Tim Kurkjian (6-4-20)

Welcome back into the drive. Darren Vought with you instead of Josh Graham. He's gone today and tomorrow.

Happy to do it. Shaking off the rust in our first hour here as it's been a while. And I mentioned before the break of all the major league sports that are gearing back up to get back into regular play as irregular as it might be on their respective calendars. Major League Baseball. They kicked, punted at a 114 game proposal from the Players Association earlier this week and didn't offer a counter proposal from the owners and they're going to aim for something like a 50 game season or possibly even shorter.

And that's why we bring in people like Tim Kirchhen of ESPN who has covered Major League Baseball for a long, long time. Tim, many thanks for being here. I hope you're doing well. My pleasure. And yes, all's well here.

I hope all is well there. Absolutely. Tim, I mentioned the 114 game proposal. Not good enough for the owners. Why no counter offer this time after, you know, they offered 82 games for a slate last week and nothing in return to try and meet the union halfway. Well, there'll be a counter offer and it was no surprise that this was not accepted.

This is how these negotiations work. Unfortunately, what Major League Baseball wants to do now is make sure, number one, that everyone's healthy, that the season ends, including the World Series, by November the 1st, just in case there's another wave of the pandemic. And baseball wants to play as many games as possible, but 114 just doesn't make any sense to them on several levels. The way it's been explained to me is the owners will work much better if they play, say, 60 games. They pay the prorated rate for each game, which they agreed upon in March, and then they play, you know, extended playoffs. And October, they make a ton of money because that's where the money comes from, is October baseball. And that way, Major League Baseball feels like it can semi-salvage a season, semi-make some money, and go from there. The big question, of course, is are the players going to agree to a 60-game season when their proposal was for 114 games, which, of course, would mean a lot more money for the players.

But now they have to find a middle ground, and that's going to be the real, real hard part. And what would you say, I mean, I'm not asking you to do anything but really speculate based on what you know at this point. What's your confidence level that will have at least a short form of a Major League Baseball season?

Well, I'm not confident of anything these days. Things have been so unusual, but my best speculation is we're going to play 60 games, and we're going to play from August 1 through September 1. We're going to play a month in October in the playoffs, and I think that's going to be it. And I think at this point, I think we should all be thankful if that's what we get, because the alternative is potentially no baseball at all, which is entirely possible because so many other roadblocks have to be crossed before we can do anything. I mean, getting the money straight and the number of games straight is very difficult, but there are equally difficult issues, quarantine, testing, keeping everyone safe, scheduling. Where are we going to play these games? We don't have the answers to hardly any of this stuff. So I still think we're going to play, but if we don't play at all, I'm not going to be surprised. Well, you said it.

The variety of elements involved in these negotiations has made everything unusual, to say it at the very least. You've covered this league for many years. We've got the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak. Minor League Baseball contraction was likely on the way anyway. Has there ever been a more complicated time for the league?

No. This is the strangest, this is the weirdest, and this is the worst I've ever seen, and it's basically nobody's fault to this point. I covered the 81 strike, and that was really difficult to cover. Of course, I covered the 94-95 strike. That was equally difficult, but this is different, and this has so many different elements to it, with so many unanswered questions, and so many people trying hard to do the right thing, and yet they get stopped at certain borders with municipalities and the federal government and all sorts of rules, as there should be in a situation like this. And that's part of the problem, is we really don't have any precedent from which to draw here to figure out what to do next. You know, 94-95, at least they could look back at previous labor negotiations and figure out how, in a way, to get something solved. But trying to solve all this is extremely difficult, and as difficult as it's been, both sides deserve a little bit of the benefit of the doubt that they're dealing with something that we've never had to deal with before. Yeah, and I think the benefit of the doubt, Tim, is it should be granted, because as you mentioned, everybody's trying their best.

I mean, there are self-serving interests, and everybody's just trying to get their piece of the pie. I don't even like to go down in this well of potential sadness with you, but I know you just as much as an optimist as someone that's got a really good beat on how things are in that league amongst the players and the owners and everybody across it. I, as you know, do broadcast work with USA Baseball, so I'm excited for next week's draft, and plenty of our guys are set to move to the next level. What's the worst case scenario? Obviously, no 2020 season, but wouldn't that thus push 2021 to starting potentially without fans and moving into even more labor negotiations? Yes, that would be the worst possibility is this season is wiped out, and therefore, it will clearly affect free agency after this season, because all those owners that lost all this money are not going to be willing to pay for premium baseball players because they just lost the season. That's clearly going to affect the 2021 season, which you're right, we're still not even sure if we'll have fans in the stands for that season, and then the worst of all possibilities is that after 2021, we have to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement, which is hanging over everything right now. And that's part of the issue is I'm worried that the players and the owners are negotiating for something two years from now rather than what's going to happen right now in order to get baseball back on the field. If you look at the real doomsday situation, this year's lost, next year is affected, and I'm not saying this is going to happen, but who knows if there's even going to be a 2022 season after the 21 season if we don't come to some sort of an agreement. We could have a lockout, we could have a strike, and that's something we don't want to think about, especially in troubled times like this.

That's really good stuff from Tim Kirkton of ESPN who is our guest. You mentioned the owners will not go without a counter proposal, even though they skipped that part of the process this week. So, what is next what is going to be the next step and when can fans expect to see that come to fruition. Well, the two sides have to continue working, like every second of every day to try to find, again that middle ground where everyone is going to be happy, because clearly they're not neither side is happy right now.

And that's going to be the challenge is getting the financial part settled, which is always the hardest part, and the most important part, and then start to look at the rest. So, Major League Baseball kind of let everyone know, hey, we're interested in a shorter season, but we and we need to be done October the 31st so that's what the next. That's what they're going to deal with now is it 50 games, is it 114 games, is it right in the middle, that's what they're going to be negotiating and then hopefully eventually they will give us the news say all right we've agreed on 63 games starting August the first, whatever.

That's what we're all hoping for is that they can at least come up with something that works. I certainly hope so. As a fan of Major League Baseball, I think these negotiations are about as important as any in the history of the league and the last thing we want to see is a potential, you know, missing two out of three seasons or something catastrophic like that so Tim Kirchhen of ESPN really do appreciate the time, keep up the good work stay safe and hopefully we'll catch up with some games to talk about here soon.

Thanks. That's Tim Kirchhen at Kirchhen underscore ESPN on Twitter, one of the best in the baseball business, for sure and I don't mean to paint it with such dark colors, but that's what it's what I keep thinking about. The what ifs, the what ifs are are scary, they're heavy. If you are a fan of Major League Baseball, and look, I didn't cover the league in 1981, I was years from being born. In the 90s, I was a fan, but I was a young fan. It's not like I really knew the ins and outs of those negotiations.

So to me, this this is the most at risk. My favorite professional sports league has been in my lifetime. And I really, really, really sincerely hope we get a season. This year, next year, of course, with or without fans at the beginning, and in 2022.

It's, again, I hate painting the doomsday picture, but it's real, it's a possibility. And Tim is, again, optimistic and realistic at the same time. So I knew he would give us the straight. So my thanks to Tim Kirchhen of ESPN for dropping by here on the drive. On the other side, Robert, what are we doing on the other side? I'm an idiot when it comes to baseball, and you're gonna smarten me up a little bit.

Okay, we're gonna call it baseball for dummies. That's next on the drive. Josh Graham loves to talk sports. He also loves the way his new jeans highlight his man curves. Ooh, hot. Oh, yeah, that's hot. You're on the drive with Josh Graham. This is like power-walking music.

I didn't even think of it like that. Steady, nice and easy. I don't know what this is, but it's circles by Post Malone. Oh, huh.

You know what? I like it so much more without him. See, I like Post Malone. Don't get me wrong. I think he's a very gifted musician, but some of that gets drowned out by all the alcohol and the rock star lifestyle and the slurring of your words. I would take you much more seriously if I could just see you as an artist and not so much the things that come with you being an artist. I get that. I get that. He's got some catchy tracks.

The instrumental there, to me, sounded a lot different than the actual song. Without him on it. Yeah, once he's on it.

But that's beside the point. I'm Darren Vaught, and for Josh Graham, this is the drive. And we're doing something baseball-related in this segment, Robert, right? This is kind of your brainchild when you knew I was gonna come in for two days. Yeah, because during this whole quarantine, I know some people just forget about COVID while this is going on, but I really wanted to improve myself during quarantine. I felt like there wasn't so much about the outside world as much as it was introspectively. And I know that you are somewhat of an expert when it comes to baseball, which is something that is outside of my wheelhouse.

I wouldn't even say it's a house, you know? So I wanted, while you're here, and maybe we can do this in the future, you to teach baseball to a dummy, which is me. So I've collected a few phrases, maybe a baseball player or two, that I'd like you to explain to me, so maybe I can get a better grasp on baseball because of it, if that makes sense. Alright, okay. Make no mistake about it, I'm all for talking baseball, pretty much anytime we can. That's why I'm glad you're here today. Yeah, so this is perfect.

Go ahead. I thought we could start off kind of easy with a ball. What the hell is a ball? A ball, as in B-A-L-K. Well, it's an illegal motion by the pitcher that results in penalty of advancement of all baserunners. So anybody that's on base gets to move forward to base if the pitcher balls. Correct, and now there are several different motions that can lead to or constitute a ball, but most of the time it involves the pitcher pretending to make a movement toward the mound as if he's going to pitch to deceive the runner. To try to catch him unaware. To try and catch him unaware and throw over at the bag. So the idea is once you make your first movement toward the plate as if you're going to pitch it, you've then committed to the pitch and you have to go through with it. Gotcha. Okay, so a ball in my life would be like I make a fool of myself for everyone else's enjoyment, so they get to move a whole base forward with the girl they're with or in a conversation like, look at this dummy, but then I am penalized for doing such a maneuver, maybe streaking at a party or something.

And then you're just left to go back to the mound and figure it out all over again. Yeah, again. So to start off number two, I have what the hell is an ugly finder? I've heard this term before.

I'm not sure. It sounds like something that I did in college, you know, like all my friends end up with the good looking girls and I've got the one with the cross eye, you know? So you were an ugly finder.

Oh, dude, I can find them right now. I can tell you how many are in this building. There's three and a half.

If you squint, she looks pretty good. That's where the half comes from. Well, in baseball, an ugly finder is a well hit ball that is either close to or right at someone. So imagine like a batter turns really quickly on a pitch and lines a foul ball into the dugout. And it dings somebody. Or if it doesn't and it just comes close to digging one guy in particular, baseball is a sport just like any other where camaraderie is a big deal and teams joke around with one another. You might want to razz someone a bit.

So you say, oh, that one was an ugly finder. It almost hit Joe. Oh, I get it. Baseball and their rules. We're just two guys talking baseball. Okay. And finally, I felt like I wouldn't get a full enrichment of baseball unless I didn't understand maybe its past and some of its players. So I would like you to give me just just a brief history or maybe an understanding of who R.A. Dickey is. Wow. R.A. Dickey.

Okay. Knuckleballer. That was not always the case, as is common with knuckleballers. A lot of the time they start off trying to make it as a more conventional pitcher, but one thing leads to another. And in order to save their career and be good enough to withstand some adversity and stay in the bigs, they convert to strictly a knuckleballer. And that's the case with R.A. Dickey. He won a Cy Young because of it with the Mets.

Look at this guy. A handful of years ago and has since. Well, he was older. So that's the other benefit of being a knuckleballer is typically you can play a little bit longer. Guys like Tim Wakefield for the Red Sox lasted a long time.

No clue. Right. To be honest with you, I don't even know what the hell a knuckleballer is.

I'm just smiling and grinning. But R.A. Dickey was a knuckleballer and he won a Cy Young award. He ended up on a list I saw. It was like baseball players whose lives would make fantastic movies. Why would R.A. Dickey. Okay. Yeah.

No, this is a great question because there's the baseball adversity. Right. Saving his career by totally changing himself. They said one pitch changed his entire.

Inward. Right. And he was just a mediocre at absolute best pitcher in the major leagues. Was on the verge of getting cut or designated for assignment and taken out of an organization completely. And then he was like, all right, well, wait a minute.

Here's my last ditch effort. I'm going to learn a knuckleball, which is, you know, the little dancing pitch. It's slow. OK. That's what a knuckleball is. Gotcha. You throw it with your knuckles rather than I'm making these hand motions toward Robert is if you guys can see it. But you just you hold it with your knuckles as opposed to wrapping your fingers around. Gotcha. Not the claw technique.

Correct. So we learned a knuckleball and that saved his career. And he had a couple more seasons in the tank because of it.

Not to mention a Cy Young Award season. Wow. His story is also fantastic. He wrote a book. His autobiography is called Wherever I Wind Up. I actually own a copy.

Would be happy to lend it to you. Nice. He went to the University of Tennessee, which is where he met his wife.

Go Vols. And he struggled. He's he is a a a bit of a troubled person in his youth and came out very, very explicitly about his infidelities in that relationship in his book.

And he just overcame a lot of of mental strife in both baseball and life. So I think that's that was probably a good explanation of why you saw it on that list. OK, cool, man.

This is awesome. I feel like I know I didn't know what I didn't know what any of these things were. We had to go back to a knuckleball. You asked me about a knuckleball. You didn't even know what a knuckleball was. I used the phrase to inside baseball the other day. And I was like, please don't ask me what that means. That's the funny thing about the term inside baseball is that it in and of itself is inside baseball.

People don't understand what you mean by. Oh, I like it. I like it. And since we're on since we're on baseball players, I figured we could do one of our favorite segments when you come in comparing.

And I've got some baseball players here that I would like you to compare for me. I love that we're just switching between whimsical music, you know? Yeah.

Well, I like this one. That was the ESPN baseball music, right? Yes. Before. And now we've got the we weather or whatever it is. You remembered.

Look at you. I feel like we're growing together. Anyway, so if you guys are new to this, comparing with Darren is where I give Darren two sort of similar things and I ask him to compare them. And today I'm asking him to compare fictional baseball players to their counterparts in the real life Major League.

I don't know if it's their actual counterparts, but this is the only players I knew that could be similar. And I would probably not as far as to bet that it won't be. But go ahead. Yeah.

Just humor me here. So we've got I'm going to start off with Rick Vaughn wild thing from Major League. And I would like you to compare him to John Smoltz.

OK. Not a ton in common, but I'll give you this. In the original Major League, Rick, the wild thing, Vaughn is primarily used as a starting pitcher. In Major League two, he loses his stuff. His fastball does not have nearly the velocity it does.

And that's part of his character arc in that second story. So he gets moved to the bullpen. Well, by the end of the film, he's a star closer and helps them win the pennant by throwing ninety nine miles per hour at the end of a game as their closer. John Smoltz has had very successful runs as both a starter and a closer in his time with the Atlanta Braves. Oh, see, I only knew him as a closer because, listen, my baseball knowledge goes from like two thousand Braves like Marcus Giles, Chipper Jones, Andrew Jones.

That's all that's all I got. So like I knew John Smoltz was a closer and I thought Rick Vaughn was a closer. He was not either way.

Moving on, I would like you to compare Steve Nebraska from the scout to Doc Ellis. A pitcher I know only because he threw a no hitter on acid. He threw a no hitter on acid. Correct.

Steve Nebraska was not on acid at the time, but I believe at the film's conclusion in the scout, Steve Nebraska played, of course, by Brendan Fraser. There you go. His name was escaping me. Throws a no hitter. Right. Correct. Correct. In for the Yankees. But you've never known if they win the World Series. It's only game one of the World Series in that movie. Yeah. Yeah.

But I mean, that's that's the story. You know, we threw you through a perfect game. Who won the game?

I didn't know the game. We're pushing up on the hour. I'll try to move this along a little.

This is the last one. We got Moonlight Graham from Field of Dreams, the old man that I think my mom kissed in her younger days. I would like you to compare him to Bobby Cox. Like I said, the Braves old manager.

Oh, this one's a good one. So Braves fans might realize this. Bobby Cox has been ejected more than any manager in Major League history.

I didn't know that, but I would guess him. If you include postseason ejections, it's one hundred sixty one times nearly a full season. Look, you're a savant. How did you pull that number out? I would assume multiple times it was for telling umpires they needed to get their vision checked. Well, in real life, Moonlight Graham or Doc Graham, as he was known, the North Carolina native, was an actual doctor who prescribed glasses to many.

Very nice. Look at you. And that's comparing with Darren. This is the sports hub Triad.

You can listen in Greensboro on 93.7 FM, High Point 104.9 FM, Winston-Salem 101.5 and Burlington 104.5. You're tuned into the drive. Well, that was fun. I'm glad you enjoyed that. I do feel smarter. I do think I know more about baseball now for you being here. And I do appreciate that. Good. That's what I try to do. Now, if Major League Baseball doesn't have a season, two of its next three seasons, I don't know how marketable that makes me, but I'll have some summer reading until they come back. And I'll at least have occasional fill in spots on the drive here in place of our friend Josh Graham.

Back at it on the drive, Darren bought in for Josh Graham. Some more power walking. Yeah, no, absolutely great power walking music. You know, I was at a place yesterday that our guest, Brian Geisinger, happens to love the North Carolina Museum of Art. They've got outdoor displays with a walking track that goes around. And like that track there embodies what I was feeling and doing when I was there.

Just out for a little stroll on a nice sunny Wednesday. Super Lonely by Benet. And it's called Super Lonely? Super Lonely, but yeah. Just hit me right in the wheelhouse. I love that, Robert.

Beautiful. All right. Well, let's talk basketball now. BG, Brian Geisinger of ACCSports.com, the ACC Sports Journal, Buzzbeat Podcast and Sports Channel 8 at BGeis underscore bird on Twitter.

My good friend, BG, what's going on, man? How are you? I'm good. I'm jealous. You were at the North Carolina Museum of Art yesterday. That's a great place to be, especially when it's when it's nice outside.

It really is one of the best places like in the state. It is. And it was beautiful. And I unplugged for a couple of hours and desperately needed it. So it was it was a good place to be, I assure you, as you well know.

Yeah, it tends to be. So, you know, this morning, the NBA Board of Governors approved this new twenty two team plan to resume and finish the regular season, move into the playoffs. And it included teams that were within six games of a playoff spot.

Correct me if I'm wrong. The Hornets were within seven. So they missed this cut. And, you know, it's not just barely missing out on a playoff berth, but it's it's a lot better than we expected them to be at the season's beginning, though.

No, absolutely. I mean, in more ways than one, I think, in part because no one saw, you know, maybe outside of the Hornets organization, no one saw Devontae Graham. You know, his rocket ship taking off this season. And I would say maybe even people inside the Hornets organization didn't even know because Devontae was coming off the bench at the start of the season. As Terry Rozier was actually starting at point guard for the Hornets in October and parts of November before Devontae just got too good.

But he turned into one of the best pick and roll and observable shooters, pick and roll pastors in the NBA. I mean, Devontae still has plenty of issues defensively, but he was really, really good offensively this year in Charlotte outperformed their point differential. They had some really nice late game moments. Malik Monk hit a game winner. Devontae Graham hit a game winner and stuff like that had them actually, yes, outperforming their point differential and their net rating.

And I just think in general, too, like I've talked about this a lot with my buddies, Spencer Percy and Rich Randall on the Buzzy podcast. But like the product was just entertaining to watch. Yes, they lost a lot of game.

And sometimes it was in perhaps frustrating fashion. But they played a fun. They shot a lot of threes.

They really spread the court out this season. Still ran a lot of pick and roll like they used to do with Kemba. But now with Devontae Graham. But I thought that you saw moments from some of the young guys this season.

P.J. Washington had a nice rookie year. Obviously Devontae was incredible.

Miles Bridges a little up and down, but even Cody Martin from Little Knoxville, North Carolina, right there in the listening audience. Yeah, I mean, even he had a nice rookie season and looks like a rotation piece in the defensive wing going forward. So even though they missed the playoffs, I think they exceeded expectations this season.

And I think that you can define that in a variety of different ways. And it seemed to me you mentioned the fun style of play, B.G. Now, this is an organization that moved on from one one head coach in Steve Clifford to James Borrego. And stylistically, I think Clifford, though a good coach, was not really doing the organization any favors in terms of making it a watchable team every year. They had the common piece in Kemba Walker. He and Borrego both in Borrego's first year anyway. But it just seems like Borrego, coming from the Spurs organization, wants to play a more efficiency minded brand of basketball that just resonates with the 2020 fan, right?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, look, Steve Clifford is, and you know this too, Steve Clifford's a great coach. He's a floor raiser for any team.

You bring him in. We've seen it. We've literally seen it in Orlando. I mean, there's a very good chance they're going to make the playoffs for the second straight year under Steve Clifford, admittedly, in a watered down Eastern Conference. But, you know, he just he constructs top five, top 10 defenses, sometimes at average pieces. Now, he's got some really good defenders in Orlando right now. But we saw this in Charlotte, like him being able to build a top 10 defense around Al Jefferson at center. And he was he did an okay job sort of updating with the times, too, as NBA offenses became more spread and pick and roll heavy and stuff like that. Steve Clifford is a basketball genius, but his emphasis is on the defensive side of the court.

And he is sort of cut from that cloth where he's going to be a little less likely to have, I think, a longer rope with younger players. And we've seen that even in Orlando with with Mo Bamba, too, but like a guy like Malik Monk, like it was tough for him to find reliable minutes during the 2017 2018 season. He was sort of up and down as a rookie.

We saw it with Noah Vonlei in the 14 15 season, too. And I think as the franchise was turning over the leaf from the Kemba era to, you know, rebuilding and whatever is ahead. And man, did they have a wrench thrown into all of that with with the covid 19 pandemic and how that's going to really impact the balance sheet in Charlotte and certainly around the league.

But they focused on player development. Forty percent of their shots this year were threes. I mean, that's way up for a three point attempt rate in Charlotte. They started the season playing pretty fast.

And then by the end of the season, we're probably towards the bottom of the league and in pace. But yeah, no focus on player development, build culture, shoot threes, move the ball like Charlotte is saying and doing a lot of the right things. It starts with Borrego, but it even goes down to what we saw with the Greensboro Swarm this year. You know, they're running the swarm and Joe Wolf, they're running the same sets, they're playing the same style of basketball. And that kind of congruency from parent club to farm team to how you want to draft, how you want to sign for agents, like all of that, all of that matters. And I really do think it was like a step in the right direction for Charlotte.

And we'll just have to see what happens as they now try to rebuild around coronavirus, too. Yeah, Brian Geisinger is with us at BGeis underscore Bird on Twitter. Be sure to check out the Buzzfeed podcast as the league today is making some more firm, tentative plans for the NBA draft and things. You guys are doing a deep dive on most NBA draft prospects that could possibly be there for the Hornets. So it's some really good stuff there.

I encourage you to check it out. And it's interesting that you say that stuff with the books, the money on the books, which has been the concern going into the past couple of seasons for the Hornets, because that calendar is getting shape shifted as well currently. So what was going to be a freeing year financially for the Hornets, you know, at some point that money is all going to be off the books. But that's a moving target.

Yeah, it is. And like no one knows quite how that's going to shape up. I mean, I'm sure over the last two, two and a half months, the Hornets have been crunching all different kinds of numbers. Like I'm sure every front office, all 30 front offices, except for maybe the Knicks, have been doing to just have all these contingencies and stuff ready to roll for when the numbers do get spat out, because the league has a lot of money flying out the door. And the Hornets are going to lose several games here at the end of the season. So they're going to be down. They're not going to hit their like 70 game quota for the local TV contracts. So that's another sort of unfortunate aspect of them on the outside looking in of the 22 team format that's heading down to Orlando. But yeah, look, the Hornets were expected to have over $20 million in cap space this summer with Bismack-Biambo, Marvin Williams bought out, MKG, Michael K. Gilchrist bought out and Bismack-Biambo, his deal ending.

And I mean, who knows? Who knows what the cap is going to look like? I'm certain there will be some sort of smoothing function so it doesn't just like decline $20 million or $15 million or it's 20% below four projections had it set to be for the 2020-2021 season. But yeah, the Hornets were in position to be a cap space team, which, you know, that opens you up to facilitate and take on bad contracts in exchange for assets, draft picks, good young players, second round picks, first round picks, all that stuff. You know, Charlotte may have lost an opportunity to do that.

We'll see how things go. But they do have more money with Cody Zeller and Nick Batum coming off the books in 2021. So perhaps, you know, there's a chance for them to still activate and function as a cap space team, which is something they have not been able to do since 2016 when they re-signed a big free agent class after making the playoffs. Call me crazy, BG, but you couple young progress and developmental progress, congruency between G League and NBA team with, hey, we're going to have some cap space pretty soon. If I didn't know any better, looks like the Hornets might be a pretty good basketball team for a while.

They definitely had some pieces in place. I mean, again, I really will be interested to see what the financial hit looks like, both on and off the books for Charlotte, you know, assuming they may be operating at a loss for this season because, you know, they're going to be missing out on TV money and gate receipts playing at home and just we'll see what the cap looks like for next season. But to your point, yes, they have some good young players. They have their bird rights. They own all their draft picks. They're going to have two picks in the top 32 this season in the draft. Like they should be able to go out and get two good players there. You know, pick eight, pick 32 or maybe they get a little bit of luck in the lottery as well, too. So, yes, things are trending in the right direction, but it will be interesting to see what shakes out with the cap. One last thing for you, BG, on the top, we mentioned the 22 team format and they're going to play some regular season games to wrap things up and they'll develop a play in series and that only after that will there be playoffs with this long, extended, unexpected break. I'm just asking you to speculate here. Does this favor or or hurt anyone's chances of winning an NBA championship?

Anyone in particular? It's like I think we'll find out. I think we'll know more like in a couple months from now because we'll see who stayed in shape.

You know, we'll see who ate well. We'll see who kept exercising because like if some guys have been out of shape and I'm sure they are like I'm not in as good a shape as I was the first week of March, too. You know, you could see guys pulling hamstrings or having little bits and injuries. I think some people can argue this favors a younger, more energetic team. I think other people could take the exact opposite side and argue that as well, too, that it favors the older teams, too. I still feel very confident of the champion coming from one of the Lakers, Clippers or Bucks.

And yeah, we'll just have to see. I think it would have been interesting to see if the league had, as opposed to going eight in the west, eight in the east, that's our 16-team playoff, if they had gone one through 16 with the entire league, then we could have maybe gotten to some more interesting discussions of who's going to be hurt by a reformat just because all of a sudden these matchups in the first round would have become incredibly competitive and compelling. But that did not happen and I think the NBA did a mostly okay job starting this back up.

So we will find out very quickly, but right now I think it's hard to gauge. My hope would be a team like the Lakers, though, that has LeBron. Everyone on that roster knows how important a fourth title is to LeBron, what that says for his resume. My hope would be that every person on that roster has been locked in the last couple of months, even as they've not been able to get into basketball gyms and work out. Like the stakes are just so high for LeBron's all-time resume. So I would float them as a team that I would expect to maybe have a little bit of an edge just because the guy that's their leader, this really does mean a lot to him and his legacy too. So maybe them would be a team that I would throw out as I could see them having maybe perhaps even a slight advantage as we're heading into what is going to be an unprecedented finish for the 2020 season here. Yeah, the neutral court intrigues me as well. I think that's an added layer. I would have liked the 1 through 16 element, but I saw a report via Adrian Woznarski of ESPN, citing that the league didn't want to switch that midstream on teams like in the East, that maybe you built a team in preparation for battling the rest of the Eastern Conference to make your way. So that seemed fair to me. You make a really good point about LeBron James because one of the few pieces of sports content that we have all taken in during this break was the last dance, which was centered around Michael Jordan's greatness and sort of re-throwning MJ as the greatest of all time.

It's hard for me to imagine that during this lull, LeBron hasn't been keeping tabs on his teammates and at least making sure that they're going to give themselves the best chance possible. I would say so. It has to be. Again, the stakes are so high. I think if he wins his fourth title, I think that puts him on a plane with Magic.

I think that Magic has four, so just like the names you're throwing around, these are the all-time titans of the game and as he's trying to perhaps inch his way closer to Kobe's five or MJ's six, not like saying that's the ultimate barometer or metric for what determines all-time success. But it matters. So I think that has to play a role. And I would say too, just before I hopped on with you guys too, over at the athletic and stadium, Shomps tweeted out, the NCAA says draft prospects have until 10 days after the draft combine, which is on August 3rd, whichever comes first to withdraw from the postponed 2020 NBA draft.

So not a ton of local guys in the state of North Carolina, like testing out the waters, like you've got DJ Thunder Burke at NC State, Jay Huff at Virginia, but that is something to keep an eye on. Like that's going to be running up with when the school year will be starting next year. So something to keep an eye on going forward for the draft and for ACC and in college hoops too, something to be mindful of. So I wanted to sneak that in here too.

For sure. No, that's interesting. Something to be mindful of as we get closer to everything resuming, but then other things starting all at once.

It's going to be a weird sports frenzy when we get to this fall. But he's Brian Geisinger at BGeis underscore bird on Twitter of the ACC Sports Journal, accsports.com, Sports Channel 8 and the Buzzfeed podcast. BG, my friend. Good to hear from you. Be well. Yes. Same to you. Same to everyone. Yes. Be safe out there. All right. Cool.

That's Brian Geisinger at BGeis underscore bird on Twitter. A lot of good stuff there, Robert. So I took it a little over because, well, it's just Josh on the other side. Just Josh. We're going to play the movie game.

We do that not every week, but I like to do it. So while I'm here, we're going to play the Rotten Tomatoes movie game and its roles are going to be reversed. Josh Graham is going to be on the phone and I'm going to be here as I have been. That's next on the drive. Sports Talk. If you're talking about it, I'm talking truth. We're talking about it. We are talking to this is the drive with Josh Graham.

Welcome back in. It's the drive. Karen Vaught here. Josh Graham elsewhere. Robert Walsh on the other side of the glass.

Safe distance. He gets it. This has been fun.

It's been a fun day and a couple of things. We've got a point of breaking news, which is kind of obvious, but seeing as how we're broadcasting the Triad region of North Carolina, I think it's pertinent because one of our teams is wrapped up in this. As of just a few moments ago, the NBA G League released a statement. NBA G League president Sharif Abdur Rahim today announced that the remainder of the 2019-2020 NBA G League season, which was suspended on March 12th, has been canceled. The G League's regular season was scheduled to conclude on March 28th, so they got most of it in for the G League.

And with NBA moving toward this plan of finishing out their season and their playoffs in or near Orlando at Disney, not a surprise that the G League would stand pat and officially cancel their season. We did the Throwback Thursday Imagine Dragons of the Miami Marlins earlier. That's the sounder that plays.

We're looking for the, not necessarily the best, but the most memorable players every Thursday on Throwback Thursday for whatever team we select. We've got the NBA, Miami Marlins, and Robert, I just feel like with it just being me and you today, did you get it? Do you get it? Not at all.

Not even a little bit. I do know who Ari Dickey is. I know who a knuckle ball is.

Who? I know what a knuckle ball is. Alright. I know what a ball is. You did learn some things earlier.

I did. In the Baseball for Dummies segment. Oh my gosh, dude, and I'm going to be a regular baseball whiz. What was that kid off Backyard Baseball name that was the best? Pablo Sanchez? I'll be a regular- Another Sanchez. We had two Sanchezes in the Imagine Dragons for the Marlins. I'll be a regular Sanchez by the end of this.

So I got a suggestion that I have to contribute and add to the show. This is Javick via text. He's actually an up-and-coming young play-by-play broadcaster at Elon University, was just recently recognized in their, the All-American rankings done by the STAA, the Sportscasters Talent Agency of America. Really skinny kid? He's got like hair on his head? Not really skinny. Never heard of him.

Brown hair? He's taller than me, I think. Javick's a really good guy with a bright future. He's, as a freshman at Elon, was named to the top 10 of the Sportscasters Talent Agency of America's All-American rankings is what they call it. You know, the number one ranked student broadcaster is given the Jim Nantz Award, and he as a freshman was the highest ranked freshman in the history of the rankings, and they go back, you know, over a decade now.

I think this was the 12th or 13th year. So Javick's got a lot going for him. He's a huge baseball guy, and he sent me the name, ready for this name. You don't know who this person is, I guarantee it, Robert. Adani Echevarria. No clue. Of course not.

Not even the faintest. Middle infielder for the then Miami Marlins in the 2010s. Sounds like a hell of a bowler. Adani Echevarria.

Echevarria. You can change up the emphasis. He's got a, he's got an accent. You get it. Yeah. You get it. I don't. I don't get it, but I'm here either way. All right, so Mike Norvell, this Florida State thing, he told a reporter he had spoken to all of his players one on one, a prominent player for him, Marvin Wilson, took to Twitter to say, no, he didn't do this.

It's kind of outrageous that our coach would tell a reporter this when he didn't. And this is all framed around the recency of the uprising and the swell of support for the black community after the killings of George Floyd and others and the police brutality against black citizens. And it just, it reminded me of this theory, and it was, it's a good time to think about things like this, Robert, because it's, there's a lot of bad news or no news lately, and it can be easy to get down in the dumps. I think we can all agree to that.

For sure. To some extent or another, the world's kind of a weird place right now. So say what you want about social media for good or bad, that sort of thing. I sometimes, sometimes it's the bane of my existence. I'm on Twitter a lot because it's how I get my news.

I'm not on Facebook anymore, even though I used to be. Good for you. I bet it's toxic there. It is. It's, it's a cesspool of wilful ignorance on a lot of days. So I just decided I didn't need it in my life anymore.

A bunch of people trying to change each other's opinion who will never change their own opinion. Yeah, something along those lines, as it, you know, it has its positives. It can be used for good for things. I enjoy dog pictures on Facebook. Yeah, but you can get those on Twitter. Maybe that's why I'm not on Facebook. So anyways, I of course have my qualms with social media, just like anybody else. I don't think it's the end of society. I don't think it's, it's necessarily dooming us all or making us dumber, ultimately, as a whole.

I believe that it's ultimately going to hold us all accountable. The idea of social media and the idea of technology to the point that Robert, you and I both have these contraptions at our sides at all times. I haven't looked at my phone in two hours, but it's right here. Ready to use when I need it. It's got a camera on it. It's got an Internet connection. I have social media platforms. Anything I see in my purview can be recorded and sent to the masses just like that. There's another snap on the radio.

Instantly. Great radio. And yeah, that results in a lot of weird headlines.

It results in Riley Cooper yelling racial slurs at a Kenny Chesney concert, was it, whenever. Correct. This is a handful of years ago.

Yeah. Which also goes to say that it's kind of sad that this is nothing new, the things that we're talking about of the past week. But when it comes to a football coach telling reporters that he's done something in the interest of his players when he hasn't done it. 2020 is the year for that to happen. And for Marvin Wilson to see it and call it out. 2020 is the year. No Bobby Bowden team was going to get that kind of response.

Only the most recent. And what it's ultimately going to do is make Norvell think about what he says and just be a little bit more mindful of the things that he says. I'm not I'm not calling him a liar or a perpetual liar or anything like that.

He just took the easy way out. But if he has a tendency to say something a bit more favorable in a setting in which he doesn't think it's going to get realized that he didn't do. He's going to think about it twice now. Is that going to make things better in Mike Norvell's lifetime or my lifetime or yours? Not in a binary fashion. Not in a yes no it's better it's not fashion. But I'd like to think. He feels like he's being held a little bit more accountable now.

Even if it's at a granular level. Mike Norvell is going to pay a little bit more attention. Drew Brees. When being interviewed by anybody Yahoo Finance or otherwise. It was seen by more people than any interview Drew Brees has ever done. Without question.

2020 was the year for that to happen. Because the outrage and the fallout immediately afterward reminded Drew Brees as is indicative of his apology and statement on Instagram at Drew Brees earlier today. I should have thought twice about it.

I can be better. Is he a totally different person this morning than he was yesterday? No probably not. But chances are Drew Brees is going to think twice the next time he starts to give an answer that neglects the very issue at hand when it comes to racism and police brutality against black people. And I'm for that but then I question if that's detrimental to the progression of him understanding. Because I understand it'll make him think but is it going to make him understand is he just going to say something because he knows that's the safe thing to say and that's what they want him to say because he or is he going to say that because he really feels that way in his heart.

Are we ever going to be able to change people's mind fully if it's just these checks and balances and I want to avoid the masses like I want people to change because they want to change. Yeah and that's where the idealism with this theory comes in right like the idea that you are always being watched you are always capable of being filmed and what you are doing and being seen scares people. It does. Yeah I mean it scares me. It scares people. I don't pee outside anymore just because of that.

Because there's always somebody. Not to bring up something funny but. No that's good that's good we need levity in doses here. But as like an example right I'm not saying that it's actually true you were making a joke but say Robert has an issue with peeing in public. You're not going to do it anymore.

Nope. Maybe not because you don't think it's right. Because I don't want to get caught. Because you don't want to get caught.

I don't want the repercussions. Isn't that better than the alternative? And isn't there also a chance that over time maybe decades maybe generations over time if people are doing these things to not get caught or not get seen instinctively. Why fight the battle of doing something bad versus doing something good isn't it going to become second nature at some point to do the right thing. It is long form what you're talking about but yeah I mean in the end I think that this is going to take a long time to make any difference so I mean you're right. At the end of the day I wouldn't be mad about that I'm just kind of playing devil's advocate and I. No I appreciate it because that's the only way we figure this stuff out. That's my theory and whenever I want to feel better about the world and where it's going and if you dig too deeply into the comments somewhere that's just sort of my reset. My reset button.

Alright. We're all being held accountable. In the end it's going to make us better. Mike Norvell. Drew Brees. Dabo Sweeney. Jake Fromm.

Jake Fromm hopefully he's seeing this and it's having a similar effect. Hopefully we're all going to think twice before the next time we just shoot something off or say something just instinctively. Thinking before speaking we can all agree is better. A positive trait to have. The more you think before you speak the better quality there's going to be.

Of what comes out. You sound like Confucius. I'm just trying to make sense of a world that at times can be kind of negative. And I appreciate that. That's all I'm trying to do. That's my idealistic view of the world and social media and its place in it. And hopefully that makes you feel better about the things that are going on and the headlines you see and just knowing that people are being held accountable.

Ourselves included. We have to actively do that every day is hold ourselves accountable. I've been talking on the radio for the past two and a half hours plus.

There's an element of thinking to talking and the threshold at which it's appropriate to just let something fly out of my mouth as opposed to being very deliberate with what I say. I'm the loose cannon. I'm the loose cannon in this relationship. You are.

You are. And look, we all will say dumb things. I have been in this industry long enough and on platforms long enough that give me a voice to know that I'm going to misstep with words. It's about intent and severity. And the more you hold yourself accountable because you can be held accountable by others, chances are the better you're going to do with that.

The better you're going to fare at it. And a lot of these guys, coaches, athletes, they don't necessarily intend to get thrust into this world where they're constantly making statements, whether they know it or not. But it's just become part of it. It's a little bit different than this, yeah, because I volunteered to be on the radio for several hours today and tomorrow. You knew you were going to be speaking. Yeah. It's different in that way, but you just have to accept responsibility for it, whether it's a direct application of what you want to do or not, and hold yourself accountable.

And it helps when the rest of the world is better equipped to hold you accountable too. We've got one more segment before we tie things up for today. I'm Darren Vaught filling in for Josh Graham. Let's take a break on the drive.