The Drive with Josh Graham - Bad Takes from NBA Finals

Attention please. This is The Drive with Josh Tram Podcast. Tune into The Drive 3 until 6pm weekdays on the Sports Hub. I love it.

It's brilliant. There is so much I want to get to from last night, but the way sports talk radio works, us in the afternoon we usually get the last crack at it. Which means I've seen hot, awful takes all day long. But there are three takes that seem to be popular today that just make me want to go outside our studio right now and start fist fighting people.

These are just the worst. Number one. Bob Myers, the general manager of the Warriors. Steve Kerr and Golden State are to blame for Kevin Durant getting hurt last night. I'm going to break some news for you right now. Players in basketball get hurt.

Athletes in sports get hurt. It happens. It's a shame.

You hate to see it. It was depressing to see it happen in the finals. It was depressing to see it happen as he was playing well right out of the gate and seemed to be okay.

But nobody's really to blame here. Kevin Durant wanted to play. Kevin Durant is a 30-year-old man who's pretty confident. He knows his body.

He was cleared. He practiced. He wanted to play in the NBA Finals. For all the heat that he took for going to Golden State, he was willing to take that because he wanted to compete for championships. He wanted to play in games like Game 5 of the NBA Finals. So you weren't going to keep him off of the floor. And Kevin Durant, if he's cleared and says he can play, he has a right to play in that basketball game.

He has a right to give it a shot. It's an elimination game in the finals. So we wanted to go. Golden State covered all of its bases too. Steve Kerr said that Bob Myers was going to do the KD talk last night. He was going to sit down.

He didn't have to do this, by the way. Usually you don't see GMs talking during the finals. It's a little surreal to hear.

You probably have heard him today. But again, I just want to remind you, this is the voice of the general manager whose team just won in the NBA Finals on the road in an elimination game, but is at the point of being moved to tears because of what just happened with Kevin Durant. Here he was talking about what led to KD ultimately getting back on the floor. Prior to coming back, he went through four weeks with our medical team. It was thorough and it was experts and multiple MRIs and multiple doctors. And we felt good about the process. He was cleared to play tonight. That was a collaborative decision. I don't believe there's anybody to blame, but I understand this world.

And if you have to, you can blame me. Kevin Durant, let's play this through. Let's play this through to the people who are blaming Bob Myers today for letting KD play.

How does this work? He practices. He's questionable. KD is a 30-year-old man.

He is a former MVP. He wants to play. You're telling him, no, hey, listen, Kevin, we don't want you to go. We're trying to protect you, 30-year-old man.

We're trying to protect you. I mean, I actually thought when I started seeing him work out before the game, when I saw him warming up, that this was going to be a Zion Williamson situation all over again. Zion got injured with the foot February the 20th against North Carolina, that game at Cameron, and he didn't return until about a month later, March the 15th against Syracuse. I was at both of these games, and I remember watching Zion in warmups, I thought, oh my gosh, we got this all wrong. Everybody asking, oh, is he going to only be able to play a couple of minutes? Is he going to be 100%?

Is he going to look like himself? I realized in just watching warmups with Zion that we had gotten it all terribly wrong, and he went out, and he looked like the national player of the year that he was. He went 13 for 13 and was tremendous that night. I thought that's what we were going to see last night. The moment I saw him dunking in warmups, the stroke looked good. And then early on, he hits his first two three-point shots, and he's playing 10 of the first 12 minutes in the game.

I thought that's what we were going to see. And then his body didn't hold up. Now, Bob Myers said that this was an Achilles injury before it was a calf.

We don't know if that's really connected. I have difficulty really believing that, but that doesn't mean Bob Myers is to blame, and KD isn't to blame either. And here's another hot take I've seen today that I flatly reject too, that somehow KD being injured with this Achilles is going to ruin his next contract. In other words, if KD chooses to opt out of his contract that the bottom feeders of the NBA who haven't had a star to rally around in a decade, and in some cases even more, they're not going to offer the max to Kevin Durant. We're talking about the Clippers, the Nets, and the Knicks.

I'm sorry. Even if it's at the expense of one year, you're still going to sign Kevin Durant, and you're going to offer whatever the max is. I don't think that's really at risk, because here's a news flash. Remember my breaking news report that players get injured in sports sometimes?

Here's another thing. Star athletes get injured in sports often too, and in basketball. Do you know how many great players, current great players, have missed full seasons in the NBA? Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, Blake Griffin, Steph Curry, Michael Jordan, if you go back. John Stockton. How about David Robinson? Kobe Bryant. I mean, I think Larry Bird missed a year.

And you can fill me in if I'm forgetting anybody. Guys often miss years. I mean, there's guys who don't, but that doesn't mean it's abnormal that Kevin Durant's going to miss a season with the Achilles. I still think the Knicks, the Nets, the Clippers, they're still going to put everything on the table, because what have the Knicks had the last decade other than a downtrodden Carmelo Anthony and a Maurice Stodmeyer? What have the Clippers had, aside from a pretty good run for two years that you can get behind, but never a top three player in the sport? Never a top five player in the sport. What have the Brooklyn Nets had, period? Brook Lopez?

Of course they're going to offer Kevin Durant. So that's a take that bothers me. And lastly, Nick Nurse, the timeout he called with two and a half minutes remaining with Toronto up six and then with the basketball, that that somehow cost them the game.

This was making me crazy. I mean, we try to overanalyze things in sports all the time. With Tar Heel basketball, we love to criticize Roy Williams when it's convenient, when he doesn't use his timeouts. We're doing the same thing in the NBA with Nurse here, because Toronto had Kawhi Leonard score 10 straight points, contribute on 12 straight points, and they thought that it was going to happen again, and the reason it didn't was because they called a timeout ridiculous. It's just as likely to swing without the timeout than with it.

I understand the thinking for Nurse. He doesn't want to lose a timeout and he wanted to draw up a play to go for the kill. You're up six. If you draw up a great play that gives you a great look and you get a bucket there, that game's over. So I completely understand Nick Nurse for calling that timeout. And even though it didn't work out the way he wanted to, that's not the reason they lost. Golden State won that basketball game.

Even without Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, and Steph Curry hitting those shots at the end, I'm not convinced they don't hit those shots if Nick Nurse doesn't call timeout. So that bothers me too. The drive's being broadcast in the law offices of Timothy D. Wellborn Studios. This is The Drive, and you can learn more about Tim Wellborn online at TimWellborn.com. We're going to chat with the new voice of the Charlotte Hornets, John Fokie, in just a little bit. Desmond Johnson taking your calls at 336-777-1600 behind the scenes, and in turn, Nick is in here in turning as well.

Yes, Nurse? I was with you with pretty much everything you said except for one part, and that was the, I don't want to call it brushing off, but the glossing over of players that have had season ending or long term injuries and were able to come back. What you did not mention was that out of all those guys you mentioned, only Kobe Bryant was one that had an Achilles injury. And Kobe still had two decent seasons after the Achilles, and he had it a lot older. He was a lot older when he had his Achilles. He was like five years older than what Durant is now, but my point is the Achilles injury, if in fact he has a tear, which we still don't know yet, they haven't put that information out, but it's starting to look more likely that's probably the case partially. Bob Myers isn't crying unless it's a ruptured or a torn Achilles. When I watched it last night, I was like, oh, that thing's gone.

It ruptured. But my point is basketball players are never the same after this injury. Literally what we watched last night was the end of Kevin Durant's prime. He is never going to be a 30 point per game scorer ever again.

He's 30 years old right now, right? It takes about six months to a year to come back from an Achilles injury, usually about a year for an NBA player. All of next year is a watch. All those teams, even if that's true, all those teams are still going to offer him the max.

That may be so, but what they're getting is not going to be what they paid for. When he does come back, it's going to take another year after that to get even remotely close to what he was before. So you're talking about not seeing Kevin Durant at full throttle until the age of 32.

Now, what I was going to give you was actual facts about that. So a 2013 medical study that had 18 players that had Achilles injuries over a 23 year span in the NBA, seven of those players never even came back to the league. OK, what position did they play? They played all kinds of positions, whether it was center, guard, forward, all of them. Usually the Achilles is a death sentence for four centers and forwards, heavier players. Tell that to Chauncey Billups. Tell that to Kobe Bryant. Both were players who were a lot older when they had their Achilles injuries.

Three, four years older than what he is right now. Which is a significant amount of time. Either way, that's still... I mean, that's the length of the contract that we're going to be talking about up next for KD.

Exactly. So although there may be a team out there... So he still could have three or four good, great years in him.

But not at super max level is my point. I mean, are you willing to pay Kevin Durant $44 million for 20 points per game for two years? Stars win in the NBA. The Knicks. You're not going to usually get stars to play for the Clippers and the Nets unless you have these max offers that you can offer. Yes, I definitely offer Kevin Durant still the max if I'm the Clippers and I'm the Nets.

For sure. And I know you're getting about 19, 20 points per game and he's going to be a shell of... I'm still not willing to accept 19, 20 points per game.

I'm not going there. But there are a lot of things today that people are overreacting to that I also want to get to. I've got two bonus, awful takes that I've seen today that are bothering me. Everybody's piling on the Toronto Raptors fans. Everybody.

Come on now. Let's have a little bit of reason in this. There were idiots, right? In most circles of life, when there's 25,000 to 28,000 people in one venue, you're bound to have some idiots. Let's not act like it's the majority, right?

It's a handful of idiots. And at first, people were wondering why cheering was happening when KD went down. Let's not forget there was a fast break that Toronto was leading on the other end. And then right when that play ended, KD was still on the floor and it was quieter. And then when he got up, there was cheering and you had the idiot in the background waving. And some Toronto fans were trying to get them to quiet down. I felt like they were cheering at first. This was my reaction. I wasn't in the building, of course. That they were cheering because he was getting up. We see that all the time.

That was my initial reaction. Now, there probably were idiots who were cheering that he was down. But Toronto, what we know about that fanbase, what we know about Canadians in general, they've earned the biffit of the doubt to say probably the majority of people in that building were not cheering the fact that Kevin Durant was hurt. On top of that, Kyle Lowry getting crushed today for that corner three, the shot was blocked.

There's pictures of this. Draymond Green got a hand on it. This reminds me of how the kicker for the Bears got annihilated after he hit the ball up the crossbar and the goalpost in the playoff game.

When we learned the next day that it was blocked, but no one cared because the initial reaction was, ha ha ha, that was awful. But the shot was blocked. Draymond Green made a great play. It wasn't about Kyle Lowry hitting the side of the backboard. It was a great play made.

So really, just a lot of nonsense all over the place today. Coming up, why Cam Newton will look different in 2019. This is The Drive.

Come on! You're on The Drive with Josh Graham, the sports hub at AM600, AM920. The Carolina Panthers opened up minicamp today. Oh, man, and there's a lot going on in minicamp. And we can all get very excited about massive headlines that we can continue to follow for months on end because the National Football League is king and everything is so important that we need to keep an eye on. John Fokie going to join us in just a bit. I don't even know where to begin with Carolina Panthers minicamp news.

So I guess probably I'll start with Cam Newton if... Wait, what just happened there? Well, Josh, it's the Women's World Cup. This is your update.

I'm your boy, Des, and I'm going to give it to you live right now. The United States is taking on Thailand and they are up already in the first period, one to nothing. What's her name? Abby...

I lost it. Abby something or other scored the goal. Alex Morgan. That's her name. Is that right? Yes, that's right. Alex Morgan with the first goal of the game, one to nothing.

United States, let's go women! Is this going to become a thing? Is this what we're going to do the entire tournament now? What?

What are you talking about? See, there's one bit of content on this show, a reoccurring piece of content that always works on this show. It's not ACC basketball. It's not college football. It's not the NFL. It's aggravating me.

Like, there is nothing that entertains the audience and the masses more than me being bothered. So, me getting into a training camp or making a mini-camp update for the Panthers and being interrupted with whatever the hell that was. Women's World Cup. Meanwhile, clearly confusing Abby Wambach who played five years ago with Alex Morgan who's been one of the biggest stars in the sport.

Her scoring to beat or to take the lead against Thailand early on. That is a really funny thing that happened. And you also calling the first half the first period as if it's bleeping hockey. Ah, but that's for the average man.

The average man doesn't know any of that stuff. So, they're just trying to follow, be patriotic. And it was Abby Dahlkemper. Her name popped up and it confused me because the scroll is ESPN.

Is Abby Dahlkemper a goaltender though? Maybe. But it was there and then I turned my eyes away. I looked back and it changed and it tripped me up there. They're up one to nothing. Thank you for that.

You're welcome. That really should be the degree of the update. Can you give me the music one more time? I'll tell you what this update really should have been from Dez considering his soccer acumen. What music? The music you were just- I can't believe I fell for that.

What music? The types of subtleties that I'm usually really good at following right there. This should have been the update from Dez. Like he should have just come in here and said, They're up one to nothing. Actually, if you really want to know, the United States just scored again. No they didn't. They're up two to nothing.

No they didn't. And uh- You're lying. I don't know what to say. We're still in the first period half or whatever it is. Are you telling the truth?

I am telling the truth. How many minutes into this game? They are- I have no idea. They are in the first quarter half.

What kind of update is this? They are up two to nothing. They are dropping the smackdown on Thailand right now. Did I? What was that? I've completely lost control. I'm seeing it now on Twitter. It was Rose Lavelle who just scored. And apparently we're still in the first ten minutes of this game.

So go USA, go USA, go. And I'm worried about what the rest of this show is going to be. Because if the United States are going to score this often, I'd imagine we're going to get more of these awful updates from Des. He's not doing this purposefully. He's not being this bad at delivering simple information on purpose. He's doing this, trying to give an update on the game, but he doesn't know how. Amazingly, I think this works better because, going back to the original point, it bothers me the most. Fans do seem to gravitate towards it for some reason.

I'm not sure why, but I have literally no idea what you're talking about. So Cam Newton was throwing today. And he had the shoulder surgery in January.

None of us here are doctors. However, there were a lot of doctors on Twitter yesterday wanting to talk about KD and Achilles injuries, which was great. But there certainly were a lot of football thrower technique Twitter experts, too. Looking at Cam saying, ah, it looks a lot different. This is going to be massive news for the Panthers. The biggest thing I took away was Albert Breer reported from SI on the Monday morning quarterback talking to Norv Turner, the Panthers OC, that Cam has been throwing for a month.

That was just mentioned casually. Remember, we learned about it from Jordan Rodriguez because there was this rogue fan who recorded Cam throwing a football behind this tarp and a fence that the Panthers have. Apparently, that was a couple of weeks after Cam started throwing. So Cam's been throwing for about a month now.

You can call it way ahead of schedule. What I call it is the shoulder injuries behind Cam. This shouldn't be the story that dominates training camp. We overreacted to the second surgery because we lacked information. All the information we were getting was coming from either Cam Newton on a YouTube page or from the Panthers. There wasn't any independent reporting being done to tell us what was happening with Cam Newton. I don't really care about his throwing technique adjustments.

I really don't. Norv Turner is encouraged. He was willing to speak at length about it. And I think it's a lot of wait and see. Does that mean he could throw a deep ball again?

That's what I want to know. Maybe we'll find out in the next few weeks. Maybe we'll find out in training camp.

Maybe we won't find out until game one against the Rams. But boy, I just can't do serious minicamp talk. It's called minicamp. Imagine having really serious conversation around something that's called minicamp. Like what? Imagine like your summer camp that you went to was called a minicamp.

You wouldn't take that seriously either. Where are you going? Oh yeah, we're going to minicamp Minnetonka for the summer.

Yeah, where is this minicamp? Well, we're going to Lake Norman to hang out for just a couple of weeks. It's going to be fun. Hopefully our shoulders don't get hurt. They aren't in pads.

It's June. If somebody gets hurt, it's alarming. It rarely ever happens at this point. Nobody's really running into each other.

So it's hard for me to take minicamp seriously. It just is. Last night, I watched game five of the NBA Finals at Twin Peaks. Got myself some wings.

And here's what usually happens. The wings, they're so big there that I always have leftovers the next day. And I almost didn't finish the leftovers. Twin Peaks is a great place to go.

And here, take the advice that me and Des are giving you here. Get the naked wings. The naked wings at Twin Peaks, that's the way to go. That's what I got last night in addition to the 29-degree beer. And then, of course, you don't even have to ask.

It was in the 22-ounce man-sized mug. Find Twin Peaks, perfect place to watch the NBA Finals or the Stanley Cup Finals, which resume tomorrow with a game seven. It's all going to come down to tomorrow night.

Haynesmole Boulevard and Winston-Salem, Twin Peaks, eats, drinks, scenic views. Can Golden State really take two more games off the Raptors as they're currently constituted? The new radio voice of the Charlotte Hornets, Jon Fokie, will join the show to discuss next. Let's begin. Let's talk about it.

Let's talk about it. You're on the drive with Josh Graham, the sports hub at AM600, AM920. The new radio voice of the Charlotte Hornets, Jon Fokie, with us. When I think of this song, I immediately go to Big Lebowski.

Do you do that as well? When I think of movies, obviously this is CCR, but it's a scene where the dude's driving in his car and he's banging on the dash, having himself a great old day. One of my favorite comedies. Jon Fokie, you can follow him on Twitter, at JWFokie, F-O-C-K-E, the new voice of the Charlotte Hornets, just moving into the Carolinas in recent weeks.

How settled in are you at this point, Jon? Thank you for spending time with us. Yeah, well, before I get to that, I want to go back to, you know, you're talking about the Big Lebowski and that song, and I think you're right that there's a certain generation of people that, the minute you hear that song, you immediately flash to that, you know, and it's after the dude finds his car in the impound lot after it got stolen, and he's driving around. But I would encourage people, because my older brother showed me this a few years back, there is the most amazing CCR music video to that song. So if you just go on and type it, and it's just, I mean, classic, like the guys in flannel shirts, you know, Jon Fogerty sitting on this, like, maroon vinyl couch. It's, I mean, number one, it's an amazing song, but this video, after you watch it, any time you hear it, you'll just think of Fogerty and his leather pants on that couch and the drummer with his beard and everything. It's amazing.

So I would encourage everybody to Google that, to find it on YouTube, and watch that music video, because there's just nothing quite like it. As for Charlotte, getting settled in, feeling pretty good. You know, we're still in the process. I'm down here now, and my wife will be coming down in a couple of weeks, so it'll be nice to get the family all back together. But just, you know, loving the first couple days of covering the Hornets, getting to know everybody here in the organization, and just get up to speed and learn the city.

It's been a blast so far. Dez, here's what I want you to do while we're doing a basketball conversation with John Fokie, the new voice on the radio for the Charlotte Hornets. I want you to find this music video he's talking about, Looking Out My Back Door, CCR. I want you to give me a recap of it after this interview is over, or at the end of the interview. Look up this music video.

He says it's great. I want to know what exactly happens in it, because I haven't seen it yet. But John, looking at last night's action in the NBA, really none of the game made sense to me. It didn't, where Kevin Durant gets hurt, and then DeMarcus Cousins, who was set to be bench played 20 minutes, had 14 and 6, then was awful down the stretch. Golden State had 12 more made 3s than Toronto did, yet the game is tight. And then Toronto's up 6, and the timeouts called, and then all of a sudden Golden State as New Life hits a couple of 3s. They win the game on the road without KD, without Kevon Looney.

I just ask you a very simple question here. The hell happened? Well, I mean, everything that you just said happened. And I thought it was an incredibly fun game, well, at the same time, you know, incredibly sad when you think about, you know, the injury and the possible severity of it to Kevin Durant. But, you know, when you kind of moved beyond that and just got caught up and swept up in the moment of what was happening out there, I mean, Golden State was, even with the injury, they seemed to be in control until Kawhi took over in the fourth quarter. I think he scored 12 in that final frame. And then, like you said, that timeout.

And all of a sudden it was a 9-0 run by Golden State. And then the boogie, you know, a couple of, I guess, mistakes by boogie. But to be honest, I thought that play that was called goaltending, to me, you know, in watching the replays, I really thought that that was a legal play. It was inconclusive. It was inconclusive if anything.

But the other one, you're talking about plays at Cousins, mistakes that he made. When was the last time you ever saw a moving pick called in the final minute of an NBA game? I agree. I agree, but it wasn't the right call. Like, after watching the replay a couple of times. And when you think about it, okay, a moving pick, you know, if it was to, like, I don't know, if it was at the beginning of a possession and, you know, in that moment maybe it's not that big of a deal. But the way he said it and how much space it got for Curry, I think they had to call it because that's a play that if you don't call it, it could determine the outcome of the game.

And so, you know, I didn't have a – I really didn't have a problem with that one. I kind of wish that the goaltending one would have been called a legal play right away. And then when they came back it would have said inconclusive because I really felt that that was a legal play. But, you know, I just think it's funny, too, how physical that game was.

And you have a call like that at the end. I mean, how many times did you see Kawhi or Lowry or – I mean, Klay Thompson got hit on the elbow by Lowry in the far right corner. I mean, there was a lot of physical play going on in that contest.

And I just thought it was a ton of fun, man. Like, from start to finish, the intensity, you know, when Durant was out there and the start that Golden State got off to and then having to weather the storm and then Kawhi taking over and just being an absolute machine for that, whatever, like four or five possession stretch there in the fourth quarter, it was a fun, fun game. It was disappointing, obviously, with the injury to KD. But, man, I want two more games.

Like, keep them coming. I want them that intense and I want them coming down to the wire because that's the best kind of basketball. I want to talk to you about Kevin Durant now. John Fokie, the new radio voice of the Hornets, with us. Golden State can't take two more games off Toronto the way they're presently constituted, can they?

I don't see why not. I mean, really, this is Golden State, you know. They won without Kevin Durant. They won with Kevin Durant. They've got two of the greatest shooters in the history of the game in Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. I would be hard-pressed to say that the Warriors can't do anything. Now, would you give them a 90% chance at it?

Probably not, but I also wouldn't count them out. I mean, they've got guys who have stepped up. You know, you talk about Cousins and he wasn't really expected to play last night, but he had that great burst to keep Golden State going for a while.

And I think Kavon Looney gutting through his injury has been impressive. Now, you know, when you look at what Toronto has and the depth that they have and the way they come at you in waves, you know, certainly the injuries have sapped Golden State's depth and their versatility with some of their lineups. But, I mean, you've got two of the greatest players in the game right now on that team and then one of the more unique players in Draymond Green. And Durant obviously kind of lords above them all because of the impact that he has on that team.

But I wouldn't say they can't take two games off of them. Kevin Durant, the last few years, we saw an emotional Bob Myers last night talking about KD and the way he's been covered, the way he's perceived when he went to Golden State a few years ago. The tags he was most commonly given was him being selfish at points, him being a coward for going to that team, him being soft for going to that team.

It seemed like last night he shed a lot of that. It's hard to attach any of that criticism on Kevin Durant for him trying to attempt and play in his condition and also suffering the injury as a result. In your mind, though, now that we have seen this year how he's been covered and saw what he was willing to do last night, do you feel the coverage that surrounded Kevin Durant, particularly this year, has been fair? I never really understood those narratives and having covered the league since Durant came in as a rookie in Seattle and covering him then and seeing the way that he would come out. I mean, he was a superstar then.

He would come out, he would do his warm-up, he would sit on the bench, and he would talk to every reporter that came by, myself, a number of times. Obviously, as his stature grew and he became more and more of a superstar, there were more and more demands on his time, and you start to cut those free. But I constantly think about that version of Durant, who was ascending to be this superstar and yet always had time and sat on the bench dribbling and answering every question that was posed to him and taking the time with the reporters. Some of it, too, in terms of that narrative and the coverage this year, is on Kevin as much as it is on the folks that cover him and speculate about his future and everything.

Like, if he would have come out right away and addressed some of these things that were left kind of out there, maybe the narrative is different. But I think at the end of the day, when we look back on what happened last night and how he came out and gave up himself for the team, I think a lot of people were reminded of that Kevin Durant that came into the league with the Sonics and was the face of that young OKC team and the guy that used to show up at college campus to play flag football and the guy, in my mind, who sat there after shoot-around or pregame on the bench dribbling the basketball and answering everybody's questions. So I think that's who he's always been.

I understand as you become a bigger and bigger superstar in this league that demands any time you have to make adjustments to your routines and things like that. So I think seeing what he did last night just reminded a lot of people, oh, we know who this guy is. We know who he was when he came into the league. He hasn't changed. He's about the team.

But some of the things kind of around him have changed. Jon Fokie is the radio voice of the Charlotte Hornets. You can follow him on Twitter, at JWFokie. He's somebody as well that we figured out, seems to be a fan of the Big Lebowski as he remembers particular scenes that surrounded this song. But apparently it's a great music video, too. So we've given our producer, Desmond Johnson, an assignment behind the scene to watch this music video based off what you've seen so far, Des. What have you found?

What stands out to you? I mean, as it is right now, it looks like a studio session like in an attic or something where they're just kind of jamming or whatever. The lead singer is sitting on a couch. Jon Fogerty is his name.

Jon Fogerty is sitting on a leather couch. It seems like they're just hanging out just having a jam session. It's a great song, though, Jon. Oh, without a doubt. And there's this one part where Fogerty's kind of got this like doo doo doo doo, and I don't know, a little dance to his guitar playing, which every time I hear it in the song, I can't help but do it myself, no matter where, if I'm driving in my car or hanging out at home.

So yeah, I would say tweet it out to your listeners so they can enjoy everything that is CCR on that song. Des, how would you describe what they're wearing? What are they wearing in the video? Nothing crazy. Fogerty looks like he's wearing leather pants with like a lumberjack shirt.

That's pretty crazy. When's the last time you wore leather pants? Probably during my MC Hammer days, probably around 89, 90.

Yeah, that's not really an ethnically white outfit that people wear, the leather pants, usually. Hey, he's rocking the monkey. I know, it's Jon bleeping Fogerty. Well, we're talking to Jon bleeping Fogerty, and Jon, I appreciate you squeezing some time in for us and letting us in on a music video that I think a lot of people aren't familiar with because of The Big Lebowski.

Anytime, fellas, any time. You got it. That's Jon Fogerty on Twitter, at JWFogerty. Man, I could just see the dude banging on the dashboard right now. I'm surprised you haven't cut me off yet during this interview because I'm looking at my screen. I'm scared. I'm petrified because when I look at my Twitter, I'm like, oh, shit.

Oh, yeah. The U.S. women's soccer team is not to be messed with. They've scored again, Josh. 3-0 over Thailand.

Me and Intern Alex are in here just hanging out. We have not seen the Thailand side of the field the entire time we've been watching this. The United States weighing the smackdown on Thailand right now. Lindsey Horn with the score. 3-0, United States. They're still in the, I don't know, what is it, Nick, first period, quarter, half, half. They're somewhere towards the beginning. 3-0, USA.

Go, USA. You're making it more difficult by saying period. Like, I think most people are familiar with the concept of a half.

Most people. Like, there are people who get confused with periods. Like, how many periods are there? It could be three. It could be more. But halves, that's the constant in basketball and in football and in most sports that we have. Like, what's the next thing you're going to say? It's an inning?

Yeah, the first inning. We've got some soccer. Let's do that soccer and soccer things happening here. Up next.

After a ten-year hiatus in the limelight, an unlikely star has re-emerged to become the hottest star in Hollywood. Keep it here on the drive. I have purposely closed my laptop because I don't want to be distracted with goals being scored by the U.S. women's national team at a frenetic pace. I think the game's close to ending anyway. The big stories of the day are coming up and the NBA Finals were last night and when I'm looking at the bigger headlines from yesterday, we usually get the last crack of things in the afternoon and I've seen a lot of really bad picks today. How did I know this was coming?

I actually need to pull up my laptop now to know you're not messing with me. The United States women's national team is here to let you know that they don't have time for your nonsense. 12 to nothing now in the 90th minute plus some injury time. Yeah, because they scored seven goals in the second half. Make it nine.

12 to nothing. The United States, Alex Morgan with five goals. This is the most goals scored by a single team in women's World Cup history in one contest.

Back to you, Josh. I don't even know if I could continue doing a radio show until the injury time is concluded that we get a final score on this because I'm terrified that if I continue that I'm just going to be interrupted here and it's a frustrating place to be because I thought this would just be a nice idea. We were discussing this before the show and talking about what a great idea it would be if we had some way to let people know that the United States had scored.

Their national team had scored a goal. We had a great idea that would be thinking maybe there's one or two of those a game and it would be important to let people know what happens. But we're at the point now that Oh, come on. No. Come on. Ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole. Come on Josh. It's unreal.

Get it into your soul, baby. Yo, would you believe in the space of time from the last time I told you they scored to right now, the United States women's team scored again. This is not a drill, people.

I am not making this up. Get hyped for your Women's World Cup team who's out here slapping around everybody. Thirteen to nothing right now, and that's a final, Josh.

That's the last update you're going to get today. That was Karlie Lloyd with the last score. Thirteen to nothing.

The United States, they're the winners against Thailand today. Thirteen goals. Thirteen.

They have more goals than Phil Jackson had championship rings. Thirteen. Are you kidding me? It's two years away from giving it or two goals away from getting its driver's permit. According to a radio producer for ESPN in Miami, there's a bar in South Florida that serves free shots after every United States goal.

There are going to be stories that come out later today because I've actually participated in this before. You'd go to a restaurant for a United States soccer game and I don't think it was free shots, but we do shots. We'd agree right at the beginning. We're going to take shots after every single goal that scored. So we did that and we got worried when the United States scored like two goals in the first ten minutes. Turned out they won two to one.

But imagine our worry. One, paying for shots when they were at a pace of, I don't know what the math would be. Eighteen goals.

That was the pace in the first ten minutes. In this case, thirteen shots of alcohol? Where do you end up if you're somebody who is participating in this?

That's what's happening in Miami, according to this producer, that they are serving free shots for every United States goal. When do you bow out? When do you say, I can't do this anymore?

Or do you say, since it is the middle of the afternoon, you know what, I'm at the point now, how often is this going to happen? I'm just going to get an Uber and I'm going to call out of work tomorrow because I know after about the seventh shot, let alone the thirteenth, I'm going to be pretty banged up. I'm going to be in bad shape here. I think the proper bar etiquette for something like that would be if you got into it to begin with, you got to stay until you fall out.

You can't bow out, right? But you got to keep going. But I'm asking you. Like where would I stop? I'm asking you where you would stop because you're not doing thirteen shots, are you? Thirteen shots of what? That's a good question. It's a great question, actually. What do you think you could handle? That might be the best way to ask it. If you were taking thirteen shots of something, what would it be?

Three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one, six hundred. It used to be partial to Goldschlager, but thirteen shots of it, I would be ripped. Tequila doesn't sound like a great idea. Nah, that'd be awful.

Thirteen. Maybe fireball. I'm talking about heartburn the next day. Or if you have esophagus. None of these are good options.

Yeah, I don't think any of them are going to be great. None of these would be recommended by a doctor. Hey, how about you take thirteen shots of fill in the blank? But I'm asking myself, what would be the worst, or excuse me, the best case scenario? You need almost like a liqueur. I think probably, probably a fireball would put you in the best spot. It'd probably be thirteen shots of Hennessy. No, I couldn't do that. Anything's possible. Tequila would be a disaster.

No, I think I actually unintentionally tried to do that in college and it did not work out. I can't handle it. I haven't drank tequila in fifteen years. Even today.

No, no, no. I had tequila for the first time this year in probably about two or three years. And, I mean, I hadn't even been drinking that day, really. And I had to step out for a second. I did the fake phone call. I pulled out my phone. I was like, I got a call here. And then I puked in the bushes. Was it Jose calling you? Mr. Corvo?

What's that? Oh, I got a fork call. My friend saw what was happening the entire time. He was like, you good, man? Oh, yeah, I just had to take this call. Oh, yeah?

Is that right? Why'd you walk over there and why aren't you still talking on the phone? It was business.

I got figured out very quickly is what I'm telling you. And what I'm saying is, that would be the last option. Tequila, stay away. But the first option, if you're taking thirteen shots of something to celebrate U.S. American goals, I mean... Crown roll apple, maybe.

It's smooth. Wow. You know, that's kind of mine and Jen's go-to when we do drink liquor. You can take a shot.

As long as it's not thirteen. Well, I don't know. These goals were coming, like, every two minutes. So you're having to take a shot as they hit the goal? Yeah. It should be noted, it was three to nothing at halftime. And the game ended thirteen-nothing.

Yeah. Thirteen to nothing. A lot of people laid out in bars in Miami right now, apparently, then.

Because, get them some help. It looked like an Alabama football game before they got a quarterback. That's a pretty good comparison. Nobody could score. Here we are. At the end of this game. Three to nothing at halftime, then thirteen to nothing. Sorry.

Or Army football. Where they're gonna have a half dozen possessions in a game and somehow control the ball for forty-two minutes. How am I so tired? I feel like I just ran like a marathon. What have I been doing the past two hours?

I don't even know. I'm so tired. Talking about soccer, but I'm all in on this soccer team. I really am. The U.S. women's national team.

You're seeing why. They are tied as the favorite with France to win the tournament. And I love this team. Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd and Julie Ertzbach, who was previously Julie Johnston, the wife of the NFL tight end. Megan Rapinoe scoring in this game. Did Carli Lloyd end up scoring? She scored the last goal. Alex Morgan had five.

Yeah. Julie Ertz did not score. What a scrub. You didn't score in this game. Actually, I think she did score. There were more goals. Did Julie Ertz score? Yeah, she scored earlier.

Oh, thank you for that. Yeah, I think everybody scored. Just give me the rundown of people who scored in the game so I don't look like a fool right now.

You've got to give us a minute. Okay, Alex Morgan had five. Megan Rapinoe had one. Horan had one. Rose Lavelle had two. Rose Lavelle had two.

We're just doing the math here. It's great radio. Megan Rapinoe had one. Rapinoe. Rapinoe. She should really change her last name.

No, you should just learn how to pronounce it. There's a couple in here. I mean, she's a star. Samantha Muvis. Samantha. She scored one.

Samantha. I love how you just punted. You just punted. Couldn't get that first down, baby.

The key in radio is you just butcher it and then say, Nailed it. That's it. Giannis Ataturtupa. Nailed it. Nailed it. Was that 13? Did we name off 13? I know Alex was five of them.

Probably. It's just a sad state of affairs if you're Thailand. Scott Van Pelt probably said it best on Twitter. What was Thailand doing at practice?

What were they working on? What was their mindset coming into this game? All right, guys. Ladies, we're going to be facing the U.S. Women's National Team who won the World Cup. They're the defending champs. Given the full Herb Brooks speech, their time is done. It's over. I'm tired of hearing how great the American soccer team is.

Screw them. You're about to be the greatest soccer team of all time. Everybody's going to know about Thailand women's soccer by the end of the day. And here's the amazing part. Surprisingly, everybody does know about Thailand women's soccer at the end of the day.

Yeah, they know now. You are listening to WSJS Winston-Salem. WCOG Greensboro. WPCM Burlington. WMFR High Point.

U.S. Women's Soccer wants Bama! We need to talk. Talk. Talk. This is the Sports Hub at AM600 AM920.

The lowest form of communication. Now back to The Drive with Josh Graham. Whenever a big story happens in sports, the morning show hosts, they get the first crack at things.

Say like Game 5 of the NBA Finals last night. Then things get passed along to Dan Patrick right here on the Sports Hub. Then it's David Glenn, our early afternoon host, who still has it while it's fresh, noon to three. We get the last crack at it here in the afternoons.

And usually what happens is you got to take a different angle and push things ahead when the conversation gets to the point where you're driving home in the afternoon. But today, DG is with us, David Glenn, our early afternoon host. Today I just found myself going through Twitter and watching television and listening to radio and I had to turn off the radio and turn off the television because I've just seen so many hot, awful takes today regarding the Warriors win over the Raptors. DG, in your mind, just in your research of following this game and what you heard this morning getting ready for your show, what's the worst take you've heard today or the one that you rolled your eyes at most in response to the Warriors win? Gosh, I don't know if anything's worse today than what we've heard for much of the last 30 days, which is that KD is a wimp. KD is not a team player. KD is soft. KD is not tough enough. KD is worried about his next contract rather than fulfilling his current contract.

I mean, horrible takes. And as we now know, the Achilles, for those who were wondering. And of course, he was in jeopardy last night because he played.

You don't tear your Achilles while watching if he had continued in that mode. So I know there were bad ones today, but I'm not sure they are worse than what we've heard in recent weeks. What's the biggest ramification, though? KD's injuries going to carry into the summer.

Like, we were just thinking out loud and KD has followed the lead that Lebron's led. The one-year contracts year to year. That way you keep teams trying to be competitive year to year and risk and leverage the potential of you going elsewhere if they don't try to keep rosters strong. Maybe that's something you don't see as much because now we've seen an athlete get burned getting injured on this one-year deal as they get set for free agency or a one-on-one as he can opt out if he chooses to. What do you think the biggest consequence of KD's injuries going to be in the next month?

Oddly enough, short-term repercussions. The Toronto Raptors are your new favorite to win the NBA title. That's the biggest front burner repercussion because with a healthy Kevin Durant, the Warriors are going to win their fourth NBA title in five years.

Without him, this is a coin flip game in Oakland on Thursday and it's another coin flip game if it goes back to Toronto for a game seven. So that's a pretty big repercussion for the NBA as a whole and those two franchises in particular. In the bigger picture, I'm not sure we're going to be able to draw an all-encompassing rule about this, Josh. We don't even know for sure, for example, right now.

We're all wired differently, but I think it's fair to say that most human beings would react one way if they thought their employer did not have their best interest at heart. But something went wrong. Versus if they did have Kevin Durant's best interest at heart.

And sometimes stuff just goes wrong. And in my experience, the way most people are wired, if Kevin Durant believes that the GM's fighting through tears to share his feelings for KD, if he thinks that's authentic and he thinks that's symbolic of how the Warriors really feel about him, and if KD believes they were patient for these last 30-plus days and he's appreciative of that, well, then KD could opt in for one year, KD could ask for a five-year deal, and KD could find other ways to stay long or short term. But if he has any question, if he saw some of those articles and wondered why, nobody from the Warriors put out a statement on his behalf saying, hey, KD is tough. KD is a team player. We don't doubt him. It's our doctors holding him back. That's what we don't know here. And that's why I don't think Kevin Durant's situation can be applied to the NBA at large, at least not until we know which way Kevin Durant views his own franchise.

A take that bothered me today, DG, was the one that was just instant raw reaction. Somebody gets hurt, so we jump to, oh, he ruined his next max contract. He's not going to get a max contract from other teams if he chooses to opt out.

And that just simply doesn't make much sense to me. When you look at players who have missed all or most of an NBA season, you go through current players. You have Paul George. You'll have Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, Kawhi Leonard, Blake Griffin, still current, Steph Curry. If you go through history, you can find Kobe and MJ, David Robinson, guys who have missed a year or significant time in a series in a season as well. And they turned out to have pretty good careers even after their injury.

Katie's 30 years old. And I wonder in your mind when you're talking about the New York Knicks, the L.A. Clippers and the Brooklyn Nets, three franchises largely over the last few decades that have been bottom feeders, being the ones potentially who have the space to land a Kevin Durant and might be the front runners, according to reports. Do you view them thinking any differently when it comes to offering Kevin Durant a max contract after the injury we saw last night?

No. Kevin Durant's going to average $40 million a year or more over the next three to five years. And that's whether he stays with the Warriors, jumps somewhere else, goes four or five years in terms of the term, or goes for something shorter. He's going to be cracking out in something in that neighborhood on average. Now, could this impact the end of his career?

Maybe. Could this be an example of a lot more tread off of the tire for a guy? Remember, he turned 31 this year, and it's not like the old days where some guys didn't make it to the NBA until they were 23. You know, this is 12 years of tread off the tire and now an Achilles injury. Can that impact him down the road monetarily?

Of course it can. But nobody should weep for Kevin Durant, remember, in the broader sense. This is a guy who's already made hundreds of millions of dollars. It's a guy who's going to make, no doubt about it, hundreds of millions more because, again, those salaries plus what he makes off the court. This is not a guy who has to worry about paying the rent or waking up without a roof over his head the way real-world people have problems in third-world countries. He's going to be fine. His short-term financial future is not significantly altered.

And if he loses some off the back end, that's the very first world mega-millionaire problem to have. And I think even Kevin Durant would be willing to say he knew there was some risk to his decision to play last night, and he's willing to live with that part of the results. We made a poor decision on today's show earlier. David Glenn's with us, our early afternoon host, where I had Desmond Johnson interrupt, I gave him permission to interrupt the show every single time that the U.S. women's soccer team would have scored. The game started at three.

I figured, okay, we're probably going to have one, maybe two interruptions, possibly three. Thirteen! Thirteen to nothing winners today.

The U.S. women's soccer team beating Thailand in their opener. And Jill Ellis right now is at the podium. She's answering questions about not showing mercy. And I agree with every part of this, and I wonder what you think. Here's the quote. For these players, four years from now, some of them have been working, some of them even longer. I don't find it my job to go on and harness my players and rein them in. This is a world championship. End quote. The U.S. putting up 13 on Thailand. Do you have any issue with it?

I don't. It is the World Cup, and that matters. I've been a coach in youth soccer and other sports, and especially at younger ages, it can be outrageous what one team does to another. It can even be outrageous when the 4A school at the high school level is playing an unequipped 1A school. But these are the best women's soccer players in the world.

These are 24 countries that are there because they earned their way there. And you can change your tactics in the second half if you want to. But fundamentally, I think Jill Ellis is right. I'm sorry that your show was interrupted 13 times, Josh, because I know the quality of content that you provide. The picture you painted has me thinking of like Chevy Chase in one of the vacation movies, where they're stuck in that traffic circle, and he keeps saying, you know, in London, there's Big Ben. There's Big Ben. There's Big Ben.

There's Big Ben. Except for you, it was just goal! No, no, no. Well, what happened? See, it was three to nothing at halftime. So, probably about an hour or so ago, it all happened at one point. Like, we were joking, like a segment started, and then I get interrupted, and then literally two minutes later it would happen. And it was a 30-minute stretch or so where it was just constant that these things were happening. And it was bothering me. And you know what?

That might be the greatest form of entertainment. I've found that more than ACC basketball and Cam Newton and the Panthers and the NBA Finals, the thing that people enjoy the most on this show is the host when he's irritated. And mission accomplished earlier today. But looking at Cam Newton throwing, speaking of Cam, I wonder what your takeaway is when you learn the news, according to Albert Berea from the Monday Morning Quarterback, that Cam has been throwing for a month now. We learned about it two weeks ago when Jordan Rodriguez reported, based off a video that someone obtained, videoing the Panthers without their permission, that Cam was throwing a football.

It's the first day of minicamp. What's your biggest takeaway from the fact that he's throwing regulation-sized balls and he's been doing so for the last month? Well, you know, part of my response is I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on TV. You know, the mistakes that so many fans made with Kevin Durant's injury and pretending to be medically knowledgeable when they're not. So my bottom line is, for example, when the Panthers trainer Ryan Vermillion said publicly recently that Cam has met every threshold, every line that they have set up for him, he has been able to cross that milestone. When he says that Cam has been throwing pain-free, that's hugely important, because two years ago the Colts were not saying similar things about Andrew Luck after his shoulder surgeries. And we all know how that train wreck went when he missed the entire 2017 season after the Colts more often said, hey, don't worry about it, he'll be fine by September.

Nobody said he was throwing pain-free. Ryan Vermillion, Panthers team trainer, said Cam is. So I say trust the medical professionals behind the scenes. David Tepper is a smart owner. He knows he has an investment worth billions in terms of the team, but tens of millions in terms of Cam, and he has two years left on his deal.

They know the smart timetable better than we do on the outside. I guess they'll be second-guessed if Cam is injured, but at least to this point, I think those professional medical people deserve that benefit of the doubt. Speaking of professional medical people, tomorrow we're going to be joined by a guy who's written the book on sports injuries and the most important ones that have impacted modern-day sports the last 50 years.

That's Dr. David Guyer, who is a Wake Forest alum out of Charleston. He will be on tomorrow's show, a sports orthopedist, to talk about Cam and Kevin Durant in the news. But one more thing on Cam. Do you think that this story goes away by the time training camp gets here, knowing that Cam's throwing it and things look good? Obviously, it's a different throwing motion, but is this still going to be the dominant story during camp in Spartanburg?

There's no doubt about it. I mean, 1A is going to be Cam Newton. I think if you circled the number one priority at each of the 32 mandatory minicamps, or as you said, late July preseason camps, the one for the Panthers is Cam's health.

1B might be the fiddling back and forth. Ron Rivera's new defense is going to be a combination of the 3-4 and the 4-3, and there are new toys like Gerald McCoy to go with that change in defensive philosophy. But it absolutely starts with Cam Newton. There's just no doubt about it. We can have fun with his new receiving corps and new and improved Christian McCaffrey, and Luke Kuechly is the quarterback of that defense that has a chance to be dominant again. But no, it starts with Cam. And if he's not healthy, the Panthers don't go the way they're supposed to go.

That is the biggest lesson of last season, and I think that's why that has to be the number one thing under the microscope come late July once again. D.G., always good to hear from you. We'll talk next week. Thanks, Josh.

Take care, buddy. You got it. That's David Glenn.

Wait, wait, what happened? Is D.G. still there? No. Oh! Get out of here! Get him out of here! Does he deserve the air horn with that and the music? Maybe? Does he?

Does he? I mean, the music is very good. Like, in soccer, growing up playing soccer, this was the song that we all got behind. But this isn't going to translate to other games, is it? Like, we're doing this for the Americans, that's fine. Yeah, no, the other teams can go up. We're not doing it for Zimbabwe?

No, no. I don't know if Zimbabwe's in the field. We got to find out when the next time the United States women take the field. Sunday. Sunday? And then there'll be an action the following Thursday, so next Thursday.

Oh, wow. That's a lot of time in between games, isn't it? Five days. Five days in between games and the group stages. How long is the World Cup? A month. All right, I'm in. Are you?

I'm in. Have you never watched the World Cup before? I've watched it, but I've never sat down with a booklet that explained everything about it. Like, how long it was and the teams. You just acted like a complete stun.

Completely stunned. Wait, there's five days in between these games? Yeah, that's a lot of time. And then they have to get through the pool play, and then they have to get through elimination rounds. Is that enough time? A month? Single elimination, yeah.

Oh, single elimination. Okay, all right. Well, yeah, I'm in. Today was enough for me. I already thought I was going to be in, but I'm in now. All the way. Well, crank this up, baby.

Because the World Cup's just started. Everybody together. Ole, ole, ole, ole, ole. Ole, ole. We take it to the house. Next.