The Drive with Josh Graham - One and Done

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It's brilliant. One and done. I miss getting to know the players. Shame on you one and done. Zion Williamson. He's been exploited by the NCAA. One and done. Shame on you.

Of course last night, the one and done cost Nasir Little millions of dollars. Listen, the one and done is like the government. It's an easy target we can cast blame from all of our problems upon. Since the rule has been vilified in such a public way over the years, it will surely be eliminated in the near future. However, much like the government, I think getting rid of the rule will just make everything worse. Both for college basketball and the NBA.

I just want to make sure I'm understanding the argument. Dan Wolkan, USA Today Sports says, if not for the one and done, Nasir Little would be taken in the lottery. He's likely going to be a number or a top five pick if he was able to enter the draft last year. He's drafted in the mid 20s by the Portland Trail Blazers last night. If you're going to crush college basketball and the one and done for ruining player stock, you've got to at least be fair and acknowledge how often they help players too, right?

For every single Nasir Little, there's a Kobe White. Kobe White was on nobody's draft board in the preseason. He wasn't projected to be a draft pick. He was taken seventh overall last night. For every Jalen Hord, you will find a Jackson Hayes from Texas who wasn't projected to be taken in the first round at this time last year.

For every Bull Bull who slid in the draft, you will find a Chuma Okiki, who Tar Heel fans I'm sure remember very well in that Sweet 16 matchup. How about Cam Johnson? Cam Johnson wasn't a grade A recruit coming out of high school. Nobody gave him a shot at being drafted after a few years at Pittsburgh. His experience, his exposure being at North Carolina got him taken 11th overall, had him taken in the lottery.

It's still the coolest reaction from last night. Kobe White goes to the podium and a reporter as he's being interviewed about him realizing his dream, being drafted in the lottery when last year he wasn't expected to be taken at all. He learned that Cam Johnson, his college teammate, was taken in the lottery and it easily was the coolest reaction from last night. Cameron Johnson just went 11th. How do you react to that news?

He went what? 11th. Cam Johnson 11th.

Yep, it's right on the screen right there. Wow. Wow. Wow, bro. That's crazy.

That's so love, bro. If y'all know Cam, you don't know how hard Cam work. It's a lot of people that doubt him, but wow. That's crazy, bro. Wow, that's so crazy. I'm so happy for him right now.

Y'all don't understand how happy I am for Cam. It's a really neat thing to see that. And I think Kobe White's going to look great in that Bulls uniform just like he did with his free-flowing hair trying to put the cap on top.

It was weird putting the cap on top of the hair, then trying to wear a headset being interviewed on television, but somehow he pulled it off. Your thoughts are welcome on Twitter at Sports Hub Triad, 336-777-1600, a very big show today. We're going to be sharing with Darren Vaught from The David Glenn Show, former Glenn standout East Carolina alum, Josh Hawkins, currently of the Philadelphia Eagles.

We'll drop by too. And Mike DeCorcy, the Hall of Fame sports writer from the Sporting News will be joining us as well. DeCorcy was actually on this tune last night talking about Nasir Little. We're just going to blame the one and done for Nasir Little dropping so much. Maybe Nasir Little wasn't ready for the NBA.

What happens if Nasir is taken in the lottery last year? He goes to the league and clearly he's going to be ill-equipped. If you're not well-equipped enough in basketball to compete in the ACC, what makes you think you're going to do it in the NBA or even in the G League?

I think the chances are very small that that happened. So it's best for Nasir Little, it's best for the NBA, and good for college basketball that these players don't jump straight out of high school, at least compared to the alternative of just getting rid of the one and done altogether. A lot of people were criticizing Roy Williams today.

Roy Williams holds back another player. Tony Bradley not prepared for the league. Nasir Little not prepared for the league. Once again, if you're going to mention Nasir Little dropping, you also have to bring up Cam Johnson and Kobe White being taken in the lottery. If Roy's going to get crushed for Nas, he better get the credit for Nasir, or excuse me, for Kobe and for Cam Johnson. It's probably possible, I think it's completely plausible, that Nasir made a bad decision, decomitting from Arizona to go to UNC. Not because Roy Williams wasn't a good fit as a coach for him, but maybe don't go to a place there's an All-American playing your position. It's going to be harder for you to get on the floor and play at North Carolina than to play at a place DeAndre Ayton's on the way out and Alonzo Trier's on the way out too. Nasir probably made a bad decision going to North Carolina.

So don't blame it on the one and done. Don't blame it on Roy Williams. I think it's on Nasir Little.

And if he's enough of an adult to become an NBA basketball player, he's enough to deal with the realization and the criticism that maybe he made a bad decision. Desmond Johnson, the producer of this program today, taking your calls at 777-1600. Your thoughts are welcome there and on Twitter at sportsupdryon.

Yes, Des. Well, first of all, I was having a panic attack watching him fall last night because I thought he was going to go in the top 12. And then when Charlotte passed him, I'm like, what's going on? I don't know if I would say that, you know, it hurt him to go to North Carolina. I take the same take that you just did in terms of, you know, you can't blame North Carolina for it.

It's Nasir Little. Whatever he wasn't able to show in 35 plus games at North Carolina, he had ample time to show it in all the pre-draft workouts that he was on. Let me make something perfectly clear. You bring up a good point. Just because I said it might have been a bad decision for him to go to North Carolina doesn't mean North Carolina hurt his game or hurt his chances.

It just might have been easier to get on the floor somewhere else. At North Carolina, I've talked to people who work on the floor with him, worked on the floor with him during the regular season. He was just learning how defensive adjustments work in the paint and working that offensive set, many of those offensive sets that you're going to run in the NBA, Roy Williams is running at North Carolina too. He's struggled to grasp those things in the first month or two of the season.

Now, he's 18, 19 years old. That comes to be expected from time to time. But don't blame the one and done for that. Don't blame the one and done for him dropping in the draft. Eliminating the one and done.

Here's the thing a lot of people miss when they talk about the one and done. Eliminating it is not going to slow down early entries. Des, take a guess. Just take a guess how many early entries there were into the NBA draft this year.

Just a number. There are how many draft picks? 60 or so?

60 draft picks. How many early entries just from college? So if we exclude foreign and international players, college players who were early entries, how many do you think they were?

So just for the audience at home, early entries, anyone that's not a graduating senior, right? I'm going to go 120? 175. 175 college players. So if you get rid of the one and done, Zion Williamson will go to the NBA and be just fine and you'll have maybe a half dozen, maybe even a full dozen go.

Then you're talking about 160 early entries. It's going to be less Zion Williamson, less Kevin Durant, less Anthony Davis who are the best stars we've seen in the sport, some of the greatest skill sets we've seen in the sport the last two decades. And it's just going to be more Kobe White's, more Dwyane Wade's, more Stephon Marbury's, more Carmelo Anthony's, more Lawal Dang's, more Chris Bosh's.

That's what it's going to be. So the idea that getting rid of the one and done is going to mean more four year players staying in school, it's a fallacy. Now with Zion, he wouldn't have gone first overall straight out of high school.

He would have gone lottery for sure. But being at Duke and getting that exposure and being able to grow as a man helped him elevate his status because he wasn't number one coming into the season. Which brings me to my next point. College basketball isn't exploiting these players. They aren't. Now, do they deserve some compensation? I agree with that.

Yeah, they definitely do. They deserve some, but probably not from the schools, probably not from the NCAA. You're talking about 351 programs. That's just basketball. Then what do you do with football? What do you do with golf? What do you do with all these NCAA sanctioned sports? How does that work? Title IX?

That's sophisticated. I think athletes, if you can use your likeness to go do a TV commercial or to do a shoe deal or something of that sort, you should be allowed to do that. That's my perspective and I think eventually we'll arrive at that place where they can just participate in the marketplace and not get paid directly by the schools. But putting that very sophisticated issue on the side, there's no denying being at Duke and playing in college basketball helped Zion Williamson become the number one pick and he's going to get set to sign the biggest shoe deal anyone's ever signed coming out of college and into the NBA. If it wasn't for Duke, I don't care how many Instagram followers you have. If it wasn't for Duke, you're not the number one pick and you're also not a megastar who people know on a first name basis.

So they're not being exploited. Nasir Little did not drop because of the one and done. If you get rid of the one and done, that doesn't mean all of a sudden these four-year teams like Bobby Hurley and Friends Grant Hill, the teams that stick together, they're going to come back magically. They're not. College basketball's changed from that. And guess what? College basketball's doing just fine. Let's go to Kevin in Burlington who's up first.

Kevin, you're on the sports tab. What do you got on Nas Little? Well, let me preface by saying I'm all for these kids leaving early because I don't want to take my comments to be misconstrued. But I think Nas went where his play and his projection of, you know, his upside, I think he went about where he should have went. But also Nas, you know, they say you stay another year, you get better. Well, I think in Nas's case, he stays another year, he's top five easy. Easy and he gets better. The G League and D League, whatever, you can't name too many players that go. And I understand they get to play more basketball and all that. But you name me five of them that have went with potential and went to the G League and come out and been really good players, long-term players. There's a few out there. But Nas worries where he's supposed to be, man.

Kevin, I'm right there with you. He got drafted where he deserves to be. If he stays another year, there's precedent for that.

P.J. Washington said earlier today, he was introduced as the newest Charlotte Hornet first round draft pick. He said he did the workouts last year at the Combine, realized he wasn't ready for the NBA.

He just wasn't ready for that. So we went back to school and guess what? His stock, a lot better. Picked in the lottery by the Hornets. Miles Bridges, somebody who thought he needed to do more, decided to go back to college. Now, that's a situation somebody was projected to go in the top five, but then was taken by the Hornets at the end of the lottery. But there is precedent for guys deciding to come back. And we could start going down that road of wondering what it would look like if this year Little returned to North Carolina. But this year, he made his decision. North Carolina, they recruited accordingly, and they're doing just fine as well. Now it's time for all of us to move on. Let's go to Hines and Winston Salem. Hines, what do you got on the draft last night?

What do you got for me? Hey, I know you were talking about kind of the one and done and the pros and cons of that. Wondering what your thought is on how baseball does it.

You can go in from high school, or if you go to college or there for three years, and then you could go pro. I'll take your time. I would love that Hines. Hines, if it was like baseball or football, I would love that.

Here's the only issue. It's not an NCAA rule. The one and done is an NBA rule. They're not going to want to wait three years for Zion to get into the NBA. Some of them are already salivating and complaining about not having him after one year.

So you're not going to get them to wait two or three years. It's an NBA rule, not a college basketball rule. Up next, speaking of that PJ Washington guy, I'll tell you why I like him in Charlotte. Plus the baggage that Mitch Kupchak carries.

This is the drive. There are some mad Charlotte Hornets fans today. I'm trying to figure out why. PJ Washington's a good player. He was taken in the first round. I can't really vouch too much for the second round draft picks, even though Caleb Martin's from Davie County right here in the Triad.

They were introduced earlier today in Charlotte by general manager Mitch Kupchak. I felt like Mitch Kupchak, he made the safe pick by going with PJ Washington at number 12. Outside of the top 10, you're looking at either taking the high ceiling project, who's usually in their teens, or taking the lower ceiling, more polished player. Taking a Cam Johnson or taking a Miles Bridges or taking a PJ Washington in this case.

The high ceiling projects, probably the best example of that's the Cyr Little. Fittingly, since I mentioned Miles Bridges, who Mitch Kupchak took last year, and I think we can agree after one season, that's a pretty good pick. He's a good player that they drafted in the first round. PJ Washington, almost the same exact build as Miles Bridges, PJ Washington. They are both 6'7". Bridges is 225 pounds, Washington's 227 pounds. They're going to be playing similar positions.

Maybe Washington could step out a little bit more from 3-point range. They have a very similar trajectory. Highly touted right out of high school. Going to be a lottery pick. Going into the draft after their freshman season.

Both examine their situation and decide to stay at school for one more year. And it seems like Mitch Kupchak likes these types of players, especially if he's not picking in the top 10. Plus, Washington made some strides last year. In his freshman season, he was 24% from 3-point range.

24%. Last year, he improved those numbers to, or this past season, he improved those numbers to 42%. So freshman season, 24% from 3. Sophomore year, 42% from 3-point range. That's quite a lot of growth for a player who's as young as PJ Washington. I think out of the players taken in the first round, PJ's one of the five most pro-ready prospects. Zion Williamson's number one. I believe that guy, he's good enough to be an all-star right out of the chute.

I believe that. Coach K was talking to Yahoo Sports. He said, I think he's the only player I've dealt with I felt like could be an all-star as soon as he comes into the league. That's Coach K. Zion, most pro-ready player in this draft. RJ Barrett, his teammate, is number two. DeAndre Hunter, I think aside from Zion, probably the safest pick just because that kind of player is never going to get old in the NBA.

A player who can switch and play D on five different positions, yeah, where do I sign up? Then there's PJ Washington. I think PJ's a little bit more prepared than even Cam Johnson is. And Cam, great jumper, best shooter in the draft, 6'10", could shoot over a ton of guys.

That's what you're getting with PJ Washington here. And what I'm seeing today, some of the angst from Hornets fans, a lot of people are holding past mistakes against Mitch Kupchak. What mistakes has Kupchak made since arriving in Charlotte? He didn't sign the Nick Batum contract. He didn't draft Noah Vonle. He didn't draft Frank Kaminsky. He didn't draft Sean May. He didn't take Adam Morrison. So the draft history, what, 14 of the last 15 years the Hornets have been in the lottery, and the one surefire hit that they've had is Ben Kimball Walker? We're going to hold that against Mitch Kupchak, who's only been here for two drafts? Most people could agree, even Hornets fans, that Miles Bridges was a pretty darn good pick.

So let's wait and see. I like PJ Washington. He seems prepared. He's 20. I'm fine with the pick, but let's not hold Vonle and Kaminsky and Morrison and May and Batum's contract and Marvin Williams' contract against Mitch Kupchak.

That's misguided. Mitch Kupchak has been extremely hamstrung by the deals that former GM Rich Cho made, which at the time everyone thought, oh, Rich Cho is going to do what he did. What was he, coming from Oklahoma City, I believe he was before?

Everyone got blinded by that. And now, literally, we saw from reports from sources we trust that Mitch Kupchak was out here trying to make some moves before the draft. They were trying to get Bradley Beal before the trade deadline. No one wants to take these contracts.

No one wants Nick Batum on their team. They were looking at trading the 12th pick, maybe trying to trade back the draft Luke May. I'm actually, you know what, I'm actually expecting them to sign him. Oh, is that going to happen? Yeah, man. Is that not signed already? Put him on the Greensboro Swarm, sell some tickets.

I'm there, you're there. That sounds like something they would do, doesn't it? It does, and both these players, according to Kupchak today, are expected to play in Greensboro, even P.J.

Washington, which is a bit of a surprise. I can't really justify the Cody Martin and Jalen McDaniels draft picks. Jalen McDaniels, he's currently dealing with what, a domestic abuse charge? What? From just a few weeks ago?

Oh my gosh. Give me the details on this because I don't want to be that reckless, but he wasn't at the press conference today. I'd like to think because of that that's circling around him. Second round pick, number 52 overall out of San Diego State. Cody Martin, meanwhile, played at NC State. He's from Davie County and he was great at Nevada, but in the second round, we just got excited.

We got excited. Oh, Charlotte's on the board at number 52. Maybe they go Luke May. Maybe they go Jalen Hoard. Maybe they go Jalen Lequeu. With the 36th pick, oh, Bull Bull's still there. Bull Bull's on the board.

Maybe he'll be in Charlotte. That's exciting. And these are the things that aren't great. I'm assuming you're reading what Jalen McDaniels was accused of. Oh gosh, I don't even want to, I mean, I know there's a lot of people listening to us right now and they're excited about the Hornets draft and everything, but... Who's excited about Jalen McDaniels? Nobody's partying in the street saying, yay, I went there to go. No, they're sick.

Fourth of the G League. Hey, is Cody Martin going to be commuting from Davie? Moxville's finest. Jalen McDaniels apparently has been accused, well, he was accused by two women of recording them performing sex acts and distributing the video on social media. So sorry, sorry, it was not domestic abuse. That was reckless.

That was reckless. It was just videotaping people getting it on allegedly and then sending it out. It gets worse.

We've all gotten caught doing that, right? No, because this happened in 2016. It's 2019, isn't it? He was a student in high school when he did this.

That makes it even worse on top of it. Like, now this was, the story I'm looking at was back in December of 2018. It was about six months ago. I haven't seen, did he get out of this?

Did he get dropped? I didn't see anything on that when I was scrolling through this, but... Let's put the awkwardness of that story aside, just to play some funny sound of RJ Barrett. Here's RJ answering a question in French yesterday.

Believe me, you're going to want to stay to the end of the answer. I was very excited. I'm finally in the NBA and I played a lot.

My parents played a lot, but I'm very happy to be here. That was nice, wasn't it? That sounded the end. Do you know what that sounds like? Did you take French or Spanish when you were in school? Man, I took Latin. You took Latin?

Why? Because we were told foolishly it would help us on our SAT. So I took four years of Latin. But imagine you were taking French. You go to the front of the room for an oral presentation and you just knock it out of the park. I'd imagine your reaction in front of the class is going to sound just like this. That was nice, wasn't it?

Right after you get done. Hey! I crushed that!

I crushed this! That was nice, wasn't it? The sad thing is we don't know French, so we don't know if he was actually speaking French or not. It sounded like gibberish to me.

It sounded great. Then he got finished with his press conference and he said the most obvious thing. He's trying to process his dream coming true in real time and doing so verbally. Who's ever said those words? Who's ever said those words in a happy manner? Saying this expression in this tone, it must be a neat feeling to say something no one else has ever said in a way that no one's ever said it.

Those words have been said, but it's usually in this tone. He instantly becomes the top draw on that team, too. Have you seen their roster? They have no point guard. They have nothing. Kevin Knox?

No point guard. That's it. The drive's brought to you in part by your friends at Twin Peaks Restaurant, your ultimate sports lodge with a menu to match. Pair any of their made-from-scratch menu items with a frosty 29-degree draft beer served by a Twin Peaks girl.

Almost dropped my pen. And you're in for a legendary sports watching experience. Twin Peaks eats drinks, scenic views. We've got Joe Wild movie lines to get to. The creme de la creme of the first half of the season.

And he kicked off the second half in style. We'll play that for Darren Vaught when he joins us next. I'm not a doer or a thinker. I'm a talker. You're on The Drive with Josh Graham, the sports hub at AM600, AM920. We're sharing with Darren Vaught from The David Glenn Show. He was kind enough to step into our studio after getting finished with The David Glenn Show on these airwaves a short while ago. Darren, you're going to be sitting in this chair next Wednesday.

I'll be on vacation Tuesday through Friday of next week. Stan Cotton will be here as well from the Wake Forest IMG Sports Network. Dave Goren, president of the NSMA, will host today as well.

Desmond Johnson will be pinch hitting as well. You and I will both be at the NSMA Hall of Fame ceremony. They have a seminar earlier that afternoon. The NSMA weekend starts tomorrow. We're going to have a massive lineup of guests join us from downtown Winston-Salem and we're looking forward to that. How you been, buddy?

I'm great. We're also going to have outrageous fun on Monday. Let's not overlook that. Don't sleep on the outrageous fun to be had.

Speaking of outrageous fun, I'm going to give you the option. Do you want to go over the creme de la creme, the best four lines via the audience's vote from Joe Weil in the first half of the season, or the killer lines that he delivered just last night to start the second half of the Dash season? Alright, so there are some, I think, in the best of the first half that I have not heard, but let's get to what he dropped last night, right?

Okay. I have not heard these yet. Dez just digged them out. I was at the Dash game last night and I caught some of the game, probably the bottom of the eighth and the top of the ninth, while I was driving home because I felt like the Dash had it under control. Dez, give me the first call Joe delivered last night. So it goes from a bases-loaded one-out situation to a bases-loaded two-out situation, and we're living in a different world than it was 30 seconds ago. Since it's draft day, somebody sent us that awful...

I haven't even seen or heard these suggestions because I missed yesterday. Have you seen that awful Kevin Costner draft day movie where the Browns are good? If it wasn't for Trouble with the Curve, it might be the worst sports movie ever. You really hate Trouble with the Curve. It's just, it's bad. It's fundamentally bad. The part that bothers me the most is the scene where Justin Timberlake is mimicking being a play-by-play announcer, and he has no idea what he's doing. Like, it enraged me. As you might imagine, that's bothersome to me as well.

Right. So Joe Weil is finagling movie lines that we sent in to him into his play-by-play. Here's the next example of that from last night's Dash game. Now Carlos Perez, the Dash catcher, coming out to talk to the right-hander. But McClure has not allowed a hit since the first. He's punching like a heavyweight boxer. Looking like the part on the mound.

All that's missing is him just saying in a slurred accent, yo Adrian. Okay. Alright. It was quite some build-up to get there.

You're saving one for last year. I have no idea. The line that I gave him yesterday seems like an impossibility to work in seamlessly into a baseball broadcast. Darren doesn't know what the line is altogether. Let's find out together what Joe did here. Swung on a miss. Counted one and one.

But of course the Heat won that NBA Finals in 2013. Thanks to a man that starred in a great movie. He got game. Some famous lines from that movie, including one. I hate my name. What kind of name is Jesus anyway?

A biblical name. 1-1. Come on.

Okay. See, he snuck that in because that's in reference to the line. It was like towards the end of the game too.

It was like in the ninth inning. So he just got it in there. But I would have to hear the entire rant there about LeBron and whatever he was talking about there.

Because there's an art to working that in, in the grand scheme of things. I think I would have to hear the larger discussion there with himself. The exchange that's famous from He Got Game is Jesus Shuttlesworth asking his father, played by Denzel Washington, I hate my name. What kind of name is Jesus anyway?

Denzel saying, it's biblical. Yeah. No bleep. All right. Let's get to the best.

The best from the first half. And I'll let Darren figure out what it is. Let's just play them side by side by side by side.

The four of them here. And then we'll figure out at the end which that Darren likes the best. 3-2. Swing and a miss. Strike three.

Mitchell goes down. One out. You know what they say. Fool me once. Strike one.

Fool me twice. Strike three. I think that was you, Darren. That was. That was the office line.

That's what it was. 2-1 Fayetteville. Top of the sixth inning. But scout shot went way over that wall in right field. A solo blast to make it a 2-1 ballgame. Saying with the bat to the pitcher J.P. France.

Ouchtown population. You, bro. Excellent. Here's the 1-2. Bounced in by King Cannon.

It's 2-2. So it's San Diego. And, you know, a famous person from San Diego once said, you know, the only way to bag a classy lady by giving her two tickets to the gun show.

That type of San Diego. Not Santiago. Just wanted to clarify.

Thanks for the clarification, Joe. That was a good one, too. Way inside for ball four. And it's off of John Carrillo's right leg. It's just a flesh wound. And with that, there's a runner on first with nobody out. All right.

Which of the four do you like the best? It's a flesh wound. Strike one. Fool me once. Strike one. Fool me twice. Strike three. And then Ouchtown population.

Ouchtown population. You, bro, is so good there. Only way to bag a classy lady. Yeah. I think I think these need to be we need to favor those that were worked in organically. Right. There's no doubt there's a skill to bringing up San Diego and using that as your in with the anchorman line. But something that just is with the flow of play to me is is even better in this category.

So the office line seems kind of easy. I think it's Ouchtown. I think it's Ouchtown population.

You, bro, too. And it came out it came out of the toughest bracket. It came out of the region that had North Carolina, Kentucky, Kansas and Wofford all in it. It came out of that third volume that was just simply incredible. It really was the national championship out of that third volume the other day. And it also I mean, that's the one that consisted of Zed's dead baby, Zed's dead. And have you ever looked into his eyes?

It's like the first time I heard the Beatles. Oh, man. Was the biscuit one in there, too? No, the Mordor line was. The Mordor line was in there. The Mordor, which was really, really well done. I was rooting for the lady.

Do you want some biscuits? And it just never made it out of the region. It just really didn't. Sometimes there are upsets. Yeah.

Sometimes things happen where a team that has great expectations doesn't quite get far enough in the tournament. It was Nevada. Darren Vaught's with us on Twitter at Darren Vaught.

Three three six seven seven seven one six hundred. No kidding. I had the Wolf Space Pack in my Elite Eight like two straight years when they got the Martin twins. I was like, this is it.

Hey, watch Caleb Martin. Yeah. And Greensboro probably. They can commute. Commute from Knoxville.

They probably could. Yeah. On Twitter at Sports Hub Try It.

So let's get a poll out there with those four calls and you let us know what the best one is. And then we have the phone lines and we have the tweet machine to allow for feedback as well. The drive is brought to you in part by our friends at Pie Guys Pizza and More. Get this, Darren.

Darren, I got something for you. Is this the same secret that we whispered about a couple of weeks ago? No, no, no, no, no. Are you talking about the Philly cheesesteak pizza? Have I told you about this?

Yeah. What do you mean I told you about this? We did this exact bit.

It was a secret. The Philly cheesesteak pizza. We did the same exact. We did this.

We did this like two or three weeks ago. But it's a good pizza though. It's still a good pizza. It's delicious. Secrets out.

It's a good pizza. We'll have to get you some when you come here to Winston on Monday. Hook you up. Yeah.

No doubt about it. The folks at Pie Guys, they're sponsoring our appearance. My appearance at the... Are we just going to have like pizza laid out at our disposal? We might.

Maybe it might be the... From noon to six? Philly cheesesteak pizza. I don't think it's as good as the Graham Slam, I'm going to be honest.

But I'm biased. Everybody else who's tried it loves it though. Made to order Philly steak and peppers, mushrooms, onions. Ricotta cheese. That's the secret weapon there.

And a lot of great side items. You can order online. PieGuys.com. Call in. Dine in. Take out. Delivery. They're located.

The Kinnaman Village Commons right off of Lewisville Clemons Road. It's Pie Guys pizza and more. Okay then. How about this? The draft was last night. Need to talk some hoops.

We need to get to some throwback expos, some throwback nationals. So we'll do that as well. Which North Carolina draftee steps into the best situation?

Which one steps into the worst? That's next on The Drive. A great follow on Twitter, at TSNMike. But obviously I want to talk about the NBA draft first and foremost, Mike. What's a popular narrative you've seen on social media and in the media today that bothered you in regards to how the NBA draft was covered?

Oh, I don't know that I had anything that would fit that. I thought, to be honest with you, I was just following along with the picks. I wasn't paying close attention to how it was covered on any of the networks. I did see some of the replay of the NBA TV telecast today and I liked seeing my friends on there. They had Seth Davis on and Andy Katz on and Steve Smith on.

So I'm sure it was a great telecast but I was actually following along with the picks but writing some material myself as the draft was going on. Much like the government, I feel like people blame the one and done rule in college basketball for pretty much everything. Hey, the NCAA is exploiting players. It's the one and done. These teams in college basketball, they're not the way they used to be. Why? Because of the one and done. I feel like it gets overblown quite a bit and when it comes to Nasir Little today, I've seen Roy Williams blamed.

I've seen the one and done blamed. Very little. Nasir Little maybe just wasn't as good as we thought he would be. What do you make of his drop? Well, there was some of that but there was also, in all honesty, he chose the wrong school if one year was his goal. In particular because there was a player in his position who was better than he was.

Cam Johnson wound up the 12th pick in the draft, I believe it was. And he was playing basically the same position Nasir would have played. If Cam had never transferred to Carolina, Nasir would have started. Would have put up better numbers probably than he did. Would have played a lot more and would have gone higher. But because he didn't do any of those things, he went lower.

That's somehow the way it works. What I don't understand is why someone has to be blamed for Nasir's circumstance. Nasir chose North Carolina for whatever reasons he chose them. He has never complained, ever, that I've seen. And I've followed him very closely. Never complained about his experience at Carolina.

Not one time. And now he's with a terrific organization that if he grows as a player will make great use of him and he'll have the chance to play in winning circumstances. So I don't know that anybody needs to be blamed for what happened with him. I didn't see anybody standing up from the rafters and saying, other than me maybe and a few others, Zion Williamson, because of the one and done rule, made probably about, I'm going to say conservatively, $30 million. I know it's more than that. But just so we have a base number. Because he would have signed a nice shoe deal if he hadn't ever played in college basketball. But the number he's going to get, the number he's going to command is probably going to go to nine figures. And it would never have happened if he hadn't been on television 40 times last year and become a national celebrity. No one talks about that. The reality is that five years from now, Josh goes five years out in the future, say.

And the NBA and the Players Association have agreed to eliminate the age limit rule. OK, so what are the New Orleans Pelicans of 2023 or 2024? What are they excited about? What are they getting excited about?

Some kid who was playing high school ball last year, they've never seen him play. He's probably not ready to help them. He might not be ready to help them until year three.

And they're supposed to get excited about that? The NBA seems determined to go down that road, but I don't think it's a road that will pay off for them at all. At the point at which they do that, what they are going to have to sell to their public is diminished by a significant margin. And there's a chance that the New Orleans Pelicans might be drafting a player like Nasir Little, which we learned in this past season at North Carolina. There were a lot of things he had to work on, which led to him dropping in the draft this year. But Mike, also, I think what's misfounded and misguided about the one and done two is if you eliminate it, if you eliminate the age, the age limit in college basketball players being allowed to enter the NBA right out of high school, I should say. There were one hundred and seventy five early entry college basketball players just in this draft alone. So taking away the international players, one hundred seventy five of those. So all it would be is less Zion Williamson, less Kevin Durant, less Anthony Davis and just more Stephon Marbury's Lawald Dang's, D Wade's, Carmelo Anthony's. And yes, even Kobe White. Yeah, you know, I think that what what the future looks like for the NBA if they if they eliminate the age limit role is not as bright as Adam Silver supposes it to be. I think there's an internal belief at the NBA that they can do what the colleges are doing and they can monetize it. And it's a fantasy. I mean, people are never going to care about the Fort Wayne Mad Ants or the Grand Rapids, whatever they call it, or the Erie Bay Hawks or the Maine Red Claws.

And I'm amazed that I know that many different names. People are never going to care about it. It's not going to happen. There are there's a there's a segment of the public says, well, you put Zion there and they'll care. No, they're not going to care. At the end of the day, if they're if if the if the developmental arm becomes the G League, they're still not going to care. It's never going to happen.

It just doesn't happen because there's no there for one, no one cares who wins. It's like AAU basketball. I like going to AAU games to see the next generation of players.

But I'm a journalist and that's part of my job. And and also part of it is because they're going mostly to go through college. And I'm curious to be able to talk about that next generation of players and write about that next generation of players. But I don't think I'd go to AAU games just for fun. It's it's not you know, it's not a bad way to spend a couple hours or or whatever, but it's not something that I can think of dozens of better ways to spend those couple hours if it weren't part of my job and part of what makes me gives me a leg up on some of my competition.

Yes. But you're also speaking to the frustrations the league has had and what they want to do and getting rid potentially of the age limit rule with this commission on basketball, which we talked about. We recently had Sharif Abdur Rahim on who is the president of the G League and they're trying to find an alternate route for high schoolers as well. They say they don't want to compete with college basketball, but Adam Silver's comments could be construed a different kind of way in that. But the frustration still exists as it is. And I wonder if the frustrations maybe are misguided. Where should they be directed at considering there are real concerns people do have about the college game?

Well, I you know, I think that like no vehicle is perfect. I mean, there are there are plenty of people who have real concerns about college. I mean, it costs a lot. It costs a fortune, debt and all that. I mean, what happened with the gentleman that I believe it was Morehouse College a month ago or so when he wiped out the college debt. A billionaire businessman who gave the commencement speech and wiped out the college debt of every student in the audience. Well, I mean, if there wasn't a ton of student debt to wipe out, it wouldn't have been a big deal.

But so there are problems with every enterprise, the problems with the American school system. The college basketball is not perfect, but is it on the whole a positive experience for the vast majority of those who go through it? And I and I've been following it and covering it for more than three decades and and observing it. And I have lots of contacts, friends or whatever that went through it. And I don't think there's any question that by and large, it did the experience made them better and gave them, you know, sent them on the way to better lives. So, you know, I can you make it better?

Yeah, go keep working on it. I mean, look how much better it is for the college basketball athlete today than it was 10 years ago. Cost of attendance facilities are better coaching. They can get more access to their college coaches in the summers, in the springs and in the falls. All those things make it better than it was when I was when I started sporting news in the year 2000. So, yeah, keep working to make it better.

But stop telling me it's bad because it's not bad. Hall of Fame basketball writer and writer of all things sports, Mike DeCorcy with us from the Sporting News. Last week, we saw some reporting done that the NCAA potentially was going to hand down some significant punishment to some college basketball programs. Level one infractions, which is the highest or the most significant punishment the NCAA can hand out. Do you think the NCAA is in a position now that the FBI was the one that did all the legwork in doing the investigation? The NCAA can't botch an investigation. It didn't do the legwork for to hand down significant punishment. And do you feel they need to to send a message in the sport?

Well, yes, from the standpoint of the guy on the sidelines, I can say yes. But I also had a problem with those statements because I that to me suggested that the people who are going to go into those hearings have reason to believe that they won't get fair hearings. If there's already this feeling that, well, we're going we're going to bring the hammer down.

Well, wait a second. I mean, these cases haven't been not only have the investigations aren't even complete, let alone the process of of notice of allegations and hearings and all those sorts of things. The idea that a significant figure at the NCAA was saying just some of that on the coaches who've been calling for that openly and loudly when they know very well that the process is, you know, how the process works and and how it needs to work. I can tell you that a lot of good coaches who, you know, who aren't bad guys and weren't abject cheaters have been, you know, have have wound up in that system. And if if that system is not fair and it's not just, then they you know, then then those who are not guilty or not overwhelmingly guilty can get a raw deal. So I had a real problem with the fact that the NCAA came out, made those statements a couple of weeks ago.

I did think that that was that was not the best look for the NCAA. Every single time we talk, Mike, I make sure to ask you something movies related. Tell me a movie you're looking forward to watching most this summer. Well, I'm really looking forward to the Quentin Tarantino movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

I'm very curious to see how that turns out. I saw I don't remember the name of this, but I saw a trailer for a picture that looks really interesting. Reminded me a lot of Bend It Like Beckham. In this case, I believe it's a Pakistani young man in England, a teenager who is introduced to Bruce Springsteen's music and falls in love with it. And it sort of brings some meaning to his his teenage years. And it looked really wonderful.

And I'm very much looking forward to seeing that. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of it. Blinded by the light. Well, I'm sorry.

Blinded by the lights. Well, there you go. They picked they picked a great song to give it the title. And I'm really excited about that. I believe that that it'll be one of the interesting. I believe Danny Boyle, if I remember right, who did who did Trainspotting and and Slumdog Millionaire, a terrific director.

I believe it's his work, if I remember correctly, from the trailer. And so I'm very excited about seeing that as well. Mike DeCorcy, it's always good to hear from you. And I hope you enjoyed the draft last night.

I'm sure we'll be chatting again sometime soon. OK, thanks, Josh. You got it.

That's Mike DeCorcy on Twitter at TSN Mike. Have you ever seen the movie The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman starring in it? It's one of the all time classics. It's crazy to think it's a little over 50 years old now, but the ending of the movie's iconic is 50 years enough time to to tell you the ending of this movie without spoiling it. That's just want to make sure I don't tick off anybody for the graduate.

I think that the moment the period of spoiling in its past, I think you should be good to go. You might remember at the very end of the movie, Dustin Hoffman storms into the wedding chapel to break up a wedding. And then he finally found the woman he loved and got her to come with him into a vehicle. They're sitting together. They're elated. They're excited. Then the camera shot stays still on them for a couple moments more.

And you can see on their face an expression that reads, OK, now what? That's what I was thinking of when I saw Cam Johnson was taken number 11th last night by the Phoenix Suns. At first, you're thinking, oh, my gosh, I was expected to be taken in the 20s.

Nobody saw this coming. I'm in the lottery. I'm in the lottery. I'm taking 11th overall. Oh, my gosh.

This is my dream. It's being realized. It's happening. Listen to the reaction of Cam Johnson's teammate, Kobe White, who had just been drafted. He's sitting in the media room. Somebody tells him Cam Johnson was just taking 11th. Listen to the elation in his teammates voice. Cameron Johnson just won 11th. How do you react to that news?

He went what? 11th. Cam Johnson 11th. Yep.

It's right on the screen right there. Wow. Wow. Wow, bro. That's crazy. That's so love, bro. Because, you know, Cam, you don't know how hard Cam work.

You know, it's a lot of people that doubt him. But wow. I'm just bro. It's such a that's crazy, bro. Wow. That's so crazy. How many I'm so happy for him right now. You don't understand how happy I am for Cam.

Oh, sorry to interrupt you, Cody. Kobe, how many? Things in life. Give me the movie that would best elicit the reaction.

Kobe White had initially to the news like what? What's the movie that the result would surprise you enough that it would make you give this reaction? Wow.

I think the fact that he said it three times in a row. Further emphasizes it. Wow, bro. Like if you're watching the end of Sixth Sense, this is what this is what's going to happen. Wow, bro. That's yeah. That was really I didn't see that coming. We're right at the middle of the movie Gone Girl. This is what you're going to hear. Wow. Yeah. I'd be willing to do this movies.

Give me the movie that makes you most give this reaction to the movie that made you give this reaction. Wow, bro. Three three six seven seven seven one six hundred on Twitter at Sports Hub Triad. I'd be willing to go that route in between talking about actually Kobe White and Cam Johnson. And these North Carolina draftees that heard their names called last night. But much to the point of the graduate elation not just for Cameron Johnson, but for Kobe White. But he's stepping into the biggest mess in the NBA.

So I'd imagine there was a moment if it hasn't happened already. It's probably going to happen soon. Cam Johnson excited. I'm in the lottery.

My goodness. I didn't think this was going to happen. I'm in the lottery.

But what am I stepping into? The the Phoenix Suns, they fired coaches the last two years. They've changed up management. They have a cheap owner, a notoriously cheap owner. They traded away T.J. Warren for no reason.

It seemed like yesterday. They gave away a good basketball player that they took near the lottery. Just gave them away and the 30 second pick. Please, will you take a good player off our hands? We want you to do it so much that we're going to give away a 30 second pick, a first round draft pick or make it an early second round draft pick in this draft to do so.

Please, Indiana, take the pick off us. They never really did explain why that happened because we thought they were going to maybe draft somebody in that position. They're cutting salary. They're cutting salary. T.J. Warren's a good young player. They're just giving it away. Giving away a good player.

So they trade him away. And Cameron Johnson, he's a shooter. Pure shooter. We had Danny Manning on this show a few times and he was talking about what these North Carolina players remind him of. He said Kobe White reminds him of Devin Booker. A lot of Cam Johnson reminds me of Devin Booker as a player who's taller and a good shooter.

Here's the issue. Devin Booker. It seems like he's been in the league for three or four years now.

He had 70 in a game a few years ago. Devin Booker is younger than Cameron Johnson is. Now, I don't want this to sound like I'm criticizing Cameron Johnson. He's one of the most NBA ready players in this draft. But you kind of hoped that the team that was going to take him would not be a team rebuilding. Who's a rebuilding team that's going to take a 23 year old?

Apparently the Phoenix Suns. So I'm elated for Cameron Johnson, who was wonderful to deal with all throughout the year. But I'll be honest, my reaction was similar to Kobe White's when I learned that he was being drafted. Wow, bro. Eleventh. I was sitting at the Winston-Salem Dash game last night, right behind home plate.

And I learned my phone just started exploding. Cam Johnson, Cam Johnson, Cam Johnson. He was picked 11th. He was picked 11th. I really don't understand why a rebuilding team would pick him.

Like, when do you expect the Phoenix Suns to be good? You draft Dayton. You draft Devin Booker a few years ago. These guys, they're going to be good players for you. But you're still a few years away. So you're waiting till Cam Johnson is 26, 27 to be competitive?

Is that what we're doing? Man, I wish, even if it was later on, I wished it would be the Spurs or the Warriors or the Celtics or the Nuggets or the Sixers. Someone like that.

Maybe even Portland. Who would have taken him? C.J. Jones tweets in Fight Club. Wow, bro.

Yeah, I got that on my list. The ending of Fight Club. Spoiler. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Ed Norton was Tyler Durden the whole time. Wow, bro. I can't believe you just said that on the radio. Get this.

The Jeopardy guy lost two weeks ago. Wow, bro. Crazy.

I was going to nominate the usual suspects. Wow, bro. Kaiser, get Kobe. You're not going to believe this.

You're really not. Kevin Spacey was Kaiser Sose the entire time. Wow, bro. It's nuts. And also, Kevin Spacey, Kobe, a decade before that, got accused of potentially sexually assaulting a guy.

And he justified it by saying that he's now gay. Wow. Crazy. I got another one, too.

Yeah, get me out of that hole. Seven. Oh, what's in the box, Kobe? What's in the box?

Kobe, what's in the box? Wow. I really could do this for hours. Just naming random shows and movies, things that happened that were surprising, just getting Kobe White's astonishment attached to it. I could do this for hours.

Empire Strikes Back, Luke, I'm your father. Oh, my gosh. Wow, bro. That's crazy. First time Kobe White started watching.

336-777-1600. I think we found a game here. There's somebody out there listening to us right now that's so mad because they haven't watched any of these movies. And they're just like, that Josh Graham Spool and Orange movies I haven't watched yet.

Luke Skywalker was his father. Wow, bro. Crazy.

Just nuts. I can't believe that. 336-777-1600 on Twitter at Sports Hub Triad. You can vote for Joe Weil's best calls for the first half of the season. A lot of really good ones there.

And if you haven't already, subscribe to the Best of podcast available on SoundCloud, iTunes, Apple podcast, Google Play. The ending of The Sopranos probably had Kobe White reacting this way. Probably had us all acting this way. Wow, bro. I'm still trying to process it. That was like ten years ago.

Did you just Google most shocking movies? I did. I came equipped.

I'm ready to go. Yeah. Just using your Google search. Using the Googles, man. Life is easier when you use Google.

It really is. That should be Google's tagline. I mean, before Google, you actually had to be smart. You had to read.

You had to be able to write your name in cursive. They don't do that anymore. Encyclopedia's, man. I don't even think they make encyclopedias anymore, do they? Yeah, they do. I used to sell them door to door in Texas. That's right.

Six or seven years ago. You didn't have to carry them around with you, did you? I had a couple samples. Okay.

Hoping you'd have all 26 volumes you had to truck around. No. Oh, actually, I was hanging out. Hey, Coby, get this.

In the movie Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio gets into the mind of somebody and then goes deeper into that person's mind and then goes to a third level in the mind of a person who's in somebody else's mind. It's pretty crazy. You following me, Coby?

You following me here? Wow. See?

No, no, no. I haven't told you the crazy part yet. I haven't told you the crazy part. You have this dreidel-like thing that you spin, and if it keeps spinning, you're not in real life. What you're experiencing is a dream. But at the very end, it keeps spinning, and then the movie cuts off before you figure out whether he's dreaming or not at the end when he's reunited with his family. Wow, bro. I've never seen Inception, so you just ruined it for me. It's been 10 years on Inception. And even that description, I'm like, there's so much going on in that, I don't even know how to process what he just said. Neither did Coby. I could tell he was just trying to appease me.

Wow, bro. I'm trying to think of movies that just scared the hell out of me. Secret Window. One of my favorite movies of all time, Scream. The ending in Scream. You know, the Who Killers Are. I don't even know if I should reveal Who the Killers Are. I haven't seen that movie. What? You've never watched Scream before?

The Departed, though, when you find out that Jack Nicholson's character actually is an informant for the FBI. That's pretty crazy, right Coby? Wow, bro.

It sounds like he's kind of amused whenever you tell him something. I'm going to be honest. I'm going to be honest. It's Friday. I have no idea what's coming up next. I really don't. But whatever it is, I promise you, it's going to be awesome. This is the drive. Wow.