MJ Morris, Michigan, Victor Wembanyama, James Harden, and more

We were talking about this earlier. It felt like it was a six-month absence. It was not. It was just three and a half months, but that's too long. The Right Time Podcast is back.

Bomani Jones, my friend. It felt like half a year, but I went back and looked at it. June 30th was the last one before the relaunch, and I appreciate the fact that it's back, and I thank you very much for the time, man. What did you do with your break?

Not nearly enough to be perfectly honest. It was enough stuff going on just to be a hassle, but I wasn't going to work. You know what I mean? This is kind of one of those things in the air, but then this goes a different direction. Then we figured out.

I knew where the podcast was going to wind up at the end of August, but then we wound up with paperwork hassles, but I didn't know when the hassles would get fixed, so I couldn't really live it up as I should have in the course of the time. Just doing things that are legal in New York City and not everywhere else. Very nice. Watching the Jets and Giants, which should be illegal in every jurisdiction. By the way, I'm excited tomorrow when I drive in. We will get Foxworth Fridays, and those are always cool.

I've told you that my kid loves Foxworth Friday above and beyond anything else. Let me get your thoughts on this MJ Morris situation with NC State, because I think it's a super complicated situation based on, because I don't think it starts just this year. You're MJ Morris, who emerged last year as a true freshman, as the quarterback of the future, then got hurt at the end of the year, because Devin Leary had gotten hurt, and then Morris gets hurt. Leary's going to go play at Kentucky. Theoretically, you would think that MJ would be the guy, but then they go and get the former Virginia quarterback, Brennan Armstrong, to be the guy, and Morris is going to redshirt the year.

Then they realize, you know what? We need MJ, so they break glass. He saves the season, theoretically. He hasn't played that much better than Brennan, and now he decides he wants to redshirt. How do we solve this complicated personnel matter?

I think it's solved. That boy ain't going to play. It reminds me, just in hearing it, of, I think it was the 08 season where Virginia Tech, I think even here before they had the same plan, but Virginia Tech had always had the plan that they needed to redshirt to Rod Taylor for a year, but their offensive line was so bad, and Sean Glennon was so slow that the only chance that they had to do anything involved Tyron playing. And I always felt so bad for him on that, because it's like, look, if you know I shouldn't be playing, like you had this patience with Michael Vig, but the station had gotten so much higher at this point, and they couldn't afford to, honestly, I think they didn't want to get that one boy killed. But, hey man, sometimes the kids got to look up and be like, nah, nah, nah, y'all told me I wasn't going to play this year. So I'm just not going to play. I came through when you needed me.

Now it's time for you to go ahead and fix it yourself. Bamadi Jones is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. Here's a complication that didn't exist, at least legally, back when Tyron Taylor and Sean Glennon were in the mix, is that there are legit NIL dollars at stake here. And I'm going to guess that when Brennan Armstrong is the quarterback, and he's brought here with whatever the number was, significant to get like $200,000 or probably a little bit more, that MJ Morris didn't factor in in the finances here. But he is looking at three years of eligibility remaining, and he's not an NFL guy, I don't think. So this is his opportunity to make some money playing football. So I think he's got to consider that first, right?

Yeah, the one thing I would say, though, about the money we're talking about these guys making with NIL and what consideration that's going to afford them with their decision making, we can't think about this like adults, right? You give $200,000, we'll take out, we'll call it $75,000 for tax. It all comes above the stuff that goes along with it, and you got $125,000 left. Oh, that's going to be gone quick. Quick, I tell you, quick.

After the chain, it's all downhill. I don't think that a guy like him is thinking about this is my chance to make money so much. I think there's a lot more human elements that go into the decision making that's going to surround this, shall we say.

All right, final thing about this, and then I want to move on to Wen Binyama, whose debut at Madison Square Garden was not awesome. Can MJ Morris, do you think, go back into that locker room as the starting quarterback, or does he have to take the portal route and go elsewhere? That's a good question. I do think that he could probably go back, depending on what his relationship with them was in the first place, right? Let us not forget, we live long enough to see Eric Krause quit on his team once and then come back years later to win a Heisman Trophy. People make these moves and these decisions all the time.

It probably would be best for him to hit the portal. I'm thinking less about the locker room than the coach's room, because I imagine this has got to be weird for them. Oh yeah, you could tell listening to Dave Doran at his press conference today that he is not in love with everything that went on. All right, I heard, I was listening to the right time, Bamani Jones is joining us here, and you went on and on about Victor Wen Binyama and the possibilities and how much fun it's going to be to watch. We've had, I don't know, half dozen games or so, so far. What are your thoughts on the early going for Big Vic? It's been about an expectation for me. They're going to be bad days. I think that's the part that we all have to remember that in the end, he still has never played an 82 game NBA schedule or league with the depth of talent that this one has, while also trying to figure it out with this team where like they seem to have a handful of guys who are the Ricky Davis to LeBron James in 2003, right?

Like, oh man, they went and got me some help. Fantastic. And looking at it that way, but he's probably going to end up being the best defensive player that's ever played in the NBA. Like I don't see any conceivable reason why that wouldn't happen unless health is associated with it. But I do think that this is going to be a year of learning about NBA physicality.

And like I noticed this in a game early, you don't really like to set them screens. I mean, neither would I, but when this, I think by the time we get to the end of the year, like there's going to be a wall probably around the All-Star game. But by the time we get to the end of the year, I don't think this team is going to make the playoffs, but I think we're going to see what the future of playing basketball can be. Is Pop the right guy for him or would, uh, would maybe a more, I look, I don't even know if Pop's not a modern coach at all, but is Pop the right guy for him? I think that he's the right guy because I think more important than the basketball stuff is going to be the growing up stuff, the mental stuff. And I actually think what will make this good for him, honestly, and I'm, you know, I found so old saying, you know, somebody who will scream at you every now and then when you out here messing up, you know, like, and that's, what's going to be interesting to see as this goes, like the reason they could make that go for the whole Tim Duncan area is Tim Duncan was built for that. Like I saw something once about what Steven Jackson played there and Pop's like, yeah, I can coach Steven Jackson. And the point that was made was that like, what's Steven Jackson going to say about how great probably just talking to him after Tim Duncan just took it. Right. And so, you know, to get better in some ways, like I'm not that fond of that approach necessarily, like in terms, like I'm sure that Papa's had to change some of these players aren't the same, but I do think the idea and notion of accountability that can be hard for a superstar player like that to have, it is important.

And I think good for him to play for a team where he is not more powerful than his coach. Well, Monty Jones is joining us here on the Adam Gold show. The Right Time podcast is back three days a week. Foxworth Friday, Dominique Foxworth is back. Another big 10 legend.

You know, we talked to my friend Chick Hernandez yesterday from DC. He's a Maryland guy. I referenced Scott Van Pelt, all big 10, all big 10 legends. But Monty Jones is with us.

All right. Is James Harden a ski mask all-star for those people who don't know what I mean by that? Bo, you coined this a long time ago.

Also with the phrase Lemon Booty, which is never going to go old. But Harden is seemingly convinced a lot of people that he is like the answer to what their team needs. He's a great player and he's going to go in the Hall of Fame.

So it might not, it might be too loose of an association, but would you put him in the ski mask all-star category? Well, what he has figured out in terms of finding the next team that wants slash needs him though, that I think is very interesting is that with each of these moves that he has made from team to team is expected responsibility has diminished at every turn. So like when he goes to the Rockets, the Rockets to be fair to them, they got him to be a franchise player that few of us thought he could be and he did turn out to be when he leaves Houston though. The expectation is not for him to carry things with the Nets. I think it was really more to be a number two or even a number three because Kyrie Irving, at least at that time, was thought to be the guy that was going to be the ball handler. Then you go to Philadelphia and it's expectations of being a number two, but I think this part is important.

The expectations on the Sixers were not the same as the expectations that were on the Nets, right? Like the Nets were playing against behind a completely different sort of eight ball, but at every turn people are asking less and less of him. And now he's with the Clippers where they're asking him to be the number three.

How can we do that? How can he do that? He needs the ball. He needs the ball, but what the Clippers haven't had for the last two or three years as a point guard of any sort and James Harden can play point guard.

Now will he get the ball to the people and all the things that go around? Like we'll see that, but he did significantly drop his usage when he went to Philadelphia and when he went to the Nets. Like he's not out here playing 40% usage like he was when he was in Houston. So I do think he's willing to adjust in that way.

My concern with Harden is not his ability to get with the system. Like, and to be fair to him at Brooklyn, he seemed like the only person to look around and be like, guys, don't you realize what we're doing here is crazy, right? Like he was the only person to be like, he's the guy that said about Kyrie. I'll give him the shot myself. Like he was the one like, yo, you got to get the out of this.

This is nuts. But the problem with him is not that he's not a good player and it's not to me that he can't fit in the problem with him is there's something about him that makes him short circuit in the biggest moments of your season. And I don't know if it's possible to win with him because he completely loses it. Like this game has your season on the line. So you could be in the same series against Boston last year and James Harden won two games to Philadelphia by himself. And then he completely comes apart for game set.

And we've seen it happen too many times over 10 years to say it's a small sample. I just keep getting back to when, if the Clippers, and this is a huge, if given the players involved here, if the Clippers are healthy, fully operational in the playoffs, I just don't know how they work because Kawhi needs the ball. Paul George needs the ball. James needs the ball. And what is Russell Westbrook going to do?

So I just, I just don't know how it all works if they're all healthy, but I mean, it's gotta be the longest odds ever for all of those guys to be healthy. Well, that's the trick bag there is can everybody be healthy, but see, I think it can work Kawhi Leonard. First of all, Kawhi Leonard is your clear number one, right? Possibly one of the 20 best players in NBA history, but he is the clear number one on that.

Okay. Paul George has demonstrated throughout his career that he kind of prefers not to be a number one. He can figure out how to do other stuff and, and get it going. Russell Westbrook is just what he is. And I think, I don't think that he and Harden are going to play that many minutes together. And I think that that's how they wind up making all of those things go together. But for you, you're right.

It's health. But to me, if they are healthy, even in not knowing how they figure it out, the Clippers and the Nuggets would be by far the best two teams in the West is the Clippers state health. Oh, even though the Phoenix Suns theoretically are loaded, of course, those guys never play either. I think only Durant plays, right? No, Kevin Durant doesn't play.

Kevin Durant hasn't played 60 games since the Achilles tear. And that, by the way, was four years ago. It was a long time ago.

All right. Final thing. Spygate 2. This is, I think this is more interesting than anything the New England Patriots were accused of however many years ago by, by the way, former Patriots assistant Eric Mangini. The fact that Michigan would let however much time go along after being credibly accused of electronically spying on their opponents by dispatching somebody named Connor Stallions, who I absolutely do not believe is his actual name, that there's no way that his name is Connor Stallions.

Having him go to all these games and on his phone videotape opposing coaching staff, Michigan waited how long to say, well, they did it, too, when they accused Purdue, Ohio State and Rutgers of conspiring against them. This is just the greatest story that I don't think is going to go anywhere. What do you think is going to happen here? Well, see, I think it is going to go somewhere because I think like now that we're in the era of NIL, all these conferences and like the NCAA, they got to have to legitimize their existence in a different way than they used to.

And so this is so somebody, somebody needs business. This is happening. Like, it's so wild that the big 10 far pettier than the SEC because the SEC would have got together and been like, Michigan's supposed to make the playoffs this year, right?

Okay, cool. What we got to do to get Michigan in the playoffs. There wouldn't be any of this stuff that's going on up here where that Michigan, Ohio State beef runs so deep that all of this could be possible and all of it could happen. I just want to throw this possibility out there. I don't find it nearly as implausible as other people do that Connor Stallion operated as a rogue independent actor. I think that is a hundred percent plausible.

And I think that's a hundred percent plausible because I spent 10 years living in North Carolina, figuring out just how much people care about college sports NFL. You would never be able to convince me that this guy operated on his own. The idea of some guy spending his own money and doing all these things so that he could steal signs 100% I could see somebody doing that. I could see Michigan telling him your job is to go figure out the sides and him being like, Oh yeah, watch this. And then like, I, that's not, that's not implausible.

Like I, one thing I don't think that somebody at Michigan would tell him is, why don't you see if you can sneak all the way down to the sideline? Cause you're begging to begging to get caught. Like nobody, nobody else would tell you to do that.

You do that on your own. That's when you would do that. It's hilarious. It is. I think it probably ends up with some suspension of Jim Harbaugh that ultimately leads to something that probably could have happened in the first place, which is the end of his time at Michigan, which just so everybody understands would be really bad for Michigan. Yeah.

It would really stink for Michigan if they lost Harbaugh because they're not finding the coach that good. And I don't know. It ain't that easy to win up there.

Oh, good gracious. But yeah, this, this, this is, this is why we watch college sports. It ain't for playoffs. It's stuff like this. I'm with you.

I'm a hundred percent like, this is the way I started as a, as we say goodbye to the Monty Jones. What would we be talking about right now in college football? If it wasn't this, I can't think of another storyline. The fact that Michigan didn't play anybody in the non-conference or Georgia still hasn't played a really good football team yet this year. Now they will starting this week with Ole Miss. And I think they played Tennessee next and they'll have the SEC championship game.

So the backloaded schedule will obviously shake it, shake everything out, but I can't think of a credible storyline right now if it's not for Spygate too. So this is what college football is about. The playoff rankings are boring as all get out. They didn't change.

Top eight didn't change from one week to the next. I'm glad to have the most interesting story in college football this year has been a team that went one and 11 this year and probably won't make a ball game. And people don't realize that actually now is when the Colorado story has gotten interesting.

Yeah. We were all following it early when they were playing well and they were on TV every day. And I loved it. I think it's even better now that they're losing, like, like, you know how losing, you know, how losing affects things, man, like this with somebody, if somebody could get into a post-mortem, it's going to be we ain't got nothing to talk about.

And so we got Jim Harbaugh. Thank you, Jim. I'm glad to have the right time back.

Both. Congratulations on the new launch and I'll talk to you again soon. I appreciate you, man. Be good. You got it. Bahmani Jones here on the Adam Gold Show.