The Phone's Gotta Eat First (5-3-23)

He's amused Cam Newton. He's been insulted by Charles Barkley. When some idiot in the press asked him, if you know what you know now, what you scheduled this game. He's interviewed Matthew McConaughey.

And he's taken on Big Blue Nation. He's just completely taken the wind out of my safety. It's time for The Drive with Josh Grant.

Welcome to a Wednesday Drive. You are listening to WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad, where we generally don't talk much about ratings on this show. Ratings of games, ratings of events, because we talk to the average sports fan and why would they care? Unless you're a suit for a TV network, you probably aren't paying much attention to the ratings. However, ratings can be a tool to track trends and it could even reveal mistakes by management, which brings us to the NFL Draft.

The numbers are in, WD. And the NFL announced that the draft attracted an astronomic audience of 54.4 million across the three days in Kansas City. Their average viewership was 6 million people, up 12% from last year.

12%. The growing ratings of the draft is just another example of how the NFL is king, just a dominant force in the American sports landscape. But it also exposes what's become a massive oversight by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.

And here's what I mean. The NFL views college football as a partner while the NBA neglects college. What is the draft? What is the appeal of it? It is the introduction of future stars into the NFL and NBA, but it's also a crowning moment for a college team's players.

If you're a college fan for Alabama or a college fan for Clemson or for Florida State, you are locked in to see where your guy's gonna go. There's investment there. The two sports work in concert with each other. And when you look at the way college football and the NFL treat each other, they do act as if they're partners.

They act as if they need each other. The NFL does not get in the way of Saturdays until after conference championship games and after the Army-Navy game. They do not play on Saturday.

Why? Because they understand that is college football's day and vice versa. We saw it yesterday with the college football playoff announcement. They're gonna play semifinals on Thursday and Friday of wild card weekend week because they don't want to get in the way. They don't want to disrupt what the NFL already has.

The NFL has a rule that you have to be three years out of high school, unlike the one year, one and done in the NBA, before you can jump to the NFL draft. All of that speaks to a good, healthy relationship between Roger Goodell and the powers to be in college. And as a result, football fans like both.

This Nielsen number, I think, reflects that quite a bit. 24% of Americans polled say that they are football fans. And they were asked to identify which sport they like first, the NFL or college football. When they looked at the fans who said college football was their favorite sport, only 5% of those saying they are college football fans said they're not interested in the NFL. That means 95% of the college football fans are also interested in the national football league.

Now let's get to the NBA. Adam Silver acts like he detests college basketball. He acts as if he doesn't need it at all, as if it can't help him. So what does he do?

He undercuts the sport. Here's a G league path. So that way you don't have to play in college basketball.

The one and done. Stars aren't going to develop before they step on campus. We want these guys to play as soon as they can, which makes it interesting why the one and done still even exists in the first place. What this does is isolate college basketball fans because the guys go off to the NBA players that, you know, the college fans themselves never really got to know in college. So there's not as much investment and watching them in the NBA or watching the NBA draft products, and there's not as much of a fostered relationship there, which brings us back to the Nielsen numbers.

This is crazy. 23% of college basketball fans say they're not interested in the NBA. So again, going back to the college football number, only five said they weren't interested in the NFL. Multiply that number by about five, and that's what you got in the NBA. These are basketball fans. These are people that say they love basketball, and you've got 23%, about a fourth of them, one out of every four, that says they are not interested at all. That's the way it was framed in the Nielsen. Not interested at all in the NBA?

That's a problem. And that's on the commissioner. That's on Adam Silver. If College Hoops was supported by the NBA, the way that the NFL just hasn't gotten in college football's way, the draft would matter a lot more. Think about what we're about to see in the NBA draft. Victor Webayama going to go number one, Scoot Henderson going to go number two.

We still don't know who has the top few picks, the lotteries next week. But neither of those two players played in college. I defy you to tell me you and the audience have watched Victor Webayama or Scoot Henderson play a full basketball game.

I defy you to tell me that, right? The NBA has this thought, oh, it doesn't really matter where the Stars play. It's people are going to find them anyway. With respect to the Greensboro Swarm, they think that, oh, if Scoot Henderson was playing for the Swarm or playing there in a G League at night event, people would swarm there, pun intended, to watch them play. And there'd be a TV deal and all these stars.

That's not how it works. We're never going to see a G League game attract 10, 15 million people the way that a Duke Carolina game can. The way that NCAA tournament games can. So if you're the NBA, it just sounds like a really bad miscalculation to not have your Stars, to not have your future Stars playing in a place where people can watch them, where they can get to know them. The Victor Webayama deals being talked about as a generational talent, and maybe he is a generational talent, but it's not going to be received the same way as Zion was. Zion Williamson became the biggest star in basketball, NBA or college, his year at Duke because he was on ESPN more than LeBron was. Because there are limitations on how many times the Cleveland Cavaliers at that point, or I guess it would have been the Lakers, I forget. Yeah, the Lakers could be on national TV while there isn't such limitations on college. I remember that year Zion was on ESPN nine consecutive games. So it's become the norm that, hey, you'll watch the NBA draft and you won't know any of these guys who they are, even if you're big basketball fans, because they're not playing in college basketball.

And I think that is a bad thing. I really do. 3-3-6, 7-7-7, 1-600. If you want in on the show, let's go to Stewart and Greensboro. We've got a big show today. Jake the Loam, he's going to join us at about 20 minutes to talk about Bryce Young and that pick, B-dot, six man of Carolina basketball a little bit later on.

Stewart, what do you have? A very good conversation you have there today. May I just interject to your argument that NBA is much more of a global sport than American football is. There's more people that probably watch the NBA outside of the U.S. than watch it on the inside. Okay, that's a good point that you bring up.

I want to make sure I emphasize what you're talking about. Like Victor Webunyama, he's an overseas guy. He shouldn't really count so much in terms of being the number one pick. But Scoot Henderson, that's a guy that before the last five years, he's playing in college basketball. So you're right, there are exceptions like Victor, but Scoot would be one of those guys who would be playing in college hoops.

So it is a good point that you bring up, something I hadn't considered. And I would also say that with football, you know, I think that there is so many more, but I guess you could make the case for basketball too. But a lot of these folks are involved in combines and the pro days and so forth. They know that that's the talent market there. Where college basketball, you know, there's so many other European leagues and so forth that you can go and get the talent as well.

And, you know, just like any supplier, they probably don't want to be solely reliant on one source. Where with the NBA, I mean, excuse me, with NFL, they have to be mostly reliant on college football. Now you've got the XFL and USFL that may change that a little bit, but it's basically relying upon that one league where basketball, there's multiple suppliers of their next talent.

I understand that and I appreciate the call Stuart. You're right, it is more of a global game and that point should be emphasized. However, that doesn't mean you can't support college basketball. All of what you said can be true. And also Adam Silver is undercutting college hoops by creating the G League and Knight League and lifting up over time and all these other things and not supporting college basketball the way that, say, the NFL does.

It's just a different approach and if you listen to the way the commissioner talks about college hoops or the way he doesn't talk about college hoops at all, it speaks to that point. Wanted to hit on another subject really quickly. Will Dalton, he's the executive producer of this show.

W.D. has to watch The Natural tonight. Are you excited about that? I am excited about it. I hope it's better than Hoosiers.

I know what I'm going to be watching tonight. The Carolina Hurricanes, they open up a second round. Yep, they open up a second round series with the New Jersey Devils tonight and this is precisely the matchup the Carolina Hurricanes wanted because Carolina has greater expectations and aspirations than New Jersey does. That's why they're going to win the series. It's the difference between a marathon runner who has been a trained long distance runner who's run 25-30 marathons and another guy who hasn't run the 26 miles before.

It's doing it for the first time. Their expectations are different. One could outperform the other but the expectations are different of what this means. The Devils, they've already achieved their goals this year. It's their first playoff appearance this year in five years. Plus, they just beat their greatest rival at a seven game series that ended two days ago.

They're fat and happy. The rest is just icing on the cake. The Canes, meanwhile, they've defined their success this year by what they do in the playoffs. After clinching the Metro, Rod Brind'Amore kind of cheapened it by saying, yeah, but we have greater goals.

We aspire to greater goals than this. The Eastern Conference Finals is the floor of defining success for Carolina and this is what they're doing. They're going to be the floor of defining success for Carolina and this is their fifth straight playoff appearance. Carolina is going to win this series in five games because they're more rested.

The Devils are not rested. The Canes, they have two goalies they can rely on. The Devils, they have a pretty good rookie goalie but he's a rookie goalie nonetheless. The Devils aren't that daunting with their power play. It's about at the same place Carolina's is and Carolina should jump all over New Jersey given that they have a home ice advantage in the series as well. Seven o'clock puck drop for game one tonight. I like the Canes in five. Days after the Carolina Panthers drafted a quarterback number one overall and the week of the Kentucky Derby, there is no better guest for us to talk to than horse enthusiast and former Carolina Panthers great from the Panthers radio network now Jake Thelom who knows a thing or two about quarterbacking in the NFL. Jake, the time's always appreciated.

Let's start here. Scott Fitterer was with us a couple days ago and the special trait he pointed to with Bryce Young that separated him was his poise. More precisely, he said, oh the game just slows down when you watch the tape. You look at his face mask, it's always downfield.

He's never rattled. The buzzword we've heard during the entire draft cycle was processing. However, Scott didn't play the position.

You did. You took a team to the Super Bowl. What's one thing that jumped off the tape to you when looking at Bryce? Well, I think that's the biggest thing. I think just his mental capability, everything above the neck.

Certainly, we're going to hit it right off the top. He is 5'10 and a half, 5'10 and a quarter. He's 200 in pounds, so he's not this big imposing individual, but he plays the game so fast because of what is above the neck. That's the thing that I've always been extremely impressed in watching him play. I always thought two better drives I've ever seen him do were this year and they were both in losses. One, at Tennessee, a night game, hostile crowd brought his team down to try to kick the winning field goal, I believe. And just watch him change the protection, change everything, and the route to the running back and the running back unfortunately dropped a pass that he had right on the money. Then again at LSU, night game, extremely loud environment, brought his team down to tie it up with overtime and LSU goes for two in overtime and wins it. But those games, to me, that kind of just showed the game was slow in his mind.

You didn't see the whites of his eyes and by Scott talking about you never saw his face mask up or down, it was always forward. And that's exactly, I think, when you watch him play, that's his secret sauce, so to speak. I went to the LSU game too when he said that, the way he broke out of the pocket and kept his eyes downfield on that touchdown pass. But as you were talking there, I was thinking about another play in that game. Even his mistakes, like to your point, he didn't really have negative games or bad games. The two losses, they dropped 49 and they went to overtime in Baton Rouge and Brian Kelly's going for two just because they don't want Bryce to touch the ball again. I remember in the red zone, they're inside the 10 and he's scrambling and knows exactly where the line of scrimmage is, stops and throws a sidearm pass that was a mistake that was picked off.

Like even the mistakes, Jake, there's still something there that jumps out, right? Well, he's just, but he's played, it's at every level. I know he started very early in high school in California, I think at like Cathedral High School, and then he transferred to Modern Day, which is one of the premier high schools in the country. I think maybe three Heisman Trophy winners out of that high school.

Then he goes to Alabama and he sits for one year because you have Mack Jones, who is playing lights out, becomes a first round pick, and then here comes Bryce and wins the Heisman his sophomore year and played very good football last year. And just, it's never like, he's never been under the radar, so to speak. He's always been someone that has been, you know, up on the upper echelon and always under scrutiny and always have eyeballs on him. And it seems like over and over he just makes play after play and correct decisions. And it's pretty evident. When you're around his parents, I was able to meet his parents last week when he flew into Charlotte on Friday, and Julie and Craig, I believe, were their names.

And just unbelievably thankful, blessed, but just classy people who, they understand the big picture. And that's just the way kind of Bryce is. He gets the significance of how large the first overall pick is, the presence that brings, but he embraces that. And that's something that, it's just going to work well in the locker room because he doesn't come across as this showboating type of guy. I think he'll come in, he'll put his head down, he'll go right to work. And that's how you win it over with players, by doing it on the field, in the classroom, processing the information that's going to be given to him, getting guys in and out of the huddle.

That's kind of where you win over guys. Jake Delomes with us here on WSJS from the Panthers Radio Network, Panthers Hall of Honor in DuckD2. You mentioned his parents. There's a lot of stuff that goes out during the draft, videos and things of that nature. If you haven't seen it, the best video I saw come out of the draft was when they sat Bryce down and they had videos of Nick Saban and then his parents sending a message to Bryce. And it was a long message that his parents sent, but it just gives you a really good sense of his upbringing and how grounded Bryce was, but also his parents too. You've also had a chance to sit down with Bryce since he was drafted. What did you want to learn from him? Well, as crazy as this sounds, I'm not so sure there wasn't anything I needed to learn because we've had so much that we have broken him down.

When I say we, the media has broken him down so much ever since the last game leading up to this draft. But just having a sense, just seeing how he reacted since the relief. The one thing that I think I enjoyed the most, seeing a little footage of when he saw his locker, there was two things. When he saw his locker for the first time in Bank of America Stadium, he's in his locker and he kind of looks up and it hits him. And it's like, it's just, he's overwhelmed. And I know he looks at his parents like, come look at this.

That to me was, that was very telling. It wasn't a game of football or do you love what football brings to you? I think he loves the game of football. You have a lot of guys that play it just because they're good at it, but they like what football brings.

This kid loves it. And then the next thing, the footage of CJ Stroud getting picked second overall. He's walking to go do an interview and he stops and he looks and it's at the draft. And he hears CJ Stroud and his reaction because their history, they go back to, I think, grade school it sounds like.

So happy for a fellow really competitive when you think about it. But those are two things that just kind of showed you, yeah, this kind of kid, this kid's different, man. And certainly, listen, the elephant in the room, there's a ton of pressure. Everybody knows there's pressure, but that's part of the game. He's one of 32. That's, you know, when you're one of the number one ranked high schools coming out in the country, you go to Alabama, that's pressure to play quarterback there.

It is what it is. And I love coach Saban when he was on the set prior to the draft. Before we had the party inside the stadium, I'm watching some television and he compared him to Steph Curry.

And he just, as a point guard, the way he sees things, the way he maneuvers in the pocket, he doesn't take these hard hits. So listen, I think the sky's the limit. Let's hope the Panthers have hit correctly because if the Panthers have hit correctly, then that's great for all of us. Panther fans, North Carolina in general, South Carolina, you know, being relevant. That's the thing.

I was talking with someone this morning. True Breeze comes to the Saints in 2006. Well, for the next 15 years, they have, in their mind, they have a chance to win it all. Every single year. There's something to be said for that.

Take the loan with us on WSJS. The first thing you said is the thing that was discussed the most during the process. And you're right.

What do we need to learn from him? He's been scrutinized in every single way over the last few months, which is why it's always a pet peeve of mine when people say, oh, Caleb Williams would have gone number one in this year's draft. Oh, Drake May would have as well. I'm like, well, we haven't scrutinized those guys down to a, you know, to a crisp during the last few months either. So that's always something.

The unknown in the future is always better than what we have right now. But we'll put that aside for now. The Panthers, the first thing that you said was his size, his obvious frame. The Panthers are no strangers to stars with size concerns. Sam Mills, 5'9". Steve Smith, 5'9". And last check, Steve Smith still is 5'9". What has frustrated you, if anything, about the way that Bryce's frame has been discussed?

Well, I don't want to say it frustrates me. Listen, I understand the whole Steve and Sam deal, but this is just human nature. You know, Sam was not drafted. Steve was a third round pick.

You know, Bryce's first overall. So it's going to be scrutinized, and that's just part of it. History in the NFL really and truly, it hasn't shown to be that, to be positive, I guess you could say, for a shorter quarterback. But we're starting to see somewhat of a more of a trend that it's okay. And the way the rules are protected, the rules now are so much in favor of the offense and protecting of the quarterbacks and things like that, then I think it works in its favor.

And you have many guys, I've seen guys that are 6'2 and above get plenty balls batted down at the line of scrimmage. And it just, you know, that's part of it. It's a guy, either you can or you can't. You manipulate guys with your eyes. You can kind of move the pocket. You move the defense with your eyes.

You find windows and angles. And he's done a great job. I think he had 10 passes batted down in his college career, two this year. So it's just something, and it's not like he's playing at a lesser division. He's playing at the top division in football in the SEC, playing against multiple NFL players, week in and week out. So listen, he's going to get scrutinized because of the size, but the only way to prove them wrong is to go out and do it.

And that's something that I have a feeling it's not going to affect him in his preparation for games. Like he said, I can't grow. I've been this size the majority of my life. This is what, this is who I am. In addition to being a Panthers legend, you are a horse enthusiast too, and it's Kentucky Derby week.

Jake Delone with us here. What got you into horses? I'm third generation. My grandfather was an old cattleman and farmer. And obviously you had horses on the farm to use for plowing and things of that nature. And it was more so I think on Sunday afternoons, they would go to these bush tracks. So they would call them and the quarter horses would run. And so I'm third generation. I didn't grow up hunting and fishing and things like that or golfing. I grew up, we always had some horses and that's my love.

That's what I enjoy to do. It's helped kind of fill that competitive void once football has been over with. I see Forte as three to one odds for this week as the betting favorite. Is there a horse or a jockey that you look at and you think, wow, this is somebody to keep an eye on for this weekend? Well, listen, it's 20 horses in the field. It'd be the largest field any of these horses have ever run with.

And that's the whole difficult thing. Epicenter, I loved more than anything last year. And honestly, it looked like he was going to be the winner. And he came out second because a long shot who drew into the race because of the defection was able to come up the rail and win it.

So it's who gets the trip. Certainly Forte has done nothing wrong. I think he's a very nice horse. I think he'll have every chance. I'll be pulling for him, but it's so hard.

I like this verifying at 15 to one. I don't like his post position too, but it looks like he's coming into the race doing extremely well. And then this horse out of California named Skinner, he's 20 to one. I think he'll be maybe a little longer than that. His breeding suggests that he'll continue to get better with age.

So you always kind of look for, unless you just truly love someone. And I do like Forte, but Angel of Empire would have to be Forte and Angel of Empire. He's eight to one, so he's not this true long shot, I guess you could say. But certainly there's not an overwhelming favorite going into this year's Derby.

That's a given. You were at last year's Derby. What did you decide to wear? You don't strike me as a flashy guy, but did you dress it up a bit?

Oh, absolutely. It was the last minute deal and we went for both days, the Oaks day and the Derby day. And yeah, it wasn't, trust me, it wasn't flashy. You kind of wear pink on Friday.

That's the Oaks day. And I did kind of dress to that. And I think I had a nice blue blazer and a nice shirt and blue slacks or whatever it may be, but I was fine. But no, I can't say that I'm going to be doing the red carpet whenever I would go to the Kentucky Derby. I was dressed nice, but that's kind of not, I'll leave that to the professionals to dress that way.

Sounds about right. Jake Delum, you are a professional in many senses, especially when it comes to your analysis on quarterbacks and on horses in that matter too. Appreciate you spending the time.

Enjoy Derby day this week, wherever you may be. And we'll talk soon. All right. Thank you, man.

Thank you, Josh. If you'd like to go see the Carolina Thunderbirds on Friday night, 3, 3, 6, 7, 7, 7, 1, 600. The first to call in gets those tickets. But if you're not able to get in right this second, we have one more pair we're going to be giving away for Friday. In our next hour, we do have opportunities right now for you to win tickets to go see wake baseball.

We have one real Q voucher remaining for this week. We've got tickets and vouchers pouring out our ears right now. It's Carolina Thunderbirds giveaway brought to you by East Coast wings at grill, by the way. Tomorrow and Friday are dash days, which we're going to have throughout the minor league baseball season. It's all pretty cool headline that the wooden bat league team, the Carolina disco turkeys are going to be playing some games. At an addition, the true truest stadium going to be playing at Bowman Gray. It's going to be pretty cool.

They have six games at the couch, home of Wake Forest as well. Big summer of baseball coming up. Your way to win a real Q voucher or to win wake baseball tickets is to also call in right now at three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one 600 and tell us something good in a segment we call weekly positivity.

Oh, yeah, I should have been a farmer. WD is going to watch the natural tonight, which he has not seen before. And he will give us a recap of the 1984 classic on tomorrow's show. I actually want to want to start in a sports place right now, WD. The Carolina Hurricanes play game one later on tonight of their second round series with the devils. But in the last few hours, we learned what time puck drop was going to be for game two Friday night. It is eight o'clock, which means I think I'm going to be there on Friday.

It sounds like WD is going to be there too. It's about an hour and a half, give or take a few minutes from our Kernersville studio and PNC arena. We'll see if we're able to get into the building in time before puck drop on Friday. Then all of us as a station are going to see Charlotte FC on Saturday. What a weekend in Charlotte it's going to be. Charlotte FC in action, the Wells Fargo championship going on too. Big, big sports weekend. For a real Q voucher, which you can visit off Country Club Road in Winston-Salem, we go to Matt in Pofftown. Matt, tell me something good. Yes, sir. I'm just so glad you got to go to Murrell Fest once again and then follow it up by one of my favorite weekends of the year being from Kentucky, the Kentucky Derby.

Before that, we actually have Cinco de Mayo. It's going to be a great, great weekend. What are you going to be wearing? What are you going to be drinking on Saturday for Derby Day? I will be drinking some nice bourbon, some Woodford's.

I steer clear of all the mint and everything else. You don't want to ruin it, but I will be supporting the dicks as well, so I have my dicks set on. There you go. You're going to go to the Wake Forest Baseball Game, it sounds like, on Saturday. That sounds like a good time, Matt.

All right. Enjoy that on us. Wake Forest, the second-ranked team in the country, which means Robert in Winston-Salem, is going to get some barbecue from real Q in Winston-Salem. Just as long as he tells me something good. Hi, Robert. Hey, Robert.

Hey. Yeah, tell me something good. I love Wake Forest Baseball. Oh, he wants to go to the baseball game too? How about we just give him tickets to the baseball game this weekend as well?

We should. We got tickets for Sunday. All right, so for Sunday, Robert, you now have plans, and would you say that that's good? That's great. All right. Well, hold on one second. You just said that Wake Baseball's good.

We know that. Tell me something good with you. Tell me something that's going on that's good, Robert, before we let you go.

I'm happily married, my kids are grown and gone, and I'm doing okay. That is all very good. Enjoy the baseball Sunday, okay, Robert? Very good. Enjoy the baseball Sunday, okay, Robert? Yes, thank you so much. There we go.

Stay on the line. WD will get your information. WD, tell me something good with you. Well, the obvious one here, tomorrow's Star Wars Day. How are we celebrating Star Wars Day tomorrow?

I'm not sure yet. Didn't we do a Star Wars draft last year? Yeah. I think we did. We'll have to find something new this year.

Yeah. We did enough drafts in the last few weeks. We did. We'll get to Star Wars Day tomorrow, but I was doing some meal prep yesterday after I got home from the show. I was grilling some chicken.

You're the guy who posts your food on Instagram. The phone's got to eat first. It's got to eat first. It's artsy, so I had like a teriyaki seasoning.

The phone's got to eat first. It's the first time I've heard that. That's amazing.

That's a good joke. I had a teriyaki seasoning. I had a garlic herb seasoning. Because I was outside grilling by the pool. It was such a nice day yesterday, and I realized my pool's open now. Wow. So when I'm watching movies every week, I can just go sit out by the pool with my phone and watch. Hold a minute. You watch these movies on your phone? I don't, but I would if I was by the pool or on my laptop. Yeah, there you go.

I'll accept laptop. I forgot that it's Cinco de Mayo time already, so now I'm really excited. That is exciting. Yeah. Wow. Oh, one more thing. Willow the dog and I both got haircuts yesterday. I saw that.

Yeah. That looks so good. Willow was so- She looks so happy to see you.

She didn't in the picture, but she was super happy to see me, and we had a great night last night. I had never seen the movie Mrs. Doubtfire. I've never heard of it. So I watched Mrs. Doubtfire last night, because you're not the only one that has some blind spots.

Your blind spots are a lot of them. I have fewer, but I watched that. Willow enjoyed it, and I enjoyed my haircut. It's less. So you'll see me on the video stream wearing less, fewer hats, fewer hats on the stream for the next little bit.

And that's been Weekly Positivity. Still got this real cue gift card. You know what? I'm going to save that. Grammar school. Suspense. Grammar school.

A lot of ground I want to cover with B. Dot, who joins us now. Six man of Carolina basketball. But before he takes me to grammar school, he sent me a picture yesterday of him, Nate Burleson, and Roy Wood Jr., Dot wearing a nice tuxedo out at the Correspondents' Dinner over the weekend in D.C. He sent me a picture pretty close to the stage watching Miss Diana Ross perform, which must have been something.

What's the best story you can share with me from your weekend in our nation's capital? I think you're muted, Dot. Hmm. The suspense is killing me. I can see him. He said he'll be right back. I think he muted. I can see him, but I think he's muted. This is a good opportunity to remind you that we're streaming video on YouTube. Just search The Drive with Josh Graham.

He'll be back in a second. And make sure to subscribe. If you want to. Yes, they do want you. They do want to. If you want to.

If you're wondering the perfect time to subscribe, Saturday would be a good day to subscribe, because that's a day that wouldn't have any consequences for yours truly if you were to subscribe then. But you got to own this. I do appreciate a lot of people picking it up. And picking up on the show.

That's a cool thing. And our conversation with Jake The Loam is already up there as well. Wanted to cover a lot of ground here, because I know Dot and I disagree on something that he put out on his social media today. I can hear him now. There he is.

Hey, Dot. What's happening? OK, so what's the best story you could share with me from over the weekend in D.C.?

I don't know, man. It was just a beautiful time. Just being there, being able to see my man Roy Wood do his thing.

I've known him for a long time. So being able to see him was dope. Seeing Diana Ross at 79 years old, still going crazy on stage, like, it was amazing. Just how fast I had to do everything. Like, I was in Winston-Salem at an alumni event for my WSSU alma mater family. Got on a plane, flew up to D.C., was there long enough to take a shower, get changed, go to the gala, come back to the hotel, and I was like, get to the wrong airport only to catch an Uber to the correct airport and barely make my flight to get back. Wow, that does sound pretty busy. And then when I got back, Josh Graham, I realized that I had lost my keys in D.C., so my car was stuck in the airport in Charlotte and I had to get a rental car to drive to Winston-Salem to finish the festivities.

Sheesh. You got anything planned for Chris Paul's 38th birthday Saturday? We don't know.

It's a groin injury he's dealing with and we don't know if he's going to play in games three or four. Okay, let's get to grammar school, why don't we? Put one in the air. It's time for B Dot's Grammar School.

Nobody better than B Dot. Free game, during game, post game. Brought to you by Heritage Hardwood Floors. When it comes to flooring, they have no ceiling. Heritage Hardwood Floors.

Where are you right now? They have no ceiling, baby. You know how it goes down. Bitch, y'all are our sponsors over there at Heritage Hardwood Floors. They hold us down like a ceiling, like a floor does, like a floor is supposed to. They hold us down like a floor is supposed to.

Heritage Hardwood Floors. Where are you right now? I'm at the crib. I'm in my bedroom.

Okay, just checking, making sure. I like the picture of you being at someone's place doing something and then just yelling in their living room, Heritage Hardwood Floors. Well, it is kind of awkward because I'm in the kitchen and my daughter, she's sitting here eating food. I'm doing her homework, so I just burst out and saw her and she popped up like, yo, you all right? But she's used to it. All right, yeah.

She knows what's up. Okay. I got a caustic question that I'm excited to ask you about. Okay.

Before we get to your questions for me. We talked about on a previous visit, I think it was when I was filling in for Adam Gold, you figured out what a mint julep was. And mint juleps are going to be consumed in bulk this weekend at the Kentucky Derby. And we're excited for Derby Day.

Can't wait. All you got to tell me, Dot, is what's the name of the venue that the Kentucky Derby is held? I have four options for you.

Oh, thank you. Would you appreciate four options? I would appreciate one option, but I'll take four.

Okay. A, Belmont Park. B, Churchill Downs. C, Pamlico Racetrack. D, Camden Yards. Those are the four options.

No, no, no. B, Churchill Downs. B, Churchill Downs. That is correct. Yes. Yes.

Churchill Downs. I'm a winner, baby. I'm a winner, baby. Don't you ever forget.

Daddy's a winner. Did she help you with that? Did she give you the assist? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Excellent. Okay. What do you got for me? All right, Josh, this game is simple, but it's your first time hearing this. I give Josh three words or phrases, actually two words or phrases, and a song that is familiar and used heavily in the urban demographic.

If you get two out of three correct, he gets a satisfactory grade. Do you have gifts to give away? Yeah. I have a Real Q gift card worth $25 on Country Club Road. And if anybody knows anything about barbecue places, and I imagine a lot of people do around here, $25 gets you a long way.

I tried to get as much as I could out of $25 at the Real Q with one of these gift cards before. And I had like 10, I had a dozen wings. I had a pound of barbecue. I had fries. I had a drink.

You can feed the whole family with this. So if you can call in and help me out. Sounds like you had a nap as well, Josh Brown.

There's no doubt. 336-777-1600 if you want to help me out and be the one that I go to. Josh, what's a bird? Now listen, it's two different ways that you can use the term bird. And I will give you credit if you can use it either way.

If by chance you can use it both ways, I'll give you two points you already passed today. But what is a bird? I'm going to take a stab at this and say a bird is like a pistol. Like I remember the game rapping about having a bird and I think it was specifically a desert eagle and a song with Lil Wayne. And I think a bird's also like a middle finger, which I won't flash for the camera right now because that wouldn't be a very friendly thing to do. So I think that's what a bird is.

It's like a middle finger meant in disrespect and also like a pistol. And you are 0-2, Josh Brown. No! These were good guesses, I thought. They were. And people will say flip the bird.

People have said that, but that's not what I was discussing here. The two words. Bird one is a brick of cocaine. That's a bird. That's one.

That's personal. Secondly, a second use for a bird is a ditzy female. She's a bird. Like, oh, she's a bird. Like Hillary Banks on Fresh Prince of Bel Air back in the day.

She was a bird. You see what I'm saying? I do see what you're saying. Okay.

A ditzy female. Did not know that. And of course, when in doubt. Guns are drugs. I chose the wrong one. What's next?

We did. Three letters. S-K-I. What's ski? Ski. S-K-I. Ski. Three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one, six, seven.

Let's go to Jew and Winston. S-K-I. Ski.

What's it mean, Jew? Ski? Yeah. Oh, man. He might've got me with that one. Oh, no. No.

Do you have a guess? Do you want to like, Hey, Don, you want to help out our listener just a little bit to see if you can jog his memory and helping me out? Yes.

To the listener. It's a suffix. If you added ski to something, what word would you add ski to? Mask. What's that? Mask. Mask.

Ski. No, that's a prefix. That's a prefix.

I need a suffix. At the end. At the end. Okay. Thank you for the call, Jew. I think he has nothing.

Yeah. He had nothing for you. That's tough. That's tough, Jew. He's been very reliable for me in the past.

Appreciate the call from Winston Salem. So it doesn't stand for something? The S-K and the I? No. No. No.

Oh, okay. So it's like a suffix. Yes. I thought like a suffix was like Mr. and Mrs. Is that a suffix? Is that what it is? What comes at the end of a phrase? If the beginning is a prefix, what's at the end? It's the end.

It's the end fix. Okay. Is that a word? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So are you asking? Are you asking me what comes first?

The chicken or the egg or who's on first? What are you saying? Are you asking me what comes before? Let me go to Mark in Kernersville. Mark, help me out, please, Mark.

I think skiing is, our ski is cocaine. Okay. I'll take that as a guess because that's what happened last time. Right?

When in doubt, Mark, you'll understand the game. When in doubt, it's cocaine. Okay, fine.

Ski, cocaine related. Boom. No, man. No. That one is not cocaine. Three for three cocaine questions. Amazing.

Add that to my list. I do appreciate him taking a stab at it. We have someone on the third line too, to see if they can help me out. My eyes are watering right now. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's amazing how this one has stumped the entire triad.

Usually the callers are pretty good. We're over two and I have no idea what it is. So I'd just like to quiz the caller again to see if we can get an answer for this. Who are we going to next? All right, let's see if we got Artie on the line here.

Artie for a real Q gift card. What does ski mean? I'm not a hundred percent, but I think it's a dude who is desperate for a woman's affections. Broski your heart up.

Oh, okay. I think I understand that a bit. Dot, what do you think? I'm going to give it to him just because he used the word broski. I was thinking broski the entire time. I was thinking that can't be it.

What's up broski? I was thinking that the entire time, but I thought that was a white thing. That's what I was telling you.

This is the end. It's the end of the word ski. Like when would you, what would you, what word?

That makes sense. I used to call people broski all the time. That's a thing, bro. Like I asked Isaiah, Isaiah says ski is like, that's your homie. That's your friend. Like Josh, you're my broski.

I never, I never thought of it that way. Art, congratulations. Congratulations Artie. And I'm still alive to get a passing grave. What's the last one? All right, Josh. Now I thought deep and long and hard for this one. Okay. Turn down the music please. W D. Oh boy. These are the ones that get nervous.

Penhouse, rooftop, birds on feed. No deceiving, no deceiving, nothing up my sleeve, no teasing. I need you to get up on the dance floor. Give that man what he's asking for because I feel like busting loose and I feel like touching you.

Can't nobody stop the juice. So baby, tell me what's the use. I said, it's getting hot in here. So what? Thank you. Thank you. Finally got one, man.

About time, about time. You did. Congratulations, Josh. And you got a satisfactory grade in today's episode of grammar school. You put out a video today that you were mad about the NIL for high school kids.

It's going to be ridiculous. No, I see. Can I make you feel better about it? Sure. All right. We're the 28th state to pass it. 27 others have passed it.

And so we're not leaders on that. We have data on it. Do you want to take a guess what the average NIL deal is worth for high schoolers we found over the last few years? Yeah. They educated me on that. I think 60 to $120.

60 to 120 bucks. So there are a few, but it's few far between exceptions to the rule. But really we're just talking about extra money for clothes, extra money for some food, extra money to go like... It's small stuff in small communities.

They don't have these big donor bases. It's extra money to divide the locker room. It's extra money to have people upset. $60, $100 to a 15 year old is different than $60, $100 to us.

It's not monumental money, but it is a divisive thing. If you want to give the high school athletes something right now, especially the basketball players, you want to give them something? Give them a damn shot clock, Josh Graham. I'm sick of going to high school basketball games. They're just running around in circles for 30 minutes. Give them something that really helps, not trying to pocket watch and trying to scheme on each other's money and all types of foolishness before they even get to college.

They don't want to be kids, bro. Dang. What percentage chance are you going to be at UCLA North Carolina in Atlanta that was announced yesterday, the CBS Sports Classic?

About 98%. Okay. That sounds like it'll be a fun environment.

I'll give you a few options. It's going to be the first ever ACC SEC Network Challenge next year or ACC SEC Challenge for basketball. Who do you want other than Kentucky? Vanderbilt with Stack potentially coming back, Rick Barnes in Tennessee, maybe a rematch with Alabama from last year? Yeah, I really want to see Alabama. I like Auburn.

I got a homie that's going over there to play point guard over there, my man Biz. I would love to see Biz get a chance to play against Carolina. That'd be a big matchup.

Auburn, Carolina would be huge to me. I don't think I would like Vanderbilt. I don't want to see Stack. That's too much pressure. I don't like those two coaches going against each other.

I don't want to... So I imagine you would not be in favor of the battle for Atlantis. Carolina is going. We don't know the matchups. Michigan's going to be there too. I would definitely want to play Michigan. You would want to play Michigan. I would definitely want to play Michigan. Absolutely. Caleb Love versus Carolina. I would love it. I don't know why, man, but it just seems so storybook.

It seems like the villain origin story. Over under 29 and a half shots, Caleb Love. Under, but over 20 points though. Dot, you're the best, man. Love you, man. I'll talk to you next week. Love you, dude. Be good.