The most obnoxious fan bases (5-6-20)

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast. Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons 3-7 on Sports Hub Triad.

When a quote from this show becomes the number two trending story on ESPN's homepage today, you know we're deep in the pandemic. Coach Forbes, his strategy proved ineffective as Olivier Sar has transferred to Kentucky, he announced this afternoon. However, putting the academic slights aside, I believe Olivier is taking a huge risk with this decision. That's speaking strictly from a basketball perspective because I don't see Olivier stepping on campus at Kentucky and immediately becoming the guy. Kentucky's always going to have a top five recruiting class coming in.

They had, I think, five players leave for the NBA or at least test the process. So Olivier, he's not going to be the focal point for this Wildcat team while if he went to Wake Forest, he definitely would be the primary option. At Wake, he'd be the fan favorite. He'd be the leading scorer. He'd be the leading rebounder. Guys know what he's capable of doing.

They're going to feed him the rock more often. I'd imagine what's going to happen with him in a Wildcat uniform. To me, I think he's Reed Travis at UK. You might be thinking, hey Josh, who's Reed Travis?

That's my point exactly. He spent a handful of years at Stanford. He was a grad transfer a few years ago. He was the fourth or fifth leading scorer on that Kentucky team two seasons ago. But he was too old to be a draft pick. Olivier Saar, he would be kind of in the same box. A guy who played four years, you think you're going to be a first round draft pick or even a second round pick? Highly unlikely. I don't see any track record for John Calipari bringing in transfers and having those players be the essential piece of their program. He would be that for Wake Forest.

Also, this is a major piece of the puzzle. The one time transfer isn't a slam dunk yet. There are people assuming the NCAA is just going to give players a free waiver.

All this talks out there about NIL. They're forward thinking. Athletes, they're going to be allowed to be paid. Everything's going to be just fine for the athlete.

They can transfer wherever they want. It's going to be like free agency. I don't know if you know the same NCAA that I do, but banking on them to do the right thing is an incredible risk.

It's a huge gamble. And that's what Olivier is essentially doing here. He doesn't plan to sit. He had this quote to Jeff Borzello of ESPN who does a tremendous job covering college basketball. Borzello said, I remember talking to Olivier last week about sitting out next year. He said, quote, I could go pro, play one year in the EuroLeague, somewhere to get ready for the NBA.

There's no way I sit out. So there's a chance that this news today isn't Olivier Saar leaving Wake for Kentucky. It's Olivier leaving Wake. And if he doesn't get this one time transfer, he might be going over the Europe.

I think that's a very real possibility today. Like what's Olivier's case if the one time transfer rule doesn't get passed? That you just had a change in coach? There's no precedent of players being ruled on favorably for instant eligibility. Just because you had a coaching change?

There's no track record for that. So honestly, I think Saar is taking a huge gamble here because continuity, it matters. Especially now. This is the portion of Steve Forbes' answer on the show yesterday that I think is getting massively overlooked. You might know the quote where he said, why would you invest three years at Wake Forest trying to get a prestigious degree from there only to transfer to a place like Kentucky? That's the line that's all over ESPN, USA Today, all over the place. Kentucky sports radio losing its mind.

That's the one that everybody's hitting on. This is the piece Steve Forbes told us yesterday that I think is the most important part here. You know, you're going to play for a new coach no matter what. And do you really want to make the risk of playing with new teammates? Because you're not going to have the summer. You're only going to have about six to eight weeks to prepare for the season.

You've got to work through chemistry. When you're going to come back and play with teammates that love you, care about you, they're going to get you the ball. Exactly. New coach, regardless of where he goes. But he could potentially play with the same teammates. Forbes, he kind of hinted that if Tsar came back, Jacobi Neith would have came back too. We'll see if with Tsar leaving, it's for sure that the Deacon point guard is also going to be going elsewhere.

No new update there. But Odie Aguama's back. Isaiah Musias is back. Ishmael Massoud's back. There are some guys that he played with this year who had significant contributions on the team. You don't have that with Kentucky.

You're at the same location. During the coronavirus, during the pandemic, I think it's a value to have familiarity, to have continuity, to be in the same location you've been the last three years. Because what guarantee is there, there's going to be a summer session at all.

If there's not a summer session, how are you going to build chemistry with this new team? So that, on top of the one-time transfer and the role he might play with Kentucky this upcoming season, if he's allowed to play, leads me to Olivier taking a massive risk by choosing to be a Wildcat earlier today. Bruce Pearl, head coach at Auburn. He's going to be our guest in less than 10 minutes. Once upon a time, Steve Forbes was taking it to Kentucky on Coach Pearl's staff about 10 years ago or so. Coach Pearl's going to share some Steve Forbes stories with us again in less than 10 minutes.

I asked this question on Twitter today, Robert, and it's good to have you back in here. Who do you view to be the most obnoxious fan base in college sports? Because having Big Blue Nation in my Twitter feed all day today, in my mentions, I don't think there's one I'd put above Kentucky. I think Kentucky's the most obnoxious because they act like they are the very best. But there is nothing, nothing I could say truly that they're the best at. Oh, we have the best history.

No, you don't. UCLA does. Oh, but that was a million years ago. John Wooden won all those titles. Okay, let's go modern day tournament 1985 since the field expanded to 64. How many championships do you have? Not as many as UConn, not as many as North Carolina, not as many as Duke.

You're not the best at anything. I asked this question today, Wake Forest, clearly you can't win in basketball there. Kentucky's a lot better than Wake is. Okay, who's the best Kentucky Wildcat to ever play in that program? I guarantee you, you won't find a guy who's top 20, top 30 in the history of college basketball. Wake Forest, I know I have one, I might have two. I'll take Tim Duncan over any Kentucky Wildcat who's ever played. I'll take Chris Paul, happy birthday to Chris Paul by the way, over any guard Kentucky's ever had. If I'm wrong, come at me, 336-777-1600. Give me a player in Kentucky basketball history who's better than Tim Duncan.

I'll wait. This is an aside, Robert. When I think of the great basketball arenas, I think of Cameron Indoor, I think of the Smith Center, I think of Fog Allen Fieldhouse. Do you know what I don't think of? Rupp Arena. Rupp Arena is attached to a damn shopping mall. Did you know that? Did you know Rupp Arena was attached to a shopping mall, Robert?

I did not know that. I mean, I went there expecting to see this great basketball arena. What I saw was a shopping mall that you could potentially get some nice antiques from. And while you're there, maybe you could catch up to them and watch some basketball. Oh, that would be nice. Oh, that sounds wonderful, right?

I need a new knick-knack. That's Kentucky, they're just so obnoxious. They think they're the best, when in reality, yeah, you're a Blue Blood, but you're easily the fourth best of the Blue Bloods. Give me Duke, give me Carolina, give me UCLA, UCLA's history is better, and then modern day, give me Duke. The only reason you had these great one-and-dones is because Coach K didn't decide until 2010. He was going to start recruiting those.

And when he did, you ain't getting the players that Coach K did. They like to act like it's a big accomplishment to win the SEC in basketball. Like, what, you worried about Vanderbilt?

Oh, Tom's saying, oh, they have the most wins in NCAA men's basketball history. You're playing in the SEC. Come on. Yeah, SEC basketball, that's where it's at.

Come on, man. Kentucky, just so obnoxious. I'm getting a lot of Alabama, a lot of UCF football on email and Twitter. A lot of people hitting me with those are the most annoying franchises, or excuse me, college fan bases. North Carolina, of course you're going to get a lot of that. I think that's where Robert's vote is.

Where? Carolina. Oh, yeah, you know me. Yeah, Robert's annoyed by North Carolina. Not a fan at all. I'm not annoyed by it. I just, anytime they lose a game, you hop on Facebook the next day, and I never see anybody ever complain this much after losing a game, as Carolina fans do.

Yeah. I sign off on that. After we catch up with B-Dot, actually NC State's probably the one I'd put above that. Yeah, NC State, they're more annoying than that. But I give them a lot of respect because they don't have anything to actually cheer about. I just admire their passion over all these years. Our cows won Blue Ribbon, yay! You know, they're super pumped about that. In over 15 minutes, we're going to be joined by B-Dot live in studio, but Bruce Pearl is going to share Steve Forbes stories with us next on The Drive.

B-Dot's in studio with us. And before we get to grammar school, there's something I want to say about Coach Forbes' comments on the show yesterday, which have become national news. Wait, can I just say you're the man?

In the last 24 hours. I don't think you've gotten enough applause for how great you do certain things, okay? Like when Coach K jumped on you last year for Zion. Like, I know it's kind of difficult, you hear, you don't want to big yourself up and sound like a, like, oh, look at me, I'm just doing my job and I should be praised for it. But that is a big deal, dude, your number two trending story on ESPN. Like, I forbid I happen to look at ESPN later and actually see or hear the interview.

I'm going to jump out of my skin. Yeah, but getting to the comment itself, though. Okay. Thank you for saying that. Not a problem. I loved what he had to say.

Me too. I had no issue with it because here's the thing, he's absolutely 100% right. How the hell can Kentucky, is it okay for Kentucky to publicly say that, hey, we're a better basketball program than anybody else we're recruiting against? And most times he would be right, but it's not okay for Coach Forbes to come out here and say, yeah, we're one of the best academic institutions. We're better than the guys that we're going up against, better than a Kentucky.

The question I have is a simple one. If it was the other way around and instead of academics, it was basketball, would people actually care? Like if John Calipari was trying to keep, or let's just say, yeah, John Calipari being the example. If John Calipari was fearful of one of his players in the transfer portal going to Wake Forest and he said, listen, why would you spend three years at a basketball program like Kentucky and go to a place like Winston-Salem and Wake Forest? Would people care?

Yes. I don't think they would. Maybe not to the same magnitude because the Forbes comment may sort of disrespects the intellect of the players and their students there versus that example disrespects the players. But either way, Calipari coming out and saying, Kentucky, our basketball program, why would you go to a second tier like Wake Forest in that context?

Heck yeah, to be discussed. I actually told Coach Forbes this last night. I said, have you seen the movie Step Brothers? Because what you did, and you may not even realize it, you are sitting next to Will Ferrell in the clubhouse and punching that douchebag Derek in the face.

That's what you just did. I think most people are looking at what he's saying. This being the number two national story trending on ESPN. They're looking at it saying, oh my God, I love this coach at Wake Forest. I love this guy because we've been thinking this and he said it. Big Blue Nations ticked off. I hate those guys.

They're obnoxious. I'm glad he said it. Yes. He's absolutely right. I see it anywhere you look. Kentucky's not in the top one hundred and twenty five academic institutions of the country.

Wake Forest is in the top 30. But wait, though, hold on. Let's let us backtrack a second. Is he right? Yes.

But like, does it hold weight? Absolutely not, because Coach Forbes is not the head coach of academia. He's the head coach of the basketball team.

With that perspective, their basketball team, Kentucky, you can't argue. But they're all sales people, right? You're trying to sell Olivier Sar. And if you don't have the basketball to sell, sell the academics. Smart play. Sell the hell out of the academics. But it holds no weight because Olivier Sar wants to play basketball.

And if he's thinking about I can play basketball in Kentucky where I'm going to play, where I'm going to play Wake Forest, he's going to pick Kentucky clearly. All right. Let's get to B Dot's grammar school. I'm very excited about this. It's the earliest we've ever done this. I've been on a run. Three consecutive weeks I've won in this game.

Three consecutive weeks. If you want to be my lifeline, because you know urban terminology more than me. Vernacular. I'm not good at it. Robert is B Dot. He's the master of it here.

336-777-1600 is the phone number. Let's play the game. Josh Graham has his own way of speaking.

In high school he didn't play sports, but he did wear a helmet. And just when you think it can't get any worse. My English teacher wanted to flunk me in junior high. Damn.

Thanks a lot. Next semester I'll be 35. Josh is going to attempt to learn B Dot's vernacular. I'm from the old school.

I got all the street knowledge. You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying? It's time for B Dot's Grammar School. Robbie, I had a situation, bro, where I realized that the verbiage is not just conversational as in us talking, but a lot of times things can be read wrong when you're talking through text. For sure.

Due to the vernacular. So with that being said, today Josh, not only do I have a couple words and phrases, but I have some things that you may have to write down and read. Yeah, you sent me a text last night and I'm ashamed I had to actually Google something to figure out what it was. We'll share what that was at the end of this segment.

Your first word for today. Where is Shirek? Do you know this, Robert? I'm not going to divulge that information to you based off your lifelines. I can't tell you whether I know it or not. If you know what this is, 336-777-1600, much like who wants to be a millionaire, I have a phone lifeline and I have Robert. I'm just going to go ahead and see if Robert knows this.

Robert, what do you know? I think it's Chicago. I'm going to go with that, Chicago.

Chicago is Shirek, that is correct. Yes! That is correct.

Yes! I wrote it down wrong. I wrote shy like S-H-Y. I figured you would.

What's the second one? So we're off to a good start. I've used the Robert lifeline. I need your lifeline at 777-1600. What does it mean when someone says they're going fed? Going fed? F-E-D, going fed.

The way you say it, it's so obvious. Folks are going fed, baby, we're going fed. Going fed.

It's like you're reading for an audio book there. Going fed. That could be at the beginning of somebody's instrumental. Does it mean like you are taking like a government job or being a police officer or being a narc?

No. It means the experience is going to be super turned. If somebody's going fed, they're going to be super turned.

If somebody dropped 30 points, he was out there going fed. He was turned. When we go to ECU? Yeah, we're going to East Carolina. We're going fed, baby. All right. What is the third word for me? Write this down, Josh.

I'm writing it. W-Y-P-I-P-O, Y-P-O. Okay, I think I know the answer to this. Okay. Is Y-P-O white people? That is white people. Yeah. Yes.

Yeah. Y-P-O is white people. White people. Now what was the one that I texted you last night that you had to Google, Josh? I texted.

He texted me. The letter Y and the letter T. That's white. White people.

I didn't know that. I didn't either. Y people. Got it. Just here to help.

Okay. These three letters, what do they mean? O-N-G. O-N-G. O-N-G. Not M. I got it. O-N-G. I'm going to go to the phone line. Let's go to chatois in Greensboro. Chatois, do you know what O-N-G is?

I need your help. O-N-G. Actually, I actually don't. O-N-G. Do you have a guess? O-N-G. N as in no. O-N-G. I got nothing.

All right. Thanks for nothing, Chatois. Chatois gave us nothing and he came in so confident from Greensboro. O-N-G.

I was rooting for Chatois. I like the name. I didn't do it. I was like, what did you... I'm not talking about this, Josh. I'm just going to say it to you.

Yeah. O-N-G. I'll use it in a sentence for you. Please do. You text me and you say, I'm on ESPN, second trending story on ESPN right now, and I say, that is super dope. You respond with O-N-G.

I might know, but I don't think I know. Pass. Pass? Pass. You cannot pass. There's only five of them. I don't know.

I'm taking the L. That's another one that we had. It is. Oh, it's on God. It is on God. It's on God.

I actually had that written down. Did you? I said on God. Why did you not guess?

I didn't pass. Because it would be... If I said that it wasn't it, I'd sound really stupid.

That's the whole point of this gimmick. I'm sorry. That was great.

I got scared because religion was involved. All right, give me the fifth one. Fifth one. What is the score? Let's see. You got white people. Two to two. You got Chirac.

You didn't get going fair. Oh my God. Oh my God.

Who comes down to this? This is it. Trying to go four for four. What is a kickback? I miss my folks at Kickback Jacks. I was wishing you would do snatch. Because you used snatch in a tweet today describing a Dale.

And I was like, that's not what I think it is. Kickback. That's for next week.

Thank you for that. Kickback. Yes, what is a kickback?

You sound like you're tutoring somebody after school. You're like, yes. Kickback.

This is for the game. You're on here bragging how you won three weeks in a row. You were smelling yourself. Now look at you. Looking at Jordan. He's got the ball.

Three seconds left. And you know what he's about to do. Is it a spot where you purchase drugs?

He thought it was a bodega. How racist is that? That's not racist at all. That's been the answer to about six or seven of these. That is a good point. But no. Well, you could possibly get drugs at a kickback.

What is it? But a kickback is a get together. It's just a party.

Like we just said at the crib. It could be the answer. Yeah, you could.

But you could score drugs there, though. All right. To pass, you've got to do your extra credit here.

And I guess that gives you a passing grade. All right. Here's what we're going to do.

Yeah. Man, if you're inviting me to a kickback and there's Kentucky fans there, I'm also going to pass. On top of that, if it is a group of Kentucky fans, I'd imagine there's a lot of Y people there. Why people?

B. Dot, you know it, man. I am super turnt today. I'm going fed. Yeah. You should be. You're on ESPN, dude.

I have no chance of working where is Chirac in here. So instead. The last dance. You got it. Homeboy today. Oh, yeah.

The last dance. James Borrego is on today's show. His boss is familiar. I mean, I got a feeling he just asked him where Chirac one of these times.

You should ask him where Chirac. Not going to do that. You should. Not going to do it. Not going to do it.

Ask him. We're going to go deep into the heart of Big Blue Nation. On. Say it. Not going to do it.

Not going to do it. It's next on the drive. Ready?

Yes. Punch up the audio for me now. You're on the drive with Josh Graham on Sports Hub Triad. Our friend B. Dot is in studio with us.

And let me just say this on the front end. I'm not usually someone who takes shots at other radio shows, but there are exceptions to that rule. One exception being the other sports hub, the one in Boston last year during the Stanley Cup playoffs, hanging up on our friendship Alexander from the Rowie News and Observer Canes beat writer. They hung up on him because he had a southern accent. So what did we do? We sent him a bunch of southern delicacies, including a Bo Berry biscuit, which I'm sure was like a hockey puck by the time it arrived in Boston in the mail.

But I think this is also an exception to it as well. As the foremost authority, the Adam Gold, if you will, of the state of Kentucky. Matt Jones at Kentucky Sports Radio tweeted this out last night. Never thought I would have to have a Wake Forest trash talking day on Kentucky Sports Radio.

But tomorrow is that day. I'm intrigued. So I listened to the first segment of their show today. And by God, was that a chore because they're talking about stuff from like, oh, we're going to release some stuff you hadn't heard in the last 20 years. And we're going to talk about this kid committing to Kentucky.

He's going to do it live on the radio. And then we get to this part where they finally arrive at Olivier Saar and Coach Forbes comments yesterday on this show, which has blown up into a national story. Something I never thought we would do on this radio show, which is talk trash about Wake Forest. Like when is the last time you've had a strong opinion in any way about Wake Forest basketball, like a strong opinion, never. You nailed it guy. You hear the laughing, the cackling as he just brought up Wake Forest.

But if you don't think that's enough, let's hear more. We played them famously in 90. Was that 93 when we beat them by like a thousand?

Yeah, I had to have been. It was 93. We played them in the sweet 16. They had Randolph Childress and I think they had Duncan right in that guy. That was Patino's famous strategy. We're going to let Duncan score a hundred and shut down everybody else.

How about do your homework? This is the first segment of your bleeping show, dude. Like come on, man. Is it 1993 that this happened? Remember when we famously played them and couldn't recall a single statistic?

Yeah. Tim Duncan and Randolph Childress were on those. No they weren't. Neither of those players played in 1993. You might be thinking about 1996 where Tim Duncan scored a thousandth on us. He had 14 points in that game.

What universe are you living in, dog? How many rebounds did this guy pull down? They said we, like they beat Kentucky. Yeah, don't you love that? When we beat them by a thousand.

For getting them Deacons that was so nice I scored a high of 39 points. So then they played the clip from our show and this is how they took it. This is how they really trash talk the Deacs. When you heard that comment, Ryan, what was your first reaction? A major slap in the face for everybody who's ever got a degree from the University of Kentucky. Everybody should sit down at their computer and email that coach.

They should send a tweet to that coach, I don't think they should, email, tweet, text. You hear that Ashley Judd, you just got smacked in the face. Everyone with a degree.

Everybody who has a degree in Kentucky, doesn't Drake have an honorary degree in Kentucky? Drake, Steve Forbes just smacked you in the face. You just got smacked. Everybody, don't you love that expression when somebody gets insulted. Somebody just wakes up in the morning. Like Jamal Mashburn wakes up, damn, I just felt like I got smacked in the face. Who was that?

I just got smacked. And then, make sure you write him a letter, send him a postcard. Mitch McConnell, he went to Kentucky, oh my God, I've just been smacked in the face by Steve Forbes. I'm gonna send that man an email. Send him a letter, hit him on Twitter. Accurate postage.

Accurate postage. So this is them, I swear, this is all they did during their, air quote, trash talking segment of Wake Forest. Here's the end of that segment. Anyway, the point, he's just completely taking the wind out of my sails. I had a whole thing I wanted to do with this. And now I can't? No I can't because you took a topic that was fun and you ended up making it to where I'm gonna have to take a break.

So let's do this. We'll deal with Wake Forest later. Oh, we'll get to them later. Was that his tease?

You sidetracked me. That's his tease. I have some advice for him, I do. I don't know if you want to take advice from me, but it's fine. Roll your own damn show, dawg.

I could be, come on, what are we doing here? You're gonna take shots at Wake Forest, at least come correct. Yeah, Kentucky's beaten Wake Forest in the NCAA tournament. That's true.

They beat them three times. Nobody's saying Wake Forest is Kentucky, but nobody's confusing your radio show with Colin Cowherd. I don't think. Actually, no one's confusing your radio show with anything other than some guys hanging together in Kentucky, some slap word I can't say on the radio. I think that we could do their radio show better than they could. Oh, yeah?

Oh, yeah. Honestly, if you just give me a second, I think we could do this. What would Kentucky sports radio sound like if it was us doing it in this studio?

I'm interested. Dadgummit, fellas, we done got that Oliver sore. That boy's about to play for Kentucky. Thank you. May I have some more, Oliver? I'd like another scoop of that possum biscuit right there if I could get me a piece of it.

Oliver sore? It ain't no disease. He's coming to play for the Wildcats.

That boy's tall as the moon. Before we get to Wake Forest, let me go ahead and ask you one question real quick. If you ever had a strong opinion on toothpaste, I ain't. I ain't never even thought of it. Stop.

That's about the same way I feel about Wake Forest. Toothpaste? Is that like a glue?

You got to have teeth to use that, don't you? More than one. All right. We got to take a dadgum break. We'll be back. God, you guys have just messed up my entire segment. This was supposed to be fun. Gosh, I was going to trash talk them to hell. Well, anyway, when we come back, I'm going to fuss at my wife over the radio. You got a wife? I couldn't bear it for more than 10 minutes.

You know my sister. I couldn't. And then I get a message that they were saying Winston-Salem's just an awful city, like the worst city in the state of North Carolina.

I'm like, okay, dude, I'm going to do some homework into you a bit. Matt Jones, big Kentucky fan. Where do you think the worst thing, the worst place for you to be from if you're a Kentucky fan? Lexington. The worst place if you're going to be a Kentucky fan? Louisville. Louisville? That's probably number one. That's a good answer.

Secondly, I'd probably say Duke. Oh, yeah. You know, Kristen Lintner hits that shot. That's where this guy's from. Really? Yeah, this guy's from Duke.

I read a story. He's taken off the air last year because of politics. He's actually accused of pushing his political agenda.

This guy's also a politician. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. Mix it up. Yeah. Maybe he's focused a little bit too much on the politics that he can't do a radio show.

That might be it. Gosh. And listen, I just want to say, before you read off any more of this dude's horrible, horrible life, I just want to say that I like the Josh Graham today. I don't know if you slept bad last night. I slept great. Did you sleep great? Because it seems like you slept with a pee in the... You know that story, the pee in the pot with a girl because you could feel the pee in the mattress?

Oh, underneath like 50 mattresses? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's Josh today. And he's just so aggravated. And you would think that a day on today where you wake up, Robby, you got the number two trending story on ESPN. Like they're wanting your interviews. Never satisfied.

Jordan mentality. Didn't even have to use your AK. It's okay. Today was a great day. But no, not Josh. He wants to talk trash about people in Kentucky who will never, ever see or hear. I like it.

Oh yeah. Bring them on. Bring them on.

I mean, if you're going to go out there and say, oh, I'm going to talk trash about Wake Forest on my radio show, that's what you're going to say first. I'm interested in what you had to say. You had me, man. You had me. But then you lost me. I couldn't listen to any more of your unbearable show. No, did not lose you, Josh.

Couldn't listen to anything more of it. You pulled up his damn Wikipedia. I did. Did not lose him.

I did. The best part of their show was them playing the clip from this show. That's right. You're welcome. You're welcome for the highlight of your show.

You're welcome. Gosh. The idea, then when I hear that he's taking shots at Winston-Salem, this area is, I got news for you, man. This area is a lot better than Lexington. Our basketball arenas aren't attached to malls. They aren't.

Like Cameron Indoor, that's among the best. It is. And the Smith Center, it's not attached to Crabtree Valley Mall for those who are listening in the KY. Just letting you know. You can take shots at Winston-Salem all you want, but anybody would conclude the triad of North Carolina a lot better than Lexington, Kentucky. Anybody.

I mean, take your vote. Population, media market, amount of sports teams around. What's the closest pro sports team to Lexington? Yeah, let's go on down to watch the Cincinnati Bengals.

That sounds like a lot of fun. Joe Burrow, I'm sure, is going to turn it around. How many playoff wins in the last few decades? Oh, but you guys have the best college rivalry, right?

I hear that. Dan Dokich, got in a fight with him on Twitter about this. Louisville versus Kentucky. Oh, it's the greatest college basketball rivalry. Oh, that's why two years ago it was on ESPN2.

When's the last time Duke of Carolina was on ESPN2? I'd like to hear about that. Nebuary. Yeah. Nebuary. Yeah. There you go.

My boy is worked up. They got horses though, Josh. And land. They got land.

And Muhammad Ali was from there. They ain't making no more of that. I got fed. You are listening to WSGS Winston-Salem, WCOG Greensboro, WMFRI Point, WPCM, Burlington. Those signals making up sports up dry. Yeah. Josh Graham loves to talk sports.

He also loves to take herbal body baths to keep his skin supple and youthful looking. We're on the drive with Josh Graham. The coolest story I read this week was by our next guest, Matt Fortuna. It's why I wanted to have him on. The title, Michael Jordan's bodyguard, John Michael Wozniak was a true Chicago character.

If that name doesn't ring a bell. He was the security guard in the last dance, episodes five and six, playing that combination of quarters and bocce ball that a lot of people seem to enjoy watching. And he hit Jordan with his shrug. He did the shrug on him not once, but twice. And he has this perm hair mullet that some said reminded them of Kenny Powers from Eastbound and Down. Others said looked like Joe Exotic from Tiger King. We learned because of Michael's PR person that John Michael Wozniak passed away earlier this year, but that didn't stop Matt Fortuna from writing this story and telling us quite a bit about his family and also his relationship with MJ, which is more extensive than I had previously expected.

So let's start here, Matt, and thank you for the time. This wasn't just a Chicago Arena security guard. He actually was with Jordan for decades, right? Yeah. And I was as eager and as surprised to learn all this as everyone else was. You know, that's kind of what prompted the story idea was, you know, watching that episode Sunday night and make no mistake about it, the last dance in this moment of self-isolation has become our weekly NFL, maybe even our weekly Super Bowl, where all of us, even outside of sports fans, you know, my wife, many people who aren't diehards are watching this thing almost religiously every week. This has become our main event that we look forward to each and every week. And with that, there are almost these game stories, right, Monday morning.

We all Monday morning quarterback. We all analyze it. We all pick this thing apart endlessly. And let's face it, as exciting as this trip down memory lane, if you will, has been, I don't know if we've learned a whole lot, right? It's just been all packaged with some fresh quotes from Michael. It has been this great nostalgic trip for all of us.

But I don't know if we've learned a whole lot, except for a few parts here or there that I think have come from the non-celebrity portion of the show. One of them obviously being John Michael Wozniak. I saw him like everyone else give it right back to MJ in that game of quarters.

He shrugged immediately. I mean, I'm sure my thought was not unique to anyone else in that, hey, this guy is going to be viral like we've probably never seen before. Who is he? What's his story?

How can I possibly figure that out? And fortunately, not long after it aired, SD Portnoy, Jordan's manager, tweeted his name, tweeted that he passed away in January, which is obviously unfortunate. But I decided to Google the name anyway. And I saw that he was buried in Oak Lawn, Illinois, which is where my wife's from. And she's from a large Irish Catholic family down there where everyone knows everyone. And the fact that this guy is a former Chicago police officer further upped my chances, if you will, of the kind of insular provincial environment where everyone knows everyone and me thinking I might have a chance to get this guy. So I shot out a note to a number of connected in-laws with, you know, without fail.

You know, I was able to get a number for the son because, you know, there are so many people across paths with this family over the years and I shot the son a text and he could not be happier to talk. So what's cool about it is he followed Jordan, based on your reporting, to Birmingham, where he became the full time bodyguard for Michael. And he worked with them for two decades. What I'm interested in, why did Jordan trust this dude?

You know, the way the relationship started is out of like a Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm episode. And you cannot make it up early on in Jordan's career, his first or second year. John Michael Wozniak, who was a Chicago police officer, was working part time security on the side at the old Chicago stadium and he was parking players cars and he was parking Jordan's SUV, which at the time the model he had was one of those old old styles with a spare tire on the back and the rear. And John Michael Wozniak did not account for said spare tire while parking the car. And he accidentally smashed in the back window, which I'm getting anxiety just thinking about and talking about, even though it happened 30 something years ago and we all know how this story ends.

So I can imagine what it was like for a guy in the moment to do this to Michael Jordan's car, even if he wasn't quite the Michael Jordan, we came to know that. But that happens. He presumably freaks out.

But he also is completely up front and transparent with Michael. Tell them what happened. Apologizes profusely. He says, look, my next paycheck, I got a newborn at home. My son, Nikolai, but the next paycheck I get is going straight to you to repair this. And I'm so sorry. And Michael, according to Nikolai, John Michael's son, laughs and says, don't worry about it.

They'll send me a new car tomorrow. Appreciate your honesty. And from that point forward, Michael Jordan always looked out for him. You know, he asked him to help out whenever he saw him. He made a point to make him kind of his point man, or at least one of a small group of point men that he could trust whenever he was at the stadium and the relationship really took off from there. Matt Fortuna, read this story on Twitter at Matt Fortuna and The Athletic, the title of which it's describing the life of John Michael Wozniak, but specifically his relationship with Michael Jordan.

You knew him from the Last Dance documentary or from a meme that you've seen somewhere. Michael Jordan's bodyguard, John Michael Wozniak, was a true Chicago character. Moving forward with this, though, how connected was Wozniak's family or are Wozniak's family and Michael Jordan even today? Have they had contact during this series?

Yeah. You know, Nikolai, John Michael, as we established earlier, he fortunately passed away in January. He was sick for about 18 months of colon cancer before his death. And Michael Jordan kept him on his payroll until his last day. He has his estate up in Highland Park, northern suburb of Chicago, that is still there, vacant as far as anyone living there right now.

Michael, I believe, is living in Florida right now. But he kept he made John Michael Wozniak basically the security chief of that state. And he was there. He was up there full time.

John Michael Wozniak, that is. And Michael Jordan paid, kept him on payroll, he kept paying him. And he reached out to the family once he passed. And Nikolai Wozniak, John Michael's son, told me he texted Michael Jordan Sunday night after this aired. And funny backstory to that is Nikolai lives in Nashville now and he had a power outage in his neighborhood Sunday night. And so he figured, you know, it's too bad I'm going to miss the show, I'll catch a replay. And by the time the power comes back on in the middle of the show, his phone is blowing up with memes and text and oh my God, look at your dad. And so he forwarded some of those memes and whatnot to Michael Jordan and said, it looks like someone other than Dennis Robbin is taking over the show because of their haircut, what their hair looks like. And Michael replied back, lol.

And so, yes, I mean, this Nikolai was very upfront with me and has been in some other interviews in the day since of saying he almost took this for granted growing up because it was just his dad's confidant, if you will, as a guy his dad looked out for. He knew Michael's kids, he'd been up to his house, he'd been to Bulls games. It's one of those things you truly cannot appreciate until you view it from that 20,000 foot view of it and you look at it from the past and you look at the last dance and you look at how many people were affected by Michael Jordan. But until the very end, John Michael Wozniak was very much a part of the fabric of Michael Jordan. What's the coolest thing you learned that didn't quite make it into the story you couldn't quite work it in?

Yeah, it was one of those stories I was so excited to get and was on such a time crunch to turn around that I'd like to think I got as much as humanly possible in there. This part's in the story but I just thought some of the details about the character of John Michael Wozniak, I mean the idea of a Polish cop in that era of Chicago marrying a black woman and telling his superiors to basically eff off when they tell him to practice certain policing habits because he didn't think that was fair or serving justice. And then becoming a narcotics officer and yesterday I did a radio hit on WGN radio here in Chicago and in the middle of my live interview they broke into a live caller who had heard me talking about John Michael Wozniak, his name was Mark, and he started talking about how John Michael Wozniak was his partner on the narcotics unit in 1992 and 1993 and I think if anything the stories that I've learned and have heard in the days since about how many guys this guy touched and what a character he was. I had a couple in-laws who I hadn't reached out to before reach out to me after they read the story saying oh we remember seeing him at this bar on Western Avenue in Chicago, we went to school with his kids. He was just one of those guys who obviously the hair made him stand out in pictures and obviously in the show Sunday night but when you hear his son talk about him, when you hear his friends talk about him, what a character he was, how he's absolutely laughing up in heaven right now saying I told you so after his son told him to cut his hair all those years and told him he looked like a fool, this guy absolutely got the last laugh.

He absolutely knew what he was doing and he was absolutely a man of integrity and honesty at the very end and that's how he's able to endear himself to probably the most famous person on the planet, Michael Jordan. I wish I prepped you on this on the front end, Matt Fortuna with us here from The Athletic. I'm interested what you think the most obnoxious fan base in college sports is and to allow time for you to think about it I'll give you a quick bit of backstory. We had Steve Forbes on the show yesterday, Wake Forest, new basketball coach and he came on here and was talking about Olivier Sarhu they were trying to re-recruit and he said that his pitch to Olivier was why would you want to spend three years trying to get a prestigious degree at Wake Forest then go to a place like Kentucky. All of the sudden, Big Blue Nation's all up in my mentions, Big Blue Nation is everywhere, they're mad at Coach Forbes, they're mad at me for some reason and Kentucky Sports Radio is upset as well and then he ups and goes to Kentucky but this became this quote from Forbes it became the second leading story on ESPN I saw today I have people emailing me saying hey we saw this on Sports Center we saw this at other places USA Today you name it probably The Athletic as well. Kentucky fans pretty obnoxious I'd probably say the most obnoxious what would Matt Fortuna say? Well you tee me up there right you said it was the second leading story on ESPN so I need to say something even more inflammatory so that this could be the first leading story on ESPN. Yeah you're teed up man come on. I'm gonna be very specific here I'll say the subset and I say this because I cover one of these programs for six years as a beat writer the subset of nerding football and Duke basketball fans none of whom went to either school but are just the ultimate bandwagon and what's funny is I've made a few jokes about it whenever like nerding would play Duke and football or when nerding basketball would be Duke and basketball I would make a few jokes here and there on Twitter about like man those nerding football fans are really upset right now the nerding basketball just won and what's funny is to a band they all reply to me yeah we are so what we like both teams so what what are you gonna do about it so in some ways I respect them for owning it because it's I don't want to call it fraudulent but it's just not you know your standard true fandom where you go to a school or grew up in a city and root for them but I just get a kick out of bandwagoners in the way they are able to kind of talk themselves into rooting for one school in one program but against that program at that same school that's very well said Matt I hope you're doing well you and your family it's good to hear your voice congrats on the great story too and we'll chat somewhere down the line likewise buddy thanks for having me on you got it that's Matt for Tony he's on Twitter at Matt underscore Fortuna and read his story on