This is a Thursday drive and I want to talk about owners for a minute. I've often said there is no more miserable place to be as a sports fan than rooting for a team with a bad owner.
You can call the local sports radio show and say, hey Josh, this quarterback sucks and complain about the coach until the cows come home. Where does that expression come from, by the way? Until the cows come home. Robert, you seem like someone who could maybe get on that for me.
You usually let your cows out, so you would open the pasture gate, they would go and then the cows would return home at the end of the day. Don't even need to look that up. I'm impressed that Robert has that here. But you can yell and complain all you want about quarterbacks, about the point guard, about the coach, and perhaps a change will be made. But you're usually stuck with the owner. I'm an Orioles fan, the Angelo's family has been a headache for decades.
I know what this type of purgatory can feel like. This week marks the two year anniversary of David Tepper becoming an NFL owner. Tom Dundon just passed the two year mark with the Canes back in January.
And I hope fans realize how good they have it, at least for now, because what they've done, the good we've already seen compared to the disasters we've seen elsewhere, it's pretty darn good. Keeping it with Tepper, who this week again marks the two year anniversary of him being with the Panthers. He's passed the two biggest tests he's faced. Number one, his biggest achievement, I'd argue, he is not Jerry Richardson. He's not anything like him at all.
And we knew that, or at least I did, almost immediately. He waddles out into the press conference, and he has the buttoned up shirt, he's two or three buttons down, there's hair coming out of his shirt, something you'd never see from Richardson. Always buttoned up, always tie, you don't see a lot of him doing press availability anyway.
Quieter, less brash, not as rich. Tepper, he's the anti-Richardson. And that's a good thing for the Panthers at this moment, where they need to be in order to take the next step as an organization. A 500 organization for the first 25 years, Tepper's wanting to change it from being mediocre to being more competitive on a consistent basis. I also knew Tepper wasn't Richardson when I saw Tepper sitting in a cart with Bill Voth of panthers.com, and he did an Elvis impression.
I don't know if this is a good impression, but nonetheless, I don't think you're ever seeing Richardson do this. Well, since my baby left me, I found a new place to dwell. It's at the end of Lonely Street, that's a heartbreak hotel.
I've been so, I've been so lonely, baby. It isn't bad, but it's also not the point. The point is that he's personable, he's different, he's not Jerry Richardson. He's not cheap, he's the exact opposite. He's the richest owner in the entire NFL, worth $13 billion. He has a multi-purpose Bank of America stadium. Charlotte MLS expected to play there. They're going to throw concerts there whenever we can throw concerts again.
Billy Joel is supposed to be there in May, the Rolling Stones are supposed to be there this summer. Richardson, he was always against high school football being played in that stadium. Tepper's going to have a Carolina's classic, a North Carolina team facing a South Carolina team to kick off the high school football season this year.
It always made sense that that happened. So that's the first big achievement for Tepper. The second one was this, committing to the Carolinas. Anytime there's a new owner, whether it's Dundon or Tepper or anybody else, there's always that concern about what they're going to do with the franchise. Maybe not in the bigger cities, the bigger more traditional franchises.
I'm sure if the Giants, for whatever reason, pass things along from the Mara family, they wouldn't be worried about moving out of New York the same way the Green Bay Packers probably wouldn't be worried that way too. But if you're a middle of the line franchise with not as much history, like the Panthers, like the Hornets, like the Carolina Hurricanes, you're going to have that concern. Those concerns were addressed on the Dundon front with an extension of the lease at PNC Arena today through 2029. And in Tepper's case, dismissed with the Rock Hill facility that's state of the art set to go up in 2022. Plenty of charitable endeavors across the state, whether it's relief funds for the hurricane that hit a year and a half ago, or the stuff he's done for education. I mentioned MLS Charlotte, you don't move a football team or have any plans to do so if you're bringing in an MLS team to share a stadium with them. And speaking of a stadium, apparently he's looking at a new stadium site to get something built in the next five to 10 years, according to Katie Peralta's reporting from the Charlotte agenda. Now here's the big thing with Tepper, he needs to win. At least with Dundon, he had a home run higher in Rod Brindemore.
It was clunky how he got there. How things ended with Bill Peters, Ron Francis, it was abrupt and probably mishandled how they got rid of him. Dom Waddell's brought in, there's concern, oh he was the Atlanta Thrashers GM and they moved the team from the south to Canada. But those were both home run hires.
He got it done and they went to the Eastern Conference Finals a year ago. That hasn't happened with Tepper yet. The Panthers, they've torn down this team. There seems to be Tepper decisions overruling what the coaching staff was going to do. With Rivera around this time last year, Joe Person reported that Tepper had influence on the type of defensive formation they were going to play.
That type of stuff scares me with an owner. The Cam Newton comment in February, not committing to him, saying he's not a doctor and Cam isn't either. Matt Ruhl, the Panthers social, they made it sound like the Panthers were all in on Cam and then all of a sudden they weren't when free agency started. It might have been Tepper, I don't know for sure, but that decision doesn't get made if Tepper doesn't approve of it. So I don't want to be too critical of Tepper, but I also don't want to be too complimentary either. We'll see what happens with Matt Ruhl.
He got the guy he wanted. He's starting to get involved with the football decisions. If you're one of those people criticizing the fact he's having influence on defensive formations or what quarterback is kept in place, grow up. If you were given the opportunity to own a team, you had the capital, you had the cash, you had the opportunity, of course you're going to have opinions on things.
You're going to want to have the team that you want out on the field. Owners, that's part of the fun. The best owners are the ones that have remained in place for a long time and are out on trying to have fun with the toys that they have in front of them. Every owner, it seems like, gets too involved with the day-to-day decisions, football personnel, basketball, whatnot, and not just letting the people they hire to do those jobs, a general manager or a coach, do their jobs. So I hope Tepper learns as time goes on.
I expect he will, but that's the only criticism I can have of him at this moment. So, Panther fans, they should be happy based on the last two years. You have an owner that's willing to spend, that's clearly not Jerry Richardson, who's committed to the Carolinas, and he's getting exactly what he wants in the offseason.
He's getting exactly what he wants in everything, it seems like, because he has the deep pockets to back up his big mouth. On Twitter, at sportsubtriad, 336-777-1600, be in the phone number. Last week, Dave Claussen told Wake Forest students, whether he liked it or not, liked for us to hear it or not, that he believes the Demon Deacons, they are the best football team in the state of North Carolina. He even got the team ACC Big Four Championship rings. Meanwhile, Appalachian State took exception to that, as they're getting set to face Wake Forest at BB&T Field, hopefully with fans in the fall. App State, they won more games than any in-state team, ever, in 2019. So with that as the backdrop, I think it's time for my spring college football poll, ranking the top five teams in the state this year.
So let's start with number five, the Duke Blue Devils. I'm really curious what Chase Bryce is going to do. He's the transfer from Clemson. Once upon a time, he came into a game he had to play because Kelly Bryant abruptly left campus, Trevor Lawrence, he made his first start against Syracuse, gets hurt in the first half. Bryce has to lead a come-from-behind rallying drive at the end of the game to beat a good Syracuse team that year.
Now he gets his opportunity. It's two years later, he's working with arguably the best quarterback coach in the country, in David Cutcliffe. Duke is an interesting case study, but I can't put them above teams that you're going to hear about later, but I can put them over A&T, East Carolina, and Charlotte as of this moment. Number four, NC State. I talked about how much I was in on the pack this year, not in enough to say they're top three.
I think the top three are well established, but NC State is a 7-8 win team this year. Last year, they were 4-8. They're bringing back a lot on the offensive line and they need it. The secondary, they lost all four of their starters.
I've never seen that. Best line backing core that Dave Dorans had, Devin Leary's turning heads, Taj Boyd had nice things to say about him. I like his moxie.
I think he's a magnetic player. You'll return a lot in the backfield in a wide receiver, so the weapons around him are good with Emezi and Thayer Thomas. CJ Riley, fascinated to see what he can do.
Bam Knight, Ricky Person. A lot of weapons for NC State, so they're at number four. Number three, Wake Forest. This might surprise some people, Wake Forest being this low, mainly because of Clawson's comments last week. They lost Jamie Newman.
That hurts. I don't think it's a major drop-off, Newman to Hartman. We saw what Sam was capable of doing as a true freshman, and he got the redshirt year only participating in four games a year ago, but against Florida State, he led the Deacons to a win there. The bigger concern I have, they lost three starting offensive linemen.
There's a lot of concern on the back end of the defense. The Atlantic, it's tougher than the Coastal. So Wake Forest, I have them over NC State, but I can't put them in the top two. The Demon Deacons are my number three team in my spring North Carolina football pool. Number two, Appalachian State. I said number two, Appalachian State. They lost a weapon at wide receiver and another at running back, but this is a loaded team. A lot of guys back. The reason they're not number one is because it's a new head coach.
I think, drink what it means something that he's not there anymore. I like Sean Clark. I think they're going to have a tremendous year, but App State, I can't put them at number one on this list. Even though they beat the team, I'm about to say is number one. It's the North Carolina Tar Heels. All in on the Tar Heels.
Continuity where it counts. Coach, quarterback, coordinators. In addition to that, two 1,000 yard rushers, four leading wide receivers back.
Daz Newsome, Dyami Brown. They have their starting tight end back. They're four of their five starting offensive linemen return.
Their best defensive player in Chaz Sarat. Also the Coastal, let's face it, it's a lot easier to win the Coastal than it is the Atlantic. There's no Clemson Tiger you have to run into until hopefully you're playing in Charlotte for the championship game. So it's North Carolina's to win. Virginia, no Bryce Perkins. They lost Bryce Hall, lost wide receivers.
Pittsburgh lost a ton as well. The Atlantic opponents that North Carolina has, it's NC State every year and they have to go to Chapel Hill. Boston College is also in the schedule.
And even though that's in Chestnut Hill, Boston College is looking pretty rough this year. I get North Carolina's first two games are brutal if we're looking at the other side of the coin. UCF on the road, Auburn in Atlanta. But I'd argue Wake Forest and App State, their two most difficult games are tougher than that.
One, they have to play each other. But Wake also has Notre Dame on the schedule in Charlotte. Appalachian State has to go to Wisconsin in Madison. I think that's more difficult than playing at UCF and against the Auburn Tigers on a neutral field. The Tar Heels, they're the biggest threat to Clemson we've seen in the ACC in the last five years. Played them to the closest game they've had since Trevor Lawrence started games. And I believe in momentum from last year. They had it in the bowl game late in the year. Best quarterback coach combo not named Davo Sweeney and Trevor Lawrence. So I'm all in on this Tar Heel team.
To recap the list, my spring North Carolina football poll, Duke at five, NC State four, Wake Forest three, App State two, North Carolina at number one. All right, we're sharing with Darren, bot from the USA Baseball podcast. A lot of Major League Baseball news to get to in the last 24 hours. You have the proposal that the MLBPA is looking to pose in response to the owner's financial strategy and their plans. You got many prominent Major Leaguers talking about this and saying they have issues with the owner's proposal. Max Scherzer, probably the most notable name, put out a long statement on social media.
We'll get to all that in about 15 minutes. This is the fun baseball segment of the week. It's nostalgia. It's throwback Thursday. So we're looking back at the Imagine Dragons of the Oakland Athletics with Darren Vaught with us.
Let's go ahead and dive in. We discovered who the Nickelbacks of Major League Baseball were. Doug Mankiewicz, Marcus Giles, Johnny Estrada. He might be a top five Nickelback of Major League Baseball.
Look at this photograph. Now we're looking for the players who embodied the last decade of baseball. Salty sweat? No, not the best players. This is the Imagine Dragons of 2010's baseball.
Alright. Darren Vaught, yesterday I said my favorite sports movie made in the last 20 years is Moneyball. With Billy Beane being played by Brad Pitt, Oakland A's, front and center. Do you agree with that assessment? Yeah, without a doubt. The best sports movies we all know are those centered around the sport of baseball in particular.
That's the best recent one and I don't know that anything's going to touch it for a while to be honest. I agree with all of that. Let's get to the Imagine Dragons of the A's. And to make it easier for the audience which type of players we're looking for on social media at Sports Hub Triad. Let's get to the Disqualified Guys first. That list is only four players long for me. Josh Donaldson, Jonas Sespitis, Sonny Gray and Sean Doolittle. I don't think either of those, any of those qualify here.
Yeah, no I think you're right. Disqualified players though, hard to come by especially in the early 2010's for Oakland. I like that list, I think that's fine. For the first time, I think since we've been doing this, Aaron Gabriel actually has one for us. Aaron what do you got?
It is not the first time, it's the second time. Because I gave you, you bought over Jimenez as well. This was some time ago, but I got that slot. Alright, thank you. What do you got?
Yeah, props for you Baldo, that was a good one. Coco Crisp. Yeah.
Okay, we need to talk about this before you play the sound Robert. Ryan, he tweets me Coco Crisp as well. He might be the ever rare Nickelback slash Imagine Dragon. He qualifies Darren in both categories. Not for this team specifically, I believe he signed with Oakland in 2010. But he stayed there for a handful of years. I'm certain he was a Nickelback, probably of the Cleveland Indians. I would imagine that's who we named him to. But a rare case because he is both a Nickelback and an Imagine Dragon.
I remember we actually did this last year. Coco Crisp was mentioned as being a Nickelback. Could someone in the audience tag Coco Crisp?
And he retweeted it saying what the hell is happening here. So, this segment I think owes a lot to Coco Crisp. This is the best Imagine Dragon I have on the list. First baseman... Yeah, he was top for me.
Oh, not Coco, I'm talking about the one I have right here. Oh, oh. First baseman Brandon Moss. I actually used to know somebody in high school named Brandon Moss. And it's almost like a traumatic experience for me. Robert, my dad, was a police officer all throughout my childhood.
And still is in North Carolina today. I just remember they were talking about doing drugs or something. And I said, I just wanted to be involved in the conversation, so I was trying to talk to them. And Brandon Moss turned around and said, Your dad's a police officer. And everyone started laughing.
He got the big laugh and it still hurts inside. Oh, you got a real life dot, dot, dot, then you're police is what you got. And yeah, sure, Twitter stuff in real life before Twitter. Was Twitter a thing at that point? I mean, you're a little younger than me. Probably not.
Probably not on Twitter at that point. But Coco Crisp and Brandon Moss, they're out. What do you got next? So, I've got another guy acquired from the Red Sox, much like Brandon Moss, by the A's in this early 2010s period. I think we named him as a Houston Astros Imagine Dragons player as well. Josh Reddick. Josh Reddick, yeah, he is an Imagine Dragon.
That qualifies. How about Jed Lowry? Yeah, another former Red Sox.
Yeah, that's actually where I thought you were headed with that. I think this guy might have been a Houston Astro. I don't know for sure. How about catcher Derek Norris? Yeah, there you go. I have one more catcher written down. I'm wondering if you have the one. Do you have any pitchers?
Huh? Do you have any pitchers? No pitchers. I got five players, no pitchers written down.
Dang. I've got two pitchers whenever you're ready. Aaron actually has a pitcher. Aaron, give me a pitcher. Dallas Braden.
Whoa. That, I mean, he went on television. He threw. Was it a perfect game or a no-hitter? It was a perfect game. He threw a perfect game.
Yeah, so he threw a perfect game. He definitely qualifies for this list. Give me a pitcher, Darren. How about currently of the KBO's Lata Giants, Dan Straley? He's a star right now. Sure.
Chris Davis with the K. Yes. And I'm going to close out the ones I have here with Stephen Vaught. Wonderful.
Wonderfully done. I've got one more pitcher and two players, position players, that you're going to tell me you're too obscure, but I'm going to name them anyway. Rapid Fire. Picker Brandon McCarthy.
Yes, absolutely. Position players Cliff Pennington and Eric Barton. Don't know who any of those two people are. He led the league in walks in 2010 and was never heard from again. Why do you enjoy bringing up players that nobody knows?
Because I know things like, Derek Barton led the league in walks in 2010 and never mattered before or after that. That's fun. Got it. Alright, thanks for doing this, Darren. You got it. See you guys next time. Oh, and next week, you're going to be pinch hitting on Thursday and Friday, so buckle up, buckaroo.
That was not bland. Robert went rogue. See you, buddy. Alright, see you guys.
He's on Twitter at Darren Vaught, listen to the USA Baseball covering the bases podcast. How many times, what's the over under next Thursday, Friday, while Darren's trying to do what I do? You just start hitting him with the blare.
It's a hard job. I'm not going to kill him with it. Maybe once an hour. It's got to be the perfect moment. I'm not just going to abuse it. Since Aaron was playing along with the Imagine Dragons of the A segment, I want to do something for Aaron.
I want to tickle him a bit because I know he'll enjoy this. Mike Tyson last night. Mike Tyson going after, who was it? Chris Jericho? Yeah, Chris Jericho. Oh, Mike was on wrestling last night?
Yeah, he's on AEW. Oh, you don't know about this. No, I didn't see this. Robert, what a wonderful privilege you have to find whatever video you can of Tyson getting into it with Chris Jericho so we can see massive Tyson and boxing fan Aaron Gabriel react to it in real time. This is a wonderful opportunity for the show.
I also don't know if it's censored or not. Oh, no, no, no, no. We don't need to hear it. I just want Aaron to see it. Yeah. Mike, this is what? Third or fourth time Mike has gotten involved in wrestling. He likes wrestling.
He'd be great at it. Yeah. He was an enforcer for DX versus Stone Cold and everybody thought that he was against Stone Cold. Oh, look at that.
He ended up being on the same team. Oh, yeah, man. Oh, he's ripping the shirt off. He's going Hulk Hogan.
Oh, dude. And he looks jacked. That's right. He gave Cody Rhodes the TNT championship, which everyone's saying stands for terrible neck tattoo now. TNT knows drama.
They know drama and they know neck tats. Tyson. I don't I think the problem would be him on the mic. I don't think it's coincidental that Jericho kept the mic to himself. He's a known talker, too. I mean, he knows exactly what he's doing. And I think they didn't really let Mike talk a lot either when he came to WWE. I don't think that's his strength.
Oh, no, it's not. They have a wrestler like that now named Bobby Lashley, who is this mountain of a man. Every muscle he has has a muscle. But when he talks, he sounds he sounds he sounds like this.
Hey, this I'm going to kick your ass if you keep coming over here. Is that Lashley or Michael? Bobby. That's both of them.
They both get to get their ass kicked. That's what I got in the gym room. That's a pretty good. That's a pretty good. Mike Tyson. Aaron, can you top that? Do you have a Tyson?
My defense is for vultures. My style is impregnable. If you have a good Tyson impression, three three six seven seven seven one six hundred on Twitter. That's what I'm trying. I don't know why I gave the Twitter handle there.
Yeah. Give us give us your best types of it to do that. I think he actually can do that. Like just find a way to tweet it. Talk to Ed Hard.
Maybe go face him for some bath. Three three six seven seven seven one six hundred. We're taking Tyson impersonation.
I'm going to hug you till you love me. I can't say the real thing. Yeah. Yeah. Aaron, you want to you want to finish up the segment the way we need to. Now all I can think of is the most vulgar stuff Tyson said in the literature.
Right before he used it with, all praise to Allah. Your ear looks tasty. We need some more Tyson. Bless Mike Tyson. Love him. Yeah. Just a treasure that we need to protect. Thanks. I don't think we need to protect him at all.
I think he can protect himself better than any of us could. Good point. Coming up. New updates on Shaundi Brown and Jamie Newman that Wake Forest fans might want to note.
This is a Thursday Drive. Before I get to my NBA playoff predictions, Robert was describing to me during the commercial break a fight he wanted to see more than anything that just today he had no idea was remotely a possibility and it actually involves an NBA superstar. What is that fight?
I said, I have never seen a fight. I never wanted to see more because Dame is going to wax Dan Orlosky where this whole thing started. Dan made a comment about Dame not wanting to play if he wasn't going to get to play for the playoffs. He called him entitled. Dame quote tweeted that and said, watch your mouth, bleep mother bleeper.
I think Dame would wax Dan. Why are you so afraid of cursing? I'm not afraid. It's just yesterday I said a questionable word and as soon as we got off, it was like this and you told me about it. So I was just taking a step back today. Okay. That's that's okay. I would just rather cuss than say bleeper or bleep. And I know I'm prone to do that. So I'm just trying to make, take, take precaution. So I don't have to hit this P one over here and dump 15 seconds of whatever we're doing.
Got it. Ryan McGee's going to join us in 15 minutes. Dame Lillard versus Dan Orlovsky. I think Orlovsky has him on reach and I think he might be a little taller than he would get up in his chest. Yeah, he would.
He would have him retreating out outside the back of the end zone. For sure. Okay. Let's get to the NBA predictions. Let's knock this out and let's start with the 1-8 matchup in the Western Conference since the LA Lakers have the best record in the West. It is the Lakers versus the Grizz, assuming that the format remains true, which again, I think is the preferential approach for Adam Silver. This is a sweep.
Sorry Grizz. Lakers through. 4-5 matchup. Jazz OKC. Mike Conley's been underwhelming this year.
That might be saying it generously. I think younger teams, they're going to have advantages in some of the margins. OKC has a lot of really good young players.
They've been overachieving. I don't think a lot of people know what OKC has been doing. So I'm going to go Shay, Gilgis, Alexander, Chris Paul, and OKC getting through the Jazz in seven games to advance to the second round. Nuggets, Rockets. This could be a lot of fun, except I don't think this Denver team is built to face the small lineup Houston's adjusted to. This is not the Clint Coppella-centered Rockets team.
They've gone incredibly small. I don't know how they respond to it, and the Rockets, they've been there enough in the postseason versus Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic that I think they have enough savvy to get through. Rockets win in six games to advance. Clippers Mavs in the 2-7. I think it's the Clippers because it's not yet showtime for Luka Dunkic. It's close.
It'll be there one day. Too much Clippers. Bad draw to go up against Kawhi and that bunch that I seem to think that I believe is probably the best constructed team in the NBA. Going further in the West, Houston Clippers. Second round game.
No contest. It's the Clippers. Too much defense. James Harden's going to get frustrated.
He's not getting calls that he would normally get in the regular season. Pat Beverly's going to get into the heads of some of the guys he used to play with. Clippers win in five. Lakers OKC. This is another sweep. Good win for OKC in the first series.
It went seven games. The Lakers are going to be well rested and have too much for them to handle. Eight games, eight wins for the Lakers who now go up against the Clippers in the conference finals. I don't think it's coincidence that the Clippers took the two regular season meetings from L.A. from the Lakers. I think the Clippers, they're not affected by the fact there are no fans at the games. It's not like if they played the Lakers there would be more Clipper fans at Clipper home games. I think the Clippers, they're going to do well in these spots. It's going to be awkward, but who's the most awkward NBA player you can think of? Kawhi Leonard. Too much defense. The regular season meetings count.
Kawhi Leonard is LeBron's kryptonite. Clippers in seven go to the NBA finals beating the Lakers. Eastern Conference. Milwaukee 1-8 against Orlando.
They get through that easily. Come on now. That's a sweep. Miami, Indiana. I think this could be the most fun series in the first round. Two tough teams. Toughness really is going to count when there are no fans and the motivation has to come internally. Miami, I just think they have one more bigger shot in them with Jimmy Butler in place.
I like Eric Spolstra too. Miami beats Indiana in a best of seven four games to three. Boston, Philadelphia. If I'm thinking about a team that's going to get hurt most by the circumstances, being in Orlando, distractions being everywhere, no fans in the stands, it's Joel Embiid. It's Ben Simmons. It's the lack of maturity of this Sixers team. It's the coaching.
I think this is going to be the complete unraveling of Brent Brown. Boston wins in five. Toughness, Brad Stevens coaching. They out the Sixers in the first round. Toronto and Brooklyn. I'm going to advance Toronto or else Robert's going to fight me. Also Brooklyn, they're playing for next year. Kevin Durant, he's not going to play.
Kyrie Irving, it doesn't look like he's going to play either. Toronto wins easily in five games. Next round, Boston, Toronto. I think it's a seven game series. Toronto, Nick Nurse doesn't get nearly enough credit.
Kyle Lowry's still around, Pascal Siakam, he's played at an MVP level at some points. Boston though, I just got to go with the talent here and I'm going to go with Brad Stevens. Seven game series, but I got the Celtics and the conference finals going up against of course the Milwaukee Bucks because they beat the Miami Heat.
Probably going to go a little bit longer, a little bit longer than people think. Six game series, Milwaukee and Miami, but Milwaukee is going to be through to the conference finals to face the Boston Celtics. Rematch of last year's series, Boston took the first game, remember it was Paul Pierce saying that this series is over.
Oh Milwaukee, they don't have it anymore. Milwaukee, they're the toughest team in the Eastern Conference. They're going to take care of Boston. I don't know how the Celtics are going to defend Giannis. Six game series, the Bucks, the number one seed, go to the NBA finals to face the Clippers.
Clippers, Bucks, we're all going to be watching closely. I don't think Giannis, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, has played and won a series against a championship winning superstar. Has that happened yet?
I don't think it has. Last year he had his chance against Kauai and he fell short. I think this Clipper team is better than that Raptors team. Give me the defense of Kauai, Beverly and Paul George, the Moxie, the experience, Kauai Leonard is going to lead the way and in five games beat the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA finals. The lack of shooting is going to be exposed, Chris Middleton being their second best scorer. It's going to be three titles with three different teams for Kauai and the Los Angeles Clippers. Giannis is a tremendous player, but he hasn't beaten a championship winning superstar to date. But he has to get to the finals or else there's going to be questions about him.
I think he gets there. Just going to lose out to Kauai and the Clippers. But there you have it.
Busy show today. I had my five spring North Carolina football teams. It's my spring North Carolina football poll with Duke being 5, NC State 4, Wake Forest 3, App State 2, North Carolina 1.
And now we got my NBA playoff predictions as well. So we've done a lot on today's show, covered a lot of ground. Did you take any issue with any of the picks that I had there, Robert, as someone who follows the lead very closely? Not really.
I think you kind of hit the points on the head. What I'm going to be interested to see is where the rust is, because, you know, they are professionals and they are going to keep up their body. But there are going to be some players who didn't do jack squat during this quarantine and it's going to show Sixers.
That's I agreed with you there. I think you could see maybe some more immature teams, like maybe the Heat, some players. It is my concern about Giannis. I think he I think he's a professional, man. I think he's going to hold it together. Well, I clearly have him going to the NBA finals, so I agree. But it's still a concern on the last young guy says he has it really.
He didn't have a basketball hoop in his yard. So I'm just interested to see where he's at. That's all I'm saying. I would be more interested to see where his streaky teammate, Chris Middleton, and I want to see where Zion's at. If if Zion comes back to action, I'm just saying just want to see where Zion's at. I see Kentucky fans. They're all pursuing Zion, trying to get a hold on this order that was put out there or this complaint, trying to get comment from Zion about whether or not he received benefits from boosters or from Duke officials.
They're sinking their teeth into it. I paid him. I paid Zion one hundred dollars. Yeah, I'm sure I'm sure that's what convinced him to go to Duke. I feel better for Zion specifically, just because of the little bit of basketball I feel like he's been able to play, whether it's been through injury or coronavirus or whatever.
Tough breaks. It's just he can't stay on the court. At least he got that March Madness run in there. Won an ACC tournament championship. So I felt good about that a year ago. I also bought him a milkshake.
You savage. We'll talk NASCAR, college football and minor league baseball with ESPN's Ryan McGee, next. Back to the drive with Josh Graham on Sports Hub Triad. Is there going to be a NASCAR race tonight?
First and foremost, Ryan. I think we're going to be OK. I mean, certainly compared to I mean, I'm in South Charlotte. The track is probably about 30 minutes north of me and and all this weather has been tracking north or south to north and the and now it looks good.
I mean, this time yesterday, I was texting with Marty Smith, who was outside the Charler-Spiewer Sports Center, and asked him if he needed me to send the Coast Guard up there because it was I mean, he looked like Lieutenant Dan from Forrest Gump trying to hang on out there. And the rain just kept going through Charlotte and through Charlotte. I knew there was no way.
I think they got a chance tonight. I'll say this. These air tighten track blowers are unbelievable.
The dryers are unbelievable. And they're also put this sealant on the track and that sealant on the track seems to speed up the process, too. So yeah, it won't take a lot, but everyone I'm told I'm not there, but everyone I've been told over there have told me they feel very confident.
So knock on wood, we'll see. I don't know. I still don't know how they got to one in Darlington. And I was at Darlington all day a week ago and doing sports in their live shots and they're driving rainstorms and I'm like, ain't no way they're going to run this thing.
And not only did they run it, it was awesome. Can I tell you a pet peeve of mine? You have Major League Baseball always has people criticizing it. And they say, well, they need to change Major League Baseball to have more casual fans get interested in it.
And I always found it strange the idea of people that don't watch baseball being the people that Major League Baseball should listen to for changes being made. NASCAR, it's an interesting thing. You're somebody, we've talked about it in the past, that having midweek races just makes a lot of sense for the sport.
It's been talked about forever, now it's happening. And you see the results, as you mentioned last week, in Darlington. Since you're somebody who loves the sport so much, what does your ideal NASCAR calendar look like? Oh, I think it's doing what they're doing right now, which is running as many races as possible in the spring and the summer and then getting out of the way in the fall. I don't care if you want to run a little bit into September or whatever, but the insanity of trying to go head-to-head with football, I can tell you firsthand, even at ESPN when we were televising the races and we televised that second half of the season, it became difficult to find an editor or a SportsCenter producer to say, yeah, you know what? I don't need you at Michigan State or Ohio State this weekend, I need you at Martinsville.
And I was begging to do it. And so the insanity of trying to compete with football on Saturdays and Sundays in the fall when you could just own the summertime. That's always what I've said is Wednesday night races, run on Sunday somewhere for 500 miles and run on Wednesday night somewhere for 300 miles and then pee it up again on Saturday and Sunday for something else and one day shows. I've always said it's crazy. If I'm covering Auburn, Alabama, I'm in Tuscaloosa for 24 hours.
If I'm covering the whatever it is, 400 at whatever racetrack you pick, it's four days. And I've never understood why other than just habit they do that. And so the thing that they're trying now are the things that we're wanting to do potentially in 2021 anyway. And now I think it's proving to them that they can do it because listen, I would love to tell you that it'd be like 1987 and 30,000 people are going to show up at Charlotte for qualifying. It's never going to happen again.
It's just not. And so give me qualifying on the same day of the race and then race that night and give me more value from a ticket. Follow Ryan on Twitter at ESPN McGee.
I want to get to the book that you're working on in just a little bit. It involves college football. And we've been spending time talking about quarterbacks that are not being really looked at as a high draft prospect right now that could have a Joe Burrow-like season. Because everybody was talking about taking for Tua at this time last year. And then Burrow ended up being the guy and out dueling Tua in Tuscaloosa, out dueling Trevor Lawrence in the championship game. He was given a six round grade by Mel Kiper at this time a year ago.
Who do you view potentially as somebody who might be off the beaten path as an option? I was looking at Kyle Trask at Florida. Jamie Newman transfers from Wake Forest to Georgia, who's now going to be joined in a quarterback room reportedly with J.T. Daniels.
What do you think? Well, I mean, you know the kid because you just stolen from it right there, but you know, I watched more Wake Forest football than most of my SEC counterparts. And so the question immediately became, who is this guy that's going to Georgia? And I'm like, this is a guy who is exactly, you know, I know people will get frustrated with the quarterback who just left.
But this is a guy who's not going to make a lot of mistakes. You know, Jamie Newman's a guy that has been around forever, it seems like. And it's just, you know, he feels like Jake Fromm before Jake Fromm kind of lost his way.
And to me, that was never Jake's fault anyway. So no, that's the one I've been kind of preaching just because, you know, I mean, going back to the start of last year, I mean, I saw that kid play at least twice in person last year. So yeah, I just, you know, there's this Russell Wilson problem where everybody thinks that the quarterback who transfers from one place to another or a grad transfer or whatever is automatically going to be your savior. And the reality is, is that last year was so weird, but so awesome with the Joe Burrows and Justin Fields and all those guys transferring everywhere and all, I mean, you know, what we had four guys in New York for the Heisman and three of them were transfer quarterbacks. And so I think that there's a, or at least a couple of them. And so I, people think that's what it's always going to be.
The reality is there have been more failures with that and there have been hits. But I have a really good feeling about the kid that's in Athens now. You are, I'm more of an opinionist, you are an ultimate storyteller. And I don't want to deprive the audience from you being able to share some of the stories I know you have. And I want to go to the book that you're writing with your dad, Ryan McGee, because he was a longtime college football official. And I'll also add an NAIA ECU baseball champion back in the 60s. What's the most hostile crowd he's ever faced because of a call he made? It's funny because the book, thank you for permission, the book's called Sidelines and Bloodlines and it's going to be out September 15th. And for folks listening in your area right now, I mean, it is really tobacco road football heavy because he was in the ACC forever and particularly early in his career in the 80s.
I mean, some of the stories are just off the chart. And but the most hostile crowd is funny because he said that, you know, a lot of the high school games that he worked in the state of North Carolina in the late 60s and early 70s, he said that was the only time he felt threatened. Like it was the only time he felt physically threatened, like because you'd work a game down in Wadesboro and the guy who's on the chain crew would get irritated and throw the chains out on the field with three minutes to go and stop off and say, I'm going to wait for you in the parking lot.
You bleep and bleep bleep. And that was really the only time he said he felt super unsafe. Now, there was a Florida Florida State game that Dad's crew was in and they got off on the wrong foot with the swamp crowd. And it just was the loudest, nastiest crowd that he ever had to deal with.
But yeah, the stories of going down to some of these high school down east on a Friday night, those were the only times he said he was worried about walking out to the car when he started with. I'm going to put you to the test, Ryan McGee, because we've been milking. You're working on this story and we're excited to see it, the book on your dad and officiating that's going to come out September 15.
What's the title one more time? Sidelines to Bloodlines? It's called Sidelines and Bloodlines, on sale now for pre-order on Amazon, which I just found out. So I'm very excited. We don't have cover yet.
Boom. But the book is still for on sale. Sidelines and Bloodlines, check that one out. The book after that potentially could be the Asheville Tourist summer book that you've been doing an audio book essentially for on this show when you visit with us. I mean, we've learned about Julio the Ballpark Cat. We learned about the Mountain Man. We learned about the Grabby Tourist mascot.
What's his name? Teddy Tourist or something like that? Yeah, Teddy Tourist. Yeah, the original Teddy Tourist.
A little handy with the moms. Haywood Jablomi is now a promo on our radio station, which is an amazing thing. That's the one you picked. That's right. I didn't pick it. It's our production team.
That's the kind of operation we run around here at times. Who was the actress? Was it Natalie Wood? No, no, it was Shelley Fabray. People our age remember her as the wife from Coach with Craig T. Nelson, but she was in all the Elvis musicals.
That's why I asked her if Elvis was a good kisser, and she said yes. So there you go. A lot of stories we've already learned.
Can you add to this? Can you add another story? Well, so, as far as you say, this is the last night on my personal Facebook account. I logged on and all of a sudden, I had this, I'd been tagged in a post and a guy I used to work with had found a bunch of pictures from that summer, and some memories started coming back and I responded on Facebook, I said, I really want to write a book about this summer, but can we all agree we need the statute of limitations to expire on a couple things before I can take this thing to a publisher? And they all gave me the green light.
So when that happens, I will definitely be coming to you and asking for all the tapes, because I've told all these stories now and you recorded them for better or for worse. But yeah, so remember the circuit rider? It was a guy named the circuit rider. If you grew up in western North Carolina or in upstate South Carolina in the 80s and in the 90s, you know, right before, so you kids out there, they used to turn the TV stations off at like two o'clock in the morning, they play the national anthem, and then it would just go to hash and would stay there until the next morning when they turn the transmitter back on. That's right.
National anthem. I remember that. Yeah, that's right. And so they used to in western North Carolina, right before they would play the anthem, they would have this guy called the circuit rider, R-I-D-E-R. And he was a preacher. And they would show this montage of him like, you know, set to just as I am or something riding his horse around, and apparently back in the day, this is how preachers would do it. And he was the last of the preaching circuit riders. And we used to have the most fun like joking about, well, one day I will be the circuit rider.
A friend of mine became a preacher. I'm like, you should become a circuit rider. Lo and behold, the first Sunday afternoon game I worked at McCormick Field, right before the national anthem, they started playing like just as I am over the speakers. And here comes the freaking circuit rider, and he comes riding like down the hill through the bullpen onto the field. And he rode out to the mound with a big giant bobble in his saddlebag on his old gray horse. And he proceeded to do a sermon on the mound, not the sermon on the mount, the sermon on the mound. And he saved all of our souls. And then he like said, amen. And then he pointed at one guy in the stands and goes, sir, I hope you're not over there drinking beer on a Sunday. And he got back on the horse and rode off.
Like on a hot mic. Amen. Sir, I hope you're not over there drinking beer on a Sunday. And then they started playing just as I am, and the circuit rider rode off. God! He was like Clint Eastwood at the end of Pale Rider.
It was the craziest thing I've ever seen, but he saved that man's soul to be that heathen beer drinker. I love minor league baseball so much, which I guess we'll close on this. How worried are you for minor league baseball, considering the headline where you see that the Okwanese aren't paying minor leaguers after May expires? And you see the news about, say, like teams like the Burlington Royals and others that might be cut as they try to limit or try to narrow the minor league scope.
What do you think? Well, and that's the problem. The problem is, is that the major leagues have had more and more control over the minors.
And that's a bad trend. They own more minor league teams than they have before, and now they're looking to cut costs somewhere. And so all these guys who live in New York, and I hate to sound like a redneck, but all these guys who live in New York, they've never been to a game in Dambel, Virginia, never been to McCormickville, Nashville, never been to a game in Burlington, Iowa, and seen what these games mean to these communities and have forever. They've been playing professional baseball in Burlington for so long. And the idea of them cutting that because some bean counter at the major league baseball office has decided they don't need that anymore, it's just heartless. And so there's no such thing as worst timing possible when it comes to the coronavirus, but it's the worst timing possible for minor league baseball because this was already on the table anyway. And there's no sport that's more dependent upon the gate. There's no TV money when it comes to minor league baseball.
It's all about the gate. Whether you're a triple A team or whether you're a rookie league team in the Appalachian league. And so, yeah, it's brutal, man. And I'll screen that from the mountaintops, but they've always treated the minor league players like they're the help anyway. And so this has just been for them to cut these guys off at the end of May over something. And meanwhile, while the players association of major league baseball are feuding over billions of dollars and now might not even start the season when we all wanted it to.
And in the meantime, they decided they're going to pick on the guy who makes $15,000 a year. It just drives me bonkers. You wearing a minor league hat today? I am. What am I wearing? I'm wearing Durham Bulls today, which I don't wear Durham Bulls a lot because I'm a Charlotte Knight season ticket holder, but this is the classic. This is the classic Bulls.
Yeah. And yesterday, yesterday was Hickey Crawdads. Every Saturday morning, I've worn a different minor league hat for Marty McGee.
I'm up to like 16 this year. So I got one in the mail, some team, the Modesto Nuts in California, I got a hat in the mail from them today. So I'll be wearing that tomorrow. Sidelines and Bloodlines is the book he's working with his dad on. Follow him on Twitter at ESPN McGee. Watch Marty and McGee on Saturday. You will enjoy that I had Marty Smith on the show last week and I called him Marty McGee before correcting myself after the fact. And then he told us that he had a guy named Marty McGee on the show.
Yeah. When you guys were together. He's a horse handicapper. We had him on the show, Marty McGee. The guy walked up and introduced himself. He said, are you Marty? He said, yes. I love Marty McGee. My name is Marty McGee.
We're like, no way. And yeah, he's a big time horse handicapper. Pretty good stuff. Enjoy the race tonight and we'll talk sometime soon. Thanks Ryan. All right, bud. Thanks.
You got it. That's Marty. Oh no, shoot. That's Ryan McGee.
Got to be careful, Robert. Can't be calling people Marty McGee out here. Don't be mixing up your Martys. That's right. That's Ryan.
Or your McGee's. There you go. That story is pretty good. So yeah, it sounds like this show has been an audio book to come out someday for Ryan McGee.
I'm down just to hear that guy tell stories. What time is it? Oh, wait. It's almost time for us to leave. Oh, shoot. Robert, what do we got and take it to the house? How close is too close for your in-laws? We'll find out next.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-05-15 19:25:20 / 2023-05-15 19:47:28 / 22