It's Been A While (6-8-23)

He's amused Cam Newton. He's been insulted by Charles Barkley.

He's interviewed Matthew McConaughey. And he's taken on Big Blue Nation. It's time for The Drive with Josh Graham. On a Thursday drive, WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad, where we woke up to a scare from the Carolina Panthers this morning. And really, it's kind of the Panthers' fault for the way that they framed the news on their social media. All they said in the tweet was, J.C. Horan was going to miss the remainder of OTAs and minicamp. Then it was reported that it was a foot-ankle deal, which was even scarier for those who know his injury history.

And then we got the facts. Take a breath, Panther fans. In.

Out. It's gonna be okay. It looks like J.C. Horan is going to be fine, even though he is missing OTAs and minicamp.

The remainder of OTAs that is. He will be back. And now that we got the facts, it's gonna be fine. But this should be a wake-up call for the Carolina Panthers. Fortunately, this tweak to that ankle and foot doesn't appear to be that serious. J.C. should be back for training camp. For one, it's not the same foot that he hurt in Houston his rookie year.

It's not going to require surgery. Apparently, he's going to wear a walking boot for a few weeks. And he should be back for training camp. That's all very good news. When Frank Reich, back with reporters out at OTAs, he was very assuring when speaking about J.C. and the rest of the cornerbacks.

I'm not concerned. This has been, you know, this offseason, you know, obviously, CJ not taking some reps and Dante not taking reps. So our secondary guys have got a lot of work. This injury to J.C., thankfully, it's not, you know, a non-surgical injury. And so he should be ready for training camp. But I love the work that our secondary has done. Gives us a lot of confidence in our guys.

OK, this is where Frank is wrong. This team needs more depth at corner and today exposed that. J.C. Horn, you can take that to the bank.

Send me that cash out, fam. Our guy. After J.C. Horn, here's what the Panthers have on their depth chart. You have Dante Jackson, who's coming off an ACL tear. You've got CJ Henderson, who was banged up for much of last year. Had offseason surgery as well.

If memory serves, he's going to be OK, but banged up, inconsistent player even when he is healthy. Then it's Keith Taylor and Stanley Thomas Oliver. Keith Taylor apparently missing OTAs standing on the sidelines due to an injury as well. That is Carolina's depth at corner in a sport where everybody's throwing the ball and you need guys to cover these receivers. That's what Carolina has behind J.C. Horn. And Carolina can go out and get a corner. Now, via trade is going to be tough because of the draft capital you gave up in order to get the number one pick. But in free agency, what's stopping you? Carolina, because of the money they shed in that DJ Moore trade and getting rid of McCaffrey a year ago.

Carolina has the second most cap space currently in the NFL, and there are options available in free agency. Did you know that Marcus Peters is still currently sitting waiting for a team to call? Did you know that Eli Apple, who the Panthers once had, had some bright moments with the Bengals up until the AFC Championship game? Did you know he's still there? You can bring him back.

You're not looking for an A1 starter. You're looking for somebody who can fill a void who's played in high level games. Or you could just work the waiver wire. Carolina found Rasul Douglas a few years ago, a week before the season started. And he's turned out to be a really good NFL corner. J.C. Horn's injury, it is a relief that it's not significant and that it's not the same foot that he hurt before.

But it should be a wake up call that the Panthers have some work to do with this roster and shoring up some of the depth. On Twitter, at wsjsradio, if you want in on today's show, 336-777-1600 is the phone number. By the way, that Twitter page, in addition to YouTube and Twitch, the places you can watch the show.

Will Dalton is the executive producer of the show. What are we giving away today, W.D.? So we got some tickets for God Smacked and Stained.

I believe they're going to be in Raleigh, Coastal Credit Union. Stained, huh? It's been a while since I held my head up high. Thank you for that. Oh, no. We'll tell you how to win those tickets a little bit later on this hour.

I've made a great mistake, I fear. It's Rhett Louder day on the show because Wake star pitcher, maybe the best pitcher in America, going to join the show a little bit later on this hour. Expect him at around 335. The Deacs, they don't play till Saturday, though. Tomorrow, it's going to be Duke, Virginia, in Game 1 of that Super Regional in Charlottesville. And while we acknowledge that North Carolina is Duke's greatest rival, obviously, I think UVA has emerged as the Blue Devils' second most hated school.

Now, if you're a Duke fan, correct me if I'm wrong, 336-777-1600, but that's the feel I get. That spot used to belong to Maryland, but with the Terps out of the league, and they've been out of the league for close to a decade now, Virginia has slid in there in recent years. That's the way it feels, and that's mostly because neither state nor Wake really have. Like, nobody hates Wake Forest. That's why Mark Packer, one of Wake's finest sons, Winston-Salem's finest sons, I should say, calls them the Swiss. Who hates Wake Forest?

They're so nice, and, you know, they do things the right way. Nobody really hates Wake. As for state, you know, state and Duke, they played once every six years in football, up until the rule change this year of divisions being shed in football. So, eh, hard to really say that's your second most hated rival. Sure, there are moments, but great hatred?

Nah. This goes back, this really has much to do with basketball. Almost everything to do with basketball. When you think Duke, you think basketball. So, if you're going to be the second most hated team for Blue Devil fans, you better be a team that takes something away from Duke.

And, Carolina fans, earmuffs. Virginia and Duke have been the two most successful programs in college basketball the last decade. If we're going the last ten years, it's Duke and Virginia and then, I think, North Carolina. Plus, every time they play, every game's memorable.

All of them. The last time they played was when? The ACC Championship game in Greensboro? Before that, it was the controversial, consider this matter, settled game.

The Kyle Filipowski foul called then JK, not a foul. Calling it back, that entire situation, in Charlottesville. Before this year, the last four meetings between the two were decided by four points or less.

Including six of the last seven. And now, their meeting with a trip to Omaha on the line? Duke went in there in Charlottesville.

They're not going to be afraid. They won two out of three in Charlottesville when they met in the regular season. Duke, their new blood under Coach Pollard, won an ACC Championship recently in baseball. But, has it been to Omaha since the early 60s?

They have that opportunity to do so this weekend. Meanwhile, Virginia, nobody's more consistent in baseball than Virginia's been in the ACC. They are an established powerhouse, the most recent ACC national champ in 2015. And, they went to the College World Series just a couple of years ago. That's the way it feels with Virginia.

They've quietly become Duke's second most heated rival behind the Tar Heels. Huge show today, a lot to do. B-Dot, the sixth man to Tar Heel basketball, is going to be our guest.

WD watched Independence Day last night, he will review that. And, as we mentioned earlier, Rhett Louder, he's going to join us in about 20 minutes or so to tell us what this season's been like for him. He's getting ready for Alabama in that super regional that starts Saturday at high noon. Any day our next guest pitches, all over the internet, I read, it's Rhett Louder Day. Happy Rhett Louder Day to you, happy Rhett Louder Day to you. Even though he's not pitching today, since he's on our radio show now, it's Rhett Louder Day on the drive.

Rhett, it's good to have you on the program. Wake Forest, number one in the country facing Alabama and a super regional. And, listen, I'm a Baltimore Orioles fan. And, so far this year, they've had one of the best records in baseball. But what's made it more enjoyable for me is the fact that, you know, there's so many difficult seasons that led up to the fact that they're in this spot. Many years they weren't at the top of the rankings. Bringing it to you guys, how much does the pain of a couple years ago, when you guys don't make the tournament and you have a losing record, make it all the more sweeter, this number one ranking and where your feet are right now?

Yeah, it definitely makes it a lot sweeter just to know, like, where we've come from. That was my freshman year. We didn't make the ACC tournament. So, it's been a lot of hard work that's gone in to get to where we are. And, you know, it just makes it that much better for all the guys in the clubhouse that were here.

And then it's better for the guys that even weren't here because it, like, sets the standard for them. And this is what Wake Forest baseball is now. Take me to your last start on Saturday. It's the first time you're pitching in a regional at the couch.

It's supposed to start at 6 o'clock but doesn't end up starting until 1045. Given how superstitious I know pitchers can be with their routines, how challenging was the delay for you? You know, it was interesting for sure. Like, sitting around for a while, you know, I probably should have ate a little bit more than I did. But I was just sitting around listening to music, kind of relaxing. But then I didn't think we were going to get the game in, really, at first. Because we had to start it by 11 or else we couldn't start. So, once they said 1045 first pitch, it kind of kicked back in. I got a coffee going. And then I was kind of just fired up from there. What type of coffee?

W.D. 's ears just perked up. He's a coffee enthusiast. When you're getting ready to pitch, it's the last thing you're putting in your body before you go out there to pitch in a regional.

What are we doing, Brett? I mean, that was last minute. I just went to the Keurig in the lounge and then threw in a pod and just drank whatever they had at that point. I wasn't too picky that late. How was it? Was it good or was it stale? Was it good coffee? It was fine. I drank it too fast to enjoy it.

I was kind of just trying to get the effect out of it. Rhett Louder with us here on WSGS. Ping Pong's a popular game in locker rooms. W.D., wasn't that what J.C. Horn and Brian Burns were playing in the Panthers locker room when J.C. gave us the memorable cut? Was it him? Oh, yeah.

It was J.C. J.C. Horn was going back and forth and telling him to give him his Cash App and all that. I've heard that Cornhole is being played amongst teams too. That's not that obscure. But chess? Who got you into chess, Rhett? There was a couple guys on our team that started chess over break and then it just slowly morphed into a team-wide thing.

I don't know. It was kind of crazy where it came from. No one's really good, but then we got some people that are better than others. And then it got pretty competitive, just like a group of college athletes that's going to get competitive. So people don't play a lot of chess. They don't really put it down. Give me the time, whether it's chess, the lot, or ping pong, or whatever, that the competitiveness goes over the top and guys are legitimately mad at each other for like 10 minutes.

10, 15 minutes before getting over it. That happens all the time. We're always playing some sort of game. We play cards all the time.

We play ping pong, cornhole, chess. It's pretty frequent that you'll find some guys yelling at each other for just a little bit, but they tend to get over it pretty quick. Do you see the stuff on social media about Rhett Louderday? Yeah, I get tagged in almost everything. It's just notifications of Rhett Louderday pretty much on my start date. I'll wake up late.

If I wake up late, I'll have a couple of notifications of it and I'm like, okay. But then once it gets closer to game time, I don't really look at it. How much do you enjoy that, though? I guess it's cool.

I guess it's pretty cool to have that much of a fan base, but other than that, it's just there. I'm sure this year, there are probably people who are going to dress up as you for Halloween with the hair and the whole deal. How long does it take? I'm sure you get a lot of questions about your hair.

Sorry to be so cliche. How long did it take for your hair to grow out as long as it is right now? I've had the hair for a while. I started growing out when I was a freshman in high school, so I grew it out. It probably took some sort of long hair, but to get to where it is now, maybe a little less than a year. And then I kind of just trimmed it to this point. I've had it trimmed for almost six years, probably. Yeah, I'm sure when you were a freshman, guys didn't lay into you at all, right? Yeah, it wasn't super popular amongst my varsity baseball team when I was the only freshman on there who had long hair. Yeah, I'm sure there were no dazed and confused jokes or anything like that.

I'm sure that didn't happen. Rhett Louder with us here. Let's close with this. Even if you go to Omaha, this weekend is likely going to be it for you at the couch. Emotionally, how does that hit you that you've got one more game perhaps in this place you've pitched so often at, and obviously the stakes couldn't be higher? Yeah, you know, it's pretty emotional.

Even the past two starts, the next game's not guaranteed. So I kind of went out there both times just thinking this could be my last one here, and then the fans just are showing great support right now. I walked up the mound both of the last two times I pitched at the couch with just goosebumps. It's crazy. I know this time it might be for real, so that'll be a little bit different, but I've just enjoyed every step of this way, and it's bittersweet. On the way out, we've been talking a lot about the Carolina Panthers.

You're from Albemarle. I know you wrote on the Panthers a little bit. We're not going to talk too much about Alabama in the way of Bryce Young and what he did back with the Tide given who the opponent is on the other side, but you've got to be pretty fired up, though, about Carolina adding a number one pick at quarterback, yeah?

Yeah. I mean, I think it's going to be a big pickup. We'll see, though. You never know. You never know.

Yeah, that's a good point. W.D. 's got his Wake Forest gear on. He's fired up. We've got a Wake helmet in here. Best of luck, Rhett Louder against the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Super Regional this weekend. We'll be rooting you on. Hopefully the next time we speak, it'll be in Omaha.

Thank you so much. You got it. That's Rhett Louder joining us on the show. It is Rhett Louder day on a Thursday drive.

And during that interview, what you can't see going on as I'm chatting with Rhett is Will Dalton smiling ear to ear because of what he has created in order to help us give away stained and God smack tickets in Raleigh for next month. I'm terrified to hear this. This is your cue to win.

Later in the show. It's been a while since I could hold my head up high. Wait, that's me? I don't know. Is that stained? I don't know.

Let's roll tape. It's been a while since I could hold my head up high. WD was telling me it's his masterpiece.

He's created his masterpiece and that was it. So later this hour and next hour as well. When you hear this.

It's been a while since I could hold my head up high. That is going to be your cue to win tickets to see them in Raleigh along with God smack stained and God smack. Not right now. But the next time you hear that will be your cue to see them in Raleigh Thursday, July the 20th. While I'm thinking about it later tonight, you've got game three of the Stanley Cup finals. It's going to be pretty obvious if it's going to happen for the Florida Panthers or as we call them.

It's got to be now. You can't fall behind three zip, not as an eight seed, not in the Stanley Cup final, not against one of the top seeds out west. And given the way these playoffs are gone, probably don't count out Florida. It's not over. It's not over for the Panthers as that series transitions to sunrise South Florida.

It's the epicenter of the sports world right now. This spring, it might be the greatest spring in the history of South Florida sports where you have Miami and Florida Atlantic, going to their first final fours. It's going to be a great spring. It's going to be a great spring for South Florida. It's going to be a great basketball team for Miami. Miami making it to the elite eight.

The Kavender twins were apparently on a wrestling show earlier this week. It's going to be a great spring for South Florida to say the least. The Panthers continue OTAs up in Charlotte, and they're not even hiding who their starting quarterback really is at this point. And that's next on the drive. Places everyone.

Come on places please. We're ready. Get your morning off to a great start with Jeffrey Griffin on Triad today weekday mornings at seven. Now back to the drive with Josh Graham. WD remind me. Actually, maybe we could get to this in about five minutes. Apple Vision Pro. We need to talk about this. Every time I open a social media app. There are ads for this.

There are videos for this. Let's put a pin in that for a second. Today was more evidence of just how different things are in Charlotte under Frank Reich than they were under Matt rule, because Frank Reich is not dragging out the drama for what's going to happen at the quarterback position. They are not hiding who their starting quarterback is going to be the way that Matt rule did that made training campus zoo, we all knew Baker Mayfield was going to start, except Matt rule wouldn't say it. And he continued to split snaps between Baker and Sam Darnold and actually start Sam Darnold and one of those preseason game, even though, why do you bring in Baker Mayfield if you don't intend for him to start it was stupid.

The entire time. Frank Reich, he isn't playing stupid game so I suspect he's not going to win stupid prizes. Bryce Young is already getting first team reps started getting them today. Now, Frank Reich said this was just the next step for him and it just shows that he's on schedule, but he also said a few weeks ago that he expected Bryce Young to get more reps than Andy Dalton gets. Wait, isn't Andy Dalton new too? Doesn't he have to build chemistry with his teammates if he intends to be the starter and be potentially your guy?

Huh? It seems pretty clear what they want to happen. Frank isn't even saying Andy is the starter anymore.

That's what makes it really funny. The night Bryce Young was drafted, Andy Dalton is our starting quarterback. What has Andy done to lose the job during OTAs?

Because Frank, he's singing a different tune now. Here he was talking about Bryce Young getting first team reps. For right now, for right now, that was our move. So again, there's really nothing more to say other than this was a time we had earmarked to make a move. We made the move.

We'll just keep progressing and we're always going to do what's best for the team. Alright, that leads to the obvious question. What makes you feel like you'll be comfortable saying he is our starter week winner?

Not yet. He's showing everything you want to see. Again, this goes back to even the draft decision.

You don't make a decision until you have to make it. We'll just keep giving him and our team the opportunity to get better and to earn that starting role. Darren Gant puts things very well in writing and he said, what a crazy concept. The Panthers traded multiple first round draft picks to take a quarterback number one overall and they intend on playing him.

Incredible. Yeah, training camp is not going to have much drama because Frank is pretty good at this. Pretty good at the messaging. Matt Rule was never great with the messaging. That was the big difference between college and pro for Matt. The messaging is different in college than pro.

There's a lot more BS in college and dressing of things up and let's get the DBO sign up or whatever they called it. You know what he was good at though? What's that? Looking at that tape. Got to check the tape.

The end of the day. Got to check the tape and Jay Z took him seven years. Yeah, my impression is not that great. Got to work on a Frank Reich.

Maybe turn on some costume movies. They do have the same cadence. It bothers me. The staff, they've been refreshingly honest when it comes to talking about the quarterbacks. Okay.

It's been a while since I could hold my head up high. 336-777-1600. First to call in gets tickets to see Stained and Godsmack in Charlotte or in Raleigh, I beg your pardon. Yeah, it's Raleigh. In Raleigh next month on a Thursday night, July 20th if you would like to go. 336-777-1600. If you don't get in this time, you can win tickets next hour.

And also when B Dot joins us to play grammar school, he's the sixth man of dark school basketball. Okay. For those who are unfamiliar, Apple Vision Pro goggles are being introduced. What are Apple Pro Vision, Apple Vision Pro goggles? Well, they're the first spatial computer ever.

Essentially, it's a computer that's on your face. They're merging like having like an iPad with having with these virtual reality goggles, the Oculus and others that you've seen. They've merged these concepts and it's going to cost $3,500. Now, the price is not the reason why I'm completely out on this because over time it'll become more affordable if it is more popular and more of them are being created. Right.

That's not my biggest hang up with the product. I'm completely out on virtual reality and having things that cover my eyes. I'm out. I was out on the metaverse and the way Facebook was selling that.

That was scary to me. I was out on NFTs. I'm out on Apple Vision Pro, but I see on WD's Instagram. He's posting videos of this, which makes me think that he's in on it.

I mean, in on Apple Vision Pro. Well, what's really cool to me, what's cool about it and what I specific here? I got to answer the phone. Oh yeah. Sorry. Yeah. You have work to do.

Forgot about that. But let me make my argument first. And you think you could tell me what's cool about it? It looks stupid when you wear them.

Like if you haven't seen this, they have this intense description of every modular piece of it. They look like ski goggles. Like if I see somebody wearing these, I'm not going to think, whoa, this person must be on a class above me. Oh my gosh, this guy has it going on. I'm going to think this person's a nincompoop. Like the person that spends thousands of dollars on an NFT or the person, you know, it's like, oh man, crypto. I'm going to look at you like crypto guy or like Apple glass guy. Remember that they introduced Apple glass and that was supposed to be the big thing and it didn't turn out to be.

I don't think this is going to be successful. I don't just like people didn't buy the metaverse. I don't think people are going to go for the price. And also I think after COVID people want less screens. I think they want less screens in their life.

Not one attached, literally attached to your face. I don't think that's the thing people want. So what's cool about it? What's the other side I'm not considering? Well, what's cool about it and what I specifically posted on my Instagram story was the fact that sports broadcasts are going to be integrated into this thing.

And so you're going to be able to have like cool, like set up screens and be able to see like stats, I guess, off to the side and maybe even see like a diagram of the field below the screen of like field position and things like that. There's a lot of possibilities to this. I think it's really cool, but I'm also into this sort of thing. I'm out. I mean, I get it.

They do look. I'm supposed to be in because I'm the young guy. Oh, man, I'm supposed to be. No, I'm out. You don't have to do anything. I'm out.

You get pigeonholed. Oh, you're younger. You're probably one of those guys who like, no, I touch grass. And on top of it, maybe I'm just in a bad mood because the Brewers right now are up three nothing on my Orioles. Yeah, I knew it. It's probably why I knew we're about to get swept by the brew crew. Great.

See the guys in beer. Just think you can be you can have a front row seat to watch all your Orioles games and A.R. How about that? You mean V.R.? No, A.R. What's A.R.? It's like where you can basically.

What's the A stand for? Augmented. Oh, yeah. Tacky.

Augment this. The song's close to my heart. When you play Knuck, if you buck by the crime mob. It's about to get stuck. Did I use that properly, B.

Dot? No, you did not. It's not about to get stuck, Josh. But I do appreciate you for rocking out with the knock. If you bought that, that definitely was the highlight of your wedding that and the swag surf like I still I'm so thankful that we got to do that, especially in the setting where we were.

That was unplanned. They played that song and then we made eye contact and you got on stage. I told you to assemble your people and you did an impromptu swag surf. But the knock if you buck part was great because it was the one request I made. I didn't make any other musical request of anybody except that Knuck if you buck plays when the band is done. So when the band finished up and the deejay took over, the first song was Knuck if you buck. And the roar was so loud of people who were so excited to hear it that the band thought they were asking for an encore. And they got back out and they turned down Knuck if you buck. And people were like, no, that's not what we wanted. And then the band played and then they stopped and left and they played Knuck if you buck again.

And it was an even louder roar when they played it the second time. OK. We need to talk about it. We haven't talked about it for the last few weeks. We need to get to it because we're two weeks away from the draft. The Charlotte Hornets have the number two pick. It's between Brandon Miller of Alabama or Scoot Henderson. Who does B Dot want the Hornets to take? The guy who has the same initials I have. Brandon Miller, baby. It's got to be about that BM because he's the ish.

You understand what I'm saying to you? Brandon Miller is a shooter. He's got good size. And I think he's exactly what the Hornets need. I know Scoot is this tremendous talent, but he's too undersized for the position. The Hornets have a tragic, tragic record of drafting undersized players. Whether you want to go to America, Okafor, whether you want to go Michael Gilchrist. I mean, they just always draft undersized guys. And I don't want another undersized position in Charlotte. Have you seen the workout tapes of Brandon Miller? This guy has the good Josh Graham.

OK, hold on one second. Why should the Bobcats drafting of a Mecca Okafor or Michael King Gilchrist 11 years ago affect the evaluation of Scoot Henderson? That has nothing to do with Scoot Henderson. Where was the Bobcats? What city were the Bobcats in? They were in Charlotte.

Oh, OK. What city are the Hornets in? Are you doing the Ohio State quarterback thing where it's like just because you went to Ohio State because there haven't been many great quarterbacks go. You can't draft a quarterback from Ohio State. Like if Jesus Christ himself came back and played for Ohio State, by this logic, you shouldn't take Jesus Christ because he was an Ohio State quarterback and there's a bad track record there. I mean, if you're a great undersized guard, you're a great undersized guard. Like, would you if Ja Morant were in this draft and it was the Zion draft that the Hornets were picking number two, would you tell them not to take Ja Morant in the same circumstance because he's 6'2"? I mean, but Zion already had issues of questionable health. So this isn't a situation.

Brandon Miller doesn't have questionable health issues. And we know he's a shooter on and off the court, Josh. Oh, no, I misunderstood.

I misunderstood. I'm saying Zion's off the board. Do you not take Ja Morant because he's 6'2"? No, you take the best available player.

And at that point, Ja Morant would have been the best available player. So you take him. OK, so you think Brandon Miller is better.

You're not making a fit argument. You're saying that Brandon Miller is better than Scoot Henderson. It's not about how he fits with the Hornets.

No, I'm saying he's a better fit. And I'm pretty sure that he's going to be available when the Hornets draft second. He's a better fit than Scoot is, in my opinion. Scoot may be the better player, in your opinion, but B. Miller is the better all-around fit for the Charlotte Hornets. You put Scoot out there and who are they going to compete with in the East? The East is so huge. You've got Giannis. You've got the 76ers.

You've got even Miami. The East is huge, especially in the guard section. We need a Miller size guard, in my opinion. And when you talk about making the same mistakes twice, I can't help but think about the Portland Trailblazers, Josh Graham. Think about the night.

What was it? Was it the 83 draft or the 82 draft when they picked a center over a shooter? Is your argument that the Hornets should have no undersized guards on their team?

You can't have any? Because LaMelo's not undersized. He's 6'7".

He's not. And that's the best thing they've done in years. I'm saying no more undersized positions, period. No more putting P.J.

Washington at the 5. You've got Big Mark Williams now. Put him there. No more Terry Roziers and Kimba Walkers.

No. You've got Melo now. No more of these undersized Michael Kidd-Gilchrist type players. No, man. That's not where the NBA is now. We need size in Charlotte.

We've tried these other systems with the small ball, and small ball don't work. I don't know, man. That Steph Curry guy was pretty good. John Wall was pretty good.

Who? Did you say John Wall? Yeah. Man, come on. If I told you that Scoot Henderson was John Wall, you'd take that in a second after John Wall's first five or six years in the league.

For sure, you'd take that. That's fair. Again, I'm not saying that Scoot Henderson isn't a bucket. I just don't think he's a good fit for the Charlotte Hornets. And that happens. Sometimes you've got to just be in the right fit. Switch to football real quick.

I don't care about fit. If you're picking second in the NBA, just figure it out later because you're talking about a developmental draft. It's not the NFL where you take a guy who's going to help you right now. You're planning for six, seven years down the road. They're 19 years old. You don't know what your team's going to be when they're 25.

Just take the best player now and then figure it out later. I'm a subscriber of that if you're picking this high. Not me. We just disagree on this, bro.

Branden Miller is the best. We need to get to grammar school. We'll do that in a second. First off, how bothered were you by Simeon Wilcher deciding not to join the Tar Heels earlier this week? I didn't care. I've already told you how I feel about the season this year.

But I will say this. I didn't like everybody trying to say what Armando said was inaccurate. And I still stand down on the fact that Armando was correct in the fact that he is running from the ground. Is he doing what's best for his career?

Yes, possibly. But he's still running from the ground saying that you don't want to go have to go to a space where you have to compete for minutes. It's the definition of running from the ground. But I will tell you this. And I wasn't even going to share this, Josh Graham.

But I just feel like you're my friend. And I would have told you anyway. But Simeon Wilcher's dad was in my DMs. He was hot. He called me a clown and told me I could meet him on Franklin Street if I had smoke. Wow.

When are you guys going to meet on Franklin Street? I told him I don't do well to threats. And I had a good lawyer.

If he ever touched me, I'll make sure he wouldn't even see his son play till he made it to the league. But that's not a here nor there. I just don't think that it's fair for folks to jump on Mondo saying that what Mondo said was that far of a stretch.

It wasn't. It's a fact as far as I'm concerned. And I don't I don't mind it. It's OK, Simeon.

Go somewhere where you don't have to compete for minutes. But the fact that you are running from the ground, that is a fact as far as I'm concerned. I agree. I agree with everything you just said there.

I have no notes on it. Mondo is our guy. We're going to stand behind Armando Bacon for sure. Still need a new drop or I might just take some of the NIL money.

I might get an offer from him next time we talk with him. Now let's get to grammar school. Hardwood floors. When it comes to flooring, they have no ceiling.

Heritage hardwood floor. Did you hear that? Oh, yeah.

Such a great ring to it. Listen, man, this is grammar school is very simple. I have two words and phrases for Josh and I have a song cue for Josh. If he gets two out of three correct, he gets a satisfactory grade today in grammar school. Kick it off with a caustic word.

Got nothing to bribe people with the three, three, six, seven, seven, six hundred. If you want to help me out. Did you know that the college baseball tournament is going on? Absolutely not. Oh, yeah. Well, it is. And Wake Forest is the number one team in the country. They're playing Alabama this week. Best two out of three. The winner goes to the College World Series. Where is the College World Series held every year? Omaha, Nebraska. Look at you. Wow.

I'm telling you, man, the questions you ask me, they are so slumdog millionaire for me. The only reason I know that is because I shot a movie in Omaha, Nebraska, and the College World Series was going on during the exact same time. What was the only reason I know? And I know that Gabrielle Union was born in Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska. What movie?

They love her there. What what movie was shot there? It was a movie that went straight to video. It was called Wigger. Oh, Josh, do you know what a Wigger is?

I'm well aware. Question number one. Oh, you know, where's the Steve Forbes sound where we need it?

Real quickly. Well, well, OK, Steve Forbes is going to join us tomorrow show, by the way. What's the first word you got for me? I got a feeling it's not that one. No, it's not going to be that. But I should have used it.

Well, I would have knocked it out of the park. What is a munch? A munch. Yeah.

M-U-N-C-H. Correct. A munch.

Correct. A munch. A munch. I think a munch is something that tastes really good. Like, man, that's a munch. Oh, man. I love I love the munch.

And I think that's a munch. Is that your answer? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You're wrong. No. But I wish you could keep the sound bite.

If you do what it was, you said it's very ridiculous. A munch is a guy who's basically a simp and will do anything for a girl to get nothing in return. Oh, so it's like a whipped guy.

Like what white folks would say is whip. Yeah. That guy's a munch. OK. Good to know.

Good to know. A munch. Got it. What's next? Second, Josh, do you slap? If I asked you, Josh, do you slap the dimple balls?

What? Excuse me? If I asked you, Josh, do you slap the dimple balls?

What am I asking you? I think I know this one, but three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one, six hundred. Do I slap the dimple balls? See, I I might just use the phone line for help because I can't get this one wrong.

Right. I immediately think that it means like brushing your teeth because you're slapping your dimple balls. You're going from side to side. But who do I have on the line? Keenan and Winston embarrass him real quick. Hey, Keenan. What's going on? Keenan, what's it mean to slap your dimple balls?

I don't. First time I've ever heard it is right now. But I mean, golf. I'm gonna say golf. Let's hit the ball. Oh, like golf slapped. OK, yeah. That means you're like playing golf. I like that.

Slap the dimple balls. Is that your final? Yes. Yes.

That is 100 percent correct. Let's go, Keenan. You know, that was great. How did Keenan do that on his first time ever hearing it? Makes sense.

I mean, it's a sports sport show. Yeah. How about it? I'm still alive.

I'm glad I had enough self-awareness to go to the audience. All right. Here you go.

Music wise. Oh, here we go. W.D.

I need Acapulco. Who said this? Josh Graham. Either let me know who said it or what song. Now, who's hot? Who's not? Tell me who rock. Who sell out in stores?

You tell me who flopped. Who copped the blue drop? Whose jewels got rocks? Who mostly dosed down to the tube socks? The same old pimp mace.

You know, ain't nothing changed but my limp. I'm going to guess Jay-Z. You're going to guess Jay-Z?

That laugh, I think pretty much told. I'm going to take a second guess. That's Lil Wayne.

Lil Wayne. Is that your final guess? Yes.

Do you know what song by chance? No. Let's go. Let's play W.D. Well, no. Yeah. The same old pimp mace. You know, ain't nothing changed but my limp.

Can't stop top. See my name on a blimp. Guarantee me yourself. You don't need no money.

No problems. I probably should have gotten that. Do you have a preferred destination for Chris Paul on the way out?

Yeah, man. I like to see him in Milwaukee. I'd like to see him with no James Harden in Philadelphia. I like the idea of him playing with LeBron, but LeBron is a facilitator in the playoffs, so I don't think that will work well.

But I don't know if LeBron, I mean, I don't know if Chris will come back to come to the East. I like Memphis. I like Memphis for him, especially if Josh suspended for a little while. And he could also help out Memphis.

Yeah. Oh, oh, I forgot you. You don't like the city of Memphis. We've been through this before. First of all, Memphis is never going to win a title. Let's just be clear about that. But Chris has got I mean, I don't know. You know what? I'm gonna tell you this and I'm going to get out of here.

I like him in Golden State. Wow. Undersized guards, huh?

They don't win in the NBA, I heard. All right. Bye Josh.

OK, bye. In the wake of aliens being in the news this week, we discovered WD had quite the blind spot when it came to alien movies. Hadn't seen Alien or Predator.

He hadn't seen Signs or E.T. And he had not seen the 1996 classic Independence Day until last night. So let's chop it up and break it down. Unless you're talking about Star Wars. Movies aren't exactly Will's thing.

But that's about to change because Josh can't stand it anymore. OK, we dive into some specific categories for the movie. And let's just start here. It seems like you like this movie. What did you like about it? So I'm a big fan of history movies, but I'm also a big sci fi fan. And I felt like this movie. I don't know if the history applies here, but.

What's historical about maybe President Bill Pullman leading the way nuking Houston? Maybe a better way to put it is like military movies that do tend to end up being historical movies. This movie was a lot of different things. It was a disaster movie. It was a sci fi movie. Kind of a comedy.

A bit of a comedy. You could see a lot of the summer blockbuster, like Marvel stuff. You could see a lot of that DNA you see in movies now taken from this movie directly where you have that tenor of here's a bunch of crazy, over the top thing, save the world type stuff happening with some witty banter with Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum in it. And I also like movies that are kind of like end of the world type things were like disaster movies, humanities at stake here. And this wasn't like a zombie movie or a disease took over everything. This was alien. And so I'm into that sort of thing. And I think the main gist of it is I like this movie because it brought sci fi disaster and a kind of like combat type theme together as one.

Be honest. Did you watch this movie and think, you know, that's not very unrealistic, like certain elements of it, like the government knowing about like when they got to Area 51, if I was a conspiracy, apparently that was the part that the U.S. government, they were participating with this movie up until they learned that there was an Area 51 plot point with it. If you were a conspiracy theorist, a lot of these things were proven to be true. And now you got intelligence people saying that it's true that they have spacecrafts and, you know, there were drivers in those spacecrafts. It just seemed at the time when this movie came out, it seemed very crock potty.

All of it. You know, you're kind of like the guy who's wearing the tin hat if you believe in this stuff. Now, if you watch it, it doesn't seem I'm not saying it seems like a documentary. That's not what I'm saying. But I'm saying the aliens, what we know, what they might have piece of it seems a little bit more plausible, which is why I'm glad we chose this movie this week. I don't know.

I didn't really view it as very realistic. And then the Will Smith. Like Will Smith.

He's great. Will Smith's like Sebastian Ajo in the sense of like he just he's being plugged into a system. He's not having to carry the entire team.

Right. Will Smith doesn't show up to like halfway through this movie or not halfway, like 30 minutes into this movie. Will Smith is not there until and then when he's there, every time he's on screen, he's amazing. It's a low usage Will Smith movie. It's it's a modest usage Will Smith movie.

When usually you'd have your star in every frame carrying it. Will Smith's not doing that in this movie. And you just transition to what I didn't like about the movie. What didn't you like? Not enough Will Smith. Oh, come on.

I'm serious. You needed more Will Smith? Well, yeah, because I thought any time I've ever thought about Independence Day, I view this as a Will Smith movie. And I didn't feel like I got enough Will Smith for it to be a Will Smith movie. It is a Will Smith movie, though. I mean, it is. But but the problem is you want more like this movie's 15, 20 minutes too long as is. Oh, you think it's too long?

Yeah. I mean, there are things you could have cut out. All we really needed from the drunk flying guy. All we really needed is him in the diner being made fun of for being abducted by aliens and being drunk. That's all we needed.

We did not need to know who his son was. We didn't need like people throwing up on the side of the road and we didn't need that at all. You could have cut that 15 minutes out of the movie completely.

And the movie is still the same exact movie. I don't know if I needed the stripper background for Vivica A. Fox, but that's the 90s for you. I don't think you needed it, but OK. Vivica A.

Fox throw in a hundred. Fine. We're cool with that. His son in this movie, Will Smith, was his nephew in Fresh Prince of Bel-O, by the way. Interesting. Yeah.

Didn't know that. Ross Bagley. Shout out. Shout out. What's the best quote from this movie?

The hell is that smell? Can I have barbecue? Really? Just pick a line from that sequence. I bet you that's not even written.

I bet you that's him just written. Yes. Welcome to Earth.

He punches the alien in the head. The Orioles just drove in two runs. They're not down 5-3.

They're up 6-3 now. That's what they're doing. Welcome to Earth. That's the best line. Welcome to Earth. But really, it's Will Smith trash talking the alien the entire way.

It's fantastic. All of it. All of it. And then punching an alien like it was Chris Rock. Yeah. Right in the head. Well, he hit that alien better than he hit Chris Rock.

I don't know. He connected with Chris, too. But welcome to Earth. If I had a nickel for every time Connor O'Neill has just said that randomly, out of context, he says that the way that Ron Burgundy says when in Rome. Just welcome to Earth. And nobody knows what he's talking about except me. I'm going to text Connor and tell him welcome to Earth.

Welcome to Earth. Rotten Tomatoes for Independence Day 96. Audience score? I've been kind of off from these the last couple of weeks. Give me an 85. 75.

These have been kind of low the last few times. Don't know what to tell you. This is not a family classic. Independence Day 96. We have that established. Were you kidding? When you said that you didn't see old school with Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn? Was that a joke when you went to Steve Forbes? Well.