Walking Etiquette (4-1-20)

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast.

Tune in to The Drive weekday afternoons 3-7 on Sports Hub Triad. Okay, I watched the new documentary The Scheme, which debuted on HBO last night, focusing on the center of the FBI's investigation into the underbelly of college basketball. You might remember this being the case that first went down two and a half years ago. The man it centered on, former NBA agent Christian Dawkins. Two and a half years later, the feds, they've completely finished this story. The NCAA is still in the process of trying to lay down punishment, more on the NCAA in a bit, but in the time it's taken for this documentary to come out and the NCAA still trying to figure out how it should react and how it should lay down punishment, I've had friends in the media and college basketball coaches alike raising concerns about this investigation, really since the beginning. Questions like, what evidence do they have against head coaches like Sean Miller and Bill Self? Not evidence of NCAA rules being broken. I think anybody involved with college athletics could tell you, yeah, most programs, they skirt past the rules and they might break some that they feel they can get away with, but what evidence do federal prosecutors and the FBI have to lead to criminal charges? Criminal charges is a lot different than breaking NCAA rules. I also had somebody say, if this was a sting, which it clearly was, and the FBI felt confident they'd get convictions of top coaches, why did they stop it after just three months? The answer became clear watching this documentary last night, the FBI investigation into college hoops.

It was flawed, it was expensive, and it was largely unproductive. They set up Christian Dawkins. We're talking about somebody three years ago who was 22 years old, too young, too ambitious to realize that he was about to be framed here. It was the definition of entrapment. He was charged with bribery, he was charged with defrauding an academic institution just by giving money to kids, and I think the court ruled, and it sets kind of a dangerous precedent that if a kid does take money or somebody gives money to a kid and that leads to him becoming ineligible, that defrauding of a scholarship is a federal crime, a felony. That's what was levied onto Christian Dawkins, one of the three charges that stuck against him and his attorney. Three of the 10 charges stuck. That's it for the South District of New York, and I don't want to get into the weeds of some of the minutiae, some of the court details, the politics here, because I don't think that's largely interesting, but here's what you should know.

He was charged with doing what an undercover had asked him to do, was funding him to do, like he said, hey, do you want to be an agent? Yes. Okay, well I'll give you a million dollars to do what I say to do. Okay, what's that? Bring in top players.

All right, I'll do that. And then they said, yeah, you need to pay basketball coaches, right? No. That's not how I do it. I go straight to the kids. Yeah, but you gotta pay a basketball coach, right? No. Well, could you pay a basketball coach?

Well, I mean, I guess I could. Then you should pay a basketball coach. And since he wants to continue doing this business and was too ambitious to see that maybe he was committing a crime here in doing so, he reaches out to an Arizona assistant coach, gives him $5,000. You can hear him wiretaps. The coach is saying, why are you giving me $5,000? He's like, I don't know, man. This guy told me to give you the $5,000.

Just take, take your family on a trip or something. The only people who were charged, the only people who got in trouble here, the only people they got were the people that this undercover agent told Christian Dawkins to give money to. Like he didn't catch Dawkins in the act. It was entrapment. It was entrapment. He was charged with doing what he was asked to do.

And he expressed repeatedly doubts for doing so. Now I take everything with a grain of salt here because the FBI, no one from that department spoke on this documentary. Nobody from the NCAA was speaking as well. Nobody from these schools. It was literally just Dawkins and his lawyer who were speaking in addition to very reputable reporters, such as Dan Wetzel, who's done a lot of work on this for Yahoo sports.

But this is the sticking point for me. They said they wanted coaches according to Dawkins, when the feds first identified themselves to him, the question they asked, can you get us Rick Pitino? We want you to give us Rick Pitino. That's what they wanted. They wanted to get top coaches.

And here's what's crazy to me. Two and a half years later, who, what heads have rolled because of this? You might say Louisville didn't want to put up with Pitino when these charges first were alleged. When they were first put in and this story first broke, Louisville did not want to deal with it. But Rick Pitino isn't called to go to jail.

He didn't commit any crimes. He's back in college basketball. He's now the coach at Iona.

That's how much time has passed. People have forgotten about it to the point where you can bring Pitino back into college sports. Mark Godfrey got fired at NC State.

Not really related to what happened with Dennis Smith Jr., more the fact that he didn't win enough, but he's still coaching at Cal State Northridge. They could have gotten, or excuse me, outed the top coaches. You couldn't really convict them because they didn't commit crimes. Breaking NCAA rules, not the same as breaking crimes.

I always have to remind people of that. But they could have leaked more sound of coaches every single time. You had the defense for Dawkins and others wanting to hear everything that was on his phone. Coaches who were on this wiretap, it wasn't released. All that we had leaked Sean Miller sound, leaked Will Wade sound from LSU, and it's clear that they lied in their denials. Saying they didn't know Dawkins, that they never paid players, they never knew about the paying of players. It's clear they lied. They didn't commit a crime, they weren't under oath in these press conferences.

It's clear they did something, but if the goal is to out these coaches, how come that sound never gets out? It was expensive, it was sloppy. One of the lead undercover agents, he had to leave the case early because he was spending funds from the FBI improperly.

It was a mess. And it didn't lead to any charges of significant figures. Patino, he's back in coaching. You had the Rice Commission on basketball after this, but they went after the one and done. They vilified that, even though there's more Kobe Whites who don't think that they're going to be a lottery pick right out of high school, but after one year end up being that, then there are Zion Williamson's and LeBron James's. So what's next for the NCAA? I do think while this case was flawed, it's an incredible waste of taxpayer money. I don't know why the FBI took this case. I do think it is a massive gift for the NCAA.

The FBI, they expended hundreds of thousands of dollars into an ill-founded, flawed investigation. They didn't get any of the big names, but they did catch coaches violating NCAA rules. And a lot of that court testimony, it is fair game for the NCAA to use.

In the past, it wasn't. Now it is after everything that happened with the North Carolina academic fraud scandal. They're going to use the resources the FBI has that the NCAA doesn't. The NCAA doesn't have subpoena power. They don't have the ability to have someone swear under oath. People who are interviewed by the NCAA don't have to fear perjuring themselves. So they have that in the evidence that's been given here. I'd be stunned if Sean Miller and Will Wade have jobs at the end of this. It's obvious they lied, but here's the bigger question I have.

And I feel like I'm asking more questions than I'm providing answers here. Is the fact that they lied enough to warrant them being fired at this point? I think they know that they lied. LSU, they put out a statement essentially saying, we're aware of the documentary.

Will Wade, his status doesn't change. We're aware that it happened as if they were going to say, we don't have an HBO password, so we're not going to comment here. Everybody seems to have an HBO password, right, Robert? I mean, you got an HBO password, I'm sure. I do not. Would you like me to borrow yours during the break? Aaron, I could hook you up. Yeah, I need that. Robert Walsh, the producer of the show, Aaron Gabriel, producing the day. Charlotte head football coach, Will Healy, going to join us in 20 minutes.

B dot after that. If they lied, is that enough? That is the reason most people get fired. It's not the crime, it's the cover up. But if Arizona and LSU have the wiretaps, which clearly show the two lying and they still haven't let these guys go, is there really going to be more evidence that comes out that forces their hand, that forces these two schools to make changes? Because LSU, they are recruiting well and they are winning games regardless of how shady Will Wade is.

And Sean Miller, he's been winning for a very long time. It doesn't seem they're very interested in that. It's always been a big question.

It's been two and a half years. What evidence do we have of cash exchanging hands between coaches and players? What evidence do we have? I hear the in court testimony from somebody saying Orlando early gave it to Dennis Smith Jr.

But that's just one man's word. There's no money trail for that. It's going to be fascinating.

And this documentary, it's also an awful look for the NCAA that this documentary gets made before the NCAA has really taken action on anybody. You got the N.O.A. handed the state. You got the N.O.A. handed the Kansas. Oh, they get a chance to appeal 90 days after that.

And huh. Two and a half years later, what do we have? No case is resolved.

But Georgia Tech got hit, though, with something unrelated to the FBI investigation. Man, there's still a lot of meat on this bone. And I don't think there's an end in sight.

I don't know when this is going to be completely finished. But I recommend watching the documentary. I'd watch it with a grain of salt, understanding that there is another side of this story. But it's good to hear Christian Dawkins side because we haven't heard that in any public way all the way throughout this. He's the center of this entire investigation.

Coming up, why putting a playoff game on Nickelodeon is a no brainer for the NFL. This is the drive. Yes, Josh Graham has opinions. That's right.

And yes, he's got attitude. That's correct. And that's exactly why you love him. You wish I loved you that much.

You're on the drive with Josh Graham. B-Dots hanging out with us in studio here. Last week, the thing that was trending that is still trending now is Tiger King. This week, everybody's been bugging me about Ozark.

A new season of that has dropped and get ready. It is the month of April officially today. We ain't telling any April Fool's jokes because April Fool's like March Madness has been canceled. Absolutely. You're going to be hearing a lot about Michael Jordan this month.

Yes, I am. April and May might as well be M and J months. That's what it's going to be as the MJ doc is going to debut on April the 19th.

It's been moved up from June. We can all agree it's the perfect time from an entertainment standpoint for this to drop. We're all waiting for something to watch. This was in production.

It finished in the last week, according to reporting. And now we're going to get it early and it's going to draw massive ratings. But putting that piece aside, something that we can all agree on, I also think it's the perfect time for this doc to drop for Michael Jordan's legacy because producers, they've been wanting to get this documentary made for about a decade now, more than a decade. I remember listening to Bill Simmons who created 30 for 30 for ESPN. He said around 2008, 2009, he knew about the 98 Bulls having an all access camera crew approved by the NBA follow them throughout that entire season. It was viewed in basketball circles as the treasure trove for any director or producer to try and access that video. But that project would never get done as long as Michael Jordan wasn't willing to be interviewed for the project. So MJ, he wielded a lot of power in this. Ten years ago, Simmons approached, MJ approached the NBA. The NBA of course would have loved it. Jordan didn't think it was time. He didn't think enough time had passed since his playing days ended for him to be doing that.

Well now it's been approved. And we're talking about how many years since Jordan got done playing, essentially 20. A full generation, maybe two generations of kids have no recollection of what Michael Jordan, the basketball player was.

And a lot of these people are now working in media. They're in the NBA. And all they know is Kobe and LeBron. And when this debate comes up, who's the best all time? And that's a central part to being a basketball fan, unlike other sports. They might be more willing to say LeBron or Kobe's the best versus Michael Jordan.

Now you have this documentary. It's time for it to drop. It's going to and it's going to happen. A season after LeBron didn't make the playoffs for the Lakers, hasn't won a title in four years, didn't win one in the three years before that. You have this dropping when there are no games being played, no competition against it.

Everybody stuck in their homes. They're going to get a chance to see Michael Jordan, the last dance. This is going to be the reminder why anybody of a certain age group says this is the best basketball player who ever lived. Why did you take that moment to throw shots at LeBron? What did LeBron have to do with this? Well, it's definitely going to be a part of the LeBron discussion.

This isn't necessarily even shots at LeBron James. Just because you're not the greatest basketball player ever doesn't mean that you're a bum. It's kind of like when I say I prefer Tua Tagovailoa in the draft, that doesn't mean I think Joe Burrow is a bad quarterback. You know, if I say Margot Robbie is more attractive than Cade Upton, would I still, if I was a single man, go out with Cade Upton?

Absolutely. But my thing is, who's the greatest is opinion based. So to say that Mike is better than LeBron when you're basing it on the greatest of all time, it's going to be opinion based because you can't base it off rings. You can't base it off games won. You can't base it off scores. It's subjective, of course.

It's definitely very subjective. But there are a lot of people who are basing it, of course, just in their own experience because they don't know these things about Jordan. They aren't watching old games. They don't know all the details.

They don't know how just dominant he was. This is a 10 part series that everybody's going to watch. 20 hours worth. And I'm super here for all of it. I'm just hoping that they can encompass that time. Because a lot of times when we're trying to compare Michael Jordan's era to LeBron's era or Kobe's era, we're always saying, man, you had to live it. It's like if they did a docu-series on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I would love to see something like that, but I would hope they'll be able to catch that timeframe where he only lost two damn college basketball games in three seasons. Yeah, I think this is just going to be a reminder to people who don't know, hey, this is why I'm the greatest.

I'm fine with athletes doing that, too. Like when people were coming at Troy Aikman for saying that, you know, Pat Mahomes, I'm going to wait and see him win subtitles before he's an all time great. Somebody said, what would you know about that Troy Aikman? And he snapped back, talk to me when he has 33 percent of my Super Bowl titles on Twitter.

He was all about that smoke. I love that. Yeah, I wish more people would do that because they say that when they're talking to just their homies. Like I would love to hear LeBron's conversation or MJ's conversation about who's the greatest when they're just no cameras around.

Like we just had a couple of beverages and we're just talking and you're in that circle. Robert, are you ready for what the next month is going to be? Sure. Are you not an MJ fan, Robert? Not, I mean, I wouldn't call myself a fan. I'm not a fanatic for MJ. I know who he is. I appreciate MJ. I'll watch the documentary because Josh is going to make me. But yeah, I know who MJ is. I'm going to watch the documentary because Josh is going to make me keep that attitude. What else are you going to watch? We don't need your attitude. We don't even need your energy watching the docu series.

This is for those of us one who want to know why MJ is the greatest or two already know that. Robert is having a mood today. I haven't talked to him all day and then he's not excited about the MJ doc. He's only going to watch it because I forced him to. What's wrong, Robert? Nothing is wrong.

I just don't really doesn't trick my trigger. Really? MJ, 20 hours of MJ. I thought it was two hours. No, one hour. Oh, OK. My fault.

Ten hours. That's enough, I think. I'm sure I'll watch it and enjoy it. I'm just not it's not pump. It's not pumping me up. I don't care.

All right. We need to put Robert in a good mood. And the way we're going to do this is it's time for our daily positivity. There's a lot of things going on in the world that are good.

Really? We should be talking about those things today. Do you care to share?

Yes, I do. And if something is positive happening in your world right now, I'd like to hear from you. Three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one six hundred is the phone number. Or you could just hit me on Twitter and just tell me. Some daily positivity from your world. How about this? DoorDash, that's good. They left food at my door, so I didn't have to have an awkward exchange with a stranger during a coronavirus outbreak who had to handle a bag consisting of my food. I didn't have to deal with that.

I tip on the app so I don't have to have the awkwardness of saying, hey, yeah, I'm going to tip you. It's fine. Thanks for bringing this up here.

She just left it at my door. And that was very nice. That was very nice. What's something good that's happened to you, B Dot? Well, Josh, I was late as hell on the way over here. However, with minimal cars on the road because everyone stuck at home, I got here in record time, Josh.

I've got good news, B Dot. Yes, you weren't late as hell. You said you were going to be here at three thirty. I forgot to tell you, we had a guest. Will Healy was with us last segment. So you actually were early.

Look at how God works. Then when I pulled in here, I could park anywhere I wanted. That actually happened one other time on this show where I forgot to tell I totally forgot. I booked an interview with ACC great Dan Bonner.

He sure is great. And the guest last minute canceled at three thirty. I was scrambling. And then Robert said, do you know a guy named Dan? He says he's a guest on our show.

And in the process, Robert offended Dan Bonner because he didn't know who he was. And I honestly, I wouldn't care to know the way you talk to me, but we're talking positivity. He was very nice. Very nice guy. Very nice. Yes. That's that's positive. And I don't know why I turned the curtain that wide open for everybody to see. Aaron, what's something positive that's happened to you? I'm excited because gas is at a recent all time low.

It is. Where do you get your gas? Whoever's got the cheapest gas. Who has the cheapest gas?

There's a lovely, lovely down the street. I go to Costco. Do you? I have a Costco card. So privileged. There's a lovely shell station by my house. Shell is it. I'm surprised you didn't say BP.

No, no. If BP has nice cheap gas, you know what? I'll get a tank full of that.

The one in downtown Winston does. I'm excited that it's so low and it's also nicely. There's absolutely nowhere to go. Robert, what's something positive that's happened to you? I had two things that we have time for it.

Let's knock them out. The first thing was my grandpa has been quarantined and he's an older fellow and he used to play bridge with his, uh, late wife all the time. So I let him join an online bridge club and now he just wants to know when he gets to jump off of it.

And so he has a lot more people around him, so that's nice. Also today I've had an all time high Tinder notifications and it's not usually I'm the king of big girls and they love to hit me up and they treat me, put me on a pedestal, but swipe right and figure out the, the rest later. Josh knows my plan, but today I've had not one, not two, not three, not four, not five. It was three. If it was five, Josh, I would have called in sick about two minutes before here and I would have went to meet one of those nice ladies and I hit her with this. I had one of two pickup lines. It's real.

He's looking at his app. This is real. Uh, I said, girl, are you COVID-19?

Because if I had you, I wouldn't leave my house for two weeks straight. And she actually responded. Yeah. What did she say? She said, please don't message me on this app again. That's not good. Let's close this thing out.

Right B dot. How was the double Big Mac? The double Big Mac was way too much meat pause. Really? And not enough cheese, which is also what Robert says about some of the women he's matched with on Tinder.

I wish they had more cheese. If you got, like Willie said, if you got the money, honey, I've got the time. How did this turn from feeling good to a pimping segment?

Pimping is good, but it is not easy. That's been daily positivity. You are listening to WSJS Winston Salem, WCOG Greensboro, WPC in Burlington, WMFR High Point. Those signals making up sports hub dryad. Here's your mic check, check, mic check, check, check. You're on the drive with Josh Graham.

OK, the documentary series Tiger King has been taking over the world. And there's this survey you can do on the Internet as if we're 12 or something where you can figure out what character from the show you would be. B Dot just took this test and he's upset to find out he's the lady who had her arm taken off by a tiger in the second episode. Aaron Gabriel just took this test, too.

It seems he got the same result. Is that right, Aaron? I also am a proud new owner of a nub.

What is that? Robert, he's the documentary guy, the guy who's got TV background. I thought for sure I'd end up being this person, but no. Who are you? I got Joe Exotic.

No way. How would you get Joe Exotic? It's always about you, Josh Graham. What is it about me that makes you think I'm Joe Exotic?

Maybe your multiple husbands. That's the part. OK, I guess I do have a show with my name on it. Great one. I mean, technically, I am your producer. That's another good one.

Before I get to the thing that B Dot told me makes me a bleephole last night when we were talking on the phone. Here are a couple of things that have been debunked by Robert Moore, who is an author. He spent a lot of time on Joe Exotic and Carol. He wrote a long magazine feature. He spent four years doing a podcast. He spent a week living at the zoo. He says that Joe did not sing any of the country songs.

He didn't even write any of the country songs. It was an outfit called the Clinton Johnson Band. One of those dudes is dead now. Awesome. When Joe Exotic's cats died, a lot of them got sold to some strange bone museum in Oklahoma City. So that's another thing that happened. He also said that he was an EMT before he was a cop in his early 20s.

And that's why he wore it when B Dot and Aaron had their arm ripped off. Shut your mouth. She is a team player, though. Like she is a dog. She was down for that zoo more than anybody else. She was.

I mean, like if I get my arm bitten off by a tiger nine times out of 10, I'm probably going to leave the zoo and I'm going to check on the way. Absolutely. And she was like, oh, I want to take the fire off Joe's back. I'm like, no, I've been tossing him in it. I wouldn't even mess with that. But when it described why I was this character, it was so wrong.

It says you just go with the flow. Restaurant closed. Order takeout. Tower flat. Get a new one.

Tiger rips off your arm. I got another one. Nothing fazes you. That couldn't be more of the opposite of me.

We've got grammar school in 10 minutes. I don't think my Joe Exotic description really fits as well. It says, everything's as great as it is for you. Everything is great as long as everything is great for you. You have a fun approachable vibe. I guess that's true.

But the moment things start to go sideways, you look for the first tiger you can get your hands on and hightail it somewhere in Florida. You probably also have an up and coming career in country music. What would your first hit be called? I have no idea. Draw a blank with that one. I did. I'm not good when it comes to country songs.

Do you have any ideas? Please don't hit my dog. Can you say that in a country accent? Please don't hit my dog. Please don't hit my dog. Please don't hit my dog.

This is why you let me know if this makes me a jerk at Sports Subtribe. Yes. Last night, we were discussing walking etiquette.

Now you got to stay active even though you might be stuck in your home. This past weekend, me and my girlfriend, Sarah Bradford, we were walking around in Winston-Salem. Sarah Bradford. And every single time somebody walked past her would say, hey, and wave. I was annoyed by this.

You were like, hey, who are all these dudes? And when I'm walking, I never, whether it's on the street, whether it's just walking around, I never make eye contact with somebody else unless I know them. I don't talk to them.

I just buy my own business and ride on by. And I think this is something that you also see as well when it comes to people driving in their cars. Like if you're walking and you look at a car, you wave at that car, there are those people who do that. And I don't think it's necessary. I don't participate in that. Anybody who knows me knows I'm a social person. But B Dot thinks this is strike two on his very limited interactions with me for why I might be perceived as a bleep hole in some people's mind. And that's, it really surprises me because if you've ever been to out to eat with Josh, he is so overly courteous.

It's almost like he's trying to get some extra guac. I'm a friendly guy. He's like, what's your name? Carol. Carol, I hope you have a fantastic day.

Thank you for that food. And you look fabulous today. I really can't believe I like your glasses.

I like your hat. Yeah, I compliment people. I can't believe you don't wave at someone. It's all fake, Rob.

It's all fake. He's doing that because you're watching in his core when he's just in a on a path, walking past a stranger. He doesn't look at that person. What kind of sociopath doesn't look at people? Doesn't even make eye contact.

That's when I think they have something to hide. Yes. Yes. He's a freaking creep. 3 3 6 7 7 7 1 600.

3 3 6 7 7 7 7 1 600. Do you wave and say hey to strangers when you walk past them? Are you from New York?

That's the only way you could be excused from this. Northerners always say, I've lived and worked in cities. Okay. I mean, this is a city. What I'm saying is Northerners. Northerners always say that we're way too friendly down south. So that right there, I always hear that argument.

But you can't even use that, Josh. You're just a mean spirited person on the inside part. And it's sad. It's sad. I saw you talk to that guy at the ACC tournament. You remember that? How brash. What did he do? I need to know.

I need to know. We're sitting there and this guy's just asking him a question like, where do we go? And the guy was like, Oh, I didn't know that. Josh says, well, now you do. And he turns around and I told him what he needed to know. That dude has every right to come up here and punch you in the back of the head like a player's club.

What are you doing? Why did you treat him like that? And he's so oblivious.

That's what confuses me. Like Sarah Bradford, she's oblivious to why he's so oblivious to not speak to people, not wave to people. I'm talking about you're on a trail. I can see if you're across the street from somebody.

Okay. I might not need to speak to that person, but we're on a walking trail. We're walking in opposite directions and we pass each other. It almost takes more force to look away and look down and act like you don't see this person that you can just acknowledge and show some humanity and say, how you doing?

Vote on a Twitter poll at Josh Graham radio at sports hub triad. When you go on a walk, do you wave at strangers? When you walk by, I think it's okay to wave more now today because it is so negative and you want to pass that positivity along to people.

My step-mom is very creative and my dad is a hick farmer, so he has hay bales and she took a hay bale, spray painted it yellow and wrote, have a good day on it and put it in the front yard with some, with some scarecrows. It's, it's cheesy as hell, but like that's what she wants to do to pass positivity. Yes. Josh doesn't want to pass anything but that person without looking at them. You know me, you know I'm a positive guy. I'm not trying to win over strangers for no reason.

It's not about winning them over. It's about just saying hello. I'll thank you for experiencing this world with me.

I hope you have a good day. I get more, I get more nervous about this than, than if somebody doesn't make eye contact with me at all. The idea that I feel, I have to feel obligated to say hi in order to be seen as a positive person. I mean it's not an obligation, it's just kind of a courtesy that you're giving them like hello. Yeah, it's an unspoken courtesy.

I'm here, I'm also here, thank you. Ryan writes in, make sure you factor in the head nod as well. The head nod is mandatory. That's all you really need.

Look and that's all I know what to do with some people. I do the head, I do the head nod. No you don't. I do. No you don't.

No, no, no, no, no, no. I do the head nod if somebody says hi or waves, I make sure to do the head nod. No, Josh! I don't just ignore them. You're a super dork when you do that.

Do you see that? All right, so I come to you, I say, hi Josh, you head nod me? Yo, that's the last time I speak and when I go to someone else, I'm gonna say, yo, the dude Josh, I spoke to that dude, he's gonna head nod me.

What is that? This is like the Seinfeld episode where he didn't want to do it with the kiss hello and then everybody in the building hated him. You're ridiculous. Tomorrow he's gonna come in and like be like, hi everybody! Hi stranger! You know what Josh? I've been waving give a head nod. Stick to your guns Josh.

I am! Damn it, you guys aren't affecting me. We know it. Cause I don't, I don't speak to everybody either when I'm out. Dead ass B! Fortunately Paris is really sweet so when we're out together she does all the niceties and meanwhile I just sit in the back. Aaron you do not say hi and wave, I know it!

That's what he's saying, he's agreeing with you. Aaron, so you're just looking like a six foot four Grinch out there? I will rip your heart out. You look so evil, everybody's like, I'm sorry, what's your lady's name? Paris.

Paris, they're like, yo, don't talk to Paris's man, he's crazy. Exactly. B Dot takes me to grammar school. Jesus. Next. Authentic American Genius.

So without further ado, here is Josh Graham on Sports Hub Triad. No escaping this. So last week we revamped B Dot's grammar school where instead of him giving me just one word to try and figure out, try to decipher what it means, just bolstering up my vocabulary in urban circles, he's given me five now and it's a game where I have to get three out of the five right.

Last week did not go well. Nope. I only got one or two right. I think it was two and a half or something, you used them good in a sentence so I think we boost you up to like a C minus or something. Right.

I don't think I ended up winning. No. B Dot's grammar school last week. Mike Decorcy, Hall of Fame sports writer from the Sporting News going to join us in about 15 minutes to talk about the NCAA's ruling earlier in the week.

Also what's going on with the FBI investigation into the college basketball, how that's going to affect teams moving forward. Okay. It is time for another edition of B Dot's grammar school. If you're on social media, when do you go on a walk, or excuse me, when you go on a walk, do you wave at strangers when you walk by? At Sports Hub Triad, at Josh Graham Radio, B Dot, what's your Twitter handle? B Dot's B-D-A-H-T. I think we know where B Dot is voting on this. Damn right.

Of course she waves to strangers and speaks to them. 71% of the poll so far agrees with B Dot. Thank you.

Well, I think that you don't need the waiver, say hi. Who voted on the WSJS Twitter? Well, it wasn't me.

Yes it was. He went out there and did it before you could do it, Rob. It's already been voted on before I could even vote on it. There are a ton of people that have access to that account. Only one of them is hosting a radio show. It could have been anybody. Yeah, right. Only one person is hosting a radio show as this is going on here. I bet Jenny speaks to strangers, so she wouldn't have picked that.

I don't know that for sure. Alright, let's go to grammar school. 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. Okay. Chris Lee last week was my phone help in case I have some difficulty. Like who wants to be a millionaire, I need to call a friend. If you want to be that friend, the first phone caller, even without knowing what the word is, if you feel confident in your urban vernacular, call in now at 336-777-1600. Robert will put you on hold and I'll go to you to help me with one of these words.

336-777-1600. If you want to be my lifeline in B Dot's Grammar School, what's the first word? You didn't think I could do that, Josh?

You stay trying to just take over my segment. I could have solicit calls. I could have done that. Alright, let's edit that out in post. Do this real quick.

Alright, listen. So the way we play the game now, Josh can use a lifeline that is a phone call. If you would like to be the phone call lifeline for Josh during the grammar segment right now, B Dot's Grammar School, call 777-1600.

Again, 336-777-1600 and Rob will be with you shortly. I like how you take dominance of this segment. Thank you very much. Last week your words were lick, thot, bones, bodied, and lean. My girlfriend was really happy she knew what thot was.

Yes, that's a little scary but I love you, Sarah Bradford, so we'll keep it moving. Your first word this week, floss. F-L-O-S-S, floss. I take it the white kid version of this is a lot different than what the urban dictionary of flossing is.

Maybe, maybe not. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and guess it's the dance. It's dancing. Hey, he's flossing.

That is 100% incorrect. Yes, floss means. Robert, do you know what it is? No idea. Aaron, do you know what it is? I do. Matter of fact, every day I come in here I'm flossing on y'all.

Okay, I get it. I was like floss? Bragging, flaunting your expensive merchandise, that is flossing.

Just coming in here flossing out on y'all. Gosh. Second word, now there are two different definitions for this word so that means Josh, you can actually get two points off of one word.

Wow. The word is donk. D-O-N-K, donk. I know what this one is.

A big old booty. That is one correct answer. That is one for an extra bonus point. You should say you're turning red. He is red right now.

As a bee. Now, that is one definition for donk. Do you know the second definition for donk for an extra point?

Any of you guys know what donk is? Yeah, I don't think you can ask us that before you enact your lifeline. That is a good point, Rob. Very good point. Well, also this is just a bonus one. I'm not going to use my lifeline on one where I already got the point that I need. I know, but you already missed one.

Yeah, this could make up for floss. Yeah. That just washed over him. Did you see that? Did you see that? Why did it go over his head so fast? He was like, I don't know. Do you need a sentence?

Yes. During homecoming, you see all the boys out in their donks. Pull up in the donk. That got me hyped. Don't you?

Hey, they'd be out there with a Charmin on the donks. Not getting a check. Not getting one check. Is it a car?

That is correct, Josh. What kind of car though? Is it cruddy? No, usually it's a Chevy and usually it's sitting on 22 inch or better rims and it's sitting real high. It's got a crazy paint job.

Usually has some sort of, like Abe was just saying, has a product on the side that they aren't getting a check for. That is a donk. You got two points, Josh. You only really need one more. Okay. Your third word. Fetty. F-E-T-T-Y.

You get this right Josh and you've won the game for the very first time ever. There's a lot of weight on this. It is. It is.

I know who Fetty Wap is, but I don't know what that adjective for Wap means. Robert, I'm going to want to use my lifeline here. Now, do you need someone on the phones? Are you using a phone lifeline or are you going to try to do Rob? Oh, we still need to grab one of those.

336-777-1600 if you wanted to do that. Robert, give me your clue here. I have no idea what Fetty is. Ooh. Aaron? Oh, no, no, no. That's a different lifeline. What? Yeah. You have two.

The control room's a lifeline. You get one from me, one from Aaron, one from Nicole. Gosh. Fetty.

Ooh, lost his lifeline depending on Rob. Is it like grimy? Like kind of like sick? That is 100% incorrect. Fetty is money, Josh. You want to have a pocket full of Fetty.

Fetty is derivative of cheese and we all know that cheese is money. I should have known that. I still need to get one more.

We have two left to go and I have a lifeline for Aaron. Fourth word right here. Stole. S-T-O-L-E. Stole. What is the past tense sound like for stole? Hey, you're good with grammar and past party of symbols and things of that such. Is it stole or stolen?

If it happened to someone, what would be the past tense to it? Yeah. Yeah, stole. Okay. You do have a caller waiting in the wing. Who do we got?

I just got his name and I forgot. I'm going to use that lifeline. Okay. Hey, my guy in Greensboro, identify yourself. You're on the air caller. What's your name? Hello, Greensboro caller. Are you there? Last time.

Hello. He's gone. Got a little nervous. Perhaps we lost him.

Could have lost him. Robert also just forgets to ask sometimes what their name is. I got his name.

I'm over here running this board and trying to write stuff down. Robert gets offended if you bring up anything that's happening with him at the moment. I need help with stole. Do you? I do. You don't need to get this one right. You could just pass on this and then hope Aaron knows the next word. Do you want me to give you a sentence? I I'm going to work this one out. Give me a sentence.

Yeah. Give me a sentence for this. We were in the club. Knuck if you buck came on and buddy got stole. I love that song.

I'm going to use the lifeline here. Kyle in Burlington. OK. Do you know what stole means, Kyle? Yeah, I'm gonna give you a sentence. All right.

Back in college, LeGarrette Blount was suspended because he stole off on the other player. All right. Thanks so much. I know the answer now. Thank you, Kyle.

Kyle was great. If you stole him, you punched him. You punched him without him looking, Josh.

That is 100 percent correct. A sucker punch. Thanks. Thank you. LeGarrette Blount stolen that Boise State Bronco right in the bleeping mouth.

He did. Yeah. All right. I'm going to run up the score here. What do we got?

The fifth one. The fifth one is a phrase called T me up. T me up. What does T me up mean?

Robert was really excited. I'm going to take Aaron. Give me a hint. Don't tell me what it is. Give me a hint so I can kind of know what direction to go and to try and wrap this thing up. T me up would be like, let me see if I can give you a hint. I know that's a tough one. Yeah. All right. So I got you.

I got somebody coming through to meet you. Yeah. I would say to you, all right, Josh, and T you up right here. It's all up to you. Yeah.

Hopefully one of my Tinder girls. Oh, I know this like to T somebody up. It's not like give a T it's to put it on a T to set somebody up, to give them advice that you need. That is incorrect.

I thought it was like a golf tee. The T in T in T me up is turn me up. So you're basically saying, turn me up. Get me excited. Get me lit. Turn me up.

T me up like Garrison or dunk and I'll scream and I'll say T me up then G. You did very well today, Josh. Thank you. Got a bonus one. Appreciate the call. What was the caller's name, Rob? Kyle. Kyle. Appreciate you Kyle from Burlington, man.

Calling up and helping Josh out. That was dope. All right.

B dot. Appreciate you being here, my friend. Thanks for having me as always. And we'll see how this poll ends up. Oh, I know how it's going to end up.

When you go on a walk, do you wave at strangers when they walk by? Oh, I got to integrate these things into my T's very quickly. Yeah. So at this point, if this is your first time listening now, Josh.

You don't need the T me up. Mike the Corsi is a hall of fame sports writer. I mean, this is a guy who's made some betty, man. I think he stole off on my mom once. Probably drives one of those big dunks for being honest.

Like I'm not trying to floss for him. But putting all that aside, why did the FBI take the college basketball case in the first place? Hall of fame sports writer Mike the Corsi will tell us next. Josh Graham loves to talk sports.

He also loves to talk about women's footwear, but he just ends up sounding creepy. It's crazy to think it's been two and a half years since the FBI investigation into college basketball was first known to the world. I remember it was October of 2017 and Rick Pitino, he was fired in the aftermath of that. Louisville, after dealing with the stripper scandal, didn't want to deal with that for sure.

Well, in the last month, it's crazy how things have remained much the same and things have changed so much. Rick Pitino is back at the college basketball coaching with Iona and we're still waiting for everything to get finished in regards to the NCAA's punishment, how they're going to hand things down after the FBI completed its investigation a year and a half ago or about a year ago. Mike the Corsi now joining us from the sporting news. The reason I'm thinking about this is because there was a documentary last night, HBO dropped on Christian Dawkins, who's at the center of this case, former NBA agent, or I guess we can call him an agent, but the details probably would suggest differently if you unpack a lot of that.

But it's called The Scheme. And I remember a conversation we had, Mike, Mike the Corsi from the sporting news, where you told me about a year, a year and a half ago, you said, I don't see a lot of evidence that has come out of this. And also, I don't know if this really was a sting, why they stopped after three months if they felt like they could get big time college basketball coaches as a result of this sting. Let's start with this, though. Why do you think the FBI took on this case?

I don't really. I think they thought. I think one of the things that's disappointing about the fact that it all happened is that they had a guy who who they had on some significant charges, and they allowed him to finagle plea bargain, whatever deal or whatever word you want to use away from what he'd been charged with. And he wound up getting only a year's probation for what he'd been charged with and promising that he could deliver something that he couldn't really deliver.

And I don't know why they would think he could deliver it. That's who he was in his business. So the FBI went along with this and and they wound up getting a lot of convictions on on charges that were that were related to mostly to the sting operation that they put into place. But after at the end, near the end of the press conference announcing the charges, one of the people from the FBI said, we have your playbook.

And as you went through the trial and you saw what was being presented as evidence and as you went through the cases and one by one they closed, mostly by plea bargain, a few by trial that resulted in some conviction. They didn't have the playbook. They really didn't.

So I don't know why he said they did. And I remember at the time there were a lot of columns written and a lot of things said about how all of college basketball would be quaking. And I said, you know, and there will be in that there were there were things said about a lot of big names were going to get roped into this. And I remember specifically saying, look, if they could have gotten those big names, they would have gotten them. They would be on you know, they would be the ones that were being marched out right now.

They didn't get any of them because they could not. And as you and the movie itself was really poor and much too long. It was a two hour commercial for Christian Dawkins. There was nobody on the other side other than Dan Wetzel, who was is a very respected journalist.

But he's not in the FBI office and he's also not somebody who works against what Christian Dawkins was doing. Yeah, they decided to make Christian the lead character and and really the whole focus of the movie. And I think there was a good movie in this in some of the decisions that were made and some of the things that happened in regards to what the one FBI agent running into trouble in the middle of it and having to be having to leave the case.

I can't say we don't really know if he was removed, but he left the case in the right when it was basically when the ball was on the seven yard line, he left the case. So I think there was a good movie in it, somewhat maybe similar if you've ever seen The Informant starring Matt Damon. There might have been something like that in this. But instead, they they basically just made Christian Dawkins into this grand, glorious character.

And I found it really ponderous. But if if there were some interesting things revealed about how the case was developed and and how clearly the the the FBI agent who did run into whatever problems he did, didn't really seem to understand how the basketball business worked and kept pushing Christian Dawkins in a direction that he had no interest in going. And so it all in all, they tried to even in the film to try to pin it to two specific coaches, Will Wade and Sean Miller. And they had some wiretaps of Wade and Sean Miller. If you're familiar with the Will Wade wiretap story from a year ago, March, that I believe it was Yahoo that was able to do. They had the wiretap pinned down in terms of the transcript that they had.

It pretty much is exactly what was played in the movie. The one that involved Sean Miller didn't say anything. I mean, he basically was having a conversation with a guy who he wanted to know how to recruit a particular player, who is the person that I need to win over in so many words. In schools that were competing for him.

Yeah. What person in his summer program was the person who would have the most to say about where Nasir Little would end up going? And that was basically all that Sean conversed with Christian Dawkins about. So other than some profanity that he used, there wasn't anything objectionable in it. But they tried to make a big deal out of it. And some others that write for a living have tried to make a big deal out of that phone call. But there was nothing there.

Right. And even if there was something there, it was something it's been two and a half years. And there are things that schools are already privy to. What was on those wiretaps, LSU and Arizona, the examples that you mentioned there. And we we heard the stern denials from Wade and Sean Miller. It doesn't seem like to me, even if they lied, even if what they said in those clips contradicted what they said in their denials, if the schools knew about it and they decided to keep them, those coaches are still going to remain in place unless there's new evidence. Do you believe as we move forward in this, the NCAA still handing down punishment, what's happening, that there are going to be there's going to be enough evidence to have serious punishment levied on Sean Miller, Will Wade or anybody else. Do you think it's possible there are things serious evidence that hasn't come out of this in this extended period of time? Well, if you look at the case that was presented against Kansas and specifically Bill Self, that they have gotten their notice of allegations already. I don't believe there has been one delivered to either LSU or to Arizona. There has not.

Yeah. So, you know, I mean, we don't know that because, you know, that sometimes those things don't get released immediately. There's a period of time that they have. Sometimes they might. I believe they have a 60 day or 30 day window.

I think that they have to respond and sometimes they will hold to the very end of that before they release on FOI requests, that kind of thing. So but as far as we know, they don't have NOAs at either school yet. But if you look at the Kansas case, there were allegations, there were admissions in court from a particular Adidas representative that things had happened that broke the rules relative to two Kansas recruits, one who is still on the active roster and one who was a freshman there but but didn't finish his freshman year and never played a game. And there were allegations. But the part of that or admissions by a part of that was he also said that Kansas was not involved. And it appears the NCAA chose not to honor or believe the second part, but believe the first part. So that's, you know, so what evidence there is, to an extent, isn't really all that important. I mean, it depends on how the NCAA enforcement arm chooses to frame the evidence that they have. It's Mike DeCorcy.

He's on Twitter at TSN, Mike Holofain, sports writer, spending a little bit of time with us here from the sporting news. What did you make of the ruling Monday to allow for spring eligibility athletes who are seniors and had their seasons cut short allowing for them to get an extra year? Do you think that the NCAA went exactly where they needed to go or could have gone farther?

Well, I don't think that they have the capacity to go farther. You know, they they other than perhaps doing it for winter sports athletes and it would have created even more problems to an extent for the universities if they did that. And I'm already seeing complaints about the fact they're doing it for spring because it's complicated. Oh, my. Oh, my. You have to deal with complications. My heart breaks for you because you have to deal with something that's complicated. Oh, my gosh.

IBM, they get faced with difficult problems every single day. They don't have the option to say, oh, it's a little too hard. You know, the complaints that I and I saw one column that said that they should have let the seniors go and just say, you know, sometimes life isn't fair. And then listed all the complaints that relative to, well, look what this is going to do to juniors and freshmen and sophomores or whatever, especially the freshmen, I guess, because they don't get an extra year. And I'm like, OK, but why can't you just say to them that sometimes life isn't fair? You know, I mean, what do the administrators have to put this in place? Sometimes life isn't fair. You got to work a little harder.

Is it does it create some financial hardship? It doesn't necessarily because what because they can say to a senior baseball player, look, man, you know, we love you and we want you here. And if you want to be here, we will. But we don't have any money for you because you know what?

We're fun to that. You know, I mean, that's that's what we got. And so and so and so then maybe the athlete decides, you know what? I've had enough.

I'll move on and go play single a ball somewhere or not or, you know, or go play, you know, beer league ball and go to work for IBM or whatever. I mean, who knows? But they are giving people options that they that they ordinarily would not have because their seasons were almost almost entirely wiped out. I mean, in the case of the basketball players, they lost the tournament and that's a lot to lose post season, post season. I mean, they got the entire regular season. Still, these athletes lose.

But I understand why they said, look, you know, I mean, you did get you know, you did get a full lap around the track. And players finished their year. North Carolina finished their year. Wake Forest finished their year. I would argue, I think more than half of Division one finished their season. Yeah, I've never sat and put pen to paper to figure out the exact number because there were still a lot of conference tournaments that were active.

But there were a lot that had. And so I understand why they're not doing it. You know, part of me is like, would I like another year of Xavier Simpson say, heck, yeah, I mean, yeah, I'd love to see him play another year of Michigan.

That'd be awesome. I mean, he's a great kid and love to see him play if he wanted to. But I understand why they're not. You know, I mean, for the for the track athlete or the baseball player, the softball player, you know, I think they lost almost the entire year. I mean, some of them played, you know, I what, maybe 10, 15 games, something like that in a in what's ordinarily a 70 game season, 60 game season, whatever it is.

I, you know, I have no problem whatsoever with them doing this. I got about 30 seconds, Mike, give me the best movie you've seen since being quarantined or during all this social distancing, everything that's happened to give me the best movie you've watched the last few weeks. Well, you know, I had a list of about 10 movies that I had never seen that I want to watch.

And one of them is called The Taking of Pelham 123. It's kind of a heist movie. Exit one movie. Great movie. Yeah. Now, this was the original with Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw, not the remake with John Travolta. I think Denzel's in it.

Denzel. Yeah. So I this was the original and it was wonderful. And I was glad I got the chance to see that. I caught it on Amazon.

My wife and I became like the last living Americans to join Amazon Prime as a result of all this. So we're having fun with the marvelous Mrs. Maisel and and the hunters with Al Pacino. Those are both really, really good programs that we've enjoyed that we otherwise didn't have access to. Mike introduced me on this show to Blinded by the Light, the Bruce Springsteen inspired movie, this Indian or this Pakistani, excuse me, student in England who was inspired by Bruce Springsteen's music. It's on HBO. It's excellent.

That's one that the course he brought up. And I guess if you haven't seen give me an example of another movie or two that you're looking to see on that top 10 list of movies you haven't seen before. I've never seen Nashville. I really want to see that. That's a good example. I've never seen Lady Sings the Blues.

I'd like to see that. By the way, another movie that, you know, I wouldn't give it five stars, but it was worth the $4.99 that I paid to watch it on my on demand was Harriet. It's a very inspirational movie. Like I said, it wasn't great. But but but at the end, I mean, you really are inspired. In that sense, they did a great job in making you understand what she accomplished.

Harriet Tubman, quite, quite, quite, quite a fine film. Mike, you're the best man. Stay safe. Thank you so much for doing this. Thanks, Josh. You got it. That's Mike the Corsi. He's on Twitter at TSM Mike. You are listening to WSJS Winston-Salem, WCOG Greensboro, WPC in Burlington, WMFR High Point.