This is the best of the Adam Gold Show Podcast brought to you by Coach Pete at Capital Financial Advisory Group.
Visit us at capitalfinancialusa.com. This is the Adam Gold Show. Elliot Johnson in about 15 minutes talk a little baseball. So the story last night actually texted Elliot about it. Josh Donaldson Yankees third baseman, who in a snide way called Tim Anderson White Sox shortstop, Jackie.
He's upset because his teammates didn't back him. We noted this immediately when we talked to Doug Glanville last week, that huh, all you needed to know the manager and the face of the Yankees, maybe the face of baseball Aaron Judge both said, yeah, shouldn't have said it and moved on. Don't say it. Don't be a jerk. It's essentially what they said about Josh Donaldson.
Well, if you weren't a jerk, maybe this isn't the problem. But we'll talk to Elliot Johnson about a number of things in just a little bit. What we have, though, is a bunch of things you need to hear in case you haven't heard them. It's the wall of sound.
The wall of sound is a function of this studio. There's no doubt about it. All right, let's start in the NBA. We have the NBA finals. Tonight, if you are in Raleigh, listening to this program, you can listen to it right here on 99.
Which is which is very good. All right, let's we'll start with the head coach of the Boston Celtics email Doka on how does Golden State defend rather? How does Boston defend Golden State? Well, we do have a size and versatility on the wings. And I think, you know, with who we are defensively against a really good offensive team. To the benefit is having obviously Marcus and Jason Jalen on the perimeter. But as well, you know, you have bigs that they can't just pick on our Rob Grant and everybody else.
You know that we do use. It's a it's a kind of a perfect storm as far as a matchup with all the offensive talent. They have the defensive talent we have. And I think our size and versatility bodes well for us as far as that. So feel confident with a lot of guys guarding different players for them.
Yeah, I mean, I don't think I made Doka's necessarily wrong there. Like I said, before this series started, the assumption was that it's it's like a coronation for Golden State. And I think they'll win the series.
But I don't see this as a coronation at all at all. It will be Andrew Wiggins first. It will be his assignment. I think Draymond Green will spend some time guarding Jason Tatum.
Clay Thompson will probably get the assignment first on Jalen Brown. But I mean, is Steph Curry going to guard Marcus Smart? That's a big body for Steph Curry to deal with for the entire series. They have a lot of matchup issues that work against Golden State. But I think Golden State is the better team. And they also have a lot of different ways to look like they can play big.
I do think and I think we talked to Nada about this on Tuesday. I do think a lot of it is about what does Boston get out of Robert Williams? Defensively. Alright, now to Jason Tatum, the Celtic star. First time after a couple of cracks, getting to the NBA finals. Making it to the finals is a big accomplishment. Something that we should be proud of. And we're super excited for the challenge. Obviously, you know, the ultimate goal is to win a championship. So we still got a long task ahead. Yes, you do.
And I'm not going to like there are people who would listen to that and go, well, they're just happy to get there. I don't think so. I think like once the series starts, you just you start over. They are not on they are not overwhelming underdogs, if you will. Alright, so last night in Cincinnati, the US men's national soccer team beat Morocco 3-0.
I know how people process this. Well, it's just Morocco, except Morocco is a top 25 FIFA team. They have already qualified for the World Cup. They have lost if John Champion and Taylor Twelman were correct on ESPN, and I have no reason to believe that they weren't. I believe they have only lost once in their last 34 matches. So they they were undefeated in qualifying.
Now that mean that's just not easy. They were undefeated in qualifying. So last night, the United States wins 3-0. Christian Pulisic was instrumental in it. I thought he was great in the first half. He came off early in the second, but I thought he was great in the first half. He set up the first goal, super first touch, and then it passed to Brandon Aronson.
But after the game, he was put off by something, and here it is. It's been a couple months since you were back in front of these US fans. How did it feel tonight? Yeah, it was nice. To be honest, for whatever reason, I'm not super happy with the amount of Americans here, however that works out, if I'm being completely honest, but it's thanks to the ones who did come and the support is always great from them.
But yeah, it's nice to be back in America and playing again. Christian Pulisic taking a shot at the American fans. Do we know what the attendance was last night?
I tried finding it earlier, but I couldn't find it. Well they played at an MLS stadium which seats about 20,000. So it wasn't like they played in Charlotte where you get 70 or anything like that. Or Denver where you could get 50 or so thousand. So roughly 20,000 fans were in attendance at the 26,000 seat stadium. Okay, so they didn't even sell out the 26,000 seat stadium.
That's hot in Cincinnati. It's Morocco! Like, not that Morocco's not good, Morocco is good, but it's not... it ain't Spain.
Yeah. You didn't just play, you know, Italy. You played Morocco. Yeah, or even Mexico. Well, Mexico would have been... probably would have been their stadium. It would not be a friendly either.
No. Plus, the hope is that they'll probably run into Mexico at some point during the summer. We have Nations League, although that might not be really decided until next year. I don't know what the schedule is for that. But there are two Nations League matches coming up in the next couple of weeks. So Grenada is one, and I believe at El Salvador is the other. So they've got a bunch of matches. They play Uruguay in Kansas City on Sunday.
So maybe that'll be... but that was interesting. Polisic taking a shot at US fans. All right, Ron Rivera is the head coach of the Washington Commandos. Their new quarterback is Carson Wentz, and Ron is wildly, maybe delusionally optimistic. There are some things that Carson does that, you know, not a lot of other quarterbacks can do with his arm strength, his ability to throw the ball specifically vertically. So yeah, do I expect it to step forward? I do. I expect us to be able to really expand on what we've done in the past.
This is first year with Carson as a QB one, but I do think we can develop and grow as a group together, offensive, defensive, special teams. But to me, it really does come down to winning. Gosh, I love Ron Rivera sometimes. I think I need to hear that again, because honestly, he didn't say anything.
Let me hear it again. There are some things that Carson does that, you know, not a lot of other quarterbacks can do. True. With his arm strength, his ability to throw the ball specifically vertically. All right, then why don't we do anything else? The rest of that is just gobbledygook nothing.
He can throw the ball vertically. Okay. Yes! Yes! He's, in a way, taking a shot at Taylor Hunnicke there for a new alarm. Oh yeah. Yeah, Carson Wentz is not good. He's not good.
No. Good luck. Good luck, commandos.
Good luck, commandos. All right, finally, we talked to Rod Brind'Amour earlier, and one of the players I asked him about was Tony D'Angelo. Here's D'Angelo from his exit interview yesterday. By the way, Tony's going to be on the show tomorrow.
Okay. D'Angelo on basically the way he was made to feel by the Hurricanes. If you look at last summer, I mean, there was, you know, not to go into too much detail, there's a lot of options that, you know, we thought we had and were supposed to have in a sense that that didn't come to fruition as time went on there. And then you come to Carolina and it was with open arms. Basically, we had good conversations from talking to with ownership to coaching staff to management. And I felt like they were they were good to me. They listened to me. They, you know, they trusted me and took me in as, you know, kind of with no trying to get the word I want to use, like no collar on you, basically trying to let you let you do your thing. And then, you know, earn your trust and just play your game. There was no like, hey, if you do you do or say any little thing, you're you're out or whatever, you know, anything like that. And I thought I came in and just it was myself around the guys, myself around team and management and just played and play my game. And I thought that it translated into into a positive thing for the team and myself.
So that's right. How I say, you know what I mean? Good to me. In a sense, I probably could have used better wording, but I'm a loyal guy. And I told him that from the beginning, I said, you guys, you know, you guys are good to me.
Use it again. And I I'm very loyal. So hopefully we're able to do something together. Rod Brind'Amour also was was excited by what Tony brought to the team this year. I hope it works out.
I do think it was very interesting. And whether people caught this or not. In the handshake line. After the series. To all the players that Tony was teammates with for, you know, a couple of years.
Crider's, a bandage ad, Adam Fox, even KeAndre Miller or Timmy Panarin. There was consistently a pretty warm embrace. So for the people who thought that Tony didn't get along with teammates.
That's just not the case. Tony got along great with teammates. He was well liked in this locker room.
And he was a really good teammate as a really smart player. I don't know how it's going to work out. I don't know if it's going to work out or not. I don't know what Tony wants.
We're not going to ask him what he wants tomorrow. But I think the Hurricanes were a very good team. And a lot of that had to do with what Tony DeAngelo brought to the to the team, to the locker room and on the ice. Hopefully it'll work out next year. When we come back, Elliot Johnson, former Durham Bulls star, Atlanta Brave and others. We'll talk to him about baseball, about fantasy football, slap fights and and more next. Adam Golden studio with my man coach Pete DeRuta with the Capital Financial Advisory Group.
We're talking retirement and coach. I'm a simple guy, but I like colors. Tell me how I can color code money and get ready for retirement. I like colors too. I like pictures. I like graphs.
I don't like just a bunch of words. And so what we try to do is we try to break down all those words on your statement, all those numbers into three colors. Red, green, yellow. People are amazed when they come in and most of the money is in the red category. I don't want that. Red means high horsepower potential. It also means high loss potential. So you have to.
It's a give and take. You want to do that or that? Yellow means liquid money. You can get it anytime.
It's not going to earn anything. Green gives you safe growth, but also gives you a lifetime income. As we get closer to retirement, we need some green accounts. We need the green zone, we call it. And Baghdad green zone was important. Green zone's important for you too. The next 10 people, Adam, it's a thousand dollar value. Golden ticket we're going to put together for you. Your very own total plan that has a green zone. It's a traffic light. I hope it's green for you.
800-661-7383 or text ADAM to 21000 for coach Pete DeRuta. Mets have won six in a row. I'm in a good mood.
Not just because the Mets have won six in a row, but I'm in a good mood because we get to talk baseball with Elliot Johnson. Durham Bulls legend, Tampa Bay Ray, Atlanta Brave, Kansas City Royal, and Cleveland Guardian. Do you have any of your Cleveland Guardian gear?
I don't have any Cleveland Guardian gear, but I do have some Indian gear. They chose, they chose a poor name. They, they really did. Uh, what, what's worse, the Guardians or the Commanders? Yes.
Um, yeah, I really don't mind the Guardian all things considered. It's okay. Uh, the, really the poor reflection on them was not realizing that there was, it was already trademarked, I think by the roller derby team, right? Yes. Come on, man.
These Indians are supposed to be business savvy. What happened? It's just terrible.
It was all, it was all bad. All right, let, let, I want to, I want to save the Josh Donaldson stuff and the, uh, the fantasy football slap fight stuff for the end of this, if we have time, because we, I do, I do want your, uh, your thoughts on those two things. Um, but we have a pretty big series tonight. That's opening up between the Mets and the Dodgers. Uh, the Mets have somehow got like a plus 77 run differential. Um, Jacob deGrom has thrown zero innings.
Max Scherzer is out until after the all-star break. Uh, what are the, how are they putting this together? Is this, is this simply a reflection of Buck Showalter? Well, it's certainly part of it. It's also that they have ownership that actually wants to win and is willing to put in some extraordinary effort, or I guess it's probably extraordinary effort for the way that teams typically run, which is make as much money as possible. And then hopefully you, you know, you, you win secondarily, but you know, Cohen got all the money.
He doesn't really care about that. He just wants to win. And clearly that's being reflected in not only how the team is playing, but the depth that they have as well. I mean, they, they, they sent down Dominic Smith, uh, you know, so he's out. Um, they got, they're having some, you know, Lindor is playing great of course.
And then they got this, what's his name? Yeah. He's, he's been around Louis G or may. He's been around for a couple of years.
He's spent some time in the minor leagues, got a big beard is kind of, uh, it looks like he might not be in great shape, but he's on fire right now. Um, so I mean, they're, they're, they're doing things, they're doing things the right way. They've got depth. Um, you know, they're not, they're not afraid to make a splash when the trade deadline comes around. You know, I mean, you got to really respect what they're doing over there. Showalter was definitely the right fit. He was definitely the right person. He's done this for a long time.
He knows how to do it. Um, but I'm, I've been pretty impressed with how the Mets have performed. Not only that, it's been somewhat disappointing to see how the braids have done. Right. Um, and the Phillies are the Phillies like always, um, it seems like, but the braids to me, it seems like they haven't really hit their stride yet.
They've got a long ways to go. Matt Olson. Um, seems like he had, he had a pretty nice day, but, uh, they still ended up losing that game against the Diamondbacks, which, you know, are, aren't even trying to win this year. Elliot Johnson is joining us here on the Adam gold show. Look, I look at the Braves as, I mean, last year they were basically this until, uh, we got to like August, uh, Ronald Acuna missed the first, what, 30 games of the season. It's good. It's going to take him some time to get fully back.
And we know how good he is. Like, I think the Braves, they might've, they might've put themselves too far behind, but I think they're going to make a run at a playoff spot. I'm not really that concerned about them. Uh, I think you're right about the Phillies. Uh, the Dodgers though, have the best record, I believe in baseball, uh, and, uh, what plus one 12 run differential. Uh, but they just got swept by the pirates.
How does that happen? Other than baseball. Baseball's a crazy, crazy game.
And the pirates, well, the pirates are kind of in med land, you know, the right, what right around, you know, there's sub 500. Um, the Phillies are kind of in that metal land. I think the Braves are going to be just fine. Uh, they still haven't really hit their stride, maybe a little bit of a hangover from the world series, but I'm getting Acuna back is huge.
Um, that's going to help, but their, their offense is fine. Um, you know, I'll be curious to see if they can stay healthy pitching wise down the stretch, but you know, the Dodgers are obviously going to be the team to beat Mookie bets is Mookie bets. They got, they added Freddie Freeman and they'll probably add another bat as scary as that sounds, uh, when the trade deadline comes around, it wouldn't surprise me a bit.
No, not, not at all. Um, I want to ask you about Aaron judge. It came during a time in the, like the Braves had done the Freddie. They basically walked away from Freddie Freeman, Matt Olson signs. And I remember you and I had this conversation about, uh, Olson accepted less money, which I'm sure didn't go unnoticed around big league clubhouses, uh, where you get a player, uh, who could demand a higher wage.
Uh, and it doesn't sit well with other players. Um, but Aaron judge did the opposite. He turned down $30 million annually for, I think eight years from the Yankees might've even been 31 million because he thinks he could get the Mike trout contract, which is closer to 36.
It looks like it looks like he was right. Um, well, just your thoughts on what Aaron judge did and the fact that he had at least at this point seems to be pulling it off. Uh, it takes a lot, a lot of confidence to walk away from 200 plus million dollars. So obviously he feels like he's worth more. He's willing to risk it. Um, I see what the Yankees are doing.
I understand it, but at the same time, I can all but guarantee you that they're raising that offers quietly. Uh, how's two 50 sound out of his mind. He's got like, uh, what's his, uh, his OBS plus is almost 200 million. He's, he's a hundred percent better or 93% better than the average major league baseball player.
I don't think anybody's beaten him there. I mean, he's good. He's going to get MVP votes.
If not the MVP, he's going to obviously be an all star. Um, if the Yankees go to a world series, then, you know, and they win and you know, hopefully they don't, that's the way I was raised our Yankees fans here, but, um, hopefully they don't win and, um, and somebody else does, but even if they do, I mean, gosh, back up the truck. Cause he's going to get everything he wants and then some, because you and I both know that Cohen's going to come knocking.
And once we have a bidding war, it's going to get crazy, right? Like the, the Yankees worst nightmare is that Steve Cohen has unlimited money and he doesn't care if his payroll next year, like he's already accepted that the new collective bargaining agreement has a Steve Cohen threshold. Like he's referred to it as, as, you know, I guess that's about me. Uh, okay. He just laughs at it.
He doesn't care. Well, yeah, but I mean, keep in mind that this, the Yankees are worth about $6 billion. Right. Okay. But it's not like the Yankees can't afford it. They're just choosing not to.
Okay. So they have, they have just as much money. They have every opportunity and ability to pay him anything that he wants. They just chose to do it this way. It's just the way that the business works is you're trying to get the player for the least amount that you possibly can.
And I appreciate the way they went about it, but it didn't go their way. They thought he would fold. They thought he would buckle and that he would come to them and he's chose to bet on himself and rightfully so. And now, and this is going to be your, to your point, their worst nightmare, because you know, just like with Max Scherzer, Steve Cohen basically said, whatever you bid, I'll bid $1 higher.
So we're going to see, we're going to see if he, if he wants to go after the top dollar or if he wants to stay in a Yankee uniform and potentially have a statue, you know, maybe, maybe at some point we'll see that look, he's in the best possible situation. Let me ask you about a teammate of his. And Aaron judge was no friend publicly to Josh Donaldson after the snide Jackie remark he made to Tim Anderson, because I read the story yesterday that Josh was upset that his teammates and his manager did not publicly defend him. Maybe don't be a jerk.
Is that good enough? I'm just, I don't understand why he's digging his heels in Adam. I don't get it. You know, so him and Tim Anderson obviously are not friends. You can't drop a, you can't drop Jackie on him unless you're, you're really, really close with the guy. And, and even then, like, anyway, I just don't think that it was anything that he should be doing. He should have backed off. He should have apologized. He should have owned up to it, but now he's just making it worse. So I just, I just don't get it, man.
I don't understand. But you know, he's chosen to take this tax and I don't think it was the right, right play at all at him. Yeah.
I think the, and I said this to Doug landfill last week. All you needed to know was that his manager and is the signature player on that team didn't back him up. Like at that point, tail between your legs, mercy of the court, the whole thing, my mistake, move on. Uh, but he has, uh, he has chosen to go, I know I can't believe my teammates didn't back me up.
All right. Now we also have the, uh, the slap heard round major league baseball. I didn't even see the slap. I don't care about the slap. Uh, but Tommy fam slapped Jock Peterson because there was a fantasy football league gone awry.
Um, what was there anything about this story that made you laugh or was that everything about this story made you laugh? Uh, so I've been doing fantasy baseball team names, like don't, don't slap my jock strap and stuff like that. That'd have been, I've been trying to come up with that. I think you're fairly clever. That's the probably about as good as I can come up with, but I I'd welcome everyone to send me your, your best, uh, fantasy, uh, you know, uh, Tommy fam and Jock Peterson, um, joke, uh, team name would be great, but I've been, I, I mean, basically it gets competitive.
I don't care who you are. And these are, you know, these are alpha guys that are the best in the world at what they do and they don't take kindly to disrespect. And so obviously Tommy felt disrespected. He took out on Jock, I think he's losing $111,000 by being suspended for three games. I mean, come on, man.
So I don't know, man, obviously Jock felt like he was okay with doing it and, and, and Tommy didn't feel like they were close enough for him to say the things that he was saying and he took it personal. So here we are, man. You got two grown men fighting it out over a fantasy baseball doesn't hurt football.
It doesn't matter what it is. That's the way that things work in the clubhouse, man. Gambling because according to Jock Peterson and I saw that whole interview in the clubhouse, like there was, he said, there was a lot of money involved. So man, when, when, when guys are, when guys are gambling on fantasy football and that's what it is, there's a lot of money involved, man. It's serious business. Yeah. But I mean, it's, it's less about the money and it's more just about, about being respected or disrespected at that point.
Seriously. I, the money, the money matters to a, to a point, but that's just so that every, the guys stay engaged. But overall, obviously he did something, said something, made him feel really uncomfortable, whatever it was, whether it was the meme about the Dodgers doing well or he's doing poorly. I'm not exactly sure the whole story cause I didn't hear it from Tommy's side yet. But obviously, you know, he felt like it was deserving of a slap and that's what happened. Mike Trout might or might not be the commissioner of that fantasy football league going forward.
He did say that commissioners always get booed. All right, final thing for Elliot Johnson, uh, in a spring training situation, was there ever a bracket pool that got out of hand? Of course.
Of course. So depending on which team you play for, um, like there's some teams that put that like, they're all in everything. It's pretty impressive. Um, and then you have some guys, some teams are, it's, you know, it's just kind of an afterthought, right? But there's some teams I've played for where it was like the first thing you talked about when you got there. And the last thing you talked about before you left, because the guys were so intent on learning every other thing that they could get into as much as possible and finding a way to try and beat everybody else. You know, again, you get the most competitive people you've ever met and they're, they're competition junkies, you know? And so that's, that's what it's about is trying to outwit outsmart out, outbeat everybody, whatever it is you're in. So, uh, there's definitely clubhouses that are all in on that stuff. And it really depends on the, the, the staff and the players, of course, a little bit too, but the trainers, believe it or not, are the guys that are really organized and they help run a lot of those things. So again, it just depends on which team you're on. So, um, the more the merrier, as far as I'm concerned, because it actually helps engage a lot of more team morale and kind of that team corrupt and camaraderie as far as I'm concerned.
That's exactly the word I was going to use. It's about camaraderie, uh, Elliot Johnson, uh, like, like we have, we have great camaraderie on this program. I appreciate your time.
Uh, we'll talk again very soon, ma'am. You got it. Elliot Johnson.
I have a team name, fantasy team name based off that. Oh, what is it? Why didn't you tell Elliot?
Well, you're interviewing him. That's fine. I'm going to jump in.
You can? Protecting the fam. Oh, very nice.
Very nice. There you go. Just text that to Elliot.
I will. He'll, uh, he'll appreciate that. When we return a former Tarheel, but also a former Virginia Cavalier, TJ Thorpe is now doing some work for highschoolot.com. He's got a podcast out and it's really about, uh, the high school football experience and, uh, getting the most out of it.
I think it's fascinating. We'll talk to TJ Thorpe about it next June 19th, 2006, but it all started May 6th, 1997 with the announcement that the Hartford Whalers were coming to North Carolina. It's a story of transition of heartbreak, of figuring it out on the fly. The canes corner. Look at the 25th anniversary of the mood presented by the aluminum company of North Carolina.
Listen now find canes 25th anniversary wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to the Adam gold show TJ Thorpe. I did a Google search for TJ Thorpe and I bring up two pages. One says Virginia Cavaliers official athletic site. The other says university of North Carolina official athletic site. There can't possibly be two TJ Thorpe's. Uh, uh, uh, are you, are you, are you UVA TJ or are you UNC TJ?
Um, whoever, whoever's winning in the fourth quarter. Oh man. A mercenary. I love it. Uh, TJ Thorpe now with high school OT, uh, is going to be one of their analysts during the football season, but also has, uh, the TJ Thorpe show that we are going to discuss, uh, here. But I want to start here, uh, and maybe it was easier, uh, that you left UNC and went to UVA to have a Duke guy on, uh, Anthony Boone on your first show.
Yeah. Uh, well it didn't, it wasn't supposed to go that route and let's, let's preference this by we're trying to highlight the student athletes first before we get to the alumni. So he just happened to be in, in Charlotte. But spoiler alert, I got the Duke, Duke Greg and quarterback leader to say, go heels. So it worked out.
I think it worked out. You got to watch. You got to see. You got to watch.
You got to see it. All of a sudden. All of a sudden. All of a sudden. So it worked out. Wow. Did you, did money change hands? What happened here?
Look, when you, when you got somebody, you know, with the hands tied, you know, he knows. Totally, totally understand it. All right. So, so give me some background on what you're trying to do with the show. I've watched part of the first episode, uh, which is now available at highschoolOT.com, or wherever you get your podcast. Those of us who have podcasts understand that phrase, you can get podcasts anywhere. This is, I think this is going to be great. Uh, and I know Anthony Boone wasn't the only guest and we'll let you talk about the show in general, but, uh, what is your goal with the TJ Thorpe show?
Oh, one other note. You can also watch it on your television. That's right. WRAL Sports Plus.
So we tried to hit every base as possible. So there's no reason you can't watch it. Hey, look, this show is on WRAL Sports Plus.
Even better. So here we are, we're all together, we're all loving it. We're doing this, we're doing it as a unit, but so to the show, uh, I guess what my angle is here is to, to, to highlight, you know, one top, top prospects throughout North Carolina. So not necessarily just Raleigh and Charlotte, but we want to go into every mountain, a rural area, whatever we got to find the best athletes and the guys who are, who are, who are doing it the right way. Right.
That's the first thing. The second thing is we want to do it in a fun way. So this last one, I kinda almost pulled my groin a little bit, working out with some of the high schoolers.
So that's a little different. Nick Stevens probably isn't going to run routes with guys and catch passes and maybe go through some lineman drills. Um, we've, you know, we've gotten some of these kids to come out there, Cheryl, and do some TikToks with us. Um, but the biggest thing, uh, in case at all, is, is to show on the back end with the alumni athletes that football is just a finite, you know, period of time in your life. It's so much more after football. And that's what we want to highlight the guys who are great examples of doing it the right way and continue to do it the right way once the ball has stopped bouncing or rolling or whatever it is.
So that's kind of the thought, the TJ Thorpe show and wrapped in the little nutshell. No, it's interesting is that we have high profile football players that have come from all reaches of this state. You know, you don't have to, I mean, we have Julius Peppers from Rutherfordton was, I think it was Rutherfordton. Uh, you've got, uh, like Heath Shuler, who's out in the mountains in Asheville. Um, my friend, Deontay Williams from Jackson, from Jacksonville. So yeah, ball with his high school, I mean, play high school ball with his little cousin. So Deontay was intricate and getting me into Carolina Deontay is one of the best people I know, man. Um, so I think he's, uh, we've always called him the unofficial mayor of, uh, of Jacksonville and I know he's going, he's back there.
Um, I haven't spoken to him in a little bit a while, but, uh, I know he's back there, you know, working with kids out there too. Um, so how has high school football or high school sports in general, cause this probably is the same for other sports, but, uh, let's just keep it to football. How has high school football changed and gotten better across the state you think? I think it's obviously, I mean, you see it, like you said, across all sports, but definitely football. Um, it's just, I think you see it now there, the blueprint is more laid out, um, being able to access certain resources, the better your game is more accessible to, to, to athletes now, uh, given whether it's social media, just people coming before them, who now come back.
Like we mentioned, Deontay, myself, others who have been to certain areas, you know, trying to give back. Um, but honestly, I think that the biggest thing is there it's, it's, it's the kids being able to, to, to build their own brand. Um, and that kind of goes into the NIL portion because when you, when you, when it's about you, granted team sport, but when you're, when you're your own brand, it's, it's, you're less likely to put a stain on that brand. You're, you're more likely to build it up into invest in it and to pour all your drive and grind into that and, uh, the brand.
So I had assumed that that's in essence, making kids work harder. Um, and then when you have little platforms like this, it's cool to be rewarded with a, you know, a little snippet on TV or interview or some merge or whatever that looks like for doing some of the right things and, and, and, and excelling in your sport. So I think that's probably why, you know, student athletes are starting to blossom here. DJ Thorpe is joining us as a, um, as a kid who, uh, who stayed local, you know, for a time anyway. Um, what was, what is cool about, you know, or what, what would be available in terms of name, image, and likeness to a kid and how aware are these kids? I know you talked to one of the best wide receivers, uh, in the state. How aware are they in terms of what is available to them, uh, and why it might be more attractive to stay home?
I, I think they're extremely aware solely because again, the social media part, when you, you have your, what? Okay. So one of the kids, um, from Southern Durham High School probably do a story on him at some point. He's out to Oklahoma.
Right. He's on a visit, taking Oklahoma thought on his Instagram, right? But I know that if I was his parent and I just heard that Oklahoma is giving every scholarship as a student athlete, $50,000 per school year, right.
That you would, Oh yeah, that's going to be a visit we take for sure. You know, and I think that the kids are seeing that, but also when you see kids like Sam and how, like granted, he's a Charlotte kid, he's not necessarily Raleigh, but he has a Bojangles deal. What kid doesn't go out to eat lunch and go to Bojangles?
Like when you have a sponsorship with Bojangles, Holy smokes, we get discounts, uh, group, uh, coupons, all this stuff like that. That's so crazy. And then to think that you can put your family in a better situation or yourself in a better situation at a younger age, I mean, it's, it's, it's crazy.
So a lot of these kids, you know, granted right now, it's just, it's more for the, they're not thinking retirement funds and things like that, but they are thinking, Oh man, I can pat my pockets a little bit now doing what I love and it can do it now. Um, so I think that's great. And I think the kids who leverage their, their hometown, I mean, where else do you have a bigger following where, you know, that's, that's what I always say if I could have done that. Oh, I would have definitely tried to reach out to Randy's pizza sponsors, our games or whatever, or maybe I'll try to flag down Bojangles. I don't know.
Look, it's funny. I've actually talked about this for a number of years and TJ Thorpe is joining us. You should check out the TJ Thorpe show at highschoolot.com wherever you get your podcast or watch it on WRAL sports plus on your television as you can, as you're watching this show now, if you, if you are, um, but a number of years ago, you know, when we were talking about, you know, the idea, this was just in the formative stages, the idea of allowing an athlete while in college to realize the value of his name, um, you know, the NIL thing. And I thought, and you were probably already gone from UNC at this point and a guy like Marcus Page, the point guard as a, as a sophomore, like he was already like this incredible spokesman for the program, a super kid, great student. I mean, you couldn't, he, his value was never going to be higher because he wasn't a guy that was going to play in the NBA, but his value was never going to be higher than it was as a sophomore, a junior and a senior. And he wasn't allowed at that point. And to me, that was a missed opportunity, not just for, uh, Marcus Page, but also for the sport like now to, for, for the, for the college sports industry, those kids should be highlighted and they deserve something from it.
Am I wrong? No, I, I agree a hundred percent when you, when you cut on the tape and they play back UNC's run to the finals, I mean, to the national championship game, I said finals, I'm watching NBA, but to the national championship game every year, what happens? They show a Marcus Page clip of him hitting that weird jumper, even though it broke our hearts, but he ties it up. Or you see a clip of Marcus Page doing something else, Marcus Page, don't age me, me and him are in the same class area.
So we had classes together and walk the classes together from time to time. I remember the Marcus Page days and he was number five, shout out to number five. But again, like you said, how much money did the school, just the school itself make? How much money did, did, did like you said, uh, Michael Jordan make?
All these people are making money besides the people who are out there performing. And that's the issue, like you said, and, and, and had he been able to, because again, it's, it's now Kobe, Kobe, uh, was Kobe white, Kobe, then it came through Joel Berry came through a granite. They're all great guys. They're all great players, but it takes away from Marcus's name because it's not, he's not in the limelight anymore when he could have, uh, um, you know, took advantage of his name and likeness, like you're saying. So I think that, that again, it's, it's huge because guy like Marcus national championship, you won one, I mean, I mean, you, you didn't win it or you got close, you're a household name.
Yeah. I mean, he's a celebrity. Uh, you are a legit celebrity, so you should be compensated for that at least in some form or structure. I know they tried to, uh, with football. I know I received the name and likeness check for like the video game, but now they're coming back out with a video game.
So it was like, well, if y'all do any type of historic team and I see myself, I want more money. Did, uh, do you remember, can you even tell us, could you remember the total of that check? Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. It was eight grand. Oh, that's not bad. It's not bad, but think about, uh, when I got the check, I was no longer playing football.
That's not good. And, and not only that, I was an impact player on the game. So if anybody knows how sports games go, you know, I would assume an impact player should get more money than a normal player, but you know, you don't want to be greedy, but that's the thing. But how many copies of that game went around, how many, you know, globally, and to think that only $8,000 went to one athlete out of that, it's like, I doubt it. You know?
And, and so that's, it's one of those things where you figure it out, you know, but glad they got it right now, or at least they're trying to move in the right direction and hopefully they don't water it down. TJ Thorpe, highschoolot.com, podcast, wherever you get them, uh, the TJ Thorpe show, I appreciate your time. Let's do it again. Uh, we could talk high school football, we could talk college football.
We could talk, uh, we could talk Saskatchewan rough riders. Did you play with Darien Duran up there? I didn't. I played against him. He played up there for a long time. He was a star up there. No, he still, when I got up there, he was the star still, but he was with, uh, he was with Montreal when I was up there.
Okay. So, uh, so I played against them. We actually had dinner together that was really cool, you know, uh, star UNC guy. Um, but I also was a Winnipeg blue bomber and they won the great cup two years in a row after I left.
Are you kidding me? So, okay, we'll talk CFL next time. I appreciate TJ. Uh, best of luck to you and we'll talk soon.
Stand forth. Thank you, man. I appreciate your time. Good dude. Good dude.
Nice to, uh, catch up. Hopefully we can talk to, uh, TJ Thorpe a lot and I may have this wrong. Is he the next guest on Culture State Podcast?
He is not. Our next guest is actually going to be Grant Hill. Oh yeah.
But TJ will be coming up probably later on this month. Yes. Oh, Grant Hill on the, uh, Culture State Podcast. That's right. That, that is big time. That is big time. It is actually pretty bad. That's just enormous.
Absolutely enormous. Good for you. Uh, all right.
So, uh, we'll look forward to the, to a future episode of Culture State and a longer conversation with TJ Thorpe. So, uh, you know, it's funny, I didn't even remember that he had finished his college career in Virginia. Yeah.
I honestly did not remember it. Uh, he was, he was just a fun player at UNC. He could do everything.
It was like Deebo Samuel before Deebo Samuel was Deebo Samuel. Um, but, uh, cool. You know, that, that somebody like him, and I know he had Anthony Boone on these guys who mentor, you know, high school athletes, high school athletes. They're smarter than they've ever been. As you become more aware of your surroundings, you, you, you're, you're just able to handle a lot more, but there is so much more being thrown at them. Like it's hard to keep up. So the, the, the high school athlete who wants to play in college or consider a pro career, they need maybe more guidance than they've ever needed, right? So there are so many more things available to them.
Now we're seeing NIL being available to high school kids, which again, whatever this, get it while you can get it. Yeah. Gosh, I would have, were you ever, Dennis, were you ever that guy, were you ever the best player on your team in a, in a sport or one of the best players on a team in your sport? Yeah.
Who was it? Lacrosse? I'm football, but yeah, mostly lacrosse. What position did you play in football? Well, offense, are you talking about high school or college? I didn't know you played in college. I played for a year in college. I was a linebacker in college.
Defensively, I played everywhere on the front seven. Okay. You're versatile. I was. You're the Jeremy Chin sort of, in a way.
Yeah. I did not play. I was not that fast. Well, lacrosse-wise, I was one of our top players. I was one of our top defenses. Were you a long stick? I was.
Good for you. Can I ask you a question about lacrosse, does somebody understand? Please.
I'm always. And I'm not going to ask you anything about a long stick. Okay. Why is it okay to just repeatedly whack your opponent with a stick? Well, you gotta be able to take the ball away. So I could just smack you in the arm and in the shoulder with a stick?
You have to keep it within reason. You have to be on the hands or on the stick. Yeah, but that's not what I watch. Yeah, you can't wind up. We can't generally wind up like a baseball bat and just whack away. Well, no, no, not that. But it's just constant whacks on the arm.
Yeah, little small slaps. Why is that okay? Well, how else am I going to take the ball from you? Otherwise, I can just.
You do what you want. Hit the stick. But they don't do that. Yeah. They hit the guy in the arm.
They shouldn't have moved his stick out of the way. That's why. I believe you're defending that. Yeah.
You get me? That kind of behavior. I've taken plenty of whacks on the ribs.
I'm sure you have. Because it's accepted. And on the hips. Oh, yeah. It's all accepted and that's bad. Yeah, because we're tough.
What are we, well, honestly, it's among the toughest games to play, I think. Indoor lacrosse is, that's no joke because cross checking and stuff is just like hockey. Really?
You can plant your feet because you're not on skates. Gosh. It is, that is rough.
Yeah. And I love it. I love outdoor lacrosse. Like, I'm not, it's not like the game hasn't grown and we have a lot more schools playing, you know, major college lacrosse than we used to.
But man, I just, I thought it would be bigger than it is right now, but maybe there's still, there's still that growth. How long did we wait for soccer to catch on? A long time.
Right. And I think we're here. I think we're here where soccer is becoming a major U S sport. Maybe lacrosse is next. This is the Adam gold show June 19th, 2006, but it all started May 6th, 1997 with the announcement that the Hartford Whalers were coming to North Carolina. It's a story of transition of heartbreak, of figuring it out on the fly. The Cane's Corner look at the 25th anniversary of the move presented by the aluminum company of North Carolina. Listen now find Cane's 25th anniversary wherever you get your podcasts.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-02-12 10:00:41 / 2023-02-12 10:21:20 / 21