Radio Rebels (7-1-24)

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast. Three internet sensations, guys! Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons, 3 to 7 on WSJS.

You are on a Monday drive. It is WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad, where we are coming at you live from the Pringtover Resort in Greensboro, sites of the National Sports Media Association's annual awards banquets, where, among those who will be honored tonight, Joe Buck will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. It'll be just the second example of a father and son inducted into this Hall of Fame that goes back to 1959, Salisbury from 59 through the mid-2010s, for about five years in Winston-Salem, and for the first time live in Greensboro this year, and the folks here are super excited about that. Jack Buck, inducted in the 1980s, Joe Buck going in tonight, just saw Andrea Kramer walking by. She's going into the Hall of Fame, one of the few women that have been inducted into this Hall of Fame, and then you have the state award winners that'll be recognized.

Among them, Brendan Marks from The Athletic. You have Mike Salarte here in the state of North Carolina from Spectrum News 1, both of which will be guests today. The National Sportscaster of the Year will be recognized. That is Kevin Harlan winning for a third time.

Kevin will drop by our set as well a little bit later on. As you could tell, a fantastic lineup of guests. ESPN's Jeff Passan is your National Sportswriter of the Year, and it all is happening here right in our backyard in the Triad.

This might be something that you're unaware of, but going back to 1959, this organization has called North Carolina home, the western part of the state home, mostly in the Piedmont Triad home, and it's a nonprofit organization that needs support. And if you are a sports fan, odds are if you're tuning in and been tuning into this show for six years, if you're a sports fan, you probably are that. It's worth supporting. In the future, it's worth keeping tabs on and attending because you never know who will drop by. At a table last night, the voice of the Orioles, Jeff Arnold was sitting there, along with Wes Durham and Kenny Albert. And you have great conversation. And then the voice of the Kansas Jayhawks walks by. And then it's the voice of the Ohio State Buckeyes, maybe the best voice in all of broadcasting, at least the deepest, in Paul Keels, and it leads to great stories being told.

And it's something that I don't think most people in the triad even know they have here. And it's become such a special event, something I look forward to each and every year. And if you have a chance to be a part of it, strongly recommend it in future years.

To learn more about it, go to nationalsportsmedia.org. WD, we have huge stories today. Usually, this event happens in June.

And it's kind of a slow sports calendar when we're sitting here at the NSMA. Not today. No, sir, read. Rather than getting into every single headline we have, which includes US soccer in action tonight needing to beat Uruguay in the Copa America. Heck, Tom Walter, did you see this?

Yes, I did. Tom Walter, who was pursued by Texas A&M over the weekend, staying at Wake Forest. And tonight, he and his daughter Casey are going to be on the wall 10 o'clock tonight on NBC. No, these are all side stories compared to the big things that are happening today on July 1, starting with NBA free agency. This is something we want to obviously discuss with one of the leading voices on the NBA, Kevin Harlan. But Paul George is now a Philadelphia 76er. They just extended Tyrese Maxey, gave him a big contract extension. The Boston Celtics, meanwhile, they don't know when Kristaps Porzingis is going to be available. But Brad Stevens said he's likely going to miss parts of next year, the early part of the season with the ankle injury he sustained. The New York Knicks added another Villanova Wildcat last week, giving them four teammates on the same team from that Villanova team that beat North Carolina in the national title game in 2016.

Sorry to bring that back up. 2018 as well, two-time national champs. You get McCall Bridges on that squad. That jumps them up a notch, and they were already good. And don't forget, they were banged up in the playoffs, didn't have Julius Randle, so they weren't even at full strength. You know Milwaukee's going to bounce back with Giannis in the lineup. And don't forget, Miami, who always seems to be competitive, and Indiana was in the Eastern Conference Finals. The question is, Boston was head and shoulders above everybody in the NBA this past year, certainly in the East.

You knew they were going to come back down the Earth with the injury to Porzingis and missing some time. There's the natural salary cap watering down of your roster when you have to give big deals to some of your best players to keep them around. Jalen Brown getting his big contract a year ago. Just today, Derek White getting a big extension. Jason Tatum's extension is expected, and obviously that's going to be massive when it happens. So how big can the Celtic bench be?

How much are they going to take a step back? Is the biggest question perhaps going into the NBA next year, how large is that gap now between the Celtics and whoever you deem to be the second best team in the East? Who is that second best team? Is it the Knicks healthy and adding McCall Bridges? Is it the Philadelphia 76ers now that they have what they believe to be a big three of Joel Embiid, Paul George, and Tyrese Maxey? Could it be Milwaukee? Could it be Miami?

Could it be Indiana? That is going to be very competitive. So big agenda item today, number one, is that you have obviously NBA free agency. You also have NHL free agency. Not a great day for the Carolina Hurricanes. The Canes could not extend Jake Genzel. The Canes could not extend Jake Genzel.

So they got something in exchange for his rights. They trade a third round pick to Tampa. It didn't look like Tampa was going to get anything done, but they end up getting it done today, a seven year contract with Genzel to be there. So I guess they got their money's worth for that third round draft pick. The Canes hopefully now will be able to afford other key players on the team. I was a guest on another show late last week, and the question was posed to me, do you want Jake Genzel or Marty Neches back?

And the answer to that isn't so simple. It's not that black or white because you're talking about, again, a salary cap sport where if you assign somebody for so much, you can't afford to keep other players. And when the Canes have nine unrestricted free agents and then a few other restricted free agents to resign, how much you're paying for players really matters. And with Neches being cheaper than Genzel and Neches being four years younger than Genzel, at the right price, you could see him being the more important signing than the most coveted free agent this cycle that Genzel was. As long as that means you resign some of the other UFAs. They are not going to resign Brady Shay.

It looks like he's going to Nashville. Does that mean you extend Brett Pesci? It would seem so. And you get Seth Jarvis back as a restricted free agent?

Yes. And Marty Neches, they announced that. He was tendered with the RFA offer in the last 24 hours.

So NHL free agency, something we'll keep you posted and abreast of as well. And then the last big agenda item, it's just years of college realignment, things that have been talked about in theory and speculative all becoming official today. Texas and Oklahoma that started all of this three summers ago, all this cycle of realignment, accelerating the college football playoff expansion, today they officially are members of the Southeastern Conference, July 1 of 2024. SMU, Cal, and Stanford have joined. Well, at least the ACC says that's the case, although Jim Phillips has said that the California schools won't join until August the 1st. SMU joins officially today, and they're having a big event right now in Dallas to celebrate it.

And it's on ACC Network and all that. But just think about all the conversations that have been had in college sports over the last three years based on the headlines that have come to fruition officially today. We talked about this last week, but it can't be emphasized enough that officially college sports has changed as we know it just in the last 24 hours with the Pac-12 Network going dark and what it symbolizes, the Pac-12 that's been around since 1915, going dark as a conference and not existing as we know it. And the Big 12 looking completely different without Texas and Oklahoma, but poaching some of those Pac-12 schools, and the ACC adding schools out West, and the power dynamics of the SEC versus everybody else.

It's truthfully a time that is so unknown that it's going to be written about decades from now, talked about decades on end, how impactful the move that became official today, July 1st of 2012. We're back at the Grand Over Resort, of course, in Greensboro, here at the NSMA Awards Banquet later tonight. It won't be just Hall of Fame inductees like Joe Buck, who are being recognizer, national winners such as the great Kevin Harlan recognize, sportscasters and sportswriters from across the country recognized for their state wins recognized as well, which includes friend of the show, Brendan Marks from The Athletic who joins us now. Brendan, first it was your win in the ACC tournament draft, now you're the North Carolina sports writer of the year.

What a year to be Brendan Marks. Yeah, I'm just glad to be here. And it's so wild because I didn't grow up in North Carolina, but since I have been in school here, I have like grown up reading all of the people who have won these awards and listening to the people who win these awards. And so just being here and getting to meet them is all very cool.

So trying to soak in today as much as possible. Where did you grow up? My dad worked for the government. So we moved around a lot. So I've lived in six or seven different states. So Jersey, Connecticut, New York, Iowa, South Carolina, North Carolina, but went to school at UNC and I've mostly been in North Carolina since then. I did not know that about you, Brendan.

Known you for a while, didn't know that. So when you're getting interested in the industry, because this is a celebration of the sports media industry, who are some of the names that most resonated to you, both local and national, that were influential? Yeah, you know, I think especially locally, I probably figured out I really wanted to do this in high school, at which point I was in North Carolina. So I think about people like Ed Hardin was a huge one for me. I absolutely loved Ed, still love Ed, obviously. I just loved his voice and how if you've ever met Ed Hardin and you've ever read an Ed Hardin story, they are the same.

That Venn diagram is a circle. Somebody like a Carlton Tudor, not to give him too much praise, but Luke DeCock, obviously. Be careful about giving him praise.

I regret saying it already. And then at the national level, like a Gary Smith was always somebody who I idolized. A Rick Riley, just some of those really big writers who I think got to the root of a story. Mike Rosenberg at SI, who I'm lucky to now call a friend. So I think you need to, I mean, the people who I think are the best in this industry are the people who read the most, who write the most, who listen the most, and just like to always be consuming, because there are so many talented people, as we're seeing here live today.

So you mentioned Ed Hardin. I give that man so much credit for the success of this show, because I may have told this story on air before, but when I arrived here, the great David Glenn told me, Josh, the Triad's a great place. Top 50 market from a sports radio, sports media perspective, that's something that matters a great deal. There's a large audience and a large swath of sports fans that are there.

However, in the history of that market, there's never been a show that's lasted more than two years. We don't know why. That's just kind of how it is. So I sought out Ed Hardin.

And I asked Ed, why is that? And his answer in so many terms was, the Triad could be a bit of an interesting place in the sense of, yes, you have Wake Forest. You have UNCG.

You have High Point and all that here. But make sure you talk about the Tar Heels. Make sure you talk about the Carolina Panthers, too.

Go to those games and don't forget about them. And here we are. Six years later, next month will be the six-year anniversary of this show. Marzel, congratulations.

Thank you so much. Hey, celebrations all around. Brendan Marks joining us. But how about I take Ed Hardin's advice then, and get to the ACC basketball topics of the day.

And if you're a Carolina fan, odds are you care about Duke, too. You're familiar with the Armando Bacott drop that we have. That's become a popular thing. Yeah? Are you familiar with the Gary Hahn drop? I'm not.

This is new for me. So Gary Hahn had the controversial comments about a year and a half ago. But the most amusing part to me was how he transitioned out of those comments to throw straight to the sideline to Tony Haines. Let's go to the sidelines, Tony Haines. So any time there's an awkward conversation or an awkward topic that comes up on the show, or somebody says a thing that might be a bit dead fishy.

Hey, someone just threw a dead fish in the room. What are we going to do with it now? We have Gary Hahn. Let's go to the sidelines, Tony Haines. That's the point. So transitioning that to Kyle Filipowski.

Oh, god. So usually I wouldn't touch family speculation like what's regarding Kyle Filipowski with the 39 and a half foot pull. But this is not TMZ reporting these things. This is Jonathan Givoni, who's the top draft guy at ESPN saying teams have told him that this is why Kyle Filipowski fell out of the first round. Then I started to hear from people at Duke that I know. And I started to think, had I ever run into Kyle Filipowski's parents?

Have I ever seen these types of things? You cover the ACC for the athletic. So I'm just interested, when did this or anything resembling this story appear on Brendan Marks's radar screen?

Did it? Yeah, for sure. And again, these are the sorts of things that make me feel kind of yucky getting too far into it. But I will just say that I sat down with Kyle in October of this season, so right before this season I'm supposed to begin to do a big sort of blowout feature. And as is my common protocol, and I believe this would be the case, if you're writing a story about somebody, you can only have them tell you so much. If I was writing a story about you, no offense, I'm not talking to you. I'm going to talk to your wife. I'm going to talk to your parents. I'm going to talk to your best friend. I'm going to talk to your coworker. I'm going to talk to WD. So I say to Kyle, who else can I talk to for this story? Can I talk to your parents?

Can I talk to your brother? At which point I become aware. So I think that there's been a lot of stuff that's been put out there. I will say that some of it is definitely false.

But saying that this was not a factor whatsoever, and him falling to the second round after being an All-American and All-ACC guy, and a seven-footer who can shoot, pass, and dribble, I think that would be inaccurate as well. So there's some truth to it all. I don't want to get too much farther into it. But certainly, these are the sorts of things now that we have to deal with.

Guys are making money. Guys, there's all this sorts of stuff. But here's my question. And this is something I wondered on Friday as well.

Why are these the things that we have to deal with? I remember, I forget which UFC fighter it was that he failed a drug screening for cocaine, which we can agree, using cocaine, bad thing. But why are recreational drugs being tested to prohibit you from fighting in a fight? In this case, why would this ever come up in a draft context? And why would it hurt somebody's thinking on taking Kyle Filipowski?

Yeah, true. I can answer that. And I can also relate it to some other players who you've seen in years past. So OK, when somebody is being potentially drafted, and I have these conversations every year with scouts from probably February on. Once we pass the NBA trade deadline, NBA front offices switch their focus from pro scouting to college scouting, because that's the next thing they have on their radar. So starting in February, I start having conversations with scouts. And scouts start doing what they call their intel.

They start making calls on people to find out everything about them. Because the fact of the matter is, a guy can be seven feet tall, and he can be the best athlete in the world. He can be Victor Wenbanyama. But if he comes from a situation where maybe he's got people around him who are, they have a direct line to his ear. And I'm not saying this is the case with Filipowski. Just an example.

There's another guy who was picked in the first round of this year's draft, I can tell you for a fact, would have gone higher if not for the people who he had around him. Because there are concerns about, is this situation that this person is in, is it something that's going to be a distraction? Is this something that could get the person into off court, off the field drama? Is this something where the player is not going to be as responsible?

They're not upholding their images? And so in the situation specifically with Kyle, it's a question of like, OK, what does this relationship have on his other relationships? What does it have on his time management skills? What does it have on his ability to do the job that we are ultimately making a multimillion dollar investment in? And so that's why it comes up to be a factor.

It's not about, oh, we're not telling you who you can be with, or blah, blah, blah, or who you can be friends with, who you can live with. But we are saying we're making a $15 to $20 million investment in you. Is this somebody who is going to potentially jeopardize that investment? So that is something not just with him, but with players frequently. As much intel as people do on medicals, they do it on the personal background of players.

For good measure, WD. I can only think of one way to transition out of this conversation with Brendan Marks. Let's go to the sidelines, Tony Haynes. Yeah, OK. Getting to next year's Duke team. The hype going to be greater than Zion, or about the same? I think maybe a little bit less.

Here's the thing. I remember watching that Duke-Kentucky game with Zion. First game? I would call it less of a game and more of like a proclamation.

It was, this dude is going to be on your screen forever now. Wasn't that your first year covering it? I came in at the end of that year.

A little bit of stuff. That was my first year covering it. Yeah, so I did more on the ACC tournament side. But I think the thing is, I think Cooper Flagg's name is at a greater place presently than Zion Williamson's was before his freshman summer. Zion plays a more, I would say, highlight-esque game. Not that Cooper's not.

He's got blocks and athleticism for days and all this. But I think Cooper is a much better and more skilled basketball player right now than Zion was. And I think this team can be just as good as Zion's team was. I think this can be a top five team and arguably the best defense in the country. Which roster do you think is better, Duke or Carolina's? Duke, comfortably.

Because you do have RJ Davis back at North Carolina. I worry, as I did this year, about Duke's front court. I worry about North Carolina's front court next year. Comparatively, Duke is going to be, I believe, the first team since Florida State in 2010 to not have a rotation player under 6 foot 5.

They're going to be gigantic. And so you're talking about starting 6' 5", 6' 5", 6' 9", 6' 9", 7' 2". I mean, that's an NBA front court.

That's an NBA size all the way up and down. So I presently would take Duke. There is the experience thing. North Carolina has much more of it. But in terms of just pure talent and upside, I definitely would take Duke first. Jalen Washington, for sure, into the starting lineup for Carolina. I don't think that's a guarantee. I think Van Allen Lubin will have something to say with that.

I think they're going to look and see. Is Cade Tyson your three? Is he your four? Is Ian Jackson a starter?

Is he off the bench? Can you have Elliott Cadeau, Ian Jackson, and RJ Davis starting simultaneously? Would the question be either Ian or Seth Trimble? I mean, yeah. Is Seth Trimble?

How does he factor into the equation? Cade is probably offensively your three. But defensively, he might have to be your four just because of your other roster restrictions. So I think there's just a lot more uncertainty about North Carolina and where everybody slots in right now.

Not that it can't work out. We had similar questions last year. But Duke, I think, is just a little easier to forecast it as of now. Brenda Marks with us here. Getting back where we started, tonight you're going to win the North Carolina Sports Writer of the Year, whether you know this or not. Tonight, you're going to be on a stage.

You're going to walk up. And you're going to receive a trophy from ESPN's Jeff Passan later tonight. When you're on stage, how does that kind of hit you, this type of recognition and the type of names associated with it?

Yeah, I mean, it's always hard talking about yourself. But my whole family before me were lawyers. Everybody's ever been an attorney. My dad was an attorney. My grandfather was an attorney.

My uncles, my aunts, everybody has been an attorney in my family. And growing up, I remember in high school, doing my first couple interviews and telling my dad, I'm going to be a sports writer. And I'm always saying, OK, good luck with that, buddy.

I'll see you in grad school in five years. And yesterday was the seventh anniversary of my dad's passing. And I remember he used to text me, read your article last night, really good.

Read your article last night. It was really good. And so especially a day after the anniversary of his passing, I'm thinking about him and how cool it would be to have him here. Not to say that I've made it, but just that I've put off being an attorney at least for a couple more years. I'll say you've made it. I appreciate it, buddy. Brenda Marks, you're the best. Thanks for all you do for us. And enjoy the night. And we'll see you later on. Absolutely.

Appreciate you, brother. The list of agenda items lengthy. Mike Salarte. Things we have to get to with the North Carolina Sportscaster of the Year.

Co-Sportscaster of the Year, along with the great EC, Eric Collins, voice of the Charlotte Hornets, Valley Sports, Charlotte Hornets. We need to start with what you said the moment that you just sat down in this chair. We need to get you a phone book. You're on the show, Josh. You can sit, you know.

We have video so people can see. Here's the thing. I'm not short. This might be the first time ever someone's asked me a question of, do you need a phone book or something?

And that's saying something considering I work in sports and namely cover basketball. How tall are you, Mike Salarte? I'm 6'4, but it's the most friends. You're a unit.

Most friends. No, I turned in unit years ago. I'm now in the scrap heap when it comes to physical specimens. Checking off agenda item number one, Josh's height.

Let's get to agenda item number two. Sorry, buddy. Last night, Radio Rebels, the name of the trivia team. It was you. It was me.

It was Nick Pierce, who does internal PA for the Carolina Panthers and play-by-play for Liberty. And we held our own against a full room of people and every table it felt like had a dozen people. But we held our own and were in contention in sports trivia.

Just three of us. Fourth place. That's what I'm saying.

It's no place. I get it. If you're not first, you're last. I get it.

Ricky, Bobby. But no, I was proud. I was damn proud of the Radio Rebels. Your Olympic knowledge was uncanny. You really held your own on that.

Hockey, we can lean on you as well. Yeah, but I whiffed. I whiffed on the Gretzky first goal. I could have sworn it was Minnesota, but it was. It was Vancouver in game 40 that season. That gets us to agenda item number three. Jake Gensle not resigned by the Carolina Hurricanes.

Right. So there are Canes fans. This is the part that's uncomfortable for me when it comes to a lot of people who care about the Canes now that they're very good, six straight playoff appearances that I don't remember really being around during the nine year playoff drought. I hear people saying, oh, man, it's Rob.

Is he the right guy? Like, you're not breaking through. Hear people say, whoa, is this team even worth following if we're not going to have Gensle? Or are we going to have a shot at contending? And all I can think is, nine year playoff drought. If you don't know who Justin Falk is, if you don't know who Jeff Skinner is, if you don't know who those mid 2000s Canes players are, odds are I don't want to hear what you have to say. Odds are I know you know who those people are, and you love hockey. So how should a Carolina Hurricanes fan feel today? It's a very good question.

Thank you. Because the loss of a guy like Jake Gensle, who was a rental, I mean, he was on an expiring deal. Carolina wanted to re-sign him. You know, the hope was that he'd get a long term and have him as part of the future. Then you have a change of the general manager's position.

Don Waddell leaves, becomes the president in Grand Poobah of Columbus. I mean, he's overseeing. I think he's overseeing parking. I mean, he's doing everything on the hockey side, and I think he's overseeing the parking lots. And good for him. Love Donnie and wish him the best. Let's hope he gets a cut.

Yeah. Trust me, he's getting all the cuts. But then you have Eric Tulski in there as the general manager, who has no background in the game as a player or a coach. He's an analytics-driven guy. He is brilliant. He is a super smart dude. But I think the scare is that Tulski doesn't know what he's doing. To that I say, stop. Let the guy do his job.

The guy, he bases his world on numbers and how to solve problems with those numbers. And to jump in real quickly, to say that Eric Tulski doesn't know what he's doing, and he's the general manager of the Canes, is to say that Tom Dundon doesn't know what he's doing by having him be the GM and removing that interim tag. And I think they know what they're doing. I go back to nine-year playoff drought. Since Dundon's taken over, it's six years, six playoff appearances, and the best teams we've seen, arguably, in team history.

So we have no give. He deserves more than the benefit of the doubt to know who should be leading the hockey program. Absolutely. And that's the point I was getting at. They know what they're doing. And Brady Shea apparently is going to Nashville, which is something I just learned, picking up my lunch over here. But with the number of unrestricted guys that were on this roster, you knew change was going to happen.

So it's not a matter of what have you lost. Now it is a matter of what is coming in. And that is, you know, and this is going to sound strange, and my wife is going to think I'm drunk. But I haven't been on Twitter all morning, because I've been here at the NSMA convention and doing the feedback room. Yeah, I didn't realize this yesterday when we were doing sports trivia or whatever, how much zaniness and craziness was happening in the NBA.

It's like, wait, Paul George is where? Yeah. Exactly. There's been a lot. I kind of feel like I've stepped into a vacuum and I'm going to leave here to go back to Charlotte on Tuesday and think, oh, wait a minute. Stanford and Cal are in the ACC now?

Oh, no, I knew that. I had that covered. Today, hey, welcome to the ACC. Had that covered. Let's get to the next agenda item. Mike Solarte, Spectrum News.

Like I said, we have a lengthy list of things that we have to get to with the North Carolina sports master of the year. The last thing I'm here for. Where's your home?

I'm sorry? Where's your home? Where do you call home? What city? Well, I live in Charlotte. That's right. That's where the Carolina Panthers are located. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I thought you were getting deeper. I'm like, I'm a Chicago native, but you know. That's right.

You are a Chicago native and we love you for it. The Carolina Panthers, though. Yeah. Speaking of fan bases that have concerns about such things, they have not been to the playoffs in quite some time. Dave Canales is in place. And the thing that I've found interesting over the last two or three weeks, we've kind of heard snide remarks and digs towards the last staff how things were handled. Whether it be Andy Dalton saying, well, this staff has a plan. Miles Sanders saying, there's a commitment to running the football that didn't exist before. Whether it's Adam Thielen out there saying, there were guys showing up who were out of shape, who are no longer on the team anymore. And Dave Canales talked about how, from the offensive scheme perspective, there was a lot of things that just didn't make a lot of sense when he was on the podcast with Peter Schrager last week. Some will hear that and think, well, this is just common football stuff. Like, if you're just blaming last year's staff when things are bad, that's a thing that normally happens. We've seen a lot of staffs, and we've seen a lot of bad football. I don't recall Matt Ruhl digging the end of the Ron Rivera era. I don't remember Frank Reich doing that with Matt Ruhl so much either. How much have you seen to make you believe last year was a bit of an anomaly considering how bad it went?

Last year, I don't know what was necessary. First, let me go back to the first point about the digs. OK, the way that those digs, those words can be interpreted and perceived. They probably are digs. Yeah. They probably are. But that's not common, though.

A lot of people would think it is. And I think that's noteworthy that they are digs. But I think here you're talking about them being, while it may not be common, I think that you can perceive them as digs because it was a historically bad season for the Panthers. Lifetime.

Sure. It's the end of the franchise. And I think that when you look at what was being said and what was being done with this team last year, and again, my outside opinion, I just cover the team.

I'm not inside the walls. You and I talked about this last night. Miles Sanders saying there's a commitment to running the football here.

Well, he's not wrong. Because when you saw the last season under Matt Ruhl, which led to Steve Wilks, what did the offense do? They ran the ball.

Down people's gullets. The Detroit game. Christmas Day was frozen tundra of Charlotte because it was cold as hell that day. I was out there. And the field probably wasn't up to standard. The field was, well, the field's a different thing altogether.

Because of concerts. Let's not forget. Yes. But the fact is that the Panthers ran the ball at will, ran the ball because they could do it, wanted to do it, and made you stop it. Transitioned into the Frank Reich era, and now they're trying to go west coast offense with the same offensive line. Well, you can't turn bulldozers into ballerinas.

And you have to have, maybe you can, but you can't do it overnight. It's not the flip of a switch. So you have a different offensive line coming. Well, last season, I'm trying not to recreate the PTSD that we all went through covering that team last year, but it was bad. It was absolutely horrific football because you were trying to square peg into a round hole, that sort of thing.

It just didn't work with the plan that was put in place. So when you talk about the comments that are being made now, or there's a commitment to run the football dig, there's this whatever. The one out of shape? Yeah, no, not the out of shape thing. Oh, Andy Dalton. Andy Dalton. Got a plan.

Yeah, dig. Because I don't think, I think Frank Reich had a plan and did not know how to communicate it or execute it. And then, of course, you had all the reported infighting with the coaches, the clickish nature of all that stuff. I just don't think he had the same plan that Thomas Brown had.

Yeah, well, they didn't, whatever it was, didn't work. That's why they're all gone. Mike Szilarte.

On the offensive side, anyway. Mike Szilarte is with us here tonight. As I told you a few months ago, Kevin Harlan is going to be on stage handing you a trophy with your name on it that says you are the most excellent sportscaster in the state of North Carolina, where you've been for decades.

What does that represent? I've told you that you're somebody we've been rooting for for a long time to be recognized. Today is that day.

What do you think? It still hasn't hit me. I mean, it still hasn't hit me. I look around and got a chance to meet Everett Fitzhugh from the Saddlecrackin. And Kenny Albert's running around in there. And Bob Ryan's running around in here.

And I'm wondering, what in the hell am I doing here? And last night at the dinner, the reporter, whose name sadly escapes me, the top under 30 reporter, said it best. We didn't get in this for awards. But when you're recognized, it does mean something. And the thing that hits me the hardest is there are those who won state awards this year or for last year that aren't here this weekend. And they've gotten their awards mailed to them.

And they've posed with them and taken pictures. And it's very, very cool. And the thing that hits me the hardest is on that trophy, on that trinket, it says chosen by your peers. And that to me is the highest form of compliment that anybody can receive when you are selected by the people who watch you or listen to you or see what you do on a daily basis. And they think that it's something that's worth recognizing.

And that means a lot to me. So to the voters in the contingent, yourself, I think you pulled a Chicago thing. You've voted multiple times. That's the only way.

It's the only way it could have happened. Like MLB All-Star voting? Yeah, exactly. I voted for Gunnar Henderson five more times today. But for all those folks, they had eight or nine choices.

I was one of them. And yeah, well, you can't vote for yourself. No, you can't. I probably could, but I don't think you can.

Dave Gordon knows how to get around that stuff. But for those folks that you had an option, you had a choice. And your pen hit the box next to my name, I am forever grateful because it's something that it really, truly does mean a lot to me to be thought of that highly. Because I don't, I mean, I don't, who am I?

I'm the chump wearing the tablecloth picnic table shirt here. Can I tell you something? It gets even better tonight. Oh, I can imagine. It gets even better tonight. You're going to love it.

So Mike Szilarte? I'm very much looking forward to it. And again, thank you to those who felt I was worthy of their vote.

It really does mean a lot. You got your jacket on. You got your collar on.

You're ready to go. Oh, I have a different, I have a suit for tonight. Oh. Oh, yeah. Hi, buddy.

This is, they said business casual. This is, you know, I'm rocking, I'm rocking the Tylus. I got the, I got the, I got the thing going here, like I'm going to, you know, going to the, going to the two drink minimum comedy club tonight, you know, see what's going on.

But no, I'll be suited in Boudeford tonight. All right. Well, we'll see you in just a little bit. Mike Szilarte, thanks so much for doing this. Congratulations.

Thank you again. And I appreciate you having me on, Jake. The now three time winner of the National Sportscaster of the Year Award with the NSMA, Kevin Harlan.

He's joined our set at the Grand Over Resort. Kevin, your sportscasting journey has taken you to the Super Bowl every year. We know you from the NBA on TNT.

We know your work with CBS, the NCAA tournament, all these assignments. Have any of your assignments led you to Greensboro, North Carolina? Yeah, you know, I've been here.

I've done an NCAA tournament first and second round here. I don't know when, but I know I've done one. I was telling my daughter we flew in last night. And I said, I know I've been here. I just can't remember when, but I know I've been to Greensboro. And I've been to Greenville. And I've been Charlotte, clearly, and all in Winston-Salem a couple of years ago. So I mean, I feel like I've kind of canvassed about every major area in the Carolinas, North and South.

But I have been to Greensboro, did at the Coliseum. But I can't tell you when. It may have been back in the late 90s. I need to look that up. I'm going to look it up after we get off the air, Josh. I'm going to figure out when I was there. The NCAA tournament makes sense. When we were talking with Jim Nance last, he said that his first ever NCAA tournament game was at Greensboro. Yeah, oh my gosh.

With some partner named Bill Raftery. Yep, yep, yep. How fun is that? It really is. I've known you for a while, but I'm ashamed to say I didn't know until just a few hours ago that you went to the University of Kansas. Yeah, very difficult school to get into, Josh. They call it the Harvard of the Midwest.

And there's a good reason why. Yeah, I went to Kansas. I was going to go to Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin and Notre Dame.

I was looking at those two schools. And my dad, who was in professional football with the Packers running the organization, saw a CBS broadcaster at Soldier Field in Chicago before a Packers-Bears NFL game late in the season. And my dad was telling him where I was going to go because I was doing a lot of broadcasting when I was in my high school years. And he said, well, he's thinking about Wisconsin and Notre Dame. And Gary Bender was the broadcaster. He said, well, you should look at the University of Kansas. Gary Bender.

Gary Bender. So who used to do the Final Four for CBS and a longtime network announcer. And so my dad comes home that night and tells me this conversation and gave me the name of someone to contact down there, which I did. And as it turned out, the guy that I saw actually was a guy named Tom Hedrick who broadcast Super Bowl One for CBS Radio. He was a former voice of the Jayhawks and he was doing the Jayhawks at the time. And he said, if you come down here, not only will you get a great journalism education, but you'll also be my sideline reporter. You'll do the pregame, the halftime, and the postgame on the network.

And we'll do some baseball together and some Kansas basketball in addition to the football. And I go, holy smokes, this is great. So everything he promised me came true. I filled in for him on several radio sports casts a day as a student. I was on the sideline as an 18-year-old. I was doing the pregame, the halftime, the postgame on the KU network. It was incredible.

And he really gave me this wonderful experience that I carry to this day and think about fondly. Those were wonderful moments in my broadcast career. I can't believe what I just heard right now, because Kevin Harlan's here with us. The first ever sportscaster I ever met was Gary Bender.

No kidding. It was in Wilmington, North Carolina. I was 11. I didn't know who he was.

I was hot. And my dad and I saw a man just handing out bottles of water to pass me by. It was Gary Bender? And my dad was like, hey, my son, he said that he was a sportscaster. I'll have to text Gary and tell him the story. He's like, man, my dad, he's like, my son's interested in this. And I called the 1983 NC State National Championship.

I'm like, who is this exactly? I know it. Isn't that funny? And then Gary went to his car, and he got me a book, Call of the Game, and he signed it. Gary Bender, the first ever broadcaster I ever met.

No kidding, yeah. I still have that book to this day. Gary Bender and I are friends to this day. And he's, I think, living in Phoenix now, if I'm not mistaken.

He had a home in Colorado for a while. Great man. Great, great broadcaster, too. No, but I guess that speaks to, to relate it back to this event, the opportunity to meet people, encourage people.

Wes Durham, he took the stage last night. And one of the things he pointed out, and I've been here every single one of these since 2015, it's the relationships, it's the friendships that you build in celebrating this industry. And right here in our backyard, just making sure us doing the show here, people know what they have here in Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Salisbury, all these years, a celebration of sportscasters.

What does it mean to you as somebody who's now been crowned three times national sportscaster of the year? Yeah, when you're voted by your peers in anything, in any profession, it, I think, speaks about as loud and resounding as you could possibly hope for. They do what you do. They know the business. They know the ins and outs.

You can't cheat them. To an average listener, sometimes they may not know the difference of a good broadcast and a bad broadcast. Sometimes they have committees that award other awards that have nothing to do what you do, but they're in the business or they're in advertising.

These are radio and TV broadcasters and writers that know the business and know reporting. And so to get that kind of recognition is, it's incredibly gratifying. I can't begin to tell you how much it means to me to be here and to win inexplicably for a third time.

I'm just, this is such a wonderful moment for my career and my family, so I'm very grateful. While we got you, I just wanted to get on a couple of basketball things. I'd be remiss with you going to Kansas not to ask.

You covered so many tournaments. I'm sure you've had your run-ins with Roy. I know you had your run-ins with Larry Brown back when he was in the NBA. And I mean, the connection between Kansas and North Carolina, they go back to Dean Smith. And this year, don't need to know if you know about this, they are playing the first ever home and home series between the two in basketball.

Which they need to. So Carolina is going to Lawrence this year. And then for the first time ever, Kansas is going to Chapel Hill next year.

So I mean, did you ever have these comps? Did your Kansas roots ever come up with one Larry Brown? Oh, I broadcast Larry's first year at Kansas.

I did Larry Brown's first season at Kansas, 83-84, as their play-by-play announcer for the KU Network. And I know Larry very, very well. And I love Larry. And I love Roy. And have done Final Fours with Roy playing and Kansas playing.

And if I see both of them right now, I give them both a big hug. I love those gentlemen. They're what college basketball was. I don't know what we're watching these days, quite frankly, with all the money going around.

And it's lost a little bit of its romance, I think, quite frankly. And I love nothing more than doing a college basketball game. But I got to tell you, this NIL stuff, it's free agency and it's really minor league, what we've got in terms of paying these players. And it's the world we're in.

I'm not sure how. I know Jay Wright saw it coming. He left. I know others have seen it coming and they're leaving. The days of the Roy Williams, the Dean Smiths, the Larry Browns, all these incredible coaches, I don't know how they would all react to paying these players. Before, it was just hard recruiting. It was promising, being exposed to a program like Carolina. It was being part of something greater than yourself. Now, I talk to these coaches in college basketball and say the first thing we do, we don't even go and visit the recruits anymore.

All we do is we zoom with them. And in the first two minutes, how much are you going to pay me? They say, we're going to pay you X. Oh, sorry, this school is going to pay me more. I'll see you later. So excuse me, I just, it's debilitating to think about and I try not to think about it. Whenever I see an NIL story come up, I purposely don't read it because I just don't like the direction things are going. But it's the way of the world now.

And I can sit and live in the past as much as I want. But the romance, I think, of the college game, football and basketball that we came to just appreciate so much and tradition and coming to a program that could do something for you, getting an education, like all these things. It's pie in the sky stuff, but it's the stuff that made college sports different than pro sports. And now, unfortunately, we just have another layer of pro sports.

And I'm sorry to say that and sorry to see it for sure. You know when it hits me is every year during the draft. And it did this year where there seems to be, you deal with NFL, so I'm sure you can relate to this. I very seldom hear the person say, I love college football, but don't like the NFL or vice versa. It seems that this, because of what college has become, there is this gap between what the NBA is and what college basketball is, where you hear people say, I like college, but I don't really like the NBA or vice versa. And then you watch the draft, and there aren't as many prospects from college basketball. No. No. So I think it has, what you're talking about, has an effect on the NBA. It does. And our country is not doing a very good job coaching these kids.

I've got to be very frank. The AAU system has overridden almost every thing that a high school coach can do. Because now the AAU is all about how many games can we shove in one day?

What can I do for myself? It's never about team. It's always about what are my individual numbers going to be so I can get an NIL deal at some college. Is that why you think most of the best young players are Europeans? Absolutely. In our country, we play all these games, and there's never time for coaching and practicing and teamwork and all those great things. And in overseas basketball in Germany and Slovenia and all over Europe, all it is now is practice, practice, practice, practice, and then a game. Practice, practice, like they practice sometimes twice a day. So they get to work on their skills. They get to work on team fundamentals.

They get to do all these things. This AAU stuff has taken our game of basketball. And all you have to do is watch the draft.

Look at all those kids from France. All you have to do is look at the draft, and where are the great young American players? There's one in the NBA that everybody has circled. Anthony Edwards who played one year at Georgia. But who are the next great American players? The one that's going to be at Duke next year is the first one at Duke. That kid, I'm going to enjoy that kid.

I hope, I would love, of course, they never do stay. Now listen, we saw Ben Caro, and he's just killing the NBA. He's doing such a great job. When's the last time you called a game at Cameron? I've seen you at the Smith Center. I don't remember the last time I ever saw you there. At Cameron. I did it with Bill Raftery against North Carolina State maybe five or six years ago on a Saturday afternoon.

And left there and went right to Denver to do a Peyton Manning AFC Championship game, I think, against Tom Brady. I thought you were going to say Dan Bonner because you still have the drop in the computer. Your reaction to learning or being reminded about the Angus barn.

I love the Angus barn. Wow. No, here's how it sounded. Wow.

What was that? There you go. If I could right now, I'd walk to the Angus barn. How long a walk would that be for? It's an hour and a half.

Help me, Josh. It's in Raleigh. I would still walk there.

Wow. I love the Angus barn with or without Dan Bonner. If Bonner's there, great. If not, I don't care. I'm going to get the meat. I love the Angus barn. Last thing for you. I'm sure we're there now. Nothing against you, Josh.

No, it's fine. Paul George down on the Sixers. Tyrese Maxey gets an extension.

Joe Ellen beads there, of course. It seems Boston was the best team in the East by a long stretch. Bob Ryan was just telling us that with Kristaps Porzingis' status uncertain and them having to extend some guys, that gap is going to shorten.

Oh, there's no doubt. And the Knicks made the big move last week. How big is that top tier of the East? How far is that gap between the Celtics and whoever's next? Well, I'm not going to forget about Milwaukee.

No, a lot of people are. Yeah, but Philadelphia, Boston, New York, those teams. Miami's always going to be in there. Milwaukee's got on a dicombo. Indiana. Indiana Pacers are clearly a strong team.

Great organization. But getting Paul George, I think, gives them, and he'll give them what they need on every night. He didn't have to always be the scorer, but it can be the perimeter defender. He can always do the things that, as a 34-year-old player, make him so valuable. He's the perfect player for what they've got. Harden wouldn't have fit in that position. They tried that.

It didn't work. Maxey has flourished, and Bede is in his prime. And Paul George comes in there with the old sage veteran, who has been heavily decorated as a player, who goes in there and does, I think, an outstanding, if he can stay healthy. And that's been the big knock-on, Paul, is he can't stay on the floor.

But when healthy, when playing well, he's dynamite. And I'm a big Paul with George. I think it was an excellent, excellent move by the 76ers. And I love what the Knicks are doing, and Porzingis made Boston special. If Porzingis can't play for four to six months, as they're saying right now because of the surgery on his leg and his ankle, that opens up the East.

So I am very bullish on the Sixers and think their best basketball is ahead of them. I'm just reminded, Olivia Harlan, your daughter's here. Yes, she's here. I remember you had the speech in 2018 where she couldn't be here, I don't think.

Four or two? No, she actually was there. OK, she was. Yeah, she was there. She's just gotten married to Sam at that point.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. What will be on your mind tonight when you're giving that speech? Oh, just being grateful. You know, there's so many big names here, namely Joe Buck and Andrea Kramer. And I just saw Jason Stark, and I've just admired him from afar. Those are Hall of Fame people.

And then Jeff Panson, who won the National Writer Award. He's an incredibly talented person. This, like you said, will be my third time. And I've been blessed in so many ways to be here.

But these are the people they want to hear from. So I'll show gratitude as is my whim, especially at this stage of my career, and thankful for seeing friends like you, Josh. And I'm so happy for you on many different levels.

Thank you. I'm just glad to be a part of it. I think when you're younger, you're always trying to make your name, and trying to be this and that, and trying to stand out. I think the older you get, and the more you're around the business, the more appreciative you are, just that you're part of it. I think that's kind of the great thing about this business, is there's a real camaraderie, and there's a feeling like, yeah, we all kind of do the same thing.

It may have a different team, different name, different label on it, but it all is kind of the same business. And that's fun to be around people like that, who enjoy it and love the business as much as you and I do. It's the National Sportscaster of the Year, Kevin Harlan. Kevin, your time is so greatly appreciated, and congratulations. You got it, buddy. Good to see you again, Josh. Good to see you again. Thanks for having me on.