But everybody BT unleashed in the house.
All right, so before we jump into the show, we've made a
little progress here. You can now see the logo because
what I did was and of course, right before I started the show,
I got to lean down and grab something here.
Your boy had to go old school and because the lighting things
are not here yet, I basically had to create these things and
hang them from the wall to obscure some of the light.
One just fell. At least you can now see the
logo perfectly. And then obviously the I told
you work in progress, man, click by click, brick by brick and
literally SJ rod like 20 seconds before we came on bank.
It drops from the from the ceiling.
So we're getting there. Obviously there's still a little
shine, a little gloss. Whatever will take care of that.
Let's jump into the show. Hopefully everybody had
outstanding weekend. You know, listen, I want to, I
want to start with the NBA here. I want to get into something
John Horrible said. With Mike Francesa and some
other places as well. We've got BT's 3 burning
questions brought to you by Sullivan Papayne.
Got a little Johnny's Providence to brawl.
We'll get to it all. Get the text coming, fire them
in. Let's have a little fun, kiddos.
Probably most of the kids are home from school today, I would
imagine. And Speaking of kids, I got to
give a shout out to mine. How about this?
We got the we've got the first official BT merchandise now the
store is not open. This is just for daddy.
And my son made this. You know what he made this on
and it is. So Santa brought.
No, no, I'm sorry. It wasn't from Santa.
It was from Granny and Papa. I guess it's a new thing,
somewhat new. And it's a 3D printer and and I
remember when I heard the concept of a 3D printer.
J Rod, you know about this stuff that Jay, do you know about the.
Three. Yeah, big time.
You do. So you, Rick, do you have one?
I don't have one personally. I was actually like speaking
with my roommate about potentially looking into it, but
it's something a lot of like kids are, which is funny.
Like a lot of like, you know, younger preteen age kind of
kids. They're like super into like the
3D printing thing now. Like they'll just get the little
plastic, like that's what they'll get and they'll just
make as many like toys as they want.
It's wild dude. It's got like, it almost looks
like an, like an octopus with all these different arms and
wires and contraptions. You get different colors, you
make different stuff. So when I first heard about the
concept of a 3D printer, I was actually, I'm saying and, and my
wife was saying, oh, you can make anything.
You can make wiffle balls. And in my mind, I'm like
printer. So I'm thinking it's going to be
like a pliable paper wiffle ball.
I mean, why? Why would I negotiate any other
printer with anything but paper? And then, and then Grammy and
Papa got it for Christmas and he's cranking out handcuffs.
He's making hard wiffle balls. He's making this stuff.
So I'm sure, Yeah, that. Mug was 3D printed, yes.
Oh my goodness, because it looks very like solid.
It is, I mean, otherwise it will be dripping on me and it and it
can, I was a a little worried like would it handle the heat?
And and it obviously has because we just bought a nice cup of
coffee this morning. So we've got a few of those for
the family. Yeah.
Now I would imagine when we actually make these for the
show, that's a sticker that he also made, you know, that'll be
maybe a little bit more refined, a little bit more blended in.
But you guys always love the mugs.
You always love the I always comment on the vast array and
collection of mugs here. Here's my favorite one so far,
courtesy of my son with the 3D printer.
So I'm enjoying that now. All right, so let me say this
here, right? What are the things and, and I
know that I listen, I know how the game goes, guys.
I mean, obviously negativity, negativity is going to sell.
And if you can try, and I remember doing this like a WFAN,
you would look at some of our digital content, which would
absolutely explode. Like Sam and I consistently had
by far the most views of anything on YouTube on WFAN.
You can look that up that, that that's, that's a fact.
And we would just, you know, the content, it would there's
another one that just fell. Oh boy, oh boy, the content
would just sell right. And and obviously the ones that
went, I don't, I don't, I don't even care about the word viral,
But the ones that generally had the most, you know, the most
click throughs, whatever the most traction were ones either,
you know, an explosive debate or, you know, crushing somebody,
a coach or a player or like, you know, the Carl Bank stuff or
some of the Mets stuff with, with Soto and Pete Lindor,
whatever, whether it was a chemistry thing, those things
always went through the roof. And I understand why because
that, you know, that's salacious stuff pertaining to sports
that's always going to sell, That's always going to resonate.
You could put out a tweet and, and I've done this as a social
experiment. Now I'll never tweet something
out that I don't mean doesn't mean it's always going to be
right. But I, you know, I just to
contrast and, and look and, and do a little experiment.
As I said, like after a big Nick win, you know, I'm I'm not every
Nick win, but you know, if it's something that catches my
attention, you know, a good quality win.
You beat Denver, you beat a good team, whatever.
Hey, you know, hey, Nick's look great.
Great job by the Knicks tonight. Knicks looked awesome.
Just a little short, little little pop there.
Put it out on the on social media.
You know, it might get I don't know, whatever is relative to
me. I don't know.
It's it's a decent number at this point, but whatever the
number would be right. And then you would look at the
amount of likes and retweets and comments on something that I
said, maybe like break up the Knicks or I don't trust the
Knicks or, you know, cats got to go.
Or I don't believe in cat or cat soft or bridges of soft.
Like the, the, the comparison between the two is just
ridiculous, right? And you know which one of favors
the one that's negative and the one that has that kind of
energy. So the reason I say all this is
because even with that being said, and I'm in the business
of, of content creation and getting you guys to think and
getting you guys to react. I don't want to, and I refuse to
just turn into that person who just gets on the air and just
espouses negativity for the sake of, oh, you know, this is going
to be hot and it's going to get a lot of traction.
Like I, I can't do that. Like it's going to come up
naturally enough because I'm a passionate person.
I'm a fiery person. You know, I'm invested in what
we do here on BT unleashed and, and it's going to eventually
naturally come out because it's going to be enough storylines
where it's going to be applicable and pertinent and you
guys going to react to it. So having said that, I could
very easily, very easily just come out and take a Wrecking
Ball to Adam Silver, take a Wrecking Ball to the NBA.
And there's a lot of things that the NBA's got to fix.
And I went through this about a week or so ago where I did crush
Rodger Goodell and, and I stand by it.
And the NFL on a lot of levels is, I wouldn't use the word
broken. I'm going to say that for the
NBA, I do believe the NBA is broken.
I believe the NFL has kind of lost its way.
I think the NFL caters too much to everybody, but you, the
consumer that helped build this product up.
And the NBA's made some similar mistakes as well.
When you when you look to globalize and when you look to
when you get in bed with these networks, you are beholden to
networks. And that's what drives the NBA,
that's what drives the NFL, and that's what drives Major League
Baseball. It's the revenue generation from
the TV contracts. Yeah, if you really think about
it, Got merchandise is huge. But if you look at the actual
breakdown, including the ridiculously high ticket prices
at the Garden, that's not what moves the needle financially for
the NBA. It's all these massive deals,
whether it's a streaming deal, whether it's in a more
conventional network deal. So I want to come more with
solutions today because I do love basketball now.
I don't think Adam Silver's a good commissioner at all and I
think he's too deep into his commissionership, if you will.
I think it'd be impossible to just kind of change certain
things. I, I think once you open the
jar, it's really hard to stuff certain things back.
And, and I don't want to just take the low hanging fruit and
say, well, you know, Adam Silver's biggest mistake was
giving too much power to the players or getting a little bit
too political. Certainly during COVID, which I
do think has been a massive issue and a lot of people resent
that. But I don't think that that's
the main thing. I really think I'm going to lay
a few things out here for you. I think, and I never really
thought this until the last couple of years, but boy, it's
so obvious now when you think about the entrance into these
different leagues, right? Major League Baseball, you get
drafted, you go to the minors, unless you're like a Dave
Winfield or you know, John, like very few players go from college
to, you know, a Major League field.
There's a progression now some more.
It's getting more and more truncated where AAA is less
viable. AA more is the launching pad.
So instead of starting low rookie, maybe he started high a
get what a Pike 3040 games if you were stud get bounced up to
AA, you know, show what you got. Not like it Acuna players like
that. Bang here you are on the show
and if you stay healthy, generally things work out.
But a Major League Baseball team like, you know, when, when the
Yankees took Derek Jeter 6th overall all those years ago, the
Yankees were not dependent upon and, and waiting for the arrival
of the almighty savior to elevate their team.
Now that that that wasn't the eventually he got there and
eventually he's a rookie. You know, he won the job because
Tony Fernandez got hurt and he fit in very well.
And it was, it was a seamless transition.
But the reason why those Yankee teams early on in 90, certainly
in 96, why they were so viable is because they had veterans
everywhere and they had a lot of good players, right?
Think about the NFL draft, which I cannot wait.
And I got a lot of stuff on the NFL today.
We're banging out the NFL because I love what Carbaugh
said. It really got me thinking.
Could have a fun conversation about the NFL in a bit.
But when you think about the NFL and even as a quarterback,
right, Yeah, I mean, a lot of Mendoza go first overall.
He'll start right away for the Raiders.
But if they don't have an old line and all the other pieces,
he's not going to do well. And generally, like you look at
whether it's a bow Knicks, who's not a star but, you know,
drafted, fits in, good coach, good defense, ball control.
He cannot drown and his team could win even though he was the
first round pick and he's a quarterback.
The NBA is at a distinct disadvantage and I don't really
know how you change this because you're not going to.
You're not going to go back to the old days where you know
you've got to play multiple years in college before you get
drafted. The NBA is all about drafting
really on potential. And when you think about these
bad teams, and there are a lot of bad teams, which is a massive
issue with the NBA, you're asking a 19 year old, almost
basically a boy compared to the grown men in the league, like a
young man. I mean boys, ridiculous, but you
know what I mean. A young man who is not
physically equipped to deal with that burden and is not mentally
equipped to deal with that burden.
That doesn't mean that there aren't a bunch of rookies who
stand out. Like there's got to be a rookie
of the year. I get it.
But think about the situation and then the reliance of these
kids when they go to the NBA. So you get drafted by a 13 or a
14 win team. You played one year in the NBA
apartment. You played one year in college.
Everything about the draft is about projectability and, and,
and you're going to a bad team. So not only are you not
physically equipped and mentally equipped to be the man yet
because you're not fully a grown man yet at the age of 19, but
also which compounds the issue. You are going to a bad team and
you go into a bad team doesn't have, you know, a lot of good
veterans, which means you're not insulated and protected by those
veterans. You probably don't have a really
good coach because, you know, the bad teams just recycle and
go through coaches left and right.
So it's really a rough situation.
And well, what does all that mean pertaining to the growth of
the NBA and the state? Maybe not the growth that's more
economic, the state of the NBA. I'm going to tell you what it
means. What it means is very simple.
You've got a product that people don't enjoy watching period.
Now when that 19 year old kid becomes 2223, you know, even,
you know, maybe even 21 in some instances.
But you play a couple of years, you hitting the weights all
year, nutritions change. Now it's your job.
That's your focus. That is a player more equipped
to deal with it. And then you start to fill it
out around that player and that becomes a competitive team.
All right. And now that's a team that you
want to watch, but it is just a distinct disadvantage.
Like these kids get drafted, they go to their teams, they
play 30 minutes a night, their usage rate is high and they're
not ready for it. And when you have 789 teams,
sometimes more, that is beholden and dependent upon young, young
players who or again, not physically mature enough to deal
with grown men on a night to night basis, you're going to
have a bad product here. So we can whine and we can
complain about the All Star setup and All Star Saturday
night. I didn't watch one second of All
Star Saturday night. I don't even know what they did
Friday. I I know the cat and Brunson one
and and Alvin Houston, which is actually pretty cool, but I
didn't watch it. I saw the highlights and that's
changed tremendously. And I don't think you ever get
that back. See, the other thing that's
happened to the NBA, So and I, I understand it was through the
eyes of of a young sports fan. I'm going, I'm going back to my
early days right when I would watch Jordan and Dominique in
the, in the dunk contest. Spud Webb, those guys, they
weren't necessarily worried about being embarrassed.
I think what's happened now is that the, the modern athlete,
the younger athlete, you know, LeBron never did it.
You know, like they are so aware of their profile.
They are so aware of, of how they are judged and graded.
And in a lot of ways, it's unfair so that, you know,
LeBron, you know, say 10 years ago or 12 years ago, if we would
have gone to the dunk contest and he would have, he would have
bombed. He would have been ridiculed.
And that wouldn't have happened to Michael Jordan.
And that wouldn't have happened to Dominique.
And I'm just trying to be fair. I'm not a big LeBron fan.
He's a tremendous player. Can't shine Jordan's shoes
bouncing around this nomadic NBA championship existence took a
lot of shortcuts along the way. The stats are there.
He's an old time great. But to me, I don't want to say
it comes with an asterisk that's almost implying cheating.
But I view it through a different prism.
I just do now. I was watching yesterday with my
son and we were busy during the day, so we got back.
We watched the championship and the championship.
It just like the old GS that the legs were shot, the old heads,
they couldn't move. So I think that was a product of
young legs and they kept saying it.
Reggie kept saying it fresh legs.
I, I applaud the NBA for trying trying some certain things here,
but I, I really just fear for the the overall health of the
NBA and the overall direction of the league because the things
that have happened here. That's why I'm not yelling.
I'm trying to come up with solutions here, but you look at
Adam Silver, who see the difference between Goodell and
Adam Silver. Here's the difference.
Goodell, you might not like him, and he's definitely not perfect
and he's made a million mistakes, but there is no doubt
who's in charge, and that's Rodger Goodell.
And that's the kind of presence you need as a commissioner.
You know, David Stearns didn't want to be loved.
He care about that. He wanted to be respected and he
wanted to order in his league and he got it.
And to me, he's one of the best commissioners of maybe the best
of any sport at any time. Somebody like Adam Silver, who
was his number 2 all those years and a smart guy and a nice guy.
I think Adam Silver's a good man.
I just think he's a #2 he doesn't project any presence.
He doesn't project any leadership.
And I think his earliest mistakes was that he tried to
run counter to his predecessor and, and I think that that was a
massive miscalculation. He tried a different approach.
I know the world was changing. I get it.
I know there are a lot of issues that needed to be addressed.
I get it and I respect it, right?
But I think Adam Silver went too far.
He he allowed the players to really dictate the league.
And when you do that, you're not going back because the salaries
are too high, they got too much juice.
And now that is the inherent expectation.
And if you try to abruptly, you know, reposition that, I can
promise you it will fail massively.
So that's a big part of the issue here.
Now Adam Silver, any commissioner but his job, I'm
going to give you a couple of positives here, right?
There's been massive revenue growth.
That's undeniable. There has been global expansion,
which has been undeniable, which obviously feeds into the, the
economic, you know, bolstering of the NBA and there's, and it's
a good thing, unlike baseball right now, there's been labor
peace. The NBA has had labor peace.
Now you can run through and I, I will a little bit things that
are, are real problematic with the NBA.
And if there's a solution to be had, I'm, I'm going to give it
to you. And I'm really coming to the
table today trying to help solve this rather than just come out
with negative energy and just make it worse, right?
Cuz that gets old after a while. Everybody yelling and, and, and
screaming and complaining. But when you've got a, a
decreased importance on the regular season, I, you know, I,
I really don't know how you change that.
You could try to insert the NBA Cup in there.
All right, that worked for a couple of days.
That was interesting. Knicks played hard.
And then by the way, what did you hear after it?
When things went S for the Knicks, they were taxed out from
the NBA Cup. So even the one good thing was
kind of offset by a, a potentially bad thing that I
think other teams really might look at down the road.
All right, talk about load management, talk about players
skipping high profile national TV games.
That's a massive issue which ties in the load management.
And then really this is the biggest issue.
The superstars running the league, the configuration of,
you know, these old world teams and and players dictating
exactly when they're dealt, who they're dealt to.
I don't know how you work around that because it's already a
problem. It's out there and I think any,
any adjustment would require a massive collectively bargain
concession on both ends. And you're not going to get it
because the players have the hammer right now.
Why in the world would they give that back?
Now? You want to tell me financial
incentive? I mean, how much more money
could you make? And I, I don't begrudge him.
I mean, you make what you're worth, right?
You command what you're worth. Somebody's willing to pay to
you. That's great.
But you already have guys making 60, five, $70 million a year.
I mean, what's the ceiling 110 for one guy?
I don't think that that's really economically plausible.
Let me get Sean up here. Sean, B50D.
What up, Sean? How you doing, buddy?
Only way to bring All Star Saturday back one-on-one, Royal
Rumble style. 15 current guys, 10 legends, 5 celebs, first
point knockout guys run out of the tunnel full of surprises.
That's pretty interesting. It's pretty innovative, yeah.
And by the way, I understand that you've got to do stuff like
that, sadly, to maintain viewership, to maintain
interest, you've got to pull in the celebrity, You know, you've
got to pull in the actors and the musicians, and you got to
have that. And by the way, I don't have a
problem with that because even let's.
One thing I don't want to do and I know I do it on occasion, but
that's only because how I feel about certain players.
But what I don't want to do what I don't want to become and I and
I won't uh oh, that thing's going to drop any second.
Oh God. And then that's.
You can already see it dangling. See that see that thing right
there dangling right there. It's going to go any second.
Whatever, Jay. What I don't want to do is just
always say, oh, it was better back then.
Oh, it was better, better, better, better, better.
No athletes are better today. And let's not recreate the past.
What they used to do with the dunk contest.
They used to have luminaries up there as well.
And now a lot of it was like former players, like when Doctor
J was retired, Doctor J was. And then I remember Shaq, you
know, judging some dunk contest. That's you need to do that
stuff. It's you got to incorporate the
past and you've got to, you know, you got to have a vision
that includes, you know, pop culture stuff, and I think that
the NBA does it pretty well. That thing's going to drive me
freaking nuts. Oh, by the way, Speaking of
Doctor Jade, you guys start checking out the sole power on
prime, the four part series on the on the Abai love it.
I I watched the first episode last night and I watched the
second one. Wow, it is really I've I've
always had this intrigued with the ABA.
It just seemed well, number one, it was so counterculture.
I mean, they they went up against the NBA and there were
other fledging fledgling leagues that tried to do it that didn't
have the success. It's really well done.
I mean, the thing and I didn't I don't want to give too much
away, but I'll I'll give you this part.
I never knew this. Obviously knew about Doctor J,
you know, Dan Issel, Rick Barry, the New York Nets, Virginia
Squires. I mean, I, I, I've done a fair
amount of homework on that. Like Bob Costas started with the
Saint Louis Spirit and the Pacers were pretty much the
class of the ABA. They won three of the 9
championships, then the merger, blah, blah blah.
I did not know that they were this close to getting Kareem.
And that was an amazing revelation that was incredibly
well done. On the actual documentary on, on
the on the on the 1st on the first episode where Kareem,
who's always been a man of principle and just has no time
for small talk or nonsense or whatever, very direct.
And I've interviewed Kareem a few times and it's not easy.
I've interviewed him twice, twice on the radio and once when
I was doing the Wheelhouse on S&Y.
We had him in studio, I forget what it was for, and it was
amazing. I've got a picture with Cream.
I remember the first time I had him on the air.
Somebody, somebody in management.
This was a 1050. It was at the Final Four.
And they're like, you know, just, you know, be care, you
know, he doesn't really love basketball.
He doesn't love talking about basketball.
He loves talking about more, more societal issues.
So if you just try to come out and just cram, you know, not
that I would cram stats down his throat, but just talk about
basketball, probably going to be pretty boring.
So I came a bit of a different route and it wound up being
great. And it was I had him on for 30
minutes straight, incredibly informative.
Really, really, I mean, one of my favorite interviews because
he's a hard guy to interview. But what I didn't know about
Kareem that I learned last night is that George Miken, who was
the ABA commissioner, which I did know the first thought to be
the first truly great big in the history of the NBA, Minneapolis
Lakers about 6-10, you know, game much slower below the rim.
But he was like the giant of the of the NBA.
And then he became the commissioner and Kareem was open
to playing in the ABA. And he basically said said NBA,
you get one shot, give me your best offer.
ABA, you get one shot, give me your best offer.
And the way it went, the ABA owners, right, they pulled
together $1,000,000, which was a massive amount of money back
then. And they had $1,000,000 check.
And they actually showed the check on the episode and what
George Miken didn't do, he didn't bring the check to the
negotiation. So the AB as offer was lower.
But because Lou is a man of principle, he did not give the
A/B AA chance to make good because they met and George
like, well, I've got a, I've got a check for you for a million.
And we did this, we committed, we all pulled it together.
And I'm, I'm sure Kareem's like, all right, fantastic.
Where's the check? And when he couldn't present it,
he just didn't bring it for whatever stupid reason.
Korean wound up going to the NBA, which is insane.
Can you imagine they, I mean, I, I don't know what would have
happened at that point if he would have stayed or gone to the
ABA, Who knows? But man, oh man, I mean, it was
viable anyway with guys like Rick Barry and Doctor J and
those dudes, Spencer Haywood with the with the, you know, the
litigation. I mean, with that just really,
really good. Watch it.
All right, let me get in at at inside the MLB.
The most prominent issue is the schedule being too long.
If the Jazz started 13 and eight in a 65 game season, there's no
way you could take it that point.
Even if they wanted to win 1/3 of the season, even with one
with with 1/3 of the season down.
I get that. But guys, you got to understand.
Listen, that's why I'm trying to come with solutions here.
I know I'm throwing a lot at you here, but the ultimate motive is
to really help make the NBA better.
And you can't truncate the season.
I don't know. Not that I wouldn't be OK with
it. Like, even if Major League
Baseball went from 162 to 150, I I'd be fine with that, even
though I'm rooted more as a purist baseball fan than I am
somebody who wants to just, you know, disregard the past and
and, you know, completely start over and, and change the game.
I think that there's a happy medium.
I think there's a happy middle. But the problem is all these TV
contracts are tied into volume, volume, volume.
So I don't know how you'd go from 82 to 65.
And here's the other thing too. Even if they were able to do it
and the union could agree and it's collectively bargained and
the networks are OK with it and everybody's fine with it on the
surface, what ultimately would happen?
Because it will players do. They get greedy and they just
keep pushing and I don't blame them.
They push the boundaries, they push the boundaries, they push
the boundaries. And I could promise you, while
we definitely have a load management issue now with a full
82 game season, it might not happen right away.
But let's say downstream, 35710 years down the road, if a 65
game season became the norm, you would have guys still, you know,
taking maintenance days and then we'd be happy.
Or maybe my son and his generation will be having the
discussion if that ever happened.
Now you've got to go from 65 to 50.
I mean, so that I believe that it sounds good.
I'll just just condense the season.
They'll play harder. They'll play more.
They will initially, and then it will go away and we will be
presented with a new set of issues.
I really believe that. Take the lottery balls away at
Mount Modern Cyphus Dash. Rui believe that was 5X.
Thank you for that. Yeah.
I mean, that sounds good. I would like to see some sort of
modification where tanking is not rewarded.
Now, it's not the ultimate reward because those balls are
still a bit unpredictable, how they bang around.
I mean, if you think it's fixed, I don't know what to tell you.
I do think it was fixed in 85 with Ewing to the Knicks.
I do believe that. I really do.
As the story goes, when when Sterns reached into that, that
little thing that used to, they had like these placards on there
with each team's logo and what they said was the Nick.
I mean, I don't even, I don't even know if I should believe
this. I do, though.
It's a good story. So I'm going to run with it.
That when they when the when he grabbed the cold one or when he
grabbed the Yeah, when he grabbed the save, like they were
like the third pick when he grabbed the cold 1, he would
like drop it and then get one that was warm and a different
temperature. And the only one remaining was
the cold one. And everybody knew the cold one
was the Knicks. I mean, that's how like how
antiquated, you know, cheating or manipulating is probably a
better way to say it was back then.
I mean, I know Ernst and Young, everybody swore to secrecy and,
you know, non disclosures NDA's, you got to sign your life away
and X amount of people are in the room.
I don't even know if you could cheat anymore.
I I really don't. But yeah, I mean, there's a lot
of issues. Problem is I don't think many of
them get resolved here. I really don't we could tell
talk all day about what's wrong with the NBA.
There's a shortage, there's a dearth of possible fixes.
And that's the reality of it at Omar.
The problem with making the court bigger, wider when you
move the three-point line back is it takes defense that much
tougher. If you spread out the court that
much, going to be impossible to stop drives.
Well, yeah, I mean, that's I'm not really talking about that
now, although that is I do think one of the issues.
Think about this guy's right little little side swipe here to
incorporate everything like a society thing, not politics,
like a societal thing and why they need to change.
Just think about the basic configuration of the court.
So it's 94 feet in length. That is what 52 or 53 in width
at 50, maybe even 54, but it's in the low fifties right, But
it's certainly 94 feet in length when the when a basketball court
when the court was designed all right.
Think about the average size of Americans and now just bodies
across the world because the NBA truly is a global sport like
most sports these days. The NF LS probably behind all
the other sports with the globalization, but just the size
of people has obviously morphed into something that was very
different from the previous turn of the century.
So if you go back to certainly Fenway and Wrigley and even like
tied the old tiger stadium. The reason why those seats were
so much smaller is because the average human was smaller in
terms of height and in terms of absolute, you know, just sheer
girth, right? And through evolution, people
have gotten bigger, they've gotten wider, they've gotten
taller and they've had a made they've made those modifications
at the new stadiums. And I haven't amazed.
I have not been to Wrigley Field yet.
I know that that's criminal. That's got to change.
Been to Fenway a bunch. You sit in a Fenway seat
compared to, you know, one of those, one of the even Yankee
Stadium or City Field. It's like night and day.
It's not even close. And I I remember.
So I don't think I felt that the first time, but I definitely
felt that the second time. So when I was 12 years old, I
played against Japan in in this baseball.
It was like a goodwill friendship, like a mini Olympics
kind of thing. So I was 12 years old and we
played at all the boroughs. It was awesome, right?
We beat him like seven games to two.
They were phenomenal. It was just, it was one of the
highlights of my actually my sporting life.
I didn't play a ton, wasn't one of the best players on the team,
but I remember like I remember going to the tryouts and
everybody got a number and was at Lafayette in Brooklyn, right?
And 800 kids tried out and they took like 15.
And a few of my were my buddies from from where I grew up, one
of whom got drafted, pitched at Seton Hall, like just studs
everywhere, right? So I played, but I didn't play
that much. But I remember when I the, the
like the, the championship game was at, was in Cooperstown,
Doubleday Field, right? And it was amazing.
But I, again, I didn't feel it at that point.
But then I went back and I played in a college tournament
and cuz now at that point I'm 19 or 20, I'm six, 2 1/2, you know,
205 lbs, whatever the heck. I was at that point versus, you
know, a kid who hasn't even hit puberty.
I was a little late to develop. So I was one of the smaller kids
on the team at that point. The first time when I went back,
the dugouts were so low and so noticeably counter to what Major
League dugouts, let alone the seats in the stands had become
because of the evolution of the human body.
So that's a little sideswipe right?
Now back to the configuration of the NBA court.
Think about this. So when the NBA was, it would
when basketball was invented, right?
Peach pits, all that stuff. The little set shot guys
dribbling like this, right? The nut hugger shorts the it's
the same dimensions that those no players 100 years ago we're
playing with not quite 100 because the NBA was built in the
1940, I think 47. So you know, whatever it is,
soon it'll be 100. And to me, that's wild.
So there's been no adjustments, there's been no modifications to
the actual parameters of the court yet.
Everybody's getting bigger, everybody's getting faster,
everybody's getting stronger. Everybody jumps out of the gym.
When you look at, you know, the conventional starting fives back
in the day, you know your point guard and and I when I say back
in the day, I'm not even I'm not talking about like Bob Cousy
back and I'm talking about even Isaiah.
All right, your point guard 51161 you know, like Isaiah.
And then of course, magic came, broke the mold and then now you
know guys like Penny and and and many others after that.
But you know, back then you had you should have like a six one
point guard. Your shooting guard may have
been anywhere between 6, three and six, five on the high end,
right? You small forward is probably
6-5 or six. And think about guys like Adrian
Dantley, dudes like that, guys who could fill it up, who
weren't tall, right? And then you power forward maybe
in the 67 little beef here. And then, you know, yeah,
probably had a 7 footer, but there was a lot of 610 guys and
611 guys. So now think about you starting
dimensions, your point guard 65 minimum, You know, I mean,
Brunson's kind of an outlier at this point.
If you think about it. Your two guard is 6667.
Both, both wings are going to be, you know, round 6768 who can
jump out of the gym and fly up and down the court.
And your big is not only going to be 7 feet, but he's stepping
out, hitting threes. So how do we expect those big
bod? This is not a silver thing.
This is just a little sideswipe of the conversation as we swipe.
You know, I jump around the it's really unrealistic to think that
the game could look the same or that it's smart or fair to have
that. God, that thing is that thing is
that's annoying me. As long as it's not on the logo.
As long as the logo is not on. You see what I'm saying Chairman
see the on Friday, but the logo was getting peppered with light,
which took away I'm like, man, the logo looks so good in my
office. Before I flipped on the show, I
got lights banging right through the beam, the T the unleashed
it's barely visible. The logo does look sick.
Yeah, no logo looks great, looking clean.
I mean people are people are loving in the comments down
below. So there we go.
Job well done. Yep, just got to work on those,
which is something I'm obviously doing here.
Oh by the way, quick, quick aside here.
I know that you guys, cuz I had him on a week or two ago.
I guess it was, was it last week?
May have been last week. When do we have Sal on every two
weeks ago it was too OK, that that sounded more.
It's what I thought. So two weeks ago we had Sal on
the show. I'm going to go on Sal's show
Wednesday, so I'm going to hop on Sal's channel, give him a
sub, hook him up, help him out. You guys just keep demanding BT
and Sal BT and Sal beat. We're going to give it to you
when we can. You know, obviously I'm doing
what I'm doing. He's and what he's doing, but it
makes no sense not to get together as often as we could
because that dynamic, that dynamic and that chemistry is
obviously, you know, very strong and very natural and very
apparent. When he came out, it was a
blast. It was just like it is, you
know, even though we text and I've seen him once or twice
since the end of the show at the fan, like, you know, we haven't
done a radio show. And at that point, you know,
well over a month and a half, flip open the mic, put on the
camera like the old days. So it is it is something that
we're aware of and I loved having him on my channel.
I'll get him back up at some point soon.
I'm going to go on his Wednesday at 8.
All right, So make a notation of that Wednesday night, 8:00 PM,
probably for about an hour. Be a good time.
I got to see how see how Bada booms is hanging in.
Oh man, that'll be fun. Oh my, there's going to be some
clips from that. Oh, God, yeah, yeah, I'm looking
forward to that. So that is on Wednesday night.
What else? We got cooking.
Oh, and then just one more thing, the extension of of the
BT and Sal thing. We are, I would say if there's
10 steps, we're definitely in the early stages.
But BT and Sal live 2 point O is in the works and we're
definitely going to Long Island. We've definitely got the venue.
Can't tell yet which one is, but we're going out east, we'll be
on Long Island. The goal is to do it right
before the start of the baseball season Again, we're we got to
flush through these dates. What works for him, what works
for me, I anticipate, you know, being on the road quite a bit
with St. John's during the NCAA
tournament. So I've got to work around he's
got to work around some stuff as well.
So it might not work out before the season.
Higher probability early ish April, which will still be great
because the Yanks and the Mets will just be getting going
there. So that'll be a lot of fun.
So I'm looking forward to that. All right, so anyway, anyway, so
I talked about before I get some other stuff I got burning
questions coming up in a bit the the massive revenue growth and
the global expansion and the labor piece are all great checks
in the column for Adam Silver, right?
Would you talk about the frustration of the fans where,
you know, the the premium ticket, the ticket prices and
there's no assurances the stars are going to play?
I don't know how you work around that.
You cannot mandate. You just can't.
You could try. It's going to sound good at A at
an Adam Silver press conference. Oh, yeah, we're looking for.
We're looking into it. Oh, yeah.
You know, we're trying to get to a place where the best players
play in the marquee matchups and those primetime TV matchups.
How are you going to tell? Let's just say I'll take the
Knicks. How are you going to mandate
that the Knicks play, let's say Jaylen Brunson tweaks and ankle,
which he's done a few times and, you know, he could probably make
it back. But you know, the Knicks take
the prudent route as they should at this point with a bigger
issue championship, what they're going to try to get this year,
regular season not as meaningful.
And they're like, you know, the more prudent thing is I'm
talking about the Knicks. We want to, even though it's a
big game, we're playing the Celtics or the Cavaliers or
whomever on national TV, the Lakers on Denver and the
Pistons. Well, you know what though?
We'd love to have them, but hold them out one more day.
Was the NBA going to say Nope, Jaylen brunch has got to play.
What do you do when we mandate that he played?
You can't do that. It's just that's where common
sense has to prevail. And that's where I I do try to
be fair to Adam Silver. I just don't know how much of
this you can truly manipulate. Now listen guys, the overall
dilution of the 82 game season, massive issue really.
I I think that the overall trust of the league has evaporated.
I do I think the overall trust of the league has has dissipated
to the point where it it's just it's I think it's at an all time
low. I really do.
I think some of it's the officiating and I do think that,
you know, even think about the the final two-minute report,
right? Think about that.
You get that there's like a bad call.
They miss a foul, they call the bad foul, whatever it might be.
The NBA comes out the next day. Oh yeah, you know, hey, listen,
guys, we reviewed it and we were wrong.
Great doesn't solve anything. What you want to do maybe is by
the checkpoint here. Now this is getting in the
weeds, but if they mess it, but this goes into the viability and
the authenticity of the product and officiating is a major issue
in the NBA. It's a major issue in the NFL,
which I talked about with the Goodell stuff.
But at least if there was something that you can flip in
there like all right, guys, we messed up.
We we are now, we just went through the process of our
two-minute review. Here's our answer.
And Oh yeah, by the way, because Team X got blatantly screwed and
we messed up with 3/10 of a second to go or two seconds to
go, we're going to reverse the outcome of the game.
Like I I know that that sounds wacky, but what?
There it goes. But why in the world down to
one? Why in the world?
Would you have a 2 minute report if you're not going to do
anything about it? To me, it's equally frustrating.
I can't stand that. So that goes into a trust.
And I do believe that the NBA, unlike and, and now the other
sports did it as well. But but they really politicized
things during COVID and I think I think it hurt a lot of a lot
of fans. Yeah.
And and there are and this is not even getting the weeds on
the topics and the sensitivity to them.
I got no problem doing it. I just want to keep moving now,
not because I'm afraid to touch it.
I just got a lot to do. But if you think about like in
the bubble and during COVID, like there was like the
messaging was very clear, was very distinct.
And that was great for some people and that was a massive
turn off for others. So I, I just think that they've
made some missteps along the way and there's inherently some
things built in that I don't think that they could solve.
Again, you draft the kid 19 years of age.
All right. Yeah, mate, Great, fantastic.
He might be awesome when he's 2223 and he might win the rookie
of the year, but he's not really impacting the bottom line.
There's too many young pups out there playing against grown men
who are going to get their lunch.
You just, you can't expect those guys to compete.
They're going to try hard. They're going to try to
physically compete and their skill is through the roof.
I mean, the skill level is as high as it's ever been, but I
got to keep that up there, Jim. I'm going to do that in a SEC,
but I just think that when you have you know, so many young
teams, you're going to have so many lopsided games and nobody
wants to see it and that's a tune out.
How do you change it? I I really don't think that you
can at this point. That's why I say inherent
disadvantages with some of the things of the of the NBA.
All right at Charlie F 6675 Charlie, what's going on buddy
BT to stop taking in the NBA. What about taking the records of
the bottom 10 teams only for the first half of the season?
What about about taking the records of the bottom 10 teams
from only the first half of the season?
Oh, I see. And then wait, that's still
confused. And then and then what?
Like wipe it out, start over second-half?
And that's what applies in. Terms of my thought is almost
like, yeah, for like the draft lottery, he's saying like
basically in the first half of the season you're showing your
true colors as a team rather than like a plan tank towards
the end of the season. So only count those that record
through the 1st 41 games for the draft lottery.
So. Hold on.
But yeah, but even that, OK, again, I appreciate the ideas.
I'm an idea guy. I'd like to be a solution person
here as well, but that's not a solution because how do you
circumvent that? All right, you take the 1st 41
game seriously and then you try to lose every game after that.
Yeah. So that, that, that's, that's
part of the issue. I mean, listen, Adam Silver's a
good guy. I don't think he's a good
commissioner. I think he's done a lot of
things that you can't change at this point.
He's just too far deep into it. I don't know what the answer is.
I don't pretend to have the answer, but I know that there's
got to be some answers. And but I but again, I will say
and I actually think this is a little sad, Jay, we got Bernie
questions coming up in a SEC. Be ready for that.
Thank you, my man. So one of the things too like
and I like that Anthony Edwards said this.
I like that he recognized this. And again, I would have watched
more of the just out of curiosity of the All Star games
yesterday again, Saturday night shooting.
I just I I mean, listen, there was a point where like when
Larry Bird was shooting and Trent Tucker, like not everybody
was shooting threes. Craig Hodges, Craig ELO, like
those snipers back in the day. So like there was still some
intrigue with the three-point contest.
I mean the three-point contest at this point's about as
interesting as a layup line. I mean, it's become that common.
So I'm going to suck me in with that even from half court.
Whatever. And come on, man, guys been
pulling up near the logo for the last 10 years and Lillard,
LeBron does it, it is what it is.
So I but I, but I did give it a chance yesterday and I would
have watched more. Just happened to be out with my
son and we got back, we watched the last one and it was the
worst game of the four. But I did like what Edward said
postgame, he's like, yeah, listen, man, like, you know,
Wendy, he gave Wendy credit, you know, because Wendy came out and
said and the first three games were very competitive and Wendy
set the tone. My question is like, why do you
need a, a young player to set the tone?
Shouldn't the pride come from the veterans, You know, and it
has nothing to do with domestic, international, Like I, I don't
care about that. You know, if a, if a young
American player came out and set the tone, to me it's the
equivalent of of a young foreign player coming out and set the
tone. At least somebody had the
gumption to set the competitive tone and if even if you had no
designs, you know, like a LeBron or some of the other veterans
coming out and playing harder, right or with more focus and
purpose, when you have a young buck trying to school you and
serve you, your competitive juices can't help but come out.
So I thought that that was good that when by AMBA took that
authority and and showed that leadership and I thought the
product absolutely, you know was was rewarded for that.
But you know, I know many of you didn't like it.
I know many of you didn't watch it.
I know many of you complain about it.
It is what it is All right. I want to get to some stuff with
horrible here. I think you guys are really like
the football stuff. First up though, it is time that
we'll do it every Monday here on BTL least time for burning
questions is going to be a lot of fun.
Brought to you by my friends at Sullivan propane get fired up
with Sullivan propane at every St.
John's home game this season at the Garden.
Remember the name Sullivan Propane, a winning team on the
court and in the courtroom. Find Sullivan Propane at
triallaw1.com. That's trial law1.com.
Sullivan Papayne. Remember the name Sullivan
Papayne. All right, every Monday, burning
questions. First up, what will the Mets
team chemistry be like in 2026? Now, I know this has been a
massive topic and the reason I'm bringing this up now.
And by the way, these are kind of quick hits and we'll get back
to the show. 3 things I find interesting.
And I wanted to do this on Monday.
A little more content to to grab from, but what's the Mets team
chemistry going to be in 26? Now it's a little played out.
I mean, we've talked about this for years.
What about Pete? What about then then, you know,
the fight in the tunnel, the squirrel, the rat, the raccoon,
whatever the hell it was. Did he get McNeil the car yet?
Yeah, he did. It took him a year.
You know, all those things that we would kind of focus on.
See, I don't really care a whole lot about chemistry when you're
winning the the lack of chemistry, right?
Or, and and those are two different things.
You cannot have great chemistry. That's one aspect of it and
this, I'm not even talking about the Mets in general.
And it's just that not amazing chemistry.
But then the other thing, you could actually have friction.
And then of course, the the ultimate is what you're chasing.
Great chemistry and really good players.
And those are teams that win. If you have, like, if there's
dysfunction and relationships and people who just don't get
along for whatever reason, which I absolutely believe plagued the
Mets clubhouse, listen, there's no coincidence.
The guys that got shipped out, like that's not a coincidence
that happened by design, OK? And I get into this today
because Soto and Landor both spoke about this.
Now it's going to be interesting.
I I don't think that they had great chemistry last year.
Those two. I'm not even talking about Pete
and and and Nemo and Lindor and those I'm talking about Soto and
Lindor. I don't think it was problematic
necessarily, but I don't think it was like, say and yeah, I
always don't even want to do this because it's going to get
hijacked because I really don't care that he's gone at this
point. And and I'm certainly not, you
know, and I wish it was still there, but I've moved on.
I don't think it was like Soto and Judge like I I think that
those guys genuinely had an affinity for each other and they
obviously, you know, worked incredibly well together.
I think it translated off the field, you know, both
personality similar, both kind of tacticians and surgeons and
and deeply invested and immersed in their process of hitting and
getting ready to play. And I think I just think it was
an easy relationship for whatever reason.
I, I, I feel like maybe Soto Inlandur hasn't quite been as
easy. Doesn't mean it's going to exist
forever. Doesn't mean it's going to be a
problem forever. Both address it over the
weekend. As I said, now, if you don't
believe me when I say that, you know, there's some chemistry
issues. Well, Mendoza even hinted around
that when he said last year's clubhouse quote was too
corporate. That's code for we weren't
having any fun. And then I would think a subset
of not having any fun is guys getting on each other's nerves a
little, a little bit. And, you know, partially,
partially and have great pitching, so partially
contributing to a very underwhelming season with 83
wins. So the first burning question,
what will the Mets team chemistry be in 2026?
All right #2 And I already know the answer to this.
And it's going to really piss me off when I get the ultimate
answer because I, I'm getting the sense even if he hits 390
with four bombs and hits well from the right side, Jason
Dominguez is not going to be on the Yankees Opening Day roster.
And I think that that's absolutely ludicrous and stupid
and really emblematic of some mistakes that the Yankees
continue to make. So question #2 burning question,
will Jason Dominguez be on the Opening Day roster?
Notice, I'm not even talking about Spencer Jones.
That's a given. He's got no chance to make the
team. And I'm fine with that.
He needs more seasoning, right? Just strikes out too much.
But we can have a real in depth baseball discussion and we could
agree to disagree. Like there's varying takes on
Dominguez. I think he's a very interesting
player because what I've seen from his floor already is
pretty, pretty reassuring. You know it basically 260 stole
20 bases, 9 or 10 bombs and good patience.
Like his on base percentage and his in or his inability to have
quality at bats and get on base at a decent rate.
Let's not throw him in the Wells Volpe category.
Those guys are never on base and their numbers are ridiculously
unacceptable. Like Austin Wells has a 28% on
base percentage. I mean, that's just sickening.
And we know where Volpe's numbers have lied the last
couple of years. Sickening, unacceptable, you
know, and they've got to improve it.
If they don't, the Yankees going to have to move on.
Either put them at second or get rid of them because Lombard's
coming, you know, so I, I do think that Dominguez to me has
at least satisfied the very, very basic requirements is why
I'm annoyed Like, and the question is this, do I believe
that Jason Dominguez is a Major League Baseball player?
The answer is unequivocally yes. He, I, I do believe that.
Now think about some of the that I only bring the Mets into it
because the Mets had a lot more prospects like the babies, the
Mauricio's, you know, obviously Cooney who's dealt, you know,
Sproat, who's gone other position players.
Alvarez has been hurt a lot. Like that's been more the focal
point. They're young players for, for a
couple of years now. And I think I'd be saying the
same thing now. Like, I mean, I I think baby
should hit 5th or 6th for the Mets and be their opening day
designated hitter. Play some outfield, play a
little first base, bounce around a little second.
You want to give Michelle a day third.
I I love his versatility to get hit as well.
He's proven to me he's a Major League player now.
He also showed more than Dominguez.
To be fair, I don't know if Mauricio is a Major League
player. I I don't I know he's electric
with certain things, but his deficiencies worry me.
I know Alvarez is a major leaguer.
He's got to stay healthy and get a little bit better.
You know, I can't say this. I can't say anything positively
about knowns pertaining to a Major League call up because I
haven't seen anything yet but Dominguez and I know what the
Yankees are thinking. See, but the Yankees are now
trying to correct what they messed up a year ago and that's
their bit like, that's just stupid.
That is bad. That's a bad job by the Yankees
formulating a plan and then sticking by it right now.
I obviously understand the concept of if you're a young
player, you need reps, you got to get out there, you got to
play. So what the Yanks and I know,
and I saw, I saw the quote, they're going to let them play,
maybe play some center field in the minors, OK, You know, get
them some more work left hand from the right part of the play.
OK, great. To me, that's penalizing Jason
Dominguez. I think you penalized in the
last couple of months of the season when he didn't play.
And I think you're penalizing him if and when, and I believe
it will be when and not if he starts the year in AAA.
He's not a AAA player. Now, I'm not saying he's an All
Star, but Jason Dominguez is a Major League Baseball player and
that's something else. The Yankees fucked up.
They did. And that's one of the main
reasons about the Yankees. Like one of the things that
drives me nuts about them, they they're there's just it's it's a
deeper rooted issue that continues to manifest itself at
different levels and with different people and really
different ways. But it's all rooted in the same
thing. They don't draft particularly
well. They don't develop particularly
well. And I think too often they don't
give their young guys a chance to root.
You got to play when you were young guy, you got to play.
And if they're going to lean on the notion that they believe
that playing in the minors is going to be advantageous to
Dominguez, OK, it's their team. That's their prerogative.
I disagree. Like you're going to have to
look this now again, if he hits 112, it's going to be an easier
conversation. He's not going to hit 112.
He's going to hit some bombs because in in spring training,
because for spring training, you know, pitchers are just grooving
fastballs and you know, they're they're just slowly
incorporating their secondary stuff.
They're not nearly a finished product.
So the hitters always have an advantage early on in the
spring, right. So Dominguez probably going to
RIP. Then you have to look and rake.
Then you're going to have to look that young man in the eyes
and say, I guess what good job. Hey, you're really you know, you
did pretty well last year with with some a little bit of power,
good wheels, good on base and you hit the hell out of it this
spring. Go have fun in in in the minors.
It's just it's the wrong message.
I don't like it and I don't agree with it.
So but that's still the question until it's answered.
Will he make the Major League team?
I don't think he will. And you know what bothers me
finally, what's the ultimate ceiling here for St.
John's? What is the ultimate ceiling for
the Johnnies? I I got to tell you so.
And I'll get into the fight in a moment.
Boy, Providence. Providence has morphed into a
sad, a sad version of what they used to be.
The fans have lost their way. The administration's lost their
way. How Kim Inglis is still the
coach is beyond me. And what went down up there on
Saturday, I, I will get into deeper.
I want to focus more on Saint John's here.
But how about this the and I remember, I remember this game
like it was yesterday and it wasn't it was 20 years ago.
I was trying to impress upon this to, to my son or impress
this upon myself. He didn't seem very interested,
which bothered me actually, because he loves history and
stuff and he loves everything, you know, with, with work with
daddy and sports and Saint John's.
Maybe he was tired. I was actually like what?
That didn't find that interesting.
I was actually bothered they didn't find it interesting.
So in 2006, right, I was in the broadcast booth when the St.
John's Red Storm snapped the 25 game Rd. losing streak. 25 games
in a row. May have actually been 26, but I
think it was 25 in a row. And that was when South Florida
was still in the Big East and South Florida was terrible like
St. John's.
And I did the game, it wasn't even a mink, it was Crispino.
It was me, Crispino, good guy who's doing the UConn Huskies
now, last bunch of years, right? And my boy to return, it was a
great guy, former point guard St.
John's that we did every game together.
So back then I would travel to every game.
You know, I'd go to West Virginia, Virginia Tech, my
aunt, like you name Notre Dame, like the older configuration of
the Big East that's I would travel all the time.
Obviously, you know, now I can travel again, but the I've got
more of a flex schedule. But I had to stop traveling,
partly because of the kids. I didn't want to, I didn't want
to miss anything, you know, but also because I couldn't justify,
you know, the games weren't on WFAN.
They used to be, but they weren't when I was there.
So I couldn't tell my bosses at the fan.
Hey, you know, I'm going to be at Creighton on a Tuesday night
and I'm going to miss a couple of shows.
I, I, you can't do that. Anyway, I had more flex back in
the day when it was on 10:50. So I would do all those games.
And I say this because on Saturday, St.
John's won their 11th straight Big East Conference Rd. game,
11th straight. That's a program record.
Now think about that, which is amazing and think about the stat
that I just dropped on you that your boy had the misfortune of
of of being in the middle of 25 straight Rd. losses.
There was finally snapped in 2006.
I remember leaving that arena like the weight of the world was
off the program that nothing really happened.
If I was Norm Roberts team, great guy, not a good team, and
it just shows you how far they've come.
Now, if there's some dissenting voices out there, well, yeah.
Well, what would St. John's be without Rick Pitino?
And what would St. John's be without NILI?
Don't care because it doesn't apply anymore.
And by the way, you're probably right.
Like if St. John's was trying to do this the
way like a few other Big East teams are trying to like sheet
Seton Hall now, Seton Hall had more NIL money this year.
Last year they had basically zip.
I don't mean literally zero, $0.00, but nowhere near enough
to get some players. They got a hell of a coach.
They got a great fan base. It's a great university.
I've got a lot of respect for Seat Hall, really do.
I like what they represent and I like what I've always liked what
they represent. Good rivalry, right?
And now they're like, you know, this year though, like we got to
throw some money into this thing and they're better than they
were a year ago. Still, it's not good enough to
make noise. But dollars correlate with
success. Absolutely.
So what would St. John's be with a bottom third
Big East nil budget? They'd be awful.
That's what they'd be because Rick wouldn't be here and Zubi
wouldn't be, and none of these players would be here.
So I understand it. Like people think that that
bothers me. The only reason St.
John's found their way out of, you know, oblivion or
irrelevance is because they decided to, you know, get the
checkbook. You're damn right.
I mean, you, you get what you get what you pay for, you know
what I'm saying? Think about this.
So that'd be the loose example they should watch.
They're probably here now. I've got to fix the lighting in
my studio and they're coming today because it was supposed to
come yesterday, got delayed, whatever, I don't even care.
But I've got some good things that will change the optics and
that where is it? That thing right there will no
longer glow and it'll look good, right?
But today I basically hung cardboard up and it fell 44
recessed lights. Three of them fell off, right?
I was literally up there on a chair with tape taping these
cardboard, these things. Again, if you just tune it in to
the talk, there's the tape there, you know, boom.
And they felt you get what you pay for.
So when you try to get an assistant who's unproven and you
have no NIL money, guess what? You don't have 19,000 at the
Garden. You don't have a top 20 team.
You don't win the Big East a year ago, both regular season
Big East tournament. You know, you don't pump out a
couple of pros. Look at Jenkins Zoobies going to
get drafted. They got a few pros on the team.
They're one of the better teams in the country.
They're, you know, I think they match up really well with UConn,
but I'm going to show UConn respect where I'm not going to
say St. John's is the best in the Big
East, even though they beat them.
I think that match up at Stewart's is going to be tough.
But I do think St. John's matches up well with
them. But the point is what is their
ceiling? I think St.
John's is ceiling. I did not think this most of or
I don't say most of the season because they've been playing
really well for a long time now with 11 straight wins.
But I think that the it's certainly been elevated.
And you know, I told her, I remember watching the first
couple of games, my son's like this team's going nowhere.
I like this team. And I was like, not that's
early. I had to got to figure it out.
And as the first month went on, I'm like, man, he might be
right. His first, his first call might
be right. I'm like, patience, you know,
Rick's got to get with these players, figure out roles,
explain things to him a little bit doesn't happen overnight.
And I actually think now. I think St.
John's has a puncher's chance to get to the Final Four.
I don't know if I'd bet on it. Not that I would ever bet on
anything connected with St. John's.
I would never do that, never have.
But like, if you're looking at if if I'm not doing these games
and I'm looking at this completely objectively, why
can't Saint John's get to a Final four if they're not
favored to get to a final four? You got some amazing teams,
right? Amazing teams out there that
that can play defense and like Saint John's and can put up 85
points a night like Saint John's.
Like there are other teams that are phenomenal.
But I think you know, and it's also match up dependent.
So I'm not going to give you too much on how deep they can go.
But for a burning question you don't do I think Saint John's
put it this way. Last year I was we were all
coming off for 31 and five year and and you know the the biggie
stuff when they got knocked out by Arkansas and played so poorly
in that game. Everybody but Zubi, everybody
played awful RJ Lewis rough game, right.
And that was that was a really that was a bitter end to an
awesome season. I expected that team to at least
get to the Sweet 16 and I think I expected them maybe to go
beyond that because they were two seed.
I think this year. I don't know that that you know,
maybe it's it's not quite as wide that net, but similar at
least the early rounds. You got to get you have to you
have to get to the Sweet 16. At least you have to you got to
win a couple of games there. So I like St.
John's ceiling. I love the way they look right
now. They have figured things out.
And you know, for me, the biggest issue just to the fight
for a second, the biggest issue to me with what went down on
Saturday. First of all, that was an
absolutely ridiculous dirty foul.
We all know that. I don't need to, you know, go
nuts on that horrendous foul that that really could have hurt
Bryce Hopkins. That was Duncan Powell, right?
You great that the the still shot now in real time you're
like, wow, that was aggressive because he came from behind and
he really he made a play for the ball.
But you know, there was obviously Hopkins went flying,
got up. Don't blame him.
You know, was was pissed off looking for some retribution
couple the Johnnies had no issue with some smoke.
Dylan Mitchell was ready, lot of guys were ready and and
thankfully no real punches were thrown because that would have
led to suspension. But Rick said after the game,
he's like, you got to stand up for yourself.
And I get it. And I thought Rick's post game
reaction was phenomenal because right away, I think it was Zach
he was asking about it sounded like his voice.
And if not, not that it's cheap. And there's the last one, not
that it's shade anyway, but the, the, and I get it.
Like if I'm a reporter, I'm I'm asking about the fight.
And Rick's like, Hey, I want to talk about basketball.
We're not talking about the fight.
Like because they asked, I think it was Zooby what happened?
And Rick said, you want to talk basketball talk, We'll do that.
We're not talking about you guys saw what you saw.
Write what you want to write, do what you want to do.
And then he went into a commentary about like how back
in the day, you could always fight the Big East.
Now you can't. So he's got to teach toughness
through defense and share the ball and having each other's
back. But there's also a fine line
when your guy. And then the still shot, which I
started to allude to, you can see both hands around Bryce
Hopkins neck. I mean, that could have been
really, really bad. So a couple of things that I had
an issue with. Number one, it was an incredibly
dirty foul #1 #2 the Saint John's might not like me saying
this, but I've, I've got to say what I saw.
There is no way that Bryce Hopkins should be at midcourt
there when that's going down. There's no way because everybody
had your back. You know, 3 or 4 guys came off
the bench and they got thrown out.
Rightfully so. It's a literal rule.
If you leave the bench, you're gone.
So can't even contest that. I did think, although I love
what he did, I thought the Dylan Mitchell deserved to get thrown
out of that game. You know, and by the way, the
way he ducked that punch from from the other pal, No, who is
that from? Sellers, Sellers on Providence.
It looks like he's got a little box in his background.
That was a quick duck and couple of guys were really ready to go,
including Dylan Mitchell. I thought it was a rough look.
Now he may have really been hurt, although he kept going.
So I don't know. But you, you can't be the
subject. This is my opinion.
You can't be the subject of a hard foul where they're
everybody has your back and you're at midcourt nowhere near
it. I'm not saying you, I'm not
saying this at all. You don't come in, just throw
them back. You know, you don't just
throwing left and right. I'm not saying you do that.
Didn't like the way that looked with Bryce Hopkins at midcourt.
And you know, I don't I don't know.
I'll talk to Rick this week. I don't know if I don't know how
forthright he'll be. He always is.
So he probably will be. But I would imagine if I'm a St.
John's player and you look at that tape, even if it's not
said, you know, if I'm Dylan Mitchell, I might be saying to
myself, dude, I was in the middle of I could have been, I
could have caught one on the chin for you.
Like where were you? Not enough.
That's going to be an issue moving forward.
But I did think about that. I'd be, I'd be lying if I didn't
say that that came into equation.
Now here's where those those referees messed up.
I thought they got pretty much everything right, really.
And they had, it was a 19 minute delay.
It was wild, man. You had to look at the film.
I get it. And I thought that they got it
right. The one thing that they really
should have done is that, you know, when, when, when you get
thrown out of the game immediately.
And I don't understand why they allowed him to linger.
I mean, he's just out there, you know, sitting there talking.
I really thought Duncan Powell should have been sent to the
locker room. Like, why for 19 minutes is
Duncan Powell visible and imploring the fans, you know,
and wolfing and talking his smack?
You got thrown out. Get lost.
Like, I thought the Big East did a horrendous job with that
because now he's inciting the fans.
Couple of fans got ejected. When something like that
happens, it is the job of everybody.
And Pitino got in the middle of the scrum to try to protect the
players, other coaches did, you know, trying to protect guys
from relieving the bench. Kim English was in the middle
trying to defuse it. I don't think anybody stepped
out of bounds except Powell, except Powell.
And you know, and while when they went to the film to come, I
think 7 players in totality were thrown out.
When you go to the film, you come up with the list.
That's going to take some time because you got to watch frame
by frame. Dylan Mitchell, shove, set shove
Sellers. I think it was Sellers 2 handed
push. And then Sellers came back,
tried to throw 1 and and obviously Mitchell ducked,
right? So we talked about that.
Zooby was kind of in the middle of it, but you know, not fists
up, but but there Darling was there in the right way, in a
good way, right? And then Hopkins was at
midcourt. Why is Powell still there when
he was, it was immediately announced.
Automatic objection. There's nothing else to
interpret. There's no more film to watch.
They said it on the PA system immediately.
Duncan Powell has been automatically suspended.
I think that you suspended whatever thrown out of the game.
Good. Take your bag and go to the
locker room. Why is he languishing around?
It's only going to make it worse.
It's going to feed into the energy.
Take him now. He's at home.
So I don't know that you really need a police presence to usher
him out, but maybe you do. I don't know.
Because they had it in in the middle of the scrub.
And another thing, shout out to the Providence cops who got in
the middle and made sure that it didn't really get out of hand.
It could have gotten bad. It could have gotten really bad
because of where it was in close proximity under the baseline.
You got the student. I know the arena really well,
the student sections right there, cheerleaders,
photographers, like there's a lot going on.
So shout out to the police. Did a great job.
But Powell just lingering around laughing and throwing his hands
up to bad luck. And that's the first thing that
should have happened. All right, we got to sort
through all this mess. We got a lot of names and a lot
of lot of frames of footage to roll through.
So we're going to need some patience.
And again, it took 19 minutes. Tell that young man to get lost.
Now the biggie suspended him for three games.
If Providence had had any sort of conscience, they would take
away his uniform for the rest of the season and suspend him for
the rest of the season. Listen, I really don't care
what's happening up in Providence.
It doesn't impact me. But I've always had great
respect for Providence. I always have.
It's a great academic school. It's rooted in Catholicism,
right? I'm a product at the Catholic
school system. You guys know that.
Grammar school, high school. And I think that they're what
what, what they're like, their morals and their virtues and
what they're rooted in are things that resonate with me.
Really good people up there, really good academic school,
beautiful campus. They have lost their way.
Their fans have become unhinged. I mean, when Cooley went back,
that was reprehensible, what they did to Cooley.
So let me get this straight. You're going to have that kind
of animosity towards Bryce, and I I get it to an extent, like he
left your program. Your program stinks.
Your coach is going to get fired.
Probably should be fired. Now.
English is doing it. He didn't even deserve the job.
What the hell did Kim Inglis do to deserve that job?
Nothing. You would talk to anybody that's
connected with college basketball and every when they
hired him, they're like, really? That's the move.
OK. All right, Good luck with that.
And how's it working out? Not well and I get that the fans
they're going to be inflamed and and sensitive to one of their
and and Bryce Hopkins, before he ripped up his knee, was a a
great ascending player for the Friars.
I get it. You miss him, you need them.
You're pissed off. You know Saint John's keeps
although you just beat them at the Garden.
So you come in there with that animosity.
But you've got to have you, you, you've still, you got to comport
yourself a certain way. I thought the fans were wildly
out of out of wildly off base and they've just lost any sort
of control and any sort of presence and, and true viability
with the program. Like you can, you can be a
diminished team. It happens a lot.
You, you, you can't have your morals diminished.
And it seems like Providence is fan base and and and what the
coaching staff allows that they're kind of doing that.
So awful job by Providence. Phenomenal job by St.
John's breaking through. St.
John's was not playing well that day.
They were not playing well. All right, J Rod, hook me up
with some hook me up. But yeah, let me see here.
Let me see here. I got this here.
All right. Hey, BT this is at Rod Power 78.
If St. John's plays Providence in the
Big East tournament, Pitino needs to designate a player to
go after Powell, put him on the deck similar that scene in the
the grand St. the Great Santini. No, I disagree.
And by the way, I'm watching the game.
That's not how you get retribution.
You get retribution by kicking their, their face in, you know,
and, and coming back being one point down score the 1st 7 or 9
points after the fracas. Darling was great.
St. John's respond to the way I
thought they would and they got to win.
That's how you do. You just keep it moving.
St. John's has too much to lose
right now. And let's face it, Providence
has nothing to lose. I mean, they're going nowhere,
not even going to the NIT, You know, I don't even know if they
still have those other tournaments.
They, they wouldn't even want Providence, the CBI or those
other ones you got to pay for. I don't even know if they're
around anymore. But Providence basketball is a
shell of what it was. But you, you don't do that
number one, Rick wouldn't do that number 2.
Even if you put somebody out there like a a goon to take a
shot at Powell, well, invariably what's going to happen?
Providence is then going to respond in the moment.
And now you might have a player trying to protect more of their
boys. Because let's face it, when
things go down, you're not thinking clearly, especially
when you're a young man. Think about some of the fights
that you've had. All right, Thank God I haven't
had more than a long time. I've got 0 interest in doing it.
But there's times things go down, like certainly in college,
maybe a year or two after, right, something happens.
You're not asking questions, your boys in trouble, you
throwing fists. I mean, that's what you're doing
and, and some people, but that's, that's the way it is
and, or at least that's the way it was.
And I'm, I'm not saying that that's, that's right as adults.
I'm not saying that. But if your boys getting pushed
around on the court and somebody throws A haymaker at them, you
know, one of their best players not going to think, well, God
forbid if I throw a punch and I break a knuckle and I miss the
tournament, he's going to go and get his guys back because that's
what teammates do. That's what competitors do.
So you will not do that. That's number one.
And then even if you didn't get hurt, you're going to get
suspended. You don't do it.
No way. I completely disagree.
You got to end it and you just got to understand they're in a
bad spot. You got bigger things to worry
about and a lot more to lose at Hoboken.
Slap Yanks are running the back. I have mixed, mixed feelings
about this. Do we have a backup plan for
Volpe? Do we have the pitching for the
early part of the season? Let's go, Yanks.
Thank you very much. You know, I mean, the backup
plan for Volpe is Caballero. I think the the backup plan big
picture is Lombard. Now, you know, the Yankees can
say what they want. I know that Volpe is healing
well, but even when he's healthy, doesn't really have an
arm for shortstop, more of a second base profile.
I'm not going to waste too much time on Lombard.
I know that they love him. He seems to be different.
But I've been down this road before.
I got to see what you are before I start touting you as oh, yeah.
That that's that's you're the next wit at shortstop in Kansas
City. Tap the brakes.
So I I don't really know Now they're not.
They're running it back. And this has been a theme that
we've hit a lot. I don't want to be redundant.
I want to get to the hardball stuff, but running it back to me
is a little different. And I know that they said this.
I know that this bothers some of you, but part of this it a lot
of this is actually true. You're not running it back when
you have Garrett Cole eventually joining the rotation.
I know you want to Bichette. So did I.
I know some of you want to Tucker.
I didn't, but I get it. You know, I know some of you
wanted Peralta, which I wanted them to trade for him.
Didn't happen. I get it, I get it.
But the greatest strength of the Yankees will ultimately this
year proved to be their pitching, their rotation.
Now a lot of variables that I don't, I'm not going to reset
them again. I've done that a lot here.
But they are banking on that. And you know, there's the
deadline. I mean, the Yankees got their
closer the deadline a year ago. So you don't rule out a Quan in
left field, whatever. I'm just throwing stuff out.
I don't I don't know, I mean school bull who knows things
going to happen. And I do think the Yankees would
make a move to to fortify their team mid season.
You know, I wish something one of these years would happen in
waves during the offseason instead of like, all right,
little dribble here like with Freed or little dribble here.
All right, we got Bellinger back.
Like I'd like to see the Yankees go for it on a much more defined
level, but not happening. So, but pertaining to the
question, I don't I don't think they have a backup for Volpe
right now. It's Caballero to start.
And then hopefully Volpe comes back a little bit more refined
and a little bit better and and the Yankees win.
And if not, you know, it's shortstop's going to be an
issue. It really is.
All right. So did you guys see this?
This was good. John Horribaugh said a lot of
good things over the weekend, a lot of good things.
John Horribaugh, who I love, John Horribaugh was on, he was
on Fox over the weekend. What I heard, though, I heard it
in the car and I read some of the stuff, snippets from Mike
Frances's podcast. All right.
So they talked a lot about like the number 5 spot in the draft.
And I didn't realize this. I mean, I guess if I would have
thought about it in these terms, I would have thought about it,
but I didn't. Like, he's never picked this
high in the draft #5 so he's going into a team that needs a
desperate infusion of, of everything.
So, you know, he got paid up the wazoo. 20 million bucks a year.
Yeah, he's got all power. You can say whatever you want.
Oh, Shane's still there. It's horrible show.
We all know it. Everything he wants.
They acquiesced, as they should have.
And he also has a top five draft pick in a draft that's pretty
damn good. This draft is going to be really
good. Now, from a quarterback
perspective, not so good, which of course impacts The Jets, but
the things that the Giants need, Giants can go a multitude of
ways here. Now, let me just give you and
I'll hit you with some names too.
And I'll tell you what I actually think is the the
strongest part of the draft. But I am a believer and and a
lot of you disagree with this, right?
Here's how I see it. If there's a guy at a certain
position that you don't deem important enough to draft that
high, right, well, don't take him.
And a lot of this is rooted back to the Saquon stuff, which I do
think is more applicable to a running back, right?
But there's a player that, by the way, I would be OK.
I would be more than OK, though. I don't think they'll do it.
I would actually love The Jets to take Caleb Downs at #2 I
really would. Or if you want to trade back a
spot or two and take him, like to me, there's no reason why the
Giants shouldn't take Caleb Downs.
Now you got to go through the process.
I get it. You want another wide receiver
opposite neighbors get it. You want another old lineman.
I I get that you're not going to go edge rusher.
You got enough at that point. So to me, for the Giants, it
really boils down to, are you going to look at the safety
downs? Are you going to look at one of
the couple of receivers and I'll tell you about them in a minute
or do you go online? All right, you manure is a free
agent and obviously young quarterback never hurts to have
that guy. I just don't get it like and I
do. I do think running back is a
little different. If Caleb Downs is what I think
he's going to be and I I think what a lot of football people
think he's going to be and that is a ball Hawking game changing
field flipping safety from minute one.
Who you plug in there and say, all right, this kids going to be
an all Pro and it's going to be a Pro bowler maybe the first
year he's going to be an old pro 5-6 times in his career if he's
healthy. That's how good I think Caleb
Downs is. So let me ask you this.
If you think that that's the case, why wouldn't you take him?
Well, it's too early for a safety.
No, it's not. Not if he's changing the entire
complexion of your defense. Think about now they need
another corner as well, another linebacker.
Like they're not perfect. That's why they're they're
picking 5th overall, right? But if you have a guy on that
third level who's going to be so good that's only going to make
the first level, which is the Giants defensive strength
better, why in the world would you not be amenable to making
that pitch? Why?
Because it's too early for a safety.
Hey, just because The Jets took Jamal Adams at six doesn't mean
that it can't #1 Jamal Adams couldn't cover anybody, couldn't
run a lick, you know? And they also took another, they
took another safety May, they took back-to-back safeties,
probably advising the Giants not to do that.
That's probably not the prudent thing to do.
But this kid is the real deal, man.
I think he is absolutely phenomenal now.
I think the three best positions in the NFL draft and and I say
this because Horribaugh even even said he's like, yeah, he's
like, I love the kid. And he which was interesting.
He's very, very forward. You know, generally you don't
you aren't that specific about players.
Now, Mike asked MM asked him, asked him and did a good job and
Horribaugh was comfortable with Mike and they had a good
conversation. Maybe, you know, maybe in
hindsight, John's like, yeah, maybe I shouldn't have divulged
that much. Well, you did and I thought it
was great. So he was talking about him like
just like name specific, position specific.
And I love that. I, I, I think that the
transparency and the honesty, like the lack of John Harbaugh
being on guard with the New York media is going to be phenomenal.
Because everybody else, you know, whether it was Dabel,
whether it was Joe Judge, whether it was Macadoofus.
Macadoofus. I remember the first time Sal
called him that, that Macadoo, whether it was him, like all
these guys were terrified to say anything.
Now, Joe Judge eventually started talking.
Then ironically, once he started talking, he actually talked
himself out of the job. That's why Joe Judge wound up
getting fired. They were actually predisposed
to bringing it back for a year. And then Joe, just for the last
week or two. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.
All right, We got to get rid of you.
So, you know, I guess there is there a fine line that you don't
want to cross there. But John Harbaugh can do
whatever he wants. So I think that this draft.
Right is there are three positions that jump out to me
that are by far the best that of course every position has stars.
But you talking about and no order, You talking about edge
rushers, you talking about wide receivers and he talking about
to me those are the top 2. I can't even say safety, which
is even more reason why if you love downs and you're thinking
about taking a safety like the drop between Downs and the next
overall. Now this is subjective.
Let me give you an example. So right now I love PFF shout
out to those guys. They're not always right, but
it's a good intelligent read on what players are doing, You
know, snap to snap evaluation. I love it.
I look at it as the Bible, but I think it's a great tool and they
really do good work out there. So get shout out to them.
So PFF has Caleb Downs right now as their number 5th #5 rated
prospect, right? The next highest safety is
number 35 overall in rank. So you are talking and think
about all the players that are going to go before the next
safety. That doesn't mean that somebody
can't view that safety in a more.
I think it's from a small school too for in a more favorable
light. And he goes late first round or
early 2nd. But if things kind of hold true,
Downs is definitely going top ten.
I think he's going top 7 for sure.
I would take him top five and I would even maybe take him to two
if I'm The Jets, as I said. But there's a good chance that
next safety is late second round and and possibly 3rd, right.
The other positions don't have that.
So if you love downs and you've got a premium pick and you don't
need a quarterback like the Raiders do, you take him and you
run to the bank and you love what you did.
Whereas you look at the edge rushers, whether it's a Ruben
Bayne Bailey from Texas Tech, probably more ready, I think
than the other guys. Howell, somebody from an A&M,
the kid Falk from Auburn, you've got who else there at least 4
edge. Rogers, definitely, definitely
Bane. We saw him in the championship.
Definitely Bailey from minute one to Texas Tech and even
Howell. I think those are probably the
three best you get to the wide receivers, whether it's a
Carnell tape, whether it's Jordan Tyson from ASU, whether
it's a Denzel Boston, he's from UW, whether it's Makai Lemon
from USC and they they all have different profiles there too.
All those guys are going round one like Carnell Tate 63.
You look at somebody like Jordan, he's from Ohio State,
Jordan Tyson 6 to $1.95. You look at somebody like
Boston, 64 to 10, you look at somebody like Lemon.
Totally different physical profile, 511 but stout, almost
200. So there's so many options
there. I absolutely love downs and I
think that you know, if and I'm not worried about the Giants
being manipulated, like their mindset being manipulated by
what the fans are saying. Can't take a safety at 5.
It's too early. You take the best one that you
can take right now. The other thing too, I throw a
little jets on the table. I don't think that they'll take
downs at 2. I think they'll go edge rush at
2 or maybe linebacker. All right, kid from Ohio State.
And then you got to go offense. Like if The Jets don't, whatever
order it is, I'll let them figure this out.
There's still a lot of evaluation, you know, the
combine, etc. But you got #2 you got #16 you
got needs everywhere. Like to me, you need to hit
home. You like the second pick overall
has to be a home run. An absolute stud, no doubt.
Day one game wrecker on defense. All right, I'm not taking a
receiver to and then a #16 you know, of course there's trade up
options and all sorts of variations that could go down.
But in my optimal world for The Jets, I'm walking away with
somebody who is, this is, is a disruptor on defense.
And then somebody opposite Garrett Wilson at 16, that's
what I'm doing. The pick you got back in the
sauce trade. I want a receiver.
All right. I do now.
I'd also be very interested, very intrigued by if Muji was
say, to go from #2 to number. I don't know, just throwing
stuff out, four, 7-8, whatever it might be and get another
first round pick in the process. Now you can, now you can get 2
defensive leads and then you could go obviously you could go
with, with, with, with, with a receiver somewhere along the
line. The good thing is when you
stink, you need a lot. And I think additionally for
these teams who both stink, although I think the Giants have
certainly better coach and I think it easier bridge to become
very competitive here, at least they have a quarterback and a
coach just right now have neither that we believe in.
But The Jets have a ton of capital and they got a lot of
resources. The money, 73 bucks and free
agent money, top three in the NFL.
Like I know there's going to have so many football
discussions and I can't wait for it.
I can't wait for the draft. I can't wait.
One of the things that we're going to do on this, I can't
tell you about it yet. I hinted about it on Friday.
It's going to be massive with a massive company that is going to
be incredible for draft coverage.
So pumped up about that. Fully believe it's going to go
down where we had a conference call on Friday, so on Thursday
and I told you guys about a Friday.
Good things are coming all right and I love the draft now, but
you do have to look at this you've and I know it's
subjective like take the receivers.
You could look at one guy and say, you know, that's the guy
who's going to be thirteen 1400 yards, you know, 90 plus
catches. You know, when he maybe not as a
rookie, but you know what I mean, 8 to 12 touchdown stud.
And then another guy, another team could look at that guy and
say, yeah, but is he going to get is he going to get jammed
off the line of scrimmage? Or you know, he's got some
height, but he's really thin. How's he pulled out?
Like there's obviously going to be count their opinions here,
but I think the general consensus and I agree with this
is that it's an incredibly strong wide receiver group.
It's an incredibly strong, you know, defensive around edge and
even a couple linebackers very strong.
And I think it's a very strong offensive line group.
Giants don't need a Jets don't need no lineman.
Giants very well might. So again, that's not to say they
have to take Caleb Downs at 5. I'm just reacting to what John
was saying over the weekend with with Francesa and I think that
will be a home run. I love him and you have to
understand if you really have dire needed safety like both
teams do, then you got to say, well, if this was a really
strong safety class, even though Downs would be far and away
better than anybody in my opinion.
But when you've got such a gap between the next best safety
that that could that that's that should on some level at least be
maybe additional thought and incentive to take a maybe a
little higher than ordinarily you would, because once downs is
off the board, the next I'm not saying the next safety is not
going to be good. You know, whatever.
So there's going to be some no name out of nowhere.
I know how it works, but going in and using a logic and using
evaluations, massive gap. Don't have that at receiver.
Don't have that at edge. Don't have that at all line.
You have it at safety. All right, so let me see here.
Yeah, I do think the Giants can go online.
I do, and they will. And by the way, they've only got
2 picks in the top 100, so the need for the Giants to bang, and
I mean absolutely pop is, is absolutely massive.
Oh, pardon me, I put that up there.
I'm sorry about that. At Boss Girl 8.
What's up, boss girl? How you doing?
BT? What if we signed a solid wide?
Talking about the Giants. OK, I think it's a Giants here.
Yeah. I, I, I think he's talking about
The Jets. I assume.
What if we signed a solid wide receiver in free agency?
Dobbs, Robinson, Jennings, Pittman, if he's released, takes
pressure off taking a first round wide receiver.
Reese is giant. Jets very well could take him at
#2 very well could take Reese. Mahal State gonna be an all pro
edge rusher in the NFL. Take him at number 20.
So this is about The Jets, OK, Yeah.
I mean, I think there's a lot of ways to do this year.
But the if, if you believe that the the, and again, strength in
numbers, the abundance of very intriguing wide receiver
possibilities, if you think one of those players is going to be
better than somebody you can get in free agency.
And by the way, it's going to be cheaper because if you get
somebody in free agency as a wide receiver, unless it's, you
know, on a real team friendly deal, which some of those names
you probably wouldn't get, you know, a guy who's taking 16th
overall in the draft, even though it's a first round pick,
the money's not going to be incredibly putative.
Where from a free agent perspective, I don't like I, I
don't love using free agency for for big, big, big ticket
contracts, unless it's like a guy who's just for some reason,
you know, shakes free from for some crazy reason who's just
entering his prime. And you do see that once in a
while. But generally in free agency
baseball too, you know, you pay for too high of a percentage of
what that player already did in the NFL or already did a Major
League Baseball. Like, you know, I obviously a 15
year deal for Soto's ridiculous, but yeah, teams willing to pay
it, including the Yankees, you know, a little shorter the Mets,
but the Yankees came correct. And he was getting a ton of
money no matter what because he's a great hitter.
But you know, also because he came up at the age of
19192021222324 last year. He was 25 with the Yankees, 26
last year. Like that's that's eight years
of, of incredible varying degrees of production, but
incredible production. And it it, it just illuminates
that player's star. Are you telling me that when you
sign somebody to a 15 year deal at that age that you, you, it's
going to work out Well, No, it's not.
And you understand that. You bite the bullet on the back
end to get the production on the front end and you know it.
It's somebody like Soto. You can justify that, but
there's too many players in the NFL where that happens.
And it's obviously a shorter shelf life given the injury and
given the attrition of the NFL. So, you know, I get excited when
you have a lot of free agent money because I've referenced it
quite a bit. Jets have 7374 million bucks,
you know, among the top three in football.
It sounds good, but you've got to be very judicious in how you
spend it. You don't just want to go, you
know, two big ticket items and then have, you know, you want to
just plug in. You got to get here's the bottom
line. You got to get backups off the
field. That's that's the starting point
for The Jets. The Jets had too many scrubs
starting. So what happened was especially
when you traded Q and you traded sauce, which which I like, but
it left a massive void, which I'm OK with bigger picture, But
week to week it was brutal. You had guys who were backups
then obviously being thrust into starting roles.
Okay, that happens quite a bit. Injury, trades, whatever
defections, free agency guys got to step up.
But the real issue for The Jets was that they had taxi squad
guys who were then elevated to the roster.
And because the backups were were now starters, you had taxi
guys who are becoming backups who were playing too much like a
nickel and dime packages. What are we doing?
Like that's untenable. You cannot compete at that
level. And that's why The Jets had the
worst point disparity in any month in the history of the NFL,
cuz you had guys who shouldn't be in the league out there.
So I think really, while it's and I'm sure The Jets are going
to get one massive free agent, there's no they might get the
center from Baltimore Lynn Baumble, which I'd be, which I'd
be very OK with. But I am I am more concerned
with just getting substandard players off the field.
OK, drafting better and having those frontline players assume
roles and then now having the backups, you know, be real, you
know, friend starters on different teams, on good teams.
And and the and the way you accent the roster with free
agency is to bring in guys who maybe were, you know, mid mid
level starters elsewhere. Don't pay him the stars, but
have them for a year or so. Come in, fill some gaps and at
least be solid, serviceable pros.
Like, I don't know if Muji's thinking that.
That's kind of what I'm thinking.
All right, let's go here at Timmy Thomas, O58-O.
Tim, what's up? What do you see is the biggest
draft they need to address on draft on day one outside of
quarterback guys, you got to specify the team because we're
not just talking Jets and Giants.
We're talking about, I mean, right now we're talking
primarily Jets and Giants. But when you get into the draft,
you got to specify the team. I'm assuming that you mean
quarterback, obviously, because The Jets don't have what the
Giants do. The biggest draft day needs to
address for the on day one. Well, I gave it to you.
The Jets have to walk away with a massively disruptive defensive
force. And if he's on the third level
of downs, great. If it's Ruben Bayne on the edge,
great. Or somebody else on the edge,
great. If it's if it's Reese, a
linebacker, and he pans out, great.
But it has to be a frontline defensive stud #1 the second
way. Now listen, say, if you do get a
wide receiver in free agency and some of the receivers that you
covered are gone by 16 and you can't move up whatever.
And there's a one or two defensive players that
unexpectedly slip and you love and you're going to be married
to your board and you got to trust Muji and it worked.
You know, hopefully it works out and you go defense, defense.
I'm I'm not going to go nuts. But then you'd have to obviously
bring in a receiver with free agency.
But again, ideally, Tim, what I would do is defense receiver.
That's that's what I would do. You don't.
And that one of the things that's advantageous here and the
Giants have a little bit of a different approach or should, is
that The Jets for once don't have to draft the lineman.
They could go out and do some other stuff at Thomas Rossi,
66427-BT of the man always got my support.
I appreciate that, man. Thank you very much.
I feel the support. Thank you very much, Thomas.
Thank you, dude. I feel it.
I love it. It's awesome.
These reflecting lights are, are, are driving me nuts here.
I I can't tell you. I can't say it looked different
to start the show. Yeah, they're hanging from the
ceiling. But again, guys, I live by the
mantra focus on what you can control.
I can't control that. The things from Amazon didn't
get here yet. You know, I can't control
certain things. I can, but you know, I'm also, I
can't control the timeline. I think of certain things.
So I'm really excited to see, you know, the backdrop when
it's, you know, when it's fully popping and there's not, you
know, blinding. I got to start wearing eye black
on the show at some point here. That's I'm going to have to do
Jay or I'm going to wear the eye black.
Avery Summit. BT Dolphins just released Tyree
Kill coming off an injury, but Jets can use any wide receiver
talent alongside Wilson. I mean, yeah, I am whatever.
I mean, Tyree kill, I don't know.
I mean, he's a disruptive force. He's a pain in the ass.
He runs like the wind. Will he still run the way he
used to? He'll probably retain most of
that speed. I'm not incredibly worried about
that. I mean, you know, I you know, if
you Tyree kill, you probably want to go somewhere you're
going to win. I would think right away.
Now, I'll tell you what I I also do think that the situation
matters if you want to tell me that rather than spend because
again, the giants only have two picks in the 1st 100 where The
Jets have a lot more than that. So they could be more, you know,
more specific to the needs there based on the numbers.
If you want to tell me that John Harbaugh tells, you know, Marin
Tisch, hey, listen, I can make it work with this guy.
He can help neighbors, gets back, take the top off whatever,
loose in the box a little bit, help out Jackson.
And John Harbaugh was like, yeah, I want Tyree kill and the
money's manageable. Sure.
I just don't like going to The Jets.
You've got to have some stability and they have none.
I mean, and if you're Tyree kill, why the hell you want?
Why would you want to go to The Jets?
Like in Tyree kills mind, he's thinking one more big payday.
This might not be it. It might be like a make good
contract. You know, one year.
I don't know, whatever the guaranteed money is incentive 2
years, whatever the third year, you know, team control and just
get rid, void it, whatever. You know, the, the I don't even
know how these NFL contracts work and, and really neither do
you. So I'm speaking in nebulous
terms. Basically, it's not incredibly
burdensome financially and you know, and he's willing to take
it for sure, but you'd have to think he'd want to go somewhere
where the quarterback is good to get him the ball and the offense
is going to be humming. So that after the one year prove
it, his stats are back up and then he re enters the free agent
market the year after and there's a greater demand, you
know, keeps his nose clean. He's healthy.
You know, he could cut he could still run by people.
I would like if I'm him, that's probably what I would want to
do. But I I I just don't see that
for the for the New York Jets. Why in the world we want to do
that? This was something we hit
before. Oh, wow.
OK. At Z Williams 2283, the Kareem
ABA stories already been called into question on the Mad Dog
show with a guest. Not totally sure it's true.
I didn't hear it. I don't know.
Yeah, interesting. I'm.
I'm sure that'll be written about later on.
What I'm talking about is I started watching soul power on
on prime, which is great. Like everything about the AB as
cool, the style, the uniform, I got a couple of the throwback
ABA shirts. I've just always been really
intrigued by the AB as before my time.
And it's like the the legacy in this lasting impression by by
plus, not to mention like the Pacers and Denver and and other
ABA teams that obviously joined the the NBA.
It's got some roots there. But the story that that tweet is
where that text is referring to is that George Mikan, who was
the commissioner of the ABA at that point when Kareem was
coming out, when Lou El Cindor at that point was coming out of
UCLA 69, I think it was where, you know, he was open to going
to the ABA, wasn't really committed.
It wasn't, didn't have to be in the NBA.
And he basically told the NBA one chance, one offer ABA, one
chance, one offer. Man of principle.
He's not going to sit there and go back and forth and play the
game. And the NBA gave their offer.
The ABA gave theirs, but they had a check and and they
actually had the check. So I again, I, I, I didn't hear
what was said on on Chris's show.
I'm sure it's interesting. I don't know if it's true.
I'm not refuting it. I just don't know what was said.
But I did see on the documentary the actual check made out for
$1,000,000 to Lou Alcindor. I so I, I really don't know.
I'm sure we'll get some news on that a little bit later, but
it's, it's absolutely worth a watch.
Yeah. And Rick Barry, man, he he come.
And Rick Barry's one tough dude, man.
He is a tough guy to get along with.
He is just AI want to be careful here.
I'm not going to call him a jerk.
He's just, he's just a tough nut to crack.
I've interviewed him a couple times when I was out in San
Francisco, obviously played for the Warriors.
I sat next to him at the Palace of Auburn Hills one night when I
was working in Detroit. And his and his son, his son
John was on the Pistons and he was one of them that a really
good bench and he had, he got a lot of run.
He's a pretty good player for the Pistons, and he was at the
game and, like, he's just a tough dude.
He was like, right now, I remember he was eating peanuts
and I guess he got a press credential because that's where
I was. So I was courtside and Rick
Barry's right next to me and he's eating these peanuts or
walnuts, whatever he's eating, just throw them on the floor.
Like, I mean, I know people do that in the stands, like at
Yankee. I do.
I do it at Yankee games, Right? Yeah.
I don't know if you were supposed to do that where the
press is sitting, which that's not why I'm saying he's a tough
guy to get along with, but just just tough guy to get along
with. Let me put it that way.
Not not very congenial, you know, set in his ways, very
direct. One thing I do appreciate.
He's got no time for bullshit like Rick.
Rick Barry is going to tell you what he's thinking.
But boy, you can tell as as you watch the the documentary on the
league, he is a guy who was, you know, that's a little tricky to
get along with there. What's this year?
Loving the logos. We got Timmy Thomas again.
Can't wait for the merch. Yep, I appreciate that.
Again, whatever, you guys know the deal by now.
Whatever. I'm not going to keep
apologizing for it. I love the logo.
Came out sick. The lights reflecting is what it
is. Yeah.
And then the merch will be great.
So you know, if you guys are new to the show, I'll run through
this really quick here. We have had two interviews with
potential merchandise companies. Now, I would say as we start to
build out the show again, you go back to December 22nd, which was
the first show. I was in my basement and the
Wi-Fi was bad. I didn't have the microphone,
didn't have the stream Cam, all these things I've told you
about. But if you knew, I don't want to
assume that you that you know all this, right?
And then we built it and then I came into my Home Office and
then I got this microphone, then I got a stream Cam.
So obviously the clarity was better, the audio is better.
The then I wanted to do something with the background
and you know, I had the Mattingly jersey, I had the
bookshelves and then I had this installed last week and now I've
got to do something with the lighting and lighting should be
resolved today. I mean, I would, I would imagine
the stuff is on the doorstep now and I'm going to apply it.
I can't, I can't wait to do it right after the show.
So that's coming. So we won't have the glare
tomorrow. I think the two things that will
happen last and I've gotten questions on the phone and the
merch. I think the merch will happen
before the phone. I think I've already told you
we've secured the phone line. It's just a much more detailed
process. It is.
That's something J and Rod, J, Rod and I have to really work
through. So we've at least secured a
number. It will happen.
I don't have a hard date for you.
If I had to give you a little neighborhood when I think the
merch online store is open, what is it the for?
5th February 16th March 16th I, I would say outside chance Saint
Patty's Day. I, I would think that, that
that's fairly attainable. That's fairly doable.
And, you know, we'll start small, get some hoodies going,
get some teas, get some beanies, get some hats.
What do you like the trucker hat, you know, got to go and,
and oh, and of course the mugs. So I would think that those will
be the first five things that'll be out there.
And then if there's more demand, you know, whether it's still
golf Tees or divot replacers or golf balls or, you know, golf
shirts or whatever else it might be, maybe even like I got a
couple of you say like bumper stickers.
Who puts bumper stickers on cars like bumper?
I don't even know if I'd waste time on that.
I've seen a few of you in the comments like, Hey, I put it on
my car. I know maybe magnets is the way
to go. That's the way to go because,
you know, you do see like some schools and some club teams on,
on some automobiles, but I feel like bumper stickers were a
1980s thing when everybody drove a dump of a car.
Well, at least we kind of did and everybody on my street did.
So you didn't mind putting a bumper sticker on there?
You just didn't mind. I remember when I was in, when I
was in college, my first car, Oh my God, was a 1985 white Chevy
Cavalier, right? And, and then eventually my dad
always said he gets scholarship money, We'll get you a car.
And eventually, like then I got, I got the new car, right.
Nothing incredibly fancy, but it was, it was cool.
But the first car was an 85 Chevy Cavalier that my dad got
from his buddy for like 750 bucks just to kick around.
And I mean, I drove this thing into the ground and it had no
style. I'm like, you know, it's 85
Chevy Cavalier or something. Like I got at least pimp this
thing up a little bit. So I went and got God, I got
these like white plastic things that you put on the windshield
wipers and it didn't impact the ability to clean the windshield.
I just thought it looked cool. I I don't know what I thought it
was building there. Then I tried to put on my own
tinted windows. It I put them on.
It looked awful. Then I had hanging from the
rearview mirror. You know, I had like the Nike
just do it sign and like a baseball that a little baseball
bat. And then this part was actually
cool. I had a World Series from the
that one of my former coaches gave me Ron Hunt, who used to
play for the Mets, gave me an 85 World Series ball in the
Cardinals, right? And I actually drilled a hole in
it and affixed it to the shifter and when I would shift, you
know, reverse neutral drive, it was actually a baseball.
That was actually and I brought that one to the new car too,
because the new car was a 5 speed.
It was awesome. It was it was actually an
official World Series ball. I loved it.
That thing was that thing look cool.
Everything else. Wow.
Although I guess back then it was kind of cool.
And I remember I had a couple of the bumper stickers I had on.
I think it was Howard Stern K rock.
And then I had a sticker Nike just do it.
It looked like it was like the Pimp mobile, you know?
But back then even you'd see bumper stickers.
Like my grandparents went to Florida and all they brought me
back was this stinking bottle bumper sticker or I remember
seeing a lot if Virginia's for lovers or now you still
certainly see some political stuff, you know, you know,
whether for a president or whatever it might be.
I don't feel like the bumper sticker market J Rod is is is
anything that would really have stuff flying off the shelves on
the BT. Yeah, Am I wrong?
Depending on like, I don't know how many Subarus you got in your
audience, maybe that's how many bumper stickers there'd be.
But I mean, I don't know how popular they they are.
I'd, I'd, I'd say, you know, I'm seeing also in the comments, you
know, those like two or three people who said they wanted the
bumper stick. Wait, hold on.
You cut out. Yeah, you cut.
Hold on. You cut out.
Hello, Hello.
There we go. You got your comments guys?
Yeah, I haven't seen too much popularity for bumper stickers
as recent like when I was in school, maybe a couple people
would do like the S on their back window.
But yeah, I don't know for me even that's kinda little auto
the orange on your back window like yeah, you know, it's.
A little bright. It's a little bright.
I know, I know. I remember too.
And you'll and again, you'll see these magnets here and there.
You'll see a lot of like, you know, my son was the student of
the month or my daughter is on the Dean's list.
I mean, what do we do? Put that on the fridge?
We got to put that on the bumper sticker.
Come on. I don't.
Yeah, go ahead. No.
Well, I guess what's popular now, the one bumper sticker, is
just student driver keep back. My God.
Oh my. Driver slow up and you know
what? Maybe that one makes sense.
But yeah, other than that. Say I didn't make sure I didn't
miss anything here today. Hang on, hang on, hang on.
Yeah, man, I think we got a lot of great content today.
What is your overall philosophy on, or at least the reaction to
my thoughts here, Jay, about the NBA All Star weekend?
Like, and before you answer that, I I know it's different
and I know it's different. Number one, it's just different,
but it's also different like through the eyes of a kid.
Like I remember watching the slam dunk contest as a kid and
then going out my backyard and trying to replicate Jordan and
Dominique Kenny Smith. I remember Kenny Smith had a
dunk where his back would be to the basket.
He was. He threw the ball behind his,
threw his legs off the backboard and flushed it.
Yeah. And we could actually do that
because I had a low hoop in my yard, as I said.
So like, that was always fun. But the lack of creativity and
there's only so many dunks that you could do.
We're almost desensitized to it. Tough.
It's you. Like, when did you stop loving
the All Star weekend? Because I stopped a long time
ago. Man, yeah, I mean, OK, the ones
I've watched in my lifetime that were truly interesting, I think
the obviously the 2016 dunk contest, Aaron Gordon, Zach
Levine, I thought that was a great one.
Good dunk, 2018 All Star game where they played up to a
certain amount of points rather than like a final buzzer beater
score and they had like that last possession where they were
really getting after it. Thought that 1 was great.
OK, I think 2020, the Kobe tribute, I thought that game
was, you know, at least had a little more emotional impact and
value. All right after 2020.
Done. Wow.
I I don't think I've been intrigued in a single one.
I don't know. I mean, I think I've watched a
couple of the dunk contest. I watched, you know, the Sabrina
Ionescu 3 point thing they did last year with Curry.
But yeah, I think, you know, and I'm certainly still obviously
intrigued in the game of basketball itself.
And I think it's some of the most entertaining basketball
I've ever watched in terms of, you know, regular season action.
But I just think the All Star game, once you've kind of lost
the players, Yep, you've lost the fans too.
You know, even even Anthony Edwards is joking.
They're like, oh, are you going to play hard?
And he goes, no, what do you think?
And it's like, I don't even blame him because.
But then he did, though. And then when he got the MVP
award last night, he said, hey, Wendy, you know, Wendy set the
tone. So, but I mean, think about, you
know, a kid who's just barely been here for a minute.
It's got to inspire. I know Edwards is young as well,
but he's got like, Wendy's got to be the one who inspires all
the veterans to play with some purpose and.
Some crazy. What if he didn't do it?
Then they let me out there shooting 50 footers and it's
just. And he's kind of the guy who
will do it. You know, Wemby is, you know,
he's he he has a little bit of Giannis, but I think since he's
younger and he had that more of that hype coming into him.
He's got a real, real toughness to him and a real care for the I
agree. And that's what I that's what I
like about. Women, let me get one more
thing. I just so when I'm growing up
again, I'm watching, you know, Larry Bird and Magic Jaw like to
me, the best part, and I love the All Star game too, because
that's when Jordan would would unveil his new sneakers and I
just loved everything about the pageantry.
My God, phenomenal. But when I was young, I loved
and even as an adult, like I I do like when they introduced the
players. I don't know if they did it last
night when they come out on the stage, they still do that so.
Apparently they did something where they had, I don't know if
it was AI or not, but they had like Everybody wants to Rule the
world, and then they were like substituting the player's name
for the song lyrics. So it'd be like Jaylen Brown,
something like that. By the way, that's a good song.
Yeah, anybody wants to rule? Good.
So they did. So that's pretty cool.
I wish. I guess I could I'll pull up the
video. But yeah, they did that.
So that was fun. I think the NBA, though,
comparatively to the 90s, has a lot less.
This is this has always been my argument against LeBron.
You know, obviously I'm a big fan of his game, but I think the
cultural impact of the modern day of basketball just pales in
comparison to the people of the 90s.
Like, you don't see someone walking around wearing, oh, I'm
wearing Kevin Durant's, oh, I'm wearing the LeBron ones.
It's just like there's. Just a lack of cultural
significance that the players play in, in pop culture, in our
lives where it's like, OK, LeBron, he's that guy, but I'm
not wearing Lebron's. I'm not, you know, I'm not moved
by him fashion wise or style wise or I don't.
You know, he finally shaved his head.
I mean, he was he was dyeing it with shoe Polish.
I mean, the other day I actually saw him in his locker home with
his hair. Somebody had that on Instagram
like with, with a big thick brush like and he was doing it
like so hard, like he was scraping himself.
Rug burn. What the hell you doing?
See, but I don't know if I'd use the word cultural.
I'm going, I'm going to push back on that.
It's an interesting observation. But to me, you think about the
like the cultural impact and what I think.
I think cultural, like their style, that's that's part of it.
But I think more influence on how people think to an extent.
And I feel like today's players, whether it's good or bad, I
think they've got more. Political.
More, yeah. Oh, absolutely.
More societal, yes, yes. So to let's separate the two
now. Lou Alcindor, you know,
obviously players like that, very outspoken for sure.
I remember they had a coalition. It was like Lou, it was Muhammad
Ali, Bill Russell, several other very prominent African American
athletes that that joined together, you know, for, for
their for their cause, for a great 'cause they they unified.
And, you know, that was also, you know, right around the riots
and and real political unrest and Doctor King.
So the timeline was was perfect and and like and there their
influence was was grand was I think on some level
incalculable. I don't really know how you
quantify the depth of their impact because it was that
great. Now I, but I would all say this
like stylistically, sure, Jordan shoes others okay, but think
about the, the, just the game itself.
I mean, Steph Curry and his shooting prowess.
Think of Jokic as a big man, you know, passing prowess.
And I know there were other like Arvida Sabonis was a, a great
passing big man from back in the day.
But like, I feel like today's players have done more to change
the game, the game. So there's, there's almost,
there's a lot there. And I think you need to, at
least for me, I would, I would designate different areas and
apply it to different generations.
Like I, I think magic, obviously, you know, the first
prototype big point guard AT-69 kind of spawned that, that next
generation. And you know, shooters with
Steph. And so they again, a lot there
no right or wrong answer, but they're curious.
And, and the other thing too, how do you think?
I'm very curious how you answer this Larry Bird, right, somebody
like Larry Bird, Larry Bird's in the NBA today.
What's Larry Bird? Because I think there are some
people who would say he's either Luka Doncic or he's Sam Hauser.
It's like there's one of the two.
I want to go like a good in between there.
I want to go. He's like a 19 point per game
guy. I want to say, listen, he's
still a scrappy interior defender.
He's still got you. Like if you're trying to post
them up, he's still kind of got you there.
But I think there's a lack of quickness on the perimeter that
he's going to lose. You know, like I think if you
got Steph Curry switched on to him in a pick and roll, he could
get burnt. But I think because what's funny
is Marcus Smart has more threes, old time on the Celtics.
List. Which is what's it, you know, so
it's like if Larry Bird got the chance to put up the volume that
the players in the modern day did, you know, who knows?
He could be a 25 point per game guy who's just splashing threes.
He's getting 6-7 threes a game plus 5-6 assists sort of deal
so. It's it's.
Hard to decipher, especially with like a Luka Dodgich who's
got that slow but methodical game similar to Larry.
So I'm going to go like 1819 points per game, 5-6 assists, 7
rebounds. I think you'd be the MVP.
Really. I really do, yeah.
Now, I don't know that I could say that about all the guys from
back in the day. But you see, number one,
somebody like Larry. Now this applies to all the guys
back in the day, but somebody like Larry, just how he was
wired and how he wanted to compete, he would actually, it
would maximize every ounce of whatever athletic prowess he was
given. Because I'm meaning if he's
coming up today, he's he's lifting weights, he's training
very differently. Like Larry would just bang back
beer and would shoot and would like jog the stairs and he never
lifted weights. He didn't do any of that.
And a lot of guys didn't back then.
So he'd be coming up in a different culture.
He'd be playing AAU, all right. So we'd have more of AI, think a
little bit more of a city game. I think that that would
probably, even if he grew up in Indiana on a farm, you know,
those players still like the real, like the special players
still play AAU. Right now, he might be the only
white kid on the team, but Larry would be in the middle of all
that. And Larry would be absolutely
unstoppable. I think more unstoppable #1 he'd
shoot more threes #2 he'd get to the foul line more because they
call more, more fouls. And if he didn't get to the foul
line more than and they, but they called the game the way
they do now, him getting his shot off would be easier because
you watch him. Just a little homework for you.
I like, I think you laid out pretty well.
I'm just I'm just giving you my I don't think you're completely
off base. I just don't agree, but I do
like the way you laid it out. Go and watch Larry Bird YouTube
highlights later and watch the way this guy had to come off
screens and elbows flying and just getting rocked off picks,
right. And when I look at Larry Bird
now, obviously a sub, you know, a substandard athlete in terms
of quickness and jumps clearly, but he wasn't 65.
Larry was 6 foot 9. Some people say they actually
think it was 610 like some players have said that.
So you have a guy who had an amazing feel for the game.
I mean, one of the best passers of all time, one of the best
shooters of all time and really one of the toughest competitors
of all time and and a great rebounder and just not afraid of
anything. Like, I think that Larry, with
the rules today and the modern training, would be the MVP in
the NBAI really do. So I'm just seeing some crazy
comments here in terms of his averages.
D Rod over here says that he would average 50 points and 20
boards. What would what would your kind
of thoughts be around statistically where Larry would
kind of stack up against the modern?
He never, no one's averaging 50. He'd probably average.
See, he's a very unselfish player too, so he's not going to
go gun and hunting shots. That's the other thing.
He scored within the framework of the offense.
He had McHale, who was a one of the best power forwards of all
time. Robert Parish was a really good
center. Dennis Johnson needed to get a
couple of shots, same with Danny Ainge.
So I would say that Byrd in today's NBA would average.
He'd averaged a triple double. Let me just start with that.
He'd averaged a triple that that would be easy.
So he would say, I would say he'd be about 27, like in his
prime, 2728, Thirty points a game, you know, 11 and a half,
12 rebounds, 10 assists. Like he'd be that 3-4 steals.
Oh my God, let's see, Pete, Larry Bird also made all NBA
defensive teams now, not not because, you know, he was 30
feet away from the rim and he was moving his feet and he was
hanging with somebody going yo-yo, no.
But they didn't really do that anyway, except for maybe Isaiah
and a few other guards. But his anticipate Chris Mullen
had this as well. His anticipation of the passing
lanes like his instincts. I I know it's hard to quantify
intelligence and the ability to see things a step before others,
but Larry had it. I mean so he's not averaging 50.
Larry Bird is a multi time MVP if he started his career today.
I like to take, you know what, hey, even more championships for
the Celtics. Let's get after.
It now I'll tell you a guy. Yeah, Yeah, well, I'll tell you
a guy who might this is going to be interesting who might
actually be a little downgraded in today's NBA.
Who do you think Magic? Why?
Why would that be? Well, think about so Magic comes
up, you know, wins the championship.
Michigan State beats Bird, obviously in the 79 NCAA
championship goes to the Lakers. Kareem in the finals, I think he
had a migraine. Magic jumps center and put up
like 37, whatever, 13, whatever he put up.
But part of Magic's brilliance was his incredible passing.
And that that would be the same, right?
But also part of his major advantage was that he was just 5
inches taller than every single point guard, every point guard.
And Magic was not a good shooter.
Now, if I, if I say that about bird, if if, if, if bird had
like, you know, if, if, if bird was doing box jumps like my like
my son does since he was 9, I didn't do once when I was in
college. He's been doing them for the
last year and a half. Like if Magic had the modern
technology, he would grow up more, I believe, with a shooting
prowess because he'd be shooting more just by nature of coming
up. He had a set shot.
He wasn't really a good shooter. But I also think that you're
kind of inherently who you are. You either have shooting touch
or you don't. Not that you can't get
incrementally better. I don't think Magic would ever
be a great shooter and I just don't.
And if the other aspects of the game are taken away just a
little bit because now was height isn't the advantage that
it once was, I don't think it's outlandish to say that Byrd
would be a better player in the modern NBA than Magic would be
right now. Yeah, I think that's, I mean, I
think, you know, with just the idea that he has that shooting
touch that magic didn't, I think that just easily puts him in an
advantage over him in the modern day because it's like, you know,
what magic would have in the modern day.
He'd have quickness. You know, he'd still have a good
body for being a point guard, obviously, the passing genius.
But it would be different when you could, you know, throw a
guard on him, throw a shooting guard on him, you know, throw
one through 3. Anyone could.
Anyone would probably be able to guard him.
No doubt about him. All right, man, I'm still
wrapping this thing down. I'll go a little two hours
today. Some good content.
Hey, when you're having fun and things are flowing.
No, no need to wrap it up early. You know what I mean?
So, J Rod, good job today, buddy.
Good seeing you. Hopefully you had a good
weekend. Did you have a good weekend, Yes
or no? I didn't have a good time.
Well, you know what I mean by good.
Good or. Chill, chill weekend, chill
weekend, chill weekend. I'm still waiting for that good
weekend. Which as if you're new to the
show, I promised J Rod. Not his first date because that
could be a disaster, not the second date because a lot of
people have second dates. If J Rod when not if when he
gets to 1/3 date dinner on the unleashed on the unleashed tab
here dinner. I'll hook you up a Little Chef
action make you feel like a big shot bottle of wine.
Whatever you guys want to drink, I'll take.
I just thought of like this is this is totally random but just
a crazy video concept. If you if you paid for the
dinner strictly based off the Super chats of the last episode
and then it was like. You had to gauge.
The plate you it was you either go McDonald's, Burger King or
you go one is for Charles. I like it.
I, you know, I think a lot of people would be, I think you
would be eating steak rather than horse meat because I think
a lot of people like you and I like a lot of people.
I think a lot of people like the contrast, the different style
and the different energies. We're very different people in
terms of how we do it. I know they love the the musical
taste. I don't know if you notice any
time somebody throws a little comment on the on the YouTube
page, like about the music. What do I write?
J Rod production. Yes, Sir, I write that you
notice that. Come on, I always throw a little
like on it from my personal account.
I love it. Thank you.
You know, of course you earned it.
And J Rod was telling me that he's got some lyrics written for
the song. So that's coming along well.
But the point is, if we did do that, like the the amount of
money or the type of meal that that J Rod could have on his
third date would be solely dependent upon the amount of
super chat money for that show or for that, for that segment,
whatever. I believe people would have your
back and I believe that you would be going, you'd be going
large. Yeah, no, I think so too.
I I have faith in the unleashed fam.
Just obvious. You know, obviously you don't
have to do that. Just a little like that's like a
funny YouTube video. I.
It is funny. It is funny.
All right, man. Let me get out of here.
J Rod. Good stuff today, buddy.
I'll hit. I'll hit you guys.
I'll hit you. After the show we'll get
together on the shorts. He'll do all the post production
stuff. Just a heads up.
I'm looking forward to it. I know you guys are as well.
Wednesday, 8:00 PM. I'm going to jump on Sal's show,
on Sal's YouTube show. So that will be Wednesday at 8
live. I know we'll do a lot of Yanks
and Mads get cooking with that. That'll be a ton of fun.
Looking forward to it. Also, I don't know if we'll have
additional clarity in terms of the date, but stuff that I I
can't divulge yet because we're not there yet and I want to be
fair to the to the process. I don't want just throw things
out there that don't happen or aren't fully expected to happen.
I can tell you this BT and Sal live 2 point O going to happen.
I could take check that's that's going to happen.
I can tell you that it's going to be on Long Island check.
I could tell you I won't tell you the venue, but I know the
venue check so will the show happen again?
Yup. Will we be out east Yup.
Do I know where we'll be yes. I don't know the date yet OK,
that's why I got to stop it with that, but maybe by Wednesday,
because we are going back and forth on these dates me, Sal and
and touch. Maybe we have some more update
on that. Hey, appreciate you guys as
always dealing with the I know that that that that reflections
annoying, but appreciate appreciate you guys not making a
big deal out of you know, I can't control it yet.
So go out there like it, subscribe it, get that traction,
the hype stuff, get it out, get the word out there.
The more you let people know about what we're doing here on
BT unleash, the more I can do the more I will incorporate.
I'm here everyday for you. 10 things start going will start
going live. I I want to do a couple of Nick
live watch parties. Obviously I'll do that with the
Yankees, maybe occasionally with the Mets here and there as well.
Certainly like a big Johnny's road game that I can't get to.
So a lot of stuff today, whether it's the horrible draft, you
know, and his philosophy The Jets stuff as well the NBA
issues with silver, the All Star weekend, St.
John's Providence, the fight. If you just tuned in hit rewind.
Go check it out and I will catch you guys tomorrow at 10 on
unleash. We'll see you.
Bye, bye.