4-Nations Face-Off Has Been A MASSIVE Success (Hour 2)

It is the JR Sport Brief Show on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody who's tuning in, popping in. I don't care where you are. You could be here in Georgia with me. You could be in New York with super producer and host Ryan Hickey. You could be in Canada, anything. You could be in Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Nova Scotia.

You could be anywhere. Thank you for being here. We got a lot to get into over the next three hours. This show gets started every weekday, 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. You weren't here for the first hour?

It's easy. You can go ahead and hit rewind on the free Odyssey app and you could be with us and start from the beginning. If you're listening live, thank you. You can listen live on your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate. If you got Sirius XM, it's channel 375.

And if you got a smart speaker, ask the speaker to play the Infinity Sports Network. What did we discuss in the first hour? Well, we just had a great interview.

Thank you so much. So Liam McHugh covers all things NHL on TNT. You catch him as the host. Liam is a great guy. We talked about this four nation final tonight between Team USA and Team Canada.

Anytime USA versus Canada, it's good on the ice, on the ice. That's good. Unfortunately, we have to talk about the injury to Victor Wenbanyama. He is out for the season with a blood clot. I'm not a doctor.

I don't portray one on TV. We will talk to an actual doctor in 20 minutes. Doctor David Chow is going to join us. This man was an NFL team physician for 17 years. And we'll find out what this blood clot means for Victor Wenbanyama in his career. Brandon Ingram had one. Brandon Ingram now the Toronto Raptors still plays. Chris Bosh had one in his leg. It ended Chris Bosh's career.

I will not speculate. I feel good about Wenbanyama, but we'll have a chat with the doctor in about 20 minutes. And in the last hour, we also talked about Bobby Portis, who I guess somehow some way had an odd interaction with a doctor or pharmacist. Bobby Portis, one of the best guys off the bench in the NBA for the Milwaukee Bucks, putting up about 15 points, eight, nine rebounds a game, one of the best bench guys in the league, helping out Giannis and Lillard. This guy's basically suspended for almost the rest of the season.

They got 29 games left. He's been suspended, 25 of them. He took a drug by accident. Tell me if you heard that one before. He was supposed to be taking Toradol for his elbow pain. He accidentally took Toradol. And I'm not a drug user, so if I mispronounced that, hey, don't don't shoot me. His assistant gave him the wrong medicine.

That's what they said. Hickey, this is like, well, not quite. Remember a couple of months ago, Yannick Sinner, the Italian tennis player, he got the he tested positive for the drugs because his equipment people were massaging him and it absorbed into his skin.

Yes, they were. Was it oils or like was it something on his hands that rubbed or whatever was, yes, absorbed into his skin accidentally. And that's how he tested positive. So he had open lesions. Now this is where it gets nasty. Yannick Sinner had open lesions or sores on his body. OK, you get cut by accident. You don't realize something is there, I guess.

They'll yuck. But whoever was massaging him, you know, they had some drugs on their hands and he tested positive. And so now he's been suspended. And tennis players like Djokovic are mad. They feel like, you know, he got off easy.

It's just it's wild. None of this getting off easy here with Bobby Portis Jr. Bobby Portis Jr. says that he will not he will not appeal the suspension. The Milwaukee Bucks, well, they'll see him four games before the playoffs start. Congratulations. Meanwhile, right now, well, in about an hour from now, an hour and 15 minutes. I told you, we got some hockey tonight. How about this hockey that matters during the All-Star break? How about this?

It is February. And we don't got to look at hockey players hitting pucks at plates. We don't have to look at a miserable All-Star game. As we just discussed with Liam McHugh, we got Team Canada versus Team USA. And it goes down, I think, you know, I don't want to say the perfect spot, the perfect location, the perfect city, but it is close enough to Canada. They're going to take place in Boston, Massachusetts. Now, if you're not keeping up, if you've just been popping in, we've had four teams that have been competing in this four nations face off a Team USA, Canada, Finland and Sweden.

Team USA, they took on Canada this past Saturday and they beat them three to one. Now, I will tell you, as I discussed with Liam, I don't want to I don't want to say shenanigans were going on, but there were three fights in the first nine seconds. They booed the national anthem for Team USA. And I asked this to Liam if things would be a little bit more civil tonight. And maybe, possibly.

And he brought up a good point. If you're in Boston and you're going to this game, you're trying to check out this match. You having a beer before you go?

Probably. If you can, especially in that. Hickey, have you been up there to TD Garden Bank, whatever the hell they call it? Have you been up there?

No, I haven't. It is ideal to walk around outside and inside and outside. It is ideal to get, let's just say, lubricated. A lot of places, huh?

Yeah, you can't. You're thirsty to quench your thirst. Come on, Hickey. Is Boston Hickey? I respect it.

I love it. A lot of beer up there. A lot of beer. I'm sure a lot of good beer, I'm sure.

A lot of great beer that the atmosphere will be nuts. And to your point, I just asked this before we went to break. It is ESPN. We know that they lie when it comes to when the game is going to start.

They want you to sit down and tell them what's going on sit down and tune in for 30 minutes of garbage. Sorry for the pregame show. Hickey, they got a counter up on the screen? That reads one hour, 13 minutes, 25 seconds.

Oh my goodness. Which adds up to 8 20 p.m eastern. Of course, 20 minutes after the scheduled time or the time that they broadcast the game starter. I give you credit. You hit the nail on the head.

You said it would be 8 20 and you were exactly right. Now we wait. And as we wait, as we talked about the atmosphere, JT Miller, he says he thinks this crowd is going to be out of their minds. I anticipate it's going to be rocking. It's going to be an awesome game.

This is what we came here for. You know, we love that we get a chance to play those guys again. And it's going to be an emotional hard ball game. Of course it is, right? Everybody's invested.

Nobody wants to lose. And as we spoke to Liam from TNT on the other side of the break, last break, there's some political overtures here as it relates to the game. If you haven't been paying attention, Hickey, this is not true, right? If USA wins, Canada doesn't become the 51st state. That doesn't happen right now. I don't believe so.

Yeah, I don't think so either. And so there's a lot that has gone into this. There is a political element to it just based on what's going on in the world and the relations between the USA and Canada.

People are going to be jazzed up. The president of the United States called Team USA this morning to kind of get them going and get them hyped. And I told you also that the Kachuk brothers, they kind of busted up.

They kind of hurt. But Matthew Kachuk says, you know what, we're going to play hockey. We're not going to listen to no outside noise.

He's just going to try to score goals against Bennington. Our team does not care about anything that they say. And there's been a lot of chatter and talk from individuals.

But, you know, we care about one thing in this room and we have millions of people that are watching us and supporting us around this country. And we're very prideful in playing for them and the guys in the room. Listen, hockey plays are no nonsense. They are no joke. They ain't playing no damn games. They're ready for this.

Got no problem. And as we discussed with Liam McHugh, I don't know if Hellabuck is the answer at keeper. I don't know if he's the great equalizer that keeps us in this game.

There's so many. And I say us, I'm talking about the United States of America. Hello to our listeners in Canada. This is going to be a tough one, given all of the injuries to Team USA. But USA head coach Mike Sullivan, he knows they're healthier. He says, this ain't going to be no cakewalk.

There's not going to be easy. It will be an incredible atmosphere. I know our guys are excited about the opportunity to play in the championship. That was the objective when we got here.

You know, we're going to have to earn it again, just like we're trying to do each day here. This is Team USA's third appearance in an NHL international tournament final. They're trying to pick up this second win tonight against Canada. Can I say that there's home ice advantage? Can I say that?

I think I do. I know about the injuries, but I don't think the atmosphere will rattle anybody all that much on the Canadian side like they're used to this. And Team USA, they got the victory in Canada. The national anthem is getting booed up there. The only thing that stops them from winning is the injuries. I'm going with Team USA wants to actually start this now. And Hickey, what is it now? Going to be an hour and 10 minutes?

One hour, 10 minutes, 13 seconds. Yeah. Next year, we won't have this. The NHL is going to allow its players to compete in Olympic competition, which is nice. They're going to have an all-star game in Long Island that is basically going to be a send-off and see you later to all of the players that are going to participate. And then we got an all-star game the year after, and we don't even know where that's going to be.

And so Liam says you can't dilute what we're seeing this year. They're going to have to deal with what we're seeing this year. And then he also brings up another excellent point, which kind of drives me crazy a little bit on the NBA side as to why can't the NBA just replicate this? Why can't the NBA just take its best international players and put them against each other? How come the USA can't take on the world in competition? And I'm just like, there's not enough players on either side to do so, regardless of whether you wanted to represent international players as one collective or whether you wanted to break them down.

There's not enough players. 70 percent of the athletes in the NBA are American. 70 percent. We're already looking at a 7 out of 10.

That's one big old pool. Like, how many, how many Serbian guys in the NBA are going to be all-stars? Like, what are we going to do? Put Jokic out there and Bogdanovic, and then who the hell comes after them? The other Bogdanovic that's not even healthy?

Okay, fine. What are we going to do? Take Giannis? How many guys from Greece are in the NBA?

Giannis and all of his brothers? There's not enough. And even if we took the international players and started saying, yeah, Karl-Anthony Towne's mom was from the Dominican Republic, you know, Donovan Mitchell's mom was from Panama, you know, even if we started doing that, there still aren't enough players. If we combined everybody, it's just not enough talent. Not enough talent. And so I hate to be the the Debbie Downer of the situation, but there's no way in hell that the NBA could replicate what the NHL has done over the past week. They can't. There's not enough international players.

You know, I echo, and I will say this again, and it sucks now that Victor Wimberyama is gone. The only way that the NBA can turn things around is if you've got a guy or two guys or three guys that just ball out and play hard and everybody else has to follow. Like there's no gimmick that is saving the NBA. There's none. The NBA cannot replicate this.

It's one of a kind. Congratulations to the NHL. Well, let's see what they get back to next year as they're playing in Long Island. People will be like, oh, man, I missed the four nations. Well, you got to wait a while. You got the Olympics coming up.

Hickey, there's there's the NBA can't replicate this. What do you think? No. Right. I mean, I guess how many players do you really need? Twelve? Ten. You want to have you.

So you only want to have what we already got. Twenty four All-Stars. Right. Go ahead. Name name the international All-Star team. Go ahead. So you'd have Luca, you'd have SGA, right? You have Giannis, you have Jokic. There's four.

I'm trying to think like position, a positionality here as well. I mean, Carl it. Carl Anthony, do you really? At that point, you got to quit because you're just rounding out a team. Kyrie's going to play for Team Australia.

I think that's six guys. Ben Simmons. He's an All-Star.

OK. I think I cut from Team Australia for the past year. Didn't make the team.

So we don't we want to throw. Are we excommunicating Joel Embiid? No.

Right. Got to keep him in America. I mean, well, he's not going to play anyway.

So it doesn't matter where this flag is planted. Who else? Nick Batum.

Oh, my God. Another Frenchman. Is he the second best Frenchman? OK, there's five. There's five legitimate guys now. We have like three centers, two guards. But we went to Nicolas Batum. Koulibaly is probably better than Nick Batum right now. Maybe.

Man, this is a little bit more difficult than I yeah, than I would have thought. There's like four great international players and then the rest of the pool quickly drops off. Not as many as people want you to think there are. Yeah. Nick Lamello played international for a year.

That counts. Oh, when he was a kid and they just sent him to Europe? Yeah.

Instead of going to the G-League or college to get the hell out of here. Pat Bev just played in Tel Aviv. No, let's leave him wherever the hell he is.

OK. I think he's back apparently. Is he?

I only hear about him when he's podcasting. Same. Oh, my God. But apparently he's back on U.S. soil, so.

Well, how about this? Speaking of U.S. soil, the Kachuk brothers and Auston Matthews expected to play tonight for Team USA despite their injuries. We'll keep you up to date on the game as it gets started. It's the JR sport re-show on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break when we come back. Speaking of that big old international player who unfortunately is hurt out for the season, Victor Wenbenyama, it's time to have a chat with Dr. David Chow. When are we going to see Wenby back?

What are the odds? It's the JR sport re-show. Infinity Sports Network.

Don't move. You're listening to the JR sport brief. It is the JR sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Man, we all got news. The NBA got news that it never wanted to hear, especially this week following the NBA All-Star game. Victor Wenbyama is out for the rest of the season. Deep vein thrombosis. Apparently a blood clot under his arm and his shoulder is going to knock him out the rest of the year. We've seen this affect other NBA players and the career of Chris Bosh. Brandon Ingram still able to play following his own issues to talk about what this all really means for someone expected to be the NBA's next big star is someone who's been a 17-year doctor in the NFL leading the way.

But now it's time to have a chat with him on what this means for Wenbyama. It is Dr. David Chow. Hey, Doc, thank you so much. Thanks for having me, JR. And yes, I know it's pro football, Doc, but I work with the Bulls and Timberwolves and the NBA as well, too. Yeah, you know about these seven-foot guys who jump and fly around.

We haven't had one like Wenbyama. Correct me if I'm wrong. Deep vein thrombosis. It's a blood clot, no?

It is, and we most hear about it in legs, right? In our everyday mundane lives, it's usually a leg clot. Blood clots in upper extremity and arms are less common than legs after an activity and whatever, but they do happen, and you mentioned some examples in sports already. When you think about the placement of this, of the clotting in his arm versus leg, is one better than the other if there is such a thing?

Well, you never want to have a blood clot. In theory, the ones that potentially are more life-threatening are the bigger ones that sometimes come from the bigger veins in the legs, but it's not to be taken lightly, but in addition to blood clot that can then travel to the lungs, the issue then is also the symptoms in the upper extremities, numbness, tingling, and sometimes more in circulation issues. Well, it was reported that Victor Wenbyama, after coming back from the All-Star Game, reportedly, you know, he felt a little lighter, a little lighter breath, shorter breath getting up and down the court, and he was evaluated, and this is what they found. For someone who's 21 years old, hasn't even reached his athletic peak or his physical peak as a human being, what could be some of the causes of such a thing?

Is it his size? Well, by that report, the blood clot from his arm seems to have maybe in some small way traveled to his lungs, which is what made him short of breath. The lung filters out the blood from the venous side before oxygenation, and the blood clot obviously is symptomatic. The number one key here now is to figure out why the blood clot happened. Is there some sort of clotting disorder? Is there, in the case of Brandon Ingram, a thoracic outlet syndrome where the rib, one of the top ribs, is pressing on the veins and causing this DVT, deep vein thrombosis? You got to get to the cause of it, but the reason why his season is over is clearly the blood clot traveled somewhat to his lungs, and he's going to need to get anticoagulated blood thinned for at least 90 days, and then that's already the end of the season. Dr. David Shower is here with us, the JR Sportbreeze Show, Coast to Coastal, and the Infinity Sports Network, and so he'll go on blood thinners to help relieve the clot, if I'm understanding.

What does that mean? Does he have to just wait three months, and then there's another three months to evaluate how his blood is moving? Like, what's the next steps for Wen Binyama? Well, if this were very early in the season, it wouldn't necessarily be season ending. It's the fact that it's late February, right, in terms of the season and the timeline, and blood thinners, you're not supposed to do, you know, contact sports on blood thinners.

Basketball is a contact sport. It's not the collision sport of football, but there's still lots of contact, and that, and in addition to that, the workup to get his lungs clear again, but also to prevent it from happening again, will take several months, which is why his season is over, but the good news is, unless there's some weird cause that we're not knowing about, these things are usually treatable slash preventable, and should go on to a fairly normal career, fingers crossed. Thank you, doctor. Now, having said that, you feel optimistic about his future. No real concern. It was a big scare earlier today when the news came out about this.

Relatively optimistic. Of course, I haven't treated Wen B for this, and I'm an orthopedist anyways, but as a head team physician, we know about all the specialty stuff, and we'd be sort of the ombudsman for the team to coordinate it. I would be surprised if this was the end of his, well, surprise, borderline shocked if this were the end of his career. It would have to be something pretty unusual for that to be the case, and relatively optimistic he can return to play safely next season, but of course, he's got to go through all the workup, and also get his lung treated so that he's not short of breath, etc.

And Dr. David Chow is here with us on the JR Sport Brief Show. What was the issue that ended Chris Bosh's career? My understanding was that he needed to be on the blood thinners, and he wasn't able to compete. No team wanted to put him on. What happened in that case?

Well, every case is different. This is why we talk about Brandon Ingram. It was for a thoracic outlet that caused it. Chris Bosh obviously had some sort of blood clotting cascade disorder that had to be treated with formal blood thinners. Don't see that right now on Wimby, and we hope that remains not the case on him. When he went into the draft at Sports Injury Central, we said, well, given his frame and his athletic ability, I'm sure everyone wants to draft him, but he does have some higher injury risk, but we certainly didn't factor in the potential of a blood clot, which is higher on these slim, long, tall, slender athletes. Yeah, there was certainly, just by looking at his body and hearing about an injury today, my first thought was what happened to his leg, his knee, his foot, and it was none of the above. Given his age, is that a positive factor in his recovery as well?

He's only 21. Yeah, it should be a positive factor. Like I said, barring something unique or special, thankfully, most people are able to get this managed in some way in return, and that's what we're certainly hoping for here for Wimby. Great. Well, doctor, thank you so much for your time and your expertise. Where can people follow you and all of your work?

Sports Injury Central, sicscore.com, or I am at ProFootballDoc on X slash Twitter. Hey, we appreciate the time, and one day we're going to talk to you about something positive, doctor, okay? Well, I think this is positive, a good outlook on Wimby, give me that.

You know what, you're right, this is not career ending. We got some positivity and we got some clarity. Hey, appreciate you, we'll talk to you down the line, okay? All right, thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. David Chow, lead NFL doctor, 17 years.

You heard him talk about his time in the NBA, as well as Major League Baseball. Yeah, that makes me feel good. I mean, you never know with these things. You never know.

You never know. Hickey, that's not what you had, right? You just had the flu. I just had the flu.

I felt fatigued, like Wimby probably did after the All-Star game, except I was sleeping all day and not moving. You're not 7'4 either, are you? No.

No, with genetics that would make me potentially one of the best players ever, unfortunately not gifted like that. Could you imagine sitting in a room with him and he could slap you from like eight feet away? If he walked into my apartment, I think he'd take up the entire apartment. I could not hide from him in any corner. He could reach me anywhere.

No, it's still hilarious. I was looking at photos of him in the subway before he got drafted, looking at him standing on the train. Hickey, he hopped the turnstile. Did you see that photo?

Oh, no, really? He hopped the turnstile. Arrested him. Easy to do when you're being accompanied by the police.

Like, can you? That was probably just a step over from like a little mini hurdle. How high do you have to reach his wrists, right? Are they at eye level?

Probably, yeah. I mean, his arms are long, but still he's so tall, yeah. A lot of officers are having to reach up just to cuff him. Yeah, I've seen the guy. I haven't stood next to him.

Not that that would be necessary. Yeah, he is just... Hickey, just because he's thin, he seems longer. Like both he and Zack Eady, he has to be the same exact size as Zack Eady or maybe an inch taller. Aren't they both like 7'3", 7'4"?

Yeah, Eady's huge. I think he's 7'3", I want to say. But you're right, because of like the slenderness of Wembe, those arms and legs just look so much longer and the wingspan looks so much longer. Oh, he is.

I think he is. I mean, the height might be exactly the same, but the length of the limbs, different in Zack Eady than Wembe Nyama. ESPN, NBA is listing Zack Eady at 7'4", and Wembe is listed, whatever he is, I swear to you, he's taller. They have him at 7'3". Now, I do not believe that. Zack Eady, they have him listed at 305 pounds. I also do not believe that. I do not believe that. Victor Wembe Nyama is at 235. Now, that might be accurate. Maybe he's 240.

I don't know. That is insanely slender. Yeah, man. Holy... Let me tell you something. He ain't no 7'3".

I do not. I don't believe his height and I don't believe Zack Eady's weight of 305. That guy, I've seen him in person too. What is the team he played for?

The Grizzlies? They were here hickey? He's big. But when you see Victor Wembe Nyama, you just go, wow, this guy's like a giant pogo stick.

So even a guy like, I don't say blended in, but a guy at 7'4", was just kind of like, okay, he's there. Zack Eady? In Zack Eady, yeah, sorry. Yeah, it's...

Interesting. He appears visually to be more proportional. Victor Wembe Nyama is arms and legs. Zack Eady is solid and stout. His arms and legs are not as long and he's more stocky.

And so it doesn't give the appearance of... Like Victor Wembe Nyama walks into the arena. He looks like, remember for Halloween, wasn't he Slender Man or something like that? He was. That's what he looks like. His torso has to be nothing. He has a small torso. He looks like a spider. His arms and legs. Hickey, there we go. Victor Wembe Nyama is built like a spider.

Zack Eady is built like a hippo. Damn. Okay, I like it. I'm just, you know... Start calling him the spider.

What, Wembe Nyama? I like that. Yeah. Nike's calling him the alien. We got to stick with that one.

I guess. But spider's good though. That's unique. Have we had an athlete nicknamed Spider? Not yet, right? No?

I thought we have. There's definitely Spider. Spider. Oh, Spider Mitchell. Why is he called... Why? Because he likes comic books? I don't know. It's Donovan Mitchell.

I've always found that to be a stupid nickname. I don't know if that's, like you said, yeah. I mean, it's obviously clearly nothing to do with his physique in terms of reminiscent like a spider.

No. He's not used to all arms and legs. The guy's like 6'2", 6'3".

He's pretty solid himself. Spider Mitchell. I don't know. Hickey, that's why... Outside of calling you Hickey, that's why I call people their names. But your name is Hickey, so... That is not a nickname. Not really a nickname at all. Nickname Spider.

S-P-I-D-A. Okay. See what happened, what they call them when the Celtics beat them in the playoffs. A loser. Yeah.

Call them a loser. Oh, Cleveland Cavaliers. Look how good they are. Oh, look at them. Oh, they got the tall giant guys. Oh my God. Oh, look at Garland. All-star.

Amazing, amazing. Nobody saw... The Celtics are playing games right now this regular season.

Like, they do not care at all. Again, thank you to Dr. David Chow for coming through to talk to us about Victor Winbenyama, who unfortunately we will not see play in Austin, Texas. Yeah, Kevin Durant, the San Antonio Spurs.

They're supposed to take on the Suns and supposed to be a homecoming for Kevin Durant down in Texas against Wimby. That's another tall freak. Can't believe the NBA founder got bigger than Kevin Durant, but they did.

Well, you know what? Let's talk about that on the other side, because things are kind of interesting in Texas. You got Kevin Durant back where he had that amazing rookie season or freshman season. And then on the football side of things, Sark had some interesting words about his program in spring football.

He ain't doing it. We've heard a lot of people say that they're canceling spring games. We'll talk about Texas basketball and football on the other side.

But right now on the Infinity Sports Network, you're listening to the JR Sport Brief. Team USA, Team Canada. And nobody losing this is going to be trash.

Nobody. But somebody has to win. Somebody has to lose in the four-nation final. And we'll keep you up to date when that game, this match gets underway in about 35 minutes. This portion of the show is sponsored by Hyundai.

Hyundai helps protect you and your family on the road. We put your safety first and everything else second. Thank you to Dr. David Chow for joining us in the last break to take a look at Victor Wambenyama. This man is out for the season with a blood clot. Dr. David Chow feels positive. Of course, you never know. Anybody's medical history, we'll find out sooner than later. You know, he feels good. He'd be surprised if he wasn't able to continue on with his career. Hickey, I was so concerned when you told me earlier today.

I was like, what did he do? Did like he pop an ACL, strain a foot? I was just, and then when you told me it's like a clot, I was like, not that that one thing is better than the other, but I was relieved a little bit because I was like, one day this guy's going to blow a foot or a knee out.

Assuming Dr. Chow is accurate and correct, you're right. Like this is obviously a much easier ailment to come back from versus like you said, torn ACL, broken foot, whatever, when the body's so big and there's so many limbs out there that are vulnerable to be hit, right? It could take longer to recover or maybe it's more of an issue in terms of maintenance. It's, yeah, there are definitely debilitating injuries for big men without a doubt. Fingers crossed early on, it seems like, wow, this is scary that it is an injury, quote unquote, if you will, that should not impact when Benyama on the court, at least take anything away or have him outside of really conditioning, right? Have to ramp up too much next year. Man, Hickey, for however long he plays, I don't know how long he plays, nobody knows. It will always be a concern that somebody is going to fall into his leg or something happens to his foot. That'll always be the case.

And I got to give him credit for now having watched him play for a full season and a half. Can it happen? Of course it can. At any point, everybody gets hurt. He's going to go down eventually. It's inevitable if he has a long career. I'm just happy that it is not now.

Good luck to Victor Wen-Benyama. It sucks for everybody down in Texas. As the season opens back up, the San Antonio Spurs expect it to host the Phoenix Suns, except for tonight, it's a little bit different. The NBA is hoping to promote the game and the Spurs are playing about 90 minutes away.

It's a nice drive to go from San Antonio to Austin. They're playing at the University of Texas. The Phoenix Suns are returning to the place that Kevin Durant played his one season of college basketball and absolutely lit it up. Between 2006-2007, before he was drafted into the NBA by the Seattle SuperSonics, Kevin Durant as a college player basically has similar numbers to what he's doing right now. 26 points a game, 11 rebounds. Forget the 11 rebounds. The guy in the the NBA right now is dropping 27 points a game.

Kevin Durant, he's just a scoring machine. It doesn't matter that he's no longer in college. He turns 37 later on this year. He's sixth in the NBA in scoring. I have never seen a human being in my life score as easy as he has. At his height, he's seven feet tall. Forget 6'11", he's seven feet tall. He scores the basketball like a shooting guard.

He's amazing. And so Kevin Durant is back at the University of Texas. Certainly some fond memories. Thinks that he won't be out there against Victor Wimbenyama.

Hopefully we see Wimby later on this year. But Kevin Durant, back at the University of Texas, he talked about his favorite memory being back at his old town. It had to be the Texas A&M game.

I think Monday, my last game in the Erwin Center. That game right there stood out the most. Texas A&M was like a thorn in our side. They was a veteran team. They was experienced.

We were a young group. They scored 100 points on us that first game. And back then, 100 points.

That's a lot of points in college. Yeah, man. He's crazy, man. Just thinking about him playing basketball. He's nuts.

And I don't know. Hickey, I feel like the game tonight, a lot of the juice is now sucked out of it with no Wimbenyama. Kevin Durant will get a cheer. But at the same time, this sounds crazy.

This was almost 20 years ago. So how many people at the University of Texas are going to give a damn that Kevin Durant is in town? The majority of people are going to be Spurs fans anyway down in Texas.

It seems so distant. I feel like Durant is he's unattached. He shows up to the football games. I feel like he attends maybe one or two games a year. But I don't I don't think there's like a gigantic tie in when you think about a lot of athletes. It's like Kevin Durant showed up.

He played ball. He roots for his college team. But it doesn't feel like there's a deeper connection for me. I mean, it's tough because he's only there one year, right? So it's like, you know, you blink and all of a sudden he's there and he's gone.

You know, whether you're a fan or like you said, if you're a student there as well. I mean, I guess it helps in a way. I think his name is on somewhere in the arena. His name is there. Something's named after him. So at least his name is, I'm assuming, present or at least, you know, viewable. So maybe that can help, you know, maybe bridge the gap between when he was there versus, you know, people my age that went to college or later versus people that are there now as well that it's, you know, probably were just born, depending on how old they are.

When Kevin Durant was there, which is crazy to think. I think he's connected enough to UT to where it's not like bizarre or people like, who is this? I think it's I think it's cool, actually. I really I'm excited for it. I just don't think the people inside will care, man.

I think it it lacks juice. And I don't know, maybe tonight he goes, you know what? I'm back in Austin. I want to give myself a memory.

I may never play here again. It's unlikely that he does, given his age. He may just light it up and give everybody the oohs and the aahs.

It just it doesn't have the juice. And Kevin Durant, he actually talked about the juice, the energy playing in front of that Texas crowd. He talked about when he did play there, the place is always jumping and bumping. You see that energy for basketball when it's labeled a football school. It was it was pretty cool to see. And, you know, so every moment I think in the drum was pretty was was dope to me. And they showed out our fans showed off. I want to say a Texas Tech game, Texas A&M games.

They start camping out. And when I start seeing that, that experience was cool. Yeah, that's good for him. Good for him. It's a great experience for him. It stinks that when Binyama will not be out there, Durant will get cheered.

And the hickey after that, I think unless Durant puts up a show, I think the fans inside are going to fall asleep. Like, what do we think? We got alums that are going to pop up from 20 years ago.

I'm sure some will. Well, I guess also, who does Texas basketball have to like? Who else they got recently? Oh, recently, I was going to say who was that? The T was a T.J. was this T.J. What? His name, T.J. He played in the league. You played like point guard for the Raptors and some real tiny guy. T.J. Ford, I think it was. Yeah. Okay, so I thought of T.J. Ford. Now it's like another 20 years ago.

Who else? T.J. Ford is 41 years old there. Played at Texas in 2001. He was there before Durant.

He was the eighth pick in a 2003 draft. Wow. Not bad. Yeah.

That was at LeBron Melo draft, huh? Yeah. Not bad. Not bad.

I wore a gigantic suit too. Texas basketball. But I think that will help tonight just because it's like, even if you, again, you weren't a Texas basketball fan.

Like, there's just not many people, if there aren't enough good players that you just like can, like, I think KD lives longer than he maybe should because there's no one else to replace him. Well, here we go. You ready for the long list of basketball players from Texas? Let's hear it.

This is over the past 20, let's forget 20 years. T.J. Ford 2003, Royal Ivy, James Thomas. Don't know who that is. LaMarcus Aldridge. Okay. Now retired. P.J. Tucker. Okay. Should be retired.

Oh, okay. Daniel Booby Gibson retired. Kevin Durant. D.J.

Augustine. Not in the NBA anymore. Avery Bradley. Not in the NBA. Damian Jones.

Long time ago. Not in the NBA. Dexter Pittman. Don't remember him. Tristan Thompson.

Shouldn't be in the league. Jordan Hamilton. Corey Joseph. Miles Turner. Sheldon McClellan. Isaiah Taylor. Jared Allen. Mo Bamba. Jackson Hayes. Jericho Sims. Congratulations. It's the JR Sport Reshow. The Infinity Sports Network. We're going to talk Texas football on the other side. Don't move.