Colin is joined by Nick Wright, host of “First Things First” on FS1!
They start by talking about why the NBA is still fantastic, just not in January (3:00) and why the NBA needed to start pivoting to the younger generation of stars sooner than they have (8:00). They push back on the narrative that the size of a team’s market doesn’t matter (11:45), why LeBron was an outlier in being the only true “face of the league” playing in a small market (14:00) and why this Knicks playoff run is huge for the league (23:00).
Nick explains why he can predict the Chiefs opponent in their home opener based on the size of their opponent’s brand and the narrative surrounding them (23:00). Colin offers his theory on why cap space isn’t as debilitating as advertised and why teams need to be confident in taking big swings, a la Atlanta drafting Michael Penix…but Nick pushes back (30:00).
Don’t forget to check back for part two of the conversation with Nick Wright!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
The NBA playoffs are heating up. Man, they have been
so good. I know it's over, but Lakers Nuggets may
have been a five game series.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
It was great.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
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Speaker 2 (01:35):
All right, we do it every few weeks, every couple
of weeks, and we love it. Nick Wright stops fy
for about an hour. We'll chop it up. First things first,
my friend, all that stuff, So I was going to
start with this. I'm not a traditionalist. I didn't go
to church as a kid. I'm agnostic. I grew up rurally.
I wasn't in your classic suburb. My mom was British
(01:58):
in a rural town where there was no British people,
especially ones with strong accents. And I've always been a.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Bit of a loaner.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
So I'm not a traditionalist. I don't cling to stuff, right, okay.
And so when the PAC twelve, my favorite college football conference,
or the Seattle Sonics left, I had people that are like,
how are you not furious? And I said, with the
PAC twelve, USC gets thirty million dollars annually from the
PAC twelve TV deal. They're gonna get eighty five million
(02:28):
annually from the Big Ten. If I could tell you
you're gonna triple your income, do the exact same thing,
you'd take the job. You wouldn't be loyal to the
calendar or your boss. You take the job. So I
am not a traditionalist. And so I can think two
things at once. I can love something but move off
it instantly. And I think about this with the people
(02:50):
who bang on the NBA. The NBA load management drives
me fricking nuts. I think it's terrible business. I literally
have made decisions in the regular season. I'm going to
watch a game and I'm like, oh, Giannis isn't playing,
I'm gonna go out dinner with my wife or something.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
I literally moved correct. I do it all the time.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I'm like, oh Kd's not playing while I'm not watching
the Sun's game, So I always think, what about a
kid that goes to two NBA games a year, you know,
and he's at that game, so it's funny. But I
also one of the things I don't like about the
Internet is that there's a lot of bad actors. It
is okay to criticize the NBA for that, but no
(03:30):
that Amazon's going to pay him a fortune. NBC and
TNT are in a bidding war and they're gonna double
the revenue the league brings in. And oh, by the way,
the playoffs have been absolutely riveting. Can't turn it off
a place electric. And then, by the way, this is
the first round. This is the round you can look pat.
So my take on I never mind people who are
(03:54):
a pushback contrarian, but I do feel you and I
are pretty be honest about Yeah, it was either wrong
or I can I can literally think two things. Load
management pisses me off, and the NBA is great.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
It's just not great.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
In January, well, and things there are the everything has
become it feels so tribal.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yes that it is. Everything is.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
The way the way a die hard fan of a
specific sports team, the way a die hard fan of
Alabama football. Roots for Alabama football is basically how a
huge percentage of people deal with every aspect of their life.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
I fucking love it.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
So everything about it is correct, and anyone criticizing it
is wrong, as opposed to any type of I love this,
didn't like this, this is good.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
This is bad.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Anyone that acts as if the NBA folks have like
NBA is dying, you know that is, babe. You know
it's It's obviously not true. Anybody though, acting as if
that there aren't aspects to the the overwhelming and what
(05:16):
is about to be under the new TV deal one
hundred million dollars a year contracts that complicate a lot
of the day to day factors of the league, They're
being intellectually dishonest, in my opinion. I I also, I
do think and I maybe have mentioned this to you,
I know I mentioned it on my pod, but I
(05:39):
do think the NBA made a strategic error this season.
So I'm going to tell I'm gonna do a Colin
Coward in a bit. I'm gonna give an anecdote or
a story. It'll get there. So a guy who you know,
I'm sure Connorshell so you know, the he you know
used to be run was a big executive at ESPN,
(06:02):
helped start thirty for thirties. Now he runs a company
of his own. Oddly, his father and my mom worked
together when I was a little kid, so I knew
Connor is a little kid, and I never really knew
exactly what his dad did. And maybe I'm wrong, but
as a little kid, what it was described to me
(06:23):
as he was in charge of long term strategy, meaning
like when Sprint came out with a new phone, his
job would be like, Okay, when this phone is bordering
on obsolete, how are we gonna sell the last hundred
of them?
Speaker 3 (06:39):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Like long long term thinking. And I think the NBA
needed someone in that role eighteen months ago to say, guys,
here is all of NBA history and ages of guys
on their last playoff run. Are is it on the
(07:00):
board that we just had the final Lebron deep playoffs,
STEPH deep playoffs, Durant deep playoffs these guys, Is it possible,
in fact overwhelmingly likely, that one, two, or all of
them aren't going to be around when the calendar turns
to May? If so, is it worthwhile for us to
(07:25):
take a short term regular season ratings hit by featuring
the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Minnesota Timberwolves, these teams to
prime the audience that this is where our league's going.
And they didn't do that. Instead it was Warriors, Lakers, Suns,
these guys. So I do wonder if this second round
(07:49):
of the playoffs, when you have Nuggets, Timberwolves, and when
you have Thunder, maybe MAVs, if people are going to
see a ratings dip. It won't affect the new TV
contract all of that, But because the audience doesn't know
this is their league now, Colin, if the Bucks lose
this series, they're down three to two. And if the
Clippers lose this series, yeah, the oldest star player left
(08:12):
in the playoffs Lucas No, not Luca, Kyrie is Kyrie
who's thirty just turned thirty two. That everyone everyone will
be gone, like Joker, who's twenty eight or twenty nine,
will be like the third oldest star left. The Clippers
are all old guys. They're on the I think gonna lose.
(08:33):
The Lakers are already out, the Warriors didn't make it,
the Suns are out, the Bucks are on the brink,
like this is a massive storming of the gates of
the twenty somethings. But everyone should have expected it. When
Kobe Bryant's last playoff game ever, he was thirty two.
Michael Jordan was thirty five, Like the guys don't play
if people saw what Lebron did, so they thought Stephen
(08:55):
Durant and Kawhi and Paul George are gonna do it.
Nobody else is gonna do it. Stephan already exceeded age expectations.
So I think the NBA made a mistake there. I
also think my favorite two months of the year are
the NBA playoffs, my favorite twenty days of the year
or my twenty NFL Sundays, and my favorite two months
of the year of the NBA playoffs.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yeah, I don't disagree. Last weekend, the draft of the
NBA playoffs is the best non NFL weekend of the
year by far. I just I didn't leave my place
the whole damn weekend.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
I thought it was.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I was just draft playoffs, drafts so good.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
It was so good. No, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
The other thing is the one thing about the NBA.
I know leagues wish it was true, but it's not.
There's been this sense that, you know, market size doesn't
matter because players can get rich in Oklahoma City or
New Orleans, right, just like a guy in Boise can
make more than everybody in New York if he has
(09:54):
a deal with McDonald's like to produce their French fries,
which for a long time with Jay, Oh, that's actually
a simplot.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
That's a guy.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Oh, I thought you were making that up.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
That's actually a guy, a guy forget McDonald's contract or whatever.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Okay, a long time the.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Richest guy Boise was richer and the richest guy in
New York.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
So but I'll push back on markets do matter. First,
the players do want to play in your Miami's, your LA's.
It's a winter league. There's a history. Players don't choose Milwaukee.
The second thing, I'm going to go back to the
first NBA game I remember watching. So when I was
a little kid, I would cut out pictures. There was
(10:34):
a board by my bedroom, almost styrofoam. My dad put
up that you could put needles.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
And posters on it.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
And Elmore Smith was a six ' nine Lakers center
and I started putting sports stuff up. I remember Elmore
Smith was the first one I put up, and then
it was overtime, and he was a Lakers center back
when the Lakers like pre Wilt and pre all this.
I think it was around that time, or may have
been post Wilt, pre Wit whatever, so.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It would have been for your age, it would have
been post Wilt, pre Yeah, go ahead, It was like
early seven seventies. So I go back and I look
at the biggest stars in the league. So when I
first watched, it was either Jerry West or Wilt Los Angeles,
and then it was after that very quickly doctor J Philadelphia.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
And by the way, Doctor J New Jersey in the ABA,
you know, it might as well be in a New
York metro.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Okay, So it was Jerry West, La Jerry, and Wilt.
It was old Wilt, and then it was Doctor J.
And then the league went through a little while there
didn't really have a star, and then it was La
Magic Boston byrd MJ Chicago Shaq and Kobe La Lebron
(11:48):
outlier Cleveland Jordan Chicago right Steph San Francisco. Lebron is
the only face of the league in a small market. Now,
Cleveland has always played bigger because they have such a
rich history with all their sports. It may be losing,
but the Cleveland Browns are like the Cincinnati Reds right,
like kind of a bedrock franchise. So that this idea
(12:10):
that markets don't matter. And the reason I say this
is the danger for the NBA and they've got their
money is Denver, Minnesota, Oklahoma City, Indiana that Jalen Brunson
with like a KD. We may not have a face
of the league coming up, but they will become the
franchise of the league.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Oh oh, listen, people have been predicted. The New York
Knicks have not won a title since nineteen seventy three.
The New York Knicks have been to two finals in
the last fifty years, and one of them they got
their heads handed to them in the lowest rated season ever,
first season post Jordan lockout year, fifty games.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
And yet they are.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Over that same timeframe. You know, top five most talked
about team. You are seeing it right now. The fan
base is rabid.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
You have a.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Disproportionate amount of media members who care about the team
or root for the team or whatever. They are dying
for this team to matter, dying for it to matter.
In a way that is, there are some similarities to
like what the football media does with the Cowboys and
what basketball media does with the Knicks, except the Cowboys,
(13:29):
at least in my lifetime, had a dynasty and have
had multiple good teams with no great teams. The Knicks
have only had a handful of good teams, no championships,
and only really came close once ever, in ninety four.
And so I think your point on market size is
multi layered in a lot of ways. I think that
(13:51):
guys will always young rich usually single guys are just
also gonna want I want to go pool places and
live somewhere awesome and that. And again I'm from Kansas
City and I love Kansas City. But if I were
twenty four with thirty million, it would suck like that, you.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
It is it's we're blessed that Mahomes was like, oh,
buy a piece of the Royals. My wife will buy
a soccer team, and you know what I mean, we'll
just basically become king and queen of the city or
else you can outgrow it. Also, football you don't have
to be there as long as you have to be
there during the year, as basketball and baseball. I think
this Nicks run is important for the league. I do
(14:41):
think that, and I think there is and I think
that your point on if they were to get a
Durant and it wouldn't even have to the thing is this,
Jalen Brunson scored forty and three straight games.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
I did not. I'll tell you the nobody.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Nobody did. So I'll tell you a funny story. Turned
this light on. See if my lighting is a little
bit better. And I know it's a little dark where
I am sorry about that. I should turn it around before.
So I was at Philly Nicks game four in Philly,
so and I had I was very fortunate. I had
amazing seats. So I'm basically right between the Knicks bench
(15:19):
and the scorer's table where they uh and there's row one,
court side, Row two court side feet on the wood,
and then Row AA, which is the first row that
isn't feet on the wood. So that's where I am
in between the first and the second quarter. Rick Brunts
and Jail Instead, who's a coach on the Knicks. Yeah,
(15:42):
seize me and he's like, hey, you owe my son
an apology.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
He's smiling when.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
He says it. And I'm like, what do you mean.
He's like, you know what I mean, you owe him
an apology. And I think it was because when they
signed him, because there's a clip that Nick's Twitter put,
you know, put out of everyone who was wrong about
Jalen when they signed him.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
I'm like, listen, he's a nice player, but.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
If he's your if he's your third best I think
what I said was, if he's your third best guy,
you can win a title. If he's your second best guy,
you can be good. And if he's your best guy,
you're not a good team.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
It's what I thought, Like.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
I mean, you know what I mean, Like we did right.
I don't think it was a terrible take. It ended
up being. And so I'm like, I've already said I
was wrong. He was like, you need to say it
on TV, and I'm like, buddy, I'm like, I had
him fourth on my MVP ballot. Now I don't actually
have a ballot per se, but in my when I
(16:41):
list him on the show, and so he's like, he's like, Okay, cool, cool,
But you know how I talk. I talk like this
with my hands. He's kind of similar. His back is
to the court. He has now walked like right to
the scorer's table, and I've stood up to talk to him.
So we're not like no to nose, but we're leaning
in having, you know, a very friendly, great conversation. Second
(17:06):
quarters about start, one of the refs Jog's over and
pats him on the shoulders, like, hey, do we need
to kick that guy out? I thought thought he and
I were arguing, and Rick, to his credit, started living.
He's like, no, he's a I think he even said
that's my buddy, which is nicer than I deserved.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
He's like, no, we're cool.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
And then the ref maybe recognized me and like really
realize eything was fine. But in the moment I was like,
oh man, that would have been the ultimate power move by.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Him if he decided to refa.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah, you know why you're getting kicked out because three
years ago you were wrong.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
About my kid.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Now you're out here that doesn't realize it doesn't really
answer your question. But yes, the Nicks being great, it's
also why here's another kind of spin off to that take.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
How awful are Brooklyn Nets fans? You had?
Speaker 1 (18:01):
You had Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, James Harden, No One cared.
No one in the city cared like it was like
the Knicks have one guy and a team that plays
so hard and they are infiltrating Philadelphia.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
The tickets are six hundred dollars to get in. The
nets were on deep playoff runs against.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Johannis Yea and people like, ah, do I want to
go to Barclays and Brooklyn.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
That's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Well, you know what it is. It shows you the
power of brand. It's the Clippers Lakers, the late John Madden.
Eric Shanks has brought this up before.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
You know.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
John Madden was the only football broadcaster of note that
literally moved a rating. Now, sports gambling now moves ratings.
People don't need bad games. You can see it. So
we know that if you're if you have money on games.
And as the roll out of legalized gambling happens in America,
(19:07):
it's helping television. People have more vested financially they stay
in games. But John Madden was the first and maybe
only broadcaster to do that. And he always had a theory.
Say the game out loud, does it sound like a
big game? And he said, when you say Packers Niners, oh,
actually gotta be a big football game. They could both
be four and six. It feels like a big what
(19:29):
The New York Knicks have always felt big, even when
they stunk the last twenty years. You if the Knicks,
here's all you need to know. Jordan goes there, Kobe
goes there. It felt big to them. They could be
twelve games under five hundred. Michael, Jordan and Kobe. It
was like, on going to New York, I'm gonna put
on a show. So New York just is. It just
feels big one.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
So, speaking of that branding that you want to this
is unrelated, but you want to play a.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Game real quick. Sure.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
So the Chiefs host the obviously the opening game of
the year, so we know who their eight opponents are.
I did a thing on the air today where I said,
I bet I can't. I think I know what game
the NFL is gonna put there. So let me tell
you who the opponents are and see where you land
(20:17):
on it. I will tell you for the Thursday night
first game of the year last year was Chiefs Lions. Right,
So your eight possible opponents are obviously Chargers, Raiders, Broncos,
your three divisional opponents, your NFC opponents, are Bucks Saints,
(20:39):
and your AFC non divisional opponents are Ravens, Texans Bengals. Now,
let me give you one piece of info. They have
NFL has been doing this Super Bowl Champion host for
you know, the opener, for twenty years. Only once have
they made it a divisional matchup. So the the NFL
kind of tells us they tend not to because Chiefs,
(20:59):
Chargers like balls opener or whatever.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
That's what I that.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
My first guess was the last time we saw Jim
Koach he won the National Championship at Michigan.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yeah, I thought Mahomes.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
And Michigan's brand. I would guess Chargers.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
But if the if the NFL doesn't want to do
divisional because again, nineteen of twenty years they've gone non divisional.
So if it's not because I think the give me
the non divisional teams again. Okay, Bucks, Saints, Texans, Bengals, Ravens.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Last year it was Chiefs Lions.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I think it's going to be Texans.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Yes, me too. So the do you want to say
why you think it or you want to hear from me?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Well, because the Lions were the team. It was a
good story losing team looks like they're going to be
really good. So you got the Champions and this ascending
young team with this this brand that's well known, the
Texans dysfunctional, they pop up, there's a since they're ascending brand,
so that it also the Lions won that game, so
(22:05):
that game is so big for the Lions and so
big for the Texans. There's a possible upset in week one.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
And so this is in wrestling.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
I think I don't know what the parlance is, but
sometimes when they're trying to make someone a star, they
make sure they have a game against the established star,
and you know, they get over. So I think that
I think Bucks and Saints are basically impossible. There's no
chance that's the opening game. Obviously, Raiders Broncos are not
gonna happen. There's no quarterback. Chargers would work, but it's divisional.
(22:36):
So now we're down to three in my opinion, Ravens, Bengals, Texans.
The reason I said I don't think they'll do Ravens
is because if the season starts with the Ravens having
added Derrick Henry, you know, a coming off this great year,
(22:56):
losing to the Chiefs again, it's going to kind of
make the AFC feel like, all right, you know what
I mean, Like what like they if the Chiefs start
the year beating Baltimore, then how many games in a
row would they have to lose before people are like
they're in trouble, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
So I don't think it's gonna be Baltimore.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Joe Burrow, unfortunately multiple years now, has been dinged heading
into the first week of the year. He's also coming
off that surgery. I think they want that to be
like later in the year Marquee. Then you have the Texans,
who if they lose, no one's gonna write them off.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
If they win, it's a catapult.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
It features it's the NFL kind of being like telling you, hey,
this is the team to watch.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
CJ.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Stroud all of it. They weren't on national TV at
all last year. So I just I know it sounds weird.
I feel almost convinced it's gonna be Chiefs Texans to
open the NFL season.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
It just makes the most sense.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
And I think what you said is the NBA didn't
do this, the NFS doing it. Here's the next potential
star meet them.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Right over the next they did with the Lions last year.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
They told America the Lions hadn't even made the playoffs.
They told America, you need to take this team seriously,
like this is a right, and they ended up winning.
It was an electric game and all of it so
one of.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
My favorite things to do. I don't think I'm a contrarian,
but I think what I am, and this is probably
not a good quality. I'm a bit of a cynic.
I'm agnostic. I'm not real religious. Prove it to me.
I want data, but I don't go off into the weeds.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist. But one of the things
I hear all the time, and I just I really
(24:47):
led with it today and I just felt so strongly
about it. It probably shouldn't have been in my opening block,
but I felt strongly about it. Is there's this thing
out there. I'm a big believer. You have to take
big swings in life if you're confident in yourself, because
a if it lands, it changes your life. And if
it doesn't, yeah, your refinancier, mortgage. You figure out, you know,
(25:10):
if you if you make a big if you miss
on something, if you really have confidence in your intellect,
your stability, and your ascension as a human being.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
You're fine.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
So there's always this talk about oh, dead cap, that
dead cap money is a killer. The Rams were eighty
million over the cap last year and made the playoffs
and were a bad call on Puka Nakua from making
the NFC Championship. Why mcvay's great Stafford's Great Tom Brady
was a thirty five million dollar dead kip, dead cap
(25:44):
hit for the Bucks last year they made the playoffs.
Aaron Rodgers was a forty million dollar dead cap hit
for the Packers. They routed the Cowboys and gave the
Niners a real battle on the way to the NFC Championship.
Heala twenty twenty one. The Carson Wentz contract, Ooh, how punitive. No,
Now they've drafted Jalen Hurts and they've been just fine.
(26:07):
Is that there's this myth? Oh the Kirk Cousins contract.
If Bo Knicks can play, Denver's fine, They're absolutely fine,
because they.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Russell Wilson contract right now. So you look at it, you.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Go, oh my god, if Bo Knicks can play, he's
essentially free for four years, and I think he will work.
He completed seventy seven percent of his college passes against
like the best PAC twelve has been in my lifetime.
So my point is there are and I say this
at Landa. That's why I defended Atlanta. Atlanta said. What
you don't want to be is last year the Vikings
(26:44):
had to make a trade to get Josh Dobbs. Atlanta's
going listen Ritter was terrible. Cousins is the best on
the market. At eight, we think we can get a quarterback,
but we don't know. And by the time they got
to eight, they did get calls from other people and
they thought, screw it. What if What if Kirk comes
(27:06):
back and he's okay? And by Thanksgiving we're like, Pennix
is way better in practice. So my take was it
is viewed as terrible, but it's a heavily weighted contract early.
If you had to move off Kirk after a year
and Pennix is great, that's the That's like rich people
complaining about taxes. That is the best problem to have
(27:27):
in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Well, so, okay, so I understand what you're saying, but
I actually don't. I think that what you said at
the beginning is the opposite of what they did. I
don't look at this as a big swing. I look
at this as the ultimate hedge. I look at this
as a team that post Matt Ryan has been in
(27:49):
quarterback hell and said never again, never again. And instead of,
in my opinion, giving yourself the best chance to be great,
you lowered your ceiling because you wanted to make sure
the floor didn't bottom out. Because to use both you
had two massive assets, your cap space and the eighth pick.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
They used them both on the same spot where only
one guy can play.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
So if you really and I don't think, here's the
other thing, because I am a bit of a contract
nerd as far as the fact that they structured Kirk's
contract the way they did, where instead of guaranteeing the salary,
they put it in signing bonus. You could have given
him the same amount of guaranteed money but made it
easier to trade him in a year, and they gave
(28:38):
him a fucking no trade clause. So I don't think
when they signed him seven weeks ago they thought they
were drafting the quarterback. And if you really had the
courage of your convictions in Penix now maybe you're worried
he's not going to be there. But I don't think
a lot of people thought Panis wasn't going to be
there at eight. Then use that money to make the
rest of your team better. I just I think Atlanta
(28:59):
was so scared by Desmond Ritter that they're like, we're
never going through that again the volume.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Thanks for listening to part one of the conversations with Nick.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Don't forget the check back for part two.
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
The NBA playoffs are heating up. Man, they have been
so good. I know it's over, but Lakers Nuggets may
have been a five game series.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
It was great.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
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Speaker 2 (01:35):
All right, we do it every few weeks, every couple
of weeks, and we love it. Nick Wright stops fy
for about an hour. We'll chop it up. First things first,
my friend, all that stuff, So I was going to
start with this. I'm not a traditionalist. I didn't go
to church as a kid. I'm agnostic. I grew up rurally.
I wasn't in your classic suburb. My mom was British
(01:58):
in a rural town where there was no British people,
especially ones with strong accents. And I've always been a.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Bit of a loaner.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
So I'm not a traditionalist. I don't cling to stuff, right, okay.
And so when the PAC twelve, my favorite college football conference,
or the Seattle Sonics left, I had people that are like,
how are you not furious? And I said, with the
PAC twelve, USC gets thirty million dollars annually from the
PAC twelve TV deal. They're gonna get eighty five million
(02:28):
annually from the Big Ten. If I could tell you
you're gonna triple your income, do the exact same thing,
you'd take the job. You wouldn't be loyal to the
calendar or your boss. You take the job. So I
am not a traditionalist. And so I can think two
things at once. I can love something but move off
it instantly. And I think about this with the people
(02:50):
who bang on the NBA. The NBA load management drives
me fricking nuts. I think it's terrible business. I literally
have made decisions in the regular season. I'm going to
watch a game and I'm like, oh, Giannis isn't playing,
I'm gonna go out dinner with my wife or something.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
I literally moved correct. I do it all the time.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I'm like, oh Kd's not playing while I'm not watching
the Sun's game, So I always think, what about a
kid that goes to two NBA games a year, you know,
and he's at that game, so it's funny. But I
also one of the things I don't like about the
Internet is that there's a lot of bad actors. It
is okay to criticize the NBA for that, but no
(03:30):
that Amazon's going to pay him a fortune. NBC and
TNT are in a bidding war and they're gonna double
the revenue the league brings in. And oh, by the way,
the playoffs have been absolutely riveting. Can't turn it off
a place electric. And then, by the way, this is
the first round. This is the round you can look pat.
So my take on I never mind people who are
(03:54):
a pushback contrarian, but I do feel you and I
are pretty be honest about Yeah, it was either wrong
or I can I can literally think two things. Load
management pisses me off, and the NBA is great.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
It's just not great.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
In January, well, and things there are the everything has
become it feels so tribal.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yes that it is. Everything is.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
The way the way a die hard fan of a
specific sports team, the way a die hard fan of
Alabama football. Roots for Alabama football is basically how a
huge percentage of people deal with every aspect of their life.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
I fucking love it.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
So everything about it is correct, and anyone criticizing it
is wrong, as opposed to any type of I love this,
didn't like this, this is good.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
This is bad.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Anyone that acts as if the NBA folks have like
NBA is dying, you know that is, babe. You know
it's It's obviously not true. Anybody though, acting as if
that there aren't aspects to the the overwhelming and what
(05:16):
is about to be under the new TV deal one
hundred million dollars a year contracts that complicate a lot
of the day to day factors of the league, They're
being intellectually dishonest, in my opinion. I I also, I
do think and I maybe have mentioned this to you,
I know I mentioned it on my pod, but I
(05:39):
do think the NBA made a strategic error this season.
So I'm going to tell I'm gonna do a Colin
Coward in a bit. I'm gonna give an anecdote or
a story. It'll get there. So a guy who you know,
I'm sure Connorshell so you know, the he you know
used to be run was a big executive at ESPN,
(06:02):
helped start thirty for thirties. Now he runs a company
of his own. Oddly, his father and my mom worked
together when I was a little kid, so I knew
Connor is a little kid, and I never really knew
exactly what his dad did. And maybe I'm wrong, but
as a little kid, what it was described to me
(06:23):
as he was in charge of long term strategy, meaning
like when Sprint came out with a new phone, his
job would be like, Okay, when this phone is bordering
on obsolete, how are we gonna sell the last hundred
of them?
Speaker 3 (06:39):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Like long long term thinking. And I think the NBA
needed someone in that role eighteen months ago to say, guys,
here is all of NBA history and ages of guys
on their last playoff run. Are is it on the
(07:00):
board that we just had the final Lebron deep playoffs,
STEPH deep playoffs, Durant deep playoffs these guys, Is it possible,
in fact overwhelmingly likely, that one, two, or all of
them aren't going to be around when the calendar turns
to May? If so, is it worthwhile for us to
(07:25):
take a short term regular season ratings hit by featuring
the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Minnesota Timberwolves, these teams to
prime the audience that this is where our league's going.
And they didn't do that. Instead it was Warriors, Lakers, Suns,
these guys. So I do wonder if this second round
(07:49):
of the playoffs, when you have Nuggets, Timberwolves, and when
you have Thunder, maybe MAVs, if people are going to
see a ratings dip. It won't affect the new TV
contract all of that, But because the audience doesn't know
this is their league now, Colin, if the Bucks lose
this series, they're down three to two. And if the
Clippers lose this series, yeah, the oldest star player left
(08:12):
in the playoffs Lucas No, not Luca, Kyrie is Kyrie
who's thirty just turned thirty two. That everyone everyone will
be gone, like Joker, who's twenty eight or twenty nine,
will be like the third oldest star left. The Clippers
are all old guys. They're on the I think gonna lose.
(08:33):
The Lakers are already out, the Warriors didn't make it,
the Suns are out, the Bucks are on the brink,
like this is a massive storming of the gates of
the twenty somethings. But everyone should have expected it. When
Kobe Bryant's last playoff game ever, he was thirty two.
Michael Jordan was thirty five, Like the guys don't play
if people saw what Lebron did, so they thought Stephen
(08:55):
Durant and Kawhi and Paul George are gonna do it.
Nobody else is gonna do it. Stephan already exceeded age expectations.
So I think the NBA made a mistake there. I
also think my favorite two months of the year are
the NBA playoffs, my favorite twenty days of the year
or my twenty NFL Sundays, and my favorite two months
of the year of the NBA playoffs.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yeah, I don't disagree. Last weekend, the draft of the
NBA playoffs is the best non NFL weekend of the
year by far. I just I didn't leave my place
the whole damn weekend.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
I thought it was.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
I was just draft playoffs, drafts so good.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
It was so good. No, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
The other thing is the one thing about the NBA.
I know leagues wish it was true, but it's not.
There's been this sense that, you know, market size doesn't
matter because players can get rich in Oklahoma City or
New Orleans, right, just like a guy in Boise can
make more than everybody in New York if he has
(09:54):
a deal with McDonald's like to produce their French fries,
which for a long time with Jay, Oh, that's actually
a simplot.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
That's a guy.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Oh, I thought you were making that up.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
That's actually a guy, a guy forget McDonald's contract or whatever.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Okay, a long time the.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Richest guy Boise was richer and the richest guy in
New York.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
So but I'll push back on markets do matter. First,
the players do want to play in your Miami's, your LA's.
It's a winter league. There's a history. Players don't choose Milwaukee.
The second thing, I'm going to go back to the
first NBA game I remember watching. So when I was
a little kid, I would cut out pictures. There was
(10:34):
a board by my bedroom, almost styrofoam. My dad put
up that you could put needles.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
And posters on it.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
And Elmore Smith was a six ' nine Lakers center
and I started putting sports stuff up. I remember Elmore
Smith was the first one I put up, and then
it was overtime, and he was a Lakers center back
when the Lakers like pre Wilt and pre all this.
I think it was around that time, or may have
been post Wilt, pre Wit whatever, so.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It would have been for your age, it would have
been post Wilt, pre Yeah, go ahead, It was like
early seven seventies. So I go back and I look
at the biggest stars in the league. So when I
first watched, it was either Jerry West or Wilt Los Angeles,
and then it was after that very quickly doctor J Philadelphia.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
And by the way, Doctor J New Jersey in the ABA,
you know, it might as well be in a New
York metro.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Okay, So it was Jerry West, La Jerry, and Wilt.
It was old Wilt, and then it was Doctor J.
And then the league went through a little while there
didn't really have a star, and then it was La
Magic Boston byrd MJ Chicago Shaq and Kobe La Lebron
(11:48):
outlier Cleveland Jordan Chicago right Steph San Francisco. Lebron is
the only face of the league in a small market. Now,
Cleveland has always played bigger because they have such a
rich history with all their sports. It may be losing,
but the Cleveland Browns are like the Cincinnati Reds right,
like kind of a bedrock franchise. So that this idea
(12:10):
that markets don't matter. And the reason I say this
is the danger for the NBA and they've got their
money is Denver, Minnesota, Oklahoma City, Indiana that Jalen Brunson
with like a KD. We may not have a face
of the league coming up, but they will become the
franchise of the league.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Oh oh, listen, people have been predicted. The New York
Knicks have not won a title since nineteen seventy three.
The New York Knicks have been to two finals in
the last fifty years, and one of them they got
their heads handed to them in the lowest rated season ever,
first season post Jordan lockout year, fifty games.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
And yet they are.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Over that same timeframe. You know, top five most talked
about team. You are seeing it right now. The fan
base is rabid.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
You have a.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Disproportionate amount of media members who care about the team
or root for the team or whatever. They are dying
for this team to matter, dying for it to matter.
In a way that is, there are some similarities to
like what the football media does with the Cowboys and
what basketball media does with the Knicks, except the Cowboys,
(13:29):
at least in my lifetime, had a dynasty and have
had multiple good teams with no great teams. The Knicks
have only had a handful of good teams, no championships,
and only really came close once ever, in ninety four.
And so I think your point on market size is
multi layered in a lot of ways. I think that
(13:51):
guys will always young rich usually single guys are just
also gonna want I want to go pool places and
live somewhere awesome and that. And again I'm from Kansas
City and I love Kansas City. But if I were
twenty four with thirty million, it would suck like that, you.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
It is it's we're blessed that Mahomes was like, oh,
buy a piece of the Royals. My wife will buy
a soccer team, and you know what I mean, we'll
just basically become king and queen of the city or
else you can outgrow it. Also, football you don't have
to be there as long as you have to be
there during the year, as basketball and baseball. I think
this Nicks run is important for the league. I do
(14:41):
think that, and I think there is and I think
that your point on if they were to get a
Durant and it wouldn't even have to the thing is this,
Jalen Brunson scored forty and three straight games.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
I did not. I'll tell you the nobody.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Nobody did. So I'll tell you a funny story. Turned
this light on. See if my lighting is a little
bit better. And I know it's a little dark where
I am sorry about that. I should turn it around before.
So I was at Philly Nicks game four in Philly,
so and I had I was very fortunate. I had
amazing seats. So I'm basically right between the Knicks bench
(15:19):
and the scorer's table where they uh and there's row one,
court side, Row two court side feet on the wood,
and then Row AA, which is the first row that
isn't feet on the wood. So that's where I am
in between the first and the second quarter. Rick Brunts
and Jail Instead, who's a coach on the Knicks. Yeah,
(15:42):
seize me and he's like, hey, you owe my son
an apology.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
He's smiling when.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
He says it. And I'm like, what do you mean.
He's like, you know what I mean, you owe him
an apology. And I think it was because when they
signed him, because there's a clip that Nick's Twitter put,
you know, put out of everyone who was wrong about
Jalen when they signed him.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
I'm like, listen, he's a nice player, but.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
If he's your if he's your third best I think
what I said was, if he's your third best guy,
you can win a title. If he's your second best guy,
you can be good. And if he's your best guy,
you're not a good team.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
It's what I thought, Like.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
I mean, you know what I mean, Like we did right.
I don't think it was a terrible take. It ended
up being. And so I'm like, I've already said I
was wrong. He was like, you need to say it
on TV, and I'm like, buddy, I'm like, I had
him fourth on my MVP ballot. Now I don't actually
have a ballot per se, but in my when I
(16:41):
list him on the show, and so he's like, he's like, Okay, cool, cool,
But you know how I talk. I talk like this
with my hands. He's kind of similar. His back is
to the court. He has now walked like right to
the scorer's table, and I've stood up to talk to him.
So we're not like no to nose, but we're leaning
in having, you know, a very friendly, great conversation. Second
(17:06):
quarters about start, one of the refs Jog's over and
pats him on the shoulders, like, hey, do we need
to kick that guy out? I thought thought he and
I were arguing, and Rick, to his credit, started living.
He's like, no, he's a I think he even said
that's my buddy, which is nicer than I deserved.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
He's like, no, we're cool.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
And then the ref maybe recognized me and like really
realize eything was fine. But in the moment I was like,
oh man, that would have been the ultimate power move by.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Him if he decided to refa.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah, you know why you're getting kicked out because three
years ago you were wrong.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
About my kid.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Now you're out here that doesn't realize it doesn't really
answer your question. But yes, the Nicks being great, it's
also why here's another kind of spin off to that take.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
How awful are Brooklyn Nets fans? You had?
Speaker 1 (18:01):
You had Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, James Harden, No One cared.
No one in the city cared like it was like
the Knicks have one guy and a team that plays
so hard and they are infiltrating Philadelphia.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
The tickets are six hundred dollars to get in. The
nets were on deep playoff runs against.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Johannis Yea and people like, ah, do I want to
go to Barclays and Brooklyn.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
That's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Well, you know what it is. It shows you the
power of brand. It's the Clippers Lakers, the late John Madden.
Eric Shanks has brought this up before.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
You know.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
John Madden was the only football broadcaster of note that
literally moved a rating. Now, sports gambling now moves ratings.
People don't need bad games. You can see it. So
we know that if you're if you have money on games.
And as the roll out of legalized gambling happens in America,
(19:07):
it's helping television. People have more vested financially they stay
in games. But John Madden was the first and maybe
only broadcaster to do that. And he always had a theory.
Say the game out loud, does it sound like a
big game? And he said, when you say Packers Niners, oh,
actually gotta be a big football game. They could both
be four and six. It feels like a big what
(19:29):
The New York Knicks have always felt big, even when
they stunk the last twenty years. You if the Knicks,
here's all you need to know. Jordan goes there, Kobe
goes there. It felt big to them. They could be
twelve games under five hundred. Michael, Jordan and Kobe. It
was like, on going to New York, I'm gonna put
on a show. So New York just is. It just
feels big one.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
So, speaking of that branding that you want to this
is unrelated, but you want to play a.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Game real quick. Sure.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
So the Chiefs host the obviously the opening game of
the year, so we know who their eight opponents are.
I did a thing on the air today where I said,
I bet I can't. I think I know what game
the NFL is gonna put there. So let me tell
you who the opponents are and see where you land
(20:17):
on it. I will tell you for the Thursday night
first game of the year last year was Chiefs Lions. Right,
So your eight possible opponents are obviously Chargers, Raiders, Broncos,
your three divisional opponents, your NFC opponents, are Bucks Saints,
(20:39):
and your AFC non divisional opponents are Ravens, Texans Bengals. Now,
let me give you one piece of info. They have
NFL has been doing this Super Bowl Champion host for
you know, the opener, for twenty years. Only once have
they made it a divisional matchup. So the the NFL
kind of tells us they tend not to because Chiefs,
(20:59):
Chargers like balls opener or whatever.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
That's what I that.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
My first guess was the last time we saw Jim
Koach he won the National Championship at Michigan.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yeah, I thought Mahomes.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
And Michigan's brand. I would guess Chargers.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
But if the if the NFL doesn't want to do
divisional because again, nineteen of twenty years they've gone non divisional.
So if it's not because I think the give me
the non divisional teams again. Okay, Bucks, Saints, Texans, Bengals, Ravens.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Last year it was Chiefs Lions.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I think it's going to be Texans.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Yes, me too. So the do you want to say
why you think it or you want to hear from me?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Well, because the Lions were the team. It was a
good story losing team looks like they're going to be
really good. So you got the Champions and this ascending
young team with this this brand that's well known, the
Texans dysfunctional, they pop up, there's a since they're ascending brand,
so that it also the Lions won that game, so
(22:05):
that game is so big for the Lions and so
big for the Texans. There's a possible upset in week one.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
And so this is in wrestling.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
I think I don't know what the parlance is, but
sometimes when they're trying to make someone a star, they
make sure they have a game against the established star,
and you know, they get over. So I think that
I think Bucks and Saints are basically impossible. There's no
chance that's the opening game. Obviously, Raiders Broncos are not
gonna happen. There's no quarterback. Chargers would work, but it's divisional.
(22:36):
So now we're down to three in my opinion, Ravens, Bengals, Texans.
The reason I said I don't think they'll do Ravens
is because if the season starts with the Ravens having
added Derrick Henry, you know, a coming off this great year,
(22:56):
losing to the Chiefs again, it's going to kind of
make the AFC feel like, all right, you know what
I mean, Like what like they if the Chiefs start
the year beating Baltimore, then how many games in a
row would they have to lose before people are like
they're in trouble, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
So I don't think it's gonna be Baltimore.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Joe Burrow, unfortunately multiple years now, has been dinged heading
into the first week of the year. He's also coming
off that surgery. I think they want that to be
like later in the year Marquee. Then you have the Texans,
who if they lose, no one's gonna write them off.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
If they win, it's a catapult.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
It features it's the NFL kind of being like telling you, hey,
this is the team to watch.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
CJ.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Stroud all of it. They weren't on national TV at
all last year. So I just I know it sounds weird.
I feel almost convinced it's gonna be Chiefs Texans to
open the NFL season.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
It just makes the most sense.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
And I think what you said is the NBA didn't
do this, the NFS doing it. Here's the next potential
star meet them.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Right over the next they did with the Lions last year.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
They told America the Lions hadn't even made the playoffs.
They told America, you need to take this team seriously,
like this is a right, and they ended up winning.
It was an electric game and all of it so
one of.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
My favorite things to do. I don't think I'm a contrarian,
but I think what I am, and this is probably
not a good quality. I'm a bit of a cynic.
I'm agnostic. I'm not real religious. Prove it to me.
I want data, but I don't go off into the weeds.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist. But one of the things
I hear all the time, and I just I really
(24:47):
led with it today and I just felt so strongly
about it. It probably shouldn't have been in my opening block,
but I felt strongly about it. Is there's this thing
out there. I'm a big believer. You have to take
big swings in life if you're confident in yourself, because
a if it lands, it changes your life. And if
it doesn't, yeah, your refinancier, mortgage. You figure out, you know,
(25:10):
if you if you make a big if you miss
on something, if you really have confidence in your intellect,
your stability, and your ascension as a human being.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
You're fine.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
So there's always this talk about oh, dead cap, that
dead cap money is a killer. The Rams were eighty
million over the cap last year and made the playoffs
and were a bad call on Puka Nakua from making
the NFC Championship. Why mcvay's great Stafford's Great Tom Brady
was a thirty five million dollar dead kip, dead cap
(25:44):
hit for the Bucks last year they made the playoffs.
Aaron Rodgers was a forty million dollar dead cap hit
for the Packers. They routed the Cowboys and gave the
Niners a real battle on the way to the NFC Championship.
Heala twenty twenty one. The Carson Wentz contract, Ooh, how punitive. No,
Now they've drafted Jalen Hurts and they've been just fine.
(26:07):
Is that there's this myth? Oh the Kirk Cousins contract.
If Bo Knicks can play, Denver's fine, They're absolutely fine,
because they.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Russell Wilson contract right now. So you look at it, you.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Go, oh my god, if Bo Knicks can play, he's
essentially free for four years, and I think he will work.
He completed seventy seven percent of his college passes against
like the best PAC twelve has been in my lifetime.
So my point is there are and I say this
at Landa. That's why I defended Atlanta. Atlanta said. What
you don't want to be is last year the Vikings
(26:44):
had to make a trade to get Josh Dobbs. Atlanta's
going listen Ritter was terrible. Cousins is the best on
the market. At eight, we think we can get a quarterback,
but we don't know. And by the time they got
to eight, they did get calls from other people and
they thought, screw it. What if What if Kirk comes
(27:06):
back and he's okay? And by Thanksgiving we're like, Pennix
is way better in practice. So my take was it
is viewed as terrible, but it's a heavily weighted contract early.
If you had to move off Kirk after a year
and Pennix is great, that's the That's like rich people
complaining about taxes. That is the best problem to have
(27:27):
in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Well, so, okay, so I understand what you're saying, but
I actually don't. I think that what you said at
the beginning is the opposite of what they did. I
don't look at this as a big swing. I look
at this as the ultimate hedge. I look at this
as a team that post Matt Ryan has been in
(27:49):
quarterback hell and said never again, never again. And instead of,
in my opinion, giving yourself the best chance to be great,
you lowered your ceiling because you wanted to make sure
the floor didn't bottom out. Because to use both you
had two massive assets, your cap space and the eighth pick.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
They used them both on the same spot where only
one guy can play.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
So if you really and I don't think, here's the
other thing, because I am a bit of a contract
nerd as far as the fact that they structured Kirk's
contract the way they did, where instead of guaranteeing the salary,
they put it in signing bonus. You could have given
him the same amount of guaranteed money but made it
easier to trade him in a year, and they gave
(28:38):
him a fucking no trade clause. So I don't think
when they signed him seven weeks ago they thought they
were drafting the quarterback. And if you really had the
courage of your convictions in Penix now maybe you're worried
he's not going to be there. But I don't think
a lot of people thought Panis wasn't going to be
there at eight. Then use that money to make the
rest of your team better. I just I think Atlanta
(28:59):
was so scared by Desmond Ritter that they're like, we're
never going through that again the volume.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Thanks for listening to part one of the conversations with Nick.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Don't forget the check back for part two.
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