Super Zion & Night Watch

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast. Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons 3 to 7 on Sports Hub Triad. Man are we jam-packed today. Here are the two big things we're gonna talk about today throughout the show.

Zion Williamson's debut in North Carolina suffering a deflating double overtime loss in Blacksburg. But last night had me thinking about first dates. When I was single, I used to get excited about them. Even though I knew they were gonna be awkward, they may not go well. That's what it felt like watching Zion. It got off to an awkward start. Zion's just trying to feel things out. Just like a first date. You're just trying to get to know somebody. You don't want to offend them.

You don't want to talk about something they might not be interested in. You may be checked out some Instagram videos. Zion, hey, this guy looks good. Is it the real thing though?

Or, eh, do the pictures not quite look like the way they look when they show up in person? So that was the early feelings. But Zion, he left a perfect lasting impression. We got the first kiss on the first date. How about that? I'm not sure about you, Robert. When you went on first dates, did you expect the first kiss? I did, but probably wrongly so. I probably didn't deserve a first kiss.

Yeah, you probably didn't. I never really expect a first kiss on a first date. But if you do very well, usually that's something you're left feeling great about. And Zion, he rewarded us for watching into the fourth quarter.

17 consecutive points, four of four from three, breaking rookie records, more than any Pelicans rookie ever had in their debut with 22, the three-point shooting percentage, more threes than Ben Simmons has had in his career so far, more threes in a single game than he ever hit at Duke. It was the perfect lasting impression after just one game. And the most important part of it, if you're going out on a date with somebody for the first time, what you want, if you like the person, is a second date. So what you need to ensure is that they want to see you again. Zion made us want more.

He didn't put out on the first date because, you know, that's something that might steer some people away. Hey, you went too big too early. Zion, he had the minutes restriction. Fans are chanting MVP when he's at the line and when he's taken out, they start chanting, we want Zion. So what's gonna happen the next time he hits the floor? I'm there, you're there, we're all gonna be watching that game. We're left wanting more moving forward. You could tweet the show at sportsubtriad.

336-777-1600 is the phone number. I walked into the studio today, I was telling folks here, I might watch, I might buy NBA league pass just for this one player. I've never considered buying league pass before, I might do it just so I can watch this guy game in, game out. I was at my home scaring my cat, yelling at the TV just because it was amazing what we were looking at. When a guy gets hot that you don't expect to, I can't think of anything that's cooler than in all of sports than that. Like when Zion starts putting up threes and he's burying them, burying them all, it's, it is one of the coolest feelings as a sports fan we can have. Just watching Zion do what he did, it was an incredible deal. We've got the voice of the New Orleans Pelicans, Ty Grafannini, who's gonna join us in 25 minutes.

After that, B. Dot is gonna stop by in studio, the unofficial mascot of Tar Heel basketball, and for the Tar Heels it's a totally different feeling. Watching that team play, then I bet Pelicans fans are feeling right now. This is just a team that hasn't been rewarded in any way for the effort they've put in. They put in a good effort against Pittsburgh at home.

It wasn't good enough. They put in a great effort against Clemson. They are up 10 with 2.08 left to go. Then everything goes wrong, including Roy forgetting to tell the players not to, or to commit a foul before Clemson had a tying three-point attempt put up. Last night, they put in a tremendous effort without Cole Anthony, without B.

Rob. They probably should have won the game. They did not, but nobody's gonna feel sorry for North Carolina. That's something that Roy said last night, and he said multiple times over, we still have North Carolina on the front of our uniforms, so people expect better things to happen than what we've seen over the last six ACC games. It's the first time North Carolina has ever lost six consecutive ACC contests. It's the first time under Roy Williams, I believe, that they've lost five in a row.

Here's a little bit more from Roy. I think we've been getting better because young kids, they need to be rewarded a little bit, and it's been difficult for that, for this club to be rewarded. Yes, I think we're getting better, but I also think that we made so many just silly plays.

I told them I was proud of how they competed. We just got to take advantage of our plays, make those plays, and not make silly plays. Let's not forget, Roy is still sitting at 879 tied with Dean Smith. His next win will make him the all-time winningest coach in North Carolina history, and that really is a bummer that this milestone is gonna come as things have been historically bad for the Tar Heels. This team has spoiled what should have been one of the greatest milestones in the history of this great basketball program.

It was supposed to be special in a way no other program has had something like this occur. Having a Hall of Fame coach who became the all-time winningest coach passing Adolf Rupp in the NCAA tournament in the Joel Coliseum 23 years ago, then that guy being surpassed on the all-time wins list by someone who was on his bench, who was an alum at the school, in the building that bears the prior Hall of Famer's name. We've never seen anything like that in college basketball.

That moment has now been spoiled. When North Carolina wins its next basketball game, whether that's Saturday against Miami, Monday at NC State, or beyond that, it's not going to be a celebration. It's going to be a relief. And that's not the way it should feel. Getting back to.500 halfway through the ACC season, snapping a losing streak unlike any losing streak the Tar Heels have had in conference play,.880 was supposed to be a number that we looked forward to seeing for North Carolina for Roy William.

Now it's just something, well I hope it's gonna happen. I think the way that Roy tied Dean said it all and the longer that this streak goes, the more I'm thankful they had something prepared that night. They had Scott Smith there, they had the plaque, they had a short ceremony, but that ceremony I think says it all.

You had an injury to a player who was playing well, who a couple days later was announced he was going to be out for the rest of the season in Anthony Harris, it was against Yale, and the entire ceremony was two minutes. Roy wanted to get off the floor to see how Harris was doing. Steve Kirshner, who is the head communications guy for the Tar Heels, gets in his way and says, nah, stay on the floor Roy.

He insisted, stay on the floor. Everybody wanted to hear from Roy, he refused to speak, and all you had was a plaque being held up for a minute, Scott Smith whispering in Roy's ear that his dad would have been very proud of him. He would have been very happy. A nice moment, but this season has taken that moment and dampened it with injury and with lackluster play. Yale had an opportunity at the end with the wide open three to do some damage and they just didn't do it. And then you've had the last five or six press conferences that have been just incredibly awkward for Roy, including where he said, honestly, that this was the least gifted team he's had in Chapel Hill. So once again, nobody is going to feel sorry for North Carolina, but as somebody who grew up in this state, it is a disappointing deal.

When something that was supposed to be historic and unprecedented, a milestone, something was supposed to happen that was special and it spoiled, that's as disappointing as anything. And I think that's what's happened with this team. It was weird trying to watch two things at once last night, Robert, did you try to watch both games or were you just waiting on Zion? I watched the end of the Raptors game and then went right into Zion, double header. I tried my best. I notably, even in the overtime, if Zion was on the court, I did flip over to Zion during the tutorial game.

It was one of those things. As soon as I understood the rotation, first four minutes, as soon as Zion subbed out, I flipped the channel. And then in the third quarter when the basketball game in Blacksburg was over, I did laundry. All right, I'll be back by the start of the fourth quarter.

That's exactly what I did. Like, I didn't care about Spurs, Pelicans, I just wanted to watch Zion play. And I'm still waiting for a television rating to come out because there's urgency when that guy's out there. That's what this season has lacked for the NBA. There hasn't been any kind of urgency. Okay, we know we got the Lakers and the Clippers gonna play in the playoffs, but with load management and all of that, the regular season, eh, there's not any urgency. Last night there was, and I bet that's gonna draw a massive number whenever we get it. The ACC tournament is in Greensboro this year. It's coming up in March, and we already know what the big story that week is gonna be. I'll tell you what that is next. It's The Drive with Josh Graham.

Take it from me, you're driving everyone crazy. Mission accomplished on Sports Hub Triad. McKeel looking for a Hayes pick.

Got it. All the way in. Double pump on Purdle. Force him into a tough shot. Rebound Zion.

Stick back in with a left hand. There it is, New Orleans. The first career points for Zion Williamson in NBA career. That is the voice of the New Orleans Pelicans, Todd Graff and Eni, on the call of Zion's debut last night. I've been hearing his voice all across our radio station all day long today, and we're about to hear it again in just a few seconds as Graff is kind enough to spend some time with us here in North Carolina.

And I got to know, as somebody who is behind the scenes and gets a chance to see things that others don't, when did you know Zion was capable enough physically to do what he did last night? And by the way, hey Josh, how you doing man? Good to talk to you.

Good to hear from you. Physically, in what sense? Like trying to get the meaning. Physically in the sense that, oh this guy is ready to play and he can contribute, maybe in the manner of scoring 17 points in an NBA basketball game consecutively. Well I don't know if anybody thought he was gonna do that, last night. I think he surprised the entire basketball planet. Maybe his teammates weren't surprised, maybe he wasn't surprised, but when we have been watching him practice now fully since January 5th, we were in Madison Square Garden a couple of Fridays ago, and he was standing underneath the hoop. Basically his routine, while all this has been going on, as he's come out well before the teams come out as a whole, and he basically goes through individual workouts, which draws about, I don't know, 300 people every time he goes out there by himself. But when he started just basically standing underneath the hoop and vertically jumping up, putting it through his legs, and throwing it down with a right hand, I was going, yeah I think the knee's okay. I think he's ready to go. So he probably could have gone out there and played competitively a couple of weeks ago, but they have been very cautious with him, as they should be, and they just wanted to make sure he checked all the boxes when you're talking about mechanics and measurables as to his flexibility and what he could do in that sense. Not in basketball sense, just other things that he needed, goals that he needed to reach mechanically. Once that was all done, then they announced last Wednesday that last night would be when he was going to take the court again.

And it's still a process. He's not going to be out there 30, 35 minutes. That's not going to happen, at least for a couple of weeks in my mind.

They're going to bring him along very slowly. The only way you're going to get into basketball shape is by playing basketball. Even the way that they practice, they're not going as hard as you would be during a game.

So it's going to take them a little bit to get fully into game shape, and then we'll see. But I think last night what we saw is he will amaze you in ways that you never thought you would be amazed because I promise you nobody in the world thought that they were going to see him hit four threes. I watched four preseason games. Josh, he took one outside shot in four games, and he dominated three of those four games. He had a double-double actually in the last preseason game against San Antonio. He took one outside shot. That was a three in the third preseason game against Utah. So when you hear those highlights that have been playing all day, you hear a man in absolute disbelief because there was no way in the world I thought he was going to take more or less one three, absolutely not two, without question three, and hell no taking four.

Hell no. You and I, we discussed this I think when Zion was first picked by the Pelicans. I told you in my experience watching him at Duke, he just makes normal plays seem outstanding, seem amazing, like when he skied for a rebound over Jacob Portal last night and set up a bucket, and it's just gonna be must-watch television. But I want you to take me to the Smoothie King Center last night. What's the best example of something you saw or heard that can take us to that room, that best quantifies how crazy the scene was? It was, look, and I've been to pretty much every playoff game in that building going back to when they came over from Charlotte. Game six in the first season back with the Philadelphia 76ers, with Allen Iverson, with no seats in that arena.

Unbelievable atmosphere. The next season, Dwyane Wade, a rookie, coming in with a playoff series with the Miami Heat. Then of course the 07-08 Western Conference semi-finals.

Chris Paul, David West, Tyson Chandler for the Pelicans. Winning game five, up three games to two against Tim Duncan and the bad San Antonio Spurs, or the Atlanta Falcons of the NBA back then when you were a New Orleans basketball fan. I've been in that arena for all of those games. It didn't compare to what we saw and heard last night. When he hit that fourth three, the roof, I was surprised it didn't come down.

I really, really was. It was a surreal moment to be there, and it was almost like the city of New Orleans saying, you know what? We can do this.

You don't have to be a big market to succeed. I've been thinking a lot about this last night when I was on my way to the arena. If you think about it, Josh, on January 29th last year, it's almost been a year to the day. It's almost been a year to the day that Anthony Davis walked in and basically said, hey New Orleans, deuces, I'm out bro. I can't do this here. He basically told his teammates, sorry guys, I'm out. I can't win with you. I need to go to LA.

I need to be in a big market to succeed. We've heard the narrative. I mean the narrative started before Anthony Davis even left.

ESPN had Anthony Davis out the door day after day after day. People in New Orleans were sick of it. They still are sick of it. It's a narrative that's old. It's a narrative that's tired, and if you were in that building last night, that was a big you-know-what middle finger to everybody else, because if you were in there last night, there is no way in the world you would think that New Orleans was not a basketball town.

That place was going crazy, and that to me is the big positive out of all this. Yeah, the game ended not the way we wanted. It was a four-point loss to a division rival, but last night I think everybody saw that New Orleans is behind their basketball team, and with number one in there, gonna play every night, that we can compete with the big markets, we can compete with the small markets, and we're here to stay, and that to me is the best narrative out of this whole deal. Sports rivalries could be dumb sometimes I think about, and last year when I was covering Zion with Duke, you just had people not liking him because he played for Duke, but I never really believed it at all, and I think it was best quantified when I went to the ACC tournament in Charlotte, and anytime the ACC tournament is held in North Carolina, when Duke plays, it's filled with state fans and Carolina fans and Wake Forest fans who always boo Duke. Duke is always the villain when they walk in, but when they played with Zion on that team, everybody wanted Duke to win, and I think that's the craziest thing I saw with my own two eyes.

He made Duke likable somehow, and that's an incredible achievement, and I look forward to watching what he does moving forward. I got to know, though, before we let you go, Todd, how many text messages for tickets have you received? Too many to count. Are we talking dozens? Hundreds? Not hundreds, but yeah, dozens, and just like Anthony Davis, man, deuces. I ain't got him. I ain't got him.

Hit up somebody else. No, man, it was awesome to be there last night, and I just think last night we saw the beginning of a new era of professional basketball in the city of New Orleans, and that's what you can take out of this. It's just beginning. This is a really, really young team. Most of the guys on this team should still be in college, Josh, and it's pretty cool. It's a great group.

They're very tight-knit. This team lost 13 games in a row, and there were no finger-pointing. There was no bickering. Hey, it's your fault.

No, they just kept coming to the gym, trying to get better, and now the direction is definitely pointing upward. Todd, look forward to continue listening this year and hearing your voice more often, and maybe eventually we'll get a Zion dunk highlight. We didn't have that last night, but appreciate that. Yeah, it's crazy.

Yeah, he's only a dunker, I thought. Anyway, Todd, good to chat with you. Be well, my friend. Thanks, Josh. Any time, man.

You got it. That's Todd Graff, and you need the play-by-play voice of the New Orleans Pelicans. Josh Graham loves to talk sports.

He also loves writing sports poetry, but he can't think of a rhyme from Puck. Oh, I get it. You're on the Drive with Josh Graham. The last three minutes is one of the few times where the radio show inside the radio show or behind the scenes of the radio show might be more interesting than what is going on on the air. Just seconds ago, B-Dot and Sawyer, they were resolving their differences. They've had a beef that's lasted now a couple of months. They are bonding over Jalen Cone, which is very strange because Jalen Cone beat North Carolina, which both B-Dot and Sawyer root for.

They are Carolina fans, and B-Dot, he's the unofficial mascot of Tar Heel basketball. So Cone goes off, and you guys are happy for Jalen. Sawyer, last week, we went to go watch Virginia Tech play Wake Forest. He apparently knew Jalen Cone, and I used that with the air quotes. We start discussing it, and I'm like, dude, you honestly think Jalen Cone's gonna remember who you are?

And then we go down to court level, and surely enough, Jalen Cone turns around. What's up, Sawyer? Daps him up at his entire family, saying what up to Sawyer.

I was kind of impressed by it. So you guys, you've resolved your differences a little bit. Yeah, first of all, I'd like to say, Sawyer, I think JG gets a lot of joy from us beefing. I think he instigates it a little bit. Oh, 100%.

I'm not instigating, I'm just documenting. I believe so, but with that being said, yeah, we're both fans of Jalen Cone. I didn't realize that Sawyer was a bucket. I didn't realize that Sawyer was a walking bucket. He's not a bucket. Yeah, he's a walking bucket. He used to hoot with Jalen Cone. He played the two. Is it fine? Can you stand next to Jalen Cone and not be a bucket?

Is that possible? Well, no, he played with Jalen Cone. It's different. But is every guy on that team a bucket? No, but I can just look at Sawyer, and I can tell he can put the ball in the neck. Sawyer played some pickup earlier in the week.

How did it go? Let's see, we played Tuesday. I actually injured my knee, but I did play well for the first hour.

It was good, it was good. What a year for the Tar Heel. Even the fans are getting injured.

Everybody's getting banged up. So while that's happening, B-Dot, he's becoming more and more of a diva the more and more he spends on this show. He's showing up late, he's pushing people around, and he's taking shots at me time and time again, including my outfit today, which I thought was just a step over the line. First of all, your audience, most of your audience, maybe 98% of your audience has never seen me, so please do not paint me as the angry black guy. I am NOT being a diva. Did I say angry? Just because you're a diva doesn't mean you're angry.

Yeah, well, that's not happening. That's not true, the drive audience. So please do not listen to Josh, but you've been listening long enough to know that Josh likes to embellish. However, with that being said, I'm sitting here talking to Sawyer, we're talking about Jalen, how he dropped us off for 18 points. I look to my right and I'm immediately disgusted.

Why am I disgusted? Because Josh Graham sits here and at first I see his jacket and it's a Nike zip pullover. I'm like, yo, look at my man Josh, saucing it out. And then I look down and he's got on some freaking Adidas joggers. Not only are they Adidas joggers, but he doesn't even have them zip down. They're zipped all the way up like some bell-bottom pants.

What in the whole hell are you doing? I didn't, well, to my defense, I zipped them up to show you what socks I was wearing. I thought it would be Nike socks and then I looked. And they're not. They're Puma. They're Puma socks. So he's triple banging.

He's horrible in here. I got Nike shoes on though. Who cares?

Nobody sees it. Once we get to the Adidas, we no longer look at the rest of the outfit. Yeah. We were talking, that's the biggest fashion note is Nike and Adidas. You can mix any other brands you want, but if you go Nike on top or Adidas on body, we can't do it.

You cannot do that. We're Drake. Nikes over Chex, I mean Stripes over Chex, that's what we like. Chex over Stripes, you know what I mean. Robert, is this that much of a violation? Dude, do you see how white I am? Look at this shirt. Look at, you see me on a daily basis. I am white as hell. I don't know what to wear with what. It's a luxury for y'all that I come in here fully clothed every day. No, no, Rob, that is not a white thing.

This is an urban thing. Sawyer is white and Sawyer knew immediately what I was talking about without me. I said, Josh, what are you wearing? Sawyer immediately said, did you see that crap?

Sawyer's dumb saucy though. We should call him Saucer. Yeah, I might call him Saucer. Saucer?

He comes in here every day. He's gonna be like Jeffrey... Saucer? That's how bad that was. You got a little toot from me.

I don't think it's that much of a violation, especially when you're working on radio. Also, this is the only time you see me in sweatpants because, as my justification for all this, after the show today I'm headed up the mountain and I'm turning off my phone for the next couple days. Really? I'm going up the boot, just hanging out, doing a ski trip deal. Wow. So I'm dressing very...

Ridiculous. Warmly. It's not... Like, I'm just dressing very warmly. Okay. And so that's why I'm kind of dressed this way. Okay.

And a lot of driving. I'm not seeing anybody other than you three people here today. And now you just put it on blast. Just know that none of us are impressed with your fashion decisions. All right. Well, now here we are at a place where everybody knows what my fashion is. Well, it's your fault. We were keeping it in here amongst us, the guys, just, you know, just in the studio, just in the man cave, having some fun.

But you want to tell everybody that you're looking ridiculous, so we're gonna let the people know that you're telling the truth. Zion Williamson last night, he was on a minutes restriction. And I think what was interesting about this, how many people criticized Alvin Gentry after the fact for just following up on what he said he was going to do.

He absolutely did the right thing. Giannis in Milwaukee, he said that... He's getting ready to play the Hornets tomorrow in France. He says that the one piece of advice he would have for Zion is to don't rush the process.

Just continue doing what you're asked to do, and don't get frustrated. It was the plan all along for him to play the first four minutes of the first quarter, first four minutes of the second, first four minutes of the third, first four minutes of the fourth. And he played a little bit longer into the fourth quarter, but then the timeout was called once the Pelicans had the lead, and out goes Zion.

And it was the right thing to do. And you could tell Zion was bothered by it, but don't let his emotions fool you. What Gentry was doing was shielding Zion from the expectations, to a degree.

Shielding him from people who are nitpicking his every move, nitpicking his conditioning, nitpicking it all. And in times where you're on that stage, especially early on, you need to know structure and who you can trust. This is Alvin Gentry setting structure for Zion, and also showing Zion that he can trust Gentry's going to do what he says he's going to. He said that that was the plan.

So hey, there's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. It doesn't matter that he's disappointed, he can't be that disappointed because that's what Gentry said he was going to do. So now moving forward, he can trust Alvin Gentry to follow through, even when it might not be the easiest thing to do. So I thought absolutely for the big picture, not just for health, but the dynamic that currently exists in New Orleans, it was the right thing for Alvin Gentry to hold Zion back.

What do you think? I agree 100% and I think it took a lot of resolve from Gentry to even follow through with it. I mean just like you said, he brought Zion out of the game once they had the lead that was single-handedly created by Zion Williamson. The fans are screaming, Zion, Zion, and for him to stand on his 10 toes down and just say no, this is what I said I'm gonna do and I'm gonna stick with, I agree with you. It definitely sets that, but it also sets a trust factor in the idea that he's doing that to preserve Zion's career. He's doing that for the health side of it. So for Zion to see that too, also knowing that this coach actually cares about me. He could have kept me out in the game and tried to get me to drop a couple more threes, but he doesn't. He wants me to be healthy and that right there is a trust factor that was built last night as well.

I agree. I think it felt like a first date. It was awkward, you know, early on.

He left the perfect lasting impression. It was a good first date, right? You get a kiss, but she doesn't put out or he doesn't put out. I guess, does that go both ways? Does the guys put out?

No, guys don't. The vernacular doesn't even sound good. It doesn't sound right, but I just wanted to be inclusive.

Sorry. Better pull out. I don't know if you can say that. He made us, let's put it this way, he made us want more, right? He made us want more here. And I guess the point is, I want to continue watching what Zion's gonna do.

Absolutely. You know after like a good date, you're just jumping up and down. You're excited, like when you were just meeting your girlfriend or your significant other. You know, you're excited.

You're jumping up and down. That's how I was in my home last night scaring the hell out of my cat watching Zion go off in the fourth quarter. Can I tell you my Zion going off in the fourth quarter story?

Yes, you may. Alright, I've turned from double overtime Tar Heel games. I'm super discouraged, so I turn over to see Zion. It's the midway through the third. Zion's not playing.

I'm like, man, they're doing too much of this minute restriction, man. I have to be at work at 5 a.m. I'm going to bed.

Zion's not gonna do anything. I go to bed. Wake up this morning, get to work at like 17 in the fourth quarter? What are you talking?

In three minutes. Yo, I was livid. Livid, I tell you. Yeah, you should have been. Sawyer was doubting him just like so many other people on Twitter, just saying he's looking thick, and it wasn't with the CC. I said he's looking thick. That's not doubting. That's just stating.

It wasn't double C that you sent me either. Thick? That meant I'm in a spell check.

You never know. Is that your definition? You define him as thick? He was thick last night?

I'm looking at Sawyer's text messages that he sent me. Zion. He better not have said Zion is thick. Be looking thick, doe. Zion be looking thick, doe. Sorry, don't ever send that tweet ever again.

Never refer to him as thick. It's just something I could send to Josh. I would never send that text to anyone else. Just to get the reaction I got out of Josh made it completely all worth it. What reaction did you get? I don't know if you can say it.

You're bleeping weird. It's exactly what I said to once while you're doing. In honor of Eli Manning, I'll list up my top 10 giants. Next. Want to become a real sports fan? Leave it right here.

It turns everyone it touches into raging psychotic. All things sports. Well, sometimes on the drive with Josh Graham. This is something I've been looking forward to all day long. At the end of yesterday's show, Robert said he was withholding a story from me that we couldn't talk about on the show. He wanted it for his take it to the house story. And it turned out to be a story of a masked vigilante in Winston-Salem for the last month who's been patrolling the streets and he's been doing good. He hasn't been fighting crime.

He's been helping the homeless. And I mean, this guy's a real life superhero dressed in all black. He's got goggles on and he goes by the name of Nightwatch. So we told that story and Robert said, Hey, I'm going to try and get him on.

And surely enough, Robert has tracked him down. So we are now being joined by Winston-Salem's masked vigilante Nightwatch. Nightwatch, welcome to the show. How are you? Thank you so much. I'm doing great. Great to be here.

Appreciate it. For those who haven't seen you yet, what exactly is your costume? Yeah, so it's, it's pretty functional.

Pretty, pretty simple. I've got a leather jacket, some gloves to keep warm. And like you said, just a really simple black mask and goggles to kind of obscure the face.

A little superhero-y, but still pretty functional. What things didn't make the cut? How many, how many outfits did you go through saying, okay, if I'm going to make this a thing and wear this every night, were there other considerations? Yes. Yes, there were a ton, but I definitely needed visibility, breathability. I wanted to be able to kind of show my face at least a little bit so I could smile, interact with people in kind of a positive way.

But I've got a local, a local artist in town who offered to make me a new mask pro bono. So that might be a thing. We're just, we're just kind of going with it. Because really for me, the focus is all about, you know, helping out the homeless.

So the costume just kind of is a cherry on top, I guess. We have so many questions here on the show. Sawyer, feel free to jump in. Robert, feel free to jump in if you have anything.

Robert, what do you got? I had wondered, and Winston, Winston's not the safest city, so I'm kind of glad you're patrolling the streets. Does it get sketchy out there at all? Like in the midst of you helping the homeless, have you had any run-ins with actual ne'er-do-wells? Yes. Yes, I have.

How does that go? What do you, like, do they try to start some beef with you? No, I haven't had people starting anything with me. If, if it has to do with me, it's more people just kind of double-take.

But now that there's been more visibility, I guess, which, again, I think is great because it's bringing attention to this issue of homelessness, people will just kind of, like, wave, say hi, or, you know, whatever the case may be. But I did have a situation recently where it was a potential domestic violence situation. The woman was, was kind of recoiling. Her partner was yelling at her and getting in her face.

And it looked really unsafe for her. So I just kind of stepped in, tried to, you know, show I was present. I was watching just to kind of deescalate that situation. Again, that's not something I'm looking for. I would say 95% of what I'm doing is homeless outreach.

The other is what I call proactive assistance, just kind of looking for people to help. But with that said, if I come across a situation like that where someone who can't defend themselves looks like they're in danger, I'm going to step in. All right, we're fanboying out now.

All of us, we're fanboying out. We've got a real life superhero here on the line. It is Nightwatch who's with us. It's Winston-Salem's masked vigilante. Robert is freaking out of the control room.

He has the phone number of a superhero now. And apparently we have a lot of other things that we have to get to very quickly here. Okay. At first you said that people now start to recognize you. How often did you scare people from the jump? From the jump, yeah. It was more, like I said, just kind of double takes or people kind of really casually crossing the street when I'd be walking in their direction.

But I try to be as polite as I can, just kind of wave and smile and just introduce myself or at the very least say, hey, how you doing, that kind of thing. Because yeah, let's face it, I know the optics. I knew the kind of reactions I was going to probably get, but I figure that the pros would definitely outweigh the cons and they have so far. Yeah, don't walk into any banks. I don't know how that goes with the bag and the goggles, but it doesn't sound like you're going to be roaming around when banks are open.

Is there a Nightwatch-ress? I don't want to say too much about my personal life, if that's okay. It's mostly just because I want to kind of keep the focus on what I'm doing and not on who I am. What was your inspiration?

And she's great. What was your inspiration on this? Yeah, my inspiration, I'm not the only one who's done this.

I'm not the first. There is specifically one real life superhero. He goes by Dark Guardian. He's in New York. He's been doing this for 17 years. A lot of the same stuff I'm doing, homeless outreach, giving out food, clothes, all that.

And he's just awesome. And so I kind of wanted to have my own take on that. We are being joined by Nightwatch and there are probably a ton of people wondering how they could support this. This is a cause that I'm sure a lot of people would like to support, but a lot of people, quite frankly, don't know how. You're providing a pretty cool outlet for people to help. So how can we go about doing that?

Definitely. I'm glad you asked that. So some people were asking how they could monetarily donate. I don't have anything set up for that right now. And I don't know that I want to because I want this to be as transparent as possible. I've got a few anonymous donors who have been leaving materials for me to distribute at certain drop points. And that's an option.

Or I could meet someone in a location that they're comfortable with. Basically, the best way to contact me is direct message on Instagram. It's NightwatchRLSH and an underscore between those.

So Night underscore watch underscore RLSH. And yes, people could DM me and I'm happy to hear from from anybody. There's been so many great people reaching out and just this whole city has been stepping up. And that's that's really what I dreamed of happening. And it's just a perfect time for it to this week.

It was incredibly cold. So I'm glad to hear somebody is doing some good. And Nightwatch is doing that. Sawyer, the question he had, he wants to know the next time you might be making the round so that way he might be able to follow you. Tonight. I'm actually after I get off the call with with you, I've got an interview that WXII wanted to do with me. So I'm going to meet them by the transit center shortly. And yeah, I'm going to be doing homeless outreach tonight. So anybody who's listening, you know, if you if you see me out and about tonight or any night because I'm trying to get out as much as I can and do the most good. Feel free to say say hi or, you know, join or whatever you want to do. Nightwatch, appreciate the time.

We'll have to maybe revisit at a later point. It's a great thing you're doing. Yeah, this is this was great. Thank you so much.

You're welcome. That's Nightwatch, the Winston-Salem vigilante. So, Sawyer. Gonna spend some time with Nightwatch tonight. Sadly, I don't think I can do tonight. I have some plans, but any other day, I mean, I am totally down to go follow Nightwatch and help out anybody that we can. All right.

So that's the plan. Sawyer, he said he's so excited to hang out with Nightwatch and then Nightwatch says, yeah, I can do it tonight. And Sawyer just said, nah, not good. I can't do it like tonight. You know, come on. I get people are cold and stuff and, you know, might need some gloves. I don't know if Josh has anything.

You have anything tonight? I'm going up a mountain. As soon as the show ends, I'm going up a mountain. So a ski trip is more important than OK. Yeah, it is the ski trip.

The ski trip. It is. It's important. What a cool dude, right? Yeah, that's awesome. Just I wish people I wish you could see Robert's face when he said that some guy and woman were having a dispute and the way he broke it up was just standing there.

So they knew that he was there. He's the hero that not the one that we need, but the one that we don't city does it deserve or actually it's what they deserve. How's the line going? I don't even remember. We've butchered it.

But yeah, we do. That guy's a total badass, man. What it really is.

It's an awesome deal. If you were creating a superhero outfit, how would it look? Oh, I would probably mix the my two favorite colors that look terrible together. It would be like ECU royal purple and then like burnt pumpkin orange. And I would just be the disaster.

Wow, that's a good name. The disaster. Yeah, you'd be a villain, though.

That's Oh, yeah, for sure. I would eat the food left on people's plates after they go to the bathroom at a restaurant or something. They'd be like, Oh, this is a disaster. And I'd be like, haha.

And I'd run off with their takeoff box or takeout box. Or you'd pretend to be homeless and just benefit off the stuff that Nightwatch has given out. That would be the perfect villain for him.

I'm the disaster. You're gonna this is like an incredible situation where you admire Nightwatch. But what is what his approval so much that you then turn into the villain? I would love to be his sidekick. Or maybe we can send Sawyer out tonight to be his sidekick. Sawyer, do you think you could protect yourself?

Yeah, Sawyer, what do you got going on, Sawyer? Get out to Winston by like ten fifteen. It's a late night.

I can get there. It would just be so five hours from now. What are you doing tonight?

What do you have going on night with my girlfriend? And I can't post a picture. Post a picture. I'd rather post a picture with Nightwatch. Take off your shirt.

It was that tonight. Watcher saw your girlfriend. Take off your mask. Take off the goggles. Disaster is going to go on the radio and say, if Nightwatch doesn't reveal his identity and take off them goggles, I'm going to eat all these lance crackers meant for the homeless. And he just shows up and beats the heck out of me.

He probably would. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. That's so great what he does. Awesome video.

Also awesome. We were all so excited about Zion Williamson, or I should say two out of three of us were so excited about Zion Williamson last night. Sawyer, he's texting me after saying that Zion was looking really thick. And then when he walked in today, just going back and forth, talking about what Zion did in the fourth quarter, Robert walks in and says, man, did you watch the game last night? Yeah. Man, Pelkins almost won that game. Yeah. Rookie really did a great job out there.

Yeah, he did. Then you said Jackson Hayes, man, that guy was awesome. You're like the guy who watches karate kid and thinks that the, the got the Cobra Kai were actually the good guy. They were cool, man. Now I'm not one of those guys. And look, I watched that game and I was, I knew we would talk about this today.

So I was trying to think about my talking point in reference to how you would talk about it. And in the first three quarters of that guy game, Zion was the third most impressive rookie behind, uh, my dude Hayes and Lonnie Walker. And then the fourth quarter happened. I'm like, well, this take is all the way out of the window, but I still wanted to talk about how awesome Jackson Hayes looked. The dude is a seven foot rookie playing against Lamarcus Aldrich, one of the best stretch guys, stretch big men. And he made him look upset despite his 32 points last night, Jackson Hayes had a great outing and he has all year, but it's been swept under the rug because of one Zion Williams who, or whatever his name is. I don't even know this dude's name. Williamson, William son.

Well, listen here, William son, Jackson Hayes has been here all year, putting in the work in the paint and you want to come in your first game and throw four threes down the gullet. Okay. I want you to find, just play some music very quickly. I want you to find a bump music of sorts. And I want to hear what the Robert Walsh radio show would have sounded like today. If you had the microphone that I'm blessed to have, how great of a show would it be if Robert decided to open things up rather than talking about Zion in the state in which Zion played, where everybody's talking about Zion, he just zags the other direction and says, last night wasn't about Zion. It's about Jackson.

Hey, I wouldn't, I wouldn't even talk about Zion. Get to get out of the way. So I don't even, don't even say let's, let's, let's, let's step, step back. And this is how the radio show would have sounded today if it was called the drive with Robert Walsh instead of the drive with Josh Graham.

What a game last night. And I'm, I don't know what you're talking about. My producer, Josh Graham's over there trying to throw something in here to me, but I don't want to talk about that.

I want to talk about what's on everybody's mind. And it was the rookie last night and not the one from down. I'm talking about the big dog from Texas, Jackson Hayes, throwing it down the drive with Robert Walsh. I'm Robert Walsh.

That didn't even sound right. Uh, anyway, let's talk about this dude. Zion. He was shooting a lot of threes and that's not sustainable, especially on his big fat ankles. You know, who's got some skinny ankles and some long legs too. That's my man Jackson Hayes.

He was looking spectacular, played two less minutes than Zion and still ended up making it work. That would be an amazing radio show. I would listen to it. I would listen to that show.

Uh, all right. Would you really? I don't think you would. No, I wouldn't.

I wouldn't listen to it. It would be my show. Getting ready to take it to the house. Robert, what do you got? What have I told you? The latest children's book had a forward written by the devil. We'll take it to the house next.