Texans CB Derek Stingley Earns NFL Honor, Mahomes Full Participant In Practice, State Of The NBA

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Lunchtimers. This is the Matt Thomas Show ten.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Oh one in Age Down. What's happening brunch timers, Hello,
and welcome in to a Wednesday edition of The Matt
Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas as he remains
out and he will be back tomorrow. It will be
the passing of the baton as he is missing the

(00:29):
first three days of the week. I'm missing the next
two days and Monday. I will be Nola bound for
the weekend, taking a little vacation, looking forward to that,
and then we'll be back for Christmas Eve, I think
for one day and then we're off Christmas Day and
then we're back Christmas. I don't know. Just always tune
in to Sports Talk seven to ninety around this time

(00:51):
or really throughout the day of course, Shawn Salisbury Show
six to ten, myself and Matt Thomas ten to two
and then the eighteen coming up next two to six.
Here on a Sports Talk seven ninety. A lot of
stuff to get to, but first things first. You can
well effectively be my co host if you'd like to
get in for a little bit. We'll see what happens.
As there's been some there were some things scheduled and

(01:13):
some things have changed behind the scenes here at Sports
Talk seven ninety, so I don't know who's gonna be
co hosting with me in the meantime, it can be
you if you would like to get in at seven
one three two one two five seven ninety as we
have a lot of stuff to get to at seven
one three two one two five seven ninety. You can
also send tweets to me at sports RV if you

(01:34):
would like to interact that way. So thanks to Brian
bogas Sevik for hanging out yesterday. We did a lot
of talking a lot of different angles on the Astros
as far as what direction is the franchise going in?
What are they doing If they trade away Kyle Tucker
and don't sign Alex Bregman, why would they bother trading

(01:56):
for Nolan Arnado, sending out prospect equity and getting him
in the fold and pay Anthony santan Dare a five
year deal till he's thirty five, and you don't want
to pay Alex pregnant until he's thirty six. That doesn't
all jibe, It doesn't all make complete sense to me.
That's a little bit above my head. If someone can
explain that to me, that'd be great. So a lot

(02:16):
of astro stuff that we were talking about as well,
And of course you do have the Houston Texans this weekend,
a Saturday clash with the Kansas City Chiefs, and as
we heard a couple of breaking news items. I guess
yesterday Pat Mahomes a full participant in practice for the
Kansas City Chiefs. That happened when I was on air

(02:39):
with Adam Wester yesterday the line moved completely. He went
from the Texans to a one point favorite all the
way to the Chiefs as a two and a half
point favorite. Now the line is settling at Chiefs minus three.
The total, I guess, on its face seems a little
bit low, but considering the Texans have a bad offense
and they're going up against a really good defense, considering

(03:01):
Pat Mahomes could be hobbled, Chiefs haven't been scoring a
ton of points anyways, and the Texans have a great defense.
I mean, it's crazy to say CJ. Stroud and Pat
Mahomes a total only at forty one and a half.
That is pretty low going into the weekend. I think
before the line went up from thirty nine and a
half that was tied for the lowest total on the
board with the Jaguars and the Raiders with eight, and

(03:23):
O'Connell and or Desmond Ritter and Mac Jones at the helm.
So that that kind of puts your mind into the
category of what we're talking about is as far as
few points that are expected to be scored in this
upcoming matchup. So, I mean, we're gonna see what happens
if Pat Mahomes is able to play. We played some

(03:44):
of the audio from him posts practice yesterday and to
me and like I said, maybe I was just being
biased because I was somebody who picked him as as
not going to be able to make it at Saturday.
I was like, ah, doesn't sound like he's really good
and be able to play. And then, of course later
the news come out that he was a full participant

(04:05):
in practice, although Adam Schefter tempering that by saying, hey,
it was a really light practice. If he's calling him
a full participant, who knows it could be gamesmanship, it
could be putting him as a full participant in a
light practice. We'll see what happens as the week goes along,
and then if he is going to be available Saturday.
Pat Mahomes the comment that he made yesterday that made
me think he might not play was talking about having

(04:28):
not having to play due to current playoff seating.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
Honestly, we put ourselves in good position to where I
guess I wouldn't say it was dire that I play.
I mean, it's something where it's not like in the
AFC Championship game, where we're playing to get to this wold.
I mean, we have a little bit of a room
to kind of spare. By the end of the day,
we're trying to win. We're trying to win the football game,
and I'm a competitor. I want to go out there
and play, So I'll push myself to get to the

(04:53):
best place possible over these next few days and we'll
be able to make a decision.

Speaker 4 (04:56):
Then.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah. Like that, it sounds to me like he's a
a little bit down, And I mean, I guess Pat
Mahomes isn't normally somebody, at least at this stage in
his career. He knows he's a veteran. He plays the
game that he's not going to try to give too
much away, not going to get too high, not going
to get too low. Not really I mean sounding down
to me about playing, but full participant in practice. As
of this moment, we're gonna guess that he's gonna play.

(05:18):
And of course, the fact that the Vegas markets moved
four points into the Chiefs direction in under twenty four hours.
We shall see what happens this weekend. Obviously huge implications
there as far as what is going to happen and
this weekend in this big matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs,
which I also wonder how big of a matchup is

(05:41):
it for the Houston Texans. For the Chiefs, they want
to keep the number one seed. There is only one
team now with this new playoff format that gets the
bye week. They are in position to be that team,
but also the Buffalo Bills. If you haven't heard, it's
the kickiest of the cake schedules in the history of Kikeskei.
They have the Patriots, the Jets, and then the Patriots again.

(06:04):
They will not be losing a game unless something absolutely
wacky happens or Josh Allen decides to quit football and
walk the earth. It ain't happening, so they're gonna win
out and the Chiefs are two games ahead of the
Buffalo Bills, but they also have lost the tiebreaker. They're
only lost being to the Buffalo Bills. They have the Texans. Now,

(06:25):
say what you want, you folks, about how the mid
of the Texans are and they're horrible and they can't
compete with anybody. They're only three point dogs at Arrowhead.
It wouldn't be the first time at three point dog
won a game. If they won that, then they play
the Steelers on the road, the Broncos on the road.
All three of those games are winnable for the Chiefs.
All three of those games are losable for the Chiefs,

(06:46):
so they need to try and win these games. Even
though our good friend Pat Mahomes is saying, yeah, we
put ourselves in a position to make the playoffs and
we don't necessarily have to fight for playoff seating. We'll see,
because adding into this is that they're on a short
week with a Saturday game. Then they play Wednesday as

(07:07):
well against the Pittsburgh Steelers on that Christmas Day game,
So we'll see what happens there. But as of right now,
of course, we would have to lean towards Pat Mahomes playing.
And here's what Damiko Ryans had to say yesterday about
Patrick Mahomes.

Speaker 5 (07:24):
Yeah, Mahomes one of the best quarterbacks in the league,
done it for a long time, done it at.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
A really high level.

Speaker 5 (07:31):
Where he gains most of his success is just the
keeping plays alive, like off schedule, keeping plays alive their
receivers and tight ends. They know how to uncover, they
know how to find the open space, and his own
coverage sit routes down. So just it's the true talents
they're going to take everyone, especially our d line, the

(07:52):
way they work, they have to work together, have to
you know, you try to keep him contained, but that's
easier saying than do it. He still finds way to escape,
finds a way to make plays. Is going to take,
you know, a really tremendous effort from everybody, just being
we're supposed to be playing discipline football for four quarters.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yeah, so the offense hasn't been what it once was
with the Kansas City Chiefs. Also, you add into the
factor that hey, maybe Pat Mahomes not as mobile as
he can be. That's one of the ways that he
really becomes. I mean, he's good in the pocket, he's
good reading defenses and throwing on time, on rhythm within
the offense in structure, as the kids say. But also

(08:32):
to me, when he's most dangerous and where you can
really get the explosive plays is where he's he's breaking contain,
he's beating pressure, he's getting down the field, he's moving
out of the pocket, keeping his eyes down field, finding
holes in the defense with guys that he has good
chemistry with. And then that's when the explosive plays can
really really happen and be dangerous. Now, well, the Texans

(08:55):
be able to limit that. We'll see they play each
other on Saturday. And Pat mahomes as of this moment,
as I said, full particim in practice, I did raise
an eyebrow when Adam Schefter was like, just to temper
the enthusiasm on this, just to clarify. It's like, was
is he trying to say? What is he trying to say?

(09:15):
What are you trying to say? Shift are you trying
to say without saying it, say it with your chest
like you did when it came to Doug Gottlieb and
you were talking about him and how they're doing in
the in the Horizon League. So does he is he
trying to say? Temper your expectations for Pat Mahomes playing.
I don't know. Here's Schefter's tweet for what it's worth.
The Chiefs conducted a light practice to day and Wednesday

(09:37):
will be similar. With three games and eleven days, Andy
Reid is doing what he can to help all his
players get their bodies right for this challenging stretch. And
that's quote tweeting himself talking about Pat Mahomes being a
full participant. So I don't know if he's saying this
is gamesmanship. I don't know why he would make that
addendum to his first tweet. Who knows. We'll find out

(09:58):
as time goes along. We know that are good friend.
Demico Ryans is well versed in the dark arts of
gamesmanship when it comes to remember the Nico Collins situation
with the Lions. Oh that we've opened the practice window.
Oh we activated. Oh he's he's been added to the
roster and he's inactive for the game against the Lions.
So will it be something like that, I don't know.

(10:19):
Time will tell. Even with Carson Wentz, Honestly, the way
that this Texans offense is it's not like we're expecting
to blow anybody out and the Chiefs have a really
good defense. Texans have a really good defense as well,
but crazier things have happened, and then going on the
road at Arrowhead and losing to Carson Wentz is Look,
he's a veteran quarterback. He's won a lot of games,

(10:41):
he lost a lot of games. He's thrown a lot
of picks. But at one point the guy was talked
about being an NFL MVP before getting hurt and then
Nick Foles winning the Super Bowl that year. But Carson
Wentz can play a little bit and he's not completely
incompetent and not going to be completely lost back there
if it ends up being him as the starting quarterback

(11:02):
for the Kansas City Chiefs. All right, seven one three
two one two five seven ninety is your phone number?
Is Pat Mahomes playing in your mind? And what does
that mean for the Houston Texans this weekend? In your mind?
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety it
is that Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas, who
will join me along the way we shall see. We

(11:23):
will be with you until two o'clock. We got shut
your bum ass up coming up. We also have the
news at noon, We got a lot of fun stuff
playing with you until two o'clock here on Sports Talk
seven ninety at seven one, three, two, one two five, seven.

Speaker 6 (11:35):
Ninety more Matt Thomas Show with Ross now Sports Talk
seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (11:43):
He knows ability to win.

Speaker 8 (11:44):
You know, he's just a winner and nothing to day, like,
find's way to get it done and makes when those
critical situations happen. You know, he's somebody who really really
really knows how to get it done. And you know,
it's it's really cool just to see how creative he gets.
And you know, I think and you read does a
great job using him the right way and putting him
positions to be creative. And you know, and their defense,

(12:06):
you know, holds up a lot as well to give
them opportunities to take shots down the field and have
all these crazy plays and motions and you know, so
I mean they play really good confarending football. And I
think that's what sets my part is his ability to
win when he counts.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
I mean, that's what we say about all the grades
right at c J Stroud. On one Patrick Mahomes and
his ability to win, and we talked about I guess
I gotta chase down there. I keep referencing these on
airon I'm not somebody who likes referencing things and they
don't get them correct. Accuracy is important to me, maybe

(12:44):
not to some others in the media these days, but anyways,
I have to find it. But Pat Mahome is basically
one of the all time grades and one score games.
And when you end up looking at that list, it's
like all the all time great quarterbacks. It's about not
making mistakes in those critics moments, getting that laser like focus,
not having the moment to be too big for you,

(13:04):
and Pat Mahomes has a perfect job of that. And
I think that has been on full display this year.
Where the defense has been great, their offense and the
weapons and the offensive line has not been up to
par as to where they have been in the last
several years. Where you've got like Tyreek Hill, you've got
Travis Kelsey who very clearly at the very tail end

(13:26):
of his prime, or even maybe out of his prime,
if you want to argue that they still find a
way to win. It's been like Carson Steele and Kareem
old Man. Kareem Hunt, who's not really that old. I
guess he's old for a running back, but Kareem Hunt
off the scrap he Isaiah Pachecko has been hurt here
and there. They just cut Clyde Edwards e layer like
they've had no running game to speak of as far

(13:47):
as dominant running backs because Pacheco started off the season
getting hurt for several weeks, and then, as I mentioned,
things haven't necessarily developed for Zay You're worthy as far
as a complete wide recipt. They use them on into rounds,
they can use them on deep plays. Unfortunately a lot
of those he hasn't been connecting well, unfortunately for the Chiefs,
hopefully fortunate for the Houston Texans. And that's also something

(14:10):
that's kind of creeping in the back of my mind,
like Texans' biggest issue defensively this year has been giving
up explosive plays and the on the other side, especially
if Pat Mahomes plays Xavier Worthy while it feels like
he's gonna, you know, have a three catches for for
eighteen yard day with a bunch of screens and maybe

(14:31):
a couple of end rounds, but also those explosive plays
feel like something to watch with him this weekend, and
he completely matches up in a bad way a good
way for the Chiefs. Oh, they give up explosive plays.
Oh we got Xavier Worthy. That guy can run down
the field pretty fast. I'm not sure if you heard
got the forty record. He's pretty good. So that is

(14:54):
certainly something that's on my mind with the Texans this
weekend in the matchup. What are some of the things
that you are keeping on your mind for the Texans
in the game against the Chiefs this weekend? Seven to one,
three two one two five seven ninety. As we got
word that Pat Mahomes was a full participant in practice yesterday,
four point move on the line. Seven to one, three

(15:15):
two one two, five, seven to ninety. Your thoughts there.
So on the flip side for the Texans, it's still
even with Stefan Diggs not playing, I'm trying to figure
out why why is this offense so bad? And I think,
of course we point back to the offensive line early
on in the season. Too often the Texans had no shot. CJ.

(15:37):
Stroud had no shot. Kenyan Green was in who, by
the way, has been I believe activated as his practice
window had opened. I believe he's back on the roster.
Is Kenyan Green hopefully hopefully, hopefully just as a depth
move for the Texans, not going to be inserted back
into the starting lineup because he was one of the

(15:57):
worst guards in football, one of the worst offensive linemen
in football period while he was healthy. Then he got
hurt and replaced. Then well, unfortunately he was replaced by
Jared Patterson who got a concussion. Then Kenyan Green went
back into the game and he was still bad, and
then he got hurt for the season. And I don't
ever want to wish for anybody to get hurt when
it comes to professional sports. But Kenyan Green off the

(16:20):
field makes the Texans better. That is just the bottom line.
If you look at all the metrics and the offensive
line metrics and stuff like that, anything you look at
has the Texans as one of the worst in football
and has Kenyan Green as one of the worst in football.
Their words, not mine. And also by using how about
the old the old fashioned eye test and the metrics,
Kenyan Green is not a good offensive lineman. And maybe

(16:43):
I don't know if there's just some sort of bias,
especially with Nick Cassario who spent a first round pick
on him. Right now, he's a bus as a first
round pick. There's no other way to put it. And
I don't know if they're trying to continue to try
and see if that pick can bear fruit, if he
is going to be inserted back into the starting lineup.
But there is something called the sunk cost fallacy, and

(17:06):
we've all been guilty of it. Something you've put your
time into or money you're invested, and you're like, you
know what, I need to cut ties on this, but
you wait and you wait and wait. It happens to us.
In our fantasy football league. I've been a fourth round
pick on Kyle Pitts. He's gonna wake up. He's got
to be good at some point. No, Kyle Pitts sucks.
You need to cut him. He's not gonna produce. It
is what it is. So I don't know if there

(17:28):
is the sunk cost fallacy. Is what's happening with Kenyon
Green and Nick Cassario and the Houston Texans. But he
doesn't need to be anywhere near the starting lineup for
the Houston Texans and this offensive line that has been
their their biggest problem. If they get an offensive line
that can protect CJ. Stroud, he does a good job
of making plays on the movie. He does a good
job of eluding pressure and continuing to be good, but

(17:51):
he hasn't been anywhere close to where he was last year.
This team has just been so much worse on the
offensive line. And if you're shuffling around, shuffling around, shuffling around,
I mean, you got to get some cohesion and you've
got to get some chemistry going before the playoffs in
the next three weeks. If nothing else, you've clinched the
AFC South. I don't think it's that huge of a deal.

(18:13):
If if you're the third seed rather than the fourth,
every team in the playoffs, I think that comes here now.
You probably would least like to face Lamar Jackson and
the Baltimore Ravens. I get that. But at the end
of the day, if you're playing the Ravens, you're playing
the Broncos, you're playing the Chargers, You're you're gonna be
playing a good football team. AFC is pretty stout and

(18:34):
it's going to be a close game either way. You
got to focus on being at home, You got to
focus on your game, and I think you got to
focus on getting some chemistry going with this offensive line.
Dimiko Ryans talking with the media. Titus Howard shuffled into
the guard position this past weekend. I don't know if
he's going to stay there. Here's what he had to
say about Titus.

Speaker 5 (18:53):
Yeah, for Titus moving in side, you know, first off
is you know, thankful to him for making that move
and transition. As you mentioned, he's been in there before,
so it's not totally new to him. Just things happened
a lot quicker on the inside than the outside, right.
You know, Titus has that power in size to handle
the big rushers on the inside, so he's you know,

(19:14):
I think he's a really good fit for being in there.
Is just understanding how quickly those games and things happen.
Where you have a little more space on the outside,
you have more space, a little bit more time in
the inside, just have to have quicker reaction time.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Yeah, so yeah, on the inside, I mean it's it's
largely been a disaster for the Texans. I mean, I'm
mostly Kenny Green and I'm talking and focusing on him,
but Titus Howard himself, even when at right tackle, he
was having some issues. Shaq Mason has been i would
say solid, but it's not like he's been all pro
or anything like that. You scrugged, Jared Patterson. It's been.
I mean, they just don't have a bunch of guys

(19:49):
who are very good. And Larmie Tunsel is probably your
best it is not probably he is your best pass blocker.
And the guy's committing like three penalties a week. So
it's it's it's been kind of the same old song.
And we keep waiting and waiting and waiting for this
to turn. And at some point you have to say
to yourself, well, maybe this ain't turn it, so we'll

(20:10):
see still some time left, a lot of football left.
If you could just like wave a magic wand and
all of a sudden, the Texans have a really good
offensive line, I would just feel so much more confident
and not even like the you know, we know any
Lions quality offensive line. Give them a top ten offensive line.
I haven't checked. I was out of the country, and
I kind of haven't been keeping up with it. I'm

(20:30):
not sure. Are good friends of Pro Football Focus put
the offensive line rankings out every single week? Oh wow,
two hours ago they just put it out. Let's scroll
with me, folks. They get the Philadelphia Eagles back up
to number one. That's good. So yeah, I guess they
have to the Lions. I guess have had some injuries,
but they still have the Lions in the top five.

(20:51):
And we're scrolling, and we're scrolling, and now I'm just
gonna have to control f this bad boy. Where are
the Houston ooh twenty seven, twenty seventh offensive line? And
that's out of thirty two folks, For those of you
not aware, you're twenty seven out of thirty two. You

(21:11):
are not good. So we can argue about Pro Football
Focus and their grades and all that type of stuff.
Let's just put it this way. If they're listed at
twenty seven, chances are they're not a top ten unit,
even though I don't know that. Maybe if you asked
Dimico Ryans directly, he would say that, or he probably
just shirk the question, which is fine. He's very good
at that. But twenty seventh. The team's behind them, Titans, garbage, Giants,

(21:35):
awful Bengals. I've had offensive line issues forever, Seahawks, Patriots. Man.
That is rough right now for the Houston Texans and
their offensive line. To me, the biggest roadblock, not barring injury,
of course, Nico Collins, any of Colin Stroud or mixing

(21:57):
go down. This team is washed, This team is done.
There's just no doubt in my mind. It's in terms of,
you know, super Bowl hopes which go from low too
impossible but offensive line. Oh, let's just be positive. A
couple of weeks, build some chemistry on the road at
Arrowhead against Steve's pacnolo and that defense with all the

(22:22):
moving parts, with all the guys at the line of
scrimmage and the team not communicating. I mean the last
time that happened. Last time it was a defense like
this with a lot of good players and kind of
a mad scientist defensive coordinator. It was Brian Flores and
the Minnesota Vikings and what happened there. So did I

(22:47):
just convince myself this is gonna go really badly for
the Texans this weekend? I might have Okay, get my
spirits up. Maybe we'll come back with some more Christmas
music and I'll be feeling better. Rosby Real with You,
Matt Thomas Show with Ross with Matt Thomas, he is out.
I think I'm gonna be joined by somebody at some point.
We'll see. In the meantime, you can co host for
a few minutes with me if you want to get

(23:07):
in talk some Texans ball. That's what we're talking about.
We've also been talking about Kyle Tucker and the Houston Astros,
the direction of the team, anything you want to get to.
We also have the college football playoff coming up this weekend.
I will be out Thursday and Friday. In the meantime,
I'm with you until two o'clock. You want to get in,
you can seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
Is the phone number. Seven one three two one two

(23:29):
five seven ninety. Matt Brin Shangoon, Hey, Salpi turns left.

Speaker 3 (23:34):
Fans rise, stay clutch with the iHeart Radio.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
Suits Sports Doll seven nine Home All ruckus Basketball. Thanks Beabs,
appreciate you, welcome back. We're playing the Christmas hits. You
know you're gonna be banned from you gotta get him
in while you can. Now, Connor, you're gonna be banned
from playing Christmas music the next two days. Every break.
We'll do it today. You're gonna miss it. No, Scrowge

(23:59):
is coming back to Scrooge is back tomorrow. Okay, why
is this? Sorry, I'm changing the channel. Scrooge being Matthew
Thomas now he doesn't like Christmas music for whatever reason,
and he only likes it on Christmas Eve. I say,
after Thanksgiving, you're in the clear, and I'll really ramp

(24:21):
it up in the next couple of weeks. And that's
what we've been doing here on the program until we
get our season. Desist from Sunny ninety nine too point one.
Ross viy Rea with you on the program. Dan Matthews
will be joining us coming up at noon. We got
a lot of our signature segments coming up. We'll have
the news at noon when he gets here. We will
also have shut joke, bump ass up, slash, Ain't nobody

(24:44):
got time for that. I'm sure you guys got a
lot to get off your chest. It's the holidays for
rhetory whatever reason. Stress levels a lot of times, even
though it should be when we're relaxing, enjoying time with
family and keeping it chill. Seems like the blood pressure
goes up a little bit comes to the holidays as well.
If you want to get something off of your chest
that will be coming up. Let's say one o'clock here

(25:07):
on the program, Shut Yo, bum ass up, slash, Ain't
nobody got time for that? In the meantime, I'll tell
you what we do have time for. We have time
for you to get in on the phones if you'd like.
It's seven one three two one two five seven ninety
the phone number seven one three two one two five
seven ninety. Now, I don't think it's an oversimplification when

(25:28):
I say in the last segment that you lose, first
of all, CJ. Shroud. Okay, if Pat Mahomes isn't on
the Chiefs, they win in the Super Bowl. Josh Allen,
the bills, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. There's a reason,
a very smart reason, why these leagues have put every
rule possible in place to protect these quarterbacks. You're protecting
the franchise. You're protecting the owners or the ticket sales,

(25:49):
and most importantly, the eyeballs on the television when the
TV deals and these networks they don't like paying to
watch Mac Jones and Am O'Connell go after. They want
to see Pat Mahomes versus Josh Allen. That's why they
pay the big bucks. You've got to keep the quarterbacks upright,
you got to keep them healthy. I understand there's been

(26:09):
some bad, bad penalties in terms of roughing the passer,
there's a bad one this weekend in the Texans game.
So it is what it is. You got to keep
these guys upright. But to me, as CJ. Stroud goes
without saying, it almost basically goes without saying with Nico
Collins and then Joe Mix especially with Stephan digs out.
That's maybe one of the things we do have to

(26:30):
keep in mind when we talk about this Texans. This
Texan team, like the a if the offensive line were better,
be if you had Stepan Diggs, this offense would be
a lot better, especially in those short area pressure situations
on third down where the other team is bringing the heat.
You got a smart wide receiver like Stefan Diggs, good
in getting in space, good in fighting holes, good with

(26:52):
the ball after the run and getting first downs. Missing
him Nico Collins more of your downfield threat. Same thing
for Tank Dell, who unfortunately he hasn't had a bust
out game that we've been waiting and waiting and waiting
for to the point where it seems like the Texans
putting him at at punt returner. Try to get some
kind of spark from Tank Dell, who has been largely

(27:12):
healthy this year, but just hasn't been able to give
you much of anything. But also, of course Joe Mixon
a huge part of it. Yes, I know, he went
twelve carries for twenty three yards, but they won the
game with Joe Mixon, and games that he runs over
one hundred yards they are five and two in those games.
Games where he does not, they are one and two.

(27:35):
So he got a lot of wins coming your way
with Joe Mixon runs for one hundred yards. And to me,
of course that's stout. That stat doesn't necessarily mean a
whole lot. A lot of times that people say you
got established the run. When the team's run this many
times they win the game. Well, a lot of times
its because they run the ball out so they rack
up a bunch of rack up a bunch of carries,
so it can go both ways. But at the end

(27:56):
of the day, this if Joe Mixon is off this
team and you're going to Dario Gumbalwallee, Damian Pierce, things
aren't gonna go so hot for the Houston Texans anywhere.
And Joe Mixon, of course, with the ankle injury over
the weekend, had missed some time in the game. Came
back wasn't very effective. As I mentioned, just the twelve

(28:17):
carries for just twenty three yards. It's an average of
under two against Miami Dolphins who are stout in the middle.
But still would like to see Joe Mixon average over
two yards of carry. Here's what he had to say
about chances. He is going to play on Saturday in
the Kansas City.

Speaker 9 (28:33):
Start a playoff football right now. Like I mean, I
got a beat here and I'm a beat the You
know what I'm saying. I'm being for my teammates and
obviously for myself. Man, So I just gotta do whatever
I can. Like I said, retec or to attack recovery
today Tomorrow, Friday, and you know obviously got the game
on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (28:54):
That football mindset. I'm gonna tack my recovery. Has anybody
said that you have a recovering from surgery Like I'm
an attack this. I'm going I'm going straight at this
stretching you watch me, watch me going to this cryo
therapy chamber. I'm attacking this chamber chamber. But that's just
how it is in the NFL. That's your mindset. So
Joe Mixon. I mean, he's got magical powers of healing.
The fact that he even came back in the game.

(29:16):
There was what was a time and earlier in his
career where we got a high ankle sprain. Didn't miss
any time, missed a couple of weeks with the high
ankle sprain earlier this year, still has proven himself to
be very effective, very good and on one of the
best running backs in football. Funny enough as I mean
Aaron Jones, well, I think did he get hurt over
the weekend in the Viking Gams. I can't, I can't remember,
But Aaron Jones new team great, Derek Henry Sakwon Barkley,

(29:38):
Joe Mixon as well, running weren't worrying about all these
quarter I mean running backs and how good they were
going to be with their new teams. Normally you don't
have a veteran running back go to a new team
and flourish. But it's happening. I didn't even mention Josh
Jacobs as well. Perhaps somebody else I'm missing, but these
veteran running backs have been, I mean hugely important for

(29:59):
the Ravens and for the Philadelphia Eagles and for the
Houston Texans along with C. J. Stroud. As I said,
it goes without saying the quarterback, as far as a
heart and soulvan offense. To me, the next most important
Texan on the field, regardless of side of the ball,
is Joe Mixon. You need him on that field if

(30:21):
you're going to be successful, certainly on the road at
Arrowhead or the Texans in loud environments with defenses run
like Steve Spagnolo's where you got eight guys at the
line of scrimmage and you don't know which three, four
or five or six are coming, and you've had communication
issues and you're going to be an Arrowhead, you are
going to have to do the old adage establish the run.

(30:46):
So you need Joe Mixon on Saturday if you want
to have any chance of winning. If you're the Houston Texans,
All right, seven one three two point two five seven
ninety is the phone number if you'd like to get in.
It is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas.
Lines open at seven one three two one two five
seven ninety. You can also send tweets it at sports
RV if he'd like to get in that way. Dan

(31:07):
Matthews joining at noon. We'll also have the news at
noon there and anything you want to get to shut
your bumb ass up coming up later and you at
seven one three, two, one two five, seven.

Speaker 6 (31:16):
Ninety more Matt Thomas Show with Ross Now Sports Talk
seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
You think the Ives family, I mean they gotta really
look forward to Christmas more than anybody. Okay, not maybe
more than anybody. It's time for them royalties to roll in. Baby,
nobody's jamming burl Lives in July. What's there? What's your
favorite Burl Lives song that is not a Christmas song?
I have no freaking clue, but burl Ives got them

(31:45):
Christmas hits. I think we brought this up last week
with Mike blue Blay. As far as people that right,
Carrey's got other hits, Like she's literally got an album
full of number one hits in a compilation. She's got
number one's baby. Obviously, she is known as the Queen
of Christmas, and she's got the hits that come through
when it comes to Christmas time. So she certainly does
get a bump in royalties, But as far as like

(32:07):
percentage of royalties that go up, like percentage growth of royalties.
Burl Lives got to be on the short list. Boo
Blaze has some other hits. I know, you're a big
blue Blay guy, Connor McGovern, You're a Boo Blaye fan,
A Boo Blay boy? Is that what they call him?
Is that what your group is called? I forget. I
don't like the way that sounds. Yeah, why not, I'm
just a Michael Boo Blay fan. Yeah, you're one of

(32:29):
the booblay boys. No, yeah, you guys got a Facebook
group and everything. Right, No, no, no, no, okay, I mean
that's nothing wrong with that. He's very I'm not ashamed
of me. He's got a great, velvety voice, hands. I've
seen him twice alive and it's two of the best
shows I've ever seen. See There we Go. Did he
wear a orchestra and everything? Did he wear a white tux?
That sounds like a good show?

Speaker 6 (32:46):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (32:46):
Not a white tux, but he I mean he wears
he wears nice suits. Yeah, okay, as he should. He's
got the old school crooner thing going, so his his
royalties go way up. I'm gonna say I'm gonna take
Burrow Lives number one pick as far as royalty percentage
growth to.

Speaker 10 (33:00):
Gumarah carry because she reas. She reaches the top of
the billboard charts again every year.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
I'm saying, but yeah, but she goes from like, let's
just make up a number, ten million in royalties in
the first ten months to like maybe ten million, so
she gets double. Burl Lives goes from like five dollars
in royalties to like maybe a few hundred g's or
whatever the percentage growth. I'm going Burl Lives number one.
You got a different answer, tweet me at sports RV.

(33:24):
All right, phone's also open here. It is the Matt
Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas. He is out
on vacation. He will be back tomorrow. As I pass
the baton, I will be gone tomorrow, Friday and Monday.
I will be in the Crescent City in Louisiana. Twenty
four hour boos sounds dangerous, should be dangerous. Can't wait

(33:45):
this weekend? Really, Actually, I'm gonna head that way right
after this show is over at two. In the meantime,
you can get in. I'm trying. I'm trying my best
not to be in vacation modes, so you want to
get anyone to talk some sports, we can do it
at seven one three two one two five, seven ninety.
We got Dan Matthews coming up at noon. We have
the news at noon. We also have eight no body
got time for that? Slash shut Joe bump Ass up

(34:06):
coming up as well, and you at seven one, three
to one two five seven ninety. So I was scanning
the wires, as they say, looking at the sports news
across well the entire country. We know what we got
going here in Houston, Texans and Chiefs coming up this weekend.
What is going to happen? Are we in a holding
pattern with Alex Bregman and the Houston Astros? What direction

(34:28):
is the squad really going into? Is Dana Brown rebuilding
or is he retooling? Are they going to contend next year?
I don't know. We'll see when everything shakes out with
this offseason. But I also saw a story about the NBA.
Did you catch the NBA Cup Final last night? It
was the Milwaukee Bucks taking on the Oklahoma City Thunder.
No me either. Well, the Bucks won ninety seven to

(34:50):
eighty one. Man, I was watching, like in the third quarter.
I knew that was a low scoring game, but those
teams both play really good defense. Ninety seven to eighty one.
The Milwaukee Bucks win the NBA Cup and Adam Silver
the story on ESPN talking about him looking into critiques
of the increased three point volume that continues to happen.

(35:14):
You know, it's a Darryl Mory revolution, right, We've been
experiencing in the NBA, and the NBA has to figure
some things out. Adam Silver and this team and his team,
and in the teams and their owners and the people
who run these teams, because ratings are way down. Feels
like interest is way down. My interest is always up.
I'm an NBA fan. I love the NBA. It was

(35:36):
my first love. The Houston Rockets won championships when I
was nine and ten years old. It's ingrained into me.
I like I find beauty in the simplicity of the
NBA basketball or basketball in general, to where any man,
woman or child can just take a basketball. You get
a ten dollars one from any sort of sporting good store,

(35:57):
and you go out to a hoop and you get
some shots up. Very simple. If I was trying to
explain basketball to an alien, I would just say, you
put the ball in the hoop boom. To me, the
easiest to explain along with soccer. You put the ball
in the goal. Now, of course there are other rules.
There's double dribble, there's travels, there's three second whatever. But

(36:18):
to me, I mean, NFL, you're explaining it. I don't
think it's as easy to trivialize. Well, you get four
downs and then they kick it off and then you
get four downs to get ten yards. But you can
go for it in the fourth down. But on the
fourth down you could punt it, and then you get
across the goal line. You can run it, but you
can't cross the line of scrimmage until somebody says hut,
and then you can pass it, but you can't cross

(36:39):
the line of scrimma. It's a whole thing. It's a
whole thing. I love basketball. Put the ball in the hoop.
Put the ball in the hoop, man, that's what you do.
Like I said, the artistry and the beauty of basketball.
But I understand it's not as watchable of a product
as a lot of people. For a lot of people. Really,
the last twenty years and really the last five years

(37:00):
is when you've seen dive bombing with the ratings in
the NBA, and the NBA's record for three pointers attempted
by a team is supposed to be shattered by the
Boston Celtics, and Adam Silver asked Tuesday night if the
league is studying the trend. There's also criticisms of offenses

(37:21):
becoming cookie cutter, teams are copying each other, and something
he thinks the league should take seriously. Of course, starting
with the moriy Ball three point revolution, everyone copying it
figuring out three is more than two. Adam Silver quote,
the answer is yes, We're having many discussions about the
style of basketball. I would not reduce it to a
so called three pointing issue. I think we have to

(37:43):
look more holistically at the skill level on the floor,
the diversity of the offense, and their fan reception to
the game, all of the above I think there. I
mean it's a mini pronged problem. We always try to
boil it down to one thing. I don't think it's
just three pointers. I think it's also the fact that
the NBA hasn't done a good job of marketing this
new crops of stars, whereas I think in years past,

(38:07):
the NBA did a fantastic job of marketing players especially
in small markets. I think there's been too much of
a short sighted emphasis on saying on keeping it simple
and not investing in stars. Right, they invested in Lebron
James and the kid from Akron in Cleveland, and then
he went to Miami, and then he came to La.
There's been an investment in Steph Curry. But I think

(38:30):
they kind of kept it too simple. They got a
little bit too greedy. They said, Hey, every time we
put Lebron James on, we get big ratings. So we're
gonna put Lebron James on as much as possible. Well,
what about some of the other stars, What about Giannis
Tanto Kompo, what about Shake Gilles Alexander in Oklahoma City?
What about Okay? Jason Tatum and Boston and the Celtics
get a lot of play obviously, but uh Nikola Jokicic

(38:52):
in Denver. I think Jokic has become a big star,
but I think there hasn't been the investment the law.
I think that the NBA looked too much at the
short term in terms of money grabbing, putting all this
stuff onto streaming services and and shying away from the NBA.
On TNT and they're gonna go away from them. It's
the most popular basketball show ever and they're trying to

(39:15):
get rid of it because they want to take more
money from different companies. And now NBC is gonna be
putting games on Peacock, You're gonna have games streaming on Max,
You're gonna have all this other stuff. Like I just
don't think. I think it is maybe the state of
the game. All the three pointers perhaps do turn people off.
I have no problem with it. Like I said, I'm
a big NBA fan. I was a Darryl Morry fan.
I hate mid range. You should hate mid range as

(39:37):
much as you hate three pointers. But it's kind of
the state of the league. It's almost like we can
plain about the NFL and offense being down because they're
going with two high safeties. Everybody's packing the paint and
so the three pointers are flying. That's how That's kind
of how it goes in the NBA right now. But
the Rockets take a lot of threes, but they play good, hard,
no deep nose defense. They're fun to watch. They don't

(39:58):
have a lot of star power, But I like the Rockets.
But I think the league has kind of spread themselves
too thin. They looked at the short term. They haven't
invested in this new crop of stars, and I think
it's no accident that they're struggling right now. So Nate
not Nate Silver. Adam Silver talking about some issues with
the three pointer. I mean, I don't even know what

(40:18):
the solution would be. Would you say teams can only
take thirty three pointers a game and then once you
hit your thirtieth, they only count for two. That seems
pretty extreme, But I'm not exactly sure what the solution
is going to be. But very clearly looking at the
ratings for the finals the last couple of years and
the NBA Cup, everything down from this year. A lot

(40:39):
of teams and a lot of people who do want
League Pass, they can't get access, they're blocked out. You
got a lot of people legal streaming. Certainly interesting to
see where the NBA goes. The revenues keep growing and
growing and growing, as far as you know, licensing and
being on in and getting the NBA Cup going and
TV deals. Revenues are up, ratings are down. You're gonna

(41:00):
want one to wash the hand of the other. Adam
Silver knows that'd be interested to see what kind of
measures he takes to try and prove the quality of
NBA basketball. Seven one three two one two five, seven
ninety is the phone number if you'd like to get in.
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety. Our
number one of the Matt Thomas Show with Ross is
in the books. Our number two is coming up. I

(41:22):
am here. Connor McGovern is here as well. Dan Matthews
is coming up at noon. We'll also have the news
at noon. Shut Jo, bumass up. Ain't nobody got time
for that. It is a Wednesday edition of The Matt
Thomas Show with Ross. With you until two o'clock at
seven one three two one two five seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
Lunchtimers, This is the Matt Thomas Show.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
Our number two of the Matt Thomas Show with Ross
here on Sports Talk seven ninety. I don't think you'll
be able to hear it. But uh, we don't have
to go out in the hallways for this fire drill,
do we, Connor, I don't think so. I thought we
should be good. I think as long as we don't
see firefighters, I think we're okay. One time I did.
I was a producer back in our old building and

(42:08):
we had an afternoon host. His name was Charlie Palillo,
and in the middle of it, I literally smelled smoke
in the middle of the show, and he was on location.
He was out at I can't even actually I do
remember the name of the place, but they don't spend
money with us anymore, so I'm not gonna mention it.
It was a pizza place, and we'll just leave it
at that. And he was out there on location, and

(42:31):
during a break, I'm in his ear like, hey man,
I smell smoking. Fire alarms I going off. I don't
know what to do, but as of right now, I'm
gonna stay on the board and then we'll see what happens. Literally,
a firefighter came into my control room like full gear
with an axe in his hand, and he's like, hey man,
you gotta get out of here. I was like, okay,

(42:54):
So I just told Charlie he was on air. I
was like, Charlie, you're gonna have to talk until I
come back. I don't know how long that's gonna be.
I don't know what's going to happen, but uh, I
gotta see you later. There's literally a firefighter telling me
to get out and I had to take. We were
on the fifth floor at that time. We had to
take the stairs down to the first floor and then
we all waited in the lobby and probably like fifteen

(43:15):
twenty minutes later they let us back up. Apparently a
breaker had a fuse had blown or something like that,
so there was smoke, but there really wasn't any fire danger.
That's pretty crazy. Yes, it was crazy. I feel about
for the host. Yeah, they had Chargy go. It wasn't
that bad. I think he only had to go like
five minutes over break and if you know Charlie, Charlie

(43:35):
and monologue with the best of them. Okay, Charlie is
the He used to do a solo show for four
hours Connor McGovern every day. Yes, we founded that. This
station was founded on the back of Charlie Polillo. When
it was founded as ESPN seven ninety, I think we're
having a By the way, folks, keep your calendar clear
next year. I think we're having a twenty year party
next year. WHOA two thousand and five. The station was

(43:58):
founded as ESPN seven ninety. It was all syndication. I
don't know if it was Dan Patrick, Collin Cowhard whatever
it was on ESPN at the time, I think it
was Mike and Mike in the Morning. The only live
show we had it was Charlie by himself three to seven.
Then they added in god knows what else. It has
been long gone. It became seven ninety The Sports Animal. Connor,

(44:20):
how about that? And do you know any of this?
Am I dropping all the seven ninety history knowledge on you? Yeah? Honestly, okay,
they only became seven ninety The Sports Animal, and well
the lineup didn't last there either, but Charlie stayed and
then we flipped to Sports Talk seven ninety. Gosh, that
had to be around two thousand and nine ish, and

(44:40):
we've been Sports Talk seven ninety ever since then, with
varying lineups and the latest lineup the greatest of course
Sean Salisbury six to ten, Matt Thomas and Me ten
to two, and then the eighteen with Adam Adam two
to six. And there is your very brief history. I
can give you more dirty details, but there's your very
brief history of Sports Talk seven ninety. This I appreciate that.

(45:01):
When I was a kid, it was seven ninety Star
seven ninety k Bmmy the best music ever. That's what
the BMME stands for In case you were ever wondering.
We were in music station. Yeah, yeah, it was. It
was like big best music ever. It was like old
big band like Burrol Lives probably feature very heavily on
the station. Frank Sinatra, Benny good Has, Benny Goodman was

(45:23):
sing sing, sing here on Stop seven ninety KBA, the
best music ever. It was basically like that, what would
your DJ name be?

Speaker 1 (45:30):
My DJ.

Speaker 4 (45:32):
RV?

Speaker 2 (45:34):
I don't know. Let's go riding the bus with RV.
Let's go with that. Wait a second, I'm trying to
find where is Somebody was tweeting me about this with
Matt Thomas. Have you ever heard the the old bit
of Matt Thomas. He was on location and Beverly Hills
and fire alarms were going off. Uh no, I thought
it was the band. I don't think. Okay, you've heard

(45:54):
the one with the band. This is also when I
was producing, and you can hear I think I do
turn my mic on laughing at one point, here's Matt
Thomas back in the day as we I hear alarms.
I don't think you guys can hear it on air,
but there literally is a fire drill in the building
right now. Thanks to Tiffany seven to two to two for
reminding me about this gym.

Speaker 11 (46:10):
I'm just telling you they were the best team they
ever had lost in the divisional playoffs to probably went
to Baltimore one year in New England to the next. Yeah,
they just never could overcome it. Thank you for the
phone call. There's an alarm that should be going off
in your home, and that's if you have dirty carpets.

Speaker 12 (46:29):
This is really.

Speaker 11 (46:30):
Excuse my French annoying AF. Seriously, fire alarm testing is
like five times, not fifty. I'm trying to do a
major market radio show here in downtown Beverly Hills, California,
and this damn Oh really, Oh you got my attention? Yeah,

(46:54):
five to ten more minutes, ross.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
Five to ten more minutes.

Speaker 11 (47:01):
Jesus, we're doing fine if there's no fire. I'm I'm
trying to discuss the Texans game against Tennessee. Oh now
you're putting a sweet little ginger voice on there.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
Hi, honey, how are you? I'm back to the alarms here?
Good lord?

Speaker 11 (47:24):
How am I supposed to create radio greatness under these conditions?

Speaker 2 (47:29):
So there you go. Matt Thomas that was in It
was a Beverly Hills Hotel. I think he was in
Los Angeles when that happened. When they went went down,
were you producing at the time, Yes, I was okay.
I was back in your seat, well not your seat.
I think we were still at the older building. So
there's hope for you yet, Connor. Maybe one day, maybe
one day. All right? Anyways, what were we talking about?

(47:51):
Seven one three two one two five. Seven ninety is
the phone number. Sounds like the fire drill's over, so
nothing major happened. I think we're okay, seven one three
two one two five, I have seven ninety. All right,
Gerard has been waiting patiently. Let's go ahead and get
him in. What's up, Gerard?

Speaker 13 (48:06):
What's going on?

Speaker 7 (48:06):
Rolston?

Speaker 2 (48:07):
Not a whole lot? Fire drills over. It looks like
everything's a okay.

Speaker 14 (48:11):
That's good.

Speaker 15 (48:11):
That's good. Everybody say that. That's good. Let me talk
about the NBA and the whole internal touch on the
on the rocket to live bit. As far as the
NBA goes, I think the NBA need to cut down
on the record season. I know the only power will
never agree to that because they're gonna lose money. But
eighty two games is just too long. They need to
cut it down to maybe about sixty games. They probably
need to start after Christmas or really after football season

(48:33):
really starting so people can be paying attention to it.
Right you know, you're starting in Octoba, you know, NFL
going on in the playoffs start in the NFL, and
they kind of, you know, they kind of get drowned out.
Really and everbody if he don't even really be pay
attention to the NBA until really playoff time. And I
think they need to cut down on their playoff format.
I know, only spot I'm not gonna gree to that,
but you know, the college basketball their most successful time

(48:56):
of the year is Marge manner, you know, because it's
old way with in four or five weeks, you know,
one game tournament, you move on to the next round.
I'm not saying they should have one game tournament, but
you know they kind of have that in the playing already.
That's why the playing is the successful belt. Maybe the
first round you go to maybe three or five games
in the first round, second round maybe five, and then
when you get to the conference finals, then you go
seven games. NBA Finals then seven games because the playoffs

(49:19):
are two months. I think that's a bit too long
man for people to really pay attention. A lot of
people don't even watch the playoffs to the NBA Finals,
So I think they need to probably really cut down
on the regular season, cut down on the playoffs to
make their product a little bit more successful, kind of
adopt a little bit more of the March manners, which
you know that tournament is over within four or five weeks,
and they have a lot of huge ratings. They have
a lot of success doing the march madness. A quick

(49:42):
thing on the Rockets. When you look at the Rockets,
the Rockets, to me, they're probably the third or fourth
best team in the West. I got Oklahoma ceey at
the number one team in the West. I think when
they get checked back there, they're definitely be the top team.
I got Dallas probably number two. Then I probably got
Houston and Memphis three and four. But the difference between
the Rockets and another three teams I named are just

(50:03):
name is the Rockets don't have a guy that can
take over the game. Memphis had John Morant top ten
top fifteen player, Oklahoma City had Shake Gilder's top ten
top fifteen that was in top fifteen, and Luca and
Kyrie Irving. The Rockets don't have that type of player
on their team. And that's why you when you look
at the they have hard time scoring and the office

(50:24):
get stacking their time. They don't have a guy that
can kind of Hi, everybody, get out the way, to
let me create something and get a we're gonna get
a good shot either for myself, wild up and shot
for one of my teammates. They don't have a guy
that can consistently do that on their team. They got
a bunch of real, real good number two and number
three options, but they don't have a number one option.
I think that's what's really holding uh the Rockets back.

(50:45):
I think a guy on that Rockter they could develop
into that is maybe a Cam win More. But the
problem with his but that is his position is a wing,
and a Rockets are kind of stacked that wing with
Jabari Dylan Brooks, they have Armine Thompson, they got Tarrek Easton,
you know it. You know, I wish he probably could
play a little bit of the two astly he's low,
but three, you know too. Account with Morgan, I think

(51:07):
he had the top of offensive arsenal that can maybe
develop into that type of player that we need, a
guy that can take over the game. That guy is very,
very multi uh uh. The Mitch goe Farth on the
offensive end, a guy that's hard to for the defensive
to come to kind of cover it once he developed
his offense. So I think he's the kind of guy
that maybe became development of that, but he just caught
up in a long jack in a log jam, you know,

(51:28):
as far as getting minutes with the Rockets where expact
they had the wing position. So that's just my thoughts
on it.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
Man.

Speaker 15 (51:33):
You know, I gonna hang up listen to your comments
on that.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
Thanks a lot, Gerard, appreciate you getting in and we
well a lot to cover there. I'm with you. I
think there's a number of issues with the NBA and
a number of reasons. I as I said, I don't
think if you point to any one thing, it's the
that's the sole reason why why ratings are down. I

(51:57):
think one reason is to me, the NBA, I would say,
more than the other leagues, has always been something a
league that is propped up and carried by stars and
star power. If you remember after you know, the dominant
Celtic runs of the sixties and Wilt Chamberlain. There was

(52:20):
this lull in the mid to late seventies where teams
were losing money where the games were on like they
were on late night replay tape delay midnight broadcasts of
NBA games, and the league was floundering and teams were
talking about folding up and teams were hemorrhaging money. Then

(52:43):
these two guys named Larry Bird and Irvin Magic Johnson
came along and they saved the league. Their rivalry and
their level of play and their star power saved the NBA.
And then from there, when they got to the end
of their careers, they passed the but han to this
guy named Michael Jeffrey Jordan, and he had his rise,

(53:05):
luckily for the NBA, right as the careers of Larry
Bird and Magic Johnson were waning, and he carried the league,
of course with along with some other stars of that
era that Charles Barkley had, Kim Olaja, Wan Patrick Ewings,
et cetera. But it was Michael Jordan inny went even close.
The dude has his own brand, a shoe that is
still the number one sports branded shoe, and he hadn't

(53:27):
been in the League's in nineteen ninety eight. That's the
star power of Michael Jordan. And if you remember right
when Michael Jordan was retiring first of all, finals ratings
have never recovered to the level of where they were
when Michael Jordan and that nineteen ninety eight finals. I mean,
I could be wrong, but I can go back and

(53:48):
look it up. I think that nineteen ninety eight finals
is still like the highest rated finals since in the
last thirty years. Now, of course, the Internet came along, streaming,
cable television, more things to watch. You don't have just
five channels, blah blah blah blahlah. But right after Michael
Jordan retired, there was a little bit of you know,
Kobe Bryant didn't really become the fates of the league
until honestly after he probably split with Shack, but it

(54:11):
was Shack, it was kind of Tracy McGrady. Nobody was
necessarily to that level of a star. And then you
had Lebron James and Steph Curry come along. And now
those guys are towards the end of their career, and
I ask you who is the biggest star not named
Lebron James or Steph Curry in the NBA, you don't

(54:34):
have somebody. Now, you have some star players Nikola Jokich's
famous Giannis de Kompo's famous jamis I mean, Jason Tatum
is kind of famous, but you don't have somebody with
the global impact of interest to where you are garnering
interest from casual fans. That's what this is all about.

(54:56):
That's what this is in the game, and that's what
I think some of us who are die hard fan
like me, I freaking talk sports and watch sports for
a living. This is what I do. I'm a diehard fan.
You're listening to a sports station right now at eleven
fifteen am. You're a die hard sports fan. We have
to remember that it's not always about us. It's about
getting those outside eyeballs. When people ask why are the
cowboys always on? Cowboys are never good? Cowboys have a name,

(55:20):
Cowboys have cachet. Cowboys get eyeballs. Michael Jordan got eyeballs,
Magic and Larry got eyeballs, Lron James, Steph Curry got eyeballs.
Outside of those guys right now, as far as the top,
who can you walk down the street and say this

(55:40):
and people one hundred out of one hundred people name
Lebron James, how many people out of one hundred are
naming Nikolai Okic, I mean Luka Doncic. I think probably
has certainly some star power as well, but then you're
going to I don't know, Shay Gilgess Alexander as a
top five guy. I mentioned Jason Tatum as a top
five guy. I mean Joel Embiid hardly even plays. I

(56:04):
think it is a number there. Kevin Durant, I think
it's somebody I mentioned as should have been mentioning last
as probably the last decade as a big star. But
I don't think to the level of Lebron James, certainly
not the level of you know, Magic and Michael and
those guys. Anthony Edwards is a big name, but the
person who's not an NBA fan really say, oh, the
Minnesota Timberwolves and Anthony Edwards are on, I have to

(56:25):
flip my TV on. No, So I think they have
a star power issue. I think the state of the
game with all the three pointers, I think that has
turned some people off the league as well, to where
it's just drive and kick driving, kick driving, kick driving kick.
We want layups, We want threes, we want layups, we
want threes. Then if you take that out, then what
you're getting mid range? Was it really fun watching Tim

(56:47):
Duncan work on the low post for seventeen seconds of
the twenty four second clock. That wasn't super entertaining. But
also those ratings were very low in those years, So
I think it is a state of play. I think
it is the accessibility of the games where maybe numbers
are down because people are illegal streaming, and I think
you're lacking in star power, and I think Girod You're
absolutely right. There's been a dilution of the discourse around

(57:12):
the NBA has eroded to simply boiling it down to rings.
How many rings you got, rings, rings, rings, rings, rings.
Kobe had five rings, Lebron has four rings, rings, Michael
Jordan has six rings. That's rings. Everybody talks about these
super teams and how they can't believe everybody wants to
go play together. The NBA fans, You did this, You

(57:33):
talked about rings, rings, rings, rings, drings, rings, rings, nothing
ever matters. And then so that's what the discourse became.
That's what the players came to chase, and that's what's
completely devalued the regular season. A regular season matchup in
nineteen eighty six between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson was
a huge thing. Now it's like, well it's not the finals.
Who cares. So you're lacking in star power. You've devalued

(57:57):
your own regular season to where you've put yourself in
baseball regular season territory, and you have all these other issues.
And that is the problem, one of the many, many,
many problems that Adam Silverler is faced with to try
to fix and try to get this league back to
where it was. First things first, to me, invest in
star power. Everything else will kind of fall into place.

(58:21):
Don't just put Lebron James and Steph Curry on every
single big game, because those are the guys that are
gonna get you the big ratings. Invest in other stars
or get them going up against and instead of each
other other teams. And I just don't feel like they've
done a good job of marketing these other stars. But
also you have to get lucky, and these guys have
to have that same start a type of star power.

(58:41):
Does shake Gildess Alexander have the same charisma level of
Michael Jordan, of course not. So it's a mix of things,
certainly with the state of the NBA. I went way
over I know, I know, it's holiday ratings. It's fine,
all right, We're gonna take a quick break here on
the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. I got off on

(59:03):
a rant there, so we're gonna try to get back
on time.

Speaker 6 (59:05):
Back in a second more Matt Thomas Show with Ross
now Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
Okay, we're way off clock now that you care, because
I went way too long on that NBA rant. But
I mean, I think I I love the NBA, That's
why I care about it, and it's got issues. It's
not a super big surprise to me that ratings have
been down lately. Tweet from Pedro three twenty eight for Gerad. Yeah,

(59:35):
he went on quite the rant. I didn't even address
some of the rocket stuff he got to, which I will,
but only a couple of minutes before we're supposed to
break again. Ron has been waiting patiently, so we'll get
to some of those rockets issues brought up by Girard
in just a second. But Ron in the southwest side
wanted to get in. What's up Ron?

Speaker 16 (59:52):
Hey, Ross, Happy holidays, so you man, thanks for letting
me get in. Yeah, I just kind of pick it
back in on what you're saying. You know, I think
the NBA seems like they want to gear the finals
and the playoffs and everything towards the end towards their
star players. And you know, you bring up the Rockets.
There's no way they're gonna let the Rockets get to
the finals this year, that we don't have the star power,
And I think that hurts just what you're saying. By

(01:00:14):
the time you get to the finals, other marcus don't
really care to watch because they might not be into
that star power. So, you know, just your thoughts, and
I think you hit on the nail when you said,
spread the spread the stars around, give them more promoting,
make more people want to see more Star Wars versus
you know, going for that one two knockout much trying
to recall Game six Western Conference Finals back in the
day with hard and against Curry and them, and they

(01:00:38):
changed the whole mo minium of the game and we lost,
and but SEUs to me, they just wanted to see
Curry and Lebron go at it again. So that's kind
of what kind of when I stopped watching or laid
back a little bit, still a diehard fan, love my Rockets.
Hopefully they can upset the world. But you know, those
are just my thoughts.

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
All right, Thanks, thanks, thank you, Ron appreciate it. I
don't think it's a multi layered conversation, but I don't
think there's a lot of conscious biases. I don't think
there's marching orders. And I know we can get into
the whole Tim Donahey stuff. And Tim Donahey, by all accounts,

(01:01:15):
is a snake and a liar, so he's very a
very what do they call it in literature, an unreliable
narrator or something like that. I can't remember what the
exact phrase is. But you can't trust what Tim Donahey
necessarily says. But if you do, that's fine. If you
think the games are rigged, that's fine. The Boston Celtics

(01:01:36):
did win last year, but they beat the Dallas Mavericks.
Before that, it was the Denver Nuggets versus the Miami Heat.
Is Denver in Miami? Is that who they? If they
could rig it, it would be New York versus LA. Every
single year before that was the Warriors and the Bucks,
Okay Lakers, Toronto Raptors, before that Cleveland. Now Lebron of

(01:01:57):
course the big star of there. But I just don't
necessarily buy that the league is rigging their finals. Otherwise,
why did the San Antonio Spurs, the most boring team
in history, win five championships between nineteen ninety nine and
two thousand and fourteen. I just I don't buy it personally. Now,

(01:02:19):
do referees probably unconsciously give star players the more benefit
of the doubt? Absolutely, Steph Curry falls down, you're probably
gonna get a call. I don't know, Corey Brewer or somebody.
No disrespect to Corey Bruce Are You're the first name

(01:02:40):
that brought to my head of a non star player
falls down, then he might not get that call. He
might get that benefit of the doubt. Lebron James, my god,
how many millions of calls has he gotten in his career.
But the same thing was for Michael Jordan back in
the day, and for the star players in those days.
It's kind of just star treatment from referee is real.

(01:03:00):
It happens in football with quarterbacks, say Tom Brady getting
knocked around. It's a little bit different than when say
Jacoby Brissett gets knocked around you're like, where's the flag?
That guy just got mauled and destroyed? No flag, you
lay a feather touch on, Tom Brady, flags come a
fly in. So, yeah, it's star calls are a thing.

(01:03:26):
But I don't necessarily buy that there are marching orders
from the from the league and the commission, because something
would have come out by now. You would have had
a whistleblower right now. If they've been rigging the league
for however long you think they've been rigging it, I
don't think so. I just think it comes down to
star power, and the Golden State had more star power
in those days. And well, the Rockets don't get a
lot of calls and maybe as much as they should

(01:03:47):
because they don't have a lot of star power right now.
So it does seem like they get screwed or sometimes
they get fouls get called, and then Steve Kerr, the
last person on planet Earth besides maybe Lebron, James and
Michael themselves, they should be complaining about about referee calls,
and then the call was upheld. But yeah, the refereeing
isn't great. Kind of dilutes the products sometimes when that

(01:04:10):
becomes the story over other things. But it happens in
the NFL. It's the National Flag League. I mean, watch
literally one game any week. There's flags all over the
freaking place. It feels like there's a flag every other play.
If not more, we watch because well, it's it's more
of a compelling game that the regular season matters more.
There's only seventeen of them, there's not eighty two of them.

(01:04:32):
And you know, we've all got things going on in
our lives, and we carve out more time on a
regular schedule on a Sunday or a Saturday or a
Wednesday now. But yeah, NBA has got issues. Officiating certainly
is a problem, but I don't think necessarily it's it's
a rigged league. Okay, still want to get to Drod's
comments on the Rockets. Still want to get to those
of you on hold, But I have gotten off the clock.

(01:04:53):
We're going to try to get close to back on
here at seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
That is the phone number if you'd like to get in.
We've got Dan Matthews joining us sometime afternoon. I am
flying solo until then, you want to co host for
a couple of minutes, you can get in and talk
to me at seven one three two one two five
at seven ninety Dylan Brooks Here back to Dylan Reverse
Lamp Goddess.

Speaker 9 (01:05:14):
Stay clutched with the iHeartRadio app here every Rockets game
on Sports Docs seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:05:19):
There it is Dylan Brooks, Home of your Rockets. Rockets,
all right, don't show up around Robert de Niro on
a mink coat when this song plays. That's your good
fellow's reference to that movie's thirty four years old. Welcome
back to the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. I wanted
to make you all feel old nineteen ninety, wasn't it.

(01:05:42):
Welcome back to the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Matt
Thomas is not here. He will be back tomorrow, but
guess what I won't be I will be on vacation
for a couple of days. It is simply that time
of year, folks, a lot of shuffling around. Adam Clanton
has been missing time. Matt's missing time. I'm missing time.
Adam Wexer, you know what. We give him a gold
star because he has just been hanging out, putting in

(01:06:02):
the extra hours as well. In the meantime. You can
get in if you would like it's seven to one
three two one two five, seven ninety. We'll have Dan
Matthews coming up in a little bit. We've got the
news at noon. We got shut shoe bomb, ass up slash.
Ain't nobody got time for that. That's coming up at
one o'clock. You're on Sports Talk seven ninety so uh yeah, quickly,

(01:06:23):
All in Girod's Rockets comments, Yeah, they simply don't have
a star player. They don't have somebody that's on the
final two minutes, the final two minutes of the game,
who are they going to go to. We'd like it
to be Alprin Shingoon, but also depending on the defensive matchup,
he can get shut down. He also turns the ball over.
Same thing for Jalen Green. He was definitely their final

(01:06:43):
two minutes go to guy. But the three point shot
just simply has not developed. We lived in a world
where Jalen Green can get his three point percentage up
to like thirty five, thirty eight percent, I think we'd
be in a great spot. But unfortunately the Rockets, while
they play good, hard nosed team defense, it can only
take you so far when you get into the playoffs,

(01:07:05):
When you get deep into games, when you get into
crunch time, you're gonna need somebody that's gonna step up,
rise above and be better than everyone else. Nikola Jokicic
does it for the Warriors. I mean it's for the Warriors.
For the Nuggets, of course, Steph Curry has done it
for the Warriors for years and years and years. James Harden.
As much as I know we hated the not we
but I never really hated James Harden. I know a
lot of you did, but he would come through in

(01:07:26):
the clutch in the last two minutes of games all
the time and bail the Rockets out. I mean John Morant,
Chay Gill, Gilgess, Alexander Luka, Doncic. I mean those are
like closers. Who's the closer for the Rockets, I don't know,
And no doubt about it. This guy's getting the ball
and they're gonna go score, and he's gonna elevate and
be great. Because you can play good team defense all

(01:07:47):
you want, you can run good offensive sets all you want,
but at the end of the day, especially when you
run into the best of the best and good defenses,
you just have to have somebody who is that much
more elite and talented and can rise above it and
get you that last couple of possessions, those last couple
of buckets and win games. And the Rockets simply do

(01:08:09):
not have that at this moment. I mean, think about
the you know, yeah, they lost to the thunder by
fifteen points, but a lot of times these games are
between five, six, seven points. You beat the Warriors by
one point, you get you know, randomly, about ninety to
one hundred posessions a game. Six points is two possessions,

(01:08:30):
three three at the most, four or five points like
those things. Those those minuscule thin margins matter, and the
Rockets don't have some money. Who excels enough in those moments.
Seven one, three, two, two five, seven ninety is the
phone number if you want to get in Chase in Clearlake,
want to sock some chiefs. What's up, Chase?

Speaker 17 (01:08:50):
What the brother?

Speaker 4 (01:08:51):
How you doing?

Speaker 2 (01:08:52):
I'm doing great? Go ahead, I have.

Speaker 18 (01:08:55):
I think that the spread still I think it's still
three for Kansas City, But I think that the Texans
have been struggling with a little bit of an identity
crisis with this year. The last year obviously was our
super hot offense with CJ. Being red hot every single
week this year, It's not really been the case as
he'd known. We've lost a lot of close games, but
our defense within the last few weeks has really kind

(01:09:15):
of stepped in and been that for us.

Speaker 2 (01:09:18):
So with us going into this week, with our defense
being on such.

Speaker 18 (01:09:20):
A role, I think that the Texans are going to
win this game on seven points this weekend. I am
going to hang up and hear your thoughts.

Speaker 2 (01:09:27):
Thanks for being here today. In a shout out to Matt. Yeah,
shout out to Matt. He'll be back tomorrow. Thank you, Chase.
I was kind of talking about this matchup in the
first hour, and I've talked about this all year and
I'd kind of forgotten about it. But what has been
texans number one issue all year long? I would say

(01:09:49):
the play of the offensive line. What has really really
given this Texans offensive line issues. That has been pressures,
what gave them a hell of a time early on
in the season on the road in Minnesota, it was
the Brian Flores led defense where they bring six, seven,

(01:10:11):
eight guys up to the line of scrimmage and the
other offensive line, the opposing offensive line has to figure
out who's coming who's not who's just doing this for show?
Who are you going to pick up? Who am I
going to pick up? Who are we going to pick up?
Who's the running back going to pick up? And you
have to do that on the road in a very
loud environment. In that game, the Texans lost thirty four

(01:10:37):
to seven, and they turned the ball over a couple
of times and did not gain a turnover. This weekend,
the Texans are going to go on the road in
a hostile environment against a mad hatter, mad scientist. Defensive

(01:10:57):
coordinator Steve Spagnolo, who's going to put seven eight guys
at the offensive line, or excuse me, on the defensive line.
He's gonna bring some he's not gonna bring others, And
I mean Chris Jones and George car Loftus and some
of those other guys in that front seven. For the
Kansas City Chiefs, I'm a feared are going to wreak

(01:11:19):
havoc on this offensive line that if they a stick
with them they had last week, it's only their second
week to build chemistry and cohesiveness, and if b they
switch up the offensive line, it'll be like the fourth
or fifth iteration of an offensive line they've gone with
this year with only three weeks left in the season.
So you add all that up, I'm scared about the

(01:11:43):
Chiefs this weekend. Well, let me just put it that way.
So I'm struggling to see a path to the Texans
putting up enough points, especially if Pat Mahomes plays. I
think it'll be close. I think their defense can slow
down the Chiefs, but I think the Chiefs defense is
going to slow down their offense even that much more. CJ.

(01:12:06):
Stroud is gonna have to be great. He's gonna have
to rise above a lot of pressures. They're gonna have
to not commit any negative plays in terms of penalties
or lost yardage in sacks. They're gonna have to play
an extremely clean game. And then even then, I think
it's gonna be close. It's a very low total, which
I mean, the more I think about it, the more
it feels about right. I guess these Vegas guys kind

(01:12:27):
of know what they're doing. Forty one and a half.
That's lower than say Giants Falcons, which might be Michael
Pennix versus Tommy DeVito. That's forty two and a half. Well,
I'll let you know. With these quarterbacks who are who
are among the top ten and elite. I still put CJ.
Shroud in the top ten. We know Pat mahomes the
top one. Yeah, that's because these defenses are gonna be

(01:12:49):
really good. I think it will be a low scoring game.
I don't think it's gonna be a thirty eight to
thirty five shootout. I just don't think the first of all,
if anybody'scoring thirty eight points, texts are't gonna be able
to get close. They just haven't shown the ability to
do that. Save against the Patriot it wo are terrible.
So if you want to say the Texans win by seven,
I'm gonna be over the moon about it, because, of course,

(01:13:09):
as you know, I am battle Red Ross, and that
would also get the Texans to ten wins. That would
also make a certain co host of mine lose a
bet not to me, but a bet for the season,
and I like watching Matt Thomas lose. So I want
the Texans to win. I just think it's going to
be a knockdown, drag out. They're gonna lose, like nineteen
to thirteen or something. That's my gut feeling. I guess

(01:13:31):
I got to put a name and put my name
on it by the end of this by end of today,
because I'm gonna be out the rest of the week.
But it feels like a low scoring, knockdown, dragout, not
pretty game that the Texans lose a close one. Stop
me if you've heard that before. All right, time for
a quick break here on the Matt Thomas Show with
ross those you and hold we will get to you.
We've also got the News at noon coming up. We've

(01:13:53):
also got Dan Matthews coming up. We've also got at
one o'clock eight. No body got time for that slast
shut Joe bump ass up. So we got a lot
of fun stuff planned and we'll be back with you
after this very short break. You can get in at
seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven
one three two, one two five seven ninety Oh. But
before we get to that break, I must ask you,
how are you feeling? How are things going? Have you

(01:14:14):
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(01:14:35):
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Speaker 12 (01:15:08):
More.

Speaker 6 (01:15:08):
Matt Thomas Show with Ross now on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 2 (01:15:13):
Ninety Matt King Cole one of the all time great
So welcome back to the Matt Thomas Show with Ross.
I was gonna say Sports r V show, I've been
in this. Uh well, there's a lot of monologueing going
on in the show, but you guys been calling in
getting in the last hour. I do really appreciate that.
So I'm feeling like it's in sports r V show mode.

(01:15:34):
But that show is gone. I used to be on Saturdays.
Now I'm on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. That
is me, and we'll be joined by Dan Matthews, so
I'll go into co host mode. Coming up, we got
news at noon and then we'll have ain't no bodygat
time for that slash shut joke bump ass up coming
up at one o'clock. In the meantime, you can get
in at seven one three two one two five seven

(01:15:55):
ninety seven one three two one two five seven ninety
And speaking of the phone lines, let's go to one
of the old friends, I mean old in an ice way, Biscuit,
good friends of the show. Biscuit, what's going on?

Speaker 12 (01:16:09):
Hey man, I'm I'm so old. I remember Ross when
he was in the producer role. Me too, and I
remember calling and on Saturday to talking to rosscause Ross
didn't have nobody to talk to.

Speaker 2 (01:16:22):
That's what I'm talking about, Biscuit. You've always been there
for me. I appreciate it.

Speaker 12 (01:16:26):
You know, my brother always got to help another brother out.

Speaker 2 (01:16:28):
That's what I like.

Speaker 12 (01:16:30):
Hey, man, let me say this about the NBA. Man,
And this is when my brother just watched the NBA
in the seventies, eighties, nineties and today, and I'm like you,
I'm a basketball guy, so I'm gonna watch it. I'm
gonna watch basket. I'm from Indiana, so I'm gonna watch basketball.
There's a lot of people, particularly here in Houston, if
the Rockets ain't doing good, they could care less about basketball.

(01:16:51):
But to me, ross one of the issues we didn't get.
You don't get somewhere overnight. It's like, over time, something happens.

Speaker 3 (01:17:00):
To me.

Speaker 12 (01:17:01):
If the first thing that I would do if I
was commissioner that I would take out his own defenness,
I wouldn't make everybody have to play man the man again,
because what it did was it took away the inside guy. Remember,
because back in the day, when you know we came
up the inside the guys were dominating Dream and the
King and you know Ewing and you know Robinson, the

(01:17:23):
inside guy's dominated. But when they put the zone in,
particularly probably before Shaq, that allowed teams to kind of
almost take the big guy out of there because you
could just immediately double team or like halfway double team
and still get back to the other guy. Whereas before
if you you had to be a hard double team,
and then the other guy would be open. If he

(01:17:44):
kicked it to him, then it was a wide open shot.
So the three, it's becoming a harder shot because it's
more contested than it used to be because you don't
have to worry about the pain area. You said, Am
I making sense? And so seem like last night, I
like Blake, what say like last night? Okay, see, they

(01:18:04):
had no inside presence, so they were forced to jack
up threes and it was contested, and so next thing
you know, they won for fifteen one, for eighteen and three.
You can't run that way, man, you gotta be balanced.
And so the NBA needs to some kind of way
open the paint back up and get the paint area going,
and then I think the outside shots will come.

Speaker 2 (01:18:26):
Yeah, yeah, that's interesting. I like that idea. But and
I know they're I guess you want zone defense outlaw,
but but teams don't really play zone defense a whole lot, biscuit.
I feel like it's something that teams go to for
a couple of possessions here and there, and then that's it.

Speaker 12 (01:18:40):
But what I'm saying to you though, is even if
they're not playing a straight up zone, they're allowed to
hang around. Yeah four, Yeah, there is a hedge in
the pain. It was called more and so it was obvious.
Now you can't. You can say, well, he just they
playing Maybe they're playing his own so I can't really
the ref can't really call it, you know what I mean.
Maybe they're playing the right you know before if you

(01:19:03):
wasn't by your man, if he's over here and you're
right there, it's obvious call, you know.

Speaker 15 (01:19:07):
What I'm saying.

Speaker 12 (01:19:08):
So you got to get the paint back over. My
point is you have to get the paint back because
now it's to a point where you're not rewarded in
the paint. So no guys even have a back of
the basket game anymore, you know what I mean. So
everybody's a pull up type of guy. And so I mean,
if you watch the women's game, say in college or
something like that, they still do those things. They still

(01:19:33):
do the points in the paint and the pull up
jumpers and stuff like that. Where the NBA is either
like you said, drive and tear drop or kick it
to somebody shooting jacking up a three, and it takes
away some of the athleticism of the game. That's what
I'm saying. You help the skill players, but to hurt
the athletic players. And that's where the entertainment cames in.

(01:19:55):
And everything's about entertainment. And you know, the w NBA
Finals more entertaining than the NBA Finals. Yeah, blowout WNB,
going to double over time and last second shots and
you know, but that's my opinion.

Speaker 2 (01:20:13):
I got your biscuit. I got to put you on
hold because we've got a one quick caller and then
a break here. I appreciate you, but I understand and well,
I mean, the very the in vogue defense on pick
and rolls is drop coverage, where the big man just
completely drops down into the paint. And I guess in
an illegal defense, that's pretty that's a pretty smart solution.
I think. I wonder if they would consider that to
where the big man just drops into the paint, and so, yeah,

(01:20:34):
it becomes you're forcing mid range shots on those pick
and rolls, and you wouldn't be able to do that
with the old illegal defense roles. And yeah, you can
kind of just hedge off and you know, play. You
can have guys play free safety, like people will play
free safety off of somebody who's like a non shooter,
like a Man Thompson or well alprin Shangoon. They'll play

(01:20:56):
way back and then and the old illegal defense rules
you wouldn't be able to do that. That is interesting.
Maybe that that's something that would help UH scoring up.
The reason they enacted the zone defense rules and allowing
those because Shaq was too dominant. They had to allow
people to muddy up the paint. And well, Shack's out
of the league now. So that'd be interesting to see
if they would do that. Let's get to Roger real
quick on the state of the NBA. Got about sixty

(01:21:17):
seconds for you, Roger, go ahead, okay, well he said
his piece and zero seconds. That is lightning fast, Roger.
We appreciate you. I said, be quick. I didn't know
you're gonna be that quick. Yeah, so we'll see what happens.
Clearly there is an issue here, I don't know. I mean,
a solution that popped in my mind but is probably
too extreme to an act, would be putting a cap

(01:21:38):
on three pointers like each team gets forty, and after that,
if you take forty, the threes only count as twos.
What do you think about that? Hmm? I don't know.
All right, let's take a quick break here on the
Matt Thomas Show with Ross. My name is Ross Viory
Akonomic Governance. Here, Dan Matthews will be getting into the fold.
We get shut yeah, bump, ass up, slash ain't nope,

(01:22:02):
body got time for that? Coming up at one o'clock.
But coming up next, what's going on in sports day?
It is the news at noon.

Speaker 1 (01:22:10):
Lunchtimers. This is the Matt Thomas.

Speaker 2 (01:22:14):
Show, twelve oh two in eh down. What's happening lunch timers? Hello,
and welcome in to a Wednesday edition of The Matt
Thomas Show with Ross. Matt Thomas remains out. He will
be back tomorrow from vacation or I think it might
even be staycation. Goodness knows what he's doing. I don't
know if he's, as he would say, bumping around town.

(01:22:36):
But he will be back tomorrow. I will be off Thursday,
Friday and Monday. As I passed the baton to one
Matt Thomas, a lot of stuff going on in sports.
We've been talking a little baseball, a little Texans and
Chiefs this weekend. Also some NBA and Rockets. Y'all getting
in on that. I appreciate it. Phone lines are open

(01:22:58):
at seven one three, two one two seven ninety seven
one three two one two five seven ninety What the
heck is going on in the world of sports in
h town and around? Well? For that, we go to
the News at noon with Connor McGovern governs. Are you
prefer I d Connor mcgovernn. What do we have on

(01:23:20):
the news today, lad?

Speaker 10 (01:23:21):
Yes, this is the News at noon. Houston Texas corner
Derek Stingley Junior has been named AFC Defensive Player of
the Week the NFL now is today. Sting LEYE Garner's
his second career Player of the Week honor following his
two interception performance that helped the Texans capture their second
consecutive AFC South Division championship. Head coach Dimiko Ryans had
this to say about his standout corner.

Speaker 5 (01:23:42):
I mean it was it's very impressive. Like I said,
it's a player I haven't very rare you see a
player make a play that way to end the game
like that was. That's all pro type plays like that
that's what it looks like, you know, when you're one
of the top guys in your position in the league
going up matching up against you know, one of the
best white house in the league as well, and to

(01:24:03):
make the plays that he made.

Speaker 2 (01:24:05):
You know, can't say enough.

Speaker 5 (01:24:06):
About how impactful Stingley has been, you know, throughout not
only those plays on yesterday, but he's Stingley has been
impactful throughout the entire year. I think for the past
three wins, he's been our defensive player of the game.
So when he's making impact plays, it's putting us in
position to win football games.

Speaker 2 (01:24:26):
You're Stingly making all pro plays. All Pro We'll see.
To me, probably the best corner in football is Pat
Sertan the second. Then we're getting into where does Derek stingleague,
But there's been some slippage and Sauce Gardner's game. Uh,

(01:24:47):
Marlon Humphley is good, Alexander has been playing that much.
Christian Zalez is pretty good. Jalen Rams he's still pretty solid. Hmmm.
Oh Queena. And Mitchell the rookie from the Philadelphia Eagles,
he's been doing very well. But Derek Stingley's in that
second group. He certainly is does that get him to

(01:25:07):
All Pro? They're really certainly pushing it, they're talking about it.
I don't know if it's gonna happen, but you keep
racking up defensive Player of the weeks, that's gonna help
your case. Derek Stingley has been absolutely a plus plus
player for the Texans this year and part of the
defense that's playing extremely well. I thought they were going
to take a step back, really, but Jalen Petrie gone
for the year with Isis Algierra is still out. Going

(01:25:28):
up against the Dolphins offense that had been hot. They'd
put up thirty plus points in three out of the
last four games. They did a great job. I mean
they just completely shut that Dolphins offense down and well
for the most part, just stayed disciplined on like fifty screens.
But I digress. What else is in the news at noon?

Speaker 10 (01:25:45):
Economic government Texans offensive guard Kenyan Green has officially ACTIVISTD
injured reserved for being designated for return a week ago.
According to front from the station Aaron Wilson, Green participated
fully in practiced yesterday and has made a full recovery
from shoulder injury suffered against the New York Jets with
Juice Scrugs out for a couple more weeks with a
foot injury. Kenyon Green gives the Texans depth at guard

(01:26:06):
where Titus Howard slid over to on Sunday. Dimiko Ryans
had this to say yesterday about Titus Howard's performance at guard.

Speaker 2 (01:26:13):
And for Titus moving inside.

Speaker 5 (01:26:15):
First off, is you know, thankful to him for making
that move and transition. As you mentioned, he's been in
there before, so it's not totally new to him. Just
things happen a lot quicker on the inside than the outside.

Speaker 4 (01:26:27):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:26:28):
You know, Titus has that power in size to handle
the big rushers on the inside, so he's you know,
I think he's a really good fit for being in there.
Is just understanding how quickly those games and things happen.
Where you have a little more space on the outside,
you have more space, a little bit more time in
the inside, just have to have quicker reaction time.

Speaker 10 (01:26:49):
Will Kenyon Green make his return to the lineup moving
Titus Howard back over to tackle and Blake Fisher out?

Speaker 2 (01:26:55):
I hope not. You'd rather have Blake Fisher and still
gosh Blake Fisher. Okay, Blake Fisher has been like mediocre.
Kenyan Green has been a disaster, So I guess if
it's gonna be a one for one, Titus Howard kicked
into guard. With Blake Fisher out there at right tackle,
that's probably better. And of note to what you're bringing up,

(01:27:18):
Connor McGovern talked about it earlier Pro Football Focus. Again,
I always temper not the end all be all. It
is one data point. But they put out their offensive
rankings offensive line rankings earlier. Today they have the Houston
Texans twenty seventh out of thirty two in the NFL.
Not great, but hopefully those numbers. I mean, at one

(01:27:40):
point earlier in the season they were about middle of
the pack, but then all hell broke loose with Kenny
Green being terrible in injuries and lack of cohesiveness going
on the road at Arrowhead against Steven Spegnolo and that
chief defense. I am worried. I don't know what they're
gonna do at offensive line. We'll move along to baseball.

Speaker 10 (01:27:58):
The Chicago Cubs had a they're plus the outfielders after
acquiring Kyle Tucker, so they traded Cody Battling Jerts in
the New York Yankees yesterday, the Cubs also agreed to
send the Yankees five million dollars as part of the
deal for right handed pitcher Cody Petite. With only one
year away from free agency, cal Tucker said he's open
to talks with Chicago on a long term deal, saying quote, definitely,
Chicago was a great city to play in, great city.

Speaker 2 (01:28:20):
Just in general, so I'm open for anything.

Speaker 10 (01:28:22):
Tucker was also on MLB Network saying quote, I don't
think I could have gone to a much better organization
than the Cubs.

Speaker 19 (01:28:28):
Like I said, you know at the beginning, I appreciate
everything that you know, the Houston Asher's Foundation and the team,
and you know, the city itself has done for me
and my family since I got drafted in fifteen till now.
And I don't think I could have gone to, you know,
a much better organization than the Cubs. So I'm excited
to start, you know, playing in front of the fans
in the city and everything.

Speaker 14 (01:28:46):
Now.

Speaker 19 (01:28:46):
So you know, a lot of things in life and
sports and everything kind of is what is, Stuff happens, whatnot.
You know, some stuffs out of your control, but you
just got to, you know, make the most with it.
I'm still real close with everyone you know on the Astros.
It's not like we're all enemies now or anything or
I hate everyone over there.

Speaker 2 (01:29:05):
No, that's not it.

Speaker 19 (01:29:07):
Obviously, when whenever we'd play against them, I would prefer to,
you know, win. But you know, at the end of
the day, we're I'm so close with a lot of
those guys on there, you know, some close friends of mine.

Speaker 10 (01:29:18):
So the Cubs trading coding Bellinger to the Yankees and
Kyle Tucker interested in a long term deal in Chicago.

Speaker 2 (01:29:23):
Hm. And that's also, by the way, the world record
the most Kyle Tucker has ever spoken unbroken. We appreciate him. No,
he does a good job. When he first came up,
it was a he was a very very short and
sweet clearly the media training doing a good job of
Kyle Tucker with the with the answer there. But yeah,
it doesn't hate anybody here in Houston. Of course, don't

(01:29:43):
expect him to. This is twenty twenty four, and he
will will will will. We as fans would have liked
to have had him long term in a Houston Astros uniform,
but we understand. I mean, it's just something you have
to get used to. Jim Crane's not going to spend
like the the Yankees, Dodgers and Mets. He's his and
it is in Nor really should he. It's his team.

(01:30:05):
He can do as he sees fit. He hasn't been cheap.
He's been up to the tax threshold, went over it
last year, right moved for the organization with Kyle Tucker.
But now Cody Bellinger in a New York Yankees uniform.
What does that mean, if anything, for Alex Bregman and
him possibly landing with the New York Yankees. Does this
give the Red Sox a leg up? We had Brian

(01:30:25):
bogos Sevic of Space City Home Network, of course, former
Astro outfielder himself, talking yesterday. He predicted the Detroit Tigers
would be interesting. Clearly Alex Bregman and other organizations see
value in him. Clearly aj Hinch, Alex Korra seeing value
in Alex Bregman. Will see where all the chips fall
as we go along here on the off season for

(01:30:48):
your Houston Astros, what else you got? Connor go back
to the NFL.

Speaker 10 (01:30:51):
The Atlanta Falcons have benched Kirk Cousins in our turning
to rookie Michael Pennix Junior to take the starting quarterback
spot as the Falcons fight for their first playoff. Berth
twenty seventeen, the Falcons, who are at seven and seven
and at a four game losing streak with Monday Nights
at fifteen to nine win over the Las Vegas Raiders.
Cousins threw for one hundred and twelve yards and a touchdown,
his first touchdown pass in five games, but also recorded

(01:31:13):
an interception. Cousins leads the NFL with sixteen interceptions. Atlanta
benching Kirk Cousins after signing him to a four year,
one hundred million dollar contract in the offseason with one
hundred million dollars guaranteed.

Speaker 2 (01:31:26):
Yeah, that's and there are some people I wonder how
much of this is results. Ori inted thinking there are
people defending Kirk Cousins and panics that are like, see,
this is why you draft Michael Pennix, because Kirk Cousins
could have could have faltered like this. Well, if you
thought Kirk Cousins was gonna crazy like this, you wouldn't
have signed him to a four year, one hundred and

(01:31:47):
eighty million dollar deal. I understand the thought that, hey,
it's so hard to find our guys. So we're gonna
get as many of our guys as we can get,
and hopefully somebody will work out, whether it be Michael Panix,
whether it be Kirk Cousins, whether it be whatever. But
I would say on a vacuum, signing a quarterback to
a four year, one hundred and eighty million dollar deal
only to bench him in the first year and then
have to eat all that money of the contract if

(01:32:08):
they release him after this season, it was stupid. But
the Falcons are so stupid their geniuses because Cousins has
been an absolute disaster. He's having his worst season probably
in his career as a professional, and he is like
thirty six years old or whatever. But if you thought
there was a chance that you were going to bench

(01:32:29):
him and he wasn't gonna be the guy, you wouldn't
have signed him with that big deal. So at the
end of the day, it looks smart because they can
get Michael Pinnix a couple of starts, see what he's got.
Maybe he can build some momentum into the next year.
He's had almost a full season to learn, so good
on the Falcons. I guess we're having a backup plan.
But that's an expensive backup plan to an already expensive contract.

(01:32:50):
So I'm still not sure I'm buying what Summer selling
saying that this is a master stroke, genius move by
the Falcons having this backup plan in place. Speaking of
the Falcons, former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick has agreed
has agreed to become the head coach at Norfolk State.
Norfolk State fired coach Dawson Odams in November after a

(01:33:11):
four and eight season. Apparently Vic also spoke to Sacramento
State about their head coaching position. But Michael Vick, with
no previous coaching experience the new head coach at Norfolk State?
Are they trying to go with the Dion Sanders mode
here model? He's gonna get a bunch of people excepting
Michael made a bunch of recruits. Now, Yeah, Michael Vick
just does not have the charisma and the swag if

(01:33:34):
if you will. What did the kids call it?

Speaker 4 (01:33:36):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:33:36):
I'm sorry? Riz short for charisma right? Or is that
only with the late? Is the rizz only with the ladies?

Speaker 4 (01:33:41):
Can you?

Speaker 2 (01:33:42):
You can't riz everyone? No? Okay, so I can't riz you?
I mean you could but you're not. You're not trying
to pick me up. I don't think so. Yeah, I'm
trying to press a girl. I know you're spoken for,
but it's sure for charisma. Charisma you can use anywhere.
It's true. All right, anyways, this is why I go
to the Young fell and consult. Connor has spoken I
I will go by his word. Okay, charisma, let's go

(01:34:07):
with that. Michael Vick lacking in that department. I feel
like it was certainly compared to Dion Sanders, who I mean,
who was on TV is a star in his own
right prime, he had a rap career. I mean he
was selling PEPSI Stoda's Dion Sanders coach Prime. I feel
like can recruit with the best of them and sell.
I don't know if Michael Vick can do that. But

(01:34:27):
it also is Norfolk State. It'll be the state. We'll see.
It'll be interesting to see what happens there going forward.
All right, time for a quick break here on the
mat Toommys show with Ross. That was the news at noon.
You want to react to any of that? And oh,
by the way, just saw as well, Titus Howard is
still practicing as a guard so sounds like that's good

(01:34:48):
news to me. It's on this Kenyon Green isn't involved anywhere,
Titus Howard going to be at guard. It sounds like
this weekend, Pat Mahomes full practice, Joe Mixon back at practice.
To what level? We'll talk about that as we go along,
and anything you want to get to. Seven one three
two one two five seven ninety the phone number seven
one three two one two five seven.

Speaker 6 (01:35:06):
Ninety more Matt Thomas Show with Ross Now Sports Talk
seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:35:14):
Maybe next year, Stevie, all right, welcome in nothings to
the Matt Thomas Show with Ross Now that I'm here,
a couple of things that I heard from last hour
that you brought up. Number one, completely agree with you
on Adam Wexler, and the other is great goodfella's reference.
Oh thank you? Oh I made a movie reference and
I didn't get the meat get ready the mink coat

(01:35:36):
right there? What are you doing? What are you doing?
I told you no big purchases. Take it back. Yeah,
Frosty the Snowman they're on. That's I think there's on
around that sequence. It could be argued that Goodfellas is
a pseudo Christmas movie. Oh stop stop at you people, No, no, no,
tons of Just because Christmas happens around the movie doesn't
make it a Christmas movie. SI, I don't want to

(01:35:59):
get with. Could you say that The Office was a
loose Christmas show? Because, oh, here we go. Christmas episodes
numerous ones. David Hookstead, who works for OutKick, does a
great job for them, and he pointed out every single
season's Christmas Party episode. Okay, so he's calling it a
Christmas show. No he's not, but he's just pointing out that,

(01:36:19):
you know, all of the great episodes around the Christmas Party,
and the one that I just watched was the Moroccan
Christmas that Meredith wanted to do. I don't remember that.
I'll take your word for it, all right. Dan Matthews
is here. We've already got two show and movie references
within thirty seconds of it being here. I haven't even
introduced him. So you're off to a hot start day.

(01:36:40):
Your best pitch is your fastball, and they know what's coming.
Throw the fastball. It doesn't matter like that they can't
hit it. And the Marianna Rivera of Sports Talk is here,
Dan Matthews fastball and a cutter and if you're Ryan Clusco,
you better have all of your bats in the rack
for this one, all right, So Dan Matthews into the
fold with us until two o'clock. We just got the
new was at noon, we'll have shut Joe bump ass

(01:37:01):
up slash. Ain't nobody got time for that coming up
at one o'clock. You guys can get in at seven
one three two one two five seven ninety seven one
three two one two five seven ninety So news at noon.
We were talking a little bit about the Texans. So
some practice notes coming out, mister Matthews first among them
U Joe Mixon scene. So that's good because he's at

(01:37:25):
least out there and practicing. I don't know if they
did they list with he was limited. I think they
listened to him it is not practice. Yesterday they listed
him as limited and they just had to walk through yesterday.
So they basically just went off of calculations of if
this estimate were an actual practice, would he go the
full way? And they said no, he wouldn't have, so
he was limited. They didn't do a distinction for the chiefs.

(01:37:48):
So I don't know if the chiefs went through a
full solid practice or maybe a pair down. I don't know,
but Mahomes was a full yesterday and our good buddy
Aaron Wilson with video of Joe Mixon catching passes that practice. Okay,
so is at least walking around Joe Mixon at practice.
And then also a good bit of news sounds like
Titus Howard still practicing with the guards. We had heard

(01:38:10):
that Kenyon Green has been activated back on the roster.
We were hoping, or at least me personally hoping that
the one of the worst guards in football was just
going to be activated for depth purposes in case somebody
goes down. Sounds like Titus Howard. It seems like the
plan is gonna be Blake Fisher back at right tackle,
Titus Howard on the interior, second straight week with the
same offensive line in a tough in a tough situation,

(01:38:35):
tough environment at Arrowhead, one of the loudest stadiums, if
not the loudest stadium in the NFL. I guess a
really good Chiefs defense. Well, get ready to be upset
with Laramie Tunsel then, because I think we're gonna have
one of those on Saturday. False start is what is
the Laramie Tunzel false start line one and a half. Yeah,
I was gonna say, I think you could probably set

(01:38:55):
it at that or an illegal shift or something along
those lines. I mean, it's just tex and his fans
Antennas to Laramie Ton sold number seventy eight being announced
by the referee that game, like it's you're just waiting
for it, like you're just you're you see the flag
is down, you know it's against the Texans, and you're like,
you better say number seventy eight, And as soon as

(01:39:16):
it happens, if they're at inn Archy Stadium, Booze seems
like he doesn't even yell. It seems like he didn't
even react anymore. He's like, yeah, I got another one,
all right, Well here we go. And I think that's
what annoys people. It's kind of like, damn it, man,
why don't you at least like, you know, act like
you care and then we won't be so upset with you.
Ten So I have that? Is this correct? Ten false
starts this year? I'm sure has it been? I have this.

(01:39:38):
I've used this before. It's NFL penalties dot Com. I'm
not I'm not disputing that they're wrong because I've I
used to check this, and I haven't been checking it
every week. Ten false starts this year, well, I mean me.
It even got to a point where certain broadcasters were
pretty upset whenever, Yeah, for seventy eight every week. Yeah yeah,
I mean he lets you know. But I've told you

(01:40:00):
this before about the whole Kenyan Green scenario. And for
some of the audience that don't know, Kenyan Green's not
playing again this season. If the Texans can he if
everybody's healthy, I was gonna say, I mean, because they're
looking at it now as we're at this point. You've
got to find your best five, and no matter where
you try to plug him in, he's not one of
your best five. And I think that this is really

(01:40:20):
kind of a proving ground for Blake Fisher of do
we have something to work with going into year two
or do we not? And also as well, your two
best offensive linemen, you're putting them together, so you at
least kind of look at it as all right, well,
at least we know we've got those guys out there,
and we've got an opportunity to be able to find
other good guys that can be able to mix in
as well. I mean, Jared Patterson has been pretty good.

(01:40:43):
I mean, he did have a couple of mess ups
in that game last week, including everybody except for the
quarterback ready to go on the play that led to
a fumble and Shack Mason. I mean, I almost wonder
if this is the end of the line for Shack Mason. Yeah,
I would have to guess that he might not be
next year. He hasn't been a complete disaster, but he
just hasn't been consistently good enough for the Texans moving forward.

(01:41:06):
He's been a part of this offensive line that's been struggling.
He hasn't been what you've needed, like you like you've
needed somebody to be able to raise their game just
a little bits. And I mean he's far from being
what he was when they won a super Bowl there
in Tampa. Yeah, all right, so Joe Mixon is practicing.
Sounds like the Texans aren't going to keep continuity on
the offensive line. That's good news, but also tough environment

(01:41:29):
this weekend. It also still sounds like Pat Mahomes is
going to play. We'll get some more news as we
go along on him and his status. As far as practicing,
you want to get in. We're talking some texts. We've
been talking some astros, we'ven't been talking the NBA and Rockets.
Anything you guys want to get to bring to the table, Well,
for me, it's a Friday because I'm going on vacation tomorrow.
So it said, anything goes Wednesday. On The Matt Thomas

(01:41:50):
Show with Ross without Matt Thomas, with Dan Matthews, with
Connor McGovern seven to one, three two one two five,
seven ninety is your phone number seven one three two
one two five night. Hey, it's coach.

Speaker 14 (01:42:03):
Here.

Speaker 2 (01:42:04):
Every Rockets game on Sports Talk seven ninety and on
the iHeartRadio app Home of your Rockets. Get to the point, Mariah,
what do you want.

Speaker 12 (01:42:24):
Is what?

Speaker 20 (01:42:32):
Me?

Speaker 2 (01:42:34):
Me? That me and that guy holding his bear me.
I love that meme like I saw one from Belichick
where it was members of the u n C lacrosse
team being scouted to be the next receiver for the
football and it's the guy me. Wow, Okay, me, morale, Okay,

(01:42:54):
you know what. Fine, If I have to, I'll step
up to the plate for this one. Welcome back to
The Mad Thomas Show with Ross Ross Viria with you
Dan Matthews as well. Matt Thomas will be back to
my row. I don't know, are you hanging out with
Matt any of those times? I have not been asked
for any day other than Mondays. I think he's getting
Chandler Rome on Friday for four hours, so that should be.

(01:43:18):
That should be fun. I was gonna say, I think
Chandler is then also with Adams, so it's gonna be.
Is he doing eight hours Chandler Rome Radio on Friday?
Rome Talks seven nine Talk seven nineties? So you know,
I know he just started his new podcast with trying
to get some reps. I stay Fair Territory TV. So
good for good for Chandler. It's a TV podcast. Well

(01:43:38):
it's it's that group that's with like A. J. Pierzinski
and Eric Kratz former Astro and Astro's legend. Eric Krats.
Wasn't he the one that called out the the Rockies
for cheating? I'm not I don't remember that one. And
then they're they're signing he called out the Eric Kratz
called out the Rockies or the Yankees or somebody for
sign stealing. I'm gonna I'm gonna bring that up. Yeah,

(01:44:01):
I was gonna say, so you got Eric Kratz, I
think Ken Rosenthal, which, by the way, I mean, if
you you know, follow Ken Rosenthal on Twitter. He's a
big chandler roam guy. X MLB catcher Eric Kratz claims
Rockets were caught. I mean Rockies were caught using Astros
esque sign stealing scheme in twenty eighteen. There you go.

Speaker 12 (01:44:19):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:44:19):
Anyways, as we all know, it wasn't just the Astros.
But anyways, you said, who is taking a shine and
chandler room? Oh, Ken Rosenthal is a big chandler room guy.
Well he should be a big chandler room guy if
they work together on the Athletic channel room I think.
I mean, look, he's breaking news like nobody's business. I
think he's a great writer and I always enjoy his article.
Dude's a wordsmith. He's a genius. But anyways, welcome back

(01:44:41):
in to the Matt Thomas Show with Ross, or as
Tim called it on Twitter, the Ross Show with Dan.
That's what we've got for you for about an hour
and a half coming up at one o'clock. We have
ain't no body got time for that slash, hut, choke, bump,
ass up. You guys can get in at seven, one, three, two, one, two, five,
seven ninety as well mentioning in the segment Titus Howard

(01:45:02):
is still practicing with the guards, so it sounds like
the offensive line is going to stick at least for
a week, barring injury or some other shuffling. And Joe
Mixon at practice for the Houston Texans, so that's good news.
Feels like he's going to be trending in the direction
of playing. But it also does feel like Pat Mahomes

(01:45:22):
is trending in the direction of playing with the full
practice yesterday. We'll wait to see if he is another
full participant in practice today, although I will say Adam
Schefter throwing kind of a qualifier or a hey, just
FYI talking about it being a light practice for Pat Mahomes.
So even though he was listened as a full participant,
maybe some gamesmanship, maybe Andy Reid putting him as a

(01:45:43):
full practice to get the Texans more prepared for Pat
Mahomes and hopefully fingers crossed. I don't want Pat Mahomes
to be hurt. What if I had to choose between
Carson Wentz or Pat Mahomes on the field, I'm choosing
Carson Wentz. I talked about this a little bit last night, though,
I mean, wouldn't it be even that much sweeter if
you go up there and you pick up a win.
I talked about how this is a chance for the
Texans to really get people on their side if they

(01:46:06):
go to Kansas City and win in a way that
I think you could also eliminate some of the qualifiers.
Just to steal a word that you just used right there,
is that if Patrick Mahomes plays, Yeah, that's fine. Though
I don't care. Get to wins as best as you
can get them. It doesn't matter whoever's on the field
is whoever's ready to play. But I understand I get
you from a narrative standpoint, if you want to bolster

(01:46:27):
some confidence in the fan bases, has I mean as
little confidence you can have for a nine to five team.
I mean, come on, I think that would be huge
to win on Saturday at Arrowhead. But line right now
started with the Texans at minus really minus two and
a half, went down to minus one now, swung four
points already, and in twenty four hours to the Chiefs
as a four point favorite, three favor I was just

(01:46:48):
gonna say so, I mean, the three of them playing
at home so basically a pick them game, I guess
if you will. I like that way. I like that
way of thinking. Pick them game could be anybody and Harrison,
Butker is hurt. He had been out for a while.
I was.

Speaker 1 (01:47:04):
Young.

Speaker 2 (01:47:04):
Way Ku just got put on IR. But anyway, really,
Stephen in La has been holding on the phone line,
so let's get to him real quick. What's up Stephen?

Speaker 21 (01:47:13):
Hey, guys, how you doing today?

Speaker 15 (01:47:15):
Thanks for taking my call.

Speaker 2 (01:47:16):
Uh well that was great, Thanks for getting in. Appreciate you.
Go ahead.

Speaker 21 (01:47:20):
I just wanted to get you guys two cents on
this NBA Cup And if you see it sticking around,
you know, I was watching a little bit of it
last night, and you know, obviously, okay, see did their
best Rockets impression, but uh uh, you know, I don't
know if you've seen that photo that was kind of
circulating where they had set up the uh bucks locker

(01:47:42):
with quote unquote champagne. But it was just a bunch
of michelop ultras and like safety goggles and nobody attended,
and you know it was kind of just funny. Just
like I mean, I get like, how like a team
like the Rockets would you know, be motivated to win
something like this. They're kind of like up and coming
and want to make their presence known. But you know,

(01:48:04):
you got to seem like the Bucks who won a
championship a couple of years ago in the Lakers last year,
that you know, it doesn't really matter to them. And
I just and it's so gimmicky too, like, do you
guys see the thing sisteing here in five years?

Speaker 2 (01:48:18):
I think they're gonna stick with it for right now.
And I'm going to tell you why they're doing it, Steven.
They're just doing it to try to gain a little
bit more extra interest because as you know, people well,
first of all, people aren't paying attention to the NBA
at all, unfortunately with the ratings and the way the
things are going there. But it certainly doesn't pick up
until after Christmas. Now, the NFL is like, hey, we
don't care if it's on a Wednesday, We're playing on Christmas.

(01:48:40):
So they're taking that away from the NBA as well.
So they're scratching and clong and fighting for any sort
of market share they can get. So they came up
with this and they have it end in the early
season to try to kind of garner and drum up
some interest before the Christmas threshold hits to keep ratings up.
It was a six in terms of rating last year.

(01:49:02):
This year it has been down, but I imagine that
Adam Silver is going to certainly give it a few
more years.

Speaker 16 (01:49:10):
Yeah, I mean, I get total.

Speaker 21 (01:49:11):
I totally get why they're doing it, but I just
think it kind of adds like these weird quirks in
the season and if you watch it, like you're like,
what the heck? You know, like obviously because of this,
because the Rockets were playing in the semi finals and
they lost, you know, they have five days off in
between their next game, you know, and you've got these
weird things were like running up the score on Cup games,

(01:49:32):
which kind of fishes off other teams, you know, in
the process. Yeah, so it's I don't know, it's like
I enjoyed it obviously seeing the Rockets make it this far,
but I just don't see teams, you know, especially with
mega stars, that you know, where five hundred thousand isn't

(01:49:53):
really much to them, sadly that them were really like
being motivated to win this thing. So but anyway, yeah,
thanks for taking my club Ice.

Speaker 2 (01:50:01):
I mean, I think it's just more. I mean, you
ended up the two teams that you ended up with
are the Bucks in the in the Thunder. I mean,
that's I mean not crazy to think that could be
like an NBA Finals preview, So the team, I mean,
I think the players are caring and they care about
regular season. It adds maybe Let's say, if an NBA
Finals game is ten out of ten and then a
regular season game is like seven out of ten, it

(01:50:23):
probably puts them I don't know, seven and a half eight,
So it's at least a little extra something. Well, I mean,
and you know, I don't blame Stephen for the megastar comment,
but I do push back on that because that's the
problem with the NBA right now. Everybody wants to wonder, Hey,
what's the issue with viewership. It's just really unwatchable for
the most part if you don't have a rooting interest
in a team, because it's not good basketball from the

(01:50:45):
style of the game. And it's also as well you
don't have stars. Right now, Lebron James is a shell
of what he used to be. Some nights he will
show up, but for the most part, he's towards the
end of his career. Shake Gil just Alexander. Most people,
I mean, we know him just because the Rockets play
against the Thunder so much. But I guarantee you most
casual NBA fans have very little knowledge of who Shay gilgis,

(01:51:07):
Alexander is Luca. I mean, he's okay, he's a terrible defender.
But and it's also too I think he turns people
off with him completely, you know, just continuously bitching at
the referees. Yeah, well his own organization supposedly is told
him to stop it. So I mean, I think that's
the heart of all of this is it's not even

(01:51:28):
necessarily about you know, oh, well the NBA Cup, it's
hokey all of these things. No, it's just the game
is just not in a good place right now. You
have guys coming out of college who are not ready
for the game. You have guys even going into college
who are not ready to come out of college just yet.
And I mean, you just you know, it's one of
those things that take a look at Jalen Green, I
mean he's sort of looking like the player that we

(01:51:50):
hoped you would look like. And it's been about three
years that we've needed to get to this point, and
he's still an inconsistent offensive player. So that's the problem
the NBA has. It's not about the NBA Cup. And
I did like what the Bucks did last night of
just saying here, I'll take a beer. But aside from that,
I'm just gonna shower, put all my stuff and we'll
get to the plane and get out of here. Adam

(01:52:11):
Silver strong arm him and force him to put up
a banner for it, just because he wants to continue
to try to prop this thing up. He did it
to the Lakers, You're like, y'all better put an NBA
Cup banner, and everybody made fun of him, like I'm
sure the commissioner was like, you'll better put up a banner.
Y'all better do this now because we're trying to I
invented this thing. We're gonna this is his baby. So
I think Adam Silver is gonna get every chance. But
you don't have generational stars. We're talking about earlier on

(01:52:31):
the show to where before Larry and Magic came, the
NBA was like there were franchises on the on the
verge of folding. The league was on the verge of folding.
So I feel like more than other leagues, they are
more dependent on transcendent stars than the others, and they're
kind there just isn't anyone out there outside of Lebron

(01:52:53):
and Curry Yannis kind of arguable, you'll Kich kind of arguable,
not to the level of those theo the all time greats,
the Michael Jordan's Lebron James is the Steph Currs and
somebody needs to ascend to that level. Multiple need to
ascend to that level, I think to help the league going.
And to your point, I mean, it's not like we
haven't seen this before. I mean at the end of

(01:53:14):
the nineties into the early two thousands mentioned that as well.
You kind of had that as well. After Jordan was gone.
After I mean, you know pretty much Hakim was not
what he used to be, Charles the same deal. That's
that's when you kind of had a little bit of
a lull of people being like, do I even really
like watching this anymore? And then finally had Shaq and
Kobe that in the games were like seventy nine to

(01:53:35):
seventy six. That was the problem. That was the problem too. Yeah,
I mean, we we got our taste of that around
here during Van Gundy Ball as well of an eighty
to seventy eight final tonight, a defensive struggle inside Toyota Center.
But I mean, that's that's what you know, you're just
kind of waiting on as the NBA at this point
is you're hoping that the next generational talent is not
too far away. But until then, I mean, that's really

(01:53:59):
at the heart of the struggle here is that. I mean,
I'm a Rockets fan. I'll watch the Rockets, but if
they're not on and it's a T and T or
ESPN night, I'm not compelled. Yea, all right, We're going
to take a quick break here, Dan Matthews is here,
I am here, ros vir real. Matt Thomas is out.
He'll be back tomorrow. Those of you on hold, we'll
get to you next. We also got eight Nope, body
got time for that slash. Shut your bum ass up

(01:54:20):
coming up at one o'clock. Don't go anywhere here on
Sports Talk seven night.

Speaker 15 (01:54:24):
Rippit h tale like five slam a jama here, boy yo,
what's up to you?

Speaker 6 (01:54:28):
Boy bumm?

Speaker 15 (01:54:29):
Beat the trilog with the whitest man in America, Matt Thomas.

Speaker 2 (01:54:32):
You and now tune in a Sports Talk seven to
ninety Maine.

Speaker 4 (01:54:35):
Your boy, go all right.

Speaker 2 (01:54:38):
Now we're jamming. Let's go, baby, got it combing the hair. Yes,
now he's about to put the aftershave on. Yes, no,
thank you. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas Show. Matt
Thomas isn't here. Have you ever heard Joe Peshi's Christmas songs?
They're actually not bad. I know that he's actually a

(01:54:59):
semi accomplis singer. Like he's come out with albums and
literal albums. He's a good singer. Yeah, he's a coroner style, right, yeah,
it is, and and it's actually not that. Oh you
know what. Yeah, I'm gonna have to ask conn. We
have some Joe pasty Christmas classics. Okay, we got calls through, okay,
later later, later, we got like three calls to run
before the top of the hour. And you know, nobody got

(01:55:19):
time for that, So everybody be quick. We got to
get you all in. Mike has been holding the longest.

Speaker 13 (01:55:22):
Go ahead, Hey guys.

Speaker 2 (01:55:25):
Good afternoon.

Speaker 4 (01:55:26):
I do like Christmas music. I just wanna talk a
little bit about college football playoffs ross the notes your
last day. I'm a Longhorn fan. I know you are,
and I'm just curious to hear how you think they
might do and just who you know you're kind of
favoring this. Uh just a little side note, I hear
and you CaWO uh Dan, but uh Sam atter, who's

(01:55:46):
a Longhorn predict Clemson to win the whole thing. They
really rack it out and I was like, Clemson, I
think Texas will get by on But anyway, I I'm
just curious your thoughts on the on the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (01:55:57):
But also I.

Speaker 4 (01:55:59):
Enjoyed hearing some of your orries about traveling to the
Asian country. I've been to a couple and had my life,
you know, felt like it was on the line. And
some of the traffic just yeah, traffic, so good, good stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:56:10):
But anyway, thank you, Mike. Yes, my heart is still
recovering from those Taiwooese cab drivers, but that's another story
for another time. But I like san Mancho. San Mancho
is quite intelligent. San Maancho was a great player for
the Longhorns and for the Cardinals for many years. San
Mancho is either concussed or is just trying to get

(01:56:33):
noticed if he's picking Clemson of all teams to win
it all. Now, I mean, I'm I'm not one to
watch the morning talking head shows on the floor either,
and the only thing to see on one of those, Yeah,
he will be a contributor sometime, I think to first take,
so without really knowing the context, I would have to
believe that it was probably Mike a give me your

(01:56:56):
craziest champion, like, give me the one we're not talking
about who could make ar course, Yeah, there you go,
And Clemson might be one of those teams. But I
don't see it from Clemson. I do like Kate Clubnick
a lot. I think that he probably is a little
bit more underrated then people give him credit for being. So,

(01:57:18):
I mean, he's just they are a shell of what
they were back when they were winning championships, where they
had an outstanding run game, an outstanding defense, their receivers
were all NFL caliber guys. But you don't have Mike
Williams anymore, you don't have t Higgins anymore. So I
just don't see it being the case. And also too,
I mean for Texas, you've got to believe that there

(01:57:38):
has been a lot of film study, just every single
diagnosing it that you can do. For Hey, once we
get into the ends, or once we get into the
red zone, why aren't we scoring? Why aren't we putting
an Arch? Let's go baby, See that's the one too.
In the SEC Championship game, I just could not understand.
Don't even get me started.

Speaker 12 (01:57:56):
Please.

Speaker 2 (01:57:57):
And my buddy Roddy Nabulsi, who covers Georgia, I had
him on that satur to preview the game from the
Georgia side and I said, how prepared are they for Arch?
He goes, they could be prepared, but they're not going
to stop it. Yeah, and that's what I'm saying, Like,
Arch's biggest problem is he kind of drives the ball
down field too far when he should take the underneath. Well,
there's nowhere to drive the ball down field in the
red zone. He's gonna be fine. Are we setting up

(01:58:17):
for a potential Jalen hurts to a tongue of I
looak situation here where Sark kind of gets to the
point where he says, Hey, Quinn, appreciate it. Go finish
off your career at at Ohio State next year. Arch,
You're our guy. I don't know. I thought the reports
where that Arch was going. I mean that Quinn is

(01:58:38):
going to declare for the draft after this year. I
think it's going to be arch starting next year. No
matter what, we'll see what happens there. But I mean, look,
Clemson can upset the Long Horns. It could happen. I
just don't think it's going to As you mentioned, Clubnik
has been good, but I just think the Texans defense
it's too elite and they're gonna do enough on offense.
Could it be a close game, yes, but I expect
the Long Horns to win. After that we can discuss.
Let's get Joe and the gallery real quick here ahead

(01:59:00):
of the top of the hour.

Speaker 12 (01:59:01):
What's up, Joe, Hey, what's going on?

Speaker 7 (01:59:04):
Guys? I just I just started listening to you guys
a few minutes ago.

Speaker 17 (01:59:06):
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (01:59:07):
I don't know if you already talked about it.

Speaker 20 (01:59:09):
You know?

Speaker 14 (01:59:10):
Correct me if I'm wrong.

Speaker 7 (01:59:12):
The Texas already won their division, right, But yes, see,
the worst division winner plays the top wild card.

Speaker 15 (01:59:22):
If the recommended right now, we'd probably be.

Speaker 7 (01:59:25):
Playing the Ravens.

Speaker 2 (01:59:26):
Correct.

Speaker 7 (01:59:27):
The good thing is we're only one game behind the
third division winner, Pittsburgh, so this game is very important.
I just want to or am I correct?

Speaker 2 (01:59:38):
Yes? But I mean the Ravens could beat the Steelers
and end up as a division winner. Anyways.

Speaker 7 (01:59:43):
Yeah, but we play the Steelers, the Steelers sor I'd
rather pray somebody else, right.

Speaker 2 (01:59:50):
The Steelers. Yeah, I got you. I appreciate you, Joe. Yeah, Well,
we'll see what happens and how it shakes out. I mean,
I think, certainly avoiding Lamar Jackson is something you want
to do. But that Steelers defense against this Texan offensive
line has me terrified. So I think no matter who
you play, it's going to be a tough game. But
avoiding Lamar Jackson at all costs, I think is something

(02:00:10):
that is important. Despite the fact that Lamar Jackson's had
some bad playoff games on it, your best opportunity to
make a run in the playoffs is getting to the
three seed. I mean, just looking at all of it,
like you said right there, of whoever wins this Saturday
between Baltimore and also Pittsburgh, they'll probably win the AFC North.

(02:00:30):
And I mean I'm not as I'm trying to think
how to word this as best as possible. I mean,
Buffalo up there will be tough, but Buffalo is also
a team that's given up some points and I don't
see Josh Allen having as bad a game as he
had the first time around. But I also don't think,
I mean, how much better can he necessarily be in

(02:00:52):
order against this defense for you to necessarily have concerns
in that game. I think a divisional round game, you
go up to Buffalo, you can win that game. I
think philosophically, though, I'd rather the Texans play a team
with a really dominant defense and not as good as
an offense, because Josh Allen can be special, and the
way that the rules are set up, they're set up
for offense to where you know, a couple of holdings

(02:01:13):
or a couple of you know, defensive holdings or rough
in the passers and then boom, all of a sudden,
they're in the red zone and Josh Allen is doing
his thing and being special. And that scares me more
than say Russell Wilson or bow Knicks or even what
Justin Herbert is. Now that's where I was going with
bo Nicks is I mean, I think that Denver is
a nice enough story. They're a well coached team, they

(02:01:34):
have a good defense with Benito and those guys. But
I mean, I still think that you would be looking
at kind of a similar matchup to what you had
last year against the Cleveland Browns. Nice story, but they're
not on your level. All right, real quick, about thirty
seconds for you, Roger, what's up?

Speaker 13 (02:01:49):
Oh?

Speaker 20 (02:01:49):
What's going off?

Speaker 12 (02:01:54):
They finished?

Speaker 14 (02:01:56):
It wasn't broken.

Speaker 13 (02:01:57):
The CBS had it right when that back in the
day they would struck the playoffs, the inline stories. Yeah,
that's when. That's when the NBA was that as great
as you know when Michael you know now even market
but it was really good. Everybody had like a story
itself about the about the series it was about to start,
and throughout the series they would have these you know,
these little.

Speaker 20 (02:02:18):
Monologues about what's going on in the series, and that
would make that would that would that would help the
fan gravitate to the to the to the players, and
that would you know, get to know about that.

Speaker 13 (02:02:28):
There's no personality now, there's there's no riff, there's no
no void, there's like nobody knows you that because nobody
really talks about them, you know, other than the NBA team. Yeah,
they're doing cracking jokes and just talking about them Bills.

Speaker 2 (02:02:41):
Yeah, yeah, thank you, Roger. Sorry, we had to let
you go. But I agree with that they they've devalued.
We've talked about this earlier too, Dan, we got into
this discourse with the NBA where it's all about ring culture, rings, rings, rings, rings, rings, rings, rings, rings, rings, rings, drinks.
And what does that do when that when everything revolves
when twenty four seven, three sixty five re NBA show
they're talking about rings, rings, rings, rings, rings, that evaluates

(02:03:03):
that that devalues the regular season. Nobody's gonna care about
the regular season when there's eighty two games and there's
a big matchup. Well, wake me up when it's the playoffs,
Wake me up when it's the finals. And oh, by
the way, Lebron James is load managing. He's not even
playing against the Boston Celtics this week. Like it's just
the regular season being so diluted has hurt the overall
product as well. It used to be that the Eastern

(02:03:24):
Conference was so top heavy and the rest of the
league sucked, But now I would say that it's the
NBA is so top heavy and the rest of the
league sucks. You have too many teams that are have
nots that are just awful in unwatchable basketball, teams like
the Detroit Pistons come to town. Hey, hey, you want
my tickets tonight? I mean, that's that's that's immediately what
comes up whenever you know, you bring them into the

(02:03:47):
conversation that the Washington Wizards, I mean, you know, even
tomorrow nights against against the Pelicans team that's basically telling everybody, Hey,
who do you want? We'll give them to you. Yeah,
everybody's been hur all right, we gotta get to the
top of the hour here on Sports Talk seven ninety
KB Emmy Houston, Ross Veria with you. We got ain't
nobody got time for that slast shut yo, bump ass

(02:04:09):
up coming next, we want to get in seven one
three two one two five seven ninety is the phone
number seven one three two one two five seven ninety
Back in a minute here on Sports TX seven ninety
in the Matt Toms Show with Ross.

Speaker 1 (02:04:23):
Lunchtimers. This is the Matt Thomas Show again again he.

Speaker 6 (02:04:30):
Let again tampaday here again, tampaday dere again here.

Speaker 2 (02:04:36):
Let again tap here again here, let again Tampa day.
All right, folks, it's that time of the week where
we find somebody or something or some person or some thing. Yes,

(02:04:58):
that's what's called poetry, folks. That's how we roll here
show with Ross Yes seven five? Yeah, Well I am
a pentameter for you, okay, for a rhyming couple. It
that's how we roll here, all high school English class alright,
blinked out because I'm in vacation mode. It's fine, all right. Anyways,
Uh something someone you want to rail against you're having

(02:05:21):
problems with. Uh, something that you know that's bothering You
ain't got time for it? You say, ain't nobody got
time for that? Nobody? Seven one three two one two
five seven ninety seven one three two one two five
seven ninety Perhaps there's someone you heard speaking publicly. I
don't know. Maybe it's a commissioner of basketball. Maybe it's
a pundit. Maybe it's a former longhorn picking against his

(02:05:44):
own team and you want to tell them to shut
their bomb ass up up. Christ, here we go. And
well also, maybe if it's a co host that you
really hate, you don't like, and you don't care for him,
and you want to tell him to shut his bomb
ass up, you can do that as well. Dan, you
got anything I was gonna say? Is that me that
you're talking about right there. No, look a look on

(02:06:06):
the phone board. Oh oh, okay, do we make him brown?
Just go when we game?

Speaker 4 (02:06:13):
Wait?

Speaker 2 (02:06:14):
Ain't nobody got time for that. Ain't nobody got time
for every single time I'm going home on I forty five,
there's a wreck. Pay attention to what's going on around you.
I heard I'm worried about this Lake Ponta train. The
bridge got all jacked up them. So let's go to
New Orleans today? Is everything okay? It was like forty
to fifty cars piled up. He apparently it was really foggy,

(02:06:35):
and everybody was just slamming into each other. It always
happens when you go itennies. Ain't nobody got time for that? Look, folks,
it is as simple terms as I can tell you
right here. Driving is really not that hard. It's about
paying attention. Just pay attention. That's all I ask you
to do. Pay attention. You don't have trying to read tweet.
You don't have to slam on your brakes because the

(02:06:55):
person in front of you tap their break. I just
gotta like on threads. I gotta check it out, see
what the deal is. It'll be there. Trust you can
wait all right, fine, two for right here, can I
give you a shut your bumbarrow let's go Jason McIntyre
of the Hurt, Oh, don't even pay attention to him.
He muted him for decades. He he is on so
a buddy of mine had a list called the pay
No Mind List, and you know Danny Knell is on there. Yes,

(02:07:17):
But apparently yesterday he had talked about the Giants, wondering
if the Giants were gonna cut Daniel Jones this offseason,
to which FanHouse, of course, is one of the truant bingo.
And then not only that, we were talking about earlier,
why is NBA viewership down? He wondered out loud if
inside the NBA was a reason because of how much

(02:07:38):
they clown on players. That was an actual take that
he had on the show yesterday. Oh God, Jason McIntyre sucks.
But go ahead, you can tell him so, Jason McIntyre,
shut your bumb ass up. Take some added vacation times up. Man,
seven seven, let's go out to the phone lines. I
mean they're absolutely lighting up. Maybe they're not seven one, three,

(02:08:02):
seven ninety Matthew, are you on staycation? Where are you?

Speaker 11 (02:08:07):
I'm on the fifty nine headed southbound towards you of
h complete standstill.

Speaker 2 (02:08:14):
Ain't nobody got time for this concert? Traffic see moved
to the city, Matt Matt knows. Oh god, that was
the reason why I called though, okay, go ahead.

Speaker 11 (02:08:25):
So so Saturday, after the Rockets lost to Oklahoma City,
I went to the casino where I was at a
where I was playing fifty dollars a hand, and uh,
this cowboy and his girlfriend and she was hot.

Speaker 2 (02:08:42):
It is what it is.

Speaker 11 (02:08:44):
Uh, basically we're sitting down and she had never played
blackjack before.

Speaker 2 (02:08:48):
Watch music solo out ball. That sounds fine. We can
hear you. Cut the music down a little bit, Connor,
we can hear you fine. It sounds on the phones.

Speaker 14 (02:08:57):
Okay.

Speaker 11 (02:08:57):
And I told the guy, I said, this is a
pretty pricey hand first sorry, and he goes, oh, I
know what I'm doing. And she's like, but I never have.
Boyfriend's like, oh, I'll take care. We'll make sure you
play with the rules. He's hitting on fourteens against four,
he's staying on.

Speaker 2 (02:09:11):
Fourteens against sevens.

Speaker 11 (02:09:13):
I'm playing third base getting my ass handed to me,
and I'm like, sir, I really want to help us
I want you to win.

Speaker 2 (02:09:20):
I want the table to win.

Speaker 11 (02:09:22):
Can I help you?

Speaker 4 (02:09:22):
Goues?

Speaker 2 (02:09:23):
No, we got this.

Speaker 11 (02:09:24):
Oh I'm living about three four hundred dollars in about
five minutes. I finally get up and I'm like, sir,
please go to a lower table, because ain't nobody.

Speaker 2 (02:09:32):
Got time for me? I'm able. No, the roles, especially
in Vegas, I would say that Matt's one hundred percent
correct on that, especially that's the big leagues in Vegas.
I guess I don't need somebody.

Speaker 11 (02:09:48):
I don't need some woman cowboy as a little hussy
girlfriend rude in my night after the Rockets lost.

Speaker 2 (02:09:53):
Fifty bucks a hand, he just he said, ain't nobody
get time for you low rollers?

Speaker 12 (02:09:58):
Hey?

Speaker 2 (02:09:58):
You know the cattle sales are good. That's that's all
I can guess. You know, the the horse trading, it's
it's it's it's going well. Yeah it was. N FR
was going on this weekend out in a vagas Oh
was he a rodeo guy man? Yeah yeah, yes, big
ass belt buckle. He had a mustache, no beard.

Speaker 11 (02:10:17):
He was about six two, one sixty five.

Speaker 4 (02:10:21):
His girlfriend had a huge rag.

Speaker 15 (02:10:22):
She was lovely.

Speaker 2 (02:10:23):
Yeah, she did know thing about it.

Speaker 11 (02:10:25):
I'm like, I want to help, and she's like, what
are you thinking.

Speaker 2 (02:10:28):
Buba's like, no, I got this, We're We're good, and
I'm like, oh damn, I'm sorry.

Speaker 12 (02:10:32):
Matt.

Speaker 2 (02:10:33):
That's unfortunately. Thank you appreciate it. Cowboys having a man
strength too. Man, you gotta watch out for those. I
don't even think he probably a young man's strength. Was
gonna say he's pulling what Matt said, all all the
roping and you know, bull riding everything like that strong hand.
You think you're gonna last eight seconds? I would think
that probably so. And then the question is can you
last eight seconds fighting him? If I could run, I

(02:10:57):
can duck and run for a good eight all right. Anyways,
seven three two one two five seven ninety is the
phone number seven one. I see you writing down things.
Go over there, Connor McGovern shut your bump ass up.
Go ahead. I did I get the timestamp. I did
it on purpose. Anyways, go ahead, what do you got?

Speaker 10 (02:11:16):
Went to the Nutcracker last night, took the lady friend
there the show.

Speaker 2 (02:11:21):
Never experienced the art form that is the ballet, but
your sugar plumb fairy, all right, sorry, go ahead?

Speaker 10 (02:11:29):
Uh yes, I never experienced a ballot before dancers obviously
very talented.

Speaker 6 (02:11:33):
I was.

Speaker 2 (02:11:34):
I was pleasantly surprised. I thought it was a good time.
Nutcracker is a good time, Yeah, Tchaikowski and I don't
go to the theater often, but I do know that
a nobody got time for your phone ringer going on
dramatic scene.

Speaker 10 (02:11:47):
There's just no excuse. They remind you before the show.
But if you go, if your phone goes off, then
you should just be escorted out. Ain't nobody got time
for that?

Speaker 4 (02:11:57):
Wow?

Speaker 2 (02:11:59):
It was they had it on full volume. Oh my god.
It was almost like it was on purpose. Over under
fifty five years old for that person. Did you see
who it was? No, I didn't see who it was.
But it's gotta yeah, it's gotta be sixty, I was
gonna say. I mean, isn't it kind of on the
performance right there to kind of like stop and stare
into the audience At that point, I was like, hey, please,
why don't you go ahead and take the call? We're
performing up here. That's the other part of it as well,

(02:12:21):
is in public having your ringer on, Like I don't
really never have my ringer on ever. I I don't
ever I don't have it on ever unless I'm at
the house literally I know that someone's calling. So then
if I'm expecting a call, if I told somebody to
call me back, or who knows, doctor's appointment disappointment only

(02:12:42):
I like, or whatever, if I literally expecting a call back,
or if I'm I don't know somebody's getting me on
a radio station or another market. Literally, unless I'm actually
actively expecting a call, I never have my ringer on ever.
Am I weird? It's not only that, it's it's also
too I mean, along the same lines of what Matt
was talking about lilast week. The person in the bathroom
that was in full conversation conference call. They're playing videos.

(02:13:06):
I don't. I don't. Videos are fine, No, they're not.
You wants to hear your videos at full blast when
you're in there, you're you're in the pooper, Then turn
it down. Then turn it down. Oh, come on. The
phone conversation is pretty weird, though, the full on I
guess what if you're on the toilet and I call you,
do not pick up call me back. The full on
speakerphone conversation in public, I'm like, what are you doing? Like,

(02:13:29):
what are you doing in the age of AirPods? What
are you doing? All right? Real quick, Mike and clear Lake,
what do you.

Speaker 17 (02:13:35):
Got Well, this is to shut your bom mass up.
For all the people that are advocating a change on
first base, we've got the solution. We've got John Singleton.
Let the guy alone, let him play ball, Let's move on.

Speaker 14 (02:13:50):
Shut your bow mass up.

Speaker 6 (02:13:53):
Up?

Speaker 2 (02:13:53):
Man, is that Lizzie Singleton's dad? On Singleton one hundred
nineteen games, four hundred and five played appearances, ops plus
average league average being one hundred, he was one oh three.
When's above replacement point three? Look, shuts your bumb ass up.

(02:14:17):
He's improve the way reacting like the guy's a Goli
Glover and massing thirty five home runs. Come on, this
is not an American League contender with John Singleton being
in everyday first basement.

Speaker 12 (02:14:27):
It is not.

Speaker 2 (02:14:27):
No, there's much much more room for improvement there are, right,
John Singleton is a guy that should probably get about
forty or fifty starts a year, decent enough pinch hitter
off the bench. Well that's pretty much as far as
John Singleton needs to go. All right, quick break, But
if you want to get one in ain't nobody got
time for that? Or shut their bump ass up? You
can seven one three two one two five seven ninety

(02:14:49):
seven one three two, one two five seven ninety I'll
tell you something, ain't nobody got time for Ain't nobody
had time for you? To continue to Every year you
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Speaker 6 (02:15:45):
Mattin Ross return return on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:15:50):
I believe this is a song that made me want
to play piano as a young lad. It's very soothing.
The Vince Giraldi trio, Vince Garaldi doing these days hullive
or dead, Let's guess I was gonna say, I'm gonna
go with probably no longer living. I'm gonna I'm with you.
Feels like he's probably dead in nineteen seventy six. Okay,

(02:16:12):
so long dead, Vince Garaldi, long before me and you
were even thought of the guys. All right, well, Linus
and Lucy Classic, we're playing the Christmas songs here on
The Mad Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas, who
continues to drive on fifty nine and apparently gets stuck
in traffic. And uh, I don't why did he say

(02:16:35):
Cougar's something Cougar's basketball going on?

Speaker 4 (02:16:37):
Or so?

Speaker 2 (02:16:37):
She just said he was going over to U of H.
I'm not necessarily sure. Oh no, he's gonna drop off
an n il check. I believe, maybe so, maybe so
from some of that gambling earnings he got over the
sound like he was getting crushed by he and the
Wyoming Cowboy. Fifty bucks a hand, by the way, that
is that is weekend price Vegas. Brothers gonna say, unless
you want to go to the Ellis Island or any

(02:16:59):
of the others, I'm going to. I'm head to see
you at the O. Yo, bro, I'll see you downtown.
I don't care. I'm getting my If it is six
to five odds on blackjack as opposed to three to two,
I will not sit down. I have planted my flag.
If it ain't three to two, I'm not sitting down.
The hot button. Do you ever play the hot button
or whatever they call that when that's carnival games? I
don't play those either. Yeah, there's there's all of that.

(02:17:22):
But yeah, you've hed plays against Toledo tonight, so it
must be a Matt Thomas. Oh, the Toledo Rockets, the
big matchup the TV call tonight. Oh could be I
don't know, uh, six and three, I'm just pulling up
the rank. Okay, they're still ranked, They're still fifteenth. That's
good wishing the Cougar is the best as they go
forward here all right, seven one, three, two two five,

(02:17:44):
seven ninety is the phone number if you'd like to
get in. We've been talking a lot of stuff, a
lot of calls on the state of the NBA and
what's wrong with the NBA and how to fix it.
I think we're mostly on the same page. Dan, there's
like ten things wrong with the NBA, but it all starts.
A lot of it goes away when you get sustained, aimed,
charismatic stars that people care about. That's what that league

(02:18:05):
has always been out about, really since its inception. And
every league is a star driven league, but to me,
the NBA much more so than the others. Well, I
mean it was the league of all of them that
really focused on the individuals of propping up their stars
and the fact that you don't really have marketable players
at this moment. When we talked about Luca earlier, you
brought up Joker. I don't even think Joker cares. I

(02:18:26):
don't even think Joker really likes playing back. He's good
at it. I think if I were up the Joker,
he'd be living in Serbia and running horses. Yeah, he
wants to get back. He's looking to just make some
money to get back to his horses. I'm with you
on that, I think. I mean, you need somebody who
cares about being a star. Lebron James very much cares
about being a star. Care Michael Jordan cared about being

(02:18:48):
a star. I think I think that he was fine
with it. I think that probably Michael could have cared less.
I don't think. Well, I mean maybe to at least
that's the perception he gives off to be exactly. Come
on now, I think to him it became a competition
with him, that's why he cared. He cared because it
was a competition. Being the biggest star in the league

(02:19:09):
was you know, obviously he's hyper the dude was like
hyper competitive about playing table tennis. So to him, being
the big star in the league, I think also came
a competition to him, and that's where he cared deeply
about being I buy that, But I mean, like maybe
it was more of the admiration from people. I mean,
I think he cared about getting it from, you know,

(02:19:30):
the players in the league and coaches and people around there.
I think it was the other parts that necessarily it
seems like Lebron cares too much about I mean, he's
one of these people, Oh I'm leaving X Okay, see
you go go. Yeah. What do you necessarily have to
say that I care about? Not a whole lot, not
a whole lot. But yeah, once you get the stars aligned,

(02:19:52):
everything else I think will come into play. But I
think we are going to and maybe for a couple
of years, we'll see who emerges and what happens. As
far as that, as you kind of mentioned, the late
nineties early two thousands, while Kobe was a star and
they won three straight championships in that era, he just
quite frankly wasn't He became a bigger star when Shaq
left and then Kobe came into his own and then

(02:20:13):
he was one of the faces of the league, along
with maybe Steve Nash others. But it was kind of
that late nineties early two thousands, and how many times
do we say, is this guy the next Jordan, the
next Jordan, the next Jordan? And it kind of it
never came.

Speaker 14 (02:20:26):
Well.

Speaker 2 (02:20:26):
It was also too I mean, you know, look at
the team that was dominating during that two thousands period.
It was the Spurs, they're boring, like they're boring, and
they're intentionally boring as well. And I mean it was
you liked watching it because it was good basketball, but
aside from that, they were all a bunch of stiffs
in terms of personality. Yeah. So, I mean in the

(02:20:46):
state of play. They made some rule changes at that time.
As we mentioned, it was seventy nine to seventy three.
Every game they opened things up, they tried they changed
the hand checking rules, they did things that was going
to allow a little bit more scoring. Adam Silver talked
about the three points games state of the league. What
if I don't know if or if you were listening
when I was talking about this, what if you put
a cap? What if you said you can only take
forty threes after that they only count for two. I

(02:21:11):
know that's crazy, but I would that help. Is that
something that people would be looking for. I mean, I
almost trying to think that's entering golden that bat rule
it is. I mean, Matt Thomas said you loved the
Golden at Bat. I didn't say I loved it. Matt said,
you couldn't wait to have the Golden at bat, and
that's your favorite. The history of bats that big of
a I'm just kidding. I'm over selling it. I'm just

(02:21:32):
trying to trust me. Trust me. I know, I know
what I stepped into, and I when I hop into
this room from tend to to, I know what it is. Yeah, Yeah,
we're gonna Yeah, we're gonna have fun. It's what we're
gonna do. But no, okay, I didn't know exactly what
your opinion was, Matt Thomas. I guess lied. He said
you loved it and it was the best rule in
the history of baseball. Now, now go back to that
last part. You just said it right there about Matt Thomas.

(02:21:54):
What did he do said? Well, I mean folk said
you loved it. You know I was gonna say you
ad met Matt. Matt sometimes can can stretch there an
unreliable narrator. As we were saying earlier, all right, let's
say quick break here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross.
He'll be back tomorrow. I'm with you until two o'clock
and I'll be taking three days off. So passing of

(02:22:15):
the baton will happen. That a team is coming up
as well. You want to get in you can seven
one three, two, one two five seven, ninety seven to
one three two, one two five, seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (02:22:26):
The Matt Thomas Show with Ross continues so on Sports
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:22:32):
Welcome back here at Sports Talk seven ninety, bringing you
some Christmas cheer here on a Wednesday. Hang this so
long long again? Donny Hathaway gone to says Chris. There
we go, get it in there, Dan underrated gets the

(02:22:53):
people going. Donny Hathaway or this song both? Okay. I
mean I don't know much about Donnie Well. He died
at the age of thirty three. I think he had
paranoid schizophrenia and then he got cancer. Oh god, r
rough drawl the deck for Donnie Poor. Got a great voice, though,
Oh fantastic voice. I mean the voice of an angel.
Donny Hathaway. Some would call him the songbird of this generation.

(02:23:14):
I would call him. I mean, he would have been
one of the songbirds of the generation, but unfortunately gone
too soon. Get up, I forgot. Get up there, Brennan,
he's drowning up there. Donny Hathaway greater singer than Brennan Huff.
There we go. Movie reference.

Speaker 16 (02:23:30):
I like it.

Speaker 2 (02:23:31):
Connor's on top of it. Brennan saved the Catalina wine mixer.
Yes he did, Yes he did. That's almost worth two dings.
I think that's two references, even though it's the same movie.
There we go, Connor, all right, welcome back to the
Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas. I'm gonna
be honest. I'm uh, my brain is gone. I'm in
vacation mode. But we're gonna tough it out the next

(02:23:52):
two segments with you, and thankfully Dan, you're here to help.
I was gonna say, I mean, you're already thinking of
the Sasaax, the Gumbo, the you know, the the Poe Boys.
Jazz brunch is going down, Okay, concerts on Frenchman Street.
We went to a jazz brunch once and it was great.

(02:24:13):
It was fine, but it was like every few songs
the guy would like have his band start playing and
he'd go around with the hat and it's like, you
can only do the hat once maybe twice. I was
I had. It was called the Drinkery on Bourbon and
it I think it was the same as the owners
of the drinkery here. I don't know if it's still
going on New Orleans, but yeah, that guy was putting
around he was like he had a wireless guitar and

(02:24:35):
he would like play with one hand and then walk around.
He had a boot, and and I was like, bro,
two songs ago, you just went around with the booths.
Gonna say you can't. You can't go around the hat,
the booth, the helmets, the buckets, any of them. You
can't go around set once a set. I was gonna say,
if if you're like, you know, I'm playing an hour,
hour and a half set, at the end of the set,

(02:24:55):
come around and then wait to the next set. This
guy was doing it like every three songs we're gonna
have And it might have been the same guy too,
for all I know. I mean, we're gonna have a
blues guitarist. Good guy. No, he didn't have the guitar,
but he had like kind of like one of those
lemony snickets hats. Oh okay, No it wasn't that guy. Yeah,
he was wearing like one of those. And I would
say that probably you can do like almost like a

(02:25:18):
in set intermission while the music is still playing, and
then maybe at the end you can go around. Hey,
it's a pleasure playing for y'all. Please support me and
these great artists. Then people are willing to give. But
to your point, when you do it every so often,
then it's you know, one of those you're trying to
eat your eggs, Ben Addict, and you're like, hey, buddy, no, no, no,
you you already hit me up. Get out of here.
I've already given you all the cash that I have

(02:25:39):
on me, which I don't keep all on of me
because it's twenty twenty four. I'm not gonna donate. Look
like look, I like to support live music. I always
tip the band. But I mean, come on, man, we
got to relax. There's two times when I'll carry cash,
and you know I get this all the time. I
think Matt Vegas gave me. Vegas is one of them.
And if the red light district traveling, okay, yeah, traveling

(02:26:00):
because you got to tip out people parking shuttle maybe
if you do the curb side, you know, checking the
bag tipping, or if you're in a foreign country then
they take a although I mean credit cards are a thing.
Most be a little iffy, you know, away from the
US soil. I think, okay, all right, I got you,
all right anyway, seven three two two five seven of

(02:26:21):
the phone number As we continue along here on the
Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas, Jeff on
the East side of down Downtown is next up.

Speaker 14 (02:26:29):
What's up, hey, guys. One of the first things I
talked to you guys on the radio. I think you
were still taking calls. But you have all those information
at your fingertips, and you don't know anything about the league.
You talked about the exception of the league, and you
only go back as far as your frame of reference.
You can do a little research every now and then,
and you might want to talk about better players, personality, cities, teams.

(02:26:49):
Tell The idea that the Spurs were boring is ridiculous.
Look at the rat I don't care about the ratings.

Speaker 7 (02:26:59):
Into play.

Speaker 14 (02:27:00):
He's not the best player of all time. Charlie Poullo
puts the question out, and you asked me if I
was crazy, because I called it and said he was.
I know, this is probably what are you talking about.

Speaker 2 (02:27:10):
I told you Magic Johnson isn't the greatest player of
all time, and I've never held that opinion. So you're
thinking about somebody else.

Speaker 14 (02:27:15):
Said Michael Jordan. You have this dogmatic view, Michael Jordan,
Everything all the time. He's a punk.

Speaker 2 (02:27:21):
Michael Jordan is a punk.

Speaker 14 (02:27:23):
He's a punk.

Speaker 2 (02:27:24):
Who's the greatest basketball player of all time?

Speaker 14 (02:27:27):
Either Kareem or the Big oh A West. But I
can't know about five more. But I'm sorry I'm yelling
at you.

Speaker 2 (02:27:33):
Let me calm down. Yeah, well, you were freaking relaxed, Jeff.
You're passionate. Jeff. It's no, no, no, this is between
me and Jeff right now, all right, Jeff, Well, I think,
first of all, I think Kareem has an argument to me.
I don't know who you were talking about, or maybe
this was you could be talking about somebody else, if
if you were talking about somebody being hard lined that
Michael Jordan is unquestionably the best player of all time.

(02:27:54):
You were talking to somebody else because.

Speaker 14 (02:27:57):
You were taking calls and you couldn't believe I didn't.

Speaker 2 (02:28:00):
Think he was the best of You are confusing me
with someone else. I'm I know you're confusing me with
somebody else. You have to be, because it's my opinion
that there are there are three candidates. In my mind,
the three candidates are Lebron James. If you want to
go with the longevity, and and and if you want
to argue with that, and I think Kareem absolutely, I've
said this on air for decades that Kareem Abdul Jabbar

(02:28:20):
has an argument for the greatest of all time. He's
got six championships, he was the all time leading scorer,
and he did it with two different franchises and coaching situations,
and I think he has still has the most MVPs
ever at six. So if you think I was telling
you that Kareem is or I mean, you're you're you're
like I said, you're confusing it for somebody else.

Speaker 14 (02:28:38):
I probably if I said Magic, I was wrong. I
thought you said Jordan. I think Jordan is overexposed in
his time and he's not the best ever.

Speaker 2 (02:28:46):
He's the greatest winner of all time. Well, I guess
probably that's Bill Russell. It's it's a nuanced conversation. If
and if if somebody was telling you that one person
was unequivocally the greatest of all time without argument, that
person was not me. Well it's also too, I mean, Jeff,
frame of reference does matter. It absolutely does. I mean,
if you're talking about guys that were in the seventies
and eighties, most of the people in our audience have
to go on YouTube to watch them. They have no

(02:29:07):
frame of reference. Lets let them do it.

Speaker 14 (02:29:08):
It's right there in front of them, for fingerships, Go
and do it.

Speaker 2 (02:29:12):
It's fun. Uh Okay, So anyways, what is there any
other point besides yelling at me and confusing with somebody
else yelling.

Speaker 14 (02:29:19):
Now, it's a beautiful game and you're wrong.

Speaker 2 (02:29:22):
Jeff, it wasn't me.

Speaker 14 (02:29:25):
No, I that was fine. You've been on the station
a long time. I've been a huge fan of yours
and the station.

Speaker 2 (02:29:30):
Thank you.

Speaker 14 (02:29:30):
You work your ass off. This is a fun topic.

Speaker 2 (02:29:34):
I got you. But is there anything else about that?
About the NBA you want to talk about.

Speaker 14 (02:29:39):
Look back at the old teams, The old Chicago Bulls
in the seventies was all working class. Just take a
look at some of those things. Is talent and some
other teams, but they're a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (02:29:48):
Okay, you're going like Jerry Sloan and the Boys.

Speaker 14 (02:29:50):
Yeah, that's Nate Thurman coming off the bench. Tom Bordwinkle.
I'm not from the up there, but it was a
cool team to watch. When you got to see them.
There was no cable. They were rarely on TV.

Speaker 2 (02:30:01):
Well, it sounds like you didn't see him that much then, Jeff.

Speaker 14 (02:30:03):
Oh, but Bob Love and Chet Walker the up and
under moved his classic. It still works against people.

Speaker 2 (02:30:08):
All right, Jeff, thank you very much, appreciate it. Like, Okay,
I think I think if you call one per single
person the greatest of all time, I think it's a
different argument. The most dominant player of all time is
Wilt Chamberlain. The greatest winner at least of the modern
era is Michael Jordan, and the greatest winner of the

(02:30:29):
old era is Bill Russell. The greatest longevity as far
as longevity, the greatest NBA career I think arguably is
Lebron James, because I mean, he's gonna end up he's
the greatest scorer of all time. Is he top four
or top three and assists already, he's already number one
in turnovers as well. He's gonna end up top ten rebounds,
and he's already got the most NBA All Star appearances.

(02:30:53):
It's different conversations. It's also too, I mean again, it's
a frame of reference matters. I mean, for me, it
is Michael. He was the best competitor of all time.
He was the best closer of all time he was
the best winner of all time. I mean, all of
that does matter, absolutely, it does. And it's also too
the competition he was playing against. He he he could
not get through those Detroit Pistons teams to save his life.

(02:31:14):
And then he decided one offseason, it's time for me
to get in the way. And then he got Scotty
Pippen and two well, if you ask Michael, Scotty didn't matter. Yeah,
of course, because Scotty twice of you know, Hey I'm
gonna not undergo knee surgery because I don't want to
mess up my summer, or hey I'm not going to
play in this game because I've got a migraine. Yeah, well, yes, Scotty,
Scotty had a jones against Michael. After that, Well, Scotty's

(02:31:35):
gonna guess Scotty's got a different version of events as well.
But yeah, I mean, getting Scotty Pippen teammates help. Of course,
situations help, and having the greatest coach of all time
helped as well. I'm not I'm not gonna let you
besmirch the good reputation that is bj Armstrong. Okay, yeah, exactly.
I mean they had good teams and that's one of
the reasons they didn't win in ninety five. They didn't

(02:31:57):
have Dennis Rodman. They got another Hall of Famer. And
we'll have a funny how that go. How it works
you start winning a little bit. You got to say this,
the disingenuous nature of you know, Michael Jordan's post playing
career is of course, I mean, we all watched the
Last Dance and Michael Jordan is fully to blame for
when Jerry Krause's widow went back and I think they
either honored the team or put him in like the

(02:32:19):
Hall of Fame or something like that, and he got booed,
and it's just kind of like, yeah, man, like I understand,
this was a guy who believed that Tony Kuk coach
was going to be the future. But to act like
that guy was the reason why it all broke apart.
Things come to an end, and we're seeing that here
in Houston. Yeah, I mean. And also when Michael Jordan
went away, they won fifty five They won fifty seven

(02:32:40):
games the game that the year that he wasn't there,
they won fifty five games the game the year he
was gone. Just saying it was a good team. It's
it takes. It takes a village, it takes good teams,
it takes good coaching, It takes some luck as well.
Once you got Doug Collins out of there, you able
to start winning. Yeah, well we and the greatest coach
of all time helps as well in my opinion, unless
you want to go. I don't know Popovich, Red hour back.

(02:33:02):
He's in the conversation certainly. Well, but anyways, again I
knew pat Riley. I guess I could buy that we
could make that argument all right. Time for a break here.
If Riley was still around, he'd still be wearing this
sits still around. Well, but I'm saying on the floor, coach,
I wonder if he would with a slickback hair. Yeah,
he wouldn't be going the emy Udoka pullover, with the

(02:33:23):
with the shoes and all of that. It kind of
got relaxed right around COVID and then it's never come back. Yeah.
After COVID, that's when coaches said, yeah, I'm not one,
I'm gonna be. There's a few like I think, what's
his name the coach at Alabama Will I want to
say that Patino still wears suits, probably always wear lu
Carna Seca sweaters. I think he did do that. I'd

(02:33:44):
take a break here one segment to go on The
Matt Thomas Show with Ross. The A Team is coming
up next, and you can get in real quick if
you want to, if you want to yell at me
like Jeff and be wrong. I mean, there's just no
way I was going that hard line for Michael unless
literally he was calling me in nineteen ninety eight. That's
when I believed he was un quiet shall be the
greatest player of all time. And I wasn't working on
this station. Seven one three two one two five seven

(02:34:05):
ninety is the phone number seven one three two one
two five seven ninety ride Half the work day is done.
Celebrate with Mitt. Hey, Matt, love your Schelle, by the
son of it. Some of you started the party at breakfast.

Speaker 1 (02:34:20):
Matt Thomas on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:34:23):
Lou Rolls for Matt. I don't know if he's still listening.
The biggest Lou Rolls fan on the planet, Matthew Thomas.
It's very soothing. Yeah, he's got a great voice. Does
one lou Rolls? May he also rest. Welcome back to
The Matt Thomas Show with Ross Here on Sports Talk

(02:34:45):
seven ninety phone number seven one three two one two
five seven, and he got like a couple of minutes
to get in. Maybe you don't have time, who knows,
But anyways, you want to yell at ross someone three
two one two five seven ninety once again, that's seven
one three two one two five seven night. Yes you
can do that. J I did it. I swear there's
no way. I've never been like an all in Jordan guy.

(02:35:06):
It's just not. I don't think so unless he literally
called me in nineteen ninety eight after Jordan made that
shot and I was like, hey, he's a greads of
all time. I'll wear that hat. That's fine. I'm gonna
you can't and I'm not gonna look I think you.
Of course, he has an extremely good argument, does Michael
Jordan as the greatest basketball player of all time? Anyways,

(02:35:28):
So something I do have to get off of my
chest before. Since I'm not gonna be on Thursday, I'm
gonna be on Friday. Texans prediction Dan. Unfortunately, start of
the week, I was feeling optimistic. We'll see what happens
with Joe Mixon apparently practicing again today. Is he gonna
be available Pat Mahomes. I haven't seen the latest on
whether or not he's been practicing, but I think they're

(02:35:50):
gonna keep that close to the vest line holding at three.
But I keep getting in my mind even though Kenyon
Green isn't gonna be inserted back into the starting lineup
on the road offensive line issues. Steve Spagnolo this Chiefs
front at Arrowhead, I'm gonna be real with you. When

(02:36:10):
I get to New Orleans, I'm gonna head to that
Caesar sportsbook and probably put the under on the Texans
team total. I just don't see a way they're going
to score enough, and especially if Pat Mahomes is going
to play, I think they will, so I will put
it on the record my prediction for the Houston Texans
this weekend against the Chiefs. Chiefs nineteen, Texans thirteen. Yeah,

(02:36:36):
I heard you say that earlier, so I guess field
goal late to kind of you know, pad the lead
there with the Texans have to go down and score
a touchdown or otherwise they don't win the game. I mean,
I like the under in this one too as well.
Cold weather game. Chiefs offense has not been great, the
Texans defense has and that's true. So I mean, that's

(02:36:57):
a little bit of a good matchup right there. I've
got Stone Cold Locks coming up on Friday. Okay, so
you're gonna hold off. I was gonna say, I call
it a preliminary gut feeling. I don't have to put
you on the record is Wednesday. I'm just going on
the record because I'm not gonna be I like the
under in this under. Okay, not to say that's gonna
be my Stone Cold Locks play. Wow. Saying that Steelers

(02:37:18):
line keeps moving Baltimore was a I think it opened
up at like five and a half. It's a this
six and a half now or no, maybe it opened
up six and a half and now it's moved down
and out's back Baltimore six and a half over the
Pittsburgh Steelers. That's that's quite the market movement from I
mean week to week before that, when the when the
Steelers are winning, they were thought of as one of

(02:37:40):
the best teams in football. But obviously a bad performance
against the Eagles and that really good defense in the
squad they have over there, maybe some concern over TJ.
Watt is the possibility. Yes, he liked Mahomes rolled in
ankle last week. I don't know anything about status wise
for him this week, but I've got to believe that
probably plays into it. H M and T Stadium is

(02:38:00):
a tough place to play, although the Eagles went in
there and beat them just a couple of weeks ago.
So yeah, it's obviously a big one for that division
in the North. What do you feel like as far
as the seeding for the Texans. I mean, obviously I
would like I would say, you want to avoid the
Ravens if you can, But the rest of the AFC
playoff teams pretty darn good. No matter who it's going

(02:38:20):
to be. I think, especially if it's like the Chargers, Broncos,
who Steelers, who have really good defenses, we're probably going
to be talking about a low scoring, squeaker type game
with the Texans being involved. Where it's going to be,
I mean, might might be a little similar to what
you see this weekend, with a knockdown, drag out type
of defensive game. Win two out of these last three
finished eleven and six on the season, that probably could

(02:38:44):
put you in position to be the three seed. So
I would say that their best bet to be able
to make a move in the AFC playoffs is to
get to the three. You play Denver. You can beat Denver,
then more than likely you play against Buffalo, although maybe
Harball's guys go out there and pull one off. Then

(02:39:05):
that way you'd have him back here for the divisional round.
I bought this guy up yesterday, Ben Baldwin. He does.
He just looks at the Vegas markets and then puts
what every team would be based on a neutral opponent,
based on a league average opponent on a neutral field.
Texans listed as one point three points better than the
average NFL opponent, slightly better, the Chargers at one point

(02:39:26):
four and then the Chiefs at four point one points
above market. So interesting there the worst team minus eight
point eight points against that average team, the New York Giants. Horrible.
All right, Well, that's gonna do it for the Matt
Thomas Show with Ross, and that's gonna do it for
me for the week. I will pass the baton to
Matt Thomas. He will be on Tomorrow and Friday and Monday.

(02:39:48):
I'll be with him on Christmas Eve and then we'll
take Christmas off. I don't know. It's the end of
the year. It's wunkey schedules, but thanks for hanging out.
Dan's for sure, man, I enjoyed it. Have a safe
drive to I don't know about it owned, and I
will be knee deep in Benyet's and gumbo and all
that good stuff. I've got stops for you along the
way too, if you want them. I'm good, Thank you, though,

(02:40:09):
I appreciate it. We're gonna stop at pre Jon's and Lafayette. Okay,
that's good enough. You've heard of that one. Oh yeah, okay,
pray Jos in Lafayette. I'm coming to you, baby. I'll
talk to you folks next week. Thanks to all of
you for listening calling. Thanks to economic government producing doing
a great job as he always does. I'll talk to
you folks next week. But stay right here. The A
Team is coming up next on sports Stalk seven ninet

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