Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Guys, we have an interesting pod today. We initially jump on to talk about the championship game for the four nations tournament that the NHL put up in place of the All Star game. It was epic. Great reviews. Canada takes it away in overtime against the US with the golden goal. 3, 2. Hope you caught it. If not, go watch a replay. Watch replay of all the games and they're pretty exciting.
So they avenge the loss from the earlier round robin game. We also talk a little NBA with Wembanyama.
The news broke out that he's out for the second half.
And what does that look like? What does that mean for the Spurs? We touched on a little bit like about Greg Popovich. Is he coming back? Also all the drama surrounding around that rescinded Lakers trade for Williams. Man, there's just a lot of weird stuff going on the Lakers right now. I'm not liking it. But we talk about that and some other playoff pitcher stuff before we kind of go into the second half of the season. Then we touch on MLB very quickly, including Aaron Boone, the replay that they're testing out on spring training and then Major League Baseball no longer going to be on espn. That news also came out as well Jason, Aaron, they kind of go on this rant.
I kind of disagree. You don't want to miss that. And then just kind of bullshitting I guess about just all the fun stuff coming up. So fun pod don't go anywhere.
We're recording Thursday night, late Thursday night, February 20th to recap that epic overtime game of the Four nations tournament which was this year's NHL All Star Game, more or less. Lots of fun, lots of great reviews.
Canada comes out barely with a clutch shot from Connor McDavid eight minutes within overtime to give Canada the big dub and us had their chances to I think they had two potential winning shots. One barely grazed off the top, if I'm not mistaken, in the top right hand corner. And then, then another great save by Canada's goalie a few minutes after that. So pretty epic.
We'll just talk about that really quickly and then maybe we'll talk a little bit about the Wemby news that broke out earlier today. How he is going to be missing the rest of the season.
Funny enough, we were talking about this on our last pod of of our concern over seven footers. So we're gonna have to release that clip because we definitely talked about that before news broke out on Wemby and that's pretty crazy, man. It's a one off bloodcought potentially. But first, back to the Cup Canada wins and the four nations face off. What'd you guys think? Did you guys like the championship game tonight?
[00:03:10] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a great night of hockey overall.
Pomp and circumstance of it in Boston. Crowd was electric. Everything about it, you know, you. I sent nine and send it to you guys, but I put it on my social media. Rome, I know you saw it like. Yeah, yeah, espn. John Bujegras, the ESPN coverage, it was a really good. Without the kind of the teaser and they had. Yeah, that Kurt Russell from Miracle. You know, just get. Get you all the feels of. Of the movie Miracle. If you've seen the movie Miracle. Like one of my favorites of that. The 1980 U.S. men's hockey team that beat the. Beat the Russians. And just one of the. The storied sports moments for our country and you know, ranks up there all time for just overall best sports moments. And from a movie perspective, like, you know, Miracle. There was a lot of hype when that movie came out and I really lived up to the building and what Kurt Russell does and them overlaying that speech with the current guys in it and just kind of the build between the US And Canada and just the overall. I mean, these were two evenly matched teams. Like, the level of hockey in the United States has continued to grow over this, like, generation. You know, we have some of the best stars in the league on the U.S. side. Canada's obviously, you know, has the best in the world at the same time too. But you love just before the game starts, these hype videos. You get Wayne Gretzky coming out for Canada. You get Mike Arizioni from the 1980, you know, team coming out wearing the Johnny Dro jersey, which was just, you know, on the fields after, you know, he tragically passed away in the off season. And he was basically, you know, Johnny Hockey played in Boston at Boston College and, you know, was in that area. So it was. It was just kind of everything from an emotional moment came out early. You know, crowd was in. You know, I think boo the. Boo. The Canadian national anthem. You know, loud cheers for the US national anthem. So it just. It said everything you need, you know, from. From this type of stuff. And you know, I sent you guys. What I did send you guys earlier was some great takes from PK Suban on ESPN this morning. You know, hockey getting some love just really across the major networks kind of for the first time right now because the NHL really put on something really special with the four nations face off because it really dwarfed over a lot of the all Star game stuff from the NBA side just seeing like efforts and everything that we've seen from the pros and it just really related. And it came across on the TV that, hey, the NHL put together just a random country's tournament and these guys are laying it all on the line, just diving in front of 100 mile an hour slap shots, you know, starting. You know, the fights in the last game, just the level of intensity was just, you know, unreal. I had a friend text me, like, Jay, what is, what is this like right now? I'm like, I mean, this is Stanley cup playoff stuff. You know, it is a rise to the level of Stanley cup finals. Maybe these guys are leaving it all on the line. So Canada came out early, scored the first goal. Kind of took a little bit of wind out of the U.S.
canada really outplayed the U.S. in the first period. Got a pretty, you know, good bounce in front of the net with Brady Tkachuk, who's been, you know, the Tkachuk brothers really making a name for themselves, kind of being like the Bash Brothers. For everyone that watched D2, these really, these are the guys right now, the sons of legendary Keith Tkachuk, as we talked before. So Ty, going into the first U.S. came out in the, you know, second played a lot better, took the 21 lead, was electric. Canada bounced back, got the goal, tied it. Third period was just really just. Everyone's just drained. Everything was fighting for it going into overtime. Game ends. Best player in the world, Connor McDavid. You leave that guy open in the slot. The US had their chances early in the overtime. Austin Matthews, specifically, Austin Matthews was kind of out of position there to, to a degree, which allowed Connor McDavid open in the slot. You, you, you leave the best hockey player in the world with a shot like that. It's. No matter how good the goalie is, you know the game's going to end. And so big players making big plays at big times. And, you know, he rose to the moment.
[00:07:12] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, the energy was great, like you guys just talked about. I mean, the energy, it felt not like an all star type weekend feel. The four nations face off. It felt like the Olympics. It felt like we were watching a gold medal Olympic game right there between Canada and usa. And you know, these teams have had some epic battles over the last decade, decade and a half. This one lived up to the billing. As mentioned, Canada really in the first period, looks strong. Probably could have gotten a couple more goals. They only got the one. USA tied it up with Kachek like he's mentioned getting that tie to score 11 period 2. USA came out, took the 21 lead. Looked like they were in control. Canada rallies, ties at 2:2, third period, going back and forth and then overtime starts. And you know, Matthews, I mean two or three shots just right there at the net looked like he was going to get one it go. It just felt like USA was playing fast, they were playing loose. It just looked like it was a matter of time before they get one in. And then like Jason just said, you leave the best hockey player in the world open for a shot, you know, five, 10ft away from the net. He pits in the back. Team Canada takes home the first of possibly, you know, many going forward of these four nation face offs because I mean even they were talking, they weren't expecting the hype, the bill to be around so much. But like these teams, these countries, they took it serious, man. They brought the energy, they brought the effort. You know, that's been the knockabout, all star weekend, Pro Bowl, NBA whatnot. Just not having that effort and energy there. That's a fan. This wasn't from a fan's perspective. You couldn't ask for more. They mentioned tickets were going for. The cheapest you could get was around 2300 for this game. Boston was a great place to have it. This tournament was great. And yeah, it was a lot of fun, man. Good game.
But Canada again comes out. So we got to wait till the 2026 Winter Olympic Games for the possible rematch of these two. Because these two teams right now look to be the best kind of know in the nation as far as their countries are.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I just want to point out Nathan McKinnon, he scored in this game, joined an elite list of Canadians that scored at least one goal in every game in a best of best tournament. He joined Mario lemu in the 87 Canada cup and Mike Bossy in the 81 Canada Cup.
NHL has done these type of tournaments before, not too often, but now there's talk that they might try to squeeze us in every couple years, that that kind of cycle not compete against the Olympics. This was supposed to be like an Olympic primer. That's what they're aiming towards, kind of create some competition. They knew they were going to get buy in from all the players since. But you know, especially guys like McDavid have talked about like wanting an international tournament and so looks like they got everyone to buy in. It was great, competitive, lots of fun.
Some people even commented how this means more than a Stanley Cup.
Who knows, you know, but we know, like, a lot of these guys do, like, competing for their country and having bragging rights. So I think big win for the NHL usa. They lost. I think this is our sixth game in a row, six tournament where they could have won. They lose on the golden goal. This might be like the third game in a row where they lost on the Golden Goal. But, yeah, fun game.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: Not really fun game. I think definitely the primer for the Olympics next year is, you know, the NHL sends their players out and that's kind of like the All Star break next year as we go to 2026. So, you know, we'll have some other countries obviously involved for that, and it'll probably be a pretty exciting thing. I think the US, you know, they were out without defenseman Charlie McAvoy in that. In that game. So, you know, for defensively, what he was able to do in the first game versus Canada, a little bit, you know, of. Of a. Of a negative for them. But, you know, overall, I mean, these teams were. It was as tight as it could be. PK Suban said it at the end of regulation, it's going to end up kind of a bounce here, a bounce there. Like, any of those Austin Matthews kind of shots right there before McDavid store, you know, was kind of like the prime of, you know, something that could have got in. But, yeah, I mean, it was just really fun stuff. Like, you know, I mentioned the, you know, PK Suban a couple times today, but, like, if you. If you go back and watch the stuff he said on ESPN this morning, for, like, people who like hockey, you know, and it isn't. It isn't. It isn't the US's top sport, it's probably that. It was always considered probably the number four sport, and it's really finding a lot of momentum the past couple years. When you talk about the effort that these guys put in versus potentially their NBA counterparts and what people are calling them out for it, like, there's a. There's a different cultural thing about hockey where these guys are kind of going out there laying on the line, and that's what you saw in this game. And it was really cool to see. And I think going into the Olympics next year, it's going to be even better.
I always say the NHL, like, puts on the best playoffs every single year. The NHL playoffs are always the best. You know, more game sevens, you know, tighter games, the pressures there, the atmosphere, and in those arenas, it's always better. And I think that this is Just another example of something the NHL is doing really well.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: So I'm excited for the second half of the NHL season.
We can start talking about them moving forward. Do you guys want to recap first half or just. We'll do that another day and.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: Get another day. We look into the second half where look things are at. I mean, but a lot of great players that are on both of these teams are going to be heavily involved in the second half. You look at Connor McDavid lost in the Stanley cup finals last year to Matthew Tkachuk's Florida panthers. You know, McDavid's looking to get, you know, that first ring for him. He's a generational talent thought, you know, looking at to potentially be one of the best ever. But he's kind of got that LeBron stigma, maybe before LeBron won that ring in Miami, that he hasn't got over the hump. McDavid does. And, you know, so he's. He's looking to prove something here. Did it on the international stage, you know, right now and now needs to do it in the playoffs.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: Coming up for the Oilers, it's a cool mix, man. You got a lot of guys, like, aging out.
A couple guys on the Penguins, you got Ovechkin. These guys are clinching records and kind of wrapping up, putting the final bows on their careers. And then you got a nice influx of talent.
The young teenager on the Sharks, you got the homie on the Blackhawks, and definitely got some rising superstars right now competing for their first Cup. So I'm digging it, man.
[00:14:07] Speaker B: Yeah, the second half will be interesting. I mean, you got the defending Stanley cup champions leading the Atlantic Division. But you mentioned Ovechkin, His Washington Capitals are now, you know, they're. They're in front lines for best record in the league for the President's Trophy right now. And he's missed some time this year. So that's an interesting story. And in the Western Conference, you know, Connor McDavid's Oilers, they're up there, too. And then you saw in this time, USA's, USA's goalie, blank on it, Hellebuck, Conor Hellebuk, you know, he's. He's with the jets, probably one of the best goalies in the game right now. They're leading the other division in the Western Conference. So you saw the talent on display that was in this USA Canada game, or the big names we're going to be talking about going into the second half of the season. And, you know, who are the impact players going to be, to make a run at the Stanley Cup.
[00:14:55] Speaker C: Yeah, it's going to be an interesting second half, man. I mean like Jason mentioned, I mean Connor McDavid the time. I believe this, they say this is 10th year. Got to his first cup final last year. Down 3, 0, forced that game seven. It was a great game seven. Panthers won it. Panthers playing it good again in the Eastern Conference. And then you got in the west like you said, Winnipeg. Best goalie right now in the league. Strong showing for Team USA in this or nations face off. It's going to be an interesting second half. I mean it kicks right off against Saturday. I mean they're not, there's not like a few days where they get to Monday and start, I mean Saturday, 9:30am Western Pacific Standard Time. They're dropping the puck.
[00:15:37] Speaker A: So it's, I've been catching a lot of games on Saturday, hockey on Saturday. I tweeted about it. Has this always been a thing or am I just like warming up to it?
I, I, I've been loving waking up to it and catching a game or two and been great.
[00:15:52] Speaker B: Now Sundays there used to be, NBC used to do like the Sunday morning game. It'd be like, I thought, yeah, yeah.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: But, but now they're promoting on Saturdays. The hockey on Saturdays is a. Yeah.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: I used to do it like right after, it'd be right after Meet the Press, man. They'd be dropping the puck at like an east coast game like at 9am back in the day. But oh man, I don't know. West Coast, west coast were spoiled though. I was texting with my, with my cousin Brad who lives in, who lives in Boston actually. And you know, he's like, man, I'm struggling to stay awake. I'm like, that's because you don't live in God's time zone in the Pacific, man. It's only 8:00 out here.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: That's epic.
All right, let's transition over to the NBA. Big news this morning. We even tweeted about it where I actually tweeted a few things. Aaron Boone got extended, but we don't have to talk about that yet. Uh, spurs announcing that Victor Wembanyama will be missing the rest of the season when they found a deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder. Basically a blood cot. It's very similar to what Brandon Ingram had a couple years ago. Luckily, he hasn't had an issue since then. Um, typically happens more often with black athletes, unfortunately. Um, and the lankier ones too, which is kind of Weird. Uh, Chris Boss had this, had a similar issue, but that was in his leg, which is more troublesome. And that pretty much ended his career. Even though he tried coming back, the NBA just did not want that on their.
On their hands, rightfully.
[00:17:25] Speaker C: So he had to take blood thinners. That was one of the big things. Ingram, from what I read, had some kind of surgical procedure that helped improve the blood flow that he wouldn't have to be on thinners. And luckily he has not had an issue since.
[00:17:38] Speaker A: Yeah, with the blood thinners, it's automatic. Just you have to sit out for six months. It's nothing pervasive. But yeah, it's just. It's just rough. So we were just talking on this pod about 7 footers. I didn't have a chance to go back and find the clip because I know we talked a little bit about it and I don't know what brought us to that section either.
[00:18:00] Speaker C: I think Williams. It was Mark Williams. You're talking about Mark Williams trademark who.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: That's. That resented trade is creating so much chaos around the Lakers right now. I'm not liking it anymore.
[00:18:11] Speaker B: It wasn't. Didn't it come out today like a bunch of doctors said that the. Those Lakers doctors shouldn't have done that?
[00:18:18] Speaker A: Well, that's Williams teams doing that, like reaching out to independent doctors and getting that confirmation that Angel's not happy. Williams was not happy. Didn't want to go back to the Hornets, which I get. I totally get it. He was pretty excited to go team up with LeBron and Luka. I would be too.
But back to Victor though. Thoughts on this? What does this mean for the rest of the season? They did just pick up Fox, so you would think they. They were going to make a push to try to make some noise getting a better positioning for the play in possibly maybe even one of those higher low seeds in the. In the play in tournament. But now I think that's off the table, right?
Are they going to barely play 500 like they were barely playing 500 ball now, Victor was a big part of that, stepped up his game. Now is it like a lost season or is it just like all the new pieces just kind of getting some chemistry and then we'll see how it goes next year?
[00:19:15] Speaker B: I don't know. The conspiracy theories out there say this is their way to try to get the first overall pick to get Cooper Flag.
[00:19:22] Speaker A: Dude, I have not heard that. But I would not be happy if Cooper Flag went to the Spurs.
Not be happy.
[00:19:30] Speaker C: There are multiple teams behind them in the standing. So it would take a lot of the luck. The luck of the lottery. Even though they changed up the lottery. Right. I mean, I think last year, like, a team that wasn't supposed to win it, won it, or got into the top three, I. I don't know what they're doing with it now.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: This is where Silver has touched things a little too much.
[00:19:52] Speaker B: I don't know. I don't get the lottery. The baseball ladder is even more corrupt. The White Sox are the worst team ever and somehow didn't have the first overall pick.
[00:19:58] Speaker C: The NFL is the only one that really just goes based off record. Like the NBA. The NBA. You got to have, like, David Stern and going, just grab your ball out of the back and say, oh, look, you get the first pick in the draft.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: The refrigerated envelope. Yeah. Here I'm just playing at the standings real quickly.
Spurs, 24 and 29. They got.
[00:20:18] Speaker C: The spurs got a win tonight.
[00:20:21] Speaker A: They did a really big win against the Suns.
[00:20:23] Speaker C: Suns are playing, like, really bad.
[00:20:25] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:25] Speaker C: I. I was watching that game.
[00:20:27] Speaker A: The chemistry and the vibes are not good down in Phoenix. Nickname. Yeah.
[00:20:33] Speaker C: And then I saw.
I was reading or hearing that Durant didn't want to get traded because he wanted to see how things would play out in Phoenix. It's. It's not playing out well. I. I think there's a lot more to that than not him not wanting to go to Golden State. He said there was no hard feelings or bad blood, but there's no reason for you to want to stay in Phoenix given the direction they're going.
[00:20:51] Speaker A: Dude, if you were dealing with an teammate like Draymond Green, would you want to go back with all those hurt feelings and, you know, attention? They never fixed it. And he addressed it in a podcast recently. I'll send you guys a clip where he talks about he thought they were going to, like, squash it, and he was waiting for Kurt to squash it.
[00:21:10] Speaker C: The warriors were willing to dream on for him.
[00:21:12] Speaker A: Yeah. And they just never address. They just pretend like it didn't happen. It just made things worse for the rest of the season. That's what cost them a championship, so.
And Kevin's sensitive. Let's face it. We've already seen it. It's like 20 fake X accounts and et cetera, et cetera.
[00:21:27] Speaker C: He might be one of those fake accounts. Listening to the show. That's might be why the sets are playing pretty bad right now.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. They're definitely not get. Well, they have a chance to get the number one. We'll see. We'll have to take a, take a look at the odds, but we got Pelicans, Jazz still in the single or like the low tens digits of wins.
Wizards, you got, you got six teams really competing for the top seed, so be pretty tough, I think. Aaron, you said that they were going to end up making some noise in the playoffs. Are you done with that?
[00:22:04] Speaker C: I never said they're gonna make some noise in the playoffs. I thought they would get into the play in, but now without Victor, I can't see that they're Dynamine.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: I'm pretty happy with like the 10 and that are in. I think, I think it's gonna stay like that.
[00:22:20] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean you gotta take the spurs off. Portland's not doing anything. The Suns are a mess.
Warriors are Butler. Yeah, I would say those 10 in the west for sure.
[00:22:32] Speaker A: I think just position is just going to change with these 10.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: Yeah. You don't think Sacramento falls out for Phoenix?
[00:22:41] Speaker C: Possibility as possible.
But the Suns, they've lost.
I mean.
[00:22:48] Speaker B: Or straight.
[00:22:49] Speaker C: Yeah, I think seven or straight.
[00:22:51] Speaker A: They're two of eight in their last 10.
[00:22:54] Speaker C: Their defense is terrible. They've lost the last eight games. They've lost. They've given up at least 119 points or more. So their team is bad. They're small.
Yeah, I mean the spurs, we, I think we said, we talked about it a week or two ago, they're about a year or two away from really making noise. I, I think next year if they're healthy with Castle, who they got. Fox is really good. Wimby comes back, hopefully healthy. This isn't, you know, a reoccurring issue because if it is, then like you mentioned Roland Bosh careers, your career's over. Like the NBA is not going to risk like some guy just falling.
[00:23:30] Speaker A: They don't want someone dying on the floor. Yeah, that's why they kicked Magic Johnson off right away. You know, they have a history of being on, on, on the front.
[00:23:38] Speaker C: Neil Silver is going to be really, really careful of this. And given, you know, Wimby's only what, 19, 20 at this, at this time.
[00:23:47] Speaker A: 20. We're talking about, you know, people thinking this might be like a two, three time mvp, couple of championships in his career. They're going to take care of this or take care of him, at least try to ensure this, that does not fall.
[00:24:00] Speaker C: Yeah, it's kind of, you know, like you mentioned Rome. It's a good thing it's in his arm shoulder. Similar to Ingram who had the issue back in 2019 from what I read, no issue since.
[00:24:11] Speaker A: Yeah, it's right after he got traded.
[00:24:15] Speaker C: So. Yeah. Spurs aren't doing anything this year health wise like him. Sit out, get better. They're going to get another high draft pick. They've got some players coming in.
[00:24:26] Speaker A: It's probably good for them.
[00:24:27] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: To get another.
[00:24:28] Speaker C: They don't even have. Popovich still isn't even back on the silence. Is he even going to return?
[00:24:32] Speaker A: I don't think he's going to return. Dude. It's been all year long. We haven't even seen him in public. He had a stroke.
[00:24:38] Speaker C: It's probably comes back next year. Just takes a front office like consulting role.
[00:24:41] Speaker A: I think he goes for the front office. Yeah. He's an older guy. I think he's no one's, you know.
[00:24:47] Speaker B: Why do they have an A, do they have an air parent there? They.
[00:24:52] Speaker A: I can't remember who's taking over right now, but they like him a lot. I just don't know if they had him pegged for to take over the reign, so to speak after Popovich.
[00:25:04] Speaker B: I just didn't know if they ever to consider. Remember Becky Hammond was over there.
[00:25:09] Speaker A: As I know she's already won a couple championships, but that's what I'm saying.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: Did a wnba. Did the assistant there.
[00:25:17] Speaker A: They just blew up their team, more or less the Aces, you know, they're kind of revamping a little bit. So who knows.
That's crazy. Maybe I wasn't even thinking about that. But.
[00:25:27] Speaker C: Yeah, well, she's been with the Aces what, two, three years already?
[00:25:30] Speaker B: It's been three years.
[00:25:31] Speaker A: Five years.
[00:25:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:25:32] Speaker A: Same.
[00:25:34] Speaker B: She won two titles.
[00:25:35] Speaker A: Two titles. Repeat, they lost before that. So we're looking at she's going to year five right now.
All right, let's jump back up to the Williams thing. This drama just keeps on coming out like it's just disgusting. Like I don't know what's the problem here. You just can't, you know.
[00:25:57] Speaker C: Well, I mean I think the problem is we talked about Rome. Well, we talked about this. Like there's no transparency on why you fail the physical. Like, like we don't have any X rays. We don't really have a real explanation of why.
[00:26:11] Speaker A: Oh, they're going to change that.
[00:26:13] Speaker C: That's going to change. I believe coming forward in the, the 2026 CBA agreement. Once that comes out, that'll be the Palenco rule. Like. Yeah. And like we talked about, you know, will you get fined money? Will you lose a draft pick? Will you lose multiple Draft picks, will it be a first? Will it be like 2 seconds? Will your organization be fined a million dollars? How's that going to work?
Because yeah, the Hornets and Williams team, like you mentioned Rome, they are coming out of the woodworks and basically saying it's a travesty, it's a joke that the Lakers failed this guy. Yet the Lakers now have released no comment. The Lakers, obviously, I don't know if league rules state they can't just basically take a screenshot of the X ray, put it on X and say judge for yourself. I don't know if that's against league policy and rules.
[00:27:01] Speaker A: Like just basically that's a HIPAA thing, dude. That's a. Yeah, that's a definite nago.
[00:27:05] Speaker C: So this guy, it's basically, you know, Rob Link and the Lakers, word against your word and then you can get whoever doctors you want saying the good, the guy's good. I don't know. I don't know what you do.
[00:27:19] Speaker A: Yeah, the thing with the Williams stuff, they're sharing his own health prognosis. They don't have the Lakers report. So this is all hearsay. But it's just, it's creating more drama, I think that the Lakers anticipated or any of us anticipated. It's just as much the Luca stuff.
Luca, by the way, we'll just talk about really quickly.
Looks kind of like bummed, like kind of sad. It's going to take him while to get over this trade. I think this thing like really shook him to his core. He just bought a house a week before he got traded in Dallas. A new house. He's embedded in the community and all the shit talking out of Dallas, man, coming out of there after they traded him has been kind of non stop as well. This is like, this is like the Real Housewives of the NBA.
[00:28:07] Speaker B: Did this trade really just sink both teams for this year, at least for this year.
[00:28:12] Speaker A: Like I think it's going to take Luca a little longer. We'll, we'll see. You know, he didn't play tonight. They, they sent him out back to back. They still have a minutes restriction on him around 30. He hasn't played great aside like a decent game one. But other than that though, just kind of looks like a little sluggish, not out of shape. Just like you know when you're not feeling it, you're not feeling it.
[00:28:34] Speaker C: He, yeah, he looks lethargic and not like his head's in the game. Yeah, he doesn't want to be there.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: It's a mental thing. It's Going to take a long time. It's not his team, you know, although they want him to be his team. You know, you got LeBron and that's like a big personality. We've already heard how many teammates this guy has run, run over in his career.
[00:28:51] Speaker C: You know, he's already running over Mark Williams, and he wasn't even on the team. You saw his comments, guys. He's saying Mark Williams was never part of the team. Never seen him, never showed up in the locker room.
[00:29:00] Speaker A: It was a dumb question. It was a dumb question. I, I, I, I read that and it's like, why, Why'd you ask that? He wasn't on the team. You know, was it like, you know, playing against a, a teammate? It's like he wasn't on the team, you know, it was just dumb. That report is an idiot. Yeah, I'll give LeBron a pass on that. And I don't give a lot. I don't give.
[00:29:17] Speaker C: You should have just said Mark. Mark Williams. Who, who are you talking about?
[00:29:20] Speaker A: Who's he? The guy you talked over.
[00:29:22] Speaker C: Go get your X rays fixed.
[00:29:24] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll see if Luca wakes up in the next game. They play Dallas. What?
[00:29:28] Speaker C: Denver. Saturday.
[00:29:30] Speaker A: Denver. I'm sorry, Denver.
[00:29:33] Speaker C: Yeah, they play the Nuggets 5:30. That's the ABC game Saturday evening.
[00:29:39] Speaker A: Kevin Durant, obviously he, that team, the Sun's where he talked about that. They're kind of feeling the icks from the trade deadline as well because everyone on their mom was involved with some type of trade.
[00:29:50] Speaker C: Well, the Suns basically wanted to trade away half their squad. Bill Durant, all these guys, and they couldn't get rid of them.
[00:29:58] Speaker A: Weird, actually, how they're running their front office.
I'm not getting it.
I got nothing else.
[00:30:11] Speaker B: Only other piece of news I saw out there, baseball related at Major League Baseball and ESPN are ending their broadcast partnership. I did see that this season, which, kind of crazy when you look at espn, pretty much has kept the portfolio of all sports across their network. Yeah, Sunday night baseball was a staple. You know, Baseball Tonight obviously, like, went away, I don't know, five, six years ago or something like that when they started minimizing a lot of their baseball coverage. But I, I really, I really kind of nerd out. None of people like this stuff. But like, when you look at the business of sports and start talking about TV contracts, things like that, I know, like, you know, mentioned, you know, the NBA a lot and where the NBA is at from a ratings perspective. But they, they, we gave Adam Silver the credit in the Last pod talking about he got the, he got the big deal, you know, massive tripled the, the NBA TV rights deal. I think baseball is going to be the first sport that's going to have like a negative TV rights deal because you know, they are just. And when I say negative, I'm saying it's going to get less. They're going to be less and less. Because when you look at the national perspective of baseball right now you had, you had the World Series of World Series that you want from a ratings perspective this last year with the, with the Dodgers, Yankees and it did well. But from a national perspective, like baseball just isn't there, just become more regional and regional.
And the un kind of hidden problem that baseball is still kind of like putting to the side is the local TV contracts for like half of Major League Baseball aren't as lucrative as Rome's Dodgers. And you know, the former network that was owned by Bally's or whoever had it that like filed for chapter 11 and like the Padres were one of the, the teams affected by that that basically had like no local TV broadcast for some of their games. Like you start losing like ways to distribute the 162 game schedule and getting the revenue for you know, TV because TV pays for sports. That's the advantage of sports versus any other entertainment medium right now is TV contract. And so kind of not a great sign from a, you know, direction of baseball. Because as a big hockey fan, I remember when ESPN left, you know, left the NHL in the dusk and the NHL just went off in the the region and NHL was lost for 20 years basically that like no one cared about it. It was like me and 20 other guys trying to find it on Versus network, you know, looking for the Blackhawks on God knows what channel when they're trying to win their first Stanley cup in 40 years. So you know, there, there's a level of prestige in that and where baseball is kind of going too because what does espn, you know, they're not what they used to be, but you start driving the national conversation. Baseball already doesn't get national talking points on like sports talk radio and stuff like that in a lot of places. And now you're not going to get highlights. You're not going to get a lot of that coverage on ESPN.com thing and some of the sports websites. It's like it's a big deal like that that you're not going to be kind of a part of that.
[00:33:18] Speaker A: And games mainly not for highlights. ESPN still going to have highlights.
[00:33:24] Speaker B: I I mean they may have highlights, but if you remember NHL when they lost the thing, highlights were put on the back burner for like what they're talking about.
[00:33:34] Speaker A: I think baseball is too big to do that, but this is a way bigger topic. I'm not really prepared. I want to do some research. But I did send you guys a graphic. I think like a week or two ago. I just pulled it up from the stats thing about, you know, the, the changing conversation in sports, how, you know, it showed all adults.
[00:33:51] Speaker C: Well, that was, that was a small brand from 2019 and only 7,000 people were in that survey. Yeah, it's a small audience.
[00:34:00] Speaker A: It's a pretty decent sample size. So. And there's similar, you know, surveys that are kind of going the same route, but when you look at like the slight drop to Gen Z, you do see it in baseball sport.
[00:34:14] Speaker B: Sports, sports overall has a young person's problem. And I think if Aaron's saying this from 2019, like, you know, there, there.
[00:34:22] Speaker C: Is a generation in July 2019.
[00:34:25] Speaker B: So because that's, that's been long kind of talked about these last couple years is like there is a generation that's growing up now that they don't watch TV. They, they watch everything on TikTok.
[00:34:36] Speaker C: They don't know what channels and cable and all that stuff.
[00:34:39] Speaker B: They don't care. Like they, they weren't me and Aaron tonight watching ESPN on a hockey game, like it didn't matter to them. They're on their phone and they probably got like three tick tock highlights of like the, the Herb Brooks speech by, by their leading into the McDavid like goal that was chopped up by some Instagram guy. So like, you know, it's just totally different the way this stuff's being digested and stuff like that. And just overall from a sports perspective like that there is a platform. Well, yeah, but there's a concern that younger kids just aren't into sports. Like you know, our generation was and maybe like the kind of the generation right behind it. So like there could be a problem. And like, you know, we talk a little bit about soccer and stuff. Like, you know, the MLS is like booming right now from like where their growth is in the United States and you start eating into like what they do, what soccer is internationally and does that bleed into the United States and we're like, there's going to be a competitive landscape for sports here, you know, very, you know, more and more and what avenues and you know, what are the broadcast networks going to. So I know it's A lot. It's just very interesting. Me, I love baseball. I'm just always concerned about it. And especially when you, like, you know, I'll, we'll crap on your Dodgers for them buying everybody Rome. But this is where, like, I know, but, like, this is, this is where, you know, 10, 15, 20 other teams just are irrelevant that just become just like the overall health of the sport. And when you can't get people in a lot of other markets watching it, you know, we're, we're talking about Jags, Titans on a Thursday night here, you know, who cares about Jacksonville, you know, overall. But except in football, you know, baseball doesn't get that type of attention. Talk about your Steelers left and right. But the Pirates, man, they spend like, what's, what's their payroll this year. Aaron?
I think there was some stat about, I think there was some stat about the Pirates. They've never signed anyone to like, an extended deal after, like, the rookie deal is in, like, more than like a decade.
[00:36:30] Speaker A: They were, there was a graphic that was going on social with the Pirates where it showed inflation for lots of things, you know, eggs and gas and stuff like that. The Pirates, I think it showed the Pirates payroll like, like 30 years ago. They'll say at whatever, 69. I'm. I'm just making up a number now, but I want to say it was 69. It was like 69 million then, and then it showed like now and it was even less. It was 67. Yeah.
[00:36:54] Speaker B: And they're not, they're not the only team. The A's have been that team. The White Sox have been that team. The Marlins have been that team.
[00:37:00] Speaker A: Like owners.
[00:37:02] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, just overall.
[00:37:07] Speaker C: Well, I mean, even, even if you got money, I mean, you just saw the Mets owner come out Cohen or whatever, say, like, I'm spending a ton of money this year, but business wise, model wise, it doesn't make sense. Like, we can't keep up with the Dodgers now. Does that guarantee you're going to win? No. They got the best players. If they stay healthy, they should win. But injuries are part of the game. But, you know, ESPN leaving the scene, that's been a big thing. That means your national game, Sunday Night baseball, they have what, weekly games? Tuesday or Thursday, usually that's going to go away. Who's going to pick them up? Maybe, you know, just Netflix or somebody else streaming. I mean, Apple's already got a Friday deal with Major League Baseball to play a game. I think Roku's got Sunday baseball. They've now got like a $10 million kind of deal or whatever for Sunday morning games I just saw.
[00:38:02] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll have to put our research together. I, I, I want to dig deep, deeper on this stuff.
[00:38:06] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean the Rogers got a local TV network deal almost worth 400 million. You think the Tampa Bay Rays are getting anything remotely close to that? The Pittsburgh Pirates? The White Sox?
[00:38:16] Speaker A: No.
[00:38:17] Speaker C: So on a national level now these teams aren't going to get any pub because all the national games are going to fit the best teams, which is going to be the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Phillies, the Braves, your big market teams that win. And that's what it usually is.
[00:38:31] Speaker A: So.
[00:38:33] Speaker C: Yeah, no, because you'd always have that Tuesday game and that Thursday game where you could get, you know, a Tampa Bay in there. You know when they have stars like in Lingoria now those guys are just gone. You're not even going to play those guys anymore. Like the Pirates have a lot of good, young talented players but hey, ESPN is not going to show them anymore. So unless you got Apple TV are the Major League Baseball package, which you know we have for fantasy purposes. And it's going to lose. You know, baseball not having these games naturally just hurts your gambling brand too because I mean in these games you want to gamble, you want to see live games, you want to bet games live. When it's more national highlights, players and whatnot, you're more intrigued to get in there. So you're going to lose a lot of money financially, not just from the TV perspective, but the average viewer, the average people that are betting the game. That's what has made the NFL so big. It's just the ability to prop bet and all that. You can do prop bets on baseball games, pitchers, how many pitches, strikes over under. There's a lot that goes into it. But not having that nationally, like people are going to lose interest in that as well.
[00:39:44] Speaker A: Interesting.
[00:39:47] Speaker B: Rome just doesn't see convince he's living in Dodger fairyland over here.
[00:39:52] Speaker A: I'm just not buying all of your guys argument. But we'll Rome again a little later.
[00:39:58] Speaker C: Rome doesn't like the argument that baseball is a regional sport. He doesn't buy it.
[00:40:02] Speaker A: I'm not buying it too much but.
[00:40:05] Speaker C: You give me the Dodgers payroll, I'll make the, and I'll give the Dodgers the A's payroll. He'll, he'll change his mind pretty quick about that one.
[00:40:12] Speaker A: That's just payroll, dude.
[00:40:15] Speaker C: 400 million local contractors, Bay Area.
[00:40:18] Speaker A: It's a vibing, you know, economy that, that's that's all management there, man. That's. They're in the same area as, as the Giants and Giants have a way bigger payroll. You just can't compare those two things.
[00:40:33] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:40:35] Speaker A: At least if you don't have the.
[00:40:36] Speaker C: Resources, you don't look it. If you gave this show right now that we got $10 million, we'd be a lot bigger just because we can spend for marketing. So resources and money play a big, big role.
[00:40:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
Okay, I'll let you guys have this round.
[00:40:58] Speaker B: We'll be talking about it more, I'm sure.
[00:41:00] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Other news, just last one where baseball Yankees signed their skipper for another two years. Was it long enough?
[00:41:14] Speaker C: Boone, I mean had it been the old Steinbrenner, he would have been fired like three or four years ago.
But you know, he's done a good job there.
[00:41:27] Speaker B: Baseball's weird with managers. You know, it's managers almost middle manager kind of a part of this. It's really around the general manager and like what's the, what's the overall vision from like, you know, a metric standpoint of what you're trying to get out of it? I think, you know, Boone's done a good job overall since he's been there in managing what they've had. You know, it isn't, it isn't the old Steinbrenner either as far as spending money. They're the second class citizen as far as spending money in the New York market too. So you, I, I, I, who, who else are you going to get that's going to be better than Aaron Boone right now for, you know, for a big market like New York?
[00:42:03] Speaker A: I personally like Gerardi, so I don't know why they got rid of him in the first place.
[00:42:07] Speaker C: The Phillies got rid of him pretty quick.
If you guys read up or looked into that new, the new robotic strike zone that they're experimenting with in baseball.
[00:42:17] Speaker A: A little bit, but not too much. They're going to do it during the spring training games.
[00:42:20] Speaker C: Yeah. So I guess it got used today in the Dodgers Cubs game.
[00:42:24] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:42:24] Speaker C: So pitch pitcher challenged the call and the umpire was wrong.
[00:42:28] Speaker A: So nice.
You know what if they can bring something like that for a first down in the NFL games, I'd be really happy it's coming. They did a stat like MLB players are like pretty accurate. It's pretty impressive. When they broke it down, I forgot some.
[00:42:47] Speaker C: I think you got to be like at least 90% right on balls and strikes.
[00:42:51] Speaker B: I think they are oh majority like.
[00:42:53] Speaker C: Yeah, the worst minimum. That's like, the minimum, I think it.
[00:42:56] Speaker A: Was somewhere between, like, they were accurate, like 97 to 98. It was. I'm like, oh, you know, we're talking about, like, minor stuff. I think the error in football is a lot bigger.
[00:43:05] Speaker B: Yeah. The worst. The worst one looks like where the.
[00:43:07] Speaker A: Ball went first down. Oh, wasn't a first down.
[00:43:11] Speaker C: Yeah, well, because in football, you're trying to run and keep up with these guys, you're just, like, estimating at least baseball, like, your crotch there. Like, imagine the umpire, like, at the last second, lifted his head up before the pitch comes.
[00:43:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:22] Speaker C: All messed up.
[00:43:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:24] Speaker B: Yeah. And you're looking at two things in football. You're looking at a body part down and where the ball's at at the same time, too. That's.
[00:43:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:31] Speaker B: Yeah. It's just there's. If there's some differences, there's. There's a way eventually they'll be able to do it. But, yeah, overall umpire is like. I mean, you give people crap on that, but yeah, you're right. Rome, like 97, 98 of the time. The worst ones are like, Angel Hernandez.
[00:43:44] Speaker C: I think he's gone. He's gone.
[00:43:46] Speaker B: Yeah, he's gone. But he was. I think, like, there was games. He was like, 88%. You're like, dude, like, you, like, anyone could be making these calls behind me right now.
[00:43:53] Speaker A: Who's the one that just fired a pretty big ref for umpire? One of these leaks just had a big fire.
[00:43:58] Speaker C: Major League Baseball for gambling.
[00:44:00] Speaker A: Yeah, that was pretty big.
[00:44:01] Speaker C: He was like their best umpire, too. He's like 99.5% accurate. He's been a lot of World Series. Yeah, he's good guy. Not kind of BS why they got rid of him. But.
[00:44:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
Can't have a gambling account.
[00:44:17] Speaker C: I don't care. Guys have gambling accounts as long as you're not gambling on baseball. And all these guys are. Anyways.
I mean, I. I read up on Ohtani's interpreter's bookie. He said over 50% of everybody in sports is gambling on the. On some kind of sport.
[00:44:34] Speaker A: I don't talk about that either because I want to ruin my daughter's stuff. That's. That story is still not making a lot of sense to me. I. And for. For. For me. I'm compartment car. Compartmentalizing it. It's in the back burner, dude.
[00:44:46] Speaker C: Well, you. You don't want to Tony to get busted or what?
[00:44:49] Speaker A: No, no, no.
He wasn't at 100% this year, and we got a World Series. You know, I'm happy.
Get a few more.
[00:45:00] Speaker C: I'm just waiting for his arm to fall off when he throws it.
[00:45:02] Speaker A: We just get a couple more. Make up for all those CL close calls the last 20 years. That's what. That's all they're doing. That's all they're doing. They're just making up, you know, for.
So Westbrook, this guy wants to go for a walk. He's been in the house all day.
All right, we will regroup after the weekend Monday night with a little NBA recap. I guess we'll talk a little hockey too. I would love to kind of gear that up a little bit and then whatever, whatever news happens.
Is there anything I'm missing?
[00:45:40] Speaker C: No, that was it. NBA hockey?
Yeah, maybe.
[00:45:47] Speaker A: Let's start talking a little about college basketball. I've been catching games very periodically. Not as much as last year.
Well, you're more the college basketball guy.
[00:45:57] Speaker C: Two weeks away from like conference tournaments and then like three weeks away from like March Madness or whatever it is going. Jason's going to Vegas first week in March Madness or what?
[00:46:10] Speaker B: That's the tentative plan.
[00:46:12] Speaker A: Oh, nice. You got tickets.
[00:46:15] Speaker B: I mean that. To the actual games. You just, you know, the weekend watch parties. The watch party, man. Thursday, Thursday and Friday, when all the games are happening. Just.
[00:46:24] Speaker C: Man, that's the best.
[00:46:25] Speaker B: Right, Right near the sports book. All the TVs are going. You know, I got some random college I haven't watched all year, but okay. They got some great senior guard play experience, coach. I think they're going to make a deep run coming out of the sun belt.
[00:46:40] Speaker C: They're all 25 to 27 years old too.
[00:46:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:43] Speaker C: 6Th, 7th, ape year, guys.
[00:46:45] Speaker A: This will be like the last year or two that we're done with that. Thank God.
Don't I see any more 27, 28 year old seniors.
[00:46:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know, man. You know some of these guys, well.
[00:46:57] Speaker C: BYU is always going to have them because they always got that two year Mormon mission. So that's why their guys are always automatically like 23, 24, 25.
[00:47:05] Speaker B: It'll be interesting for those tournaments. You got two of the blue bloods out there, Kansas, North Carolina, man, they got like eight or nine losses. Something right now. They're like fringe even making the tournament potentially. So there's. There's gonna be some interesting stuff from that Selection Sunday show, depending what these teams do in the conference tournaments.
[00:47:24] Speaker A: Well, the SEC is deep, topped it down. It's the deepest conference we've probably ever seen. I caught the Auburn, Alabama game last Week. That was pretty exciting. Caught the ucla, USC game for the women's juju, taking over in the final seconds. That was pretty fun.
Becker out of.
Out of Catet. Yeah. Yukon.
[00:47:48] Speaker C: Yukon just destroyed South Carolina by like, what, 30 points last weekend. Yeah, and South Carolina won like 70 straight women's home court games or something.
[00:47:58] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it's gonna be some fun stuff. Hell, we didn't really talk about women's college basketball until like, what, the last two years? So this is all new to me. Well, newer for Aaron, for sure.
[00:48:09] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, Rome, you've been in love with the women's game for a while now, at least.
[00:48:14] Speaker A: I found. I found a few spots to watch, you know, trying to show support.
[00:48:18] Speaker B: Well, I just feel there was a run there, which is. Yukon won every year.
[00:48:22] Speaker A: Yeah, Yeah.
[00:48:25] Speaker C: I mean, growing up, for us, like her high school, college, it was the UConn or what Pat summon in Tennessee. Those are like the only two teams that ever won. And like Notre Dame and Stanford get like, in the mix.
[00:48:37] Speaker A: Those dynasties were not fun, dude. It was just two teams. They just destroy everybody. It's like, come on, dude, no one's gonna like the Dodgers of that if that's what they do. Like the next five years, just.
[00:48:49] Speaker B: Just like the Chiefs, man.
[00:48:52] Speaker A: You're a hero until you become the enemy.
[00:48:55] Speaker B: I'm saying, as the old Harvey Dent quote from the Dark Knight, man, either die a hero or live love to become a villain.
[00:49:03] Speaker A: It's true. I love that movie. I love that movie also. I was just playing the soundtrack earlier today, trying to get ready for work.
[00:49:10] Speaker B: That's a Great soundtrack. Soundtrack, 100%.
[00:49:14] Speaker A: Felt like a fucking million dollars.
[00:49:16] Speaker B: The opening, that opening, the opening sequence, you know, soundtrack right there, just.
[00:49:21] Speaker A: Oh, man.
Yeah, I love it. All right, I'll do it. We'll catch you guys next week.
