Colsi Lapowski, but if the Jazz
Speaker 3: can build enough people around Calci Lapowski that it makes
Speaker 3: his defense not matter as well. So those are some
Speaker 3: of the questions that I have for him.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: So, as I have said all along, and you can
Speaker 1: only operate based off of what the front office and
Speaker 1: the staff say out loud. And so when they're talking
Speaker 1: about development, the biggest indicator as to whether or not
Speaker 1: this new iteration of Jazz management and coaching can develop players,
Speaker 1: is going to be Walker because he is in year
Speaker 1: three now under Will and you know the other players,
Speaker 1: Kyante year two, Bryce year two, and then.
Speaker 2: A lot of rookies too.
Speaker 1: But this is year three for and so if you
Speaker 1: can develop players, Walker will stand out one way or
Speaker 1: the other. And for the most part, Tony he stood
Speaker 1: out and played really well. He had a rough game
Speaker 1: against Golden State, he had a rough game against Sacramento.
Speaker 1: He was awesome against Chicago, he was really good against
Speaker 1: Denver opening night. Probably the best player for the Jazz
Speaker 1: outside of market in and he was solid against Dallas.
Speaker 1: On the season, we're looking at about let me pull
Speaker 1: up his splits real quick as my computer refreshes. On
Speaker 1: the season, Walker is about ten points, twelve boards, and
Speaker 1: if you round up, it's three blocks. He's ten points,
Speaker 1: twelve boards, three blocks. I think he's fourth in the
Speaker 1: NBA and rim defense. That's the opponent's field goal percentage
Speaker 1: at the rim when Walker is the main defensive player.
Speaker 1: So a few rough games, but my biggest bright spot
Speaker 1: for the Jazz so far has been Walker Kessler.
Speaker 2: I think it's been like an eight plus start. What
Speaker 2: do you think.
Speaker 3: I mean? I think You've been terrific, and you know,
Speaker 3: I think he's one of the best rent protectors that
Speaker 3: we have in our game. You know. But the thing
Speaker 3: that I've been encouraged about when you watch watch Walker Castle,
Speaker 3: I think he's rebounding the ball a lot better. Thought
Speaker 3: he's the average rebounder last year, and I think that
Speaker 3: he's gotten better at that. And you know, and I
Speaker 3: think that you know, people are finding him as a
Speaker 3: as a vertical lot threat. You know, he's really dependent
Speaker 3: on the play, probably more than any player outside of
Speaker 3: Lowry on this roster. He's dependent on how the point
Speaker 3: guard play is, you know, because you know, when he's
Speaker 3: getting it downhill, when he sets the screen, you know,
Speaker 3: and when the guards finds him, it's he's he's going
Speaker 3: to he's he's gonna score, and he's he's going to
Speaker 3: score at the basket and you know, and if that
Speaker 3: doesn't happen, then he looks really pedestrian offensively. But you know,
Speaker 3: he's got so many strengths in terms of being able
Speaker 3: to protect a I truly think he's one of the
Speaker 3: best five rim protectors in the league, you know, But
Speaker 3: he's also really athletic. He runs the floor really well. Uh,
Speaker 3: and he's done a lot of his damage and limit
Speaker 3: and limited minutes. I think his minusload has increased a
Speaker 3: little bit as the season has gone on. But you know,
Speaker 3: his minus load was was was pretty split with with
Speaker 3: John Collins uh at the beginning of the season. Now
Speaker 3: you know Taylor Hendricks being out, that's that's helped a
Speaker 3: lot because John has started to soak up a lot
Speaker 3: of the minutes at power forward, uh, particularly against Chicago.
Speaker 3: So Walker and John have been playing on the floor
Speaker 3: on the floor together a little bit more. But you know,
Speaker 3: he's he's just really been a lot better and he's
Speaker 3: been a lot more confident. He's in uh, such a
Speaker 3: better head space mentally than he was, uh than he
Speaker 3: was last season. Last season he was just in a
Speaker 3: kind of a mess mentally, and I think that he's
Speaker 3: gotten a lot stronger and more focused mentally going into
Speaker 3: this year. So, you know, and this is you know,
Speaker 3: this is a huge season for him. This is not
Speaker 3: a you know, it's not a contract year for him,
Speaker 3: but it's kind of like a contract year because the
Speaker 3: Jazz have to have to decide whether or not they're
Speaker 3: going to pay him by by this summer. You know
Speaker 3: he's going to be extension eligible, so the Jazz have
Speaker 3: to decide whether they're going to extend him or whether
Speaker 3: they're going to allow him to go into a restricted
Speaker 3: free agency the following summer. So this is a kind
Speaker 3: of a big year for Walker and the Jazz, uh
Speaker 3: and we're gonna find out a lot as this year
Speaker 3: goes on and as we get into next summer, whether
Speaker 3: the Jazz truly see Walker as a long term piece
Speaker 3: or not.
Speaker 1: Last thing, before I set you loose, you had a
Speaker 1: assignment that was away from the Jazz and your name
Speaker 1: was up there with Sam Amy and David Aldridge, who
Speaker 1: were that's that's heavyweight man. Those are two of the
Speaker 1: best NBA riders that we've ever seen. And our guy
Speaker 1: was on the assignment with him as well. So unpack
Speaker 1: what happened in Philly. It's a situation with Joel Embiid
Speaker 1: shoving a columnist in the locker room, and you were
Speaker 1: one of the guys that was in charge of writing
Speaker 1: a really big story.
Speaker 3: All right, So I'm gonna give you a Tony Jones fact.
Speaker 1: Oh well, that okay, Jack Jones kind of an oxymoron military.
Speaker 3: Yes, here, So here's a Jackie Jones. Fact she was,
Speaker 3: so the columnist in question, his name is Marcus Hayes.
Speaker 3: He works for the Philadelphia Inquirir Well, Marcus Hayes. Once
Speaker 3: upon a time was young and a burgaining columnist at
Speaker 3: the Philadelphia Daily News. My mother, Jackie Jones was his boss.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she was his editor. She was a city editor
Speaker 3: at the Philadelphia Daily News when I was in high school,
Speaker 3: which is why we moved to Philly, and he was
Speaker 3: one of her writers. So I was just, you know,
Speaker 3: it was just kind of coincidental. And I've never met
Speaker 3: the guy, which is kind of crazy as well, but
Speaker 3: you know it, so essentially, long story short, Marcus wrote
Speaker 3: a pretty inflammatory column about Joel Ebad's lack of availability
Speaker 3: and his lack of durability, and within that column he
Speaker 3: wrote an excerpt that talked about Joel's brother Arthur, who
Speaker 3: who tragically passed away about a decade ago, and Joel
Speaker 3: was very upset. So what happened was Joel the previous
Speaker 3: The day before the locker room Frankas called out Marcus
Speaker 3: in inavailabibility and essentially said that I've done too much
Speaker 3: for the city of Philadelphia for a commists to write
Speaker 3: this about me and the Inquirer. So Marcus went to
Speaker 3: the Philadelphia the Sixers game the very next day, the
Speaker 3: very next night, to apologize to Joel, and the Sixers
Speaker 3: knew that Marcus was there to apologize, and he went
Speaker 3: up to him in the locker room. He tried to apologize,
Speaker 3: and Joel did not accept the apology. To put it kindly,
Speaker 3: there was a verbal altercation, and so Joel basically shouted
Speaker 3: at Marcus, nobody gives a bleep what you write. And
Speaker 3: then Marcus looked at Joel and he said, but you do,
Speaker 3: and that set Joel. That's what set Joel off, and
Speaker 3: that's when he pushed Marcus and that's when everything kind
Speaker 3: of faded to black. So the Sixers apologize to Marcus
Speaker 3: Hage for for the incident, and obviously the n b
Speaker 3: A uh suspended him be And you know, basically, Uh,
Speaker 3: the Sixers season is kind of going off the rails
Speaker 3: so far. Uh, they're one and six on the season.
Speaker 3: They just lost Tyree Maxi to a hamstring strain. Uh,
Speaker 3: he's going to be out for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3: So they have Lakers tomorrow night, and I'm out in
Speaker 3: La I'm going to cover that. I expect him to
Speaker 3: lose that game. So you know, if they lose that game,
Speaker 3: they'll fall to one in seven. Uh. And you know,
Speaker 3: in it's kind of all bad. Joel's serving his suspension.
Speaker 3: He'll be out tomorrow night, and he'll be out and
Speaker 3: he'll be out on Sunday as well. And his season
Speaker 3: debut is expected to be Tuesday in an NBA Cup
Speaker 3: game against the next So that's kind of the story
Speaker 3: of the Philadelphia seventy six is as of right now
Speaker 3: in a nutshell.
Speaker 1: The NBA Cup. Baby, it is here, all right. Tell him,
Speaker 1: Tell everybody where they can go get your work.
Speaker 3: You can find me at the Athletic. You can find
Speaker 3: me on Instagram at t Jones Athletic, and you can
Speaker 3: find me on Twitter at t Jones on the NBA.
Speaker 2: Thank you, my friend with chat soon.
Speaker 3: Okay, thanks my God.
Speaker 1: Appreciation Tony Jones. Give him a follow. Check out his work.
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