Speaker 1: All right, Thursday, show rolling along, beautiful day outside. We
Speaker 1: have turned our calendars to May. Happy Thursday to you.
Speaker 1: It has been a while because he's a very busy man,
Speaker 1: and also he's really not allowed to hang out with me,
Speaker 1: but we got him live in studio for an entire hour.
Speaker 1: The editor of the sports section from the saw Lake Tribune,
Speaker 1: Aaron Falk, Happy Thursday, sir. How are you. I'm great.
Speaker 1: How are you, Spencer? I'm great. It's great to see you.
Speaker 1: I know you're a busy guy, so thank you for
Speaker 1: the time. Yeah, I'm breaking my restraining order by seeing you. Hey, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I doubt she listens, So I think you're saying,
Speaker 1: if you want to see what Aeron looks like, log
Speaker 1: onto YouTube. We had Chris Camarannie liven studio yesterday sitting
Speaker 1: where you're at. You're good, buddy, all right, Aaron? Right?
Speaker 1: Nice two thumbs up. K typically wears the shirt of
Speaker 1: the picture of you from Talking Sports. Yeah, that's that's
Speaker 1: a nice touch.
Speaker 2: I gotta I gotta pull out some of my my
Speaker 2: specific Camarani merch next time.
Speaker 1: Do you have a specific K shirt?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've got I've got I've got ck merchant. There
Speaker 2: was a period of time time where I think that
Speaker 2: was our that was our love language.
Speaker 1: You know, we.
Speaker 2: Humiliated each other with custom T shirts and in all
Speaker 2: of our friends, not just Camaranie and I. It was
Speaker 2: it was too expensive and we spent way too much
Speaker 2: money doing this, but we did it for two or
Speaker 2: three years.
Speaker 1: I mean it was a long time. You have a
Speaker 1: face swap of Kyle Goon, is it TJ? Yes?
Speaker 2: That's yeah, yeah, exactly, many things like that. It's just
Speaker 2: weird things, you know, stuck on planes, playing with your phone.
Speaker 2: Dumb things happened, and and and we made merch and
Speaker 2: you know, we made memories really.
Speaker 1: And that's what it's all about. What what is your
Speaker 1: love language? By the way, eron peace and quiet? Quiet? Okay?
Speaker 1: Is that is that one? Because if that's one, I
Speaker 1: finally figured mine out. No, you know, I think you know,
Speaker 1: if we're going to answer honestly, quality time, quality time, okay,
Speaker 1: love it. Well, we're about to spend some quality time together, Aaron.
Speaker 1: The easy thing to do today is to look at
Speaker 1: the Utah Jazz roster from twenty twenty one and see
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell, who's about to be a first team All
Speaker 1: NBA Player and will even get some MVP votes. He
Speaker 1: might finish third or fourth. It's probably gonna be Shay
Speaker 1: then Jokic. To look at Rudy Gobert, who just had
Speaker 1: potentially the best postseason game he's ever had last night.
Speaker 1: It helps that it was against the Lakers, so the
Speaker 1: world was watching. And then Mike Conley hit a couple
Speaker 1: of dagger threes. To be fair, Mike his age a
Speaker 1: little bit, but he was really good last night. George
Speaker 1: Nyang had a good season. Then there there's the boy
Speaker 1: on Bogdanovitch's of the world. The easy thing to do
Speaker 1: today is to say, wow, did you blow it by
Speaker 1: breaking that group down in Salt Lake City, Utah, where
Speaker 1: it's hard to get talent. Okay, that's the easy thing
Speaker 1: to do today. What's the fair thing to say about
Speaker 1: that entire process?
Speaker 2: I was thinking about this and I do think, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, okay, sure, George Nang had a you know,
Speaker 2: had some moments. Like you said, Mike looked, uh, you know,
Speaker 2: looked better last night than than he has throughout the
Speaker 2: last little bit as he's gotten a little bit older.
Speaker 1: But both of these.
Speaker 2: Guys, both Rudy and Donovan went to better teams than
Speaker 2: I think would have existed in Salt Lake. And so
Speaker 2: if you are, you know, a believer in you know,
Speaker 2: we're living for the now and playoffs is a good time,
Speaker 2: and you know we have two star level players and
Speaker 2: truthfully may not achieve a duo like that anytime soon.
Speaker 2: I can you know you I think you have a
Speaker 2: fair argument to be frustrated and say, hey, we should
Speaker 2: have been a playoff team. We should have given ourselves
Speaker 2: a few bites at this and maybe maybe you get
Speaker 2: lucky and break through. But I think if you look
Speaker 2: at it realistically, the talent that that Rudy has around
Speaker 2: him in Minnesota is better than a Rudy Donovan team
Speaker 2: was here. And I think the talent that Donovan has
Speaker 2: around them in Cleveland is better than a Rudy Donovan
Speaker 2: team would have been here. I mean, no disrespect to
Speaker 2: the Royce O'Neills of the world. And you know, and
Speaker 2: boy On has not bet you know, it's not the
Speaker 2: person that boy On was when he had the surgery
Speaker 2: in the bubble that that pandemic season. But I don't
Speaker 2: think that that cast of players matches either one of
Speaker 2: those teams and I don't think that there were a
Speaker 2: lot of avenues for bringing in that kind of talent.
Speaker 2: You know, there's no Garland coming, there's no Julius Randall
Speaker 2: coming on the other end. And you know, even if
Speaker 2: even if you say that Donovan is as good as
Speaker 2: ant or or whatever, I just don't think that you
Speaker 2: have the cast that supports either of them the way
Speaker 2: that they do in their current situations.
Speaker 1: The fair and well said. So I'll reduce it to
Speaker 1: a question, do you think because you know, for for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, Dennis Lindsay meets with a new ownership group
Speaker 1: and decides like, I'm out, all right, so I'll be
Speaker 1: the consultant, essentially, pay out my contract and I'll exit
Speaker 1: States left and wear leather jackets and such. Quinn himself
Speaker 1: said no pathway forward. So the decision to break that
Speaker 1: team down brick by brick essentially was Danny's right, and
Speaker 1: probably Jay Z as well a little bit, who was
Speaker 1: still part of the equation. Do you think it was
Speaker 1: the right call in retrospect?
Speaker 2: I think so, And I think even even if you
Speaker 2: even if we you know, take what I just said
Speaker 2: and maybe you disagree, and maybe you think that that
Speaker 2: cast is as good as one of those teams.
Speaker 1: And maybe no, I think you're correct.
Speaker 2: Well, but for the sake of argument, I think that
Speaker 2: those two guys had real issues with each other obviously,
Speaker 2: and you know, sometimes you got to break up and
Speaker 2: and you know, maybe maybe you could say, hey, if
Speaker 2: you stick together for another seven six seven years, you know,
Speaker 2: everything heals over, we've got scars, we move on. I
Speaker 2: just don't think that you get there very quickly. And
Speaker 2: I think that both of those guys are in better
Speaker 2: places because of a breakup. And so I do think
Speaker 2: ultimately right choice doesn't mean that it's not doesn't mean
Speaker 2: that it's not painful, and doesn't mean that that that's
Speaker 2: not gonna be the high watermark for a long time.
Speaker 2: I mean that very well. Maybe as good as it
Speaker 2: gets for ten or twenty years, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know, it's funny because and this is
Speaker 1: a little bit at apples and oranges, and it's always
Speaker 1: dangerous to compare eras and different operating styles of eras
Speaker 1: and the way teams have to go about their business,
Speaker 1: and certainly the uniqueness of John Stockton and Karl Malone,
Speaker 1: who stayed in our market for basically twenty years. But
Speaker 1: John Stockton and Carl Malone were together for eleven and
Speaker 1: twelve years before they went to the finals. Right, So
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty eight, John and Carl Mark eaton Bobby Hanson,
Speaker 1: that group they take Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, that
Speaker 1: Laker team to seven games and almost beat them. And
Speaker 1: that was kind of the NBA's wake up call, like, oh,
Speaker 1: that team in Saltag's pretty good. Next year, Terry Tegal,
Speaker 1: a random cast of Golden State Warriors sweep them. So
Speaker 1: if Scott Laden decided in nineteen eighty nine pulling the plug,
Speaker 1: they can't get it done to the playoffs, that takes
Speaker 1: away seven eight years later of when they actually go
Speaker 1: to the finals. Right. Do you see the parallel here?
Speaker 1: So look again, this is a little bit unfair because
Speaker 1: we can again be reductive and say one person blew
Speaker 1: this whole thing up, and he's playing in Cleveland. This
Speaker 1: was a Donovan Mitchell, I don't want to live in
Speaker 1: Salt Lake anymore. Summer at George Floyd Black Lives Matter
Speaker 1: kind of finds his voice, which is fine, you know, Almo,
Speaker 1: no issue with it. We have a was it a
Speaker 1: Senator Adams or whatever who tells Donovan get educated. Like
Speaker 1: the whole thing, the way it went down, has to
Speaker 1: be talked about in order to be fair. But there
Speaker 1: is a space in my mind that exists, Like Donovan
Speaker 1: had two years left on his deal, and you say
Speaker 1: to him, you're under contract, you play for us, and
Speaker 1: then maybe for two more years, you try to convince
Speaker 1: him that he can win here. And if somehow that happens,
Speaker 1: maybe Rudy and Donovan learned the lessons John and Carl
Speaker 1: do for the next seven or you understand what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: extremely hypothetic and you can only misbehave like this.
Speaker 2: Or you get to that place and you know, you
Speaker 2: you get to the end of a contract and you
Speaker 2: basically lose all your leverage and you don't get package
Speaker 2: back for for Donovan or for Rudy.
Speaker 1: Rudy ages out.
Speaker 2: Maybe you know, something happens and you know, butterfly flaps
Speaker 2: its wings and not her fly and here we are.
Speaker 2: But you know, I think I think that it makes
Speaker 2: sense on paper to have done what they did. It
Speaker 2: hurts the heart of people who want to watch quality basketball,
Speaker 2: right because it was not a season to pay attention to.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you're if you watched all eighty two
Speaker 2: of those, you're a Sickoh good for you. But there
Speaker 2: was no reason to be invested in what was happening
Speaker 2: on that court in any meaningful way this year. So
Speaker 2: if you're hurt, I completely understand, but I think on paper,
Speaker 2: it was the strategically sound thing to do, knowing that
Speaker 2: you might not get those packages back.
Speaker 1: Okay, one more thing here, let's operate off the hypothetical again.
Speaker 1: We can misbehave on sports socc creatio in a way
Speaker 1: you can elsewhere. Let's say Danny sits Alan Donovan and
Speaker 1: all right, it's clear than in two years you're leaving.
Speaker 1: All right, so we're gonna trade you to your point
Speaker 1: because if you don't trade, I mean he leaves in
Speaker 1: two years for nothing, you get Gordon Hayward all over again,
Speaker 1: which sets your franchise back. The Mitchell trade brought Colin
Speaker 1: Sexton Lowry marketing Ochai Obaji, who by the way, played
Speaker 1: well in Toronto this year, and three first round picks
Speaker 1: and two pickswaps. What if you do the Mitchell trade
Speaker 1: and you hang on to go Bear and suddenly your
Speaker 1: starting lineup is Gobert Lowry marketing boy, Am Bogdanovich, Mike Conley,
Speaker 1: I don't know, Clarkson whatever, and Obaji the other piece
Speaker 1: is Colin Sections brought in what does that look like?
Speaker 1: And Quinn decides, okay, I'll stay there's a pathway forward
Speaker 1: because we're not completely rebuilding.
Speaker 2: Or or Quinn doesn't. I mean, you know, there there's
Speaker 2: a chance there that that, you know, Quinn Snyder a
Speaker 2: good NBA coach, great maybe great NBA coach, he runs
Speaker 2: into a situation where you know your voice doesn't sound
Speaker 2: the same, you know, you lose a locker room a
Speaker 2: little bit, or you just need you just need to
Speaker 2: shake things up. So maybe maybe there's another piece there
Speaker 2: where if it's not Will Hardy, it's somebody else who
Speaker 2: comes in and can uh take over and you know,
Speaker 2: give you a little bit more energy in that way.
Speaker 2: I don't know, but I mean I agree, I think
Speaker 2: I think those are our good teams. Again, probably not
Speaker 2: a championship level team. And you also run the risk
Speaker 2: of you know, Rudy aging out and being you know
Speaker 2: the end the on the on the downward slope of
Speaker 2: a career arc and you're like, why did we do this?
Speaker 2: So with a big contract too, Yes, a huge contract,
Speaker 2: and a guy who as talented as he is does
Speaker 2: a thing that everyone here you know, can can appreciate
Speaker 2: and respect, but does get it either exploited or you know,
Speaker 2: gets get some blame for in in you know, the
Speaker 2: kind of the national landscape. And maybe that's not a
Speaker 2: winning combination.
Speaker 1: All the time.
Speaker 2: Sure last night was great, but so far, you know,
Speaker 2: it hasn't exactly won anyone a championship just yet.
Speaker 1: Well, and to be fair about last night, he was
Speaker 1: catching lobs over gave Vincent, who's your hype? You know,
Speaker 1: like Rehetick decides to go by the way good size
Speaker 1: and girth. While we're at it, I mean, Reddick went
Speaker 1: all small, right, and so in order to be fair,
Speaker 1: it's not like they were throwing it to Rudy on
Speaker 1: the block and he was giving you the Hakeem Olajuan
Speaker 1: dream shake. I mean he was. He had nine dunks right,
Speaker 1: nine offense. Look, he was awesome, but it was against
Speaker 1: a team that went completely small. Let's see, all right,
Speaker 1: one more thing here, because every time I like, for instance,
Speaker 1: the Pistons in the next play tonight, the Pistons have
Speaker 1: lost nine straight home playoff games. They have not won
Speaker 1: a home playoff game since two thousand and eight, which
Speaker 1: for guys, I'm older than you, but you remember Isaiah
Speaker 1: Thomas and the bad boys in the Great Pistons basketball.
Speaker 1: Minnesota just won a first round playoff series. They did
Speaker 1: the same thing last year. It was the first time
Speaker 1: in the history of the Timberwolves that they have two
Speaker 1: straight years where they won a playoff series. We could
Speaker 1: talk about Washington the last time that they were decent.
Speaker 1: And my fear is if on May twelfth, you know,
Speaker 1: the Jazz are picking fourth or fifth, we could be
Speaker 1: one of those markets that's spinning their wheels for fourteen, fifteen,
Speaker 1: sixteen years, we've just been spoiled because we've never had
Speaker 1: that happen. It's commonplace in pro basketball to have decades,
Speaker 1: if not, you know, a decade, if not more, of
Speaker 1: no playoff basketball, no playoff success. And it doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be in a small market. The New York Knicks
Speaker 1: from like nineteen ninety nine to twenty thirteen, fourteen were
Speaker 1: a joke. Is there a fear underlying fear in this market? Like,
Speaker 1: all right, maybe we get one Cooper flag, maybe we don't.
Speaker 1: And the dirty little secret is they're not Cooper Flag
Speaker 1: away from even being good, like they're a long way
Speaker 1: away from even being good.
Speaker 2: Well, I think you know, there there probably needs to
Speaker 2: be some level set of expectation going into into that
Speaker 2: lottery because I think there are a lot of people
Speaker 2: and even if they know the math and they've heard
Speaker 2: that number, they think we did we did the hard work,
Speaker 2: we did the dirty work, and now Cooper Flag is
Speaker 2: the next step. Those numbers are not in your favor. Yes,
Speaker 2: you gave yourself the best chance possible fourteen percent. There's
Speaker 2: gonna be a lot of you know, there's the potential
Speaker 2: high higher potential where a lot of disappointed fans when
Speaker 2: when those ping pong balls are read out. So yes,
Speaker 2: so to your point, absolutely, okay, see incredible rebuild. That's
Speaker 2: that's going to be more rare than they liar that. Yeah, yeah, sure,
Speaker 2: you know, it could be a long time and if
Speaker 2: they don't get Cooper Flag, or maybe even if they do,
Speaker 2: I mean it's going to be a lot like this
Speaker 2: next year. You know, and you look at you know,
Speaker 2: what Hinky did in Philly and the number of they
Speaker 2: got number ones out of that or you know, and
Speaker 2: those didn't always pan out either. So, I mean, it's
Speaker 2: just there isn't a magic way to get this done,
Speaker 2: but through the pain. I think you know there is potential,
Speaker 2: but there could be a lot of pain before.
Speaker 1: We get there. You got to have a lot of
Speaker 1: luck fall your way. I know you were not working
Speaker 1: with the team when the deconstruction happened, But what's your
Speaker 1: understanding of just how how bad a guy with Donova
Speaker 1: behind the scenes? Why? Because look a lot of attention
Speaker 1: this year in the NBA, like, how could Nico Harrison
Speaker 1: trade a twenty five year old superstar in his prime?
Speaker 1: That never happens? Happened here? Donovan's not Luca, but it
Speaker 1: happened here and in Salt Lake. When you have a
Speaker 1: talent like that, you've got to do everything you can
Speaker 1: to hang on to him, which has to indicate behind
Speaker 1: the scenes, it got harry, it got bad. What's your
Speaker 1: understanding of how that went down?
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I don't know all the ins and outs,
Speaker 2: but certainly there was very real frustration intension with between
Speaker 2: Donovan and Rudy, and certainly, you know, as Donovan voiced
Speaker 2: himself and felt more comfortable saying after leaving, he obviously
Speaker 2: had real problems with how he was treated while he
Speaker 2: lived in the state, by politicians, by you know, maybe
Speaker 2: just maybe just perception even but so no, I think
Speaker 2: definitely a real problem. And yeah, again I don't know
Speaker 2: all the ins and outs, but that's somebody. But people
Speaker 2: with the best information thought that was the best move.
Speaker 1: So here we go. Sure, And I always try to
Speaker 1: be very sensitive to dynamics that I don't understand. I'm
Speaker 1: a white man who lives in Salt Lake. I don't
Speaker 1: know what it's like to be a black man living
Speaker 1: in Salt Lake when I think it's two point seven
Speaker 1: percent of our city as African American. So it's easy
Speaker 1: for me to say and I am going to say
Speaker 1: this because I felt like Donovan walked on water here.
Speaker 1: And yes, there was the Stewart Adams dumb thing. Say, uh,
Speaker 1: I just I don't know, Like I said, I'm not Donovan.
Speaker 1: I can't relate to that experience. But from my vantage point,
Speaker 1: I felt like people loved Donovan Mitchell here in Utah.
Speaker 2: I think that's true, you know, and and certainly, you know,
Speaker 2: people love Donovan Mitchell the athlete and the success that
Speaker 2: that he brought and the joy that he brought to
Speaker 2: a fan base. I you know, again, I'm with you,
Speaker 2: white guy living in Salt Lake City, I can imagine
Speaker 2: that it would be tough to be, you know, in
Speaker 2: in that grade of a minority and not see many
Speaker 2: people who look like you and feel that maybe you know,
Speaker 2: you are whether whether it's real organ perception that feel
Speaker 2: like you're being you know, judged or watched, or that
Speaker 2: the weight is on you. And there are people who
Speaker 2: study these things that feel that, you know, say like
Speaker 2: there is a level of pressure that somebody in that situation,
Speaker 2: star athlete, you know, or or a voice for you know,
Speaker 2: a minority group feels and and has to sort of
Speaker 2: like a process and deal with that goes beyond what
Speaker 2: we can what we can understand. So I think that
Speaker 2: I think that's that's a real thing. I mean again,
Speaker 2: hard to hard to know, hard to know, whether you know,
Speaker 2: and you're you're you're putting maybe some thoughts into Okay,
Speaker 2: yes you're cheering me in the arena, but based on
Speaker 2: the policies that get voted into in the state, based
Speaker 2: on what people say about other things, you know, like yeah,
Speaker 2: you know you're not saying this to me, but you're
Speaker 2: saying this about someone who is like me, or looks
Speaker 2: like me, or things like me.
Speaker 1: I can see how that que be frustrate. Yeah, very fair,
Speaker 1: good perspective. The other last thing here, The other thing
Speaker 1: is Donovan's generation. He's twenty eight now, so you know,
Speaker 1: twenty five, twenty six when he left here. It's easy
Speaker 1: for me to say, don't look at your mentions, or
Speaker 1: get off get off Twitter, get off Instagram, stop reading
Speaker 1: direct messages. This generation behind us, Aaron, they were raised
Speaker 1: with cell phones and social media as their friends and
Speaker 1: their babysitters in a way that we just weren't. So
Speaker 1: I never look at my mentions. I've got my direct
Speaker 1: messages open on Instagram. If people send me something decent,
Speaker 1: I'll interact, and otherwise I ignore it. But the social media
Speaker 1: backlash that he took here in the state after he
Speaker 1: started speaking up, it's easy for me to say, don't
Speaker 1: read it, but they all read it. I mean, coaches
Speaker 1: in the NBA talk about going in to the locker
Speaker 1: room at halftime to give a speech and all the
Speaker 1: players have their phone looking like looking at their mentions.
Speaker 1: That probably didn't help the way that he seemed to
Speaker 1: be attacked online after he started kind of expressing his views,
Speaker 1: no doubt.
Speaker 2: Well, and you know the old it's the switcheroo there,
Speaker 2: I mean, you think about yeah, okay, so we were
Speaker 2: talking about all the negative that comes from that. But
Speaker 2: for huge, for years, you know, from from probably high school,
Speaker 2: maybe before high school into Louisville into the earliest days,
Speaker 2: he was getting tons of positive feedback. You know, brain
Speaker 2: is fire ring good, good, good, yeah, good. And then
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, like the thing that you know
Speaker 2: has given you a bunch of very positive reinforcement in
Speaker 2: your in your life collapses on you. And you know,
Speaker 2: it takes a while to break a habit. If that's
Speaker 2: you know, it's hard, hard to put away the mentions.
Speaker 1: Right right, One more thing here, because you were I
Speaker 1: still I can't believe you had this experience. You were
Speaker 1: in the bubble in Orlando when the NBA resumed playing.
Speaker 1: How do you think COVID changed them? How do you
Speaker 1: think COVID changed that group? Because I'll always maintain obviously
Speaker 1: COVID changed a lot of things, and basketball is not
Speaker 1: the most important thing. But how did the COVID experience
Speaker 1: change that group? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Well, I think definitely there was you know, whatever differences
Speaker 2: that Donovan and Rudy had uh. There here was another
Speaker 2: point of frustration, you know, Donovan believing that Rudy got
Speaker 2: him sick early on in the initial days of a pandemic,
Speaker 2: when you didn't know what that meant for, you know,
Speaker 2: somebody like Donovan, you know, because you know, would it
Speaker 2: impact him as an athlete? Would it impact you know? Again,
Speaker 2: so so here's someone who's already under your skin, and
Speaker 2: now you're blaming them for putting you in a situation
Speaker 2: that you really really don't want to be in. So
Speaker 2: I think I think watching that and watching you know,
Speaker 2: kind of the restart, there was sort of a chilling.
Speaker 2: I think they did try to bridge things, you know,
Speaker 2: and maybe there was a chance, a great reset that
Speaker 2: the pandemic there give us all right, and then you
Speaker 2: lose because because Mike Conley, smart guy planned a pregnancy,
Speaker 2: uh with this with his wife to happen during the
Speaker 2: NBA season. But the nb off season becomes the playoffs, right,
Speaker 2: and he goes back home and you know, throws off
Speaker 2: a little rhythm there because boy Bogdanovitch gets hurt and
Speaker 2: needs surgery and isn't there and because you you know,
Speaker 2: choke away what should have been an easy seemed an
Speaker 2: easy win over the over that Nuggets team at that point.
Speaker 2: And maybe if you win, maybe if you if you
Speaker 2: make a run to the conference finals or something like that,
Speaker 2: even in the bubble, maybe that sets you up for
Speaker 2: more success and a chance to go over. But you take, yeah,
Speaker 2: we've we've just lost. We don't we don't have that taste.
Speaker 2: Then we come back and you know, get run out
Speaker 2: of the building early on, vibes are very very down.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, five years ago that you were in that bubble.
Speaker 1: It's wild to consider, isn't it truly insane? And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I've it's very funny. It's like it just
Speaker 1: becomes part of like a personality. We're we're so old,
Speaker 1: we're so I feel like it's just like it's the
Speaker 1: depression for us or something like that.
Speaker 2: Right, like we have to talk about it. It's a
Speaker 2: central point in everything. And then there's just people that
Speaker 2: don't care. It's not gonna bother them anymore. Let it go,
Speaker 2: and I'm trying to get to that.
Speaker 1: Place there you go, Yeah, let go, let gout in
Speaker 1: all right, coming up tomorrow, excited for this. We're gonna
Speaker 1: be out in about at the former Legacy Center. This
Speaker 1: is a legacy fulfilled, a milestone forty years in the
Speaker 1: making will be realized tomorrow. The location is one oh
Speaker 1: nine six zero South Park Road in South Jordan. It's
Speaker 1: their grand opening. We're gonna have a ribbon cutting that
Speaker 1: starts at eleven am. The event itself goes from eleven
Speaker 1: AM to three, but we're going to be there until
Speaker 1: six So ribbon cutting ceremony, tours the new facility, appearances
Speaker 1: by local leaders, dignitaries and sports personalities. Former Legacy Center
Speaker 1: is going to serve as a hub for amateur boxing,
Speaker 1: youth mentorship, and community health programming, including fitness boxing for women, seniors,
Speaker 1: and individuals living with Parkinson's. So come on by, of course,
Speaker 1: the legends themselves, Gene Jay and Don Fomer. It is
Speaker 1: the legacy fulfilled, the grand opening of the Former Legacy
Speaker 1: Center at one O nine zero one O nine six
Speaker 1: zero South Park Road in South Jordan. All right, tusks
Speaker 1: up coming up next on the program, so keep it
Speaker 1: here on ESPN seven hundred. So listeners of the program
Speaker 1: and also friends of mine, know that I'm a massive,
Speaker 1: massive fan of the greatest reality TV show of all time,
Speaker 1: Laguna Beach and then the Hills. Of course, shout out LC.
Speaker 1: He's like a sister to me. I was always team Kristen,
Speaker 1: but else again, lover like a sister. And I don't
Speaker 1: know why, Aaron, but every time this is on that
Speaker 1: soundtrack and I love the soundtrack, and every time a
Speaker 1: Dashboard Confessional song comes on for some reason, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I guarantee Faulk went through a big phase. Fair confirmed,
Speaker 1: all right, knew it. I knew it. I don't know why. Listen, man,
Speaker 1: I got feelings. I know you do. You know, I
Speaker 1: know you do it.
Speaker 2: It rocked my world. You know this this came out
Speaker 2: I was in I was in high school.
Speaker 1: You know. Truthfully it might be a bigger fan of
Speaker 1: some of his early work forever. Okay, just kidding. Was
Speaker 1: this in the phase when you were playing music?
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, Like I you know this is We're
Speaker 2: going to Warp Tour, We're going to We're going to shows.
Speaker 2: We're hanging out of killby Cory love It. You know,
Speaker 2: we're putting this in the six disc changer in the
Speaker 2: Nissan Pathfinder, and you know, like just just feeling the world. Man,
Speaker 2: windows down.
Speaker 1: Did you cover a dashboard song. Oh man, okay, all right, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: that soundtrack has been making the rounds and that's came on.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I know Faulk would appreciate it, all right,
Speaker 1: Aaron tusks up. Okay, So the headline on ESPN dot
Speaker 1: com is this mammoth gaff question mark Utah mom on
Speaker 1: name after leak. C K yesterday on the show was
Speaker 1: more interested in the angle of who is up at
Speaker 1: two am monitoring the Utah Hockey Club YouTube handle? And
Speaker 1: why are we doing this?
Speaker 2: For me?
Speaker 1: It's another dynamic where who's asleep at the wheel over there?
Speaker 1: I mean, this reeks of the whole, like, hey, we're
Speaker 1: gonna leak the yellow Jazz jerseys accidentally and then say, wait,
Speaker 1: Purple's back. So it appears that the Utah Hockey Club
Speaker 1: accidentally let the cat out of the bag, and the
Speaker 1: hockey club henceforth in forever will be known as the
Speaker 1: Utah Mammoth, which I think is so bad for so
Speaker 1: many different reasons. But this is another embarrassing Look, man,
Speaker 1: that's my opinion. Where you at with it? Oh? I mean, I.
Speaker 2: It's hard for me to get very worked up about
Speaker 2: something like that. I mean I'm yeah, you know, I
Speaker 2: think having worked in in that world, you know sort
Speaker 2: of before, like a lot of different people doing a
Speaker 2: lot of different things, and you know, again, did somebody,
Speaker 2: you know, make sure just we need to we need
Speaker 2: to secure this, to make sure that this handle exists
Speaker 2: on YouTube, and uh, you know you're you're trying to
Speaker 2: just lock it down. And then oh no, you know,
Speaker 2: we've we've we've confirmed when we should not have confirmed.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know. And then and then the
Speaker 2: other thing is like, what's the bad publicity? You know, no,
Speaker 2: there's no there's no bad publicity. Publicity if you think
Speaker 2: this is if this is the name, and you get
Speaker 2: people talking about it again, you know, your team's not
Speaker 2: in the playoffs, and all of a sudden, you are.
Speaker 2: You know, it's a there's a bunch of really good
Speaker 2: stuff happening in the NHL playoffs and you became a
Speaker 2: story again today. Like that's not too bad for me either,
Speaker 2: So I mean, to me, not a bad look necessarily.
Speaker 2: I just think that you're talking about a bunch of
Speaker 2: people doing a bunch of the things.
Speaker 1: It's like not that high level. Does it make the
Speaker 1: actual announcement a little anti climactic since we know what
Speaker 1: the name is going to be now, or is there
Speaker 1: a possibility that this actually is To your point, were
Speaker 1: they just messing around?
Speaker 2: Maybe this isn't the name. I don't think they're messing around.
Speaker 2: I mean I saw that the comment when, you know,
Speaker 2: when asked about it, that they said, hey, we're still
Speaker 2: exploring all three names. I can't really believe that at
Speaker 2: this late date you're equally exploring three different possibilities, like
Speaker 2: you got to start printing things. We got to start
Speaker 2: you know, we've got to have a hat for you
Speaker 2: know whoever, I don't know any mask or so, I mean,
Speaker 2: it seems it seems very likely that this is the outcome.
Speaker 2: I think it seems likely given the fan reaction, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, after after Yetty drops off, it seemed like
Speaker 2: this was the number one choice. So, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 2: to quote John Paul Chungka, I'm not surprised not a.
Speaker 1: Real name, all right, as somebody who was part of
Speaker 1: the naming process us for a team that at the
Speaker 1: time had a lot of pushback, and still to this day,
Speaker 1: when people here at RAYL saw Lake, they kind of
Speaker 1: go away a second. What I always have to remind
Speaker 1: everybody that The reason we did that is our initial
Speaker 1: intention was to be the North American sister club of
Speaker 1: Real Madrid, and we did have a partnership with them.
Speaker 1: A young ck in the stands as a student watching
Speaker 1: Jason christ nearly score against Real Madrid, watching the Galactokos,
Speaker 1: and we had becks put put a shovel in the ground.
Speaker 1: We did a golden shovel at Dad. There's a picture
Speaker 1: in my house, Rude van Nistelroy ecer Cassius, right. I
Speaker 1: mean that was the initial intent of the Raal saw
Speaker 1: Lake name. It's not an easy thing to land on
Speaker 1: a name that everybody's gonna love. And I hate Mammoth.
Speaker 1: I think it's horrible. Of the options, that was actually
Speaker 1: my least favorite. So again it's this is a difficult
Speaker 1: thing to do because you're gonna get criticism no matter what.
Speaker 1: But what do you think of the name now that
Speaker 1: we have an idea of what it's going to be.
Speaker 2: I think a couple of things. I'm not as put
Speaker 2: off by it as as you are. I think, you know,
Speaker 2: it makes it makes some sense. There's you know, history
Speaker 2: within the state. There's you know, some some actual local
Speaker 2: tie like I think I would have had a greater
Speaker 2: problem with something that just like tries to sound cool,
Speaker 2: like Venom was was migrate, Like venom is a thing
Speaker 2: that's a nickname you give yourself, and it's not like
Speaker 2: it's not cool, it's gonna do Avatar, bro. So I
Speaker 2: think that at least it feels like, hey, yeah, there's
Speaker 2: there's a utah reason that this could be the name
Speaker 2: of the team, and it makes sense. Two, I think
Speaker 2: with anything with naming a child, like, every name sounds stupid,
Speaker 2: even you know, my parents sitting down there thinking about
Speaker 2: naming a child Aaron, like it sounds stupid. And then
Speaker 2: it just becomes your name, you know. And so for
Speaker 2: the first generation of fans here, yeah, there's gonna be
Speaker 2: some people that are hardcore about it. They're gonna be
Speaker 2: a bunch of people that think sounds fake, it's not real.
Speaker 2: And then there're gonna be people that are born into it,
Speaker 2: and it's always gonna be real to them, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean. And so I think that's that's the nature
Speaker 2: of I like the name Aaron. Do you not like
Speaker 2: your name?
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm I'm you're okay with that. I love the name.
Speaker 1: It's it's you know, no, no problem.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying it sounds it's you know, when you
Speaker 2: say a word over and over again or whatever, it
Speaker 2: sounds snake like this, like how do you how do
Speaker 2: you make that decision?
Speaker 1: And then it just becomes that the right fit fair enough?
Speaker 1: What's your middle name? Caleb? My paron Caleb.
Speaker 2: My parents argued my my mother wanted to name me Caleb.
Speaker 2: My father put the guybash on it.
Speaker 1: So okay, so then they all twitch roo Yeah okay. Uh.
Speaker 1: From a macro standpoint, Bell Belle Frasier, who you hired
Speaker 1: to cover the hockey club or the Utah Mammoth potentially
Speaker 1: for the trip friend of the program Dynamic on air.
Speaker 1: I think it was a great higher by you, and
Speaker 1: I think she does a really good job. What has
Speaker 1: the first year been like for you guys to cover
Speaker 1: pro hockey in our market?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, shout out Bell. She has been uh,
Speaker 2: super hard worker, clearly understands the the sport and it's
Speaker 2: extrememely passionate about it. I think a great person, you know,
Speaker 2: to advocate for fans and try to you know, teach
Speaker 2: a little and all of that. You know, it's been
Speaker 2: it's been very interesting. I think it's it is there's
Speaker 2: those are full buildings every night. Yeah, and it is
Speaker 2: still a very niche sport in in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: You know. I think.
Speaker 2: The test and the question for me will be, once
Speaker 2: this team is a playoff team or you know, a
Speaker 2: little bit of a run, how many folks are really
Speaker 2: invested in it? Beyond I'm excited about like the vibes
Speaker 2: of this thing. Here's a cool new thing. I like
Speaker 2: going to a game. I like, you know, I like
Speaker 2: the idea that my state has this versus how many
Speaker 2: people are like obviously Dylan Gunther should be on the
Speaker 2: second line, you know, and and breaking it down and
Speaker 2: I I have some I have some questions about that.
Speaker 1: We'll see.
Speaker 2: But you know, I think that fans really connect it,
Speaker 2: you know, just based on our metrics and what people read.
Speaker 2: They really connect with the cultural stuff, how Utah has perceived,
Speaker 2: how you know players fit in, how you know where
Speaker 2: you are in the pecking order of other NHL markets,
Speaker 2: and those types of things. And certainly less about like
Speaker 2: is Barrett Hayton, you know, getting in front of goal enough?
Speaker 1: Right? Like that those are getting increase right Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, those are two very different things, and so the
Speaker 2: audience for one is much greater than the other at
Speaker 2: the moment.
Speaker 1: For sure, I will tell you this, The Stanley Cup
Speaker 1: playoffs are so cool. They're so intense, and we are
Speaker 1: now in a market during the springtime when other markets
Speaker 1: are experiencing either basketball spring basketball playoffs or spring hockey playoffs,
Speaker 1: and we're experiencing neither. When well, I'm going to say when,
Speaker 1: because I'm an internal optimist, you know me, When springtime
Speaker 1: rolls around here in Salt Lake and the Mammoth and
Speaker 1: the Jazz are both in the postseason, it is going
Speaker 1: to be popping downtown. I mean, that's a fun thing
Speaker 1: to think about as a as as a guy you
Speaker 1: grew up here following the Jazz and working uh in
Speaker 1: the media now for a number of years. Do you
Speaker 1: have any specific spring Jazz playoff memories that pop? I mean,
Speaker 1: when the weather gets warm and playoff basketball is in
Speaker 1: Salt Lake, it's a really really fun thing. I hope
Speaker 1: we can experience it soon, Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 2: I mean it's hard for me to to ignore, like
Speaker 2: the more recent memories, but being in being in there
Speaker 2: for that OKAC series a couple of years ago, with
Speaker 2: the you know, the city edition jerseys and that color scheme,
Speaker 2: and you know, the arena.
Speaker 1: Looked just it's that's probably the coolest I think.
Speaker 2: And honestly some of the loudest I've I've ever heard it.
Speaker 2: Ricky Rubio moment that was that was a high water mark.
Speaker 2: It was for everybody there. Uh And so I think
Speaker 2: that that's that really stands out. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: back a little bit didn't hit quite as much that
Speaker 2: that first breakthrough with with Gordon and you get smoked
Speaker 2: by a Golden State and then you go back years
Speaker 2: before and I don't know, the memory fades. I I don't,
Speaker 2: I don't have quite the attachment to I wasn't I
Speaker 2: wasn't at the arena for you know, jazz bowls or
Speaker 2: anything like that. But that's that stands out for me personally.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I'm excited. I I you know, very selfishly.
Speaker 2: It's nice to have things to talk about and actually
Speaker 2: the matter that people are invested in. And I'll be
Speaker 2: very curious. I mean, my my working theory and I'd
Speaker 2: be curious. You know, what your take is on this
Speaker 2: is that hockey has a will not be bigger, but
Speaker 2: has a higher ceiling. Than NBA here in terms of
Speaker 2: landing free agents. Marquee guys, you know you have a
Speaker 2: higher potential of being a Stanley Cup champion in Salt
Speaker 2: Lake City than I think lifting a Larry O'Brien absolutely agree.
Speaker 1: And I've been very impressed with Bill Armstrong and they're
Speaker 1: good now. They're the third youngest team in the NHL.
Speaker 1: They've got to think the fifth most most cap space.
Speaker 1: And there just isn't the stigma attached to saw Lake
Speaker 1: for hockey players that there are for basketball players. And
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, right, there are probably several that we
Speaker 1: get into. I think we've and you know what we
Speaker 1: like here. We want you to tell us that you
Speaker 1: like us. And we've heard a lot of hockey players
Speaker 1: already say, man, this place is great. They'll be front
Speaker 1: facing about attracting other players to play for the team.
Speaker 1: You never hear NBA players say that about Utah.
Speaker 2: You just don't, right, Yeah, the best the best you
Speaker 2: get is you know, oh, once you get here, you
Speaker 2: know it's not bad or it's you know, you'll you'll understand.
Speaker 2: But nobody's selling it like that. Right, it's a very
Speaker 2: different thing. And right, you know, right or wrong, very
Speaker 2: very different thing. And yeah, and you look at obviously
Speaker 2: it's it's not as metropolitan and as you know, Toronto
Speaker 2: or Montreal or whatever. But you've got guys coming from
Speaker 2: Edmonton and Winnipeg, and and you know, like someth like
Speaker 2: doesn't look so bad.
Speaker 1: Right right, And you know, I remember when Hayward left,
Speaker 1: I said on air a couple of weeks later, if
Speaker 1: we can't keep the white dude who likes to play
Speaker 1: video games a night and is raised in a family,
Speaker 1: it doesn't bode well for who we're going to be
Speaker 1: able to keep. And that I think is an underlying
Speaker 1: fear of jazz fans where since John and Carl left
Speaker 1: and retired, every player that we've had here drafted and developed,
Speaker 1: they have not spent their entire career here. And if
Speaker 1: you can't get a player here to spend more than
Speaker 1: five or six years here, it's going to be hard
Speaker 1: to get a team to gel together long enough for
Speaker 1: them to be good. I think a lot of jazz
Speaker 1: fans are afraid of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, And you look at you know, people
Speaker 2: with a little perspective like Darren Williams comes back. But
Speaker 2: Darren Williams was not going to stay right, and I
Speaker 2: think pretty clearly at that point. So you know, once
Speaker 2: you have a little bit of life experience and you
Speaker 2: see how things operate in other places and how you
Speaker 2: were treated and how you lived, and you know your
Speaker 2: commute and all of that, Like, yeah, it makes sense.
Speaker 2: But you know, if you're a twenty five year old
Speaker 2: millionaire and the world is endless potential, you want to
Speaker 2: explore endless potential.
Speaker 1: Sure, And I completely get it. I mean, I always
Speaker 1: try to look at it through the prism of if
Speaker 1: I was a twenty five year old multi millionaire, where
Speaker 1: would I want to live if I was single? And
Speaker 1: I'm biased because I like it here and I don't
Speaker 1: think it's a bad place to live, but I can
Speaker 1: understand if you want to experience other places. Really, being
Speaker 1: a professional athlete, it's kind of an odd thing. Like
Speaker 1: you're told where you're going to work and where you're
Speaker 1: going to live in any other endeavor. If you're the
Speaker 1: best at what you do in the world, you have
Speaker 1: control over where you can do that thing, and athletes
Speaker 1: just don't. It's kind of an odd thing for sure.
Speaker 2: Maybe you get traded to Salt Lake City and you
Speaker 2: decide I'm gonna go to Brazil. I'm never coming there.
Speaker 1: There you go. We'll get to the lads, okay, in
Speaker 1: a moment, But before you get to the lads. Twitter
Speaker 1: discourse between college football fans it you know, the visual
Speaker 1: I have are the monkeys throwing their feces at each
Speaker 1: other at the zoo? I mean, and I don't program
Speaker 1: my show off of it, but you can't help but
Speaker 1: see BYU fans Utah fans, are you tampering with our players?
Speaker 1: Are you trying to steal our players? The transfer portal
Speaker 1: in college football is chaotic every school across the landscape
Speaker 1: of collegiate athletics and football, and in basketball, you're going
Speaker 1: to lose players no matter what. The days of us
Speaker 1: getting to know Andre Miller and getting to know Britton
Speaker 1: Johnson and getting us to you know, getting to know
Speaker 1: Alex Smith, three or four of your players, they're gone,
Speaker 1: they just are. That's a tribune. How much does this
Speaker 1: back and forth when it comes to covering BYU football
Speaker 1: Utah football with keV phenomenal short game, I guy Jason
Speaker 1: on the other side, your college football beat riders. How
Speaker 1: much of this back and forth moves the needle?
Speaker 2: If at all, I think it does move the needle,
Speaker 2: and I think that, you know, the way we try
Speaker 2: to look at it is maybe not so much jumping
Speaker 2: into uh, into the cage and you know, picking up
Speaker 2: our own faces and throwing it. I think we're trying
Speaker 2: to look at it as like, can we provide some
Speaker 2: perspective here and maybe get to get to a truth. So,
Speaker 2: you know, right now, the back and forth on Twitter,
Speaker 2: if you haven't been paying attention, is there are a
Speaker 2: lot of people out there that that accuse b Yu
Speaker 2: of quote a quote tampering, you know, and offering guys
Speaker 2: large nil packages to go south. Hasn't really happened that
Speaker 2: I've seen, you know in this Yeah, the top was
Speaker 2: miss Snowden or somebody like that, Right, hasn't happened sms
Speaker 2: Noden reaffirms he's at Utah. You know, maybe this is
Speaker 2: lingering from the ton of vasa stuff or whatever. I
Speaker 2: think my preference, very strong preference, is to try to
Speaker 2: answer that and say, like, what is the truth? Okay,
Speaker 2: so here's here's a bunch of people talking about it, speculation,
Speaker 2: here's a rumor. Can we get to the answer of
Speaker 2: what's really going on? And that's really like what we
Speaker 2: what we would endeavor to do. So I think it
Speaker 2: can shape and present interesting questions. I think it very
Speaker 2: rarely gives the real answer.
Speaker 1: And to be fair, I always put the disclaimer. You know,
Speaker 1: you can ask for a public records request to understand
Speaker 1: what UTAH is doing financially, but you can do that
Speaker 1: with BYU because of our private institution. So it really
Speaker 1: is hard to know exactly what the truth is with
Speaker 1: some of these financial figures. The on three group seems
Speaker 1: to be doing a lot of reporting. Jeff Goodman, who's
Speaker 1: a very well respected college basketball reporter, did report that
Speaker 1: the Rob Wright kid from Baylor signed a million dollar
Speaker 1: deal from Baylor to stay there, and then BYU was
Speaker 1: paying him north of three million dollars to play in provo.
Speaker 1: The AJ debantsa figure is seven million dollars for five
Speaker 1: months of basketball. Richie Saunders comes back reported with a
Speaker 1: seven figure deal. If you just do loose math, BYU
Speaker 1: Basketball is paying thirteen to fifteen million dollars ish for
Speaker 1: this roster that's coming back next year. That's going to
Speaker 1: be awesome. They're going to be a top five team.
Speaker 1: My question to you is, why can't they just admit
Speaker 1: what they're doing. Why can't they just say what the
Speaker 1: truth is and stop telling us that we're not seeing
Speaker 1: what we're seeing. We you know, we hear these things
Speaker 1: where Travis Hansen says, well, we don't outbid people, we
Speaker 1: outlove them, we out developed them, we out whatever. The
Speaker 1: name of the game now is to have your nil
Speaker 1: in a place where you can pay players to come
Speaker 1: play for you so you attract talent. It's not to
Speaker 1: outlove them or you know, the BYU experience or whatever,
Speaker 1: like why can't we just say what's actually happening?
Speaker 2: What if your love language is money fair, then can
Speaker 2: out love someone fair point?
Speaker 1: Fair point? Maybe that's the angle, and so I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think BYU is in a.
Speaker 2: It's just an interesting situation in that they have a
Speaker 2: mission that is, you know, very publicly stated that that's
Speaker 2: that's different than a lot of other places, and so
Speaker 2: it is hard to jump into the fray and fully
Speaker 2: embrace like hey, yeah, we've got a bag here for
Speaker 2: you and come play for us. And it feels mercenary,
Speaker 2: like we want you to be part of of you know, coognation,
Speaker 2: and we want you to be part of the mission
Speaker 2: and and all that, and so I think I think
Speaker 2: that is hard, but like there's no shame in paying
Speaker 2: people what you think there work, no take the victory
Speaker 2: leap for sure, there's no shame in it, right, And
Speaker 2: so yeah, I think I think it's new.
Speaker 1: I think I think it's new.
Speaker 2: And I think you have a lot of people that make,
Speaker 2: you know, at high levels that make decisions for BUYU
Speaker 2: at large on both you know, academically and and sort
Speaker 2: of you know, spiritual mission wise and and you know,
Speaker 2: athletics is only.
Speaker 1: Part of that.
Speaker 2: And so yeah, I think you kind of make sure
Speaker 2: that people that have that don't have their minds wrapped
Speaker 2: around in I l the way that you and I do,
Speaker 2: the way that a lot of you know, fans now
Speaker 2: have come to who believe that you know, it just
Speaker 2: kind of sounds gross like they're not there yet. And
Speaker 2: so I think part of it is probably making sure
Speaker 2: that the people that make those decisions higher up in
Speaker 2: the church and by us academic side feel good about
Speaker 2: it too.
Speaker 1: That's fair and some good perspective there. It just comes
Speaker 1: across as so on authentic and disingenuous when the reality
Speaker 1: of the situation is you are outbidding other schools for
Speaker 1: these players, and there's nothing wrong with that. So trying
Speaker 1: to spin the message to make it sound any other way,
Speaker 1: I don't understand what you're afraid of. Maybe it's this,
Speaker 1: and we should be clear. The church is not writing
Speaker 1: these checks. Okay, These are powerful boosters that contribute to
Speaker 1: the Crimson or what do they call the Royal Blue Collective,
Speaker 1: and you know, BYU I've been told has at least
Speaker 1: nine and maybe more at this point seven figure donors.
Speaker 1: So it is the boosters and the alumni that are
Speaker 1: paying for the players. It's not the church. Maybe people
Speaker 1: are scared of making you know, that kind of line.
Speaker 2: That's something that you see every time, like the argument
Speaker 2: this is this is tithing or whatever, and so they
Speaker 2: have to make sure that that gets that message gets out.
Speaker 2: This is not the church paying for this, This is
Speaker 2: not your tithing money, because this is someone else's decision
Speaker 2: to do this on behalf of BYU Athletics. And so, yeah,
Speaker 2: it is messy when when you have that kind of
Speaker 2: you know, big, big mission and stage goal and then
Speaker 2: you have this other thing that feels tangential to it,
Speaker 2: or you know, feels maybe dirty in the mind of
Speaker 2: somebody who wants it to be much more pure, focused
Speaker 2: on a single thing.
Speaker 1: What's your understanding of where the University of Utah is
Speaker 1: at right now with their ability to attract talent to
Speaker 1: and the Crimson Collective where the nil stuff is at
Speaker 1: you right now? Yeah?
Speaker 2: So what what they've said is that they are prepared
Speaker 2: to go to the full twenty and a half million
Speaker 2: of revenue sharing once the House settlement is finalized. I'm
Speaker 2: less clear on what that means in terms of I
Speaker 2: think a lot of people are going to be at
Speaker 2: the full twenty and a half and then that's great
Speaker 2: and it's nice that the universe that a school can
Speaker 2: now do this directly, but you know, there's third party
Speaker 2: and il is still going to be on top of that.
Speaker 2: You know, it doesn't This doesn't mean that you and
Speaker 2: Ohio State are equal at twenty and a half, right
Speaker 2: There's there's more money on top of that. So I'm
Speaker 2: less clear on where that is, you know, but I
Speaker 2: think they are, you know, setting themselves up to do that.
Speaker 2: We'll see how they do that, because you got to
Speaker 2: come up with twenty million dollars and it's probably private equity,
Speaker 2: and you know, be curious how that looks once once
Speaker 2: that that happens.
Speaker 1: Who is Nate Bench's favorite jazz player of all time.
Speaker 2: Is a great question. I feel like I feel like
Speaker 2: it's going to be like Blue Edwards or something. But
Speaker 2: do you have an answer?
Speaker 1: No? Well, wh When I first met Nate, we were
Speaker 1: playing golf together and we were going to draft a
Speaker 1: jazz team back and forth, and I said, if you
Speaker 1: had the first pick, who would you take? And he
Speaker 1: said armand Gillian, Oh, I knew it. The hammer, The hammer. Okay.
Speaker 1: The reason I'm asking this is the first person can
Speaker 1: text in Nate Bench's favorite jazz player date seven seven
Speaker 1: three five three zero seven hundred. We're giving you a
Speaker 1: free round of golf to Mount Ogden. Okay, it's the
Speaker 1: Festival of Tease presented by our friends at the UGA.
Speaker 1: So we'll give you a PGA tour update coming up.
Speaker 1: But first person contexted Nate Bench's favorite jazz player, We're
Speaker 1: going to send you to golf for free. All right?
Speaker 1: Before I set you loose, I'm gonna ask you a
Speaker 1: two part RSL question. Part one is your thoughts on
Speaker 1: You and I have spoken about this. We were able
Speaker 1: to sit with the Millers for a while the day
Speaker 1: before their announcement that they have purchased the controlling stake
Speaker 1: of RSL. So your thoughts on the ownership transition of
Speaker 1: RSL and what they did do? Uh, and I have
Speaker 1: decided to name him Big Willie Goals. So we got Willie,
Speaker 1: you gotta we got Johnny Russell across the line. So
Speaker 1: your thoughts on what they did do during the primary
Speaker 1: transfer window and maybe more importantly, what they did not do.
Speaker 1: So before I set you loose, your thoughts on all
Speaker 1: things RSL.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, incomplete grades and TBD. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: I I I understand the frustration, to start with the
Speaker 2: second half. First, I understand the frustration that you know
Speaker 2: you don't have a star striker at this point after
Speaker 2: selling off a guy who looked very much like a
Speaker 2: star striker at least for the first half of last year.
Speaker 2: And I completely understand the frustration. However, you know, don't
Speaker 2: I don't know anything about uh our friend Bosnik.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 2: I couldn't tell you, but hey, you tried and through
Speaker 2: no fault of your own fail, so I can't really
Speaker 2: hold that against you. Maybe given how complex it is
Speaker 2: to get across the line on these things, you gotta
Speaker 2: have four that are close and you you get to
Speaker 2: that situation. But it sounds like they got done dirty
Speaker 2: on that one, and so hey, you know, gotta gotta
Speaker 2: try again. Johnny Russell, once a great player, now seems
Speaker 2: like a great guy. We'll see how that works. And
Speaker 2: and Goda gives you at least something because they didn't have,
Speaker 2: you know, forcer was not the answer, so incomplete in
Speaker 2: terms of the Miller's you know, I think that.
Speaker 1: They are not the splashiest and flashiest of owners. Right.
Speaker 2: They're not going to go in, They're not not goingahere
Speaker 2: to lure whoever the next great European is and spend
Speaker 2: a bunch of money to do it. They're always going
Speaker 2: to you know, be smart with with their money and
Speaker 2: see where they can you know, maximize some things.
Speaker 1: That being said, you know, I mean we talked about
Speaker 1: being spoiled. Have they did?
Speaker 2: They really have bad teams ever, you know, for a
Speaker 2: long period of time. So I think, yeah, maybe maybe.
Speaker 1: You feel.
Speaker 2: Cb about it, but I do think you're gonna have
Speaker 2: a good product for a long period of time.
Speaker 1: I do think that will be important to them. No,
Speaker 1: I agree, well said, And you don't have to spend
Speaker 1: NBA money on MLS teams, you know, so we'll see
Speaker 1: how it goes. Well. Look, great to see you up.
Speaker 1: Subscribe to the trip. What do you want to tell
Speaker 1: our listeners about what we got going to the trip? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: Thank you for everybody that reads Bell stuff, Kevin stuff,
Speaker 2: Jason stuff, Andy stuff, Gordon stuff, mesyltrip dot com, Like
Speaker 2: and subscribe, shout out, Nate Bench.
Speaker 1: Love it man. Great to see what we'll see a Saturday. Okay. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Aaron Falk, the editor of the sports section of the
Speaker 1: Solilate Tribune,